Disney(ORLANDO) -- This Toy Story plane is #familytravelgoals.



As we hold our collective breath waiting for Toy Story Land to open at Walt Disney World Resort -- which opens June 30 -- fans of the movie can imagine themselves soaring to infinity and beyond on this Toy Story plane, a partnership between Disney and China Eastern Airlines.



You could also take the kids to China to fly on the plane, topped off by a visit to Disney-Pixar Toy Story Land at Shanghai Disney Resort.



Larger-than-life images of Buzz and Woody grace the plane's exterior, while inside passengers will find many more of their favorite characters on seat backs, overheads and the ceiling.



Reach for the sky!



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Yana Paskova/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- A non-partisan Washington ethics group is calling on the Department of Justice and Congress to investigate whether President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, should have registered as a lobbyist and filed additional papers to show lobbying work with foreign clients, ABC News has learned.



The complaint filed by Public Citizen on Thursday comes after Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film actress Stormy Daniels, this week published what he said were bank transactions showing more than $4.4 million in payments from a number of companies, some foreign and some domestic, to Essential Consultants LLC., a corporation Cohen set up in late 2016. In some cases, these clients had significant business interests in Washington.



Among the payments were $1.2 million from a subsidiary of the Switzerland-based healthcare giant Novartis.



In statements obtained by ABC News, several of the companies, including foreign-owned Novartis and domestically owned AT&T, have indicated Cohen reportedly offered access to the Trump Administration.



"It's a very suspicious activity for Michael Cohen," Public Citizen lawyer-lobbyist Craig Holman, who authored the complaint, told ABC News on Wednesday. "The mere fact of Cohen's solicitation...to get payments from [these companies] sounds a lot like lobbying - and if that's the case he should have filed [the proper] disclosures," Holman added.



No such federal filings appear on public registries or databases, according to a records search by ABC News.



According to Avenattis document, Cohen used the same company to pay out a hush agreement with the actress, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford.



Public Citizen also called on the Justice Department to investigate whether Cohens consulting business, Essential Consulting LLC., could be in violation of any laws.



"If you go beyond the lobbying laws it's quite possible there are more nefarious violations in foreign payments if they believe their payments are going to Cohen to influence the Trump administration," Holman explained.



The new information about Cohens business venture comes just weeks after FBI agents raided his home and office, collecting financial records and his electronic devices. Cohen has not been charged with any crime, and his lawyer has maintained he did nothing improper.



Cohens attorney, Stephen Ryan, did not respond to multiple calls and emails from ABC News regarding the specific lobbying violation claims.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Angels Camp Police Dept. logo View Photos

Angels Camp, CA  Responding to the report of a man covered in blood and carrying a knife, police officers and deputies arrested another man on felony assault charges.

According to Angels Camp Police Chief Todd Fordahl, law enforcement officials from his and the Calaveras County Sheriffs Office caught up with the bloodied victim Sunday afternoon just before 1:30 on Booster Way. As they were arriving, a second 911 call was received from a man in the 1100 block of Bret Harte Road, stating he had just been stabbed.

Officers arriving at the second location located 22-year-old Michael Madrid of Angels Camp, who was wearing a blood-stained shirt and standing outside of a Bret Harte Road residence.

According to Chief Fordahl, the victim reported being inside the residence with Madrid when the suspect came up from behind and began trying to stab him. The two fought and the victim, after wrestling the weapon away from Madrid, ran out of the house with the knife while yelling for neighbors to call the police for help.

The chief says the victim suffered moderate injuries and Madrid sustained minor injuries in the assault. Both were treated at a local hospital and released. Madrid was subsequently booked in to the Calaveras County Jail on three felony charges: assault with a deadly weapon; battery causing serious bodily injury and brandishing a weapon.2018 Band Review View Photos

Sonora, CA  Bands from elementary and high schools across Tuolumne County played to an enthusiastic crowd at Dunlavy Field Wednesday evening.

The band review, last year formally renamed in honor of the late teacher Rick Restivo, is a popular tradition leading up to the Mother Lode Roundup. It concluded with a joint performance by the Sonora High Golden Regiment Band and the Summerville Orange Crush Band.

The next roundup activity is the Calcutta, coming up this evening (Thursday) at 6pm at the sheriffs posse grounds on Rawhide Road in Jamestown.

Local teams competing in the calf scramble will be paraded around the room and those in attendance can bid on who they feel will be the top winner. Whoever picks the top team will receive a share of the money raised, with other proceeds going to the posses scholarship program.

Click here to view a schedule of other roundup events.San Andreas, CA  The publics help is being sought to catch a vandal who used a rock to break-in to a Calaveras County bank, but the suspect disappeared before law enforcement arrived.

The Calaveras County Sheriffs Office is calling 22-year-old Andy Xiong from Willows, California a person of interest in the felony vandalism committed at the San Andreas Wells Fargo Bank around 9 p.m. on Tuesday. He is wanted for questioning, according to sheriffs official.

The crime was called in by a person who witnessed a man throw a rock through the front door of the bank and then walked through the broken glass into the building. The vandal then appeared to look around, but did not take anything and then left on foot, according to the caller.

Once on scene, deputies questioned the witness and determined Xiong as a person of interest in this case. Recently, he has been seen frequenting the San Andreas area as a transient, according to sheriffs officials. Anyone who has information on his whereabouts is asked to contact the Sheriffs Dispatch at 209-754-6500 or the Sheriffs Office anonymous tip line at 209-754-6030.Wells Fargo & Co. must pay $97 million to home mortgage consultants and private mortgage bankers who didnt get the breaks they were entitled to under Californias labor laws.

A federal judge in Los Angeles agreed with the bankers and consultants that their settlement should be based not just on hourly pay but also on their commissions. That bumped the damages well above the $25 million that the bank said it owed.

The lawsuit alleging various wage and hour labor violations was brought last year by a Wells Fargo mortgage broker in Los Angeles. U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson threw out her claims other than the banks failure to provide rest breaks and one on unfair competition.

Retail

Amazon, Sears

in tire deal

Shoppers will be able to buy any brand of tires on Amazon.com, have them shipped to a Sears Auto Center and then bring in their car to get them installed.

Sears said Wednesday that Amazon shoppers can now ship tires to 47 Sears Auto Centers in eight cities, including Chicago, Dallas and New York. It plans to eventually roll it out to all 400 of its auto centers nationwide in the coming weeks. As part of the deal, Sears said its DieHard brand of tires are available on Amazon for the first time.

China

ZTE ceases

operations

Chinese technology company ZTE said it has halted its main operations after U.S. authorities banned it from doing business with American suppliers.

Major operating activities of the company have ceased as a result of the U.S. Commerce Department denial order issued last month, ZTE said in a statement.

The department slapped ZTE with a seven-year sales ban in a case involving exports of telecom gear to Iran and North Korea.

ZTE, which also makes smartphones, had said the ban threatened its existence by cutting off access to U.S. suppliers of key technology and components like microchips.

Weapons

Sturm Ruger

loses to nuns

Sturm Ruger, one of the countrys largest firearms makers, had urged shareholders to reject a proposal from a group of Roman Catholic nuns demanding answers on whether it planned to develop safer products and monitor those in circulation.

But at the companys annual meeting on Wednesday, a majority of investors sided with the nuns. An official said the vote only required the company to prepare a report.

Earnings

Sunrun

San Franciscos Sunrun reported first-quarter net income of $28 million (25 cents a share), topping analysts estimates. The solar energy products distributor posted revenue of $144.4 million in the period.

Chronicle News ServicesH-E-B plans to build a massive distribution and manufacturing plant on an 871-acre plot on San Antonios East Side, initially creating 300 new jobs in the area.

City Council members will vote May 17 whether to waive up to $1 million of city development fees and up to $500,000 in SAWS water and sewer impact fees for the site at the southwest corner of E. Houston St. and S. Foster Road, according to a memo attached to an agenda item.

H-E-B plans to invest at least $130 million at the site over a three-year period, the memo says. The San Antonio retailer says the 1 million-square-foot facility will be its largest single-build warehouse and will constitute its largest investment to date in its manufacturing and supply-chain division.

The city expects to see $8 million in tax revenue and $20 million to other local taxing jurisdictions from the development over a decade, according to the memo.

The San Antonio-based food retailer no longer has room to grow at its distribution and manufacturing facilities in San Marcos and at at 4710 N. Interstate 35 on San Antonios East Side, which sits on about 70 acres, company spokeswoman Dya Campos said. Meanwhile, H-E-B has growing supply needs along the Interstate 10 corridor including Houston, making the Foster Road site an optimal hub, Campos said.

Our company continues to grow in all of our markets, Campos said. This particular location allows us great access to serve all of our markets along the corridor.

The warehouse will employ 600 workers when it comes online in 2020, 300 of which will be new positions, Campos said. Campos did not have projections about the total amount of employees H-E-B could potentially add over time at the site but said the Rittiman facility employs about 5,000 people.

We do predict there will be substantial new job growth, Campos said.

Eventually, H-E-B plans to develop a master-planned campus that encompasses manufacturing and warehouse facilities and transportation, Campos said.

H-E-B bought the land on which the warehouse will sit in September from GMU LLC, a company controlled by Randy Cairns, president of Fort Worth-based J&E Aerospace, a distributor of equipment for airplanes, county property records and state corporate filings show. The city annexed the land, along with several other parcels, in an Aug. 31 vote.

The company hasnt disclosed how much it paid for the land, which stretches along the west side of Foster Road between Houston Street and Texas 87. But the property was assessed for a total of $1.8 million last year by the Bexar County Appraisal District.

Joshua Fechter is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreportsShareholders stood with a group of nuns challenging Sturm Ruger  one of the largest firearms-makers in the country  in demanding Wednesday that the company detail its plans to monitor violence associated with their guns and develop safer products.

At the companys annual meeting, investors approved a proposal from a coalition of religious women and health care networks that Ruger had for weeks urged investors to reject. The vote came at the first gathering of shareholders for a publicly held American gunmaker since 17 people died in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February  an attack that led to boycotts and rallies for gun control.

Shareholders at the meeting spurned other efforts by gun-control activists to loosen the companys ties to the National Rifle Association, and analysts had not expected the request for more transparency to succeed, either.

But the nuns and their allies, members of the shareholder advocacy organization Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, sent representatives to plead their case at the meeting at a hotel two hours north of Phoenix.

Now, Ruger must produce a report by February that addresses how it tracks violence associated with its firearms, what kind of research it is conducting related to so-called smart gun technology (such as using thumbprint readers, like those used on smartphones) and its assessment of the risks that gun-related crimes pose to the companys reputation and finances.

Two years ago, members of the advocacy group, which includes the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary of Marylhurst, Oregon, purchased shares in Ruger; American Outdoor Brands, the owner of Smith and Wesson; and Dicks Sporting Goods, hoping to influence the companies attitudes toward gun safety. Their proposal on Wednesday was backed by a majority of shareholders, including the asset manager BlackRock, Rugers largest investor.

The American public will continue to seek solutions to gun violence from all stakeholders, but they will look first to hold gun manufacturers accountable for the safety of their products, said Colleen Scanlon, senior vice president and chief advocacy officer of Catholic Health Initiatives, one of the coalitions member organizations.

Christopher J. Killoy, Rugers chief executive, was defiant after the vote, saying that Ruger would not adopt misguided principles by groups that do not own guns and do not understand guns.

This proposal requires Ruger to prepare a report, Killoy said. Thats it, a report. It cannot force us to change our business, which is lawful and constitutionally protected.

Institutional Shareholder Services, an advisory firm, had recommended that investors support the proposal, describing it as a push for concrete evidence that the board is properly assessing risks to the companys long-term viability.

But Brian G. Rafn, a principal at Morgan Dempsey Capital Management who has worked with Rugers institutional investors for decades, said that the large funds that are the companys biggest shareholders might be looking to get out of the gun business. If that happens, there would be a dramatic sea change in how Ruger investors vote, he said.

There is certainly a groundswell on the non-gun side, but people dont understand that gun usage and ownership is expanding, he said. It will be very, very hard to stop that freight train, and the more noise thats made, the more that will be a catalyst to demand.

Another activist effort at the meeting was not successful; a bid to block the re-election of Sandra Froman, a Ruger board member since 2015, fell short.

Froman, a lawyer, served on the NRA board since 1992 and was its president from 2005 to 2007. She helped organize a breakfast at the NRAs annual meeting in Dallas this month, where President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke.

One of the organizations that backed the effort to block her, Amalgamated Bank, an institutional investor and retail bank that promotes social justice issues, had said Fromans close ties to the NRA may inhibit objective assessment and management of the risks that Ruger faced.

Ruger, which is based in Southport, Connecticut, but held its shareholder meeting near one of its factories in Arizona, has contracted with the NRA for some of its promotional and advertising activities and has made more than $9 million in payments to the group over the last two years, according to public filings. Froman did not respond to requests for comment.

At the gathering, Killoy discussed the state of the gun industry, saying that it has suffered some pain recently. He said that Ruger has been doing better in 2018, after a year that really saw the market changing and scrambling to adapt. Still, the company has had to let some employees go and was down over 700 heads over the past five quarters, he said.

After the Parkland attack, retailers like Dicks said they would stop selling AR-15-style rifles  the kind of weapon often used in mass shootings and a type of rifle that Ruger produces. Investors including BlackRock reached out to gun manufacturers for more information on their business practices. And Vista Outdoor, which is one of a handful of investor-owned firearms companies, said it planned to sell its gun-making business.

Ruger has previously faced pressure to open up. In 2016, New Yorks public advocate asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to look into allegations that Ruger had misled investors and failed to properly disclose the reputational and liability risks posed by gun crime.

Rafn said Wednesdays vote was not the first call for change in the gun industry, but that theres a little more intensity now.

This is a very, very polarized time, he said, with everyone lining up on either side of the fence.Joseph James DeAngelo, the suspected serial rapist and murderer who terrorized the Bay Area and communities across California in the 1970s and 80s, will face four additional first-degree murder charges, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley said Thursday.

Violent cold cases never grow cold for their victims or their loved ones, Dudley said. Most of them spend their lives seeking answers and hoping for justice.

Prosecutors across the state have been building cases against DeAngelo, a former police officer who is believed to have traveled up and down California from 1976 to 1986 to stalk his victims before raping and, in some cases, killing them. The suspect was called the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker before he became known in recent years as the Golden State Killer.

In total, police believe DeAngelo is responsible for 12 murders, 45 rapes and more than 150 break-ins. He was arrested April 24 at his Citrus Heights (Sacramento County) home after investigators say they matched his DNA to two murders in Sacramento.

Because the alleged killer crossed so many jurisdictions in his decade of violence, the exact date DeAngelo will appear in a Santa Barbara County court is yet to be determined. He has already made a court appearance in Sacramento County.

Dudley said that district attorneys from Orange, Sacramento and Ventura counties will convene Friday in Santa Barbara to determine the next steps in prosecuting the latest case.

DeAngelo faces 12 murder charges in the four counties. Prosecutors are still exploring whether or not the statute of limitations will allow them to pursue charges in some of the rape cases.

Dudley said her countys Sheriffs Office couldnt have solved the case without the help of a task force formed two years ago by Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert.

From that moment on, we never stopped hoping or believe that an arrest would be made, Dudley said.

In Santa Barbara County, DeAngelo is suspected of murdering Alexandria Manning and Robert Offerman on Dec. 7, 1979. He returned two years later, according to the district attorney, to kill Cheri Domingo and her boyfriend, Gregory Sanchez, on July 27, 1981.

Investigators cracked the cold case using a free site called GEDmatch that allows people to upload an existing DNA profile to search for matches. Investigators were able to narrow the pool of suspects, and to zero in on DeAngelo, authorities said.

Though police long had a genetic profile on the killer and used it to connect murders and rapes across the state, the DNA never matched anyone in criminal databases used by law enforcement.

Dudley provided few details on how her office came to charge DeAngelo in the Santa Barbara County murders, but she acknowledged that Schuberts call, telling her the notorious killer had been caught, was an emotional moment.

When she gave me the words that victims across our state have been waiting to hear, I teared up, Dudley said.

Annie Ma is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ama@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @anniema15San Antonio, get ready to quaff a graf.

Thats the beverage youll find on tap when Twin Sisters Cantina fully opens later this summer. The term refers to a malt beverage with an identity crisis. Its apple-based like a cider, but contains enough malted barley and wheat to feel like a proper pint with some sweetness and a frothy head.

And most importantly, it complies with Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission regulations for brewing beer, an easier hurdle to clear than the rules for traditional cider allow.

RELATED: Sangria on the Burg chef to launch fast-casual ceviche spot Ceviche Ceviche

David Martinez and Israel Castro have partnered in the new venture. The former is an Army veteran with an extensive metal fabrication background. The latter served in the Navy, and has spent 11 years in the brewing industry.

The two have built their pub and two-barrel brewing system from hand out of reclaimed materials.

Expect to find some playful refreshments on tap. The Miley Cyder gets people twerking, Martinez promised. The S.A. Tea swaps hops for tea leaves to create a porch-friendly sipper dialed in to the Southern palate. Castro said hes experimenting with a wide range of Texas products, including bluebonnets, which he suggested could be used to make a blue-tinted brew.

The business currently operates as an outdoor movie venue in which customers can bring their own alcoholic beverages and purchase snacks. If you happen to be around when theyre testing recipes, a sample of graf can be had as well.

Martinez and Castro have applied for TABC brewing permits, and aim to serve a full lineup of products before the end of summer.

Twin Sisters Cantina is currently open 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday at 1701 S. Hackberry St. More at 210-818-6515 or Facebook: Twin Sisters Cantina.

Paul Stephen is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | pstephen@express-news.net | Twitter: @pjbites | Instagram: @pjstephenSan Antonio is just weeks away from the opening of its second Earth Burger location. Owner Mike Behrend said in a text to the Express-News that the new vegan-based fast food restaurant at 2501 Nacogdoches just outside Loop 410 should be up and running by June 1.

Behrend said in a previous story that second location would open in late January. The building used to house a Churchs Chicken franchise, and has required extensive renovation.Today is Friday, May 11, the 131st day of 2018. There are 234 days left in the year.

Todays Highlight in History:

On May 11, 1943, during World War II, U.S. forces landed on the Aleutian island of Attu, which was held by the Japanese; the Americans took the island 19 days later.

On this date:

1502: Christopher Columbus left Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere.

1647: Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to become governor of New Netherland.

1858: Minnesota became the 32nd state of the Union.

1888: Songwriter Irving Berlin was born Israel Baline in Temun, Russia.

1927: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded during a banquet at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

1935: The Rural Electrification Administration was created as one of President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal programs.

1953: A tornado devastated Waco, claiming 114 lives.

1960: Israeli agents captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1973: The espionage trial of Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo in the Pentagon Papers case came to an end as Judge William M. Byrne dismissed all charges, citing government misconduct.

1988: Master spy Harold Kim Philby, the notorious third man of a British espionage ring, died in the Soviet Union at age 76.

1996: An Atlanta-bound ValuJet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.

1998: India set off three underground atomic blasts, its first nuclear tests in 24 years. A French mint produced the first coins of Europes single currency, the euro.

2008: Serbias pro-Western president, Boris Tadic, declared victory in parliamentary elections in a stunning upset over ultranationalists. Parvati Shallow was the last woman standing on CBS Survivor: Micronesia  Fans vs. Favorites. (Shallow had previously come in sixth place on Survivor: Cook Islands.)

2013: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared victory following a historic election marred by violence. A pair of car bomb attacks in Turkey killed 52 people near the Syrian border.

2017: President Donald Trump signed an executive order launching a commission to review alleged voter fraud and voter suppression, building upon his unsubstantiated claims that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election. The Senate confirmed President Trumps nominee for U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, by a vote of 82-14 despite complaints from some Republicans.A mother in Britain was furious: Her daughter's arm was maimed with a nasty, blistery burn. And the burn was thanks to something called the "deodorant challenge."

So the mom did what many parents might do in 2018: She warned the internet about it.

"For any parents who have children, please, please sit them down and show them these pictures. . ...These are the damaging results of something known as 'The Deodorant Challenge'," Jamie Prescott wrote on Facebook last week. Prescott said the challenge was "currently doing the rounds in Yate," a small city outside Bristol, "and literally involves spraying deodorant on to someone else for as long as possible."

The damage caused by the deodorant challenge is very real. It comes not from the deodorant itself, but from the delivery method. An aerosol spray cools quickly on the skin, essentially producing frostbite. The result can be, essentially, a burn, according to a cautionary post from the University of Utah. The longer the spray on the skin, the worse the damage.

The post has more than 4,000 shares on Facebook, and has become the main source for a wave of news articles warning about a dumb thing teens were doing because of the internet. The Sacramento Bee called it a "dangerous fad." The International Business Times said it was a "craze." Another article called the deodorant challenge the "latest teen trend."

Dumb and dangerous online teen challenges are repeat visitors to the news cycle. And they bring with them a whole world of factual murkiness. In this case, as in many others, the challenge itself appears to be real, and dangerous. But there's little definitive evidence that it has actually gone viral among teenagers in Britain or elsewhere on social media. Instead, the thing that trends is often the warning about the challenge.

Google Trends shows search interest climbing for "deodorant challenge" after Prescott's warning started getting media attention, with relatively little interest before that. The search term previously peaked in search interest in 2017, when the last panic about the challenge spread through the news. ITV called it the "social media craze that's burning children's' skin," and interviewed a mother and daughter about it back then. The mother posted a picture of her daughter's burns to Facebook. The daughter said she tried the challenge because her friends were doing it.

Similarly, Prescott's daughter Ellie heard about the challenge from her friends. But the connection to a currently viral teen social media challenge is unproven.

There's not a ton of research on the phenomenon. One study, published in the scientific journal "Burns and Trauma" in 2016, traced cases of cold burns at a regional burn unit in Britain for an 11-year period. The researchers found that of the 11,468 burn patients treated at the center during the study period, a total of 23 of them were cold burns. The study ran until December of 2014, or 11 months after the Daily Mail first warned that the "deodorant challenge" was a teen "craze" on YouTube, inspiring hordes of teens to try the dangerous idea. The study's findings hardly support that warning - instead, researchers wrote that cold burns were "uncommon."

However, the research did find some evidence that a small number of kids were trying this, whether because of the challenge or otherwise: Of the patients who were between 15-25 years old with cold burns, "90% of admissions were due to deliberate self-inflicted injuries using deodorant sprays."

On Youtube, there are some videos of kids showing their injuries from the challenge going back five years, but none seem to have gone "viral" - their view counts are in the hundreds or low thousands. There are also plenty of videos warning about the challenge uploaded to YouTube in the past 24 hours. And there are a handful of videos of young British tweens doing a different "deodorant challenge," which involves trying to guess a deodorant brand by spraying it into the air and smelling it. Other enterprising teens have posted videos of themselves attempting to take a bite of deodorant.

Basically, the deodorant challenge is real, but the warnings appear to be more viral than the challenge itself. And it's hardly the only teen challenge to be propelled into the news cycle in this way.

Last month, there was a massive moral panic about the "condom challenge," where teens snort a condom up their nose. Yes, people really have done this on the internet, and yes, it is incredibly dangerous. But even as the "condom challenge" swept through the news cycle, there was no evidence to suggest that the years-old dumb idea on the internet was actually seeing a revival among teens.

The Washington Post traced the origins of last month's panic about the condom challenge to a single PowerPoint presentation in San Antonio, Texas, part of a workshop for local parents on dangers teens might face online. The presentation, and the original local news report about it, never claimed that the challenge was "viral." That word was appended to the story as it spread through the online news landscape.

And then there was the spread of the Tide Pod Challenge, probably the most popular meme of 2018 for adults who want to mock dumb teens - even though my colleague reported at the time that laundry pod poisonings are actually trending downward

"The word 'trend' is the most important aspect of these stories," said Alex Kasprak, a reporter at Snopes, a fact-checking site, told The Post last month. As the condom challenge spread, Snopes rated the news as "mostly false." The kernel of truth was that the condom challenge was real and dangerous. The trend itself was false, but spread, Kasprak notes, "because 'kids are so dumb' is a real popular thing to talk about."NEW CANAAN  More than a month after town police warned residents about criminals targeting mailboxes, the department reiterated its warning.

Public and private mailboxes continue to be compromised, police said Thursday. If possible, please visit the post office to mail your letters.BRIDGEPORT  The citys ex-library chief and the handful of people competing for his job are preparing to face different types of public scrutiny.

In the case of Tracy Allen, Sylvia Archibald, Amanda Jackson and Tom Sloan  the four finalists for library director  that means attending a forum Monday to talk about their individual visions for a 21st Century library system and take audience questions.

Bridgeports libraries have been without a chief since the Board of Directors fired Scott Hughes in October, 2016 after nearly a decade running the system.

Critics criticized Hughes for being a poor manager and poor communicator who spent more time involved in Bridgeport politics than running the library system. Supporters praised his community involvement and said he worked hard to improve the branches.

While Allen, Archibald, Jackson and Sloan head to the court of public opinion, Hughes is readying to go before an actual jury.

He has sued for wrongful termination, demanding his job back and alleging he was the target of racial discrimination and unfairly treated because of his increased political activities. Jury selection in the case is schedule for May 24.

Despite the public turmoil surrounding Hughes final months  the board placed him on probation in February 2016  Assistant City Librarian John Soltis said there were over 30 applicants for his position.

That group was whittled down by the board and its search consultant, Bradbury Miller Associates, through phone interviews to ten. The board then interviewed those ten candidates through video chat and settled on the four who will be in town Monday.

Of them, Archibald lives the closest. She runs the East Norwalk Association Library.

Sloan is director of the Mid-Hudson Library System, Jackson head of the Gadsden Public Library in Gadsden, Alabama and Allen works at the Richland Library in South Carolina.

Soltis said that before Mondays forum the four contenders will meet individual with the interim director and staff.

Then Tuesday they will be pretty much on their own to tour the branches and then will be meeting individually with the board for personal interviews, Soltis said.

Soltis encouraged as many members of the public to turn out as possible at the forum, scheduled from 6:30 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the North Branch Library, 3455 Madison Avenue: The more the merrier.GREENWICH  The Board of Selectmen has given its blessing to four local nonprofit agencies to work to secure funds from area businesses as part of the the Connecticut Neighborhood Assistance Act.

Under the program, businesses would earn a tax credit from the state for giving grants to Kids in Crisis, River House Adult Day Center, the YMCA of Greenwich and YWCA Greenwich.

The requests have been sent to the Representative Town Meeting for consideration in June, but thats just another step in the process. The town plays only a minor part in the state program, said Tyler Fairbairn, the towns community development and grants administrator.

The towns role here is only as a liaison between the state Department of Revenue Services and the organizations that are ultimately awarded funding, Fairbairn said Thursday. After the RTM meets, it will be pretty hands off for us.

The selectmen and RTM are required to consider the requests, as they do every year, by July 1. To make good on that, the selectmen opened a public hearing on the grants. No one attended nor spoke at the public hearing, which was then closed. The selectmen the unanimously approved sending the matter to the RTM for its June 11 meeting, where it is expected to gain easy approval.

But there is no guarantee that a request from a nonprofit will be filled. The requests do not have funding yet, and a business or private entity must step forward first.

Through the Neighborhood Assistance Act, business firms that make cash investments of at least $250 in eligible community programs get the tax credit.

Once the town and state signs off on the requests, Fairbairn said businesses can work with the state from Sept. 15 to Oct. 1 on the investment.

Around December or January, the state will notify the town about which programs  if any  have been funded and matched up with a private investor," he said. "We turn around and then notify the organizations."

Selectman Sandy Litvack said more nonprofits should seek funding. But Fairbairn told him that there is a lack of donors.

"Generally there arent a tremendous amount of programs funded," he said. "Last year there might have been two funded."

Litvack said he understood. "As the economy has problems you get fewer investors and as it does better you get more," he said.

Kids in Crisis requested $150,000 for its Safe Haven For Kids program, an emergency shelter program for Connecticut children ranging in age from newborns to 17-year-olds who are homeless or not safe in their own homes due to severe family conflict, abuse or neglect.

The $25,000 requested by the River House will support its health program, paying for two registered nurses to be on hand six days a week to care for its elderly clients and to communicate with family caregivers and primary care physicians. River House, which is located in Cos Cob, provides social activities for seniors as well as care and support during the day.

The YMCA of Greenwich asked for $150,000 to make capital improvements at its downtown location, including installing new energy-efficient windows, replacing light bulbs with LED ones and switching out its current chiller with a new one that is more energy efficient.

YWCA Greenwich is seeking $100,000 for its domestic abuse services. It is the only Greenwich nonprofit agency that provides 24/7 services, including an emergency hotline, shelter, counseling, court services and other services, for victims and families.

When speaking about the program in the past, First Selectman Peter Tesei called it "an excellent vehicles for companies to support nonprofits."

kborsuk@greenwichtime.comThe mother of a middle school student who had a sexual relationship with a former United ISD teacher in 2015 testified on Wednesday at the man's sentencing hearing, saying that he was "almost like a son" and that she did not want him to go to prison.

Luis Enrique Mercado, 36, pleaded guilty to indecency with a child by exposure, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Mercado was accused of committing a host of sexual offenses against a then-14-year-old student.

The Webb County District Attorney's Office agreed to dismiss the remaining charges on Mercado's 22-count grand jury indictment, including nine counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact, five counts of improper relationship between an educator and a student, four counts of sexual assault of a child, two counts of possession of child pornography and one count of indecency with a child by exposure.

READ MORE: United ISD teacher accused of having sex with a student

Following his arrest in May 2015, he admitted to having sexual contact with the student 22 times over the course of a month, Laredo police said.

While a plea deal was struck, the prosecutors and defense attorneys could not reach an agreement about punishment.

Assistant District Attorney Julia Rubio asked 406th District Court Judge Oscar J. Hale Jr. to order Mercado to serve 10 years in prison.

Roberto and Claudia Balli, Mercado's attorneys, asked the court to sentence their client to probation. They also asked the court to grant Mercado deferred adjudication, which would allow him to have his case dismissed without a conviction on his record if he abides by all the terms and conditions of probation.

'A regular guy'

The student's mother testified as a witness for the defense. She said she wanted Mercado to be sentenced to probation.

"The best thing for my daughter is for Mr. Mercado not to go to prison," she said. "I don't want to see her sad anymore."

From the time Mercado was arrested in May 2015 until about November 2015, the mother said she took her daughter almost on a weekly basis to the Children's Advocacy Center to get counseling. She added that counselors told her not ask her daughter any questions so she wouldn't confuse the child.

The child did not like the therapy sessions and repeatedly asked her not to take her back, the mom said.

The mom said she reached out to Mercado's mom because she wanted to talk to her since she was going through the same situation. They met at a mutual friend's house and became friends, she said.

After meeting with Mercado's mother a few times, the student's mom said she asked to meet Mercado. It was a very emotional meeting, according to her testimony.

The mom said Mercado was polite, honest, remorseful and apologetic. She also described him as "a regular guy."

RELATED: Former UISD teacher charged with production of child porn

"He wasn't the monster that people described him as being on social media," she said.

The two families became close and have a good relationship to this day, the mother testified. She said that the Mercados are her support group and that they opened up their arms to her family.

The families meet regularly for dinner on Sundays after Mass and Mercado and the student's parents attend Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament together once a month, she said. Also, the child's parents and Mercado's parents often go out to dinner together.

Mercado is "almost like a son" and is an "awesome person," the mom testified. She said he made a mistake, but that he was good, humble and very honest.

The mom said that neither her nor her daughter, who is now 17, consider her a victim. She said her daughter is doing well in school and is involved in extracurricular activities.

During cross-examination, Rubio, the prosecutor, asked the mom if she was saying that it was acceptable that a 33-year-old teacher had sex with a 14-year-old student. The mother denied this.

"Do you realize that your daughter was molested by her teacher?" Rubio asked.

The mom hesitated but ultimately answered that she did. She also said that if she had known this was going to happen she would have prevented it.

Autism diagnosis

The defense presented expert witness testimony from a psychologist who evaluated Mercado and a counselor who worked with him.

Dr. Joann Murphey, a forensic psychologist from San Antonio, testified that she evaluated Mercado in January. She took over for another psychologist who had spent significant time evaluating Mercado, but fell ill and is no longer practicing.

Murphey diagnosed Mercado with autistic spectrum disorder and said he also has personality characteristics that complicate the disorder, such as dependent personality and avoidant personality. She said these features make him compliant and self-defeating.

Murphey testified that she spent five hours interviewing Mercado and about six hours reviewing his file. She said she also watched Mercado's videotaped confession.

While reviewing the tape, Murphey said she noticed an unusual incident. Within a few minutes of walking into the room, Mercado asked the interviewer for a hug. She said this was consistent with the autistic process.

Murphey added that she did not think Mercado posed any future danger to others and that prison would magnify his current problems, both neurologically and personality-wise.

"He's kind, he's respectful, he donates his time for stroke victims, he works in the community," she said. "You probably would not meet someone that you would label a nicer person ... This was not a man who was out seeking to be abusive or to use his power or authority over another person for their harm and for his own self-gratification."

RELATED: Laredo high school teacher resigns amid investigation

Rubio asked Murphey if she was aware that Mercado had been reprimanded for communicating with students via social media, hugging students in the hallways or sitting with them in the cafeteria. Murphey said she didn't know about this and characterized it as risky behavior but that it made sense given Mercado's child-like tendencies.

"That's his peer group," Murphey said. "I can see him hugging kids all day long."

Additionally, Murphey denied that she knew that Mercado had given the student money to buy her prom dress or that she had gifted her two stuffed animals.

Mark Harris, a certified forensic counselor, testified that he worked with Mercado in a 10-session treatment plan, with the ultimate objective to keep the community safe while the person is awaiting trial.

Harris said that he did not find Mercado to be predatory at all nor that he posed a danger to the community.

The sentencing hearing will resume on May 16.MIDDLETOWN  The manager of a popular food mart/gas station in the citys south end is scrambling to salvage what food and other things he can from the store after being abruptly told by the landowner to vacate the property.

It was business as usual until late Tuesday afternoon, said the 619 S. Main St. Valero manager Malik Tyriq, when he received a call from his landlord.

Five oclock: They said you have four hours left in the store. I had to fight to get in today, he said Wednesday afternoon.

Dannys Middletown Convenience sits at the intersection of South Main and Ward streets, next to McDonalds and kitty corner to Dunkin Donuts.

The gas company (Fas Mart) didnt want to sell gas here anymore. They told me, You can talk to the landlord directly. For some reason, they were not making any money, said Tyriq, whose lease with Valero runs until December 2019.

Tyriq and his wife, who live in Watertown, both work at the station most days from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. They have three part-time employees, who Tyriq said he had to let go Wednesday.

According to property records, 619 S. Main St. is owned by Getty CT Leasing Inc. of Jericho, New York.

Ten days ago, Tyriq got a call from his landlord, Mike Marino.

They were breaking their lease from Getty. They didnt want to sell gas, so they didnt want to keep this store, Tyriq said, stopping to direct a friend who was helping pack up a wall full of cold soda, ice cream, milk and other perishables. Snacks and other convenience goods sat haphazardly arranged in crates on the floor.

The store was full. I have more than $70,000 worth of stuff here, said Tyriq, who, during the time hes been in charge, paid for new flooring, LED lighting and counters.

In fact, hes still paying off a five-year loan for the lights to Eversource.

Inside, outside, canopy, all LEDs. I pay for it. And I get three hours to leave? he said.

After the initial phone call, Tyriq told Marino hed be interested in buying the market. He was told to talk directly to Getty to see if the company would be willing to sell it to him, Tyriq said. The asking price was $375,000.

I said, Im ready to buy. Without the pump, without the tank.

OK, Ill ensure you youll stay there, but I do have people buying it, Tyriq said he was told. He was also told to expect a call within a week.

Marino never called and hasnt returned phone calls or texts, Tyriq said.

Marino told The Press this week he is not able to comment on the situation.

Getty Realty Corp. owns, leases and finances convenience stores and gasoline station properties, according to its website.

Yesterday, I got a call from Fas Mart. Youve got to leave, said Tyriq, who rented a UHaul truck which he, his wife and a friend were loading up. Plans were to unload everything in a storage space hed hastily secured.

Who does that? I have kids. I did not sleep last night at all. I was here yesterday making orders  Pepsi, Cola. Then, 5 oclock, I get a call. Youve got to leave right now, Tyriq said. All of it belongs to me. Some Ill try to return. My garage is full. My mother-in-laws garage is full, and I have more stuff. The cooler is full. I dont know what to do with it.

Tyriq and his wife go out of their way to make their patrons feel welcome, they said.

They are very upset. They feel bad for me, Tyriq said of his customers. One customer actually cried, saying I was the best owner here for a while. I always talk to them. I know their names, I know their families. They used to tell me everything thats going on in their lives  not every customer, but most of them.

Many are senior citizens on limited incomes or who dont have transportation to the grocery store. Stop & Shop is a mile and a half away.

His patrons call in orders for the basics, like bread, sugar, frozen food, cereal, eggs, bread and milk, Tyriq said.

They buy $30, $40 every other day. They walk because they cant drive here, he said. I always give them a little break on price.

Business has been booming, he added.

We were doing excellent...We sell a lot of gas, a lot of groceries  everything. Thats why I wanted to buy it. When they mentioned they wanted to sell it, I said, Im ready.

A woman who identified herself only by first name, Nev, made her way to the entrance with a cane on Wednesday. She was there to buy cigarettes  and surprised to see everyone packing up.

Shes a very good customer. She always comes here, Tyriq said.

They are really nice people, said Nev, who said she has been buying tobacco at the market for at least two years.

Shes disabled and rarely leaves the house.

Hes very kind, she said of Tyriq. If I ask for something and hes out, the next time I come in, hes ordered it. I dont even have to ask.

Her taxi driver was waiting in the parking lot.

Theyre very personal... They remember you, they recognize you, they smile when you come in, and they go out of their way to help, Nev said. Were really low on that kind of behavior these days. It just doesnt seem a nice way to do business whoever did this to them.

Meanwhile, Tyriq is focusing on retrieving what he can.

Bigger fish always eat the smaller fish, but they should have been honest with me and told me it was going to be sold (to someone else), he said. What can I do in four hours?

Managing Editor Cassandra Day can be reached at cassandra.day@hearstmediact.com or Twitter @cassandrasdis.President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has abruptly parted ways with his law firm, citing the "pressing demands" of representing Trump in the special counsel's probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Giuliani, whose recent media blitz on behalf of Trump stirred controversy, took a leave of absence from Greenberg Traurig last month. But on Thursday, the firm announced Giuliani's resignation, effective the day before.

The announcement followed several interviews in which Giuliani described a settlement reached by a Trump lawyer with an adult-film star to keep her silent about an alleged affair as a standard arrangement for lawyers trying to protect high-profile clients.

In a brief interview Thursday, Giuliani said there was no acrimony inside the firm regarding his work for Trump, saying that "half the firm is for him, maybe half against - fifty-fifty. It wasn't about that; it was about giving my full attention to the president."

"This is a full-time job working for the president, and we've got to figure this out and get this over with," Giuliani said. "That's why the timing is right."

More for you Cohen, touting his access to President Trump, convinced companies to pay millions

In a statement, Richard Rosenbaum, executive chairman of Greenberg Traurig, said that Giuliani originally intended to "play a limited role, for a short period of time" representing Trump.

"After recognizing that this work is all-consuming and is lasting longer than initially anticipated, Rudy has determined it is best for him to resign from the firm," Rosenbaum said. He added that he maintains respect for the former New York mayor's "incredible career" and considers him a friend.

Giuliani's decision, first reported by the New York Times, comes soon after he has not only aggressively addressed a probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller but also disclosed that Trump had reimbursed his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payout to adult-film star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair.

In interviews, Giuliani suggested that such payments were not uncommon at his law firm to calm accusations confronting wealthy and well-known people.

"That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds," Giuliani said on Fox News, speaking of Cohen's payment to Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.

"Michael would take care of things like this like I take care of this with my clients," Giuliani added.

In other interviews, Giuliani also claimed that Mueller was seeking to "trap" the president into committing perjury with a request for an extended interview about Russian interference in the election and Trump's actions regarding the investigation.

"What they're really trying to do is trap him into perjury, and we're not suckers," Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor, said during another Fox News interview. "This silly deposition is about a case in which he supposedly colluded with the Russians, but there's no evidence."

Giuliani told The Washington Post that the president and his legal team remain undecided on whether Trump will sit down with Mueller in the coming weeks. He said that the president's team would need to view the parameters as "narrow" and "fair."MOUNT BENTAL, Golan Heights - The Israeli military said it struck dozens of Iran-linked military targets in Syria on Thursday in response to rocket fire, marking a significant escalation in regional hostilities a little more than a day after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.

Israel said the attacks followed a volley of rockets directed at Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, which caused no casualties.

The Israeli military blamed the attack on Iran's Quds Force, a special forces unit affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, and said this marked the first time that Iranian forces have fired directly on Israeli troops.

Syrian and Iranian news outlets accused Israel of firing the first shot, saying it was Syria that had responded after Israel targeted the Syrian town of Quneitra with artillery fire and missiles. There was no official response from the Iranian government.

The rocket fire was followed by Israel's largest intervention in neighboring Syria in decades. Jets headed for Syria screamed over northern Israel for more than four hours, and about 70 previously identified targets were hit, according to the Israeli military.

"This was by far the largest strike we have done, but it was focused on Iranian sites," said Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman. Syrian antiaircraft batteries were also targeted after they fired on Israeli planes, he added.

In a statement carried by Syria's state news agency, an unidentified Syrian Foreign Ministry official described Israel's overnight attacks as a "new phase of aggression."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in Britain, said that at least 23 people were killed in Thursday's Israeli strikes across Syria. The group said five Syrian soldiers and 18 allied militiamen died, without specifying whether any of the militiamen were Iranian. The Syrian army, however, said that only three people died in the strikes and claimed that most of the Israeli missiles were intercepted.

For residents of Damascus, it was a sleepless night. "The intensity of the blasts and their repetition was stressful," said one resident, who declined to be named for security reasons. He said that he was not fearful but that many of those close to him were. "They said that a war with Israel would be much scarier than a war with other proxies," he said.

Although the fighting raised concerns of further escalation, it remained relatively contained. Rockets fired from Syria were aimed only at targets in the occupied Golan Heights and not inside Israel's internationally recognized borders. Schools and shops in the area were open as normal Thursday, while some tourists appeared unconcerned. The altercation also did not spread to Lebanon, where Israel has fought repeated battles in recent years.

Israel and Iran have been on a collision course in Syria in recent months, as Israel has vowed not to let Iran build an expanded military presence there and has escalated attacks against Iranian targets across the border. Iran threatened retaliation after seven of its soldiers were killed by an Israeli airstrike in April.

From a viewing point on Mount Bental in the Golan Heights, Conricus pointed out where he said an Iranian rocket salvo was fired toward Israel just after midnight. Four of the 20 rockets were on target, he said, but were then intercepted, while the rest fell short.

"We saw it was very clear what the Iranians were doing, attacking Israel from Syrian soil," he said.

Israeli officials have downplayed a link between the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the immediate escalation in tensions, though Israelis in the Golan Heights were ordered to open their bomb shelters at the very moment President Donald Trump made his announcement.

Before the United States made its decision about the nuclear accord, Iran faced a "strategic uncertainty" over what would happen and did not want to take the risk of striking back, said Michael Horowitz, a senior analyst at Le Beck International, a Middle East-based geopolitical and security consulting firm. "That encouraged Tehran to be careful."

Israel, meanwhile, was looking for a chance to press its efforts at rolling back the Iranian presence in Syria, he said. "Israel was searching for an opportunity to really escalate its efforts."

An evening earlier, Israel had struck targets in Syria after detecting what Israeli officials said were suspicious military movements, reportedly killing an additional eight Iranians.

Horowitz said Israel's strategy is twofold. In part, Israel wants to delay Iranian entrenchment in Syria as much as possible and make sure it comes at the highest cost possible. At the same time, Israel is trying to back up its diplomatic efforts aimed at getting Russia and the United States to rein in Iranian expansionism.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that point Thursday. "The international community should prevent the entrenchment of the Iranian Quds Force in Syria. We have to unite to cut off the arms of its spreading evil there and everywhere," he said, adding that Israel had responded after "Iran crossed a red line."

In Washington, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned Iran's "provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens" and supported Israel's "right to act in self-defense."

"The Iranian regime's deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East," Sanders said in a statement. "Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bears full responsibility for the consequences of its reckless actions."

The statement called on Iran and its proxies "to take no further provocative steps."

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, who served as intelligence minister at the time the Iran nuclear deal was negotiated and remains a member of Netanyahu's security cabinet, said that the attacks were only indirectly related to Trump's announcement.

The more direct reason for the attack, Steinitz said, was that the IRGC had deployed armed drones, ballistic missiles and short-range rockets capable of reaching Israel on Syrian soil over the past two months. "We saw that the Iranians were going beyond planning and beginning to execute their plans to start building bases and air defense systems . . . with the clear aim to be able to threaten Israel in the future," he said.

U.S. and Israeli intelligence had detected increased movement of such weaponry into Syria earlier this year, according to U.S. officials, and had anticipated such an attack launched from Syria late last month. "It didn't happen," Steinitz said, "because Israel managed to intercept and prevent or destroy some of the efforts."

He said that Israel's actions sent a "clear message" to the Iranians that Israel won't allow it "to transform Syria into an Iranian military [base] to attack Israel."

Russia, which has installed its own sophisticated air defense systems inside Syria, apparently did not activate them. Moscow's failure to become involved or even to issue a strong statement of criticism toward Israel, Steinitz said, was "a tacit message to the Iranians that Russia is not in their pocket" in Syria.

Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in Moscow, and afterward Netanyahu said he had explained that Israel had the right to defend itself against Iranian aggression.

Russian reaction to the strikes was muted Thursday. "Moscow is concerned about the growing tensions and hopes that all parties will show restraint and resort exclusively to political and diplomatic means to solve all existing problems," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Russians have "emphasized the need for avoiding any mutually provoking moves." Both Iran and Israel, Lavrov said, "have assured us that there are no such intentions. Nevertheless, such incidents do occur."

Russia released an analysis of the attack, saying it was carried out by 28 Israeli fighter jets firing 60 missiles and an additional 10 surface-to-surface missiles, with Syrian air defenses intercepting half of them.

Among the targets that were hit were a logistics headquarters belonging to the Quds Force, a military logistics compound in Kiswah, an Iranian military compound north of Damascus, munition storage warehouses of the Quds Force at Damascus International Airport, intelligence systems and posts associated with the Quds Force, and observation and military posts and munitions in the buffer zone between the Golan Heights and Syria proper, the Israeli army said.

Tehran's strong support for Syrian President Bashar Assad has let Iran deepen its foothold across Syria, but Iranian media downplayed Tehran's role in the violence, depicting the clashes instead as between Israel and Syria.

In the Golan Heights, where residents have become accustomed to air raid sirens due to errant fire during Syria's long civil war, things felt a little different this time.

On Thursday, the sirens sounded shortly after midnight.

"It does make you stressed," said Maayan Ben Dor, 33, a resident of Neve Ativ. "It's not Hezbollah or Hamas, it's something else."

- - -

The Washington Post's Eglash reported from Jerusalem, and Loveluck from Beirut. Suzan Haidamous in Beirut, Erin Cunningham in Istanbul and Brian Murphy, John Wagner and Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., urged the Senate to reject Gina Haspel, arguing in a Wednesday night statement that the first female nominee to lead the CIA was too tainted by her work at the agency during the period when it had pursued "enhanced" interrogation techniques.

"I believe Gina Haspel is a patriot who loves our country and has devoted her professional life to its service and defense," McCain said in a statement Wednesday night. "However, Ms. Haspel's role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge torture's immorality is disqualifying. I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination."

McCain's opposition announcement comes on the heels of Haspel's confirmation hearing, in which she promised senators of the Intelligence Committee that she would never revive the CIA's controversial interrogation program, even if ordered by President Donald Trump, and said that she would not today support an order to destroy videotaped evidence of such interrogations.

But Haspel refused to condemn her actions overseeing a secret CIA prison where such methods had been used, or in drafting the order to destroy evidence of such sessions, insisting that at the time, she understood them to be legal, and that it was impossible to know "whether interrogation techniques played a role" in getting "valuable information from debriefing al-Qaida detainees."

McCain, who has remained in Arizona since the end of last year, was not expected to return for any votes this month. Haspel's performance before the Senate Intelligence Committee was seen to have boosted her nomination; after the hearing ended, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., fresh off a primary victory, became the first Democrat (and first Democratic member of the committee) to endorse her, putting her one vote away from certain confirmation.

But McCain, who had survived torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and fought to end the CIA's post-9/11 interrogation policy, criticized Haspel in terms that clash dramatically with the White House's campaign for her nomination. The Republican National Committee accused Democrats of "mansplaining" to Haspel when they accused her of dissembling with her answers, and argued that confirming her would be a victory for all women.

A Republican super PAC bought ads attacking Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Haspel's only other Republican critic, warning that if he opposed Haspel, he was standing with al-Qaida. Wisconsin State Sen. Leah Vukmir, who is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., released a head-turning statement saying that Baldwin belonged to "Team Terrorist" and "would rather give the man behind the 9/11 attacks and other terrorists hugs and safe spaces than take adequate action to protect America."

The Senate Intelligence Committee released a lengthy report in 2014 that concluded that the CIA's interrogation techniques were not a legitimate or useful way of procuring useful intelligence.President Donald Trump had been sworn into office, and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, saw a golden opportunity.

From his perch in a law office on the 23rd floor of New York's Rockefeller Center, Cohen pitched potential clients on his close association with Trump, noting that he still was the president's lawyer, according to associates. He showed photos of himself with Trump and mentioned how frequently they spoke, even asking people to share news articles describing him as the president's "fixer."

RELATED: Trump lawyer sold 'insight' into his high-powered client

"I'm crushing it," he said, according to an associate who spoke to him in the summer of 2017.

Details that emerged this week reveal how Cohen quickly leveraged his role as Trump's personal attorney, developing a lucrative sideline as a consultant to companies eager for insight into how to navigate the new administration. The rapid flow of millions of dollars to Cohen shows the rush by corporations - unable to rely on the influence of Washington's traditional lobbying class in dealing with a new, populist outsider president - to lock in relationships with Trump's inner circle.

The companies cited a range of reasons for hiring Cohen. A Korean defense company competing for a U.S. contract said it paid him $150,000 to advise it on accounting practices. A global pharmaceutical company said it paid him $1.2 million to provide insight into health-care policy - money it said it was required to keep paying even after concluding that Cohen had little to offer. A telecommunication company said it turned to him simply to better understand the Trump administration.

Even the office in which he operated - which served as fulcrum of the newly created Michael D. Cohen & Associates - was a side benefit of his Trump affiliation. It was provided by the powerhouse legal and lobbying firm Squire Patton Boggs, which signed Cohen to a $500,000 deal in the wake of the 2016 election.

Cohen's business activities have been under investigation by both special counsel Robert Mueller III and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which conducted raids on his office, home, hotel room and safe-deposit box on April 9.

RELATED: Report claims Melania and Trump estranged while she shoots down White House rumors

Both teams of investigators have scrutinized the intersection of Cohen's work and the president's interests - and how the activity flowed through Essential Consultants, a company Cohen formed in the fall of 2016 and used to pay hush money to an adult-film star who claimed she had an affair with Trump.

Late last year, the special counsel sought information from two of the companies that hired Cohen, AT&T and Novartis, the companies said Wednesday,

Cohen, who refinanced his Park Avenue condominium in recent days, according to public documents, and faces mounting legal bills, did not respond to a request for comment. His lawyer declined to comment.

But a friend of Cohen's said that so many potential clients approached the president's lawyer after the election that he had to turn many down.

"An entrepreneur always understands their opportunities. And Michael has always been an entrepreneur," said the friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

In the wake of Trump's election, Cohen collected at least $2.2 million from corporate clients, according to figures confirmed by the companies.

Cohen may have needed the big paydays. Despite being listed as a top choice for Trump's White House counsel, he had failed to get a top job. The value of his New York taxi business was in a tailspin because of competition from ride-hailing services.

Selling access is common in Washington, but investigators could probe whether Cohen promised specific government actions in exchange for payments, which could cause him legal trouble. If he spent large amounts of time speaking to government officials on behalf of clients, investigators could also explore whether he should have registered as a lobbyist. They could also probe whether he made misstatements on bank records associated with his consulting company.

Cohen worked with clients in at least two ways: through his limited liability corporation, Essential Consultants, and his contract with Squire Patton Boggs.

Essential Consultants was formed in October 2016, around the time Cohen transferred $130,000 to pay adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who was planning to go public with allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump. The president has denied the affair, but his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has said Trump reimbursed Cohen.

Other activities by the consulting firm became public Tuesday when Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, released a report with specific bank transactions linked to Essential Consultants. The source of Avenatti's information was unclear, but many of the payments were confirmed by the companies, prompting a Treasury Department investigation into how he obtained the material. Late Wednesday, Cohen's lawyers accused Avenatti of improperly obtaining Cohen's bank records.

Perhaps Essential Consultants' most notable contract was with Columbus Nova, a New York-based investment firm that said it paid Cohen $500,000 between January and August 2017. In a statement, Columbus Nova said it is owned and managed by Americans but acknowledged it manages assets for a company controlled by the Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.

Columbus Nova said it paid Cohen to help it with investments such as real estate. It said Vekselberg had nothing to do with the decision to hire Cohen. Vekselberg attended Trump's inauguration with Andrew Intrater, his cousin and the head of Columbus Nova. A person familiar with their attendance at the inauguration said Cohen, Intrater and Vekselberg were seen together.

Korea Aerospace Industries confirmed to The Washington Post that it paid $150,000 to Cohen's company, but spokesman Oh Sung-keon said that it was unaware of Essential Consultants' connection to Trump. The company said it paid Cohen's firm "to inform reorganization of our internal accounting system." The company is in contention for a multibillion joint U.S. contract with Lockheed Martin for jet trainers.

Novartis, a giant Swiss drugmaker, said it hired Essential Consultants because it "believed that Michael Cohen could advise the company as to how the Trump administration might approach certain US healthcare policy matters, including the Affordable Care Act," said spokeswoman Sofina Mirza-Reid.

Novartis is one of the world's largest drug companies, with a business deeply shaped by U.S. government actions - including drug approvals and drug reimbursements.

But after an initial meeting with Cohen, Novartis determined that he "would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated related to US healthcare policy matters and the decision was taken not to engage further," Mirza-Reid said. But she said the company could not terminate the contract "for cause," and thus paid the agreed-upon $1.2 million.

Cohen offered insight into how the Trump administration would work, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment candidly. The health-care landscape at the time was ripe for upheaval, and Cohen promised to help the company understand the Trump administration's views and likely actions on key issues such as the Affordable Care Act.

AT&T, meanwhile, hired Cohen "to provide insights into understanding the new administration." The Avenatti report said AT&T paid $200,000 to Essential Consultants, and AT&T confirmed making an unspecified payment.

AT&T had several important issues before federal officials, including the company's proposed merger with Time Warner. That deal was struck in October 2016, and the Justice Department began efforts to block the merger with a lawsuit filed in November 2017.

Cohen was able to sign up such lucrative clients because many companies at the time were anxious to hire Trump insiders. Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign aide who in January 2017 opened a consulting firm, Avenue Strategies, in partnership with former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, said there was more potential business than they could handle.

"When we opened our doors, the phone just rang and rang and rang. . . . We turned a lot of business away. My guess is that anybody who was perceived as close to Trump, their phones were ringing like ours. It was like shooting fish in the barrel."

A Cohen friend described the lawyer's appeal to corporations: "Probably no one in the country who understands the mechanics of Trump world better than Michael Cohen."

Another Cohen associate said that in early 2017, he was looking for potential clients, as well as investors in U.S. real estate, a subject that Cohen knew about from personal experience buying New York City properties.

One of Cohen's highest-paying ventures was with Squire Patton Boggs, the lobbying firm that boasts former Senate majority leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and former senator John Breaux, D-La., as counsel. Squire Patton Boggs was unprepared for a Trump presidency, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Hiring Cohen for $500,000 was "a no-brainer," said a person at the firm familiar with the contract. "The perception of having the president's personal lawyer" working with the firm was helpful "from an optics perspective" with the administration. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the contract.

The firm says its initial plan that Cohen would jointly represent clients did not pan out. It said he referred five clients but declined to disclose them. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that one client was a company called US Immigration Fund, which promotes a program under which foreigners can invest in U.S. developments and receive U.S. visas. The company last year helped plan a trip to China to recruit investors by Kushner Companies, the firm formerly headed by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner. The company did not return phone calls from The Post earlier this week.

In a statement, Squire Patton Boggs said, "Mr. Cohen referred a handful of routine legal matters to the firm which were completely unrelated to his work for the president."

A person familiar with the contract said the company is trying to minimize Cohen's role because it no longer wants to be associated with him. This person said that Cohen, as the original news release laid out, worked with a variety of executives at the firm and attended meetings.

"They paraded him to clients all those months," the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential arrangement between Cohen and the firm.

Craig Holman, a government-affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, said Cohen's work at the firm should be disclosed because he was simultaneously Trump's personal attorney and introducing clients to a lobbying firm that may have interests before the president and his administration.

"This is the swamp of Washington," Holman said, referring to Trump's campaign metaphor about draining the city of special-interest players. "If you are the president's attorney, you should not be in a position to enrich oneself."

Now, a year after he signed up many of his clients, the contracts are mostly gone.

"This has destroyed him," said one of Cohen's closest friends, bemoaning the behavior of those who once courted but have now abandoned Cohen. "The whole thing is so horrible."

- - -

The Washington Post's Min Joo Kim in Seoul, and Emma Brown, Brian Fung, Tom Hamburger and Craig Timberg contributed to this report.

---

Video Embed Code

Video: When Stormy Daniels' lawyer tweeted out bank records for President Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen, a whole new web of connections was unfurled.(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Embed code:Republicans spent Wednesday in a perpetual state of high-fiving after coal baron and convicted criminal Don Blankenship lost his bid for the party's U.S. Senate nomination in West Virginia. The party, according to President Donald Trump, had nominated candidates "who have a great chance of winning in November." Turnout, according to Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., was way up in key states. Democrats, according to Congressional Leadership Fund President Corry Bliss, were in disarray. A poll from CNN was the cherry on top of the whipped cream: "Democrats' 2018 advantage is nearly gone."

What does all of this spin have in common? Like Blankenship's chances of victory, it's overrated and overdetermined. (The evidence of a Blankenship surge was based entirely on internal polls which were never released to the media.) After five state primaries - Texas will not finish its two-step process until May 22 - we are starting to get our first good look at the midterm landscape.

Myth #1: GOP turnout suggests a "red wave" coming

On Wednesday, both Gardner and Bliss pointed to results in Ohio, the week's busiest primary state, as proof that Democratic turnout was flagging. (Of the four states that voted Tuesday, only Ohio has a governor's race this year.)

"The GOP outperformed Democrats in every single statewide race, and GOP turnout was up 48 percent over 2014," Bliss told the New York Times columnist Frank Bruni in a mostly credulous interview. "Maybe the wave is going to skip Ohio."

A 48 percent increase sounds like a lot, and it is, but there's more to the story. In 2014, Republicans had no competitive race in their primary; Democrats had a token primary for governor. And from 2014 to 2018, Democratic turnout was up by 54 percent, an improvement on the Republicans.

What if we compare 2018 to 2016, a year when both parties had heated presidential contests? Both parties' overall turnout, unsurprisingly, was way down. But Republican turnout was down by more. Compared to 2016, turnout in the Democrats' primary fell by 45.2 percent; turnout in the Republican primary fell by 58.4 percent.

There was plenty of good news for Republicans in Ohio. For example, in eight of the nine counties that backed Barack Obama for president in 2012 and Donald Trump in 2016, Republican primary turnout exceeded the Democrats' numbers.

What a lot of the second-day analysis missed, however, was that the Ohio Republican Party fully engaged in its primary, endorsing Attorney General Mike DeWine for governor and Rep. James B. Renacci, R-Ohio, for Senate. Democrats, burned by their 2016 presidential race, decided to stay out of the endorsement process. It was up to front-runner Richard Cordray and his rivals to build their own get-out-the-vote operation.

"We wanted to be scrupulously neutral," said Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez, who spent the days before the primary with the party's campaigns in Ohio. "If you run a GOTV operation, you run the risk of violating that principle."

In other states, signs of new Republican enthusiasm were hard to find. In West Virginia, both parties saw a surge in turnout compared to their 2014 primaries, but Democrats - still a majority of registered voters, though that's shrinking - outvoted Republicans. In North Carolina, there were more Democratic primary votes cast in two districts, the 2nd and the 9th, than Republican votes. In Indiana, 506,492 votes were cast in a three-way Senate primary. Eight years ago, the last time the state held a midterm Republican primary in a Senate race, 550,369 votes were cast.

Myth #2: Democrats are being dragged down by primaries.

This is a story line that just won't die - and probably shouldn't, pending the messy primaries next month in California. It's fueled by cable TV coverage of the Trump administration, which exists in a universe much like our own, but where the Democratic Party is led by Rep. Adam B. Schiff, D-Calif., and Stormy Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti. In that universe, Democrats are so unhinged by their opposition to Trump that they're nominating the most left-wing candidates possible. Another version of the argument: Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., might be able to win a party convention, but in primaries, voters will ruin their candidates with litmus tests.

"The energy is with the Sanders wing of the party, not the Clinton wing," Bliss told Bruni. "If the Democrats nominate Bernie-lite candidates who want to do nothing but impeach the president, they're not going to win in November."

But the results from Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia argue against this. So far, in every swing seat race that pitted a more left-wing nominee against a party-favored center-left nominee, the left wing has lost. In two primaries - Illinois's 12th district and Ohio's 7th district - the Democrats nominated candidates who pledged not to back Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House.

In Indiana's 2nd district, health-care executive Mel Hall, who had donated to Republicans in the past, held off a Democrat who challenged his party bona fides. (She ran on universal Medicare, and he didn't.) In West Virginia's 3rd district, Democrats nominated State Sen. Richard Ojeda, a hard-to-define populist candidate who nonetheless voted for Trump over Clinton. (No Republican nominated so far this year has admitted breaking from his party in 2016.)

In North Carolina's 9th and 13th districts, Dan McCready and Kathy Manning easily defeated more left-wing candidates, by 66 points and 40 points respectively. McCready's 82.8 percent of the vote was actually higher than the vote for all but one incumbent North Carolina Republican - Rep. Mark Meadows, R-NC - who faced a primary Tuesday. One of those other incumbents, Rep. Robert Pittenger, D-N.C., became the first member this year to lose his primary.

None of these candidates ran on impeachment. When asked by The Washington Post last week whether Trump had committed impeachable offenses, both McCready and Manning suggested that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III should be allowed to complete his investigation; McCready then pivoted, while Manning suggested that a Democratic Congress might want to probe the Trump administration's spending on the president's travel and vacations.

Myth #3: Republicans got exactly the candidates they wanted.

Well, they didn't get Blankenship, and thus evaded disaster. And Democrats will quietly admit that Mike Braun, the businessman and state senator who blew past two congressmen to win his Senate primary, was probably the best nominee the party had to challenge Sen. Joe Donnelly.

But Democrats are less worried about West Virginia and Ohio than they were at the start of the year. In Sen. Joe Manchin III's, D-W.Va., state, Democrats were most worried about Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., a former Democrat who had blown the party out in its traditional southwestern strongholds. Duty and Country PAC, which the party created to meddle in the primary, spent $1.8 million attacking Jenkins. It spent just $47,000 attacking Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a former lobbyist and transplant from New Jersey, who is now the Republican nominee. Democrats have been wrong before - consult the Hillary Clinton campaign's 2015 memos about how Donald Trump would be easy to beat - but as of Tuesday night, they believed the weaker of the GOP's two legitimate candidates won the nomination.

In Ohio, Democrats pointed out that Renacci - who jumped into the race after longtime rising star Josh Mandel quit it for personal reasons - had only muddled through. Though the state GOP had endorsed both DeWine and Renacci, 66,233 Republicans who backed DeWine left their ballot blank in the Senate race. And while Renacci won his northeast Ohio base, he lost three of the nine counties - the ones along Lake Erie - that had switched from Obama to Trump.Jacksonville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau is reminding the public during National Travel and Tourism Week that they, too, play an important role in getting people out and about in the community.

The week, which runs through Saturday, is an opportunity to highlight local tourism and create awareness for local tourist attractions. Bureau Executive Director Brittany Henry said that, although her organization plays a big role in marketing Jacksonville, business owners and residents also play a large role in promoting tourism in the area.

I think at times, people often forget whats in their backyard, Henry said. Thats the whole point, for me, for tourism week. When I cant be on call, the people in our community are the ambassadors for us.

Henry gave the example of Gwenn Eyer, innkeeper at Blessings on State Bed and Breakfast, who brings in people from across the state and beyond.

She talked to me today about someone coming from the Kansas area and shes just so great at pushing people out into the community, Henry said. She told them about the renovated Illinois Theater and so they went there to see a movie. They went to First Friday. She sent them to dinner at Lonzerottis. She does a great job of getting people out into the community.  There are many in the community that spread tourism and they dont even know theyre doing it.

So while the bureau continues to look for new ways to increase tourism within the city  such as increased social media marketing, a renovation of their ad designs, and distributing cards at hotels to let visitors to town learn about the citys hot spots, everyone can play a small role in getting people to Jacksonville and seeing what the city has to offer.

When people visit Jacksonville, Henry said, thats money going into the local economy and directly contributing to local business growth.

Tourism in 2016 supported 310 jobs within the industry, which includes gas station attendants and hotel staff. It also generated $8.65 million in payroll, $50.28 million in visitor spending and $1.05 million in local tax revenue.

To celebrate the week, the bureau is hosting an after-hours event from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. today at the bureau office at 310 E. State St. Jacksonville Mayor Andy Ezard will give a proclamation at 5 p.m., the Friend of Tourism award will be presented and the Heritage Culture Museum board chairman will open the Old Post Office across the street from the bureau for public viewing. Both the after-hours event and the Old Post Office viewing are open to the public.

Future happenings for the bureau include a website redesign, continued production of video content on the bureaus YouTube page, new Jacksonville shirts designed and printed by Open House Print Shop, and new promotional materials.

Things are constantly being updated, Henry said. Were really just trying to become more progressive and stay up on the times of tourism. A lot of that is the online presence  were still doing traditional print and billboard marketing, but were going to be trying more online ads. Were shifting it, but were also keeping what weve traditionally done because it works.

Nick Draper can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1223, or on Twitter @nick_draper.Union Baptist celebrates 181 years May 20

ALTON  This Is The Year of Accountability, is the theme of the celebration of Union Baptist Churchs 181 years.

The church, located at 320 East 7th Street, will recognize the anniversary at the 10:30 a.m. morning worship on Sunday, May 20. Guest speaker will be Minister Carla Campbell, pastor of House of Refuge in St. Louis.

The public is welcome to attend.

Tabernacle Missionary Baptist 149th anniversary

ALTON  The pastor and members of Tabernacle Missionary Baptist will celebrate the churchs 149th anniversary Sunday, May 20.

The celebration will take place during 10:30 morning service. The speaker will be Rev. James I. Carter of the Berean Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi.

All past members and friends of Tabernacle M.B. Church are invited to attend the celebration.

Variety Show for Alton Catholic Childrens Home

ALTON  The Stars Come Out in Alton Variety Show, is a charity event to benefit the Catholic Childrens Home, and will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 17 at Bluff City Grill.

The show will spotlight local Riverbend stars and their talents. The audience will vote on each performance on Broadway, (424 E. Broadway).

A silent auction, raffle, 50/50 drawing, appetizers and cash bar will be available as well. For more information about the show or sponsorship, call 618-465-3594, extension 335.

Faith Lutheran Church blood drive, summer programs

GODFREY  Faith Lutheran Church, 6809 Godfrey Road, in partnership with Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, is hosting a blood drive from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday, May 21 in the activity center.

To schedule a donation, go to www.bloodcenterimpact.org. Use sponsor code: 10639 or call the church office, 618-466-3833, ext. 200.

Faith Lutheran Church is offering a half day summer programs for children, ages 3-5. Session 1 will be held June 4-28, and Session 2 will be July 9-26.

For more information, call 618-466-3833, ext. 200. Information is also on the website, www.flcgodfrey.org.TORRINGTON  A Mothers Day gift has been delivered for clients of the Susan B. Anthony Project.

The first annual Mothers Day Beauty Bag initiative aims to recognize the strength and beauty of the mothers who are in residence there, wrote Joanne Borduas, the CEO of the Community Health & Wellness Center, which sponsored the gift bag donation.

Satin bags full of bath and beauty products were delivered Thursday for distribution to the project residents. It supports survivors of domestic and sexual abuse and provides free, confidential services 24 hours a day.

We want these women to know that there are others in the community who care about them and support them on their lifes journey, Borduas wrote.

In late April, the project held its 10th annual vigil at Coe Memorial Park in recognition of Sexual Violence Awareness Month.

The Community Health and Wellness Center provides a range of health care services for the underserved throughout northwest Connecticut. It is the only Federally Qualified Health Center in the state to receive a 2017 Quality Leader Award. It has two full-service locations in Torrington and Winsted and operates six satellite locations.A trove of thousands of Russian-backed Facebook ads, being made public for the first time, shows that Russia's main goal was provoking discontent in the U.S., leading to and continuing beyond Donald Trump's election in 2016.

The ads, which are one of the clearest demonstrations of Russia's financial investment in disrupting American politics, have been much discussed by Congress, Facebook and Special Counsel Robert Mueller behind closed doors.

For some lawmakers, they raised questions about whether Russia was successful in swaying public opinion, in Trump's favor or otherwise. For Facebook, the ads deepen the reckoning over the company's responsibility in society, and especially in elections.

The 3,519 ads, released Thursday by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, were posted between 2015 and 2017. They were designed to draw clicks from people who had liked Facebook groups on both sides of emotional issues involving gun regulations, Muslims, gay rights, immigration, African-Americans -- and various candidates.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the Intelligence panel's ranking Democrat, said Facebook cooperated with the committee to make those ads public to help prevent similar abuse in the future.

"The only way we can begin to inoculate ourselves against a future attack is to see first-hand the types of messages, themes and imagery the Russians used to divide us," Schiff said in a statement.

The pile of social media evidence was released as some states have already held primaries for this year's midterm elections, amid warnings that electoral systems haven't been sufficiently safeguarded.

Democrats on the increasingly partisan House Intelligence Committee took the lead on redacting and publishing the full trove of ads, although they were shared with members of bother parties. Lawmakers released some sample ads during a series of hearings last year. A report from the panel's Republicans already declared they found no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

The files published Thursday show the text of each ad, number of impressions and number of clicks. Some of the posts were targeted to users in certain cities or those who liked or befriended specific groups. In some cases, the posts urged people to participate in actual rallies, drawing hundreds or even thousands of people to say they were interested or planned on going.

A series of posts targeted to people who liked the Russia-linked group called "Black Matters" were only shown to users in cities that had had episodes of racial unrest, including Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore and Cleveland.

Different ads sought to stir up opposing sides of the same event or issue. For example, one ad, from July 2017, said that the gunman who killed five police officers in Dallas in 2016 used buildings owned by Muslims to carry out the attack.

"Muslims seem to be not as peace-loving as they say," the text says. "I don't want to see 10,000 potential terrorists here in Texas."

That ad was aimed at people who identified themselves patriotic, and aimed to get likes for the Russian-run page, Heart of Texas, which organized anti-Muslim activism. It was shared 675 times. Ads on another page around the same time encouraged Muslims to let everyone know they didn't support terrorism. One of those ads, from the Russian page United Muslims of America, got 576 shares.

The Heart of Texas group also posted about veterans and border security, often using doctored images designed to stir an emotional response. One post claims that the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, had a 69 percent disapproval rating among veterans. Another ad from this group called on people to "honor your ancestors" by participating in a "Secession Rally." More than 800 people reacted.

The accounts that bought the ads were linked to the Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-backed group that has been indicted by Mueller for its activities. Most of the ads were purchased in rubles.

One post from October 2016, depicting Clinton with a clown nose, promises that by liking the "Clinton FRAUDation" page you'll learn "everything you wanted to know about Clinton's dark side." The Internet Research Agency paid 3,611 rubles, which at the time was worth about $58, to target people interested in Trump's candidacy, and 3,730 people saw it.

Since releasing the ads, Facebook has been trying to prevent similar foreign manipulation in other elections around the world, as well as in this year's U.S. congressional elections.

The company says it has been on the lookout for threats and working to make election ads more transparent, by designating them as political, for example. Facebook is also working to verify the identities of advertisers in the U.S. who want to run ads on political issues.

Still, the company says more needs to be done and it can't guarantee it can ever fix the problem. Facebook has been hiring more people to work on election security, indicating that they think it will be a long-term issue, like spam and hacking, that requires constant vigilance.

Even after Trump was elected, Russians continued to use social media to stir unrest. The page Being Patriotic paid 1,999 rubles for an ad on Nov. 10 that promoted a Trump rally: "Today some massive crowds of libtards marched in NYC against election of Donald Trump." The ad said people should gather at Trump Tower the Saturday after the election: "Show Mr. Trump there actually ARE people in NY who voted for him!"

The ad targeted people employed by the New York Police Department or the U.S. Army Reserves, or who were members of the National Rifle Association. At the time, the event had 248 people interested in attending, and 60 people RSVPed.

Around the same time through different channels, Russia promoted rallies against the president-elect. The BM page, which provided Facebook distribution for the website blackmattersUS.com, advertised a list of anti-Trump meetups, using the #NotMyPresident hashtag. One of those ads, which cost 1,378 rubles, was targeted toward people who said they liked Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. More than 10,000 people saw it and 1,310 of them clicked.

This kind of interference has led some lawmakers to call for greater regulation of tech companies.

Facebook sent its top lawyer to testify on the ads in front of the Intelligence Committee last fall, alongside representatives from Twitter and Google. The company was criticized for not understanding and alerting users and the government about the problem earlier, especially because the ads were purchased in Russian currency.

According to an indictment brought by Mueller of 13 Russian operatives earlier this year, the Facebook specialists, pretending to be Americans, took shifts to ensure they posted during the appropriate time zones and circulated lists of U.S. holidays to stay in the American groove.

Schiff said Democrats on the committee would continue their investigation, working with tech companies "to expose additional content, advertisements, and information."WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12, locking in a historic, high-stakes summit aimed at curbing the rogue nation's nuclear weapons program.

Trump made the announcement on Twitter just hours after welcoming home three Americans held captive for more than a year in North Korea during a dramatic overnight visit to meet their plane at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington. The triumphant moment appeared to move Trump to overcome any final hesitation about the summit, which has been viewed as a potential reward to an outlaw regime that has brutalized its populace and consistently flouted international laws.

"We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" Trump wrote in his tweet. At a rally Thursday evening in Elkhart, Indiana, Trump called the relationship with Pyongyang "good" and mocked those in the media who had criticized his strategy as too risky.

"You remember everybody in the fake news saying, 'He's going to get us into a nuclear war,' " Trump said. "And you know what gets you into nuclear war and you know what gets you into other wars? Weakness, weakness."

Trump said he believed the summit will be a "big success." But he added that "my attitude is, if it isn't, it isn't," suggesting that he would accept it if there was no deal to be made.

"We're not going to be walked into an Iran deal where the negotiator, John Kerry, refused to leave the table," he said, prompting boos from the crowd at the mention of the secretary of state under President Barack Obama who negotiated the multilateral Iran nuclear deal. Trump announced this week that he would withdraw the United States.

But even as Trump projected optimism that the summit, the first between sitting leaders of the two countries, could achieve a breakthrough in the United States' long antagonistic relationship with North Korea, critics began questioning parts of his strategy, including his sudden detente with Kim. During his trip to Andrews, Trump, who last year ridiculed Kim as "Little Rocket Man," thanked him for being "excellent to these three" Americans, who were released after spending more than a year each in captivity.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., sharply criticized Trump's remarks about the Americans in a speech on the Senate floor, calling Kim a "dictator" who "robbed them of their freedom." One of the Americans reportedly asked to get off the U.S. government plane during a refueling stop in Anchorage on the way back from North Korea because he had not seen much daylight during his detention, Vice President Mike Pence said in an interview on "Good Morning America."

Kim Dong-chul, who had been held in North Korea since October 2015 after being arrested while working in a special economic zone, told reporters at Andrews that he had been sentenced to do hard labor.

The release of the Americans "should not be exalted; it should be expected," Schumer said. "It is no great accomplishment of Kim Jong Un to do this, and when the president does it, he weakens American foreign policy and puts American citizens at risk around the world."

Republicans rallied behind Trump, with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., calling on lawmakers to give the president "some leeway" in his management of the summit process.

"We've watched administrations of both parties not be able to achieve what we had all hoped for in North Korea, and that is a peninsula without nuclear weapons," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on Fox News. "So this is as close as we've ever come. I think everybody's a little bit cautious in dealing with the North Koreans for all the obvious reasons, but this is quite significant. We've gotten this far, and the president deserves all the credit for getting them in a different position."

At Andrews early Thursday, Trump cast the cooling of rhetoric as a way to enter the summit on a "new footing." To a question about Kim's motivation, Trump said: "I think he did this because I really think he wants to do something and bring that country into the real world. I really believe that."

Past presidents, including Obama and George W. Bush, were reluctant to meet with North Korean leadership over concerns that a summit would endorse the regime without securing meaningful commitments over denuclearization.

John Brennan, who was CIA director in the Obama administration, said he is concerned that Kim is trying to "present an appearance of cooperation" to trick Trump into a summit meeting but will not agree to dismantling his nuclear arsenal.

"I do think that Kim Jong Un, who I despise because of the brutality he has put upon the North Korean people, unfortunately I think he has been masterful in how he has manipulated perceptions and how he has manipulated and quite frankly duped Mr. Trump," Brennan said Thursday on MSNBC.

Trump had floated other possible locations for the summit. Two weeks ago, the president seemed enamored with the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, where Kim met last month with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. That dialogue produced remarkable images of the two leaders holding hands while stepping back and forth over the heavily guarded dividing line. Trump ruminated on a "great celebration" to be had if he achieved his own breakthrough with Kim.

But White House aides, cautious about moving too quickly given the complicated, hard-knuckle negotiations to be had over denuclearization, eyed a third-party country. They looked to Europe but focused more heavily on Southeast Asia, hoping to keep the summit close to the region while avoiding countries such as China and Russia that are geopolitical rivals to the United States. Questions over Kim's willingness to travel long distances also played a role in the planning, officials said.

Singapore, a tiny island nation of 5.6 million that boasts one of the most advanced economies in Southeast Asia, made sense because it maintains diplomatic relations with North Korea, which has an embassy and ambassador in the country. Singapore's ambassador based in Beijing also is responsible for Pyongyang.

"Singapore is an ideal location for this summit," said David Adelman, an attorney at Reed Smith who was U.S. ambassador to the nation from 2010 to 2013 under Obama. "Really since its founding, Singapore has carefully cultivated a reputation where East meets West," he said. "They take great pride in being a friend to all. And they've done a great job doing so."

The country has been the site of other high-profile summits. It plays host to an annual regional security conference called the Shangri-La Dialogue, which usually draws the U.S. defense secretary and top officials from China and other nations. In 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou met in Singapore, the first meeting between the leaders of those entities in seven decades.

Some South Korean officials had hoped Trump would choose the demilitarized zone, in part because that would afford Moon a chance to potentially meet with the president quickly after his summit with Kim. Moon is scheduled to visit the White House on May 22 to brief Trump on his own meeting with Kim and discuss strategy ahead of Trump's summit.

Singapore has enjoyed an increasingly close relationship with the United States. In 2012, the Obama administration agreed to upgrade Singapore to a strategic partner, and the countries signed an enhanced security agreement in 2015. But Singapore also has rigorously sought to maintain good relationships with U.S. rivals, especially China, which has flexed its economic and military muscle as Beijing seeks to expand influence in Southeast Asia.

Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founder, often cautioned that when two elephants fight in the jungle, the grass gets trampled - meaning that small countries must be careful to ensure they maximize their friendships among larger powers.

Trump had pushed countries around the world to cut diplomatic and economic ties to Pyongyang as part of his "maximum pressure" strategy. Singapore has sought to abide by U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea, experts said, but its lucrative ports have served as a central shipping hub for North Korean exports.

Trump's visit to the island nation will come five days after he meets with the leaders of six other world powers - France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Japan and Canada - at the Group of Seven summit in Quebec. That setting offers him another chance to consolidate support for his talks with Kim and will give him another audience with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who remains skeptical about North Korea's motives.A House Republican plan to set stricter work rules for food stamp recipients would disproportionately affect low-income residents in states that supported Donald Trump for president and may imperil passage of farm legislation.

The work requirements are a priority for the president and are "something he will be encouraging," White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said Wednesday.

The plan so far doesn't have enough Republican votes to reach the House floor, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican, said Thursday. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said he feels good about the bill, but won't give a timeline for when a vote may occur.

Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, said he expects the farm bill containing the tougher work requirements to reach the House floor next week, with many amendments expected. The GOP is divided about how far the work rules should go as the party campaigns to keep its majorities in the House and Senate in November's elections.

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus want even stricter guidelines. The Senate, which needs to approve its own plan before negotiating with the House on a final package, is less likely to sign off on new work requirements.

The farm bill reauthorizes all U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly called food stamps. The plan sent to the House floor by the Agriculture Committee on a party-line vote last month would shift some money spent on benefits to workforce training.

House Agriculture Chairman Michael Conaway, a Texas Republican, and his Senate counterpart, Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, said Wednesday they would meet with Trump on Thursday. Conaway said he continues to seek support for his committee's measure.

Republicans say the requirements are needed to move food stamp recipients into the labor force at a time of worker shortages. Democrats oppose those provisions because they'll reduce benefits and increase paperwork requirements.

A Bloomberg analysis shows that 12.9 percent of residents of states that backed Trump in 2016 used food stamps in February, the most recent month for which data are available, compared with 11.4 percent in states won by Democrat Hillary Clinton. That amounts to 23.8 million people in Trump states compared with 16.2 million in Clinton territory.

Residents of non-metropolitan counties, which gave 66 percent of their votes to Trump in 2016, are 18 percent more likely to participate in the food-stamp program than city-dwellers, according to a study by the Center for Rural Strategies in Whitesburg, Kentucky, which backs greater funding for anti-poverty programs in rural areas.

"One in four rural children lives in poverty," said Dee Davis, the organization's president. "The president's response is to withhold food."

The House measure would raise from 49 to 59 the age at which able-bodied adults would be required to work or participate in a training program for 20 hours a week. The plan also adds work requirements for households that include children 6 and older. Recipients between ages 18 and 59 with children above age 6 who don't comply with the work requirement would lose an annual benefit of about $1,800 on average by 2028, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

About 40 million Americans were using food stamps in February, down 5.3 percent from the previous year and the lowest since March 2010, according to the USDA.

Tightened work rules have support among social and fiscal conservatives. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has said tight work-eligibility rules are necessary to discourage a "lifestyle" of welfare dependence.

Parke Wilde, a professor of nutrition at Tufts University in Boston, said criticizing the SNAP program is a way to signal disapproval of social-welfare initiatives. Even if those recipients are Trump voters, "there's political mileage in just criticizing SNAP," he said. "There's concern about people loafing while on government assistance."

Farm bills, which also include agricultural subsidies, traditionally are passed by a coalition of rural Republicans and welfare-supporting Democrats, meaning Trump's position may make it more difficult for any bill to pass Congress, Wilde said.

"Support for farm programs and nutrition assistance requires a little bit of cross-sector dialogue," he said. "It isn't well-served by appealing to one group of food-stamp haters."

Trump's support for work rules could be a "huge help" to gaining passage in the House, especially among lawmakers worried about farm subsidy spending, said Conaway. But it may complicate approval of any farm bill in the Senate, which would need to reconcile its plan with a House version to craft a final law for the president to sign.

Roberts has yet to propose a Senate farm bill and said Wednesday that he'll seek bipartisan support for the measure.

- - -

Bloomberg's Teaganne Finn, Erik Wasson and Kevin Varley contributed.Sam Poss did not seem hounded by the usual teenage angst.

As a student at Perry High School, 30 miles outside of Macon, Georgia, he was easygoing and unapologetically geeky. Each year he attended Atlanta's Dragon Con, the Mecca of comic and sci-fi die-hards. His father would regularly come home to find Poss had pulled apart his computer, tinkering around with the electronics. Within hours it would be back together, working better than before. Poss was so at home with himself, he would often spill out from his family's home wearing mismatched socks.

"He would just grab whatever socks were available to put on with his shoes and didn't care whether they matched, were the same style, same color, just didn't care," his father Chris Poss later told the Macon Telegraph. "He knew who he was and didn't care what anyone else thought about that."

The director of the high school marching band, where Poss was captain of the drum line, noted the quirk and declared annual Sam Poss Days, the Telegraph reported. On the occasion, everyone else in the band wore clashing socks.

RELATED VIDEO ON SUICIDE PACTS:

Poss, a 2016 graduate, was kind and generous, his family would later say, which is why on the last night of his life, when an acquaintance asked for Poss's help with some computer game coding, the 18-year-old readily agreed. "He was a good kid, a nice guy," one of his alleged killers would tell police when describing how he lured Poss to his death. "It was easy."

Poss never came home that night in October 2016. According to authorities, two friends, Dakota White and Brandon Warren - 17 and 18 at the time, respectively - lured Poss to White's grandparents home, where they stabbed and strangled the teen. The pair hid his body in nearby woods.

More National News NY Forecast

CT Forecast

Four days later, as search and rescue teams combed the area and helicopters beat overhead, White confessed to police. He said he and Warren had made a suicide pact. But before they took their own lives, they decided to take another.

This week, White went on a trial for Poss's murder in Houston County. His defense offered no witnesses, only context, explaining White was gripped by a devastating depression when he and Warren killed the teenager. After 20 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts, including felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, concealing the death of another and tampering with evidence, according to 13 WMAZ.

Warren's trial is expected to start next week.

The alleged killers were locked in a downward spiral of despondency. White was a ninth-grade high school dropout, the Telegraph reported. His father is in prison for armed robbery, and he lived with his grandparents. He did not hide the dark places his feelings were driving him. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that in 2015, White left a post on Facebook: "I wouldn't mind taking a knife, shoving it into someones [sic] throat and just watch them choke on their own blood until they die."

Warren was allegedly equally gripped by anger and depression, authorities said. In 2015, he posted: "Who could love you but the mold that sprouts from your cold sad corpse."

As White later told police detectives four days after Poss went missing, in a video confession played for the jury, the friends had decided to kill themselves in a suicide pact by October 2016. "I was just having really bad thoughts," he told police, according to 13 WMAZ. But White and Warren decided to do something else before taking their lives.

"We just figured might as well," he told police. "It came down to might as well see how it feels to kill someone before we kill ourselves. We didn't see no reason not to, we were about to die, what did we care for?"

White told police Poss was picked almost randomly. Knowing the computer whiz was a "good kid," the pair assumed Poss would agree to help if they messaged him, claiming they needed his help with a made-up computer glitch and offering to pick him up. "He messaged right back," White told police.

White and Warren picked up Poss, then shuttled him back to White's house. According to his confession, while in the driveway, White roped a telephone wire across Poss's neck and began strangling him, the Telegraph reported. When the wire snapped, he put he continued choking Poss with his arm. Warren allegedly stabbed Poss with a knife.

As they commenced their attack, Poss asked what they were doing, White confessed. "I'm sorry," White told his victim.

"There was blood everywhere," White told police. The two teenagers spent hours cleaning the car, even going to Walmart to buy carpet cleaner. "Resolve," he said. "[R]eally expensive."

"I knew I wasn't gonna get away with it," he said. "I felt too bad."

After his confession, White showed police where he and Warren had left Poss in the local woods.

At his trial, White's attorney emphasized that the defendant had confessed to police and helped fill in the last moment's of Poss's life. "

"His young life was so full of darkness that he thought suicide was the only option," defense attorney Angie Coggins told the jury. "What Dakota did was wrong, but in the end, he did right. . . . He confessed his sin."

White is set to be sentenced after Warren's trial.WASHINGTON - Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday urged special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to bring his investigation into Russian election interference to a close, saying "it's time to wrap it up."

Pence's remarks echoed calls by President Donald Trump and his lawyers, who have argued that there is no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and that Mueller is now seeking to trap Trump into committing perjury about his actions related to the investigation.Edgewood Independent School District board members, trying to stabilize the district after leadership and teacher turnover, are interviewing a short list of superintendent candidates and could name a finalist at the end of the month.

The districts state-appointed board of managers scheduled interviews this week with four candidates  two men and two women  to replace Emilio Castro, who resigned in March, accused of sexual harrassment.

Castro had been superintendent less than two years for the high-poverty district that serves more than 11,000 students.

RELATED: Facing enrollment decline, SAISD begins teacher layoffs

The Texas Education Agency took over Edgewood two years ago, after its elected board spent months in a 3-3 voting deadlock that prevented it from hiring a new superintendent and two principals and making other key decisions.

The state agency appointed five managers and a state conservator but in September removed one of the managers, Amanda Gonzalez, without explanation. Gonzalez said it was because of her outspokenness as a board member.

Still, Board President Roy Richard Soto said a search firm helped the district attract 47 extremely strong candidates, most from Texas. Several were from out of state, including Kansas, Wisconsin and Rhode Island, he said.

The board has allowed time for follow-up interviews and scheduled a possible vote on a finalist May 24. Per state law, the board has to wait 21 days after naming a finalist before taking a vote to hire.

Edgewood is, I believe, an incredible opportunity for a superintendent, Soto said.

RELATED: A breakdown of Northside ISD's largest-ever bond that was just approved

He said the board is looking for a strong communicator and motivator to spearhead recent efforts to turn around the districts academics and reputation. An administration team formed two years ago has been working to improve learning environments in the districts 20 schools, Soto said.

Last year, all campuses passed the state accountablility rating for the first time in nearly a decade. The district also has added early college high school programs and science and technology-focused curricula.

These are initiatives and accomplishments any school district in Texas would be extremely proud of, Soto said.

The board last week had to digest disappointing standardized test results for fifth and eight-grade math and eighth-grade reading. Fifth-grade reading scores were up, as they were with most Bexar County school districts, but math scores for that grade dropped 6 percentage points compared to last year.

Administrators cited an exodus of fifth-grade teachers before the start of the school year, especially at Loma Park Elementary School, as a cause. The district hired novice teachers to replace them, Theresa Salinas, a curriculum director, told the board in a meeting last week.

We know that student achievement will always lag behind teacher performance change, Salinas said.

Students at Edgewood really have to work hard to overcome their economic circumstances, and the district needs a leader at the top who can navigate those challenges, Soto said.

On a list of qualifications and characteristics desired in the next superintendent, board members said they wanted a delegator who can make and defend difficult decisions and who has a succesful record of improving student achievement with a diverse student population.

We do need a good leader, Soto said. We are looking for the best.

krista.torralva@express-news.netArea law officers on Wednesday arrested six alleged members of a ring that trafficked methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin.

One man, Robert Arzate, was charged with drug distribution, records show, while five other people were charged in state court with drug and gun charges. Their names were not available Wednesday.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration searched seven locations in the San Antonio area, law enforcement sources said. More arrests are possible as the investigation continues.

Guillermo Contreras is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | gcontreras@express-news.net | @gmaninfedlandMinnie Mabry Hills work at the local NAACP chapter amplified her commitment to the citys African-American population.

One of her most significant projects as the groups community coordination committee chair was raising seed capital to bring the national NAACP 109th Annual Convention to the Alamo City this summer. Its scheduled for July 14-18.

She was the catalyst for making sure the 2018 convention came to San Antonio, said her husband, Oliver Hill.

Hill enlisted support from community leaders and city officials including former Mayor Ivy Taylor, City Manager Sheryl Sculley and County Commissioner Tommy Calvert.

The city played a big part in getting the convention here. The city managers staff beat the bushes (looking for sponsors), and Mayor Ivy Taylor worked with us to get the $200,000 seed money needed to make it happen, said Oliver Hill, whos also the president of the local NAACP chapter.

In addition, the Commissioners Court agreed last year to sponsor the local NAACPs bid by giving the organization $50,000 to help with convention expenses.

More Information Minnie Mabry Hill Born: Oct.1, 1943, San Antonio Died: May 4, 2018, San Antonio Preceded by: Parents Issac George and Ruth Mabry; sister Shirley Mabry; brother Dan Mabry Survived by: Husband Oliver Wendell Hill; son Oliver Wendell Hill Jr.; daughters Caron Susann Hill and Shannon Diane Hill; and grandchildren Hannah Marie-Caron Simpson and Jillian Ellesse Simpson Services: Visitation 6 p.m. May 17 at Lewis Funeral Home, 811 S. W.W.White Road, followed by a memorial service at 11 a.m. May 18 at St. Paul United Methodist Church, 508 Center St.; burial at Meadowlawn Memorial Park, 5611 E. Houston St. See More Collapse

Minnie Hill died May 4, before seeing the fruits of her labor. She was 74.

We are deeply disappointed that she will not have the opportunity to witness the NAACP national convention come to San Antonio this summer, or the branchs 100th anniversary. Her absence will force us to rise to the occasion, honoring her legacy with a unifying, energizing convention, NAACP Chairman Leon W. Russell said in a statement.

Thanks in large part to Minnies leadership, the San Antonio Branch is one of the most active and engaged in the nation, Russell said.

His comments were echoed by others who had worked with Hill.

My friend Minnie, a woman of great warmth and compassion, leaves behind a legacy of service to this community through her dedication to the San Antonio Chapter of the NAACP and numerous worthy causes, Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-San Antonio, said in a statement.

Ms. Hill was a determined and compassionate public servant, and she will be sorely missed by the San Antonio community and national NAACP family, NAACP CEO and President Derrick Johnson said in a statement. He pointed out that the day before her death, local and national NAACP leaders gave her a standing ovation for bringing the national convention to San Antonio. Although Minnie was unable to attend due to her failing health, the crowd did not miss the opportunity to honor her enormous contributions.

A San Antonio native, Hill grew up on the West Side, attending Grant Elementary and Dunbar Junior High schools.

She talked about all the fun she had during those times, her husband said.

At Jefferson High School, Hill wore the blue skirt and gray Stetson cowboy hat of the Lassos.

She was the first black on the roping team. She went on to make the rank of sergeant, he said.

After graduation in the early 1960s, Hill worked and took night classes at Southwest Texas College.

I think she really wanted to be in business for herself, her husband said. She always dreamed of starting an etiquette school for young girls. She said we needed to teach our children what was proper.

Hill was able to partially fulfill that dream as an active member of the Pals Social Club. Her role was to help prepare collegiates to step out into society at the groups yearly debutante ball.

She and her husband married in 1964.

We dated for two years before we got married. I liked her common-sense conversation, her husband said.

The two went on to raise three children.

Love. That is what she gave her children, her husband said. She taught: Love one another; and that no matter what, you are always family.

iwilgen@express-news.netSAN ANTONIO - A woman who was fatally struck crossing a South Side road early Sunday was identified by the Bexar County Medical Examiners Office.

Vanessa Garcia, 32, was walking across the 900 block of Southwest Military at about 5:15 a.m. when she was fatally struck by a truck, according to preliminary information from a police report.

Garcia was not in a crosswalk when she was walking to the north side of the street and stepped into the path of a 2007 Dodge Ram truck, police said.

The driver tried to turn left and avoid hitting Garcia, but hit her with the front right side of his truck, the report states.

RELATED: Mom helps authorities ID teen found slain in ditch

Garcia fell and slid into the next lane over, police said.

A car traveling in that lane was able to avoid Garcia as she lay on the street, but a second vehicle following behind it was unable to turn in time and ran her over, investigators said.

EMS rushed her to Brooke Army Military Medical Center, police said. She was pronounced dead at 6:21 a.m. the report states.

No one is facing any charges in the incident, according to the preliminary information.

Garcia was a single-mother of five children, according to a GoFundMe account set up to raise funds for her funeral costs.

jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSAThe Hays County Sheriff's Office released a sketch Thursday of a man who allegedly flashed his genitals to a woman earlier this month.

On May 1, a female realtor told deputies that the man exposed himself at Texas Casual Cottages at 6555 Ranch Road 12, according to a news release.The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office identified the 44-year-old man who police believe was fatally stabbed by his stepson Wednesday evening over an argument about the family dog.

Officers were called to an apartment in the 8400 block of Quail Creek around 5:30 p.m. and found Leland Duncan McCoy IV, 44, lying on the sofa with stab wounds to his chest, according to preliminary information provided by a police spokesperson.A poker night with friends in April ended with a woman being the victim of a sexual assault, according to San Antonio police.

On Wednesday, authorities arrested Luigi Cordero, 30, in connection to the case.

On April 9, a woman was playing poker with a friend at a bar, according to an arrest affidavit. They returned to the friend's home later that night, where the woman met the friend's boyfriend and Cordero.

The woman spent the night in the home because she had been drinking, sleeping on the couch while her kids slept nearby on an air mattress, according to the affidavit.

RELATED: At least 10 vehicles damaged in fire at SW side apartment complex

The woman told police she woke up in the middle of the night to find Cordero on top of her and sexually assaulting her, according to the affidavit.

She tried telling him to stop and pushing him off but Cordero didn't stop until he heard the back bedroom door open, according to the affidavit. He then grabbed his pants and went to the garage, the woman told police.

The woman went to the hospital and reported the alleged assault to police. She told officers she did not know Cordero well and never had any intimate contact with him before.

Cordero was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault. A judge set his bail at $50,000.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSAPolice are searching for the gunmen responsible for two separate shootings on Wednesday night and Thursday morning that left two men dead.

Both shootings happened on the East Side of the city.

RELATED: Two-alarm fire erupts at Northwest Side apartment

Police first responded to the intersection of North Onslow Street and Canton around 10 p.m., where they found the body of the first victim, a man in his 20s, lying in the street.

Witnesses said they saw a small white car fleeing from the shooting towards East Houston Street.

Paramedics pronounced the victim dead at the scene, and homicide detectives are now investigating the shooting.

RELATED: 57 arrested on felony DWI charges in April in Bexar County

Officers responded to the second shooting around 1:20 a.m. at an apartment complex in the 7300 block of Harlow. At the scene, police discovered the second victim's body lying in a walkway between two apartment buildings.

There were no witnesses to the shooting, but homicide detectives are trying to get more info from the victim's child, who was inside an apartment at the time of the shooting.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdownsAUSTIN - Gov. Greg Abbott is continuing his fight against his potential opponent in the November general election, former Dallas County sheriff Lupe Valdez, with a website that portrays her as too liberal for Texas.

Valdez is battling Houston businessman Andrew White for the Democratic nomination for governor in the May 22 runoff, but she already has squared off with the Republican incumbent on issues including the sanctuary cities ban that he signed into law and that she would like to repeal, calling it a cruel measure.

Abbott repeatedly has taken aim at her on the apparent assumption that she will be the nominee. Valdez came in ahead of White in the primary, but lacked the majority vote needed to snag the nomination outright.

Abbotts campaign said that the website will feature the far-left positions Valdez would pursue as governor, including her support for a womans right to choose abortion. The website describes Valdez as wrong for Texas.

Under Governor Abbotts leadership, the economy is booming in Texas, wages are rising and there is record-low unemployment, said Texans for Greg Abbott Campaign Manager John Jackson. Lupe Valdez and her far-left positions would undo all of this. From now until Election Day, our campaign will inform voters how detrimental Valdez and her views would be to the state of Texas.

Valdez and White both have portrayed Abbotts reign as one that has shortchanged education and health care, decrying his support for the sanctuary cities measure and the failed bathroom bill that would have restricted transgender peoples use of public restrooms.

I am running for office because I believe in giving people a fighting chance, Valdez told the Southwest Voter Registration Education Projects Willie C. Velasquez Benefit Dinner in San Antonio on Wednesday, the evening before Abbott launched his website.

She added in a Thursday statement that she is a proud Texan.

I was born here, went to Texas public schools, am a veteran, and a former Texas sheriff. I know first hand the importance of looking out for all Texans not just corporations and well connected CEOs. The New Texas that I'm fighting for is one where all Texans have opportunities to succeed. There is nothing too liberal about that, she said.

pfikac@express-news.net @pfikacNational political conventions arent the great deal for cities that the parties and their advocates want us to believe.

Thats the reason San Antonio hasnt pursued a bid for either national political convention in 20 years. Only one city seems to be aggressively pursuing the 2020 Republican National Convention this time around.

For national convention bids, local organizing committees are required to raise tens of millions of dollars for the privilege of serving as the host city for the gathering. In the case of the 2020 Republican National Convention, the GOP wants a $68 million to $70 million guaranty agreement up front.

RELATED: San Antonio leaders, residents react online to city council's decision to not bid for RNC

While the local organizing committee is supposed to raise that money from private sources, the RFP (request for proposal) requirements specifically mandate that the host city and/or the host committee guarantee the required contribution with a letter of credit and that earnest money be deposited.

This means local taxpayers likely will be on the hook for whatever isnt raised by private sources. Thats not something that I, as mayor of San Antonio, am willing to put on the backs of local taxpayers.

While the consensus not to pursue a convention bid is rooted in the economics and taxpayer liability, there are other challenges inherent in a national convention bid as well.

The security challenge for any host city is massive  far beyond anything the city has seen in marquee events such as the Final Four or the NAFTA signing.

Even with an allocation from Congress, the process would strain the San Antonio Police Department, which would be part of a massive security operation that would require thousands of law enforcement officers from outside the city.

The security tasks include public safety, accommodating demonstration zones, traffic control and more.

The demands on our convention facilities would be extraordinary as well.

FROM OUR SISTER SITE: RNC chairman: Ron Nirenberg created more misconceptions than he cleared up

For the entire year leading up to the convention, the city must provide 15,000 square feet of office space for the exclusive use of the party. For a full six weeks before the convention, the city would have to provide unlimited access to the main convention area and other areas.

Even if it is a soft convention season, that rules out a lot of other business.

Not pursuing the convention isnt a partisan decision. The same downsides apply to a Democratic National Convention as well. Neither is a good deal based on the commitments required of the city and of local taxpayers.

Economics, not politics, were discussed in the Councils May 3 executive session dealing with the convention.

We conducted the meeting as advised by legal counsel and complied with the spirit and letter of the law. Attorneys were present to ensure the discussion remained within the guidelines of executive sessions.

The controversy surrounding the meeting is largely about the personal political agendas of some who were disappointed in the outcome.

In the end, no vote was taken and not enough support was demonstrated to assemble a bid. If there were a deal, City Council would vote in an open public session following a public debate.

I am comfortable with the outcome and process that we used in this situation. The Council and I followed the law and ensured San Antonio taxpayers will not be put at an unjustified risk.

Ron Nirenberg is mayor of San Antonio.Researchers at England's University of Manchester might have inadvertently found a cure for one of nature's most common cosmetic maladies: baldness.

According to the BBC, scientists had been working on creating a drug meant to treat osteoporosis, when they realized it had a curious side effect. It stimulated hair follicles, prompting hair to grow, because it contains a compound that combats a hair growth-stunting protein called SFRP1.1 Militant leaders captured: The U.S.-led coalition says Iraqi forces in coordination with U.S.-backed Syrian forces have captured five senior Islamic State leaders. In a statement Thursday, coalition spokesman Army Col. Ryan Dillon called the arrest a significant blow to Daesh, using the Arabic acronym for the extremist group. Islamic State fighters no longer control significant pockets of territory inside Iraq, but do maintain a grip inside Syria along Iraqs border. President Trump tweeted about the raid, saying those arrested were the five most wanted Islamic State leaders. None of the statements from the president or the coalition named the individuals.

2 Mass shooting: Seven people were found dead with gunshot wounds near the tourist town of Margaret River in Australias southwest on Friday in what could be the countrys worst mass shooting in 22 years, police said. The bodies of three adults and four children were found at a property at the village of Osmington, Western Australia state Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said. This could be the worst mass shooting in Australia since a lone gunman killed 35 in 1996, prompting the nation to introduce tough gun controls. Australias gun laws are widely acclaimed as a success, with supporters saying Australia has not had a mass shooting since they were implemented.The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is reportedly considering former vice president, Atiku Abubakar as its flagbearer for the 2019 presidential election.

Vanguard reports that this was revealed by a highly-placed member of the party who spoke on condition of anonymity on Wednesday, May 9.

The source said: If you take a look at all the aspirants today, there is no doubt that they are all eminently qualified to rule this country. But the party is aware that it is coming into this contest as an underdog and as such, must avoid every seen and unforeseen pitfalls.

The Nigeria of today is different from what we had a few years ago. People want jobs and if these aspirants talk job creation today, the people would most likely listen to Atiku the more because he has done quite a lot in this regard (job creation).

READ ALSO: FG reportedly bars federal universities from charging tuition fees, describes it as illegal

On the rumour that Governor Aminu Tambuwal was being lured back to the party, the source said a lot of factors would come into play during the primaries.

You see, Tambuwal was a member of this party before he left for the All Progressives Congress (APC). You will recall that after the historic Supreme Court verdict, the then chairman of our party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi said there was no victor and there was no vanquished.

He threw the doors of the party opened to all those who left for one reason or the other to return. And the current leadership is doing exactly the same. So, we want Tambuwal and all those who left to return home."

Meanwhile, ahead of the 2019 presidential election, support groups for former vice president Atiku Abubakar, maintained their effort to promote the political ambition of the Wazir in Adamawa.

PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet!

The national youth campaign group for Atiku has vowed to mobilize not less than five million Nigerian youths to march in support for their principal, the Independent reports.

Comrade Adegboyega Adeleke, the coordinator of the campaign group, in a statement issued on Saturday, May 5 at the unveiling ceremony of the #Unstoppable Atiku 2019 in Kaduna, said: The goal of the group is to build an army of people that believe in the ability, loyalty and faithfulness of Atiku Abubakar.

Atiku Abubakar is one of the very few Nigerians that has dedicated his life to serving God through humanity.

Atiku versus Buhari: Who will win? On Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- A roundtable on economic transformation was organised by Mott MacDonald Nigeria on Wednesday, May 9

- The theme of the event was 'Collaborative Thinking and Action for Nigeria's Transformational Economic Development'

- Experts at the event agreed that Nigeria must do more in order to transform its economy

Global engineering, management and development consultancy outfit, Mott MacDonald, held a roundtable on economic transformation on Wednesday, May 9, in Abuja.

The theme of the event was 'Collaborative Thinking and Action for Nigeria's Transformational Economic Development.'

Dignataries at the event include the chief executive officer of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) Yewande Sadiku and the representatives of the governors of Kaduna, Jigawa and Kano states.

Delivering a keynote at the event, Sadiku noted there is an imbalance in Nigeria's economic development. According to her, some states have an advantage over the others, stressing that her agency is working on policies that will enable smaller states catch up with their counterparts.

Participants pose for a group photograph after the roundtable. Photo credit: Jerrywright Ukwu

READ ALSO: 2019: PDP reportedly planning to pick Atiku as presidential candidate

Her words: Nigeria is a compendium of 36 states and the FCT, so it is a wrong approach to take a federal mandate, to assume that your mandate is separate from the states. I feel very strongly that although we have a federal mandate, it is really a mandate to coordinate the work of the states and the FCT because they are critical.

If you look at the constitution, it suggests that economic development in Nigeria was intended to happen across all parts of the country. It wasn't meant to be concentrated in one part, while by omission or commission.

The reality is that there seems to be disproportion and imbalance in economic development and it is our responsibility at NIPC to ensure that we provide the same level of support on a state by state basis.

Our reaction with a state is not a function of how the state responds to us, because I think that it is important that states compete for investors attention. Capital will go where capital is courted, where it is welcome, where it does not feel threatened."

She stated that her commission has ensured that their policies are consistent and in tandem with that of the states. She also informed the audience that the NIPC has developed a template for profiling investment opportunities in Nigeria on state by state basis.

Speaking to Legit.ng on the sidelines of the event, the divisional general manager (international economic and social development), John Shotton, said the event was organised to bring together brain powers from the private sector, state and federal governments to generate discussions on what can be dine to improve investment opportunities in some of the northern states in Nigeria.

He continued: We have a long track record of working in Nigeria and we see ourselves as a partner to the federal and state governments. We have worked closely on educational programmes for the last 10 years, particularly in Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna and Kano.

We see the possibilities to continue to work with the states and also the federal government in terms of the experience and as a Nigerian company that has major footprints across the world in agriculture, infrastructure, transport and also in power.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Asked why the focus on northern states, Shotton said: The focus is on northern Nigeria by virtue of the fact that the development partners we are working with have actually targeted those states. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that they are lower in basic stats in Nigeria and that is where some of the greatest need is.

Meanwhile, Senator Danjuma Goje has dismissed the social investment programme of the federal government tagged - N-Power, as a failure.

In a series of tweets by the senator seen by Legit.ng on Friday, April 6, Goje said many people are complaining that they have not seen impact of the programme considering the magnitude of funds involved.

EXCLUSIVE: Be patient with President Buhari, Femi Adesina tells Nigerians on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Ummukhulthum Abubakar Sadiq, a student from Katsina state, has obtained a first class from Batterjee Medical College

- She was honoured as one of the best graduating students of her set

The Batterjee Medical College, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on May 5, 2018, honoured a female Nigerian student, Ummukhulthum Abubakar Sadiq, as one of its best graduating students.

Sadiq was conferred with Bachelors in Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) and given a prize as one of the best graduating students, Daily Trust reports.

READ ALSO: 2019 election: 17 parties form alliance, to adopt one presidential candidate

Her father, Senator Abubakar Sadiq Yaradua, said Ummukhulthum completed the recitation of the Holy Quran in 2005 at the age of 10 and memorized it in four years between 2014 and 2018.

Sadiq and her father at the graduation ceremony. Photo source: Daily Trust

Legit.ng earlier reported that Lagos State University (LASU) has said 26 out of the 26,637 students billed to graduate during its 22nd convocation would bag first class honours.

The vice chancellor of the institution, Professor Olanrewaju Fagbohun, announced this in Lagos on Monday, May 7 at the media briefing heralding the universitys convocation.

It was reported that the convocation would hold on May 23 and 24 at the university campus, Ojo, along the Badagry Expressway.

Fagbohun said that the best graduating student for the 2017/2018 academic session, whose name and the department are still withheld, recorded a Cumulative Grade Point Aggregate (CGPA) of 4.7.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Out of the 21,637 undergraduates, 201 were diploma students while 21,481 were awarded first degrees on both part-time and full-time programmes.

Who should be held responsible for exam malpractice? Student, teacher or parents? - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- A dismissed police officer who was part of the Offa robbery on April 5, has been arrested by the Kwara state police command

- The suspect, Michael Adikwu, was said to have been dismissed by the command in 2012 and imprisoned, but found his way out of prison

- He was arrested in connection with the April 5 robbery on Tuesday, May 8

Michael Adikwu, one of the four robbery suspects declared wanted for attacks on banks in Offa, Kwara state, has been arrested by the operatives of the inspector general of police Intelligence Response Team.

Adikwu, who was attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of Kwara state police command, was said to have been dismissed in 2012 by the command for allegedly aiding the escape of some robbery suspects.

It was gathered that he found his way out of prison and formed a robbery gang after being remanded for three years, Punch reports.

Legit.ng notes that the suspect was reportedly arrested on Tuesday, May 8 in a town in Kwara state by the DCP Abba Kyari-led IRT operatives, who acted on a tip-off from members of the public who saw Adikwus picture among those declared wanted.

READ ALSO: Why I did not show up at the Senate - IGP Idris

A senior police officer said: He (Adikwu) was a SARS operative at the Kwara state police command. He used to fraternise with robbers. There was a robbery that happened in Kwara state about six years ago. The robbers killed somebody and escaped. The police were able to arrest those robbers.

He collected money from those robbery suspects and released them. Later, the robbers were rearrested and they confessed that he aided their escape. He was arrested, tried in an orderly room trial and dismissed.

He was charged to court together with the robbery suspects and was in prison for three years. He and some of the robbers were able to manoeuvre their way out of the prison and formed a robbery gang.

The state police public relations officer, DSP Ajayi Okasanmi, said arrests had been made but he was yet to receive information on Adikwu's arrest.

He said: What I know is that the IRT team and the command are investigating the matter and have been making arrests. The force PRO will come out with other information at the right time."

Dismissed police officer, Michael Adikwu has been arrested by the Kwara state police command in connection with Offa robbery. (Photo credit: Nigeria Police Force)

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the Nigeria Police Force said it had so far arrested more than 20 principal suspects in connection with the recent bank robbery in Offa, Kwara state.

Armed robbers had attacked five commercial banks in Offa on April 5, during which 17 persons, including policemen and a pregnant woman were killed.

The force spokesman, ACP Jimoh Moshood, in a statement in Abuja on Friday, May 4, said that details of the suspects were released to the public including some exhibits that were recovered from them.

Nigeria News: Offa bank robbery - The untold story (NAIJ EXCLUSIVE) | on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has paid a working visit to the new head office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission

- The lawmaker described the building as a dream come true and urged the commission to ensure looters of Nigeria's commonwealth are brought to justice

- Dogara also advocated for better welfare package for the staff of the Commission

Yakubu Dogara, speaker of Nigeria's House of Representatives, has on Wednesday, May 9, visited the new head office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) located at plot 301/302 Research and Institution Cadastral District, Jabi, Abuja.

Dogara who was on a working visit described the building as a dream come true, noting that the project was justified considering the quality of infrastructure put in place and the fine finish of the work.

READ ALSO: I'm not and will not be an enemy to democracy - IGP Idris replies Senate

Expressing his joy at the infrastructure, he said: You can see now, we have an excellent facility. I want to commend all who have contributed to the successful completion of this project particularly the acting chairman, EFCC, and his team. For me, it is a dream come true. This is the kind of thing we want to see.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara inspecting the new Economic and Financial Crimes Commission head office in Abuja. Credit: EFCC

He urged the EFCC staff to reciprocate the good gesture of the enabling environment provided by the government in ensuring that looters of our commonwealth are brought to justice.

Going further, the lawmaker who acknowledged the risks associated with the job advocated for better welfare package for the staff of the Commission.

This is a cutting-edge facility that has been delivered. It should be merged with cutting-edge services. Investing in physical infrastructure without investing in the people who combat the scourge is not enough.

I think it is time for us to look at the welfare package of the EFCC staff, who are putting their lives on the line to ensure that they combat the menace that has caused retardation to this great nation, in terms of economic advancement and development.

In his remarks, acting chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, appreciated Dogara and his entourage for the visit promising to do everything possible to meet up with the expectations.

Dogara described the building as a dream come true and urged the Commission to ensure looters of Nigeria's commonwealth are brought to justice. Credit: EFCC

We thank the speaker for having time to come here and for his continuous support, we are very grateful. We will meet up and we will not disappoint Nigerians, he said.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that Senate president, Bukola Saraki, on Tuesday, May 8, inspected the new headquarters building of the EFCC and said he would continue to support efforts to build and strengthen the nation's institutions irrespective of any differences.

Saraki who spoke to journalists after a tour of the facility, said he was particularly impressed by the quality of work done and the fact the the building was designed by a Nigerian architect.

The EFCC stage a walk against corruption - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng News- Despite the presence of Nigerian soldiers under Exercise Ayem Akpatuma, Taraba state continues to witness violence at an unprecedented level in recent times

- Nine persons have been confirmed dead in the latest attack

- Three people sustained injury in the early morning attack

The Taraba police command on Wednesday, May 9, confirmed the death of nine persons in early morning attacks on Tutuwa community in Ussa local government area of the state.

The police public relations officer in the state, ASP David Misal, told journalists that a yet-to-be identified armed militia must have carried out the deadly attack.

Misal said that Alhaji Aliyu Tafida, the deputy commissioner of police of the command, and heads of other security agencies in the state had already moved in to assess the situation.

READ ALSO: Dismissed cop declared wanted for Offa robbery lands in police net

Rimansikwe Karma, the chairman of Ussa local government council, while also confirming the attack, added that three people were injured.

Karma said that the attackers rounded up the village at about 5 a.m. and launched the attack when members of the community were going for early morning prayers.

Every Wednesday morning, the community conducts mid-week service and most of them were on their way, when the armed militia attacked them.

Nine persons were killed and three others sustained life threatening injuries and are currently receiving treatment at Takum General Hospital.

The unfortunate thing is that the attackers left before the arrival of security personnel," he said.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Meanwhile, the crisis in Taraba state resulting in the killings of innocent persons has attracted the attention of environmentalist and businessman, Gills Gilbert Nyanganji.

Through his foundation, Nyanganji has launched the Think Campaign targeted at youths in Taraba state to embrace peace.

Shedding more light on the initiative at a press briefing in Abuja on Monday, May 7, Nyanganji said the Think campaign will focus on peace and dialogue in Taraba state.

Benue IDPs: Education amidst crisis | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- No fewer than 1596 corps members have rejected their postings to Adamawa state

- The corps members who rejected their postings had sought redeployment to other states based on insecurity, marriage and health grounds

- The remaining 530 corps members were not posted to serve in Michika, Madagali, Mubi North and Mubi South local government areas, for security reasons

About 1,596 corps members of the 2,126 posted to Adamawa state under the 2018 batch A for the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) scheme have rejected their postings to the state.

The coordinator of the NYSC in the state, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yola on Wednesday, May 9.

The coordinator said that those that rejected their postings had sought redeployment to other states based on insecurity, marriage and health grounds.

READ ALSO: I'm not and will not be an enemy to democracy - IGP Idris replies Senate

Mohammed said that only 530 corps members of the 2,126 posted to the state decided to serve in the state. He said that due to security challenges, the 530 that concluded the orientation on Wednesday were not posted to serve in Michika, Madagali, Mubi North and Mubi South Local Government Areas.

He also said that corps members were not posted to villages in Numan, Demsa and Lamurde local government areas because of herders/farmers clashes.

However, there are those who requested to be posted to Mubi, particularly married women who have their families there which we obliged, Mohammed said.

The coordinator urged the people of Adamawa to appreciate corps members who decided to serve in the state by supporting them to give their best.

In a message to mark the closing ceremony of the batch A orientation course, the state governor, Alhaji Muhammadu Bindow assured the corps members of his administrations commitment to improved their welfare.

Bindow, who was represented by the commissioner for youth and sports, Suleiman Sambo, said that his administration was appreciative of the numerous contributions of corps members in the development of communities they served.

The governor directed public and private organizations not to reject corps members posted to their establishments.

I want to urge you to make the best use of your orientation course in the subsequent months awaiting you in the service year. I want to assure you that Adamawa State Government is ready to tackle the challenges of the NYSC schedule in the state and improve the welfare of corps members.

Our government has directed that employers should not reject members posted to their organizations under any guise, he said.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

The governor said that adequate arrangements had been made to give them decent accommodation and other welfare incentives to motivate them.

Legit.ng previously reported that a bill seeking to amend the National Youth Service Corps Act to allow corps members modify the NYSC uniform in order to accommodate their religious belief, has been struck out by the Senate.

According to The Punch, corps members would have been allowed to wear skirts or hijabs, among others, if the bill had been passed.

Leading the debate for the second reading at the plenary on Wednesday, March 7, the sponsor of the bill, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha (PDP-Taraba South), said the proposed amendment sought to amend sections 13 and 16 of the principal Act.

NYSC members doing little wonders - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: LegitPosted Thursday, May 10, 2018 10:03 am

For over a century, the Russians have been hacking like mad into American orchestra concerts, but dont expect any investigations. We like it that way.

Two long pulls of vodka, Sergei Rachmaninoffs Second Piano Concerto and Modest Mussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition, will bring the Lansing Symphonys 2017-18 season to a banging, bell-ringing close Friday, just like the Great Gate of Kiev.

Every two years, the LSO lassos one of the worlds most promising young pianists as part of a long-standing agreement with the biannual Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo.

In a sudden twist, this years Gilmore Young Artist, Elliot Wuu, had to withdraw from his scheduled Lansing gig. The 2014 Gilmore Young Artist, Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner, agreed to step in on less than two weeks notice, but he appears to be up to the job.

Sanchez Werner is only 19, but the New York native and super-precocious Juilliard graduate has already been an international phenomenon for years. He has played humanitarian gigs in Rwanda and Iraq, the latter with the Iraqi National Symphony  the first American to do so. (By coincidence, Sanchez Werners conductor in Iraq, Karim Wasfi, visited Lansing last week.) Sanchez Werner also performed at President Barack Obamas 2013 Inauguration Concert. True to form, hell arrive to Lansing fresh from a tour of Europe and Abu Dhabi.

If you want to perk up the Rachmaninoff Second, one of the most familiar works in the repertoire, theres no better way than to bring in a remarkable young artist who hasnt had time to get jaded over it, but seems able to tackle anything in the repertoire, from Beethoven to the thorniest thickets of Charles Ives.

The concerto itself was a dramatic comeback from depression and writers block that deflated Rachmaninoff after critics savaged his first symphony. A visit to Leo Tolstoy didnt help  the great writer told Rachmaninoff his music wasnt necessary to the world. Nice man.

It took years of therapy, including hypnosis, for Rachmaninoff to re-inflate. He dedicated the concerto to his therapist-physician, Nikolai Dahl.

This is the concerto you know even if you think you dont. A languorous tune in the slow movement got a lot of play in the 1970s in a weepy pop dirge, All By Myself by Eric Carmen. Two 1940s Frank Sinatra tunes (Full Moon and Empty Arms and I Think of You) were cloned from the concertos waxy vines of melody. Pop artists still steal from it now and then.

Balancing the familiar concerto Friday night is a new piece by Chinese-born composer Zhou Tian, who joined the MSU faculty in 2016.

Trace is a tragic reimagining of the old cities and traditional ways of life wiped out by the rapid industrialization that has swept China in the past 20 years. Among these lost places is a 2,000-year-old city wall that once sheltered Tians hometown of Hangzhou.

Tian uses changes in key to suggest time travel as the music drifts into the past, swelling to mighty proportions and enlivened by a traditional Chinese tune before dissolving into memory.

LSO conductor Timothy Muffitt called Tian a fresh voice in music.

Last year he sent me samples of his music and I find it to be really engaging and spiritual and colorful, Muffitt said. He descends from the line of Debussy and Ravel, not that his music sounds like that, but its that kind of vivid color and powerful sense of atmosphere.

The evening (and season) closer, Pictures at an Exhibition, is a brilliantly paced series of vignettes, based on a series of paintings ranging in mood from shock (the ride of the witch Baba Yaga) to schtick (stereotypically chattering marketplace women and quaint old Jews) to sheer spectacle (the great gate of Kiev and the Boris Godunov-like ceremony surrounding it). But pictures are hardly the point. Muffitt and the crew will have a chance to shoot off all the sonic fireworks on its barge before the summer break.

Lansing Symphony Orchestra

Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner, piano 8 p.m. Friday, May 11 Wharton Center Cobb Great Hall $20-55

lansingsymphony.org- Governor Ortom said he won't shield his aide, Aliyu Teshaku, from justice

- Teshaku was arrested by the army and linked to Boko Haram and Benue killings

- Ortom said if Teshaku is found guilty, he will face the full wrath of the law

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state has reacted to the arrest of his aide, Aliyu Teshaku, the head of Benue Livestock Guards, by the Nigeria Army.

Teshaku was linked to Boko Haram activities as well as the recent killings in Benue state.

The governor, in an interview with Daily Trust, said if Teshaku is found guilty of the crime, the law can take its course and he would not interfere.

He said: "Like I have always said I am a believer in the rule of law. I have told all my aides that as public officers they have to be very careful. I have made this as a code of conduct to all of them and I have always said if you are apprehended, respond to those allegations against you. In the past I have demonstrated this when some of my aides were accused of murder or other criminal matters, I told them to resign.

READ ALSO: 2019 election: 17 parties form alliance, to adopt one presidential candidate

"I have always allowed the law to take its course so the arrest of the leader of the Livestock Guards let the law take its course; let the security men do the needed investigation. If he is found culpable he will answer to it but let justice be done. Let it not just be blackmail or intimidation or a way of trying to implicate him. If he is found culpable the evidence will be there.

"The allegations against him are very grievous and I am waiting for the outcome. Here is a man that I inherited and from history I was told that he was brought here by the security agencies to help man security support between Benue and Nasarawa states. But when I came I set up the Livestock Guards and we decided that you come and head it because you are familiar with the Fulani men. By the way some Fulani men are also members of this Livestock Guards. So I have nothing to hide and I can never shield anyone with criminal intent. So let justice be done."

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Legit.ng earlier reported that Ortom reacted to media reports linking his government to a militia group operating at Arufu, a town between Benue and Taraba states.

The governor refuted the reports in a statement by his spokesman, Terver Akase, on Tuesday, January 9.

The governor stated that his government believes in the use of conventional security agencies to protect the people, adding he did not let the people resort to self help even in the face of renewed killing of innocent people by herdsmen in Logo and Guma local government areas of the state.

Benue IDPs: Education amidst crisis | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Lai Mohammed has explained why the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was expanded

- Mohammed said 70% of the traffic coming to Lagos is from the Lagos-Shagamu Exchange

- According to the minister, the Lagos-Shagamu comprises three lanes on each side while the Shagamu-Ibadan comprises two lanes on each side

The minister of information, Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday, May 9, explained why the federal government decided to expand the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Vanguard reports.

The minister who was on an inspection of government infrastructural projects across Nigeria inspected two sections of the expressway: from Lagos to Shagamu Interchange and Shagamu Interchange to Ibadan.

Mohammed said: Some 70% of the traffic coming to Lagos is from the Lagos-Shagamu Exchange, which explains why the Lagos-Shagamu comprises three lanes on each side while the Shagamu-Ibadan comprises two lanes on each side."

READ ALSO: Why I did not show up at the Senate - IGP Idris speaks up, says he's not an enemy to democracy

Speaking during his tour, Mohammed was briefed by the project engineer, Noar Narkisis, who revealed that work on the expressway has reached 58.27% completion.

Narkisis, an engineer with the Reynolds Construction Company (RCC), said there is a current expansion and reinforcement of the road.

He said the RCC was also carrying out maintenance of the existing carriageway to ensure a free flow of traffic and would complete the asphalt-laying phase of the entire 84-kilometer sector before the end of the year.

The engineer told the minister that 4,000 jobs had been created as a result of the highway construction on Section II alone.

READ ALSO: 17 parties to form alliance ahead of 2019, plan to adopt one presidential candidate

Also speaking, the division manager of Julius Berger and the contractor handling Section One from Lagos to the Shagamu Interchange Wolfgang Losesser said, 17 kilometres of the 3-lane, 43-kilometre road had been completed.

From Shagamu driving toward here, the first 17 kilometres on the Lagos bound side has already been completed. Then you realize that it has gone back to the old two lanes.

Here we are just doing some palliative work because the rainy season is coming and we are working on the drainage, Losesser said.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that the minister of power, works and housing Babatunde Fashola announced the approval of N64.108 billion for additional works on section one of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway by the Federal Executive Council.

Fashola said the additional works of the project is about 43.6 kilometers including the construction of pedestrian bridges and toll plazas as well as modification of the quality of bitumen.

The minister noted that the approval was aimed at accommodating the changing nature of the road.

List President Buhari's achievements in two years - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng News- A Chinese citizen, Li Min, has narrated to an Ikeja court, how he was defrauded of over N68 million by his Nigerian business partner

- He said his company has been in a mess and he lost his job as its managing director, due to his supposed partner's deceit

- After hearing his testimony, the judge, Mojisola Dada, adjourned the case till June 15

A certain Li Min, a Chinese national, has told an Ikeja special offences court how his Nigerian business partner refused to pay for goods he delivered to him which amounts to over N68 million since 2013; leaving his life in shambles, Premium Times reports.

Li Min, speaking through an interpreter, narrated how the defendant, Lawrence Maduagwu, had approached his company with a proposition for business in Nigeria. Maduagwu reportedly promised an availability of market and customers and assured Li Min that goods delivered would be promptly paid for.

He stated: Lawrence came to our company and said he wants to do business with us, he told my company he has a market he can help us sell our goods to and that there would be no issue of non-payment.

He gave order for Calcium Chloride and I wrote him an invoice and transported 500 metric tons of Calcium Chloride worth $179,000 to him. After they arrived at Port Harcourt seaport and after confirmation, he called and said there are more customers in demand for our goods and told me to send another one and it cost another $179,000.

READ ALSO: Dangote makes Forbes most powerful people list for 2018

At this time, I didnt know he was deceiving and playing me all along and he refused to pay for both goods. I called severally and appealed with him to send the payment.

After several attempts, we tried looking for him in his office, after which he paid for the first shipment with a guarantee to pay for the second shipment. From 2013 to this moment, he has refused to pay for the second shipment."

Li Min said his company has been in a mess and he lost his job as its managing director, due to Maduagwus deceit. He also disclosed that account had been frozen due to the refusal to pay for the second shipment, and that his family had deserted him as they believed he was a fraudster.

He said: My family, business, and health has been in dire situation ever since. I plead with this court to give me justice.

The Chinese man also stated that all through the period he and his compatriot, Ohio Ilogben, who had been an earlier witness in the case visited Maduagwu to demand payment, the defendant never mentioned any problem with the goods.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Maduagwu is charged with a two-count charge of obtaining goods by false pretence contrary to Section 1 (2)&(3) of the advance fee fraud and other fraud-related offences act no 14 of 2006 and Section 285 (1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011 respectively.

Samuel Daji, the the prosecuting counsel, informed the court that prosecution would be closing its case, after Li Mins testimony. The defence counsel subesequently applied for a no-case submission.

However, the no-case submission was refused by the judge, Mojisola Dada, who adjourned the case till June 15.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported the story of Emmanuel Nwude who committed the largest fraud in the country by selling a non-existent airport to a Brazilian for $242 million between 1995 and 1998.

Nwude was a former director of Union Bank of Nigeria and this position made him privy to some links, information and documents that other persons would not be aware of.

"If they want me to steal, i will steal" man tells government - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng News- In honour of the late Isiyaku Rabiu, Governor Ganduje of Kano has declared a public holiday on Friday, May 11

- The public holiday was reportedly declared to enable Muslims in the state to attend the funeral prayer of the deceased

- The body of the deceased is expected to arrive in Kano on Thursday, May 10

The Kano state government has declared Friday, May 11, as a public holiday in honour of late Isiyaku Rabiu who died on Tuesday, May 8 at a London hospital, NAN reports.

This was contained in a statement signed by the state's commissioner for information, Malam Mohammed Garba, and issued to newsmen in Kano on Wednesday, May 9.

READ ALSO: Chinese man tells court how Nigerian business partner scammed him of over N68m

Legit.ng gathers that he said the public holiday was declared to enable Muslims in the state to attend the funeral prayer of the deceased which is scheduled to take place on Friday at the Sheikh Isyaku Rabiu Jumaat mosque in Kano metropolis.

According to the commissioner, the funeral prayer will take place at 2:30pm, immediately after Jumaat prayer.

A renowned philanthropist, business mogul and Islamic cleric, Khalifa Sheikh Rabiu, died on Tuesday at a London hospital after a protracted illness. The remains of the deceased are expected to arrive Kano on Thursday, May 10.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Recall that Legit.ng previously reported that a business mogul in Kano Isyaku Rabiu had died.

Rabiu died at the age of 90, after a brief sickness in a hospital in the United Kingdom. One of his business associate, who was unnamed confirmed the sad development and reported that the deceased will be laid to rest according to Islamic rites immediately his remains are brought to Nigeria.

Isyaku was famous for founding a top conglomerate with a history of investment in manufacturing, insurance, banking and real estate.

How workaholic Governor Ganduje is transforming Kano state - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng News- Ohanaeze Ndigbo has said it will hold an Igbo summit in Awka, Anambra state on Monday, May 21

- The summit will review among many other issues, the current state of the nation

- The group would also hold a gathering and a mega rally in Makurdi, Benue and Lagos respectively, after the summit

The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation Ohanaeze Ndigbo has said it will host an Igbo summit in Awka, Anambra state's capital city on May 21.

Vanguard reports that the summit is part of the decision reached at the Ime-Obi (inner caucus) of Ohanaeze on Tuesday, May 8.

Legit.ng gathered that the Igbo summit is aimed at giving an opportunity to Nigerians of Igbo extraction to review the state of the nation and fusion out a common stand on various issues.

READ ALSO: Why I did not show up at the Senate - IGP Idris speaks up, says he's not an enemy to democracy

Sources with good knowledge of the proposed event said after the summit, there will be a gathering and a mega rally in Makurdi, Benue and Lagos respectively.

Also confirming the proposed summit, the special adviser on media and publicity to John Nnia-Nwodo, the national president of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, said the highlight of the Imeobi meeting was the unanimous adoption of the Professor Soludo-led Committees template on restructuring.

Emeka Attamah said the template would be presented to an Igbo Summit that would be held on Monday, May 21.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that the residence of the national president of Ohanaeze Ndigbo was bombed by some hoodlums.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was thrown into Nwodo's house located in Ukehe, Enugu state.

Confirming the attack, the police said that no live was lost to the explosion and that the explosion was caused by a very low device thrown into Nwodos compound by some unknown persons.

Buhari to Contest for Presidency in 2019! Legit.ng TV.

Source: Legit- The #BringBackOurGirls group has raised concern over Nigerian Army's claim of rescuing 1,000 Boko Haram hostages

- The group said Nigerians not to accept what it describes as opaque claims by our government without appropriate public scrutiny

- It maintained that it is unfortunate that the military has over the last 18 months regaled the country with reports that the terrorists have been totally defeated

The claim of Nigerian Army that its soldiers on counter-insurgency operations that rescued hostages numbering about 1, 000 in the captivity of the Bokom Hara terrorists has been the #BringBackOurGirls group.

Daily Sun reports that the BBOG group, in a statement signed by Oby Ezekwsili, Aisha Yesufu and Florence Uzor, said issues of reporting of abductions, rescues, and deaths deserve much more seriousness than is currently the case and wants the army to address some pertinent concerns of the group if it truly cares about the lives of Nigerians.

The group in the statement listed some of the concerns to include; The military has over the last 18 months regaled the country with reports that the terrorists have been totally defeated, how is it then possible for a defeated group to have capacity to hold 1,000 of our citizens captive?

READ ALSO: Why I did not show up at the Senate - IGP Idris speaks up, says he's not an enemy to democracy

Even more pertinent for the future, How many more of our citizens does the Federal Government know may still be held captive by the terrorists?

Can the military please provide full details of the names, identities, and communities of the returnees? Where were these citizens abducted from, and are there plans by the federal government to trace their families?

Is there a system for further verifying and confirming the true identities of the 1,000 citizens and a process including transparent plans for reuniting them with their families and communities?

Can the military and federal government immediately publish print and electronic images of the 1,000 compatriots rescued?

Three years ago  2015  our movement developed a tool known as a Verification, Authentication, and Reunification System (VARS) that offers timeliness in handling rescued citizens with the dignity their lives deserve.

The VARS also addresses matters of opaqueness and reduces any public doubts about mass rescues of citizens who were never in the first place reported missing. Regrettably, neither the previous administration nor the current one embraced use of the VARS tool or a similar method of systematic identification, verification, and reunification of rescued citizens from their terrorist captors.

A complementary initiative of our movement in 2015 was a proposal to the federal government to establish a Missing Persons Register and Bureau.

When the administration showed no interest in doing so, our movement reached out and partnered with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to design and launch the idea of a Missing Persons Register and Bureau.

The federal government subsequently took over the initiative but slowed down its delivery, and so three years after, the country still lacks such an important agency in an environment of frequent kidnap of citizens.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Had it been implemented, accurate data and identities of all missing persons in Nigeria would be captured in a database. A National Missing Persons Register and Bureau will make it considerably easier to know those which of our citizens are missing, and when found to be promptly identified and reunited with families and communities.

It is indeed unfortunate that failure to adopt these recommended basic tools, processes and practices frequently casts doubts on claims of rescues by the military and the federal government.

Citizens must never accept opaque claims by our government without appropriate public scrutiny. The troubling record of contradictory statements by our military and government instruct caution on the part of the Nigerian public to be more circumspect in our reaction to mass rescue claims and such like.

Our movement shall be seeking audience with the leadership of the Nigerian Army to present these deep concerns as well as press for better and more transparent processes in order to improve its approach in the future.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the army announced through a statement that its troops of 22 Brigade taking part in the operation Lafiya Dole rescued over 1000 hostages from the Boko Haram terrorists enclave.

The statement was signed by Brigadier General Texas Chukwu, the Director Army Public Relations. The operation which was conducted in conjunction with allies of Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), rescued the hostages from Malamkari, Amchaka, Walasa and Gora villages of Bama local government area of Borno state.

Exclusive: Freed Dapchi Girl Recounts Her Ordeal with Boko Haram (Nigeria Breaking News) Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng- Olagunsoye Oyinlola has sent a resignation letter to President Buhari

- He expressed his appreciation on being appointed as NIMC chairman

- According to him, he was charting a new political path away from the APC

Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola has sent a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari resigning from his position as chairman of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

According to Nigerian Tribune, Oyinlola resigned on Wednesday, May 9, and his letter of resignation has been submitted to the presidency.

In the letter Oyinlola said he was charting a new political course which necessitated his decision to resign.

Read the letter below:

Sir, I write to resign my appointment as the chairman of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) with effect from today, 9th May, 2018.

Your Excellency, I must put on record my very deep sense of appreciation for the special privilege and consideration you gave me to serve our fatherland in that capacity. As I stated in my appreciation letter to you shortly after the appointment, the offer was a clear call to service. I gave the job the dedication it deserved and would have loved to continue but I regret to inform Your Excellency that I have a new, greater political engagement that will make that difficult and even impolitic.

Sir, as one of my bosses in the army, I believe you would understand my stand given recent political developments. The training I got as a decorated officer and gentleman precluded me from engaging in any act that could amount to disloyalty and conflict of interest. I am moving on to chart a new course in my politics outside the ruling party and this thus, demands my dropping the NIMC chairmanship.

I thank you, sir, once again for the great honour and confidence reposed in me. However, there is time to take a job and another time to leave it and move on. For me, the time to work on something else in the interest and service of our people is now.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

I wish Your Excellency good-luck while praying that you will finish well and strong in the service of our country."

Meanwhile, Chief Olabode George, former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded an immediate apology from the former governor of Ogun state, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, over what he described as uncharitable and irritable vituperations against him by the ex governor.

He made the comment in reaction to Oyinlolas statement advising him to ask for forgiveness from former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Obasanjo and Jonathan are good - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit- A Nigerian man identified as Gerald Dzer is being mourned by his family after his untimely passing on May 1, in Benue

- According to Facebook post shared by his in-law the deceased met his end just two days after his wedding anniversary

- Late Gerald Dzer is survived by his wife and son

Tragedy has struck in the family of Gerald and Rita Dzer of Benue state. According to a recent post shared on Facebook by Ben Dzwa, Gerald passed on May 1, following a brief illness that rendered him weak and eventually took his life.

The deceased had celebrated his first wedding anniversary, two days prior to the heart-wrenching tragedy. As the family mourn him, they have announced his burial will hold on Thursday, May 10, at Tse-Dzer, Mbakutem, Yaav, Turan in Kwande LGA, Benue State.

Reminiscing on the good life he has lived, Ben revealed that April 29, 2017, was a day of joy for the deceased, who married the love of his life, Rita in an intimate, vibrant ceremony. The couple welcomed a son exactly 10 moths after they walked down the aisle, making their child less than a year old before the passing of the father.

READ ALSO: Davido buys private jet worth over N9bn, shows off the documents

His tribute read: "A MEMORY NOTE. I was in Lessel on a Friday evening for a State Executive Council meeting of YOWICAN Benue State Chapter when he called that he wanted to see me the next day. I agreed that I will see him on arrival the next day in the morning at 8am. I arrived Makurdi in time and actually we close to the venue of our meeting, NKST Idye. However, I dozed off shortly before the scheduled time for our meeting. He kept to time as it has been with him most of the times.

Minutes passed and I wasn't around, he called several times without response from my end for nearly an hour, my phone has been silent since the meeting started the previous evening. Good enough, noise from children around wake me up some I hurried down to join him. I arrived the venue and he was already anxious and tensed. "What could have been disturbing him?" I asked quietly within. We prayed briefly and started talking, I have never seen him has difficulty in expressing himself like that day, I think my delay in coming to the meeting also contributed.

I later discovered as we talked that any normal person will as well be selective in choice of words the way he was. I was many things to him that day, he was in love with a young lady who is my younger sister by natural blood. He and the lady in question were also working directly under me with children and youths in the church and as youth leaders next to me in hierarchy. We discussed the the matter where I emphasized the need for a testimony since those there nurturing will be looking up to them, also asking him as few questions and soon we were done. A faithful day came, 29th April, 2017, we gathered to be witnesses as they were joined in Holy Matrimony. On Sunday 29th April, 2018, we greeted with memories as it marked it first anniversary. Even though we didn't celebrate because of the pains my brother was going through, it wasn't without reasons to thank God.

In just 10 months of their marriage, God blessed them with a baby boy. We however you the Anniversary date to trust God for healing of our brother. At home and in the church, it was all prayers. I was really thrilled as how the children and teens whom they had previously taught and mentored vigorously prayed for them. Two days later precisely on the 1st May, 2018, "God healed him in a better way" in the words of my sister Rita Gerald Dzer. The Lord called him home! Gerald Dzer lived a brief but eventful life. He lived for others and has left even at a time we needed him most. For us as a family, it is the Lord's doing, He is always right. We simply submit to His will even at a time like this. Our brother will be laid to rest on Thursday, 10th May, 2018 at Tse-Dzer, Mbakutem, Yaav, Turan in Kwande LGA, Benue State. Farewell Brother! Rest on!"

READ ALSO: 8 facts to know about Davido's new N9.7bn Bombardier Challenger 605 private jet

Friends and family have taken to social media to mourn his passing as they submit to the will of God. A lady identified as Labar Torkwase also shared a touching tribute.

It reads: "Mr Dzer Gerald Dzer, that's how I used to call you and you'll call me Princess Labar. Oh! My friend, brother, coursemate and colleague, now that you are gone. Who will call me the way you used to? Death, you are so wicked!, you reap where you did not sow. Mr Dzer Gerald Dzer, upon graduation, you came to Katsina State yourself to look for a green pasture, but now you are on your way home in an ambulance speechless and motionless. You can't talk to anyone, not even little Senater.

I can't believe this and I can't forget the testimonies we used to share. On 5th Jan., 2018, you came to work only to take permission to go and treat yourself, I was praying, hoping and believing that you will resume to work soon. When your condition became critical, I still hoped and had faith that God will give us a bigger testimony, a testimony that will even win souls to Him, but the Unquestionable God did it in His own way by calling you to rest with Him so that you will not be corrupted with the system of the world. It's so painful, but He that have a final say in our lives has done what He knew is best for you.

We used to discuss how we were going to serve God but now you left me without fulfilling your calling. Mr Dzer, Gerald Dzer, I promise I will not give up in faith no matter what happens just as you did. I remember the day I visited and you saw my contenance changed, you said " Princess Labar, don't be discouraged because I am lean, is because I am not eating but inside I am strong." what a faith? Kai God! You saw death and you were rebuking it saying "I Shall not die" but God said you shall die because He need you and He took you away from us. Rest on Dzer Gerald Dzer. I will for ever miss you."

May the soul of the departed rest in peace.

PAY ATTENTION: Read best news on Nigeria's #1 news app

Emanuella And Mark Angel: If All Men Disappeared, What Would You Do? - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ngFrance on Thursday, May 10, signed a 500,000 euros agreement with two humanitarian organisations to support humanitarian aid in Borno state.

Guillaume de Kerdrel, first counsellor of the French Embassy in Abuja, signed the agreement with Premiere Urgence Internationale (PUI) and Alima, NAN reports.

Legit.ng gathers that PUI and Alima are both active in providing aid in the north-east region of Nigeria.

Ambassador Guillaume indicated that the money would be dedicated strictly to fund two projects in the region.

READ ALSO: Kano governor declares public holiday in honour of late Isiyaku Rabiu

He said: "The 500,000 Euros will cater to two specific projects. The first is aimed at improving medical care for children suffering from malnutrition in the newly accessible parts of Kukawa local government area in Borno. The second is aimed at improving the food security of vulnerable populations in Maiduguri.

"The French government through the French Embassy in Nigeria is expressing its commitment to contributing to humanitarian efforts that will lead to the continual rehabilitation and restoration of the north-eastern region of Nigeria which has suffered greatly from the insurgency of the terrorist group, Boko Haram.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

In a related development, Legit.ng previously reported that in response to the humanitarian woes caused by Boko Haram terrorists group, donor countries who met in Oslo, Norway, raised the sum of 860 million dollars (634 million euros) in emergency aid to address the effects in north-east Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin.

The amount was pledged over three years, and was aimed at helping 10.7 million people in need. The UN had also previously said it hoped to raise 1.5 billion dollars in 2017 for the region, which includes Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

Survivors of Boko Haram - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng- Nigerian Senate has now been dragged to court by the police

- The inspector general of police has refused to personally honour the Senate's summon over alleged ill treatment of Senator Dino Melaye

- Senators, according to the police, were taking the matter of Dino Melaye too personal

The police have dragged Nigerian Senate to court to determine if the inspector general of police, as a matter of law, must always appear in person each time the upper chamber invites him.

According to the police, the Senate can no longer invite the inspector general again until the court decides on their prayers.

Mr David Igbodo, commissioner of police, legal department of the force headquarters, disclosed this on Sunrise Daily, a programme on channels TV.

The police was reacting to the recent declaration by the Senate that inspector general of police was an enemy of democracy and unfit to hold public office.

READ ALSO: I am charting a new political course outside APC - Oyinlola resigns as NIMC chairman

He also accused the Senate of taking the issue of invitation of the IGP very personal

"That declaration that the inspector general of police is an enemy of democracy and unfit to hold office is laughable. They have no power to make such declaration," Igbodo said.

Going further, he said that: "The inspector general of police was invited on the 25th to appear on the 26th and unfortunately he was in Bauchi state with the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He sent a DIG to represent him and when the DIG got to the national assembly, the lawmakers said no. They requested for a brief and the inspector general prepared a brief and gave the brief to the DIG to brief the national assembly on the issue pertaining to Senator Dino Melaye and still, they rejected it, insisting that they want to see the inspector general of police in person."

"At this point, a constitutions issue has arisen, so the inspector general of police said, ok, fine, let us go to court to let the court decide weather he must as a matter of law appear in person each time the national assembly invites him or whether he can exercise his power of delegation under the law and police acts and regulations.

"So we are in court. We posed five questions and seven prayers. And until the court decides that, the national assemble has no power to invite the inspector general of police," he added.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the inspector general of police, Ibrahim Idris, responded to the Senate for describing him as an enemy of democracy after he failed to appear before it.

Idris in a statement via police spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, on Wednesday, May 9, accused the Senate of trying to blackmail him.

He said he was on an official assignment when he was invited by the Senate and duly asked senior ranking officers to represent him as constitutionally stipulated.

Lets talk about salaries of Nigerian senators | Legit.ng TV.

Source: Legit.ngPosted Thursday, May 10, 2018 10:03 am

Friday, May 11 @ Macs Bar, 2700 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing. All ages, $12, $10 adv., 7 p.m.

Since 2007, Doug Mains & the City Folk have been a fixture in the local indie-folk scene, releasing a series of acoustically-driven Americana recordsincluding 2016s These Broken Members. The pensive songwriting echoes traditional folk, but is enhanced by a buoyant accordion, imaginative percussion and thunderous, classical string harmonies. Led by its chief songwriter Mains (vocals/acoustic guitar), the band also comprises Kelly Briski (violin/vocals), Rob Germeroth (percussion), Kim Wren (bass) and Josh Michels (cello/accordion). Friday, the band headlines at Macs Bar andaccording to an April 30 Facebook postis awarding a gift basket to the fan who travels the furthest to attend the gig. Warming up the stage is fellow Lansing-based songwriter Brandon Grafius, who officially releases his new Highways and Backroads LP at the show. Monte Pride also performs.

Thursday, May 17 @ The Robin Theatre, 1105 S Washington Ave, Lansing. $25, $20 adv., ticket cost includes open bar, 6 p.m.

Chicago-based stand-up comedian Pat McGann has appeared on both The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Late Show with David Letterman, but on May 17, he brings his quick wit to the intimate Robin Theatre. Proceeds from the event benefit the St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital ticket cost includes open bar and Momma Cindee tamales. The emerging funnyman, named one of Chicagos Top 10 Funniest by Readers Digest, debuted in 2016 with his Sounds Good comedy album and has been featured on The Bob & Tom Show and Gotham Comedy Live. McGann, a regular at Zanies Comedy Club, has also earned spots at notable fests like the Great American Comedy Festival, Laugh Fest and the Lucille Ball Comedy Festival. McGann created and hosted the Emmy Award-nominated television show, The Chicago Stand Up Project, a PBS program.

Saturday, June 2 @ The Loft, 414 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing. 18kknd, $20, $15 adv., 9 p.m.

Michigan rap icons the Dayton Family headline a June 2 show at The Loftopening is DJ E-Nyce. Comprising Bootleg, Shoestring and Backstabba, the Flint-based Dayton Family formed in the early 90s, and by 1995 dropped its gritty debut LP, Whats on My Mind? One year later, the gold-selling F.B.I. hit stores. Both records are now regarded as Michigan underground rap classics. Named after their home turf of Dayton Avenue in Flint, the group has always ignored the glamour of rap and focused on the darker side of the genre. All Music Guide said the Dayton Family has sincerely emulated their Midwestern mentality, calling it a dark, grim mentality focused on modest survival rather than riches or fame. While a flurry of legal problems over the last two decades hindered the trios success, periodic solo albums have kept the staunch cult following afloat.- Prince Dayo Adeyeye has dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

- Adeyeye came second in the PDP governorship primaries on Tuesday, May, 8

- He said he could not work with Governor Ayodele Fayose because of the alleged imposition of his deputy as the party's candidate

Barely 24 hours after losing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship ticket in Ekiti state, Prince Dayo Adeyeye who was the immediate past national publicity secretary of the PDP has resigned from the party.

Adeyeye who came second in the PDP governorship primaries on Tuesday, May,8 after scoring 771 votes was beaten to the ticket by the incumbent deputy governor of the state, Prof Kolapo Olusola.

READ ALSO: Former Osun state governor Oyinlola dumps APC

Daily Trust reports that Adeyeye said he could not work with Governor Ayodele Fayose, because of the alleged imposition of his deputy as the party's candidate in the July 14 governorship election.

He made the disclosure while addressing his supporters at his campaign office. Adeyeye also said he was yet to conclude his next political platform.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the July 14 election Ekiti state, Kolapo Olusola, expressed readiness to take up the challenge in ensuring his victory.

Olusola, who is also the deputy governor of the state, said this when he received the party Certificate of return at PDP national secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday, May 9.

Governor Fayose warns Nigerian youths ahead of 2019, tells them what to do - on Legit.ng TV.

Source: Legit- The Basic Registry and Information System in Nigeria (BRISIN) has urged the federal government to ban the use of latrine in the country

- The BRISIN on Thursday, May 10, said that some youths now resort to sniffing latrines to get intoxicated

- Misbau Lawal, BRISIN's coordinator for health and environment reveals that the vapour of decomposing human dung has effect on the central nervous system, producing narcosis just like codeine

The Basic Registry and Information System in Nigeria (BRISIN) Ilorin on Thursday, May 10, appealed for the urgent sensitisation against the use of pit latrine since some youths resort to it for intoxication, The Independent reports.

READ ALSO: I'm not and will not be an enemy to democracy - IGP Idris replies Senate

Misbau Lawal, BRISIN's coordinator for health and environment, revealed that since codeine had been banned by the federal government, many youths now sniff pit latrine and lizard dung as substitute, adding that there is urgent need to ban the use of such rest room in the country.

He advised community leaders to sensitise their people and ensure they dispose lizard dung in their environment by burying it. According to him, lizard dung comprises uric acid which is excreted by all reptiles.

He remarked: The vapour of decomposing human dung has effect on the central nervous system, producing narcosis just like codeine when inhaled.

PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet!

People using pit latrine should dehydrate it with sulphuric acid or the government can recycle human defecation to make biogas for economic benefits.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that following the recent ban on the importation of cough syrups with codeine, the Jamaatul Nasril Islam (JNI) on Tuesday, May 8, called on the federal government to enact laws that backed its action.

The secretary general of JNI, Khalid Aliyu, made the call during an interview with newsmen after the pre-Ramadhan meeting held in Kaduna.

Suspected cocaine/cannabis traffickers reject Police accusations | Legit.ng TV

Source: LegitOne of the aspirants in the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary in Ekiti state, Babafemi Ojudu, has withdrawn from the trace.

The Cable reports that Ojudu, an adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on political matters announced his withdrawal during a press conference on Thursday, May 10, in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.

The presidential adviser said he withdrew from the race because he did not want to be associated with a mess.

He said he does not believe in engaging in an unfair contest and was not ready to step on blood to get to power.

Ojodu also accused the national working committee chairman of conspiring with one of the aspirants in the race to impose a candidate on the people to the detriment of the party.

Below is a part statement from Ojudu explaining the reasons he dropped from the race:

"From what has happened since May 5 to date, it goes without saying that this is an unfair contest where the National Working committee chairman has clearly demonstrated that he does not care what happens to our dear party now and in the nearest future.

"We saw a chairman who has conspired with one of the aspirants in the race to unleash mayhem on others, wreak havoc and violence on ordinary citizens and exposed the state to great embarrassment on national television. We saw an aspirant so unpopular to the extent that delegates called him unprintable names at the voting arena now being imposed on our people, not minding if this means we lose this state forever.

READ ALSO: Breaking: Court nullifies Senate decision on suspension of Senator Omo-Agege

We do not believe in engaging in an unfair contest and I am not ready to step on blood to get to power. As I have reiterated at different times in the course of the campaign, this was never about me. It was not about an ambition but a mission to give a new lease of life to Ekiti State and the people. It was about safeguarding the future of our children, our grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even generations yet unborn. There is no doubt that we all love this land, that everyone of you had best hopes and aspiration for this beautiful state we call ours and that above all, this state should wear a new look, be adorned with a new reputation and have a new image of itself.

All my life, I have fought injustice and sought the good of the whole. Therefore, this injustice perpetrated against Ekiti people by the NWC Chairman cannot be allowed to stand. This is why the fight will continue, not as an aspirant but as a party reformer. As a leader and party chieftain, I will inspire a new generation of leaders  of young professionals, businessmen and technocrats to re-enter our politics and change this state. Only then can we have men and women of honour who will take Ekiti out of the wilderness and restore her to her pride of place.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

At the national level, I will continue to support Mr. President in ensuring party reforms. I will work hard to ensure that never again is our party thrown to desperate men who feed on monetary inducements and undermine their own party. This movement continues but I would be stepping down immediately as a governorship aspirant to focus on this new mission.

Legit.ng had earlier reported that the campaign group of Ekiti governorship aspirant, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, condemned the recent invasion of the state secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by thugs who announced the dissolution of the state executive.

The group, also known as Ekiti Rebirth Organisation (ERO) in a statement by its publicity coordinator, Gboyega Adeoye, said the action was barbaric and sponsored by those seeking to ruin the party, Leadership reports.

APC official tells why his party could be voted out in 2019 on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng NewsA former deputy national chairman of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has reportedly lost his son, Dipo, who is said to be 42 years old. His death is said to have shaken the family.

Vanguard reports that Dipo died in a hospital in Ikoyi on Thursday, May 10, after a long battle with an undisclosed ailment.

He was said to have been born by Georges first wife, Feyi.

READ ALSO: 2019 election: 17 parties form alliance, to adopt one presidential candidate

Meanwhile, the Lagos state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condoled with the former Olabode George, over the death of Dipo.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Dipo died in the early hours of Thursday at the age of 42.

He had been suffering from a protracted illness before his death in a Lagos hospital.

The states party chairman, Moshood Salvador, in a statement issued after a condolence visit to the George family, said that the Lagos chapter was devastated by the news.

He said the party shared in the grief of the family at the trying period.

Salvador prayed for the peaceful repose of the deceased, while praying to God to grant the family the fortitude to bear the loss.

May the care and love of those around you provide peace and comfort to get you through the days ahead.

I hope our Lord brings you and your family the much needed peace during this testing time.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Our condolences to the entire George family over this irreparable loss," he said.

Legit.ng earlier reported how Governor Nasir El-Rufai announced his resolve to adopt the three children of the late Commissioner of Education, Science and Technology, Professor Jonathan Andrew Nok.

Lagos Police Commissioner parades suspected criminals (Nigeria News) | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng- Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos state wants Nigerians abroad to return and invest in their country

- Ambode believes such investments would reduce unemployment and boost Nigeria's economy

- He also gets the endorsement of the Yoruba community in UAE ahead of 2019

Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos state has pleaded with Nigerians abroad to return home and contribute their quota to the development of the country just as he received an endorsement ahead of the 2019 election in Nigeria.

The governor, who made the appeal, received the endorsement from the Yoruba community in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), led by Hajj Nasir Adjumat.

READ ALSO: Breaking: Court nullifies Senate decision on suspension of Senator Omo-Agege

Ambode, who was represented by leaders of Project LOUD (Lagos of Our Dream), Abiodun Yinusa and Kenny Bakare, at a strategic meeting in Dubai with Nigerians on investment opportunities in Lagos state, said returning to invest in Nigeria would help to reduce unemployment and boost the countrys economy.

He said his government was making Lagos work for everyone and that the state had been repositioned as the global gateway for Africa and an easy place to do business.

I would like to thank you for this endorsement and we know that it is a call to further service. The governor has repositioned Lagos state as the global gateway to Africa and has also put deliberate policies in place to enhance ease of business.

The governor is giving us the Lagos of our dream and he is committed to sustainable growth and development of the state.

The endorsement, no doubt, will definitely spur the governor to do more for the residents, investors, and visitors, he said.

On his part, Adjumat explained that it was a unanimously decision to endorse Ambode for re-election ahead of the 2019 general elections because of his achievements so far.

Ambodes record of achievement is there for all to see. In terms of infrastructural renewal, he has opened up every part of the state, building bridges and roads in every part of the state.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

The governor has invested massively in security, which in turn has aided the economy to thrive. There is Light Up Lagos Project, One Lagos Fiesta, Lake Rice, N25 billion Employment Trust Fund, among other laudable initiatives.

In view of the giant strides of Ambode in office so far, we are unanimously endorsing him for another term in office to continue the good works across the state, he said.

Legit.ng earlier reported that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode reiterated the need for Nigeria to implement the federal system as originally intended, saying doing so remains the right path to rescue the country from the doldrums and myriad of challenges inhibiting growth and development.

Ambode, who spoke while delivering the University of Lagos convocation lecture and investiture of Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe as the 12th vice chancellor of the institution, said it was a common knowledge that the federal government was burdened with tasks beyond the reach of its best competencies to the detriment of states, which are the federating units.

Buhari Warplanes Cost Nigeria 496 Million US Dollars | Legit.ng TV

Source: LegitYves here. It is hard to see why Brussels would come to the rescue of Airbnb, since member states are in need of tax revenues, and AirBnB among other things hurts hoteliers who are taxed at particularly high rates. But Airbnb has nothing to lose by trying.

By Don Quijones of Spain, the UK, and Mexico and editor at Wolf Street. Originally published at Wolf Street

Airbnb has a big problem on its hands in Europe, its most important market for listings. The regions bustling tourist destinations are growing increasingly disaffected with tourist rental property platforms as the cons of unfettered tourism  a squeezed housing market, surging rents, overcrowding, overstretched public services and infrastructure, and the erosion of the town or citys distinctive character  begin to heavily outweigh the pros.

Even one of the supposed main benefits of mass tourism  job creation  is riddled with caveats. As a spokesman for a new campaign group, the Network of Southern European Cities in response to Mass Tourism, points out, the tourist sectors of the hospitality and catering trade [in Spain] have the worst working conditions: low salaries, fraud in the number of hours declared in the contracts  when there are any  and outsourcing.

As summer approaches, the backlash is intensifying. On May 18th and 19th, two days of protest will be heldacross 14 Southern European cities, including Barcelona, Venice, Seville, Palma, Lisbon, Malta andMadrid, all under the unified banner of Stop the exploitation of our cities.

In Spain, the rise of tourism-phobia risks harming an industry that represents around 13% of the entire economy and has played a vital role in Spains economic recovery, accounting for over a quarter of the new jobs created since 2013.

In the Balearic Islands, almost 40% of the new jobs created there since 2013 depend on tourism. But that didnt stop the islands capital, Palma de Mallorca, Spains eighth largest city by population, from imposing a blanket banon all tourist apartments last month.

A week later, the government of Valencia, a region that includes many popular coastal resorts, proposed a lawthat would restrict licenses for tourist rentals to ground-floor and first-floor apartments. If the law is passed, an estimated 65%-70% of the regions current tourist apartments would no longer be able to operate legally.

In even bigger markets such as Paris, Berlin and Barcelona, the problems are also stacking up. In Paris, Airbnbs second largest global destination, the authorities have filed a lawsuitagainst the company and two other firms for failing to respect local laws regulating holiday rental properties.

Berlin, Airbnbs ninth most popular destination, has gone a step further by banning whole-home rentals outright, while preserving limited rights to rent out rooms within homes on a short-term basis. According tothe Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing, the measure helped return 8,000 units to the citys long-term rental market, in the process deflating the citys rental housing bubble.

As for Barcelona, the home rental platforms sixth largest market, it will be watching developments in Palma and Valencia very closely. The City Council has been been locked in a three-year battle with Airbnb over unlicensed tourist apartments. In 2017 local residents went so far as to identify mass tourism as the biggest problem the city faces. Now, even in Madrid, a city that at first embraced the recent explosion in tourist arrivals, the Mayors office is planning a response to the AirBnB effect.

Clearly, the overall trend in Europe is no longer Airbnbs friend. The constant growth in tourist numbers is coming at ever higher costs to the local population. But that doesnt mean the company is going to just give up.

It already has a vital ally on its side: the European Commission. According toa report published by non-profit research and advocay group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), lobbyists from AirBnB, HomeAway (owned by Expedia), and their principal lobbying group, European Holiday Home Association, are small in number compared to other sectors, but when it comes to influencing the Commission, the EUs executive branch, they punch well above their weight.

Sharing economy platforms have been able to use the EUs e-commerce directive, which dates back to the year 2000, to overcome some of the policy measures passed against them by local city authorities. Until now local authorities have been able to opt out of at least some of the obligations and limitations in the e-commerce directive on public interest grounds. But that could soon change.

In a meeting with Commission representatives in 2016 the EHHA lodged a formal complaint against the cities of Barcelona, Berlin, Paris, and Brussels, which could ultimately lead to action by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). So far there is no indication that the Commission has referred the case to the ECJ. But lobbying pressure on both continues to mount.

In July 2017, the EHHA sent a Draft Principle on Regulation of Short-Term Rentals to the Commission, in which it outlined the sort of regulations it would like to see enacted across Europe. CEO asked to see a copy of the document under EU rules on access to documents, but the Commission refused, citing an exception relating to business secrets.

The Commission had already published a set of guidelines that is broadly reflective of the legislative framework sought by Airbnb and other rental platforms. For the moment those guidelines are non-binding, but that could change. Last year, the European Parliament passed with an overwhelming majority a resolution that condemns any attempt by local authorities to restrict the supply of tourist accommodation from online platforms. It was yet further proof of how divorced the cosseted decision makers in the EU government bubble are from the regions, cities, and communities theyre supposedto serve and represent.

If Airbnb and other tourist rental platforms ultimately win the regulatory battle in Brussels, local authorities will be rendered virtually powerless to regulate the local housing market and city environment in the interest of the people who live there. But the struggle for the heart and soul of Europes cities is unlikely to end there. In fact, if anything, it will merely intensify the simmering resentment and anger many local residents feel toward the platforms, their hosts, and the growing hordes of tourists they accommodate.

Amid a blossoming backlash against mass tourism, one place takes extreme measures. Read Airbnb Just Lost a Limb in its Fourth Biggest Market

Apologies for the crush of CalPERS stories, but the giant pension fund has a series of board meetings next week, and these pieces for different reasons are time sensitive. So get a cup of coffee and enjoy this three-act play of bad governance theater as best you can.

Of the three, this one is the most urgent. I hope you will take the trouble to send it along to all CalPERS beneficiaries and California voters that you know.

At the end of the post, I ask all readers who are in California to write their state Senator and Assemblyman, ccing the chairmen of the Senate and Assembly public pension committees as well as CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost, expressing your concern and consternation over the fact that someone who has made multiple, easily verified misrepresentations on his resume and Form 700 is still apparently acting as Chief Financial Officer of CalPERS. Among other things, he is still in charge of banking relations and financial accounting, roles where integrity is of paramount importance.

Readers may recall that we ran a series of posts on the misrepresentations that CalPERS recently hired Chief Financial Officer Charles Asubonten made on his resume and a state-mandated disclosure of financial interest form, the Form 700:

The Los Angeles Times Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Mike Hiltzik confirmed the story we broke, and documented additional misrepresentations in Asubontens resume: Questions about new CalPERS CFOs background and experience should be taken seriously by the pension fund. As we pointed out in our write-up on Hiltziks article, CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost and Asubonten both effectively admitted to resume fabrications yet tried to act as if they somehow didnt matter.

Let us not forget that C-level executives are normally fired when single misrepresentations on their resumes come to light. And the falsehoods that Hiltzik and I wrote about werent of the he said, she said variety. Most could be easily verified, as we showed, by comparing what Asubonten claimed with publicly available, authoritative documents, such as annual reports of a former employer, stock price records, and a court decision in South Africa.

CalPERS initially appeared to be doing the right thing. Adam Ashton reported in the Sacramento Bee that CalPERS had opened up an investigation into Asubonten in CalPERS has decided to review the claims that its recently-hired Chief Financial Officer Charles Asubonten made on his resume. We pointed out, in commenting on that piece, that Asubonten had made additional misrepresentations that were visible even on the heavily (and excessively) redacted copy of Asubontens employment application that I obtained via a Public Records Act request. Misrepresentations on an employment application are perjury, which is a felony in California.

Yet Asubonten is presenting on a business as usual basis at next weeks Finance and Administration Committee meeting:

It is remotely possible that Asubonten is being allowed to conduct business in CalPERS name because the investigation has not been completed. Our understanding is that state employees are not suspended until the allegations against them in a potential disciplinary action have been verified.

But given that it would take no more than an hour of clicking through some of the links in our posts and separately confirming that the links were indeed to independent sources, or verifying the stock price history that both Hiltzik and I pulled, it would seem highly unlikely that an investigation was still underway unless CalPERS for some reason chose to drag it out beyond this set of board meetings.

In addition, putting Asubonten in front of the board in such a prominent manner in light of the controversy over his misrepresentations would only increase the embarrassment to Marcie Frost were she to ask him to leave, which formally is not hard to do, since he is still on probation. Thus it seems almost certain that Frost is doubling down on backing Asubonten despite a virtually unheard of level of public documentation of what anyone with an Internet connection can confirm are numerous falsehoods.

I urge readers who are in California to write their state Senators and Assemblymen about this troubling example of mismanagement at CalPERS. The messages do not have to be long but should stress that they can easily verify the misrepresentations themselves, which is why it is so disturbing to see CalPERS defending a poor and now obviously reckless choice.

Please send this article to everyone you know in California. Encourage them to forward it, post it on social media, and most important of all, write their elected officials. It is highly unusual for members of the public to write the legislature about CalPERS matters; even a few letters will be a big wake-up call, particularly after the Los Angeles Times story.

Here are links to where you can find the e-mail addresses for California Senators and Assemblymen.

Be sure to include at least the chairmen of both pension committees, and even better, all committee members:

Here are the members of the Assemblys Public Employees, Retirement, and Social Security Committee:

And be sure to send copies to:

Marcie Frost Marcie.Frost@calpers.ca.gov

State Treasurer John Chiang john.chiang@treasurer.ca.gov

State Controller Betty Yee b.t.yee@sco.ca.gov

Letters from Naked Capitalism readers in the past have been effective on issues where it is much easier for CalPERS executives to muddy the water than here. So sally forth!

It appears that Frost is making a tremendous error in judgment, and one that puts her in long-term jeopardy.

Frost appears to have lost all objectivity as far as Asubonten is concerned. If she were to have dealt with this situation decisively, no one would remember it in two months. Instead, she is choosing to keep a top officer who is a liability to her and the organization, both by virtue of his verifiable history of fabrication, his lack of qualification for the position (which shockingly Frost seems unable to recognize; CalPERS insiders have confirmed our doubts about his competence) and the risk that even more falsehoods will be exposed.

Frost would be wise to take heed of the recent history of her predecessor, Anne Stausboll. Stausboll managed the timing of her arrival and departure as CEO superbly. She was the one that released the documents showing the massive fees that private equity firm Apollo, which already had a deep relationship with CalPERS, was paying to a placement agent. That kicked off a crisis that was bound to happen at some point. Stausboll thus assumed the mantle at CalPERS at a low point, and stabilized the fund, although we believe she did it a long-term disservice by turning away from transparency and greatly prizing loyalty over competence.

Stausboll kept CalPERS out of major controversies and left just as CalPERS was starting to get regular criticism for its underfunding and poor investment management.

Under Frosts tenure, CalPERS is getting far more negative coverage than it did under Stausboll. The fact that an outsider, Margaret Brown, with no union backing and only modest election funds, was able to oust an incumbent is proof that CalPERS is losing stature. Even loyal beneficiaries want a change in course, a path Frost seems unwilling to follow.

Stausboll, who left at 59 with complimentary press clips, made clear that she was looking for a new position.

If you now look at her LinkedIn page, you can see she failed. She describes herself as retired. The insular CalPERS boards high regard of her was not shared in the wider world.

If Frost wants to chart a career-limiting path for herself, tying an albatross like Asubonten around her neck is just the way to do it.Weve written at length about how the CalPERS board elections last fall were obviously crooked. And that is if anything too kind a word.

Today, our focus is on one of the three voting methods used in the last election, voting by phone. It is not permitted under the California election code, but it was clearly rigged to favor the union-backed incumbent, Michael Bilbrey. He lost to challenger Margaret Brown.

Moreover, CalPERS has refused to provide documents and records Brown has requested related to the election. All of the law professors we have spoken to on this topic have been adamant: board members have the right to see any document in the possession of the organization they oversee. Even worse, CalPERS has insinuated that it doesnt have the records. That would mean it destroyed them in defiance of a litigation hold and instructed its election vendors to do so as well.

History of CalPERS 2017 Election Fixing Efforts

CalPERS cant be bothered to adhere to the regulations it created for its elections. CalPERS own regulation required that paper ballots be counted in public at the end of the month-long election period. In fact, they were scanned in every day during the course of the election, in secret, over 1000 miles away from where the sham count was later held. And nothing was counted then. A few people sat with laptops behind two layers of glass with nary a ballot present. They might as well have been shopping or playing solitaire.

In another marked departure, CalPERS instituted voting by phone and voting by Internet, even though neither is permitted in the California election code.1

New board member Margaret Brown won in a two-round election for her seat. As we wrote last year, she visited the election vendor, Integrity Voting Systems, in Washington, and also obtained the contract CalPERS had signed with them and their joint venture partner, Everyone Counts. She was so disturbed by what she saw, like the failure to have secret ballots, the failure to store ballots securely, the lack of independent adjudication of damaged ballots, and the high likelihood that results were being tallied daily and reported to CalPERS, that she demanded answers to the questionable practices she saw. CalPERS scheduled a meeting that CEO Marcie Frost ducked. In addition, the candidates questions were treated in a hostile manner by General Counsel Matt Jacobs and election vendors told demonstrable lies. 2

Prior to the runoff election, in October, Brown had her attorney send in a litigation hold to CalPERS as well as the two election vendors, Integrity Voting Systems and Everyone Counts.

During both rounds of the election, Brown heard complaints from supporters about the voting by phone system. They objected to the fact that it was confusing and more important, did not even state Browns name before before naming her opponent, Michael Bilbrey, offering the opportunity to vote for him, and forcing voters to navigate past that before they could hear any information about Brown. Voters said they had to go through the system multiple times to figure out how to get Browns name and then vote for her. Some gave up before they could enter their choice because they said the volume was so low that they could barely hear the instructions.

Well discuss the sample script for the vote by telephone process that CalPERS gave Brown. We have embedded at the end of this post. Its even worse than you might imagine. But even with the information so far, it is obvious how this sort of phone process would suppress votes for Brown by not even mentioning her name before allowing voters to submit a vote for her opponent.

A confusing script also helped Browns opponent, the incumbent Mike Bilbrey. A difficult process would seem to deter backers of both candidates, until you understand how the unions get out the vote effort works. The unions call members and offer to transfer the call to the vote by phone system. They stay on the call while the vote is placed.3 This means the union phone agents can navigate the prompts.

And good luck with trying to get assistance other than from friendly union reps who only want to help you vote for their candidate, who was Browns opponent. The official help line for the election vendor had over 20 minute wait times.

Finally, many prospective voters in CalPERS elections decided to participate at the last minute, when it was too late to mail in a ballot. Their only options were to vote by phone or Internet. The Internet voting was problematic for reasons we discussed in earlier posts. So again, any down-to-the-wire voters who wanted Brown and felt overwhelmed by either the Internet or the phone system were stuck. It would have been too late for them to mail in a paper ballot.

CalPERS Covers Up What Went on in the Elections

After she joined the board, Brown requested the breakdown of votes by voting channel by candidate in her runoff election, to see if confirmed her hypothesis that the bias in the vote by phone channel resulted in meaningfully lower votes for her. CalPERS claimed it didnt have the data. That is wildly implausible give that the election contract required the vendors to provide that information. The implication is that CalPERS and the election vendor destroyed information in defiance of her litigation hold. 4

This was CEO Marcie Frosts response to Browns request for the phone script, which she had to make three times:

On Mar 23, 2018, at 3:20 PM, Frost, Marcie wrote:

Good afternoon Board Members, Here is a response to questions that arose during the February 2018 Board meeting concerning the 2017 Board of Administration Member-at-Large Runoff Election for Position B. The first question was whether a recording or script of the telephone voting automated system could be provided. The second question related to whether the election results could be broken down to show the number of votes received by each candidate from each voting channel (i.e. paper ballot, online, and telephone). Attached is a sample script for the runoff election provided by our Board elections vendor, Integrity Voting Systems/Everyone Counts Inc. The vendor does not maintain an audio recording. However, the vendor confirmed that the IVR system referenced candidates by their names and did not reference them solely by a candidate number during the 2017 Member-at-Large election, including the Runoff. The vendor also confirmed that candidate names will be used for future elections. In response to the second question, the vendor does not maintain election results by voting channel broken down by candidate. Any link between the substance of the vote and the channel used is broken during the decryption process. However, the vendor does maintain voting channel data in connection with demographic data (voting channel utilized for total ballots received, turnout by age, turnout by gender, top 20 employers, top 20 cities, etc.). This information was provided in the February 13, 2018 Finance and Administration Committee Agenda Item 10a, titled 2017 CalPERS Board of Administration Member-at-Large Election Results. Have a good weekend,

Marcie

Someone needs to tell Marcie Frost she needs to learn to lie better. This is giving a too-obvious middle finger to Brown and the board.

First, Frost is pointedly ignoring that Brown asked for the script, not the recording. Frost refuses to acknowledge that both the election vendor and CalPERS have to have copies of the final scripts. It is a virtual certainty that Everyone Counts, the vendor that handled the vote by phone channel, sent drafts to CalPERS since CalPERS had to approve the text. This wasnt done by smoke signal.

If they dont have the records, this means both CalPERS and Everyone Counts, which ran the phone voting, destroyed evidence in defiance of a litigation hold.

Given the timing of litigation hold, both CalPERS and Everyone Counts had the records when Brown demanded that they be retained. Everyone Counts obviously had the audio recording then because that election was about to start.

Specifically, Everyone Counts was responsible for managing the vote by Internet and vote by phone channels, which had separate software. The collection of the votes would be in two discrete systems and then would be relayed onward. The votes when first tabulated by definition are by candidate. Remember the vendor is still supposed to have that information for the runoff election by virtue of getting a documents preservation notice before it began.

Nevertheless, it is hard to get rid of all electronic records even when trying to do so, as Hillary Clintons missing server records demonstrate. In a very worst case scenario, they can be recovered from the vendors Internet service providers, which are required by law to retain copies of e-mails for two years.

Second, The decryption ate it is the lamest version of The dog ate my homework that I have ever seen. Decryption does not destroy or alter information. As our bank IT expert Clive put it:

First off, to state unambiguously, when Frost writes: Any link between the substance of the vote and the channel used is broken during the decryption process.  this is flat out wrong hokum. The decryption process does not alter the data (the data here being a record of the vote and the channel it was cast through). A cryptography routine takes data and, stating the obvious, encrypts it and then, optionally, you can decrypt the data again. Nothing whatsoever in any of that alters, deletes or appends anything to the data in its original form in any way.

Attorney Jim Moody, who also has a degree from MIT in computer science, similarly dismissed the decryption excuse out of hand: The explanation is evidence of corruption.

Not to put too fine a point on it, anyone who encounters discussions of computer technology even occasionally knows that the whole point of encryption is to put information in a super secure package so that no one can get at it save the party at the other end with the decryption key. Recall that IT is a big part of CalPERS operations based on the huge number of accounts and payments it tracks. The idea that Marcie didnt recognize that she was (at best) passing on bafflegab or at worst thought she would get away with it reflects poorly on her ability to manage CalPERS.

At best, Frost is directly promoting the culture of casual lying that we have so regularly called out at CalPERS. She is actively enabling election abuses and apparent document destruction to cover it up. This fish is rotting from the head.

We asked Everyone Counts and Integrity Voting Systems to comment. Everyone Counts refused. Integrity Voting Systems did not reply.

The Obviously-Biased Vote by Phone Sample Script

Weve embedded the sample script at the end of the post. One has to assume the one actual is no better and likely worse.

Raymond Stover, who has been in the call center industry for nearly 20 years and has a strong personal interest in developing high quality interactive voice response systems (IVRs), reviewed the script and concluded: This is very lopsided in favor of the unions.

As you can see, once you have gotten past the authorization process, the script repeatedly calls the election a contest. There is an entire industry of scammers who call older people about contests to try to get them to give the fraudsters their credit card information. Some CalPERS beneficiaries called Brown, alarmed that the number CalPERS provided for telephone voting number had a recording that kept referring to a contest. Most people, upon hearing the word contest would be concerned that they had somehow dialed up a con artist who had set up a number that closely resembled the CalPERS election number.

In addition, as noted earlier, the script failed to provide the candidates names early on and instead referred to their order on the ballot. The people who are calling in are doing so in order not to mail in a ballot. They are almost certain not to have it out, so pretending that it is a guide rather than going the obvious route of reading out the names, can only be the result of CalPERS wanting to avoid their use. The set up of the sequence of prompts meant that that helped the incumbent, Bilbrey.

The script violates one of the cardinal rules of IVR design by using different navigation conventions at different points. At the very top of the script, You can review your selections at any time by pressing 4. But in the very next section, 4 is for To hear the previous contest. And since there is only one contest, in this election, every To hear the previous contest is extraneous and thus again can only be intended to confuse.

To put it more simply, these portions of the script were pointless and should never have been there:

Please select a contest to move to. To move to the first contest press 6. [Voter presses 6]

Position B, vote for 1. To go to this contest press 5.

To hear the next contest press 6.

To hear the previous contest press 4.

To submit your vote press 9.

[Voter presses 5]

You are now selecting candidates for Position B. There are 2 candidates which are listed in the

same order as the ballot.

To hear the first candidate, press 8.

To repeat these instructions, press 1.

Similarly, voters are told only once, at the very beginning, how to cast their vote: To submit your vote press 9. They then have to get past two (for Bilbrey) or three (for Brown) other prompts, meaning they have to press other digits on their phone in between. But after they are finally given each candidates name, the script says, To select this candidate, press 5.

So which is? Do you vote for the candidate by pressing 9 or 5? Only someone with a copy of the actual script, like those union phone bankers, knows for sure: The script says: [Voter selects a candidate by pressing 5].

Stover pointed out that the script was also missing basic navigation and verification options:

The IVR should collect a voter registration number (for verification and to help prevent multiple fraudulent votes via phone) and have very clear wording and options. Additionally the choices should be repeated if there is no response, and voters should be presented the option to have questions repeated. Additionally, voters should be able to review their selections and make changes if deemed appropriate.

So either CalPERS hired a grossly incompetent election vendor or the appearance of incompetence was instead a useful cover for heavy-handed efforts to assist the union-backed incumbent, Michael Bilbrey. Given CalPERS persistent stonewallng of Brown in providing relevant records, its not hard to guess which theory is correct.

________

1 We arent making that up. CalPERS has made the strained argument that it is subject only to the Public Employees Retirement Law, when in fact the pension fund is obviously subject to a whole swathe of California law, such as its criminal code, its personnel laws, and all sorts of transparency in government provisions, like the Bagley Keene Open Meetings Act and the Public Record Act. The Secretary of State, under pressure from CalPERS (CalPERS has withheld an exchange between their general counsel and the general counsel of the Secretary of State), certified the elections last year, with the bizarre qualification that the certification did not constitute an endorsement of the election methods used.

2 Extracts from a September 2017 post, which we encourage you to read in full:

CalPERS is using new election procedures that violate the California constitution and election laws by having paper ballots that are not secret and by allowing for voting over the Internet, which is against the California election code. Upon further investigation, it turns out that CalPERS new election process also violates its own election regulation. In addition, CalPERS staff lied to the board by saying the the vendor who is responsible for processing the paper ballots, Integrity Voting Systems, a division of K&H Printing, is certified by the Secretary of State. IVS has no certifications whatsoever. K&H is certified only to print a subset of the ballots used in electronic voting machines in California. It is not certified to produce the ballot CalPERS is using, nor is it certified to count ballots Even worse, the IVS vote-counting operation is obviously amateurish and insecure. Brown and a witness toured the IVS facility.except it wasnt an IVS facility. It was a K&H Printing facility in Everett, Washington, certified for printing and finishing some types of ballots used in California voting systems. There was no IVS sign on the facility nor did any employees have IVS business cards. The Integrity Voting Systems part of the operation is very much an afterthought. IVS also gave implausible answers regarding how the ballot counting process worked. During Browns visit, the employees maintained that all they were doing was checking ballots to see if they had the required signatures, adjudicating ones where the ballot marks might not scan correctly (for instance, if the voter had made a tick marks rather than filling in the circles by the candidates names) and making and checking the PDFs that were then to be sent to yet another vendor, Everyone Counts, for the tally. My, why are we hearing that Everyone Counts name only now? Why has it been kept under wraps, with nary a mention to the board? Could it be because a web search would have revealed unflattering information about Everyone Counts overhyping its pet initiative, voting over the Internet? From a 2016 article in the Atlantic, which among other things, discusses an Internet voting fiasco in Estonia: Theyre pretending like voting is no different than buying a book on Amazon, and theyre completely, by virtue of ignorance or malice, ignoring the truth of the world, said Joe Kiniry, a cybersecurity researcher. The simplest way to check the veracity of their statements is to call up any security researcher in the world that you find online who has made public statements about end-to-end verifiable elections and ask them. And you will find that 999 out of 1000 will tell you that [the likes of] Everyone Counts, [other online voting venders], and Estonia are full of shit.. IVS said Everyone Counts was not just running the vote by phone and Internet parts of the election, but also doing all the tabulation. The reason that sounds implausible is that the equipment in IVS sad-looking counting room was equipment is uses to sum up votes for private elections, meaning non-government elections, such as union elections, as indicated on its web site. Brown saw only ten machines. The six laptops were not capable of scanning. The four other devices are designed not just to create images (which they would do to have an audit trail) but primarily to score tests or ballots.

3 Believe it or not, court decisions have authorized voters bringing someone into a voting booth to help them. However, the reason that it is permitted in those case is the voter has difficulty with the voting system. Think of a blind person dealing with an old-fashioned election booth. Having union representatives on the same phone call as voters make their selection looks like a per se violation of the California constitutional provision, Voting shall be secret. In addition, if you read the script, you can see how the voter first provides the information needed to validate that they have not voted previously. It would be possible to engage in voting fraud by having a voter provide that information and then have the union call center volunteer take over and place the vote.

4 CalPERS and the election vendors may try to maintain the litigation hold was applicable only for as long as the statute of limitations was in force, and that candidates can contest California elections only for a short period after the election has finished. However, Browns lawyer sent a letter describing Browns objection to the election methods. CalPERS is conducting elections on a regular basis. That means Brown can still sue CalPERS over its election methods as a beneficiary, as well as a board member who will presumably seek re-election. That means CalPERS records would be subject to CalPERS records retention policy and the vendors would be subject to other statues, such as ones related to wire fraud, which in most states is ten years. That is unquestionably longer than the five months between the date of her litigation hold and when she asked for this information.Following the rejection by the French Minister for Agriculture and Food of the proposed cuts in CAP, the President of ICMSA has said that not for the first time farmers throughout the EU will look on the French Government as their defenders and the ultimate supporters of the EUs indigenous farming sector.

Pat McCormack said that the statement on the proposed cuts attributed to Monsieur Travert represented the kind of solid, principled and farsighted rebuttal of the Commissions proposal that Irish farmers wished to hear and it was now incumbent upon the Irish Government to fall in behind the French position and signal to the Commission that the proposals represented an unacceptable and devastating blow to what was, in Minister Traverts phrase, the oldest and most integrated policy of European construction.

Mr McCormack said the French position effectively meant that the proposed cuts were all to play for as an budgetary option and Ireland must now resume its efforts to convince the Commission and others to maintain the CAP Budget though increased Member contributions if that is what is required.

The ICMSA President also dismissed the idea that the cuts were manageable and would amount to five percent: Respected analysts have estimated that the proposed cuts would translate to a cut in direct payments of up to 15% and their methodology is a great deal more convincing than airy pronouncements of the cuts only being of the order of five percent. France has opened the door and  given the fundamental role direct payments play in our rural economy  it is up to our Government to step through that door in support of France and, ultimately, ourselves.

Meanwhile IFA have said Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has a big political challenge on his hands, and an increased CAP Budget for Irish farmers has to be a red line issue for him in the negotiations.

IFA President Joe Healy said says the proposal from Commissioner Oettinger of a reduction in the CAP budget post-2020 is a big blow for Irish farmers.

The IFA President said there is a huge task for the Irish Government, the Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan and our MEPs to get an increase in the CAP budget. They must pull out all the stops and reject the cuts agenda by the Commission, he said.

Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, said: I am extremely disappointed at cuts proposed for the CAP in the period from 2021 to 2027.

Over the next few years farm families will be required to play a vital role in the protection and enhancement of the environment and the production of food to the highest standards in the world. These high standards, and the family farm model, are part of the fabric of European values, but come at a price that EU citizens have shown they are willing to pay. We need farmers to take active steps to mitigate climate change, protect water quality and biodiversity, and improve their competitiveness. A strong CAP is a prerequisite if these objectives, which are in the best interests of all citizens, are to be achieved.

In all of these circumstances, and in particular because many farm families rely on the CAP for virtually their entire income, a cut in funding is simply not a realistic proposition.Students and teachers from schools in Carrick-on-Suir and Clonmel have been awarded a prestigious national award, in recognition of their work in promoting global justice and an equal world.

Pamela Cummins (Comeragh College), Abby Fleming and Caroline Boyd (Loreto Secondary School) were awarded a WorldWise Global Schools Diplomatic Passport, in recognition of their extra-curricular work in development education, at an annual schools conference that was held at the Galmont Hotel in Galway at the end of April.

Close to 50 Irish secondary schools received prizes at the event, which was hosted by Worldwise Global Schools (WWGS), the organisation that is charged with delivering Irish Aids schools Development Education programme.

The schools are undertaking development education work across every aspect of school life. They have organised a Model United Nations, celebrated National Empathy Day amongst other activities, said WorldWise Global Schools Director, Rita Walsh.

Comeragh College teacher Pamela Cummins accepts her award.

They were amongst 300 students and teachers from 70 secondary schools to attend the 5th annual Irish Aid WWGS annual conference, where 50 of the schools were awarded WWGS Global Passports.

The conference  led by TV presenter Michael Carey  consisted of school exhibits, interactive workshops, plenary discussions and debates. The event provided a platform for Irish secondary school students to speak out and take action on critical global issues, and to call for the Irish government to take the issue of sustainability seriously.

The day focused on the UNs 17 Sustainable Development Goals that provide the framework for reducing poverty and inequality globally by 2030. Some of the goals focused on climate action, responsible production and consumption and reducing inequalities

Development Education provides schools with the opportunity to really explore global issues and to identify appropriate action they can take in response to inequality and injustice. All of the students and teachers who are at the conference today have demonstrated their commitment to making the world more just and sustainable  which is inspiring for us all, concluded Rita Walsh.Posted Thursday, May 10, 2018 10:03 am

Its not rocket science, Dan Marshall said.

But its more complicated than you might think. As CEO of Marshall Music, he knows what its like to run a successful music store. The 63 year-old has been in charge since 1984.

When he took over the business from mom and dad, Marshall told the employees, I dont know what Im doing, but if youve got my back, well grow this business together.

The articulate and diplomatic graduate of Colorado Universitys business school must have figured it out because grow, it did. The Marshall chain, celebrating its 70th anniversary, now includes seven stores statewide, including its Frandor location.

Michigan is a very strong band and orchestra state, Marshall said. Our payroll is 300 statewide. That includes their school of music teachers, many of whom hold masters and doctorial degrees.

A fleet of 46 Dodge Caravans is available for reps that travel between 1,500 and 3,000 miles a week servicing school music programs. Marshall claims his store works with 80 percent of the schools in the greater Lansing area and probably 60 percent of the schools statewide. Its a really competitive market and we have to earn our position every day.

Being sympathetic to the burdens and pressures of school band directors who struggle every day to keep their program relevant contributes to their market share.

Dan believes, as his parents did, in the multifaceted benefits of music. Marshall Music often sells instruments to schools, at or near cost. They provide 10,000 band rentals a year.

A genuine interest in promoting music is the stores motivation, not just schlepping band instruments, Marshall said. Its my feeling that this store exits for the benefit of the community.

The philosophy reflects William and Mary Marshalls intent when they found a music store for sale in Detroit in 1948. The pair had never been in a music store and neither of them were musicians. According to Dan, they were attracted to the life-enriching aspect of music.

For $15,000, William and Mary bought Weavers Music Store. They had instant inventory, Marshall said. That helped stock the first Marshall Music that opened at 304 North Washington Ave. where Lansing Community College is now. They relocated to one, then another South Washington site. In 1971, the second was involved in a fire.

At the time, Andres record store was next to Marshall Music. The fire happened in the basement of our next door neighbors, Marshall said. A bad electrical fixture ignited cardboard and then a room full of vinyl.

Our store didnt burn. There was just smoke damage.

It was the smoke that caused the death of a firefighter on the third floor of Marshall Music. It was an absolute tragedy, Marshall said. It almost ended the company.

Instead, employees rallied. They cleaned and repainted and managed to start over. More branch stores were added. When Marshall took over, the Lansing and East Lansing stores were consolidated in what was the abandoned, flagship Grinnells music store in Frandor Shopping Center.

Then another local move took place  really local. We had the opportunity to buy the parking lot where the store is now, 23 years ago, Marshall said, referring to their present location. We moved into our parking lot, he said. Two Men and a Truck brought seven trucks and we moved in a weekend.

The current store is in the process of downsizing acoustic piano displays and moving all sales to the main floor. Its not the era of every home having a piano, Marshall said. Its an ever-changing world and retail is not immune to that.

Adapting to change and the reduced demand for records, CDs and sheet music, the upstairs showroom is being rebuilt. Displays of guitars, amps, drums, electric keyboards and such, are not being altered much.

The main floor got kind of sleepy, Marshall said. Band and orchestra was still vibrant. With 80 percent of Marshall Musics focus on school service and 20 percent, everything else, it made sense to move all retail to the main level and expand the lower level band and repair departments.

Marshall Music offers complete in-house repair of all types of instruments and electronics. Our mission is to have a one week turnaround, Marshall said. They provide repair service for all their rentals. Thats really what pays the bills.

Although the 90 Frandor store employees are all musicians, Marshall is not. Just like my parents, I played in a band and didnt succeed, he said. He was part of the fine family tradition of cant carry a tune in a bucket, he said. Ive been honored to work with musicians. They look at the world with eyes that are different from mine.

Marshall Music 3240 E. Saginaw St., Lansing

Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Closed www.marshallmusicweb.comFrom 14 to 19 March 2018, Deputy Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Lieutenant General Steven Shepro visited the United Kingdom where he met with Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, British Chief of Defence, and key senior civilian and military staff at the Ministry of Defence. Lieutenant General Shepro also spoke at the Annual Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), and Command and Control (C2) Battle Management Conference. The Deputy Chairman concluded his trip with visits to the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) HQ and the NATO Maritime Command in Norfolk.

Lieutenant Steven Shepro, Deputy Chairman of the NATO Military Committee kicked off his trip to the United Kingdom with a visit to Whitehall, the British Ministry of Defence. He met with Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach*, Chief of Defence the United Kingdoms role within the Alliance and European security. Lieutenant General Shepro thanked the United Kingdom for all its contributions to common goals and to NATO missions, operations and activities. The UK matters to NATO and NATO matters to the UK.

Echoing the recent Statement of the North Atlantic Council, Lieutenant General Shepro expressed his concern at the attack in Salisbury, this is the first offensive use of a nerve agent on Alliance territory since NATOs foundation and NATO regards any use of chemical weapons as a threat to international peace and security. NATO and Allies have expressed their solidarity to the UK and are standing by to provide any required assistance.

On 15 March, Lieutenant Shepro attended and spoke at the Annual Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), and Command and Control (C2) Battle Management Conference. During his address, the Deputy Chairman stressed that ISR is strategically important for NATO and a pillar of effective defence which is why NATO has made significant Common Funded investments to modernise its ISR capabilities to deter and to respond to a crisis more rapidly and at the speed of relevance.

While visiting the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) HQ, Lieutenant General Shepro met with Lieutenant General Radford, Commander of the ARRC. For the last 26 years, the ARRC has provided NATO with a well-manned, rapidly deployable and flexible HQ. This allows for increased speed which translates into more effective, credible and survivable deterrence and crisis response, highlighted Lieutenant General Shepro.

At the NATO Maritime Command, Lieutenant Shepro received an update on NATO Maritime activities as well as a briefing from the NATO Intelligence Fusion Centre. Lieutenant General Shepro emphasized that NATO is currently reviewing its Command Structure and discussing how to reinforce its Maritime Posture because maritime command and control will be even more critical for our future deterrence and defence.

* Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, Chief of Defence was elected new Chairman of the NATO Military Committee and is due to take over from General Petr Pavel, current Chairman, on 29 June 2018.(Natural News) Around the globe, measures are being taken to reduce air pollution. But are we forgetting that our homes can also harbor pollutants?

In this information age, society and business are dependent on technology, which means that most of us spend a good chunk of our time indoors. The air quality of the environment where we live and work directly impacts our health.

Pollutants, even in the air inside

Alessandro Miani, head of the non-profit Italian Society for Environmental Medicine (SIMA), warned that ironically, indoor air could be more dangerous to our health than outdoor air. Miani said that aside from the contaminants that can also be found in outside air, homes and offices can also contain indoor pollutants. SIMA then came up with a set of rules that can help preserve the air we breathe in indoor settings.

Miani noted that homes often contain pollutants such as dust, molds, and spores. Additionally, indoor pollutants in homes include those that come from daily activities like cooking and cleaning that add to the release of other harmful substances.

Individuals are usually at risk of developing respiratory diseases when they reside in a damp home. Miia Pitkaranta, a Finnish molecular microbiologist whos expertise lies in indoor air quality, said that most studies focus on asthma because its much easier to identify. While there are other warning signs, such as eye irritations, that are more widespread, they can be harder to quantify and take note of. Pitkaranta explained that mechanisms such as allergies, direct toxicity, and irritation might also be involved. (Related: Natural ways to purify the air indoors.)

According to the EU Healthy Homes Barometer 2017, at least 40 percent of individuals have a higher chance of developing asthma if their home is damp or moldy. Now, a whopping 2.2 million Europeans have asthma because of their living conditions. One out of six Europeans also reported that most of the time they are in unhealthy buildings with damp floors and walls, leaking roofs, and poor daylight.

Aside from causing various health problems, indoor pollutants have an economic impact. The cost of asthma and chronic pulmonary disease is about 82 billion per year in Europe. Half of this is spent on medicine and care while the other half (or roughly 40 billion) is chalked up to indirect costs like reduced work productivity.

To address this, the European Commission has suggested revising the Energy performance of buildings directive, such as measures to promote the use of smart technology, to streamline existing rules and accelerate building renovation.

The Healthy Homes Barometer also emphasized that 45 percent of Europeans live in homes with low temperatures to save money, especially since they have to pay expensive bills, live in inefficient buildings, and have low incomes. To lower energy costs and boost their health, homeowners are advised to work on refurbishing their homes.

However, only two percent of European homes are properly renovated yearly.

Because of this, EU research projects are focused on motivating people to start renovating more. For example, R2Cities (Residential Renovation towards nearly zero energy Cities) has collaborated with at least 1,500 individuals in Italy, Spain, and Turkey. Energy-saving technologies are also being enforced. There are demonstration districts in Genoa (Italy) and Kartal (Turkey), with works being financed by the European Union and the municipalities. In Valladolid, Spain, theres a residential complex where homeowners have also worked on interventions.

Its not too late to take inspiration from these various projects around the globe. Now might be the time to get the ball rolling on measures that can be enforced to address similar problems concerning indoor pollution in the U.S.

Natural ways to purify the air in your home

Start purifying the air in your home to prevent yourself and your loved ones from getting sick because of various indoor pollutants. Check out the natural ways that you can do this below:

Beeswax candles  Regular paraffin candles are made from petroleum that can pollute the air, but pure beeswax candles burn with little to no smoke or scent. Beeswax candles also release negative ions into the air, and they can benefit people with asthma or allergies since these get rid of common allergens like dust and dander.

 Regular paraffin candles are made from petroleum that can pollute the air, but pure beeswax candles burn with little to no smoke or scent. Beeswax candles also release negative ions into the air, and they can benefit people with asthma or allergies since these get rid of common allergens like dust and dander. A Himalayan salt lamp  When Himalayan salt lamps are lit, the crystallized salt is heated by the small bulb inside. This releases negative ions also to neutralize air pollutants.

 When Himalayan salt lamps are lit, the crystallized salt is heated by the small bulb inside. This releases negative ions also to neutralize air pollutants. Houseplants  Some plants are perfect for eliminating pollutants like benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene. Top picks include the bamboo palm, Boston fern, dracaena, dragon tree, English ivy, golden pothos, lady palm, and the spider plant. Put at least one plant per 100 square feet in your home to maximize the air purifying effect of your houseplants.

You can read more articles on natural ways to minimize air pollution in your home at Pollution.news.

Sources include:

AlphaGalileo.org

ApartmentTherapy.comThe Great Barrier Reef is worth saving.

This is true whether you add it up in cash, as the Deloitte Access Economics Report did, valuing it at $42 billion (including 64,000 Australian jobs), or as an iconic natural wonder stretching 1400 miles that can be seen from space, or as a living reef supporting countless animal and plant species in one of the most unique and complex ecosystems in the world.

However you value it, there is no question that the reef is dying and that global warming is playing the dominant role in its demise.

Recently the entire Pacific Ocean went through one of the longest bleaching periods in recorded history. Coral bleaching happens when the coral is exposed to warming sea temperatures and starts to be damaged by the sun. When the coral bleaches, it dies and the life that lived in and beneath the living coral dies off as well. In the past two years, experts say that the reef has lost almost half of its coral this way.

The Australian government released the Reef 2050 Plan to protect and maintain the reef through the year 2050. Since release of the plan, the Australian and Queensland governments have made good progress in implementing the 151 actions in the initial five years with 89 percent completed or underway and on track.

Among the goals:

End dumping of dredged material from five major industrial ports.

Prohibit future dredging.

Halt and reverse the decline in water quality entering the Reef from agriculture, including pesticide and nitrogen. Provide extra protection to turtles and dugongs through tough new laws against poaching, improved sustainability agreements with Indigenous communities and local land managers and funding to help reduce marine debris.

Over $A2 billion projected investment in the coming decade for research and management activities on the Reef and in the adjoining catchments along the coast.

Establish a new $A40 million Reef Trust towards improving water quality.

An additional $A100 million over five years towards water quality initiatives, scientific research and helping business transition to better environmental practices in primary production and fishing industries.

Recently, the targets for the plan have been in doubt. During a meeting of the Reef 2050 advisory committee, some of the experts who enacted the plan said they no longer think the goals are realistic.

The Great Barrier Reef Independent Expert Panel, another group trying to implement the Reef 2050 Plan, voiced its concern over the feasibility of the goals set forth. The panel stated that "Coral bleaching since early 2016 has changed the Reef fundamentally."

The statement continued: "There is great concern about the future of the Reef, and the communities and businesses that depend on it but hope still remains for maintaining ecological function over the coming decades."

Bleaching and global warming aren't the only challenges the reef is facing. Since 2004 there have been 5 major oil spills around the reef. Most recently, a Panama based company spilled 15 tons of oil near the reef, for which it may be fined up to $17 million.

It seems that there are many groups trying to bring the reef back from the brink, but many factors that are making the progress difficult. Oil spills continue to be a problem and there seems to be no end to them anytime soon.

The bleaching phenomenon appears to be ending and that may give the reef some time to recover from the worst bleaching in recorded history. However, with sea temperatures rising, experts think that the next bleaching event may not be too far away and that this could be the new norm for coral reefs across the world. Higher sea temperatures could just be alternating between northern and southern hemispheres and bleaching events following their paths.

So how dead is the Great Barrier Reef? Not all dead, but certainly not thriving. It needs a lot of good luck, good policy and the reversal of climate change to bring it back from the brink.The new movie "47 Meters Down" is an affront to science and ocean biology. It stars Mandy Moore, so I will assume it is also an affront to acting in general. But I'll stick to the science, which is bad enough.

The basic premise: Two sisters go shark cage diving in Mexico. The cable breaks, and they are sent plummeting to the ocean floor, 47 meters down, and are trapped there with white sharks swimming all around. A tough situation, but I'd rather be there than in this theater watching this movie.

The whole movie hinges on a single decision: whether the girls should leave the cage and swim with the "dangerous" sharks up to the surface, or wait until the rescue team comes.

There are some basic scientific problems with this premise.

First, there isn't much time to make this decision. Both of the women have one oxygen tank. As soon as their predicament starts, they start breathing quickly and heavily. Based on the oxygen required to breathe at that depth and the limited amount in their tanks, this movie should last about 15 minutes.

"These characters are at 47 meters, which is around 155 feet, with a single scuba tank," Chris Lowe, a professor of marine biology at CSU Long Beach told Inverse. "The reality of it is that they are going to run out of air in 15 minutes, and because they're panicked, they are breathing harder and faster."

The women are advised to stay in the cage. This is idiotic. The idea that you would stay inside a cage trapped at the bottom of the ocean is about as dumb as paying for a movie that stars Mandy Moore.

As production goes, I get it. If the movie ended with the divers simply swimming to the top, it would be a pretty short movie and we would all be pissed that we didn't even finish our tub of popcorn before the movie ended. The producers needed to draw out the scenario and make this schlockfest last for over 90 minutes. I don't blame them for that.

What I do blame them for is the nonsense of instilling an unhealthy fear of sharks into the movie.

Sharks are not interested in eating divers. Sharks are predators of opportunity. They don't just attack you for the sake of attacking you. They are survivors. Divers, with their shiny tanks and bubbles and masks, do not look like easy prey to a shark. Sharks would not risk the chances that they might get hurt by attacking you, which is why most sharks avoid divers entirely.

"99.9 percent of the time that shark is going to check them out, think 'what the hell is that,' and then take off," said Lowe.

The idea that if you go swimming with great white sharks that they are going to eat you is a pop culture myth propagated to sell movie tickets. Sharks are not the aggressive violence-seeking predators that we make them out to be in movies.

The myth is especially upsetting because shark populations are declining worldwide. When the media and pop culture demonizes sharks, it makes it hard for conservationists to mobilize public sentiment to do anything to protect them. Sharks are a vital part of the ecosystem and important for maintaining the predator-prey relationship.

The divers are also advised not to return to the surface because they would get the bends. The bends, also known as decompression sickness, afflicts deep sea divers who stay at depths for an extended amount of time and then return to the surface too quickly. The rapidly changing pressure causes dissolved nitrogen in the blood to come out of solution and form bubbles in the body. Incredibly painful.

The movie gets this all wrong as well, according to Lowe.

"If they were dropped to the bottom, and let's just say they have a full tank when that happened, they would have about 15 minutes of air before they would run out, at best. They wouldn't be deep long enough to require what we call decompression stops, which allow that nitrogen to come out of your blood and for you to exhale it, so that you wouldn't get the bends."

So the divers are told to stay in the shark cage so that they don't get the bends they are almost certain not to get, and not to ascend to the surface to save themselves since the sharks will certainly eat them alive, which they won't. The divers heed this bad advice so the movie can drag on.

The American myth of the killer shark is here to stay. We love to fear them and movies and pop culture continually support this and demonize sharks in the process, making them harder and harder to save.

What is almost impossible to save is the premise of this movie. i understand that the writers and producers are not scientists. However, it takes just as much effort to get the science right as it does to get it wrong.

Someone tell that to climate change deniers.Temperatures are rising to 100 degrees Fahrenheit scorching the areas of Southern Europe that include Croatia, Romania, Spain, and Italy. Eastern Europe is toasting in a hot atmosphere with sweltering temperature records of up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists dub the boiling weather condition as "Lucifer."

Extreme temperatures Fan Forest Fires

"Lucifer's" scathing temperatures triggered as many as 75 forest fires in Albania sending weather warning alerts and destruction of crops worth billions of Euros. 300 firefighters and soldiers are now fighting the bushfires in the country. Albania seeks the help of the European Union to combat the situation as Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, and Macedonia are busy fighting their bushfires.

The worst effect of the heat wave is in the parts of Italy and the Balkans that comprise the regions of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, The Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia, the European part of Turkey, and Serbia, reports Reuters.

Trail of destruction and Casualties as Lucifer cruises through till the following week

Metro Alarm, Europe's Weather bureau issued a red alert warning to 10 European countries directly affected by the extreme condition. The havoc caused people to suffer heat strokes, and other ailments related to the severe heat "Lucifer."

The temperature over the 40-degree Fahrenheit scale will cascade through next week. The Italian island of Sardinia hit a blistering temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit. The most recent casualty is a woman swept away by muddy waters released by torrential rain caused by humid conditions near the Alpine Ski Resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo.

In Italy, humidity and other conditions are factors making the "Lucifer" phenomenon much hotter like the Campania, the region surrounding Naples hitting a staggering temperature of 131 degrees F. In Rome, tourists risk the penalties in braving to cool off in the fountains of the Eternal City, reports Mail OnLine.

Heat wave in the United States and other countries

The United States caught up with the broiling temperatures dubbed "Lucifer" in Italy. The Pacific Northwest that includes the States of Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Idaho, and Washington hit the 104 degrees F scale.

Spain is under the red alert warning issued by Metro Alarm where temperatures reached as high as 111 degrees F. The Southern part of Cordoba got an 113 degree F record. Serbia issued warnings and precautions to its citizens like shying away from alcohol, place wet towels on windows in the absence of air conditioning, and to avoid over exertion, reports The New York Times.

Experts say that a broader trend is causing summer to grow hotter every year. Global Warming is the cause for the climate abnormalities happening to the world.Cockroaches are bad enough invading the home, but it's even worse when they crawl inside the body, which is exactly what happened to Katie Holley.

The experience, the Florida resident says, is just as horrifying as one would imagine.

Finding A Cockroach In The Ear

Holley shared the experience in a self-penned essay in Self magazine, revealing that it began when she woke up in the middle of one night to a strange feeling in her ear. Knowing that a foreign object was lodged in her ear, she used a cotton swab to try getting it out, but only ended up with two little legs stuck on the tip.

Since cockroaches in the house are quite common in the humid climate of Florida, Holley knew immediately that it was one of these crawling insects that was in her ear. Her husband tried pulling out the cockroach from her ear with tweezers, but only managed to wrench another pair of legs from the insect trying to burrow its way deeper.

After another unsuccessful attempt at solving the problem themselves, the couple decided to go to the emergency room to get medical attention. At this point, Holley was in even more discomfort.

"Think of that humming sound you hear when you plug your ears and press really hard-that's what I heard and felt, on the left side of my head as the roach tried to crawl. It was bizarre," she describes in the essay.

At the hospital, the doctor used Lidocaine, a topical numbing agent, to kill the cockroach before pulling the insect out piece by piece. Afterward, Holley was given a prescription for antibiotics, both oral and topical.

Not Done Yet

The trip to the hospital wasn't the end of the ordeal, though. Throughout the following week, Holley did not see an improvement in the soreness of her ear and she remained unable to hear properly.

When she visited her physician to renew her daily meds nine days after the ER trip, it was discovered that six more pieces of the cockroach's carcass was still inside her ear. The physician proceeded to make an ENT emergency appointment for Holley, since there might be more pieces left out of her reach.

Later the same day, the ENT extracted more pieces from Holley's ear: the head, upper torso, other legs, and the antennae among them.

More Common Story Than You Think

As the doctor told Holley, insects inside the ear is a more common experience than one would think.

A study published in the South African Medical Journal revealed that the Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town removed 23 insects from patients' ears in just a two-year period.

In 2017, doctors even found a live cockroach inside a woman's brain, having crawled there through the nose.Hawaii is moving forward with the bill banning sunscreens harmful to the corals, but what does this mean for tourists?

Hawaii Senate Bill 2571 specifically prohibits the sale and distribution of sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate without a prescription. These two chemicals reportedly cause damage to Hawaii's rich marine life.

Choosing The Right Sunscreen

However, oxybenzone is also a chemical that is in more than 3,500 skin-care products, so it's important that tourists should be careful of what sunscreen they're picking up from the store. Check the ingredients before each purchase.

According to Live Science, tourists headed to Hawaii should opt for mineral sunscreens that contain zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. These minerals help protect the skin from the sun's rays without contributing to the coral damage.

"Mineral sunscreens with a high sun protection factor, UVA and UVB protection (the former penetrates the skin more deeply but the latter is more intense and the chief cause of sunburn) are as effective as chemical sunscreens, great for people with sensitive skin or inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema, and kinder to marine life," Dr. Catherine Borysiewicz tells The Independent.

Borysiewicz is an NHS consultant trained at Cambridge and UCL. She's also a dermatologist at the award-winning Cadogan Clinic.

A downside? These types of sunscreen often leave a harmless yet somewhat goofy looking white sheen when it's applied to the skin, which is why beach-goers often passed on these products.

Tourists are cautioned against using sunscreen with nano-forms of the minerals, though, as these are found to have a negative effect on phytoplankton.

Environmental Working Group offers a list of sunscreen products that meet their standards, which includes a number of products from popular brands such as Aveeno, Coppertone, Kiehl's, and Neutrogena.

Can The Ban Really Help?

It's not the single problem afflicting the ocean, but with hordes of tourists swimming in Hawaii all year round, even small issues like bad sunscreen are magnified.

"Any little thing we can do could have a huge impact, because corals are getting it from every side," biologist Nikki Traylor-Knowles from the University of Miami explains to Live Science.

In coves and lagoons, the waters can be concentrated with sunscreen rapidly. Traylor-Knowles points out that fish can escape an affected area, but corals are stuck to take the brunt of the damage.

If the Governor David Ige signs the bill, Hawaii's ban on harmful sunscreens begins on Jan. 1, 2021.A truck for a sliver of a liver? Verlon Robinson is offering that trade in a desperate attempt to save his wife's life.

A Facebook Plea

The California resident took to social media to seek a donor for his wife Marie's liver transplant, posting a plea for donors on Facebook.

"We have been married for 25 years and it breaks my heart when I think about losing her," Verlon wrote on Facebook, explaining his wife's life-threatening and irreversible liver disease. "I would do anything to trade places with her but as you know that's impossible."

"So please if you are O positive or negative blood type and would consider giving her some of your liver we have insurance that would cover all surgeries," he continues.

Verlon offered his '04 Dodge truck and a trailer in exchange for the liver, even adding that he'll throw in one of his kidneys for the deal.

Marie's Deteriorating Condition

Marie was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, according to a report from KMPH. The disease will eventually lead to liver failure, which doctors say can't be cured. However, a liver transplant will considerably slow down the process.

Her health is already beginning to deteriorate. Since being diagnosed three years ago, Marie has lost 70 pounds in liquid weight. Her mental capabilities are getting affected as well, with instances of confusion and forgetfulness becoming more and more common.

Unfortunately, she is only one of 18,000 patients on the wait list for the liver.

"There are so many people out there that are sick, and need help, and I am just one of them. I just have a wonderful husband who is willing to give it all," Marie tells KMPH.

No Material Trades Allowed

An update to Verlon's Facebook post reveals that the UCSF Medical Center reached out to him to tell him exchanging material possessions for organs are not allowed. As a result, he had to take down the photos of his truck and trailer.

However, he adds, the offer to exchange his kidney for a part of a liver is still on the table.

Verlon also expressed his gratitude to the "wonderful awesome beautiful people" who reached out to him in support through social media.

Marie's plight highlights the immense difficulty transplant patients have in securing an organ for their life-threatening diseases.

Parties interested in helping Marie may fill out a questionnaire to be submitted to UCSF Medical Center.A Walnut Creek pharmacy with a troubled past is once again being scrutinized by authorities for dispensing large quantities of powerful prescription opioid painkillers under suspicious circumstances, according to an Administrative Inspection Warrant affidavit obtained by NBC Bay Areas Investigative Unit.

According to the warrant affidavit, DEA Diversion Investigators found the pharmacy and its owner, Gerald Tung, had dispensed more than 3,300 pills containing the opioid drugs Oxycodone and Oxymorphone to one patient over a six-month period, amounting to about 18 pills per day.

During a review of the pharmacys records, investigators identified additional red flags potentially indicative of the illegal distribution of opioid drugs.

The database also indicates that Advanced Medical Pharmacy often dispenses multiple narcotic controlled substances to patients that reside at the same address, which is suspicious because this tends to be an indicator that the narcotics prescriptions may not be legitimate, and it is rare for individuals residing in the same household to have identical medical conditions requiring the same or a similar combination of powerful narcotic cocktails, a DEA Diversion Investigator wrote.

According to the returned search warrant, investigators took 11 boxes of prescription drugs and medical records for 60 patients from the pharmacy.

A DEA spokesperson declined to discuss the specifics of the case, but said the pharmacy no longer possesses a valid DEA registration. Without that, the pharmacy isnt permitted to dispense most prescription drugs, including opioid painkillers.

Pharmacist Gerald Tung declined to be interviewed on-camera for the story, but spoke to NBC Bay Area in April from inside his pharmacy. He conceded that he filled a substantial number of prescriptions for opioids, but said many of his customers are chronic pain patients, and the powerful painkillers are their only source of relief. Tung also said doctors were responsible for writing his customers prescriptions, and he sometimes called those doctors to check a prescriptions validity if he noticed any red flags.

Several weeks after speaking with NBC Bay Area inside his pharmacy, Tung emailed a statement, saying, in part:

Education to the public about [staying] away from illegal drugs, and strictly [following] prescribers orders to take the prescribed medicine, the danger of not following the order, and [following] up closely with their providers to assess treatment alternatives, are the keys to control the current opioid epidemic. Closing down medical offices and pharmacies, and leaving chronic pain patients without proper pain treatment, are never solutions to the active drug seeking behavior individuals.

Although Advanced Medical Pharmacy recently lost its DEA registration, Tung still has an active pharmacist license and currently faces no disciplinary action by the Pharmacy Board.

But former California Pharmacy Board Member Ramon Castellblanch, an associate professor of public health at San Francisco State University, said the accusations warrant a Board investigation.

If that pharmacy was dispensing along those lines, they could be putting patients at grave risk, Castellblanch said. I, as one [former] board member, would have a serious problem with this pharmacist continuing to practice because of these kinds of patterns. Its not just that they are breaking the rules, but they could be killing people.

Castellblanch, pointing to an opioid overdose death rate that continues to climb, said pharmacists are the last line of defense in the fight to rein in opioid abuse. He recently developed a continuing education course for pharmacists to highlight what their responsibilities are when it comes to dispensing drugs.

You have a corresponding responsibility with the prescriber for the safety of the patient, Castellblanch said. When you dispense opioids, if you see a red flag, you need to check it out.

This is not the first time the Walnut Creek pharmacy has been under a microscope. Just two years ago, the previous owner of the pharmacy, James Yuen, voluntarily surrendered his license after the California State Board of Pharmacy accused him of 14 separate code violations, including excessive furnishing of a controlled substance.

In its 2016 accusation against Yuen, the Pharmacy Board wrote, in part:

For certain patients, Respondent [Advanced Medical Pharmacy] dispensed excessive, and in some cases potentially lethal, doses and/or amounts of controlled substances, including oxycodone, acetaminophen containing controlled substances, methadone, fentanyl, zolpidem, and zaleplon.

Yuen did not respond to several calls for comment from NBC Bay Area. Tung said he barely knew the previous owner and was not familiar with the allegations against him.

Castellblanch said pharmacists, along with doctors, drug companies and everyone else in the supply chain, must address their respective roles in an opioid epidemic he says shows no signs of slowing down.

Were still at probably triple or quadruple the number of opioids prescribed per capita than 20 years ago, he said. So we have a long way to go.Years of data from immigration courts around the United States and compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University show that whether or not a person seeking asylum is granted that request depends more on where they live and appear before an immigration court judge than it does on the facts of the case.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit closely tracked the asylum results at every U.S. immigration court over the past three years and found a wide variation in the number of asylum approvals depending upon the court; in some instances the rate varies as much as 75 percentage points.

From 2016 through the first part of 2018, immigration courts in Los Angeles and San Francisco consistently ranked in the nations top 15 courts when it comes to the number of asylum requests granted. Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, New York and Boston were also in the top 15 each year. Court data show each of those courts grants asylum requests more than 50 percent of the time.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, U.S. immigration courts that are vastly less likely to approve asylum petitions include Atlanta, Lumpkin, Georgia, Charlotte, Dallas and Houston. In some of those courts, asylum is granted around 20 percent of the time. In other jurisdictions, like the court in Lumpkin, judges grant asylum only 10 percent of the time.

This disparity has led many observersfrom academic researchers, to judges, to the very lawyers appearing before the immigration court judgesto worry that political beliefs could be getting in the way of justice in Americas immigration courts.

There's something going on that is very, very troubling, said Karen Musalo, director at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the UC Hastings School of Law in San Francisco. Musalo spent years studying these inconsistencies in asylum outcomes.

I think there are a number of factors that contribute to these disparities. They have to do with both the selection process for the individual judges and what their backgrounds are and whether or not they're qualified (to serve as judges), Musalo said.

It has to do with a politicization of the selection process. It has to do with a lack of independence of these immigration judges, she added.

U.S. Immigration Court judges are not part of the independent judiciary but, rather, are appointed and work for the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which is an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice.

NBC Bay Area

Congresss own Government Accountability Office twice issued reportsin 2008 and 2016that point out a signification variation in asylum cases. In its reports, the GAO called on Congress to fix the problem.

But so far, nothing has happened.

The gap in asylum outcomes can take a human toll. Take, for instance, the stories of Maria and Mariel, whose names have been changed to protect their privacy.

Both women fled Honduras after being repeatedly sexually assaulted since they were children.

Im afraid, Maria said. I was raped at the age of 8.

NBC Bay Area

Maria says the sexual assaults continued into her adulthood, including by a police officer who became the father of her child.

Maria fled Honduras for the United States seven years ago.

Mariels name and age may be different, but her story is eerily similar to Marias. She also fled Honduras to escape a lifetime of sexual assault that started when she was a child.

She came to the United States seeking refuge from a physically and sexually abusive relationship back home. Mariel says the man she was in a relationship with drank a lot and was aggressive.

Im afraid of him, she said. Psychologically, he had me. I do not know how to say it. He made me do what he wanted. He made me have sex with him when he wanted to. It was a nightmare. It could not be me. I did not have life.

Mariel says she fled to the U.S. out of fear for her life, but she was forced to leave her young child behind. Mariel hasnt seen her child in 18 years.

Though they endured similar horrors and fled the same country seeking protection, the women ended up in different locations once they arrived in the U.S.

Mariel came to the San Francisco Bay Area, where her request for asylum was granted by a U.S. immigration court judge.

Maria fled to Atlanta, where her request for asylum was denied. Her lawyers have appealed her case to higher U.S. immigration courts.

It's a rough place to practice immigration law, said Sarah Owings, one of Marias immigration attorneys in Atlanta.

The bench can be a lot more hostile," she said. The government is really interested in winning every case every time as opposed to sometimes, I think, doling out the most fair and correct administration of benefits.

Hannah MacNorlin is another one of Marias attorneys. She says anti-immigrant sentiment in Atlanta plays a pivotal role in asylum outcomes there.

The law is consistent across the country. It's the way it's being applied, MacNorlin said. It's the judges not following the law. It's the judges feeling like they can decide that they don't like this kind of asylum case, and so they're going to decide that the law doesn't apply.

Paul Wickham Schmidt, a retired U.S. immigration judge, says the nations immigration court disparity is so wide that it can be explained only by personal bias creeping into judges decisions.

If I were an immigrant, I'd rather be in California than in Atlanta, Georgia, any day, he said. Clearly, the attitudes of the judges and how they feel about asylum law has quite a bit to do with it, Schmidt added.

The EOIR, the agency in charge of the immigration courts, declined NBC Bay Area's request for an interview on the subject. Kathryn Mattingly, an EOIR spokesperson, emailed a statement:

Regarding your reference to TRAC data, please note that we do not comment on third-party analysis of EOIR data because the method another party may use to analyze the raw data may be different from the analytical techniques EOIR uses. When looking at this issue, it is important to note that each asylum case is unique, with its own set of facts, evidentiary factors, and circumstances. Asylum cases typically include complex legal and factual issues and EOIR immigration judges and Board of Immigration Appeals members review each one on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration every factor allowable by law. It is also important to note that immigration courts in detained facilities typically have lower asylum grant rates because detained aliens with criminal convictions are not eligible for many forms of relief from removal. That all said, EOIR takes seriously any claims of unjustified and significant anomalies in immigration judge decision-making and takes steps to evaluate disparities in immigration adjudications. In addition, EOIR monitors immigration judge performance through an official performance work plan and evaluation process, as well as daily supervision of the courts by assistant chief immigration judges.

Now that shes been granted asylum, Mariel hopes to bring her child to live with her in the Bay Area. Its a small ray of light in what has been a life riddled with dark times.

Sometimes it seems like people dont care about it, she said. We are human beings. We all deserve to live.

NBC Bay Area

Meanwhile, Maria and her attorneys are hoping an appellate court will see her case in a different light and render a different decision. Maria says she remains hopeful her daughter will still get a shot at a life in the United States.

I came to this country to get away, because I thought that here they could do something for me, Maria said. [I want] to stay here with my daughter. I do not want the same things to happen to her that happened to me.Posted Thursday, May 10, 2018 10:03 am

On April 10, The Brewers Association announced their inaugural list of the 50 Fastest Growing Craft Breweries of 2017, and Lansings very own Ellison Brewery & Spirits made the list, along with only one other Michigan craft brewery.

We focus on quality. We want flavor.

Our beers sell so quickly, I think, because of that, said Aaron Hanson, owner of Ellison Brewery & Spirits.

While mega beer producers like Anheuser-Busch and Heineken create consistent, quality products, smaller breweries like Ellison, focusing more on flavor and unique styles, are popping up across the nation, especially here in the Mitten State, and are doing quite well.

Were focused on growing, but growing smartly, said Hanson. Im not trying to add a lot of debt overhead, Im trying to pay as I go. Im not trying to spend millions of dollars on brand-new facilities, this is our only facility.

The breweries that made the list included 50 craft breweries from 26 states.

In order to be considered to make the list, breweries had to be small and independent breweries (all of their production at their own facilities), they must have opened on Dec. 31 of 2015 or earlier, and the list only includes breweries that have reported to the Brewers Associations annual Beer Industry Production Survey.

Also, in order to be considered, breweries must have collected data from last three years, consecutively.

We went from just a couple of hundred barrels in the first year (2015), to 1200 in 2016, and 3300 in 2017, said Hanson, noting that Ellison is on pace to produce anywhere from 6-6,500 barrels this year.

According to the brewers association website, the median growth from 2016 to 2017 for these breweries was 216 percent; the median size of breweries on the list went from 284 barrels in 2016 to 963 barrels in 2017, putting Ellison above the bar on the list for growth. Hanson said that currently, they are producing approximately 15,000 gallons per month, and in their facility, there is plenty of room for expansion before needing a second brewing facility.

Even with just this facility, with the tanks we have, we make 450-500 barrels per month right now and we could add another 250-300 barrels of production capacity without any infrastructure updates, said Hanson, adding that the company is looking to expand to add a second brewing facility in the coming year.

The other Michigan brewery that made the top 50 Fastest Growing Breweries list was Paddle Hard Brewing, located in Grayling.

The market is so saturated right now, especially in Michigan that some of the brands that have been around for a while are starting to really hurt, said Hanson. His plan to stay above the curve is to keep making good beer, and increase production and awareness.

To increase awareness, Ellison has hosted and participated in many national and regional brewing events, one of which is going to be happening this month in Vermont.

The event, Vermont Loves Michigan!, is put on by a beer distributor called Vermont (VT) Beer Shepherds.

The distributor puts on this event every month that sort of highlights certain states, so they buy the beer and import it to Vermont, where they show whats going on in that particular state, said Hanson.

Similar to the idea of a tap-takeover, this particular event, hosted by VT Beer Shepherds, will feature four Michigan breweries to represent some of the best in the state. Both Ellison and Old Nations beers will be in attendance, representing greater Lansing, but Ellison is one of the only ones sending representatives.

Im actually going and Im excited to meet more people from the beer scene in Vermont, he said, noting that Vermont is the home to some amazing brews, inspiring many brewers in Michigan.

Its fun to go back with our stouts and IPAs and show them, hey, we can make these just as good if not better than you guys can.

Ellison Brewery & Spirits

4903 Dawn Ave, East Lansing, MI 48823 Mon.-Tues. 3 to 10 p.m. Wed.-Thurs. 3 to 11 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Noon to Midnight Sunday Noon to 8 p.m. www.ellisonbrewing.com (517) 203-5498The six candidates who took the stage at Tuesdays California governors debate squared off on a litany of contentious topics  immigration, jobs, housing and early childhood education  but nothing was more tense than the exchange in which Republican state Assemblyman Travis Allen referenced an affair Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom had with a city staffer while he was mayor of San Francisco.

During a televised discussion about character, Allen called out Newsom for having an affair with his appointment secretary Ruby Rippey Gibney in 2007. Gibney was married to Newsoms friend and adviser Alex Tourk.

If you cant trust Gavin with his best friends wife how can you trust him with your state? Allen said.

Newsom shot back: Its hard to hear from Mr. Allen  whos a devout supporter of Donald Trump  talk about the about sexual harassment.

He continued: As it relates to the issue thats been referred to, I was honest about it. I was open about it. I apologized about it, Newsom said.

In a Facebook message back in February, Rippey Gibney addressed the scandal that had rocked the then mayors office and San Francisco politics.



"I fully support the #metoo movement. In this particular instance, however, I am doubtful that it applies," Rippey Gibney wrote. "Yes, I was a subordinate, but I was also a free-thinking, 33-yr old adult married woman & mother. (I also happened to have an unfortunate inclination towards drinking-to-excess & self-destruction.)"

Former Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, was also questioned about his extramarital affair with a television reporter when he was mayor of Los Angeles.

Newsom and Villaraigosa  who also faced an adultery scandal while he was mayor of Los Angeles  said they learned and grew from the incidents.

I made a mistake. I lost my marriage. I lost my family for a time, Villaraigosa said. I took responsibility for it. My whole life Ive taken responsibility for my actions."

He added: I stand with the #MeToo movement.

Also during the debate, Republican Assemblyman Travis Allen dismissed a harassment complaint filed against him as a minor issue ginned up by Democrats.

Other candidates also weighed in.

Being unfaithful is something that is terrible, but beyond that using public money to cover up something that is totally inappropriate is double trouble where I come from, said democrat and former schools superintendent Delaine Eastin.

Character does matter, we need people to change the culture whether its in the capital Sacramento or Washington D.C., Hollywood, Silicon Valley  If you abuse your power and engage in sexual harassment, youre unfit, unable to serve in office, said former state treasurer John Chiang.

To me its about power and responsibility, said John Cox, a Republican businessman. My mom was a single mom, I have four daughters who are in the workplace, I dont want them harassedthis is about power. Mr. Newsom and Mr. Villaraigosa will have to answer for their moral failures.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A pair of jeans and a shoe entangled in its leg were found on the beach near the crash site of the Hart family in Mendocino County, investigators said Thursday.

A Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputy was dispatched to the area of Hardy Creek, approximately one mile north of where police said an the members of the Hart family from Washington state drove off the cliff in their SUV on March 26.

Police said they found a girl's size-10 pair of jeans and a shoe that appeared to be a 3.5 child's size, or a 5.5 women's size. Two children, Devonte Hart and Hannah Hart, remain unaccounted for following the incident.

"Upon inspection, it was determined skeletal remains of what appeared to be a human foot was inside of the shoe. The shoe with the skeletal remains were released to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Coroner's Division," Captain Gregory L. Van Patten said in a statement.

Three of the four children who were eventually found weeks after the incident had Diphenhydramine, an active ingredient in Benadryl, in their blood, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Officials recovered the bodies of the children's adopted mothers, 38-year-old Jennifer Hart and Sarah Hart, as well as Markis Hart, 19; Jeremiah Hart, 14; Abigail Hart, 14; and Ciera Hart, 12.

The FBI has placed the other two missing children on its missing persons list. Nonetheless, investigators said they have no evidence indicating the two remaining children are still alive and officials continue to search the ocean and nearby beaches.A male driver allegedly opened fire at the driver of another car in San Jose's Evergreen neighborhood Thursday morning, according to police.

The male victim was not hurt, and his car was not hit by gunfire during the reported shooting, which happened just before 10 a.m. in the area of Knightswood Way at Balardo Way, according to police.

The victim told police that he was driving along Ruby Avenue when the suspect drove up next to him, fired one round and fled the scene.

The suspect and the suspect's vehicle have yet to be found, according to police.

Further information was not available.A South San Francisco middle school teacher faces felony charges related to lewd and lascivious acts with minors, police said.

Joseph Goodman Toy, 39, was arrested Thursday at his home in San Bruno following a police investigation. The South San Francisco Police Department started an investigation on April 25 after receiving reports alleging a teacher at Westborough Middle School was having inappropriate interactions with students during school hours.

Toy has been a teacher at the school for 13 years, authorities said. He has been booked into San Mateo County Jail.

The South San Francisco Unified School District has placed Toy on administrative leave once the initial information was reported on April 25. Parents of students involved were also notified.

School district officials are working with police in the ongoing investigation. Anyone with information related to the case may contact the South San Francisco Police Department at 650-877-8900.A relatively unknown U.S. Senate candidate in California who was booted from the state's Republican Party Convention for a campaign promise to "remove Jewish leaders" from power is getting new attention since seen surging in one political poll.

Patrick Little from Albany had little political profile until he popped up second on a late-April Survey-USA poll, garnering 18 percent behind incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

"My whole campaign is predicated on removing the Jewish supremacists from control of our country," Little said in an interview with NBC Bay Area.

The Jewish Community Relations Council has denounced Little's platform in the strongest possible words, calling it "anti-Semitic vitriol."



Little, who has praised Adolf Hitler and calls himself a "counter-Semite," has been endorsed by former KKK leader David Duke and claims to draw inspiration from President Donald Trump.

"He showed me that people were willing to respond to dog whistles about whites having group interests, so I decided to state these things explicitly," Little said.



Little leapfrogged into viral status following his appearance on an inflammatory video and dismissal from the Republican convention.

"That type of position that he stands for has no support among our delegates, and that's evidenced by the fact that we promptly ejected him from the premises," said Harmeet Dhillon, California spokeswoman for the RNC. "You know, we don't want his money. We don't want his supporters. We don't want his ideology in our party in any way."

Dhillon said Survey-USA polling is known to be "flawed" among political professionals. She points to a Berkeley IGS poll released almost the same day that does not even list Little. Yet Nate Silver and the wonky FiveThirtyEight blog rate Survey-USA an "A" for reliability.

Sen. Feinstein's camp also cast doubt on the poll, wondering how Little ended up as one of "seven" candidates presented to respondents out of 32 Senate hopefuls.A lawsuit filed to protect Haitian and Salvadoran immigrants from President Donald Trump's decision to end a special status that has allowed them to live and work in the U.S. for years has been expended to include Honduran immigrants.

The federal suit brought by the Massachusetts-based Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice was amended Wednesday to include a new plaintiff: a Honduran immigrant who has been on Temporary Protected Status since 1999.

Yesy Patricia Carbajal, of Revere, joins 13 other immigrants from Haiti and El Salvador in the lawsuit, which argues that the decision to end their special status was racially motivated.

The administration argues the status was never meant to be permanent and that conditions in the affected countries have improved enough for its citizens to return.Embracing his role as party leader, President Donald Trump issued a stern warning at a rally Thursday that Democrats would disrupt the economic progress of his administration, imploring Republicans to mobilize during the 2018 midterm elections.

Trump used one of his signature rallies in northern Indiana to paint a rosy picture of his presidency, pointing to low unemployment, "booming" job growth and optimism under his watch. Two days after Indiana wrapped up a divisive Republican Senate primary, the president praised a lengthy ticket of House and Senate candidates by name and predicted Democrats would dismantle his agenda if they regained control of Congress.

"You have to work every day between now and November to elect more Republicans so that we can continue to make America great again," Trump said, referencing his 2016 campaign slogan.

The president, who was joined at the Elkhart rally by home-state Vice President Mike Pence, said Democrats would raise taxes, "destroy your jobs and they are going to knock the hell out of your border."

Chief among his targets: Indiana's Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly, who faces Republican businessman Mike Braun in what is expected to be one of the nation's most competitive Senate races.

Trump branded Donnelly as "Sleepin' Joe," assailing him for opposing the president's signature tax cuts and his attempt to end the Affordable Care Act and for supporting the Iran nuclear deal forged by President Barack Obama and withdrawn by Trump this week.

Trump said Donnelly would "do whatever Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi tell him to do" and claimed the senator would "say one thing in Elkhart," and then support the "radical, liberal agenda."

Basking in the cheers of thousands of supporters wearing his red campaign hats, the president hailed his decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and his tough stance on trade deals, appealing to the region's manufacturing base. He reissued his campaign pledge to build a border wall with Mexico, telling the crowd the work had started despite opposition from Democrats.

And he celebrated the return of three Americans who had been held captive in North Korea, saying: "We welcomed them back home the proper way."

But for a onetime political novice who ran as an outsider, Trump played the role of party champion ahead of midterm elections that typically haunt the party that holds the White House.

Trump is expected to ramp up his political travel in the coming months, and his advisers viewed the event as a way to project party unity following a rough primary that pitted Braun, a former state legislator, against two Republican congressmen.

Imploring Braun to join him on stage, Trump turned the podium over to the Senate nominee, who credited the president for providing an inspiration to his candidacy. "I'm a businessman and an outsider, just like our president," Braun said to cheers.

The president, who helped raise $132 million for the Republican National Committee in 2016, won 10 states where Democratic senators are on the ballot this year. He's expected to campaign heavily to help Republicans maintain Senate and House majorities and elect GOP governors.

In his remarks, Trump painted a glowing picture of his presidency.

"We are all making America proud. We are rockin,'" he said. "The great news keeps rolling in."

Missing was any reference to the clouds cast by the special counsel's ongoing investigation into Russian election meddling and near-daily revelations about Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen's payments to a porn actress who alleges an affair with Trump.

Cohen appears to have used his relationship with Trump to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars  a practice at odds with Trump's "Drain the swamp" campaign message.

But Trump instead lobbed the "swamp person" charge at Donnelly, prompting the audience to break into a "Drain the swamp" chant.

After the rally, Donnelly said in a statement it was "okay" that Trump and Pence were "here today for politics, but problems only get solved when you roll up your sleeves and put in the hard work."

"I'm Indiana's hired help in the Senate because I don't work for any president or any political party  I work for Hoosiers, and that will never change," he said. Donnelly's campaign said the senator had voted with Trump 62 percent of the time.

The Indiana rally is Trump's fourth political-style event in the past two weeks. Trump skipped the White House Correspondents' Dinner late last month to rally supporters in Macomb County, Michigan.

He spoke last week to the National Rifle Association in Dallas. And last Saturday, Trump was in Ohio, long the key electoral piece for any GOP presidential hopeful.

As he travels the country, Trump will face the question of whether his appeal is transferable to down-ballot candidates, much in the way that Obama struggled to rally core Democrats when he wasn't running himself.

Obama suffered broad losses in Congress and in statehouses during the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections, an outcome Trump hopes to avoid.A suburban U.S. Navy sailors family is heading to Washington State to look for him after he was reported missing over the weekend.

Jeremiah Adams hasnt been seen since he walked into the Olympic National Forest last week, according to his family. He was supposed to meet up with friends for a planned hike on Saturday, but he never showed up.

Adams car was found near a trailhead on Monday night, according to authorities. His family is heading to Washington to help in the search for him.

The 24-year-old, an Oswego East High School graduate, is an electrician on board the USS Nimitz.Imani Williams, 19, will not be home to spend Mothers Day with family.

We need to stop this madness, Tio Hardiman, of the Violence Interrupters, told NBC 5 Wednesday.

The reason has Williams' own mother, Lashawn Allen, asking for peace.

I am really just taking this day by day thats all I can do, she said.

After Williams became a victim of Chicago's ongoing gun violence.

I thought it was fireworks," Williams recalled. "Im not used to hearing any shooting."

Williams nightmare happened May 1 when the College of DuPage freshman went with a friend to Homan and Gladys on Chicagos West Side to drop off some food to another friend.

Williams was standing near the trunk of her car talking to that other friend when she heard gunshots.

He got hit first and I got shot in my abdomen and I didnt quite realize that I got shot until a couple of seconds later, she told NBC 5 in a FaceTime interview.

Williams was rushed to Stroger Hospital, where Wednesday afternoon her parents and community leaders asked to public to pray for her.

With her being suburban raised she is not aware of the dangers that lurk in the city of Chicago, Allen said.

She says she remains optimistic about her recovery.

I am feeling a lot better," she said. "I know I have a lot of work to do a lot of work has to be done."

As Williams goes through rehab, her mother has a message for all those committing violence in Chicago.

Stop the fighting, stop killing our daughters, stop shooting each other, there is a better way, Allen pleaded.

A GoFundMe has been set up by family to help with medical bills.Clinton police are investigating a $10,000 shoplifting spree and they have arrested two suspects who they said have U.S. Immigration orders to be deported.

Police arrested the two suspects at 5 p.m. Tuesday and said they are accused of being involved in organized retail theft in which around $10,000 worth of merchandise was taken from five stores from Clinton Crossing as well as other retail stores in Connecticut.

Police said they received a call reporting the shoplifters were using beater bags and found suspects in a car.

They had small tools to remove anti-theft devices and one suspect tried to punch an officer, according to police.

Authorities used a stun gun to take 30-year-old Manuel Antonio Gutierrez, of Washington, New York, into custody.

The other suspect, identified as 55-year-old Francisco Pantoja, of Queens, New York, ran and was apprehended in the woods behind a home on Glenwood Road, police said.

When police searched the car, they found clothing worth an estimated $10,000.

Gutierrez was charged with assault on a police officer, interfering with a police officer, organized retail theft, larceny and conspiracy. Police said he was also wanted on a U.S. Immigration deportation order.

Pantoja was charged with Interfering with a police officer, organized retail theft, numerous counts of Larceny and conspiracy. U.S. Immigration also wants him on a deportation order, police said.Posted Thursday, May 10, 2018 10:03 am

A local housing assistance program is closing its doors and liquidating its assets after 29 years of operation.

It is with great sadness that the Greater Lansing Housing Coalition (GLHC) announces it will close its doors very soon, the organization said.

Ingham County Treasurer Eric Schertzing, who chairs the Ingham County Land Bank, said that the state and federal government have slowly been divesting from groups like GLHC and that without a strong board and executive director driven fundraising system, many are shutting down throughout the state.

This is a problem that has been years in the making, he said.

The program has offered housing services to seniors, the homeless, people suffering from mental illness, and victims of domestic abuse. Its also run credit counseling programs as well as Do-It-Yourself housing education programming and a popular program called Tuesday Toolmen which assisted those with disabilities in building accessible ramps for homes.

GLHC Board Chairwoman Diane Sanborn said she could not answer follow-up questions yet on the closure and liquidation.

The statement I sent you is all I can share at this time as there are many cogs in the GLHC wheel yet to be determined, she wrote in an email response. We are hard at work making sure our missions carry on after us and we can go out with our heads held high. We are proud of the community work we have accomplished.

Indeed, the many cogs include transferring properties with complicated financial strings attached. Some of them were built or remodeled using housing development dollars controlled by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, which will likely be involved in reviewing and approving the sale or transfer of any properties.

The press release said the organization hopes to cease all operations by September. The nonprofit, according to the 2015 federal 990 filing with the IRS, had total assets of $2,346,164 with a total liability of $1,205,433.

It operates and owns several properties in the county, including the senior housing complex in Mason called the Jefferson, Ferris Manor at Pine and Saginaw streets and a permanent supportive housing unit on Walnut Street for adults with serious mental health issues. It also owns and operates the Neighborhood Empowerment Center, 600 W. Maple St., on the campus of the old School for the Blind.

The Neighborhood Empowerment Center is one of the key locations. It serves as a hub of activity with other groups renting there, as well as a location of a Head Start Program. Brian McGrain, director of Economic Development and Planning at the city, said Lansing is working with the agency as it works through the dissolution. The city, McGrain said, has been a primary funder of the location.

Were committed to helping it find a home, he said Monday in an interview. Were committed to it staying open. Were committed to it being an actual neighborhood resource. Weve invested a lot of resources into a part of town that needs resources.

Schertzing is on the board of one of those nonprofits that is interested in the NEC building. He is a board member of the Capital Area Community Services. He said the organization has a primary interest because of the Head Start programming it runs at the building.

We are certainly discussing that, he said. One of the stumbling blocks that GLHC will run into, Schertzing said, will be the valuation of its properties. He said its difficult to determine the property values on some of these assets because they are not being charged a traditional property tax rate. Rather they are subject to a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT.

Once thats approved, no one is evaluating the value of the properties like they would otherwise, Schertzing said. I have no idea if they had an internal audit process that did have those values or not.

There are also two empty lots owned by the organization as well. One at 1114 W. Kalamazoo St. and the other at Chestnut and Madison streets. Both are being represented for sale by Sanborn. Shes a Realtor, as well as serving as the chair of the GLHC Board.

Its unseemly, said Schertzing of the arrangement. Nonprofit boards should avoid that kind of entanglement, that while possibly legal, just dont look good.

Sanborn, in response to an email Tuesday, said she would donate all commissions back to GLHC, something she has done all along when she was the broker for the organizations properties. She also said she recused herself from the board votes related to her handling the sale of the properties.

The organization has also rehabilitated numerous properties throughout the city and then helped first time home owners purchase them.

Kirbay Preuss, one of those new home buyers in 2016, is calling the closure a loss for the community.

She said the GLHC helped her to better understand managing her own finances as well as what being a homeowner entails.

Many people my age rush into more than they can handle, she said. They provided a young naive first time buyer with an education on home ownership that I wouldnt have been required to take with a non-GL- HC home sale.A Thomaston man who was onboard a Delta flight helped fellow passengers evacuate the plane as smoke filled the cabin soon after landing at Denver International Airport on Tuesday.

It took a minute but shortly thereafter panic started to ensue, people started yelling, said Jay Compton, of Thomaston.

Cellphone video captured Compton and others standing at the end of an emergency slide helping passengers off the slide and onto the tarmac.

What people dont realize is when you hit that slide, you go down really fast, because youre maybe 10, 12 feet in the air, said Compton.

Compton had left Connecticut and was headed to Denver for work.

While on a layover in Detroit, he said he and other Denver-bound passengers were taken off one plane because it had mechanical issues.

But it appears the second plane had its own problems soon after touching down in Denver.

As flight 1854 taxied to the gate, the 146 passengers realized something was wrong.

Smoke started to come out at a fairly rapid rate from somewhere in the overhead vents, said Compton.

On cellphone video, the flight crew can be heard instructing passengers to take cover: Ladies and gentlemen please lower yourself, get as low as you can.

After an evacuation was ordered, people exited over the wing or jumped out using the planes emergency slides.

Compton was one of the first to leave and said he was happy to help others off the MD-80 aircraft.

While hes glad the smoke didnt appear mid-air, the experience does not change his mind about flying again.

Its a bucket list item that most people dont realize you sort of have until it happens. Hopefully it doesnt happen again, said Compton.

One person was taken to a hospital and theres no word on their condition.

A Delta spokeswoman said the smoke was caused by a small amount of hydraulic fluid that dripped onto a hot power unit and investigators did not find any fire on board the plane.Enders Falls reputation as one of New Englands must-see waterfalls flows just as fast online as the water that runs through it.

It's the number one place to see in Connecticut according to another magazine article that came out, Chief John Horr with the Lost Acres Fire Department said.

But with the beauty at Enders State Forest in Granby, Horr said can come danger beyond bumps and bruises.

Compound fracture of the leg, head injuries are very common here because of the fall. You're hitting rocks on your way down, Horr said.

Horr said in the last 15 years rescuers have gotten 28 calls out to the area. He said at least half or more of those calls have been since 2011 alone.

We just finished our training out here last week because we know the spring time is when people like to come out here, Horr said.

In 2013, a 15-year-old girl died after falling 15-20 feet at Enders.

Tuesday night the Lost Acres, East Hartland and Barkhamstead East Fire Departments responded to the first fall of the year. An 18-year-old girl was knocked unconscious after falling 20 feet near a waterfall.

The procedure was different, we had to improvise with the equipment in the position that she was in, Horr said.

NBC Connecticut captured first-responders practicing rescue operations last June. Horr said the team made eight rescues last year. Half of the victims had to flown to the hospital by LifeStar, and each rescue took 45 minutes to an hour to complete.

We just stuck our feet into the water, Alicia Talbot said.

Talbot brought her son to the park Wednesday. While the falls are refreshing she knows they can take a turn for the worse.

There's signs posted everywhere cliffs slippery rocks, Talbot said.

Come and enjoy nature, but nature needs to be respected, Horr said.Former Lt. Gov. Eunice Groark, who was known as a political trailblazer, died Tuesday at the age of 80.

Groark was elected as Connecticuts first female lieutenant governor in 1990, running under the banner of A Connecticut Party with Lowell Weicker.

Her tie-breaking vote for the controversial income-tax plan in 1991 helped end a budget stalemate. She served from 1991 to 1995.

She was also a survivor of the Hartford Circus Fire in 1944.

Gov. Dannel Malloy released the following statement on her passing:

Eunice Groark holds an important place in Connecticut history as a woman, a state leader, and an advocate who didnt shy away from tough decisions and fought for what she believed in. She was a strong and talented leader, one who helped shape Connecticut and set the foundation for work we are doing today to support our cities, invest in infrastructure, and forge stronger partnerships with business and industry. We are fortunate to have had her leadership and her vision. On behalf of the entire State of Connecticut, we send our deepest condolences to her friends, family, and colleagues.Connecticuts school districts will soon be required to teach students about the Holocaust.

Lawmakers passed the legislation and the governor said on Thursday morning that he has signed it, citing an increase in hate crimes and the lack of knowledge millennials have about the Holocaust.

It is incredibly disturbing that we have seen an uptick in hate crimes and hate speech over the last year  including assault, bomb threats, and vandalism  in nearly every region across our country, Gov. Dannel Malloy said in a statement his office released after he sign the bill into law. Equally as disturbing are recent statistics showing that two-thirds of American millennials dont know what Auschwitz is and 22 percent of millennials say they havent heard of the Holocaust. We are simply not doing enough to teach our young people the extreme and deadly mistakes of the past. Holocaust and genocide awareness are not just essential curriculum, but critical.

While the state Department of Education had made an optional course on genocide available to districts, legislators said many have not used it.



The legislation requires local and regional school boards to include the topic in their social studies curriculum beginning with the 2018-19 school year.

Requiring this course of study will give our students a deeper and enduring understanding of the world changing events that were the Holocaust and other modern genocides but does so in way that is age-appropriate, Education Commissioner Dianna R. Wentzell said in a statement. In turn, our students will take this education and awareness and use it as they develop into informed, engaged and humane participants in civic life.

It is estimated the mandate could cost districts less than $5,000, but the legislation allows local school officials to use free, online resources and to accept grants and donations to cover the cost.

Last year, the General Assembly passed legislation making the commission of a hate crime a felony instead of a misdemeanor. Violence and threats based on a person's gender also were deemed hate crimes. The state's previous law only protected gender identity or expression, not gender.

As a Holocaust survivor, educator, and spiritual leader in the Hartford community for the past 63 years, I am thrilled to see this historic legislation pass unanimously by the House and Senate and be signed into law by the Governor, Rabbi Philip Lazowski, who serves as a chaplain to the State Senate said in the statement the governors office released.

We must remember the horrors of the Holocaust and other genocides and teach our children so that such atrocities never happen again, he added and said this is not only important for Connecticut, but can serve as a model throughout the nation.

Alan Levin, the regional civil rights chairman of the Connecticut Anti-Defamation League, told lawmakers last year that acts of anti-Semitic crimes had increased 34 percent nationally from 2015 to 2016, while they increased 68 percent in Connecticut during the same time period.Some tenants living in properties owned by Hartford's Housing Authority are raising concerns about their living conditions.

The Housing Authority is one of Hartford's most prominent landlords. Its board members are selected by the mayor of Hartford and approved by the City Council. It has been the subject of hundreds of housing violation cases and complaints according to the City of Hartfords online database of housing violations.

Some of the Housing Authoritys poorest tenants have spoken out to the Troubleshooters, claiming the living conditions in their apartments are unacceptable.

Carmen Cuevas allowed the Troubleshooters inside her Dillon Road apartment last month. She pointed out damage and maintenance problems, including leaky faucets, water damage to the walls and ceilings, and a hole in her bathroom floor.

We live in these conditions for a lot of years. The kitchen always is leaking the water, the bathroom, the water comes out from the rooms, Cuevas said.

The unit is part of the Westbrook Village, which the Housing Authority says will be demolished later this year. They have told residents to vacate the property and say they are helping them with the move.

The Housing Authority of the City of Hartford is currently working to relocate all residents of Westbrook Village (including 18 Dillon Road). Each family is being assisted by a relocation specialist, Annette Sanderson, Hartford Housing Authoritys Executive Director, said in a statement.

But Cuevas and her disabled sister, Maria Rodriguez, are still living there and say they dont have the financial resources to move, nor can they find a suitable alternative.

They dont help us to move out someplace else, so we have to do it by ourselves now, because we cant find nowhere to move, and they dont help us. We cant find nowhere to go, Cuevas said.

Records provided to NBC Connecticut by the City of Hartford show on October 10, 2017, the apartment was found in violation by City of Hartford Housing Code Enforcement.

We have problems with the water, with the heater. We dont want to be here no more, Cuevas said.

She is most concerned for her older sister, who Cuevas describes as having ongoing health issues and is confined mostly to her bed or wheelchair.

The problem is my sister has a lot of heart issues. Shes a breast cancer survivor; shes asthmatic, Cuevas said.

NBC Connecticut repeatedly asked Sanderson for an interview to discuss the concerns raised by some of her residents. She declined an interview, and she did not address questions we sent her about the living conditions of the units we visited.

On the Hartford Housing Authority website, they write that their mission is be a fiscally sound agency that provides safe, decent and affordable high-quality housing and homeownership choices.

But Cuevas says thats not the case in her situation.

The City of Hartford online database of housing violations shows more than 1,500 closed cases from 2008 through January 2018 for properties owned by the Hartford Housing Authority. The cases include violations, unfounded complaints, and problems that have been fixed. The city says it does not separate confirmed or unconfirmed cases.

The Housing Authority of the City of Hartford continues to work with the License and Inspections Department of the City of Hartford to clarify the status of the cases that are still labeled as current or open on their database, Sanderson said in her statement.

They dispute that all of the cases in the citys database are living condition problems.

The Troubleshooters visited some of the Housing Authority's other properties listed by the city as current cases or found in violation over the last year.

A Hartford housing enforcement report from January shows a mother at Mary Shepherd Place contacted the city three times about the water damage inside her apartment. The tenant tells the Troubleshooters those repairs were eventually taken care of, but the bathroom still needs work.

In April, NBC Connecticut checked out a property on Green Street, where a pipe burst in the attic of an HHA unit in January. A violation notice from the citys Department of Developmental Services, Division of Licenses and Inspections labeled the issue urgent. The violation says there was excessive water damage to units, including collapsed ceilings and there was the possibility the electrical might be compromised. Asbestos signs were posted on the property last month, a few hundred feet from an overflowing dumpster.

Some work has been done, but the pregnant mother of four living next door will no longer allow her children to play in the yard near that dumpster. She hopes the mess is cleaned up soon.

Two families from the Green Street building are now being housed in a local hotel according to the Housing Authority.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Cuevas told NBC Connecticut the Hartford Housing Authority let her know they found her and her family a new place to live.

All Westbrook Village tenants moving costs and related expenses will be paid for through their relocation package.The Frisco Police Department has increased its presence at the Stonebriar Centre in direct response to the alleged Islamic State-inspired mass shooting plot that law enforcement foiled last week.

Matin Azizi-Yarand, 17, was arrested on Tuesday, May 2, and charged with making a terroristic threat and criminal solicitation of capital murder against a peace officer.

According to investigators, Azizi-Yarand was planning a mass shooting at the popular Frisco shopping mall that was to have taken place at some point this month.

In light of the recent investigation, on duty patrol officers have made it a point to patrol closer to the mall, and conduct foot patrol in the mall when they are available, said Sgt. Jeff Inmon of the Frisco police. There has been an increased presence at the mall and they are officers that are already on duty.

The teenage terror suspect, who lived with his parents in Plano, was arrested at Plano West Senior High School. Azizi-Yarand is now being held at the Collin County Jail on $3 million bond. Under Texas law he will be tried as an adult and could face up to life in prison for criminal solicitation and up to 10 years in prison for making a terroristic threat.

According to the arrest affidavit, Azizi-Yarand began communicating online with a confidential FBI informant in December 2017 and told the source that he wanted to conduct a terrorist attack. Over the course of four months, investigators said the suspect communicated with two informants and an undercover FBI agent about possible targets for an attack, including an unnamed school, a Hindu temple and then, finally, Stonebriar Centre.

According to the affidavit, Azizi-Yarand told the FBI source, Look at all the other lone wolves. What training did they have yet they simply killed the kuffar? (Arabic for disbelievers.)

Over the course of the investigation, Azizi-Yarand transferred a total of $1,400 to the people who he believed were his accomplices so they could purchase weapons and supplies for the attack.

In addition, prosecutors said Azizi-Yarand had written a letter that he planned to disseminate, titled Message to America, explaining the reasons for his attack.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, along with the Plano and Frisco police departments conducted the investigation.A McKinney city councilman, arrested after refusing to sign a speeding citation this week, is calling on police to review its procedures. But, after reviewing body camera footage, said he acknowledged the role he played in the arrest.

McKinney Police said an officer pulled Councilman LaShadion Shemwell over on Tuesday evening for driving 55 miles per hour in a 35 mile per hour speed limit zone on North McDonald Street. The officer cited Shemwell for speeding and for failing to change his address on his drivers license within 30 days, as required by state law.

Police said when Shemwell repeatedly refused to sign the citation, the officer arrested him to be taken before a magistrate.

Wednesday, Shemwell initially said he felt he was profiled and his role in Black Lives Matter protests factored into his arrest. Late Wednesday, Shemwell said he reviewed the body camera footage and said he realized he was more argumentative than he remembered.

I do feel like I played more of a role in being combative about my ticket than I initially thought, said Shemwell.

A McKinney city councilman, arrested after refusing to sign a speeding citation this week, is calling on police to review its procedures. But, after reviewing body camera footage, said he acknowledged the role he played in the arrest.

He said the police chief told him the officer didnt have a choice in the arrest after Shemwell refused to sign the citation.

Earlier, Shemwell questioned the need for an arrest for a low level traffic violation.

If you feel like someone who refuses to sign a citation is probably not going to appear in court or isnt going to appear in court, then you use your discretion, you take him in and you let the judge handle it, said Shemwell.

"Me being a sitting city council man here, I wasnt fleeing the state, added Shemwell. He knows where Im at the first, third and fourth Mondays and Tuesdays of the month.

Shemwell said at least three other patrol units arrived to assist in the arrest. A clerk at a local business told NBC 5 he saw multiple officers at the scene of the arrest.

Shemwell said it signals a waste of taxpayer resources and the need for the department to review how it handles low-level traffic violations.

Its a waste of our time, its a waste of our money, the officer is off the street to do real police work, he said.

McKinney police confirmed the arrest, but declined to comment further.

Late Wednesday afternoon, McKinney Mayor George Fuller said he reviewed the body camera footage of the arrest.

Police acted respectfully and professionally, said Fuller. I believe these officers did what they were supposed to do under current protocol, but I would like the police department to consider different alternatives in these kinds of arrests in the future.The first ever Dallas housing policy won unanimous approval from the City Council Wednesday after more than a year of meetings and debate. The goal of the policy is to entice private developers to help build within the next few years the 20,000 new units of affordable housing that Dallas desperately needs.

But some critics still left the Council meeting unhappy.

You have a significant affordable housing crisis in this city and this policy did not address such, said former Dallas City Council Member Diane Ragsdale.

She is unhappy that the Fair Park area where her non-profit group has been building new homes will be excluded from the next round of incentives in the new targeted approach to city spending.

You prioritize in those communities that you have neglected historically. And so, they chose not to do that, Ragsdale said.

Instead of enticing new construction in the most disadvantaged areas, the new policy used a market value analysis to determine opportunity areas where city spending might be more likely to attract additional private investment in the near future.

The policy removes some of the politics from decisions about where city investments should be made. Supporters insist the new rules were necessary to get better results.

Were growing. Weve got to have a strong policy. Weve got to have a policy in place. Weve got to have a foundation, said Councilman Tennell Atkins. He received a bottle of pain reliever from Councilman Dwaine Caraway at the meeting as a reward for leading the committee that pushed the new policy to unanimous City Council support.

We will continue to look after the entire City of Dallas and our respective districts with housing, Caraway said. No one will be left out.

City officials said the new policy also includes housing repair programs which will be available in all neighborhoods, along with a home buying assistance plan for police, firefighters and teachers that will encourage having them live in the neighborhoods they serve.

In some older, established neighborhoods like West Dallas, the city will move to establish Neighborhood Empowerment Zones to help freeze property taxes and keep families in their homes.

"That way neighbors and people who have lived here for a while can stay," said Manuel Santoyo, who has owned his West Dallas home for 20 years, and seen property taxes go up. "Mucho!"

West Dallas' older neighborhoods border with new, high end development. "That's probably the reason why taxes have gone up, the rapid change," Santoyo said. He says other neighbors have moved away, but he's holding on to his American dream. "For now."

Im thrilled and excited that today were going to pass this policy. I know weve got a lot of work ahead of us. But its a start, said Council Member Jennifer Gates.

Another group of critics speaking before Wednesdays vote were tenants of affordable apartments. They complained the policy does not reserve enough of the new units for very low income families.

I wanted City Council to know, its a whole, city wide thing, said tenant Sharon Young. I am a box away from living on the street and thats not fair to anyone.

Young said rent at her Northeast Dallas apartment went from $695 to $935 in just the past year.

We see new housing going up around town with unaffordable rents for a whole lot of folks, said Texas Tenant Union Executive Director Sandy Rollins. Were not seeing unsubsidized housing being built for the 4, 5, 6 hundred dollar a month range, which is a huge need in this town.

After hearing from the speakers and debating last minute adjustments, the Dallas City Council vote to approve the housing policy was 15 to 0.

Im proud of how were working together. Thats what the citizens of Dallas want. Congratulations for that, Mayor Mike Rawlings said.

City Council members said the policy will be reviewed after a year to consider changes.

You can read more on this story from our media partners at The Dallas Morning News by clicking here.Prosecutors on Tuesday dismissed more than 60 cases stemming from a 2015 shooting in Waco involving rival biker clubs that left nine dead, the latest sign of serious trouble for an ambitious pursuit of convictions following the deadliest biker shooting in U.S. history.

McLennan County prosecutors tossed out 66 more cases and have dismissed or refused 154 of the original 192 cases since February, saying they wanted to focus on those who were "more culpable." Officials said in late April that only about 25 cases will be prosecuted of the more than 150 people ultimately indicted on felony charges of engaging in organized criminal activity.



Police arrested 177 bikers following the mayhem at a Twin Peaks restaurant involving members of the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs. Waco police officers monitoring the gathering also fired on the bikers, killing two.

Only one biker -- Jake Carrizal, a locomotive driver and the president of the Dallas chapter of the Bandidos -- has been tried and it ended in a hung jury and a mistrial last fall.

The county's district attorney, Abel Reyna, said in a statement in February announcing the first round of disposed cases that information gleaned during Carrizal's trial was "invaluable" in his office's decision to narrow the focus of its investigation. That trial was fraught with delays as Carrizal's defense attorneys repeatedly demonstrated to the presiding judge that prosecutors had not shared all of the evidence required by law.

Reyna added that prosecutors were expecting to review evidence from a federal racketeering trial in San Antonio against the former president and vice president of the Bandidos after it had concluded.

The trial ended Monday, and it is unclear whether prosecutors in Waco have reviewed any federal evidence. Reyna declined to comment Tuesday.

The bulk of the dismissals and refusals followed Reyna's defeat in a Republican primary election in March.

A judge on Monday dismissed one of the four cases Reyna recused his office from prosecuting, an action Reyna said was taken to avoid the appearance of a conflict. In the motion to dismiss, Brian Roberts, a special prosecutor in the case, said that the biker, Matthew Clendennen, a landscape-lighting business owner in Hewitt, Texas, should never have been charged.

"Frankly, you can't just wholesale charge 192 people because they were wearing vests and have some connection with a motorcycle club," Roberts said, adding that "there's more to a charging decision. Presence alone is not enough."

Surveillance footage showed many bikers running from the scene and ducking for cover after gunshots rang out. A smaller number could be seen pointing and firing weapons, slinging a chain or participating in fistfights. Law enforcement officers recovered dozens of firearms, knives and other weapons from the restaurant and adjacent parking lot, many of which officers organized indiscriminately into piles on the pavement and in the back of a police vehicle, dash-cam video showed.

By Tuesday, only 37 of the original 154 bikers remained under indictment. Bikers and defense attorneys expected additional dismissals during another status hearing set for Thursday in Waco.

Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens appeared in court Thursday as jury selection got underway in a criminal trial accusing him of taking a compromising photo of a woman with whom he has acknowledged having an affair.

The Republican governor faces the potential of prison time if convicted of the felony invasion-of-privacy charge but has consistently denied any criminal wrongdoing. The trial is expected to last through next week.

Jury selection was taking longer than anticipated. St. Louis Circuit Judge Rex Burlison, prosecutors and Greitens' attorneys had planned to work through 80 prospective jurors during the first day of jury selection. They only got through 40.

Seventeen of that 40 were retained for further consideration and could possibly make it onto the 12-member jury. The judge said 120 prospective jurors still haven't gone through the selection process.

Most of those released so far were sent home at the request of Greitens' attorneys after expressing negative views about the governor.

One questioned Greitens' truthfulness and another was aware of legislative discussions about his possible impeachment. One dismissed woman had described an unspecified Greitens campaign ad as "kind of a jerky thing to do" but had said she could be impartial during his trial.

Greitens, 44, listened attentively to the questioning, occasionally taking notes. Attorneys are sorting through as many as 160 potential jurors.

Greitens arrived at the courthouse through a back entry and was greeted with a handshake and hug by a local law officer who was waiting there for him. The governor, who often wears blue jeans at the Capitol, wore a suit and tie for his trial.

He is accused of taking and transmitting an unauthorized photograph of a blindfolded and partially naked woman while she was bound to exercise rings in the basement of his St. Louis home in 2015, before he was elected. The woman, a hairdresser with whom Greitens has admitted having an affair, told investigators she saw a flash through the blindfold and heard what sounded like a photo being taken.

Greitens allegedly told her, "You're never going to mention my name, otherwise there will be pictures of (you) everywhere."

The woman, whose name has not been released by authorities, said she became upset and that Greitens later told her he deleted the picture. Prosecutors acknowledged in court this week that they have not found such a photo. Greitens has repeatedly declined to say whether he took a picture.

The penalty for first-degree invasion of privacy in Missouri is up to four years in prison.

In addition to the invasion-of-privacy case, Greitens faces a separate criminal charge of tampering with computer data for allegedly disclosing the donor list of The Mission Continues to his political fundraiser in 2015 without the permission of the St. Louis-based veterans' charity he founded. No trial date has been set yet.

The Legislature also is to convene in special session May 18 to consider whether to try to impeach Greitens. That session could last up to 30 days. If Greitens were impeached, the Senate would appoint a panel of judges to preside over a trial on whether to remove him from office.

Attorneys representing the governor's office said Thursday that they want the House to establish rules allowing for public hearings in which Greitens' attorneys can call and question witnesses and present evidence, similar to what would occur in court. During typical legislative hearings, only those lawmakers who are members of the committee question witnesses.

"The notion of potentially disciplining a governor is an incredibly rare and serious thing," said Ross Garber, a Washington-based attorney hired to represent Greitens' office. "It needs to be done solemnly and carefully and in a way that is fair and the public accepts the results."

Garber is being paid $320 an hour from taxpayer funds. The Graves Garrett law firm in Kansas City also is representing the governor's office at a rate of $340 an hour. Greitens also is being represented personally by the Dowd Bennett law firm from St. Louis, which is handling his criminal defense.

A special House committee investigating Greitens has so far conducted nearly all of its work in secret while publicly releasing two reports containing allegations against Greitens of sexual misconduct and misusing charity resources for political purposes.

House Speaker Todd Richardson said parts of the investigation  such as interviewing witnesses whose names had not publicly been released  had to be done privately.

"But as we move into special session those things will be conducted in a very open, transparent manner," Richardson said.scholarship, news and new ideas in legal historyWhat to Know President Donald Trump says he will meet North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12

The historic meeting will be the first between a sitting American president and the leader of North Korea over denuclearization

The announcement comes hours after three Americans returned to the U.S. from North Korea, where they had been detained

President Donald Trump has revealed the time and place for his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying it will take place in Singapore on June 12.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" the president tweeted Thursday morning.

Trump is providing details for the first time about the history-making meeting between a sitting American president and the leader of North Korea over denuclearization. The last summit between the two nations came at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Trump had said he favored holding the meeting at the Demilitarized Zone, the heavily fortified border separating the Koreas. But the island nation of Singapore was favored by most of his advisers.

The announcement comes hours after three Americans returned to the U.S. from North Korea, where they had been detained.

Trump welcomed the men, who were accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in the early morning hours Thursday and thanked Kim for releasing them. He said he does believe Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearization at their upcoming summit and that "the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., congratulated the president on "this significant step" toward the historic summit. While he noted that he shares Pompeo's expressed goal of "the permanent, verifiable, irreversible dismantling of North Koreas weapons of mass destruction program," McConnell added that "if it proves unachievable through these talks, I support a continuation of the policy of maximum pressure on the regime."

Singapore is a natural choice for Trump and Kim's meeting. It's familiar ground for North Korea, and the two countries have had diplomatic relations since 1975. The reclusive communist country has its embassy in Singapore's central business district.

The city is "a great location" for the summit, said Tom Plant, who specializes in nuclear and proliferation issues at London's Royal United Services Institute.

"Kim will be on friendly territory, not hostile territory. But he wouldn't be on home turf," Plant said.

Singapore's security forces have considerable experience in protecting VIPs. Single-party rule since independence in 1965 has ensured stability and fostered a security state that is among the world's most efficient, though sometimes decried by civil libertarians as repressive. Located between two Muslim majority nations  Malaysia and Indonesia  with Islamic State group sympathizers, it has effectively checked terrorist threats.

North Korea's state companies have, in the past, conducted legal and illegal business dealings with Singapore companies. The city-state, under pressure from the U.S. and a leaked U.N. report, officially cut off trade relations with North Korea in 2017 to abide by international sanctions.

"The North Korean side will likely have a very large number of logistical and protocol issues it wants addressed by the summit venue, so having a (North Korean) embassy in the country where the summit is to be held is likely a requirement," said Malcolm Cook, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

Distance may also be a consideration. Singapore is located just over 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) from North Korea, comfortably within the flying range of its aircraft. Getting to Western Europe would require a stop or two to refuel.

"Singapore is neither too far away as European nations are, allowing Kim Jong Un's private jet to make it here without refueling, nor too close that Trump might be seen as 'giving way' to Kim by having to travel a longer distance than the latter," said Nah Liang Tuang, a research fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.

Singapore is also welcome ground for the United States. It is a large trading partner, the second-largest Asian investor, and a longtime supporter of its military presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

The country is also the regional headquarters of large U.S. companies including Google, Facebook and Airbnb. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1966.

It is a regional hub whose free enterprise philosophy welcomes trading partners from everywhere, regardless of politics.

"Singapore is an ideal site for the summit because Singapore historically has been an honest broker between East and West. Singapore has been a great friend to the U.S. but also Singapore has carefully worked to be a friend to all, which has earned it trust in capitals around the world," former U.S. Ambassador to Singapore David Adelman said.

Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country is pleased to host the summit. "We hope this meeting will advance prospects for peace in the Korean Peninsula," it said in a statement.

Singapore has experience hosting such meetings. In 2015 it was the site of another unprecedented summit between two leaders burdened with a legacy of bad blood and mutual distrust, Chinese President Xi Jinping and rival Taiwan's then-President Ma Ying-jeou, the first such meeting since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

The city-state has hosted a number of high-level regional meetings, including Association of Southeast Asian Nations summits in 2007 and 2018. Since 2002, an annual security conference has been held there, featuring defense chiefs and officials from countries including the U.S., China and South Korea.

Roadblocks are set up around the summit venues, where armed Nepalese Gurkhas stand guard. Police check every vehicle that enters the area.

In 2015, Gurkha officers fired at a car that breached four roadblocks and crashed into a concrete barrier. The driver was killed and two passengers arrested in what turned out to be a drug-related misadventure rather than an attack.

Valued foreign guests won't be troubled by protesters, either. Demonstrations in Singapore can only be held in a designated area, the 2.4-acre (0.9-hectare) Hong Lim Park.

Amnesty International says amendments to the country's Public Order Act have given authorities more power to restrict public assembly, and participants in peaceful protests have been arrested.What to Know Roger Stone, Pres. Trump's long-time adviser, decried Michael Avenatti's attacks on the president as a side show

Stone told the I-Team that Rudy Giuliani was doing a good job defending Trump against "Gestapo tactics" from the special counsel's office

Stone said reports about Michael Cohen's company and payments from foreign companies "would concern me" if true

Roger Stone, a close political confidant of President Trump, says the claim that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen accepted a half-million dollars connected to a Russian billionaire could be a problem - if the accusation is true.

"The headline would concern me if it's accurate," Stone said in a wide-ranging interview with the NBC New York I-Team Wednesday. Stone, who is on a tour promoting his new book "Stone's Rules," was quick to note that he'd seen little more than the headline itself. I also know how the fake news media sometimes works so Id like to see the facts before we rush to judgement.

Stone also acknowledged that Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels, has successfully ripped a page out of Trumps political playbook by launching constant attacks against the president.

Hes very effective on TV. He speaks in soundbites. Hes very aggressive and he remains on the attack. Its basically the same tactic the President uses, Stone said.

In Avenattis most recent revelation, he released financial records Monday that purportedly show Cohen's company accepting payments connected to Russian tycoon Viktor Vekselburg and other companies with business before the US government. (Columbus Nova, the Vekselburg-linked company, has said that it is American owned, that it hired Cohen as a business consultant after the inauguration, and that reports of Vekselburg having used the company as a conduit for payments to Cohen are false.)

Roger Stone says the lawyer who represents porn star Stormy Daniels has ripped a page right out of Donald Trumps media playbook.

Despite Stones acknowledgment that Avenattis media strategy is a good one, the infamous political operative and self-described raconteur remained skeptical the Daniels story was having any real impact on President Trumps popularity.

"This is not in the main ring in a three-ring circus, this is in one of the side venues," said Stone, who is on a tour promoting his new book on politics and style called "Stone's Rules."

"GESTAPO TACTICS"

Stone also said former mayor Rudy Giuliani was generally doing well defending the president from what he called the "Gestapo tactics" of the special counsel's office, though he did have some criticism for how Giuliani handled the recent disclosures around Trump's payments to Daniels.

"On the narrow questions of the Stormy Daniels / Michael Cohen issue, in all honestly in my case all he's done is confuse me in terms of understanding exactly what happened, but overall I think he's doing a good job for the president," he said.

Roger Stone says it would be concerning if Michael Cohens company accepted $500,000 from a Kremlin-connected firm. But Stone says he needs to see more evidence before believing the headlines.

Stone is a longtime Republican operative and Trump campaign adviser who has had ties to the president for decades. Yet sources have told NBC News that Stone is also the focus of investigators looking at his ties during the campaign to WikiLeaks.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has been asking witnesses about Stone's relationship with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and whether the Trump campaign knew WikiLeaks was going to released hacked Democratic emails, multiple people familiar with the probe have told NBC.

Stone told News 4 there was no evidence the Russians had anything to do with those hacks, and he minimized the controversy over their involvement in the election.

"It's clear that the Russians did some things to interfere in our elections," Stone said Wednesday. "It appears to me to have been ham-handed and ineffective at best."

Roger Stone has suggested the Department of Justice may have improperly used a secret FISA warrant to monitor his international communications during the 2016 election. In this I-Team Interview, Stone says he had no phone calls with Russians and cant think of any significant communication he had with foreign persons.

Stone, once described as "the cockroach of American politics" by The New Republic, was the youngest person called to testify before a grand jury investigating President Nixon and Watergate in the 1970s.What to Know The sick birds showing up along the coast are showing signs of emaciation, hypothermia and anemia

Islands off California are home to the brown pelicans' only breeding colonies in the western United States

A wildlife organization says there are many cases of pelicans landing on city streets, residential yards and airport runways

A wildlife organization says there's been a surge in the number of sick and dying brown pelicans along the Southern California coast in the past week.

International Bird Rescue said Thursday that more than 25 pelicans have been brought to its wildlife center in the San Pedro district of Los Angeles. The big birds are showing signs of emaciation, hypothermia and anemia.

The organization did not cite a cause.

Wildlife center manager Kylie Clatterbuck told The Associated Press it's normal to receive recently fledged baby pelicans this time of year but the current wave includes many second-year birds. The organization says there are many cases of pelicans landing on city streets, residential yards and airport runways.

A well-publicized incident occurred last week when two pelicans landed at Pepperdine University's graduation ceremony in Malibu. The pelicans were likely young birds from the Channel Islands off the coast of California who recently fledged.

Brown pelicans spend most of their time over shallow waters and in sheltered bays along the coast. Groups often can be seen flying low over the water when they're feeding, diving head-first to catch their prey.

The easy-to-recognize seabird with a throat pouch that can store two gallons of water was classified as federally endangered in 1970, but de-listed in 2009. Channel Islands National Park on West Anacapa and Santa Barbara islands off the coast of California are home to the brown pelicans' only breeding colonies in the western United States.

When the Channel Islands population faces increased food shortages where they breed, some brown pelicans forage in unusual areas and scavenge for handouts.What to Know City Nature Challenge

Worldwide event each spring

19,423 observations were logged around LA in 2018

The important call to volunteer as an observer of the natural world, all to strengthen our collective scientific knowledge?

It's one that hundreds of Southern Californians heard, and answered, over the last weekend of April 2018.

For that's when the City Nature Challenge took place, a four-day event that was all about asking people around the globe to observe nature in their area and then submit photographs via the iNaturalist app.

The challenge, which was co-founded by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and the California Academy of Sciences in 2016, flowered in some 68 cities around the planet this year, with 17,329 people pitching in, snapping pictures, and sharing what they found, all to provide "... scientists, educators, urban planners, and policymakers insight into the biodiversity or urban locales around the world."

As for LA's placement in the rankings?

Our city came in ninth, with 19,423 "records logged" by some 855 participants (that number put us at fifth place, in the participants category).

As for species observed? Los Angeles ranked sixth, clocking in an impressive 2,356 (and that sizable sum covers animals, plants, and fungi).

The Natural History Museum shared these numbers on Wednesday, May 9, as well as some notable regional finds.

A gray fox was seen in Diamond Bar, while a coastal patch-nosed snake, a "... coastal subspecies (that) is listed as a Species of Special Concern in California due to the loss of much of its habitat to urbanization," was spied at the Stough Canyon Nature Center in Burbank.

Feline fans, take note: A mountain lion was recorded in Topanga, one that "... seems to be a young juvenile, which is a good indication that the population is reproducing," says a museum representative.

And an observer in the foothills came across a pair of San Gabriel chestnut snails, a species only found in our area.

Participants in Tulsa, Kuala Lumpur, and San Diego all joined in the 2018 event, as well as nature-loving people in dozens of other cities.

Want to learn more? See more? Snail your way to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles or iNaturalist now, and keep next springtime in mind, and the 2019 City Nature Challenge.

It's fun, it's important, and you may just see a gray fox or a snail duo, trekking along. So cool, but even cooler? You can help science by letting science know.A suspected stalker who police say continuously texted her alleged victim for months was arrested Tuesday, a month after allegedly breaking into his Arizona house and being found in his bath.

Jacqueline Ades, 31, was arrested for a first time in April when a resident of Paradise Valley, Arizona, called police to say he saw her on his home surveillance system. The resident knew Ades  he first reported her to police in July for allegedly continuously texting him even though he no longer wanted contact with her, according to a news release from the Paradise Valley Police Department.

Ades allegedly sent the victim 65,000 text messages, including one that said, "Oh what would I do w ur blood! I'd wanna bathe in it," NBC affiliate KPNX reported.

Ades was again arrested on Tuesday and booked on stalking, threatening and harassment charges as well as a warrant for failing to appear at a court date connected to the April trespassing incident.

NBC reached out to the Maricopa County public defenders office for comment on Ades' behalf.

Ades was first reported to police in July, when they found her parked outside the home in the Phoenix suburbs, police said. Soon after the incident, she allegedly began sending threatening texts to the Paradise Valley man. She was reported at the residence in December but police didn't find her there, according to police.

The victim was out of the country when she allegedly broke into his house on April 8, but he saw her through home surveillance video and called police, according to the release. Officers found her taking a bath and arrested her; she was charged with trespassing and released, but allegedly continued to text the victim threatening messages.

Ades was found last week outside the victim's business in nearby Scottsdale claiming to be his wife and removed by that city's police. When Paradise Valley police found out about the incident, officers searched for her and took her into custody without incident.Police are looking for a pair of armed thieves, including one who was carrying an AK-47, after they were caught on camera robbing a convenience store in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood.

The robbery happened around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, police said. The robbers walked in, approached the clerks and demanded money from the cash register. The robber with the AK-47 held the employees at gunpoint while the other one, who was armed with a handgun, grabbed the money.

Both robbers fled in an unknown direction. None of the employees were hurt.

"The video is outrageous, someone running into a convenience store with an AK-47. I don't think it's really that necessary," Little Haiti resident Shawn Jones said.

Police are asking anyone with information to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.What to Know A fugitive Latin Kings gang member wanted in connection with shooting into a crowd at a family event in New Jersey was captured in Florida

Authorities say Ivan Rivera, 47, was on the run after shooting into a crowd at "Strengthening Kids, a family event" in Newark, New Jersey

He will be transferred back to New York and New Jersey

A fugitive Latin Kings gang member who was wanted in connection with shooting into a crowd at a family event in New Jersey was captured in Florida Wednesday, officials said.

Authorities say Ivan Rivera, 47, was on the run after shooting into a crowd at an event titled "Strengthening Kids, a family event" in Newark, New Jersey.

He was listed as a fugitive after violating his parole in New York. Authorities say he is a certified Latin Kings member.

On Wednesday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office learned Rivera was in the area and with the help of the FBI, a Tampa address was obtained where Rivera was spotted.

Detectives with the HCSO Warrant's Section and Patrol District 3 Street Crimes Unit responded to the scene and Rivera was taken into custody without incident.

Riveras criminal history involves multiple agencies in New York and New Jersey and includes charges of burglary, sex offender violation and aggravated assault with a firearm, authorities say.

He is being held at the Hillsborough County Jail without bond and will be transferred back to New York and New Jersey.What to Know A LI bar owner declared an "act of war" against the Kingsport, Tennessee Tourism Board because the town claimed it created a famous cocktail

Butch Yamali, owner of Hudsons on the Mile in Freeport, sent a formal letter to the Kingsport Tourism Board challenging them to contest

Whats at stake? The honor of laying claim to a well-known cocktail

Weve heard about the Boston Tea Party, but the Battle for the Tea hits closer to home.

Whats at stake? The honor of laying claim to a well-known cocktail.



A Long Island bar owner declared an act of war against the Kingsport, Tennessee Tourism Board all because the southern town claimed that the famed Long Island Iced Tea cocktail was actually created there.

Butch Yamali, owner of Hudsons on the Mile in the Nautical Mile area in Freeport, New York, sent a formal letter to the Kingsport Tourism Board challenging them to a Long Island Iced Tea taste test contest where the winner will secure the naming rights of the cocktail and the loser will be tasked with cleaning their opponents bar and bathrooms and raise the winners state flag above their establishment.

The Empress Diner, a Long Island institution, is closing its doors after 63 years. Greg Cergol reports.

We on Long Island celebrate our beaches, our accents, and most of all, our booze. An insult against one, is an insult against all! reads part of Yamali's.

The Long Island Iced Tea is not only a badge of honor, but an earned reputation, that Long Island restaurant, tavern and pub patrons wear proudly, the letter continues.

Though the Kingsport Tourism Board said they "are excited about this challenge and anxiously await their invitation for the battle of this beverage. Once we receive it, we will rally our troops, gather our ingredients and prepare to defend our original recipe."

In a response letter to Yamali, Kingsport says it "graciously" accepts the challenge, adding that Long Island's version of the cocktail "can't possibly hold a candle to the original, crafted on Kingsport's Long Island during Prohibition  some 50 years before y'all ever thought about it."



According to Long Islanders, the cocktails origins date back to 1972, when Rosebud Butt, a bartender at the Oak Beach Inn in the Hamptons, invented the concoction and called it the Long Island Iced Tea. Rosebud died in 2014.

Top Tri-State News Photos

However, the story doesn't align with the one told in the Tennessean town.

According to the southern town, the drink was first mixed into existence on Long Island in Kingsport.

"We feel pretty certain that a lot of people in Kingsport and in the region arent aware that the Long Island Iced Tea was born here, Jud Teague, Executive Director of Visit Kingsport, said. The drink has a long and very interesting history and we just felt like it was time for us to embrace it and our role in its creation.

Kingsport officials say that the cocktail came into existence in the 1920s during Prohibition when bootlegger Charlie "Old Man" Bishop invented the concoction while he was living on Long Island in Kingsport.

"That's a bunch of baloney," Yamali said about Kingsport's claim.

Long Island's version of the cocktail is typically made with vodka, tequila, light rum, triple sec, gin and a splash of cola. Tennessee's version is slightly different and includes whiskey and maple syrup  forgoing the triple sec.

In the words of Yamali's letter: "It's time to settle the score once and for all."

[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and MoreThis is why we rescue.

Its a fitting caption for a photo melting animal lovers hearts across the country - A beagle once on the brink of euthanasia seen snuggling next to its rescuer on an inspiring freedom ride.

Theyre the words of an Ohio shelter founder who help saved Gregory the dog from death row.

Gregory was slated to be euthanized at the Franklin County Dog Shelter in Columbus after testing positive for heartworm, according to rescuers.

Schenley Hutson Kirk, who co-founded HOUND Rescue and Sanctuary, helped rescue Gregory before the dog was euthanized. She shared a photo of the pooch leaving what could have been its final home.

"Gregory is one thankful and appreciative Beagle! her Facebook post read. He KNOWS he is SAFE! He is Heartworm Positive and will be going through treatment, but he knows he is in good hands! We will get him healthy and provide him all the love he so deserves and a wonderful future!!

[[481568171, C]]

The caption was accompanied by a photo of Kirks husband, Joe, driving Gregory on a freedom ride. In the image, Gregory is seen nuzzling Joes shoulder with a paw on Joes arm.

Joe told "Today" he drove two hours to pick up the dog, saying the moment he met Gregory it felt like they "known each other for years."

Normally, the shelter transports dogs in crates, but Joe told "Today" he felt Gregory had been caged up for too long and chose to instead tether him in the back seat.

This is what makes it all worthwhile! Kirk wrote. This is why we rescue.

The post has been shared more than 9,000 times since it was posted at the start of the month. Kirk has asked for donations to help with Gregorys treatment, which can be made here.

The couple said the shelter already has an adoption offer for Gregory since the post went viral. Once the dog is cleared by a vet, the adopters will have their first meet and greet with what could be the newest member of their family.

[[482301891, C]]Staging a made-for-TV, still-of-the-night arrival ceremony, President Donald Trump welcomed home three Americans freed by North Korea and declared their release a sign of promise toward his goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking early Thursday on an air base tarmac with the former detainees by his side, Trump called it a "great honor" to welcome the men to the U.S., but said "the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons."

Trump also thanked North Korea's Kim Jong Un for releasing the Americans and said he believes Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearization at their upcoming summit. "I really think he wants to do something," the president said.

First lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other top officials joined Trump to celebrate the occasion at Joint Base Andrews near Washington. The men  Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim  had been released Wednesday amid a warming of relations between the longtime adversaries.

Shortly before 3 a.m. the president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men had traveled and spent several minutes meeting with them privately. The group then emerged at top of the airplane stairway, where the men held up their arms in an exuberant display.

As the men entered into view, U.S. service members on the tarmac burst into applause and cheers.

"This is a special night for these three really great people," Trump told reporters. On the U.S. relationship with North Korea, Trump declared, "We're starting off on a new footing."

The freed prisoners appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft. When asked by reporters how it felt to be home, one of the men answered through a translator, "It's like a dream; we are very, very happy." They later gave the president a round of applause.

After Trump's remarks, the three men boarded a bus for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where they are to be evaluated and receive medical treatment before being reunited with their families.

The White House carefully choreographed the event, hoisting a giant American flag between two fire trucks on the tarmac and inviting reporters to witness the return.

The image-conscious president told reporters, "I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 o'clock in the morning."

The highly public and politically tinged display stood in stark contrast to the low-key and very private reception that the State Department had envisioned and carried out from the moment it took custody of the men, in keeping with a tradition of trying to protect potentially traumatized victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after their ordeal.

Department officials took great pains on the prisoners' release in North Korea, as well as on their flights to Japan and Alaska, to keep them sequestered not only from the two journalists traveling with Pompeo but also from staffers not immediately involved in their cases. The trio, along with medical personnel that included a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Pompeo's plane in a small section of 12 business class-size seats that was cordoned off by curtains on both ends.

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns in keeping with the minimal amount of information they had released since the men were imprisoned.

Pompeo had secured their release in Pyongyang after meeting with Kim on final plans for the Trump-Kim summit. The Americans had boarded Pompeo's plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to the Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the U.S.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon, the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," they said. "We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

Singapore has emerged as the likely host of the U.S.-North Korean summit, late this month or in early June, as Trump seeks to negotiate denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in his highest-stakes foreign policy effort yet.

Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Korea's leader for the prisoners' release  "We want to thank Kim Jong Un"  and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the "official suggestion" of the U.S. president, said North Korea's official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.

Pence said in an NBC News interview that the administration hopes the detainees' release "is a sign that this is a real opportunity to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula."

Asked whether Trump, in having called Kim "honorable," has raised expectations too high for negotiations, Pence said the regime has been dealing "in good faith."

Pressed on Kim being a dictator, Pence said, "we have no illusions about that."



Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental U.S. Those advances were the subject of President Barack Obama's starkest warning shortly before Trump took office, and this is a crisis he's convinced his negotiating skills can resolve.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kim's willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating U.S. moves to tighten sanctions  branded "maximum pressure" by the president.

The three were the latest in a series of Americans who have been detained by North Korea in recent years for seemingly small offenses and typically freed when senior U.S. officials or statesmen personally visited to bail them out.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Warmbier was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

"We are happy for the hostages and their families," the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. "We miss Otto."

After the release of the detainees Thursday, North Korea's state-run media explicitly mentioned plans for the summit for the first time Thursday. Pyongyang has been exceptionally cautious about its public framing of Kim's recent diplomatic moves, which are a major shift from the more aggressive focus on missile launches and nuclear development that heated tensions to a boil last year.

Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey, Ken Thomas and Eric Talmadge contributed to this report.Already under investigation for a payment to a porn star, President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney is facing intensifying legal and ethical scrutiny for selling his Trump World experience and views at a hefty price to companies that sought "insight" into the new president.

One company, pharmaceutical giant Novartis, acknowledged Wednesday it paid Michael Cohen $1.2 million for services, though they ended after a single meeting. Others, including some with major regulatory matters before the new administration, acknowledged payments totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars over at least several months.

The corporate ties could suggest Cohen was peddling his influence and profiting from his relationship with the president. They also raise questions about whether Trump knew about the arrangement.

Cohen's corporate ties were first revealed in a detailed report released by an attorney for pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels. The report alleged that Cohen used a company he established weeks before the 2016 election to receive the payments from a variety of businesses  including $500,000 from one associated with a Russian billionaire. Financial documents reviewed by the Associated Press appear to back up much of attorney Michael Avenatti's report.

Cohen's lawyers said late Wednesday that much of the information released by Avenatti was "completely inaccurate." They told a New York judge that Avenatti made statements "in an apparent attempt to prejudice and discredit Mr. Cohen" as he seeks to intervene in a civil case Cohen brought stemming from April 9 raids on his home and office. The raids were carried out by federal agents looking for evidence in a criminal probe.

The lawyers wrote that some of the information Avenatti published Tuesday did appear to come from Cohen's actual bank records.

Aventti responded on Twitter, saying the attorneys "fail to address, let alone contradict, 99% of the statements in what we released. Among other things, they effectively concede the receipt of the $500,000 from those with Russian ties."

Three companies confirmed the payments, including Novartis and AT&T, both saying Cohen's Essential Consultants was hired to help them understand the new president during the early days of the Trump administration. Novartis said in a statement that it paid Cohen $100,000 a month for a year-long contract, thinking the longtime New York legal "fixer" with few Washington ties could advise on health care matters. After a single meeting they decided "not to engage further."

Some of the companies that engaged Cohen also had contact with Trump personally. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson met with him during the transition and has visited the White House as the company has sought approval to absorb Time Warner. The current CEO of Novartis attended a dinner with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this year, though the company stressed that the agreement with Cohen's company predated his time as CEO and he was not involved with the deal.

Just what Cohen was selling was a key question Wednesday, particularly given that public records show he is not a registered lobbyist. Cohen could enter these relationships without violating federal lobbying laws if he did not seek to influence Trump on the companies' behalf. But hiring Trump's personal attorney for advice on how to understand the president would be highly unusual.

Public Citizen President Robert Weissman said Cohen's consulting work sounds more like pay-to-play lobbying.

"It stretches the imagination that the work was just for advice. There is no reason that he would have any blinding insights," Weissman said. "Sending money to a shell company, instead of his business, that sets off some alarm bell. Nothing of this seems right."

Some of the dealings have caught the attention of the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. A spokesman for Novartis said the company was contacted in November by Robert Mueller's office regarding its agreement with Essential Consultants, which expired this year.

AT&T also said it was contacted last year by Mueller's office "regarding Michael Cohen." The company said it "cooperated fully, providing all information requested in November and December of 2017." AT&T added that its consulting contract with Cohen expired at the end of the year and it has received no questions since.

Cohen also used the company to pay a $130,000 payment to Daniels just before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with the president. Cohen is under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York, but has not been charged.

Getting into a taxi in New York City Wednesday, Cohen said of Avenatti, "His document is inaccurate," according to NBC News.

Cohen has told associates that Avenatti's claims are overheated, and he has maintained that he has not done anything wrong, according to a person familiar with the attorney's views but not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

Cohen, who until January 2017 worked for the Trump Organization, was a fixture in the company's headquarters in Trump Tower in the weeks before the president took office. Ex-campaign officials did not recall Cohen or Trump ever discussing Cohen's plans to launch consulting firm, according to three ex-campaign officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Some who used to work for Trump defended Cohen's actions, assuming he did not break any regulations about lobbying.

"Corporations want to pay for insight, advocacy and expertise on a White House," said former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg. "Michael offered that. He didn't do anything wrong, he did what lots of people have done over the years."

The Treasury Department's Office of the Inspector General said Wednesday it was investigating how allegations about Cohen's banking records became public, a response to the memo released by Avenatti.

Inspector general counsel Rich Delmar said the agency's actions stem from its authority as the federal agency that analyzes banking records for potential illegal activity. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, financial institutions must monitor their customers' activities and report suspicious transactions to the government. But that information is supposed to remain confidential.

Avenatti, who has not disclosed where he got his information or released any documents, declined to comment on the probe. But he has called on Cohen and Trump to release their banking records and has urged the Treasury Department to release a so-called suspicious activities report on Essential Consultants.

According to Avenatti's memo, Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire, and his cousin, Andrew Intrater, "routed" eight payments totaling about $500,000 to Cohen's company between January and August 2017. The payments were made by Columbus Nova, an American investment company, Avenatti alleges.

Andrey Shtorkh, a spokesman for Vekselberg said in a statement that Vekselberg did not have a "contractual relationship" with Cohen or his firm.

Columbus Nova's lawyer, Richard Owens, said the company hired Cohen after Trump's inauguration in January 2017 as a business consultant "regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures," but that it had nothing to do with Vekselberg.

At the time of the payments, there was an FBI counterintelligence investigation, which special counsel Mueller took over last May, into Russian election interference and any possible coordination with Trump associates.

Vekselberg was targeted for U.S. sanctions by the Trump administration last month. He built his fortune, currently estimated by Forbes at $14.6 billion, by investing in the aluminum and oil industries. More recently, he has expanded his assets to include industrial equipment and high technology.

AT&T said in a statement that Essential Consultants was one of several firms it "engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration." Avenatti alleged that the company made four $50,000 payments to Cohen totaling $200,000 in late 2017 and early 2018. AT&T said Cohen's company "did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017."

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Richard Lardner, Jake Pearson and Bernard Condon contributed to this report.What to Know Pvt. Shamika Burrage lost her left ear in a crash. Army surgeons performed a total ear reconstruction, the first of its kind in the Army.

Doctors took cartilage from the soldier's ribs, carved out a new ear and placed it under the skin of her forearm to allow it to grow.

"It's been a long process for everything, but I'm back," Burrage said.

After a soldier lost her left ear in a car crash, Army surgeons were able to grow a new ear in her forearm and transplant it onto her head.

The Army announced Monday that the procedure performed on Pvt. Shamika Burrage was successful.

The total ear reconstruction, the first of its kind in the Army, was performed at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas. Doctors took cartilage from the soldier's ribs, carved out a new ear and placed it under the skin of her forearm to allow it to grow.

"The whole goal is, by the time she's done with all this, it looks good, it's sensate and in five years, if somebody doesn't know her, they won't notice," chief plastic surgeon Lt. Col. Owen Johnson III said in a statement.

In 2016, Burrage was driving from Mississippi to Fort Bliss, Texas, with her cousin when a tire blew. The car veered off the road, skidded for 700 feet and then flipped multiple times. Burrage, then 19, was thrown from the car. Her cousin, who was eight months pregnant, suffered only minor injuries. But Burrage suffered head injuries, spinal fractures, road rash and the complete loss of her left ear.

After several months of rehabilitation and counseling, she looked into how to get a new ear. Army surgeons told her they could potentially make her a new one.

"I was going to go with the prosthetic, to avoid more scarring, but I wanted a real ear," she said in the Army's statement. "I was just scared at first but wanted to see what [the surgeon] could do."

Burrage, now 21, has two surgeries remaining. She is a supply clerk with 1st Battalion, 35th Armored Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division. She has hearing in her left ear, and she's feeling optimistic.

"It's been a long process for everything, but I'm back," she said.Kevin Kamenetz, the Baltimore County executive who was running for Maryland governor, has died. He was 60 years old.

Kamenetz died early Thursday morning following a cardiac arrest, according to the Baltimore County Police and Fire Department. Just hours earlier, he participated in a Democratic candidates' forum.

Last September, Kamenetz entered Maryland's crowded Democratic primary for governor. He served as county executive of Maryland's third-largest jurisdiction since December 2010.

Like some of his Democratic opponents, he focused on trying to link Republican Gov. Larry Hogan to President Donald Trump.

In a tweet published just hours before his death, Kamenetz said, "Maryland deserves need leaders who will stand up for what they stand for. That was exactly why I signed an executive order rejecting the Trump administration's unconstitutional behavior & hateful agenda. As governor, I'll continue to defend all of our communities from bigotry."

According to police, Kamenetz was asleep in his home in Owings Mills when he awoke about 2 a.m., complaining of feeling ill. Officials say Kamenetz went to the Chestnut Ridge Volunteer Fire Company, about two miles from his home. He called 911 from the parking lot and was taken to a hospital from there. He died at the hospital just over an hour later.

"When someone who appeared to be in the peak of health yesterday and they're not with you today, it's shocking," Baltimore County Fire Department spokeswoman Elise Armacost said.



He is survived by his wife, Jill Kamenetz, and their two sons.

As news of his death spread, condolences from Kamenetz's fellow politicians poured in on social media.

Hogan released a statement on Kamenetz's death on Twitter early Thursday morning.

"The First Lady and I are shocked and grieved by the sudden passing of Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz. Our prayers go out to his family and many loved ones this morning," Hogan said.

Hogan also ordered that all flags in the state be lowered in Kamenetz's honor.

Former NAACP president Ben Jealous, who was running against Kamenetz in the Democratic primary, said he would remember his opponent's "grace and good humor."

"He dedicated his life to public service, to making a difference, and he helped move Maryland forward," Jealous wrote.

Kamenetz and Jealous are two of seven candidates on the ballot for the Democratic nomination. The Democratic primary field also includes state Sen. Richard Madaleno, Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker, entrepreneur Alec Ross, former aide to Michelle Obama Krish Vignarajah and lawyer Jim Shea.

Kamenetz had chosen Montgomery County Councilmember Valerie Ervin as his running mate.

Ahead of the June 26 primary, the Maryland Board of Elections said Ervin has the right to either nominate a successor to Kamenetz or nominate herself as the candidate and designate a new running mate, as long as neither has already filed as a candidate. The deadline to make this decision is May 17.

The first absentee ballots will be sent out this Saturday. If Ervin does nominate herself or someone else, the elections board will send out a supplement to the original ballot, explaining the change.

The elections board said they are researching whether funds raised by the Kamenetz campaign can be donated to another candidate.

Another candidates' debate was planned for Thursday night. It was cancelled in Kamenetz's memory.A pro-President Trump billboard in Calvert County, Maryland, warning liberal Democrats to grab weapons if they try to impeach the commander in chief will be taken down, WTOP reports.

Someone posted the sign last week along Maryland Route 4 at Bowie Shop Road that says in large, red capital letters: "Hey liberals better get your guns if you try to impeach President Trump." Beneath that message, it reads, "From all of your deplorables in Calvert County."

Residents expressed their concern about the sign on social media and one post about the sign on an anti-Trump Facebook page was shared more than 13,000 times.

Charles County Sheriff Mike Evans told WTOP there was nothing criminal about the billboard and that the county had received complaints.

Evans said to WTOP that he told the man responsible for the message, Some people are quite upset, and maybe you should change your message or think about taking it down.

Evans said the man decided to take the billboard down and that it would likely come down on Thursday.

WTOP reports Evans is running for re-election and plans to post his own message on the same billboard sometime soon.

Evans would not comment to WTOP on whether he agreed with the signs pro-Trump message, but said, Im a Republican and I stand by Republican values.When three Americans returned to the U.S. Thursday after being held captive in North Korea, journalist Laura Ling was "overjoyed" and couldn't help but think of her own experience of isolation, fear and destitution while held captive  and how those experiences influenced her initial days back home.

Ling said in an interview with NBC News that she had a new appreciation for "the smallest things." Music on the radio and the National Anthem made her emotional. Her gratitude deepened tremendously for even the smallest freedoms that we tend to take for granted too often," she said.

Just being able to take a walk, a stroll in my neighborhood, to look at the stars at night, she said. These were things that, luxuries that I didn't have when I was held in North Korea. And so they became little treasures for me.

Ling was held captive in 2009 for 140 days with fellow journalist Euna Lee. The pair were working at the time for the now-defunct Current TV on a story about North Korean defectors. Former President Bill Clinton traveled to Pyongyang and helped secure their release.

After James Mastricola Upper Elementary School relocated eight classrooms of students and spent $600,000 last year, bats returned to the Merrimack, New Hampshire, school for the second time.



"I didn't feel comfortable sending him to school yesterday until we got more information," said Missy Warrington, a parent at the school.

Warrington wanted more information on what has been flying around her son's fifth grade classroom.

"We've had a couple bats in the building," said Marsha McGill, principal of the elementary school. "We had one in the classroom the other day."

McGill said students evacuated and the rabies-carrying rodent has been captured, but some parents are still concerned about sending their kids back to the school.

"I was a bit hesitant to send him again today, but we did because he wanted to go back to school, for one thing," Warrington said. "We talked about what he'd do if there was a bat there in the room, and being safe."

This is the second time the school has had a problem with bats. The rodents were first found hibernating in the school's walls back in November.

"Everything inside was cleaned and prepared for students to go back into their classrooms in April," McGill said.

Now, New Hampshire Critter Control will use pipes to solve the problem for good.

"We systematically seal up the exterior of the building and we install special one way valves that allow the bats to exit the structure but not re enter," said Jessie Fraser of Critter Conrol.For 32 years, a father in Jay, Maine has been searching for his daughter.

Dick Moreau, 75, says he wont rest until he puts his daughter Kimberly to rest and gives her a proper burial.

We all accept that shes gone, we just cant accept that somebody threw her out in the middle of nowhere without caring, he said.

Kimberly was last seen on Main Street in Jay with an acquaintance named Brian Enman. The teenager had told her family she was going out for a ride with friends and was seen getting into his car. In 2015, Maine State Police conducted a search on Enmans property in Canton. Lt. Mark Holmquist will not say if any new evidence was found. Enman has not been named as a suspect.

This is still very much an active and open case, said Lt. Holmquist. Out of all of our unsolved homicide and missing person cases, this particular case receives a lot of tips.

He credits Dick Moreaus tenacity and persistence with keeping the public interest in Kimberlys case after all these years.

Moreau has personally put up thousands of missing person posters in the Jay area and conducted countless searches. He admits every May 10th, the anniversary of Kimberlys disappearance, is a difficult day.

Another year, another year Im older, he said. Sometimes there are doubts. A lot of hurt. It never gets easier. It gets harder, if anything.

Adding to his pain this year is the recent death of his second wife.

But there are some things giving Moreau hope. Since Maines Cold Case Unit was established in 2015, there have been big breaks in cases even older than Kimberlys: a murder conviction 37 years after Joyce McClains death, and an arrest 38 years after infant Nathan Hagar died.

The cold case squad is more than capable of seeing these things through, said Moreau.

He said he wishes he had more communication with police, and he wants to know that the officers dedicated to cold cases arent being assigned to other work.

While Lt. Holmquist wont discuss developments in the investigation, Moreau says he is aware of progress in the case and believes closure is around the corner.

I think it will happen in the next year, he said. Then Ill have two things to do. Bury my daughter, then take down every [missing person] poster there is. And that will be a joyous day.A Massachusetts woman faced a judge on Thursday on charges she used her attorney privileges to smuggle drugs into the Plymouth County House of Correction.

Elana Gordon, 42, of Bridgewater, was arrested Wednesday after an investigation that spanned several months and one that stems from another probe into the movement of narcotics through Brockton Superior Court, according to State Police detectives assigned to the Plymouth County District Attorney's office.

Prosecutors say Gordon, who is an attorney, was involved with an inmate and his sister to get drugs into the Plymouth House of Correction. Those drugs would then be sold to other inmates.

On May 4, investigators said Gordon gained entrance to the jail and allegedly passed Suboxone strips in manila envelopes to an inmate. Suboxone is a controlled substance used to treat pain as well as opioid dependence.

"When the investigators at the Plymouth County House of corrections opened up these envelopes, they found 61 strips of Suboxone. They were slipping through the envelope," said a court prosecutor. "A strip of Suboxone in the House of correction goes for approximately $200 a strip, which was approximately $12,000 worth of product that this defendant was bringing in to the Plymouth County House of Correction."

Gordon was held on a $1,000 cash bail. She is due back in court on June 11.New solar installs are contributing the same amount of electricity as building one new coal-fueled power station annually in Australia, according to the head of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).

We are essentially seeing the [equivalent] of a new power plant being built every season, AEMO chief Audrey Zibelman told the Sydney Morning Herald.

One reason rooftop adoption in Australia is exploding, the paper wrote, is because of government subsidies. However, theres another financial driver of alternative power globally, which is the full-lifecycle cost of building and operating  its now lower.

Alternative power generation is much cheaper now over the lifetime of a plant than when working with traditional fuels like coal, according to a report by investment bank Lazard.

Lazard says the cost of producing one megawatt-hour of solar-produced electricity in North America is currently $50, compared to $102 for coal-origination. It says that in 2009 it would have cost $359 to produce that level of power with utility-scale solar arrays, and $111 with coal-fired power stations. Wind-power comes in even cheaper at $45 per megawatt-hour today.

The investment bank uses a special calculation, called the Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis (LCOE), in the November 2107-published analysis.

LCOE computes the unit cost of power over the lifetime of the generating asset, such as power station or wind farm, and takes into account lowering prices for components such as racks, PV panels, inverters and turbines, among other elements.

Uncertain long-term fuel costs required for traditional power generation close formerly wide gaps, Lazard explains of its numbers. There are also significant, newfound efficiency gains that get thrown in the LCOE mix.

Lazard

Solar panels that don't need sun

In fact, the latest solar panels are so efficient they dont actually need sun.

Todays panels are more durable, efficient, and can handle all kinds of weather for many years, says Jason Rothman, writing on solar-system vendor Hahasmarts blog.

Germany, for example, a Northern European country not known for its beach weather, produces much solar power, Rothman says. Thats because, contrary to what youd think, solar efficiency is actually reduced in high temperatures. In high temperatures, heat causes the electricity to be converted into even more heat  not power. Clouds, too, dont block the solar rays needed to run the panel anymore, and rain cleans the panels, making it more efficient.

More advancements in solar panels are coming on stream, too. I recently wrote about experimental panels that create electricity from raindrops friction, as well as from sun.

New battery technology is also being developed. One promising idea is a water-based battery being developed at Stanford University that could feed stored sunny-day alternative energy into the grid when demand is high or at night.

Its not practical right now, the researchers say, but will be. And storing energy in hydrogen gas using industrial salt and water would be cheap  much cheaper than lithium-ion.

It would cost a penny to store enough electricity to power a 100 watt lightbulb for twelve hours, Stanford says in an article on its website.Parkway manager talks about new best event category

Parkway centre manager Andrew Marmot

PARKWAY Shopping Newbury will be the sponsor of a new category at this years Newbury Weekly News Best in Business Awards.

The Best Regional Event category will recognise an event of any description; either taking place for the first time in the past year or one that has been established for some time.

The judges will be looking for innovation, organisation and participation.

Entries must specify some precise objectives for the event and how they were achieved, while research and feedback from those who attended would strengthen the application.

Financial goals can be either directly as a result of the event, eg fundraising for charity, or the impact that the event had on the area, such as local retail or hospitality.

Finally, the judges would like to understand how the event has enhanced the local community.

Parkway centre manager Andrew Marmot spoke about the impact holding events has on a business, saying: In the competitive world that we live in now, its no longer sufficient to be the caretaker of a place.

Just because something runs or is there, is not enough to make it a destination.

When asked what Parkway would be looking for in the chosen winner, he said: Its not about who does the biggest event.

Its not about who does the event that pulls in the most amount of people.

Its about what that event means.

Were looking for the event that can be the most innovative, the most interesting.

What does it do? How does it make itself successful? All of those things are a factor.

It can be from the smallest school fete, right the way up to the big events that go on at the racecourse.

Any of those events are in for consideration.

Size is not important, its about what it does and how it does it.

When asked about the importance of the local business community to a place like Parkway, Mr Marmot, said: It is an absolutely critical part for every major franchise store that we have.

To be able to offer the variety and independent spirit that a local retailer brings, its absolutely critical to ensure in the retail mix of a scheme like Parkway, it matches up to the expectations of our customer base.

There will be nine categories in the awards this year, each sponsored by a local business.

The winner of each will be announced at the Best in Business Awards gala dinner, which will take place on Friday, November 2, at Newbury Racecourse.

THE nine Newbury Weekly News Best in Business Awards categories are as follows:

Independent Retailer of the Year, sponsored by Jones Robinson

Small Business of the Year, sponsored by PBA Accountants

Rural Business of the Year, sponsored by Cobbs Farm Shop and Kitchen

Entrepreneur of the Year, sponsored by Laudis Business Advisors

Customer Service Award, sponsored by Newbury BID

Social Media Award, sponsored by Apple Print and Creative

Innovation in Business Award, sponsored by HSBC

Charity or Community Award, sponsored by Greenham Trust

Best Regional Event, sponsored by Parkway Shopping

Best in Business 2018 Award, sponsored by West Berkshire Brewery

To enter the awards, simply decide on the category or categories that you would like to enter, go to www.bestinbusinessawards. co.uk, complete the enquiry form and email to john.hampson@bestinbusinessawards.co.uk

You will then be sent an entry form to complete and return, together with any supporting information that you think will help support your application.

Applications are being accepted until June 22.Could you be the one to challenge the chilli-eating queen?

NEWBURY will have the hottest ticket in West Berkshire this weekend when the town welcomes its very own chilli festival.

The event, run in a joint collaboration between the award-winning Oxfordshire chilli festival and Newbury Business Improvement District (BID), will be held in the Market Place between 11am and 4pm on Sunday.

The festival will boast an array of street food and artisan traders across 50 different stalls, with seeds, plants and sauces available to buy.

A selection of gourmet treats and street food from around the world will also feature, from US barbecue to Mexican, Nepalese dumplings, Thai, Indian and more.

Other traders will be selling everything from breads, cakes, cheeses and artisan bacon to Mexican handicrafts and fair trade clothing.

Churros and Dutch pancakes are among other delicious delights to satisfy those with a sweet tooth.

Rah Rahs Gin Bar and its vintage caravan will be on hand with a choice of 26 gins to wash down any spices and guests can enjoy live music from Radio 1Xtra favourite Zaia, along with several other bands.

The festival will also see local company Djkit.com launch its new DJ experience workshop, inviting guests to get behind the decks and learn from the experts.

There will also be trampolines for children, face-painting and old-fashioned fairground side shows, including hook-a-duck.

At 3pm there will also be a chilli-eating contest, hosted by chilli cultivator expert The Wiltshire Chilli Farm, Melksham, to test Newburys mettle.

The competition will see Shahina Waseem battle it out against the toughest locals.

Ms Waseem, dubbed the UK Chilli Queen is unbeaten in 23 chilli-eating competitions

Hardcore chilli contestants who wish to challenge her can enter by emailing yummyeventsuk@gmail.comOxford University Press and the Chinese Antibody Society are pleased to announce their new partnership to launch the journal Antibody Therapeutics this spring.

A peer-reviewed, online, open access journal, Antibody Therapeutics provides a forum for the publication of the latest advances and challenges in the discovery, research, development, manufacturing, and methodology of therapeutic antibodies for the global scientific community.

Topics include target and antibody discovery, mechanistic research, new technologies and methods, manufacturing, clinical trials, regulation, policies, and more. Antibody Therapeutics article types include original research, reviews, cutting-edge technologies, new methods, news, interviews, and meeting highlights.

"It's our society's great honor to partner with reputed Oxford University Press in publication of the new journal. With over 1,200 registered members worldwide, our growing society will fully support the journal in many ways. I have strong confidence in the bright future of the journal, considering the support from the prestigious editorial board members of the journal, in particular the Editor-In-Chief Prof. Mitchell Ho." said Chinese Antibody Society President Shouye Wang.

Alison Denby, publishing director for Oxford Journals, said, "We are looking forward to launching Antibody Therapeutics in 2018. This area of study requires an open access journal with a strong support team, and we see that in our partnership with the Chinese Antibody Society. CAS is an engaged, dedicated group and we are committed to working together for this journal's success."

The journal is currently accepting submissions and plans to publish its first issue in 2018.Individual regions of the brain have to team up to get things done. And like in any team, the key to working together is communication.

Duke researchers used brain imaging to identify how patterns of brain connectivity -- the ability of different brain regions to talk to each other -- can affect a person's likelihood of developing common forms of mental illness.

Surprisingly, they found that brain regions that help process what we see may play a key role in mental health. The results show that a person's risk of mental illness broadly increases when the visual cortex has trouble communicating with brain networks responsible for focus and introspection.

"You don't typically associate visual processing with psychopathology," said Maxwell Elliott, a graduate student in psychology and neuroscience at Duke. "We found evidence that visual areas may be related to mental illness by virtue of their ability to communicate information between two higher-order cognitive networks."

Teasing out how risk for mental illness manifests in the brain could help researchers target interventions and therapies to where they matter most, the researchers say. The results appeared online last month in Biological Psychiatry.

In their analysis, the team drew upon data from 605 university students who participated in the Duke Neurogenetics Study. Each participant was asked to spend about 10 minutes relaxing in a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner while the instrument recorded blood flow to different regions of the brain.

"We measure how different areas of the brain talk to each other by how their blood flow signals go up and down together," said Elliott, who works in the lab of Duke professor of psychology and neuroscience Ahmad Hariri.

Participants also completed a comprehensive mental health assessment, and the researchers used these assessments to estimate each individual's "p-factor" score. The p-factor reflects recent observations that people with symptoms of one psychiatric disorder, such as anxiety, are also more likely to report symptoms of one or more additional psychiatric disorders, such as depression or bipolar disorder.

People who reported a greater number of or more intense psychiatric symptoms were assigned a higher p-factor score. All participants who were diagnosed with mental disorders were referred for treatment.

In a study published last year, the team examined how the structure of the brain, such as the density of white or grey matter, maps onto the p-factor. They found that higher p-factor scores correlate with lower volume and less integrity of white and grey matter in regions of the brain that help coordinate complex movements with external stimuli, including visual input.

In the new study, they wanted to extend this analysis to also include the brain's functional circuitry. Using an advanced statistical technique, they examined how functional connections throughout the brain related to p-factor scores. They consistently found that people with higher p-factor scores also had certain brain regions that didn't work together as well -- specifically four regions of the visual cortex that help us understand and recognize what we see.

When they looked deeper into the data, they found that these visual networks specifically had trouble tapping into more complex networks responsible for focus, planning and introspection. Difficulty focusing and planning has been linked to severe forms of mental illness, such as schizophrenia and severe depression.

"We are very visual animals compared to, say, a dog or a mouse, so a big part of our attention is focused on filtering visual information," Elliott said. "And in order to filter visual information and stay focused on a task, these higher order networks need to work with your visual networks to tell it to ignore, say, the blinking light outside, and keep giving us information about what matters most for a given task at hand."

"We will never make progress in the field of psychiatry until we can understand the biological origins of these diseases in people," said Theodore Satterthwaite, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the study. "What's exciting about this work is it shows that there may be common neural circuits that may leave people vulnerable to all sorts of disorders."

Because measuring this circuitry is simple and non-invasive -- the patient merely has to relax in an MRI scanner -- Satterthwaite says it may have potential to be used as a diagnostic tool in a clinical setting.

Both Elliott and Satterthwaite caution that the results must be replicated on a more diverse group than undergraduates before it can be considered generalizable to the population as a whole. The team at Duke plans to repeat the experiments on New Zealanders participating in the long-term Dunedin study.

"The more we can map the p-factor onto the brain and understand how it influences mental illness, the more we can come up with novel ways of intervening," Elliott said.Floyd Romesberg, PhD, professor at The Scripps Research Institute, has won the 2018 Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Bioorganic Chemistry Award for his ground-breaking contributions to the expansion of the genetic alphabet. Romesberg will receive 2000, a medal and will conduct a lecture tour in the United Kingdom.

Romesberg's work supports the development of new molecules that add to the genetic code. His recent studies have expanded the natural library of four DNA bases to include two artificial bases. This advance in bioorganic chemistry and synthetic biology has fueled new research to produce unnatural proteins and semi-synthetic organisms for use in drug development.

"I am honored to receive the RSC Bioorganic Chemistry Award," says Romesberg. "As an undergraduate and graduate student, my studies were focused strictly on chemistry, especially physical organic chemistry, but as a postdoctoral student working in the lab of Peter Schultz (now Scripps Research president and CEO) at UC Berkeley, I got a glimpse of how addressing biological problems really benefits from the rigor of physical organic approaches, and I have strived to maintain the same rigor in my independent career.

"My group's work to develop a third base pair and deploy it in DNA in a living cell began in 1998. The project most recently culminated with the demonstration that our unnatural base pair not only can be replicated and maintained in the genome of bacteria, but also that bacteria can be used in an unnatural codon to produce proteins with more than the 20 natural amino acids, work which truly exemplifies what can be achieved by combining chemistry and biology."

RSC awards also acknowledge the importance of teamwork across the chemical sciences, and the abilities of individuals to develop successful collaborations. According to Robert Parker, PhD, chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry:

"The chemical sciences are vital for the wellbeing of our world and chemical scientists help to change people's lives for the better. That's why we're so proud to celebrate the innovation and expertise of our community through our Prizes and Awards.

"This year's inspiring and influential winners come from a range of specialisms, backgrounds, countries and communities. Each has done their bit to advance excellence in the chemical sciences - to improve the lives of people around the world now and in the future."A Johns Hopkins study found that physicians who use stigmatizing language in their patients' medical records may affect the care those patients get for years to come.

When doctors read notes and descriptions from previous medical visits, says the study, published in the May edition of The Journal of General Internal Medicine, the language in those notes may play a role in how that patient is treated, as well as how aggressively the patient's pain is managed.

Mary Catherine Beach, M.D., M.P.H., designed the study to determine whether the language and descriptions used in patient records can perpetuate bias among physicians. More than 400 physicians-in-training -- medical students and residents -- were presented with one of two vignettes about a hypothetical patient, a 28-year-old man with sickle cell disease and chronic hip pain.

While the vignettes contained medically identical information, one used neutral language to describe the patient and his condition, while the other vignette contained nonessential language that implied various value judgements.

Beach and her research colleagues found that physicians-in-training who read the stigmatizing patient chart notes were significantly more likely to have a negative attitude toward the patient than those who read the chart containing more neutral language.

And not only did their attitudes change -- so did their treatment plans. Those physicians-in-training who had read the stigmatizing chart note decided to treat the patient's pain less aggressively.

Every clinician encounter with a patient is documented in a chart note. Symptoms, patient history, vital signs, test results, clinicians' assessments and treatment plans are all part of the medical record.

"This record may be the only source of information a new clinician has about some patients," says Beach. "We have to question the assumption that the medical record always represents an objective space."

The study's participants were introduced to the hypothetical Mr. R., an African-American man whose condition necessitates the use of a wheelchair. Both vignettes begin with Mr. R. visiting the hospital emergency department with a painful condition known as a vaso-occlusive crisis, common among patients with sickle cell disease. Among the standard treatments for this condition are opioids to treat pain and oxygen to combat the effects of sickled red blood cells' inability to oxygenate organs.

Examples of the differing notes on the hypothetical patient:

"He has about 8-10 pain crises a year, for which he typically requires opioid pain medication in the ED."

"He is narcotic dependent and in our ED frequently."

"He spent yesterday afternoon with friends and wheeled himself around more than usual, which caused dehydration due to the heat."

"Yesterday afternoon, he was hanging out with friends outside McDonald's where he wheeled himself around more than usual and got dehydrated due to the heat."

"The pain is not alleviated by his home pain medication regimen."

"The pain has not been helped by any of the narcotic medications he says he has already taken."

"He is in obvious distress."

"He appears to be in distress."

"His girlfriend is by his side but will need to go home soon."

"His girlfriend is lying on the bed with shoes on and requests a bus token to go home."

Even physicians-in-training who recognized the language as stigmatizing were more likely to form more negative opinions about the patient and to treat that patient's pain less aggressively.

"There is growing evidence that the language used to communicate in health care reflects and influences clinician attitudes toward their patients," says Anna Goddu, a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine student who co-authored the study. "Medical records are an important and overlooked pathway by which bias may be propagated from one clinician to another, further entrenching health care disparities."

Goddu and her co-authors are encouraged by one particular result of the study.

"When prompted, the participants seemed able to reflect on how the words used in the chart notes communicated respect and empathy for the patient," she says. "To us, this seems like a promising point of intervention."

Beach adds that, in the study, medical residents had more negative attitudes than medical students toward the hypothetical patient.

"Attitudes seem to become more negative as trainees progress," she says. "It may be that trainees are influenced by negative attitudes and behaviors among their peers and seniors in the clinical setting."

Participants who identified as black or African-American generally had more positive attitudes toward the patient.

"That affirms what some other studies have shown," says Beach, "specifically, that African-American clinicians have more positive attitudes toward patients with sickle cell disease."

Goddu says that, while the topic deserves more research, she hopes this study opens some eyes.

"I hope our study makes clinicians think twice before including certain, nonessential points about a patient's history or demeanor in the medical record," she says.Houston Methodist researchers developed a new lab-on-a-chip technology that could quickly screen possible drugs to repair damaged neuron and retinal connections, like what is seen in people with macular degeneration or who've had too much exposure to the glare of electronic screens.

In the May 9 issue of Science Advances, researchers led by Houston Methodist Research Institute nanomedicine faculty member Lidong Qin, Ph.D., explain how they created a sophisticated retina cell network on a chip that is modeled after a human's neural network. This will further the quest for finding the right drug to treat such retinal diseases.

"Medical treatments have advanced but there is still no perfect drug to cure any one of these diseases. Our device can screen drugs much faster than previous technologies. With the new technology and a few years' effort, the potential to develop a new drug is highly possible," said Qin.

Named the NN-Chip, the high-throughput platform consists of many channels that can be tailored to imitate large brain cell networks as well as focus on individual neural cells, such as those found in the retina. Using extremely bright light to selectively damage retina photoreceptors in the device, they discovered the damaged cells are not only difficult to recover but also cause neighboring cells to quickly die.

"This so-called 'bystander killing effect' in retina cone photoreceptors leads us to believe that once retina cells are severely damaged, the killing effect will spread to other healthy cells which can cause irrevocable damage," said Qin. "What surprised us was how quickly the killing effect progressed in the experimental model. Damage went from 100 cells to 10, 000 cells in 24 hours."

The NN-Chip is an improvement on Qin's BloC-Printing technology, which allowed researchers to print living cells onto any surface in any shape within the confines of a mold. With this latest iteration, Qin's lab loaded and tested cells with micro-needles in an open dish so they could tailor the neural network device, study individual cells as well as the progression of drugs through the platform's many channels.

Retinal degeneration is a leading cause of blindness that, together with glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa, and age-related macular degeneration, will affect 196 million people worldwide in 2020.

Qin hopes the platform will have additional applications in creating models for Huntington's and Alzheimer's diseases and screening therapeutic drugs.

Microfluidics focuses on the behavior of fluids through micro-channels, as well as the technology of manufacturing micro devices containing chambers and tunnels to house fluids. In addition to the BloC-Printing chip, Qin's lab at Houston Methodist also successfully developed a nonconventional lab-on-a-chip technology called the V-Chip for point-of-care diagnostics, making it possible to bring tests to the bedside, remote areas, and other types of point-of-care needs.Personalized medicine has the potential to improve the treatment and care of patients. This promising approach has already borne fruit, with a handful of targeted therapies for cancer now in use. For example, the molecular analysis of a tumor can identify specific genetic mutations and thereby what kind of chemotherapy would be most effective. This not only improves the patients' chances of recovery, it also saves them from having to endure unnecessary and ineffective treatments.

On the whole, however, personalized medicine is still in its infancy. To identify molecular causes of illnesses and develop tailored therapies, various data types from a multitude of sources must be aggregated. This entails collecting patient data from hospitals, the results of clinical tests, molecular and genetic data, as well as information about healthy people. Data sharing between hospitals, research institutions, clinicians and patients is thus essential. However, "to date, this kind of exchange hasn't been happening to the desired extent," says Effy Vayena, bioethicist and Professor at the Institute of Translational Medicine at ETH Zurich.

Guidelines for Switzerland

In Switzerland, the situation is set to change. Last year saw the launch of the Swiss Personalized Health Network (SPHN), an initiative created to promote the development of personalized health through the establishment of a data sharing infrastructure. Within this network, Vayena chairs an advisory committee that deals with the ethical, legal and social implications of precision medicine. "Our goal is to develop guidelines for responsible health data sharing," says Vayena.

As a first step, she and other ETH researchers investigated existing international guidelines and recommendations and analyzed the range of topics they covered. They compared 230 documents published by official bodies, research institutions, expert groups and further national and international organizations between 1996 and 2017. This included publications by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, and the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health. The results of this comparative study were published in the Health Affairs journal.

Important topics neglected

Their investigation highlighted that there was scarcely any cross referencing between the recommendations and guidelines and, moreover, that they were not sufficiently standardized. Guidelines focused primarily on three topics: data privacy, data quality, and the sovereign right of patients to determine how their data should be used. "These topics are very important, no question about it," says Vayena.

However, there are other important aspects that - viewed as a whole, across all the documents - received comparatively little attention. These include the question of who should be held responsible if patient data is used incorrectly - such as if it is used for a research project without the patient's consent. There is also the matter of how researchers can be acknowledged or rewarded for sharing their own research data with other scientists. "We won't be able to improve data sharing until we do more to tackle aspects like these," says Vayena.

Currently, a variety of obstacles stand in the way of this goal. These are partly of a technical nature - for example, the fact that hospitals cannot share data because their different systems for electronic health records are incompatible. There is also, however, a reluctance amongst researchers and companies to share data. In some cases, they do not want to reveal their hard-won data to competitors; in others, they balk at the cost and effort involved in making the information accessible by putting it in a database. Adding to the issue is that patients often hesitate to give consent for their data to be used, because they don't exactly know what will happen with it.

Innovative solutions are needed

"Future guidelines about data sharing should deal with as many of the identified hurdles as possible," says Vayena, who also highlights the need to develop innovative solutions, as previous approaches did not work well enough. For example, new technologies such as blockchain could be implemented as a method of data protection. Alternatively, an incentive system based on reciprocity could be created for researchers, whereby only those who put their own research data into a database could have access to the data of others. Furthermore, digital technologies could be harnessed to allow patients the option of not giving blanket consent for their data to be used in research, but instead tying their consent to individual projects - putting patients more in control.

Such considerations are to be incorporated into the guidelines developed as part of the SPHN initiative, which will then be implemented step by step. First, the guidelines will be adopted by the five Swiss university hospitals currently taking part in the SPHN initiative - that is, Zurich, Basel, Bern, Lausanne and Geneva. These hospitals are currently setting up clinical data management systems that make patient data available for research and facilitate data sharing with research institutions. At the same time, universities are establishing regional centers for the coordination and secure processing of biomedical data. Vayena is convinced of one thing: "If everyone involved in Switzerland signs up to the same well-designed standards, it will mean a giant step forward for data sharing and thus for personalized medicine."A major hurdle to using neural stem cells derived from genetically different donors to replace damaged or destroyed tissues, such as in a spinal cord injury, has been the persistent rejection of the introduced material (cells), necessitating the use of complex drugs and techniques to suppress the host's immune response.

In a new paper, publishing May 9 in Science Translational Medicine, an international team led by scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine describe successfully grafting induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neural precursor cells back into the spinal cords of genetically identical adult pigs with no immunosuppression efforts. The grafted cells survived long-term, displayed differentiated functionality and caused no tumors.

The researchers also demonstrated that the same cells showed similar long-term survival in adult pigs with different genetic backgrounds after only short course use of immunosuppressive treatment once injected into injured spinal cord.

"The promise of iPSCs is huge, but so too have been the challenges. In this study, we've demonstrated an alternate approach," said senior author Martin Marsala, MD, professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a member of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine.

"We took skin cells from an adult pig, an animal species with strong similarities to humans in spinal cord and central nervous system anatomy and function, reprogrammed them back to stem cells, then induced them to become neural precursor cells (NPCs), destined to become nerve cells. Because they are syngeneic -; genetically identical with the cell-graft recipient pig -; they are immunologically compatible. They grow and differentiate with no immunosuppression required."

Co-author Samuel Pfaff, PhD, professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Salk Institute for Biological Studies, also noted: "Using RNA sequencing and innovative bioinformatic methods to deconvolute the RNA's species-of-origin, the research team demonstrated that pig iPSC-derived neural precursors safely acquire the genetic characteristics of mature CNS tissue even after transplantation into rat brains."

In their study, researchers grafted NPCs into the spinal cords of syngeneic non-injured pigs with no immunosuppression. The researchers found that the NPCs survived and differentiated into neurons and supporting glial cells at all observed time points. The grafted neurons were detected functioning seven months after transplantation.

Then researchers grafted NPCs into allogeneic (genetically dissimilar pigs) with chronic spinal cord injuries, followed by a transient four-week regimen of immunosuppression drugs. They found similar results with long-term cell survival and maturation.

"Our current experiments are focusing on generation and testing of clinical grade human iPSCs, which is the ultimate source of cells to be used in future clinical trials for treatment of spinal cord and central nervous system injuries in a syngeneic or allogeneic setting," said Marsala.

"Because long-term post-grafting periods -; one to two years -; are required to achieve a full grafted cells-induced treatment effect, the elimination of immunosuppressive treatment will substantially increase our chances in achieving more robust functional improvement in spinal trauma patients receiving iPSC-derived NPCs."

"In our current clinical cell-replacement trials, immunosuppression is required to achieve the survival of allogeneic cell grafts. The elimination of immunosuppression requirement by using syngeneic cell grafts would represent a major step forward" said co-author Joseph Ciacci, MD, a neurosurgeon at UC San Diego Health and professor of surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine.The CSU educates thousands of public health professionals who work to improve the health of California's communities by promoting healthy lifestyles, preventing disease and removing environmental dangers.

Sound public health policy is the foundation for their work and its impact on the state. Every year, nearly 200 CSU students majoring in public health or related health sciences head to the state capitol for the CSU Health Policy Conference and get a unique opportunity to see firsthand how the policy is shaped.

"Funding for public health programs is in the government's hands, so all students need to understand how public policy is made," said Walter Zelman, professor and chair of Cal State L.A.'s department of public health, who created and organizes the event. "Policymaking is an important part of the public health curriculum, whether students go on to create policies or implement them."

This year, about 175 students and 20 faculty members from 16 CSU campuses attended the conference held in Sacramento April 10-12.

Students met and heard from officials involved in creating and implementing health policy including Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, state Senator Ed Hernandez and Secretary of Health and Human Services Diana Dooley. They also attended a Senate Health Committee hearing and heard from a panel of officials from the California Department of Public Health.

This was the sixth year for the CSU-wide conference. In 2012, Zelman organized the first trip for students at Cal State L.A. He says other CSU public health department chairs took notice and wanted to participate, so he sought the funding and made it an annual systemwide event.

The conference, now funded in large part by a grant from the California Endowment, has generated increased awareness of CSU's top-notch public health programs and career-ready graduates.

It also helped establish a CSU public health internship, which provides paid internships with the California Department of Public Health in Sacramento for 10 CSU students every year. Zelman hopes that the program can be expanded to other state healthcare agencies like Medi-Cal and Covered California.

Zelman says several students who participated in the new program have already landed jobs within the agency. And a number of alumni who have attended his CSU conference now working as public health professionals. "One of the most valuable insights students come away with is the fact that many of the legislators, administrators and other policymakers officials the students get to meet and interact with are CSU graduates," Zelman said. "This is inspiring to students, and gives them a vision of what they can achieve, including the possibility of becoming a healthcare policymaker themselves. It also suggests the impact of the CSU and its graduates on California government and policymaking."The Center for Technology & Venture Commercialization at the University of Utah announced a new funding program for early stage technology development and commercialization. The University of Utah Seed Fund will allocate up to $1 million to help university researchers develop promising technologies, enable commercialization and attract additional funding sources. The fund will be focused on technologies at an early stage of development.

"The Seed Fund will help inventors at the university advance their work towards new products and services as well as serve as the foundation for launching new companies in Utah," said Keith Marmer, executive director and associate vice president of TVC. "It is often a small amount of money that can have the greatest impact on advancing a technology during the earliest stages of development. The Seed Fund will serve as a much-needed bridge to larger funding sources as well as industry and entrepreneurial partnerships."

The first recipient of seed funding is Djordje Atanackovic, Huntsman Cancer Institute investigator and associate professor of internal medicine at the U. He was granted an award to progress his groundbreaking work on a CAR-T therapeutic treatment for multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma is the second most common blood-borne malignancy, causing more than 10,000 deaths per year in the United States alone. Atanackovic focuses his research on harnessing the human immune system for the fight against cancer.

"This grant will allow us to conduct research that will quickly provide critical information which will open the door to additional significant investment and industry partnership," said Atanackovic.

TVC is a recognized leader in technology commercialization. The Milken Institute ranked TVC No. 1 among all universities in the United States in 2017. The study noted: "In the 21st century, public and private research universities are the seed capital for creating knowledge that fosters scientific- and technology-based economic development...capitalizing on research by converting it for private-sector consumption, along with its efficiency depict the production of universities that are delivering on their mission."

InnovoSource, a leading strategy firm that focuses on helping research universities engage with key innovation partners, suggests that research universities and partners have created gap funding that is positioned to address the critical elements of transitioning university technology and startups, while also attracting additional capital and third-party interest. TVC has been engaged with InnovoSource over the past year as part of a process to establish the TVC Seed Fund and related programs.

"We recognize the amount of funding is small at the moment, but we hope to reinforce to our researchers that TVC is a partner in their efforts to bring their innovations to market. I'm hopeful this is merely the beginning, and that we can attract additional funding from both public and private partners," said Marmer. "The new program will employ well-defined milestones validated by market factors with the potential for further funding if milestones are met. These milestones are designed to attract additional state and federal grants as well as private funding. Additionally, getting a technology further developed attracts top entrepreneurs and talent to help move these inventions to market." Marmer hopes the fund will help attract entrepreneurs and investors to TVC seeking to launch companies based on university research.New Delhi: Fortis Healthcare on Thursday said its board has recommended the offer of Hero and Burman consortium to its shareholders for sale of its business.

The company's board post having detailed discussions on the pros and cons of each offer, decided by majority, to recommend the offer of Hero Enterprise Investment Office-Burman Family Office, Fortis Healthcare said in a statement.

The recommendation of the Board would be placed before the shareholders for their approval.

The Munjal-Burmans combine had given their revised offer on May 1, which included an upfront equity infusion of Rs 800 crore at a price of Rs 167 per share into the company through preferential allotment, it added.

The Hero-Burman consortium had also offered a further amount of Rs 1,000 crore through preferential issue of warrants.

Fortis Healthcare had received binding offers from four entities - KKR-backed Radiant Life Care, IHH Healthcare, Manipal/TPG consortium, and Munjal and Burman family offices.

The entire exercise involved a process that witnessed deliberation and recommendation by an Independent Expert Advisory Committee (EAC) comprising Deepak Kapoor, Former Chairman of PWC (India) and Lalit Bhasin, Chairman of the Indian Society of Law Firms along with two reputed financial advisors i.e. Standard Chartered Bank and Arpwood Capital and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas who were the legal advisors.

In addition to the recommendation provided by Arpwood Capital, they also opined on the bidding process that was followed post 27th April Board Meeting. The Board considered the views of the EAC, financial and legal advisors, and following extensive discussions arrived at this decision, Fortis said in a statement.New Delhi: The MSME ministry is in talks with the Reserve Bank to explore ways to improve credit flow to micro, small and medium enterprises across the country, a top government official said on Thursday.

"In order to ensure that credit flow for MSMEs is up to the expectation, gaps are bridged and their problems are addressed, the ministry is holding discussions with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) about promoting fintech companies which can reach out much better than the scheduled commercial banks to the MSMEs all across India," MSME Secretary S.K Panda said.

He also said the ministry is looking at measures to address issues pertaining to decline in exports.

"The MSME ministry will constitute a special task force to look at exactly what steps are needed to be taken to enhance exports from the enterprises to make them part of the global value chain," Panda said while addressing an Assocham conference in New Delhi.

He said the quantum of credit guaranteed by the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust For Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) may touch Rs 50,000 crore this year.

We have taken some decisions, we are allowing NBFCs (non-banking financial companies) partial collateral and this year, unlike previous years where, from fund we used to guarantee a credit flow of Rs 19,000-20,000 crore every year for last three years, we plan to cross Rs 40,000 crore, it may touch Rs 50,000 crore, Panda said.

He also said the MSME ministry has taken certain concrete steps as part of structural reforms and is thus expecting about four lakh such credit proposals, according to a release issued by Assocham.

Noting that MSMEs comprise almost 95-96 per cent out of the one crore entities registered in the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), Panda said a database is needed to communicate and tell them about the facilities which they can avail.

In the ministry, we are trying to work with GSTN so that we can have an integrated database where we can communicate with MSMEs if we have their details and work on the problems faced by them, he said.

He said the ministry will seek support of state governments to put up details of MSMEs on the Samadhan Portal so that payments due to small enterprises do not get stuck.

Besides, EXIM (ExportImport) Bank managing director David Rasquinha suggested RBI to look at further dialogue with the Ministry of Finance and the International Basel Committee to find a way to make trade finance more reflective of the actual risks rather than a perceived artificial framework which relies predominantly on rating.Mumbai: On Thursday, Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu sought cooperation from the US to locally produce civil and defence aircraft in the country.

"The US is a leader in the aviation space and we will be very happy to collaborate with them to locally manufacture civil and defence aircraft," Prabhu told the sixth Indo-US aviation summit. The minister also said such cooperation will offer great business opportunities to American companies already present in the country.

"There are many areas of mutual interest that we need to discuss such as how do we make passenger and defence aircraft here locally; how do we make drones by collaborating with our US partners," he said. Prabhu said he has set up a task force to suggest a roadmap for producing drones locally and will soon form a similar panel to guide government on locally producing aircraft for both commercial and defence purposes.

Addressing the summit, US ambassador Kenneth Juster said the two nations have made tremendous progress together in many fields, including in the aviation sector. The Indo-US aviation cooperation programme has grown now with more than over 30 members from only 10 when launched 10 years ago, he said."We look forward to further measures to increase ease of doing business and enable US companies to make even greater contribution," Juster said.

The US is committed to deepening and expanding its work with India to private and government areas, he added. Noting that the US-India aviation cooperation programme is going to be an important tool, Thomas Hardy of the US trade and development agency said they are supporting a range of activities in the Indian aviation space and specially mentioned its cooperation with Airports Authority of India.

Civil Aviation Secretary RN Choubey said Government plans to appoint a consultant to harmonise the processes at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation with global peers. "We are working together with the US on air traffic management, evelopment and security," he added.New Delhi: Today, Traders' body CAIT on Thursday said Walmart's USD 16 billion acquisition of home-grown retailer Flipkart will affect India's retail sector "very badly" and demanded scanning and scrutinising the deal from "different angles" by the government.

US retailer Walmart Inc has announced acquisition of 77 per cent stake in Flipkart in its biggest takeover till date. The deal values the 11-year old Indian e-commerce firm at USD 20.8 billion.

"A regulatory authority should be constituted by the government which should scan the details of Walmart-Flipkart deal and it should be scrutinised from different angles like competition and cyber security, predatory pricing, deep discounting and loss funding," CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal told.

"After assessing the deal, we will either represent to government or to the Competition Commission, or we will go to court," he added.

Besides, Khandelwal said traders are facing several problems with regard to GST portal, adding that the traders' body has submitted representations to the finance ministry in this regard.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Tursday launched a nationwide campaign to popularise Bharat QR, for the trading community to embrace this payment solution. In the first phase, CAIT will train 1,000 traders and organise 300 workshops, conferences and seminars till October 2.

"The basic reason why we are promoting Bharat QR is the GST Council has taken a decision that on digital transactions they will be offering discounts which will be 1.5-2 per cent but the situation on the ground is that most of the traders do not have digital payment means with them," Khandelwal said.

According to him, Bharat QR will play a pivotal role in encouraging over 60 million micro and small merchants to accept digital payments.

Bharat QR, the world's first asset light, interoperable payment solution, offers seamless, safe and secure transactions to both merchants and consumers.External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's social media popularity is a result of her promptness in handling distress calls addressed to her, often by Indians stuck in difficult situations, overseas.

However, when a student from Jammu and Kashmir with Indian occupied Kashmir set as his Twitter location reached out to Swaraj, things were about to stall for a bit.

Sheikh Ateeq, who is currently residing in the Philippines and goes by the Twitter handle @SAteEQ019, requested the minister to assist him with his passport as he wanted to go back to his "home" citing health issues.

I m from j&k doing medicine course here in Philippines my passport got damaged i applied for new one 1 month ago i request u plz help me get it as i literally need to go home for medical check up (sic), he said in a tweet tagging Swaraj.

"Schooling" him over political geography, Swaraj later reminded him that his profile's location says that he is from "Indian occupied Kashmir," and no such place exists.

"If you are from J&K state, we will definitely help you. But your profile says you are from 'Indian occupied Kashmir'. There is no place like that," she tweeted.

If you are from J&K state, we will definitely help you. But your profile says you are from 'Indian occupied Kashmir'. There is no place like that. @indembmanila https://t.co/Srzo7tfMSx  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 10, 2018

After getting a response from Swaraj, Ateeq quickly changed his location. Swaraj soon took notice of it and directed the authorities to help him. I am happy that you have corrected the profile. Jaideep - He is an Indian national from J&K. Pls help him, Swaraj tweeted.

1. @SAteEQ019 - I am happy you have corrected the profile. 2. Jaideep - He is an Indian national from J&K. Pls help him. @indembmanila https://t.co/rArqxIQoN3  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 10, 2018

Earlier last week, Ateeq had reached out to the Minister to help him with his passport.

Dear maam @SushmaSwaraj I greatly need your help. Is there anything u can do to rush the process of my passport as it is damaged. I need to get back to my home, India. My health is detereorating and I cannot shoulder the expenses any more as Im student (sic), he said in a tweet he wrote on 5 April.

After receiving the response from Swaraj, he has now deleted his Twitter profile.Mumbai: Eleven serving defence officers and eight others today sent a legal notice to actors Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna, accusing the Bollywood couple of "playing with the sentiments" of the armed forces by putting up for auction a naval costume from the Hindi film "Rustom".

The group, which also included the wife of a Navy man and seven retired officers, said it was offended that the actors had listed the costume as an "original naval uniform".

"Uniforms resembling those of the armed forces pose a potential threat to national security as the said uniform, insignia and badges could pass for genuine service clothing and can find their way to anti-national elements who can use it to foment trouble," the notice said.

A copy of the notice has also been sent to the auction house Salt Scout and the office of the defence minister.

The group of 19 urged the minister to take action against the actors and to stop the auctioning of the outfit Kumar wore in the 2016 film, a fictional account loosely based on the real-life case of Naval Officer K. M. Nanavati, charged with and then acquitted of killing his wife.

"...by putting in auction 'Akshay Kumar's Rustom Naval Officer Uniform' you have shown no respect for national interest but have also played with the sentiments of armed forces personnel and their widows including my clients, who are retired, as well as serving armed forces officials and their family members," the notice read.

Kumar had put the outfit up for the auction on April 26 in support of an NGO working for the cause of animal rescue and welfare.

"Hi, all I'm thrilled to announce that you can bid to win the actual naval officer uniform I wore in Rustom! Auction's proceeds will support the cause of animal rescue and welfare. Place your bid at http://www.SaltScout.com," he wrote.

The bid, which will end on May 26, currently stands at Rs 2,35,000.

The issue was first taken up by one of the officers, who called Khanna out on Facebook, warning her that he would "drag" her to court if she made even "a feeble attempt to auction this piece of costume in the garb of UNIFORM".

"...You touch our honour and we will give you a bloody nose," he said on the site.

Khanna responded by saying she would "not retaliate with violent threats but by taking legal action".

Kumar had said recently said the outfit was being auctioned off for a good cause.

"We are doing it for a good cause. The costume that I wore in the film is going (to be sold) for a good cause. So, I don't think we did anything bad. I can't help if someone feels bad about it," he had said.

Smita Dikshit, who has sent the legal notice on the group's behalf to the actor couple, told PTI, "People of India who are ex-Army men and who are serving the country are enraged and in anger that these celebrities are not sensitive towards the emotions of the Armed Forces."New Delhi: Amid furore over pulling down Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnahs portrait from the Aligarh Muslim University, a building in Pakistans Karachi proudly displays its connection with Mahatma Gandhi.

At the Karachi Chamber of Commerce, which was built with material brought from the Indian city of Jodhpur, carries a foundation stone which states that it was laid by Mahatma Gandhi in July 1934. At the time, the representative body of the southern citys business community was known as the Karachi Indian Merchants Association.

During a visit to Karachi last week, Indian High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria posed with others for a selfie in front of the foundation stone, which is now encased in a glass frame, reported Hindustan Times.

Asked by reporters about the demand for removing Jinnahs portrait at the AMU students union office, Bisaria called for respect for leaders of both sides.

I dont want to say much about what happened (at AMU) but I would say that we should respect leaders of both countries, he told the assembled businessmen and traders.

On Wednesday, Aligarh Muslim University vice chancellor Tariq Mansoor dismissed the row over Jinnah portrait on the campus as a non-issue.

Jinnah's portrait has been here since 1938. Jinnah's portrait is at many places, including Bombay High Court and Sabarmati Ashram. No one was worried about the portraits until now, I think it is a non-issue, said Tariq Mansoor when asked if he will get the portrait removed.New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to ensure that the newly constructed Eastern Peripheral Expressway, which is aimed at decongesting Delhi, is inaugurated on or before May 31 and thrown open to the public by June 1.

[We] cant wait indefinitely for the Prime Minister [to inaugurate it], said a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta. The expressway was initially supposed to be inaugurated by April 20.

The NHAI counsel told the court that the expressway was scheduled to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 29 but the PMO cancelled it due to his prior commitments. The Prime Minister was in poll-bound Karnataka, where he started his campaign blitz on the date, addressing 16 rallies in a week.

The apex court took exception to the 135-km Expressway, which envisages signal-free connectivity between Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gautam Budh Nagar (Greater Noida) and Palwal, not being thrown open to the public despite being ready.

The judges made it clear that if the Eastern Peripheral Expressway was not inaugurated on or before May 31, it would be thrown open for public use on June 1 as the national capital was already under traffic distress.

The six-lane highway is expected to decongest Delhi by diverting around two lakh vehicles. It would also help in tackling pollution in the national capital.

The Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways were planned in 2006 following the top court's order to build a ring road outside the national capital for channelling non-Delhi bound traffic.

The counsel appearing for the Haryana government told the bench that 81 per cent work of the 135-km Western Peripheral Expressway was done and the private entity involved in the work had assured that construction would be completed by June 30 this year.

According to the timeline, work on the Western Peripheral Expressway, which connects Kundli to Palwal via Manesar in Haryana, was to be completed by February 2019 but the construction would be done by June this year, the counsel said.

The apex court had asked the Centre in 2005 to build a peripheral expressway around Delhi by July 2016 to decongest and "de-pollute" the national capital.New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has called a meeting of the Collegium on Friday during which the top five judges are expected to decide whether to recommend the name of Justice KM Joseph for elevation to the Supreme Court again.

The meeting, which is likely to be held around 1pm, has been convened after Justice Jasti Chelameswar, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India asking him to convene a meeting urgently to forward to the Centre the name of Uttarakhand Chief Justice as a judge of the apex court. The three other judges part of the Collegium had also met the CJI on Wednesday asking him to reiterate the name.

Legal experts have said that the Centre on receiving a reiteration from the Collegium would have no choice but to clear the appointment and swear him in as a judge of the Supreme Court.

The government had on April 26 returned the Collegium's recommendation to elevate Justice Joseph seeking its reconsideration, saying the proposal was not in accordance with the top court's parameters and there was adequate representation of Kerala in the higher judiciary from where he hails. It had also questioned his seniority for elevation as a judge of the apex court.

The rejection had caused a face-off between the government and the judiciary and triggered allegations by the Congress and some senior lawyers that Justice Josephs name was sent back due to his decision to cancel central rule in Uttarakhand in 2016.

In his letter sent to the CJI, Justice Chelameswar conveyed that he was reiterating his decision for the elevation of Justice Joseph as a judge of the top court since there was no change in the circumstance that had led the Collegium to recommend his name to the government on January 10.

Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Kurian Joseph and Madan Lokur met Chief Justice Dipak Misra in his chambers around 4.15 pm on Wednesday and discussed the reiteration of Justice Josephs name. This was the first such meeting among these judges after the formal collegium meeting on May 2 when it was expected that decision on the appointment would be taken, but it was deferred. Justice J Chelameswar was on leave and was not present at the meeting.New Delhi: The government on Thursday said it was in touch with relevant people and authorities in Afghanistan to secure the release of seven Indian engineers who were abducted in the restive northern Baghlan province of the war-torn country on Sunday.

"We are in touch with different people who are involved in the exercise through the Afghan government," spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Raveesh Kumar said.

He, however, refused to share any specific details citing sensitivity of the case.

"I would not like to get into the details of the people and authorities with whom we are in touch with," he said at a media briefing.

The Indian engineers were abducted by the Taliban militants from near the Cheshma-e-Sher area in Baghlan on Sunday.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had a telephonic conversation with her Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani on Sunday evening during which she had sought all possible help of Kabul in securing the release the Indians.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval too had a telephonic conversation with his Afghan counterpart Hanif Atmar on the issue.

"This is a sensitive matter. The lives of seven Indians are involved and, therefore, I would not like to share much on where we are at this point of time," said the MEA spokesperson.

Afghan media, quoting Baghlan governor Abdulhai Nemati, reported that Taliban militants were behind the abduction of Indians and they were moved to the Dand-e-Shahabuddin area of Pul-e-Khumri city

The Indian engineers of KEC International, an RPG group company, were working on a project for construction of a power sub-station in the country.

India has been carrying out reconstruction activities in the war-torn country. It has already provided at least USD 2 billion aid to Afghanistan.New Delhi: In an unusual case, the Kerala High Court has christened a child of an estranged couple belonging to different religions after they fought over the matter.

The court intervened after both father and mother, locked in a matrimonial dispute, were aggrieved by the "inaction" on the part of the municipality to issue a birth certificate in respect of their second child showing the name as per their respective wishes.

While the mother said the child was baptised as 'Johan Mani Sachin', the father claimed that the name that they agreed to was 'Abhinav Sachin.' Abhinav Sachin was the name given to their second child on the 28th day ceremony (as per Hindu practice in Kerala for naming the newborn), the father had informed the court.

The court observed that it was an urgent requirement that a name be given to the child so that he could be admitted to a school, where a birth certificate would be a pre-requisite for admission.

Counsel for the mother submitted that although the name given in the baptism certificate pertaining to the second child is 'Johan Mani Sachin', she was ready to give up the name 'Mani' in a gesture of reconciliation with the father. The father, however, insisted that the name 'Abhinav' be retained in the place of 'Johan'.

In his judgement recently, Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar took note of the differences between the parents.

"..... as a conciliatory measure and with a view to pacify both the parents of the child, it would be in the interests of justice to accede to the wishes of both the parents to the extent possible and therefore, assign the name 'Johan Sachin' to the second child of the petitioners in both these writ petitions," the judge said.

The judge said the name 'Johan' would represent the wishes of the mother and the name 'Sachin' as a surname would satisfy the requirement of the father as it would identify the child as his.

Justice Jayasankaran said this course of action would be in the interests of the minor child, who is now in the mother's custody, with occasional custody granted to the father as per the directions of the family court, where the matrimonial dispute is pending.

Disposing of the writ petitions, the judge directed the Registrar (Births & Deaths) to issue the certificate within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of the judgement.Mumbai: A constable with the Mumbai police has sought permission to "beg in uniform", saying he can not support his family as he hasn't been receiving salary for the last two months.

In his letter to department superiors, Police Commissioner Datta Padsalgikar and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, constable Dnyaneshwar Ahirrao has asked permission to beg to take care of his ailing wife and manage household expenses.

In the letter, Dnyaneshwar Ahirrao, attached to the Local Arms unit, said he had taken leave from March 20 to March 22.

However, as his wife's leg got fractured, he could not report to duty when the leave expired, he said.

Ahirrao, posted with the security team at `Matoshree', the residence of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, claimed that he informed, over phone, his unit in-charge about the emergency leave he was availing of for five days. Following his wife's treatment, he resumed duty on March 28, he said.

But following this, he stopped getting the salary, his letter said, without revealing more information.

"I have to take care of my sick wife, old parents and a daughter. Besides, I have to pay monthly instalment of the loan I have taken. But since my salary has been stopped, I am unable to meet these expenses. So I want permission from you to beg in uniform," the letter said.

Dnyaneshwar Ahirrao himself could not be contacted for more details.

When contacted, Vasant Jadhav, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Local Arms Unit, said, "The matter comes under the administration department. I can not comment on it."Gorakhpur: Spending eight months in the overcrowded Gorakhpur Jail seems to have pushed Dr Kafeel Khan beyond the point of fear. While meeting journalists in Delhi on Wednesday evening, Dr Khan said he had been through the worst there is and therefore could not be afraid anymore.

Khan was the head of encephalitis ward on August 10 and 11 last year when over 60 children died in Gorakhpur's BRD Medical College.

Hailed as a hero by certain sections for his quick thinking during the period, Khan was arrested soon after following the "state government's inability to act". Out on bail currently, Khan said he was determined to dispel all rumours and half-truths that were being spread about him.

"Why this happened to me, only CM Yogi Adityanath can tell," said Khan. "If my suspension from BRD is removed, I am ready to serve the hospital again. If not, I will open my own medical centre for encephalitis with the help of NGOs. My clinic will be free and will not have any shortage of drugs," he added.

"I've got calls from all over the country and world but I will not leave India. I will not leave Gorakhpur," said Khan. "Encephalitis has killed thousands of children here for years and if doctors leave, thousands more will die."

Gorakhpur, for decades, has been an epicentre for acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) and Japanese encephalitis (JE), the BRD medical college is the only facility in all of eastern UP that treats encephalitis patients.

With no other functioning primary care centres, it is, as Khan said, a dumping ground. With so many patients suffering what is still a somewhat mysterious disease, it is bound to have a high mortality rate. However, that rate increased dramatically to 30 deaths a day between August 10 and 11  the 48 hours when oxygen supply to the hospital was allegedly snapped.

Constant oxygen supply is vital in treating AES patients as the brain swells up when contacted with the disease. In those two days, children were dying by the hour due to an alleged lack of oxygen. Khan says the liquid oxygen containers ran out around 7:30 pm, about four hours later, so did the backup containers.

Dr Khan was on leave that day with proper prior permission but rushed to the hospital when he learnt of the crisis. When he and the on-duty staff of junior doctors, nurses could not get oxygen cylinders from nearby vendors or hospitals, they called from a truck from the Surakhsha Seema Bal. The truck carried 250 cylinders a day.

"The oxygen vendor had been asking about his payments for months. The reminders were only passed around from one person to another," said Khan. "I'm the junior in my department. I didn't even know that the oxygen could be shut off. I learnt this over WhatsApp."

"We could get 500 cylinders for two days," he recounted. "Later, a BJP spokesperson while speaking on a news channel questioned this saying that cylinders costs anywhere between Rs 2.5-3 Lakh. It doesn't, it costs Rs 250 to refill," he added.

Over the next 48 hours, all available staff worked without a break to save as many children they could and counsel agitated parents. There were no rewards for their efforts.

When CM Yogi Adityanath, who was participating in a rally for the BJP in Kerala, received news of the tragedy, he rushed back to his constituency. Khan says the CM visited the hospital and said to the doctor, "You think you are some hero because you got the cylinders?"

Khan was immediately ushered out of the hospitals by other staff members and told to go home, stay low and probably even flee because of the threat. Soon after, an FIR was registered and Khan surrendered to the police, who he recalled started hounding his family.

"The government opposed my bail. They claimed in court that there was no oxygen shortage and the deaths were not because of it. Later, they opposed the bail of Medical College principal Rajiv Misra claiming that the oxygen shortage was because of corruption in the hospital."

Misra and fellow heads of department are still in jail.Chandigarh: Prodigies Kautilya Pandit and Abhishikt Kumar Gupta have something in common with Kulwant Kaur, a 50-year-old woman living in Punjab. People around them have added Google to their name.

While the two boys, aged 10 and 5 respectively, are known as Google Boys , Kulwant Kaur is affectionately known as Google Bebbe.

But Kaur does not even know how to Google and has only studied till Class IV.

So why the nickname? Like Google, she can answer all your queries when it comes to Sikh history. Her extraordinary memory means that all the events going back centuries are on her fingertips.

Kaur, who was born in Agra, had shifted to Fatehgarh Sahib District after getting married. She lives with her family in Manaila village.

I know that Google is used to search for information but I have never used it. Youngsters of my village call me by that name though, she says while pointing towards her mobile, one of a bygone era without Internet connectivity.

Her unusual talent has made her popular in the region. At times when Im travelling in buses, people come to me and ask me if I am Google Bebbe. They have either seen my interview on TV or have read about me in local papers, she says.

Amazed by her skills, various social service organizations have honoured her for her knowledge related to the state. Disha Welfare Trust organized a seminar at Davinder Ahuja School of Khedi Nodh Singh village recently where she answered various students questions with ease.

I have grown up listening to tales related to history from my grandparents, parents, paternal and maternal uncles and aunts. They would often share stories from the times of Lord Rama and erstwhile kings like Ashoka and Prithvir Raj Chauhan and tales of our brave warriors. It is only then that I got inclined towards history, she said.

Social activist SPS Oberoi was so impressed by her that he offered to help her enroll in Punjabi University, Patiala. When a Welfare Trust organised an award show, they asked her random questions and she wowed them with her exceptional knowledge.

A college in Kharar also organised a programme revolving around history where she left students of B.Tech, M.Tech and B.Sc stunned by her knowledge.

She says she often read old books, newspapers, scriptures and other books on religion. I have read endless scripts and books, but I still consider that I have partial knowledge of history. Not many in Punjab know about Sikh warriors like Sardar Tharaj Singh, Bhai Hathu Singh, Bhai Bhagad Singh, Bhai Pahada Singh, Bhai Balaka Singh, Bhai Bhooma Singh, Bhai Amar Singh, she added.

Kulwant strongly feels that youngsters must read about their history. No matter which stream of study they follow, they should keep reading about the history of their own country and the state. It is only then that theyll be able to carry forward true knowledge for the next generation.

(With inputs from Gurdeep Singh, News18)Guwahati: Assam police questioned six Bharatiya Janata Party members over the recovery of a purported ISIS flag in Assam's Nalbari district.

"Join in ISIS"  a message written on a purported black ISIS flag was found pinned to a tree and was spotted on May 3 at the Koihati village, which falls under Belsor police station.

Police said it appeared to be a publicity attempt by mischief mongers that failed to create any sensation in the area. The questionable flag was spotted by some passerby. The person clicked a picture and subsequently informed the police. Thereafter, the authorities took the flag down.

On Monday night, police summoned six persons on the basis of on-the-ground information related to incident. They were later allowed to go.

The members have been identified as Tapan Barman (from Kaihati), Dwipjyoti Thakuria (Piplibari), Sorojjyoti Baishya (Patkata), Pulak Barman (from Belsor), Mojamil Ali (from Chamata) and Moon Ali (from Baruakur). Tapan Barman was a former Congress councillor, but later shifted allegiance to the BJP.

We were not aware of the political affiliation of these persons. They were called on basis of earlier records and few are supposedly leading citizens of the area. No one has been detained or arrested over the matter, though we have gathered sufficient leads into the case, said Shiladitya Chetia, Superintendent of Police, Nalbari district.

Police further said that the flag appeared to be an amateurish representation of ISIS, thereby ruling out the possibility of terrorist threat to the state security.

If you look at the flag, the alphabets written in Arabic are clumsy. Had there been any real involvement, they would have focused on attention to detail. We believe this was just a quick publicity stunt, said Chetia.

Meanwhile, Nalbari district Congress unit demanded a thorough probe into the matter and has denied any involvement of the party in the incident.

Congress can never be involved in such antics. It is a doing of the BJP with the motive of rehabilitating Hindus from Bangladesh in Assam by introducing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, said Diganta Barman, Spokesperson, Nalbari district Congress.

ULFAs self-styled commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah alleged that it is a political gambit of the Congress and BJP. Six such purported ISIS flags were recovered in Goalpara district on May 2.

(With inputs from Tridip Kalita)New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for not being able to protect the iconic Taj Mahal, and asked about the steps being taken to prevent the Mughal structure from being destroyed by insects and algae.

A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta was concerned after the ASI told it that the Taj Mahal was getting infected by insects which breed in the stagnant water of the Yamuna river that flows by the monument.

The ASI, which is in-charge of maintaining and repairing monuments, also told the bench that algae are a "big problem" and all those monuments that are on the river bank face similar issues.

The bench asked how the algae reached the higher reaches of the Taj Mahal. The ASI replied: "It flew there."

"Can algae fly," asked the court.

The ASI also told the court that the Taj Mahal floor at several places was dirty, because all the people walking on it do not use socks.

"We provide socks only to the VIPs, others use their own socks," it told the court. The Taj floor was also getting discoloured.

The bench pulled up the ASI saying the situation would not have been so if it had taken steps to prevent it.

"The problem is that the ASI is not willing to accept that there is a problem. This situation would not have arisen if the ASI had done its job. We are surprised with the way the ASI is defending itself," the top court said.

"Perhaps we need to examine solution to prevent the decay of the Taj Mahal without the ASI," the bench said.

Additional Solicitor General A.N.S. Nadkarni, appearing for the Centre, told the bench that the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) was already considering the top court's suggestion to appoint international experts to look into the issue of protection and preservation of the 17th century mausoleum.

The Uttar Pradesh government said it would place before the court a draft of vision document on protection and preservation of the Taj Mahal that was built by Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal.

The government said it was also trying to take care of the environment around the structure so that the historic monument could be there for another 400 years and not just for a generation.

The Centre said it would consider the top court's suggestion to take the assistance of Indian experts or from abroad to see the extent of damage and whether it could be reversed and the steps that could be taken to check them.

The court has been hearing a plea filed by environmentalist M.C. Mehta seeking protection of the Taj from the ill-effects of polluting gases and deforestation in and around the area.Nay Pyi Taw: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday called on Myanmar President U Win Myint soon after she arrived here for talks with the country's top leadership on key bilateral and regional issues, including the Rohingya refugee crisis.

An estimated 7,00,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's Rakhine State since August last year after large-scale violence following a military crackdown. The exodus of refugees in large numbers has resulted in a major crisis in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Swaraj is in Myanmar on a two-day visit for discussions on a number of bilateral and regional issues, including the situation in the Rakhine State from where lakhs of Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet: "A key partner in Act East Policy! EAM @SushmaSwaraj called on the President of Myanmar, U Win Myint in her first engagement in Myanmar".

Myanmar is one of India's strategic neighbours and it shares a 1,640 km border with a number of northeastern states, including militancy-hit Nagaland and Manipur.

On her arrival in Nay Pyi Taw, Swaraj was warmly received by India's Ambassador Vikram Misri and Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Myanmar U Myint Thu.

"EAM will hold discussions with Myanmar leadership to further reinforce our bilateral ties," Kumar said.New Delhi: On Thursday, the eve of his two-day visit to Nepal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India would remain a steadfast partner of the Himalayan nation in its quest for growth and development.

The prime minister exuded confidence that his visit will further cement people-centric partnership with Nepal on the basis of mutual benefit, goodwill and understanding.

Modi's visit to Nepal is seen as an attempt by both the countries to bring back normalcy in ties after a spell of uneasiness as it comes little over a month after his Nepalese counterpart K P Sharma Oli came to India.

Describing his two-day trip to Nepal as a reflection of his government's commitment to "neighbourhood first" policy, Modi said the Himalayan nation has entered a new era and India would continue to support it.

"As Nepal enters a new era of consolidating gains of democracy and achieving rapid economic growth and development, India will continue to remain a steadfast partner of government of Nepal to implement its vision of samriddha Nepal, sukhi Nepali' (prosperous Nepal, happy Nepal)," Modi said in a statement.

Oli's visit was seen as an attempt to repair Nepal's ties with New Delhi. In 2016, the Nepalese leader had publicly accused India of interfering in his country's internal matters and trying to topple his government.

"Prime Minister Oli and I will have the opportunity to take forward our recent wide-ranging discussions in New Delhi on issues of mutual interest, and to advance our cooperative partnership across diverse sectors," Modi said.

He said his visit "reflects the high priority, India, and personally I, attach to our age-old, close and friendly ties with Nepal".

"These high-level and regular interactions reflect my government's commitment to the 'neighbourhood first' policy, in consonance with the motto of sabka saath, sabka vikas'," he said.

Modi said the two countries have completed several bilateral connectivity and development projects in the last few years, and initiated transformational initiatives for the benefit of their people.

In addition to Kathmandu, the prime minister said he was also looking forward to visiting Janakpur and Muktinath. Both these places attract a large number of pilgrims every year.

"They are living testimony to the ancient and strong cultural and religious ties between the peoples of India and Nepal," he said.

Modi said he was also looking forward to meeting political leaders and friends in Nepal.

"I am confident that my visit will further cement our people-centric partnership with Nepal on the basis of mutual benefit, goodwill and understanding," he noted.

The prime minister's first stop will be historic city of Janakpur where he will offer prayers at the Janaki temple. He will also be given a civic reception at Janakpur.

In the afternoon, Modi will travel to Kathmandu where he will meet Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari and Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun. In the evening, he will hold delegation-level talks with Oli, External Affairs MInistry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

The prime ministers are likely to sign a number of pacts and inaugurate the Rs 6,000-crore Arun 3 project which is expected to generate around 900 MW of power.

Modi will also attend a banquet hosted by Oli on Friday.

On Saturday, he will visit Muktinath. He will come back to Kathmandu in the afternoon and offer prayers at Pashupathi Nath temple, Kumar said.New York: Two Indian-origin men have been charged by federal authorities in the US with securities and wire fraud for inflating the value of private funds they advised by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Anilesh Ahuja, 49, of New York, the founder, chief executive officer, and chief investment officer of a New York-based investment firm that managed hedge funds focused on structured credit products, was arrested yesterday, Audrey Strauss, the Attorney for the United States said.

In addition, Strauss announced the unsealing of charges against Ashish Dole, a former chief risk officer and trader at the firm, and Frank Dinucci, a former salesman at a broker-dealer.

Dole, 34 of White Plains had plead guilty last November to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud and one count of securities fraud. Dinucci has also pled guilty and is cooperating with the government.

Charges were also filed against Amin Majidi, a former partner and portfolio manager at the firm and Jeremy Shor, a former trader.

Ahuja, Majidi 52, and Shor, 46 are charged with participating in a scheme, from in or about 2014 through 2016, to commit securities fraud and wire fraud relating to the mismarking of certain securities held in hedge funds that the firm managed, thus fraudulently inflating the net asset value of those funds as reported to investors and potential investors.

At its peak, the mismarking across all funds managed by the firm exceeded USD 200 million.

The charges carry up to 25 years in prison and a maximum fine of USD 5 million.

"Investors rely on a hedge fund's performance numbers when deciding whom to trust with their capital. To compete with other peer funds, Neil Ahuja, founder of an investment firm, allegedly manipulated the firm's performance numbers, using fraudulently inflated values for the firm's securities holdings and lying to investors about how the firm would mark its positions," Strauss said.

She added that by allegedly cooking the books, Ahuja and his co-defendants made the fund appear more attractive to would-be investors and dissuaded current investors from withdrawing their investments.

In a separate action, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against Ahuja, Majidi and Shor.

According to the allegations in the charging documents, from at about 2014 through 2016, Ahuja, Majidi, Shor and others, including Dole and Dinucci participated in a scheme to defraud the firm's investors and potential investors by deceptively mismarking each month the value of certain securities held in various funds, fraudulently inflating the net asset value of those funds as reported to investors and potential investors. At times, the net asset value was overstated by more than $200 million across the funds managed by the firm.

The mismarking scheme evolved as a result of demands by Ahuja and Majidi that the firm maintain its track record of success and keep pace with the performance of peer funds, regardless of market conditions or the actual performance of the funds.Lucknow Mathura: The death toll in the storm that hit parts of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday night has risen to 16, an official said on Thursday as the Met office issued another bad weather alert for the state.

"Four deaths were reported from Etawah, three each from Mathura and Aligarh, two each in Firozabad and Agra and one death each in Hathras and Kanpur Dehat on Wednesday night," an official spokesperson said. Twenty-seven others were injured in the calamity which affected nine districts, mostly in western Uttar Pradesh that had also borne the brunt of a previous storm on May 2-3.

The official said seven houses were damaged in Wednesday night's storm. Thirty-seven head of cattle perished. Two of the three deaths in Mathura district took place when electricity poles collapsed on the victims. Another person was killed when a tractor-trolley filled with hay toppled on him during the storm. Two victims were from the district's Mant tehsil.

The state government has given their families Rs 4 lakh each as compensation, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma said during a visit to Mathura on Thursday. He said the loss to farmers not covered by the crop insurance scheme was being determined.The minister claimed that the losses would have been bigger had Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath not told the weather department to issue timely warnings.

On Thursday, a weather office spokesman warned of more thunderstorms accompanied by strong winds of up to 70 kmph on Saturday and Sunday at isolated places in eastern Uttar Pradesh. He said a dust storm too was "very likely" at certain places in western UP.

Last week's storm had killed 134 people and injured over 400 in five states, the Home Ministry had said. Uttar Pradesh was the hardest hit with 80 deaths, most of them in Agra district. Meanwhile, Adityanath on Thursday issued fresh directives to the administration to speed up relief operations.New Delhi: Under fire for frequent civilian killings, gunfights with militants and the prevailing volatile situation in the Valley, mainstream political parties in Jammu and Kashmir decided to urge New Delhi to announce a unilateral ceasefire during the holy month of Ramzaan and the upcoming annual Amarnath pilgrimage.

Ramzaan begins next week and the Amarnath pilgrimage is scheduled between June 28 and August 26.

The decision was taken during an all-party meeting in which J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said that the parties unanimously agreed to a unilateral ceasefire.

Everyone [all mainstream parties] agreed that we must appeal Government of India that they should consider a unilateral ceasefire like Vajpayee ji did in 2000. The government of India should think about it so that common man can heave a sigh of relief, Mehbooba Mufti told reporters on Wednesday.

The decision to implement such a ceasefire is second in the troubled history of Jammu and Kashmir. In November 2000, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajaypee had declared a unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir for the holy month of Ramzaan. The ceasefire was then extended for five more months before finally ending it on May 23, 2001.

The announcement had followed a unilateral ceasefire by militant group Hizb-ul-Mujahideen in July 2000 that resulted in failed talks with then Union Home Secretary Kamal Pande. The militant outfit withdrew its truce within two weeks after the Government of India refused to accept its demand, mainly the inclusion of Pakistan in talks on Kashmir.

However, in the backdrop of a simmering tension in Kashmir and after the failure of an already tried ceasefire in 2000, will this attempt bear any fruits?

Senior Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader and party's Chief Spokesperson, Dr Mehboob Beg says that ceasefire is the only way out in the current situation.

Speaking to News18, Beg said, Government of India has to find a way to end the crisis in Kashmir and the idea of a ceasefire during Ramzaan could be a positive step. We have already seen a lot of bloodshed in the last three years. This should end now. I am worried more people will die if a ceasefire isnt implemented.

Begs worries arent far-fetched. According to official figures, government forces have killed at least 69 militants in Kashmir since January this year, 220 in 2017, and 150 in 2016. A majority of them have been locals, mostly from South Kashmir  the epicenter of militancy in the Valley. This means that in last 30 months, more than 440 militants have been killed in Kashmir.

According to independent human rights organisations, at least 145 civilians in 2016, 51 in 2017, and 39 more since January this year were killed during different civilian protests and anti-militancy operations.

Senior National Conference leader Ali Muhammad Sagar believes that both Central and state governments should take extraordinary measures for restoration of peace. One of his suggestions is that anti-militancy operations should be halted.

The Government of India held talks with Hizbul Mujahideen during our tenure and it did work for a while. If you continue killing them in groups, how do you expect the situation to be peaceful? Sagar asked.

Sagar also said that the crisis in Jammu and Kashmir is unprecedented and it deserves response at the same level. He said that India, Pakistan, Hurriyat leaders and armies from both the countries should talk to each other so that some relief is provided to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Military response is not a solution. Its not an option. We cant continue to kill our own and shut the doors of peace, Sagar said.

Sagar believes that bringing a halt to anti-militancy operations could also mean that the state and central government are sincere about bringing peace to Kashmir.

Police and army have confessed that killing one militant yields ten militants. Then why are they not thinking about stopping these operations for a while? Talk to these youth who have picked guns, Sagar said.

Yet, as the call for a ceasefire is gaining pace, security forces in Kashmir have said that they will continue with their operations against the militants and neutralise them any given day.

In an interview with Indian Express, Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat hinted at continuing the Operation All Out against the militants. Once a stone is thrown at us once they fire at us, then there is no way we will not respond. We will respond sternly. Those who want to fight us, we will fight them, said General Rawat.

So, how will a ceasefire work if militants and the security forces continue to go after each other?

Thats the only option. How will you bring peace if you continue to kill Kashmiri youth? Sheikh Abdul Rashid, Independent legislator from North Kashmir's Langate Assembly constituency, told News18. "Security forces should stop all operations against the militants," he added.

A repeat of ceasefire on the lines of the year 2000 would also mean bringing Hurriyat leaders on board and that seems a challenge for the mainstream parties and central leadership alike.

Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq questioned as to who is responsible for spilling the blood of Kashmiris and said that the all-party meeting on the idea of ceasefire is a mere farce.

If these parties [mainstream parties] are really serious about the ceasefire, then all the force personnel responsible for the massacre of innocent youths should be brought to justice, Mirwaiz said.

The fact remains that these very parties are responsible for the death of our youth. They have never been sincere, he added.

However, contrary to all the mainstream parties, who are in support of the ceasefire with militant groups in valley and the state of Pakistan, security forces in Kashmir dont see the ceasefire materialising on the ground.

A senior cop, who is involved in major anti-militancy operations in Kashmir, said, We will continue our operations against militants. Politicians expect us to sit in our offices and turn a blind eye to the law and order situation in the valley.

His admission to the continuing of operations against militants  locals and foreign alike  in the Valley has found resonance among other senior cops, too.

I dont know what politicians want out of this ceasefire. Ideally, we would also want the same. But things on ground are different. Its their gun versus ours, another senior cop told News18.Actress Deepika Padukone, who made her third appearance at Cannes 2018 (second as L'Oreal Paris brand ambassador), sashayed down the red carpet, posing for thousands of cameras, looking like a million bucks.

The diva, who sported a pristine white Zuhair Murad gown that featured a flowy cape and intricate work, cast a spell on the onlookers with her everlasting beauty and breathtakingly beautiful ensemble that she pulled off with elegance and panache.

The 32-year-old Xander's Cage actress, who looked nothing less than alluring, teamed her stunning outfit with minimum accessories, on point makeup and side swept wavy hair that accentuated her looks. Styled by Shaleena Nathani, Deepika made sure she set a thousand hearts aflutter with her killer looks.

Take a look.

A post shared by Deepika Padukone (@deepikapadukone) on May 10, 2018 at 8:16am PDT

A post shared by Shaleena Nathani (@shaleenanathani) on May 10, 2018 at 8:52am PDT

A post shared by Shaleena Nathani (@shaleenanathani) on May 10, 2018 at 8:40am PDT

Earlier in the day, Deepika, who was busy with media interactions, made three separate appearances, pictures of which the diva shared on her social media accounts.

Dressed in a white tee and high-waisted denims for her first appearance of the day, Deepika made casuals look uber chic and cool as she posed for the shutterbugs. Perfect makeup, high heels, sunnies and soft curls round off the actress' look.

Take a look.

A post shared by Shaleena Nathani (@shaleenanathani) on May 10, 2018 at 12:15am PDT

For her second appearance Deepika flaunted her toned body in a candy stripe, pleated dress which she paired with a matching skirt, courtesy Tome NYC. The dress featured a batwing top with dramatic sleeves and plunging neckline.

Take a look.

A post shared by Shaleena Nathani (@shaleenanathani) on May 10, 2018 at 2:20am PDT

Deepika Padukone channeled a retro vibe and wowed in a see-through, graphic printed, high-neck, floor-length dress by Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini. She completed her look with a messy, high ponytail, winged, smokey eyes and Alberta Ferretti shoes.

Take a look.

A post shared by Shaleena Nathani (@shaleenanathani) on May 10, 2018 at 3:58am PDT

What do you think of Deepika Padukone's look? Tell us in the comments section below.Glamorous and elegant, Meghan Markle is set to freshen up the British royal family dress code, while tailoring her outfits to suit her new role.

As she prepares to wed Prince Harry on May 19, the US former television actress is unlikely to be seen again in ripped jeans, hot pants or a plunging neckline.

As a sign of her new responsibilities, the 36-year-old has already closed her Instagram account, where she often posed in the sexy or dishevelled outfits befitting a TV celebrity -- but not necessarily a royal spouse. In tying the knot with Queen Elizabeth II's grandson, she is also marrying into an institution where age-old traditions govern virtually all aspects of the royals' lives -- including the clothes they wear.

"Royal dress codes are very traditional, especially when the family member is carrying out royal duties," said Grant Harrold, a former butler in the House of Windsor.

The etiquette expert, who used to work for heir to the throne Prince Charles and his sons Princes William and Harry, said Markle could follow the example set by William's wife, the former Kate Middleton.

"As we have seen with the Duchess of Cambridge, hats are part of the royal dress code and it is likely that we will see Meghan Markle wearing hats more often," he told AFP.

And the royal newcomer will also have to get used to wearing neutral-coloured tights, ditch any eccentric nail varnish and watch the hemlines. "The outfits are more of a personal decision, but dresses should always be the correct length of on or below the knee, and never above," said Harrold.

The makeover is already under way.

At Harry's side at public events since their engagement was announced in November, her style has been one of refined elegance: long dresses, turtlenecks, classic coats and unflashy colours. There have been some exceptions: black jeans here, bare legs there, but hardly enough to trigger a palace revolution. After all, Markle has not yet married into "the firm" -- as royals call the family in private -- and will still be learning the ropes as she goes along.

- Passion for fashion -

A keen fashionista, Markle has long cultivated a casual Californian look that is a nod to her Los Angeles upbringing: comfortable in shorts and flip-flops. But after landing a starring role in 2011 in the US legal drama "Suits", where she played a senior paralegal, her look became symbolic of business chic.

"The fashion on 'Suits' is gorgeous, so it also became my education of designers and really knowing what fits my body well," Markle told outnet.com. "On a normal day, I love a shift dress with flats and a little cropped jacket. "I would probably wear jeans, a nice top and a blazer."

She cites Emmanuelle Alt, the editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris magazine, and US actress Gwyneth Paltrow as her inspiration -- two influential fashion figures whose outfits are studiously copied by their stylish fans.

Markle is "a hint of Grace Kelly, a dose of Alicia Keys, a touch of Amal Clooney and a lot of Kate Middleton," said French magazine Madame Figaro. Christine Ross, who edits the Meghan's Mirror blog, dedicated to Markle and her wardrobe, said the star's style was "modern and on-trend while still maintaining a classic elegance".

"Meghan will definitely bring a youthful, vibrant change to the royal family," Ross told AFP. "She is very different from the other royals, being an American with a diverse upbringing, and this will naturally give her a different outlook."

Her wedding dress is a closely-guarded secret that will be kept until the day itself -- and it could provide a hint about the sort of styles she might adopt once married into the royal family. For several weeks, London has been bristling with rumours about who will design the dress, with names like Burberry, Ralph and Russo, Victoria Beckham, Roland Mouret, Erdem and Alexander McQueen swirling around.

On May 19 at Windsor Castle, the world will have its answer.London is gearing up to host the wedding party of the year, with hotels rolling out the red carpet for royal watchers keen to get in on the craze. From a helicopter tour of London, to an excursion to Windsor Castle and a high tea service featuring wedding dress cakes, here's a look at some of the royal wedding hotel and travel packages fit for a queen.

Hotel Cafe Royal, London

The wannabe Harrys and Meghans of the world can recreate their own royal nuptials with the Empire Royal Wedding package which includes an overnight stay at the hotel's largest one-bedroom suite. The sumptuous suite features velvet sofas, leather armchairs, and a marble bathroom. The package also includes a helicopter tour of London and a tour of the official wedding venue Windsor Castle, including the chapel where they are to wed, and state apartments where the royal couple is expected to spend their days throughout the wedding festivities. The hotel will also prepare a gourmet picnic hamper and send you off to visit retailers that carry Royal Warrants -- the seal of approval from Buckingham Palace -- along with VIP shopping services at luxury retailers like Liberty and Burberry. The Empire Royal Wedding package is available until June 21, 2018 and starts at 6,500 (US $8,805).

Dukes London, London

Called the "Royal Escape," the itinerary at Dukes hotel is heavy on guided tours and excursions. First, there's a three-hour guided walking tour of Westminster Abbey, where many a royal wedding has taken place in the past. Then there's a four-hour excursion to Windsor Castle, the official royal residence in Berkshire. The package also includes afternoon tea in the hotel drawing room and a three-course meal at a London restaurant. The Royal Escape is available to book until June 3. Rates vary.

The Berkeley

Throughout the month of May, The Berkeley's signature Pret-a-Portea afternoon tea service -- popular for its edible recreations of fashion designs from the catwalk -- will be inviting guests into the kitchen to help bake their own Royal Wedding collection. Guests will learn how to recreate a wedding dress biscuit in the style of Ralph & Russo, Phillipa Lepley and Suzanne Neville, and stiletto shoe cookies inspired by Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo. Following the masterclass, guests will retire to the Collins Room and sit down to sample some bridal design treats.

225 per person for the masterclass (US $305).

Cunard - at sea

On May 19, a trio of Britain's most luxurious ocean liners will not let the historic occasion go unmarked. Celebrations are planned for cruisers aboard the Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth, when all three liners will celebrate the royal wedding, separately, but simultaneously. Guests aboard the cruise ships will be able to watch a screening of the royal wedding while sailing the high seas and partake in a special afternoon tea that will feature a Victoria Wedding Cake, Union Jack Butterfly and Chocolate Crown. A commemorative dinner and keepsake menu in the main dining rooms are also planned. Guests will also be able to toast to Prince Harry and Meghan's health and happy marriage with celebratory cocktails like the Princess Bride and American Beauty.

The royal wedding is May 19.After making a startling debut as a director with Talvar in 2015, Meghna Gulzar is back in the chair with another intense drama Raazi. Starring Alia Bhatt in the lead role, the film is an adaptation of Harinder Sikkas novel Calling Sehmat, revolving around an Indian spy married to a Pakistani military officer during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.

Talking about the period and treatment of the concept of patriotism in the film, Meghna tells News18, "This is the story of 1971, so the emotions, ideals and principals at that time were different than today. As the society progresses, the emotions keep changing. The kind of patriotism we are talking about in Raazi might feel unfamiliar in today's time."

After a series of intense war-drama films in the early 2000s, there was a break in hardcore 'patriotic' film genre post-Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Rang De Basanti. Does she want Raazi to bring back those forgotten emotions onscreen? Meghna answers, "If Raazi succeeds in doing that, I don't think we will be happier with anything else the film manages to do. That wasn't our intention when we started. It was just a very powerful story that we wanted to tell but if, as a by-product of that, people start questioning what is the essence of patriotism, what is it to actually love your country or sacrifice for your country or if it opens up that debate or introspection even. I'll be very happy."

The film stars Vicky Kaushal as a Pakistani Army Officer, Iqbal, who marries Alia Bhatt. On portraying a character from a sketching ground usually showcased as an antagonist or 'dushman' in maximum war films, Vicky says, "We've been conditioned that way (to hate on a character coming from that background). But I enjoyed playing on that conditioned thought. My character breaks two molds, one is that of an army guy, other is that of a Pakistani because when you mix these two there's a certain image that you get. Iqbal might just dilute that image of a 'crude Pakistani Army Man."

The core theme of the film is to celebrate the unsung heroes who laid their lives in order to help their nation. On being asked about the unsung heroes in their personal life, Alia says, "I have many 'behind the scene' people in my life who are responsible for me. Apart from my parents, this family takes care of my eating, drinking, walking, reaching places on time, the list can go on. This whole team of mine is my unsung hero. "

Vicky seconds her thought and adds, "The entire team that makes sure that one emotion that audience connect to in a moment, is perfect. The people who work behind us and the film to bring to you a perfect story are unsung heroes."

Raazi also stars Rajit Kapoor, Shishir Sharma, Sini Razdan and Jaideep Ahlawat in key roles. The war-drama is a set to release on May 11.



Particularly during my sojourns in South Africa, it may not be possible for me to perform the moderation function speedily. I regret the necessity of moderation but it has been rendered inevitable by the behaviour of a particular commentator whose contributions will always and without exception be rejected.





No correspondence will be entered into regarding moderation decisions.

Readers are invited to comment on blog posts. All comments require to be pre-moderated by me, and I shall reject all (a) that are not related to the Lockerbie disaster or (b) that fail to meet my -- perhaps idiosyncratic -- standards of courtesy towards other contributors. Comments will not be rejected simply because I disagree with them or because I, or other contributors, find them irritating. But comments will be rejected if they distort or misrepresent the evidence; are defamatory; or if they risk embroiling me, as publisher, in defamation proceedings. I am perfectly relaxed about being sued in respect of material which I personally have posted -- but not in respect of material that others wish to post as comments and which, in any case, I often strongly disagree with.The death of 22 year-old R Thirumani, a tourist from Tamil Nadu, has exposed the stark reality of the direction in which Kashmir protests are headed. Violence and brutality is quickly overshadowing the 'political' character of resistance. Tourists were recently attacked at Pahalgam, civilians have been killed in places like Baramulla and Hajin on the mere suspicion of being informers, and an eight-year-old student landed in hospital with a head injury when a stone smashed through his school bus window.

The trends have been evident for some time. The targeting of Amarnath yatris in 2017, the murder of Lt Umar Fayaz, the lynching of DSP Ayub Pandith and the killing of policemen while on leave were clear portends. Today, gangs of goons, as Omar Abdullah rightly called them, roam the streets with rocks in their hand, targeting unarmed innocents. Stone pelting seems to have become an end in itself, with no thought of the impact this is having on the political, social or economic future of Kashmir.

Despite the changing nature of protests, those who claim to represent Kashmiri civil society seem unable to break their old shackles and mindset. Politics plays out on predictable party lines. The Hurriyat leadership finds solace in churning out protest calendars and eulogising terrorists who are killed.

Human rights activists blame violations of the past and the choking of political space for the current bout of violence. If there is anything new, it is the depressing sight of a mother being made to press the trigger of a gun during her son's funeral.

Instead of introspecting, one standard refrain is to paint the Indian Army in villainous colours. Today, the Army is the most professional and a completely secular force operating in Jammu and Kashmir. It is working under tremendous pressure and challenges, and at its forefront is its young leadership.

These are the Captains and Majors who lead the patrols that face daily hostility from stone wielding crowds. These officers have two crucial tasks. The first is to neutralise those who have picked up the gun against the state. It does not matter whether the terrorist holed up inside the house entered the war against the nation seven years or seven hours ago. Either he surrenders or is killed. That is the harsh reality.

The second task of the young officer is to protect the men he commands. If a murderous mob attacks his men, he will go to any extent to save them from harm. If he fails to do this he is a poor leader. In doing these tasks, he has the backing of the complete nation. These thoughts were recently reiterated by General Bipin Rawat in an interview with the Indian Express.

Therefore, constantly blaming the Army serves no useful purpose. The security forces do not go around seeking an excuse to attack civilians. It is just the other way around with stone pelters looking for opportunities to create mayhem and chaos. It is time for the Kashmiri civil society to look inwards and see where they are headed.

If innocent people continue to be targeted, the reasoning, that the youth have been forced to adopt this path due to government policies and apathy, will find few takers. There is no doubt that the government has to step up its efforts towards youth engagement but does the civil society have absolutely no role? Has it surrendered all its space to lumpen elements? These are some serious questions that must be answered. And the easy path - condemnations on social media  will not lead to finding a comprehensive solution.

When pellet guns were being fired at protesters and the defining image was of Insha Mushtaq, a young girl with her face pockmarked and both eyes damaged by hundreds of pellets, there was a wave of sympathy. This sympathy has quickly been diluted by pictures of crowds resorting to mindless violence to show their angst. And the argument that stones are less lethal than pellet guns, and therefore more acceptable, is completely absurd.

In a paper titled, The power of nonviolence: Confirming and explaining the success of nonviolent political movements, SN Orazani and Dr Bernhard Leidner have suggested, that in the context of political struggles, the use of nonviolence increases support through enhancing a movements perceived morality and victim status. They further go on to state that, people not only sympathize with underdogs (here: nonviolent movements) and want them to win, but  perhaps more importantly that they also see them as more capable of winning than violent movements.

The Kashmir movement, with its almost total reliance on violence, is fast losing credibility and is no longer seen as being capable of winning. I am not attempting to dilute the responsibility of the government in creating a positive environment in Jammu and Kashmir but no solution can be found without the participation of the people. The youth have to be convinced that their current approach has little chance of succeeding.

The Kashmiri civil society can continue to harp on the past and lay the blame for all that is happening now on the mistakes that have occurred earlier. Or look at today for a defining #MeToo moment that enables it to take greater charge of its own future, one not held hostage to violence.

(The author is former Northern Commander, Indian Army, under whose leadership India carried out surgical strikes against Pakistan in 2016. Views are personal.)New Delhi: Supreme Court judge, Justice D Y Chandrachud, the son of late Chief Justice of India Y V Chandrachud, today recalled a personal experience during the hearing on the Aadhaar issue that his mother, who was suffering for Alzheimer's disease, had faced difficulty in authentication to get pension.

Justice Chandrachud is part of the 5-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, which is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme and its enabling law of 2016.

During the hearing, the bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said Aadhaar authentication failures could create problems for those in need and some solution has to be found to address the issue.

Recalling his experience, Justice Chandrachud said "my mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease was entitled to family pension being the wife of a former Chief Justice of India (late Justice Y V Chandrachud).

"She had to give a thumb impression for authentication. I recall, every month the bank manager or his representative would come home and affix her thumb print on certain documents and only then could she get the pension", Justice Chandrachud said.

"So it (authentication) is a serious issue. It's not largesse. It is not charity...we have to find answers for these problems," he said, adding that there was a class of needy people who may not get the benefits due to authentication failures.

The apex court judge was responding to the arguments of senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for former High Court judge Justice (Retd) K S Puttaswamy, who said a 90-year-old woman suffering from various ailments is being threatened that her bank account could be closed for non-authentication by Aadhaar.

Divan said that through that bank account, she was getting her pension and she uses that money for her treatment as she has no one else to look after her.

"There are numerous cases where the Aadhaar authentication failures of the elderly, people suffering from any disease or physical disability, leads to denial of benefits to those otherwise entitled to it," Diwan said.

He said in many villages, young people have now migrated to cities or nearby towns and only the elderly residing there were dependent on their pension or other grants. But due to Aadhaar authentication failure, they were not getting the benefits.

Divan sought to assail a World Bank report which had praised the Aadhaar project and which was relied upon by the government to bolster its case for the 12-digit unique identification number. He said the World Bank had partnered with a private entity for preparing the report titled 'Identification for Development'.

Divan claimed that the same private entity was also the company with which UIDAI had partnered to facilitate Aadhaar.

He said there were 144 notifications issued by various ministries and departments of the government which covered 252 schemes.

The senior lawyer concluded his rejoinder arguments saying that essential government schemes that apply to children or relate to citizen's rehabilitation, food, health and nutrition, should be excluded from the requirement of Aadhaar authentication.

The hearing remained inconclusive and will continue tomorrow.

On May 3, the Centre had strongly defended its decision to seed Aadhaar numbers with mobile phones, telling the top court that it could have been hauled up for contempt if the verification of mobile users was not undertaken by it.

However, the court had said that the government had misinterpreted its order and used it as a "tool" to make Aadhaar mandatory for mobile users.

The petitioners had referred to the technical experts' views on the technical aspect of the Aadhaar architecture and said that a real time surveillance of citizens was possible.

For the first time in a democracy, something like CIDR has been implemented and the apex court has to balance the human rights and new technologies that is capable of being misused, they had said.

Earlier, the court also did not agree with the government's contention that the Aadhaar law was correctly termed as a Money Bill by the Lok Sabha Speaker as it dealt with "targeted delivery of subsidies" for which funds come from the Consolidated Fund of India.Bengaluru: As the Sun sets over the Arabian Sea across the mighty Western Ghats, the Assembly election campaign has come to an end in Karnataka. Described by many as never seen before, the campaign was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, chief minister Siddaramaiah and the JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda.

Several local and national issues dominated the campaign. Congress party, defending its full five-year term under Siddaramaiah, termed the Modi-led BJP campaign as vicious, cheap, divisive, communal and full of hype.

The BJP, which is pulling out all stops to wrest the southern state from the Congress, has called the ruling partys campaign directionless and divisive. The third player, JDS, has used all its firepower to attack Siddaramaiah. The Chief Minister has accused JD(S) of having a tacit understanding with the BJP.

Siddaramaiah himself admits that the history is against him as no incumbent chief minister was re-elected since 1985. In a tweet, he said, People of Karnataka will answer that question on May 12. And they will do so decisively. I am often told history is against us as no sitting government in Karnataka has been re-elected in a long time. But we are here to create history and not to obey it.

While Siddaramaiah led the Congress campaign, for the first time the BJP campaign was led by PM Modi, and not by its chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa.

Even though Rahul Gandhi has campaigned for over 100 days across the state, addressing almost 100 small and big public meetings, the chief minister was the face of the Congress campaign.

Gandhi created history by visiting all 30 districts in the state. His carefully planned tour was aimed at an image makeover. The temple run which started in Gujarat continued during Karnataka polls, as part of larger exercise undertaken by the Congress at setting the stage for 2019.

Rahul visited almost 30 temples and Lingayat Mutts, deftly playing the Hindu card. Interestingly, Siddaramaiah who normally avoids rituals also visited several temples and mutts with him claiming he is a better Hindu than the BJP.

The BJP campaign led by Yeddyurappa gained momentum after PM Modis blitzkrieg across the state. Modi addressed 21 rallies in just 10 days and used Namo App to interact with targeted captive audience party candidates and workers.

Modi made corruption a big issue in his campaign and the Congress countered him with mining mafia Reddys to Nirav Modi. Modi has made the dynasty politics of the Nehru  Gandhi family a big issue in the polls.

Another star campaigner for the BJP in Karnataka polls was UP CM Yogi Adityanath. The saffron robed chief of Gorakhnath Peeth raked up Tipu Jayanthi, Ram Janmabhumi and Hindutva during the poll campaign.

Yeddyurappa, who played second fiddle to partys national leaders, is hopeful of a win. He told News18 that he would take oath on 17th of this month. Siddaramaiah has dismissed him as a day dreamer.

For the first time in Karnataka elections, primacy of Kannada, separate state flag, no to Hindi imposition, separate religion status to Lingayats have also become poll issues. Whether they translate into votes for the Congress will be decided on the voting day.

The BJP, on the other hand, is hoping that Modi will ensure their victory. The JD(S) is hoping to play the role of kingmaker if its a hung house.

The pre-poll surveys are also divided on who will win. Some have predicted a clear majority for the Congress, some predict a hung house with Congress emerging as the single largest party, while others have predicted a win for the BJP.

Noted political scientist Dr. Sandeep Shastri feels that Congress is still ahead and may get the clear majority or at least emerge as the single largest party. In the last 10 days there has been a swing in favour of the Congress and a 6% lead is huge, he said.

The voting takes place for 223 seats on Saturday. The election to Jayanagara assembly seat has been cancelled due to the death of BJP candidate and sitting MLA B N Vijayakumar.

The chief minister Siddaramaiah is contesting from two seats  Chamundeshwari and Badami. Yeddyurappa is seeking eight term from Shikaripura in Shimoga. The JDS state chief H D Kumaraswamy is also contesting from two seats  Ramanagara and Channapatna. Over five crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise.Bengaluru: On the last day of campaigning in Karnataka, the Congress created a storm by releasing a video it claims shows BJP leader B Sriramulu trying to bribe the son-in-law of a former Supreme Court judge for a favourable verdict in an illegal mining case involving the Reddy brothers.

The clip was released by Karnataka home minister Ramalinga Reddy at what the Congress described an 'explosive press conference'. The party alleged that just one day before the then SC judge retired, he passed an order in a case related to a mining company of the Reddy brothers.

"Now several videos have been released which show how bribe deals were done," said Karnataka Congress quoting its working President Dinesh Gundu Rao in a tweet.

The BJP was quick to dub the 'sting' operation clip as fake news that showed the desperation of the Congress party.

"Do not believe in such fake stings which make rounds now and then," BJP president Amit Shah said at a press conference, when asked about the "sting videos" circulating on social media.

Sriramulu, a confidant of tainted mining baron and owner of Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) Janardhana Reddy, is contesting from two constituencies Molakalmuru and Badami in the May 12 assembly polls.

In Badami, he is pitted against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

The Congress has been criticising BJP and the Prime Minister for their decision to give tickets to eight persons from the Reddy "camp" including his brothers G Somashekara Reddy and G Karunakara Reddy.

Janardhana Reddy, who was made a minister after the BJP government came to power in Karnataka in 2008, had to quit after a report by the Lokayukta indicted him. He was later arrested by the CBI in 2011.

The Supreme Court had also barred him from entering Bellary, in accordance with his bail conditions in the illegal mining case and he was not allowed to campaign there for his brother.

State electoral authorities, meanwhile, directed TV news channels not to air the "sting" video. An officer in the CEO's officer said a report has been sent to the election commission about the video and directions have been issued to the news channels not to air the video clip.Chennai: Superstar Rajinikanth on Wednesday indicated there could be a further delay in the launch of his political party, but assured that whenever he floats his own outfit, it would usher in 'good times' for Tamil Nadu and its people.

After years of speculation, the veteran actor had announced in December 2017 he would take the political plunge and that his party would contest the next general elections from all 234 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu.

He had said he would opt for the path of 'spiritual politics,' triggering speculations of a tie-up with BJP, considering the actor's perceived friendship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi had met the superstar a few years back at the latter's residence, even as Rajinikanth has praised the Prime Minister for his 'Swachata Hi Seva' campaign and the November 2016 demonetisation move.

On Wednesday, at a gala event to mark the audio launch of his upcoming trilingual flick 'Kaala', Rajinikanth said he was aware what his fans and media alike were waiting to hear from him  his political entry.

"I can understand...the media thinks why have I not come to the point and even the fans are thinking so. What to do, the date has not come yet," he said amidst loud cheers from his fans who had turned up at the YMCA ground here in good numbers for the event.

"The date has not come yet.. the time will come and with the blessings of God, good times will come to Tamil Nadu and its people" when he floats his party, Rajinikanth said, again to loud cheers from his fans.

The actor, who recalled a few recent failed ventures of his, said he had been 'written off' by some persons, but compared himself to a horse that has been running fit for years together, despite setbacks.

"I won't be bothered about what others say, I will just keep proceeding on my path," he asserted.

Saying 'Kaala' would not be a political movie but that it would have politics, Rajinikanth said he found a 'challenging' villain in the veteran Nana Patekar.

He said that in his entire career, he had faced such challenging villains in 'Mark Anthony' in Basha (1995), played by the late Raghuvaran, and Baahubali-fame Ramya Krishnan, who donned the role of an aggressive 'Neelambari' in the 1999 hit

Padayappa, who seeks revenge against the superstar for turning down her proposal.

A strong votary of river inter-linking, Rajinikanth said his dream was to see the peninsular rivers being interlinked.

He had earlier offered Rs one crore towards this initiative.

The actor said he was one among those keen to hear the voice of ailing DMK President M Karunanidhi, who has been confined indoors since 2016.

Meanwhile,some pro-Tamil outfits staged a protest outside the venue, calling for postponement of the event, as well as the movie, till such time Cauvery Management Board was formed.

Rajinikanth also came under attack from the ruling AIADMK, which took a dig at his cigarette smoking antics and wondered if he had made any constructive advice in his films like its party founder and matinee icon, the late M G Ramachandran (MGR) had done.

"MGR used the powerful (cinema) media for societal development. Have you ever seen him smoke or drink liquor on screen? Or have you seen him let out smoke through his nose or mouth? But what social views has Rajinikanth said in all these years...will you get knowledge if you come to politics,"senior AIADMK leader and Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said.

Jayakumar, a vocal critic of Rajinikanth, as well as his peer Kamal Haasan, who has already entered politics, accused the superstar of having "selfish intentions" as regards his political plunge.Mumbai: Senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar on Thursday said that a hung Assembly in Karnataka, which votes on May 12, could force the BJP to align with the Janata Dal (Secular).

He said that the party could not afford to get stuck around the 100-seat mark in the Karnataka Assembly polls. "If we do, the party may once again have to align with the JD(S)," he said.

He added that the Congress too might be toying with the idea of extending outside support to a JD-S government. Mungantiwar said that after the Karnataka results are out, the Congress would be left (in governance) in just two states.

He said some parties were indulging in "spreading rumours" as they were unsure of voters' support. Speaking about the Lok Sabha and local bodies' constituency polls in Maharashtra, the senior BJP leader discounted reports about the BJP asking the Shiv Sena to withdraw its candidate for the Palghar Lok Sabha seat.

Replying to a query on the Congress reportedly asking the BJP to withdraw its candidate for the Palus-Kadegaon assembly seat bypoll, Mungantiwar told reporters that it was the BJP parliamentary board's decision to contest these bypolls.

The seat had fallen vacant after the death of Congress MLA and former state minister Patangrao Kadam on March 9. Replying to queries over the Sena hijacking BJP's probable candidate for the Palghar LS bypoll, Mungantiwar said that the kin of a deceased sitting member was expected to get sympathy votes only if he contested on the same party symbol.

"The sympathy factor is out of the equation when the kin chooses some other party to contest the election," he said.

He informed that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had urged Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to not field a candidate for the Palghar LS bypoll. He added that the real contest in Palghar was between the BJP and the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi which won three Assembly segments falling within the Palghar Lok Sabha constituency in 2014.Bengaluru: To translate a live speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, arguably one of Indias finest political speakers, is arduous if not an impossible task.

This is the story of a BJP legislator who got a call from his party on May 4 and was asked to live translate PMs speech from Hindi to Kannada. A day before the event, the veteran RSS worker was told to be on stage with Modi during his massive rally in Shimoga. To make matters worse, the exact transcript of Modis speech was delivered to the legislator just three hours before the rally.

BN Bhanuprakash is a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council and belongs to the central Karnataka district of Shimoga. He was busy campaigning when he got a call from the local party office that his name was being sent to the Prime Ministers Office (PMO). Bhanuprakash was being recommended for being Modis translator for the Shimoga rally.

Initially, I did not believe it, says Bhanuprakash but realisation soon dawned upon him that this was a blessing. The MLC had joined the RSS way back in 1975 and had worked his way up to become the partys state vice-president, before falling out with BS Yeddyurappa.

MLC BN Bhanuprakash photographed standing behind PM Narendra Modi.

After finishing his commitments for the day, Bhanuprakash reached home around 9 pm and asked his son Yadava Krishna to show him Modis speeches on YouTube.

My son speaks much better Hindi than me. He told me to listen to Modi jis speeches carefully. We both watched the PMs speeches till 1 am, especially the one in Udupi. I carefully observed Modi jis body language, how he paused in between sentences and how he modulated his voice.

The idea was not just to translate what Modi ji was saying but to convey it in the same feeling.

Despite being up from 6 in the morning, Bhanuprakash received PM Modis speech only three hours before the PM was to go on stage. Having received the speech via email, the MLC rushed to the party office to take a printout. It was a 20-page Hindi script, which only had salient features of the speech.

Just before the PM was to take the stage, Bhanuprakash was told that Modi would speak from the podium on the right, while the MLC would take the podium on the left. At the last moment, it was swapped due to security reasons.

I studied Hindi as one of my subjects during graduation. I have watched Hindi films and as a Sangh karyakarta have heard innumerable Hindi speeches by RSS functionaries. Translating Modis speech, though, was altogether a different experience, said Bhanuprakash.

On stage, during the initial bit, I would translate the first few sentences and then look at Modi ji. I soon realised I could not continue this as the PMs aura was distracting me. The legislator then decided to only look at the crowd and carefully note down what Modi was saying without looking at the leader.

Bhanuprakash did not get to speak to PM Modi before the event. It was left to the MLCs years of experience in public life to find a way to ensure that the Prime Ministers message was delivered to the people in the proper intended manner.

Hindi words are not difficult but speech modulation often becomes difficult, explains Bhanu. Translation becomes doubly difficult as the PM uses puns quite often and sometimes speaks off script.

So, how does it feel to be a translator for the Prime Minister? Modi ji uses simple language that connects with the people," says Bhanuprakash, comparing the PMs language to late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan.

Hindi spoken in Mumbai and Delhi is much easier to understand than that spoken by politicians from Bihar and UP. I hardly understood what Kalyan Singh said, he quips.

The legislator did manage to speak to PM Modi after the rally and even invited the leader to his village  Mathor in Shimoga. Modi ji did not say anything to me. He just looked at me, smiled and swiftly moved away as the PM had to go address another rally, says Bhanuprakash.Voters pose outside a polling booth in Karnataka.



People were seen standing in queues to cast their votes in the early hours itself, factoring in that the temperature may go up later in the day. Also, it has been raining in different parts of south interior Karnataka for the last couple of days during the evening hours.



Senior citizens were seen in good numbers standing in queues at various polling stations to cast their votes early.



State BJP chief and party's chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa, and Pradesh Congress Committee G Parameshwara were among the first to cast votes in Shikaripura in Shivamogga and Yaggere in Tumakuru respectively.



Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda along with wife Chennamma cast their votes at Paduvalahippe in Hassan district. Film actors Ramesh Arvind, Ravichandran, also scion of Mysuru royal family Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar were among the prominent personalities to cast their votes early today.



There are reports about delay in polling due to some technical issues with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) from different parts of the state.



Election for the Jayanagara seat in Bengaluru has been countermanded following the death of BJP candidate and sitting MLA BN Vijaykumar.



The Election Commission has also deferred the polls for Rajarajeswari Nagar constituency to May 28 after a massive row erupted over a large number of voter ID cards being found in an apartment.



Suspecting something fishy, both Congress and BJP have pointed accusing fingers at each other in the matter. "Today people of Karnataka are standing in queues to create history & show the nation the way to liberal, progressive, peaceful & compassionate politics & governance. I thank them for their support & wish them well," Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tweeted.



Over 2,600 candidates are in the fray-- more than 2400 men and and over 200 women. The total voters including service electors according to the 2018 final rolls are 5,06,90,538, of whom 2,56,75,579 male voters, 2,50,09,904 female and 5,055 transgender voters.



Officials said 58,008 polling stations have been set up across the state, of which 12002 have been designated as "critical", with over 3,50,000 polling personnel on duty. Police have made elaborate security arrangements for the smooth conduct of polls that will go on till 6 pm.



"82,157 people have been deployed for poll duty that includes DSPs, home guards and civil defence, and forest guards and watchers," Karnataka DGP Neelamani N Raju said. This also includes about 7,500 personnel from states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Kerala and Goa, she said, adding, central forces have been deployed.



One among the interesting aspects of this election is that four candidates who have served as Chief Minister of Karnataka are in the fray-- Chief Minister Siddaramaiah (Chamundeshwari and Badami), B S Yeddyurappa (Shikaripura), H D Kumaraswamy (Chennapatna and Ramanagara) and Jagadish Shettar (Hubli-Dharwad Central.)Bengaluru: On the last day of campaigning for the Karnataka Assembly elections, the Congress president Rahul Gandhi once again tried to play a sub-nationalism card by describing the polls as a fight between the idea of Karnataka and the RSS.

Addressing a press meet, Rahul said, This election is a fight between the idea of Karnataka and RSS. The RSS is against your language, culture and even food. They want to destroy your culture. But the people of Karnataka wont let that happen. Karnataka should have pride in its language and culture. Theres nothing wrong in it.

He also said that the RSS had insulted Basavanna, the founder of Lingayat community. Rahul Gandhi said that the RSS idea was to crush the spirit of the people who hold these things dear to their heart.

Unperturbed by BJPs carpet bombing on the last day of campaigning, Rahul said that it showed BJPs nervousness. He said, They know that they are losing. Because of that so many leaders are campaigning. These things will have no impact on voters.

Ruling out the possibility of a hung Assembly, the Congress president said that his party would come to power on its own and there would be no fractured mandate. He said, In Gujarat, some of my friends told me that Congress was going to get 20-30 seats. But we almost won that election. The PM Modi did everything to win his state election.

He attacked Modi for disrespecting the Kannadigas by belittling their achievements over the years purely for political gains. Deftly playing the local sentiments card, he said that Siddaramaiah government was there to protect the idea of Karnataka from the BJP and RSS.

The Congress president who has visited almost 30 temples and mutts across Karnataka in the last 100 days said that Modi had a problem with him visiting temples. I dont know why he has a problem. Me visiting temples troubles him, said Rahul.

He also said that Bengaluru was Indias pride and the PM and BJP were making baseless and cheap comments on such a great global city. The PM has taken away thousands of skilled jobs from Bengaluru by awarding a contract to Rafale by ignoring Bengalurus pride HAL. And he is talking about job creations, said Rahul.

Responding to BJP calling Sonia Gandhi an Italian, he said, My mother lived most part of her life in India. She is an Indian. She has sacrificed for India.

Rahul Gandhi has campaigned across the state for over 100 days and has the unique distinction of visiting all 30 districts in Karnataka. He has addressed almost 100 small and big rallies and participated in over 50 roadshows.Bengaluru: BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday did not rule out that B Sriramulu, a close aide of scam tainted mining baron Janardhan Reddy, could be made the next deputy chief minister of Karnataka if the BJP comes to power.

When asked whether it has been considered, Shah said that after the election results, the part would discuss the issue with an "open mind." But he ruled out any connection between the party and Janardhan Reddy. No BJP candidate is having a case pertaining to illegal mining. Nor do we have any relations with Janardhana Reddy," he added.

Shahs cautious response came on the same day Congress released a video it claims shows Sriramulu trying to bribe the son-in-law of a former Supreme Court judge for a favourable verdict in an illegal mining case involving the Reddy brothers.

"Do not believe in such fake stings which make rounds now and then," Shah said, dismissing it as the latest act of desperation of the Congress.

Sriramulu is contesting from two constituencies Molakalmuru and Badami in the May 12 assembly polls. In Badami, he is pitted against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Shah also accused the Congress of making desperate attempts to win elections in an "undemocratic" way, but said such machinations would not work and his party would win 130 plus seats.

He referred to the alleged "bogus" voter ID card scandal, saying, "It tells us how desperately the Congress wants to win the election."

"The way bogus voter cards were made in a flat... the way counterfoils of forms for inclusion of voters were found, the way colour printers and computers were found there, it tells us how desperately the Congress wants to win the election," the BJP president said.

Ruling out a hung assembly, Shah said there was no question of seeking support from any party to form government. "There is no question of hung assembly....We are far ahead of the halfway mark.

As per the feedback I have gathered from my leaders and party workers, we are winning more than 130 seats and there is question of seeking support from anyone to form government," he told reporters here.

"I have traversed 50,000 km across Karnataka ... We have experienced people's ire against Siddaramaiah's government," he said.

Shah, who extensively campaigned in the state, was addressing a press meet here after leading a massive road show in Badami constituency from where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is contesting besides Chamundeshwari seat in Mysuru.

Shah said unlike the last term, B S Yeddyurappa would remain chief minister for the entire term because the Narendra Modi government at the Centre "will be rock solid behind him" to expedite the development works in the state.

On Congress President Rahul Gandhi's allegations that the Prime Minister had launched personal attacks, Shah said, "On an average, if you see, such attacks have been for 2 to 3 minutes, but it appeared to be too much because the media played it or the entire day to gain TRP." "The state election result is very vital for BJP to make inroads into the southern states," he said.Bengalore: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that his mother Sonia Gandhi was Italian but she was more Indian than many Indians I have seen. This was in response to PM Modi attacking Sonia Gandhi for her Italian origin.

My mother is Italian, she also lived a larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many Indians I see. My mother sacrificed for this country, she has suffered for it. It shows the quality of the PM when he makes these types of comments, said Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress president was addressing a press conference in Bengaluru on the last day of campaigning for the Karnataka election.

On the question of repeated attacks on him by the PM, Rahul Gandhi referenced the story of Lord Buddha.

Many years ago, Buddha was sitting under a tree. He was abused by people but he said nothing, said Rahul .

Rahul accused the PM of being angry with everybody.

Mr Modi has got anger inside of him. He is angry with everybody, not only me. I am a lightning rod for anger, I attract anger. But that is his problem. It is not my problem, said Rahul.

Rahul accused BJP of only making personal attacks and lacking a vision for Karnataka. Rahul said the Congress fought the campaign on fundamental issues, but the BJP failed to tell the people of the state what it will do for them.

"PM Modi likes to distract people. He has nothing to say to the people of Karnataka on their future. So he just distracts them. All these comments are made to distract the country from the important issues, said Rahul.

The state will go to polls on May 12 and the counting of votes will take place on May 15.Motorola has announced the first-ever Motorola service camp - MotoPitstop. The MotoPitstop is a special service for out-of-warranty customer that will offer a seamless service experience on the 12th & 13th of May from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm across all Motorola exclusive service centers in Delhi-NCR region.

Also Read: OnePlus 6 Fast AF Sale on May 13 is Probably Your Best Bet of Buying The Smartphone First

Rachna Lather, Marketing Head, Motorola Mobility India said, We have always kept our customers as our the topmost priority and thus we are introducing Motopitstop, a customer-centric initiative across all our exclusive service centers in Delhi NCR. Our aim is to ensure that every customer gets the best service support throughout the product life-cycle. And with this service camp initiative, we are sure to make the customer experience more superior and satisfactory. We are overwhelmed with a number of registrations we have received so far to avail this service and we are sure this camp will be a huge success.

Don't Forget to Subscribe to the 'Tech And Auto Show' YouTube Channel

Key Offerings for Moto Users include  service within 2 hour, No labor charge, Handset upgrade offer and 10% discount on spare and accessories. Customers can visit Motorolas website to explore the list of exclusive service centers and register for the free service on 12-13th May.

Also Watch: Google IO - Updates to Artificial Intelligence | Featuretags:: On Thursday, Geneva,A 104-year-old Australian scientist who travelled to Switzerland to end his life committed assisted suicide on Thursday, a Swiss foundation said.

David Goodall, who had been barred from seeking help to end his life in his home country, did not have a terminal illness but said his quality of life had deteriorated significantly and that he wanted to die.

Goodall "died peacefully" in Basel, tweeted Philip Nitschke, founder of Exit International, the organisation which helped Goodall make the journey from Australia.

The death occured at 1030 GMT from an infusion of Nembutal, a barbiturate, at the Life Cycle clinic, he said.

The honorary research associate at Perth's Edith Cowan University set off from Australia a week ago, and stopped in Bordeaux, France to see family before arriving in Basel on Monday.

"I no longer want to continue life," Goodall told journalists on Wednesday.

"I am happy to have the chance tomorrow to end it, and I appreciate the help of the medical profession here in making that possible," he said.

The 104-year-old said he hoped the widespread interest in his case would spur Australia and other countries to rethink their legislation.

"I would have preferred to have (ended) it in Australia, and I greatly regret that Australia is behind Switzerland" when it comes to right-to-die laws, he said.

Goodall secured a fast-track appointment with the foundation in Basel after he attempted but failed to commit suicide on his own earlier this year.

"It would have been much more convenient for everyone if I had been able to, but unfortunately it failed," he said of the suicide attempt.

But he said he was happy that he had been offered the "Swiss option", since he has been able to see most of his large family, which is spread over several countries, in the run up to his final day.

Assisted suicide is illegal in most countries and was banned in Australia until the state of Victoria became the first to legalise the practice last year.

But that legislation, which takes effect in June 2019, only applies to terminally ill patients of sound mind and a life expectancy of less than six months.

According to Swiss law meanwhile, anyone who is of sound mind and who has over a period of time voiced a consistent wish to end their life can request so-called assisted voluntary death, or AVD.

Asked on Wednesday if he had any hesitations or doubts, the 104-year-old said: "No. None whatsoever." In assisted dying, the person must be physically capable of carrying out the final deed on their own.

In Goodall's case that meant he had himself to open the valve that allowed the short-acting barbiturate to mix with a saline solution and flow into his vein.Washington: US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore, the first-ever summit between the top leaders of the two Cold War rivals to discuss the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

Trump's announcement came hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned home from North Korea with three detained Americans.

Trump, who personally greeted the trio at the Andrews Air Force Base, praised Kim for their release ahead of their summit.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!," Trump tweeted.

In April, Trump had stunned the world by accepting an invitation to meet Kim in an unprecedented sit-down.

Trump and Kim had previously traded insults and threats. The breakthrough came after the recent landmark talks between North and South Korea.

At a summit last month, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed to work to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons, although the means of achieving this were not detailed.

The main issue under discussion at the Trump-Kim summit will be North Korea's nuclear weapons, which the US is demanding Pyongyang give up.

There has been no word from North Korea on its agenda or what it might offer, although a key issue is certain to be the presence of 30,000 US military personnel in South Korea, along with the removal of sanctions.

Trump has struck a cautiously optimistic tone in discussing the prospects of reaching a deal during his upcoming summit with Kim, saying he is hopeful a historic agreement can be brokered while also warning the talks could prove unfruitful.

But the President saw the release of the three Americans as yet another reason for optimism as he prepares for the summit.

"We are starting off on a new footing -- I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful. A lot of very good things have happened," Trump said as he greeted the three former prisoners.

The Americans -- Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim -- were freed yesterday by North Korea while Pompeo was on a visit to Pyongyang to finalise the details of the Trump-Kim summit.

The trio had been jailed for anti-state activities and placed in North Korean labour camps.

"I really think he wants to do something and bring the country into the real world," he added of Kim. "It's never been taken this far, there has never been a relationship like this. I really think a lot of progress has been made."

The summit, which has been in the works since Trump accepted Kim's invitation to meet in March, will be the first ever meeting between a sitting US president and North Korean leader.

US officials had also considered holding the summit at the Korean demilitarized zone or in Mongolia, but ultimately settled on the city-state of Singapore as the location.

Singapore has been used before for high-profile diplomatic occasions. In 2015, the leaders of China and Taiwan held historic talks in the South East Asian city-state - their first in more than 60 years, the BBC reported.

The US and Singapore have a close relationship. Singapore has diplomatic ties with North Korea but suspended all trade with Pyongyang in November last year as US-led international sanctions were tightened following a series of provocative actions by the reclusive state.Malaysia: With his shock victory in Malaysia's election, Mahathir Mohamad has pulled off a political second act that few expected, joining the select ranks of politicians who have revived their careers.

The 92-year-old former strongman ruled Malaysia with an iron fist for more than two decades before stepping down, but returned to political life to challenge his own former party, snatching a surprise win in Wednesday's poll.

Here are some other political figures who have had second, and even third acts during their careers:

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill is revered for leading Britain from the verge of defeat to victory in World War II, but his political career was far from smooth sailing.

Churchill was forced to resign from government in 1915 after the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, and his eventual return to the cabinet was contentious.

Appointed prime minister in 1940, he won acclaim for his rousing leadership during the war, but suffered a shock defeat in the 1945 election and was forced into the opposition.

In 1951, he won a second term as prime minister, but resigned several years later as his health deteriorated.

The ups and downs of his career have been cited as inspiration by other politicians looking for their own turnarounds.

Shinzo Abe

Shinzo Abe became Japan's youngest-ever prime minister when he took office in 2006 at the age of 52.

The son of a former foreign minister and grandson of a former prime minister, Abe seemed destined for political office.

But he resigned after just a year, hit by scandals and political disappointment and debilitated by health issues.

In 2012, he made a shock political comeback, returning to office on a pledge to revive Japan's economy with his signature "Abenomics" programme.

He has said he was encouraged to seek a path back to power by reading a biography of Churchill entitled: "Never Despair."

Silvio Berlusconi

Billionaire Italian media mogul Silvio Berlusconi is perhaps the perennial political comeback kid, serving as prime minister three times, despite a string of scandals and legal woes.

After a first two-year term, he returned to power in 2001 following a campaign in which he sent a book boasting of his achievements to 15 million Italian homes.

He lost power in 2006, but returned to office two years later, only to see his premiership go down in flames over sex scandals and a financial crisis.

A tax fraud conviction means he is now barred from office, but that didn't stop him seeking to become a kingmaker by backing a protege in March elections.

The gambit failed, with the ever-confident former cruise ship crooner attributing his party's poor showing in large part to his absence from the ticket.

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu

A divisive figure at home and abroad, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu has nonetheless proven a political master.

He became Israel's youngest prime minister when he first won office in 1996, but was ousted just three years later by the opposition Labour party.

He returned to government as a minister with his right-wing party in 2002, eventually winning a second term as prime minister in 2009.

He has since earned the nickname "King Bibi", fighting off a series of challengers despite the notoriously fractious and treacherous nature of Israeli politics.

Written off multiple times over corruption scandals and criticism for his brash and undiplomatic style, he is now Israel's second longest-serving prime minister, and the only one ever to be re-elected three times in row.Baghdad: Iraqi agents are holding a top aide to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and used an app on his mobile phone to lure four commanders from the group into a trap, a security advisor to the Iraqi government said on Thursday.

Ismail al-Eithawi, who also uses the alias Abu Zaid al-Iraqi, was captured in February in Turkey by Turkish authorities and handed over to Iraqi agents, Iraqi security advisor Hisham al-Hashimi told Reuters on Thursday.

Hashimi described Eithawi as a direct aide to Islamic State leader Baghdadi, responsible for funds transfers to the group's bank accounts in different countries.

Iraqi agents used the Telegram messaging app on Eithawi's mobile phone to lure other Islamic State commanders to cross the border from Syria into Iraq, where they were captured, Hashimi said. Those held include Saddam Jamal, a Syrian who served as the group's governor of Syria's eastern Euphrates region.

Hashimi described Eithawi and Jamal as the two most senior Islamic State figures ever to be captured alive. The capture of all five was announced on Iraqi state TV on Wednesday.

Hashimi said the operation was carried out in cooperation with U.S. forces, part of an American-led coalition fighting against Islamic State on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border.

Following Eithawi's capture, Iraqi and American intelligence agents were able to uncover bank accounts used by the group and also secret communication codes he used, Hashimi said.

Apart from Eithawi and Jamal, the operation captured three field commanders: Syrian Mohamed al-Qadeer and two Iraqis, Omar al-Karbouli and Essam al-Zawbai, Hashimi said.

"The noose is tightening around him," Hashimi said, referring to Baghdadi, whose real name is Ibrahim al-Samarrai.

Baghdadi, who declared himself ruler of all Muslims in 2014 after capturing Iraq's main northern city Mosul, is now believed to be hiding in the Iraqi-Syrian border region after losing all the cities and towns of his self-proclaimed caliphate.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said last month he would "take all necessary measures" against militants based in Syria. The Iraqi air force has carried out several air strikes since last year against Islamic State positions in Syrian territory.

Abadi declared final victory last December over the ultra-hardline group within Iraq. But the militants still pose a threat along the border with Syria and have continued to carry out ambushes, killings and bombings across Iraq.

Islamic State militants last month restated their loyalty to Baghdadi, in what is believed to be their first public pledge of allegiance to him since his self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq collapsed last year.Jeusalem/Beirut: Iranian forces in Syria launched a rocket attack on Israeli army bases in the Golan Heights early on Thursday, Israel said, prompting one of the heaviest Israeli barrages against Syria since the conflict there began in 2011.

The attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, just past midnight, marked the first time Iranian forces have hit Israel from Syria, where they have deployed along with Iran-backed Shi'ite militias and Russian troops to support President Bashar al-Assad in the country's civil war.

Dozens of Israeli missiles hit a radar station, Syrian air defence positions and an ammunition dump, Syrian state media said, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies.

"I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message," Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said at the Herzliya security conference, near Tel Aviv, on Thursday morning.

Israel said 20 Iranian Grad and Fajr rockets were shot down by its Iron Dome air defence system or fell short of the Golan targets. The Quds Force, an external arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, carried out the launch, Israel said.

"It was commanded and ordered by (Quds Force chief General) Qassem Soleimani and it has not achieved its purpose," military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters.

Israel struck back by destroying dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria, Conricus said, as well as Syrian anti-aircraft units that tried unsuccessfully to shoot down Israeli planes.

"We do not know yet the (Iranian) casualty count," he said.

"But I can say that in terms of our purpose, we focussed less on personnel and more on capabilities and hardware ... to inflict long-term damage on the Iranian military establishment in Syria. We assess it will take substantial time to replenish."

Israeli schools in the Golan Heights opened as usual on Thursday morning, after sirens had sent residents to shelters during the night.

"I do not reside on the border of New Zealand-Australia. We are located here facing Syria and Lebanon and this is the reality which we will overcome together, especially with the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)," said Alex Gudish, a Golan settler.

'Right decision'

The Israelis fear that Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah are turning Syria into a new front against them. Israel says its occasional strikes in Syria aim to foil that.

Iran vowed retaliation after a suspected Israeli air strike last month killed seven of its military personnel in a Syrian air base.

Israel regards Iran as its biggest threat, and has repeatedly targeted Iranian forces and allied militia in Syria.

Expectations of a regional flare-up were stoked by U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal. Hours later, Israeli rocket rockets targeted a military base in Kisweh, a commander in the pro-Syrian government regional alliance said.

That attack killed 15 people, including eight Iranians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, though the commander said there were no casualties. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

The Trump administration cast its hard line against the Iranian nuclear deal as a response, in part, to Tehran's military interventions in the region.

The Golan flare-up with Israel "is just further demonstration that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted and another good reminder that the president made the right decision to get out of the Iran deal," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News.

Russia Warned

The tensions worry Russia, which wants to stabilise Syria.

Thursday's flare-up came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from a visit to Moscow, where he discussed Syria concerns with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Conricus said Israel forewarned Russia of its strikes on Thursday, which Syrian state media first reported hit Baath City in Quneitra, near the border. Further waves of missiles followed. Syrian state media said Israeli missiles had been brought down over Damascus, Homs and Sueida.

"Air defences confronted tens of Israeli rockets and some of them reached their target and destroyed one of the radar sites," Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing a military source. Another rocket hit an ammunition warehouse, it said.

Syrian state television broadcast footage of its air defences firing, and playing patriotic songs. Damascus residents described explosions in the sky from air defence systems.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported Israeli jets circling over Lebanese territory early on Thursday before exiting.Jerusalem: In the largest operation in Syria since the signing of disengagement agreement in 1974, Israel on Thursday said it has struck almost all of the Iranian infrastructure on Syrian soil during the overnight raids in retaliation to a barrage of rocket fire on its territory by Iran.

The Israel Defence Force (IDF) claimed that the overnight clash, the largest-ever direct clash between the Iranian and Israeli armies, was a setback to Iran's military capabilities by "many months".

Israel's Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that his army struck "almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria" overnight in response to a rocket barrage at its military outposts in the Golan Heights by Iran.

Asserting that Israel does not want an escalation, Lieberman said that Israel won't allow Iran to turn Syria into a "forward base" against his country and that, Israel has no desire to expand their military presence to create new proxies and fronts.

"If it rains on us, it will pour on them," he said in a stern warning to Iran.

"I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message," he said, adding Iran was truly the only country today that represents extremism, not just ideologically but also in its willingness to sacrifice its citizens, sacrifice its future for this same extremist ideology.

He also confirmed that no rocket landed in the Israeli territory.

An army spokesman said that four of the 20 rockets fired on Israel were intercepted by the iron dome anti-missile system and 16 fell within Syrian territory.

The IDF suffered no casualties, either on the ground or in the air, and that no rockets fired from Syria made any impact in Israeli territory, the spokesman said, adding that "all of our planes returned home safely".

It was the "largest such operation (by Israel) against Iranian targets," it added.

"All targets that we engaged were effectively destroyed, causing significant damage to the Iranians," the spokesperson said.

The Agreement on Disengagement was an agreement between Israel and Syria, signed in May 1974, which officially ended the Yom Kippur War and the subsequent attrition period on the Syrian front.

The Israeli military accused the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Al Quds force and its commander, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, of launching the attack at the Israeli Golan Heights.

This is the first time that Israel has directly accused Iran of firing on its territory.

Defence sources here said that Israeli operation targeted weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centres used by elite Iranian forces in Syria.

Five Syrian air-defence systems were also destroyed after coming under heavy fire, they said, adding none of the Israeli warplanes were hit.

Russia is reported to have been informed in advance of the Israeli attack.

There was no immediate word on Iranian casualties but according to reports in the regional media, there were several casualties as a result of the Israeli strike and that explosions were heard near the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The rocket barrage was fired from Syria at Israel at around midnight.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported a little later that Israel has attacked targets of the Syrian military on the outskirts of Quneitra in the Golan Heights.

Siren alerts were sounded soon around midnight in the north and centre of the Golan Heights in northern Israel.

The Home Front Command released a reminder on safety regulations to residents of the area with shelter houses remaining open in case of an escalation.

The Golan Regional Council released a statement, saying that several towns in the Golan were targeted by rocket fire and that residents of those towns are requested to stay in shelters until notified otherwise.

Israel had been bracing for a possible Iranian "revenge" attack after the Islamic Republic accused the Jewish state of having attacked one of its bases in Syria on April 9 in which nine Iranian commanders were said to have been killed. Israel did not confirm or deny its involvement in that attack.Israel: Israel's army said Thursday it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces which it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies.

The incident came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from a key 2015 Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, a move Israel had long advocated.

The raids were one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and the biggest such assault on Iranian targets, the military said.

"We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a security conference on Thursday morning.

"They need to remember the saying that if it rains on us, it'll storm on them. I hope we've finished this episode and everyone understood."

Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight.

It blamed the rocket fire on Iran's Al-Quds force, adding that Israel's anti-missile system intercepted four of the projectiles while the rest did not land in its territory.

No Israelis were wounded.

If confirmed, the incident would be the first such rocket fire by Iranian forces in Syria towards Israel.

"We know that comes from the al-Quds force," army spokesman lieutenant-colonel Jonathan Conricus said, referring to the special forces unit affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said dozens of rockets were fired from Syria toward the Israeli-occupied Golan, but did not confirm they were fired by Iranian forces.

It alleged the rockets followed a "first Israeli bombardment on the town of Baath" in Quneitra province.

A senior pro-regime military source in Syria confirmed the salvo of rockets, but insisted Israel had fired first.

- 'Not looking to escalate' -

Later, in the early hours of the morning, explosions were heard in Damascus, while live images were broadcast on television showing projectiles above the Syrian capital and several missiles destroyed by Syrian anti-aircraft systems.

Syrian state media reported that Israeli missile strikes had hit military bases as well as an arms depot and a military radar installation, without specifying the locations.

The official SANA news agency added that "dozens of missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft systems in Syrian airspace", saying a number of missiles had reached their targets.

Israel's military later confirmed it had carried out the raids, saying dozens of Iranian military targets had been struck and all of its aircraft had returned safely.

Conricus said intelligence, logistics, storage and vehicles as well as the origin of the rockets were targeted.

Syrian air defences, which fired dozens of times on Israeli forces, were also targeted, he said.

There had been no comment from Iranian officials.

Lieberman called the rocket fire "a new phase".

"We don't want an escalation, but won't let anyone attack us or build an infrastructure to attack us in the future," he said.

"We're facing a new reality. The Iranian attempt to bring anti-aircraft systems to our borders and close our skies is intolerable and unacceptable."

An Israeli military statement said "this Iranian aggression is another proof of the intentions behind the establishment of the Iranian regime in Syria and the threat it poses to Israel and regional stability."

It added that it "will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory."

French President Emmanuel Macron called Thursday for "de-escalation" between Israel and Iran, adding that he would discuss the issue later in the day with German chancellor Angela Merkel.

- 'Right to protect self' -

Israel has long warned that it will not accept Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria, where Tehran is supporting President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the country's seven-year civil war.

Israel has been blamed for a series of recent strikes inside Syria that have killed Iranians, though it did not acknowledge those raids.

It does acknowledge carrying out dozens of raids in Syria to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to Iran-backed Hezbollah, another key foe of Israel.

Israel had been preparing itself for weeks for possible Iranian retaliation.

Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal has added to tensions and led to a new level of uncertainty over how Iran will respond.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has provided massive military and diplomatic backing to Assad's regime.

"I told President Putin that it is the right of every state, certainly the right of Israel, to take the necessary steps in order to protect itself from this aggression," Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to Iran's presence in Syria.

Netanyahu and Putin have held a series of meetings and telephone conversations in recent months, particularly regarding Syria.

The two countries have established a hotline to avoid accidental clashes in the war-torn country.

In February, Israel accused Iranian forces at the T-4 base in central Syria of sending a drone into Israeli territory.

After targeting Iranian units in Syria in retaliation, an Israel F-16 was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire in one of the conflict's most notable escalations.

Israel then carried out what it called "large-scale" raids on Syrian air defence systems and Iranian targets, which reportedly included T-4.

Israel later said the drone had been armed.Washington: President Donald Trump on Thursday thanked Kim Jong-un for releasing three American detainees as he personally welcomed them back to the US, a development seen as a diplomatic win for him ahead of his planned summit with the North Korean leader.

The Americans, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim, were freed on Wednesday by North Korea while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on a visit to the North Korean capital Pyongyang to finalise the details of the summit. The trio had been jailed for anti-state activities and placed in North Korean labour camps.

Trump and his wife Melania entered the plane outfitted with medical facilities after it landed in the early hours of Thursday and a few minutes later emerged with the three Americans of South Korean origin to wave to the media."We're starting off on a new footing. This is a wonderful thing that he released the folks early," Trump said.

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence were also on hand to welcome the three men home.

Speaking to the media on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews Air Force Base in a Maryland suburb of Washington DC, Kim Dong Chul said his release felt "like a dream. "We are very, very happy," he said.

The three former detainees earlier issued a joint statement thanking Trump for their release."We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," the trio said.

President Trump told reporters that it was "nice" of the North Korean leader to release the three men ahead of their planned summit."Frankly we didn't think this was going to happen . It's a very important thing to all of us to be able to get these three great people out," he said.Washington: President Donald Trump's pick for CIA director was grilled by lawmakers on Wednesday over her role in the agency's past harsh interrogation system, pledging she would never restart the programme or follow any morally objectionable order from Trump.

The U.S. Senate confirmation hearing for CIA acting Director Gina Haspel was dominated by questions about her part in the spy agency's use of methods such as waterboarding, a type of simulated drowning widely considered torture, more than a decade ago under President George W. Bush. She also was pressed about the destruction of videotapes documenting the tactics.

"Having served in that tumultuous time, I can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and without reservation, that under my leadership, on my watch, CIA will not restart such a detention and interrogation programme," Haspel told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

"My moral compass is strong. I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if was technically legal. I would absolutely not permit it," Haspel said when asked what she would do if Trump asked her to carry out an order she found "morally objectionable."

An undercover officer for most of her 33-year career, Haspel in 2002 served as CIA station chief in Thailand, where the agency conducted interrogations at a secret prison using methods including waterboarding. Three years later, she drafted a cable ordering the destruction of videotapes of those interrogations.

When pressed, Haspel often stuck to scripted answers or avoided questions by saying they involved secret information. She later testified at a closed-door classified session.

Republican Senator Susan Collins asked Haspel what she would do if Trump, who has advocated the return of waterboarding, gave her a direct order to use it on a "high-value terrorism suspect."

"I do not believe the president would ask me to do that," Haspel said, without directly answering the question.

Collins, a moderate Republican, said later she would vote for Haspel's confirmation.

Asked how Haspel's comments squared with Trump's belief that waterboarding works, White House spokesman Sarah Sanders said Trump would let Haspel make her own decisions.

"The president has confidence in Gina Haspel to lead the CIA and wants to see her do exactly that," Sanders told reporters.

Democratic Senator Kamala Harris asked if Haspel believed the previous interrogation techniques were immoral, and requested a "yes or no" answer. Haspel did not give it.

'DON'T BELIEVE THAT TORTURE WORKS'

Haspel said the CIA had learnt "tough lessons," and in retrospect she believed it was unprepared to conduct the detention and interrogation programme employed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

She also told the senators: "I don't believe that torture works."

To be confirmed as the first woman to lead the CIA, Haspel needs a majority of Senate votes. Trump's fellow Republicans hold a 51-49 majority. The agency's former deputy director, she would succeed Mike Pompeo, a former Republican congressman confirmed last month as secretary of state.

After the hearing, Haspel's chances for confirmation were boosted when Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat on the intelligence panel, announced his support. Another committee moderate, independent Angus King, announced that he would vote against.

Haspel has strong support among Republicans, but at least two, Senators John McCain and Rand Paul, said they would oppose her.

McCain, who as a prisoner of war in Vietnam was tortured by his captors, said late on Wednesday that Haspel's testimony had failed to address his concerns about the CIA's interrogation programme.

McCain, however, may not be able to cast a vote. He has been undergoing treatment for brain cancer in his home state of Arizona and has been absent from the Senate for months.

Democrats pressed Haspel on the 2005 decision to destroy the interrogation videotapes when she was chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, then the CIA's clandestine service chief. Haspel acknowledged she "absolutely was an advocate" for doing so, saying she feared a leak of the video would reveal the identities of CIA agents.

Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich asked her: "Doesn't that feel like a cover-up?"

"I never watched the tapes, but I understood that our officers' faces were on them and it was very dangerous," she said.

Haspel refused to criticise or second-guess actions taken by U.S. and CIA leadership in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks, including the interrogation programme.

"I'm not going to sit here with the benefit of hindsight and judge the very good people who made hard decisions who were running the agency in very extraordinary circumstances at the time," she said.

Democrats expressed frustration they had not been given more details of Haspel's long record with the agency, much of which remains classified.

Protesters interrupted her testimony before being removed, yelling: "Bloody Gina" and "You are a torturer."

Rights groups panned her performance. "Gina Haspel said she has a moral compass, but refused to say whether the torture programme she supervised was wrong," the American Civil Liberties Union's Christopher Anders said.404

We're sorry! The page you were looking for couldn't be found.

Gap in spending between private and state schools widens Concerns about inequalities will not be easily addressed while the sectors enjoy such different levels of resourcing, researchers say.







Love letter sent by Edward VIII before he was King to be sold at auction A love letter from Edward VIII which reflects his disenchantment with life as a royal, years before he met Wallis Simpson, is to be sold at auction.







Bobby Flay Exits Food Network After 27 Years Bobby Flay will reportedly leave Food Network at the end of the year, according to multiple outlets. After quitting Iron Chef in 2017,...







Taiwan does not seek military confrontation but will defend its freedom, President says Taiwan does not seek military confrontation but will do whatever it takes to defend its freedom, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Friday,...







Asda expands full range one-hour delivery service to 96 stores The cost for each delivery will be 8.50 regardless of how many items are ordered.







Lateral flow tests set to replace PCRs for returning travellers by half-term Grant Shapps has said he wants returning international travellers to be able to use lateral flow tests instead of costly PCR tests by the half-term holiday.







Briton could scoop biggest National Lottery win ever today with 172m jackpot up for grabs A Briton could scoop the biggest National Lottery win in history if they choose the correct numbers in Friday's EuroMillions draw.







Cornwall longlisted for UK City of Culture 2025 BBC Local News: Cornwall -- Eight places across the country are in the running to succeed 2021-winner Coventry.







Royal Mail aiming to recruit 20,000 seasonal workers for Christmas The seasonal workers will help manage an increase in online shopping orders







Tony Abbott raises fears China could lash out disastrously as Taiwan tensions grow The former Australian prime minister uses a speech in Taipei to call on Beijing to scale back the aggression







Senate avoids US debt disaster, votes to delay borrowing WASHINGTON (AP)  The Senate has dodged a U.S. debt disaster, voting to extend the governments borrowing authority into December and temporarily avert an...







US nuclear-powered submarine hits submerged object in South China Sea Attack class submarine USS Connecticut hit an unknown object on routine operations and is in a safe and stable condition, US navy says







Ndakasi, mountain gorilla in famous selfie, dies in arms of caretaker who saved her Ndakasi took her final breath being held by her caretaker, who watched over her since she was two months old.







Trump urges GOP senators to vote against McConnell debt deal Former President Trump is urging GOP senators to vote against a deal that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) struck with his...







Biden to restore 3 national monuments cut by Trump WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden will restore two sprawling national monuments in Utah that have been at the center of a long-running public lands...







Rays' Randy Arozarena makes history in spectacular fashion - first to steal home, homer in playoff game Rays rookie Randy Arozarena made history Thursday by hitting a home run and stealing home in Game 1 of their ALDS against the Red Sox.







Barbara Corcoran Apologizes to Whoopi Goldberg After Making Body Shaming Joke Barbara Corcoran is facing a lot of backlash after making a body shaming joke about Whoopi Goldberg on The View. On Thursday (October 7), the 72-year-old Shark...







Sailors injured after US nuclear sub hit unknown object in South China Sea A US nuclear-powered submarine hit an unknown object in the South China Sea with 11 sailors suffering mainly minor injuries, according to officials.







NASA rover images confirm Mars crater was ancient lake Images of Mars from a NASA rover confirm the Jezero crater was once a lake fed by a small river about 3.7 billion years ago, say experts.







Struggling Britain: How rising costs 'nightmare' is pushing three families to the brink Sky News is following the lives of three families who all face a difficult winter ahead. With energy and food bills rising, they say they are dreading the next...







Drax's renewable energy plant is UK's biggest CO2 emitter, analysis claims A taxpayer-subsidised renewable energy plant run by Drax is the biggest single source of carbon dioxide in the UK, according to new analysis shared exclusively...



It had become a running punch line in Connecticut business circles the past few years, the states recent record in passing annual budgets months after deadlines that would cost any corporate budget staff their jobs in any equivalent lapses.

With the Connecticut General Assembly punching out on time this year, business owners and their workers were tallying the early returns Friday on the coming impact of new laws on jobs, whether from the perspective of hiring or employee rights in the workplace.

In reaching a final budget compromise with minutes to spare in the 2018 legislative session, the Connecticut General Assembly sent for Gov. Dannel P. Malloys signature a number of new restrictions and opportunities affecting business owners and workers, from a limited pay equity measure intended to help women get better compensation when hired, to extensions of incentives for the generation of energy from clean sources like solar panels.

Many more were left discarded in the aisles and conference rooms in the state Capitol in the final hours of the 2018 session. Of bills considered before legislative committees for commerce and labor  two that touch employers of all sizes  representatives reached consensus on less than 30 percent of the bills brought before them, with Malloy having yet to signal in many instances whether he would sign them into law.

The good news is no new tax increases, said Joe McGee, vice president of public policy and programs for the Business Council of Fairfield County in Stamford. The big disappointment is on the transportation piece. ... Whatever the solution is, we need a new revenue source for transportation. Thats just a fact and theres no way to escape that.

Attracting investment, jobs

Early reactions were mixed in other parts of the business community, with the Connecticut Business & Industry Associations CEO Joe Brennan indicating Connecticut is not keeping up with regional rivals like New York and Massachusetts when it comes to generating strong jobs and economic growth.

We consistently hear from our members that a major cause of substandard growth is the states precarious fiscal situation, Brennan stated in a note to CBIA members Thursday. The lack of progress on the more serious (short-term) and long-term financial problems facing the state means that these issues will continue to impact our ability to attract investment and jobs here.

The National Federation of Independent Business noted that legislators tabled multiple bills NFIB said would have raised costs for its small-business members. Connecticuts gross domestic product was down a second straight year in 2017, the result of a sluggish first quarter that was more than enough to wipe out gains in the succeeding nine months.

Legislators ... showed fiscal restraint by not increasing the tax burden on all state residents, stated Andrew Markowski, NFIB state director, in a written statement Thursday. When Connecticuts unemployment rate is the highest in the Northeast, and GDP is down, thats a great first step. ... It will take time to address the huge state pension and health care costs, and reduce the state debt, but if that happens, Connecticut will become a great place for businesses to expand or open.

A fair salary

The pay equity bills supporters marshaled a major push at a March hearing to get the legislation to the governors desk, with the bill transmitted Thursday for Malloys signature.

Almost every single employer I have had has asked me about previous salary, stated Bridgeport resident Lauren Gray, in March testimony to a committee of the Assembly. It makes me nervous to state what I had been previously paid because I am not sure if the salary they are about to propose is a fair salary.

But one human resources expert in Norwalk believes the bill would have a ripple effect that could make it more difficult for business owners to add jobs at all.

The theory is that we are going to correct pay equity issues for women as a result, said David Lewis, CEO of OperationsInc, a Norwalk-based consultancy for personnel training and policies. The unintended consequence is that employers are likely to have to pay more for each hire without this critical piece of data, and the higher pay will not be because they were underpaying women in the past.

Dan Haar contributed to this report.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulmanUsername: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average

1

2

3

4

5

UPDATED: In Major Escalation, Israel Unleashes Airstrikes, Shelling On Syria LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: kaput

05-10-2018 02:14 AM











Post: #1 UPDATED: In Major Escalation, Israel Unleashes Airstrikes, Shelling On Syria

Advertisement



Summary:

The situation is fluid to say the least, but as far as we can tell this is what has happened tonight so far:



1. Sirens go off in Golan Heights



2. Loud explosions heard



Then blame-game begins...



3. AP: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Wednesday that Israel has attacked targets of the Syrian military on the outskirts of Quneitra.



4. AP: Activists reported rocket fire from Israel into southern Syrian just before midnight Wednesday.



5. AP: The Israeli army says it is investigating and has no further details.



6. IDF report that Iranian Quds force fired 20 rockets towards forward IDF positions on Golan Heights.



7. According to al-Mayadeen (pro-gov) 10 positions of the Israeli Army were shelled with rockets, and several vehicles were targeted with guided missiles.



8. The IDF views this event with great severity and remains prepared for a wide variety of scenarios.



9. Exchanges continue...



So it is unclear who started the 'fight' but for now rocket exchanges continue.



* * *

Update III: AP reports the two sides' versions of events...



Israel:



Iranian forces based in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights early Thursday, the Israeli military said, triggering an Israeli reprisal and further escalating heightened tensions between the two bitter enemies in neighboring Syria.



The Israeli military said its Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage. There were no Israeli casualties.



Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Iran's Al Quds force had fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though he would not say how Israel had determined the Iranian involvement. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan.



Israel "views this Iranian attack very severely," Conricus told reporters. He said Israel had responded, but did not provide details.



"This event is not over," he added.



And "Not"-Israel...



Syria's state news agency said early Thursday that Syrian air defenses had intercepted "hostile Israeli missiles," and Syrian media later said the missiles were fired over southwestern Damascus.



Pro-Syrian government media and activists said late Wednesday that missiles had been fired toward Israel from southern Syria targeting Israeli positions in the occupied Golan heights.



Before that report, Syria state news agency said rockets suspected to have been fired from Israel hit southern Syria's Quneitra province.



Activists said it was artillery fire from Israeli positions in the Golan Heights.



There were no reports of casualties.



You decide who's telling the truth.



https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-0...ncy-sirens [ ]In Major Escalation, Israel Unleashes Airstrikes, Shelling On Syria[/size]Summary:The situation is fluid to say the least, but as far as we can tell this is what has happened tonight so far:1. Sirens go off in Golan Heights2. Loud explosions heardThen blame-game begins...3. AP: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Wednesday that Israel has attacked targets of the Syrian military on the outskirts of Quneitra.4. AP: Activists reported rocket fire from Israel into southern Syrian just before midnight Wednesday.5. AP: The Israeli army says it is investigating and has no further details.6. IDF report that Iranian Quds force fired 20 rockets towards forward IDF positions on Golan Heights.7. According to al-Mayadeen (pro-gov) 10 positions of the Israeli Army were shelled with rockets, and several vehicles were targeted with guided missiles.8. The IDF views this event with great severity and remains prepared for a wide variety of scenarios.9. Exchanges continue...So it is unclear who started the 'fight' but for now rocket exchanges continue.* * *Update III: AP reports the two sides' versions of events...Israel:Iranian forces based in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights early Thursday, the Israeli military said, triggering an Israeli reprisal and further escalating heightened tensions between the two bitter enemies in neighboring Syria.The Israeli military said its Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage. There were no Israeli casualties.Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Iran's Al Quds force had fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though he would not say how Israel had determined the Iranian involvement. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan.Israel "views this Iranian attack very severely," Conricus told reporters. He said Israel had responded, but did not provide details."This event is not over," he added.And "Not"-Israel...Syria's state news agency said early Thursday that Syrian air defenses had intercepted "hostile Israeli missiles," and Syrian media later said the missiles were fired over southwestern Damascus.Pro-Syrian government media and activists said late Wednesday that missiles had been fired toward Israel from southern Syria targeting Israeli positions in the occupied Golan heights.Before that report, Syria state news agency said rockets suspected to have been fired from Israel hit southern Syria's Quneitra province.Activists said it was artillery fire from Israeli positions in the Golan Heights.There were no reports of casualties.You decide who's telling the truth.















Millions of U.S. and Canadian homes were built with circuit breaker panels that one expert has questioned as a potential fire hazard. Issues about Federal Pacific Electric's Stab-Lok circuit breakers were first raised decades ago with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The CPSC closed its investigation in 1983 because data then available did not establish "that the circuit breakers pose a serious threat of injury to consumers." In a 2011 update, it clarified that the investigation was closed "without making a determination as to the safety of FPE circuit breakers or the accuracy of the manufacturer's position on the matter."

Now a man who played a key role in identifying issues with FPE breakers has a new claim, that Stab-Lok breakers made by other brands may also pose a fire hazard, and is strongly urging homeowners to replace all Stab-Lok-type panels and breakers.

Electrical engineer Jesse Aronstein, 82, who has been testing the FPE breakers for decades, last month asked the CPSC to warn consumers definitively about the danger.

"Nobody whose word can be taken as an authority . . . has made a positive recommendation that people should change out their [breaker] panels for safety reasons," Aronstein told CPSC staff. "When some agency of authority picks up the ball on this, then I can stop."

In a statement to The Washington Post, the agency said, "CPSC will be reviewing the information to determine if additional investigation is warranted under our statutes."

Long history of questions

Aronstein, who has a doctorate in materials science, has lectured at universities and served as an expert witness in U.S. and Canadian court cases. He got involved with the CPSC and circuit breakers in the 1980s. The CPSC hired the company he worked for to test the safety of FPE's Stab-Lok breakers, which were installed in homes built from 1960 to 1985.

Circuit breakers are supposed to trip, or shut off, when electrical wires are overloaded so the wires don't heat up and cause a fire. But when Aronstein's team tested the FPE Stab-Lok breakers, 51 percent failed to trip, according to the results he submitted to the CPSC.

Nobody knows how many fires FPE breakers have caused because authorities don't routinely consider breakers when investigating. Aronstein co-wrote a peer-reviewed paper that attempted to quantify the scope of the problem by applying statistics to published fire reports. They found FPE Stab-Lok breakers may be responsible for as many as 2,800 fires, 13 deaths and $40 million in property damage annually.

FPE's parent company, Reliance Electric, acknowledged "a possible defect" in a 1982 Securities and Exchange Commission filing. It also said FPE had obtained the Underwriters Laboratories seal of approval for its breakers "through the use of deceptive and improper practices" and noted that Underwriters Laboratories had revoked UL listing for most of FPE's products.

In 1983, when the CPSC announced that it was closing its investigation, it noted that Reliance had submitted test data the company said proved the breakers "do not create a hazard in the household environment," and the CPSC said it had "insufficient data" to accept or refute that position. Reliance told the agency that the FPE breakers will trip reliably at most overload levels unless the breakers have been operated in a repetitive, abusive manner that should not occur during residential use. Reliance also maintained that at those few overload levels where FPE breakers may fail to trip under realistic-use conditions, currents will be too low to generate hazardous temperatures in household wiring.

"Based on the Commission's limited budget," the news release said, "and the uncertainty of the results of such a costly investigation, the Commission has decided not to commit further resources to its investigation of FPE's circuit breakers."

Aronstein was floored. "I couldn't understand why," he said recently.

Other companies start making Stab-Lok breakers

FPE eventually stopped manufacturing products under its own name, but its Stab-Lok circuit breakers were already in millions of homes. And other companies acquired the rights to manufacture Stab-Lok products under different names. They made entire Stab-Lok systems -- boxes, panels and breakers -- until about 1990. Today, two companies still make Stab-Lok-type products: Connecticut Electric produces breakers under the name UBI, and Canadian Schneider Electric makes breakers and panels under the name Federal Pioneer.

Over the years, Aronstein says, the CPSC hired him as a consultant at least 10 more times but never revisited the FPE breaker problem or questioned the new Stab-Lok products.

But home inspectors and homeowners did. They started sending Aronstein the replacement Stab-Lok breakers -- pulled from homes -- to test. He expected them to perform well, but in his tests, the replacement brands had problems with tripping as well. He published his findings in another peer-reviewed paper. At Aronstein's April meeting with the CPSC, he asked the agency to issue a clear warning about old Stab-Lok breakers and to issue a recall of new ones.

"We don't believe the product should be recalled," said Jeff Jensen, CEO of Connecticut Electric. "We believe our products are made with very high quality." The company tests its breakers at half a dozen different points and ETL, a federally approved testing lab, conducts surprise inspections, he said. "Dr. Aronstein is not ETL, and he's not UL. He's one person."

Schneider Electric said in an email that its Stab-Lok breakers are not affiliated with those manufactured or sold by Federal Pacific and that any component failure "would need to be investigated by our engineering team . . . before we can provide an educated response."

While the CPSC decides whether to conduct its own investigation, homeowners must decide for themselves about breakers. Here's some information to help.

How to Identify FPE Breakers

-- The breaker box door usually says "Federal Pacific Electric" or "FPE."

-- When you open the door, you will usually see the words "Stab-Lok" in the center or on the side of the breaker panel.

-- A website called InspectAPedia supplies photos and further steps for identifying FPE Stab-Lok panels and breakers.

-- Still unsure? Ask an electrician to remove individual breakers from the panel (you could be electrocuted if you do it yourself) and look for the E-shaped and F-shaped openings that are unique to Stab-Lok breakers.

How to Identify Successor Stab-Lok Breakers Made Under Other Brand Names

-- Most will have the word "Stab-Lok" in the center or on the side of the breaker panel.

-- The replacement Stab-Lok brands went by at least a dozen names. The InspectAPedia website keeps an updated list of those brands that you can compare with any names you see on your own circuit breaker equipment.

What to Do If You Find FPE or Replacement Stab-Lok Breakers

In an email to The Post, a CPSC representative recommends that consumers have a qualified electrician inspect their circuit breaker panels for signs of overheating or malfunction.

Aronstein, who has tested more than 4,000 breakers, says a visual inspection won't work. The only way to identify defective breakers is by removing and testing them, which can cost more than simply replacing the panel, he said. A new breaker system costs $500 to $1,700.

Many home inspectors also recommend replacing rather than repairing the panels. "You don't know you have a problem until the firetruck pulls up," said Scott Patterson, president-elect of the American Society of Home Inspectors. "The entire panel needs to be replaced. That's what I advise all my clients to do. They just have too bad of a history."

- Leamy is a longtime consumer advocate.HARTFORD  Efforts to merge the states 12 community college will push forward in some form, despite rejection from an accrediting body and mounting opposition from faculty.

System President Mark Ojakian vowed Thursday to rework the so-called Students First Plan, perhaps in smaller doses.

Doing nothing is not an option, Ojakian said, moments before a Board of Regents meeting where a number of university faculty called the plan a failure and others called for his resignation.

Mr. Ojakian, as I have said many times, I believe you are a good man but it is time to go, said Serafin Mendes-Mendez, a communications professor at Central Connecticut State University.

Learn from your mistakes, David Blitz, a philosophy professor at Central, urged. Give up stop the consolidation.

The New England Association of Schools and Colleges decided last month that an unprecedented plan to merge the states 12 community colleges into a single institution could not go forward as presented.

In addition to calling the plan as proposed unrealistic, the commission told the state it was not proposing to merge colleges but create an entirely new one.

The plan was pitched as a way to save millions of dollars and prevent possible closure of some of the campuses because of anticipated long-term insolvency while the system reserves continue to run dry.

Short term, Ojakian said a budget approved by the state legislature on Wednesday provides some relief. Tuition is not expected to rise higher than what was already approved by the board.

But he still planned to pursue some change in the structure of the system.

Thursday, Ojakian faced criticism from a cadre of people who attended the Regents meeting, including Bill McGuirk, a former member of the regents who told Ojakian his outreach did not reach or convince faculty.

Perhaps it is time to reconsider your intent to stay on, he said. At minimum you need to start over and ... mend some fences.

Ojakian said he will not resign, but instead will continue to do what I need to do.

Ojakian conceded the path toward a merger may take longer but it was better than allowing tuition to soar or campuses to close in an era where state support is declining annually, he said.

We have options, Ojakian insisted.

One, he said, would be to split the 12 colleges into three regions with shared governance.

Ojakian said he plans to lay out a new set of recommendations for the board in June so that the system can return to NEASC in July with its chosen path.

Although the 2018-19 state budget cuts the systems block grant, some $16.2 million was added back in for fringe benefits, according to Sean Bradbury, the systems lobbyist.

Bradbury called the new funding immensely helpful.

For next fall, tuition and fees at the states 12 community colleges  which includes Norwalk, Housatonic, Gateway and Naugatuck Valley  will go up 2.5 percent next fall to $4,384.

At the states four regional universities, tuition will rise in the fall of 2018 by 4 percent with some variation by campus. In-state commuter tuition at Western in Danbury will be $10,859 and at Southern, in New Haven, $10,915.

At Thursdays meeting, Matt Fleury, chair of the Board of Regents, told the audience he has full confidence in Ojakian and did not see the NEASC ruling as an outright rejection.

By necessity, this board never thought about a plan called Do Nothing, he said. Moving forward, he and Ojakian said the board will address concerns raised by NEASC and may break with protocol to request an audience directly with the commission beyond working with staff.

Louise Williams, a Central professor and campus union president, warned that no plan will get past the accrediting body without faculty input into the overall design.

Do not misinterpret the silence of community college faculty as consent, Williams added, suggesting colleagues at two-year colleges are too fearful for their jobs to oppose the merger publicly.

Mike Shea, an English professor at Southern, said instead of focusing on a plan that will fail, system leaders would make better use of their time educating the legislature and public on the value of investing in public education.

I think its true there is not enough money in the state budget for public higher ed but its not true that there is not enough money in the state for investing in higher ed, Shea said.HARTFORD  The General Assembly on Wednesday slapped a yearly $12 surcharge on mortage policies across the state to help thousands of residents in eastern Connecticut fix crumbling home foundations.

"Im hearing constituents ask why do I have to contribute to a problem that Im not having," said state Sen. Paul Doyle, D-Wethersfield.

"But the overall impact is to drive down the real estate market in a section of the state," Doyle said. "We have look beyond our instinct to focus on ourselves."

The Senate by a mostly partisan vote of 19-17 joined the House in passing a bill that will create a $10 million per-year fund to help repair foundations that are crumbling in more than 50 towns in the eastern portion of the state because of a natural substance used in the concrete.

The bill now heads to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for an expected signature.

About $1 million of the Healthy Homeowner Fund will be allocated for radon and lead paint abatement and to help homeowners in a New Haven neighborhood where some houses are sinking.

Insurance companies have refused to pay for the crumbling foundations and attempts to gain federal money failed. The state budget passed last year borrowed $100 million over five years to help with repairs, but the damages are expected to reach into the billions.

The cost of fixing the foundations is estimated to cost $150,000 or more per house. The foundations are literally cracking and falling apart.

Supporters of the bill said a similar problem is occurring in Canada, and pointed out the loss of home value is so severe that some towns face the possibility of becoming insolvent as their tax base evaporates.

"I cant imagine being in their shoes," said state Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, referring to the impacted homeowners. "There are thousands of people who are terrified to come forward and say this is happening to their home."

Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, said she has heard horror stories over the foundations, noting some residents are left with a home with no value.

"This is the right thing to do," Osten said. "Its the moral thing to do and its $12 a year for people."

But some senators pointed out that while the surcharge sounds like a fix the money generated is not enough to solve the problem.

"This is an inadequate solution," said state Sen. Joe Markley, R-Southington, who voted against the bill.

"With have a million-dollar solution for a billion dollar problem," Markley said. "The problem will not be nearly taken care of by this $12 surcharge and it gives people that impression that it will."

State Sen. Henri Martin, R-Bristol, said its not fair all residents to pay for the failure of insurance companies to cover the crumbling foundations.

"I feel for the people who have this issue and I understand the economic impact but I dont feel the insurance companies are doing what they are in the business to do, which is to help policy holders," said Martin, who estimated the final cost is close to $5 billion.

State Sen. Mike McLachlan, R-Danbury, also said the money is not enough to solve the problem.

"This is not the fix that we need, McLachlan said. The resources already committed before this $10 million is added is just scrapping the surface. We are not really helping eastern Connecticut."

Still, State Sen. Anthony Guglielmo, D- Stafford, said there is no time to worry about blame or find another solution.

"Its the most serious situation I have seen," Gugielmo said. "Its a question of pay now or pay later. People are under tremendous stress. You actually had suicides in Canada."

bcummings@ctpost.comLunaticoutpost.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program , anaffiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.Amazon, the Amazon logo, MYHABIT, and the MYHABIT logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.Don't be a pest to the forum.No profanity in thread-titles or usernamesNo excessive profanity in postsNo Racism, Antisemitism + HateNo calls for violence against anyone..This website exists for fun and discussion only. The reader is responsible for discerning the validity, factuality or implications of information posted here, be it fictional or based on real events. The content of posts on this site, including but not limited to links to other web sites, are the expressed opinion of the original poster and are in no way representative of or endorsed by the owners or administration of this website. The posts on this website are the opinion of the specific author and are not statements of advice, opinion, or factual information on behalf of the owner or administration of LunaticOutPost.Com. The owners or administration of this website can't be hold responsible for content hosted on sites that posters link to in; including, but not limited to, posts, signatures, private messages and such. This site may contain content not suitable for minors and if you feel you might be offended by such content, you should log off immediately.This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Users may make such material available in an effort to advance awareness and understanding of issues relating to civil rights, economics, individual rights, international affairs, liberty, science & technology, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.In accordance with industry accepted best practices we ask that users limit their copy / paste of copyrighted material to the relevant portions of the article you wish to discuss (no more than 50% of the source material) provide a link back to the original articleIf you are a legal copyright holder or a designated agent for such and you believe a post on this website falls outside the boundaries of "Fair Use" and legitimately infringes on yours or your clients copyright please contact [email protected] This website is owned by :Marco ZwaneveldDrijfriemstraat 522516 XR The HagueNetherlands.I will not rent, sell, share or otherwise disclose your personal information to any third party.We might contact you from time to time regarding your purchases or the services (like forums and announcement lists) you have subscribed to.Some of the 3rd party advertisers on lunaticoutpost.com may use cookiesto track peformance and/or to serve relevant ads.If you wish to read more and/or opt out of such cookies, please visit: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/Photographer Michelle Heimerman recently visited Delaware County in the Catskills. Have any suggestions of where she should go next in the region? Let us know in the comments.

Don't Edit

Photos by Michelle Heimerman for NYup.com

The quiet, rolling hills of the northwestern Catskills are dotted with sleepy towns like Bovina, Andes and Delhi that are awakening thanks to a wave of young, creative types relocating to the area from New York City. Working in collaboration with local farmers, they've created an attractive destination for the food-loving farm enthusiast who finds delight in a bit of peace and quiet. Take Sohail Zandi and Sara Elbert, the stylish couple that moved from Brooklyn to Bovina a few years back to open Brushland Eating House, an establishment that helped put this tiny town on the map. Sprawling pastures, historical homes and farms frame your car windows as you're driving in. While it may seem as if not much is happening, ask the Brushland couple and they'll point you in the right direction to what's going on around Delaware County.

Don't Edit

Keep your eyes peeled on Main Street in the town of Andes for the small Wayside Cider sign and follow the arrow pointing down a short driveway. You'll smell the bonfire just as you approach the barn. Turn the corner and you'll be in the midst of Alex Wilson's bucolic taproom. Rustic and refined is what he aspires for, both in the space and taste, and he's built an environment that includes the local community as much as it attracts city weekenders. With both indoor and outdoor seating, it's the ideal place to hang by the fire and sip some cider for the afternoon.

Don't Edit

They've got an array of local snacks and other non-cider beverages. This appetizing platter includes trout, pate, potato salad, meats and cheeses. Taking advantage of their surroundings, they offer a hiking club every other Sunday, where you can join the group on one of the nearby trails and end back at the taproom. Alex suggests the Shavertown Trail for sweeping views of the area, which is just under five miles round-trip.

Don't Edit

If hiking's not your thing, take the train. The Delaware and Ulster Railroad offers scenic, two-hour long rides between Arkville and Roxbury, passing through rural hamlets, farmland and historic sites with the majestic backdrop of the Catskills.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

While dinner at Brushland is a must, breakfast at Russell's is mandatory. It's the only other eating establishment in Bovina, so be sure to arrive early, as tables fill up quickly with the weekend breakfast crowd that gathers to catch up. Around since the 1800's, this quintessential country store happens to also serve up the best farm fresh egg and cheese sandwiches with local meats on perfectly toasted ciabatta.

Don't Edit

As you sit down to enjoy your sandwich, your eyes will wander to the shelves filled with all the practical necessities of a general store yet displayed in the most charming way possible.

Don't Edit

Signs are posted that invite one to step behind the counter, or pick your own vintage mug next to the coffee. It encourages even the out-of-towners to make themselves at home, grab an old issue of the Kaatskill Life magazine and settle in for awhile.

Don't Edit

If you're in the mood for shopping, stop by Stephanie Charlene's ceramic shop in Andes. You may catch her in action at her wheel, but she'll be happy to take a break and give you the tour of her split working studio and store.

Don't Edit

She recently completely dishware for a Brooklyn-based restaurant but also sells simple, practical pieces with interesting glazes and raw textures that go perfectly in ones home. Stephanie draws inspiration from her childhood memories of summers spent in France and her grandmother's pottery.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

For an eclectic-yet-perfectly-curated collection of antiques, walk a few doors down to Kabinett and Kammer. They describe themselves as a contemporary curiosity shop of antiques, natural wonders and art, which sums up the owner, Sean Scherer's passion.

Don't Edit

A prolific artist, educator and collector, the store portrays his years of collecting and impeccable eye for visually interesting objects. Pictured here are vintage trays from Japan.

Don't Edit

It doesn't take long to walk the main strip of Bovina, but you'll be sure to pass plenty of historical, photogenic country homes. This one in particular is the home to Fosterbuilt Coffee. They've got a mobile coffee shop serving up at various summer events, including Bovina's Fourth of July and the open Barn & Studio day on Aug. 18. You can also find their coffee at local inns, general stores and restaurants throughout the Catskills.

Don't Edit

A new venture for Sara and Sohail, Dixie's Wine and Liquor opened up in nearby Delhi. It's a thoughtful mix of high and low in both the booze and wine departments, a little natural and funky but lots of classic finds in between.

Don't Edit

The menu at Brushland has a few consistent dishes, but they're always mixed with the daily specials depending on the time of year and what's available locally. This weekend, I was lucky enough to try this beauty of a salad that includes endive, watercress, radishes and chicken skin croutons, topped with pickled eggs from their backyard chicken coop. Carefully placed taxidermy and art in vintage frames pop against the restaurant's dark walls and rich wood tones. Vintage china collected over the years from estate sales adds local character.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

People come to Bovina on a Saturday night for two things: To relax, and to eat at Brushland. There isn't much else going on in town, so the cars that line Main Street are for the restaurant. While they aren't open for lunch, you can pop your head into the kitchen on a Saturday afternoon to catch a glimpse of the hand-rolled pasta being prepped, alongside other dishes Sohail is perfecting before service begins.

Don't Edit

One of their long-standing classics that is a favorite is this flavorful, tender pork schnitzel cooked to perfection.

Don't Edit

Should you decide to stay the evening, you can rent one of the two available apartments upstairs from the restaurant. The well-curated, comfortable spaces make you feel right at home, perhaps even inspiring you to stay longer in this town where the air is a bit fresher and time moves a bit slower.

Don't Edit

More: The most beautiful place in each of New York's 62 counties

The view from the top of Mt. Utsayantha is one of the most gorgeous Catskills vistas you'll find. Read about the most beautiful place in each of New York's 62 counties

Don't Edit

Another Upstate NY getaway: Cold Spring

Considered one of the most picturesque villages on the Hudson River, Cold Spring is located 100 miles south of Albany and 60 miles north of New York City. Video by Michelle Heimerman

Don't EditUnited Airlines is testing a new feature that provides more detailed alerts to delayed travelers as Houston's rainy summer season approaches.

Instead of simply telling customers their plane is delayed due to weather, United is beta testing mobile alerts that provide fuller descriptions on how the weather is affecting their flight. The program is called Every Flight Has a Story, and it will send alerts about delays over 1 hour via text, email and the airline's mobile app.

"We wanted to be able to give the customers as much information as possible, be as transparent as possible, because we respect their time," said Mike Erbeck, who oversees United's traffic in and out of Bush Intercontinental Airport.

If travelers get additional details, he said, they can decide whether they want to wait it out, take a different flight or cancel a business meeting. Every Flight Has a Story is being tested in Houston and Chicago, and it also provides information on flights that are delayed for other reasons, such as maintenance.

RELATED: United to start daily Houston-Havana flight on July 20

This is just one factor into how United prepares for and handles thunderstorms, Erbeck said. It all begins by looking at the forecast five days out. Three days out his team starts making plans, and they execute those plans 24 hours ahead of the flight.

Such plans include notifying customers about potential delays and contacting airports where flights might be diverted to ensure they have enough staff and equipment. Erbeck and his team also coordinate with air traffic control, providing information so the controllers can start modeling how much traffic will need to go through the airspace once it reopens.

After air traffic control makes its arrangements, United goes to its network operations in Chicago to determine the best way to route planes so that people who've missed connecting flights don't miss their rescheduled flights.

"You can't control the weather," Erbeck said, "but you always try to control what you can."

That's why planes headed to destinations with bad weather are given extra fuel as a precaution, providing pilots the option of circling a few times or taking a different route to avoid the storm if needed. Ground stops are called when the storm is directly on top of the airport, which isn't as common as slowing or rerouting planes.ANSONIA-Mayor David Cassetti dropped the gloves Wednesday morning.

Let them sue, said the former New England amateur middleweight champion. Were ready to defend ourselves.

Cassetti remarks came just hours after the Board of Aldermen voted unanimously 11-0 (three aldermen were not present) to prepare for the anticipated $600,000 lawsuit brought by the Board of Education. City officials were conferring with a lawyer Wednesday.

Fred Dorsey, a Hartford lawyer, will represent the school board.

Last week the school board by a 5-2 vote imposed a deadline by the close of business May 10 for the city to return $600,000 it withheld in state grants.

The Board, backed by an opinion from the State Board of Educations legal department, believes the action is illegal. They further believe the upcoming 2018-19 budget should include the missing $600,000.

At one point school officials offered to settle for $500,000 but that was rejected.

The city contends the money was more like a loan. They say it was to help the school board make it through the year while waiting for the state to determine how much funding it would get during Connecticuts budgetary crisis last year.

Its too bad we could not settle this, said William Nimons, the school board chairman

Chris Phipps, a school board member, hoped a settlement could be worked out.

Now Phipps said he was disappointed that we couldnt work it out without litigation and saddened for the children in our school system. Doing the right thing for the kids shouldnt be this contentious

Cassetti and the Board of Apportionment and Taxation recommended leaving the school board budget at $31,260,484the same as it received in 2017-18. The budget is now in the hands of the Board of Aldermen who have final say.

Thats more than $31 million of the citys $60 million budget, Cassetti reasoned. Our residents cant keep shouldering this year after year after year. Ive got to look after them. Thats why Im in favor of school regionalization. Itll save millions.

Meanwhile Lorie Vaccaro, the Aldermanic president said he is hopefully school officials bring a descriptive line item budget to their Monday night meeting with his boards finance committee.

Im hoping its a fruitful meeting, Vaccaro said.BRIDGEPORT - A refugee of tribal violence in the Congo, who claims he was suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome when he nearly cut off his teenaged nieces head in February, pleaded not guilty to murder charges Wednesday.

More News Bridgeport murder victim's family fled Congo war

Speaking through a Swahili interpreter, Richard Segabiro waived a hearing on probable cause telling Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin he is not guilty and wanted 12 jurors.WOODBRIDGE  Veterinarian Tracy Johnson still loves caring for the medical needs of animals, but the new business she has opened with a partner represents her longtime passion for another side of dogs: behavior and training.

Johnson, of Bethany, and Kristen Iannucci, a veterinary technician from Derby, this week opened Happy Home Dog Daycare and Training at 131 Bradley Road, coincidentally next door to the district animal control compound.

I was ready for a change, said Johnson, who practiced for 14 years at Country Companions Veterinary Services in Bethany and now works two days a week as a veterinarian at Madison Veterinary Hospital. Im very excited.

Iannucci, who holds a bachelors degree in veterinary technology from Quinnipiac University, works two days a week as a vet tech at Seymour Animal Hospital, and put it this way: Who wouldnt want to play with dogs all day for a job?

While it may be fun, its of course a lot more than playing.

Johnson, who specializes in positive dog training and held classes at Country Companions, said the behavioral/training field has always been of interest to her, going back to when she was a student at Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Later, she attended the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training and Behavior.

Those who really know her, Johnson said, arent surprised by the career shift.

Johnson said she realized while working as a vet that many of the behavioral problems she was seeing were really training issues or a case of problem behaviors versus behavior problem.

She began addressing behavior issues in working with her furry patients and got results.

At Happy Home Dog Daycare and Training, dogs can arrive for puppy school or whatever their program is, beginning at 6:30 a.m. and training classes with owners are held at night. Dogs will be grouped by interests, energy level and other traits, as they get along better in small groups, Johnson said.

Some programs and trainings they offer include: puppy head start; basic manners; taking it to the next level; chaos to calm (for the reactive dog); veterinary and grooming visits; and how to recognize signs of fear, anxiety and stress in a dog.

On the first day of business this week, they had three happy-looking students: two black Labrador retrievers from the same home, Kai and Maddie, and a Corgi puppy, Einstein.

The most common areas in which people want their dogs trained include not jumping, walking calmly on a leash and, for puppies, no biting. If a dog doesnt like the sound of a vacuum, shell teach them to not be afraid.

Johnson will take whatever the problem is and design an individualized training regime.

Some people wont even work with puppies, Johnson said, but she embraces the opportunity.

Its fun, especially with the puppies, to train them to do new things, she said.

And can you teach old dogs new tricks? Absolutely, the women said.

Most people take their canines to doggie day care for socialization and training, she said.

With day care we can offer the next level of training, Johnson said. Were not just babysitting  its more individualized.

Customers are greeted in a spacious lobby with a sign that says : All you need is love and a dog.

Beyond those doors is a large high ceiling space divided for puppies and grown dogs. The walls are painted pastel yellow because of the colors calming effect on dogs.

That opens to a large fenced-in play area with gravel ground and toys, and there will be a pool in summer. The dogs even take naps as needed.

We want to help people have a more positive relationship with their dogs, Iannucci said.

Johnson and Iannucci met while working at Country Companions and kept in touch through Facebook after leaving the practice.

Iannucci said she always wanted to be a veterinarian, but found it was too expensive and too difficult to get into vet school. Iannucci said that as a vet tech she is like a nurse, helping in surgery, handling medications and more.

While the women have the know-how to handle an emergency situation or recognize a sick pet, they arent looking to treat medically, or take away from area veterinarians in any way. Johnson said she will maintain her veterinary license.

Johnson said she wanted to open in Woodbridge because the nearest such facility to the north was in Hamden and in Milford to the south.

I knew it would benefit the community, Johnson said.NEW HAVEN  Residents crowded the aldermanic chambers for the third public hearing on Mayor Toni N. Harps proposed budget Wednesday night, again opposing the tax increase.

During the Finance Committee meeting, alders heard testimony mostly from people about how unaffordable the city will become if a tax increase is approved.

Harp recommended a 4.3-mill increase in the tax rate which would bring it to 42.98 mills, an 11 percent increase.

An 11 percent increase is simply unbearable, Nancy Ahern said during public testimony. She said the tax increase is excessive and is making the city so expensive to live in that property value would go down, which would ultimately bring in less revenue than the tax increase. You have to be careful not to go past that tipping point and thats what this budget does ... Its important to make sure the fraction of people who own homes can afford to live here.

Residents have testified at previous public hearings on the budget that the tax hike is unaffordable.

The $547 million general fund budget proposal represents a 1.52 percent increase from the current year. The citys expenditures have increased by more than $8 million

The BOE (budget) is grossly excessive, she said, citing the high number of high schools and vice principals in each one. But she urged the committee to preserve budgets for Parks and Recreation Department and libraries. Both those departments serve the city in unique ways, especially children.

Ahern was just one resident in a long list of people who testified on the budget.

Gary Doyens said the committee and the city needs to learn to say no to department requests.

People just say yes all the time, he said. This committee, this city doesnt say no often enough. He criticized the way the city has proposed handling its pension obligations and in which they proposed borrowing up to $250 million for one of its pensions to bring it to a funding level recommended by actuaries.

The city has created a financial storm and then goes out and complains about the rain, he said.

The $250 million would bring up the City Employee Retirement Fund to an 85 percent funding level. Actuaries want to see a pension funded at 75 percent or more. Both CERF and the separate Police and Fire Pension Fund are only funded at an estimated 40 percent.

Those of us in the lower class, in the lower income, we cant afford it, he said. Learn to say no.

Doyens call for the city to turn down requests more thanaccept them, comes as the city, like many other municipalities, grapples with a loss of financial assistance from the state.

State aid from non-education grants was reduced by $5.7 million from last years adopted budget. In two revenue lines, the city expects a drop of nearly $17 million, resulting comes from an estimated $4 million less in building permits and the rest are cuts in various state aid categories.

Resident Ken Joyner said the numbers arent entirely accurate and the numbers recently approved by the state arent being looked at alongside the mayors proposal. In total, he said the tax hike represents a continued financial assault on taxpayers and their families and their financial well-beings .... Its an assault on taxpayers ability to pay it and support their families.

The Board of Alders special budget meeting to adopt a budget is scheduled meet for the end of the month.

mdignan@hearstmediact.comHARTFORD - The state Senate early Wednesday morning passed a climate change bill that adopts new Greenhouse gas reduction standards and places restrictions on some coastal development due to rising sea levels.

"Climate change is real, its man-made, and its here," said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy after the Senate passed the bill.

"We see the effects everywhere, Malloy said. Right here in Connecticut, sea levels are expected to rise by nearly two feet over the next 30 years, causing great harm to our coastal communities."

The bill, passed by a 34-2 margin, adopts the Governors Council on Climate Change interim Greenhouse gas emissions target of 45 percent below 2001 levels by 2030 and now heads to the House for consideration.

"The new interim pollution reduction target will help Connecticut get on track and stay on track to meet its commitments to our climate, said Claire Coleman, a climate and energy attorney for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment.

"Economic analysis has found the 45 percent reduction by 2030 will create jobs in the state and increase state revenues," Coleman said. "And the quicker and more aggressively we act, the greater the benefits."

Malloy said the bill also updates statutory references to sea level rise to reflect the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptations planning recommendation of a nearly two feet rise by 2050.

The bill requires all future projects undertaken by a state agency, or funded by a state or federal grant or loan, to meet those projections, Malloy said.

Compromise bill

State Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr., D-Branford and co-chairman of the environment committee, noted the bill was changed from the original version proposed in committee.

"This is a reduced bill, Kennedy said. It establishes a new greenhouse gas benchmark for 2030 to ensure Connecticut stays on track to meet its established goals. It does not accelerate those goals, just an acknowledgment of where we are now."

Kennedy said the bill asks the state to consider sea level rise in municipal evacuation plans and state funded and initiated projects, but does not affect local zoning and private development. "It only focuses on state funded projects," he said.

Coastal communities and business leaders objected to the original bill, saying it went too far in controlling waterfront development.

Still, Kennedy praised the bill.

This bill will help to better equip our state and coastal municipalities in planning for and mitigating the impacts of sea level rise by requiring current sea level rise models to be incorporated into our states plans of conservation and development, our Civil Preparedness Plan and hazard mitigation plans, Kennedy said.

Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Rob Klee said the bill makes progress in combatting climate change.

It is incumbent upon this generation to take real action to address climate change - this legislation is another step toward that goal, Klee said. I applaud all those who came together to pass this transformative piece of legislation.

bcummings@ctpost.comUsername: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average

1

2

3

4

5

Page: 1 2 California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: kaput

05-10-2018 02:48 AM











Post: #1 California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

Advertisement



"Californias economy has surpassed that of the United Kingdom to become the worlds fifth largest, according to new federal data made public Friday."



"California last had the worlds fifth largest economy in 2002 but fell as low as 10th in 2012 following the Great Recession. Since then, the largest U.S. state has added 2 million jobs and grown its GDP by $700 billion.



Californias economic output is now surpassed only by the total GDP of the United States, China, Japan and Germany. The state has 12 percent of the U.S. population but contributed 16 percent of the countrys job growth between 2012 and 2017. Its share of the national economy also grew from 12.8 percent to 14.2 percent over that five-year period, according to state economists.



Californias strong economic performance relative to other industrialized economies is driven by worker productivity , said Lee Ohanian, an economics professor at University of California, Los Angeles and director of UCLAs Ettinger Family Program in Macroeconomic Research. The United Kingdom has 25 million more people than California but now has a smaller GDP, he said. "



https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati...583508002/ May 5, 2018"Californias economy has surpassed that of the United Kingdom to become the worlds fifth largest, according to new federal data made public Friday.""California last had the worlds fifth largest economy in 2002 but fell as low as 10th in 2012 following the Great Recession.The state has 12 percent of the U.S. population but contributed 16 percent of the countrys job growth between 2012 and 2017. Its share of the national economy also grew from 12.8 percent to 14.2 percent over that five-year period, according to state economists., said Lee Ohanian, an economics professor at University of California, Los Angeles and director of UCLAs Ettinger Family Program in Macroeconomic Research. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 02:50 AM











Post: #2 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

People can sh*t on california all they want but it is a very productive hard working state. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 02:53 AM











Post: #3 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

And seems to be run by the same stupid people! LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 02:54 AM











Post: #4 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/...story.html



Quote: Los Angeles city and county have the most chronically homeless people in the country, and nearly all of them sleep on the streets, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department.



L.A.'s chronically homeless population has grown 55%, to 12,536, since 2013, accounting for almost 15% of all people in that category, HUD reported. More than one-third of the nation's chronically homeless live in California , the agency added.



L.A.'s spike outpaced New York City's one-year increase, the second largest, 3 to 1, the report said. The number of chronically homeless people nationwide remained basically flat, rising 1%, the report said.

Look at that liberalism making the rich richer and the poor poorer!



Look at it! Look at that liberalism making the rich richer and the poor poorer!Look at it! LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 02:59 AM











Post: #5 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

LoP Guest Wrote: (05-10-2018 02:54 AM) http://www.latimes.com/local/california/...story.html



Quote: Los Angeles city and county have the most chronically homeless people in the country, and nearly all of them sleep on the streets, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department.



L.A.'s chronically homeless population has grown 55%, to 12,536, since 2013, accounting for almost 15% of all people in that category, HUD reported. More than one-third of the nation's chronically homeless live in California , the agency added.



L.A.'s spike outpaced New York City's one-year increase, the second largest, 3 to 1, the report said. The number of chronically homeless people nationwide remained basically flat, rising 1%, the report said.

Look at that liberalism making the rich richer and the poor poorer!



Look at it!

Homeless people flock to warmer climates like California , They know they can live a much more comfortable lifestyle, Homelessness is an American problem not a Californian one.



Regardless California is pretty much thriving, The Leading almond producer in the world, As well as Americas number #1 producer of dairy.



Quite simply it is the most Productive economy in America, Only Texas is close and it comes in at 11th worldwide. Homeless people flock to warmer climates like California , They know they can live a much more comfortable lifestyle, Homelessness is an American problem not a Californian one.Regardless California is pretty much thriving, The Leading almond producer in the world, As well as Americas number #1 producer of dairy.Quite simply it is the most Productive economy in America, Only Texas is close and it comes in at 11th worldwide. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 03:05 AM











Post: #6 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

So much for worst state in the union huh, Where would America be without California. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 03:09 AM











Post: #7 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

LoP Guest Wrote: (05-10-2018 03:05 AM) So much for worst state in the union huh, Where would America be without California.

Hey marron



Where would California be without America? Hey marronWhere would California be without America? LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 03:12 AM











Post: #8 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

LoP Guest Wrote: (05-10-2018 03:05 AM) So much for worst state in the union huh, Where would America be without California.

Is that like the "a Day without a Mexican" slogan? Is that like the "a Day without a Mexican" slogan? blind prophet

Teiresias

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 03:14 AM



Posts: 26,627









Post: #9 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 03:14 AM











Post: #10 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

LoP Guest Wrote: (05-10-2018 03:09 AM) LoP Guest Wrote: (05-10-2018 03:05 AM) So much for worst state in the union huh, Where would America be without California.

Hey marron



Where would California be without America?

What's a marron? What's a marron? Uppity Me

Registered User

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 03:16 AM



Posts: 36,892









Post: #11 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

LoP Guest Wrote: (05-10-2018 02:54 AM) http://www.latimes.com/local/california/...story.html



Quote: Los Angeles city and county have the most chronically homeless people in the country, and nearly all of them sleep on the streets, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department.



L.A.'s chronically homeless population has grown 55%, to 12,536, since 2013, accounting for almost 15% of all people in that category, HUD reported. More than one-third of the nation's chronically homeless live in California , the agency added.



L.A.'s spike outpaced New York City's one-year increase, the second largest, 3 to 1, the report said. The number of chronically homeless people nationwide remained basically flat, rising 1%, the report said.

Look at that liberalism making the rich richer and the poor poorer!



Look at it!

Self Employment cures homelessness Self Employment cures homelessness Quote: Les pauvres n'ont-ils des Euros ?

Alors laissez les pauvres 'sh*t' dans les rues Uppity Me

Registered User

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 03:16 AM



Posts: 36,892









Post: #12 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

it has no water, although it's next to an ocean Quote: Les pauvres n'ont-ils des Euros ?

Alors laissez les pauvres 'sh*t' dans les rues LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 03:19 AM











Post: #13 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

And its also the #1 largest population of homeless in the country.

Jus sayin LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 03:23 AM











Post: #14 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

Uppity Me Wrote: (05-10-2018 03:16 AM) it has no water, although it's next to an ocean

Not True..



There are more than 3,000 named lakes, reservoirs, and dry lakes in the U.S. state of California.



There are over 1,400 named dams and 1,300 named reservoirs in the state of California.



They have water, How else do you think they grow such a vast amount of crops and farms. Not True..There are more than 3,000 named lakes, reservoirs, and dry lakes in the U.S. state of California.There are over 1,400 named dams and 1,300 named reservoirs in the state of California.They have water, How else do you think they grow such a vast amount of crops and farms. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 03:28 AM











Post: #15 RE: California now worlds 5th largest economy, surpassing UK

California supports the inrbed welfare hillbilly states.

Sukadik trump! Advertisement

















WEST HAVEN  West Haven is home to one of the best beaches to visit in New England, according to an article in Globe Magazine, published by The Boston Globe and Boston Globe Media.

West Haven, specifically the Sandy Point Beach & Bird Sanctuary, was ranked 11th out of The 20 best beaches to visit in New England.

West Haven being named to such a prestigious list of New Englands best beaches to visit is wonderful news, but Im not surprised, Mayor Nancy R. Rossi said in a release. Many of our residents, particularly the volunteers from the West Haven Watershed Restoration Committee, provide stewardship for the Important Bird Area, a designation granted by Audubon Connecticut. And Audubon supporters monitor and protect the nesting areas. All of these efforts are an investment in Sandy Points conservation.

Rossi said all West Haveners should be proud of this special distinction.

I know our city prides itself on being home to the longest stretch of publicly accessible shoreline in Connecticut and one of the states best locations to observe rare shorebirds at Sandy Point, she said in the release.

Sandy Point was mentioned in Globe Magazine for having good birding, fishing and trails.

Sandy Point is one of many natural resources that contribute to a better quality of life for our residents and is an economic driver for developers looking to invest in the city of West Haven, said Fred A. Messore, the citys commissioner of planning and development, in the release.

Topping the list of New Englands best beaches was the Cape Cod National Seashore in Provincetown and Truro, Massachusetts.

West Havens Sandy Point was preceded by DuBois Beach in Stonington, ranked 10th, and followed by Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison, ranked 12th.NEW HAVEN  A high-level Yale University administrator promised this week to commit the school to addressing the racial divide on campus after a black graduate student was reported to campus police for sleeping in a common room.

Kimberly Goff-Crews, university secretary and dean for student life, said in a campus-wide email that she was deeply troubled by the incident in the Hall of Graduate Studies, in which philosophy major Sarah Braasch, who is white, called police to report Lolade Siyonbola, an African studies major.

One graduate student called the police to report another student in the common area, who had every right to be there, Goff-Crews wrote. The Yale police officers who responded spoke with both parties and subsequently admonished the complaining student that the other student had every right to be present.

Siyonbola, 34, recorded a nearly 17-minute Facebook Live video of the early Tuesday morning encounter with police, which as of Thursday had recorded more than 1 million views. Most of the time, the officers were waiting for confirmation that Siyonbola was a legitimate resident of the dorm and that her identification had not expired. Yale spokesman Thomas Conroy said Thursday that Siyonbolas legal name and her preferred name, which Yale students may use in various records, were different, making the incident longer than it would have been otherwise.

Siyonbola opened her apartment to prove her right to be in the York Street building, which houses 168 graduate students. During the interview with police, she asserted that the entire incident was the result of an inappropriate call by Braasch, who Siyonbola said had called police before about a black friend she had found in a stairwell.

When police asked her about her ID, Siyonbola challenged the officer as to why she was being questioned.

I dont want to talk about it. I deserve to be here, she said. I pay my tuition like everybody else. Im not going to justify my existence here.

Later, a sergeant and a fourth officer arrive and the sergeant asks Siyonbola whether shes a Yale student and explains that he is following protocol and that its going to be OK.

I know its going to be OK, Siyonbola says. I know Im not in trouble. My ancestors built this university. I know Im not in trouble. She says the incident amounts to harassment.

In another video Siyonbola took of Braasch taking her picture, Braasch says, I have every right to call the police. You cannot sleep in that room.

In her email, Goff-Crews wrote, As Vice President for Student Life, I have worked with administrators, faculty and students to strengthen the resources available to address incidents of racial bias, discrimination and harassment. This incident and others recently reported to me underscore that we have work to do to make Yale not only excellent but also inclusive. I strongly believe we must strive to create an environment that values equity and justice and in which all students are empowered to pursue their personal and professional goals  an environment that is diverse, intellectually challenging, and broadly welcoming.

She said she had discussed the incident with Graduate School Dean Lynn Cooley, Yale Police Chief Ronnell Higgins and others and said, We still have so much more to do.

She promised listening sessions with students and said initiatives would be continued, including the appointment and training of deans designees in each school to address student concerns about equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion, and discrimination and harassment.

The belief that blacks and other students of color live in a racially divisive and discriminatory atmosphere is not rare among Yale students. According to the Yale Daily News, the student Siyonbola referred to was Reneson Jean-Louis, a Yale Divinity School student.

On his Facebook page, Jean-Louis recounts how he got lost in the graduate hall on his way to a meeting with Siyonbola and was stopped and interrogated by Braasch, even after she had let him onto the elevator.

In sharing the video Siyonbola posted Tuesday, Jean-Louis wrote, This has been hard to share because I believe that as a Yalie, Im blessed to have such an institution support my academic and professional ambitions. However, I cannot overlook the blatant racist experiences I have had while at Yale.

Cooley wrote her own response to the incident this week. The Daily News quoted her email as saying, Incidents like that of last night remind us of the continued work needed to make Yale a truly inclusive place.

Siyonbola told the student newspaper: The response from Dean Cooley has been terrible. I dont remember receiving any sort of apology or anything from her the first time, and this time the email that she sent was very vague, just not decisive, it just wasnt direct with what the actual issues are, Siyonbola said. Do you want black students at Yale or do you not want black students at Yale? If you do, then be very clear about taking decisive action so incidents do not continue to happen. We dont want to wait for a fatality, we dont want to wait for what happened at Harvard before actual action is taken on this.

On April 13, Cambridge, Massachusetts, police pinned down and repeatedly punched a black Harvard student, who was standing naked in the street. Harvard President Drew Faust called the incident profoundly disturbing and upsetting, according to the Boston Globe.

At Yale, student anger about treatment of minorities came to a head in November 2015, with a march and rally numbering 1,000 or more students. The outpouring of student solidarity and call for more inclusiveness at Yale was triggered by an incident at a fraternity Halloween party, in which a black woman was denied entry and by emails and comments from the then-head and associate head of Silliman College, Nicholas and Erika Christakis, who were seen to be challenging a call by the Intercultural Affairs Council that students be sensitive to racial and ethnic identities in their choice of Halloween costumes.

Racism was also at the heart of the controversy over renaming Calhoun College, originally named for the avowedly racist slaveholder John C. Calhoun. After refusing to consider changing the residential colleges name, Yale President Peter Salovey appointed a committee to come up with guidelines for considering name changes. He then approved renaming the college after a mathematician and admiral, Grace Hopper.

In the midst of the renaming controversy, a dining hall employee at Calhoun, Corey Menafee, broke a window pane depicting slaves in a cotton field, one of a number of windows showing Calhoun and scenes from the antebellum era. He was arrested but the university declined to press charges and Menafee, who had resigned, was rehired.

All of the windows, as well as three portraits of Calhoun, were removed from the college. The Calhoun controversy, which simmered for decades, flared up after the June 17, 2015, shooting deaths of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, which highlighted issues of racism and led to the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the state Capitol.

More recently, a sculpture over a Sterling Memorial Library doorway showing a Puritan with a musket and an Indian was removed after the musket had been covered over with cement.

Another incident with racial overtones occurred in January 2015, when the son of New York Times columnist Charles Blow, who is black, was stopped by Yale police at gunpoint as they were looking for an intruder into Trumbull College who had been reported by students.

Racism appears to be behind incidents at other universities and in society at large. In September at Cornell University, a black student was beaten and a racial slur was used. And in April, two African Americans were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks when they were sitting at a table without having purchased anything. Starbucks apologized and will hold an afternoon of racial sensitivity training later this month.

Colorado State University President Tony Frank wrote an apology and outlined several steps the school will take after two Native American teenagers were pulled from a campus tour by police after a 911 call from a mother. according the Associated Press reports. The school has called the incident shameful on so many levels and says that the teens did nothing wrong. The brothers had traveled from their home in New Mexico to Fort Collins for the tour, AP reported.

This story has been edited to correct Reneson Jean-Louis name.

Contact Ed Stannard at edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com or 203-680-9382.A request from Councilman Chuck Smith to his fellow Aiken County Council members fell on deaf ears Tuesday, May 1, during the panels meeting at the Aiken County Government Center.

As a result, Smith said, Its going to be hard for me to support the passage of Capital Project Sales Tax IV, which is scheduled to be considered by voters during Novembers general election.

Smith asked Council to revisit a list of funding priorities for the Countys share of the Sales Tax money that it had approved by a unanimous 7-0 vote during its April 17 meeting.

Smith missed that meeting because he was on a business trip to Arizona, and Sandy Haskell was absent because he was vacationing with his family in Greece.

Before Council voted on the list, several amendments were made. Two of those amendments resulted in the redistribution of the $2.5 million that had been allocated for improvements along gateway corridors, which angered Smith.

Killian tells County Council proposed budget for FY 2018-19 is 'somewhat precariously' balanced Aiken County Administrator Clay Killian presented a proposed fiscal year 2018-19 budget that he described as being somewhat precariously balanced during County Councils meeting Tuesday night at the County Government Center.

County Council Chairman Gary Bunker was the only Council member present April 17 who opposed the passage of the two amendments.

Smith, Bunker and Camille Furgiuele served together on the Councils Capital Project Sales Tax IV Study Committee, which created the list of funding priorities, and Smith had pushed hard to get the gateway improvements included.

Such upgrades, he said, would help with the U.S. 1 corridor coming across the 13th Street Bridge (in Augusta close to the South Carolina/Georgia border).

The area is very dilapidated, said Smith, who represents District 4, which includes nearby North Augusta.

Smith said Tuesday evening he also is unhappy because Bunker turned down his request to postpone the April 17 vote on the Sales Tax funding priority list to a time when both he and Haskell, whose District also includes the North Augusta area, could be present.

I feel really left out and disappointed in the way the whole process took place, Smith said. There is a serious inequity in this process in developing a path forward.

During the Sales Tax IV Study Committee meetings, Smith expressed concern about the amount of money allocated for upgrades on Whiskey Road.

County Council hears budget requests from sheriff, coroner and others Aiken County Council continued its efforts to prepare and finalize a budget for fiscal year 2019 on Tuesday night during a special called work session at the Aiken County Government Center.

He argued that the original figure of $12 million was too much to spend on a project that he believed provided benefits primarily to one portion of the county in the Aiken area.

And Smith still was dissatisfied when the total for Whiskey Road was reduced to $9 million.

He and Furgiuele debated the issue concerning the Whiskey Road allotment heatedly. Furgiuele is spearheading the initiative to make Whiskey Road safer for traffic and deal with its stormwater drainage problems.

Smith also sparred verbally with another Councilwoman, Kathy Rawls, who attended some of the Sales Tax IV Study Committee meetings.

After Smith made his request for reconsideration during Tuesdays Council meeting, Bunker said only Council members who had voted in favor of the resolution approving the list of funding priorities April 17 could make a motion to reconsider the decision.

Based on the County Code and Robert's Rules of Order, Bunker said he couldnt put forward such a motion because he is the Council Chairman  even though he had voted with the majority.

No motion was made, so Smiths appeal died.

Afterward, Smith said he absolutely would be expressing his concerns about the elimination of the gateway improvements from the Countys funding priority list to the Capital Project Sales Tax Commission.

The Commission will formulate November ballot question for the Sales Tax IV referendum.

The Commissions first meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 3. It will be held in the Aiken County Government Centers Sandlapper Room.

It is not typical to delay a vote because a member is not present, said Bunker on Wednesday morning when asked about Smiths request for a postponement. The train was moving forward, and frankly, I had assurances from several members of Council that they had no intention of zeroing out Chuck Smiths request (for gateway corridor improvements) on there (the list), so I had no reason for concern going into that (April 17) meeting. In my experience on Council, I have never seen Council essentially go in and gut another fellow Council members request when that person was not there. So, that was unexpected to say the least.

Bunker served two terms on Council  from 2005 through 2012  before being elected as chairman last year.

None of the Council members who voted for the two amendments to redistribute the gateway improvements allocation spoke publicly about why they made those decisions.Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 5 Vote(s) - 4.2 Average

1

2

3

4

5

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria beer

Rebel

User ID: kaput

05-10-2018 08:46 AM



Posts: 628









Post: #1 Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria

Advertisement



Quote: The IDF early Thursday, May 10, bombed 50 Iranian military targets in Syria, including Al Qods command posts, military camps, arsenals at Damascus international airport, intelligence posts. These raids in the Damascus region came after against units of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Al Qods in Syria launched a 20-missile barrage at IDF forward positions on the Golan shortly after midnight on Wednesday, May 9. There were no casualties. Some of the incoming missiles were intercepted by Iron Dome batteries. Israel artillery and tanks blasted the sources of the fire at Baath near Quneitra and Khan Arnaba, where Irans Revolutionary Guards and Hizballah maintain a command center. The missile attack from across the Golan border with Syria set off warning sirens just before one a.m. Civilians were ordered to take shelter in protected areas. The IDF issued a communique half an hour later, saying: We view with extreme gravity the Iranian missile attack on the Golan and are ready for a number of different scenarios. A short time later, social media reported that several explosions rocked Damascus, and claimed that Israeli jets struck several military sites belonging to Bashar Assads forces and the Iranian Al-Qods units near the Syrian capital. This was not confirmed by any authoritative source. https://www.debka.com/golan-under-irania...asualties/ "to the question whether or not the motion of the Earth in space can be made perceptible in terrestrial experiments. We have already remarkedthat all attempts of this nature led to a negative result. Before the theory of relativity was put forward, it was difficult to become reconciled to this negative result."



- A. Einstein It's Debka, so take it with a grain of salt."to the question whether or not the motion of the Earth in space can be made perceptible in terrestrial experiments. We have already remarkedthat all attempts of this nature led to a negative result. Before the theory of relativity was put forward, it was difficult to become reconciled to this negative result."- A. Einstein LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 08:48 AM











Post: #2 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria

women are nice. beer

Rebel

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 08:50 AM



Posts: 628









Post: #3 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria





In response to recent Israeli attacks on Syrian soil more than 30 rockets hit positions in Northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights which reportedly struck an Israeli Iron dome radar and more of their positions. Israeli retaliated and targeted an S-200 radar as well as an Ammo depot and other Iranian/Syrian targets in the country, according to Syrian sources.



https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=a3lUt_1525928317 Syrian forces attacked Israel with dozens of rockets in the night to ThursdayIn response to recent Israeli attacks on Syrian soil more than 30 rockets hit positions in Northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights which reportedly struck an Israeli Iron dome radar and more of their positions. Israeli retaliated and targeted an S-200 radar as well as an Ammo depot and other Iranian/Syrian targets in the country, according to Syrian sources. "to the question whether or not the motion of the Earth in space can be made perceptible in terrestrial experiments. We have already remarkedthat all attempts of this nature led to a negative result. Before the theory of relativity was put forward, it was difficult to become reconciled to this negative result."



- A. Einstein LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 08:51 AM











Post: #4 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria

If this is true and the Demons can fly where ever they like in Syria unchallenged, they WILL win this war ! LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 08:52 AM











Post: #5 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria

well.... that escalated quickly... beer

Rebel

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 08:52 AM



Posts: 628









Post: #6 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria

Ali Ozkok

 @Ozkok_

2m2 minutes ago



#IDF claims, it will be a significant period of time, before #Iran is able to re-establish its systems in #Syria. "to the question whether or not the motion of the Earth in space can be made perceptible in terrestrial experiments. We have already remarkedthat all attempts of this nature led to a negative result. Before the theory of relativity was put forward, it was difficult to become reconciled to this negative result."



- A. Einstein beer

Rebel

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 08:53 AM



Posts: 628









Post: #7 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria

Ali Ozkok

 @Ozkok_

1m1 minute ago



#Hezbollah reportedly threatening to strike Israel. "to the question whether or not the motion of the Earth in space can be made perceptible in terrestrial experiments. We have already remarkedthat all attempts of this nature led to a negative result. Before the theory of relativity was put forward, it was difficult to become reconciled to this negative result."



- A. Einstein beer

Rebel

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 08:53 AM



Posts: 628









Post: #8 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria

"to the question whether or not the motion of the Earth in space can be made perceptible in terrestrial experiments. We have already remarkedthat all attempts of this nature led to a negative result. Before the theory of relativity was put forward, it was difficult to become reconciled to this negative result."



- A. Einstein beer

Rebel

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 08:56 AM



Posts: 628









Post: #9 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria





URGENT: Any new #IranNuclearDeal must include Iran, Russia, China - @BorisJohnson



https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/99...3956824064



Smartest British ever:URGENT: Any new #IranNuclearDeal must include Iran, Russia, China - @BorisJohnson "to the question whether or not the motion of the Earth in space can be made perceptible in terrestrial experiments. We have already remarkedthat all attempts of this nature led to a negative result. Before the theory of relativity was put forward, it was difficult to become reconciled to this negative result."



- A. Einstein LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 08:58 AM











Post: #10 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria

SANA said that the Syrian air defenses were "confronting a new wave of Israeli aggression rockets and downing them one after the other." Citing a military source, however, it added that Israeli rocket fire had hit a Syrian radar site and an ammunition warehouse.



The Israeli army claimed that some of the missiles fired from Syria had been intercepted and that the level of damage was "low."



Earlier, Syrian media said that Israeli troops had shelled the city of Baath in the southern province of Quneitra. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 09:24 AM











Post: #11 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria

beer Wrote: (05-10-2018 08:46 AM) It's Debka, so take it with a grain of salt.

Debka is a 100% disinformation channel.



You may as well read Sorcha Faal's newsletters. You will find more truth in that than Debka.



Debka is a 100% disinformation channel.You may as well read Sorcha Faal's newsletters. You will find more truth in that than Debka. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 09:50 AM











Post: #12 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria

debka.



comes from the same bullshit machine as RT and FOX SPEWS debka.comes from the same bullshit machine as RT and FOX SPEWS LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 10:25 AM











Post: #13 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria

LoP Guest Wrote: (05-10-2018 09:50 AM) debka.



comes from the same bullshit machine as RT and FOX SPEWS

Don't forget Twitter



the Number One Bullshiiit Machine. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 11:15 AM











Post: #14 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria

People are turning against Israel and see it is them that are the trouble makers.

You only have to read the lates comments in various newspapers now, to see the backing for Israel is fading and fading fast. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 11:15 AM











Post: #15 RE: Debka: Israel hits 50 Iranian targets in Syria

People are turning against Israel and see it is them that are the trouble makers.

You only have to read the latest comments in various newspapers now, to see the backing for Israel is fading and fading fast. Advertisement

















Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!

Your notification has been saved.

There was a problem saving your notification.

{{description}}

Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.The pieces on sale Wednesday were more accessibly priced at three and four figures. Bidders without multiple estates could sit in the same room where, just the night before, a Picasso sold for $115 million, a Monet for $85 million (an auction high for the artist) and a Matisse for $81 million (ditto).

But those like Mr. Gohr who filed into Christies Rockefeller Center headquarters discovered that they were not the only ones drawn by the Rockefeller mystique.

A George III-era wooden side table garnered $25,000, more than four times its estimate. A silver ice pail engraved with Mr. Rockefellers name went for $50,000, more than 40 times its estimated price of $1,200. The piece with the lowest estimate, a circa-1780 mahogany armchair pegged at $200 to $300, went for $8,750.

Image A Mexican silver ice pail engraved with David Rockefellers name sold for $50,000. Credit... Christie's

One of the most expensive of the 250-plus lots, a porcelain dessert service that once belonged to Napoleon, was anticipated to sell for $250,000. The final price brought applause from around the room: Including fees, the set sold for $1.8 million.

Among those who came up short was Diane Wolf, who traveled to Christies from York, Pa. She and her husband own a company that makes corrugated boxes and live in a restored farmhouse that Ms. Wolf thought would be a great home for some Rockefeller antiques. She bid $4,000 on a John Berridge painting from around the late 1700s.HONG KONG  Wu Xiaohui, the Chinese tycoon who rose to international prominence to buy the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Thursday after having pleaded guilty to defrauding investors.

Mr. Wu was convicted by a court in Shanghai of using the company he founded, Anbang Insurance Group, to cheat investors out of more than $10 billion, in one of Chinas biggest cases of financial crime.

Facing a potential life sentence, Mr. Wu had pleaded guilty to the charges and asked the court to consider a lighter sentence.

The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Peoples Court handed down its sentence as 50 people, including members of Mr. Wus family, sat in the courtroom, according to a statement from the court.Jay Alix, a prominent restructuring specialist, sued McKinsey & Company on Wednesday, accusing the management-consulting firm of misleading the bankruptcy courts about conflicts of interest.

Mr. Alix, the founder of the consulting firm AlixPartners, filed suit under the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, saying McKinsey knowingly and intentionally submitted false and materially misleading declarations under oath in cases where it had been hired as a bankruptcy consultant.

The declarations allowed McKinsey to unlawfully conceal its many significant connections to interested parties in the bankruptcies, according to the complaint. Had the connections been known, it said, McKinsey would have been precluded from working on those cases.

The complaint also accused McKinsey of offering pay to play deals to various bankruptcy lawyers, in which McKinsey would offer to refer its vast network of consulting clients to them if in exchange they would refer their bankruptcy clients to McKinseys restructuring business.In August, United States marshals, acting on behalf of the F.D.A., seized vials of smallpox vaccine that was being used to create a stem cell product that was being given to cancer patients at the California clinics. The product posed a risk to those patients of inflammation of the heart and surrounding tissues, the agency said.

The California center trains other physicians in how to extract stem cells and has affiliates around the country. A Florida woman, Doris Tyler, lost her sight after being treated at an affiliate, the Ageless Wellness Center in Peachtree City, Ga. Cells from her fat were injected into both eyes.

Dr. Berman said that many people had been helped by his clinic and that he had tried to work out a compromise with the F.D.A. but was unable to do so. He also said he believed the cells that are harvested from individuals do not constitute a drug and should not be regulated as such.

In its statement, the F.D.A. also said that both the U.S. Stem Cell Clinic and the California Stem Cell Treatment Center were using cell extracts to treat serious conditions  including Parkinsons disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease  but that their products were not approved for any use.

The F.D.A. oversight of stem cell therapies and regenerative medicine is still in flux. In August, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the agencys commissioner, called the field one of the most promising areas of science and medicine, holding great promise for some of the worlds most intractable illnesses. He vowed that the F.D.A. would ease the path to approval for researchers and companies that were developing legitimate treatments  a program authorized by Congress in the 21st Century Cures Act.

At the same time, however, Dr. Gottlieb vowed to crack down on clinics making hollow claims and marketing unsafe treatments. He also announced the action against the California Stem Cell Treatment Centers in Rancho Mirage and Beverly Hills and against the U.S. Stem Cell Clinic.

In November, the F.D.A. continued work along both themes.

The agency acknowledged the difficulty in pursuing rogue clinics and suggested that consumers check up on stem cell clinics before receiving treatment.Ms. Mermelstein and Mr. Feyer wanted to bring these writers together. So last Thursday, The Times invited its most dedicated letter writers to an event at the newspapers Manhattan headquarters. Guests came from as close as New York City and as far as Sitges, Spain.

The crowd skewed 50-plus. There was a fair amount of gray hair. Including yours truly, Mr. Feyer said.

The Times has accepted letters to the editor since the paper was founded in 1851. When Adolph S. Ochs bought the paper in 1896, one aim, he wrote, was to make the columns of The New York Times a forum for the consideration of all questions of public importance, and to that end to invite intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.

Only a handful are selected for publication each day. But some letter writers are especially prolific: Louis Jay Herman, a linguist and United Nations translator, had more than 100 published in his lifetime, a fact that made it into his obituary. Felicia Nimue Ackerman, a philosophy professor at Brown University, has successfully submitted over 300; her efforts earned her a write-up in The New Yorker.

Were whats called cranks, said William Cole, 55, a rare-art and book dealer based in Sitges, Spain. He drew a distinction between the sort of people who write letters and those who dont: Anybody with any sort of reasonable level of maturity I suppose would simply say, Thats just wrong. I think there are certain kinds of people who say, This is wrong, I want to write something about it. A Brooklyn man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to promoting three teenage girls as prostitutes and will face five to 10 years in prison, the Brooklyn district attorneys office said.

Prosecutors said the man, Whetsel Wade, 46, would post photos of the girls on Backpage.com, advertising them alongside escorts. He would then set up meetings in hotels or apartments for the girls  ages 13, 15 and 17  to have sex with men for money. Mr. Wade also promoted five women as prostitutes on the website in addition to the minors, the office said.

This defendant exploited and abused vulnerable young girls who were made to sell their bodies for his profit, Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, said in a statement on Wednesday. With todays guilty plea he is being held responsible for his despicable and unconscionable actions.

The authorities began investigating Mr. Wade in August 2016, after receiving an anonymous tip, according to Helen Peterson, a spokeswoman for the district attorney.New York lawmakers advanced legislation on Wednesday that would prevent governors from accepting campaign cash from people they appoint to state boards and commissions.

The bill, which sailed through the State Senate on a bipartisan 60-2 vote, was introduced in response to a report in The New York Times earlier this year revealing that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had raised about $890,000 from his appointees, despite signing an executive order on his first day as governor in 2011 that seemed to ban the practice.

The legislation would effectively put the executive order into law.

Mr. Cuomos office justified the fund-raising by saying it had interpreted the order as only applying to appointees that the governor can fire, and those who are required to file financial-disclosure reports. It only named three minor boards that fit such criteria: the Albany Convention Center Authority; the Capital Program Review Board at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority; and the Occupational Safety and Health Hazard Abatement Board.

I think we need a bright line so theres no issue to discuss, so there is no question of interpretation, so that theres not ambiguity, so that executive appointees are prohibited from donating, said Senator Michael H. Ranzenhofer, a Republican who represents the region between Buffalo and Rochester, and is the sponsor of the legislation.We have a mandate to enforce the laws protecting people against discrimination, protecting workers, protecting against pollution, she said. And at a moment when all of those protections seem to be under attack at the federal level, it feels especially important and satisfying.

But I dont bring an alpha-male personality for sure, she added. I think I bring the ability to bring people together and get consensus and offer help and guidance that doesnt threaten them. Is that because Im a woman? I dont know. But it feels connected to something a lot of women are socialized to do, which is to help rather than compete.

When Ms. Underwood started her career in the 1970s, hired by Yale Law School after clerking for Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court justice, she was one of a handful of women on the faculty. But after 10 years, she shocked her ivory-tower colleagues by giving up her tenured post to join the Manhattan district attorneys office before moving to the Brooklyn district attorneys office.

There, she specialized in appeals, which exposed her to a wide range of cases and allowed her to mentor younger lawyers. Perhaps her most enduring work was writing a brief on jury challenges that paved the way for the Supreme Court case Batson v. Kentucky, which outlawed the practice of pre-empting jurors based on race.

In 1993, after a stint in the Queens district attorneys office, Ms. Underwood took a job as chief assistant under Mr. Carter in the United States attorneys office in Brooklyn. She was instrumental in shaping the prosecution of Lemrick Nelson Jr., who was eventually convicted of violating the civil rights of a Hasidic scholar killed during the Crown Heights violence in 1991. She also worked on the high-profile police brutality case of Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant who was brutalized with a broken stick in a police station bathroom in 1997.

She was our legal guru, said Alan Vinegrad, a former federal prosecutor who worked on both cases. She had broad prosecutorial interests, but if you had to find a pattern, it would be a commitment to equality and civil rights.

In 1998, Ms. Underwood was named the principal deputy solicitor general under Mr. Waxman, her former student at Yale. After the change in administration in 2001 and the departure of Mr. Waxman, she served six months as the acting solicitor general  the first woman to hold that job. In her time there, she argued before the Supreme Court to hold banks accountable for lending violations and to force utilities to cut their emissions.Since 1851, obituaries in The New York Times have been dominated by white men. With Overlooked, were adding the stories of remarkable people.

May 9, 2018

Leticia Ramos Shahani is a name every feminist should know.

Shahani, a Philippine diplomat and lawmaker, was a pioneer in the international womens movement. At a time when few women had a place in statecraft, she became one of the highest-ranking women at the United Nations. In her native Philippines, she made labor and rape laws fairer to women and integrated gender into all kinds of policymaking.

There were a lot of firsts in her long life, said Aurora Javate-De Dios, executive director of the Women and Gender Institute at Miriam College in Quezon City, where Shahani was a dean in her later years.

In the 1970s, she led the drafting of a convention on the elimination of discrimination against women, also known as the international womens bill of rights, and defied Cold War tensions by enlisting the Soviet Union as a co-sponsor to get it off the ground.Gina Haspel has shown she has all the qualities to become the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, except one.

For 33 years with the agency, Ms. Haspel has been on the front lines of Americas greatest security challenges, rising from station chief, to deputy director of the clandestine service, to deputy director of the agency. Former bosses and colleagues from both parties praise her leadership and professionalism.

Whats prevented her from being a shoo-in for the top job is her role at the center of one of the federal governments most sickening and indefensible programs, a brutal interrogation regime that used torture against terrorism suspects after the Sept. 11 attacks. It wound down during President George W. Bushs second term, then was banned by President Barack Obama after stirring domestic and international outrage.

In 2002, Ms. Haspel headed a C.I.A. detention facility in Thailand where a suspect linked to Al Qaeda, accused of orchestrating the attack on the American destroyer Cole off the coast of Yemen, was waterboarded and brutalized in other ways. And in 2005, under her bosss direction, she drafted a cable ordering the agency to destroy more than 90 videotapes of its interrogation of that man.New Yorkers reacted with revulsion when State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman resigned this week amid allegations he had beaten, choked and threatened to kill women he dated.

Albany lawmakers, true to form, saw political opportunity.

Assembly Democrats, who have the power to pick Mr. Schneidermans replacement, are moving behind closed doors to bump out the supremely qualified acting attorney general, Barbara Underwood, and install New York Citys public advocate, Letitia James. This back-room deal offers dividends to just about everybody except the public the legislators took an oath to serve.

Ms. Underwood, who, as state solicitor general, temporarily took over Mr. Schneidermans job when he left office, should be allowed to remain in the position until voters choose a permanent replacement in November. Ms. Underwood, a former Yale Law School professor, has decades of experience, has argued 20 cases before the Supreme Court and clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall. She is more qualified than anyone else whose name has been mentioned.

Instead of doing the responsible thing, though, politicians are poised to take advantage of an unexpected vacancy to advance their own political causes.I would not give Pyongyang too much credit for undoing something it shouldnt have been doing in the first place.

EVANS J. R. REVERE, a former State Department diplomat who specializes in East Asia, on North Koreas release of three American prisoners ahead of planned nuclear talks with President Trump.Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average

1

2

3

4

5

ALERT: Israel Attack on Iran Targets in Syria Largest Military move since 1973 war The Ghost Of LOP

Registered User

User ID: kaput

05-10-2018 05:02 PM



Posts: 41,759









Post: #1 ALERT: Israel Attack on Iran Targets in Syria Largest Military move since 1973 war

Advertisement

[ ]The strikes were Israel's largest air operation in Syria since the 1973 war.[/size]











Israel and Iran reached the brink of full-scale war Thursday as the Islamic Republic's unprovoked rocket attack on soldiers in the Golan Heights gave way to an unprecedented Israeli counter-strike that targeted nearly all Iranian infrastructure inside Syria.



The Israeli Defense Force said it deployed fighter jets and used missiles to strike a range of targets, including military compounds, intelligence operations and munitions warehouses, a statement read. The strikes were Israel's largest air operation in Syria since the 1973 war.



The IDF will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory, the press release read. The IDF is prepared for a wide variety of scenarios.







More

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/05/10/...-says.html I am so confused !!! [ ]Israel and Iran reached the brink of full-scale war [/size][ ]The strikes were Israel's largest air operation in Syria since the 1973 war.[/size]Israel and Iran reached the brink of full-scale war Thursday as the Islamic Republic's unprovoked rocket attack on soldiers in the Golan Heights gave way to an unprecedented Israeli counter-strike that targeted nearly all Iranian infrastructure inside Syria.The Israeli Defense Force said it deployed fighter jets and used missiles to strike a range of targets, including military compounds, intelligence operations and munitions warehouses, a statement read.The IDF will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory, the press release read. The IDF is prepared for a wide variety of scenarios.MoreI am so confused !!! (This post was last modified: 05-10-2018 05:11 PM by The Ghost Of LOP .) The Ghost Of LOP

Registered User

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 05:03 PM



Posts: 41,759









Post: #2 RE: ALERT: Israel Attack on Iran Targets in Syria Largest Military move since 1973

Sorry for re posting but I had to because of the information about the date.

What do you think the biblical repercussions will be ?





1973 Was A Biblical date for Christians and Israel because that was when they become a Nation again

according to Prophecy I am so confused !!! (This post was last modified: 05-10-2018 05:07 PM by The Ghost Of LOP .) LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 05:03 PM











Post: #3 RE: ALERT: Israel Attack on Iran Targets in Syria Largest Military move since 1973

The Ghost Of LOP Wrote: (05-10-2018 05:03 PM) Sorry for re posting but I had to because of the information about the date.



What do you think the biblical repercussions will be ?

None None LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 05:04 PM











Post: #4 RE: ALERT: Israel Attack on Iran Targets in Syria Largest Military move since 1973

The Ghost Of LOP Wrote: (05-10-2018 05:02 PM) Israel and Iran reached the brink of full-scale war Thursday as the Islamic Republic's unprovoked rocket attack on soldiers in the Golan Heights gave way to an unprecedented Israeli counter-strike that targeted nearly all Iranian infrastructure inside Syria.



The Israeli Defense Force said it deployed fighter jets and used missiles to strike a range of targets, including military compounds, intelligence operations and munitions warehouses, a statement read. The strikes were Israel's largest air operation in Syria since the 1973 war.



The IDF will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory, the press release read. The IDF is prepared for a wide variety of scenarios.







More

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/05/10/...-says.html

Iran didn't launch a handful of rockets, blatant lies from the IDF. Iran didn't launch a handful of rockets, blatant lies from the IDF. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 05:08 PM











Post: #5 RE: ALERT: Israel Attack on Iran Targets in Syria Largest Military move since 1973 war





link to image: Some of Irans rockets have been found unexploded in Israel.link to image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c...ockets.jpg LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 05:11 PM











Post: #6 RE: ALERT: Israel Attack on Iran Targets in Syria Largest Military move since 1973 war

The Ghost Of LOP Wrote: (05-10-2018 05:03 PM) Sorry for re posting but I had to because of the information about the date.

What do you think the biblical repercussions will be ?





1973 Was A Biblical date for Christians and Israel because that was when they become a Nation again

according to Prophecy

Don't see anything biblical in any of this sorry... Don't see anything biblical in any of this sorry... The Ghost Of LOP

Registered User

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 05:12 PM



Posts: 41,759









Post: #7 RE: ALERT: Israel Attack on Iran Targets in Syria Largest Military move since 1973 war

LoP Guest Wrote: (05-10-2018 05:11 PM) The Ghost Of LOP Wrote: (05-10-2018 05:03 PM) Sorry for re posting but I had to because of the information about the date.

What do you think the biblical repercussions will be ?





1973 Was A Biblical date for Christians and Israel because that was when they become a Nation again

according to Prophecy

Don't see anything biblical in any of this sorry...

I don't know the 1973 War Reference made me get chills. I don't know the 1973 War Reference made me get chills. I am so confused !!!















WASHINGTON  Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a lifelong advocate of Christian education, moved on Wednesday to loosen federal regulations on religious colleges and universities, after a Supreme Court decision that restricted states from denying some kinds of aid to religious institutions.

The measure is part of a sweeping deregulatory agenda for the Education Department announced on Wednesday by the White House budget office, which outlined several rules and regulations for the department to scrap or amend. Among those are rules that restrict faith-based entities from receiving federally administered funding.

Various provisions of the departments regulations regarding eligibility of faith-based entities and activities do not reflect the latest case law regarding religion or unnecessarily restrict religion, said Liz Hill, an Education Department spokeswoman. The department plans to review and to amend such regulations in order to be more inclusive.

Education Department officials appear to be targeting regulations that would pose a legal risk after the Supreme Court ruled in June that states must sometimes provide aid to faith-based organizations. In the decision, Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia Inc. v. Comer, the court ruled that Missouri had engaged in unconstitutional religious discrimination when it denied a church-run preschool publicly funded tire scraps for its playground.After paying off a pornographic film actress and doing other tasks to help his boss win the presidency, Michael D. Cohen was surprised to find that the doors to the White House were mostly closed to him.

Mr. Cohen did not land a hoped-for job in President Trumps administration  he imagined himself as chief of staff  and in January last year he left the Trump Organization, where he had long served as the in-house fixer without a clear portfolio. But he managed to turn what looked like an exile into a lucrative opportunity.

Armed with the self-appointed title of personal attorney to the president, Mr. Cohen, who had served as a personal-injury lawyer and owned a taxi business, became seen as the man who could help others gain access to the seat of power that had been denied to him. Major corporations including AT&T, Novartis and the law firm Squire Patton Boggs collectively paid him over $2 million for advice about navigating the suddenly foreign terrain of Mr. Trumps Washington.

Most of the arrangements remained a secret until Tuesday, when details first appeared in an account released by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stephanie Clifford, the actress who was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Mr. Trump and is now suing to be released from the agreement. The New York Times confirmed many of Mr. Avenattis disclosures through a review of financial records.Want the Australia Letter by email? Sign up and forward my weekly dispatches to your friends so they can join our discussion about Australia and the world.

______

The ritual of Australias federal budget, with leaks, a lockup and then a flood of coverage about winners and losers often reminds me of an awards show. Its the Oscars for fiscal fanatics, politics reporters and a boom-era government that has plenty of money to move around.

Last year, I went to Canberra for the festivities. This year I did not, which gave me a chance to focus on one element of the budget announcement: Australias relationship to the wider world.

A few items that factor into the equation (with figures in Australian dollars):

 Intelligence: The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) will receive a funding increase of $24 million for operations, plus $18 million for a legal review, along with $52 million for intelligence oversight. And theres another undisclosed pool of money for undisclosed activities.And value lay in the fact that work from New Spain was recognized as distinctive: not a European knockoff, but a different product with its own styles, stories and symbols. Counter-Reformation stridency never really took hold in New Spain. By the 18th century, a seductive gentleness had settled into Mexican church art, as seen in Miguel Cabreras allegorical picture The Divine Spouse from around 1750. A much copied image, thought suitable for contemplation by cloistered nuns, it presents Jesus as a pink-cheeked man-child reclining, as soft and plump as a piece of tropical fruit, on a bed of flowers.

If overt eroticism tended to be downplayed in Mexican painting, exoticism was a selling point. It lent fascination to culturally specific icons like the miracle-working Virgin of Guadalupe, with her Byzantine splendor and indigenous roots. And to European eyes certain types of Mexican portraits  of nuns wearing hand-painted badges like breastplates, and arriviste urban matrons showing off their wealth  must have had a picaresque appeal. One such matron, Dona Juana Maria Romero, seen in a 1794 likeness by Ignacio Maria Barreda, wears two of almost everything  two corsages, two watches, two strands of pearls  along with a prideful smirk, not unearned considering she had survived the birth of 13 children.Like her fellow Dutch-speaking figurative painter (and Zwirner stablemate) Luc Tuymans, Ms. Dumas draws on photographic sources for her paintings  but where Mr. Tuymans saps his subject matter of emotion, Ms. Dumas supersaturates it. That works best here in several smaller close-ups of womens faces in ecstasy or anguish, with skin of European or African tones, but also of blue or chartreuse. Other pieces feel overheated and underthought, like a garish, vacant Bride of Frankenstein that is both literally and metaphorically drippy.

But the paintings on paper  my word. Ms. Dumas did the 33 works here to illustrate a new Dutch translation of Shakespeares Venus and Adonis, and although she has not shied from sex before, here her usual bluntness gives way to a rapturous eroticism in which ink has its own salaciousness. She paints the couple, and the boar who kills Adonis, with a watery black wash familiar from Chinese literati painting; the lines of Venus hair or Adonis arms appear calligraphic at times, while their bodies and mouths are puddles bleeding into one another. The stains of the ink become carnal, indecent smirches  degrading, seductive (the two are the same here)  and in Venus Mourns Adonis, just eight and a half inches tall, the tearful goddesss face and hand drown in an agonizing pool of pigment. Ms. Dumas made her name through art of a certain cruelty. In tenderness, she may have made a masterpiece.

JASON FARAGO

Lucy Dodd

Through May 20. David Lewis, 88 Eldridge Street, Manhattan; davidlewisgallery.com.Based on the three episodes Showtime made available, that wasnt enough to approximate the texture of Mr. St. Aubyns work  the way pathos, for better or worse, peeks through the cracks of his comic-splenetic detachment. Theres no way of knowing what the writer, David Nicholls, and director, Edward Berger, would have done with more space. But as it is, it feels as if theyre scrambling just to work in all their favorite bits from the books.

What they havent found time for, or didnt know how to achieve, is a cinematic equivalent for Mr. St. Aubyns framing consciousness, the way Patrick and the other characters  the family members and friends who inhabit his desiccated upper-class milieu  pick over their own lives, fighting a battle of wits with no winners.

Instead they seem to have focused on getting across the story, whose shattering elements dont prevent it from feeling too familiar, a tale whose various parts weve heard before. Mr. Nicholls flips the order of the first two books, beginning with Bad News, in which the 22-year-old Patrick flies to New York to retrieve his fathers ashes and goes on an epic cocaine-and-heroin bender, and following with Never Mind, the first novel, set during a day at the Melroses home in southern France in Patricks childhood.

The change disrupts the chronology but makes for a more unified, recovery-focused narrative, hitting us up front with Patrick at his most damaged. (And, of course, starting with Mr. Cumberbatch in the foreground rather than Sebastian Maltz, who plays Patrick as a child.)

Other decisions also seem aimed at providing a coherent narrative experience at all costs. Mr. Nicholls deals with the books reliance on interior monologue and description by putting snippets of Mr. St. Aubyns prose into the characters mouths as conventional dialogue, sometimes to salvage an acerbic bon mot but often just to get in background information.(Want to get this briefing by email? Heres the sign-up.)

Good morning.



Heres what you need to know:

A presidential welcome

 President Trump personally greeted the three Americans who were released by North Korea on Wednesday, after they arrived back in the U.S. overnight.

The return of the men, all U.S. citizens of Korean descent, removed a delicate obstacle as Mr. Trump prepares for a summit meeting with the Norths leader, Kim Jong-un. Heres what we know about the former detainees.

 Mr. Trump was asked on Wednesday if he thought he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it, he said. The prize I want is victory for the world.

Torture era is over, C.I.A. pick says

 Gina Haspel, President Trumps nominee for director, said during her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday that the agency should never resume the brutal interrogations that were employed after the Sept. 11 attacks.1. The shadow war between Israel and Iran in Syria has burst into the open.

Israels foreign minister declared that his countrys forces had destroyed nearly all of Irans military infrastructure in Syria, in dozens of airstrikes.

The strikes came after Israel reported an Iranian rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights  and amid drastically ramped up tensions in the region after the American withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

Above, Lebanese soldiers with a rocket that landed in their territory. Heres a quick synopsis of how the clash between the longtime foes suddenly escalated.Everything was going smoothly until Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 reached about 32,000 feet. Then there was chaos.

A deafening bang. A puff of gray smoke. Oxygen masks dropped. At first, the plane vibrated violently side to side. Then it lunged to the left. In the cockpit, alarms and warnings rang out  so loud that the pilots had to scream to talk to each other.

And that all kind of happened all at once, Darren Ellisor, the flights first officer, told ABC Newss 20/20 in an interview that will be broadcast Friday night.

Captain Tammie Jo Shults, who was next to him in the cockpit during the April 17 flight, was not initially supposed to be in that seat. Her husband, Dean Shults, a fellow Southwest pilot, had agreed to swap flights so she could attend their sons track meet.Elaine Wynn, known as the Queen of Las Vegas for her long involvement with Mirage and Wynn Resorts, the casino and resort companies she founded with her ex-husband Steve Wynn, might seem an unlikely champion of shareholder rights and good corporate governance.

Shes better known as a philanthropist (school reform, performing arts), an art collector (she paid $142 million for Francis Bacons triptych Three Studies of Lucian Freud, and she is co-chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and a stickler for standards at the companys high-end resorts.

To be honest, Id rather be designing hotel rooms, she told me this week from her apartment a few blocks from the Wynn Las Vegas, the hotel she called home before being exiled by her ex-husband (she also has homes in Sun Valley, Beverly Hills and Manhattan).

Instead, she has had a crash course in corporate law and is working the phones to reach major Wynn shareholders, drumming up support to oust a long-serving board member whos up for re-election at the annual meeting next week.Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 1 Vote(s) - 5 Average

1

2

3

4

5

Mexico Deploys A Formidable Deportation Force Near Its Own Southern Border LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: kaput

05-10-2018 08:02 PM











Post: #1 Mexico Deploys A Formidable Deportation Force Near Its Own Southern Border

Advertisement



On the Suchiate River dividing Mexico and Guatemala, it sure looks easy to cross north without papers.



A young, mustached man is pulling a makeshift raft across the quiet river via two ropes connecting the countries. The crossing costs 4 quetzales, 10 pesos or 50 U.S. cents. The raft captain says that nearby migration officials rarely intervene.



But the impression that Mexico is lax on migrants disappears as you head just a little north.



They put up lots of checkpoints, says Gustavo Rivera, a bus driver shuttling between Mexicos southeastern border and the nearest city, Tapachula. Immigration [agents], federal police, soldiers, local police. I dont get many migrants on the bus anymore because of the checkpoints.



President Trump singled out a group of families from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador heading to the United States as evidence that Mexico is doing very little, if not nothing, to stop immigration. But Mexico has actually assembled an aggressive enforcement strategy, with U.S. backing.



The strategy tightened up in 2014, shortly after American officials declared a crisis over the arrival of large numbers of Central American children at the U.S. border. The U.S. began funding Mexicos immigration crackdown with the Southern Border Plan.



Rather than amassing troops on its border with Guatemala, Mexico stations migration agents, local and federal police, soldiers and marines to create a kind of containment zone in Chiapas state. With roving checkpoints and raids, Mexican migration agents have formed a formidable deportation force. Since the Southern Border Plan launched, Mexico has deported more than half a million Central Americans, according to data from Mexicos Interior Department. Every year since 2015, Mexico has deported more Central Americans than U.S. authorities have, sometimes more than double.



Its such an effective force that even some government officials try to give migrants workarounds.



We often tell migrants to travel at night, says Ana Carolina Rodas, who runs the state governments local migration assistance office in Ciudad Hidalgo, the small town that abuts the Guatemala border. There are fewer migration officials or checkpoints at night, so its less likely theyll be detained and deported.



https://michaelsavage.com/?p=16509 NPR:On the Suchiate River dividing Mexico and Guatemala, it sure looks easy to cross north without papers.A young, mustached man is pulling a makeshift raft across the quiet river via two ropes connecting the countries. The crossing costs 4 quetzales, 10 pesos or 50 U.S. cents. The raft captain says that nearby migration officials rarely intervene.But the impression that Mexico is lax on migrants disappears as you head just a little north.They put up lots of checkpoints, says Gustavo Rivera, a bus driver shuttling between Mexicos southeastern border and the nearest city, Tapachula. Immigration [agents], federal police, soldiers, local police. I dont get many migrants on the bus anymore because of the checkpoints.President Trump singled out a group of families from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador heading to the United States as evidence that Mexico is doing very little, if not nothing, to stop immigration. But Mexico has actually assembled an aggressive enforcement strategy, with U.S. backing.The strategy tightened up in 2014, shortly after American officials declared a crisis over the arrival of large numbers of Central American children at the U.S. border. The U.S. began funding Mexicos immigration crackdown with the Southern Border Plan.Rather than amassing troops on its border with Guatemala, Mexico stations migration agents, local and federal police, soldiers and marines to create a kind of containment zone in Chiapas state. With roving checkpoints and raids, Mexican migration agents have formed a formidable deportation force. Since the Southern Border Plan launched, Mexico has deported more than half a million Central Americans, according to data from Mexicos Interior Department. Every year since 2015, Mexico has deported more Central Americans than U.S. authorities have, sometimes more than double.Its such an effective force that even some government officials try to give migrants workarounds.We often tell migrants to travel at night, says Ana Carolina Rodas, who runs the state governments local migration assistance office in Ciudad Hidalgo, the small town that abuts the Guatemala border. There are fewer migration officials or checkpoints at night, so its less likely theyll be detained and deported. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 08:37 PM











Post: #2 RE: Mexico Deploys A Formidable Deportation Force Near Its Own Southern Border

All white majority nations are required to have "no borders". All the brown civilizations can keep their borders and cultures intact. ---by order of the NWO. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 1337

05-10-2018 08:43 PM











Post: #3 RE: Mexico Deploys A Formidable Deportation Force Near Its Own Southern Border

Things have gotten better then as they used to just shoot them















This is a job that leaves a lot of outtakes in its wake. For every restaurant that ends up being featured in Australia Fare, five or 10 or 20 meals were eaten in pursuit of that one column.

The restaurants I cover should ideally reveal something greater about Australia: a story that has not been told, an unexamined angle. These are restaurant reviews, but they are also cultural essays, culinary investigations  snapshots of this country and the people in it.

I eat many great meals that dont quite encapsulate a particular Australian experience or phenomenon enough to warrant a full column. (Ive had some pretty mediocre food as well, but thats for another day.)

Yet weeks or months later, I find myself thinking about a dish, a meal, a place.

It seems a waste to keep these to myself, the fantastic dishes and wonderful little finds. Here are four of those experiences that have stuck with me.LONDON  When Azzedine Alaia died suddenly in Paris last November, he left behind not just his brand but two major unfinished projects: an exhibition at the Design Museum and a new store in Mayfair.

In the last two weeks both of them have finally come to fruition, and the results are testaments to the career of the Tunisian-born designer, a kind of continuing conversation from beyond the grave.

In April, a 6,000-square-foot three-story flagship store opened on New Bond Street  the brands third store and its first outside Paris. Designed by Mr. Alaia, the boutique is light, airy and furnished with bespoke pieces from artists and designers like Naoto Fukasawa, Piero Lissoni and Pierre Paulin, the better to showcase the ready-to-wear, accessories and cosmetics on display.

And this week, at the Design Museum, the doors opened on a major new exhibition on Mr. Alaias life, work and design legacy, co-curated by him in the months before his death.I am honored and delighted to take on the role of chairman, Ms. Phair said. The British Fashion Council is in a strong position following the incredible work of Dame Natalie Massenet, Caroline Rush and the team, and my role will be to build on this and help drive continued innovation and new thinking in this fast paced, changing industry .

Ms. Phair began her 13-year e-commerce career at Portero Luxury, the first pre-owned luxury marketplace. She then joined Net-a-Porter as president of the Outnet, which she introduced in 2009; she also sat on the board of the Net-a-Porter Group from 2009 to 2015, before moving to Farfetch. Ms. Massenet, her former boss at Net-a-Porter, joined the board of FarFetch last February, 18 months after she walked away from the company she created. She is likely to have had a firm hand in guiding the BFC toward a suitable successor.

The fact that Ms. Phairs reputation and experience stem largely from the digital world and C-suite would also indicate that the BFC is looking to continue on the course set by Ms. Massenet  specifically, helping designers leverage the digital world to boost their international exposure and business growth, and cementing London as a fashion capital with events like the annual Fashion Awards.

Ms. Phair is also a member of the advisory board of Felix Capital, a venture capital company based in London, and sits on the board of the Italian luxury brand Moncler.

A statement from Ms. Rush, the fashion councils chief executive, said: On behalf of the Board of the British Fashion Council, I welcome the appointment of Stephanie Phair as our incoming Chair and we all look forward to working with her on strengthening the opportunities for British fashion talent and businesses over the next few years.In 1990, while Vladyslav Y. Yavorskyy was a geology student at the University of Odessa, he visited his first emerald mine, the Malysheva deposit in Russias Ural Mountains.

I got there and began to dig with a hammer, he recalled. You spend one week on a mine, you get a half pocket of emeralds. I never managed to get anything clean, to selling standard. But the color was fantastic.

Today, the Bangkok-based gem dealer and author of Gemstones: Terra Connoisseur is infatuated with emeralds from another, very different, locality: a two-year-old mine in southern Ethiopia, near the trading town of Shakiso.

He said the color of the bright green gems from East Africa rivals that of stones from Colombia, the traditional source of top-quality emeralds.The French luxury jeweler Chaumet is continuing its focus on Asia this summer with a major exhibition at the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum in Tokyo.

The Worlds of Chaumet: The Art of Jewelry since 1780, scheduled from June 28 to Sept. 17, will follow the houses Imperial Splendors exhibition held last year in the Palace Museum, in the heart of Beijings Forbidden City.We have had an amazing response both from clients and the press who were very surprised to see our jewels used in such a positive way during the Puccis catwalk, said Ms. Silvestri, adding that the jewelry house and the Florence-based Pucci brand began collaborating in 2003 for Nicole Kidmans red-carpet appearance at the Cannes Film Festival.

Millennials react positively to such collaborations, according to the True-Luxury Global Consumer Insight report, a 2017 study of more than 12,000 consumers from 10 countries that was released in February by the Boston Consulting Group and the Altagamma Foundation. Also, for the first time, the report identified social media and influencers as the first source of information for luxury consumers to form opinions or make purchase decisions. (Social media, which was in ninth place in 2013, was still in second place as recently as 2016, with print and digital magazines at the top of the ranking.)

With millennials, it is all about raising awareness to drive current and future consideration; it is about making brands and products feel new and exciting, yet not intimidating, said Sarah Willersdorf, a partner and managing director at the consulting group.

And, she added, On the runway, fine and high jewelry brings an immediate association with fashion newness and suggest adaptability to any style.The collections design also focused on the straps, which are easily interchangeable without tools or the help of a watch specialist. Ive always wanted something that was literally designed to have the band thread through like a belt, Mr. Ford said. When I was a kid and I had a Timex, or whatever I had, I used to buy webbing straps from Brooks Brothers, or from J. Press, and then I would try and feed them through my watch. I would have to take the pins out, and it would be so complicated and I remember thinking then, Why didnt someone make a watch that you can just feed a strap through? Ive always wanted one. I knew that when I did do watches, that was going to be the thing that I was going to do.

The collection includes a high-end take on those webbing straps  a delicately braided band of supple leather, priced at $420  as well a plain option in alligator ($620). There are also stitched leather bands in a wide range of colors, made in Besancon, the French town that specializes in watchmaking, as well as a version in a pebble finish that might best be described as Hermes-esque.

The morning of the interview, Mr. Ford said, his own watch had a white leather band, a switch from the hot pink one that hed been wearing with jeans and a tan.

Beyond being a fashion statement, the bands encourage, of course, multiple purchases. Straps are a good profit center, said Reginald Brack, a watch and luxury analyst at the NPD Group, a marketing research company. Its definitely going to be an impulse buy when that Tom Ford watch owner is in the boutique or wants to stop by before lunch. It makes you feel like you have a different watch.When Kim Jones took the reins in March as artistic director at Dior Homme, one of his first decisions was to appoint Yoon Ahn as the lines jewelry designer.

The Korean-American designer, 41, based in Tokyo, is the co-founder of Ambush, a unisex jewelry label that she began in 2008 with her husband, Verbal, a hip-hop musician of Korean descent who was raised in Japan. Ambush has made its name for streetwear designs that riff on popular culture, including the zip tie necklace, padlock choker and tape cassette earrings.

It counts Kanye West and Rihanna among its fans and has collaborated with a number of fashion brands, including Louis Vuitton (while Mr. Jones was mens artistic director), Sacai and Off-White.

Ms. Ahn, one of the 2017 LVMH Prize finalists, will unveil her initial Dior Homme collection alongside Mr. Joness first ready-to-wear collection, during mens fashion week in June in Paris. She recently shared some thoughts about jewelry; the conversation was edited and condensed.When you draw, there is no stolen moment, no snap of a shutter. You really take the time to see whats in front of you. As a reportage illustrator, I find myself drawing people who are on the move. Around the world, huge numbers of people are uprooting themselves and traveling great distances, whether to flee from danger or to find work. Im in Tajikistan to explore one of the worlds largest migrations. Its not to sensationalize it. Its not to exaggerate the reasons for doing it, but its trying to pick the most common experience. Twice a week, a train packed with migrants leaves Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, and traverses the whole of Central Asia through Ukbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and into Russia before arriving in Moscow. It takes four days. Its an extraordinary commute just for the prospect of work. Oyat and Abdullo are two young men from rural Tajikistan. I wanted to capture their stories with an intimacy we seldom see. Drawing allows me to witness the issues surrounding their friendship: of breaking tradition, of leaving family behind and of growing up. But their future is uncertain. At times, more than 50% of the Tajik economy relies on money sent home. But that crucial source of support has been drying up. [children laughing] [goat bleating] How do you choose between two equally unattractive options  to stay at home without work or to go to Russia without family? Oyat stays and Abdullo decides to leave. This will be his fourth trip to Russia. He leaves behind his wife and his six-month-old baby. And the conditions on the train were a sign of things to come. [chatter] The border guards bully the migrants. They go through their bags. They go through our bags, and they systematically pull apart the train, all on the off chance that they might find drugs. The young men are often intimidated by police dogs and deprived of sleep. The train pulls into Moscow in the early hours, and they arrive exhausted. Abdullo and the other migrants spend the night in the freezing station huddled together, waiting for the metro to open the next morning. As they move about Moscow, theres consistent pressure from the authorities. Its something I noticed trying to draw in the metro. Often, a policeman would come and look over your shoulder to see what you were doing. And each person who looked like they were from Central Asia was being stopped, and their papers were checked. And if they dont have the right paperwork, then its the beginning of trouble for them  fines, visa complications, and deportation. We traveled to the outskirts of Moscow with Abdullo as he began looking for work. The workers here live together in the apartments they are refurbishing. Once they finish one, they move on to the next. If they are lucky, they make $500 a month. In Tajikistan, they were together and enjoying themselves. Here, they are together, but trying to survive. Its the process of drawing that allows me enough time to understand the resilience and the extraordinary bond that the migrants have here. These are just a group of men trying to make their own way, and their relationship to the Russian authorities is a very difficult one. In Abdullos case, it was about trying to avoid an overwhelming feeling of being helpless at home. It was about him making a positive choice to stay in control of his life. Were beginning to experience change to borders all over the world  in the United States, in Europe and in this case, in Russia. [laughter] But what will the future hold for the next generation, and how should governments police their borders? Perhaps if we showed not the most shocking, but the most common experience of migration, we would be less intimidated by it. [rap music]THE CAAN FILM FESTIVAL 2018 at the Museum of the Moving Image (May 11-20). Jealous of moviegoers on the French Riviera? For the second year, the museum offers counterprogramming to the Cannes Film Festival with the next best thing: James Caan. Catch the actor in his classic roles as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (showing on Friday and Sunday) and as the main character in Michael Manns moody Chicago noir Thief (on May 18 and 20), as well as in lesser-known efforts like the caper movie Harry and Walter Go to New York (on Saturday) and Howard Hawkss Red Line 7000 (on Sunday and May 20), which gave Caan his first starring part, as a racecar driver.

718-784-0077, movingimage.us

MAY 68: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES at the Metrograph (May 11-17), 1968 ON SCREEN at Anthology Film Archives (May 24-June 4) and REMEMBERING MAY 1968 at French Institute Alliance Francaise (through May 29). Multiple theaters are celebrating the anniversary of the protests that rocked France in May 1968 with retrospectives of films made during and about the unrest; later this month, Anthology will host a complementary series focusing on that years events across the globe. Starting this week, the Metrographs offerings include a rarely screened work by Jean-Luc Godard (Un Film Comme Les Autres, showing on Sunday) and the collectively made UUU (on May 28), partly derived from footage shot in the middle of the tumult. Elsewhere, the French Institute screens Tous au Larzac (on Tuesday), a documentary that traces how activism spread to a previously quiet farming region.

212-660-0312, metrograph.com

800-982-2787, fiaf.org

212-505-5181, anthologyfilmarchives.orgGiven the relative scarcity of footage of Kubrick at work, Mr. Zierra concocts animated re-creations of confrontations between Mr. Vitali and the filmmaker. Matthew Modine, the star of Kubricks 1987 movie, Full Metal Jacket, describes Mr. Vitalis 24/7 devotion to Kubrick as a self-crucifixion. But Mr. Vitali himself is very clear on an important point. I wanted to be with Stanley, to work with Stanley, he says. I wanted to.

The material about Kubricks process is finally more interesting than the discussions about his temperament. Addressing Kubricks mania for multiple takes, Mr. Vitali observes that the filmmaker did not ask for them because of dissatisfaction with his actors, but because he needed to break down a scene, observe how it was or was not coming together, before he could ever abandon it. Kubrick himself had trouble deeming any work truly finished.

Today, almost 20 years after Kubricks death, the film shows that Mr. Vitalis work is not over. As a consultant to the Kubrick estate, he does quality control for the video releases of his old bosss films, and more.Hi, Im Ben Falcone, the director of Life of the Party. So this is the scene where theres an 80s party. And we really wanted to get a nice response of them coming in in a true 80s style. The costumes, Melissa had a lot of influence in. You can see that our heroes are Dynasty, and the other girls are more aerobics. And these costumes, if you look at them, Melissa helped pick them out and ordered them. And then our costume designer, Louise Mingenbach, helped add things to them. But look at their hair. One thing to note is that all of them needed extra hair to really 80s out as much as we are here, except for Jessie Enis, whos the great actress in the green dress. So thats all her own real hair. And then weve got a Miami Vice. And then weve got  what is Jimmy O. Yang doing there? Hes all over the place 80s, which actually I think hits his character pretty well. This scene is a little bit of a throwback, I hope. And the whole movie, actually, is a little bit of a throwback, because our main character is a throwback. Deana, right? Shes played by Melissa. Shes the woman. She goes back to school with her own daughter. And we wanted this to feel like some of these comedies from the 80s that we love so much. We also wanted it to look like film. Melissa and I really love film. And Julio Macat, our cinematographer, did a great job with that. Here, Melissa, heres a song shes about to go dance. And she worked so hard on this dance. People seemed to really enjoy it. I know this one. No, Mom. I know this one! Melissa really likes to dance. And she was really nervous about shooting the scene. And this was actually a really technically tricky scene to shoot. I hope that the audience can see the joy thats in the scene. But it actually took a lot of technical elements from the camera side, and certainly on Melissas side. And we had a lot of great dancers there. Our choreographer, Twitch, from the Ellen show, choreographed this dance with Melissa. She practiced on the weekends and really worked hard on this dance to make this funny dance that seems so casual. She worked on it incredibly hard for weekends and weekends on end. [music] Its a car!  Yes, I can see that! Oh, yes, Mom. What a woman! I guess its sort of like a fight scene, right? But its a dance fight. And theres Debbie Ryan. She plays that character who is always trying to sort of denigrate someone else, probably because she feels vulnerable and not great about herself. And then Melissa comes in and does the worm, which sort of wins the dance battle. The worm is not easy. Its sort of a physical training. I mean, doing the worm  I cant do it.The Escape is the kind of movie that used to be called a kitchen-sink drama, though that doesnt really do it justice. Centering on Tara (a fabulous Gemma Arterton), a young wife and mother in suburban London who is slowly falling apart, this searching, morally complicated story (by the director, Dominic Savage) unfolds with astonishing authenticity.

Youve got it made, Taras mother (the great Frances Barber) says, eyeing her opulent home and loving husband, Mark (Dominic Cooper). But Tara, robotically tending to chores and child care, feels depressed and lost. At first oblivious to her pain, then helpless against it, Mark grows increasingly frustrated. Yet how can she explain it to him when she doesnt understand it herself?But if Democrats were hoping that Ms. Tenneys inflammatory remarks  mostly made in local radio interviews  would turn the tide toward Mr. Brindisi, they may be disappointed. All eight of the Republican county committees that span the 22nd House district have endorsed her re-election campaign.

Image Claudia Tenney, a first-term Republican congresswoman in Central New York, is hoping that her unwavering support for President Trump will resonate with local voters. Credit... Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, via Associated Press

From midsized cities like Utica to rural hamlets, many Republicans defended her comments as refreshing, while others said they were irrelevant, arguing that they were in line with todays overheated political discourse.

Im not bothered at all, for the simple fact that its all partisan, said Dan Sudakow, a 50-year-old bricklayer of North Columbia. Democrats call every Republican a racist or bigot. Its just politics.

Even some Republicans who concede that Ms. Tenneys remarks may have crossed a line said they would nonetheless vote for her in November. Shes put her foot in her mouth, but Im still going to support her because shes a true conservative, said Dwayne Parker, 48, a printer for a local newspaper.

Like many Republican voters, Mr. Parker said he worried that Democrats were chipping away at the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms. Though he does not own a gun, he is a member of the N.R.A. and believes Ms. Tenney will do more to protect gun rights than Mr. Brindisi.

Still, Mr. Parker called Ms. Tenneys assertion about the political orientation of mass murderers a stupid remark, adding that he doubted the gunmen knew the difference between a Republican and a Democrat.

Two of her Republican predecessors in Congress also repudiated the comments about mass shooters, which were made after the high school massacre in Parkland, Fla. Sherwood Boehlert, who represented the district from 1983 to 2007, called the remarks completely inappropriate and insensitive.Angela Castillo was tired of moving, and she was tired of the way she was being treated, like so many other people who enter New York Citys homeless shelter system.

The shelter system can feel like a constant shuffle, and shelter residents often lash out at staff, share their frustrations with friends and family or quietly stew. But last July, when the city Department of Homeless Services directed Ms. Castillo and her four children to move for the second time to a third shelter in Brooklyn that would be much farther away from her childrens schools, she had had enough.

So, Ms. Castillo, 34, went to court to challenge the transfer of her family out of the shelter in Bushwick where they had been living. With the help of her childrens father  who is also homeless and works as a paralegal  Ms. Castillo succeeded in persuading a judge to slow down the bureaucracy that dictates where homeless people will be placed. She also went to a local City Council member, Rafael L. Espinal Jr., who recognized that her plight captured the collective anger of many shelter residents. He drafted legislation to address it.

What began as one womans fight has become much bigger. They messed with the wrong people, Mr. Espinal said of Ms. Castillo and Jose Castillo, her childrens father, whose name Ms. Castillo took though the couple never married.Charlie Russell, a Canadian naturalist who researched grizzly bears by living among them and argued for a view of the animals based on coexistence rather than fear, died on May 7 in Calgary, Alberta. He was 76.

The cause was complications after surgery, his brother Gordon said.

Mr. Russell was outspoken in his belief that the view most people  including many of his fellow naturalists  held of the bear was wrong.

I believe that its an intelligent, social animal that is completely misunderstood, he said in a PBS Nature documentary about his work. To prove the point, he and his partner at the time, Maureen Enns, a photographer and artist, spent months each year for a decade living among bears in a remote part of eastern Russia.

They wrote several books based on those experiences and were the subject of documentaries and countless articles. Mr. Russells ideas, though, were not embraced by everyone.Robert N. Halls legacy can be found at almost every checkout counter  that little red blinking laser scanner that reads bar codes on milk cartons, boxes of light bulbs, price tags dangling from a new jacket and just about everything else that can be bought in a store.

A product of his inventive labor can also be found in most kitchens nowadays: the microwave oven.

Yet for all the widespread familiarity of what Dr. Hall wrought as a remarkably ingenious physicist, his death, at 96, on Nov. 7, 2016, gained little notice. An announcement paid for by his family appeared in two upstate New York newspapers  The Times Union of Albany and The Daily Gazette of Schenectady  and General Electric, in a company publication, published a remembrance a month later. But otherwise the news of Dr. Halls death did not travel very far.

His daughter, Elaine Schulz, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that besides buying the newspaper notices, the family had alerted some organizations with which Dr. Hall had been connected. He died of complications of pneumonia in a hospital near his home in Schenectady, she said.

The New York Times learned of Dr. Halls death while editing an obituary about him that had been prepared in advance in 2012.Stanley Falkow, a much-honored Stanford professor who discovered how antibiotic resistance spreads among bacteria and how bacteria cause disease, died on May 5 at his home in Portola Valley, Calif. He was 84.

His wife, Lucy Tompkins, who is also a professor at Stanford, said the cause was complications of myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare disorder in which the bone marrow fails to generate blood cells properly.

Over his long career Dr. Falkow won just about every major award in science, including the National Medal of Science in 2014. In 2007, he received the honor he coveted most when he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society in Britain. Founded in 1660, the society has had fellows including Newton, Darwin and Einstein.

Dr. Falkows discovery of one of the most important ways that bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics began with his observation that resistance can be transmitted from one bacterium to another.This article is part of the Opinion Today newsletter. You can sign up here to receive the newsletter each weekday.

Spend some time reading political writers on Twitter, and you may come across Dems in disarray. Its become something of a joke among certain political analysts  a reference to the fact that pundits almost always say that the Democrats are in shambles.

The joke appears to date from a 2005 West Wing episode that included a (fictional) cover of Time magazine with the phrase. It received new life thanks to a March 2006 New Yorker piece by Hendrik Hertzberg, the first two paragraphs of which each began, ironically: The Democrats are in disarray. Sure enough, those disarrayed Democrats retook the House of Representatives later that year.

The idea lives on in the Trump era. The contemporary versions of it include: Progressive activists are pulling the party too far to the left. The Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren wing of the party is at war with the Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama wing. And the party lacks any strong leaders or strong 2020 presidential contenders.Were all educated by our peers, and, over the years, a good portion of Donald Trumps peers have been thugs. Operating in the New York construction world meant dealing with S&A Concrete, co-owned by Fat Tony Salerno of the Genovese crime family, and John Cody, the notorious head of Teamsters Local 282, who was convicted on racketeering and tax evasion charges.

Building casinos in Atlantic City brought Trump into similarly genteel circles. Trumps hero was Roy Cohn, who unfortunately was born too late to serve the emperor Caligula. To go to Trump parties in the 1980s was to be surrounded by C-list celebrities and shady business types voted Most Likely to be Arraigned in high school.

Trumps fixer Michael Cohen emerged from the same galaxy of gray-market hustlers. Early in his career Cohen worked for a lawyer who pleaded guilty to bribing insurance adjusters. His ex-business partner in the taxi industry was convicted of assault in New York, arrested on battery in Miami and pleaded guilty to criminal mischief in New Jersey.

About 15 years ago Cohen set up businesses for two doctors, one of whom was later charged with insurance fraud and grand larceny, the other indicted on racketeering charges. As a personal injury lawyer, he frequently represented people accused of insurance fraud. An uncle provided medical services to the Lucchese crime family.WASHINGTON  No, the Korean War still is not over. While an armistice in 1953 ended active fighting, it was never followed by a peace treaty. This is why during their recent meeting, Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, in addition to jointly calling for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, also pledged to formally conclude the war.

Much ambiguity remains about what exactly it would take to accomplish what Mr. Kim and Mr. Moon vowed to do, and many analysts have expressed skepticism about this diplomatic overture, pointing to a number of other supposed breakthroughs in the past that petered out. Yet this moment does seem different in at least one important respect.

The two leaders joint declaration last month contained another significant clause that went relatively unnoticed: South and North Korea affirmed the principle of determining the destiny of the Korean nation on their own accord. The statement is not entirely novel; there was another one like it in a 2000 joint declaration. But it underscores the fact that as much as rapprochement between the Koreas concerns other parties to the Korean War, like the United States and China  and, given the wider security implications, the rest of the world as well  it is a matter principally between the two of them.

This point would go without saying were it not for this wars curious history, which again and again relegated both Koreas to the rank of extras as they were upstaged by their Cold War patrons. American government officials should remember this overlooked truth as they prepare President Trump for his own meeting with Mr. Kim in the coming weeks  and perhaps all the more because the North Korean government is making direct gestures toward the United States, as on Wednesday when it pledged to release three American prisoners.The right way to assess the worthiness of energy projects has nothing to do with counting jobs, Mr. Borenstein added. It involves doing cost-benefit analyses that include both the projects direct costs  the sort of thing that investors base decisions on  and their externalities, the costs and benefits to society such as air or water pollution or useful knowledge uncovered by research and development.

When fossil fuels are involved, a sophisticated cost-benefit analysis requires an additional calculation using what has become known as the social cost of carbon an estimated number in dollars per ton of carbon dioxide that reflects the climate change consequences of a projects emissions. This is an imprecise number, intended to take into account a deluge of woes, an array of constantly changing and sometimes unpredictable climate phenomena including rising temperatures and sea levels, intense droughts and floods, and hampered agricultural production. But the number, pegged by the Obama administration at $45 per ton in 2020, is a better approximation of climate changes impact than zero, the default number if the calculation isnt attempted.

Multiply $45 by the number of tons of a projects expected carbon dioxide emissions and the result is its climate change cost, which should be included in its cost-benefit analysis. If that calculation were performed for all energy projects now, most existing coal-fired power would be considered uneconomical, while gas-fired power plants wouldnt be significantly affected. Renewables would benefit.

On an individual level, the impact of the social cost of carbon might be modest: For instance, the average American car emits a ton of carbon dioxide every two to two and a half months, hiking the annual expense of driving a car by roughly $250.

But on a national scale, the quantities are enormous. Consider that in 2016 the United States emitted five billion tons of carbon dioxide, nearly a seventh of the global total of 36 billion tons. Adding the social cost of carbon to domestic fossil fuels other expenses would have driven up their cost by about $200 billion, enough to help hasten the economys conversion to renewable energy and reduce the depredations of climate change.

The idea of the social cost of carbon was discussed in scholarly literature for decades, but it didnt become consequential until 2007, when the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had to take climate change impacts into account in devising automobile fuel-efficiency standards. From that point on, federal agencies have devised their own social-cost-of-carbon numbers to apply to regulatory decisions.

In 2009, the Obama administration drew representatives from a dozen government agencies and offices to create a working group that calculated a set of estimates for all agencies to use  eliminating the duplication and confusion arising from allowing the agencies to perform their own, inevitably conflicting calculations. The groups estimates have been applied to scores of federal regulations since then, as well as the Obama administrations now-stalled Clean Power Plan. They are also being used by Canada and several state public utilities commissions, including New Yorks. Many corporations  oil companies like Exxon Mobil, the onetime climate change denier, among them  use some version of the social cost of carbon to plan investment.Given all this, the European Union in particular may feel compelled to acknowledge the harsh reality that it has yet to act like an organization with a G.D.P. roughly equal to that of the United States  and to change the situation by signaling to Washington that on certain matters it refuses to be ignored. The trouble the European Union has had uniting around highly sensitive issues  immigration, for example  is perhaps understandable. But the Iran deal does not appear to be divisive: From the pro-Brexit Mr. Johnson to the avowed internationalist Mr. Macron, European politicians understand its value.

What can Europe do to get Mr. Trumps attention? President Hassan Rouhani of Iran has indicated that his country will continue to adhere to the terms of the deal for the time being and deal with other parties to it in hopes of securing its benefits. This confers on the European Union, Britain and France  all of which are parties  some leverage. Acknowledging Irans compliance and continuing to do business with Iran without imposing sanctions would mitigate the effect of the White Houses sanctions and make it easier for advocates of the deal in Tehran to make their case.

The administrations challenge  the American ambassador to Germany has already said that German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations now  might prompt Europe to go further. The European Union could, for instance, announce the withdrawal of member-states ambassadors from the United States. Isnt this what states do when diplomatic partners breach solemn agreements, expose them to security risks and threaten to wreak havoc on their economies? That is, after all, what the administration is threatening to do by courting the risk of a Middle Eastern war and applying secondary sanctions to European companies. Depending on the American response, European capitals might even follow up with expulsion of American ambassadors.Hezbollah and its allies also deployed a sectarian narrative, which labeled Shiite opponents as agents of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. One Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper published a list of Shiite opposition candidates it claimed, based on leaked diplomatic cables, were being funded by the Emirates.

Even with these sectarian appeals, a majority of voters stayed home. The turnout was 49 percent, dashing hopes that the Lebanese would embrace their first national vote in nine years. The election was originally scheduled for 2013, but the Lebanese Parliament extended its own term and postponed the balloting several times using the ruse that security concerns made it difficult to hold elections.

A new law laid out a parliamentary map on Sunday that was different from that of past elections, dividing the country into 15 districts and 27 sub-districts, and establishing a complex new system of proportional representation that allowed voters to choose both a slate of candidates in larger districts and a preferred candidate running in their sub-districts. The new law, which replaced a winner-take-all system, was pitched by some Lebanese leaders as a way to enable independent and civil society groups to compete against established, largely sectarian-based parties and political bosses.

It did not work out that way. The election strengthened Hezbollah, which along with its allies won a slight majority of seats in the 128-member Parliament. Hezbollah itself did not gain more than the 13 seats it won during the last election in 2009, but its allies performed better. Yet political alliances shift frequently in Lebanon, and Hezbollah may not be able to keep all of its allies, especially the Free Patriotic Movement led by President Michel Aoun, a Maronite Christian.

The election did weaken Mr. Hariri, whose party, the Future Movement, lost more than a third of its parliamentary bloc, dropping to 21 seats from the 33 seats it won during the last election.PETALING JAYA, Malaysia  Not long after midnight, the crowd of thousands began to sense that something historic was taking place. They had gathered on a vast lawn to watch the election results roll in through the night, and the mood was cheerful and relaxed. Here, in Petaling Jaya, a heavily residential city that blends into Kuala Lumpur, support for the opposition party, Pakatan Harapan, the Alliance of Hope, runs high, and as P.H.s tally began to outstrip that of Barisan Nasional, the ruling party, everyone present began to contemplate the unthinkable: the end of the only government Malaysia has ever known.

The ramifications of P.H.s stunning victory in Wednesdays elections are only just starting to filter through. The person who appears to be our new prime minister is Mahathir Mohamad, who is 92 years old and earlier served as prime minister  with B.N. Even after the election commission confirmed this morning that P.H. had won at least 112 of the 222 seats in Parliament (or the simple majority that entitles it to form the next government) Najib Razak, the outgoing prime minister, was not clearly conceding his loss. Twelve of the countrys 13 states also held assembly elections yesterday, and B.N. won in just three.

P.H.s victories defied predictions from almost every corner. Up against B.N.s massive, well-oiled party machinery and deep pockets, the oppositions candidates at times looked ragged and disorganized. Even in Kuala Lumpur and its satellite cities, which traditionally enjoy strong opposition support, the dark blue banners of the government coalition crowded out P.H.s light blue-and-red flags, making the incumbent authoritys presence often feel overwhelming.

Other key factors stacked the odds against P.H. even more: the late-stage redrawing of the boundaries of numerous voting constituencies; the decision to hold the election midweek, which made it difficult for working people to vote (after a popular uproar, May 9 was later declared a public holiday); the disqualification of Tian Chua, a star of the P.H. coalition, for an unpaid fine of about $500; the election commissions delay in sending postal ballot forms to overseas voters, which resulted in many of them not being able to cast their vote.Last week at a conference in Miami, the director for Western Hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council, Juan Cruz, took aim at the regime of President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.

Mr. Cruz cited part of the Venezuelan Constitution, drafted under Mr. Maduros predecessor Hugo Chavez, that says the people shall disown any regime, legislation or authority that violates the values, principles and democratic guarantees or encroaches upon human rights. He was directing his comments at the Venezuelan military, imploring its members to honor their commitment to the Constitution.

As when Rex Tillerson made similar statements in February as secretary of state, Mr. Cruzs critics said that it was unwise for Washington to encourage a coup detat.

But Mr. Cruz is merely facing facts. Mr. Maduro holds his power through the systematic violation of human rights and constitutional order, which has brought on an economic and social collapse and a refugee crisis that is affecting the whole continent. A regime steeped in corruption and narcotrafficking, whose violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in 2014 and 2017 left 200 dead and thousands injured, will never cede power voluntarily.Experts compare the sensation of being strangled to waterboarding; it is tantamount to torture. And then there is the terrifying knowledge that someone is deliberately causing your body to thus protest, which in itself may be what breaks you.

The overarching message, when a man assaults a woman in this way (again, the most common gender dynamic, according to numerous studies), is deeply patriarchal and misogynistic. He has shown her what he is prepared to do to enforce his will if she defies him  this being, in effect, the most basic form of patriarchal governance.

I am the law, Mr. Schneiderman was quoted as saying by one of his accusers, Michelle Manning Barish, as he yanked her across the street (to demonstrate he could jaywalk with impunity, ostensibly). The picture this paints is of a man who does not view himself as subject to the law, but as tasked solely with its creation and enforcement  or, as the case may be, pre-emptive over-policing to establish his authority. On both the right and the left in politics, and extending far beyond that, we find some such men who purport to be proponents of law and order. And so they are, in a way, but it is patriarchal (and also, in some cases, white supremacist) law and order, where he rules and others obey, submit and follow.

No wonder it is so difficult to persuade a victim of strangulation to testify against her abuser. Such testimony would directly challenge his social standing and moral reputation. And the very act of strangulation forbids her to oppose him, in this respect and others. She draws breath at his mercy, and thwarts his will at her peril. If she tries to bring him to justice, or end the relationship, he has shown himself willing to do what it takes to keep her quiet, and enforce her loyalty.

I cannot fathom that someone who drafted the legislation on strangulation is unfamiliar with such concepts, Jennifer Friedman, an expert on intimate-partner violence, said of Mr. Schneiderman in The New Yorker. How could he be ignorant of what strangulation does to the human body, and what it communicates to the victim?

Many will take this question as a puzzle, not a rhetorical lament. So perhaps this is an apt moment to point out a dark but important truth about intimate-partner violence: Some abusers are perfectly well aware of what they are doing, at least at a certain level. And that is why they keep doing it. They want to maintain dominance and exercise control over their female partners, among others. And that is why an abuser may resort to the cruelest and most covert of methods, such as cutting off her air supply with his bare hands, leaving no bruises.State prosecutors pursuing conduct that is the subject of a presidential pardon will have to navigate double jeopardy prohibitions in the Fifth Amendment and state law. State law prohibits prosecution of two offenses based on the same act or criminal transaction, regardless of whether they are federal or state offenses. There are ways around this; for example, the protection is not prompted until either a federal guilty plea is in place or the matter has proceeded to trial (with a jury empaneled, or the first witness sworn for a nonjury case) in the federal courts. But the situation is complex, to say the least, and deep experience with the criminal justice system is a must for the new attorney general.

The Legislature must also select someone who has the gravitas to work with federal prosecutors. To continue with the example of Mr. Cohen, the new attorney general should be someone who can make the case to the Department of Justice to focus its case against Mr. Cohen on just a few of the potential claims, such as Stormy Daniels-related campaign finance violations. That would leave other, separate offenses under New York law, such as bank fraud, for state prosecutors to pursue  another important exception to double jeopardy limits.

There is reason to believe the new attorney general will find a receptive audience. The guilty plea by Michael Flynn, Mr. Trumps former national security adviser, covered such narrow terrain, omitting many other allegations against him, such as charges related to work he allegedly did for the Turkish government. That may have been to leave room for the states to prosecute his alleged uncharged offenses should Mr. Trump pardon him.

Of course, the legal hurdles would be lower still if the Legislature amended the New York double jeopardy statute to expressly exclude jeopardy in cases in which presidential pardons are issued. In that case, a pardon would be the functional equivalent of an appellate reversal of a case: It would allow the investigation and prosecution to start again from scratch in New York. Working with the Legislature on this will be another important task for the new attorney general, and it argues again for someone with profound analytical depth.

Other attorneys general across the country will also have important roles to play if Mr. Trump executes a pardon strategy, or succeeds in eviscerating the federal investigations through firings or otherwise. But because Mr. Trump and his circle have so many interests in New York, the state has emerged as a key player. For the moment, the office is in good hands under the acting head, Solicitor General Barbara Underwood. But with legislators preparing to install an interim replacement, they must select somebody with the reputation and the collegiality to help lead the multistate effort.

It will be tempting for the Legislature to move fast and appoint a placeholder, and let voters work things out at the polls in November. But a great deal could happen between today and the swearing-in of a newly elected attorney general in 2019. The crisis could strike at any moment, and if it does the people of this state  and the nation  will be looking to the New York attorney general for leadership. The Legislature must choose someone who is ready for that weighty role, right now.Before the next two months are out, the Supreme Court will decide two high-visibility cases that at first glance appear to have little to do with each other. One is the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, about the baker who wont design a cake for celebrating a same-sex marriage, and the other is Trump v. Hawaii, the challenge to the presidents latest travel ban.

One is as domestic as it gets, while the other is infused with issues of foreign policy and presidential power. What they have in common is the claim of religious discrimination at the heart of each. Does Colorados public accommodations law, which covers sexual orientation, make the unwilling baker a modern-day Christian martyr for his refusal to create and sell what he regards as his art to celebrate a union that he thinks is unholy? Does a travel ban that applies to citizens of five overwhelmingly Muslim countries, issued by a president who has made abundantly clear his desire to keep Muslims out of the United States, amount to religious discrimination in violation of the First Amendments Establishment Clause?

I recognize that placing these cases in a religious-discrimination frame obscures their many distinct complexities. The Masterpiece case, at least on the surface, is primarily about free speech; the justices have to grapple with the nature of the bakers expression before they can get to the question of whether being required to bake the wedding cake would unconstitutionally coerce him to express sentiments that violate his religious beliefs. In the travel ban case, the court will surely be attentive to the claims about national security and presidential prerogative that are the administrations principal defense. Described in this way, the link between the two cases is submerged.

My point here is not to offer a full-dress analysis of the cases, but rather to suggest that the imminent decisions will tell us a lot about how the current court thinks about religion  specifically, how it defines religious discrimination and who it thinks needs the courts protection.To the Editor:

Re Releasing Three, North Koreans Signal Openness (front page, May 10):

President Trump is treating the prisoners released by North Korea as heroes. Many of us remember when Mr. Trump declared that Senator John McCain was not a war hero because he had been captured after his plane was shot down over North Vietnam.

It looks as if the significant difference for Mr. Trump is not the distinction between political versus combat prisoners, but whether he got to play a role in their release.

ROBERT AMSTERDAM, NEW YORKWhereas most people usually lump all law enforcement into the Republican bucket, it actually exists on a more nuanced political spectrum. Many county sheriffs, particularly in the South and West  like Mr. Arpaio, of Arizona, and David Clarke, of Wisconsin, both prominent Trump supporters with dubious dedication to the rule of law  and immigration-focused agencies like the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are far more reactionary than the mostly white-collar investigators from agencies like the F.B.I. and Secret Service and the trial attorneys and prosecutors of the Justice Department.

The Justice Department itself stands as a fundamentally Republican institution  but Republicans of a far different generation and ideology. The departments founding, by the second Republican president, Ulysses S. Grant, came about as part of the way to realize the vision of the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. Its original mission stemmed from the Reconstruction effort to combat the Ku Klux Klan and protect the rights of freed blacks in the South. As Ron Chernow outlines in his new biography of Grant, it worked: Using his new powers, Attorney General Amos Akerman devastated the Klan, sending hundreds to prison.

Similarly, for all the Fox & Friends talk of the F.B.I. as a hotbed of Clintonian intrigue, it has long been one of the most traditionally conservative institutions in American public life. The bureau, through much social upheaval over its 110-year history, has long seen its mission as helping to preserve a certain apple pie ideal. It has operated over the decades as a morality police that defends Americas institutional traditions and pursues those perceived as threats to the countrys social fabric, whether it was Harlem Renaissance authors in the 1920s and 30s, Nazis in the 1940s, Communists in the 1950s, antiwar activists in the 1960s or deadbeat dads in the 1990s.

While the F.B.I. is vastly most tolerant and welcoming than J. Edgar Hoovers original vision, it remains the lead American law enforcement agency targeting public corruption, so it has a particular focus  and a particular scorn  for elected leaders and government officials who dont walk the straight and narrow and follow the rules.

Its the prosecutors who have dug in and taken on Trumpism, pushing to ensure that he does not become Americas Viktor Orban, the Hungarian strongman slowly eating away at that countrys democratic institutions.

In April, Sally Yates  the acting attorney general fired by Mr. Trump because she refused to enforce his travel ban  led a symposium at Georgetown law school focused on three topics that wouldnt under normal circumstances appear to be controversial, yet each of them was clearly chosen as a rebuke to Mr. Trump: defending a free press, an independent judiciary and the rule of law.How many jurors does it take to deliver a guilty verdict?

In 48 states, the answer is simple: All of them. Juries in felony cases must agree unanimously in order to convict. The rule is the same in federal trials, and for good reason. It reflects the centuries-old understanding that jury unanimity is central to a fair justice system, that it preserves the rights of mankind, as John Adams said in 1786.

Yet two states, Oregon and Louisiana, continue to hold out against this fundamental principle. Both permit juries in felony trials to return guilty verdicts even if one or two jurors vote to acquit. Louisiana goes further, allowing split verdicts in murder cases, where convictions can result in sentences of life without parole.

The few remaining defenders of this practice claim that its necessary for the efficient functioning of the legal system. Heres a hint: When 48 states and the federal government disagree with you, its worth considering the possibility that you might be wrong.

The good news is that Louisiana lawmakers are close to doing that. Last month the State Senate passed a bill to amend the states Constitution to require jury unanimity in all felony cases with 12-person juries. (Six-person juries, which try lower-level crimes, are already required to be unanimous.) The House is scheduled to vote on the bill Monday. Lawmakers should approve the measure and send it to the voters for ratification in November. If they fail, they will leave Louisiana trapped under a 19th-century relic that lives on mainly because it makes prosecutors jobs easier.At that point, she said: I deserve to be here; I paid tuition like everybody else; I am not going to justify my existence here. You can watch the whole back-and-forth here.



In an email to students, the university called the incident deeply troubling.

Also troubling: Last week Thomas Kanewakeron Gray and Lloyd Skanahwati Gray, Native American brothers who drove seven hours to tour Colorado State University, had their visit cut short after a parent on the tour called 911. She told the dispatcher the two teenagers were creepy and they stand out. She also said they made me feel sick and were real quiet.

The message here is clear: Black and brown people seem out of place to some people when they encounter them in institutions of higher learning. Never mind that Ms. Siyonbola is earning a masters degree in African studies, that she founded the Yoruba Cultural Institute in Brooklyn and that she is the author of a book about African history and diaspora migration. To her fellow student, she seemed like an interloper.

I know what that feels like.

When I was 18, I moved to Italy to attend an American liberal arts college. I hadnt been the best high school student, and I imagined it would be difficult to learn a new language  it was  but I fell in love with school and I excelled in most of my courses.

I was thrilled to be on my own for the first time. I embraced what made Rome so different from the suburbs of Washington, where Id grown up. (Id never heard of an Aperol Spritz, let alone tried one.)But to the north, the front of the building opens up like a flower, with walls of windows framed by anthracite-hued aluminum and perforated copper screens, said Glauco Lolli-Ghetti, the principal of Urban Muse. About half of the units have outdoor loggias or terraces facing the park, reached through sliding glass doors.

The design at the front riffs on the cast-iron architecture of SoHo, said Mr. Stirk. Its not curtain wall, he noted. Theres a richness to the surface depth. The warm hue of the copper, meanwhile, is meant to pick up on the color of neighboring buildings, like the red brick and terra cotta of the Beekman hotel.

Inside the apartments, there is six-inch-wide white oak plank flooring; custom white oak cabinets, Tundra Grey marble and Miele appliances in the kitchen; and bookmatched Montclair Danby marble in the master bathrooms and powder rooms.

The building includes retail space on the first two floors, and office space on the third and fourth floors. The fifth floor houses the condominiums amenity spaces, including a gym, a yoga studio, an entertaining space and a common outdoor space. The apartments begin on the sixth floor.It was not the kind of ambience I imagined coming home to, she said. I wanted understated.

The building also had a full-time doorman, as did many in the area. I didnt want all these people to greet when I came home, Ms. Shah said. It feels more hotel than home to me. Some people like all the service, but I wasnt looking for that.

Mr. Lahav showed her a small studio in another Gramercy building, for a temptingly low $465,000, with monthly maintenance of $800. It was smaller than most, he said, but she actually liked it. She was not a typical buyer who is looking for square footage.

Image Ms. Shah passed up a studio at Gramercy Park Towers, circa 1964. She was wary of living on busy Third Avenue, and found the buildings swooping marquee too theatrical. Credit... Katherine Marks for The New York Times

She didnt go for the Murphy bed, however, which seemed too labor-intensive for day-to-day living. I didnt want to do all these acrobatics to make it work, she said.

Farther downtown, a modest SoHo building, circa 1962, had a studio available, with 475 square feet. Again, it was smaller than many places they had seen. But it was on the quiet side of the building, facing a courtyard, and the building had a landscaped roof deck.

A girl was sitting on the roof enjoying her coffee, Mr. Lahav said. It looked like it was staged. Sanna could imagine herself sitting there.

Ms. Shah loved everything about it. I could totally tell that the current owner was an architect, the way the space was organized, she said. The studio was laid out in a considered way. I was happy to entertain and live and work and do everything in one open space. I know how to make that work for me.In the spring of 1964 the filmmaker Stanley Kubrick was very worried. NASA was about to fly the Mariner 4 space probe past Mars.

At the time he was deep in development of a blockbuster film about the discovery of alien intelligence. Word was that MGM had bet their studio on the film. What if Mariner discovered life on Mars and scooped them?

Kubrick looked into whether he could buy insurance against that event. He could, but the price was astronomical. Kubrick decided to take his chances, according to a new book about the making of the movie, Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece, by Michael Benson. (Simon & Schuster 2018)

That was 54 years ago. We still havent discovered intelligence or even believable evidence of pond scum anywhere else in the universe  not for lack of effort. A new spacecraft, TESS, designed to look for habitable nearby planets just vaulted into space, and an interstellar asteroid recently spotted streaking through the solar system was inspected for radio signals. Another robot is on its way to listen in on the heart of Mars. We still dont know if we are alone.At first the astronomers thought it was a mistake. They had found a carbon-covered asteroid floating among countless icy bodies far away in our solar system. The newly discovered space rock, which they named 2004 EW95, was something the scientists would have expected to have seen in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Instead, it was dancing near Neptune.

Their finding, which was published Wednesday, suggests that 2004 EW95 is the first of a new class of space objects lurking in the outer solar system, in a vast, frigid region known as the Kuiper belt that still contains many mysteries. The researchers believe that the asteroid sling-shotted from the inner solar system some 4.5 billion years ago, and that it may provide insight into the early formation of our planets.

Using the European Southern Observatorys Very Large Telescope, Tom Seccull, a doctoral student at Queens University Belfast in Northern Ireland, and his colleagues examined light signatures from the icy surfaces of Kuiper belt objects. They noticed something strange about one object that measured nearly 190 miles long and was located 2.5 billion miles from Earth. Their analysis showed that this object did not share the same frigid past as the ice balls drifting nearby.

When we first looked at this, we thought it was wrong, said Mr. Seccull, who is lead author of the paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The rock had been altered by the presence of liquid water.My parents were clotheshorses, says the New York-born fashion designer Andre Walker, remembering the wide-lapeled sport coats his father would import from the London tailor Cecil Gee. Walker shared their interest from a young age, poring over his mothers issues of W magazine and selling his own designs  hand-painted T-shirts and repurposed medical scrubs promoting his imaginary band, Jimmy Sick and the Anemics  on the streets of Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, when he was just 13. Two years later, in 1981, Walker launched his first runway collection of androgynous shifts and jackets at the neighborhood nightclub Oasis.

And so began a 37-year career, during which Walker has designed for the likes of Marc Jacobs and mens designer Kim Jones while keeping his own name alive by collaborating on special one-off collections with brands such as Comme des Garcons. Last fall, he remade a number of his early silhouettes  draped, billowing floor-length capes and tunics  for a collection with Pendleton that showed in Paris, and he recently completed sketches for an upcoming collection for Virgil Ablohs Off-White.

Now, at 52, Walker is contemplating his next move, perhaps as the creative director of a house other than his own. Hes a man of eclectic tastes, appreciating everything from the angular designs of 80s hair artist Robert Lobetta to the illustrated childrens books of the 20th-century British poet Ruth Manning-Sanders. And yet he doesnt like his influences to be too evident. Sometimes I feel inarticulate because Im working so hard to avoid the reference. I like things that appear to have come from nothing, he says. Still, Walker is preoccupied with questions of creation, whether they concern a belted coat or the universe as a whole. This, too, is part of his inheritance: Walkers mother is a hairdresser and a pastor, and, in addition to owning a record store, his late father was an ordained minister. I like to think Im striving for conceptual purism, for an ethereal kind of ideal.BERKELEY, Calif.  Many people have grown accustomed to talking to their smart devices, asking them to read a text, play a song or set an alarm. But someone else might be secretly talking to them, too.

Over the last two years, researchers in China and the United States have begun demonstrating that they can send hidden commands that are undetectable to the human ear to Apples Siri, Amazons Alexa and Googles Assistant. Inside university labs, the researchers have been able to secretly activate the artificial intelligence systems on smartphones and smart speakers, making them dial phone numbers or open websites. In the wrong hands, the technology could be used to unlock doors, wire money or buy stuff online  simply with music playing over the radio.

A group of students from University of California, Berkeley, and Georgetown University showed in 2016 that they could hide commands in white noise played over loudspeakers and through YouTube videos to get smart devices to turn on airplane mode or open a website.

This month, some of those Berkeley researchers published a research paper that went further, saying they could embed commands directly into recordings of music or spoken text. So while a human listener hears someone talking or an orchestra playing, Amazons Echo speaker might hear an instruction to add something to your shopping list.Many multisyllabled words have been used to describe the Wooster Group, the long-reigning avant-gardists of downtown New York. Iconoclastic, deconstructionist, post-modernistic and futuristic are among the more common, if not always accurate, adjectives.

But sentimental? Surely not.

Yet as is made clear by the troupes exquisite A Pink Chair (In Place of a Fake Antique), which opened on Wednesday night at the Performing Garage in SoHo, the Wooster Group is among the most profound sentimentalists working in theater today. That is not to say the team has gone soppy on us.

In this latest performance piece, created by the company and directed by Elizabeth LeCompte, the Woosterites seem positively Proustian in their search of lost time. Or to be specific, a lost play, evocatively titled I Shall Never Return, written by the great Polish auteur Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990).

Staged in New York at La MaMa in 1988, with Kantor as the shows leading actor as well as director, I Shall Never Return does exist today in archival forms, including as a text and at least partially on film. But as a complete and self-contained work of art, performed as it was meant to be performed? No, as is always the case with live theater, you had to be there, then.That is largely how his casting has been received, though Hilton Als, the most prominent black critic in the American theater, found another dimension in it. He argued approvingly in The New Yorker that the production  which has a white Julie Jordan, played by the Tony winner Jessie Mueller  offers a rare instance of colorblind casting in which thought has been given to a black characters presence in a largely white world.

Aside from his ensemble role in Green Days American Idiot in 2010, all of Mr. Henrys Broadway roles until Carousel were written to be performed by men of color, often in stories about black culture  most recently Shuffle Along, in 2016, about the first black musical. After that, he spent 15 months playing Aaron Burr in Hamilton, in Chicago and then on tour, in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

He was playing Burr last summer when he and his wife found out she was pregnant. Suddenly Dear Theodosia, Burrs tender pledge to his little girl, became a song that Mr. Henry was singing to his unborn child. A couple of times  on the lyric Ill do whatever it takes, Ill make a million mistakes, Ill make the world safe and sound for you  his voice cracked with emotion onstage.

Early in the run of Carousel, hed been singing to his unborn boy, too, tapping into his own anticipation to portray Billys in Soliloquy. As Samsons due date approached, Mr. Henrys castmates teased him, saying hed never be able to sing it the same way again. The first time he had to perform it as a father, the day after the babys birth, he didnt know how he would.

Id only gotten like two hours sleep, he said. You want to let go in the character, you want to let go emotionally, but I was concerned that if I did that, I would feel the actual feelings that Im feeling in my Ms. Lees estate suffered a setback earlier this week, when a federal court in Alabama agreed with Mr. Rudin that the dispute should be handled in the New York court. Ms. Lees estate then sought to delay the trial, which had been scheduled for June, for reasons that it sought to keep secret, according to court documents.

The requests to dismiss both cases filed in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday included no details of the settlement, and it was not immediately clear whether Mr. Rudin had agreed to change the script, or whether the Lee estate was no longer seeking such changes. Among the issues had been whether the depiction of Atticus Finch was sufficiently heroic.

The two sides issued a four-sentence statement saying that they had amicably settled the litigation, but offering no specifics. Mr. Rudin declined to comment, and a lawyer representing the estate referred to the joint statement and declined to comment further.

Mr. Rudin is co-producing the play with Lincoln Center Theater.

The dispute over the character of Atticus was especially charged because of the controversial publication of Ms. Lees novel Go Set a Watchman in 2015. Some were skeptical that Ms. Lee, who had abandoned the novel in the mid 1950s, was healthy enough to consent to its publication. And many Mockingbird fans were shocked by the way Atticus is depicted in Watchman, which portrays him as an aging racist and segregationist who opposes his daughter Scouts more enlightened views on civil rights.

Joseph Crespino, a professor of history at Emory University who recently published a book about Atticus Finch, said that the publication of Watchman revealed that Ms. Lee once had a darker view of the character, and turned Atticus into a more nuanced and complex figure.

The genie is out of the bottle, he said. You cant have the uncomplicated idealistic figure of Atticus, not when we know now that she was struggling to make sense of that character.OPERATION CRUCIBLE at 59E59 Theaters (in previews; opens on May 15). Kieran Knowless play, directed by Bryony Shanahan, takes place during the Sheffield bombing of 1940, as four men are trapped in a cellar beneath a collapsed hotel. Reviewing this production in London in 2015, Ben Brantley wrote that its staging is more hauntingly eloquent than the pyrotechnics of any big-budget war movie.

212-279-4200, 59e59.org

PARADISE BLUE at the Pershing Square Signature Center (in previews; opens on May 14). The playwright Dominique Morisseau has the blues. The first play of her Signature residency is set in a Detroit jazz club in 1949, its spotlight trained on a trumpeter, his longtime lover and a mysterious newcomer. Reviewing a previous production, also directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Laura Collins-Hughes wrote that this pleasurably overloaded drama upends expectations.

212-244-7529, signaturetheatre.org

SINGLET at the Bushwick Starr (previews start on May 16; opens on May 19). The indelible writer, actress, lunatic cabaret star and occasional solo performer Erin Markey comes to the Bushwick Starr with a play for two, co-starring her friend Emily Davis. The piece fuses personal relationships with The Maids, Notes on a Scandal and Elena Ferrantes Neapolitan novels.

866-811-4111, thebushwickstarr.org

Last Chance

HARRY CLARKE at the Minetta Lane Theater (closes on May 13). David Cales solo play about a shy Midwesterner who invents an irresistible alter ego ends its Audible-sponsored encore run. Jesse Green wrote that the plays star, Billy Crudup, appears to be having the time of his life in a sly role terrifically suited to his gifts.

800-982-2787, minettalanenyc.com8) 3 p.m. RETAIL RICHES

To see whats trending on Swedens west coast, browse local shops large and small. Start at Heyday, a year-old, millennial-pink boutique with colorful cappuccino cups, pastel tassel earrings, cheeky enamel pins and a coffee bar serving red-velvet lattes. Down the street, duck into Rum21, an interior design retailer stocked with nubby Hay pillows, speckled ceramic vases and brass oil lamps. Visit Vallgatan 12, a cavernous two-level complex, for clothing for both men and women from top Scandinavian labels, like Rodebjer, Filippa K and Mads Norgaard. Next door, find Miksajo, a tiny shop of curated goods: Kuboraums statement sunglasses, suede Eytys sneakers, and Tom Woods silver signet rings. Then find inspiration in a spinoff shop from the influential interior store Artilleriet called The Kitchen. Opened in 2015, this beautifully styled kitchenware specialist is filled with copper ladles, walnut cutting boards, stoneware bowls, French cheese knives and cast-iron crepe pans.

9) 7 p.m. NORMAL DINNER

Southwest of the historic center, the laid-back Linne district is populated by independent shops, cafes and friendly neighborhood bistros, like Bar Normal. Opened in 2016, this casual restaurant serves an eclectic mix-and-match menu along with biodynamic wines and creative cocktails. Try a few of the savory Asian-inspired small plates, like soy-marinated salmon sashimi with wasabi mayonnaise and shiitake mushrooms, or grilled avocado doused with teriyaki and topped with a pile of greens and fried shallots. Dinner for two, about 500 kronor.

10) 10 p.m. CINEMA SIPS

After dinner, walk around the corner to Hagabion, an indie cinema in a handsome 19th-century brick building with a lively second-floor restaurant and bar, Hagabions Cafe. Choose a seat around the circular bar or find even more fun in the quirky basement locale known as Bar Kino, decorated with glittering disco balls, precariously placed taper candles, festive streamers, checkerboard floors, and flea market furnishings. Both upstairs and down, several taps are dedicated to the citys finest brewery, Stigbergets Bryggeri. If its on tap, dont miss the excellent Stigbergets Muddle, a citrusy I.P.A.The fact that it is a place endlessly reported on and so little-known is the attraction for most visitors, Mr. Cockerell wrote in an email.

The Seattle-based tour operator Mir Corporation has led North Korea trips in the past, but through a spokesman said that until the government rescinds the ban, the company will be waiting and watching.

Before the ban, Americans were required to travel in a group with North Korean guides and very detailed itineraries with no chance of exploring independently. Those restrictions make it very hard to do what most global travel operators promise: authentic immersion.

Our approach to travel, which is focused on immersing travelers into the people and culture of a country in order to provide meaningful engagement with locals, matches very well with a Voice of America, boots on the ground sort of diplomacy that could be possible in the wake of a possible thaw in relations between the U.S. and North Korea, Edward Piegza, the president and founder of Classic Journeys, said in an email.

North Korea has shown no willingness to loosen the rules it places on inbound travelers, however.

Those going there accept the fact that there are a lot of restrictions, that they will have only a few questions truly answered, that it is frustrating, complicated, etc., and go there open-minded and ready to try to experience whatever they can in the time they have allowed themselves, Mr. Cockerell said.Good morning.

(Want to get California Today by email? Heres the sign-up.)

One day, it was at an intersection not far from the Veteran Affairs hospital in Westwood. What does that mans sign say? she asked from her car seat. A couple of weeks later, she asked about the woman I handed a $1 bill to outside my car. Not long after that, as we got off the freeway near Venice, she spotted them before I did: Mommy, why are there are those tents there? she said, pointing to a grassy clearing near the off-ramp.

I do not try to shield my two young children from seeing the homeless people we pass as we go about our lives in Los Angeles. And I always try to answer the many questions that come from my kids, ages 3 and 5. Still, every time I try to explain why people are homeless and what we can do about it, I find myself worrying that I am doing it all wrong.

Last month, a young couple set up a tent on a corner two blocks from our home, which means my children pass it daily on the way to and from school. The kids have asked about it almost every time we see it: Why do they have a dog? How did they buy the tent? Where do they cook the food theyre eating? Even when Im flummoxed by the questions, I silently hope that they keep coming. I do not want them to become inured to the sight of people sleeping on sidewalks, under freeway overpasses and on bus stop benches.

Weve packed bags filled with toiletries for the homeless, along with many other young families from our school. But most of us are reluctant to take our children to deliver them. As one friend put it: I am worried about what the impact of seeing thousands upon thousands of homeless people on Skid Row will do to my already anxious 10-year-old. Another friend said she tried to always carry food in the car, so that her children can point out someone they think who might need help, offering them toothbrushes and bandages that they carry as well.At the start of the term at Charlotte Anderson Elementary School in Arlington, Tex., last year, Stacy Bailey, an art teacher, introduced herself to her new fourth grade students with a slide show of her life.

There were photographs of her family, friends and childhood. There was also one of her partner of seven years, Julie Vazquez, who Ms. Bailey explained was her future wife. They were dressed in fish costumes from the film Finding Nemo.

That image set off a sequence of reactions from parents and school district officials that Ms. Bailey, 31, says amount to discrimination, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in federal court in Dallas. She says her career was damaged when she was accused of showing inappropriate images to children, put on leave and told she would be transferred.A white man in South Carolina sought a hit man to kill his black neighbor, hang the body from a tree and leave a flaming cross on the neighbors lawn, according to a court filing.

Fortunately for the neighbor, the hit man was an undercover agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The man accused of doing the hiring, Brandon Cory Lecroy, 25, was indicted by a grand jury this week on two charges related to the scheme. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, a confidential source tipped off the F.B.I. on March 19 that Mr. Lecroy, of Hodges, S.C., had reached out to an unnamed white supremacist organization seeking help in the murder.WASHINGTON  At 3:18 a.m. last Friday, a federal agent undercover on a task force was quietly switching out a tracking device planted on a vehicle on a dark street on Chicagos South Side.

It was a routine maneuver for the agent, who was less than a year out of the training academy of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He had been sent to Chicago as part of a Trump administration push to tackle the citys gun crisis.

But with a burst of gunshots, that Friday morning turned catastrophic. The agent was shot in the head, then thrown into a car by a fellow agent and rushed to a hospital. Im coming in  just take me to the hospital, the driving agent yelled over the police scanner. Officer hit; we need escort to a hospital now!

The shooting of the undercover agent, who is expected to fully recover, has drawn attention to the group he was assigned to, the Crime Gun Strike Force. Established by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in June to combat gun trafficking and violence in Chicago, the task force is one of the most concrete examples of his efforts to fight gun violence. Twenty A.T.F. agents were assigned to it.WASHINGTON  Senator John McCain wasnt interested in getting the last word on his decades at the center of American political life. He was interested in getting thousands of them.

In a new 380-page memoir written as he confronts brain cancer and his mortality, the occasionally ornery maverick Republican from Arizona looks back on a series of major episodes from both his own history and the United States.

He recounts his presidential runs, his leading roles in fights over immigration, campaign finance, health care and foreign policy. He takes a few shots at President Trump, talk radio blowhards and House backbenchers. He says he would like Americans to recover our sense that we are more alike than different.

True to his nature, John McCain is not one to go quietly.

It should be required reading for anyone who wants to lead in a democracy, said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and Mr. McCains best friend in the Senate. He sees the book as a call to arms around the idea that Americas values make us better than our enemies.Ms. Haspels role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing, Mr. McCain wrote in a statement Wednesday night. Her refusal to acknowledge tortures immorality is disqualifying.

With Mr. McCain absent from the Senate and unable to vote, and Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, opposing Ms. Haspel, Senate Republican leaders will most likely need at least one Democratic vote for Ms. Haspels confirmation, and Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, has said he will support her. But if Mr. McCain can persuade at least one additional Republican to oppose Ms. Haspel, the nominee could be doomed.

That, however, is a big if.

Senator Jeff Flake, Mr. McCains fellow Arizona Republican, said Thursday that he remained undecided about Ms. Haspel, though he said Mr. McCains views would have considerable weight.

Hes the only one whos been through this, Mr. Flake said, adding, I obviously share his views on torture, and I always have, so his views mean a lot.

In a chamber where so much is determined along party lines, Mr. McCain appeared to find more support among Democrats than within his own party.

People around here would be lying to you if they said that it didnt weigh on them, said Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat facing a tough re-election fight this fall. I cant imagine anybody who has more authority on this subject than John McCain  in the whole country.

Ms. Haspel, 61, oversaw a secret prison in Thailand in 2002 while a Qaeda suspect was waterboarded there, and is also under scrutiny for her conveyance of an order from her superior to destroy 92 videotapes documenting harsh interrogations.What was said

For years, we have been trying to get China and Russia to do any sanctions on Iran. Never, never, never.

 Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, at the Capitol on Thursday.

the facts

This is false.

China and Russia, as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, voted to impose sanctions against Iran in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. (Ms. Pelosi even commended the 2010 vote in a news release.)

The Security Council resolutions during those years embargoed Irans nuclear material and equipment, and arms sales. They also froze the financial assets of individuals linked to Irans nuclear program.

The Russians and Chinese did support us in four rounds of sanctions. That was something, said Richard Nephew, a sanctions expert and former State Department official during the Obama administration.

Though Russia and China were willing to join United Nations sanctions against Iran, Mr. Nephew said the two countries were reluctant  or even very hostile  when it came to enforcing penalties similar to those imposed on Tehrans oil and financial sectors by the United States, the European Union and other Asian countries.WASHINGTON  President Trump frequently talks about reviving the American auto industry, but his approach to trade policy may backfire on the countrys carmakers.

Mr. Trumps efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, to impose tariffs on imported aluminum and steel and to reduce Americas trade deficit with China could limit the reach of companies that produce cars in the United States and depend on access to growing markets outside the country.

On Friday, the chief executives of the biggest automakers plan to meet with the president at the White House. The gathering comes at a critical moment, as Trump administration officials race to finalize a Nafta rewrite in the next few weeks and prepare to meet again next week with Chinese leaders in hopes of forestalling a potential trade war.

The auto industry is among the sectors most vulnerable to trade disruptions because its business model is increasingly global, in terms of both production and sales. One in five cars made in the United States is now exported, and one in four vehicles sold in America were produced in factories run by foreign-owned companies. General Motors sold nearly 1 million vehicles in China in the first quarter of the year  more than it sold in North America in the same period.WASHINGTON  Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary, told colleagues she was close to resigning after President Trump berated her on Wednesday in front of the entire cabinet for what he said was her failure to adequately secure the nations borders, according to several current and former officials familiar with the episode.

Ms. Nielsen, who is a protegee of John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, has drafted a resignation letter but has not submitted it, according to two of the people. As the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Ms. Nielsen is in charge of the 20,000 employees who work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mr. Trumps anger toward Ms. Nielsen, who was sitting several seats to his left at the meeting, was part of a lengthy tirade in which the president railed at his cabinet about what he said was its lack of progress toward sealing the countrys borders against illegal immigrants, according to one person who was present at the meeting.

Asked about the heated exchange at the meeting, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Thursday that the president is committed to fixing our broken immigration system and our porous borders.Asked by reporters about the mens return, Mr. Trump replied, The true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.

The arrival of the men in Maryland capped a whirlwind journey for Mr. Pompeo, who secured their release during a 13-hour visit to North Korea to arrange the summit meeting.

The president spent the hours before their arrival in a celebratory mood. He mentioned in a cabinet meeting that everyone thinks he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for overseeing the prisoners release.

But I would never say it, Mr. Trump continued. The prize I want is victory for the world.

The president had also posted excitedly on Twitter that he planned to greet the Hostages (no longer) upon their arrival. Their plane touched down just before 3 a.m.

In a statement as they traveled to the United States, the prisoners said that they wanted to give their deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo and the people of the United States for bringing us home.

We thank God and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return, they said.

Mr. Trump, who delivered on a long-held promise this week by ending the United States involvement in the Iran nuclear deal, has sought to deliver on another by improving relations with North Korea after nearly seven decades of mutual antagonism.

Analysts are watching the negotiations closely to see if the return of the prisoners is a gesture of genuine good will from the North, or if Mr. Kim will ultimately use the release of the men as leverage for prolonging the time frame for reducing or completely dismantling North Koreas nuclear abilities.Complaints included consumers who have been trying to find EpiPens in Seattle since March to no avail, patients who said their EpiPen had expired and they are currently without one, patients who were repeatedly told the drug is on back-order, and one who reported trying 10 pharmacies before finding an EpiPen.

Linnea Clary, who lives in York, Me., said her sons EpiPens expired in February and she had been unable to refill the prescription, despite trying different pharmacies, including one at a large hospital in Boston. I cant fill it, period, she said.

Mylan is encouraging consumers who are unable to fill an EpiPen prescription to call its customer service line at 800-796-9526 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern Time for assistance in locating a pharmacy that has the product in stock.

FARE has called on the F.D.A. and the Department of Health and Human Services to notify both the general public and health care providers of the shortages, and to inform insurers they may need to cover alternative medications.

The organization is urging the F.D.A. to take steps to alleviate the shortage, either by expediting reviews of new generic epinephrine auto-injectors or importing other products.

This is a life and death issue for people with systemic allergic reactions, said Dr. James Baker, FAREs chief executive and chief medical officer. If you have one of these attacks, the only thing you can do to keep yourself from going into shock is to give yourself the epinephrine and then get to the emergency room. And if you dont have it, you may not make it to the emergency room.

The shortage is not unique: dozens of drugs are on the F.D.A.s list of medication shortages, including injectable anesthesia agents, pain medications, penicillin, feeding and hydration solutions, heart disease drugs, and even simple products like sterile water.When I was a medical student, I often found myself in the hospital gift shop. The gift shop was an oasis for me, not only because of the expansive candy selection that palliated my sugar cravings, but also because I could see gift-givers in cross-section. Loved ones came in and out, buying balloons for newborns and flowers for their parents or children. One would buy a newspaper for her spouse to read; another doting husband would buy a scarf for his wife to hide the scar from her recent surgery. Through their gifts, they were not only showing their love, but also their hope and yearning for health, for success, for life.

I found myself in the gift shop again on the day of my patients planned discharge to home hospice. She was an elderly woman with metastatic cancer. She had been admitted for nearly a month.

As a third-year student, I had followed the course of her care throughout my time on the service. Every morning for that month, I walked into her room to ask how she was doing. I had watched her reach the limits of medicine; her disease was incurable. Perhaps it was just an instinct ingrained in me from my Italian-Jewish family, but I knew I could not leave the gift shop empty-handed. I settled on a stuffed animal, a black puppy.

Gift-giving to physicians is a relatively common practice, albeit a controversial one. One study in the British Medical Journal found that 20 percent of physicians in Britain had received a gift in the previous month. The study was conducted from May to July and therefore did not include the holiday months, when gift-giving may be even more frequent. Some doctors believe that patient gifts may predispose them to favoritism; others are willing to accept small gifts of low monetary value.These four American Green Berets were killed last fall when their patrol was ambushed in Niger. The Defense Department launched an investigation into what happened. But helmet camera footage from one of the soldiers allowed us to reconstruct some of the attack. Its the morning of Oct. 4, 2017. A convoy of around eight American and Nigerien army vehicles leaves the village of Tongo Tongo after a mission in the area. Theyre quickly ambushed by militants loyal to Islamic State. Footage of that fight shows that two American vehicles are separated from the convoy. The others had fled or were hit. We see seven soldiers taking cover. The attackers are somewhere in this area. An American soldier we believe to be Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Johnson wearing a helmet camera enters the white vehicle and drives it a short distance. He steps out and begins firing towards the tree line. Then, he runs for cover behind the white vehicle, and the video cuts to a new scene. Next, we only see the black car and three soldiers  Staff Sergeants Johnson, Wright, and Black. The white car has disappeared, and we dont know how much time has elapsed. Wright drives the car toward the mark of a red smoke grenade. The smoke could be to mask their movements from the militants, or to mark their position for supporting units. Johnson, taking cover at the rear, fires toward the tree line. After theyve reached the smoke, theres a cut in the video. In the next scene, the red smoke has cleared. The car begins to move again, when Johnson and Black fall. Black is unresponsive. Johnson regains his footing. He moves forward and starts searching. It could be for support or for the enemy. Wright then drags Black to cover, behind the car. He aims back towards the treeline. The scene ends. The militants are closing in. We dont know how much time has passed here, but Wright changes his direction of fire. He and Johnson begin running without covering each other. This suggests theyre about to be overrun. The situation is too desperate. There are more edits to the video, but were able to map their final steps. Johnson is seriously wounded and falls, but then moves about another 40 feet. Militant fire seems to be coming from this area. Wright stops running and shoots. A short time later, two armed militants appear on screen. Johnson appears to be unconscious. Still, he is shot by the militants at close range. Staff Sergeant Wright dies just feet away. For them, the ambush is over.HONG KONG  The looming anniversary of a deadly Sichuan earthquake has been named Thanksgiving Day by local government officials, drawing scorn from Chinese internet users who feel the government should be honoring the dead instead.

The magnitude-7.9 earthquake on May 12, 2008, killed at least 69,000 people, including thousands of children whose classrooms collapsed. While the government directed substantial resources into rebuilding, the collapse of poorly built schools across the earthquake-prone zone remains a symbol of government apathy and a source of national heartbreak.

After Wenchuan County officials announced the day of thanksgiving to mark the anniversary on Saturday, the state news media described beautiful, tidy buildings that now populate the most ravaged disaster zone. The report noted that local residents often expressed their indebtedness for the gushing springs of generosity they had received  a sentimental adage.

Echoing the hyperbolic phrases used in the state news media, the viral news aggregator Toutiao said in a post that earthquake victims felt gushing springs of gratitude for the big love that streamed into the region from all corners of the country.DEPOK, Indonesia  A day after Islamic State followers seized part of a high-security terrorist detention center and killed five guards, the country was left on Thursday with no shortage of questions.

The logical first one: How could this have happened?

Located in the sleepy West Java town of Depok, south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, the detention center is in a sprawling, heavily guarded compound of the local headquarters of the Mobile Brigade Corps, a paramilitary unit of the Indonesian National Police, and it was guarded by elite counterterrorism officers.

The uprising began with a riot Tuesday night in a section of the detention center holding 156 terrorism suspects and detainees, many of them accused of being violent, radical followers of the Islamic States ideology. The detainees managed to seize dozens of weapons, attacked guards and then took several of them hostage.

It ended Thursday morning with a mass surrender of the detainees after counterterrorism officers began blasting apart walls and firing tear gas into a cellblock where the men had holed up.Since taking power in 2011, Mr. Kim has executed scores of top officials, including his own uncle. He has also tested a hydrogen bomb and long-range missiles, claiming that he could hit the mainland United States with nuclear warheads.

Vilified as he was, however, Mr. Kim has also shown signs of being a reformer, granting farms and factories more autonomy, allowing more markets to open, and setting off a building boom in his showcase capital, Pyongyang. He exhorts his country to follow international development trends and global standards and even admits failing to deliver on his promise that his long-suffering people would no longer have to tighten their belts.

My desires were burning all the time, but I spent the past year feeling anxious and remorseful for the lack of my ability, Mr. Kim said in a nationally broadcast speech last year, a startling admission for a member of the family that has ruled North Korea with the help of a personality cult since its founding in 1948.

After meeting him, Mr. Moon called Mr. Kim open-minded and practical.

Nowhere is Mr. Kims dilemma better seen than in his policy of byungjin, or parallel advance, which seeks a nuclear arsenal and economic development simultaneously. Under that policy, Mr. Kim has rapidly developed his countrys nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, arguing that a nuclear deterrent would make his country feel secure enough to focus on rebuilding the economy. But the world has responded by imposing crippling sanctions.

Kim Jong-un is at a crossroads, said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, South Koreas capital. He could advance his nuclear weapons program further and face a deeper isolation and possible economic ruin. Or he could use it as a bargaining card to win normalized ties and a peace treaty with the United States and economic recovery.

If Mr. Kim pursues the route of economic reform, energy and transportation are the two areas where he most needs outside help. In his meeting with Mr. Moon, Mr. Kim admitted to the embarrassing condition of his roads and railways, South Korean officials said.KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia  The accounts of corruption are staggering: at least $3.5 billion stolen from a government fund and spent on expensive real estate, jewelry and art, with $731 million ending up in the personal accounts of the prime minister, Najib Razak.

Malaysians were so enraged that they threw out Mr. Najib in national elections this week, the first time the governing party has lost power since independence more than 60 years ago.

In his place, voters turned to a familiar face, Mahathir Mohamad, a 92-year-old former prime minister who had teamed up in an unlikely alliance with his political opponents, some of whom he had jailed.

Mr. Mahathir was sworn in on Thursday as the new prime minister  the worlds oldest elected head of government  promising to fight corruption, prosecute Mr. Najib and unite this diverse nation of 31 million people.WASHINGTON  President Trump, exulting in the release of three Americans from prison in North Korea, confirmed Thursday that he would meet Kim Jong-un, the Norths leader, in Singapore on June 12, setting the date for a once unimaginable encounter.

The choice of Singapore, a tidy, prosperous city-state with ties to both the United States and North Korea, is a small victory for Mr. Trumps advisers, who talked him out of meeting Mr. Kim in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea  a far more symbolic, but politically problematic, location.

We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace! Mr. Trump said in a midmorning post on Twitter, hours after he traveled in the middle of the night to Joint Base Andrews near Washington to greet the three men: Kim Dong-chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song.

North Koreas release of the Americans lifted a major obstacle to the summit meeting. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has taken charge of the diplomatic opening to the North, finalized its date and location during a 90-minute meeting with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, the Norths capital. Afterward, Mr. Pompeo left with the detainees on his plane.Mr. Farmer, who was taken to a hospital for treatment, did not have a previous history of seizures, Mr. Newhouse said, adding that he had been seriously injured.

The WA police have one of the worst track records in this country for discrimination and prejudice against Aboriginal people, he said. The commissioner of police needs to come out with a very clear statement that violence against and harassment of Aboriginal people is not acceptable in his police force.

West Australias police minister, Michelle Roberts, told reporters Tuesday that what happened was very disturbing, and pledged a thorough inquiry.

Others said the episode reflected a pattern of police mistreatment.

This is not a singular incident. It has been going on for a very long time, said Mr. Eades, chief executive of Ngalla Maya Aboriginal Corporation, adding that if it had not been caught on video, it would have never been made public.

He referred to other cases, like that of Ms Dhu, a young Indigenous woman whose family was awarded a 1.1 million Australian dollars (about $822,000) after she died in custody in 2014.

This is systemic racism, and my people have been bearing the brunt of it, and we are sick of it, he said.CAIRO  The British government issued an apology on Thursday to a Libyan dissident and his wife for its role in a C.I.A. abduction in 2004 that landed them in Libya, where the man was tortured by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafis security forces and imprisoned for six years.

The apology to the dissident, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, and his wife, Fatima Boudchar, was the culmination of a six-year legal battle and represented a rare public rebuke by the British government of its own intelligence services.

It is clear that you were both subjected to appalling treatment and that you suffered greatly, not least the affront to the dignity of Mrs. Boudchar, who was pregnant at the time, Prime Minister Theresa May told the couple in a letter that was read out in Parliament.

We are profoundly sorry for the ordeal that you both suffered and our role in it, Mrs. May said.

Mr. Belhaj is a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which tried to overthrow Colonel Qaddafi in the 1990s. After that effort failed, Mr. Belhaj fled into exile. In 2004, he and his Morocco-born wife, who was four months pregnant, were detained in Malaysia based on a tip by British intelligence operatives who told their American counterparts that the couple were suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda.LONDON  On the eve of his death, David Goodall, 104, Australian scientist, father, grandfather and right-to-die advocate, was asked if he had any moments of hesitation, even fleeting ones.

No, none whatever, Mr. Goodall said in a strong voice. I no longer want to continue life, and Im happy to have a chance tomorrow to end it.

Mr. Goodall spoke on Wednesday before a phalanx journalists and photographers in Basel, Switzerland. That the inquisitors had come from around the globe to hear what would be most likely the last public words of the man once called Australias oldest working scientist was evidence that his campaign to end his life had captivated audiences worldwide.

On Thursday, Mr. Goodall died about 12:30 p.m. local time, according to Exit International, a right-to-die organization of which he had been a longtime member.Rome is the only capital in the world where you see a bus in flames in the city center, the papers editorial read, a 10-meter-high smoke chain, people running away, explosion, police and firefighters sirens, and nobody thinks of ISIS, but ATAC.

It was no accident that my first inquiry after the explosion was to ATAC, rather than the police.

ATAC immediately opened an internal investigation to ascertain the cause of the fire that developed on board, a company statement said, repeating much of the conversation I had with a spokesman.

The fire didnt cause any consequences to the passengers, it added. The vehicle was completely destroyed.

The city offered no explanation, and officials could not be reached for comment.

The cause, however, is self-evident: The buses are too old and almost certainly too little serviced. The two buses that burst into flames on Tuesday were built in 2003 and in 2004. On average, public buses should be in service for six to seven years, not 15, transportation experts say.

Old buses simply break more easily and even finding components to replace becomes a challenge, said Gabriele Grea, a professor of economics and management of local public transportation at Bocconi University in Milan. These kinds of fires are rare, but generally depend on the poor maintenance of antiquated vehicles.

After years of little funds and scarce attention, the center-left national government kicked off an ambitious plan last year to renovate the public transportation fleet across the country. Yet the process takes time and Rome finds itself in an especially awkward position.

ATAC, the company for bus and rail transport in the city of Rome, has a national reputation for passengers who fail to buy tickets  and jump off as soon as ticket collectors, who are rarely spotted, come on board. Drivers, many of whom have little problem multitasking on their cellphones, are not asked to check tickets. The companys employee absence rate is well beyond the national average.MOSCOW  In a schoolyard in Moscow shaded by birch trees, a group of children held in their hands portraits of their ancestors who died in World War II. They were waiting to join one of this years Immortal Regiment marches  held across the country to honor the war dead.

The idea is that we walk with pictures of our relatives, said Pavel Mramornov, 11, holding a portrait of his great-great-grandfather, who died in 1944. We carry our relatives in our hearts.

The students relatives were among the 27 million Soviet soldiers and citizens estimated to have died in the war, which touched nearly every family in the country and which is still treated as a sacred era in Russias history.GAZA CITY  With a climactic confrontation expected days from now at the fence separating the Gaza Strip from Israel, where Palestinians have been demonstrating for weeks, Yehya Sinwar, the leader in Gaza of Hamas, the militant group that rules the territory, offered little hope for a bloodless encounter.

Whats the problem with hundreds of thousands of people parading through a fence thats not a border? he said Thursday. Whats the problem with an influx like that?

Mr. Sinwar offered lip service to nonviolence, saying he hoped that the presence of international journalists would constrain Israeli soldiers from massacring people who crossed the fence. But he demurred when asked if he would urge protesters to refrain from trying to cross the fence, as hundreds of others have tried with often fatal results. Since the demonstration began on March 30, 47 people have been killed and nearly 7,000 wounded.

A day earlier, however, speaking to hundreds of young Gazans, Mr. Sinwar was far less restrained in his language, saying, We would rather die as martyrs than die out of oppression and humiliation, and adding, We are ready to die, and tens of thousands will die with us.The Israeli government rarely confirms individual strikes, and the Syrian government and Hezbollah do not always acknowledge when they have been hit. But last August, Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, the departing commander of the Israeli Air Force, said Israel had launched nearly 100 strikes on convoys since 2012. But unlike Russia and Iran, Israel has done little to sway the outcome of Syrias civil war.

It didnt have a horse in that race, feeling no love for Assad, but fearing the chaos that might follow him, Mr. Sachs said. Now, with the victory of the Assad-Iran side, Irans main spoils is a long-term military presence in Syria, entrenching it in the country and linking it to Lebanon. This is something Israel will not accept. It now fears the current trend in Syria, with growing Iranian presence, and so it has a strong incentive to stop things now before Iran gets further entrenched.

Was Trumps announcement a factor in the new fighting?

The conflict between Israel and Iran escalated days after President Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from a 2015 multinational nuclear deal with Tehran. Israel had railed against the agreement since before its inception and Mr. Trump had campaigned on the promise of withdrawing from it.

The concern now is that the shadow war Israel and Iran have been waging for years, most recently in Syria under the cover of the civil war there, has now burst into the open.

Its not a proxy war. Its a direct war and thats what makes it particularly dangerous, said Martin S. Indyk, a former United States ambassador to Israel. Israel and Iran have been in a cold war for maybe 20 years now, but now its out in the open: direct, kinetic engagement between the forces, with Iranian casualties mounting. The potential for escalation is much greater now than before.

He said that Mr. Trumps announcement might not have helped, but that the stage for the conflict was set earlier this year. Iran pushed allied militias toward the Golan Heights and moved rockets and rocket production into Syria to better supply Hezbollah with more accurate weaponry. Iran also installed air-defense systems that can reach into Israel.Even so, the Iranians have plenty to lose if the conflict continues to grow. They still seem determined to preserve the nuclear accord despite renewed American sanctions. The accord also includes Russia, China, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union.

We see now that Netanyahu feels that Irans capacities in Syria are vulnerable, that he can target them, that Irans capacities to strike back are weakened  he took out some of these capacities, probably less than he claims  and that Iran has no significant way to react without risking itself, said Ofer Zalzberg, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.

Israel made it clear on Thursday that its planning for the airstrikes had been known internally as Chess, and it looked in the aftermath as though Iran might have been baited into a trap on the Syrian game board.

Irans rocket attack against Israel came after what appeared to have been an Israeli missile strike against a village in the Syrian Golan Heights late on Wednesday.

Early on Thursday, Iranian forces fired about 20 Grad and Fajr-5 rockets at the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, targeting forward positions of the Israeli military, according to an Israeli military spokesman. The barrage was launched under the command of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and used Iranian weapons, said the Israeli spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus.

Four of the rockets were intercepted by Israels Iron Dome antimissile defense system, and the rest fell short of the Israeli-controlled territory, the military said. Indeed, by Thursday morning, Israeli life returned to routine in the Golan Heights, with children going to school.

Still, the rocket attack was a significant escalation in Irans maneuvers in the Middle East. Though Israel has hit Iranian forces in Syria with a number of deadly airstrikes, Tehran had been restrained in hitting back, until now.Automakers have steadily improved the fuel economy of new cars, S.U.V.s and pickup trucks, pushed by federal regulations. While some companies have introduced hybrid and electric cars, most of the recent gains have come from improving traditional gasoline-powered vehicles.

The Trump administration is now proposing to weaken those Obama-era vehicle rules after 2021. A big question is whether automakers can meet increasingly strict standards in the years ahead. To put this debate in context, heres a look at how automakers have improved the fuel economy of some of their most popular models so far  and what the future might hold.

Two paths for how sedans have improved engines

Fuel economy, combined city and highway, miles per gallon | Source: fueleconomy.gov

Toyota has increased fuel economy in the Camry, its best-selling sedan in the United States, through a multitude of engine improvements, such as more precisely controlling the timing of engine valves with electric motors. These strategies can add to the upfront cost of the vehicle, though drivers save on fuel costs over time.

Other automakers have adopted different strategies. Chevrolet has increased the fuel economy of its Malibu sedan by switching to a smaller engine that uses less fuel but still maintains power by using turbochargers. The Malibu also has a start-stop system that shuts the engine off when the car comes to a stop  a technology that initially got mixed reviews from drivers but is becoming more widespread.

And analysts say that automakers havent yet hit the limits of improvements in internal combustion engines. Mazda has announced a new engine technology for 2019 that, it claims, can improve fuel efficiency even more by more precisely controlling the timing of fuel ignition.

Greater efficiency at more speeds in S.U.V.s

Fuel economy, combined city and highway, miles per gallon | Source: fueleconomy.gov

Because of how the current fuel economy rules are structured, S.U.V.s face less stringent standards than smaller cars do. So, as Americans have shifted toward larger vehicles in recent years, that has temporarily slowed the overall pace of fuel economy gains.

But S.U.V.s still face tighter requirements each year. Subaru has improved the fuel economy of its Outback by redesigning the transmission. Having more gears can allow an engine to operate more efficiently at different speeds, and the Outbacks continuously variable transmission essentially allows for a nearly infinite set of gears, helping to improve fuel economy.

Automakers are still trying to perfect these newer transmission systems, which, if implemented poorly, can lead to jarring driving experiences or higher maintenance costs. But as companies like Subaru and Honda fine-tune the technology, analysts expect it to become more widespread to help meet stringent fuel economy standards.

Trucks have gotten lighter without sacrificing power

This chart compares fuel economy for four-wheel-drive F-150 trucks with the most fuel-efficient gasoline engine. The 2008 value represents a 4.6-liter V8 engine (4-speed); the 2018 value represents a 2.7-liter V6 EcoBoost engine (10-speed). Fuel economy, combined city and highway, miles per gallon | Source: fueleconomy.gov

The Ford F-150 pickup has long been the best-selling vehicle in the United States. As vehicle standards have risen, Ford has increased the trucks fuel efficiency by removing 700 pounds, switching from steel to high-strength aluminum. (The lighter F-150 has still performed well in crash tests.)

The company also developed smaller engines that use less fuel while maintaining power. Ford's most popular F-150 engine today now produces only slightly more horsepower than the most powerful engine available in 2010. And fuel economy has gone up by 40 percent.

The F-150 still consumes far more gasoline per mile than smaller cars like the Camry or the Malibu do. But improving the fuel economy of a gas-guzzling pickup truck by 1 mile per gallon actually reduces overall gasoline use by more than eking out another 1 m.p.g. from a highly efficient sedan, because of diminishing returns, said Gabriel Collins, an energy fellow at Rice Universitys Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Large heavy vehicles are really your low-hanging fruit if youre looking to rein in fuel use and emissions, Mr. Collins said.

But hybrids and electric cars are still far out in front

Miles per gallon equivalent (m.p.g.-e) is the number of miles an electric vehicle can go using an amount of energy comparable to that in a gallon of gasoline. Fuel economy, combined city and highway, miles per gallon | Source: fueleconomy.gov

If fuel economy standards continue to rise, automakers may need to produce more hybrids and electric cars to meet the requirements of the future.

Automakers have recently rushed to announce new electric models, and Ford is even planning a hybrid F-150 by 2020. But they have also expressed concern about consumer willingness to buy these vehicles in the short term, especially with gasoline much cheaper than it was in 2011. Last year, plug-in vehicles made up just 1 percent of new sales.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the main automaker lobbying group, has asked the Trump administration to relax the vehicle standards between 2022 and 2025, arguing that current standards would require roughly one-third of new vehicles sold in 2025 to be full hybrids. Consumer adoption of advanced technology vehicles has not lived up to expectations, Mitch Bainwol, president of the alliance, told Congress last year.

But other groups dispute this claim, arguing that automakers can readily meet the Obama-era standards without needing to shift heavily into electric vehicles. Theres no question in my mind about that, said John German, a senior fellow at the International Council on Clean Transportation, pointing to the latest Camry, which already meets 2022 standards. Conventional technologies are just coming along so fast.Any 'sewak' can become Prime Minister: Shiv Sena on Rahul's PM ambition

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The Shiv Sena has backed Rahul Gandhi, who was criticised by the BJP for openly expressing his prime ministerial ambitions, and said that "every person has the right to dream of becoming the Prime Minister."

Even on Wednesday (May 9), BJP's bickering ally Shiv Sena said it was the Congress president's democratic right to express his stand and no one should make fun of it.

"In this country, every person has the right to dream of becoming the Prime Minister. If Modi ji calls himself a 'pradhan sewak' then any 'sewak' of this country can become the Prime Minister," Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut told ANI on Thursday (May 10).

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday dubbed Rahul's remark as "immature", adding that Congress president's comment may push other parties away from forging an alliance with the grand old party. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a rally in Karnataka today (May 9), termed Rahul's remark as "nothing but arrogance."

Amid blistering attack by the BJP, former finance minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday came out in defence of Rahul and his party.

"Last time when Rajnath was party president, the posters saying 'Abki bar BJP sarkar' were replaced overnight by 'Abki bar Modi sarkar'. We are not like them, we aren't saying 'Rahul ki sarkar'. We are fighting for 'Congress Sarkar'," News 18 quoted Chidambaram as saying.

[We are fighting for Congress Sarkar, not Rahul ki sarkar: Chidambaram]

Rahul Gandhi who was in Bengaluru on May 8 was responding to questions by journalists on whether he was willing to become the PM if the the Congress gets the numbers in 2019. "If the Congress wins with the single largest majority, then why not," he said.

It was the first time that Rahul Gandhi openly expressed his interest in taking up the mantle. Although he was an MP when the UPA was in power, he did not join the cabinet led by Dr. Manmohan Singh. He officially took over as the president of the Congress from his mother Sonia Gandhi in December ahead of the Gujarat elections.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 12:54 [IST]Amid political crisis in Punjab, Arvind Kejriwal likely to announce party's CM face on Thursday

Why is there so much hatred against farmers: Arvind Kejriwal slams PM on Lakhimpur Kheri incident

Arvind Kejriwal's relative Vinay Bansal arrested in corruption case

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, May 10: A relative of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested this morning in a corruption case, police said. Vinay Bansal, son of Kejriwal's brother-in-law, was arrested by Anti-Corruption Bureau in connection with the PWD scam, a senior police official said.

Three FIRs or first imformation reports, including one against a company run by the chief minister's brother-in-law Surender Bansal, were registered by the anti-corruption body in this case on May 9 last year.

Three companies, including Renu Constructions (owned by Bansal, Kamal Singh and Pawan Kumar), were included in the FIRs.

In a complaint, Rahul Sharma, founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), had alleged that Mr Kejriwal and PWD minister Satyender Jain misused their office for grant of contracts to Mr Bansal. However, they were not named in the FIR.

RACO, an organisation which claims to monitor construction projects in the national capital, had alleged that a firm linked to Mr Bansal was involved in financial irregularities in building a drainage system in north-west Delhi.

It was also alleged that the bills sent to the Public Works Department (PWD) for unfinished works were "false and fabricated".

PTI

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 12:18 [IST]'Azadi impossible, you cant fight us,' says Army chief Bipin Rawat to Kashmiri youth

India

oi-Madhuri

The Indian Army Chief Bipin Rawat on Thursday has expressed concerned over the youth in the valley who are taking up arms or resorting to stone pelting and said that Kashmiris have to understand that 'Azadi' could never be achieved by them.

In an interview to The Indian Express, the Army chief cautioned Kashmiri youth from getting carried away.

"I want to tell Kashmiri youth that Azadi isn't possible. It won't happen. Don't get carried away unnecessarily," Rawat said in an interview to Indian Express.

General Rawat said Army doesn't enjoy killings, adding that "If you want to fight us, then we will fight you with all our force." "Kashmiris have to understand that the SFs (security forces) haven't been so brutal - look at Syria and Pakistan. Our troops have been trying their level best to avoid any civilian casualty despite huge provocation," he said.

The Army chief further said that the cycle of killing would continue in Kashmir as fresh recruitments are being done by terrorist groups.

Earlier this week, a 22-year-old tourist whose vehicle was targeted by stone-pelters, died. Whereas, the civilian death toll in Sunday's clashes between protesters and security forces in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir has climbed to six after a youth succumbed to injuries.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 10:14 [IST]If Mishra is not sacked, it sends out message that people in power can do anything: Priyanka Gandhi

'Cong has no place for Dalits, backwards': PM while addressing BJP's SC/ST workers

India

oi-Madhuri

On the last day of campaigning before Karnataka goes to polls on May 12, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday invoked BR Ambedkar while appealing to SC/STs to vote for the BJP in the Karnataka Assembly elections through NaMo app.

While addressing BJP's SC/ST workers through NaMo app, PM Modi said,''Maximum number of workers from the SC/ST category are BJP members of parliament. No matter what field, BJP is taking along members for the uplift for every person. We have submitted ourselves for the betterment of the society, be it Dalit, poor, tribal or women. Without stopping we are committed to work tirelessly for people."

Modi also said,"B R Ambedkar dreamt of India as a country which takes each and every person forward. When people of the community were subjugated to injustice, Jyotirao Phule raised his voice and worked to get them equal rights. Sant Kabir Das and Ravi Das have spent all their lives fighting for equality which was rare in that era. We have decided to impart Baba saheb's teachings to the youth today. It is a great achievement for us to develop Baba saheb's 'panch teerth'. I waat to request every member to visit Delhi and visit his memorial to experience the greatness of Ambedkar. Today, India is the second largest mobile producer, third largest electricity producer, 99 cites are on the path of become smart cities."

"Congress has no place for Dalits and backward classes. History has been witness to how Congress has insulted Dr Ambedkar. Be it 1982 Lok Sabha elections or Lok Sabha bye-elections later on, Congress did not leave any opportunity to discourage him and that's the reason he had to face such humiliation despite such great work. I want Congress to tell me at least one instance where they have done something for Baba Saheb. Today is the last day of campaigning, I know you have to do door-to-door campaigning. But you must tell people about what all Congress has done," PM Modi said.

Meanwhile, in the run-up to May 12, when voting takes place on Karnataka, the Bharatiya Janata Party has plans to intensify its campaign bid on the last day of campaigning, with 23 party leaders, including Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Ananth Kumar, Piyush Goyal & Dharmendra Pradhan, to hold mega road shows in different parts of Karnataka today, ANI reported.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 9:52 [IST]President Ram Nath Kovind confers National Teachers' Award on 44 teachers from across the country

Staffers test Covid positive at presidential retreat, Kovind to stay at private hotel in Shimla

President Ram Nath Kovind, VP Venkaiah Naidu wish PM Narendra Modi on his 71st birthday

Our aim is to graduate from 'women development' to 'women-led development': President Kovind

I have a special respect for soldiers, says President Kovind after visiting Siachen base camp

India

oi-Madhuri

President Ram Nath Kovind visited Siachen base camp in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday. He is the second president to visit the camp, after former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who visited in 2004.

Siachen is considered as the highest battlefield in the world.

Speaking to media, Kovind said,''There was a special reason behind my excitement to meet you. I wanted to personally convey you the message that there is special respect in heart of all Indians for the soldiers and officers guarding the borders.''

In 2004 Kalam became the first Indian President to visit the Siachen glacier, according to NDTV.

Meanwhile, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Bipin Rawat visited Kargil sector in Ladakh region and reviewed security situation on Wednesday.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 15:21 [IST]Ktaka: AAP candidate verbally abused at hotel owned by NA Haris after waiter tries to take selfie

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

Bengaluru, May 10: The fanboy moment of a waiter in a Bengaluru hotel went horribly wrong on Wednesday evening after the management intervened and rebuked him for trying to take a selfie with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and retired bureaucrat Renuka Viswanathan.

After reprimanding the waiter, the hotel manager allegedly verbally abused Viswanathan and five of AAP volunteers who went to the eatery to have their dinner. Following the incident which took place at The Ocea International Hotel in Bengaluru's Brigade Road, Viswanathan and her colleagues were forced to leave the place without having their food.

Incidentally, the hotel belonged to controversial Congress MLA NA Haris, who is contesting the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections from the high-profile Shantinagar constituency in Bengaluru. Haris is also a two-time MLA from the constituency.

Sixty nine-year-old Viswanathan, a highly-revered retired IAS officer, is making her debut in the elections by standing against Haris from the same constituency. Thus the whole "ugly episode" clearly indicated that the hotel management got "mighty upset" after it found out that one of its employees tried to take a selfie with the opposition leader fighting elections against their "boss".

Narrating the incident, Vinod Kumar, an AAP volunteer who went to have his dinner with Viswanathan and other AAP members at the hotel, told OneIndia,"We were shocked to see the reaction of the manager. We went to the hotel at around 10 pm last night (Wednesday) for dinner. We had no clue the hotel is owned by Haris. A waiter approached us to take a selfie with us. We obliged. Suddenly, the manager came and he hurled abuses at the waiter. The waiter was immediately taken inside a different room."

"When we asked why he abused the waiter for taking a selfie, the manager started abusing us and accused us of campaigning inside the hotel. We went to have dinner at the hotel like any regular patrons," Kumar added.

Kumar accused that the hotel staff members acted like "goons" and forced them to leave the place. "We are worried about the waiter. Hope he is fine. We wanted to see him, but they did not allow us to meet him. We are planning to visit the hotel again to check if everything is fine with the waiter. If he needs any help, we will help him. The incident is totally undemocratic where a person was abused for trying to take a selfie and others were forced to leave a place," added Kumar.

When OneIndia called the hotel on Thursday afternoon to get their side of the story, the hotel management denied that any such incident took place inside their restaurant.

Of late, Haris has been hogging the limelight for all the wrong reasons. In February, the incumbent Congress government in Karnataka faced a lot of flak after Haris' son, Mohammed Nalapad Haris, was booked for attempt to murder for allegedly assaulting a man in a Bengaluru pub. Reports stated that the Congress was not very keen to give ticket to Haris to contest the polls, however, later the party obliged because he reportedly issued threats to join an opposition party.

The incident involving AAP candidate and volunteers at Haris' hotel has come to light just 48 hours before the state goes to polls on Saturday. A total of 224 seats are up for grabs in the elections. The results of the Assembly elections will be declared on May 15.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 13:59 [IST]Karnataka: Will Congress not allow Kumaraswamy to be CM for full 5-year term?

Is it chief minister Kumaraswamy or chief manager of Congress Ktaka ATM? BJP has an answer

All is well between Congress, JD(S)? Kumaraswamy meets Rahul as Karnataka waits for full cabinet

Karnataka elections: Delhi University teachers appeal to voters to defeat BJP

India

pti-PTI

A section of Delhi University teachers on Thursday appealed to Dalit and minority voters in Karnataka to defeat the BJP in the May 12 assembly election, alleging the government led by the party at the Centre took steps to end reservations in appointments of faculties, privatise education and make the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act toothless.

In a press conference, Delhi University Forum for Social Justice Convener Suraj Mandal said, "There is an atmosphere of hatred in the country and the Modi government has stopped all the means of employment, pushing the youth towards the path of religious frenzy and caste prejudice.

In the garb of a court order, the Modi government on the one hand has turned the SC/ST Act toothless and disabled its spirit and on the other reservation in appointments of the faculty positions has been done away with in all the universities of the country."

Delhi University teachers have been fighting against a circular of the University Grants Commission (UGC), dated March 5, 2018, on the reservation in faculty positions.

According to a statement issued by the Delhi University Teachers Association(DUTA), the move would end reservation in appointments in university/colleges as the number of vacancies department/subject wise are limited.

Mandal, who is a grandson of former Chairman of Backward Classes Commission Late B P Mandal and an associate professor with Swami Shraddhanand College, said, "We appeal to Dalit, backward, tribal, minority...and many other and their organisations for defeating the anti-social justice BJP in the election in Karnataka.

PTIKarnataka elections: How to beat Bengaluru's heat? Enjoy ice cream like Rahul Gandhi

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

Bengaluru, May 10: Karnataka is witnessing quite a heated election contest. And to add to the woes of residents, the sultry weather is definitely not helping the tired souls.

So how do you beat the heat? Bengaluru got a "new cool lesson" from Congress president Rahul Gandhi who was in the IT hub on Wednesday to campaign for his party for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections on Saturday (May 12).

In the evening, Rahul headed to an ice cream parlour in the city and was seen enjoying ice cream with a group of his supporters. After gorging on the delicacies, the Congress president made it a point to tweet about his ice cream sojourn and heaped praises on the outlet and its workers.

Impressed by the ice cream and the parlour's friendly people, Rahul is planning to revisit the place soon. We can't blame Rahul for his candid confession, after all we all have a soft corner for ice cream, in spite of the fact they are high on calories.

"This ice cream parlour in Bengaluru was a great place to end a long day on the campaign trail! The ice cream here is amazing and the staff friendly and helpful. I enjoyed meeting the owner and some of his customers. Look forward to being back soon!" tweeted Rahul.

This ice cream parlour in Bengaluru was a great place to end a long day on the campaign trail! The ice cream here is amazing and the staff friendly and helpful. I enjoyed meeting the owner and some of his customers. Look forward to being back soon! pic.twitter.com/WaqgPNp4cO  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 9, 2018

Earlier, Rahul also paid tributes to Kannada cinema icon Rajkumar at the late actor's memorial in Bengaluru. A few days ago, Rajkumar's son Puneeth Rajkumar and his wife met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the city and gifted him a portrait of the cinema icon.

Rajkumar is a hugely popular figure in Karnataka and his family enjoys good amount of support among the people. So, if anyone from the Rajkumar family is seen endorsing a candidate or a party, voters will definitely not miss the point.

Apart from enjoying ice cream and paying tributes to the icon of Karnataka, Rahul attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and PM Modi during his rally in the city. On his part, PM Modi also attacked Rahul who on Tuesday said that he was ready to be the PM of the country provided the Congress emerges winner in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The results of the state Assembly elections will be declared on May 15. Till then, let parties and leaders continue to trade barbs over various issues. A total of 224 seats are up for grabs in the upcoming elections, dubbed as a curtain raiser for the big 2019 General elections.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 8:02 [IST]Karnataka elections: Is ILU-ILU brewing between Congress, JD(S)? Amit Shah alleges so

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

Bengaluru, May 10: For the uninitiated ILU stands for "I love you". The abbreviated version of the oft-repeated human expression got prominence in the Indian lexicon because of the popular Bollywood song, ILU- ILU, from the hit film, Saudagar, released in 1991.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Wednesday during his campaign in poll-bound Karnataka used the abbreviated version "ILU" twice to allege that some kind of "secret pact" is underway between the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)).

"Do you know about ILU-ILU. It's the Congress and the JD(S). The Congress is anyway going to be defeated, and votes given to the JD(S) will also go wasted. They are not even in the race," Shah said during his roadshow in Bengaluru.

"The Congress and the JD(S) are supporting each other. This just shows their desperation to win the elections. People are going to vote for the BJP on May 12 and the Congress is going to lose," he added.

Congress & JDS are supporting each other. This just shows their desperation to win the elections. People are going to vote for the BJP on May 12 & Congress is going to lose: BJP President Amit Shah during a roadshow in Bengaluru #KarnatakaElections2018 pic.twitter.com/omS1HoWZMb  ANI (@ANI) May 9, 2018

It is not for the first time that the BJP has alleged some kind of understanding between the Congress and the JD(S). The Congress, on its part, has also alleged that the BJP and the JD(S) are having a secret pact before the polls. The JD(S) has denied allegations of both the BJP and the Congress.

The HD Deve Gowda-led party maintains that it will emerge as the winner on its own. Experts say the JD(S) will be the "kingmaker" after the elections, as neither the BJP nor the incumbent Congress will reach the magic figure of 113 seats to form the next government in the southern state. Thus, the party with the maximum seats has to join hands with the JD(S) which is likely to get 30 to 40 seats.

A few days ago, on the first day of his ongoing campaign in Karnataka on May 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi heaped praises on former PM and JD(S) patriarch Deve Gowda. In fact, it was Congress president Rahul Gandhi who a few months ago stated that the BJP and the JD(S) are having a "secret alliance". Recently, again Rahul asked the JD(S) to tell which party (the BJP or the Congress) it is going to support after the polls.

JD(S) Karnataka president and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy said recently that the party will support any party which will fulfill its manifesto. Although Modi and Shah are profusely praising Deve Gowda, both in their rallies are asking voters not to vote for the JD(S).

The Assembly elections in Karnataka are scheduled on Saturday (May 12). A total of 224 seats are up for grabs in the highly-contested elections, dubbed as a curtain raiser before the 2019 General Elections. The results of the polls will be declared on May 15.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 9:21 [IST]Karnataka elections: Voter ID cards collected as collateral security in exchange for cash

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The investigations being conducted into the voter ID scam in Karnataka has revealed that the the cards were collected from the voters as collateral security. It was meant to help a particular political party, the police said.

The police had seized 9,746 voter IDs from a flat in Jalahalli in the Raja Rajeshwari Nagar Assembly constituency on Tuesday. The Election Commission of India too is probing the matter and has sent a special observer to overlook the same.

Following the seizure, the police began tracing the card holders. As per the accounts given by some of them, it was revealed that the cards were taken as collateral security in exchange for cash distributed by the political party. The involvement of any particular political party is yet to be ascertained by the police.

Voter ID scam: Two arrested, more to follow

The probe also revealed that the cards were stacked up in bundles. Each bundle had the name of a person who was tasked with getting in touch with the voter, paying him the money to vote for a particular party. The bundles also had the name and number of the particular person, the police also said.

The police have been questioning several persons in connection with the case. The police is also looking into the counterfoils which resemble acknowledgement slips of Form-6 which is used to add names to the voter's list.

Meanwhile two persons have been arrested in connection with the case. Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka, Sanjeev Kumar while confirming this development also did not rule out the possibility of more arrests.

"This is a very serious matter. Two people have been arrested as of now. There is a possibility of more arrests. The case is currently being investigated," Kumar said while addressing a press conference in Bengaluru.

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

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 7:26 [IST]Lashkar terrorist thanks Indian Army for saving his life

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Return to your homes, you are on the wrong road, a Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist captured by the Indian Army has said. Aijaz Gujri who recorded a confessional video in custody thanked the Army for capturing him alive.

He said that the Army could have killed him, but saved his life instead. He said that those who have taken up arms must drop them and return to their homes. They have been living in the forests and I appeal to them to go back to their parents he further said.

Sending a message to a terrorist by the name, Nasir Amin, he appealed stating that Nasir's mother is ill and he should go back to her.

Explaining the encounter, Gujri said that they had opened fire, but the Army did not return fire. I hid in a bush when I was arrested. They could have killed me, but did not, he also said.

He said that his handlers in Pakistan had told him to create violence in the Kashmir Valley. We were told that the Indian Army has been committing atrocities. However that is not true, he further said.

The security forces had arrested four terrorists and seven Over Ground Workers (OGWs) in separate raids in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla following the killing of the civilians. The raids were conducted in north Kashmir's Old Town Baramulla and Sopore of Baramulla district.

The four terrorists were involved in recent killing of three youths - Asif Ahmad Sheikh, Haseeb Ahmad Khan and Mohmmad Asgar, residents of Kakkar Hamam in Baramulla.

On April 30, bullet-ridden bodies of three youth in their early 20s, were recovered from Khanpora Baramulla.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 8:42 [IST]After being hit by stones, Vande Bharat runs into motorcycle

Mahashivratri: More than 1 crore devotees take holy dip in Sangam

Priyanka Gandhi to contest against PM Modi in Allahabad?

'Invades Right to Privacy': Allahabad HC makes display of notice for inter-faith marriages optional

Lawyer shot dead in Allahabad, protest turn violent

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Protest against the murder of a lawyer turned violent in Colonelganj's Manmohan Park area in Allahabad on Thursday. A lawyer named Rajesh Srivastava was shot dead in Colonelganj early morning. Lawyers set ablaze a bus near District Magistrate's office in Allahabad, protesting after lawyer Rajesh Srivastava was shot dead.

According to reports, SSP Akash Kulhari told media that land dispute could be reason behind the murder of lawyer. The slain Rajesh Shrivastav was advocating an old land case.

Ironically, the incident has occurred when the DGP is reviewing the crime in the city. The entire city's police force has been deployed to avoid untoward incidents.

Lawyers alleged that law order situation in deteriorated in Allahabad. Two days ago, BJP leader Pawan Kesari was killed in Phulpur. A few days ago, robbers looted Rs 10 Crore from UCO Bank.

So far no arrests have been made in connection with these cases.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 12:50 [IST]Naxals in possession of legitimate bank accounts, NIA takes over probe

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The National Investigation Agency has taken over the probe into a naxal related case registered in Jharkhand. The case was registered in compliance with a Home Ministry directive.

On March 6 2018, the Jharkhand police arrested 15 armed naxalites including functionaries of the CPI(Maoist) from Akabakitanr, P S Dumri, district Giridih. The police had also recovered AK-47, Insas, SLR and 303 rifles.

Significantly, among the recovered articles were 60 ATM (SBI) cards, 199 letters of thanks issued by Allahabad Bank, for opening accounts and 1,125 Aadhar cards. During the initial investigation, it has been revealed that the amount collected as levy by the Maoists is being used to acquire property in the names of close associates of CPI (Maoist) cadres. A team of officers headed by SP NIA is proceeding to Jharkhand to take up investigation of the case, a note by the agency said.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 7:05 [IST]Gujarat woman cop who took on ministers son says she has resigned

Not paid for 2 months, let me beg in uniform cop tells Devendra Fadnavis

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

A constable with the Mumbai police has sought permission to "beg-in uniform", saying he can not support his family as he hasn't been receiving salary for the past two months.

In his letter to department superiors, Police Commissioner Datta Padsalgikar and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, constable Dnyaneshwar Ahirrao has asked permission to beg to take care of his ailing wife and manage household expenses.

In the letter, Ahirrao, attached to the Local Arms unit, said he had taken leave from March 20-22. However, as his wife's leg got fractured, he could not report to duty when the leave expired, he said.

Ahirrao, posted with the security team at Matoshree', the residence of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, claimed that he informed his unit in-charge over the phone about the emergency leave he was availing of for five days. Following his wife's treatment, he resumed duty on March 28, he said.

But after this, he stopped getting the salary, his letter said, without revealing more information.

"I have to take care of my ill wife, old parents and a daughter. Besides, I have to pay a monthly instalment of the loan I have taken. But since my salary has been stopped, I am unable to meet these expenses. So I want permission from you to beg-in uniform," the letter said.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 7:12 [IST]'Rahul Gandhi will give tough fight to BJP in 2019', says Shiv Sena

India

oi-Madhuri

The Shiv Sena attacked Bharatiya Janata Party over Rahul Gandhi's Prime Minister ambition and said that it was the Congress president's democratic right to express his stand and no one should make fun of it. It also said that the Congress president would give a tough fight to BJP in 2019 elections.

On May 10, in an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana', the party raised questions on the BJP about the decisions being made without discussing it with the allies. Shiv Sena also said Rahul Gandhi will give a tough fight to BJP in 2019.

In a break from the past, a confident Rahul Gandhi pitched himself as the PM in 2019 if his party emerges as the single largest party. "I'm convinced that Narendra Modi won't be the PM in 2019," Gandhi said. This is the second time in nine months that the Congress president has spoken on these lines.

Attacking Congress President over his 'ready to become Prime Minister' remark, Modi said, "Yesterday he (Rahul Gandhi) says he wants to be Prime Minister. He declared himself to be Prime Minister in 2019... does this not show that his level of arrogance has reached the seventh heaven."

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

(with PTI inputs)

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 9:04 [IST]Keep the faith, we are with her in this struggle: Subramanian Swamy to Kangana Ranaut

Rajnikanth is 'illiterate', alliance with him would be a disaster: Swamy

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Amid speculations that Rajnikanth may side with the BJP, Subramanian Swamy called the veteran Tamil superstar "an illiterate", adding that such an alliance would be a disaster.

"This man is illiterate. Those days are gone when actors had mass following politically. This alliance will be a disaster," News 18 quoted Swamy as saying.

Rajinikanth on Wednesday indicated there could be a further delay in the launch of his political party, but assured that whenever he floats his own outfit, it would usher in 'good times' for Tamil Nadu and its people.

After years of speculation, the veteran actor had announced in December 2017 he would take the political plunge and that his party would contest the next general elections from all 234 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu.

He had said he would opt for the path of 'spiritual politics,' triggering speculations of a tie-up with BJP, considering the actor's perceived friendship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi had met the superstar here a few years back at the latter's residence, even as Rajinikanth has praised the Prime Minister for his 'Swachata Hi Seva' campaign and the November 2016 demonetisation move.

OneIndia News with PTI inputsSC junks Pramod Muthaliks plea challenging Congresss Karnataka manifesto

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected Rashtriya Hindu Sena chief Pramod Muthalik's plea challenging the Congress manifesto. He had challenged the manifesto stating that it was trying to bag votes in the name of religion.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud refused to intervene in the election process as it has been set in motion.

The Bench said that the petitioner could take statutory remedy once the polling is over. The Bench also said that assuring minority communities about elevating them from social and economic backwardness did not amount to seeking votes on the ground of religion and this has been held by the Constitution bench judgment.

Muthalik alleged that the Congress' manifesto violated the election code by promising welfare steps for minorities. He sought the disqualification of the candidates on this group.

Advocate Vishnu Jain, who had mentioned the matter for urgent listing, argued that there is a seven-judge bench judgment which prohibits seeking votes in the name of religion.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 16:36 [IST]Shah has an open mind on whether Sriramulu would be deputy CM of Karnataka

Sriramulu struck deal with SC judge to bail Reddy brothers out says Congress

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Just two days before Karnataka goes to polls, the Congress has alleged that the BJP's Sriramulu had allegedly paid a bribe to a Supreme Court judge to bail the Reddys out in the illegal mining case.

Congress leader, Dinesh Gundu Rao said that just a day before Chief Justice of India Balakrishnan had retired, he had passed an order relating to a mining company belonging to the Reddy brothers. He also said that now several videos have been released showing how bribery deals were done between the then CJI's son-in-law, Sriramulu and the Reddy brothers.

In the video, the Congress claims, Sriramulu and middlemen Captain Reddy, Balan, Swamiji Rajnish and CJI Balakrishnan's son in law Sreenijan discussed bribe deals in order to get a favourable judgement from the Supreme Court in the Obalapuram case. The Congress claimed that these videos were shot because of the dispute that came because of non-settlement of the bribe amount.

"Despite supporting corrupt and jailed leaders in their own party, the PM comes to Karnataka and levels baseless allegations against us. This big expose has shown how corrupt Reddy-Srimarulu gang bribed the CJI. Will BJP & PM Modi answer?" asked , Dinesh Gundu Rao.

"Sriramulu is now BJP's star campaigner. We demand that PM break his silence and answer the people of Karnataka on why the Bellary gang has been brought back to loot Karnataka.We demand an immediate high level inquiry into this bribery scandal," he said.

Based on a survey's Interim Report, on 09.04.2010, the SC recommended that mining be stopped entirely in light of grave irregularities. The Congres leaders alleged that the Supreme Court gave a favorable judgement on 10.05.2010 and allowed OMC to continue its mining operations. Chief Justice Balakrishna retired the next day, on 11.05.2010.

"What led the Supreme Court to act in opposition with the Survey's recommendations? Despite 'grave irregularities' that were highlighted, how did the Supreme Court grant OMC relief and dilute the case against Janardhan Reddy," Congress leaders asked.

The Congres stated that between January and May 2010, there were a string of meetings between Janardhan Reddy, Sriramalu, Capt Reddy, Swamiji and Sriranjan, the then CJI's son in law. These meetings involved bribes of about Rs. 500 crores for the CJI of which 100 crores was paid in order to sway the Court's decision in favour of Janardhan Reddy, who is now well known for his role in multiple mining scams.

The BJP has however rubbished the claims. At a press conference addressed by Amit Shah, he was asked a question about the video. He rejected it by saying, there are so many doctored videos. There is no need to believe what the Congress is saying.

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TS EAMCET 2021 correction window closes today: How to make changes

Naxals from Telangana were in the process of making grenade launchers, IEDs: NIA

TS EAMCET Result 2021 to be declared today: How to check

Jyotiraditya Scindia, KTR launch first-of-its-kind 'Medicine from the Sky' project in Telangana

Rains lash several parts of T'gana, IMD issues red alert to 14 districts; Schools, colleges to remain closed

TS CET Gurukul Result 2018 declared

India

oi-Madhuri

The TS CET Gurukul Result 2018 has been declared. The results are available on the official website.

The admission will be held at Telangana Residential Educational Institutions Society (TREIS), Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS), Telangana Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TTWREIS) and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Telangana Backward Classes Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (MJPTBCWREIS) for the academic year 2018-2019. The exam was held on April 8, 2018.

Online application for the exam was held in February- March 2018. Results of the class 5th admission common entrance test can be found at tgcet.cgg.gov.in.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 8:37 [IST]Why is there so much hatred against farmers: Arvind Kejriwal slams PM on Lakhimpur Kheri incident

Thunderstorm in Western UP leaves 16 dead, 25 injured

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The death toll due to the thunderstorm which has been battering Western UP has reached 15, with around a 25 people injured. Till Wednesday (May 9) evening, four deaths were reported from Etawah, three from Mathura and one from Agra in incidents related to the thunderstorm.

Lightning, hailstorm and high velocity winds are also wreaking havoc in the state. Yesterday, a 15-year-old boy was struck by lightning while returning from the fields in Mohabbatpura village.

Four people were injured as severe winds and rain lashed parts of Etawah district. Strong winds also hit the state capital.

16 people & 22 animals dead, 25 ppl injured in 9 districts due to thunderstorm in Western UP y'day. 6 houses destroyed. Spoke to respective District Magistrates & asked them to ensure compensation to those affected by this evening: Sanjay Kumar, Relief Commissioner, Uttar Pradesh pic.twitter.com/cGGyBqHgA3  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 10, 2018

Thunderstorms and lightning on May 2-3 killed at least 134 people and injured more than 400 in five states, including the hardest-hit Uttar Pradesh, the Home Ministry said on Tuesday. The highest, 80 people, were killed in Uttar Pradesh and nearly 100 others were injured in the state.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, still campaigning in Karnataka, has said that the local District Magistrate has been told to distribute the relief immediately, maximum by noon on Thursday.

Weather officials have attributed the rain and thunderstorm to a western disturbance and cyclonic circulation that are likely to affect northwest India between May 6 and May 9. The met department, however, said the impact of the storm this time will be less than that of last week.

OneIndia News with PTI inputsTamil Nadu Elections 2021: How to check name in voter list and download voter slip

Voter ID scam: Two arrested, more to follow

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Two persons have been arrested in connection with the voter ID scam which rocked Karnataka ahead of the crucial May 12 elections. Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka, Sanjeev Kumar while confirming this development also did not rule out the possibility of more arrests.

"This is a very serious matter. Two people have been arrested as of now. There is a possibility of more arrests. The case is currently being investigated," Kumar said while addressing a press conference in Bengaluru.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Kumar said, "We are trying to reach the truth at the earliest. However, one thing is certain that nobody has broken into our system and no new voter ID cards have been made."

Voter ID scam: EC's special observer to submit report

For those unversed, nearly 9,746 voter ID cards were found from a flat in SLV Park View Apartment in Bengaluru's Jalahalli locality on Tuesday night, following which the BJP accused Congress of orchestrating the racket to gain an advantage in the upcoming state assembly polls.

In return, Congress has claimed that the flat belongs to a BJP-linked person.

Meanwhile, the BJP also demanded the cancellation of polling in Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency where assembly elections are due on May 12 along with the rest of the state.

The results for the same will be declared on May 15.

Karnataka Assembly Election dates Date of notification April 17 Last date to file nominations April 24 Last date to withdraw nominations April 27 Date of polling May 12 Date of counting May 15

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 6:54 [IST]Will probe every Congress scam and return money to people: Amit Shah

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

BJP chief Amit Shah said that the Congress is desperate to win the elections in Karnataka. Addressing a presser in Bengaluru as the campaign came to an end, he said that the Congress is trying to win elections in an undemocratic manner.

The recovery of Voter ID cards in Rajarajeshwari Nagar shows how desperately Congress is to win the elections. I want to alert those whose fake IDs have been made not to fall into the trap set by the Congress Shah said. Congress has been making a desperate attempt to win the election at any cost. These attempts will not fail and instead it will boost our victory, Shah added.

He further said that development in Bengaluru is stuck like the traffic in the city. Once we come to power we will better the infrastructure and also ensure that every scam by the Congress is probed. We will make sure that all the money of the people that was robbed will be returned. Taking a dig at Siddaramaiah, he jokingly said that the BJP would not touch the Rs 40 lakh watch as it is with the assembly speaker.

On the impact Sriramulu has had on the campaign, Shah said that it has been immense. He has toured the entire state and it has had a major impact. He also said that Karnataka will be the BJP's gateway to the south. On a question regarding Janardhan Reddy, Shah said that he maintains that the BJP has nothing to do with him. He also said that none of the candidates who have been given tickets have a mining taint.

On why Muslims had been excluded from the BJP's candidate list, Shah said that they do not give tickets based on religion. There is no need to over-analyse it, he also added.

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Chinese experts praise Trump for North Korea initiative: Report

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

China has been making all possible efforts to ensure its rival United States does not run away with the credit for making the Korean peace project successful and amid this, informal sources in the country have hailed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's latest visit to Pyongyang to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to finalise details of the much awaited meeting between Kim and US President Donald Trump.

A piece carried by China's Global Times cited Chinese experts as saying that Pompeo's recent visit to North Korea "helped secure chances of a successful summit for the leaders of the two countries" and advised avoiding of hostile gestures towards the Kim regime.

Pompeo returned with three US citizens who were detained with North Korea and they were greeted personally by Trump on their touching the American soil.

Trump also tweeted about the same, saying: "I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health."

Trump also said on Twitter that the date and place for his meeting with Kim were set.

Pompeo made a secret visit to North Korea in early April though in the capacity of the chief of the Central Intelligence Agency a few days after Kim made his first surprising visit to China. Interestingly, Pompeo's second visit also came a day after Kim met Chinese President Xi Jinping in China for the second time.

A Chinese expert said that Trump showed a "praiseworthy sincerity about dialogue" with Kim by sending Pompeo twice to Pyongyang in less than six weeks, according to Global Times. He also credited both the US and North Korea for contributing a "positive atmosphere" for the talks.

Citing Pompeo's remark that the US and North Korea are hopeful about working together to resolve the conflict, another expert said the rhetoric is a "positive response" to Pyongyang's expectation that Washington would its halt hostility towards the former, the Global Times further said.

The experts also said that the historic summit between the leaderships of North and South Korea on April 27 played an important role in creating conducive condition for the meeting.

They also gave Jinping credit for calling on both the US and North Korea to build mutual trust and address each other's concern through dialogue, the report added.

One of the experts said the North Korean leader's resolve to denuclearise his country was consolidated by his two meetings with Jinping, the Global Times report said.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 15:24 [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

Donald Trump to meet Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12

International

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un will meet for their historic summit on 12 June, the President has confirmed.

In a tweet, Mr Trump wrote: "The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace."

The two leaders are expected to discuss North Korea's nuclear weapons development and testing programme, which has deepened long-seated tensions between Washington and Pyongyang.

Trump's announcement came just hours after three Americans who had been held prisoner in North Korea arrived at a U.S. military base outside Washington, having been released by Kim.

The summit, which has been in the works since Trump accepted Kim's invitation to meet in March, will be the first ever meeting between a sitting US president and North Korean leader.

US officials had also considered holding the summit at the Korean demilitarized zone or in Mongolia, but ultimately settled on the city-state of Singapore as the location.

Pyongyang's weapons programme has seen tensions on the Korean Peninsula reach ratchet up in recent months, prompting fresh rounds of sanctions and fiery rhetoric from Trump and Kim.A secret trip to an ISIS medical camp in Syria changed the course for this Bengaluru doctor

Bengaluru youth who joined ISIS suspected to have been killed in Syria

'Dozens' of Iranian military targets hit in Syria, claims Israel

International

pti-PTI

Jerusalem, May 10: In what can escalate tensions in the region, Israel's army said on Thursday that it hit dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria overnight after rocket and missile fire toward its forces it blamed on Iran.

"The (Israeli military) has struck dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria," Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists.

He said they targeted intelligence, logistics, storage and vehicles as well as the origin of the rockets. It was one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and the biggest against Iranian targets. Conricus however stressed Israel was not seeking an escalation.

PTIGrowing capabilities require greater engagement, says Jaishankar on Modi-Xi meeting

International

pti-PTI

Singapore, 10 May: Former foreign secretary S Jaishankar has said that India and China are sitting down to discuss their future, conscious that it rides on the ability to manage contradictions, which is no small development.

The former top diplomat, who served as Ambassador to China and the United States, was addressing a lecture organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), a think tank at the National University of Singapore, yesterday (May 9). Touching upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province, he said that world history has shown the dangers of rising powers remaining self-absorbed.

"Growing capabilities and influence actually require greater engagement with the world, not less," Jaishankar said.

"As Asia rises, there are lessons that could be drawn from the experiences of others, especially Europe. It would appear that this realisation is as strong in Beijing as it is in New Delhi," said the former envoy, a distinguished visiting research fellow at the ISAS.

"India-China relations have always had a global context and will always have one. In an uncertain world, the Wuhan meeting was an important step in the direction of greater stability," he said.

If its bilateral implications are concerned, the focus seems to have been on measures to strengthen stability and manage differences, Jaishankar said, adding that some extra effort seemed to have gone into finding common ground, whether on trade or on Afghanistan. These are actually the only two nations with over a billion in population each. They are also among the world's major economies now. Their experiences in development and governance are worth exchanging, he said.

The intent of the Wuhan Summit was actually laid out last June when the two leaders met in Astana. At that time, they declared that the relationship between India and China must be a factor of stability in an uncertain world, the former diplomat said.

"They also desired that differences between India and China should not become disputes." However, this was followed shortly thereafter by the face-off at Dokalam. Significantly, he said, its conclusion saw the two countries reiterate these very approaches at the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit at Xiamen in September 2017.

"Since then, there have been intensive exchanges at senior policy levels between them, including the foreign ministers and the national security advisers," Jaishankar noted.

The engagement between India and China has to be on the basis of political equality. It has to be conducted with mutual sensitivity, especially as both polities have made their core interests known to each other, he stressed.

"They have ambitions as rising powers and it is logical that these can often intersect. Differences between neighbours or rising powers are not unnatural in world politics. But how well they are managed is really the test of diplomacy," Jaishankar added.

PTIMalaysia: 92-year-old Mahathir Mohamad is back as prime minister

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

He rose like the phoenix and is set to rule his country again. Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, now 92, was sworn in as the prime minister on Thursday, May 10, after the six-decade rule of Barisan Nasional alliance led by the outgoing premier Najib Razak's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) ended in a historic election held on Wednesday, May 9.

Mahathir, who had served as Malaysia's prime minister between 1981 and 2003, joined the opposition to challenge Najib who was in power since 2009. Mahathir's four-party Pakatan Harapan alliance bagged at least 113 of 222 parliamentary seats in the latest election, the country's election commission said.

Mahathir, however, acted as a statesman after the verdict came out, saying his government would not seek a revenge and would focus on restoring rule of law in the country, a Bloomberg report said.

A member of the outgoing prime minister's Cabinet said they would accept the will of the people.

The result of the latest Malaysian election marked a tectonic shift in the country's politics as the first transfer of power happened since independence in 1957.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 16:46 [IST]Trump pulls out of Iran deal: Why US president has terribly let India down

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

When Narendra Modi took over from Manmohan Singh India's quest for having a better relationship with the United States, a country with which it did not traditionally share positive ties, the pundits praised his government's foreign policy. Modi, who was once denied access to the US because of his alleged role in the Gujarat riots of 2002, made as many as five visits across the Atlantic between September 2014 and June 2017.

He made a rockstar-like appearance at Madison Square in New York during one of those visits while addressed the US Congress amid cheering lawmakers during another. He also invited former US president Barack Obama as the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in 2015, an unprecedented event which was seen a diplomatic masterstroke by Modi to reverse India's foreign policy orientation.

It was said that to meet the demands of time, it was natural for India and the US - two among the the world's biggest democracies and economies - to forge a relationship which remained eclipsed by the Cold War politics.

The two countries were perfectly complementary to each other in the post-9/11 world where they needed to back each other in the fight against terrorism; to boost joint economic growth and also work to uphold democracy, it was believed. Even though the US's ploy of seeing India as a balancer against China and a trusted ally in the fight against terrorism was considered by many as means towards a self-serving foreign policy, but yet its new-found friendship with the US accorded India a magnified role in world affairs and the Indians weren't complaining about it. Afterall, who doesn't like to stay close with the most powerful?

Trump's arrival blew away the Modi-Obama bonhomie

But after the advent of Donald Trump as the US president, things started to look uncomfortable for India. The routine exchange of pleasantries happened but for those who expected that the equation between Trump and Modi would just be a natural continuation of Obama and Modi, it was not exactly an occasion to be ecstatic.

Trump's first meeting with Modi took place at the White House in June 2017, five months after the president took over. And although there were bear hugs, the substance of the new found bonhomie seemed to be on the wane especially after the new White House administration started asserting the "America First" policy in matters of immigration and visa. Being a country which has massive links with the US at the private and people-to-people level, the Trump administration's inward-looking stance was not something that India could feel hopeful about.

US has seen India as someone it can use to serve its own interests

Trump has treated India more like a friend who it can use to counter countries like Pakistan (in Afghanistan) and China (in the Asia-Pacific which Trump renamed as Indo-Pacific to make a probable ground for the revival of the quadrilateral alliance between the US, Japan, Australia and India to counter the Chinese).

But when it comes to safeguarding US's own interests at home, Trump has not hesitated to alienate India. He has neither come to India's aid when the latter found it pitted against China in matters related to politics and economics.

Experts are divided over how the US should have responded when India locked horns with China over a serious standoff in Doklam but the fact that the US openly invited India to play a bigger role in Afghanistan to suit its interests but showing restraint when New Delhi had a serious confrontation with China speaks about certain duplicity.

The US's open trade war with foes like China as well as allies also cements the belief that it is not very wise to bank on the Trump administration to gain any advantage - strategic or political.

It is not without a reason thus to see India and China trying to bridge their traditional divides because both have started realising that Trump's protectionism is something that could hurt them both and hence bettering their own relationships count in these times. Afterall, they both belong to the BRICS group which looks to bring into play an alternative world arrangement not dominated by the West.

In these backgrounds, Trump administration's decision to pull out of the nuclear deal on Iran puts India under all the more stress. It is something that potentially harms India's and more particularly Modi's limited foreign policy success so far and also creates more challenges on New Delhi's way for future foreign engagements.

US's pulling out of Iran deal a blow for India

A peace initiative helps all parties - directly or indirectly related to a problem - and India likewise gained when the former Barack Obama administration made the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the Iran deal a reality. As the West's sanctions were lifted from the country and it found a way to reconcile with the outer world under a moderate leadership, India also breathed easy since Iran is one of its key partners - economically and strategically. India depends on Iran's oil and also requires its geostrategic backing to corner Pakistan and gain access to Afghanistan and Central Asia where it is gradually turning ambitious and was also formally admitted in the Eurasia-focusing Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in June last year.

India's Chabahar diplomacy could be undermined

India made efforts under Modi to develop the Chabahar Port in Iran to not just facilitate its link with Afghanistan and Iran bypassing Pakistan but also encircle Pakistan and compete with the Chinese-backed Gwadar Port in Pakistan. Modi himself made a trip to Afghanistan and Iran in mid-2016 to stress these foreign policy priorities of New Delhi. India has also committed over $500 million for the development of the port which was made operational in 2017.

Now, with Trump's decision which would see new sanctions getting imposed on Iran and Tehran becoming isolated again, India's plan to use its friendship with Iran to counter China-Pakistan game plans in South Asia faces a blockade.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made a visit to India in February when the two sides concluded a number of agreements, including one that would lease a part of the Chabahar Port to an Indian company. Now, even those plans could stand jeopardised as Iran has its own battle to fight.

India's challenge of remaining neutral

Another challenge for India will now be to stick to a stance of neutrality. India has done well in developing ties with both Iran and its serious foes like the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia but under the drastically changed circumstances now, New Delhi would face a big challenge to maintain the balance.

On one hand, the US's pulling out of the deal could see Iran leaning more towards the Russia-China-Pakistan club which would undermine India's foreign policy plans. Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif expressed interest over Islamabad joining the development of Chabahar and a possible linking of Chabahar with Gwadar during his visit to Pakistan in March. This doesn't sound great for India.

India could be perceived as anti-US

On the other hand, Chinese officials have expressed a desire to induct Iran in the SCO of which India, along with Pakistan, are set to become formal members next month. This also poses a risk to India's foreign policy initiatives since the SCO is dominated by countries not known to be friends with the US and India's formal inclusion in the group could be perceived negatively by Donald Trump's hawkish administration. India's association with the quadrilateral club in the Asia-Pacific to counter China could also be affected by this.

Overall, India's foreign policy has faced challenges in the Trump era when despite not being at odds per se, New Delhi has found in Washington an uncomfortable ally who has not cared about others' convenience while pursuing its own interests.How Pakistan used almonds to fund terror and back-stab Indias good-will on LoC trade

A change of guard in the ISI and what it would mean

Ex-ISI chief Lt General Hameed next in line for post of Pakistan Army chief

Unidentified persons fire, hurl grenade at PML (N) leader Aqeel Rehmani in Karachi, 3 injured

International

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Unidentified persons first shot at and then hurled a greande at Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader Aqeel Rehmani in Karachi, Pakistan, on Wednesday. Rehmani was injured in the attack and transferred to a civil hospital, said reports.

Three other have also sustained injuries in the attack which took in the middle of a busy road in Karachi's Ghareeb Shah Mazar area.

Rehmani's bodyguards are said to have fired back at the attackers, leaving to suspects injured. One of the attackers was caught by the crowd and handed over to police. He has been identified as one Usman.

After firing six shots at Rehmani, the attackers hurled a grenade which left people close to the leader inujured.

Later, the leaders of PML-N and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) condemned the attack on Rehmani. PML(N) spokesperson Asad Usmani said that the miscreants were increasing their hold in the city while accusing the Sindh government of failing at maintaining peace, reported ANI.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 12:28 [IST]Vijay Mallya can be regarded as fugitive from justice: UK High Court

International

oi-PTI

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, wanted in India to face charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs 9,000 crore, can be regarded as a "fugitive from justice", the UK high court has concluded.

Judge Andrew Henshaw, who upheld a worldwide freeze order and ruled in favour of 13 Indian state-owned banks to recover funds amounting to nearly 1.145 billion pounds in a judgment, took note of the fact that the 62-year-old businessman is contesting his extradition to India relating to "alleged financial misconduct".

"In all these circumstances, and even taking account of the fact that Dr Mallya is contesting the alleged grounds for extradition, there are grounds for regarding Dr Mallya as a fugitive from justice," the judge said as part of his ruling.

The high court remained unconvinced by Mallya's claim that he has been a non-resident Indian (NRI) since 1988 and has lived in England since 1992, a country where he has indefinite leave to remain (ILR).

"The evidence indicates that prior to March 2016, Dr Mallya travelled fairly regularly between India and England for business and political reasons. Most of his business interests were in or closely connected with India, most notably United Breweries Group and Kingfisher Airlines ... Whilst Dr Mallya has indefinite leave to stay in the UK, he is said to be a non-resident taxpayer," the court observed.

The judge also concluded that the businessman had been in "clear breach" of a Karnataka court's order when he disposed of assets like a historic sword of Tipu Sultan acquired at an auction in 2003.

"The sword of Tipu Sultan is an item of historic importance which Dr Mallya bought at an auction in 2003 for the equivalent of GBP 188,400 and states that he gave away in 2016 as his family members considered that it was bringing him bad luck," Judge Henshaw notes in his judgment.

"Dr Mallya declined to state in correspondence to whom the sword was given. Dr Mallya was unable to put forward any basis for contending that the disposal was not in breach of the Karnataka High Court's interim injunction, and accepted that it occurred after the Supreme Court had made clear that the injunction covered subsequently acquired assets ... It does, though, appear to me to have been in clear breach of the Karnataka court's order," he adds.

The judge, however, was less certain that luxury cars and yachts had been undeclared or disposed of by Mallya as claimed by the legal team representing the 13 Indian banks - State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu &a Kashmir Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co. Pvt Ltd.

The judge noted: "The Claimants (Indian banks) say there are numerous other assets which have been linked to Dr Mallya in various sources on the internet, but which he denies that he owns. These comprise three yachts, numerous cars and the Mabula Game Reserve in South Africa.

"The registered/asserted owners are offshore companies and/or trusts. Since these matters are unverified, I do not consider I can take account of them."

Mallya's purchase of a Ferrari 246 GTS with an estimated value of 480,000 pounds was also questioned by the Indian banks. The UK court concluded that it may be the case that the payment of the deposit on the Ferrari was in breach of the Karnataka high court's interim injunction.

"However, this point was not the subject of any detailed argument before me and, overall, I do not consider that the matters relating to the Ferrari carry matters any further on this application," the judge concluded.The ruling by the UK court has been described as "significant" by TLT LLP, the UK law firm which represented the Indian banks in the case.

"This is a positive and big step forward. The judgement enables our client banks to proceed with enforcement of the Indian Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) ruling, which has now been registered and is immediately enforceable," said Paul Gair, partner in TLT's Banking & Financial Services litigation team.

"We are considering all of our options with our clients... the worldwide freezing order has worldwide effect, so it's all of his assets wherever they may be. There are provisions for his weekly allowance, within which he can meet his needs," he added.

Mallya, who remains on bail since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April last year, will return for the last leg of his ongoing extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on July 11, after which the court is expected to set a timeline for judgment in that case.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), representing the Indian government, has claimed it has successfully established a prima facie case of fraud against the businessman.

Mallya has claimed the criminal charges against him are "without substance" and "politically motivated".

PTI

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, May 9, 2018, 23:24 [IST]Politics Aside, South Korea needs a Sound Financial Solution to its iGaming Conundrum

Published May 9, 2018 by Lee R

China is friends with South Korea again, but Chinese players are not acquiescing.

South Korea is struggling to harness iGaming benefits in light of local dynamics.

The Numbers

Figures released last Monday by the Korea Casino Association reveal revenues in January and February reached $191.56 million, for a 15.9 percent year-on-year jump.

The Growth Disruption

The market, which only allows foreigners to legally gamble, is recovering from the hit it took in 2017 from a ban that neighbour China imposed package tour sales to South Korea, sometimes known as junkets.

The Politics Behind the Hiccup

The disruption was actually politically motivated retaliation for the deployment of a US-backed missile defense system in southern South Korea that the Chinese government believed positioned the US in spying range, a ban that was recently lifted.

Offsetting Dynamic

The disruption was partially offset by a warming trend of relations between South Korea and Japan emanating from a landmark agreement in December 2015 bringing resolution to a historical dispute over Japanese enslavement of Korean women.

Japan In, China Not

Since then, commercial gaming Japanese visits to South Korea have increased, boosting the local market and spurring the South Korean tourism body to launch a new campaign to lure even more Japanese tourists and offset the loss of gaming patrons from China.

The Progress

All of this back story has resulted in an increase in the number of total visits to foreigner-only South Koreas casinos by a 1.6 percent uptick in January and February to top out at 366,000.

January represented a 5.2% year-on-year jump, while February represented a 3.9% year-on-year increase.

Uncertainty on the Chinese Side

Meanwhile the Chinese issue was supposed to be over when Beijing lifted the sanctions, but no commercial activity to reflect the supposed warming of negotiations has manifested.

Other Sectors Hurt

The 18 casinos in South Korea are not the only businesses taking the hit from China: hotels, cosmetics companies, and duty-free shops are among the other sectors hit the hardest by the disruption in Chinese tourism flow, with Bank of Korea estimating the total revenues lost from the embargo at $4.5 billion in 2017.

Private Operators Taking the Hit

As far as individual operators, hotel and casino operator Paradise Group took the biggest hit, with revenues dropping 3.9% in 2017 to $623 million, translating to net loss of some $30 million. The Group acknowledged Chinese high rollers to account for 35 percent of its VIPs in 2017, for a full ten percent drop from 2016s 45 percent.

Another operator taking a big hit was Grand Korea Leisure Company, which saw revenues drop 8.6 percent year on year.

Local Gaming Solution

There is one casino open to locals in South Korea, Kangwon Land of the remote highland Province of Gangwon. With the aftermath of the Chinese embargo still firmly in place and no end in sight, could an expansion in legal gaming across South Korea be the real solution for offsetting the Chinese embargo?Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From Palestine Chronicle

The Gaza border protests must be understood in the context of the Israeli Occupation, the siege and the long-delayed "Right of Return" for Palestinian refugees. However, they should also be appreciated in a parallel context: Palestine's own factionalism and infighting.

Factionalism in Palestinian society is a deep-rooted ailment that has, for decades, thwarted any unified effort at ending the Israeli military Occupation and Apartheid.

The Fatah and Hamas political rivalry has been catastrophic, for it takes place at a time that the Israel colonial project and land theft in the West Bank are occurring at an accelerated rate.

In Gaza, the siege continues to be as suffocating and deadly. Israel's decade-long blockade, combined with regional neglect and a prolonged feud between factions have all served to drive Gazans to the brink of starvation and political despair.

The mass protests in Gaza, which began on March 30 and are expected to end on May 15 are the people's response to this despondent reality. It is not just about underscoring the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees. The protests are also about reclaiming the agenda, transcending political infighting and giving voice back to the people.

Inexcusable actions become tolerable with the passing of time. So has been the case with Israel's Occupation that, year after year, swallows up more Palestinian land. Today, the Occupation is, more or less, the status quo.

The Palestinian leadership suffers the same imprisonment as its people, and geographic and ideological differences have compromised the integrity of Fatah as much as Hamas, deeming them irrelevant at home and on the world stage.

But never before has this internal division been weaponized so effectively so as to delegitimize an entire people's claim for basic human rights. The Palestinians are divided, so they must stay imprisoned.

The strong bond between US President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is being accompanied by a political discourse that has no sympathy for Palestinians whatsoever. According to this narrative, even families protesting peacefully at the Gaza the border is termed as a "state of war," as the Israeli army declared in a recent statement.

Commenting on the Israeli killing of scores and wounding of hundreds in Gaza, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, repeated a familiar mantra while on a visit to the region: "We do believe the Israelis have a right to defend themselves."

Thus, Palestinians are now trapped -- West Bankers are under Occupation, surrounded by walls, checkpoints, and Jewish settlements, while Gazans are under a hermetic siege that has lasted a decade. Yet, despite this painful reality, Fatah and Hamas seem to have their focus and priorities elsewhere.

Since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, following the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords, Fatah dominated Palestinian politics, marginalized its rivals and cracked down on any opposition. While it operated under the Israeli military Occupation in the West Bank, it still thrived financially as billions of dollars of aid money poured in.

More, the PA has used its financial leverage to maintain its control over Palestinians, thus compounding the oppressive Israeli Occupation and various forms of military control.

Since then, money has corrupted the Palestinian cause. "Donors' money," billions of dollars received by the PA in Ramallah has turned a revolution and a national liberation project into a massive financial racket with many benefactors and beneficiaries. Most Palestinians, however, remain poor. Unemployment today is skyrocketing.

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

See original here

On Capitol Hill Wednesday, President Trump's nominee to head the CIA, Gina Haspel, announced she would not restart the CIA's interrogation program. But she repeatedly refused to call the CIA's post-9/11 treatment of prisoners "torture," and declined to state whether she believes torture is immoral. Haspel's comments came in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, as she made her case to become the first woman to head the agency. Haspel is a 33-year CIA veteran who was responsible for running a secret CIA black site in Thailand in 2002, where one prisoner was waterboarded and tortured in other ways. Haspel also oversaw the destruction of videotapes showing torture at the black site.

At least two Republican senators have come out against her -- Rand Paul and John McCain, who said her "role in overseeing the use of torture is disturbing and her refusal to acknowledge torture's immorality is disqualifying." But Haspel may still be confirmed with the help of Democratic lawmakers. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has already announced he will back Haspel. We speak with Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept and host of the weekly podcast "Intercepted."

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: On Capitol Hill, President Trump's nominee to head the CIA, Gina Haspel, announced she would not restart the CIA's interrogation program. But she repeatedly refused to call the CIA's post-9/11 treatment of prisoners torture, and declined to state whether she believes torture is immoral.

Haspel's comments came in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee as she made her case to become the first woman to head the agency. Haspel is a 33-year CIA veteran who was responsible for running a secret CIA black site in Thailand in 2002, where one prisoner was waterboarded and tortured in other ways. Haspel also oversaw the destruction of videotapes showing torture at the black site.

This is Democratic Senator Kamala Harris of California questioning Haspel.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: Do you believe that the previous interrogation techniques were immoral?

GINA HASPEL: Senator, I believe that CIA officers to whom you referred --

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: It's a yes-or-no answer. Do you believe the previous interrogation techniques were immoral? I'm not asking, "Do you believe they were legal?" I'm asking, "Do you believe they were immoral?"

GINA HASPEL: Senator, I believe that CIA did --

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: It's a yes-or-no answer.

GINA HASPEL: -- extraordinary work to prevent another attack on this country, given the legal tools that we were authorized to use.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: Please answer yes or no: Do you believe, in hindsight, that those techniques were immoral?

Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"Wonderful work! An insightful, integrative adventure into what makes humans flourish. Rob Kall shows us that we know how to do this, that most of human history was about connection and that there are ways to make it happen again. He offers real solutions and practical suggestions for taking back the world for community, connection and well-beingaway from hierarchy, exclusion, and destruction. A new handbook for the necessary revolution!"



Darcia Narvaez, Professor of psychology, Notre Dame, University, author of Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and WisdomQuicklink Not Found

Sometimes, authors delete their quicklinks after publishing them.



To see if the quicklink was renamed or re-published, please click here.Progressive Content Not Found

Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing.



To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

By Edward Curtin

"Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won't take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don't like to make waves -- or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honor, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It's the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you'll keep it under control. If you don't make any noise, the bogeyman won't find you. But it's all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe? From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn."

- Sophie Scholl, 21 years old, a member of the German White Rose resistance group, convicted of high treason for handing out anti-war literature at the University of Munich in Nazi Germany. She was executed by guillotine on February 22, 1943

One day, perhaps over morning coffee

As you drag yourself awake

Slowly, ruminating at the kitchen table

About nothing in particular, it appears

And cuts your breath: you know it can

Be different, life is yours to choose

Freely, if you wish, you can own

This disappearing act of yours

Before you vanish from yourself and those

For whom you say you live it.

But you feel it slipping past you,

Trickling out in trivial deeds

Repeated daily, the pillars of a normal life.

Sickening thought, this normalcy that grips you

By your throat and wrings you dry and dead.

Now in this quiet breath of solitude

Before the world arises into walking sleep

You are paralyzed by possibilities, nothing

Clear, just images that weave like dancing girls

Concealing and revealing wisps of dreams.

That is your burden now and hope

For tomorrow and the next day after that.

Begin with the smallest thing that owns you:

The need you have to think about another

Upon whom you can thrust your deepest doubts;

The stifling of a true response to a question.

Forget for once to blame your lie on love

For the other's sensibilities. Admit your faith

In lies which you have deftly built your life upon

And which will fall in time into a heap of hurts.

It is always best to begin with truth,

If you can find it and the trust enough

To let it come and smash your normalcy

To bits. It will. It hurts, at first. Few

Like it, or you speaking it for that matter.

But it does matter greatly, it will burden you

With nothing much, the aperture to nothing more

Than everything that you can see as possible.

It's tough to choose the terror of the truth

When trivia tranquilizes with such a soothing smile.

Then they are gone, the coffee and disturbing thoughts

As clocks alarm the others from their shady lives

To greet you, stunned and staring stupidly

Through space.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.



Hojaji - Iranian beheaded in Syria

(Image by USA Today) Details DMCA



The US, French and British have effectively invaded Syria in order to overthrow the Syrian government after six fruitless years of arming and training rebels and inflicting 'advisers' and NGOs as part of their policy of subversion. This new boldness in promoting the imperial agenda worries the entire world from Russia, to China and Iran, and many in the West itself, where demonstrations have sprung up in the past few weeks as the US ramps up its campaign to topple Syrian President Assad.

The latest gas is actually an Israeli one, which was tested in the Gazans' Great March of Return in April. It was designed to incapacitate protesters, using unmanned drones to drop the gas on the demonstrators, careful not to hit Israeli spectators cheering the IDF as they watched from guard towers. The gases have caused protesters' bodies to convulse. Many lost consciousness for several hours. Protesters were being targeted in their lower body, with 55 shot with live ammunition in their genitals, in an effort to cause infertility. Some 47 unarmed Palestinians have been killed since 30 March when the Right of Return March was launch. A further 7,900 were injured.

The hysteria over supposed gas attacks by Assad on rebels is laughable. Not only is it a false flag, but Israel is notoriously using an array of toxic gases against Palestinians every day without any criticism, including tear gas and stink gas. The US has used toxic bombs regularly since the end of WWII (e.g., agent orange, depleted uranium).

Now Israel faces increasing world condemnation for its crimes against Palestinians in their peaceful Great March of Return, a revived Assad in Syria, a strong Hezbollah, fresh from its election victory in Lebanon, and a battle-ready Iran. Iranian casualties in Syria are not counted, but in the US bombing in April, Iranian forces were targeted and seven died. As many as 20 died in a later unidentified bombing. All Iran mourned the martyr Hojaji, who was beheaded by ISIS in 2017, recorded and shown to the world on video. Iran is proud to help defeat ISIS in Syria.

What was the reason for the invasion? What is the likely outcome?

The original plan of US-Israel was to overthrow Assad, set up a pro-western regime which would knock out Hezbollah, and eventually Syria would be forced to sign an agreement with Israel like Egypt's. Or, failing that, the splitting up of Syria into warring mini-states which are no threat to Israel. This would leave the road open to Tehran.

The real fear for Israel is that their ISIS proxies are collapsing, as Hezbollah takes advantage of the situation. It has increased its supply of arms, and is battle-hardened from six years of fighting in Syria. It is ready and waiting for the next Israeli provocation. Prior to the 2006 conflict, Hezbollah had approximately 13,000 rockets and used at least 4,000 of them to prolong the conflict in its favor. The group now boasts some 150,000 rockets and missiles, including Russian-supplied missiles that can hit anywhere in Israel, according to a Lebanese commander.

Israel is desperate, as Assad continues to drive the ISIS-type insurgents out. This is not to Israel's satisfaction, as it benefits from the crazy rebels with their pseudo-caliphate. These rebels are happy to use quiet Israeli support to further undermine Assad and prevent a strong Syria from emerging. They are oblivious to the reality of their situation, which is directly serving US-Israel.

Events in recent months give food for thought. Israel shot down what it claimed was an Iranian drone that violated its airspace near the Syrian border in February. When Israel decided to bomb the site from which it alleged the unarmed drone was launched, Syria responded by activating its defense systems and shot down an Israeli F-16 war plane. Russia has installed S-400 anti-aircraft missiles.

The slow motion invasion/ occupation by US-Israel is the culmination of the decades-old attempt to dismantle the Syrian state, but it has failed. What will the losers' next move be?

The ultimate goal is war against Iran, as revealed in a memo by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld in 2002 that describes how the US was "going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran." But this goal remains tantalizingly out of reach. Syria did not fall.

The Syrian government invited Russia and Iran to help defeat the terrorists. It did not invite the US or anyone else and is not going to invite these enemies in to help reconstruct the devastation they caused. Syria is not Afghanistan, and if US-Israel goes ahead as planned, this could lead to open conflict with Russia and Iran.

The situation is grim, but also black and white to any person of reason. Syria will not be destroyed. Hezbollah will not be defeated. The Russians will not cave in to the US. The Palestinians will continue their struggle for justice. It is a crucial moment for all people to take a stand for justice.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From Reader Supported News

John Bolton's ascent to one of the most important positions in government and Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal, have allowed an avowed terrorist group -- and its cult-like leader -- to take on a position of authority in Washington and in American foreign policy. The Mujahedin e-Khalq (MEK), or People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, has a long history of terrorism, of murder, and of attacks on civilians. But its chief Washington lobbyist, John Bolton, is seeing to it that the MEK will be the go-to-organization in the event that "regime change" comes to Tehran. That in and of itself is a crime.

The MEK is as much a cult as it is a terrorist group. It was created in 1965 by a husband and wife team, Massoud and Miryam Rajavi. They combined Islamism with Marxism and helped to overthrow the Shah of Iran, carrying out bombings and terrorist attacks in Tehran for nearly 15 years, including against Americans. In November 1970, the group attempted and failed to kidnap Douglas MacArthur II, the US ambassador to Iran, and in 1972, they assassinated US Air Force Brigadier General Harold Price. The MEK was reportedly the first group ever to use an improvised explosive device.

The MEK supported the Ayatollah Khomeini and the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, but they split with the regime because their personalized brand of violent Marxism didn't fit in the new Shia Muslim theocracy. The Rajavis, along with their 5,000-member "National Liberation Army," the MEK's military wing, finally fled to Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 1981. They were the perfect propaganda tools for Saddam, and he provided them with money, weapons, safe haven, and a military base along the border with Iran so that they could attack Iranian villages, border guards, and soldiers and then retreat to the safety of Iraqi territory.

Rank-and-file Iranians, including leftists, came to regard the Rajavis as traitors because of their alliance with Saddam and because of news reports that Massoud Rajavi had personally identified Iranian targets for the Iraqi military to attack and because MEK operatives would slip into Tehran and carry out assassinations. Indeed, the Rajavis murdered Iranian brigadier general Ali Sayyad Shirazi on the front steps of his home in 1999.

And that is the basis of the American political right's love affair with the MEK.

Massoud Rajavi disappeared in Iraq in 2003 and has not been seen or heard from since. Miryam immediately assumed leadership and, upon Saddam's overthrow, surrendered to US forces. It was her hatred of the Iranian government that made her an attractive propaganda figure to the likes of John Bolton, then serving as George W. Bush's Undersecretary of State for International Security.

Never mind that Miryam had been charged with crimes against humanity for her role in Saddam's massacre of Shia Muslims in southern Iraq in 1991. Never mind that she had actively sought -- and carried out -- the assassinations of American officials in Iran. Never mind that the MEK was on the State Department's list of terrorist groups, as well as terrorist lists in the European Union and at the United Nations. John Bolton decided that they should be rehabilitated and that the group should be represented in Washington.

This wasn't just John Bolton's position, borne of his hatred of all things Iranian. It was also part of Miryam Rajavi's forward-looking policies. She understood that anyone and anything in Washington could be purchased. And so she hired lobbyists.

The first order of business was getting the MEK off the terrorist list. Lobbyists Joe DiGenova (Ronald Reagan's former US attorney for the Southern District of New York), the giant international law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and, yes, John Bolton worked the issue. They succeeded, and the MEK was taken off the list in 2012. It reportedly cost the group millions of dollars.

Miryam also began paying enormous speaking fees to American politicians and then leveraging those relationships to lobby on the group's behalf. The New York Times and other outlets reported that Democrats who have taken MEK money include former Vermont governor Howard Dean, former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, and former House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Lee Hamilton. The MEK is equally generous with Republicans. Recipients of the MEK's largesse include former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, former attorney general Michael Mukasey, and former White House chief of staff Andrew Card. Even Alan Dershowitz and Elie Wiesel got in on the action.

This is emblematic of everything that stinks in Washington. It's all about the money. Everybody at the upper levels of government eventually gets rich. That's always the plan. Do your time making $160,000 a year in some federal position and then cash in, even if you have to get in bed with terrorists. It's a bipartisan play.

Bolton is making it worse, though. It's not just about the money for him. Sure, the MEK helped to make him rich. But he wants something more. He wants to overthrow the Iranian government and install Miryam Rajavi as its new leader. We've already seen the first step in that direction. Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and ramped up the rhetoric against the Iranian government. He's doing Benjamin Netanyahu's bidding here, all with the full support of the royal families of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. That's always been the plan for all of them.

Meanwhile, Miryam Rajavi is waiting patiently. If John Bolton has his way, she will be the next in a long line of US puppets around the world, even if her path has been decidedly circuitous. It doesn't matter that she has murdered American citizens. It doesn't matter that she is wanted in Iraq for crimes against humanity. It doesn't matter that she's listed by the United Nations as an "international cult leader." She's a part of John Bolton's plans. Expect to see a lot more of her in the coming few years.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

"Budgets are statements of values, and it is inexcusable to me that California is number one in per prisoner spending, and number 41 in per pupil spending" - Candidate Delaine Eastin

It has been almost four years since John Deasy was forced to resign from the LAUSD after a failed $1.3-billion iPad program and spearheading the "disastrous" MiSiS computer system, which cost the district over $189 million. The LAUSD had promoted him to the role of Superintendent "without so much as a job interview" and ignored his "shady history of allegedly lying about his credentials and snatching up money wherever he [could] find it". Among the remnants of his tenure is the District's fractured relationship with its teachers whom he constantly bullied as he led the country's second-largest school district.

While Monica Garcia and the rest of the LAUSD Board deserve the ultimate blame for the damage that Deasy did to the LAUSD, Antonio Villaraigosa's role in bringing him to the district should not be ignored. As the mayor of Los Angeles, Villaraigosa made "all the moves behind the scenes to make [Deasy's promotion] happen." He praised the appointment by stating that "the Los Angeles Unified School District is lucky to have him". If he could do that much damage as mayor, imagine what would happen to public education if Eli Broad's puppet takes control of the Governor's mansion.

For anyone who supports public education, defeating Villaraigosa must be a priority. With this in mind, I forwarded the following questions to the four candidates that I thought would be the most deserving of my vote:

State Senator Jim Beall has introduced SB 1362 charter schools: petitions: chartering authority duties: oversight costs which would provide for greater oversight of charter schools. As governor will you sign this bill? California consistently spends less per student on education than most other states. Would you commit to improving this? If so, how? Do you support the NAACP's call for a moratorium on charter schools?

Gavin Newsom:

Early on in this election cycle, I would have thought that Newsom would have been my candidate of choice. His political bravery in taking on marriage equality as mayor of San Francisco showed how progressive leadership at the local level could correct injustices on the national stage. However, I began to have second thoughts after seeing him speak at an East Area Progressive Democrats meeting last September. As part of his opening remarks, Newson stated that he is not interested in the debate about whether "Eli Broad was right or whether or not the CTA was wrong" while condemning the policies of Betsy DeVos. What Newson did not explain is why DeVos should be singled out while Broad gets a pass. Since they both share the views on destroying public education, could it be the significant contributions that Broad makes to candidates from the Democrat party?

Hoping to see some of the progressive leadership that existed in the mayor of San Francisco, I did send Newsom my questions but did not receive a response. Perhaps his time in Sacramento has diluted him from a fighter into a run-of-the-mill corporate Democrat.

John Chiang:

Josh Jones:

In answering my questions, Jones also indicated that he would sign SB-1362 and supports the NAACP's moratorium. He reiterated that is a "corporate-free candidate" and that his "campaign is traveling to all of the 58 counties in California."

Delaine Eastin:

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

The Left in the United States remains clueless. The "Left," as I am using the term, includes a broad range of perspectives ranging from those who believe that government should serve the needs of the people with respect to social security, health-care, and addressing social problems to those who believe that we need a radical transformation of the system itself if there is going to be significant change. The Right, on the other hand, defends the interests of the ruling class, the interests of wealth and power (either through ignorance or deception or both). On the Left, there are a few (very few) apparently honest politicians (like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders) who fit into the former category of those who do not challenge the system itself, and there are even fewer who recognize that the fundamental problem is the system, requiring radical change. In general, the Left is supposed to represent the people, the Right represents the ruling class.

Most people on the Left appear to think that organizing and protesting within a hopelessly corrupt system might make a difference. They see the corruption of voter suppression. They see the corruption of gerrymandering. They see the corruption of racist, sexist, and anti-immigrant policies. They see the paramilitary suppression of blacks and minorities in the cities. They see the punitive use of the law as a "war against the poor," and they attempt to organize at the local and state levels to address these issues.



Earth Matters

(Image by earthobservatory.nasa.gov) Details DMCA



On a broader scale they may also see the domination of the industrial-military-academic complex and the relative impunity of the NRA. They see the ignorance and corruption of the electoral process, and the role of big money in destroying any semblance of democracy. And, more and more, they see one leader after another exposed for corruption. They see money laundering, buying of influence, amoral lobbying in the service of wealth and power, rampant sexual predator behavior, and the utter moral deprivation of the ruling class, from the President, to members of Congress, to the Attorney General of New York State to the Governor of Missouri.

In terms of foreign policy, the Left sees the condition of endless war proclaimed after 9/11 and many of them realize that 9/11 was an inside job designed to make that endless war happen. The Project for the New American Century document (https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwa00010308/) laid down the blueprint, which has been successfully followed almost to the letter by the so-called "deep state" that enjoys a decisive hegemony over the course of events. The opinion of the people is entirely irrelevant. No matter how many millions protested before the invasion of Iraq, the deep state remained impervious and invaded, knowing that there would be no negative repercussions for themselves.

It simply makes no difference what the public wants or believes. The threat of nuclear holocaust, which was never significantly lowered after the collapse of the Soviet Union, is back with even greater intensity, and the massive effort of the US to militarize space and control the world from this "ultimate high ground" continues unabated. Millions die in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, and Syria while the Left ineffectually attempts to organize "town hall" meetings as if this could make any difference in the grand scale of things.

The Left sees the prostitution of so-called journalism by all the major news outlets. Journalism, largely owned by major, profit-making corporations, is inevitably "framed" in the service of the system, that is, in the service of the ruling class, Even so-called respectable institutions such as the Washington Post and the New York Times prostitute themselves to this class as well as to the deep state with its endless imperialism and wars. Honest journalism becomes a rarity, and the intimidation of honest journalists escalates through government prosecutions, character assassinations by the corporate media, and other forms of intimidation.

More than four million US citizens have "security clearances," and most of their work within the government is entirely hidden from the public. Anyone breaching this deep separation between the public and the elite who rule in secrecy is subject to harassment and prosecution. The truth lies discredited in the gutter and "fake news" reigns undisputed. The propaganda of the corporate media is designed to protect the system at all costs through a dumbing down of the public so that the average citizens lives on the level of the moronic. Critical thinker Herbert Marcuse pointed this out as long ago as 1965 in his essay on "Repressive Tolerance."

All the while, climate collapse progresses in leaps, the nexus of ecosystem problems affecting one another and portending ever-greater disasters, beyond all predictions or expectations. Environmental groups struggle to stop pipelines, or to ban fracking, or to prevent drilling along the coasts, or to protect engendered species. All to little avail. There is simply no way our planetary environment can be protected through these local actions. Greenpeace, like 350.org, Earth First, the World Wildlife Fund, and all such organizations, are failing to protect our planetary ecosystem. Both planetary environmental disaster and massive endless war will inevitably define the future of the 21 st century, that is, if we do not wipe ourselves out first through nuclear holocaust.

None of these problems I have listed can be addressed in these ways; nor will our planet have a credible future beyond the next few decades, because the problems are all interrelated manifestations of a global system. We cannot solve any one of them without solving them all. At the very least, the "radical" Left sees that the problem involves the global capitalist system itself, and that the solution requires system change. However, by and large, their conception of the world system remains seriously truncated.

They fail to understand that the global capitalist system is inseparably linked to the worldwide system of sovereign nation-states, that these two together inseparably form our broken, self-destructive world system. As social-scientist Christopher Chase-Dunn put it: "the state and the interstate system are not separate from capitalism, but rather are the main institutional supports of capitalist production relations" (Global Formation, 1998, p. 61). If we want a future on this planet, we must overcome both global capitalism and the system of sovereign nation-states. We will only have a future if we unite, first and foremost, as human beings and construct a global public authority representing the common good of us all through a democratic unity in diversity.

The immense energies of the millions of people on the Left that I described above are all directed to addressing the symptoms of the disease, not its causes. The cause of our problems is our lack of holism, our refusal to overcome our imaginary national boundaries and our compulsive competitive greed to possess more money or goods than the next person, or the next county, or the next country. The most fundamental reality of our situation is that we are all human beings, having evolved over many millennia on the Earth, that we are all fundamentally the same, and that our sameness is expressed in a wonderful diversity of races, colors, backgrounds, cultures, religions, nationalities, and personalities.

Unless we truly unite, and end both capitalism and the system of militarized sovereign nation-states, we will not survive the 21 st century in any credible fashion. This idea may at first sound "utopian" in the negative sense of this phrase, until one realizes that thoughtful people have been calling for this transformation in large numbers since at least World War One, and that today all around the world there are millions who support this transformation, many of whom are organized into major democratic world federalist organizations like the World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA).

What is truly utopian in the negative sense is to bury our heads in the business of organizing, demonstration, and protests without seeing how ineffectual all this is without fundamental system change. The uniting of humanity may at first appear "utopian," until one realizes that the world already has a Constitution for the Federation of Earth, which is a brilliant document ready for democratic ratification by the people and nations of Earth (www.earth-constitution.org).

The solution to our lethal problems, heading rapidly toward the extinction of humanity, is to democratically elect a global public authority in the form of a World Parliament that represents the common good of the people of Earth. This common good includes ending war, disarming the nations, protecting universal human rights, establishing a sustainable global economy, and ending extreme poverty for all the people of Earth. The Earth Constitution creates a global public authority over both the nations and the gigantic capitalist corporations and subjects them to the rule of enforceable law.

There is no other way to control them and to establish true system transformation to the unity in diversity of human beings everywhere. International law, so-called, is a joke, ignored by militarized nation-states; universal human rights are similarly a joke, for militarized sovereign nation-states are the only ones entrusted to enforce them in today's system. Environmental protection and sustainable development? Again, the recently agreed upon UN Sustainable Development Goals are a self-delusional joke, because it is sovereign nations who are expected to fulfill them, and sovereign nations can ignore them or simply withdraw, as the US did under Trump.

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

On May 8, President Donald Trump announced US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, colloquially known as "the Iran nuclear deal."

While that decision has come under criticism for being both a really bad idea and a severe betrayal of trust, both of which are true, it's worth noting that the US withdrawal is also a breach of treaty obligations, and that such obligations are, per the US Constitution and co-equal with it, "the Supreme Law of the Land."

But wait -- aren't defenders of the withdrawal correct in noting that the JCPOA isn't a treaty at all? Yes, they are, although some err in referring to it as an "executive order." It isn't even that. It's merely a "State Department Political Commitment" which can be wadded up and thrown in the trash any time ...

... except that the treaty in question is not the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. It's the United Nations Charter, delivered to the US Senate by President Harry Truman and duly ratified by that body on July 28, 1945 by a vote of 89-2.

Under Article 25 of the UN Charter, "members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council."

On July 20, 2015, the members of that body, including the United States, unanimously endorsed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

It seems unlikely that Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN at the time, didn't know what she was committing the US government to when she voted for the resolution rather than exercising the US's veto power on the Security Council. After all, the resolution itself contains text "[u]nderscoring that Member States are obligated under Article 25 of the Charter of the United Nations to accept and carry out the Security Council's decisions."

Was the JCPOA a "good deal?" Not especially so for the Iranians. Even though they apparently had no nuclear weapons program after 2004 at the latest, and even though they were apparently in full compliance with their obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (unlike the US), they made a bunch of concessions to US demagoguery (and demagoguery from Israel, an ACTUAL rogue nuclear state) in order to get some of their own money (seized by the US government) back and get some sanctions (which should never have existed) lifted.

For the US government, it was an excellent deal, a face-saving way of hitting the reset button on nearly 40 years of failed policy vis a vis Iran. By letting Iran rejoin "the civilized world," the US received the same opportunity -- an opportunity that Trump just blew by way of loudly warning the world that the US government can't be trusted to keep its word. Or honor its treaty obligations.Global Eyewear Market: Size, Trend, Share, Opportunity Analysis & Forecast, 2014-2025

https://www.researchbeam.com/global-eyewear-size-trend-share-opportunity-analysis-and-forecast-2014-2025-market/request-sample

https://www.researchbeam.com/global-eyewear-size-trend-share-opportunity-analysis-and-forecast-2014-2025-market/purchase-enquiry

https://www.researchbeam.com/global-eyewear-size-trend-share-opportunity-analysis-and-forecast-2014-2025-market

Eyewear is a device used for correction of vision or protection from harmful UV lights. It is an umbrella term for spectacles, lenses, and sunglasses. The global market is driven by factors such as increased life span of individuals, increase in geriatric population, and change in fashion trends. The emerging economies, such as India and China pose lucrative growth opportunities for market players. The global eyewear market is registering a CAGR of 10.6% from 2017 to 2025.Get Sample@Based on type of product, the market is divided into prescription sunglasses, glasses/spectacles, and contact lenses. According to end-user industry, it is categorized into men and women. By mode of sale, it is classified into retail stores and online stores. Geographic breakdown and deep analysis of each of the aforesaid segments is included for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.Market Dynamics:Drivers:The declining mortality rate in most of the countries, worldwide, has led to upsurge in geriatric population. This geriatric population is prone to eye disorders such as cataract and glaucomaThe emerging economies of Asia-Pacific region such as China and India, offer tremendous potential for growth to eyewear manufacturer, due to the large population base and increase in disposable income.Restraints:Increase in rate of eye surgeries and laser surgeries across the globe is anticipated to hamper the growth of the eyewear industry.Market Players:The top players in the eyewear market include Abengoa Solar S.A., Acciona Energia S.A., Wuxi Suntech Power Co. Ltd., Bright Source Energy Inc., Esolar Inc., Gintech Energy Corp, Kaneka Corp, Sunpower Corporation, Canadian Solar Inc., and Tata Power Solar.KEY TAKEAWAYSGet 15% Discount on this Report@MARKET LANDSCAPEBy Mode of Saleo Online Storeso Retail StoresBy Producto Sunglasseso Prescription Glasses/Spectacleso Contact lensesBy End Usero Meno WomenBy Geographyo North AmericaU.S.CanadaMexicoo EuropeUKGermanyRest of Europeo Asia-PacificIndiaChinaJapanRest of Asia-Pacifico LAMEABrazilSouth ArabiaSouth AfricaRest of LAMEACheck 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Blood Group Typing Market Considerable Growth by 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2471

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2471

https://www.tmrresearch.com/blood-group-typing-market

Global Blood Group Typing Market: OverviewBlood group typing consists of various methods and techniques that are used to detect the group of blood. The correct and reliable grouping of blood is vital to fulfil a variety of clinical ends, especially for safe blood transfusion and in organ donation processes. In recent years, there have been marked developments in the conventional detection methods. Constant technological advancements in microarray, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and other assay-based techniques have improved detection methods. As a result, the market has seen the advent of high-throughput devices that enable clinicians in multiplexed and quantitative detection of various blood group antigens. Advanced methods such as quantum dots (QDs) and magnetic beads in assays improve identification and enhance clinical safety of blood transfusion.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Blood Group Typing Market: Key TrendsThe rising number of blood donations and increasing number of patients needing transfusion due to accidents and trauma are the primary factors driving the blood group typing market. The growing demand for blood group typing for pregnancy and prenatal testing has boosted the market. Blood typing is also crucial to detect the condition of hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN) in pregnant women, thereby stimulating the demand for such tests. Increasing application of blood group typing in forensic sciences is further expected to catalyze the market growth.The advent of novel molecular diagnostic tools that help in reliable and rapid identification of group in a large blood samples is expected to provide abundant opportunities to market players. For instance, the molecular genotyping of ABO blood groups in large populations can be accomplished with the help of these methods.Request TOC of the Report @Global Blood Group Typing Market: Market PotentialA recent clinical study published in International Journal of Nanomedicine reveals that scientists have developed a novel multiplexed method for the identification of ABO blood groups. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, a prominent military institution of higher learning in China. Researchers conducting the study, quantified blood group A and B antigens with QD fluorescence assay (QFA). The assay integrates the traditional QD labeling with magnetic beads to make high throughput and quantitative method for rapid detection of antigens present in the ABO blood groups of fairly large volume populations. The scientists evaluated the efficacy of the method by testing the blood samples for 791 people and they confirmed that the accuracy was 100%; in addition, they asserted that when the conditions were optimized, even detection in weak samples produced satisfactory results.An estimate by the researchers states that the multiplexed detection can be completed within the short span of 35 minutes with over 105 RBCs (red blood cells). This study holds marked significance for blood transfusion safety. The findings of the study show promising prospect for the blood group typing market, since the testing process can be used to devise an effective clinical strategy to improvise on the identification methods for ABO blood groups.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Blood Group Typing Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, North America is a prominent market for blood group typing devices and consumables. The regional market is expected to witness substantial growth in the coming years. The growth of the market is attributed to the constant technological advancements in PCR and assays for blood grouping leading to the design of cost-effective and novel blood-grouping platforms.Meanwhile, Asia Pacific is expected to provide lucrative avenues over the forecast period from 2017 to 2025. The impressive pace of growth of the Asia Pacific market for blood group typing is driven by some promising clinical studies in high throughput devices, increasing healthcare spending, and the growing number of blood transfusions.Global Blood Group Typing Market: Competitive AnalysisSeveral players are making innovations in their offerings and using advanced technologies to discover novel methods for blood group typing. Key companies operating in the blood group typing market are Novacyt Group, Day medical SA, Rapid Labs, Quotient, Ltd., AXO Science, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. Immucor, Inc., and Grifols, S.A.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comDistribution Software Market Adopting the Latest Technologies by 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2477

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2477

https://www.tmrresearch.com/distribution-software-market

Global Distribution Software Market: OverviewA distribution software manages everything from inventory control and order processing to customer service and purchasing, accounting, customer relationship management, finance management, and supply chain management. Distribution software helps companies in efficiently managing external and internal resources by reducing stockouts and ensuring that overstocking does not occur. As a large number of ERP vendors such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV-X, Acumatica, Infor Distribution, Netsuite, and SAP ERP offer distribution software as part of their ERP systems, the market for the same is likely to witness strong growth in the coming years.Global Distribution Software Market: Key TrendsThe increasing adoption of cloud-based distribution software has emerged as chief growth driver for the global distribution software market. Deploying distribution software enables companies gain benefits such as reduced dependence on in-house IT personnel, low maintenance costs, and incur no cost of licensing, faster implementation of IT solutions, and limited requirement for hardware infrastructure. As companies realize the benefits offered by distribution system, its demand is likely to increase around the world.Request Sample Copy of the Report @In addition, cloud-based distribution software offers advantages such as easy accessibility, minimal operational expenses, short processing time, and reduced upfront costs. With these benefits at disposal, business can focus on their core competencies. Furthermore, these technological advancements enable organizations to access data remotely through web browsers. As more number of companies around the world are educated of the advantages offered by distribution software, it will enable the market exhibit strong growth in the coming years.Enterprises nowadays operate in dynamic business environment, which has compelled them adopt the latest technologies. They are thus increasingly adopting mobile distribution apps to enhance their order management systems. Considering the rising popularity of mobile distribution apps among distributors, manufacturers, field sales people, retain chain, and independent sales representatives, experts have prophesized the distribution software market to exhibit positive trajectory through the forecast period.Request TOC of the Report @Global Distribution Software Market: Market PotentialAs the market holds strong growth potential, emergence of several international businesses is on the card. In order to remain competitive, the existing players are thus leaving no stone unturned. Because product innovation strategies have shown success in the past, existing players are investing in product launches. Besides this, customizing their offerings to cater diverse sectors is a key strategy adopted by the market players to remain dominant. For instance, the Sage Group offers dynamic wholesale distribution management software to help businesses across financial services, hospitality, manufacturing, mining, retail, and other sectors optimize their inventory, improve customer services, and reduce labor costs. Also companies such as Oracle have partnered with VMware to expand their client list. As a result of these collaborations, the clients can use oracle cloud for their distribution services.Global Distribution Software Market: Regional OutlookConsidering North America is at the fore of adopting the latest technologies, the market players are likely to concentrate more on capitalizing on opportunities prevalent therein. The region boasts sophisticated IT infrastructure, which is likely to aid the expansion of the distribution software market in North America. Additionally, the market is also expected to gain from the growth of the e-commerce industry in North America and inclination of American consumers toward omnichannel retail.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Distribution Software Market: Competitive LandscapeThe presence of various large, small, and regional companies has rendered the vendor landscape of the global distribution software market highly competitive. The leading companies are identified based on their market penetration, market visibility, and strong market momentum. However, because regional players are a constant threat for established companies, the market is likely to witness an increasing number of acquisitions in the coming years. Currently, companies such as JDA Software Group, Sage Group, SAP, Infor, and Oracle are identified as the leading market players.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 Cycloidal Gearing Market Forecast 2018-2025 KAPP NILES, Wuhan Jinghua, Nabtesco, Six Star

Cycloidal Gearing Market

https://bit.ly/2I6mlGV

https://www.globeinforesearch.com/report/global-cycloidal-gearing-market-7354

www.globeinforesearch.com/

Recently added detailed market study "Global Cycloidal Gearing Market" examines the performance of the Cycloidal Gearing market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Cycloidal Gearing market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Cycloidal Gearing market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Cycloidal Gearing Market 2018 report includes Cycloidal Gearing market Revenue, market Share, Cycloidal Gearing industry volume, market Trends, Cycloidal Gearing Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Cycloidal Gearing Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.Firstly, the report covers the top Cycloidal Gearing manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Market Forecast Report on Top Manufacturers companies are Nabtesco, Sumitomo Drive Technologies, Spinea, Wuhan Jinghua, ONVIO, Transmission Machinery, CDS Corporation, Six Star, KAPP NILES, Fixed Star Group, EGT Eppinger, Varitron.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Cycloidal Gearing Market By Application are Machine Tools, Industrial Robots, OtherCycloidal Gearing Market By Type are Single Stage Cycloidal Gearing, Double-Stage Cycloidal GearingFurther, the Cycloidal Gearing report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Cycloidal Gearing industry, Cycloidal Gearing industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Cycloidal Gearing Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Cycloidal Gearing 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 Cycloidal Gearing market revenue worldwide.Finally, Cycloidal Gearing market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About US:"GlobeInfoResearch.com" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us:3626 North Hall Street (Two Oak Lawn),Suite 610,Dallas, TX 75219, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Web:Email: sales@globeinforesearch.comGlobal Oil Pressure Sensor Market 2018-2025 Sensata, Gems Sensors & Controls, Texas Instruments, Hyundai Kefico

Oil Pressure Sensor Market

https://bit.ly/2I3DDJ4

http://www.qymarketstudy.com/report/global-oil-pressure-sensor-sales-market-6021

www.qymarketstudy.com/

QYMarketStudy include new market study "Global Oil Pressure Sensor Market" examines the performance of the Oil Pressure Sensor market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Oil Pressure Sensor market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Oil Pressure Sensor market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Oil Pressure Sensor Market 2018 report includes Oil Pressure Sensor market Revenue, market Share, Oil Pressure Sensor industry volume, market Trends, Oil Pressure Sensor Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Oil Pressure Sensor Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report:Firstly, the report covers the top Oil Pressure Sensor manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Global Top Manufacturers Analysis such as Gems Sensors & Controls, MVD Auto Components, Hyundai Kefico, Mitsubishi Electric, WEICHAI, JUCSAN, Sensor Systems, Sensata, Texas Instruments, All Sensors.Oil Pressure Sensor Market By Application such as Automotive, Equipment.Oil Pressure Sensor Market By Type such as Semiconductor Piezoresistive Sensor, Elastic Strain Sensor, Thick Film Pressure Sensor, Ceramic Piezoresistive Sensors.Further, the Oil Pressure Sensor report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Oil Pressure Sensor industry, Oil Pressure Sensor industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Oil Pressure Sensor Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Oil Pressure 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 Oil Pressure Sensor market revenue worldwide.Finally, Oil Pressure 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: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:3626 North Hall Street (Two Oak Lawn),Suite 610,Dallas, TX 75219, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Web:Email: sales@qymarketstudy.comGlobal Conditioning Agent Market Demand to Surpass 114 Thousand Tonnes by 2026

MRRSE

https://www.mrrse.com/sample/4300

https://www.mrrse.com/conditioning-agent-market

https://www.mrrse.com/

A new research study titled Conditioning Agent Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2026 has recently been submitted to the repository of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE). The global conditioning agent market is projected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 6% during the assessment period. In terms of volume, demand for conditioning agents is likely to surpass 114 thousand tonnes by the end of 2026.Get PDF Sample of new research Report @According to the report, demand for conditioning agents is likely to remain high in the personal care industry on account of its richness in stratum corneum. Rising focus on personal care is likely to provide an impetus to the demand for conditioning agents, as consumers look to maintain their skin and hair in optimal condition. The report projects that demand for conditioning agents will be the highest in hair care category, as the focus on developing products that have moisturizing attributes is witnessing an uptick.The report segments the global conditioning agent market into price range, application, product type and region. The price range segment is further sub-segmented into premium, medium and economic. The application segment divides the global market into fabric conditioners, hair serums & gels, hair conditioners, shampoo, face wash, body wash, creams & lotions and other. The product type segment is categorized into fabric conditioning agents, hair conditioning agents and skin conditioning agents. Geographically, the market is divided into key regions globally which are North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Middle East & Africa and Japan.According to the report, APEJ is one of the most lucrative markets for conditioning agents, and it is highly likely that demand will continue to remain robust during the assessment period. Many countries in APEJ have a large population, and on account of a rapidly growing population in the region, it is highly likely that demand will remain significant during the assessment period. In addition to APEJ, North America and Europe are among the other leading markets for conditioning agents globally.The report profiles some of the leading players operating in the market. Some of the major players profiled are Beiersdorf Aktiengesellschaft, Church & Dwight Co., Inc., Amway Corporation, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Procter & Gamble Co., Kao Corporation, The Unilever Group, Avon Products, Inc., LOreal S.A. and The Estee Lauder Companies Inc..Browse Full Global Conditioning Agent Market Report with TOC :About (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.ContactState Tower90, State Street Suite 700Albany, NY  12207 (United States)Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Global Industrial Energy Storage System Market 2018-2025 BYD Company Limited, G Chem, Ltd., Hitachi, Ltd.

Industrial Energy Storage System Market

https://bit.ly/2Irznm0

http://www.qymarketstudy.com/report/global-industrial-energy-storage-system-market-5736

www.qymarketstudy.com/

QYMarketStudy include new market study "Global Industrial Energy Storage System Market" examines the performance of the Industrial Energy Storage System market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Industrial Energy Storage System market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Industrial Energy Storage System market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Industrial Energy Storage System Market 2018 report includes Industrial Energy Storage System market Revenue, Industrial Energy Storage System sales market, market Share, Industrial Energy Storage System industry volume, market Trends, Industrial Energy Storage System Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Industrial Energy Storage System Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report:Firstly, the report covers the top Industrial Energy Storage System manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Global Top Manufacturers Analysis such as LG Chem, Ltd., ABB Ltd., GS Yuasa Corporation, Samsung SDI Co., Ltd., General Electric Company, Saft Groupe S.A., Tesla, Inc., Evapco, Inc., Calmac, Baltimore Aircoil Company, Inc., BYD Company Limited, Hitachi, Ltd., Siemens AG, Panasonic Corporation.Industrial Energy Storage System Market By Application such as Transportation, Grid Storage.Industrial Energy Storage System Market By Type such as Electro Chemical Energy Storage System, Mechanical Energy Storage System, Thermal Storage.Further, the Industrial Energy Storage System report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Industrial Energy Storage System industry, Industrial Energy Storage System industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Industrial Energy Storage System Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Industrial Energy Storage System 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 Industrial Energy Storage System market revenue worldwide.Finally, Industrial Energy Storage System 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:3626 North Hall Street (Two Oak Lawn),Suite 610,Dallas, TX 75219, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Web:Email: sales@qymarketstudy.comGonorrhea Drugs Market Size & Share by Application, Type and Region - Global Forecast to 2025

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1377020

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1377020/gonorrhea-drugs-global-industry-market-research-reports

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/1377020

http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/

The report analyzes and presents an overview of "Gonorrhea Drugs Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" worldwide.The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Gonorrhea Drugs 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 @Gonorrhea is caused due to bacterial infection (Neisseria gonorrhoeae) that can be passed from one person to another during sex. Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) affecting both men and women globally. The gonorrhea bacteria infects cervix, uterus and urethra etc. mucous membranes, which are soft tissues and not covered by skin or outer layer. Changes in urination pattern, pain during sex, unusual discharges from male and female sex organs, bleeding, bumps, and sores, pain in the pelvic or abdominal region, and burning or itching in the vaginal area are some of the most common symptoms of gonorrhea. Long-term pelvic pain, infertility, ectopic pregnancy, proctitis, and prostate gland infection are major complications caused by gonorrhea. Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT), direct fluorescent tests, and several others tests are recommended by health care specialists to confirm the gonorrhea disease. According to WHO report, over 10 million people are diagnosed with gonorrhea globally each year. Generally, antibiotics and antibacterial medicines are used to treat gonorrhea.The global gonorrhea drugs market is expanding significantly due to increasing gonorrhea prevalence. Rise in incidence of unprotected sex has led to an increase in the prevalence gonorrhea. Low voluntary screening rate for the disease is a major restrain of the market. Awareness about gonorrhea infection diagnostic tests is extremely low in countries in Africa. Hence, companies are facing challenges with regard to market penetration in the region. Moreover, several low- and middle-income countries depend on government grants for the provision of rapid diagnostic tests in the event of an epidemic. Therefore, direct reach to customers is weaker in these countries. These factors hamper the market in the region.The global gonorrhea drugs market can be segmented based on drug type, distribution channel, and region. In terms of drug type, the market can be categorized into sulfonamides, tetracycline, aminopenicillins, and macrolides. Macrolides are a class of antibiotics derived from Saccharopolyspora erythraea bacteria. Erythromycin, clarithromycin, azithromycin, and roxithromycin are the most recommended macrolides. In terms of revenue, the macrolides segment held a significant share of the gonorrhea drug market in 2016. Tetracycline is an antibiotic that fights infection caused by bacteria such as Neisseria gonorrheae and is the second major drug after macrolides.View Full Report @In terms of distribution channel, the global gonorrhea drugs market can be classified into hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies, and online pharmacies. Based on revenue, the hospital pharmacies segment held a significant share of the gonorrhea drugs market in 2016.In terms of region, the global gonorrhea drugs market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is the leading market for gonorrhea drugs. In terms of revenue, the U.S. holds a major share of the gonorrhea drugs market in North America. The market in Europe is expanding rapidly due to an increase in the patient population, especially in the U.K. and Germany. The market in Asia Pacific and Latin America is projected to expand significantly in the near future. Developing economies such as China and Japan are anticipated to contribute to the growth of the market in Asia Pacific between 2017 and 2025 due to better health care infrastructure, economic growth, increase in the number of insurance payers, growth of the private health care sector, and increase in awareness.Key players operating in the global gonorrhea drugs market are Pfizer, Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and Company, Glenmark Generics Ltd., Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd., Mylan N.V., Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co., Inc., and Lupin Ltd., 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Global Oil Free Compressor Market 2018-2025 Gardner Denver, Kaeser Compressors, MHI, Sullair, Hitachi

Oil Free Compressor Market

https://bit.ly/2K8ZXgZ

http://www.qymarketstudy.com/report/global-oil-free-compressor-market-5734

www.qymarketstudy.com/

QYMarketStudy include new market study "Global Oil Free Compressor Market" examines the performance of the Oil Free Compressor market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Oil Free Compressor market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Oil Free Compressor market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Oil Free Compressor Market 2018 report includes Oil Free Compressor market Revenue, Oil Free Compressor sales market, market Share, Oil Free Compressor industry volume, market Trends, Oil Free Compressor Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Oil Free Compressor Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report:Firstly, the report covers the top Oil Free Compressor manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Global Top Manufacturers Analysis such as Kaeser Compressors, Ingersoll Rand, GE, Dresser-Rand Group, Sullair, Hitachi, Fusheng, Kobelco, Boge, Gardner Denver, MHI, Aerzen, Mitsui, ELGI, Quincy.Oil Free Compressor Market By Application such as Petroleum & Chemicals Industry, Food & Pharmaceutical Industry, Textile Industry, Iron & Steel Industry, Electronics Industry, Other.Oil Free Compressor Market By Type such as Oil-free Rotary Screw Compressors, Centrifugal Air Compressors.Further, the Oil Free Compressor report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Oil Free Compressor industry, Oil Free Compressor industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Oil Free Compressor Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Oil Free Compressor 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 Oil Free Compressor market revenue worldwide.Finally, Oil Free Compressor 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:3626 North Hall Street (Two Oak Lawn),Suite 610,Dallas, TX 75219, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Web:Email: sales@qymarketstudy.comGlobal Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector Market 2018-2025 VIC Leak Detection, INFICON, Shimadzu, Leybold

Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector Market

https://bit.ly/2jMT2Pm

http://www.qymarketstudy.com/report/global-helium-mass-spectrometer-leak-detector-market-5738

www.qymarketstudy.com/

QYMarketStudy include new market study "Global Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector Market" examines the performance of the Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector Market 2018 report includes Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector market Revenue, Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector sales market, market Share, Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector industry volume, market Trends, Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report:Firstly, the report covers the top Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Global Top Manufacturers Analysis such as INFICON, Leybold, Pfeiffer Vacuum, Agilent, Edwards Vacuum, Shimadzu, ULVAC, VIC Leak Detection, LACO Technologies, AnHui Wanyi.Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector Market By Application such as Electronics, Power Industry, Aerospace, Automotive.Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector Market By Type such as Portable Leak Detector, Compact Leak Detector, Stationary Leak Detector.Further, the Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector industry, Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector 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 Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector market revenue worldwide.Finally, Helium Mass Spectrometer Leak Detector 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:3626 North Hall Street (Two Oak Lawn),Suite 610,Dallas, TX 75219, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Web:Email: sales@qymarketstudy.comIV Containers Market Size(Volume & Value), Growth and Development Trends 2017-2025

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1377041

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1377041/iv-containers-global-industry-market-research-reports

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/1377041

http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/

The report analyzes and presents an overview of "IV Containers Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" worldwide.The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global IV Containers 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 IV containers market: IntroductionIV containers are packaging solutions used for intravenous infusion and irrigation. IV containers are used to facilitate medication management and improve patient safety and experience. In a market where sterile packaging and storing solutions are of paramount importance for safe and quality drug administration, IV containers rank on top of the list of ideal choices. IV containers are available in a variety of capacities and configurations to suit the needs of medication. IV containers enjoy high preference in intravenous and intravascular infusion applications such as, blood derivatives and parenteral feeding. This is attributed to high demand for safe and sterile packaging solutions which are manufactured strictly according to health guidelines, and controlled process conditions. IV containers are prominently used in the developed countries, and as the developing nations increase spending on healthcare, the rising standard of quality healthcare is expected to fuel growth of the global IV containers market, thereby increasing preference for safe and sterile packaging solutions. This ensures a largely positive outlook for the global IV containers market.Global IV containers market: DynamicsThe global healthcare packaging industry has undergone significant transformation in the last couple of decades, increasing the quality of packaging solutions over the years. This, coupled with increased per capita spending on healthcare and higher consumer awareness regarding safe and sterile medication has increased demand for packaging solutions, such as IV containers, which are reliable and efficient. The same rise in demand is expected to continue to fuel growth of the global IV containers market. Another major factor likely to increase preference for IV containers over the forecast period, is the availability of IV containers in various sizes, shapes and configurations. Also, certain events have shown a glimpse of what the future of the global IV containers market could look like. There have been many instances, when a demand for environmentally friendly packaging solutions has been witnessed from the consumer side.As a response to these demands, some manufacturers such as Baxter Healthcare, B. Braun Medical, and Hospira Inc. have reduced production of IV containers with high PVC and DEHP (di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate). Plastic IV containers are known to leach harmful chemicals in landfills, thus resulting in decreased preference over time. Therefore, failure in emphasizing new product launches without plastic content might hamper growth of the IV containers market, over the forecast period. Also, one of the major factors which might hamper growth of the global IV containers market is advancement in medication technology. Technological breakthrough has decreased the amount of time required for treatment of patients, which might result in reduced growth rate of the IV containers market over time. Apart from that, features such as ease of handling, are expected to drive demand for IV containers.View Full Report @Global IV containers market: SegmentationThe global IV containers market is segmented as On the basis of raw material, the global IV containers market is segmented as:With PVC and DEHP IV containersNon-PVC, non-DEHP IV containersOn the basis of container type, the global IV containers market is segmented as:Flexible bagsUromatic IV containersArthromatic IV containersPour BottlesOn the basis of capacity, the global IV containers market is segmented as:>1000 ml1000 ml  2000 ml2000 m l  3000 ml>3000 mlOn the basis of configuration, the global IV containers market is segmented as:Single-lead IV containersDual-Lead IV containersFour-Lead IV containersOn the basis of application, the global IV containers market is segmented as:Fluid DrainageBlood CollectionIrrigationParenteral feedingGlobal IV containers market: Geographical OutlookThe global IV containers market has been divided into seven regions as follows North AmericaLatin AmericaWestern EuropeEastern EuropeAsia Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ)Middle East and Africa (MEA)JapanThe North America region is anticipated to lead the global IV containers market, over the forecast period, owing to high demand and preference given to medication hygiene and quality. Since IV containers are now available with integrated technologies such as bar code systems, IV containers are expected to have more penetration in Western Europe and North America than any other region. The APeJ and the Latin America region are poised to witness increase in demand for packaging solutions such as IV containers, owing to growing need for improvement in healthcare services, coupled with increased per capita expenditure on healthcare. The global IV containers market share of Japan and Eastern Europe is expected to be low; however, IV containers are expected to have high penetration in the respective regional markets.Request For Enquiry @Global IV containers market: Key PlayersFew of the players operating in the global IV containers market are  Hospira Inc., Baxter International Inc., B. Braun Melsungen AG, Medico Pak, and Vioser SA.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.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Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market 2018 Analysis and Global Forecast to 2024

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2111655-global-artificial-intelligence-ai-market-outlook-2024-global-opportunity-and-demand

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/2111655-global-artificial-intelligence-ai-market-outlook-2024-global-opportunity-and-demand

Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market OutlookMarket OverviewIn the era of digitalization and rapidly changing technology, Artificial intelligence technology is one the fastest evolving technology across the globe. Artificial intelligence technology deals with the study and development of intelligence of machines and software. Further this technology has vast applications in various sectors like healthcare and manufacturing. Artificial intelligence has potential to lift various industries by reducing the human effort and increasing productivity. The AI technology will transform the functionality of various sectors such as agriculture, Industrial, BFSI, Healthcare among others by providing ease to consumers and the users. Artificial intelligence consists of various technologies such as natural language processing, quarrying, deep learning etc which can be implemented in various applications. AI technologies increase the efficiency of organization and complete tasks efficiently on the back of systematic inputs in the system. AI software can be used in various cases such image recognition, algorithm pattern, big data management and many more. Business service applications and consumer products based on artificial intelligence expected to exhibit positive impact on AI market.Moreover, massive researches are carrying out on big data services and machine learning which are some of the factors driving the growth of artificial intelligence market. Big international players like IBM, Microsoft among others are spending huge investments in research and development sectors to increase the advancement of artificial intelligence and to open the new avenues of application and services in untapped markets. Additionally, rising number of startups on artificial intelligence across the globe and huge funding by private firms are serving the uplift of artificial intelligence market which is anticipated to boost in the upcoming years. On the other hand, various key players adopted the business strategy of merger & acquisition by collaborating with each other and acquiring small startups and AI related organizations to boost the research activities of artificial intelligence. Likewise, the IT industry across the globe is growing on the back of advancements in connectivity and huge research funding. The big companies such as Microsoft, Google, Apple and others are bringing artificial intelligence (AI) into the core of their business. These advancements and wide-scale application of artificial intelligence along with potential growth in end-use industries is expected to transform the way we interact with machines and robots.Request a Sample Report @Market SegmentationOur in-depth analysis segmented the Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Market in the following segments:By Technology Deep Learning Robotics Digital Personal Assistant Querying Method Natural Language Processing Context-Aware ProcessingBy Product Software HardwareBy Services Installation Training Support and MaintenanceBy End-User Application Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI) Wealth Management Fraud Detection Robot-integrated Manufacturing Systems Automated Virtual Assistants Manufacturing Retail Transportation & Automotive Healthcare Health Assistance Research And Development Autonomous Guided Vehicles Product Recommendation Automated In-store RobotBy Region North America (US, Canada) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Million), Product Sales (Units)} Europe (UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, Russia, Poland and Rest of Europe) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Million), Product Sales (Units)} Middle East and Africa (GCC Countries, North Africa, South Africa and Rest of Middle East & Africa) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Million), Product Sales (Units)} Latin America (Brazil, Mexico and Rest of Latin America) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Million), Product Sales (Units)} Asia Pacific (China, Japan, India, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Rest of Asia-Pacific) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Million), Product Sales (Units)}  Rest of the World{Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Million), Product Sales (Units)}Growth Drivers and challengesDigitization across the globe up surged the demand for artificial intelligence. Every sector including healthcare, banking, agriculture, education and other are shifting towards digitization. Developing economies around the world are adopting smart technologies to increase the efficiency of their business which further helps to gain profitability. The shift of enterprises towards innovative and smart technology products is directly opens the door for artificial intelligence market globally. The adoption of artificial intelligence in corporate enterprises to interpret the data and to read the algorithm pattern with less time consuming methods is expected to boost the demand for artificial intelligence in these sectors. Moreover, penetration of virtual assistance or chatbots for customer assistance in various end-use industries such as banking, e-commerce and others are propelling the demand for artificial intelligence based software. The ease of operating business processes along with cost-containment is the major reason behind the growth of artificial intelligence in end-use industries. In addition to this, increasing demand for smart conversational virtual assistants and speech to speech translation is expected to bolster the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) market globally.On the other hand, penetration of artificial intelligence in business process automation and introduction of autonomous vehicles in developed nations are the key factors which are helping the market of AI to grow exponentially and further helping the business to penetrate in autonomous automobile industry. Expansion of e-commerce sector on the back of growing trend of online shopping and growing demand for customer assistance bots with intelligence and speech recognition systems in e-commerce and banking sector are propelling the market growth of artificial intelligence in nearby future. However, huge funding associated with current research and development programs on artificial intelligence based technologies is expected to hamper the growth of AI market. The high initial investment on artificial intelligence technology are making the software and services expensive which are curbing the growth of this industry. Moreover, negative mindset towards the use of artificial intelligence in various industries and lack of awareness in undeveloped nations are some of the major factors which are hindering the growth of this market.Market Size and ForecastThe market of artificial intelligence (AI) is projected to register a CAGR of 17.2% during the forecast period i.e. 2015-2023. Acquisition, mergers and collaborations in IT sector helps to boost the growth of artificial intelligence market. Further, the market accounted USD 525 Milli0n in 2015 and it is expected to garner USD 14.2 Billion by the end of 2023. The natural language processing (NLP) segment is expected hold the largest share in near future on the back of rising implementation of NLP in banking and e-commerce industry for the improvement of customer assistance. Geographically, North-America region is expected to account the largest market share by 2023 across the globe. The reason behind the positive growth of AI market in this region is the wide-scale adoption of AI technologies in various end-use industries such as manufacturing, media and e-commerce. Moreover, North-America is one of the fastest growing markets in terms of technological advancements, business operations and manufacturing operations. On the other hand, Europe and Asia-Pacific region are expected to be the most opportunistic and growing sector across the globe during the forecast period i.e. 2015-2023. Rapid pace urbanization in growing economies such as India, China, Japan and other and rising penetration of smart phones further adopt AI technologies to save their time and to increase the efficiency. Likewise, huge automotive industry in Germany and wide advantages of AI technology in automotive systems further help to gain popularity among automotive industry. These factors further boost the growth of artificial intelligence market in both the regions.Key Players IBMo Synopsiso Financial Analysiso Business Strategyo Product Portfolioo SWOT Analysis Microsoft Google Apple Intel Amazon Anki AI Brain Iris AIScope BackgroundMarket SynopsisMarket SegmentationThe global artificial intelligence market is segmented as follows: By Technology Type (Market Size, Demand Analysis and Growth Analysis) By Product Type (Market Size, Demand Analysis and Growth Analysis) By Services Type (Market Size, Demand Analysis and Growth Analysis) By End-Users Type (Market Size, Demand Analysis and Growth Analysis)Global Artificial Intelligence Market Report covered insights of below mentioned regions: North America (U.S., Canada) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis} Latin America (Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and Rest of Latin America) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis} Europe (Germany, Italy, Spain, France, The U.K., Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Rest of Europe) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis} Asia-Pacific (China, India, Singapore, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Rest of Asia Pacific) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis} Middle East and North Africa (MENA) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis} Rest of World {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis}Market Dynamics: Growth Drivers, Restraints and Opportunities Risk Factors Regional Variations Recent Trends and DevelopmentsKey Market Players Synopsis Business Strategy Product Portfolio SWOT AnalysisPorters Five Force ModelMarket Landscape: Competition and BeyondMarket outlook for business players and entry level players to ascertain their business in dynamic ecosystemExpert AnalysisConcluding RemarksContinuedAccess 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 Reusable Laser Fiber Market is Expected to Grow at a High CAGR from 2013 to 2025

https://www.researchbeam.com/global-reusable-laser-fiber-professional-survey-report-2018-market/request-sample

https://www.researchbeam.com/global-reusable-laser-fiber-professional-survey-report-2018-market/purchase-enquiry

https://www.researchbeam.com/global-reusable-laser-fiber-professional-survey-report-2018-market

Research Beam added a report, Global Reusable Laser Fiber Market Professional Survey Report 2018The report delivers an in-depth analysis of the overall market and its prospects. It covers various aspects of the industry such as the market overview, market segmentation, market share, supply chain analysis, manufacturing cost structure analysis, technical data and manufacturing plants analysis, major manufacturers analysis, regional market analysis, development trend analysis, marketing type analysis, and consumers analysis.Get Sample@The report reveals information about the rigorous research methodologies adopted to acquire the market data. The information presented in the report is the result of extensive primary and secondary research of the market carried out by research analysts along with crucial inputs from core industry experts. The study carries important data about the global reusable laser fiber market, making it a useful guiding tool for market players, investors, industry experts, and other stakeholders interested in the industry.The research offers an overview of the global reusable laser fiber market, covering the definition and specifications of the market and market classification.The manufacturing cost analysis of the reusable laser fiber market includes information about the raw material and suppliers, manufacturing cost structure analysis, manufacturing process analysis, and industry chain structure.Get 15% Discount on this Report@The technical data and manufacturing plants analysis of the reusable laser fiber market covers capacity and commercial production date of the market players in 2017, manufacturing plants distribution of the major market players in 2017, R&D status and technology source of the market players in 2017, and raw materials sources analysis of the major manufacturers in 2017.The regional market analysis covers the market overview, local supply, import, export, local consumption analysis, sales price analysis, and market share analysis for each of the regions such as North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, and India.The leading players in the global reusable laser fiber market include Boston Scientific Corporation, C. R. Bard, Biolitec, Olympus, Cook Medical, ForTec Medical, International Medical Lasers, LEONI, LUMENIS, and AngioDynamics Corporation. The report includes important information about the organizations, such as product picture and specifications, sales and revenue and gross margin analysis, and business region distribution analysis.The report segments the reusable laser fiber market based on product, application/end-user and geography. Based on product, the market is divided into thulium laser fibers, holmium laser fibers, and others. Based on application/end-user, the market is divided into dermatology & plastic surgery, OB/GYN, urology, and others. Based on region, the market analysis covers China, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, and India.The development trend analysis of the global reusable laser fiber market covers the market trend analysis, regional market trend, market trend related to product type and application.The marketing type analysis covers the reusable laser fiber regional marketing type analysis, international trade type analysis, traders or distributors with contact information of reusable laser fiber by region, and reusable laser fiber supply chain analysis.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Pharmacodiagnostics Market 2017 Segmentation with Key Players, Growth Rate and Forecast 2025

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1377023

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1377023/pharmacodiagnostics-global-industry-analysis-market-research-reports

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/1377023

http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/

The report analyzes and presents an overview of "Pharmacodiagnostics Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" worldwide.The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Pharmacodiagnostics 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 @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.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.View Full Report @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.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.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 Automated Security E-gate Market to grow at a CAGR of 8.70% during 2017-2021 | ARJO Systems, Gemalto, Josanti Infoimaging, OT-Morpho

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1339647

https://www.researchmoz.us/spare-parts-logistics-market-in-apac-2017-2021-report.html/toc

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-automated-security-e-gate-market-2017-2021-report.html/toc

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Automated security e-gates use facial recognition and other associated technologies to verify the identity of the person passing through the gate. An automated security e-gate is an integrated security system. It performs electronic authentication of travel documents, establishes the identity of the person holding the documents, and determines the border-crossing eligibility based on certain pre-defined rules.The global automated security e-gate market to grow at a CAGR of 8.70% during the period 2017-2021. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global automated security e-gate market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the new procurements (based on contracts) and new agreements pertaining to the development (manufacturing) of automated e-gates by the defense ministries and law enforcement agencies across the globe.Click to get Sample PDF:Technavio's report, Global Automated Security e-Gate Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- ARJO Systems- Gemalto- Josanti Infoimaging- OT-MorphoOther prominent vendors- NEC- Rapiscan Systems- SITA- VISION-BOXMarket driver- Developments in biometrics technology- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Susceptible to hacking- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend- Boarding gate with explosive detection systems- For a full, detailed list, view our reportView Complete TOC with Tables and Figures at:View Complete TOC with Tables and Figures at:Key questions answered in this report- What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:Global Vascular Access Catheters Market to Register a CAGR of 5.5% During the Forecast Period 2017 - 2027

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-5327

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5327

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/

With healthy CAGR of 5.5%, the global vascular access catheters market is likely to grow with an impressive growth rate during the projected period. The primary reasons for this remarkable growth is shift towards value-based healthcare model, increasing global healthcare spending and global manufacturers focus on emerging market. According to the new report Vascular Access Catheters Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012  2016) and Opportunity Assessment (2017  2027) that is published by Future Market Insights, global vascular access catheters market to grow from US$ 2,365.3 Mn in 2017 to US$ 4,042.8 Mn by 2027 end. This represents CAGR of 5.5% over the projected period of 10-years. The global vascular access catheters market for represents absolute $ opportunity of US$ 118.9 Mn in 2018 over 2017 and incremental opportunity of US$ 1,677.5 Mn between 2017 and 2027.Global Vascular Access Catheters Market: DriversIncreased precision of PICC and CVC placement with tip location devicesImproved Reimbursement policiesPreference by surgeons, anaesthesiologists & interventional radiologistsIncreasing number of diseases with PICC applicationDistribution and collaboration agreement to increase product reachIntroduction of Innovative productsProduct availability through appointing distributorsIncreasing forward integrationIntroduction of new PICC having anti-thrombogenic propertyRadiopaque catheter material or markingGlobal Vascular Access Catheters Market: Forecast by ProductRequest For TOC @On the basis of product type, the global vascular access catheters market is segmented into CVC Catheters, Implantable Port, Dialysis Catheters and PICC Catheters. CVC catheters dominated the global market in 2016, and is expected to continue to do so. Also, increasing approvals for new products in the hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis segment would further increase the adoption.Global Vascular Access Catheters Market: Forecast by End UseBy end use the global market for vascular access catheters market is segmented into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centres and specialty clinics and others. Hospital is expected to be the most lucrative among all end users of vascular access catheters products, with attractiveness index of 2.7, while specialty clinics and others are expected to be the least attractive end users of vascular access catheters, with market share index of 0.8.Global Vascular Access Catheters Market: Forecast by DesignDesign segment consists of single lumen, double lumen, and multiple lumen. Double Lumen, dominated the vascular access catheters market in revenue terms in 2016, and the trend is projected to continue throughout the forecast period. Double lumen catheters is expected to be the most lucrative among property segment, with attractiveness index of 2.1.Global Vascular Access Catheters Market: Forecast by PropertyThe property segment of the global vascular access catheters market includes antimicrobial catheter and non-anti-microbial catheter. Non Anti-microbial catheter, dominated the vascular access catheters market in revenue terms in 2016, and the trend is projected to continue throughout the forecast period. Non Anti-microbial Catheter is expected to be the most lucrative among Property segment, with attractiveness index of 1.5.Global Vascular Access Catheters Market: Forecast by RegionThis report has covered seven regions namely, North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, APEJ, Japan and MEA. North America vascular access catheters market accounted for largest revenue share of 44.6% in 2016. Western Europe is expected to experience highest CAGR of 5.8% over 20172027, primarily due to increase in chronic kidney dialysis & cancer. Also rising healthcare reach in untapped markets may spur revenue growth during the forecast period.Request For Sample @Global Vascular Access Catheters Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players operating in the global vascular access catheters market are Angio Dynamics, C.R. Bard, Teleflex Incorporated, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Kimal Healthcare, Comed B.V., Medtronic Plc, Smiths Medical, Vygon (UK) Ltd, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Argon Medical Devices, Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, Cook Medical Incorporated and Fresenius Kabi AG.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:Cider Packaging Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2016-2026

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented juice of apples. Cider beverage is made up of cider apples which is mostly produced in U.S. There is great demand of innovation in packaging of cider in market. The growth of hard cider has been driven largely by the highly coveted millennial generation. Market is mainly driven by increased disposable income and demand for innovative packaging product and safe packaging.Global Cider Packaging Market: DynamicsReducing unit cider packagingsize is creating more consumption opportunities.The presence of premium brand such as woodchuck, Kopparberg and angry orchard has increased the demand for premium quality cider packaging. Premium cider packagingbrand are high in demand as compared to economically priced product due to rise in consumption of alcohol as a status symbol, disposable income and association of premium labels with the beverage quality and taste. cider packaging market is highly competitive which led competitors to come up with innovative product and new strategy in packaging world.The vendors in cider packaging are coming with bottles prepared with a high barrier coating technology to upturn its shelf life and minimize the risk of saturation. With the technological innovations in the cider packaging market, there is increasing demand for water-based coating technology as it is environmentally-friendly, tasteless, odorless and decreases the usage of sprig powder. The global demand of cider packaging is expected to grow at impressive CAGR in near future.Global Cider Packaging Market: SegmentationThe global cider packaging market can be segmented on the basis of material type packaging type and region. On the basis of material cider packaging market can be segmented on glass, plastic and metal. On the basis of packaging type cider packaging market can be segmented as bottles, cans and stand up pouches. Among all material type used for cider packaging, plastic is gaining preference over glass bottles and metal cans because plastic are light in weight, compatible lower in cost and are available in various design. The development of plastic packaging solution will be key driver for the growth of overall cider packaging market. Another driving factor for cider packaging id the increasing demand for alcoholic beverage has pushed vendors to focus on shelf-life packaging that is easy to store, easy to transport and is convenient to unpack. The manufactures are coming up with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, which shelters the cider products for long period. On the basis of region North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa.Global Cider Packaging Market: Regional OverviewNorth America cider packaging market is expected to register strong growth in near future while cider packaging market is expected to slowdown in largest market of Europe. Europe market is focusing in innovative packaging so that product become more appealing to consumers. The launch of low calorie and craft cider in Europe is expected to create demand in new cider packaging product which can add volume sale in this region. Cider packaging market in Asia Pacific region is expected to show nominal growth during forecast period. Middle East and Africa is expected to dominate the cider packaging market in near future and projected to account highest market share.Global Cider Packaging Market: Key PlayersThe main player of global cider packaging in market are Amcor limited , Ardagh group, Ball corporation, Crown Holdings, Rexam Owens-Illinois. Some of the other prominent players are Plastipak Packaging, Silgan Holdings, Consol Glass, Vetropack, Allied Glass Containers, Can-Pack, MeadWestvaco, Nampak and VidralaThe research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to market segments such as geography, technology, and applications.The Report covers exhaust Analysis on:Market SegmentsMarket DynamicsMarket SizeSupply & DemandCurrent Trends /Issues/ChallengesCompetition & Companies involvedTechnologyRegional Analysis includes:North AmericaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle East & AfricaThe report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative, and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.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 :Global SaaS Based HRM Market 2018 Key Players: ADP, LLC, IBM Corporation, Oracle (Taleo Corporation), Persis GmbH, Perbit Software GmbH.

SaaS Based HRM Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3163772-global-saas-based-hrm-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3163772-global-saas-based-hrm-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025

SaaS Based HRM Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds SaaS Based HRM Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2025reports to its database.Executive SummaryThis report studies the global SaaS Based HRM market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global SaaS Based HRM market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.This report focuses on the global top players, coveredADP, LLCIBM CorporationOracle (Taleo Corporation)Persis GmbHPerbit Software GmbHJobvite Inc.SAP (SuccessFactor, Inc.)Rexx systems GmbHSD WorxThe Sage Group plcMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoSmall and Medium EnterpriseLarge EnterpriseMarket segment by Application, SaaS Based HRM can be split intoBanking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)HealthcareIT and TelecomManufacturingOthers (Government, Logistics, etc.)Request Sample Report @The study objectives of this report are:To study and forecast the market size of SaaS Based HRM in global market.To analyze the global key players, SWOT analysis, value and global market share for top players.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, end use and region.To analyze and compare the market status and forecast between China and major regions, namely, United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Rest of World.To analyze the global 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 SaaS Based HRM are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersSaaS Based HRM ManufacturersSaaS Based HRM Distributors/Traders/WholesalersSaaS Based HRM Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsAvailable CustomizationsWith the given market data, We 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 SaaS Based HRM market, by end-use.Detailed analysis and profiles of additional market players.Table of Content:Global SaaS Based HRM Market Size, Status and Forecast 20252 Global SaaS Based HRM Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles4 Global SaaS Based HRM Market Size by Type and Application (2013-2018)5 United States SaaS Based HRM Development Status and Outlook6 Europe SaaS Based HRM Development Status and Outlook7 China SaaS Based HRM Development Status and Outlook8 Japan SaaS Based HRM Development Status and Outlook9 Southeast Asia SaaS Based HRM Development Status and Outlook10 India SaaS Based HRM Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2018-2025)12 SaaS Based HRM Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Research Finding/Conclusion15 AppendixContinuousFor 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Trichomoniasis Drugs Market Report 2017 - Latest Growth, Current Trends and Forecast till 2025

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1376640

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1376640/trichomoniasis-drugs-global-industry-market-research-reports

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/1376640

http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/

The report analyzes and presents an overview of "Trichomoniasis Drugs Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" worldwide.The main objective of this report is to define, describe, and forecast the global Trichomoniasis Drugs 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 @Trichomoniasis is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) which is caused by the flagellated protozoan parasite passed from one person to another during sex; the parasite usually transmits from a vagina to a penis or from penis to a vagina, and some time, from a vagina to another vagina. Men and women are suffering from trichomoniasis globally. The commonly infected part of the body in women is the lower genital tract (vulva, cervix, vagina, or urethra), while that in men is the inside of the penis (urethra). Trichomoniasis can be asymptomatic or can cause vaginitis, urethritis, or occasionally epididymitis, cystitis, or prostatitis. Burning after urination or ejaculation, itching, redness or soreness of genitals, itching or irritation inside the penis, discomfort while urinating in women, discharge from the penis, dyspareunia, yellow-green, frothy vaginal discharge with soreness of the vulva and perineum, dysuria, urethritis, and purulent area are some of the common symptoms of trichomoniasis. Epididymitis and prostatitis are the major complications of trichomoniasis.Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT), direct fluorescent tests, direct microscopic examination of vaginal secretions, and immunochromographic are the common tests recommended by health care specialists for the diagnosis of trichomoniasis. Trichomoniasis is suspected in men with urethritis, in women with vaginitis, or in their sexual partners. According to a report published by the WHO, trichomoniasis cases are higher in number than chlamydia or gonorrhea cases every year. Trichomoniasis can be treated with metronidazole or tinidazole. Tinidazole is an anti-parasitic drug, while metronidazole is an antibiotic and antiprotozoal medication used for the treatment of trichomoniasis. Metronidazole is available in the market under brand name, Flagyl.The global trichomoniasis drugs market is expanding significantly due to increase in the incidences of trichomoniasis. Rise in cases of unprotected sex has contributed to the spread of the disease. Low voluntary screening rate for the disease is a major restraint of the market. Awareness about trichomoniasis diagnostic tests is poor in the countries in Africa. Therefore, companies are facing challenges with regard to market penetration in the region. Moreover, several low and middle-income countries depend on government grants for the provision of rapid diagnostic tests in the event of an epidemic. Thus, direct reach to customers is limited in these countries. These factors hamper the growth of the trichomoniasis drugs market in the region.View Full Report @The global trichomoniasis drugs market can be segmented based on drug type, distribution channel, and region. In terms of drug type, the market can be categorized into metronidazole and tinidazole. In terms of distribution channel, the global trichomoniasis drugs market can be classified into hospital pharmacies, retail pharmacies, and online pharmacies. Based on revenue, the hospital pharmacies segment constituted a significant share of the trichomoniasis drugs market in 2016.In terms of region, the global trichomoniasis drugs market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is the leading market for trichomoniasis drugs. In terms of revenue, the U.S. accounts for the dominant share of the trichomoniasis drugs market in North America. The market in Europe is expanding rapidly due to an increase in the number of patients, especially in the U.K. and Germany. The markets in Asia Pacific and Latin America are projected to expand significantly in the near future. Developing economies such as China and Japan are anticipated to contribute to the growth of the market in the region between 2017 and 2025 due to better health care infrastructure, economic growth, increase in the number of insurance payers, growth of the private health care sector, and increase in awareness among people.Key players operating in the global trichomoniasis drugs market are Pfizer, Inc., Lupin Ltd., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc., Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., Mission Pharma, Unique Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd., and Edenbridge Pharmaceuticals 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Automated CPR Devices Market is anticipated to reach US$ 191.2 Mn by 2027

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-5343

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5343

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/

Future Market Insights (FMI) announces the release of its latest outlook titled,Automated CPR Devices Market: Global Industry Analysis (20122016) and Opportunity Assessment (20172027). According to the report, the global automated CPR devices market was valued at US$ 60.0 Mn in 2016 and is anticipated to reach US$ 191.2 Mn by 2027, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.3% throughout the 10 year forecast period.Request For TOC @Market Drivers and RestraintsThe global automated CPR devices market is largely driven by a growing demand from emergency medical services and a rising need for technologically advanced EMS. An increasing public awareness of cardiac arrest and increasing training programmes is also positively influencing revenue growth of the automated CPR devices market. Also, increasing government funding and grants encouraging the use of automated CPR devices in order to improve survival rates of cardiac arrest victims coupled with a rapidly increasing geriatric population across the globe owing to the impact of reducing mortality rates and declining fertility rates has also widened the scope for automated CPR device manufacturers.Conversely, high cost of automated CPR devices, the substantial weight of the device and high training requirements are some minor restraints in the global automated CPR devices market. Additionally, conflicting results from observational studies regarding the use of automated CPR devices is also hampering the growth of the automated CPR devices market. While some observational studies have confirmed that the application of automated CPR devices can immediately improve hemodynamic effect and perfusion, some studies show less or no impact from the use of such devices.Unmet clinical needs are expected to offer favourable growth opportunities in the near future. Increasing demand for innovative products so as to ensure cardiac arrest survival rates through cardiopulmonary resuscitation are providing favourable prospects for growth of the global automated CPR devices market. There is a strong need for the improvement of existing CPR devices with some desired features such as inbuilt pulse rate check function and automated injectable function.Global Automated CPR Devices Market: Forecast by End UserAmong the various end users of automated CPR devices, the hospitals segment is likely to dominate throughout the forecast period with a CAGR of 11.6% in terms of value.The emergency medical services segment remains the third largest market and represents a Market Share Index of 0.6 over the forecast period.Global Automated CPR Devices Market: Forecast by RegionRegion-wise, Europe dominated the global automated CPR devices market in 2016 in terms of revenue, accounting for 36.5% revenue share. However, Asia Pacific is foreseen to witness a relatively high CAGR of 11.1%. The market in Europe is expected to remain dominant throughout the forecast period.Adoption rates for automated CPR devices vary according to region, which is resulting in disparity in market trends across regions. Factors such as differentiation in EMS and its functioning and lack of awareness amongst the populace are responsible for the varying adoption rates across different geographies. The U.S. is witnessing major investments in automated CPR devices due to the increasing number of market players with new technologies in the region.Request For Sample @Global Automated CPR Devices Market: Competitive LandscapeKey players considered in the global automated CPR devices market include ZOLL Medical Corporation, Physio-Control Inc., Brunswick Biomedical Technologies, Michigan Instruments, and SunLife Science Inc. The global automated CPR devices market is consolidated with the top two players bagging over 50% of the total market share. Most players are engaged in various activities such as new product development, increasing investments in clinical research, expansion of geographical presence and brand building via strong marketing strategies in order to sustain in the competitive global market.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature.FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT: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:Market Insights: Business-to-Consumer E-commerce Market in China - Forecast 2017-2021

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1339650

https://www.researchmoz.us/business-to-consumer-e-commerce-market-in-china-2017-2021-report.html/toc

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Online sales of products including apparel, footwear, accessories, consumer electronics and electricals, cosmetics, and food and beverages to individual customers are considered the business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce market. The business-to-consumer e-commerce market in China is segmented based on the following products: Apparel, footwear, and accessories; consumer electronics and electricals; beauty and personal care products; infants and mothers products; publications; food and beverages; and other products.The business-to-consumer e-commerce market in China to decline at a CAGR of (28.78%) during the period 2017-2021. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the business-to-consumer e-commerce market in China for 2017-2021. 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.Click to get Sample PDF:Technavios report, Business-to-Consumer E-commerce Market in China 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- Alibaba Group Holding- Dangdang- JD.com- Suning Holdings Group- Vipshop HoldingsOther prominent vendors- Amazon China- Beijing Chuangrui Culture Media- GOME- LightInTheBox- Overstock- Rakuten- Sun Art Retail GroupMarket driver- Increase in internet and smartphone penetration- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Rising instances of product returns- For a full, detailed list, view our reportView Complete TOC with Tables and Figures at:Key questions answered in this report- What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:Bioprocess Antifoam Market - Lucrative Opportunities Across Globe

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=15233

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/bioprocess-antifoam-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=15233

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Chemical antifoaming agents are used for the destruction of excessive foam in biological processes. This is because foaming can transform into major problem at the time of large-scale recombinant protein bioprocesses. Antifoams are available in several forms with a range of properties and varied foam destruction capabilities, with the ones needed several times becoming depleted over time.Get Brochure for Latest Advancements and Research Insights @Antifoaming agents may contain surfactants that may include hydrophobic solids dispersed in carrier oil, liquid single components or solids, and aqueous suspensions or emulsions. Antifoams can affect the growth rates of prokaryotic as well as eukaryotic organisms along with changing surface properties such as lipid content which results in change in permeability.On the other hand, certain concentrations of antifoams are related to detrimental effect on cells and protein production. The effects of these concentrations are dependent on the protein being expressed. This emphasizes the importance of optimizing the concentration of antifoams for bioprocesses. However, very less information is available regarding the biological effects of antifoaming agents and most of it is not recent.Present research suggests that antifoams can have wide effects on bioprocesses, which includes the culture environment as well as the cells. This requires a detailed evaluation of these agents. This is mainly because antifoams are generally added without due regard to their potential biological impact on processes.Antifoams can be divided into fast and slow antifoams that depends on their mechanism of foam destruction. While slow antifoams are often oils that destroy foam over a relatively longer period of time, fast antifoams are usually mixed agents that enter the foam films.Browse Market Research Report @Bioprocess antifoam market generally encounters an issue during the biological process which is excessive foaming. Bioprocess antifoam market thus requires a foam control agent, termed as antifoam. An antifoam can be actively used during fermentation or any other process when foaming is an inherent issue. Foaming can disrupt a process as the foam comprises of tiny bubbles which are of mechanical or chemical origin and it interrupts in proper aeration of the cell culture.It is to be noted that an antifoam should meet the need of fermentation industry, perform highly, should possess low toxicity, with neutral odors and taste. Bioprocess antifoam market industry is currently facing many advancements with product developments and advancements. Manufacturers are focusing to develop products with high performance, low toxicity, neutral odors & taste, safe to use, silicone free, easily sterilized, and cost effective.Research shows that antifoams can have different effects on the biological process and hence it is to be ensured before choosing an antifoaming agent for a process. These effects can either be positive such as increasing the volumetric yield of protein, or negative as any growth defect encountered during the production. Silicone based antifoams are projected to be the highest growing market as they offer low surface tension, chemically inert, thermally stable, and completely insoluble in water. The applications of antifoams are not restricted to pharmaceutical industry, as these agents can be actively utilized in food and beverages industry, pulp and paper industry, oil and gas industry, water treatment, detergents, food and beverage, paints and coatings, textile and many others. As the industry is growing it faces various challenges which restraint the market, the use of oil based antifoams and water based antifoams can affect the cell cultures, the silicone based antifoams can also disrupt the culture and hence it is used in small ratios.Download Toc@Based on geography, the bioprocess antifoam market can be segmented into five major regions: North Americas bioprocess antifoam market, Europes bioprocess antifoam market,, Asia-Pacifics bioprocess antifoam market, Latin Americas bioprocess antifoam market,, and Middle East-Africas bioprocess antifoam market. At present, North America observes a leading position in the bioprocess antifoam market, followed by Europe. The major driving factors which have driven the growth of the bioprocess antifoam market, in this region is that the growing demand of the product, high growth of the end use industries, and high manufacturing. Asia-Pacific is anticipated to be an emerging player as various countries like China, Japan and India are emerging with large number of industries, growth in pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and increased number of domestic players. Key companies have adopted various new strategies such as new product launches, technological advancements as manufacturing companies are moving their focus towards less volatile products which is increasing the growth of the bioprocess antifoam market.It is anticipated that with in the coming years there will be an entry of various players along with the existing well-established players in the bioprocess antifoam market. Some of the key companies operating in the bioprocess antifoam market are, Accepta, Bluestar Silicones International, Dow Corning Corporation, Air Products and Chemicals Inc, Ashland, Inc, Evonik Industries AG., and Kemira Oyj. These players are anticipated to stretch their operations through mergers and acquisitions in the coming years making a high market impact which help them to increase their market share in bioprocess antifoam market.About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Connected Home Security System Market Dilatory Trend catering 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2324

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2324

https://www.tmrresearch.com/connected-home-security-system-market

Global Connected Home Security System Market: SnapshotThe growing concerns about security in residential zones has prompted several homeowners to invest in state-of-the-art security measures. The latest trend catering to these needs are the novel connected home security systems. This market offers a wide range of features to alert the owners and avert harm through emergency notifications. Equipped with alarms, cameras, locks, monitoring devices, detectors, and sensors the new age connected home security systems are becoming an indispensable need of the hour. Technological advancements that have allowed voice control of these features has made connected home security systems easy to use, thus adding a touch of universality to them.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Integration of artificial intelligence and IoT has tremendously benefited the global connected home security systems market. Several vendors operating in the market are offering a wide range of solutions that can be used via new, independent products and existing devices. The report points out that smart wearables have made a significant value addition to the connected home security systems as they enable instant navigation and response. The global connected home security systems market is expected to gain momentum as builders are developing commercial and residential projects that are already equipped with better security solutions to ensure safety of end users.Proliferation of cloud-based technologies that offer remote monitoring and storage have drastically aided the growth of the global connected home security systems market. Need for digital transformation and possibility of seamless connectivity have been identified as key drivers for the uptake of modern connected home security systems in the near future.Global Connected Home Security System Market: OverviewConnected home security systems are networks of integrated electronic devices that work together with a control panel that arms and disarms security systems to protect home against burglars and other potential intruders. The global market for connected home security systems will expand at a brisk pace, especially with internet service and cable TV providers introducing their own products. These systems consist of alarms, cameras, locks and sensors, monitoring devices, and detectors. The systems can be installed by professionals or self.Request TOC of the Report @Global Connected Home Security System Market: Key TrendsThe increasing incidents of theft and house robbery are translating into the greater demand for enhanced security and safety solutions with effective monitoring technology, thereby augmenting the global market for connected home security systems. The proliferation of smart devices is also working in favor of the market. Moreover, the market is largely benefitting from the emergence of cloud technology. Home cloud solutions offer ubiquitous and collaborative advantages, which are stirring up their demand. Furthermore, the presence of home insurance policies that cover installation of monitored security systems is stoking the growth of the market. However, the low awareness regarding these systems, especially in developing and less developed regions, is hampering the growth prospects of the market.Global Connected Home Security System Market: Market PotentialConnected home security systems are networks of integrated electronic devices that work together with a control panel that arms and disarms security systems to protect home against burglars and other potential intruders. The global market for connected home security systems will expand at a brisk pace, especially with internet service and cable TV providers introducing their own products. These systems consist of alarms, cameras, locks and sensors, monitoring devices, and detectors. The systems can be installed by professionals or self.Home cloud solutions offer ubiquitous and collaborative advantages, which are stirring up their demand. Furthermore, the presence of home insurance policies that cover installation of monitored security systems is stoking the growth of the market. However, the low awareness regarding these systems, especially in developing and less developed regions, is hampering the growth prospects of the market.Global Connected Home Security System Market: Geographical SegmentationThe key segments analyzed in the report on the basis of geography are North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. North America will hold a prominent position in the global market throughout the forecast period, owing to the soaring need for energy management solutions. The availability of low-cost devices and the high adoption of wireless home security DIY installations are contributing to the growth of the region. Besides these factors, the large-scale adoption of cloud-based technologies for the effective monitoring of home security systems is also fuelling the North America market. The U.S. will be at the forefront of the region, due to high acceptance of technologically advanced products.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Connected Home Security System Market: Competitive LandscapeThe global connected home security system market features a high degree of competition and concentration. The tremendous growth potential of the market is attracting new companies to venture into the market, which is likely to intensify the competition in the near future. New entrants are focusing towards capitalizing on DIY trend and therefore, introducing products in line with the trend. Large organizations and small companies are competing with each other in terms of pricing and product offerings. Some of the prominent players operating in the global connected home security system market are AT&T, Honeywell Total Connect, Comcast, ADT, Verizon, Cocoon, Lifeshield, Samsung, Panasonic, Petzi, Xfinity, Kuna, August, Kwikset, and Control4.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Middle East and Africa Surgical Sutures Market Was Valued $ 430 Million and is Expected to Witness a Moderate CAGR Of 5% During the Forecast Period 2018  2022

Surgical Sutures Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2694

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/2694

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/2694

Surgical suture is also known as stitches surgical threads that are used to hold body tissues together after an injury or surgery. It is normally classified into two types absorbable and non-absorbable, absorbable suture are those which break down harmlessly in the body over time without intervention, whereas non-absorbable are those which removed manually if they are not left indefinitely. It also avoids infection of an open wound.Click to Get Sample Report @Rising incidences of accidents, growing expenditure on health and development of advanced sutures such as film coated sutures in this region leads the market of surgical suture. Now a days there are the huge demands for surgical suture owing to increase in prevalence of accidents. Also increase kerosene cook stove incidents, non-fatal burn injuries, workplace and home injuries are fuelling the requirements of suture in this region.According to the report published by the World Health Organization (WHO), globally around 180,000 people died with burning annually, and the majority of these occur in low- and middle-income countries and almost two thirds occur in the WHO African and South-East Asia regions. This huge presence of patient population increases the demand for surgical suture for effective treatment.The Middle East and Africa surgical sutures market are rising with a moderate rate; mainly owing to increase in patient population. According to update report of World Health Organization, In South Africa an estimated USD 26 million is spent annually for the care of burns from a kerosene cook stove incidents. Also report suggest that females are slightly higher burns in comparison to male. Increasing consumer awareness about the benefits associated with surgical sutures, increasing the demands Middle East and Africa.The market for Middle East and Africa surgical sutures was estimated to be around $ 430 million in 2016. Taking all factors into consideration, we expect the Middle East and Africa surgical sutures market to reach around $ 576.3 million, by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 5%.The Middle East and Africa Surgical Sutures Market - Competitive AnalysisCompanies are continually inventing new products to capture the market of the Middle East and Africa. Thus, major players invest more in research and development activity, in order to lead the Middle East and Africa market. In this regards, Ethicon Inc., in 2017, launched PROXISURE suturing device designed to improve precision in minimally-invasive surgery. This invention help company to establishing a new standard of excellence in laparoscopic suturing and also to treat patients in wound closure. Companies are investing more into research and development in order to develop quality and advance products, which help them to lead the Middle East and Africa market.Again in January 2017, Ethicon Inc., announced that it acquired Megadyne Medical Products, Inc. that develops, manufactures and markets electrosurgical tools used in operating rooms worldwide. This acquisition help company to increase the product portfolio around the world. Increasing in demand for treatment fuel the growth of surgery sutures in this region.Get Unbelievable Discount on Report @The Middle East and Africa Surgical Sutures Market - Key PlayersSome of the key players in this market are Ethicon Inc., B. Braun Melsungen AG, Dolphin Sutures, Synthecon, DemeTECH Corporation, Medtronic plc., Internacional Farmaceutica, Sutures India Pvt. Ltd. and others.The Middle East and Africa Surgical Sutures Market - Study ObjectivesTo provide detail analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 6 years of various segments and sub-segments of the Middle East and Africa surgical sutures marketTo provide insights about factors affecting the market growthTo analyze the market based on various analyses which includes price analysis, supply chain analysis, Porters Five Force analysis etc.To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments for Middle East and Africa Surgical Sutures marketThe Middle East and Africa Surgical Sutures Market  SegmentsMiddle East and Africa surgical sutures market has been segmented on the basis of product type which comprises of absorbable and non-absorbable sutures. On the basis of raw material; market is segmented into natural and synthetic. On the basis of construction; market is segmented into monofilament and multi-filament.Major Table of Contents1 Introduction1.1 Definition1.2 Scope of Study1.3 Research Objective1.4 Assumptions & Limitations1.5 Market Structure:2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Process2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research3 Market Dynamics3.1 Drivers3.2 Restraints3.3 Opportunities3.4 Challenges3.5 Macroeconomic Indicators4 Market Factor AnalysisContinued.To Know More Enquire @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Industrial Dryers Market  Industry Analysis, Size, Trends, Growth, Share and Forecast to 2023

https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/industrial-dryers-market/report-sample

https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/industrial-dryers-market

https://www.psmarketresearch.com

The global industrial dryers market is expected to grow significantly, during the forecast period. The growth in the global market is driven by wide industrial application of dryers, emerging economies and rapidly evolving food industry.Request to Get the Sample Report :Drying is an important unit operation applied across various end-use industries, such as food processing, paper, pharmaceutical, apparel, chemical and dairy industry. An industrial dryer is composed of numerous components including electric motor, fan, tube coil, and stainless steel frame.The global industrial dryers market has been categorized on the basis of stage, type, product, and application. On the basis of stage, the market has been segmented into single stage and multi-stage. On the basis of type, the market has been categorized into rotary dryer, fluidized bed dryer, and spray dryers.Asia-Pacific is expected to witness the fastest growth in the global market, during the forecast period. The major factors driving the regional market growth include diversified application of industrial dryers across various industries, including chemical, food and beverages, fertilizers, cement, paper and pulp, minerals and pharmaceutical.Access Report Summary with Detailed TOC at :Some of the key players in the global industrial dryers market includes ThyssenKrupp AG, Andritz AG, GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft, Metso Corporation, FLSmidth & Co. A/S, Buhler Holding AG, ANIVI Ingenieria SA, Carrier Vibrating Equipment, Inc., Comessa, Glatt GmbH, CAD Works Engineering Ltd. and FEECO International, Inc.About P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a market research company, which offers market research and consulting services for various geographies around the globe. We provide market research reports, industry forecasting reports, business intelligence, and research based consulting services across different industry/business verticals.As one of the top growing market research agency, were keen upon providing market landscape and accurate forecasting. Our analysts and consultants are proficient with business intelligence and market analysis, through their interaction with leading companies of the concerned domain. We help our clients with B2B market research and assist them in identifying various windows of opportunity, and framing informed and customized business expansion strategies in different regions.Contact:P&S Market Research347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-Free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:Multi-sensory Packaging Market - Latest Trends and Key Drivers Supporting Growth through 2024

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=15389

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/multi-sensory-packaging-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Multi-sensory packaging is a type of packaging for commodities that are sensitive to temperature, sight, smell and touch. Multi-sensory packaging also provides more visual enhancement to the products with innovative labeling that changes color with touch or temperature variations, which attracts the consumers towards the product. Furthermore, manufacturers are adopting new ideas and technologies for differentiating their products in the market. Hence, manufacturers are opting multi-sensory packaging which plays a major role in marketing and attracting consumers towards their product.Get Brochure for Latest Advancements and Research Insights @Global Multi-sensory Packaging Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe growth of global multi-sensory packaging market is driven by the demand for innovative packaging technologies from various end-user industries to make their products more appealing to consumers. Multi-sensory packaging is mostly adopted by the food & beverage industry, where multi-sensory packaging is used as a marketing tool by the manufacturers to make their product more appealing to consumers. Furthermore, the demand for FMCG (Fast-moving Consumer Goods) and the changing eating habits of the consumers towards packed snacks and confectioneries are further boosting the demand for the multi-sensory packaging market among the manufacturers globally.On the plus side, macroeconomic factors such as rise in disposable income of middle-class population leading to increased spending on FMCG products can be attributed to the growth of multi-sensory packaging market globally. Trends prominent in the multi-sensory packaging is the innovations, for instance, DS Smith, a leading European company in packaging has developed talking paper for packaging which reciprocates once it's touched and a recorded information can be heard. However, complexities associated with different types of multi-sensory packaging might hamper the growth of the global multi-sensory packaging market.Based on the geographies, global multi-sensory packaging market is segmented into five key regions -- North America, Latin America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East & Africa. Among the regions mentioned above, North America accounts for significant share for multi-sensory packaging market, owing to the demand for packaging technologies that garner consumer attentions among the manufacturers across the country.Browse Market Research Report @Furthermore, North America packaging industrys position in the global packaging market is bolstering growth for multi-sensory packaging in the region. Europe market for multi-sensory packaging is followed by the North America market, which is followed by Asia-pacific and Middle-East & Africa market for multi-sensory packaging. Latin America market for multi-sensory packaging is anticipated to register a sluggish growth over the forecast period. Overall, the global multi-sensory packaging market is projected to register a healthy growth rate by the end of forecast period.Global Multi-sensory Packaging Market: Key PlayersSome of the major players identified in the global multi-sensory packaging market include DS Smith, First Flavor, Inc., ScentSational Technologies, KARL KNAUER KG, DOHLER, 3C! Packaging, Inc. and Alpha MOS Smell, Taste & Chemical Profiling among others.About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Migraine Market Signified To Perceive a Healthy Growth with Top Leading Vendors Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Inc., Eli Lilly and Company MRFR Unleashes Industry Insights Up To 2022

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2381

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/2381

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/2381

Global Migraine Market information, by types (Episodic and Chronic), by treatment type (Preventive and Abortive), by drug class (Triptans, Ergots, and Others) - Forecast to 2022KEY PLAYERS FOR MIGRAINE MARKETAllergan, Impax Laboratories, Abbott Laboratories, Inc., Eisai Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Pfizer, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Klaria, Kowa Pharmaceuticals America, Luitpold Pharmaceuticals, Meda, Merck, OptiNose, AstraZeneca plc, and GlaxoSmithKline plc.Get Sample Report @MARKET SCENARIO FOR MIGRAINE MarketMigraine is a common neurovascular sickness that is characterized by tender headaches and is commonly associated with other neurological indications, such as nausea, vomiting, and painful sensitivity to lights and sounds. Migraine is more common in women than men, majorly due to the fluctuations in the hormone levels. According to a Medline article, around 12% of the U.S. population suffers from migraine headaches. The treatment of migraine headaches is eased by administration of preventive medications, to avoid the migraine attacks and abortive medications to relieve the strong and periodic pain.SEGMENTS FOR MIGRAINE MARKET The Global Migraine market is majorly segmented on the basis of types, treatment types and drug class. Based on the type, market is segmented into episodic and chronic. Based on treatment types, these are classified into preventive and abortive. Further on the basis of drugs the market is classified into triptans, ergots and others.STUDY OBJECTIVES FOR MIGRAINE MARKETTo provide detail analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global Migraine market.To provide insights about factors affecting the market growthTo analyze the global Migraine market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc.To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa.To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospectiveTo provide country level analysis of the market for segments by methods, by type, by treatment type and by drug class.Top 5 Reasons to Get this ReportCompany profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent development activitiesMarket Strategic Business Influence DataMarket Research Future recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, Trends and the regional markets With SWOT AnalysisGet Discount @MAJOR TOC FOR MIGRAINE MARKETCHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION1.1 DEFINITION1.2 SCOPE OF STUDY1.2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE1.2.2 ASSUMPTIONS & LIMITATIONS1.2.2.1 ASSUMPTIONS1.2.2.2 LIMITATIONS1.3 MARKET STRUCTURE:CHAPTER 2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2.1 RESEARCH PROCESS2.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH2.3 SECONDARY RESEARCHCHAPTER 3. MARKET DYNAMICS3.1 DRIVERS3.2 RESTRAINTS3.3 OPPORTUNITIES3.4 MACROECONOMIC INDICATORSCHAPTER 4. MARKET FACTOR ANALYSIS4.1 PORTERS FIVE FORCES MODEL4.2 BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS4.3 BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS4.4 THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTS4.5 THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES4.6 INTENSITY OF RIVALRY5 GLOBAL MIGRAINE MARKET, BY TYPES5.1 EPISODIC5.2 CHRONICTOC Continued.Ask to Expert Inquire @About Us:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact Us:Market Research Future, Office No. 528,Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar, Pune - 411028 Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comDupuytrens Contracture Market Growth Estimation, Developing Trends, Type and Therapy with Global Manufacturer as Bristol-Meyers Squibb Co, Merck & Company, Pfizer Inc. till 2023

Dupuytrens Contracture Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4401

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/4401

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/4401

Global Dupuytrens Contracture Market  Market HighlightsDupuytren's contracture is a condition primarily of the fingers of the hand in which there is difficulty in articulating fingers due to formation of knots of tissue form under the skin which may worsen to a degree that fingers become permanently bent in a flexed position. The exact causes of Dupuytren's contracture are unknown however the risk factors include alcoholism, smoking, thyroid problems, liver disease, diabetes, previous hand trauma, epilepsy, family history etc. Dupuytren's contracture has a higher rate in males over the age of 50. There is also a genetic propensity with Caucasians being affected more while it is rare among Asians and Africans.Click to Get Sample Report @Dupuytren's contracture has a regress rate of approximately 10 % of patients. The annual incidence proportion of this disease was estimated at about 3 cases per 10,000 adults. The occurrence rate in the United States is about 5% of people, while Scandinavian nations has a higher rate of about 30% of men over 60 years old have the condition.Needle aponeurotomy (NA) is the preferred surgical treatment of choice and used in the majority of patients. It is less invasive than the open hand surgery which is now reserved for the most severe conditions. The collagenase injection segment is however expected to grow the fastest due to minimum invasive nature and the lesser hospitalization stay.The market drivers for Dupuytrens contracture market are increasing cardiac cases such as heart attack, other factors includes cancer, kidney failure, end-stage lung cancer, hypothyroidism, rising screening and penetration of healthcare, growing awareness about cardiac diseases and growing income and healthcare expenditure etc. The market restraints are cost of Dupuytrens contracture surgery, complications and risk of the surgery, invasive nature of treatment etc.The Global Dupuytrens Contracture Market is expected to reach USD 5.5 billion by 2023, and the market is projected to grow at a CAGR of ~ 4.4 % during the forecast period 2017-2023.Global Dupuytrens Contracture Market  Key PlayersKey players profiled in the report are Bristol-Meyers Squibb Co, Fresenius Kabi, Merck & Company, Pfizer Inc., West-Ward Pharmaceuticals, Spear Pharmacueticals, Actiza Pharmaceutical Private Limited, Nantong Jinghua Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Endo International plc. Pfizer Inc., and others.Get Unbelievable Discount on Report @Global Dupuytrens Contracture Market  Regional AnalysisEurope account for a significant market share owing to extensive use of medications and high expenditure on the health care. Additionally, the greater prevalence of Dupuytrens contracture in Europe drives the Dupuytrens contracture market. Also, concentration of major research companies in the developed countries of this region is adding fuel to the market growth. The highly developed healthcare system of the Scandavanian region coupled with high expenditure on healthcare, cruises the sale of Dupuytrens contracture treatment. Europe is led by countries such as Germany and France. Norway is expected to be the fastest growing market.US is the second largest market in the world due to high income and healthcare penetration. The presence of large healthcare players in the US benefits the market coupled with the high public expenditure on healthcare which comes to be approximately 16 % of the GDP. Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at a slower rate with China and India are likely to lead this market due to fast growing healthcare sector during the forecast period. The lower prevalence of Dupuytrens contracture in the Asian populations acts as a drag on the market.Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are estimated to drive the Middle East & African market. The development of large hospitals such as the King Fahd hospital in Riyadh is driving the market. The African region is expected to witness a moderate growth owing to poor economic and political conditions and poor healthcare development. Also the lower prevalence of Dupuytrens contracture in the Asian populations acts as a drag on the market.Global Dupuytrens Contracture Market  SegmentationThe global Dupuytrens contracture market has been segmented on the basis of types, diagnosis, surgery, drugs, therapy and end users. Based on type, the market has been segmented as type I, type II, type III. Based on diagnosis, the market has been segmented as physical examination, x-ray and others. Based on drug, the market has been segmented as steroids, collagenase injection, immune-modulators and others. Based on therapy, the market has been segmented as radiation therapy, physiotherapy and others. Based on the end user, the market has been segmented as hospitals & clinics, academic and research and others.To Know More Enquire @Major Table of ContentChapter 1. Report PrologueChapter 2. Market Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 LimitationsChapter 3. Research Methodology3.1 Introduction3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size EstimationChapter 4. Market DynamicsContinued.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.comM2M Network Security Market Confronting high demand in 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2315

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2315

https://www.tmrresearch.com/m2m-network-security-market

M2M Network Security Market: SnapshotThe rise in number of deployment of long-term evolution (LTE) wireless broadband service is foreseen to propel the growth of the global M2M network security market within the duration of 2017 to 2021. Rise in requirement for applications for example video surveillance, automotive infotainment, and emergency services, there is a significant surge for higher speed and bandwidth. Hence, the demand for 4G and 3G LTE service, along with the large-scale deployment of LTE networks rises, which is expected to boost the growth of the M2M network security market. Moreover, the market is experiencing a high demand regarding low-cost LTE models in developing nations because of the rising penetration of LTE in the market and the growing demand for high-speed internet connection within the users and organizations. As a result, there is a rise in investments on M2M network security is anticipated to grow as well, in the upcoming years.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The growing demand for M2M in consumer electronics is expected to propel the growth for the global M2M network security market in the years to come. The rise in usage of M2M in users electronics results in the rising demand for devices and gadgets, which allows the access to the internet for convenient transfer of the data. Along with that, owing to the security of the data, the demand for M2M network security solutions is foreseen to grow manifold again.The existence of a several number of international and regional vendors has prompted the vendor landscape of the global M2M network security market to be highly completive and extremely fragmented. To attain an edge over their competitors, various key players are banking upon the strategic mergers, and acquisitions and collaborations to improve their product portfolios and increase global and regional reach.Global M2M Network Security Market - OverviewAs the Internet of Things (IoT) rapidly transforms the way people communicate, live, and work, a number of new solutions are making their way in several industries, ranging from connected homes, connected cars, and connected workplaces. These connected solutions are all driven due to the vast advancements achieved in the field of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. The massive number of objects that are connected through these M2M networks have security management requirements similar to networked computing devices, consumer electronics, and mobile phones.The highly complex network architecture in which M2M devices operate their often inaccessible or unmanned nature present several challenges to their efficiency if an end-to-end M2M network security solution is not in place. This report on the global market for M2M network security market presents a detailed overview of the present growth dynamics and future growth prospects of the market over the period between 2017 and 2025.Request TOC of the Report @Global M2M Network Security Market - Trends and OpportunitiesThe soaring adoption of M2M communications in everyday devices in the consumer as well as enterprise sector is the key driver of the global M2M network security market. As the number of embedded sensors and data transmission points begin to grow out of proportion owing to the present IoT boom, the need for effective network security capabilities to shield M2M networks from unauthorized sources will be felt more intensely. The rising number of companies operating in the market, offering innovative solutions for the security needs of M2M networks will also help the market gain traction in the next few years.Global M2M Network Security Market - Market PotentialThe rapidly rising expanse of IoT technologies in the enterprise as well as the consumer sector and the rising set of applications across large number of industries is expected to bode well for the M2M network security market in the next few years. The market will especially benefit from these factors in developing economies across regions such as Asia Pacific and Latin America, where digitization and industrial automation are witnessing increased focus from the enterprise sector as well as government bodies.Speaking of numbers, Vodafone has recently announced that its IoT mobile network has crossed the mark of 50 mn connections. Several other telecom companies are increasingly realizing the potential of the IoT sector and are focusing on innovations to grab a larger share in the rapidly expanding and dynamic IoT sector.Global M2M Network Security Market - Regional OverviewFrom a geographical viewpoint, the market for M2M network security has been covered in the report for regions such as Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Middle East and Africa. Of these, the markets across North America and Europe are presently the leading contributors of revenue to the global market. The high level of adoption of M2M connections in consumer electronics devices and across a number of industries and the presence of some of the worlds leading information technology firms in North America are chiefly attributable to the dominance of these regions in the global market.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global M2M Network Security Market - Competitive DynamicsThe presence of a large number of regional and international vendors has made the vendor landscape of the global M2M network security market highly fragmented and competitive. To outplay competitors, several leading companies are resorting to strategic collaborations, mergers, and acquisitions to expand their geographical reach and product portfolios. Development of products and services with innovative security features is also a popular growth strategy.Some of the leading vendors operating in the global M2M network security market are Gemalto, Cisco Systems, KORE Wireless, PTC, Numerex, SIMCom Wireless Solutions, Digi International, NetComm Wireless, EUROTECH, Systech, Netop, Ventus, Novatel Wireless, and Telit.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Oxo Biodegradable Plastic Packaging Market to Exceed US$ 1000 Mn in 2026

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/11947

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/multiple-chapter/11947

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/11947

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Understanding various facets of the global oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging market, Persistence Market Research has come up with an analytical and extensive research publication titled Oxo-Biodegradable Plastic Packaging Market: Global Industry Analysis (2013-2017) and Forecast (2018-2026). The comprehensive oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging market research report focuses on various trends, developments, opportunities, restraints, drivers and challenges impacting the growth of the global oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging market. These factors vary in magnitude in different regions for which a detailed analysis is covered in the research report. Along with this, an in-depth assessment on competition is covered and forecasts for a period of eight years, from 2018-2026, are elaborated with respect to each segment and sub-segment of the global oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging market.Key players involved in the manufacturing and distribution of oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging products are focusing on investing in research to develop innovative packaging solutions with additional features that can enhance the quality and usability of the product. Main players competing in the global oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging market are UNIBAG MAGHREB, EPI Environmental Technologies Inc., Wells Plastics Ltd., Willow Ridge Plastics Inc., Elif Plastik Ambalaj Sanayi Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Symphony Polymers Pvt. Ltd., Newtrans USA Company, Licton Industrial Corp, Symphony Environmental Technologies PLC and Add Plast.Request to Sample of Report @Global Oxo-Biodegradable Plastic Packaging Market  Forecast AnalysisAs per the analytical research study carried out on oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging, the global market is expected to soar at a rate of 5.4% (value CAGR) during the forecast period, mainly driven by increasing need for environment friendly packaging solutions and supportive government regulations with respect to use of oxo-biodegradable plastics for packaging. In 2017, the global oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging stood at US$ 637.3 Mn and is estimated to reach a value higher than US$ 1000 Mn by end of the assessment period (2026).Awareness of Environment Health and the Need to Curb Plastic Pollution to Offer Potential Growth Opportunities for Oxo-Biodegradable PlasticsSince the last few years, plastic has been a vital component in the packaging industry. A higher percentage of various types of plastics are being used for packaging, and are also being discarded after use. Most of the plastic ends up in landfills where they take several years to degrade. This has created a huge concern for environment health and little has been done to eradicate the issue. As complete elimination of plastic is not possible, manufacturers have been promoting use of biodegradable packaging solutions, such as oxo-biodegradable plastic products. This has triggered the adoption of oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging solutions and is expected to drive the growth of the global market.Supportive Government Regulations Regarding the Use of Oxo-Biodegradable Plastics to Drive Increased AdoptionAlthough oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging is going through a phase of instability in the west, which might prove to be a critical restraining factor in the coming decade, it is viewed as a key solution to curb the land and marine pollution problems. Many countries actively encourage oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging. For example, governments of various countries in Middle and Africa have made a mandate that the country will use only oxo-biodegradable plastics for packaging.Request Report Multiple Chapter @Key Segmental HighlightsAsia pacific is expected to be an attractive region for oxo-biodegradable plastics. The manufacturing and adoption of these products is high in developing countries in the region. Asia Pacific oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging market is projected to grow at a high value CAGR during the forecast period. Polyethylene material to witness high demand in the manufacturing of oxo-biodegradable plastics. Also, polyethylene terephthalate is gaining high tractionOxo-biodegradable garbage bags are expected to witness high demand in the coming years. The sales of this packaging type is expected to exceed US$360 Mn by end of 2026. Pharmaceutical and healthcare sector have shown increased adoption of oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging since recent past. This end use industry is expected to largely contribute to the growth of the global market in the coming years.Middle East and Africa is likely to emerge as a lucrative market for oxo-biodegradable plastic packaging. Manufacturers can expect a steady stream of opportunities to emerge in the MEA region.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:Oral Thrush Market Growth Overview Along with Company Profiles by Type and Treatment Details, Competitors Analysis like Bayer AG, Stellar Pharma, Pfizer Inc. and Forecast 2023

Oral Thrush Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4417

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/4417

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/4417

Oral thrush also called as oral candidiasis is an infection of the mouth caused by strains of the Candida species. Candida albicans is the most commonly implicated organism, which occurs naturally in about 50% of the world's population as a normal component of the oral microbiota. However, Candida albicans is an opportunistic pathogen and it accounts for about 50% of oral candidiasis cases across the globeand other strains of candida such as C. tropicalis, C. glabrata and C. albicans, account for over 80% of cases collectively. Increasing prevalence of HIV has increased immunodeficiency in the patient, which makes the patient more susceptible to dubliniensis and C. geotrichium. Furthermore, the infection is also detected in hospitalized patients, smokers, immune-compromised individuals due to diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and Down syndrome.Click to Get Sample Report @Oral thrush (oral candidiasis) is a medical condition in which the fungus, Candida albicans, over-grows on the lining of the mouth. The global oral thrush (oral candidiasis) market is growing with the sound pace. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, global oral thrush market is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The global oral thrush market is expected to reach USD 9.5 billion by 2023, and the market is projected to grow at a CAGR of ~ 4.4 % during the forecast period 2017-2023.Global Oral Thrush Market - Key PlayersSome of key players profiled in the report are Bayer AG, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Stellar Pharma, Pfizer Inc., Wockhardt Ltd., Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, Bristol Laboratories, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline Plc., and others.Global Oral Thrush Market - Competitive AnalysisCharacterized by the presence of several well-established and small players, the oral thrush market appears to be highly competitive and fragmented. International players are increasingly expanding their footprint in the developing economy, making it difficult for regional vendors to compete with them, especially in terms of features such as product differentiation, product portfolios, quality, and pricing. The market is witnessing intensified competition which is expected to get more intensified further during the forecast period. The intense competition prevalent in the market dictates the consolidation among marketers.Pfizer Inc. is one of the major players of the global oral thrush market. The company is headquartered in the U.S. and shares a repute of a leading research-based biopharmaceutical company. The companys total revenue increased from USD 48,851 million in 2015 to USD 52,824 million in 2016. This was marked by the significant amount of its revenue being spent on the R&D. In 2016, the company spent 14.9% of its total revenue in research and development which made the company to improve its product portfolio and launch new product, strengthening its position in the market.In August 2016, FDA approved Pfizer's TROXYCA ER extended-release capsules CII for pain management.In October 2016, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. acquired Anda, Inc., a leading distributor of generic pharmaceuticals in the U.S., from Allergan plc.In July 2017, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals was granted the final approval by the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) for Maloff Protect which is an anti-malarial medication in the United Kingdom.Bayer AG, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Stellar Pharma, Pfizer Inc., Wockhardt Ltd., Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, Bristol Laboratories, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, and GlaxoSmithKline Plc. are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global oral thrush market and are profiled in the MRFR Analysis.Get Unbelievable Discount on Report @Global Oral Thrush Market - Regional AnalysisNorth America leads the market owing to well-developed healthcare infrastructure and rising per capita healthcare expenditure. Europe holds the second largest market share. Increasing funding for research and huge patient population within the region facilitates the market growth. Asia Pacific is emerging as the fastest region for the market growth during the forecast period due to the presence of the developed economies like India and China within the region. According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation in 2017, Indian healthcare sector is one of the fastest growing industries which is expected to advance at a CAGR of 22.87% during 2015-20 and reach USD 280 billion by 2020. On the other hand, Middle East and Africa holds the least market share, especially in the African region due to the stringent government policies and low per capita income. On the other hand, Middle East leads the market of the Middle East & Africa region, due to the presence of developed economies like Kuwait and Qatar along with huge healthcare expenditure.Global Oral Thrush Market  SegmentsThe global oral thrush market has been segmented on the basis of type, diagnosis, treatment, and end user.Based on type, the market has been segmented as pseudomembranous, erythematous, hyperplastic, and others.Based on diagnosis, the market has been segmented as examination, biopsy, endoscopy, and others.Based on treatment, the market has been segmented as anti-fungal, immune-modulators, and others.Based on the end user, the market has been segmented as hospitals & clinics, academic and research, and others.Major Table of ContentChapter 1. Report PrologueChapter 2. Market Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 LimitationsChapter 3. Research Methodology3.1 Introduction3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size EstimationChapter 4. Market DynamicsContinued.To Know More Enquire @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Endobronchial Ultrasound Biopsy Market Key Insights and Forecast Assumptions until the End of 2025

MRRSE

https://www.mrrse.com/sample/4828

https://www.mrrse.com/endobronchial-ultrasound-biopsy-market

https://www.mrrse.com/

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 Endobronchial Ultrasound Biopsy Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025 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 Endobronchial Ultrasound Biopsy market have been elaborated upon in the research report.Request Sample pages of this report @Pulmonary bronchoscopy and critical care medicines have witnessed substantial improvements in advancements in endoscopic techniques over the last few years. Endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) is one such technique that has modernized the pulmonologists ability to sample (biopsy) and visualize the structure around the tracheobronchial tree. The EBUS and endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS TBNA) are relatively new techniques and are effective procedures to evaluate pulmonary nodules, and diagnose lung infections and stages of lung cancer. Additionally, endobronchial ultrasound biopsy is also used to identify other diseases such as tuberculosis and chronic pulmonary obstructive disorder, which can affect the lungs and other respiratory organs. For example, masses in the chest and enlarged lymph nodes, among others.Since its introduction in the early 1980s, the endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has gained acceptance in the rapidly growing fields of gastroenterology and pulmonology. In endoscopic ultrasound, the physician inserts a special bronchoscope through patients mouth into the trachea, which further advances into the two main airways (bronchi) in the lungs. The bronchoscope is fitted with a fine gauge aspiration needle and ultrasound processor. An ultrasound monitor shows real-time images of the blood vessels, airways, lungs, and neighboring lymph nodes. The physician inserts the needle through the bronchial walls to get a sample of cells of the mediastinal lymph nodes. The biopsy samples can be studied to diagnose lung cancer and other diseases. Specimens or samples collected during the biopsy are examined using histological and cytological studies of the respective organ. It is a minimally invasive technique to collect tissue samples for biopsy. These techniques are extensively utilized as they do not cause much discomfort to the patients and in most cases, do not require surgery. Selection of bronchoscope depends on the application and the condition of the organ. In 2016, the global endobronchial ultrasound biopsy market was worth US$ 469.5 Mn and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 4.6% from 2017 to 2025.Access Report Summary with Detailed TOC at @The global endobronchial ultrasound biopsy market is estimated to expand at a rapid pace in the near future. Rise in geriatric population with increasing incidence of diseases that require endoscopic ultrasound procedures, large patient pool with respiratory disorders, and increase in demand for minimally invasive procedures are some drivers of this market. However, cost of medical devices and lack reimbursement policies in developing countries are likely to restrain the market.The endobronchial ultrasound biopsy market is segmented based on product, application, end-user, and region. In terms of product, the global endobronchial ultrasound market is divided into biopsy forceps, cytology brushes, transbronchial aspirational needles, spray catheters, biopsy needles, and others. The transbronchial aspirational needles segment is projected to dominate the market during the forecast period, due to technological advancements and extensive usage of these needles in gastroenterology and pulmonology. Based on application, the market is classified into cancer diagnosis, infection diagnosis, and others. The cancer diagnosis segment is anticipated to dominate the market during the forecast period. In terms of end-user, the market is segregated into hospitals, cancer specialty clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, diagnostic centers, and others. The hospitals segment is expected to expand at a considerable growth rate during the forecast period, due to increase in the number of government and private hospitals and rise in the number of endoscopic ultrasound procedures performed.Geographically, the endobronchial ultrasound biopsy market is categorized into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is estimated to dominate the global market during the forecast period. Increase in incidences of lung cancer and chronic respiratory diseases is projected to fuel the market in the region during the forecast period. The market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to expand at a substantial growth rate during the forecast period, due to increase in health care expenditure in the region. Moreover, low manufacturing cost in China and India has increased production facilities in these countries, thus attracting pharmaceutical and biotechnological giants from across the world.Key players operating in the endobronchial ultrasound biopsy market include Olympus Corporation, Medtronic, Cook Medical, CONMED Corporation, Medi-globe, Veran Medical Technologies, and Boston Scientific Corporation. These leaders have established their stand in the market and enjoy brand loyalty among customers.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 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:Fresh Processed Meat Products Market Industry Trends and Developments 2016 - 2026

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1168

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1168

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Market OverviewThe variable meat preservation techniques have resulted in the voluminous growth in the demand for fresh processed meat. In order to suit the fast-paced city life, urban consumers prefer eating fresh processed meat products. The time required to cook raw meat and then serve will continue to opportunely aid the growth in demand for fresh processed meat products. Furthermore, hot dogs and other processed meat products are expanding prominence in the global food sector, creating ample growth opportunities for fresh processed meat products. Fresh processed meat products are widely accepted as the ideal fast food products, and are popular among the working class of the society. The global fresh processed meat products market is expected to witness an upsurge, owing to the dominance of existing fast food practices.Global Fresh Processed Meat Products Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe growing income of urbanised population has fuelled the demand in the global market for fresh processed meat products. Additionally, the busy urban life has resulted in consumers opting for convenient food that do not expend more time for cooking or preparation. The rising preference of consuming ready-to-eat meat is also considered as the key factor driving the growth of the global fresh processed meat products market. However, there are several factors restraining the growth of the fresh processed meat products market. The key restraints of the global market for fresh processed meat products include,Request for sample Report:Increasing obesity levels & unhealthy lifestyleConsumption of processed food products triggers the upsurge of cholesterol and fat levels in the body, forcing the consumer to live an unhealthy lifestyle. Rising obesity levels are generating more awareness about the drawbacks of processed food consumption, thereby hampering the demand for fresh processed meat products.Growing number of meat-eatersThe mounting rise in the number of meat eating consumers has alarmed the manufacturers of fresh processed meat products. In order to meet the brimming demand, the process for retaining the freshness of the meat is hampered, which consequentially affects the impending demand.Demand for high-protein & fat-free meatFresh processed meat products are derived from preservation through curing, smoking, canning, drying or salting the raw meat. As a result, the processed meat holds high percent of fat and moderate levels of protein. Hence, the demand for fresh processed meat products is not prominent among a large segment of consumers who opt for high-protein and fatless meat products.Rising inclination towards Cancer & Heart Disease risksThe health consciousness among consumers is restraining the growth of the fresh processed meat products, owing to the high awareness of its disadvantages on the health. The high incidence rate of Cancer and cardiovascular disorders among consumers of fresh processed meat products is lowering the demand, and keeping the manufacturers reluctant about business expansion.Fresh Processed Meat Products: Market SegmentationBased on the type of processed meat, the global market for fresh processed meat products is classified into segments such as,HamburgersFried SausagesKebabChicken NuggetsOn the basis of the packaging of the meat products, the market is further segmented into,ChilledFrozenCannedAccording to the meat-type, the market includes sub-segments such as,BeefPorkChickenMuttonOthersRegional OutlookMoreover, the global fresh processed meat products market is also segmented on the basis of the seven key geographical regions. Among those, North America will continue to lead in terms of volumes of fresh processed meat being produced. Brazil and China will have equally major contribution in the global market, while 70% of the market share is expected to be dominated by North America alone. However, the lower awareness levels in Asia Pacific countries is anticipated to hinder growth opportunities of the global fresh processed meat products market.Visit For Table of Contents:Key PlayersThe key companies participating in the global market for fresh processed meat products include JBS, NH Foods Ltd, Smithfield Foods, Inc., Cargill Incorporated, ConAgra Foods Inc., National Beef Packing Company, LLC, Tyson Foods Inc., Cherkizovo Group PJSC and OSI Group, among others. Ever since WHO classified processed meat as Group 1, carcinogenic to humans, the global leaders in fresh processed meat manufacturing have faced ultimatum with context to their production capacity. Nevertheless, the companies are expected to boost the demand by developing advanced processing that renders the product meat harmless and prevents post-consumption stomach ailments.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.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:Aerospace Glass Market to Rise with Significant CAGR During 2025

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/aerospace-glass-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=33503

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Aerospace glass is used in aero-structures in order to save weight, increase payload capacity, and improve fuel efficiency. It is commonly found in secondary structural parts such as cargo liners, floors, seats, and other interior applications where weight-saving up to 20% is easy to achieve. Fiberglass composites are the commonly used aerospace glass products in the aviation industry. Fiberglass composites are distinguished by their excellent fatigue, impact, and temperature resistance. Other applications of aerospace glass include primary structural parts such as tail fins, flaps propellers, air brakes, small plane fuselages, helicopter shells and rotor blades, and motor parts. Multiple layers of glass are bent in order to create a typical windshield used in commercial aircraft. Key properties of aerospace glass include appropriate refractive index, chemical composition, softening point, tensile strength, and modulus.Read Report Overview @The aerospace glass market is primarily driven by the increase in demand for glass fiber composites for applications in the aviation industry. Furthermore, there is an upsurge in the demand for aerospace glass from various sectors, especially the defense. The light weight and excellent strength of aerospace glass attract manufacturers, retailers, and consumers, and thereby have become key factors driving the expansion of the market. Moreover, increase in usage of aerospace glass for manufacturing of various structural applications in the aviation and defense sector is further propelling the expansion of the market. Though the raw material is cheap, it requires advanced technologies for the processing purposes.Based on the type of glass which is used in the glass fiber, the aerospace glass market can be categorized into E-glass and S-Glass. Glass fibers can be used in the form of composites as well. Based on the application, the aerospace glass market can be classified as secondary structural parts and primary structural parts. Secondary structural parts where aerospace glass finds applications include cargo liners, floors, seats, and other interior applications. Based on the primary structural part application, the global aerospace glass market can be divided into tail fins, flaps propellers, air brakes, small plane fuselages, helicopter shells and rotor blades, and motor parts.The global aerospace glass market witnessed robust expansion in 2016, and the trend is estimated to continue during the forecast period. North America accounted for a significant share of the aerospace glass market due to availability of raw material processing and technological advancements in the region. The aerospace industry in North America is a key market and is anticipated to expand further due to fleet expansion activities. Demand for fuel-efficient vehicles and strong protective coating is increasing in the region. The aerospace glass market in Europe is expanding. Germany and France are considered the key countries in Europe.Demand from the aerospace industry fuels the aerospace glass market in Europe. Asia Pacific is also considered a key region for the market of aerospace glass due to strong demand from China and India. Changing lifestyle, the nature of emerging economy, and overseas studies are key factors that fuel the expansion of the aerospace glass market in Asia Pacific. In Latin America, demand for aerospace glass is primarily from Brazil due to the recent progress in the aviation sector in the country. Middle East & Africa, considered a global connectivity hub, is expected to be an attractive market in the near future.Request to view Sample Report:Key players operating in the global aerospace glass market include PPG Industries, Inc, Advanced Materials Composites Private Limited and 3B-the Fiberglass Company.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Bio-based Ethylene Market | Industry Challenges, Key Vendors, Drivers 2025

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/bio-based-ethylene-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=33524

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Bio-ethylene (bio-based ethylene) is produced from bio-based material. Traditional ethylene, on the other hand, is manufactured from fossil fuels through thermochemical processes. Similar to traditional ethylene, bio-ethylene can be used as a raw material for a variety of organic chemicals and plastics. Bio-ethylene is generally produced from bioethanol. Fermentation of pre-treated biomass results in the production of bioethanol. Bioethanol is primarily used as a blend in transportation fuel.Read Report Overview @The bio-ethylene market can be segmented based on raw materials used for production, application, end-user industry, and region. Production of bio-ethylene can be attained from sugars, starch, and ligno-cellulosic biomass. The sub-segments can be further divided into sugary biomass which includes sugarcane, sugar beets, sweet sorghum; starchy biomass which includes wheat, corn and barley; and ligno-cellulosic biomass which is obtained from wood, straw, and grasses. Bio-ethylene is employed in the production of several organic chemicals and plastics such as high and low density polyethylene (HDPE and LDPE), polyethylene chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). In terms of end-user industry, the market can be classified into packaging, detergents, lubricants, and additives. Based on region, the bio-ethylene market can be divided into Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa, North America, and Latin America.The global bio-ethylene market has not attained maturity except in Brazil. Stringent rules and regulations regarding the environment are expected to propel the market of bio-ethylene. Bio-based ethylene reduces the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) by lessening the usage of fossil fuels. Till date, reduction of GHGs and petrochemical energy through bio-based ethylene has been achieved up to 50% and 65%, respectively, as compared to the use of traditional ethylene. Bio-based ethylene is expected to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels; however, the cost of fossil fuels and bio-ethylene is a crucial factor in deciding the extent of their usage. The cost of producing bio-ethylene is high due to the availability and low-price of biomass feedstock. This acts as a restraint to the bio-ethylene market. The cost of bio-ethylene is almost 1.5 to 2 times higher than that of petrochemical ethylene. However, bio-plastics are inexpensive as compared to petrochemical plastics. Ligno-cellulosic biomass is expensive than sugar and starch biomass and the cost of producing from ligno-cellulosic material is also high. Production of sugarcane is low-priced in Brazil. Large-scale production of sugarcane is done in India, South America, and some parts of Asia.Corn is produced in large quantities in the U.S. Europe accounts for one-third of the global production of sugar beets. Food versus fuel is a limiting factor in the production of bio-ethylene from sugar and starch feedstock. Ligno-cellulosic biomass can be grown on unfertile land. Bioethanol, the precursor of bio-ethylene, is primarily used for transportation fuel, though it can be in other applications too. This restricts the large-scale production of bio-based ethylene. Similarly, demand for biomass feedstock for application in heat, electricity, and biofuels production is expected to increase in the near future.Brazil is the largest market of bioethanol. The production of bioethanol in Brazil is higher than that of petrochemical ethanol. Brazil and the U.S. contribute to more than half of the global production of bioethanol. India and Brazil have the advantage of availability of inexpensive biomass. China is an emerging market for bio-ethylene in terms of production. Asia Pacific is projected to constitute a major market share in the near future due to the vast availability of biomass. Demand for bio-ethylene is estimated to soar in Europe due to the rise in awareness about health and environment and regulations for bio-based production. North America is estimated to expand during the forecast period led by the technological advancements and research and development activities in the region. Major players in the global bio based ethylene market include Atol, Cargill, The Dow Chemical Company, and Alberta.Request to view Sample Report:The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Global Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment Market Growth and Consumption 2018

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1763730&type=S

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-semiconductor-photolithography-equipment-market-professional-survey-report-2018.htm/toc

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1763730&type=D

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment Market Professional Survey Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.The report on global Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment market is a result of extreme efforts taken by market experts and analysts in order to determine what are the important aspects and factors relatiting to the Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment industry and which information should be disregarded so as to provide readers with a crisp and useful report regarding the market's growth pattern and factors that may affect it negatively.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringASMLNikonCanonSMEEGet Report Sample and Customization:For the purpose of a detailed study of the global Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment market, the report segments this market in two key criteria. The leading, declining, and fastest growing segments and sub segments are highlighted. Also the factors responsible for the growth or decline of a segment are discussed in detail so that potential investors or readers are better able to understand what is working or not working for the Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment market. The report studies the market from a global perspective as well as regional perspective. The regions taken into consideration are North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Rest of the World. Among these, the region which is expected to live in the future and the one which is leaving presently is revealed. Also revealed is the fastest growing regional segment and the one to witness sluggish growth.On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoUVDUVEUVBy Application, the market can be split intoFront-endBack-endTable of ContentsGlobal Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment Market Professional Survey Report 20181 Industry Overview of Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment1.1 Definition and Specifications of Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment1.1.1 Definition of Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment1.1.2 Specifications of Semiconductor Photolithography EquipmentTo Browse a Complete Report with TOC Visit @2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment Major Manufacturers in 20173.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment Major Manufacturers in 20173.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment Major Manufacturers in 20173.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment Major Manufacturers in 20174 Global Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment Overall Market Overview4.1 2013-2018E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2013-2018E Global Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2017 Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales AnalysisGet discount copy @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Semiconductor Photolithography EquipmentTable Product Specifications of Semiconductor Photolithography EquipmentTable Classification of Semiconductor Photolithography EquipmentFigure Global Production Market Share of Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment by Type in 2017Figure North America Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment Market Size (Million USD) (2013-2025)Figure China Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment Market Size (Million USD) (2013-2025)Figure Europe Semiconductor Photolithography Equipment 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: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comGlobal Gastric Cancer Drugs Market Report 2024: Market Segments, Size, Trend and Market Projections for Upcoming Years

Infinium Global Research

https://www.infiniumglobalresearch.com/healthcare_medical_devices/global_gastric_cancer_drugs_market

https://www.infiniumglobalresearch.com/healthcare_medical_devices/global_gastric_cancer_drugs_market

https://www.infiniumglobalresearch.com

Gastric Cancer Drugs Market report provides the latest market data along with industry future trends, which keeps tracking of users driving revenue growth rate of Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by route of administration (oral and parenteral), by lines of chemotherapy (first-line chemotherapy and second-line chemotherapy), by molecule type (small molecules and biologics) market status and outlook of global and major regions, from manufacturers, and end industries. As this report is expected to help key players among the Gastric Cancer Drugs Market it includes the five years Industry analysis and the 6 years annual forecast from 2018 to 2024. According to report the global gastric cancer drugs market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9.5% over the forecast period of 2018-2024.Purchase Global Gastric Cancer Drugs market by route of administration (oral and parenteral), by lines of chemotherapy (first-line chemotherapy and second-line chemotherapy), by molecule type (small molecules and biologics) and by region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and RoW) report onThe report also identifies the drivers and restraints that affect the gastric cancer drugs market over the period of 2018 to 2024.Rising Acceptability of Gastric Cancer DrugsRising acceptability of gastric cancer drugs due to increasing public awareness regarding the treatment of gastric cancer is the latest trend in the global gastric cancer drugs market. Moreover, various awareness organizations spreading awareness regarding the disease through various social media platforms and blogs will further surge this trend over the forecast period.Growing Incidence of Gastric Cancer and High Unmet NeedsGrowing incidences of gastric cancer and high unmet needs in the market results in rising R&D are the key factors responsible for the growth of global gastric cancer drugs market. Moreover, changing lifestyle habits such as smoking, intake of alcohol and rising obesity are responsible for the growing incidence of gastric cancer. Furthermore, due to high unmet needs in the market results in introduction of safe and effective novel therapies for the gastric cancer.North America Region is the Largest Consumer among the Geographies Followed by Europe While APAC to Grow at a Highest CAGRThe global Gastric Cancer Drugs market has been dominated by the Asia Pacific region over the historic period 2015-16 followed by Latin America. Presence of countries like China and Japan dealing with large patient base and increasing demand for improved healthcare across the region is the key factor responsible for the growth of gastric cancer drugs market in the APAC region. Furthermore, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at a highest CAGR over the period of 2018 to 2024. Moreover, growth in treatment seeking population in the region and rising awareness among the population are anticipated to boost the market for Gastric Cancer Drugs.The companies covered in the report include Amgen, AROG Pharmaceuticals, Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals, Array Biopharma, Taiho Oncology, AstraZeneca, ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, Galena Biopharma and ASLAN Pharmaceuticals.Browse Detailed TOC, Description and Companies Mentioned in Report @Table of Contents1. Preface1.1. Report Description1.2. Research Methods1.3. Research Approaches2. Executive Summary3. Global Gastric Cancer Drugs Market Overview3.1. Introduction3.2. Market Dynamics3.2.1. Drivers3.2.2. Restraints3.2.3. Opportunities3.3. Porter's Five Forces Analysis3.4. IGR-Growth Matrix Analysis3.5. Competitive Landscape in the Global Gastric Cancer Drugs Market4. Global Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Route of Administration4.1. Oral4.2. Parenteral5. Global Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Lines of Chemotherapy5.1. First-Line Chemotherapy5.2. Second-Line Chemotherapy6. Global Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Molecule Type6.1. Small Molecules6.2. Biologics7. Global Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Region 2018-20247.1. North America7.1.1. North America Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Route of administration7.1.2. North America Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Lines of Chemotherapy7.1.3. North America Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Molecule Type7.1.4. North America Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Country7.2. Europe7.2.1. Europe Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Route of Administration7.2.2. Europe Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Lines of Chemotherapy7.2.3. Europe Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Molecule Type7.2.4. Europe Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Country7.3. Asia-Pacific7.3.1. Asia-Pacific Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Route of Administration7.3.2. Asia-Pacific Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Lines of Chemotherapy7.3.3. Asia-Pacific Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Molecule Type7.3.4. Asia-Pacific Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Country7.4. RoW7.4.1. RoW Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Route of Administration7.4.2. RoW Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Lines of Chemotherapy7.4.3. RoW Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Molecule Type7.4.4. RoW Gastric Cancer Drugs Market by Sub-region8. Company Covered8.1. Amgen8.2. AROG Pharmaceuticals8.3. Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals8.4. Array Biopharma8.5. Taiho Oncology8.6. AstraZeneca8.7. ARIAD Pharmaceuticals8.8. Eli Lilly8.9. Galena Biopharma8.10. ASLAN PharmaceuticalsFollowing Important Points are covered in Gastric Cancer Drugs Market Report:1. Comprehensive analysis of global as well as regional markets of Gastric Cancer Drugs2. Complete coverage of all the product type and applications segments to analyze the trends, developments, and forecast of market size up to 2024.3. Comprehensive analysis of the companies operating in this market. The company profile includes analysis of product portfolio, revenue, SWOT analysis and latest developments of the company.4. Infinium Global Research- Growth Matrix presents analysis of the product segments and geographies that market players should focus to invest, consolidate, expand and/or diversify.About Us:Infinium Global Research and Consulting Solutions is started with a single motto of being business partner of first choice. We at Infinium work on the strengths of our clients to ensure we help them consolidate their market position. We firmly believe in the fact that if you are able to develop newer opportunities then you find there is no dearth of opportunities for you. With our strategic research approaches and deep dive in the market segments, we try to find out new opportunities that our clients can encash with their existing resources. Our experts with over 100 years of cumulative experience in research offer the best in the industry services to our clients to ensure that they achieve their business goals.Contact Us:Infinium Global ResearchGoyal Shinde Park, Bhau Patil Road,Bopodi, Pune-411 020.U.S. + Canada Toll Free: 1-800-638-0796Email: sales@infiniumglobalresearch.comWebsite:Global Master Data Management Industry : Status, Size, Share, Trends and Application 2018-2024

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=789825

https://www.researchmoz.us/master-data-management-market-report.html/toc

https://www.researchmoz.us/master-data-management-market-report.html

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

https://marketinfo247.wordpress.com/

Albany, NY, 10th May : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Master Data Management Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2024" globally.This report on the master data management market provides analysis for the period from 2014 to 2024, wherein 2016 is the base year and the period from 2017 to 2024 is the forecast period.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Data for 2014 has been included as historical information. The report highlights the various drivers, restraints, and opportunities expected to influence the markets growth during the said period. It also highlights the trends that prevail in the master data management market globally. The study provides a holistic perspective on market growth throughout the forecast period in terms of revenue estimates (in US$ Mn) across regions of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Latin America (LATAM).This research report provides in-depth analysis of the master data management market, which is segmented on the basis of component, solution, and industry. The report provides cross-sectional analysis of the global master data management market in terms of market estimates and forecasts for all segments across regions.The report profiles the major players of the master data management market. The company profiling includes an overview of the company with respect to parameters such as company details, market presence and segmentation by geography, key developments, strategy and historical roadmap, and revenue and operating profits. Major business strategies adopted by these players, their market positioning, and their recent developments have also been identified in the research report. This report also provides market positioning analysis of major players in the master data management market based on their 2015 revenues. The major players profiled in the report include Informatica, IBM Global Services, Oracle Corporation, SAP SE, Stibo Systems, Riversand Technologies, Tibco Software, Agility Multichannel, and EnterWorks Acquisition Inc.Global Master Data Management Market: Trends and OpportunitiesMaster data management can enable organizations to derive actionable insights from the IoT data generated. Master data management offers actionable analytical and predictive data to organizations in order to carry out their business operations effectively related to product and customer data. For product and customer centric industries, availability of effective and accurate master data is critical. Discrepancy in customer as well as product related data can cost any organization hugely in terms of time and money.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Therefore, the need to invest in effective master data management solutions has become vital for the success of any organization. Businesses today have to handle a large amount of data related to products and customers. Master data management focuses on managing product- and customer-related information through product data solutions and customer data solutions. Improper management of data can lead businesses to face loses in terms of money and time. Master data management serves as a central repository of master data, which is consolidated from various sources of data. Data-driven business operations rely hugely on master data. Master data management done correctly helps achieve risk management and regulatory compliance in organizations. Thus organizations consider investing in efficient data management and master data management solutions.Key Segments of the Global Master Data Management MarketBy DeploymentOn-cloudOn-PremiseBy SolutionProduct Data SolutionCustomer Data SolutionMulti-domain MDM SolutionBy End-use IndustryGovernmentBanking, Finance and Insurance (BFSI)IT and TelecommunicationsHealth CareEnergy and UtilityTransportation and LogisticsManufacturingRetailOthersBrowse Report @Master Data Management Market: By RegionNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle East and AfricaLatin 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 :Sensors Market Unsurpassed demand 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=617

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=617

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sensors-market

Global Sensors Market: SnapshotThe global sensors market is prophesied to record a healthy CAGR during the forecast period 20172025 on account of the growing application of intelligent management and monitoring in the smart systems industry. Distributed sensor networks are heavily engaged for transmitting control instructions and valuable measurement information after interconnecting the devices in networked embedded systems. In todays era of smart technologies, vendors could take advantage of key applications such as assembling infrastructure systems, intelligent transportation, smart water networks, smart homes, and smart grids with the use of sensors.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The global sensors market is envisioned to witness the advent of more efficient products with superior sensing quality. For instance, in late 2016, the HC1100 single-chip offering was launched in the global sensors market via a joint effort by HMicro and STMicroelectronics. HC1100 is considered to be applicable for disposable, clinical-grade biosensors and smart patches. Electrocardiogram, vital sign monitoring, and other wired wearable devices could be especially benefited with such biosensors and smart patches. As a result, the rising requirement of such devices is projected to propel the growth of the global sensors market throughout the forecast period.The coveted application of sensors in smartphones for improving user interface experience is foreseen to rake in a telling demand in the global sensors market. More number of leading smartphone manufacturers are anticipated to demand sensors at a significant rate. Google claims to boast of the best-ever smartphone camera in history after it launched Pixel in 2016, featuring the Sony IMX378 sensor.Global Sensors Market: OverviewIn recent times, the increasing trend of automation is providing a thrust to the global sensors market. Sensors form the backbone of automated systems. The market has witnessed a tremendous transformational leap with the rapid advancements in the sensor technology. With advancements, there has been a considerable expansion in the scope of applications of sensors. They are used across numerous industrial verticals including automotive, consumer electronics, oil and gas, healthcare, utility, and manufacturing and for a myriad of parameters such as temperature, level, position, pressure, image, light, motion, and magnetic field.Request TOC of the Report @The report serves as a repository of analysis and data regarding several critical parameters of the global sensors market including value chain analysis, its dynamics, geographical segmentation, and competitive landscape. It takes into account the historical statistics and the current scenario to estimate the future trends of the market. It profiles prominent players in the market along with their business strategies, market shares, contact information, revenue generation, and latest developments. It performs SWOT analysis on key players to derive the growth trajectory each player will experience.Global Sensors Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe proliferation of consumer electronics is providing a fillip to the global sensors market. The manufacturing of consumer electronics demands a large number of sensors such as pressure sensors, motion sensors, and image sensors. In addition, the rising implementation of fingerprint sensors in smartphones and wearable devices is augmenting the market. Moreover, the emergence of wireless technology is working in favor of the growth of the market. Sensors play a critical part in the proper functioning of wireless platforms. Furthermore, the growing need for real-time analysis is triggering their demand. On the other hand, the declining prices of sensors are adversely affecting the overall revenue generation of the market. However, the booming trend of miniaturization is creating ample growth opportunities for the market.Global Sensors Market: Region-wise OutlookThe key regional markets covered in the report are Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Rest of the World. Asia Pacific will be a prominent market throughout the forecast period. The presence of a large number of manufacturing facilities and the flourishing growth of various end-user industries are providing a fillip to the growth of the region. The cheap cost of labor and less stringent government regulations are attracting several multinational companies to set up their manufacturing plants in the region. North America will also account for a large share in the market, thanks to the rapid advancements in the field of sensor technology in the region.Global Sensors Market: Competitive LandscapeKey players in the global sensors market are paying high attention of technological advancements to stay relevant. They are pouring large funds into the research and development of novel and innovative sensors to differentiate their offerings and gain a competitive edge over their peers. Mergers and acquisitions are commonly adopted strategies by them to expand their business across different geographies.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @The immense potential of the market along with low entry barriers are attracting a large number of new players to invest in the market. The influx of new manufacturers is expected to intensify the competition in the market in the near future. Some of the prominent players in the global sensors market are Texas Instruments Inc., TE Connectivity Ltd., Infineon Technologies AG, Honeywell International Inc., Robert Bosch GmbH, ABB Ltd., Siemens AG, Emerson Electric Company, Omron Corporation, NXP Semiconductor N.V., and ARM Holdings Plc.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EVA Film for Solar Cells Market Size in Global Industry : Trends, Analysis, Growth and Status 2018-2025

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1715090

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-eva-film-for-solar-cells-sales-market-report-2018-report.html/toc

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-eva-film-for-solar-cells-sales-market-report-2018-report.html

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

https://marketinfo247.wordpress.com/

Albany, NY, 10th May : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Global EVA Film for Solar Cells Sales Market Report 2018" globally.This report studies the global EVA Film for Solar Cells market status and forecast, categorizes the global EVA Film for Solar Cells 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).Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @In 2017, the global EVA Film for Solar Cells 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 players covered in this report3MHanwhaTosohSumitomoTorayDuPontSKCDongwoo FineSanvicKuraboFirst SolarGeographically, this report studies the key regions, focuses on product sales, value, market share and growth opportunity in these regions, coveringUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaView Complete TOC with tables & Figures @The 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 intoThickness 0.30 mmThickness 0.45 mmThickness 0.50 mmOtherOn 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, includingThin-film Solar CellsCrystalline Solar CellsThe study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global EVA Film for Solar Cells 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 EVA Film for Solar Cells 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.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of EVA Film for Solar Cells are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Browse Report @Key StakeholdersEVA Film for Solar Cells ManufacturersEVA Film for Solar Cells Distributors/Traders/WholesalersEVA Film for Solar Cells Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsResearchMoz 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 :Savory Snacks Market Astuting opportunities 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=668

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=668

https://www.tmrresearch.com/savory-snacks-market

Global Savory Snacks Market: OverviewPotato chips, savory biscuits, nuts, processed snacks, and popcorn, among others qualify as savory snacks. They are salty food that are typically consumed between regular meals. So far, potato chips has dominated the global market for savory snacks due to its widespread popularity. A recent prominent trend in the market has been the rising concerns about health and wellness among discerning customers which has egged manufacturers to come up with healthy low calorie, low fat, and gluten-free products. The global savory snacks market is fragmented in nature with the presence of a copious number of small and big players. They try to outdo each other on the basis of quality, price, innovation, brand recall, service, distribution, and promotion.Request Sample Copy of the Report @A report by TMR Research presents a 360-degree overview of the global savory snacks market. To that end, it provides a granular analysis of the factors promoting or hindering the market, the current competitive scenario, and the niche players in the market. It segments the market based of different parameters and studies each segment in-depth to understand its contribution to the market and its growth prospects. It uses industry-leading analytical tools to gauge the opportunities awaiting existing and aspiring players in the market.Global Savory Snacks Market: Drivers and TrendsThe swift pace of urbanization and hectic life on account of work pressure have majorly contributed to the global savory snacks market. Owing to the lack of time, individuals are gradually opting for light flexible meals that are easily available. Not just that, they are increasingly opting for healthier snack options minus fat, calories, and gluten that are rich in vitamins and other important nutrients to complement their weight loss plans. Another crucial growth driver in the market is the increasing thrust on research and development to come up with better, innovative products and astute marketing strategies of top-tier players resulting in better brand recall.Going forward, savvy companies will continue to focus on product innovation factoring in consumers ever changing tastes, spending capacity and patterns, changing demographic trends, and different macro and micro factors. This would likely result in a raft of new products having different unique flavors, spoiling people for a choice. In the upcoming years, sale through supermarkets and hypermarkets are slated to gain further traction.Request TOC of the Report @Global Savory Snacks Market: Regional OutlookCurrently, North America dominates the global savory snacks market on account of the snacking habits of a sizeable proportion of the people in the region. Obesity concerns among the people has also led to healthy savory snacks being available in the market in the region. Buoyed by the U.K., Europe is another crucial market. In fact, the U.K. is one of the leading consumers of potato chips, nuts, and other savory snacks. In terms of growth, however, the Asia Pacific market is slated to outshine all other regions in the years ahead to become a market leader revenue-wise. China and Japan in Asia Pacific are predicted to be key markets in the near future in not just the region but in the overall global market. India is also expected to be a lucrative market. The widespread availability of a variety of snacks at reasonable rates will bolster the market in the region substantially.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Companies Mentioned in ReportTo present a detailed assessment of the competition prevailing in the global savory snacks market, the report profiles prominent companies such as ConAgra Foods, Inc, PepsiCo, Intersnack Group GmbH & Co. KG, Kraft Foods Group, Inc, Diamond Foods, Inc, General Mills, Inc, Kellogg Company, and Orkla ASA.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Sheet Molding Compound and Bulk Molding Compound Market Divine 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=674

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=674

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sheet-molding-compound-bulk-molding-compound-market

Global Sheet Molding Compound and Bulk Molding Compound Market: SnapshotThe global market for sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound is expected to advance with the launch of superior quality, lightweight, and more durable bulk molding and sheet molding compounds. By virtue of their higher line throughputs and lower production costs, these compounds are increasingly preferred by several leading manufacturers. As an augmenting number of advanced automobiles and luxury brands are deploying sheet molding compound (SMC) components, the market for sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound promises significant growth opportunities.Request Sample Copy of the Report @For instance, the Mercedes-AMG GT C Roadster features a light-weight boot-lid that is made from SMC. Similarly, the 2018 Lexus LC 500 deploys glass sheet molding compound to curb weight. The inner panels of the trunk and doors of the vehicle are made using CRFP sheet molding compound.Several prominent market players have set their eyes on global presence, for which they have been expanding their capacities through new production facilities in new regions. For instance, in March 2017, Jushi Group Ltd. announced its plans to set up a production facility in Suez, Egypt by the second half of 2017. It has also been ramping up its product portfolio with the addition of SMC Class A and BMC chopped strands. Another leading firm, A. Schulman, Inc. announced in October 2016 its intention to expand its compounding capacity via the addition of a new sheet molding compound production site in Germany. Another new inventory facility, situated in Slovenia, will cater to the demands of its European customer base.Global Sheet Molding Compound and Bulk Molding Compound Market: OverviewSheet Molding Compound (SMC) is a ready-to-mold, glass fiber protected polymer matrix composite material that finds use in different modern applications. This is because it can be molded into complex shapes. Bulk Molding Compound (BMC), on the other hand, is an amalgamation of cut glass strands and resin that is supplied in bulks or logs. BMC is suitable for either compression or injection molding. Some of the end-use industries utilizing SMCs and BMCs are electrical, automotive, transportation, aerospace, construction, marine, and consumer industries.Request TOC of the Report @Raw materials used in manufacturing SMC and BMC are resins and fibers. Depending upon the type of fiber, the market can be segmented into glass fiber and carbon fiber. Currently, glass fiber is widely used in the global sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound market. Depending upon the resin type, the market can be segmented into polyester, vinyl ester, and others. The glass fiber is the dominating segment in the global sheet-molding compound and bulk-molding compound market.A report by TMR Research conveys essential information about the global market for sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound, which are also known as thermoset compounds. It furnishes a granular analysis of the various factors promoting or hindering the markets growth in the near future and also provides information on the important players in the market.Global Sheet Molding Compound and Bulk Molding Compound Market: Drivers and TrendsSheet molding compound and bulk molding compounds are lightweight yet strong. They are fire, corrosion, and stain resistant and exhibit excellent electrical insulation. As a result of so many unique perceived benefits, SMC and BMC are being preferred over traditional materials such as steel, iron, and aluminum. They are being increasingly utilized in the burgeoning automotive sector. Sheet molding compounds, for example, are used in bonnets, hoods, front ends, decklids, and spoilers in automobiles. Bulk molding compounds too are used in various automotive parts, namely valve covers, ignition parts, and headlight liners. In the years to come, the growing urbanization worldwide, leading to the swift sale of vehicles, especially fuel-efficient vehicles, will drive the market substantially.Other factors benefitting the global sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound market are the increasing automation, integration of the complete value chain of the process industries, and rapid technological progress.Global Sheet Molding Compound and Bulk Molding Compound Market: Regional OutlookAt present, Asia Pacific holds a sway over the global sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound market on account of the robust demand for automobiles and rapid industrialization in the region. The same factors are slated to propel the market further in the near future. In fact, Asia Pacific, powered by China, is slated to outpace all other major geographic segments in terms of growth rate in the years ahead. Presence of a copious number of electrical and automobile manufacturers, which is a result of lesser raw material prices, has made China a key player in the Asia Pacific region. It is both a leading producer and consumer of SMC and BMC in the region.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Europe trails Asia Pacific in the global sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound market. It is followed by North America, which is propelled by the U.S.  the main contributor to its growth.Companies Mentioned in ReportTo present an in-depth assessment of the competition prevailing in the global sheet molding compound and bulk molding compound market, the report profiles companies such as Menzolit GmbH, IDI Composite International, Showa Denko K.K., Citadel Plastics Holding Inc., Continental Structural Plastics Inc., Polynt S.P.A, Core Molding Technologies Inc., and Royal Tencate.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Biosensor Market Driver 2018 to 2020: boost at CAGR of 9.6% | by technology - electrochemical biosensors, optical biosensors, etc.

Market Research Future

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1228

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1228

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1228

Worldwide Biosensor Market report examines the market position and viewpoint of the market globally, from various angles, such as key players, geological regions, types of product and application. And also cover the other information such as Biosensor Market trends, Top players, chapter-wise Description followed by various user perceptions and Forecast till 2020.Global Biosensors Market - OverviewOver the past few years nanotechnology has becoming increasingly essential in the field of biosensors. The performance and sensitivity of biosensors is incredibly enhanced with the combination of nanomaterials into their construction. The biosensors works on various technologies which include biosensors, optical biosensors, thermal biosensors and piezoelectric biosensors. This report by MRFR majorly focuses on the biosensors which holds the largest market share among all others biosensor technologies. The biosensors plays a major role in the field of healthcare which include applications such as diagnosis, patient monitoring and many others. The end user such as point of care testing, diagnostics centers, research laboratories and various others influence the growth of the market.To get sample copy of Report Click Here @The global biosensors by applications is segmented into diagnosis, patient monitoring and others. Diagnosis segment accounted for the largest market by application. The major factor that influence the growth of the market are the need for analyses in the clinical area with reliable analytical methods and devices. Moreover biosensors offers various benefits over traditional diagnostic methods which include ease of use, quick results and accurate results, continuous monitoring with its portability. Moreover biosensors displays sensitivity, selectivity, and potential for application on real samples which is further influencing the growth of the market.The global biosensors by end user is majorly segmented into point of care testing, diagnostics center, research laboratories and others. The point of care segment holds the largest market by end user in 2016. Biosensors are next generation analytical tools for point of care testing. Demand for point of care testing is increasing due to increasing requirement of portable and integrated devices. It helps to perform tests close to the patient and also provide immediate results outside the laboratory. It is an important tool used in intensive care units, clinics, emergency rooms and operating theatre. It also helps to improve patient care through remote patient care monitoring. Further, it helps clinicians to diagnose the cause of disease for immediate management. Thus, increasing demand for point of care testing would reduce the healthcare cost and helps to obtain precise and quick results of analytical tests.Pivotal Players:Some of the key players in this market are: Abbott Laboratories Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Bayer Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Inc., and Siemens Healthcare, Nova Biomedical Corporation, LifeSensors Inc., TiaDoc Technology Corporation, I-SENCE Inc.Segmentations:The Liquid Chromatography instruments market has been segmented on the basis of technique of as HPLC, UHPLC, LPLC, FPLC and others. Similarly on the basis of type the market has been segmented into instruments, consumables, and services. On the basis of end users the market has been classified as pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Company, academic and research institute, hospitals, agriculture industry and others.Geographical Overview:The Global biosensors market, on the basis of regions is divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa. North America is expected to command the largest market share due to advanced technologies continuously on rise in these countries. Europe accounts for the second largest. Asia Pacific with lots of opportunity and continuously growing economies, is expected to be the fastest growing segment. Majorly due to recent developments in healthcare and improving economies and disposable income per individual. Middle East and Africa with less economic developments and extremely low income accounts for least market share in 2015 but is expected to grow with the increasing investment in research and development in the countries.The North America Biosensor market is majorly divided in two countries which include U.S and Canada. In North America, biosensor market is driven due to increasing health awareness, rising chronic and lifestyle diseases, technological developments in healthcare applications, and appropriate insurance coverage.Usage of biosensor technology in North America is high compared to other regions of the world due to technological advancements and broader application areas in different industries. Since, the healthcare expenditure is high in North America, biosensor devices are used extensively for accurate, reliable and quick results for early detection and prevention of diseases.Similarly, according to European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, in 2012, the North American pharmaceutical market accounted for about 41% share of the total pharmaceutical market. This large market invests immensely in R&D of new drugs and thereby drives the demand for various biosensor devices for toxicity testing in the drug development process. Since, these biosensors devices are used in drug development and diagnoses, they are required to abide by certain regulations for efficacy and safety.Avail Marvelous Discount @Europe holds the second largest market position in terms of market share of global biosensors market majorly due to rise in geriatric population, increase in lifestyle associated diseases, increasing awareness of various diseases and rise in diagnostic requirements. For instance, according to IDF in 2013, approximately 52 million people are suffering from diabetes in Europe.Key Finding:The key findings of the report Global Industry Insight: Global Biosensor Market Development and Forecast to 2020 include:Biosensor market expected to grow at CAGR of 9.6% during the period 2014-2020Geographically, North America has the largest share in global biosensors market, while Asia-Pacific has emerged as the fastest growing regionBased on the technology, electrochemical biosensors has the largest market share in the biosensor marketSecurity and biodefense are the most popular end user in the biosensors marketList of Tables:TABLE 1 SPECIFIC PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES USED FOR THIS PUBLICATION 14TABLE 2 GLOBAL BIOSENSORMARKET SNAPSHOT(2014AND 2020) 16TABLE 3 VARIOUS BIOSENSORS PRODUCT LAUNCHED BY COMPANIES 18TABLE 4 DRIVERS FOR THE MARKET: IMPACT ANALYSIS 24TABLE 5 RESTRAINTS FOR THE MARKET: IMPACT ANALYSIS 26TABLE 6 GLOBAL MARKET BREAKDOWN BY TECHNOLOGY, $M (2011  2014) 27TABLE 7 GLOBAL MARKET BREAKDOWN BY TECHNOLOGY, $M (2015  2020) 28TABLE 8 GLOBAL MARKET BREAKDOWN BY END USER, $M (2011  2014) 29TABLE 9 GLOBAL MARKET BREAKDOWN BY END USER, $M (2015  2020) 29TABLE 10 GLOBAL MARKET BREAKDOWN BY APPLICATION, $M (2011  2014) 30TABLE 11 GLOBAL MARKET BREAKDOWN BY APPLICATION, $M (2015  2020) 31TABLE 12 GLOBAL MARKET BREAKDOWN BY REGION, $M (2011  2014) 32TABLE 13 GLOBAL MARKET BREAKDOWN BY REGION, $M (2015  2020) 32TABLE 14 GLOBAL ELECTROCHEMICAL BIOSENSORS MARKET BREAKDOWN BY REGION,$M (2011  2014) 34TABLE 15 GLOBAL ELECTROCHEMICAL BIOSENSORS MARKET BREAKDOWN BY REGION,& moreList of Figures:FIG 1 PRINCIPLE OF BIOSENSORS 17FIG 2 AGING POPULATION IN MAJOR REGIONS, IN % (2000  2050) 20FIG 3 NUMBER OF PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM DIABETES AGED 20-79 YEARS, 2013 AND 2035 21FIG 4 PREVALENCE OF OVERWEIGHT MEN AGED 30 AND ABOVE, IN % (2005AND 2015 ) 22FIG 5 PREVALENCE OF OVERWEIGHT WOMEN AGED 30 AND ABOVE, IN % (2005AND 2015 ) 22FIG 6 GLOBAL BIOSENSOR MARKET SHARE BY TECHNOLOGY (2014) 27FIG 7 GLOBAL BIOSENSORS MARKET SHARE BY END USER (2014) 28FIG 8 GLOBAL BIOSENSORS MARKET SHARE BY APPLICATION (2014) 30FIG 9 GLOBAL BIOSENSORS MARKET SHARE BY REGION (2014) 31FIG 10 GLOBAL ELECTROCHEMICAL BIOSENSORS MARKET SHARE BY REGION (2014) 33FIG 11 GLOBAL OPTICAL BIOSENSORS MARKET SHARE BY REGION (2014) 35FIG 12 GLOBAL THERMAL BIOSENSORS MARKET SHARE BY REGION (2014) 36FIG 13 GLOBAL PIEZOELECTRIC BIOSENSORS MARKET SHARE BY REGION (2014) 37FIG 14 GLOBAL POINT OF CARE MARKET SHARE BY REGION (2014) 39FIG 15 GLOBAL HOME DIAGNOSTICS MARKET SHARE BY REGION (2014) 40& moreKey Questions Answered In This Report:What will the market size and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Any Customization on this Report, Speak to Analyst @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Permanent Hair Dye Market Development Trends and Qualitative Analysis 2018

QYResearchReports

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1594279&type=S

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-permanent-hair-dye-market-research-report-2018.htm/toc

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report Permanent Hair Dye to its huge collection of research reports.Insights pertaining to the demand and supply trends in a market can be indispensable for companies looking forward to win a competitive edge in the market. The report caters to the same by providing a comprehensive overview of the global Permanent Hair Dye market. It covers a description of products and services offered in the market, the latest marketing strategies influencing the markets growth trajectory, its prevailing dynamics, and development status. The exhaustive information compiled in this report is obtained from trusted industrial sources using primary and secondary research methods. The data has been then presented in a logical chapter-wise format to help readers browse through the information required.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Permanent Hair Dye in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaFor more info, get sample report for FREE here:Global Permanent Hair Dye market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingL'Oreal ParisGarnierHenkelLieseGoldwellClairolWellaHOYUShiseidoGarnier...Table of Contents1 Permanent Hair Dye Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Permanent Hair Dye1.2 Permanent Hair Dye Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Permanent Hair Dye Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Permanent Hair Dye Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 PPDA Based Hair Dye1.2.4 PTD Based Hair Dye1.2.5 Other Types Permanent Hair Dye1.3 Global Permanent Hair Dye Segment by Application1.3.1 Permanent Hair Dye Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Home Use1.3.3 Commercial UseRead Complete Table of Content of the Report at:2 Global Permanent Hair Dye Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Permanent Hair Dye Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Permanent Hair Dye Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Permanent Hair Dye Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Permanent Hair Dye Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Permanent Hair Dye Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Permanent Hair Dye Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Permanent Hair Dye Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Permanent Hair Dye Market Concentration Rate3 Global Permanent Hair Dye Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Permanent Hair Dye Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Permanent Hair Dye Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Permanent Hair Dye Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Permanent Hair Dye Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 North America Permanent Hair Dye Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 Europe Permanent Hair Dye Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.7 China Permanent Hair Dye Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)...About QYResearchReports.comQyresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from Qyresearchreports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comSunroof Market: 2018 Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunities, Key Players - Webasto, Inalfa Roof, Inteva, Magna, Aisin Seiki, Nippon Sheet Glass, and BOS Forecast To 2023

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4972

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/power-sunroof-market-4972

Sunroof Market is growing at a CAGR of 11% by forecast period of 2018 To 2023. Global Sunroof Market is segmented by Material (Glass and Fabric), By Sunroof Type (Top-Mount, Panoramic, Solar and Others), By Vehicles (Sedan/Hatchback, SUV and others) and Region. The global Sunroof market is competitive with large and small players in industry.Key Players in Sunroof Market analyzed are:Webasto (U.S.), Inalfa Roof Systems (Netherlands), Inteva (U.S.), Magna International (Canada), Aisin Seiki (Japan). Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd (Japan). Automotive Sunroof Company (Canada), Yachiyo Industry Company Ltd. (Japan) and Preh IMA Automation (PIA) Evansville (U.S.), BOS (Germany)Get sample copy of Sunroof Market Research Report -Global Forecast to 2023 at:Sunroof Market Highlights:Global automotive sunroof market is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 11% during the forecast period in terms of value backed by growing technological advancements, and increasing demand of luxury cars. Moreover, the growing production of customized sunroof tracks is a major trend boosting the global automotive sunroof market. Hence, with a growing car production, the demand for sunroofs will simultaneously increase, among OEMs.Power sunroof is most recent trend in the vehicles that is in huge demand. The sunroof is usually installed at the roof of the vehicle in order to allow light and fresh air to enter the interior. The power sunroof are available in two types such as manually or automatically operated according to the type of car. The size, shape, and style of power sunroof depend on the vehicle type. The development of new and diversified technologies is creating exciting opportunities within the automotive industry. There are various factors responsible for the growth of the power sunroof market which includes increasing population, the demand for vehicles, leading to an increase in the production of automobiles. Substantial developments in component materials combined with increasing number of factory installed sunroofs are estimated to positively impact the market demand.Power sunroof market is expected to be promising during the forecast period due to the major driving factors such focus on high-quality products, changing lifestyle of consumers and rising spending power. Automotive companies including passenger cars manufacturers are constantly trying to emphasize more on innovation for their product offering so as to enhance the efficiency in automotive sector.Target Audience:OrganizationsManufacturerResearch Institute / Education InstitutePotential InvestorsSunroof Market Regional Analysis:Power sunroof market catered across different geographical regions namely North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle-East and Africa along with further country wise segmentation. Currently, Europe dominates the sunroof market throughout the forecast period, followed by North America. Panoramic sunroof is the fastest growing segment, which will dominate the market in the forecast period. Asia-Pacific is expected to see significant growth as large demand and production of automobiles. This is primarily due to development of automotive manufacturing industries in economies such as Japan and South Korea and the continued strong support for solar sunroofs.Automotive vehicle production has been growing rapidly with a substantial increase in global population and vehicle owning capacity. The demand for sunroof witnessed a spike in popularity, especially among the younger population in Asian countries. These factors have been greatly influenced by the use of sunroof systems and the developments in them, which in turn have propelled the market, globally.Scope of the Report:This study provides an overview of the Global Sunroof Market, tracking four market segments across four geographic regions. The report studies key players, providing a five-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, volume and share for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Rest of the World (ROW). The report also provides a forecast, focusing on the market opportunities for the next five years for each region.Major Table of Content:1 Executive Summary2 Research Methodology2.1 Scope Of The Study2.1.1 Definition2.1.2 Research Objective2.1.3 Assumptions2.1.4 Limitations2.2 Research Process2.2.1 Primary Research2.2.2 Secondary Researchs2.3 Market Size Estimation2.4 Forecast Model3 Market Dynamics3.1 Market Drivers3.2 Market Inhibitors3.3 Supply/Value Chain Analysis3.4 Porters Five Forces AnalysisContinuedGet more information on this Global Sunroof Market 2018 report at:The report for Global Sunroof Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.About Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact Us:Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312sales@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Rapid Food Pathogen Testing - Emerging Markets in Developing Countries

QYResearchReports

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1745159&type=S

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-rapid-food-pathogen-testing-market-sizestatus-and-forecast-2025.htm/toc

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report Rapid Food Pathogen Testing to its huge collection of research reports.The international market for Rapid Food Pathogen Testing has been researched with every detail in the publication with increased emphasis on various important factors such as opportunities, and restraints, growth drivers. Each of the factors that pertain to shaping of the market dynamics has been studied and analyzed in detail by the analysts, so as to offer the best and most evaluative and exhaustive study to the report buyers. The snapshot or the executive summary that has been provided in the market intelligence study has been designed in such a way so as to give a quick overview of the market for receiving information on the go. This could help readers with hands-on data needed to make quick decisions anytime during their growth journey in the market.This report studies the global Rapid Food Pathogen Testing market, analyzes and researches the Rapid Food Pathogen Testing development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeBio-Rad LaboratoriesEurofins Central Analytical LaboratoriesGenevacGenon LaboratoriesILSIntertek Group PlcLloyds Register Quality AssuranceSGS S.A.SillikerFor more info, get sample report for FREE here:Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Rapid Food Pathogen Testing1.1 Rapid Food Pathogen Testing Market Overview1.1.1 Rapid Food Pathogen Testing Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Rapid Food Pathogen Testing Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.3 Rapid Food Pathogen Testing Market by Type1.3.1 Convenience-Based Technology1.3.2 Pcr-Based Technology1.3.3 Immunoassay-Based Technology1.3.4 Others1.4 Rapid Food Pathogen Testing Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Institutions1.4.2 Commercial Testing1.4.3 Private Testing2 Global Rapid Food Pathogen Testing Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Rapid Food Pathogen Testing 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 FutureRead Complete Table of Content of the Report at:3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Bio-Rad Laboratories3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Rapid Food Pathogen Testing Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)4 Global Rapid Food Pathogen Testing Market Size by Type and Application (2013-2018)4.1 Global Rapid Food Pathogen Testing Market Size by Type (2013-2018)4.2 Global Rapid Food Pathogen Testing Market Size by Application (2013-2018)4.3 Potential Application of Rapid Food Pathogen Testing in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Rapid Food Pathogen Testing...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Food Safety Testing Market Growth Analysis 2018 to 2025: by Testing Technology - Tradition Methods & Rapid Testing Method CAGR of more than 7.2%.

Market Research Future

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/683

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/683

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/683

Worldwide Food Safety Testing Market report examines the market position and viewpoint of the market globally, from various angles, such as key players, geological regions, types of product and application. And also cover the other information such as Food Safety Testing Markettrends, Top players, chapter-wise Description followed by various user perceptions and Forecast till 2025.Food Safety Testing Market Report: IntroductionThe Market research future delivers a detailed analysis of 10 years forecast between 2015 and 2025 and it is expected that Global Food Safety Testing market will register the CAGR of more than 7.2% during the forecast period.To get sample copy of Report Click Here @Food Safety Testing is a technical method of performing development works, handling of products and storing the product to prevent food borne diseases. It is performed under the supervision of experts which continuously keep their eye on the going process. Food safety testing is done to maintain the quality of the food and to prevent the food from unwanted diseases which could happen in form of illness, toxicity or poisoning.Going ahead and looking atmarket share, North America is said to be the largest market with market share of around 38% on the global scale and expected to grow with the CAGR of more than 7% in the forecasted period. Europe is contributing market share of more than 34% and known as 2nd largest market of Food safety testing followed by the Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market as compared to other part of globe and has registered the CAGR of more than 8% and said to register the CAGR of more than 9.5% in the forecasted period.The main objective which is driving the market of Food Safety testing is desire for hunger which means opportunities for new companies in the segment of food industry. These companies are developing new products on daily basis which requires the testing before going to general people.Research MethodologyTo calculate Food Safety Testing market size,we have considered topplayers in the market and to offer accuracy, our research is supported by industry experts who offer insight on industry structure and technology assessment, competitive landscape, penetration, emerging products and trends. Their analysis is based(80 to 85%)on primary&(15 to 20%) on secondary researchas well as years of professional expertise in their respective industries. In addition to analyze current and historical trends, ouranalysts predict where the market is headed over the next five to ten years. It varies by segment for these categories geographically presented in the list of market tables. Top-down and bottom-up are important strategies of processing the information and knowledge ordering, used in a variety of fields includinghumanistic, software and scientific theories and management and organization. In practice, they can be seen as a style of thinking, teaching, or leadership.Avail Marvelous Discount @On the basis of Geographical Regions:o America North America Latin AmericaEurope Western Europe Eastern Europe On the basis of Contaminationo Pathogenso Pesticides & others On the basis of Technologyo Traditional methodso Rapid testing On the basis of Food typeso Fruits & Vegetableso Meat & PoultryKey Questions Answered In This Report:What will the market size and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?The Food Safety Testing market research report provides detail analysis of market in terms of value market. The report also gives the future outlook of the market till 2024. Moreover, on whole region as well as market share in different countries.Lastly, the report provides company profiles of major players in the market.Any Customization on this Report, Speak to Analyst @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comCloud Based Language Learning: Market 2018 Global Analysis By Key Players  Linguatronics LC, Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, Speexx, Sanako Corporation, Lesson Nine GmbH

Qy Research Groups

https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/request-sample/928132

https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/send-an-enquiry/928132

https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/check-discount/928132

Cloud Based Language Learning Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Cloud Based Language Learning industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Cloud Based Language Learning market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Cloud Based Language Learning market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Cloud Based Language Learning players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Cloud Based Language Learning Market Players: Linguatronics LC Duolingo Rosetta Stone Inc. Speexx Sanako Corporation Lesson Nine GmbH SANS Inc. Culture Alley EF Education First Ltd. Voxy, Inc.Get Sample Copy of This Report Now @Market segment by Type, the product can be split into: Education CorporateMarket segment by Application, Cloud Based Language Learning can be split into: English Spanish Chinese French German Japanese OthersMajor 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 Cloud Based Language Learning market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Cloud Based Language Learning 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 @Also, key Cloud Based Language Learning 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 Cloud Based Language Learning 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 @Contact Us:Call: +1-888-236-2744Email: sales@qyresearchgroups.comAbout Us:QY 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.Smart Government Market: Present Scenario and the Growth Prospects with Forecast 2025

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/smart-government-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=31949

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=31949

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Smart government is an extension of e-government which applies information, communication, and operational technologies to all operational areas across multiple domains, process areas, and jurisdictions to generate sustainable public value. The smart government market is characterized by the presence of numerous well-established and highly competitive market entities/players.These players adopt various strategies like expansion, acquisition, partnership, collaboration, and technology to gain competitive advantage and defend their market share. The market is also characterized by growth in R&D activities in recent times. The global smart government market is expected to showcase impressive growth in the coming years.Browse report detailsThere are many factors driving the global smart government market. Growth in demand for digital mediums and smart technologies is attributed to technological advancements leading to increased investments in smart government technology which is expected to be a major driver of the market. High acceptance rate of cloud computing even from countries that have regular concerns about data privacy and security is also expected to boost the markets growth.Moreover, growth in the data generated from multiple sources which can be processed for digital transformation is also expected to propel the market. However, issues about data privacy and data theft are expected to be a major restraint in the growth of the global smart government market. The market is also expected to be hindered by the threat from hackers and data breaches.Obtain brochure for latest advancement and technologyThe global smart government market can be segmented on the basis of solution, service, deployment, and geography. On the basis of solution, the market can be segmented into security, analytics, government resource planning system, remote monitoring, open data platform, network management and others. Amongst these solutions, remote monitoring solutions are anticipated to grow at a substantial rate during the forecast period. This is primarily due to the solutions impressive ability to track and monitor the health of the deployed assets.Other advantages provided by remote monitoring solutions such as improved capacity and utilization, safety assurance, operational visibility and analysis, proactive solutions for asset failure situations, and reduced asset downtime are also expected to drive the segment. Another reason for the growth of the segment is the declining cost of sensors which in turn is making deployment of such solutions feasible andeconomical.Get Table of Content for detail analysisOn the basis of service, the market can be divided into professional services and managed services.Professional services segment is expected to hold prominent share during the forecast period owing to the increased deployment of smart solutions that need technological consulting, and continuous support & maintenance. On the basis of deployment, the market can be segmented into cloud and on-premise.On the basis of geography, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America.North America is expected to hold a major share of the total market owing to prominent developments in the smart government market resulting from the technical advancements and increasing use of mobiles and tablets in that region. Europe, driven by countries like U.K., Germany, and France, is expected to follow North America in terms of market share.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Smart Camera Market: Industry Outlook, Growth Prospects and Key Opportunities

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/smart-camera-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=32921

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=32921

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Smart camera also known as intelligent camera, is an image processing system for monitoring industrial automation. These cameras consist of two essential components: standalone vision system and inbuilt image sensor. Smart cameras are reprogrammable and help in improved communication which benefits machine vision systems. They epitomize trends in latest camera technology and not only capture large number of pictures, but are also capable of extracting application specific information. These smart cameras have the capability to be integrated with personal computers and smartphone applications. Smart camera can directly share the pictures and videos on various photo-sharing portals and social media platforms.The smart camera market deals with the various smart cameras that include smart vision, surveillance systems, intelligent and smart video cameras. Building smart cameras involves applying technologies from machine vision, computer vision, and embedded systems. These cameras are basically used for monitoring and surveillance purposes in industries, home, and other verticals. In the real world, there are various applications of smart cameras such as for industrial machine vision and video surveillance. Industrial machine vision is possibly the most favored application of smart cameras.Get Report DetailsSmart cameras have enormous hardware power for speedy processing which has been successfully integrated into various manufacturing segments. Various industrial processes like verification, part sorting, quality assurance, visual sensor networks, reading codes, detection of intruders, and traffic monitoring are currently undertaken with the help of smart vision cameras.Based on visual information gathered by smart cameras, an intelligent surveillance system monitors the traffic and can emphasis more on traffic events that causes accidents.Diverse application of smart cameras for security & surveillance and tremendous technological advancement in improved quality imaging are major factors driving the global smart phone market. Consumer demand for digital cameras with extra features that resembles smartphones is expected to increase the demand of smart cameras. Additionally, transformation of embedded system designs, smart lenses, and image sensors are also expected to drive the growth of the market. Governmental norms to set up security and surveillance systems in public spaces are also fuelling the growth of the global smart camera market.Obtain brochure for latest advancement and technologyHowever, smartphones with better camera quality can hinder the growth of the smart camera market during the forecast period. Lack of standardization for the installation of smart cameras is further expected to dampen the market growth. Further, high cost of smart cameras is anticipated to hinder the market growth in the near future.The global smart camera market is segmented on the basis of application and sensors type. On the basis of application, the market can be segmented into public spaces, military & defense, transit facilities, commercial facilities, enterprise & government infrastructure, and residential infrastructure. Based on sensors type, the market can be segmented into CMOS sensors and CCD sensors.For Detail Analysis Get Table Of ContentGeographically, Asia Pacific region is expected to witness high growth in the smart camera market. Product innovation in Korea, China, and Singapore is propelling the growth of the market in this region. Further, rapid economic development in Japan, China, and India, is also anticipated to drive the growth of the smart camera market during the forecast period. North America and Europe are expected to contribute to the growth of this market as well. Adoption of advanced technologies is also anticipated to foster the demand for smart cameras in this region over the forecast period.Growing consumer demand for smartphones that resemble cameras is encouraging various software companies to invest in smart camera manufacturing. Some of the key players in the global smart camera market are Nikon Corp., Panasonic Corp., Samsung Group, Sony Corp., Olympus Corporation, Polaroid Corporation, Ata-Vision, Bosch Security Systems, Basler Vision Technologies, Raptor Photonics, and Canon Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Time Sensitive Networking Market: Influential Factors Determining the Trajectory of the Market

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/time-sensitive-networking-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=32051

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=32051

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) is a set of IEEE standards which is under development by the Time Sensitive Task Force of the IEEE 802.1 working group. TSN enables collection of real time data to perform analytics, gain operational insights, and increase the productivity of the system. Thus, TSN provides deterministic real time communication over the Ethernet. With the developments in standards, Ethernet communication in future is set to provide calculable end to end latencies, strictly limited latency fluctuations, and extremely low packet loss.For a long time Ethernet has been playing a pivotal role in communication in IT. There was no provision for real time support to IEEE standardized Ethernet which led to a number of modifications of Ethernet for its use in industrial and transportation systems where real time communication is a critical element. The scalability of adapted Ethernet solutions was also limited for its application in various industries. Hence, the IEEE TSN task group came up with new standards for improved and real-time delivery of Ethernet traffic.Browse report detailsTSN achieves deterministic real-time communication by using global time and schedule which is created for message paths across multiple network entities. TSN defines a bounded maximum latency for scheduled data traffic through switched networks and this is achieved by defining queues which transmit their messages depending on the time schedules.TSN offers a way to send time critical traffic over a standard Ethernet Infrastructure in control applications like industrial and automotive domains with strict deterministic requirements. Most industrial applications today require real time communication to facilitate safe and secure performance of operations. To meet this critical requirement, industries have employed dedicated standard Ethernet networks running in parallel.PDF Brochure For Future AdvancementsThere are a wide range of applications which require real time communication where TSN can enable better flexibility and ease of use without compromising on the deterministic performance. Increasing adoption of industrial IOT for automation in various industries including power, aerospace, automobile, transportation, etc. is the primary growth driver of the Time sensitive networking market. Other factors include increasing need for real-time networking and development of IEEE standards for deterministic Ethernet. TSN has grabbed the attention of various major players across industry verticals and is supporting TSN as a networking platform for industrial IOT.Avnu Alliance is a key body working to create an interoperable ecosystem for TSN. This is resulting in the focus of TSN being used as a method of machine2machine communication. However, inability of TSN standards to provide customized solutions may hamper the growth of the TSN market. Nevertheless, increasing implementation of TSN in the automotive domain and increase in test bed activities is expected to propel the growth of the TSN market in the future.Get Table of Content for detail analysisThe global time sensitive networking market has been segmented on the basis of components, applications, and geography. Based on components, the market has been divided into switches, hubs, routers, & gateways, connectors, power supply devices, controllers & processors, memory, and others. In terms of application, the market has been segregated into power & energy, automotive, transportation, oil & gas, aerospace, and others. As per geography, the time sensitive networking market has been divided into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and South America.Some of the major players in the global time sensitive networking market include ABB Ltd, Bosch Rexroth Ag, Analog Devices, Inc., Harman International Industries Inc., Rockwell Automation Inc., National Instruments, XILINX INC., General Electric Company, Intel Corporation, Belden Inc., Broadcom, Microsemi Corporation, Marvell, Cisco Systems, Inc., and NXP Semiconductors.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Insurance Agency Software: Market 2018 Segmented by Manufacturers (Vertafore, Applied Systems, EZLynx, ACS, ITC, HawkSoft, QQ Solutions, Sapiens/Maximum Processing) and Forecasts to 2025

Qy Research Groups

https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/request-sample/928137

https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/send-an-enquiry/928137

https://www.qyresearchgroups.com/check-discount/928137

Insurance Agency Software Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Insurance Agency Software industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Insurance Agency Software market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Insurance Agency Software market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Insurance Agency Software players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Insurance Agency Software Market Players: Vertafore Applied Systems EZLynx ACS ITC HawkSoft QQ Solutions Sapiens/Maximum Processing Zywave Xdimensional Tech Agency Matrix Jenesis Software AgencyBloc AllClients Impowersoft Insurance Systems Buckhill InsuredHQ Zhilian SoftwareGet Sample Copy of This Report Now @Market segment by Type, the product can be split into: Cloud-Based On-Premise?Market segment by Application, Insurance Agency Software can be split into: Small Business Medium-sized Business Large BusinessMajor 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 Insurance Agency Software market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Insurance Agency Software 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 @Also, key Insurance Agency Software 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 Insurance Agency Software 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 @Contact Us:Call: +1-888-236-2744Email: sales@qyresearchgroups.comAbout Us:QY 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.Chromatography Resins Market  Insights, Analysis, Key Players, Segment and Forecast to 2023

http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/2095321

http://orbisresearch.com/reports/index/europe-chromatography-resins-market-analysis-of-growth-trends-and-forecasts-2018-2023

http://orbisresearch.com/contact/purchase/2095321

Europe chromatography resins market was valued at USD 543.8 million. The market is expected to register a CAGR of about 5.32% during 2018-2023 (the forecast period). As of 2017, Germany held the largest market and accounted for a share of around 24%, while Switzerland is estimated to record the fastest CAGR over the forecast period (2018 - 2023).Request a sample of this report @Increasing Academic and Commercial R&D Spending on PharmaceuticalsThe pharmaceutical industry holds the largest market share for the chromatography resins market hence, the worldwide fluctuations in the pharmaceutical industry directly affect the demand for chromatography resins. In this industry, chromatography resins are used for a wide variety of applications, including separation of chemical biomolecules, drug delivery, protein purification, diagnostics etc. With the increasing number of diseases, like AIDS, and cancer research, and the discovery of new viruses and bacteria, industries have called for the development of newer molecular entities (NMEs) and have increased their R&D spending on medicines. With the rising critical diseases across the world, monoclonal antibody therapeutics is quickly gaining importance, which is directly employing the use of chromatography resins.Water and Environmental Analysis to Expand at the Fastest RateChromatography resins application for the analysis of water and environment is considered to be essential in the modern day treatment process. These resins are highly porous in nature, hence they are widely used for the testing of quality of air, water, and soil. Chromatography resins, especially ion-exchange chromatography resins, are widely applied in the air purification technique, as they offer a large surface area to entrap high concentration of air pollutants. Ion-exchange chromatography resins also aids in soil testing process, by accurately determining different elements that are available in soil.Browse the full report @Germany to Dominate the MarketIn 2017, Germany held the highest market share, accounting for around 24% of the European market. The German market is highly driven by the pharmaceutical industry. In Europe, the German pharmaceutical industry is the largest and fourth largest in the world. In 2016, the domestic demand decreased in the country, however, the exports of pharmaceutical products have increased, significantly. The demand for chromatography resins from the pharmaceutical industry is expected to be moderate, due to a decrease in the domestic demand. However, the exports are likely to contribute to the demand of these resins in the region.Key Developments in the MarketNovember 2017: Purolite collaborated with Repligen Corporation, involved in the line of pre-packed chromatography columns.Major Players: MERCK KGAA, BIO-RAD LABORATORIES, INC., TOSOH BIOSCIENCE LLC, PUROLITE, THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC, INC. amongst others.Reasons to Purchase this ReportRole of the pharmaceutical industry in the market growthVarious market perspectives, with the help of Porters five forces analysisThe dominating application and technology during the forecast periodThe fast growing countries during the forecast periodThe latest developments, market shares, and strategies that are employed by the major market players3 months analyst support, along with the Market Estimate sheet (in excel).Purchase a copy of this report @Customization of the ReportThis report can be customized to meet your requirements. Please connect with our representative, who will ensure you to get a report that suits your needs.Companies Mentioned:Agilient Technologies, Avantor Performance Materials, Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., GE Healthcare Life Sciences, Merck KGaA, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Pall Corporation, Perkinelmer, Inc., Purolite, Repligen Corporation, The Dow Chemical Company, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.For any enquires before buying, connect with us @ enquiry@orbisresearch.comOrbis 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.Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019For more information contact sales@orbisresearch.comFluoropolymer Market For Fluoropolymer is Likely To Witness a Steady Growth, Registering 5.3% CAGR, During 2017-2026.

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1461497

https://www.researchmoz.us/fluoropolymer-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-20172026-report.html/toc

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

https://marketsizeinfo.blogspot.in/

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Fluoropolymer Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017-2026" to its huge collection of research reports.Global Fluoropolymer Market- OverviewA fluoropolymer is a polymer that consists molecules of fluorine and carbon. Being a high-performance plastic material, the fluoropolymer is used in high temperature and harsh chemicals. In the healthcare industry, the fluoropolymer is used on a large scale for packaging of medical liquids and sprays. Owing to its superior characteristics, the fluoropolymer is used over other plastics for packaging application. Companies are focusing on developing new solutions and finding out the new application of fluoropolymer.Fluoropolymers, especially PVDF and PTFE are being used in microporous membranes. The environment-friendly fluoropolymer is also being developed by manufacturers, hence, increasing number of research activities are being carried on by manufacturers. Various properties including chemical resistance, ability to perform at high temperature, is allowing companies to focus on innovative designs using fluoropolymer instead of plastic.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Fluoropolymer Market- Research MethodologyThe global fluoropolymer market report provides a detailed insight into the various factors impacting the growth of the market. The report also offers information on various trends and opportunities along with the major developments in the market. Information on latest technology and competitors in the market are also given in the report. A comparative analysis and forecast on various segments are also been provided in the report.The report offers information on the major factors that have an impact on the growth of the market. Major industrial developments along with innovative technologies have also been given in the research report. The report offers information on market dynamics including opportunities, trends, drivers, and challenges. Market attractiveness analysis, SWOT analysis, and Porters five force analysis are also provided in the report.The major industrial developments given in the report are based on the events that took place in the past and the events that are expected to take place in the future. The report also includes information on the leading companies operating in the global fluoropolymer market. Both primary and secondary research has been done to draw various conclusions in the report along with an in-depth analysis of the market with inputs from the industry experts.Global Fluoropolymer Market- Market SegmentationThe global fluoropolymer market is segmented into product, application, and region. On the basis of product, the market is segmented into polytetrafluoroethylene, polyvinylidene difluoride, fluorinated ethylene propylene, and other products. On the basis of application, the market segment includes pharmaceutical packaging, medical devices, drug delivery, and other applications.Region-wise, the market is segmented into Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Europe, Latin America, North America, Japan, and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). The report also offers a country-wise forecast for each segment, along with the market share and CAGR in the percent form for the forecast period 2017-2026.Global Fluoropolymer Market- Competition AnalysisThe report provides a detailed profile on some of the leading companies in the global fluoropolymer market such as Solvay SA, E.I Dupont De Nemours and Company, Asahi Glass Co., Ltd, 3M Company, Daikin Industries Ltd., Honeywell International Inc., The Chemours Company, Mexichem S.A.B. de C.V., Compagnie de Saint-Gobain SA, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., and Zeus Industrial Products Inc. The leading companies in the market are evaluated on the basis of various parameters including strategies, product portfolio, financial overview, company overview, and key developments.Table of Content1. Global Outlook2. Global Fluoropolymer Market - Executive Summary3. Global Fluoropolymer Market Overview3.1. Introduction3.1.1. Global Fluoropolymer Market Taxonomy3.1.2. Global Fluoropolymer Market Definition3.2. Global Fluoropolymer Market Size (US$ Mn) and Forecast, 2012-20263.2.1. Global Fluoropolymer Market Y-o-Y Growth3.3. Global Fluoropolymer Market Dynamics3.4. Supply Chain3.5. Cost Structure3.6. Parent Market Overview  Fluoropolymer Market3.6.1. Parent Market Share by Product Type3.6.2. Parent Market Share by End-user TypeGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @3.6.3. Fluoropolymer Types, their general properties and their Applications3.6.4. Applications of Fluoropolymers in different Industry segments3.7. Comparison of Properties of Various Fluoropolymers3.7.1. Tensile Strength3.7.2. Tensile Modulus3.7.3. Maximum Service Temperature3.7.4. Thermal Degradation of FEP & PTFE in Air3.8. Number of Citations per year3.9. Technology Roadmap3.10. Patent Analysis3.11. Key Regulations3.12. PESTLE AnalysisContinue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on @Global Carbon Composites Market To Grow at a CAGR of 11.40% During The Period 2017-2021.

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1345162

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-carbon-composites-market-2017-2021-report.html/toc

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

https://marketsizeinfo.blogspot.in/

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Carbon Composites Market 2017-2021" to its huge collection of research reports.About Carbon CompositesComposites are the mixture of two or more materials, which are mixed to produce a superior material with new, better properties of the both base materials. As compared to the metals alloys, composites retain the individual chemical, mechanical, and physical properties of the base chemicals. The two key components of composites are reinforcements and matrix. The reinforcement materials have superior properties than that of matrix materials in terms of hardness, strength, and stiffness.Technavios analysts forecast the global carbon composites market to grow at a CAGR of 11.40% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global carbon composites market for 2017-2021. 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:APACEuropeNorth AmericaROWTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Technavio's report, Global Carbon Composites Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsHexcelSGL GroupSolvayTEIJINToray IndustriesOther prominent vendorsExel Group World WideGuritInnegra TechnologiesKoninklijke Ten CateMitsubishi ChemicalMETYX CompositesNippon Graphite FiberPLASAN CARBON COMPOSITESSAERTEXSigmatexTEI/TTCTPI CompositesMarket driverEmerging demand from developing economiesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeHigh manufacturing cost of carbon compositesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendIncreasing use of carbon nanocompositesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?Table of ContentsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: IntroductionMarket outlinePART 05: Market landscapeGlobal carbon composites marketGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Five forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by end-usersGlobal carbon composites market by end-usersGlobal carbon composites market by aerospace and defenseGlobal carbon composites market by automotiveGlobal carbon composites market by wind energyGlobal carbon composites market by sporting goods industryGlobal carbon composites market by othersPART 07: Geographical segmentationGlobal carbon composites market by geographyCarbon composites market in North AmericaCarbon composites market in EuropeContinue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on @Global Fuel Cells For Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Market to Grow at a CAGR of 14.32% During The Period 2017-2021.

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1345166

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-fuel-cells-for-military-unmanned-aerial-vehicle-uav-market-2017-2021-report.html/toc

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

https://marketsizeinfo.blogspot.in/

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Fuel Cells for Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Market 2017-2021" to its huge collection of research reports.About Fuel Cells for Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)Military UAV fuel cells are of different kinds, and they are deployed for various operations. The most prominent types of fuel cells used in military UAVs are proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC), and alkaline fuel cells. Also, intense research is ongoing on leveraging these technologies on different UAV platforms, such as micro and mini UAVs. PEMFCs are used in medium-altitude long endurance (MALE) and high-altitude long endurance (HALE) UAVs as their operating temperature lies between 30C and 100C.Technavios analysts forecast the global fuel cells for military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market to grow at a CAGR of 14.32% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global fuel cells for military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) market for 2017-2021. 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:AmericasAPACEMEATo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Technavio's report, Global Fuel Cells for Military Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsEnergyOR TechnologiesHorizon Fuel Cell TechnologiesMicroMultiCopter Aero TechnologyProtonexUltra ElectronicsOther prominent vendorsJadoo Power SystemMarket driverHigh investment in military unmanned aircraft domainFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeDecline in prices of non-renewable resourcesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendEmergence of Formira Hydrogen-on-Demand technologyFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?Table of ContentsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: IntroductionMarket outlinePART 05: Market landscapeMarket overviewMarket size and forecastFive forces analysisGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @PART 06: Market segmentation by UAV typeGlobal fuel cells for military UAV market: Segmentation by UAV typeGlobal fuel cells for military tactical UAV marketGlobal fuel cells for military mini UAV marketGlobal fuel cells for military micro UAV marketGlobal fuel cell for military MALE UAV marketGlobal fuel cells for military HALE UAV marketPART 07: Geographical segmentationContinue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on @Global Search Advertising Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 : WordStream,AdWords, Kenshoo Infinity Suite,

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1711639

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-search-advertising-software-market-size-status-and-forecast-2025-report.html/toc

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

https://marketsizeinfo.blogspot.in/

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Search Advertising Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the global Search Advertising Software market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global Search Advertising Software market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.This report focuses on the global top players, coveredWordStreamAdWordsKenshoo Infinity SuiteMarin SoftwareDoubleClick Digital MarketingAcquisioBing AdsAdobe Media OptimizerSizmekYahoo! AdvertisingIgnitionOne PlatformTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoCloud-basedOn-premisesMarket segment by Application, Search Advertising Software can be split intoSmall BusinessMedium BusinessLarge EnterprisesThe study objectives of this report are:To study and forecast the market size of Search Advertising Software in global market.To analyze the global key players, SWOT analysis, value and global market share for top players.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, end use and region.To analyze and compare the market status and forecast between China and major regions, namely, United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Rest of World.To analyze the global 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 Search Advertising Software are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersSearch Advertising Software ManufacturersSearch Advertising Software Distributors/Traders/WholesalersSearch Advertising Software Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsTable of ContentsGlobal Search Advertising Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Search Advertising Software1.1 Search Advertising Software Market Overview1.1.1 Search Advertising Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Search Advertising Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.2.1 United States1.2.2 Europe1.2.3 China1.2.4 Japan1.2.5 Southeast Asia1.2.6 India1.3 Search Advertising Software Market by Type1.3.1 Cloud-based1.3.2 On-premises1.4 Search Advertising Software Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Small Business1.4.2 Medium Business1.4.3 Large EnterprisesGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @2 Global Search Advertising Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Search Advertising 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 WordStream3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Search Advertising Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.2 AdWords3.2.1 Company ProfileContinue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on @Global Waterjet Cutting Machinery Market Booming Trends and Forecast Assessment for the Period 2017  2024

MRRSE

https://www.mrrse.com/sample/2409

https://www.mrrse.com/waterjet-cutting-machinery-market

https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/2409

https://www.mrrse.com/

https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/

In order to study the various trends and patterns prevailing in the overall market for Waterjet Cutting Machinery, Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has included a new report titled Waterjet Cutting Machinery 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.Visit for Sample Report @The global waterjet cutting machinery market features a consolidated yet competitive vendor landscape, reveals MRRSE in a new research report. Vis-a-vis revenue, top shots namely Flow International Corporation, DARDI International Corporation, WARDjet Inc., and Water Jet Sweden held close to 34.8% of the overall market in 2015. The dominance of some top shot companies is mainly because of consolidated initiatives undertaken and capability to provide comprehensive waterjet cutting solutions.ESAB Group, KMT Waterjet Systems Inc., Manufacturers Supplies Company, Bystronic Laser India (Pvt.) Ltd., Waterjet Corporation s.r.l. BFT GmbH, Jet Edge Inc., Uhde High PRESSURE Technologies GmbH, PressureJet Systems Pvt. Ltd., OMAX Corporation, Resato International BV, NLB Corp., MD Corporation, A Innovative International Ltd, Waterjet Corporation s.r.l, TECHNI Waterjet, Hypertherm Inc., OH Precision Corporation, WSI Waterjet Systems International, and Hughes Pumps Ltd are to name some other leading companies in the global waterjet cutting machinery market.First and foremost, increasing industrial manufacturing activities is driving the waterjet cutting machinery market. Presently, industrial manufacturing is rising at an unprecedented pace due to incessantly increasing demand from consumers. Technological advancements along with higher precision are boosting manufacturing activities.High level of precision and high efficiency of waterjet cutters account for their increasing uptake over conventional cutting machinery. Waterjet cutting machines can perform complex jobs with a high degree of precision with elimination of dust, smoke, and heat. As water is the key substance used for cutting, waterjet cutters are extremely economical for industrial use. With both developed as well as developing economies poised to revamp their industrial processes, the adoption of waterjet cutting machinery is expected to be on the rise.Complete List of Tables and Figures @Apart from this, waterjet cutting machines are highly automated that helps to give high quality finish to the cut. As waterjets are computer-driven, this eliminates the need of a highly skilled operator. Not only this, operator can handle waterjet machine operation with the help of an integrated computer software even in the absence of adequate knowledge about the machinery. Waterjet machine makes high quality cuts due to the process by which the material was abraded. The cuts exhibit sand blasted finish which reduces the need to perform another finishing process thereby reducing cost.The report segments the global waterjet cutting machinery market on the basis of product type, application, and geography. The segments of the market in terms of product type are 3D waterjet cutting, robotic waterjet cutting, and micro waterjet cutting. Depending upon application, the waterjet cutting machinery market is segmented into machine manufacturing, job & machine shop, fiberglass cutting, glass/metal artwork, foam product cutting, electronics, exotic metal and non-traditional material cutting, ceramic/stone cutting, slitting operations, gasket cutting, and others. By pressure range, the segments into which the waterjet cutting machinery market is divided are up to 4,200 bar and more than 4,200 bar. In terms of horsepower, the segments into which the waterjet cutting machinery market has been divided are between 51 to 100 horsepower, 0 to 50 horsepower, and others.On the basis of geography, the global waterjet cutting machinery market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and the Middle East and Africa. The U.S. and Canada are key domestic market in North America. Asia Pacific waterjet cutting machinery market comprises India, China, and Rest of Asia Pacific. South America region includes Argentina, Brazil, and Rest of South America. The Middle East and Africa waterjet cutting machinery market comprises GCC countries, South Africa, and Rest of Middle East and Africa.Send an Inquiry @The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the competitive landscape of the waterjet cutting machinery market, which includes positioning of leading players according to their geographical presence and recent developments. Competitive strategies, financial standing, recent key developments, and SWOTs are some of the attributes based on which top players are profiled in the report. Included in the report is an analysis of business strategies such as pricing, growth, promotion, market hold, etc. adopted by leading players that competitors can leverage for business gains.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:Turbine Governor Market to Exhibit Impressive Growth During 2017 - 2027

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3682

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3682

www.futuremarketinsights.com

A turbine governor is used to control the flow of steam into the turbine system to maintain its constant rotational speed irrespective of the varying load. It is important to maintain a constant rotational speed so as to achieve a desired output. Practically speaking, the load varies frequently from the specified economic load causing considerable deviation from expected performance. The primary objective of a governor is to regulate as well as measure the speed of a machine.Turbine governors are an integral part of the turbine arrangement, mainly used in power generation facility.The governor is basically a control component which provides advanced protection to turbines and ensures their safe operation as well as increased efficiency and productivity. Turbine governors also control the speed of a turbine during the no-load condition or start to allow the unit to be synchronized with the grid. They also ensure the safe operation of a unit by controlling the turbine load while running parallel with the generating/grid set.At present, steam turbines are used in various driver applications for power generation units and mechanical drives. Generally, steam turbines work successfully across a broad range of speed without failing even when overloaded or while working with varying loads. Turbine governors also protect a machine by shutting it off completely or by reducing the load in abnormal or emergency situations. Turbine governors also assist in meeting the power generation requirements and changing network frequency.Request For Report Sample@Turbine governors are also an integral part of hydro-electricity generation systems. Here, yet again, turbine governors are used to enhance the productivity and efficiency of the systems. They are used to maintain the frequency of output. They basically regulate the inlet which rotates the turbine to produce electricity. And to obtain the required supply of electricity, the speed of rotation must be kept content. Governor receives information about the current speed of the turbine and maintains the inlet to maintain the speed at the correct level.Turbine Governor Market:Market DynamicsIncreased demand for electricity owing to industrialization and urbanization is one of the key drivers for the turbine governor market. Increased demand for electricity from end use sectors has led to setting up of power generating facilities. Moreover, steps are being taken to increase the capacity and efficiency of existing facilities. These factors will lead to increased demand for turbine governors in coming years.However, low replacement rate of turbine governors can act as a restraining factor to the growth of global turbine governor market. Governments are taking initiatives to increase the productivity and efficiency of the existing facilities by replacing old prototypes with new governors as well as adding turbine governors in facilities where they are absent and these steps are creating huge opportunities for the global turbine governor market.Current trends include electronic turbine governors incorporated with sensors to monitor the speed by examining the rotor teeth.Turbine Governor Market:Market SegmentationSegmentation of turbine governor market can be doneon the basis of end-use as follows:Power and EnergyMarine industryOthersSegmentation of turbine governor market can be doneon the basis of application as follows:Non-renewable power generationRenewable power generationOil supply and pumpingRegulating valvesControl elementsOthers.Segmentation of turbine governor market can be doneon the basis of method of governing as follows:nozzle governingthrottle governingBy-pass GoverningSegmentation of turbine governor market can be doneon the basis of mode of operation of governor as follows:Gas turbine governing systemSteam turbine governing systemWind turbine governing systemTurbine Governor Market: Regional OutlookAsia Pacific holds a major share of the global turbine governor market, followed by North America and Europe. Asia Pacific accounts for a significant share due to the substantial growth of electricity consuming sectors in this region. Rapid urbanization and industrialization in many countries across the region, especially China and India, is also expected to boost market growth over the forecast period.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Turbine Governor Market: Market ParticipantsSome of the examples of the market participants in the global turbine governor market, identified across the value chain are:ABBSiemens plcANDRITZHitachi, LtdDEIF GroupGENERAL ELECTRICVoith GmbHFlovel Energy Private LimitedWoodward, IncABOUT 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:Angola - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1767132

https://www.researchmoz.us/angola-telecoms-mobile-and-broadband-statistics-and-analyses-report.html/toc

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

https://marketsizeinfo.blogspot.in/

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Angola - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses" to its huge collection of research reports.Kenyas broadband market has been transformed by a combination of increased investments in network upgrades among the key providers as well as by the landing of four fibre-optic submarine cables. This vastly increased international bandwidth led to wholesale prices tumbling to a fraction of the former rate, and this in turn has helped make broadband services affordable for the mass market, while also providing the key backhaul network for the burgeoning mobile broadband sector.A number of companies including AccessKenya, Kenya Data Networks and Wananchi have become second-tier telcos by rolling out national and metropolitan fibre backbones and wireless broadband access networks. The cost of this work and the lower pricing which has resulted from competition has led to some merger activity in the market.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @A number of major WiMAX deployments and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) rollouts have been undertaken, which have pushed fast broadband connectivity to a greater number of subscribers in urban areas. Nevertheless, the vast majority of broadband subscribers are on mobile networks. Mobile network operators are concentrating investments on LTE, so enabling customers to take up a range of high-end data services and applications. A range of services including video streaming, e-commerce, e-learning and e-government are evolving rapidly on the back of this improved infrastructure.Key developments:Kenya launches the first of its micro satellites;Government commits KES300 million to its free Wi-Fi project;Kenya Power trials fibre access on its electricity network;AccessKenya completes metropolitan fibre network rollout in Nairobi and Nakuru;Government starts KES17 billion school laptops project;Rural internet access rollout begins using TV white space spectrum;Liquid Telecom expands its FttP infrastructure;Internet.org launches in Kenya to provide limited free internet access;International internet bandwidth continues to rise;Government progresses with national broadband strategy;Report update includes thTable of Contents1. Synopsis2. Introduction and statistical overview2.1 Market analysis2.2 Internet backbone infrastructure2.2.1 Telkom Kenya, JamboNet2.2.2 Alternative data carriers2.2.3 Public data network operators (PDNO)2.3 Broadband statistics3. Forecasts  Fixed broadband subscribers  2019; 2021; 20233.1 Public internet access locations3.1.1 Digital Villages3.1.2 Internet for SchoolsGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @4. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks4.1 Internet Exchange Points (IXP)4.2 Kenya Network Information Centre (KENIC)4.3 National broadband strategy4.4 ISP market5. Fibre-to-the-Premises (FttP) networks6. Other fixed broadband services6.1 Wireless broadband6.1.1 Wi-Fi6.1.2 WiMAX6.2 Broadband via satellite6.3 Project LoonContinue...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 @Explore Future Methods of the Optimisation of Freeze Drying Cycles, this June

www.pharmafreezedrying.com/opr

www.pharmafreezedrying.com/opr

http://www.smi-online.co.uk

The updated agenda for SMi's 6th annual conference on Pharmaceutical Freeze Drying Technology is available online. See which big pharma companies are attending and can hear from and who will be exploring what the future of pharma freeze drying holds.This Week's Spotlight: Sanofi + Exclusive Panel Discussion- Optimising Freeze Drying Cycles -Freeze-drying involves three basic stepsfreezing (solidification), primary drying (ice sublimation), and secondary drying (moisture desorption) - which can take several days to complete. A fundamental goal of freeze-drying is to produce a well-dried product with elegant cake appearance, short reconstitution time, long shelf life, and complete recovery of activity on rehydration, among other requirements. Two major considerations for optimisation of a freeze-drying process are the stability of the drug product, during the process itself and during the storage period after the cycle is terminated. *Source: PharmTechMostafa Nakach, Head of Pharmaceutical Engineering, Sanofi will be presenting a Keynote Presentation on: 'Optimisation of Industrial Freeze Drying Cycle.' - Day 1 | 11:00Mostafa will look into the two "old" products of the 60s (called 'A and B') performed with historical cycles which exhibit aspects issues. The manufacturing of both products was intended to be carried out using a new and state of the art freeze dryer. Due to the age of the products, very few process, or physical chemistry data was available. Therefore, the manufacturing process was developed and optimized based on product knowledge, new freeze dryer knowledge, simulation and process modelling.The objective of the presentation is to share how the methodology was applied and to outline the concrete benefit for both products.- Future Directions of the Field -Although an old process, pharmaceutical freeze drying is ever evolving with new trends and approaches being used for pharmaceutical formulation.Hear from an exclusive panel of Big Pharma companies as they explore 'The Future of Novel Technology for Predicting Cycles Within the Lyophilisation Field.' - Day 2 | 15:20Below is a summary of the panel discussion:- The current novel technologies which have been recently introduced into the market- The benefits of these technologies over existing technologies- Barriers to entry into implementation e.g. regulations, pricing etc- How can technologies be further developed?Panelists:- Paul Matejtschuk, Principal Scientist, NIBSC- Sune Klint Andersen, Principal Scientist Spray Drying, Janssen- Kevin Ward, Director of R&D, BioPharma Process Systems Ltd- Mostafa Nakach, Head of Pharmaceutical Engineering Group, Sanofi-Aventis R&DDownload your copy of the brochureTake a look at last year's attendee list to see who you could meet this June!Further information and the complete brochure is available at:SMi presents the 6th annual conference:Pharmaceutical Freeze Drying TechnologyDate: 13th  14th June 2018Workshops: 12th June 2018Location: Holiday Inn Kensington Forum, London UKWebsite:---end---Contact Information:For all media inquiries contact Pav Solanki on Tel: +44 (0)20 7827 6048 / Email: psolanki@smi-online.co.ukAbout 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 world's most forward-thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network. More information can be found atWestminster Bridge RoadChina Brand E-commerce Service Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts 2017-2021 : Baozun Inc.,Rkylin Group ,

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1409394

https://www.researchmoz.us/china-brand-e-commerce-service-market-size-trends-and-forecasts-2017-2021-report.html/toc

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

https://marketsizeinfo.blogspot.in/

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "China Brand E-commerce Service Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2017-2021)" to its huge collection of research reports.Scope of the ReportThe report entitled China Brand E-commerce Service Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2017-2021), provides analysis of China brand E-commerce service market, with detailed analysis of online shopping market size in China in terms of GMV, brand E-commerce service market by GMV and its penetration of brand E-commerce in online shopping followed by a analysis of brand E-commerce service market in terms of GMV. Under competitive comparison, different players in China brand E-commerce market have been analyzed on the basis of market share.Moreover, the report assesses the key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the industry. Growth of brand E-commerce service market in China has also been forecasted for the years 2017-2021, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Baozun, Inc., Rkylin Group, Lily & Beauty and Leqee, Inc. are some of the key players operating in China brand E-commerce service market whose company profiling is done in the report. In this segment of the report, business overview, financial overview and the business strategies of the companies are provided.Company CoverageBaozun Inc.Rkylin GroupLily & BeautyLeqee Inc.Executive SummaryBrand e-commerce is a sub category of e-commerce. E-commerce refers to the electronic transaction with the aim to sell or buy products of relatively less known brands as well as established/ well known brands via online mode. Brand e-commerce is the selling or buying of products of popular brands specifically. Branded products in general denote uniqueness and superior quality.E-commerce service providers offer brands that are keen to build up a strong online presence with a wide range of services such as logistics, IT, warehouse management and customer services. On the other hand, brand e-commerce service provider refers to e-commerce services being given by the provider to brands such as Levi, Samsung, Lee and many more.China brand E-commerce service market is expected to increase at high growth rates during the forecast period (2017-2021). China brand E-commerce market is supported by various growth factors such as increasing disposable income, rise in number of smartphone users, spike in exports/ imports through cross border E-commerce, ease of online payment and reduction in delivery time.1. Executive Summary2. Introduction2.1 E-Commerce: An Overview2.2 Brand E-Commerce: An Overview2.3 Brand E-Commerce Service: An Overview3. China Market Analysis3.1 China Online Shopping Market: An Analysis3.1.1 China Online Shopping Market by GMV3.2 China Brand E-commerce Market: An Analysis3.2.1 China Brand E-commerce Market by Penetration3.2.2 China Brand E-commerce Market by GMVGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @3.3 China Brand E-commerce Service Market: An Analysis3.3.1 Chine Brand E-commerce Service Market by GMV4. Market Dynamics4.1 Growth Drivers4.1.1 Increase in Number of Smartphone Users4.1.2 Upsurge in Purchasing Power4.1.3 Spike in Exports/Imports through Cross Border E-Commerce4.1.4 Ease of Online Payment4.1.5 Reduction in Delivery TimeContinue...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 @Valuable Foresights on How Commercial Helicopter Market will Grow During 2017 - 2027

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3655

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3655

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Rising use of helicopters in transportation, touring, and VIP movement has fuelled the demand for helicopters over the past few years. Helicopters can be employed in emergency situations as well, since they offer enormous manoeuvrability especially in small space and can reach to any affected area avoiding all the traffic on road as well as any natural calamity such as earthquake and flood. Moreover, these helicopters are equipped with passenger seats, better sound proofing capabilities, and air conditioning. Manufacturers are trying to make more visually appealing, carpeted interior and glossy finished commercial helicopters.The commercial helicopters can be used in the tourism industry, oil & gas transport, and VIP or corporate shuttle. In tourism industry, tour companies hire or purchase the fleet of helicopters for the transportation of the tourists offering aerial viewpoints of the tourist places. Secondly, corporate shuttle and VIP are preferred by leasing companies, VIP service or corporates. These helicopters are featured with advanced cabin comfort features. Thirdly, oil & gas support duties include pipeline patrols and light lift cargo flights.Request For Report Sample@Commercial Helicopter Market: DynamicsThe increasing per capita income coupled with aging fleet is expected to fuel the demand for global commercial helicopter market. Moreover, growing tourism industry is further expected to upsurge the demand for commercial helicopter market during the forecast period. However, stringent emission norms and high cost associated with helicopters can act as challenges for the growth of commercial helicopter market. Most of the countries impose tax on commercial helicopters, thereby hampering the growth to an extent.Helicopters produce sound level up to 110 decibels that is slightly less than the noise produced by a large chainsaw. The pressure on helicopter manufacturers to make more eco-friendly helicopters is likely to rise in the near future owing to the increasing number of rotorcrafts entering service. The developing countries such as Brazil, India and China are experiencing increase in demand for commercial helicopters owing to the growing tourism industry. Moreover, manufacturers expect that attractive financing schemes will encourage market sales, as consumers are getting favourable terms on purchase of new helicopters.Commercial Helicopter Market: OutlookCommercial helicopters cause pollution in two ways: gas emission from engine and noise pollution through its blades. Airframe and engine manufacturers are under immense pressure from environmental activists and governments to reduce the impact of rotorcrafts. Asia Pacific and Europe are estimated to be the promising markets for the delivery of helicopters in the upcoming decade. In Europe, the Clean Sky initiative by private/public partnership involving EU is developing technologies, which can be implemented in the production of new aircrafts. Similarly, Green Rotorcraft project is also taking initiatives to reduce emissions from commercial helicopters. Moreover, FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) imposed new rules on helicopter air ambulance services.Commercial helicopters are often the transportation option available to reach remote locations and hence play an important role by supporting lifesaving missions such as medical emergencies and rescue & search operations. The commercial helicopter fleet is also used for commerce and businesses such as in filmmaking, mineral, oil & gas, tourism, and mining.Commercial Helicopter Market: SegmentationOn the basis of size, the commercial helicopter market can be segmented into:Light Helicopter (< 4.5 T)Medium Helicopter ( 4.5 to 8.5 T)Heavy Helicopter (> 8.5 T)On the basis of engine type, the commercial helicopter market can be segmented into:Single EngineMulti EngineRequest For Report Table of Content (TOC):Commercial Helicopter Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants in the global commercial helicopter market identified across the value chain include-Airbus Helicopter (Airbus Group)Lockheed Martin Corporation (Sikorsky)Leonardo S.p.A.Bell Helicopter Textron Inc.MD Helicopters Inc.Russian Helicopters, JSCRobinson Helicopter CompanyABOUT 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:Growth of Telemedicine Market Trends, Share, Industry Size, Opportunities and Forecast 2017-2024  Research Nester

https://www.researchnester.com/sample-request/2/rep-id-84

https://www.researchnester.com/toc-request/1/rep-id-84

https://www.researchnester.com/payment/rep-id-84

https://www.researchnester.com/reports/global-telemedicine-market-analysis-opportunity-outlook-2024/84

Global Telemedicine Market Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2024Telemedicine Market OverviewTelemedicine refers to use of telecommunication and information technology to provide clinical health care from a distance. Further, telemedicine has been used to overcome distance barriers and to improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities. Apart from this, telemedicine is used to save lives in critical care and emergency situations.Market Size and ForecastThe global telemedicine market is anticipated to flourish at a CAGR of 14.8% over the forecast period i.e. 2017-2024. Further, the market of telemedicine was valued at USD 20.54 Billion in 2016 and is projected to garner USD 61.99 Billion by the end of 2024. Factor such as, rising emergency medical incidents and ageing world population is anticipated to drive the growth of the Global Telemedicine Market over the forecast period.Request Report Sample @Geographically, North America is anticipated to account for a significant portion of market share in the overall market of global telemedicine over the forecast period. Further, factor such as presence of refined medical services and high patient alertness is expected to increase the growth of North America telemedicine market during the forecast period. Moreover, U.S. is expected to be the largest telemedicine market in North America over the forecast period.Europe telemedicine market is expected to witness substantial growth over the forecast period. Factor such as, rising cost of healthcare and rising prevalence of chronic diseases is anticipated to drive the growth of liquid packaging market in Europe in the upcoming years. Asia-Pacific is poised to record the fastest growth over the global telemedicine market over the forecast period. Factor such as, increase in population and improving access to healthcare in some of the major countries such as India, China, Japan is anticipated to drive the growth of the telemedicine in Asia Pacific during the forecast period. Based on type, telemedicine market is segmented into, telehospitals/teleclinics, telehome and m-health (mobile health), out of which, telehospitals/teleclinics segment is expected to dominate the growth of the global telemedicine market during the forecast period.Request for TOC Here @By RegionGlobal telemedicine market is further classified on the basis of region as follows:North America (U.S. & Canada) Market size, Y-O-Y growth & Opportunity AnalysisLatin America (Brazil, Mexico, Rest of Latin America) Market size, Y-O-Y growth & Opportunity AnalysisEurope (U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Russia, Turkey, BENELUX, Rest of Europe) Market size, Y-O-Y growth & Opportunity AnalysisAsia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia & Rest of Asia) Market size, Y-O-Y growth & Opportunity AnalysisMiddle East and North Africa (GCC, Israel, North Africa, South Africa & Rest of Middle East) Market Size and Y-O-Y Growth AnalysisBuy This Premium Reports Now @Growth Drivers and ChallengesFactor such as, increasing technological innovation in the field of medical device and services across the globe are anticipated to intensify the growth of the global telemedicine market during the forecast period. In addition, rising geriatric population coupled with rising prevalence of chronic diseases is estimated to positively drive the growth of the telemedicine market over the forecast period. Apart from this, increasing government funding and grants for telemedicine is anticipated to be the dynamic factor behind the growth of the telemedicine market. Further, the need for improved healthcare quality service and increasing number of smartphone users is expected to supplement the growth of the global telemedicine market over the forecast period. However, availability of telecommunication bandwidth and lack of skilled and trained professionals are some of the key factors which are expected to limit the growth of global telemedicine market over the forecast period.For more details visit @Research Nester is a leading service provider for strategic market research and consulting, serving clients from 120+ countries across the globe. 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:Name:- Ajay Daniel1820 Avenue M, Suite# 1113,Brooklyn, New York 11230Email: ajay.daniel@researchnester.comU.S. +1 646 586 9123U.K. +44 203 608 5919Stocks rose Thursday, after the government reported a 6.8-percent gross domestic product growth in the first quarter, making the Philippines one of the fastest expanding Asian economies. The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company benchmark, gained 15 points, or 0.2 percent, to 7,571.00, as three of the six major sectors advanced. The broader all-share index also increased 9 points, or 0.2 percent, to settle at 4,629.91, on a value turnover of P5.5 billion. Gainers outnumbered losers, 104 to 85, while 55 issues were unchanged. Twelve of the 20 most active stocks ended in the green, led by MacroAsia Corp. which climbed 6.8 percent to P25.30 and Vitarich Corp. which jumped 6.7 percent to P3.80. Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. rose 2.6 percent to P83.60, while PLDT Inc. added 2.5 percent to close at P1,376.00. Most Asian markets also ended higher Thursday. Crude prices extended their rally, propelling Asian energy firms and equity markets, as rising demand and Donald Trumps decision to tear up the Iran nuclear deal point to a thinning of supplies. While broadly expected, the presidents announcement has helped light a fire under oil, with both main contracts now sitting at highs not seen since the end of November 2014 and speculation they could go even higher. The decision Tuesday comes as data shows US stockpiles are dwindling, major producer Venezuela is wracked by economic upheaval, and Opec and Russia press on with an output cap. Unsurprisingly, crude continues to trade actively following the US pulling out of (the Iran pact) as the decision poses significant supply risk in the context of the delicately balanced supply and demand matrix, said Stephen Innes, head of Asia-Pacific trading at Oanda. He said that unless there are some production increases from the OPEC/Non-OPEC accord to offset the drop in Venezuelan production, and the expected decline of the Iranian output, prices could be in for a significant leg higher. Of course, there is little indication that the accord will be looking to intervene but eyes are now on Opecs meeting in Vienna on June 21.Both main oil contracts, which rose around three percent on Wednesday, were almost one percent up in Asia. The gains fed into energy firms with Woodside Petroleum surging 5.1 percent in Sydney, CNOOC more than three percent in Hong Kong and Tokyo-listed Inpex piling on 3.4 percent. Stock markets were also benefiting. Hong Kong rose one percent after three straight gains, Shanghai finished 0.5 percent higher and Tokyo ended up 0.4 percent. Sydney added 0.2 percent and Seoul was 0.8 percent higher, while Wellington, Taipei and Manila were deep in positive territory. However, Singapore was off 0.2 percent. Trade in Malaysian equities and the Malaysian markets are closed for the general election. This tug-of-war remains in the market, regardless of the positive headlines on North Korea, regardless of the positive headlines on earnings, Quincy Krosby, the chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, told Bloomberg News. This is a market that has to sort that out, and that 10-year [US Treasury] yield flirting with three percent again is a reflection of that tug-of-war, Krosby said. Dealers are also keeping an eye on the China-US trade spat, with Xi Jinpings top economics advisor heading to Washington next week for fresh talks after a high-level meeting between the economic powers ended with no agreement last week.Global Hair Removal Market Covering Trends, Market Share and Forecast to 2022

MRRSE

https://www.mrrse.com/sample/3815

https://www.mrrse.com/hair-removal-market

https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/3815

https://www.mrrse.com/

https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/

In order to study the various trends and patterns prevailing in the overall market for Hair Removal, Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has included a new report titled Hair Removal 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.Visit for Sample Report @A novel research report by MRRSE states that the global hair removal market is experiencing a high degree of competition between the leading players, including, Cynosure Inc., Solta Medical Inc., Lynton Lasers Ltd., Strata Skin Sciences Inc., Fotona d.d., Syneron Medical Ltd., Venus Concept Canada Corp., Alma Lasers Ltd., Lumenis Ltd., Sciton Inc., Lutronic Corp., and Cutera Inc. Over the next few years, these players are anticipated to focus aggressively on technologically advancing their products in order to improve their profit margins, notes the research study.According to the research report, the global hair removal market is likely to reach US$880.2 mn by 2017. Expanding at a CAGR of 9.0% over the period from 2017 to 2022 to offer an opportunity of US$1.35 bn by the end of the period of the forecast. Currently, the demand for IPL devices is comparatively higher than other products in this market due to their easy availability. The high efficiency of these devices is also expected to fuel their demand in the coming years.In terms of the geography, North America has acquired the dominant position among all the regional markets for hair removal and is expected to remain on the top position over the next few years. This dominance can be attributed to the substantially high interest of consumers towards personal grooming and the availability of sufficient disposable incomes among them making them capable of affording highly expensive hair removal products and services. Amongst other regional markets, Europe is expected to register a steady rise in its market for hair removal over the forecast period, reports the study.Technological Advancements in Products and Services to Boost GrowthWith the increasing focus of consumer towards aesthetic beauty and self-grooming, the market for hair removal has been gaining significant impetus across the world, says a MRRSE analyst. The augmenting beauty-consciousness among people, worldwide, is fueling the demand for hair removal products and services, which is influencing this market substantially.Complete List of Tables and Figures @Over the coming years, technological advancements in hair removal products and services are likely to boost the growth of this market considerably. The continual increase in purchasing power of consumers, globally, is also expected to reflect positively on the sales of hair removal solutions, states the research report.High Cost of Permanent Hair Removal Procedures to Hamper MarketAlthough the future of the global market for hair removal looks bright, it may face hurdles in the coming years due to the high cost associated with the permanent hair removal procedures. The increasing cases of infections and unhygienic usage of hair removal products may hamper the growth of this market over the next few years, report the research study.This research report consists of an exhaustive executive summary and a market snapshot that provide all the important information about various segments and sub-segments studied within the scope of this research. This section also offers significant information and data regarding the global hair removal market with respect to the leading segments based on the key products available in this market, their end users, and the markets geographical distribution. The performance of these market segments has been assessed at length on the basis of their utility, efficiency, and sales. Based on the product, the market has been bifurcated into laser based devices, energy based devices, and intense pulse light (IPL) devices. Based on the end user, the market has been classified into beauty clinics and dermatology clinics.In terms of the region, the market has been segmented into six regions: North America (Canada and the U.S.), Latin America (Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil), the Middle East and Africa (Israel, South Africa, Turkey, and GCC countries), Asia Pacific excluding Japan (India, South Korea, China, Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore), Europe (the U.K., Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and Nordic countries), and Japan. The market revenue for all the segments have been provided here in terms of US$ Mn for the period from 2017 to 2022, together with the cumulative average growth rate (CAGR %) between 2017 and 2022.Global Hair Removal Market: Competitive AnalysisIn conclusion, the market study offers a thorough review of the key players in the global hair removal market on the basis of a number of attributes, such as the overview of the enterprise, with respect to an assessment of its financial status, brand recognition, and the business. The product portfolio, recent developments, and business strategies have also been discussed in this research report. The leading players profiled in this research study are Solta Medical Inc., Cynosure Inc., Lynton Lasers Ltd., Fotona d.d., Strata Skin Sciences Inc., Syneron Medical Ltd., Alma Lasers Ltd., Venus Concept Canada Corp., Lumenis Ltd., Lutronic Corp., Sciton Inc., and Cutera Inc.Send an Inquiry @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:Corporate M-learning Market In Worldwide See Major Growth For The Next Few Years

Corporate M-learning Market In Worldwide See Major Growth For The Next Few Years

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1139673-global-corporate-m-learning-market-3

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1139673-global-corporate-m-learning-market-3

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1139673-global-corporate-m-learning-market-3

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1139673

HTF MI broadcasted a new title Global Corporate M-learning Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 with 101 pages and in-depth assessment including key market trends, upcoming technologies, industry drivers, challenges, regulatory policies, with key company profiles and strategies of players such as Adobe Systems, DominKnow, NetDimensions, Saba Software, Allen Interactions, Aptara, Articulate, CERTPOINT Systems, City & Guilds, Desire2Learn, Intuition, Kallidus, Learning Pool & Meridian Knowledge Solutions. The research study provides forecasts for Corporate M-learning investments till 2022.Get Access to sample pages @Product Analysis:This Report provides a detailed study of given products. The report also provides comprehensive analysis of Key Trends & advance technologies. The Global Corporate M-learning (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as Corporate Training & Self-studyApplication Analysis:This report provides an advance approach to the market growth with a detailed analysis of the overall competitive scenario of the Global Corporate M-learning market. The market is segmented by Application such as Large Enterprise, Medium-sized Enterprises & Small Enterprises with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Industry Growth:An in-depth study about key trends and emerging drivers with market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional breakdowns, competitive landscape, shares, trend and strategies for Corporate M-learning market. The market is expected to estimate at XX million by 2023 growing at a CAGR of XX%.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @Key Highlights of the Global Corporate M-learning Market : Market Share of players that includes Adobe Systems, DominKnow, NetDimensions, Saba Software, Allen Interactions, Aptara, Articulate, CERTPOINT Systems, City & Guilds, Desire2Learn, Intuition, Kallidus, Learning Pool & Meridian Knowledge Solutions to better understand how deeply they have penetrated the market. Conceptual analysis of the Corporate M-learning Market products, application wise segmented study. Clear study and pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamics Analysis of major regional segmentation on the basis of how the market is predicted to growKey questions answered in this comprehensive study  Global Corporate M-learning Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025What will the market size be in 2023 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving Global Corporate M-learning Market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in Global Corporate M-learning Market space?What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the Global Corporate M-learning Market?What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the Global Corporate M-learning Market?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the Global Corporate M-learning market? Get in-depth details about factors influencing the market shares of the United States, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia?Enquire for customization in Report @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Corporate M-learning market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Global Corporate M-learning, Applications of , 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, EU, Japan, China, India & Southeast Asia, Segment Market Analysis (by Type) [Corporate Training & Self-study];Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Change Management Software Segment Market Analysis (by Application [Large Enterprise, Medium-sized Enterprises & Small Enterprises]) Major Manufacturers Analysis;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Corporate Training & Self-study], Market Trend by Application [Large Enterprise, Medium-sized Enterprises & Small Enterprises];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Corporate M-learning by region, type and application;Chapter 12, to describe Corporate M-learning Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Corporate M-learning sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Buy this research report @Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact us :HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218Smoke Evacuation System Market Insights by Size, Status and Forecast 2024

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/smoke-evacuation-system-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=18068

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=18068

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Since the past decade, a large number of surgical procedures are moving out of the traditional ways, and they are replaced by minimally invasive techniques which is driving the market of smoke evacuation system globally. Use of electrocautery and electrosurgery devices is unavoidable in minimally invasive surgery which produces surgical smoke. Researchers have found more than 80 organic compounds in surgical smoke such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide that can cause upper respiratory infection, nausea, and other short-term symptoms. Smoke evacuation system has been developed to overcome this problem. The system is intended to remove smoke, aerosol, and noxious odors produced during electrosurgical procedure. Smoke evacuation systems are high-flow vacuum sources used to capture, at the surgical site, the smoke aerosols and gases generated during the use of lasers and electrosurgical units.View Report-There are a number of factors that affect the growth of the smoke evacuation system market. Some of the key factors include growth in demand for minimally invasive surgical procedures; development and advancement of energy based electrocautery and ultrasonic devices; and rise in global geriatric population. Other key growth drivers include technological advancements in smoke evacuation system, increase in the number of cosmetic procedures, and high or sudden rise in the number of surgeries related to elderly population. The market is further witnessing restraints, or challenges in its path such as development of other non-invasive surgery technologies, alongside stiff competition among existing smoke evacuation system manufacturers. Moreover, product recalls and government regulations for reduction of overall health care cost are restraining the growth of this market.The global smoke evacuation system market is segmented on the basis of product, application, modality, end-user, and region. Based on product, the smoke evacuation system market is categorized into smoke evacuation filters, pencils & wands, smoke evacuation fusion products, and accessories. The smoke evacuation filters segment is further divided into ULPA filters, HEPA filters, charcoal filters, in-line filters, and pre-filters. The ULPA filters sub-segment is expected to hold a significantly large share of the smoke evacuation filters segment.Brochure Download-A significant share of this segment is attributed to technological advancement and extraordinary evacuation capacity as compared to other filters. The smoke evacuation accessories segment comprises adapters, reducers, sensors, and smoke evacuation tubing. Among the accessories, the smoke evacuation tubing sub-segment is expected to account for a significant share in the near future. Rise in number of surgeries performed and recent product launches in this sub-segment is contributing to the large share in this market.On the basis of application, the smoke evacuation system market is divided into electrosurgical devices, electrocautery units, radiofrequency units, ultrasonic devices, laser units, and others. The electrocautery devices segment is anticipated to hold a significant share of the market during the forecast period. Increase in demand for minimally invasive surgeries and rise in geriatric population are expected to fuel the demand for the electrocautery devices segment during the forecast period.Request For Discount-Based on modality, smoke evacuation systems are available in portable evacuation systems and centralized evacuation systems. High cost associated with maintenance of centralized evacuation systems and less efficiency as compared to portable evacuation systems are estimated to hamper the growth of the centralized evacuation systems segment. New launches and product innovation in portable evacuation systems are further expected to drive the growth of the market of this segment.On the basis of end-user, the smoke evacuation system market is segmented into hospitals, specialized clinics, and ambulatory surgery centers. The hospitals segment accounted for a major share of the market in 2015 due to increasing demand for electrosurgical devices from corporate hospitals. Globalization of health care and pharmaceutical standards is likely to support the growth of better hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers in developing regions such as Asia Pacific and Latin America. This in turn is expected to propel the growth of the smoke evacuation system market in these regions.Geographically, the global smoke evacuation system market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is expected to dominate the global smoke evacuation system market during the forecast period. Large geriatric and obese population facing cardiac and orthopedic problems and rise in incidences of cancer are anticipated to drive the market in this region. Asia Pacific has a high growth rate and is expected to offer growth opportunities in this market. Improved health care infrastructure and rise in health care spending by government are estimated to increase adoption of smoke evacuation system in this region.Key players operating in this market include Bovie Medical Corporation, Medtronic, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Erbe Elektromedizin GmbH, Boston Scientific Corporation, Olympus, Johnson & Johnson, Symmetry Surgical Inc., ConMed Corporation, KLS Martin, and Bowa-electronic GmbH & Co. KG.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 us:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY  12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:About us:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us-90 State Street,Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Urgent Care Centers Market is anticipated to exhibit a 3.80% CAGR between 2014 and 2020

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/urgent-care-centers-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=2254

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=2254

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

The global urgent care centers (UCCs) market has several private companies operating urgent care chains in the market such as AFC/Doctors Express, FastMed Urgent Care, MD Now, Concentra Inc., CareSpot Express Healthcare LLC, MedExpress, MinuteClinic LLC, NextCare Urgent Care, Pateint First and U.S. HealthWorks Inc. Also, a large number of small market players are trying to enter and establish in the urgent care centers market. This has resulted in a highly fragmented market for UCCs industry with large number of urgent care chains accounting for less than 1% of the total market. Moreover, many private insurance firms are also becoming attracted towards the UCCs market.View Report:Cost Effective Visits and Faster Service Maintain UCCs on the Growth FrontUrgent care centers provide immediate care services to patients with minor injuries. The service time and quality of health care services in a UCC are better than that in an emergency department (ED). Additionally, the fee per visit paid by a patient, whether with health insurance or not, in UCCs is much lower than the fee paid in EDs. These advantages of UCCs over EDs are expected to increase the number of visits to UCCs, thus driving the growth of the global urgent care centers (UCCs) market.Moreover, appointment flexibility provided by UCCs coupled with reduced waiting time has increased their popularity amongst patients. A surge in the population of insured people is also driving the urgent care centers market. The considerably low cost of treatment is attracting a large pool of insured patients. Furthermore, the growth of UCCs is backed by many private and public investors, thus increasing the pace of growth of urgent care centers exponentially.Request a Brochure of the Report @Unavailability of Physicians Likely to Harm Visits to Urgent Care CentersContinued shortages in the number of physicians are likely to limit the growth of the market and it will worsen in the next few years according to the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA) survey report. This can adversely affect the growth of the UCCs market. However, the effect of this restraint could be alleviated with physician assistants and nursing practitioners compensating this deficiency to some extent.Another impediment to the growth of the UCCs market is the high initial cost required for the set-up of the urgent care centers. Apart from the establishment costs, a large number of patient visits per week are required to meet the huge operational costs of UCCs.North America Leads With a Substantial Margin Owing to High Adoption Rate of UCCsBy geography, the global UGCs market is segmented into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). North America, which was the leading segment by value in 2013, is anticipated to retain its leadership with a share of 73.6% in 2020. Europe, which stands second, is expected to lose its share by the end of 2020 due to lack of interest shown by private investors.Enquiry for Discount on this Report @In terms of services, illness is the leading segment by revenue and is anticipated to remain the largest segment until 2020. However, screening services represent the fastest growing segment.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Lab Informatics Market Key Drivers & On-going Trends 2016 - 2026

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/lab-informatics-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=20249

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=20249

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

The rise of the global lab informatics market is attributable to both, the increasing rate of diagnoses and soaring technological advancements that have introduced improved tools. Furthermore, the widening application of lab informatics solutions in industries such as the food and beverage, chemical, research and development, life sciences, and contract research is expected to have a positive impact on the global market. The phenomenal accuracy and efficiency of results offered by the systems available in the global lab informatics market are projected to benefit growth prospects in the coming years.View Report-Transparency Market Research has compiled a thorough research report that discusses the global lab informatics market in complete detail. The research report highlights the market drivers, opportunities, threats, and weaknesses impacting the overall market. Furthermore, the document also includes SWOT analysis and Porters five forces analysis that gives a granular view of the ever-changing market dynamics. The publication is aimed at guiding its readers to formulate strategic, profitable, and well-informed decisions to further their businesses.Global Lab Informatics Market: SegmentationThe global market offers products such as laboratory information management systems (LIMS), electronic lab notebooks (ELN), scientific data management systems, enterprise content management (ECM), and chromatography data systems. The report indicates that LIMS is expected to lead the global market in the coming years as the system truly offers a wide range of features such as sample lifecycle, reporting, security and system administration, stability study, instrument, schedule, and analytic workflow. These features have definitely brought in value to the product, which has translated into effective delivery of results.Brochure Download-Integration of IT in lab informatics has augmented the demand for cloud-based services in the global market over the past few years. The ease of real-time data entry and remote access have won cloud-based delivery mode a significant consumer base. Its most likely that this segment will lead the global market leaving behind the on-premise delivery mode segment.Global Lab Informatics Market: Regional OutlookCurrently, the global lab informatics market is divided into regions such as Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. The report indicates that North America will dominate the global market in the coming years. The indomitable stance of this regional market will be due to the strong presence of the leading giants in North America, higher level of awareness about diseases and diagnosing them, and well-equipped end users for LIMS. It has been observed that increasing funding for research and development activities in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry of North America is also projected to boost the market in the coming years.Request For Discount-Currently, Asia Pacific is also presenting the lab informatics market with incredible growth opportunities. The regions increasing need to improve its research and development facilities, emerging economies with flourishing industry, and several unmet medical needs are expected to favor Asia Pacific lab informatics market in the near future.Key Players Mentioned in the Report are:Some of the leading players in the global lab informatics market are Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., LabVantage Solutions, Inc., LabWare, Inc., LLC, Core Informatics, LabLynx, Inc., Abbott Informatics, PerkinElmer, Inc., ID Business Solutions Ltd., Waters Corporation, and Agilent Technologies, Inc. These players are fervently focused on advancing their research laboratories with the best of technical knowledge, IT integration, and affordable pricing to lure in larger consumer bases.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 us:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.About us:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us-90 State Street,Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Respiratory Disease Testing Market is anticipated to witness a significant surge in its opportunity at a CAGR of 3.40% during the period from 2014 to 2022

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/respiratory-disease-testing.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=1288

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=1288

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

The presence of large pool of players points towards a high competitive business landscape in the global respiratory disease testing market, states a new study by Transparency Market Research (TMR). The leading companies, such as GE Healthcare, Cosmed, Philips Healthcare, and CareFusion Corp., are actively investing in research activities to accelerate the development of novel and technologically advanced respiratory disease testing devices and solutions. Hitherto, players have been relying upon technology for their growth; however, a shift in their focus is anticipated in the near future towards strategic collaborations to strengthen their positions in this market, reports the study.View Report:As per TMR, the opportunity in the worldwide market for respiratory disease testing was US$2.32 bn in 2013. Expanding at a CAGR of 3.40% during the period from 2014 to 2022, the market is likely to reach a value of US$3.1 mn by the end of the forecast period. Respiratory disease testing solutions find significant application in hospitals, clinical laboratories, and physicians clinics. Hospitals have emerged as the leading end user of these solutions and are expected to remain so over the next few years. Currently, the demand for imaging test is much higher than other types of tests for the detection of respiratory diseases. Researchers anticipate this trend to continue in the near future.Regionally, the global respiratory disease testing market reports its presence across the Middle East and Africa, Latin America, Asia Pacific, North America, and Europe. North America led the global market in 2013 and is projected to retain its dominance over the period of the forecast, states the research report.Significant Rise in Respiratory Disease Cases to Boost Markets GrowthThe significant rise in the prevalence of respiratory disorders, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, pneumonia, and cystic fibrosis, is the main factor behind the constant growth of the global market for respiratory disease testing, states the author of the study. Since early detection of these diseases assist in effective treatment, the demand for respiratory disease testing solutions is continually increasing, reflecting greatly on this market.Request a Brochure of the Report @The rise in the population of elderly people, prone to respiratory problems, are also supporting the markets progress remarkably. The technological advancements in these devices and solutions are projected to boost this market in the years to come, reports the study.Low Adoption Rate of Respiratory Disease Testing devices to Pose ChallengesIn spite of the high demand for respiratory disease testing solutions across the world, the market may face significant challenges from the low adoption rate of portable spirometers and digital radiography among masses over the forthcoming years. The high cost of these testing devices are also projected to create hindrances in the markets growth trajectory in the near future.Enquiry for Discount on this Report @Nonetheless, the increasing governmental support, in terms of funding, for research and development and the escalating number of awareness programs are anticipated to keep the market going over the forecast period, states the report.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Patient Flow Management Solutions Market Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications 2025

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/patient-flow-management-solutions-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=25406

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=25406

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Patient flow management solutions are used to track the movement of patients, information, or flow of equipment between organizations. These solutions use real-time data inputs combined with analytical and statistical software to design an efficient work flow. Patient flow management solutions enable hospitals and clinics and other departments to manage patient reception, routing, and queuing. It provides interaction management tools along with appointment scheduling options.View Report-The adoption of patient flow management solutions in hospitals, clinics, and other health care facilities offers a range of advantages, including increased interaction between clinical staff and patients focus on patient-centered care, enhanced care quality, reduction in waiting time and patients length of stay, enhanced patient satisfaction, and decrease in paper processing.The primary factors driving the growth of the market include high return of investment achieved by the adoption of these solutions, high demand for enhanced quality of care, and growth in focus on patient satisfaction. In addition, the shortage of doctors and nursing staff, growing awareness about health care, and the need of hospitals to reduce costs contribute to the market growth. Further, factors such as growing demand for cloud-based models, increasing penetration, and growing usage of smartphones, along with increasing product launches and collaboration and partnerships among market players propel the growth of the market. However, the growing rate of hacking leading to security breaches, high initial investments, lack of skilled professionals, and inadequate infrastructure to adopt patient flow management solutions might restraint the market growth during the forecast period.Brochure Download-The global market for patient flow management solutions can be segmented on the basis of product, component, type, delivery mode, end-user, and region. On the basis of product, the market can be segmented into real-time locating system and event driven solution. In terms of component, the market can be segmented into hardware, software, and services. On the basis of type, the market is divided into integrated solutions and standalone solutions. The integrated solutions segment is projected to drive the market growth. On the basis of delivery mode, the market is segmented into on-premises, cloud, and web based. The cloud-based segment is anticipated to record a significant growth rate during the forecast period owing to the growing adoption of these solutions. By end-user, the market is categorized into hospitals, clinics, and others.Geographically, the global market can be segmented into five regions, including North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. North America was the leading market for patient flow management solutions and is anticipated to continue to be the highest revenue contributor during the forecast period. This high revenue share of the region can be attributed to the growing adoption of health care IT, well-established infrastructure, government funding for the adoption of patient flow management solutions, and technological innovations.Request For Discount-Europe is likely to be the second leading market in terms of revenue contribution. Asia Pacific is anticipated to record a significant CAGR during the forecast period with China and India being the fastest growing countries, owing to the increasing awareness among people, huge patient pool, growing health care spending, government focus on enhancing health care facilities, and focus on improving the efficiency of hospitals.The leading players operating in the market include Medworxx Solutions, Inc., Cerner Corporation, Mckesson Corporation, Stanley Healthcare, Teletracking Technologies, Inc., Awarepoint Corporation, Getinge Group, Sonitor Technologies, Inc., Central Logic, Inc., Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc., Guard RFID Solutions Inc., Care Logistics LLC, Intelligent Insites, Inc., and Epic Systems Corporation.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 us:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us-90 State Street,Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Market 2018- ACICO, Masa Group, Eastland, Biltech

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1657135&type=S

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/china-autoclaved-aerated-concrete-aac-market-research-report-2018.htm/toc

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1657135&type=D

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Market Research Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.The global Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) market is valued at XX million USD in 2017 and is expected to reach XX million USD by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.The major players in China market includeXella GroupAercon AACH+H International A/SACICOMasa GroupEastlandBiltechAKG GazbetonUltratechHansa BaustoffwerkeJ K Lakshmi CementDOMAPOREco GreenSchlamann KGDongying City FranshionDownload Free exclusive Sample of this report:The research report is aimed at offering the readers a microscopic understanding of the various elements that are playing a crucial role in augmenting the market or restraining it. For the same purpose it includes a Porters five forces analysis, which explains the nature of competition in the China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) market. This market measurement tool is essential allows an elaborate explanation of the role of existing players in the market, challenges faced by the new entrants, changing attitude of buyers and sellers, and the intensity of the competitive rivalry. Various intrinsic and extrinsic factors have been studied to understand their contribution to the growth of the market.Table of ContentsChina Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Market Research Report 20181 Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC)1.2 Classification of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) by Product Category1.2.1 China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Sales (K Cubic Meters) Comparison by Type (2013-2025)1.2.2 China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Sales (K Cubic Meters) Market Share by Type in 20171.2.3 Blocks1.2.4 Lintels1.2.5 Panels1.2.6 Others1.3 China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Market by Application/End Users2 China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers2.1 China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Revenue and Share by Players/Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Average Price (USD/Cubic Meters) by Players/Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Market Competitive Situation and Trends3 China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Sales and Revenue by Region (2013-2018)4 China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Sales and Revenue by Type/ Product Category (2013-2018)5 China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Sales by Application (2013-2018)5.1 China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Sales (K Cubic Meters) and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)5.2 China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Sales Growth Rate (%) by Application (2013-2018)5.3 Market Drivers and OpportunitiesComplete table of content is available at:List of Tables and FiguresFigure Global and China Market Size (Million USD) Comparison (2013-2025)Table Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Sales (K Cubic Meters) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product TypeTable Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Sales (K Cubic Meters) by Application (2013-2025)Figure Product Picture of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC)Table China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Sales (K Cubic Meters) and Growth Rate (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2013-2025)Figure China Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Sales Volume Market Share by Types in 2017Figure Blocks Product PictureFigure Lintels Product PictureTo 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Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Market Examine the Worldwide Market Size, Pricing, Demands

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1651558&type=S

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-di-isononyl-phthalate-dinp-market-research-report-2018.htm/toc

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1651558&type=D

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Market Research Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) 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 Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingUPC Technology CorporationSandung QiluLG ChemKLJ GroupGuandong ChundaBASFExxonMobilEastmanEvonik IndustriesAekyung PetrochemicalDownload Free exclusive Sample of this report:The market share analysis of the topnotch market players that are operating in the international Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) market has been offered in the said market research report so as to assist the readers to gain a deep understanding of their status and position in the industry as a whole. Making use of the analysis, companies could plan their powerful and effective strategies that would strengthen their position in the market.Table of ContentsGlobal Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Market Research Report 20181 Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP)1.2 Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Low Phthalate1.2.4 High Phthalate1.2.5 Non Phthalate1.3 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Segment by Application2 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)4 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2013-2018)5 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Production and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.3 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Price by Type (2013-2018)5.4 Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Production Growth by Type (2013-2018)Read Complete Table of Content @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP)Figure Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Production (K MT) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2013-2025)Figure Global Di-Isononyl Phthalate (DINP) Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2017Figure Product Picture of Low PhthalateTable Major Manufacturers of Low PhthalateFigure Product Picture of High PhthalateTable Major Manufacturers of High PhthalateFigure Product Picture of Non PhthalateGet 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 Carob Sales Market Report 2018 : Savvy Foods, Carobs Australia, Creta Carob, Lewis Confectionery

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1573130&type=S

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-carob-sales-market-report-2018.htm/toc

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1573130&type=D

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Carob Sales Market Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Carob 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 Carob market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Carob sales volume, Price (USD/MT), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingAustralian CarobsEURODUNA AMERICASCyberColloidsThe Hain Celestial GroupSavvy FoodsCarobs AustraliaCreta CarobLewis ConfectioneryMADANARGANDownload Free exclusive Sample of this report:The detailed explanation of the global Carob market is supplemented with its segmentation on the basis of products, services, application, end users, and geography. With a complete breakdown such as this it is possible to pin point lucrative areas and the ones that could pose as a threat. The report also highlights forces of demand and supply present in the global Carob market that are determining consumption patterns amongst all its end user. To facilitate better understanding, the researchers have aided the readers with market figures and facts, which are both historical in nature and estimates for the coming future. The report also enunciates the nature of the competition in the global Carob market with the help of Porters five forces analysis. It offers players operating in the market a chance to see areas of improvement and potential threats that could be averted.Table of ContentsGlobal Carob Sales Market Report 20181 Carob Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Carob1.2 Classification of Carob by Product Category1.2.1 Global Carob Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Carob Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Solid Form Carob1.2.4 Liquid Form Carob1.3 Global Carob Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Carob Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Confectionery1.3.3 Bakery Products1.3.4 Beverages1.3.5 Pet Food1.3.6 Medical1.3.7 Others2 Global Carob Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Carob Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Carob Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Carob Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Carob (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Carob Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.2.2 Global Carob Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3 Global Carob (Volume and Value) by Region3 United States Carob (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4 China Carob (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5 Europe Carob (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6 Japan Carob (Volume, Value and Sales Price)Complete table of content is available at:List of Tables and FiguresFigure Product Picture of CarobFigure Global Carob Sales Volume Comparison (K MT) by Type (2013-2025)Figure Global Carob Sales Volume Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2017Figure Solid Form Carob Product PictureFigure Liquid Form Carob Product PictureFigure Global Carob Sales Comparison (K MT) by Application (2013-2025)Figure Global Sales Market Share of Carob by Application in 2017Figure Confectionery ExamplesGet 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Mercy, Francesca, Newman, Diabam and Sophia were the names their mothers chose. What they had no control over was where their babies were born. As hundreds of thousands of migrants risk their lives on the perilous sea crossing from North Africa to Europe, dozens of newborns have taken their first breath aboard rescue ships in recent years. There were a lot of people in the rubber boat, we were all packed together... the pain was awful, said Stephanie, a Nigerian woman who gave birth to Francesca aboard an aid boat. There are many elements of a tortuous sea crossing that can push pregnant women travelling aboard crammed vessels into laborstress, the vibration of boat engines, even the relief of being rescued from danger. But the chance of a woman having to give birth on the perilous voyage is ultimately a question of numbers. Since 2014, almost 80,000 women have landed on Italian shores, not including adolescents. The majority of them are young and many are pregnant. Ive met many women who were raped, said Marina Kojima, a Japanese midwife who spent several months aboard the Aquarius, a rescue ship jointly run by NGOs SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders. Often they have to sell their bodies in order to get a place on the boat. For these women, pregnancy makes the perilous journey through the desert into hellish Libya even more difficult, and giving birth at sea can be a scarring experience.Giulia Marinig, a recently qualified doctor, remembers a hectic 48 hours in October 2016 when three women went into labour aboard the Dattilo migrant rescue ship. We barely had time to realise what was happening and after just 45 minutes a little boy was born, said the 26-year-old. I was working on autopilot. Just trying to do my best for the patients, we didnt sleep for two days. Marinig reckons there were around 30 other heavily pregnant mothers on board the Dattilo, and a number of women carried babies in their arms they had recently given birth to in Libyan detention centres.Even if their birthing suites amounted to the ships hard floors with plastic crates as cots, the successful deliveries that night brought a shimmer of light to dark two days10,500 migrants had been picked up in the Mediterranean and a total of 50 corpses discovered. For relief workers, delivering newborns alive and healthy is such a powerful experience that the European Union rebaptised its anti-trafficking operation in the Mediterranean Sophia in tribute to a Somali girl born in August 2015 on a German ship. A baby born aboard the Aquarius in 2017 became the inspiration behind this years French Eurovision entry, simply called Mercy. And the tributes go both ways. Stephanie chose to name her girl Francesca after Pope Francis while little Desire Alex, born on the NGO boat Aquarius in 2016, was named after the ships captain.But even if the 35 babies born aboard Mediterranean rescue vessels in recent years defy the odds to make it safely to Europe, their ordeal is just getting started. According to maritime law, children born at sea are considered nationals of the ships flag carrier: Italy for Francesca, Germany for Sophia, the United Kingdom for Mercy. But in these countries, restrictive citizenship laws mean the babies are not entitled to a European passport. Upon arrival in Italy, their unusual birth affords them no special treatment and they often get lost among the masses. Mercy and her mother were taken to Mineo reception centre in Sicily, the largest in Europe and long dogged by scandals of embezzlement and trafficking. It still houses nearly 3,000 people who sometimes wait years for an answer to their asylum applications. Little Francesca, and two others, Newman and Favor, born on the Aquarius in 2016, were luckier: their parents were taken in by smaller centres which offered legal support, Italian courses and independent accommodation. On the advice of German sailors, Sophias mother continued her journey and was granted asylum in Germany. They all share the same hope: that their children can go to school and grow up to live a life less precarious than their birth.Global Night Vision (IR) Surveillance Cameras Market to Reach US$175.8 mn by 2024

MRRSE

https://www.mrrse.com/sample/1749

https://www.mrrse.com/night-vision-surveillance-cameras-market

https://www.mrrse.com/

Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has recently announced the addition a new study on the global night vision (IR) surveillance cameras market that provides a comprehensive analysis of this market.The research report is titled Night Vision (IR) Surveillance cameras Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024.Ask for Sample Copy @According to the study, the worldwide market for night vision (IR) surveillance cameras is likely to expand at a CAGR of 26.50% during the period from 2016 to 2024 and attain a value of US$175.8 mn by the end of the forecast period.The rising need for continual monitoring for perimeter access, the increasing concerns over security pertaining to public or private end-use sectors, and the protection of critical assets are driving the global night vision (IR) surveillance cameras market significantly. In addition to this, the growing demand for next-generation night vision infrared cameras in the defense and military industries is projected to propel this market substantially during the forecast period, notes the study.The report has studied this market on the basis of the shape, type, end user, and the region. Based on shape, the market has been categorized into dome cameras, box cameras, and bullet cameras. Based on type, the market has been segmented into PTZ cameras and fixed cameras, Based on end user, the market has been classified into retail, business organizations, stadiums, transportation, industrial, public sector and defense, and other industries such as education, residential, and hospitality.For more information about this report visit:Geographically, the worldwide market for night vision (IR) surveillance cameras has been segmented into Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. North America led the global market in 2016 with a share of approximately 47.4%. Night vision (IR) surveillance cameras have helped this region to resist and fight terrorism successfully and have also assisted in the identification of significant information regarding terrorist activities a number of times.Owing to these factors, the demand for these cameras is likely to remain high in North America, retaining its position as the leading regional market for night vision (IR) surveillance cameras during the forecast period. However, Europe is projected to record the fastest growth in the overall market over the forecast period at a CAGR of 29.10%, states the research report.BAE Systems Plc., Axis Communications AB, Pelco Corp., Raytheon Co., Hikvision Digital Technology Co. Ltd., Robert Bosch GmbH, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., FLIR Systems, and L-3 Communications Holdings are the leading international manufacturers of night vision (IR) surveillance cameras mentioned in this research study.About MRRSEMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. Headquartered in New York, U.S., 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:Anti-money Laundering Software Market to Help Banks Prevent Illicit Transfers

https://www.futuregenicreports.com/Request-Sample/101940

https://www.futuregenicreports.com/Request-Discount/101940

https://www.futuregenicreports.com/Reports/Anti-money-Laundering-Software-Market

Market HighlightsAnti-money laundering software is software used in the finance and legal industries to meet the legal requirements for financial institutions and other regulated entities to prevent or report money laundering activities. There are four basic types of software that address anti-money laundering: transaction monitoring systems, currency transaction reporting (CTR) systems, customer identity management systems and compliance management software.The government of various countries are forming regulatory bodies to address the issue of money laundering. Along with this, companies under financial sector are also moving towards using anti-money laundering software to minimize the risk associated with transactions. Technological advancements in the financial industry is also resulting in the companies looking to improve their finance department by integrating advanced IT solution to ensure safety. Meanwhile, the growth in banking software industry is also resulting in the increasing incidences of money laundering. Companies are also focusing on developing anti-money laundering software with visualization tools as it significantly reduces the time required in analyzing the data, hypothesize monitoring strategies, and validate scenario deployment along with the scenario generation.Detailed Sample Copy of Updated Analysis @Top Industry Players:This report studies the global Anti-money Laundering Software market, analyzes and researches the Anti-money Laundering 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, like: Oracle, Thomson Reuters, Fiserv, SAS, SunGard, Experian, ACI Worldwide, Tonbeller, Bankers Toolbox, Nice Actimize, CS&S, Ascent Technology Consulting, Cellent Finance Solutions, Verafin, EastNets, AML360, Aquilan, AML Partners, Truth Technologies, Safe Banking SystemsKey Benefits This report provides an extensive analysis of the current and emerging market trends and dynamics of the Anti-money Laundering Software market. The market trend analysis for all the countries is conducted by constructing estimations for key segments between 2018 and 2023 to identify the prevailing opportunities. The report assists to understand the strategies adopted by the leading companies in the industry. Extensive analysis is conducted by key player positioning and monitoring the top competitors within the regional market.Request Discount on this repots @Market SegmentsMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversTransaction Monitoring SoftwareCurrency Transaction Reporting (CTR) SoftwareCustomer Identity Management SoftwareCompliance Management SoftwareBrowse Report @About Future Genic ReportsFuture Generic Reports is a market research and consulting organization, offering premium collection of market research reports, custom research and consulting services to corporations, no-profit organizations and government institutions across the globe.The wide range of information is presented by a team of well-trained researchers of specific sectors through exhaustive research. We deliver premier market research services that cover all industry verticals, including chemicals and material, automotive, healthcare, electronics & semiconductor, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and technology and media.We believe in building an eternal bond with our clients through offering them inclusive research study meeting their specific requirements. Our services are tailored specifically to our clients by proposing them the potential outcome, based on our in-depth analysis and insights for exploring the growth strategies through providing the best possible decision for quality production.Contact us:Future Generic Reports244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email: sales@futuregenicreports.comThe road to 5G Infrastructure: The Inevitable Growth of Infrastructure Cost

https://www.futuregenicreports.com/Request-Sample/101932

https://www.futuregenicreports.com/Request-Discount/101932

https://www.futuregenicreports.com/Reports/5G-Infrastructure-Market

Market Highlights5G is a key enabler for the futuristic digital world. It offers ultra-high broadband infrastructure, for application in various sectors such as healthcare, automotive, and manufacturing. Increasing number of connected devices plays a key role in growth of the 5G infrastructure market. According to Coherent Market Insights, the installed base of Internet of Things devices was 18 billion units in 2016 and is projected to reach 75 billion units by 2025. Integration of sensors in various applications such as automation, automotive, consumer electronics, healthcare, infrastructure maintenance, and smart metering and utilities in turn increases demand for robust and energy-efficient connectivity technologies such as 5G. 5G is a key enabler for Internet of Things by offering a platform to connect a number of devices to the internet. Moreover, government initiative plays a major role for growth of the 5G infrastructure market. For instance, China government is expected initiate commercial rollouts by 2020. With 3,4003,600 MHz band, the countrys first trials will be conducted in 2020. The 3,3003,400 MHz, 4,4004500 MHz, and 4,8004,990 MHz bands are also under consideration. For high internet speeds, China government has plans on using spectrum around 25 gigahertz and 40 gigahertz frequencies.Software-Defined Networking segment is projected to account for the dominant position in global 5G infrastructure market over the forecast period.Detailed Sample Copy of Updated Analysis @Market DynamicsSoftware defined network segment accounted for a dominant position in the 5G infrastructure market and is expected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Software defined network is known as intelligent network architecture, planned to minimize hardware constraints. 5G allows for various advance features high speed connectivity, large bandwidth etc. Providing 5G features through conventional networks becomes difficult as it does not support all the features. Therefore, it is not possible to provide effective control and network management in conventional networking. Hence, software defined networking is the only solution for controlling complex 5G networking.Top Industry Players:This report studies the global 5G Infrastructure market, analyzes and researches the 5G Infrastructure 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: Qualcomm (US), Intel (US), Ericsson (SE), Samsung (KR), NEC (JP), Mediatek (TW), Cisco (US), Cavium (US), Qorvo (US), Huawei (CN)Request Discount on this repots @Key Benefits This report provides an extensive analysis of the current and emerging market trends and dynamics of the 5G Infrastructure market. The market trend analysis for all the countries is conducted by constructing estimations for key segments between 2018 and 2023 to identify the prevailing opportunities. The report assists to understand the strategies adopted by the leading companies in the industry. Extensive analysis is conducted by key player positioning andmonitoring the top competitors within the regional market.Market SegmentMarket 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)Browse Report @About Future Genic ReportsFuture Generic Reports is a market research and consulting organization, offering premium collection of market research reports, custom research and consulting services to corporations, no-profit organizations and government institutions across the globe.The wide range of information is presented by a team of well-trained researchers of specific sectors through exhaustive research. We deliver premier market research services that cover all industry verticals, including chemicals and material, automotive, healthcare, electronics & semiconductor, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and technology and media.We believe in building an eternal bond with our clients through offering them inclusive research study meeting their specific requirements. Our services are tailored specifically to our clients by proposing them the potential outcome, based on our in-depth analysis and insights for exploring the growth strategies through providing the best possible decision for quality production.Contact us:Future Generic Reports244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email: sales@futuregenicreports.comMutation Generation Systems Market to Undertake Strapping Growth during 2017 - 2025

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/19945

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/19945

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Mutation is process in which the sequence of DNA is change due to various internal factor or international factor. The mismatch of the bases of the DNA during the replication process leads to mutation. Mutations class in size; which can disturb anyplace from a single DNA structure block (base pair) to a huge section of a chromosome that comprises several genes. Mutation leads to various serious and chronic diseases in a living begins, such as cancer and other genetic variations. Mutation can also occurs due to external factors such as sunlight, smoking and harmful radiations. The mutation generation system is used for the functional analysis of the proteins. The mutation generation system enables the saturated libraries of transformed proteins in a response within a very less duration of time. The mutation generation system is a complete package of reagents for transposon which is a linked based scanner mutagens of various target proteins. Mutation is studies by using various animal models such as drosophila, mouse, zebra fish and other mammalian tissue cultures. The mutation generation systems is a unique system which provide custom platform to analysis the targeted mutations in genomic regions.Request Report for Table of Contents @Mutation Generation Systems Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe key factor responsible for growth of global mutation generation system market is the increase research activities and focus on improve healthcare management. The players are coming with advance mutation generation systems, so that the genetic research activities should be more presided with acquired outcome results. Various academic research institutes are working with mutation generation system to innovate new process to control genetic variations as the mutation generation system did not required primers and no stop codons. The high cost of the system and lack of availability of the system is the hindrances of the current market.Mutation Generation Systems Market: OverviewMutation generation systems market has huge potentials as the players and research institutes are actively participating to understand the genetic variations in the living organisms. Based on type of mutation, the market is segmented into: Missense mutation, Nonsense mutation, Insertion, Deletion, Duplication, Frame shift mutation and Repeat expansion. Similarly, based on end user, the market is segmented into: Academic research institutes and Contract research organization. All the end user is expected to hold maximum share in the market due to increase activities.Mutation Generation Systems Market: Regional OverviewRegion wise, the global mutation generation systems market is classified into regions namely, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and Middle East and Africa. North America has major contribution to the mutation generation systems market, as majority of the players are present within the region. Europe and Asia Pacific is also growing market as awareness is increasing about the use of the product in various research activities.Request a Sample Brochure of the Report @Mutation Generation Systems Market: Key PlayersThe key players in the mutation generation systems market are Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. Lonza and Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC. (Subsidiary of Merck KGaA).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:Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Market Comprehensive Analysis Till 2022-Top Key Players GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, Siemens Healthcare, Carl Zeiss,Among Others

Global Dermatology Diagnostics Devices

http://www.researchformarkets.com/sample/global-north-

http://www.researchformarkets.com/discount/global-north-america-europe-and-asia-pacific-south-10526

http://www.researchformarkets.com/reports/global-north-america-europe-and-asia-pacific-south-10526

This report focuses on the Global Dermatology Diagnostics Devices market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Looking for more information on this market? Request for Free Sample Copy of Report @america-europe-and-asia-pacific-south-10526Dermatology Diagnostic Devices are designed for evaluating skin lesions suspected of malignancy.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers GE Healthcare Philips Healthcare Siemens Healthcare Carl Zeiss Leica Microsystems Nikon Corporation Fotofinder Systems Caliber I.D. Dermlite Heine Optotechnik Welch Allyn AMD Global Telemedicine Michelson Diagnostics Longport Verisante Technology Strate Skin SciencesMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, covers Imaging Equipment Microscopes & Trichoscopes DermotoscopesMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into Skin Cancer Psoriasis Acne OthersGet Instant Discount on This Report @Short review On Table Of Content-1 Market Overview1.1 Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.5 Market Dynamics2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 GE Healthcare2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.1.1 GE Healthcare Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Description2.1.1.2 GE Healthcare Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Headquarter, Main Business and Finance Overview2.1.2 GE Healthcare Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Product Introduction2.1.2.1 Production Bases, Sales Regions and Major Competitors2.1.2.2 GE Healthcare Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Product Introduction2.1.3 GE Healthcare Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales, Revenue and Market Share2.1.3.1 GE Healthcare Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.3.2 GE Healthcare Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Market Share in Global in 20162.2 Philips Healthcare2.3 Siemens Healthcare2.4 Carl Zeiss2.5 Leica Microsystems2.6 Nikon Corporation2.7 Fotofinder Systems2.8 Caliber I.D.2.9 Dermlite2.10 Heine Optotechnik2.11 Welch Allyn2.12 AMD Global Telemedicine2.13 Michelson Diagnostics2.14 Longport2.15 Verisante Technology2.16 Strate Skin Sciences3 Global Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Market Competition, by Manufacturer3.1 Global Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.2 Global Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Revenue and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.3 Global Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Price by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.4 Market Concentration Rate3.5 Market Competition Trend4 Global Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Market Analysis by Regions4.1 Global Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Regions4.2 North America Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales and Growth (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales and Growth (2012-2017)4.4 Asia-Pacific Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales and Growth (2012-2017)4.5 South America Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales and Growth (2012-2017)4.6 Middle East and Africa Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales and Growth (2012-2017)5 North America Dermatology Diagnostics Devices by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers5.1 North America Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries5.2 North America Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales and Revenue (value) by Manufacturers (2016-2017)5.3 North America Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales by Type (2012-2017)5.4 North America Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales by Application (2012-2017)6 Europe Dermatology Diagnostics Devices by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers6.1 Europe Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries6.2 Europe Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales and Revenue (value) by Manufacturers (2016-2017)6.3 Europe Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales by Type (2012-2017)6.4 Europe Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales by Application (2012-2017)7 Asia-Pacific Dermatology Diagnostics Devices by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers7.1 Asia-Pacific Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries7.2 Asia-Pacific Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales and Revenue (value) by Manufacturers (2016-2017)7.3 Asia-Pacific Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales by Type (2012-2017)7.4 Asia-Pacific Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales by Application (2012-2017)8 South America Dermatology Diagnostics Devices by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers8.1 South America Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries8.2 South America Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales and Revenue (value) by Manufacturers (2016-2017)8.3 South America Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales by Type (2012-2017)8.4 South America Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales by Application (2012-2017)9 Middle East and Africa Dermatology Diagnostics Devices by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers9.1 Middle East and Africa Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries9.2 Middle East and Africa Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales and Revenue (value) by Manufacturers (2016-2017)9.3 Middle East and Africa Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales by Type (2012-2017)9.4 Middle East and Africa Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales by Application (2012-2017)10 Global Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Market Segment by Type10.1 Global Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)10.2 Imaging Equipment Sales Growth and Price10.3 Microscopes & Trichoscopes Sales Growth and Price10.4 Dermotoscopes Sales Growth and Price11 Global Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Market Segment by Application11.1 Global Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales Market Share by Application (2012-2017)11.2 Skin Cancer Sales Growth (2012-2017)11.3 Psoriasis Sales Growth (2012-2017)11.4 Acne Sales Growth (2012-2017)11.5 Others Sales Growth (2012-2017)12 Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Market Forecast (2017-2022)12.1 Global Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate (2017-2022)12.2 Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Market Forecast by Regions (2017-2022)12.3 Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Market Forecast by Type (2017-2022)12.4 Dermatology Diagnostics Devices Market Forecast by Application (2017-2022)13 Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and Dealers13.1 Sales Channel13.1.1 Direct Marketing13.1.2 Indirect Marketing13.1.3 Marketing Channel Future Trend13.2 Distributors, Traders and Dealers14 Research Findings and Conclusion15 Appendix15.1 Methodology15.2 Analyst Introduction15.3 Data SourceIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Know More About our Knowledge store @About Us:Research For Markets indulge in detailed and diligent research on different markets, trends and emerging opportunities in the successive direction to cater to your business needs. We have established the pillars of our flourishing institute on the grounds of Credibility and Reliability. RFM delve into the markets across Asia Pacific, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East And Africa.Contact Us:Mr. A NaiduResearch for MarketsEmail: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.com+44 8000-4182-37Reflex Hammers Market to Witness Exponential Growth by 2025

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/19999

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/19999

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Reflex hammer is a medical instrument which is used by medical practitioners and other healthcare providers to examine tendon reflexes. Reflex hammers are used as a diagnostic instrument and are suitable for diagnosis purposes, and is used for musculoskeletal systems. Reflex hammers are specially designed for reflex testing and percussion.Reflex Hammers Market: Drivers and RestraintsReflex hammers are increasing opted during oral examination of patients in developed and developing countries. The improving access to healthcare with the rapid penetration of such products in the healthcare sector has increased the usage of reflex hammers thereby directly creating a positive impact on reflex hammers market. Furthermore, growing health care budgets of developed and developing countries are also making a significant contribution towards propelling the sale of reflex hammers market. Reflex hammers are increasingly opted in oral examinations owing to the lower costs and high awareness of the products. Reflex Hammers Market, is also easily available which has increased its market access in the developed and developing countries leading to higher adoption.Request Report for Table of Contents @Reflex Hammers Market: SegmentationThe market for reflex hammers is segmented by product type, distribution channels and regions:By Product Type:Babinsky / RabinerTromnerDejerine styleBuck stylePediatric hammersTaylor DesignQueen Square / VernonMiscellaneous stylesBy End Users:HospitalsAmbulatory Surgical CentersClinicsMusculoskeletal ClinicsBy Region:North AmericaEuropeLatin AmericaAsia PacificMiddle East and AfricaReflex Hammers Market: OverviewReflex hammers are medical instruments used by practitioners for physical examinations to detect abnormalities in the nervous system. It is also used for chest percussion. Physical examination is a critical during nervous system examination and reflex hammers are increasingly preferred during oral examination. Manufacturers are focusing on manufacturing products with built-in brush for cutaneous and superficial responses, pointed tip for superficial responses, and other miscellaneous styles. Reflex hammers are increasingly preferred for patient examinations are easily portable.Reflex Hammers Market: Region-wise OutlookRegionally, the market for reflex hammers is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa. North America reflex hammers market dominated the global reflex hammers market due to high number of manufacturers in the U.S. region. The region is expected to continue its dominance in the coming years owing to increasing musculoskeletal disorders. At present, North America holds a leading position in the reflex hammers market followed by Europe. Following North America, Europe region is also anticipated to show steady growth in the Reflex Hammers Market. In the next few years, Asia-Pacific would show remarkable growth in the Reflex Hammers Market as it is developing at a very rapid pace and has shown the emergence of many regional players. The factors which would fuel the growth of Reflex Hammers Market in Asia-Pacific are rising healthcare infrastructure and rapid development of the healthcare infrastructure across the Asian countries. Reflex Hammers Market would evolve at a rapid rate across the regions. However, North America would maintain its position in the overall Reflex Hammers Market.Request a Sample Brochure of the Report @Reflex Hammers Market: Key PlayersSome of the players of reflex hammers market include US Neurologicals, LLC, Happersberger otopront GmbH, B. Braun Melsungen AG, WISAP Medical Technology GmbH, MedGyn Products, Inc., Sync Vision Technology, AUG Medical LLC., J&J Instruments, Jiangsu Suhong Medical Instruments Co.,Ltd, Sklar Instruments, Kimetec GmbH Medizintechnik, Vimex Sp. z o.o.., among others. Furthermore, companies are also anticipated to focus on expanding their capacities to cater to the vast unmet medical needs of the world. There are several local players in the reflex hammers market which operate on a local and regional level.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:North America Microbial Food Culture Market-Analysis of Growth, Trends and Forecasts (2018-2023)

http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/2095277?utm_source=Manjiri

http://orbisresearch.com/reports/index/north-america-microbial-food-culture-market-analysis-of-growth-trends-and-forecasts-2018-2023?utm_Source=Manjiri

http://orbisresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/2095277?utm_Source=Manjiri

Description:Fermented foods have grown tremendously in recent years giving way to a profitable market of food culture. Probiotics and functional foods are the new trends in the market capturing the world across, from the US to developing regions. Functional dairy products have created a huge competition among microbial culture companies.The North America microbial food culture market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.6% during the forecast period of 2018 - 2023. Microbial food cultures such as viable bacteria, yeasts, and moulds are used as food ingredients in fermented foods and as a probiotic in the food industry. The viability of microbial culture is important at the time of food consumption. MFC has been used for centuries for the conversion of substrate into fermented food products, with improved sensory properties.Biotechnological innovations play a crucial role in driving the marketIncreased alcoholic beverage consumption, especially beer, is the primary driving factor of the market. MFC has widened the application market from dairy to bakery, which has increased its consumption demand. Lactic acid bacteria and yeasts have been used since years in the dairy and bakery application capturing a huge market. Moreover, the probiotic market, which has grown at a fast rate in the recent years, further triggers the market growth. Consumers are looking for live food cultures that have positive health benefits.Despite the growing market, there is a need for innovative, different strains of cultures with high potential value in food processing. Biotechnological innovations are playing a great role in the advancement of microbial cultures. However, the stringent regulatory framework that puts emphasis on its documented use is always a restraint for the market. MFC requires strict growth environment, which is sometimes hard to maintain in the processing plant that hinders the microbial food culture market growth.Request a sample of this report @Lactic acid bacteria holds the largest shareThe market has been segmented into the type of culture, strain type, application and geography. MFC market, by type, includes bacteria, yeast, and mould. Bacteria culture such as lactic acid bacteria holds the largest share in the market due to its significant dairy market. However, yeast consumption in beer and other applications are growing in the market. Mold is the fastest-growing market segment, supported by the huge cheese consumption in developing countries such as China.Various microbial culture strains available in the market are single strain culture, multi-strain culture, and multi-strain mixed culture. By application, the market is segmented into beverages, dairy, bakery, cereals and others. The beverages segment is sub-segmented into alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and holds the largest share in the market due to the massive consumption of dairy and alcoholic beverages. Yeast has a dominant market in bakery food products with its vast consumption in the sour dough and bread manufacturing.U.S holds the highest share in the North America MFC marketBy geography, the North American market has been segmented into the United States, Canada, Mexico and other countries. North America is the second largest market covering a huge demand for beer and kefir products. The United States holds a major share in the MFC market and the microbal food culture market followed by Canada and Mexico.Major Players: CHR. HANSEN A/S, DOHLER GROUP, ANGEL YEAST CO. Ltd., DANISCO A/S, CSK FOOD ENRICHMENT B.V., LACTINA Ltd., LB BULGARICUM Plc., LALLEMAND Inc.Browse the Full Report@Reasons to Purchase this Report Analyzing outlook of the market with the recent trends and Porters five forces analysis Market dynamics which essentially consider the factors which are impelling the present market scenario along with growth opportunities of the market in the years to come Market segmentation analysis including qualitative and quantitative research incorporating the impact of economic and non-economic aspects Country level analysis integrating the demand and supply forces that are influencing the growth of the market Competitive landscape involving the market share of major players along with the key strategies adopted for development in the past five years Comprehensive company profiles covering the product offerings, key financial information, recent developments, SWOT analysis and strategies employed by the major market players 3 months analyst support along with the Market Estimate sheet (in excel).Customization of the Report Value chain analysis Consumer behavior analysis in country levelCompanies Mentioned:Chr. Hansen A/S, Dohler Group, Angel Yeast Co. Ltd., Danisco A/S, Csk Food Enrichment B.V., Lactina Ltd., Lb Bulgaricum Plc., Lallemand Inc.Make an enquiry of this report @Some Points from Table of Content:1. Introduction1.1 Key Deliverables of the Study1.2 Study Assumptions1.3 Market Definition2. Research Approach & Methodology2.1 Introduction2.2 Research Designs2.3 Study Timeline2.4 Study Phases2.4.1 Secondary Research2.4.2 Discussion Guide2.4.3 Market Engineering and Econometric Modelling2.4.4 Expert Validation3. KEY FINDINGS OF THE STUDY4. MARKET OVERVIEW4.1 Market Dynamics4.1.1 Drivers4.1.1.1 Increased Alcoholic Beverages Consumption4.1.1.2 Wide Application Market with High-Demand from Dairy and Bakery Sectors4.1.1.3 Probiotic Market Encouraging Significant Growth4.1.1.4 Advancement in Biotechnological Innovation4.1.2 Restraints4.1.2.1 Stringent Regulatory Enviornment5. MARKET SEGMENTATION5.1 Market Segmentation5.1.1 By Type5.1.1.1 Bacteria5.1.1.2 Yeast5.1.1.3 Mold5.1.2 By Strain Type5.1.2.1 Single-Strain Culture5.1.2.2 Multi-Strain Culture5.1.2.3 Multi-Strain Mixed Culture6. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE6.1 Market Share Analysis6.2 Most Active Companies in the Past Five Years6.3 Most Preferred Strategic Approach by Major CompaniesOrbis 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.Hector CostelloSenior Manager  Client Engagements4144N Central Expressway,Suite 600, Dallas,Texas - 75204, U.S.A.Phone No.: +1 (214) 884-6817; +912064101019Contact sales@orbisresearch.com for more information.Global SD-WAN Market Players are Launching New Products to Gain a Larger Market Share

https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/sd-wan-market

https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/sd-wan-market/report-sample

https://www.psmarketresearch.com

Global SD-WAN market size is set to cross $9.3 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 59.2% between 2016-2022. The market is driven by factors such as rise of cloud computing, need for cost effective network management, simplified network architecture and increasing need for network security and visibility. In terms of type, the SD-WAN market is classified into product (WAN infrastructure, and SD-WAN control and overlay) and service (CSP SD-WAN managed and cloud-managed SD-WAN). SD-WAN products accounted for larger revenue in the SD-WAN market in 2015, and are also expected to contribute larger revenue during the forecast period. However, the market for SD-WAN service is expected to witness higher CAGR of 97.0%, during the forecast period.Explore Full Report Description at:In terms of appliance, the SD-WAN market is categorized into virtual and physical appliances. Virtual SD-WAN appliance was the larger contributor to the SD-WAN revenue in 2015, and it is also expected to contribute larger revenue during the forecast period. SD-WAN vendors provide virtual and physical appliances, which are placed in large offices, small remote and branch offices, data centers and cloud platforms such as amazon web services (AWS). In terms of industry, the SD-WAN market is segmented into IT & telecom, BFSI, government, healthcare and others. The IT & telecom accounted for the major revenue of the SD-WAN industry in 2015. With increasing advancements in telecommunications and information technology, and demand for greater bandwidth for high performance applications, the market is expected to witness potential growth from IT & telecom industry during the forecast period.North America led the SD-WAN market, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific in 2015. The North American market for SD-WAN was valued at $69.9 million in 2015, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 57.7% during the forecast period, to reach $2.7 billion by 2022. Among the countries in the North American region, the U.S. contributed larger revenue to the North American SD-WAN industry in 2015. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 57.0% during the forecast period.Get a Copy of Sample Report At:The players in the SD-WAN market are launching new products to gain a larger market share. For instance, in September 2016. Mushroom Networks, a provider of SD-WAN solutions, announced the launch of a platform which represents the next stage of SD-WAN industry as VNF Design Studio. The virtual network function (VNF) design studio was to enable large enterprises and various service providers to easily build personalized virtual network functions which are custom made for their wide area networking (WAN) through a curated library of modular and drag & drop components.Some of the key players in the SD-WAN market are Citrix Systems, Inc., Silver Peak Inc., Cloudgenix, Inc., Ecessa Corporation, Viptela, Riverbed Technology, Inc., Mushroom Networks, Inc., VeloCloud Networks and Glue Networks.About P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide market research reports, industry reports; business intelligence and research based consulting services across a range of industries.With the help of our professional corporate relations with various companies, our market research offers the most accurate market forecasting. Our analysts and consultants interact with leading companies of the concerned domain to substantiate every single data presented in our publication. Our research assists our client in identifying new and different windows of opportunity and frame informed and customized strategies for expansion in different regions.Contact:P&S Market Research347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY  10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:Automated Cell Sorter Market to Record Sturdy Growth by 2025

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/20011

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/20011

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Cell sorting is a process used to separate the cells according to their properties. Cell sorter is used to analyse and sort population of in vitro stem cells. Cell sorting properties are both intracellular and extracellular. Intracellular cell sorting process include DNA, RNA and Protein molecule interaction, while extracellular cell sorting includes, physical properties such as, size, shape and surface protein expression.Automated Cell Sorter Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global automated cell sorter market is expected to be driven by increasing focus on the research and development in pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. Automated cell sorter makes the process of cell sorting easier and fastens the process due to which market of automated cell sorter is expected to show a significant growth over the forecast period. Increasing focus on development of monoclonal antibodies and customization of drug manufacturing process is also driving the market of automated cell sorter.Request for Table of Contents @Automated Cell Sorter Market: SegmentationThe global automated cell sorter market can be segmented on the basis of product type, technology type, application, end user and region.On the basis of product type the global automated cell sorter market can be segmented into:Bench TopCompactOn the basis of technology type the global automated cell sorter market can be segmented into:Single Cell SorterFluorescent Activated Cell SorterMagnetic Cell SorterBuoyancy Activated Cell SorterOn the basis of application the global automated cell sorter market can be segmented into:Research ApplicationClinical ApplicationOn the basis of end user the global automated cell sorter market can be segmented into:Research InstitutesPharmaceutical CompaniesBiotechnology CompaniesHospitalsDiagnostic LaboratoriesAutomated Cell Sorter Market: OverviewThe global automated cell sorter market is expected to show a significant growth over the forecast period. Increasing focus of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on development of monoclonal antibodies and customization of treatment is expected to drive the growth of the automated cell sorter market. Advancement in the diagnostic procedure and increasing funding from the governments on the research related to the development of advanced methods of diagnostic process is also expected to drive the growth of the market. Compact automated cell sorter segment is expected to show higher growth as it is easy to use, economical and require lesser space in laboratory. Fluorescent activated automated cell sorter is expected to dominate the technology segment as these devices have high accuracy and provide faster result.Automated Cell Sorter Market: Region Wise OutlookGeographically, the global automated cell sorter market can be segmented into regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Middle East & Africa (MEA). North America automated cell sorter market is dominating market and is expected to continue to dominate the global automated cell sorter market over the forecast period closely followed by the Europe. High focus of North America and Europe on biotechnology related research and presence of some of the best research institutes in North America and Europe is expected to drive the growth of the global automated cell sorter market. Increasing focus of government bodies on funding the research and presence of top pharmaceutical companies in the region is also expected to fuel the growth of automated cell sorter market. Asia Pacific region is expected to be fastest growing automated cell sorter market due to the increasing focus of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on research & development as well as growing healthcare infrastructure. India, China, South Korea and Japan are the countries that are expected to drive the growth of automated cell sorter market significantly.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Automated Cell Sorter Market: Key PlayersSome of the market participants in the global automated cell sorter market include, LW Scientific, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Nexcelom Bioscience LLC., Becton Dickinson, ChemoMetec A/S, and RR Mechatronics.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Global Bluetooth Beacon and iBeacon Market Analysis & Evolving Opportunities Studied for the Period Until 2025

MRRSE

https://www.mrrse.com/sample/4006

https://www.mrrse.com/bluetooth-beacon-and-ibeacon-market

https://www.mrrse.com/

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 Global Market Study on Bluetooth Beacon and iBeacon: North America Anticipated to be the Most Attractive Regional Market Through 2025 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 Bluetooth Beacon and iBeacon market have been elaborated upon in the research report.Request Sample pages of this report @According to the research study, the global Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market is anticipated to grow at a noteworthy rate to reach a significant value by the end of the assessment year. The Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market experienced a sluggish growth initially during 2012-2016 period. However, it gained enormous steam after 2016 and is projected to grow at a gigantic CAGR of 91.4% throughout the period of assessment, 2017-2025. By the end of the assessment year, the global market for Bluetooth beacons and iBeacons is estimated to reach an enormous valuation of more than US$ 37 Bn from a mere US$ 207 Mn in 2017. This enormous growth can be attributed to various key aspects such as implementation of beacons in retail stores to engage customers, consistency in growth of smartphones and related technologies and increasing sue of beacons in industries for enhancement of safety. As per the research report, the players involved in this market can focus on expanding their reach in Asia Pacific and North America region in the coming years.North America region to be highly lucrative for Bluetooth beacon and iBeaconsNorth America region is anticipated to be highly lucrative region for the growth of Bluetooth beacons and iBeacons in the coming years. The region reflected high potential in terms of growth and revenue generation in this market since past couple of years. In the coming years, it is likely to dominate the global market over other regions. The Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market in North America is projected to grow at an exponential CAGR of 90.6% throughout the period of assessment to reach a high valuation of more than US$ 14 Bn by the end of the forecasted year from a value of US$ 82 Mn in 2017.United States has highly contributed to the growth of the Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market in North America region, followed by Canada. By technology, the iBeacon segment dominated the global market by reflecting a higher market share and value. By the end of 2025, this technology segment is projected to show a value higher than US$ 10 Bn. The retail end users segment in the North America Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market is expected to show high prominence in the coming years. However, the non-retail end user segment in this region is expected to grow at a comparatively higher pace in the near future.Access Report Summary with Detailed TOC at @Asia Pacific to soar at super speed in the Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon marketAsia pacific region has shown higher potential in the growth of this technology market. It is the third largest region with respect to revenue size. The Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market in Asia Pacific region is valued at about US$ 40 Mn in 2017 and is estimated to reach a higher valuation of more than US$ 8 Bn by the end of the assessment period.China country is the major contributor of growth of the Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon market in Asia Pacific region, followed by Japan. Technology wise, eddystone segment is projected to grow at a higher pace in this region, with a CAGR of 96.9%. The iBeacon technology segment is expected to be the largest segment in terms of market value and is projected to grow at a significant rate in the years to come. The retail and non-retail segments in the end user category both have given significant contribution. The Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon technology has been rapidly adopted in these segments; the retail segment has an upper hand with respect to market value whereas the Bluetooth beacon and iBeacon technology in non-retail sector in Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a higher pace in the future.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 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:The brouhaha over the reported militarization of the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea (take your pick) by China has brought back to center stage the 1993 essay of foremost American political theorist, Samuel Huntington, entitled Clash of Civilizations. This highly provocative piece which was later expanded into the book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Orderconsidered as the authors response to his former student, Francis Fukuyamas sensational piece entitled The End of History and the Last Manposits that in the post-Cold War era, the primary source of conflict will not be ideological, as in capitalism versus communism, or economics, but peoples cultural and religious identities. In the 1993 piece, the Harvard U-based theorist said: It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future... Copies of Huntingtons essay and book as well as Fukuyamas became de rigeur reading among political thinkers and pundits immediately after the World Trade Center bombings which the Western intelligence community attributed to the militant Islamic organization Al Qaida. In response to the public outcry over this unthinkable development and, might I say, the retribution for the trouble created by the Islamists which has since engulfed the world, the US mounted a global war on terror aimed essentially at wiping out Al Qaida and its adherents worldwide and the rogue states supporting it. Interestingly, the WTC-engendered conflict fits into one of Huntingtons boxthe perpetrators mindset had religious and cultural underpinnings. That Al Qaidas and the Islamic States propaganda called for an end to the Wests hegemony and decadence and was peppered with Koranic attributions only reinforced the view that the war on terror was necessary, a kind of life-and-death undertaking, meant to preserve human life and dignity and Western values and system. That positioning strengthened the resolve of its proponents in the civilized West to move with all guns blazing and with all deliberate speed against the Islamists who expectedly fought tooth and nail for their own beliefs. Led by no less than the acknowledged military superpower in the world, the West embarked on a global anti-terror expeditions to wipe out this curse on humankind, from the Middle East to Asia and even Europe resulting in, among others, the death of Osama Bin Laden and the marginalization of Al Qaida, the short lived emergence of the Islamic State, the ouster of rogue regimes such as Libya and Iraq, the continuing civil wars in Syria and Afghanistan and the bombings and maiming of innocent civilians in key European cities all attributed to Al Qaida or Islamic inspired terrorists. With its heavy religious and cultural undertones coupled with the highly inflammatory rhetoric of the Islamic extremists, it came as a no surprise that the war on terror was viewed by many quarters as the Crusades Redux. A clash of Western and Islamic civilizations of the first degree, indeed! But it is the emergence of China and its leaderships multi-pronged push for the Asian economic powerhouse to take its rightful place in the world which puts Huntingtons clash of civilizations theory in a clearer and starker light. That goal got enshrined at the end of the Communist Party of China Congress and the subsequent statements of Chinese President Xi Jinping which outlined the means by which China will get to center stage and the expected period within which it can realistically achieve the same. It is clear from the Chinese pronouncements that China will not go the Western, read that US, way. Instead of embracing the Wests prescription for unity, harmony and development in the post-Cold War erabasically the make up of the world order after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the break up of the Soviet Unionit is embarking on its own path. And in a big way. As if on cue, in the Huntington book the theorist advised that the divide between the West, read that US led, and Chinese civilizations is just as deep, enduring and consequential.Thus, he noted: The very notion that there could be a universal civilization is a Western idea, directly at odds with the particularism of most Asian societies and their emphasis on what distinguishes one people from another. These differences are evident in almost all aspects: from the economy, free market versus state-led and stock market cycle versus long-term economic projects. Then in cultural and political: USA- style individualism where rights and freedoms are key versus communalism and societal harmony which then translates into the political arena as democratic free-for-all versus state led governance. Professor Graham Allison in his book Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides Trap? expounded on this expected race to center stag of the two world powersthe US with its Western values and system and China as the spearhead of the Asian wayas earlier theorized by Huntington. As Dillon would have it, that race would have far reaching consequences on a post-Cold War world similar to if not even more complicated than the previous one. Thus, he virtually calls on all peoples and nations of goodwill to do all they can to manage this next clash of civilizations. Established powers, Dillon noted, faced with challenges tend to become fearful, insecure and defensive while rising powers understandably feel a growing sense of entitlement and demand greater influence and respect,a situation which can only erupt if not nursed and managed properly. How true and how current a task for all. Given this enveloping environment of super power competition in all aspects the choice left for countries such as the Philippines can only be summed as friends to all, enemies to none. In a very real sense, that encapsulates President Dutertes view on how we should behave in the post-Cold World era: A policy of interdependence and harmony, of promoting solely and realistically the nations best interests. In a very real sense, the Chinese are assuming the leadership, the sword, if you may, meant to show another path to a 21st century world that has been loosely described as the Asian way.Tissue Dissociation Market to be at Forefront by 2025

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/20029

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/20029

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Tissue dissociation is a cell isolation process that is used to separate the human and animal tissues. Tissue dissociation process is performed with the help of isolation enzymes. Cell aggregates or distinctive cell types can be separated with the help of tissue dissociation process. The goal of a tissue dissociation process is to maximize the outcome of functionally viable, dissociated cell. This process is also used to adherent cell the culture in which cells is being cultured.Tissue Dissociation Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global tissue dissociation market is expected to be driven by increasing focus on the research and development in pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. Increasing focus on development of monoclonal antibodies and customization of drug manufacturing process is also driving the market of tissue dissociation. Increasing prevalence of chronic disease is also expected to drive the growth of dissociation market as the process is used for the development of advanced treatments. Increasing funding from various government bodies and private players is also expected to drive the growth of the tissue dissociation market.Request for Table of Contents @Tissue Dissociation Market: OverviewThe global tissue dissociation market is expected to show a significant growth over the forecast period. Increasing focus of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on development of monoclonal antibodies and customization of treatment is expected to drive the growth of the tissue dissociation market. Advancement in the diagnostic procedure and increasing funding from the governments on the research related to the development of advanced methods of diagnostic process is also expected to drive the growth of tissue dissociation market. Connective tissue segment is expected to dominate the market over the forecast period as these tissues have better yield and help in development of high quality products. Tissue dissociation has high demand in biotechnology companies and research institute as these end users are focusing on the development of novel therapies and targeted treatment option of lifestyle diseases such as, diabetes, cancer and other autoimmune disorders.Tissue Dissociation Market: Region Wise OutlookGeographically, the global tissue dissociation market can be segmented into regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Middle East & Africa (MEA). North America tissue dissociation market is dominating market and is expected to continue to dominate the global tissue dissociation market over the forecast period closely followed by the Europe. High focus of North America and Europe on biotechnology related research and presence of some of the best research institutes in North America and Europe is expected to drive the growth of the global tissue dissociation market. Increasing focus of government bodies on funding the research and presence of top pharmaceutical companies in the region is also expected to fuel the growth of tissue dissociation market. Asia Pacific region is expected to be fastest growing tissue dissociation market due to the increasing focus of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on research & development as well as growing healthcare infrastructure.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Tissue Dissociation Market: Key PlayersSome of the market participants in the global tissue dissociation marker include, Miltenyi Biotec, Worthington Biochemical Corporation, Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Becton Dickinson Biosciences, Thermo Fisher Scientific, VitaCyte LLC., Merck KGaA, and StemCell Technologies, 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:Veterinary Cages Market Significant Profits Estimated to be Generated by 2025

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/20035

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/20035

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Veterinary cages are manufactured to hold the animals and prevent them from anywhere. These cages are generally used at the animal shelters, research laboratories and other place to hold the animals and prevent them from harming each other.Veterinary Cages Market: Drivers and RestraintsVeterinary cages market is expected to show a significant growth over the forecast period. The market of veterinary cages is expected to be driven by the increasing clinical research on animals. Veterinary cages are used to keep the animals at a separate animal house in laboratories. Increasing focus on reducing the number of stray animals and keeping them at shelter is also expected to drive the growth of veterinary cages market. Rising trend of keeping pets is a major factor in driving the growth of veterinary cages market. Focus of people has changed from keeping just cat and dogs to other non-traditional animals as a pet. These trend are providing significant growth in the veterinary cages market. Animal right activities and preventing the cruelty to animals are some of the factors restricting the growth of veterinary cages market.Request Report for Table of Contents @Veterinary Cages Market: OverviewThe global veterinary cages market is expected to show a significant growth over the forecast period. Major factors that are driving the growth of the market are increasing animal research to develop new drugs or study the potential effect of a drug. Animals are kept in separate veterinary cages to prevent them for infections. Increasing focus on designing special purpose veterinary cages is also expected to drive the growth of veterinary cages market. Developed countries are focusing on the reducing the number of stray animals especially, dog and cats. These captured animals are kept at animal shelters in veterinary cages. Increasing number of animal shelters is also expected to drive the growth of veterinary cages market. Drawer type veterinary cages are expected to be dominating segment as in these cages more number of animals can be kept in a smaller space. Research application segment is expected to dominate the global veterinary cages market as companies are developing veterinary cages specifically for research purpose.Veterinary Cages Market: Region Wise OutlookThe global veterinary cages market can be segmented into regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa (MEA). North America region dominates the global veterinary cages market followed closely by Europe market. As these regions have a large number of research oriented institutes, pharmaceutical companies and contract research organization. As well as strict regulatory requirement during research that ensure that animals are kept in separate chambers. These factors are responsible for higher growth of veterinary cages market. Asia Pacific market is expected to show a better growth as research related activities are rising in the region. Other factors for higher growth of veterinary cages market in Asia Pacific region are rising focus of pharmaceutical companies on development of new product, as well as rising number of animal shelters in the region.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Veterinary Cages Market: Key PlayersSome of the market players in the global veterinary cages market include, Alvo Medical, Doctorgimo, LORY PROGETTI VETERINARI srl, TECHNIK TECHNOLOGY Ltd, Everest Tecnologia Veterinaria, Tristar Vet, Inc., Groomers Best and GTEBel SA. Some of the players are involved in the development of veterinary cages for research purpose.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:Agricultural Drones Market By Services,Assets Type,Solutions,End-Users,Regions Forecasts to 2025

Agricultural Drones Industry

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/643524-global-agricultural-drones-market-and-by-region

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/643524-global-agricultural-drones-market-and-by-region

WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Agricultural Drones Market By Services,Assets Type,Solutions,End-Users,Regions Forecasts to 2025.Agriculture is considered as a prime area of potential growth in the drone industry because of the technologys ability to help survey crops and gather real-time information on farmland. Crop-spraying drones are suitable for all kinds of complex terrain, crops and plantations of varying heights. In addition, precise and accurate crop spraying ensures the best coverage and application of fertilizers or pesticides on lands. Agricultural drones are anticipated to account for a significant and ever-growing portion of the overall agricultural drones industry in the next decade. GMD predicts the global agricultural drones or UAVs market to grow phenomenally at 37.1% per annum by unit shipment, and 28.9% yearly on average by annual sales revenue generated from agricultural UAV hardware, drone software and servicing section over the next decade (2016-2025).Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comGlobal Agricultural Drones Market 2016-2025 by System Segment, Application, Product Type, and by Region examines the global agricultural drones market through a comprehensive research and profound analysis of premium information sources with inputs derived from industry professionals across the value chain. After reviewing global economic environments and global agricultural sector, this report provides a detailed analysis of market structure, market trends, market forces, and market segments. Qualitative market analyses include identification and investigation of market structure, market outlook, growth drivers, restraints and challenges, emerging market trends/opportunities, Porters Fiver Forces, M&A landscape as well as fundraising trends.The report quantifies global agricultural drones market from perspectives of UAV system segment, agri-drone application, rotor type, and region.Based on UAV system segment, the global market is segmented into the following three sections: Drones Hardware (frame, controller system, propulsion system, sensors, cameras, etc.) Drones Software (imaging software, GPS, GIS, etc.) Service (cloud service, integration, engineering, and management)By application field of agricultural drones, the following key segments of themarket are studied: Crop Spraying Field Mapping Pest Control Seeding Livestock Management OthersOn basis of rotor type or lifting technology, the global market is segmented into four sections: Fixed-Wing Drones Multi-Rotor Drones Single-Rotor Drones Hybrid-Rotor DronesGeographically, the following five regions are fully investigated: APAC Europe North America Latin America RoWGlobal data is available for annual shipment and annual revenue generated from agricultural drones in each sub-market over the duration of 2014-2025. Specific analysis and forecast of annual shipment and sales revenue over 2014-2025 are performed for 14 important national markets including U.S., Japan, Germany, South Korea, Australia, China, and UK. North America is expected to maintain the largest regional market due to substantial R&D investment and higher penetration rate of UAVs over the next decade. Asia-Pacific region will witness the strongest growth owing to the untapped market and accelerating adoption of agricultural drones.The report also includes current competitive scenario and the main agricultural drones on market, and profiles 32 agri-drone vendors including market leaders and important emerging players.Highlighted with 6 tables and 82 figures, this 211-page report provides timely data and detailed analysis to help clients targeting the global market to identify business opportunities and execute an effective strategy.Report Details @Table Of Contents  Major Key Points1 Introduction1.1 Industry Definition and Research Scope1.2 Research Methodology1.3 Executive Summary2 Market Environment2.1 World Economy: Current Conditions and Outlook to 20302.2 World Demographic Profile and Trends to 20502.3 Outlook of Global Agricultural Sector to 20253 Market Overview and Qualitative Analysis3.1 Market Structure3.2 Market Overview3.3 Major Growth Drivers3.4 Market Restraints and Challenges3.5 Emerging Opportunities and Market Trends3.6 Porters Fiver Forces Analysis3.7 Key M&A Trends and Strategic Partnerships3.8 Fundraising in Global Agricultural Drones Market4 Segmentation of Global Market by Application4.1 Market Overview by Application4.2 Agricultural Drones Market in Crop Spraying 2014-20254.3 Agricultural Drones Market in Field Mapping 2014-20254.4 Agricultural Drones Market in Pest Control 2014-20254.5 Agricultural Drones Market in Seeding Application 2014-20254.6 Agricultural Drones Market in Livestock Management 2014-20254.7 Agricultural Drones Market in Other Applications 2014-20255 Segmentation of Global Market by Product Type5.1 Market Overview by Product Type5.2 Fixed-wing Agricultural Drones Market 2014-20255.3 Multi-rotor Agricultural Drones Market 2014-20255.4 Single-rotor Agricultural Drones Market 2014-20255.5 Hybrid-rotor Agricultural Drones Market 2014-20256 Segmentation of Global Market by Region6.1 Geographic Market Overview by Region 2015-20256.2 North America Market 2014-20256.2.1 Overview of North America Market6.2.2 U.S. Market6.2.3 Canadian Market6.3 European Market 2014-20256.3.1 Overview of European Market6.3.2 Germany6.3.3 France6.3.4 UK6.3.5 Italy6.3.6 Spain6.3.7 Rest of European Market6.4 Asia-Pacific Market 2014-20256.4.1 Overview of Asia-Pacific Market6.4.2 Japan6.4.3 China6.4.4 South Korea6.4.5 Australia6.4.6 India6.4.7 Rest of APAC Region6.5 Latin America Market 2014-20256.5.1 Overview of Latin America Market6.5.2 Mexico6.5.3 Brazil6.5.4 Rest of Latin America6.6 Rest of World Market 2014-20257 Competitive Landscape7.1 Overview of Global Vendors7.2 Recent Product Launches and Updates7.3 Company Profiles (32 Vendors)Continued..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.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.Global Emotional Therapy Robots Market Forecast 2018-2025 PARO Robots, BeatBots, Hasbro

Emotional Therapy Robots Market Trends 2018

http://bit.ly/Emotional-Therapy-Robots-Market-2018

http://www.9dimenresearchstore.com/report/global-emotional-therapy-robots-market-5291

http://9dimenresearchstore.com/

A market study "Global Emotional Therapy Robots Market" examines the performance of the Emotional Therapy Robots market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Emotional Therapy Robots market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Emotional Therapy Robots market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Emotional Therapy Robots Market 2018 report includes Emotional Therapy Robots market Revenue, market Share, Emotional Therapy Robots industry volume, market Trends, Emotional Therapy Robots Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Emotional Therapy Robots Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Emotional Therapy Robots Market 2018 : PARO Robots BeatBots Hasbro Softbank Group Sony Omron InterbotsEmotional Therapy Robots Market : By ApplicationAlzheimer's DiseaseOther DementiaEmotional Therapy Robots Market : By TypeMobile Emotional Therapy RobotsStationary Emotional Therapy RobotsFirstly, the report covers the top Emotional Therapy Robots manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Emotional Therapy Robots report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Emotional Therapy Robots industry, Emotional Therapy Robots industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Emotional Therapy Robots Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Emotional Therapy Robots 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 Emotional Therapy Robots market revenue worldwide.Finally, Emotional Therapy Robots 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 Us9Dimen Research Store is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@9dimenresearchstore.comWeb:Veterinary Incubators Market Size Estimated to Observe Significant Growth by 2025

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/20038

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/20038

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Veterinary Incubators are devices used to maintain optimum temperature and humidity for development and growth of the premature animals. The temperature of veterinary incubators is regulation so that animals temperature is maintained at an optimum level, Veterinary incubators have a hand-access port that allows the animals to be handled while preventing the entry of air. Humidity in veterinary incubators mostly controlled by water trays and adjusting vents.Generally, the housing of the veterinary incubators is made of either metal or acrylic to provide solid state heating console with a filtering system to allow disinfection. Recent advancement in technology made it possible to incorporate air sensor, five system alarm indicator, double wall system, isolated alarm systems and air-temp and skin-temp controlled by micro-process. Temperature is extremely important during incubation because a slight change in one degree might affect the development and growth in veterinary incubators. Optimum growth of most of the animals occurs at a humidity of 60% should be maintained in incubators.Veterinary Incubators Market: Drivers and RestraintsAt birth, animals skin and core temperatures tend to drop significantly because of loss of heat due to convection, radiation, conduction and water evaporation. Prolonged cold stress can cause hypoglycemia, rapid depletion of glycogen stores and oxygen deprivation. Because of these, the mortality rate was increasing exponential in animals during the birth time. To prevent the death of animals during birth, along with raising awareness regarding incubation fueled the growth of the veterinary incubators market. Others factors like rising demand for critical care to improve health standards of animals and increasing awareness regarding preservation of animals fuel the growth of the veterinary incubators markets. Along with, government initiatives and social group activities to preserve the animal boosted the burgeoning growth of the veterinary incubators market.Request Report for Table of Contents @Deaths and injuries due to malfunction of the incubators and inadequate control over oxygen supply limited the growth of the veterinary incubators marketVeterinary Incubators Market: Market OverviewGlobal Veterinary Incubators market has witnessed a robust growth due to raising awareness. Veterinary Incubators market has a presence of many regional players which have a huge market share in emerging countries operating at regional or country level. Manufacturers are mostly focused on innovations to increase the applicability of Veterinary Incubators in other indications. There are huge opportunities for the untapped markets in emerging countries due to few approved players of the Veterinary Incubators Market. The key players in the Veterinary Incubators market are mainly focused on expansion by collaborations and partnerships with local vendors in increase the market reach of the products. The future of Veterinary Incubators market anticipated with double CAGR during forecasting period.Veterinary Incubators Market: Region-wise OverviewGlobal Veterinary Incubators Market segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa regions and Latin America by region wise. North America dominates the global Veterinary Incubators Market due to the high acceptance among populations, and in North America, USA is a major stakeholder due to the high awareness. Europe and Asia-pacific are the fastest growing market in Veterinary Incubators Market due to raising awareness. The economic conditions in Asia-pacific region rise the Veterinary Incubators market to new heights.Latin America is growing at stable pace due to increasing penetration of Veterinary Incubators. The Middle East and Africa regions are showing significantly less growth because of less awareness regarding Veterinary Incubators during the forecasted period. However, North America would maintain its position in the Veterinary Incubators market, though, we are anticipating emerging economies such India, China, Brazil, to have the highest growth rate in Veterinary Incubators market.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Veterinary Incubators Market: Key ParticipantsThe key participants in Veterinary Incubators Market are DRE Veterinary, (an Avante Health Solutions company), Braun & Company Ltd, Woodley Equipment Company Ltd, Lyon Technologies and others. The companies are mainly focusing on intense marketing to convey the benefits of Veterinary Incubators.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Global White Mineral Oil Market Forecast 2018-2025 Sasol, Shell, Exxon Mobil, Farabi Petrochem

White Mineral Oil Market Forecast 2018

http://bit.ly/White-Mineral-Oil-Market-2018

http://www.9dimenresearchstore.com/report/global-white-mineral-oil-market-5292

http://9dimenresearchstore.com/

A market study "Global White Mineral Oil Market" examines the performance of the White Mineral Oil market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the White Mineral Oil market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of White Mineral Oil market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global White Mineral Oil Market 2018 report includes White Mineral Oil market Revenue, market Share, White Mineral Oil industry volume, market Trends, White Mineral Oil Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, White Mineral Oil Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global White Mineral Oil Market 2018 :1. Sasol2. Shell3. Exxon Mobil4. Farabi Petrochem5. Savita6. Nippon Oil7. CEPSA8. SEOJIN CHEM9. Sonneborn10. MORESCO11. KDOC12. Atlas Setayesh Mehr13. Gandhar OilWhite Mineral Oil Market : By ApplicationMedicalIndustrialFood industrialWhite Mineral Oil Market : By TypeTech gradesPharma gradeFirstly, the report covers the top White Mineral Oil manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the White Mineral Oil report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of White Mineral Oil industry, White Mineral Oil industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. White Mineral Oil Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The White Mineral Oil research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the White Mineral Oil market revenue worldwide.Finally, White Mineral Oil market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us9Dimen Research Store is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@9dimenresearchstore.comWeb:Virtual Classroom Market Key Players: BrainCert, SAP SE, Oracle Corporation by Forecast to 2023

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4065

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/virtual-classroom-market-4065

Market Scenario:The virtual classroom market is coming up with whole new innovation in experiencing the education and learning system. On the basis of regional analysis, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. North America region is generating highest market share in the virtual classroom market owing to better network infrastructure, digitization and higher technology implementation. Digitization in North America is mainly due to the invention of advanced technology and economies benefitting from it.North America region is leading due to presence of major players from the region in the virtual classroom market. The implementation of virtual classroom solution by both small and medium enterprises is increasing rapidly, especially one into IT sector. The virtual classroom market is gaining demand as organization seek to improve their business growth by shifting from on-premise to cloud based. The initial low cost, saving amount spent on infrastructure, automatic software upgrading and seamless integration is driving the market of cloud based server virtualization market.Request a Sample Report @Major Key Players: BrainCert (U.S.) SAP SE (Germany) Docebo (Italy) Saba Software (U.S.) Skyprep (Canada) Oracle Corporation (U.S.) Edvance360 (U.S.) Brainier (U.S.) Bluevolt (U.S.) Canvas (U.S.)The Virtual Classroom Market is expected to grow at approximately USD 12 Billion by 2023, at 10% of CAGR between 2017 and 2023.Regional Analysis:Regional analysis for virtual classroom market is studied in different geographic regions as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World. North America region is mainly dominating the market because of advanced technological implementation in learning methods and increasing number of students migrating to United States for pursuing higher education. The European region is also gaining growth because of increase demand of online education pursued by students. Asia-Pacific market is estimated to be one of the fastest growing market as it is continuously investing into research and development of virtual classroom market and growing adoption of virtual classroom solutions by enterprises in India is driving the market in the region.Increasing population, and growing IT landscape is boosting the market in the region. The region is witnessing high adoption of virtual classroom tools by enterprises. Developing countries such as India and China are adopting virtual classroom software at a large scale owing to increasing competitive advantage, growing IT sector and reduction in travel and human resource cost which is boosting the market in the region. The region is witnessing high growth in virtual classroom market due to growing technological advancement in cloud storage, virtual and mobile technologies.Intended Audience: Investors and consultants System Integrators Government Organizations Research/Consultancy firms Technology solution providers IT Solution Providers Educational InstitutesSegments:Virtual classroom market for segment on the basis of type, service, deployment, application and organization size.Virtual Classroom Market by Type: Teleconferencing World Wide Web Combination of Teleconferencing And World Wide WebVirtual Classroom Market by Service: Managed Service Professional ServiceVirtual Classroom Market by Deployment: Cloud On-PremiseVirtual Classroom Market by Application: Government Enterprise/Business Education Professional Services Healthcare IT & Telecommunication School & CollegeAccess Report Details @Virtual Classroom Market by Organization Size: Small and Medium Organization Large OrganizationTable of Contents1 Market Introduction1.1 Introduction1.2 Scope of Study1.2.1 Research Objective1.2.2 Assumptions1.2.3 Limitations1.3 Market StructureContinuedList of TablesTable 1 Virtual Classroom Market, By TypeTable 2 Virtual Classroom Market, By ServiceContinuedList of FiguresFigure 1 Research TypeFigure 2 Virtual Classroom Market: By Type (%)ContinuedAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comIndustrial Robotic Software 2018 Market Segmentation,Application,Technology & Market Analysis Research Report to 2022

Industrial Robotic Software Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/556555-global-industrial-robotic-software-outlook-2016-2022

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/556555-global-industrial-robotic-software-outlook-2016-2022

WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Industrial Robotic Software 2018 Market Segmentation,Application,Technology & Market Analysis Research Report to 2022.Robotic software is an important component of industrial robotic system and plays a core role to enable industrial robots to do good operations and accurate functionalities. Global industrial robotic software market is expected to witness a strong growth despite slower than the growth rates of industrial robots market. The accelerating deployment of industrial robotic solutions in various manufacturing factories is driving the growth of industrial robotic software installation.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comGlobal Industrial Robotic Software Market - Structure, Size, Trends, Analysis and Outlook 2016-2022 examines the global industrial robotic software market through a comprehensive summary and in-depth analysis of premium information sources. On the basis of reviewing global economic environments, this report provides a detailed analysis of market structure, market trends, market forces, and market segments. The report quantifies the global industrial robotic software market from perspectives of robot type, robot application, human-robot collaboration, software type, vendor type, and geographic landscape. Global data is available for sales revenue generated from industrial robotic software platforms in each sub-market over the coverage of 2014-2022. Current competitive scenario and profiles of major vendors/players are also included in the report.Qualitative market analyses include identification and discussion of market structure, market overview, growth drivers, restraints and challenges, emerging market trends/opportunities, Porters Fiver Forces as well as M&A landscape and fundraising trend.On basis of robot type, the market is segmented into articulated robots, SCARA robots, Cartesian robots, delta robots, and others, with articulated robots as the largest consumer of industrial robotic software. On basis of industrial robot application, the market is segmented into material handling, welding, assembly line, dispensing, and other sections. The global industrial robotic software market is also divided into collaborative robotic software and traditional robotic software by human-robot collaboration. On-site industrial robotic software and offline programming software are identified as two major software types of industrial robots. On basis of vendor type, the global market is composed of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) software and third-party industrial robotic software.Geographically, the global market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and the rest of world (RoW). Specific analysis and forecast of annual shipment and hardware revenue over 2014-2022 have been covered for 11 important national markets including U.S., China, Japan, Germany, South Korea, and Italy. APAC region leads the global assembling cobots market in terms of annual revenue, followed by Europe and North America. Strongest growth potential also exists in the vast APAC market in the future with China and Southeast Asian countries expected to be the main driving engines for the growth.Highlighted with 3 tables and 64 figures, this 173-page report provides timely data and detailed analysis to help clients targeting the global market to identify business opportunities and execute an effective strategy.Report Details @Table Of Contents  Major Key Points1 Introduction1.1 Industry Definition and Report Scope1.2 Research Methodology1.3 Executive Summary2 Market Environment2.1 Prospects for the World Economy in 201520162.2 Outlook of the World Economy to 20303 Market Overview and Qualitative Analysis3.1 Market Structure3.2 Market Overview3.3 Major Growth Drivers3.4 Market Restraints and Challenges3.5 Emerging Opportunities and Market Trends3.6 Porters Fiver Forces Analysis3.7 Key M&A Trends and Strategic Partnerships3.8 IPO and VCI in Global Industrial Robot Market4 Segmentation of Global Market by Robot Type4.1 Market Overview by Robot Type4.2 Software Market for Articulated Robots4.3 Software Market for Cartesian Robots4.4 Software Market for SCARA Robots4.5 Software Market for Delta Robots4.6 Software Market for Other Industrial Robots5 Segmentation of Global Market by Robot Application5.1 Market Overview by Robot Application5.2 Robotics Software Market for Material Handling5.3 Robotics Software Market for Welding5.4 Robotics Software Market for Assembly5.5 Robotics Software Market for Dispensing5.6 Robotics Software Market for Other Industrial Applications6 Segmentation of Global Market by Human-robot Collaboration6.1 Market Overview by Human-robot Collaboration6.2 Software Market for Traditional Industrial Robots6.3 Software Market for Industrial Collaborative Robots7 Segmentation of Global Market by Software Type7.1 Market Overview by Software Type7.2 On-site Software Market for Industrial Robots7.3 Offline Programming Software Market for Industrial Robots8 Segmentation of Global Market by Vendor Type8.1 Market Overview by Vendor Type8.2 OEM Robotics Software Market8.3 Third-party Robotics Software MarketContinued..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.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.Global Acoustical Panel System Market Forecast 2018-2025 Saint-Gobain, STAR-USG, Armstrong

Acoustical Panel System Market

http://bit.ly/Acoustical-Panel-System-Market-2018

http://www.9dimenresearchstore.com/report/global-acoustical-panel-system-market-5295

http://9dimenresearchstore.com/

A market study "Global Acoustical Panel System Market" examines the performance of the Acoustical Panel System market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Acoustical Panel System market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Acoustical Panel System market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Acoustical Panel System Market 2018 report includes Acoustical Panel System market Revenue, market Share, Acoustical Panel System industry volume, market Trends, Acoustical Panel System Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Acoustical Panel System Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Acoustical Panel System Market 2018 :1. Saint-Gobain2. STAR-USG3. Knauf Insulation4. Armstrong5. Stramit6. Ecophon7. Decustik8. Kingspan9. Assan Panel10. Metecno11. NCI Building Systems12. Nucor Building Systems13. RuukkiAcoustical Panel System Market : By ApplicationResidential BuildingCommercial BuildingIndustrial BuildingAgricultural BuildingAcoustical Panel System Market : By TypeRoofWallCeilingFirstly, the report covers the top Acoustical Panel System manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Acoustical Panel System report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Acoustical Panel System industry, Acoustical Panel System industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Acoustical Panel System Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Acoustical Panel System 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 Acoustical Panel System market revenue worldwide.Finally, Acoustical Panel System 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 Us9Dimen Research Store is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@9dimenresearchstore.comWeb:Logic Analyzer Market 2018 Global key Leaders: Tektronix, Keysight Technologies, Test Equity, GW Instek, Teledyne LeCroy Corporation, Atec, GAO Tek

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4471

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/logic-analyzer-market-4471

Market Highlights:The Global Logic Analyser Market is growing with the rapid pace; mainly due to the increasing demand for error detection in the digital circuits. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the global market of Logic Analyser is growing rapidly and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The market is projected to demonstrate a remarkable growth by 2023, beating its previous growth records in terms of value with a noticeable CAGR during the anticipated period (2017  2023).Logic analysers are widely used for testing complex digital or logic circuits, they are used as a form of an oscilloscope. A logic analyser has a usage in viewing the digital waveforms from digital circuits majorly for rectifying the issues in timings. Logic analysers can also be used for any digital circuit that has a binary output. As the complexity of circuits is growing so is the demand for logic analysers. The growing demand for error detection in digital circuits debugging and complex logic testing is the major driver of the Logic Analyser market. Apart from it, the functionality of displaying the time for the logic states specifying a logic low and high states is fuelling the growth of Logic Analyser market. However, the designing issues in FPGA such as definition errors and the system interaction problem are restraining the logic analyser market growth.The logic analysers were originally known for parallel system debugging with wide data busses, but recently the usage of logic analyser is shifting towards serial applications, involving less signal lines, like I2C, SPI or UART.Request a Sample Report @Key PlayersTektronix, Inc (U.S.),Keysight Technologies (U.S.),Test Equity (U.S.),GW Instek (Taiwan),Teledyne LeCroy Corporation (U.S.),Atec (U.S.),GAO Tek (Canada),Honeywell Technologies solutions (U.S.),Hewlett Packard (U.S.)AccuSource Electronics (U.S.), and Hantek (China) are some of the prominent players profiled in MRFR Analysis and are at the forefront of competition in the Global Logic Analyser Market.Logic Analyser Global Market - Regional AnalysisNorth-America is dominating the Global Logic Analyser Market with the largest market share due to the huge demand of storage devices, integrated services and embedded systems in North America region. Apart from it, North America has increasing demand for the PC based logic analysers and a high concentration of manufacturers of logic analyser in countries like U.S. and Canada. Logic Analyser market in Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at a substantial CAGR during 2017 to 2023 owing to the increasing adoption of embedded systems. The European market for Logic Analyser Market is expected to grow at a considerable CAGR (2017-2023).Logic Analyser Global Market - SegmentationThe Logic Analyser Market can be segmented in to 4 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding;Segmentation by product type: Modular logic Analyser, PC based logic analyser and portable Logic analyser and othersSegmentation by Application: Integrated circuit, Processors, Memory devices, Personal computersSegmentation by End-User: Automotive, Consumer electronics, Medical, Communication and othersSegmentation by Regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the worldBrowse Complete Report @Intended Audience Device manufacturers Auto parts manufacturers Medical equipment manufacturers Telecommunication Electronic Component manufacturers Chipset manufacturers Storage chipset providers Mobile phone manufacturers Research firmsAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comPondering the prospects of overseas workers in Kuwait who may have to go back home due to the current diplomatic controversy, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said: I think if youre hardworking, you wont go hungry in the Philippines. The statement elicited adverse reactions from the public, especially since most of the millions who decide to find jobs in other countries do so exactly because they could not find sustainable work here that would provide comfort, security and upward mobility to their families. Diokno is highly regarded for his competence and objectivity as an economist. He should know better which is why the statement came off as both callous and surprising. The Secretary of course provided contextthe governments Build, Build, Build programfor his words. We need more warm bodies... We need more electricians. We need more engineers. Some teachers, yes, we can absorb them. He stays silent however on the job opportunities the thousands of domestic workers can expect to find here when they return.

The statement rankles because it implies that those who cannot find work here, or those who go hungry, are not doing enough and are not hardworkingin short, indolent. Arguably, this will be true in some instances, not because they are lazy Filipinos but because as anywhere, there are people who are more driven than others to make their lives better, and who do not give up easily even when they face setbacks.We would like to believe however that all things being equal, most people would want to be driven, hardworking and self-reliant, able to imagine upward mobility for themselves. Unfortunately, things are not equal, and starting points are diverse. Some Filipinos are able to focus on improving their skills and establishing a viable career path, because the basic requirements of food, shelter, clothing, and education are already taken care of. They are a minority. Most Filipinos have to struggle with basic necessities. There is not enough food on the table, there is nowhere to live, education is a luxury. And because energy is finite, they are worn down by the daily struggle, with little left for everything else. The cycle is indeed, vicious. The Budget Secretary is steeped in the workings of economic theory and may have not had the opportunity to converse with real people and their real struggles. Instead of hinting that the poor are not working hard enough, Dioknothe entire administrationshould themselves work hard to provide opportunities so that Filipinos could narrow the privilege gap and have equally fair shots at improving their lives.Global 2-Amino-4-acetamino Anisole Market Outlook, Application, Leading Player & Forecast to 2023

https://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1764068

https://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-2-amino-4-acetamino-anisole-market-outlook-2018-2023-report.html

An up-to-date research report 2018 has been disclosed by Market Research Hub highlighting the title Global 2-Amino-4-acetamino Anisole 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 2018-2023. The report studies the 2-Amino-4-acetamino Anisole 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:Global 3'-amino-4'-methoxyacetanilide (AMA, CAS 6375-47-9) market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 4.4% by 2023, according to a new report published by MRH Company. The report segments the market and forecasts its size, by volume and value, on the basis of application (disperse dyes, etc.), and by geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, MEA and South America).The report covers forecast and analysis for the 3'-amino-4'-methoxyacetanilide market on a global and regional level. The study provides historic data of 2013-2017 along with a forecast from 2018 to 2023 based on both output/volume and revenue. The study then describes the drivers and restraints for the 3'-amino-4'-methoxyacetanilide market along with the impact they have on the demand over the forecast period. Additionally, the report includes the study of opportunities available in the 3'-amino-4'-methoxyacetanilide market on a global level.The report has been prepared based on the synthesis, analysis, and interpretation of information about the global 3'-amino-4'-methoxyacetanilide market collected from specialized sources. The competitive landscape section of the report provides a clear insight into the market share analysis of key industry players. Company overview, financial overview, product portfolio, new project launched, recent development analysis are the parameters included in the profile.Demand for this market rises from the disperse dyes, and other applications. All the segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends and the market is estimated from 2018 to 2023. Relevantly, the report and company profiles specify the key drivers that are impacting the demand in global 3'-amino-4'-methoxyacetanilide market.Key Applications- Disperse DyesKey Regions- North America- Europe- Asia Pacific- Middle East and Africa- South AmericaKey Vendors- Amino- High Dee- Jingyou Chemical- New Mingsheng- PDPL- request free sample to get a complete list of companiesBrowse Full Report with TOC:Table of Content:Part 1. Exclusive SummaryPart 2. Methodology2.1 Research Methodology2.2 Geographic Scope2.3 Years ConsideredPart 3. Introduction3.1 General Information3.2 Fields of Application3.3 Manufacturing Process3.4 Raw Materials3.5 Cost AnalysisPart 4. Competitive Landscape4.1 Global 3'-Amino-4'-methoxyacetanilide Market, by Volume 2013-20184.1.1 Overview4.1.2 Global 3'-Amino-4'-methoxyacetanilide Market, by Volume, by Company4.1.3 Top 3 Companies by Volume Share4.2 Global 3'-Amino-4'-methoxyacetanilide Market, by Revenue 2013-20184.2.1 Overview4.2.2 Global 3'-Amino-4'-methoxyacetanilide Market, by Revenue, by Company4.2.3 Top 3 Companies by Revenue SharePart 5. Market Dynamics5.1 Market Drivers5.2 Challenges5.3 Market Trends.. @@ ContinuedAbout Market Research HubMarket Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of chemical 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Global Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market Outlook 2018-2025 Israel Chemicals, Chemtura

Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market 2018

http://bit.ly/Organic-Phosphorus-Flame-Retardant-Market-2018

http://www.9dimenresearchstore.com/report/global-organic-phosphorus-flame-retardant-market-5766

http://9dimenresearchstore.com/

A market study "Global Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market" examines the performance of the Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market 2018 report includes Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant market Revenue, market Share, Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant industry volume, market Trends, Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market 2018 :1. Israel Chemicals Ltd (ICL)2. Clariant International Ltd3. Chemtura Corporation4. Lanxess5. Thor Specialties, Inc.6. Daihachi Chemical Industry Co. Ltd7. Delamin8. Dupont9. Amfine Chemicals10. Huber Engineered Materials11. Jiangsu Yoke Technology Co., Ltd12. Zhejiang Wansheng13. Albemarle CorporationOrganic Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market : By ApplicationBuilding and ConstructionElectricals and ElectronicsTransportationOrganic Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market : By TypeReaction typeAdditive typeFirstly, the report covers the top Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant industry, Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant 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 Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant market revenue worldwide.Finally, Organic Phosphorus Flame Retardant 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 Us9Dimen Research Store is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@9dimenresearchstore.comWeb:Global Market Study on Heart Valve Repair and Replacement: Asia Pacific to Witness Highest Growth by 2020

MRRSE

https://www.mrrse.com/sample/404

https://www.mrrse.com/heart-valve-repair-replacement-market

https://www.mrrse.com/

https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/

In order to study the various trends and patterns prevailing in the overall market for Heart Valve Repair and Replacement, Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has included a new report titled Heart Valve Repair and Replacement 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.Visit for Sample Report @The heart is a muscular organ positioned at the superior surface of the diaphragm. Its primary function is to pump blood into the veins and arteries. Heart valves are thin flaps of tissue in the mammalian heart, which ensure unidirectional flow of blood between the four chambers during the cardiac cycle. The main valves in the human heart are tricuspid valve, mitral valve, pulmonary valve, and aortic valve. Valvular abnormalities are mainly of two forms: stenosis - narrowing of the valve, which causes accumulation of blood, and regurgitation - failure of the valve to close properly (), which causes blood to leak back into the heart. The symptoms of heart valve diseases vary depending on the valve affected and its severity. Heart valve disease is a mechanical problem and hence, heart valve surgery is `eventually needed to repair or replace a damaged valve.North America dominates the global market for heart valve repair and replacement due to rising aging population and increasing prevalence of lifestyle-associated diseases leading to cardiovascular diseases. The hear valve repair and replacement market in Asia Pacific is expected to show high growth rates over the next five years. China and India are expected to be the fastest growing markets in the region. Some of the key driving factors of the heart valve repair and replacement market in emerging countries are rising disposable income, large pool of patients, growing medical tourism, and changing lifestyles and associate conditions in the region.Elderly people have low regenerative abilities and are susceptible to heart diseases such as aortic stenosis and ischemic mitral regurgitation. Moreover, sedentary lifestyles and junk food habits are increasing obesity, and, in turn, increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in developed and developing countries. Growing geriatric population, technological advancements in heart valve repair and replacement, and change in lifestyles and associated conditions leading to cardiovascular disorder are some of the factors fuelling the growth of the global heart valve repair and replacement market. On the other hand, risks and complications associated with heart valve repair and replacement surgeries such as irregular heart rhythm, breathing problems, and embolism inhibits the growth of the market. Furthermore, lack of primary healthcare infrastructure in developing countries is a major concern for the market.Complete List of Tables and Figures @This report provides in-depth analysis and estimation of heart valve repair and replacement market for the period 2014-2020, considering 2013 as the base year for calculation. Moreover, data pertaining to current market dynamics, including market drivers, restraints, trends, and recent developments, has been provided in the report. The heart valve repair and replacement market is categorized on the basis of type of procedure, type of replacement, and geography. Based on type of procedure, the market comprises heart valve repair and heart valve replacement. On the basis of type of replacement, the market is categorized as mechanical heart valve, tissue heart valve, and transcathater heart valve. On the basis of geography, the report identifies and analyzes the market size and predictions for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW).Some of the major players in the heart valve repair and replacement market are Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, St. Jude Medical, Inc., Medtronic, Inc., Sorin Group, Boston Scientific Corporation, and Abbott Laboratories, Inc. These key market players have been profiled on the basis of attributes such as company overview, recent developments, growth strategies, sustainability, and financial overview.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:Insurance Rating Software Market 2018: Global Industry Top Key Players (Vertafore, Applied Systems, EZLynx, ACS and ITC)

Research for Markets

http://www.researchformarkets.com/sample/global-insurance-rating-software-market-62629

http://www.researchformarkets.com/discount/global-insurance-rating-software-market-62629

http://www.researchformarkets.com/reports/global-insurance-rating-software-market-62629

This report studies the global Insurance Rating Software market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global Insurance Rating Software market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.This report focuses on the global top players, covered Vertafore Applied Systems EZLynx ACS ITC HawkSoft QQ Solutions Sapiens/Maximum Processing Agency Matrix Buckhill InsuredHQ Zhilian SoftwareLooking for More Information on This Market Get Free Sample Report @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers United States Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split into Cloud-Based On-PremiseMarket segment by Application, Insurance Rating Software can be split into Automobile Home Motorcycle OtherThe study objectives of this report are: To study and forecast the market size of Insurance Rating Software in global market. To analyze the global key players, SWOT analysis, value and global market share for top players. To define, describe and forecast the market by type, end use and region. To analyze and compare the market status and forecast between China and major regions, namely, United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Rest of World. To analyze the global 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 market To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Insurance Rating Software are as follows: History Year: 2013-2017 Base Year: 2017 Estimated Year: 2018 Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key Stakeholders Insurance Rating Software Manufacturers Insurance Rating Software Distributors/Traders/Wholesalers Insurance Rating Software Subcomponent Manufacturers Industry Association Downstream VendorsThe report is available on discount for a limited time only @Table of Content1 Industry Overview of Insurance Rating Software1.1 Insurance Rating Software Market Overview1.2 Global Insurance Rating Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.3 Insurance Rating Software Market by Type1.4 Insurance Rating Software Market by End Users/Application2 Global Insurance Rating Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Insurance Rating Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Vertafore3.2 Applied Systems3.3 EZLynx3.4 ACS3.5 ITC3.6 HawkSoft3.7 QQ Solutions3.8 Sapiens/Maximum Processing3.9 Agency Matrix3.10 Buckhill4 Global Insurance Rating Software Market Size by Type and Application (2013-2018)4.1 Global Insurance Rating Software Market Size by Type (2013-2018)4.2 Global Insurance Rating Software Market Size by Application (2013-2018)4.3 Potential Application of Insurance Rating Software in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Insurance Rating Software5 United States Insurance Rating Software Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Insurance Rating Software Market Size (2013-2018)5.2 United States Insurance Rating Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)5.3 United States Insurance Rating Software Market Size by Application (2013-2018)6 Europe Insurance Rating Software Development Status and Outlook6.1 Europe Insurance Rating Software Market Size (2013-2018)6.2 Europe Insurance Rating Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)6.3 Europe Insurance Rating Software Market Size by Application (2013-2018)7 China Insurance Rating Software Development Status and Outlook7.1 China Insurance Rating Software Market Size (2013-2018)7.2 China Insurance Rating Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)7.3 China Insurance Rating Software Market Size by Application (2013-2018)8 Japan Insurance Rating Software Development Status and Outlook8.1 Japan Insurance Rating Software Market Size (2013-2018)8.2 Japan Insurance Rating Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)8.3 Japan Insurance Rating Software Market Size by Application (2013-2018)9 Southeast Asia Insurance Rating Software Development Status and Outlook9.1 Southeast Asia Insurance Rating Software Market Size (2013-2018)9.2 Southeast Asia Insurance Rating Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)9.3 Southeast Asia Insurance Rating Software Market Size by Application (2013-2018)10 India Insurance Rating Software Development Status and Outlook10.1 India Insurance Rating Software Market Size (2013-2018)10.2 India Insurance Rating Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)10.3 India Insurance Rating Software 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Automotive Curtain Airbag Market Assessment & Market Growth Evolution Forecasted for the Period 2017-2022

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=273

https://www.factmr.com/report/273/automotive-curtain-airbag-market

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=D&rep_id=273

https://www.factmr.com/

A freshly compiled business intelligent report, titled Automotive Curtain Airbag Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking  Global Review 2017 to 2022 has been publicized to the vast archive of Fact.MR online repository. This _ page study delivers all the vital details and information required to know about Automotive Curtain Airbag market current as well as future prospects. The analysts of the study have gone through extensive research methodologies in order to generate data and information that reflects the latest market undercurrents and industry trends. For a deeper understanding of the market, a sub-category level analysis has been elaborated, by which readers and investors of the report will able to know that where the market stands to gain.Request For Sample Report @As safety is becoming increasingly important among the passengers, the manufacturers in the automotive industry are integrating enhanced technology that reduces the risk of injury. In an attempt to provide flexible transportation system embedded with security, the automotive manufacturers are installing the automotive curtain airbag systems in vehicles. Unexpected accidents are a result of wear and tear of the vehicle, complex designs of the vehicle, and frictional resistance. During an unexpected accident, the passengers could injure their knees and necks. Attributed to such factors, demand for curtain airbags is expected to increase in the automotive industry globally.Consumption in the Healthcare IndustryBesides the automotive industry, the automotive curtain airbag also witness considerable demand in the healthcare industry. During an unexpected accident, the curtain airbag protect the heads and the necks of the patients. In case of unexpected accident, the system deploys curtain airbag in the position of the attendant and CPR for providing safety to the passengers in the patient compartment. The ambulance manufacturers continue to integrate the roll sensors in the ambulance, which enables the system to deploy protection during an unexpected accident.Government in various countries are increasingly imposing regulations regarding the safety facilities in the automotive industry. Bound to imposition of government regulations, manufacturers are increasingly installing devices for the safety of the passengers.With the emerging technology, consumers mainly prefer automotive products that are equipped with safety devices, however the controller needs to keep a track of the foolproof software in order to prevent false alarms. One marker for drop in the sales of automotive curtain airbag is due to deployment of curtain airbag on slight collision of the automotive. Moreover, the automotive manufacturers are increasingly integrating advanced technology that deploy the airbags outside the vehicle in order to ensure that the passengers and the body of the vehicle remain damage-free. Attributed to such factors, demand for automotive curtain airbag is expected to rev up during the forecast period.Browse Full Report with TOC @OEM to Represent a Leading SegmentSurge in demand for airbags that are resistant to oil, heat, ozone, and chemicals has led manufacturers prefer using neoprene for coating the airbags. Neoprene coated airbag is expected to witness the highest revenue growth in the global market. The neoprene coated segment is expected to represent a value of nearly US$ 50 Mn by the end of 2022. However, the silicone coating segment is expected to register the highest CAGR in the global market throughout 2022.On the basis of yarn type, the nylon type segment is expected to witness the highest revenue growth in the global market. By the end of 2017, nylon as compared to other types of yarn is expected to represent a value of over US$ 40 Mn globally. The nylon type segment is expected to register the highest CAGR in the global market throughout 2022.OEM as compared to other channels of sale is expected to witness highest revenue growth in the global market. The OEM segment is expected to represent a value over US$ 50 Mn by the end of 2017. However, sales of the automotive curtain airbag is expected to remain high through the aftermarket channels. The aftermarket channel is expected to register the highest CAGR in the global market throughout 2022.Competition TrackingLeading market players operating in the global automotive curtain airbags market include Autoliv, Inc., Takata Corporation, Daicel Corporation, Denso Corporation, Hyundai Mobis Co. Ltd., Toyoda Gosei Co. Ltd., ZF Friedrichshafen AG, Kolon Industries, Inc., Toray Industries, Inc., and Delphi Automotive PLC.Check Discount @About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized Automotive Marketresearch reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:Learning Analytics Solution Market : Global Trends, Analysis and Forecast 2025

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1069

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1069

www.futuremarketinsights.com

The global learning analytics solution market can be segmented on the basis of end user which includes small and medium institute and large organization. Regionally, learning analytics solution market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) and Japan.Learning analytics solution market is expected to witness a healthy CAGR during the projected period due to increasing popularity of these solutions among large educational institutes. North America is the dominating region in learning analytics solution market and is expected to remain dominant followed by Western Europe during the forecast period. Asia Pacific region is expected to reflect highest CAGR during the forecast period.Learning is a product of interaction. Educators expend enormous amount of effort to design their learning content for maximizing the value of these interactions. There is no shortage of data when it comes to the learning experience. Student evaluation, performance data and curriculum analysis are just the tip of the iceberg for the course administrators, instructional authors and researchers who seek to transform educational data into meaningful and strategic learning experience.Student information in the form of grades, rates of participation, credit hours and work schedules piles up over the years, and educational institutes can now utilize learning analytics solutions to turn all these data into actionable insights. Learning analytics is the integration of computer science discipline such as data mining and computational analytics with learning and education. Learning analytics solution utilizes tools and applications for collecting, organizing and analyzing structured and unstructured data to improve multiple operations and activities that are part of education industry. It further helps to achieve strategic goals and enable better decision making.Request Report Sample @Learning analytics solution market is segmented on the basis of solution, deployment mode, service, end user and region. By solution, learning analytics solution market can be segmented into predictive analytics, content analytics, adaptive learning analytics and social learning analytics. The global learning analytics solution market can be segmented according to deployment mode which includes on-premise and cloud based deployment. By service, learning analytics solution market can be segmented into consulting, implementation & integration and maintenance.The key vendors in the learning analytics solution market include SAS Institute Inc., IBM Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Tableau Software Inc., Blackboard Inc., McGraw-Hill Education Inc., Desire2Learn Inc., Saba Software Inc., Pearson PLC, Moodlerooms Inc., and others. Major players in the learning analytics solution market follow the strategy of introducing cost-effective solutions to gain competitive edge. In addition, collaboration and strategic partnership are the other major strategies followed by the learning analytics solution providers to outperform competitors.Request For Table Of Content @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.Future Market InsightsValley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global Outdoor Cooler Box Market Outlook 2018-2025 Tokyo Plast, Evakool, Wild Coolers

Outdoor Cooler Box Market Analysis

http://bit.ly/Outdoor-Cooler-Box-Market-2018

http://www.9dimenresearchstore.com/report/global-outdoor-cooler-box-market-5749

http://9dimenresearchstore.com/

A market study "Global Outdoor Cooler Box Market" examines the performance of the Outdoor Cooler Box market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Outdoor Cooler Box market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Outdoor Cooler Box market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Outdoor Cooler Box Market 2018 report includes Outdoor Cooler Box market Revenue, market Share, Outdoor Cooler Box industry volume, market Trends, Outdoor Cooler Box Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Outdoor Cooler Box Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Outdoor Cooler Box Market 2018 :1. Tokyo Plast2. Evakool3. Wild Coolers4. Cool Ice Box Company Ltd5. Gio'Style6. SnoMaster7. The Coleman Company, Inc.8. Igloo9. Bushtec Adventure10. Ikusasa Green11. Shimano12. Nalgene13. NexTorch14. Moto-Quip15. Safe QuipOutdoor Cooler Box Market : By ApplicationFishingHuntingCampingPicnicSportsTravellingOutdoor Cooler Box Market : By TypeHandle & WheelHandleWheeledFirstly, the report covers the top Outdoor Cooler Box manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Outdoor Cooler Box report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Outdoor Cooler Box industry, Outdoor Cooler Box industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Outdoor Cooler Box Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Outdoor Cooler Box 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 Outdoor Cooler Box market revenue worldwide.Finally, Outdoor Cooler Box 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 Us9Dimen Research Store is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@9dimenresearchstore.comWeb:Organic Spices and Herbs Market Size, Share, Trend, Leading Players Review and Global Industry Report, 2023

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4175

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/organic-spices-herbs-market-4175

Market Overview:The global market for organic spices and herbs has witnessed continued demand during the last few years and is projected to reach around 3,687 kilo tons by the year 2023, at a CAGR of 3.722% during the forecast period 2017 to 2023. Increase in versatile demand across various food and beverage segments particularly for convenience foods and beverages is likely to drive the global organic spices and herbs market.Asia Pacific region is estimated to dominate the market with more than 75% of market share in the year 2017 due increasing production of organic spices in India, China and Vietnam since last few years. Guatemala and Mexico are major markets for organic spices and herbs in the North and Central American region. Strong potential for production as well as higher consumption favors organic spices and herbs market growth the most among these regions.India is the major producer, consumer and exporter of herbs & spices in the world. India has wide variety of herbs & spices due to different agro-climatic conditions and soil types. Hence, India remains prime focus for organic herbs & spices market due to huge potential for both supply and demand. Vietnam, Indonesia, Spain and Guatemala are among the other top emerging markets for organic herbs & spices. The world demand for organic herbs & spices is growing rapidly especially in developed countries like Spain, U.S., Japan and Australia.Receive a Sample Report @Increasing importance of herbs & spices for various flavors in foods and medicinal properties has resulted in higher demand for herbs & spices. On the other hand, rising awareness for food safety related to pesticide residues in herbs & spices and related health hazards has triggered higher demand or organic herbs & spices. Demand for organic foods has been slower due to reluctance among farmers to shift from traditional methods of farming to organic farming. Change in food trends and adoption of various international food forms encouraging herbs & spices consumption in raw form further encourages demand for organic herbs & spices.Global Key Players:The leading market players in the Global Organic Spices and Herbs market primarily are Organic Spices Inc.(U.S.), Frontier Natural Products Co-op (Norway), Rapid Organic Pvt Ltd (India), Earthen Delight (India), Yogi Botanical Pvt Ltd (India), The Spice Hunter, Inc. (U.S.) and Starwest Botanicals, Inc. (U.S.)Latest Industry Updates:Dec 2017 Manarcadu Social Service Society located in Kerla, India launches organic, dry fruits brand related to fruits and juice. MASS was instrumental in empowering farmers to achieve organic certification and export their produce including spices & herbs, coffee and cocoa to Europe, keeping Fairtrade and organic standards.Nov 2017 San Francisco Equity Partners Portfolio Company Red Monkey Foods Acquires San Francisco Salt Company. Red Monkey Foods is a leading provider of premium store brand organic spices & herbs and seasonings.Jan 2016 IFC to invest in agri-commodity firm Olam to expand in India, Nigeria. Singapore-based commodities company Olam International Ltd is raising $175 million from International Finance Corp, the company has taken loan from World Bank, to finance its projects in India and Nigeria. The part of funding will be also used to upgrade organic spices and sugar facilities in Maharashtra and Kerla in India.Sep 2017 Spices & Herbs export including organic spices & herbs in India rises 35% in first quarter of 2017. Garlic has registered the maximum growth in terms of volume and value. It contributed significantly to the overall exports during the period, rising more than 150 per cent in volume. Fennel registered a growth of 92 per cent in terms of volume. The exports of other seed spices such as mustard, aniseed and dill seed grew by 83 per cent in terms of volume.Access Report Details @Regional Analysis:In 2016, Asia-Pacific region is dominates the market in terms of volume and value followed by North America. India, China and Vietnam are major organic spice producers in the Asia-Pacific region. Presence of various agro-climatic zones and seasons support various organic spices & herbs production in this region. Guatemala and Mexico are major organic Spices & Herbs market in the American region. Strong potential of spices & herbs production and consumption favors organic spices & herbs market growth the most among the various regions in the world. India is the major producer, consumer and exporter of Spices & Herbs in the world. India has wide variety of spices & herbs due to different agro-climatic conditions and soil types. Hence, India remains prime focus for organic spices & herbs market due to huge potential for both supply and demand. Vietnam, Indonesia, Spain and China are among the other top emerging markets for organic Spices & Herbs.Market Segments:The global organic spices & herbs market has been divided into spices type, herbs type, form, application and region.On The Basis Of Spices Type: Chilies, Garlic, Ginger, Turmeric, Cumin, Pepper, Cinnamon, Cloves, Cardamom and OthersOn The Basis Of Herbs Type: Basil, Mint, Marjoram, Parsley, Oregano, Sage, Bay Leaves, Dill, Thyme, Rosemary, Celery, Kaffir lime leaves and othersOn The Basis Of Form: Whole, Powder, Crushed/Chopped, Essential oil and othersOn The Basis Of Application: Culinary, Meat &Poultry Products, Sauces & dips, Snacks & Convenience Foods, Soups & Noodles, Ready to Eat Meals, Beverages, Personal Care and otherOn The Basis Of Region: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and ROW.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comSolid State Relay Market to Significant Growth Foreseen by 2025

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-1094

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-1094

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Power or electricity is the vital component of the society. Considering the amount of power used for completing the day-to-day activities and industrial operations, power outage can bring all the regular operations to standstill. Strong industrial growth across the globe is also leading to increasing usage and congestion of electricity. Solid state relays are invented to resolve these issues.Solid state relay is an ON-OFF semiconductor device which is used to switch electricity to the load when an external voltage is applied across its terminals. In solid state relay there is no movable part alike mechanical relays. Some of the examples of solid state relays are given as; an SCR, power transistor & TRIAC. Solid state relays are often more energy efficient switches as it consumes less energy in triggering from ON condition to OFF or vice versa. Solid state relays are often used in electrical industries because of the advantages provided as; low switching time, higher breakdown voltage & low switching loss in order to make electric current system more efficient.Now a days, Research and development is more oriented towards automated, compact and low maintenance products. The solid state relay market acquires a great potential across various applications. The key drivers responsible in the growth of solid state relay market include the demand of upgrading aging power of infrastructure in developed regions, increment in the establishment of offshore Wind farm, also the more number of startup companies providing solutions along with the advantages provided by sold state relay as more flexible &/or higher performance nature, small in size & less maintenance are some of them.Request For Report Sample with Table of Contents:On the contrary side higher cost factor, higher level of expenditure, higher thermal dissipation of solid state relay are proving to be the key restraints for solid state relay market.Segmentation of solid state relay market is done on the basis of packaging type, output type, power rating type, applications & by Geography. On the basis of packaging type solid state relay market is segmented into three segments Panel mount, Din rail mount & PCB mount.On the basis of output type, segmentation of solid state relay market is done as; AC solid state relay, DC solid state relay & AC/DC output relay. By power rating the market of solid state relay is segmented as; low power (0-20A), medium power (20A-50A) & high power (50A & above).By solid state relay applications, its market is segmented into following segments; consumer application as to control power distribution, handling electrical devices, access control, elevator control & others, in food & beverages sector; in cooking appliances like microwave oven, automatic coffee machines & others, in medical & health sector care; in diagnosis & analysis devices, incubators & others, in automotive and transportation sector as in electric vehicles, train control systems, I/O interfaces & others.Request For Table Of Content @On the basis of Geography, segmentation of solid state relay market is done as; North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), and Middle East and Africa (MEA). Among which Asia pacific is having largest market share of Solid state relay & Western Europe is the second largest Market of solid state relay & in the forecasting duration Asia Pacific is going maintain its leadership in market of solid state relay.The key players of the Solid state relay market are Crydom Inc., ABB Ltd., International Rectifier, Infineon Technologies AG, Carlo Gavazzi Holding AG, Vishay Intertechnology (Siliconix), Fairchild Semiconductor, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments Incorporated, Rockwell Automation, Inc., Linear Technology & others.Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Future Market InsightsValley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global Stationery Market 2017: Industry Estimated to Exceed US$ 24,000 Mn by 2026-end

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=339

https://www.factmr.com/report/339/stationery-market

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=D&rep_id=339

https://www.factmr.com/

A freshly compiled business intelligent report, titled Stationery Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking  Global Review 2017 to 2026 has been publicized to the vast archive of Fact.MR online repository. This 170-page study delivers all the vital details and information required to know about stationery market current as well as future prospects. The analysts of the study have gone through extensive research methodologies in order to generate data and information that reflects the latest market undercurrents and industry trends. For a deeper understanding of the market, a sub-category level analysis has been elaborated, by which readers and investors of the report will able to know that where the market stands to gain.Request for Sample Report-Global demand for stationery products has remained subdued as laptops, desktops, and smartphones have replaced traditional stationery items, such as pens, pencils, and notebooks in various settings. The global stationery industry has felt the impact of digitalization, and many leading brands have turned to repurposing their offerings as gift and collectors items. The silver lining for manufacturers remains the pervasiveness of stationery products in educational institutions and workplaces. On account of steady demand from educational institutes and workplaces, the global stationery market is likely to witness a moderate growth during the period 2017-2026. According to Fact.MR, the global stationery market is expected to represent a value of nearly US$ 24,000 Mn by the end of 2026.Wholesalers to Represent a Leading SegmentGrowing need for neatly filling the official documents and invoices with premium ink quality has led to surge in demand for pens globally. On the basis of product type, the pens segment is expected to generate significant revenues, accounting for a value of nearly US$ 24,000 Mn by the end of 2026. On the other hand, the coloring product type segment and the art goods product type segment is expected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period.Based on sales channel, the wholesalers segment is expected to witness a robust revenue growth, recording a value of over US$ 3,000 Mn by the end of 2017. In contrary, the exporters sales channel segment is expected to register a healthy CAGR through 2026.By pricing range, the mid-range segment is expected to witness a significant revenue growth, accounting for a value of over US$ 4,000 Mn by the end of 2026. Moreover, the mid-range pricing range segment is expected to register a healthy CAGR throughout the forecast period.Competition TrackingLeading market players operating in the global stationery market include KOKUYO Co,Ltd, Shachihata Inc., Pentel, PILOT CORPORATION, Mitsubishi Corporation, Zebra Co., Ltd., M&G Holding Group Co., Ltd, Jasons Deli Inc., Shenzhen Comix Group Co., Ltd., Beifa Group Co., Ltd., Wenzhou Aihao Pen Trade Co. Ltd., Guangbo Group Stock Co., Ltd., Qingdao Changlong Stationery Co., Ltd., ITC Limited, Navneet Education Limited, GM Pens International Pvt Ltd, BIC Cello and Lion Pencil Co., Ltd.Browse Full Report with TOC-Table of Content:Chapter 1 Global Economic Outlook1.1 Consumer & Retail Industry: Global Outlook1.2 Global Retail & Consumer Goods Sector Outlook: Digital Transformation to be a Key Disruptor in the Coming YearsChapter 2 Global Stationery Market  Executive SummaryChapter 3 Global Stationery Market Overview3.1 Introduction3.1.1 Global Stationery Market Taxonomy3.1.2 Global Stationery Market Definition3.2 Global Stationery Market Size (US$ Mn) and Forecast, 2012-20263.2.1 Global Stationery Market Y-o-Y Growth3.3 Global Stationery Market Dynamics3.4 Supply Chain3.5 Cost Structure3.6 Forecast Factors3.7 Porters Five ForceChapter 4 Global Stationery Market Analysis and Forecast 2012-20264.1 Global Stationery Market Size and Forecast by Product Type, 2012-20264.1.1 Pens Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20264.1.1.1 Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.1.2 Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.1.3 Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By Region4.1.2 Mechanicals Pencils Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20264.1.2.1 Revenue (US$ Mn) Comparison, By Region4.1.2.2 Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.2.3 Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By 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:Not making a profit since 1975! ...And since 2007, one of the Best Left-Wing Book & Culture Review Sites on the Net.Global Aluminum Systems Market Analysis 2018-2025 Alcoa, Rusal, CHALCO, Rio Tinto

Aluminum Systems Market Analysis 2018

http://bit.ly/Aluminum-Systems-Market-2018

http://www.9dimenresearchstore.com/report/global-aluminum-systems-market-5736

http://9dimenresearchstore.com/

A market study "Global Aluminum Systems Market" examines the performance of the Aluminum Systems market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Aluminum Systems market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Aluminum Systems market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Aluminum Systems Market 2018 report includes Aluminum Systems market Revenue, market Share, Aluminum Systems industry volume, market Trends, Aluminum Systems Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Aluminum Systems Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Aluminum Systems Market 2018 :1. Alcoa2. Rusal3. CHALCO4. Rio Tinto5. Bhp Billiton6. Norsk Hydro7. Century Aluminum8. Aluminum Bahrain9. Emirates Global Aluminium10. China Hongqiao11. Hindalco (Aditya Birla Group)Aluminum Systems Market : By ApplicationTransportation & LogisticsPackagingConstructionElectrical & ElectronicsAluminum Systems Market : By TypeWrought Aluminum AlloyCast Aluminum AlloyFirstly, the report covers the top Aluminum Systems manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Aluminum Systems report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Aluminum Systems industry, Aluminum Systems industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Aluminum Systems Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Aluminum Systems 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 Aluminum Systems market revenue worldwide.Finally, Aluminum Systems 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 Us9Dimen Research Store is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@9dimenresearchstore.comWeb:Rock Wool Composite Panel Market Report for Period 2018 till 2024 Weyerhaeuser, Swedspan, Egger, Changzhou Jingxue Freezing Equipment., Swiss Krono Group and Others.

Rock Wool Composite Panel Market

https://bit.ly/2jLpNMB

http://marketreportscompany.com/report.php?report=chemicals-and-materials/global-rock-wool-composite-panel-market-report-for-period-2017-till-2023-/35228

https://bit.ly/2jLpNMB

Global Rock Wool Composite Panel market report emphasizes on detailed analysis of companies and manufacturers like Arauco, Changzhou Jingxue Freezing Equipment., Pfleiderer, Weyerhaeuser, Swedspan, Jyi Shyang Industrial, Alstrong, Egger, Swiss Krono Group, Louisiana-Pacific and Others.This market study includes data about global market statistics, market share, company performances, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2023, etc. The Global Rock Wool Composite Panel market report provides detailed segmentation of Global Rock Wool Composite Panel Market based on product type, application, end user and regional segmentation. The regional segment is further bifurcated on country level.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Rock Wool Composite Panel Market 2017 @Top Manufactures of Global Rock Wool Composite Panel market:Jyi Shyang IndustrialAlstrongEggerSwiss Krono GroupLouisiana-PacificAraucoChangzhou Jingxue Freezing Equipment.PfleidererWeyerhaeuserSwedspanOthers(Note: We can profile additional players without extra charges)Global Rock Wool Composite Panel Market: Key Product Type:Type 1Type 2Type 3OthersKey Application Types for Global Rock Wool Composite Panel Market:IndustrialPetroleum IndustryConstructionShippingothersKey Regions for Global Rock Wool Composite Panel Market:North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)(Note: We can provide specific country or region specific report on request)The Global Rock Wool Composite Panel Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Rock Wool Composite Panel Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. The report also provides Porter analysis, PESTEL analysis and market attractiveness which helps to better understand the market scenario. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities occurred in current and past few years. The Global Rock Wool Composite Panel Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors. The report also covers import/export data across all major regions covered in this report. Moreover, import/export data across any particular country as per requirement.The report finally provides detailed research report conclusion, which provides summary of entire report and vital suggestions from analysts particular to Rock Wool Composite Panel Market which will help existing as well as new players who wish to enter this market.Enquire before Buying @ put actual website like for exampleTable of Contents:1 Global Market Overview1.1 Scope of Statistics1.1.1 Scope of Products1.1.2 Scope of Manufacturers1.1.3 Scope of Application1.1.4 Scope of Regions/Countries1.2 Global Market Size2 Regional Market2.1 Regional Production2.2 Regional Demand2.3 Regional Trade3 Key Manufacturers........................Continue (Global Rock Wool Composite Panel Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Market Reports Company:Market Reports Company delivers high quality precise research studies which include data about top manufacturers and market survey of various industries. We also work as a consulting company and publisher of market research reports. We are specialized in providing customized reports according to clients needs and requirements which ultimately help them grow in industry and beat their competition.What We Offer:Customized Reports: We provide customized research reports on your demand.Region Specific Study: We have resources all over the world so, if you are Interested in region specific study please contact us.How we work: Perfect blend of primary and secondary research to provide best result.Expertise: Team of Industry experienced research associates and experts, primary and secondary sources, 24*7 customer care service and post-sale support.Contact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website: marketreportscompany.comEmail: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United StatesEmbedded Security For Internet Of Things Market Expected to Witness a CAGR of 14.6% through 2017-2027

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2410

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-2410

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Rising number of devices which are being associated through IoT network is considered as a vital factor propelling demand for embedded security for IoT. Additionally, increasing strength of cyber-attacks on IoT devices as well as on networks combined with the introduction of revised industry guidelines to utilize embedded hardware solutions are noticed as major driving factors of embedded systems for IoT. The embedded security for IoT is forecasted to move towards delivering security to hyper-connected technologies. A recent report on embedded security for Internet of Things developed by Future Market Insights (FMI) offers such critical things in it.The report reveals, the global embedded security for internet of things held US$ 2,525 Mn in 2016 and is projected to secure almost US$ 11,125 Mn by the end of 2027. The market is anticipated to exhibit high double-digit CAGR throughout the forecast period (2017-2027), in terms of revenues. The market in APEJ (Asia Pacific excluding Japan) is anticipated to reflect comparatively higher expansion throughout the forecast period, in terms of value.Dynamics of MarketThe controller chip segment is projected to procure more than four-fifth share of the market, in terms of revenues, exhibiting staggering double-digit CAGR throughout the assessment period. In terms of revenues, the segment is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Moreover, the segment is estimated to generate incremental dollar opportunity of over US$ 6,800 Mn during 2017-2027.The use of embedded security for IoT in connected cars is projected to expand at significant growth rate during the assessment period. Embedded security systems for IoT worth nearly US$ 687 Mn were used in connected cars in the year 2016.Automotive industry, by vertical type is anticipated to retain its dominance in the market throughout the forecast period, securing almost one-third revenue share by the end of 2027.Request Report Sample@Regional SegmentationMoreover, the North America is anticipated to remain most lucrative regions for embedded security for Internet of Things market throughout the assessment period. The market in this region has secured nearly US$ 773 Mn in the year 2016 and secured nearly one-third revenue share of the market. In terms of revenue, the North America region is anticipated to retain its dominance over the assessment period. Rising utilization of IoT devices has led to increased security concerns, thereby numerous government regulatory bodies in US region have allotted security guidelines for IoT solution providers throughout various verticals. During this period, the market for embedded security for Internet of Things in Western Europe region is anticipated to reach nearly US$ 1,677 Mn by the end of 2027, procuring staggering CGAR throughout the assessment period. Further, number of government authorities in different countries are ensuring that device manufacturers execute better security programs in order to secure cyber-attack on IoT networks and devices.Competitive LandscapeBlackberry, a Canadian telecom service provider introduced an IoT platform based on cloud technology with device management features allowing data collection from range of networks and devices. This platform allows business partners, application developers and others to combine various aspects of IoT solutions comprising security. Primarily, the platform was directed towards shipping and automotive sector and in foreseeable period it is likely to be extended to other sectors such as healthcare and energy.Request For Table Of Content @Several key market players, operating in the market are profiled in the report include, ARM Holdings Plc. (SoftBank Corp), Trend Micro Incorporated, Intel Corporation, NXP Semiconductors N.V., Gemalto N.V., Palo Alto Networks Inc., Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., Synopsys, Inc., Infineon Technologies AG, Inside Secure, and Cisco System Inc. The report reveal that these market players are likely to contribute more in the growth of the global market for embedded security for Internet of things.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.Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Global Photonic IC Market Analysis 2018-2025 Infinera, Alcatel-Lucent, Avago, HUAWEI

Photonic IC Market Analysis

http://bit.ly/Photonic-IC-Market-2018

http://www.9dimenresearchstore.com/report/global-photonic-ic-market-5737

http://9dimenresearchstore.com/

A market study "Global Photonic IC Market" examines the performance of the Photonic IC market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Photonic IC market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Photonic IC market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Photonic IC Market 2018 report includes Photonic IC market Revenue, market Share, Photonic IC industry volume, market Trends, Photonic IC Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Photonic IC Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Photonic IC Market 2018 :1. Infinera2. Alcatel-Lucent3. Avago4. NeoPhotonics5. HUAWEI6. Cisco7. Ciena8. Intel9. Oclaro10. JDS Uniphase11. Finisar12. Luxtera13. Mellanox14. OneChipPhotonic IC Market : By ApplicationOptical CommunicationSensingBiophotonicsPhotonic IC Market : By TypeMonolithic IntegrationHybrid IntegrationModule IntegrationFirstly, the report covers the top Photonic IC manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Photonic IC report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Photonic IC industry, Photonic IC industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Photonic IC Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Photonic IC 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 Photonic IC market revenue worldwide.Finally, Photonic IC 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 Us9Dimen Research Store is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@9dimenresearchstore.comWeb:Global Bamboo Fiber Towels Market Analysis 2018-2025 Foshan Nanhai Ruifu, Xiamen Ebei Import & Export

Bamboo Fiber Towels Market Forecast

http://bit.ly/Bamboo-Fiber-Towels-Market-2018

http://www.9dimenresearchstore.com/report/global-bamboo-fiber-towels-market-5729

http://9dimenresearchstore.com/

A market study "Global Bamboo Fiber Towels Market" examines the performance of the Bamboo Fiber Towels market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Bamboo Fiber Towels market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Bamboo Fiber Towels market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Bamboo Fiber Towels Market 2018 report includes Bamboo Fiber Towels market Revenue, market Share, Bamboo Fiber Towels industry volume, market Trends, Bamboo Fiber Towels Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Bamboo Fiber Towels Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Bamboo Fiber Towels Market 2018 : Foshan Nanhai Ruifu Qifeng Towel Industrial Co. Ltd Xiamen Ebei Import & Export Co., Ltd. Huaian Jinsanhuan Textile Technology Co., Ltd. China Thrive Industrial Co., Ltd. Ningbo Riway Daily Commodity Co., Ltd. Kunming Ansheng Industry & Trade Co., Ltd. HIPPOPOTAMUS (Japan) IKEUCHI ORGANIC Inc. (Japan)Bamboo Fiber Towels Market : By ApplicationAdultsChildrenBamboo Fiber Towels Market : By TypeFace TowelBath TowelFirstly, the report covers the top Bamboo Fiber Towels manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Bamboo Fiber Towels report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Bamboo Fiber Towels industry, Bamboo Fiber Towels industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Bamboo Fiber Towels Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Bamboo Fiber Towels 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 Bamboo Fiber Towels market revenue worldwide.Finally, Bamboo Fiber Towels 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 Us9Dimen Research Store is a leading market intelligence team which making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact US:5001 Spring Valley Rd #400,Dallas,TX 75244, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Email: sales@9dimenresearchstore.comWeb:Wood Composite Panel Market Report for Period 2018 till 2024 MASISA, Dongwha, Jyi Shyang Industrial, Alstrong, Norbord, Georgia-Pacific Wood Products, Duratex SA, Kastamonu Entegre, MASISA and Others.

Wood Composite Panel Market

https://bit.ly/2wzggBs

http://marketreportscompany.com/report.php?report=chemicals-and-materials/global-wood-composite-panel-market-report-for-period-2017-till-2023-/35298

https://bit.ly/2wzggBs

Global Wood Composite Panel market report emphasizes on detailed analysis of companies and manufacturers like MJB Wood Group., Norbord, Georgia-Pacific Wood Products, Duratex SA, Weyerhaeuser, Kastamonu Entegre, MASISA, Dongwha, Jyi Shyang Industrial, Alstrong, Kronospan M&P Kaindl, Egger, Swiss Krono Group, Arauco, Flynn and Others.This market study includes data about global market statistics, market share, company performances, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2023, etc. The Global Wood Composite Panel market report provides detailed segmentation of Global Wood Composite Panel Market based on product type, application, end user and regional segmentation. The regional segment is further bifurcated on country level.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Wood Composite Panel Market 2017 @Top Manufactures of Global Wood Composite Panel market:Jyi Shyang IndustrialAlstrongKronospan M&P KaindlEggerSwiss Krono GroupAraucoFlynnMJB Wood Group.NorbordGeorgia-Pacific Wood ProductsDuratex SAWeyerhaeuserKastamonu EntegreMASISADongwhaOthers(Note: We can profile additional players without extra charges)Global Wood Composite Panel Market: Key Product Type:Type 1Type 2Type 3OthersKey Application Types for Global Wood Composite Panel Market:Decorative MouldingFurnitureFlooringothersKey Regions for Global Wood Composite Panel Market:North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)(Note: We can provide specific country or region specific report on request)The Global Wood Composite Panel Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Wood Composite Panel Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. The report also provides Porter analysis, PESTEL analysis and market attractiveness which helps to better understand the market scenario. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities occurred in current and past few years. The Global Wood Composite Panel Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors. The report also covers import/export data across all major regions covered in this report. Moreover, import/export data across any particular country as per requirement.The report finally provides detailed research report conclusion, which provides summary of entire report and vital suggestions from analysts particular to Wood Composite Panel Market which will help existing as well as new players who wish to enter this market.Enquire before Buying @ put actual website like for exampleTable of Contents:1 Global Market Overview1.1 Scope of Statistics1.1.1 Scope of Products1.1.2 Scope of Manufacturers1.1.3 Scope of Application1.1.4 Scope of Regions/Countries1.2 Global Market Size2 Regional Market2.1 Regional Production2.2 Regional Demand2.3 Regional Trade3 Key Manufacturers3.1 Jyi Shyang Industrial........................Continue (Global Wood Composite Panel Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Market Reports Company:Market Reports Company delivers high quality precise research studies which include data about top manufacturers and market survey of various industries. We also work as a consulting company and publisher of market research reports. We are specialized in providing customized reports according to clients needs and requirements which ultimately help them grow in industry and beat their competition.What We Offer:Customized Reports: We provide customized research reports on your demand.Region Specific Study: We have resources all over the world so, if you are Interested in region specific study please contact us.How we work: Perfect blend of primary and secondary research to provide best result.Expertise: Team of Industry experienced research associates and experts, primary and secondary sources, 24*7 customer care service and post-sale support.Contact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website: marketreportscompany.comEmail: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United StatesIP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Market will Register a CAGR of 15.0% through 2026

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/REP-GB-2361

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-2361

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Future Market Insights (FMI) recently published a report on the global market for IP multimedia subsystem, findings from which assert that the market will surge at an impressive pace over the forecast period (2016-2026). Demand for IP multimedia subsystem is anticipated to grow at a pronounce rate and bring in US$ 50,347.4 Mn in revenues by 2026-end, reflecting a CAGR of 15% during the forecast period. Increasing use of shared service infrastructure is cited as a key factor propelling growth of the global IP multimedia subsystem market. In addition, interworking with Internet and support for quality of service is also likely to drive the demand for IP multimedia subsystem in the near future.As per the FMI report, the global market for IP multimedia subsystem is expected to represent an incremental opportunity of US$ 37,927.6 Mn between 2016 and 2026. The market is anticipated to witness overwhelming growth owing to the increasing usage of services such as instant messaging, multimedia, and conferencing. Moreover, enterprises are now using IP multimedia subsystem to communicate with other business clients in real-time. IP multimedia subsystems enable service expansionespecially in multimedia communication and integrated voice services. This helps in collaboration of multiple media, multiple points of access and multiple modes of communication into a single network, which is why a large number of network operators are adopting IMS services. Mitel Networks Corporation, Cirpack SAS, Italtel S.p.A, Cisco Systems, Inc., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Du, IBM Corporation, ZTE Corporation, Etisalat, Ericsson Inc., Nokia Corporation, MTN Irancell Telecommunication Services Company are recognised as top companies providing IP multimedia subsystem solutions.Request For Report Sample:Key Highlights of the Report include:In 2016, revenues from the sale of mobile/wireless mode IP multimedia subsystem stood at US$ 8,687.9 Mn and is expected to reach US$ 40,931.3 Mn towards the end of the forecast period representing a CAGR of 20.8%. Consumers and enterprises are increasingly adopting IP multimedia subsystem solutions due to increasing usage of wireless phones, laptops and other wireless devices.Application of IP multimedia subsystem in Internet and web service is expected to garner US$ 14,579.8 Mn in revenues by the end of the assessment period, reflecting a CAGR of 17.2% over 2026. This is attributed to the robust use of internet and web-based services for managing online business applications, VoIP applications, VoLTE applications and others Internet-based communication. Meanwhile, use of IP multimedia subsystem in VoIP is also increasing owing to the growing popularity of video and voice-based communication.By the end of 2026, US$ 28,283.7 Mn worth IP multimedia subsystems are expected to be sold globally to end-user consumers. Consumers are rapidly adopting IP multimedia subsystem services owing increasing adoption of social media platforms for social and personal communication.Request For Table Of Content @Among regions, the market for IP multimedia subsystems in North America is expected to remain dominant throughout the forecast period. In 2016, the regions market reached a valuation of US$ 3,318.2 Mn, with 26.7% revenue share. APEJ is also expected to witness a robust growth of its IP multimedia subsystems market, increasing at an attractive CAGR of 18.5 % during the forecast period.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.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:Mothersdaycelebration.com Presents a Stupendous Way of Mothers Day Celebration

http://www.mothersdaycelebration.com/mothers-day-poems.html

http://www.mothersdaycelebration.com/fifty-inspirational-quotes.html

www.mothersdaycelebration.com

New Delhi, 9Th May 2018, WednesdayA mother is someone who has a tremendous contribution in life of each one of us and without her its impossible to imagine life. Mothers Day 2018 is approaching and its the perfect time when one can bring about a special feeling in their mothers heart. This day is particularly celebrated to understand that nothing could make us such a special person as she had made. The sacrifices that a mother makes for her children is incomparable and nothing can make us feel the way a mother makes her children to feel.Motherdaycelebration.com aims at helping all the children to find the best mothers day celebration ideas that can make their mother understand that their love and affection is being noticed. There are a number of facets of celebrating mothers Day and the website has made sure to include every little aspect. There are different ways in which people can show love to their mother on this special day like by sending Mothers day messages, mothers day poems (), quotes and alike. Other than that choosing the best mothers day gift for mother on this occasion would be a perfect way of showcasing ones love to their mothers.Talking on the relevance of Mothers Day, the representative of the website said that, It is the sacrifices of mothers and her compassion that builds a civilized society. She is the one who teaches the basic lessons of life and gives us all the velour to face with the adversities of life. Everyday theres a need to make people understand that nothing but a mother must be respected and worshipped first for all that she does. To understand the significance of Mothers day celebration it is important to understand know every aspect of it, and of the motherhood. And, this is why our website has included herewith information of all types here. We have vividly described about Mothers Day 2018, history, Mothers day gift Idea, other related quotes (), messages, wishes, poems and much more.Mothers Day 2018 is going to be celebrated on 13th of May and this is one opportunity for all the children to make their mothers feel happy and joyous. In that respect it is quite essential to know about how, when and where mothers day celebration got started. This actually establishes a connection with the real life and encourages one to outpour all their love for their mother.About Mothersdaycelebration.comMothersdaycelebration.com is an online informative website that provides to its readers all types of information related to motherhood and Mothers Day. This website is an offshoot of the SCFI group (Society for Confluence of Festivals in India) which dedicatedly works to provide people with information of different types related to festivals celebrated in India. A vigorous research is done before adding information to the website. The building principle of the website is the authenticity of the information that it provides. To know more about the website one can visit at -scfifestivalnetwork@gmail.comNew Delhi,IndiaGlobal Sodium Sulfate Market Booming Trends and Forecast Assessment for the Period 2017  2025

MRRSE

https://www.mrrse.com/sample/59

https://www.mrrse.com/sodium-sulfate-market

https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/59

https://www.mrrse.com/

https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/

In order to study the various trends and patterns prevailing in the overall market for Sodium Sulfate, Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has included a new report titled Sodium Sulfate 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.Visit for Sample Report @Alkim Alkali Kimya A.S., Cordenka GmbH & Co. KG, Elementis plc, Minera De Santa Marta, Si Chuan Hongya QingYiJiang Sodium Sulphate Co. Ltd., Saskatchewan Mining and Minerals Inc., Sodium Sanayii Anonim Sirketi, Birla Cellulose, Cooper Natural Resources, Lenzing Group, S.A. Sulquisa, Searles Valley Minerals, Grupo Industrial Crimidesa S.L., and XinLi Chemical are to name key players in the global sodium sulfate market.The TMR report estimates that the sodium sulfate market will display a lackluster 3.8% CAGR for the forecast period between 2017 and 2025, for the market to be valued at US42.62 mn by 2025 from US$1.89 mn in 2016. In terms of type of source, the segments into which the sodium sulfate market is bifurcated are synthetic and natural. Of the two, natural segment of the market holds the leading share at present. The natural segment is anticipated to continue to remain dominant in the upcoming years. The various segments into which the sodium sulfate market is divided based on application are soaps & detergents, textiles, carpet cleaners, kraft pulping, glass, and others.On the basis of geography, the key segments into which the global sodium sulfate market is divided are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Among them, Asia Pacific currently holds the leading market share. The region also displays the leading growth rate amongst all. In the years ahead too, the region is likely to hold on to its dominant position on the back of expansion of chemical industries and rising demand for sodium sulfate from a host of end-use industries in the emerging economies of China and India.Majorly fuelling the global market for sodium sulfate is the growth of soap and detergent industry. This is mainly because sodium sulfate is used as a diluting agent and as fillers in detergents and soaps. Also, fuelling demand for sodium sulfate in the flourishing construction and automotive industry. Sodium sulfate is used as a fluxing agent in glass making to serve the demand for high quality glass for automobiles and buildings. This is because sodium sulfate helps to eliminate small air bubbles and defects during casting and blowing processes, says the lead analyst of the study.Providing headwinds to the sodium sulfate market is emergence of substitute compounds such as zeolites, emulsified sulphur, sodium silicates, sodium carbonate, and caustic soda. These substitutes serve the demand from several end-use industries that conventionally displayed demand for sodium sulfate. Despite the declining use of sodium sulfate in several end-use industries, newer application areas are coming to the fore. Among the newer applications of sodium sulfate, widespread use during the bleaching of kraft pulp and as a dyeing agent in textile making are prominent ones.Complete List of Tables and Figures @The study provides a decisive view of the global sodium sulfate market by segmenting it in terms of source, and application. In terms of source, sodium sulfate are classified as natural and synthetic In terms of application, it is segmented into soaps & detergents, kraft pulping, textiles, glass, carpet cleaners, others (food preservatives, oil recovery, etc.). These segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends. Regional segmentation includes current and forecast demand for sodium sulfate in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa.The report provides the actual market size of sodium sulfate for 2016 and estimated market size for 2017 with forecast for the next eight years. The global market of sodium sulfate has been provided in terms of volume and revenue. Market volume has been defined in Kilo tons and revenue in US$ Mn. Market numbers have been estimated based on source, and application of sodium sulfate. Market volume and size have been provided in terms of global, regional and country level markets.Global Sodium Sulfate Market: Research MethodologyIn order to compile the research report, we conducted in-depth interviews and discussions with a number of key industry participants and opinion leaders. Primary research represented the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. We reviewed key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents for competitive analysis and market understanding. Secondary research includes a search of recent trade, technical writing, Internet sources, magazines and statistical data from government websites, trade associations, and agencies. This has proven to be the most reliable, effective, and successful approach for obtaining precise market data, capturing industry participants insights, and recognizing business opportunities.Secondary research sources that are typically referred to include, but are not limited to company websites, annual reports, financial reports, broker reports, investor presentations, SEC filings, and external proprietary databases, and relevant patent and regulatory databases such as ICIS, Hoovers, oneSOURCE, Factiva and Bloomberg, national government documents, statistical databases, trade journals, market reports, news articles, press releases, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market.We conduct primary interviews on an ongoing basis with industry participants and commentators to validate data and analysis. These help validate and strengthen secondary research findings. These also help develop the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.Global Sodium Sulfate Market: Competitive AnalysisThe report comprises profiles of major companies operating in the global sodium sulfate market. Key players in the sodium sulfate market are Alkim Alkali Kimya A.S., Birla Cellulose, Cordenka GmbH & Co. KG, Cooper Natural Resources, Elementis plc, Lenzing Group, Minera De Santa Marta, S.A., S.A. Sulquisa, Si Chuan Hongya QingYiJiang Sodium Sulphate Co., Ltd., Searles Valley Minerals, Saskatchewan Mining and Minerals Inc., Grupo Industrial Crimidesa S.L., Soda? Sodium Sanayii Anonim Sirketi, XinLi Chemical and others. Market players have been profiled in terms of attributes such as company overview, financial overview, business strategies, and recent developments.Query Related This Report Please Visit @The global sodium sulfate market has been segmented as follows:Global Sodium Sulfate Market, by sourceNaturalSyntheticGlobal Sodium Sulfate Market, by applicationSoaps & detergentsKraft pulpingTextilesGlassCarpet CleanersOthers (Food preservatives, Oil recovery, etc.)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:Sweden Occupies a Significant Market Share of Nordic Data Center Construction Market | Arizton

https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/data-center-construction-market-nordic

https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/data-center-construction-market-nordic

https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/data-center-construction-market-nordic

Sweden Data Center Construction Market to Worth $1.5 Billion by 2023The data center construction market in Nordic is anticipated to reach values of approximately $6 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of more than 8% during 2018-2023.Ariztons recent market research report on the data center construction market in Nordic identifies ABB, Eaton, Rittal, Schneider Electric, STULZ, Vertiv, AECOM, DPR Construction, HDR Architecture, MACE Group, Mercury Engineering, NCC, and Skanska as the leading vendors that are likely to dominate the market during the forecast period. This research report provides detailed analysis of market segmentation by electrical construction (UPS systems, generators, transfer switch and switchgear, rack PDU, and other electrical infrastructure), by mechanical construction (cooling systems, rack, and other infrastructure), by general construction (building development, installation and commissioning, services, building design, physical security, and DCIM), and by country (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden).Request for your free sample today!The data center construction market in Nordic is divided into four major segments that consist of electricidal construction, mechanical construction, general construction, and country.Sweden to grow at the fastest CAGR in the data center construction market in Nordic during forecast periodThe data center construction market in Nordic by country is segmented into Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.Sweden occupied a significant market share in 2017, growing at a CAGR of over 13% during the forecast period.The increasing investments by Equinix, Interxion, Hydro66, Multigrid, Boderlight, H&M, Fortlax, Amazon Web Service, ArticSite, EcoDataCenter, The Future of Mining, and GothNet is one of the major factors attributing to the growth of the Sweden region in the data center construction market in Nordic. The Swedish government has reduced the electricity tax rate by 97% enabling local and global providers to construct new facilities in this country. The adoption of cloud-based application for the business operational purpose by several established companies will create new opportunities for colocation providers in the data center construction market in Nordic. The abundance of renewable energy sources, low-cost electricity, and initiatives to encourage district heating will transform the market in Sweden during the forecast period. For instance, Sweden Data Parks enables cheaper OPEX by reducing the cooling cost of data center development to almost zero in exchange for supplying waste heat to nearby households.Rack PDUs to grow at a significant CAGR in the data center construction market in Nordic during forecast periodThe electrical infrastructure segment in the data center construction market in Nordic is categorized into UPS systems, generators, transfer switch and switchgear, rack PDU, and other electrical infrastructure.Rack PDU is the fastest growing segment of the market at a CAGR of around 10% during the forecast period.The rapid innovations in rack PDUs that resolves the issue of power consumption and outages will revolutionize the data center construction market in Nordic. The vendors are designing and launching rack PDUs are designed with 2N redundancy specifically for facilities of Tier 3 standard to attract new consumers and boost market share in the Nordic region. The construction of large and mega facilities installed with metered, monitored, or switched PDU, enabling facilities operators to remotely monitor power supply in the IT infrastructure will transform the data center construction market in Nordic. The advanced rack PDUs offer low maintenance and high flexibility in operations, resulting in higher productivity of facilities in the region. The increase in rack density will augment the development of the data center construction market in Nordic over the next few years.Request for your free sample today!DCIM segment to grow at an impressive in the data center construction market in Nordic during forecast periodThe data center construction market in Nordic by general construction into building development, installation and commissioning, services, building design, physical security, and DCIM. DCIM to dominate a significant market share in 2017, growing at a CAGR of more than 15% during the forecast period. The extensive use of DCIM solutions for asset management through the inventory of assets and lifecycles and maintenance requirement is propelling the growth of the data center construction market in Nordic. These solutions provide control power consumption, improve efficiency, and increase operational capabilities. The facilities operators also prefer solutions that monitor critical elements of the facility, including power, cooling, and IT infrastructure. The integration of DCIM solutions with IT service management solution (ITSM) such as BMC and ServiceNow will revolutionize the data center construction market in Nordic.The other prominent players in the data center construction market in Nordic are Airedale Air Conditioning, Alfa Laval, Caterpillar, Condair Group, Cummins, GE, HPE, Huawei, MTU On Site Energy, Socomec Group, Systemair, Swegon, Arup Group, AFEC International, Bravida, COWI, Dornan, ENACO, Etix Everywhere, Flexenclosure, Fortis Construction, Granlund, MTH GROUP, Ramboll, Royal HaskoningDHV, SRV Group, and Sweco.The complete overview of the latest market research report on Nordic data center construction market by Arizton is now available.The report also offers a detailed study of major trends, drivers, challenges, and also provides the market size and forecast for major geographical regions and key countries.Order a report now:About AriztonArizton  Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.Arizton Advisory & IntelligenceChicago, Illinois, 60605Mail: enquiry@arizton.comCall: +1-312-465-7864France, the United Kingdom (UK), Germany and several other European countries are predicted to shun Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus invitation to attend a ceremony marking the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the disputed city of Jerusalem.

US President Donald Trump unilaterally declared Jerusalem as Israels capital despite international consensus to leave the fate of the old city to be decided by talks between Palestinians and Israelis on the final status.

It is a little strange to invite us to celebrate an event that we opposed and condemned. The Americans were more clever and knew in advance not to invite us to save themselves from embarrassment, a European diplomatic source is quoted as saying.

Netanyahu has reportedly extended invitations to the entire diplomatic corps and 30 out of 86 accredited ambassadors to the Jewish state have nodded to the invitation.

European diplomats believe attending the event will legalize President Trumps decision.

Last December, the US President, without consulting his European allies and the UN, announced Washington was moving the US mission from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which he also recognized as Israels capital.

The move was lambasted by European leaders, Palestinians and much of the Arab and Islamic world. The decision muted UN resolutions on the city.

Germany, France, and UK have balked at moving their respective mission following the US move.

Guatemala is expected to be the second country to move its embassy to Jerusalem later this month. Paraguay is also on the moving mode, Israeli reports say citing the foreign ministry.

The official inauguration of the embassy will take place on May 14, which coincides with Israels Independence Day.

Trump has finally scraped plans to attend the ceremony. According to the Israeli foreign ministry some 800 guests are expected at the inauguration.

Palestinians have called on diplomats to stay away from the ceremony, which they believe is illegal.Market Insights: Global Solar EVA Film Market 2018 | 3M, Bridgestone Corporation, Mitsui Chemicals Tohcello, KENGO, Astenik Solar and Others

Solar EVA Film Market

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1712145

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-solar-eva-film-market-research-report-2018-report.html/toc

https://www.researchmoz.us/

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Solar EVA Film Market Research Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the global Solar EVA Film market status and forecast, categorizes the global Solar EVA Film market size (value & volume) by manufacturers, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top manufacturers in North America, Europe, Japan, China and other regions (India, Southeast Asia, Central & South America, and Middle East & Africa).The global Solar EVA Film market is valued at xx million US$ in 2017 and is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of xx.x % between 2018 and 2025.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The major manufacturers covered in this report3MGuangzhou lushan New MaterialsBridgestone CorporationMitsui Chemicals TohcelloKENGOAstenik Solar...Geographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanOther Regions (India, Southeast Asia, Central & South America and Middle East & Africa)The 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 intoStandard Cure EVAFast Cure EVAUltra Fast Cure EVAOn 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, includingThin-film Solar CellsCrystalline Solar CellsGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @The study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Solar EVA Film capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);Focuses on the key Solar EVA Film manufacturers, to study the capacity, production, 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.Key StakeholdersSolar EVA Film ManufacturersSolar EVA Film Distributors/Traders/WholesalersSolar EVA Film Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsAbout 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 @Puffed Food Market to Record an Exponential CAGR by 2025

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/puffed-food-market.asp

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/16663

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/16663

Puffing of food is done by using high temperature, pressure, or extrusion. In puffing process expansion of seed is carried out and at that period the vapor pressure escapes through the micropores of the grain structure due to high pressure or thermal gradient. There are different methods of puffing viz. dry heat, sand and salt treated, hot air popping, gun puffing, popping in hot oil, and microwave heating. A wide range of cereals and millets used for puffing such as rice, wheat, corn, sorghum, and ragi.Puffed food has a primary role in human consumption. Consumer demand is increasing for puffed foods due to various health benefits such as weight loss., therefore increasing the market share of puffed food market. Increasing demand for flavor food products is expected to increase the puffed food market over the forecast period. Consumers believe in ready to eat products which have high nutrients like popcorns and cheetos. The growing puffed market attributed to the shift in consumer demand for various flavors and nutritious food.Report Overview @Market Segmentation : Puffed food segmented by category type, application and region. By category, puffing comes in wheat, rice, corn, sorghum, and ragi. Puffed wheat is prepared by heating wheat grains under pressure and then rapidly releasing pressure when the superheated steam in the grain expands grain is puffed. It is a good source of copper, protein, and iron. Puffed rice used in breakfast cereal or snack foods served as popular street food. It is made by heating rice kernels under high pressure in the presence of steam. Puffed food is segmented by applications as Bakery Industry and Snacks Industry.In bakery it uses in in making puffed backed pancake, puffed baked potato and others. Puffed food market is further segmented by region such as Latin America, North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. Latin America and North America possess significant potential, whereas Europe and other developing markets such as Asia-Pacific and MEA possess the growth opportunities for quinoa over the forecast period. There is a high consumption of puffed food in Asia-Pacific regions like India and China as growing young population prefers street food and snacks like cheese doodles.Drivers: Puffed food provides a multitude of health benefits, as these are rich source of protein, fiber, magnesium, iron, and potassium, and which are anticipated to contribute to the growth of global puffed market over the coming years. Puffed food has low calories which easily gets digested and absorbed quickly which acts as one of the factors of popularity among consumers.Request for Table of Contents @Increasing demand for healthy snack food in breakfast is fuelling the market for puffed food. The shift is now leading to growing demand for nutritious street food. Thus puffed food are expected to see higher market share related to its various health benefits. Puffed food market is also growing due to its innovations in packaging. Packed puffed foods attracted consumers to buy the products such as Popcorns, Cheetos, etc. due to different packaging style which is also fuelling the demand for puffed food market. Online shopping among consumers is increasing which gives manufacturers an opportunity to start selling puffed food through online channels.The big challenge for puffed products is product recalls, a defect in product is the biggest problem for manufacturers. Retrieving product from consumer and providing those consumers with compensation is a loss to the manufacturer. As a result, safety concerns over a manufacturing defect in the product may harm its user. Another challenge for manufacturer is inadequate infrastructure and storage facilities for puffed foods.Key Players : Key global market players manufacturing different types of puffed food include Kraft and Heniz,Wise Foods Inc, Rude Health, Good Grain, Nurture Inc, Kallo foods LimitedGet Sample Copy of this Report @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 Vehicle Analytics Market Is Expected To Expand At A CAGR Of 20.9% During 2017 To 2025 And Reach US$ 10,215.5 Mn

Vehicle Analytics Market

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1377466

https://www.researchmoz.us/vehicle-analytics-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html/toc

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=1377466

https://www.researchmoz.us/

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Vehicle Analytics Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.This report on the global vehicle analytics market provides analysis for the period 20152025, wherein 2016 is the base year and the period from 2017 to 2025 is the forecast period. Data for 2015 has been included as historical information. The report covers market dynamics including drivers, restraints, opportunities, and trends expected to influence the global vehicle analytics market growth during the said period. Technologies that are playing a major role in driving the global vehicle analytics market have also been covered in the study. The study provides a comprehensive analysis on market growth throughout the above forecast period in terms of value estimates (in US$ Mn), across different geographies.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Vehicle Analytics Market: Key SegmentsThe global vehicle analytics market is segmented on the basis of deployment type, end-user, application and geography. On the basis of deployment type, the market is segmented into cloud and on-premises. On-Premise deployment segment would refer to the computation that is located within the physical confines of an organization while the cloud based deployment refers to delivery of hosted services over the internet. In 2016, the On-premises deployment type is expected to hold the major revenue share owing to their wide adoption across industry vertical. Cloud sub-segment, owing to their increasing adoption is expected to grow at a rapid pace while also capturing considerable market share during the forecast period.On the basis of end-user, the global vehicle analytics market is segmented into Tier 1 suppliers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), service providers, automotive dealers, fleet owners, regulatory bodies and insurers. Based on the end-user, Tier 1 suppliers sub-segment is expected to hold the major share of the market, primarily their critical role as suppliers of hardware and software to other industries. On the basis of application, the market is segmented into predictive maintenance, warranty analytics, traffic management, safety and security management, driver and user behavior analysis, dealer performance analysis, infotainment, usage-based insurance and road charging. The market, based on application is expected to be dominated by predictive maintenance sub-segment and is projected to grow at rapid pace.Geographically, the report classifies the global network traffic analysis solutions market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America; the regions are analyzed in terms of market revenue. Furthermore, region wise prominent countries covered in the report include the following - the U.S, Canada, Germany, France, the U.K., China, India, Japan, GCC Countries, South Africa and Brazil.Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Global Vehicle Analytics Market: Scope of the StudyThe report also includes key developments in the vehicle analytics market. Porter Five Force analysis and financials are also included in the report. The report also covers segment wise comparison matrix, market attractiveness analysis and market share analysis for all regions covered in the scope of study.Comparison matrix includes segment growth matrix, 2015 - 2025 (%), segment value share contribution, 2015 - 2025 (%), and segment compounded growth matrix (CAGR %). Market attractiveness identifies and compares segments market attractiveness on the basis of CAGR and market share index.The report also includes competition landscape which include competition matrix, market share analysis of major players in the global vehicle analytics market based on their projected value share, and business profiling of major players. The 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 companys potential to grow. This section also identifies and includes various recent developments carried out by the leading players.Companies Mentioned in ReportCompany profiling includes company overview, major business strategies adopted and SWOT analysis. Major players in the vehicle analytics market include Agnik LLC, Amodo, Automotive Rentals, Inc., Harman International Industries, Inc., IBM, Inquiron, INRIX, SAS Institute Inc., Teletrac Navman and Xevo Inc.The global vehicle analytics market is segmented as below:Global Vehicle analytics Market, By Deployment Type- Cloud- On-PremiseGlobal Vehicle analytics Market, By End-user- Tier 1 Suppliers- Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)- Service Providers- Automotive Dealers- Fleet Owners- Regulatory Bodies- InsurersGlobal Vehicle analytics Market, By Application- Predictive Maintenance- Warranty Analytics- Traffic Management- Safety and Security Management- Driver and User Behavior Analysis- Dealer Performance Analysis- Infotainment- Usage-Based Insurance- Road ChargingMake an Enquiry of this report @Global Vehicle analytics Market, By GeographyNorth America- U.S.- Canada- Rest of North AmericaEurope- U.K- Germany- France- Rest of EuropeAsia Pacific (APAC)- China- India- Japan- Rest of APACMiddle East and Africa (MEA)- GCC Countries- South Africa- Rest of MEASouth America- Brazil- Rest of South AmericaAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Market Insights: Global Managed Cyber Security Services Market 2017 - 2026

Managed Cyber Security Services Market

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1461374

https://www.researchmoz.us/managed-cyber-security-services-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2026-report.html/toc

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=1461374

https://www.researchmoz.us/

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Managed Cyber Security Services Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2026" to its huge collection of research reports.The global managed cyber security services market is expected to witness a robust growth attributed to growing incidences of malware threats in the cyber space. Increasing demand for vulnerability and threat management is expected to boost demand for the managed cyber security services among the large enterprises. Moreover, surge in demand for scanning and testing to detect malware is further expected to contribute towards growth of the global managed cyber security services market significantly. Adoption of the managed cyber security services is expected to remain high among hotel chains, distributed organizations, restaurant groups and franchises.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report reveals an in-depth insight on the crucial aspects of the global managed cyber security services market on the growth patterns, important segments, competitive landscape and factors fuelling growth of the global market.Global Managed Cyber Security Services Market: DynamicsGrowth of the global managed cyber security services market is mainly bound by various macro-economic and micro-economic factors. The report reveals that the global managed cyber security services market is expected to gain momentum attributed to growing need to protect confidential data from malware attacks. Increasing incidences of malware attacks in various business organizations will continue to fuel adoption of the managed cyber security services and solutions. In addition, surge in instances of employees and insiders of the business organization attempting to leak confidential and sensitive data has led business organizations to adopt the managed cyber security services and solutions significantly. Growing instances of data breaches and malware attacks in various organizations has led the companies offering cyber security solutions and services to focus on developing enhanced perimeter defense and threat detection solutions.Malware attacks and data breaches can lead to significant losses for the company along with its confidential information stored. Growing need to for cyber security solution and services has led to surge in demand for the critical business service monitoring that are offered to the clients. Moreover, organizations are also increasingly focusing on offering cloud security management, user activity management, security monitoring and VID, and desktop monitoring services to various business and government organizations globally. Increasing data breaches can further lead to identity theft in order to make expensive purchases, commit fraud, apply for loans and withdraw money. Bound to these factors, demand for the managed cyber security services and solutions is expected to increase significantly.Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Growing incidences of data braches and malware attacks in various financial and banking institutions will continue to impact growth of the global managed cyber security services market positively. Information and crucial data regarding the security details of the financial institutions could lead to significant losses for the banking institutions. Further, loss of important details of the end users and banking credentials will impact the loyalty and trust of the customers investing in the plans offered by the financial institutions. Bound to these factors, demand for the managed cyber security services and solutions is expected to increase in the global market.Global Managed Cyber Security Services Market: SegmentationIn the next section, the global managed cyber security services market is segmented in terms of application, end users, and region. On the basis of application, the global market is segmented as identity and access management, risk & compliance management, vulnerability management, managed security devices management and other applications. Based on end users, the global market is segmented as BFSI, discreet manufacturing, healthcare, government agencies, telecommunication, energy & utility and other end users. By region, the global market is segmented as North America, Latin America, Europe, Japan, APEJ and MEA.Global Managed Cyber Security Services Market: CompetitionKey players in the global managed cyber security services market are Tata Consultancy Services, Symantec, Secureworks, CNS Group, IBM Corporation, Proficio, Accenture, Optiv, Assuria and Honeywell.Make an Enquiry of this report @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 @Industrial Ladder Market Set to Surge Significantly During 2017 - 2027

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3433

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3433

www.futuremarketinsights.com

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 to Sample Report -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.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 IndustriesRequest Report TOC @Industrial 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: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 :Cassava Starch Market to Reap Excessive Revenues by 2025

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/cassava-starch-market.asp

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/16786

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/16786

Cassava starch is produced primarily from the wet milling of fresh cassava roots and it is also produced from dry cassava chips. Starch is the major component of cassava which is present in large amounts which have 25% of starch content that is obtained from mature and good quality cassava roots. Around 60% of cassava starch is obtained from the dry cassava chips and around 10% of dry pulp is also available from the 100 kg of cassava roots. Cassava starch has many beneficial properties which include paste clarity, high viscosity, and freeze-thaw stability which is generally needed for industrial purposes. Cassava starch is non-gluten, non-GMO (genetically modified organisms) and non-allergenic ingredient. Cassava starch is gluten-free which is highly preferred by consumers that are gluten intolerant. Cassava starch is also known as tapioca flour or tapioca starch. Cassava starch is mainly used in sweetened as well as in unsweetened bakery products. Cassava starch is majorly used in the manufacturing of monosodium glutamate (MSG) in various Latin American countries. Cassava starch is mostly preferred in various bakery products and confectioneries than any other starches.Report Overview @Global Cassava Starch: Market Segmentation - The global cassava starch market is segmented on the basis of starch, grade, end user, nature, application, and region. The global cassava starch market is segmented on the basis of starch such as unmodified or native starch, modifies starch (for industrial purposes) and sweeteners which includes high-fructose syrup and glucose. The global cassava starch market is segmented on the basis of grade which include food grade, feed grade, and industrial grade. The global cassava starch market is segmented on the basis of application in which cassava starch is used as a stabilizing agent in various food products such as soups, sauces, soy-based beverages and meat products.The global cassava starch market is segmented on the basis of end users such as animal feed, paper industries, and food and textile industries, cosmetic industries and others. Animal feed industry uses dried cassava roots as an ingredient along with cassava pellets and cassava meal for livestock. The global cassava starch market is segmented on the basis of nature such as organic cassava starch and conventional cassava starch. Cassava starch is also used in confectionery coatings, bakery products, and others. Hence, the global cassava starch market is expected to represent a significant growth over the forecast period.Request for Table of Contents @Global Cassava Starch Market: Regional Outlook - Geographically, the global cassava starch market can be segmented into major regions which include North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa. Globally, among all regions, Asia Pacific has developed as the dominant region in global cassava starch market. Increasing demand for cassava starch as a stabilizing agent in various food and beverage products, has strengthened the growth of global cassava starch market and hence is expected to represent a significant growth over the forecast period.Global Cassava Starch Market: Growth Drivers - Growing demand for cassava starch as a stabilizing and binding gent in various food products is a major factor driving the global cassava starch market worldwide. Manufacturers are offering innovative cassava starch-based products to the customers in order to remain in the competition in the market. Dried cassava roots extraction is used for feeding and lactating livestock. Cassava starch is also used for the application such as bakery products, confectioneries, jams and jellies, monosodium glutamate, caramel, and others. Cassava starch is a good source of minerals such as calcium, manganese, phosphorus, iron and others. Hence, the global cassava starch market is expected to represent a significant growth over the forecast period.Global Cassava Starch Market: Key Players - Some of the key players identified across the value chain of the global cassava starch market include SPAC Starch Product India Ltd., Vaighai Agro Products, Matna Foods Ltd., Thai German Processing Co. Ltd., Psaltry International Limited, TAPIOCA VIETNAM Company, Lentus Foods Ltd, Keng Seng Group of Companies are among others.Get Sample Copy of this Report @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 Airway Stent-Lung Stent Market 2018 Leading Manufacturers : Boston Scientific, Teleflex, Endo-Flex

QYResearchReports

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1752787&type=S

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-airway-stent-lung-stent-sales-market-report-2018.htm/toc

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1752787&type=D

Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Airway Stent-Lung Stent Sales Market Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the global Airway Stent / Lung Stent market status and forecast, categorizes the global Airway Stent / Lung Stent 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 research report on global Airway Stent-Lung Stent market is a comprehensive study of a multitude of variables that are constantly changing its trajectory. Analysts have studied several historical milestones achieved by the global Airway Stent-Lung Stent market and compared it to the present-day market condition to map its future. This comparison showcases how weaknesses have been turned to strength and threats into lucrative opportunities. The report presents a fair of aberrations several players operating in the global Airway Stent-Lung Stent market have had to take to ensure consistent performance and persistent growth of the market. The publication is a holistic document that includes accurate facts, figures, and copious amounts of coherently arranged data that provide the complete picture.Get a Sample Report for more Professional and Technical insights @The major players covered in this reportBoston ScientificC.R. BardTaewoong MedicalMicro-Tech (Nanjing)TeleflexMerit Medical SystemsCook GroupNovatech SaGeographically, this report studies the key regions, focuses on product sales, value, market share and growth opportunity in these regions, coveringUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoBy TypeTracheal StentsLaryngeal StentsBy ProductSelf-Expandable StentsNon-Expandable StentsBalloon-Expandable StentsOn 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, includingHospitalsAmbulatory Surgery CentersThe detailed explanation of the global Airway Stent-Lung Stent market is supplemented with its segmentation on the basis of products, services, application, end users, and geography. With a complete breakdown such as this it is possible to pin point lucrative areas and the ones that could pose as a threat. The report also highlights forces of demand and supply present in the global Airway Stent-Lung Stent market that are determining consumption patterns amongst all its end user. To facilitate better understanding, the researchers have aided the readers with market figures and facts, which are both historical in nature and estimates for the coming future. The report also enunciates the nature of the competition in the global Airway Stent-Lung Stent market with the help of Porters five forces analysis. It offers players operating in the market a chance to see areas of improvement and potential threats that could be averted.To Browse a Complete Report with TOC Visit @Table of Contents1 Airway Stent / Lung Stent Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Airway Stent / Lung Stent1.2 Classification of Airway Stent / Lung Stent by Product Category1.3 Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent Market by Application/End Users1.4 Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent Market by Region1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Airway Stent / Lung Stent (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2025)2 Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent (Volume and Value) by Type2.3 Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent (Volume and Value) by Region2.4 Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent (Volume) by Application3 United States Airway Stent / Lung Stent (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Airway Stent / Lung Stent Sales and Value (2013-2018)3.2 United States Airway Stent / Lung Stent Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)3.3 United States Airway Stent / Lung Stent Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3.4 United States Airway Stent / Lung Stent Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)Enquiry For Discount Visit @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Product Picture of Airway Stent / Lung StentFigure Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent Sales Volume Comparison (K Units) by Type (2013-2025)Figure Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent Sales Volume Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2017Figure Global Airway Stent / Lung Stent Market Size (Million USD) by Regions (2013-2025)Figure United States Airway Stent / Lung Stent Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure Europe Airway Stent / Lung Stent Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure China Airway Stent / Lung Stent 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 Sodium Lignosulfonate Market Booming Trends and Forecast Assessment for the Period 2017  2025

MRRSE

https://www.mrrse.com/sample/3659

https://www.mrrse.com/sodium-lignosulfonate-market

https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/3659

https://www.mrrse.com/

https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/

In order to study the various trends and patterns prevailing in the overall market for Sodium Lignosulfonate, Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has included a new report titled Sodium Lignosulfonate 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.Visit for Sample Report @The global sodium lignosulfonate market is moderately consolidated with the dominance of a few key companies that have global presence, according to a market publication by Transparency Market Research (TMR). The market is characterized by integration across the value chain with multiple key players involved in the production of raw materials for the manufacture of lignosulfonate.According to TMR, the global sodium lignosulfonate market is dominated by some key players, namely Borregaard LignoTech, Sappi, Burgo Group, Tembec, and Nippon Paper Industries Co. Ltd. The report says that the global sodium lignosulfonate market is likely to expand at a steady 4.3% CAGR between 2017 and 2025, for the market to be worth US$446.14 mn by 2025-end. The market stood at a valuation of US$306.47 mn in 2016.Among the key application segments, concrete admixture leads in the global sodium lignosulfonate market. However, in terms of growth potential, animal feed binder and oil well additives are likely to gain pace over the forecast period.Europe is a significant market for sodium lignosulfonate, with the region holding the leading share of more than 35% vis-a-vis revenue in 2016. In the upcoming years, Asia Pacific is expected to lead in terms of growth potential followed by Middle East & Africa.The global sodium lignosulfonate market is primarily driven by new construction undertakings and pursuits for renovation of old buildings. The low cost factor of sodium lignosulfonate account for its widespread use predominantly in developing countries, where demand for water-reducing chemicals is considerably high.Besides this, factors such as infrastructure development and growing population in developing economies is also anticipated to boost the demand for sodium lignosulfonate. This is because construction industry makes use of large amount of cement for residential, commercial, and industrial construction undertakings.Complete List of Tables and Figures @The sodium lignosulfonate market also receives impetus from growth in upstream and downstream industries associated with the oil sector. In the Middle East, oil companies are making efforts to augment oil production to serve the ever-increasing demand from downstream industries. The best oil production practices involve different additives to maintain intactness of various drilling factors and improve oil extraction. Sodium or calcium lignosulfonate are some of the widely used oil well additives in oil production. Generally, lignosulfonates in purified, filtered, and modified forms are employed as oil well cement retarders. With the rise in demand for oil in downstream industries in the Middle East the demand for well additives will be on the rise. This will indirectly benefit the sodium lignosulfonate market in the Middle East.The study provides a comprehensive view of the sodium lignosulfonate market by dividing it into type, application, and geography segments. Sodium lignosulfonate is available in two forms (type segments): dry and liquid. The applications are segmented into animal feed binder, concrete admixture, oil well additives, agriculture chemicals, dust suppressants, lead batteries, gypsum plasterboards, and others. These segments have been analyzed based on historic, present, and future trends.Major application of sodium lignosulfonate is in the concrete industry. However, sodium lignosulfonate face steep competition from a number of substitutes in concrete admixture market such as sulfonated naphthalene formaldehyde, sulfonated melamine formaldehyde, and polycarboxylic ether. Besides the concrete admixtures segment, sodium lignosulfonate face steep competition in other application segments such as animal feed binders and oil well additives. Thus, application-specific substitutes are expected to act as a key restraint to the sodium lignosulfonate market during the forecast period.Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast consumption of sodium lignosulfonate in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Market segmentation includes demand for consumption in all the regions individually.Global Sodium Lignosulfonate Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report covers detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and profiles of key players operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report include Borregaard LignoTech, Tembec, Sappi, Nippon Paper Industries Co. Ltd., and Burgo Group. Company profiles include attributes such as company overview, number of employees, brand overview, key competitors, business overview, business strategies, recent/key developments, acquisitions, and financial overview (wherever applicable).Visit for Query Related This Report @The global sodium lignosulfonate market has been segmented as follows:Sodium Lignosulfonate Market  Type AnalysisDry Sodium LignosulfonateLiquid Sodium LignosulfonateSodium Lignosulfonate Market  Application AnalysisAnimal Feed BinderConcrete AdmixtureOil Well AdditivesAgriculture ChemicalsDust SuppressantsLead BatteriesGypsum PlasterboardsOthersAbout 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:Global Automotive Door Module Market 2018 by Top Manufacturers : Aisin Seiki, Faurecia, Trinseo, Continental

QYResearchReports

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1752797&type=S

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-automotive-door-module-sales-market-report-2018.htm/toc

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1752797&type=D

Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Automotive Door Module Sales Market Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Automotive Door Module 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.Changing consumer preferences have left little room for companies but to innovate in order to stay competitive. The scenario is same in the global Automotive Door Module market where businesses are operating in a dynamic environment. According to the report, the leading market players are experimenting with various strategies to chalk an upward trending growth curve. Several of them are also investing in diversifying their product portfolio to gain edge over competition. The report on the global Automotive Door Module market studies its trajectory between 2018 and 2025. It covers various growth drivers enabling growth in the market. In addition, it discusses in detail various challenges posing threat. The report also highlights opportunities to be capitalized on during the course of the aforementioned forecast period.Free sample of this report is available upon request @Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Automotive Door Module for these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Automotive Door Module market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Automotive Door Module sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingParts manufacturersAisin SeikiBrose FahrzeugteileDURA Automotive SystemsFaureciaInteva ProductsKuster Holding GmbHMagnaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPartsElectronicsOn 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, includingManufacturingAftermarketThe report provides valuable market intelligence to consumers as well as companies operating in the global Automotive Door Module market. It is intended to offer a holistic overview of the prevailing trends for companies to identify the most lucrative pockets within the market. The report also includes recommendations for companies to strengthen their foothold over the forecast period. To present a detailed analysis, the report includes profiles of some of the key players in the global Automotive Door Module market. Their strengths and weaknesses are analyzed and the effect of the strategies they adopted over the years is gauged.Other than this, the global Automotive Door Module market is split based on diverse criteria. Each segment is further classified to help readers identify the one exhibiting the most lucrative prospects. The report also segments the global Automotive Door Module market in terms of regions. The key factors enabling growth across these regions are discussed in detail in the report.Access the Report and full TOC @Table of Contents1 Automotive Door Module Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Automotive Door Module1.2 Classification of Automotive Door Module by Product Category1.3 Global Automotive Door Module Market by Application/End Users1.4 Global Automotive Door Module Market by Region1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Automotive Door Module (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Automotive Door Module Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Automotive Door Module Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2025)2 Global Automotive Door Module Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Automotive Door Module Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Automotive Door Module Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Automotive Door Module Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Automotive Door Module (Volume and Value) by Type2.3 Global Automotive Door Module (Volume and Value) by Region2.4 Global Automotive Door Module (Volume) by Application3 United States Automotive Door Module (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Automotive Door Module Sales and Value (2013-2018)3.2 United States Automotive Door Module Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)3.3 United States Automotive Door Module Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3.4 United States Automotive Door Module Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)Click here to avail discount on this reports @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Product Picture of Automotive Door ModuleFigure Global Automotive Door Module Sales Volume Comparison (K Units) by Type (2013-2025)Figure Global Automotive Door Module Sales Volume Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2017Figure Global Automotive Door Module Market Size (Million USD) by Regions (2013-2025)Figure United States Automotive Door Module Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure China Automotive Door Module Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure Europe Automotive Door Module 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Automotive Door Hinges Market to Reflect Impressive Growth Rate During 2017  2027

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3498

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3498

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Automotive door hinges are among the basic structural components of an automotive; they support door weight and facilitate operation, i.e. opening and closing movements of doors, tailgates and hoods. Automotive door hinges are generally manufactured using the sheet metal stamping process, which utilizes large capacity presses to manufacture these components. Automotive door hinges are usually manufactured from stainless steel; various grades of steel are selected depending upon the type of the vehicle and area of application. Apart from steel, various other materials are also used in the manufacturing of automotive door hinges, including copper, brass and sometimes bronze, however the application remains limited. The basic and the most crucial requirement of automotive hinges is protection against corrosion. Automotive door hinges must have good anti-corrosion properties, which in turn ensures long life of hinges and consequently, that of turn doors and gates. Automotive door hinges are usually coated to provide a long lasting finish. They have high operational life and hence, a low replacement rate. The automotive door hinges market is foreseen to witness moderate and steady growth over the forecast period. The market for automotive door hinges is highly fragmented, with unorganized players contributing to a major share of the marketGlobal Automotive Door Hinges Market: Market DynamicsPositive growth of the parent and associated market signifies healthy growth opportunity in the global automotive door hinges market over the forecast period. Parent market growth signifies growth in the global automotive component industry. Furthermore, robustly growing automotive production would be an obvious factor boosting market growth. Particularly, developing nations, such as China and India where automotive production grew between 2-7% over past few years will have significant demand for automotive door hinges. Growing automotive production also signifies that the OEM sales channel will remain a major contributor to market value growth over the forecast period.Request to Sample Report -One of the challenges poised in the automotive door hinges market is the existing competition in the door hinges market. Unorganized players, i.e. small and medium scale companies hold a major share of the market, hence there is intense price pressure which forces players to cut down their profit margin to survive in the competitive market. Over the forecast period, the market may witness forward or backward integration as a significant trend, i.e. automotive component manufacturers may pursue backward integration by acquiring small players.Global Automotive Door Hinges Market: SegmentationThe global automotive door hinges market can be segmented by product type, vehicle type and sales channel.By product type, the automotive door hinges market can be segmented into:Front & Rear Door HingesTailgate HingesHood HingesBy vehicle type, the automotive door hinges market can be segmented into:Passenger CarsLight Commercial VehiclesHeavy Commercial VehiclesBy sales channel, the automotive door hinges market can be segmented into:OEM SalesAftermarket SalesGlobal Automotive Door Hinges Market: Region Wise OutlookBy region, the manufacturing of automotive door hinges will be highly concentrated in major automotive hubs. As per some of the industry participants, majority of demand for door hinges is sourced locally and import/export of automotive door hinges remains limited. However, major automotive component manufacturing hubs, such as China, India, Japan, South Korea, etc. are expected to account for notable import & export over the forecast period. Asia Pacific is expected to hold a dominant market share in the global automotive door hinges market. Following Asia Pacific, Europe and North America are expected to be the next big markets in terms of demand, with U.S., Germany, Spain, the U.K., and France being major contributors to the market growth, as healthy upsurge in vehicle production is expected. Latin America and Middle East & Africa are expected to witness marginal growth, owing to limited automotive production.Request Report TOC @Global Automotive Door Hinges Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of market participants identified in the automotive door hinges market include:Orchid InternationalMidlake Custom HingesGaoming Ligang Precision Casting Co., Ltd.Scissor Doors Inc.Wenzhou Rongan Auto Parts Co., Ltd.Eberhard Manufacturing CompanyABOUT 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 :Saudi Arabia Wednesday pledged to equally develop nuclear capability if its rival Iran goes ahead to get nuclear arsenal following US pullout of the 2015 nuclear agreement.

The kingdoms top diplomat Adel al-Jubeir speaking to CNN indicated that Riyadh will not hesitate to develop its own nuclear arsenal should regional rival Iran resume its nuclear program.

If Iran acquires nuclear capability we will do everything we can to do the same, he said.

The announcement came one day after US President Donald Trump retrieved US from the nuclear pact signed in 2015 between the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. Trump announced to re-impose crippling economic sanctions on Tehran.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) hailed the US decision.

Al-Jubeirs announcement came the same day the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen claimed it intercepted two ballistic missiles over Riyadh launched from Yemen. The missiles were launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels who reportedly claimed responsibility for the action.

Al-Jubeir accused Iran for the attack and pledged a response.

These missiles are Iran-manufactured and delivered to the Houthis. Such behavior is unacceptable. It violates UN Resolutions with regards to ballistic missiles. And the Iranians must be held accountable for this, Al-Jubeir told CNN.

We will find the right way and at the right time to respond to this  We are trying to avoid at all costs direct military action with Iran, but Irans behavior such as this cannot continue. This amounts to a declaration of war.Global and China Worm Gear Market Research Report to 2020 : IMS(GER), Mitsubishi(JP), AMTech(US), KHK(JP)

QYResearchReports

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=742036&type=S

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-and-china-worm-gear-research-report-to-2020.htm/toc

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=742036&type=D

Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global and China Worm Gear Research Report to 2020" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies Worm Gear in Global and China market, focuses on price, sales, revenue of each type in global China. This report also focuses on the sales (consumption), production, import and export of Worm Gear in North America, Japan, Europe, India, Southeast Asia and China, forecast to 2020, from 2015.As competition intensifies, the market players often look for a valuable source of information to have a birds eye view of the prevailing trend. Market intelligence becomes crucial as they aim at strengthening their foothold. The report on the Global and China Worm Gear market provides exactly this for its stakeholders. It offers crucial information on the market for consumers as well as the companies operating therein. It includes refined forecasts and provides insights into growth drivers and restrains that are expected influence the Global and China Worm Gear market between 2018 and 2025. The report is compiled to offer an executive-level blueprint of the market to its stakeholders. It includes information obtained via primary and secondary research. Besides this, the report also includes suggestions from veterans to help companies understand the prevailing dynamics in the Global and China Worm Gear market better.Order a Free Copy of Sample Report @Split by product types, with sales, revenue, market share and price of each type, as well as the types and each type price of key manufacturers, through interviewing key manufacturers, in 2015 and 2016, covering:Single envelope Worm GearDouble envelope Worm GearNon-enveloping worm gearSplit by manufacturers, this report focuses on the sales, price of each type, average price of Worm Gear, revenue and market share, for each manufacturer in 2015 and 2016. Top players, covering:IMS(GER)Mitsubishi(JP)PIC Design(US)Precision Gears, Inc(US)Gear Manufacturing, Inc(US)AMTech(US)AME(US)Split by regions, this report focuses on the sales (consumption), production, import and export of Worm Gear in North America, Japan, Europe, India, Southeast Asia and China, from 2011 to 2020 (forecast), covering:North AmericaEuropeJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaIn order to study the existing vendor landscape, the report profiles some of the most renowned companies in the market. Their strategies and the effect of the same on the Worm Gear market are studied in detail. The report also conducts in-depth analysis to gauge the strength and weaknesses of the enterprises profiled. It also uses industry-leading analytical tools to high opportunities and key threats that the market players are likely to witness during the course of the aforementioned forecast period.In addition, the Global and China Worm Gear market is classified in terms of various parameters. The sub-segments within each category are studied in detail as well. This is done to identify the most lucrative pockets within the market and help companies create strategies accordingly. Furthermore, the Global and China Worm Gear market is segmented in terms of regions. The factors enabling growth in the market across developed as well as emerging nations are discussed at length to present a comprehensive analysis.Obtain Table of Content @Table of Contents1 Worm Gear Overview and Each Type1.1 Product Overview of Worm Gear1.1.1 Definition and Product Scope of Worm Gear1.1.2 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Worm Gear 2015-20201.1.3 China Market Size (Value and Volume) of Worm Gear 2015-20201.2 Product Segments and Price of Each Type1.3 Price List (Interviewed) of Each Type for Key Manufacturers in 2015 and 20162 Competition Analysis by Manufacturers in Global and China2.1 Global Market Worm Gear Sales and Share List of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 20162.2 Global Market Worm Gear Revenue and Share List of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 20162.3 Global Worm Gear Average Price List of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 20162.4 China Market Worm Gear Sales and Share List of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 20162.5 China Market Worm Gear Revenue and Share List of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 20163 Sales and Revenue Segments of Each Type 2015 to 20163.1 Global Sales and Revenue Segments of Each Type 2015 to 20163.1.1 Global Sales and Market Share of Each Type 2015 to 20163.1.2 Global Revenue and Market Share of Each Type 2015 to 20163.2 Single envelope Worm Gear Sales and Growth Rate 2015 to 20203.3 Double envelope Worm Gear Sales and Growth Rate 2015 to 20203.4 Non-enveloping worm gear Sales and Growth Rate 2015 to 2020Check Discount For This Report @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Worm GearFigure Global Market Size (Value) of Worm Gear 2015-2020Figure Global Market Size (Volume) of Worm Gear 2015-2020Table Global Market Worm Gear Sales List of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 2016Table Global Market Worm Gear Sales Share List of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 2016Table Global Market Worm Gear Revenue List of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 2016Table Global Market Worm Gear Revenue Share List of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 2016Table Global Worm Gear Average Price List of Key Manufacturers 2015 to 2016About 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China CPVC Pipe Market 2018 Forecast Reports by Key Companies Profile : NIBCO, IPEX, Paradise, LASCO, Astral

QYResearchReports

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1682984&type=S

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/china-cpvc-pipe-market-research-report-2018.htm/toc

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1682984&type=D

Qyresearchreports include new market research report "China CPVC Pipe Market Research Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.The global CPVC Pipe market is valued at XX million USD in 2017 and is expected to reach XX million USD by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.The research report on China China CPVC Pipe market is a comprehensive study of a multitude of variables that are constantly changing its trajectory. Analysts have studied several historical milestones achieved by the China China CPVC Pipe market and compared it to the present-day market condition to map its future. This comparison showcases how weaknesses have been turned to strength and threats into lucrative opportunities. The report presents a fair of aberrations several players operating in the China China CPVC Pipe market have had to take to ensure consistent performance and persistent growth of the market. The publication is a holistic document that includes accurate facts, figures, and copious amounts of coherently arranged data that provide the complete picture.Interpret a Competitive Analysis Report with Free Sample Report :China plays an important role in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2017 and will be xx million USD in 2025, with a CAGR of xx%.This report studies the CPVC Pipe development status and future trend in China, focuses on top players in China, also splits CPVC Pipe by type and by applications, to fully and deeply research and reveal the market general situation and future forecast.The major players in China market includeGeorg Fischer HarvelNIBCOIPEXFIPFluidra GroupAshirvad Pipes(Aliaxis)Charlotte PipeViking GroupTycoGeographically, this report splits the China market into six regions,South ChinaEast ChinaSouthwest ChinaNortheast ChinaNorth ChinaCentral ChinaNorthwest ChinaOn the basis of the end users/application, this report coversChemical ProcessingIndustrial ManufacturingWastewater TreatmentHot and Cold Water DistributionOtherThe detailed explanation of the China China CPVC Pipe market is supplemented with its segmentation on the basis of products, services, application, end users, and geography. With a complete breakdown such as this it is possible to pin point lucrative areas and the ones that could pose as a threat. The report also highlights forces of demand and supply present in the China China CPVC Pipe market that are determining consumption patterns amongst all its end user. To facilitate better understanding, the researchers have aided the readers with market figures and facts, which are both historical in nature and estimates for the coming future. The report also enunciates the nature of the competition in the China China CPVC Pipe market with the help of Porters five forces analysis. It offers players operating in the market a chance to see areas of improvement and potential threats that could be averted.Get more information from Table of Content:Table of Contents1 CPVC Pipe Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of CPVC Pipe1.2 Classification of CPVC Pipe by Product Category1.3 China CPVC Pipe Market by Application/End Users1.4 China CPVC Pipe Market by Region1.5 China Market Size (Sales and Revenue) of CPVC Pipe (2013-2025)1.5.1 China CPVC Pipe Sales (K MT) and Growth Rate (%)(2013-2025)1.5.2 China CPVC Pipe Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (%)(2013-2025)2 China CPVC Pipe Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers2.1 China CPVC Pipe Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 China CPVC Pipe Revenue and Share by Players/Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 China CPVC Pipe Average Price (USD/MT) by Players/Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 China CPVC Pipe Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5 China Players/Manufacturers CPVC Pipe Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product Types3 China CPVC Pipe Sales and Revenue by Region (2013-2018)3.1 China CPVC Pipe Sales (K MT) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 China CPVC Pipe Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 China CPVC Pipe Price (USD/MT) by Regions (2013-2018)Please click the link to avail discount on this report @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Global and China Market Size (Million USD) Comparison (2013-2025)Table CPVC Pipe Sales (K MT) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product TypeFigure South China CPVC Pipe Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure East China CPVC Pipe Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure Southwest China CPVC Pipe Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2025)Figure Northeast China CPVC Pipe 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Phosphorescent Pigments : CAGR of 4.70% during the period from 2017 to 2025 Chemicals Market

Phosphorescent Pigments

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1476679

https://www.researchmoz.us/phosphorescent-pigments-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html/toc

www.researchmoz.us

Press Release - 10 May2018Global Research and Development News --. ."Phosphorescent Pigments Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" with coming years Industries Trends, projections of Global Growth, Major key player and Case study, Review, Share, Size, Effect.' '~ Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market: OverviewPhosphorescence is a process in which energy absorbed by a substance is released slowly in the form of light. Phosphorescent pigments are of the two types: zinc sulphide and strontium aluminate. Zinc sulphide phosphorescent pigments consist of very fine crystals of zinc sulfide; copper is then added to the zinc sulfide as an activator. This allows the crystals to absorb light and slowly emit it over time. Strontium aluminate is the latest Application pigments which is doped with Europium or Dysprosium in order to improve the brightness and the duration of the glow. The main characteristic of phosphorescent pigments is their capacity to absorb, store and emit light. After absorbing light they can glow in the dark for up to twelve hours. In addition the material is stable, non-toxic, has no radioactive additives and has good weatherability.. . Get Sample Report_' '~ Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market: Scope of the StudyThe report estimates and forecasts the Phosphorescent Pigments market on the global, regional, and country levels. The study provides forecast between 2017 and 2025 based on volume (tons) and revenue (US$ Mn) with 2016 as the base year. The report comprises an exhaustive value chain analysis for each of the Product segments. It provides a comprehensive view of the market. Value chain analysis also offers detailed information about value addition at each stage. The study includes drivers and restraints for the Phosphorescent Pigments market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period. The study also provides key market indicators affecting the growth of the market. The report analyzes opportunities in the Phosphorescent Pigments market on the global and regional level. Drivers, restraints, and opportunities mentioned in the report are justified through quantitative and qualitative data. These have been verified through primary and secondary resources. Furthermore, the report analyzes substitute analysis of Phosphorescent Pigments market and global average price trend analysis.The report includes Porters Five Forces Model to determine the degree of competition in the Phosphorescent Pigments market. It comprises qualitative write-up on market attractiveness analysis, wherein products, processes, applications and countries have been analyzed based on attractiveness for each region. Growth rate, market size, raw Process availability, profit margin, impact strength, Application, competition, and other factors (such as environmental and legal) have been evaluated in order to derive the general attractiveness of the market. The report comprises price trend analysis for Phosphorescent Pigments between 2017 and 2025.~ Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market: Research MethodologyThe study provides comprehensive view of the Phosphorescent Pigments market by dividing it into product, application and geography. The Phosphorescent Pigments market has been segmented by application into paints and coatings, plastics, printing inks, textiles, and others.Secondary research sources that were typically referred to include, but were not limited to company websites, financial reports, annual reports, investor presentations, broker reports, and SEC filings. Other sources such as internal and external proprietary databases, statistical databases and market reports, news articles, national government documents, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market have also been referred for the report.In-depth interviews and discussions with wide range of key opinion leaders and industry participants were conducted to compile this research report. Primary research represents the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. Key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents were reviewed for competitive analysis and market understanding. This helped in validating and strengthening secondary research findings. Primary research further helped in developing the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.~ Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market: Regional OutlookRegional segmentation includes the current and forecast of Phosphorescent Pigments in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Key countries such as the U.S., France, Germany, the U.K., China, India, ASEAN, South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil have been included in the study. Market segmentation includes amount of phosphorescent pigment consumed by product, process, and application in all the regions and countries.~ Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market: Competitive OutlookThe report covers detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and profiles of key players operating in the global market. Major players profiled in the report include Nemoto Lumi-Materials Co. Ltd., GloTech International Ltd., Allureglow International, LuminoChem Ltd., Honeywell International Inc., Kremer Pigmente GmbH & Co. KG, and Badger Color Concentrates Inc. etc. Company profiles include attributes such as company overview, number of employees, brand overview, key competitors, business overview, business strategies, recent/key developments, acquisitions, and financial overview (wherever applicable).The Phosphorescent Pigments market has been divided into the following segments.~ Phosphorescent Pigments Market Product AnalysisZinc SulphideStrontium Aluminate~ Phosphorescent Pigment Market- Application AnalysisPaints and CoatingsPlasticsPrinting InksTextilesOthers (Construction materials, toys, glassware)~ Phosphorescent Pigments Market Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeGermanyFranceItalyU.K.SpainRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanASEANRest of Asia PacificLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoRest of Latin AmericaMiddle East & AfricaSouth AfricaGCCRest of Middle East & Africa. . More Clear Details get Table of Contents_' '1. Preface1.1. Report Scope and Market Segmentation1.2. Research Highlights2. Assumptions and Research Methodology2.1. Assumptions and Acronyms Used2.2. Research Methodology3. Executive Summary3.1. Market Size, Indicative (US$ Mn)3.2. Top 3 Trends4. Market Overview4.1. Product Overview4.2. Market Indicators4.3. Drivers and Restraints Snapshot Analysis4.3.1. Drivers4.3.2. Restraints4.3.3. Opportunities4.4. Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecast, 2016-20254.5. Porters Analysis4.5.1. Threat of Substitutes4.5.2. Bargaining Power of Buyers4.5.3. Bargaining Power of Suppliers4.5.4. Threat of New Entrants4.5.5. Degree of Competition4.6. Value Chain Analysis-Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market4.7. Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market: SWOT Analysis4.8. Global PEST Analysis: Phosphorescent Pigments Market4.9. Production Output (2016) : Phosphorescent Pigments Market4.10. Key Customer Analysis5. Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market Value Share Analysis, by Product Type5.1. Introduction5.2. Key Findings5.3. Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecast, by Product5.3.1. Zinc Sulfide5.3.2. Strontium Aluminate5.4. Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market Attractiveness Analysis, by Product Type5.5. Product Comparison6. Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market Value Share Analysis, by Application Type6.1. Introduction6.2. Key Findings6.3. Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecast, by Product6.3.1. Paints and Coatings6.3.2. Plastics6.3.3. Printing Inks6.3.4. Textiles6.3.5. Others6.4. Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market Attractiveness Analysis, by Application Type7. Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market Analysis, by Region7.1. Global Regulatory Scenario7.2. Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecast, Phosphorescent Pigments Market, By Region7.2.1. North America7.2.2. Europe7.2.3. Asia Pacific7.2.4. Latin America7.2.5. Middle East & Africa7.3. Global Phosphorescent Pigments Market Attractiveness Analysis, by Region8. North America Phosphorescent Pigments Market Overview8.1. North America Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecasts, by Product8.2. North America Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecasts, by Application8.3. North America Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecasts, by Country8.3.1. U.S. Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecast, by Product, 2016-20258.3.2. U.S. Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecast, by Application, 2016-20258.3.3. Canada Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecast, by Product, 2016-20258.3.4. Canada Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecast, by Application, 2016-20258.4. North America Phosphorescent Pigments Market Attractiveness Overview8.5. PEST Analysis9. Europe Phosphorescent Pigments Market Overview9.1. Europe Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecasts, by Product9.2. Europe Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecasts, by Application9.3. Europe Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecasts, by Country9.3.1. Germany Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecast, by Product, 2016-20259.3.2. Germany Phosphorescent Pigments Market Size (US$ Mn) and Volume (Tons) Forecast, by Application, 2016-2025Continue.....ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074Global HoReCa Drip Coffee Maker Market Market to Witness Sustained Growth in Coming Years

Market Research Reports Search Engine

https://www.mrrse.com/sample/4329

https://www.mrrse.com/horeca-drip-coffee-maker-market

https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/4329

https://www.mrrse.com/

https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/

An up-to-date research report 2018 has been disclosed by Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) highlighting the title HoReCa Drip Coffee Maker Market - Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2017-2025 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 -0.4% during 2017-2025. The report studies the Global HoReCa Drip Coffee Maker 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.Ask Sample PDF of Report at:Rising millennial population, higher spending on eating-out and increase in per capita food consumption in developing countries are the primary factors leading the global HoReCa drip coffee maker market during the forecast period. The market is also expected to continue being augmented by rising demand for fast food, domestic tourism and expanding young population.The global HoReCa drip coffee maker market is, however, currently restrained by the advent of new technologies and a shift towards pod coffee and capsule coffee consumption trends. Increasing competition among key players is the main challenge for HoReCa drip coffee maker manufacturers. As competition intensifies in the sector with price wars among leading players, industry players are expected to improve the efficiency of their value chain, from inbound logistics to distribution and, to a large extent, marketing and export of products.Revenue generated from HoReCa drip coffee maker market is estimated to be valued at roughly US$365.5 mn by the end of 2017 and is expected to decline at a CAGR of -0.4% over the forecast period. Global HoReCa drip coffee maker market are expected to be valued at approximately US$352.7 mn by the end of 2025.Growing Preference for Pod Coffee Makers to Restrain Global MarketBy HoReCa type, the drip coffee makers is segmented into quick service restaurants and the full service restaurants. Both the segments are likely to be declining in the forecast period due to the rising consumer preference towards pod coffee makers and the automatic drip coffee makers. The rising consumer tastes and preferences is further posing the market to decline in the forecasted period. Lack of time, especially in the quick service restaurants is expected to make the drip coffee makers obsolete items in the near future. Furthermore, as the new and improved coffee makers offer the same results they are expected to gradually replace the conventional drip coffee makers for most the restaurants.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at:On the basis of price point, the HoReCa drip coffee makers market can be segmented into less than US$100, US$100-200, and more than US$200. The market is likely to grow in the developing regions majorly APAC and MEA region where the rising millennial population is giving rise to cafe culture as well as simultaneous demand for fast food.Key Segments CoveredHoReCa TypeQuick Service RestaurantsFast Food RestaurantsCafeteriasCarryout RestaurantsFull Service RestaurantsFine Dining RestaurantsCasual Dining RestaurantsHotel & Club FoodservicePrice PointLess than US$ 100US$ 100-200More than US$ 200RegionNorth AmericaLatin AmericaEuropeAPACMEAAny Query, Ask Our Expert at: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:Attractive Market Opportunities in the Endodontic Reparative Cement Market by 2025

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/20839

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/20839

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

The advent of bio-ceramic technology has lead in revolutionizing endodontic reparative cement material for dental treatment. Endodontic reparative cement is advantageous as they provide good biocompatibility with a high level of osteoconductivity that makes them ideal for endodontic care. Endodontic reparative cement is a bio-ceramic material and variety of them are available in the market such as calcium-enriched mixture (CEM) cement, endosequencer sealer, and root repair materials. Endodontic reparative cement has many additional characteristics such as they take lesser setting time with no staining in tooth, efficient handling, and blocks bacterial leakage.Endodontic reparative cement is widely adopted for dental implants and coating of implants, and timely evolution in them results in an alteration which results in enormous productive changes. Endodontic reparative cement are used in applications such as pulp capping procedure, apexification, apexogenesis, and furcation repair. Variety of bio-ceramics are available, including, alumina and zirconia, bioactive glass, calcium silicates, hydroxyapatite, and many others. Endodontic reparative cement is classified based on characteristics such as bioinert, bioactive, and biodegradable properties.The properties of endodontic reparative cement such as biocompatibility, hermetic seal, formation of strong chemical bonds in tooths vicinity, excellent radiopacity, osteoconductivity, tissue fluid insolubility, and ease in handling, makes them interesting in dentistry applications. In addition, glass ionomer cement is also used in endodontic applications and used as a temporary restoration material during endodontic therapies. Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) is also an endodontic reparative cement and are used in applications such as root-end filling, pulp therapy, perforation repair, and apical barrier formation for teeth.Request for Table of Contents @The market for endodontic reparative cement is primarily driven by increasing number of endodontic procedures or root canal therapy procedure. For instance, more than 15 million root canal therapy procedures are performed every, and approximately 41,000 root canal therapy is performed every day in the U.S. alone. Furthermore, endodontic reparative cement is also adopted in therapy procedures such as pulp capping, pulptomy, apexogenesis, apexification, and root perforation procedures and thereby, impels the growth of endodontic reparative cement market. However, high cost of dental procedures and high risk associated with the procedures are the major obstacles in driving the growth of endodontic reparative cement market.The global endodontic reparative cement market can be segmented on the basis of end-user, and region.On the basis of end user, global endodontic reparative cement market can be segmented as:HospitalsDental ClinicsAmbulatory Surgical CentersOn the basis of region, global endodontic reparative cement market can be segmented as:North AmericaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle East and AfricaEndodontic reparative cement is a bioactive material and are intended for the healing of periapical lesions, and stimulates the formation of bone, periodontal ligament, and cementum, and also permits the growth of cementum layer from its surface directly. External factors such as temperature and humidity and internal factors such as size and distribution of particles of endodontic reparative cement play an important role in determining its effectiveness and properties. The high level of pH in endodontic reparative cement result in damaging membrane and DNA of bacteria and denatures its protein content. Though there are various types of endodontic reparative cement available but they all share similarity in terms of physical, chemical and biological properties.Geographically, global endodontic reparative cement market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. The market in North America is anticipated to show the largest market share for endodontic reparative cement, followed by Europe, owing to the presence of sophisticated dental infrastructure. In addition, proper reimbursement of therapy procedure, and increasing number of endodontic therapy are also driving the market growth of endodontic reparative cement.Request to View Sample of Research Report @The market in Asia-Pacific region is estimated to grow at fastest CAGR over the forecast period owing to the presence of large population base, occupying a large share of the geriatric population, and rising funding from government and private sectors for research and development activities. However, the market in Latin America and Middle East & Africa shows the steady growth during the forecast period.Some of the market participants in the global endodontic reparative cement market are Angelus Industria de Produtos Odontologicos S/A, Septodont Inc., Dentsply Sirona, Innovative BioCeramix, Inc., Brasseler, CJM Engineering, Kerr Corporation, Dentsply Maillefer, Patterson Dental Supply, Inc., Avalon Biomed, Inc., Ivoclar Vivadent, Essential Dental Systems, Pulpdent Corporation, Coltene Group, Roydent Dental Products, Parkell, Inc., and GC America Inc.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:Key Research Findings on Emergency Showers Market Presented for the Period 2018-2027

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=T&rep_id=729

https://www.factmr.com/report/729/emergency-showers-market

https://www.factmr.com/checkout/729/S

https://www.factmr.com/

As per the current market trends and the promising nature of the global emergency showers 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 for Free Sample Report-Steady Growth of the Manufacturing and Warehousing Sectors to Boost Emergency Showers AdoptionThe global market for emergency showers is estimated to remain under the influence of growth in the global manufacturing and warehousing sectors. As per the World Bank, the global economy has improved, and its influence can be witnessed in the transforming manufacturing sector across the globe. Further, the emergence of new SMEs has led to rapid expansion of the warehousing industry. Every manufacturing facility and warehouse where the handling of hazardous chemicals is a routine, the installation of emergency showers is an essential safety feature and a form of first aid. Emergency showers are utilized to remove hazardous chemicals by delivering flushing fluid in sufficient volumes to cause that fluid to cascade over the entire body.Stringent Regulations and Manufacturing of Emergency ShowersThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulates the installation of emergency showers under a general regulatory framework for industries. In August 2016, OSHA has increased the fine by 80% regarding violations for inappropriate or inadequate eyewash and shower equipment. This has resulted in penalty collection worth over US$ 100,000. In addition, design standards for emergency showers are monitored by the American National Standards Institutes (ANSI), ANSI Z358.1 standard, which regulates all aspects starting from performance to location of installation of the emergency showers. Manufacturers are aligning their production to these regulatory standards to gain consumer trust.Trending Emergency Shower System SpecificationsBroadly, emergency showers are classified into plumbed showers and self-contained showers. Drench showers are the most popular, that flush the chemicals off from both, the eyes as well as the face.According to the standards of ANSI as well as OSHA, emergency showers are made of either stainless steel or high impact plastic. Manufacturers are also providing customized material according to end-user application.As industrial infrastructure has transformed, manufacturers have introduced portable emergency showers for locations where plumbed water is unavailable. This is an important introduction that accommodates the needs of changing workplace hazards.Another important feature is a temperature controller that is monitored by thermo sensors, that maintains safe water temperatures suitable for different climatic conditions, especially extremely cold or hot locations.Additional features include sensors with alarms, pH balancer units, and pictorial emergency signs. Although, as per the OSHA standards, emergency shower systems should be open and easily accessible, manufacturers have introduced designs of cabins and curtains in emergency shower systems.The shower accessories segment is one of the important segments that includes all the assembly parts required for proper installation. Along with installation, this segment is also important for the repair and maintenance of emergency showers.The maintenance-free emergency shower system is a new entrant in the market, which has additional features such as waterproof insulation, frost protection, and easy and rapid installation.To know more @ Global Emergency Showers Market, visit The Fourth Industrial Revolution  A Potential Market ChallengeThe world is currently undergoing the fourth industrial revolution - Industry 4.0. This revolution is driven by factors such as smart manufacturing, robotics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT). The automation and robotics trend has enhanced the efficiency as well as quality of manufacturing output by manifold. However, machine learning and automation pose a threat of replacing human workers. As robots can work even in an extreme environment which is unsafe for humans, Industry 4.0 can significantly decline the workforce. This can, in turn, influence the need for safety measures such as emergency showers at manufacturing industries.Key Companies in the Global Emergency Showers MarketKey manufacturers in the global emergency showers market include BRADLEY, Haws, Pratt Safety, Hughes Safety Showers, ATS Global, Super Safety Services, Sellstrom, Carlos Arboles, Acorn Engineering Company, Global Spill Control, BROEN-LAB, B-SAFETY, Core Safety Group, DELABIE, ECOSAFE, Encon Safety Products, Enware, Udyogi, INTERTEC, Guardian Equipment, HEMCO, Krusman Nodduschar, STG, Matcon, GIA Premix, Sigma-Aldrich, Speakman, National Safety Solution, Taheri Enterprises, and Unique Safety Services.Pre-book Global Emergency Showers 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:Corporate Wellness Market Expected to Increase at a CAGR 9.0% through 2016 to 2024

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/asia-pacific-corporate-wellness-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=13988

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=13988

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

The corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific is led by a slew of global and local companies, such as Central Corporate Wellness, ComPsych Corporation, Optum, Inc., JLT Australia (Recovre Group), Truworth Wellness, SOL Wellness, Sodexo, ConneXions Asia, and Bupa Wellness Pty Ltd. Transparency Market Research has observed that the number of companies venturing into this avenue has been steadily rising owing to the growing presence of MNCs in several developing countries.The opportunity in the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific was pegged at US$3.4 bn in 2015 and is expected to be worth US$7.4 bn by the end of 2024 at a strong CAGR of 9.0%. Geographical expansions, expansion of product portfolio, mergers and acquisitions, and investing in extensive wellness programs are some of the key growth strategies adopted by the leading players in the Asia Pacific. For instance, in March 2016, Sodexo signed a 10-year contract with Rio Tinto to expand its operations in Australia.Obtain Report Details @Increase of Non-communicable Diseases Driving Need for Health and Wellness ProgramsThe prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer has increased significantly in Asia Pacific in recent years. The report has found that these diseases account for at least 8.5 million deaths in Southeast Asia each year. Employers are, as a result, driven to promote as well as maintain the health and well-being of their employees and offering corporate wellness programs and services has turned out to be the most effective method of doing so, the lead analyst states. These services not only boost productivity but also reduce overall medical costs.The corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific is also fueled by government support and initiatives, the rising number of white-collar employees, the willingness of employers to invest in wellness programs, and growing health consciousness among the population.Request for Sample Copy of Report @High Cost of Implementation Restricting Widespread AdoptionImplementing corporate wellness programs in organizations is a costly affair and companies need to utilize a certain portion of their budget from the revenue generated, the author of the study comments. Services such as fitness and health risk assessment need high investments and as a result, are cut down by the companies. This restricts the growth of the corporate wellness market.In addition, the inefficient execution of corporate wellness services is a major restraint to the market and is likely to increase costs for the companies.China to Lead APAC Corporate Wellness Market throughout Forecast PeriodBy type of service, the fitness segment led the overall corporate wellness market, accounting for a 38.6% share in 2015, reaching US$2,793.5 mn by 2024. The smoking cessation segment, although the smallest in terms of revenue in 2015, is anticipated to register a strong CAGR of 9.6% during the forecast period. By country, China emerged as the leading revenue generator in 2015 and is projected to retain its position throughout the forecast period. India, on the other hand, is expected to expand at the fastest pace by 2024.Enquiry for discount on this report @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:PACS and RIS Market Expected to Witness a CAGR of 7.0% through 2016 - 2024

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pacs-ris-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1232

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=1232

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

The vendor landscape of the global picture archiving and communication system (PACS) and radiology information system (RIS) market is largely consolidated, with the top five companies holding over 61% of the overall market in 2015, observes Transparency Market Research in a recent report. These leading vendors, namely McKesson Corporation, GE Healthcare, Fujifilm Holdings Corporation, Philips Healthcare, and Siemens Healthineers continue to have a stronghold on the market owing to their vast product portfolios and offerings at reasonable costs.The market is, however, largely fragmented in developed countries as several companies compete for the top spot. The scenario is likely to remain the same in the next few years as well, with entry barriers remaining high for companies to enter the market in developed economies.According to the report, the global PACS and RIS market will expand at a CAGR of 7.0% over the period between 2016 and 2024, rising from a valuation of US$2.2 bn in 2015 to US$3.9 bn by 2024.Obtain Report Details @North America to Account for Lions Share in Global MarketOn the basis of the type of key products in the market, the segment of PACS accounted for the dominant share of more than 82% in 2015. The segment is likely to remain the top-grossing segment over the reports forecast period, expanding at a CAGR of 7.2% over the reports forecast period.From a geographical standpoint, the report states that the market in North America is presently the leading revenue contributor to the global market. The region alone acquired nearly half of the global revenue in 2015. While the regional market is expected to expand at a promising pace and hold a significant portion of the market over the forecast period as well, the market in Asia Pacific is likely to outpace North America and other regional markets in terms of growth pace, registering a CAGR of 8.4% over the forecast period.Request for Sample Copy of Report @Digitization of Healthcare Industry to Spell Growth for MarketThe healthcare industry has witnessed the integration of digital technologies at a rapid pace in the past few years. With more governments realizing the vast benefits of such a move, technological advancements are seeing an increased level of adoption in the healthcare industry. Thus the consecutive rise in usage of PACS and RIS for the more detailed evaluation of the health of patients is expected to emerge as a key driver for the market.The vast rise in the adoption of EHR solutions in hospitals and other healthcare institutions has also led to an increased demand for effective PACS and RIS to enable the effective and convenient accessibility of medical images and healthcare records to healthcare providers and patients. On the flip side, however, the high costs of equipment could emerge as a hindrance for the market, restraining its expansion across cost-sensitive emerging economies to a certain extent.Enquiry for discount on this report @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Global Ride-on Power Trowel Market Research on Demand and Production Statistics, Growth Forecast with Top Companies Analysis Till 2026

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=373

https://www.factmr.com/report/373/ride-on-power-trowel-market

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=D&rep_id=373

https://www.factmr.com/

A freshly compiled business intelligent report, titled Ride-On Power Trowel Market Research Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking: Global Review 2017 to 2026 has been publicized to the vast archive of Fact.MR online repository. This 170-page study delivers all the vital details and information required to know about ride-on power trowels market current as well as future prospects. The analysts of the study have gone through extensive research methodologies in order to generate data and information that reflects the latest market undercurrents and industry trends. For a deeper understanding of the market, a sub-category level analysis has been elaborated, by which readers and investors of the report will able to know that where the market stands to gain.Get A Free Sample Copy of Report@Intensifying demand for high production and superior floating & finishing jobs has been simulating technology improvements. Non-overlapping ride-on power trowels are in high demand among contractors on the back of their superior floating provision and cost-effectiveness. However, lack of operator comfort, and need for regular maintenance of this sophisticated equipment, coupled with the high operation costs are key factors expected to stymie adoption of ride-on power trowels, particularly among small contractors. According to a recent research study compiled by Fact.MR, global ride-on power trowel market will exhibit an average growth throughout the forecast period, 2017 to 2026. Over 33,000 units of ride-on power trowels are estimated to be sold globally by 2026-end.APEJ to Remain Dominant Market for Ride-on power trowelBurgeoning infrastructural development in countries such as India and China, along with rising gross household disposable income of the population will stoke demand for ride-on power trowels in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ). In terms of revenues as well as sales expansion, APEJ is estimated to remain the dominant market for ride-on power trowels, trailed by Europe and North America. Middle East & Africa (MEA), on the other hand, is expected to be the least lucrative market for ride-on power trowels through the forecast period.Ride-on power trowels with 36 inch and 48/9 inch trowelling diameter are anticipated to remain financially rewarding in the global market. In contrast, 59/60 inch diameter ride-on power trowels will remain less lucrative through the forecast period.Competition TrackingMany prominent players are focusing on engineering products, which enable more convenience in operations for extended durations. Emerging players are making significant investments in research & development activities for eating into shares of the market. Opportunities exist for market players with regard to development of advanced ride-on power trowels providing user-friendly controls, optimum operational requirements, and easy maneuverability.Fact.MRs report profiles key players supporting expansion of the global ride-on power trowel market, which include Multiquip, Allen Engineering, Wacker Neuson, Atlas Copco, Parchem Construction, Dragon, Bartell, MBW, Shenhua, Dynamic, Masterpac, and Roadway.Browse Full Report with TOC@Table of Contents:Global Economic OutlookGlobal Ride-On Power Trowel Market  Executive SummaryGlobal Ride-On Power Trowel Market Overview3.1. Introduction3.1.1. Global Ride-On Power Trowel Market Taxonomy3.1.2. Global Ride-On Power Trowel Market Definition3.2. Global Ride-On Power Trowel Market Size (Units) and Forecast, 2012-20263.2.1. Global Ride-On Power Trowel Market Y-o-Y Growth3.3. Global Ride-On Power Trowel Market Dynamics3.4. Supply Chain3.5. Cost Structure3.6. Pricing Analysis3.7. Raw Material Sourcing Strategy and Analysis3.8. Service Provider List3.9. Key Participants Market Presence (Intensity Map) By RegionGlobal Ride-On Power Trowel Market Analysis and Forecast 2012-20264.1. Global Ride-On Power Trowel Market Size and Forecast By Product Type, 2012-20264.1.1. Hydrostatic Ride-on Trowel Market Size and Forecast, 2012-20264.1.1.1. Volume (Units) Comparison, By Region4.1.1.2. Market Share Comparison, By Region4.1.1.3. Y-o-Y growth Comparison, By RegionContinuedBuy This Report Now @About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized industrial 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.MR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comWeb:U.S. Vaccine Market is Projected to Expand at a CAGR of 4.3% from 2014 to 2020

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=553

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=553

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/us-vaccine-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

A vaccine is a biological preparation that delivers active acquired immunity against a particular disease. It is administered either through needle injections, orally, or by aerosol. Vaccination involves the administration of a killed or weakened organism into the body that develops immunity in the body against that organism. Vaccines cause immunization; there are also some diseases that provide immunization after recovery from the disease.Request for Sample Copy of Report @According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), vaccination programs across the U.S. have been successful in the eradication of lethal diseases such as polio, smallpox, and diphtheria, while diseases such as tetanus, rubella, and measles have been largely controlled. Vaccination administered as a preventive measure has helped save the lives of millions of individuals in the U.S.In the U.S., strict regulations imposed by the federal government, which mandate immunization against certain diseases is driving the U.S. vaccines market. Meanwhile, the rising incidence of zoonotic diseases among animals and the high risk of transmitting its associated infection to humans is propelling the growth of the animal vaccines market. Moreover, widespread pet ownership in the country has significantly contributed to the growth of the animal vaccines market in the U.S. Factors such as the rising consumption of poultry and meat products and recent approvals of Prime Pac PRRS+ and Once PMH IN have also bolstered the growth of the U.S. animal vaccine market.On the flip side, the stringent regulatory framework that governs the approval process of vaccines in the U.S. impedes the growth of this market to a certain extent. Moreover, the high cost involved in the research and development of new vaccines will also hamper the growth of this market during the forecast period.Enquiry for discount on this report @The report segments the U.S. vaccine market into human vaccines and animal vaccine to analyze this market during the forecast period. By vaccine type, the U.S. human vaccine market is divided into adult and pediatric vaccines. By antigen, this market is divided into hepatitis, meningococcal, human papillomavirus (HPV), influenza, pneumococcal, combination vaccines, and others.The U.S. market for animal vaccines is segmented into companion animal and livestock vaccines. The companion animal vaccines segment is further sub-segmented into canine and feline. In 2013, canine vaccines held a slightly larger share than feline vaccines due to the higher average cost of canine vaccines.Some of the leading players in the U.S. vaccines market are Novartis International AG, Merck & Co. Inc., Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline plc, and Merck & Co.Report Overview @About UsTransparency Market Research is a next-generation market intelligence provider, offering fact-based solutions to business leaders, consultants, and strategy professionals.Our reports are single-point solutions for businesses to grow, evolve, and mature. Our real-time data collection methods along with ability to track more than one million high growth niche products are aligned with your aims. The detailed and proprietary statistical models used by our analysts offer insights for making right decision in the shortest span of time. For organizations that require specific but comprehensive information we offer customized solutions through adhoc reports. These requests are delivered with the perfect combination of right sense of fact-oriented problem solving methodologies and leveraging existing data repositories.TMR believes that unison of solutions for clients-specific problems with right methodology of research is the key to help enterprises reach right decision.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:As a latest showdown amid the ongoing Gulf crisis, Qatar has pointed an accusing finger at Egypt over claims that Cairo had refused to issue visas to a Qatari delegation to attend Arab League meetings.

According to Qatar state-run news agency QNA, Egyptian officials refused this week to issue visas for the Qatar Media Corporation, which was invited by the Arab League to attend the 91st Ordinary Session of the Standing Committee for Arab Information Ministers and the 49th Ordinary Session of the Council of Arab Information Ministers. The meetings were held May 7 to 9.

Egyptian authorities reportedly said they could only issue one visa.

Egypt is part of the Saudi Arabia-led quartet, which also includes Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The four have since June 2017 severed ties with Qatar over its alleged support for terrorism and warming ties with Iran. Qatar has dismissed the terror related charges.

The quartet cut off ground, sea and air links with the tiny gas-rich Gulf country and imposed visa for Qataris.

This week incident is the first opposition to Qatari participation in the meetings of the Arab League. Doha took part in last month summit of leaders of the Pan-Arab organization though it only fielded a low-key delegation.

Qatar Media Corporations Media Consultant Abdulrahman Nasser Al Obaidan told QNA that Egypt, since the beginning of the crisis, has been impeding Qatari participation in all Arab League meetings. Cairo is the seat of the organization.Retinal Surgery Devices Market Revenue Valuation will Reach Around US$ 2.01 Billion by 2020

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=4152

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=4152

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/retinal-surgery-devices-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

The global retinal surgery devices market could demonstrate a fragmented nature in the coming years, owing to the existence of developing and also established players in the industry. A report authored by Transparency Market Research (TMR) has prognosticated the market to be marked by the presence of top-level players such as Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Alcon, Inc., IRIDEX Corporation, Synergetics, Inc., and Bausch + Lomb Incorporated. Most prominent companies accounting for a larger share could implement competition sustainability tactics, molding the nature of the market to become highly competitive in future.Request for Sample Copy of Report @As per the statistical analysis of TMR, a revenue valuation of around US$2.01 bn has been anticipated to be obtained by the global retinal surgery devices market in 2020. Despite holding a kings share for retinal surgery devices in the recent past, vitrectomy packs could showcase a faster growth during the course of the forecast.Technologically Advanced Retinal Surgery Devices Allow Effective SurgeriesThe world retinal surgery devices market has been foreseen to be driven by noteworthy technological developments that have been birthing productive surgical choices with reduced healing time. The rising prominence of the application of surgical equipment with a minimally invasive nature could augur well for the growth of the market. Furthermore, the surging percentage of the geriatric population has been envisaged to open up new avenues in the business of retinal surgery devices.More prospects could show face in the world retinal surgery devices market as technological breakthroughs continue to take shape in the coming years. Products such as vitrectomy packs have been forecasted to draw a massive demand for retinal surgery devices on the back of critical advantages such as significant time savings in view of operation startup, bearable overall expenses, and low rate of waste generation per surgery. Applications such as retinal detachment could hike up the growth of the market on account of the crucial use of retinal surgery devices. The augmenting incidence of diabetes worldwide could increase the demand for retinal surgery devices in the treatment of diabetic retinopathy.Enquiry for discount on this report @Expensive Cost of Retinal Surgery Devices Tapers off DemandOne of the noticeable factors that could hinder the rise of the international retinal surgery devices market is high cost. Since the cost of retinal surgery devices is markedly high, the cost of retinal surgeries that require the equipment could also increase. As a result, it has been predicted that the growth of retinal surgeries could increase at a lazy rate in the near future.Nonetheless, the international retinal surgery devices market has been envisioned to be invaded by a multitude of business opportunities as lucrative regions such as Asia Pacific witnessing a robust growth in China and India contribute at a faster rate. Swiftly developing healthcare infrastructure and availability of large labor forces asides improving economy could be some of the factors helping Asia Pacific to birth new prospects in the market. Developing markets such as North America could also up the demand for retinal surgery devices while riding on a growing obese population and greater adoption for use in minimally invasive surgeries.Report Overview @About UsTransparency Market Research is a next-generation market intelligence provider, offering fact-based solutions to business leaders, consultants, and strategy professionals.Our reports are single-point solutions for businesses to grow, evolve, and mature. Our real-time data collection methods along with ability to track more than one million high growth niche products are aligned with your aims. The detailed and proprietary statistical models used by our analysts offer insights for making right decision in the shortest span of time. For organizations that require specific but comprehensive information we offer customized solutions through adhoc reports. These requests are delivered with the perfect combination of right sense of fact-oriented problem solving methodologies and leveraging existing data repositories.TMR believes that unison of solutions for clients-specific problems with right methodology of research is the key to help enterprises reach right decision.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Canada Home Healthcare Market is Growing at a CAGR of 8.9% from 2014 to 2020

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=4898

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=4898

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/canada-home-healthcare-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

According to the report, the Canada home healthcare market is primarily driven by the rising number of patients who suffer from ailments such as diabetes, arthritis, cancer, and multiple chronic diseases. This rising prevalence of diseases, coupled with a growing population of geriatric Canadian citizens, is boosting the Canada home healthcare market at a rapid rate.Request for Sample Copy of Report @Other drivers of the Canada home healthcare market include technological advancements that allow for a more efficient healthcare service that can be delivered at an optimum time, and a growing awareness of citizens towards the Canada home healthcare market and its services.Between the different segments of the Canada home healthcare market according to type, the market is led by diagnostics and monitoring devices, a segment that held over 30% of the market in 2013. This segment is boosted by consistent government efforts taken to increase awareness among citizens regarding the existence of diagnostic and monitoring devices and their benefits.The home mobility segment earned the lowest revenue for the Canada home healthcare market in 2013. This is attributed to the low market cost of the instruments sold in the home mobility segment, such as walkers, crutches, cranes, and rollators.In terms of services, the Canada home healthcare market is led by the segment of telehealth and telemedicine.Enquiry for discount on this report @The segment is progressing at a CAGR of 11.0% by 2020. The telehealth and telemedicine segment generated 2% of the usual revenue recorded in the Canada home healthcare market in 2013. The Canada home healthcare market services are constantly driven by factors such as high cost-effectiveness, easier access to rural locations, and high quality care of patients.From a geographical perspective, the Canada home healthcare market was led by the province of Ontario in 2013. At the same time, the Canada home healthcare market in the Quebec is expected to rise at a rapid CAGR of 9.2%. The report cites increasing population of chronically ill people as the key reason for the high growth rate of the Canada home healthcare market in Quebec.Key players involved in the Canada home healthcare market are Home Care Ontario, The Canadian Home Caress, We Care Health Services, GM Healthcare, 3M Healthcare, Omron Healthcare, and Johnson & Johnson.Report Overview @About UsTransparency Market Research is a next-generation market intelligence provider, offering fact-based solutions to business leaders, consultants, and strategy professionals.Our reports are single-point solutions for businesses to grow, evolve, and mature. Our real-time data collection methods along with ability to track more than one million high growth niche products are aligned with your aims. The detailed and proprietary statistical models used by our analysts offer insights for making right decision in the shortest span of time. For organizations that require specific but comprehensive information we offer customized solutions through adhoc reports. These requests are delivered with the perfect combination of right sense of fact-oriented problem solving methodologies and leveraging existing data repositories.TMR believes that unison of solutions for clients-specific problems with right methodology of research is the key to help enterprises reach right decision.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Global Metal Fabrication Market to Reach around US$ 22,700.6 Mn by 2025; Automation in Metal Fabrication Industry and Diversified End-use Industries Expected to Drive the Metal Fabrication Market

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/metal-fabrication-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=11564

www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

The global metal fabrication market was valued at around US$ 16,824.1 Mn in 2016 and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of over 3.4% from 2017 to 2025, according to a new report published by Transparency Market Research (TMR) titled Metal Fabrication  Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 20172025. Expansion of the global metal fabrication market is driven by rise in demand from construction & automotive companies. The metal fabrication market in North America is expected to expand at a CAGR of over 4.8% during the forecast period. Rise in automation and technological upgrades are likely to propel the metal fabrication market in the region.View Report Preview:Automation in Metal Fabrication Industry and Diversified End-use Industries Expected to Drive the Metal Fabrication MarketRobotics and automation tools are being increasingly used in the metal fabrication industry. Automation is used in metal fabrication to increase efficiency and lower labor costs. Deployment of automated manufacturing systems in the metal fabrication industry helps in making manufacturing facilities safe as all the critical jobs such as welding and cutting are done by robots. Apart from this, automation tools such as laser saws make it easier for fabricators to manufacture precisely cut metal parts. Fabricated metals are used in various end-use industries such as automotive, oil & gas, construction, aerospace, agriculture, consumer products, medical devices, and military & defense. As end-use industries are diversified, effects of cyclical nature of the metal fabrication industry are mitigated.Moreover, various ERP technologies and software are used in the metal fabrication industry. This makes data easily accessible and accelerates the decision-making process in the fabrication industry. Increase in usage of computer aided manufacturing technologies is helping the metal fabrication industry improve operational efficiency and enhance production.Rise in Demand from Construction Industry is Boosting Demand for Metal WeldingIn terms of type, the metal fabrication market can be classified into welding, machining, metal forming, metal shearing, metal cutting, metal folding, metal rolling, metal stamping, and metal punching. Welding is one of the vital services under the purview of metal fabrication. It ranks high among all industrial processes, owing to its necessity in manufacturing of bulldozers, material handling equipment, food-processing machinery, office machinery, cranes, textiles, and papermaking and printing equipment. The metal welding segment is anticipated to account for a major share of the metal fabrication market as it is the most commonly used industrial process. Welding is an integral part of the automotive and construction industries. A large construction and automotive base in developing countries such as China, India, and Japan is expected to increase the use of metal welding during the forecast period.Increasing Urbanization in Developing Economies to Fuel Expansion of the Construction IndustryIn terms of end-use industry, the market can be divided into construction, automotive, manufacturing, energy & power, electronics, and others. The construction segment dominated the metal fabrication market in 2016. The trend is expected to continue during the forecast period. The construction segment is likely to be followed by the automotive segment in terms of market share during the forecast period. The segment is anticipated to hold more than 20% market share in 2016. Expansion of the segment is attributed to the increase in number of cars and rise in population across the globe.Large Customer Base in Developing Countries of Asia Pacific to Create OpportunitiesIn terms of region, the global metal fabrication market can be categorized into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific and Europe hold a prominent share of the metal fabrication market, as most of the construction and automotive companies are well established in these regions. North America also constitutes a significant share of the market. The market in North America is estimated to expand at a rapid pace due to rapid development in automation technologies and research in developed economies such as the U.S. and Canada. The market in Middle East & Africa and Latin American is expected to expand at a slow pace during the forecast period.Request to view Sample Report:Key players operating in the metal fabrication market include ONeal Manufacturing Service, BTD Manufacturing Inc., Ironform Corporation, Mayville Engineering Comp. Inc., and Defiance Metal Products Inc. Companies are heavily investing in the new tools for metal fabrication. For instance, in June 2016, high-precision Mitsubisihi laser cutting carbon dioxide equipment was ordered by Komaspec to cut metals having thickness of up to 16 mm. The newly added capability is anticipated to help the company meet the increase in demand for metal fabrication products.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Global Ion Exchange Resins Market estimated to reach Value of US$ 3,827.6 Mn by 2026, due to Increase in Demand for Municipal and Industrial Water Treatment

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/ion-exchange-resins.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=1076

www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

The global ion exchange resins market is anticipated to register a CAGR of more than 4% from 2018 to 2026, according to a new report by Transparency Market Research (TMR) titled Ion Exchange Resins Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 20182026. Ion exchange resins are chemically inert in nature, cross-linked, and insoluble in water. These resins are polymers usually employed as ion exchange mediums. Ion exchange resins are of seven types: adsorbent resin, chelating resin, weak acid cation resin, strong acid cation resin, weak base anion resin, strong base anion resin, and mixed bed resin. Major applications of ion exchange resins include industrial and municipal water treatment, pharmaceuticals, and water softening.View Report Preview:Increase in Demand for Ion Exchange Resins in Food Processing Applications for Elimination of ContaminantsIncrease in the incidence of food-related disorders has prompted consumers to adopt healthier food habits. According to the recent data published by Centers of Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), a federal agency that conducts health care promotion, about 3,000 people die of food-borne diseases every year. In the backdrop of this, the FDA has started making amendments in the Food Safety Act (Food Safety Modernization Act). Ingredients of food products are required to be of high purity. Sugar, sugar alcohols, high-fructose corn syrup, high-intensity sweeteners, food additives, and nutritionals such as amino acids and organic acids need to meet stringent purity specifications. The need for cost-effective technologies for removal of unwanted molecules propels the demand for ion exchange resins in the food industry. Various applications such as starch sweetener refining, beer sugar refining, sugar cane decolorization, chromatographic separation, amino acid purification, citrus debittering, juice deacidification and decolorization, citric acid and lactic acid production, plant extract and polyphenol recovery, and gelatin de-ashing are propelling the demand for ion exchange resins in the food industry.Extensive use of water in the food industry has resulted in increase in the salinity of water in the existing natural water resources. This is expected to act as a major driving factor for the ion exchange resins market in the next few years. However, ion exchange resins are not enough efficient in removing microorganisms such as bacteria from feedwater. Instead, in several cases, they are known to aid the growth of bacteria. Hence, the demineralized water produced as a result of treatment with ion exchange resins needs to be treated with heat or UV radiations or it needs to undergo very fine filtration. This factor is anticipated to hinder the ion exchange resins market during the forecast period. The market player have been showing significant interest in the development of drug delivery systems so as to optimize the drug therapeutics and improve patient compliance. Higher drug loads are likely to be achieved with carboxylic acid resins. Recent advancements in ion exchange resins for drug delivery systems are expected to present lucrative growth opportunities to the global ion exchange resins market during the forecast period.Mixed Bed Resin, Industrial Water Treatment, and Pharmaceuticals anticipated to be among Dominant Segments during the Forecast PeriodAmong products, mixed bed resins has been a dominant segment, in terms of value as well as volume, for the last few years and the trend is likely to continue during the forecast period also. The segment is expected to be followed by the adsorbent resin segment between 2018 and 2026. Ion exchange resins are utilized in order to obtain high-quality industrial water. The industrial water treatment segment held a major share of the global ion exchange resins market in 2017, in terms of volume. However, in terms of revenue, the pharmaceuticals segment held a major share of the ion exchange resins market and is anticipated to continue its dominance during the forecast period.Growth of End-user Industries such as Pharmaceutical, Mining, and Nuclear Power anticipated to drive Market in North AmericaNorth America held more than 30% share of the global ion exchange resins market in 2017. Growth of end-user industries such as pharmaceutical, mining, and nuclear power in the region is projected to offer lucrative growth opportunities to the ion exchange resins market in North America during the forecast period. Most manufacturers of ion exchange resins such as Lanxess and The Dow Chemical Company have their production facilities in the region. The Dow Chemical Company has a stronger position in the North America market. The chemical industry in Asia Pacific is expected to expand at a moderate pace in the near future. Steady growth of the chemical sector in Asia is anticipated to offer immense growth opportunities to the ion exchange resins market in Asia Pacific in the next few years. ASEAN is also expected to become a lucrative sub-region in terms of manufacture of ion exchange resins in the near future.Request to view Sample Report:Consolidated Market for Ion Exchange Resins with a Few Top Players accounting for more than 40% of Market ShareSome of the key players operating in the global ion exchange resins market are The Dow Chemical Company, Ionic Systems Ltd, Purolite, ResinTech Inc., Lanxess AG, Thermax Limited, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Ion Exchange (India) Limited, Novasep, Evoqua Water Technologies LLC, Finex Oy, and Eichrom Technologies, LLC. The global ion exchange resins market witnesses regular expansion of facilities and innovations in products and technologies by market players. In November 2017, the Dow Chemical Company launched the next generation of ion exchange resins, re-engineered specifically for achieving efficient industrial water treatment. In July 2017, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation started selling river water treatment systems to public and private sectors in Myanmar, where the economic growth is anticipated to drive the demand for safe drinking water.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:NEV Taxi Market - Provides In-Depth Insights Into Companies Threats and Opportunities Likely to Face in Near Future

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=2561

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/2561

Owing to consistent government efforts to promote NEV taxis as a means to reduce air pollution, the NEV taxi market in China is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. The report predicts the market to exhibit growth at a 36.5% CAGR during the forecast period from 2014 to 2020. In-depth analysis of NEV taxi market has been presented in the report, mentioning the key drivers, restraints, latest trends, and future opportunities in the market. To support its analysis of the growth factors for the market, the report collects crucial data related to the market, thereby presenting a comprehensive picture of the overall NEV taxi market in China.Get Brochure For More Industry Insights@The report uses latest research techniques to study the entire value chain of the NEV taxi market. Profiling key market players and using analytical tools such as Porters five forces analysis and SWOT analysis, the report provides detailed information about the vendor landscape of the NEV taxi market.Overview of the NEV Taxi Market in ChinaIn Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Xian, PM2.5 (particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 m) air pollution is a major concern. The concentration levels of PM2.5 in all these cities exceed WHO air quality guidelines. The report points out that to reduce pollution across the nation as well as dependence on foreign oil imports, the Chinese government has been offering high subsidies on the purchase of new energy vehicles. National and regional price subsidies on NEV taxis, with special reference to key cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong have been discussed in the report. The government has also started NEV taxi fleets, which will fuel the growth of the market.Increase in demand for long range new energy vehicles has led battery suppliers to striving to improve the technology behind it. The report provides information on some of the battery suppliers and indicates that advanced technology such as vehicle-to-grid and battery swapping technologies will create a massive opportunity for the NEV taxi market. However, the report indicates that the absence of comprehensive infrastructure along with the high cost of NEV taxis could deter the growth of the market.The report categorizes the NEV taxi market based upon the ownership of the vehicles. A detailed analysis of individually and company-owned NEV taxis has been presented in the report. The NEV taxi market has been also segmented on the basis of range. The report predicts that the short range taxi segment is expected to grow consistently, as commuters prefer short range taxis to travel within a city. The long range taxi segment is predicted to expand thanks to advances in battery technology.Download ToC Of Research Report@Companies mentioned in the research report:Mentioning the competition in China NEV Taxi market, the report points out that BYD Auto Co. Ltd. is the leading player followed by Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co Ltd (JAC). Changan Automobile Co. Ltd, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. Ltd. (BAIC), Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, and Beiqi Foton Motor Co. Ltd., are some of the other key competitors in the market.Market Segmentation on the basis of Ownership:Company OwnedIndividually OwnedMarket Segmentation on the basis of Taxi Range:Short Range NEV TaxisLong Range NEV TaxisAbout Us:-Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact Us:-State Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comRigid Foams Industry Global Production,Growth,Share,Demand and Applications Forecast to 2021

Rigid Foams Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1408425-global-rigid-foams-market-2017-2021

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/1408425-global-rigid-foams-market-2017-2021

WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Rigid Foams Industry Global Production,Growth,Share,Demand and Applications Forecast to 2021.The analysts forecast the global rigid foams market to grow at a CAGR of 6.13% during the period 2017-2021.Rigid foams are highly cross-linked, closed cell, cellular, thermoset plastic of low density. They possess excellent insulating properties due to the low thermal conductivity of the blowing agents contained in the cells. Rigid foam is a type of polymer foam, which can be broadly classified under thermosets and thermoplastics. It is used in a broad range of applications such as building and construction, appliances, and packaging.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global rigid foams market for 2017-2021. 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: Americas APAC EMEAThe report, Global Rigid Foams Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors BASF Covestro Huntsman International Saint-Gobain The Dow Chemical CompanyOther prominent vendors Armacell Europur Foam Partner FXI JSP Rogers Corporation Recticel Ube Industries Vita Group Woodbridge Foam Corporation (The Woodbridge Group) ZotefoamsMarket driver High demand from construction industry For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge Volatility in raw material prices For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Increase in R&D activities For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Report Details @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: Introduction Key market highlights OverviewPART 05: Market landscape Market size and forecast Five forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by type Global rigid foams market by type Global rigid foams market by polyurethane Global rigid foams market by other foamsPART 07: Market segmentation by application Global rigid foams market by application Global rigid foams market for building and construction Global rigid foams market for appliances Global rigid foams market for packaging Global rigid foams market for other applicationsPART 08: Geographical segmentation Global rigid foams market by geography Rigid foams market in APAC Rigid foams market in EMEA Rigid foams market in AmericasPART 09: Decision frameworkPART 10: Drivers and challenges Market drivers Impact of drivers on key geographies Market challenges Impact of challenges on key geographiesPART 11: Market trends Rising investment in construction industry Increase in R&D activities Growing number of manufacturers in APAC Development of environment-friendly rigid foamsPART 12: Vendor landscape Competitive scenario Other prominent vendors BASF Covestro Huntsman International Saint-Gobain The Dow Chemical CompanyContinued..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.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.Convenience Store Software Market Assessment  Latest Global Insights on Trends and Challenges

Convenience Store Software Market

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1047832-global-convenience-store-software-market-3

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1047832-global-convenience-store-software-market-3

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1047832-global-convenience-store-software-market-3

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1047832

Global Convenience Store Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 is latest research study released by HTF MI evaluating the market, highlighting opportunities, risk side analysis, and leveraged with strategic and tactical decision-making support. The study provides information on market trends and development, drivers, capacities, technologies, and on the changing capital structure of the Global Convenience Store Software Market.This report studies the global Convenience Store Software market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global Convenience Store Software market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.Convenience Store Software Market Overview:If you are involved in the Convenience Store Software 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 SMEs, Large Organization & Other, Cloud, SaaS, Web, Mobile - Android Native & Mobile - iOS Native and major players. 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.You can get free access to samples from the report here:Convenience Store Software Market: Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2023Research study is to define market sizes of various segments & countries in previous years and to forecast the values to the next 5-8 years. The report is designed to comprise each qualitative and quantitative elements of the industry facts including: market share, market size (value and volume 2012-17, and forecast to 2023) with admire to each of the areas and countries concerned inside the examination. Furthermore, the report additionally caters the detailed statistics about the vital elements which includes drivers & restraining factors which will define the future growth of the market.Furthermore, the years considered for the study are as follows:Historical year  2013-2017Base year  2018Forecast period**  2018 to 2023 [** unless otherwise stated]Moreover, it will also include the opportunities available in micro markets for stakeholders to invest, detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product services of key players.The designated segments and sub-section of the market are explained below:The Study is segmented by following Product Type: Cloud, SaaS, Web, Mobile - Android Native & Mobile - iOS NativeMajor applications/end-users industry are as follows: SMEs, Large Organization & OtherSome of the key Manufacturers Involved in the Market are  AccuPOS, Service Station Computer Systems, PDI, POS Nation, ADD Systems & DataMaxRead Detailed Index of full Research Study at @For each region, market size and end users are analyzed as well as segment markets by types, applications and companies. If opting for the Global version of Convenience Store Software Market analysis is provided for major regions as follows: North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Key Answers Captured in Study areWhich geography would have better demand for product/services?What are the strategies adopted by big players in the regional market?Which country would see the steep rise in CAGR & year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth?What is the current & expected market size in next five years?What is the market feasibility for long term investment?What opportunity the country would offer for existing and new players in the Convenience Store Software market?What is risk involved for suppliers in the geography?What factors would drive the demand for the product/service in near future?What is the impact analysis of various factors in the Global Convenience Store Software market growth?What are the recent trends in the regional market and how successful they are?Enquire for customization in Report @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Convenience Store Software market.Chapter 1, About Executive Summary to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Global Convenience Store Software market, Applications [SMEs, Large Organization & Other], Market Segment by Regions United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia & India;Chapter 2, objective of the study.Chapter 3, to display Research methodology and techniques.Chapter 4 and 5, to show the Overall Market Analysis, segmentation analysis, characteristics;Chapter 6 and 7, to show the Market size, share and forecast; Five forces analysis (bargaining Power of buyers/suppliers), Threats to new entrants and market condition;Chapter 8 and 9, to show analysis by regional segmentation[United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia & India ], comparison, leading countries and opportunities; Regional Marketing Type Analysis, Supply Chain AnalysisChapter 10, focus on identifying the key industry influencers, overview of decision framework accumulated through Industry experts and strategic decision makers;Chapter 11 and 12, Market Trend Analysis, Drivers, Challenges by consumer behaviour, Marketing Channels and demand & supply.Chapter 13 and 14, describe about the vendor landscape (classification and Market Positioning)Chapter 15, deals with Global Convenience Store Software Market sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Buy this research report @Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia or Oceania [Australia and New Zealand].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Facial Recognition Technology Market Analysis & New Technological Innovation by Leading Players- Aware, Ayonix, Cognitec, Keylemon

Facial Recognition Technology Market Analysis to2023

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1139782-global-facial-recognition-technology-market-1

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1139782-global-facial-recognition-technology-market-1

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1139782

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1139782-global-facial-recognition-technology-market-1

HTF MI recently introduced Global Facial Recognition Technology Market study with in-depth overview, describing about the Product / Industry Scope and elaborates market outlook and status to 2023. At present, the market is developing its presence and some of the key players from the complete study are Aware, Ayonix, Cognitec Systems, Keylemon, Nviso, Herta Security, Techno Brain, Neurotechnology, Daon, Animetrics, 3M, Idemia & Gemalto etc. The market Study is segmented by key regions which is accelerating the marketization.Request Sample of Global Facial Recognition Technology Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 @:This report studies the Global Facial Recognition Technology market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the Global Facial Recognition Technology market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.Browse 100+ market data Tables and Figures spread through Pages and in-depth TOC on " Facial Recognition Technology Market by Type (2D Facial Recognition, 3D Facial Recognition & Thermal Face Recognition), by End-Users/Application (Security, Military, Medical, Financial Services & Other), Organization Size, Industry, and Region - Forecast to 2023". Early buyers will receive 10% customization on comprehensive study.In order to get a deeper view of Market Size, competitive landscape is provided i.e. Revenue (Million USD) by Players (2013-2018), Revenue Market Share (%) by Players (2013-2018) and further a qualitative analysis is made towards market concentration rate, product/service differences, new entrants and the technological trends in future.Enquire for customization in Report @Competitive Analysis:The key players are highly focusing innovation in production technologies to improve efficiency and shelf life. The best long-term growth opportunities for this sector can be captured by ensuring ongoing process improvements and financial flexibility to invest in the optimal strategies. Company profile section of players such as Aware, Ayonix, Cognitec Systems, Keylemon, Nviso, Herta Security, Techno Brain, Neurotechnology, Daon, Animetrics, 3M, Idemia & Gemalto includes its basic information like legal name, website, headquarters, its market position, historical background and top 5 closest competitors by Market capitalization / revenue along with contact information. Each player/ manufacturer revenue figures, growth rate and gross profit margin is provided in easy to understand tabular format for past 5 years and a separate section on recent development like mergers, acquisition or any new product/service launch etc.Market Segments:The Global Facial Recognition Technology Market has been divided into type, application, and region.On The Basis Of Type: 2D Facial Recognition, 3D Facial Recognition & Thermal Face Recognition.On The Basis Of Application: Security, Military, Medical, Financial Services & OtherOn The Basis Of Region, this report is segmented into following key geographies, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share, growth rate of Facial Recognition Technology in these regions, from 2013 to 2023 (forecast), covering North America (U.S. & Canada) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Latin America (Brazil, Mexico & Rest of Latin America) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Europe (The U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden & RoE) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Asia-Pacific (China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Rest of Asia) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Middle East & Africa (GCC, South Africa, North Africa, RoMEA) {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Share (%) and Opportunity Analysis} Rest of World {Market Revenue (USD Billion), Growth Analysis (%) and Opportunity Analysis}Buy Single User License of Global Facial Recognition Technology Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 @Have a look at some extracts from Table of ContentIntroduction about Global Industrial Pump Rental Global Facial Recognition Technology Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2017 Facial Recognition Technology Market by Application/End Users Global Facial Recognition Technology Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2013-2023) table defined for each application/end-users like [Security, Military, Medical, Financial Services & Other] Global Facial Recognition Technology Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2023) Facial Recognition Technology Competition by Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application Facial Recognition Technology (Volume, Value and Sales Price) table defined for each geographic region defined. Global Facial Recognition Technology Players/Suppliers Profiles and Sales DataAdditionally Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors list is being provided for each listed manufacturers Market Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018) table for each product type which include 2D Facial Recognition, 3D Facial Recognition & Thermal Face Recognition Facial Recognition Technology Manufacturing Cost Analysis Facial Recognition Technology Key Raw Materials Analysis Facial Recognition Technology Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers, Industrial Chain Analysis Market Forecast (2018-2023) ........and more in complete table of ContentsBrowse for Full Report at:Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road, Edison, NJ USA - 08837sales@htfmarketreport.comPh: +1 (206) 317 1218Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology Market is touching new level a comprehensive study with key Players China Mobile, Huawei Technologies, LM Ericsson

Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology Market

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/1139999-global-long-term-evolution-lte-technology-market-1

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/1139999-global-long-term-evolution-lte-technology-market-1

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/1139999-global-long-term-evolution-lte-technology-market-1

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=1139999

Global Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 is latest research study released by HTF MI evaluating the market, highlighting opportunities, risk side analysis, and leveraged with strategic and tactical decision-making support. The study provides information on market trends and development, drivers, capacities, technologies, and on the changing capital structure of the Global Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology Market.This report studies the global Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology Market Overview:If you are involved in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology 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 M2M and Connected Device, Public Safety LTE, VoLTE, Video on Demand, Defense & Security & Other, LTE FDD, LTE TDD & LTE Advance and major players. 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.You can get free access to samples from the report here:Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology Market: Demand Analysis & Opportunity Outlook 2023Research study is to define market sizes of various segments & countries in previous years and to forecast the values to the next 5-8 years. The report is designed to comprise each qualitative and quantitative elements of the industry facts including: market share, market size (value and volume 2012-17, and forecast to 2023) with admire to each of the areas and countries concerned inside the examination. Furthermore, the report additionally caters the detailed statistics about the vital elements which includes drivers & restraining factors which will define the future growth of the market.Furthermore, the years considered for the study are as follows:Historical year  2013-2017Base year  2018Forecast period**  2018 to 2023 [** unless otherwise stated]Moreover, it will also include the opportunities available in micro markets for stakeholders to invest, detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product services of key players.The designated segments and sub-section of the market are explained below:The Study is segmented by following Product Type: LTE FDD, LTE TDD & LTE AdvanceMajor applications/end-users industry are as follows: M2M and Connected Device, Public Safety LTE, VoLTE, Video on Demand, Defense & Security & OtherSome of the key Manufacturers Involved in the Market are  Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, Huawei Technologies, LM Ericsson, Nokia Solutions and Networks. B.V., NTT DOCOMO, Verizon Communication & Vodafone GroupRead Detailed Index of full Research Study at @For each region, market size and end users are analyzed as well as segment markets by types, applications and companies. If opting for the Global version of Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology Market analysis is provided for major regions as follows: North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.) Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Key Answers Captured in Study areWhich geography would have better demand for product/services?What are the strategies adopted by big players in the regional market?Which country would see the steep rise in CAGR & year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth?What is the current & expected market size in next five years?What is the market feasibility for long term investment?What opportunity the country would offer for existing and new players in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology market?What is risk involved for suppliers in the geography?What factors would drive the demand for the product/service in near future?What is the impact analysis of various factors in the Global Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology market growth?What are the recent trends in the regional market and how successful they are?Enquire for customization in Report @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology market.Chapter 1, About Executive Summary to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Global Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology market, Applications [M2M and Connected Device, Public Safety LTE, VoLTE, Video on Demand, Defense & Security & Other], Market Segment by Regions United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia & India;Chapter 2, objective of the study.Chapter 3, to display Research methodology and techniques.Chapter 4 and 5, to show the Overall Market Analysis, segmentation analysis, characteristics;Chapter 6 and 7, to show the Market size, share and forecast; Five forces analysis (bargaining Power of buyers/suppliers), Threats to new entrants and market condition;Chapter 8 and 9, to show analysis by regional segmentation[United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia & India ], comparison, leading countries and opportunities; Regional Marketing Type Analysis, Supply Chain AnalysisChapter 10, focus on identifying the key industry influencers, overview of decision framework accumulated through Industry experts and strategic decision makers;Chapter 11 and 12, Market Trend Analysis, Drivers, Challenges by consumer behaviour, Marketing Channels and demand & supply.Chapter 13 and 14, describe about the vendor landscape (classification and Market Positioning)Chapter 15, deals with Global Long Term Evolution (LTE) Technology Market sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Buy this research report @Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia or Oceania [Australia and New Zealand].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Agriculture Drone Market: Emerging Trends, New Growth Opportunities

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=40310

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/agriculture-drone-market.htm

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/agriculture-drone-market.html

www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Drones, better known as unmanned aerial vehicle is the aircraft without the human pilot. It has been into existence for long time and are used in various industry including mining, construction, military and agriculture. The agriculture use of drones have recently gained traction after the world started witnessing the tremendous growth in population leading towards the growing demand for food. However, use of such UAV for precision agriculture has been in use since 1990s in some part of Asia-pacific, North America and Europe. These UAV were largely used for spraying pesticides, crops in farm area and are still being used for the same purpose in many parts of the world. The agriculture drone market is therefore the most attractive market that is expected to change the way farming was earlier done.The global agriculture drone market revenue stood at US$ 293.6 Mn in 2016 and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 21.3% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2026.Major factor leading to the growth of agriculture drones market are growing awareness about precision farming, need to enhance the yield and government support to use advance technologies in agriculture. Drones are responsible for generating accurate data that can be helpful for farmers to monitor crop health, reduce the impact of climate change and efficiently detect weed. The drones are also helpful in uniform spraying of crops and pesticide for better result. For instance Yamaha RMAX, which is probably the first UAV crop sprayer which has 28 liter spray tank has proved effective for precise small scale spraying. OPtim Agri drone is the joint project among local government, university and IT Company of Japan that has the capability to identify insects so that it can initiate accurate attack on those areas with chemicals. These benefits, among several others are helping farmers do effective farming.Get PDF Sample of This Report @The global agriculture drone market has been segmented on the basis of type, and application. The type segment has further been categorized into fixed-wing, multi-rotor (also known as quad copter) and hybrid drones. Fixed-Wing type of drones holds the largest market share globally. However, multi-rotor type of drones are expected to display comparatively healthy growth during the forecast period. On the basis of application, the market has been divided as spraying, crop scouting, field mapping and others. Spraying is one of the dominated application globally. Countries around the globe are increasingly using drones for spraying crop, pesticides on the farming filed. Application including field monitoring and crop scouting is expected to gain momentum in coming three to four year when framers across the globe will become familiar with drones and their capabilities.The global agriculture drone market is expected to be driven by the North America region However, Europe is estimated to contribute major share in the overall agriculture drone market, closely followed by Asia Pacific. In Europe, France is anticipated to drive the growth of agriculture drone market. The growing deployment of drone in European countries are largely due to the growing need among countries to enhance the overall farm productivity. The European Union (EU) is also actively working in the direction of deploying drones for farming.Press Releases @In Asia Pacific, countries including Japan, China and Australia are anticipated to drive the growth of agriculture drone market. Japan dominated the market in 2016 and is expected to continue its dominance over the forecast period from 2018 to 2026. China and Australia are expected to grow at a considerable rate. In the rest of Asia Pacific countries including India, New Zealand have witnessed relatively healthy deployment of drones than other Asia-pacific countries.View Our Report @Key vendors in the market are continuously involved in introducing more easy-to-use drones that can effectively cater the needs of farmers. Major players profiled in the global agriculture drone market include Agribotix LLC, Delair Technologies Inc., Honeycomb Corporation, Precision Hawk, Drone AG, Ag Eagle Aerial Systems, Parrot SA, Aerovironment Inc., and DJI Innovate among others.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendationsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Israel Thursday claimed it turned to ashes most Irans military infrastructure sites in Syria and promised greater military response if the Islamic Republic increases its attacks on the Jewish state.

Israel response came after Israel defense forces said that Iran launched a barrage of rockets against Israeli military positions on the Golan Heights, near the Syrian border.

Israel carried out in the early hours of Thursday several air strikes throughout Syria against Irans Revolution Guards positions a little moment after Israeli reports held the Iranian forces responsible for around 20 rocket attacks, which targeted Israeli military position on the Golan Heights.

The air strikes targeted arm depots, Syrian army bases and artilleries including radar and air defense system.

Tel Aviv accuses Iran of using Syria, where Teheran is backing President Bashar al-Assad, as a base to attack Israel.

Thursday morning Defense minister Avigdor Liberman indicated that Israels retaliatory response had destroyed Irans military positions in the conflict-ravaged country.

Liberman pledged a tougher response should Iran try again to attack the Jewish state. If we get rain, you will get a flood, he warned Iran. We will not let Iran use Syria as a base to attack us from.

The Iranian rockets, Liberman noted made no causalities but the army said four rockets landed in Israel and made limited damage to a military base.

The Israeli army has been preparing for a possible Iranian attack after it hit April 29 a Syrian military base, killing 14 people including seven Iranian military officials.

Another military raid blamed on Israel hit Tuesday another Syrian military base reportedly housing Iranian operatives.Registration is limited with only 4 weeks to go for the 2nd Annual Pharmaceutical Microbiology West Coast Event

pharmaceutical microbiology

www.pharma-microbiology-usa.com/pr4

www.pharma-microbiology-usa.com/pr4

www.smi-online.co.uk

SMi Reports: Theres less than 4 weeks left until the 2nd Annual Pharmaceutical Microbiology West Coast conferenceWith less than four weeks to go until the 2nd Annual Pharmaceutical Microbiology West Coast conference, its the last chance to register for the highly anticipated event. The conference will have a focus on providing updates and promoting discussion on the various key challenges and developments within the pharmaceutical microbiology industry.Day one of the two-day event will explore topics and issues related to environmental monitoring, rapid methods and endotoxin testing, data integrity and aseptic processing. Day two will feature presentations on regulatory updates and microbial identification, bioburden testing and contamination control, and the applications of pharmaceutical microbiology and mycoplasma testing.Featured presentations include: Changing a paradigm: developing a roadmap to implementing a real time microbial detection analyzer in pharmaceutical watero Presented by Mike Russ, Manager, QC Microbiology, Genentech Aseptic processing in manufacturingo Presented by William Fleming, Chief Consultant, GXP Consultants Inc Fungal and bacterial spore excursions in cleanrooms  case studieso Presented by Jim Polarine, Senior Technical Service Manager, STERIS Corporation The background and implementation of mycoplasma testingo Presented by Meghan May, Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Microbiology and Infectious Disease, University of New England And many moreThis years event has already proved successful with the return of two previous year sponsors: Biomerieux and Charles River. More sponsors have joined up to support the conference including: Associates of Cape Cod Inc, Bioscience International, Fujifilm Wako Chemicals US Corporation, Mettler Toledo, MilliporeSigma, Novatek, Rapid Micro Biosystems and Roche.With over 15 presentations by leading industry experts, academics and scientific pioneers, places are becoming increasingly limited as the event draws closer. To book your place, view the full agenda and speaker line-up, visit the website at:Interested in sponsoring, exhibiting or speaking at this event?Contact Alia Malick, Director, on +44 (0) 20 827 6168 or email amalick@smi-online.co.ukFor media enquiries, contact Simi Sapal on +44 (0) 20 7827 6000 or ssapal@smi-online.co.ukPharmaceutical Microbiology West Coast7th  8th June 2018Crowne Plaza San Diego, USA#pharmamicrousa---- END ----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. More information can be found at1st Floor1 Westminster Bridge RoadGlobal Film Capacitor Coating Machine Market Forecast 2018-2025 Optorun, Metco, Hitachi, Isys, Leybold

Film Capacitor Coating Machine Market

https://bit.ly/2rygC6y

http://www.qymarketstudy.com/report/global-film-capacitor-coating-machine-market-6864

www.qymarketstudy.com/

QYMarketStudy include new market study "Global Film Capacitor Coating Machine Market" examines the performance of the Film Capacitor Coating Machine market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Film Capacitor Coating Machine market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Film Capacitor Coating Machine market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Global Top Manufacturers Analysis such as Shincron (JP), Optorun (JP), Leybold (Buhler DE), Metco (Oerlikon DE), ULVAX (JP), Showa (JP), Isys (kr), Sulzer (DE), Hitachi (JP), Tec Lighting (US), Ishii Hyoko (JP), Crowntex (TW), Dah Young Vacuum Technology (CN), ProChina Limited (CN), Wenzhou Jianeng Vacuum Plating Equipment Technology (CN), Huicheng Vacuum Technology (CN).The Global Film Capacitor Coating Machine Market 2018 report includes Film Capacitor Coating Machine market Revenue, market Share, Film Capacitor Coating Machine industry volume, market Trends, Film Capacitor Coating Machine Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Film Capacitor Coating Machine Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report:Firstly, the report covers the top Film Capacitor Coating Machine manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Film Capacitor Coating Machine Market By Application such as Equipment, Automotive, Other.Film Capacitor Coating Machine Market By Type such as Automatic, Semi-automatic, Other.Further, the Film Capacitor Coating Machine report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Film Capacitor Coating Machine industry, Film Capacitor Coating Machine industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Film Capacitor Coating Machine Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Film Capacitor Coating Machine 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 Film Capacitor Coating Machine market revenue worldwide.Finally, Film Capacitor Coating Machine 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:3626 North Hall Street (Two Oak Lawn),Suite 610,Dallas, TX 75219, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Web:Email: sales@qymarketstudy.comGlobal Industrial Liquid Filtration Market 2018-2025 Camfil, Donaldson, Alfa Laval, Cummins, Eaton

Industrial Liquid Filtration Market

https://bit.ly/2jOED5g

http://www.qymarketstudy.com/report/global-industrial-liquid-filtration-market-6866

www.qymarketstudy.com/

QYMarketStudy include new market study "Global Industrial Liquid Filtration Market" examines the performance of the Industrial Liquid Filtration market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Industrial Liquid Filtration market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Industrial Liquid Filtration market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Global Top Manufacturers Analysis such as Ahlstrom-Munksjo, Alfa Laval, Camfil, Cummins, Donaldson, Eaton, Filtration Group, Freudenberg, Lenntech, Mann+Hummel, Pall Corporation, Parker Hannifin, Sidco, SPX Flow.The Global Industrial Liquid Filtration Market 2018 report includes Industrial Liquid Filtration market Revenue, market Share, Industrial Liquid Filtration industry volume, market Trends, Industrial Liquid Filtration Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Industrial Liquid Filtration Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report:The regional scope of the study is as follows: North America, United States, Canada, Mexico, Asia-Pacific, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Rest of Asia-Pacific, Europe, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, Russia, Rest of Europe, Central & South America, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, Middle East & Africa, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Rest of Middle East & Africa.Industrial Liquid Filtration Market By Application such as Manufacturing, Power Generation, Oil & Gas, Pharmaceuticals, Metals and Mining.Industrial Liquid Filtration Market By Type such asBy Technology - Pressure Filtration Centrifugal Filtration, Gravity Filtration, Vacuum Filtration, Others.By Product - Filter Press, Bag Filter, Drum Filter, Depth Filter, Others.The Industrial Liquid Filtration report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Industrial Liquid Filtration industry, Industrial Liquid Filtration industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Industrial Liquid Filtration Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Industrial Liquid Filtration capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);Focuses on the key Industrial Liquid Filtration manufacturers, to study the capacity, production, 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 Industrial Liquid Filtration are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersIndustrial Liquid Filtration ManufacturersIndustrial Liquid Filtration Distributors/Traders/WholesalersIndustrial Liquid Filtration Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsThe Industrial Liquid Filtration 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 Industrial Liquid Filtration market revenue worldwide.Finally, Industrial Liquid Filtration 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:3626 North Hall Street (Two Oak Lawn),Suite 610,Dallas, TX 75219, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Web:Email: sales@qymarketstudy.comGlobal Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers Market 2018-2025 Nilfisk, Generac, Karcher, Lavorwash

Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers Market

https://bit.ly/2ryA5Ek

http://www.qymarketstudy.com/report/global-gasoline-driven-high-pressure-washers-market-6867

www.qymarketstudy.com/

QYMarketStudy include new market study "Global Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers Market" examines the performance of the Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Global Top Manufacturers Analysis such as Karcher, Nilfisk, Stihl, Briggs&Stratton, BOSCH, TTI, Generac, Annovi Reverberi (AR), Clearforce, Stanley, Makita, Shanghai Panda, FNA Group, Lavorwash, Himore, Alkota.The Global Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers Market 2018 report includes Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers market Revenue, market Share, Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers industry volume, market Trends, Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report:Firstly, the report covers the top Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers Market By Application such as Household, Commercial, Industry.Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers Market By Type such as Hot Water, Cold Water.Further, the Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers industry, Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers 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 Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers market revenue worldwide.Finally, Gasoline Driven High Pressure Washers 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:3626 North Hall Street (Two Oak Lawn),Suite 610,Dallas, TX 75219, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Web:Email: sales@qymarketstudy.comGlobal Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer Market Forecast 2018-2025 Shimadzu, Rigaku, Olympus Innov-X, Thermo Fisher

Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer Market 2018

https://bit.ly/2jOnAQM

http://www.qymarketstudy.com/report/global-energy-dispersive-xrf-analyzer-market-6871

www.qymarketstudy.com/

QYMarketStudy include new market study "Global Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer Market" examines the performance of the Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Global Top Manufacturers Analysis such as AMETEK, Shimadzu, Thermo Fisher, HORIBA, Olympus Innov-X, Rigaku, Hitachi High-tech, Oxford-Instruments.The Global Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer Market 2018 report includes Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer market Revenue, market Share, Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer industry volume, market Trends, Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report:Firstly, the report covers the top Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.The study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer 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 Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer 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.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersEnergy Dispersive XRF Analyzer ManufacturersEnergy Dispersive XRF Analyzer Distributors/Traders/WholesalersEnergy Dispersive XRF Analyzer Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsEnergy Dispersive XRF Analyzer Market By Application such as Pharmaceutical, Environmental, Mining Industry, Others.Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer Market By Type such as 50W.Further, the Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer industry, Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer 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 Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer market revenue worldwide.Finally, Energy Dispersive XRF Analyzer 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:3626 North Hall Street (Two Oak Lawn),Suite 610,Dallas, TX 75219, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Web:Email: sales@qymarketstudy.comGlobal Turboexpander Market Forecast 2018-2025 Cryostar, Turbogaz, Samsung, Atlas Copco, Hangyang Group

Turboexpander Market

https://bit.ly/2IcAfHQ

http://www.qymarketstudy.com/report/global-turboexpander-market-6880

www.qymarketstudy.com/

QYMarketStudy include new market study "Global Turboexpander Market" examines the performance of the Turboexpander market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Turboexpander market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Turboexpander market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Global Top Manufacturers Analysis such as Atlas Copco, GE oil&gas, Cryostar, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., ACD, Turbogaz, RMG, L.A. Turbine, MES, Samsung, SHAANXI BLOWER GROUP, Sichuan Air Separation Group, HNEC, Hangyang Group, Haerbin Beifang Equipment, Sichuan Jianyang Ruite Machinery, Suzhou West of Cryogenic Equipment, HUAYU.The Global Turboexpander Market 2018 report includes Turboexpander market Revenue, market Share, Turboexpander industry volume, market Trends, Turboexpander Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Turboexpander Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report:Firstly, the report covers the top Turboexpander manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.The study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Turboexpander 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 Turboexpander 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.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Turboexpander are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersTurboexpander ManufacturersTurboexpander Distributors/Traders/WholesalersTurboexpander Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsFurther, the Turboexpander report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Turboexpander industry, Turboexpander industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Turboexpander Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Turboexpander 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 Turboexpander market revenue worldwide.Finally, Turboexpander 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:3626 North Hall Street (Two Oak Lawn),Suite 610,Dallas, TX 75219, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Web:Email: sales@qymarketstudy.comGlobal Automated Hematology Analyzer Market 2018-2025 Beckman Coulter, Horiba, Sinnowa, Sysmex, Gelite

Automated Hematology Analyzer Market

https://bit.ly/2KQSgwX

http://www.qymarketstudy.com/report/global-automated-hematology-analyzer-market-6949

www.qymarketstudy.com/

QYMarketStudy include new market study "Global Automated Hematology Analyzer Market" examines the performance of the Automated Hematology Analyzer market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Automated Hematology Analyzer market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Automated Hematology Analyzer market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Global Top Manufacturers Analysis such as Sysmex Corporation, Beckman Coulter, Inc, Abbott Laboratories, Siemens Healthcare, Horiba, Ltd., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Boule Diagnostics Ab, Mindray Medical International Limited, Nihon Kohden Corporation, Roche Diagnostics, Bayer, Sinnowa, Hui Zhikang, Jinan Hanfang, Gelite.The Global Automated Hematology Analyzer Market 2018 report includes Automated Hematology Analyzer market Revenue, market Share, Automated Hematology Analyzer industry volume, market Trends, Automated Hematology Analyzer Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Automated Hematology Analyzer Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report:Firstly, the report covers the top Automated Hematology Analyzer manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.The study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Automated Hematology Analyzer 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 Automated Hematology Analyzer 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.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Automated Hematology Analyzer are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersAutomated Hematology Analyzer ManufacturersAutomated Hematology Analyzer Distributors/Traders/WholesalersAutomated Hematology Analyzer Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsFurther, the Automated Hematology Analyzer report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Automated Hematology Analyzer industry, Automated Hematology Analyzer industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Automated Hematology Analyzer Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Automated Hematology Analyzer 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 Automated Hematology Analyzer market revenue worldwide.Finally, Automated Hematology Analyzer 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:3626 North Hall Street (Two Oak Lawn),Suite 610,Dallas, TX 75219, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Web:Email: sales@qymarketstudy.comGlobal Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment Market 2018-2025 Novartis, Schering Plough, Bristol Myers Squibb

Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment Market

https://bit.ly/2I9elox

http://www.qymarketstudy.com/report/global-chronic-myelogenous-leukemia-treatment-market-6955

www.qymarketstudy.com/

QYMarketStudy include new market study "Global Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment Market" examines the performance of the Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.Global Top Manufacturers Analysis such as Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, Pfizer, Teva Pharmaceutical, Hoffman-LaRoche, Schering Plough, Other.The Global Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment Market 2018 report includes Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment market Revenue, market Share, Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment industry volume, market Trends, Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report. It shows manufacturing capacity, Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report:Firstly, the report covers the top Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.The study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment sales, value, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025).Focuses on the key Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment 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 Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersChronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment ManufacturersChronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment Distributors/Traders/WholesalersChronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsFurther, the Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment industry, Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment 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 Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment market revenue worldwide.Finally, Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia Treatment 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:3626 North Hall Street (Two Oak Lawn),Suite 610,Dallas, TX 75219, USAContact No. +1-214-661-1669Web:Email: sales@qymarketstudy.comLife Science Reagents Market | SWOT Analysis of Major Market Segments

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1162

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=1162

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/life-sciences-reagents-analytical-reagents.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

A new Transparency Market Research report states that the global Life Science Reagents Market was valued at US$12.4 bn in 2012 and is expected to reach US$25.7 bn by 2019. It is expected to expand at a healthy CAGR of 10.80% from 2013 to 2019. The title of the report is Life Science Reagents Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013 - 2019.According to the report, the global life science reagents market is stimulated by factors such as technological advancements and growing applications of biosciences and biotechnology within the pharmaceuticals and healthcare fields. In addition, the rising prevalence of a number of diseases, along with increasing mortality rates, is also boosting the demand for life science reagents. Furthermore, the rising activities of research and development (R&D) within the field of pharmaceuticals and the increasing initiatives taken by governments in various nations are also augmenting the market for life science reagents. On the other hand, factors such as the soaring requirement of capital investment, absence of skilled labor, and big patent repositories having few market participants may impede the growth of the market in forthcoming years.Request to View Sample of Report -In terms of product type, the life science reagents market is segmented into cell and tissue reagents, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) reagent kits, electrophoresis reagents, flow cytometry reagents, chromatography reagents, electrophoresis reagents, in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) reagents, and others including mass spectroscopy, gene expression reagents, and transfection reagents. Amongst these, the segment of chromatography reagents is the most extensively utilized reagent product type and hold the largest share in the market.The key factor responsible for the dominance of this segment is the broad utilization of chromatography within each and every aspect of product development and research related to biotechnology. In terms of end use, the market is segmented into research and academic institutions, commercial and contract manufacturers, forensic laboratories, and clinical laboratories. Amongst these, the segment of research and academic institutions is the largest life science reagents consumer.Request to View Brochure of Report -On the basis of geography, the market is segmented into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). Amongst these, North America leads the market and is trailed by Europe. On the other hand, Asia Pacific is predicted to exhibit the greatest growth rate in the forecast period due to factors including rising activities of research and development, supportive government policies, and the presence of skilled workers at low labor cost. On the other hand, within RoW, countries such as Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina have been attracting investments from other countries for fuelling the domestic industry for biotechnology, hence boosting the life science reagents market in the region.Abbott Laboratories, Life Technologies, Bio-Rad, and Sigma-Aldrich, among others, are the prime players operating in the market for life science reagents, as stated in the report.View Report -About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Orthopedic Trauma Fixation Devices Market Estimated to Flourish by 2020

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=2155

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=2155

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/orthopedic-trauma-fixation-device-market.html

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

The global Orthopedic Trauma Fixation Device Market is progressing at a CAGR of 7.20% within the forecast period from 2014 to 2020. The market was valued at US$6.1 bn in 2014. By the end of 2020, the global orthopedic trauma fixation device market is expected to reach US$9.3 bn, as explained in a research report released by Transparency Market Research. The report titled Orthopedic Trauma Fixation Devices Market - Global Forecast, Share, Size, Growth and Industry Analysis 2014 - 2020, which is now available on the company website.According to the report, the primary growth driver of the global orthopedic trauma fixation device market is the increasing number of fractures and spot injuries that are being treated around the world. The market also benefits from the greater expenditure rates in the healthcare industry and a practical lack of alternatives available to this market.Request to View Sample of Report -All these factors are expected to boost the global orthopedic trauma fixation device market in the coming years.The global orthopedic trauma fixation device market is, however, impeded by factors such as the absence/inadequacy of health insurance in emerging economies, the chances of incurring a double surgery, and the high cost of operation. The report expects these restraints to act on the global orthopedic trauma fixation device market in order to withhold its maximum growth potential.The reports segmented analysis of the global orthopedic trauma fixation device market shows that, according to the type of fixator, the current leading segment is internal fixators. This segment is also expected to progress at a 6.80% CAGR within the reports forecast period. Within the segment of internal fixators, the sub-segment of plate and screws is the most commonly utilized one. It is expected to progress at a 7.10% CAGR for the same forecast period.In terms of composition, the global orthopedic trauma fixation device market is currently led by bioabsorbable fixators. This segment is expected to advance at an 8.40% CAGR between 2014 and 2020, owing to the increase in the use of bioabsorbable materials by all key players in the global orthopedic trauma fixation device market.Request to View Brochure of Report -The geographical segmentation of the global orthopedic trauma fixation device market shows North America to be the leading region for now. The fastest growing region, however, is expected to be Asia Pacific, which is advancing rapidly thanks to the developing nations of Japan, China, and India. Additionally, other nations from South East Asia along with the Eastern Mediterranean are also showing a rapid adoption rate of orthopedic trauma fixation devices.The key players in the global orthopedic trauma fixation device market are Zimmer Holding Inc., DePuy Synthes, Stryker Corporation, Smith & Nephew, Johnson & Johnson Company, and Orthofix Holding Inc. The report states that in 2013, 47.30% of the global orthopedic trauma fixation device market was held collectively by the two largest players in the market  DePuy Synthes and Johnson & Johnson.View Report -About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:The use of genetic tests aimed at detecting the presence of mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in women with breast cancer is rapidly declining in favor of tests that can detect multiple cancer-associated mutations, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and five other U.S. medical centers.

Some researchers had wondered whether multigene testing, which may identify genetic mutations of uncertain clinical significance, would lead more women to consider prophylactic mastectomies  a surgery in which both breasts are removed to prevent future cancers  out of an abundance of caution. However, the current study did not show an increase in mastectomies associated with testing more genes.

The shift reflects a growing acknowledgement by clinicians that multigene panel tests can yield more clinically useful information for patients and their unaffected relatives, the researchers said.

Overall, multigene panels were about twice as likely as the tests for BRCA1 and BRCA2 to identify disease-associated genetic variants, the study found. However, multigene testing was more likely than the BRCA-only testing to be delayed until after surgery to remove the tumor. This time lag may limit a patients treatment options, the researchers said.

Becoming the norm

In general, multigene panel tests yield more clinically useful results and are rapidly becoming the norm, said Allison Kurian, MD, associate professor of medicine and of health research and policy at Stanford. Newly diagnosed women should ask their doctors whether they may be appropriate candidates for genetic testing. They should also advocate for the opportunity to discuss genetic testing and its implications with an experienced clinician, such as a genetic counselor, in a timely manner.

A paper describing the research will be published May 10 in JAMA Oncology. Kurian is the lead author. Steven Katz, MD, MPH, professor of medicine and of health management and policy at the University of Michigan, is the senior author.

In general, multigene panel tests yield more clinically useful results and are rapidly becoming the norm.

Multigene panel tests are more likely than BRCA-only tests to yield information about both a patient and her family members, who may be unwitting carriers of disease-associated mutations. This is very important because it offers the opportunity for genetically targeted, primary cancer prevention in unaffected relatives, said Kurian, who is a member of the Stanford Cancer Institute. Some prior research has shown that this cascade testing of unaffected relatives is cost-effective, and there are currently several initiatives underway to improve upon the delivery and success rates of cascade testing.

The researchers surveyed over 5,000 women who had been diagnosed with stage-0 to stage-2 breast cancer between 2013 and 2015. They asked the women if theyd had genetic testing, and, if so, who ordered it, when it was performed and what type of tests they underwent. A novel feature of this study was that genetic results came directly from the testing laboratories and were linked to population-based cancer registry data. This data linkage provided substantially greater depth and accuracy of genetic information than in previous studies.

They found that only about one-quarter of the women had received any genetic testing. This number stayed relatively constant throughout the two-year period. However, of those who were tested, the proportion who received multigene panel testing increased steadily over time, from about 26 percent of those tested in early 2013 to about 66 percent in mid-2015. Conversely, the proportion of women who received BRCA-only testing during the same time period decreased from about 74 percent to about 34 percent.

Multigene panel testing was about twice as likely as BRCA-only testing to identify disease-associated mutations. But it was also more likely to reveal mutations of uncertain clinical significance, particularly in racial or ethnic minorities. This disparity is likely due to the fact that most genes were sequenced first in white patients, and the causative effect of variations in other minorities is not clear. This finding emphasizes the need for research in diverse populations to clarify genetic uncertainty and reduce racial disparities in the clarity of genetic test results, the researchers say.

Timing of tests varied

The timing of the tests also varied, the study found. Although the majority of the women tested got their results prior to surgery to remove the tumor, many did not. About 33 percent of women receiving multigene panel testing were tested after surgery, versus about 20 percent of women receiving BRCA-only testing  perhaps due to a recognition by clinicians that interpreting the results of a multigene panel can be complex and requires the expertise of genetic counselors, who are not always rapidly available.

Furthermore, patients and their clinicians may view genetic testing as a lower priority than tumor biology and pathology testing which most directly inform the treatment options, said Katz.

As genetic testing has become more comprehensive and less expensive, we have begun to see a significant problem in terms of the genetic-counselor workforce, Kurian said. More genetic counselors are needed, and they should be integrated into routine cancer care. There is also a need for new care-delivery models that effectively triage appropriate patients to timely genetic counseling.

Researchers from the University of Southern California, Emory University and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center also contributed to the study.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant P01CA163233), the National Cancer Institute and the University of Michigan Cancer Center.

Stanfords departments of Medicine and of Health Research and Policy also supported the work.Neurosurgery Drugs Market: Size, Growth, Trends and 2025 Forecast Report

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=37808

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=37808

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=37808

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Neurosurgery is a surgical specialty concerned with the treatment of disorders and diseases related to the spinal cord, sympathetic and peripheral nervous system, and brain. Medications related to neurosurgical conditions include four drugs: Phenytek, Phenytoin Sodium, Dilantin, and Phenytoin. These are anti-epileptic drug or anticonvulsant. Epilepsy causes recurrent seizures that are unprovoked by neurologic insults or acute systemic. Phenytoin is used to control these seizures by slowing down brain impulses caused by this disorder. Seizures can occur due to bleeding in the brain caused by injuries, brain tumors, or brain surgery. Phenytoin sodium is included under the drug class Hydantoins. Phenytoin is a hydantoin derivative anticonvulsant drug. Phenytoin sodium is used to reduce neuropathic pain, cardiac glycoside intoxication, cardiac arrhythmias, status epilepticus, seizures associated with neurosurgery, absence (petit mal) seizures, partial seizures, and tonic-clonic seizures.Download PDF Brochure of Report:Long-term side effects of cerebellar ataxia and osteopenia, reduce their use by neurologists. Neurosurgery drugs have narrow therapeutic index and zero-order kinetics that makes these drugs to be one of the most difficult antiepileptic drugs to use. Moreover, these drugs are likely to have significant bidirectional drug interactions. Some neurosurgery drugs may cause difficulty in coordinating movements, confusion, headaches, nausea, dizziness, and drowsiness. If these drugs are ingested during pregnancy, they can causing various abnormalities in the baby.The neurosurgery drugs market is driven by the rise in geriatric population with neurological disorders. The Global Campaign against Epilepsy sponsored by the International League against Epilepsy, the International Bureau for Epilepsy, and the World Health Organization advocates using phenobarbital to increase health promotions in low-income countries. This projected to boost the neurosurgery drugs market. According to the book Neurological Disorders, written by Rajesh Pandav, Ramanan Laxminarayan, Vijay Chandra, and others, states that a study conducted in developed countries on people who underwent epilepsy surgery indicated that 58% of them are seizure free, while 10% to 15% people have less frequent seizures, and even if the patients have less or no seizures, medications need to be continued for one to two years. This is projected to support the expansion of the neurosurgery drugs market. Statistics from the World Health Organization suggests that the global burden of neurological diseases was approximately 92 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in 2005 and is estimated to reach 103 million DALYs by the end of 2030. Rapidly increasing burden of neurological diseases is likely to increase the number of neurological surgeries, thereby increasing the demand for neurosurgery drugs.Request to View TOC of Report The neurosurgery drugs market can be segmented based on drug class, disease type, distribution channel, and region. In terms of drug class, the market can be categorized into hydantion anticonvulsants, and group I antiarrhythmics. Based on disease type, the neurosurgery drugs market can be classified into neuropathic pain, cardiac glycoside intoxication, cardiac arrhythmias, status epilepticus, seizures associated with neurosurgery, absence (petit mal) seizures, partial seizures, and tonic-clonic seizures. In terms of the distribution channel, the market can be segmented into retail pharmacies, hospital pharmacies, and online pharmacies.Based on geography, the neurosurgery drugs market can be divided into Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Middle East & Africa. North America accounted for a large share of the market in 2016 owing to the increasing geriatric population and rise in research & development activities. Europe held the second large share of the market in 2016, due to rising stress levels and increasing inclination toward drug addiction for pain relief, which are expected to boost the demand for neurosurgery drugs. The market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to expand at a moderate pace during the forecast period owing to technological advancements and increasing stress levels in developed and developing countries. The market in Middle East & Africa and Latin America is projected to expand during the forecast period due to increasing health promotions in these countries.Key players operating in the neurosurgery drugs market are Pfizer Inc., Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, WOCKHARDT, and Mylan N.V.Request to View Discount About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Colarusso eager for second chance at town government When voters head to the polls next month, one name on the ballot will be familiar to longtime residents of Orchard Park. Janis Colarusso, who served the town previously as...

Tentative budget falls under tax cap For the first time since the passage of the 2017 budget, the town budget for Orchard Park will be under the tax cap. During the afternoon of Sept. 29, the...Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

More people than ever are coming to Oregon, and they're hailing from all over the world.



That's according to new data released this month by Travel Oregon, which shows nearly 30 million overnight visitors came to the state in 2017. That's a 1 percent increase over 2016, and the eight consecutive year of tourism growth.



And while plenty of people from within Oregon and around the region make overnight trips to parks, cities and attractions around the state, state tourism officials are focusing their efforts on attracting the long-haul travelers  international tourists in particular  who tend to inject more money into local economies.



"It's not always about growing visitor volume, it's about growing visitor value," Travel Oregon CEO Todd Davidson said. "If there are things we can do that inspire destination travel we do."



And boy do they. As Oregon's official state tourism agency, Travel Oregon has spent big money on creative and often lavish ad campaigns that are spread far and wide. Its most recent, a fantastical Hayao Miyazaki-inspired ad with the tagline, "only slightly exaggerated"  created by Portland firm Wieden+Kennedy  became a viral sensation.

Don't Edit

The $5 million budget for the campaign may seem like a lot, especially considering Oregon's natural beauty practically sells itself, but the expenditure is a relatively small slice of Travel Oregon's annual $34 million budget, amassed through a 1.8 percent state lodging tax. According to the agency, that money goes toward ensuring international travelers not just come to Oregon in the first place, but leave feeling a special connection to our state as well.



"If somebody comes to Oregon and they go home changed, they're a little bit more Oregonian in their behavior when they return home, whether its Miami or Munich or Manhattan," Davidson said. "They're looking for Oregon wine on the wine list, they're wondering if their favorite corner pub might start carrying their new favorite Oregon craft beer."



That Oregon influence isn't empty hope, it's already happening. Just look at Voodoo Doughnut's massive expansion into Asia, the global reach of local craft brewers, or the recent inclusion of Oregon wine at the White House's recent state dinner for France.



Travel Oregon's campaigns are gorgeous love letters to the state, but they're also a bold attempt to attract farther-flung tourists, who will spend big money while they're here and, hopefully, keep supporting Oregon exports when they get back home.



"Suddenly you realize that the tourism industry is so much more than just the $11.8 billion in direct visitor spending that happens in Oregon now every year," Davidson said. "It's actually the front door to the entire Oregon economy."



Curious where all these travelers are coming from? According to the new economic impact report, these were the top 12 international places sending tourists to Oregon in 2017, rounded to the nearest thousand:

Don't Edit

AP Photo/Renata Brito

12. Brazil

8,100 visitors

Don't Edit

AP Photo/Peter Dejong

11. Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg

12,400 visitors

Don't Edit

AP Photo/Jacques Brinon

10. France

13,300 visitors

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

AP Photo/Leif R Jansson, File

9. Scandinavia

16,400 visitors

Don't Edit

AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

8. South Korea

21,300 visitors

Don't Edit

AP Photo/Marco Ugarte

7. Mexico

24,500 visitors

Don't Edit

AP Photo/Rick Rycroft

6. Australia

29,200 visitors

Don't Edit

AP Photo/Miguel Villagran

5. Germany

34,000 visitors

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

AP Photo/Alastair Grant

4. United Kingdom

45,000 visitors

Don't Edit

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

3. China

67,900 visitors

Don't Edit

AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man

2. Japan

73,100 visitors

Don't Edit

AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

1. Canada

581,700 visitors

Don't Edit

--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB

Don't EditSomehow I discovered the public library and happened on a book called Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif, he recalled in a 2008 autobiographical career retrospective published in the Annual Review of Microbiology. De Kruif describes in colorful detail the microbe hunters Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, Paul Ehrlich, Elie Metchnikoff, and others, who showed that microbes could cause disease.  These microbe hunters became, and remain, my heroes. Their search to understand microbes was to me the most extraordinary adventure that I could imagine. It still is.

As an enterprising 11-year-old, Falkow bartered his time working at the local toy store for a Gilbert Co. Hall of Science microscope with which he caught his first glimpse of the world that would fascinate him for the rest of his life  bacteria swimming in spoiled milk. At the age of 11, I decided to become a bacteriologist, he recalled.

An indifferent high school student, Falkow managed in 1951 to land an acceptance to the University of Maine (he later learned that all out-of-state students were accepted in order to boost the universitys tuition fees) where he faced a bump in the road: I suddenly realized I had fallen in love with a fantasy I had conjured up from a description in a book, he wrote. He threw himself into his studies and cemented his love for microbes when he secured an unpaid summer position at the Newport hospitals clinical laboratory, helping a bacteriologist identify patients infections.

There he first began to understand the delicate dance between pathogenic bacteria and their human hosts. Hed spend the rest of his life trying to map out this intricate choreography and sharing his enthusiasm with students.

I never thought bacteria were that interesting until I heard all the things Stanley told me they could do, Amieva said. He was so charismatic and told all these stories about being on the side of the microbes. Some people say that Stanley himself was infectious  his personality and humor could hook you and draw you in. I found myself wanting to know more, which is why Ive focused my research on infectious diseases.

Dealing with anxiety

In 1955, Falkow started graduate school at the University of Michigan, but recurrent panic attacks soon caused him to drop out and return to his hospital job. Although he successfully completed graduate school and then postdoctoral studies  first at Brown University and subsequently at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research  his ongoing anxiety and developing agoraphobia, about which he spoke freely, colored his early professional life. He described living [his] life both scientifically and personally in a kind of cocoon, always half-afraid and ready at a moments notice to run. A colleague at the hospital taught him how to fly fish in an attempt to alleviate his anxiety, sparking a lifelong love.

When I first met Stan as a graduate student at Georgetown in 1967, he would come straight to the lab from his home or therapy and stay all day, Tompkins said. He would send us out for sandwiches so he wouldnt have to leave.

In graduate school, Falkow discovered a new way that bacteria could transmit certain traits to one another through the transfer of plasmids, which are separate from bacterial chromosomes. One of these plasmid-transferrable traits was, crucially, the ability to break down compounds that would normally kill the bacterial cell.

Now at Georgetown, he and his students investigated the molecular basis of how plasmids encoding these antibiotic resistance factors, or R-factors, were transmitted between individual bacterium.

My feeling when that first molecule came into view remains one of the most exciting moments in my scientific life.

It was there that Falkow also discovered his love of teaching and mentoring, a skill he cultivated throughout his life. The mentors role is that of an advisor or counselor, he wrote in his retrospective. It cannot be a friendship in the usual sense of the word nor can it be paternalistic.  It requires absolute honesty and trust. Many generations of students would benefit from Falkows careful attention to this role.

Stanley was incredibly gifted in his ability to bring out the best in people, Amieva recalled. I try to think about his generosity to me and emulate that with my students.

Denise Monack, PhD, is one such example. For 14 years, she worked as Falkows lab manager at Stanford, working and publishing alongside his many graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. But Falkow was concerned about her future. She was able to publish, but she was stuck here, and there was no way for her to advance in the system, he said in a 2017 article about his mentorship skills. She was basically giving away a lot of her knowledge and her skill to other people.

Monack recounted, He said, You know, Denise, I really think you, in the future, would be happiest if you got your PhD. When I go to the big petri dish in the sky, its going to be hard for you to find another position where you have the freedom that youre used to, and you might be miserable. And I thought about this, and I realized, Hes 100 percent right. Monack is now a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford, with an office next to Falkows.

As Falkows scientific renown began to increase, it became apparent that he would have to overcome his anxiety and fear of flying in order to travel and speak at scientific conferences. In the fall of 1968, he forced himself to attend the Ciba symposium on extrachromosomal elements in London.

I remember it was a very snowy, icy day, Tompkins said. But somehow he got himself to the airport and then went all the way to London. And after that he never stopped traveling.

Public speaking never became easy for Falkow, however. Stanley was more comfortable in many ways around microbes than he was around people, Relman said. He certainly didnt feel he was gifted in his human interactions, although of course he was. We all saw him give talks many times. He would sweat bullets. It was really hard for him, and in some ways this anxiety brought out this kind of self-deprecating humor that made him immensely likable and effective.

One of my greatest joys at Stanford has been teaching a course with Stan, said Justin Sonnenburg, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and immunology. Although he was teaching with three junior faculty (and all of us idolized him), he always just acted like one of the crowd, and was always joking around. He loved calling B.S. on lofty theories that he didnt buy. The only really bad part was having to lecture after him  his lectures were always a lively journey filled with wit and storytelling, and always saturated with brilliant insight that he made really accessible. There was no way to follow that act.

The mechanism of antibiotic resistance

At the Ciba symposium in 1968, Falkow was introduced to the idea that plasmids could transmit not just antibiotic resistance, but also the ability to make toxins that could harm the host cell and cause deadly diarrheal disease in animals and humans. He subsequently showed during his days as a faculty member at the University of Washington in Seattle that the genes that conferred these abilities could be swapped like trading cards between bacterial species to allow the rapid handoff of resistance or virulence in ways that vastly affect human health.

One Saturday morning in 1975, it fell to me to sit down at the microscope to search for the telltale molecule  two identical plasmids except for a single region that would appear as a kinky insertion loop. My feeling when that first molecule came into view remains one of the most exciting moments in my scientific life, he wrote.

After the advent of DNA cloning, Falkow participated in the Asilomar conference of 1975, which was convened to provide guidelines for recombinant DNA experiments in bacteria and plasmids. He was also a member of a Food and Drug Administration committee investigating the routine use of antibiotics in animal feed  a practice which Falkow, knowing the ease with which antibiotic resistance can be transmitted between species, advocated against strongly.

In retrospect, I learned a good deal about the interconnection of our political system with science. I will never forget the times I testified before Congress and I even testified before the city council of Cambridge, Massachusetts. I also learned that I didnt want to do this if I could avoid it. Yet, it is also a scientists responsibility to serve the public's interest, he recalled.

Stanley was often a mediator bringing together people with disparate opinions, said Stanley Cohen, MD, the Kwoh-Ting Li Professor in the School of Medicine at Stanford, who met Falkow in 1966 at Georgetown. We worked closely together as members on many of these committees, and his scientific insight and creativity were always apparent. He had the unique ability to get to the heart of an issue with a humorous statement.

Arriving at Stanford

Partly at Cohens urging, Falkow came to Stanford in 1981 to serve as the chair of microbiology and immunology, where he recruited several young faculty members. In 1983, he and Tompkins were married at Stanfords Memorial Church, and he began a new chapter of his life filled with travel and visits to the symphony and opera. He also began spending time at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, Montana  one of the biosafety level-4 facilities in the United States. There he learned to take electron micrographs of deadly bacteria, such as the plague-causing Yersinia pestis invading animal cells, while also fly-fishing in the evenings and becoming fast friends with Bloom, a fellow fisherman.

Im a virologist, so when I was appointed to be the associate director of the laboratory, I relied a lot on Stanley for advice about microbial and bacterial pathogens. He was both my mentor and my friend, Bloom said. In many ways, he and Lucy became an extra set of grandparents for my two children.

Stans kindness and generosity amazed me, said Fisher, his assistant for 28 years. He treated everyone the same, from the glassware washers to the president of the United States. When he won the National Medal of Science, he wrote a lovely letter to President Obamas science adviser John Holdren expressing how thankful he was to the United States for taking in his fathers family and allowing his father, who served in the military, to become a citizen. Stan went to a land grant college, and his work and that of his students has been supported by government funds throughout his career. It was a beautiful, heartfelt sentiment.

Love for his students

In 2004, Falkow was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome and given about two years to live. He devoted what he felt was his remaining time to turning over his research program to his former students Amieva and Monack. But every trainee held a special place in his heart.

When he talked about one of his students, he would nearly cry, Tompkins said. Always. He was so emotionally attached. He got better at suppressing it, but I could always tell that he was tearing up. He was so proud of them all.

Falkow outlived his original prognosis by many years. And he never stopped asking questions and wondering what was around the next bend, whether in the river in which he loved to fish, in the experiments unfolding on the benches of his students or behind the next cloud on the horizon. At 72, he snuck out of his Montana home for flying lessons against Tompkins wishes (she later relented and learned to fly herself as a precaution for when they flew together), and they loved soaring into the big Montana sky. At Stanford, he brought his golden retriever, Honey, to the lab every day and joked that hed learned it was never possible to have enough dogs.

But until the end of his life, maintained his trademark humility, and a vestige of his anxious temperament. He knew that hed been nominated in the past for the Nobel Prize, Tompkins said, and hed get very anxious whenever the universitys communications office would call each October to learn how best to reach him if he were to win. Hed tell me, I absolutely dont want it. Its not who I am; it would change who I am. Id be trotted out all over the place. I do not want it.

He may not have wanted it, but many feel he deserved it. Stans use of molecular genetics to prove the relationships between specific bacterial genes and infectious diseases processes was a massive contribution to biomedicine, Sonnenburg said. The importance to human health of understanding the processes underlying the interactions between pathogens and host cells cant be underestimated.

Four days before he died, Falkow remarked to Tompkins, At least now I wont get the Nobel Prize.

Falkows honors include the 2000 Robert Koch Prize from the Robert Koch Foundation in Germany, considered one of the most prestigious awards in the field of microbiology; election to the National Academy of Medicine, an honorary society whose members are selected by their peers for making major contributions to health, medicine or related fields; membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society, and a former presidency of the American Society of Microbiology.

Falkow is survived by his wife; two daughters, Jill Brooks and Lynn Short; a stepson, Christopher Tompkins; his sister Jeanette Andriesse; and four grandchildren. A celebration of life is being planned for later this month.Dance Theatre Unlimited, the performing and competing dance company of the Dean/Black School of Performing Arts Inc., recently competed and placed at three different dance competitions.

At Nuvo dance competition in Dearborn, the company received gold for the contemporary solo "Heal" and solo lyrical "Silent all these years," gold for ballet group "The Winner Is," hip hop duet "Misdemeanor" and musical theater group "Coffee Break." Ballet recognition awards went to Oliviah Klinski and Gabby Taylor.

At DanceMakers competition in Dearborn, the company received high first place and judges pick for musical theater group, first place and style award for ballet group, first place for contemporary group piece "Waste," and second place and judges pick for hip hop duet. A scholarship went to Jiya Janwani.

At West Coast Dance Explosion competition in Detroit, the company placed first in junior hip hop duet, teen lyrical solo, teen group ballet and teen musical theater. Four stars went to senior contemporary solo, and five stars to teen group contemporary.

Scholarship winners were Oliviah Klinski and Jiya Janwani. Tap recognition award went to Abby Pnacek.

The dancers also took classes during these competitions as well as attended CNADM fall workshop in Chicago and Oakland Dance Festival in Farmington. The dancers took part in several choreographic weekends with guest choreographers Beth Nizza and Alex and Rochelle Black as well as Dean/Black faculty.

The company also attended the American Ballet Theater's performance of Romeo and Juliet and the Moscow Festival Ballet's performance of Sleeping Beauty.

The troupe will also participate in the upcoming high school dance scholarship fund performance May 19 at Bullock Creek High School.

The company will conclude its regular season with a spring performance May 12-13 at MCFTA.

Member dancers are: Oliviah Klinski, Anne Laforet, Abby Pnacek, Jiya Janwani, Macy Such, Teresa Wandor, Jadyn Randolph, Gabby Taylor and Jessica Perz.The John Alden Chapter, NSDAR recently won several awards at the Michigan DAR Spring Awards Day in Lansing. The awards were for the 2017 calendar year. The awards are as follows:

Exemplary Chapter Master Report, American Heritage Award in Literature to Mary Levy, Community Classroom Award, Good Citizens with a Top Ten Winner (Hannah Bartels), Good Citizens 1st Place "Award for Best Report, Good Citizens 1st Place Award for newspaper article highlighting the Cameron Family of Gladwin who has had three family members be Good Citizens, State Librarian Awards for Chapter Book Club Meetings, donations to the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library and for Reading State Book Club Books, Award for Flag Events, Outstanding Media Coverage, Sponsoring a Chapter Training Workshop in Genealogy, Outstanding Service for Veterans Award, Vietnam Commemoration 1st Place, and 2017 Press Book Participation.Julia Tisdale knew what she wanted to pursue, professionally, and where it could take her. The Midland native also knows where she will start her career after graduation last Saturday from Ferris State University with a bachelor of science in construction management.

"I have had eight interviews which resulted in three job offers," Tisdale said. "I wanted to have my decision made by the mid-semester recess, at the end of March. I am excited to be joining the team at Clark Construction, based in Lansing, as they made the best offer across the board with great opportunities."

Tisdale was able to accomplish her goals and manage her finances by arriving at Ferris as a transfer student from Delta College.

"My mother, Selina, is community affairs director for the City of Midland, which allowed me to make a number of contacts in municipal government," Tisdale said. "Ferris' Construction Technology and Management program is among the best in the nation, so it came highly recommended. I toured the Granger Center during a 'Dawg Day' with associate professor Bob Eastley and chose Ferris for my construction management studies. I have never doubted that decision."

Tisdale also accepted the opportunity to augment her studies by participating in internships prior to her junior and senior years, with Lakewood Construction in Grand Rapids in 2016, and Chicago-based Pepper Construction in 2017.

"The College of Engineering Technology and the School of Built Environment are bringing in companies and representatives constantly," Tisdale said. "I know many of our faculty have worked with them and can offer great insight."

Her efforts are not solely focused on advancing her professional prospects. Tisdale has supported Technology Engineering Aptitude, or TEA events, which help middle and high school students, particularly girls, become aware of the opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields.

"I have spoken on a number of student panels and am happy to tell my stories giving other studies advice and thoughts about my experiences," Tisdale said. "Being a female, in what is a male-dominated field, it is great to speak with individuals looking into construction management, or get involved in group discussion. I think it is important to let them know what kind of opportunity is here, at Ferris for them."

Construction Technology and Management faculty and the College of Engineering Technology were instrumental in Julia receiving a Breaking Traditions Merit Award from the Michigan Department of Education, in 2017. She has also been a leader with the Women in Technology campus registered student organization.

"I decided to get involved when I came to campus and joined the executive board during my second year," Tisdale said. "I was glad to have been elected president, and happy to have had a voice in helping to bring changes to our campus organization."

Tisdale made yet another contribution to promote women in the STEM fields and technological workplace, serving as student speaker in April 19 at the third annual "Honoring Women in the College of Engineering Technology" banquet on campus.

"I am glad that Ferris hosts such an event," she said. "Our program takes its roles of promoting diversity and excellence very seriously."To the editor:

An open letter to U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar:

Mr. Moolenaar, we are the members of the Midland Progressive Democrats and also your constituents in Michigans 4th Congressional District. We have become aware of a fundraising mailing that your campaign recently sent out, accusing a far left progressive group in Midland of conducting a dirty smear campaign attempting to link Congressman John Moolenaar to Russian interference instead of having a debate of ideas.

We are assuming that you are referring to the billboard that was put up along US-10 recently which posed the question What is John Moolenaar doing to protect our elections against Russian attack? Ask him!

We are encouraged that this billboard may have gotten your attention on this issue, however, it is concerning that you equate constituents asking a legitimate policy question, of vital concern to all Americans, with a smear campaign.

We are concerned about many issues regarding our elections and Russian interference. Specifically we would like a response on the following issues:

 The Trump administration has not spent $120 million appropriated to the State Department to counter Russian interference in U.S. elections. Why have you not led the charge to ensure the integrity of our election? (Reuters.com Trump administration holds off on new Russia Sanctions, despite law, Jan. 29)

 We would like an update on all actions that you have taken to directly ensure the sanctity of our election process and results. What are you doing to ensure that interference does not occur again? (AOL.com 137 Dems sign letter urging action against Russia, March 10)

 Explain to your constituents exactly where you stand on Robert Muellers investigation and what actions you are willing to take to ensure that the investigation is allowed to go to completion in the face of our presidents threats to remove him from office.

In your fundraising email, you stated that we chose a dirty smear campaign ... instead of having a debate of ideas. We would love to have the debate of ideas that you mention. As a matter of fact, many of our group (and other constituents) have actively lobbied your office to conduct a town hall meeting to accomplish just that.

Please just mention the time, date and location you would like to meet to have such a debate of ideas. We might suggest our monthly Midland Progressive Democrats meeting on the second Thursday of each month, 6:30 p.m., at the Midland County Building Council Room.

BRYAN FISHER

and 13 other members of

Midland Progressive DemocratsThis has been true for quite some time now, as Israel and Iran have been in something of a Cold Wara term that, despite how Western media portrays it, implies bloody conflict, as both our war in Vietnam and the Soviets in Afghanistan prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. Israel has been fighting with Iranian proxies like Hezbollah for as long as Hezbollah has been around, but what changed is that Israel upped the aggression the instant that the United States backed out of the Iran deal on Tuesday, launching air strikes on Iranian targets in Syrias capital, Damascus.

This new war escalated even more yesterday, and continued into this morning.

This is fifth round of Israel strikes on Syria since April 8, but First that are claimed publicly by Israel. Tension rising across the board with Iranian presence in Syria as main trigger for Israel.  Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) May 10, 2018

Israel's military alleged that Iranian forces in the Syrian Golan Heights fired shells at Israeli military targets on the other side of the border, and that the IDF retaliated, but did not provide any further details. As of this writing, no outlet has been able to independently confirm the Israeli military's assertion that Iran attacked them, but there is no dispute that Iran has been building up its forces in Syria over the past half-decade.

The shadow war that Israel and Iran were fighting in Syria has now broken out into the open. Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said their air force had destroyed nearly all Iranian military infrastructure in Syria. Lieberman spoke at a conference in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, and issued a stern warning to Iran: If there is rain on our side, there will be a flood on their side. I hope we have finished with this round and that everybody understood.

The problem is that this is a misreading of history. War begets war. Not to engage in both-sidesism, but it's true here: Israel and Iran have both intentionally escalated tensions, and that's why we find ourselves at this perilous moment. The Iranian Military Guard is its most elite unit, which also acts as something of its own state within Iran, and it has been spreading itself out across Syria. These Israeli strikes seemed designed to roll back that progress made over the course of the Syrian civil war, but it's not like Israel just decided to step in to this conflict yesterday. They have been trying to seize control in this war-torn country as well, as the Intercept reported:

Israel is expanding its influence and control deeper into opposition-held southern Syria, according to multiple sources in the area. After failed attempts to ensure its interests were safeguarded by the major players in the war next door, Israel is pushing to implement the second phase of its safe-zone project  an attempt to expand a buffer ranging out from the occupied Golan Heights deeper into the southern Syrian provinces of Quneitra and Daraa. The safe zone expansion marks a move toward deeper Israeli involvement in Syria's civil war.

The Intercept learned the outlines of the safe-zone expansion plan through a monthslong investigation relying on information from a variety of sources, including Syrian opposition activists on the ground in the south, Syrian opposition figures based in Jordan, Syrian government sources, and an Israeli-American NGO directly involved in the safe-zone project.

The safe zone appears intended to keep the Syrian army and its Iranian and Lebanese allies as far away from Israel's border as possible, as well as solidify Israel's control over the occupied Golan Heights.

The Golan Heights are a disputed area of territory, and in order to fully explain what's going on, we need to take a quick history lesson. First off, here is a map of the Golan Heights, a largely Syrian territory mostly occupied by Israel.

Photo by Wikimedia Commons

Israel was founded in 1948, and immediately found itself at war with Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. There were largely two primary motivations behind this war. One was essentially a response to a breakdown in negotiations at the United Nations and the subsequent establishment of a Jewish state, but not a Palestinian one. The other was ideological, as one of the founders of al-Qaeda, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, told Sir Alec Kirkbride, the British ambassador to Amman that it does not matter how many [Jews] there are. We will sweep them into the sea.

In 1967, Israel and Syria fought the Six-Day War, which resulted in Israel capturing most of the Golan Heights. The ceasefire created a purple line on the border, which did not award the land to Israel, yet established a border between Syria and Israel in Syria. Six years later, Syria would invade during the Yom Kippur War, and both Israel and Syria agreed to pull their forces back to the purple line in 1974. The years since have been characterized by sporadic rocket fire and clashes in the region, as Israel has fought to keep territory they legally did not obtain and cannot presently occupy. The flashpoint for all politics in the Middle East is that Palestinians quite literally are second-class citizens in Israel. If the powers that be wanted to resolve this conflict, they would, but they don't, and that's where the United States comes in.

We have allowed Israel to warp our domestic politics, to the point where we say we are doing them a favor while our actions benefit Saudi Arabia the most (more on that in a second). Israel is a touchy subject for Jews like me, as the history of my people is not too dissimilar from what the Palestinians are going through right now. Pretty much every world power throughout history has tried to extinguish us, and yet here we still standalbeit in far smaller numbers when compared to religions like Christianity or Islam. The basic concept of an ethnostate in general is a bit odious to me, but I completely understand Jews' desire to have a home to call our own after all these years. The problem is that Israel can essentially be explained by one line from The Dark Knight: you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict presents legitimate grievances for every shade of politics. Israel has staged the longest military occupation in modern history, operating as a de facto apartheid state, while bad actors like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard have taken advantage of the position Israel put itself in, and exploited the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for their own gains while threatening a population of 8.5 million packed into a space the size of New Jersey. Israel has no doubt acted as something of a colonizing force in the middle east as the U.S.'s proxy, but they fought so many ideologically-motivated foes during their inception, that a certain amount of legitimate paranoia is now baked into the Jewish project.

What Israel is doing to the Palestinians is immoral, but let's not kid ourselves here: Iran is not waging war through all these proxies to free the Palestinians. If anything, their subjugation helps Iran, as it creates endless amounts of cover to launch various operations against Israel. The war between Iran and Israel is about regional supremacy, and power is the only consideration at stake here. In many ways, Iran and Israel are very similar: youthful populations who are far more progressive and tolerant than their hardline right-wing leaders who maintain an iron grip on politics within their borders. And this is where Saudi Arabia comes in.

Saudi Arabia, Israel and Iran are the three hegemons in the Middle East. Turkey has one foot in both the Middle East and Europe, so we'll leave them out as a unique case right now. Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting a proxy war in Yemen, and the United States is committing war crimes against the Yemeni people in the name of Saudi Arabia's anti-Iranian agenda. We violated the Iran deal, betraying our European allies in order to provide cover for Benjamin Netanyahu to conduct military operations in the wake of his own police force recommending he be indicted. America has warped its own foreign policy to serve two allies who are fighting against our interests. War in Syria is bad for the United States for a myriad of reasons, the most simplistic being that it will increase the price of oil, as it has risen from a little over $40 a barrel to $70 per barrel in the last year as tensions have risen around one of the world's largest oil transportation and production areas.

This escalation in Syria will not end well, and will likely spark further conflict that could devolve into a full-on conflagration between Israel and Iran, or Saudi Arabia and Iran, or the United States and Iran, or the United States and Russia, etc. With so many different hegemons operating in a war-torn country, a catastrophe is almost certain to emerge. War is hell, and we should do whatever we should to avoid it, instead of repeating the same mistakes of the Iraq War with many of the same players.

In Sept 2002, then-former PM Benjamin Netanyahu told US Congress that there was no question whatsoever that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons. He said: I guarantee you that toppling Saddam would have enormous positive reverberations on the region. pic.twitter.com/XNNuCzHdUz  Mick Krever (@mickbk) May 8, 2018

Two transparently corrupt world leaders who are blatantly unfit for office are slow-walking us into a large war with Iran. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are doing everything in their power to prove that maxim true.

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.We leave Microsofts Build developer conference with more questions than answers about the state of Windows, and thats not a good thing.

We wrote rather optimistically about a March reorganization that erased Windows from the roles of senior management. Microsoft never answered the underlying questions that reshuffling posed: Is Microsoft Windows as important as it once was? Is the PC? What will it mean for developers and users, whove enjoyed a steady stream of new features over the past few years, and bought into Microsofts unified vision of Windows phones, tablets and PCs?

These are all valid, important questions that Microsoft could have answered at Build. If you talk to Microsoft representatives, they believe they did. Windows enthusiasts might feel differently.

Instead, Microsoft made a fundamental mistake that experts sometimes do, which is to assume the audience understands the topic as well as they do. Windows appeared, on stage and during a total of thirty sessions, mostly aimed at improving apps for the platform. Otherwise, Microsoft spent Build talking about infusing apps and services with artificial intelligence, and applying fundamental technologies like Windows ML to create intelligent edge devices. Users (and even some developers, I imagine) could be forgiven for wondering: Wheres Windows?

Communication begins at the top

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella had a chance to address Windows. After opening his Build keynote with ethics, AI, and Azure, he set up this scenario: In a single day, Nadella said, youre using multiple devices while working in multiple locations, with multiple people, and interacting with multiple sensors. Phones, tablets, PCs are all able to access a common set of data. Thats the world we already live in, he said.

But then Nadella lost half his audience in four sentences.

We need an operating system, we need a platform, that abstracts the hardware in that level, that creates an app model at that level, Nadella said. Single deviceswill remain important, but this meta-orchestration is what we need to do. We need to up-level even our concept of what an operating system is. So thats what Microsoft 365 does.

Meta-orchestration? Up-leveling an OS?? What does all that even mean?

Nadella didnt even reference Windows, but rather Microsoft 365, a bundle of Windows, Office 365, and mobile management software that Microsoft introduced last September, selling it to enterprises on a contractual basis. To consumers, this is unfamiliar ground: Microsoft 365 sounds like Office 365, not Windows, and suggests some sort of a subscription model for Windows.

Second, Microsoft hasnt reconciled its vision for the future with the realities of what customers need to pay for. Microsofts superb on-stage demonstration of the conference room of the future featured live transcription and translation of what the participants said, in real timebut that capability is delivered by Microsofts Cognitive Services. From a conversation I had with Office 365 director of marketing Rob Howard, it seems like these platform-level capabilities may eventually make their way into shipping products like Microsoft Teamsbut again, that distinction wasnt clear.

Finally, if Rajesh Jha is now leading the Experiences and Devices team that subsumed Windows, it would have been nice to hear from him, too.

Talking around the problem

We know that Windows isnt going away. But thats where the conversation largely ends. The Verge walked into a face-to-face interview with Nadella, asked him point-blank about Windows and its future, and received this abstract answer: So what is conceptually Windows: its always about managing a bunch of hardware resources, whether on the server or on the client, and creating an application model on top of it. We have that now a lot more than ever.

Nadella followed that with a somewhat clearer acknowledgment that while Windows was important, sticking with users beyond traditional Windows platforms was the new priority. The only thing that will matter for Microsoft isserving our users well across all of their devices, Nadella explained. This is not about taking away anything from Windows. If its anything, its adding to Windows the capability to span more devices. he continued.

But again, Nadella pulled in Microsoft 365, so were not confused that our job is to serve our customers who have multiple devices.

Nadellas comments did little to advance the conversation around Windows. Microsofts corporate vice president of communications, Frank Shaw, suggested Microsoft may have over corrected, talking more to developers than to consumers or end users, he said. Microsoft had received feedback at past Build conferences that it had leaned too much toward addressing end users, Shaw said.

We continue to invest in [Windows] experiences that we and our partners make, Shaw added. Thats more of the statement Windows fans hoped to hear at Build.

Windows future is murky

In the run-up to Windows 10, we knew that Microsoft planned a version for PCs, one for phones, one for more esoteric devices like the Surface Hub, and even an OS for the Xbox that included PC-style apps like Microsoft Edge. The ecosystem was clear, defined, and easily understood by developers and users alike.

Since then, UWP apps have offered a chance for apps to run across multiple platforms. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), a new capability enabled by the April 2018 Update, takes that even further, essentially allowing a web app to run on top of Windows. And Microsoft clearly continues to innovate on Windows, delivering new builds as part of its upcoming Windows release, due this fall.

But step too far beyond that, and you risk falling into the yawning void that appears to be Windows future. There were rumors that Microsoft was redesigning Windows, using a Composable Shell (CShell) that will let the OS to stretch or shrink to fit devices of all shapes and sizesessentially rebirthing Windows phones and mobile devices. But weve never heard anything official about it.

We all understand that Microsoft might not want to reveal its roadmap, or that it wanted to focus on innovations like AI. But it had a perfect chance to reassure developers and users alike that the platform Microsoft was built upon, Windows, was still the foundation for its futureor that something even better was waiting in the wings. And Microsoft fumbled the ball.Health official: 'Very pleased with increased interest in getting vaccinated'Georgian Delta and Austrian Rosenbauer Agree to Produce Anti-Fire Vehicles

By Gvantsa Gabekhadze

(TBILISI) - The Georgian Government-owned State Military Scientific-Technical Center-Delta and leading Austrian Rosenbauer Group have agreed to produce new anti-fire vehicles, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili stated last week.We have already announced a tender for the purchase of special, anti-fire vehicles. Also, a very significant agreement has been achieved with the Rosenbauer Group [one of the world's three largest manufacturers of fire-service vehicles, based in Austria], Kvirikashvili stated.Rosenbauer, with the Georgian government-owned State Military Scientific-Technical Center Delta will start producing fire vehicles. The vehicles will be designed as pick-up cars and come with Rosenbauer systems, Kvirikashvili stated.Kvirikashvili said he was expecting the first samples of new vehicles in several months.The PM announced this and other steps will empower the countrys Emergency Management Service and increase efficiency of the service.Kvirikashvili stated that the State Emergency Management Service will be more independent in decision making and additional funds will be spent on the purchase of anti-fire equipment.The Emergency Management Service will be tasked to evaluate threats, make decisions independently and act as a coordinator in emergency situations, Kvirikashvili said.A volunteer system will be established, as well as an alternative military service to provide more staff in emergency situations on time. In order to prevent crises the agency will be tasked to closely cooperate with scientists, Kvirikashvili added.The Emergency Management Service of Georgia was in focus last year, when the country had to cope with more than hundred cases of fires around the country.The opposition grilled the government for not spending money for anti-fire planes and vehicles, as the Emergency Service lacks such equipment.The opposition also criticized the government for low salaries of the Emergency service staff, which is about 200 USD in regions and 350 USD in Tbilisi.In February 2018 the government announced about positive changes for the Emergency Service staff.The amendments read that the Emergency Service employees who have four and more children will receive additional bonuses, no more than 20 percent of their monthly salaries.Those who have four children will be paid 250 GEL ($101) monthly salary supplement; a parent with five kids will receive 375 GEL ($151); the supplement for six kids will amount to 500 GEL ($201); for seven kids and more - 625 ($252) GEL.If the Emergency Service employee receives a grave injury on duty he or she will receive 7,000 GEL ($2,900) one-time financial support from the state budget.For less heavy injuries, the support will reach 4,000 GEL ($1,600), and in case the injury is light, one-time financial support will amount to 2,000 GEL ($800).If the employees marry, they will receive a 1,250GEL ($505) one-time bonus. The same amount is also given In case of having a baby or losing a family member (spouse, child, father or mother).The insurance expenses for the Emergency Service staff, their spouses and underage children, are fully covered by the state budget.The French village of Olargues which will play host to the third round of the 2018 Enduro World Series.

As you look around the mountains surrounding Olargues, it's always raining somewhere off in the distance. Let's just hope it stays that way this weekend.

The 4th stage will wind its way through the streets of the old medieval village in Olargues.

They just don't build cities like they used to.

There are some carbon killers littered about these trails.

It wouldn't be an urban stage without a little wood added in to spice things up a bit.

The top of Stage 4. You might as well pray for no rain while you are waiting for your start time.

The locals are already out testing the fast lines for Stage 4 through the streets of Olargues.

Ric dives into the shared start of stages 5 and 7.

Dave finds the smoothest way through the jagged teeth of stage 7.

The Hoff gets shapely with all one hundred pounds of his gear on his back on stage 7.

Matt Delorme descends through a tunnel of trees on Stage 8.

Stage 3 is a long one and it seems the rock garden goes on forever. This is actually one of the more tame bits as you can actually see a little dirt here and there.

Dropping into Stage 4.

There are some nice loamy fresh sections out there.

Two thumbs up for the conditions in France. Hero dirt in between a variety of rock from top to bottom of every stage.

When it's not rough and rocky there are some super fast sections all covered in perfect grippy dirt.

The 4th stage will wind its way through the streets of the old medieval village in Olargues.

Chris Ball pounds down the boulder field that is Stage 3.

Raise a wheel for round number three!

The Mad Dog decided to get his skin suit on for the cobble streets on stage four.

Stage three, home to about a minute and a half of hand shattering Roman road.

Where the trails have no name. Milky was channeling his inner Bono for media recce.

We are in France so of course there and more tight and rocky switchbacks than you can count.

They said to stay at least 20cm from the walls when the turn the jets on, and Mad Dog Boris is ready to go.

A little mud bath was a good way to prepare just in case it rains on the weekend.

Those showers were a bit of a shock.

Mud baths and mineral baths. Post recce was the most chill vibe we squids have ever witnessed.

Ruaridh Cunningham is tired of hanging around and ready to get going.

It's been an exciting start to the Enduro World Series season thanks to two brand new venues and greatly varied terrain. Round 3 is no exception. Montagnes Du Caroux, in Olargues, France is yet another new venue with new trails that will be sure to provide exciting racing. Nestled in the mountains in the South West of France, Olargues is a quaint medieval village with beautiful bridges and old buildings, Round 3 will consist of eight race stages over 81 kilometers in distance with 3,665 meters of descent, and 57.9 kilometers of liaison featuring 2,576 meters of climbing. The stages here are, for the most part, rough and rocky with your typical tight French-style turns. Stages 2 and 6 offer up some incredible fresh dirt to mix things up and keep it fun. Let's take a look at this new venue and all it has to offer.Transition team rider, Matt Orlando soaring over the hip in Braeburn. Orlando moved up four spots in his race run, placing him in 6th place with a time of 00:02:37.51.

The sun shined through the trees as racers ride through White Knuckle. (Cat 2 Women 0-18.)

Celebrating with friends is Kellen Gary's favorite thing to do after a win.

Jackson Goldstone flew down the trail putting him in the number one spot. Goldstone's time of 00:02:39.37 was less than a second off the top 10. (Cat 1 Men 0-18.)

After many years, the NW Cup has added a new category, Junior Ex Women. The girls have long awaited for this season because up until now, they were in Cat 1 until they were old enough to compete in Pro Women. Now, the best young women can compete at the same level as the Junior Ex men.

Sometimes you just need to take a break...

Roosting the final corner, pro men rider Liam Smillie crosses the finish line during his seeding run. Smillie nearly held the number three spot from his seeding run but finished in 4th with a 00:02:33.73. (Pro Men)

Rocking a bright blue tutu, the Sweetlines riders stand out as both the riders and coaches who sport tutus during their race runs. (Cat 3 Women 11-18.)

Pro Riders, Kintner, Strobel, and Atkinson take a break from practice to spend some time catching up and talking about the trail.

Young ripper, Max Mckenzie let loose during practice. (Cat 3 Men 0-10)

Although Trevor Lewis didn't have the run he was looking for after a "rough weekend of crashes and mechanicals", the pro rider finished with a 00:02:45.68 and still had a great time this weekend. (Pro Men)

With a couple slip-ups in his race run, Mathew Groves came into the last corner with his eyes on the finish line. Cat 2 19-29 had a total of 28 riders competing this weekend. (Cat 2 Men 19-29)

Pro rider Kody Clark coached Jake Stegall after his dad had a gnarly crash at the last round which prevented him from riding.

2017 pro women national champ, Jill Kintner, returned to the PNW to compete this past weekend. Kintner took the outside line on the Lower Pro hip and kept it close to the ground. Placing first in her category with a time of 00:02:49.17, Kintner was ahead of the competition by nearly 3 seconds. (Pro Women)

Magnus Manson scrubs the large hip on Lower Pro. Manson finished with a nearly perfect run and the fastest time on the hill, 00:02:28.64. (Pro Men)

Riders crowded the stage as volunteers handed out tickets for the raffle.

Catching a glimpse of the ocean, West Coast Racing team rider Crabshack throws in a whip during practice on Upper White Knuckle. (Cat 2 Men 40-49)

After a rough crash during practice on Saturday, Cat 1 rider Andrew Boxold finished the race with a 00:02:48.16, putting him in the number two spot. The doctor later diagnosed Boxold with a boxer's fracture and he will be receiving surgery on Friday, May 11th.

The medics were busy as the conditions changed throughout the weekend. But they managed to have some fun in the mud before heading down the hill for the day.

At his second race ever, Johnny Pray finished with a 00:03:20.00, landing him the number 2 podium spot. (Cat 3 Men 15-18.)

Junior Ex Women Podium (left to right) Sydney Haberman, Bryce Bassett, Ella Erickson

Junior Ex Men Podium (left to right) Chris Wharton, Seth Sherlock, Jackson Goldstone, Zach McCracken, Ethan Lieb.

Pro Women podium (left to right) Kerstin Holster, Kyleigh Stewert, Jill Kitner, Sarah Olsen, Kaytlin Melvin.

Pro Men podium (left to right) Liam Smillie, Demetri Triantafillou, Magnus Manson, Luke Strobel, Casper Dean.

Round 2 of the NW Cup was blessed with fantastic conditions once the misty fog on Friday burned off. The jackets were put away, and the shorts came out for the rest of the weekend. With a high of 64 on Saturday and 72 on Sunday, what more could the crowd ask for? As the sun shined, so did the riders. Due to the change in conditions of mud to dust, the riders had a lot to deal with. Nonetheless, the smiles were endless, and the weekend fun continued at the truly dry, Dry Hill.The talk of the weekend was the young Canadian rider, Jackson Goldstone. At only 14 years old, Goldstone is taking over the series one race at a time. This time last year, Jackson was winning his way through Cat 2 0-14. Now he is finishing in the top spot of Junior Ex with times that place him 12th in Pro Men. A common phrase that was passed around the Pros this weekend was you got Jacksoned. People are shocked when they see Jackson flying down the hill merely because of his size. For reference , Trek created a custom extra small bike just for Jackson. But neither his size nor his age is stopping this kid from ripping up the competition.The list of the NW Cup sponsors is ever growing. From Transition to Schwalbe, Nuun to Specialized, every sponsor brings something to the table. Due to the generosity of their sponsors, the NW Cup provided riders with incredible prizes for an exciting raffle at the end of the race. Along with the raffle, Casey Northern and Scott Tucker put on the annual ugly helmet contest. With assistance from sponsor Fox Head, the winner of the ugly helmet contest won a shiny new Rampage Comp helmet. As riders placed their broken and ugly helmets up on stage, Casey held them up one by one. The crowd cheered louder and louder as helmets got eliminated. Down to the final two helmets, the crowd went wild. The winner of the helmet was the young ripper, Elliot Klein. How lucky is he?!For facts from the weekend see below and for all results from the weekend, click here  Round 2 of the NW Cup May 4, 2018  May 6, 2018 Dry Hill, Port Angeles, Washington 419 riders Cat 1 and Pro rode King Diamond to Braeburn to Hecklers Row to Lower Pro to the finish Cat 2 rode Upper White Knuckle to Double Bypass to Lower White Knuckle to the finish Cat 3 rode Muffin Top to Middle White Knuckle to Lower White Knuckle, to the finishFor more photos click hereNearly four decades ago, choreographer Margo Sappington made a long-lasting impression on Gladisa Guadalupe. Back then, Guadalupe was just a 17-year-old member of Venezuelas Ballet Nuevo Mundo de Caracas, and Sappington was choreographing on the company. Guadalupe told a fellow dancer that, someday, when she had her own company, shed have Sappington create a ballet on it.

Guadalupe has kept that promise. Now the artistic director of Cleveland Ballet, a 14-member company launched in 2015, Guadalupe has commissioned the 70-year-old Sappington to create a ballet based on Lewis Carrolls books Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

An original Sappington creation bodes well for the young company. A former Joffrey Ballet dancer, Sappington is also a Tony nominee whos choreographed six Broadway shows and numerous works for ballet companies worldwide. Pointe spoke with Sappington about Alice ahead of its May 1112 premiere at Clevelands Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square.



Prior to this commission, what had you been up to in recent years?

I have been teaching at Steps on Broadway in New York. I also spent two years as artistic director of American Dance Machine for the 21st Century and in 2013 restaged Common People, my William Shatner piece for Kansas City Ballet.

Had you ever done an

Alice in Wonderland ballet in the past?

I had never thought of doing an Alice in Wonderland ballet, but I love to do theatrical things. Alice is a very eccentric story and that is right up my alley.

How are you approaching the ballet?



After seeing the company in October I had an idea of the dancers, what characters I could use and how I could make it different, unusual and specific to Cleveland Ballet. I decided to do the ballet in a circus atmosphere with the action taking place inside a ring.

Why a circus motif?

We dont have a large corps de ballet, so I didnt want to do a typical Alice in Wonderland production. In ours, everything is open; there are no drops or curtains. You will see the stagehands, the lights, and the dancers will be onstage all the time. You see them getting ready in the periphery and then coming into character as they step into the ring.

What else is different?

Things are not as literal as in other productions. The White Rabbit is not in a rabbit costume. All the dancers have a base costume from which they put on and take off hats, jackets and such that match their character. The dancers [when not in character] will be working the props and moving scenery, so the audience will get a behind-the-scenes view. Were not hiding anything.

Is the choreography all classical ballet?



Its all over. Ive choreographed the movement to fit each character. I am not using classical ballet for the Caterpillar because I dont feel he should dance that way. I feel the Caterpillar should be fun.

What music are you using?

Everything from British light classical to popular musicthe Caterpillar uses Ravi Shankar music, the Cheshire Cat uses Cole Porters Begin the Beguine arranged by Esquivel, the White Rabbit uses Mendelssohns Octet and the finale, Offenbachs Can-Can. I chose those pieces because I thought they were quirky like the Alice books.

How has it been working with this young troupe?

Its been wonderful. They jumped right in, and right away they were doing really well which is what I love.((Editors correction of verdict, with additional context: Following letters from several readers, the verdict on this fact check has been changed from False to Misleading. While the initial verdict was directed at Vucics appreciation for Russias veto, and the current Serbian leaders nod toward 1990s propaganda that contributed to ethnic violence and killing, we agree the 20th suffering and death should be acknowledged and highlighted.))

During a meeting in the Kremlin on May 8, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that Serbs are the people who suffered the most over the last century. Vucic thanked Putin for saving Serbia from the stigma of genocide by vetoing a British resolution in the U.N.

The British resolution Vucic referred to was a draft U.N. Security Council resolution proposed jointly by Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland and the United States in 2015 calling for the actions of Serbian troops during the war in the Balkans to be recognized as the crime of genocide, proven war crimes and crimes against humanity.

On July 8, 2015, ten out of fifteen U.N. Security Council members voted for the resolution, four abstained and Russia vetoed it.

Based on documentary evidence, including photos and videos, the U.N. estimated that there were thousands of cases of sexual violence -- with victims on all sides --during the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including at Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb troops executed 8,372 boys and men in just five days in July 1995. This happened despite the fact that Srebrenica was declared a safe area for refugees under United Nations protection.

The events described in the draft resolution took place in the Balkans during the series of violent conflicts in the 1990s, amid the breakup of Yugoslavia into independent states. The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced millions from their homes. It was followed by the Kosovo conflict, which broke out after the provinces majority Albanian population called for independence from Serbia.

On July 9, 2015, the European Parliament and the U.S. Congress adopted resolutions describing the Srebrenica crimes as genocide.

In 2010, the Serbian Parliament issued a declaration apologizing for the Srebrenica massacre.

Aleksandar Vucics description of the Serbs as the victims who suffered the most is not new: in fact, it echoes ex-Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, whose nationalist propaganda reportedly played a major role in the mass atrocities Serbian troops committed during the war.

As for Vucics description of the Serbs as the the people who suffered the most over the last century, according the Bosnian Book of Dead, an independent study conducted by the Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo in the mid-2000s, 97,207 people were killed in the Bosnian war, 25 percent of whom were Serbs, 8 percent Croatians and 65 percent Bosnian Muslims.

20th Century Context:

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum scholars estimate 169 million people were victims of mass atrocities worldwide in the 20th century and Serbs were among the victims.

At the epicenter at beginning of World War I, there is little doubt the Serb population was one of many that suffered among the worst atrocities committed by invading armies. The World War I encyclopedia managed by Freie Universitat Berlin in Germany reports on the brutality of the Austro-Hungarian invaders who treated the entire Serb civilian population as combatants or participants. While the scholars say the extent of atrocities is not fully researched, estimates of the civilian death toll ranged from 3,500 up to 30,000.

During World War II, the fascist Ustasa government of Croatia slaughtered, by some estimates up to 2 million Serbs, Roma, and Jews in Croatia  killings that were so brutal they appalled even the Nazis, according to Globalsecurity.org, an oft-cited compilation of scholarship and military information and history. In Serbia, the German puppet regime tried to reign in the violence, though Nazi reprisals continued against the resistance.

The 1990s wars over the breakup of Yugoslavia are considered to be the bloodiest since World War II. The Bosnia Serb push to create the Republika Srpska began with the idea of creating an ethnically pure Serbian enclave in northern and eastern Bosnia. The ethnic cleansing of Muslim enclaves resulted in Europes first concentration camps since World War II. While Croat and Muslim forces committed similar acts, there were massive counts of rape and sexual assault of Muslim women and mass executions of Muslim men and boys of military age. The Srebrenica massacre is the most infamous of these reports.

It is with this background context that Vucic thanked the Putin government for its 2015 veto of the U.N. genocide resolution.Georgia marks Europe Day 2018

By Levan Khutsishvili

On May 5, European Days 2018 opened in Rike Park Tbilisi. Guests of the event were welcomed by the EU Ambassador in Georgia, Janos Herman, the President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili, City Mayor Kakha Kaladze and other representatives of Georgian Government.Janos Herman underscored the importance of creation of EU after World War II as a strong response to those who were trying to conquer the European continent. Herman said the EU appreciates the cooperation with Georgia, Association Agreement and Georgias efforts to integrate in the EU."I see Georgian and the EU flags that fly side by side and I want to tell you that there are not too many countries outside the EU where the golden stars on the European Union flag feel so much at home. It means the recognition of cooperation with Georgia, from our side, noted the EU Ambassador.Giorgi Margvelashvili congratulated everyone on the beginning of European Days and said that the EU is the most powerful union, and it will become even stronger once Georgia joins as a full member.There are two very important moments in European civilization - individualism and preservation of this individualism. We are naturally a part of this culture and I congratulate all who work on creating free Georgia. European countries are supportive of Georgia, and this support will be more clearly demonstrated on the 26th of May, when we, together with our European counterparts will celebrate the 100 years of the First Georgian Republic," said the president.Tbilisi City Mayor Kakha Kaladze and the Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign affairs Mikheil Janelidze noted that Georgia is a European state and part of the European culture with its values, diverse society and history."Today we are in the EU- associated country. We are recognized by the EU as a leader in the European integration process, as well as one of the most important partners in security and defense in the eastern neighborhood, but this is not the end of the road. Our European path leads us to the full EU membership. We enjoy full support from the society and every state institution. Everybody is united in the process and it brings Georgia closer to this goal. Today our European future is reflected in our constitution. I wish Europe to be strong, free, developed, expanded and peaceful, said Janelidze.I am Georgian, and therefore I am European, Kakha Kaladze repeated the words of Zurab Jvania. City Mayor spoke about the achievements of the country in relations with the EU. He noted that the visa-free regime was an important step towards the EU but much more is left to be done.European Days 2018 will last till the 22th of May, and several activities  meetings, conferences, debates, exhibitions, public lectures, etc. are planned in different regions of Georgia.Theres cause for celebration when Brother Dege issues new music and Country Come to Town is no exception. The song, taken from the new release, Farmers Almanac (out June 1 via Psyouthern Records) slithers and slides, pushes its way under our skin like southern humidity, leaves our feet tapping in a hypnotic rhythm informed by the march of history and the heaviness of heritage. The melodic and rhythmic elements, both a burden and gift visited upon the artist and the listener, haunting us and reminding us of musics most primal urges and its ability to unleash those primitive instincts. This isnt music you think about as much as you absorb, music that becomes as integral to your deep self as your blood and skin.

Brother Dege confirms that there is something unsettling, a sense of urgency and change afoot in the lyrics. The song is about that odd, insecure feeling you get when one grows up in the country or a small town and must eventually do battle, in some form or another, on the killing floor of the big city.

Grammy-nominated (Quentin Tarantinos Django Unchained) Brother Dege Legg is one of the best-kept secrets in Louisiana; a musician, writer (Louisiana Press Award 2004, 2008), outsider artist, and heir to a long line of enigmatic characters birthed in slaughterhouse of the Deep South.

Brother Dege has been called one of Louisianas best-kept secrets. A writer who won the Louisiana Press Award in 2004, he is also a Grammy-nominated musician for via Quentin Tarantinos Django Unchained. Having worked as an embedded journalist and homeless shelter employee, he has earned his share of critical acclaim, in particular with the 2010 release, Folk Songs of the American Long Hair, the very record that brought Brother Dege to Tarantinos attention.

Before that he spent a decade with the southern tribal rock band, Santeria, which cut four albums and weathered storms that would have killed some bands in their infancy. Writers, it seems, cannot avoid mentioning two things when scribbling about Brother Dege: Drugs and the southern artistic lineage from which the musician springs. Faulkner here, Robert Johnson and Son House there, throw in some Breece DJ Pancake, Flannery O Connor and maybe even some James Dickey and the psychedelic gumbo deepens. There is indeed a hallucinatory quality to Brother Deges music, and even the name conjures something mysterious, dreamlike, an image or memory that lives on the other side of the keyhole to the doors of perception.Get the SC business stories that matter.

Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us - it's free.Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Rain. Thunderstorms possible...mainly in the afternoon. High 78F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy with showers and a few thunderstorms. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.Gregory Yee covers the city of Charleston. He's a native Angeleno and previously covered crime and courts for the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, CA. He studied journalism and Spanish literature at the University of California, Irvine.Sammy Sanders says this live oak in the way of the widening of Clements Ferry Road has a long history and should be saved. ProvidedA customer who reported suffering a food-related sickness after dining at Church's Chicken in downtown Charleston prompted a health inspection this week. State workers said they found bugs, food stored on the floor and water that had pooled in the kitchen at the fast food chain's Meeting Street location. File/Wade Spees/StaffFraud allegations, brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorneys Office for South Carolina, mark the first results of a years-long federal investigation into the nuclear project and how its problems were disclosed to investors. File/High Flyer/ProvidedAssistant Columbia bureau chief

Adcox returned to The Post and Courier in October 2017 after 12 years covering the Statehouse for The Associated Press. She previously covered education for The P&C. She has also worked for The AP in Albany, N.Y., and for The Herald in Rock Hill.Jamie Lovegrove is a political reporter covering the South Carolina Statehouse, congressional delegation and campaigns. He previously covered Texas politics in Washington for The Dallas Morning News and in Austin for the Texas Tribune.Phyllis Holmes of Charleston takes a moment to pray with her 3-year-old granddaughter after placing a candle at a memorial on the sidewalk in front of Emanuel AME Church on Thursday, July 18, 2015 in Charleston. The stunned city tried to come to grips with tragedy a day after a mass shooting at the church left nine people dead. (Paul Zoeller,The Post and Courier)PR-Inside.com: 2018-05-10 04:02:01

ALC leadership attended 2018 Beijing EB-5 Expo and 2018 Uglobal Investment Opportunities Forum

American Lending Center Prominent at Prestigious Beijing Investment Conferences

American Lending Center

Dana Doran, 202-207-3650

ddoran@rasky.com

American Lending Center (ALC) - a leading EB-5 regional center and subsidiary of Regional Centers Holding Group - participated in and featured at the prestigious 2018 Beijing EB-5 Expo and 2018 Uglobal Investment Opportunities Forum on Wednesday and Thursday. The conferences focused on greater international investment and developing influential networks for business development.

ALC attended as an established innovator and industry leader, having received a record-breaking nine EB-5 project approvals in nine different cities for 30 newly approved investors in March of 2018 alone. The company is currently the largest non-bank SBA 504 lending institution, having successfully provided over 175 million dollars and EB-5 funding for 70 projects to date.

ALCs CEO John Shen addressed representatives as a featured speaker at both the EB-5 Expo and the Investment Opportunities Forum. In his panel on Regional Centers and Project Trends, Shen concentrated on best practices and challenges in EB-5 investment, including how lending centers adjust to potential changes and carve-outs in target employment areas (TEA), varying project sizes, enhanced underwriting rules and eligibility thresholds for investors.

Bruce Thompson, president of ALC, also presented on the companys pioneering regional centers, successful EB-5 projects, and the EB-5 loan process. We are always honored to be invited to such forums and to showcase groundbreaking projects that represent the future of investing of our industry and the economic impact EB-5 and international investment, said Thompson. International conferences like these connect our industry and help us to build a foundation for the global EB-5 community, he continued, with ALC acting as a Diamond Project Sponsor for the 2018 EB-5 Expo in particular.

About American Lending Center

Sustainable success through integrity, transparency, and accountability.

American Lending Center (ALC) is a U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service designated regional center held by Regional Centers Holding Group. ALC offers investment opportunities to immigrant investors who are interested in obtaining permanent resident status in the United States through the employment-based fifth preference visa (EB-5) program. ALC has completed funding projects in 16 states, and is committed to investment in deserving businesses anywhere, including those in rural and other underserved areas. http://usa-rc.com/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180509006PR-Inside.com: 2018-05-10 02:45:03

Thought leaders from Bosch, Philips, Alibaba, and more to discuss the expansion of Bluetooth powered IoT into new markets

Bluetooth Asia 2018 Exhibition and Speakers to Highlight Commercial and Industrial IoT

Americas

INK Communications Co

Candice Eng, +1 512-922-7721

Bluetooth@ink-co.com

or

Europe, Middle East, Africa

Octopus Group

Sarah Nadif, +44 020 3772 8899

Bluetoothsig@weareoctopusgroup.net

or

Asia-Pacific

CHINA

Text100 China

Lily Sun, 86 10 59006800-103

lily.sun@text100.com.cn

or

JAPAN

Next PR

Seiji Arimoto, +81-3-4405-9537

Bluetooth@next-pr.co.jp

or

KOREA

Strategic Marketing and Communications, Inc.

Suyong Choi. +82-2-3445-7469

sy.choi@oksmc.co.kr

or

TAIWAN

Apex Communications Consultants

Stella Lin, 886-2-7718-7777 ext. 535

sig@apexpr.com.tw

For the fifth year, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) will return to Shenzhen, China to present Bluetooth Asia 2018 on May 30-31. Market influencers, developers, and tech-driven consumers will come together at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center for hands-on experiences with the latest Bluetooth technology and to learn from the industrys top thought leaders what the future holds for fast-growing solution areas, such as device networks and location services, as well as emerging Bluetooth markets, including Smart Building, Smart Industry, Smart City, and Smart Home.

Echoing the large-scale networking capabilities made possible by the recent launch of Bluetooth mesh, this years event will focus on how Bluetooth can be deployed in commercial and industrial settings. Senior expert presenters from top organizations such as Alibaba AI Labs, Bosch, CCSA, Mobike, Philips Lighting, Taipei Smart City, and Ximmerse will discuss how Bluetooth is impacting these new markets, as well as the latest applications and use cases made possible with Bluetooth mesh networking.

"Bluetooth was originally conceived as a wireless cable replacement technology for mobile voice and data applications, and now 20 years later after creating connected device and location technology and markets, the introduction of Bluetooth mesh now opens up a whole new set of markets and use cases. From smart factories to smart hospitals and more, Bluetooth can now connect thousands of devices creating expansive, scalable, and low-cost networks for whole buildings," said Mark Powell, Executive Director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. Powell will give a keynote during the conference that will celebrate 20 years of Bluetooth innovation and will chronicle the technology's continued expansion from a personal communication tool to an industrial-grade wireless connectivity solution.

Bluetooth Asia consistently brings together a forward-thinking Chinese audience who attend to share and gain knowledge about what is on the horizon for connected spaces. The 2018 event expands on last years successful developer workshop series with an impressive schedule of seminars led by the Bluetooth SIG, Bright Beacon, Dialog Semiconductor, NextGen, Nordic Semiconductor, Teledyne Lecroy, and Texas Instruments. Attendees will learn about the newest techniques and tools for implementing Bluetooth technology into their products and can participate in hands-on activities around developing peripherals, beacons, and mesh technology using Bluetooth. The event will also feature a Meet the Expert area where attendees will have the opportunity to get answers to questions on Bluetooth SIG membership, product qualification, and branding.

Bluetooth Asia 2018 will boast a free-to-attend exhibition floor that has doubled in size from last year. Over 40 leading organizations are confirmed to exhibit, including ARM, Dialog Semiconductor, Ellisys, Nordic Semiconductor and Teledyne Lecroy. Attendees will also find Chinese technology suppliers such as Bestechnic, Bright Beacon, Minew, Telink Semiconductor, Tuya, Ultune Technologies and Xuntong Technology. In addition to the show floor, exhibition visitors are welcome to attend a selection of morning speaking sessions at no cost. These include a session on Smart Buildings to be hosted by Chuck Sabin, Senior Director of Business Strategy and Planning at the Bluetooth SIG, on the on the first day of the conference, as well as a session on Bluetooth mesh presented by Kai Ren, Technical Evangelist and Program Manager at the Bluetooth SIG, on the second day.

Bluetooth Asia 2018 provides a unique networking opportunity within the Bluetooth development community, as well as a chance to better understand the market sentiment and trends for Bluetooth technology, said Huajun Yu, Senior Project Manager at Bosch China. Furthermore, I am looking forward to seeing the innovative solutions from and joining the technical discussions with the many leading IoT and Industry 4.0 experts that will be in attendance.

For more information on keynote sessions, developer sessions, and sponsors visit: https://www.bluetoothasiaevent.cn.com/

Register to attend Bluetooth Asia 2018: https://www.bluetoothasiaevent.cn.com/BluetoothSIG

About Bluetooth Wireless Technology

Bluetooth is the global wireless standard for simple, secure connectivity. Propelled by a global community of more than 33,000 companies, Bluetooth serves to unify, harmonize and drive innovation in the vast range of connected devices all around us. Through the collective creation and shared technical standards, Bluetooth simplifies, secures and enriches the technology experience of users worldwide.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180509006PR-Inside.com: 2018-05-10 08:18:01

TORONTO, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dalradian Resources Inc. (TSX:DNA) (AIM:DALR) ("Dalradian" or the "Company") announces an updated mineral resource statement on the Curraghinalt gold deposit in Northern Ireland ("Mineral Resource Statement"), including a 46% increase in gold ounces contained in the Measured and Indicated ("M&I") categories and a 32% increase in Inferred gold ounces compared to the 2016 resource. This updated mineral resource statement, along with an improved geotechnical study and ore sorting testwork, will support an updated feasibility study ("FS") expected to be delivered in Q3 of 2018. Dalradian also announced that Greg Hope has been appointed VP Exploration after 3 years with the Company as Exploration and Geology Manager.

The mineral resources by category are summarized in the table below:

Mineral Resource Statement, Curraghinalt Gold Project, Northern Ireland,

SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc., May 10th, 2018 Resource Category

(Cut-off Grade of 5.0 g/t) Million

Tonnes Grade

(g/t Au) Contained Gold

(ounces) Measured 0.04 26.04 33,000 Indicated 6.31 14.95 3,033,000 Measured + Indicated 6.35 15.02 3,066,000 Inferred 7.72 12.24 3,038,000 1. Mineral Resource Statement prepared by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. in accordance with NI 43-101 with an effective date of May 10, 2018. 2. Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and have not demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, marketing, or other relevant issues. The Mineral Resources have been classified according to the CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (May 2014). 3. All figures have been rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimates. 4. The mineral resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 5.0 g/t gold, based on a gold price of US$1,200 per ounce and 95% gold recovery.

Patrick F.N. Anderson, Dalradian's President and CEO, commented:

"Yet again, with this resource update, we demonstrate that at Curraghinalt we have a robust, high grade gold system. A system which remains open in all directions. This update identified 5 new veins and increased the strike length of the deposit by 1 kilometre for a total of 2.3 kilometres. This resource will form the basis for a new feasibility study which we expect to release in the autumn."

Eric Tremblay, Dalradian's Chief Operating Officer, stated:

"Our starting point for the new FS is total M&I of 3.1 million ounces, compared with 2.1 million ounces in the prior FS. This should allow us to deliver a substantial improvement to the already strong economics shown in the initial FS. Other work that has been completed or is underway for the FS update is expected to result in higher annual production and lower costs because of the increased use of mechanized mining. Our test stoping has proven that we are able to minimize dilution in mining these high grade, narrow veins."

The Curraghinalt gold deposit is an orogenic gold system consisting of a series of moderately to steeply dipping, structurally controlled, high-grade gold bearing quartz-carbonate veins over a 2.3km strike length. The deposit remains open in all directions. The Mineral Resource Statement incorporates additional information from 145 drill holes (46,487 metres), as well as 110 underground channel samples, 57 face samples and 14 sludge samples from new and existing drifts along the T17, 106-16, V-75, Slap Shot and No. 1 Vein Zones. The Measured mineral resources are higher grade than the Indicated, which is higher grade than the Inferred mineral resources. The infill drilling was successful in increasing the geological confidence of the mineral resources, with Measured and Indicated mineral resources increasing from 2.1 million ounces to 3.1 million ounces.

The Mineral Resource model does not consider the C-veins, unless within modelled D-vein intervals, or any other potential gold contribution from surrounding materials. Vein wireframes were modelled on the extents of logged D veins, and snapped to assays irrespective of gold grades. The re-interpretation of the vein wireframes directly from assays, and not 0.5-metre composites, has resulted in an increase in the average grade of each vein with a reduction in vein thickness. Modeled vein wireframes delineate in-situ gold grade and do not consider a minimum mining width or likely planned mining dilution, which will likely be considered during the conversion of mineral resources to mineral reserves. The wireframe model includes 5 new veins (Slap Shot Splay 1, Raven, Harp, Finn and Foyle) not previously modelled (see model images at http://www.dalradian.com/investor-centre/news-releases/news-releases-details/May-10-2018-News-Release-Figures/). Only 3 of the 5 new veins contribute ounces to the Mineral Resource Statement because there is insufficient data on two of the veins (Finn and Foyle) to reliably estimate grade within them. Additional drilling in the area of the new veins is expected to improve delineation and potentially add more ounces.

In total, 21 veins were modelled on the extents of logged gold mineralized shear veins (D veins), and snapped to assays irrespective of gold grades. Other vein types such as extensional veins (C veins) can also be auriferous but were only included when immediately adjacent to, or within a modelled D vein interval. The previous resource model vein wireframes were snapped to 0.5-metre fixed length composites, composited from drill hole collar to toe, prior to modelling the veins. The new vein wireframes therefore represent true vein width, without dilution due to compositing. Drill hole assay data were composited to 0.3 m down-hole length within the updated vein wireframes. Overall, 4% of the composites were capped. Capping varied by vein and by data type, and was based on grade distribution and statistical analysis. Separate variogram models were fitted for gold in the 16 biggest veins, with ranges up to 95x60x2 metres.

A block model with parent cell sizes of 5x5x5 metres was chosen, with subcells at 0.5 metre resolution in the plane of the vein and 0.25 metres perpendicular to it. Subcells were assigned the same grade as the parent cell. Block model gold grades were estimated using ordinary kriging, informed by composite data and three estimation runs with progressively relaxed search ellipsoids and data requirements. The first pass required between 5 to 12 composites, with search dimensions equivalent to the full variogram range corresponding to each vein and oriented parallel to the vein. The second pass required between 4 to 15 composites, but permitted a search up to two times the variogram range. The final pass required between 2 to 15 composites within a search radii up to six times the variogram range, with the aim to populate blocks in sparsely sampled areas. A stricter capping threshold, affecting 19% of the core composites, was used for the third estimation pass to better control the impact of high grade composites in areas with low data density. In all passes, no more than 3 composites from one drill hole are permitted. Each domain was estimated using a hard boundary approach that considers only the composites from that domain. The influence of underground face samples was limited to within a 10 metre radii.

Appropriate validations were undertaken to ensure that the block model adequately represents the informing drilling data. Vein block volumes were converted into tonnage using specific gravity values estimated using ordinary kriging. Estimated vein specific gravity varies from 2.76 to 2.91, with an overall average of 2.81.

The block model was classified using the following criteria:

The Measured category includes blocks located within 10 metres from underground development;

The Indicated category includes blocks estimated within the variogram range, by a minimum of 2 drill holes, but more often with at least 3 drill holes; and

The Inferred category includes all other blocks estimated within a vein wireframe with at least 3 drill holes located within 150 metres and not previously classified as Measured or Indicated.

The Company intends to file an updated technical report pursuant to National Instrument 43-101 to support the updated Mineral Resource Statement on SEDAR and on the Company's website within 45 days of this news release.

VP Exploration

Mr. Hope is a geologist with over 21 years of exploration and mining experience across five continents, including operational roles at narrow, high-grade gold deposits in the eastern goldfields of Western Australia, the Witswatersrand in South Africa and elsewhere. He joined Dalradian as the Exploration and Geology Manager in 2015 and was appointed Vice President, Exploration in May 2018. Mr. Hope is a former Manager-West Africa for RSG-Global (now Coffey Mining), where he was involved in due diligence studies, QAQC audits as well as the design and implementation of large exploration programmes throughout Africa. He has a BSc from the University of Otago New Zealand and an MSc in exploration geology from Rhodes University South Africa. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (MAIG).

Qualified Persons

The Mineral Resource Statement was prepared in accordance with NI 43-101 by Dr. Oy Leuangthong, PhD, PEng (PEO#90563867), and Dominic Chartier, PGeo (APGO#2775), both full time employees of SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. and independent Qualified Persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101. The Qualified Persons have read and approved the information contained in this press release.

About Dalradian Resources Inc.

Dalradian Resources Inc. is a mineral exploration and development company that is focused on advancing its high-grade Curraghinalt Gold Project located in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The Curraghinalt Project is in permitting, with exploration ongoing to build on the positive feasibility study released in January 2017.

For more information:

Marla Gale

Vice President Communications

+1 416 583 5600

investor@dalradian.com

Grant Thornton UK LLP (Nominated Adviser)

Philip Secrett / Richard Tonthat

+44 (0)20 7383 5100

Numis Securities Limited (Broker)

John Prior / James Black / Paul Gillam

+44 (0)20 7260 1000

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains "forward-looking information" which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the delivery of an updated feasibility study and an updated technical report, future financial or operating performance of the Company and its subsidiaries and its mineral project, the future price of metals, test work and confirming results from work performed to date, the estimation of mineral resources and mineral reserves, the realization of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital, operating and exploration expenditures, costs and timing of the development of new deposits, costs and timing of future exploration, requirements for additional capital, government regulation of mining operations, environmental risks, reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims, limitations of insurance coverage, the timing and possible outcome of pending regulatory matters and the realization of the expected production, economics and mine life of the Curraghinalt gold deposit.

Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words and phrases such as "plans," "expects," "is expected," "budget," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates," or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may," "could," "would," "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.

Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and are based on various assumptions that management believes are reasonable, such as continued political stability in Northern Ireland, that permits required for Dalradian's operations will be obtained in a timely basis in order to permit Dalradian to proceed on schedule with its planned exploration and mine development, construction and production programs, that a permitting application for mine construction will be approved, that skilled personnel and contractors will be available as Dalradian's operations commence and continue to grow towards production and mining operations, that the price of gold will be at levels that render the Dalradian's mineral project economic, and that the Company will be able to continue raising the necessary capital to finance its operations and realize on mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates and current mine plans.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Dalradian to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; legal challenges to permits or permitting applications; the actual results of current and future exploration activities; the actual results of reclamation activities; conclusions of economic evaluations; meeting various expected cost estimates; changes in project parameters and/or economic assessments as plans continue to be refined; future prices of metals; possible variations of mineral grade or recovery rates; the risk that actual costs may exceed estimated costs; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; political instability; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2017 dated March 15, 2018.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

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: Dalradian Resources Inc. via Globenewswire

PR-Inside.com: 2018-05-10 11:01:02

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (NYSE:FSM) (TSX:FVI) announces today that it has filed its Management Information Circular for the Company's Annual General Meeting to be held on June 14, 2018. The Circular is also available for viewing on the Company's website.

Director Robert R. Gilmore has decided not to stand for re-election to the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting. Mr. Gilmore has been a member of the Board and served as audit committee chair since 2010.

Simon Ridgway, Chair of the Board of Fortuna, commented, "On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank Robert for his commitment and service to Fortuna and its shareholders." Mr. Ridgway added, "Robert's sound judgement and business experience have been an asset during the past eight years as we worked together to continue growing Fortuna and creating shareholder value."

"Robert's significant contributions and insights throughout his tenure as director of the Company have complemented the Board's capabilities and strengthened management's decision-making process," said Jorge A. Ganoza, President, CEO and Director of Fortuna. "We wish him well in his future endeavours."

About Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.

Fortuna is a growth oriented, precious metal producer with its primary assets being the Caylloma silver mine in southern Peru, the San Jose silver-gold mine in Mexico and the Lindero gold Project in Argentina. The company is selectively pursuing acquisition opportunities throughout the Americas and in select other areas. For more information, please visit its website at www.fortunasilver.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Jorge A. Ganoza

President, CEO and Director

Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.

Trading symbols: NYSE: FSM | TSX: FVI

Investor Relations:

T (Peru): +51.1.616.6060, ext. 0

E: info@fortunasilver.com

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward looking statements which constitute "forward looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "Forward looking Statements"). All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are Forward looking Statements and are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the Forward looking Statements. The Forward looking Statements in this news release may include, without limitation, statements about the Company's plans for its mines and mineral properties; the Company's business strategy, plans and outlook; the merit of the Company's mines and mineral properties; mineral resource and reserve estimates; timelines; the future financial or operating performance of the Company; expenditures; approvals and other matters. Often, but not always, these Forward looking Statements can be identified by the use of words such as "will", "will be" or statements that events, "could" or "should" occur or be achieved and similar expressions, including negative variations.

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 be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward looking Statements. Such uncertainties and factors include, among others, changes in general economic conditions and financial markets; changes in prices for silver and other metals; technological and operational hazards in Fortuna's mining and mine development activities; risks inherent in mineral exploration; uncertainties inherent in the estimation of mineral reserves, mineral resources, and metal recoveries; governmental and other approvals; political unrest or instability in countries where Fortuna is active; labor relations issues; as well as those factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward looking Statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.

Forward looking Statements contained herein are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management, including but not limited to expectations regarding mine production costs; expected trends in mineral prices and currency exchange rates; the accuracy of the Company's current mineral resource and reserve estimates; that the Company's activities will be in accordance with the Company's public statements and stated goals; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; that all required approvals will be obtained; that there will be no significant disruptions affecting operations and such other assumptions as set out herein. Forward looking Statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any Forward looking Statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that Forward looking Statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on Forward looking Statements.PR-Inside.com: 2018-05-10 13:33:51

Press Information

precision Business Insights

Kemp House,





152  160 City Road,





London EC1V 2NX



satya

Lead-Market

+1-866-598-1553

email

https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com





# 556 Words

Kemp House,152  160 City Road,London EC1V 2NXLead-Market+1-866-598-1553

Global albumin market was valued at US $ XX Mn in 2017 and expected to grow at 8.1% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) over 2018 to 2024Market Outline: Albumin MarketAlbumins belong to the family of globular proteins. All the proteins present in the albumin family are water-soluble and are moderately soluble in the concentrated salt solutions. When subjected to heat, undergo denaturation. The albumins contributes 50% to 60% of the blood plasma proteins. The most common of them are the serum albumins. The human serum albumin is the most abundant protein in human blood plasma.A sample of this report is available upon request @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/albumin-market/ #ulp-4H8Z4LpNMLEuOnnxMarket Dynamics: Albumin MarketIncrease in the prevalence of liver disease is the major driving factor for the growth of the albumin market. The increasing instances of conditions such as trauma and shock are anticipated to drive market revenue growth over the forecast period. Growing use of the albumin in the form of an excipient in the drug delivery and increasing acceptance of the drug among the healthcare fraternity is expected to enhance the growth of the albumin market over the forecast period. However, availability of alternative therapies, dearth of the plasma, and scarcity of the blood donors are likely to hinder the growth of the market over the forecast period.Market Scope: Albumin MarketAlbumin market is segmented based on the type, application, and distribution channelBased on the type, the market is segmented into the following:Human Serum AlbuminBovine Serum AlbuminRecombinant AlbuminBased on the application, the market is segmented into the following:Drug Formulation and VaccinesLife SciencesCulture Media IngredientOthersBased on the distribution channel, the market is segmented into the following:Biopharmaceutical and Biotechnology companiesAcademic research institutesOthersTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Regional Analysis: Albumin MarketGeographically, global albumin market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa. Asia Pacific albumin market is growing due to increase in the demand for albumin. The increasing patient population requiring albumin is anticipated to drive the growth of the albumin market in this region. The increasing awareness among the patient pool is likely to enhance the growth of the albumin market in this region. Falling next to Asia Pacific are the regions of North America and Europe, which are expected to lose their share in the market owing to its preference for alternatives of albumin.Need more information about this report @Competition Assessment: Albumin MarketSome of the players in the global albumin market include:Thermo Fisher Scientific (U.S)MedxBio Pte. Ltd. (Singapore)China Biologic Products Inc. (China)CSL Behring LLC (U.S)Baxter International, Inc. (U.S)Novozymes A/S. (Denmark)Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma (Japan)Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (U.S)Octapharma AG (Switzerland)Notable Market Developments: Albumin MarketIn March 2016, CSL Behring has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved IDELVION [Coagulation Factor IX (Recombinant), Albumin Fusion Protein], its novel, long-acting albumin fusion protein linking recombinant coagulation factor IX with recombinant albumin for the treatment of hemophilia B.Archer Daniels Midland Company (U.S)Get access to full summary @Global corn oil market was valued at US $ XX Mn and expected to grow at XX% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) over 2018 to 2024.

Global corn oil market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-05-10 13:21:33

Press Information

precision Business Insights

Kemp House,





152  160 City Road,





London EC1V 2NX



satya

Lead-Market

+1-866-598-1553

email

https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com





# 537 Words

Kemp House,152  160 City Road,London EC1V 2NXLead-Market+1-866-598-1553

Global corn oil market was valued at US $ XX Mn and expected to grow at XX% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) over 2018 to 2024.Market Outline: Corn Oil MarketCorn oil also known as the maize oil is extracted from the germ of corn. The germ is the part of the seed that is germinating. It is a type of edible oil used widely for cooking, in either refined form or unrefined form. Corn oils are cost-effective when compared with that of the other oils and is extremely nutritious. The unrefined form of the oil is healthy with an immense amount of phytochemicals. It tastes nutty with a tinge of corn.Market Dynamics: Corn Oil MarketOwing to its therapeutic properties, the corn oil is gaining popularity all across the globe. The health benefits associated with the corn oil such as lowering the cholesterol, improving the heart health, helps in lowering the blood pressure, and acts as the emollient for skin, are driving the consumers towards corn oil. The corn oil is also used as an alternative biodiesel which helps in to reduce carbon footprint, which is underpinning the growth of the corn oil market. Corn oil is also used as feedstock for biodiesel, is boosting the growth of the market. The growing demand for the corn oil as cooking oil owing to its health benefits are enhancing the growth of the corn oil market. However, the availability of alternative products is likely to hamper the growth of the corn oil market over the forecast period.A sample of this report is available upon request @Market Scope: Corn Oil MarketCorn oil market is segmented based on the product type, applicationBased on the product type, the market is segmented into the following:High OleicMiddle OleicLow OleicBased on the application, the market is segmented into the following:BiodieselSoap MakingFood ServicesPharmaceuticalOthersTo view TOC of this report is available upon request @Regional Analysis: Corn Oil MarketGeographically, global corn oil market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Europe corn oil market holds the largest share when compared with that of the other regional markets. Germany contributes the higher share in the Europe corn oil market. North America is the favorable market for corn oils in case of consumption. The United States region drives the corn oil market in this region. The Asia Pacific corn oil market is expected to show a rapid growth in the forecasted period owing to its rising demand in the food industry and rising use as cooking oil.Need more information about this report @Competition Assessment: Corn Oil MarketSome of the players in the global corn oil market include:Archer Daniels Midland Company (U.S)ConAgra Foods Inc. (U.S)FEC Solutions (India)GreenField Specialty Alcohols Inc. (U.S)Associated British Food plc (UK)Notable Market Developments: Corn Oil MarketIn June 2017, Pacific Ethanol has acquired Illinois Corn ProcessingGet access to full summary @The News in Brief

By Mariam Chanishvili



Aviation Agency Database attacked



Georgian Civil Aviation database was attacked by hackers on Friday. The attack did not affect any scheduled flights and was addressed shortly. The aviation officials say the attack was likely to take place because of the crypto currency.



"The cyber-attack blocked the Civil Aviation database. But we managed to settle the problem. We continue to work in a usual manner, stated Karanadze.



Based on the preliminary information the hackers were demanding crypto currency in exchange of restoring the blocked data, Karanadze said.



The Georgian Interior Ministry launched an investigation into the case.







Georgian NGO releases figures on how much Govt spent on drug tests



The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI), a local Non-Governmental Organization, has published the figures on how much money has been spent on drug tests from the state budget over the course of four years.



IDFI says that a minimum of 2,448,520 GEL was spent on such tests from 2014 and 2017.



 Out of the total money, 1,670,940 GEL (68%) was spent for the individuals who had not consumed any drugs, the NGO claims.



The report reads that between 2014 and 2017 the number of the people tested for drugs by law enforcement agencies has been decreased three times.



This is a positive indicator. However, the figure may change at any time as the current state legislation prosecutes drug consumers, IDFI states.



The organisation believes that the law should change and become more loyal to those who consume drugs but dont sell them.



PR-Inside.com: 2018-05-10 10:58:02

Record response with 148 applications from 32 countries competing for the chance to win a contract with MetLife

MetLife selects eight finalists for open innovation programme, collab 3.0 EMEA

MetLife EMEA:

Jo Riddell, +44(0)7557286265

jriddell@metlife.com

or

Jonathan Bunn, +44 (0) 7557 161018

jbunn@metlife.com

or

MetLife Asia

Yvette Marmur, +852 5716 8533

ymarmur@metlife.com

MetLife today announced eight finalists for its open innovation programme, collab 3.0 EMEA. Run by LumenLab, MetLife Asias Singapore-based innovation center, in collaboration with MetLifes Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, the programme invites insurtech innovators to compete for a USD 100,000 contract with MetLife to develop new solutions across the insurance value chain in areas including customer engagement, sales, and operations. The winner will get to pilot their solution with MetLife in EMEA.

Since launching in March, collab 3.0 EMEA has attracted a record number of applications - 148 from 32 countries around the world. The eight finalists will hone their ideas over the next two months before pitching them to senior MetLife executives this July in London. To help the finalists develop their solutions and enhance their understanding of MetLifes business, they will be paired with employee champions who will provide tailored mentoring, underscoring the companys commitment to talent development and promoting a culture of innovation.

The eight finalists:

DataRobot (United States) offers an automated machine-learning platform and services that help enterprises make accurate predictions from big data and draw actionable insight in a fraction of the time required by conventional data science tools and methods.

Anorak (United Kingdom) is a smart life insurance advice platform that leverages multiple data sources and machine learning to provide customers unbiased and tailored recommendations on getting the right life insurance policy.

Lucep (Singapore) is an omni-channel engagement system that generates leads from digital channels and directs them to the best agents available to respond to the call, providing the agent with analytics and data on the prospect to help them convert them to a customer.

Kasko (United Kingdom) offers an end-to-end cloud based insurance platform that enables insurers to create, launch, run and optimise digital insurance products in any distribution channel quickly, cost-effectively and flexibly.

Eltropy (United States) empowers financial firms to engage clients across messaging apps like SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, Line, WeChat, Facebook Messenger - to grow revenue rapidly.

The ID Co. (United Kingdom) offers customers a frictionless user verification experience during the on-boarding process by using Open Banking data and identity verification.

TrustSphere (Singapore) uses relationship analytics technology to leverage employee relationship networks in an organisation by automatically analysing only the metadata from employees digital interactions.

CUBE (United Kingdom) provides an automated approach to monitor, detect, and analyse global regulatory changes and helps firms to understand the impact of these changes on policy and procedures across all lines of business.

The Insurtech landscape is rapidly evolving and we are excited to see collab attracting a high calibre of entrants as it goes global. The innovative finalists we chose bring fresh thinking to address the rising expectations of insurance customers. We are excited to work together with them in the coming months, said Zia Zaman, LumenLabs chief executive officer and chief innovation officer, MetLife Asia.

Michel Khalaf, President of MetLifes U.S. Business and EMEA commented, The strong finalist line up showcases an exciting mix of ideas and technological solutions that can help drive greater value for our business and deliver a differentiated experience for our customers. Our employee champions will offer crucial support, insight, and guidance as our finalists seek to develop their solutions and pitches.

This is the third collab programme that LumenLab has launched for MetLife. To date, MetLife has awarded more than half a million U.S. dollars worth of contracts through collab in Asia that have helped develop practical solutions that deliver value to MetLifes business and customers.

For more information on collab 3.0 EMEA and the eight finalists, visit: http://collab.lumenlab.sg/

About MetLife

About MetLife - MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates ("MetLife"), is one of the world's leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help its individual and institutional customers navigate their changing world. Founded in 1868, MetLife has operations in more than 40 countries and holds leading market positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.metlife.com.

About LumenLab

As MetLife's pioneers for disruptive innovation, LumenLab is charging ahead to create new businesses in health, wealth and retirement. Lumen, a measure of light, symbolises our commitment to illuminating a new path for solving the problems that the people of Asia face today. Through our focus on building new products and services grounded in technology and data, we aim to help people achieve richer and more fulfilling lives. For more information, visit www.lumenlab.sg.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180510005PR-Inside.com: 2018-05-10 14:00:20

Press Information





Published by

ACCESSWIRE News Network

888.952.4446

e-mail

http://www.accesswire.com







# 391 Words

ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Rockcliff Metals Corporation--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - Rockcliff Metals Corporation (TSX Venture:RCLF). has issued a press release with the following headline:Rockcliff Announces $2.0 Million Non-Brokered Private Placement and Share ConsolidationTo 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 Rockcliff Metals 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/Rockcliff Metals CorporationSource: Rockcliff Metals Corporation (TSX Venture: RCLF, OTC Pink: SVVZF, FWB: RO0, WKN: A142TR, ISIN: CA77288Q1057)Date: May 10, 2018Time: 8:00 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Rockcliff Metals 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.)Still Wine Market report categorizes the global market by product type (Still Red Wine, Still White Wine, and Still Rose Wine), and by distribution channel (Hypermarkets, Supermarkets, Specialty Stores, Online Stores, and Others)

Still Wine Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-05-10 11:16:25

Press Information

Coherent Market Insights

Contact Us:





Mr. Shah





Coherent Market Insights





1001 4th Ave,





#3200





Seattle, WA 98154





Tel: +1-206-701-6702



Mr. Shah

CEO

+1-206-701-6702

email

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/still-wine-market-1579





# 769 Words

Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702CEO+1-206-701-6702

Still wine is a kind of table wine, which is specially treated to remove carbon dioxide, in order to make it non bubbly or fuzzy. Grapes are the most widely used raw material for still wine manufacturing. Manufacturing of still wine includes various processes such as sorting of raw material, crushing, maceration & pressing, fermentation, maturation, bottling, and bottle aging. Majority of wines are developed for immediate drinking, whereas some wines are manufactured to get benefits from bottle aging in optimum cellar conditions.Ask for detailed Sample of the Research Report @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/1579 Market DynamicsIncreasing popularity of alcoholic beverages such as wine and beer in the high millennial population (above the legal drinking age) is expected to be the major factor for growth of the market. According to Millennial Engagement Initiative Report 2017, in 2014, over 36% of the U.S. workforce comprises millennial generation and nearly half (46%) of all the U.S. work force is projected to be millennial by 2020. Such factors are projected to create conducive environment for growth of the still wine market over the forecast period.Moreover, increasing investment by leading market players to expand wine production capacity to better serve the needs of local customers is an important factor for growth of the market. For instance, in November 2016, Accolade wines invested US$ 40 million into Berry Winery, to establish new packaging and glass bottling plant. The new facility possesses a bottling capacity of 8 million cases of wine annually.Government across various regions have imposed strict regulations on wine products. For instance, European Union established a set of allowed and not-allowed oenological practices. Under this practice, all wine imported into Europe needs to be certified. The certification and wine analysis report must be presented within single document. In addition to this, legislations such as allergen declaration, labelling & presentation, food laws, and various others are strictly imposed on wine. These factors could act as a restrain to the market growth.Market OutlookOn the basis of distribution channel, supermarkets segment is projected to gain major traction in the market over the forecast period. In International Wine Challenge 2018, over 391 supermarkets such as Morrison, Waitrose, Tesco, and various others received awards for their offerings in variety of wines. As a part of long term sales and marketing strategy, supermarkets are engaged in launching new still wine products to receive acknowledgment in International Wine Challenge. For instance, in November 2017, Tesco launched a Grenacha-Rose and a Sauvignon Blanc, two new low alcohol still wines, in order to meet rising demand for still wines in the U.K.Europe is a well-established market for still wine and accounted for highest revenue share in global still wine market in 2017. In Europe, countries such as France, Italy, Spain, and Germany are the leading producers of still wines. According to United States Department of Agriculture 2017 Report, on Germany Wine Industry, total consumption of still wine and sparkling wine fluctuated between 19.3 and 20.5 million hl during 2015-17. Moreover, per capita consumption of wine increased between 20.1 and 21.1 liters in 2017. In 2015, Germany imported over 1.5 billion liters of wine, which included 58% of bulk wine, 37% bottled wine, and 4% sparkling wine. These factors are expected to aid in growth of still wine market in Europe.Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest growing region in the market over the forecast period. In Asia Pacific, China, Australia, and ASEAN are projected to gain major traction in still wine market over the forecast period. According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada 2016 Report on China Wine Market, the wine sales in China was pegged at 2,466 million liters in 2015. This is projected to grow by 75% by the end of 2019, reaching 4,320 million liters.Key playersKey players operating in the global still wine market include E. & J. Gallo Winery, Constellation Brands, Inc., Miguel Torres S. A., The Wine Group Inc., Treasury Wine Estate, Castel Group, Accolade Wines, Concha y Toro, and among others.Get More Infromation @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/still-wine-market-1579 Several companies that manufacture still wine are adopting various growth strategies, in order to sustain their market position. Mergers, acquisitions, and collaboration in various geographies are some of key strategies followed by major players in the still wine market. For instance, in June 2016, E. & J. Gallo Winery acquired Orin Swift Cellars, a well-known wine brand. The acquisition included rights for Orin Swift Cellars wine brands, related inventory along with the control of popular wine tasting room located at St. Helena. Furthermore, in February 2016, E. & J. Gallo Winery acquired distribution rights for Renato Ratti, an Italy-based wine manufacturer, in the U.S. market. Such activities are creating a conducive environment for growth of the market.PR-Inside.com: 2018-05-10 14:30:36

Press Information





Published by

ACCESSWIRE News Network

888.952.4446

e-mail

http://www.accesswire.com







# 383 Words

ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for TIMIA Capital Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - TIMIA Capital Corp. (TSX Venture:TCA). has issued a press release with the following headline:TIMIA Capital Expands Investment Portfolio with $2 Million Financing for Vonigo SoftwareTo 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 TIMIA Capital Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/TIMIA Capital Corp.Source: TIMIA Capital Corp. (TSX Venture: TCA)Date: May 10, 2018Time: 8:30 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of TIMIA Capital Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)PR-Inside.com: 2018-05-10 21:29:16

Press Information





Published by

ACCESSWIRE News Network

888.952.4446

e-mail

http://www.accesswire.com







# 389 Words

ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for The Wonderfilm Media Corporation--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Hollywood, California (FSCWire) - The Wonderfilm Media Corporation (TSX Venture:WNDR). has issued a press release with the following headline:Wonderfilm Media Announces Commencement of Third Feature Film in the Past Five MonthsTo 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 The Wonderfilm Media 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/The Wonderfilm Media CorporationSource: The Wonderfilm Media Corporation (TSX Venture: WNDR)Date: May 10, 2018Time: 3:29 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of The Wonderfilm Media 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.)MTN Group Ltd. on Thursday said it plans to raise N400 billion ($1.1 billion) through bond in Nigeria in 2018.

The move, the wireless carrier said, is part of its strategies to fund local investment and replace existing debt in the continents most populous country.

MTN, Africas largest wireless carrier by sales, plans to sell bonds and take out long-term loans.

MTNs Chief Financial Officer Ralph Mupita said in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday that the company wants to raise as much as it can in Nigerias local currency, the naira.

We want to gear up our debt on an operational level away from the holding structure, the official said.

The company CFO says MTN, based in Johannesburg, plans to shift its focus from dollar-denominated debt to debt in local currencies where it operates.

MTN also recently raised money in local currency for its Ghanaian and Ivory Coast operations, according to Bloomberg data.

Valued at 234 billion rand, the companys net debt rose to 57 billion rand ($4.5 billion) in 2017 from 52 billion rand the previous year.

The carrier expects to list its Nigerian unit on the Nigerian bourse by the end of 2018.Yewande Sadiku, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), said Nigeria recorded a total of $24.1 billion foreign investment in the last two years.

Mrs Sadiku, who made this known at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday, said that the commissions main objective was to promote and position the country to attract foreign investments.

The foreign capital inflow that came into the country in 2016 was 5.4 billion dollars, and the bulk of it is portfolio investment, while in 2017, it was 12.5 billion dollars.

In the first quarter of 2018, the inflow was 6.3 billion dollars and this is more than all inflows that came in 2016 and in third quarter in 2017, she said.

According to Mrs Sadiku, the commission has a One-Stop Investment Centre as a strategy to streamline investment procedures, provide prompt, efficient and transparent services and coordinate investment-facilitating agencies.

The centre provides statistical data and information on the Nigerian economy, investment climate, legal and regulatory framework as well as sector and industry specific information.

All these are to aid existing and prospective investors in making informed business decisions, Mrs Sadiku said.

According to her, there is the need for the states to be receptive to attract investors.

Mrs Sadiku said that the commission was working with state governments to improve national competitiveness, adding that it would achieve its broad objectives without the involvement of the states.

The states must be receptive to attract investors because investors go to where they can get attention and a friendly environment, Mrs Sadiku said.

Mrs Sadiku said the commission had concluded plans to build a database which would showcase opportunities that abound in the states.

According to her, Nigeria has abundant opportunities for investment in priority sectors of agriculture, power, manufacturing, solid minerals, critical infrastructure and waste management.

Mrs Sadiku said the commission would build online investment to allow investors access investment opportunities from anywhere.

To this end, she noted that the commission would organise a summit which would hold from May 21 to May 23, in order to attract long term investment into agriculture, transport, power, gas, manufacturing, processing and information and communication technology.

It will offer a platform for discussing investment needs and goals without the need for investors to travel to various locations in Nigeria to see projects, Mrs Sadiki said.

(NAN)The number of tax identification numbers (NIMs) issued by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) increased by almost 50 per cent within the last two years, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, said. She said this shows strong social partnership government builds with the people.

Mrs Adeosun who spoke on Thursday in Abuja said from about 14 million in 2016, over five million tax payers have successfully joined the system, raising the countrys tax base to over 19 million in 2018.

The minister was speaking while receiving a World Bank mission of 10 executive directors led by Patrizio Pagano. The team were on a special mission to Nigeria to assess the impact of projects funded by the bank in the country.

Tax is not a popular discussion in Nigeria, where people are still facing a number of challenges. But, we have asked the people to trust us to deliver infrastructure and improve economy if they pay their taxes. We have built a social partnership with the people.

We have demonstrated that commitment with increased expenditure on infrastructure development, cut waste and be efficient and more transparent, she said.

She said despite crude oil prices rising amid global tensions, government would not get complacent, but remain optimistic and vigilant, and continue to push on fundamentals to drive economic growth.

Besides, she said, government would continue to focus on ease of doing business to get the private sector energised and provide the support they need to grow.

Also, she said efforts are ongoing to boost power supply for industrial growth and improve the quality of life of Nigerians.

We saw oil at $140 per barrel and we had nothing to show for it. So, it is not the volume of money that comes in that matters, but how effectively government utilises it to better the lives of the people.

The leader of the mission to Nigeria, Patrizio Pagano, said they were in the country to assess the impact of the projects the bank was financing in Nigeria, most of which are directed at poverty alleviation and promotion of sustainable development.

During the visit, Mr Pagano said the team would meet with Nigerian entrepreneurs, particularly those in the private sector involved in the power sector to see how the development in the sector has evolved.

The 10 World Bank executive directors, representing 96 countries, include those for Switzerland, France, Italy, Nordic, Peru, Germany, South Africa (representing Angola, Nigeria and South Africa).

Other members of the team include the directors for Burkina Faso (representing Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa), Zimbabwe (representing Anglophone Sub-Saharan Africa), United Kingdom and Indonesia.

PREMIUM TIMES investigations reveal that ongoing World Bank ongoing projects in Nigeria is currently valued at about $3.872 billion.

The projects numbering about 20 date back to April 2015. Two of the projects inherited from the previous administration have been declared closed by the World Bank.

The two closed projects include $75 million project initiated on April 29, 2015 to support Edo State Fiscal Improvement and Service Delivery Operation and the $200 million Third Lagos State Development Policy Operation aid which began on June 26, 2015.

World Bank records showed 18 other projects have active implementation status.

They include the $200 million additional financing for polio eradication support, which commenced on April 10, 2015; $500 million programme to support Saving One Million Lives started April 23, 2015 and the $100 million Nigeria Partnership for Education Project commenced on May 8, 2015.

Others initiated June 7, 2016 included $500 million National Social Safety Nets Project; the $100 million State Education Programme Investment Project; the $75 million Community and Social Development project and the $100 million Nigeria Youth Employment and Social Support project.

Additional $125 million financing for State Health Investment Project; the $50 million second additional financing to Third National Fadama Development Project and the $125 million additional financing for polio eradication support project were also approved by the bank on June 7, 2016.

Only the $320,000 for the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Reporting Compliance grant was approved on December 7, 2016. It was restructured on February 1, 2018, with a December 31, 2019 closing date.

The other projects to be reviewed by the World Bank audit team include $200 million multi-sectoral crisis recovery project for the North-east approved on March 20, 2017; the $200 million agro-processing, productivity enhancement and livelihood improvement support project that took effect from March 23, 2017, and the $150 million mineral sector support for economic diversification project approved April 14, 2017.

Also, the team would review the $350 million funding to Kaduna State in support of its economic transformation programme approved on June 20 last year, same date as $611 million approved for the better education service delivery for all.

Apart from the Conflict Monitoring System initiative approved last October 27 valued at about $40,000, the other project the team would equally look at include the recent $486 million approved for the Federal Ministry of Power for the electricity transmission system rehabilitation approved last February 15.The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Wednesday said its decision to facilitate the establishment of the Lake Chad Basin Governors Forum was to ensure regional stabilisation, peace-building and sustainable development in the region.

The Forum consists of governors from the seven States and provinces in the Lake Chad Basin region, including those in Cameroun, Chad, Niger and Nigeria.

The officials were in Maiduguri, Borno State to discuss and agree on a framework for stabilising, building peace and fostering sustainable development across the Basin considered the epicentre of the Boko Haram crisis.

Diminishing water levels of the Lake Chad, shared by eight countries in the region has pushed an estimated 12 per cent of the more than 370 million people who depend on it for crop and livestock farming, fishing, commerce and trade to abject poverty.

The situation has triggered mass migration, conflicts and crises in the region, including the nine-year long Boko Haram insurgency, which resulted in mass displacement of millions across the region.

The UNDP said the Boko Haram crisis traced to development-related challenges including multi-dimensional poverty has caused billions of dollars in damages to property and disruption of livelihoods in North-east Nigeria.

At the inaugural meeting, the governors highlighted the need for all countries affected by the crisis to come together to tackle the challenges in the Basin.

In a statement at the end of the meeting sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday the governors agreed to establish the Lake Chad Basin Governors Forum.

UNDP spokesperson, Lucky Musonda, said the Forum was a platform to enhance joint efforts towards stabilising, building peace and fostering sustainable development across the region.

Mr Musonda said the governors affirmed their commitment to use the platform to promote dialogue and cross-border avenues and exchange of information in response to the crisis.

He said the governors acknowledged the importance of human rights in the whole process and agreed to use the Forum to promote stability and peacebuilding in the Basin.

This is in recognition of the role communities and traditional and religious institutions, women and youth play in driving the agenda towards stability and peace, he added.

The Forum would also support ongoing national, regional and multilateral efforts towards stability of the region by the African Union and Lake Chad Basin Commissions to develop a regional stabilisation strategy, and restore Lake Chad waters as part of a long-term solution to ensure sustainable development.

UNDP Resident Representative, Edward Kallon, noted the progress so far to stabilise the region, saying more needed to be done to assure the people in the Basin of safety, human rights, dignity, livelihood, and a prosperous future.

The crisis cannot be solved through a unitary approach. We must pursue a multi-pronged approach  humanitarian, development, peace and counterterrorism  the triple nexus, he added.The Nigerian Medical Association in Ondo State has called on the authorities to provide adequate security at the states health facilities to enable members of the association perform its duties to patients as the states join the national strike of the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU).

The national body of JOHESU had ordered all its members in states and local governments to join the ongoing national strike to further force the federal government to accede to their demands.

A statement on Wednesday by NMA state secretary, Arohunmolase R.B, said the association was not averse to the demands of JOHESU, even though the fight was apparently directed against the NMA.

Members of our noble profession are hereby directed to continue in rendering their services to members of the public without fear of any attack from any quarter, the statement said.

While the strike lasts, members of the public are assured of 24 hours hospital services in all government owned health facilities.

The NMA also appeals to the Ministry of Health to ensure that doctors have a peaceful environment to operate. Hence, the association will ensure that the government provides adequate security for all doctors while offering services to members of the public.

As leaders of health team, the association requires maximum commitment from all doctors to their patients during this trying time and after.

The NMA solicited the support of all head of hospitals, to ensure the hospitals were opened for services and provision of necessary tools for prompt health service delivery to the public.

Once again, the association wishes to salute the courage of all doctors in Ondo State, particularly those at Federal Medical Centre Owo for holding the forth with the vulnerable members of the public, the statement added.

The NMA had earlier denounced the JOHESU strike claiming the health workers were demanding equal earnings with doctors, a claim denied by the striking workers.

JOHESU is an association of all health workers except doctors and dentists.The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested 17 suspects in different parts of Kwara State allegedly trying to smuggle codeine to other destinations for sale.

The federal government had banned the production and distribution of codeine in Nigeria following a BBC documentary on widespread addiction to the product in the country.

Addressing journalists on Thursday in Ilorin, the state Commander of the NDLEA, Onah Ogilegwu, said the suspects were arrested with assorted drugs in different locations across the state.

He said: 13 suspects were arrested at various locations by the Air Force authority in Ilorin and transferred to the command with assorted hard drug.

Mr Ogilegwu said the command on Saturday nabbed another two suspects with 12 cartons containing 600 bottles of codeine.

The two suspects were in the taxi trying to travel down north with the drug but my men intercepted their car and while checking they discovered 12 cartons of codeine.

They confessed that they are travelling to Kaduna with the drugs to deliver them to a man.

They said that they have been involved and making money from the business for a very long time.

He added that on Tuesday another two suspects were arrested along Tanke area, Ilorin, by personnel of the agency.

Surveillance was placed in the area following a tip off. Men of the command swung into action and the two suspects arrested are presently undergoing investigation, he explained.

Mr Ogilegwu charged drug sellers and producers to abide by directives to submit banned substances in order to receive commendation from the command, adding that failure to do so will lead to arrest of culprits.

He added that other assorted drugs like Tramadol should be placed on poison box by the pharmacists and should be sold strictly on medical doctors recommendation.

Any other vendor found selling drugs aside licensed pharmacists will face the wrath of the law when arrested, he warned.

He also urged the Federal Government to fast track a bill to ban production, sales and distribution of the drugs.

(NAN)In what most of them have described as disrespect to the tenets of democracy, lawmakers in the Nigerian Senate were dumbfounded when it dawned on them on Wednesday that a government appointee had snubbed them again. For a third time, Ibrahim Idris, the Inspector-General of Police, on Wednesday failed to honour an invitation to appear before the upper legislative chamber.

It all started on Wednesday, April 25. The Senate gave the IGP a 24-hour notice to appear before its plenary to explain the circumstances surrounding the arrest of one of them, Dino Melaye, and killings across Nigeria. Mr Idris sent his deputy, who the Senate denied appearance. The police chief later through a statement explained that he was on an official assignment with President Muhammadu Buhari in Bauchi. He was told to appear the following Wednesday.

On Wednesday, May 2, the Senate had stood down their Order 17 to allow the police chief to enter the chamber; but he was not around. On this occasion, Mr Ibrahim, the chairman Senate Committee on Police Affairs, said he had not been able to reach Mr Idris for a while. He informed his colleagues that after the first summon, the National Assembly clerk wrote to Mr Idris and thereafter, he met with him and implored him to honour the Senate. The lawmakers deliberated on the development and resolved to give Mr Idris one week grace to honour the invitation. He was asked to appear on Wednesday, May 9. But on this day, same was the case. In fact, he did not send a representative.

SENATORS BERATE IGP

Upon realising that the IGP was not around, senators took turn to lash out at Mr Idris, describing the development as unfortunate.

First was the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, who said the police chief was acting against the interest of the public.

I feel that a public officer should do what is in the interest of the public. Where any public officer feels he cannot then there is no need for him to continue to occupy that kind of office. This institution is at a crossroads on this. A decision has to be taken. But in a situation where there is consistent nonappearance by the IG, I dont think we would make further sense to extend invitation, he said.

Emmanuel Bwacha said the development was a very sad moment for Nigeria, not for the parliament but for our democracy.

It is sad, it is inexcusable, unacceptable, it is condemnable and it calls for immediate action. We need to take a very serious action on the way forward. I suggest Mr President, let us have a closed-session for a very serious consideration on this matter. This is a national disgrace, he added.

In his comment, Isa Misau said he is vindicated on allegations he raised against the leadership of the Nigeria Police.

He added that Mr Idris snub was a disrespect to President Muhammadu Buhari.

On official capacity, there is no person here that is not bigger than the IG constitutionally. Anybody here can invite the IG officially because, by the Constitution, every senator is bigger than the office of the IG.

The Chamber of the Nigerian Senate

What the IG is doing is not against the Senate, I think hes doing it against the President. If an appointee of the president, somebody with one second, even the wife of the president can come out and announce that the IG has been sacked, would refuse to honour invitation of an institution which is to see to the democratic running of any country, I think it is unfortunate.

For Enyinnaya Abaribe, the police boss has no respect for the Senate and should be made to face the music.

Infograph  The Police IG has ignored three different Senate summons

SENATE RETRIBUTION

After entertaining comments briefly at the plenary, the lawmakers entered a closed-door session to decide on what next. After about 50 minutes deliberation, they resumed plenary. Mr Saraki announced the resolution.

The Senate in a closed session deliberated on the non-appearance of the IGP to the senate to the plenary after a series of invitation. The Senate noted that this has been a gross disrespect to our constituted authority and to also know that his earlier refusal to appear before investigative committee was overruled by competent court of jurisdiction just in April this year.

The Senate therefore views this persistent refusal is a great danger to our democracy and hence the Senate resolved to declare IGP as an enemy of democracy and not fit to hold any public office within and outside Nigeria. The leader of the Senate would also mandate to look into the matter for further necessary action, Mr Saraki said.

For a grave offence such as snubbing the highest legislative body in the country, one would have expected a stiffer penalty but Mr Saraki said nothing more than contained in these two paragraphs.

WHAT NEXT FOR THE SENATE?

Although the Constitution gives power to the National Assembly to summon political appointees, the law does not give directly the power of effective retribution to the parliament.

Sections 88 of the 1999 Constitution says, Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, each House of the National Assembly shall have power by resolution published in its journal or in the Official Gazette of the Government of the Federation to direct or cause to be directed investigation into  (a) any matter or thing with respect to which it has power to make laws, and (b) the conduct of affairs of any person, authority, ministry or government department charged, or intended to be charged, with the duty of or responsibility for  (i) executing or administering laws enacted by National Assembly, and (ii) disbursing or administering moneys appropriated or to be appropriated by the National Assembly.

The powers conferred on the National Assembly under the provisions of this section are exercisable only for the purpose of enabling it to;

(a) make laws with respect to any matter within its legislative competence and correct any defects in existing laws; and (b) expose corruption, inefficiency or waste in the execution or administration of laws within its legislative competence and in the disbursement or administration of funds appropriated by it.

Armed with this section, the Senates oversight functions under section 88 covers all persons who had input into matters over which the National Assembly has powers to make law.

Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki

By interpretation, the Senate has power to invite Mr Idris but lacks the constitutional backing to met out punishment to him.

To make the IGP atone for his sins the Senate would have to report Mr Idris to Mr President who he directly reports to.

Having exhausted this option  the leadership of National Assembly met with Mr Buhari on the issue last week  what other constitutional option can the senators explore?

LAWYERS SPEAK

Ola Adeosun, a lawyer, said the police chief has the audacity to snub the Senate repeatedly because he has the backing of President Buhari.

He, however, pointed out that the only option left for them still is to report to the president.

If it were someone else, the normal thing to do is to ask the IGP to arrest such person but now that its the IGP, it is so unfortunate but the only other option they have is to report to his (IGP) superior, which is the sitting president.

For him to be able to snub the Senate three times, he must have gotten assurances from the man he reports to, which is the president.

Our political class lacks moral. The Senate does not have any other compelling power over the IGP.

It is now left for the president to show to the world whether hes morally upright or not.

Inibehe Effiong, a human rights lawyer, also agrees with Mr Adeosun. He described Mr Idris action as threat to democracy.

By virtue of section 88 of the Constitution, the Senate has the constitutional power to summon anybody in Nigeria including the president. The only exception is that they cannot compel that person.

Also, the IG is subject to the Senates summon. He does not have the right to deliberate it.

In section 89, the Senate now has the power to issue a warrant of arrest to anyone that fails to adhere to their summon. But in this case, you cant issue a warrant to the IG, can the IG arrest himself, or who will arrest him?

President Muhammadu Buhari

What the IG has done is a threat to democracy and an attempt to ridicule our democracy.

The Senate cannot do anything now, constitutionally. Except they want to go outside the constitution and punish him.The National Judicial Council (NJC) has recommended the sack of one judge and commenced investigation of seven others.

The council, the highest decision making in the judiciary, made the decision at its meeting held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Abuja, according to a statement by its spokesperson, Soji Oye.

Justice Michael Goji of the High Court of Adamawa State was recommended for compulsory retirement for refusing to proceed on transfer to the Mubi Judicial Division of the State High Court since July, 2017, Mr Oye said.

The council also recommended the appointment of 22 judges for various offices.

Read Mr Oyes full statement below.

The National Judicial Council under the Chairmanship of the Honourable Mr. Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, GCON, at its 86th Meeting which was held on the 8th and 9th May, 2018, recommended the compulsory retirement of Hon. Mr. Justice Michael Goji of the High Court of Adamawa State for refusing to proceed on transfer to the Mubi Judicial Division of the State High Court since July, 2017.

Hon. Mr. Justice Michael Goji was recommended for compulsory retirement to Governor Bindo Umaru Jibrilla of Adamawa State sequel to the advice of the State Judicial Service Commission to Council after its Findings on the allegations of misconduct levelled against him.

The Adamawa State Judicial State Commission had conducted an investigation on the conduct of Hon. Mr. Justice Goji, following the directive of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, after receiving the complaint of his misconduct from the Adamawa State Chief Judge.

Aside from the recommendation for compulsory retirement, Council also directed that he should refund all salaries received by him from July, 2017 till date, failing which the Adamawa State Government is to deduct the amount from any entitlement due to him and remit same to the National Judicial Council which pays salaries of all Judicial Officers in the Federation.

In the interim, the Council in exercise of its disciplinary powers under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, has suspended Hon. Mr. Justice Goji from office pending his removal from office.

Council considered the reports of various Investigation Committees and dismissed petitions written against Hon. Mr. Justice Paul Adamu Galinje of the Supreme Court, Hon. Mr. Justice Aminu Sabo Ringim, Chief Judge, Jigawa State, and Hon. Mr. Justice Peter Umeadi, Chief Judge, Enugu State.

The petition against Hon. Mr. Justice Paul Adamu Galinje of the Supreme Court was dismissed sequel to its withdrawal by Hon. Yaro Abarshi and Hon. John Yobi Yarafa and others, who alleged that he interfered in a Chieftaincy matter in Taraba State.

The petition against Hon. Mr. Justice Aminu Sabo Ringim was also dismissed because the Petitioner, Dr Jamil Gwamna who wrote to Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, Minister of Power and Works who in turn forwarded same to the National Judicial Council, withdrew the petition. The allegation was that the Hon. Judge ordered the arrest, assault, and detention of staff of Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) when they disconnected the electricity at the State High Court and the Judges house for non-payment of bills. The Committee that investigated the matter found that the Petitioner could not show or prove that Hon. Mr. Justice Ringim instructed or directed the arrest of KEDCOs staff.

Council did not find any reason to further investigate Hon. Mr. Justices Paul Galinje and Aminu Ringim after the withdrawals.

Petitions written against twenty-five (25) Judicial Officers and others by EFCC were also considered by Council after which it resolved to empanel seven (7) Committees to look into the allegations.

Petitions against various Judges were dismissed for, lack of establishment of misconduct, being subjudice or that such petitions were matters for appeal. The dismissed petitions were against Hon. Mr. Justices A. I. Chikere and J. T Tsoho, Emeka Nwite and Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Hon. Mr. Justice Adetokunbo Banjoko of FCT High Court, Hon. Mr. Justice Taminu Zailani, Chief Judge, Kaduna, Hon. Mr. Justice M. A. Adeigbe, High Court, Osun State (who had already retired from the Bench), and Hon. Mr. Justice E. N. Ogbuiji, High Court, Rivers State.

Council at the Meeting also recommended twenty-one (21) Judges for appointment as Chief Judges, Grand Kadi, High Court Judges, Sharia Court Kadis, President, Customary Court of Appeal, and one (1) Member, Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Council also received the Report of the Performance Evaluation Committee of Judicial Officers of Superior Courts of Record in the Federation on sixteen (16) Judges invited by the Committee to explain their low performance in the last two (2) to four (4) quarters in the year 2017.

Soji Oye, Esq.

Director, InformationA court has nullified the suspension of Ovie Omo-Agege from the Senate.

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court gave the ruling on Thursday afternoon.

Mr Dimgba said the Senates decision regarding the suspension, as well as the pattern adopted by the National Assembly, was constitutionally defective.

Mr Omo-Agege, representing Delta Central, had approached the court, after the Senates committee on ethics and privileges began investigating his comments condemning the Senate over the National Assemblys decision to amend the electoral act.

During a deliberation in February, Mr Omo-Agege alleged a conspiracy by his colleagues against President Muhammadu Buhari, following the decision of the legislature to amend section 25 of the electoral act.

That amendment, which was subsequently rejected by President Buhari, would have altered the sequence of the 2019 general elections.

In reaction to the comments made by Mr Omo-Agege, the Kogi Central senator, Dino Melaye, called for an investigation of his colleagues statement.

Subsequently the Senate committee investigated the matter and recommended a suspension of Mr Omo-Agege for 181 days.

After reviewing the committees report, Mr Omo-Agege was suspended by the Senate for 90 legislative days.

Ahead of his suspension, Mr Omo-Agege approached the court, challenging the decision of the Senate to investigate his allegations.

Mr Omo-Agege asked the court to determine whether the Senate had constituted authority to investigate and even discipline a senator, whose case is already before a court of law.

In a lengthy judgement delivered on Thursday, the court held that the seven reliefs sought by the applicant could not be given.

The judge said Mr Omo-Ageges submission that the Senate was wrong in proceeding with its investigation, was baseless.

He however added that despite the fact that the Senate had a constitutional duty to discipline its members, such disciplinary measures must comply with provisions of the law.

According to the judge, although the plaintiff, as a senator, is not prohibited from holding a contrary view from his colleagues, the right to freedom of expression is not absolute.

The judge faulted Mr Omo-Ageges decision to address journalists on the matter pending before the privileges committee, stressing that the sanctity of the National Assembly must be maintained at all times.

Reading through a part of the report submitted by the Senate committee, however, Mr Dimgba said the decision of the Senate to premise its suspension of Mr Omo-Agege on his resolve to approach the court was an affront on government and abuse of the Senates powers.

Access to court is a constitutional right which cannot be taken away, he said.

The judge said section 4 (8) provides that the exercise of legislative powers shall be subject to the decisions of the court. He also said the cited provision states that the Senate cannot take a decision that will tend to oust the functions of the Judiciary.

According to Mr Dimgba, where the actions of the Senate is found to be in violation of constitutional provisions, the section 4 (8) becomes fully applicable by the Judiciary.

The judge further ruled that constitutional provisions only allow the Senate to suspend its member for nor more than 14 days.

Subsequently, the judge ruled that the decision of the Senate to suspend Mr Omo-Agege for 90 days is a nullity.

The court therefore nullified Mr Omo-Ageges suspension with immediate effect.

It further ruled that all outstanding salaries and allawances be paid to the senator.

Following his suspension, Mr Omo-Agege allegedly led thugs to invade the Senate during plenary and still its mace. Though the mace was later recovered, that matter is still being investigated by the police and the National Assembly.A Nigerian diplomat was found dead on Thursday at his home in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, the News Agency of Nigeria has reported, quoting two security sources.

According to the report, the sources said police were investigating the incident but provided no details on how he died.

Reuters that initially reported the incident said officials from the Nigerian Embassy in Khartoum were not immediately available to comment.

Dubai-based al-Arabiya television identified the diplomat as the consul general and described his death as an assassination.

Reports on social media suggested the killers used a knife in the attack.

Though intermittent violence is common in the countrys warring southern and western regions, violence in the capital is rare.

Sudans President Omar al-Bashir has in recent months shaken up the security establishment, replacing the heads of the army and intelligence service in February.

They said he had apparently been killed and that an investigation was underway.

(Reuters/NAN)The Coalition of Nigeria Movement (CNM) formed by former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has adopted a political party.

Mr Obasanjo announced at a press conference on Thursday that the movement had adopted a renewed and reinvigorated African Democratic Congress, ADC.

He, however, announced that he would not be a member of the ADC.

The party, ADC, as I understand it, is neither based on the immediate past, condemnable records of PDP as a ruling party in Nigeria nor on the present disastrous and destabilising performance of APC. It is a new platform and a new page in our political history.

Read Mr Obasanjos full speech below.

Let me start by welcoming and commending the emergence of a renewed and reinvigorated African Democratic Congress, ADC, as a political party. Since the inception of Coalition for Nigeria Movement, CNM, many of the sixty-eight registered political parties had contacted and consulted with the Movement on coming together and working together. The leadership of the Movement, after detailed examination, wide consultation and bearing in mind the orientation, policies and direction of the Movement, have agreed to adopt ADC as its platform to work with others for bringing about desirable change in the Nigeria polity and governance. I congratulate the leadership of the Movement for their decision and their choice. The emergence of ADC is the beginning of hard work to continue to consolidate our democracy and to make development in all its ramifications real, relevant, accessible, popular and reaching out to all Nigerians wherever they may be.

Let me particularly thank and congratulate millions of Nigerians who harkened to my clarion call in my statement of January 23, 2018 that our anger against misgovernance, poor performance, condonation of misconduct, incompetence, destabilising nepotism, cluelessness, denial and scapegoatism, lack of understanding of dynamics of internal politics which have led to greater disunity, inequity, injustice, senseless killings and destruction, must not be like the anger of the cripple but a positive anger coordinated and directed to put an end to the era of impotence and for Nigerians to join hands to seek effective solution through coalition, cooperation and togetherness that will take Nigeria to where God has created it to be. You registered in millions for the Coalition of Nigeria Movement, CNM. Your actions, enthusiasm and commitment, with those of others and other organisations  political parties, civil societies, social and cultural organisations  have made possible the new dawn that the ADC will usher in. With the emergence of ADC as a political party for the Movement and its associates and in line with my clear position which I have often repeated, the first phase of my job is done and I will not be a member of the Party but as I have always done since I quit partisan politics in 2014, I will keep alive and active on Nigerian and African issues and interests and I will be open to offering advice to any individual or organisation for the unity, development and progress of Nigeria and indeed of Africa. I will, of course, continue to exercise my right to freedom of speech where and when I consider necessary in the interest of Nigeria, Africa and humanity. The second phase will involve galvanisation of all like-minded forces for enthronement of new order in Nigeria.

In recommending the CNM to join the ADC, let me give you some points that are of interest. From the beginning, CNM is not a political party but a popular grassroots movement to stimulate the interest and participation of youth and women in particular in bringing about change in democratic dispensation, governance and development in Nigeria in such a way that power addicts will be forced to yield places for new entrants and participants in the power equation in the country. They will sanitise the system. With the ADC, embracing the policy of 30% youth of under 40 and 30% women in all organs of the Party, a significant paradigm shift has been brought about in the power equation. The ADC is a reformed and reinvigorated party, it will embrace all the features and policies which make CNM attractive and a source of hope and inspiration to millions at home and abroad. The ADC welcomes associates, other parties, groups and civil society organisations such as cultural, township unions and social organisations and interests. No former political party, movement, social or cultural organisation should claim the sole ownership of the renewed ADC. In name, it is relatively old but in establishment, organisation, membership, policies, programmes, orientation and focus, it is new. If this is not understood, accepted by all and made the foundation and pillar of the political party, it will be starting on a very shaky foundation and it will soon fall. I will advise others to join this political party platform to usher in a new dawn for Nigeria, but I may not be able to advise anybody to join PDP or APC no matter what window-dressing reformation they may claim. Although PDP would seem to have realised its mistakes of its immediate past of the last eight years or so, its present evolution would, by itself, not give confidence to well-meaning Nigerians who are interested in a new Nigeria in the hands of God that will have leadership, governance, development and values within our culture as its guiding principles with the attributes of honesty, integrity, patriotism, love, unity, industry, incorruptibility, good neighbourliness, faithfulness, trust, courage and love and fear of God held aloft. PDP offered apology without disciplining those who set Nigeria on a course of ruin and some of them are still holding leadership roles in their party. Nigerians may forgive, but Nigerians should never forget; otherwise they will be suffering from amnesia and the same ugliness may raise its head again. APC, as a political party, is still gloating and revelling in its unrepentant misgovernance of Nigeria and taking Nigerians for fools. There is neither remorse nor appreciation of what they are doing wrong. It is all arrant arrogance and insult upon injury for Nigerians. Whatever the leadership may personally claim, most Nigerians know that they, Nigerians, are poorer today than when APC came in and Nigeria is more impoverished with our foreign loan jumping from $3.6 billion to over $18 billion to be paid by the present and future generations of Nigerians. The country is more divided than ever before because the leadership is playing the ethnic and religious game which is very unfortunate. And the country is more insecure and unsafe for everybody. It is a political party with two classes of membership.

Before I leave this point, it is pertinent to make the point that PDP and APC are not actually made of men and women who are totally evil. There are sprinkles of good men and women out there and among them. But as political parties and the government they led or they are leading in the last eleven years, they have failed and failure should neither be hoisted for embracement nor reinforced. What must be done is to take what is best from all to come together on a new alliance platform that will take us to the promised land. There must be basic and fundamental ground for change and for people to change. What is not desirable is to take the leprous hand of either PDP or APC as the instrument to clean Nigeria up. The clean fingers in either of them can and must be grafted to the clean hands of new entrants and participants to move up and move on and that is what I understand the reinvigorated party platform is all about  change, new order and progress.

The party, ADC, as I understand it, is neither based on the immediate past, condemnable records of PDP as a ruling party in Nigeria nor on the present disastrous and distabilising performance of APC. It is a new platform and a new page in our political history. Some of us must hold ourselves as watchmen and watchwomen for the nation without necessarily belonging to any political party as genuinely concerned and interested citizens and statesmen and stateswomen beyond the ambition of office and enticement of grandeur of position or fortune.

Nigerians must keep their eyes wide open, their ears quite attentive, their minds very clear, their hands very clean and must not remain dumb in the face of atrocities and impunities of the governors against the governed. Those who govern us at all levels must be made to realise that it is our collective rights and sovereignty that they hold in trust for us and to be used for the good of all of us and with all of us having interest and having a stake in how we are governed. It is our God-given right and we must not allow the abuse of it. In the past, we have laid back and we have been taken for a ride. How did we allow Nigeria to be run by K34 without a murmur? Of course, that was followed by the running of Nigeria by Ijaw nation with four women and now by kith and kin and we are still jubilant in the face of atrocities, insecurity, disasters and degradation politically, economically and socially. When I was in school, tolerating what we have tolerated in the past twelve years with our tails within our legs like frightened dogs, we would be asking if we are collectively mesmerised and we needed to go to aro for mental or psychological examination.

Some have asked cynically and skeptically if there would ever be change. I can understand their cynicism and skepticism. If we are doing the same thing and we expect a different result, we would be fooling ourselves. As I said earlier, I believe that what we are having is new with some paradigm shift in power equation involving youth and women. The grassroots involvement which CNM has advocated must be maintained consistently. Inclusiveness must take care of over 25 million Nigerians living with disability so that they can make meaningful contribution to societal discourse and development. They must be made part of popular participation. Elitism must be drastically reduced. All the political parties that have emerged since the present dispensation in 1999 have been too elitist, and have gradually lost internal democracy, leaving room for corruption and dictatorship. The greatest lacuna in political party administration in Nigeria since the present dispensation is the ownership of the political party through regular contribution of the members of the party for the upkeep of the party. Worse still is what PDP has now accepted as part of its failure and disappointment of the nation which is looting government treasury to finance individual and party elections. Unfortunately, APC has followed suit. To curb corruption, primary elections should cease to be by delegates but by all card-carrying and financial members of the party within their constituencies. This will save lives as many people have died by being shepherded to a central location as delegates to vote at primaries. It also introduced corruption into the system. At one of the PDP primaries within the last eight years, one candidate distributed $10,000 per delegate, the one who distributed $15,000 per delegate won the primary. It was not necessarily on merit but certainly, dollar talked.

Concluding my point on corruption in politics particularly at the primary elections level, there must be strict control of campaign funding and transparent accounting by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of all funds contributed and all funds utilised by individuals and political parties for campaigns. I was shocked when an insider in the PDP told me that the amount of money the party used for 2015 elections would be in the neighbourhood of $3 billion. It was all directly or indirectly from the government treasury.

The change we expect to be forthcoming, realistic and effective, will have to come from all of us  citizens, political parties, executive, legislature, judiciary and electoral organisations. We must stop the blame game and must all realise that Nigeria will be as good as we all make it to be  a good, effective, efficient, performing, equitable, fair, just, peaceful, secure, prosperous, united, wholesome and God-fearing country. I stand on the platform that change is possible and human beings are agents of change and we have seen that in our country both for good and for ill. I remain positive and optimistic. If we believe we can, we will. Political parties must do their own with a country-centered and value-laden philosophy, orientation and service. We should have one INEC for all elections at local government, State and national levels. We have all seen the ridiculous phenomena of local government elections conducted by States so-called INEC being always almost completely won by the ruling party in the State. We all know it is a sham. The National Assembly must rid itself of corruption; and it can do it. It must also make its remuneration relevant to Nigerian economic and social reality. It can also do it. Then it must make laws and amend the Constitution to have one INEC for all elections in the country, strict and scrupulous funding and accounting of all electoral campaigns and all elections. The INEC must be given power to supervise, control and regulate campaign funds and funds and contribution to political parties. The National Assembly must amend the Constitution to allow Nigerians in diaspora with current Nigerian passports to vote in all Nigerian elections at Nigerian Embassies abroad. The National Assembly should also legislate 30% youth of under 40 and 30% women into all organs of political parties and into all institutions of governments. It should be a great step forward.

The Executive which emerges on the platform of one political party must avoid winners take all especially in utilising the best brains available in running the affairs of the country. While the government of the day must be run essentially by the political party that wins the election, there must be consultation and cooperation especially on national issues of unity, economy, security and foreign affairs. There must also be minimum acceptable national position on these issues and which will also allow members of other parties that are good enough to be utilised by the government without necessarily running a government of so-called national unity. Rather, all governments should be government of national common interest.

If we get the platform right, we will get the system right particularly in running the government which should be participatory and all-encompassing, not exclusive, discriminatory but talent-hungry and talent-targeting for the good of the country. Governance must not be myopic, restrictive and limited to circle of tribe, friends and blood relations but open-armed, transparent, open-minded, accommodating and seeking for the best wherever the best can be found to achieve the best for the country. We must all be guided and inspired by Nigerian Dream which must be inclusive, elevating and giving hope, great future and conquering spirit to all Nigerians.

In all situations, let us stand for good leadership, good governance, all-round development and enduring and authentic values within our culture. If we get it all right, our demography will be an asset and not a liability nor indeed a disaster. What is more, our democracy will move from strength to strength dynamically, inclusively, workingly, prosperously, equitably, communally and satisfactorily for all, by all and with all. When democracy goes symbiotically with development as they should, a happy, wholesome, united and inclusive society emerges which is secure, formidable, prosperous and respected within the comity of nations. That is Gods plan for Nigeria which Nigerians must make manifest. There is only one reason for where we are now, it is leadership failure.

My points are borne out of my experience, learning, knowledge and interaction with others. Let us use these ideas as the basis for discussing and debating the course for advancing democracy and development on a sustainable trajectory for Nigeria founded on good leadership and good governance with welfare, well-being and progress of all.

Once again, I congratulate all members of Coalition for Nigeria Movement, all the political parties and civil society organisations that have adopted ADC as a political party platform to move Nigeria up and forward and I wish them success for now and the future. The eyes of the nation and the world are on you to show that with people and organisation of like mind, a real difference is possible and you will make it. I wish you well. But always remember that Nigeria belongs to you as it belongs to those in power. If you fail to use the potent weapon democracy offers you and that is your vote, then you have yourselves to blame. You can move on to the next stage in the democratic advance for change, unity, security, stability, good governance, prosperity and progress. So may it be for Nigeria.

President Olusegun Obasanjo

May 10, 2018National Youth Service Corps members have been warned against any act of misconduct through their participation as ad-hoc staff in the forthcoming elections.

This was made known in a press statement signed by the Corps director, press and public relations, Adenike Adeyemi, on Thursday.

According to the statement, the Director-General, Suleiman Kazaure, gave this warning on Thursday at the Lagos State Orientation Camp, Iyana-Ipaja, as the 2018 Batch A Orientation Course came to an end.

The DG said the full weight of the law would be applied on any erring corps member who violates electoral laws.

He said the NYSC would not undermine the goodwill it has built over the years while noting that the welfare and security of all corps members remain the priority of the scheme.

Similarly, Akinwumi Ambode, governor of Lagos State, in his address, urged the corps members to contribute their quota to the socio-economic and political development of the State.

He urged them to leave indelible footprints in the state in the area of healthcare delivery, education, campaign on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, social services and agriculture.

Mr Ambode, who was represented by by the commissioner for special duties and inter-governmental relations, Oluseye Oladejo, said excellent performance would be rewarded at the end of the service year.

He advised the corps members to embrace entrepreneurship development as the only antidote to the increasing rate of unemployment among the youth in the country.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State coordinator of the scheme, Mohammed Momoh, urged them not to embark on unauthorized journeys but also be security conscious as they settle down in their respective host communities.

Refrain from keeping late nights and respect the culture and traditions of host communities, he said.Ten of the 100 persons selected by the World Economic Forum (WEForum) to join the 2018 Young Global Leaders five-year training are from Africa.

According to a statement published on the website of the WEForum, Wednesday, they were nominated because of their ground-breaking work, creative approaches to problems and ability to build bridges across cultures and between business, government, and civil society.

Nigerian Chief Executive Officer of Flutterwave, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji; Akim Daouda from Gabon and Ethiopian Samuel Alemayehu were selected as part of the 10.

The class of 100, which consists of technologists, teachers, entrepreneurs, artists and innovators, would go through a five-year programme on principles of generosity, respect, authenticity and impact.

The statement described the five-year programme as a journey which would influence a process of discovery in the participants; to achieve more collectively than they could on their own.

According to WEForum, this select group is exposed to opportunities that build their expertise and extend their influence. The journey focuses on cultivating public leadership skills and scaling impact.

This years cohort of 100 comprises an equal number of business and not-for-profit leaders, more than half of whom are from emerging economies. Not for the first time, the majority are women. They include the worlds most accomplished under-40-year-olds, including a head of state, a Formula One champion and a decorated human rights lawyer.

According to the CNBC, the Head of the Forum of Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum, John Dutton, also said were challenging these women and men to do more and be more. Theyll join a community of enterprising, socially minded leaders working as a force for good, and highlight the potential for innovation to correct the shortcomings in our economies and societies.

Read the profile of the selected Africans below:

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji  Chief Executive Officer, Flutterwave, Nigeria.

He is the cofounder of a digital payments platform designed to make it easier to do business across the continent. Previously, he was one of the founders of Andela  a company training African developers and hiring them out to global tech companies  which received investment from Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan.

Akim Daouda  Chief Investment Officer, Gabonese Sovereign Wealth Fund, Gabon.

He oversees a $1.6 billion portfolio with over 100 investments across 12 sectors including energy, infrastructure, mining, financial services, and real estate. He is also an activist supporting a youth education NGO.

Anushka Ratnayake  Founder and Chief Executive Officer, myAgro, Mali.

She supports small-scale farmers to pay for fertilizer and seeds through a mobile platform. She aims to reach 1 million farmers by 2025, increasing their individual income by $1.50 per day. Prior to starting myAgro, she created management-training programmes for One Acre Fund and travelled across Africa and South Asia in search of innovations in the microfinance and agricultural sectors.

Fatoumata Ba  Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Janngo, Senegal.

She co-founded Africas first tech unicorn and fastest growing e-commerce site, and was an active member of the companys Entrepreneurship Challenge supporting tech entrepreneurs across Africa. Her new company is Africas leading tech for good platform.

Karabo Morule  Managing Director, Personal Finance, at Old Mutual Emerging Markets, South Africa.

She has over a decade of experience in the financial services industry and currently serves as the first woman to sit on Old Mutual Emerging Markets executive committee. She is also a fellow with the Actuarial Society of South Africa and serves on the Roedean Trust.

Khaled Igue  Founder and President, Club 2030 Africa, Benin.

His global think-tank focuses on the sustainable, economic, and social development in African countries, generating innovative ideas through actionable research for deploying solutions throughout Africa. He has been designated as an Emerging Leader of the German Marshall Fund of United States and Young Leader of AfricaFrance Foundation.

Natalie Payida Jabangwe  Chief Executive Officer, EcoCash Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe.

She runs the second largest mobile financial service in Africa, managing the operation and financial transactions for six million customers.

Samuel Alemayehu  Managing Director, Cambridge Industries Ltd., Ethiopia.

A Stanford engineer and Silicon Valley entrepreneur who is developing Africas first waste-to-energy plant and the continents largest wind farm.

Sebastien Kadio-Morokro  Chief Executive Officer, Petro Ivoire S.A., Cote dIvoire.

He is one of the youngest CEOs in the African oil and gas industry, operating the largest indigenous petroleum product distribution company in Cote dIvoire. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Procreas Clinic, which specializes in maternal health, child health and fertility.

Unathi Kamlana  Head of Policy, Statistics & Industry Support, South African Reserve Bank, South Africa.

A career banker with a distinguished record in financial sector stability in South Africa. He served as Chief Director of Financial Markets and Stability as well as was a member of the Standing Committee on the Revision of the Banks Act. He participates in various international forums such as Experts Group of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and at Standing Committee on Standards Implementation (SCSI).Sambo Maina, a prosecution witness in a case of money laundering and false declaration of assets involving a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, GMD NNPC, Andrew Yakubu, on Thursday narrated how the defendant concealed $9,772,800 found in his apartment in the EFCC Asset Declaration Form.

Mr Maina, an operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, stated this while testifying as the fourth prosecution witness before Justice A. R. Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

He also told the court that the former NNPC boss also failed to declare 74,000 found in his building to the EFCC in the said form.

While narrating how EFCC came about the Declaration Form, Mr Sambo said: We commenced investigation into two categories of NNPC contract. The contracts were awarded by NNPC and its subsidiaries.

The first category of the contract relates to strategic alliance agreement between the NNPC, its subsidiaries NPDC (Nigerian Petroleum Development Company) and Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Ltd.

The first strategic alliance agreement was on oil mining lease 26/30/34/40/42 and the second contract was on oil mining lease 60/61/62/63.

He added that the investigation was sequel to intelligence report received by the EFCC relating to suspicious fund transfers from the Nigerian account of Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept to its sister company in Switzerland called Atlantic Energy Holdings, including additional transfers from Atlantic Energy Brass Development Ltd to Atlantic Energy Holdings.

It was on the basis of this suspicious transaction that investigation commenced. In the course of our investigation, we found it necessary to seek clarifications from Engineer Andrew Yakubu and he was invited to EFCC, Mr Maina said.

He added that while interacting with the defendant, EFCC found out that the two strategic alliance agreements were executed between 2011 and April 2014 when Mr Yakubu was the GMD.

The PW4 further stated that after the defendant volunteered his statement he also declared his assets to the EFCC sometimes between June and August, 2015.

The witness told the court that the declaration form given to the defendant to fill and declare his assets was based on the allegation that the company, Atlantic Energy Drilling Concept Ltd, was allowed to lift crude oil worth over a billion dollars without carrying out the necessary obligation on their part upon which some officials of the NNPC were charged to court.

The asset declaration form was tendered and admitted as Exhibit I.

Thereafter, Justice Ahmed adjourned to July 3, 2018 for continuation of trial.

Mr Yakubu, is facing trial on a six-count charge bordering on money laundering and false declaration of assets.

It would be recalled that, on February 3, 2017, operatives of the EFCC stormed a building belonging to the former NNPC boss and recovered a sum of $9,772,000 and 74,000 stashed in a huge fire proof safe.

Mr Yakubu, who admitted to be the owner of the monies, claimed it was gifts given to him by friends and well wishers and also savings accumulated over a period of years.The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday admitted additional documents in evidence in the 32-count charge preferred against former Benue Governor, Gabriel Suswam by the Federal Government.

At the resumed trial, the federal government, through its counsel, Aminu Alilu, tendered documents showing how N450 million was allegedly withdrawn from the states treasury.

The second prosecution witness, a cashier at the Benue Government House, tendered the documents.

The witness said that the money was said to be for the augmentation of 10 months running cost for the Government House.

The documents included certified true copies of a memo to the governor, payment receipts and payment vouchers for the N450 million.

There was also a letter to the Commissioner of Finance, under Suswam administration, Omadachi Oklobia in respect of the money.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole adjourned the case until May 22 for cross examination of the witness.

Mr Suswam is standing trial alongside Omadachi Oklobia, his former Commissioner of Finance and Janet Aluga, former Accountant, Benue Government House.

They are facing a 32-count charge bordering on diversion of N9.7 billion, part of which was meant for Police Reform Programme and Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P).

The defendants allegedly cornered the funds between 2012 and 2015 when Mr Suswam was governor of the state.

They are also accused of conspiracy, conversion of property derived directly from corruption; collaboration to conceal property derived from corruption; obtaining by false pretence and accepting cash payments, exceeding the amount authorised by law.

The offences are said to be contrary to, and punishable under various provisions of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011, and the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act.

(NAN)Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus O.Kravchenko meets the Ambassador of Italy

08-05-2018

On May 8, 2018 the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Oleg Kravchenko, met with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Italian Republic to the Republic of Belarus, Mario Baldi, on the occasion of the beginning of his diplomatic mission to our country.

The sides exchanged views on a wide range of issues on the bilateral agenda, cooperation in multilateral formats, as well as discussed prospects for development of relations between Belarus and Italy in political, economic and humanitarian spheres, confirmed their interest in enhancing bilateral relations.



   

print versionA prosecution witness, Abubakar Madaki, on Thursday told a Federal High Court in Lagos that former Governor Rasheed Ladoja of Oyo State admitted taking part of proceeds of the sale of the state shares.

Mr Madaki, an Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC) operative, gave evidence in the trial of Mr Ladoja and a former Commissioner for Finance in the state, Waheed Akanbi, for N4.7 billion fraud.

The accused were brought before Justice Mohammed Idris on December 14, 2016, but they pleaded not guilty to the eight-count charge preferred against them by the EFCC.

The judge granted them bail.

At the resumed trial of the case on Thursday, the prosecution counsel, Oluwafemi Olabisi, continued examination of the witness.

Mr Madaki said that Mr Ladoja confirmed it his statement before the EFCC that he used part of the proceeds from the sale of Oyo State shares to purchase four cars.

The counsel had asked the witness what happened to N400 million out of the N1billion difference of the proceeds which he was to investigate.

Olabisi noted that the witness had identified N600 million out of the N100 billion.

Part of the proceeds was used to purchase four cars by Ladoja; he promised to return them but he has failed to do so.

The cars are a jeep, a bus and two other cars supplied to members of the House of Representatives loyal to him, Mr Madaki said.

He added that the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) conducted a discrete investigation into the alleged fraud and issued a report to the EFCC to that effect.

Mr Olabisi applied to tender the report from the NSE as an exhibit.

The counsel also sought to tender as exhibit, the search warrant for the residence of the Managing Director of McLean Securities.

Bolaji Onilenla and Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, counsel to Ladoja and Akanbi, respectively, did not object to Mr Olabisis request.

Consequently the documents were admitted and marked Exhibit H3 and Exhibit H4 respectively.

Mr Madaki also testified that Mr Ladoja approved the reduction of the sale of the shares without any state executive resolution.

The witness identified a correspondence between the commission and Oyo State Government with accompanying documents, which the state obliged the EFCC.

When Mr Olabisi sought to tender the documents, Mr Onilenla objected to that, arguing that the documents were certified only by the commission.

Mr Olabisi then withdrew the documents and prayed the court for an adjournment to enable the prosecution to do the needful.

Justice Mohammed adjourned continuation of the trial until May 30.

The accused were charged with conspiring to siphon and launder N4.7 billion from the coffers of Oyo State Government.

The EFCC also accused them of converting N1.9 billion belonging to the state for their personal use through the account of a company known as Heritage Apartments Ltd.

The anti-graft agency claimed that the accused retained the money sometime in 2007 in spite of their knowledge that it was proceeds from a criminal activity.

Mr Ladoja was accused of removing 600,000 pounds from the state coffers in 2007 and sent to his daughter, Bimpe, in London.

In addition, the ex-governor was accused of converting N42 million belonging to the state for his personal use and subsequently used same to purchase an armoured Land Cruiser.

The EFCC added that Mr Ladoja converted N728 million and N77 million at different times in 2007 for his personal use and transferred same to Bistrum Investments for the purchase of a property in Ibadan.

The offences contravened the provisions of Sections 14, 16, 17 (a) and 18 (1) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004, according to the EFCC.

(NAN)The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has identified the Nigerian diplomat found dead on Thursday at his home in Khartoum, capital of Sudan.

According to the ministry, the victim is Habibu Almu, an immigration attache.

NAN had reported that two security sources confirmed the death and indicated that an investigation was ongoing.

The ministry has received the sad news of the untimely death of the immigration attache in our mission in Khartoum, Sudan, said Elias-Fatile, spokesperson of the foreign affairs ministry said.

We are awaiting further and detailed report from the mission after which a statement would be issued.

A television station, al-Arabiya, had described the diplomats death as an assassination, according to Reuters .President Donald Trump on Thursday welcomed three Americans freed from North Korea back to the United States soil.

Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-Song and Tony Kim arrived at Joint Base Andrews military airfield in Washington at about 7:42 a.m. Nigerian time on a U.S. military medical plane.

They arrived shortly after Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State who secured their release from North Korea on Wednesday, arrived on a separate plane.

The men were seized from 2015 to 2017 and accused of several offenses that they allegedly contravened North Korean laws and sentenced to several years imprisonment with hard labour. But they had all traveled on humanitarian missions.

Mr Trump announced their release in a Twitter update Wednesday, saying: I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health.

The development comes as Mr Trump prepares to meet Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, in an ongoing effort to end the decades-old acrimony between North and South Korea. The venue of the historic meeting is currently still being weighed by Mr Trump, the American president said on Wednesday.The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, should not reduce the reason for his invitation by the Senate to the arrest of Dino Melaye as the summon was for him to explain what the Police were doing on the spate of killings across the country, the senate has said.

In a statement by its spokesman, Aliyu Abdullahi, the Senate said the issue of Mr Melayes arrest which was part of why Mr Idris was invited had been overtaken by events.

The senate in the statement insisted the Mr Idris is not fit to remain in office because he plans to place himself above an arm of government.

We noted the response issued by one Jimoh Moshood on behalf of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris following yesterdays resolution of the legislative chamber on the continued refusal of the IGP to honour the invitation for him to come and explain what the police are doing to halt the spate of killings across the country.

Let it be known that the IGP by trying to reduce the reason for his invitation by the Senate to the arrest of Sen. Dino Melaye is simply holding on to straw. The issue of Sen. Melayes arrest has been overtaken by events. The courts are already handling the related cases. Our main concern is the security crisis across the country where people are being killed in scores on daily basis. The primary responsibility of the Police is maintenance of law and order as well as protection of lives and property. If there is a breach along the line of this responsibility, we do not see why the IGP should feel he cannot be invited to offer explanation to the arm of government which is constitutionally empowered to ask questions and investigate the breach, the statement reads.

The statement came as a follow-up to reaction by the police boss after the senate declared him an enemy of democracy who is unfit to hold any public office within and outside Nigeria.

Mr Idris in a statement by police spokesperson, Mr Moshood, said Wednesdays attack on his person by the senators was deliberate blackmail, witch-hunting with mischievous motives to hand-twist him to pervert the end of justice in a felonious and serious offenses relating to Mr Melaye.

Mr Abdullahi debunked this saying the invitation was necessary due to reports of killing given by senators at plenary.

He warned the police boss not to confuse issues or be diversionary by his statement.

Mr. Idris should not seek to confuse issues or play on the intelligence of members of the public with his diversionary statement or claims. The resolution of the Senate leading to his invitation is clear and we invite our people to check. It is for the purpose of having a transparent and open hearing that we fixed his appearance for Wednesday when our plenary sitting enjoys live coverage on national television.

In one instance in the past, Mr. Idris had gone to court in order to evade honouring the invitation of the Senate and the court headed by Justice Abba Bello Mohammed of the FCT High Court on April 10, 2018, told him in clear terms that his suit lacked merit as Sections 88 and 89 of the constitution empower the lawmakers to carry out investigations on issues of public interest.

Any public officer who plans to place himself above an arm of government obviously is not fit to remain in office. Mr. Idris is only afraid of his shadows by alleging witch-hunt when he is called to account on the performance of the duties of his organization.The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts on Wednesday grilled the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, for two hours, in connection to queries raised about the corporation by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF).

Deliberating on the queries covering a period of eight years  necessitating the panel placing the Corporation on Status Enquiry since 2017, the lawmakers demanded information on all activities of the NNPC, as well as details of its approved budgets upon which it carried out all expenditures during the period under review.

The committee had refused to entertain the queries due to Mr Barus absence. The committee chairman, Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers), told the GMD that the Public Accounts Committee by practice only entertains explanations from Chief Accounting Officers of government agencies.

The panel had rejected the appearance by the corporations Chief Financial Officer, Isiaka Abdulrazak, on the account that the letter introducing him to the committee was not signed by the GMD.

Mr Chinda, therefore, demanded for transparency and truthfulness in the submission of the accounting officer, saying the work of the panel is only for the overall interest of the nation.

The GMD, having confirmed the origin and authenticity of documents submitted to the panel was asked to state why the report did not cover the audited accounts as requested.

He responded saying that while the information provided in the document were not up to date, the update had already been effected and that the secretariat would be given a copy while the rest would be supplied the following day.

Members observed that capital projects said to have been executed by the corporation were unduly dragged with budgetary provisions made yearly while completion was hardly achieved.

They wondered why projects which are at 83.2 per cent completion would still be under variations and reviews almost five years later in the face of annual budgetary allocations.

Questions were raised regarding nominal rolls, procurement plans, staff training, recruitment, tax compliance, remittances, loan liabilities and evidence of project executions in line with approved budgets during the period under review.

While responding to a question regarding the engagement of a particular auditor, Mr Abdulrazak said the new management inherited a huge backlog of un-audited accounts which spanned a period of eight years, and thus took a decision to have the backlog cleared.

He said as at today, the NNPC has the most up-to-date audited financial statement in Nigeria, adding that the quest to clear the backlog necessitated the decision to use a particular auditor, and that by next year, the Auditor would be changed.

The GMD, however, appealed to the committee that due to the nature of his job, he would plead with members to oblige his officers, especially the CFO as he may not be available all the time to appear before them.

Mr Baru assured the panel of compiling all items requested having taken copious note of all observations raised.

The NNPC boss also gave a progress report of the corporations achievement in curbing fuel scarcity, saying as of today, not only have we been able to surmount the problem of fuel scarcity, we have over 200 ships of 14.6billion litres of fuel to last over 76 days supply and diesel for over 54 days supply.

In his ruling, the committee chairman said: Now for the documents we require from you, weve asked that you re-prepare some of the documents we have identified in line with the template that we sent to you, and that the approved budget for the period under review be forwarded to the committee.

Nominal rolls that have staff tied to their states and their gender identified in the nominal rolls. Details of all tax liabilities and payments, which will include income tax, value added tax, withholding tax and evidence of remittances should be furnished to us. Its not just to give us the sums or the costs, we will also require evidence of receipts of taxes by the appropriate authorities.

Details of government grants and their values and application of such grants. The external auditors management report for the period under review, details of Turn Around Maintenance (of refineries) covering 2010 to 2017 which will include the executors, cost etc.

Details of subsidiary benefits and commissions and or running costs. Subsidy benefits, commissions or running costs. Why we have to use different words is that weve realised that when you talk about subsidy, some times youre told that its running cost, other times youre told that its commission and all that, but whatever nomenclature, anything above the approved price.

Details of dividends received from short and long term investments including percentage of holding. Statement of affairs of your subsidiaries, project files for the eight projects outlined in documents for details therein.

Procurement plans and records which will fall in line with sections 18 and 21 of the Procurement Act. Copies of joint venture agreements, details of out-sourced contracts including but not limited to owners, contract sums, payments and how they are captured in your financial statement.

Interest bearing loans which will include the types, whether the are working capital and capital acquisitions. Financial leases which will include obligation, sums, assets etc.

Records of appointments and or employment. Records of all corporate social responsibility projects, and the value of such projects including the beneficiaries.

Details of emolument for staff of different grades, the report on the Trust of NNPC as capture in page 8 of the brief note of activities of the Corporation as submitted to the panel, he added.

The GMD asked for one month to put all documents together before the next adjourned date.

No date has been announced for the next hearing.A former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has mourned the death of prominent Kano billionaire businessman and cleric, Isyaku Rabiu, saying his death has robbed Northern Nigeria and indeed the nation of one of its greatest and most enterprising investors.

Mr Rabiu, who founded a major family-operated holding company with a history of investment in manufacturing, insurance, banking and real estate, died at 93 after a brief illness in the United Kingdom.

Mr Atiku, in a statement on Wednesday said Mr Rabiu rose to prominence by sheer dint of hard work and created jobs for others to earn a living.

According to him, Mr Rabius successes and entrepreneurial spirit had motivated many younger Northern investors like myself who feel that, once you are resourceful, you can achieve success in every endeavour of life.

He said Mr Rabiu didnt attain success by mere luck, but used personal initiative to achieve his lifes goals, adding that success is not for the timid or those who are afraid to take risks to achieve prosperity.

He explained that the late Mr Rabiu was not only remarkable as a successful industrialist, but was also a great Islamic scholar who was widely respected.

These enviable virtues, he said, had made Rabiu to stand tall like a colossus.

I pray to Allah to forgive the deceased for his shortcomings and reward his good deeds with Al-Jannah (Paradise).

Also the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, described the death of Mr Rabiu as a great loss to the nation, particularly the Muslim community.

Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki

Mr Saraki, in a statement signed by his special adviser on media and publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said he received the news of the death of the late Islamic cleric with sadness.

The death of this outstanding religious leader and an icon of entrepreneurship, philanthropy and humility is a great loss to the nation.

As a leader of Tijaniyya sect in West Africa, the late Khalifah made huge sacrifices in the promotion of Islam and Islamic scholarship, he stated.

Noting that the death of Mr Rabiu was painful, he however said the consolation that he lived a worthy life is enough to mitigate the effect of the loss.

Condoling with the immediate family of the deceased, the government and people of Kano state and the Muslim community, Mr Saraki prayed the Almighty Allah to grant the late Mr Rabiu a place among the righteous ones in Aljannah firdaus.

The Governor of Kaduna State, Ahmad El-Rufai, said Mr Rabiu will be remembered as an exemplary figure who achieved much in religion and business.

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai

According to the governor, the cleric contributed immensely to the development and propagation of Islam in Nigeria and beyond, and was a bulwark for peace and Nigerias development.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Samuel Aruwan, the governor added that Mr Rabiu has left a big vacuum and an enduring legacy.

The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, on behalf of the people and government of Kaduna State has commiserated with the immediate family and people of Kano State and also the Muslim Ummah over the passing away of Sheikh Isyaku Rabiu.

Sheikh Isyaku Rabiu lived an exemplary life and contributed immensely to the development and propagation of Islam in Nigeria and beyond.

He was a revered Islamic scholar who also exhibited the fear of God in all his affairs and mentored several Islamic scholars. His contribution to the Islamic scholarship is outstanding and will continue to be a major point of reference.

The late Sheikh was also immensely successful in business, helping to promote the economic development of the country.

May Almighty Allah grant his soul Aljannah Firdausi and bless all his work and dedication to the cause of Allah and humanity.

Mr Rabiu is expected to be buried on Friday in Kano State, his birth place.

Already, the state government has declared Friday a public holiday for his burial.Normal services have been stopped in public health workers facilities in Kano as healthcare workers in the state joined the JOHESU nationwide strike in solidarity.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that activities at the Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital and Abdullahi Wase Hospital in Kano have been paralysed as a result of the JOHESU.

NAN checks around the two hospitals on Thursday revealed that many departments had shut down in solidarity with the industrial action by JOHESU.

Many patients were stranded as the card units, the pharmaceutical outlets and many other departments remained shut.

Some patients who spoke with NAN expressed dismay over the strike action.

Uwani Hamman, one of the patients, pleaded with the striking workers to consider their plight and return to work.

Another patient at the Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital told NAN on condition of anonymity that she was concern over how the patients relatives were left to clean the toilets.

A staff of Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital, who also pleaded anonymity, expressed concern over the situation.

According to him, We knew about the strike yet we came ready to work and just as we entered the theatre to set up, we were driven away by our union leaders.

He appealed to the Federal Government to speedily address the issues and come to terms with the association.

NAN reports that the strike action embarked upon by the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) has entered its fourth week.Cattle breeders and farmers in Enugu State on Thursday, entered into an agreement that will ensure enduring peaceful coexistence between the two groups.

The meeting was attended by leaders of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, the Enugu State chapter of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) and other stakeholders.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, the South-East zonal Chairman of Miyetti Allah, Gidado Siddiki, said that the gathering was strategic in order to foster peace between the groups.

Mr Siddiki also said the meeting was to dispel insinuations in some quarters that the herders were in the state to terrorise their host communities.

The essence of this meeting is to bring the farmers and herders together for interaction so that we will know ourselves as well as dispel the rummour that we are here to terrorise.

We are here to feed our cattle and we are not anybody. This meeting will bring us together so that the farmers will feel at home when they see the cattle breeders.

The cattle breeders will equally take members of their host communities as their brothers and sisters, he said.

Mr Siddiki said that the meeting was attended by state chairmen of Miyetti Allah in the region.

Since most of the grazers migrate from one state to the other, we brought state chairmen here.

The essence is to inform them that whenever something happens and it involves somebody that comes from another state, I will call the chairman to resolve it.

The agreement is that we will promote peace between ourselves through this type of meeting which will be held constantly, he said.

He said any issue beyond the leaders of the two groups would be directed to the central peace committee at the state level.

We also made it known that we have a Peace and Security Committee at the Government House.

Whenever something we cannot resolve happens at the local level, we take it to the committee for final decision, Mr Siddiki said.

Also, the AFAN Chairman, Sunny Watarali, said that the meeting had ushered in better understanding between the two groups.

Mr Watarali said the crux of the matter was that both group needed to respect the culture and traditions of each other in order to ensure peaceful co-existence.

He said that host communities would not accept incidences where cow mess up the source of drinking water while the host communities were also expected not to kill the cattle.

The grey areas have been sorted out. Both parties are to respect each other; respect the culture.

For example, you do not carry cow to urinate in the river that is the source of drinking water.

Again, if for any reason the cow does anything wrong, our people should be patient and report, rather than resorting to self-help.

If we can do that, such mutuality will bring about better understanding and peace, he said.

Mr Watarali said that the meeting was expected to be replicated in rural areas of the state.

Subsequent meeting will be held at the local government areas where the farmers reside.

I believe if we do that, we will be nearing achieving peace, Mr Watarali said.

(NAN)The Osun State Government has accused Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, of misleading the public with the amount the university claims it owes the government in unremitted tax.

OAU says the size of its default on tax remittance to Osun State amounts to N384 million, but the Osun Internal Revenue Service, IRS, insists on N1.8 billion.

The claim by the school is ridiculous, says Olugbenga Akano, the government adviser on tax and revenue matters.

As an alumnus, Im in pain that the only institution I can point to in the whole world as my own is involved in this ridiculous issue of Tax under-deduction and juggling of figures, he said, addressing journalists on Wednesday. This is not in the tradition of a reputable world-class university with outstanding egg heads on Parade.

He continued: Once again we are here to set the record straight and maintain our earlier position on tax issues involving Obafemi Awolowo University. The figure of N384 million being claimed by the authority of OAU as their outstanding tax liability for 2015 and 2016 is misleading.

Contrary to OAU rejoinder of N384,000,000.00. The sum of N1.8 billion claimed by the Osun State Government is a painstaking audit of the books supplied by the institution themselves to our crack team of auditors. Meanwhile, relevant tax laws allow anybody or any institution to raise objections or appeal against an audit report within a limited time frame which the university failed to do so.

It is too late in the day for the university to rely on a letter written by a third party to peg their liability to such a mind-boggling ridiculous sum of N384 million meant for 2006-2014 liability for 2015-2016, Mr Akano said.

The third party mentioned by Mr Akano appears to refer to the federal government. The Vice-Chancellor of OAU, Eyitayo Ogunbodede, had in a statement last week said the federal government was already working as a mediator; and that during the mediation, the N384 million was arrived at.

The Osun authorities shut OAU last week. But the school reopened this week.

Mr Akano disclosed that the reopening of the institution took the intervention of eminent Nigerians like Femi Falana SAN, for the Osun Internal Revenue Service to remove the seal at the OAU Senate building after the management paid the sum of N25 million as a deposit for further negotiations on a repayment plan for the balance.Dipo George, son a former Vice-Chairman (South) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode Geroge, is dead.

He died in the early hours of Thursday at the age of 42.

Dipo had been suffering from a protracted illness before his death in a Lagos hospital.

The Lagos State chapter of the party has condoled with Mr George, a retired naval officer and former military governor of Ondo State.

The states party Chairman, Moshood Salvador, in a statement issued after a condolence visit to the George family, said that the Lagos chapter was devastated by the news.

He said the party shared in the grief of the family at the trying period.

Mr Salvador prayed for the peaceful repose of the deceased, while praying to God to grant the family the fortitude to bear the loss.

May the care and love of those around you provide peace and comfort to get you through the days ahead.

I hope our Lord brings you and your family the much needed peace during this testing time.

Our condolences to the entire George family over this irreparable loss, he said.

(NAN)Jimmy Patronis, left, then a Republican state representative from Panama City, and Gov. Rick Scott, tour downtown Panama City in 2011. Robert Cooper AP file

Just hours after criticizing the state's banking regulator for his "lack of cooperation, responsiveness and communication," Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis refused to meet with him, citing concerns about violating the state's sunshine law.

Last week, Patronis sent a surprise email to Office of Financial Regulation Commissioner Drew Breakspear, telling him he no longer had confidence in Breakspear's leadership and that he planned to bring it up at next week's Cabinet meeting.

His email was then sent out to the press.

A few minutes after that, Breakspear emailed Patronis: "Do you have time to meet today or tomorrow as I would like to have the opportunity to discuss this with you?"

No, Patronis awkwardly replied nearly four hours later, according to the email exchange:

"Thank you for your reply," Patronis wrote. "I do not want you to serve, deliberately or inadvertently, as a conduit with another member of the commission prior to the Cabinet meeting. In order to ensure a transparent process conducted in the sunshine, I will discuss my concerns during your assessment review."

Patronis spokesman Jon Moore said Wednesday that the CFO "has developed growing concerns regarding the Commissioners ability to serve Floridians," and that he wanted to address them in public only.

Simply speaking with Breakspear would not violate the state's sunshine law, according to Barbara Peterson, president of the First Amendment Foundation.

She said it sounded as if Patronis was concerned about Breakspear sharing details of their conversation with other Cabinet members. That could be a violation of the law, but Peterson said there is "always the potential for sunshine violations whenever he talks to anybody" about Cabinet business.

"I dont see a particular threat here. But we always applaud government officials for being careful," Peterson said. "Im just not sure this is out of an abundance of caution or because he doesnt want to talk to the guy."

She said Patronis has "a good reputation on open-government issues" and is highly knowledgable about the state's sunshine law from his time as a representative in the state Legislature.

Breakspear's assessment review was scheduled for next week's Cabinet meeting, but the meeting was rescheduled for next month. Breakspear works for the four-member Cabinet, made up of Patronis, Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.

His review gives no hints as to why Breakspear was underperforming. According to performance metrics, Breakspear scored 3.35 out of 5 - a rating that "meets expectations."

In his self-evaluation, Breakspear noted that he reduced employee turnover in the last year from 17 percent to 12 percent, and he touted a new check-cashing database created to detect fraud. The database is scheduled to be completed this year.

But Breakspear has long been a target of Gov. Rick Scott. He was in the hot seat in 2015, when Scott told the Cabinet that he wanted to fire him for reasons the governor never disclosed. Apparently without enough votes on the Cabinet to oust him, Breakspear stayed in the job and the controversy subsided.

Still, Patronis' email blasting Breakspear came out of nowhere, surprising and confusing members in the financial sector. (Breakspear has been in charge of licensing and regulating banks, check-cashing stores and payday loan companies since 2012.)

Scott, who is running for U.S. Senate, only has a few months left in his term, and some observers assumed that such Cabinet appointees would be re-evaluated after this year's election, when at least two members of the Cabinet will be replaced.

Patronis, appointed by Scott last year, is running for election this year.The 14TH traditional ruler of Ota-Awori Kingdom, Adeyemi Obalanlege, was on Wednesday officially installed as the new ruler of the ancient town. The staff of office was presented to him by Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun.

The coronation ceremony took place at the playing ground of AUD Secondary School in Ota, with Mr Amosun leading dignatories to the event. The event was also attended by many traditional rulers from the South-west and South-east of the country.

Mr Obalanlege emerged the preferred candidate of the 22 princes presented by the Ijemo/Isoloshi Ruling House to all the five living kingmakers on November 28, 2017. He was crowned traditionally by the Odota of Ota, Oladele Adeniji, on February 28.

The Olota of Ota in his acceptance speech pledged that he would not split from the path of honour his forefathers thread. He said during his reign, the pride of the town will continue to soar higher.

As I mount this sacred throne, I do not wish to detract from the path of honour our forbearers thread. I hope, I pray and will work to consolidate on the gains made so far. I rely on your celestial guidance to cause justice, fairplay and ground breaking innovations to be our lot in Ota under my reign.

May the pride of Ota continue to soar higher and higher as your noble deeds were geared towards. I only pray that they get nobler, better and more profound on my ascesion to the throne of our forebears, the monarch who was accompanied by his wife said.

I take on this responsibility to be king over this land and people that the Almighty God has given the vast expanse of land and men and women of goodwill who are known to be virtuous, humane, considerate, very polite

In his speech, former President Olusegun Obasanjo felicitated with the new traditional ruler. He informed the guests at the event that he flew in from Morocco to attend the ceremony. He also called on the Olota to see himself as father of all.

He showered prayers on the monarch, stating that his reign would bring peace to the land.

I apologise for keeping you waiting, You know its not my character. I felicitate with you, as a subject of yours. I flew in from Morocco, Infact, when I told my host in Morocco that I have to leave to attend the coronation of my landlord, they were surprised that I have landlord, not knowing that I am also the son of Ota town.

Your reign shall bring peace to the land. Kabiyesi, We have spoken like brothers, we have spoken as family. If a town is expanding, number of people will throng there, and so see everybody as your subjects. Be the royal father of all. Do not discriminate.

The Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, who handed over staff of office to the monarch, enjoined the subjects to embrace peace and cooperate with the new traditional ruler. He also called on the royal father to see his installation as a task to to reunite his people.

Be father to all. Embrace all those who contested with you, see them as partners in progress. You have become member of Egba Traditional Council. Bring your wealth of experience to bear, he said, adding that the monarch should also take cognisance of the metropolitan nature of the town, as an opportunity to elevate the town for better.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.



In what may be the greatest Miami marriage ever between pornography and politics, the most politically relevant porn star in U.S. history is coming to South Florida to dance in one of South Florida's most notorious strip clubs.

Stormy Daniels, the adult performer who was paid $130,000 during the 2016 presidential campaign to stay silent about an alleged tryst with President Donald Trump, has a contract to perform at Miami Beach's Club Madonna, an all-nude venue that's been trolling city politicians for years, according to owner Leroy Griffith.

Griffith, the godfather of smut in the Magic City, says he's got a contract with Daniels  real name Stephanie Clifford  to perform at his Washington Avenue venue over Memorial Day Weekend. An advertisement for the "Make America Horny Again" tour says Daniels will be appearing live on May 25 and 26.

Griffith declined to discuss what he's paying for the appearance.

"I got her at the right price," he said.

A payment from Trump attorney Michael Cohen to Daniels ahead of the 2016 election has dogged Trump for months. Daniels is currently suing the president for defamation. Griffith, however, says he likes Trump: "I know Donald very well. I used to travel with him."

But the appearance  scheduled during one of the most hectic weekends of the year in South Beach  seems perfect for a businessman who's provoked politicians in Miami and Miami Beach with smut theaters and controversial strip clubs for decades.DUBLIN, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Industrial Metrology Market by Offering, Product, Application (Reverse Engineering, Quality & Inspection, Mapping & Modelling), Industry (Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Precision Manufacturing, Consumer), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The market is expected to reach USD 12.97 Billion by 2023 from USD 9.62 Billion in 2017, at a CAGR of 6.2% during the forecast period.

The growing big data analytics market and increasing demand for inspection services from the precision manufacturing drives the growth of industrial metrology market. Moreover, the increasing focus on quality control in various industries also contributes to the growth of this market.

This report segments the industrial metrology market on the basis of offering, equipment, application, end-user industry, and geography. On the basis of offering, the market has been further segmented into hardware, software, services, and solutions. The large market size of the hardware can be attributed to the increasing adoption of industrial metrology equipment in industries such as aerospace and defense, automotive, and manufacturing to maintain product quality.

The industrial metrology market based on equipment has been segmented into coordinate measuring machine (CMM), optical digitizer and scanner (ODS), measuring instrument, X-ray and computed tomography, automated optical inspection (AOI), 2D equipment. CMM is expected to hold the largest share of the industrial metrology market. The rising need for precision dimensional analysis and validating geometric accuracy in the manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, and military industries contribute to the largest share of the market for CMM. 2D equipment is expected to hold the second-largest size of the industrial metrology market after CMM during the forecast period.

The industrial metrology market, on the basis of application, has been segmented into quality control and inspection, reverse engineering, mapping and modeling, and others. The quality control and inspection application accounted for the largest share of the industrial metrology market in 2017. Industries such as automotive and aerospace face increasing demand for intense quality control and inspection; not meeting quality standards can hamper their reputation and, ultimately, their brand and business. Thus, these industries are prominently adopting industrial metrology for quality control and inspection application.

The industrial metrology market for the automotive industry is expected to grow at the highest CAGR between 2018 and 2023. The shift in preference from off-line quality inspection to near-line or in-line measurement techniques, enabling higher sampling rates and shorter inspection times, drives the growth of the industrial metrology market for the automotive industry. Moreover, the growing demand for automobiles in developing countries, such as India and China, is expected to fuel the growth of industrial metrology market in the near future.

Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights

4.1 Attractive Market Opportunities in Industrial Metrology Market

4.2 Industrial Metrology Market, By Offering

4.3 Industrial Metrology Market, By Equipment

4.4 Industrial Metrology Market, By Application

4.5 Industrial Metrology Market, By Equipment and End-User Industry

4.6 US to Hold Largest Share of Industrial Metrology Market (2018)



5 Market Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Market Dynamics

5.2.1 Drivers

5.2.1.1 Growing Big Data Analytics Market

5.2.1.2 Growing Demand for Inspection Services From the Precision Manufacturing Industry

5.2.1.3 Increasing Focus on Quality Control in Various Industries

5.2.1.4 The Inability of Traditional Measurement Devices to Address Several Manufacturing-Related Issues

5.2.2 Restraints

5.2.2.1 High Cost of Setting Up Metrology Facility

5.2.2.2 Lack of Expertise Needed for Efficient Handling of Metrological Systems

5.2.3 Opportunities

5.2.3.1 Adoption of Cloud Services to Integrate the Metrological Data

5.2.4 Challenges

5.2.4.1 Integrating In-Line Inspection With Current Manufacturing Processes



6 Industrial Metrology Market, By Offering

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Hardware

6.3 Software

6.4 Solutions

6.5 Services

6.5.1 After-Sales Services

6.5.2 Measurement Services



7 Industrial Metrology Market, By Equipment

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM)

7.2.1 Fixed CMM

7.2.1.1 Bridge CMM

7.2.1.2 Gantry CMM

7.2.1.3 Horizontal Arm CMM

7.2.1.4 Cantilever CMM

7.2.2 Portable CMM

7.2.2.1 Articulated Arm CMM

7.3 Optical Digitizer and Scanner (ODS)

7.3.1 Laser Scanner

7.3.2 Laser Tracker

7.4 Measuring Instruments

7.4.1 Measuring Microscope

7.4.2 Profile Projector

7.4.3 Autocollimator

7.5 X-Ray and Computed Tomography

7.6 Automated Optical Inspection

7.7 2D Equipment



8 Industrial Metrology Market, By Application

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Quality Control and Inspection

8.3 Reverse Engineering

8.4 Mapping and Modeling

8.5 Other Applications



9 Industrial Metrology Market, By End-User Industry

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Aerospace and Defense

9.3 Automotive

9.4 Semiconductor

9.5 Manufacturing

9.6 Others



10 Geographic Analysis



11 Competitive Landscape

11.1 Overview

11.2 Key Players in Industrial Metrology Market

11.3 Key Strategies Adopted By Companies in Industrial Metrology Market



12 Company Profiles

12.1 Key Players

12.1.1 Hexagon

12.1.2 Faro Technologies

12.1.3 Nikon Metrology

12.1.4 Carl Zeiss

12.1.5 Jenoptik

12.1.6 Creaform

12.1.7 Renishaw

12.1.8 KLA-Tencor

12.1.9 Applied Materials

12.1.10 Perceptron

12.1.11 GOM

12.1.12 Automated Precision

12.2 Other Players

12.2.1 JLM Advanced Technical Services

12.2.2 Precision Products

12.2.3 Carmar Accuracy

12.2.4 Pollen Metrology

12.2.5 Cairnhill Metrology

12.2.6 Att Metrology Services

12.2.7 Trimet Group



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/4mjjzk/12_9_bn_2018?w=5





Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com

PHILADELPHIA, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Aberdeen Income Credit Strategies Fund (the "Fund") (NYSE: ACP) held its Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the "Meeting") on May 10, 2018. At the Meeting, shareholders of the Fund voted to re-elect one Class I Trustee to the Board of Trustees

As of the record date, March 21, 2018, the Fund had outstanding 13,074,072 shares of common stock. 90.5% of outstanding common stock were voted representing a quorum.

The description of the proposal and number of shares voted at the Meeting are as follows:

To elect one Class I Trustee to the Board of Trustees:



Votes For Votes Withheld John Sievwright 11,507,897 325,828

Trustees whose term of office continued beyond the Meeting are as follows: Nisha Kumar, P. Gerald Malone and Randolph Takian.

Closed-end funds are traded on the secondary market through one of the stock exchanges. The Fund's investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares may be worth more or less than the original cost. Shares of closed-end funds may trade above (a premium) or below (a discount) the net asset value (NAV) of the fund's portfolio. There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective.

If you wish to receive this information electronically, please contact [email protected]

aberdeenacp.com

SOURCE Aberdeen Income Credit Strategies Fund

Related Links

http://aberdeenacp.com

SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Acronis, a global leader in hybrid cloud data protection and storage currently celebrating its 15-year anniversary, today reported strong growth of its cloud business, as demand for Acronis' cloud-based storage, backup and disaster recovery services continues to grow faster than expected. Driven by a 200 percent YoY increase of protected devices and 151 percent YoY growth in the number of protected corporate clients, Acronis' cloud storage consumption now totals 39 petabytes.

During the past year, Acronis added more than 2,000 new service providers that now can offer backup, disaster recovery, and file sync and share services using the Acronis Data Cloud platform. Obligation-free trials, single installation, a multi-tenant/multi-tier architecture, and native integration with PSA and RMM tools made Acronis the most efficient and cost-effective data protection solution available to service providers.

As a result, service providers can easily and affordably replace their legacy systems with Acronis, unlocking new functionality that specifically meets their needs and the needs of their customers. Plus, zero upfront investment, flexible licensing models, and different deployment models (Acronis hosted, hybrid, or service provider hosted), mean Acronis Data Cloud can be easily integrated into a service provider's existing infrastructure without disrupting their existing service delivery model.

Easy to upsell and simple to attach, the new data protection services available through Acronis Data Cloud enable service providers to expand into new markets and develop new revenue sources  all while increasing customer satisfaction and decreasing churn rate.

"We chose Acronis to deliver our Backup Cloud solution because of the extensive flexibility offered by Acronis. With Acronis, we are able to offer complete protection of all workloads and easy data management to our Partners and their customers. The Hybrid deployment allows us to differentiate from our competition, and the integration and regular deployment of new features into our existing control panels also brought significant efficiency improvement, cost savings as well as opening up new opportunities," said Tom O'Hagan, Virtual1 founder and CEO.

Business customers choose Acronis

There is an increasing awareness among businesses of all sizes regarding the importance of protecting public cloud services, and the number of companies choosing Acronis to protect their public cloud workloads is rapidly growing. In fact, Acronis recorded a YoY increase of over 1,000 percent in the number of protected Microsoft Office 365 email boxes.

In addition, companies understand that when customer data is compromised, they can incur additional costs in terms of lost customer confidence and legal fines. As a result, many are turning to the purpose-built, reliable, and secure cloud storage service from Acronis to keep customer data safe. Even on-premise users of Acronis Backup display a strong interest in cloud storage, as 35 percent of them store additional copies of backup files in the Acronis Cloud.

Acronis has strong presence in the automotive, manufacturing, and IT industry, with 79 out of the World's 100 Most Valuable Brands using Acronis solutions.

Technology partnerships

As a global leader in hybrid cloud data protection solutions, Acronis is recognized for its use of cutting-edge technology to protect data. With the backup industry's only solutions supplemented by both an artificial intelligence-based defense against ransomware and blockchain-based data certification, Acronis continues to push the limits by turning customer feedback into inventive, effective solutions demanded by the market.

Continuing that innovative advancement, the past year saw Acronis add several strategic technology partnerships both with global technology leaders and high-profile clients who choose Acronis for the functionality, ease of use, and reliability of its solutions. These include:

"Our investment in our hybrid cloud architecture has paid tremendous dividends, especially with our service provider customers," said John Zanni, President of Acronis. "We're able to dramatically increase their revenue and help them be a successful business, thanks to our Acronis Data Cloud Platform. We look forward to continuing that growth together."

About Acronis

Acronis sets the standard for hybrid cloud IT data protection through its backup, active protection against ransomware, disaster recovery, and secure file sync and share solutions. Powered by the Acronis AnyData Engine and set apart by its image technology, Acronis delivers easy, fast, complete and affordable data protection of all files, applications and operating systems across any environmentvirtual, physical, cloud, mobile and applications. Founded in 2003 in Singapore, with global headquarters in Switzerland, Acronis protects the data of more than 5 million consumers and 500,000 businesses in over 150 countries and 20 languages. With more than 100 patents, Acronis products are consistently named best product of the year and cover a range of features, including migration, cloning, and replication. Today, Acronis solutions are available worldwide through a global network of service providers, distributors, and cloud resellers. Learn more at acronis.com.

SOURCE Acronis, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.acronis.com

LONDON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

OMERS Private Equity, the private equity investment arm of OMERS, the defined benefit pension plan for municipal employees in the Province of Ontario, Canada, has entered into an agreement with New Mountain Capital to acquire Alexander Mann Solutions (the "Company"), one of the world's leading providers of talent acquisition and management services for an enterprise value of 820m (USD 1.1bn). The Alexander Mann Solutions management team is also participating in the buy-out.

Alexander Mann Solutions, headquartered in London, has been at the forefront of outsourced talent acquisition solutions since Founder and Chief Executive Officer Rosaleen Blair pioneered the recruitment outsourcing industry in 1996. Today, Alexander Mann Solutions is a leading global provider of talent acquisition and management solutions delivering value to clients through a portfolio of outsourcing and consulting services. The business helps clients, typically large international businesses, to recruit and retain talent through multi-year contracts.

OMERS will support the Alexander Mann Solutions management team and employees in deepening and expanding its sectorial and geographic focus, and invest in technology to further develop Alexander Mann Solutions' value proposition for both new and prospective clients. OMERS will also support Alexander Mann Solutions in driving consolidation in what remains a large but fragmented market.

The proposed transaction remains subject to several conditions including customary approvals by the antitrust authorities and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018.

Martin le Huray, Cohead of OMERS Private Equity in Europe, said : "We are excited to work alongside Rosaleen and the entire Alexander Mann Solutions team to continue building on what is already an impressive culture, platform and strategy. Alexander Mann Solutions is a trusted partner to global, market-leading brands in the critical area of talent management. We look forward to supporting Rosaleen and the team in extending Alexander Mann Solutions' capabilities in the future, both organically and through acquisition."

Rosaleen Blair, CEO of Alexander Mann Solutions said: "I would like to thank the team at New Mountain Capital. Under their ownership Alexander Mann Solutions has cemented its position as a global leader in the talent acquisition market place and significantly enhanced its capabilities in North America. We are now in an era when the best businesses in the world recognise that people and culture are the new battlegrounds for organisations seeking competitive advantage.

"With OMERS support we can strengthen our global total workforce proposition and critically, accelerate our digital transformation and investment in robotics and AI, creating an even more compelling proposition for our customers around the world.

"OMERS' partnership approach, its substantial and unconstrained capital base and its experience of supporting businesses organically and through acquisition make it an ideal partner for Alexander Mann Solutions in this next stage of our journey."

Mat Lori, Managing Director of New Mountain Capital, said: "Under New Mountain Capital's ownership Alexander Mann Solutions has flourished into a world-class organisation. We wish Rosaleen Blair and the management team continued success as the business enters the next phase of growth."

Editor ' s notes

About Alexander Mann Solutions

Alexander Mann Solutions delivers services to over 100 clients across seven industry sectors in over 85 countries.

It has a unique Total Workforce approach encompassing clients' permanent, contingent and internal mobility requirements. In many cases Alexander Mann Solutions' teams are embedded within client organisations, a model which delivers exceptional outcomes and a measureable return on investment. Alexander Mann Solutions benefits from long term contractual relationships and enjoys a 98 per cent retention rate with its blue-chip clients.

About OMERS and OMERS Private Equity

Founded in 1962, OMERS is one of Canada's largest defined benefit pension plans, with more than $95 billion in net assets, as at December 31, 2017. OMERS invests and administers pensions for more than 482,000 members through originating and managing a diversified portfolio of investments in public markets, private equity, infrastructure and real estate.

OMERS has $10.8 billion of capital invested in private equity assets as at December 31, 2017. OMERS Private Equity, the private equity investment arm of OMERS with a team of investment professionals in London, New York, Singapore and Toronto, seeks to use its significant and differentiated capital base to partner with management teams of industry leading business. For more information, please visit http://www.omersprivatemarkets.com

About New Mountain Capital:

New Mountain Capital is a New York based investment firm that emphasizes business building and non-cyclical growth, rather than debt, as it pursues long-term capital appreciation. The firm currently manages private equity, public equity, and credit funds with over $20 billion in assets under management. New Mountain seeks out what it believes to be the highest quality growth leaders in carefully selected industry sectors and then works intensively with management to build the value of these companies. http://www.newmountaincapital.com

Advisors

Baird and Moelis are acting as financial advisors to Alexander Mann Solutions and its shareholders on the sale. Kirkland & Ellis are providing legal counsel.

NM Rothschild & Sons Ltd. is acting as financial advisor to OMERS Private Equity and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is acting as legal counsel.

SOURCE Alexander Mann SolutionsROHNERT PARK, Calif., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Another day, another dollar in student loan debt. The collective student loan debt in the United States has surpassed 1.5 trillion dollars and is climbing. While some might be thunderstruck by this huge number, individual borrowers often do have options for making repaying their loans more manageable. Most of student loan debt held today is made up of federal student loans, which are loans either issued directly from or guaranteed by the federal government. To address the national student debt issue, federal programs are in place and should remain in place. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation company which helps student loan borrowers apply for federal repayment programs, reminds borrowers that national repayment programs exist to address this national student loan issue.

"Borrowers in all 50 states  and beyond  have federal student loans which are contributing heavily to this ridiculously high student loan number. But the government also has programs in place to help borrowers," said Tom Knickerbocker, executive vice president of Ameritech Financial. "The question is whether borrowers are accessing these programs or even know that they're there."

For borrowers who are in default or nearing default on their federal student loans, it's likely they are not utilizing repayment programs meant to benefit them. Programs like income-driven repayment plans, which base monthly payments on income and family size, reduce payments for qualified borrowers to what is often a more affordable amount. Certain borrowers may even have a payment as low as zero in these plans. While the plans do not speed up loan repayment, they do help keep individual borrowers in good standing with their loans and out of the financial minefield of default.

This does present a bit of a conundrum for taxpayers in general, who may be concerned about the toll of such a huge collective student loan balance on the national budget. However, federal student loan borrowers are taxpayers, too, and given that there are tens of millions of borrowers, repayment programs that help them maintain financial stability are important.

Programs like income-driven repayment are, however, not necessarily known to borrowers; additionally, for some, understanding the programs proves too daunting for borrowers to attempt to navigate alone. Ameritech Financial is a private, independent company that helps federal student loan borrowers apply for certain repayment and forgiveness programs. The company provides each client with a financial analysis and then assists with document preparation in selecting an appropriate repayment plan, applying and recertifying enrollment.

"Scaled down to the individual borrower, this massive student loan debt becomes a manageable number if handled well," said Knickerbocker. "Ameritech Financial provides services to guide and support borrowers who are interested in applying to access repayment programs that may better help them stay current and even get them on track to forgiveness."

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.

Ameritech Financial Newsroom

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 Images

collective-student-loan-debt.jpg

Collective Student Loan Debt

zimmytws/Bigstock.com

image2.png

Related Links

Ameritech Financial home page

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRza8MbLvuM

SOURCE Ameritech Financial" Marie Claire is THE authority when it comes to global beauty. They are always on the pulse of the most innovative and efficacious products from around the world, so when we thought of a partner to launch our pop-up store with the spotlight on global beauty, they were a perfect fit," explains Jessica Hanson, President of Amorepacific US. "We're thrilled to open our pop up here in New York City and give consumers the opportunity to experience our leading brands in one location."

For over seven decades, Amorepacific has been committed to delivering beauty products created with potent ingredients and cutting-edge technologies. Because of this commitment to science and innovation, brands in the Amorepacific portfolio have long dominated some of the most popular and timely beauty categories. Now, the company is giving consumers access to the best-selling, iconic products - and even shop the Marie Claire editorial staff's favorite picksall under one roof.

"Through our Global Beauty platform, Marie Claire has been dedicated discovering products, ingredients, and technologies that help women feel more beautiful from around the world," said Nancy Berger, Marie Claire VP/Publisher and Chief Revenue Officer. "As the leading global beauty company from South Korea, Amorepacific is the perfect partner for us to celebrate our annual May Global Beauty issue. Our May issue features the annual Prix d'Excellence de la Beaute awards, highlighting the standout beauty products from around the world, for which the AMOREPACIFIC brand won for their Essential Creme Fluid."

The pop-up, which will remain open through May 25th, will feature a selection of products from top Amorepacific US brands, including AMOREPACIFIC, LANEIGE, Annick Goutal, Sulwhasoo, Mamonde and Iope. This is the first time all of these brands will be available in the same space, reinforcing the company's leadership in global beauty. The pop-up store will offer special activities throughout the month including meet and greets with influential beauty experts, on-site beauty treatments and sampling of hero products. Visitors will receive a 10% discount for purchasing on site in addition to exclusive gifts with purchase.

Featured Amorepacific US brands include:

AMOREPACIFIC : High performance anti-aging skincare, powered by potent Asian botanicals  Green Tea, Bamboo and Red Ginseng

: High performance anti-aging skincare, powered by potent Asian botanicals  Green Tea, Bamboo and Red Ginseng LANEIGE : A skincare brand committed to helping you achieve younger, more radiant skin through Advanced Water Science Technology

: A skincare brand committed to helping you achieve younger, more radiant skin through Advanced Water Science Technology Annick Goutal : An iconic French perfumery house with olfactory creations containing the rarest and noblest essences, almost all of natural origin

: An iconic French perfumery house with olfactory creations containing the rarest and noblest essences, almost all of natural origin Sulwhasoo : At the heart of Sulwhasoo is Korean herbal medicine, steeped in a long tradition of Eastern holistic philosophy, with a desire to find harmony and balance

: At the heart of Sulwhasoo is Korean herbal medicine, steeped in a long tradition of Eastern holistic philosophy, with a desire to find harmony and balance Mamonde : Aiming to simplify K-Beauty, Mamonde is a flower-inspired natural skincare brand that uses the power of flower efficacies and science of research

: Aiming to simplify K-Beauty, Mamonde is a flower-inspired natural skincare brand that uses the power of flower efficacies and science of research Iope: Inspired by botanical ingredients from around the world, this Korean skincare line pairs efficacious plant extracts with innovative science

Amorepacific Global Beauty Pop-Up Shop

397 Bleecker Street

Open from May 9th  May 25th, 11:00am  8:00pm

About Amorepacific

Since 1945, Amorepacific has had a single, clear mission: to present its unique perception of beauty namely what it calls 'Asian Beauty'  to the world. As Korea's leading beauty company, Amorepacific draws from its deep understanding of both nature and human to pursue harmony between inner and outer beauty. With its portfolio of over 20 cosmetics, personal care, and health care brands, Amorepacific is devoted to meeting the various lifestyles and needs of global consumers around the world: Asia, North America, and Europe. Amorepacific's research hubs located around the world are dedicated to sustainable R&D that combine the best of natural Asian ingredients and advanced bio-technology. With its world-class products, Amorepacific is acclaimed for the innovative ways in which it is transforming global beauty trends.

About Marie Claire

Marie Claire, a joint venture between Hearst Magazines and Marie Claire Album, is the fashion magazine with character, substance, and depth, for women with a point of view, an opinion, and a sense of humor. Each issue is edited for a sexy, stylish, confident woman who is never afraid to make intelligence a part of her wardrobe. Marie Claire has 34 international editions and reaches more than 40 million women worldwide. The magazine was co-founded in 1937 by French industrialist Jean Prouvost and writer Marcelle Auclair, whose goal was to present the realities of life mixed with fashion and beauty coverage. The American edition is published by Hearst Magazines, a unit of Hearst, one of the nation's largest diversified media, information and services companies. With 20 titles in the U.S., Hearst is the largest publisher of monthly magazines with a total paid circulation of nearly 30 million (AAM 1H 2017). Hearst Magazines' print and digital assets reach nearly 123 million readers and site visitors each monthnearly two-thirds of all women and millennial women in the country. (source: 2017 comScore Multi-Platform // GfK MRI Media + Fusion (06-17/F16)). With 20 titles in the U.S., Hearst is the largest publisher of monthly magazines with a total paid circulation of nearly 30 million (AAM 1H 2017). Hearst Magazines' print and digital assets reach nearly 123 million readers and site visitors each monthnearly two-thirds of all women and millennial women in the country. (source: 2017 comScore Multi-Platform // GfK MRI Media + Fusion (06-17/F16)). Follow Marie Claire on Twitter at @marieclaire and Instagram and Snapchat at @marieclairemag.

Media Contact: Lauren Donner, [email protected]

SOURCE AmorepacificFidel Castro is dead and brother Raul Castro is no longer president of Cuba. But communism can still move the needle in Miami campaigns.

Decades after the Cuban revolution spawned an exodus that reshaped South Florida culture and U.S. politics in the Caribbean, political exiles are declining in number in Miami and leftist angst is fading. But it's far from gone. And under the right conditions and in the right neighborhoods, evoking the tyranny of dictators can still be an effective tactic in manipulating votes and undercutting opponents.

Take the special election to claim an open county commission seat representing Little Havana, where former state senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla is ginning up ties between communist regimes and his closest competitor in order to scrap his way back to relevancy. Using a political committee, he's raised the specter of the Castros and repressive Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in order to win a seat that pays only $6,000 a year but carries enormous political power.

It's a throw-back strategy to the days when Fidel Castro was at the height of his power and the whiff of a connection to communist Cuba could doom a campaign or a government contractor. And it remains effective in the heart of Miami's exile community, where low-turnout elections are often won and lost on the ballots of elderly Hispanic voters who religiously participate in local elections.

"The issue of communism, the issue of Maduro, it still resonates," said Dario Moreno, an FIU political science professor and veteran pollster of Miami elections. "But every year its a smaller part of the population."

A political strategist by trade, Diaz de la Portilla knows this well. With mail-in ballots already being cast in a district of 95,000 voters, he has attacked his best-known opponent by tying her to an unlikely villain: prominent gas station owner and GOP donor Maximo Alvarez. Mail pieces by Proven Leadership for Miami Dade County tie the Cuba-born Alvarez to Maduro by claiming his business relies on gas from Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil corporation. Diaz de la Portilla says that Alvarez's Sunshine Gasoline Distributors is funding a negative shadow campaign against him using Venezuelan "narcotrafficking" money.

To read the rest, click here.SUNNYVALE, California, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Anodot, the AI powered analytics company, today announced that it has been named one of the 30 Coolest Analytics Vendors on the 2018 CRN Big Data 100 List.

This annual list recognizes the ingenuity of tech suppliers bringing to market innovative offerings for harnessing the increasingly large amounts of data generated in today's digital world, raising the bar for data management and challenging established IT practices. The full 2018 Big Data 100 list is available online at www.crn.com/bigdata100.

Anodot's AI analytics detects business incidents in real-time, investigating their root causes and turning them into business insights. Using machine learning technology, Anodot analyzes massive amounts of data to identify issues, alerting analysts and managers to take advantage of business opportunities and avoid losses for both revenue and reputation. In December Anodot raised $23 million in Series B financing and announced that the company tripled its revenue in the past year.

"It's an honor to be recognized by CRN, particularly in the Coolest Vendor Category, because our goal has always been to shake up the business intelligence world with completely new AI approaches," said Anodot CEO and Co-founder David Drai. "Traditional BI and visualization are only as good as the questions asked and the eyeballs watching. Our patented machine learning algorithms give analysts total control by letting AI monitor all the metrics in real-time. When businesses used to talk about the potential of big data, this is what they meant, and we're delivering this control now."

About Anodot

Anodot illuminates business blind spots with AI analytics, so companies will never miss another revenue leak or brand-damaging incident. Its automated machine learning algorithms continuously analyze all business and IT data, detect the business incidents that matter, identify why they are happening, and predict upcoming threats and opportunities. Dozens of customers in ad-tech, e-commerce, gaming, fintech, web and mobile apps, and other data-heavy industries use Anodot to drive real business benefits like significant cost savings, increased revenue and upturn in customer satisfaction. Founded in 2014, Anodot is headquartered in Silicon Valley and Raanana, Israel, with Sales offices worldwide. Learn more at www.anodot.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

About The Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com

CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

For more information about Anodot, please contact:

Molly Meller

[email protected]

+1-732-865-3998

The Channel Company Contact:

Kim Sparks

The Channel Company

[email protected]

(508) 416-1193

SOURCE Anodot

Related Links

https://www.anodot.com

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG) today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of the equity interests of Pronto Holdco LLC, the parent company of Pronto Insurance (Pronto). The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018.

Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Brownsville, Texas, Pronto is a full-service Managing General Agency (MGA), broker and claims administrator. Pronto's primary business is the placement of personal automobile insurance for consumers throughout Texas, California and Florida, with a special focus on serving the rapidly growing Hispanic market. Pronto operates an omni-channel distribution network of Pronto-owned agencies, franchise agents, independent agents and a direct-to-consumer eCommerce platform.

Jorge Barcena, Wendy Knight, Clemente Rendon and Pronto's entire corporate management team will continue to operate from their current locations under the direction of Joel Cavaness, President of Risk Placement Services, Inc. (RPS), Gallagher's wholesale and MGA operation.

"Pronto's deep product expertise and data-driven marketing will provide a great addition to RPS's product offerings and will further expand our capabilities as one of the largest MGAs in the U.S.," Mr. Cavaness said.

"Pronto provides us a terrific opportunity to significantly expand into the rapidly growing Hispanic market," said J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO. "We look forward to welcoming Jorge, Wendy, Clemente and their colleagues to Gallagher."

"Gallagher and RPS are the right partners for us  we admire their culture and way of conducting business," said Jorge Barcena, President and CEO of Pronto Insurance. "We are extremely excited about the opportunity to continue to serve the Hispanic community as part of such an exemplary organization."

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. The company has operations in 33 countries and offers client service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.

Investors: Ray Iardella Media: Linda J. Collins VP  Investor Relations VP  Corporate Communications 630-285-3661/ [email protected] 630-285-4009/ [email protected]

SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Related Links

http://www.ajg.com

"I can't say enough about the team effort that produced this sale," stated Trayor Lesnock, Platinum's president and founder. "From the cooperation of the seller to the hard work and extensive efforts by members of both the LIV Sotheby's and Action Team Realty brokerages, it was a wonderful case study of how Platinum's luxury auction process and the luxury brokerage industry can work hand-in-hand to create an exceptional result."

The property sits on 45 acres in the Cathedral Pines community of Colorado Springs, and within just a 45-minute drive from the heart of downtown Denver. The upscale, residential development spans 810 acres in the Black Forest region, and includes 170 homesites featuring large estates situated on parcels of 2.5 acres or more.

While seven bidders registered for the no-reserve auction, Platinum reported that the sale was a result of a direct negotiation with one of those seven bidders, which occurred in lieu of a live auction sale. "Such direct negotiations are not an uncommon part of our process," stated David Ashcroft, Platinum's Director of Business Development. "In any given year, they account for 10-15% of gross sales."

With three living levels, more than 13,000 square feet of living space, and a total of 6 bedrooms, 7 full and 3 half baths, the home is ideal for a large family. Features include an executive study/office, gourmet kitchen, and a large sunroom that opens to an oversized terrace. The lower level of the estate offers a home theater, billiards, wine storage, fitness center, and a "swim spa" indoor pool with a rock grotto design. And for the kids, there is also a custom-built, two-story tube slide that provides access from the main to the lower level.

Additional information on the sale is available at PlatinumLuxuryAuctions.com, or by contacting a member of the Platinum team at 800.262.5132.

About Platinum Luxury Auctions

Platinum Luxury Auctions is responsible for developing the luxury auction model for high-priced real estate auctions, and owns the rights to the term "luxury auction." The firm specializes in the non-distressed sale of multimillion-dollar properties within and beyond the United States. Platinum's team has closed more than $744 million in luxury real estate auction sales to date, while consulting on more than $2.25 billion in additional luxury properties worldwide.

SOURCE Platinum Luxury Auctions

Related Links

http://PlatinumLuxuryAuctions.com

"With the debut of our BW Signature Collection by Best Western late last year, we rounded out our soft brand offerings in every segment, underscoring our commitment to giving hoteliers a variety of flexible options as they look to gain access to Best Western's powerful brand resources," said Ron Pohl, Senior Vice President and COO of Best Western Hotels & Resorts.

"Our soft brands, and BW Signature Collection by Best Western in particular, give independent hoteliers the opportunity to maintain their individual personality, offering unique, locally-inspired accommodations to their guests, while tapping into our robust back-end support, award-winning Best Western Rewards loyalty program and global distribution," Pohl continued.

BW Signature Collection by Best Western fills the void for upper midscale space hoteliers who wish to maintain freedom from the sometimes restrictive, and expensive to implement, brand standards common in the industry. This collection of carefully selected hotels is designed as a competitive, stand-out offering for both primary and secondary markets.

BW Signature Collection by Best Western hotels provide guests with comfortable, convenient and rewarding stays, with value-packed perks and first-rate amenities that Best Western is known for including:

First-class services and amenities;

Fast, free wireless internet;

The brand's award-winning "Build Your Own Breakfast" program with hot, healthy, customizable options available complimentary at most locations;

And outstanding guest satisfaction ratings, with minimum TripAdvisor scores of 4 and AAA or CAA hotel ratings of 3 diamonds or above.

With Killington Mountain Lodge in Killington, Vermont; Brooklyn Way Hotel in Brooklyn, New York; and several international locations including - Gasthaus zur Waldegg near majestic Lake Lucerne, Switzerland - BW Signature Collection by Best Western is quickly gaining momentum. In addition to its properties in North America and Switzerland, the brand has already opened three properties in Italy, one in Peru, and one in Ecuador, with more in the pipeline. As more hotels join Best Western's newest soft brand, owners will enjoy a rapid ramp-up with fast access to the brand's leading global reservation and revenue management systems, sales and marketing support, and award-winning Best Western Rewards (BWR) loyalty program with more than 32 million members.

BWR is making travel to BW Signature Collection by Best Western properties even more rewarding this summer, as members can Go.Get.Rewarded with a $20 Best Western Travel Card on their first stay completed between May 21 and September 3, 2018. With the richest promotions in the industry and points that never expire, BWR offers real value as the world's premier hotel loyalty program.

For more information on Best Western Hotels & Resorts, please visit BestWestern.com or BestWesternDevelopers.com.

For more information about the "Today's Best Western" campaign, please visit YouMustBeTrippin.com/featured/todaysbw/

About Best Western Hotels & Resorts:

Best Western Hotels & Resorts headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, is a privately held hotel brand with a global network of 4,200* hotels in more than 100* countries and territories worldwide. Best Western offers 11 hotel brands to suit the needs of developers and guests in every market: Best Western, Best Western Plus, Best Western Premier, Vib, GLo, Executive Residency by Best Western, BW Premier Collection, and BW Signature CollectionSM by Best Western; as well as its recently launched franchise offerings: SureStay Hotel by Best Western, SureStay Plus Hotel by Best Western and SureStay Collection by Best Western. Now celebrating more than 70 years of hospitality, Best Western provides its hoteliers with global operational, sales and marketing support, and award-winning online and mobile booking capabilities. Best Western continues to set industry records regarding awards and accolades, including 64 percent of the brand's North American hotels earning a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence award in 2017, Business Travel News ranking Best Western Plus and Best Western number one in upper-mid-price and mid-price hotel brands, and Best Western receiving seven consecutive Dynatrace Best of the Web awards for its leading hotel website. Best Western has also won nine consecutive AAA/CAA Lodging Partner of the Year awards, recognizing the brand's commitment to providing exceptional service and great value to AAA/CAA's nearly 58 million members in the U.S. and Canada. Best Western-branded hotels were top ranked in J.D. Power's 2017 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study  ranking first in breakfast (food and beverage category) for midscale; and second in overall guest satisfaction. Over 32 million travelers are members of the brand's award-winning loyalty program Best Western Rewards, one of the few programs in which members earn points that never expire and can be redeemed at any Best Western hotel worldwide. Best Western's partnerships with AAA/CAA and Harley-Davidson provide travelers with exciting ways to interact with the brand. Through its partnership with Google Street View, Best Western is the first major company of its size and scale to launch a virtual reality experience for customers, setting a new industry standard and reinventing how guests view hotels.

* All Best Western and SureStay-branded hotels are independently owned and operated.

* Numbers are approximate, may fluctuate, and include hotels currently in the development pipeline.

SOURCE Best Western Hotels & Resorts

Related Links

https://www.bestwestern.com

Two years ago, Sequoia Capital India marked its first-ever investment in a local alcoholic beverage brand by adding Bira 91 to its portfolio of tech investments, signifying a new era in the craft beer market. This new round of investment also sees a follow on participation from Sequoia Capital India.

With the global craft beer market projected to reach over $502B by 2025, and the market expected to witness substantial growth over the forecast period due to the rising demand for craft beers- Bira 91's growth comes at an opportune time to corner a rising market and reach emerging consumers.

Speaking of the new investment, Founder and CEO, Ankur Jain said, "Bira 91 aspires to drive the global shift in beer towards more flavor and color. The new capital allows us to think long term and establish a leadership position in premium beer in India. We also expect to create a meaningful international business in South East Asia and the United States. We truly believe that Bira 91 is at the ground floor of a massive global opportunity. We are excited to bring on board a fund like Sofina, with origins in Belgian family capital and with a truly long term horizon as we passionately execute towards our dream of creating a global leader in the space. The consistent and rock solid support by Sequoia India and Abhay Pandey, over the last two years has been exemplary and we draw a lot of confidence from their belief in our team a third time too!"

Bira 91 grew five times in the last fiscal year (ending March 31, 2018) and has scaled to be comparable to the top 10 craft breweries in the US in terms of volume in only three years. The company expects to use the new funds to expand its production footprint by more than five-fold to 2,000,000 barrels from the current capacity of 350,000 barrels per annum.

Maxence Tombeur, Head of Asia at Sofina, speaks of the investment, "Sofina accumulated a long experience investing in consumer goods and brands over the last decades, with investments including Danone, Richemont, Bowers & Wilkins and M. Chapoutier. Sofina is now looking forward to partnering with Bira 91 on a journey to scale their footprint in India and beyond. With our Belgian roots, we believe there is a great chemistry between our organizations and are proud to back Bira 91 as they are building a leading brand in the underserved premium beer segment. We have been impressed by Ankur and the passion driving Bira 91's management team. This investment is part of our strategy of being a long-term supporter of talented entrepreneurs and like-minded investors in growth markets."

ABOUT BIRA 91

A refreshingly modern beer brand, imagined in India, Bira 91 aspires to bring flavorful beers to the new world. As one of the fastest growing beers in the world, Bira 91 has built a strong portfolio of essential beers and aims to drive the global shift in beer towards more color and flavor. Established in the summer of 2015 by B9 Beverages and headquartered in New Delhi, Bira 91 has quickly become the rage amongst urban millennials owing to its delicious beers, bold identity and a strong draft network.

Driven by a dynamic and energetic team of over 350 passionate beer lovers, the company now operates two breweries in India, and has offices in nine cities including New York City. Bira 91 is backed by Sequoia Capital India.

Crafted with the creative urban drinker in mind  someone who likes to have fun and doesn't take life (or beer) too seriously, the brand aims to disrupt the global beer world with 21st century technology and its playful monkey mascot.

ABOUT SOFINA

Sofina is a European, family-controlled, investment company listed on Euronext Brussels. Sofina is a global growth investor, both directly and through private equity funds. The company has offices in Brussels, Luxembourg and Singapore.

SOURCE Bira 91

Related Links

http://www.bira91.com

NEW YORK, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Boost Insurance ("Boost") today announced that it has secured a dedicated reinsurance facility to power its groundbreaking B2B insurtech development platform. The facility is led by Nephila with participation from Markel Digital, the insurtech group within Markel Corporation (NYSE: MKL), and RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd (NYSE: RNR). Boost, serving as general agent of 'A'-rated fronting carrier State National Companies, Inc., will manage a program supporting multiple insurtech startups entering the property and casualty (P&C) industry and will support all personal and commercial lines of business.

"This is a landmark day for Boost because it makes us a truly one-stop shop for insurtech startups looking to bring their ideas from concept to reality," said Boost's CEO and founder Alex Maffeo. "Limited access to licensed insurance paper and risk capacity is by far the number one barrier to entry for insurtech startups and a huge impediment to innovation in this industry. We spent the last year developing relationships with a group of the most forward-thinking (re)insurance capital providers in the world. These partners are willing to put their money where their mouth is to help insurtech startups succeed and we couldn't be happier to receive their trust and support."

Nephila Managing Partner Barney Schauble added, "Boost offers Nephila and the rest of the reinsurance facility members exposure to the best insurtech startups and new insurance products with the confidence that underwriting and compliance is being closely monitored by an experienced team."

According to Boost, it takes insurtech startups approximately 24 months to get from concept to live product, and access to (re)insurance capital (distinct from venture capital) is the most significant bottleneck in this process. The insurance industry moves slowly, as to be expected when the core business is about predictability, reliability and risk management, and it's often difficult for large companies to keep pace with rapidly-evolving technology.

Luke Ledbetter, EVP & CUO of Program Services at State National explained, "For startups, technology reigns supreme, time is the enemy, the stakes are high, and concepts are unproven  until they're not. Boost is in position to accelerate the proof of concept for startups and usher in the future of insurance."

The Company anticipates announcing its first insurtech partners in the coming weeks and will be presenting on the Insurance Innovators Looking Ahead panel at the Dig|In conference on Wednesday, May 16th at 10:30 AM CST.

About Boost Insurance

Boost Insurance USA, Inc. ("Boost") is an independent, technology-enabled insurance platform built to enable emerging insurtech startups that take an innovative approach to insurance products, distribution, data analytics, underwriting, and claims. The Boost team is comprised of a well-rounded group of venture capital, insurance, and technology professionals which enables it to identify, vet, and support best-in-class insurtech startups with a high degree of precision. Boost helps steer entrepreneurs through the complex landscape that is insurance enterprise formation and facilitates go-to-market acceleration through its licensed subsidiary Boost Insurance Agency, Inc.

About Nephila

Nephila is a leading investment manager specializing in reinsurance risk. Nephila offers a broad range of investment products focusing on instruments such as insurance-linked securities, catastrophe bonds, insurance swaps, and private transactions. Nephila has assets under management of approximately $11 billion as of January 1, 2018 and has been managing institutional assets in this space since it was founded in 1998.

About Markel Digital

Markel Digital leads Markel Corporation's Insurtech engagement by evaluating emerging technologies, establishing relationships with startups and digital distribution partners, developing innovative and disruptive insurance solutions, and making strategic investments in this space. Markel Corporation (NYSE: MKL) is a diverse financial holding company serving a variety of niche markets. The Company's principal business markets and underwrites specialty insurance products.

About RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd

RenaissanceRe (NYSE: RNR) is a leading global provider of reinsurance and insurance that specializes in matching well-structured risks with efficient sources of capital. The Company is known for its management expertise, disciplined underwriting approach, sophisticated risk models and responsive client service. Established in 1993, RenaissanceRe has offices in Bermuda, Ireland, Singapore, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. and deploys approximately $13 billion of capital resources in the market.

About State National Companies, Inc.

State National Companies, Inc. is a leading specialty provider of property and casualty insurance services across the United States. In its Program Services segment, the Company leverages its "A" (Excellent) A.M. Best rating, expansive licenses and reputation to provide access to the U.S. property and casualty insurance market in exchange for ceding fees.

Contact

Boost Insurance USA, Inc.

115 Broadway, 7th Floor

New York, NY 10006

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Boost Insurance USA, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.boostinsurance.io

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG) will hold its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on Thursday, May 24, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. at the Sofitel Hotel, 45 West 44th Street, New York, New York. The record date for determining shareholders entitled to notice of, and to vote at, the Annual General Meeting and at any subsequent adjournments or postponements of the meeting was March 29, 2018.

For those unable to attend in person, the slide presentation given by Soren Schroder, Bunge's Chief Executive Officer, will be available at or prior to 10:00 a.m. on May 24, 2018 on the company's website, www.bunge.com.

Website Information

We routinely post important information for investors on our website, www.bunge.com, in the "Investors" section. We may use this website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor the Investors section of our website, in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls, presentations and webcasts. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this document.

About Bunge Limited

Bunge Limited (www.bunge.com,NYSE: BG) is a leading global agribusiness and food company operating in over 40 countries with approximately 32,000 employees. Bunge buys, sells, stores and transports oilseeds and grains to serve customers worldwide; processes oilseeds to make protein meal for animal feed; produces edible oil products for consumers and commercial customers in the food processing, industrial and artisanal bakery, confectionery, human nutrition and food service categories; produces sugar and ethanol from sugarcane; mills wheat, corn and rice to make ingredients used by food companies; and sells fertilizer in South America. Founded in 1818, the company is headquartered in White Plains, New York.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains both historical and forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations and projections about our future results, performance, prospects and opportunities. We have tried to identify these forward-looking statements by using words including "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "continue" and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause our actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. The following important factors, among others, could affect our business and financial performance: industry conditions, including fluctuations in supply, demand and prices for agricultural commodities and other raw materials and products used in our business; fluctuations in energy and freight costs and competitive developments in our industries; the effects of weather conditions and the outbreak of crop and animal disease on our business; global and regional agricultural, economic, financial and commodities market, political, social and health conditions; the outcome of pending regulatory and legal proceedings; our ability to complete, integrate and benefit from acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures and strategic alliances; our ability to achieve the efficiencies, savings and other benefits anticipated from our cost reduction, margin improvement and other business optimization initiatives; changes in government policies, laws and regulations affecting our business, including agricultural and trade policies, tax regulations and biofuels legislation; and other factors affecting our business generally. The forward-looking statements included in this release are made only as of the date of this release, and except as otherwise required by federal securities law, we do not have any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

SOURCE Bunge Limited

Related Links

http://www.bunge.com

BOULDER, Colo., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, has been informed of significant business misconduct being perpetrated by the organization's leadership. UKnight Interactive ("UKnight"), which has been engaged in business matters with the Knights of Columbus for several years, reported that it recently sent a letter in this regard to Mr. Anderson on May 1. UKnight has brought legal action against the Knights of Columbus in Colorado Federal Court. Among the business misconduct cited by UKnight in its lawsuit are:

Actuarial fraud by the Knights of Columbus regarding the size and demographics of its membership, thereby misrepresenting to insurance carriers, credit rating agencies, and its own membership the sustainability of its membership and business model;

The Knights of Columbus leadership causing its member councils to upstream millions of dollars in dues for non-existent members, millions of dollars which were actually raised by the councils to fund community charitable efforts, in order to inflate claims by the organization of a much larger and younger membership base/insurance risk pool; and

Through such improper activities, the leadership of the Knights of Columbus engaging in a self-enrichment scheme.

As a result of the litigation now underway, the Court has ordered the Knights of Columbus to produce documents verifying its membership and demographics, among other details.

Below is the full letter sent to Mr. Anderson and links to both the Federal Court order and UKnight's amended legal action against the Knights of Columbus.

Letter to Carl Anderson:

May 1, 2018

Carl Anderson

Madison, CT 06443

Dear Mr. Anderson,

My name is Leonard Labriola, one of the founders of UKnight Interactive. In 2016, I sent you a half-dozen letters in which I offered to travel anywhere, at any time, to simply have a conversation with you about matters of importance to KC, matters including executive misconduct and specifically, misconduct as related to UKnight.

You never responded which I found very disconcerting. However, since these letters were sent to you at your office, I am prepared to believe that they were screened by others and may never have reached you. This lack of communication led to mediation over these issues in December 2016, the failure of which led to our having to file a lawsuit against the Knights of Columbus in January 2017. We have been litigating since.

UKnight has worked closely with rank and file leaders and agents since 2009. They know us, they know how we treat them and how we take care of them, and they know what UKnight does for their councils and agencies. As knights, these men think of their Supreme Knight reverentially, and have a difficult time believing that he is involved with or even aware of this lawsuit, especially the facts underlying our claims. Therefore, I am sending this letter to you personally, at your residence, to be certain that this letter you do receive, so that I can assure them with certainty that this litigation is proceeding with your full awareness and approval.

If in the slim chance you are not yet aware of the details associated with this case, if your knowledge is limited to general briefings on the matter, I will assume that you will now read through and familiarize yourself with the details. I expect Mr. Nussbaum can provide them to you or, since his job description most likely includes providing you with plausible deniability, you can find them on your own at www.uknightlitigation.com.

Sincerely,

Leonard Labriola

UKnight Interactive

Link to order:

http://www.uknightlitigation.com/UKnight/docs/Omnibus%20Order%20re%20Motions%203-20-18.pdf?pdf=Doc34

Link to amended complaint:

http://www.uknightlitigation.com/UKnight/docs/Second%20Amended%20Complaint%20(REVISED).pdf?pdf=Doc25

Media Contact:

Robert Siegfried

212-521-4836

Elizabeth Van Every

212-521-4803

SOURCE UKnight InteractiveDETROIT, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Stratview Research announces the launch of a new market research report on C4ISR Systems Market by Platform Type (Land, Airborne, Naval, and Space), by Application Type, (Command and Control; Communication; Computers; Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance; and Electronic Warfare), by Solution Type (Products and Services), by End-User Type (Defense and Commercial), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2018-2023.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660595/Stratview_Research_Logo.jpg )



This market report, from Stratview Research, studies the C4ISR systems market over the trend period of 2012 to 2017 and forecast period of 2018 to 2023. The research report provides detailed insights on the market dynamics to enable informed business decision making and growth strategy formulation based on the opportunities present in the market.

C4ISR (Command and Control, Communication, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, and Electronic Warfare) Systems Market: Highlights

The C4ISR systems market is projected to grow at a higher rate than the total defense industry in the coming five years to reach an estimated US$ 112.5 billion in 2023, propelled by a host of factors including an increasing military expenditure, especially by the developing economies including China and India, an increased demand for mobile command systems, and a rising demand for advanced electronic systems to gain an edge over others.

Defense electronics are always an indispensable focus area of the world out of which C4ISR systems have emerged as one of the vital elements. Major defense equipment makers are investing more into the procurement of superior intelligence and surveillance systems for tracking others' activity to build an actionable plan in case of an emergency or combat.

In terms of platform type, the land segment currently dominates the market and is likely to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period as well, driven by high allocation of defense budget coupled with a greater demand for the procurement of command & control and communications systems. Airborne, the second largest segment, is likely to witness the highest growth during the forecast period, driven by an increasing demand for UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and a greater need for intelligence gathering.

Based on the application type, the ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) segment is likely to maintain its dominance during the forecast period, driven by an advancement in the ISR systems including radars, sonars, and electro-optic sensors as well as rising demand for ISR systems to stay ahead of their opponents. The communication segment is likely to grow highest during the same period, driven by a higher focus on the upgrade of communication systems.

Register Here and Ask for a Free Sample on the Report

As per the study, North America is expected to remain the most dominant market during the forecast period. The USA is likely to remain the growth engine of the region's market during the same period. High defense budget coupled with the presence of all the major C4ISR system providers is the driving force behind the dominance of the region's market. Asia-Pacific is likely to witness the highest growth during the same period, primarily driven by rising defense budget of the major Asian economies. China, India, and South Korea are the major markets for C4ISR systems in the region and are likely to create most of the demand for these systems in the coming years.

The global C4ISR systems market is fiercely competitive with the presence of many established players. The major players, such as Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and BAE Systems, offer an extensive product portfolio across regions and keep themselves competitive by performing both organic and inorganic growth strategies. These players are highly diversified with excellent capabilities in defense products and systems, which raise the competitiveness to the next level. Other major players are General Dynamics, Elbit Systems, L-3 Technologies, Thales Group, Harris Corporation, Leonardo S.p.A., Rheinmetall Group, and Saab.

Report Features

This report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights on the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. The following are the key features of the report:

Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysis.

Market environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porter's five forces analysis, SWOT analysis.

Market trend and forecast analysis.

Market segment trend and forecast.

Competitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, product portfolio, product launches, etc.

Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunities.

Emerging trends.

Strategic growth opportunities for the existing and new players.

Key success factors

This report studies the global C4ISR systems market and has segmented the market in five ways, keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders across the value chain. The following are the five ways in which the market is segmented:

C4ISR Systems Market by Platform Type:

Land (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Airborne (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Naval (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Space (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

C4ISR Systems Market by Application Type:

Command and Control (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Communication (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Computers (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Electronic Warfare (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

C4ISR Systems Market by Solution Type:

Products (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Services (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

C4ISR Systems Market by End-User Type:

Defense (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Commercial (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

C4ISR Systems Market by Region:

North America (Country Analysis: The USA , Canada , and Mexico )

Europe (Country Analysis: Germany , France , the UK, Russia , and Rest of Europe )

Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: China , India , Japan , South Korea , and Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Rest of the World (Sub-Region Analysis: The Middle East , Latin America , and Others)

Stratview Research has number of high value market reports in the global aerospace & defense industry. Please refer to the following link to browse through our reports:

Click Here for Other Reports from Stratview Research in the Aerospace & Defense Industry

Some of our other premium market reports in the aerospace & defense industry:

Global Aircraft Nacelle Components Market by Aircraft Type, by Component Type, by Material Type, by Process Type and by Region, Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2017-2022

Airborne LiDAR Market by Type, by Solution Type, by Application Type, by End-Use Industry, by Platform Type, and by Region, Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2018-2023



About Stratview Research

Stratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas.

We have a strong team of industry veterans and analysts with an extensive experience in executing custom research projects for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies, in the areas of Market Assessment, Opportunity Screening, Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence, Target Screening, Market Entry Strategy, Go to Market Strategy, and Voice of Customer studies.

Stratview Research is a trusted brand globally, providing high quality research and strategic insights that help companies worldwide in effective decision making.



For enquiries,

Contact:

Ritesh Gandecha

Stratview Research

E-mail: [email protected]

Direct: +1-313-307-4176



SOURCE Stratview ResearchMichael-in-Norfolk disclaims any and all responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, completeness, legality, reliability, operability, or availability of information or material displayed on this site and does not claim credit for any images or articles featured on this site, unless otherwise noted. All visual content is copyrighted to it's respectful owners. Information on this site may contain errors or inaccuracies, and Michael-in-Norfolk does not make warranty as to the correctness or reliability of the site's content. If you own rights to any of the images or articles, and do not wish them to appear on this site, please contact Michael-in-Norfolk via e-mail and they will be promptly removed. Michael-in-Norfolk contains links to other Internet sites. These links are provided solely as a convenience and are not endorsements of any products or services in such sites, and no information or content in such site has been endorsed or approved by this blog.Center For Safe Internet Pharmacies And Partnership For Drug-Free Kids Announce New National Coalition To Help Curb The Opioid Epidemic"Moxy flips the conventional hotel experience on its head, and we're excited to bring this vibrant concept to Chicago for the first time with the opening of Moxy Chicago Downtown," said Vicki Poulos, Senior Global Brand Director, Moxy Hotels. "We want to give guests and locals alike license to play with us  whether that's taking part in trivia night, or enjoying some of the fun programming we have at all of our hotels that captures the flavor of the city we are in." Moxy offers a new way of traveling which is smaller in concentration, yet not a reduction in experience. The brand caters to today's free-spirited traveler who is looking for a hotel with friendly service and premium comforts in an environment that allows them to connect with relevant and authentic local experiences. Moxy's creative brand identity aims to engage business and leisure travelers with a warm, thoughtful and playful guest experience.

Designed by Texas-based Flick Mars and global integrated design firm DLR Group, the public and private areas follow Moxy's design-forward sensibility with tech-enabled bedrooms and vibrant lobby, lounge and bar spaces. Exceptionally efficient guest rooms provide everything travelers need and nothing they don't. These thoughtful modifications make room for things that matter more, like the 49" Smart TV and a sumptuous bed with fine linens and exceptional pillows.

In the lobby, guests will discover industrial-chic communal spaces filled with a warm and engaging mix of modern and vintage-inspired furniture and light fixtures.

Bar Moxy in the lobby will be the hub of the hotel, serving as the "front desk" where guests check in, receive their room key and sip a complimentary 'Got Moxy' signature cocktail. The bar will also be the place to drink, eat, and socialize where the energy will build throughout the day. The morning features a laid back vibe and is the only place in River North to get the local premium coffee. During the day it is a place to linger, work, and meet, but later, it will become "the place to be" for happy hour and features a curated music program into the evening with activations including spinning DJs and the Moxy SoundOff booth, featuring live podcasting and psychic readings.

Moxy Chicago Downtown will be home to Zombie Taco, which is a 24-7 food truck inspired concept with global flavors serving tacos, healthy bowls, burritos, and other fresh, made-to-order items. Zombie Taco will be the ideal stop for lunch, the perfect fuel to keep the night going, and everything in between. Need your taco to go? Try the walk-up window located on LaSalle for quick convenient service. For those looking for other food options, head to Moxy Pick-Ups in Bar Moxy for locally roasted coffee, baked goods, freshly prepared grab-and-go items, and locally sourced snacks from unique brands.

The hotel is the 29th Moxy Hotel to open globally and the seventh Moxy Hotel in the United States.

For additional information visit www.moxyhotels.com or https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/chiox-moxy-chicago-downtown/. Follow us at @MoxyChicago and @ZombieTacoChi #AtTheMoxy.

About Moxy Hotels:

Moxy Hotels is Marriott International's new millennial-focused brand that debuted in September 2014 with the opening of the Moxy Milan. A boutique-hotel concept for the next-Gen traveler, Moxy is a fresh and innovative brand combining stylish design and approachable service at an affordable price point. With tech-enabled rooms, vibrant lobby spaces and warm, modern service, Moxy aims to surprise travelers with a thoughtful, spirited and fun guest experience. Moxy Hotels 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. To learn more about Moxy Hotels, visit www.MoxyHotels.com.

Follow Moxy on Instagram

Watch Moxy on YouTube

Engage #AtTheMoxy

Watch the Moxy Manifesto video here

About Marriott International, Inc.

Marriott International, Inc. is based in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and encompasses a portfolio of more than 6,500 properties in 30 leading hotel brands spanning 127 countries and territories. Marriott operates and franchises hotels and licenses vacation ownership resorts all around the world. The company also operates award-winning loyalty programs: Marriott Rewards, which includes The Ritz-Carlton Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest. For more information, please visit our website at www.marriott.com, and for the latest company news, visit www.marriottnewscenter.com. In addition, connect with us on Facebook and @MarriottIntl on Twitter and Instagram.

White Lodging Services Corporation, established in 1985, is one of the leading hotel ownership, development, and management companies in America. An innovative trendsetter, the organization's portfolio includes convention, urban lifestyle, and suburban select service hotels. White Lodging operates more than 90 premium hotels, 30 restaurants and 30 brands  including Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt, and InterContinental Hotel Group  in 19 states. Success knows no boundaries at White Lodging, where associates and leadership have consistently earned superior guest satisfaction scores, top market share and industry-leading profit margins while recruiting the best, brightest, and most passionate professionals in every discipline for three decades. For more information about White Lodging, visit www.whitelodging.com, or connect on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Friedman Properties, Ltd.:

Friedman Properties, Ltd. owns, leases and manages a portfolio of 50+ buildings totaling over 4 million square feet including office, retail, residential, parking, event and hospitality space. Partnering with restaurants, hotels, artists, entrepreneurs, and civic leaders, Friedman Properties has transformed River North into the city's most desirable 24-hour live/work/play destination. Since the 1970's, their progressive approach to ownership in River North continues to guide the company's development in projects throughout the city and suburbs. Innovative design, creative leasing, and excellence in tenant service put Friedman Properties' buildings among the best that Chicago real estate has to offer. For more information about Friedman Properties, visit www.friedmanproperties.com, or connect on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Media Contacts:

Kathleen Sebastian

Director of Communications

[email protected]

219-472-2861

Victoria Martinez Hart

Sr. Global Director, PR

Marriott International

[email protected]

SOURCE White Lodging

Related Links

http://www.whitelodging.com

" Technology executives play a pivotal role in helping their organizations to respond to disruptive change in helping their companies become digital enterprises ," said Hunter Muller, HMG Strategy's President and CEO. "In order to succeed, technology executives must collaborate with the CEO and the board of directors and demonstrate fearless leadership in navigating the journey forward."

The Toronto CIO Executive Leadership Summit will kick-off with a series of compelling 'HMG Tech Talk' discussions that will explore the business, technology, and geo-political trends that are influencing executive strategy. These will include presentations by HMG Strategy President and CEO Hunter Muller on why IT is more relevant than ever along with other critical trends that are shaping the future path for technology executives; and Mark Moore, COO and Co-Founder of Inxeption, who will discuss the transformational promise of blockchain.

Other compelling sessions at the summit will include an executive panel that will explore how advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, the Internet of Things, and analytics are driving speed to market and a competitive edge; an executive panel that will explore emerging enterprise innovations from Silicon Valley; a panel of leading search executives who will weigh in on the key attributes that make technology executives successful; an executive keynote by Wesley McPherson, Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group on key IT trends such as user-facing AI, robotic process automation, Blockchain 2.0 and 'The Digital Twin'; a set of executive roundtable discussions that enable summit attendees to brainstorm on the top opportunities for applying technologies such as AI, blockchain and cloud applications along with the top challenges that must be overcome to succeed; and an executive panel that will explore how to lead, reimagine and reinvent the enterprise while driving a culture of genius for success.

Prominent speakers at the summit will include:

Saqib Awan , Vice President, Lightspeed Venture Partners

, Vice President, Lightspeed Venture Partners Alizabeth Calder , SVP, HomEquity Bank

, SVP, HomEquity Bank John Mealia , Senior Client Partner, Korn Ferry

, Senior Client Partner, Bob Tapscott , Managing Partner, The Tapscott Group and The Blockchain Institute

Presenting Partners at the Toronto Summit will include Info-Tech Research Group. Platinum Partners for the summit include Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tintri. Gold Partners include CenturyLink, Ivanti, and The Judge Group. The Digital Cybersecurity Partner of the Year includes SecurityScorecard. The Digital Partner of the Year is Adobe. Strategic Partners include DHR International, Egon Zehnder, Heidrick & Struggles, Korn Ferry, Russell Reynolds Associates, and Spencer Stuart. Alliance Partners include Amplify Partners, Glynn Capital, Greylock Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia. Association Partners include The CIO Association of Canada and SIM Toronto.

To visit the Toronto summit website and register for the event, click here.

About HMG Strategy

HMG Strategy is the world's largest independent and most trusted provider of executive networking events and thought leadership to support the 360-degree needs of technology leaders. Our regional CIO and CISO Executive Leadership Series, newsletters, authored books, and online Resource Center deliver proprietary research on leadership, innovation, transformation, and career ascent.

The HMG Strategy global network consists of over 300,000 senior IT executives, industry experts and world-class thought leaders. HMG Strategy's exclusive CIO and CISO Executive Leadership Alliance (CELA) program provides top-tier technology executives with unparalleled peer-to-peer off-the-record straight talk to strengthen their decision-making capabilities and accelerate their career ascent. The CELA program is complemented by the CELA Executive Decision Support services (EDS) which connects enterprise technology executives with their contemporaries who are able to offer their expertise, practical experience, and insights in disciplines ranging from effective C-suite communication strategies to crafting successful 1-3-5-year technology roadmaps.

Additionally, our partnerships with the world's leading search firms provide vital insights into the evolving roles of the CIO and CISO.

The HMG Strategy CIO Executive Leadership Series offers a completely unique experience for IT executives to gain the latest insights and best practices for driving increased business value through the use of IT, and build invaluable relationships with peers and industry experts. The HMG Strategy CISO Executive Leadership Series is designed to provide information security leaders with the insights and best practices they need to tackle the most pressing cyber security challenges facing the enterprise today and going forward.

For more information on joining the strongest executive leadership network and exploring our independent, forward-thinking thought leadership platform, please visit www.hmgstrategy.com.

SOURCE HMG Strategy

Related Links

http://www.hmgstrategy.com

RESTON, Va., May 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- comScore, Inc. (OTC: SCOR), a leading cross-platform measurement company that measures audiences, brands and consumer behavior everywhere, today reported financial results for the first quarter of 2018, ended March 31, 2018.

Revenue advanced 5% year-over-year for the first quarter of 2018 to $105.9 million from $100.9 million reported in the same period for 2017. GAAP net loss for the first quarter of 2018 was $51.5 million, or $(0.93) per share as compared to $40.8 million, or $(0.71) per share reported in the same period for 2017.

Revenue from the digital audience product offering in the first quarter of 2018 was $57.8 million, consistent with the same period of 2017. TV and Cross-Platform revenue increased 15% year-over-year to $25.3 million. Advertising product revenue increased 6% year-over-year to $12.2 million and movies revenue increased 13% year-over-year to $10.6 million. All revenue figures reflect the implementation of new revenue standard ASC 606.

On a non-GAAP basis, net loss for the first quarter of 2018 was $13.8 million, or $(0.25) per share, excluding investigation and audit-related expenses, stock-based compensation expense and certain other items as presented in the accompanying tables. This compares to a non-GAAP net loss of $17.7 million, or $(0.31) per share, reported in the same period for 2017.

For the first quarter of 2018, comScore generated adjusted EBITDA of $3.6 million, excluding investigation and audit-related expenses, stock-based compensation and certain other items as presented in the accompanying tables. This compares to adjusted EBITDA loss of $(1.9) million reported in the same period one year ago.

"I am excited to lead comScore at this pivotal moment in the advertising industry," commented Bryan Wiener, CEO-elect. "With an unmatched data footprint, universal brand recognition and loyal customers across major brands and media companies, we're positioned to lead the marketplace as the independent cross-platform measurement solution that will empower our partners to make business decisions with complete confidence."

Wiener added, "To meet this aim, we plan to accelerate product innovation, increase operational excellence and simplify our cost structure. Our revenue results in the first quarter demonstrate relative stability in our digital business and encouraging growth in our TV and cross-platform business and other investment areas."

"As CEO, my priority will be to drive meaningful change within the company by reenergizing our teams around a clearly defined strategy that will allow us to reach our full potential as the market leader in cross-platform measurement. I look forward to communicating more details of this strategy on our next earnings call in August," continued Wiener.

Conference Call information for today Wednesday, May 9 at 5:00 p.m. ET

Management will provide commentary on the company's results in a conference call today at 5:00 p.m. ET. To access this call, dial 800-263-0877 (domestic) or +1 323-794-2094 (international) and reference conference ID 5244430. Participants are advised to dial in at least 10 minutes prior to the call to register. Additionally, a webcast of the conference call will be available on the Investor Relations section of the company's website at ir.comscore.com/events-presentations.

About comScore

comScore is a leading cross-platform measurement company that measures audiences, brands and consumer behavior everywhere. Built on precision and innovation, our data footprint combines proprietary digital, TV and movie intelligence with vast demographic details to quantify consumers' multiscreen behavior at massive scale. This approach helps media companies monetize their complete audiences and allows marketers to reach these audiences more effectively. With more than 3,200 clients and global footprint in 70 countries, comScore is delivering the future of measurement. Shares of comScore stock are currently traded on the OTC Market (OTC: SCOR). For more information on comScore, please visit comscore.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal and state securities laws, including, without limitation, comScore's expectations and opinions regarding business and market opportunities, product development and innovation, competitive advantages, financial stability and growth, operational improvements, changes to cost structure, strategic plans, and plans to hold future earnings calls. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events to differ materially from expectations, including, but not limited to, comScore's ability to achieve its expected strategic, financial and operational plans. For additional discussion of risk factors, please refer to comScore's respective Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and other filings that comScore makes from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), which are available on the SEC's website (www.sec.gov).

Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date such statements are made. comScore does not intend or undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or new information after the date of this press release, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To provide investors with additional information regarding our financial results, we are disclosing herein non-GAAP net income (loss) and net income (loss) per share and adjusted EBITDA, each of which are non-GAAP financial measures used by our management to understand and evaluate our core operating performance and trends. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results, as they permit our investors to view our core business performance using the same metrics that management uses to evaluate our performance. Nevertheless, our use of these non-GAAP financial measures has limitations as an analytical tool, and investors should not consider these measures in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Instead, you should consider these measures alongside GAAP-based financial performance measures, net income (loss), various cash flow metrics, and our other GAAP financial results.

Set forth below are reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. These reconciliations should be carefully evaluated.

COMSCORE, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (In thousands, except share amounts)



March 31, 2018

December 31, 2017

(Unaudited)



Assets





Current assets:





Cash and cash equivalents $ 67,266



$ 37,859

Restricted cash 7,564



7,266

Accounts receivable, net of allowances of $1,779 and $1,991, respectively ($1,487 and $2,899 of accounts receivable attributable to related parties) 70,902



82,029

Prepaid expenses and other current assets 15,581



15,168

Insurance recoverable on litigation settlements 37,232



37,232

Total current assets 198,545



179,554

Property and equipment, net 26,894



28,893

Other non-current assets 8,106



7,259

Deferred tax assets 4,252



4,532

Intangible assets, net 151,275



159,777

Goodwill 643,006



642,424

Total assets $ 1,032,078



$ 1,022,439

Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity





Current liabilities:





Accounts payable ($227 and $2,715 attributable to related parties) $ 26,223



$ 27,889

Accrued expenses ($1,442 and $5,857 attributable to related parties) 68,966



86,031

Accrued litigation settlements 27,447



27,718

Other current liabilities 9,428



10,485

Deferred revenue ($2,386 and $2,755 attributable to related parties) 96,388



98,367

Financing derivatives, current 4,100





Total current liabilities 232,552



250,490

Financing derivatives 11,020





Senior secured convertible notes 126,246





Deferred tax liabilities 4,259



3,641

Accrued litigation settlements 90,800



90,800

Other non-current liabilities 18,458



21,016

Total liabilities 483,335



365,947

Commitments and contingencies













Stockholders' equity:





Preferred stock, $0.001 par value per share; 5,000,000 shares authorized at March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017; no shares issued or outstanding as of March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017 





Common stock, $0.001 par value per share; 100,000,000 shares authorized as of March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017; 60,382,466 shares issued and 55,017,670 shares outstanding as of March 31, 2018 and 60,053,843 shares issued and 57,289,047 shares outstanding as of December 31, 2017, respectively 60



60

Additional paid-in capital 1,414,109



1,407,717

Accumulated other comprehensive loss (4,609)



(6,224)

Accumulated deficit (661,277)



(609,091)

Treasury stock, at cost, 5,364,796 and 2,764,796 shares as of March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017, respectively (199,540)



(135,970)

Total stockholders' equity 548,743



656,492

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 1,032,078



$ 1,022,439



COMSCORE, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS (Unaudited) (In thousands, except share and per share data)





Three Months Ended March 31,



2018

2017 Revenues (1)

$ 105,919



$ 100,861











Cost of revenues (1) (2) (3)

47,254



47,313

Selling and marketing (1) (2) (3)

25,905



29,733

Research and development (1) (2) (3)

18,716



21,020

General and administrative (1) (2) (3)

18,661



17,785

Investigation and audit related (1)

31,867



17,678

Amortization of intangible assets

8,544



8,735

Settlement of litigation, net





1,533

Restructuring

1,257





Total expenses from operations

152,204



143,797

Loss from operations

(46,285)



(42,936)

Interest expense, net (1)

(2,905)



(154)

Other income, net

77



3,184

Loss from foreign currency transactions

(922)



(20)

Loss before income taxes

(50,035)



(39,926)

Income tax provision

(1,415)



(866)

Net loss

$ (51,450)



$ (40,792)

Net loss per common share:







Basic

$ (0.93)



$ (0.71)

Diluted

(0.93)



(0.71)

Weighted-average number of shares used in per share calculation - Common Stock:







Basic

55,227,046



57,274,851

Diluted

55,227,046



57,274,851

Comprehensive loss:







Net loss

$ (51,450)



$ (40,792)

Other comprehensive income:







Foreign currency cumulative translation adjustment

1,615



603

Total comprehensive loss

$ (49,835)



$ (40,189)





















(1) Transactions with related parties are included in the line items above (refer to Footnote 8, Related Party Transactions, of the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2018 for additional information).

(2) Amortization of stock-based compensation expense is included in the line items above as follows:



Three Months Ended March 31,



2018

2017 Cost of revenues

$ 213



$ 629

Selling and marketing

575



1,446

Research and development

344



821

General and administrative

749



924





$ 1,881



$ 3,820











(3) Excludes amortization of intangible assets, which is presented separately in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss.

COMSCORE, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited) (In thousands)



Three Months Ended March 31,

2018

2017 Operating activities





Net loss $ (51,450)



$ (40,792)

Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:





Depreciation 4,563



6,129

Amortization of intangible assets 8,544



8,735

Stock-based compensation 1,881



3,820

Deferred tax benefit 906



879

Change in fair value of financing derivatives 2,180





Change in fair value of equity securities 449





Accretion of debt discount 752





Amortization of deferred financing costs 207





Other (69)



806

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:





Accounts receivable 11,095



8,271

Prepaid expenses and other assets (597)



(14,932)

Accounts payable, accrued expenses, and other liabilities (19,761)



19,807

Deferred revenue (3,498)



5,325

Net cash used in operating activities (44,798)



(1,952)









Investing activities





Purchase of property and equipment (2,657)



(2,999)

Net cash used in investing activities (2,657)



(2,999)









Financing activities





Proceeds from borrowings on senior secured convertible notes 85,000





Debt issuance costs (4,315)





Financing proceeds received on subscription receivable (related party) 3,065



1,259

Repurchase of Common Stock (withholding taxes) (4,099)



(1,262)

Principal payments on capital lease and software license arrangements (2,859)



(4,499)

Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities 76,792



(4,502)

Effect of exchange rate changes on cash 368



(1,721)

Net increase (decrease) in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 29,705



(11,174)

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of period 45,125



88,341

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of period $ 74,830



$ 77,167











Three Months Ended March 31,

2018

2017 Cash and cash equivalents $ 67,266



$ 72,635

Restricted cash 7,564



4,532

Total cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash $ 74,830



$ 77,167



























Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The following table presents a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net loss for each of the periods identified:



Three Months Ended March 31, (In thousands) 2018

2017 Net loss (GAAP) $ (51,450)



$ (40,792)









Income tax provision 1,415



866

Interest expense, net 2,905



154

Depreciation 4,563



6,129

Amortization of intangible assets 8,544



8,735

EBITDA (34,023)



(24,908)









Adjustments:





Stock-based compensation 1,881



3,820

Investigation and audit related (1) 31,867



17,678

Settlement of litigation, net 



1,533

Restructuring costs 1,257





Other income, net (2)) 2,629



13

Adjusted EBITDA $ 3,611



$ (1,864)





(1) Amounts represent charges for matters relating to the Audit Committee investigation described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, including litigation and investigation-related costs, costs associated with tax projects, audits and other professional, consulting or other fees. (2) In 2018, adjustments to other income, net, reflect non-cash changes in the fair value of financing derivatives and equity securities investments included in other income, net on our Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss. These financial instruments were not held in the prior period. The prior period adjustment to other income, net reflects items classified as non-operating other income, net on our Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss, excluding the other income associated with the transition services agreement for the DAx disposition. Our change to exclude non-operating other income, net from our calculation of Adjusted EBITDA for 2018 is intended to conform Adjusted EBITDA to the Consolidated EBITDA definition within our senior secured convertible notes.

The following table presents a reconciliation of non-GAAP net loss to net loss (GAAP) for each of the periods identified:



Three Months Ended March 31, (In thousands) 2018

2017 Net loss (GAAP) $ (51,450)



$ (40,792)









Adjustments:





Stock-based compensation 1,881



3,820

Investigation and audit related (1) 31,867



17,678

Settlement of litigation, net 



1,533

Restructuring costs 1,257





Other income, net (2) 2,629



13

Non-GAAP net loss $ (13,816)



$ (17,748)





(1) Amounts represent charges for matters relating to the Audit Committee investigation described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, including litigation and investigation-related costs, costs associated with tax projects, audits and other professional, consulting or other fees. (2) In 2018, adjustments to other income, net, reflect non-cash changes in the fair value of financing derivatives and equity securities investments included in other income, net on our Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss. These financial instruments were not held in the prior period. The prior period adjustment to other income, net reflects items classified as non-operating other income, net on our Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss, excluding the other income associated with the transition services agreement for the DAx disposition. We have excluded non-operating other income, net from our calculation of non-GAAP net loss for 2018.

Supplemental Non-GAAP Disclosures

The following table presents a reconciliation of certain non-GAAP expense line items (to be discussed on today's conference call) to the most directly comparable GAAP expense line items.























Three Months Ended March 31,

2018

2017

(In thousands) As reported (GAAP) Less: Stock-based Compensation As adjusted (non-GAAP) % of GAAP Revenue

As reported (GAAP) Less: Stock-based Compensation As adjusted (non-GAAP) % of GAAP Revenue

Revenues $105,919



100.00%

$100,861



100.00%

Cost of revenues 47,254 (213) 47,041 44.41%

47,313 (629) 46,684 46.29%

Selling and marketing 25,905 (575) 25,330 23.91%

29,733 (1,446) 28,287 28.05%

Research and development 18,716 (344) 18,372 17.35%

21,020 (821) 20,199 20.03%

General and administrative 18,661 (749) 17,912 16.91%

17,785 (924) 16,861 16.72%



SOURCE comScore

Related Links

https://www.comscore.com

VANCOUVER, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Bear Creek Mining Corporation ("Bear Creek" or the "Company") (TSX Venture: BCM) is pleased to announce that a Mine Construction Permit and an Accreditation of Water Availability have been granted by the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines ("MEM") and the Water Authority within the Ministry of Agriculture, respectively, for the Corani silver-lead-zinc project located in southern Peru.

The Mine Construction Permit authorizes the stripping and extraction of ore according to the Corani Mine plan, and the construction of auxiliary and complementary mine facilities such as access roads, the mine camp and maintenance and storage buildings. The Accreditation of Water Availability confirms that the water resources required for construction and operation of the Corani Mine are available for use in the project. A separate permit for the construction of the Corani process plant, waste and tailings disposals, water storage system and processing-related facilities (the "Process Plant Construction Permit") is currently under review and pending approval. These permits, together with the Company's approved Environmental and Social Impact Assessment ("ESIA") that underlies them, are the key authorizations required to construct the Corani mine and the granting of these permits represents a substantial mitigation of project development risk.

Tony Hawkshaw, President and CEO, states, "Corani is one of the largest undeveloped silver-polymetallic deposits in the world. The Corani mine design is world-class and utilizes proven, modern technologies to achieve robust economic returns while minimizing environmental impacts. We appreciate the timely review of our permit applications by the various Peruvian Ministries involved, including the Ministries of Energy and Mines, Agriculture, and Culture. Bear Creek Mining is committed to supporting the communities around the Corani project by promoting productive economic activities representative of the historic and cultural practices of the area. These efforts, undertaken jointly by the Company and the communities, have helped to establish an excellent relationship with local communities throughout the project's history including during the permit approval process. Our Board of Directors will consider a Corani construction decision when a compelling project financing structure is arranged. Receipt of these key permits is a major step that will help attract sources of capital."

In the near future, Bear Creek will commence Phase 2 detailed engineering work, which is expected to lead into an Engineering, Procurement and Construction ("EPC") or EPC Management ("EPCM") contract. Additionally, with the Mine Construction Permit approved, the Company may commence early works projects including the construction of the Corani camp facilities and the access road from the camp to the project area, a distance of approximately 12 km. Permitting for the construction of an electrical substation and power line near the town of Macusani is underway, which will also improve the electrical system of the districts of Macusani and Corani.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Anthony Hawkshaw

President and CEO

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding: the Company's planned work programs for the Corani project during 2018; the conditions under which the Company may consider a construction decision for the Corani project, the Company's expectations regarding environmental effects and economic returns; and, future permits the Company expects to receive. These forward-looking statements are provided as of the date of this news release, or the effective date of the documents referred to in this news release, as applicable, and reflect predictions, expectations or beliefs regarding future events based on the Company's beliefs at the time the statements were made, as well as various assumptions made by and information currently available to them. Although management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved or that assumptions on which they are based do not reflect future experience. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual outcomes to differ materially from the expectations expressed in them. These risk factors may be generally stated as the risk that the assumptions and estimates expressed above do not occur, but specifically include, without limitation, risks relating to: the Company's receipt of future permits to conduct work at the Corani project; the nature of work planned pursuant to the Company's existing permits; the Company's ability to secure financing, on favourable terms, to construct the Corani mine; sufficiency of the Company's working capital to complete its anticipated work programs; and the additional risks described in the Company's latest Annual Information Form, and other disclosure documents filed by the Company on SEDAR. The foregoing list of factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive. When relying on our forward-looking statements, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by the Company or on behalf of the Company, except as required by law.

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.

SOURCE Bear Creek Mining Corporation

Related Links

http://www.bearcreekmining.com

DUBLIN, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Container Monitoring Market by Component (Solution & Services), Operating System, Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Vertical (Telecom & IT, BFSI, Government, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Travel and Hospitality) & Region - Global Forecast to 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The container monitoring market is expected to grow from USD 169.6 Million in 2017 to USD 706.2 Million by 2022, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 33%.

The market is driven by various factors, such as the growing DevOps; and container monitoring's benefits of operational simplicity, platform independency, resource optimization, and smooth scalability. However, the difficulty in monitoring the container sprawl would hinder the market's growth.

Among the professional services, the training and development segment is expected to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period. Container monitoring is used by developers and IT operators to monitor and manage containers to optimize the application performance. Although the container monitoring technology is rapidly growing and is simple to use, it is one of the new concepts among enterprises and needs professionals and experts to manage the solutions and services. Therefore, the training and development is expected to be the fastest growing segment in the container monitoring market.

North America is a large market with significant growth potential, owing to the presence of a large number of players offering the container monitoring solution and services. The region is expected to hold the largest market size during the forecast period, as North American organizations are more focused on delivering new features using containerized applications. Furthermore, organizations have invested significantly on advanced technologies to gain a competitive advantage and improve business operations. Europe is expected to be the fastest growing region in the global container monitoring market, owing to the increasing adoption of container monitoring solutions and services by many SMEs. The container monitoring solution and services could help SMEs develop and deploy applications at a faster rate and improve the productivity.

Key container monitoring vendors are CA Technologies (US), AppDynamics (US), Splunk (US), Dynatrace (US), Datadog (US), BMC Software (US), Sysdig (US), SignalFx (US), Wavefront (US), and CoScale (Belgium).



Market Dynamics

Drivers

Easier to Implement than Virtualization

Continuous Focus of Organizations on Digital Transformations

Widespread Presence of Open Source Vendors Offering Container-Based Solutions

Growth of Devops

Restraints

Persistent Storage Issues

Opportunities

Rise in Cloud-Based Technologies

Challenges

Monitoring the Container Sprawl

Parallel Implementation of Container Monitoring Tools With the Traditional Infrastructure

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Research Methodology

3 Executive Summary

4 Premium Insights

5 Market Overview and Industry Trends

6 Container Monitoring Market, by Component

7 Market By Operating System

8 Container Monitoring Market, by Deployment Mode

9 Market By Organization Size

10 Container Monitoring Market, by Vertical

11 Container Monitoring Market, by Region

12 Competitive Landscape

13 Company Profiles

Appdynamics

BMC Software

CA Technologies

Coscale

Datadog

Dynatrace

Signalfx

Splunk

Sysdig

Wavefront

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9952jz/container?w=5

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com

To jumpstart the campaign, Crayola employees from across the country  including CEO Smith Holland  visited over 300 schools to hand deliver personal thank-yous. At the kick-off event in NYC's Flatiron Plaza, a 25-foot-tall digital thank you card streamed heartfelt teacher thank-yous from across the country and actress Debra Messing personally thanked her teacher for the impact he made on her life. Crayola also asked the nation to join in to reach one million teacher thank-yous on social media using the hashtag #CrayolaThanks.

"Teachers have been a core part of Crayola's heritage since the early 1900s, and we can't think of a better way to celebrate Crayola's 115th birthday than by paying homage to our legacy and honoring teachers for all that they do," said Smith Holland, President and CEO of Crayola. "At Crayola, we admire the passion and commitment of our nation's teachers in helping young minds grow and unleashing the power of creativity. Today and every day, we commend and celebrate teachers and invite the nation to join us in saying thank you."

To spur additional participation, Crayola launched Crayola.com/ThankATeacher, a digital site where physical thank-you notes can be uploaded into a gallery, teachers can search and view thank-yous and find heartwarming content. The website also includes a contest launching on July 1, where families can create and upload thank-you notes for teachers for a chance to win prizes for their family, teacher and school. Ten grand prize packs will be awarded, inclusive of:

$10,000 classroom makeover for the teacher

classroom makeover for the teacher One year supply of Crayola products for the school

$1,000 scholarship for the student

scholarship for the student $1,000 gift card for both the teacher and school

gift card for both the teacher and school Free CreatEd seminar for the school

In addition to the grand prizes, one lucky entrant will have his or her thank-you note featured on a special pack of Crayola crayons this holiday. In addition, a weekly sweepstakes will run concurrently with the contest, offering entrants a chance to win $500 gift cards for themselves and their teachers. The contest and sweepstakes will run through August 25, 2018.

Supporting the campaign and extending the thank-you to teachers year round, all Crayola Experience locations are offering free admission with a valid I.D. The Crayola Experience is now in four locations including: Easton, PA; Orlando, FL; Minneapolis, MN, and the newest attraction site in Plano, TX.

To join the conversation and be one of the million thank-yous for teachers, share your tribute on social media with the hashtag #CrayolaThanks.

About Crayola

Crayola LLC, based in Easton, Pa. and a business of Hallmark Cards, Inc., is the worldwide leader in children's creative expression products. Known for the iconic Crayola Crayon first introduced in 1903, the Crayola brand has grown into a portfolio of innovative art tools, crafting activities and creativity toys that offer children innovative new ways to use color to create everything imaginable. Consumers can find the wide array of Crayola products in the "Crayola Aisle" at all major retailers. For more information, visit www.crayola.com or join the community at www.facebook.com/crayola .

Erika Merklinger

Crayola

[email protected]

(610) 253-6272 ext. 4625

Alison Deasy

Golin for Crayola

[email protected]

(212) 373-6042

SOURCE Crayola

Related Links

http://www.crayola.com

SAN DIEGO, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cubic Corporation (NYSE:CUB) today announced its Cubic Global Defense (CGD) business division received eight additional delivery orders totaling $16 million, from an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for the delivery of immersive game-based courseware to support the U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). Cubic's Orlando, Florida operations is responsible for the development efforts of the Immersive Virtual Shipboard Environment (IVSE) for LCS, in alignment with U.S. Navy's Ready Relevant Learning initiative.

"We are pleased to continue our support for the U.S. Navy with the creation of virtual and immersive training courseware that aligns with our NextTraining strategy," said Dave Buss, president of Cubic Global Defense. "The additional delivery orders underscore our commitment to providing the Navy with innovative, cost-effective training solutions that are aligned with the Chief of Naval Operations' vision of achieving high velocity learning through 21st century technology."

Cubic's IVSE is an advanced learning product for the LCS training program that immerses trainees in a photo-realistic, 3-D virtual environment to train various tasks in settings that are virtually identical to real-life scenarios. The additional orders received as part of Cubic's IDIQ will add new functionality and virtual content to the current LCS virtual training environment.

"Cubic truly has a unique team structure where we integrate learning science and technology to meet our customers' training needs," said Ray Oliver, general manager of Orlando Operations. "With the addition of the new awards, we will continue our recruitment efforts for top talent to add to our growing, world-class team here in Orlando."

Cubic's Orlando operations includes a studio environment dedicated to the advancement of game-based training and currently employs more than 260 personnel. Cubic is recruiting for a number of positions in support of these awards, including software engineers, instructional designers, technical producers, 3-D artists and subject matter experts.

About Cubic Corporation

Cubic is a market-leading, technology provider of integrated solutions that increase situational understanding for transportation, C4ISR and training customers worldwide to decrease urban congestion and improve the militaries' effectiveness and operational readiness. Cubic Transportation Systems is a leading integrator of payment and information technology and services to create intelligent travel solutions for transportation authorities and operators. Cubic Mission Solutions provides networked Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) capabilities for defense, intelligence, security and commercial missions. Cubic Global Defense is a leading provider of live, virtual, constructive and game-based training solutions for the U.S. and allied forces. For more information about Cubic, please visit the company's website at www.cubic.com or on Twitter @CubicCorp.

SOURCE Cubic Corporation

Related Links

http://www.cubic.com

TRENTON, N.J., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 12, 2018, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) introduced H.R. 5502, the Prohibit Auto Insurance Discrimination Act ("PAID"). PAID seeks to prohibit private passenger automobile insurers from basing car insurance rates and eligibility on certain income proxy criteria. This legislation would curb the insurance industry's widespread use of these discriminatory factors, such as education, occupation, employment status, home ownership status, and credit score, the current use of which results in major companies charging higher car insurance rates to drivers who do not have four-year college degrees or high-paying jobs, regardless of driving record.

"This discriminatory practice of using income proxies for rating was publicly criticized by our organization for the last decade, and I am excited that Rep. Watson-Coleman had the courage to introduce this bill to protect consumers," said Eric S. Poe, Esq., CPA, and COO of CURE Auto Insurance.

Poe, an avid consumer advocate who provided draft language for the bill that brought the discriminatory practice to Congresswoman Watson Coleman's attention, was among the first insurance executives to inform the public of these socio-economic rating practices as far back as 2006, when he testified in New Jersey against GEICO's use of education and occupation.

Since that time, Poe has worked tirelessly to enact state and federal legislation that would prohibit these practices, testifying against the use of income proxies in Florida, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and before the House of Representatives Oversight and Investigations Committee in 2008.

Poe explains, "Most consumers are totally unaware of this trend, which is currently a legal way for auto insurers to attract wealthier consumers, a group that tends to be more profitable to the insurers. But just because richer people produce higher profits for insurers than poorer people does not make this is a fair practice by auto insurers, especially when the laws of 49 out of 50 states require insurance."

To combat this disturbing and discriminatory use of income proxies in auto insurance, the recently introduced bill would prohibit auto insurers from considering several income proxies when determining a consumer's eligibility for auto insurance or in calculating a consumer's rate. The income proxies that are prohibited by PAID include a consumer's level of education, occupation, employment status, home ownership status, and credit score.

SOURCE CURE Auto InsuranceARLINGTON, Va., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DECISIVE ANALYTICS Corporation (DAC) has been awarded a Blank Purchase Agreement (BPA) contract with NAVAIR Warfare Center Lakehurst, Aircraft Division to provide support to the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO). Entitled F-35 Joint Program Office Enterprise Planning Studies and Consulting, task orders under this BPA contract will assist in completing acquisition related studies and provide focused consulting services to improve the acquisition of the F-35 Air System and the organizational structure of the F-35 JPO. The contract carries a master ceiling of $90M and a period of performance of 5 years including options.

The F-35 program mission is to focus on the technologies for and the development, production and fielding, and sustainment of the next generation strike warfare fighter to meet the needs of the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and partner countries at a reduced cost and risk. Under this contract, DAC will support the F-35 JPO on areas such as Affordability, Supply Chain Logistics, Acquisition and Procurement Strategies, IT Business Systems, Future Technology Planning, Modeling and Simulation Studies, and Organizational/Workforce Management. DAC's work performed under this BPA will support F-35 JPO in moving to an agile capability delivery system for the warfighter. The services being provided will not only improve the planning and execution of this strategy but also focus on keeping costs of delivering and sustaining the capability down.

About DECISIVE ANALYTICS Corporation

DECISIVE ANALYTICS Corporation is an employee-owned systems engineering company headquartered in Arlington, VA. DECISIVE ANALYTICS also has offices in Huntsville, AL; Colorado Springs, CO; San Diego, CA; and Dayton, OH. Founded two decades ago, DECISIVE ANALYTICS' core ideology is to bring together highly motivated individuals to form an organization that provides superior, innovative technical contributions to all endeavors in which it participates. We deliver industry-leading products and services to commercial businesses, the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, and a wide range of other government agencies. An award-winning growing company, DECISIVE ANALYTICS is consistently ranked among the Best Places to Work within communities where we serve. For more information, please visit www.dac.us.

SOURCE DECISIVE ANALYTICS Corporation

Related Links

http://www.dac.us

Home shoppers acted quickly to claim select 2-bedroom and 1-bedroom residences. A good selection of modern 1-bedroom residences remain, perfect for first-time buyers and empty-nesters.

Those interested in learning more about Del Ray Place can visit DelRayVA.com. They can also call 571.388.3000 or visit the Sales Gallery, open daily at 2312 Mount Vernon Avenue, Suite 208, Alexandria, VA 22301.

From the stylish, innovative condominiums to the neighborhood's color, character and access, Del Ray Place is condominium living reimagined for a contemporary urban lifestyle.

Each of the 49 residences at Del Ray Place is designed with a spacious floorplan, modern finishes and voice-enabled Smart Home automation. Private balconies with neighborhood views are available with select residences.

Set on Mount Vernon Avenue, the "Main Street" of Del Ray, the building gives residents access to all of Del Ray's signature shops, restaurants and community events. It's less than a mile from Braddock Road Metro Station and just a 10-minute drive from Old Town and a 15-minute drive from Washington, D.C.

About Brookfield Residential

Brookfield Residential Properties, Inc., opened its Washington, D.C., division in 1984. Offering an array of home styles, including single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and active-adult residences, Brookfield Residential understands how families live today. It is why the homebuilder creates communities near great schools and amenities, and also why its homes feature innovative, stylish and current designs. Learn more at BrookfieldDC.com.

Brookfield Residential Properties Inc. is a leading land developer and homebuilder in North America. It entitles and develops land to create master-planned communities, builds and sells lots to third-party builders and operates its own homebuilding division. Brookfield Residential also participates in select, strategic real estate opportunities, including infill projects, mixed-use developments and joint ventures. Further information is available at www.brookfieldresidential.com.

Contact: Erin Smith

Phone: 703.240.1700

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Brookfield Residential

Related Links

http://www.brookfieldresidential.com

ARLINGTON, Va., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Deloitte and Bloomberg Tax will host Lease Accounting Standard: A Way Forward, a one-day conference to help companies navigate the new lease accounting standard, one of the most transformative pieces of authoritative accounting guidance in the FASB era. Registration for this complimentary event, which takes place from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 17 at Washington, D.C.'s Newseum, is available at https://www.bna.com/lease-accounting-standard/.

The new standard, codified as ASC 842, brings the majority of operating leased assets onto company balance sheets for the first time, significantly impacting companies with substantial equipment or real estate leasing operations. With accounting and finance professionals preparing to meet rapidly approaching compliance deadlines, this event brings together practitioners who will offer guidance on applying the standard in real-world situations, educating executives, and engaging internal stakeholders.

"We have put together an incredibly valuable event on a topic that is top of mind for many accounting professionals," said George Farah, Editorial Director, Bloomberg Tax. "I have no doubt that attendees will learn a great deal from the highly qualified panelists we have assembled and will be able to better implement the new standard."

"Many companies appear to have been underestimating the effort that will be necessary to collect lease data and aggregate it into a centralized system. In fact, less than 20 percent  one-fifth  of companies we polled recently stated that they are very prepared for the upcoming lease accounting standard," said Jeanne McGovern, audit & assurance services partner with Deloitte & Touche LLP and leader for Deloitte's lease accounting services. "At this forum, attendees will gain insights on how to apply the leasing standard in real-world situations, understand what c-suite executives likely need to know, and hear strategies to engage internal stakeholders."

The conference will feature a keynote conversation with Larry Smith, former FASB chairman, and Kevin Vaughn, SEC senior associate chief accountant, who will provide a brief technical explanation of the new lease standard and discuss any outstanding issues posed by practitioners. Other featured speakers include:

Alan Berkley , senior finance specialist, Aptitude Software

, senior finance specialist, Aptitude Software John Bober , chairman, Financial Accounting Committee, Equipment Leasing and Finance Association

, chairman, Financial Accounting Committee, Equipment Leasing and Finance Association Andrew Fiorenza , director of accounting policies, Comcast Corporation

, director of accounting policies, Comcast Corporation Tim Hutchens , EVP, Federal Lessor Advisory Board, CBRE

, EVP, Federal Lessor Advisory Board, CBRE Michael Keeler , CEO, Lease Accelerator

, CEO, Lease Accelerator Alice Jolla , GM of Corporate Accounting, Microsoft

, GM of Corporate Accounting, Microsoft Robert Owens , vice president and assistant controller, financial reporting & technical accounting, Bristol Myers Squibb

, vice president and assistant controller, financial reporting & technical accounting, Bristol Myers Squibb David Samuels , CFO, DrFirst, Inc.

, CFO, DrFirst, Inc. Joe Sebik , director of tax reporting, Siemens Corporation

About Bloomberg Tax

Bloomberg Tax provides comprehensive global research, news and technology services enabling tax professionals to get the timely, accurate, and in-depth information they need to plan and comply with confidence. Our flagship Bloomberg Tax platform combines the proven expertise and perspectives of leading tax practitioners in our renowned Tax Management Portfolios with integrated news from the industry-leading Daily Tax Report, authoritative analysis and insights, primary sources, and time-saving practice tools. Bloomberg Tax technology solutions on our proprietary Advantage platform help practitioners simplify complex processes to better control risk and maximize profitability. For more information, visit https://www.bna.com/tax/.

About Deloitte

Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world's most admired brands, including more than 85 percent of the Fortune 500 and more than 6,000 private and middle market companies. Our people work across more than 20 industry sectors to make an impact that matters  delivering measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to see challenges as opportunities to transform and thrive, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthy society. Deloitte is proud to be part of the largest global professional services network serving our clients in the markets that are most important to them.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.

SOURCE Bloomberg Tax; DeloitteLOS ANGELES, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Eric Christiansen of E C Productions announces a new documentary at the PBS Annual Meeting in New Orleans. "unMASKing HOPE" will begin production across the U.S. with a finish date of April 2019. The public TV release will be accompanied by significant outreach taking the message of HEALING and HOPE into communities, initializing awareness and creating dialogue on the effects of trauma on our everyday lives.

unMASKing HOPE the documentary - "Seclusion to Inclusion" - Artwork designed by animator / artist Ed Bell

"unMASKing HOPE", an unprecedented documentary, reveals the HOPE behind our pain and shame. Through deeply personal interviews and innovative techniques such as animation, "unMASKing HOPE" chronicles a brave and diverse group of trauma survivors and marginalized individuals living behind their "masks". These seemingly disparate individuals; service members, first responders, victims of hate crimes and racism and people lost in grief find the eventual HEALING and HOPE that begins to melt the mask away. Connect with these individuals on an oftentimes arduous healing journey from seclusion to inclusion, inspiring us to unMASK our own HOPE.

Christiansen creates not only critically acclaimed and artistically moving work but also imbues his work with clinical responsibility. Top trauma researcher and Scientific advisor to unMASKing HOPE, Dr. Amit Etkin of Stanford University comments, "Eric captures beautifully not only the range of emotions arising from trauma, but also the tension between healthy recovery and persistence of illness. His storytelling is highly evocative and has been an honor to take part in."

Producer/Director Eric Christiansen comments, "Oftentimes standard practices of documentary filmmaking do not reach the level I want to communicate on. With this film I am pushing to communicate on the next level, creating a "soul-touching" experience that can spark hope and eventual healing." Christiansen's belief is that the film is the "doorway" to hope and the "outreach into community" is the safety net leading to healing. The unMASKing HOPE team will partner with regional and national organizations relevant to the issues in the film in order to bring the message of the documentary into communities and eventually the individual.

Christiansen's work changes lives. The New York Times prophetically said of his last film Searching for Home: Coming Back from War ,"...strikingly photographed by Mr. Christiansen and is sure to give comfort and support to countless veterans and their families." The film went on to more than 1700+ airings on public television in one year.

Made possible by the International Documentary Association's fiscal sponsorship program, "unMASking HOPE", will be released to national public television in April 2019 with assistance from KCETLink Media Group.

 Eric Christiansen produced and directed the Emmy-honored film Faces in the Fire, chronicling survivors' recoveries following disaster and is recognized by the National Institute of Mental Health. Another film, Homecoming: A Vietnam Vets Journey, the New York Times said, "a surpassingly worthy and touching film." Recently Searching for Home: Coming Back from War was a critical and audience success receiving favorable reviews in major newspapers and five stars on Amazon and Itunes. Christiansen's other work includes work with; Discovery, TLC, PBS, MTV and an Imax film. Eric is a seven-time Southwestern Region Emmy Award recipient.

Contact:

Production/PR: Eric Christiansen  661 513 8701  [email protected]

Outreach/Partnerships: Pam Payeur  661 964 7414  [email protected]

Station Relations/Public TV: Vicki Wright  317 372 7136  [email protected]

www.unmaskinghopethemovie.com

"Searching for Home: Coming Back from War (Past work) www.sfhthemovie.com

Dr. Amit Etkin / Stanford University - is available for interviews. Contact [email protected] for more information and appointment.

www.etkinlab.com

Dr. Amit Etkin - "Being Human" @ World Economic Conference

https://youtu.be/4ukq7GKlG_A

SOURCE E C Productions"Unofficial testing results at the Michigan State Police 2018 model-year vehicle evaluation event created such a stir among law enforcement agencies that we simply had to find a way to build this vehicle," said Steve Beahm, Head of Passenger Car Brands, Dodge//SRT, Chrysler and FIAT  FCA North America. "The Dodge Durango is already known as the Charger of SUVs, so it is only natural that the new Durango Pursuit complements the Charger Pursuit in police fleets across the country."

The 2018 Dodge Durango Pursuit is powered by the legendary 5.7L HEMI V-8, coupled with a full-time, active all-wheel-drive (AWD) system. This is the same powertrain combination most commonly deployed in the Dodge Charger Pursuit, the top-selling police sedan in the U.S. market. The Durango Pursuit also offers a two-speed transfer case for true low-range off-road capability and incorporates larger, heavy-duty anti-lock brakes that deliver a 60-0 mile per hour (mph) stopping distance of 134 feet.

Other notable standard features of the 2018 Dodge Durango Pursuit include:

5.7L V-8 HEMI with Fuel Saver Technology delivers best-in-class horsepower (360) and torque (390 lb.-ft.)

Eight-speed automatic transmission delivers quick shifts and improved fuel economy

Rear-wheel-drive-based drivetrain is the foundation for Durango's outstanding on-road driving performance. Standard AWD further enhances driver confidence by leveraging the SUV's 50/50 weight distribution

AWD further enhances driver confidence by leveraging the SUV's 50/50 weight distribution Segment's longest wheelbase (119.8 inches) provides added stability and improved handling

Best-in-class 7,200 lb. towing capability

8.1 inches of ground clearance

ParkView rear backup camera with ParkSense alert

Eight-way power adjusting driver seat controls

Air conditioning with air filtration

Under-vehicle mount for spare tire, maximizing interior cargo space and accessibility

Class-exclusive, K-9 friendly Tri-Zone interior temperature control

Trailer sway control

Spot lamp wiring prep package

220-amp alternator

800 cold cranking amp (CCA) battery

Heavy-duty oil cooler and water pump

Power locking fuel filler door

The new 2018 Dodge Durango Pursuit V-8 AWD is available for order for a limited time. For more information, law enforcement agencies should call (800) 999-3533.



About Dodge//SRT

Dodge//SRT offers a complete lineup of performance vehicles that stand out in their own segments. Dodge is FCA North America's mainstream performance brand, and SRT is positioned as the ultimate performance halo of the Dodge brand, together creating a complete and balanced performance brand with one vision and one voice.



For more than 100 years, the Dodge brand has carried on the spirit of brothers John and Horace Dodge, who founded the company in 1914. Their influence continues today. New for 2018, the 840-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Demon, the fastest quarter-mile production car in the world and most powerful muscle car ever, is taking the world by storm, along with the new 2018 Dodge Durango SRT, America's fastest, most powerful and most capable three-row SUV, and the 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody. These new SRT ultimate performance models join a brand lineup that includes the Durango, Grand Caravan, Journey, Charger and Challenger, including the 707-horsepower Challenger SRT Hellcat and the Charger SRT Hellcat, the quickest, fastest and most powerful sedan in the world.



Follow Dodge, SRT and FCA US news and video on:

Company blog: http://blog.fcanorthamerica.com

Media website: http://media.fcanorthamerica.com

Dodge brand: www.dodge.com

Dodge blog: blog.dodge.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/dodge or https://www.facebook.com/FiatChrysler.NorthAmerica/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/dodgeofficial or www.instagram.com/FiatChrysler_NA

Twitter: www.twitter.com/dodge or www.twitter.com/FiatChrysler_NA

YouTube: www.youtube.com/dodge or www.youtube.com/fcanorthamerica

SOURCE FCA US LLC

Related Links

http://www.fcanorthamerica.com

CALGARY, May 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Enbridge Inc. (TSX: ENB) (NYSE: ENB) (Enbridge or the Company) held its Annual General Meeting today. On a vote by ballot during the regular business proceedings at the meeting, shareholders approved the election of all 12 nominated directors proposed by management as listed in the Proxy Statement dated March 12, 2018. The detailed results of the vote for the election of directors are set out below.



Votes For Votes Withheld Nominee # % # % Pamela L. Carter 1,075,052,909 98.85 12,477,512 1.15 Clarence P. Cazalot, Jr. 1,013,824,498 93.22 73,705,923 6.78 Marcel R Coutu 975,938,714 89.74 111,591,707 10.26 Gregory L. Ebel 1,016,528,650 93.47 71,001,771 6.53 J. Herb England 1,067,822,850 98.19 19,707,571 1.81 Charles W. Fischer 1,077,233,404 99.05 10,297,017 0.95 V. Maureen Kempston Darkes 1,011,764,993 93.03 75,765,428 6.97 Michael McShane 1,042,907,151 95.90 44,623,270 4.10 Al Monaco 1,046,924,741 96.27 40,605,680 3.73 Michael E.J. Phelps 1,007,387,412 92.63 80,143,009 7.37 Dan C. Tutcher 992,839,937 91.29 94,690,484 8.71 Catherine L. Williams 1,011,123,756 92.97 76,406,665 7.03

About Enbridge Inc.

Enbridge Inc. is North America's premier energy infrastructure company with strategic business platforms that include an extensive network of crude oil, liquids and natural gas pipelines, regulated natural gas distribution utilities and renewable power generation. The Company safely delivers an average of 2.8 million barrels of crude oil each day through its Mainline and Express Pipeline; accounts for approximately 65% of U.S.-bound Canadian crude oil exports; and moves approximately 20% of all natural gas consumed in the U.S., serving key supply basins and demand markets. The Company's regulated utilities serve approximately 3.7 million retail customers in Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick. Enbridge also has interests in more than 2,500 MW of net renewable generating capacity in North America and Europe. The Company has ranked on the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations index for the past nine years; its common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol ENB.

Life takes energy and Enbridge exists to fuel people's quality of life. For more information, visit www.enbridge.com.

SOURCE Enbridge Inc.

Related Links

http://www.enbridge.com

SAN FRANCISCO, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- EY today announced that PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada and CTO and Co-founder Alex Solomon are finalists for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2018 Award in Northern California. The awards program recognizes entrepreneurs who are excelling in areas such as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Tejada and Solomon were selected as finalists by a panel of independent judges. Award winners will be announced at a special gala event on June 8 at the Fairmont San Francisco.

"Alex and I are truly humbled to be recognized alongside many friends and incredible entrepreneurs in Northern California," Tejada said. "We share this honor with every PagerDuty team member who strives daily to improve the real-time operations of our practitioners and customers. Leading PagerDuty in partnership with Alex and the rest of the leadership team is not only about developing innovative cloud software. It's also about humanizing operations and empowering the employees who manage the software and digital economy we all depend on every moment of every day."

"When I co-founded PagerDuty nine years ago, I envisioned a product that would improve the lives of DevOps people like myself who were constantly on call," Solomon said. "Today that aspiration is a reality and now with Jennifer's business leadership, we're able to extend the PagerDuty platform into something that enterprise business groups, beyond the DevOps community, can adopt."

PagerDuty is a global leader in digital operations management. The company's rapidly expanding portfolio encompasses more than 10,000 customers. PagerDuty also recently exceeded $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) milestone.

During Tejada's tenure, PagerDuty has rapidly shifted from a single product company to the de facto platform that solves challenges companies face in running real-time digital operations. The company is scaling to meet the demands of global enterprise customers with tens of thousands of users who require a highly reliable, comprehensive solution to address their digital transformation growing pains.

Solomon co-founded PagerDuty in 2009 with an understanding that companies were transforming from monolithic code bases to microservices-based architectures. He saw an opportunity to change software engineering, and set out to build an application that aggregates all digital signals from infrastructure into a central hub to initiate human action. After seven years as CEO, Solomon replaced himself as CEO and became CTO in 2016. Tejada and Solomon ensured PagerDuty continues to thrive under new leadership.

Now in its 32nd year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program has expanded to recognize business leaders in more than 145 cities and more than 60 countries throughout the world.

Regional award winners are eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year National competition. Award winners in several national categories, as well as the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner, will be announced at the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards gala in Palm Springs, California, on November 17, 2018. The awards are the culminating event of the Strategic Growth Forum, the nation's most prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies.

Sponsors

Founded and produced by EY, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards are nationally sponsored in the US by SAP America, the Kauffman Foundation and Merrill Corporation.

In Northern California, sponsors also include SolomonEdwards and Woodruff Sawyer.

About PagerDuty

PagerDuty is the leading digital operations management platform for organizations. Over 10,000 enterprises and small to mid-size organizations globally trust PagerDuty to improve digital operations, drive revenue, mitigate threats, protect assets, and delight customers. To learn more and try PagerDuty for free, visit www.pagerduty.com. Follow our blog and connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook.

About Entrepreneur Of The Year

Entrepreneur Of The Year, founded by EY, is the world's most prestigious business awards program for entrepreneurs, chosen from an independent panel of judges including entrepreneurs and prominent leaders from business, finance, and the local community. The program makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global awards program of its kind, Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 145 cities and more than 60 countries. ey.com/eoy

About EY's Growth Markets Network

EY's worldwide Growth Markets Network is dedicated to serving the changing needs of high-growth companies. For more than 30 years, we've helped many of the world's most dynamic and ambitious companies grow into market leaders. Whether working with international mid-cap companies or early stage, venture-backed businesses, our professionals draw upon their extensive experience, insight and global resources to help your business succeed. For more information, please visit us at ey.com/sgm or follow news on Twitter @EY_Growth.

About EY

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

This news release has been issued by Ernst & Young LLP, a member of the global EY organization that provides services to clients in the US.

For more information, please visit ey.com.

Contact

Michael Basilio, PagerDuty

[email protected]

SOURCE PagerDuty

Related Links

http://www.pagerduty.com

BOSTON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FOFFit.co, the first vacation rental platform where hosts can safely rent their home to friends and friends of friends (FOFFs) via Facebook, announced its launch today.

Alleviating many hosts' concerns over privacy, safety and unease renting to strangers, FOFFit designed a platform where hosts can create a listing and restrict all inquiries, communications and rentals to their friends, and friends of friends on Facebook.

Typical vacation rental platforms have raised concerns over the last several years with horror stories of unruly renters, rental scams, and increasingly, neighbors' and community concerns over disorderly conduct. In addition, many reluctant hosts do not want to share details about their private homes with people they don't know. To this end, FOFFit employs a custom security wall that checks requests to ensure the host and renter are first or second degree connections.

Which is one of the main reasons Founder, Katchen Gerig, created FOFFit. "At this point in my life, I just wasn't comfortable renting to complete strangers or spending time managing random requests. With FOFFit, I have a happy medium. There are three steps: List it - quickly list my home; Post it -send a quick post to Facebook to notify friends; and FOFFit - relax knowing that only people I am connected to can contact me and rent my home. Less hassle, no randoms."

And by providing many of the same features as typical vacation rental companies such as cancellation, security deposits, credit cards and management of all payments, FOFFit formalizes the process of renting to friends, thus providing an added level of security, at a lower cost.

Says Katchen Gerig, "By having a verified and trusted renter with a Facebook profile and connections to the host, we are able to limit fraud and keep costs down. Being a host is free, and the renter service fee is one of the lowest in the industry. So, I guess you could also add a fourth step for the host, Profit."

FOFFit.co was created to empower first time hosts to rent their primary or vacation home by providing a simpler, safer and stress free alternative to traditional vacation rental sites.

For more information:

Watch our video to see just how it works.

Visit the website at www.foffit.co.

Contact Katchen Gerig at [email protected], or at 1-978-213-4595

About Katchen Gerig

FOFFit.co was founded by Katchen Gerig, an international marketing veteran and former Google executive, who led Google's first marketing efforts in Europe and Asia. She is an avid traveler to 57 countries and now enjoys sharing the joy of traveling and adventure with her family.

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE FOFFit.co

Related Links

https://www.foffit.co

TORONTO, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Franco-Nevada Corporation announced that the nominees listed in the management proxy circular for the 2018 Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders were elected as directors of the Corporation. Detailed results of the vote for the election of directors held at the Annual Meeting yesterday in Toronto are set out below.

Nominee Votes For % For Votes Withheld % Withheld Pierre Lassonde 119,072,795 97.14% 3,500,818 2.86% David Harquail 122,335,975 99.81% 237,638 0.19% Tom Albanese 122,396,793 99.86% 176,820 0.14% Derek W. Evans 122,324,134 99.80% 249,479 0.20% Dr. Catharine Farrow 121,318,274 98.98% 1,255,339 1.02% Louis Gignac 121,701,669 99.29% 871,944 0.71% Randall Oliphant 121,945,950 99.49% 627,664 0.51% The Hon. David R. Peterson 117,249,808 95.66% 5,323,806 4.34%

Corporate Summary

Franco-Nevada Corporation is the leading gold-focused royalty and stream company with the largest and most diversified portfolio of cash-flow producing assets. Its business model provides investors with gold price and exploration optionality while limiting exposure to many of the risks of operating companies. Franco-Nevada is debt free and uses its free cash flow to expand its portfolio and pay dividends. It trades under the symbol FNV on both the Toronto and New York stock exchanges. Franco-Nevada is the gold investment that works.

SOURCE Franco-Nevada Corporation

Related Links

www.franco-nevada.com

PHILADELPHIA, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FS Investment Corporation (NYSE: FSIC), a publicly traded business development company focused on providing customized credit solutions to private middle market U.S. companies, announced its operating results for the quarter ended March 31, 2018, and that its board of directors has declared its second quarter 2018 regular distribution.

Financial Highlights for the Quarter Ended March 31, 20181

Net investment income of $0.21 per share, compared to $0.22 per share for the quarter ended March 31, 2017

Adjusted net investment income of $0.21 per share, compared to $0.22 per share for the quarter ended March 31, 2017 2

Total net realized loss of $0.02 per share and total net change in unrealized depreciation of $0.13 per share, compared to a total net realized loss of $0.41 per share and a total net change in unrealized appreciation of $0.45 per share for the quarter ended March 31, 2017

Paid cash distributions to stockholders totaling $0.19 per share 3

Total purchases of $116.0 million versus $216.0 million of sales and repayments

Net asset value of $9.16 per share, compared to $9.30 per share as of December 31, 2017

"We are pleased with the progress we made during the first quarter to transition the management of our franchise to the new joint adviser we've established with KKR," said Michael Forman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FSIC. "Now that the transition is complete, we are collectively focused on serving the needs of our existing borrowers, sourcing attractive new investment opportunities and delivering consistent and strong performance for our investors."

Declaration of Regular Distribution for Second Quarter 2018

FSIC's board of directors has declared a regular cash distribution for the second quarter of $0.19 per share, which will be paid on or about July 3, 2018 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on June 20, 2018.

Summary Consolidated Results





Three Months Ended (dollars in thousands, except per share data)

(all per share amounts are basic and diluted)1 March 31, 2018 December 31, 2017 March 31, 2017 Total investment income $101,018 $110,861 $106,064 Net investment income 50,547 54,061 52,590 Net increase (decrease) in net assets resulting from operations 12,925 14,754 63,393







Net investment income per share $0.21 $0.22 $0.22 Adjusted net investment income per share2 $0.21 $0.24 $0.22 Total net realized and unrealized gain (loss) per share $(0.15) $(0.16) $0.04 Net increase (decrease) in net assets resulting from operations (Earnings per Share) $0.05 $0.06 $0.26 Stockholder distributions per share3 $0.19000 $0.19000 $0.22275 Net asset value per share at period end $9.16 $9.30 $9.45 Weighted average shares outstanding 245,713,188 245,725,416 244,554,969 Shares outstanding, end of period 245,587,856 245,725,416 244,599,661















(dollar amounts in thousands)

As of

March 31, 2018 As of

March 31, 2017 Total fair value of investments

$3,804,014 $3,924,168 Total assets

4,057,505 4,286,351 Total stockholders' equity

2,249,962 2,311,635

Portfolio Highlights as of March 31, 2018

Total fair value of investments was $3.8 billion .

. Core investment strategies 4 represented 100% of the portfolio by fair value as of March 31, 2018 , including 92% from direct originations and 8% from opportunistic investments. Broadly syndicated/other investments represented less than 1% of the portfolio by fair value.

represented 100% of the portfolio by fair value as of , including 92% from direct originations and 8% from opportunistic investments. Broadly syndicated/other investments represented less than 1% of the portfolio by fair value. Gross portfolio yield prior to leverage (based on amortized cost and excluding non-income producing assets) 5 was 10.9%, compared to 10.5% as of December 31 , 2017.

was 10.9%, compared to 10.5% as of , 2017. Total commitments to direct originations (including unfunded commitments) made during the first quarter of 2018 was $79.6 million in 6 companies, all of which were existing portfolio companies.

in 6 companies, all of which were existing portfolio companies. Approximately 0.0% of investments were on non-accrual based on fair value.6

Total Portfolio Activity



Three Months Ended

(dollar amounts in thousands) March 31, 2018 December 31, 2017 March 31, 2017

Purchases $115,990 $262,562 $539,689

Sales and redemptions (215,945) (234,638) (364,308)

Net portfolio activity $(99,955) $27,924 $175,381



Portfolio Data

As of March 31, 2018 As of March 31, 2017 Total fair value of investments

$3,804,014 $3,924,168 Number of Portfolio Companies

94 108 Average Annual EBITDA of Portfolio Companies

$82,400 $86,100 Weighted Average Purchase Price of Debt Investments

(as a % of par)

99.6% 97.2% % of Investments on Non-Accrual (based on fair value)6

0.0% 0.0%







Asset Class (based on fair value)





Senior Secured Loans  First Lien

65% 57% Senior Secured Loans  Second Lien

4% 9% Senior Secured Bonds

4% 4% Subordinated Debt

13% 15% Collateralized Securities

1% 2% Equity/Other

13% 13%







Portfolio Composition by Strategy (based on fair value)4





Direct Originations

92% 87% Opportunistic

8% 10% Broadly Syndicated/Other

0% 3%







Interest Rate Type (based on fair value)





% Variable Rate

69.2% 65.5% % Fixed Rate

18.4% 21.8% % Income Producing Equity/Other Investments

2.3% 2.7% % Non-Income Producing Equity/Other Investments

10.1% 10.0%







Yields (based on amortized cost)5





Gross Portfolio Yield Prior to Leverage

10.0% 9.3% Gross Portfolio Yield Prior to Leverage  Excluding Non-Income

Producing Assets

10.9% 10.2%











Direct Origination Activity





Three Months Ended (dollar amounts in thousands) March 31, 2018 December 31, 2017 March 31, 2017 Total Commitments (including unfunded commitments) $79,590 $220,159 $429,407 Exited Investments (including partial paydowns) (186,236) (159,678) (322,068) Net Direct Originations $(106,646) $60,481 $107,339 Direct Originations Portfolio Data

As of March 31, 2018 As of March 31, 2017 Total Fair Value of Direct Originations

$3,495,945 $3,430,320 Number of Portfolio Companies

72 73 Average Annual EBITDA of Portfolio Companies

$70,200 $64,700 Average Leverage Through Tranche of Portfolio Companies  Excluding Equity/Other and Collateralized Securities

5.1x 4.5x % of Investments on Non-Accrual (based on fair value)6

0.0% 









Three Months Ended New Direct Originations by Asset Class

(including unfunded commitments) March 31, 2018 December 31, 2017 March 31, 2017 Senior Secured Loans  First Lien 90% 74% 81% Senior Secured Loans  Second Lien 5% 7% 1% Senior Secured Bonds  11% 2% Subordinated Debt 1%  15% Collateralized Securities    Equity/Other 4% 8% 1% Average New Direct Origination Commitment Amount $13,265 $16,935 $35,784 Weighted Average Maturity for New Direct Originations 9/15/2023 10/8/2023 3/2/2023 Gross Portfolio Yield Prior to Leverage (based on

amortized cost) of New Direct Originations Funded

during Period5 10.9% 8.6% 9.8% Gross Portfolio Yield Prior to Leverage (based on

amortized cost) of New Direct Originations Funded

during Period  Excluding Non-Income Producing Assets5 10.9% 9.3% 10.0% Gross Portfolio Yield Prior to Leverage (based on

amortized cost) of Direct Originations Exited

during Period5 10.6% 8.9% 9.1%











Leverage and Liquidity as of March 31, 2018

Debt to equity ratio of 77%, based on $1.72 billion in total debt outstanding and stockholders' equity of $2.25 billion . FSIC's weighted average effective interest rate (including the effect of non-usage fees) was 4.31%

in total debt outstanding and stockholders' equity of . FSIC's weighted average effective interest rate (including the effect of non-usage fees) was 4.31% Cash and foreign currency of approximately $215.1 million and availability under its financing arrangements of $260.4 million , subject to borrowing base and other limitations

and availability under its financing arrangements of , subject to borrowing base and other limitations Nineteen unfunded debt investments with aggregate unfunded commitments of $133.3 million and two unfunded equity commitments with aggregate unfunded commitments of $299 thousand

Conference Call Information

FSIC will host a conference call at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) on Friday, May 11, 2018, to discuss its first quarter financial results. All interested parties are welcome to participate. You can access the conference call by dialing (877) 443-2408 and using the conference ID 6081268 approximately 10 minutes prior to the call. The conference call will also be webcast, which can be accessed from the Investor Relations section of FSIC's website at www.fsinvestmentcorp.com under Presentations and Reports.

A replay of the call will be available for a period of 30 days following the call by visiting the Investor Relations section of FSIC's website at www.fsinvestmentcorp.com under Presentations and Reports.

Supplemental Information

An investor presentation of financial information will be made available prior to the call in the Investor Relations section of FSIC's website at www.fsinvestmentcorp.com under Presentations and Reports.

About FS Investment Corporation

FS Investment Corporation (NYSE: FSIC) is a publicly traded business development company ("BDC") focused on providing customized credit solutions to private middle market U.S. companies. FSIC seeks to invest primarily in the senior secured debt and, to a lesser extent, the subordinated debt of private middle market companies to achieve the best risk-adjusted returns for its investors. FSIC is advised by FS/KKR Advisor, LLC. For more information, please visit www.fsinvestmentcorp.com.

About FS/KKR Advisor, LLC

FS/KKR Advisor, LLC ("FS/KKR") is a partnership between FS Investments and KKR Credit that serves as the investment adviser to six BDCs with approximately $18 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2017. The BDCs managed by FS/KKR include FS Investment Corporation, FS Investment Corporation II, FS Investment Corporation III, FS Investment Corporation IV, Corporate Capital Trust, Inc. and Corporate Capital Trust II.

FS/KKR seeks to leverage the size of its platform, differentiated origination capabilities and expertise in capital markets to maximize returns and preserve capital for investors.

FS Investments is a leading asset manager dedicated to helping individuals, financial professionals and institutions design better portfolios. The firm provides access to alternative sources of income and growth and focuses on setting industry standards for investor protection, education and transparency. FS Investments is headquartered in Philadelphia, PA with offices in New York, NY, Orlando, FL and Washington, DC. Visit www.fsinvestments.com to learn more.

KKR Credit is a subsidiary of KKR & Co. LP, a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate and credit, with strategic manager partnerships that manage hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns for its fund investors by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and driving growth and value creation with KKR portfolio companies. KKR invests its own capital alongside the capital it manages for fund investors and provides financing solutions and investment opportunities through its capital markets business. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

Forward-Looking Statements and Important Disclosure Notice

This announcement may contain certain forward-looking statements, including statements with regard to future events or the future performance or operations of FSIC. Words such as "believes," "expects," "projects," 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. Certain factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include changes in the economy, risks associated with possible disruption in FSIC's operations or the economy generally due to terrorism or natural disasters, future changes in laws or regulations and conditions in FSIC's operating area, and the price at which shares of FSIC's common stock trade on the New York Stock Exchange. Some of these factors are enumerated in the filings FSIC makes with the SEC. FSIC undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

The press release above contains summaries of certain financial and statistical information about FSIC. The information contained in this press release is summary information that is intended to be considered in the context of FSIC's SEC filings and other public announcements that FSIC may make, by press release or otherwise, from time to time. FSIC undertakes no duty or obligation to update or revise the information contained in this press release. In addition, information related to past performance, while helpful as an evaluative tool, is not necessarily indicative of future results, the achievement of which cannot be assured. Investors should not view the past performance of FSIC, or information about the market, as indicative of FSIC's future results.

Other Information

The information in this press release is summary information only and should be read in conjunction with FSIC's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2018, which FSIC filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on May 10, 2018, as well as FSIC's other reports filed with the SEC. A copy of FSIC's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2018 and FSIC's other reports filed with the SEC can be found on FSIC's website at www.fsinvestmentcorp.com and the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

Certain Information About Distributions

The determination of the tax attributes of FSIC's distributions is made annually as of the end of its fiscal year based upon its taxable income and distributions paid, in each case, for the full year. Therefore, a determination as to the tax attributes of the distributions made on a quarterly basis may not be representative of the actual tax attributes for a full year. FSIC intends to update stockholders quarterly with an estimated percentage of its distributions that resulted from taxable ordinary income. The actual tax characteristics of distributions to stockholders will be reported to stockholders annually on Form 1099-DIV.

The timing and amount of any future distributions on FSIC's shares of common stock are subject to applicable legal restrictions and the sole discretion of its board of directors. There can be no assurance as to the amount or timing of any such future distributions, including the special distribution referenced herein.

FSIC may fund its cash distributions to stockholders from any sources of funds legally available to it, including proceeds from the sale of shares of FSIC's common stock, borrowings, net investment income from operations, capital gains proceeds from the sale of assets, non-capital gains proceeds from the sale of assets and dividends or other distributions paid to it on account of preferred and common equity investments in portfolio companies. FSIC has not established limits on the amount of funds it may use from available sources to make distributions. There can be no assurance that FSIC will be able to pay distributions at a specific rate or at all.

Contact Information:

Investors

Marc Yaklofsky

[email protected]

215-309-6763

Media

Kate Beers

[email protected]

215-495-1174

Income Statement

Three Months Ended



March 31,



2018

2017 Investment income







From non-controlled/unaffiliated investments:







Interest income

$ 75,269



$ 72,838

Paid-in-kind interest income

8,448



6,881

Fee income

2,453



19,530

Dividend income

7,355





From non-controlled/affiliated investments:







Interest income

1,428



3,684

Paid-in-kind interest income

3,147



606

Fee income





29

From controlled/affiliated investments:







Interest income

1,120



1,502

Paid-in-kind interest income

1,798



994

Total investment income

101,018



106,064











Operating expenses







Management fees

17,854



18,367

Subordinated income incentive fees

11,999



13,147

Administrative services expenses

734



734

Accounting and administrative fees

254



265

Interest expense

20,053



19,439

Directors' fees

496



271

Other general and administrative expenses

1,632



1,251

Total operating expenses

53,022



53,474

Management fee waiver

(2,551)





Net expenses

50,471



53,474

Net investment income

50,547



52,590











Realized and unrealized gain/loss







Net realized gain (loss) on investments:







Non-controlled/unaffiliated investments

(4,351)



(48,447)

Non-controlled/affiliated investments

8



305

Controlled/affiliated investments





(52,879)

Net realized gain (loss) on foreign currency

61



123

Net change in unrealized appreciation (depreciation) on investments:







Non-controlled/unaffiliated investments

(17,501)



129,260

Non-controlled/affiliated investments

(5,530)



(12,328)

Controlled/affiliated investments

(9,707)



(4,499)

Net change in unrealized appreciation (depreciation) on secured borrowing





(10)

Net change in unrealized gain (loss) on foreign currency

(602)



(722)

Total net realized and unrealized gain (loss)

$ (37,622)



$ 10,803

Net increase (decrease) in net assets resulting from operations

$ 12,925



$ 63,393











Per share informationbasic and diluted







Net increase (decrease) in net assets resulting from operations (Earnings per Share)

$ 0.05



$ 0.26

Weighted average shares outstanding

245,713,188



244,554,969



Balance Sheet

March 31, 2018







(Unaudited)

December 31, 2017 Assets







Investments, at fair value







Non-controlled/unaffiliated investments (amortized cost$3,434,363 and $3,532,517, respectively)

$ 3,485,256



$ 3,600,911

Non-controlled/affiliated investments (amortized cost$201,717 and $197,468, respectively)

228,774



230,055

Controlled/affiliated investments (amortized cost$91,284 and $86,861, respectively)

89,984



95,268

Total investments, at fair value (amortized cost$3,727,364 and $3,816,846, respectively)

3,804,014



3,926,234

Cash

209,609



134,932

Foreign currency, at fair value (cost$5,291 and $3,685, respectively)

5,448



3,810

Receivable for investments sold and repaid

1,195



3,477

Income receivable

32,352



30,668

Deferred financing costs

3,212



3,459

Prepaid expenses and other assets

1,675



1,695

Total assets

$ 4,057,505



$ 4,104,275











Liabilities







Payable for investments purchased

$ 101



$ 1,978

Credit facilities payable (net of deferred financing costs of $2,903 and $3,179, respectively)

639,205



638,571

Unsecured notes payable (net of deferred financing costs of $1,245 and $1,402, respectively)

1,074,160



1,073,445

Stockholder distributions payable

46,683



46,704

Management fees payable

15,303



15,450

Subordinated income incentive fees payable

11,999



12,871

Administrative services expense payable

542



294

Interest payable

18,190



22,851

Directors' fees payable

490



276

Other accrued expenses and liabilities

870



7,112

Total liabilities

1,807,543



1,819,552

Commitments and contingencies

















Stockholders' equity







Preferred stock, $0.001 par value, 50,000,000 shares authorized, none issued and outstanding







Common stock, $0.001 par value, 450,000,000 shares authorized, 245,587,856 and 245,725,416 shares

issued and outstanding, respectively

246



246

Capital in excess of par value

2,271,588



2,272,591

Accumulated undistributed net realized gain/loss on investments and gain/loss on foreign currency

(249,570)



(245,288)

Accumulated undistributed (distributions in excess of) net investment income

147,926



144,062

Net unrealized appreciation (depreciation) on investments and secured borrowing and unrealized gain/loss on foreign currency

79,772



113,112

Total stockholders' equity

2,249,962



2,284,723

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

$ 4,057,505



$ 4,104,275

Net asset value per share of common stock at period end

$ 9.16



$ 9.30



Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release contains certain financial measures that have not been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States ("GAAP"). FSIC uses these non-GAAP financial measures internally in analyzing financial results and believes that the use of these non-GAAP financial measures is useful to investors as an additional tool to evaluate ongoing results and trends and in comparing FSIC's financial results with other BDCs.

Non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for comparable GAAP financial measures, and should be read only in conjunction with FSIC's consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures has been provided in this press release, and investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures1



Three Months Ended

March 31, 2018 December 31, 2017 March 31, 2017 GAAP net investment income per share $0.21 $0.22 $0.22 Plus capital gains incentive fees per share    Plus excise taxes per share  0.02  Plus one-time expenses per share    Adjusted net investment income per share2 $0.21 $0.24 $0.22





1) Per share data was derived by using the weighted average shares of FSIC's common stock outstanding during the applicable period. Per share numbers may not sum due to rounding.



2) Adjusted net investment income is a non-GAAP financial measure. Adjusted net investment income is presented for all periods as GAAP net investment income excluding (i) the accrual for the capital gains incentive fee for realized and unrealized gains; (ii) excise taxes; and (iii) certain non-recurring operating expenses that are one-time in nature and are not representative of ongoing operating expenses incurred during FSIC's normal course of business (referred to herein as one-time expenses). FSIC uses this non-GAAP financial measure internally in analyzing financial results and believes that the use of this non-GAAP financial measure is useful to investors as an additional tool to evaluate ongoing results and trends and in comparing its financial results with other business development companies. The presentation of this additional information is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial results prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of GAAP net investment income to adjusted net investment income can be found above.



3) The per share data for distributions reflects the amount of distributions paid per share of our common stock to stockholders of record during each applicable period.



4) See FSIC's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2018 for a description of FSIC's investment strategies.



5) Gross portfolio yield represents the expected annualized yield of FSIC's investment portfolio based on the composition of the portfolio as of the applicable date. FSIC's estimated gross portfolio yield may be higher than an investor's yield on an investment in shares of FSIC's common stock because it does not reflect sales commissions or charges that may be incurred in connection with the purchase or sale of such shares, or operating expenses that may be incurred by FSIC. FSIC's estimated gross portfolio yield does not represent an actual investment return to stockholders, is subject to change and, in the future, may be greater or less than the rates set forth herein.



6) Interest income is recorded on an accrual basis. See FSIC's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2018 for a description of FSIC's revenue recognition policy.





SOURCE FS Investment Corporation

Related Links

http://www.fsinvestmentcorp.com

The Diana Davis Spencer Foundation has been a visionary supporter of higher education for many years, promoting social entrepreneurship to achieve greater peace and prosperity in local communities. The gift establishes a leadership position in the field, creating an endowed Professorship in Social Entrepreneurship and funding for entrepreneur-centered programs on campus. The unique Prac-ademic program is practitioner oriented and supported by academic rigor, making Wheaton College one of only a few liberal arts colleges nationwide to have a program headed by an endowed Professorship in Social Entrepreneurship.

Wheaton College President Dennis M. Hanno said, "GCSEN has been with us every step of the way. It's been an incredible partnership to grow together in this innovative arena. Social Entrepreneurship is about the power of linking shared visions and shared missions, making exponential social impacts. GCSEN, led by Mike Caslin, has been an important partner for Wheaton College and for me, and I thank him for that." Hanno added, "I am extremely grateful to Diana Davis Spencer, to the Foundation and her family, for their commitment to the idea that social entrepreneurship has the power to transform lives and shape communities. We share that belief, and the Foundation's gift will enable Wheaton to more fully develop our capacity to support students in pursuing interests that address society's most pressing issues."

Since 2015, GCSEN Foundation has been a leading force in growing the field of social entrepreneurship at the higher education level, offering its partner college campuses adaptable, ready-to-use blended learning curricula, merging classroom, on-line and personal life changing learning experiences for students. GCSEN trains future business owners and executives to "make meaning, make money, and move the world to a better place" by melding best business practices with sustainable local economy ventures. Through its SES Institute's on-line courses, campus-based Meaning Maker Boot Camps, faculty and administrator certifications, and at international academic forums, GCSEN has been spreading the word about the importance of growing the Social Entrepreneurship movement. GCSEN Foundation's goal is to transform the lives of 1 million millennials, while assisting in the formulation and launch of 10,000 new social ventures by 2027.

For Wheaton College, the gift is one of the largest in their 183-year history, and a "game-changer", according to President Hanno. His commitment to social entrepreneurship builds upon the college's pioneering work in combining rigorous liberal arts study with active and experiential learning opportunities. Hanno said, "The work that's been going on with GCSEN, and at the Boot Camp is really transformational for the students involved, while also helping them to have an impact on our community and society in general. It's heartening to see their ideas actually flourishing and coming to reality. My goal is to have the opportunity to have a hundred more student ideas become business and social project realities."

Mike Caslin, GCSEN Foundation Founder & President said, "We have a great and enduring relationship with Wheaton and with President Hanno, an innovative leader of social entrepreneurship college programming. We've been able to work with him and his staff to adapt our curricula platform into their existing program base, to create unique offerings for students who are hungry to implement '4 P' Social Entrepreneur Impacts by creating businesses for People, Profit, Planet & Place. We are happy to join Wheaton in celebrating Diana Davis Spencer Foundation's incredibly thoughtful and generous gift. I'm certain that the combined effort between her Foundation and Wheaton College will accelerate the movement."

The Wheaton Institute for Social Entrepreneurship is designed to help students develop an idea into a sustainable business or organization addressing a social issue. The Institute is a year-round program that includes the intensive Social Entrepreneur Meaning Maker Boot Camp, offered in partnership with the GCSEN Foundation and includes GCSEN's lifelong support network through GCSEN's THEOS alumni service.

GCSEN offers its innovative, life-changing blended-learning SES (Social Entrepreneurship System) Institute program to partnering college campuses, benefiting colleges with enhanced recruitment, and retention rates, and increased student intellectual and practical engagement.

GCSEN also offers its unique programs directly to individual students and adult learners through its on-line Social Venture Internship program. The Social Venture Internship (SVI) results in a badged Certification for course completion and LinkedIn use. SVI facilitates learners' developing their own businesses and social ventures, and allows lifelong access to GCSEN's THEOS alumni network, offering resume building, a GCSEN professional reference, and access to business networking opportunities. Contact GCSEN for details on their SES and SVI Programs.

Mike Caslin is an MBA graduate of Babson College and a Manhattanville College undergraduate. The Founder and President of GCSEN Foundation, he is currently Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at SUNY New Paltz Business School. A past faculty member of Babson College, CUNY-Baruch, Marist College School of Business and Manhattanville College, Prof. Caslin has been a featured lecturer and speaker at the Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Dartmouth Tuck School of Business, and Columbia Univ. Business School Eugene Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, among others. A published author on social entrepreneurship, he's been called in as an expert for the United Nations, the U.S. Congress and The White House.

For more information about GCSEN, or for an interview with Founder & President

Mike Caslin, call 212-444-2071; e-mail [email protected] or visit www.gcsen.com

SOURCE Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship Network Foundation

Related Links

http://www.gcsen.com

PORTLAND, Oregon and PUNE, India, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, "Blood Plasma Derivatives Market, by Type, Application, and End User: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023," the global blood plasma derivatives market was valued at $23,613 million in 2016, and is projected to reach $44,333 million in 2023, registering a CAGR of 9.3% from 2017 to 2023.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg )



Blood plasma is clear liquid component of blood in which red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets are suspended. It plays a vital role in maintaining proper pH balance in the body and transporting nutrients throughout the body. It is composed of more than 100 different proteins, including albumin, fibrinogen, immunoglobulins, protease inhibitors, and clotting factors. Plasma derivatives are products that are derived from blood plasma on fractionation, and are widely used to treat variety of diseases. These derivatives include albumin, factor VIII & IX, anti-inhibitor coagulation complex (AICC), immunoglobulins, including Rh immune globulin, alpha 1-proteinase inhibitor concentrate, and anti-thrombin III concentrate.

Request Sample Report at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/656

The factors that drive the growth of the blood plasma derivatives market include increase in prevalence of life-threatening diseases such as immunodeficiency diseases and hemophilia, rise in awareness towards blood & plasma donation, upsurge in geriatric population, and growth in adoption of blood plasma derivatives products. However, high cost of plasma derivative-based treatment and risk of side effects associated after using plasma derivatives impede the market growth. Conversely, the development of superior methods for preservation of plasma derivatives along with advanced processes for fractionation and presence of untapped market in emerging economies are expected to provide lucrative growth opportunities for the market.

The immunoglobulin segment accounted for the largest share in 2016, owing to high usage & applicability for treating variety of immunodeficiency diseases and improved immunoglobulin production due to the emergence of advanced technologies. However, the albumin segment is expected to grow at the high CAGR from 2017 to 2023.

For Purchase Enquiry: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/656

The utilization rate of plasma derivatives for immunodeficiency diseases is high. However, hemophilia segment is expected to grow at a high CAGR during the forecast period. On the basis of end user, the hospitals segment occupied the largest share in 2016, whereas the clinics segment is expected to provide lucrative market opportunities during the forecast period.

Key Findings of the Blood Plasma Derivatives Market:

The albumin segment accounted for nearly one-sixth share of the global blood plasma derivatives market in 2016.

The immunoglobulins segment is expected to grow at highest CAGR from 2017 to 2023.

The immunodeficiency diseases segment accounted for around one-third share of the global market in 2016.

Europe accounted for around one-third share of the global market in 2016.

accounted for around one-third share of the global market in 2016. LAMEA is expected to provide lucrative market growth opportunities from 2017 to 2023.

North America was the leading revenue contributor to the global blood plasma derivatives market in 2016, and is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. This is attributed to the early approval of plasma derivatives products and large number of fractionation plants in this region. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the study period, due to increase in affordability, surge in healthcare expenditure, and rise in awareness towards plasma derivatives.

Access KNOWLEDGE TREE (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/knowledgetree

Knowledge tree is a cloud-based intelligence platform that offers more than 2,000 selective, off-the-shelf reports on niche markets to enable our clients gain deep insights on the latest trends, dynamic technologies, and emerging application areas.

About Us

Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

Contact:

Shriram Dighe

5933 NE Win Sivers Drive

#205, Portland, OR 97220

United States

Toll Free: +1-800-792-5285

UK: +44-845-528-1300

Hong Kong: +852-301-84916

India (Pune): +91-20-66346060

Fax: +1855550-5975

[email protected]



Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com



SOURCE Allied Market ResearchGrowth Journey Continues With Robust Operating Performance

LUXEMBOURG, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Globant (NYSE: GLOB), a digitally native technology services company, today announced results for the three months ended March 31, 2018.

Please see highlights below, including certain Non-IFRS measures. Note that reconciliations between Non-IFRS financial measures and IFRS operating results are disclosed at the end of this press release.

First quarter 2018 highlights

Revenues increased to a record $119.7 million , representing 34.9% year-over-year growth.

, representing 34.9% year-over-year growth. Non-IFRS Adjusted Gross Profit was $46.8 million (39.1% Non-IFRS Adjusted Gross Profit Margin), an increase of $12 .2 million compared to $34.6 million for the first quarter of 2017 (39.0% Non-IFRS Adjusted Gross Profit Margin).

(39.1% Non-IFRS Adjusted Gross Profit Margin), an increase of .2 million compared to for the first quarter of 2017 (39.0% Non-IFRS Adjusted Gross Profit Margin). Non-IFRS Adjusted Net Income was $13.9 million (11.6% Non-IFRS Adjusted Net Income Margin), compared to a profit of $8.9 million for the first quarter of 2017 (10.0% Non-IFRS Adjusted Net Income Margin).

(11.6% Non-IFRS Adjusted Net Income Margin), compared to a profit of for the first quarter of 2017 (10.0% Non-IFRS Adjusted Net Income Margin). Non-IFRS Adjusted Diluted EPS was $0.38 per share (based on an average of 36.5 million diluted shares), compared to Non-IFRS Adjusted Diluted EPS of $0.25 for the first quarter of 2017 (based on an average of 35.6 million diluted shares).

"I am very pleased with our first quarter results. Our revenues for the quarter amounted to $119.7 million, representing an outstanding 34.9% year-over-year growth. This solid growth in revenue was driven by both our top 10 and our non-top 10 accounts, which increased by 37.3% and 33.0% respectively, compared to the first quarter of 2017," explained Martin Migoya, Globant's CEO and co-founder.

"We believe that most organizations are facing significant changes in user expectations and, in order to address this shift, many companies are modifying their business model to align with the new digital and cognitive paradigm. These organizations want a partner that can help them embrace this transformation with the latest technologies and merge engineering, innovation and design at scale. We believe that our market approach with our Studios and our 50-Squared model positions us as a leader in this area and makes us an ideal partner for companies facing these transformations," added Martin Migoya.

"During this quarter we continued to deliver strong revenue growth and solid EPS. We believe that our solid business momentum positions us to achieve our full year targets. We will continue to focus on diversifying our talent base across the regions, managing our SG&A carefully while investing in cutting-edge technologies and training for the long term," explained Alejandro Scannapieco, Globant's CFO.

Globant completed the first quarter with 6,940 Globers, 6,462 of whom were technology, design and innovation professionals. The geographic revenue breakdown for the first quarter was as follows: 78.6% from North America (top country: US), 13.8% from Latin America and others (top country: Argentina) and 7.6% from Europe (top country: Spain). 85.5% of Globant's revenue for the first quarter was denominated in US dollars, and the remaining 14.5% was denominated in other currencies, including Euros, GB pounds and other Latin American currencies.

During the last twelve months ended March 31, 2018, Globant served 348 customers, 89 of which accounted for more than $1 million of Globant's revenues. Globant's top customer, top five customers and top ten customers represented 11.1%, 31.3% and 44.5% of first quarter revenues, respectively.

Cash and cash equivalents and investments as of March 31, 2018 amounted to $45.0 million, while current assets amounted to $156.3 million, accounting for 43.3% of total assets for the same period. Finally, as of March 31, 2018, 35.7 million common shares were issued and outstanding.

2018 Second Quarter and Full Year Outlook

Based on current market conditions, Globant is providing the following estimates for the second quarter and the full year of 2018:

Second quarter 2018 Revenues are estimated to be between $124 - $126 million , implying 25.5% year-over-year growth at the midpoint of the range.

- , implying 25.5% year-over-year growth at the midpoint of the range. Second quarter 2018 Non-IFRS Adjusted Diluted EPS is estimated to be in the range of $0.36 - $0.40 (assuming an average of 36.9 million diluted shares outstanding during the second quarter).

- (assuming an average of 36.9 million diluted shares outstanding during the second quarter). Fiscal year 2018 Revenues are estimated to be in the range of $502 - $510 million , implying 22.4% year-over-year revenue growth at the midpoint of the range.

- , implying 22.4% year-over-year revenue growth at the midpoint of the range. Fiscal year 2018 Non-IFRS Adjusted Diluted EPS is estimated to be in the range of $1.56 - $1.64 (assuming an average of 37.0 million diluted shares outstanding during 2018).

Conference Call and Webcast

Martin Migoya and Alejandro Scannapieco will discuss the Q1 2018 results in a conference call today beginning at 4:30pm ET.

Conference call access information is:

US +1 (888) 346-2877

International +1 (412) 902-4257

Webcast http://investors.globant.com/

Additionally, a replay will be available via the same dial-in number and on our investor relations website after the call.

About Globant (NYSE: GLOB)

We are a digitally native technology services company where innovation, design and engineering meet scale. We use some of the latest technologies in the digital and cognitive field to empower organizations in every aspect.

We have more than 6,900 professionals in 12 countries working for companies like Google, LinkedIn, BBVA, EA and Coca Cola, among others.

We were named a Worldwide Leader of Digital Strategy Consulting Services by IDC MarketScape report (2016 and 2017). We were also featured as a business case study at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford.

For more information, visit www.globant.com

Non-IFRS Financial Information

The financial information in this press release has been prepared consistently with International Accounting Standards 34, "Interim Financial Reporting". The financial information in this press release has not been audited.

Globant provides non-IFRS financial measures to complement reported IFRS results, in accordance with IAS 34 "Interim Financial Reporting". Management believes these measures help illustrate underlying trends in the company's business and uses the measures to establish budgets and operational goals, communicated internally and externally, for managing the company's business and evaluating its performance. The company anticipates that it will continue to report both IFRS and certain non-IFRS financial measures in its financial results, including non-IFRS results that exclude share-based compensation expense, depreciation and amortization, impairment of tax credits and acquisition-related charges. Because the company's non-IFRS financial measures are not calculated according to IFRS, these measures are not comparable to IFRS and may not necessarily be comparable to similarly described non-IFRS measures reported by other companies within the company's industry. Consequently, Globant's non-IFRS financial measures should not be evaluated in isolation or supplant comparable IFRS measures, but, rather, should be considered together with its unaudited interim consolidated statement of financial position as of March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017 and its unaudited interim consolidated statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, prepared in accordance with IAS 34.

Globant is not providing a quantitative reconciliation of forward-looking Non-IFRS Adjusted Diluted EPS to the most directly comparable IFRS measure because it is unable to predict with reasonable certainty the ultimate outcome of certain significant items without unreasonable effort. These items include, but are not limited to, share-based compensation expense, impairment of tax credits and acquisition-related charges. These items are uncertain, depend on various factors, and could have a material impact on IFRS reported results for the guidance period.

Forward Looking Statements

In addition to historical information, this release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements include information about possible or assumed future results of our business and financial condition, as well as the results of operations, Non-IFRS results of operations and Non-IFRS earnings per share, liquidity, plans and objectives. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "believe," "may," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "should," "plan," "expect," "predict," "potential," or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: the persistence and intensification of competition in the IT industry; the future growth of spending in IT services outsourcing generally, application outsourcing and custom application development and offshore development services; the level of growth of demand for our services from our clients; the level of increase in revenues from our new clients; the resource utilization rates and productivity levels and the level of attrition of our IT professionals; the pricing structures we use for our client contracts; the general economic and business conditions in the locations in which we operate; the levels of our concentration of revenues by vertical, geography, by client and by type of contract in the future; the continuity of tax incentives available for software companies with operations in Argentina; Argentina's regulations on proceeds from the export of services; our expectation that we will be able to integrate and manage the companies we acquire and that our acquisitions will yield the benefits we envision; the demands we expect our rapid growth to place on our management and infrastructure; the sufficiency of our current cash, cash flow from operations, and lines of credit to meet our anticipated cash needs; the high proportion of our cost of services comprised of personnel salaries; and other factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in our most recent Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

These forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties. Although the registrant believes that its expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, its expectations may turn out to be incorrect. The registrant's actual results could be materially different from its expectations. In light of the risks and uncertainties described above, the estimates and forward-looking statements discussed might not occur, and the registrant's future results and its performance may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements due to, inclusive, but not limited to, the factors mentioned above. Because of these uncertainties, you should not make any investment decision based on these estimates and forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this press release whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

These risks and uncertainties include those discussed or identified in the filings with the Luxembourg Stock Market Authority for the Financial Markets (Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier).

Globant S.A. Condensed Interim Consolidated Statement of Profit or Loss and Other Comprehensive Income (In thousands of U.S. dollars, except per share amounts, unaudited)









Three months ended

March 31, 2018

March 31, 2017







Revenues 119,712

88,742 Cost of revenues (74,543)

(55,494) Gross profit 45,169

33,248







Selling, general and administrative expenses (31,199)

(24,255) Net impairment (losses) gain on financial assets (11)

360 Profit from operations 13,959

9,353







Finance income 2,353

2,085 Finance (expense) gain, net (3,244)

(2,135) Finance expense, net (891)

(50)







Other income, net 14

1,728 Profit before income tax 13,082

11,031







Income tax (2,941)

(2,175) Net income for the period 10,141

8,856







Other comprehensive income, net of income tax effects





Items that may be reclassified subsequently to profit and loss:





- Exchange differences on translating foreign operations 171

160 - Net fair value loss on available-for-sale financial assets (6)

7 Total comprehensive income for the period 10,306

9,023







Net income attributable to:





Owners of the Company 10,170

8,867 Non-controlling interest (29)

(11) Net income for the period 10,141

8,856







Total comprehensive income for the period attributable to:





Owners of the Company 10,335

9,034 Non-controlling interest (29)

(11) Total comprehensive income for the period 10,306

9,023















Earnings per share





Basic 0.29

0.26 Diluted 0.28

0.25







Weighted average of outstanding shares (in thousands)





Basic 35,430

34,682 Diluted 36,547

35,583

Globant S.A. Condensed Interim Consolidated Statement of Financial Position (In thousands of U.S. dollars, unaudited)









March 31, 2018

December 31, 2017 ASSETS

Current assets





Cash and cash equivalents 35,589

52,525 Investments 9,450

8,147 Trade receivables 91,324

80,078 Other receivables 19,130

14,357 Other financial assets 800

873 Total current assets 156,293

155,980







Non-current assets





Other receivables 32,663

31,736 Deferred tax assets 15,247

13,186 Investment in associates 1,550

1,550 Other financial assets 555

555 Property and equipment 43,764

43,879 Intangible assets 11,863

11,365 Goodwill 98,743

98,926 Total non-current assets 204,385

201,197 TOTAL ASSETS 360,678

357,177







LIABILITIES





Current liabilities





Trade payables 7,182

11,640 Payroll and social security taxes payable 36,999

40,472 Borrowings 6,007

6,011 Other financial liabilities 7,818

10,664 Tax liabilities 7,068

5,253 Other liabilities 138

20 Total current liabilities 65,212

74,060







Non-current liabilities





Other financial liabilities 12,735

18,574 Provisions for contingencies 1,358

1,179 Total non-current liabilities 14,093

19,753 TOTAL LIABILITIES 79,305

93,813







Capital and reserves





Issued and paid-in capital 42,852

42,271 Additional paid-in capital 93,849

86,728 Other reserves (1,088)

(1,253) Retained earnings 145,828

135,658 Total equity attributable to owners of the Company 281,441

263,404 Non-controlling interests (68)

(40) Total equity 281,373

263,364 TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES 360,678

357,177









Globant S.A. Supplemental Non-IFRS Financial Information (In thousands of U.S. dollars, unaudited)









Three months ended

March 31, 2018

March 31, 2017







Reconciliation of adjusted gross profit





Gross Profit 45,169

33,248 Depreciation and amortization expense 993

1,102 Share-based compensation expense 661

278 Adjusted gross profit 46,823

34,628 Adjusted gross profit margin 39.1%

39.0%







Reconciliation of selling, general and administrative expenses





Selling, general and administrative expenses (31,199)

(24,255) Depreciation and amortization expense 3,512

2,596 Share-based compensation expense 2,208

599 Acquisition-related charges (a) 558

287 Adjusted selling, general and administrative expenses (24,921)

(20,773) Adjusted selling, general and administrative expenses as % of revenues (20.8)%

(23.4)%







Reconciliation of Adjusted Profit from Operations





Operating Profit 13,959

9,353 Share-based compensation expense 2,869

877 Acquisition-related charges (a) 750

665 Adjusted Profit from Operations 17,578

10,895 Adjusted Profit from Operations margin 14.7%

12.3%







Reconciliation of Net income for the period





Net income for the period 10,141

8,856 Share-based compensation expense 2,869

877 Acquisition-related charges (a) 882

(837) Adjusted Net income 13,892

8,896 Adjusted Net income margin 11.6%

10.0%







Calculation of Adjusted Diluted EPS





Adjusted Net income 13,892

8,896 Diluted shares 36,547

35,583 Adjusted Diluted EPS 0.38

0.25

Notes:

(a) Acquisition-related charges include, when applicable, amortization of purchased intangible assets included in the depreciation and amortization expense line on our consolidated statements of operations, external deal costs, acquisition-related retention bonuses, integration costs, changes in the fair value of contingent consideration liabilities, charges for impairment of acquired intangible assets and other acquisition-related costs. We cannot provide acquisition-related charges on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable effort as such charges may fluctuate based on the timing, size, and complexity of future acquisitions as well as other uncertainty inherent in mergers and acquisitions.



Globant S.A. Schedule of Supplemental Information (unaudited)











Metrics Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 Q4 2017 Q1 2018











Total Employees 5,855 6,223 6,397 6,753 6,940 IT Professionals 5,421 5,772 5,925 6,279 6,462











North America Revenue % 78.9 78.5 79.1 78.6 78.6 Latin America and Others Revenue % 9.9 9.2 13.3 14.6 13.8 Europe Revenue % 11.2 12.3 7.6 6.8 7.6











USD Revenue % 88.6 87.6 85.4 82.5 85.5 Other Currencies Revenue % 11.4 12.4 14.6 17.5 14.5











Top Customer % 9.7 10.1 10.3 10.4 11.1 Top 5 Customers % 31.1 31.6 26.8 28.5 31.3 Top 10 Customers % 43.7 43.9 40.7 43.2 44.5











Customers Served (Last Twelve Months) 336 331 346 356 348 Customers with >$1M in Revenue (Last Twelve Months) 67 76 78 82 89

Investor Relations Contact:

Paula Conde, Globant

[email protected]

(877) 215-5230

Media Contact:

Wanda Weigert, Globant

[email protected]

(877) 215-5230

Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/460822/globant_logo.jpg

SOURCE Globant

Related Links

http://www.globant.com

"We are thrilled to be part of this extraordinary event that celebrates inspiring nurses who are making a difference in so many peoples' lives across the world,'' said Robert C. Garrett, co-CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health. "At Hackensack Meridian Health , nurses are the backbone of our organization, on the front lines every day providing high-quality care for our patients.''

The celebration, scheduled for May 11 at the United Nations in New York City, brings together remarkable nurses from around the world who serve in front line roles. The theme this year is "nurses front line roles who demonstrate exemplary practice by impacting the global delivery of health care.''

"It is my honor and pleasure to work with nursing staff here in the United States and across the globe,'' said Dr. Timmapuri. "As the head of an NGO, I see firsthand what a force nurses are in global health. Nurses are the lifeblood of our health care system, delivering compassionate care to patients day in and day out.''

Dr. Timmapuri, a featured presenter at this year's event, will focus on the impact of information technology on the nursing field. "Information technology is rapidly transforming the healthcare industry. Despite the challenging landscape of nursing care, nurses across the globe are rising to meet the challenge, adopting new skillsets, while remaining true to their core mission  delivering high-quality, compassionate care to patients.''

Dr. Timmapuri's foundation, LIG Global, is a non-profit organization that conducts charitable projects around the world. It delivers humanitarian relief to people in great need by bringing together medical and non-medical volunteers, supplies and technology. If utilizes state-of-the art technology, such as point-of-care ultrasound in underserved areas with telemedicine to leverage volunteer expertise remotely. LIG works within the communities it serves, hand in hand with medical and non-medical community members and existing health systems.

"At Hackensack Meridian Health, nurses are the cornerstone of our organization, providing high-quality and compassionate care that is transforming the patient experience,'' said John K. Lloyd, co-CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health.

"Hackensack Meridian Health was the first health network in the nation to receive Magnet designation, the nation's highest national honor for professional nursing practice,'' Mr. Lloyd said. "Network hospitals were also the 8th, 11th & 14th in the country to achieve Magnet status.''

The 2nd Annual Celebration of International Nurses Day at the United Nations is hosted by Nurses with Global Impact Inc. and sponsored in part by RAD-AID, the LIG Global Foundation, as well as Philips.

About Hackensack Meridian Health

Hackensack Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care. Hackensack Meridian Health comprises 16 hospitals, including three academic medical centers, two children's hospitals and nine community hospitals, two rehabilitation hospitals, physician practices, more than 160 ambulatory care centers, surgery centers, home health services, long-term care and assisted living communities, ambulance services, lifesaving air medical transportation, fitness and wellness centers, rehabilitation centers, and urgent care facilities. Hackensack Meridian Health has 33,000 team members, more than 6,500 physicians and is a distinguished leader in health care philanthropy, committed to the health and well-being of the communities it serves.

The Network's notable distinctions include having one of only five major academic medical centers in the nation to receive Healthgrades America's 50 Best Hospitals Award for five or more consecutive years, four hospitals ranked among the top 10 in New Jersey, including Hackensack University Medical Center, the No. 1 hospital, Jersey Shore University Medical Center at No. 4 and Ocean and Riverview Medical Centers tied at No. 8., as ranked by U.S. News and World Report. Other honors include consistently achieving Magnet recognition for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, recipient of the John M. Eisenberg Award for Patient Safety and Quality from The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum, a six-time recipient of Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For," one of the "20 Best Workplaces in Health Care" in the nation, and the number one "Best Place to Work for Women." Hackensack Meridian Health is a member of AllSpire Health Partners, an interstate consortium of leading health systems, to focus on the sharing of best practices in clinical care and achieving efficiencies.

For additional information, please visit www.HackensackMeridianHealth.org.

SOURCE Hackensack Meridian Health

Related Links

http://www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/

ATLANTA, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorneys from Heninger Garrison Davis, LLC's class action and intellectual property group filed a class action complaint this week against the United States and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for damages to Christy, Inc. and a class of other patent holders whose property was taken by the USPTO without compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

This unlawful "taking" occurred, according to the lawsuit, when the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ("PTAB") invalidated claims pursuant to the post-grant proceedings created in the America Invents Act ("AIA"), including Inter Partes Review ("IPR") and Post-Grant Review ("PGR") proceedings (together, "post-grant proceedings" or "PGPs"). These PGPs have been used by the USPTO to invalidate patents at an alarming rate, and Christy, Inc. and other patent holders seek just compensation for the taking of patent owners' recognized patent property rights by the United States. More specifically, the lawsuit seeks money damages for the value of the patent claims, including any expected royalty and other payments for use of the patented technologies, the issuance and maintenance fees paid, and any investments made in the patented technologies.

The case also seeks damages for the United States' breach of contract for its failure to maintain in force the subject patent claims, including the recovery of attorney fees expended defending those same patents in PGPs. And because the United States contends these patents were issued "erroneously" by the USPTO in the first place, Christy, Inc. contends all issue and maintenance fees paid were exacted by the government and should be returned.

Any individual or entity that owns a patent for which one or more claims were invalidated in an IPR or PGR proceeding is eligible for the class action. If you would like to join this class action, please contact us to discuss your options.

Case Name: CHRISTY, INC. V. USA

Case Number: 1:18-cv-00657-MMS

Heninger Garrison Davis, LLC, is a national law firm, and our attorneys defend valuable intellectual property rights for our clients. To determine if you should file suit, consult one of our qualified lawyers as soon as possible to understand your options. We do not charge any fees upfront. In fact, we will only charge attorney's fees if we obtain a financial settlement for you. If you do not win, we get nothing. Call us today for your free case evaluation 1.855.228.1929 or visit https://hgdlawfirm.com/uspto-class-action/ or www.usptoclassaction.com

No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.

SOURCE Heninger Garrison Davis, LLC

Related Links

http://www.hgdlawfirm.com

SALT LAKE CITY, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- HireVue, provider of the most comprehensive AI-driven talent assessment suite and video interviewing solutions, has completed the acquisition of London-based MindX, a game-based assessments company. MindX's game-based assessments deliver proven solutions to accelerate the hiring process and rapidly identify cognitive traits in job candidates.

Integrating the latest advancements in psychometrics, big data and machine learning from MindX into the HireVue Video Intelligence platform will deliver to HireVue customers the capability to seamlessly incorporate game-based assessments into their candidate screening processes for more thorough evaluations and an engaging candidate experience.

"The MindX game-based assessments are a perfect complement to HireVue's video-based pre-hire assessments solution, as they add the ability to measure fluid IQ, reasoning and problem-solving to the ability of HireVue Assessments to evaluate job-specific knowledge, communication and social intelligence," commented Kevin Parker, Chairman and CEO at HireVue. "We're excited to deliver even more robust and validated tools to our customers worldwide so they can discover, hire and grow more of the best talent, faster in today's competitive hiring market."

MindX game-based assessments objectively measure a candidate's cognitive abilities using a panel of challenges designed to engage candidates as they are evaluated. Cognitive traits evaluated include: problem-solving, mental flexibility, learning agility, attention, creativity, and quantitative aptitude.

Candidates can rapidly demonstrate their competencies and personality traits within a highly engaging experience. Instead of simply uploading resumes and filling out online forms, candidates can answer some job-relevant questions and play a set of scientific mini-games to more effectively show their range of professional and cognitive strengths.

"The MindX team has been working rigorously to enable companies to hire the best talent for the job using cognitive science in combination with technology," said Clemens Aichholzer, founder and CEO at MindX. "We're thrilled to be teaming up with HireVue at a time of rapid global expansion. HireVue and MindX share a common vision of using sound science and a data-driven approach to ensure that both recruiting and career development are fairer, more effective and more engaging for candidates and companies alike."

The acquisition of MindX will create a uniquely broad, AI-driven talent assessments offering that gives HireVue customers greater flexibility to evaluate candidates and accelerate the process of identifying and hiring the market's top talent. This news comes at a time of significant growth and achievement:

HireVue is on target to grow new business by almost 40 percent year over year in 2018.

The team has grown by almost 50 percent in the past two years to over 300 employees, 90 of whom are dedicated to product development and data security and privacy.

Strong customer adoption of HireVue Assessments has driven over 140 percent year-over-year sales growth of the AI-enabled video assessments product.

International sales have increased over 50 percent year over year and now comprise almost a fifth of total sales bookings. HireVue software is available in 32 languages and HireVue has delivered on-demand interviews in 180 countries.

HireVue has the most robust data security and privacy controls in the industry, including SOC 2 Type II assurance and ISO 27001 certification.

About HireVue

Across the globe, HireVue is transforming the way companies discover, hire and develop the best talent with its Video Intelligence platform. Combining predictive, validated industrial/organizational science with artificial intelligence for decision support during the hiring process, recruiting experts are delivering higher quality talent, faster. HireVue is available worldwide in more than 30 languages and has hosted over six million interviews for more than 700 customers worldwide, including more than one-third of the Fortune 100 and leading brands such as Vodafone, Intel, Hilton, HealthSouth, Qantas and Carnival Cruise Lines. For more information, visit www.hirevue.com.

About MindX

MindX is a next-generation predictive hiring and talent analytics platform. The company's software tools integrate the latest advancements in game technology, psychometrics and machine learning, empowering employers to attract, identify, engage and develop the best talents. MindX game-based assessments are valid, fair, and reliable psychometric measures. The company's technology allows for two-way HR system integration and plays a central role in recruitment process automation.

HireVue Social Networks

Twitter: www.twitter.com/HireVue

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/HireVue

Facebook: www.facebook.com/hirevue

YouTube: www.YouTube.com/user/HireVue

Instagram: www.instagram.com/hirevue/

SOURCE HireVue

Related Links

http://www.hirevue.com

Combined with the 2018 Accord Hybrid and the soon-to-launch 2019 Insight , the Clarity Fuel Cell , Clarity Electric and Clarity Plug-in Hybrid represent the next generation of Honda vehicles, as the company advances toward its goal of growing electrified vehicles to two-thirds of global sales by 2030.

"We're upping the ante on both premium appeal and affordability with the 2018 Honda Clarity Electric," said Steven Center, vice president of Connected and Environmental Business Development at American Honda Motor Co., Inc. "At $199 a month, Clarity Electric consumers will not only get a very affordable zero-emissions driving experience, they'll also enjoy a level of premium quality and driving refinement that really no other electric car in the segment can match."

The 2018 Clarity Electric sedan is available for lease at select dealerships in California and Oregon with the competitive monthly payment of $199 (plus tax) for 36 months, which includes an attractive allowance of 20,000 miles per year and 24/7 roadside assistance. The lease, which reflects a built-in federal tax credit, requires $1,499 due at signing (not including tax, registration or additional fees).1 In addition, consumers from California or Oregon may qualify for state rebates of $2,500.2 The Clarity Electric is eligible for California-issued Clean Air Vehicle Stickers that provide single occupant HOV access.

The Clarity Electric gets up to an 80 percent charge in 30 minutes with DC Fast Charging (SAE combo).3 The Clarity Electric is one of the only electric vehicles to have DC Fast Charging standard. Level 2 charging gives Clarity Electric drivers the flexibility to charge their battery in just 3.5 hours at home, office or anywhere there's a 240-volt charger.3 The Clarity Electric has an EPA fuel economy rating of 126/103/114 MPGe (city/highway/combined)4 and an 89 mile EPA range rating on a full charge.4

Honda Clarity Series

The Clarity series  Clarity Plug-in Hybrid, Clarity Fuel Cell and Clarity Electric  has a low, wide aerodynamic body with unique design elements and standard Honda Sensing. Each Clarity variant has a spacious five-passenger interior, outfitted with premium, environmentally responsible materials, Display Audio with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and no-compromise trunk space. Offering Honda "fun-to-drive" DNA, the Clarity series provides a smooth, quiet and highly refined driving experience, aided by the smooth and seamless character of electric drive torque and acceleration.

The Clarity series shared "3-in-1" platform strategy enables Honda to respond to infrastructure and market developments, provide customers nationwide with an ultra-low carbon vehicle that meets their lifestyle needs and takes Honda toward higher volume sales of advanced powertrain products help reduce CO 2 emissions.

For More Information

Additional media information, including detailed pricing, features and high-resolution photography of all 2018 Honda models, please visit hondanews.com.Consumer information is available at automobiles.honda.com. To join the Honda community on Facebook, visit facebook.com/honda.

About Honda

Honda offers a full line of reliable, fuel-efficient and fun-to-drive vehicles with advanced safety technologies sold through more than 1,000 independent U.S. Honda dealers. The Honda lineup includes the Fit, Civic, Accord and Clarity series passenger cars, along with the HR-V, CR-V and Pilot sport utility vehicles, the Ridgeline pickup and the Odyssey minivan.

1 Includes down payment with no security deposit. Excludes taxes, registration, license and dealer fees. For well-qualified lessees. Subject to availability to California and Oregon residents on approved credit through Honda Financial Services. Closed end lease for 2018 Honda Clarity Electric for well-qualified lessees. Not all applicants will qualify. No purchase option at lease end. Total monthly payments $7,164. Lessee responsible for maintenance, excessive wear/tear, and 20 cents per mile over 20,000 miles per year. Lease includes Roadside Assistance. Total due at lease signing is $1,499 plus tax and registration and includes first month's payment and capitalized cost reduction of $1,300. Offer subject to change without notice.

2 The Oregon rebate program is anticipated to be operational in 2018, with a waitlist potentially established beforehand; please visit http://www.oregon.gov/deq/aq/programs/Pages/ZEV-Rebate.aspx for more information. The California rebate program is anticipated to be funded for the 2017-2018 budget year; please visit https://cleanvehiclerebate.org/eng for more information.

3 Charging time varies depending on conditions, such as the remaining battery level and the ambient temperature.

4 Based on 2018 model-year EPA ratings. Use for comparison purposes only. Your MPGe and range will vary depending on driving conditions, how you drive and maintain your vehicle, lithium-ion battery pack age/condition and other factors.

SOURCE American Honda Motor Co., Inc.

Related Links

http://hondanews.com

SANTA FE, N.M., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- With names like Biker Daddy, Honey Badger, Sweeper and Squid, hundreds of motorcycle-riding patriots will proudly ride into Santa Fe Harley-Davidson on Friday, May 18. They won't be stopping for service appointments or to admire a new model, according to local authorities. Instead, this is one of many stops as they make their way from Ontario, CA to the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, DC during the 30th annual Run for the Wall.

Run For The Wall

Run for the Wall (RFTW) is a national non-profit organization which dedicates itself to promote healing among all veterans, to call for an accounting of all Prisoners of War (POW), those Missing in Action (MIA) and to honor the memory of those Killed in Action (KIA) from all wars. "We Ride for Those Who Can't" is the theme for this fiercely dedicated group.

With an age range from 18 to 80, participants include father and son teams, husbands and wives, veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom and Afghanistan, active duty military, supporters, friends and family.

According to Steve Berniklau, RFTW's Central Route New Mexico State Coordinator and the 2018 Staging Team Lead for the Central Route, an anticipated 750 motorcycles will stop at the Santa Fe Harley-Davidson dealership for lunch, mingling with the community, an exchange of patches, and a short ceremony honoring their mission. They will arrive at 12:30pm and depart by 2pm, Berniklau added.

The Pueblo of Pojoaque is sponsoring a traditional New Mexican lunch of Frito Pie and Potato Salad, and the New Mexico State Police are providing riders with a border to border escort along the route.

"We don't give political speeches or stage demonstrations," Berniklau said. "RFTW gets its message to the public by riding across the United States: Coast-to-Coast. We obey traffic laws and treat all citizens with dignity and respect. The issue of public awareness is only part of the reason RFTW exists. We also give Vietnam Veterans and all Veterans the opportunity to receive their own 'Welcome Home' and start their healing process."

Santa Fe Harley-Davidson invites all members of the community to welcome and honor the RFTW riders at the dealership on May 18. There is no cost to attend.

About Run for the Wall: https://rftw.us/

Run For The Wall (RFTW) was started in 1989 by James Gregory and Bill Evans, two Vietnam Veterans who traveled across the heartland of America on motorcycles. They talked to local radio, TV and newspapers about the thousands of men and women still unaccounted for from all wars. The need for this awareness continues today and we carry on this tradition every May.

Contact: Betsy Donnelly

Phone: 913 208 5400

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Pueblo of PojoaqueHAMILTON, Ontario, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hydromantis announced today the latest release of CapdetWorks Version 4.0. CapdetWorks is based on the U.S. EPA CAPDET  "Computer Assisted Procedure for Design and Evaluation of Treatment Systems" program. CapdetWorks is the industry's only software tool for fast and accurate preliminary design and cost estimation of wastewater treatment plant construction projects.

Hydromantis Environmental Software Solutions, Inc

This latest version of CapdetWorks comes with a new add-on Application Programming Interface (API) module which allows for development and integration of user-defined unit processes in CapdetWorks. The new API can be used to develop the design and costing procedures for any number of existing or new wastewater treatment technologies. New cost database items can be included and used in user-defined cost algorithms. This new functionality extends the capabilities of CapdetWorks and makes it an even more powerful and flexible tool for design and costing of wastewater treatment plants. "The API is a major development for CapdetWorks. It makes CapdetWorks an open platform and supports the modelling needs of our valued clients," said Dr. Rajeev Goel, President & CEO of Hydromantis.

CapdetWorks Version 4.0 also comes with new unit process models for biogas cleaning. For example, hydrogen sulfide removal, moisture removal, and CO 2 removal technologies are implemented.

About Hydromantis

Hydromantis Environmental Software Solutions, Inc. traces its roots back over 29 years as the global pioneer in the development of water and wastewater simulation technology. Based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Hydromantis offers expert professional services for treatment plant modelling, design and optimization and is the developer and owner of the industry's most advanced modelling and simulation software solutions including GPS-X, SimuWorks, Toxchem, CapdetWorks, and WatPro.

For more information please contact: Robert P Beres, Executive VP  Sales & Marketing [email protected]

Related Links

Hydromantis - Capdet Works 4.0

SOURCE Hydromantis Environmental Software Solutions, Inc

Related Links

http://www.hydromantis.com

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that North Carolina State University (NC State) will join the IBM Q Network as the first university-based IBM Q Hub in North America. The university will work directly with IBM to advance quantum computing and industry collaborations, as part of the IBM Q Network's growing quantum computing ecosystem.

A collaboration of leading Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions and national research labs, the IBM Q Network provides early access to IBM Q commercial quantum computing systems, via the IBM Cloud, with the goal of exploring practical applications important to business and science. Hubs within the network are critical for accelerated industry collaborations, learning, skills development and implementation of quantum computing, globally.

NC State will broadly engage in joint collaborations with industry and research affiliates to explore quantum computing. The university will have access to IBM Q commercial quantum computing devices, including the most advanced and scalable universal quantum computing systems available, starting with a 20 qubit IBM Q system, followed by a 50 qubit system which will be made available in the next generation IBM Q systems.

"Academic collaborations are essential to growing the quantum computing community as we look to discover practical quantum applications and drive business and scientific breakthroughs," said Dr. Bob Sutor, vice president of IBM Q Strategy and Ecosystem, IBM Research. "Building on a 30-year research and education partnership, NC State will play a key role in helping IBM continue to extend our quantum computing ecosystem."

NC State will help foster the growth of a quantum computing ecosystem which is based on IBM's open source quantum software and developer tools, including the public IBM Q Experience, which offers access to 5 qubit and 16 qubit systems; and the open quantum software development kit, QISKit, which allows users to create and run quantum computing programs. To date, more than 80,000 users of the IBM Q Experience, have run more than 4 million experiments and generated more than 65 third-party research publications.

"The hub will create a unique opportunity for NC State to address its strategic plan of supporting interdisciplinary scholarship and preparing students for the future," said Dr. Alan Rebar, vice chancellor for research and innovation at NC State. "Our researchers and students will work with IBM scientists, engineers and consultants to further explore and advance quantum computing. The hub, which will be operated from NC State's Centennial Campus, will also drive new curriculum development at NC State, focused on quantum computing."

North Carolina State University is the latest university hub to join the IBM Q Network, which currently includes University of Oxford, Keio University, and University of Melbourne. Additional IBM Q hubs include IBM Research and Oak Ridge National Lab.

About IBM Q

IBM Q is an industry-first initiative to build commercial universal quantum computing systems for business and science applications. For more information about IBM's quantum computing efforts, please visit www.ibm.com/ibmq.

About North Carolina State University

NC State is a pre-eminent teaching and research enterprise that excels across disciplines and contributes more than $6.5 billion to North Carolina's economy. More than 34,000 undergraduate and graduate students learn by doing - pursuing original research, starting new companies, forging connections with top employers, and serving local and global communities. NC State's 9,000 faculty and staff are world leaders in their fields, bridging the divide between academic disciplines and training high-caliber students to meet tomorrow's challenges. Together, they forge powerful partnerships with government, industry, nonprofits and academia to remake our world for the better.

IBM Q Network, IBM Q, IBM Q Experience, and QISKit are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation

Contact:

Chris Nay

512-800-9708

SOURCE IBM

Related Links

http://www.ibm.com

SAN DIEGO, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- At a time when ransomware attacks occur every 40 seconds, and annual damages are forecasted to hit $11.5 billion, cybercrime poses a greater threat to businesses than ever before. Addressing this issue, San Diego-based ICE Cybersecurity developed Aeonian  a new type of endpoint security protecting people and devices all on one platform.

"We built the tool we all wanted, but didn't have," says Ford Winslow, co-founder and CEO of ICE Cybersecurity. "This is what we wish was installed when our response team arrives at a business that's having a bad day. Aeonian gives us a fighting chance."

Officially unveiled at 2-1-1's Community Information Exchange Summit on April 17th, Aeonian offers an innovative, risk-based approach to endpoint monitoring and reporting that gives users a centralized dashboard comprising all security efforts. Aeonian is designed to be useful and contribute to the larger solution.

"Aeonian isn't about selling endpoints," says Winslow. "It's about helping people. We know better than anyone that cyberattacks can be painful and expensive. Aeonian makes it less painful and less expensive for everyone involved."

Aeonian software was developed with outcome in mind  a distinguishing feature from other security offerings, allowing ICE to provide your business protection and continuity.

"In most businesses, security tools are fragmented and don't cover everything completely," says Winslow. "Attacks come in through the gaps, but not with Aeonian as the center of your system. It encompasses everything, so you get complete coverage."

"Everybody is scared of cyber right now," says Winslow. "What we're doing is building that platform of hope so we can make a difference by offering protection from the bad guys attacking you, your family, and your company."

A complex and perilous cybersecurity landscape calls for comprehensive cybersecurity that manages loss and prepares for data recovery. Start protecting your people, your devices, and your data all in one platform. Aeonian can transform your fragmented landscape of tools into a single cybersecurity strategy that's aligned, practical, and effective.

About ICE Cybersecurity

ICE Cybersecurity is changing the face of technology by bringing safety and risk reduction to the business as a whole. We believe that businesses are better when cybersecurity measures are aligned, practical and effective. Our unique platform and approach yield spectacular results for companies of all sizes.

Media Contact:

Roy Bettle

[email protected]

858-987-4880

SOURCE ICE Cybersecurity

Related Links

http://www.icecybersecurity.com

LONDON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In-Dash Navigation System Market by Technology (2D Maps and 3D Maps), Component (Display Unit, Control Module, Antenna Module, and Wiring Harness), and Application (Passenger Cars, LCVs, and HCVs) - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5371922



The in-dash navigation system is an embedded device offered by automotive OEMs in most of their vehicle models. This system mainly consists of the display unit, antenna module, control module, and wiring harness. It employs the use of a global positioning system (GPS) to provide accurate location and step-by-step directions.



Factors such as reduced fuel consumption in vehicles and increase in disposable income of people supplement the global in-dash navigation system market. However, high system cost and lack of supporting infrastructure in developing countries hamper this stated growth. Furthermore, increase in demand for passenger vehicles and emerging trend of connected car devices are expected to present numerous opportunities for market expansion.



The global in-dash navigation system market is segmented based on technology, component, applications, and region. 2D maps and 3D maps are the technologies covered in this report. The components included in this report are display unit, control module, antenna module, and wiring harness. Based on application, the market is divided into passenger cars, LCVs, and HCVs. Region-wise, the market is analyzed across North America, Europe, AsiaPacific, and LAMEA.



Key players operating in the market are Continental AG, Garmin Ltd., Robert Bosch GmbH, Delphi Automotive PLC, Denso Corporation, Tomtom NV, Harman International, Alpine Electronics, Inc., Pioneer Corporation, and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.



KEY BENEFITS FOR STAKEHOLDERS

This study comprises analytical depiction of the global in-dash navigation system market with current trends and future estimations to depict the imminent investment pockets.

The overall market potential is determined to understand the profitable trends to gain a stronger coverage in the market.

The report presents information related to key drivers, restraints, and opportunities with a detailed impact analysis.

The current market is quantitatively analyzed from 2017 to 2023 to highlight the financial competency of the market.

Porter's Five Forces analysis illustrates the potency of the buyers and suppliers.



KEY MARKET SEGMENTS



BY TECHNOLOGY

2D Maps

3D Maps



BY COMPONENT

Display Unit

Control Module

Antenna Module

Wiring Harness



BY APPLICATION

Passenger Cars

LCVs

HCVs



BY REGION

North America

U.S.

Canada

Mexico

Europe

UK

Germany

France

Spain

Russia

Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific

China

India

Japan

South Korea

Rest of Asia-Pacific

LAMEA

Latin America

Middle East

Africa



KEY MARKET PLAYERS PROFILED

Continental AG

Garmin Ltd.

Robert Bosch GmbH

Delphi Automotive PLC

Denso Corporation

Tomtom NV

Harman International

Alpine Electronics, Inc.

Pioneer Corporation

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5371922



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

HSINCHU, Taiwan, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- 5G is about to come. At 100 times super high data transfer rate over current 4G, 5G will fuel the growth of VR and AR devices. Ultra High Pixel Density (UHPD), INT Tech Co., Ltd.'s proprietary technology will be the catalyst making the above-mentioned breakthrough possible.

Currently, VR experience is dragged down by inherent display hindrances such as screen door effect, vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC) and field of view (FOV). David Chu and his team at INT are successful in making the very first 2,228 ppi AMOLED display on glass substrate, which greatly alleviates the screen door effect and VAC when combining with light field technological approach. Also compared with current high ppi display solution on silicon, glass-based display is much more economical and can be made in larger size, thus improve FOV significantly.

O'flex, a foldable display technology, is another proprietary technology developed by INT. It is more and more evident that smartphone market growth is getting onto a plateau of stagnation. Inevitably, a post-smartphone era is dawning. The foldable display will replace rigid form factor and display with curvatures. Its market size and impact are tremendous. O'flex uses a comprehensive integration on layer stacking to slim down the display thickness, reduce the bending radius and attain full function with creaseless bending even after half-a-million bending test in the lab, a significant achievement of folding feature on smartphone development.

INT, established in June 2016, focuses to fill the void of unmet market needs. David Chu, a veteran in the display industry, once led his team commercialized China's 1st AMOLED display. Now in his own company, he adopted an asset-light knowledge-based business model, and set his aim on developing next generation display technologies and transform the whole ecosystem. INT embraces inclusive collaboration and works closely with partners to get them on the trajectory of success through innovation and transformation.

INT will present UHPD display technology on May 24 at the Poster Session of the upcoming SID Display Week in L.A. To learn more about INT and its technology, please visit its website at www.int-tech.com.tw. You can also contact INT via email at [email protected] to arrange a private meeting during May 22 - May 24, or talk to INT staff directly at the Poster Session (Poster Number P.216) 17:00-20:00, May 24, 2018.

SOURCE INT"Given the investments we've made in content and customer experience, we are now poised to become the leading provider of genetic information, as well as the partner of choice for therapeutics companies and others in the broader healthcare continuum," said Sean George, co-founder and chief executive officer of Invitae. "With the resources, team and capital we have today, we have demonstrated the capability to disrupt the genetic information landscape, and we now plan to drive operating and financial leverage across the business and meaningfully reduce our cash burn by 40 to 50% as we exit 2018."

First Quarter 2018 Results

Accessioned more than 64,000 samples in the first quarter of 2018, a 22% sequential increase over the fourth quarter of 2017 and a 150% increase over the 26,000 samples in the first quarter of 2017.

Generated revenue of $27.7 million in the first quarter of 2018, a 9% sequential increase over the fourth quarter of 2017 and a 169% increase over the first quarter of 2017 revenue of $10.3 million .

in the first quarter of 2018, a 9% sequential increase over the fourth quarter of 2017 and a 169% increase over the first quarter of 2017 revenue of . Reduced the average cost per sample to less than $280 in the first quarter of 2018, representing a 13% sequential reduction from the fourth quarter of 2017 and a 22% reduction from a $360 average cost per sample in the first quarter of 2017.

in the first quarter of 2018, representing a 13% sequential reduction from the fourth quarter of 2017 and a 22% reduction from a average cost per sample in the first quarter of 2017. Achieved positive gross profit of $9.6 million in the first quarter of 2018 compared to a positive gross profit of $8.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, and $1.0 million gross profit in the first quarter of 2017.

Total operating expenses for the first quarter of 2018, excluding cost of goods sold, were $46.1 million compared to $28.3 million in the first quarter of 2017. For the first quarter of 2018, Invitae reported a net loss of $36.1 million, or a $0.66 loss per share, compared to a net loss of $26.9 million in the first quarter of 2017, or a $0.64 loss per share.

Cash used in operating activities in the three months ended March 31, 2018 was $32.9 million, compared to $22.0 million in the same period in 2017. At March 31, 2018, cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and marketable securities totaled $60.6 million. Subsequent to the quarter's close, Invitae raised $53.5 million in net proceeds from an equity offering and has access to $20 million additional debt, bringing total available capital to more than $130 million.

Recent Highlights

Made significant progress integrating recent acquisitions.

Trained and deployed combined and expanded sales team to effectively deliver comprehensive test menu.



Invested in lab build-out to transfer reproductive health technology to San Francisco to support continued volume growth.

to support continued volume growth.

Integrated billing operations onto single platform.

Expanded biopharma partnerships to more than 20 in Invitae's network, connecting patients and clinicians to treatments, clinical trials, support and advocacy groups, and research programs.

A new program with Biogen to offer genetic testing at no-charge to patients suspected of having or clinically diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare, progressive, genetic, neuromuscular disease.



An expanded partnership with Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. to assist clinicians in identifying Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients eligible for Sarepta's clinical trials.



New collaborations with five leading rare and ultra-rare disease advocacy groups, now part of the Invitae network.



No Stomach For Cancer launched the Global Gastric Cancer Registry, a program that enables patients, advocates, clinicians and researchers to share and access secure data on stomach cancers.





The Bow Foundation initiated a patient network for individuals with GNAO1 disorders, an ultra-rare pediatric genetic disorder causing developmental delays and neurological symptoms.

disorders, an ultra-rare pediatric genetic disorder causing developmental delays and neurological symptoms.



The National Tay Sachs & Allied Diseases Association (NTSAD) started a program to gather data on the GM2 Gangliosidoses, such as Tay Sachs disease and Sandhoff disease, rare neurodegenerative lysosomal disorders.





The RASopathies Network launched a network aimed at gathering information across a number of rare genetic conditions associated with genetic variants in the Ras-MAPK pathway that cause developmental delays, heart defects and neurologic problems.





The Spastic Paraplegia Foundation created a network for families impacted by Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia or Primary Lateral Sclerosis, a group of rare primary upper motor neuron disorders that cause progressive spasticity (stiffness) and weakness of the leg and hip muscles.

Presented data at the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) annual meeting showing proactive genetic health screening reveals medically significant findings for a substantial portion of patients. Additionally, secondary findings identified through genetic testing provide a substantial yield of actionable risk factors for disease.

Announced a collaboration with KEW, Inc. to develop comprehensive genomic profiling solutions to combine the benefit of germline and somatic information for the treatment of cancer.

Webinar and Conference Call Details

Management will host a conference call and webcast today at 4:30 p.m. Eastern / 1:30 p.m. Pacific to discuss financial results and recent developments. The dial-in numbers for the conference call are (866) 393-4306 for domestic callers and (734) 385-2616 for international callers, and the reservation number for both is 9158119. Following prepared remarks, management will respond to questions from investors and analysts, subject to time limitations.

The live webcast of the call may be accessed by visiting the investors section of the company's website at ir.invitae.com. A replay of the webcast will be available shortly after the conclusion of the call and will be archived on the company's website.

About Invitae

Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA) is a genetics company whose mission is to bring comprehensive genetic information into mainstream medical practice to improve the quality of healthcare for billions of people. Invitae's goal is to aggregate most of the world's genetic tests into a single service with higher quality, faster turnaround time and lower prices.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to the company's future financial performance and estimated guidance for 2018, including with respect to volume and revenue; the company's belief that it is poised to become the leading provider of genetic information and partner of choice; that the company has demonstrated the capability to disrupt the genetic information landscape with its resources, team and capital; and that the company will begin to see operating and financial leverage across the business and reduced cash burn by the end of 2018. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the company's history of losses; the company's ability to compete; the company's failure to manage growth effectively; the company's need to scale its infrastructure in advance of demand for its tests and to increase demand for its tests; the risk that the company may not obtain or maintain sufficient levels of reimbursement for its tests; the Company's failure to successfully integrate or fully realize the anticipated benefits of acquired businesses; the company's ability to use rapidly changing genetic data to interpret test results accurately and consistently; security breaches, loss of data and other disruptions; laws and regulations applicable to the company's business; and the other risks set forth in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risks set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and Invitae Corporation disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Invitae Corporation Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (In thousands, except share and per share amounts)





Three Months Ended



March 31,



2018

2017



(Unaudited) Revenue:











Test revenue

$ 27,053

$ 9,695 Other revenue



618



643 Total revenue



27,671



10,338 Costs and operating expenses:











Cost of test revenue



18,076



9,329 Research and development



15,366



10,023 Selling and marketing



18,924



11,572 General and administrative



11,780



6,751 Total costs and operating expenses



64,146



37,675 Loss from operations



(36,475)



(27,337) Other income (expense), net



1,647



(691) Interest expense



(1,292)



(322) Net loss before taxes



(36,120)



(28,350) Income tax benefit







(1,422) Net loss

$ (36,120)

$ (26,928) Net loss per share, basic and diluted

$ (0.66)

$ (0.64) Shares used in computing net loss per share, basic and diluted



54,381,751



42,318,136

Invitae Corporation Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (In thousands)





March 31,

December 31,



2018

2017



(Unaudited)





Assets











Current assets:











Cash and cash equivalents

$ 18,443

$ 12,053 Marketable securities



36,526



52,607 Accounts receivable



21,490



10,422 Prepaid expenses and other current assets



12,756



11,599 Total current assets



89,215



86,681 Property and equipment, net



30,307



30,341 Restricted cash



5,406



5,406 Marketable securities, non-current



225



5,983 Intangible assets, net



34,264



35,516 Goodwill



46,972



46,575 Other assets



1,999



576 Total assets

$ 208,388

$ 211,078 Liabilities and stockholders' equity











Current liabilities:











Accounts payable

$ 7,109

$ 8,606 Accrued liabilities



26,257



22,742 Capital lease obligation, current portion



1,879



2,039 Total current liabilities



35,245



33,387 Capital lease obligation, net of current portion



2,895



3,373 Debt



58,554



39,084 Other long-term liabilities



9,734



13,440 Total liabilities



106,428



89,284 Stockholders' equity:











Common stock



5



5 Accumulated other comprehensive loss



(160)



(171) Additional paid-in capital



525,592



520,558 Accumulated deficit



(423,477)



(398,598) Total stockholders' equity



101,960



121,794 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

$ 208,388

$ 211,078

The condensed, consolidated balance sheet at December 31, 2017 has been derived from the audited consolidated financial statements at that date included in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017.

Contact:

Laura D'Angelo

[email protected]

(628) 213-3369

SOURCE Invitae Corporation

Related Links

http://invitae.com

JERUSALEM, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Naftali Bennett, Israel's Minister of Education and Minister of Diaspora Affairs, will address the American Jewish Committee (AJC) Global Forum in Jerusalem. The four-day conference, June 10-13, is the premier Jewish global advocacy organization's signature annual event.

Well over 1,500 participants, including hundreds of young Jews, from across the United States and many other countries are expected to attend. It will be the first time in AJC's 112-year history that the AJC Global Forum convenes outside the United States. The AJC gathering will be one of the largest ever held by an American Jewish organization in Jerusalem.

"We are coming to Israel's capital city to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the country's rebirth, and to demonstrate by our presence our deep solidarity and enduring support," said AJC CEO David Harris. "Relations between American Jews and Israelis are of paramount concern and face challenges, and we look forward to Minister Bennett sharing his perspectives on this essential bond between the world's two largest Jewish communities."

Bennett, elected head of the Bayit Hayehudi (The Jewish Home) party in 2012, has served as Minister of Diaspora Affairs since 2013 and Minister of Education since 2015. He is also a member of Israel's Security Cabinet, which deals with defense and foreign policy issues.

The nonpartisan AJC maintains headquarters in New York City, 22 regional offices across the United States, 11 posts worldwide, including Jerusalem, and 35 international association agreements.

https://www.ajc.org/news/israel-minister-naftali-bennett-to-address-ajc-global-forum

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

Related Links

http://www.ajc.org

SALT LAKE CITY, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ivanti, the company that unifies IT to better manage and secure the digital workplace, today announced that its Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) certification for Ivanti Service Manager has achieved "in process" status. A component of Ivanti's ongoing federal government enablement initiative, the compliance milestone will enable federal agencies to benefit from a complete cloud-optimized ITSM solution to improve IT efficiency, compliance, and security. Full FedRAMP certification for Ivanti Service Manager is expected before the end of 2018.

According to Deloitte's 2018 Federal Government Industry Outlook report, automation could save between $96.7 million and $1.2 billion federal hours annually. Ivanti's integrated service management offering, which includes a new intelligent virtual support agent (VSA) with cloud-based Hub and Bot artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, provides this automation to make employees' and citizens' lives more productive through high quality service delivery and engaging self service.

"We're excited to be working with Ivanti to integrate their IT solutions into our ecosystem," said LCDR William J. Walders, Defense Health Agency (DHA). "The prospect of a service management toolset that combines workflow automation, comprehensive ITSM functionality, a next-generation AI-powered help-desk Hub and ChatBots, and a mobile app for employees to get help remotely will help us make much better use of our resources and increase our productivity."

"Receiving FedRAMP 'in process' status for Ivanti Service Manager is a component in our continued compliance initiative to enable the federal market with innovative solutions to unify IT processes and modernize service delivery," said Phil Richards, Chief Security Officer, Ivanti. "By automating workflows and eliminating costly manual processes, Ivanti Service Manager will deliver the strategic value federal agencies need to become more efficient and productive."

FedRAMP is a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. FedRAMP enables Agencies to rapidly adapt from old, insecure legacy IT to mission-enabling, secure, and cost-effective cloud-based IT. To achieve 'in process' status, Ivanti worked to adhere to FedRAMP's requirements to ensure effective, repeatable cloud security for the government. Ivanti Service Manager's FedRAMP compliance status is a result of extensive testing and auditing performed by outside consultants and validated by the FedRAMP office.

For more information on Ivanti Service Manager, visit: https://www.ivanti.com/products/service-manager.

Ivanti: The Power of Unified IT.

Ivanti unifies IT and Security Operations to better manage and secure the digital workplace. From PCs to mobile devices, VDI, and the data center, Ivanti discovers IT assets on-premises and in the cloud, improves IT service delivery, and reduces risk with insights and automation. The company also helps organizations leverage modern technology in the warehouse and across the supply chain to improve delivery without modifying backend systems. Ivanti is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and has offices all over the world. For more information, visit www.ivanti.com and follow @GoIvanti.

Copyright  2018, Ivanti. All rights reserved.

SOURCE Ivanti

Related Links

https://www.ivanti.com

Together, these two organizations will launch the Summit Workforce Development Project to address unemployment and underemployment among minorities in the region. The Akron Urban League will contribute to the project through training and readiness education for jobseekers. ConxusNEO will identify high-demand, high-wage jobs in the region, connect the Akron Urban League to the larger talent ecosystem and leverage relationships with companies to enable individuals to participate in job shadowing, job fairs and other engagements.

"This award from JumpStart and the KeyBank Business Boost & Build program will provide us with crucial resources to support software coding and other skill-specific training to improve the lives of unemployed and underemployed jobseekers in Summit County," said Akron Urban League President & CEO Dr. Sadie Winlock. "Together, with ConxusNEO and existing partnerships, we will make a meaningful and measurable impact in the community."

"At KeyBank, we have made it our mission to create thriving communities and we believe strong workforce development programs like the Summit Workforce Development Project are core to that mission," said KeyBank Eastern Ohio Market President Tim Burke.

Funded by a grant from the KeyBank Foundation to JumpStart Inc. in 2017, the KeyBank Business Boost & Build program is designed to stimulate economic growth in Ohio and Upstate New York by helping startups and small businesses grow and preparing the workforce for the needs of those companies.

About KeyCorp

KeyCorp's roots trace back 190 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $137.0 billion at March 31, 2018.



Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, insurance, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,200 branches and more than 1,500 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.

About JumpStart Inc.

JumpStart unlocks the full potential of diverse and ambitious entrepreneurs to economically transform entire communities. For more information, visit www.jumpstartinc.org and follow @JumpStartInc on Twitter.

About the Akron Urban League

The mission of the Akron Urban League is to improve the quality of life of the citizens of Summit County, particularly African Americans, by advocating and facilitating programs that are economically and educationally transformational, impacting their lives and the lives of future generations. For more information, visit http://www.akronurbanleague.org

About Conxus NEO

Conxus NEO works to position companies to be more competitive while increasing access to opportunity for Summit County's residents. The organization partners with businesses to identify the skills they need to fill positions and build a talent pipeline by bringing together business partners, educators, workforce programs, economic development organizations and government agencies. For more information, visit http://www.conxusneo.jobs/

SOURCE JumpStart Inc.

Related Links

http://www.jumpstartinc.org

CLEVELAND, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) today held its annual meeting in Cleveland, OH, where it highlighted a strong year in 2017 for the nearly 200-year-old institution. Shareholders heard about how KeyBank is helping clients and communities thrive and how the company is growing and continuing to deliver on its commitment to create shareholder value.

"Key had a strong year in 2017. We delivered on our commitments with a step change in performance including improved profitability and returns. We are growing our business by adding and expanding client relationships while investing for the future. And, most important, we continued to help our clients and communities thrive," said Beth Mooney, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, KeyCorp.

During the annual meeting, shareholders elected 15 nominees to KeyCorp's Board of Directors, each with executive leadership experience within a variety of national and international organizations, across a number of industries. Board elections were one of four proposals put before shareholders at the company's annual meeting, held at One Cleveland Center in Cleveland, OH. As announced on May 9, 2018, the KeyCorp Board of Directors also increased the dividend 14% to $.12 per common share from $.105 per share. This represents the third dividend increase in the last 12 months and a 26% increase since the second quarter 2017.

Other proposals presented and approved by shareholders included the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent auditor for the 2018 fiscal year and an advisory proposal on compensation of KeyCorp's named executive officers. A shareholder proposal seeking to reduce the ownership threshold to call a special shareholder meeting was presented but not approved.

About KeyCorp

KeyCorp's roots trace back 190 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $137.0 billion at March 31, 2018.Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,200 branches and more than 1,500 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "outlook," "goal," "objective," "plan," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "project," "believe," "estimate" and other words of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements represent management's current expectations and forecasts regarding future events. If underlying assumptions prove to be inaccurate or unknown risks or uncertainties arise, actual results could vary materially from these projections or expectations. Factors that could cause Key's actual results to differ from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in KeyCorp's Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, as well as in KeyCorp's subsequent SEC filings, all of which have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are available on Key's website (www.key.com/ir) and on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website (www.sec.gov). Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made and Key does not undertake any obligation to update the forward-looking statements to reflect new information or future events.

SOURCE KeyCorp

Related Links

www.key.com

TEANECK, N.J., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- For the 20th time, Entrepreneur Magazine has recognized the Kumon Franchise as a "Best of the Best." The world's largest after-school math and reading franchise has been ranked at the top of its industry category in Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 Issue for 17 consecutive years.

The Kumon Method was born 60 years ago when Toru Kumon, a high school math teacher in Japan, created learning materials for his son. Today, Kumon has a massive global footprint with more than four million students studying at nearly 25,000 learning centers in 50 countries and regions. Outside of Japan, Kumon North America has the second largest enrollments.

2018 is also a momentous year for Kumon North America as it celebrates its 35th anniversary and largest enrollment numbers ever with over 410,000 subject enrollments at 2,200 centers in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

"We are extremely proud of the recognition that we continue to receive from Entrepreneur Magazine each year," said Larry Lambert, vice president of franchise recruitment at Kumon North America, Inc. "Our consistently high industry rankings are a testament to our commitment to delivering the highest quality of education to as many communities as possible across the country."

Kumon consistently seeks individuals with a passion for education and an entrepreneurial spirit to support its continued growth as 110 additional learning centers are projected to open this year. Kumon is an attractive opportunity for many individuals looking to enter the franchise business as it has one of the lowest franchise fees at $1,000 and all franchisees qualify to receive initial financial incentives valued up to $19,000 to assist in start-up costs.

For those individuals with a passion for education and an entrepreneurial spirit, learn more about joining the "Best of the Best" education franchise.

About the Kumon Franchise Business

Kumon is an ideal small business for professionals. Kumon Franchisees must have a four-year college degree, be proficient in math and reading, have investment capital of $70,000 and a net worth of at least $150,000. Founded in 1958, Kumon celebrates its 60th year serving children worldwide. Kumon has over four million students enrolled in nearly 25,000 learning centers in 50 countries and regions.

SOURCE Kumon North America

Related Links

http://www.kumon.com

SANTA ANA, Calif., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Kush Bottles, Inc. (OTCQB: KSHB) ("Kush Bottles" or the "Company"), a leading provider of packaging, supplies, vaporizers, hydrocarbon gases, solvents, accessories and branding solutions for the regulated cannabis industry, today announced that its Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Jim McCormick, will present at Canaccord Genuity's 2nd Annual Cannabis Conference on Thursday, May 17, 2018 at 10:00am ET at The Westin Grand Central in New York City.

Jim will be speaking about Kush Bottles' growth strategy, including its recently announced strategic acquisition of Summit Innovations, LLC. The Corporate Presentation will be webcast live through the Events page of the Company's website, and at: http://wsw.com/webcast/canaccord31/kshb/.

The conference promises to offer attendees insights into the risks and opportunities that legalization of marijuana presents. The full-day event will feature industry leaders sharing their perspectives and opinions on what social, legal, political and economic forces investors and entrepreneurs in the space will need to consider as the commercial cannabis space evolves.

To be added to the distribution list, please email [email protected] with "Kush" in the subject line.

About Kush Bottles

Kush Bottles, Inc. (OTCQB: KSHB) is a dynamic sales platform that provides unique products and services for both businesses and consumers in the cannabis industry. Founded in 2010 as a packaging and supplies company for dispensaries and growers, Kush Bottles has sold more than 1 billion units and now regularly services more than 5,000 legally operated medical and adult-use dispensaries, growers, and producers across North America, South America, and Europe. The Company has facilities in the three largest U.S. cannabis markets and a local sales presence in every major U.S. cannabis market.

Kush Bottles aims to be the gold standard for responsible and compliant products and services in the cannabis industry. Kush Bottles has no direct involvement with the cannabis plant or any products that contain THC.

The Company has been featured in media nationwide, including CNBC, Los Angeles Times, TheStreet.com, Entrepreneur, and business magazine Inc.

For more information, visit www.kushbottles.com or call (888)-920-5874.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may include predictions, estimates or other information that might be considered forward-looking within the meaning of applicable securities laws. While these forward-looking statements represent the Company's current judgments, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect the opinions of the Company's management only as of the date of this release. Please keep in mind that the Company is not obligating itself to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. When used herein, words such as: "potential," "look forward," "believe," "dedicated," "building," or variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in any forward-looking statements made by the Company herein are often discussed in filings the Company makes with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), available at: www.sec.gov, and on the Company's website, at: www.kushbottles.com.

Kush Bottles Contacts

Media Contact:

Anne Donohoe / Nick Opich

KCSA Strategic Communications

212-896-1265 / 212-896-1206

[email protected] / [email protected]

Investor Contact:

Phil Carlson / Elizabeth Barker

KCSA Strategic Communications

212-896-1233 / 212-896-1203

[email protected]

SOURCE Kush Bottles, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.kushbottles.com

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc. (CSE: LDS), (OTCQX: LDSYF), (Frankfurt: LD6, WKN: A14XHT) ("LDS" or the "Company") announces that its affiliate, CSPA Group, Inc. ("CSPA"), has received an open purchase order for 300 litres of high quality distillate per month through December 2018.

CSPA will supply the biomass and the processing for the extraction and distillation. The finished high-grade distillate will be capable of filling up to 300,000 one-gram vape pen cartridges. LDS's CEO, Brad Eckenweiler, stated, "This purchase order emphasizes the acceptability in the market for a dependable high quality white label producer. A producer capable of supplying established brands with the highest quality finished material and allowing those brands to focus their resources on marketing and building their brand with the assurance that they have the highest quality ingredients." The Company will continue its development of processes and product lines as well as building its white label business.

About Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc.

Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc. is a licensed, state-compliant, vertically integrated cannabis-related company. From our isogenic pollination nursery to our cutting edge, state-of-the-art production facility located in Southern California, LDS has become one of the most diverse, innovative and scientifically based cannabis companies throughout North America. The Company's technology produces infused strips (similar to breath strips) that are not only a safer, healthier option to smoking but also a new way to accurately meter the dosage and assure the purity of the product. From start to finish, the production process tests for quality and composition of all the ingredients used in each and every strip, resulting in a delivery system that is safe, consistent and effective.

On behalf of the board of directors of Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc.

Brad Eckenweiler

CEO & Director

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

[email protected]

1-866-347-5058

Cautionary Disclaimer Statement:

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release.

Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. In addition, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under the United States Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Although Congress has prohibited the US Justice Department from spending federal funds to interfere with the implementation of state medical marijuana laws, this prohibition must be renewed each year to remain in effect. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

SOURCE Lifestyle Delivery Systems Inc.

Related Links

http://www.lifestyledeliverysystem.com

LOS ANGELES, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lisa Ling, award-winning journalist, author, and host of "This is Life" on CNN, will deliver The Archer School for Girls' commencement address on May 26, 2018.

Before coming to CNN, Ling was a field correspondent for "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and contributor to ABC News' "Nightline". Lisa was also the first female host of National Geographic's flagship show "Explorer" which sent her to cover the phenomenon of female suicide bombing, the spread of the MS-13 gangconsidered the world's most dangerous gang, and the humanitarian crisis inside North Korea.

Lisa Ling to Deliver The Archer School For Girls Commencement Address

She began her career in journalism as a correspondent for Channel One News where she covered the civil war in Afghanistan at 21 years of age. She later went on to become a co-host of ABC Daytime's hit show "The View," which won its first daytime Emmy during her time at the show. In 2011, her acclaimed documentary journalism series, "Our America" with Lisa Ling, was created and began airing on OWN. Ling is the co-author of "Mother, Daughter, Sister, Bride: Rituals of Womanhood" and "Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home," which she penned with her sister, Laura. In 2014, President Obama appointed Lisa to the Commission on White House Fellows.

"We are thrilled to have Lisa Ling give the commencement address to Archer's Class of 2018," Head of School Elizabeth English said. "Ms. Ling fearlessly stands at the forefront of key issues facing our world today, and through her work brings untold stories to the fore. Our girls are excited and grateful to have such a fierce and thought-provoking speaker."

Media Contact:

Quyen Ngo

Director of Communications and Strategic Marketing

The Archer School for Girls

(310) 562-7573

[email protected]

www.archer.org

SOURCE The Archer School for Girls

Related Links

https://www.archer.org

RICHMOND, Va., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mapcom Systems, a global leader in visual OSS and BSS software solutions for telecommunications service providers, has announced that Paratus Africa has begun the implementation of Mapcom's M4 Solutions Suite to accelerate the service fulfillment process and manage the planning, buildout and maintenance of their broadband network.

"We're thrilled to add Paratus to our growing international family," stated Chuck Flournoy, president of Mapcom Systems. "Paratus provides industry-leading telecommunications services, paired with exemplary ongoing support for their customers, and that is precisely what Mapcom is about. We're incredibly excited to be a part of helping Paratus consistently deliver superior LTE, Voice and so much more to Namibia and the surrounding area."

Paratus is the largest privately owned Pan African telecoms operator and already delivers products and services to 22 African countries. It has fully licensed and operational offices in Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa.

By utilizing Mapcom Systems' award-winning M4 software, Paratus will have visibility to its entire network and additional relevant data from third-party vendors in one system, thus enhancing business intelligence and cross-departmental collaboration.

Paratus CEO Barney Harmse says Mapcom Systems is the perfect partner to help drive operational efficiency and enhance customer satisfaction while easily identifying increased revenue opportunities using geographic data visualization.

With a geographically correct network OSS, Paratus will be more responsive to profitable opportunities and market conditions, while effortlessly fulfilling automated, company-wide reporting requirements.

"Paratus has an aggressive expansion plan and infrastructure roll-out strategy. We have already invested in excess of N$150 million on infrastructure in Namibia over the past two years and continue to invest. More than N$100 million alone has been invested in fiber infrastructure from March 2017 to Feb 2018," Harmse explains.

Harmse says Paratus is a carrier-of-carriers throughout the region and it is important that the international operators have peace of mind when they trust the Paratus Group to deliver products and services to them.

"We have been providing services on our infrastructure to many reputable international telco operators in Africa. Mapcom's M4 Solutions Suite will play a critical part in our network's integrity and health as we deliver a world-class service to world-class operators," he adds.

Utilizing Mapcom Systems' Data Integration Engine, data will seamlessly be integrated from other systems of record into M4 to allow centralized operations management and allocation of resources to efficiently handle dynamic business challenges, such as locate requests across multiple countries and more.

Harmse concludes, "We have taken up the challenge of bandwidth provisioning in light of the enormous growth prospects across the continent. The exponential growth of the internet throughout Africa, according to statistics, has the entire African continent's internet growth calculated at an average of more than 7,000 percent between 2000 and 2017."

For additional information on the M4 Solution Suite, please visit https://www.mapcom.com/solutions/m4-solutions/.

About Mapcom Systems (www.mapcom.com)

Mapcom Systems is the developer of M4 Solutions Suite, a visual operations support system that helps communications providers manage their workforce and networks, including both outside and inside plant, at the physical and logical levels. Mapcom Systems serves communications providers around the world.

About Paratus (www.paratus.africa)

Paratus was founded as Internet Technologies Namibia in 2005 as the first privately and 100 percent wholly owned Namibian telecommunications operator. Paratus has fully licensed offices in Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa and delivers products and services to 22 African countries. Today, Paratus still holds its 100 percent Namibian private ownership and on 20 March 2012, was issued with a Class Comprehensive Telecommunications Service License (ECS & ECNS), following further expansion of its 4G network, national and international network to provide telecommunications services to the Namibian public at large as well as the private and corporate sector.

Media Contact

Volodymyr Chornodolsky, Mapcom Systems

804-743-1860

[email protected]

SOURCE Mapcom Systems

Related Links

http://www.mapcom.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MedEquities Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: MRT) (the "Company") today announced its consolidated financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 and other recent developments.

Highlights  First Quarter and Year to Date

Reported results attributable to common stockholders for the first quarter of 2018 of net income of $0.16 per diluted share, Funds from Operations ("FFO") of $0.29 per diluted share and Adjusted FFO ("AFFO") of $0.30 per diluted share.

per diluted share, Funds from Operations ("FFO") of per diluted share and Adjusted FFO ("AFFO") of per diluted share. Invested or committed to invest $29.4 million (up to $73 million if Company purchase options are exercised) in an inpatient psychiatric hospital, an inpatient rehabilitation hospital and a mezzanine loan on an existing skilled nursing/assisted living facility as well as additional fundings on existing investments.

(up to if Company purchase options are exercised) in an inpatient psychiatric hospital, an inpatient rehabilitation hospital and a mezzanine loan on an existing skilled nursing/assisted living facility as well as additional fundings on existing investments. Increased 2018 per share guidance for net income attributable to common stockholders of $0.64 to $0.66 and reaffirmed 2018 per share guidance for FFO of $1.17 to $1.21 and AFFO of $1.18 to $1.22 .

to and reaffirmed 2018 per share guidance for FFO of to and AFFO of to . Declared a regular cash dividend of $0.21 per share for the first quarter of 2018.

John W. McRoberts, the Company's Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, noted, "We continued our investment activities at a measured pace while working closely with certain operators to improve their overall profitability and performance. Our investment pipeline is focused on the acute care, behavioral health, post-acute and integrated medical facilities. We have seen strong demand of late from operators in these sectors for mortgage investments that can ultimately be converted into future ownership of the facilities on attractive terms for us, and we will continue to actively pursue the opportunities that present the best use of our capital."

Financial Results for the First Quarter of 2018

Net income attributable to common stockholders for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 was $5.2 million, or $0.16 per diluted common share, compared with $4.5 million, or $0.14 per diluted common share, for the same period in 2017. Consolidated total revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 were $16.7 million, compared with $14.3 million for the same period in 2017. Total revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 increased approximately $2.4 million as a result of the Company's real estate investment activities during and subsequent to the three months ended March 31, 2017 and increases in rents under existing leases.

FFO for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 was $9.3 million, or $0.29 per diluted common share, compared with $8.1 million, or $0.26 per diluted common share, for the same period in 2017. The $1.2 million increase is primarily the result of higher total revenues of $2.4 million, partially offset by an increase in interest expense of $1.0 million and general and administrative expenses of approximately $0.2 million.

AFFO for the quarter ended March 31, 2018 increased to $9.3 million, or $0.30 per diluted common share, compared with $8.6 million, or $0.27 per diluted share, for the same period in 2017, primarily from an increase in total revenues, excluding the effects of straight-line rent, of $2.0 million, partially offset by higher in cash interest expense of $1.1 million.

Investment Activity

As of March 31, 2018, the Company had gross real estate investments totaling approximately $605.6 million, which was comprised of $563.8 million in 32 healthcare facilities and $41.8 million in six mortgage notes receivable collateralized by existing healthcare facilities and redevelopment of healthcare facilities. In addition to these mortgage notes receivable, the Company had approximately $23.3 million of funding commitments and construction mortgage notes as of March 31, 2018 that have yet to be disbursed.

The significant transactions in the first quarter of 2018 are as follows:

On January 8, 2018 , the Company agreed to provide a loan of up to $19.0 million at an annual interest rate of 10.0% to Haven Behavioral Healthcare, an operator of inpatient psychiatric hospitals in five states, for a three-year term to fund the purchase and conversion of an existing long-term acute care hospital to a 72-bed, 60,029-square-foot inpatient psychiatric hospital in Boise, Idaho . The loan, of which $7.9 million was outstanding at March 31, 2018 , is secured by a first mortgage on the property. Upon completion, the Company has the exclusive right to purchase the facility for a purchase price equal to the outstanding loan balance in a sale-leaseback transaction with a 15-year triple-net lease at an initial lease rate of 9.3%.

, the Company agreed to provide a loan of up to at an annual interest rate of 10.0% to Haven Behavioral Healthcare, an operator of inpatient psychiatric hospitals in five states, for a three-year term to fund the purchase and conversion of an existing long-term acute care hospital to a 72-bed, 60,029-square-foot inpatient psychiatric hospital in . The loan, of which was outstanding at , is secured by a first mortgage on the property. Upon completion, the Company has the exclusive right to purchase the facility for a purchase price equal to the outstanding loan balance in a sale-leaseback transaction with a 15-year triple-net lease at an initial lease rate of 9.3%. On January 31, 2018 , the Company provided a mezzanine loan of $5.4 million at an annual cash interest rate of 8.5% to Cobalt Medical Development to partially fund the construction of a 42-bed, 57,275-square-foot inpatient rehabilitation hospital to be operated by Cobalt Rehabilitation Hospitals in Clarksville, Indiana , a suburb of Louisville, Kentucky . The three-year loan was fully funded at closing and has an annual accrued interest rate of 9.5%, which has a claw-back feature that would equate to a 15.0% annual interest rate from the inception of the loan should the Company elect not to exercise its option to purchase the new facility upon completion for approximately $26.0 million pursuant to a 20-year triple-net lease at an initial lease rate of 9.0%.

, the Company provided a mezzanine loan of at an annual cash interest rate of 8.5% to Cobalt Medical Development to partially fund the construction of a 42-bed, 57,275-square-foot inpatient rehabilitation hospital to be operated by Cobalt Rehabilitation Hospitals in , a suburb of . The three-year loan was fully funded at closing and has an annual accrued interest rate of 9.5%, which has a claw-back feature that would equate to a 15.0% annual interest rate from the inception of the loan should the Company elect not to exercise its option to purchase the new facility upon completion for approximately pursuant to a 20-year triple-net lease at an initial lease rate of 9.0%. On March 29, 2018 , the Company originated a $5.0 million mortgage note receivable with a subsidiary real estate entity of GruenePointe Holdings, LLC, which is secured by a second lien on a skilled nursing and assisted living facility ( Adora Midtown Park ) and a first lien on an additional parcel of land in Dallas, Texas . The loan has a two-year term and accrues interest at an annual interest rate of 10.0% that is payable on the maturity date of March 29, 2020 . The Company has an existing purchase option on Adora Midtown Park for a gross purchase price not to exceed approximately $28.0 million , plus an earnout based on the facility's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and rent expense ("EBITDAR") during the three years following the closing date of the acquisition.

Quarterly Distributions to Common Stockholders

On May 8, 2018, the Company's Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.21 per share for the first quarter of 2018, or an annualized rate of $0.84 per share. The dividend will be paid on June 5, 2018 to stockholders of record as of May 22, 2018.

Guidance for 2018

For the year ending December 31, 2018, the Company updated its guidance for net income attributable to common stockholders to $0.64 to $0.66 per diluted common share and reaffirmed guidance for FFO of $1.17 to $1.21 per diluted common share and AFFO of $1.18 to $1.22 per diluted common share. While the FFO and AFFO guidance ranges did not change, guidance for net income attributable to common stockholders and certain other reconciling items changed based on the amount and nature of known investment activities to date.

A reconciliation of projected net income attributable to common stockholders per diluted share to projected FFO and AFFO per diluted share is provided as follows:





Full Year



2018 Range



Low

High Net income attributable to common stockholders

$ 0.64



$ 0.66

Add: Real estate depreciation & amortization, net of noncontrolling interest

0.53



0.55

FFO attributable to common stockholders

1.17



1.21

Stock-based compensation expense

0.11



0.11

Deferred financing costs amortization

0.04



0.04

Straight-line rental income, net of noncontrolling interest

(0.16)



(0.16)

Other adjustments (1)

0.02



0.02

AFFO attributable to common stockholders

$ 1.18



$ 1.22



______________________________ (1) Includes adjustments for non-real estate depreciation and straight-line rent expense.

The Company's guidance for net income attributable to common stockholders, FFO and AFFO for 2018 is based on the following assumptions:

Total investment volume of $45 million to $125 million ( $45 million of which reflects transactions that have already been announced and are expected to be funded during 2018)

to ( of which reflects transactions that have already been announced and are expected to be funded during 2018) Initial cash yields on additional investments, in excess of the $45 million of previously announced transactions, of 8.0% to 9.0%

of previously announced transactions, of 8.0% to 9.0% Cash general and administrative expenses of approximately $9.0 million

Interest expense of approximately $11.6 million to $13.4 million , including approximately $1.2 million to $1.3 million in amortization of deferred financing costs

to , including approximately to in amortization of deferred financing costs Weighted average diluted share count of 31.7 million

Portfolio Update

The Company's stabilized, single-tenanted portfolio and its skilled nursing facility ("SNF") portfolio continued to perform as expected for the twelve months ended December 31, 2017 (the most recent reporting period for which information is available for the Company's operators). Overall, and as presented in the Company's Supplemental Data, the portfolio operations experienced a stabilization in SNF facility rent coverage, an improvement in hospital rent coverage and a decline in both stabilized, single-tenanted and SNF portfolio occupancy when compared with the twelve months ended September 30, 2017.

For the reporting period ended December 31, 2017, the results of the tenant (the "Texas Ten Tenant") for the Company's ten skilled nursing facilities in Texas were consistent with the Company's expectations that coverage results would continue to decline throughout 2017, after which no further substantial decreases are expected. The Texas Ten Tenant reported that the rent and fixed charge coverage ratios were 0.73x and 0.66x, respectively, for the reporting period ended December 31, 2017. Rent coverage on an EBITDARM basis (which adds back to EBITDAR the management fees that are contractually subordinated to rent payments) for the same reporting period was 1.00x. While the Texas Ten Tenant has continued to make payments of monthly base rent, the Company expects the Texas Ten Tenant to remain out of compliance with its coverage covenants throughout 2018.

Earnings Conference Call and Webcast

The Company will host a conference call and live audio webcast, both open for the general public to hear, later today at 9:00 a.m. Central Time. The number to call for this interactive teleconference is (412) 542-4116. A replay of the call will be available through May 17, 2018 by dialing (412) 317-0088 and entering the replay access code, 10119109.

The live audio webcast of the Company's quarterly conference call will be available online in the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at ir.medequities.com. The online replay will be available approximately one hour after the end of the call and archived for approximately twelve months.

About MedEquities Realty Trust, Inc.

MedEquities Realty Trust (NYSE: MRT) is a self-managed and self-administered real estate investment trust that invests in a diversified mix of healthcare properties and healthcare-related real estate debt investments. The Company's management team has extensive industry experience in acquiring, owning, developing, financing, operating, leasing and monetizing many types of healthcare properties and portfolios. MedEquities' strategy is to become an integral capital partner with high-quality and growth-oriented facility-based providers of healthcare services on a nationwide basis, primarily through net-leased real estate investment. For more information, please visit www.medequities.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements provide our current expectations or forecasts of future events and are not statements of historical fact. These forward-looking statements include information about the Company's 2018 guidance and related assumptions, strategic plans and objectives, potential property acquisitions and investments, anticipated capital expenditures (and access to capital), amounts of anticipated cash distributions to our stockholders in the future, the ability of the Texas Ten Tenant to improve its operating results and return to compliance with financial covenants under its master lease and other matters. Words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "will" and variations of these words and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control, are difficult to predict and/or could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent uncertainty and may ultimately prove to be incorrect or false. For a description of factors that may cause the Company's actual results or performance to differ from its forward-looking statements, see the sections entitled "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and "Risk Factors" included in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), and other documents filed by the Company with the SEC from time to time. You are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as otherwise may be required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or actual operating results.

MedEquities Realty Trust, Inc. Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands, except per share amounts)













March 31, 2018

December 31, 2017 Assets

(unaudited)



Real estate properties







Land

$ 43,181

$ 43,180 Building and improvements

505,699

505,623 Intangible lease assets

11,387

11,387 Furniture, fixtures, and equipment

3,538

3,538 Less accumulated depreciation and amortization

(46,286)

(41,984) Total real estate properties, net

517,519

521,744









Mortgage notes receivable, net

41,513

18,557 Cash and cash equivalents

5,917

12,640 Other assets, net

32,729

28,662 Total Assets

$ 597,678

$ 581,603









Liabilities and Equity







Liabilities







Debt, net

$ 232,065

$ 215,523 Accounts payable and accrued liabilities

6,204

6,605 Deferred revenue

1,587

2,722 Total liabilities

239,856

224,850









Commitments and contingencies







Equity







Common stock, $0.01 par value. Authorized 400,000 shares; 31,887 and 31,836

issued and outstanding at March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017,

respectively

314

314 Additional paid in capital

376,702

375,690 Dividends declared

(74,525)

(67,691) Retained earnings

49,365

44,196 Accumulated other comprehensive income

3,034

1,247 Total MedEquities Realty Trust, Inc. stockholders' equity

354,890

353,756 Noncontrolling interest

2,932

2,997 Total equity

357,822

356,753 Total Liabilities and Equity

$ 597,678

$ 581,603

MedEquities Realty Trust, Inc. Consolidated Statements of Income (in thousands, except per share amounts)



























Three months ended March 31,





2018

2017





(unaudited)

(unaudited)

Revenues









Rental income

$ 15,929

$ 13,839

Interest on mortgage notes receivable

787

433

Interest on notes receivable

-

10

Total revenues

16,716

14,282

Expenses









Depreciation and amortization

4,194

3,618

Property related

322

352

Acquisition related

108

66

Franchise, excise and other taxes

71

86

General and administrative

3,316

3,171

Total operating expenses

8,011

7,293

Operating income

8,705

6,989













Other income (expense)









Interest and other income

7

1

Interest expense

(2,558)

(1,515)





(2,551)

(1,514)













Net income

$ 6,154

$ 5,475

Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest

(985)

(944)

Net income attributable to common stockholders

$ 5,169

$ 4,531













Net income attributable to common stockholders per share









Basic and diluted

$ 0.16

$ 0.14













Weighted average shares outstanding









Basic

31,550

31,415

Diluted

31,610

31,415













Dividends declared per common share

$ 0.21

$ 0.21



Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We consider the following non-GAAP financial measures useful to investors as key supplemental measures of our performance: funds from operations attributable to common stockholders ("FFO") and adjusted fund from operations attributable to common stockholders ("AFFO").

Funds from Operations

FFO is a non-GAAP measure used by many investors and analysts that follow the real estate industry. FFO, as defined by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts ("NAREIT"), represents net income (computed in accordance with GAAP), excluding gains (losses) on sales of real estate and impairments of real estate assets, plus real estate-related depreciation and amortization and after adjustments for unconsolidated partnerships and joint ventures. Noncontrolling interest amounts represent adjustments to reflect only our share of depreciation and amortization. We compute FFO in accordance with NAREIT's definition, which may differ from the methodology for calculating FFO, or similarly titled measures, used by other companies.

Historical cost accounting for real estate assets implicitly assumes that the value of real estate assets diminishes predictably over time. Since real estate values instead have historically risen or fallen with market conditions, most real estate industry investors consider FFO to be helpful in evaluating a real estate company's operations. We believe that the presentation of FFO provides useful information to investors regarding our operating performance by excluding the effect of real-estate related depreciation and amortization, gains or losses from sales for real estate, including impairments, extraordinary items and the portion of items related to unconsolidated entities, all of which are based on historical cost accounting, and that FFO can facilitate comparisons of operating performance between periods and between REITs, even though FFO does not represent an amount that accrues directly to common stockholders.

Our calculation of FFO may not be comparable to measures calculated by other companies that do not use the NAREIT definition of FFO or do not calculate FFO per diluted share in accordance with NAREIT guidance. FFO should not be considered as an alternative to net income (computed in accordance with GAAP) as an indicator of our financial performance or to cash flow from operating activities (computed in accordance with GAAP) as an indicator of our liquidity.

Adjusted Funds from Operations

AFFO is a non-GAAP measure used by many investors and analysts to measure a real estate company's operating performance by removing the effect of items that do not reflect ongoing property operations. To calculate AFFO, we further adjust FFO for certain items that are not added to net income in NAREIT's definition of FFO, such as acquisition expenses, non-real estate-related depreciation and amortization (including amortization of lease incentives, tenant allowances, and leasing costs), stock-based compensation expenses, and any other non-comparable or non-operating items, that do not relate to the operating performance of our properties. To calculate AFFO, we also adjust FFO to remove the effect of straight-line rent revenue, which represents the recognition of net unbilled rental income expected to be collected in future periods of a lease agreement that exceeds the actual contractual rent due periodically from tenants for their use of the leased real estate under each lease. Noncontrolling interest amounts represent adjustments to reflect only our share of straight-line rent revenue.

Our calculation of AFFO may differ from the methodology used for calculating AFFO by certain other REITs and, accordingly, our AFFO may not be comparable to AFFO reported by other REITs. AFFO should not be considered as an alternative to net income (computed in accordance with GAAP) as an indicator of our financial performance or to cash flow from operating activities (computed in accordance with GAAP) as an indicator of our liquidity.

MedEquities Realty Trust, Inc. Reconciliations of FFO and AFFO (in thousands, except per share amounts) (Unaudited)



























Three months ended March 31,





2018

2017

Net income attributable to common stockholders

$ 5,169

$ 4,531

Real estate depreciation and amortization, net of noncontrolling interest

4,112

3,536

FFO attributable to common stockholders

9,281

8,067

Stock-based compensation expense

1,056

956

Deferred financing costs amortization

258

322

Non-real estate depreciation and amortization

133

152

Straight-line rent expense

38

40

Straight-line rent revenue, net of noncontrolling interest

(1,429)

(969)

AFFO attributable to common stockholders

$ 9,337

$ 8,568













Weighted average shares outstanding-

earnings per share









Basic

31,550

31,415

Diluted

31,610

31,415













Net income attributable to common

stockholders per share









Basic and diluted

$ 0.16

$ 0.14













Weighted average common shares

outstanding- FFO and AFFO









Basic

31,550

31,415

Diluted

31,610

31,566













FFO per common share









Basic and diluted

$ 0.29

$ 0.26













AFFO per common share









Basic and diluted

$ 0.30

$ 0.27



SOURCE MedEquities Realty Trust, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.medequities.com

DETROIT, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Backing up his belief that animals are an essential part of the family, Detroit attorney Mike Morse today announced a $100,000 donation to the Michigan Humane Society's Cruelty Investigation Department. Morse announced his gift following a ride-along with the cruelty investigation team.

"I saw firsthand the work these dedicated professionals do," Morse said. "They're in the community every day educating and enforcing. And contrary to popular belief, their goal isn't to take an animal away from its family but rather to keep it safe and with its family. Not only do they protect abused and abandoned animals, they also provide supplies for local families in need with pet food, straw and more."

"This is an incredible investment in our cruelty investigation work in Detroit," said Matthew Pepper, MHS president and CEO. "This gift will save countless lives and provide critical support to families. It shines a light on animal cruelty and our efforts to be a voice for those that cannot speak for themselves."

Morse is no stranger to community involvement and initiatives. He is a champion for Detroit public school students, having provided more than 100,000 backpacks and other supplies in the past four years. Asked for a comment, Morse said, "It's simple. You live in a community, you do your part. Maybe if I step up to try and make a difference, others will too."

Today the Michigan Humane Society's Cruelty Investigation Department, local families, and at-risk animals are Morse's latest winners.

About the Michigan Humane Society

The Michigan Humane Society, founded in 1877, is the oldest and largest nonprofit animal welfare organization in the state. Each year, MHS achieves 100 percent placement of more than 10,000 healthy and treatable animals through compassionate care, community engagement, and advocacy for humane treatment. The MHS operates three shelter and veterinary centers in Detroit, Rochester Hills, and Westland; five adoption partnerships with Premier Pet Supply, Petco, and PetSmart; and both a Cruelty Investigation Department and a Statewide Animal Response Team. Learn more at michiganhumane.org.

SOURCE Michigan Humane Society

Related Links

http://www.michiganhumane.org

NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- GRAMMY-Award winning artists Kings of Leon, James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef Jonathan Waxman, Vector Management's Ken Levitan & Andy Mendelsohn and C3 Presents are pleased to announce Music City Food + Wine Festival, September 14-16, 2018. The sixth annual festival will offer expanded festival programming, including the addition of the Official Drink of Nashville competition, a special Friday Night Throwdown pairing celebrity chefs with pro athletes, Saturday Night's Harvest Night anchored by Kings of Leon, the return of Sunday's Gospel Brunch, and much more. Tickets go on sale May 10, 2018, 10:00 a.m. CST, at http://www.musiccityfoodandwinefestival.com/tickets

"As Nashville's food culture continues to evolve, we aim to strike a balance between showcasing our local culinary scene, world-renowned chefs that have inspired so many, along with some amazing musical elements," says festival co-founder, Ken Levitan of Vector Management.

"Music City Food & Wine Festival is our favorite weekend of the year," says festival co-founder, Nathan Followill of Kings of Leon. "It allows us to roll out Nashville's welcome mat to eat, drink and be merry with friends from all walks of life."

Friday Night Throwdown & Official Drink of Nashville:

On Friday night, celebrate the ultimate Happy Hour and join chefs Anne Burrell and Tim Love for a throwdown as they go head-to-head in a spirited cooking demo, captaining teams featuring celebrity sous chefs from the Nashville Predators and Tennessee Titans and emceed by Jessie James Decker. The special guest sous chefs will be announced this summer. Each team will be challenged to create the ultimate meal from a surprise ingredient box. Come out and cheer on the hometown teams as they battle for bragging rights in the kitchen!

Join the city's top bartenders and mixologists as they compete to create the Official Drink of Nashville. On Friday night, this competition will celebrate the spirit of Nashville and shine a spotlight on Music City's talented bartending community. The city's best bar teams will mix, shake and measure to create this year's essential Nashville cocktail. Enjoy bites from top chefs & restaurants, wine and cocktail tastings and more.

Harvest Night, Saturday, September 15:

On Saturday, September 15, Kings of Leon will anchor Harvest Night at Walk of Fame Park, the signature dine-around featuring the country's best chefs and a star-studded lineup of special musical guests performing iconic disco hits from the 70s & 80s. Festivalgoers are encouraged to dress up in their flashiest Studio 54-inspired garb for a fabulous dance party under the Nashville stars. Food will be served from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m., with the live musical performance led by Kings of Leon and special guests scheduled from 9:00 - 10:30 p.m. The lineup of special musical guests will be announced this summer.

Chefs scheduled to cook at Harvest Night include: Jeni Britton Bauer (Jeni's Ice Cream); Tom Bayless (The Public House); Matt Bolus (The 404 Kitchen); Sean Brock (McCrady's, McCrady's Tavern, Husk, Minero); Maneet Chauhan (Chauhan Ale & Masala House); Carla Hall (ABC's The Chew); newly minted James Beard Foundation Award-winning "Outstanding Chef" Gabrielle Hamilton (Prune); Tim Love (Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, Woodshed Smokehouse, Queenie's Steakhouse, Love Shack, White Elephant Saloon); Margot McCormack (Margot Cafe & Bar); Aaron Sanchez (Johnny Sanchez); Chris Shepherd (UB Preserv); Jonathan Waxman (Barbuto, Jams, Adele's, Brezza Cucina); Tandy Wilson (City House); and Andrew Zimmern (TV personality, Andrew Zimmern's Canteen).

"I'm looking forward to hot chicken, barbecue and great music in my hometown of Nashville," says Carla Hall. "I'll be feeling right at home with new and old chef friends."

Grand Taste, Friday, September 14 & Saturday, September 15:

Music City Food + Wine Festival brings together the stars of Nashville's thriving culinary and music communities with acclaimed regional and national chefs, wine and spirits experts, and musicians. The Grand Taste, held at Bicentennial Capitol State Mall Park (600 James Robertson Pkwy) on Friday, September 14, from 6:00  10:00 p.m., and Saturday, September 15, from 11:00 a.m.  4:00 p.m., will offer immersive cooking demonstrations, engaging panel discussions, intimate Tasting Sessions, a dynamic line-up of local chefs and artisans serving signature dishes and drinks in the Chef Showcase, Book Signings, Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint and Friends, featuring an all-star roster of chefs, beverage pros and pitmasters from around the country that will smoke and grill meats and veggies in an interactive, live-fire barbeque feast on festival grounds, and more.

Featuring a dynamic roster of chefs and restaurants on Friday, September 14, and Saturday, September 15, the Chef Showcase in the Grand Taste at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park will give attendees the opportunity to meet some of the city's top chefs, while sampling dishes from a diverse line-up of restaurants. Chef Showcase will feature some of Nashville's most beloved chefs and restaurants, including Kristopher Akers (Americano); Kahlil Arnold (Arnold's Country Kitchen); Jessica Benefield & Trey Burnette (The Green Pheasant, Two Ten Jack); Kristin Beringson (Silo); Carey Bringle (Peg Leg Porker); Chris Carter & James Peisker (Porter Road Butcher); Maneet Chauhan; Trey Cioccia (The Farm House, Black Rabbit); Aaron Clemins (Kuchnia + Keller); Gerard Craft (Pastaria); Bill & Tony Darsinos (GreKo Greek Street Food); Nathan Duensing (Marsh House); Matt Farley (Woolworth on 5th); Tony Galzin (Nicky's Coal Fired); Daniel Gorman (Henley); Robert Grace & Andrew Whitney (Moto, Kayne Prime, Tavern, Saint Anejo); Mike Haggerty (Sea Salt); Hal M. Holden-Bache (Lockeland Table); Matt Gillie (Tansuo); Matt Hyland & Graydon Atchley (Emmy Squared Nashville); Jess Lambert (etc Restaurant); Daniel Lindley (5th & Taylor); Crystal De Luna-Bogan (The Grilled Cheeserie); Sean McTiernan (Adele's); Michael Morales (Sunda); Deb Paquette (Etch Restaurant); Kyle Patterson (Sinema Nashville); Nick Pellegrino (Mangia Nashville); Giovanni Pinato (Giovanni Ristorante); Brian Riggenbach (The Mockingbird Nashville); Andrew Rodriguez (Little Octopus); Joshua Simpson (Proper Bagel); Nina Singto (Thai Esane); David Tieman (Five Points Pizza); and more to be announced.

Gospel Brunch, Sunday, September 16:

On Sunday, September 16, join an acclaimed group of chefs and restaurants as they prepare brunch favorites set to a spirited live gospel performance from Gayle Mayes for Music City Food + Wine's Gospel Brunch at Walk of Fame Park. Join some of Tennessee's most beloved chefs as they serve signature dishes paired with eye-opening cocktails, wines and coffee, including Blackberry Farm; Elliot Cunniff (Makeready Libations & Liberation @ Noelle); Lisa Donovan (pastry chef/writer) & special guest chefs; Brandon Frohne (Holler & Dash); John Lasater (Hattie B's); Andy Little (Josephine); Pat Martin (Hugh Baby's); Margot McCormack (Marche); Claire Meneely (Dozen Bakery); Bryan Lee Weaver (Butcher & Bee); and Karl Worley (Biscuit Love).

Tickets & More Information:

Music City Food + Wine Festival ticket options include an All-In Ticket, as well as Friday Evening Ticket, Saturday Ticket, Harvest Night Ticket, and Gospel Brunch Ticket. All attendees must be 21 years of age or older.

The All-In Ticket ($525 per person) enables guests to experience the full weekend of Music City Food + Wine Festival programming, including the Official Drink of Nashville competition and Friday Night Throwdown and Saturday festival access; the Grand Taste cooking demos and panel discussions; more than 80 beer, wine, cocktail, and culinary tastings; access to Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint and Friends; book signings; access to Saturday's Harvest Night and Sunday's Gospel Brunch.

The Friday Evening Ticket ($165 per person) includes single-day access to Friday, September 14 festival programming at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, including the Official Drink of Nashville competition and the Friday Night Throwdown; Grand Taste more than 80 beer, wine, cocktail, and culinary tastings; and access to Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint and Friends.

The Saturday Ticket ($165 per person) includes single-day access to Saturday, September 15 festival programming at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, including the Grand Taste cooking demos and panel discussions; more than 80 beer, wine, cocktail, and culinary tastings; book signings; and access to Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint and Friends.

Harvest Night Ticket ($275 per person) available as a stand-alone ticket option for Saturday evening, September 15. Harvest Night brings together signature dishes from world-renowned chefs from Nashville and across the country with a live musical performance anchored by Kings of Leon and special guests celebrating iconic disco hits of the 70s & 80s. Attendees are encouraged to dress up in their most festive Studio 54-inspired costumes for a rocking dance party under the stars at Walk of Fame Park in downtown Nashville.

Gospel Brunch ($85 per person) will return to Walk of Fame Park on Sunday, September 16, featuring a dynamic roster of restaurants and chefs serving creative brunch favorites. Get a jump-start on the day with eye-opening cocktails, wine, coffee, and a spirited live gospel brunch performance from Gayle Mayes.

For more information, please visit http://www.musiccityfoodandwinefestival.com or follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/musiccityfw) and Facebook (Facebook.com/musiccityfw) #MCFW.

For media credentials, please fill out the online application here: http://www.musiccityfoodandwinefestival.com/press/

Music City Food + Wine is generously sponsored by: Nashville Convention + Visitors Bureau, Toyota and FOOD & WINE.

SOURCE Music City Food + Wine Festival

Related Links

https://www.musiccityfoodandwinefestival.com

LONDON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan's European FinTech Market Outlook, 2018 outlines the trends in the rapidly evolving European FinTech industry for 2017 and 2018. Growth can be attributed to an ecosystem comprising of innovative start-ups, traditional financial institutions willing to digitalise, investors identifying growth opportunities and proactive regulators. Incorporation of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Big Data and analytics, and Internet of Things (IoT) to transform solutions enables companies to meet demands of digital consumers, including ease of use, on-the-go access and customisation. The financial services vertical is subjected to stringent regulatory and compliance measures; market participants are particularly focused on security of data and data privacy, and are also making use of these advanced technologies. Frost & Sullivan's study covers technology trends in Europe and their impact on the industry. It also examines trends in BankTech, InsurTech, RegTech, PayTech, and WealthTech, and forecasts growth opportunities in each segment.

For further information on this analysis, please visit: http://frost.ly/2gd

"Going forward we can expect FinTech companies to increase focus on, and participate in, research and proof-of-concept research in technologies such as blockchain and quantum computing," said Deepali Sathe, Senior Industry Analyst, ICT, Frost & Sullivan. "Meanwhile, developments around platforms, AI and ML will deliver exciting new opportunities."

As the influx of start-ups and innovative solutions transform the value chain across segments such as PayTech and InsurTech, traditional market participants are acknowledging the need to be agile. Frequent changes and updates in regulations and compliance requirements, and events such as Brexit, highlight the need for flexibility.

As companies struggle to meet the deadlines and requirements of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and revised Payments Services Directive (PSD2) in 2018, it underpins the growing demand for RegTech, which is expected to grow to more than $500 million in 2018.

"New business models and the growth of customer-centric solutions will create opportunities to offer new services or X-as-a-Service (XaaS)," noted Sathe. "These models automate processes and integrate with existing IT infrastructure to drive overall growth. Furthermore, multiple market segments such as small and medium enterprises (SMEs), expats, and people with short credit history that are either underserved or unserved have begun to offer additional business opportunities."

Companies are increasingly exploring options for partnerships and strategic investments to ensure faster time to market to meet consumer demands of 24/7 access and enable an omni-channel approach. APIs and shared economy will have an industry-wide impact, as the new ecosystem encourages a collaborative approach.

European Fintech Market Outlook, 2018 is part of Frost & Sullivan's global ICT Growth Partnership Service program.

About Frost & Sullivan

For over five decades, Frost & Sullivan has become world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion.

European Fintech Market Outlook, 2018

MDC3-33

Contact:

Kristi Cekani

Corporate Communications - Frost & Sullivan, Europe

P: +39.02.4851.6133

E: [email protected]

http://www.frost.com

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

Related Links

http://www.frost.com

Xue Xiao is among the survivors of the earthquake. He was trapped under the rubble of his high school for several days following the earthquake. When asked during the rescue what he wanted to do when he got out, he replied, "I want a Coke." His words moved the mournful people across the country watching the rescue on television, and he gained the nickname "Coke boy."

As a result of his serious injuries, Xue's right arm was amputated, and in fact, he couldn't drink Coke for months after the surgery. But his optimism and strong character carried him out of the shadow of the disaster. He was later recommended to study at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and earned an internship at Coca-Cola China. He now works for the Coca-Cola Museum in Chengdu.

That year, another survivor, Xu Guang, received as much attention as Xue Xiao. Xu was known nationwide for holding a card that said "You have worked hard" to thank the officers and soldiers who came to the rescue. Xu is now studying in a medical college and hopes to help more people in the future. Feng Wei, who was also rescued from the debris, currently serves in a special warfare brigade. Feng is just one of the rescued youths who, out of gratitude for the rescue soldiers, was inspired to join the military.

Ten years after the Wenchuan Earthquake, the area has found new life, which is reflected in each and every person across the quake-hit county.

I visited Wenchuan several years ago and interviewed a man by the name of Wang Caifeng in Shuimo Town. Wang, who has only the left arm, managed to help rescue several villagers in the worst-affected areas in the town.

Before the earthquake, Wang's home was surrounded by energy-intensive and high-pollution factories. After the disaster, the town has developed its tourism industry. In 2011, Wang seized the opportunity provided by the local economic transformation and got a bank loan to turn his house into a hotel.

The locals in Wenchuan have also been developing eco-friendly agriculture to seek a new and better life with the help of crops of sweet cherries, red plums and kiwifruits.

Unquestionably, the courage of the people has not been shattered by the past disaster. In the survivors, we see the power of moving on and never giving up.

China Mosaic

http://www.china.org.cn/video/node_7230027.htm

New life in Wenchuan a decade after the 2008 earthquake

http://www.china.org.cn/video/2018-05/10/content_51204870.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PARSIPPANY, N.J., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Parents will do whatever it takes to help keep their families safe and protected, including cleaning the home to prevent germ-borne illnesses. In the heart of the home, the kitchen, parents not only spend time cleaning, but they invest time ensuring their families are eating healthy, nutritious meals. When it comes to preparation for cooking meals, the assumption is that wiping surfaces down with any cleaning product makes them safe to cook on, but is that really the case?

Areas where your family hangs out the most are the areas that you clean the most. At Lysol, we know that healthier living starts with healthier surfaces  which are not just surfaces that look clean, but surfaces where cleaners have not left behind any harsh chemical residues. Made with only three simple ingredients, the NEW Lysol Daily Cleanser leaves behind zero harsh chemical residue, so it's safe to use throughout the home with no rinse step required. Of course, Lysol Daily Cleanser kills 99.9% of bacteria and viruses and can safely be used on baby pacifiers, pet bowls, toilets, doorknobs, food prep surfaces and more without rinsing.

"It comes as no surprise that the parts of the home in need of the most regular cleaning are also the places where our families spend the most time, like the kitchen," said Rory Tait, Lysol Marketing Director. "We know parents want cleaning products that are effective at addressing these high-traffic areas, but can also be used safely around their families. We heard you, and are excited to introduce Lysol Daily Cleanser, which was developed with the safety of families in mind. It is approved for use throughout the home to clean up every day light messes, and provides the level of germ kill that makes Lysol a home cleaning go-to."

To bring the innovation to life and show consumers how Lysol Daily Cleanser is safe to use in everyday food preparation surface cleaning, Lysol will launch its first-ever food truck, coming to New York City on Friday, May 11th in Union Square Plaza from 8:00am to 5:00pm. The twist? The food truck will only serve dishes with three-ingredients  a nod to the product's simple makeup.

To help educate consumers, provide further insight and cook up the three-ingredient dishes, Lysol will join forces with chef, author, television personality and mother, Alex Guarnaschelli. Alex will be on-site at the food truck, whipping up her custom, brand new, three-ingredient recipes to illustrate to parents that healthier eating starts with healthier surfaces.

"As a full-time mother and professional chef, working closely with food and food surfaces creates a heightened need for clean, safe, germ and chemical residue-free areas," said Alex Guarnaschelli. "I'm excited to partner with Lysol to introduce Lysol Daily Cleanser which addresses this need."

Lysol, an RB brand, developed the innovative cleanser with three simple ingredients: water, salt and hypochlorous. Hypochlorous is a gentle, non-toxic, weak acid, but a powerful sanitizer that forms when salt water is electrolyzed. Once dry, it reverts to salt, leaving behind no other residues. Unlike other cleaning products, Lysol Daily Cleanser is free from harsh chemical residue, so there is no rinse step required after spraying affected areas. It is safe to use on food contact surfaces, baby areas, toys, pet areas and even pacifiers.

Lysol Daily Cleanser is available at retailers nationwide. For more information visit http://www.lysol.com/new-lysol-daily-cleanser/.

About RB:

RB is the global leading consumer health and hygiene company. Driven by a purpose of providing innovative solutions for healthier lives and happier homes, RB has operations in over 60 countries. From the foundations of wellness and infant nutrition, to the fundamentals of a hygienic home, its global brands help people live healthier, happier lives.

RB has world leading Powerbrands which include household names such as Enfamil, Nutramigen, Nurofen, Strepsils, Gaviscon, Mucinex, Durex, Scholl, Clearasil, K-Y, Dettol, Veet, Harpic, Cillit Bang, Mortein, Finish, Vanish, Calgon, Woolite and Air Wick.

RB's unique culture is at the heart of its success. Its drive to achieve, passion to outperform and commitment to quality and scientific excellence are manifested in the work of over 40,000 employees worldwide. RB is proud to lead the Save a Child a Minute campaign, which aims to eliminate child deaths from diarrhea, one of the world's largest killers of children under five.

For more information visit http://www.rb.com/us/.

*RB is the trading name of Reckitt Benckiser group of companies

About Alex Guarnaschelli:

Alex Guarnaschelli is a world-renowned American chef, cookbook author and television personality. After working under acclaimed chef and restaurateur Larry Forgione at his famed restaurant An American Place, Alex moved to France to study at La Varenne Culinary School in Burgundy. Her culinary career began to flourish after spending four years at the Michelin three-star restaurant Guy Savoy and rapidly being promoted to sous chef at La Butte Chaillot. After seven successful years in France, Alex returned to the United States and quickly rose through the ranks to become a standout sous chef at Daniel Boulud's eponymous restaurant. In 2003, Alex became the executive chef at Butter Restaurant, where she thoughtfully curated an American menu based on her culinary choices and point of view. Alex is also well known for her recurring role as a judge on Food Network's Chopped and appears on other prime-time series such as Beat Bobby Flay, Iron Chef Gauntlet, Iron Chef America, Cooks vs. Cons, and Guy's Superstar Grocery Games. She earned her title as a Kitchen Stadium Iron Chef after winning The Next Iron Chef: Redemption and hosted her own cooking show s on the network. In 2017, Alex published a second cookbook, The Home Cook: Recipes To Know By Heart, and in 2018 launched Fix Me A Plate, a digital Food Network series in which the New York native takes audiences on an insider's tour of the city's best no-frills food spots. Alex currently resides in New York City with her daughter Ava, who is quickly following in her footsteps as a chef-in-training.

SOURCE RB

Related Links

https://www.rb.com/us

SAN FRANCISCO and SAN DIEGO, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nex Cubed, an innovation platform that empowers entrepreneurs to bring new technologies to market, helps rising companies scale, and provides paths to liquidity, is pleased to welcome Ken Denman and Duncan Logan to its Board of Directors.

"We are honored to have Mr. Denman and Mr. Logan join the Nex Cubed Board," said Marlon Evans, CEO of Nex Cubed. "Their breadth of experience, leadership, and shared passion for developing entrepreneurs will inform and drive our strategic plan."

Ken Denman is an entrepreneur, board member, investor, and serial CEO of private and public technology companies. Denman is a Venture Partner with Sway Ventures, and most recently was President and CEO of Emotient, Inc., a venture-backed software startup that built an AI-based platform for measuring facial expressions. Emotient was acquired by Apple in January of 2016. Denman has also been CEO of two Silicon Valley public software companies, Openwave and iPass. Denman sits on the Board of Directors for Costco, Motorola Solutions, Mitek Systems, and LendingClub.

"The difference Nex Cubed is making by supporting the development of industry-changing technologies while also empowering entrepreneurs to make a real impact on the world is extraordinary," said Denman. "I'm looking forward to joining the Nex Cubed family."

Duncan Logan is the Founder and CEO of RocketSpace, a San Francisco-based technology campus and accelerator. RocketSpace has fueled the success of more than 1,000 startups, including 18 unicorns that have raised more than $21b, such as Uber, Spotify and Leap Motion. At 24, Logan started his first company, CITYPRO International, which he sold to ASAP Pic in 2000 after building it up to $8m in revenue over three short years. In 2002, Logan joined MessageLabs, a SAAS security company he helped build until it was sold to Symantec in 2008 for $700m.

"Quality attracts quality," stated Logan. "From the leadership team to the mentor and advisor community, the quality of the Nex Cubed ecosystem assures the company is well-positioned for success. I am eager to contribute to the continued growth of Nex Cubed and its portfolio."

About Nex Cubed

Nex Cubed is a leader in innovation-driven value creation, as a long-term strategic partner and shareholder. Our global ecosystem empowers entrepreneurs to bring new technologies to market, helps rising companies scale, and provides paths to liquidity - the power of three. We provide access to hundreds of founders, mentors, investors, and corporate partners, helping entrepreneurs drive innovation, value, and growth. We don't stop there. Nex Cubed exists to support the world's most promising entrepreneurs in achieving a lasting and profound impact on people, the planet, and profit - the Triple Bottom Line.

Nex Cubed Contact:

Maggey Felix

Sr. Director of Marketing

214-538-9467

[email protected]

http://www.nex3.com

SOURCE Nex Cubed

Related Links

http://www.nex3.com

- Nuvo to Host Conference Call/Audio Webcast May 10th at 7:45 a.m. ET -

MISSISSAUGA, ON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Nuvo Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nuvo or the Company) (TSX:NRI;OTCQX:NRIFF), a commercial healthcare company with a portfolio of commercial products and pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities, today announced its financial and operational results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018. For further details on the results, please refer to Nuvo's Management, Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) and Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements which are available on the Company's website (www.nuvopharmaceuticals.com). All figures are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise noted.

First Quarter 2018 and Business Update

In January 2018 , the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, Nuvo Pharmaceuticals ( Ireland ) Limited (Nuvo Ireland) acquired the U.S. product and intellectual property rights to Resultz from Piedmont Pharmaceuticals LLC ( Piedmont ). Resultz was cleared as a Class 1 medical device by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2017 and has not yet been commercially launched in the U.S. Nuvo anticipates commercializing Resultz in the U.S. through a licensing partner and is in active discussions with potential licensees.





, the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, Nuvo Pharmaceuticals ( ) Limited (Nuvo Ireland) acquired the U.S. product and intellectual property rights to Resultz from Piedmont Pharmaceuticals LLC ( ). Resultz was cleared as a Class 1 medical device by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in and has not yet been commercially launched in the U.S. Nuvo anticipates commercializing Resultz in the U.S. through a licensing partner and is in active discussions with potential licensees. In March 2018 , the Company held scientific advice meetings with select European Union (E.U.) regulatory agencies regarding a potential Pennsaid 2% regulatory submission for osteoarthritis and is planning on submitting its Pennsaid 2% regulatory dossier in select E.U. member countries within the next twelve months.





, the Company held scientific advice meetings with select European Union (E.U.) regulatory agencies regarding a potential Pennsaid 2% regulatory submission for osteoarthritis and is planning on submitting its Pennsaid 2% regulatory dossier in select E.U. member countries within the next twelve months. In April 2018 , pursuant to the Company's notice of intention to make a normal course issuer bid for a portion of its outstanding common shares, the Company purchased 164,049 common shares with available cash on hand for a total cost of $547,930 or $3.34 per share. The common shares acquired by Nuvo were cancelled upon purchase.

First Quarter Financial Summary

Total revenue was $4.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018 compared to $7.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017 .





for the three months ended compared to for the three months ended . Adjusted EBITDA (1) was $0.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018 compared to $2.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017 .





was for the three months ended compared to for the three months ended . Net loss was $0.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018 compared to net income of $2.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017 . The net loss was inclusive of non-cash amortization expense of $0.5 million related to the Resultz patents.





for the three months ended compared to net income of for the three months ended . The net loss was inclusive of non-cash amortization expense of related to the Resultz patents. Cash and short-term investments were $6.5 million as at March 31, 2018 compared to $10.4 million as at December 31, 2017 . The decrease included the US$1.5 million ( $1.9 million ) that was paid to Piedmont to acquire the U.S. product and intellectual property rights to Resultz and a $2.6 million investment in working capital in the quarter.

(1) Adjusted EBITDA is a non- International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) financial measure defined by the Company below.

"Q1 marked the completion of our acquisition of the global rights to Resultz  giving Nuvo an additional, best-in-class, approved commercial stage product that we intend to out-license to commercial partners in several countries and ultimately manufacture at our manufacturing facility," said Jesse Ledger, Nuvo's President & CEO. "The Nuvo team made considerable progress during Q1 to transition the Resultz business into Nuvo operations. We are very pleased with the interactions to-date with our new license partners including Reckitt-Benckiser in the E.U. Q1 is the first quarter we earned Resultz royalty income, which came in at a level in line with our expectations."

Mr. Ledger further added, "Pennsaid 2% commercial bottle production was also in line with our expectations in Q1. We look forward to more stable commercial bottle production throughout 2018 and a return to more consistent sample production in the second half of 2018."

Growth Strategy

The Company's focus, in the short-term, is to continue to maximize the value of Pennsaid 2% and Resultz through out-licensing to commercial partners in international markets, identifying new opportunities to acquire additional, revenue generating or late-stage products or businesses to further diversify the Company's existing product portfolio and revenue streams and to better utilize the Company's manufacturing facility in Varennes, Quebec.

Acquisition of Product and Intellectual Property Rights to Resultz

In January 2018, the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, Nuvo Ireland acquired the U.S. product and intellectual property rights to Resultz (50% isopropyl myristate, 50% cyclomethicone D5 topical solution lice and egg removal kit) from Piedmont. This follows the acquisition of the ex-U.S. Resultz product and intellectual property rights from Piedmont at the end of December 2017. These transactions were in line with our strategy to diversify our product portfolio and revenue streams. The Company believes a considerable opportunity exists to license Resultz in the U.S., Germany and Italy - three markets where Resultz has regulatory approvals. We are actively seeking commercial partners in these jurisdictions in a timely manner.

Pennsaid 2% Global Out-licensing

Nuvo management recently held scientific advice meetings with select E.U. regulatory agencies to discuss a potential pathway toward Pennsaid 2% regulatory submissions in select E.U. countries. There was a favourable response from the regulators and the Company is preparing to file a new, revised registration dossier to support an application for marketing approval in these E.U. member states within the next twelve months. While there is no guarantee that an approval will be granted, the Company is encouraged by the discussions with the regulators to-date and feels this is an important step in the right direction toward expanding the global footprint for Pennsaid 2%.

Table of Selected Financial Results

For further details on the results, please refer to Nuvo's MD&A and the Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements which are available on the Company's website (www.nuvopharmaceuticals.com).



Three months ended

March 31, 2018 March 31, 2017 Change (from continuing operations, in thousands,

except gross margin) $ $ $ Product Sales 3,755 6,653 (2,898) Other Revenue 676 329 347 Total Operating Expenses 4,849 4,716 133 Gross Margin % on Product Sales 49% 58% (9%) Net Income (Loss) (169) 2,196 (2,365) Adjusted EBITDA 558 2,298 (1,740)

Total revenue, consisting of product sales, license revenue and contract revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2018 was $4.4 million compared to $7.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017. The decrease in total revenue was primarily related to a decrease in Pennsaid 2% product sales to our U.S. partner, Horizon Pharma plc. The Company's new sample production equipment is now fully operational and the Company remains confident that revenue from the physician sample format will rebound in the second half of 2018.

Total operating expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2018 were $4.8 million compared to $4.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017. The slight increase in operating expenses was primarily attributable to an increase in general and administrative (G&A) expenses and depreciation and amortization, partially offset by a decrease in cost of goods sold (COGS) and research and development expenses (R&D).

COGS for the three months ended March 31, 2018 was $1.9 million compared to $2.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017. COGS decreased in the three months ended March 31, 2018 due to decreased product sales. Gross margin on product sales was $1.8 million or 49% for the three months ended March 31, 2018 compared to a gross margin of $3.9 million or 58% for the three months ended March 31, 2017. The Company's gross margin on product sales was impacted by the volume and mix of products sold during the current and comparative quarter. The Company's gross margin was also impacted by the Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar, the currency in which it earns certain product revenues and sources select Pennsaid 2% and Pennsaid raw materials.

G&A expenses were $2.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018 compared to $1.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017. The increase in the current quarter was primarily related to $0.3 million in one-time costs associated with the transition and establishment of the Resultz business. Furthermore, the Company recognized $0.1 million in scientific affairs and regulatory costs primarily attributable to the advancement of the Company's Pennsaid 2% European regulatory strategy.

For the three months ended March 31, 2018, the Company recognized non-cash costs of $0.5 million in amortization for the Resultz patents.

Net loss for the three months ended March 31, 2018 was $0.2 million compared to net income of $2.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017. In the current quarter, the decrease was primarily attributable to a $2.0 million decrease in gross margin, a $0.5 million increase in amortization and a $0.7 million increase in G&A expenses, offset by a $0.4 million increase in license revenue, a $0.3 million decrease in R&D expenses and a $0.2 million income tax recovery.

Adjusted EBITDA decreased to $0.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018 compared to $2.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017. The decrease in Adjusted EBITDA for the current quarter was primarily related to a decrease in gross margin and an increase in G&A expenses which was largely a factor of one-time costs associated with the Company's acquisition and transition of the Resultz business, as well as increased costs incurred for the advancement of the Company's Pennsaid 2% European regulatory strategy.

Cash and short-term investments were $6.5 million as at March 31, 2018 compared to $10.4 million as at December 31, 2017. The decrease included the US$1.5 million ($1.9 million) that was paid to Piedmont to acquire the U.S. product and intellectual property rights to Resultz and an increase of $2.6 million in working capital.

The number of common shares outstanding as at March 31, 2018 was 11,597,849.

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA

EBITDA is a non-IFRS financial measure. The term EBITDA does not have any standardized meaning under IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. The Company defines Adjusted EBITDA as net income before net interest income, plus income tax expense (recovery), depreciation, amortization and SBC. Management believes Adjusted EBITDA is a useful supplemental measure from which to determine the Company's ability to generate cash available for working capital, capital expenditures and income taxes.

The following is a summary of how EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are calculated:



Three Months ended March 31, 2018 Three Months ended

March 31, 2017 in thousands $ $ Net income (loss) (169) 2,196 Add back:





Income tax recovery (174) -

Net interest income (21) (38)

Depreciation and amortization 614 54 EBITDA 250 2,212 Add back:





Stock-based compensation 308 86 Adjusted EBITDA 558 2,298

Management to Host Conference Call/Webcast

Management will host a conference call to discuss the results today (Thursday, May 10, 2018) at 7:45 a.m. ET. To participate in the conference call, please dial 1 (888) 231-8191 or (647) 427-7450, reference number 6490419. Please call in 15 minutes prior to the call to secure a line. You will be put on hold until the conference call begins.

A taped replay of the conference call will be available two hours after the live conference call and will be accessible until May 17, 2018 by calling 1 (855) 859-2056 or (416) 849-0833, reference number 6490419.

A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available through www.nuvopharmaceuticals.com. Please connect at least 15 minutes prior to the conference call to ensure adequate time for any software download that may be required to hear the webcast.

About Nuvo Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Nuvo (TSX: NRI;OTCQX: NRIFF) is a global commercial healthcare company with a portfolio of commercial products and pharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities. Nuvo has four commercial products that are available in a number of countries: Pennsaid 2%, Pennsaid, Resultz and the heated lidocaine/tetracaine patch. Nuvo manufactures Pennsaid 2% for the U.S market, Pennsaid for the global market and the bulk drug product for the HLT Patch at its FDA, Health Canada and E.U. approved manufacturing facility in Varennes, Quebec. The Company's focus is to maximize the value of Pennsaid 2% and Resultz through out-licensing to commercial partners in international markets and identifying new opportunities to acquire additional, revenue generating or late-stage products or businesses to further diversify the Company's existing product portfolio. For additional information, please visit www.nuvopharmaceuticals.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This Press Release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as: "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "goal," "seek," "believe," "project," "estimate," "expect," "strategy," "future," "likely," "may," "should," "will" and similar references to future periods.

Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on the Company's current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of its business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of the Company's control. Nuvo's actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, readers should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause Nuvo's actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the risk factors included in Nuvo's most recent Annual Information Form dated March 22, 2018 under the heading "Risks Factors", and as described from time to time in the reports and disclosure documents filed by Nuvo with Canadian securities regulatory agencies and commissions. These and other factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on Nuvo's forward-looking statements. As a result of the foregoing and other factors, no assurance can be given as to any such future results, levels of activity or achievements and none of Nuvo or any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of these forward-looking statements.

Any forward-looking statement made by the Company in this Press Release is based only on information currently available to it and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, Nuvo undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

SOURCE Nuvo Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Related Links

nuvopharmaceuticals.com

HOUSTON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hart Energy announced a significant leadership change in its flagship Oil and Gas Investor franchise. Effective with the May 2018 issue, Shelley Lamb begins a new role as senior vice president of digital media -- and Kevin Holmes is promoted to publisher of Oil and Gas Investor.

Lamb has been the publisher of Hart Energy's flagship publication for over 17 years. In her time leading Oil and Gas Investor and its many affiliated custom projects and events, Shelley has elevated the brand to be the premier information franchise of the energy business. Her tireless work ethic and demand for excellence will serve her well in this new venture.

"Shelley is not going anywhere," said Rich Eichler, Hart Energy's CEO. "This is a great time to change leadership, and Kevin is absolutely the right person to take the magazine forward. We're asking Shelley to use her leadership and business experience to further secure Hart Energy's position as the global energy industry's comprehensive digital source for news, data and analysis that inform business and technology decisions."

Eichler continues, "Taking over the reins of Oil and Gas Investor as its new publisher is Kevin Holmes. In his four years at Hart, Kevin has distinguished himself as one of the company's top brand development executives. He truly understands the value of the Investor brand. Kevin is well-respected by his clients and he is constantly thinking of ways to add value to their marketing spend. Kevin will be a new level of energy to the franchise as we look to expand our reach to the future leaders of the industry."

About Hart Energy

Since 1973, Hart Energy has provided timely and targeted information to a worldwide audience that includes E&P companies, pipeline operators, refiners and finished fuel producers, service companies, the financial and investment community, engineering and automotive industries, utilities, leading NGOs and the world's major governments. For information, visit hartenergy.com.

SOURCE Hart Energy

Related Links

http://www.hartenergy.com

INDIANAPOLIS, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OneAmerica today unveiled an innovative type of profit-sharing retirement plan design that leverages its company legacy by allowing participants to annuitize their account balance when they retire, providing them with the option of guaranteed income for life.

Known as OnePension, this plan design helps satisfy the industry demand for guaranteed lifetime income. It's an innovative option that removes the administrative hassles, costs, and inflexibility associated with a traditional defined benefit (DB) plan.

"In their heyday, DB plans were how businesses and organizations addressed the desire to provide guaranteed lifetime income to the workforce," said Pete Welsh, vice president and managing principal, OneAmerica Retirement Services. "We've figured out a way to refresh a time-tested concept to fit the Defined Contribution-centric world in which we live, while at the same time providing maximum flexibility for the employer and the advisor."

OneAmerica has provided retirement plan options through American United Life Insurance Company (AUL) a OneAmerica company, since the 1960s.

OnePension is different than an in-plan guaranteed lifetime income fundwhich is laden with uncertainty and additional fiduciary riskand different than a variable annuity. OnePension is a qualified plan so it allows retirement plan sponsors to invest on behalf of participants.

"OnePension is a good fit at the workplace for plan sponsors wanting to provide participants an annuity (guaranteed lifetime income) to ensure that employees, once their working career is finished, have retirement income," said Welsh.

Welsh recommends that any interested retirement plan sponsor contact their OneAmerica representative to learn more about how they and their employees can have guaranteed income for life. OneAmerica experienced record sales growth in 2017, as the retirement plan industry responded favorably to client service and effective participant-focused retirement planning tools.

OneAmerica is the marketing name for the companies of OneAmerica.

Products issued and underwritten by American United Life Insurance Company (AUL), a OneAmerica company. Administrative and recordkeeping services provided by McCready and Keene, Inc. or OneAmerica Retirement Services LLC, companies of OneAmerica which are not broker/dealers or investment advisors. Lifetime income is not the only annuity payout option and the individual should consider with care their specific needs and financial situation prior to annuitizing.

Retirement ready? OneAmerica has resources for plan sponsors designed to improve participant retirement outcomes. Learn more at https://www.oneamerica.com/retirement-readiness

About OneAmerica

A national leader in the insurance and financial services marketplace for more than 140 years, the companies of OneAmerica help customers build and protect their financial futures. OneAmerica offers a variety of products and services to serve the financial needs of their policyholders and customers. These products include retirement plan products and recordkeeping services, individual life insurance, annuities, asset-based long-term care solutions and employee benefit plan products. Products are issued and underwritten by the companies of OneAmerica and distributed through a nationwide network of employees, agents, brokers and other sources who are committed to providing value to our customers. To learn more about our products, services and the companies of OneAmerica, visit OneAmerica.com/companies.

SOURCE OneAmerica

Related Links

http://www.oneamerica.com

NEW YORK and LONDON and TEL-AVIV, Israel, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Optimove, makers of the Science-first Relationship Marketing Hub, announced today that it acquired DynamicMail business from PowerInbox, a leader in email real-time personalization and dynamic subscriber engagement.

"The first real digital marketing tool, email is still one of the most effective platforms in relationship marketing. That said, there is a huge opportunity to bring the type of personalization and interaction available in other channels to the inbox," said Pini Yakuel, CEO and Co-Founder of Optimove. "The acquisition of DynamicMail strengthens Optimove's existing email capabilities and provides advanced email solutions for smart marketing teams."

PowerInbox developed DynamicMail to automatically transform static email HTMLs into dynamic, interactive content so recipients get content that is updated for relevancy in real-time upon open. These capabilities will enhance Optimove's existing email product, Optimail. Current and new users of Optimove will have access to these features.

"Emotional intelligence is a key element in relationship marketing today, and PowerInbox's dynamic email technology offers great value to 300+ brands who use Optimove to communicate more effectively with their customers, and provide outstanding customer experiences," said Yakuel.

The acquired dynamic email innovations include real-time database reach and personalized optimization. These capabilities allow marketers to ensure that their emails refer only to products and services that are most relevant at the moment the recipient opens an email. For example, the technology excludes products from view that are not currently in stock, or put forth product recommendations specific to weather conditions at the reader's current location. PowerInbox's email components also enable additional highly engaging content, such as video, countdown timers, store locators and carousels.

"We see this as an amazing opportunity to join a great company, with a similar background," said Shefa Weinstein, General Manager of DynamicMail, who will join Optimove's roster along with approximately 10 employees. "It's the perfect match, and I look forward to combining our product with Optimove's impressive capabilities."

Optimove's acquisition of DynamicMail follows the company's introduction of Optimove 6.0 in late 2017, and underscores the company's commitment to offering smart marketers everything they need to take a scientific approach to relationship marketing.

"By acquiring DynamicMail, Optimove provides a unique complement of solutions in email products and features, as well as greater service. It is additional acceleration in an already existing momentum of the company's growth," said Yakuel.

About Optimove

Optimove is the Science-first Relationship Marketing Hub, used by over 300 customer-centric businesses to drive measurable growth by scaling customer engagement. Optimove combines the art of marketing with the science of data to autonomously generate actionable insight, empowering marketers to deliver highly-effective personalized customer marketing campaigns across multiple channels. The company's unique technology suite helps marketers maximize customer spend, engagement, retention and lifetime value. Optimove is used by leading brands of all sizes, including 1-800-Flowers, Stitch Fix, Glossier, Family Dollar, Deezer, Adore Me, eBags, Go Compare, and many others. With over 180 employees in New York, London and Tel Aviv, the company's revenue has grown 60% during the past year. More information is available at www.optimove.com.

CONTACT: Puneet Sandhu, 718-312-8994, [email protected]

SOURCE Optimove

Related Links

http://www.optimove.com

NEW YORK, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM), operator of financial markets for 10,000 U.S. and global securities, today announced Sailfish Royalty Corp. (TSX-V: FISH;OTCQX: SROYF), a yield-focused royalty company, has qualified to trade on the OTCQX Best Market. Sailfish Royalty upgraded to OTCQX from the Pink market.

Sailfish Royalty begins trading today on OTCQX under the symbol "SROYF." U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the company on www.otcmarkets.com.

"Congratulations to Sailfish Royalty on upgrading to the OTCQX Best Market," said Jason Paltrowitz, Executive Vice President of Corporate Services at OTC Markets Group. "Trading on OTCQX will enable Sailfish Royalty to provide further transparency and increase visibility among its shareholder base."

"Upgrading to the OTCQX Best Market is a great step toward increasing exposure and accessibility for Sailfish Royalty in the US. We look forward to working with the OTC Markets Group to further broaden the Company's exposure to US shareholders," said Akiba Leisman, CEO of Sailfish Royalty.

Sailfish Royalty was sponsored for OTCQX by Burns Figa & Will PC, a qualified third-party firm responsible for providing guidance on OTCQX requirements and recommending membership.

About Sailfish Royalty Corp.

Sailfish is a yield-focused royalty company. Sailfish owns the TZ Royalty, which is a 3.5% royalty on revenues derived from the sale of gold on Eldorado Gold Corp.'s advanced stage Tocantinzinho gold project, and also holds a gold stream agreement on the San Albino gold project in Northern Nicaragua.

About OTC Markets Group Inc.

OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates the OTCQX Best Market, the OTCQB Venture Market and the Pink Open Market for 10,000 U.S. and global securities. Through OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN, we connect a diverse network of broker-dealers that provide liquidity and execution services. We enable investors to easily trade through the broker of their choice and empower companies to improve the quality of information available for investors.

To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit www.otcmarkets.com.

OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN are operated by OTC Link LLC, member FINRA/SIPC and SEC regulated ATS.

Subscribe to the OTC Markets RSS Feed

Media Contact:

OTC Markets Group Inc., +1 (212) 896-4428, [email protected]

SOURCE OTC Markets Group Inc.

Related Links

http://www.otcmarkets.com

SAN FRANCISCO, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacific Union International today announced the launch of a new luxury development portal featuring an extraordinary array of international and domestic resort properties at http://www.pacificunion.com/lux-dev.

Pacific Union International's launch of a global resorts properties portal is a partnership between California's leading independent real estate brokerage and Clearview Elite. The portal on http://www.pacificunion.com delivers resort property listings from top luxury markets around the globe including Dancing Bear, a Timbers Residence Club in Aspen, Colorado.

This new initiative offers clients of California's leading independent brokerage an array of the world's finest resort developments, with marketing quality equal to the high standard of service that Pacific Union delivers. Among the resorts included in the portal are Dancing Bear, a Timbers Residence Club in Aspen, Colorado; Esperanza in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; and The Vines of Mendoza in Argentina.

"It is important to us to confidently offer our clients exceptional investment opportunities in important markets around the world, as well as in the U.S., for their real estate portfolios," Pacific Union CEO Mark A. McLaughlin says. "This portal brings a curated collection of elite resort real estate developments directly to our clients."

Pacific Union Vice President of Business Development Teresa Howe created the relationship between the brokerage and Clearview Elite, a sales and marketing firm that caters to the world's most upscale resort developments. "Our search for a way to bring our clients global resort properties from a trusted source is at the heart of this initiative," Howe says. "Our California clients value experiences over collecting art, cars, or other luxury goods. These offerings meet their expectations for enriching their lives with travel and opportunities to share time with their families in remarkable environments."

"Consistently, one of the most pressing needs for luxury real estate developers is improved access to qualified consumers in important feeder markets," Clearview Elite President Eric Pierce says. "Pacific Union's portal gives our development clients exposure to discerning clientele in search of new real estate experiences in beautiful destinations around the world."

About Pacific Union International

Founded in San Francisco in 1975, Pacific Union International, Inc. is the West Coast's premier luxury real estate brand, with 2017 sales volume of $14.1 billion. In 2018, real estate industry leaders RISMedia and REAL Trends ranked Pacific Union as the fifth-largest brokerage in the U.S.

Through its 2015 acquisition of The Mark Company, the nation's leading sales and marketing firm for new urban luxury developments, Pacific Union expanded its brand to development projects from San Diego to Seattle.

In 2016, Pacific Union merged with Los Angeles-based brokerage John Aaroe Group, followed in 2017 with mergers with Partners Trust and Gibson International also based in Los Angeles, and Empire Realty Associates, extending the Pacific Union brand to become the preeminent leader and ultimate California real estate company. The strategic alliance of these five powerhouses supports 1,700 elite real estate professionals in more than 50 offices throughout the West Coast. Northern California markets include San Francisco, Marin, Contra Costa, Alameda, Napa, and Sonoma counties; Silicon Valley; and the Lake Tahoe region. Greater Los Angeles markets include Beverly Hills, Malibu, Downtown, Northeast L.A., the Westside, as well as the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys.

To extend Pacific Union's international reach, the brokerage established an award-winning, Beijing-based China Concierge program in 2013 that fully supports its Chinese investors on the mainland. Additionally, Pacific Union offers a full range of personal and commercial real estate services, including buying, selling and relocation, in addition to operating joint-venture businesses that provide rental and commercial property management and insurance services. Locally owned, Pacific Union executes with a vision for the future, an entrepreneurial mindset and an unwavering commitment to deliver exceptional service and expertise. For more information, visit: www.pacificunion.com.

About Clearview Elite

Founded in 2009, Clearview Elite is a leading provider of sales and marketing services to the ultra luxury real estate development industry. The firm improves sales efficiency by deploying forward-thinking sales and marketing practices to make on-site sales teams more productive. Clearview Elite deploys a combination of front-line industry experience, proven sales methodologies, and proprietary software to speed up sales processes and sell out real estate developments faster.

SOURCE Pacific Union

Related Links

http://www.pacificunion.com

NEW YORK, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pareteum Corporation (NYSE American: TEUM), ("Pareteum" or the "Company"), the rapidly growing Cloud Communications Platform company, announced today that it has published a whitepaper to explain the relevant nature and functionality of Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning and how we apply those technologies to help our customers increase revenue and customer satisfaction through our GCSP solution.

The Pareteum Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning Whitepaper, can be found on Pareteum's website by clicking HERE.

The Whitepaper explores how the Pareteum Global Cloud Service Platform uses Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning to provide opportunities for our customers to become more efficient, effective and profitable, while also providing a better-quality service or product and a better overall customer experience. The paper discusses:

The 5 Vs, the primary challenges to finding actionable insights

The keys to forming data analysis strategy

Machine Learning in action  i.e. "Alexa" and "Siri"

How Predictive Analytics quantifies probabilistic predictions

The keys to using Predictive Analytics  i.e. data gathered through customer loyalty programs

The 3 components to good data

Pareteum's Insights Engine can generate actionable insights. Using Insight Input and Output Metrics assists our customers in increasing market and revenue growth. Pareteum's Insight Engine provides a deep and clear visibility into the end-customer experience and trends which helps to better target the audience, their interests and final results on end-customers with a strong sense of loyalty, significantly enhancing the capacity for successful marketing, improving customer engagement and conversion, revenue growth and reducing churn for our customers.

"Never before has the technology existed in which so much data could be analyzed at a granular level to paint a holistic 360 picture of the entire scope of a business. This provides for opportunities to become real, customer-centric, more flexible, scalable, effective and profitable, while also providing a better-quality service or product and a better overall customer experience. Data science of this magnitude is rapidly advancing into every sector, and its power should not be underestimated," stated Ali Davachi, COO and CTO of Pareteum.

Hal Turner, Pareteum's Executive Chairman and Principal Executive Officer, stated, "Pareteum's Insight Engine is a valuable tool that our customers use to grow every facet of their business. Tracking customer trends, building customer loyalty, and improving marketing focus to refine the customer experience are key factors in building a successful business in our market. We eagerly embrace the upward trend this technology will add to our success and the success of our customers."

About Pareteum:

The mission of Pareteum Corporation (NYSE American: TEUM) is to connect "every person and everything." Organizations use Pareteum to energize their growth and profitability through cloud communication services and complete turnkey solutions featuring relevant content, applications, and connectivity worldwide. Our platform services partners (technologies integrated into our Cloud) include: HPE, IBM, Sonus, Oracle, Microsoft, and other world class technology providers. All of the relevant customer acquired value is derived from Pareteum's award winning software, developed and enhanced for many years. By harnessing the value of communications, Pareteum serves retail, enterprise and IoT customers. Pareteum currently has offices in New York, Sao Paulo, Madrid, Barcelona, Bahrain and the Netherlands. For more information please visit: www.pareteum.com.

Forward Looking Statements:

Certain statements contained herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may include, without limitation, statements with respect to Pareteum's plans and objectives, projections, expectations and intentions. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about Pareteum's industry, management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by management. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Because such statements involve risks and uncertainties, the actual results and performance of Pareteum may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Unless otherwise required by law, Pareteum also disclaims any obligation to update its view of any such risks or uncertainties or to announce publicly the result of any revisions to the forward-looking statements made here. Additional information concerning certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested in Pareteum's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available from the SEC or may be obtained upon request from Pareteum Corporation.

Pareteum Investor Relations Contacts:

Ted O'Donnell

Chief Financial Officer

(212) 984-1096

[email protected]

Stephen Hart

Hayden IR

917-658-7878

Carrie Howes

Rayleigh Capital

Dubai- London

T UAE: +971 (0) 55 997 0427 | T UK: +44 (0) 870 490 5443 | T CAN: +1 416 900 3634

SOURCE Pareteum Corporation

Related Links

http://www.pareteum.com

Paxful, a global leader in peer-to-peer bitcoin technology, today announced that it will build a blockchain technology incubation hub in Lagos, Nigeria, as part of its growing investment in Africa. The hub will launch in fall 2018 and provide a co-working space and services including mentorship, corporate and individual blockchain training, and networking for ICO advisors.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/689469/Paxful_CEO_Ray_Youssef.jpg )



Paxful has also appointed Chuta Chimezie as Regional Director of Africa. Based out of Nigeria, he will be responsible for conducting business operations, facilitating local and international brand awareness, creating educational content on behalf of Paxful, recruiting and overseeing the incubator's day-to-day operations.

"Paxful is committed to fostering economic growth in Africa and helping the unbanked and underbanked gain access to the opportunities they have been denied for so long," said Paxful CEO Ray Youssef. "The incubator is simply a starting point to help driven entrepreneurs in an industry that has shattered boundaries all over the world."

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, with 190 million people. It also has the highest number of Paxful users on the continent. The country is renowned for its highly educated citizenry and startup culture, especially in ntech and e-commerce.

"It is a privilege to work with an organization that believes in investing in countries with great potential such as Nigeria," said Chimezie. "Paxful's initiatives have not only helped those in great need here, but are also helping African entrepreneurs achieve their full potential. Paxful is using Bitcoin to do good in the world, and I am proud to become an integral part of that."

Chimezie is a leading blockchain and cryptocurrency advocate, having founded the Blockchain Nigeria User Group, an initiative of advocates and entrepreneurs driving adoption in the country. He is the author of "Seizing Opportunities in Blockchain and Digital Currency Revolution," a reference text for regulators in Africa, designed to help them understand virtual currency as an emerging technology.

Paxful will sponsor several blockchain and crypto-focused events in Nigeria, and plans to sponsor and speak at others in Ghana, Cameroon and Kenya. The company has a long history of investment in Africa, launching the #BuiltwithBitcoin charitable program last year to encourage the cryptocurrency sector to contribute funds for humanitarian projects. With the help of non-prot organization Zam Zam, Paxful launched the initiative by donating $50,000 in bitcoin for the construction of a new Rwandan nursery school in the country's Bugesera District.

"We are where we are now because people gave back and it helped us tremendously," said Artur Schaback, co-founder and CTO, Paxful. "Nick Spanos funded the Bitcoin Center in New York right next to the NYSE, and it connected so many of us and gave us a home. We want to do the same for Africa and the emerging world. The real wave of bitcoin entrepreneurs and revolutionary blockchain projects has yet to emerge. Paxful will do everything we can to empower the Africa Cheetah generation."

Paxful is a bitcoin marketplace and digital wallet that brings the sharing economy and frictionless cryptocurrency commerce within easy reach of everyone, especially the underbanked. It enables buyers to purchase bitcoin directly from sellers via more than 300 dierent payment methods, including gift cards, cash deposits, online wallets or debit/credit cards. Paxful secures users against fraud by employing two-factor authentication and the highest-level encryption, and holding funds in escrow until the seller has conrmed the payment.

To learn more about Paxful, please visit: http://www.paxful.com

About Paxful:

Paxful is a peer-to-peer marketplace built on open source bitcoin and blockchain technology. It enables anyone in the world to buy, sell and accept bitcoin instantly. Paxful's wallet essentially functions as a universal translator for money as any form of money can become any other form of money. For example, gift cards can be converted to other gift cards, cash, or funds in any currency in any digital wallet anywhere. Paxful's platform has 1.7 million monthly active users globally, and oers 300+ payment methods. Some of the most popular methods include Bank Transfer, Paypal, Western Union, Amazon Gift Cards, and iTunes Gift Cards. Paxful is leading P2P nance and its mission to provide nancial services to the unbanked and underbanked. The "overbanked" will also benet from increased freedom and the elimination of the hassle with which banks so often burden their customers.

Contact:

Mark Prindle

Fusion PR

+1-646-452-7109

[email protected]



SOURCE PaxfulNEW YORK, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Perch today announced it has raised $30M in new financing. The Series A investment was led by FirstMark Capital, with Juxtapose and Accomplice also participating in the round. The capital will be used for scaling the company's home buying marketplace and product development as Perch revolutionizes the antiquated process of buying and selling a home. As part of their investment, FirstMark Capital Founder and Managing Director, Rick Heitzmann, will join the Perch board of directors.

In this age of digital transformation, the world of real estate is stubbornly resistant to change. In the past 10 years technology has massively disrupted retail, transportation, and currency markets - yet the single biggest financial transaction that most Americans will make has not fundamentally changed. In 2017, serial New York entrepreneur Court Cunningham founded Perch to build a marketplace that transforms the home purchase and selling experience.

By harnessing the power of data science, technology, and human-centered design, Perch's platform provides a seller experience that delivers a market price offer for an individual's home in 24 hours with the ability to close at a time of one's choosing. No home showings, no repairs to do, no contingent offers, no fear of the offer falling through before closing. It's the way a home sale always should have worked.

"Innovating on the home sale process is where we are starting, but it's not where we finish," said Court Cunningham, Perch CEO. "We believe that the way to truly transform residential real estate is by building a superior selling and buying experience - by becoming a marketplace for homes. For home sellers, we provide a seamless sale experience by removing the uncertainty and inconvenience. For buyers, we're pioneering a new category of homes: Certified Pre-Owned; all Perch homes are move-in ready and include a warranty. This investment will be used to accelerate our product development around automating access to the related transactions that touch a home closing, including mortgage, title, and inspection. Perch will be the simple and easy way to find, purchase, and close on your home."

"Real estate is one of the last massive industries that has yet to be meaningfully changed through technology. The Perch team is uniquely focused on serving both home buyers and sellers by building a true marketplace. We have known and respected Court for several years. The leadership team Perch assembled was one of the strongest we've seen at an early-stage company, with deep experience in technology, marketing, and real estate," said Rick Heitzmann, Managing Director at FirstMark Capital.

Perch's leadership team brings deep experience in creating digital products, building delightful consumer experiences, and real estate investment. Court Cunningham, CEO, brings 20+ years experience in building online software businesses, beginning with his experience at DoubleClick where he built DARTmail into a leading email marketing solution that was ultimately sold to Epsilon. Most recently, he was CEO of Yodle where he scaled the business from 15 people to 1,500 and sold to Web.com for $340M in 2016. Phil DeGisi, Head of Growth, brings 15 years experience in consumer marketing across startups and large-scale companies, including Quidsi (sold to Amazon) and Walmart.com. Most recently, he served as CMO at CommonBond, the consumer lender, where he helped scale the business to over $1B in loans. Aaron Altom, Head of Real Estate, brings a deep expertise in residential real estate acquisition, having purchased over 5,000 homes in his career at Waypoint and American Homes for Rent.

Perch has launched its services in San Antonio, TX and plans to expand to new cities over the coming year.

About Perch

Perch is the marketplace for buying and selling homes. Perch helps customers sell their home on their schedule without the hassles, at market price. For home buyers, Perch enables them to choose from an inventory of Certified Pre-Owned houses, making it easy to discover and close on a move-in ready, quality home. For the average American, the home purchase and sale process takes months, creates anxiety and is filled with uncertainty and hassle. Perch offers a modern alternative, making one of life's biggest decisions - the sale and purchase of a home - less intimidating.



Perch's services are currently offered in San Antonio, TX. The company is headquartered in New York with offices in Texas.

About FirstMark Capital

FirstMark Capital is an early stage venture capital firm based in New York City. Our mission is to partner with exceptional entrepreneurs who are changing the world by solving meaningful problems. We have built a deeply engaged community among the extraordinary teams in our network to spread ideas and opportunities. We are privileged to work alongside the founders of remarkable businesses like Pinterest, Shopify, Riot Games, InVision, Airbnb, and dozens more. Visit us in New York City or online at firstmarkcap.com and @firstmarkcap.



Perch PR Contact:

Melissa Klein

[email protected]

415-246-9311

SOURCE Perch

Related Links

http://www.perchhomes.co

"Helix Core has always been one of the most securable version control systems because of its fine-grained access controls, high-visibility audit logs, strong password security, and secure replication," explains Tim Russell, Chief Product Officer at Perforce. "With this release, Helix Core now offers 360-degree MFA protection, adding to its distinction as the most securable version control system on the market."

According to the 2017 Verizon Data Breach Investigative Report, 81 percent of data breaches involve weak or stolen credentials. Multi-factor authentication can reduce that risk. In addition, version control systems (VCS) store the most valuable assets many technology companies have  their intellectual property.

Helix Core works out-of-the box with Okta, a leading independent provider of identity for the enterprise, and is configurable to work with other MFA solutions.

About Perforce

Enterprises across the globe rely on Perforce to build and deliver digital products faster and with higher quality. Perforce offers complete developer collaboration and agile project management tools to accelerate delivery cycles  from agile planning tools to requirements, issues and test management, which then link to all source code, binary assets and artifacts for full build and release tracking and visibility. The company's version control solutions are well known for securely managing change across all digital content  source code, art files, video files, images, libraries  while supporting the developer and build tools your teams need to be productive, such as Git, Visual Studio, Jenkins, Adobe, Maya and many others. Perforce is trusted by the world's most innovative brands, including NVIDIA, Pixar, Scania, Ubisoft, and VMware. The company has offices in Minneapolis, MN, Alameda, CA, Mason, OH, the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, Germany, and Australia, and sales partners around the globe. For more information, please visit www.perforce.com.

Media Contacts

Global

Colleen Kulhanek

Perforce Software

Ph: +1 612-517-2069

[email protected]

UK/EMEA

Maxine Ambrose

Ambrose Communications

Ph: +44 1491 412944

[email protected]

SOURCE Perforce Software

Related Links

http://www.perforce.com

ANN ARBOR, Mich., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pinkerton, the world's leading provider of services and solutions that help organizations identify and mitigate non-insurable risk, partnered with the Rotary Club of Miami-Brickell to present a free workplace violence and active shooter training seminar for business leaders and C-suite executives from the Miami area. The event was held on Thursday, May 10 at Christ Journey Church in Coral Gables, Florida, in front of nearly 200 attendees.

During the seminar, Pinkerton risk management experts discussed tactics business leaders and executives can implement to help mitigate these types of incidents from occurring, including best practices related to employment screenings and due diligence, and foundational skills that can be used to develop a risk mitigation plan. They also provided insights into the mindset of the potential shooter and how that information can aid in avoidance or diffusion of the crisis, as well as how to make good decisions in the fraction of a second during a life or death situation. The presentation also covered crisis communication planning and how to recover from an incident should it occur.

"Our goal with this presentation was to help the business community throughout the Miami area understand that shootings and other acts of workplace violence are risks that need to be planned for as carefully and thoughtfully as other types of risk, like cyber-attacks or hurricanes," said Jack Zahran, president of Pinkerton. "It's about creating a fundamental mind shift in business leaders to get them to put strong, actionable policies and procedures in place long before an incident occurs instead of waiting until it's too late."

Pinkerton plans to replicate the Miami training event in markets across the U.S. in the comings months to give business leaders solutions they can immediately implement to better prepare for and prevent against shootings and other workplace violence events.

Pinkerton is the world's leading provider of corporate risk management solutions. As a trusted partner to many of the world's largest organizations, Pinkerton offers a wide range of services dedicated to helping business leaders plan for and mitigate against a wide-range of non-insurable risk through a dynamic, holistic approach to risk management. The company's cutting-edge philosophies and methodology help close the risk gap while ensuring ongoing business continuity. For more information, visit www.pinkerton.com.



SOURCE Pinkerton

Related Links

http://www.pinkerton.com

MINNEAPOLIS, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- At Heart Rhythm 2018, the Heart Rhythm Society's 39th Annual Scientific Sessions in Boston, May 9-12, 2018, Preventice Solutions will showcase practical applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) in wearable cardiac monitoring technology. Clinical data will be presented in a poster validating the proprietary algorithms that are part of the BodyGuardian Heart system, which is designed to create a constant connection between patients and their healthcare team. The poster is authored by Ben Teplitzky, PhD, and Mike McRoberts, from the Preventice data science team, and Suneet Mittal, MD, FHRS, from Valley Medical Group.

Preventice Solutions is presenting real-world validation of the unique algorithms used in the BodyGuardian Heart system to detect ventricular ectopic beats (VEBs), which are a sub-category of abnormal heart contractions that originate from the ventricles. For some patients, these beats signify a potentially life-threatening and treatable cardiac irregularity. The proprietary algorithm, when used with mobile cardiac telemetry technology, empowers physicians and healthcare providers with valuable information regarding the occurrence and regularity of VEBs.

In the study, algorithm validation was performed using the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database and also using real- world data collected from nearly 2,000 BodyGuardian Heart patients. Results demonstrate that this proprietary classification model has sensitivity and specificity higher than any previously published fully automated algorithms and demonstrates key short-comings associated with validation performed using only the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database.

"In my opinion, clinicians do not always appreciate the difficulty that ambulatory ECG monitoring systems have in accurately differentiating VEBs from normal sinus rhythm," said Dr. Mittal. "The application of deep learning to large real-world ECG datasets provides a unique opportunity to enhance the diagnostic accuracy of the algorithms in these ECG monitoring devices."

Dr. Mittal has received no compensation from Preventice for his involvement in this project.

About BodyGuardian Heart

BodyGuardian Heart is a small, lightweight, wireless monitor that records important physiological data such as heart rhythm, ECG, respiratory rate and related activity. Through Bluetooth, and other approved technologies, the smartphone can also capture additional physiological measurements such as blood-oxygen, glucose levels, blood pressure and weight, anytime, anywhere. The system creates a virtual connection between patients and their care teams, allowing physicians to monitor vital signs outside the clinical setting, while patients go about their daily lives.

The data is captured by BodyGuardian Heart in near real-time, and the programmatic triage, created based upon the physician's care protocol, can improve care delivery and lower costs. The Preventice monitoring center team analyzes, summarizes, and can ultimately empower clinicians to timely, data-driven clinical decisions using an integrated EMR data management system.

About Preventice Solutions

Preventice Solutions is a leading developer of mobile health solutions and remote monitoring services that connect patients threatened by cardiac arrhythmias. Using insights to create revolutionary monitoring technologies, this tech-enabled, service-based approach can ultimately reduce the cost of care and improve health outcomes. The Preventice wearable portfolio includes the PatientCare Platform and BodyGuardian family. For more information please visit www.preventicesolutions.com

SOURCE Preventice Solutions

Related Links

http://www.preventicesolutions.com

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AliveCor, the leader in artificial intelligence and FDA-cleared personal electrocardiogram (ECG) technology, today announced an important milestone in its work with Mayo Clinic on Long QT Syndrome (LQTS).

In an abstract published today at the Heart Rhythm Scientific Sessions conference in Boston, investigators from Mayo Clinic presented research showing that artificial intelligence (AI) using deep neural networks can successfully identify patients with congenital LQTS despite having a normal QTc on their electrocardiogram (ECG). As many as 50% of patients with genetically confirmed LQTS have a normal QT interval on the standard ECG, so identifying these patients who are at increased risk of arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death is crucial for correct diagnosis and treatment. This is especially critical when patients are exposed to medications with known QT prolonging potential. The deep neural network employed in the study generated an area under the curve of 0.83, with a specificity of 81%, sensitivity of 73%, and an overall accuracy of 79%.

Importantly, the results were achieved by applying AI to data from lead I of a 12-lead ECG, which suggests that AliveCor's KardiaMobile and KardiaBand devices may be useful in the mobile detection of patients with concealed LQTS.

Long QT Syndrome is both a congenital and acquired disorder. The inherited form affects 160,000 people in the U.S., and causes 3,000 to 4,000 sudden deaths in children and young adults annually. The acquired form of LQTS can be caused by nearly 100 FDA-approved medications, such as antibiotics and antidepressants.

"There can be no better illustration of the importance of our AI to medical science than using it to detect that which is otherwise invisible," said Vic Gundotra, CEO of AliveCor.

AliveCor and Mayo Clinic formed a partnership in October of 2016, and announced a joint effort to detect LQTS using AI in July of 2017.

"Building on our previous work using Mayo Clinic's proprietary T wave fingerprint software, it is stunning that our 'AI brain' is distinguishing one patient who has a potentially life threatening syndrome, LQTS, but a normal QTc, from a normal patient with the same QTc value by just staring at a single lead," said senior author Michael J. Ackerman, MD, PhD, director of Mayo Clinic's Genetic Heart Rhythm Clinic and the Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory at Mayo Clinic.

About AliveCor

AliveCor, Inc. is pioneering the creation of FDA-cleared machine learning techniques to enable proactive heart care and is recognized around the world for transforming cardiac care. The FDA-cleared KardiaMobile is the most clinically validated mobile ECG solution on the market. It is recommended by leading cardiologists and used by people worldwide for accurate ECG recordings. KardiaMobile, and KardiaBand, when paired with the Kardia app provide instant analysis for detecting atrial fibrillation (AF) and normal sinus rhythm in an ECG. Kardia is the first A.I. enabled platform to help clinicians manage patients for the early detection of atrial fibrillation, the most common cardiac arrhythmia and one that leads to a five times greater risk of stroke. KardiaBand is the first FDA-cleared medical device accessory for Apple Watch. AliveCor was named the No.1 artificial intelligence company on Fast Company's Top 50 Most Innovative Companies, in addition to ranking 20th overall in an evaluation of thousands of companies worldwide. AliveCor is a privately-held company headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. For more information, visit alivecor.com.

About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to clinical practice, education and research, providing expert, comprehensive care to everyone who needs healing. Learn more about Mayo Clinic. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network.

SOURCE AliveCor

Related Links

http://www.alivecor.com

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Quick Base, a leader in no-code application development platforms, today announced EMPOWER2018, its fourth annual user conference aimed at arming customers and partners with the resources they need to turn their ideas into custom business apps. The conference, which will take place in Austin, Texas, from June 4-7, will bring together 800 attendees from both business and IT functions, and feature keynotes by digital transformation strategist and speaker Greg Verdino, and Quick Base executives Rick Willett (CEO) and Jay Jamison (SVP of Strategy and Product Management).

The conference will have nearly 50 breakout sessions, including a number where Quick Base customers will share their success stories using the company's platform to save time, automate processes and manage projects. These talks include representatives from Sprint, Homesquare, Harvard Business School and CCI Systems, among others. Other sessions will cover new product features and best practices.

"As more organizations of all types and sizes adopt our platform to run major business processes, we're expecting the largest EMPOWER event ever," said Jamison. "There is no better place for Quick Base customers to get inspired and energized by their peers and to learn about significant new offerings we will be announcing and sharing at the event."

"Digital technologies are transforming businesses of all sizes in every industry  and those who fail to evolve risk being left behind," said Verdino, who is keynoting the conference. "Attendees at EMPOWER2018 are some of the most forward thinking companies in America, and I'm looking forward to sharing inspiration on how they can get even more out of their digital investments at the show."

EMPOWER2018 will also feature a pre-conference "App-a-Thon" app building challenge with cash prizes, an on-site training course, three networking events including one at Austin staple Stubb's BBQ and a customer awards ceremony.

Quotes from Past Attendees:

"Nothing is more valuable than the renewed energy and excitement for Quick Base development that I get at EMPOWER. Our team is always excited by the solutions we bring back."  Jessica Curtis, Formation Healthcare Group

"The information shared is priceless for planning your own road map for the upcoming year."  Jason Johnson, Pomeroy

"With the broad selection of sessions there is so much to learn at EMPOWER! I love being able to bring back new ideas for our users!"  Janet Plumley, CCI Systems, Inc.

Tickets start at $899. Sign up today at https://empower2018.com/.

About Quick Base

Quick Base provides a cloud-based platform that empowers problem solvers to quickly turn ideas for better ways to work into apps that make their organizations more efficient. For nearly 20 years, people of all technical backgrounds have been using the Quick Base platform to create solutions that streamline processes, capture real-time data, and improve company operations while working in concert with existing IT systems. Based in Cambridge, MA and a former division of Intuit, Quick Base has thousands of customers spanning all industries and company sizes. For more information, please visit: www.QuickBase.com

Quick Base is a d/b/a of QuickBase, Inc.

Media Contact

Puneet Sandhu

[email protected]

718-312-8994

SOURCE Quick Base

Related Links

https://www.quickbase.com/

"Jonathan Redgrave stands out, as his reputation suggests, as a quick thinker and is a formidable foe in any litigation context," remarks one client. "He has an extensive record advising companies on complex eDiscovery issues and representing clients in the highest state and federal courts." Another enthuses: "As an expert he was spot on. He has a reputation with the federal authorities and judges for excellence and really deep knowledge, which is crucial in this area."

Kevin Brady is described by Chambers as "one of the phenomenal individuals, the real deal." and Chris King, head of Redgrave's Chicago office, is noted by Chambers as being recognized for his "considerable experience advising on cross-border data transfer issues and arguing eDiscovery motions in complex litigation."

"We accept this recognition on behalf of those who are named and also on behalf of our other accomplished attorneys who were nominated, including: Karen O. Hourigan, Monica McCarroll, Daniel J. Nichols, Mathea K.E. Bulander , Lisa A. Lukaszewski, Charles R. Ragan, and the Hon. Nan R. Nolan (ret.). It reflects how these and other attorneys at the Firm, as well as our other extraordinary professionals, including our Managing Directors, Directors, and Advisors, work together as teams to deliver on our promise of client service excellence," said Victoria A. Redgrave, Managing Partner, Redgrave LLP.

Along with its unique Chambers distinction, Redgrave is recognized by Who's Who Legal, with six lawyers acknowledged for being leading eDiscovery lawyers: Kevin F. Brady, Karen O. Hourigan, Christopher Q. King, Monica McCarroll, the Hon. Nan R. Nolan (ret.), and Jonathan M. Redgrave. Redgrave LLP is the only law firm with six lawyers recognized with this distinction.

About Redgrave LLP:

Redgrave LLP focuses exclusively on addressing complex legal challenges that arise at the intersection of the law and technology, including eDiscovery, information governance, and data privacy and security. David C. Shonka, former three-term Acting General Counsel of the FTC, joined the Firm at the end of April 2018 and leads the Firm's Data Privacy and Security Practice. Redgrave LLP provides Global and Fortune 500 companies and Am Law 100 law firms with the legal and technical advice, business strategy, and legal representation needed to support their immediate and future legal, regulatory, and operational requirements. The Firm's dedicated teams of legal, business, and technical professionals are at the forefront of helping global organizations address the ever-evolving challenges associated with the creation, receipt, storage, retrieval, production, and destruction of documents and electronic information. Redgrave LLP has offices in Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, and San Francisco. Visit redgravellp.com

About Chambers and Partners:

Since 1990, Chambers and Partners has published the leading directories of the legal profession. Chambers' reputation is based on their independence and objectivity. They have the largest research team of its kind in the world. It is accepted world-wide that Chambers' directories are among the most accurate and the most reliable legal resources.

Contact: Ann Koepke, Marketing Manager, Redgrave LLP

703-592-1168 | [email protected]

SOURCE Redgrave LLP

Related Links

http://www.redgravellp.com

VANCOUVER, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - The Annual and Special Meeting of Shareholders (the "Meeting") of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Incorporated (the "Company", NYSE and TSX: RBA) was held on May 8, 2018 in Burnaby, British Columbia. Each of the matters voted upon at the Meeting is discussed in detail in the Company's Proxy Statement dated March 27, 2018, which can be found on the Company's website at: https://s2.q4cdn.com/965716280/files/doc_financials/2018/2018-Proxy-Statement.pdf

Per TSX reporting requirements, the company wishes to disclose that the total number of shares represented by shareholders in person and by proxy at the Meeting was 95,315,304 shares, representing approximately 88.69% of the Company's outstanding shares. The voting in relation to the election of directors was conducted by way of ballot at the Meeting and the results were as follows:

Name of Director

Votes For

Votes Withheld Beverley Briscoe

90,466,618

1,385,935 Robert G. Elton

89,528,734

2,323,819 J. Kim Fennell

91,567,233

285,320 Erik Olsson

81,202,184

10,650,369 Edward B. Pitoniak

91,021,037

831,516 Sarah Raiss

89,446,300

2,406,253 Ravi K. Saligram

91,483,789

368,764 Amy G. Shenkan

91,516,093

336,460 Christopher Zimmerman

91,487,066

365,487

On May 10, 2018, the Company filed a report of voting results on all resolutions voted on at the Meeting on www.sedar.com.

About Ritchie Bros.

Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. (NYSE and TSX: RBA) is a global asset management and disposition company, offering customers end-to-end solutions for buying and selling used heavy equipment, trucks and other assets. Operating in a multitude of sectors, including construction, transportation, agriculture, energy, oil and gas, mining, and forestry, the Company's selling channels include: Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, the world's largest industrial auctioneer offering live on site auction events with online bidding; IronPlanet, an online marketplace with featured weekly auctions and providing its exclusive IronClad Assurance equipment condition certification program; Marketplacee, an online auction marketplace; Mascus, a leading European online equipment listing service; and Ritchie Bros. Private Treaty, offering privately negotiated sales. The Company also offers sector-specific solutions including GovPlanet, TruckPlanet, and Kruse Energy Auctioneers, plus equipment financing and leasing through Ritchie Bros. Financial Services. For more information about the unprecedented choice provided by Ritchie Bros., visit RitchieBros.com.

SOURCE Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers

Related Links

http://www.rbauction.com

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Small Business Administration this week announced the awarding of $6.6 million in funding to 22 organizations to provide training and counseling to current and aspiring veteran small business owners as a Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC).

The funding opportunity, offered by SBA's Office of Veterans Business Development, is a one-year initial award with up to four additional one-year option periods, subject to the availability of funds.

Each VBOC provides entrepreneurship training to military service members and military spouses through the Boots to Business Entrepreneurship Training Program, the business training track under the Department of Defense's Transition Assistance Program.

"Nearly one in 10 small businesses in the U.S. is owned by a veteran  and we continue to see these numbers grow," said SBA Administrator Linda McMahon. "SBA is proud to work with our grantee organizations, like the Veterans Business Outreach Centers, to prepare veterans to succeed as entrepreneurs. Their success is our nation's success."

In addition to transitioning service members and veteran small business owners, VBOCs also serve other members of the military entrepreneurship community, including active duty service members, veterans of all eras, National Guard and Reserve component members, and military spouses who aspire to be or are existing business owners.

"In 2017, VBOCs provided training and counseling to more than 48,000 clients," said Barb Carson, Associate Administrator for SBA's Office of Veterans Business Development. "The addition of two new VBOCs, in conjunction with full geographic coverage, enables us to achieve more for our veteran and military entrepreneurs. I look forward to the progress we can make together."

The award expands the existing VBOC network from 20 to 22 centers nationwide. Each of the awardees display proven commitment and continued excellence in providing wide-ranging entrepreneurial resources to the veteran and military community. Meanwhile, five new VBOCs will join the network:

A New Leaf, Inc., through the Arizona Women's Education and Entrepreneur Center (AWEEc)  Phoenix, Ariz.  coverage area: Arizona. AWEEc has extensive entrepreneurial training experience and created innovative programs that include the DreamBuilder Academy, which offers instruction around the DreamBuilder online platform developed by the Thunderbird School of Global Management to teach basic concepts critical for starting a business.

  coverage area: Arizona. AWEEc has extensive entrepreneurial training experience and created innovative programs that include the DreamBuilder Academy, which offers instruction around the DreamBuilder online platform developed by the Thunderbird School of Global Management to teach basic concepts critical for starting a business. Southeast Community Capitol Corporation, DLB Pathway Lending  Nashville, Tenn.  coverage area: Tennessee and Kentucky . In 2017, Pathway Lending provided 8,152 hours of individual and classroom training to 883 clients, held 175 training events, and originated 142 loans totaling $40.27 million .

  coverage area: and . In 2017, Pathway Lending provided 8,152 hours of individual and classroom training to 883 clients, held 175 training events, and originated 142 loans totaling . Central Georgia Technical College -Georgia Veterans Education Career Transition Resource (VECTR) Center  Warner Robbins , Ga.  coverage area: Georgia and South Carolina . VECTR Center is a one-stop shop hosting partners from Georgia Department of Veterans Services, Georgia Department of Labor, the local Workforce Board, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the United Way/Mission United to collaboratively meet the needs of military, veterans and their families.

 , Ga.  coverage area: and . VECTR Center is a one-stop shop hosting partners from Georgia Department of Veterans Services, Georgia Department of Labor, the local Workforce Board, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the United Way/Mission United to collaboratively meet the needs of military, veterans and their families. University of North Dakota (UND) College of Business and Public Administration  Grand Forks, N.D.  coverage area: North and South Dakota . UND's College of Business & Public Administration is home to the School of Entrepreneurship, and the Department of Military Sciences - Army Reserve Officers Training Corps program.

  coverage area: North and . UND's College of Business & Public Administration is home to the School of Entrepreneurship, and the Department of Military Sciences - Army Reserve Officers Training Corps program. WWBIC (Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative Corporation)  Racine, Wis.  coverage area: Wisconsin , Illinois , and Minnesota. During the past 30 years, WWBIC has assisted 60,145 individuals, loaned $60 million to small business borrowers, helped create and retain 10,725 jobs through business education, technical assistance, revolving loan funds, and SBA Loans.

To learn more about the new VBOC network, and to find your local center visit www.sba.gov/vboc. For more information on SBA veterans programs, visit www.sba.gov/vets.

About the U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration makes the American dream of business ownership a reality. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start and grow their businesses. It delivers services to people through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.

Contact: [email protected] (202) 205-6987

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Blogs & Instagram

Release Number: 18-36

SOURCE U.S. Small Business Administration

Related Links

http://www.sba.gov

TORONTO and LIMA, Peru, May 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Scotiabank today announced its Peruvian subsidiary, Scotiabank Peru, has reached an agreement with Cencosud Peru to acquire a 51% controlling interest in Banco Cencosud, which offers credit cards and consumer loans in Peru, for approximately CAD $130MM. Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will also enter into a 15-year partnership to manage the credit card business and provide additional products and services to customers. Scotiabank and Cencosud already have similar partnership arrangements in Chile and Colombia.

Scotiabank will become the second-largest credit card issuer in Peru following the closing of the transaction. The terms of the transaction are not financially material to Scotiabank. This agreement is subject to regulatory approval.

Cencosud is the second largest supermarket and fourth largest department store chain in Peru. Cencosud has operated in the country since 2007 under the Supermercados Wong, Supermercados Metro and Tiendas Paris brands, as well as shopping centres. Today, Banco Cencosud has more than 315,000 active clients and approximately CAD $240MM in outstanding loans in Peru.

"Building on our existing partnership with Cencosud enables us to increase Scotiabank's market share and presence in Peru and provides us with a larger base of customers to offer our leading financial products and services," said Ignacio (Nacho) Deschamps, Group Head, International Banking at Scotiabank. "This transaction also aligns to Scotiabank's broader international strategy to increase scale in the Pacific Alliance economies of Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia."

"Working together with Cencosud, Scotiabank will look to strengthen and build our credit card and consumer loan portfolio," said Miguel Uccelli, Country Head and Chief Executive Officer of Scotiabank in Peru. "Scotiabank Peru will leverage this increased partnership to build new customer relationships and drive organic growth in the Bank's retail portfolio."

Scotiabank in Peru and Latin America

Scotiabank established a presence in Peru in 1997.

in 1997. Scotiabank increased its presence with the acquisition of Banco Wiese Sudameris and Banco Sudamericano in 2006, Banco del Trabajo in 2008 and Citibank's Commercial and Retail portfolio in 2015.

In 2008, Scotiabank entered the Pension Funds business with the acquisition of Profuturo. Scotiabank increased its client base to 1.8 million with a 50% acquisition of AFP Horizonte.

Today, Scotiabank's banking division in Peru has close to 10,500 employees, 310 branches, 975 ABMs across the country and 3.5 million retail, corporate, commercial and institutional customers.

has close to 10,500 employees, 310 branches, 975 ABMs across the country and 3.5 million retail, corporate, commercial and institutional customers. Scotiabank operates in 11 countries across Latin American, with a primary focus on Mexico , Peru , Chile , and Colombia .

About Scotiabank

Scotiabank is Canada's international bank and a leading financial services provider in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Central America, and Asia-Pacific. We are dedicated to helping our 24 million customers become better off through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of more than 89,000 employees and assets of over $923 billion (as at January 31, 2018), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto (TSX: BNS) and New York Exchanges (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit www.scotiabank.com and follow us on Twitter @Scotiabank.

SOURCE Scotiabank

Related Links

http://www.scotiabank.com

PORTLAND, Maine, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Seabreeze Property Services (Seabreeze), a leading commercial property services company based in Portland, Maine, is excited to announce that after a nationwide search Brett Stroney will be joining the business as Chief Revenue Officer effective immediately.

Chris Bright, CEO, sees Stroney as a welcome addition to the quickly growing Seabreeze team. "I am thrilled to have Brett join the Seabreeze Property Services and Chenmark Capital Management family. Brett possesses the rare combination of business acumen, leadership and documented results which he combines with a "go-getter" mentality, all while remaining incredibly personable. He is the perfect fit within our culture."

Stroney joins Seabreeze as a West Point graduate with a well-rounded background in medical device sales at Boston Scientific. With combat-tested military training and leadership as an Army Ranger and Special Forces Officer, Stroney is an emerging business management leader. Bright says, "He will make an immediate impact on not only our Sales, Marketing and Business Development teams but the entire organization as a whole." Seabreeze experienced rapid, mid-double-digit growth in the last year and Stroney says he looks forward to cultivating the business that the Portland-based company has already established.

About Seabreeze Property Services, LLC: Seabreeze offers a year-round comprehensive package of landscaping, snow, and pavement maintenance services to commercial properties throughout its Maine territory. The company has a proven track record of adding value to its customers' properties through professionalism, reliability, and attention to detail.

Cara Auty

Seabreeze Property Services

207-775-3454

[email protected]

www.seabreezepropertyservices.com

SOURCE Seabreeze Property Services

Related Links

http://www.seabreezepropertyservices.com

Mike Marusic joined Sharp in 2002 as Associate Vice President of Marketing for SIICA. Over the past 16 years, Marusic has held a variety of executive roles, driving the marketing, business solutions, operations and technical services groups within SIICA. Most recently, he was named COO of SEC, responsible for directing all functions related to information technology, human resources, facilities, purchasing, operations and services, while also continuing to oversee the marketing strategies for B2B operations. His vast wealth of knowledge and expertise will be invaluable as he leads the SIICA organization to new levels of growth and profitability.

"Mike has greatly contributed to SIICA's many accomplishments over the past several years," stated Ted Kawamura. "I am very confident that with his strong leadership and 'make things happen' management style he will drive SIICA to the next stage of growth and success."

Marusic is a graduate of Siena College and earned his MBA from Fordham University. Prior to joining Sharp in 2002, he headed up the marketing group for Panasonic's copier and computer peripheral division and has over 25 years' experience in the office technology sector.

"I'm very excited to take on this new position within the SIICA organization," said Marusic. "As Sharp continues to be recognized globally for its products and innovations, I look forward to working with all of our business units to enhance the brand in the market while developing sales and executing growth within the electronics industry."

"I want to thank Doug for his service to Sharp over the past many years," added Sharp Electronics Corporation's Chairman Ted Kawamura. "Under Doug's leadership, along with Mike, they led Sharp in challenging financial times and significantly grew revenue and operating income for many consecutive periods. With their efforts, Sharp's business is poised for even greater success in the future. We wish Doug well in his new endeavors."

Albregts joined Sharp in 2011 as President of SIICA and was appointed President and CEO of SEC in 2016. Prior to Sharp, he held executive leadership positions at NEC, Samsung and American Express and will be leaving Sharp for an opportunity outside the industry.

"This was an exceptionally difficult decision for me to leave this great family and company. It has been a privilege to serve Sharp over the past six plus years, and I wish Mike and the team much success in the future," said Albregts.

About Sharp Electronics Corporation

Sharp Electronics Corporation is the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Sharp Corporation. Sharp is a worldwide developer of one-of-a-kind home appliances, networked multifunctional office solutions, professional displays and energy systems. Sharp Imaging and Information Company of America, a division of Sharp Electronics Corporation, markets Sharp's business products, including MX Series multifunction printer (MFP) systems, professional and commercial displays and Skywell atmospheric water generators.

Sharp was honored as an inaugural Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Technology Leader in 2018, recognized as one of the tech industry's most operationally sound and financially successful organizations.

For more information on Sharp's business products, contact Sharp Electronics Corporation, 100 Paragon Drive, Montvale, N.J., 07645. For online product information, visit our website at siica.sharpusa.com.

Become a fan of SIICA on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram and watch us on YouTube .

Peppercomm for Sharp

Paul Merchan

212.931.6172

[email protected]

SOURCE Sharp Electronics Corporation USA

Related Links

http://siica.sharpusa.com

In addition to existing black (RAL 9011), Siemon's VersaPOD  , V800, V600 and Wall-Mount Cabinets are now available in white (RAL 9003) and light gray (RAL 7035), with white stocked for the Americas and light gray stocked internationally. Cabinet accessories are also available in white and light gray to ensure a seamless look throughout the cabinets, including VersaPOD zero-U and end-of-row panels, cable managers, blanking panels and PDU mounting brackets. Vertical patch panels, cable trays, cable managers and brush guards used with V800 and V600 cabinets also come in a white or gray, as well as common cabinet accessories like equipment shelves, filler panels, exhaust chimneys, lid dividers, casters and mounting rails.

Lighter colored cabinets are becoming a trend in data centers due to their clean, modern look. They also reflect up to 75 percent more light than black cabinets for overall improved visibility, making critical network connections and equipment easier to see in dim lighting conditions. With improved visibility, lighting energy within these networking spaces may be reduced for potential operational cost savings. Lighter colored cabinets are also less prone to visible scratches, and they blend well into surrounding decor.

"We are extremely pleased to round out our comprehensive cabinet offering with white and light gray color options," says Candace Achenbach, product manager for Siemon. "Not only does the expansion support increasing popularity for lighter colored cabinets in data centers, but our lighter colored wall-mount cabinet is ideal for blending into the walls of classrooms, retail spaces or other similar environments."

Siemon's VersaPOD cabinets leverage the vertical space between cabinets and at the end of row for zero-U patching, cable management and power distribution, reducing stranded power outlets by 75 percent and resulting in 46 percent savings. The V800 cabinet is ideal for high-density data center environments, while the V600 is a versatile, cost-effective cabinet prefect for housing servers. Siemon's feature-rich wall-mount cabinet saves valuable floor space and is ideal as a mini telecomm room or for remote network distribution and consolidation points in open, unprotected spaces. All of Siemon's cabinets are also available as V-Built preconfigured cabinets that come preloaded with Siemon components, including connectivity, PDUs, cable management and accessories to meet specific applications and configurations.

For more information about Siemon's comprehensive cabinet offering, visit www.siemon.com.

About Siemon

Established in 1903, Siemon is an industry leader specializing in the design and manufacture of high quality, high performance low voltage infrastructure solutions and services for Data Centers, LANs and Intelligent Buildings. Headquartered in Connecticut, USA, with global sales, technical and logistics expertise spanning 100 countries, Siemon offers the most comprehensive suites of copper and optical fiber cabling systems, cabinets, racks, cable management, data center power and cooling systems and Intelligent Infrastructure Management solutions. With more than 400 patents specific to structured cabling, Siemon Labs invests heavily in R&D and the development of Industry Standards, underlining the company's long-standing commitment to its customers and the industry. Through an ongoing commitment to waste and energy reduction, Siemon's environmental sustainability benchmarks are unparalleled in the industry, including 179% global carbon negativity and zero-landfill status.

Siemon Interconnect Solutions (SIS) is a Siemon business unit comprised of a team of dedicated technical sales professionals supported by Siemon Labs, mechanical, electrical and signal integrity engineers committed to solving industry and customer driven interconnect challenges. We provide custom network infrastructure solutions to: OEM's, Leading Manufacturers, Value-Added Resellers and System Integrators.

SOURCE The Siemon Company

Related Links

http://www.siemon.com

WINDSOR, Ontario, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sirved.com is a new search engine and mobile app tool dedicated to menu discovery that empowers people to find rare, unusual, obscure foods and almost any food people crave, served at local restaurants in any city or town.

Unlike major search engines like Google or Bing, which can only find restaurant listings, Sirved helps people find the exact food they are craving.

Owners Jonathan Leslie and Kyle Brown

Jonathan Leslie, alongside co-founder Kyle Brown and Chief Technology Officer Derek Watts of Sirved have utilized A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) algorithms and new techniques for organizing big data. They have successfully developed a laser-fast, laser-focused menu search engine that empowers people to search for the exact food they are craving and to find it in a local restaurant. Finding a restaurant menu and specific food items online is hard - Sirved makes it as easy.

The head office of Sirved, located in Windsor, Ontario, hosts a team of young, successful entrepreneurs and super geeks who've created a new kind of search algorithm, combined with big data that indexes all of the menu items at each restaurant in your city or town. In mere fractions of a second, Sirved connects hungry people with the meal they're craving.

For example: When people search for "tikka masala," Sirved will give you a list of every restaurant with this on the menu, show you where it's listed on the menu, as well as the restaurant information (distance, address, contact, etc.). This iOS and android menu app also works exceptionally well for common foods like wings, burgers, steak, etc.

"Maximizing the local listings for restaurant menus is an easy and free way to utilize organic search while helping restaurants gain exposure online," says Leslie. "We've created a win/win scenario where we help restaurants connect with new customers in new ways while boosting the usage of our app."

Sirved is holding a monthly contest. Users can try the Sirved app today for a chance to win.

Sirved is hosting a fun and easy competition for people willing to give their amazing app a try. It's easy and free to enter, and winners are announced monthly. To get started, download Sirved from the app store. For a quick link for easy download, visit: go.sirved.com/download

Once downloaded, users can simply search the restaurant menu app for a unique or interesting food item like gyros or tikka masala. Then pick a restaurant that has the dish and take a screenshot of the restaurant menu with the dish on it. Share it on social media (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) with the tags @getsirved and #findyourfood  and automatically be entered into the monthly giveaway. Up to five submissions allowed per day. Every submission earns an entry. There will be two prizes drawn each month, one randomly across all entries (get a contest entry for every submission, up to five per day) and one prize for the most unique find. Some restaurants offer rare and unique dishes. Sirved will choose one winner for the most unique dish each month. So, have fun, be creative and find your food! The big prize for May is a $100 dining experience gift card and the prize for most unique find is $50 "find your food" gift card. Visit the Sirved website to see a list of monthly prizes and winners at https://www.sirved.com/blog/contest.

Competition terms and conditions: Sirved may publish the name, city and the unique dish entrants find on Sirved through the website.

Please contact Scott Wilson to book an interview with one of the owners. [email protected] 289-259-8059

SOURCE Sirved.com

Related Links

https://sirved.com

NEW YORK, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- It hasn't been all smooth rides for the airline sector over the last six months, with technical malfunctions, major hiccups in customer service and even tragedies involving passenger pets. However, according to an in-depth social analysis by Engagement Labs of consumer conversations that take place offline (face-to-face), as well as online (via social media), the best keep getting better while those at the bottom have shown little improvement over the last six months.

To help airline marketers better understand which brands consumers are talking about with family, friends and peers, both offline and online, Engagement Labs released its latest TotalSocial rankings on the top performing airlines in the U.S. The report looks at how each airline performed in social conversations over the past six months, compared to a previous ranking of the top airlines in September 2017. The analysis, which is unique in that it combines offline and online consumer conversations, is based on Engagement Labs' proprietary TotalSocial data and analytics continuously measures the most important drivers of brand performance in both face-to-face and social media conversations.

Top U.S. TotalSocial

Airlines Rank Change 1. Southwest Airlines No change 2. JetBlue +2 3. American Airlines No change 4. Delta +1 5. Alaska Airlines -3 6. United Airlines No change 7. Spirit Airlines No change

According to the report, Southwest Airlines maintained its leadership position and saw a sizable increase in its online and offline influence score. Engagement Labs defines influence as how well the brand connects with the everyday influencers who have the largest social networks in both the offline and online worlds.

"While our analysis timeframe did not include the recent Southwest tragedy that took place on April 17 killing one passenger, our initial data shows that offline and online sentiment for the brand fell sharply during the week of the incident," said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. "However, since our analysis only takes into context six months prior to March, we don't yet know the long-term impact this may have on the brand's position as the number one airline."

Keller added, "Southwest has clearly built a brand that consumers enjoy interacting with and sharing positive experiences about. While we do expect to see negative conversations take place around a tragedy like the one that just passed, this doesn't mean that Southwest will suffer long-term reputational damage if it continues to deliver an authentic experience, create a strong work environment and execute strong marketing campaigns."

In second place, JetBlue moved up two spots to number two as a result of the airline's increase in its offline sentimentindicating that conversations about the airline were positiveand online influence score, which measures the amount of influencers talking about the brand. Its increase was a result from the airline being named the Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation at the end of 2017, a title it has earned for the sixth year in a row. In addition, JetBlue was very active in supporting recovery efforts in Puerto Rico launching a public service campaign, 100x35JetBlue.

While the position of United Airlines in the ranking does not change, its sentiment score is lower than that of Spirit Airlines' in last place, indicating that while many consumers may be talking about the brand, they are having negative conversations.

Alaska Airlines fell to fifth place, previously ranked second, as a result of its decline in offline sentiment. The airline's decline may have been attributed to an incident in which the flight attendants failed to address a passenger's lewd and uncomfortable remarks which resulted in negative conversations among the public.

To learn more about Engagement Labs and how to increase your brand's word of mouth in real life and online, reach out at: [email protected].

About Engagement Labs

Engagement Labs (TSXV:EL) provides the world's leading brands with a unique and powerful data and technology solution to drive sales growth and improve marketing ROI. Our TotalSocial technology combines online social media listening metrics with the world's only ongoing measurement of offline word-of-mouth conversations into a single dashboard, to provide marketers with the ability to measure performance, diagnose areas of weakness and opportunity and identify specific strategies and tactics to increase sales and improve marketing ROI. TotalSocial is an "always-on" proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial tracks 500 brands across 16 major industry categories within the U.S., and 350 brands across 18 industry categories in the UK.

To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com.

For media inquiries please contact:

Kate Tumino / Amrita Singh

KCSA Strategic Communications

[email protected] / [email protected]

212-896-1252 / 212-896-1207

SOURCE Engagement Labs

Related Links

http://www.engagementlabs.com

COLUMBIA, Md., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SparkPost, a cloud email API service preferred by leading internet and technology companies, today announced it has opened new headquarters in Maryland to accommodate rapid company growth, expanding from approximately 13,900 square feet to 29,665 square feet at its new location at 9160 Guilford Road in Columbia, Md.

SparkPost's new, two-story Maryland headquarters features innovative design and was carefully chosen with longevity in mind. Approximately 88 employees will work in the building initially, but SparkPost's new space will allow the company to grow to more than 200 employees in Maryland. The company anticipates hiring software engineers and filling administrative, customer support and product management roles in 2018.

Joined by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman and an array of local officials, SparkPost CEO Phillip Merrick and company employees celebrated the opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday.

"This is an exciting time for SparkPost and its employees in Maryland, who will all benefit from the opportunities this expansion presents," said Merrick. "With offices around the globe, SparkPost is thrilled to double down on Maryland and continue to build its team in Howard County."

SparkPost, also based in San Francisco, first opened offices in Maryland in 2008. The company has operated out of a 13,900-square-foot building in Columbia since 2012. SparkPost's new headquarters building is located just across the street from the company's former location, near hiking and jogging trails in the heart of Howard County.

In addition to being in an ideal location for employees located between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., the new SparkPost headquarters building features a modern design and open floor plans for easy cross-department collaboration. The building features expansive breakrooms fully stocked with complimentary food, a wellness room, and 20 communal rooms including quiet spaces and meeting areas designed to encourage teamwork.

SparkPost's new Maryland headquarters also offers a 4,000 square-foot multi-function assembly area with room for more than 100 people, perfect for company-wide meetings or to be used by employees seeking a space to recharge.



"We designed the building to provide our employees with the best possible facility for the collaborative and innovative culture that has fueled SparkPost's tremendous growth," Merrick said. "The building will provide an environment encouraging innovation, but has amenities to faciliate a positive work-life balance, an important part of our company culture."

SparkPost plans to use the multi-function area to host industry meetups and other networking and traning events, as well as for fun uses such as family movie nights, fitness and yoga classes and more.

About SparkPost

SparkPost is the world's #1 email delivery provider. Our customersincluding Pinterest, Twitter, Intercom, LinkedIn, Zillow, and Comcastsend over 3 trillion messages a year, more than 25% of the world's non-spam email. Our platform delivers any application's emails on time and to the inbox, with the performance, deliverability, flexibility, and analytics product development teams need to drive customer engagement and growth. Follow us on Twitter @SparkPost or go to sparkpost.com.

SOURCE SparkPost

Related Links

http://www.sparkpost.com

DALLAS, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SPM Communications, a public relations, crisis management and social media marketing agency, has been named PR agency of record for national retail bakery brand Nothing Bundt Cakes, broadening the firm's roster of national and regional retail, food, apparel, restaurant and lifestyle clients.

For more than 20 years, Nothing Bundt Cakes has been beloved for its handcrafted Bundt Cakes, miniature Bundtlets and bite-sized Bundtinis crowned with its signature cream cheese frosting. Starting with a single bakery in Las Vegas, the brand has grown to over 250 corporate and franchised bakeries in 36 U.S. states and Canada.

"I've worked with SPM over the years and have been impressed with their creative campaigns that not only resonate with the consumer, but also tie to specific business outcomes," said Nothing Bundt Cakes CEO Kyle Smith. "I have deep confidence in their ability to build and protect the Nothing Bundt Cakes brand."

As PR agency of record, SPM will help Nothing Bundt Cakes drive brand awareness and connect bakeries with guests through ongoing media relations, executive positioning and influencer programming. SPM will also support the rollout of several new brand initiatives in 2018.

"Having SPM full time as part of our marketing mix will be a great asset for our bakery owners as we continue to grow nationally," added Nothing Bundt Cakes Chief Marketing Officer Steve McGehee. "We are taking a new approach with SPM to include integrated campaigns that will drive the business and connect with new and existing customers."

"Our relationship with Nothing Bundt Cakes goes back years, and now, as agency of record, we can really dive into this brand as an ongoing, strategic partner alongside the marketing team," said SPM founder and President Suzanne Miller. "This is a well-loved, iconic brand that is continuing to grow, and we are ready to jump in, roll up our sleeves and help support their success."

Other recent client additions at SPM include Tennessee-based Kirkland's, a leading retailer of home decor accents and gifts, and Austin-based Blue Top, the first national brand of creamy hot sauces, inspired by the city's booming food truck scene.

About SPM Communications, Inc.

Founded in 1999, Dallas-based SPM Communications is ranked in the top 20 independent food and beverage specialty PR firms in the U.S. by O'Dwyer's. The company provides media and influencer relations, crisis management and social media marketing to multiple brands within its areas of expertise, including national and regional restaurant, food, retail, apparel and lifestyle brands. SPM has been featured in The Wall Street Journal for its "No Jerks" policy of mutual respect and trust among clients, team members and company leaders. More information is available at www.spmcommunications.com, www.Facebook.com/spmcommunications and on Instagram @spmcomm.

MEDIA CONTACT

Kristen Kauffman

214-379-7000

[email protected]

SOURCE SPM Communications

Related Links

http://www.spmcommunications.com

DENVER, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SpotX, the global video advertising and monetization platform, today announced new capabilities to strengthen brand safety across their video ad ecosystem. SpotX is increasing brand safety vetting through identification and categorization of fake news sources by integrating new advances from zvelo  one of SpotX's trusted brand safety partners and the leading provider of categorization and malicious detection data services for web content, traffic, and connected devices.

By working with zvelo, SpotX expands the protection it offers advertisers by identifying and proactively blocking websites and content that fall into several new and objectionable categories such as fake news. In doing so, SpotX fully removes sites that disseminate fabricated news and disinformation from available ad inventory  categorically preventing advertisers from associating brand content with this objectionable content. This capability deepens SpotX's commitment to offering vetted, premium ad inventory to publishers by providing another layer of verification and security for promoting a brand-safe ad buying ecosystem.

The prevalence of fake news has quickly become a concern for advertisers and an issue that plagues even the largest ad platforms. When ads do appear alongside fake news, brands not only risk wasting their ad spend, but also associating their brand with false claims and problematic content  which can cause significant and lasting harm to their reputation. This risk is accentuated by the fact that ad buyers often cannot control where their ads appear, especially in programmatic environments where buyers are not making one-off decisions. And, while buyers are keenly aware of the threats to brand safety via sites that include piracy, pornography, or graphic violence, fake news is a newer threat that is also more difficult to detect.

zvelo provides a classification engine that categorizes fake news using a combination of static and heuristic analysis techniques, aggregation of vetted third-party "fake news" feeds, and human-supervised machine learning. Utilizing a crowd-sourced approach, zvelo's technology analyzes URLs visited by a global partner network of more than 550 million endpoints. Data is processed by the zvelo AI Cloud Network and then verified for quality by trained analysts. In addition to recognizing fake news, the zveloDB URL categorization database also helps prevent brands from appearing alongside content involving terrorism, cryptocurrency mining, and other rapidly-emerging brand safety categories. In order to take every precaution in vetting ad inventory, SpotX pairs the expertise of its independent, third-party brand safety and verification partners such as zvelo with the monitoring activities of its own in-house Brand Safety Team.

"SpotX was the first supply-side platform that we partnered with in providing content categorization for brand safety, and we're proud of the work we've done together to make the internet a safer place to advertise," said Jeff Finn, CEO, zvelo. "At the same time, we're excited to provide greater capabilities for the categorization of fake news sources than ever before, and to assist SpotX in offering a thoroughly vetted, brand-safe ad inventory for publishers."

"Our expanded partnership with zvelo really reinforces SpotX's unwavering commitment to brand safety, as well as our duty to clean up the video ad ecosystem and educate media buyers about fraudulent inventory as new threats emerge," said Nick Frizzell, Sr. Director, Brand Safety & Inventory Operations, SpotX. "Empowered by zvelo's technology, we're able to help media buyers avoid brand-damaging associations with fake news. In an environment where buyers continually struggle to identify worthwhile ad inventory within the onslaught of new content and websites emerging every day, our zvelo-backed brand safety practices help publishers sort through the noise and successfully target advantageous ad placements."

About SpotX

SpotX is the leading global video advertising platform that enables media owners and publishers to monetize premium content across desktop, mobile and connected TV devices. As a modern ad server with programmatic infrastructure, data enablement, and monetization solutions for OTT, outstream, and addressable TV, SpotX gives media owners and publishers the control, transparency, and actionable insights needed to understand buyer behavior, manage access and pricing, and maximize revenue. SpotX also provides advertisers with a direct pipeline to premium supply and innovative solutions for optimizing media efficiency, reach, and audience targeting. With best-in-class technology purpose-built for video, SpotX's holistic, brand-safe solution is employed by some of the largest media owners and publishers in the world including fuboTV, Microsoft Casual Games, Newsy, Samba TV, Sling TV, Vudu and partners with a variety of different companies within the digital video ecosystem including comScore, DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, JW Player, MediaMath, MOAT, Nielsen, Oracle, The Trade Desk, and more.

Headquartered in Denver, SpotX has nearly 600 employees in 24 offices worldwide including Amsterdam, Hamburg, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, and Tokyo. In October 2017, RTL Group completed its 100% acquisition of SpotX which is currently combining its business with smartclip, a sister company.

Learn more at www.spotx.tv and follow @SpotX on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About zvelo, Inc.

As a leading provider of content categorization and malicious detection data services for web pages, web traffic, and connected devices, zvelo is the trusted partner for the market's preeminent network security, ad tech, and IoT security vendors. zvelo solves a diverse range of business needs including providing the foundational datasets for web filtering, parental controls, brand safety, ad fraud prevention, contextual targeting, subscriber analytics, device providing, compromised device detection and alerting. zvelo, headquartered just outside of Denver, is committed to providing the market's highest quality data products and best responsiveness.

Media Contacts:

Tammy Blythe Goodman

SpotX

+1-303-345-6671

[email protected]

Kyle Peterson

Clement | Peterson for zvelo

+1-415-723-0104

[email protected]

SOURCE SpotX

Related Links

https://www.spotx.tv

Gray named Andrew Stewart as its new Vice President and General Manager of WOWT (NBC 6) in the Omaha, Nebraska, market. Mr. Stewart has more than 35 years of broadcast television experience. He spent nearly eight years as Vice President and General Manager of Sinclair of Northern California, where he led an operation consisting of ten network affiliates in three Northern California markets. He also has held General Manager and sales management positions in Tucson, Arizona, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, and he previously served as Corporate Director of Television Sales for the former Lee Enterprises. He will begin at WOWT in early June.

Don Davis joined Gray in late March as the General Manager of KOSA-TV (CBS 7 News) in the Odessa-Midland, Texas, market. He also brings over 35 years of broadcast, media and sales experience to Gray Television. Prior to joining KOSA, he was a Senior Market Manager for Gabriel Media, a company working with television stations across the country to develop new revenue. Before that, he was Director of Sales at KBMT in Beaumont, Texas, and, previously, he was a Vice President, Sales with Warner Bros. Television100+ Station Group. Mr. Davis has held various management, sales, marketing, operations and programming positions during his career.

About Gray:

Gray owns and/or operates over 100 television stations across 57 television markets that collectively broadcast over 200 program streams including over 100 channels affiliated with the CBS Network, the NBC Network, the ABC Network and the FOX Network. Our portfolio includes the number-one and/or number-two ranked television station operations in essentially all of our markets, which collectively cover approximately 10.4 percent of total United States television households. For further information, please visit www.gray.tv.

SOURCE Gray Television

Related Links

http://www.gray.tv

UP TO 37.7 G AU/T OVER 3.00 METRES FROM 27.00 METRES

TORONTO, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Superior Gold Inc. ("Superior Gold" or "The Company") (TSX.V:SGI) is pleased to announce initial results from the ongoing reverse circulation drill program at its Hermes South project, which is located approximately 20 kilometres south southwest of the Hermes open pit gold mine, which is in turn located 65 kilometres southwest of the Company's 100%-owned Plutonic underground gold mine in Western Australia Figure 1 .

HIGHLIGHTS

37.7 g Au/t over 3.00 metres from 27.00 metres downhole in Hole BHSRC007, approximately 150 metres south of existing resource





5.0 g Au/t over 2.00 metres from 35.00 metres downhole in Hole BHSRC007





3.0 g Au/t over 6.00 metres from 166.00 metres downhole in Hole BHSRC009





All intersections are outside of the existing resource

The Hermes South project is within the Bryah Basin joint venture with Alchemy Resources Ltd. (ASX:ALY). The Company's interest in the joint venture is an earn-in option which, upon completion of the earn in, will give the Company an interest of up to 80% in the joint venture. The Company recently announced (April 3, 2018) an initial inferred mineral resource estimate for Hermes South of 1.29 million tonnes @ 1.54 g Au/t for 64,000 ounces (100% basis).

This reverse circulation program is expected to total approximately 10,400 metres in 79 holes. The goal of the program is to expand the existing resource and to explore for additional zones of mineralization.

The location of drill holes in the current program are shown in relation to prior drilling and the existing resource in plan and section in Figures 2 - 3 .

Chris Bradbrook, President and CEO of Superior Gold stated: "These results represent a very encouraging start to our first drill program at Hermes South. The ongoing drill program is being conducted to determine the potential for the Hermes South project to become a second open pit mining operation. The project is strategically well located and can be readily connected to the main Hermes haul road. This work is part of our near-term growth strategy to focus on reestablishing the Plutonic Gold operations at a sustainable production level of at least 100,000 ounces of gold annually."

Table 1  Initial Intersections from Hermes South

Drill Hole # Easting (Mine Grid) Northing (Mine Grid) Drill hole collar RL (Mine Grid) Dip (degrees) Azimuth (degrees, Mine Grid) End of

hole depth

(m) Downhole

From

(m) Downhole To

(m) Downhole

Intersection

(m) Au

(gpt)

uncut Est True

Thickness

(m) BHSRC007 685114 7155443 572 -60 24 220 27.00 30.00 3.00 37.7 2.1 BHSRC007 685114 7155443 572 -60 24 220 35.00 37.00 2.00 5.0 1.4 BHSRC008 685241 7155624 575 -60 24 200 144.00 145.00 1.00 1.9 0.7 BHSRC009 685217 7155569 574 -60 24 220 166.00 172.00 6.00 3.0 4.2 BHSRC009 685217 7155569 574 -60 24 220 175.00 176.00 1.00 1.1 0.7 BHSRC010 685192 7155515 569 -60 24 260 239.00 240.00 1.00 2.2 0.7

Qualified Person

Scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Pascal Blampain, who is a member of the AusIMM and the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG) and a "qualified person" within the meaning of NI 43-101. Mr. Blampain is an employee of the Company and serves as Chief Geologist.

Quality Control Protocols

Hermes South drilling has been completed using Reverse Circulation drilling. Samples are collected for every metre directly off the cyclone using a cone splitter, set to approximately 3kg sample size. All gold results were determined by ALS Minerals (Perth) using fire assay fusion (40g charge, lead collection method) with an ICP finish. Drill program design, Quality Assurance/Quality Control and interpretation of results are performed by qualified persons employing a Quality Assurance/Quality Control program consistent with NI 43-101 and industry best practices. Standards, blanks and duplicates are included in approximately every 20 samples for Quality Assurance/Quality Control purposes by the Company as well as the laboratory. Approximately 5% of sample pulps are sent to secondary laboratories for check assays.

About Superior Gold

Superior Gold is a Canadian based gold producer that owns 100% of the Plutonic Gold operations located in Western Australia. The Plutonic Gold operations include the underground Plutonic gold mine, which is a producing underground operation with a central mill, the Hermes open pit gold mine and an interest in the Bryah Basin joint venture. Superior Gold is focused on expanding production at the Plutonic Gold operations and building an intermediate gold producer with superior returns for shareholders.

Forward Looking Information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws that is intended to be covered by the safe harbours created by those laws. "Forward-looking information" includes statements that use forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "potential" or the negative thereof or other variations thereof or comparable terminology.

Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management at the date the statements are made. Furthermore, such forward-looking information involves a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. See "Risk Factors" in the Company's prospectus dated February 15, 2017 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com for a discussion of these risks.

The Company cautions that there can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking information contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Superior GoldBENTONVILLE, Ark., May 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile app company Switcharoo has launched in the Apple App Store and is excited to begin helping people take charge of their time at restaurants that have long waits.

Switcharoo is a patented peer-to-peer mobile app that allows a person with a long wait time to switch places in line with those whose wait time is shorter. It's all done through a bidding process while at the restaurant. Founder Ryan Parks says, "People spend 37 billion hours a year waiting in some kind of line. Waiting for a seat at a restaurant shouldn't be a painful process."

The app seeks to make restaurant patrons' wait time a better experience. "When waiting at a restaurant, there are varying degrees of seating demand by patrons. Switcharoo optimizes a patron's wait time by allowing them to bid directly with one another for places in the line queue," says Parks. As an example, Parks illustrates that the demand for a family of four is likely greater than a group of two couples that are meeting for a night out. He explains, "In this example, the family of four can bid to switch places in line with the two couples. If the bid is accepted, the family gets seated quicker and the group of two couples gets cash. This transaction actually optimizes the restaurant's seating demand and leads to a happier experience for all parties."

Parks also says that the company is looking for great restaurant partnerships to help launch the app. The app works outside of the restaurant's point-of-sale system and requires no interaction from restaurant employees. "It's really a no-fuss approach to make it easy on our restaurant partners." Switcharoo offers a revenue-sharing program for restaurants that agree to modest location signing such as bar coasters or table tents.

Looking to complete a seed funding round by mid-2018, the company is bolstered by lead investment from Amy Callahan, co-founder and CCO of Bentonville, Arkansas-based Collective Bias. Parks notes, "Amy is a great leader with tremendous vision and business savvy. Originally a board member to help guide the company, I recognized what she accomplished leading Collective Bias to an acquisition by Inmar and felt that she could provide the necessary guidance for Switcharoo's future."

As further proof of concept, Switcharoo gained acceptance and completed participation of Berkeley-based global incubatory The Batchery's accelerator program. The team has been thrilled with its participation in The Batchery, which has opened the doors to strategic partnerships, links to Silicon Valley and connections to venture capital.

Parks received a BS in marketing from Missouri State University and his MBA from John Brown University.

About: Switcharoo is a patented peer-to-peer mobile app that allows a person with a long wait time to bid with those whose wait time is shorter. Now available in the Apple App Store and soon to follow with Android. See more at www.switcharooapp.com, on Facebook as Switcharoo, on Instagram as @switcharooapp and on Twitter as @Switcharoo_Inc.

For more info contact:

J. Ryan Parks

Arooroo Inc. dba Switcharoo Mobile App

(479) 366-4924

[email protected]

Company Name and Product are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Company Name in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Related Files

Switcharoo Launch press release.docx

Related Links

Why Waiting is Torture

Waiting in Line is Bad Business

SOURCE Switcharoo

Related Links

http://www.switcharooapp.com

NEW YORK and ATLANTA, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The retail sector has evolved perhaps more during the last 12 months than it has in the previous three to five years. The progression of online retail, coupled with consumers' want-it-now mentality, have retailers across the world looking for ways to improve their supply chains. Starting today, Teknowlogi, pioneer of the Logistics Expert System (LES) and creator of Tai, the industry's only cloud-based solution built on artificial intelligence (AI), will share its latest technology innovations with attendees at the D3 Retail Supply Chain Summit in New York.

Teknowlogi representatives will be in Booth 1 throughout the conference, showcasing how the Tai platform of solutions that includes a shipping marketplace and mobile app, can help retailers take the first steps in implementing the most practical and relevant ways to stay ahead of industry challenges and evolutions. Teknowlogi's solutions help bring efficiency and automation to retail organizations, maximize productivity, improve operations and upgrade outdated "non-intelligent" technology.

"The retail environment continues to be shaped by economic factors, societal shifts and changing consumer preferences and demands," said Spencer Askew, founder and CEO of Teknowlogi. "Through technology, we've been able to create a path forward that will enable retailers to 'live on.' At Teknowlogi, we're developing innovative technologieswith very practical applications for real-world business challengesthat will give retailers the ability to survive and thrive in our on-demand world."

New Research Indicates Need for Solutions to Address the On-Demand Consumer

The 2018 Retail Supply Chain Report, commissioned by Teknowlogi and eft Supply Chain and Logistics Business Intelligence for the D3 conference, examined retailers' progression during the last 12 months in terms of improving their supply chains' quality and velocity. Results from the study indicate that retailers are in dire need of practical and relevant ways to understand and predict shopping behaviors while delivering an on-demand consumer experience.

Among the report's key findings:

Only 17 percent of retailers say they have full visibility over their inventory, including in stores, in transit and in returns. One of the biggest variables affecting and challenging inventory optimization and forecasting has been end customers who have turned the retail marketplace on its head. They've gone mobile, they've demanded "now" delivery, and they don't want to pay much for it.

One of the biggest variables affecting and challenging inventory optimization and forecasting has been end customers who have turned the retail marketplace on its head. They've gone mobile, they've demanded "now" delivery, and they don't want to pay much for it. Origin of demand (81 percent) and cost (77 percent) are the top forces shaping retail distribution network design. Network design is fundamentally an equation of weighing up cost versus origin of demand. It's an ongoing process that needs to be constantly measured, strategized and readjusted as costs change and consumer expectations evolve.

Network design is fundamentally an equation of weighing up cost versus origin of demand. It's an ongoing process that needs to be constantly measured, strategized and readjusted as costs change and consumer expectations evolve. Forty-six percent of retailers say that the customer experience (CX) has become a crucial part in measuring supply chain performance and accountability. In 2016, the majority of retailers considered CX only a company goal and had no formal measurement for its impact on supply chain performance. Fast forward to 2018, and respondents are actively measuring its impact using key indicators such as Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).

"On-demand shipping is no longer nice to have; it's expected," Askew said. "In order to compete, it's worthwhile for retailers to explore investing in innovative solutions to drive more productivity into current business processes and software systems."

Teknowlogi is the Title Sponsor at the third annual D3 Retail Supply Chain Summit. Askew will present the session, "Simplifying Your Business with Applied Intelligence," at 9 a.m. on May 10 at the event.

About Teknowlogi

Based in Atlanta, Teknowlogi is the pioneer of the Logistics Expert System (LES) and the only technology company to offer a cloud-based solution that combines transportation management systems, mobile intelligence, integration intelligence, consulting intelligence, business intelligence and artificial intelligence in one platform. Addressing unmet needs in the market, its affordable Tai solution can analyze millions of data variables in real-time to allow companies to enhance and change business processes within the complicated and multi-party global shipping and logistics industry. The Tai Mobile Intelligence app is another industry first, allowing any segment within the logistics network to address all shipment lifecycle "hot points" anytime, anywhere. Shippers, from 3PLs and freight forwarders to asset carriers, and even other logistics software companiesregardless of sizecan benefit from having an intelligent LES platform that's easy to implement, use and upgrade. For more information on how to advance your logistics into the future, visit www.teknowlogi.com, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @Teknowlogi, and like us on Facebook.

Media Contact:

Kathy Berardi

Carabiner Communications

678.644.4122

[email protected]

SOURCE Teknowlogi

Related Links

http://www.teknowlogi.com

LOS ANGELES, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Movember Foundation, the only charity tackling men's health issues on a global scale, is the recipient of a Gold Stevie Award  the highest honor  in the 2018 American Business Awards.

The American Business Awards are the U.S.A.'s premier business awards program. The award honors the achievements and positive contributions of companies and working professionals. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations  public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small.

The Stevie Award accomplishment comes during Mental Health Month, an important awareness moment for the Movember Foundation. Throughout the month, men are encouraged to stay mentally and emotionally healthy, build strong connections, and take actions during hard times. The Foundation, which has funded more than 1,200 groundbreaking men's health projects worldwide, supports the following causes: prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention.

"It is such an honor to be recognized by the esteemed American Business Awards, especially during Mental Health Month," said Terry Norton-Wright, U.S. Country Director of the Movember Foundation. "The Movember Foundation is committed to changing the face of men's health, and winning this award gives us more momentum to continue our work, and help men live happier, healthier, longer lives."

"The nominations submitted for the 2018 American Business Awards were outstanding. The competition was intense, and those recognized as Stevie Award winners should be immensely proud of this accomplishment," said Michael Gallagher, President and Founder of the Stevie Awards.

The Movember Foundation's accolade is in the category of Organization of the Year Non-Profit Medium-Size. More than 3,700 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration, and more than 200 professionals worldwide participated in the judging process to select this year's Stevie Award winners.

Details about The American Business Awards and Movember's award are available at www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

About the Movember Foundation

The Movember Foundation has one goal: to stop men dying too young. As the only global charity tackling men's health issues year-round, the foundation supports the following causes: prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health and suicide prevention. Since 2003, the support of more than 5 million men and women has funded over 1,200 innovative projects across 20 countries. To donate or learn more, please visit Movember.com.

About the Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in seven programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 10,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 60 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.

PRESS CONTACT:

Shanetta McDonald

Movember Foundation

1-310-450-3331

[email protected]

SOURCE The Movember FoundationThe contribution of Miguel, "'Mysteries: Love, Light and Life,' is a book written for you with the intention of clarifying the content of existence. Your pains, sufferings and tribulations, in truth, are not necessary, you have the divine right and the opportunity to live in peace, in a continuous state of rejoicing, satisfaction and contentment. Your moments of happiness are only moments, and the more intense they are, reality can be more difficult when you return to it. We have no reason to suffer unless we understand the logic of the universe- the purpose of its mysteries, Love, Light and Life. This book explains that everything was done with love, for love and to love putting light within your reach - human understanding - and shows that, with these two mysteries, life - the third mystery - flows gloriously in all its splendor. You know? You were created with love from the beginning of the intention of your life, and at the moment of your conception you absorbed part of the Great Sprit, his absolute knowledge, and infinite love. These are the secrets of the three mysteries revealed in this book: you are never isolated, you are an eternal part of that infinite love, under the wise light that illuminates the reality of your life. Inhale, fill yourself with love.

This book exposes that there is a dark part of our being and which, perhaps, we do not want to dominate, that is our Ego. Many times, our capricious ego creates situations that we cannot live with, or maybe we do not tolerate, and we destroy life. The secret is that we can dominate, domesticate, manage our ego, understanding that cravings, desires, cravings and whims are selfish, in most cases. The light makes clear that love is the solution of everything, including control over our Ego. Light illuminates life, and it is understood that everything with love is carried by the hand. The mystery of love is in your wisdom, in your pondering, so that the light of your reasoning shines on the right path. This book is a guide for you to meditate on how to achieve your continuous state of rejoicing, contentment and satisfaction - the permanent happiness of your spiritual and mental life. The secret of the three mysteries is to live in peace and harmoniously integrated with the Universe that has created us; always looking with love, the wise light that illuminates the truth of life. Life is only the vehicle that works driven by the light of knowledge and driven by the driving force of love. Have a good trip!"

This book by Miguel Soto published by Page Publishing Publishing located in New York, USA is a philosophical work that encourages thought to explore the connection of Love and Light in human life.

Those readers who want to know this interesting work can buy "Mysteries: Love, Light and Life" in local bookstores, or in stores on the Internet such as Apple iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

If you want additional information or inquiries from the distributive media, you can call Page Publishing at 866-315-2708

http://www.pagepublishing.com/books/?book=misterios

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional New York-based full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors' books, including distribution in the world's largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not bogged down with logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and the like. Its roster of accomplished authors and publishing professionals allows writers to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at www.pagepublishing.com.

Contact

Nichole Hoffman

Page Publishing, Inc.

866-315-2708 ext 8283

[email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/690052/Miguel_Soto_Book.jpg

SOURCE Page Publishing

Related Links

https://www.pagepublishing.com/

DFW AIRPORT, Texas, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Customers at Dallas Fort Worth International (DFW) Airport have three new, nonstop flights to Iceland just in time for the peak summer travel season. Two Icelandic-based airlines, Wow air and Icelandair, will begin flying from DFW to ReykjavikKeflavik (KEF) International Airport in late May, and American Airlines will launch its KEF flight in early June.

"The new flights to Iceland represent even more choices for our customers and the entire Dallas Fort Worth region," said John Ackerman, DFW's executive vice president of Global Strategy and Development. "One of our top goals at DFW Airport is to grow international passenger and cargo air service to kindle new business and travel opportunities in our home region. The addition of three routes to this beautiful new destination shows the strength of demand for international travel to and from North Texas."

Iceland is an increasingly popular tourist destination and has become a convenient stopover for travelers connecting to Europe. Between the two Icelandic carriers, DFW customers will have access to 39 destinations in Europe and the Middle East. American Airlines connects travelers to Iceland through its largest hub.

New Iceland services schedule

Wow air

Begins May 24, 2018

Departs DFW at 4:10 p.m. (CDT)

Arrives KEF at 4:45 a.m. (GMT)

Aircraft: Airbus A330

Seats: 350

Service: Seasonal (summer); three times per week

Operates from DFW Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays





Begins Departs DFW at Arrives KEF at Aircraft: Airbus A330 Seats: 350 Service: Seasonal (summer); three times per week Operates from DFW Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays Icelandair

Begins May 31, 2018

Departs DFW at 4:20 p.m. (CDT)

Arrives KEF at 5:10 a.m. (GMT)

Aircraft: Boeing 757-200

Seats: 183

Service: Year-round; four times per week

Operates from DFW on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays





Begins Departs DFW at Arrives KEF at Aircraft: Boeing 757-200 Seats: 183 Service: Year-round; four times per week Operates from DFW on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays American Airlines

Begins June 7, 2018

Departs DFW at 8:20 p.m. (CDT)

Arrives KEF at 9:15 a.m. (GMT)

Aircraft: Boeing 757-200

Seats: 176

Service: Seasonal (summer); daily

Operates from DFW seven days per week

About Dallas Fort Worth International Airport:

DFW Airport warmly welcomes more than 66 million customers along their journey every year, elevating DFW to a status as one of the most frequently visited superhub airports in the world. DFW Airport customers can choose among 173 domestic and 56 international nonstop destinations worldwide. DFW is elevating the customer experience with modernized facilities and updated amenities, as well as through a $2 billion Terminal Renewal and Improvement Program. Centered between its owner cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, DFW Airport also serves as a major economic generator for the North Texas region, producing over $37 billion in economic impact each year by connecting people through business and leisure travel. For more information, visit the DFW website or download the DFW App for iOS and Android devices.

Follow @dfwairport on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest

SOURCE DFW International Airport

Related Links

http://www.dfwairport.com/

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) Board Chairman, Jim Clifton announced the additions of Dr. Cynthia Jackson-Hammond, President, Central State University, and Dr. Kent J. Smith, Jr., President, Langston University, as the two newest additions to the TMCF Board of Directors.

Recognizing the importance of having more HBCU subject matter experts to help lead the 31-year-old organization into the future, the decision was made to identify leaders from the HBCU community at large to bring the expertise and first-hand perspective to our diverse Board of Directors.

"Our board is proud to have Dr. Hammond and Dr. Smith join the TMCF family because we know they appreciate the work we do as an organization and will work to find ways to make TMCF an even better partner in advocacy, scholarships and capacity building for our 47 member-schools," said TMCF board Chair and Chairman and CEO of Gallup, Jim Clifton.

Dr. Cynthia Jackson-Hammond is the eighth president of Central State University where she is recognized as an innovative leader expanding course offerings and infrastructure for the students. She earned a Doctorate of Higher Education from Grambling State University, an Education Specialist degree in counseling education and a Master's degree in communications from the University of Louisiana-Monroe, and a Bachelor's degree from Grambling State University.

"I am pleased to serve on the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Board of Directors, said Dr. Hammond." "I look forward to contributing to the strong advocacy and support for countless students which has been the hallmark of TMCF's tremendous success!"

Dr. Kent J. Smith, Jr. serves as the 16th president of Langston University with more than twenty years of experience in higher education. Under his leadership, Langston University has seen record highs in fundraising, admissions applications, and freshman enrollment. Dr. Smith earned a Bachelor of Science in secondary education, a Master of Education in educational administration and supervision from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, and a Doctorate in education and human resources studies, from Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

"Thurgood Marshall College Fund has been a valued partner of Langston University for over two decades, providing significant resources to our students, faculty, and staff, said Dr. Smith." "I am honored and proud to have an opportunity to serve as a board member for such a prestigious organization. I look forward to working with Dr. Williams, his leadership team and my colleagues across the HBCU nation to advance the mission of TMCF."

"As a former college president who also served on our board, I found the experience to be incredibly rewarding, said TMCF president and CEO, Dr. Harry L. Williams. "I know Dr. Hammond and Dr. Smith well, and am confident their perspectives as HBCU presidents, being so connected to our students and faculty, will prove to be invaluable to our TMCF Board of Directors."

About Thurgood Marshall College Fund

Established in 1987, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) is the nation's largest organization exclusively representing the Black College Community. TMCF member-schools include publicly-supported Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Publicly-supported HBCUs enroll over 80% of all students attending HBCUs. Through scholarships, capacity building and research initiatives, innovative programs, and strategic partnerships, TMCF is a vital resource in the K-12 and higher education spaces. The organization is also a source for top employers seeking top talent for competitive internships and good jobs.

TMCF is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization. For more information about TMCF, visit: www.tmcf.org.

SOURCE Thurgood Marshall College Fund

Related Links

http://tmcf.org

STAMFORD, Conn., May 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tronox Limited (NYSE:TROX) reported revenue of $442 million for the first quarter 2018, up 17 percent from $378 million in the year-ago quarter and 5 percent lower than $464 million in the prior quarter. Income from operations of $14 million improved from a loss from operations of $3 million in the year-ago quarter and compared to $60 million in the prior quarter. Net loss from continuing operations attributable to Tronox Limited was $44 million, or ($0.36) per diluted share, compared to a net loss from continuing operations attributable to Tronox Limited of $56 million, or ($0.48) per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter and net income from continuing operations attributable to Tronox Limited of breakeven, or $0.00 per diluted share in the prior quarter. Net income from continuing operations attributable to Tronox Limited in the first quarter of 2018 included an impairment loss related to the sale of the company's Electrolytic operations and transaction costs related to the Cristal acquisition that, combined, totaled $45 million or $0.37 per diluted share. Excluding these items, adjusted net income from continuing operations attributable to Tronox Limited (Non-GAAP) was $1 million, or $0.01 per diluted share. Adjusted EBITDA of $113 million increased 79 percent from $63 million in the year-ago quarter and compared to $135 million in the prior quarter.

The Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.045 per share payable on June 1, 2018, to shareholders of record of the company's Class A and Class B ordinary shares at the close of business on May 21, 2018.

Jeffry Quinn, president and chief executive officer of Tronox, said: "The last several weeks have seen significant progress toward closing the Cristal acquisition. As a result of our discussions with the European Commission through the formal hearing process and the follow-on state-of-play meeting, we've narrowed the issues and the Commission's conditional clearance is now only dependent on finalizing an agreement on a proposed remedy to address their remaining objection. We are also negotiating with possible counterparties regarding execution of the proposed remedy. In the United States, we filed a motion with the FTC seeking to stay the administrative proceeding scheduled to start on May 18. If granted, the stay will allow direct discussions with the FTC Commissioners -- something not permitted while an administrative process is pending. If settlement efforts are unsuccessful, we will ask the FTC Commissioners, in the alternative, to consider pursuing the FTC's case through the typical Federal Court process, which is much more likely to result in a timely resolution.

"We also announced our entry into a Technical Services Agreement and an Option Agreement with AMIC, an entity equally owned by Cristal and Tasnee, regarding the titanium slag smelter facility located in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. These agreements are another integral step to enable the combined company to further optimize the level of vertical integration between its production of TiO 2 pigment and feedstock over the long term. By combining our slagger operations expertise with that of AMIC under the technical services agreement, we will work together to ensure the successful commissioning of this world-class smelter to become a low-cost source of feedstock for the 11 pigment plants that would comprise the combined company. We continue to work hand in hand with our partners at Cristal and Tasnee with the shared goal of creating the premier company in the TiO 2 industry."

Quinn continued, "Our first quarter performance clearly reflected the benefits of our vertical integration, as our TiO 2 business delivered revenue growth of 17 percent, adjusted EBITDA growth of 62 percent, an adjusted EBITDA margin of 31 percent and free cash flow of $52 million. Both our downstream TiO 2 pigment and upstream feedstock and co-products operations continued to benefit from favorable market conditions across the value chain. Our strong top- and bottom-line results came despite the timing impact of several large feedstock and co-product shipments. This is not a reflection of softening market conditions. The opposite is true. We see continued strengthening in feedstock and co-products markets, such as zircon and pig iron. We expect favorable market trends to continue in pigment, feedstock and co-products across the year. Our strong first quarter results were delivered in the face of significant foreign exchange headwinds primarily related to the strengthening of the South African Rand relative to the U.S. Dollar. Despite this short-term impact, the recent political changes in South Africa, which triggered the strengthening of the Rand, bode well for the future of our South African operations."

First Quarter 2018

Tronox TiO 2

TiO 2 revenue of $442 million increased 17 percent compared to $378 million in the year-ago quarter, driven primarily by higher selling prices for pigment, zircon and pig iron. Pigment sales of $333 million increased 22 percent compared to $272 million in the year-ago quarter driven by 25 percent higher selling prices (20 percent on a local currency basis). Sales volumes were 2 percent lower due to inventory availability related to the timing of plant maintenance. Selling prices were higher in all regions. Titanium feedstock and co-products sales of $97 million increased 5 percent from $92 million in the year-ago quarter, as average selling prices increased 34 percent and sales volumes were 22 percent lower due to the timing of shipments for zircon and CP titanium slag. Zircon sales of $61 million increased 22 percent driven by 52 percent higher selling prices which more than offset 20 percent lower sales volumes, as shipments originally scheduled for the first quarter occurred in the prior quarter. Pig iron sales of $19 million increased 73 percent as selling prices increased 18 percent and sales volumes increased 41 percent. Feedstock and Other products sales of $17 million were 45 percent lower driven by shipment timing. There were no sales of CP titanium slag in the first quarter compared to $12 million of sales in the year-ago quarter.

Compared sequentially, TiO 2 revenue of $442 million was 5 percent lower than $464 million in the prior quarter. Higher selling prices for pigment and all major product lines in feedstock and co-products were offset by lower sales volumes for zircon, pig iron and CP titanium slag due to the timing of shipments. Pigment sales of $333 million increased 5 percent from $316 million in the prior quarter, as selling prices increased 3 percent (2 percent on a local currency basis) and sales volumes increased 2 percent. Though feedstock and co-products markets continued to strengthen in the quarter, Titanium feedstock and co-products sales of $97 million decreased 27 percent from $133 million in the prior quarter reflecting the lower zircon, pig iron and CP titanium slag sales volumes due to shipment timing. Zircon sales of $61 million were 9 percent lower as selling prices increased 12 percent which were more than offset by 19 percent lower sales volumes due to shipment timing. Pig iron sales of $19 million were 5 percent lower, as 12 percent higher selling prices were more than offset by 16 percent lower sales volumes, also due to shipment timing. There were no sales of CP titanium slag in the quarter compared to $12 million of sales in the prior quarter. In the second quarter, we are expecting sequential growth in pigment sales and double-digit sequential sales growth in zircon and pig iron given the timing of planned shipments.

TiO 2 adjusted EBITDA of $138 million increased 62 percent from $85 million in the year-ago quarter, driven primarily by higher selling prices for pigment and across all major product lines in feedstock and co-products. Partially offsetting the gain were foreign exchange impacts on cost, primarily the South African Rand. Compared sequentially, segment adjusted EBITDA of $138 million decreased by 12 percent from $156 million in the prior quarter. Higher selling prices for pigment and across all major product lines in feedstock and co-products were more than offset by lower sales volumes due to the timing of shipments and unfavorable foreign exchange, primarily the South African Rand. TiO 2 income from operations of $52 million improved from income from operations of $32 million in the year-ago quarter and compared to $93 million in the prior quarter. TiO 2 delivered free cash flow of $52 million in the first quarter, as cash provided by operating activities was $79 million and capital expenditures were $27 million.

Consolidated

Selling, general and administrative expenses were $76 million, which included $20 million related to the Cristal acquisition, compared to $67 million in the year-ago quarter which included $11 million related to the Cristal acquisition, and $65 million in the prior quarter which included $15 million related to the Cristal acquisition. Interest expense of $49 million compared to $46 million in the year-ago quarter and $48 million in the prior quarter. On March 31, 2018, gross consolidated debt, net of debt issuance costs, was $3,146 million, and debt net of cash and cash equivalents was $1,419 million, including $653 million of cash restricted for the Cristal transaction. Liquidity was $2,032 million comprised of cash and cash equivalents of $1,727 million, including $653 million of restricted cash, and $305 million available under revolving credit agreements. Capital expenditures were $28 million and depreciation, depletion and amortization expense was $48 million.

Webcast Conference Call

Tronox will conduct a conference call to review first quarter results on Thursday, May 10, 2018, at 8:30 a.m. ET (New York). The live call is open to the public via internet broadcast and telephone.

Internet Broadcast: http://www.tronox.com

Dial-in Telephone Numbers:

U.S. / Canada: +1.877.831.3840

International: +1.253.237.1184

Conference ID: 3380989

Conference Call Presentation Slides will be used during the conference call and are available on our website: http://www.tronox.com

Webcast Conference Call Replay: Available via the internet and telephone beginning on Thursday, May 10, 2018 at 11:30 a.m. ET (New York), until 11:30 p.m. ET (New York) on Wednesday, May 16, 2018.

Internet Replay: http://www.tronox.com

Replay Dial-in Telephone Numbers:

U.S. / Canada: +1.855.859.2056

International: +1.404.537.3406

Conference ID: 3380989

Upcoming Conferences

During the second and third quarters of 2018, a member of management is scheduled to present at the following conferences:

Vertical Research Materials Conference, Westbrook, CT , June 14, 2018

, BMO Capital Markets Chemicals Conference, New York , June 26, 2018

, UBS Chemicals Conference, New York , September 5, 2018

, Credit Suisse Basic Materials Conference, New York , September 12, 2018

Accompanying conference materials will be available at http://investor.tronox.com

About Tronox

Tronox Limited is a vertically integrated mining and inorganic chemical business. The Company mines and processes titanium ore, zircon and other minerals, and manufactures titanium dioxide pigments that add brightness and durability to paints, plastics, paper, and other everyday products. For more information, visit tronox.com .

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this release that are not historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results, level of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These and other risk factors are discussed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including those under the heading entitled "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017.

Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for our management to predict all risks and uncertainties, nor can management assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Although we believe the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance or achievements. Neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any of these forward-looking statements. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Unless otherwise required by applicable laws, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information or future developments.

Use of Non-U.S. GAAP Financial Information

To provide investors and others with additional information regarding Tronox Limited's operating results, we have disclosed in this press release certain non-U.S. GAAP financial measures, including EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Free Cash Flow and Adjusted net income (loss) attributable to Tronox. These non-U.S. GAAP financial measures are a supplement to and not a substitute for or superior to, the company's results presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The non-U.S. GAAP financial measures presented by the company may be different from non-U.S. GAAP financial measures presented by other companies. The non-U.S. GAAP financial measures are provided to enhance the user's overall understanding of the company's operating performance. Specifically, the company believes the non-U.S. GAAP information provides useful measures to investors regarding the company's financial performance by excluding certain costs and expenses that the company believes are not indicative of its core operating results. The presentation of these non-U.S. GAAP financial measures is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for results or guidance prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. A reconciliation of the non-U.S. GAAP financial measures to U.S. GAAP results is included herein.

Management believes these non-U.S. GAAP financial measures:

Reflect Tronox Limited's ongoing business in a manner that allows for meaningful period-to-period comparison and analysis of trends in its business, as they exclude income and expense that are not reflective of ongoing operating results;

Provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating Tronox Limited's operating results and future prospects;

Provide additional view of the operating performance of the company by adding interest expenses, taxes, depreciation, depletion and amortization to the net income. Further adjustments due to gain (loss) on extinguishment of debt and stock-based compensation charges are made to exclude items that are either non-cash or unusual in nature;

Assist investors to assess the company's compliance with financial covenants under its debt instruments;

Adjusted EBITDA is one of the primary measures management uses for planning and budgeting processes and to monitor and evaluate financial and operating results. Adjusted EBITDA is not a recognized term under U.S. GAAP and does not purport to be an alternative to measures of our financial performance as determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP, such as net income (loss). Because other companies may calculate EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA differently than Tronox, EBITDA may not be, and Adjusted EBITDA as presented in this release is not, comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies, and

We believe that the non-U.S. GAAP financial measure "Adjusted net income (loss) attributable to Tronox Limited" and its presentation on a per share basis provide useful information about our operating results to investors and securities analysts. We also believe that excluding the effects of these items from operating results allows management and investors to compare more easily the financial performance of our underlying businesses from period to period.

Media Contact: Melissa Zona

+1.636.751.4057

Investor Contact: Brennen Arndt

+1.203.705.3730

TRONOX LIMITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (U.S. GAAP) (UNAUDITED) (Millions of U.S. dollars, except share and per share data)



























Three Months Ended

March 31,

Three Months Ended

March 31,















2018

2017

Net sales $ 442

$ 378

Cost of goods sold 327

315

Gross profit 115

63

Selling, general, and administrative expenses (76)

(67)

Restructuring -

1

Impairment loss (25)

-

Income (loss) from operations 14

(3)

Interest expense (49)

(46)

Interest income 8

1

Other expense, net (9)

(8)

Loss from continuing operations before income taxes (36)

(56)

Income tax (provision) benefit (5)

3

Net loss from continuing operations (41)

(53)

Income from discontinued operations, net of tax -

15

Net loss (41)

(38)

Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest 3

3

Net loss attributable to Tronox Limited $ (44)

$ (41)













Net income (loss) per share, basic and diluted:







Continuing operations $ (0.36)

$ (0.48)

Discontinued operations $ -

$ 0.13

Net loss per share, basic and diluted $ (0.36)

$ (0.35)













Weighted average shares outstanding, basic and diluted (in thousands) 122,327

116,815













Other Operating Data:









Capital expenditures $ 28

$ 20



Depreciation, depletion and amortization expense $ 48

$ 45



TRONOX LIMITED RECONCILIATION OF NON-U.S. GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES (UNAUDITED) (Millions of U.S. dollars, except share and per share data)

RECONCILIATION OF NET LOSS ATTRIBUTABLE TO TRONOX LIMITED (U.S. GAAP) TO ADJUSTED NET LOSS FROM CONTINUING OPERATIONS ATTRIBUTABLE TO TRONOX LIMITED (NON-U.S. GAAP)

















Three Months Ended

March 31,

Three Months Ended

March 31,

2018

2017







Net loss attributable to Tronox Limited (U.S. GAAP) $ (44)

$ (41) Income from discontinued operations, net of tax (U.S. GAAP) -

15 Net loss from continuing operations attributable to Tronox Limited (U.S. GAAP) $ (44)

$ (56) Impairment loss (a) 25

- Acquisition related matters (b) 20

11 Restructuring (c) -

(1) Adjusted net income (loss) from continuing operations attributable to Tronox Limited (non-U.S. GAAP) (d) $ 1

$ (46)







Basic and diluted net loss per share from continuing operations (U.S. GAAP) $ (0.36)

$ (0.48)







Impairment loss, per share 0.21

- Acquisition related matters, per share 0.16

0.10 Restructuring, per share -

(0.01) Diluted adjusted net income (loss) from continuing operations per share attributable to Tronox Limited (non-U.S. GAAP) $ 0.01

$ (0.39)







Weighted average shares outstanding, diluted (in thousands) 122,327

116,815



(a) Represents a pre-tax charge for the impairment and expected loss on sale of the assets of our Tronox Electrolytic Operations which was recorded in "Impairment loss" in the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. (b) Represents transaction costs associated with the Cristal Transaction which were recorded in "Selling, general and administrative expenses" in the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. (c) Represents the reversal of restructuring expense pursuant to the settlement of claims previously filed relating to a prior restructure which was recorded in "Restructuring" in the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. (d) No income tax impact given full valuation allowance.

TRONOX LIMITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (UNAUDITED) (Millions of U.S. dollars, except share and per share data)





























March 31,

December 31





2018

2017 ASSETS





Current Assets







Cash and cash equivalents $ 1,074

$ 1,116

Restricted cash 655

653

Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts 329

336

Inventories, net 470

473

Prepaid and other assets 55

53

Income taxes receivable 9

8

Assets held for sale 31

-



Total current assets 2,623

2,639











Noncurrent Assets







Property, plant and equipment, net 1,120

1,115

Mineral leaseholds, net 896

885

Intangible assets, net 192

198

Inventories, net -

3

Other long-term assets 27

24



Total assets $ 4,858

$ 4,864











LIABILITIES AND EQUITY





Current Liabilities







Accounts payable $ 146

$ 165

Accrued liabilities 143

163

Long-term debt due within one year 22

22

Income taxes payable 1

3

Liabilities held for sale 8

-



Total current liabilities 320

353











Noncurrent Liabilities







Long-term debt, net 3,124

3,125

Pension and postretirement healthcare benefits 100

103

Asset retirement obligations 81

79

Long-term deferred tax liabilities 183

171

Other long-term liabilities 17

18



Total liabilities 3,825

3,849











Commitments and Contingencies





Shareholders' Equity







Tronox Limited Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.01  93,838,329 shares issued and 93,756,873 shares outstanding at March 31, 2018 and 92,717,935 shares issued and 92,541,463 shares outstanding at December 31, 2017 1

1

Tronox Limited Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.01  28,729,280 shares issued and outstanding at March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017. -

-

Capital in excess of par value 1,563

1,558

Accumulated deficit (377)

(327)

Accumulated other comprehensive loss (358)

(403)



Total Tronox Limited shareholders' equity 829

829

Noncontrolling interest 204

186



Total equity 1,033

1,015



Total liabilities and equity $ 4,858

$ 4,864

TRONOX LIMITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (UNAUDITED) (Millions of U.S. dollars)

















Three Months Ended March 31,

2018

2017 Cash Flows from Operating Activities:





Net loss $ (41)

$ (38) Income from discontinued operations, net of tax -

15 Net loss from continuing operations $ (41)

$ (53) Adjustments to reconcile net loss from continuing operations to net cash (used in) provided by operating activities, continuing operations:





Depreciation, depletion and amortization 48

45 Deferred income taxes 3

(1) Share-based compensation expense 7

13 Amortization of deferred debt issuance costs and discount on debt 5

3 Pension and postretirement healthcare benefit expense -

1 Impairment losses 25

- Other, net 11

4 Contributions to employee pension and postretirement plans (5)

(4) Changes in assets and liabilities:





Decrease (increase) in accounts receivable, net 1

(10) (Increase) decrease in inventories, net (9)

26 (Increase) decrease in prepaid and other assets (1)

4 Decrease in accounts payable and accrued liabilities (46)

(23) Decrease in income taxes payable (2)

(3) Cash (used in) provided by operating activities, continuing operations (4)

2







Cash Flows from Investing Activities:





Capital expenditures (28)

(20) Cash used in investing activities, continuing operations (28)

(20)







Cash Flows from Financing Activities:





Repayments of long-term debt (6)

(4) Debt issuance costs (1)

- Proceeds from the exercise of warrants 2

- Dividends paid (6)

(6) Restricted stock and performance-based shares settled in cash for withholding taxes (4)

(2) Cash used in financing activities, continuing operations (15)

(12)







Discontinued Operations:





Cash provided by operating activities -

57 Cash used in investing activities -

(12) Net cash flows provided by discontinued operations -

45







Effects of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 7

1 Net (decrease) increase in cash and cash equivalents (40)

16 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of period 1,769

251 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of period, continuing operations $1,729

$267

TRONOX LIMITED CONDENSED STATEMENT OF FREE CASH FLOWS (NON-U.S. GAAP) (UNAUDITED) (Millions of U.S. dollars)

























Three Months Ended March 31, 2018













TiO 2

Corporate

Consolidated











Income (loss) from operations (U.S. GAAP) $ 52

$ (38)

$ 14 Depreciation, depletion and amortization expense 47

1

48 Other 39

12

51 Adjusted EBITDA (non-U.S. GAAP) $ 138

$ (25)

$ 113











Adjusted EBITDA (non-U.S. GAAP) $ 138

$ (25)

$ 113 Interest paid, net of capitalized interest and interest income -

(40)

(40) Income tax provision -

(5)

(5) Transaction costs -

(20)

(20) Contributions to employee pension and postretirement plans (5)

-

(5) Deferred income taxes -

3

3 Other (10)

17

7











Changes in assets and liabilities









Decrease in accounts receivable, net 1

-

1 Increase in inventories, net (9)

-

(9) Decrease (increase) in prepaid and other assets 4

(5)

(1) Decrease in accounts payable and accrued liabilities (40)

(6)

(46) Decrease in income taxes payable -

(2)

(2) Subtotal (44)

(13)

(57)











Cash provided by (used in) operating activities, continuing operations 79

(83)

(4)











Capital expenditures (27)

(1)

(28) Free cash flow (non-U.S. GAAP) $ 52

$ (84)

$ (32)

TRONOX LIMITED SEGMENT INFORMATION AND RECONCILIATION OF NET LOSS TO EBITDA AND ADJUSTED EBITDA (NON-U.S. GAAP) (UNAUDITED) (Millions of U.S. dollars)























Three Months Ended

March 31,

Three Months Ended

March 31,



2018

2017









Net loss (U.S. GAAP) $ (41)

$ (38) Income from discontinued operations, net of tax (U.S. GAAP) -

15 Net loss from continuing operations (U.S. GAAP) (41)

(53)

Interest expense 49

46

Interest income (8)

(1)

Income tax provision (benefit) 5

(3)

Depreciation, depletion and amortization expense 48

45 EBITDA (non-U.S. GAAP) 53

34

Impairment loss (a) 25

-

Share-based compensation (b) 7

13

Transaction costs (c) 20

11

Restructuring (d) -

(1)

Foreign currency remeasurement (e) 6

3

Other items (f) 2

3 Adjusted EBITDA (non-U.S. GAAP) (g) $ 113

$ 63





(a) Represents a pre-tax charge for the impairment and expected loss on sale of the assets of our Tronox Electrolytic Operations which was recorded in "Impairment loss" in the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. (b) Represents non-cash share-based compensation. (c) Represents transaction costs associated with the Cristal Transaction which were recorded in "Selling, general and administrative expenses" in the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. (d) Represents the reversal of restructuring expense pursuant to the settlement of claims previously filed relating to a prior restructure which was recorded in "Restructuring" in the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. (e) Represents foreign currency remeasurement which is included in "Other expense, net" in the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. (f) Includes noncash pension and postretirement costs, severance expense, accretion expense and other items included in "Selling, general and administrative expenses", "Cost of goods sold" and "Other expense, net" in the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations. (g) No income tax impact given full valuation allowance.

The following table reconciles income (loss) from operations, the comparable measure for segment reporting under U.S. GAAP, to Adjusted EBITDA by segment for the periods presented:



Three Months Ended

March 31,

Three Months Ended

March 31,

2018

2017







TiO 2 segment $ 52

$ 32 Corporate (38)

(35) Income (loss) from operations (U.S. GAAP) 14

(3)







TiO 2 segment 47

44 Corporate 1

1 Depreciation, depletion and amortization expense 48

45







TiO 2 segment 39

9 Corporate 12

12 Other 51

21







TiO 2 segment 138

85 Corporate (25)

(22) Adjusted EBITDA (non-U.S. GAAP) $ 113

$ 63

SOURCE Tronox Limited

Related Links

http://www.tronox.com

CEDARHURST, N.Y., May 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Under 5'10 has launched their Kickstarter campaign, targeting clothing for men who are under 5'10. The company recently released the news of their Fittery acquisition to use data science in perfecting the fit of men's clothing for their targeted audience of under 5'10.

After being a frustrated 5'7 male shopper for too many years, founder Elie Robinson had the idea to make high-quality, properly fit and competitively priced clothing for men who are under 5'10.

Under 5'10 Brand Images

Through his research, Elie quickly learned why he was having such a tough time in this seemingly simple desire to find clothes which fit him properly. The average male height in the U.S. is 5'10. The mass manufacturers are cutting clothing around this average male height to hit the broadest audience possible (and he doesn't blame them).

He started asking others who are under 5'10 and their spouses if they were experiencing the same frustration. The answer was absolute - yes. Elie said "their solutions were what got him motivated to start his company. They were all either 1) wearing clothes that don't fit them properly, 2) spending a ton on custom clothing or 3) buying off the rack and paying for a tailor to correct the ill-fitting clothes."

Manufacturing: After months of research, Elie and his team flew out to Honduras in November 2017 to meet and tour the facility of a fantastic family-run manufacturer who was so like-minded to their ethics and mission that they immediately joined the family.

Sizing: The next good fortune was his introduction to Catherine Iger who had spent the past couple of years starting a company called Fittery with her partner Greg Vilines. To summarize, Fittery was founded to help men find perfect-fit clothing from all of the mass manufacturers based on their dimensions. What they had compiled was a substantial database of measurements of males in the US. Catherine was very enthusiastic about the concept and she immediately offered to jump on board in helping to create new sizing for their target market. They took this a step further when they decided to purchase Fittery's database at the end of December 2017 to perfect sizing for the under 5'10 demographic based on analytics and data science.

Data Science: Their partnership with Ann Morhaime at Annalyze101 has helped them in creating unique and perfected sizing for males under 5'10 using the Fittery database.

Kickstarter is the perfect launchpad for Under 5'10 to learn what their consumers want while they prepare for their first order with their factory.

Live on Kickstarter

Elie Robinson 5'7

Founder Under 5'10

www.under510.com

Related Links

Kickstarter Campaign

Under 5'10

SOURCE Under 5'10

Related Links

http://www.under510.com

FARMINGTON, Conn., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A webcast of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) Chairman & CEO Gregory Hayes speaking at the Electrical Products Group Conference is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, May 22, 2018. The presentation will be broadcast live on the Internet at www.utc.com and will be archived on the website afterward.

United Technologies Corp., based in Farmington, Connecticut, provides high-technology systems and services to the building and aerospace industries. By combining a passion for science with precision engineering, the company is creating smart, sustainable solutions the world needs. To learn more about UTC, visit the website or follow the company on Twitter: @UTC

UTC-IR

Contact:

Media Inquiries, UTC

(860) 493-4149

Investor Relations, UTC

(860) 728-7608

SOURCE United Technologies Corp.

Related Links

http://www.utc.com

SEATTLE, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- With demand for skilled web developers at an all-time high, University of Washington (UW) Continuum College is launching a 24-week Coding Boot Camp. The UW Coding Boot Camp, offered in collaboration with Trilogy Education, starts July 30 and is designed to accommodate working professionals, with two three-hour evening classes during the week (6:30 to 9:30 p.m.) and a four-hour class on Saturdays (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.). Enrollment is now open at https://bootcamp.uw.edu

With demand for skilled web developers at an all-time high, University of Washington Continuum College is launching a 24-week Coding Boot Camp in collaboration with Trilogy Education.

"The inaugural UW Coding Boot Camp will equip working professionals here in Seattle with the skills to pursue rewarding tech careers. This innovative, full-stack program is ideal for motivated individuals looking for a new career challenge or advancement in their current job," said Rovy Branon, vice provost, University of Washington Continuum College.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, web development ranks among the nation's fastest-growing professions, with the number of jobs projected to increase by 15 percent by 2026. In the past 12 months, Washington employers struggled to fill more than 86,000 open roles requiring some level of coding ability.

"With the labor market the tightest it's been in a generation, Seattle employers are hungry for job-ready talent. Together, the University and Washington and Trilogy are strengthening the regional economy by empowering local professionals with the digital skills to pursue these high-growth career opportunities," said Dan Sommer, founder and CEO of Trilogy Education. "The University of Washington is at the forefront of a movement to give working adults more access to continuing education programs that are calibrated to local hiring demand."

Pairing the university's strengths with Trilogy's market-driven coding and career curriculum offers students both the competence and confidence to succeed in the technology industry. The program's curriculum covers the basics of coding, algorithms and data structure plus intensive training in JavaScript, Node.js, HTML, CSS, jQuery, Java and more. No previous training or experience is required, but applicants should have an understanding of coding basics.

In addition to classroom instruction, students will spend 20 hours a week on outside projects, homework, and experiential learning activities. They'll also build a professional project portfolio to showcase their abilities and hone their competitive edge in the employment market. Students will also receive a range of career-planning services, portfolio reviews, recruiting assistance and extensive staff support.

Boot Camp students will gain skills to develop dynamic end-to-end web applications, as well as a Certificate in Full-Stack Web Development from UW Professional & Continuing Education.

Apply Now

To learn more about the UW Coding Boot Camp, visit https://bootcamp.uw.edu. You can apply online or by calling 206-501-4868.

About UW Continuum College

Since 1912, University of Washington Continuum College has provided innovative learning paths that boost career success and inspire more meaningful lives. With a flexible approach to delivering the right programs for the right people at the right time, Continuum College provides over 50,000 students each year with a high-quality University of Washington education that's relevant for today's world and accessible to learners in Seattle and around the globe.

About Trilogy Education

Trilogy Education is a workforce accelerator that empowers the world's leading universities to prepare professionals for high-growth careers in the digital economy. From full-stack development to data analytics, Trilogy's skills-based training programs bridge regional hiring gaps in more than 35 markets across North America. Since the company's launch in 2015, thousands of working adults have successfully completed Trilogy-powered programs, and 1,500+ companiesranging from startups to the Fortune 500employ them.

CONTACT:

Glenda Felden

Trilogy Education

[email protected]

646-315-2664

SOURCE Trilogy Education Services

Related Links

https://www.trilogyed.com

With 10 times the power capacity of earlier USB protocols, USB-C powers modern electronics with the capacity to charge a phone in 15 minutes or simultaneously charge a laptop and power an external monitor. Phones, cameras, Wifi Access Points, laptops and tablets utilize the USB-C PD standard.

Why Power over Ethernet?

PoE significantly lowers the cost of adopting USB-C by eliminating the need for new electrical infrastructure. USB-C can only transmit power less than ten feet (three meters) and is uncommon in buildings and homes. Ethernet cable can transmit power and data 328 feet (100 meters) and is nearly ubiquitous in modern construction.

The new PoE Texas Devices :

GAT-USBC - a 802.3at/PoE+ splitter that supports 25 watts PoE+ (both active and passive).

24 Volt Passive - For cost conscious users who control both the Power Supplying Equipment (PSE) and the Powered Device (PD), the POE-USBC-Kit uses the 24 volt PoE standard at up to 25 watts.

uPoE (IEEE 802.3bt) - With this new standard coming in 2018, PoE Texas has developed 60 watt PoE PSE's with upcoming designs for 60 watt PoE splitters to support full capacity USB-C PD.

Need more information?

Visit poetexas.com/USBC for more details on these new products from and PoE Texas.

About PoE Texas

PoE Texas offers a wide variety of Power over Ethernet and low voltage solutions to homes and businesses around the world. For more information, visit PoETexas.com.

SOURCE PoE Texas

Related Links

https://www.poetexas.com

LAVAL, Quebec, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE/TSX: VRX) ("Valeant") today announced that Joseph C. Papa, chairman and chief executive officer, and Arthur J. Shannon, senior vice president and head of Investor Relations and Communications, are scheduled to participate at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Healthcare Conference in Las Vegas on May 16, 2018 at 10:40 a.m. PDT (1:40 p.m. EDT).

A live webcast and audio archive of the event will be available on the Investor Relations page of the Valeant web site at: http://ir.valeant.com/events-and-presentations/2018.

About Valeant

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE/TSX: VRX) is a global company whose mission is to improve people's lives with our health care products. We develop, manufacture and market a range of pharmaceutical, medical device and over-the-counter products, primarily in the therapeutic areas of eye health, gastroenterology and dermatology. We are delivering on our commitments as we build an innovative company dedicated to advancing global health. More information can be found at www.valeant.com.

SOURCE Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.valeant.com

ISNES, Belgium, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- VolitionRx Limited (NYSE American: VNRX) ("Volition") today announced financial results and a business update for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018. Volition management will host a conference call tomorrow, May 11, at 8:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time to discuss these results. Conference call details may be found below.

Mr. Cameron Reynolds, President and Chief Executive Officer of Volition, said, "We have made great progress this quarter, moving our clinical assay development strongly forward and broadening our potential revenue base with our recently announced exclusive global license, manufacturing, sales and distribution agreement with Active Motif for a range of research use only kits." Mr. Reynolds added, "We look forward to achieving our numerous upcoming clinical and commercial milestones, while continuing to keep close control on our cash burn, which has remained relatively stable."

First Quarter 2018 and Recent Company Highlights

Signed an exclusive global license, manufacturing, sales and distribution agreement with Active Motif for a range of research use only kits.

The kits are based on our proprietary Nucleosomics technology and are expected to:

allow researchers to explore patterns of epigenetic modifications in circulating nucleosomes across a broad range of clinical applications including cancers, inflammatory and infectious diseases; and

represent the first revenue from the Nu.QTM platform and potentially provide an additional licensing revenue stream beyond the commercialization of our blood-based cancer tests on the same platform of assays.

We made progress on a project to investigate the use of Nucleosomics  to purify or enrich nucleosomes of tumor origin. This project aims to provide purified ctDNA to help address the main technology barrier to ctDNA cancer diagnostics.

to purify or enrich nucleosomes of tumor origin. This project aims to provide purified ctDNA to help address the main technology barrier to ctDNA cancer diagnostics. We raised $8.4 million in gross proceeds through a registered public offering of shares of common stock.

First Quarter 2018 and Other Financial Results

Cash and cash equivalents as of March 31, 2018 totaled $14.3 million, compared with $10.1 million as of December 31, 2017.

Upcoming Milestones

We expect to achieve the following milestones during 2018 and the early part of 2019:

Launch a range of research use only kits to be sold and distributed globally by Active Motif;

Announce the results of the updated Nu.Q Colorectal Cancer Triage Test during the third quarter of 2018;

Select the final panel for the Nu.Q Colorectal Cancer Frontline Screening Test based upon 4,300 samples;

Validate the selected final panel with a 12,000-subject Colorectal Cancer Screening Cohort;

Obtain CE marking of the updated Nu.Q Colorectal Cancer Triage Test in the fourth quarter of 2018 followed by the CE marking of the Nu.Q Colorectal Cancer Frontline Screening Test in the first quarter of 2019;

Release interim results on the 27 most prevalent cancers study of 4,500 subject samples, collected by the University of Bonn, Germany , to show the breadth of the platform technology;

, to show the breadth of the platform technology; Commence the Asia multi-country study in collaboration with the National Taiwan University; and

multi-country study in collaboration with the National Taiwan University; and Obtain additional non-dilutive funding.

Mr. Reynolds concluded, "We are extremely proud of the accomplishments we have achieved thus far. I thank the dedicated Volition team for their tireless efforts. I, along with the rest of the Board and indeed the whole company, look forward to sharing the results of key studies and the anticipated commercialization of our platform over the coming year."

Conference Call

Volition will host a conference call tomorrow, May 11, at 8:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time, to discuss its financial and operating results for the first quarter of 2018, and to provide an update on recent developments. To participate in the call, please dial 1-877-407-9716 (toll-free) in the U.S., 0-800-756-3429 (toll-free) in the U.K., and 1-201-493-6779 (toll) internationally. A live audio webcast of the conference call will also be available via link from the investor relations page of Volition's corporate website at http://ir.volitionrx.com/. The conference ID is 13679703.

The call will be hosted by Cameron Reynolds, President and Chief Executive Officer, along with David Vanston, Chief Financial Officer and Scott Powell, Executive Vice President.

About Volition

Volition is a multi-national life sciences company focused on developing simple, easy to use, cost effective blood tests designed to help diagnose a range of cancers. The tests are based on the technology platform of Nucleosomics, which is the practice of identifying and measuring nucleosomes in the bloodstream or other bodily fluid - an indication that disease is present.

As cancer screening programs become more widespread, Volition's products aim to help to diagnose a range of cancers quickly, simply, accurately and cost effectively. Early diagnosis has the potential to not only prolong the life of patients, but also to improve their quality of life. Volition's research and development activities are currently centered in Belgium, with additional offices in London, Texas and Singapore, as the company focuses on bringing its diagnostic products to market first in Europe, then in the U.S. and ultimately, worldwide.

For more information about Volition, visit Volition's website https://volitionrx.com/

or connect with us via:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/volitionrx

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/volitionrx

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VolitionRx/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/VolitionRx

The contents found at Volition's website address, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube are not incorporated by reference into this document and should not be considered part of this document. The addresses for Volition's website, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube are included in this document as inactive textual references only.

Media/Investor Contacts

Louise Day, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer

[email protected]

+44 (0)7557 774620

Scott Powell, Executive Vice President, Investor Relations

[email protected]

+1 (646) 650 1351

Joseph Green, Edison Advisors

[email protected]

+1 (646) 653 7030

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements in this press release may be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that concern matters that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or projected in the forward-looking statements. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "aims," "targets," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "optimizing," "potential," "goal," "suggests," "could," "would," "should," "may," "will" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements relate to the effectiveness of Volition's bodily-fluid-based diagnostic tests as well as Volition's ability to develop and successfully commercialize such test platforms for early detection of cancer. Volition's actual results may differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements due to numerous risks and uncertainties. For instance, if Volition fails to develop and commercialize diagnostic products, it may be unable to execute its plan of operations. Other risks and uncertainties include Volition's failure to obtain necessary regulatory clearances or approvals to distribute and market future products in the clinical IVD market; a failure by the marketplace to accept the products in Volition's development pipeline or any other diagnostic products Volition might develop; Volition will face fierce competition and Volition's intended products may become obsolete due to the highly competitive nature of the diagnostics market and its rapid technological change; and other risks identified in Volition's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, as well as other documents that Volition files with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about Volition's business based, in part, on assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this release, and, except as required by law, Volition does not undertake an obligation to update its forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

Nucleosomics, NuQ, Nu.QTM and HyperGenomics and their respective logos are trademarks and/or service marks of VolitionRx Limited and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, service marks and trade names referred to in this press release are the property of their respective owners. Additionally, unless otherwise specified, all references to "$" refer to the legal currency of the United States of America.

SOURCE VolitionRx Ltd

Related Links

https://volitionrx.com/

ROCHESTER, Minn., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Vyriad announced today the signing of a contract to build out its facility in 25,000 square feet of leased space on the IBM Campus in Rochester, Minnesota. The building plans include offices, research laboratories, and a state-of-the-art Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility for production of the company's clinical-stage oncolytic virus therapies that are in development for the treatment of various cancers. The custom buildout will be financed with proceeds from a recently completed $9 million secured convertible note financing, which included participation by Mayo Clinic, Rochester Area Economic Development, Inc., and the Southeast Minnesota Capital Fund LLC. In addition, the state of Minnesota and the city of Rochester have committed $370,000 in equipment funding.

Oncolytic virotherapy is rapidly emerging as a cornerstone for immuno-oncology treatment regimens. Vyriad's highly differentiated oncolytic virus therapy platforms have been engineered to selectively and rapidly destroy cancer cells and trigger a tumor-specific anticancer immune response. The company previously completed a $10 million Series A financing in July of 2017 to fund its ongoing clinical trials. The new manufacturing facility will enable production, quality-control testing, and supply of clinical-grade oncolytic virus therapies for later-stage clinical studies. Vyriad is commencing the initial buildout immediately and plans to have the facility fully operational in Q4 2018.

"With the custom buildout of this facility, Vyriad is taking a giant leap forward in delivering our novel oncolytic virus therapies to patients," said Stephen Russell, MD, PhD, President and CEO of Vyriad and a physician-researcher at Mayo Clinic. "With two clinical-stage oncolytic virotherapy platforms and an expanding pre-IND pipeline, this Rochester facility will enable us to more rapidly advance our multi-pronged assault on cancer. We greatly appreciate the strong support we have received from Mayo Clinic and at the local and state levels, and we look forward to continuing to work with Mayo Clinic in our mission to deliver important new therapies to patients as well as drive local bioinnovation and economic development in Rochester and Minnesota for years to come."

Vyriad's senior management and the personnel supporting the company's clinical trials operations, preclinical research, and process development are currently housed at various dispersed locations, including the Minnesota BioBusiness Center in downtown Rochester. Vyriad is actively recruiting into its expanding manufacturing and clinical trials teams. In addition to securing a reliable supply of GMP-grade viruses to support clinical development plans, the new facility will consolidate Vyriad's employees in one location, allowing them to work more effectively together.

About Vyriad

Vyriad is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel oncolytic virus therapies for the treatment of cancers that have significant unmet need. Vyriad's oncolytic immunovirotherapy products are based on the company's engineered Oncolytic Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV) and Oncolytic Measles Virus platforms that enable selective destruction of cancer cells without harming normal tissues. Vyriad's product development pipeline encompasses multiple clinical- and preclinical-stage programs that target a broad range of cancer indications as well as programs that pair the company's oncolytic viruses with other cancer immunotherapy modalities, traditional cancer therapy, and newer targeted therapies. In addition, Vyriad is developing novel diagnostic/theranostic tests for more accurate prediction of immunovirotherapy response. Clinical trials using the company's oncolytic viruses are under way at Mayo Clinic and the University of Arkansas. For more information, please visit www.vyriad.com.

Contact:

Mary Moynihan

M2Friend Biocommunications

(802) 951-9600

[email protected]

SOURCE Vyriad

Related Links

http://www.vyriad.com

EXTON, Pa., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Spherix Global Insights' second quarter update of RealTime Dynamix: Rheumatoid Arthritis (US), at just under one-year post-launch, less than half of US rheumatologists (n=100) have experience prescribing Kevzara to their RA patients. While the percent of respondents prescribing Kevzara in more than five patients has slowly increased and future estimates reveal overall growth of both the user- and patient-base, these projections are not overly robust, and not all current users anticipate new Kevzara initiations over the next three months.

Though Kevzara users report steady improvements in the ease and speed of managed care approvals since launching, insurance and cost issues are cited as the greatest barriers for increased use. Furthermore, Kevzara uptake continues to be hampered by existing satisfaction with other treatments, largely Actemra, and US rheumatologists are left begging the question, "Why should I use it instead of Actemra?" Indeed, despite a perceived cost advantage, differentiated and more flexible dosing options, and being fully humanized, Kevzara still greatly lags behind Actemra on a host of metrics and, overall, has had minimal impact on Roche/Genentech's first-to-market IL-6 inhibitor.

Kevzara representative contact rates have remained relatively stable over the prior two quarters, with less than half of the respondents reporting a Kevzara call in the past month, a figure lower than what is reported for Actemra. With recent representative contact being significantly associated with Kevzara use, it is worrisome that only 15% of rheumatologists report promotion for Kevzara has increased over the past six months, making it tough to move the needle.

Should Eli Lilly's Olumiant (baricitinib) finally gain US FDA approval in the coming weeks, it will be critical to come out of the gates with a clear differentiator from Pfizer's Xeljanz, a brand that will likely enjoy many of the same first-to-market benefits as Actemra. Indeed, the majority of surveyed physicians identified Xeljanz's length of time on the market and well understood safety profile, as well as their general comfort prescribing the agent, as the leading challenges for new JAKs entering the space.

When queried specifically on what a new JAK could bring to market to overthrow Xeljanz, outside of a better cost/access position, improved safety and side effects were the second most frequently cited attribute; however, Olumiant may enter the market with somewhat of a "dark cloud" of potential safety issues. Indeed, Lilly's JAK has been associated with venous thromboembolic events (VTEs), an issue raised in FDA documents released prior to last month's FDA advisory panel vote that resulted in a recommendation against the 4mg approval, largely due to safety issues (though the 2mg dose was recommended for approval). Furthermore, Xeljanz seems to be largely in the clear for being associated with VTEs as only 15% of rheumatologists agree that if the JAK inhibitors in development are linked to such events, that Xeljanz may also pose a similar risk. Despite the challenges Olumiant will likely encounter if and when it enters the US RA market, the agent is projected to capture a fair amount of biologic/JAK share within the first six months of launching; however, Xeljanz is not the only brand projected to feel an impact from the likely new entrant.

The next wave of this study, RealTime Dynamix Rheumatoid Arthritis (US), will field in July and will continue to track the launch of Kevzara, as well as the potential introduction of Olumiant to the US RA market. A parallel study tracking the evolution of the European RA market will publish at the end of May 2018.

About Spherix Global Insights

Spherix Global Insights is an independent business intelligence and market research company, specializing in renal, autoimmune, neurologic and rare disease markets. Our aim is to apply our commercial experience and unique relationships within core specialty markets to translate data into insight, enabling our clients to make smarter business decisions.

All company, brand or product names in this document are trademarks of their respective holders.

For more information contact:

Lynn Price, Immunology Franchise Head

Email: [email protected]

www.spherixglobalinsights.com

SOURCE Spherix Global Insights

Related Links

http://www.spherixglobalinsights.com

RICHMOND, Calif., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Yesterday, family leaders from GO Public Schools West Contra Costa (GO WCC) traveled to the California Department of Education and reminded the State Board of Education that parent voices cannot be left out of key decision-making.

During the State Board of Education's meeting - sandwiched between lobbyists - GO WCC's parents referenced the lack of parent engagement conducted by the California Department of Education around the effectiveness of the California School Dashboard. An online ranking and rating tool, the California School Dashboard was intended to give parents and the public more information on performance in California's public schools and districts. According to public records, the California Department of Education staff met with more than 800 people at 20 different in-person events since March 17th about the California School Dashboard, yet only one of these events targeted parents, of which only 12 attendees were recorded.

"Too frequently families of English learners and low-income students are overlooked and excluded from key decisions," shared Erika Cruces, a member of GO WCC's Family Leaders Action Group (FLAG). "We are some of the most important audiences for what could and should be a very powerful tool for families across California."

California is home to more than 1.3 million English Language Learners; this figure represents more than 20% of the overall population of students attending public schools in the state. And yet, with the California School Dashboard only officially available in English, the tool continues to frustrate its intended users.

"A Google Translate button is not enough to ensure that non-English-speaking parents will obtain accurate information about their schools," remarked Maribel Coreas, a GO WCC FLAG member. "Instead of creating an open door to information, the new dashboard is yet another barrier to authentic parent engagement."

GO WCC's parents are all too familiar with the importance of accessible and accurate data. As the leaders of GO WCC's local Data in Action campaign, GO WCC's parents have spent the last year advocating for the use of data and evidence to inform strategies, budgets, and critical decisions in West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD). The family leaders' efforts have resulted in district leaders approving a resolution committing to the strategic use of data in October of last year, and more recently, their trip to WCCUSD's School Board meeting on April 25th led to a refresh of outdated local public dashboards.

GO WCC's FLAG holds the State Board of Education to the same expectations as their local district. And, with an estimated $300 thousand set aside by Governor Brown to improve the California School Dashboard, GO WCC's parent leaders urged the State's board members to prioritize critical revisions, and to do so in a timely manner.

About GO Public Schools West Contra Costa

GO Public Schools West Contra Costa (GO WCC) supports a coalition of students, families, educators, and community allies united around generating solutions to ensure that every West Contra Costa student thrives. For more information, visit www.gopublicschoolswcc.org.

SOURCE GO Public Schools West Contra Costa

Related Links

http://www.gopublicschoolswcc.org

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- SCORE, mentors to America's small businesses, has published original survey data showing that women entrepreneurs are less likely than men to seek and obtain financing, even though they are starting businesses faster than men, and their businesses are just as successful in terms of business starts, revenue growth, job creation and longevity. This difficult financial climate for women entrepreneurs makes them more likely than men to rely on credit cards as a source of business funding.

Key findings from part 2 of the report include :

SCORE, mentors to Americas small businesses, has published original survey data showing that women entrepreneurs are less likely than men to seek and obtain financing, even though they are starting businesses faster than men, and their businesses are just as successful in terms of business starts, revenue growth, job creation and longevity. This difficult financial climate for women entrepreneurs makes them more likely than men to rely on credit cards as a source of business funding.

62% of women entrepreneurs depend on their business as their primary source of income, challenging old assumptions that women entrepreneurs are more likely to run "lifestyle businesses" that only provide supplemental income.

Over the lifespan of their business, men were more likely to seek financing (34% of men, compared to 25% of women).

Among all business owners seeking financing, male entrepreneurs were more likely to receive it (with 34% of men acquiring loans or equity financing in the past year, compared to 31% of women).

Entrepreneurs' reasons for seeking financing were very similar across genders, with one exception: Men were more likely than women to seek financing to launch a new product (26% of men, compared to 22% of women).

The most popular funding sources for business owners across genders included other (non-SBA) loans, personal savings and credit cards (with more women relying on credit cards than men).

For more information, download The Megaphone of Main Street: Report on Women's Entrepreneurship and its accompanying infographic.

About The Megaphone of Main Street

This report constitutes the third installment of SCORE's Megaphone of Main Street data report series, which presents original, statistically significant survey data on the American small business landscape. Survey data was collected from 20,000 small business owners in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., representing small businesses of varied sizes in a broad coverage of industries.

The final infographic in this series, exploring the positive impact of mentoring on business success across genders, is slated for release in two weeks.

About SCORE

Since 1964, SCORE has helped more than 11 million aspiring entrepreneurs to start or grow their businesses. Each year, SCORE's 10,000 volunteer business experts provide 450,000+ free small business mentoring sessions, workshops and educational services to clients in 300 chapters nationwide. In 2017, SCORE volunteers provided 3.6 million hours to help create 54,506 small businesses and 61,534 non-owner jobs.

CONTACT: Betsy Dougert, 800-634-0245, [email protected]

SOURCE SCORE

Related Links

https://www.score.org/

NEWPORT NEWS, Va., May 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Wood Partners, a national leader in multifamily real estate development and acquisition, announced today the grand opening of Alta Citizen at Patrick Henry.

The 209-unit community in Newport News, Virginia is located at 301 Continental Parkway in the Patrick Henry Place mixed-use development. Situated in historic Newport News and down the road from Oyster Point and Tech Center, it's the perfect location to work, live, and play. In addition to an idyllic setting, Alta Citizen at Patrick Henry brings young professionals the convenience of easy travel to major employers along the Jefferson Avenue Corridor, the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport, and some of the area's best microbreweries and restaurants.

"This area is a prime destination in Coastal Virginia, and luxury living is in demand," stated Caitlin Shelby, Director for the Raleigh-Durham office of Wood Partners. "We saw a strategic opportunity to bring best-in-class amenities to an optimal location  fulfilling a need for contemporary living in a burgeoning neighborhood with easy access to employers."

Alta Citizen at Patrick Henry introduces leading-edge apartment living to Patrick Henry Place, which currently offers a mix of condos, townhomes, retail, and outdoor recreation for residents. Alta Citizen is comprised of studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom floorplans that are spacious and open, with private laundry rooms and modern features.

Included in the top-notch amenities are a state-of-the-art fitness center, space for entertaining with a communal kitchen, and an indoor game area. Alta Citizen also boasts an indoor/outdoor bar, along with a sparkling courtyard pool for residents. The serene walking trail throughout the community allows residents easy access to experience the surrounding green space.

Alta Citizen began construction in the spring of 2017.

For more information, please visit www.livealtacitizen.com

About Wood Partners

Wood Partners is a national real estate development company that acquires, develops, constructs and property manages high density and mixed-use communities. It ranks consistently among the top five multifamily developers in the country. Through quality construction, responsible land development and intelligent design, its communities reflect the aesthetic and social fabric of the community and provide a luxurious living experience at a fair price. The company has been involved in the acquisition and development of more than 67,000 homes with a combined capitalization of more than $11.0 billion nationwide. The company currently owns more than 70 properties with a combined total of over 20,000 units. Wood Partners has offices in 17 major markets nationwide including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Southern California, Orlando, Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and West Palm Beach. To learn more about Wood Partners, please visit WoodPartners.com.

Media Contact

Marissa Currie

415-227-9700

[email protected]

SOURCE Wood Partners

Related Links

http://www.woodpartners.com

The US consulate general Sydney will move to North Sydney after 25 years at the MLC Centre headquarters in Sydney's Martin Place.

It has secured a lease at the A-grade office tower 50 Miller Street.

The United States of America has leased 6000 square metres of office space across levels five to 10 at the 10-storey tower.

Cadigal's Craig Dolman negotiated the new 12-year lease with options, one of the biggest leases in North Sydney.

Sumner Capital and Prime Super have refurbished the property since their purchase in 2014.

North Sydney will have its own new metro station.Frasers Property Australia, Sekisui House Australia and Impact Investment Group have secured the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) as a new commercial tenant at Central Park, Sydney.

UTS will occupy the commercial space in One Hundred Broadway, on the corner of Abercrombie Street and Broadway in the $2 billion Central Park master planned community in Chippendale.

UTSs Graduate School of Health (GSH) intends to relocate to One Hundred Broadway, from where it will provide postgraduate courses in the disciplines of pharmacy, clinical psychology, orthoptics and physiotherapy, along with new programs such as genetic counselling, Indigenous health and speech pathology, as they are developed.

The School also plans to operate a multidisciplinary primary health care clinic at Central Park that supports its teaching and research in these disciplines but which will also be of benefit to the community.

UTS will lease the entire commercial space of approximately 5,500 square metres over a 15-year term with two ten-year options. The commercial space, known as One Hundred Broadway, spans six levels.

Central Parks Project Director, Mick Caddey, said the UTS Graduate School of Health was an excellent tenant for the commercial space at One Hundred Broadway.

The Graduate School of Health has about 500 senior, postgraduate students.

Up to 300 students will attend the Central Park premises during semester in addition to 80 full-time researchers and clinical staff, along with patients and clinical research participants.

UTS Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources), Patrick Woods, said a number of compelling factors including it being ideally located in relation to its growing city campus.

Postgraduate students, researchers and staff in turn will benefit from proximity to the amenities at Central Park, including the five-level Central Park Mall, which features over 50 specialty retailers, a Palace Cinema (opened late 2017) and Woolworths, two childcare centres, the Kensington Street dining and lifestyle precinct, and the precincts public park, Chippendale Green.

Currently under construction, the DUO development, which includes One Hundred Broadway, is due for completion in late 2018. The Graduate School of Health expects to begin operating there in mid- 2019.Residential property developers are expected to escape a new tax measure which prohibits deductions for expenses associated with holding vacant land. The measure was included in the "tax integrity" initiatives in Tuesday's budget, as the federal government turned its attention to land-banking in the housing affordability consideration. The move to abolish expenses raised concerns in the development industry that its costs for holding land could rise as a result. However, Property Council of Australia chief executive Ken Morrison told Fairfax Media on Wednesday he had clarified the situation with the Treasurer's office.

"So long as there is an operating business being undertaken on the land then this measure won't apply," Mr Morrison said.

"In the vast majority of cases for development companies that will be the case, so this is not a big bogey man for the industry that some have speculated."

According to Treasury, the initiative will raise $50 million in revenue for the government over the forward four years estimates period. "This is an integrity measure to address concerns that deductions are being improperly claimed for expenses, such as interest costs, related to holding vacant land, where the land is not genuinely held for the purpose of earning assessable income," it said in the budget papers.

"It will also reduce tax incentives for land banking, which deny the use of land for housing or other development." The measure is set to take effect from July 1 next year. Treasury said the new measure will apply to land held for residential or commercial purposes. "However, the 'carrying on a business' test will generally exclude land held for commercial development," it said.

Further detail will emerge in legislation at the aim of targeting of individuals who had chosen to hold land and claimed expenses for a development that didn't eventuate.Rachel Cusk has been on the receiving end of some extremely harsh criticism. Vituperation might be a better description, almost all of it in Britain, the country that has been home for almost all her life. The harshest words have been reserved for her autobiographical outings, in particular Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation (FSG, 2012), which saw Cusk described as a brittle little dominatrix and peerless narcissist by Camilla Long of Londons Sunday Times - who was awarded Hatchet Job of the Year for her efforts.

After such a mauling its perhaps not surprising that Cusk claimed she had lost all interest in having a self, a view that remains unchanged as she prepares for FSGs June publication of Kudos, the novel that will conclude the trilogy begun in 2014 with Outline and continued with Transit (2016). Her editor at Faber, Mitzi Angel, who has now returned to New York and FSG, predicts that the trilogy will be remembered as one of the most significant achievements of our times," a comment which makes its author something of a hostage to fortune. Monica Ali, reviewing Transit in the New York Times, suggested that Cusk was engaged in nothing less than the reinvention of the form [the novel] itself.

Speaking for herself, in a North London pub across the road from her home, Cusk has no feelings as to what needs reinventing, though she has previously declared that fiction  that is, pure fiction, the idea of making things up  is fake and embarrassing once one has suffered sufficiently, by which she means the suffering of marital breakdown and divorce. Given the high rate of infidelity and divorce among novelists, that might seem a touch extreme. But if thats what she feels  and given her somewhat paradoxical belief that autobiography is, increasingly, the only form in all the arts  why bother writing fiction at all?

I suppose Im beyond feeling that there are these separate forms and I will choose to write in this one or that one, she says. Im trying to develop, I guess, a more general style, or a more general form that isnt Cusk pauses, forming her thoughts. Im not at all conscious any more of fiction or non-fiction. I have much more a sense of shape, and of content, and I suppose that it might be that, because of the phase of life that Im in. Its just less obvious to me that Im still running some of the same races as I did writing a memoir, that Im still using my material in exactly the way. My life runs less centrally through other peoples lives now. The things that Im thinking about arent necessarily to do with intimacy or being a person who has a family Its to do with other things.

Her memoirs, three in total  the first about becoming a mother (A Lifes Work, 2002), the second about a family summer in Italy which led to a friend suing for breach of privacy (The Last Supper, 2009)  came about only because the form suited particular subjects.

Cusk sees memoir very distinctly as suiting particular subjects, essentially where being you is really overwhelming. The fact that youre you rather than the person over there is the difference between your having a very small baby and not! It just seems that those experiences needed I. It was never the difference between writing about myself and writing about 1914.

Cusk sees what shes doing as part of a generalized way of moving away from certain conventions, trying to create space for new material. Is the novel itself in flux? Yes, probably, though she sees other writers breaking new ground, looking at things in a new way - Han Kang with The Vegetarian for example. Shes a woman trying to talk about the politics of the body. Shes writing about Korea and shes Korean  its a much more natural and truthful relationship to ones own material.

Much fiction, Cusk seems to feel, is too cozy and its readers too passive. Then theres the language: English itself, the English sentence, English prose. I didnt want to write those sentences anymore because to me the English sentence had become sort of Fifth Avenue. In Kudos, theres maybe one or two characters who speak native English, one of them American. Everyone else is talking English as a second language, as a globalized language. Native English sentences are so hemmed in and hedged in and predestined and so full of things I cant control.

The sentence, the novel  both have pre-existing structures which you fill because theyre there. Im trying to get rid of them.

Readers of Outline and Transit will know what to expect in Kudos. Faye, Cusks writerly alter ego, a fiftysomething woman, who we first met as a divorced parent in Outline, is now remarried, her children poised to leave home. Faye is a sort of anti-protagonist, a cipher for the life stories of everyone she encounters at a literary festival in an unnamed European country. Other characters talk, even those who interview her, usually garrulously. Faye mostly listens, often to the sort of banalities that drive you witless at dinner parties.

What is identity, what is freedom? what is feminism? Are there kudos in having suffered? These are the existential questions on which the novels 232 pages turn. In the background Brexit  leave or remain  is a metaphor for the general breakdown of entente between couples and friends. The final page seems bleak and ambiguous, but Cusk asserts that Faye has found a new life.

The novels secondary strand is a meditation on the state of publishing. To anyone familiar with the London scene at least, Cusks characters are too recognizable: the primped and glib publisher newly promoted from the marketing department whos shorn the list of loss-making titles and returned the company to profitability by means of Sudoku titles; the Irish novelist, newly slim and sober, expensive in unstructured linen, whos gone commercial, hiring a writing partner; and the translator who observes that the marriage between two principles  commerce and literature  is not in the best of health.

Does Cusk believe that to be true? Is she caught in that struggle? It may be true, she answers warily, acknowledging a falling-out with a British editor who had hated the trilogy. Such editing as there is takes place in New York, where her editor just tidies things like someone putting things away in my room. Theres no question of a structural edit? No! Id just write another book. Nor does she rewrite extensively on her own account, only as Im going along. Once Ive finished a book and its closed then I cant open it again I cant read it or see it. I cant edit. I cant change it I cant see what my own work is for years and years and years.

Arriving with a splash from Oxford with Saving Agnes, which won the 1993 Whitbread First Novel Award, Cusk feels she is far better understood and appreciated in Europe and in America than she is in Britain, where shes not felt defended and where you dont see any of my books in a bookshop, and Ive been writing for 25 years.

In fact, Cusk was born in Canada, in Saskatoon (the same town as Joni Mitchell) and feels a sense of identity with a country that takes women writers seriously. She spent her early years in L.A., arriving in Britain at age seven. Returning to L.A. for the first time as an adult was so traumatic, she says, it gave her an asthma attack, but on subsequent visits Ive felt as if Im my real self.

Shes never liked Britain, but her children and stepchildren (shes now married to artist Siemon Scamell-Katz) are there and are still young. Cusk feels Britain is a country obsessed with social status and class, and bourgeois pretense, and lack of honesty and where the attitudes and values of youth predominate. I dont think grown-ups are finished in the U.S. the way they are in Britain.

In America, she feels "defended" as a writer but, of Britain, she says, I don't expect anything from England and I've never got anything from England. I don't imagine I ever will."

Liz Thomson is a journalist, broadcaster, and author who has spent 30 years chronicling the international book trade. Her current project, the Village Trip, is a series of live events celebrating the history of N.Y.C.s Greenwich Village.This week, Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris are honored by a bookstore; Jennifer Lynn Alvarez kicks off her new trilogy; Erin Danielle Russell offers tips on tricking the tooth fairy; and musician and author Tim Kubart hosts a rousing celebration for his debut book.

On the Right Foot

On May 3, Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris accepted the inaugural Charlie Medal from Charlies Corner in San Francisco for their book Her Right Foot (Chronicle). The award was created to recognize books that offer excellent illustrations, text, and strong appeal to readers during storytime. Two Charlie honors went to After the Fall by Dan Santat and The Antlered Ship by Dashka Slater, illustrated by the Fan Brothers. Eggers and Harris donated the $2,000 prize to the 826 Valencia writing program, which Eggers founded. To help celebrate, three kids from 826 Valencia came to the store and shopped for books with help from Eggers (seen here with one of the kids), Harris, and bookstore staff.

Pegasus Welcome!

Author Jennifer Lynn Alvarez recently celebrated the release of her first book in a new trilogy, Riders of the Realm: Across the Dark Water (HarperCollins) with a party at Copperfields Books in Santa Rosa, Calif. Fansincluding one dressed as a pegasuscame from areas around the state to meet Alvarez, who is also the author of the Guardian Herd series. The bookstore gave out prizes, including a plush pegasus, book posters, and a game of Mancala (human characters play a similar game in the book).

Trick-or-Treat

Erin Danielle Russell, co-author of the Dork Diaries series, appeared for a storytime event at Barnes & Noble 2937 in Fairfax, Va., on May 6. Russell presented her solo picture book debut, How to Trick the Tooth Fairy (Aladdin), about a girl who matches wits with the tooth fairy. Here, she casts a spell with her signature fairy wand, while showing spreads from the book, which is illustrated by Jennifer Hansen Rolli.

Get On Your Feet!

Musician and Sprout TV host Tim Kubart visited Harrington Park (N.J.) School on May 1 to celebrate the release of his debut picture book Oopsie-Do! (HarperCollins). He spoke to an audience of more than 200 kids and sang songsincluding the titular song, Oopsie-Do!Louie, T-Bone, Pops and the crew at The Custom Shop return to US television as The Gunfather sets to air on Outdoor Channel in July 2019.





Originally debuted in 2014, the Colt Manufacturing-sponsored show on Outdoor Channel follows Louie and his family as they moved from Long Island to the small mountain town of Hamilton, Mont in the pursuit of turning his passion into a business. Louie and his family opened up The Custom Shop, a gun shop specialising in firearm sales and restoration. Now that the business has hit full stride, Louie has turned his perfectionist eye to the art of firearm restorations and custom-builds for the new season of The Gunfather.Viewers from across the country submit their requests to have their restoration or custom-build projects considered for the show. Louie consults with potential clients about restoring their prized family heirlooms back to original condition or creating a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Viewers learn about the history of each gun, and how that ensures the restoration is authentic and period-correct, set along the majestic backdrop of Western Montanas Bitterroot Mountains.Were excited to welcome back Louie and the team to Outdoor Channel , said the networks vice president of programming, Mitch Petrie said. The Gunfather has a strong viewer base and the new focus on firearms restoration and custom projects will appeal to a broader audience of collectors and enthusiasts.Sinclair Broadcast Group has confirmed that it's reached a deal to sell seven TV stations to Fox Broadcasting for about $910 million, as part of its effort to secure regulatory approval for Sinclair's $4.6 billion acquisition of Tribune Media.





Fox will be taking over its own affiliates in Cleveland, Denver, Sacramento, Calif, Salt Lake City, San Diego and Seattle, along with a CW affiliate in Miami. Reports late last month had pegged Fox as the likely buyer of the seven stations, part of a bigger divestiture of 23 Sinclair/Tribune stations to be unloaded to satisfy regulators. The combined company will need to be below the FCCs 39% national audience ownership cap for TV stations.Buyers for the remaining 16 stations include other station groups like Meredith and Standard Media, Sinclair said.Fox has 28 owned-and-operated stations already; adding seven more means gaining additional bargaining power with advertisers.Fox has agreed to sell much of its other businesses, including its studios, to Disney for $54 billion.Together with Atresmedia Studios and Vancouver Media, which has also produced La Casa de Papel , Movistar+ will shoot El Embarcadero between May and November 2018. The format will then premiere during 2019.Through this series, Atresmedia and Movistar+ strengthen a one-of-its-kind alliance between a free-to-air (FTA) network and a pay-TV platform. Its also the first project to be secured by Atresmedias global production unit, Atresmedia Studios. Starring Cecilia Roth, Roberto Enriquez, Marta Milans, Paco Manzanedo and Miquel Fernandez, the drama series will join the growing in-house catalogue of Telefonica, through which the telco aims to build up its position as Spanish-language content hub in Spain and Latin America.Through this deal, Atresmedia Studios intends to gain more visibility as content producer, drawing the attention of other broadcasters, pay-TV players and over-the-top (OTT) platforms.Prompted by the drive for advanced uplink technology, and HD, 4K and UHD resolution in the region, the agreement will see new satellite TV channels launched on Arabsats Badr-4 satellite for twofour54s partner organisations and broadcasters across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).The satellite uplink-platform at twofour54 is yet another example of the thriving media ecosystem that is being built in Abu Dhabi as well as the growing demand in the region for high quality content, said Maryam Eid AlMheiri, CEO of Abu Dhabi Media Zone Authority, and twofour54.Content creation is at the heart of everything we do at twofour54 and we are delighted to be working with the largest satellite company in the region on a project that will also allow us to play an important role in its distribution as well. This uplink will provide great value to our existing partners as well as even more incentive to those looking to join our community in the future.Arabsat president & CEO Khalid Balkheyour added: Arabsat is proud to expand its broadcasting partnership portfolio by launching our new bouquet on Arabsat Badr-4 satellite from there, enabling new premium capabilities and quality of service for our clients in MENA, as well as empowering twofour54s clients to reach MENA, Europe and beyond. Arabsat would support twofour54 to develop a range of teleport services, including the UAEs first HDR platform. twofour54 currently houses more than 470 media companies, including broadcasters such as Sky News Arabia, CNN and Fox International Channels. Arabsat provides more than 500 TV channels, 200 radio stations, pay-TV networks and HD channels across the Middle East, Africa and Europe.As a seafaring state, America demands maximal access to the world's oceans within the constraints of international law. Though seldom recognized, U.S. efforts to defend its interest in maritime freedom in the Western Pacific have been fairly successful. When the People's Republic of China unlawfully draws fences around the sea, U.S. warships steam through the fences. Beijing recognizes the seriousness of America's position, and thus far has generally yielded.

However, when it comes to helping its allies and partners protect themselves against Chinese encroachment, the United States has a mixed record. Since 2006, Beijing has dramatically expanded the frontiers of its control in the East and South China Seas. To pursue its irredentist agenda, Beijing has largely relied on unarmed or lightly armed paranaval forces  coast guard and militia  conducting operations in what has been described as the gray zone between war and peace. Despite the robust presence of American sea power in contested areas of maritime East Asia, the United States has largely failed to halt China's bullying behavior. This failure devalues Washington's commitments to its friends and shakes the foundations of the U.S. alliance system  the true source of American global influence.China Is Catching up to the U.S., Except on This Key Measure

U.S. Army General Robert Brown told an Australian Strategic Policy Institute dinner in Canberra this week that, on his last visit to Beijing to meet with Chinese military chiefs, he noticed that:

... something was different ... I realised that China ... used to fear us and respect us. They dont fear us anymore ... They respect us, but they dont fear us anymore. And a little bit of fear is a good thing. You have to have that little bit of fear for deterrence to be effective.

Comments such as this may not come as a shock to Interpreter readers, who see daily evidence on this site and elsewhere of Chinas growing economic strength and diplomatic assertiveness. Yet when we examine the raw facts of military power, the gap between the U.S. and China remains massive.

The new Lowy Institute Asia Power Index compares Asian countries across eight different measures of power; you, the user, can drill down into each different measure, comparing any two countries you wish. And when you compare the U.S. and Chinese defence spending, you see that the U.S. spends roughly three times as much as China.

Still, the U.S. and China are placed first and second in the military-spending rankings of the Index, as one would expect. We should also expect the Index to record a rapid closing of this gap in future years. The 2016 Australian Defence White Paper forecasts that U.S. and Chinese defence spending levels will be roughly equal by 2035.

Scroll further down the page, and the pattern holds, with the U.S. and China ranked mostly in first and second place (sometimes third). But at the section comparing Defence Networks we see a striking exception. Chinas measure is on the left, with the U.S. on the right:

The Index bears out what many analysts have been saying for years: China is a lonely superpower. Compared to the U.S., it has almost no friends in the region with which it has formed a military alliance or some kind of basing arrangement.

In fact, China ranks eighth behind the U.S., Australia, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand, and Malaysia on the Defence Networks measure, defined as partnerships that act as force multipliers for military capability.

At this point it is important to point out that the overall rankings of the Asia Power Index  the ones you see first when you land on the home page, and which the media has been busy reporting on  are based on the Lowy Institutes own assessments. Of course, we have tried to measure the various elements of power as objectively as possible, but the weightings given to each measure in order to arrive at an overall score are necessarily open to judgement.

For instance, you may agree with Professor Hugh White (China v U.S.: Who needs allies?) that Americas regional military alliances are not an asset, and that Chinas loneliness is not a liability in the contest for leadership in the Asia-Pacific. The beauty of the Asia Power Index is that if you dont like the Lowy Institutes weightings, you can choose your own, meaning you can reduce the importance of Defence Networks in the overall calculation of rank.

So, go explore, and let us know in the comments what you find.

Sam Roggeveen has two roles at the Lowy Institute. As DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL, Sam oversees the Institutes digital strategy across its two websites and its social media channels. Sam joined the Lowy Institute in 2007 as founding editor of its digital magazine, The Interpreter. Sam is also a SENIOR FELLOW at the Lowy Institute and a Visiting Fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University. Before joining the Lowy Institute, Sam was a senior strategic analyst in Australia's peak intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments, where his work dealt mainly with nuclear strategy and arms control, ballistic-missile defence, North Asian strategic affairs and WMD terrorism.

This article appeared originally at Lowy Institute's the interpreter.Today the world waits to see whether toughened sanctions, hard nose diplomacy, and even exchanges of nuclear red button threats have worked to persuade Kim Jong-Un to give up his nuclear arsenal. At the very least, these Administration initiatives appear to have played a major role in prompting what will be a remarkable summit conference between Kim Jong-Un and President Trump.

Precedent exists. Some countries have given up nuclear weapons development programs voluntarily. South Africa and Brazil did so, but those decisions were prompted more by the establishment of new democracies, not out of fear of imminent attack by a foreign power or diplomatic and sanctions pressure. After the break up of the Soviet Union, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan also gave up their nuclear arsenals, returning them to Russia. (Ukraine may regret that decision today.) Meanwhile, the jury is still out on Iran as the agreement provides for a ten-year freeze, not the permanent elimination of nuclear weapons development. The fact that the United States has just announced that it will be pulling out of the accord adds further uncertainty as to whether Iran will ultimately continue to pursue nuclear weapons or not.

War also remains an option, but one that carries with it devastating consequences, making it uncertain whether any U.S. administration will ever take that route. The historical precedent for war to rid nuclear weapons is limited. In 2002, the United States invaded Sadaam Husseins Iraq to rid it of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, but it was eventually discovered that there were none to destroy. One positive by-product, however, of the invasion was that it did cause Libyas Qaddafi to voluntarily give up his nuclear program out of fear that the United States would next attack him. Any benefits of that precedent were then muddled when the U.S. supported the overthrow of Qaddafi, likely giving other dictators, including Kim Jong-Un, pause on the idea of ever giving up nuclear weapons voluntarily. Two last examples of a military option are Iraq and Syria, whose nascent nuclear facilities were struck in bombing strikes by the Israeli Air Force before either country was far along in a weapons development program.

All this shows that the historical record for persuading a dictatorship to give up nuclear weapons voluntarily is not promising, barring a change in government or an early military strike before any program is far along. The United States has been imposing sanctions on North Korea for over six decades. While tough diplomacy, sanctions, and an impending summit conference may ultimately succeed, the odds against that also have to be acknowledged as real.

An important question then remains: what can the United States do if Kim Jong-un remains defiant in the face of diplomatic pressure and sanctions, a summit conference fails, and the U.S. must at least weigh other options, other than going to war?

The historical context, going back to the 1953 Korean War armistice, weighs on any consideration of alternative options. At the time of the 1953 Armistice, South Korea was one of the worlds most impoverished countries with $64 per capita income, comparable then to the poorest countries in Africa. Hostilities had destroyed the economy, leaving millions dead, and families traumatized and separated. As ominous, South Koreas military was utterly incapable of defending the country from another North Korean attack.

The United States had to step forward and provide the military shield to protect South Korea from another invasion. Over the last 68 years, that shield has become permanent with generations of U.S. servicemembers serving in South Korea, backed by a Korean command structure that is firmly institutionalized in U.S. military organization and culture.

During the same swath of time, however, South Korea has achieved an economic miracle, going from one of the poorest to one of the worlds wealthiest countries. Its economy for 2017 was the worlds eleventh largest with a GDP of $1,538,030 trillion, according to the IMF. Meanwhile, if North Korea has gone anywhere, it is backward. The Norths economy is in the dark ages with a GDP colossally smaller than that of South Korea, at best the size of Anchorage, Alaska, approximately $25 billion. Population wise, as well, there is no contest. At 54 million, South Korea is twice as large as North Korea

During the Cold War years, overall U.S. troop strength in South Korea ranged from as high as 75,000 to 44,000. Today, the United States Forces Korea Command, headquartered just below the DMZ in Seoul, continues to remain formidable with over 23,000 military personnel permanently stationed in South Korea, supported by hundreds of aircraft and armor. The Armys Second Infantry Division maintains an aviation brigade (equipped with AH-64 Apache Longbow helicopters) and an artillery brigade in the South for initial defense against any invasion by the North. After Germany, South Korea is the third largest host of American troops in the world.

Like its economy, the South Korean armed forces have also come a long way since 1953. Their numbers exceed over 625,000 active personnel, with highly trained reserves of 5,202,250. South Koreas military has been rated as the seventh most capable in the world. In fact, the active South Korean Army, at 560,000-strong, is larger today than the entire United States Army at roughly 475,000 active duty troops.

And unlike the multiple challenges the U.S. Army faces around the world, South Koreas Army focuses exclusively on one, over-riding priority: to repel any North Korean attack along the 160-mile border separating the two countries. To mount that defense, South Korea has over 400 advanced fighters including F-16s and F-15s, with F-35s to come; more than 400 attack aircraft; 2,600 plus advanced combat tanks; over 3,400 armored fighting vehicles; and more than 5,000 artillery pieces. South Korean made K-2 Black Panther tanks, K-21 infantry fighting vehicles, and K-9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers form the core of its mechanized infantrys capabilities. Moreover, South Koreas Army trains relentlessly and hard for defense against any North Korean surprise conventional attack.

It is fair to ask whether, after more than 65 years, an absolute military necessity still exists today for maintaining over 23,000 U.S. troops in South Korea for initial defense. Much has changed during the last six decades, but the policy that the United States must maintain a large military presence in South Korea has remained an immutable principle of U.S. national security strategy. While some might insist that for purely military reasons the South still needs and depends upon certain U.S. conventional warfare capabilities, it is fair to ask in response whether such capabilities could not be shifted to South Koreas armed forces over a term of time, certainly a few years or less?

On paper, North Koreas one million man active military force appears formidable, but it is doubtful that the North could swiftly overrun and conquer the South even were the United States to no longer maintain its current level of troop strength on the Peninsula to help cope with an initial attack. Outdated equipment, limited logistical capabilities, and reports of starving North Korean troops, ransacking farmer homes searching for food, hardly supports the image of a juggernaut force. It is unlikely that North Korea could repeat anything close to 1950 and almost overrun the South Korean military before the tide of battle could be turned with the arrival of American air power and other conventional forces, even if the United States no longer had a full 23,000 troops permanently stationed on the Peninsula.

While the objective military necessity for keeping substantial U.S. troop presence in South Korea likely passed years if not decades ago, U.S. foreign policy did not evolve with these shifting balance of power realities on the ground. Ironically, the United States today finds itself pinned to maintaining a major military conventional presence in South Korea, not so much out of military necessity, but more because it must maintain its credibility, not just in South Korea, but in the entire Asian region as a Pacific power.

Particularly now when some wonder whether the United States is returning to isolationism, any withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea could be viewed as a strategic retreat from the region and a foreign policy victory for North Korea and China. The United States appears strategically pinned down. The dynamic of the confrontation has also changed. North Korea and the United States today find themselves in a direct nuclear standoff that has no immediate bearing on the original purpose for U.S. presence in South Koreato protect it from conventional attack by the North. The United States demands that the North must de-nuclearize, with warnings that all options are on the table if it does not. Ironically, the historical basis for U.S. troop presence in South Korea has become a sideshow, overshadowed by the nuclear confrontation between the North and the United States.

The current dynamics do, however, create an opportunity for the United States to reassess its position on the Peninsula and to take more realistic account of the significant adjustments in the military balance that have occurred in the region over the last sixty-eight years, both the increased military capabilities of South Korea and the rise of China.

Many believe that China should logically work with the United States on the development of a joint strategy to persuade North Korea to give up nuclear weapons peacefully. While China has quietly exercised influence and tightened its sanctions upon North Korea, Chinese cooperation has not been absolute. China doubtlessly seeks to exert strategic pressure on the United States, its principal rival in the region. China could well be trying to take advantage of what it sees as the strategic over-extension of the United States in an era where its global domination as an economic and military power is not as overarching as it was during the Cold War, or in the immediate years after the Soviet Unions collapse.

China likely perceives the United States as strategically stretched, simultaneously facing military challenges not just in Korea, but across the world, ranging from Afghanistan to Iraq, to Syria, to Israel and Palestine, to Iran, to Russia, to Africa, to the East and South China Seas. With rising U.S. national debt, growing annual budget deficits, and complex American military commitments throughout the world, China could be pursuing a Korean strategy which is intended at least in part to create further strategic pressure on the United States, helping to press its resources. Although China certainly does not want a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula, keeping the United States pressured with Korean challenges may also help achieve Chinese foreign policy objectives.

Short of going to war, or persuading North Korea to surrender its nuclear option, the United States needs a credible policy that more realistically places North Korea within the context of broader strategic challenges faced today in the region rather than in a 1950s era, conventional invasion scenario whose likelihood has long since passed. Assuming that nuclear deterrence can continue to work with North Korea, as it has with China since Mao, and with Russia since Stalin, North Korea is not a paramount threat to the United States. The current strategy, embodied by tough UN trade sanctions and nuclear deterrence, could be continued indefinitely without too much budgetary cost or drain on United States resources.

Under the nuclear umbrella, the United States could prudently, under its treaty obligations, leave it to a powerful and prosperous South Korea to initially hold off the bulk of any North Korean conventional attack with only a small residual of U.S. headquarters type forces in support, to coordinate the deployment of responding American military power.

From this perspective, North Korea has become more a strategic distraction for the United States, than a first tier threat, but any disentanglement has its complications, particularly for the maintenance of U.S. credibility. Hence the Administrations possible reassessment of U.S. troop presence in Korea has significant strategic logic but will require delicate balancing to assure that any possible troop reductions over next years are not perceived as evidence of U.S. decline and withdrawal from Asia. To help address that if necessary, the U.S. and South Korean governments could also continue discussions on the return of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons capability to the South, a process raised last fall after North Koreas hydrogen bomb test.

Whether used as a bargaining chip or not in nuclear summit discussions with North Korea, a pullback of U.S. troops from South Korea makes strategic sense. The U.S. Army could bring its elements of the Second Infantry Division home after decades of deployment. Those valuable assets could then be available for multiple future contingencies not just in South Korea, but around the world. Handled skillfully, withdrawing U.S. forces from the Peninsula would not be a retreat into isolationism but rather a strategic repositioning of forces, better enabling the United States military to respond to future global trends and challenges, rather than to frozen scenarios originating more than sixty-five years in the past.

Ramon Marks is a retired New York international lawyer.At the first hours of the dawn, transport ships entered in Reykjavik harbour; although this kind of event was considered expectable, local population for hours did not know if ships were bringing british or german soldiers.

The commander of the operation was colonel Sturges, with a garrison of 40 ufficials and 775 soldiers fro Royal Navy Brigade 101, with the support of artillery and a small group of Intelligence agents. The orders were to occupy and defend the area of Hvalfjourdur (a natural harbour near Reykjavik, considered suiteble to establish a naval base) and the few landing grounds of the island. The decision of the occupation was taken on the base of logistic consideration: according to Secretary of the British Admiralty, Faroer Islands could not support a major naval base in the North Atlantic. Moreover, in case of german invasion, the british would have necessarily to conterattack, tranforming the island in a new battelfield (33).

In the need to establish a military infrastructure in the North, as well as taking possesion of a key point in the region, the british could follow two strategies: a traditional diplomatic channel with icelandic authority to find the best possible collaboration (as it was made in economics, to exclude Germany from icelandic trading), or an unsolicited, unexpected move. Both of the options had fors and againsts: negotiations risked to be slows and inefficients, also for the will of Iceland to stress with the position of strict neutrality. But an invasion could result in a loss of prestige and in a comparison of the british to the german nazis, acting the same way. The decision was taken the 1st of May, when Churchill in person informed the War Cabinet that the invasion option had to be preferred. In fact, Iceland never would have grated permission for a military mission in its territory, so a diplomatic negotiation very likely would have been resolved in a loss of time, and in an advatage for Germany.Good morning, its Thursday, May 10, 2018, only three days before Mothers Day. Although venerating motherhood is a tradition that goes back thousands of years, the annual American celebration known as Mothers Day owes its existence to events that took place simultaneously 110 years ago on this date in Philadelphia and rural West Virginia.

The Philly event was held in the auditorium of Wanamakers, the citys first department store. The West Virginia event was held in Andrews Methodist Church in the railroad town of Grafton. That church is officially designated as the International Mothers Day Shrine.

The two cities Mothers Day origins were the result of efforts by the same woman, a dutiful daughter named Anna Jarvis. Ill have her story, as well, as a few of the most memorable political quotes about motherhood, in a moment.

First, Id first point you to RealClearPolitics front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion columns spanning the political spectrum. We also offer original material from our own reporters and contributors, including the following:

* * *

Meeting the Cyber Skills Gap. M. Anthony Mills explores the challenge underpinning efforts to provide digital safeguards: finding and training people to do the job.

Little Drama, But Odd Plots, in Calif. Race for Governor. Bill Whalen assesses the quirky dynamics in play as the Golden States open primary approaches.

Fact-Checking a Jest: Was the Joke on PolitiFact? Bill Zeiser questions the sites decision to vet a tweet that its author admits was not to be taken seriously.

Is Pulling U.S. Troops From Korea a Wise Option? In RealClearDefense, Ramon Marks argues that withdrawing U.S. forces from the peninsula would not be a retreat into isolationism but rather a strategic repositioning of forces.

American Presidents and the Nobel Peace Prize. The bipartisan group No Labels offers this history in RealClearPolicy.

A Carbon Tax Would Kill Coal and Harm the Middle Class. Also in RCPolicy, Chuck DeVore makes his case.

On Unicorns and Prescription Prices. In RealClearHealth, Jerry Rogers contends that lowering drug prices provides a rare opportunity for bipartisan action.

Great Britain Offers Cautionary Tale on Single Payer. Also in RCH, Deane Waldman asserts that the stories of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans show the dangers of government-controlled health care.

Comet-Caused Upheaval in North America. RealClearScience editor Ross Pomeroy spotlights a building consensus on what triggered the climate to change 12,900 years ago.

* * *

If you have any cynical acquaintances, you might occasionally hear one of these curmudgeons grouse that certain American observances result from the schemes of Hallmark Cards, the florist industry, or some other special interest. I cant speak for Pie Day (January 23) or Certified Nurses Day (March 19), although Ill admit that National Shower With a Friend Day (February 5) sounds intriguing. Mothers Day, however, belongs in an entirely different category. Not only because of the honorees, but because of its provenance.

It begins before the Civil War, which literally split the state of Virginia in two. When the government in Richmond seceded from the Union, a woman in the western part of the commonwealth, Ann Jarvis, literally found herself living in another state, and in a community with divided loyalties.

Mrs. Jarvis response was an inspiration. Even before the war, shed launched Mothers Day Work Clubs to address local health needs. When the bloodshed started, she urged the clubs to stay neutral and to provide medical care to both Union and Confederate soldiers -- and give solace to what would later be called Gold Star mothers on each side.

Jarvis knew the pain of losing a child. Eight of her 12 children never reached adulthood. One of those who did, however, carried on her work. In 1902, Ann Jarvis was widowed and moved to Philadelphia. When she died, daughter Anna Jarvis vowed to keep her mothers tradition alive. It was on this date in 1908 that Anna Jarvis organized those Mothers Day ceremonies in Philadelphia and Grafton.

The movement caught on, and by May 9, 1914, Congress issued a joint declaration, ratified by President Woodrow Wilson, making it official. In his presidential proclamation, Wilson called on government officials and the people of the United States to display the flag at their homes or other suitable places on the second Sunday in May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.

Over the ensuing years other presidents, and other politicians, have weighed in on this most uncontroversial of topics.

In 2002, George W. Bush singled out foster mothers for special thanks, owing to their love and sacrifice. The 43rd U.S. president, the son of a former first lady, also made a point of mentioning his own fabulous mother on that occasion. Bush also quoted the only other presidential scion to ascend to the commander-in-chiefs job, mentioning John Quincy Adams observation that all that I am my mother made me.

Abraham Lincoln expressed a similar thought, though Lincoln made actually have been subtly commenting on his mothers own uncertain parentage.

Im not sure how familiar former California Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh was with George Bernard Shaws Pygmalion, but in that play, one character has the humorous line: Gin was mothers milk to her. Big Daddy Unruh mentioned that same liquid -- breast milk, not gin -- in his infamous formulation, Money is the mothers milk of politics.

Phil Burton, another Democratic Party political boss from California, often invoked mothers, but not milk, while assuring his congressional colleagues that some vote he was asking them to cast would turn out all right. Youre in your mothers arms, Burton would say.

Ah, we are until were arent. Today we live in a world where childhood death is much rarer than in Ann Jarvis time. We expect everyone to grow to adulthood -- and for our mothers to live a long time. But they dont live forever, as another president reminded us 24 years ago this month.

In a 1994 commencement address at Gallaudet University in Washington, a school for deaf students started by Abraham Lincoln, Bill Clinton praised members of the senior class who had enrolled in the governments national service program, AmeriCorps. He ended his talk on a more personal note.

A few days ago, when we celebrated Mother's Day, it was my first Mother's Day without my mother, Clinton said. And so, I have been thinking about what I should say to all of you, those of you who are lucky enough still to have your parents, and, perhaps, some of you who do not.

He continued:

On graduations, it is important for us to remember that none of us ever achieves anything alone. I dare say as difficult as your lives have been, you are here today not only because of your own courage and your own effort, but because someone loved you and believed in you and helped you along the way. I hope today that you will thank them and love them and, in so doing, remember that all across this country, perhaps our biggest problem is that there are too many children, most of who can hear just fine, who never hear the kind of love and support that every person needs.

And we must commit ourselves to giving that to those children.

Carl M. Cannon

Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics

@CarlCannon (Twitter)

ccannon@realclearpolitics.comHillary Clinton recently offered yet another reason why she lost her second consecutive race for the presidency: capitalism.

At the Shared Value Leadership Summit in New York City, Clinton was asked whether her self-proclaimed "capitalist" stance hurt her during the 2016 presidential primary season. "It's hard to know," she said, "but I mean, if you're in the Iowa caucuses and 41 percent of Democrats are socialists or self-described socialists, and I'm asked, 'Are you a capitalist?' and I say, 'Yes, but with appropriate regulation and appropriate accountability.' You know, that probably gets lost in the 'Oh, my gosh, she's a capitalist!'"

Clinton's right. Being a Democrat and a "capitalist" is an increasingly untenable position for a politician. Polls show that today's Democratic Party and capitalism appear to be on a collision course. A November 2015 New York Times/CBS News poll found that 56 percent of Democratic primary voters said they held a positive view of socialism. A Morning Consult/Politico survey in June 2017 asked if a hypothetical replacement for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi should be a socialist or capitalist. More Democrats opted for socialism, with 35 percent saying it's somewhat or very important that her replacement be a socialist, while only 31 percent said the same for a capitalist.

Indeed, one of the Democrats' loudest voices, filmmaker Michael Moore, recently praised Karl Marx, the ideological godfather of communism. Moore tweeted: "Happy 200th Birthday Karl Marx! You believed that everyone should have a seat at the table & that the greed of the rich would eventually bring us all down. You believed that everyone deserves a slice of the pie. You knew that the super wealthy were out to grab whatever they could. ... Though the rich have sought to distort him or even use him, time has shown that, in the end, Marx was actually mostly right & that the aristocrats, the slave owners, the bankers and Goldman Sachs were wrong... 'Happy Birthday, Karl Marx. You Were Right!'" Tell that to the millions who died under communist repression in, among other places, China, the Soviet Union and Cambodia.

Perhaps no issue reflects this socialist view more than the Democrats' push for "single-payer" health care. As a state senator, Barack Obama said: "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer, universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its gross national product on health care, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. ... A single-payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. That's what I'd like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately." A few years later, then-presidential candidate Obama reiterated his stance, that if "starting from scratch" he'd have a single-payer system.

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called the so-called "public option" the end game: "I think while someday we may end up with a single-payer system, it's clear that we're not going to do it all at once, so I think both candidates' (Hillary Clinton's and Obama's) health care plans are a big step forward."

Former Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid also said that he, too, wants to get to "single-payer." The Las Vegas Sun reported in 2013: "In just about seven weeks, people will be able to start buying Obamacare-approved insurance plans through the new health care exchanges. But already, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is predicting those plans," wrote the Sun, "and the whole system of distributing them, will eventually be moot. ... 'What we've done with Obamacare is have a step in the right direction, but we're far from having something that's going to work forever,' Reid said. When then asked by panelist Steve Sebelius whether he meant ultimately the country would have to have a health care system that abandoned insurance as the means of accessing it, Reid said: 'Yes, yes. Absolutely, yes.'"

The "you didn't build that" left does not recognize the relationship between prosperity and allowing people to keep what they produce to the fullest degree possible. By the end of eight years under President Obama, according to the conservative Heritage Foundation, we had less "economic freedom." The United States' score on "economic freedom" -- which looks at taxes and regulations, among other criteria -- dropped to its lowest level in the 23 years since Heritage began publishing its annual rankings of 180 countries. It is no coincidence that this loss of economic freedom under Obama helped produce the worst American economic recovery since 1949.

Last week brought more good news for Democrats. A Rasmussen poll found that nearly half of American likely voters support a guaranteed government job for all. This is likely to become a central presidential campaign issue for Democrats in 2020. Democrats believe that there is a free lunch and that capitalists are stopping them from eating it.

COPYRIGHT 2018 LAURENCE A. ELDER. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM.Political humor in this country will take a while to recover from the fallout of the partisan, foul-mouthed comedian at the 2018 White House Correspondents Association dinner. But the week before, the art of the jest took a mugging from an unlikely source: PolitiFact.

On April 19, it published a piece headlined Florida Democrats slam Gov. Rick Scott for defrauding U.S. taxpayers. Written by Allison Graves, it examined a joke made on Twitter by the Florida Democratic Party at the expense of the Sunshine States governor, a current Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.

It all started when Rick Scotts campaign aired an ad making a case for congressional term limits. During the spot, Scott is seen standing in front of a white board with a drawing of the United States. He strikes a red X over Washington, D.C., in an attempt to indicate the place in the country that most resists term limits. It was a cute gimmick, and Florida Democrats had a bit of fun in turn by tweeting an altered image of Scott in front of the white board.

In their version, Scott now stands in front of a map covered in red X marks and that reads X marks the spot at every HCA location where I probably defrauded taxpayers. The jab is in reference to Scotts stewardship of the HCA hospital chain. Scotts run ended badly in 1997 with his resignation as CEO in the midst of a federal investigation for Medicare fraud. The company was found guilty of bilking taxpayers, and paid $1.7 billion in fines.

This is excellent political gamesmanship. Moreover, the Democrats were, as the old saying goes, kidding on the square: HCAs malfeasance was genuine, Scott really was its CEO, and Medicare fraud is a potent political issue in retiree-rich Florida. But was the Democrats quip worthy of a fact check?

PolitiFacts editors thought so. Its piece dutifully examines the claim "X marks the spot at every HCA location where (Gov. Rick Scott) probably defrauded taxpayers." Graves rates that claim, using PolitiFacts Truth-o-Meter, as Mostly True.

What was odd about this exercise is that, in an interview with Graves, Florida Democratic Party spokeswoman Caroline Rowland said the tweet was a joke and that the marks on the map werent meant to refer to specific cases of fraud at specific hospitals. That should have ended the matter. A gibe, although it may poke at important truths and can be reported by the press, should not be evaluated as if it is an objective claim.

Graves, however, took it all very seriously. We dont know a lot about the exact hospitals where fraud was found, she wrote. But the scope of the settlement suggests the Democrats map of eight spots isnt that much of a stretch. After linking to several past PolitiFact pieces on HCA, and providing evidence tracing the extent of the fraud, she added, We could not find any other direct evidence that shows taxpayers were specifically defrauded in all eight of the cities pointed out by the Florida Democratic Party, but the [Justice Department press release] indicates that the fraud was a national issue.

Its a well-known adage in comedy that if you have to explain the joke, it isnt funny. PolitiFact took this truism to another level, and in so doing raised a puckish philosophical question: Are fact checkers immune to humor? Graves also dutifully noted in closing that Scott was in charge, so he bears some responsibility and has said so. But it's worth pointing out that we don't know how much he knew, and when he knew it. (For the record, this author assumes that is probably what the Democrats were alluding to by including the word probably in their jokey image.)

We are not in the business of examining the veracity of fact checks. Rather, we seek to analyze how fact checkers do their jobs. Its confusing why the Democrats joke merited a fact check in the first place. This is doubly true given that, as Graves noted repeatedly, PolitiFact looked into the HCA matter several times. The first of these fact checks, in March 2014, evaluated the claim that Scott oversaw the largest Medicare fraud in the nations history. This is an appropriate fact check. Shades of opinion came into play, including the big one: To what degree is Scott culpable if he didnt know what was happening on his watch? Ultimately, however, Scotts tenure at HCA is an objectively verifiable fact. Incidentally, that 2014 PolitiFact piece is the top Google result for the phrase Rick Scott HCA. So no one could claim that PolitiFact has not done its diligence on this issue.

Perhaps the tweet warranted a follow-up blog entry pointing readers to past PolitiFact work on the issue. But its own fact check? Graves dutifully attempted to correlate spots on the map with actual instances of fraud, all over a joke.Local Democratic convention set for May 16

BANTAM  Local Democrats will be holding their convention to nominate a candidate to run in the 66th District against incumbent state Rep. David Wilson, according to a release. The convention will be held at La Cupola's Restaurant in Bantam starting at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 16, and includes the towns of Litchfield, Morris, Warren, Bethlehem and Woodbury.

Local Democrats will also be holding a convention to nominate a candidate for the 14 towns that make up the 30th State Senate District to challenge state Sen. Craig Miner at La Cupola's Restaurant on Monday, May 21, starting at 7:30 p.m.

All registered Democrats are invited to attend both events, organizers said. For more information, contact Temporary Chairman Audrey Blondin at 860-489-8997.

Saturday in the Park planning underway

The Torrington Arts and Culture Commission will present the annual Saturday in the Park event on June 3 beginning at 10 a.m. Held at Coe Memorial Park, the event includes an arts and crafts Fair, live music, food and beverages as well as an appearance of the Market Place Express train with rides around the park.

Vendor applications are available at http://coepark.eventbrite.com. For more information, email actcommission@gmail.com.

American Pickers coming to Connecticut

American Pickers Mike Wolfe, Frank Fritz, and their team are returning to Connecticut and plan to film episodes of the hit series throughout the region in June 2018.

American Pickers is a documentary series that explores the fascinating world of antique picking on the History channel. The hit show follows Mike and Frank, two of the most skilled pickers in the business, as they hunt for Americas most valuable antiques. They are always excited to find sizeable, unique collections and learn the interesting stories behind them.

As they hit the back roads from coast to coast, the duo is on a mission to recycle and rescue forgotten relics. Along the way, the Pickers want to meet characters with remarkable and exceptional items. The pair hopes to give historically significant objects a new lease on life, while learning a thing or two about Americas past along the way.

American Pickers is looking for leads and would love to explore hidden treasure. If you or someone you know has a large, private collection or accumulation of antiques that the Pickers can spend the better part of the day looking through, send us your name, phone number, location and description of the collection with photos to: americanpickers@cineflix.com or call 855-OLD-RUST. facebook: @GotAPick

American Pickers is produced by Cineflix Productions for History. New episodes air Mondays at 9 p.m. EST on History.

Local Purple Heart recipients sought

TORRINGTON  The City of Torrington and the Military Order of the Purple Heart are seeking Purple Heart recipients, Gold Star Families and relatives of any Litchfield County resident who has received a Purple Heart from the U.S. government, including current, past or posthumous recipients. Mayor Elinor Carbone and the city wants to honor these recipients by designating Torrington as a Purple Heart City.

Call Maurette Wall at the Office of the Mayor at 860-489-2228 and provide the name of the person to be honored and the contact information for that individual, their family member or friend.

Flanders to hold annual 5K run

WOODBURY  Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust will hold the fourth annual Field & Forest 5 K trail run on Friday, June 8, 6 p.m. at the Flanders Van Vleck sanctuary.

All ages and skill levels of runners, joggers and walkers are welcome to register for the 3.1 mile run/walk through the trails and rolling hills of the nature center. After the race participants will enjoy a celebration with food trucks and stations which include La Tavola pizza truck, pulled pork sliders from Bantams Woods Pit BBQ, a burger station, the Comfort Zone truck which offers an array of specialty toppings on pretzels, and beer from Woodbury Brewing Company. Live music will be provided by the popular local rock band, Root Six.

A registration fee of $35 for 13 years or older includes the run or walk, two food truck items and for those over age 21, a complimentary craft beer. This fee goes up to $40 between June 1 and June 7 and to $45 on race day.

For younger walkers and runners age 12 and under, the fee is $30 through June 7 or $35 the day of the race which also includes the vouchers for food items. Online fees are extra. Additional food and drinks will be available for purchase by spectators and participants.

Awards will be given to top male and female finishers overall as well as in 8 age categories ranging from age under 10 to over 60.

For full information and to register online go to flandersnaturecenter.org and click on the trail run box on the homepage.

The race will begin promptly at 6 p.m. and will be held rain or shine; however, Flanders reserves the right to cancel in the case of lightening. The event cannot accommodate strollers or pets on the course.

Race organizers thank their major event sponsors which include: Aquarian Water Company, Bank Of America, Crossfit Strongtown, Michael Friedman Orthodontics, Dr. William Filchak, Homes by Heather, Ion Bank, Main Street Financial Group, Quassy, Thule, Webster Bank, Westover School, and Woodbury Brewing Company, the beer sponsor, all whom have lent generous support to this Flanders event.

Unwind event bnefits Warren library

WARREN  The Warren Public Library invites you to Unwind - a benefit event of wine, cheese, and chocolate pairings on Saturday, May 12, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Hopkins Vineyard in Warren.

This fundraiser will feature Arethusa Farm cheeses and Thorncrest Farm & Milk House chocolates paired with select Hopkins Vineyard wines. A collection of themed gift baskets will be up for silent auction and delicious hors doeuvres will be served. Live acoustic music by Steven Christofor of Ridgefield CT will round out the evening.

Presale tickets $20/person are available at the Warren Library. Tickets will be sold at the door the day of the event $25/person. All proceeds will benefit the Warren Public Library. For more information visit warrenctlibrary.org or call the library at 860-868-2195.TORRINGTON  The lack of standards or regulations for sober home facilities has long been a concern in Connecticut, but a bill that passed the House and Senate this week would create a voluntary system in which a sober home facility could become certified with the National Alliance for Recovery Residences.

Once certified, the owners of sober homes could register with the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Those homes would then be registered on the departments website and updated weekly .

State Rep. Michelle Cook, D-Torrington, sponsored the legislation, HB 5149 An Act Concerning Sober Living Homes, which she said supports a clean, safe living environment, for people in recovery.

Everybody says this is the step we need to take, she said.

She said the bill, if signed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, would require the registered homes to carry at least two doses of opioid antagonists, such as Narcan, a medication that can reverse the effects of an overdose.

Addicts need to recover in a safe and clean environment, she said.

Without the regulations, recovering addicts could be living in a home where another tenant overdoses because many facilities lack supervision.

Homes that are individually owned are not subject to local zoning enforcement, Cook said. Fifteen people could be living in a three-bedroom house. Recovery experts estimate Torrington has at least 50 sober homes.

Ive see people market the legitimacy of a sober home, when in fact they are slumlords making a profit, said John Hamilton, chief clinical outreach officer for Mountainside Treatment Centers.

Hamilton said recovering addicts are encouraged by achieving their goal of being drug free.

They are grateful to have a place to live, after treatment, he said. There should be a working standard of care.

Hamilton said he supports the no-wrong-door approach to recovery.

Its taken six years of rallying for support, of the legislation, Cook said.

She said the legislation will be signed sooner rather than later. If so, it would take effect in October.A court in Cambodia on Thursday upheld insurrection convictions against 11 members, supporters and activists of the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), amid an ongoing political crackdown in the country.



After deliberating for two minutes, Judge Plang Samnang said Cambodias Court of Appeal in the capital Phnom Penh decided to uphold the Phnom Penh Municipal Courts verdict  and orders the continued detention of the 11 people, without providing a reason for the ruling.



The 11 have been incarcerated since 2014 for their alleged role in a July 15, 2014 demonstration held by the CNRP against government manipulation of the general election a year earlier, and restrictions on peaceful assembly, that turned violent when police tried to forcibly remove protesters. In July 2015, they received sentences of from seven to 20 years in prison.



Thursdays rulingwhich family members of the detainees were prevented from attendingsignaled the end of a protracted appeal process that began in 2016 and concluded in late April, and featured hearings in which live testimony was extremely limited.



During the proceedings, according to rights group Licadho, plaintiffs were unable to identify the defendants as perpetrators of violence and admitted that other individuals had written at least some of the original complaints.



Virtually identical statements from almost 40 absent members of the paramilitary police were read onto the record, which prevented cross-examination by the defense, and video evidence submitted to the court confirmed that a number of the defendants were actively working to prevent violence during the clash and had personally protected injured authorities, Licadho has said.



Following the verdict, defense lawyer Choung Choungy told RFAs Khmer Service that he had urged the court to drop all charges against the detainees, who he said were not guilty, and pledged to meet with them in prison to discuss a further appeal.



My clients have the right to appeal this decision before the Supreme Court, so I will meet with them to discuss this matter, he said.



Tith Narin, wife of defendant Ouk Pichsamnang, said authorities had prevented her from even handing her husband food during Thursdays proceedings.



My life is mired in misery since he has been detained, she said, adding that she must look after her grandchildren on her own, as their parents are migrant workers in Thailand.



Its been more than three years since he has been locked behind barsit should be time now for him to be released, but this court releases only criminals like rapists and murders, while those who help society are never pardoned.



Following the verdict, the 11 defendants were returned to prison, where they have been detained for more than 1,000 days.



Ongoing crackdown



Thursdays ruling comes amid a crackdown by Prime Minister Hun Sen on Cambodias political opposition, NGOs and independent media, in what observers say is part of a bid to ensure his ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) remains in power following a general election set for July 29.



The Supreme Court dissolved the CNRP in November after it was accused of plotting to overthrow the government, and the partys former president Sam Rainy has urged supporters to shun the polls to avoid legitimizing what is expected to be a blowout victory for the ruling party in an election that will be neither free nor fair.



Several CNRP officials and activists have fled Cambodia since the party was banned and are currently living in self-imposed exile to avoid facing cases widely seen as politically motivated and tried in a court system that lacks independence.



The CNRP received more than 3 million votesaccounting for nearly half of the countrys registered votersin Cambodias 2013 general election, and enjoyed similar success in last years commune ballot, making it the only legitimate challenger to the CPP ahead of July.



The Khmer Times quoted Meach Sovannara, the former director of the CNRPs information department and one of the 11 defendants, after Thursdays ruling as saying that Hun Sen should seek a political compromise between the countrys two main parties for the good of the nation.



Only politicians can resolve this issue because it is politically motivated, he said.



I hope that Samdech Hun Sen will have a compromise to release all of us, he added, using an honorific for the prime minister.



Analyst Lao Mong Hay also called for political detente, saying that without it, all the [11] detainees will continue to be incarcerated.



However, I have seen no hope for such a deal amid the current political situation, he added.



New York-based Human Rights Watch had called on Cambodia Tuesday to quash the politically motivated insurrection convictions against the 11 CNRP members ahead of the court decision on their appeal.



Human Rights Watchs Asia director Brad Adams called their 2015 conviction one of the first of many bogus cases brought against the opposition after the party nearly won the disputed 2013 elections and suggested that incarcerating them was part of a bid by Hun Sen and the CPP to stave off defeat at the ballot-box.



Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.A court in Shanghai on Thursday sentenced the former head of embattled state-owned conglomerate Anbang Insurance, which has now been seized by the authorities, to 18 years' imprisonment for fraud, and the embezzlement of corporate funds.



Wu Xiaohui, former chairman and general manager of Anbang Insurance Group, was handed the sentence at the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, which also confiscated 10.5 billion yuan (U.S. $1.7 billion) of his assets, official media reported.



"His illegal gains and relevant yields they generated will be retrieved," state news agency Xinhua quoted the sentencing statement as saying.



Wu was found guilty by the same court of using Anbang, which grabbed world headlines with its purchase of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York in 2014, to raise 65.2 billion yuan (U.S. $10.3 billion) through the sale of insurance products beyond regulatory limits, as well as embezzling 10 billion yuan (U.S. $1.6 billion) from Anbangs insurance fund.



At his trial in March, Wu initially contested the charges against him, but said in his closing statement that he understood and regretted the crimes and requested leniency.



Media commentators said that many questions remain unanswered about the case, however, and that the sentence is likely the result of high-level political negotiations behind the scenes.



"I don't think that his capitulation is really connected to the fraud charges at all," journalist Xu Xiang told RFA. "Perhaps something else is going on behind the scenes, something political."



"It should have been obvious what was happening from the time [the first fraud] ... took place, so where did the 65.2 billion figure come from?" Xu said. "Why did this fraud continue for such a long period of time?"



'Pretty mysterious'



Chinese journalists have been prevented from carrying out any independent reporting of the trial, and news outlets are expected to run ruling Chinese Communist Party-approved copy published by Xinhua.



"Of course we only have the official syndicated version," a journalist surnamed Zhang told RFA. "There are certain things ... that can't be talked about; actually this guy is pretty mysterious."



Wu is married to Zhuo Ran, the granddaughter of late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, a connection akin to revolutionary royalty among China's ruling elite. He has denied later rumors that the couple have divorced.



A political commentator surnamed Pan said the vagueness around Wu's fall is definitely deliberate, and is linked to his high-level connections.



"This was basically a behind-closed-doors operation; nobody reliable went to that courtroom and listened to the trial," he said. "And 18 years isn't too bad really. They said he took 65.2 billion yuan. Execution would have been too good for him."



Pan said Wu might have continued to be protected by his revolutionary connections, had he not made the mistake of trying to transfer assets overseas.



"If you start making massive transfers of assets overseas, then they are going to have to bring you down," he said. "But they also don't want to go into what he was up to before that, so they bring him down in a very vague and confused manner."



"This is a warning shot to [the Deng] family, no more. They only took a third generation son-in-law, after all," Pan said.



Third largest insurer



Wu, 52, hails from the eastern province of Zhejiang, and made his first fortune in automobile sales, setting up Anbang in 2004.



Anbang is Chinas third largest insurer with 1.97 trillion yuan (U.S. $310.4 billion) in total assets, and recent reports by financial news service Caixin and The New York Times have exposed complex ownership patterns linking much of its assets to Wu and his wife.



Caixin's cover story A Maze of Capital Leads to Anbangs Aggressive Expansion prompted legal threats and counter-threats amid strenuous denials from the company.



Anbang was banned from issuing any new financial products for three months in May by China's insurance regulator, which cited shoddy risk-management practices.



It is currently under management by officials from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, the central bank and other financial bodies, which will restructure its ownership while keeping it open for business.



Reported by Wong Siu-san and Sing Man for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Yang Fan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.Authorities in Hotan (in Chinese, Heitian) prefecture, in northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have sentenced a prominent imam to more than five years in prison for taking his son to an unsanctioned religious school to meet other children.



Abduheber Ahmet, the imam of the Dongbagh Mosque in Urchi township, in Hotans Qaraqash (Moyu) county, was initially detained in May 2017 and handed a five and a half-year jail term a month later, the ruling Chinese Communist Party secretary of Urchi township told RFAs Uyghur Service.



The 46-year-old father of four took one of his sons to an underground religious school in Dongbagh village, the party secretary said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



It is said that he only took him once  I think it was four or five years ago  He took him there so that his son would meet and play with other children.



Ahmet, a state-approved imam who had previously received a five star rating from officials, revealed [his crime] himself during one of the confession meetings, the secretary said, and received leniency because he admitted to it.



Because the government and the party is fair, he was given a five and a half-year sentence, otherwise he would have received a seven-year prison term, he added.



According to the secretary, Ahmet is serving his sentence in Bayingholin (Bayinguoleng) Mongol Autonomous Prefecture at the Reform Through Labor Prison in Korla (Kuerle) city.



He was sent to the prison about 11 months ago, he said.



Two-faced Uyghurs



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.



In the months since XUAR party chief Chen 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.



In October last year, RFA learned that authorities had jailed four grandchildren of Qurban Barat, the former imam of Hanliq Mosque in Qaraqash county, who was once recognized as a Patriotic Religious Scholar by the Communist Party for turning two alleged separatists in to the police.



The four received prison sentences of between five and a half and eight years because they listened to religious teachings and possessed illegal religious materials, Barats son told RFA at the time, adding that at least three other party members in his county have children or spouses who have been sentenced to prison or placed in re-education camps for religious violations.



China regularly conducts strike hard campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material.



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 by Shohret Hoshur for RFA's Uyghur Service. Translated by RFA's Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.Kazakh tycoon Zhomart Ertaev has been detained in Russia on suspicion of massive financial fraud, the Kazakh Interior Ministry has confirmed.

The ministry said in its May 10 statement that Ertaev was suspected of helping arrange loans worth more than $80 million to bogus companies while working as an adviser to Bank RBK in Kazakhstan.

Talks with Moscow on Ertaevs extradition were under way, the ministry said.

Media reports in Russia and Kazakhstan said earlier that police in Moscow detained Ertaev on May 8 near the Moskva-Citi business complex in the Russian capital.

Its not Ertaevs first brush with the law.

Ertaev spent nine months in pretrial detention in Kazakhstan in 2009 on suspicion of embezzlement but was released after a court dropped the charges.

He was found guilty, however, of the lesser charges of misusing bank funds and violation accounting regulations. He was released after the court ruled his nine months in pretrial detention was sufficient punishment.

In late 2014, he became the director of the Alma-TV cable television operator.

Last month, Ertaev said in an interview with the Tengrinews agency that he had been living in Russia for more than three years.

Russian media say Ertaev is the chairman of Troyka-D Bank in Moscow and an honorary president of Alma Group, an investment company based at Moskva-Citi.

Based on reporting by Tengrinews, Nur.kz, and InterfaxA Kyrgyz university professor could face up to seven years in prison over comments he made on social media criticizing Soviet-era architecture in his hometown, Bishkek.

Thirty-nine-year-old Temir Bolotbek stands accused of inciting ethnic animosity, charges that stem from at least two Facebook comments he posted on a photo depicting a Bishkek street in the 1980s.

"A stinking, backward, and dull [Soviet-era building]," Bolotbek, who works at the Kyrgyz University of Construction, Technology, and Architecture, wrote under an image posted on January 9. "Architecture? Anyone who calls this...dull building 'architecture' has no idea about architecture."

In another comment, apparently directed at the social-media users who praised the construction, Bolotbek used more colorful language, along with a dismissive term for Russia, "Rushka."

He wrote that those who admired Soviet constructions should go to "Rushka, somewhere in Siberia," which has "plenty of such sad s**t, poor and slavish."

Bolotbek was summoned in January to the Kyrgyz Committee for State Security for questioning. He was subsequently charged under an article of the Criminal Code that sets a maximum penalty of seven years for "inciting national, ethnic, religious, or regional hatred through media or the Internet."

Bolotbek denies the charges, and his lawyer argues that the accusation violates his right to free speech.

"This accusation is absurd," Bolotbek told Current Time TV, the Russian-language network run by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA. "My comments dont mention any race, nation, or religion. There are no calls [to action]."

Bolotbeks trial began last month in Bishkek.

There is a Kyrgyz precedent for imprisoning people over comments on social media, according to lawyer Akmat Alagushev, who cited the case of a farmer from Issyk-Kul who was sentenced to four years in prison over a Facebook post last year.

He said the farmer "is serving his sentence now."

Alagushev said a 2016 amendment to Article 299 of the Criminal Code introduced harsher punishments of up to seven years in prison for spreading banned hate speech via media.

While Bolotbek has insisted his Facebook comments were not intended to offend, a Kyrgyz news website criticized him for what it described as frequently posting anti-Russian comments on social media.

The website claimed that Bolotbek in the past has called on Russia to "go home and take its rusty planes with it from Kant [a Russian military air base in Bishkek]. We are better off without you."

Bolotbek said that while he believes in his right to free speech, he has been more careful since the charges arose about voicing his opinions.

"I do exercise some degree of self-censorship," he told RFE/RL. "I would allow myself to make more emotional statements before, but now I have to censor myself."

Written by Farangis Najibullah, with reporting by Current Time TV and RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service

YEREVAN -- The Armenian government has conducted its first major shake-up since former protest leader Nikol Pashinian became prime minister on May 8, firing the country's top police chief and its national security adviser, while the acting finance minister announced his resignation.

After an official request by Pashinian, President Armen Sarkisian on May 10 signed a decree dismissing Police Chief Vladimir Gasparian and national security adviser Georgy Kutoian.

The 60-year-old Gasparian had been the country's top police officer since 2011, while Kutoian, 37, had served for just over two years as national security adviser.

Pashinian nominated Yerevan deputy police chief Valery Osipian to lead the country's police force. Ospian took part in negotiations with Pashinian and other organizers during the recent street protests in the capital.

"During the demonstrations, we were on a different side of the barricade from Valery Osipian. I decided...that we will be on the same side," Pashinian wrote on his Facebook page.

Artur Vanetsian, head of the security force for the capital, replaced Kutoian as national security adviser.

Acting Finance Minister Vardan Aramian, meanwhile, released a statement saying he was resigning "with hopes that a new government will continue the efficient search for solutions to make our country more stable in economic terms."

Pashinian also announced he had appointed Eduard Aghajanian as his chief of staff. The 30-year-old Aghajanian is a member of Civil Contract, which was founded by Pashinian and is a participant in the minority Yelk alliance in parliament.

According to his biography, Aghajanian has a masters degree in business from the International University of Monaco and was a private entrepreneur from 2014 to 2017.

The moves come just two days after Pashinian was elected prime minister by the parliament following several tumultuous weeks of street demonstrations, which he spearheaded.

The protests were directed against the continued rule of Serzh Sarkisian, who had been elected prime minister by a parliament dominated by his Republican Party (HHK) after term limits ended his two five-year mandates as president.

Sarkisian, who is not related to Armen Sarkisian, was forced to resign on April 23, some six days after taking the premiership amid massive protests led by Pashinan, who called the demonstrations a "velvet revolution" in the South Caucasus nation.

Pashinian, a 42-year-old former journalist, was briefly detained by police on April 22, before Sarkisian's resignation.

Almost a decade ago he had also been sentenced to seven years in prison for his alleged role in leading postelection protests in Yerevan in 2008. He was jailed from July 2009 until May 2011, when he was released under a general amnesty.

Pashinian was elected to the prime minister's position on May 8 on his second try after the HHK agreed to provide him with enough votes to win to help "normalize" the situation in the country.

Among his first duties, Pashinian on May 9 visited Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan under the control of ethnic Armenian forces.

There, he called for the region's de facto authorities to become a party in the internationally mediated talks to resolve the longstanding conflict between Yerevan and Baku.

Pashinian also has vowed to call new elections as soon as he is sure they could be conducted under fair and transparent conditions.

With reporting by Interfax, Reuters, and RIA Novosti.

After around five years of construction, Turkmenistan opened its $1.5 billion port at Turkmenbashi City on the Caspian Sea coast on May 2.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, rarely one to downplay the importance of a project, said the new port would become an important maritime link for trade to the Black Sea and Europe, to the Middle East, and to Asia.

Yes and no.

The new port is arguably essential for Turkmenistan, as it adds a new and badly needed new trade route for the country.

But it is likely to remain limited mainly to Turkmenistans exports and imports, because it has competition on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.

Turkmenistan has billed itself as a trade crossroads of Eurasia for years. That might be geographically correct, but Ashgabat's isolationist policies have turned the country more into a black hole of intercontinental trade routes.

More than a quarter of a century into its independent history, Turkmenistan is not much better connected to the outside world than it was when it was a Soviet republic.

For years, Ashgabat relied on revenues from exported natural gas. Since the gas was shipped by pipeline, it was easy for the Turkmen government to close off its borders and isolate the country.

The fall in world prices for gas and oil from the record heights of half a decade ago has crippled Turkmenistans economy. The Asian Development Bank said in a September 2016 report that Turkmenistans economy relies heavily on oil and gas, which account for over 85 percent of the countrys exports."

The problem is, some 88 percent of Turkmenistan is desert and there is relatively little else the country can export. But Turkmenistan has been working on selling its gas and oil in new forms.

There is a second gas-to-liquids plant under construction at Ovadan-Depe (also the site of Turkmenistans most notorious prison), which should convert gas into diesel and gasoline, and chemical plants and the country's two refineries are producing polyethylene, polypropylene, sulfuric and nitric acids, and ammonia, all products that can be shipped by container on rail and/or tanker.

The new port also includes a shipbuilding and repair yard. Turkmenistan has been purchasing tankers from Russias Krasnoye Sormovo Shipyard (at least nine, each reportedly capable of carrying six types of petroleum products simultaneously). Some of Turkmenistans tankers have been delivering oil to the Russian Caspian port at Makhachkala; but other Turkmen tankers have been delivering oil to Baku, where is it pumped into the Baku-Makhachkala-Novorossiysk and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipelines.

The tankers from Krasnoye Sormovo are 7,100 tons, but Turkmenistans new port plans to be able to eventually handle some 25 million tons when it reaches full operating capacity.

The Turkmenbashi port will probably never operate at that capacity because of the Aktau and Kuryk ports in Kazakhstan.

The third of Kazakhstans three new terminals at the Aktau port started operating in 2014 and raised its capacity to some 19 million tons annually. (Aktau made the news recently when Kazakhstans government suggested the United States could ship supplies bound for Afghanistan through Aktau.)

Kazakhstan has also been investing money in a new port at Kuryk, some 60 kilometers south of Aktau. The Kuryk port, intended mainly to handle oil from Kazakhstans Kashagan field, aims to have a capacity to handle some 7 million tons of cargo annually by 2020. And Kazakhstan has been building new railway lines, including those that connect to China.

After exporting their own goods, and importing cargo needed domestically, the ports in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are competing to ship goods bound from and receive cargo bound for China and other East Asian countries, part of Beijings One Belt One Road global trade-network project.

The difference is that Kazakhstan borders China, and Kazakhstan clearly sees its ports playing key roles in the transportation of goods between China and Europe. Turbek Spanov, the deputy chief of transport and roads in Kazakhstans Mangistau Province, said in October 2017 that the Kuryk port would be an important link of the Trans-Caspian international transport route...one of the promising transport corridors in Eurasia, which runs from China through the territory of Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, and Georgia with the subsequent exit to the European countries."

The Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway, launched at the end of 2014, foresees transporting some 15 million tons of cargo annually by 2022. Chinese goods headed west currently can go by railway in Russia or Kazakhstan. (There is a project for a railway line from western China to Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.)

To reach the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway, trains from China need to turn south along Kazakhstans railway network.

The terminal station of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway in Kazakhstan is Uzen, which is about 90 kilometers east of Kuryk -- meaning goods from East Asia being transported by rail to east Caspian ports would pass Aktau and Kuryk before reaching the start of the railway line to Turkmenistan and Iran.

There is another part of the Caspian transit corridor that needs to be considered: the new port in Azerbaijan, near Baku.

The Baku International Sea Trade Port at Alat is replacing the old port at Baku. In 2017, the volume of freight traffic increased by some 31 percent and totaled some 4.4 million tons.

The first phase of the Alat port is due to be completed this year and will bring capacity to some 15 million tons annually. When the second phase is completed, the port should be able to handle some 25 million tons of cargo.

From Baku, much of the cargo would go by rail through the Caucasus to Turkey and the Black Sea. Its no surprise that when the new Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was inaugurated in late November 2017, the prime ministers of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were in attendance for the opening ceremony, as was a delegation from Turkmenistan.

That railway line plans to be able to carry some 17 million tons of cargo annually when it reaches maximum capacity. Azerbaijan clearly has preference in shipping its goods, with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and possibly Iran, vying for remaining space on the line going west.

There are other railways leading to Georgias Black Sea coast. There are four ports operating on Georgias Black Sea coast, two of which specialize in liquid cargo. One is at Batumi. Kazakhstans state-owned KazTransOil manages Batumi. And there is the port at Kulevi. The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) operates Kulevi. So even here, Turkmenistan is in an unfavorable position regarding its Caspian neighbors.

One last note on the railway lines and Turkmenistans new seaport. Berdymukhammedov has offered Uzbekistan use of the port facilities, but last year officials from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, including the heads of the state railway companies, met several times to discuss shipping Uzbek goods through Aktau and Kuryk.

Turkmenistans new seaport is useful to Turkmenistan, though it might be a while before it makes back the $1.5 billion spent on it.

But in the end, it risks joining the Tejen-Serakhs-Mashhad railway, once touted as the junction of the planet, and the new $2.5 billion international airport in Ashgabat as white elephant projects.

RFE/RLs Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Turkmen, and Uzbek services contributed to this report.

The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.Israel's military says it targeted "dozens" of Iranian military sites in Syria with missile strikes after the Golan Heights were struck with about 20 rockets in an attack it said was ordered by the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant General Jonathan Conricus told reporters in Jerusalem early on May 10 that Israel's army targeted sites used by Iranian intelligence, logistics, storage, and vehicles, as well as the suspected site where the missiles aimed at Israel were launched.

Conricus claimed that the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Qassem Soleimani, ordered the missile attacks on the Golan Heights, which he said caused no serious damage or casualties in Israel.

"It was ordered and commanded by Qassem Soleimani, and it has not achieved its purpose," he said.

"The Israeli army takes very seriously this Iranian attack against Israel," Conricus said. "We have retaliated" by striking "dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria," he said.

He said it was one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and the biggest ever against Iranian targets. He said, however, that Israel is not seeking an escalation of tensions with Iran.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war and annexed it in 1981, although the annexation was not internationally recognized.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on May 10 that Israel responded fiercely to what he termed an unprecedented rocket attack by Iranian forces in Syria against Israel.

He said no one was harmed in Israel and all the rockets were either intercepted or fell short.

In a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said that 28 Israeli F-15 and F-16 fighter jets launched about 60 air-to-surface missiles during the two-hour raid early on May 10. The ministry said Israel also fired over 10 tactical surface-to-surface missiles.

Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and has been waging its own air campaign on his behalf since 2015.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli strikes killed 23 fighters, including five Syrian soldiers.

The monitor said Israel struck several military posts for Syrian troops and Iranian-backed militias near the capital, Damascus, in central Syria and in southern Syria.

The White House condemned Iran for the rocket attack on the Golan Heights, adding it "strongly supports" Israel's right to self-defense.

Russia urged all side to deescalate tensions. "This is all very alarming, it causes concern," Russian news agency TASS quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying. "There should be work to de-escalate the tensions."

That call was echoed by French President Emmanuel Macron as well as by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who called the latest escalation a matter of "war and peace."

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed "utmost concern" over reports of Iran's rocket attack and of Israel's retaliatory strikes.

"The secretary general urges for an immediate halt to all hostile acts and any provocative actions to avoid a new conflagration in the region already embroiled in terrible conflicts with immense suffering of civilians," Guterres' spokesman said in a statement.

The exchange of fire comes one day after Syria accused Israel of launching missile strikes targeting an Iranian military outpost in Kisweh, south of Damascus.

It also comes after U.S. President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was withdrawing from a landmark nuclear agreement between six world powers and Iran under which Tehran pledged to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

According to the observatory, 15 people were killed by the strikes on May 9, among them eight Iranian fighters.

Last month, an attack on Syria's T4 air base in Homs Province killed seven Iranian military personnel, and Israel was accused of striking government outposts in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen pro-government fighters, many of them Iranians.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied most of the air strikes. But for months, it has repeatedly said it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

Iran has vowed to take revenge for the strikes attributed to Israel, which have killed not only many Iranian troops but members of Lebanon's Hizballah militia, which is also stationed in Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad in his seven-year civil war against Sunni rebels.

Iranian President Hassan Rohani in a phone call with Merkel said his country does not want "new tensions" in the Middle East.

"Iran has always sought to reduce tensions in the region, trying to strengthen security and stability," he said, according to the Iranian presidencys office. He did not mention the Israeli retaliatory strikes.

Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, putting its forces along the northern border on high combat alert, activating air defenses, and ordering the unsealing of bomb shelters in anticipation of possible Iranian retaliation against the strikes.

The Israeli military said the measures were needed because of what it described as "unusual movements" of Iranian forces in Syria.

With the combined forces of Hizballah, Iran, Russia, and Syria making significant gains in the fighting this year, Israeli officials have said they fear that Iran and tens of thousands of allied Shi'ite militiamen will start carrying out attacks against Israel.

"They want to build a second Hizballah-stan" in Syria, Amos Gilead, a retired senior Israeli defense official, told a security conference in the coastal town of Herzliya recently. "They are determined to do it and we are determined to prevent it. It means we are on a collision course."

While periodically staging raids on Syrian and Iranian positions, Israel's military has maintained close communications with the Russian military stationed in Syria to back Assad, and has avoided striking any Russian installations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Moscow on May 9 to meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss military coordination in Syria.

After visiting with Putin for 10 hours, Netanyahu said he conveyed what he described as Israel's obligation to defend itself against Iranian aggression in Syria. The Israeli military said Russia was informed of Israel's strikes against Iranian targets ahead of time.

"I think that matters were presented in a direct and forthright manner, and this is important. These matters are very important to Israel's security at all times and especially at this time," Netanyahu said.

"[Iranians] are trying to transfer forces and deadly weapons [to Syria] with the explicit goal of attacking the state of Israel as part of their strategy to destroy the state of Israel," he said.

Netanyahu said his meetings with Putin "are always important and this one is especially so.... In light of what is currently happening in Syria, it is necessary to ensure the continued coordination" between the two militaries.

With reporting by dpa, Reuters, AP, AFP, and TASSASTANA -- Dozens of people have been detained by police at rallies in Kazakhstan calling for the release of political prisoners in the Central Asian state.

In Astana, demonstrators rallied on May 10 in a district of the capital where many foreign embassies are located, chanting "Freedom to political prisoners!" and "Shame on the government!"

In the country's largest city, Almaty, protesters held up portraits of political prisoners and posters with slogans like "Stop torture!" and "No to politically motivated imprisonments!"

In both cities, police quickly stepped in and detained an unspecified number of protesters and even individuals not taking part in the rallies.

In Astana, police told RFE/RL that they would release details on those detained later.

The Almaty city police department said in a statement that "an illegal gathering by a group of citizens has been prevented" in the city.

On May 9, human rights defenders in Kazakhstan told RFE/RL that about a dozen activists were summoned by police regarding their plans to organize the rallies that were spearheaded by the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement.

The DVK was established by Mukhtar Ablyazov, a fugitive critic of President Nursultan Nazarbaev.

Ablyazov told RFE/RL on May 10 that the protests in Astana, Almaty, and several other cities in Kazakhstan, had been organized by him via the Internet.

In March, a court in Astana banned the movement, branding it an extremist organization.

The rallies were held on the same day when a European Parliament delegation led by Iveta Grigule met with Nurlan Nyghmatulin, speaker of the Kazakh parliament.

Rights activists in Kazakhstan say the European delegation is expected to evaluate whether the country is fulfilling conditions of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and Kazakhstan.

On April 25, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on Kazakhstan to meet its international commitments, including freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and to end measures restricting access to social media.

Opponents and rights groups say President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who has held power in Kazakhstan since before the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, has taken systematic steps to suppress dissent and sideline potential opponents.When Sead Sadikovic heard that fellow investigative journalist Olivera Lakic had been shot in an attack outside her apartment in Podgorica this week, he wasnt surprised. In Montenegro these days, almost no one is.

Sadikovic, known for a hard-hitting weekly show on TV Vijesti and his reporting on corruption and organized crime, survived a car bomb that exploded in front of his house just a month earlier.

Vijesti has seen 25 attacks on its employees or the stations offices in the past decade or so.

While the daily is known for its independent journalism, Sadikovic says its reporters are also becoming known as targets.

I hoped it wasnt the case, but I feared the bomb was aimed at me. And then, as it turned out, I was, indeed, the target, Sadikovic told RFE/RL as he recounted the attack on him on April 1.

President Milo Djukanovic and his long-ruling Democratic Party of Socialists have faced repeated accusations of corruption and crime links, especially from journalists like Sadikovic and Lakic.

The 56-year-old politician came under investigation and was indicted by prosecutors in the Italian city of Bari in 2008 for alleged tobacco smuggling. The probe was later dropped given Djukanovic's diplomatic immunity.

Sadikovic has said he believes the ruling party was behind the car bombing, and several threats that preceded it, because of his investigations into corruption and crime. But he has provided no evidence for the accusation.

His experience came rushing back after the attack on Lakic, who escaped with her life but remains hospitalized from a gunshot to the leg. Lakic has also written about alleged murky businesses involving top state officials and their families.

Sadikovic said Lakics shooting also triggered the feeling that, while he escaped death once, hes not out of harms way.

These days, all journalists in Montenegro are targets. And the story with Olivera is the story that all journalists are the targets, and that they wanted to kill her, he said.

Olivera is an extraordinarily brave woman. An extraordinary journalist. She is a great investigator and, so, simply, it is hard for me to say that I am surprised by the attack, he added.

The May 8 shooting was not the first time Lakic has been physically attacked. Six years ago, in 2012, Lakic was brutally beaten, at the same spot, in front of her apartment. She was able to identify the attacker, who was later arrested by police.

Vuk Maras, executive director of the Media Association of South East Europe (MASEE), says the current climate for journalists in the Adriatic country can be directly traced to Djukanovic.

He noted that the shooting of Lakic came just days after Djukanovic targeted journalists of Vijesti and had addressed them as "fascists and racketeers."

We told him that if any attack happened, he would be personally responsible and that he has to be aware of the consequences of his words," Maras said. In conditions like these, journalism in Montenegro cannot function. Its as simple as that."

Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland said on May 9 that he was "shocked and saddened" by the shooting, which he called an attack on democracy.

But Sadikovic warned that the motives behind the attacks run deep.

Last month, Djukanovic was elected president, extending his almost three-decade-long dominance over Montenegro's politics.

The victory ended his two-year absence from office, a rare gap in almost three decades of involvement in high politics in the tiny country of only about 640,000 people.

Why the atmosphere is so toxic? Because journalists tried to rise up and became the bright spot of Montenegrin society. The interests and vanity of the [ruling] political party have become much more important than societal interests. And the journalists bother them, Sadikovic said.

How can an ordinary citizen feel free in this society, and how can they be free to state their voice, their word, to be free to do their job? In this environment -- and my example points toward this -- the ones who are inspiring the attacks, the ones who are pushing them, the ones who are ordering bombs against me remain in power.

With reporting by RFE/RLs Balkan ServiceThe Russian and German foreign ministers say they are working to salvage a landmark nuclear agreement with Iran after President Donald Trump announced that the United States would leave the deal and would reinstate sanctions on Tehran.

Sergei Lavrov, speaking after meeting Heiko Maas on May 10 in Moscow, said it was important that any new U.S. sanctions did not ruin the 2015 accord between Tehran and six world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"Without doubt we will make sure firstly that this does not destroy the JCPOA. This is our common objective," Lavrov said at a joint news conference with Maas. The JCPOA provides Tehran with relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

Lavrov added that Russia, Germany, China, Britain, and France -- the remaining participants in the agreement -- must work to "enable the preservation of this important document for regional stability."

Maas said it was essential for Iran to stick to its obligations under the accord despite Trump's move to slap fresh sanctions on Tehran, and called on Russia to use its influence on Tehran in that respect.

"It is necessary that Iran stays in the agreement. It is in Iran's interest, too, to keep the agreement alive," Maas said.

Maas said Germany was looking for more information from Washington about the punitive measures it was considering.

"It is important to learn about the rules concerning the so-called secondary effects, that is, what does it mean for a European company's America business if it continues to do business with Iran," Maas said.

'Malign Activities'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a phone call with Iranian President Hassan Rohani that her country would adhere to the 2015 nuclear deal.

But government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Merkel told Rohani that Tehran must continue to fulfill its obligations under the plan and condemned Iran's rocket attacks on Israeli military positions on the Golan Heights early on May 10.

Renewed U.S. sanctions are expected to hit hard on Iran's oil sector, with analysts estimating Iran's nearly 4 million barrels of daily oil production could be cut by 200,000 barrels to 600,000 barrels a day.

In what appeared to be a separate action, the U.S. Treasury Department announced fresh sanctions on May 10 against three entities and six Iranian individuals linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The Treasury Department said the action, taken in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates, broke up an "extensive currency exchange network" used to help fund the IRGC and its foreign arm, the Qods Force, in their malign activities and regional proxy groups."

China 'Committed'

Meanwhile, China has also said it remains committed to the deal and assured Tehran that it will continue buying nearly one-third of Iranian oil exports.

"We express regret over this decision made by the United States," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on May 9. He said that China wants to "ensure the integrity and sanctity" of a pact that Beijing believes was important for curbing nuclear proliferation and promoting stability in the Middle East.

Geng said that China, which has for years been a close economic partner with Iran, will "carry on the normal and transparent pragmatic cooperation with Iran on the basis of not violating our international obligation."

China's Xinhua News Agency also reported on May 9 that China's special envoy for the Middle East, Gong Xiaosheng, said after meeting with Iranian officials that the multilateral deal is "very serious and important."

"Having a deal is better than no deal. Dialogue is better than confrontation," he said.

China buys the largest share of Iranian oil, and most of the rest is sold to the other top Asian consumers, Japan and South Korea, which have also indicated that they will continue business with Iran despite the U.S. decision.

China's comments came as oil prices hit their highest levels in world markets since November 2014 as investors reacted to Trump's move to withdraw from the pact. Premium crude prices ended over $77 a barrel in London trading on May 9.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

MOSCOW -- A court in Moscow has rejected a request by investigators to transfer to house arrest a former director of Moscow's embattled Gogol Center theater, who is charged with embezzlement and fraud in a case that has sent a chill through Russian culture.

The Basmanny district court on May 10 again rejected a request from Russias Investigative Committee to transfer Aleksei Malobrodsky from a detention center to house arrest due to "his age, health state, and other reasons."

The Prosecutor-General's Office protested the Investigative Committee's request after it was initially filed on April 25.

Malobrodsky was in the courtroom on May 10, but was rushed out after falling ill. Doctors said Malobrodsky was suffering from heart problems and needed immediate hospital care.

Malobrodsky, 60, who also used to lead the Seventh Studio theater group at the theater, was arrested in June 2017 -- about a month after Seventh Studio bookkeeper Nina Maslyayeva and former director Yury Itin were arrested.

Maslyayeva and Itin are also now under house arrest, as is prominent Gogol Center artistic director Kirill Serebrennikov.

Initially a witness in the case, Serebrennikov was charged in August 2017 with organizing the embezzlement of 68 million rubles ($1.1 million) allocated to Seventh Studio in 2011-14 for a specific project. He has since been put under house arrest.

Serebrennikov had taken part in antigovernment protests and voiced concern about the increasing influence of the Russian Orthodox Church in the country.

Directors and actors in Russia and elsewhere, including ballet great Mikhail Baryshnikov, have expressed concern over the situation faced by the Gogol Center and have called for a transparent investigation.The director of a Russian cultural office in Ukraine's capital has been drenched with a bucketful of green antiseptic liquid mixed with feces, with a Ukrainian nationalist group saying it wanted to send him a message.

The assault took place as Konstantin Vorobyov left home to lay flowers at a World War II memorial. Much of the former Soviet Union commemorates May 9 as Victory Day to mark the Red Army's 1945 seizure of Berlin.

"We wanted to stop him celebrating and meeting his Russian friends," said Serhiy Masur of Ukraine's C14 ultranationalist organization, one of the groups involved in an incident last week where a Brazilian man who fought for Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine was seized and marched through the streets to police custody.

A police patrol visited the scene of the incident, but no statement was filed.

Vorobyov heads the Kyiv office of Rossotrudnichestvo, a Russian state organization that promotes science and culture. The antiseptic he was doused with, known as "zelenka," is frequently used in protests and hooligan attacks.

Based on reporting by AP and InterfaxWASHINGTON -- The United States has imposed fresh sanctions on three entities and six Iranian individuals linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) two days after President Donald Trump announced he was pulling out of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

The U.S. Treasury said on May 10 that the sanctions were a joint action with the United Arab Emirates intended to disrupt an "extensive currency exchange network" used to help fund the IRGC and its foreign arm, the Qods Force, in their malign activities and regional proxy groups."

The sanctions were announced by the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) through its Specially Designated Nationals list.

"The Iranian regime and its central bank have abused access to entities in the UAE to acquire U.S. dollars to fund the IRGC-QFs malign activities, including to fund and arm its regional proxy groups, by concealing the purpose for which the U.S. dollars were acquired," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement.

The entities listed are: Jahan Aras Kish; the Joint Partnership of Mohammadreza Khedmati and Associates; and Rashed Exchange, also known as Safri Rashed.



The individuals sanctioned are identified as: Meghdad Amini; Mohammad Hasan KhodaI, Said Najafpur; Masud Nikbakht; Foad Salehi; and Mohammadreza Khedmati Valadzaghard.

It said all six individuals are linked to Iran's powerful hard-line IRGC, which runs an intelligence service that is separate from the government's Intelligence Ministry.

U.S. and other officials have accused the IRGC of fomenting extremist violence in the Middle East. Iran and the IRGC deny financing any terror groups.

The United States placed the IRGC on its antiterrorism sanctions list in October 2017.

When under U.S. sanctions, any assets that persons or entities have within U.S. jurisdiction will be frozen and Americans will be barred from doing business with them.

Trump on May 8 announced that the United States would leave the 2015 nuclear deal signed by Iran with six world powers and that he would immediately reinstate sanctions on Tehran.

The 2015 agreement, worked out with Iran by the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany, lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program.

The pact, designed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, has been strongly criticized by Trump, who called it "a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made."

The other signatories urged Washington to remain part of the deal and have indicated they would adhere to the agreement and have called on Tehran to also stay in the accord despite the U.S. withdrawal.Russia-backed separatists who control the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk have held a Victory Day parade despite a ban on that type of celebration in Ukraine as well as on the tanks and other heavy weapons featured in the parade.

The display on May 9 of such heavy weaponry, which has been used by the Russia-backed separatists during their four-year conflict with government forces, violates the terms of a 2015 peace deal that has been little honored by either side, AFP reported.

The peace deal called for both sides to withdraw mortars, rockets, and other large-caliber arms from demarcation lines, one of which runs through the outskirts of Donetsk.

An AFP reporter counted 45 pieces of heavy military equipment, including tanks, artillery systems, and multiple rocket launchers.

Many were painted with the Soviet Union's red star and a black-and-orange-striped St. George's ribbon, a hallmark of World War II victory celebrations that Ukraine banned after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 as a symbol of what Kyiv sees as Russian aggression and expansionism.

The Russian news agency Interfax also reported that the parade featured several dozen military vehicles, including T-72 tanks, howitzers, self-propelled artillery systems, rocket launchers, and restored World War II vehicles.

"All the equipment taking part in the parade was acquired as trophies," Oleksandr Voronin, a separatist military chief, told AFP, claiming it was seized from the Ukrainian Army and then restored.

At the opening of the event commemorating the victory over Nazi Germany, which was attended by around 35,000 people, separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko asserted that the region's people "have to defend their land with weapons" and protect "the Russian world" from Ukrainian nationalists.

Local residents came to the parade with St. George's ribbons pinned on their clothes and carrying red flags and bouquets. Some brought children dressed in stylized World War II uniforms.

While the massive Soviet-style parades have been revived under President Vladimir Putin in Russia, they have been banned in areas of Ukraine controlled by Kyiv since the conflict with Russia-backed separatists broke out in April 2014.

In Kyiv on May 9, about 10,000 people marched through central streets carrying portraits of the more than 10,300 people killed during the conflict with separatists.

Kyiv police detained 14 participants for wearing banned symbols "of the communist totalitarian regime," including the St. George's ribbon. They face a fine.

"Stalin's Soviet Union in the first two years of World War II was an ally of Hitler's Germany," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a speech at the commemoration ceremony.

Today, Putin's Russia is ready to bring the world "to the brink of World War III," he said. "They are here, not far from us -- and this requires our special vigilance and responsibility," he said.

With reporting by AFP and InterfaxGina Haspel, President Donald Trump's pick for CIA director, said she would not execute a morally questionable order from the president, even if it was technically permissible. During her senate confirmation hearing in Washington on May 9, Haspel made the remarks in response to questions about so-called Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EITs) authorized by former President George Bush. Haspel also denied media reports that she had appeared on videotapes, later destroyed, that showed EITs being performed on a terrorism suspect.Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev is scheduled to hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington later this month.

The Uzbek leader is due to pay his first visit to the White House on May 16, according to White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

In a press release issued on May 10, Sanders said the two presidents will renew their countries' "bilateral strategic partnership, in order to pursue shared interests and address emerging challenges."

They will also be discussing trade, investment, and regional security issues, including the situation in Afghanistan.Roberto Borge could finally face Quintana Roo charges

Cancun, Q.R.  Roberto Borge could face criminal allegations in the state of Quintana Roo sooner rather than later, something he has avoided until now.

Through his lawyers, the former state governor has said he will make himself available to face the Criminal Oral Court of Quintana Roo regarding three criminal complaints filed against him. Public prosecutor for the state, Miguel Angel Pech Cen, says there are three outstanding orders against the former governor.

He says one of the criminal complaints is related to the crime of embezzlement committed through the now extinct State Heritage Institute (IPAE) for the amount of more than 2.5 billion peso. Other charges consist of crimes of illicit use of power and for irregular performance of the public function for contracts, payments and rent of air services linked to the parastatal air transport company, Vip Saesa.

After being detained in Panama and extradicted back to Mexico, Borge Angulo has been held in the Penitentiary Center of the State of Morelos in pretrial detention.

Borge was arrested in Panama in June of 2017 while boarding a plane to Paris. He was extracted back to Mexico in January of 2018 and remains in prison. The state says that losses under the Borge administration could reach as high as 15 billion peso.US auto brands lose Mexico market to Asia, Europe

Mexico City, Mexico  During the last 10 years, popular US automakers have lost their footing in the Mexican market by nearly 50 percent, which has been taken over by Asian and European brands.

US automakers Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) lost approximately half of their market share in Mexico compared to Asian and European brands.

In 2008, American brands dominated the sale of cars in Mexico with nearly half of the market, but in the first four months of 2018, the Mexican Association of the Automotive Industry (AMIA) says they now have only about 25 percent of the market.

The AMIA says that Asian brands such as Nissan, Toyota and Honda, which 10 years ago had only 35 percent of the market now have 51 percent. They say that over the last 10 years, European brands have captured 23 percent of the Mexican car-buying market, leaving US brands with just over 25 percent.

AMIA says that the construction of the Asian plants in Mexico between 2014 and 2017, which were investments exceeding $2.6 billion USD, boosted its presence in the market. In addition, Mazda, KIA, BAIC and Toyota began aggressive commercial advertising with financing plans and longer warranty periods than the American brands.

In 2014, Mazda opened a plant in Salamanca, Guanajuato to produce the Mazda 3. That same year, Honda opened its second factory in Mexico to assemble Fit and HR-V models in Celaya.

In 2016, Korean KIA opened its assembly plant in Pesqueria, Nuevo Leon where it produces the Forte, Rio and Hyundai Accent models, while in 2017, BAIC began assembling the D20 and X25 models at a plant in Veracruz.

Toyota, for its part, is building a factory in Guanajuato that will begin production in 2019.

According to experts, Asians have a better understanding of consumers, mainly millennials, who prefer greater fuel efficiency and innovative designs.

Asian brands are more focused on taking advantage of market knowledge, consumers tell us. In design, American brands make attractive models, but they have to continue working on other aspects such as knowing the clients, said Gerardo Gomez, senior director and country manager of JD Power de Mexico.

The same consultant revealed that 46 percent of the purchase decision has to do with the quality of the car and the after-sales service offered by the brand. For millennials, a decisive factor (16 percent) is fuel consumption, followed only by design (14 percent).

This year, brands dominating the Mexican market include Nissan with 23 percent followed by Toyota with 7.7 percent and KIA with 6.9 percent, which is the fifth most commercialized brand in the country.Trump: The Musical

Blowfish Theatre

Theatre Delicatessen, Sheffield

7.30pm on Friday, May 11

4pm on Saturday, May 12

7.30pm on Saturday, May 12



THE DEMAND for tickets to Trump has been "yuge", to use his word.

So "yuge" that the deranged geniuses behind the musical have scheduled a second performance in their home city.

The team touched a nerve and tickled a funnybone with their well-observed lampooning of Boris Johnson and the Eton set last year.

Now they have returned with an even wackier parody of the most divisive US president in history.

While Boris charted the ridiculous-but-true rise of our foreign secretary, Trump extrapolates its subjects rule to an improbable near future.

The action takes place in 2020, with Trump seeking re-election so he can Make America Great Again! Again! (the shows opening number).

The president (David Burchhardt) and his umpteenth press secretary Rod (Polly Bycroft-Brown) travel to England to meet King Nigel Farage I (Kyle Williams) and buy Scotland.

Vladmir Putin (Natasha Lanceley) is insanely jealous of the new friendship, while Kim Jong-un (also Lanceley) is just insane, launching nukes at everyone in range.

Can agent Roger Lavery (Laurence Peacock) of MLE stop the Three Little Demagogues (the closing tune) carving up the Earth between them?

And will Rod, his loyalties divided between Don and democracy, help or hinder his efforts?

The set, plot and accents are all barely there, but Trump has bags of energy and the satire is bang up to date. (A gag about Iran must have been added this week.)

All of the cast get bags of laughs  including, sixth member Sergei (Dominic Lo, the shows composer and pianist).

But Lanceley really steals the show, as not one but two deranged world leaders.

While the rest amuse with their sharp-eyed impressions, energetic slapstick and raunchy wit, Lanceley shows real dramatic chops and versatility.

Its a show as unsettling as it is funny. As egos collide and nukes fly, how surreal does the situation really seem?

With a world leader really tweeting policy from his potty, this wacky send-up does still provide food for thought.

Even if it does climax in the Kremlins solid gold sex dungeon.

There are plenty of tickets left for the Saturday matine, so snap some up now.Cranworth Road closed by police. Photograph by Alex Roebuck.

A MAN is in hospital after being stabbed on an Eastwood street yesterday (Wednesday) evening.

Police were called to Cranworth Road at 7.40pm to reports of a man with a neck wound, said a police spokesman.

The victim was taken to hospital with non life-threatening injuries, he added, and a man had been detained in connection with the incident.

Officers closed Cranworth Road and Sumner Road while forensic work was carried out.

Police today appealed for witnesses to the incident.Firbeck Hall

AMBITIOUS eight-figure proposals to bring a neglected 16th century stately home back to life have found favour with planners.

The 11 million rescue package from Sophia Property Developments will see Firbeck Hall  built in 1594  converted into 21 apartments.

Three more flats will be added in the stable block while the 20th century extension will be demolished for a further eight properties.

Rotherham Borough Councils planning board voted in favour of the plans this morning (Thursday).

An RMBC spokesman said: The proposal for the conversion of the grade II-listed hall and stable block is considered to be acceptable in design and conservation terms and is to be greatly welcomed in bringing this long derelict site back into use.

The hall was an exclusive country retreat in the 1930s, favoured by royalty and Hollywood stars. During the Second World War it was an RAF base and part of the Sheffield Royal Infirmary.

It was later a rehabilitation hospital for workers who suffered industrial injuries until it closed in 1990 and has been empty since.

The spokesman said the restoration of the historic site provided special circumstances for approval of such a development in the green belt.He will become Malaysias prime minister again. Mr Najib has said he will accept the verdict of the people. Yes, yes, I am still alive, Mr Mahathir told a news conference in the early hours of Thursday. No single party within the coalition won a majority, so it now rests with Malaysias king to decide who forms a government.



Image from Malaysia

The official results showed the opposition Pakatan Harapan  the Alliance of Hope  secured 113 of the 222 seats being contested, including some which have only ever been held by the government. BN took 79 seats. Mr Mahathir joined UMNO at the age of 21 and ran a medical practice for seven years in his home state of Kedah before becoming a member of parliament in 1964. He was prime minister, at the head of the BN coalition, for 22 years, from 1981 until he stepped down in 2003. Under his rule, Malaysia transformed into one of the Asian economic tigers of the 1990s. His authoritarian but pragmatic policies won him popular support. To the surprise of many, he has admitted he was wrong on many things. Mr Mahathir was also a mentor to Mr Najib, who became prime minister in 2008.We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace! the president tweeted. Trump already has said he hopes that the summit will lead to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. It will be the first time a sitting U.S. president meets with the leader of North Korea. Trump says now the U.S. is developing a better relationship with the North Korean leader. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently visited North Korea and met with Kim. Last month, Kim said he would suspend nuclear and missile tests stating further ones were unnecessary. He also met South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a historic summit in late April. Earlier Thursday, Trump expressed gratitude to Kim for the return of three detainees and said he was optimistic about their planned talks. I really think he wants to do something  and bring his country into the real world. I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful, Mr Trump concluded.



Singapore

Singapore maintains diplomatic relations with North Korea, which has an embassy and ambassador in the country. It has been the site of other high-profile summits. It plays host to an annual regional security conference, called the Shangri-La Dialogue, which usually draws the U.S. defense secretary and top officials from China and other nations.Approval denied for Jet Airways-Jet Lite merger

Jet Airways today said the government has not given approval for the merger of its subsidiary Jet Lite with itself, nearly three years after the proposal was announced by the full-service carrier. The merger proposal was approved by the board of Jet Airways in September 2015 and was later cleared by the airline's shareholders in April 2016. In a BSE filing, the airline said the civil aviation ministry has not approved the merger of Jet Lite Ltd with itself. Consequently, the merger scheme stands revoked and canceled, it added. "Jet Lite (India) Ltd and Jet Airways (India) Ltd shall continue their respective operations as two separate legal entities with their respective Air Operator Certificates," the filing said. The specific reasons for the rejection of approval for the merger could not be immediately ascertained.



Sahara Airlines was renamed as Jet Lite. A Jet Airways spokesperson said it respects the decision of the ministry on the proposed scheme of merger. In April 2007, Jet Airways had acquired Sahara Airlines for Rs 1,450 crore after an arbitration award and the latter was renamed as JetLite. The merger would lead to greater efficiency in cash management of the merged entity and "unfettered access to cash flow generated by the combined business which can be deployed more efficiently to maximize shareholder value", the airline had said in April 2016. Shares of Jet Airways declined 2.36 percent to close at Rs 499.80 apiece on the BSE.Uddhav Thackeray

Senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal's son Pankaj today met Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at his residence here, triggering speculations on whether the Sena has mellowed down its stand on the Shiv Sainik-turned NCP stalwart who was recently granted bail in a money laundering case. A Shiv Sena source privy to the meeting said Thackeray advised Pankaj to take care of his ailing father who is in hospital. Bhujbal had long been a persona non grata of the Sena leadership since he left the Bal Thackeray-fonded party in 1991. Notably, the Sena had yesterday said Bhujbal's arrest in a money laundering case and subsequent incarceration was "fate's revenge" against him for his bid, when he was the state Home Minister, to put Sena founder Bal Thackeray behind bars. "It was just a 15-minute courtesy call by Pankaj Bhujbal. There was no political discussion during the meeting," a Shiv Sena legislator told PTI. The meeting comes five days after Bhujbal, the former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in a money laundering case. Indicating softening of the party stand vis-a-vis Bhujbal, party spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, "Had (Chhagan) Bhujbal been in the Sena today, such fate would not have befallen on him. Bhujbal is a political adversary, but we do not have personal enmity.

Bhujbal's son meets Uddhav

Advertisement

"Those who deserted late Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray, each of them ended in misery. Karti Chidambaram, the son of P Chidambaram gets bail within eight days in a money laundering case. Then why it took one-and-half-years for Bhujbal to get the bail?" The meeting between Pankaj and Thackeray also assumes significance as it comes days before the May 21 elections to the Nashik Local Authorities constituency in the legislative council. The Bhujbals have a strong support base in Nashik district. However, a Sena legislator said the meeting was a 15-minute courtesy call by Pankaj Bhujbal. "There was no political discussion during the meeting," the legislator told PTI. The leader recalled that Bhujbal, despite quitting the Sena, had made a courtesy call on late party supremo Bal Thackeray in 2007. Asked if there was a possibility of Bhujbal shifting his political ideology after having been granted bail, the leader said it was highly unlikely.



"(NCP chief) Sharad Pawar did a lot for Chhagan Bhujbal even after he was jailed. There is a slim chance of him betraying Pawar now," he said. Bhujbal, a firebrand Shivsainik, had left the Sena after Manohar Joshi was made the leader of opposition in the Maharashtra legislative assembly. The divide grew wider as Bhujbal after becoming a home minister in 1999 vowed to put Bal Thackeray behind bars over his speeches and editorials in the party mouthpiece. Another Sena leader, requesting anonymity, said Bhujbal had buried hatchets with the Sena chief by meeting him in 2007, more than 16 years after leaving the party. Bhujbal, 70, in jail since March 2016, was granted bail on May 4 by the Bombay High Court after it took into consideration his old age and deteriorating health. Bhujbal, currently undergoing treatment at civic-run KEM hospital here, is likely to address a rally in Pune on June 10 when the opposition NCP's 'Halla Bol' (attack) yatra would culminate. Bhujbal, who handled the Public Works Department in the Congress-NCP government, was arrested in March 2016 after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) found in an inquiry that he allegedly misused his office in awarding contracts for PWD projects, causing a loss to the exchequer.Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram today alleged that the BJP and RSS were trying to impose autocratic rule in the nation and their main aim was to destroy the federal system and build a Hindu nation. He said the BJP-led government at the Centre wanted to impose the ideology of 'one history, one language and one living style', which was a dangerous threat to Indian culture and to the nation's hallmark of unity in diversity. Speaking to reporters here, Chidambaram said the previous BJP rule in Karnataka was the worst in the state's history. "During their term, they changed Chief Ministers thrice. They have no achievements to boast of, so now they are attacking chief minister Siddaramaiah. My question is why are they not campaigning based on their achievements,? he said. "BJP is trying to enter South India through Karnataka and we should stop them. It is a danger signal for the diversity of South India," he added. Sharply criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chidambaram said he should maintain the dignity of his post. Every single statement regarding Field Marshal Cariappa and General Thimayya that he made the other day in a campaign speech was wrong, he said "He should not do this. He should not speak whatever comes to his mind like a BJP spokesperson," Chidambaram said.



The former Union Finance Minister said petrol and diesel should be brought under the Goods and Services Tax. He alleged that the Modi government was not doing this because it wanted to loot the people. Chidambaram said the Indian Oil Corporation chairman has said people were panicking over hike of fuel prices and so they had put a break on price hike for a short time. "I want to say, why he is not saying Modi ordered me to put on hold the daily price hike on petroleum products for the Karnataka election?" Chidambaram said people were already panicking because of price hikes. The fuel prices should be reduced and there was no benefit in putting the hike on hold for a few days, he said. The Congress leader said the entire nation was looking at Karnataka elections eagerly and asked the people to vote for a stable government led by the Congress to sustain developmental works initiated under the Siddaramaiah rule. He said that in the last five years, the GDP of Karnataka increased from Rs 6,43,292 crore to Rs 9,49,111 crore, recording an eight percent growth.



The per capita income had increased by 1.25 percent in five years of Congress rule, and the revenue surplus was 0.8 percent, "which is a record in entire India." He said Karnataka has the lowest unemployment rate of 2.6 percent. Infant mortality rate had been reduced and electricity had reached villages. The development could be provided since the state had a stable government led by the Congress, he said. Development and welfare programmes went hand-in-hand under the Siddaramaiah-led government, he said. "Siddaramaiah is the first Karnataka Chief Minister to have completed a full five-year term after Devaraj Urs," he said.BJP president Amit Shah

The Congress wants to win the Karnataka assembly elections in an "undemocratic" manner and the "voter ID scandal" showed its desperation, BJP president Amit Shah alleged today. Speaking after winding up the party's campaign for the May 12 polls, he sounded confident about the BJP forming a government on its own. The BJP would win at least 130 seats in the 224-member assembly and there was no need to take any party's support, he claimed. "The Congress wants to win elections in an undemocratic manner... The developments in the last three days have sent a shock wave across India among those who are concerned about strengthening democracy," he said, referring to the seizure of "bogus" voter ID cards from a flat here. Shah, who extensively campaigned in the state, was addressing a press conference here after leading a massive roadshow in Badami constituency from where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is contesting besides Chamundeshwari seat in Mysuru.



"The way bogus voter cards were made in a flat... the way counterfoils of forms for inclusion of voters were found, the way color printers and computers were found there, it tells us how desperately the Congress wants to win the election," the BJP president said. To a query, Shah said B S Yeddyurappa would serve a full term as chief minister (in the event of BJP coming to power). He also said mining baron Janardhana Reddy, an accused in illegal mining case, has nothing do with the BJP, adding, "what I have said is final." The BJP has come under attack from the Congress over fielding the Reddy brothers -- G Somashekhara Reddy (Ballari) and G Karunakara Reddy (Harappanahalli) and their associates in the polls.10,000 fake voter ID cards were seized from a flat

A massive controversy has rocked Karnataka after nearly 10,000 "fake" voter ID cards were seized from a flat in Rajrajeshwari Assembly seat, prompting the BJP to demand to countermand of the election claiming Congress was behind the racket, a charge dismissed by the latter as a "lie". With just three days left before Karnataka goes to poll, the BJP and Congress, the two main contenders for power, went after each other's jugular, each claiming the flat belonged to a woman associated with the rival party. Addressing a press conference, Union minister Prakash Javadekar claimed Congress candidate and sitting MLA Munirathna Naidu was behind the alleged racket, which was exposed by BJP worker Rakesh. Congress spokesman Rajdeep Singh Surjawala hit right back, alleging that the flat owner Manjula Nanjamari and Rakesh had BJP connections and both contested Bengaluru Municipal Corporation elections on the tickets of the saffron party. Karnataka's Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said a Deputy Election Commissioner rank official was being rushed from the national capital to Bengaluru for a probe. Maintaining that prima facie the I-cards looked genuine, he said only a thorough inquiry will bring out the truth.



Replying to a question, he said the visiting cards with photos of a candidate were also found strewn around the flat but "no conclusion can be drawn that the candidate had visited the place". "It was earlier suggested that somebody was trying to break into our (computer) system to prepare fake ID cards....that is not so," he said, adding it was for the Election Commission to take a decision on countermanding the election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was campaigning in Karnataka, attacked the Congress over adopting such tactics to win the election. "Thousands of voter ID cards were seized, 1 lakh voters slips were seized in just one place. They must have planned such games in 40-50 constituencies. You (voters) be alert. Such sin cannot be allowed during the celebration of democracy (polls)," he told elections rallies. Javadekar said thousands of fake cards with a hologram, lamination machines, and computers were seized by police after BJP workers informed it about the racket. "This is the philosophy of the Congress....if voters do not vote for you, create fake voters," he said, claiming a "fake voter ID printing factory" was being run in Manjula's flat. Manjula, he said, was once associated with the BJP but was now with the Congress, and demanded her immediate arrest. He alleged she had campaigned for the sitting Congress MLA from the seat and its candidate for the current Assembly election Munirathna Naidu in the last polls.

BJP, Congress spar over 'fake' voter I-card row

Advertisement

The Congress hit back with a vengeance, claiming BJP was making such allegations because it was aware of its imminent defeat. "They are making such allegations because of their imminent defeat, and after their workers and leaders were caught red-handed influencing voters in collating and collecting fake ID cards in order to influence the results of the elections," Surjewala told reporters. He said the ID cards and equipment were not recovered from the flat by the police but BJP workers. The flat, he said, belonged to a BJP worker. "Prakash Javadekar had the audacity to lie, mislead the people of Karnataka by saying Manjula does not belong to the BJP. She is a former BJP corporator and Rakesh also contested corporation election on BJP ticket in 2015," he said. "Javadekar runs a factory of lies. Rakesh was a tenant of flat No. 115 and it is mentioned in the list of BJP candidates who contested the corporation elections. Manjula is a former BJP corporator from Jalahalli," he said, citing newspaper reports. While some TV news channels claimed Rakesh was Manjula's son, and others said she was his adoptive mother, the women at the center of the controversy insisted they were relatives but had "no contact". She told TV channels in Kannada, which was translated into English, that since she owned the land on which the apartment building stood, she had entered into a joint venture with a builder.



Manjula said she had rented or leased out the flats. The flat under question was given on rent to a woman named Rekha Ranjan and not Rakesh for office-cum-residence. When asked whether Rakesh was her son or adopted son, she said he was a nephew and that they had "no contact due to strain in family ties". Javedakar, accusing the Congress of "telling lies loudly", said Manjula and Rakesh were "at loggerheads" and that he did not stay in her flat. "The Congress ran a fake I-Card issuance office there....this is what they are best at," he said. Deputy leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma said the entire episode was "stage-managed". He claimed Manjula was associated with the BJP and her "son" Rakesh had contested the municipal corporation election on a BJP ticket. "The Election Commission must take action, and a police case is registered," he told reporters in New Delhi, adding the BJP was up to such tactics as defeat was staring it in the face.The Walmart-Flipkart Deal is Now Official

From selling books online to striking a jaw-dropping USD 16 billion deal with the world's largest retailer Walmart, all within 11 years, Flipkart has given India its big startup success story -- the one which is likely to be quoted by starry-eyed entrepreneurs for years to come. Former employees of US e-commerce giant Amazon, Sachin Bansal, and Binny Bansal had met in 2005 at IIT-Delhi. Flipkart was launched in October 2007. The idea was simple. Consumers could shop online and get books delivered to their doorstep. Flipkart registered 20 shipments in the year of its debut. It wasn't an easy road as Internet penetration was abysmally low and e-commerce, unheard of. Bricks and mortar retailers were not threatened and many dismissed e-tailing as a foreign concept saying that Indians want to touch and feel' whatever they buy. Today, Indian e-commerce industry is already close to USD 30 billion in size and analysts expect this to zoom to USD 200 billion by 2026.



The growth of the sector was comfortably in sync with the meteoric rise of Flipkart. From a modest two-bedroom apartment in Koramangala, the Bengaluru-headquartered company now has multiple offices across the country. A bulk of its operations are run out of a plush campus in the city that is spread over 1 lakh sq ft and houses 6,800 employees. It was almost two years after starting a business that Flipkart got its first full-time employee in Ambur Iyyappa, who went on to become a millionaire, thanks to the ESOPs. The headcount was rapidly scaled to 150 that year. In October the same year, Accel Partners came on board as an investor and pumped in USD 1 million. A few months later, US hedge fund Tiger Global bought into the vision and Flipkart received a funding of USD 10 million. A number of funding rounds later, Flipkart raised USD 1.4 billion from Tencent, eBay, and Microsoft, followed by USD 2.5 billion investment by SoftBank Vision Fund last year.



The year 2010 was an important one for Flipkart with the company shipping among other things, electronics, and mobile phones. This category now makes up for a significant portion of the sales for the online platform. It was also the year when Flipkart pioneered 'Cash on Delivery' in India, which changed the course of online retail in the country as consumers now paid for items only after receiving them, adding a layer of comfort to online shopping. Flipkart launched its logistics unit, eKart to smoothen deliveries. In 2016, Flipkart achieved the milestone of 100 million registered customers and saw Sachin and Binny earning a spot among TIME magazine's list of 100 most influential people. The company made its first acquisition with WeRead and since then, it has acquired a number of companies including Letsbuy, FX Mart, fashion e-tail player Myntra and UPI-based payments startup PhonePe. It also bought a majority stake in companies like Jeeves and ngpay. At the beginning of last year, Kalyan Krishnamurthy was named as the new CEO, moving Binny Bansal to the role of Group CEO. Reports suggested that Tiger Global wanted better control of the organization and hence, the decision. Bansals' e-commerce bet finally has paid off big time and set the 2018 M&A counters ringing with US retailer Walmart buying about 77 percent stake in Flipkart for USD 16 billion.Rahul says Modi's attack on his PM ambitions is to 'distract' attention

Congress party president Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attack on him declaring his prime ministerial ambitions was aimed at distracting attention. "This election is not about Rahul," the Congress president said. "I have now learned to deal with the prime minister. When he can't respond, he distracts," Gandhi told reporters in Bengaluru -- the capital of Karnataka -- after winding up his extensive tour of the poll-bound southern Indian state. Gandhi was responding to Modi's scathing attack on him after he declared his prime ministerial ambition. At his election rallies, Modi had wondered whether the country will ever accept such an "immature and naamdar (famous)" leader for the post. He also said Modi sees a 'threat' in him. "Modi has anger inside... he has anger for everybody, not just me ...and sees a threat to me," Gandhi said.



Expressing confidence that the Congress would win the assembly polls in Karnataka on May 12, he said the Opposition had restricted itself to making personal attacks during the campaign. The BJP, he said, feels "uncomfortable" when he visits a temple. "I don't think BJP understands the term Hindu," the Congress leader said. The senior Congress leader also dismissed Modi indirectly over his mother's (Sonia Gandhi) Italian origins. "My mother is Italian. She has lived a large part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many people I see," he said. The Congress president added that our foreign policy has been decimated.Supreme Court orders to take strict action

The Supreme Court today suggested that the Himachal Pradesh government should take action against those officials who were posted in Kasauli when illegal constructions came up there and sought their names and designations. The apex court also asked the state what action it has taken against those officials who were responsible for the unauthorized constructions to come up in the Kasauli town. "Unless you take action and remove four-five people from service, nothing will fall in line," a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta told the advocate general of Himachal Pradesh. On May 1, Assistant Town and Country Planner Shail Bala Sharma had gone to supervise the demolition of unauthorized construction at Kasauli's Narayani Guest House where its owner Vijay Singh had allegedly shot at her. Sharma had later succumbed to injuries, while another government official accompanying her had sustained serious injuries. The accused was later arrested.



During the hearing today, the advocate general placed a status report and said the demolition of unauthorized constructions in several hotels at Kasauli was going on in full swing as per the apex court's order and a committee of officers of the Public Works Department (PWD) has been formed to deal with difficulties that have cropped up during the demolition drive. "You have said (in the report) that demolition work was under process. When will it be completed? We have said that the work is completed within 15 days," the bench asked. The council said that since the demolition was going on in a portion of buildings having unauthorized constructions, it would take some time. The bench also asked him whether the authorities were permitting tourists to stay in 11 other hotels and guest houses where demolition drive would go on later.

Take action against officials responsible for illegal constructions

Advertisement

The advocate general, while contending that tourists were not allowed to stay in such hotels, said he would take further instruction on the issue. The bench asked the state to apprise it about the steps it proposed to take to remove the debris of the demolished unauthorized structures in these hotels, saying these could create environmental hazards. Senior advocate P S Patwalia, assisting the court as an amicus curiae, said the Himachal Pradesh High Court was dealing with an issue related to illegal constructions in places like Dharamshala, Mcleodganj, and Kasol in the state. The advocate general also referred to the amendment made in the Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning Rules which deals with issues of unauthorized constructions. He said hotel owner Vijay Singh, who has already been arrested on charges of killing the woman officer, had taken loans for construction of the guest house and further probe was going on.



The bench, while making it clear that it did not want wastage of money, asked the state to inform it about whether they have framed any guidelines so that unauthorized construction would not come up in future. It asked the state to file a status report on the questions raised by it and posted it for hearing in the first week of August. The bench also made it clear that the high court would continue hearing the pending matter related to illegal constructions in several parts of the state. The apex court had earlier termed as very unfortunate the killing of the woman officer and had said that the incident had happened due to the "non-implementation" of law. It had on April 17 asked the state to demolish unauthorized structures in 13 hotels and guest houses in Kasauli and Dharampur areas of Solan.PM Modi to fly to Nepal on Friday

Nepal is all set to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is arriving in the country tomorrow for a two-day state visit during which he will hold talks with the top leadership here with a focus on implementing key India-assisted projects and building mutual trust. This will be the third visit of Prime Minister Modi to Nepal and the first high-level visit from India since the formation of the new Government in Nepal. He will start his visit from the historic city of Janakpur, the birthplace of Sita, tomorrow morning. In Janakpur, Modi will visit 20th century Janaki temple and offer special prayers. Later, Prime Minister Modi will be accorded a civic reception by the Janakpur Sub-Metropolitan City at Barhabigha ground. Ahead of the visit, Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali along with India's Ambassador Manjeev Singh Puri visited the city to take stock of the arrangements. The security has been tightened in the city with the deployment of more police personnel. In the afternoon, the Prime Minister will fly to the capital, Kathmandu, where he will be given a guard of honor by the Nepal Army. Welcome gates with pictures of Modi and his Nepalese counterpart KP Oli have been installed at different places on the way to the main city area from the Tribhuvan International Airport. Roads have been decorated with flags of Nepal and India. The prime minister will call on Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun and President Bidya Devi Bhandari in the afternoon.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepalese counterpart K P Sharma Oli

Advertisement

In the evening, Modi will hold delegation-level talks with Oli. Later, both leaders will jointly lay the foundation stone of Arun-III hydropower project through a remote system and issue a press statement. Modi will also attend a banquet hosted by Prime Minister Oli. On Saturday, Prime Minister will visit historic Muktinath temple in Mustang district situated in north-west Nepal to offer prayers Modi will attend a reception hosted by Ambassador Puri in his honor. Leaders of various political parties in the country will call on Prime Minister Modi in Kathmandu. Oli on Tuesday held discussions with former prime ministers and former foreign ministers about Modi's visit. He briefed them about issues to be taken up with Modi and solicited their advice. Oli also informed Parliament about the visit. The visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between India and Nepal, and will enable leaders to discuss matters of mutual interest and to strengthen cooperation in all areas of age-old, multi-faceted and expanding partnership between the two countries, the Ministry of External Affairs said in New Delhi said in a statement last week. Official sources in New Delhi earlier said that during Modi's two-day visit, India will seek to consolidate relationship with the new Nepalese government headed by Oli who has returned to power riding on a spectacular electoral victory and now leads a stable dispensation after years of political instability.



The aim will also be to bring "substance" and "seriousness" in ties, a source said, while expressing the hope that "it will further build trust between the two neighbors". They said both sides will deliberate on the implementation of the ambitious rail project to link Kathmandu with Raxaul in Bihar and connecting landlocked Nepal with river transport system with India, apart from several other key connectivity projects. India had offered these mega projects during Oli's visit here last month, seen as a move to counter China's efforts to expand influence over Kathmandu by offering various infrastructure projects. Nepalese PM Oli had visited India around a month back which was seen as an attempt to repair Nepal's ties with New Delhi. In 2016, Oli had publicly criticised India for interfering in Nepal's internal matters and accused it of toppling his government over the issue of Madhesis, who are mostly of Indian-origin. Modi and Oli are likely to sign a number of pacts and inaugurate the Rs 6000-crore Arun 3 project which is expected to generate around 900 MW of power. The sources said there may be an announcement on the proposed Ramayan circuit, under which fifteen destinations like Ayodhya, Nandigram, Shringverpur, and Chitrakoot will be developed to promote religious tourism.Khalsa tradition justifies use of force

A founding member of a new youth group has declared that in Khalsa tradition, use of force is justified as a last resort at the time when Canada-based Khalistani activists have argued their movement is peaceful and aimed at seeking self-determination. Moninder Singh said it comprises youth groups based in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and other youth organizations supporting them. When asked about the choice of such violent imagery, Singh said about SLFs logo features a hawk holding an AK-47 assault rifle that we chose that because we felt it was reflective of the Khalsa tradition and the tradition of suppressed people across the world. Singh also said that the Khalistan movement doesnt necessarily have to be associated with violence. Self-resistance, resistance against the state, self-defense; these modes sometimes require people to resist in many different ways including armed struggle.

Singhs remarks come against the backdrop of growing concern in New Delhi over a spike in the activities of Canada-based pro-Khalistan groups. The issue cast a shadow over Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus visit to India in February. A senior Indian government official, who was reached for comments on Singhs remarks, said: Such blatant exhortation to violence aimed at India cannot be tolerated. It is incumbent upon the host government to take stringent action against such elements whose only agenda is of hate, violence, and mayhem.

Advertisement

Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus visit to India

In an email, Singh also noted: Groups like SLF are to promote the idea of sovereignty and the use of the AK-47 is for a form of resistance as a last resort as mandated by our Guru Sahibans. Just like many countries have various weapons on their national flags, so too is ours a reminder that we must resist oppression and tyranny by any means necessary. Singh listed 10 national flags that feature weaponry, including that of Mozambique. He said his groups objective was also to counter what he called the Indian governments fear-mongering and the association of the Khalistan movement with extremism. Singh, in his mid-30s, is a prominent figure in the Khalistan movement in British Columbia, particularly in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver. He is the vice-president and spokesperson of Dashmesh Darbar Gurdwara and one of the main organizers and spokespersons for the Nagar kirtan there.

The main stage at the event prominently featured a banner showing Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale with the words Khalistan Zindabaad emblazoned across it. Singh, born in the province and resident in Langley in the Lower Mainland, coordinated efforts in gurdwaras in western provinces to bar Indian officials from their premises. This years Nagar kirtan was attended by leading Canadian politicians, including New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh and British Columbia provinces premier John Horgan.Report: Yemeni army, committees achieve great victories in battlefronts over 24 hours [10/May/2018] br>

SANAA, May 10 (Saba)  The Yemen army and popular have achieved great victories in the battlefronts against Saudi-led aggression collation soldiers and its mercenaries, bombing economic and military targets in Saudi provinces over Wednesday, according to military reports combined by Saba News Agency on Thursday.



In Saudi capital of Riyadh, rocketry force of the army and committees fired ballistic missiles, Burkan-H2, toward Jaf port and others economic targets.



In southern Saudi province of Najran, a ballistic missile, Bader-1, was fired on information and electronic fights headquarter.



Also in Najran, gatherings of Saudi-paid mercenaries were targeted by Katyusha rockets and artillery shells in Boqea desert and Selh censorship.



Furthermore, two Saudi solders were shot dead in Mrash censorship and Talaa site, and artillery and missile shelling targeted mercenaries gatherings in front of Boqea desert of Najran.



In the border province of Jizan, Bader-1, ballistic missile was fired toward the air defense camp.

Also in Jizan, dozens of mercenaries were killed and injured during repelling their infiltration toward Amod site in the east of Jahan.



In additional, the Yemen army and popular committees shot down two reconnaissance aircrafts during repelling mercenaries infiltration toward Amood site.



Two Saudi Abrams tanks were also destroyed by guided missiles in Sharqan and Rumaih sites of Jizan.

In Hajjah province, Five mercenaries were killed by the fire of the army and committees.



In Yemens Jawf province, engineering unit of the army and committees destroyed a mercenaries military vehicle by an explosive device in Khalivin front of Khub-washaf district, killing all its crew.



Also in Jawf, four of mercenaries were shot dead in Mazuia front of Mutun district.



In Taiz province, eight mercenaries were killed by the army and committeess fires in West coast front.



In Bayda province, five of mercenaries were killed and other five injured by the fire of Yemen army and committees in Natea front.



In Lahj province, three of Saudi-paid mercenaries were killed when Yemen army and committees targeted them by a guided missile in Kahbub front.





Writing by Sameera Hassn

SabaSupply-Chain Security

Earlier this month, the Pentagon stopped selling phones made by the Chinese companies ZTE and Huawei on military bases because they might be used to spy on their users.

Its a legitimate fear, and perhaps a prudent action. But its just one instance of the much larger issue of securing our supply chains.

All of our computerized systems are deeply international, and we have no choice but to trust the companies and governments that touch those systems. And while we can ban a few specific products, services or companies, no country can isolate itself from potential foreign interference.

In this specific case, the Pentagon is concerned that the Chinese government demanded that ZTE and Huawei add backdoors to their phones that could be surreptitiously turned on by government spies or cause them to fail during some future political conflict. This tampering is possible because the software in these phones is incredibly complex. Its relatively easy for programmers to hide these capabilities, and correspondingly difficult to detect them.

This isnt the first time the United States has taken action against foreign software suspected to contain hidden features that can be used against us. Last December, President Trump signed into law a bill banning software from the Russian company Kaspersky from being used within the US government. In 2012, the focus was on Chinese-made Internet routers. Then, the House Intelligence Committee concluded: Based on available classified and unclassified information, Huawei and ZTE cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence and thus pose a security threat to the United States and to our systems.

Nor is the United States the only country worried about these threats. In 2014, China reportedly banned antivirus products from both Kaspersky and the US company Symantec, based on similar fears. In 2017, the Indian government identified 42 smartphone apps that China subverted. Back in 1997, the Israeli company Check Point was dogged by rumors that its government added backdoors into its products; other of that countrys tech companies have been suspected of the same thing. Even al-Qaeda was concerned; ten years ago, a sympathizer released the encryption software Mujahedeen Secrets, claimed to be free of Western influence and backdoors. If a country doesnt trust another country, then it cant trust that countrys computer products.

But this trust isnt limited to the country where the company is based. We have to trust the country where the software is written  and the countries where all the components are manufactured. In 2016, researchers discovered that many different models of cheap Android phones were sending information back to China. The phones might be American-made, but the software was from China. In 2016, researchers demonstrated an even more devious technique, where a backdoor could be added at the computer chip level in the factory that made the chips  without the knowledge of, and undetectable by, the engineers who designed the chips in the first place. Pretty much every US technology company manufactures its hardware in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Taiwan.

We also have to trust the programmers. Todays large software programs are written by teams of hundreds of programmers scattered around the globe. Backdoors, put there by we-have-no-idea-who, have been discovered in Juniper firewalls and D-Link routers, both of which are US companies. In 2003, someone almost slipped a very clever backdoor into Linux. Think of how many countries citizens are writing software for Apple or Microsoft or Google.

We can go even farther down the rabbit hole. We have to trust the distribution systems for our hardware and software. Documents disclosed by Edward Snowden showed the National Security Agency installing backdoors into Cisco routers being shipped to the Syrian telephone company. There are fake apps in the Google Play store that eavesdrop on you. Russian hackers subverted the update mechanism of a popular brand of Ukrainian accounting software to spread the NotPetya malware.

In 2017, researchers demonstrated that a smartphone can be subverted by installing a malicious replacement screen.

I could go on. Supply-chain security is an incredibly complex problem. US-only design and manufacturing isnt an option; the tech world is far too internationally interdependent for that. We cant trust anyone, yet we have no choice but to trust everyone. Our phones, computers, software and cloud systems are touched by citizens of dozens of different countries, any one of whom could subvert them at the demand of their government. And just as Russia is penetrating the US power grid so they have that capability in the event of hostilities, many countries are almost certainly doing the same thing at the consumer level.

We dont know whether the risk of Huawei and ZTE equipment is great enough to warrant the ban. We dont know what classified intelligence the United States has, and what it implies. But we do know that this is just a minor fix for a much larger problem. Its doubtful that this ban will have any real effect. Members of the military, and everyone else, can still buy the phones. They just cant buy them on US military bases. And while the US might block the occasional merger or acquisition, or ban the occasional hardware or software product, were largely ignoring that larger issue. Solving it borders on somewhere between incredibly expensive and realistically impossible.

Perhaps someday, global norms and international treaties will render this sort of device-level tampering off-limits. But until then, all we can do is hope that this particular arms race doesnt get too far out of control.

This essay previously appeared in the Washington Post.

Posted on May 10, 2018 at 9:11 AM  36 CommentsTagging in Southern California and Mexico shows most shark deaths are due to unintentional capture in fishing gear, highlighting the value of best practices that support protected species' recovery. The results are published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

Researchers in the United States and Mexico have tagged juvenile white sharks for nearly two decades, tracking their movements in coastal waters of the Northeastern Pacific. Now -- drawing on methods used to study mountain lions, coyotes, moose and other terrestrial animals -- they've tapped those data in a new way, gaining the first empirical estimate of annual survival rates for young white sharks and quantifying the role fishing plays in the rate of white shark deaths.

The study, "Juvenile survival, competing risks, and spatial variation in mortality risk of a marine apex predator," published today in the Journal of Applied Ecology, confirms that unintentional capture in fishing gear (bycatch) is the greatest cause of death for young white sharks, a protected species in both Mexico and the United States.

More broadly, data from pop-up archival tags (PAT tags) -- which have been used worldwide to track tens of thousands of individual ocean animals, including white sharks -- represent "a widely-available, untapped data source that could dramatically increase our understanding of marine population ecology," said lead author Dr. John Benson, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska.

Benson, who primarily studies terrestrial predators, conducted the white shark study as a postdoctoral researcher at Monterey Bay Aquarium. The aquarium -- together with colleagues at California State University, Long Beach; Aquatic Research Consultants in San Pedro, Calif.; and the Ensenada Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education (CICESE) in Baja California -- has been tagging and tracking juvenile white sharks since 2002.

Research results at a glance

Data from 37 sharks tagged since 2002 revealed that:

The overall estimated annual survival rate for young white sharks was 63 percent. Though this study did not address broad trends in the white shark population in the Northeastern Pacific, the researchers note that protection of white sharks in 1994 has likely resulted in a reduction in fishing-related mortality. The increase in juvenile shark sightings over the last 15 years may be an early indication of a positive sign for population recovery.

Fisheries bycatch was the main source of mortality for juvenile white sharks in the region, highlighting the need to follow best practices related to incidental catch in coastal commercial and sport fisheries. Only two young white sharks tagged by researchers died of natural (non-fishing) causes.

Overall mortality risk for young white sharks was lower for larger animals, which could be attributed to smaller sharks being more abundant, or simply more susceptible to capture in gillnets.

advertisement

According to Benson, the paper adds to scientific understanding of white sharks, and shows how models that estimate survival rates for top predators on land -- data obtained from radio telemetry and tracking collars -- can be applied to ocean species that carry PAT tags.

"We always learn things from adjacent fields," said Dr. Salvador Jorgensen, principal white shark scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and senior coauthor on the paper. "Before coming to the aquarium, John made his name studying mountain lions in Southern California. We were excited to see how the methodologies John was using for land-based predators could be applied in the ocean."

Taking a new approach

Benson realized that data from PAT tags opened the door to a new approach to estimate survival rates for young sharks, using what are called known-fate models.

"Because the PAT tags record detailed data on temperature and diving, it is possible to reconstruct the fate of the shark in the final minutes of each track," said Jorgensen.

advertisement

The technique hinges on being able to determine the fate of individual animals -- data that PAT tags provide. If a tagged shark was eaten by a predator, or if it died in a fishing net, the tag recorded those data.

By applying known-fate models to those data, researchers estimated survival and mortality rates for the population at large. They also determined that fisheries bycatch was the main source of mortality for juvenile white sharks in the Northeastern Pacific, and that juveniles were at significantly greater risk of mortality when in Mexican waters.

Protections are in place

In California, it is illegal to target and land white sharks, and coastal waters are permanently closed to all gillnets within three miles of shore. In Baja California and throughout Mexico, targeting and landing white sharks is prohibited all year. However, gillnet fishing in coastal waters is still permitted for other species. Data from the study show that juvenile white sharks are an estimated nine times less likely to get entangled in California compared with Baja.

"We are learning that the gillnet regulations in California, although originally designed to protect sport fishing interests, have done a lot to protect juvenile white sharks," said Dr. Chris Lowe, director of the Shark Lab at CSU Long Beach and a coauthor of the paper.

The study also revealed that juvenile white shark mortality in gillnets is reduced when nets are checked by fishermen every 6 to 12 hours, so the young sharks can be released alive.

"In terms of reducing white shark mortality, avoiding setting nets close to shore and checking them frequently appear to be the best practices," Lowe said.

Coauthor Oscar Sosa-Nishizaki, a professor at CICESE, stressed that engaging with local fishermen in Mexico is critical to reducing mortalities and improving recovery prospects for the Northeastern Pacific white shark population.

"It's the best way to go," he said. "Mexican fishing communities play a vital role in enabling this research as well as helping us solve any issues as they arise."

CICESE doctoral student Emiliano Garcia-Rodriguez, another coauthor, added: "It's very important to work with the fishermen, because we want to know whenever they incidentally catch a white shark."

"This research suggests the importance of a collaborative approach to management in California and Mexico, and opportunities to innovate on best practices that can support fishermen, research and protections for white sharks," Jorgensen said.

Other co-authors on the study include John O'Sullivan, director of collections at Monterey Bay Aquarium; Chuck Winkler of Aquatic Research Consultants; and Connor F. White, white shark researcher with CSU Long Beach.

Additional information about this study and other white shark research is available on the aquarium's Future of the Ocean blog (futureoftheocean.wordpress.com/).Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a germ that occurs naturally in the gut of mammals and birds, as well as in the human intestinal flora. However, certain E. coli types can cause severe diarrhea in humans. These virulent E. coli types include Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), also known as Verotoxin-producing E. coli (VTEC).

Their damaging effect is due to the fact that STEC produce toxins known as Shiga toxins (Stx), which can cause disease in the human gut. As the best known STEC representative, an enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) strain of the serotype O104:H4 was responsible for numerous severe cases of haemolyticuremic syndrome (HUS) and bloody diarrhea in Germany in 2011, as a result of which 53 people died.

According to evaluations made by the BfR, STEC are most often found in meat, meat products, raw milk and raw milk products from ruminants such as cattle, sheep and goats, but they can also occur in products made from wild ruminants and wild boar, as well as plantbased foods. In addition to the produced Shiga toxin, a protein for attaching the pathogens in the intestine (intimin) is regarded as an important factor in the development of severe diarrhea.

Although STEC strains can be better classified today using modern molecular methods, a definite prediction of the potential of STEC strains to cause disease in humans is not possible. For this reason, all Shiga toxin-producing E. coli strains are classified as potentially virulent.

To protect against STEC infections through contaminated food, the BfR recommends heating methods, such as boiling, frying, roasting or pasteurising, which kill any pathogens that might be present in meat or raw milk. The requirement here is that a temperature of 70 C or more is reached at the core of the food for at least two minutes; accordingly, meat should be cooked thoroughly. Plant-based foods such as fresh herbs, lettuce and leafy greens, which are generally consumed raw should be stored at a maximum of 7 C, thoroughly washed and used quickly. To reduce the germ load, particularly sprouts should be thoroughly washed, used up as quickly as possible and preferably, thoroughly heated prior to consumption. People with weakened immune systems should avoid eating raw sprouts altogether.Scientists investigating the fundamental question in biology as to why individuals have evolved to cooperate rather than simply exploiting the contributions of their rivals, have found that microbes vary their contribution to maximise the return of investment.

A collaboration between the University of Bath and University College London has revealed that microbes act like shrewd economists when cooperating. When they find themselves in groups with mostly relatives they contribute heavily to cooperation, which benefits the group. In contrast, when they are in a group outnumbered by unrelated individuals, they exploit the contributions of the others.

The team studied the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum or slime mould. Slime moulds live in the soil as single-celled organisms, but come together to form a slug-like creature when they run out of food. The newly formed slug will eventually form a fruiting body composed of a stem and spores. This process requires cooperation between the individual amoebae to form a successful fruiting body.

The scientists investigated what factors caused the individual amoebae to "choose" whether to sacrifice themselves to form the stem of the fruiting body for the collective good, or to exploit the contribution of others and form spores that would go on to reproduce.

Traditionally biologists trying to solve this puzzle labelled individuals as either co-operators or cheaters. However, this study shows that even simple microbes follow the economic principles of collective investment, varying their contribution depending on how much stake they have in the success of the fruiting body.

Jason Wolf, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, explained: "Our research shows that even the simplest microbe can act like a savvy investor.

advertisement

"Rather than being labelled as either cheaters or co-operators, each individual can potentially benefit from varying their level of investment into cooperation depending on the investments of others.

"If one person has an 80 per cent share of a company and another has a 20 per cent share, it makes economic sense for the person with 80 per cent to invest more than the other person because they have more at stake if the project fails.

"In a similar way, microbes with one genotype invest more resources in making the stalk if most of the others in the group share the same genes. If they don't invest, they have more to lose because their stake is larger.

"Microbes of a minority genotype have less to lose if the fruiting body fails so go for maximum return by forming spores."

The researchers found that an equal mixture of two phenotypes led to neither group investing sufficiently, creating a fruiting body that collapsed under its own weight.

advertisement

Chris Thompson, Professor of Developmental and Evolutionary Genetics, in the Centre for Life's Origin and Evolution and UCL Division of Biosciences, explained; "This research throws new light on the evolution and maintenance of cooperation.

"Cooperation is fundamental to the success of most organisms on the planet, from microbes to humans.

"However, understanding why cheaters do not invade and collapse cooperative systems still remains a puzzle.

"Many attempts to solve this problem rely on the assumption that individuals can either 'cheat' or 'cooperate'. In these cases, cheating would usually the best strategy and thus cooperation collapses, an idea demonstrated by games such as the Prisoner's Dilemma.

"Our studies demonstrate a solution to the problem, because an even better strategy is to cheat if you can get away with it and cause little damage to group success. However, if group success would be compromised, individuals should change their strategy and cooperate, which helps stabilise cooperation.

"The fact that we observe this behaviour in a simple microbe is truly remarkable."An international team led by researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, has provided new evidence about the role of occupational exposures as an important risk factor for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). A study with more than 3,300 participants has linked exposure to biological dusts, gases, fumes and pesticides with a higher incidence of COPD. The results have been published in Thorax.

The research was carried out within the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS), a longitudinal multicentre study. A total of 3,343 participants from 24 centres in 12 countries were selected between 1991 and 1993 and followed-up 20 years later. Spirometric lung function tests were performed after recruitment and at follow-up, while exposures in the workplace were estimated from the information obtained at interviews with participants in combination with an external job exposure matrix.

After assessing occupational exposure to 12 different agents, results showed that participants exposed to biological dust had a 60% higher risk of COPD compared with those unexposed. Participants exposed to gases and fumes had a 50% higher risk of COPD, while in the case of those exposed to pesticides the risk was a 120% higher. However, the effect observed with pesticides was based on a small number of cases. Overall, results showed that 21% of the in total 96 cases of COPD detected at follow-up were associated with these occupational exposures.

"Previous studies had estimated that about 15% of COPD cases are attributable to workplace exposures. Our results strengthen this evidence base substantially," says Jan-Paul Zock, ISGlobal researcher and lead author of the study. "To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate an effect of biological dust exposure on the incidence of COPD in a prospective fashion in a general population cohort," he adds.

One of the main questions that this study leaves open to future research is whether the observed effects are modified by smoking, since tobacco smoking is the primary risk factor for COPD. Other remaining questions for further research are how the observed effects interplay with asthma and what are the specific risks with respect to particular occupations, activities and noxious agents.Monitoring wombats for behaviours such as pacing and rump biting could help conservation efforts by increasing the success of captive breeding.

University of Queensland researchers have found increased pacing by female southern hairy-nosed wombats is an indicator they are 'in season'.

And female wombats are more likely to bite the rumps of the males in pre-copulatory behaviour at the most fertile phase of their reproductive cycle.

Associate Professor Stephen Johnston said researchers were trying to better understand the southern hairy-nosed wombat as a breeding model for their critically endangered northern cousins.

"With only about 200 northern hairy-nosed wombats remaining, being able to breed these animals may one day ensure the survival of the species," he said.

"There has been no captive breeding of the northern hairy-nosed wombat, and even the southern species fails to breed regularly in captivity."

Dr Johnston said the size and aggressive temperament of wombats made them difficult to work with, so behavioural indicators were a significant step forward.

"We have developed a way to map the reproductive cycle of the female wombat by measuring hormone levels in their urine," Dr Johnston said.

"Through round-the-clock monitoring over multiple breeding cycles, we detected subtle behavioural changes associated with the fluctuations in this hormonal mapping.

"These behaviours could be used to identify when animals in captivity should be brought together for breeding, serving as cues for animal husbandry managers in zoos and wildlife facilities with southern hairy-nosed wombats."

The research team, including Dr Alyce Swinbourne, worked with Australian Animals Care and Education, from their Safe Haven base at Mr Larcom in Central Queensland.

Dr Johnston said that detection of the most appropriate timing for successful mating in the wombat was important not only for natural conception in wombats, but also for the next step in the research program, which involves the development of assisted reproductive techniques such as artificial insemination.The Philippines teems with biodiversity: 657 bird species roam and fly throughout the country's 7,641 islands, and over 2,000 fish species swim in the surrounding seas. But beyond these beaked and scaly creatures, the Philippines is also home to the world's greatest concentration per square mile of unique mammal species.

One of these species -- a shrew found around 5,000 feet above sea level -- may give us some clues as to what makes the Philippines an ideal environment for mammals.

Palawanosorex muscorum, known more informally as the Palawan moss shrew, was recently identified by a team of researchers, including Larry Heaney, Negaunee Curator of Mammals at the Field Museum in Chicago, in a Journal of Mammalogy paper.

First spotted in 2007 by the late Danilo "Danny" Balete, field survey leader and research associate at the Field Museum, the Palawan moss shrew has a slender, pointed snout and dark coat. Unlike other shrews, its tail is covered in dense fur rather than visible scales. With broad forefeet and long claws, the Palawan moss shrew digs through humus in search of its favorite snack: earthworms. Rainer Hutterer, the paper's lead author, analyzed these anatomical traits to determine that the Palawan moss shrew was a distinct species.

Heaney emphasizes that the Philippines is such a hotbed for mammalian biodiversity that finding the Palawan moss shrew didn't exactly shock him and his team: "In many ways, finding this species was exactly what we had expected."

Co-author Jacob Esselstyn from the LSU Museum of Natural Science adds, "It provides some clues about how small mammals have evolved and moved between Asia and Africa." In other words, the Palawan moss shrew might help us figure out how the Philippines' many mammal species got there in the first place.

advertisement

Another clue: The Palawan moss shrew's home is a hotbed within a hotbed. Mt. Mantalingahan, a mountain on Palawan Island in the Philippines, is habitat to three unique mammal species, including the shrew.

"There are entire countries that don't have three unique mammal species -- so for there to be three species on one mountain, on one island, in one country is really something," Heaney emphasizes.

What accounts for this species richness? Mt. Mantalingahan, Heaney explains, is a "sky island."

While that might sound like something straight out of a sci-fi novel, "sky islands" are real ecological phenomena -- isolated mountaintops home to distinct habitats separate from the lowlands and neighboring mountains. These "sky islands" create hubs of biodiversity, allowing for multiple ecosystems -- and, by extension, a wider range of species -- to coexist within a single geographic area.

These "sky islands" might help explain why mammalian biodiversity thrives in the Philippines specifically. "There could be many new species on these high mountainous regions in the Philippines, but because they are so high, and hard to get to, knowledge of their existence is awfully limited," Heaney says.

advertisement

Learning what species dwell in these mountains, Heaney notes, isn't only helpful for zoologists and ecologists. For those who live and work in Palawan, which constitutes the Philippines' largest province, protecting the Palawan moss shrew and Mt. Mantalingahan hits even closer to home -- it's a matter of personal and economic safety.

Mt. Mantalingahan, in addition to being a "sky island," functions as a crucial watershed, regulating the flow of water in Palawan through natural processes. In Mt. Mantalingahan's case, humus -- the low-density mountainous soil the Palawan moss shrew digs through -- acts as a sponge, holding water from the frequent rainfall high-elevation places tend to experience.

Deforesting these "sky islands" bears grave repercussions. "That's where most of the water comes from that people in the lowlands depend on," Heaney warns. "In deforested areas, when a typhoon hits, it kills thousands of people and animals, and destroys buildings. And if water isn't being released slowly from the mountains, you'll have less of it in the dry season, causing drought. If you want to protect your watersheds, you've got to protect your habitats."

Built on agriculture, fishing, and tourism, Palawan's economy depends greatly on the steady flow of water -- from where the Palawan moss shrew lives, to where nearly three-quarters of a million people live.

Today, much of the Palawan moss shrew's habitat remains undisturbed by human activity. And both it -- and we -- stand to benefit from keeping it that way.

"Sometimes it's presented that environmental concerns and economic development are at odds with each other. That's false," Heaney asserts. "Smart economic development means not creating situations that cause mass damage as a result."

Beyond the economic implications of the shrew's discovery, Heaney says he hopes the new species sparks excitement among the Filipino and international scientific communities, which in turn can help encourage research, conservation, and advocacy efforts.

"People in the world get excited about the cool things that live in their country," Heaney says. "The fact that the Philippines is such a unique hotspot for mammalian diversity is something people should be aware of, something that people can take pride in."Even for poor villagers in rural Indonesia, information is power.

That is the implication of a newly published study co-authored by MIT economists, which finds that recipients of government aid collect more of the goods intended for them when they know more about the aid program they're enrolled in.

About 30 percent of Indonesia's households are supposed to receive subsidized rice from the government every month as part of a huge program called "Raskin," or "Rice for the Poor." As the study shows, the amount of rice the villagers actually receive increases 26 percent when they are sent a simple information card with program details.

"The main result, which in some sense I think is very surprising, is that just sending out the cards to people substantially increases the amount of rice that households get," says Benjamin Olken, a professor of economics at MIT and co-author of the new paper. "Having that tangible information, having that proof, is very important."

A key reason for this is that additional information provides a form of bargaining power. Not only do poor villagers know how much rice they should collect, and the extent of the subsidy, but when information cards are mailed out, local political leaders and other intermediaries also know that the aid recipients understand what they should be receiving.

"The village heads now know that the villagers know what they're entitled to," Olken observes. "Knowing that everyone else has this knowledge makes a big difference."

The paper, "Tangible Information and Citizen Empowerment: Identification Cards and Food Subsidy Programs in Indonesia," is published in the newest issue of the Journal of Political Economy.

advertisement

The co-authors are Abhijit Banerjee, the Ford Professor of International Economics at MIT; Rema Hanna, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School; Jordan Kyle, an associate research fellow at the International Food Policy Institute; Olken; and Sudarno Sumarto of the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), a government agency in Indonesia.

To conduct the study, the academic researchers worked with the TNP2K agency after the Indonesian government decided to investigate ways to make the Raskin program more effective. Earlier research had shown that significant portions of the rice were getting diverted before reaching the needy citizens who were part of the program.

"Some substantial amount of rice was getting lost somewhere," says Olken.

The research involved 572 villages spread over three provinces in Indonesia. The study randomly selected 378 of the villages, where residents were sent a variety of information cards with factual details about the program. The other 194 villages were not sent information cards, and were used as a control group against which the program's effects could be measured.

The scholars then surveyed village households at three intervals (two months, eight months, and 18 months) after the information campaign began, to find out whether the intervention had made a difference.

advertisement

The research team found that not only did the program increase the amount of rice received by 26 percent, but the gains were made despite the fact that a significant portion of the information cards -- nearly 70 percent -- were being diverted at first, meaning that the increased quantity of rice per household that received the cards was higher than 26 percent.

Because the information on the cards varied, the researchers could also chart which kinds of notices had the most impact. People in the Raskin program typically have co-pay fees, since the rice is only partially subsidized. Without the intervention, beneficiaries pay 42 percent more in co-pay fees than they actually owe. But villagers received substantially more subsidized rice when the information cards explicitly mentioned the co-pay fees.

"It really is about the information per se," Olken observes. "Just one extra line here substantially increased the amount of rice people got."

As the researchers see it, the overall improvement can be interpreted as an increase in implicit bargaining leverage for the recipients of Raskin aid. As the authors write in the paper, "bargaining is at least one important channel through which cards are improving outcomes." This does not necessarily mean, Olken explains, that face-to-face negotiations between villagers and rice distributors have drastically changed, but that the information program provides more leverage for villagers in the first place.

"Having that tangible information, having that proof, may be very important in changing the bargaining process," Olken says. "You don't have to complain for this to have an effect."

This is why the scholars think of the cards as providing "tangible information." The amount of "leakage" of rice, that is, the amount not delivered to intended recipients, improved at levels ranging from 33 to 58 percent among the villages in the survey, depending on the precise intervention. Moreover, the government of Indonesia incorporated the study's findings into its decision to scale up the program, distributing identification cards that allow people representing 15.5 million households -- 65.7 million people all told -- to collect rice from the Raskin proram as well as other government services.

Other scholars in the field say the results are intriguing, both experimentally and as suggesting a policy tool that could be adapted more broadly.

In addition to the collaboration with the Indonesian government, funding for the study came from the Australian government through its Poverty Reduction Support Facility, and from a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.New treatments for epilepsy are sorely needed because current medications don't work for many people with the disease. To find new leads, researchers have now turned to the sea -- a source of unique natural products that have been largely untapped for prospective drugs. The scientists report in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience that two metabolites produced by a fungus from the Red Sea look promising.

The term "epilepsy" covers a spectrum of brain disorders with symptoms ranging from mildly odd sensations to seizures, loss of consciousness and death. Worldwide, the condition affects 50 million people, according to the World Health Organization. Current treatments work in only about 70 percent of those who try them. To identify some new options, Marcel Jaspars, Peter A. M. de Witte and colleagues teamed up in an international collaboration called the EU PharmSea project that aimed to discover novel compounds from marine microorganisms in some of the deepest, coldest and hottest places on Earth.A Johns Hopkins study found that physicians who use stigmatizing language in their patients' medical records may affect the care those patients get for years to come.

When doctors read notes and descriptions from previous medical visits, says the study, published in the May edition of The Journal of General Internal Medicine, the language in those notes may play a role in how that patient is treated, as well as how aggressively the patient's pain is managed.

Mary Catherine Beach, M.D., M.P.H., designed the study to determine whether the language and descriptions used in patient records can perpetuate bias among physicians. More than 400 physicians-in-training -- medical students and residents -- were presented with one of two vignettes about a hypothetical patient, a 28-year-old man with sickle cell disease and chronic hip pain.

While the vignettes contained medically identical information, one used neutral language to describe the patient and his condition, while the other vignette contained nonessential language that implied various value judgements.

Beach and her research colleagues found that physicians-in-training who read the stigmatizing patient chart notes were significantly more likely to have a negative attitude toward the patient than those who read the chart containing more neutral language.

And not only did their attitudes change -- so did their treatment plans. Those physicians-in-training who had read the stigmatizing chart note decided to treat the patient's pain less aggressively.

advertisement

Every clinician encounter with a patient is documented in a chart note. Symptoms, patient history, vital signs, test results, clinicians' assessments and treatment plans are all part of the medical record.

"This record may be the only source of information a new clinician has about some patients," says Beach. "We have to question the assumption that the medical record always represents an objective space."

The study's participants were introduced to the hypothetical Mr. R., an African-American man whose condition necessitates the use of a wheelchair. Both vignettes begin with Mr. R. visiting the hospital emergency department with a painful condition known as a vaso-occlusive crisis, common among patients with sickle cell disease. Among the standard treatments for this condition are opioids to treat pain and oxygen to combat the effects of sickled red blood cells' inability to oxygenate organs.

Examples of the differing notes on the hypothetical patient:

"He has about 8-10 pain crises a year, for which he typically requires opioid pain medication in the ED."

"He is narcotic dependent and in our ED frequently."

"He spent yesterday afternoon with friends and wheeled himself around more than usual, which caused dehydration due to the heat."

"Yesterday afternoon, he was hanging out with friends outside McDonald's where he wheeled himself around more than usual and got dehydrated due to the heat."

"The pain is not alleviated by his home pain medication regimen."

"The pain has not been helped by any of the narcotic medications he says he has already taken."

"He is in obvious distress."

"He appears to be in distress."

"His girlfriend is by his side but will need to go home soon."

"His girlfriend is lying on the bed with shoes on and requests a bus token to go home."

Even physicians-in-training who recognized the language as stigmatizing were more likely to form more negative opinions about the patient and to treat that patient's pain less aggressively.

advertisement

"There is growing evidence that the language used to communicate in health care reflects and influences clinician attitudes toward their patients," says Anna Goddu, a Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine student who co-authored the study. "Medical records are an important and overlooked pathway by which bias may be propagated from one clinician to another, further entrenching health care disparities."

Goddu and her co-authors are encouraged by one particular result of the study.

"When prompted, the participants seemed able to reflect on how the words used in the chart notes communicated respect and empathy for the patient," she says. "To us, this seems like a promising point of intervention."

Beach adds that, in the study, medical residents had more negative attitudes than medical students toward the hypothetical patient.

"Attitudes seem to become more negative as trainees progress," she says. "It may be that trainees are influenced by negative attitudes and behaviors among their peers and seniors in the clinical setting."

Participants who identified as black or African-American generally had more positive attitudes toward the patient.

"That affirms what some other studies have shown," says Beach, "specifically, that African-American clinicians have more positive attitudes toward patients with sickle cell disease."

Goddu says that, while the topic deserves more research, she hopes this study opens some eyes.

"I hope our study makes clinicians think twice before including certain, nonessential points about a patient's history or demeanor in the medical record," she says.

In addition to Beach and Goddu, the study's authors are Katie O'Conor, Sophie Lanzkron, Mustapha Saheed and Carlton Haywood Jr., of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Somnath Saha, of the Oregon Health and Science University, and Monica Peek of the University of Chicago.

This work was supported by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine AMWA Dr. Elizabeth Small Grant for Urban Primary Care and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL088511).At first glance, the Baltic Sea seems to be rather uninteresting for scientists working on global ocean topics. It is comparatively shallow, has a low salinity and only a very narrow connection to the North Atlantic. This impression is, however, deceiving. In the current issue of the international journal Science Advances, 26 authors from 21 scientific institutions in seven countries appeal to the greater scientific community and policy makers to use the Baltic Sea Region as a model for coming changes in the World Ocean. "This unique sea of brackish water can serve as a kind of time machine that allows us to better estimate future global changes," says Prof. Thorsten Reusch from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel, one of the lead authors of the article.

The scientists argue that changes that are only expected for the future in the global ocean can already be observed in the Baltic today. "This is because the small volume of water and slow water exchange with the open ocean, behaves like an amplifier, allowing many processes and interactions to occur at a faster pace," emphasizes Dr. Jan Dierking from GEOMAR, who initiated the study together with Prof. Reusch.

As examples, the oceans have warmed by an average of 0.5C over the past 30 years, while in the same period, time-series measurements in the Baltic Sea have recorded warming of around 1.5C. Likewise, there are large oxygen-free zones in the deep areas of the Baltic Sea, which have increased tenfold over the past century; and the pH -- a measure of ocean acidification -- of Baltic waters regularly reaches values that are expected in other ocean areas only in the next century.

On the one hand, these extremes are caused by the particular basin topography of the Baltic Sea. On the other hand, intensive use by humans continues to accelerate negative changes. Nine countries border on the Baltic Sea directly and all are highly industrialized, with densely populated coastal regions. Moreover, intensive agriculture in the interior ensures high nutrient runoff, while equally intensive fisheries puts pressure on the pelagic food-web.

But it's not all doom and gloom. The Baltic Sea is one of the best-surveyed seas on Earth. Scientific observation and monitoring of physical and biological processes began around 1900. There is a strong tradition in scientific co-operation among many countries surrounding the Baltic, culminating in the implementation of the joint Baltic Sea research and development programme BONUS of the European Union, a dedicated macro-regional research agenda and funding scheme that also enabled the present study. These data provide a sound basis for science-based resource management -- "on a level accomplished in only a few regions of the world," emphasizes Professor Reusch.

Among the management success stories: the bordering countries have managed to significantly reduce nutrient inputs since the 1980s, to reverse the decline of large predators, and to curb overfishing. This has been achieved through the binding agreements within the framework of the European Union, but also thanks to the ambitious goals of the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP), which included Russia, even before the end of the Cold War. In fisheries, the protection of capture fisheries, marine mammals and bird populations among the perimeter countries have led to measurable improvements of existing stocks.

"Overfishing, warming, acidification, pollution, eutrophication, loss of oxygen, intensive use of coasts -- all these are phenomena that we observe around the globe. Because they have been particularly drastic in the Baltic, but also because some key problems were successfully addressed, the region can, for good and for bad, tell us what to expect and how to respond to the challenges of the future," Prof. Reusch concludes, "The Baltic Sea, as a model region, can contribute to achieving the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal 14 -- the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources."A new study has discovered that horses were first domesticated by descendants of hunter-gatherer groups in Kazakhstan who left little direct trace in the ancestry of modern populations. The research sheds new light on the long-standing "steppe theory" on the origin and movement of Indo-European languages made possible by the domestication of the horse.

The domestication of the horse was a milestone in human history that allowed people, their languages, and their ideas to move further and faster than before, leading both to widespread farming and to horse-powered warfare.

Scholars from around the world have collaborated on a new inter-disciplinary research project, which was published in the journal Science 9 May 2018. The researchers analysed ancient and modern DNA samples from humans and compared the results -- the 74 ancient whole-genome sequences studied by the group were up to 11,000 years old and were from inner Asia and Turkey.

Professor Eske Willerslev, who holds positions both at St John's College, University of Cambridge, and the University of Copenhagen, jointly led the study which looked at archaeological findings, history, and linguistics.

Much of the study builds on questions raised by scholars of Indo-European studies at the Institute of Nordic Studies and Linguistics at University of Copenhagen. A number of conflicting theories have been presented about who first domesticated the horse, with previous studies pointing to people of the pastoralist Yamnaya culture, a dominant herding group who lived in Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

Dr. Guus Kroonen, historical linguist at University of Copenhagen, explains:

"The successful spread of the Indo-European languages across Eurasia has puzzled researchers for a century. It was thought that speakers of this language family played a key role in the domestication of the horse, and that this, in combination with the development of wheeled vehicles, allowed them to spread across Eurasia from the Yamnaya culture."

advertisement

However, as this study shows, domesticated horses were used by the Botai people already 5,500 years ago, and much further East in Central Asia, completely independent of the Yamnaya pastoralists. A further twist to the story is that the descendants of these Botai were later pushed out from the central steppe by migrations coming from the west. Their horses were replaced too, indicating that horses were domesticated separately in other regions as well.

No link between Botai and Yamnaya cultures

The study does not find a genetic link between the people associated with the Yamnaya and Botai archaeological cultures, which is critical to understanding the eastward movement of the Yamnaya. Apparently, their eastward expansion bypassed the Botai completely, moving 3000 kilometres across the steppe to the Altai Mountains in Central and East Asia.

Professor Alan Outram from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Exeter and one of the paper's authors, states:

"We now know that the people who first domesticated the horse in Central Asia were the descendants of ice age hunters, who went on to become the earliest pastoralists in the region. Despite their local innovations, these peoples were overrun and replaced by European steppe pastoralists in the middle and later Bronze Age, and their horses were replaced too."

Languages spread through exchanges between several cultures

advertisement

The authors also demonstrate the oldest known Indo-European language, Hittite, did not result from a massive population migration from the Eurasian Steppe as previously claimed.

In contrast to a series of recent studies on population movement in Europe during the Bronze Age, the new results from Asia suggest that population and language spread across the region is better understood by groups of people mixing together.

Gojko Barjamovic, Senior Lecturer on Assyriology at Harvard University, explains:

"In Anatolia, and parts of Central Asia, which held densely settled complex urban societies, the history of language spread and genetic ancestry is better described in terms of contact and absorption than by simply a movement of population."

He adds:

"The Indo-European languages are usually said to emerge in Anatolia in the 2nd millennium BCE. However, we use evidence from the palatial archives of the ancient city of Ebla in Syria to argue that Indo-European was already spoken in modern-day Turkey in the 25th century BCE. This means that the speakers of these language must have arrived there prior to any Yamnaya expansions."

The study also shows that the spread of the Indo-Iranian languages to South Asia, with Hindi, Urdu and Persian as major modern offshoots, cannot result from the Yamnaya expansions. Rather, the Indo-Iranian languages spread with a later push of pastoralist groups from the South Ural Mountains during the Middle to Late Bronze Age.

Prior to entering South Asia, these groups, thought to have spoken an Indo-Iranian language, were impacted by groups with an ancestry typical of more western Eurasian populations. This suggests that the Indo-Iranian speakers did not split off from the Yamnaya population directly, but were more closely related to the Indo-European speakers that lived in Eastern Europe.

Unique collaboration between the humanities and the natural sciences

In this study, geneticists, historians, archaeologists and linguists find common ground -- pointing to increased interaction between the steppe and the Indus Valley during the Late Bronze Age as the most plausible time of entry of Indo-European languages in South Asia. Several authors of the paper had radically conflicting views before the final interpretation was achieved.

Lead author on the article, Peter de Barros Damgaard, who is a geneticist working at the University of Copenhagen comments:

"The project has been an extremely enriching and exciting process. We were able to direct many very different academic fields towards a single coherent approach. By asking the right questions, and keeping limitations of the data in mind, contextualizing, nuancing, and keeping dialogues open between scholars of radically different backgrounds and approaches, we have carved out a path for a new field of research. We have already seen too many papers come out in which models produced by geneticists working on their own have been are accepted without vital input from other fields, and, at the other extreme, seen archaeologists opposing new studies built on archaeogenetic data, due to a lack of transparency between the fields."

"Data on ancient DNA is astonishing for its ability to provide a fine-grained image of early human mobility, but it does stand on the shoulders of decades of work by scholars in other fields, from the time of excavation of human skeletons to interpreting the cultural, linguistic origins of the samples. This is how cold statistics are turned into history."

Guus Kroonen adds:

"The recent breakthrough in ancient genomics poses challenges for archaeologists, linguists and historians because old hypotheses on the spread of languages and cultures can now be tested against a whole new line of evidence on prehistoric mobility. As a result, we now see that geneticists are driven by key questions from the humanities, and that research within the humanities is energized by the influx of new data from the sciences. In the future, we hope to see more cross-disciplinary co-operations, such as the one leading to this study."A Vanderbilt-led research team has discovered genetic variations that increase the risk of heart attack even when patients are receiving a statin drug like Lipitor or Crestor to lower their blood cholesterol.

The findings, published by the journal Circulation, helps explain why some patients experience a heart attack or the need for coronary revascularization to open blocked heart arteries while taking statins. It suggests that drugs targeting the genetic variations could lower the heart risk in these patients.

The study demonstrates the power of genome-wide association studies and longitudinal electronic health records (EHRs) to find links between genetic variation and disease, said the paper's first author, Wei-Qi Wei, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Biomedical Informatics in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Some of the patients were followed for heart disease for up to a decade after starting on their statin drug. The study found that the effect of the genetic variations or variants was independent of how much their cholesterol improved while taking statins.

"People with these genetic variants were at a higher risk for heart disease, even considering those who have ideal cholesterol levels on their statin," said Joshua Denny, MD, MS, Vice President of Personalized Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the paper's corresponding author.

The researchers searched four sites in the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) network, a nationwide consortium of experts, biorepositories and electronic medical record systems supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including BioVU, VUMC's DNA databank.

advertisement

They found 3,099 people who had experienced a heart attack or the need for revascularization while on statins, and compared them to 7,681 "control" patients on statins who did not experience heart events.

From this comparison, the researchers were able to identify seven genetic variations, called single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs, in the LPA locus of genes that were associated with these heart events in patients receiving statin treatment.

The LPA gene encodes apolipoprotein (a), a fatty protein that binds to low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the form of blood cholesterol that is the target of statin drugs. High levels of bound LDL, called Lp(a) for short, is well known to be an independent risk factor for heart disease.

One of the SNPs was highly associated with an increased risk of heart events. When the researchers examined the full EHRs of 11,566 individuals who carried the SNP for more than 1,000 physical conditions, they found significantly higher rates of coronary heart disease and heart attack but not of other diseases.

The approach, called a phenome-wide association study, was pioneered by Denny and his colleagues at Vanderbilt.

"The study highlights the need to consider targeting Lp(a) levels as an important independent factor to reduce cardiovascular risk in patients on statin therapy," Wei concluded.

Efforts to reduce Lp(a) levels using existing or new drugs could reduce heart events in the proportion of patients on statins who carry LPA variations, he added, although clinical trials would be needed to detect potential side effects and confirm the safety of any such treatment.

Thirty-three researchers from 15 academic medical centers and research institutes in the United States and Yokohama, Japan, contributed to the study, including Vanderbilt faculty members Dan Roden, MD, C. Michael Stein, MBChB, Nancy Cox, PhD, Todd Edwards, PhD, Qiping Feng, PhD, and Jonathan Mosley, MD, PhD.An international collaboration of scientists, led by the University of Leicester, has investigated Earth's climate over half a billion years ago by combining climate models and chemical analyses of fossil shells about 1mm long.

The research, published in Science Advances, suggests that early animals diversified within a climate similar to that in which the dinosaurs lived.

This interval in time is known for the 'Cambrian explosion', the time during which representatives of most of the major animal groups first appear in the fossil record. These include the first animals to produce shells, and it is these shelly fossils that the scientists used.

Scientists have long thought that the early Cambrian Period was probably a greenhouse interval in Earth's climate history, a time when there were no permanent polar ice sheets.

Until now, however, scientists have only had a sense of what the Cambrian climate was like because of the types of rock that were deposited at this time -- while it has long been believed that the climate was warm, specific details have largely remained a mystery.

Data from the tiny fossil shells, and data from new climate model runs, show that high latitude (~65 S) sea temperatures were in excess of 20 C. This seems very hot, but it is similar to more recent, better understood, greenhouse climates like that of the Late Cretaceous Period.

advertisement

Thomas Hearing, a PhD student from the University of Leicester's School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, explained: "Because scientists cannot directly measure sea temperatures from half a billion years ago, they have to use proxy data -- these are measurable quantities that respond in a predictable way to changing climate variables like temperature. In this study, we used oxygen isotope ratios, which is a commonly used palaeothermometer.

"We then used acid to extract fossils about 1mm long from blocks of limestone from Shropshire, UK, dated to between 515 -- 510 million years old. Careful examination of these tiny fossils revealed that some of them have exceptionally well-preserved shell chemistry which has not changed since they grew on the Cambrian sea floor."

Dr Tom Harvey, from the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, added: "Many marine animals incorporate chemical traces of seawater into their shells as they grow. That chemical signature is often lost over geological time, so it's remarkable that we can identify it in such ancient fossils."

Analyses of the oxygen isotopes of these fossils suggested very warm temperatures for high latitude seas (~65 S), probably between 20 C to 25 C.

To see if these were feasible sea temperatures, the scientists then ran climate model simulations for the early Cambrian. The climate model simulations also suggest that Earth's climate was in a 'typical' greenhouse state, with temperatures similar to more recent, and better understood, greenhouse intervals in Earth's climate history, like the late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic eras.

Ultimately, these findings help to expand our knowledge of the early animals of the period and the environment in which they lived.

Thomas Hearing said: "We hope that this approach can be used by other researchers to build up a clearer picture of ancient climates where conventional climate proxy data are not available."

The research was carried out as an international collaboration involving scientists from the University of Leicester (UK), British Geological Survey (BGS; UK), and CEREGE (France). This collaboration brought together expertise in geochemistry, palaeontology and climate modelling to tackle this longstanding problem.

The scientists have co-authored an open access (publicly available) paper in the journal Science Advances.Cloaking devices play a pivotal role in many sci-fi television programs. Scientists are now working to take this technology from the dramatic realm of science fiction and make it real. Amanda D. Hanford, at Pennsylvania State University, is taking the introductory steps to make acoustic ground cloaks. These materials redirect approaching waves around an object without scattering the wave energy, concealing the object from the sound waves.

During the 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, being held May 7-11, 2018, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Hanford will describe the physics behind an underwater acoustic shield designed in her lab.

Hanford and her team set out to engineer a metamaterial that can allow the sound waves to bend around the object as if it were not there. Metamaterials commonly exhibit extraordinary properties not found in nature, like negative density. To work, the unit cell -- the smallest component of the metamaterial -- must be smaller than the acoustic wavelength in the study.

"These materials sound like a totally abstract concept, but the math is showing us that these properties are possible," Hanford said. "So, we are working to open the floodgates to see what we can create with these materials."

To date, most acoustic metamaterials have been designed to deflect sound waves in air. Hanford decided to take this work one step further and accept the scientific challenge of trying the same feat underwater. Acoustic cloaking underwater is more complicated because water is denser and less compressible than air. These factors limit engineering options.

After multiple attempts, the team designed a 3-foot-tall pyramid out of perforated steel plates. They then placed the structure on the floor of a large underwater research tank. Inside the tank, a source hydrophone produced acoustic waves between 7,000 Hz and 12,000 Hz, and several receiver hydrophones around the tank monitored reflected acoustic waves.

The wave reflected from the metamaterial matched the phase of the reflected wave from the surface. Additionally, the amplitude of the reflected wave from the cloaked object decreased slightly. These results demonstrate that this material could make an object appear invisible to underwater instruments like sonar.

Using linear coordinate transformation, the researchers were able to map the flat surface of the bottom of the tank and determined that space was compressed into two triangular cloaking regions consisting of the engineered metamaterial.

These results show potential to contribute to real-world applications, such as acoustic materials to dampen sound and appear invisible underwater.

Penn State University researchers Dean E. Capone, Ph.D., and Benjamen S. Beck, Ph.D., along with Hanford's former graduate student Peter Kerrian, Ph.D., also contributed to this project.Mark Wilson/Getty Images(JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md.) -- Three American prisoners just freed from North Korea met with President Donald Trump early Thursday morning after landing at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.



The three men -- Kim Dong Chul; Kim Hak Song; and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim -- each had been detained for more than a year.



"The fact we were able to get them out so soon was a tribute to a lot of things," said Trump, standing on the tarmac at Andrews, surrounded by journalists and cameras. "I just want to say, this is a special night."



"I'm very honored to have helped these great folks, but the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons," Trump continued. "We have a meeting scheduled in a very short period of time. We have the location set. We'll see if we can do something that people did not think was going to happen for many, many years."



Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that the men were on their way home with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and praised North Korea's leader for freeing them.



"I appreciate Kim Jong Un for doing this," Trump said.



The president wrote in a tweet, "I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with Kim Jong Un. Date & Place set."



This was Pompeo's second trip to North Korea, where he is helping lay the groundwork for a summit between Kim and Trump.



Pompeo is only the second sitting secretary of state to visit North Korea, and he's the highest-ranking U.S. official to meet Kim.



U.S. officials had made it clear to their North Korean counterparts that releasing the three men was paramount.



Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, said in a statement Wednesday that the president "appreciates leader Kim Jong Un's action to release these American citizens, and views this as a positive gesture of goodwill. The three Americans appear to be in good condition and were all able to walk on the plane without assistance. All Americans look forward to welcoming them home and to seeing them reunited with their loved ones."



Kim Dong Chul, a South Korean-born businessman and pastor, spent at least 900 days in custody after his October 2015 arrest on allegations he was trying to meet with a former North Korean soldier to receive classified information.



He also was accused of working with South Korea's spy agency, which denied any involvement. He had been sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in April 2016.



Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim both worked at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. They were arrested in 2017 and charged with "hostile acts" toward the North Korean state.



The three men, after meeting with Trump, were scheduled to travel to Walter Reed for a medical evaluation.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Image credit to Shutterstock

Google has updated their mobile-friendly testing tools and their rich results testing tool to work with sites built in JavaScript. Those tools can now both now shows the screenshots for JS based sites, rendered DOM, show JavaScript errors and stacktraces as seen by the Googlebot's web render service. The tools will show rendered HTML, the console log, exceptions, and stack traces.

Here is a screen shot of it in action from Google:

Google also suggests you watch their session at I/O today named Deliver search-friendly JavaScript-powered websites given by John Mueller and Tom Greenaway.

Forum discussion at Twitter.Landscape photographer Donna J. Wan first drove the San Mateo County coastline in search of high precipices over open water. She did not take her camera. She had a darker purpose.

Once she overcame that impulse to take her own life, Wan became interested in photographing the places where people go to jump. Her series of images is titled Death Wooed Us, which is both the line of a poem and a description of Wans earlier emotional state.

First exhibited at a New York gallery in 2015, Death Wooed Us gets its Bay Area premiere in Westward, a major group exhibition that opens Friday, May 11, and will be up for a year at SFAC Galleries at City Hall.

Ten female photographers who work in the West contributed a total of 94 images for the show, which is located in the basement directly below the Rotunda. Wans eight images, each 32 by 40 inches, should get plenty of traffic because they are hung at the bottom of the grand staircase, right next to the polling place for the June 5 election.

At first glance, they look to be soothing images taken where the land or a bridge meets the water and fog. You have to stop and read the text on the wall to see the word suicide.

The whole idea is that there are these majestic landscapes that happen to be suicide spots, says Ann Jastrab, who curated the exhibition for the San Francisco Arts Commission. The scenes in these photographs could be the last thing someone saw before they died.

Courtesy Donna J. Wan

Wan had both a bachelors degree in economics and a masters in business administration from Stanford University by 1999, before she decided to attend the San Francisco Art Institute, where she earned a masters degree in fine arts in 2008. Three years later, her daughter was born and Wan went into a postpartum depression.

When she was safely over the worst of it, Wan said she drove from her Menlo Park home to the Golden Gate Bridge, parked and walked out on the span, lugging her medium-format Mamiya 7 and large rolls of film. She stopped on the pedestrian walkway and leaned as far over the rail as she could to look down at the water, drawing the immediate attention of a tourist.

He didnt stop, she says, but I got the sense that the person was concerned with my intentions.

Those first images, taken on a foggy afternoon, turned out to be the start of a three-year project.

She read about a student at Aptos High School in Santa Cruz County whose bicycle and backpack were found on a beach, and went to the place where his body washed up.

She went to the residential area at Stinson Beach where a man was found hanging, and the Muir Beach overlook where another body was found. She was not looking to make crime scene images, but something more ethereal to capture the sadness she felt.

The tranquility of these images belie the violence that occurred in these spots, she says. There is a beauty and a stillness and a mystery to them that is alluring.

Other photographers included in Westward are Christa Blackwood, Mercedes Dorame, Ingeborg Gerdes, Tomiko Jones, Kathya Maria Landeros, Jennifer Little, Kari Orvik, Mimi Plumb and Greta Pratt.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com

Westward: Hours: 8 a.m.-8 p.m. Mon.-Fri. through May 10, 2019. Free. SFAC Galleries at City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, S.F. (415) 252-2244. www.sfartscommission.orgSan Francisco mayoral candidates Jane Kim and Mark Leno intensified their anyone but London Breed campaign Thursday, promoting an ad paid for by both campaigns that urges voters to list them as their first two picks on the June 5 ranked-choice ballot.

Its an unusual tactic that hasnt been used to this extent in the 14 years San Francisco has had ranked-choice voting. However, Jean Quan was part of a similar tag-team effort in Oakland nearly eight years ago, and it helped propel her past a better-financed front-runner into the mayors job.

Im proud to be the first set of candidates ... to truly take advantage of the ranked-choice voting system and encourage our supporters to vote for both of us, Kim said at a news conference with Leno on the City Hall steps.

Their 30-second ad features Kim and Leno standing side by side as they warn that wealthy special interests are trying to buy this election. Although the ad doesnt mention Breed by name, the Board of Supervisors president has been the top recipient during the campaign of spending by independent expenditure committees, commonly called Super PACs.

Kim, a two-term supervisor, and Leno, a former state legislator and supervisor, endorsed each other as their preferred second choices weeks ago. Several polls show that the race is a tight one, and if their voters go along with the strategy, it could put one of the two in the mayors office  even if Breed comes out with more first-choice votes.

In 2010, former state Sen. Don Perata was well ahead in first-choice votes in the Oakland mayoral election but didnt win a majority in the first round. Quan, a city councilwoman who had adopted an anyone-but-Perata strategy with fellow candidate Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, eventually prevailed.

Under the ranked-choice system, voters can list first, second and third preferences. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent, the last-place candidate is eliminated and his or her votes are redistributed. The process is repeated until one candidate reaches a majority.

In 2010, Quan told her supporters to make Kaplan their second choice, and Kaplan told her supporters to make Quan their No. 2. When the time came to redistribute Kaplans votes, Quan won 75 percent of them.

Teaming up in an election with a ranked-choice voting system, Quan said Thursday, is one of the best chances that minorities and progressives have to coalesce and garner the votes against a better-funded opponent.

If Jane and Mark can convince people theyre the progressive candidates compared to London, it could help them if they can get people to vote them as their one and two, Quan said.

Breeds campaign dismissed the tactic.

Whats the news here? said Breeds campaign spokeswoman, Tara Moriarty. Leno and Kims one-two strategy was announced to the world the day they orchestrated London Breeds removal as acting mayor.

The reference was to the Board of Supervisors vote in January to select Mark Farrell as mayor, after Breed had filled the post in an acting role after the death in December of Mayor Ed Lee.

John Whitehurst, a political consultant who helped run Peratas 2010 campaign, said a key distinction between that race and San Franciscos special election is that Perata was a divisive figure in Oakland politics. His negative reputation with some voters made him vulnerable to a ranked-choice tag team, Whitehurst said.

Whereas London, Jane and Leno are all very popular with voters, and very few voters dislike them, said Whitehurst, who worked with Leno during legislative campaigns but is not advising any mayoral candidate. Perata had earned a generation of battle scars. He had a huge base that was deeply loyal and supportive, but there was also this huge base over the years that didnt like him. Theres not that same negative image of London.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

On Thursday, Kim and Leno pointed to an attack ad funded by Gayle Conway, wife of wealthy tech investor Ron Conway, who has worked to raise money for Breeds campaign.

The ad goes after Kim for joining three other progressives on the Board of Supervisors in 2012 to reinstate Ross Mirkarimi as sheriff, after he was convicted of misdemeanor false imprisonment for an incident in which he bruised his wifes arm during an argument.

Leno said the attack ad was a distraction from the citys homelessness, housing affordability and public-safety problems.

The Leno and Kim campaigns split production costs for their tag-team ad. So far it is running only online, but the candidates said it will eventually be aired on television.

Outside groups have spent just over $500,000 backing Breed, according to data from the San Francisco Ethics Commission. Kim has benefited from $230,000 from such groups, and $55,000 has been spent to support Leno.

In addition, the Gayle Conway-funded committee behind the anti-Kim ads has spent nearly $180,000, commission records show.

By law, such committees can spend unlimited amounts on a campaign but cannot coordinate their activities with a candidate.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassaSantiago Mejia / The Chronicle

A San Francisco ballot measure that would go toward raising teacher salaries got a big boost from Salesforce.com chief executive Marc Benioff, who donated $250,000 to the Proposition G campaign.

The initiative would add a $298 parcel tax to property tax bills in the city, raising an estimated $50 million annually for the school district.A number of California colleges, public and private, are out of compliance with a federal law requiring disclosure of crimes at or near their campuses, the state auditor said Thursday.

The schools publicly reported inaccurate crime statistics and never told parents and students about programs for combatting violence against women, as required, the audit found.

In one case, Berkeley City College failed to publicly disclose a rape and a stalking that occurred in 2016, instead reporting on its website that no crimes had occurred.

Such errors make it hard for students to make informed decisions about where to enroll, according to a new state audit of six campuses up and down the state.

Colleges and universities that participate in the federal financial aid program have to comply with the Clery Act, which requires them to publicize crimes of all kinds. The law was enacted in 1990, four years after Jeanne Clery, 19, was raped and slain at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Her parents had no idea that several violent crimes had occurred in the area around campus.

The U.S. Department of Education can impose fines of up to $54,789 per violation. In California, the auditor monitors compliance by studying at least six colleges every three years.

The audit found disclosure errors in 20 percent of the crimes examined collectively at four of the schools, including San Jose State in the Bay Area. The audit found the errors by examining incident reports of each crime and interviewing staff, then comparing that with how the crime was publicly reported.

This year, Auditor Elaine Howle intentionally included two other schools, Berkeley City College and West Los Angeles Community College, because their cities have plenty of crime and each school enrolls more than 5,000 students  yet neither disclosed any crimes to the public.

The West L.A. disclosure was accurate, Howles audit found. The Berkeley City College disclosure was not, because it ignored the 2016 rape and stalking cases.

The audit revealed that the Peralta Community College District, which compiles the Clery disclosures for its member colleges, including Berkeley City, had been requesting crime data from the wrong people at the Berkeley Police Department since 2014.

The error meant that the college failed to comply with another federal requirement: actively warning students and employees about serious threats to their safety. That requirement goes beyond disclosing the crimes on the schools website.

Because it was not aware of the rape incident that it did not report, Berkeley City College was not able to issue a timely warning to its students and employees, the report found.

The other four schools audited were San Jose State, Humboldt State, Bakersfield Community College and Azusa Pacific University, an evangelical Christian school near Los Angeles.

Altogether, the schools disclosed 1,267 crimes in 2016, from car theft, burglary and robbery to arson, assault and rape.

Howles audit looked at how 212 of those crimes were disclosed and found errors in 42 of them  a 20 percent error rate.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Of these, the schools failed to disclose 11 crimes required to be publicly reported under the Clery Act, incorrectly disclosed 25 crimes, and miscategorized six crimes, the audit found. Only Humboldt updated its crime logs as required.

And only Azusa fully disclosed to the public all 58 policies and regulations required in schools annual security reports. Missing from the five others, for example, were policies on campus sex offense programs and procedures.

The audit included several recommendations to implement by August so that the campuses and the offices that oversee them  California State University and community college districts  can fix the problems.

The recommendations primarily involved improving communication and updating official guidance for campuses. All but Azusa agreed with the recommendations pertaining to it, the audit said.

San Jose State University ... will clarify and update policies as appropriate, Charlie Faas, the schools vice president for administration and finance, told The Chronicle, adding that the campus is hiring a Clery compliance officer.

Jon Wallace, president of Azusa, said that while he agrees with the audits positive findings about his school, he respectfully disagrees that Azusa made any inaccurate report.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimovA relatively unknown visa program, often used as a path to an H-1B visa but under scrutiny from the Trump administration, saw a surge in usage between 2004 and 2016, a new report found.

The Optional Practical Training program grants foreign students a period of time to work in the U.S. after they graduate. Nearly 1.5 million graduates of U.S. colleges and universities  including many in the Bay Area  used the program during the 12-year period studied, according to a report released Thursday by the Pew Research Center.

The data offer a detailed picture of a program that critics say is abused by U.S. employers, but advocates say is crucial for retaining highly skilled workers.

Most people dont know about OPT, but its a giant gateway into the H-1B program, said Ashwin Sharma, an immigration attorney.

In 2016, about 257,000 used the OPT program, up from about 78,000 in 2004. During that period, the program had nearly the same number of participants as the H-1B program, which allows employers to sponsor a foreign citizen to live and work in the U.S. for a period of time.

The number of program recipients with science, technology, engineering or math degrees increased particularly quickly. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama oversaw extensions that respectively gave STEM students first 17, then 24, extra months to stay. (The standard program, created in 2003, offered 12 months.) Between 2008 and 2016, the number of OPT holders with a STEM degree rose by 400 percent.

Experts widely expect the Trump administration to do away with the extension period, which essentially gives STEM students an extra two shots at getting an H-1B visa  one for each additional year. Last year, the administration indicated in its list of regulatory priorities that it plans to reform the practical training program in an effort to protect American jobs.

Without these extensions, many international graduates would have to leave the country shortly after graduation if they are not picked in the H-1B lottery, where 85,000 job candidates from abroad are chosen randomly a year.

San Francisco resident Alejandro Castillejo, for example, would already be gone.

Castillejo, a 25-year-old graduate of UC Berkeley and creative technologist at Propelland, a San Francisco design studio, wasnt chosen in the H-1B lottery last year. But because he has the STEM extension, he was able to try again this year.

But if he isnt chosen this year, and luck betrays him a third time in 2019, hes content with the fact that hell have three years of U.S. work experience under his belt. Im able to work three years in Silicon Valley, which is exactly where I want to be, said Castillejo, who is from Spain. The first three years are crucial to define your career path, so its good to have it ... particularly after making a big investment in a university.

Neil Ruiz, an associate director of global migration and demography at the Pew Research Center and an author of the report, said the data were intended to show the significance of the program to the U.S.

If there are going to be any policy changes, we just wanted to get the facts out, Ruiz said. It is interesting for us to understand, especially with graduation season, where they are going and moving within the U.S.

The Bay Area had the second-largest concentration of OPT recipients within the period studied (after New York), and the largest number of people in the program moving to the region for work. Local tech companies  ranging from those as big as Facebook to startups  often rely on people from abroad to fill highly skilled positions.

Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for limited immigration, said the sheer number of people using the foreign work program should turn heads.

If you combine the number of OPT participants and H-1B visas, some 3 million desirable, career-building jobs in the U.S. are unavailable to American workers, he said.

He said that some universities shut down for being visa mills  a term used for institutions that have poor education standards but lure foreign students on the promise of a U.S. visa  have churned out a significant number of OPT holders.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

A lot of these employment-based programs turn into things that they were never intended to be, Mehlman said. In this case, it has been a back-door way for certain businesses to get access to the foreign labor they want  or for these visa mills posing as educational institutions to cash in on it.

Silicon Valley University in San Jose, which recently lost its accreditation and shut down, had 4,500 graduates on OPT over the period studied, according to the report; Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, mentioned it on a list of highly suspect schools in a memo in March.

Other local universities highlighted in the Pew report have also had run-ins with regulators.

Herguan University in Sunnyvale, whose former CEO was sentenced to prison in 2015 over student visa fraud, had 1,000 graduates who received OPT.

Northwestern Polytechnic University in Fremont had 11,700 OPT graduates in the time period studied, the report said. Last month the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools sent the university, which is seeking to renew its accreditation, a notice of a compliance warning.

Thousands of graduates of major Bay Area universities have stayed in the region and worked through the OPT program. From UC Berkeley, 7,300 OPT graduates between 2004 and 2016 remained in the Bay Area, according to the report. Stanford had 4,500 OPT grads stay in the area over that time period  and many more from those institutions would certainly have dispersed to jobs elsewhere in the country.

The OPT program, says Sharma, the immigration attorney, fills a massive skills gap in the U.S. But its also vulnerable, he said, because the STEM extension was not created through Congress.

They can turn that spigot off in a moments time, he said.

Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadaniRenegade yachtsman Bryan Pennington was sentenced Thursday to five years probation, during which time he cannot enter Aquatic Park Cove in any vessel or violate any state or federal laws.

In sentencing Pennington to what is technically unsupervised release, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler went along with the request of the U.S. attorney for a stay-away order. Beeler found Pennington guilty on April 26 of three misdemeanor counts of anchoring his boat overnight in Aquatic Park Cove without a permit.

Pennington has been in county jail since May 3 for violating a previous San Francisco Superior Court order to steer clear of the bleachers at the Maritime Museum. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of threatening federal employees. That case is scheduled for trial May 21. Meanwhile, Pennington remains in custody with bail set at $20,000.

The dispute that led to Thursdays sentence goes back to September, when Pennington first dropped anchor in the cove, which is within the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Pennington, who defended himself at trial, maintained that he did not need a permit because he entered the cove under duress due to damage he claimed to his boat.

Federal rules require a mariner to obtain a permit to anchor in the cove, and even with a permit, no boat may stay for more than five nights or 30 nights total in a year. Penningtons illegal stay amounted to at least 130 days, according to the court report, and became particularly contentious because he anchored in the swimming lanes and there were accusations that he was dumping his raw sewage overboard. The cove is not a marina and there are no pumping facilities.

Members of the Dolphin Club and South End Rowing Club watched the case closely after digging up online evidence that Pennington, who apparently lives on his boat, has a history of anchoring illegally in harbors, in essence squatting.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Im not looking to punish him, said swimmer Naphtali Offen, who arrived for the sentencing in his blue Dolphin Club letter jacket with white leather sleeves. I want a deterrent to prevent him from going to the next shoreline and doing it again.

Penningtons boat was impounded by the Port of San Francisco on May 1 and is being held in lieu of a lien for $5,409 in unpaid tariffs going back to mid-April. If Pennington does not pay off the claim in 90 days, his yacht, a Searunner 34 that sleeps five, will be sold off by the port to satisfy its claim.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Instagram: @sfchronicle_art2 1 of 2 Santa Rosa Police Department / Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Mark Wineman / Getty Images Show More Show Less



A $2,500 reward was issued for information leading to the arrest of two men accused of fatally stabbing another man Wednesday night in Santa Rosa, authorities said.

Johnny Luis Martinez, 20, and Gabriel Cardin Heredia, 25, both of Santa Rosa, were accused of repeatedly stabbing a man after a fight, said Sgt. Josh Ludtke, a spokesman for the Santa Rosa Police Department.Jailed yachtsman Bryan Pennington likely will spend more time behind bars regardless of the sentence handed down Thursday in federal court on his misdemeanor conviction for anchoring his trimaran in Aquatic Park Cove without a permit.

Pennington was arrested May 3 on a charge of violating a court order and has been in custody at the Hall of Justice. Bail is set at $20,000, or he will be held until that case reaches San Francisco Superior Court on May 21.

According to a memorandum from the U.S. attorneys office in advance of Penningtons sentencing by U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler, Pennington has an open case on misdemeanor charges of making threats against national park employees. Pennington was ordered to stay away from the bleachers in front of the Maritime Museum and allegedly violated this stay away order, leading to his arrest.

This all too common pattern of disregarding the rules and laws set in place to protect society supports a long period of probation, reads the memo.

Throughout the six-month dispute over illegal anchoring in federal waters and both clogging lanes used by swimmers and fouling bay waters with sewage, Pennington has tangled with park rangers and police who patrol Aquatic Park, which is part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, officials said.

Shortly before his May 3 arrest, the boat Pennington lives on, a Searunner 34 sailboat, was towed to a berth in the Hyde Street Harbor, where it has been chained to the dock and posted with no trespassing signs. The Port of San Francisco presented Pennington with a marine lien against the boat for $5,409 in unpaid tariffs going back to mid-April, when the boat broke free of its anchor and drifted into the Hyde Street Pier.

Pennington, 52, was convicted April 26 on three misdemeanor counts of berthing his boat in the cove without a permit, off and on, between Sept. 26 and Feb. 9. Aquatic Park allows anchoring for five consecutive nights or 30 nights total in a calendar year, provided the mariner has a permit.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Pennington never had a permit and maintained during his trial that he did not need one because he entered the cove as a mariner in duress, due to damage to his vessel.

He represented himself at trial. When Judge Beeler cut him short on a lengthy cross-examination of a government witness, Pennington claimed that his right to due process was being violated and declined to participate further in his trial.

The U.S. attorney has asked Judge Beeler to sentence Pennington to five years probation, during which he would not be allowed to enter Aquatic Park Cove on any vessel.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Instagram: @sfchronicle_artThe Trump administration is promoting an especially cruel tactic in its anti-immigrant crusade. Parents who cross the border illegally will be separated from their children, a notion that adds trauma and anxiety to an already fraught process.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions toured a San Diego area border location to announce the latest and most deplorable step in the White House war on outsiders. If families cross over, they can expect to be pulled apart. Parents would go to lockups and children to shelters, a separation that could last months.

Its a chilling but predictable new low for an administration that reacts blindly and harshly to any mention of immigrants. Families may be fleeing persecution, seeking a better life or trying to find relatives already in the U.S.

It makes no matter to Sessions, who wants nothing to do with unsanctioned immigrants. A hostile border policy is about to get more harsh and unthinking.

The attorney general is cashing in on a much-publicized caravan of asylum seekers who have traveled from Central America to the border. To the White House, this group represents a dangerous wave of border crossers, but its nothing of the kind. The numbers of undocumented immigrants stopped by border agents is near a 40-year low.

Theres a need for a secure border and an orderly immigration process. In most cases, people entering the country illegally are apprehended and sent back. Along with threatening to separate families, the Trump administration is adding extra sting: prosecutions that will swamp courts and detention facilities along the Mexican border.

Arresting and ripping apart parents and children is a new low in demagoguery. Its another reminder of President Trumps failure to craft a genuine set of border laws and his inhumane outlook. All he is offering is callous rhetoric, jails and now broken up families.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.During her appearance on Saturday Night Live last week, Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress and alleged former paramour of President Trump, issued a warning to the White House: Theres a storm coming, she said. You and your friends better batten down the hatches.

On Tuesday, Daniels lawyer, Michael Avenatti, released shocking, detailed claims about the banking transactions of Michael Cohen, President Trumps personal lawyer and devoted fixer.

Cohens shell company, which he used to pay Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about her alleged affair with Trump, received payments of more than $1 million from Columbus Nova, a company tied to a Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg.

Cohens company also received large payments from Fortune 500 companies with business considerations before the Trump administration, including AT&T, the pharmaceutical company Novartis and the aircraft manufacturer and defense contractor Korea Aerospace Industries.

At least $4.4 million in transactions flowed through Cohens shell company shortly before Trumps election and January of this year.

AT&T and Novartis have confirmed their payments to Cohen while denying that the payments were made as part of a pay-to-play arrangement. Korea Aerospace Industries has characterized the payment as one made for legal consulting. Columbus Nova also described the money as a consulting fee, and claimed it had nothing to do with Vekselberg.

None of these responses are even remotely persuasive enough.

The revelations present enormous, damaging questions for Cohen, for the Trump administration, and for the companies that engaged in these payments.

Who approached whom? What was promised in exchange for the money?

Who approved the payments? What kinds of services did Cohen deliver to these companies? Were other people in the Trump administration engaged in similar activities?

Finally, the most important question of all: Did Cohens boss, President Trump, know about all of this?

If Trump didnt know about the payments, then hes employed a personal lawyer who hasnt learned the basics of ethical legal practice. The episode would suggest that not only Cohen but people within Trumps administration are profiting off of their connections to the presidency.

But if Trump did know about these payments, then the obvious concern is that the money was flowing to him.

Either way, these payments appear at a minimum inappropriate, and may cross the line of legality. They must be fully investigated.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.If you paid attention to Mark Zuckerbergs testimony before Congress last month, you might have gotten the impression that the internet consists entirely of titanic, California-based companies like Twitter, Facebook and Google. Congress is right to call these companies to account for outsize harms like disclosing personal data about many millions of users. But it is very wrong to act as though these companies are representative of the whole internet.

When Congress makes rules with only these massive platforms in mind  and at the negotiating table  we get laws that only they can live with.

Thats particularly the case for laws that expose companies to steep liability if they dont find and eliminate unlawful content posted by their users. In his testimony, Zuckerberg seemed to welcome such laws, claiming that Facebook will employ 20,000 security experts and content moderators by the end of the year and work on deploying sophisticated artificial intelligence technologies to thoroughly scrub Facebook of objectionable material. Companies like Facebook and YouTube may be able to hire thousands of moderators and build a $60 million content filter to comply with such obligations. But smaller platforms competing for the same users cannot.

Neither can the as-yet-unknown innovators building the next Snapchat or Instagram.

And, critically, neither can the untold numbers of ordinary businesses, nonprofits and schools that dont think of themselves as internet companies but also face liability under such laws.

Politicians may not notice when a Las Vegas news site shuts down its comment forums, a Houston startup fails to get funding or a corner cafe turns off its Wi-Fi. But the rest of us suffer the consequences.

And one obvious consequence is to further entrench the handful of enormous companies that can afford to hire thousands of moderators and litigate or settle expensive lawsuits.

Congress shortsightedness in this regard became embarrassingly clear with the recent passage of the Allowing States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA). The bill, which President Trump signed into law, has a goal that everyone agrees with: combatting online sex trafficking. But the bill itself is ambiguous, and no one really knows what platforms need to do to comply.

According to some of FOSTAs supporters, sites that want to avoid liability should actively screen every piece of content posted by users  something that no small platform can afford to do.

Its not yet clear how the nations small platforms will respond to these new risks, but one very visible canary in the coal mine has already made big changes. Craigslist shut down its personals section, deleting a huge amount of content that had nothing to do with trafficking. The classified ads site had already taken steps to minimize trafficking, but it said it could not risk the new liability threat under FOSTA.

Meanwhile, the site that motivated FOSTA  Backpage.com  was shut down by federal law enforcement before FOSTA took effect, using powers the Department of Justice already had under existing law.

The legislative conversation that led to FOSTA looked a lot like the one we are seeing now around online political ads, hate speech and terrorist content. Congress looked to a single trade association representing companies like Amazon and Facebook as the voice of platform interests. It declared a negotiated victory when that association and Facebook  but not organizations representing startups or consumers  endorsed the bill.

By incorrectly conflating large platform interests with those of ordinary smaller companies, Congress passed a law that only these large platforms will be able to navigate. If this trend of regulating the internet with only huge incumbents in mind continues, they will further cement their market power and drive smaller platforms out of business.

Regulators around the world are justifiably concerned about the power of these massive internet companies. But adopting stifling regulations that apply a one-size-fits-all model to their smaller competitors is not the answer.

Evan Engstrom is executive director of Engine, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization that supports pro-startup public policy. Daphne Keller is director of intermediary liability at Stanford Law Schools Center for Internet and Society,and previously was associate general counsel to Google.On Sunday, May 6, at about 4:20 p.m., one of the San Francisco Ballets most eventful seasons (its 86th, if youre counting) wound up with a mixed sigh of relief (that the company came through more than one trial) and regrets (over the departure of a couple of irreplaceable dancers).

It had seemed like an act of hubris for Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson to schedule Unbound: A Festival of New Works, which presented 12 premieres by internationally celebrated choreographers over a six-day span, all within the ballets allotted season time in the War Memorial Opera House.

Of course, Tomasson had no choice: In its scheduling, the Ballet is restricted to specific weeks in the house, a sharing situation unlikely to change under the new San Francisco Opera general director, Matthew Shilvock. But the forethought underlying the festival told us much about the strong artistic and administrative teams built by Tomasson over 33 years, all of them suggesting that when Tomasson decides to hand over the reins one of these days, the Ballet can survive the change without cataclysmic results.

Even with three years planning, Unbound boasted its share of unforeseen dilemmas. For commissioning scores, Tomasson had sought special funding, which never came through. And a continuing injury kept the much-in-demand principal dancer Joseph Walsh out of the entire festival, necessitating multiple cast changes. The company, nevertheless, coped handsomely, and Walsh, one trusts, will be back for the October tour to Washington, D.C.s Kennedy Center, where the best of the Unbound festival receives its East Coast premiere.

Tomasson had hoped that the festival would reveal what was happening in ballet in the second decade of the 21st century, and the evidence was there onstage, where we observed a variety of themes and approaches. The range of styles was wide, and the limitations were, perhaps, a bit constricting. All premieres were ordered to come in under 30 minutes; and, because of the need to create 12 works over three months last summer, the choreographers pools of performers were somewhat circumscribed.

But real talent makes a virtue of challenge, and Unbound provided its share of dazzlers and disappointments. This week, Tomasson selected five festival works for revival here in 2019, which doesnt mean the others wont return at a future date (Unbound was never intended to be a popularity contest). But his choices do attest to the amplitude of his interest in ballet styles, Three  David Dawsons Anima Animus, Christopher Wheeldons Bound To and Edwaard Liangs The Infinite Ocean  are neoclassic abstractions that arrived with messages, or at least thematic strains.

Cathy Marstons Snowblind was the festivals only true narrative, an uncommonly gripping version of Edith Whartons dour Ethan Frome, a tale of forbidden love that delivered a compelling story with remarkable economy and depth. Virtually everybody loved Trey McIntyres Your Flesh Shall Be a Great Poem, a deeply personal memory piece that dipped into a variety of dance styles and left its protagonist in his briefs wrestling with a four-legged stool, all set to a catchy rock score. Ambiguity has rarely seemed so inviting.

Wheeldon had one advantage over most of his colleagues. He has choreographed for the Ballet for 18 years and possesses an intimate knowledge of its dancers sensibilities and styles. A great sense of theater informed this essay on the spiritual death of community generated by our dependence on technology. But when, from the wings, a hand plucked a cell phone from the grasp of Yuan Yuan Tan, who then fell into a rapturous duet with Carlo Di Lanno, you felt the restoration of human contact at its most visceral.

Then, there was Anima Animus, by Dawson, a sophisticated mid-career British choreographer, hitherto virtually unknown in the Bay Area. That situation should change after this fast, articulate and elegant essay that found Maria Kochetkova, Sofiane Sylve, Di Lanno and Luke Ingham flying across a silvery white landscape, like nocturnal insects at the first glimmer of dawn (no amount of praise is too much for the festivals universal lighting director, James F. Ingalls). Ballets like this made amends for the few Unbound premieres that seemed poorly conceived.

The Ballet warmed up for Unbound with an early-season Serenade. Staged meticulously by Elyse Borne, the Balanchine classic looked more deeply intuited and more musical than it has here in a generation. And a full-evening tribute to centenarian Jerome Robbins found the company operating at peak level.

Unbound will be remembered for the performances as much as for the dances. The pool of available dancers was limited for all choreographers, so members of the corps and soloist ranks were cast, and many came through with career-making performances. Revelations abounded. Benjamin Freemantle in the McIntyre, Lonnie Weeks in the Wheeldon, Solomon Golding in Alonzo Kings The Collective Agreement, Esteban Hernandez in Dwight Rhodens Lets Begin at the End and Jahna Frantziskonis, seemingly everywhere, served as heralds of a new generation at the Ballet.

They wont, however, compensate for the departure of two company stalwarts. Kochetkova, pursuing other opportunities, was our last direct link to the Bolshoi Ballet. Over more than two decades, retiring soloist James Sofranko served masterfully in a mind-bending variety of roles. They are part of the Ballets history now.

Allan Ulrich is The San Francisco Chronicles dance correspondent.Billionaire philanthropist George Soros has dropped at least $275,000 into district attorney races throughout Northern California, supporting candidates who advocate reduced incarceration and other criminal justice reforms.

Such issues have long been a passion for Soros, who in past years has funded state ballot measures to legalize marijuana and weaken the three strikes sentencing law. Hes also tipped district attorney elections in other parts of the country  last year a Soros-backed political action committee helped clinch the win for civil rights attorney Larry Krasner in Philadelphia.

This year, the liberal financier has funneled contributions into the California Justice & Public Safety Political Action Committee, which is paying for campaign mailers and advertisements in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, as well as Sacramento, ahead of the June 5 state primary.

In Alameda County, the committee has spent $131,158 in support of Oakland civil rights attorney Pamela Price, a candidate known for her sharp criticism of police. She is challenging District Attorney Nancy OMalley  a more mainstream progressive seeking a third term  on the June ballot.

OMalleys supporters say that Soros set his sights on the wrong race. With her track record of fighting mass incarceration and human trafficking, OMalley isnt the type of lock-em-up prosecutor that the billionaire is seeking to rout, they say.

Tom Clifford, OMalleys campaign spokesman, said he is disappointed that Soros had done such a poor job of vetting the two candidates. OMalley has received donations from the San Francisco Police Officers Association and other law enforcement groups, but she also has endorsements from liberal Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party and the Sierra Club.

Prices backers see it differently.

This is a movement across the country of individuals with resources supporting progressive candidates for D.A., said BART Director Lateefah Simon, who has endorsed Price.

Simon described Price as a fierce litigator who would keep police officers and sheriffs in check. If elected, she would hold sway over law enforcement agencies that have the power to incarcerate black and brown people, Simon said.

The California Justice & Public Safety Political Action Committee has spent $49,647 in support of Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton, who was appointed in September to replace Mark Peterson after Peterson resigned amid charges that he inappropriately spent campaign funds.

Becton, who is both the first woman and the first African American district attorney in Contra Costa County, is emphasizing bail reform and trying to mend racial disparities in the justice system. Her opponent, Paul Graves, is running on public safety issues and has backing from various county law enforcement agencies, as well as victim advocate Marc Klaas.

Soros has also nudged the district attorneys race in Sacramento, which pits progressive challenger Noah Phillips against the more centrist incumbent Anne Marie Schubert. The PAC has spent $277,685 on Phillips, much of it coming from contributions made last week.

Its unusual to have a contested district attorneys race to begin with, said retired Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge LaDoris Cordell. Usually one person retains the job for term after term, and the seat opens up only when that person retires or dies.

And the people who get elected as district attorney tend to be conservative law-and-order types, not outsiders pressing for criminal justice reform, Cordell said. She attributes the sudden flare of progressive challenges to the Black Lives Matter movement, which draws attention to inequality in the justice system.

Soros is using his money and influence to fix that, Cordell said.

Hes trying to bring in people of color and other candidates who want to change the system, she said.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswanSen. Dianne Feinstein said Thursday that she will vote against confirming Gina Haspel to lead the CIA, citing the involvement of President Trumps nominee in the agencys post-9/11 program of torturing terrorism suspects to try to gain information.

Feinstein joined Californias other Democratic senator, Kamala Harris, in opposing Haspel, a 33-year CIA veteran who oversaw sites in Thailand where terrorism detainees were held and later supported destroying videos of torture sessions.

Feinstein said Thursday that the program was one of the darkest chapters in our nations history, and it must not be repeated.

I believe those who were intimately involved should not lead the agency, Feinstein said in a statement. This nomination is bigger than one person. The torture program was illegal at the time based on international treaties the United States is signatory to, including the Convention Against Torture and Geneva Convention, but no one has ever been held accountable.

Feinstein, as the former chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, oversaw its six-year investigation into the program. In 2014, she spoke for an hour on the Senate floor outlining the panels 525-page report, which found that the CIA had misled policymakers about the extent and effectiveness of the torture program. Later, Feinstein blocked Haspels nomination to lead the CIAs clandestine operations.

The United States must send a message to the world that we hold ourselves to a higher standard than our enemies, Feinstein said Thursday. For the Senate to confirm someone so involved with the program to the highest position at the CIA would in effect tell the world that we approve of what happened, and I absolutely do not.

Feinstein, who is facing re-election this year, faced political pressure from progressives to oppose Haspel. Her top Democratic primary opponent, state Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, said that Americas regrettable history with torture cannot be dismissed with claims of following orders. Ms. Haspels ties to torture are unacceptable.

And the political arm of the American Civil Liberties Union spent $45,000 on digital political ads pressuring Feinstein to vote no.

We commend Sen. Feinstein for rejecting torture and listening to her constituents, said Faiz Shakir, ACLU national political director. Well continue pushing undecided votes ... and others to disavow torture.

Haspels confirmation chances took another hit Thursday when influential Senate veteran and former Vietnam War prisoner of war Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he opposed Haspel.

McCain, who endured torture as a POW and is now fighting brain cancer at his Arizona home, said in a statement that while he believes Gina Haspel is a patriot who loves our country and has devoted her professional life to its service and defense, her role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing.

Her refusal to acknowledge tortures immorality is disqualifying. I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination, McCain said.

Haspel may still have the votes to be confirmed. On Wednesday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who is facing a tough re-election fight in a state that Trump won by 42 percentage points in 2016, said he would support her nomination.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoliWhen Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanual, then a top aide to Barack Obama, said in 2008, Never let a good crisis go to waste, he was simply repeating what politicians already knew. A crisis  or a tragedy  has people paying attention and can be an opportunity.

Jess Phoenix is one of three Democrats challenging Republican Rep. Steve Knight of Lancaster (Los Angeles County) in a tough primary battle for what could be a winnable seat for the Dems.

But as of the end of March, the other two challengers, Katie Hill and Bryan Caforio, had nearly 10 times as much cash on hand as Phoenix. Knight had double that.

Then came the eruption of Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, and pictures of the devastation, with flowing lava destroying trees, cars and homes. Suddenly Phoenix, a geologist and volcanologist, was, uh, hot property.

With all the volcano activity in Hawaii happening, we are getting a lot of media requests, the campaign said Wednesday in an email to supporters. This is great coverage for the campaign and we need your help promoting these stories, sharing them on Facebook, on Twitter, and emailing people.

Now, the Hawaii eruption has been a disaster for the state and residents of the the Big Island, and people may argue theres something wrong about Phoenixs campaign trying to capitalize on a tragedy.

But is it really any different from Sen. Dianne Feinstein going on television after a mass shooting to talk about why assault weapons should be banned, or state Treasurer John Chiang, a candidate for governor, giving his take on public financing issues?

In those cases, a politician is taking advantage of a chance to show his or her expertise, just like Phoenix, whose Twitter handle is @volcanojess. And if she happens to impress voters who see her discussing her lifes work, well, her campaign does regularly talk about the need to elect a scientist to Congress.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuthSen. Kamala Harris says she will vote against confirming Gina Haspel as the next director of the CIA.

Harris, D-Calif., said Wednesday that she is concerned about what message Haspels promotion would send to the spy agency and to the international community. Haspel, a 33-year CIA veteran, was involved in the agencys program of torturing post-9/11 terrorism suspects to try to gain information, and oversaw sites in Thailand where detainees were held. Later, she supported destroying video of the torture.

During Haspels confirmation hearing Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Harris asked Haspel four times whether she thinks the agencys program was immoral. Haspel did not answer the question. Harris said that helped seal her decision.

I will not vote to confirm her as the next director of the CIA, Harris told CNN. This is about whether this particular person should head that agency. When we make that decision, it will be a statement, it will be a signal about our values as a country, in terms of how we value the rule of law, how we value transparency, how we value our about our moral authority.

Im concerned that she is not the best signal to the workforce of that agency, to the American people or to our neighbors around the globe, Harris said. So Im going to vote against her.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who also also serves on the Intelligence Committee, says she has not decided how she will vote. Last month, Feinstein told The Chronicle, Ive talked with Gina Haspel. Ive had dinner with her. Im just not sure this is the right thing to do. I need to have the hearing. I need to ask some questions. And then Ill make the decision.

Feinstein led an extensive Intelligence Committee investigation into the CIAs post-9/11 interrogations of terrorism suspects overseas. The report, issued in 2014, concluded that the CIAs tactics, which Feinstein described as a stain on our values and history, produced little information that thwarted new attacks.

CIA officials disputed that assessment at the time. On Wednesday, however, Haspel told the Intelligence Committee, I can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and without reservation, that under my leadership, CIA will not restart such a detention and interrogation program.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoliThe most telling moment in the California gubernatorial debate came in response to a question that had nothing to do with politics. It had to do with sacrifice.

People and families across Californians are making big sacrifices to live here, said KQED-FMs Scott Shafer, one of the panelists questioning the six top candidates at Tuesdays debate in San Jose. Long commutes to work. Working two jobs. Going into debt to put their kids through college.

In light of their sacrifices, Shafer asked, what is the biggest sacrifice you have made in your life?

The best thing about this question is that it required that the candidates not regurgitate the talking points theyve recited for six months. It asked that they be introspective and self-aware, maybe a bit humble, and that they articulate what they gave up to become a finalist to lead the nations largest state.

And most of all, it required them to know what sacrifice is. From their answers, it appears most dont.

The only candidate who gave an answer that was both human and coherent was someone who had an otherwise quiet evening: former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

I was gone a lot, Villaraigosa said, recalling that he first became a labor organizer five decades ago, when he was 15 years old. He grew up in a tough part of Los Angeles in a family where his alcoholic father often emotionally and physically abused his mother.

I wasnt there for my mom. I wasnt there for my family, Villaraigosa said, perhaps also nodding to the extramarital affairs as an adult that wrecked his marriage. I look back and realize that, you know, I should have made a lot more time.

If there was something that drove me, it was that I wanted to change the world, Villaraigosa said. But I didnt understand enough that you start with your family.

Humility. Introspection. Awareness of what he had lost to get here. Those were harder to find in the answer given by Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach (Orange County), when it was his turn to reveal his biggest sacrifice.

Im actually engaged in it right now, Allen said. The biggest sacrifice I ever did was running for political office.

Theres nobody forcing Allen to run for governor. Theres also no one forcing him to leave a safe Assembly seat for a longshot run at the governors job.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom had a quick retort, saying, I think public service is the biggest privilege of my life, hardly a sacrifice. Its a gift.

But Newsom struggled with the rest of his answer. Perhaps Shafers question was pointed at the rich guys on stage  Newsom and San Diego County businessman John Cox. Either could have shared a struggle from his life in the hopes of connecting with voters working two jobs.

Newsom, in particular, is vulnerable to the sacrifice question. This week, a Sacramento Bee columnist described the Kentfield resident as the living embodiment of privilege, and people seem to be OK with that. He has white male privilege. Class privilege. Wealth privilege. The privilege of good looks.

Newsom responded to the sacrifice question by dialing up some political boilerplate: Hes doing it for the kids.

If I could look back honestly and reflect upon (my life) and say that I sacrificed everything for my four extraordinary kids, then it was a life worth living, Newsom said. And every single day I try to approximate the best father I possibly could be, the best husband I could be  my wife is here today. But to me, that should be all of our ultimate sacrifice  to take care of the next generation and to raise our kids to be healthy and strong.

Lovely sentiment, but it didnt include what his sacrifice was. Then again, that was more than what Cox said he sacrificed.

I dont look at any of the things Ive done in life as sacrifices, Cox said. I built a business. Im very proud of that. Ive started charities. Im very involved in my church. What Im doing now I look at as a mission.

And then, cue the talking points.

Im sick and tired of what the politicians have done to this state, Cox said. Theyve mismanaged just about every aspect of life here. Theyve made it unaffordable. I dont look at this as a sacrifice. I look at this as a mission and a choice that I want to get done.

By this point, Shafers question had devolved into whether public service itself was a sacrifice  not into what the candidates had personally sacrificed. Former state schools chief Delaine Eastin tried to combine both. She started by saying, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

One of the best decisions Ive ever made was to be involved in public life, said Eastin, the only candidate who has served in local office, the Legislature and as a statewide officeholder. Its true that I made 2 times as much when I worked in the private sector.

So the sacrifice here is making less money when she worked in public service? Eastins income in private life ranged from a low of $121,083 in 2011 to a high of $198,504 in 2015, according to tax returns she released in November. She left public office in 2003.

State Treasurer John Chiang redirected the question from one about sacrifice. As one of the first Asian Americans to live in the suburban Chicago community where he grew up, Chiang recounted the the ugly racial taunts: Go home, Chink! Go home, Jap! Go home, gook!

It was a poignant recollection that shows what shaped Chiang into someone who grew up wanting to help lifes underdogs. But that wasnt a sacrifice. At least not how he described it.

The question showed how hard it is for our political leaders to connect to the sacrifice their voters are making. Compare their answers to this question: What are you sacrificing to live in California?

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoliRaiders left tackle Donald Penn will not face charges in connection with an alleged domestic violence incident, according to a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorneys Office.

Los Angeles police responded April 29 to a radio call of a domestic violence incident and completed a report listing Penn as the suspect. Penn and his wife, Dominique, later gave a statement to TMZ saying theyd had a verbal disagreement but no physical altercation.The West Coast may well be ground zero for #vanlife, with nearly 3 million hashtags on Instagram alone. (Think gorgeous, unencumbered young couple living out of a Volkswagen bus, cruising up and down the Pacific coastline.)

But over the past few years, another #vanlife phenomenon has gained enthusiasts. Enter the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van. Case in point: #sprintervan and #sprintervanlife have a combined total of more than 100,000 Instagram tags.

In Marin County, Sprinter vans have become a coveted status item among the well-heeled, adventure-seeking weekend warrior set. Or, thought of in another way, the version of #vanlife that accommodates a middle-aged man or woman and his or her growing brood.

Theyre pretty versatile vehicles, says Mark Santos, the general sales manager of Mercedes-Benz of San Francisco. They appeal to all walks of life, from the CEO of a tech company to Joe the plumber to Mary the mom.

Cemil Hope views his Sprinter van as an extension of himself.

Standing nearly 9 feet tall and 19 feet long, his vans dark gray, utilitarian exterior with black HOPEBLT vanity plates conceals a spacious, blond-wood interior. When I approached his van in the parking lot adjacent to Good Earth Natural Foods in Mill Valley, its side door was wide open and Hope was sitting inside at a table that he had built, eating lunch. Hope, 48, owns Hopebuilt Inc., a custom cabinetry business in Petaluma.

Weve had so many great adventures, so many great experiences, says Hope, an avid climber, who makes the pilgrimage to Burning Man every summer. Its become our operating system. Its how we see life now.

Ramin Rahimian / Special to The Chronicle

For Hope, #vanlife runs in his blood. He grew up with divorced parents, splitting his time between San Francisco and Humboldt County. His father owned an old Chevy van that he forever repainted and customized to fit his changing needs.

My memories of being a kid were being in the van, no seat belts, and traveling, says Hope, of his carefree California childhood spent on the open road. Early on, I learned that you could just hop in, with no set plan or destination, and just go.

It was a feeling  namely, freedom  that he wanted more of as an adult.

Twelve years ago, Hope purchased his first Sprinter van, painted a deep shade of maroon. The family named it Clifford (after Clifford the Big Red Dog). A stable and dependable workhorse, some 200,000 miles later, Cliffords never had so much as a glitch.

Though the Hope family  now with four children ages 5 to 19  has since purchased three other Sprinter vans, Clifford remains the reliable standby. Despite the newer, more refined models parked out front, Hope refuses to part with Clifford (now painted tan), viewing him as an out-to-pasture horse relishing his hard-won retirement.

Sprinter vans arent a lifestyle, but a life, says Hope, who bought his last three vans from Mercedes-Benz of Sacramento. Its a deeper meaning than a lifestyle. It becomes part of your fabric.

A maker at heart, Hope constantly tinkers with his Sprinter fleets custom cabinetry (made of birch multiply). Hes currently in the experimental stage of creating Sprinter-specific design kits, so that other owners can replicate Hopes modular, functional aesthetic  and do so without breaking the bank.

Demand for Sprinter vans at Mercedes-Benz of San Francisco far outpaces supply. Sales manager Santos says that both configurations (passenger and cargo) have an 18-month waiting list. Although the vans start at $41,000, the skys the limit in terms of customization, with some Sprinter owners spending upward of $100,000 to convert them into mobile offices  replete with flat-screen televisions, Wi-Fi and chairs that recline into beds.

One of Santos Marin clients refers to his Sprinter van as his mobile decompression chamber. The tech executive hired a driver to offset the inconvenience of the two-hour-drive to Silicon Valley during rush-hour traffic, using the time to work, make calls or stretch out his legs and simply tune out.

Its a huge van that drives small, says Nate McCarthy, 44, owner of Proof Lab Surf Shop in Mill Valley. He and his wife, Olivia Coelho, bought their gray Sprinter van a little over a year ago. The blended family fits comfortably inside  two adults plus five children ages 2 months to 12 years old  with plenty of room for car seats, skateboards and surf boards.

The Sprinter van has become the familys daily driver; its powerful diesel engine is beloved by husband and wife alike. Everyone vibes out together, and when we need the space its there, McCarthy says.

Although commercial use still dominates (see also: Amazon and FedEx delivery vans), McCarthy has observed personal use on the uptick, finding it next to impossible to avoid seeing Sprinter vans during school drop-off and pickup.

Scoutt Balchowsky is another longtime #vanlife devotee.

Balchowsky, 52, who lives in Sausalito on a houseboat, owns six vans: four Fords and two Sprinters.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Earlier this month, he sold a Sprinter van (for an undisclosed sum) that he and his wife, Tre, had retrofitted to meet their needs. The 2008 model, which they nicknamed Jupiter, had a white exterior and an interior lined in tongue-and-groove cedar  a material chosen for its aesthetic and olfactory superiority. Once inside, strands of white, twinkly lights hung above a queen short (a type of compact mattress often used in RVs that offers the length of a full but the width of a queen).

Balchowsky, who formerly owned an automotive shop in Sonoma County and who also outfits bicycles with electric motors, designs each Sprinter van to fit his and his wifes changing needs.

If youre a snowbird, a desert rat or an RV traveler, you want different things, says Balchowsky, who fits squarely in the middle category. Last year, he and Tre logged 30,000 miles, driving to the eastern Sierra, Death Valley, and up and down the West Coast.

To accommodate the extreme temperatures of high-desert camping, for instance, Balchowsky stresses the need for shade, good air flow, a diesel-fired heater and a roof vent with an electric fan  to say nothing of the general ergonomics of the Sprinter van that has proven far gentler on their bodies than previous off-road, off-the-grid adventure vehicles.

And while theres no secret handshake among Sprinter owners as of yet, there is often a nod of acknowledgment, whether stopped at an intersection or sitting in the parking lot of an organic grocery store.

We speak each others language, says Hope, an early adopter, who now counts at least a dozen Sprinter vans when driving around Petaluma.

Its pretty rad, Hope says, with a laugh. But I had mine first.

Amanda M. Fairbanks is a freelance writer based in Marin.You could call it your travel Bucket List. We like Life List better. You know, roaming the globe in search of rare birds or flowers as opposed to, well, getting ready to croak. Whatever term you choose  Bucket List, Life List, or simply Travel To Do list  we all have that personal roster of places we just have to see. Machu Picchu. The Silk Road. Kilimanjaro. But those places are far away, and require passports and hefty expenditures to reach. This summer, we suggest you focus on 10 Life List/Bucket List/Whatever List spots right here in California. All are California state parks. With giant trees, giant rocks and mysterious lakes, they hold their own against any list of the worlds wonders.

 Peter Fish, travel@sfchronicle.com

Angel Island State Park

Take a ferry to 1.18 square miles of heaven, then gaze at city views more spectacular than you get from Millennium Tower (and no tilting) and take hikes that range from easy-breezy to challenging. (For even more easy-breezy, join a Segway or Tram tour.) Most memorable of all is the U.S. Immigration Station, a poignant reminder of the islands role as gateway to America for thousands of immigrants, most from China. The nine environmental campsites require a 1- to 2-mile trek with your camping gear, but the views are worth it.

Vitals: Ferries from San Francisco and Tiburon: Angel Island SP; reserve campsites at www.reservecalifornia.com/.

Calaveras Big Trees State Park

This is probably where European Americans first encountered the marvel that is the Giant Sequoia  when, in 1852, Augustus T. Dowd tracked a grizzly bear and bumped into a forest of enormous trees. Today, Calaveras is one of the easiest places to see sequoia gigantea. A flat, kid-friendly, 1.5-mile trail leads through t he North Grove. (One famous specimen, the tunneled-through Pioneer Cabin Tree, toppled in 2017, but you wont be disappointed with the trees still standing around it.) For a longer hike, follow the 5-mile trail through the South Grove. Overnighters have 120 campsites and four rental cabins to choose from.

Vitals: On Highway 4, 4 miles northeast of Arnold; Calaveras Big Trees SP; reserve campsites and cabins at www.reservecalifornia.com/.

Castle Crags State Park

Shasta Countys Castle Crags seems easily deserving of National Park status  for geologic drama, its gray granite crags (formed 170 million years ago) are the equal of anything in Pinnacles or, dare we say it, Zion. Castles 30 miles of trails include a pretty stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail. And the 82-site campgrounds are an easy stroll from the Sacramento River, which flows through the park.

Vitals: On Interstate 5, 6 miles south of Dunsmuir (Siskiyou County ); Castle Crags SP; reserve campsites at www.reservecalifornia.com/.

D.L. Bliss and Emerald Bay state parks

Adjoining parks encircling Emerald Bay, these boast Tahoes most expansive views, good beaches, and the regal mansion, Vikingsholm. (One look and you ask yourself, h ow much does that list for on Zillow?) At Emerald, campers can pitch their tents at Eagle Point Campground or  if theyre the nautical type  at boat-access-only Emerald Bay Boat Camp; at Bliss, at Pines, Ridge, or Beach campgrounds.

Vitals: On Highway 89, 17 miles south of Tahoe City; DL Bliss SP and Emerald Bay SP; reserve campsites at www.reservecalifornia.com/.

Hearst San Simeon State Historic Monument

Sure, Europe has its palaces  Marie Antoinettes Versailles, Carlos IIIs Palacio Real. But news tycoon William Randolph Hearsts Julia Morgan-designed castle on the San Luis Obispo County coast is as impressive, and a lot more fun  did Marie Antoinette or Carlos host Hollywood stars? If youve visited before, consider a semi-private tour devoted to the castles art collection or Hearsts Hollywood connections; come fall, the park adds an evening tour, which is magical. Theres no camping, but youll find spots at San Simeon Creek Campground in nearby Hearst San Simeon State Park.

Vitals: On Highway 1, 12 miles north of the intersection of Highway 1 and State 46; Hearst San Simeon SHM; reserve campsites at reservecalifornia.com/.

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

Youve seen the parks McWay Falls on countless magazine covers. No matter. Viewing, in person, the falls cascading into the turquoise waters of McWay Cove is something every Californian needs to experience. Nabbing a campsite here is challenging  the park has a mere two hike-in sites that understandably book up fast. Safer bets are the 130 sites at Pfeiffer Big Sur S.P., about a half hour north on Highway1.

Vitals: On Highway 1, 37 miles south of Carmel; Julia Pfeiffer Burns SP; reserve campsites at www.reservecalifornia.com/.

Marshall Gold Discovery Historic Park

Eureka! Here, in 1848, James W. Marshall spotted a glimmer in the American River, thus launching the gold- and fame-hungry state of California. Look at it this way: no James Marshall, no Kardashians. The park is small but charming, with good guided tours. If you want to add some adventure to your visit, Coloma (El Dorado County) is also the starting point for companies offering day rafting trips on the American River. Theres no camping, but you can bunk down at nearby Coloma and American River resorts.

California State Parks, 2018

Vitals: On Highway 49, 81/2 miles north of Placerville; Marshall Gold Discovery HP; www.colomaresort.com; www.americanriverresort.com/.

Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve

Mars comes to eastern California, as eerie spires of tufa rise from one of the oldest lakes in North America. The lake and its geology are so fascinating youll get the most out of them on one of the reserves summer guided walks. Mono and its surrounding wetlands are also a haven for grebes and gulls and other birds, and guided bird walks are offered in summer, too. Theres no camping, but youll find good first-come, first-served forest service spots in nearby Lundy and Lee Vining canyons and June Lake Loop.

Vitals: On Highway 395, 1 miles north of Lee Vining. Mono Lake Tufa SNR; camping information: www.leevining.com/campingmonobasin.pdf

Prairie Creek Redwoods

State Park

Calaveras Big Trees park honors the worlds biggest tree, the giant redwood; this Humboldt County park honors the worlds tallest tree, the coast redwood, sequoia sempervirens. Along with the noble trees, Prairie Creek offers 75 miles of trails and some good beach camping. In short, its paradise.

Vitals: On Highway 101, 50 miles north of Eureka. Prairie Creek Redwood SP; reserve campsites at www.reservecalifornia.com

Salt Point

State Park

The Sonoma c oast is so beautiful for so many miles its hard to choose one best park. But Salt Point might take the prize. Its big  6,000 acres  and takes in 6 miles of coastline, including some of Northern Californias best tide pools. Hikers have 20 miles of trails to explore. Overnighters have two campgrounds to choose from, Gerstle Cove and Woodside, both slightly inland from the coast.

Vitals: On Highway 1, 19 miles north of Jenner; Salt Point SP; reserve campsites at www.reservecalifornia.comBrandishing a pair of industrial-strength loppers longer than her arm, Elisa Rogalado plunges into a blackberry thicket lining the main road in Sonoma Countys Sugarloaf Ridge State Park.

If you love something, you should take care of it, says the retired Santa Rosa resident, yanking out a gnarly bramble thats clogging the roads drainage ditch. And look, says Rogalado, beaming as she pulls back her sweatshirt sleeve to reveal a turquoise-blue Garmin activity tracker. Ive burned 519 calories.

Rogalado isnt the only one pitching in at Sugarloaf Ridge on this spring morning. Just up the road, a team of volunteers in hard hats cut down oaks and bays damaged in last falls destructive fires. (Roughly 80 percent of the rugged, 3,900-acre park was burned.) And in a few days, more than 60 volunteers will flood into the park to rebuild trails, clear debris and otherwise pitch in.

All these volunteers are coordinated not by California State Parks but by Team Sugarloaf, a partnership of five nonprofit organizations that now oversee the parks daily operations. Responsibilities include coordinating volunteers, running the campground, staffing the visitor center, maintaining and protecting the parks natural, cultural and historic resources, and paying the salary for the park supervisor and other personnel.

Its part of a statewide trend thats seeing nonprofit organizations, philanthropies, volunteers, cultural institutions and companies taking on bigger roles in operating Californias 280 state park units. And all eyes are on us as other states  and even the National Park Service  face similar challenges. (Full disclosure: The author is a member of Friends of China Camp State Park.)

People here are so passionate, and willing not just to complain but roll up their sleeves and be part of the solution, and were willing to take a chance to work with them, says California State Parks Director Lisa Mangat. Its a historic time. California has the opportunity to be the innovator, and the leader.

The marriage between parks and partners isnt new. The park system has been working with outside organizations and businesses for decades. (Think the woodsy camp store in Big Basin State Park near Santa Cruz.) But what is new is the extent to which these organizations are handling the day-to-day operation of the parks.

What started it all? In a word, crisis. In 2011, Californias budget was in a tailspin. To help cut costs, Gov. Jerry Brown announced a plan to lock the gates at up to 70 park parcels  news that shocked the public and kick-started local efforts to figure out how to keep parks open.

Nowhere did the grim news hit harder than in Sonoma County.

We were staring at five parks closing, explains Richard Dale, executive director of the Sonoma Ecology Center, which works to sustain ecological health in Sonoma Valley. While individual organizations signed up to stave off closure at four of the five Sonoma County parks facing closure, there was one park with no takers.

Sugarloaf was the orphan, says Dale.

To fill the gap, five groups said they could each take on some of the responsibilities of running the park. Sonoma County Trails Council would manage and maintain the parks trails. Another group would run interpretive programs. Volunteers would continue to offer star-gazing programs at Robert Ferguson Observatory, near the center of the park. A private concessionaire would run the campground. And Sonoma Ecology Center would oversee general operations.

Partnership agreements were quickly cobbled together, and after a few tense weeks in early 2012 when Sugarloafs gates were locked, the park opened again.

We had no idea whether it would work or not, says Dale. But I was hopeful that we could pull it off.

Mangat says that the budget crisis called for these kinds of emergency solutions. These partnerships didnt go through the methodical planning process that were famous for in state government. The circumstances and the times required that we act. It was a leap of faith.

With volunteer, nonprofit and other organizations keeping parks like Sugarloaf open, albeit in ad hoc fashion, the park system started to do some serious self-reflection.

The institution had ossified, says Michael Mantell, president of the Resources Legacy Fund and an expert in philanthropies and conservation efforts. The department had become locked into a 1950s way of thinking.

To get more modern, California State Parks set up a Parks Forward commission, with Mantell and other independent experts on board. The commission was assigned to deliver a road map for achieving long-term sustainability for the park system. It also explored how to make parks more relevant for Californias growing and changing population, Mantell says.

After two years of research, Parks Forward concluded that local groups and volunteers pitching in with dollars and free or low-cost labor was an effective way to better manage parks  not to mention connecting people and parks in a powerful and meaningful way.

That didnt mean that the state should hand over the keys to partners. Instead, says Mangat, it motivated the department to act. We sat down with our partners to find out what areas they thought they were really strong at, and what areas might not be their thing, she explains.

Whats beginning to gel now, as long-term cooperative agreements between parks and partners take shape, is a hybrid management style. Partners may handle day-to-day operations or other key roles, while State Parks takes on law enforcement, resource management and maintenance, and provides general oversight. The department has also created a Partnership Office, with staff focusing on nurturing and developing these new roles.

Its not cookie-cutter, stresses Mangat. We need to have conversations, so partners can focus on strengths.

Todd Trumbull

Theres also a focus on bringing in talent from outside the department. Browns 2018 budget includes funding for more than 360 new park positions, including rangers, resource specialists, cultural professionals, even lifeguards  almost all of them to work in the field, not in Sacramento.

Another directive is designed to attract Californians who havent traditionally visited parks, such as Millennials and people of color. That could mean increasing the number of organized events, like the popular summertime concert series at Jack London State Park in Glen Ellen.

It could also mean more places to stay overnight at state parks, off the ground and in clustered shelters that better allow for groups and large families. In the Bay Area, Angel Island plans to add 13 cabins, potentially using a wedge design created by architecture students at Cal Poly Pomona. In Calaveras Big Trees State Park in Calaveras County, 10 to 15 new cabins are in the works. These could be grouped to give a sense of community, and better serve all types of visitors.

Californias June ballot could also bring good news. Passage of Proposition 68 would authorize $4 billion in bonds, $3 billion of that earmarked for state and local parks and water projects.

Ultimately, the path that parks take may be up to the people who enjoy them  whether it is how they vote, what groups they support, or how they pitch in to keep the parks thriving and healthy.

Its all about giving back and contributing, says Elisa Rogalado, still smiling as she cuts back more brambles at Sugarloaf. And its a heck of a lot better than watching daytime TV.

Harriot Manley is a freelance writer and photographer. email: travel@sfchronicle.com.

More parks with partners

Like Sugarloaf Ridge Regional Park, other state parks, historic sites and recreation areas threatened with closure in 2011 have also risen, phoenix-like, from the ashes of a grim financial future. Here are three more that not only kept the gates unlocked but have forged new partnerships, connected with their communities, and thrived.

Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park

This downtown park, protecting the only remaining building of the 12th Franciscan mission outpost, has a guardian angel in Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks.

In 2009 every one of the parks in our district was threatened with closure, said Bonny Hawley, executive director of Friends of Santa Cruz. We rallied the community and kept all the parks open. In 2011 , when closures were threatened again, we offered to fund a portion of park operations at the mission.

The group also organizes mission events, including the annual Mole & Mariachi Fest (held the Saturday after Labor Day). The food and music event brings in much-needed dollars for recent mission projects, including replacing floors with handcrafted adobe bricks and replastering walls. Its also a nod to the regions rich Hispanic culture.

This community loves its parks, says Hawley, and were able to tap into that passion.

Austin Creek State Recreation Area

Protecting rugged canyons, lush meadows, and a former artists colony, this roughly 5 , 600-acre park east of Guerneville is now managed by the nonprofit Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods. The partnership has paid off big time. Campground revenues have gone from $30,000 to $90,000 a year, says Stewards executive director Michele Luna.

Another accomplishment: the reopening of the historic Pond Farm, an experimental artists colony on the southeastern tip of Austin Creek. In the late 1930s, Marguerite Wildenhain, a Jewish master potter, fled Europe and settled at the hilly farm, where she taught the art of ceramics until the 1980s, when the farm was closed.

According to Luna, nearly $500,000 from a 2006 state bond measure was secured by Stewards and used to restore the farms ark-like barn. (It still houses the rows of foot-powered kick wheels used by Wildenhain and her students.) More restoration plans are in the works, and volunteers lead monthly Pond Farm tours. Theres talk of an artist-in-residence program, too.

We have a strong arts community in Guerneville, notes Luna. It makes sense to be part of that.

Harriot Manley / Special to The Chronicle

China Camp State Park

At China Camp State Park in San Rafael, the nonprofit Friends of China Camp came to the rescue when closure was threatened, rallying donors and volunteers to keep the park open. Today, the group provides all staffing in the park and oversees daily operations, including the maintenance of miles of multiuse trails.

That proved to be a daunting responsibility when the 2017 winter rains washed out a 20-foot stretch of China Camps popular Shoreline Trail. Government funding for repairs were held up, so Friends, wanting to get the trail open, decided to fix the slide  and foot the bill.Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay and its nonprofit affiliate, Calidad Industries, will pay $850,000 to eight former and current employees to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, charged that six female janitors who worked the night shift at the Oakland Federal Building were routinely sexually harassed by their supervisor. Two managers were disciplined and retaliated against for supporting the womens claims, and one was compelled to resign, according to the suit.

Goodwill Industries is a nonprofit that provides job training and other services to people who have barriers to getting other jobs, and Calidad was specifically designed to help workers with mental or physiological impairments.

The workers who were sexually harassed included young women with developmental disabilities who were were working under a federal government contract. The employees who came forward were employed between 2009 and 2012.

I was only 19 years old when I worked at Calidad  it was my first job, and I enjoyed being able to earn my own money, former employee Crystal Edwards said in a statement. But after my boss put his arms around me, I did not feel safe at work. My complaints were ignored.

Another former night janitor, Phyllis Sloan, said she reported the harassment as soon as it started, but nothing changed.

She was one of a few to approach the EEOC, which took up the case.

Lisa Short, one of the former managers at Calidad, said in a statement that employees described sexual harassment on the night shift within the first few weeks of her start date.

She complained but said her concerns were ignored, prompting her to contact the EEOC. The lawsuit was filed in December 2016.

Jim Caponigro, CEO of Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay and Calidad Industries, told The Chronicle that no other incidents of sexual harassment have occurred since the last woman came forward in 2012.

Since 2012, we havent had any other issues, he said. A lot of it is because of things we proactively implemented from working with the EEOC.

He noted that the company set up a third-party hotline for complaints, and a dedicated employee advocates for proper workplace behavior.

Caponigro, who became CEO in 2016, also said that Calidad Industries has restructured its entire management since the time of the incidents and that the manager accused of harassment left the nonprofit voluntarily in 2015, before the lawsuit was filed.

However, the manager apparently wasnt disciplined immediately after the women came forward with allegations of sexual harassment.

William Tamayo, the EEOCs San Francisco district director, said the manager in question was ultimately given a transfer that resulted in a significant pay raise before leaving the nonprofit three years ago.

In this case, there were many factors that contributed to the vulnerability of these janitors  all were African American, many were young females new to the workplace, with disabilities, working the isolated night shift, Tamayo said. Employers must take proactive measures to stop predators who would abuse their power over vulnerable workers.

Sophie Haigney is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sophie.haigney@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SophieHaigneyA young Girl Scout deserves an extra badge after being bitten by a rattlesnake at a nature park outside Sacramento last Saturday.

The girl who is thought to be age 6 to 8 was on the playground at the Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael when she turned over a piece of wood and a baby rattler bit her finger.Robert N. Halls legacy can be found at almost every checkout counter  that little red blinking laser scanner that reads bar codes on milk cartons, boxes of light bulbs, price tags dangling from a new jacket and just about everything else that can be bought in a store.

A product of his inventive labor can also be found in most kitchens nowadays: the microwave oven.

Yet for all the widespread familiarity of what Hall wrought as a remarkably ingenious physicist, his death, at 96, on Nov. 7, 2016, gained little notice. An announcement paid for by his family appeared in two upstate New York newspapers  The Times Union of Albany and The Daily Gazette of Schenectady  and General Electric, in a company publication, published a remembrance a month later. But otherwise the news of Halls death did not travel very far.

His daughter, Elaine Schulz, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that besides buying the newspaper notices, the family had alerted some organizations with which Hall had been connected. He died of complications of pneumonia in a hospital near his home in Schenectady, she said.

The New York Times learned of Halls death while editing an obituary about him that had been prepared in advance in 2012.

Hall left his fingerprints far and wide. He built the first solid-state laser in 1962. Nearly 20 years earlier, during World War II, he designed a magnetron to jam enemy radar that, thanks to a melting candy bar, was adapted to create the microwave oven.

Another of his inventions makes it possible to control the high-voltage DC current that runs things like electric locomotives. His gamma ray detector is used in nuclear research. And his laser not only promotes faster checkouts, channel surfing and pointers; it also enables fiber optics to carry data.

Its probably fair to say, however, that when he invented his laser in the fall of 1962, Hall could never have imagined the uses to which it would one day be put, for he was not a consumer product developer. He was an experimenter who spent his entire career at what is now GE Global Research, a General Electric research laboratory, in Niskayuna, New York, outside Schenectady.

Lasers had been invented in 1960, but they were bulky, complex affairs built around simulated rubies or chambers full of a gas that could be excited into giving off light, the rays of which bounced between mirrors until they were concentrated into a single beam.

Halls laser device, by contrast, was a single, small solid-state semiconductor piece that had to be cooled to the temperature of liquid nitrogen  more than 300 degrees Fahrenheit below zero  making it an unlikely candidate for consumer uses. Once the principle of a tiny, solid laser was established, however, others refined it.

By Halls account, in a videotaped 2010 interview, the laser had its origins in a fellow scientists teasing. Since Hall had invented all kinds of things, he recalled his colleague saying, Why didnt I invent a semiconductor laser? His earlier inventions, after all, had earned him the freedom to do what he wanted at the GE laboratory and a small team to help him do it.

Hall was skeptical at first that he could build a semiconductor laser, but after reading others research, he concluded that it was possible. Based on published experiments, he settled on gallium arsenide as the most promising medium.

Using semiconductors the size of a grain of salt, he said, he polished their parallel faces to mimic the mirrors used in existing lasers. Current was introduced at the ends of the semiconductors. In only a few months, he and his team had produced a working solid laser.

Hall was already well known among colleagues for purifying germanium, the primary material in the early diodes that were used in solid-state electronics. (A diode in its simplest form is a kind of one-way valve for electrical current.) He discovered that freezing a piece of germanium would leave impurities at one end, giving him the purest germanium yet produced.

Advancing that work, he began adding the element indium to the germanium, and discovered that the resulting semiconductor could control heavy loads of current.

But he also found that the existing explanation of how electrons moved through semiconductors was not matching his calculations. So he devised a new explanation for the process, which is now known as Hall-Shockley-Read recombination. (The other discoverers were William B. Shockley, who was a winner of the 1956 Nobel Prize in physics for the invention of the transistor, and W.T. Read Jr.)

Hall began working at the GE lab after graduating from the California Institute of Technology in 1942. With World War II in progress, he soon designed a type of magnetron that could jam enemy radar. Shortly afterward, an engineer at Raytheon standing near one of the devices noticed that it had melted a candy bar in his pocket. Raytheon engineers used the discovery to develop the microwave oven.

After the war, Hall returned to Caltech for a doctorate. With the encouragement of his advisers, who were excited by the atomic age, he began studying nuclear physics. He received his Ph.D. in 1948.

Hall would never enter the field professionally. But though he never did nuclear research, a classmate did, and it was through him that Hall learned that nuclear physicists were bedeviled by a problem with the germanium used in devices that detected the gamma rays given off by radioactive activity  rays that are deadly at high exposures.

Hall reasoned that he could solve the problem by purifying germanium to the point where no more than one-millionth of a millionth part would be impure  an unheard-of level. Few believed that that was possible, but Hall succeeded, creating the detector that is used worldwide today.

Hall held more than 40 patents in the United States. He was awarded the Marconi Prize in 1989 and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1994. He retired from the GE lab in 1987.

Robert Noel Hall was born on Dec. 25, 1919, in New Haven, Conn., the younger of two sons of Harry and Clara (Kommers) Hall. (They gave him the middle name Noel because he was born on Christmas Day.) Harry Hall was a horticulturalist who took odd jobs to support his family during the Depression.

Besides his daughter, Hall is survived by a son, Richard. His wife of more than 70 years, Dora, died in 2013. His brother, Sydney, died last year.

Hall said he became interested in science as an 11-year-old when an uncle, Sydney Hall, an early aircraft-engine designer, took him to a science fair.

In a 2012 interview for this obituary, he talked about the pleasure he took in a life of science.

You see there is a problem to be solved, he said, and you think about it, and you solve it, and its a thrill.

Don R. Hecker is a New York Times writer.Santa Clara City Councilman Dominic Caserta has lost support in his campaign to be elected to the county Board of Supervisors and police have asked for any victims to come forward after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged against Caserta.

The misconduct allegations, first reported by San Jose Inside, came to light when a Santa Clara Unified School District personnel file for Caserta, who teaches civics at Santa Clara High School, was accidentally sent out to the entire school district. It was later deleted.

The file documents how Caserta faced allegations of misconduct dating back to 2002. His alleged behavior included unwanted hugging, inappropriate comments and flirting.

In one instance, Caserta reportedly ran his hands through a female students hair, said he was sexually aroused and made sexually suggestive comments about her clothing.

Police reportedly were called to the school twice in 2002 in response to allegations that Caserta had sexually harassed students. The Santa Clara Police Department said Wednesday that it was looking for records of calls involving Caserta in response to requests for city records.

Caserta denied the allegations, calling them false and made up in a statement on his campaign website. He said that the district had investigated the claims and that he was exonerated.

Rehashing things that occurred 12 to 16 years ago is a waste of time, Caserta said. Sadly, thats just the political climate.

The school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the wake of the misconduct allegations, Caserta has lost a number of endorsements. The Santa Clara County Democratic Party pulled its support on Wednesday, adding that women of all ages should be free of any form of harassment, at school, in the workplace, and in any other setting.

The South Bay Labor Council, the Santa Clara Police Officers Association and the Santa Clara Firefighters Local 1171 also reportedly pulled their endorsements.

In a joint statement, the San Jose Police Officers Association, the San Jose Fire Fighters Local 230 and the Santa Clara County Government Attorneys Association called on Caserta to pull out of the race and resign from his role as a City Council member.

Mayor Lisa Gillmor described the allegations as troubling. The city attorney will provide possible reprimands for Caserta, which may include requesting that he resign, Gillmor said.

Not only is he an elected official, but he is a Santa Clara High School teacher as well, Gillmor said in a statement. So the fact that the allegations are from young adults and minors is deeply disturbing.

The City Council will meet Tuesday to discuss the allegations and to give Caserta a public forum to respond.

Annie Ma is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ama@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @anniema15Five real-estate investors convicted in a conspiracy to rig bids at foreclosure auctions in the Bay Area were sentenced Tuesday to either prison or probation, and additionally ordered to pay nearly $7 million combined in fines and restitution, according to federal officials.

Joseph Giraudo, Raymond Grinsell, Daniel Rosenbledt and Mohammed Rezaian were convicted of bid rigging at real estate foreclosure auctions in San Mateo County and San Francisco County. Kevin Cullinane was convicted of bid rigging in San Mateo County.

The sentencings were the latest chapter in a sweeping investigation led by the Department of Justice.

DOJ officials said that amid the great recession, the defendants and other bidders hatched a plan to circumvent the legal system for bidding on foreclosed real estate. Their scheme, in effect, stifled competition and handed defendants below-market prices.

Between 2008 and January 2011, officials said, the defendants would select a winning bidder for selected properties and then agree not to bid against one another during the auction. The defendants would privately negotiate payoffs among themselves in return for not competing against one another, the statement said.

Proceeds from public auctions are used to pay off the propertys mortgage and other debt. Any remaining proceeds go to the homeowner.

Three of the defendants will serve time in prison, followed by a term of supervised release. Giraudo was sentenced to 15 months in prison, Cullinane to eight months and Rosenbledt to six months.

Grinsell was sentenced to three years of probation and Rezaian to four years of probation. Both terms of probation include a condition that the defendant live at a halfway house or re-entry center for several months.

As the sentences imposed yesterday show, bid rigging does not pay, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim for the Justice Departments Antitrust Division said in a press statement. In addition to facing prison time, defendants can expect to pay substantial criminal fines and restitution for their ill-gotten gains.

According to the statement, Giraudo was ordered to pay a criminal fine of $2 million, and Cullinane was ordered to pay a criminal fine of $500,000. Grinsell was ordered to pay a criminal fine of $1,433,045 and $156,146.79 in restitution; Rezaian a criminal fine of $1,236,355 and $110,155.70 in restitution; and Rosenbledt a criminal fine of $1,236,355 and $127,808 in restitution.

Officials said the amount of restitution paid by Giraudo and Cullinane will be decided at a later date.

Northern Californias bid-rigging investigations were conducted by the Antitrust Divisions San Francisco Office and the FBIs San Francisco Office. As of late last year, 62 people had pleaded guilty or agreed to plead guilty as a result of the investigation.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.comOne of two defendants in the fatal stabbing of a 19-year-old Lizette Cuesta  who identified her killers before dying  pleaded not guilty Thursday to a murder charge in an Alameda County courthouse, her defense attorney said.

Melissa Leonardo, 25, is scheduled to return to court at 9:15 a.m. July 19 for a pretrial hearing, according to jail records.

Her co-defendant, Daniel Gross, 19, also appeared in court Thursday and attempted to plead guilty to murder charges but was unable to after the Alameda County district attorney requested an amendment to the charges, said Daniel Shriro, the defense attorney representing Leonardo.

The DA objected to him pleading guilty because they wanted to amend the complaint to change the charge to a first-degree murder, Shriro said. As it is currently charged, it doesnt specify the degree.

Gross was expected to appear back in court later Thursday to determine his charges, Shriro said, adding that it its hard to know what will happen at his clients pretrial.

Cuesta, who lived in Modesto, was repeatedly stabbed Feb. 12 and left for dead on a rural highway in Livermore, authorities said. She crawled 100 yards until a passing motorist found her, and as the driver stopped to help and call 911, Cuesta reportedly said two names: Daniel Gross and Melissa Leonardo.

In addition to murder charges, Gross also faces felony charges for use of a deadly weapon and causing great bodily injury, according to jail records.

Cuesta was airlifted to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley. She identified Gross and Leonardo to both paramedics and investigators before dying at the hospital.

Both Gross and Leonardo are being held without bail at the Santa Rita Jail.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani3 1 of 3 Santa Rosa Police Department / Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Mark Wineman / Getty Images Show More Show Less 3 of 3





A $2,500 reward was issued for information leading to the arrest of two men accused of fatally stabbing another man Wednesday night in Santa Rosa, authorities said.

Johnny Luis Martinez, 20, and Gabriel Cardin Heredia, 25, both of Santa Rosa, were accused of repeatedly stabbing a man after a fight, said Sgt. Josh Ludtke, a spokesman for the Santa Rosa Police Department.Two brothers were charged with murder Wednesday in the fatal beating of a 38-year-old man after a dispute over alcohol in Richmond last weekend, authorities said.

Adrian Domingo, 24, and Omar Domingo, 18, were taken into custody shortly after a fight broke out Sunday night at Lucas Park on the 700 block of 10th Street, according to the Richmond Police Department.Federal authorities Wednesday moved to shut down two of the countrys most prominent for-profit providers of stem cell therapy, one of them a network of clinics with more than 100 offices in the United States, including several in the Bay Area.

The Food and Drug Administration filed two complaints in federal court requesting permanent injunctions that would stop Florida-based U.S. Stem Cell Clinic and the California Stem Cell Treatment Center from marketing therapies. Both companies have previously been called out by the FDA for providing unproven, unapproved therapies that could put patients at risk.

The injunction requests are an aggressive move by the FDA to patrol the consumer stem cell market. The agency has come under mounting pressure by scientists and patient advocates to increase oversight of the growing consumer market, which has been allowed to flourish for years.

In the two cases filed today, the clinics and their leadership have continued to disregard the law and more importantly, patient safety, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. We cannot allow unproven products that exploit the hope of patients and their loved ones.

The complaints were filed in U.S. District Court by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The move was a welcome surprise to scientists who have long criticized both the consumer clinics and the FDAs seeming reluctance to rein them in. The FDA announced new guidelines in November for the consumer stem cell industry, but had issued just one warning letter since then.

These are two of the biggest, most visible players in the marketplace. They make dramatic and unscientific marketing claims about treating all kinds of conditions, said Leigh Turner, a scientist with the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota. This is more than talk by the FDA. This is real action. Its a major development.

Both U.S. Stem Cell Clinic and California Treatment Center use a stem cell product that is made from patients own fat cells. The fat is collected via liposuction, then treated in a way to separate stem cells and other cellular products before being re-injected into the patient.

Providers at the clinics use the fat-derived product to treat a host of conditions, including multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons disease and arthritis. The therapies are not covered by insurance and often cost several thousand dollars.

U.S. Stem Cell Clinic was involved in the cases of three women in 2015 who were given stem cell injections in their eyes to treat vision problems and who ended up permanently blind; a fourth woman has come forward with a similar complaint. The clinic and its operators received a warning letter from the FDA in August accusing them of marketing products that were not federally approved and possibly putting patients at risk.

The California Stem Cell Treatment Center also has been targeted by the FDA in the past. It, too, has been involved in a case of a patient claiming to have been blinded by a stem cell treatment.

The FDA complaint filed Wednesday specifically refers to the California Stem Cell Treatment offices in Rancho Mirage (Riverside County) and Beverly Hills, but a spokeswoman for the agency said the injunction may apply to other clinics in the network. The networks website lists six clinics in the Bay Area.

Mark Berman, co-founder of the California Stem Cell Treatment Center, said Wednesday he was eager to face the FDA in court and resolve what amounts to a difference of opinion.

They want to say that your cells in your body are a drug. Their position is if its a drug it needs to be made just like every other mass-produced chemical product. Thats really silly, Berman said.

He added that his products may not have gone through the rigorous scientific testing that applies to new drugs, but hes satisfied that his therapies are safe and effective based on patient reports. We have a lot of wonderful outcomes, Berman said.

Turner said that kind of boasting is one reason why clinics like Bermans need to be better regulated. There is no evidence that these stem cell therapies work or that theyre safe, he said.

The FDA is taking important steps to provide better oversight and try to create a safer marketplace, Turner said.

Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinalldayMother's Day is right around the corner, so if you haven't already bought your mother her gift for this year, now would probably be a good time to do so.

If your mother enjoys cooking, then perhaps she'd enjoy one of the items in the slideshow above.A collision with a ship most likely killed the gray whale seen laying on an Angel Island beach Wednesday, according to a necropsy performed by the Marine Mammal Center and the California Academy of Sciences.

The carcass was the second in two months to wash up on Angel Island's Sand Springs Beach. It's the third whale death the center has responded to in 2018.

"Early in the necropsy, scientists discovered significant bruising and hemorrhaging to blubber and muscle tissue on the left side of the animal. While in a state of severe decomposition, the team noted multiple fractures to the animal's skull and contusions in the surrounding area consistent with blunt force trauma," read a statement from the Marine Mammal Center.

The scientists determined the most likely cause for such trauma was a collision with a vessel.

The gray whale was identified as a 44-foot adult female. The whale's carcass was first seen floating south of the Bay Bridge on Friday and then became stranded on the rocks near the Oakland Airport. The Marine Mammal Center hired a company to tow the animal to Angel Island on Tuesday afternoon so its researchers could perform a necropsy.

"While this is a sad outcome, the information gathered from this carcass is shared directly with our partners and partner agencies, helping inform policy decisions that can protect habitat areas, migration routes and food sources for marine mammals," said Padraig Duignan, chief research pathologist at the Marine Mammal Center.

San Francisco Whale Tours rerouted their whale watching trips to avoid Angel Island on Wednesday.

"It tends to upset passengers," said Michael Pierson, a naturalist with the company.

In March, a 28-foot juvenile male gray whale washed up on Angel Island State Park's Sand Springs Beach. Scientists from the Marine Mammal Center, the California Academy of Sciences and UC Davis determined the whale had died of severe malnutrition.

"This particular gray whale was likely in its first year of foraging on its own in the wild, and it's unknown whether this juvenile was following a food source into San Francisco Bay prior to its death," Duignan said.

Gray whales are migrating up the California coast from Mexico to Alaska for the summer. They can be seen in high numbers through the end of May, especially gray whale mothers and their calves, who are the last to make the northward migration.

Read Alix Martichoux's latest stories and send her news tips at amartichoux@sfchronicle.com.The body of Lindsey Baum, a 10-year-old girl who went missing in McCleary, Wash. nine years ago, has been recovered, according to an announcement from Grays Harbor Sheriff Rick Scott Thursday afternoon.

Baum seemingly disappeared while walking home from a friend's house in her McCleary neighborhood -- located about 50 miles east of the Pacific Coast -- June 26, 2009. She was last seen about 9:15 p.m. that night.

The case is now a homicide investigation. Hunters in a remote area of Eastern Washington found her remains in September 2017, though they didn't know it at the time.

The remains were turned over to local authorities, who released them to the FBI for DNA analysis. Because they weren't connected to a known criminal case, they weren't examined until recent weeks, Scott said.

The results came back matching Baum's DNA.

"We've brought Lindsey home," Scott said.

Now investigators will look for who Scott called a "monster" who apparently abducted and killed her.

The location where she was found is being kept vague by authorities to preserve the integrity of the crime scene for an extensive investigation, Scott said. The cause of her death was also not announced.

Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office

Scott said in 2013 that more than 30 people had been examined as a "person of interest" for varying amounts of time and different reasons, but no one was considered a suspect.

RELATED: When children go missing: A look at six Northwest cases

"I was glad to bring some element of closure to what had happened to her," Scott said Thursday.

Baum would have turned 20 years old in July.



An investigation into two elderly brothers living at Green Lake last year also yielded a possible connection to Baum, though that wasn't detailed at Thursday's announcement.

The investigation into the Emery brothers began Aug. 9, after a relative notified police of the discovery of child pornography while packing up 82-year-old Charles Emery's possessions to move him into a memory care facility. Thomas, 80, and Edwin Emery, 78, were still living in the two-story home in the 100 block of Northeast 59th Street when police arrested them. All three are now jailed.

Investigators arriving at the home found it covered "floor to ceiling with child exploitative images, children's clothing articles, toys and movies," Senior Deputy Prosecutor Cecelia Gregson wrote in charging documents. Handwritten notes found at the home described the murder of children.

RELATED: First look at reclusive Seattle brothers accused of sex crimes

Seattle police also searched a rural, wooded residence near Shelton once occupied by a fourth Emery brother who recently died. That search raised suspicions that the brothers may have been involved in Baum's disappearance.

Scott hopes that anyone who has information on Baum's death will report it.

The Sheriff's Office asks tipsters to call 360-964-1799 or email baumtips@co.grays-harbor.wa.us.

"There's someone out there who knows who did this and how it happened," he said.

SeattlePI reporter Lynsi Burton can be reached at 206-448-8381 or lynsiburton@seattlepi.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LynsiBurton_PI. Find more from Lynsi here on her author page.Breaking In is an effective home invasion thriller, with Gabrielle Union trying to protect her kids from four highly dangerous maniacs, at least two of whom (maybe three, and possibly four) are either murderers or willing to add murder to their antisocial repertoire.

Its an easy movie to disrespect, an 88-minute mini nervous breakdown that audiences, once recovered, will start mocking long before they even make it to their car. Yet even as theyre laughing at Breaking In, they may find themselves walking to that car a bit faster than usual and looking around to see if anyone else is there. Yes, theres no higher purpose behind the movie, just an ambition to make you enjoy being uneasy. Still, in its very limited way, Breaking In could be called some kind of a good movie.

It was directed by James McTeigue, whose first film, V for Vendetta (2005), will probably go down as a classic. Since then, he has aimed lower (Ninja Assassin), but he knows how to build a suspenseful atmosphere and still take a viewer by surprise. An early scene of a man going for a morning run is somehow infused with a sense of foreboding, and McTeigue delivers on that boding in the first of many jolts.

Next thing we know, Union, as Shaun, a mother of two, is driving into the country to get her late fathers house ready to be sold. The house is fairly huge, and because Dad was both crooked and paranoid, theres an intricate security system in place. It so happens that Shaun is an expert on that system, having grown up in that house, and that fact will become important as the film wears on.

By the way, there are some movies where it seems odd and almost disingenuous to refer to the person onscreen by the name of the character and not the actor. One of the strengths of Breaking In is the convincing strength of Union herself, if not personally (I know next to nothing about her outside of movies), then in terms of what she seems to embody on screen. She has always had a lot of confidence and a hint of anger about her, and the mother in this movie needs to call upon both.

Or to put it another way, Gabrielle Union doesnt need to find Shaun. Rather Shaun needs to find the Gabrielle Union within.

Like some wacky, borderline crazed combination of Home Alone and Die Hard, Breaking In presents two kids held hostage, while the mother, outside the house, does everything she can to rescue them. Sometimes that means sneaking back into the house, and sometimes it means staying outside. If theres a weakness to the movie, its that, despite its gut-level appeal, it doesnt dazzle us with anything brilliant or unexpected. However, there are some nifty turns here and there, so its not entirely mediocre.

Among the bad guys, the most notable is Richard Cabral, who apparently has done a lot of work in television, but this was the first Ive noticed him. He looks mean and irrational, a remorseless psycho, and to see him is to know this actor did not spend four years in college followed by three years getting a masters of fine arts degree from NYU or Yale. No, Cabrals insight into the human condition was honed at another institution  a prison  where he spent five years for assault with a deadly weapon.

I want to see more of this actor. Hes scary.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles movie critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle

Breaking In

Thriller. Starring Gabrielle Union and Richard Cabral. Directed by James McTeigue. (PG-13. 88 minutes.)

Movie newsletter

Get the latest movie reviews, Mick LaSalles views, critics picks and more film news each week in the San Francisco Chronicles revamped movie newsletter! Sign up here for Popcorn Picks and other Chronicle and SFGATE newsletters like the Taploid, Chronicle Commuter, and breaking news alerts.WASHINGTON  Democrats on the House intelligence committee have released more than 3,500 Facebook ads that were created or promoted by a Russian internet agency, providing the fullest picture yet of Russias attempt to sow racial and political division in the U.S. before and after the 2016 election.

Most of the ads are issue-based, pushing arguments for and against immigration, LGBT issues and gun rights, among other issues. A large number of them attempt to stoke racial divisions by mentioning police brutality or disparaging the Black Lives Matter movement. Some promote President Trump or Bernie Sanders, who ran against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary. Few, if any, support Clinton.

The intelligence committee Democrats released a sampling of the ads purchased by Russias Internet Research Agency last year, but they are now releasing the full cache of ads that Facebook officials turned over to the panel after acknowledging in September they had discovered the Russian efforts. The release of ads from early 2015 through mid-2017 does not include 80,000 posts that the agency also shared. Some of the ads are partially redacted, part of an effort by Facebook and the committee to protect unsuspecting people whose names or faces were used.

A review of the thousands of ads and their data shows how precisely the agency targeted them.

Some ads designed to appeal to critics of immigration were targeted to users who liked specific Fox News hosts, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Old Glory and the United States Constitution.

Others were more narrowly targeted. Facebook users within 12 miles of Buffalo, N.Y., were directed to an event supporting justice for a black woman who died in a county jail. Another ad criticizing a Texas school teacher who lost her job after making racist remarks was aimed at adults living in Cleveland, Baltimore, St. Louis and Ferguson, Mo.

As the Russians attempted to pose as Americans, their language sometimes hinted at their origin. One ad railed against immigrants who should prove that they are deserved to stay in the United States. Another read: Your life matter. My life matter. Black matters.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, said he was releasing the ads so it doesnt happen again.

The only way we can begin to inoculate ourselves against a future attack is to see firsthand the types of messages, themes and imagery the Russians used to divide us, he said.

Mary Clare Jalonick is an Associated Press writer.1 Immigration lawsuit: A lawsuit filed to protect Haitian and Salvadoran immigrants from President Trumps decision to end a special status that has allowed them to live and work in the U.S. for years has been expended to include Honduran immigrants. The federal suit brought by the Boston-based Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice was amended Wednesday to include a new plaintiff: a Honduran immigrant who has been on Temporary Protected Status since 1999. Yesy Patricia Carbajal, of Revere, joins 13 other immigrants from Haiti and El Salvador in the lawsuit, which argues that the decision to end their special status was racially motivated.

2 Service dog scam: A Virginia nonprofit is accused of delivering poorly trained service dogs to customers who paid thousands. News outlets report Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring filed a lawsuit this week against Warren Retrievers Inc. and its CEO, Charles Warren Jr., accusing them of misleading people about so-called diabetic alert dogs. The lawsuit says the Culpeper-based nonprofit told consumers they would receive a trained dog that could detect extreme blood sugar levels and alert humans. Instead, the lawsuit alleges, consumers received ill-behaved Labrador retriever puppies that were little more than expensive pets.Six people were taken to a hospital this afternoon after having symptoms of burning in their noses and mouths in a classroom at Oak Grove High School in San Jose, a fire spokesman said.

Fire officials were notified shortly after 3 p.m. that some people at the school were experiencing respiratory distress, fire spokesman Capt. Mitch Matlow said.OAKLAND (BCN)

An East Oakland community group says that Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf's recently-announced plan to hire three litter enforcement officers to fight illegal dumping isn't a strong enough measure to fight the perennial problem in her city.

Members of the East Oakland Congress of Neighborhoods said in a statement that Schaaf's announcement last week of a plan to hire three litter enforcement officers at a annual cost of $452,000 is "insufficient and overly focused on enforcement as a solution."

The community group organized a "Trash Tour" on March 17 that began at Schaaf's home and continued to several affluent areas to highlight what it alleges are unequal services in the city's high-income areas in the hills and low-income neighborhoods in the flatlands.

The group said the city didn't respond to its proposed solutions so on April 16 hundreds of residents from East and West Oakland rallied to express their frustration with the lack of action to solve the illegal dumping crisis in flatland neighborhoods.

The East Oakland Congress of Neighborhoods said it proposed hiring three litter enforcement officers but it also made other demands: having one new Public Works crew focused on illegal dumping, better lighting in chronic dumping areas and a zone-based clean-up system focused on illegal dumping hotspots instead of simply reacting to complaints.

The group said city councilmembers Desley Brooks, Annie Campbell-Washington, Noel Gallo, Abel Guillen and Rebecca Kaplan have all agreed to find funding for that package of demands in the mid-cycle budget review process that ends in June.

Schaaf's spokesman Justin Berton said, "Our community asked for three litter enforcement officers to catch illegal dumpers and Mayor Schaaf and Councilmember Guillen responded."

Berton said, "The shared goal is to see an Oakland where every neighborhood is clean and no child is forced to walk around a garbage pile. Until that's a reality, the mayor, city staff, and the community will work on solutions together - including catching those responsible for dumping on Oakland."

Evangelina Lara, a Congress leader who lives in council District 2, said, "We pay taxes just like residents in the hills. We want to see the same level of city services here in the flatlands."

Lara said, "We expect all of our demands to be met in the mid-cycle budget review process, as was promised on April 16. We intend to make sure that city officials fulfill their commitments to the community."

She said, "The time for partial solutions and unmet promises is over."

Chris Jackson, a Congress leader who lives in council District 7, said, "The issue of illegal dumping is an issue of access and equity. We have some councilmembers and a mayor who tell us that Oakland is 'inclusive' and a 'sanctuary' for the vulnerable, yet the streets in sanctuary neighborhoods are uncared for."

Jackson said, "They can do more. Equity is everyone getting what they need to thrive. We expect elected leaders to support all of our demands, not the punitive ones they like best."

Manuel Arias, a Congress leader in District 5, said, "We will continue to organize -- our children, elders, parents and all residents deserve better. No one's children should have to walk over garbage to go to school."A residential one-alarm fire this afternoon in San Francisco has been contained to one home near Golden Gate Park, according to fire officials.

The fire was first reported at about 3:55 p.m. in the 3800 block of Fulton Street, near 15th Avenue and just across from the park, fire officials said.OAKLAND (BCN)

Goodwill Industries of the East Bay Area and an affiliate have agreed to pay $850,000 to eight current and former employees to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said today.

According to the suit the EEOC filed in federal court in Oakland against Goodwill and affiliate Calidad Industries Inc., six female janitors assigned to work the night shift at the federal building in Oakland faced routine sexual harassment by their direct supervisor.

The plaintiffs in the case included young women with developmental disabilities who were relatively new to the workforce and were employed by Goodwill and Calidad's janitorial operations under a federal government contract.

The EEOC also charged that two managers were unfairly criticized and disciplined in retaliation for supporting the women's sexual harassment claims and one manager was forced to resign.

Former employee Crystal Edwards said in a statement, "I was only 19 years old when I worked at Calidad. It was my first job and I enjoyed being able to earn my own money."

Edwards said, "But after my boss put his arms around me, I did not feel safe at work and my complaints were ignored. I am glad the EEOC filed this lawsuit to stop the harassment and to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else."

Former employee Phyllis Sloan said, "I reported the harassment as soon as it started but nothing changed. So I went to the EEOC and they were able to help me."

Former manager Lisa Short said, "Within weeks of my start date, my employees trusted me enough to describe the harassment they faced on the nightshift. I knew my job could be on the line but I needed to make sure my workers were safe."

EEOC officials said Short was concerned when higher management failed to take effective action so she sought help from the Federal Protective Service and ultimately helped the women in filing discrimination complaints with the EEOC.

EEOC officials filed the suit after an investigation conducted by their investigator Christopher Green and attempting through its conciliation process to reach an out of court settlement.

According to the consent decree signed by U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers, Goodwill and Calidad will pay $850,000 to the plaintiffs in the case.

The decree also calls for the employers to revise their equal employment opportunity policies and complaint and investigation procedures, institute supervisor accountability policies concerning discrimination issues, train their workforce and hire a consultant to monitor any responses to future complaints.

The companies are also required to provide reports to the EEOC about adhering to the terms of the settlement.

EEOC San Francisco district director William Tamayo said, "The #MeToo movement illustrates that sexual harassment impacts people across industries, from white collar to blue collar work, across class, race, age, gender and abilities."

Turner said, "In this case, there were many factors that contributed to the vulnerability of these janitors: all were African-American and many were young females new to the workplace who had disabilities and were working the isolated night shift."

According to its website, Calidad Industries is a nonprofit affiliate created by Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay in 1989 to provide employment and life skills training to people living with medically-certified physical, mental or psychological impairments.

Calidad says it focuses on providing its employees living with severe and long-term disabilities with paid on-the-job skills training and stable employment.

Goodwill Industries of the East Bay Area wasn't immediately available for comment on the settlement.NOTICE:

TO BE CLEAR:

WE HAVE OUTLINED UNDER OUR RECORD MAINTENANCE POLICY WHAT WE BELIEVE TO BE A FAIR PROCESS FOR ALL. SIMPLY PUT: IF THE COURT SAW FIT TO EXPUNGE YOUR RECORD,SO WILL WE, FREE OF CHARGE. ARRESTS DO NOT IMPLY GUILT AND CRIMINAL CHARGES ARE MERELY ACCUSATIONS,EVERYONE IS PRESUMED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY IN A COURT OF LAW AND CONVICTED. FCRA DISCLAIMER: MUGSHOTS.COM DOES NOT PROVIDE CONSUMER REPORTS AND IS NOT A CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCY. OUR DATABASE CANNOT BE USED TO MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT CONSUMER CREDIT, EMPLOYMENT, INSURANCE, TENANT SCREENING, OR ANY OTHER PURPOSES THAT WOULD REQUIRE FCRA COMPLIANCE. MUGSHOTS.COM PARTICIPATES IN AFFILIATE PROGRAMS WITH VARIOUS COMPANIES. WE MAY EARN A COMMISSION WHEN YOU CLICK ON OR MAKE PURCHASES VIA LINKS. MUGSHOTS.COM IS AN AGGREGATOR OF THE TODAYS CRIME NEWS. IN EACH FRONT-PAGE POST, THE HYPERLINK TO THE PRIMARY SOURCE IS SPECIFIED. ALL TRADEMARKS BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS, ALL MATERIALS TO THEIR AUTHORS. IF YOU ARE THE OWNER OF THE CONTENT AND DO NOT WANT US TO PUBLISH YOUR MATERIALS, PLEASE CONTACT US BY EMAIL mugshots.com1@gmail.com. THE CONTENT WILL BE DELETED WITHIN 48 HOURS.

MUGSHOTS.COM IS A NEWS ORGANIZATION. WE POST AND WRITE THOUSANDS OF NEWS STORIES A YEAR, MOST WANTED STORIES, EDITORIALS (UNDER CATEGORIES - BLOG) AND STORIES OF EXONERATIONS. OUR CONTENT REVOLVES AROUND CRIME, ARRESTS AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT. WE BELIEVE IN THE CONSTITUTION AND OUR FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO PUBLISH UNPOPULAR SPEECH. OPEN RECORD LAWS WERE WRITTEN TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC; BY INFORMING THE PUBLIC OF ARRESTS AND TO HOLD LAW ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE HUMANE TREATMENT OF ARRESTEES. MOST OF, IF NOT ALL MUGSHOT LAWS WERE CRAFTED TO PROTECT THE PUBLIC FROM FEES FOR REMOVAL OF ONLINE MUGSHOTS AND TO FURTHER PROTECT THE PRESS FROM THOSE VERY SAME "MUGSHOT LAWS".WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR REMOVAL OF ARREST INFORMATION AND/OR BOOKING PHOTOGRAPHS. MORE...SANTA ROSA (BCN)

Two Santa Rosa men were sentenced Tuesday to lengthy prison terms for a gang-related attempted murder of another man who helped police investigate a gang-related stabbing, Sonoma County prosecutors said.

Salvador Flores Jr., 19, was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison while Gustavo Castillo, 25, was sentenced to 21 years and four months in prison, according to the district attorney's office. Both men were charged with committing the crime to benefit the Sureno criminal street gang.

The victim was sitting in his vehicle in a driveway on Aug. 28, 2016, when Flores and Castillo walked up to him and fired five shots from a revolver through the car's windshield, prosecutors said.

The victim was struck twice but did not suffer life-threatening injuries. Santa Rosa police arrested Flores and Castillo nearby.

The victim had cooperated with police who were investigating a gang-related stabbing. The stabbing suspect, also a Sureno gang member, ultimately was sentenced to a prison term and the retaliatory attempted murder shooting happened a short time later, according to prosecutors.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A suspect in a 2017 robbery, whose case inspired a landmark state appeals court ruling challenging the state's bail system earlier this year, was released from a San Francisco jail today after spending nearly a year in custody.

Last Thursday, superior court Judge Brendan Conroy agreed to release Kenneth Humphrey, 64, ahead of his trial to a Mission District residential recovery facility for seniors.

This morning, Humphrey's attorney Deputy Public Defender Anita Nabha said that it took about six days to release him because, first he had to be interviewed by sheriff's officials and then he had to be explained the rules of wearing an ankle monitor, which is one of the conditions of his release.

On Tuesday, Nabha said she learned that Humphrey would be released and went to speak with him.

"He's doing well," she said. "He certainly is looking forward to being out of custody and he's very grateful that he had a full and fair bail hearing and that the court found that it was appropriate to release him with these conditions," Nabha said.

In addition to wearing an ankle monitor, Humphrey will also be put on house arrest, meaning he can't leave the treatment facility, and will be subject to searches. He also has to stay away from the victim in the case and the Turk Street residential senior facility where the alleged crime occurred.

Humphrey, a retired shipyard laborer, is accused of entering his 79-year-old neighbor's apartment, threatening him, and then stealing $5 and a bottle of cologne. He was initially booked into jail on May 24, 2017 and subsequently charged with robbery, burglary, elder abuse and theft.

After his arrest, Humphrey's bail was initially set at $600,000 based on the state's bail schedule, but a judge eventually lowered it to $350,000 after the San Francisco public defender's office argued that the initial amount was excessive and that Humphrey did not pose a risk to the public.

In January, after reviewing Humphrey's case, the state's 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled that a judge must consider the defendant's ability to pay when setting bail. Setting bail higher than a person can afford effectively jails the defendant for being poor, the ruling concluded.

In the months after the ruling, however, Humphrey remained jailed.

During his bail hearing last week, prosecutors sought to keep him in custody, citing previous robbery convictions going back to the 1980s, which they said showed that Humphrey was a threat to public safety and had a pattern of preying on vulnerable victims such as women and the elderly.

A jury trial date may be scheduled during a court hearing set for Monday. Humphrey is not expected to be present.SAN JOSE (BCN)

Veterans, representatives of environmental groups, and leaders from both the Democratic and Republican parties of Santa Clara County joined San Jose's mayor today to denounce a measure that promises affordable housing for seniors and veterans.

The coalition appropriately gathered at the Veterans Memorial in San Jose to discuss Measure B, a proposal that will appear on the June 5 ballot. They believe that the measure is "a billionaire-backed ballot measure that is misleading voters with false promises of homes for veterans."

According to the Evergreen Senior Homes campaign website, the proposal would mean 910 residential units for "active, independent seniors" in the Evergreen neighborhood.

According to the campaign, an estimated 182 units will be designated as affordable, being offered below market prices for the "seniors and veterans that need them most."

However, Mayor Sam Liccardo said that recent mailers that went out to voters in Santa Clara County are not honest. The mayor said that not a single veteran will be required to be housed in the development.

Vietnam veteran and community leader Tito Cortez confirmed that fact and predicted that none will occupy the housing development because they would not be able to afford it.

Megan Medeiros, director of the Committee for Green Foothills, offered perspective on what effects the proposed facility would have on the surrounding areas of Evergreen, saying that the facility would create sprawl on undeveloped hillsides and threaten nearby Coyote Valley.

On the Measure B campaign website, supporters said the measure would garner millions of dollars for local government services such as parks, libraries and neighborhood school districts without raising taxes.

Medeiros said that this is not the case and that the measure also would not provide enough money for the road and traffic fees that are normally required.

The measure does not require a community and environmental review either, according to Medeiros.

A few supporters of Measure B were in attendance at the conference, which Liccardo noted. He emphasized that the coalition against Measure B is completely volunteer-based and no one was paid to be there.

Later, Liccardo said that while he doesn't know for sure if Measure B proponents pay people to advertise for them, he does know that their campaign will bring in over a billion dollars.

Councilwoman Sylvia Arenas, who represents District 8 where the development would be built, said that community members and residents from her jurisdiction were not approached about the "senior housing."

Arenas compared the possible housing as "country club-like."

Arenas' predecessor and veteran Rose Herrera called the measure "cynical" and noted how important it was that veterans came out to oppose the plan, as they are normally "quietly proud" about their service for the country.

"We don't want our names used in vain," Herrera said. "It will not help veterans, will not help seniors, but simply puts millions of dollars in a developer's pocket."

Liccardo said that the coalition's efforts will continue until June 5 so that voters are aware of what is going on.

The mailers that have been sent out are morally corrupt, and it's the coalition's duty to stand together as Republicans and Democrats and let people know that they stand for a fair, truthful election process, the mayor said.

"Our veterans have served our country, they have bled for our country," Liccardo said. "They deserve the truth, not to be exploited or misled."

Marissa Currie of the Evergreen Senior Homes campaign said that Measure B would be developing 200 acres of "underutilized and vacant employment land" to create an opportunity for 900 homes with 20 percent of it being affordable housing.

"This is an incredibly compelling community benefit in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis that is hitting seniors and veterans particularly hard," Currie said. "The evident hypocrisy in city policy is unfair, and one of the reasons that the initiative process was undertaken."

Currie said that more than 35,000 voters have voiced their support for Measure B, some of those supporters being those who are suffering from the housing crisis themselves, despite "unjustified opposition from city leaders who appear to want to make housing opportunities for seniors and veterans nearly impossible anywhere in the city."SANTA ROSA (BCN)

Local, state and federal officials today announced the virtual completion of debris removal from 4,500 parcels burned or damaged in the October wildfires in Sonoma, Napa, Lake and Mendocino counties.

The 99 percent completion "milestone" was reached seven months and one day after the fires and six months after the debris removal began.

Officials said the 2.2 million tons of debris from the four counties that was hauled to seven landfills is one of the largest such operations in state history. The Sonoma County landfill received 40 percent of the total, Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane said.

"This is not just about the numbers. This represents people's lives and memories. Forty people died that night," Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Coursey said.

The fires burned an estimated 5,300 homes and apartments in Sonoma County, including 3,000 in Santa Rosa where 117 homes are now under construction, 85 have received permits to rebuild and 163 are awaiting permit approval, Coursey said.

Debris must still be removed from two parcels in Sonoma County on Alpine Road off Calistoga Road north of Santa Rosa. A temporary bridge will be built to access the property and remove the debris, said Sean Smith, statewide debris coordinator for the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services.

Most residents elected to have the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers remove hazardous burn debris from their property, but 419 parcel owners chose to have a private contractor handle the job, Santa Rosa Assistant Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal said.

"Only three parcels still need debris removed and they are in the abatement process," Lowenthal said.

Mark Ghilarducci, director of Cal OES, said the coordinated response to debris removal was "a one team, one fight effort" by elected officials, state and federal agencies and the community.

"There was a tremendous amount of coordination," Ghilarducci said.

He said Cal OES will remain after the debris removal and help "rebuild to the fullest" with state and federal money.

"There is more left to do. We know people are still hurting. Some of our staff in Oakland were affected by the fires. We're not going away. This is a long-term recovery," said Bill Roche, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Region 9 coordinating officer.

Col. Eric McFadden, deputy commander of the South Pacific Division of the Army Corps of Engineers, said more than 850 volunteers from the corps participated in the debris removal.

"Our role is to support our state and local partners," McFadden said.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency had 300 staff members and contractors "with boots on the ground" in mid-October in Sonoma and Napa counties and later in Lake and Mendocino counties, EPA Region 9 director Enrique Manzanilla said.

More than 6,500 parcels were cleared, 700 of them containing asbestos, and 2,600 tons of hazardous waste were removed, Manzanilla said.

He said the scale of the debris removal was "unprecedented."

The debris removal from 314 square miles of land affected by the fires should be completed by the end of May, Ghilarducci said.

"We are fully into the recovery stage," Coursey said.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Fire crews extinguished a 1-alarm fire near Twin Peaks in San Francisco early this morning, fire officials said.

The blaze was reported around 2:10 a.m. today, on the fourth floor of a four-story building, according to fire officials.

The fire was extinguished, fire officials said, at 3:02 a.m. At least one person was taken to the hospital for evaluation due to smoke inhalation and two others were displaced.

No further information was immediately available.SANTA ROSA (BCN)

A man was fatally stabbed during a fight in Santa Rosa on Wednesday evening, according to police.

The people involved were gone when officers responded around 7:45 p.m. to a report of a fight in the 1200 block of Slater Street, police Sgt. Josh Ludtke said.

Kaiser Permanente Medical Center staff notified police a short time later that a male stabbing victim was at the hospital. The victim was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital due to the serious of his injuries, and he died there, Ludtke said. His name has not been released.

The victim was stabbed a number of times and the suspects fled in a vehicle believed to be a white Chevrolet Equinox with California license plate No. 6YZM739, Ludtke said.

Police identified the suspects as Johnny Luis Martinez, 20, and Gabriel Cardin Heredia, 25, both of Santa Rosa. The department released photos of the suspects, who are both still at large, Ludtke said.

Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call the Police Department's violent crimes investigations team at (707) 543-3590.SAN JOSE (BCN)

A Salinas man was sentenced in federal court in San Jose Wednesday to nine years and six months in prison for conspiring to rob banks in San Jose and Monterey County, the armed robbery of a Pacific Grove bank and using guns during the heists.

Francisco Marmolejo, 36, was given the prison term by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, who also ordered him to pay $52,854 in restitution to the robbed banks.

Marmolejo pleaded guilty before Koh on Jan. 5 to three counts: conspiracy to rob four banks in 2011 and 2012, the armed robbery of a Chase Bank branch in Pacific Grove on Nov. 9, 2011, and possessing and brandishing a gun during armed robberies.

Prosecutors said Marmolejo was the getaway driver for three other men in the Pacific Grove robbery, which netted the thieves $18,383.

In the conspiracy count, Marmolejo pleaded guilty to plotting to rob the Pacific Grove bank and three other banks in Salinas, Seaside and San Jose between November 2011 and January 2012.

He pleaded guilty to carrying out the Pacific Grove robbery in a second, separate count.

U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Abraham Simmons said that while Marmolejo did not plead guilty to carrying out the other robberies, he acknowledged in his written plea agreement that he engaged in the robberies in Seaside and Salinas as well as Pacific Grove.

Prosecutors said in a filing that Marmolejo was arrested in a stolen car in Gilroy on March 14, 2012, and that police found equipment including three ski masks, three ballistic vests, three semi-automatic handguns, a variant of an AK-47 rifle, two two-way radios and bear repellant.

Simmons said Marmolejo admitted in the federal plea agreement that he had possessed the items and that they were used in bank robberies.

Marmolejo was convicted in Santa Clara County Superior Court and sentenced to 12 years in state prison for several gun charges and possession of stolen property in connection with the items found in the car.

Koh ruled on Wednesday that Marmolejo will get federal credit for two years and six months of his state prison term, but must then serve the remaining seven years of his federal sentence in a U.S. prison.

A co-defendant, Jorge Lopez, pleaded guilty to the same three charges in December and will be sentenced by Koh on July 11.A man was fatally stabbed during a fight in Santa Rosa on Wednesday evening, according to police.

The people involved were gone when officers responded around 7:45 p.m. to a report of a fight in the 1200 block of Slater Street, police Sgt. Josh Ludtke said.

Kaiser Permanente Medical Center staff notified police a short time later that a male stabbing victim was at the hospital. The victim was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital due to the serious of his injuries, and he died there, Ludtke said. His name has not been released.

The victim was stabbed a number of times and the suspects fled in a vehicle believed to be a white Chevrolet Equinox with California license plate No. 6YZM739, Ludtke said.

Police identified the suspects as Johnny Luis Martinez, 20, and Gabriel Cardin Heredia, 25, both of Santa Rosa. The department released photos of the suspects, who are both still at large, Ludtke said.

Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call the Police Department's violent crimes investigations team at (707) 543-3590.

The Santa Clara County medical examiner's office identified a man who was shot and killed in east San Jose early Sunday morning as 25-year-old Rufino Banuelos Benitez.

San Jose police officers found Banuelos Benitez, a San Jose resident, around 12:10 a.m. near Story Road and Jackson Avenue. Upon arrival, the officers discovered that he was suffering from at least one gunshot wound.

Banuelos Benitez was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. The homicide is the city's eighth on city streets in 2018.

As of this morning, police had no further information available on the case, according to a police spokeswoman.

A man who died at the scene of a head-on collision on state Highway 1 in Pescadero on Saturday night has been identified as 63-year-old J. Guadalupe Hernandez Camacho, according to the San Mateo County coroner's office.

Camacho, a Pescadero resident, was a passenger in a northbound Ford Contour that crossed into the southbound lane and struck a Toyota 4Runner around 8:40 p.m. just south of Bean Hollow Road.

Paulino Najera, the driver, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. He suffered major injuries and was transported to Stanford Medical Center by helicopter.

A third victim was also transported to Stanford Medical Center with major injuries.

An update on the survivors' conditions was not immediately available.

An early morning fire displaced seven people and damaged a four-story apartment building in San Francisco's Twin Peaks neighborhood, fire officials said.

Firefighters responded to the one-alarm blaze at about 2:10 a.m. at Glendale and Market streets.

Crews were able to extinguish the fire within about an hour, according to fire officials.

One person suffered injuries not considered life-threatening and they were taken to a hospital.

Residents on the first and second floor were able to return to their units, but the third floor is without power and a unit on the fourth floor sustained extensive damage, fire officials said.

In all, an estimated 21 people were affected by the blaze.

The American Red Cross and city departments are assisting the affected residents. A resident who uses a wheelchair was able to stay with a neighbor and is contacting On Lok Lifeways, which provide services for senior citizens.

Fire investigators are looking into what caused the blaze.

An incident that made students and teachers ill at Oak Grove High School in San Jose on Wednesday afternoon was likely caused by pepper spray, according to the East Side Union High School District.

Officials at the school at 285 Blossom Hill Road notified emergency medical services and the San Jose Fire Department to report a foreign smell in a biology classroom around 3 p.m., school district officials said.

About 10 students and the teacher suffered from teary eyes and itchiness and were immediately evacuated from the room, according to the district.

One student was transported to a hospital due to shortness of breath, district officials said.

There was a concern that the smell was emerging from a gas leak, but in the end district officials concluded that it was pepper spray.

Parents and guardians were contacted and picked up their students. Fire officials asked others in the classroom who went home to shower and wash their clothes to call 911 if they felt sick.

A hazardous materials crew in protective gear went into the classroom to try to determine what the agent was that caused the symptoms, San Jose Fire Capt. Mitch Matlow said.

Matlow said a total of 12 people experienced symptoms and that all were decontaminated and treated at the school.

Palo Alto police have released a sketch of the primary suspect who allegedly threatened a teenage boy with a gun, punched him in the head and proceeded to rob him before fleeing on Saturday night.

Officers are investigating the incident, which took place downtown just after 10:45 p.m. at the corner of Lytton Avenue and Kipling Street.

The Palo Alto police dispatch center received a call about the robbery at 11:17 p.m. Upon arrival, officers were informed by the minor that four suspects had fled in a car.

An investigation revealed that the boy was talking on his cellphone, walking down Lytton Avenue when he reached the corner of Kipling Street and was approached by three suspects who demanded the phone.

When the victim refused, the primary suspect in the sketch asked a second suspect to hand him a gun. They told the victim to get on the ground and pointed the gun in his direction, police said.

The boy refused again to surrender his belongings or meet their demands of getting down, police said. The suspect in the sketch then punched the boy, causing him to land on the ground. The suspects went through his pockets, taking his cellphone and cash while he was down.

The suspects ran to a black four-door sedan driven by a fourth person that was waiting for them, police said. The vehicle took off going south on Kipling Street towards University Avenue.

The boy suffered a small abrasion to the head from the suspect's punch, according to police.

The suspects were described as three men in their 20s.

The suspect in the sketch was described as a Hispanic man who was 5 feet 10 inches tall with a thin build and was wearing a black zippered hooded sweatshirt over a white shirt.

The second suspect who handed the primary suspect the gun is said to be a Hispanic man who is about 5 feet 7 inches tall with a short "fade" haircut and was wearing a black T-shirt and blue jeans.

The victim could not describe the third suspect or the suspect driving the getaway car, police said.

Anyone with information on the suspect in the sketch or others that may have been involved in the armed robbery should call the police dispatch center at (650) 329-2413.

Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org, sent via text or voicemail to (650) 383-8984 or submitted through the department's free mobile app.

Goodwill Industries of the East Bay Area and an affiliate have agreed to pay $850,000 to eight current and former employees to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said today.

According to the suit the EEOC filed in federal court in Oakland against Goodwill and affiliate Calidad Industries Inc., six female janitors assigned to work the night shift at the federal building in Oakland faced routine sexual harassment by their direct supervisor.

The plaintiffs in the case included young women with developmental disabilities who were relatively new to the workforce and were employed by Goodwill and Calidad's janitorial operations under a federal government contract.

The EEOC also charged that two managers were unfairly criticized and disciplined in retaliation for supporting the women's sexual harassment claims and one manager was forced to resign.

Former employee Crystal Edwards said in a statement, "I was only 19 years old when I worked at Calidad. It was my first job and I enjoyed being able to earn my own money."

Edwards said, "But after my boss put his arms around me, I did not feel safe at work and my complaints were ignored. I am glad the EEOC filed this lawsuit to stop the harassment and to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else."

Former manager Lisa Short said, "Within weeks of my start date, my employees trusted me enough to describe the harassment they faced on the nightshift. I knew my job could be on the line but I needed to make sure my workers were safe."

EEOC officials said Short was concerned when higher management failed to take effective action so she sought help from the Federal Protective Service and ultimately helped the women in filing discrimination complaints with the EEOC.

EEOC officials filed the suit after an investigation conducted by their investigator Christopher Green and attempting through its conciliation process to reach an out of court settlement.

According to the consent decree signed by U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers, Goodwill and Calidad will pay $850,000 to the plaintiffs in the case.

EEOC San Francisco district director William Tamayo said, "The #MeToo movement illustrates that sexual harassment impacts people across industries, from white collar to blue collar work, across class, race, age, gender and abilities."

According to its website, Calidad Industries is a nonprofit affiliate created by Goodwill Industries of the Greater East Bay in 1989 to provide employment and life skills training to people living with medically-certified physical, mental or psychological impairments.

Calidad says it focuses on providing its employees living with severe and long-term disabilities with paid on-the-job skills training and stable employment.

Goodwill Industries of the East Bay Area wasn't immediately available for comment on the settlement.

The Monterey County District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday that manslaughter charges will not be filed against a Seaside woman for her part in a fatal collision last August.

Miriam Smith, 60, will be charged with driving without a valid driver's license or insurance after her actions were reviewed in relation to a crash on Fremont Boulevard in Seaside that killed 23-year-old Jesse Lopez.

On Aug. 29, 2017, Lopez and a Marina resident riding on the back of his motorcycle were traveling in the right-hand slow lane when Smith changed lanes in her Dodge van and collided with them, prosecutors said.

In changing from the left lane to the right lane, Smith knocked Lopez off the motorcycle and caused his death, according to the district attorney's office.

Seaside police investigated the collision and ultimately arrested Smith on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter for failure to yield before the lane change, as well as driving with no driver's license, no insurance and delaying the investigation, according to prosecutors.

Investigators determined that there was an insufficient amount of evidence to prosecute Smith for vehicular manslaughter, which requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was negligent and caused the death.

According to prosecutors, none of the witnesses could testify that Lopez was traveling within the speed limit. His injuries indicated he was actually traveling at a high rate of speed, according to two doctors that examined his body.

Two Santa Rosa men were sentenced Tuesday to lengthy prison terms for a gang-related attempted murder of another man who helped police investigate a gang-related stabbing, Sonoma County prosecutors said.

Salvador Flores Jr., 19, was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison while Gustavo Castillo, 25, was sentenced to 21 years and four months in prison, according to the district attorney's office. Both men were charged with committing the crime to benefit the Sureno criminal street gang.

The victim was sitting in his vehicle in a driveway on Aug. 28, 2016, when Flores and Castillo walked up to him and fired five shots from a revolver through the car's windshield, prosecutors said.

The victim was struck twice but did not suffer life-threatening injuries. Santa Rosa police arrested Flores and Castillo nearby.

The victim had cooperated with police who were investigating a gang-related stabbing. The stabbing suspect, also a Sureno gang member, ultimately was sentenced to a prison term and the retaliatory attempted murder shooting happened a short time later, according to prosecutors.

A Salinas man was sentenced in federal court in San Jose Wednesday to nine years and six months in prison for conspiring to rob banks in San Jose and Monterey County, the armed robbery of a Pacific Grove bank and using guns during the heists.

Francisco Marmolejo, 36, was given the prison term by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, who also ordered him to pay $52,854 in restitution to the robbed banks.

Marmolejo pleaded guilty before Koh on Jan. 5 to three counts: conspiracy to rob four banks in 2011 and 2012, the armed robbery of a Chase Bank branch in Pacific Grove on Nov. 9, 2011, and possessing and brandishing a gun during armed robberies.

Prosecutors said Marmolejo was the getaway driver for three other men in the Pacific Grove robbery, which netted the thieves $18,383.

In the conspiracy count, Marmolejo pleaded guilty to plotting to rob the Pacific Grove bank and three other banks in Salinas, Seaside and San Jose between November 2011 and January 2012.

He pleaded guilty to carrying out the Pacific Grove robbery in a second, separate count.

U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Abraham Simmons said that while Marmolejo did not plead guilty to carrying out the other robberies, he acknowledged in his written plea agreement that he engaged in the robberies in Seaside and Salinas as well as Pacific Grove.

Prosecutors said in a filing that Marmolejo was arrested in a stolen car in Gilroy on March 14, 2012, and that police found equipment including three ski masks, three ballistic vests, three semi-automatic handguns, a variant of an AK-47 rifle, two two-way radios and bear repellant.

Simmons said Marmolejo admitted in the federal plea agreement that he had possessed the items and that they were used in bank robberies.

Marmolejo was convicted in Santa Clara County Superior Court and sentenced to 12 years in state prison for several gun charges and possession of stolen property in connection with the items found in the car.

Koh ruled on Wednesday that Marmolejo will get federal credit for two years and six months of his state prison term, but must then serve the remaining seven years of his federal sentence in a U.S. prison.

A co-defendant, Jorge Lopez, pleaded guilty to the same three charges in December and will be sentenced by Koh on July 11.

A man robbed a store on New Montgomery Street in San Francisco on Wednesday evening, according to police.

The robbery was reported at 6:44 p.m. in the first block of New Montgomery Street.

A man described as being around 45 to 50 years old entered the store and approached a 26-year-old employee and his co-worker, police said.

The suspect pulled out a handgun and demanded money from the register, then fled after receiving an undisclosed amount of cash, according to police.

The employees were not injured during the robbery and the suspect remains at large. A detailed description of him was not immediately available from police.

Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call the Police Department's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or to send a tip by text message to TIP411 with "SFPD" at the start of the message.A suspect in a 2017 robbery, whose case inspired a landmark state appeals court ruling challenging the state's bail system earlier this year, was released from a San Francisco jail Wednesday after spending nearly a year in custody.

Last Thursday, superior court Judge Brendan Conroy agreed to release Kenneth Humphrey, 64, ahead of his trial to a Mission District residential recovery facility for seniors.

Wednesday morning, Humphrey's attorney Deputy Public Defender Anita Nabha said that it took about six days to release him because, first he had to be interviewed by sheriff's officials and then he had to be explained the rules of wearing an ankle monitor, which is one of the conditions of his release.

On Tuesday, Nabha said she learned that Humphrey would be released and went to speak with him.

"He's doing well," she said. "He certainly is looking forward to being out of custody and he's very grateful that he had a full and fair bail hearing and that the court found that it was appropriate to release him with these conditions," Nabha said.

In addition to wearing an ankle monitor, Humphrey will also be put on house arrest, meaning he can't leave the treatment facility, and will be subject to searches. He also has to stay away from the victim in the case and the Turk Street residential senior facility where the alleged crime occurred.

Humphrey, a retired shipyard laborer, is accused of entering his 79-year-old neighbor's apartment, threatening him, and then stealing $5 and a bottle of cologne. He was initially booked into jail on May 24, 2017 and subsequently charged with robbery, burglary, elder abuse and theft.

After his arrest, Humphrey's bail was initially set at $600,000 based on the state's bail schedule, but a judge eventually lowered it to $350,000 after the San Francisco public defender's office argued that the initial amount was excessive and that Humphrey did not pose a risk to the public.

In January, after reviewing Humphrey's case, the state's 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled that a judge must consider the defendant's ability to pay when setting bail. Setting bail higher than a person can afford effectively jails the defendant for being poor, the ruling concluded.

In the months after the ruling, however, Humphrey remained jailed.

During his bail hearing last week, prosecutors sought to keep him in custody, citing previous robbery convictions going back to the 1980s, which they said showed that Humphrey was a threat to public safety and had a pattern of preying on vulnerable victims such as women and the elderly.

A jury trial date may be scheduled during a court hearing set for Monday. Humphrey is not expected to be present.

Six people were taken to a hospital Wednesday afternoon after having symptoms of burning in their noses and mouths in a classroom at Oak Grove High School in San Jose, a fire spokesman said.

Fire officials were notified shortly after 3 p.m. that some people at the school were experiencing respiratory distress, fire spokesman Capt. Mitch Matlow said.

A hazardous materials crew in protective gear is now in a classroom at the school trying to determine what the agent was that caused the distress.

Matlow said 12 people experienced symptoms. All were decontaminated and treated at the school and six were taken to a hospital.

Fire officials are asking others who were in the classroom but who have gone home to shower and wash their clothes and if they feel sick to call 911.

An East Oakland community group says that Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf's recently-announced plan to hire three litter enforcement officers to fight illegal dumping isn't a strong enough measure to fight the perennial problem in her city.

Members of the East Oakland Congress of Neighborhoods said in a statement that Schaaf's announcement last week of a plan to hire three litter enforcement officers at an annual cost of $452,000 is "insufficient and overly focused on enforcement as a solution."

The community group organized a "Trash Tour" on March 17 that began at Schaaf's home and continued to several affluent areas to highlight what it alleges are unequal services in the city's high-income areas in the hills and low-income neighborhoods in the flatlands.

The group said the city didn't respond to its proposed solutions so on April 16 hundreds of residents from East and West Oakland rallied to express their frustration with the lack of action to solve the illegal dumping crisis in flatland neighborhoods.

The East Oakland Congress of Neighborhoods said it proposed hiring three litter enforcement officers but it also made other demands: having one new Public Works crew focused on illegal dumping, better lighting in chronic dumping areas and a zone-based clean-up system focused on illegal dumping hotspots instead of simply reacting to complaints.

The group said city councilmembers Desley Brooks, Annie Campbell-Washington, Noel Gallo, Abel Guillen and Rebecca Kaplan have all agreed to find funding for that package of demands in the mid-cycle budget review process that ends in June.

Schaaf's spokesman Justin Berton said, "Our community asked for three litter enforcement officers to catch illegal dumpers and Mayor Schaaf and Councilmember Guillen responded."

Berton said, "The shared goal is to see an Oakland where every neighborhood is clean and no child is forced to walk around a garbage pile. Until that's a reality, the mayor, city staff, and the community will work on solutions together - including catching those responsible for dumping on Oakland."

Evangelina Lara, a Congress leader who lives in council District 2, said, "We pay taxes just like residents in the hills. We want to see the same level of city services here in the flatlands."

Lara said, "We expect all of our demands to be met in the mid-cycle budget review process, as was promised on April 16. We intend to make sure that city officials fulfill their commitments to the community."

She said, "The time for partial solutions and unmet promises is over."

Chris Jackson, a Congress leader who lives in council District 7, said, "The issue of illegal dumping is an issue of access and equity. We have some councilmembers and a mayor who tell us that Oakland is 'inclusive' and a 'sanctuary' for the vulnerable, yet the streets in sanctuary neighborhoods are uncared for."

Jackson said, "They can do more. Equity is everyone getting what they need to thrive. We expect elected leaders to support all of our demands, not the punitive ones they like best."

Manuel Arias, a Congress leader in District 5, said, "We will continue to organize -- our children, elders, parents and all residents deserve better. No one's children should have to walk over garbage to go to school."

San Jose firefighters, police officers and prosecutors are calling on Santa Clara City Councilman Dominic Caserta to resign and withdraw from the county Supervisors' race in the wake of "disturbing allegations," an attorney who represents police, firefighters and prosecutors said Wednesday.

Tom Saggau of Saggau-Derollo LLC, who represents the Santa Clara County Government Attorneys' Association, San Jose Police Officers' Association and San Jose Firefighters Local 230, made the demands Wednesday in a statement.

Several allegations from Caserta's former campaign staff and students of Santa Clara County Unified School District with whom he was employed as a teacher have been circulating within the last week.

Saggau said that the three groups are asking for Caserta to give up his council seat and a withdrawal from the race to replace Supervisor Ken Yeager because when one is called on to withdraw from taking on a future position as a result of such allegations, they should be removed from their current elected position too.

"We are appalled by the credible allegations of sexual harassment, inappropriate touching and repugnant behavior made against Caserta by multiple campaign staff, volunteers and children he taught," the statement said.

The three groups find the allegations recounted by female minors alleging acts such as inappropriate communication, sexual innuendo and leering that occurred on the campus where Caserta works, including in his own classroom, especially troubling.

"As a teacher and as an elected official, Caserta has held a position of trust," according to the statement. "These young women counted on Caserta to educate them, not exploit them. They deserved better. We applaud their courage to come forward with their stories."

The statement referenced a sexual harassment complaint against Caserta by a female student and said that it was obvious the information was hidden to further his political career.

In a statement published Tuesday on Caserta's campaign website, he addressed the complaint by saying that the school district released confidential information from his file on Monday to "everyone in the district" without his consent.

Caserta denies all allegations in the statement, saying that he has taught at Santa Clara High School, local community colleges and public universities for 20 years and has "given his heart and soul to the profession."

Caserta said that he has won awards such as Santa Clara High's Teacher of the Year award.

The supervisorial candidate said that there are often accusations made against him because he is a public official and that they are "simply false and made up."

Previously, Caserta had the endorsement of the Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee. However, they issued a statement Wednesday morning stating that the allegations were too serious not to revoke their approval.

"We believe women of all ages should be free of any form of harassment, at school, in the workplace, and in any other setting," the committee said in their statement.

Caserta said in his statement that it isn't a coincidence the allegations against him are coming up now.

"With only 28 days left in my election, the timing of the public record's request that kicked off this whole mess is no mistake," Caserta said. "The media's interest in blowing things out of proportion isn't either."

Dozens of service workers and their supporters rallied outside of the University of California at San Francisco campus and hospital Wednesday, on their third and final day of a statewide strike at 10 UC campuses.

The strike, which began Monday, is being organized by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Service Unit and is seeking better wages for its about 25,000 service and patient care technical workers in the UC system, following a year of stalled contract talks.

The workers also want to improve conditions for women and workers of color in the UC system after new research revealed rising inequality for low-wage workers, according to AFSCME Local 3299 officials.

"Service workers are about the lowest paid workers in the UC system. They average about $40,000 a year," said AFSCME Local 3299 spokesman Todd Stenhouse.

"The biggest issue for us has always been outsourcing... Jobs that were once middle class are now being outsourced to low wage contractors who treat their employees horrible, paying them sub minimum wage," Stenhouse said. "For us, this a matter of basic dignity, basic respect. This is a matter of equality and our first job is to do something about the outsourcing that drives it."

A report released earlier this year by AFSCME Local 3299 titled Pioneering Inequality, found that in the UC system, average starting wages of women of color are 10 to 23 percent lower than the starting wages of white men.

The report also found that the number of black workers in the UC system dropped by 37 percent between 1996 and 2015. In addition, according to the study, black workers are more likely to work for low-wage outsourcing companies contracted by the UC, resulting in less earnings compared to a direct UC employee doing a similar job.

"There's an inequality problem and an outsourcing problem and for a year UC has been utterly and completely tone deaf," Stenhouse said.

The employees on strike include nurses, operating room specialists, patient care assistants, pharmacy technicians and pharmacists, phlebotomists, psychologists, research coordinators and social workers, as well as custodians, food service workers and shuttle drivers, according to UC officials.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was scheduled to appear at Wednesday's rally but, at the last minute, was unable to attend.

Four other union bargaining units and the California Nurses Association are striking in sympathy with the AFSCME Service Unit. The striking workers include clinical staff important to the care of patients, according to university officials.

"This strike is challenging for us," Sheila Antrum, senior vice president and chief operating officer of UCSF Health, said in a statement Monday. "The next few days will be disruptive to our patients and their families, as well as for our staff and caregivers, and our broader community."

UCSF officials set forth a contingency plan during the three-day strike and, according Stenhouse, further patient protections and patient safety measures were put in place in the event the UC contingency plans fell through.

"You have an institution that talks about pioneering a better future and being an engine of social mobility. Well, if you're a UC service worker, what you see is a monument to inequality," Stenhouse said. "Making $40,000 in the most expensive city in North America isn't going to get you very far. We got members here who are single moms who work three or four jobs. When is UC going to be pioneering a better future to the public servants who give their life to it?"

Veterans, representatives of environmental groups, and leaders from both the Democratic and Republican parties of Santa Clara County joined San Jose's mayor Wednesday to denounce a measure that promises affordable housing for seniors and veterans.

The coalition appropriately gathered at the Veterans Memorial in San Jose to discuss Measure B, a proposal that will appear on the June 5 ballot. They believe that the measure is "a billionaire-backed ballot measure that is misleading voters with false promises of homes for veterans."

According to the Evergreen Senior Homes campaign website, the proposal would mean 910 residential units for "active, independent seniors" in the Evergreen neighborhood.

According to the campaign, an estimated 182 units will be designated as affordable, being offered below market prices for the "seniors and veterans that need them most."

However, Mayor Sam Liccardo said that recent mailers that went out to voters in Santa Clara County are not honest. The mayor said that not a single veteran will be required to be housed in the development.

Vietnam veteran and community leader Tito Cortez confirmed that fact and predicted that none will occupy the housing development because they would not be able to afford it.

Megan Medeiros, director of the Committee for Green Foothills, offered perspective on what effects the proposed facility would have on the surrounding areas of Evergreen, saying that the facility would create sprawl on undeveloped hillsides and threaten nearby Coyote Valley.

On the Measure B campaign website, supporters said the measure would garner millions of dollars for local government services such as parks, libraries and neighborhood school districts without raising taxes.

Medeiros said that this is not the case and that the measure also would not provide enough money for the road and traffic fees that are normally required.

The measure does not require a community and environmental review either, according to Medeiros.

A few supporters of Measure B were in attendance at the conference, which Liccardo noted. He emphasized that the coalition against Measure B is completely volunteer-based and no one was paid to be there.

Later, Liccardo said that while he doesn't know for sure if Measure B proponents pay people to advertise for them, he does know that their campaign will bring in over a billion dollars.

Councilwoman Sylvia Arenas, who represents District 8 where the development would be built, said that community members and residents from her jurisdiction were not approached about the "senior housing."

Arenas compared the possible housing as "country club-like."

Arenas' predecessor and veteran Rose Herrera called the measure "cynical" and noted how important it was that veterans came out to oppose the plan, as they are normally "quietly proud" about their service for the country.

"We don't want our names used in vain," Herrera said. "It will not help veterans, will not help seniors, but simply puts millions of dollars in a developer's pocket."

Liccardo said that the coalition's efforts will continue until June 5 so that voters are aware of what is going on.

The mailers that have been sent out are morally corrupt, and it's the coalition's duty to stand together as Republicans and Democrats and let people know that they stand for a fair, truthful election process, the mayor said.

"Our veterans have served our country, they have bled for our country," Liccardo said. "They deserve the truth, not to be exploited or misled."

Marissa Currie of the Evergreen Senior Homes campaign said that Measure B would be developing 200 acres of "underutilized and vacant employment land" to create an opportunity for 900 homes with 20 percent of it being affordable housing.

"This is an incredibly compelling community benefit in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis that is hitting seniors and veterans particularly hard," Currie said. "The evident hypocrisy in city policy is unfair, and one of the reasons that the initiative process was undertaken."

Currie said that more than 35,000 voters have voiced their support for Measure B, some of those supporters being those who are suffering from the housing crisis themselves, despite "unjustified opposition from city leaders who appear to want to make housing opportunities for seniors and veterans nearly impossible anywhere in the city."

A second person was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of murder in the death of a resident of the unincorporated Santa Cruz County community of Soquel, sheriff's officials said.

At about 12:30 p.m., Alexis Balderas, 19, of Hollister, was booked on suspicion murder and participation in a criminal street gang while he was in the Santa Cruz County jail on warrants.

Balderas has been in jail since April 8, when 26-year-old Ivan Villalobos was shot and killed at the Emerald Bay Apartments at 2500 Soquel Drive.

Sheriff's officials said a 15-year-old boy was arrested April 19 on suspicion of shooting and killing Villalobos.

Bail for Balderas has been set at $1.5 million.

Opponents of a controversial high-rise, market-rate apartment complex near Lake Merritt in Oakland said Wednesday that they've filed a public ethics complaint against City Councilman Abel Guillen alleging that he received improper donations from the project's developers.

The complaint filed by the Oakland Justice Coalition, Eastlake United for Justice and the East 12th Coalition says that Guillen received $1,300 in contributions from the lawyer and a former lobbyist of the primary developer, UrbanCore, and $500 from an employee of the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, another partner in the final project.

The complaint alleges that during the lengthy period that the City Council considered the issue, Guillen cast at least three votes in favor of the developers' proposed project at the corner of East 12th Street and Second Avenue and was a regular supporter of UrbanCore's various proposals.

The complaint says Guillen also played a key role in advancing the project through the council's important Community Economic Development Committee, which he sits on, and failed to recuse himself for any conflict of interest.

The City Council first approved the project, which is on city-owned land, in June 2015, but opponents said it violated the state's Surplus Lands Act, which requires cities to make surplus land available for proposals for affordable housing developers and to give priority to plans to build affordable housing.

The council then reconfigured the $5 million project, which calls for 300 residential units, and approved it a second time on July 27, 2016.

However, ground has still not been broken for the project, according to Sarah Reilly, a spokeswoman for the groups who filed the complaint against Guillen.

In a statement, Guillen, who was elected to the council in 2014 and is running again this year, said, "My re-election campaign enjoys support from a broad cross-section of donors from all backgrounds and walks of life and I am confident we have complied with all local donation regulations."

Apparently referring to Nikki Bas, who is running against him, Guillen said, "It is unfortunate that backers of my opponent have chosen to focus on false, politically motivated attacks rather than working on actual solutions to our housing, safety and infrastructure needs."

Minister Cherri Murphy of the Oakland Justice Coalition alleged in a statement that, "It's been revealed that Councilmember Guillen has failed to uphold basic ethical standards for conduct in public office" and said, "Not only is this an ethical failure, it's a spiritual disgrace."

Murphy said, "His decisions conspired to maintain an epidemic rate of evictions, 2,100 homeless people and countless more who can barely afford rent. It's clear we need to be better about this and we need elected officials who will stand with community, not with greedy private interests."

Dunya Alwan of Eastlake United for Justice said, "Councilmember Guillen supported the developers lining his pockets instead of his constituents. He prioritized personal gain over taking action to address the housing crisis in Oakland."

The groups that filed the complaint against Guillen said the campaign contributions were found through searching public campaign filings.

The complaint alleges that Guillien accepted unlawful contributions from persons with pending contracts before city council.

Oakland's Public Ethics Commission has the authority to enforce violations of the city's campaign finance and transparency law.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Dozens of service workers and their supporters rallied outside of the University of California at San Francisco campus and hospital today, on their third and final day of a statewide strike at 10 UC campuses.

The strike, which began Monday, is being organized by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Service Unit and is seeking better wages for its about 25,000 service and patient care technical workers in the UC system, following a year of stalled contract talks.

The workers also want to improve conditions for women and workers of color in the UC system after new research revealed rising inequality for low-wage workers, according to AFSCME Local 3299 officials.

"Service workers are about the lowest paid workers in the UC system. They average about $40,000 a year," said AFSCME Local 3299 spokesman Todd Stenhouse.

"The biggest issue for us has always been outsourcing... Jobs that were once middle class are now being outsourced to low wage contractors who treat their employees horrible, paying them sub minimum wage," Stenhouse said. "For us, this a matter of basic dignity, basic respect. This is a matter of equality and our first job is to do something about the outsourcing that drives it."

A report released earlier this year by AFSCME Local 3299 titled Pioneering Inequality, found that in the UC system, average starting wages of women of color are 10 to 23 percent lower than the starting wages of white men.

The report also found that the number of black workers in the UC system dropped by 37 percent between 1996 and 2015. In addition, according to the study, black workers are more likely to work for low-wage outsourcing companies contracted by the UC, resulting in less earnings compared to a direct UC employee doing a similar job.

"There's an inequality problem and an outsourcing problem and for a year UC has been utterly and completely tone deaf," Stenhouse said.

The employees on strike include nurses, operating room specialists, patient care assistants, pharmacy technicians and pharmacists, phlebotomists, psychologists, research coordinators and social workers, as well as custodians, food service workers and shuttle drivers, according to UC officials.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was scheduled to appear at today's rally but, at the last minute, was unable to attend.

Four other union bargaining units and the California Nurses Association are striking in sympathy with the AFSCME Service Unit. The striking workers include clinical staff important to the care of patients, according to university officials.

"This strike is challenging for us," Sheila Antrum, senior vice president and chief operating officer of UCSF Health, said in a statement Monday. "The next few days will be disruptive to our patients and their families, as well as for our staff and caregivers, and our broader community."

UCSF officials set forth a contingency plan during the three-day strike and, according Stenhouse, further patient protections and patient safety measures were put in place in the event the UC contingency plans fell through. The hospital's emergency department and most ambulatory clinics have remained open.

"You have an institution that talks about pioneering a better future and being an engine of social mobility. Well, if you're a UC service worker, what you see is a monument to inequality," Stenhouse said. "Making $40,000 in the most expensive city in North America isn't going to get you very far. We got members here who are single moms who work three or four jobs. When is UC going to be pioneering a better future to the public servants who give their life to it?"Vous etes confrontes a une infestation par la puce, la punaise de lit ? Voici plusieurs actions qui sont a mettre en uvre pour faire []A residential one-alarm fire was placed under control late Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco, according to fire officials.

The fire was first reported at about 3:55 p.m. Wednesday in the 3800 block of Fulton Street, near 15th Avenue and just across from Golden Gate Park.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

An early morning fire displaced seven people and damaged a four-story apartment building in San Francisco's Twin Peaks neighborhood, fire officials said.

Firefighters responded to the one-alarm blaze at about 2:10 a.m. at Glendale and Market streets.

Crews were able to extinguish the fire within about an hour, according to fire officials.

One person suffered injuries not considered life-threatening and they were taken to a hospital.

Residents on the first and second floor were able to return to their units, but the third floor is without power and a unit on the fourth floor sustained extensive damage, fire officials said.

In all, an estimated 21 people were affected by the blaze.

The American Red Cross and city departments are assisting the affected residents. A resident who uses a wheelchair was able to stay with a neighbor and is contacting On Lok Lifeways, which provide services for senior citizens.

Fire investigators are looking into what caused the blaze.There are many tools available to express political dissent: Chants, signs, strikes, songs of protest. Also, dog poop.

On Wednesday, would-be Governor Gavin Newsom's wife decided to back up her anti-Trump talk with action: The act of picking up her dog's poop with a picture of the president's face.

Jen Siebel Newsom and Max, California's prospective next First Dog, drew attention online Wednesday when Siebel Newsom tweeted pictures of a dog poop bag emblazoned with the aforementioned Trump picture.

"What do you think of Max's new poop bags?" she wrote alongside a photo of a yellow Labrador retriever gazing plaintively at the red plastic bag.

Predictably, Resistance Twitter got a kick out of the bags, but supporters of the president and some others found them distasteful.

Responses to Siebel Newsom's tweet ranged from approving jokes and a picture of the president with a certain orifice for a mouth to critics calling her "obsessed," images of toilet paper with Barack Obama's face on it, and references to Newsom's extramarital affair.

ALSO: Soros is pouring money into DA's races throughout NorCal

"So much hate coming from you people. And you project that on conservatives, it's truly crazy!" wrote Barry Bahrami.

Newsom's response to his wife's tweet had an economy of expression that perhaps only emojis can possess: three grinning piles of poop.

Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on TwitterFirst Kimberly Guilfoyle was floated as a replacement White House communications director after the firing of Sean Spicer. Then, last fall, Guilfoyle was seen stepping out with Anthony Scaramucci, whose 10-day tenure as communications director imploded back in July like a dying supernova made of profanity.

Now the Fox News host (and former wife of SF mayor of yore, Gavin Newsom) reportedly has yet another spicy connection to the administration, Page Six has reported: She's apparently dating the newly single Donald Trump Jr., 40.

Guilfoyle, 49, is a host of "The Five" on Fox News and was married to California governor candidate Gavin Newsom from 2001 to 2005, during which time he served on the Board of Supervisors and was elected mayor of San Francisco.

She has her own deep connection with San Francisco as well, having grown up in the Mission District and attending a Catholic high school in the city before moving to Davis for college and then back for law school at the University of San Francisco.

Although she described Newsom as "hot" and "hung" in 2004 during a mildly controversial speech that also featured the suggestive use of a banana, they separated the following year, citing the strain of a bicoastal marriage; Guilfoyle had moved to New York to pursue her television career. Their divorce was finalized in 2006.

Trump Jr.'s wife of 12 years, Vanessa, filed for divorce in March. In the aftermath, alleged screenshots of his thirsty, oddly bacon-centric DMs have been aired and various tabloids (and at least one former Clinton aide) have renewed their fixation on Vanessa Trump's relationship with a member of the Latin Kings as a teen in New York.

But perhaps that's all background noise now, as Don Jr. and Guilfoyle have reportedly been dating happily for weeks.

"Don Jr. and Kimberly are seeing each other, and are having a great time. While he wants to respect the privacy of his family, he is getting divorced, and he enjoys Kimberly's company," a source reportedly told Page Six.

An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated where Kimberly Guilfoyle went to law school. She is an alumna of University of San Francisco School of Law, not UCSF.

Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on TwitterRichard Remme has a license to carry firearms, and carry firearms he does, even when he's lying on the couch at home.

Remme, 51, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, also has a dog  a rambunctious pit bull mix named Balew who likes to jump on things.

Normally, these two things don't impact each other, but on Wednesday the convergence of dog and handgun left Remme with a hole in his leg.

"My dog shot me," Remme told the Fort Dodge Messenger News.

Remme explained that he keeps his 9mm Ruger in a belly band under his bib overalls.

"I was lying on the couch, and we were horsing around, me and the dog. And I was tossing him off my lap, and he was jumping back on my lap," Remme said.

"Apparently he bumped the safety one time, and when he bounded back over one of his toes went right down into the trigger guard."

MORE: Refugee's exotic animals stolen after fake Craigslist ad says 'help yourself'

Remme felt a painful burn on his belly. He didn't even realize his leg had been shot until he saw his pant leg turning purple. That's when he called 911.

Balew took it hard.

"The dog's a big wuss," Remme said. "The poor dog laid down beside me and cried, because he thought he was in trouble for doing something wrong. He's a pit lab mix. He's afraid of the dark, he's afraid of water."

Fortunately, the wound was not that serious, and Remme was treated and released from the hospital. The bullet is still in his leg, however.

Fort Dodge Police Chief Roger Porter called the incident a freak thing.

"I've never heard of that," he said. "I've heard of guns dropping and going off on the floor, and horsing around and guns going off. I can't say I've heard a dog story before."

Porter must have missed the other "dog shoots man" incident in the Ford Dodge area in the last six months. William Rancourt, 36, was hunting in November when his dog stepped on the trigger guard of a shotgun lying on the ground 22 yards away. The pellets caused moderate but not life-threatening injuries to his back.

Rancourt was treated at the same hospital that patched up Remme.

In January, a Russian hunter was fatally shot by his own dog when the excited hound bumped a shotgun that the man had balanced against his knee, butt down, with the barrel pointed at his stomach.JERUSALEM Iranian forces based in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights early Thursday, the Israeli military said, triggering an Israeli reprisal and further escalating heightened tensions between the two bitter enemies in neighboring Syria.

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage. There were no Israeli casualties.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Irans Al Quds force had fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though he would not say how Israel had determined the Iranian involvement. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan.

Israel views this Iranian attack very severely, Conricus told reporters. He said Israel had responded, but did not provide details.

This event is not over, he added.

Syrias state media said Syrian air defenses had intercepted hostile Israeli missiles early Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus.

Syrian media earlier said the hostilities began with Israeli fire at Syrian positions in the countrys south from across the border. Pro-Syrian media said Syrian missiles then fired at Israeli forces. One TV station, Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen, said at least 50 missiles were fired from Syria at Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights. Syrian media said it was the first time in years that Syrians had fired at Israeli forces in Golan.

Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, anticipating an Iranian attack following Iranian vows to retaliate to what it says are recent Israeli strikes in Syria targeting Iranian outposts.

Late Tuesday, Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near the capital of Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Irans elite Revolutionary Guard, killing at least 15 people, eight of them Iranians.

Last month, an attack on Syrias T4 air base in Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel. On April 30, Israel was said to have struck government outposts in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen pro-government fighters, many of them Iranians.

Josef Federman is an Associated Press writer.BEIRUT  Israeli forces unleashed a heavy bombardment against Iranian military installations in Syria on Thursday in what Israel called retaliation for an Iranian rocket barrage on its positions in the occupied Golan Heights, the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

The two rivals have long fought each other through proxies, and with the new exchange each seemed to be sending a warning that a direct clash between them could swiftly escalate.

If we get rain, theyll get a flood, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned.

The scope of the attacks  which Israel called its largest in Syria since the 1973 Mideast war  raised the specter of a full-fledged war between Iran and Israel in Syria, a conflict that could potentially drag the militant Hezbollah and Lebanon into the mix with devastating effects, although both sides appeared to signal they wanted the confrontation to remain contained, at least for now.

Israel, however, has been emboldened by President Trumps withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this week, and the latest escalation seemed to signal a potentially coordinated surge in military activity targeting Iran.

The Israeli military said Thursday it hit nearly all of Irans military installations in Syria in response to the overnight Iranian rocket barrage that targeted Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It was the first time Israel has directly accused Iran of firing toward Israeli territory.

Iranian media described the Israeli attack as unprecedented, but there was no official Iranian comment on Israels claims.

Iran has vowed to retaliate for repeated Israeli air strikes targeting its forces in Syria. But it seemed to carefully calibrate its response by targeting the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed in 1981 in a move that is not internationally recognized, instead of striking Israel proper.

Tehran is wary of a wider military conflagration with Israel that could jeopardize its military achievements in Syria at a time when it is trying to salvage the international nuclear deal and may be limited in its ability to strike back.

The recent clashes reveal the difficulty both sides face in dealing with an unprecedented situation, said Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East studies at Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs.

The clashes likely will eventually lead not to further escalation, but to the consolidation of new red lines tacitly endorsed by Israel and Iran, he said in an analysis written for the Carnegie Middle East Center.

Zeina Karam and Aron Heller are Associated Press writers.WASHINGTON  Envisioning a very special moment for world peace, President Trump announced Thursday he will meet North Koreas Kim Jong Un for highly anticipated summit talks in Singapore on June 12. He set the stage for his announcement by hosting a 3 a.m., made-for-TV welcome home for three Americans held by Kims government.

Final details in place, Trump and Kim agreed to the first face-to-face North Korea-U.S. summit since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Its the most consequential and perhaps riskiest foreign policy effort so far in Trumps presidency as North Koreas nuclear program approaches a treacherous milestone  the capacity to strike the continental U.S. with a thermonuclear warhead.

Trump says the U.S. is aiming for denuclearization of the entire Korean peninsula, but he has yet to fill in just what steps that might include and what the timing would be.

Were starting off on a new footing, Trump said of himself and Kim as he welcomed the detainees in a floodlit ceremony at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington. He hailed their release as a potential breakthrough in relations between the longtime adversary nations.

He and Kim will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace! he said later on Twitter.

Kim has suspended nuclear and missile tests and put his nuclear program up for negotiation, but questions remain about how serious his offer is and what disarmament steps he would be willing to take. The White House has said withdrawal of thousands of U.S. troops from South Korea is not on the table.

Long before dawn Thursday, with the former detainees by his side on the air base tarmac, Trump said it was a great honor to welcome them back to the U.S. but the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.

The ceremony, which also featured a giant American flag suspended between the ladders of two firetrucks, emphasized Trumps penchant for the dramatic as he raised expectations for the summit. And it underscored how closely the fate of his foreign policy agenda is being tied to the North Korean negotiations.

He had wanted to hold the summit in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas but yielded to the concerns of officials who thought a DMZ meeting would focus attention on relations between the North and South rather than the nuclear question.

Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, other top officials and first lady Melania joined the president for the air base celebration. The former detainees  Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim  had been released Wednesday at the end of Pompeos visit to North Korea.

They appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft. One said through a translator, Its like a dream; we are very, very happy. They later gave the president a round of applause.

Zeke Miller, Jill Colvin and Matthew Lee are Associated Press writers.To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.

We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.

A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!EALA MP Simon Mbugua has been charged alongside two other suspects over the April 30 attack on former NCBDA chairman Timothy Muriuki.

Mbugua, Antony Otieno Ombok alias Jamal, and Benjamin Odhiambo alias Odhis, were on Wednesday charged with robbery with violence before senior principal magistrate Martha Mutuko.

Accompanied by their lawyers Nelson Havi, Cliff Ombeta, Michael Osundwa, and Harun Ndubi, the three denied the charge.

They are accused of robbing Mr Muriuki of Sh100,000 and injuring him at Hotel Boulevard in Nairobi.

On the 30th day of April 2018 at 11 am at Hotel Boulevard in Nairobi city within Nairobi County, jointly with others not before court, robbed Timothy Muceru Muriuki of Sh100,000 and immediately after the time of such robbery injured the said Timothy Muceru Muriuki, the charge sheet reads.

The East African Legislative Assembly lawmaker applied to be released on bond, arguing that he is not a flight risk. Lawyer Havi said Mbugua should be given free bond arguing that as a public officer, he is more than cooperative.

The mere fact that he is a public figure should not deter this court from granting him bond. In fact, it is favourable that he be released on a reasonable bail.

The prosecution did not oppose their bid to be released on bail but asked the court to give them harsh terms.

Prosecutor Solomon Naulikha noted Mbugua has a lot of influence and is likely to interfere with witnesses. The prosecution has lined up eight witnesses in the case.

Mbugua was arrested on Tuesday together with three other suspects. One of the suspects, Stephen Sangira, was not charged as the police said they found no evidence linking him to the incident.The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has admitted its planning arms breached the Corporations Act when they charged clients  including some who had died  fees for services they did not receive, while other banks have fought back against the accusations levelled at them during the royal commission.

The CBA said it accepted that it had breached its requirement to act efficiently, honestly and fairly in respect to some clients. It noted it had already paid remediation of $118.5 million to its affected clients. It has also been subject to an enforecable undertaking from the corporate regulator as a result of its fees for no service issues.

CBA refuted other open findings made against it by senior counsel assisting the banking royal commission including that it knew its advice businesses did not have adequate resources to provide ongoing services.

"There is no evidence that CBAs licensees did not have adequate resources available to provide ongoing services to its clients," it said.While AMP executive chairman Mike Wilkins told investors it was highly regrettable and unintentional weve lost all our female directors in this process of renewal, a big focus was on a rather important bloke who didnt show: chairman-elect and noted climate sceptic David Murray.

Maybe Murray was getting cracking on building his new boardroom, including its female representation. After all, Wilkins informed investors that Murray was already busy with plans to add another director to the board in the near term.

Mike Wilkins informed investors that David Murray was already busy with plans to add another director to the board 'in the near term'. Credit:Eddie Jim

CBD has been informed that AMPs boys' club has already set up a coffee date with Australia Post boss Christine Holgate. As if she needs to moonlight on a hopeless cause and then turn up to Australia Post for her day job.

Murray might also want to have a chat with Jillian Broadbent, who was part of the trio that tore apart the board failings at Catherine Livingstones Commonwealth Bank on behalf of APRA.Caltex is investigating other forms of energy and technology including electric car charging stations as it faces the prospect of a long-term decline in demand for petrol.

"We will look to transform to other forms of energy and other forms of business," Caltex chairman Steven Gregg told the companys annual general meeting on Thursday. "There is no question electric vehicles are coming, the only question is of how long they will take."

Caltex chairman Steven Gregg said the company is preparing for an energy transition, looking at how electric vehicles will change its business. Credit:Jessica Hromas

Caltex said there could be "no doubt" demand for petrol would fall over the long term due to increasing fuel efficiency and, eventually, the advent of mass-market electric and self-driving cars. It last year visited electric car and charging station manufacturers in America's Silicon Valley and is in talks about the possibility of putting charging stations in service stations.

"Its not about a quick fix, its front and centre of mind for the board," Mr Gregg said.ZTE, one of China's leading technology companies, has announced it will end "major operations," after the US government barred American firms from doing business with the telecom equipment maker.

The announcement by the fourth-largest wireless equipment maker in the country comes amid an escalating trade battle between the US and China.

A ZTE employee at its factory in Shenzhen. Credit:Bloomberg

Last month, the Commerce Department barred American firms from exporting parts to the Chinese smartphone company for seven years, saying that ZTE had violated a previous settlement of criminal and civil charges for making illegal shipments to North Korea and Iran.

ZTE said in an announcement Wednesday that "the major operating activities of the Company have ceased." ZTE added that the company continues to communicate with the US government with the goal of modifying or reversing the order. But investors were left without a definitive roadmap of the company's future, according to the announcement.The NSW government has ceased talks to buy a Parramatta office tower as part of its controversial plans to move the Powerhouse Museum to western Sydney.

Australian Unity Office Fund in February said it had been approached by the state government to sell the GE Building at 32 Phillip Street, Parramatta, which is adjacent to the planned site of the museum. On Thursday, it said it had been told the government wouldn't proceed with the acquisition and negotiations had stopped.

Late last month, the NSW government said it had committed to moving the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta, with the museum forming part of a new arts and cultural precinct on the banks of

the Parramatta River.

The Parramatta museum is to include 18,000 square metres of exhibition and public spaces, more than the 15,708sq m at its current site in Ultimo. Exhibition halls will host international travelling exhibitions and there will be dedicated play and learning spaces devoted to science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.A few weeks ago, Google's proposal to redevelop an unused inner Sydney railyard into a technology hub was knocked back by the New South Wales state government.

And then all hell broke loose.

Google Australia and New Zealand managing director Jason Pellegrino Credit:Anthony Johnson

The NSW Opposition, doing what oppositions do, seized on the news to criticise the government, and said it was worried Google would leave Sydney.

Tech luminaries piled on, criticising, with justification, another failure by Sydney to develop a technology hub.The couple have named their son Hart, reportedly after Spiegel's grandfather.

According to US website TMZ , the child was born on Monday evening at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles.

It is the couple's first child together.

Australian supermodel Miranda Kerr and her husband Evan Spiegel have welcomed a baby boy.

The birth certificate, obtained by TMZ, the couple named the boy Hart Kerr Spiegel and he was born at 11.53pm.

Evan Spiegel and Miranda Kerr married in a private ceremony in May 2017. Credit:Patrick Demarchelier

Kerr has one other child, 7-year-old Flynn, with actor Orlando Bloom. The couple separated in 2013.

Kerr and Spiegel, the billionaire founder of Snapchat, began dating in 2015 and became engaged the next year. They were married in May last year in an intimate ceremony at their Brentwood, California home.

Kerr announced she was expecting their first child through a spokesman in November.For two weeks, the sound of mortar fire, low flying helicopters and the risk of kidnapping left actor Sam Smith struggling to sleep for more than a few fitful hours a night.

"We were staying in a hotel where I had a door with a broken lock," he says about making a new Australian film secretly in Afghanistan. "I was sleeping fully clothed with my passport in my pocket, knife in my hand under my pillow and waking up to gunshots or mortar blasts.

Shot in secret in Afghanistan: Sam Smith (left) and Sher Alam Miskeen Ustad in 'Jirga'. Credit:Benjamin Gilmour

"Then I'd sit staring at the door with the knife, waiting for morning prayer, because I knew people would be up and about then."His notoriously jerky moves go far beyond bad dancing. It's as if some runaway android has taken charge of the show and is in grave danger of blowing its circuitry.

After witnessing Peter Garrett adapt to the cycles of compromise and concession that make up the life of a Canberra politician, it's strange and faintly eerie to return to the sight of him dominating the stage during his early years as a rock star.

The director, Ray Argall, worked with Garrett and Midnight Oil during those years. He made the band's music videos and concert films and this documentary has backstage footage that has never found its way on screen before.

It concentrates on 1984 as that was the year Garrett made his first foray into politics after the new Nuclear Disarmament Party made overtures. As a result, he stood as their NSW candidate in their bid for Senate seats in the federal election.

From Midnight Oil's birth in the early 1970s, the band had woven a passion for environmentalism and Indigenous affairs into the songs written by Garrett and the band's founding members, drummer Rob Hirst and guitarist and keyboard player Jim Moginie, and the fans loved them for it.

Even so, the demands on Garrett, the aspiring politician, made life hard for all of them in 1984 as he campaigned by day and performed by night. Yet they remained remarkably sanguine.

Most backstage studies of rock musicians at work include a tantrum or two. Not this one. It seems they quickly resigned themselves to the upheavals caused by Garrett's Canberra ambitions, modestly leaving him to be the band's principal message bearer.Georgina Chapman has broken her silence on Harvey Weinstein, her estranged husband who was accused of decades of sexual harassment and assault in bombshell reports from The New York Times and The New Yorker in October.

The fashion designer, who has kept a low profile since the news broke, opened up in an interview with Vogue, saying she was never suspicious of his behaviour.

"Absolutely not. Never," she said. "That's what makes this so incredibly painful: I had what I thought was a very happy marriage. I loved my life."

More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of inappropriate or potentially criminal behavior ranging from requests for massages to intimidating sexual advances to rape. Weinstein has denied the allegations of nonconsensual sex.NSW Labor says an agreement to amend the $13 billion Murray Darling Basin Plan agreed to in the Senate this week risks "permanently" crippling a key lake region in the state's far west.

The comments are the first by NSW Labor since the Turnbull government secured federal Labor's support to reduce the annual amount of water that must be recovered from the basin for the environment by more than a fifth, or 675 billion litres.

The Menindee Lakes Water Savings project is of concern to NSW Labor. Credit:Nick Moir

Chris Minns, NSW Labor's water spokesman, said the party was "encouraged" that the overall plan had not collapsed.

Some had warned of such an outcome had the amendments been disallowed in a Greens-led motion in Wednesday's vote in the Senate. With Labor's backing, the amendments passed.This week's federal budget offers an unsurprising leg-up to wealthy Australians, arriving just days after Finance Minister Mathias Cormann argued that in order to ensure that Australians are incentivised and encouraged to work hard ... there's got to be an appropriate reward for effort.

This means that by 2024 those earning $41,000 a year will be paying the same tax rate as someone earning $200,000. What's currently being sold to the public as a flattening of the tax system has business groups excited, and social-service groups dismayed at what's to come for Australias most marginalised.

Homelessness rose by 14 per cent between 2011 and 2016. Credit:Stocksy

With homelessness rising to alarming levels  by 14 per cent between 2011 and 2016  the government's apparent abandonment of those most in need for the benefit of the wealthy is disheartening.

In response to federal budget revelations in which homelessness and housing funding slides to just $1.54 million, the lowest it's been in 10 years, Homelessness Australia described the federal spending decline as short-sighted and heartless.The following statement is true: rape culture is real. If you roll your eyes at these words, dismissing the idea as an overreaction by hypersensitive feminists, then you are part of the problem. This is something we can no longer hide from  its not an illusory boogeyman created to topple male dominance  so please, dont weep for your toxic masculinity.

Helping a friend through the court process in a rape trial has opened Brandon Jack's eyes to how society is failing women.

Growing up as the youngest of three brothers and attending an all boys school, I never gave much thought to the influence of patriarchal society on women. As a kid I was always taught to treat girls with respect and that no means no, but recently I saw first hand how far we are from living in a world where women truly feel supported and empowered.

I was a support person for a close friend during her examination as a victim of sexual assault, sitting with her in the remote witness room of the District Court. My friend's distress at having to relive the disturbing details of her incident was extremely confronting. The feed to the court was cut numerous times so she could wipe away tears.

Midway through the hearing I heard the statement which threw me in to a state of disbelief and anger: "You didnt say no, so you wanted it to happen."Australian scientist David Goodall has ended his life at a euthanasia clinic in Switzerland, asking in his final words: "Why is this taking so long?"

The 104-year old had to answer twice the four questions - what is your name, what is your date of birth, why have you come to the clinic and do you know what will happen when you press this button? - that are asked of anyone seeking to undergo voluntary euthanasia because, due to his arthritis, he was unable to press the button to release the deadly injection on his first attempt.

David Goodall, 104, in a room in Liestal near Basel, Switzerland, where he ended his life.

Euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke, who revealed he acted as "music director" during the Professor Goodall's death in Switzerland, said the Australian's final words were said "flippantly" and impatiently as if to hurry death.

In a "final day press release" which included new photographs of Professor Goodall's final hours, the prominent euthanasia campaigner said he was "proud to have been appointed music director'".In a cavernous theatre inside the Melbourne Convention Centre they sat; two battle-scarred allies and old friends in conversation.

And although the discussion between former prime minister Julia Gillard and Hillary Rodham Clinton began with folksy vignettes from Clintons early life  the sense of purpose instilled by her parents, how she first spoke to Bill on a good day at the university library  it moved quickly to the meat of the evening: the bloody and contested path for women seeking power and influence.

Clinton spoke in Melbourne on Thursday as part of series of women in leadership talks, organised by a business consultancy called The Growth Faculty.

A lot has happened since I was last here, she told the full, mostly female crowd, who had paid between $200 and $500 for tickets. I became a grandmother twice over  and you may have heard that I ran for president. That didnt quite work out as I might have hoped. Cue commiserating chuckles.Professor Goodall attempted to take his life in the months before departing for Switzerland. Tragically this is not an isolated story and an increasing number of those suffering serious and incurable conditions are taking drastic and often violent measures to kill themselves rather than face the possibility of a bad death.

Modern medical practice is very focussed on curing people but struggles to confront the suffering where death is inevitable and unavoidable. Suffering is not just about pain and physical symptoms. For many, issues such as loss of dignity, independence, physical immobility and inability to communicate with loved ones can have devastating effects. Even with the best palliative care, many people still experience unbearable physical and mental suffering as they approach death.

The journey of 104-year-old Professor David Goodall to end his life in a Swiss clinic has resonated around the world. He would not have met the criteria for assisting dying laws for the terminally ill recently passed in Victoria and under consideration in other states. However, his story forces us to confront uncomfortable issues surrounding death and dying and the genuine fear that many ill and elderly people hold as they approach the end of their lives.

The 2016 Victorian Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into End of Life Choices heard that around 50 Victorians a year take their lives after experiencing an irreversible deterioration in physical health". An emotional coroner described cases of hangings, suffocation, gunshots, poisoning and other distressing and violent deaths including a 90-year-old man with cancer who died from nail gun wounds to his head and chest. The trauma to the families left behind and to emergency services workers cannot be overstated.

We must not look away from these deaths. We must overcome our reluctance to speak frankly about death and dying. We must better understand the process of dying and prepare for what is ahead of us in terms of our medical care and the impact on our daily lives and on our carers and loved ones. We need to talk openly with our families and doctors about our wishes and make fully informed decisions about our rights to accept or refuse medical treatment and record those decisions in advance care directives. We must lobby for better palliative care services in the community and in aged care facilities. The medical profession needs to communicate better with patients about their end of life options and recognise that their natural inclination to prolong life does not always accord with the patients wishes or best interests.

The desire for a good death is universal and I hope that Professor Goodalls story and the campaign for voluntary assisted dying laws for the terminally ill will prompt more open and honest discussions within families, the medical profession and the community about death and dying. Surely we can do better than having our elderly people killing themselves in lonely and violent circumstances because they fear the pain and suffering of a natural death.

Penny Hacket is the president of Dying with Dignity NSW.

Lifeline 13 11 14A two-year-old Northern Territory girl allegedly raped in Tennant Creek was clearly at risk of harm, and that risk could have been managed or mitigated, a report scathing of child welfare services in the territory has found.

A 24-year-old man was charged with sexual assault over the attack in February.

The toddler, named C1, suffered significant and painful injuries, tested positive for a sexually transmitted disease and was provided with post-exposure HIV medication.

She was transferred from Tennant Creek Hospital to Alice Springs and then onto the Adelaide Women's and Children's Hospital for surgery and a blood transfusion, Northern Territory Children's Commissioner Colleen Gwynne said in the report tabled in the territory's Parliament.

"This was not the only violence that C1 had been exposed to, and experienced, in her short life," Ms Gwynne said, in a heavily redacted report.One key idea, to use a tax offset to deliver benefits to people on low and middle incomes without the same gain going to wealthier workers, was embraced by February. The most ambitious element, a single tax bracket with a 32.5 per cent marginal tax rate between $40,000 and $200,000, was only cemented over March and April. None of it leaked over that time. Barnaby Joyce ensured attention was elsewhere. It wasnt necessarily welcome cover, but it was cover, says one source. Cabinet ministers knew the overall direction without knowing the fine print. The plan was almost entirely settled by the time Turnbull went to London on April 17 for a Commonwealth summit. The governments critics will not think much of this background because they are convinced the tax plan is a dud that gives too much to the rich and too little to the poor. This is the central issue in the tax debate and the byelection blitz over the weeks ahead. Even so, the background is important because it is one of the reasons why ministers and officials are so confident they have a compelling new message on tax. The Senate may vote this down, but the Coalition will be fighting on its strongest ground  low taxes and a growing economy  at the election. That confidence is buoyed by Bill Shortens dual failure on dual citizenship. First, the Opposition Leader has lost personal credibility with voters after guaranteeing his MPs were in the clear. Second, his political radar is faulty because he chose not to deal with the problem months ago and now finds it cruels his budget reply.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten faces a big byelection test. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The questions over his political judgment are especially damaging because Anthony Albanese is ready for the Labor leadership if the time comes. The polls suggest Labor should hold its four seats in the five byelections due next month but these races will be a personal test for Shorten as much as a popular vote on the budget. There is a cynicism in the budget in the way in the way it cuts the ABC while funding commemorations to Captain Cook and spending $247 million on chaplains in schools. This is a naked pitch to the base and is accompanied by an attempt to win back seniors with more flexible rules so they can earn $1,300 a year without losing the pension. The modest change contrasts with Shortens hit to retirees with share portfolios. The long work on the tax plan means Turnbull, Morrison and others are confident they will prevail. They believe Shorten cannot outbid them on the $140 billion over 10 years, given he would rather spend more on health and education, and they expect him to scale back the tax plan. They have the contest they want on Liberal tax cuts versus Labor tax increases. What they do not have is the support they need in the Parliament for the full package in its current form.

As with the 2014 budget, the government is exposed to relentless attack over the fairness of its plan. It underestimated Shorten four years ago and can easily make the same blunder today. It will not reveal the full costings for its plan, leaving it to others to run the calculations. The information vacuum creates an opportunity for the Grattan Institute, the Australia Institute, the Australian National University and the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling to highlight the bigger benefits for the wealthy from these cuts. The government cannot win some of these arguments. After years of complaint about bracket creep, we now hear concern about the flattening of the tax brackets. Obviously the flatter structure is a logical way to deal with the problem. The Greens have launched blatantly misleading claims that a worker on $40,000 will pay 32.5 per cent tax while one on $200,000 will pay the same rate. Thanks to the tax free threshold and the tax brackets, the first will pay about 12 per cent and the second will pay about 28 per cent. LoadingThe niece of murdered Tahmoor man Scott Hammond has described her familys relief after a man was arrested and charged in relation to her uncles 2013 death.

The man was arrested at Heckenberg on Thursday morning after an ongoing investigation by police.

Scott Hammond, inset; and his mother Josephine Hammond, centre, and niece Kylie Gillies at a press conference with police in 2013. Main photo: Kerrie Armstrong

Mr Hammonds niece, Rachael Taylor, addressed the media at Narellan Police Station on Thursday afternoon, saying it had been a long four-and-a-half years since her uncles death.Health authorities have no timeline for the introduction of a real-time prescription monitoring service to stop doctor shopping in NSW, an inquest into opiate deaths has heard.

NSW Chief Pharmacist, Dr Judith Mackson, told Deputy State Coroner Harriet Grahame that, despite government commitments to rolling out the service, the potentially lifesaving system was still far from being realised.

The Health Council of the Council of Australian Governments last month determined that a national model for real-time prescription monitoring would be created, with states feeding the data from their own systems into a federal one.

The inquest, being held at the NSW Coroners Court in Glebe, is examining paths to regulatory change against the backdrop of six fatal opiate-related overdoses in 2016.

Three of the victims had consumed fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 100 times stronger than morphine, and typically restricted to palliative care.Citizen TV news anchor Anne Kiguta is making headlines on gossip columns with reports that she has parted ways with the father of her twins, Jomo Gecaga.

The rumors started after the TV siren deleted a video that she had uploaded wishing Jomo a Happy Fathers Day last year.

It is alleged that Jomo, who is President Uhuru Kenyattas nephew and personal assistant, left the news anchor for a popular city socialite.

It is these unfounded rumors that have led to a secret admirer confessing his feelings for Anne Kiguta. The man, identified as Timo Semi, posted an open letter to Kiguta on a popular Facebook page, expressing his desire to marry Anne Kiguta.

It reads:

Dear Anne Kiguta,

My name is Timo Semi, one of your biggest fans in Kenya, Im also your secret admirer, I saw what your ex-husband did to you, he kicked you out of his house

Am ready to take you as my wife and we can bring up your little girl together as a familyAm 6 feet tall and I live in Kawangwarepesa sio shida tutatafuta pamojaI also own a laptop

We can have 5 kids together

I will be waiting for your reply

Yours faithfully

Timo SemA man has been jailed for at least two years and three months after he fatally crashed into a family's car while driving on the wrong side of the road on the NSW north coast in 2015.

Steven Mark Farquhar, 34, had amphetamines and THC in his system when he drove his ute into oncoming traffic early on July 7, however a District Court judge was unable on Thursday to find that the drugs impaired his driving.

Judge Dina Yehia said an "alternative reasonable hypothesis" to Farquhar's apparently drug-affected behaviour after the crash, including sweating and lethargy, was that he suffered an injury to his testicles which caused his blood pressure and heart rate to drop.

"In this case the offender's testicles were pushed up into his body which caused a vagal response," Judge Yehia said, citing the evidence of a doctor.

"I am unable to find beyond reasonable doubt that the offender's driving was impaired as a result of the drugs found in his blood.""The parties have been in discussion and have agreed to take reasonable steps to avoid confusion for visitors to the individual facilities," the statement said.

In a joint statement released on Thursday, the parties said they were "pleased to confirm that they have resolved the legal proceedings over the use of the name Sydney Zoo".

A Federal Court cage fight between Taronga Zoo and a rival over the name Sydney Zoo has been settled out of court, with the western Sydney newcomer set to keep the name.

Taronga Zoo, on the shores of Sydney Harbour, was suing the company behind a proposed $36 million cage-free zoo in the Western Sydney Parklands at Bungarribee to stop it using the name Sydney Zoo on a number of grounds, including that it is not in "central Sydney".

It launched two separate but related Federal Court cases in January: the first to prevent Sydney Zoo registering the name as a trademark and the second to have the court declare the use of the name would constitute misleading and deceptive conduct.

The not-for-profit Taronga argued the name was likely to lead international and interstate visitors into the "erroneous belief" Sydney Zoo was the "long-established and well-known" Taronga Zoo and was "located in central Sydney" rather than 33 kilometres west of the CBD.

At a preliminary hearing of the dispute in March, Federal Court Justice Nye Perram asked the parties if the case would require him to consider whether western Sydney was in Sydney.

Richard Cobden, SC, for Sydney Zoo, said the case was "exactly" about that and Taronga was advancing the "startling proposition" that western Sydney could not be described as Sydney.Australian authorities lay in wait outside a south-west Sydney warehouse for three days this week to observe three foreign nationals allegedly unpack, check and weigh 200 kilograms of ice, elaborately concealed as packages of tea inside metal machinery.

A 22-year-old Chinese national and two Taiwanese nationals, aged 22 and 29, were arrested and charged on Wednesday over the crystal methamphetamine haul, which is believed to have arrived in Sydney on a container ship from Malaysia on April 21.

All three men are believed to have travelled to Australia for the sole purpose of receiving and distributing the drug shipment, which has a street value of more than $150 million and equates to around two million hits of ice.

The ice was wrapped in packages marked as tea, which were concealed in large metal lathes inside a container that was X-rayed by Australian Border Force Officers on arrival in Sydney.Ranking surgeons based on how many of their patients die can help identify poorly performing doctors, but Australias peak surgeon group has warned against publicly releasing the information.

Do patients have the right to know more about their surgeons? Credit:Nicolas Walker

Re-igniting a contentious debate, British anaesthetist Dr Andrew Klein told a gathering of medical specialists on Thursday that the competency of surgeons, or lack of it, accounted for a small but significant risk of patients dying after going under the knife.

He called for Australia to consider publicly reporting surgeons success rates.

If it was my mother or my wife or any member of my family I would want to know which hospital they are going to and details about the surgeon including their patient mortality rates, said Dr Klein, editor of the Anaesthesia journal.And if the government doesn't get that, vote it out. Vote it out anyway. These are the people who think 10 bucks a week will make a difference to our material lives. The 70 per cent? That's the sum of us, the vast mass of us who listen to local radio, who love the news, who turn on to discover traffic mayhem and end up listening to some daggy dad teaching his kid the saxophone, who fear fire and flood, who want to get the latest real news on health and science. I'm not even speaking about the niche lovers of Insiders or Q&A enthusiasts, not that there's anything wrong with them. The ABC is the soundtrack to our lives, to the lives of millions of Australians and the federal government is setting out to destroy it. And it is so freaking sneaky about it. It even tried to cover up the cuts in the budget by putting them in a tiny footnote. Director of ABC News Gaven Morris delivered a speech at the Melbourne Press Club on Thursday where he summarised the problem neatly  11 efficiency reviews in 15 years.They are already screamingly efficient with the little they have  the ABC's per capita funding is 34 per cent lower than the average of other public broadcasters. If you want to compare it to the BBC, for instance, the ABC serves a population one-third the size of the UK with a budget just one-eighth that of the BBC. And scooting around our land mass isn't like taking a day's drive from one end of the country to the other. The ABC is the soundtrack to our lives, to the lives of millions of Australians and the federal government is setting out to destroy it.

I'm pretty sure it can't get any more efficient than it is. After all, ABC news spends more than 95 per cent of its budget on content. And what does content mean? That means producing those stories, backing Louise Milligan and Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Sarah Dingle, leaving no grain of sand uncovered. Not everyone loves the ABC and of course the ABC makes mistakes (the fewer staff, the fewer sets of eyes editing stories, the more mistakes). Those mistakes give rivals fuel to feed this government's galloping paranoia about the ABC. But somehow the IPA and the cadres of commentators in The Australian think it's OK to applaud the slicing and dicing of our national broadcaster's news arm, which holds power to account and investigates corporate misconduct. Maybe those folks think it's OK for big business to exploit its workers, to underpay its workers, to rip off its clients. This government gave $30 million to Fox Sport last year. It gave $30m to Rupert Murdoch, who is just about to sell a large chunk of his business for north of $US50 billion. Like he needs the handouts. Nope. This government needs the patronage and it buys it this way. Take from the poor and give to the rich. I can think of a quick way of giving the ABC a boost  ditch the utterly ridiculous $50 million about to be spent on commemorating the 250th anniversary of the voyage to Australia of Captain Cook.

Thing is, the ABC can't stand up for itself. At a meeting of ABC news executives on Wednesday morning, Morris, bless his ethical cotton socks, told his colleagues they could report on the cuts but it had to be impartial. Just the facts. So they aren't going to blow their own horns or criticise the government. Worse than that, Morris, ever careful, has also advised ABC employees to moderate their language on social media or not to overly criticise the decision. The vibe inside is that it shouldn't try to prosecute the case against the government because that's too much of an insider story, that it should only rank a story about the ABC below the other stories which ABC consumers think are more important: health and housing, education and pensions. But the problem is that without the ABC, many Australians would never know how any of those matters of importance are changing. Morris reminded the Melbourne Press Club that the ABC had just launched its aged care investigation, to expose abuse in the aged care system. If you have ever walked the halls of a nursing home in the late evening, the calls for help are heartbreaking. Morris's team wanted to know more and asked the public for tips and stories.Gaven Morris addressed the Melbourne Press Club about the latest round of ABC funding cuts.

The ABC says it will have to "cut into muscle" to absorb the Turnbull government's latest funding cut, as it flags further trade-offs between rusted-on viewers and the new, younger audiences it is desperate to attract.

Director of news, analysis and investigations Gaven Morris said the $83.7 million funding freeze in this week's federal budget highlighted the "dilemma" of the public broadcaster's aggressive push into the under-40s market at a time when its operating budget was being squeezed.

"Make no mistake, there is no more fat to cut in ABC news," Morris told the Melbourne Press Club on Thursday. "From this point on, were cutting into muscle."

However, in an interview with Fairfax Media, Morris said it was too early to identify what, if any, parts of the business could face cuts. He said the news division's $200 million annual budget - a fifth of the ABC's operating budget - was "a lot of money", and he has "never made an argument that we should be getting significantly more money".The board of the Australian Press Council is expected to remove GetUp! activist Carla McGrath on Friday, a year after her appointment, for being in breach of a new conflict of interest policy.

The council's main function is to assess complaints against newspapers and magazines, and Ms McGrath's appointment was seen by the journalists' union, the government and commentators as incompatible with that role.

Carla McGrath, pictured with then opposition leader Tony Abbott in 2013, is deputy chair of GetUp! Credit:Andrew Meares

The board will vote on Friday and is tipped to give Ms McGrath the boot, after law firm Mills Oakley advised her position as deputy chair of GetUp! "could give rise to a perception that [she] may not be able to act impartially".

GetUp! argues it is not a political organisation but it campaigns on progressive causes associated with Labor and the Greens, and is working to oust Coalition Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.Labor will support Liberal MP Sussan Ley's bill to outlaw live exports, meaning an outright ban on the trade within five years is, for the first time, a realistic prospect.

Fairfax Media can also reveal that a second government MP is considering co-sponsoring the bill, indicating that momentum for a ban is rapidly building in the government.

Labor's spokesman for agriculture, Joel Fitzgibbon, announced last week that the opposition no longer believed the industry - which is under fierce scrutiny after footage emerged showing thousands of sheep "boiling alive" on a ship heading to the Middle East - was incapable of repair.

However, he had stopped short of supporting the bill to be presented to Parliament on May 21 by Ms Ley, a former government cabinet minister who represents a regional seat in NSW.Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is poised to reject the advice of the committee he instructed to examine the dual citizenship fiasco, which will propose a referendum to abolish section 44 of the constitution.

Illustration: Matt Golding

Wednesday's High Court decision that ruled former Labor senator Katy Gallagher ineligible and prompted the resignations of four MPs in similar circumstances, has hardened the resolve of some MPs that change must occur.

The joint standing committee on electoral matters will meet on Friday morning to finalise its report on section 44, which has now claimed 15 citizenship-related scalps since the election.

Fairfax Media has been told the draft report recommends the government hold a referendum to repeal sections 44 and 45, and if passed, consult with Australians "to determine contemporary expectations of standards".Rather than add a "fake news" button for users to easily report objectionable articles, Google aims to help them become more discerning news readers.

The search giant is adding a new "Full Coverage" section as part of its Google News redesign, unveiled at this week's Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View, California. Coming to mobile devices and the web, Full Coverage isn't just a simple list of all available articles on a topic. Rather, it aims to offer readers a comprehensive and unbiased overview of issues by drawing on content from a variety of respected news sources.

Most importantly, all Google News users will see the same mix of articles for each topic in Full Coverage, chosen by artificial intelligence with no human intervention. The choice of articles is not influenced by the user's reading habits or their preference for particular publications or points of view.

The goal is to present all readers with all the facts, so they can draw their own conclusions, rather than reinforce filter bubbles which ensure their beliefs are never challenged. says Google's VP of News, Richard Gingras.Here are some of the stories making headlines today.

The earthquake unleashed by Trumps departure from Iran nuclear deal The last time Europe and the US were this far apart was on the eve of the Iraqi invasion in 2003; even then the Brits went along with Operation Enduring Freedom. This time, the consequences seem more dangerous and far-reaching.

Muellers team questions Russian oligarch about payments to Cohen Viktor Vekselberg, chairman of asset manager Renova Group, is an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, and last month the Trump administration placed him on a list of sanctioned Russians for activities including election interference. The purpose of the payments, which predate the sanctions, and the nature of the business relationship between Vekselberg and Cohen is unclear.

Rockefeller auction fetches $646M in first night Christies sale of a Picasso nude for $115 million has kick-started what some experts have been calling the sale of the century.

Russias Victory Day parade: Weapons to watch Rehearsals for the event, which commemorates the 73rd anniversary of Nazi Germanys surrender in World War II, began earlier this month, giving the world a glimpse of whats coming. Heres a closer look at some of the weaponry we can expect to see. Su-57 fighter jet The Sukhoi Su-57 is Russias first homemade fifth-generation stealth fighter.

HPV vaccines prevent cervical cancer, global review confirms The reports authors, who examined evidence from 26 previously published studies of more than 70,000 women, also found no serious side effect risks associated with the vaccines. Most people who have sexual contact will be exposed to HPV at some time. Even if exposed, most women will clear the viral infectionnaturally.

Pauley Perrette bids farewell to NCIS The NCIS lab has lost its resident goth genius. Pauley Perrette, who played forensic scientist Abby Sciuto, has signed off from the long-running CBS crime drama after 15 seasons on the show.

Trumps Iran Deal Exit Is A Win For Russia WASHINGTON  President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal will weaken U.S. relationships around the world and create problems that U.S. foreign policy will be grappling with for years, but its also a boon for the U.S. rival that American intelligence said helped Trump get elected: Russia.

9/11 Mastermind Waterboarded By CIA Has Information To Share About Gina Haspel Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks, says he has information to share with lawmakers about CIA head nominee Gina Haspel ahead of her Senate confirmation hearing.

Blackhead Extractions Are Extremely Satisfying, But Are They Good For Us? For anyone looking to unclog their pores, theres nothing more satisfying than a good extraction. Even dermatologists agree they can be beneficial for our skin. But if not done correctly, you could end up hurting your skin more than helping it.

Theres A New Meghan Markle Wax Figure, And Its Actually A Great Likeness Wax figures can sometimes be hit or miss, but a new depiction of Meghan Markle that was unveiled at Londons Madame Tussauds wax museum on Wednesday is actually a dead ringer for the future British royal: OMG the day has come!

Iran deal not dead despite US exit Frances Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says the Iranian nuclear deal is not dead despite US President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw. The 2015 agreement curbed Irans nuclear activities in return for the lifting of sanctions that had been imposed by the UN, US and EU.

Katy Perry offers Taylor actual olive branch Katy Perry has sent Taylor Swift an actual olive branch, seemingly ending the beef between the two megastars. Swifty, who is about to start her Reputation tour, shared a video of the package she received from Katy  which appeared to include a note with the words miscommunications and deeply sorry written on it.

Potential new cure found for baldness A potential new cure for baldness has been discovered using a drug originally intended to treat osteoporosis. Enhanced hair growth is a side-effect of a different drug, cyclosporine A, used to treat autoimmune diseases. And researchers found it also inhibited a protein, SFRP1, that blocks a molecular pathway, WNT, vital for the growth of many tissues, including hair.

Israel Golan alert over Iran activity The Israeli military says it has detected irregular Iranian activity in Syria and has ordered residents of the occupied Golan Heights to prepare their bomb shelters. The military says it has prepared for a variety of scenarios. Any aggression against Israel will be met with a severe response, spokesman Jonathan Conricus said.

Uber teams up with U.S. Army, NASA to develop flying taxis Every product here is independently selected by Mashable journalists. If you buy something featured, we may earn an affiliate commission which helps support our work. Uber is flying high above its street-level ride-hailing business. At its annual Elevate summit in Los Angeles Tuesday, the rideshare company detailed its aviation goals to launch electric flying taxis within the next five years.

How will the sun die? A new study has some ideas One day our sun will die. About 10 billion years from now, our nearest star will run out of its stellar fuel, effectively marking the end of its life in space. Ok, but then what happens?

Meet NoFap, the Reddit community for people who want to stop masturbating This post is part of Mashables Masturbation Week . May is National Masturbation Month, so were celebrating by exploring the many facets of self-love. Most medical professionals generally consider masturbation to be a healthy, productive exercise. But it can go too far.

Rich dudes are running out of insults for Bitcoin Bitcoin bashing has been a popular sport among the very rich for quite a while, but this week the usual suspects have considerably upped their game. These days, its no longer enough to call Bitcoin a bad or dangerous investment.There are other old roosters, too: President Francisco "Lu-Olo Guterres, 68; Nobel Prize laureate, former PM and president Jose Ramos Horta, 68; Abilio de Araujo, 69; Rogerio Lobato, 68, and other returnees of the diaspora. All are lined up with Alkatiri. In some ways its become a contest between two former wings of the Gusmao-led resistance and the diplomatic efforts from those outside the country led by Alkatiri and Horta," says Michael Leach, professor of politics at Swinburne University and long-time East Timor observer. "It's history wars over who contributed more to independence. Martin Hardie, professor of legal anthropology puts it more starkly. This battle is more about two ways of doing politics: the tension between Timorese who are in tune with their culture, language and land, and those, generally from the outside or with mixed blood, that see themselves as modernisers, and who see themselves as better than Timorese people and look down on regular Timorese.

And while living standards have certainly improved  at least in the bigger towns  since independence from Indonesia in 2002, all the old roosters have had some hand in landing East Timor in the mess it is in. The economy is stagnating  GDP growth is now less than 4 per cent, which is low for a developing nation and a distance away from a high of 16 per cent a decade ago. A new maritime treaty with Australia has been struck but so far with no guarantees that vastly increased undersea gas holdings will ever yield another cent for the country. And hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted on roads to nowhere, big houses, cars and swelling bank balances for the often corrupt emerging elite. Alkatiri, who was forced from power during his first term as the nation's inaugural prime minister in 2006, took one more stab at the top job in the July 2017 general election, leading Fretilin to finish just ahead of CNRT.

Supporters shout slogans during a Fretilin campaign rally this week. Credit:AP He got there, but only just, with a coalition including the Democratic Partys five seats and eight from KHUNTO, an election surprise package of untested politicians using a martial arts network to appeal to younger voters. A day before the official swearing in of the new government, KHUNTO walked away, but Fretilins Lu-Olo proceeded to invest Alkatiri anyway. After six months of deadlock, rather than hand government to Gusmao's team, Lu-Olo opted for fresh elections. All the while Gusmao was out of the country, renegotiating the country's 2004 maritime border with Australia. The result was another election campaign, and it has been a spiteful, sometimes violent one. A video showing Gusmao on the stump accusing Alkatiri, a moderate Muslim, of eating the wrong kind of pork went viral.

Fretilin supporters have countered with shows of force, several times in recent weeks attacking convoys of opposition cars with rocks, once putting a three-year-old child in hospital. The Australian government has issued a warning for travellers to exercise a high degree of caution" in East Timor because of the uncertain security situation. "The situation could deteriorate without warning," the warning says.There are rumours in Dili that Australian troops are on standby to fly in. Security aside, there are also questions about what sort of development model will be used for the country.

The CNRT has traditionally favoured a mega-project model while the PLP, has preferred direct funding to people and business. Now its unclear what the AMP would do," Leach says. A common theme, talking to people both inside and outside the political parties, is that fresh political blood is needed for the country whose population is unusually young, and has exploded from under one million to almost 1.3 million in just 15 years. Some of the parties have taken tentative steps. Former president Taur Matan Ruak, who succeeded as an independent head of state from 2012-2017 is still, at 63, part of the next generation and heads a younger team in the PLP, which is lead in parliament by Fidelis Magalhaes, a 35-year-old. KHUNTO, led by relative newcomer Jose Bucar Naimori, has benefited from targeting the youth vote.But tensions have since eased greatly, starting around the time of the North's participation in the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February. As part of the extraordinary rapprochement now going on, North Korea has vowed to dismantle the test site, where all six of its nuclear detonations have taken place, this month. But as with so many things about North Korea, it's difficult to tell how much of this is wheat and how much is chaff. Punggye-ri (red mark), a North Korean nuclear test site in Kilju, North Hamkyong Province. Credit:Yonhap/AP Kim made the pledge during a historic summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, which laid the groundwork for the Kim-Trump meeting. Kim said he would invite security experts and journalists to the North to observe the closure of the site, the South's presidential Blue House said.

All six of North Korea's nuclear tests have taken place deep under the mountain at Punggye-ri, with five of them occurring in the tunnel complex accessed through an entrance known as the north portal. There are two other entrances to the site, the west and south portals. The last test, in September last year, was so huge that some experts wondered if Mount Mantap was suffering from "tired mountain syndrome" and had become unusable. But numerous nuclear experts have cast doubt on that theory, noting that even if the tunnels leading to the north portal were unusable, the other two entrances could still be operational. Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un are due to meet. Credit:AP Tunnelling and activity at the west portal had been visible as recently as April 20, a week before the inter-Korean summit, according to an analysis for 38 North, a website devoted to North Korea. There are clusters of buildings at the portals, including administration buildings and a command center, as well as smaller buildings.

The big, main buildings are still there but the smaller, more peripheral ones at the north and south portals, the entrances to the main tunnels, have come down, Lewis said. This could be part of the preparations for inviting journalists and experts to watch the closure of the site, which, Lewis said, could be as simple - and as reversible - as blocking the portals. Loading "Shutting down the test site is something they can easily do. It's just tunnels so they can seal the entrances - but they can also unseal them," he said. "And the tunnels are always going to be there," he added, unless North Korea blows up the whole site.

Still, analysts wanting to be optimistic about the diplomatic process say that declaring the site finished and taking some steps towards closing it would support their theory that Kim is making an effort, just like this week's release of three Americans who had been held in North Korea. But sceptics say that closing a test site that might well be spent is just cosmetic. A group of Chinese scientists last month said they believed the test site had collapsed after September's huge test, which caused an earthquake so big that satellites caught images of the mountain above the site actually moving. North Korea claimed to have detonated a hydrogen bomb, which would be exponentially more powerful than the atomic devices previously tested, and experts said the size of the earthquake suggested that it had indeed been a hydrogen, or thermonuclear, explosion.

Adding to theory that the site has outlived its utility is new research from scientists from the Earth Observatory of Singapore at Nanyang Technical University, who claim to have found evidence that the damage at Mount Mantap was more substantial than other research shows. In their study, to be published in the journal Science on Thursday, they argued that by using satellite radar imagery to supplement ground-based seismological readings they were able to gain a more accurate picture of the September 3 test. Sylvain Barbot, a researcher with the Earth Observatory of Singapore, wrote in an email that the nuclear test last year was so large that "we could 'feel' it from space". The amount of shaking that accompanied the explosion was so severe that traditional radar measurements were inaccurate, Barbot said, and his team had to use unusual techniques to compensate for significant changes in the landscape. By using these techniques, the researchers were able to estimate a depth for the nuclear detonation: Around 450 metres, beneath the summit of Mount Mantap. Researchers then combined this information with seismological readings to come up with an estimated yield for the weapon of between 120 kilotons to 304 kilotons.The capture of Indonesia's most wanted terrorist Abu Dujana would be a severe blow to terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah, but would not spell its end, an analyst said.

A source in Indonesia's anti-terror squad Detachment 88 told AAP Dujana was arrested in one of a series of weekend raids, but police have officially refused to confirm his capture.

Dujana's right-hand man Mahfud, aka Yusron, was among a number of people being questioned after being arrested in the raids.

Mahfud was taken into custody after being shot in the thigh at a raid on a house in the central Java district of Banyumas on Saturday.

The Detachment 88 source said Dujana was also being interrogated in a secret location but refused to provide further details.Cairo: US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the nuclear agreement with Iran has been greeted warmly in Arab capitals, where tensions with Tehran form the backdrop of proxy wars raging in Syria and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Iran's rivals long have wanted to scuttle the nuclear deal with world powers. Credit:A{

In Arab capitals, especially in the Gulf, Trumps move was greeted with enthusiasm by political leaders, where the tussle with Iran has dominated the region in recent years.

Iran today, after the deal, is one bit weaker than Iran during the deal," said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political science professor who serves as an advisor to powerful Emirati ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed.Jerusalem: Confrontation between Israel and Iranian forces sharply escalated on Thursday after Iranian forces launched a rocket attack on Israeli army bases in the Golan Heights early on Thursday, Israel said, prompting one of the heaviest Israeli barrages in Syria since the conflict there began in 2011.

The attack into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights marks the first time Iranian forces have fired directly onto Israeli troops from Syria, where Iran-backed Hezzbolah militias support President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war.

Commuters drive past a giant wall mural proclaiming the destruction of Israel in Tehran, Iran, on Wednesday. Credit:Bloomberg

Dozens of Israeli missiles hit a radar station, Syrian air defence positions and an ammunition dump, Syrian state media said, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies. Israeli media said 28 Israeli jets fired mroe than 60 missiles into Syria.

Afterwards Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said "I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message".Washington: A company at the centre of a widening questions involving US President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen is listed as the organisation behind a string of websites targeted toward white nationalists and other members of the so-called alt-right.

Columbus Nova, a company whose US Chief Executive Andrew Intrater and Russian investment partner Viktor Vekselberg have reportedly been interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team, is listed as the registrant behind a handful of web domains named were created during the 2016 election.

Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels' attorney, leaves federal court in New York after a hearing for Michael Cohen, in April. Credit:AP

It is unclear if any of these websites were launched or ever hosted content.

The sites include Alt-right.co, Alternate-right.com, Alternate-rt.com, Alt-rite.com, and other similar combinations, which were all registered in the two days following a speech given by then candidate Hillary Clinton in August 2016 in which she excoriated the far-right movement known for its extremist, racist, anti-Semitic and sexist points.Wellington: New Zealand's tourism body is shaking up its "100 per cent pure" brand but says it's got nothing to do complaints about the state of the environment.

"It is not an environmental standard. It's a marketing strategy," Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis told Radio NZ on Thursday.

'100% Pure New Zealand' has been used for two decades. Credit:File

Since 1999, the "100 per cent pure" slogan has been used to spruik the country's picturesque mountains and shimmering lakes to a global audience.

But while tourism authorities say it's been hugely successful for promoting the country as a destination, the label has also been under fire for years, from environmentalists questioning its veracity.UK: The PSC Register and its implications

Posted by Publisher Internet

It has been almost two years since the introduction of the Persons with Significant Control Register (the ?PSC Register?) in the UK, but it is quickly evident during due diligence exercises that not all directors have a clear understanding of their obligations

The PSC Register is designed to ensure the ownership of corporate bodies in the UK is known publicly, with penalties for those who do not provide such information. Since the EU?s Fourth Money Laundering Directive passed the deadline for transposition in EU member states last summer (June 2017), all EU companies will be subject to broadly similar rules. Outside Europe, however, such publications are not always necessary. In the UK, companies (with only a few exceptions for publicly traded companies) are required to keep a register of ?people with significant control over the company? and to make that public. Whether or not a person has ?significant control? is determined, in its simplest form, by whether that person (a ?PSC?):

1. owns more than 25 percent of the shares in the company (or has a right to more than 25 percent of the profits)

2. has more than 25 percent of the voting rights

3. is able to appoint or remove a majority of the directors

4. has the right to, or does, exercise significant influence or control (but this will only be relevant where none of 1, 2 or 3 apply), and/or

5. has the right to, or does, exercise significant influence or control over the activities of a trust or firm which is not a legal identity, but would, in its own right, satisfy any of 1, 2, 3 or 4 if it were an individual.

How this applies to RLEs

Similar rules apply to other companies, known as relevant legal entities (?RLEs?), which have ?significant control? over a subsidiary. A company is only considered a RLE, however, if it is also subject to PSC disclosure requirements. This ensures that the individual humans who actually control the subsidiary can ultimately be identified., Anyone investigating ultimate ownership of a subsidiary, therefore, can follow the chain of PSC Registers from the subsidiary through all of the RLE parent companies, to the ultimate PSC of the holding company. For clarity, once a company has found its own RLE(s), it is not required to report on that RLE?s ownership, reducing the administrative burdens on companies, although making it more difficult to find the ultimate PSC.

Registration of the information in the PSC Register

Company directors need to ensure that they have taken reasonable steps to identify the PSC(s) and/or RLE(s) (if any) of the company. This primarily involves asking presumed PSCs and RLE(s) to provide their information with the power to restrict the shareholder?s voting rights until such information is provided. Having done so, they must register this information in their PSC Register, alongside their other statutory registers. Alternatively, privately owned companies can opt to maintain their PSC Register directly with Companies House. Strictly speaking, directors who fail to do this could face imprisonment or a fine, warn the experts at Ecovis. In addition, PSCs and RLEs which know or ought reasonably to know they should be contained on the PSC Register should inform the company. If there are no PSCs or RLEs, a declaration evidencing this must be in the PSC Register.

In relation to updates, the timetable is relatively short. Companies have just 14 days from the date of a transaction or change to update their PSC Register and, thereafter, have another 14 days to update Companies House. The net effect of this is that all transactions should be public within 28 days of completion, which will have ramifications for any companies, buyers or sellers trying to do something under the radar of third parties. Again, an offence is committed by every director if such updates are not made.

The system is not water-tight

Notwithstanding the above, there are questions as to the effectiveness of PSC Registers. Above all, there is no third party verification of the information contained therein, or of the details held by Companies House. Whilst it is an offence to submit false information to Companies House, it is unlikely to be subject to verification. This differs from some European states where more stringent reporting requirements are used. The consequence of this is that the system is open to abuse or, at the very least, negligent misuse. Ultimately, therefore, caution should be taken before relying on the contents of a PSC Register or Companies House filings.

Author

Matthew Devine, solicitor, Barlow Robbins LLP, Guildford, Surrey,

Ecovis is a leading global consulting firm with its origins in Continental Europe. It has over 5,000 people operating in over 60 countries. Its consulting focus and core competencies lie in the areas of tax consultation, accounting, auditing and legal advice.

The particular strength of Ecovis is the combination of personal advice at a local level with the general expertise of an international and interdisciplinary network of professionals. Every Ecovis office can rely on qualified specialists in the back offices as well as on the specific industrial or national know-how of all the Ecovis experts worldwide. This diversified expertise provides clients with effective support, especially in the fields of international transactions and investments ? from preparation in the client?s home country to support in the target country.

In its consulting work Ecovis concentrates mainly on mid-sized firms. Both nationally and internationally, its one-stop-shop concept ensures all-round support in legal, fiscal, managerial and administrative issues.

The name Ecovis, a combination of the terms economy and vision, expresses both its international character and its focus on the future and growth.IFSEC Philippines 2018 - The leading security, fire & safety event for the Philippines

IFSEC Philippines 2018, the second edition of the event, is set to be bigger and better, in featuring more global brands for the emerging Philippines buying demand. With strong support from various government bodies and associations, this is the event for you to participate if you want to penetrate the Philippines buying chain. IFSEC Philippines is expected to attract around 5000 trade visitors coming from around the nation to be under one roof.

Visitors at IFSEC Philippines 2018 can How to build smarter, more secure cities from the ground up

Today, we live in a technology-obsessed age. Whichever way you look, its hard to avoid the increasing number applications, products and solutions that continue to redefine the boundaries of what we previously thought possible. From autonomous vehicles and edge computing to 5G and the Internet of Things, all facets of our lives are continuing to evolve, thanks to an endless stream of differentiated innovations. In this article, well be focusing on the latter of these - the Internet of Things (IoT). Deployment of IoT technologies Smart homes, smart utilities, smart retail, smart farming, smart supply chains and many of the other smart versions of sectors that were already familiar with, are all called as such because of the implications of IoT. Indeed, it is a technology that has manifested itself in billions of devices, which today underpin the truly transformational levels of connectivity that we see across industries of all shapes and sizes. The statistics speak for themselves. According to Statista, over US$ 1 trillion is expected to be spent on IoT technology worldwide, in 2022. Be it added convenience, efficiency, productivity or intelligence, many benefits are poised to emerge from this spike in IoT-related activities. Yet to say this digital transition is going to be entirely positive would be naive. Threats faced by smart cities It is said that by 2040, 65 per cent of the worlds population will be living in cities Lets consider smart cities. It is said that by 2040, 65 per cent of the worlds population will be living in cities. To accommodate such an influx, without facing significant logistical issues, with limited space and infrastructure, policy makers have begun to recognise that these urban environments need to become not only larger, but smarter as well. As a result, the global smart cities market is on the rise. Statista states that, globally, technology spending on smart city initiatives is expected to double from US$ 81 billion in 2018 to US$ 189.5 billion in 2023. Threat of attackers with expanding IoT landscape The challenge here is that such a stark uptick will drastically expand the IoT landscape, presenting more opportunities than ever to threat actors. As connectivity and computing power is distributed more widely across large-scale outdoor networks, hackers will scale-up their own operations in tandem. According to a Nokia report from October 2020 (based on data aggregated from monitoring network traffic on more than 150 million devices globally), IoT devices now account for roughly 33 per cent of all infected devices, up from the 16 per cent estimated in 2019. Whats more concerning is how these figures are translating into real world events. 2021 alone has already witnessed an attack on a water plant in Oldsmart, Florida, which was designed to poison residents drinking water. Furthermore, Colonial Pipeline, one of the largest fuel pipelines in the US was also hacked, earlier this year, resulting in major shortages across the countrys East Coast. Security through IoT authentication From weak password protection, a lack of regular patch updates and insecure interfaces, to insufficient data protection, poor IoT devices management and an IoT skills gap, there are plenty of weaknesses existing within the IoT ecosystem, which continue to provide open goals for attackers. To defend against such lethal threats, security-by-design and open standards should be the guiding principles of IoT, working to prioritise security, interoperability and robust, internet-based protocols to mitigate risks. Device authentication and encryption A sound place to start is to make device authentication and encryption the central pillars of your IoT security architecture A sound place to start, in this regard, is to make device authentication and encryption the central pillars of your IoT security architecture. The goal is to be able to prove that each and every device joining a network is not malicious, with tell-tale signs being rogue code, for example. By ensuring each device is uniquely identifiable with digital certificates and therefore, properly authenticated when joining a network, you can ensure no tampered devices are able to infiltrate your overarching network. Using technologies, such as Hardware Secure Element Critically, passwords should be avoided altogether, these vulnerable to being stolen and cracked. And, while a similar vulnerability lies in the fact that all secure devices contain a private key, you can leverage technologies, such as Hardware Secure Element (a chip designed specifically to protect against unauthorised access, even if the attacker has physical access to the device), as an extra layer of defence. Digital certificates are not the only option available in protecting those IoT devices that, if tampered with, could become the cause of physical threats. Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) can also be used to prevent tampering. Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) Through Physical Unclonable Function (PUF), a form of IoT device fingerprint is developed from the unique make up of a piece of silicon, which can be used to create a unique cryptographic key. Unlike digital certificates, a secure infrastructure can be achieved through PUF, without the need for any additional hardware, as the key is not only stored securely, but it also becomes invisible to hackers, when the device is not running. The importance of encryption Use of AES encryption within radio chips, to scramble messages on the move, is the method adopted at Wi-SUN Alliance Now, lets turn attentions to encryption. The use of AES encryption within radio chips, to scramble messages on the move, is the method that we have adopted here at Wi-SUN Alliance. Its a means of maximising data security, but also reducing power consumption in the devices themselves. Beyond AES encryption, its also worth considering topography at the design stage. Indeed, mesh networks are advantageous for several reasons. They are more reliable, allowing data to be re-routed, should devices lose contact unexpectedly. Transmissions usually travel shorter distances, which improves power efficiency and performance, and frequency hopping functionality prevents attackers from jamming signals, which could deny the service altogether. Open standards and interoperability But where do open, interoperable standards fit in? As is defined by the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS), interoperability enables a computer programme to communicate and exchange information with other computer programmes, allowing all programmes to use that information. Open standards then allow any vendor of communications equipment or services to implement all standards necessary, to interoperate with other vendors. This is incredibly useful from a security perspective. It means that all specs are stress-tested and verified by many users, and that any vulnerabilities are quickly detected, and remediated, enhancing security and reliability. Need for open standards Equally, open standards can accelerate time-to-market, reduce costs and ensure products are usable, with a variety of manufacturers processors and radios, with a steam of publicly available protocol stacks, design information and reference implementations available that can help build and future-proof secure products. Indeed, large-scale corporate IoT networks alongside smart cities, smart utilities, and other key smart infrastructure will only continue to evolve, in the coming years. With the immense threats of attackers in mind, these systems must prioritise security-by-design, both now and in the future.Nyali lawmaker Mohammed Ali has condemned in the strongest way possible the alleged 700 percent raise on MPs pension.

According to reports, the raise will cost the taxpayer Sh1.7 billion between July 1, 2018, and June 2019. This marks a 700 percent increase from the Sh262 million paid out in the current financial year.

As Kenyans continue to voice their wrath over the raise, Mohammed Ali has come out as one of the first lawmakers to speak out against it.

According to the former investigative journalist, the raise is the most callous, greedy and unconscionable move I have seen in my short time as an MP.

According to Moha, he was not aware of the proposal by a three man ad-hoc committee.

This[700 percent raise] was proposed by a three man ad-hoc committee, whose findings or mandate I was not aware of. Had I been, I would say to them as I state here and now: that is the most callous, greedy and unconscionable move I have seen in my short time as an MP, stated Moha.

Noting that MPs deserve a pension, the first time MP further vowed not to support the raise.

I, Mohamed Ali, do not support it and will vote against the adoption of this change. We were elected to serve the public.

Whereas, as with any other job, we deserve a pension, it must be commensurate to the work we have done and the money we earn, added Ali.

He also rallied Kenyans to protest the move.

Read his full statement below.

700 percent Pension is unacceptable

My attention has been drawn to an article in a local daily in which it is alleged that MPs have or are attempting to raise their pension by over 700%.

This was proposed by a three man ad-hoc committee, whose findings or mandate I was not aware of. Had I been, I would say to them as I state here and now: that is the most callous, greedy and unconscionable move I have seen in my short time as an MP.

I, Mohamed Ali, do not support it and will vote against the adoption of this change. We were elected to serve the public. Whereas, as with any other job, we deserve a pension, it must be commensurate to the work we have done and the money we earn.

An MPs pension isnt just financial; but the ability to walk down a street in his or her constituency knowing that it is better off because of the work he or she did while in Parliament! Fellow Kenyans, you must raise your voices against this and any other move made by us Parliamentarians that is of ill motive, as I will against this move.Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

A few showers this morning with numerous thunderstorms developing during the afternoon hours. High 78F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Isolated thunderstorms early, overcast overnight with occasional rain likely. Low near 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.A pair of astronomers has mapped the 3D structure of an interstellar cloud in a surprising way: They watched it "sing" with magnetic vibrations.

The interstellar cloud Musca, located in the southern sky just south of Crux, the Southern Cross constellation, is a stellar nursery  it will form star systems as it collapses over time, and that formation process is dictated by the 3D structure of the cloud. To better understand clouds like Musca and what determines the number and type of stars that they form, scientists require detailed models.

"The 3D structure of interstellar clouds has been, for decades now, the 'holy grail' in figuring out how clouds break up into smaller fragments, and how these fragments go on to form stars," Konstantinos Tassis, co-author of the new study about Musca and a researcher at the University of Crete in Greece, told Space.com in an email. [Dust Cloud Around the Moon Explained (Infographic)]

By reconstructing Musca's 3D structure, Tassis and astronomer Aris Tritsis, of The Australian National University, aim to test theoretical models of interstellar clouds and advance scientists' understanding of how stars are born.

Astronomers have reconstructed a 3D structure of the interstellar molecular cloud Musca using vibrations from its hair-like striations. (Image credit: Aris Tritsis/ESA )

Tassis and Tritsis studied the cloud's vibrations, which are encoded in striations, or the hair-like structures that surround it. Musca vibrates magnetically as a whole, or "sings," as the researchers put it. This "song" is what eventually led the team to determine the 3D structure.Re-creating the 3D structure of an interstellar cloud is uniquely challenging, Tassis said, because researchers can't see the cloud from different angles but rather only from Earth's perspective. It "has always been particularly difficult, because of projection effects: Pancakes, for example, can look like needles if we look directly at their thin side, and like round blobs if we look at them face-on. How do we tell what shape we really have in each case?" Tassis said.

The nature of the striations themselves is not yet fully understood, according to Tassis, but their work suggests how to interpret them as the imprint of magnetic waves traveling through the cloud they're in, because the waves reflect the cloud's structure.

The team chose Musca because the cloud is uniquely isolated, so its striations are relatively easy to see. Musca has historically been described as "needle-shaped," as it is a textbook example of a filamentary cloud. However, the astronomers were surprised to find that the striation patterns suggested that the cloud is actually pancake-shaped. Typically, magnetic forces create pancake-shaped clouds, turbulence makes needle-shaped clouds and thermal forces make blob-shaped clouds. Therefore, when you understand the shape of the cloud, you can figure out what forces are at work inside, according to Tassis. This understanding not only explains the cloud's shape but could reveal how stars form inside the cloud.

"Stars are formed inside molecular clouds. However, exactly how this happens is still a mystery," Tritsis told Space.com in an email. With the creation of this new, detailed model, the researchers plan to apply their technique to other objects, decoding and figuring out their shapes using the objects' unique striations and vibrations, Tassis said.

The researchers also plan to use their knowledge of Musca's true shape to try to better understand how this particular molecular cloud forms stars. The team will also try to discern if other clouds "sing" like Musca does, Tritsis told Space.com.

The new work was detailed today (May 10) in the journal Science.

Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her @chelsea_gohd.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.SpaceX

SpaceX was born in 2002, when its founder, billionaire Elon Musk, took the first steps in his grand ambition to send a mission to Mars. Today, the company is way beyond the space startup stage.



The Hawthorne, California-based company regularly reuses rockets, sends cargo missions to the International Space Station with its Dragon spacecraft and will fly astronauts for NASA and others, too. SpaceX has also launched the massive Falcon Heavy and has plans for an even larger rocket to reach the moon, Mars and beyond: the Starship and its Super Heavy booster.



Read more about SpaceX's history of rockets and spacecraft development in the following slideshow.

Editor's note: This story, first published May, 10 2018, was updated on May 20, 2020.

Falcon 1

The Falcon 1 was the first rocket manufactured by SpaceX. It had a proposed capacity to carry 670 kilograms (1,480 lbs.) to low Earth orbit, and it flew between 2006 and 2009.

After three launch failures, Falcon 1 sent a dummy payload to space on Sept. 29, 2008. Its fifth and final launch, on July 14, 2009, sent RazakSAT, a Malaysian Earth-observation satellite, into orbit.

SpaceX

Falcon 1 rockets launched from Omelek Island, part of the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The 68 feet tall (21 meters) rocket was powered by a single engine (hence the "1" in its name) and ran on liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene.

And in case you're wondering, Musk named the Falcon rockets after the Millennium Falcon ship from "Star Wars."

Developing Falcon 9

SpaceX

SpaceX soon received interest from several companies looking for a heavier-lift rocket. The company had considered developing an intermediary rocket called the Falcon 5, but instead skipped ahead and began work on the Falcon 9 (because its first stage used a cluster of nine engines.

This rocket can send a payload to low Earth orbit weighing up to 28,991 lbs. (13,150 kg). It is a two-stage rocket that at stands 230 feet (70 meters) tall and is 12 feet (3.7 m) wide. SpaceX first advertised plans for the Falcon 9 in 2005 and sent the debut Falcon 9 aloft on June 7, 2010, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Early customers of the rocket included Bigelow Aerospace; Avanti Communications; and MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates.

Reusing rockets

SpaceX

Right from the beginning of Falcon 9's history, SpaceX was interested in reusing the first stage of the rocket to save on launch costs.

Early tests of the landing were unsuccessful, however. SpaceX made attempts on the first, second and sixth launches of the Falcon 9 to control the booster's landing, but in each case, the stage slammed down into the ocean. You can watch a supercut of those failed landings from SpaceX below.

SpaceX finally achieved a controlled ocean landing on Falcon 9's ninth launch (the fourth controlled-landing attempt), on April 18, 2014. This was an important stepping stone in the path to eventual reusability.

The first successful landing of a Falcon 9 rocket occurred on Dec. 21, 2015 at Landing Zone 1, a SpaceX pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Dragon dreams

SpaceX

SpaceX kept the first 18 months of the Dragon cargo ship's development under wraps. Then, in March 2006, the company officially made Dragon public when the company submitted a proposal for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration program. The ultimate goal was to develop a private spacecraft to ferry cargo to the International Space Station.



After Spacex hit several milestones, NASA selected SpaceX's Dragon in December 2008 to be one of the companies providing commercial resupply services to the space station. (The other company was Orbital Sciences, which later became Orbital ATK and now Northrop Grumman.)

SpaceX's contract value at that time was a minimum of $1.6 billion, with options to extend to $3.1 billion; the company has since received a new contract for cargo launch services.

Musk has confirmed that he named Dragon after "Puff the Magic Dragon.

Early Dragon flights

SpaceX

Dragon made a successful maiden flight on Dec. 8, 2010, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Then, on May 22, 2012, Dragon launched for an important test: an attempt to berth the spacecraft with the International Space Station.

Dragon made it to the station safely on May 25 of that year, despite experiencing some problems with a laser system that was supposed to judge the craft's distance to the orbiting complex. The milestone prompted worldwide acclaim. It was the first time a private spacecraft docked with the space station.

SpaceX has since upgraded its uncrewed Dragon cargo ships to be reusable for at least two flights.

Grasshopper

Grasshopper was a 100-foot-tall rocket prototype flown at SpaceX's McGregor, Texas, proving grounds to give the company more experience in landing boosters vertically.

While Grasshopper did not get as much media attention as SpaceX's other programs, it was key to furthering the development of Falcon 9's reusable first stage.

Chris Thompson/SpaceX

The Grasshopper rocket made eight test flights between 2012 and 2013, with the final flight seeing Grasshopper soar to 2,440 feet (744 meters).

The Grasshopper program was then retired so SpaceX could focus more resources on Falcon 9's development.

Falcon 9 Reusable Development Vehicle

SpaceX

SpaceX announced the Falcon 9 Reusable Development Vehicle in 2012, which was based on the first stage of the Falcon 9.

The company made five flights of this system at the SpaceX McGregor site between April and August 2014, with the maximum altitude on some flights exceeding 3,280 feet (1,000 m).

The last booster, which launched on Aug. 22, 2014, exploded due to a blocked sensor.

SpaceX's first rocket landing pad

SpaceX

This picture shows Landing Zone 1, a ground landing zone for the Falcon 9's first stage at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. This is where SpaceX made the first of its controlled ground landings, on Dec. 21, 2015.

The company built the pad on land leased from the U.S. Air Force on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (Landing Zone 1 is on land that used to host Launch Complex 13.) This landing was extra-sweet because the previous Falcon 9 flight, in June 2015, ended catastrophically with an explosion.

Ground landings

SpaceX

SpaceX's first successful Falcon 9 landing in Landing Zone 1, on Dec. 21, 2015, was hailed as a milestone for rocket reusability. However, the company still tried to improve on that achievement.

SpaceX experienced a mix of successful and failed ocean landings in 2014 and 2015.

SpaceX's Epic Falcon 9 Rocket Landing in Pictures



In 2015, SpaceX was also trying to land on drone ships in the ocean. While these landings kept ending with failure, Musk would post the videos and pictures on his Twitter feed, acknowledging mistakes made, and the company would work on improving for the next flight.

1st drone ship landing

SpaceX

The persistence exhibited by Musk and his employees finally paid off on April 8, 2016, when a Falcon 9 first stage touched down softly on a drone ship called "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Atlantic Ocean. The Dragon spacecraft that this Falcon 9 carried aloft also had a milestone flight, delivering an inflatable module  the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module  to the International Space Station.



SpaceX's success rate with drone landings improved drastically after the April 2016 flight, although some boosters still missed the mark from time to time. The company's Falcon 9 flight success rate is also strong; its last failure, in September 2016, saw a rocket explode on the launch pad before taking off.

SpaceX has a second drone ship, "Just Read the Instructions," which is used for Pacific Ocean landings after launches from Vandenberg Air Force Station in California. Both ships are named for fictional starships in the science fiction books of Iain M. Banks.

The highly anticipated debut of SpaceX's new Falcon 9 "Block 5" rocket has been delayed by at least a day.

The company's first-ever Falcon 9 Block 5 was scheduled to launch this afternoon (May 10) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on a mission to carry the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 communications satellite to orbit for the government of Bangladesh.

But an automatic abort was triggered just 58 seconds before the planned liftoff time of 5:47 p.m. EDT (2147 GMT), and SpaceX couldn't diagnose and fix the issue before the launch window closed at 6:22 p.m. EDT (2222 GMT). [See the Evolution of SpaceX's Rockets in Pictures]

"Standing down today due to a standard ground system auto abort at T-1 [minute]," SpaceX said in a Twitter update. "Rocket and payload are in good health  teams are working towards tomorrow's backup launch opportunity at 4:14 p.m. EDT, or 20:14 UTC."

SpaceX has not yet announced what exactly triggered the automatic abort. However, a preliminary review revealed that the rocket and satellite are in good health, company representatives said.

See more

The next launch opportunity comes tomorrow (May 11) at 4:14 p.m. EDT (2014 GMT). You can watch it live here at Space.com or directly via SpaceX. The action will also feature a landing attempt by the Falcon 9's first stage, which will try to touch down on a robotic SpaceX ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Block 5 is the latest and final iteration of SpaceX's two-stage Falcon 9 rocket. The new version features a number of reliability and reusability upgrades that should allow each Block 5 first stage to fly 10 times with no refurbishment between launch and landing, and 100 times or more with some minor maintenance, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said.

The first payload to launch on SpaceX's debut Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket will be Bangabandhu Satellite-1, the first communications satellite for the country of Bangladesh. Here, the satellite is seen during testing by its builders Thales Alenia Space. (Image credit: Thales Alenia Space)

The upgrades were also designed to meet NASA's crew-carrying requirements. SpaceX holds a multibillion-dollar deal with the space agency to fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station, and the company will use the Falcon 9 Block 5 and its Dragon capsule to perform these missions.

Bangabandhu-1, which was built by the French company Thales Alenia Space, will be Bangladesh's first communications satellite. The spacecraft will provide a variety of broadcast and communications services to inhabitants of the South Asian nation.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.









Three guy friends in a retirement community are the top dogs until they're blown out of the water by the newest member of the community, a female rebel whose ready to challenge their place - it's high school with 70 somethings.



Vicki Lawrence, Martin Mull, David Alan Grier& Leslie Jordan star.



20th Century Fox Television in association with FX Productions.



Source: FOX The Cool Kids is a multi-camera comedy from Charlie Day, Nick Frenkel, Paul Fruchbom, Don Scardino and Kevin Abbott.Three guy friends in a retirement community are the top dogs until they're blown out of the water by the newest member of the community, a female rebel whose ready to challenge their place - it's high school with 70 somethings.Vicki Lawrence, Martin Mull, David Alan Grier& Leslie Jordan star.20th Century Fox Television in association with FX Productions.





Rachelle Lefevre, Russell Hornsby, Nikki M. James, Vincent Kartheiser, Riley Smith & Clare O'Connor star.



Danny Strong Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television.



Source: FOX Proven Innocent is a legal drama set in a wrongful conviction firm. Led by a fierce and fearless female lawyer with a hunger for justice, the team reopens investigations, putting their own lives in danger to exonerate the innocent that were 'proven' guilty. Our lead's motivation comes from her infamous past; as a young adult she was found guilty and later exonerated in a high-profile case in which she became a tabloid sensation, household name and national celebrity. While a hero and a victim to some, her bold and bullish tactics garner her some enemies - one of whom will do anything to see her go down for a crime we know she did not commit. We will watch her defend others as she fights to maintain her own innocence.Rachelle Lefevre, Russell Hornsby, Nikki M. James, Vincent Kartheiser, Riley Smith & Clare O'Connor star.Danny Strong Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television.Royal Bank of Scotland announced Thursday it had agreed to a $4.9 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve an investigation into the banks sale and underwriting of mortgage-backed securities in the lead-up to the financial crisis.

The deal paves the way for the British government to start selling off its approximately 70 percent stake in the Edinburgh-headquartered bank  whose main U.S. offices are in downtown Stamford  and for RBS to resume paying out dividends.

Reaching this settlement in principle with the U.S. Department of Justice will, when finalized, allow us to deal with this significant remaining legacy issue and is the price we have to pay for the global ambitions pursued by this bank before the crisis, RBS CEO Ross McEwan said in a statement. Removing the uncertainty over the scale of this settlement means that the investment case for this bank is much clearer.

RBS plans to cover the settlement with $3.46 billion in previously allocated funds and then take an additional charge of $1.44 billion in the second quarter of this year.

The bank still needs to reach final terms with the Justice Department. Some analysts had expected a fine of up as much as $12 billion, in connection with the probe of RBS mortgage practices between 2005 and 2007.

Among other recent U.S. cases, state Attorney General George Jepsen announced in October 2016 a $120 million settlement with RBS tied to its oversight of mortgage-backed securities, representing the largest penalty against a company in the states history.

In February 2017, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered the bank to pay an $85 million civil penalty to settle charges that traders at its Stamford offices tried to manipulate a benchmark for interest-rate products during a period spanning the financial crisis.

In the United Kingdom, the bank faces heightened scrutiny of its operations because it has been majority-owned by the British government since November 2008.

As it has grappled with the regulatory hits and chronic losses in recent years, RBS has slashed some 750 jobs since the beginning of 2015 at its Americas headquarters at 600 Washington Blvd.

RBS officials have declined to say how many still work at 600 Washington, but they have said in recent statements they remain committed to Stamford. The bank owns the propertys approximately 400,000-square-foot building, which it opened nearly a decade ago.

To help fill the gaps created by the RBS job cuts, UBS relocated in 2016 its own downsized Stamford contingent into the building, from the massive complex across the street at 677 Washington Blvd. Later this year, Bank of America plans to open an approximately 115,000-square-foot center at 600 Washington.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; Twitter: @paulschottNORWALK  After eluding capture for nearly four years on arrest warrants for sexual assault of a child, a drunk-driving arrest in Florida led to the extradition back to Norwalk for a 39-year-old man.

On Dec. 22, 2014, Norwalk Police received information Antonio Lazaro Torres-Rodriguez, formerly of Oak Street, had been sexually abusing a child in Norwalk over a prolonged period of time. An investigation was quickly initiated, revealing that a second juvenile victim was involved, police said

The assigned investigator, Detective Tim Marquis of the Norwalk Police Special Victims Unit, secured an arrest warrant for Torres-Rodriguez. While attempting to take him into custody, it was learned he had fled Connecticut.

Police said he was tracked across multiple states, eventually eluding law enforcement.

On March 12, 2018, Torres-Rodriguez was arrested in Orlando, Fla. for allegedly driving under the influence. Despite having provided a false name to Orlando authorities, Torres-Rodriguezs fingerprints revealed his true identity, as well as the fact that he had an active arrest warrant stemming from the Norwalk incident, police said.

Orlando authorities contacted Norwalk Police.

On May 8, Marquis and Sgt. David Orr traveled to Orlando, took Torres-Rodriguez into custody, and transported him back to Norwalk without incident.

He was charged with two counts each of first-degree sexual assault of a person under 10 years old, risk of injury to a minor and intentional cruelty to persons. His bond was set at $1 million.

At his arraignment at Superior Court in Norwalk on May 9, Judge Alex Hernandez said the man poses a danger to the community and ordered his bond to remain as set.

His case was transferred to the Part A docket at Superior Court in Stamford, where more serious cases are tried.

He is scheduled to appear in court on May 25.B T shares were battered on Thursday as the market took a dim view of company plans to pump billions into the pension fund, hold the dividend and axe jobs as part of a major shake-up.

The stock, one of the widest-held in the UK, was down 8% to 220p as the City digested the news.

That ups the pressure on chief executive Gavin Patterson, facing speculation that new chairman Jan du Plessis will soon decide that, after five years in charge, his time is up. Shares have more than halved from the 499p reached in November 2015.

Although BT said 13,000 job cuts will help save 1.5 billion, the City focused on falling sales and remains unsure about the prospects for the dividend. Forecasts for next year were also cut.

Justin Cooper of Link Market Services said: BT paid its shareholders 10.7 billion in dividends in the last decade, almost the size of its current pension deficit. Shareholders still need the company to invest for the future, and they are on the hook for the companys pension scheme one way or another. The big cost reductions BT has announced today will protect the dividend for the next couple of years, but its longer-term prospects are still unclear.

BT said it will pay 4.5 billion into its staff pension scheme to deal with an 11.3 billion deficit.

There were few positive signs in the numbers, with fourth-quarter revenue down 3% to 5.96 billion. BT seems to have moved past an accounting scandal in Italy, but admits it faces increasing competitive intensity from established companies and new entrants.O ne thing is becoming clearer about Brexit: when the United Kingdom leaves the European Union it will lose control. You read that correctly  we will not be taking back control, making our own laws, free of Brussels interference. Instead, we will be losing control, in subtle but important ways.

The evidence is uploading into your phone and laptop right now. Its the slightly irritating request from your bank, online retailer, Facebook and Twitter that you agree to their privacy policy. You may have noticed a flurry of such random requests recently accompanied by acres of text that you didnt read. Its no accident; these organisations are in a rush to ensure their data privacy rules are compliant with the EUs General Data Protection Regulation as it comes into force on May 25.

This is a good thing, even if it is causing a headache for businesses. Its a powerful kick-back at the tech industry for playing fast and loose with our personal data. It entrenches your right to know what data an organisation holds on you and you can ask that it be removed. More importantly, if your data has been stolen or misused you can take action and companies that engage in egregious behaviour can suffer colossal penalties, fines of up to 4% of global turnover.

The GDPR has been in development for many years, long before we had heard of Cambridge Analytica and its antics mining personal data from Facebook accounts. For most of us, it means only a reduction in the volume of tiresome repeat advertising for products and services that we searched for online six months ago. Of huge importance is the global reach of GDPR. Any business anywhere that holds data on an EU citizen is captured by the regulation and the vast remit of this law is already forcing big foreign enterprises to change their behaviour.

American corporations are knuckling under, not just recognizing the extra-territorial application of EU privacy law but actively extending it worldwide. Facebook, unsurprisingly in contrite mode, said it saw GDPR as an opportunity to invest even more heavily in privacy and the company is adopting it for all its users. Sonos, an internet-based home music system, said: While GDPR is focused on Europe, we believe all Sonos owners have the same rights and deserve these top-level protection standards. Apple also plans to entrench the GDPR in its global privacy rules.

The gushing adulation of the GDPR by US tech companies grates on the ear when you consider their intense lobbying campaign to capture Congress and impede US efforts to tax and regulate tech businesses. The EU is way ahead of America in regulating internet commerce; since the post-Crash bout of banking regulation, Congress has adopted a hands-off stance. While America sits on its hands, Brussels has become the regulator with global remit, one that can command and control corporate behaviour worldwide.

Will the EUs data protection net catch the UK after Brexit? The simple answer is that after next April any UK-based business that processes data for customers in the EU will be caught in it. However, such a mechanistic view fails to see the elephant in the room. For any substantial UK business, the post-Brexit reality is that ignorance of relevant European law would be commercial folly, and potentially dangerous.

European law has for decades been extending its reach beyond the EUs borders. The competition rules, merger control and rules on anti-competitive behaviour capture all interactions with the EU. Its hard to ignore a market of 500 million people and multinational enterprises brief their senior staff regularly about EU competition rules. Until now the UK played an active role in developing EU law but our influence and expertise, notably in financial sevices regulation, will soon be lost.

Yet the EUs legislative power and reach will continue to expand. There have been times when Europeans, including Britons, would howl with rage at the long arm of American justice  the assumption by American courts of jurisdiction over UK citizens and UK businesses seemed excessive and sometimes brutal. We now find ourselves in a world governed by two legal systems with competing claims over the conduct of global business.B y the time you have finished reading this column, someone new will have moved to London.

By the end of the year, the citys population will have gone up by 70,000. By 2041, it is forecast to hit a record 10.5 million.

Growth is good: who wants to live in a dying and shrinking city? But where are all these new Londoners going to live?

A new report out today says it has the answer: building on what it calls Boxland, old retail sites and workshops that have been sidelined by online shopping.

Or, to put it another way, turning what used to be Toys R Us into Homes For U.

Whats smart about the report, published by think-tank Policy Exchange, is that it tries to defuse the battle over planning that makes building new homes so hard.

Its good to see a centre-Right body face the challenge of shaping London, as the Manhattan Institute does in New York.

Of course London could just keep growing out, as it always has. That would mean building on marginal parts of the green belt  an absolutely necessary step but politicians lack the courage to confront the Nimbys.

So, mostly, it wont happen, which will mean fewer homes and higher prices (something the report could have done more to point out).

London also needs to grow upwards  and thats happening, with 500 taller buildings being planned or being built . But that faces opposition, too, from people who already have the luxury of owning their homes.

So we need other ways to build including putting homes in sites which no longer pay their way.

According to the report, there are 1,220 sites across London which could provide up to 300,000 homes.

These are things such as boarded-up retail parks which used to house retail chains such as Toys R Us, which went bust in March.

The massive growth in online shopping means there are surely more empty sites to come.

By using them, we should be able to make London a nicer place to live as well as a bigger one, mixing terraced houses, small shops and work spaces just as has always happened in the bits of London that now have the highest prices and where people most want to live.

Londons Mayor, Sadiq Khan, likes to say that hes making housing a priority. But were still waiting for action.

He should read this report and get going.

Who rules Labour?

Last week we warned that a vote for Labour in local elections would be used by hard-Left extremists to take control. Now what we predicted is happening.

We also warned that radical activists would wait until the election was over before revealing their hand. Again, its happening.

Before polling day Haringeys moderate and effective leader, Claire Kober, was pushed out . Then, after the vote, Momentum radicals picked her successor.

They didnt just hold the public in contempt, they also ignored the views of Labour members.

Now the same thing is happening in Lewisham East, where Labour HQ looks set to overrule members by forcing a far-Left candidate on them as prospective MP in the coming by-election.

Jeremy Corbyn likes to promise local party democracy when it suits him. But when it doesnt fit his Leftist agenda hes happy to throw it aside.

Last week voters in Haringey saw through whats going on in Labour  the Lib-Dems surged as a result.

Well be watching what happens in Lewisham  and so will the voters.

Loading....

New life for little Evie

Great Ormond Street hospital is a place where doctors perform miracles: one of them saved the life of Evie Doherty, now five, who featured in our Give to GOSH campaign in 2015 which raised 3.5 million.

She was given a heart transplant a year later  now we report that her mother has written to the parents of the anonymous donor to thank them for the gift of life.A uthor CJ Sansom, writing about bullying last weekend, said his inattention at school made him the bete noire of foul-tempered, vicious masters. Today he would be diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), he believes, and teachers might consider some other reason for my behaviour than just being bad.

But are schools any better at dealing with ADHD now? While researching an article on ADHD recently, one education psychiatrist after another supplied stories of pupils mislabelled naughty, lazy or disruptive. A huge obstacle to progress, they argue, is the systemic cultural blindness in schools to the complexities of neuro-diversity (dyspraxia, dyslexia and milder autistic spectrum disorders).

With ADHD, old-fashioned discipline is often counter-productive. Shouting triggers fight or flight, long punishments are futile for short attention spans and threats can ignite an overdeveloped sense of injustice. One (medical) professor says he despairs of competitive teachers who boast in staffrooms: Give him to me for half an hour and Ill show him. No surprise these kids end up stressed with low self-esteem.

Prep schools such as Sansoms still harbour the worst offenders. Neuro-diverse kids are weeded out; rote learners prized. All that matters is exam results. Never mind that its madness to educate children to be rote-learning robots in a world of self-learning algorithms.

GCHQ has long had a neuro-diverse unit. Im heartened to hear (on the grapevine) that some major creative companies are also looking at ways to identify talent that is unrecognised by our narrow, rigid, unimaginative education system.

Surely that is the future. Macho teachers (male or female) who think their years of experience outweigh a better understanding of neuro-diversity are the ones who need educating. After all, anyone who has been in this broken system for decades and not done anything to reform it is the real rotten apple in the classroom.

Literary talent as teacher sees it

Author Ian McEwans disclosure that he helped his son with an essay on Enduring Love, and the boy got a C+, reminded me of the one time I copied word-for-word another students essay on the poet John Donne. He got an A and a paragraph of praise while I got a C, with the single word: Ambitious (That student went on to become a best-selling spy writer).

Still, my favourite response to McEwan was on Twitter: a student who was told to write a letter home from a First World War soldier copied an actual letter from the Imperial War Museum  and got a B.

Hypocrisy of the Polanski apologists

So Roman Polanski is suing the Oscars Academy following his expulsion last week. He accuses the organisation of hypocrisy  it awarded him best director for The Pianist in 2003  and has ranted against the mass hysteria of #MeToo.

In 1977, Polanski drugged and anally raped Samantha Geimer, 13. He fled the US while awaiting sentencing. Polanski has denied multiple accusations from girls of between 10 and 15.

Cate Blanchett (Getty Images) / Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Polanski is Hollywoods Achilles heel. Cate Blanchett, named her son after him. And not just Hollywood; an English actress told a friend recently that it was a different time, everyone knew what he was like; what was the girls family doing leaving her alone with him?

The brilliant writer Robert Harris told me in an interview last year that Polanski had paid his price in one form or another. Polanski apologists seem to believe you can only admire the art if you admire the man.

The Brexit fallout is there on our plates

Do London restaurants have a staffing problem? Two colleagues in separate places report bailing after poor service. So I call the big guns to ask. Jacob Kenedy, chef patron of Bocca di Lupo, describes an acute shortage of chefs. Philip Hamilton, of Aquavit, says its increasingly challenging to find good waiters.F or the first time in years, anti-immigrant hardliners are on the back foot. The Windrush scandal has generated an outpouring of support for people who have contributed so much to this country for so many years, only to be threatened with deportation by Home Office officials.

Amber Rudd has taken the fall for the predictable consequences of the hostile environment created by her predecessor as Home Secretary, Theresa May. Her successor, Sajid Javid, is now virtually unsackable. As he pointedly observed, the victims of the Windrush scandal could have included my mum, my brother, my uncle or even me.

Javid now has the political wind in his sails. He should seize this opportunity to be bold. A more liberal immigration policy is there for the taking. Polls show that voters feel much more positive about immigrants since the Brexit vote; they now have more pressing concerns.

Its time to ditch the Governments absurd net migration target and the resulting political imperative to slash immigration regardless of the economic and human costs.

Its bonkers to turf out talented international students as soon as they graduate. Its insane that the NHS cannot get visas for foreign doctors because an arbitrary monthly visa cap has been hit. Its cruel that a British citizen who earns less than 18,600 a year cannot get a visa for his or her non-European spouse  and that rises to 22,400 if they have a child.

With Brexit looming and Londons appeal to footloose foreign talent tarnished, we need a more flexible and fair immigration policy that keeps Britain open for business and all the hard-working newcomers who want to succeed here.

That means remaining as open to EU migrants as possible  and thus keeping the EU as open as possible to British people and exports. A work-permit system would work much better than the devilishly complex, damaging and unfair current system for non-EU migrants.

The stakes for London could not be higher. In recent decades, the capital has thrived as a magnet for talent from around Europe and the world  and a magnifier of that talent. One in four tech start-ups were co-founded by EU migrants  like the two Estonians who set up TransferWise, which enables you to avoid rip-off bank charges when sending money abroad.

But now Brexit is driving some people away and deterring others from coming. So we need to redouble our efforts to attract and retain them.

Javid himself embodies the benefits of immigration: the son of a Pakistani-born bus driver with the drive to battle his way to the top of the financial world and now the political one. Britain needs more people like him. As Home Secretary, he can make it happen.F or centuries, London has been been a playground of architectural flair.

If you want to find the best examples of the capitals design prowess then its a good idea to look up  not only at the citys skyscrapers, but also at its ceilings.

From mindbogglingly intricate marble work to gallery-worthy paintings, some of the most exceptional examples of artistry in London can be found just above your head.

These are the stunning ceiling designs in the capital that are worth a bit of a stiff neck.

Westminster Abbey

Its one of the oldest buildings in London and still one of the most breathtaking. Westminster Abbeys spectacular gothic nave started construction way back in 1245, under the instruction of Henry III. Since then, the incredible vaulted ceiling has looked over 15 royal weddings, the burial of dozens of famous figures, and millions of visitors.

20 Deans Yard, Westminster, SW1P 3PA, westminster-abbey.org

Fitzrovia Chapel

User:Colin/Flickr

Its not just Londons top tourist attractions that offer sky-high wow factor. This diminutive but stunning chapel used to be a part of now-demolished Middlesex Hospital. Contrary to the austere interior you might expect, its Victorian architect John Loughborough Pearson chose to decorate the interior in a lavish Italian style, with multicolured marbles and mosaics.

2 Pearson Square, W1T 3BF, fitzroviachapel.org

Banqueting House

Miles Willis Photography/Historic Royal Palaces

This royal party venue holds a remarkable place in English history as the venue for the beheading of Charles I. Its place in art history is also pretty extraordinary, as its ceiling holds nine extraordinary paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, two of which measure at a staggering 40ft by 10ft. In a gruesome twist, it was Charles I who commissioned these now much-famed paintings.

Two Temple Place

Tony Buckingham

This ornate mansion is another entry from Victorian architect John Loughborough Pearson, who built it for William Waldorf Astor in 1895. The stain glass windows that bejewel the property are a particular highlight  theyre actually so good that Pearson decided one on the ceiling too, overlooking the stairwell with beautifully illustrated ships, flags and flowers.

2 Temple Place, WC2R 3BD, twotempleplace.org

British Museum

PA Archive/PA Images

Its not all golden oldies in this list. The Queen Elizabeth II Great Court at the British Museum was opened in 2000, coinciding with the millennial celebrations. At over 3,500m2 the it is the largest covered square in Europe, and what covers it is pretty spectacular. The triangulated glass ceiling bursts out from the central Reading Room, undulating as it fans out to the courts outer walls.

Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, WC1B 3DG, britishmuseum.org

Blue Drawing Room in Buckingham Palace

Getty Images

While Buckingham Palace isnt short of splendour, the Blue Drawing Room has to be one of the most beautiful of its 775 rooms. Originally designed by John Nash, it features the blue flock wallpaper that gives it its name (a later addition made by Queen Mary) and an intricately molded ceiling. Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge seem to be fans - the room hosted their wedding reception in 2011.

Natural History Museum

Getty Images

The Hintze Hall of the Natural History Museum may be known for its skeletal attractions (Dippy the Diplodocus and now Hope the Blue Whale) but dont forget to look further up. The ceiling is decorated with 161 hand painted panels, illustrated with all things botanical, from lemon trees to opium poppies, rhododendrons to sunflowers.

Cromwell Road, Kensington, SW7 5BD, nhm.ac.uk

St Pauls Cathedral

Getty Images

From the outside, the dome of Sir Christopher Wrens cathedral is one of the most iconic sites in the capital. From the inside, it is arguably even more awe-inspiring, covered with monochromatic paintings of scenes from St Pauls life by artist James Thornhill. Head up to the domes Whispering Gallery to see them up close.

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir

BAPS Media

The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir is the biggest Hindu temple outside of India, and was completed in 1995. It is covered, inside and out, with a inconceivably complex design, hand carved by craftsmen out of Italian Carrara and Bulgarian limestone. The glistening white ceilings are naturally no exception.

105-119 Brentfield Rd, NW10 8LD, londonmandir.baps.org

Old Royal Navy College

Getty Images

When it comes to epic ceilings in London, the Old Royal Navy College has to take the top prize. The ceiling in the Painted Hall covers a staggering 40,000 sq ft, and is entirely covered in a painted design by James Thornhill (of St Pauls Cathedral fame). The painting depicts 200 figures engaged in a complex narrative, allegorical to the political change the country was experiencing at the time, just as the United Kingdom was being created.

King William Walk, Greenwich, SE10 9NN, ornc.org

The Chapel Royal at Hampton Court

AFP/Getty Images

It was Hampton Courts most famous resident that installed the vaulted ceiling in the palaces beautiful Chapel Royal. Henry VIII and the royals that have followed him since have their own dedicated pew in the chapel. From their first floor seat they get a pretty good view of the exquisite ceiling, decorated in deep blue, a sky peppered with glistening stars.

Molesey, East Molesey KT8 9AU, hrp.org.uk

Leadenhall Market

Getty Images

From the decidedly regal, to the slightly more domestic. Take a break from your retail therapy at Leadenhall Market to take in the arched glass ceiling above the arcade. Be sure to also gaze up at the central intersection, which is also painted blue and decorated with stars. Fun fact: the market was the setting for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films.T here are many reasons why you might find an artwork captivating, be it the artists incredible eye for detail, an innovative artistic idea, or maybe a groundbreaking political message.

Sometimes its not actually what you know about the artwork that can be so fascinating, but what you dont.

From the Dark Ages to the 21st century, art lovers have pondered over many a riddle in the lives and works of some of the worlds greatest artists.

From the Mona Lisa to Banksy, here are some of the greatest mysteries that have left people the world over scratching their heads.

Who built Stonehenge and why ?

Archaeologists believe our prehistoric ancestors started work on this Wiltshire icon nearly 5000 years ago. Its construction would have been a staggering feat: it's not like there were any trucks around to move those 25 ton stones across a 20 mile distance. Whoever built Stonehenge was determined to make it happen, but historians are still stumped as to who did it and why. Theories include that the stone circle is a solar calendar, a burial ground or a Druid temple. All we know for certain is that you can get a pretty good view of it from the A404.

Who was meant to see the Nazca lines?

You couldnt see this incredible art if it was right in front of your nose. In fact, you can only see it if youre a few hundred feet in the air. These ancient geoglyphs (sprawling lines etched into the landscape) can be found in Peru, and were believed to have been created more than 1500 years ago by the Nazca people. As you can probably guess, the Nazca people didnt have planes - so who were they making the art for? Many believe they were meant as messages for sky-high deities, but some have more imaginatively raised that they could be directed at extraterrestrials.

Who moved the Moai heads and how?

If moving dozens of stones to make Stonehenge wasn't exhausting enough, the Moai of Easter Island are a real test of muscle. 887 giant stone heads - each weighing around 80 tons - were transported across the island from a quarry to the coastline. This was over 500 years ago, when the residents of the East Polynesian island had neither wheels nor strong animals. A popular theory is that they were rolled along on tree trunks, but some historians now think they were walked there, pushing and pulling them inch by inch.

10 paintings that changed the world - In pictures 1 /11 10 paintings that changed the world - In pictures 10 paintings that changed the world - In pictures Guernica, 1937, Pablo Picasso Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia/Sucesion Pablo Picasso. VEGAP. 2017 10 paintings that changed the world - In pictures My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love, Dmitri Vrubel Getty Images 10 paintings that changed the world - In pictures The Problem We All Live With, 1964, Norman Rockwell Norman Rockwell Museum 10 paintings that changed the world - In pictures Campbell's Soup, Andy Warhol AFP/Getty Images 10 paintings that changed the world - In pictures Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum?, 1989, Guerrilla Girls Tate 10 paintings that changed the world - In pictures Lascaux Cave Paintings AFP/Getty Images 10 paintings that changed the world - In pictures Olympia, Edouard Manet 10 paintings that changed the world - In pictures Las Meninas, Diego Velazquez Museo del Prado 10 paintings that changed the world - In pictures Studies of the foetus in the womb, Leonardo da Vinci 10 paintings that changed the world - In pictures Death of Marat, Jacques Louis David Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels / photo: J. Geleyns - Ro scan - or RMFAB, Brussels / photo: J. Geleyns 10 paintings that changed the world - In pictures Black Square, Kazimir Malevich Tretyakov Gallery

Is that a UFO in Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John?

If you thought UFO spottings were confined to Fifties hysteria in the Nevada desert, think again. Art historians are still puzzled over a 15th century Italian painting by an unnamed artist, that seems to suggest that folks were spotting unidentified flying objects well before Area 51. The painting in Florences Palazzio de Vecchio shows a Madonna and child - all quite normal, until you spot the elliptical object passing through the sky behind the Madonnas head. No one knows what it is or why it is there.

Who is the Mona Lisa?

Getty Images

The most famous painting in the world has so many mysteries surrounding it, its hard to know where to start. The Mona Lisa is believed to be of noblewoman Lisa Gheradini, but some have theorised that it is of Leonardo himself dressed as a woman. She has no eyelashes and minimal eyebrows, has letters curiously written into her eyeballs and a smile that looks different every time you look at it. There is also a second version of the painting, believed to have been done by a pupil of Leonardo, that is painted from a slightly different perspective; when viewed together they have a three-dimensional effect.

Why did Holbein paint the skull like that in The Ambassadors?

Hans Holbein the Younger, Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve ('The Ambassadors'), 1533 / The National Gallery, London

Two noblemen pose with a table of objects in Hans Holbein's famous painting. The meanings of their presence alone are widely debated, with complex symbolism pointing to discord in the church and political tensions between England and France. And that's before you've even got to the massive sideways skull at the bottom. It can only be seen if standing to the right hand side of the painting. It symbolises death, but it is unclear as to why Holbein chose to paint it in such an atypical way, as part of what is an otherwise immaculately executed portrait.

Why did Caravaggio kill a man?

Caravaggio s life and character was as shadowy as his dramatic paintings. The Baroque master was known for his dramatic and innovative use of light and shade - but he was also known for his temper. He killed a man in a brawl and was forced to leave Rome. No one knows exactly what happened, or why he did it. A later painting by the artist shows St John the Baptist being killed in the street: some theorise that this is inspired by scene of the fight. There has also been debate over the fact that Caravaggio himself could have been murdered, but it's more likely he was killed by poisonous paints.

Who is The Girl with the Pearl Earring?

This stunning portrait by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer is a disarmingly intimate portrait, a girl so realistically captured we can almost hear the words she is about to say. She is one of the most famous faces in art, but her name still remains a mystery. She has been linked to Vermeers oldest daughter and the daughter of his patron. Vermeer was a painter of middle-class 17th century life, so it is possible that she could also have been a maid who the artist paid to model for him, much like in the best-selling book of the same name by Tracey Chevalier (made into a film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth).

Who shot Van Gogh?

Van Gogh died after being shot in the chest, in the middle of a field of wheat near his home in Arles. The artist told others that he had shot himself, and discarded the gun. The deterioration of his mental health made this an accepted theory, but two writers theorised in a 2011 book that Van Gogh could have been shot by two local teenage boys, who owned a gun and were known to meet the artist to drink at that time of the day.

15 paintings to see in London 1 /15 15 paintings to see in London 15 paintings to see in London Hans Holbein the Younger, Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve ('The Ambassadors'), 1533 The National Gallery, London 15 paintings to see in London John Singer Sargent 1856-1925 Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose 1885-6 Oil on canvas support: 1740 x 1537mm, painting Tate Britain/Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1887 15 paintings to see in London Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888 The National Gallery, London 15 paintings to see in London Claude Monet, The Water-Lily Pond, 1899 The National Gallery, London 15 paintings to see in London Thomas Gainsborough, Mr and Mrs Andrews, about 1750 The National Gallery, London 15 paintings to see in London Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin with the Infant Saint John the Baptist adoring the Christ Child accompanied by an Angel ('The Virgin of the Rocks'), about 1491/2-9 and 1506-8 15 paintings to see in London William Shakespeare associated with John Taylor, circa 1600-1610 National Portrait Gallery London 15 paintings to see in London George Stubbs, Whistlejacket, about 1762 The National Gallery, London 15 paintings to see in London John Constable, The Hay Wain, 1821 The National Gallery, London 15 paintings to see in London Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) Montagne Sainte-Victoire c.1887 Oil on canvas 66.8 x 92.3 cm 15 paintings to see in London Sir John Everett Millais Ophelia 1851-2 Tate 15 paintings to see in London Georges Seurat, Bathers at Asnieres, 1884 The National Gallery, London 15 paintings to see in London Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Fighting Temeraire, 1839 The National Gallery, London 15 paintings to see in London Jan van Eyck, Portrait of Giovanni (?) Arnolfini and his Wife, 1434 The National Gallery, London 15 paintings to see in London Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, about 1520-3 The National Gallery, London

Where is the scream in The Scream?

The Scream has a reputation as one of the most chilling paintings in art history. The title, however, refers to a sound rather than an image. The figure in the centre of the image is pictured with hands at its ears, mouth wide open - but is it screaming? It has been said that the figure could instead be hearing a scream, or the title could refer to an emotional crisis. In a diary entry made by Munch the year before creating the four versions of the image, he wrote of a walk across a bridge during which he sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.

Who was behind the Gardner Heist?

On one night in 1990, 13 works of art were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. These included one of the only 34 surviving works by Vermeer, and The Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt. In total, the lost works have been valued at $500 million, making the heist the largest single theft of property in history. Despite the museum offering rewards of up to $10 million for information leading to its recovery, neither the culprits nor the works have ever been found.

Who is Banksy?S teak is not a dish, it's an institution.

On shining white plates, black charred lines clashing with bright pink insides can console, sate, seduce. A good cut can dance with red wine or whisky, will happily follow Martini sharpeners and wont be drowned out by the coffee that follows. It is the failsafe for a date and always works with friends, unless you're hanging around with vegetarians.

It is an unflashy luxury; no fiddling or faffing is necessary, no kitchen gadgets required. Steak is reliable, but almost never exactly alike; sometimes it is the padding of fat, melted down till it is comforting as a childhood blanket, that does the trick. Sometimes it is the tang of salt that inspires shoulder slumping satisfaction, or the way the taste of the grill has been seared into a crust. Sometimes its the smell, or the size, or the way it makes you forget about chips. There is something faintly religious about it all  perhaps its all the spilling of blood.

Either way, heres wheres best to enjoy it, listed in no particular order.

Cheap(ish) eat: Foxlow has a few hidden bargains on their menu

On a budget

Food. Bars. Going out. Delivered weekly Email Sign up Sign up I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice {{message}} {{permutiveUid}} {{message}}

Steak can cost, but it doesnt have to. There are six Flat Iron sites for a reason: they do a decent meal for 10. The house cut, for which the restaurant is named, is what used to be known at Butlers steak. Traditionally it is a flavoursome but tough little slab of stark pink, but somehow here they seem to source meat thats surprisingly tender. Sides can add up  though the aubergine is a must  and if youre hungry, youll want another steak (spending another 10), but otherwise, the chains a good-un, with our favourite on Denmark St. If youre spending a little more, the various specials they have on usually dont go above 18. Try to resist the urge to steal the butchers style cutlery.

There are 10 Bar + Block steakhouses across the country, with three in London, found in King's Cross, Aldgate and Wimbledon. Rump starts at a touch under 13, a rib-eye can be had for 16.50 and even a large, 10 oz fillet is just 23.95. What's here is honest, unfussy steak: is it the best on this list, or done in a particularly innovative way? No, but nor would it pretend to be, and it's still tasty. The restaurants are friendly and unpretentious, the cocktails are surprisingly decent  a steal at around 7  and unlike most steak places, they aren't on the take with their wine list, with glasses from around 4. Our pick of the meat is the Tira De Ancho (26.95), a spiral cut ribeye slathered in garlic and chilli. Just leave room for all of it; the beef-dripping popcorn is irresistible.

On Tower Bridge road, Argentinian spot Constancia does do slightly pricier cuts, but a 10oz fillet for around 31 is still a steal. For lunch, though, 16 gets a healthy hunk of sirloin, but its worth a few more quid to go for the rib-eye. Theyre generous with the sides, the wine is uniformly gluggable and its always busy, which says it all.

Similarly, on the fringes of the city is the family-owned Bife, another Argentinian place. Steak places can be serious; this one is joyous. Their grass fed, free range beef is all 28 day aged, with a rump coming in at decent 17, sirloin at 32 and even a fillet for less than 30. Bife cares about its beef and its wine but is a bore about neither: consequently, a meal here is terrific fun, just damned good steak served without pretension. Get the black pudding as a side, too.

Simply done: Hix sites across the capital do steak basically, but very well

Its not often that a restaurant gets a shot in London after putting down roots elsewhere, but Brightons Coal Shed was just too good for the capital to pass over. At the Tower Bridge spot, sharing steaks are the showstoppers: porterhouse, prime rib and chateaubriand are served sliced and emphatically charred from the restaurants coal-fuelled, flaming grill. These are portioned daily (between 8 and 12.50 for 100g), but otherwise theres a pretty reasonable sirloin for 22, ribeye for 24 or fillet for 28. Surf and turf might be out of fashion, but adding a little seafood into your diet here is well rewarded: an octopus starter and a side of tiger prawns are fired over the same coal grill, and arrive both wilfully blackened and succulent.

Not on a budget

Mark Hix is rightly proud of the meat served at all his restaurants, which plate up award-winning Glenarm Himalayan salt-aged beef. Out of all of them, the Oyster & Chop House is a nice mix between price (cheaper cuts in the 20s) and decent cuts, and recently celebrated its tenth birthday, but its arguably more fun at Tramshed, especially if you split the 135 Shoreditch strip joint. They recommend it for five or six, but a hungry pair with plenty of time to spare and no concern for their credit card can give it a proper go, too.

Its not unfair or an undersell to call the Guinea Grill in Mayfair a pub, because thats exactly what it is; popping in for a pint, its as unstuffy as one would hope. It just so happens that, on the left, there is a doorway that for sixty odd years has had a cabinet full of glistening Scotch beef. The steaks arent cheap, but they arent a fortune either (39 for a fillet) and the room is charmingly untouched; its been the same since the 50s, meaning youll eat in the same surroundings Sinatra did. The wine list is cracking, the service is the way it used to be done. The Standard recently named it the second best pub in town.

If old-school goodness is your thing, Rowleys restaurant on Jermyn St has been drawing a crowd since the mid-70s and accordingly, havent had any reason to change much. They do rib eye, chateaubriand and the like but its the aged Entrecote steak thats the best of it; this house speciality, around 30, is plated up with a herb, Roquefort and butter sauce and unlimited fries (all the steaks come with unlimited fries). Meat is kept warm over a gas-flame, too. Its not all fancy and fussy, but its very good.

If youre happy to pay for it, the Boisdale restaurants rarely fail for a good (read: boozy) time. The four sites all seem to reflect their owner, Ranald Macdonald; faintly aristocratic, game for a laugh, possibly slightly mad. Since the first one opened in 1989, theyve proudly served Scottish beef; their best is the Buccleuch fillet on-the-bone, usually around 45. They do things straightforwardly, but well; the fun of it is coming for the live music and then taking a cigar out on the terrace. Probably the last of its kind still doing any sort of decent business.

Capital's finest: Hawksmoor is reliably excellent

At all five Macellaio RC sites, their is glory in their Fassona beef from Piedmonte. It's low in fat and cholesterol, but has bags of flavour. Beef is aged for six weeks; come for incredibly rich rib-eyes and rumps that get a light charring before hitting the plate. The recipe is just damn good meat, olive oil and fire, and nothing else is needed. Utterly gorgeous.

Clearly, mot everyone thinks grass-fed British beef is the best, but, after tasting meat from around the world, Hawksmoor do. They charge by the 100g which means that, because hunger is a light that needs to be switched off, its easy to spend a fortune by vastly overestimating your growling stomach's capacity. All six London sites are first rate, the beef usually near perfect, but  though the original Spitalfields site is cooler and the downstairs bar terrific, and the Air Street site more beautiful  the Guildhall site is the best, where theyre less heavy handed with the salt. City boys are more demanding, maybe. Whichever one you go to, Hawksmoor usually does end up being the best in town.

Out of the city and just off the Strand, Smith & Wollensky is the place for an American steak. When it opened in 2015, it wasnt right, but on a recent visit it seemed practically a new restaurant. Everything has been fine-tuned, upgraded, made better: director of operations Nathan Evans has evidently cracked the whip. The dining room is art deco gorgeous, the bar is first rate and the wine list justifiably pricey. Steaks are slabs of the New York highlife; the 28 day dry-aged T-bone is a whopping 700g and probably the most convincing evidence in London that USDA beef deserves all its fans. They also do Irish beef for those who prefer grass fed. Just a word of advice: be sure to stick to your guns when they ask how you want yours cooked  we were swayed by (otherwise charming) staff insisting on the meat being medium rather than rare, and regret it. Nevertheless, its the sort of place to come for dry martinis, lobster and white wine, rib-eyes and red wine, and brandy to cap it all off. Eat lots, drink lots, feel magnificent.

For more USDA, the Heliot steak house in Leicester Square prides itself on the stuff; eating in casino surroundings isnt for everyone, but theres no questioning their dedication to American beef. Likewise, STK at the ME Hotel at then end of the Strand are well regarded for their USDA cuts.

There are three Goodman steakhouses across London, in Mayfair, the City and Canary Wharf. Of course, TripAdvisor means nothing, but its half reassuring to know that the site thinks this is Londons best steakhouse. We cant quite agree, but they are excellent. Meat is aged on site, then cooked up on a charcoal oven thats burning up at 400C. Beef is mainly USDA, or comes from the Lake District and Yorkshire. The Cut menu is the one to choose from, where its really the best of what they have. Have the truffle fries too.

Dave Strauss, who looks after Goodman, is also the chap keeping the three Zelman Meats ticking over. These places are dark and fun, and decent value too. They've a menu that changes often, depending on what comes in on the day, but the 'dirty' sirloin is a regular. It's a great whack of meat, 400g cooked right on the charcoal. Terrific stuff at 32.

Oscars chef, occasional Frasier extra and man of 40 restaurants Wolfgang Puck is behind Cut at 45 Park Lane. Their boast, besides the Damien Hirsts on the wall and the views out over Hyde Park, is the selection of Wagyu on offer, which is the largest in London, sourced from America, Australia and, of course, Japan. Steaks go from 40ish to 100ish, and its the Wagyu you want, though they do serve British beef, from South Devon. Cut and its high ceilinged lobby is a long way from relaxed, but will suit those who like the safe kind of elegance.

How to make the perfect steak with Wolfgang Puck

Theres exclusivity at the Gaucho restaurants too, whose Pampas-sourced beef isnt served anywhere else in the UK (though, to be fair, theyve 12 sites in London alone). The sirloin with the crackling on the side is a star, but its the Ancho (ribeye) which is the most gorgeous little beast, with fat all crispy along one side. The dont move the meat around much on the grill here, so it comes nicely charred, burning with salt, full of flavour. The decor of the restaurants wont be for everyone, but theres something fun in all the dark. The one off Piccadilly Circus is their best.

Finely sourced: Gaucho's Pampas steak / David Griffin

Gaucho was also the training ground for Martin Williams, who during his nine years as their managing director, picked up the nickname Mr Gaucho. After leaving, he founded M Restaurants, starting with the clubby one in the city, which remains very much a boys affair. Now theres on in Victoria and theyve recently opened in Twickenham too. The latter two are more approachable, in part because theyre simply better decorated and draw a (slightly) more diverse crowd. Like MASH, they do a world tour of beef: theres stuff from America, Argentina, Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Scotland (Scottish wagyu, apparently), South Africa and even Botswana. There is, clearly, an element of novelty, but they take it all very seriously and the stuff is reliably well done. Some of it isnt a fortune (at Victoria, Argentinian rump steak is steal at 19.50), but some of it is (at Threadneedle St, the Kobe is 1 a gram and youll want about 300g). Theyre big on wine, too, especially in SW1; the house Malbec is terrific.J ust over 50 years ago, it would have been unthinkable that we could have as many shows as we do with LGBTQ+ storylines in London's biggest theatres.

Everybodys Talking About Jamie, which is a happy staple in the West End with a film coming out soon, has become a hugely popular production, while & Juliet found an instant fan base when it opened a few months ago.

Were lagging far behind with a few of the letters in the acronym. Its still an all too rare occurrence to see lesbian, bisexual, trans and non-binary stories leading the narratives on the mainstream stage, and even less likely are queer stories about or by people of colour.

So, we look to the fringes for better representation. We know the most exciting LGBTQ+ theatre begins life on the smaller stage, so here are some of the London theatres where you can hear those stories told all year round.

Kings Head Theatre

Since Dan Crawford opened it in the 1970s, the Kings Head Theatre has been a champion of LGBTQ+ stories. Under his direction and that of current artistic director Adam Spreadbury-Maher, the theatre has become known for presenting new, powerful and necessary stories. Most recently, the King's Head's production of Kevin Elyot's Coming Clean transferred to the West End. The theatres annual Queer Season in the summer places established works by writers such as Elyot and Jonathan Harvey next to that of exciting new artists. This year marks 50 years since it opened, and is moving to a bigger space just around the corner.

115 Upper Street, Islington, N1 1QN, kingsheadtheatre.com

Above the Stag

PBG Studios

As London's only full-time, entirely LGBTQ+ dedicated theatre, Above The Stag began in the function room above a pub in Victoria. Ten years and another venue later, its moved to a new premises in Vauxhall. They produce new writing, musicals and revivals such as a reboot of Jonathan Harveys Beautiful Thing and Grindr: The Opera.

72 Albert Embankment , Vauxhall, SE1 7TP, abovethestag.org.uk

Soho Theatre

In Soho, youd expect there to be a venue catering to the districts long and proud LGBTQ+ history, and youd be right. Soho Theatre flies the rainbow flag all year round with one-person-plays, comedy and drag shows, as well as full-blown, queer championing theatre. The studio, theatre and underground cabaret bar give ample opportunities to see all genres back to back.

21 Dean Street, Soho, W1D 3NE, sohotheatre.com

Plays that have shaped LGBTQ+ theatre history 1 /10 Plays that have shaped LGBTQ+ theatre history Plays that have shaped LGBTQ+ theatre history Bent by Martin Sherman MGM Plays that have shaped LGBTQ+ theatre history The Drag by Mae West New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer Plays that have shaped LGBTQ+ theatre history Nathan Lane in Angels in America by Tony Kushner Helen Maybanks Plays that have shaped LGBTQ+ theatre history Andrew Garfield and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett in Angels in America by Tony Kushner Helen Maybanks Plays that have shaped LGBTQ+ theatre history Fun Home adapted by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori from Alison Bechdel's memoir Marc Brenner Plays that have shaped LGBTQ+ theatre history Fun Home adapted by Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori from Alison Bechdel's memoir Marc Brenner Plays that have shaped LGBTQ+ theatre history Vanessa Redgrave and Samuel H Levine in The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez Simon Annand Plays that have shaped LGBTQ+ theatre history The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez Simon Annand Plays that have shaped LGBTQ+ theatre history 5 Guys Chillin' by Peter Darney Kasia Burke Plays that have shaped LGBTQ+ theatre history Neaptide by Sarah Daniels at the National Theatre in 1986 Ivan Kyncl

Arcola Theatre

The Arcola Queer Collective creates radical performances revolving around LGBTQ+ stories, from queer historical activism to lives around the world today. The collective is open to any LGBTQ+ identifying artists in east London, and presents work that reflects the diversity of the city as a whole.

24 Ashwin Street, Dalston, E8 3DL, arcolatheatre.com

The Glory

We know it as the best pub in London (this writers opinion) but The Glory is also a producer of unique LGBTQ+ theatre. Owner Jonny Woo is an actor and writer as well as drag star, and has been known to star in these shows. They may only come around once in a while, but its worth keeping an eye out for. Catch a cabaret while you wait.

281 Kingsland Road, Haggerston, E2 8AS, theglory.co

The Yard

As a theatre dedicated to staging brand new plays, you can be sure the Yard pushes queer artists to the forefront in their programmes. Their annual NOW festival  which shows five weeks of new writing  always has a heavy LGBTQ+ slant and regular Live Drafts events bring out queer work. Drag king group Pecs have produced two full-length shows with the theatre, with the option of having a dance with the kings afterwards.

Unit 2A, Queens Yard, White Post Lane, E9 5EN, theyardtheatre.co.uk

Bush Theatre

The Bush Theatre isn't a LGBTQ+ theatre space, but it is one of London's larger theatres that platforms queer writers  and does it well. Lynette Linton's first season as artistic director has given us a revival of Jackie Kay's Chiaroscuro and the High Table by Temi Wilkey, two plays where queer women of colour take centre stage.

7 Uxbridge Road, Shepherds Bush, W12 8LJ, bushtheatre.co.uk

Camden Peoples Theatre

The inaugural Come As You Are festival in 2017 placed the Camden Peoples Theatre firmly on the LGBTQ+ radar. The festival explored trans, non-binary and genderqueer identities, and the theatre continues to programme stories such as these. Most theatres still don't programme these stories, so we jump at any chance!A t the annual ceremony held every September to commemorate the battle of Arnhem, the Allied attempt to capture nine bridges across the Netherlands in the autumn of 1944, local schoolchildren lay a single flower on each of the graves of the Commonwealth War Grave cemetery in Oosterbeek. It is a very particular ritual, involving primarily the Dutch, the British, Americans and Canadians. For very good reasons, the Poles hold their own separate commemoration at their cemetery. There is no German presence, despite several overtures to attend in a spirit of reconciliation. Local representatives dont want them. Reading Antony Beevors latest Second World War epic, one can understand why.

The story gets the full Beevor Stalingrad treatment  an approach that has proved so successful in his half-dozen battle and campaign chronicles of the war. The drama of manoeuvre and counter-thrust, the courage and cowardice of soldier and civilian, the follies and vanities of commanders, which are especially rich in this story, are deployed with colour and humanity.

His fans will love it. Arnhem is one of the great British heroic defeats, along with Dunkirk and Sir John Moores failure at Corunna. With a cold eye, the whole plan looked shaky from the off, a little bit barmy even. The idea was to get the Allied forces to the Dutch border with Germany as quickly as possible, and into the Ruhr by early winter.

This demanded a massive leap forward by a huge airborne force of British, Americans, Poles and Canadians, landed by parachute and glider. The mixed forces were to take bridges around Eindhoven and Nijmegen, while an almost entirely British force led by the Airborne Division was to capture Arnhem.

The attack depended very much on surprise, good intelligence and a highly flexible plan  all of which were in short supply. Field Marshal Montgomery and above all General Boy Browning in charge of the British Airborne Corps didnt heed the new intelligence about a growing presence of German Panzer units around Arnhem. He tried to send the officer who warned him, Major Brian Urquhart, subsequently Under- Secretary General at the UN, on sick leave.

The paratroopers were dropped at Oosterbeek, which meant a long march to the bridge at Arnhem. The enemy was warned and Field Marshal Walter Model reacted with two simple moves by his Panzer forces  first to stop the British getting to the shore at both ends of the bridge, and then to hold up the advance on Nijmegen to the south.

Road to nowhere: Allied tanks crossing a bridge during the battle / Corbis via Getty Images

The airborne forces were only supposed to hold Arnhem and Nijmegen for two days before the main force arrived by road from the Belgian border. The advance of this force, led by General Brian Horrockss XXX Corps, was at times leisurely, disorganised and badly planned for the difficult countryside of canals they had to move through  useless for tanks, ideal for defence.

Horrockss disingenuousness and vanity matched Brownings  and they both tried to dump their failures on Brigadier General Stanislaw Sosabowski of the Polish Parachute Brigade, who was brought in, under-supplied and under-resourced, when things were getting desperate.

Much of this has been told before. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, said Brigadier John Shan Hackett, brightest and bravest of the commanders.

The most powerful element in this telling is what happened to the Dutch. Arnhem and Oosterbeek were trashed and their populations cleared out, dozens were shot as declared terrorists.Worse came when the Nazi authorities deliberately set out to starve the occupied areas, particularly Amsterdam and Rotterdam. At least 20,000 starved to death. The Swedish air force stepped up by airdropping food.

Beevor doesnt mention this, nor does he mention the terrible effect of those crucial months of malnutrition on a generation of infants and schoolchildren. The memories still haunt. My wife, who survived in her grandmothers basement in the leafy suburb of Baarn, was musing with her sister-in-law, then in hiding as an infant in Amsterdam, how they got through it.

The occupiers claimed that the Dutch were their kin, though a country-bumpkin version maybe. But they liquidated more than three-quarters of the Jews, starved the people in the winter of 1944-45 and deliberately looted Arnhem in a peculiar act of spite. It makes for a very tangled legacy for both the Dutch and Germans today.W illiam Trevor, who died in November 2016, aged 88, wrote an extraordinary number of short stories  one anthology of them runs to more than 1,000 pages. Oddly, these 10 last stories are published without any explanation or introduction but Viking confirms they were written as a collection and found by his son as a completed manuscript after his death.

They will delight his dedicated admirers. However, for those less persuaded of the status claimed for him on the sleeve as the greatest writer of short stories in English for more than half-a-century, they may serve more to highlight his mannerisms and foibles; how repetitiously, almost lusciously, he dwelt on the poignancy of lives gone irredeemably wrong, wasted and forever diminished.

The opener, The Piano Teachers Pupil, is the most cheerful. Miss Nightingale, a piano teacher, now in her fifties with a quiet beauty continuing to distinguish her features, has known disappointment in life, a 16-year affair with a married man having come to nothing. But, thrillingly, one of her pupils turns out to be a musical genius. To be sure, he steals knick-knacks from her during the lessons  next Friday a porcelain swan went, and then her pot lid with a scene from Great Expectations on it  but she comes to understand it is not what matters in comparison with his gift. There was a balance struck: it was enough.

The other stories are tales of delectably unmitigated disaster, in comparison. In At the Caffe Daria, a wife whose husband left her for her best friend brutally refuses to renew their friendship after his death, even though it is what they both need. In Taking Mr Ravenswood, a pretty bank clerk, invited out to dinner by a rich man racked by guilt over his wifes death in a car accident, is urged by her revolting boyfriend to extract money from him, for supposed misbehaviour.

In The Unknown Girl, a lonely, featureless cleaner, Emily Vance, seems to have committed suicide after talking hopelessly of love to the son of the house: Between the childhood and the death there was a life that hadnt been worth living. It is brutally judged.

In The Women a pretty girl has been brought up indulgently by her father, her mother having left him, or perhaps died, she believes. At school she is approached by two spinsters, both aged 58, unappealing even by Trevors high standards, one of whom may be the mother who gave her up for adoption. She takes refuge in the whisper of consoling doubt.

To read Trevors stories  or those that are less than his best, such as these  is to be struck again and again by how much they echo, or to put it more accurately, depend upon James Joyces great collection Dubliners of 1914. There are obvious debts here, for example, to Two Gallants and A Painful Case. Yet they never rival, let alone exceed, their original.

Joyce actually believed he could help Ireland by giving its people a good look at themselves in his very nicely polished looking-glass. Trevor, though, doesnt just indulge melancholy but relishes defeat.I nformed by phone of his fathers death, Benedict Cumberbatchs Patrick Melrose drawls slurry thanks, gropes for his heroin syringe and grins. So begins David Nichollss masterly adaptation for Sky Atlantic of Edward St Aubyns five personally inspired novels about Melrose  a wealthy, socially privileged survivor of childhood paternal rape and later, colossal substance abuse. Expectation is high for this major TV event, and so are the stakes.

The books legions of fans  many of whom likely have no experience of the arcane codes of upper-class life, of drug dens or extreme sexual abuse, let alone all three  adore them for their blend of wrenching sadness and stinging wit. Writing them saved St Aubyn, now 58, from suicide, and he is protective of them as transformative works of art, a way of turning painful lived experience into what I hope is pleasurable reading experience.

The first, Never Mind, detailed the rape of five-year-old Patrick by his father, and won the Betty Trask Award for a first novel when it appeared in 1992, having taken four years of feverish, longhand rewriting by St Aubyn, wrapped in towels, sweating with exertion and transferred shame.

The fourth, Mothers Milk, was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2006 and became a bestseller. The TV adaptations kick off with the second novel, Bad News, with an addled Melrose reeling through mid-Eighties New York with his fathers ashes.

Although three of the five novels take place in a single day, and feature exotic locations  country houses, ritzy joints and grotty dives in Manhattan, a Provencal family estate  they are not otherwise obvious screen properties. All together they are 800 pages long, with 50 named characters, and they are about an internal process of change, and a society where few people say what they actually mean, says Nicholls.

Best known for his novel One Day, Nicholls has previously reworked Hardy and Dickens for the screen, and semi-seriously likens the business of adaptation to vandalising a finished work. For his part St Aubyn said last year of the TV Melrose that he felt like a man who hands over a thrashing, living fish and gets back a fishbone.

Nicholls hastens to add that St Aubyn has since been very tolerant and understanding of the way drama and fiction are different and it is best, perhaps, to see the Sky films as a further transformation of the material.

Cumberbatch  who has rarely been better  is a new, swaggering, sardonic, suffering version of Melrose. And although the situations remain rarefied and extreme, the central truth is simple and embracing. The journey Patrick goes on to a kind of redemption and peace of mind is very affecting, says Nicholls. He is looking for a way not to forget the past but to live with it. That I think is universal.

Edward St Aubyn

If St Aubyn hadnt lived his own source material no writer would dare invent it. His father, Roger, was an Old Etonian doctor, former soldier and would-be concert pianist, descended from a baronetcy established in 1671. His mother, Lorna, came from a wealthy and well-connected Europhile American family: Cole Porter was apparently playing piano in the other room when Lorna was born, and her mother Lela later married the Duc de Talleyrand. The family were posh, rich and savagely snobbish, but not proper toffs.

St Aubyn was born in 1960  he has an older sister, Alexandra, but guards her privacy: Melrose does not have a sibling in the books  and spent most of his childhood in Le Plan, an 80-acre estate including seven houses, a convent and a vineyard in Provence.

St Aubyns friend Nick Ayer, the son of philosopher A J Ayer and Gully Wells, who were friends of the family in France, recalls it as a time when parents were all vile to one another. Rogers cruel manner did not seem unusual.

Allison Williams as Marianne / Justin Downing/SHOWTIME

Roger raped Edward from the age of three (Patrick is five in the books) to eight, when Edward somehow fought him off. His parents divorced that year, 1968. When he told his mother of the abuse later, she apparently responded me too.

She claimed not to have known about her husbands abuse, but correspondence with a former nanny led him to believe she must have done. She said Never Minds publication was the proudest moment of her life. It seems likely Roger assaulted others, and St Aubyn has since described his fathers sexuality as polymorphous, including gay relationships in later life.

St Aubyn boarded at Westminster School and began injecting heroin at 16. At 17, he lived in cheap hotels in New York and Paris, wrote poetry and took drugs, often grabbing a handful of pills blind from his drawer then guessing from the effects what they were. At 18 he inherited several million dollars from his grandmother Lela, moved into more expensive hotels and upped his drug expenditure to $5,000 a week.

In yet another improbable turn, through a crammer course taught by novelist Penelope Fitzgerald, he won a place at Keble College at 19. His Oxford milieu included Will Self, Hugh Grant and Nigella Lawson, and though he was thought witty and charming  he was and remains handsome  he could be cruel and was constantly overdosing.

In 1982 he began dating Nicola Shulman, sister of former Vogue editor Alexandra, who would herself become a model and author. St Aubyn dabbled in journalism but was still using, and told the Standard in 2011: Heroin saved my life. It was the perfect halfway house between living and suicide.

When his father died in 1985 he tried to write again, tried to kick heroin, tried to overdose, and finally asked his childhood friend, the psychologist Oliver James, if his psychoanalyst father would take him on.

He made a pact  to publish a book or kill himself  and last took heroin in 1988, the year he began work on Never Mind. Its successors, Bad News and Some Hope, were planned as the second and third parts of a trilogy, and he then wrote two non-Melrose novels, On the Edge and A Clue to the Exit, before realising the Melrose story required further exploration in Mothers Milk and 2012s At Last.

Jennifer Jason Leigh, playing Melroses mother, with Sebastian Maltz, who plays a young Melrose / Justin Downing/SHOWTIME

St Aubyn and Shulman had married in 1987 but divorced a couple of years later. He had a daughter, Eleanor, in 1994 with Alexandra Marr, and in 2000 a son, Lucian, with Jane Longman, a painter who had modelled for Lucian Freud. He is separated from both women but they live near him in west London and he describes himself as an over-compensating parent.

His mother took up both writing and alternative therapies, and threatened to turn Le Plan into a New Age retreat until she relented and allowed him to buy it off her. He sold his house in Notting Hill to do so.

In 2014 St Aubyn published Lost for Words, a satire on literary prizes, and in 2017 Dunbar, a prose take on King Lear, but the Melrose novels are his magnum opus. Although well-reviewed, they were initially a niche taste. As novelist Alan Hollinghurst told the New Yorker: There was a lazy assumption in some quarters that, because they were written by an upper-class person about his own world, they must be trivial or snobbish or somehow irrelevant.

Mothers Milk changed all that: it was a gateway drug into the Melrose world. The adaptations will be another one, and for a new audience, just as potent.F rom out of the windy darkness a fine sand was blowing across the road.

Flat desert on either side, a few lights. The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta passed this way on camelback in 1326, and wrote of its emphatic wilderness: He who enters it is lost and he who leaves it is born. Before mass tourism ruined them for a second time, Id travelled to the so-called lost cities of Petra, Machu Picchu and Angkor Wat. My destination tonight was the isolated sandstone valley eulogised by the first European to enter it, the English writer Charles Doughty, as the fabulous Madain Saleh, which I was come from far countries to seek in Arabia, in 1876.

The prospect of following in Doughtys flapping shadow gave me a jolt of anticipation that I hadnt experienced since my 20s. Doughtys classic book Travels in Arabia Deserta was championed by his friend TE Lawrence, who later used it as a military textbook, as the greatest record of adventure and travel in our language. It begins with Doughty trying to smuggle himself into Madain Saleh in the guise of a poor Syrian pilgrim. Even up until recently few Europeans had visited this cradle of forgotten civilisations, which, though designated a World Heritage Site in 2008, remains a blank page on the archaeological record, closed off by geography, politics and religion. Visitors last year from abroad? I can say zero, my guide, Ahmed, tells me.

Rock of ages: the temples of Madain Saleh near Al-Ula have survived for 2,000 years.

This is set to change. Last July, under the impetus of Saudi Arabias progressive new Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, or MBS, a royal commission took charge of Madain Saleh and its surroundings. In December, public access was halted; first in order to survey what is there, next to develop a strategy for protecting it and then to open up Madain Saleh to the outside world. My advance visit, the first by a British journalist, is aimed at providing an amuse-bouche, as it were. During the Islamic period, the nearest town in the area, Al-Ula  or El-Ally as Doughty knew it  became an important station on the hajj road south and marked the last place where Christians were permitted to travel. Ibn Battuta described how pilgrim caravans paused here for four days to resupply and wash, and to leave any excess baggage with the townspeople, who were known for their trustworthiness.

In the bright morning sunlight, Ahmed escorts me through locked gates, past the old German-built railway line  which Lawrence bombed in the First World War  that once linked Damascus with Medin, on to the celebrated Nabatean rock tombs. Doughty first heard about these in Petra, 300 miles to the north. If a little less rosy than its sister city in Jordan, Madain Saleh shares its capacity to stagger. Out of the flat desert, one after another, the ornate facades rise into sight, all 111 of them, carved into cliffs up to four storeys high, their low doorways decorated by Alexandrian masons in the first century AD with Greek triangles, Roman pilasters, Persian flowers and Egyptian sphinxes and birds. This is a twin to Petra, Ahmed says.

Except that in Petra we would be bobbing among crowds. Standing in reverent silence with the valley to ourselves, I recall how the Victorian artist who supplied the first images of Petra to the world, David Roberts, responded to that other city. I turned from it at length with an impression which will be effaced only by death. These tombs were carved for the Nabatean tribes who ruled this region for 300 years until the Romans annexed it in 106AD. Nomads who had settled and grown wealthy, the Nabateans controlled the lucrative spice route from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. Then, like the civilisations they had replaced  the Dedanites, the Lihyanites, the Thamuds  they galloped off into obscurity. Their tombs were looted: the acacia doors plundered for firewood, the marble statues ground down to make plaster, the porphyry urns smashed. All that survives of their caravan city, Hegra, is a flat expanse behind a wire fence: Her clay-built streets are again the blown dust in the wilderness, Doughty wrote.

The same desolation holds true for the still more ancient Biblical city of Dedan, situated on the lip of an oasis a few minutes drive way. To visit both sites is to gain the sense of a narrative even now being worked out. Out in the desert, the wind has chiselled its own mysterious deities and hieroglyphs. The scene is stunning. In Petra, which is built into part of the same geological formation as Madain Saleh, David Roberts threw away his pencil in despair at being able to convey it, believing that the ruins sink into insignificance when compared with these stupendous rocks. Its hard to disagree. Cliffs formed out of red and black sandstone have eroded into wild, hallucinatory shapes: elephants, mushrooms, braying seals. They make you believe in mountain gods, I tell Ahmed, who smiles. For sheer high spirits, no one yields to the British archaeologist I meet that night. Jamie Quartermaine is part of an international team employed since March to survey these sites. A surveyor who pioneered the use of drones, Quartermaine says: Weve been wanting to get involved here, but Saudi has been a closed shop, a completely untapped reserve.

Madain Saleh Archaeologic Site, Saudi Arabia / Alamy Stock Photo

The perception is that its big, open desert. The discovery that there are so many archaeological sites is a big shock for most people. It was a big shock for me. Advised by the royal commission to inspect 450 unexcavated sites, Quartermaine estimates the truer number at between 6,000 and 10,000. The survival of the archaeology is remarkable, some of the best condition remains Ive ever seen. Deploying a drone, he has begun creating a threedimensional textural surface of the area. Already, what he has found is groundbreaking. You can see all the archaeology jumping out and biting you on the bottom. When, aged 20, I visited Petra sleeping in one of the caves, I talked to the head of the Bdoul tribe, allegedly descendants of the Nabateans, who told me: We have a saying that the more wealth you have, the more brain cells you need to be able to cope with it.

Nicholas ShakespeareS pring is truly here!

Normally, Id be delighted about this for the simple practical reason that, with two small children, it means that you can reliably get out of the house. Long, wet, British winters mean entire weeks spent trapped in the living room, confinement leading to resentment, leading, inevitably, to the toddler equivalent of prison riots. Only this year, it has been different. Because one morning, sometime between Boxing Day and New Year, I decided, for no particular reason, that I was going to buy a new telly.

Im still not sure why, I just felt moved to. I felt it was necessary. It arrived the next day and it was massive. Middle-class people are not normally allowed to buy gigantic televisions, but there must have been some mix-up at the warehouse and so, all of a sudden, we had one, crammed into the corner of our living room. I loved it immediately. So did my girlfriend. So did our children. Its big and loud and bright and you can get the internet  the internet!  on it.

It means these past few months have been some of the most peaceful weve known, spent watching The Clangers in super-high definition or streaming endless Abba videos. Ill watch as my three-year-old son stares at Agnetha and Anni-Frid, beguiled but also slightly afraid of them. He is, I suppose, only human. Its a hard thing to admit, that buying a consumer product can make you really happy. All the inspirational Instagram accounts and Banksy artwork I see tell me otherwise but, no, Im really delighted with my new TV thanks. And, since moving to London, every telly Ive bought seems to have signposted a new chapter of my life.

Our old television was the one Id bought upon moving in with my girlfriend. Id schlepped, hungover, to Brent Cross, anxious to demonstrate that I came with a complimentary flatscreen telly, like some irresistible QVC deal. And years before that, Id got ripped off by a bloke selling six-tonne TVs down Brick Lane market, but it nevertheless provided countless happy hours for me and my flatmates. We had the complete Inspector Morse on DVD, for some reason, which we watched obsessively. Great memories. If you like Oxford and murder, anyway. No more press, Raj Patel, the owner of Wardour News in Soho, said like a celebrity when I walked in one evening and introduced myself as a journalist.

Like him, it is an unassuming newsagent but, along with the usual fare of papers and sweets, it had distinguished itself as a purveyor of glossy fashion magazines, both the popular and the obscure. A couple of days earlier, news had broken that Patel, 65, was closing his shop after more than the 30 years in business.

Vogue posted an article with tributes from fashion magazine editors, including Dazed & Confuseds Jefferson Hack recounting how hed stuffed early editions of his magazine into its racks without permission. Many wellwishers will have gone in before me and Patel looked tired of all of the attention. The outpouring was not just for him: it was for Soho, this district in which few live  I happen to be one of its residents  but which many share through their memory and experiences, and who become uncommonly upset about change. Word went around that it was a huge rent rise that had forced Patel and his brothers out. It is an easy story, that of the greedy landlord over the little man.

It is told of the vintage magazine shop on Brewer Street replaced by a Fiorucci store, and the old Film House, a warren of video production studios, which is being turned into a hotel. The reality is more complex: money comes into play but the regeneration is not only from landlords. It is also in the businesses and the people themselves. It is about the natural turnover of life. Excuse this diversion in my personal history but it illustrates how change happens. The Soho flat I now live in is around the corner from where my father opened a couple of Italian cafes in the Seventies and early Eighties. They sold ice cream and cappuccinos on Fouberts Place and Newburgh Street. Even after they sold up, wed still come up early on a Saturday to shop at Berwick Street market and the delicatessen I Camisa & Son, where I would demand sugared almonds, before going on to Bar Bruno for breakfast. In my family, we talk of the fortunes of the other Soho businesses like those of distant relatives. Oh, The Stockpot, once the home of a good cheap dinner, vacated some years ago as the family business dissolved.

The New Piccadilly went. Randall & Aubin, sellers of fine seafood, was once the local butcher, my mother likes to remind me. Where did we all go? Let us start with how we all arrived. Soho had long been a cheap district of London. Largely Georgian and Victorian and built incrementally over time, the streets are tight and the shops have, what is called in planning jargon, a small footprint and little uniformity. Many were originally houses and not large enough for department stores or big shopfronts, so small pioneer businesses, run often by foreigners, turned up and brought their worlds to its streets. The Algerian Coffee Stores and Maison Bertaux, both started in the 19th century, are still going, as is Lina Stores, opened by a Genoese woman during the Second World War. After the war, the accident of being central but not chic created a heady cocktail: film-makers next to the Italian cafes, brothels bordering the market, pubs and tailors and magazines of many varieties. There was a space for everyone if you didnt mind being cosy with your neighbours.

There had been plans to demolish Soho in the Fifties. In the Seventies a local group, the Soho Society, formed to improve the area as the sex shop culture of Paul Raymond took hold. It is still going. I found its current committee having dinner at my local, The Academy, a Georgian dining club on the floor above Andrew Edmunds eponymous restaurant in Lexington Street which started in 1986. (Some call Andrew Edmunds a bastion of Old Soho, my mother regards it as one of the new places). The Soho Society committee is a mix of serious old timers, like 91-year-old former BFI controller Leslie Hardcastle, who has been in Soho since the age of eight, and younger voices like Tim Lord, its chairman. They had just been discussing Wardour News. While they know shops come and go, they defend the principle of the value of uniqueness  change consistent with the pattern of the area.

The new battle for Soho is against those wanting to make it big and smart. There are seven hotels trying to move in. Locals have seen the beautiful building on Beak Street, by a follower of Rennie Mackintosh, demolished to make way for new offices, and the wrecking ball is now being taken to the centuries-old alley of Walkers Court. The name of Westminster councillor Robert Davis is muttered with loathing. Davis had been in charge of planning and rubberstamped these developments, and recently stepped aside while he is investigated over the extravagant register of gifts and hospitality he received while in office. The Soho Society are some of the voices in the forthcoming Plan for Soho, arguing that buildings shouldnt be knocked together to allow in large restaurants or flagship designer stores. Lord mentions one surprising fact: that the West End ward, comprising Soho and Mayfair, is richer than many cities in the UK. The GVA, the value account of goods and services added to the economy, was measured at 19 billion by the Office for National Statistics, putting it on the same step as cities like Edinburgh and Glasgow and above Bristol. He says it is because the small businesses are connected, with owners present and involved, whereas the town centres are lined with chain stores. You can learn lessons from Soho, he says. You dont want individual businesses driven out to be replaced by a model we know is failing  the high street.

Among their examples of good new entrants are My Place on Berwick Street  very friendly  and the fine French bistro Blanchette on DArblay Street, founded by three brothers. While you might be able to steer planning in one direction, people not so much. First there is the question of money. It is not just landlords who do well. One of the secrets of Soho is that, if you lease a property there and sell on the lease on rising prices, or acquire an alcohol licence for the property, you cash in and move on. The other is the question of family businesses, once the mainstay of Soho. Families themselves regenerate. I spoke to a local property big shot  too shy to be named  who mentioned that hed gone to see Raj Patel on hearing of the closure, and offered him a new shop, rent-free, to carry on his newsagent business locally. Patel declined. Hed done his time on the shop floor.

Will Andrew Edmunds children take over his restaurant? No idea, he says with a shrug. Will the children of Antonio Polledri step up to Bar Italia as he did, aged 16, into the cafe set up by his nonno  grandfather  in 1949? Mine are still too young. But his brothers children are already turning up for work. I dont know the story of Patels family, and the Polledris seem exceptions. Many of the children of these shopkeepers, whod made Soho so special, have grown out of it into other parts of British society, into professions that dont require opening up a shop at dawn, but putting on a suit and going to an office job. It was about money, but it was also about life. Why did my parents move out? The rent was too high, they will say.'

Sitting on Floridas Atlantic coast, Greater Fort Lauderdale is aptly named.

Its an exciting hub where excellent restaurants rub shoulders with shops; where bars glitter in the evening; a place that can be explored without fuss, maybe by bike along Beach Boulevard. Vibrant without being overly busy, fun without being achingly hip, its a city where you can spend a wonderful week without wishing to go anywhere else. Yes, Greater Fort Lauderdale really is great.

Venetian vibe

In many ways, it is about water. And not just in the obvious sense of the waves that graze its 23 miles of golden shoreline  including the soft sands of Fort Lauderdale Beach, a playground for everyone from the surfers who tackle the breakers that roll endlessly to land, to the sunseekers and families who snooze and sit below the palm trees.

People. Fashion. Power. Delivered weekly. Email Sign up Sign up I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice {{message}} {{permutiveUid}} {{message}}

Greater Fort Lauderdale also delivers water inland, in the channels and canals that flow west, making it a sort of Venice of America. Here, you find activities galore  kayaking, paddle-boarding, fishing and boat trips.

There are also plenty of attractions that dont involve getting your feet wet. Shopaholics can indulge, seeking out sophisticated designs in the elegant boutiques strewn along Las Olas Boulevard, hunting for big-brand fashions in the air-conditioned confines of The Galleria mall, or picking up bargains in the Swap Shop flea market on West Sunrise Boulevard.

There are endless opportunities for dinner, too  try Tacocraft, a funky possibility on SW 2nd Street, which revels in Mexican dishes (and tequilas to match).

Or, in 15th Street Fisheries, which serves fresh crab and lobster, and juicy cuts of roasted sea bass, on the waterfront. For a real taste of the Caribbean, seek out some of Greater Fort Lauderdales Floribbean cuisine, and head on the Greater Fort Lauderdale Ale Trail for some local brews.

Virgin Holidays'

expert tips When the sun goes down, Las Olas Boulevard comes alive with its unique shops, bars and restaurants. Head to Sawgrass Mills for discount outlet shopping

If you want culture, you can find that too  not least in the FAT Village Arts District, where youll find vibrant, independent art galleries and studios. Theres also landmarks such as the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, and the colourful Downtown Hollywood Mural Project. This features more than 20 curated contemporary outdoor murals by both local and internationally recognised artists.

Comfortable stay

The standard of accommodation is also high, and Virgin Holidays has a great choice to suit all, including the four-star Pelican Grand Beach Resort  a relaxing four-star of 156 rooms with Greater Fort Lauderdales only lazy river as well as direct beach access.

Greater Fort Lauderdale is also an ideal gateway for day jaunts to the Everglades, where alligators idle in the marshy shallows and airboat tours buzz through the swampy landscape. And thanks to the new Brightline high speed train service linking Greater Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach, its never been better connected.

Loading....

Visit virginholidays.co.uk/fortlauderdale to book your getawayI f you havent already booked your summer holiday, nows your chance with Ryanairs thanks a billion sale.

The sale is celebrating one billion visits to the budget airlines site this year and flights are selling as low as 6.99 one-way.

From London you can buy flights from Stansted, Gatwick or Luton and there are over 140 destinations on sale  including flights to Marrakech, Morroco for just 31.61 one-way.

From Stansted you can fly to Frankfurt, Germany for 6.99, Aalborg, Denmark for 7.99 and countries like Switzerland, France, Italy, Poland, Sweden and Norway for 9.99.

From Gatwick you can fly to Ireland for under 20 and Alicante, Spain for 33.65.

People. Fashion. Power. Delivered weekly. Email Sign up Sign up I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice {{message}} {{permutiveUid}} {{message}}

The flights are available to buy online now and the sale ends midnight Friday May 11. The travel period for the flights are between June and September 2018.

10 cheapest city break destinations for 2018 - in pictures 1 /10 10 cheapest city break destinations for 2018 - in pictures Riga, Latvia Shutterstock Vilnius, Lithuania Shutterstock Lisbon, Portugal Pixabay Moscow, Russia Pixabay Krakow, Poland Pixabay Prague, Czech Republic Pixabay Athens, Greece Shutetrstock Budapest, Hungary Pixabay Warsaw, Poland Pixabay Lille, France Shutterstock

However, the catch with most of these flights is youll need to fly mid-week, dashing our hopes for a cheap weekend getaway .For her leadership and commitment to community service, including co-founding Emory LGBTQ Legal Services, Nicole Schladt has been awarded the Brittain Award, Emorys highest student honor. Emory Photo/Video

Nicole Schladt entered Emory School of Law intent on pursuing international law  the perfect fit for a scholar whod recently completed a masters thesis at the University of Cambridge that found her researching international human rights issues.

At Emory, Schladt quickly delved into classes in international law and politics. But she also found herself drawn to civil rights and criminal law courses, an interest that would lead to hands-on internships with both the DeKalb County District Attorneys office and the Southern regional office of Lambda Legal, a national nonprofit organization that assists the LGBTQ community and people living with HIV.

Her time with Lambda Legal unfolded amid a volatile national political climate, providing an up-close view of steep social inequities, from transgender individuals who were being denied insurance benefits to people whose civil rights could be strengthened by a legal name change or advance directive.

Through it all, I realized that there werent many people working to provide direct legal services to LGBTQ folks who didnt have the resources to afford them, recalls Schladt, who will receive her juris doctor from Emory Law on May 14.

So she did something about it.

Working with fellow Emory Law student Faris Mohammed 18L, Schladt co-founded Emory LGBTQ Legal Services, a law project that connects pro bono attorneys and law student volunteers with low-income clients  in the Emory LGBTQ community and metro Atlanta  who need help with legal issues.

Launched in January, the project is already making a difference, connecting with eight potential clients and compiling a list of LGBTQ services throughout the wider community.

Its all about providing people with a voice, Schladt explains. So many folks think the justice system is inaccessible. Being able to reassure people that they do have rights and that there are ways to fight back, that there are people interested in helping you realize the life you want to lead, has been a great experience.

For her wide-reaching advocacy, leadership and service to the Emory community, Schladt has been named the 2018 graduate student recipient of the Marion Luther Brittain Award, the universitys highest student honor.

The Brittain Award is presented each year to two graduating students, one graduate and one undergraduate, under provisions of a gift by the late Dr. M. L. Brittain, former president of Georgia Institute of Technology and alumnus of Emory.

The award, which comes with $2,500, is presented to students whove performed the most significant, meritorious and devoted service to Emory University, with no expectations of recognition or reward.

Commitment to justice, service

Schladt says the opportunity to study and work at Emory has helped shape her voice as both an advocate and activist.

As an undergraduate at the University of Kentucky, her academic interests were expansive; she took classes that explored a range of diverse interests, from international studies, politics, journalism and music and to feminist and queer theory.

The chance to travel to the U.K. to pursue graduate studies at Cambridge helped hone her academic focus. Schladt earned a master of philosophy degree in international relations and policies, focusing on a trans* critique of U.N. policies  specifically, two non-binding resolutions that addressed sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI).

That scholarship had her interviewing U.N. officials in field offices around the world to discuss how SOGI policies were actually working. She arrived at Emory in 2015 and began working as a graduate assistant in Emorys Office of LGBT Life  work that called upon her organization and advocacy skills.

She was incredible, says Michael Shutt, Emory Campus Life senior director for community, who was interim senior director of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion at the time. Anything she touched, from working on something really high level and complex to making nametags for a special event, it was as if you opened your mouth to start a sentence and the thing was already done, a problem solved.

Nicole proved herself a quiet doer and fierce advocate  a leader who gets things done and doesnt take no for an answer, he says.

Indeed, in his letter nominating Schladt for the Brittain Award, former Emory Law Dean Robert A. Schapiro, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, noted that even in a community of leaders, Nicole stands out for her extraordinary leadership skills and for her commitment to serving the community.

While at Emory, Schladts public service has included work with OUTLaw, Emory Laws LGBTQ and allies organization; the Legal Association of Women Students (LAWS); the Emory Law Diversity and Inclusion Coalition; and the Emory Public Interest Committee, among others.

Among her many accomplishments, Schapiro recalls the leadership Schladt demonstrated helping execute a special law school event  a panel discussion featuring Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the landmark civil rights case that would result in the U.S. Supreme Court affirming that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples.

In her commitment to pursuing justice and serving the community, Nicole is passionate and tireless, Schapiro wrote. It is difficult to believe that one person has done so much for so many, but Nicole has.

The importance of community

Looking back, I think one of the things that allowed me to do everything Ive done at Emory is really the community  both administrators and faculty, but also the students, Schladt says.

Ive never doubted that they were capable of doing amazing things, which made me feel more confident about proposing ideas and connecting people, she adds. In many ways, Im just building what others have done before me, so my accomplishments are actually larger community accomplishments.

Her studies at Emory have helped sharpen her mind and refine her vocabulary to fight for just causes, she reflects.

I really value the time Ive had in law school and the privilege its given me, she says. I can see it in the way I form arguments that are heard and understood by people in power, who also make arguments that way, which is one reason people who are not in power dont get heard.

Schladt admits that she wasnt always politically active. I wasnt out as a queer, femme, cisgender woman until after college, she says. I cared about racism, sexism and xenophobia, but I didnt think they were my battles.

Coming into my queerness, my adulthood  being part of a larger community and seeing how politics affect my life and the lives of my friends, there just wasnt a lot of room to sit back and act like its not my fight.

In the end, shes come to believe even if youre not part of a community, you should actively try to lift up others. And thats precisely what she plans to do.

Following Commencement, Schladt will move to Minneapolis with her partner, where theyve bought a house and look forward to building a future.

Though shes not sure of her next career move, it will very likely involve civil rights advocacy, social activism and community building centered around issues of diversity and inclusion.

I discover what interests me, I care about it, I jump in and convince others to care, too, she says. An Uber driver who raped a drunken passenger in the back of his car before taking a selfie with her has been jailed for 12 years.

Muhammad Durrani, 38, attacked the 27-year-old after driving her home alone from a night out with friends in London.

Judge David Tomlinson described the damage Durrani had inflicted on his victim as he sentenced the married man at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday

"It comes as no surprise to learn, and it's no exaggeration to say, you have ruined her life," the judge said.

"The harm you did that night is incalculable."

He added he had no doubt Durrani was aware his victim was "almost paralytically drunk" when he picked her up.

Durrani "lost all sense of self-control" after taking pictures of the woman as she slept in the back of his car, the judge said.

His victim had, aided by a friend, ordered an Uber believing it to be a "reputable company" and fell asleep during the ride, according to the prosecution.

Disorientated at her doorstep, she struggled to find her keys before Durrani carried her back to his car where he committed the rape in July last year.

He then took selfie images with the woman as at least one of her breasts was exposed.

Durrani, wearing a brown cardigan, remained solemn as he was sentenced but his wife struggled to hold back tears in the public gallery.

Durrani, of Streatham, south west London, claimed the sex was consensual and denied one count of rape and one of assault by penetration, but a jury found him guilty of both.

Defence lawyer Marie Spenwyn told the judge it was a "one off" and that his relatives in the UK and his native Pakistan had written letters supporting his character.

He was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for the rape and eight years for the assault, to run concurrently.

Durrani, of Oakdale Road, was also banned from ever working in the taxi trade, subjected to a restraining order and will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order.

Transport for London announced last year that it would not be renewing Uber's licence to operate in the capital, citing the firm's approach to reporting serious criminal offences and background checks on drivers.A teenage girl plotted a gun and grenade ambush on the British Museum after her attempts to become an jihadi bride were thwarted, a court heard.

Safaa Boular was aged 17 when she allegedly decided to be a "martyr" after her Islamic State fighter fiance was killed in Syria.

She was so set on causing carnage in the capital she even passed on the baton to her older sister, the Old Bailey heard on Thursday.

Rizlaine Boular, 21, of Clerkenwell, central London, has already admitted planning an attack in Westminster, allegedly involving knives and with the help and support of their mother Mina Dich, 43, the jury was told.

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC told how Safaa Boular's alleged attack planning followed a failed bid to marry IS fighter Naweed Hussain.

After just three months chatting on social media, the couple had declared their love for each other by August 2016, the court heard.

Mr Atkinson told jurors Boular wanted to join Hussain in Syria where they would don suicide belts.

He said: "Their plan then was that together they would, as Hussain put it, depart the world holding hands and taking others with them in an act of terrorism."

The court heard Rizlaine Boular had also tried to go to Syria two years before.

After Safaa Boular's plan was uncovered, she allegedly switched her attention to Britain, keeping contact with Hussain on a secret phone through encrypted Telegram chat.

But British Security Services had deployed specially trained officers to engage in online communication with the pair, jurors heard.

Mr Atkinson said: "It was clear that Hussain had been planning an act of terrorism with Safaa Boular in which she could engage if she remained in this country. Both Hussain and Safaa Boular talked of a planned ambush involving grenades and or firearms."

She also told an officer posing as an IS fighter that all she needed was a "car and a knife to get what I want to achieve", the court heard.

Mr Atkinson said: "Based in her preparation and discussion, it appears she planned to launch an attack against members of the public selected largely at random in the environs of that cultural jewel and most popular of tourist attractions, the British Museum in central London."

An attack would have caused at least "widespread panic" and was intended to cause injury and death, it was claimed.

When she learned Hussain had been killed in April 2017, Boular's determination was strengthened, the court heard.

She was allegedly encouraged by her mother and sister to join her fiance and become a "martyr".

But within days, she was charged with planning to go to Syria so was unable to carry out her "chilling intentions", the prosecutor said.

He went on: "However, that those intentions were not just chilling but sincere and determined is demonstrated by the fact that she did not abandon them even when she was unable to put them into effect herself. Rather, she sought to encourage her sister Rizlaine to carry the torch forward in her stead."

Mr Atkinson told jurors the older sibling had admitted preparing acts of terrorism.

Based in her reconnaissance and discussion, it appears she planned a knife attack in Westminster, he said.A n alleged white supremacist has gone on trial accused of stirring up racial hatred in a "character assassination" during which he blamed Jews for both World Wars and the Kray twins.

Jeremy Bedford-Turner's trial for the speech outside Downing Street will hinge on freedom of speech and where the line must be drawn, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Opening his case on Thursday, prosecutor Louis Mably QC said Bedford-Turner should be convicted because the speech - in which he called for his "soldiers" to rise up against Jews - singled out the group for hatred.

Bedford-Turner, 48, accepts he made the speech but denies one count of stirring up racial hatred.

Mr Mably said: "It's clear from the content of his speech that the defendant is absolutely obsessed with Jewish people and he despises the Jewish race.

"He blamed them, for example, for both World Wars and he blamed them for everything he doesn't seem to like about today's society."

The public gallery in the court was packed as the jury heard details of the speech, made to a crowd in Whitehall during a rally against Jewish neighbourhood watch group Shomrim on American Independence Day, July 4, 2015.

Bedford-Turner peddled conspiracy theories that Jews control the banks and the media and are determined to achieve world domination, the prosecutor said.

"The speech was a racial character assassination," he added.

Mr Mably said: "It seems overwhelmingly likely that there are a number of racial groups he doesn't like because it appears from what he says outside Downing Street that he is some sort of white supremacist."

He said the defendant's speech took on a "dark and sinister overtone" as he implored "real English people" to "stand up and take action" .

"In imploring other people to do this, he refers to his white comrades as soldiers who must liberate England from Jews," the prosecutor said.

He also compared Jews to vermin and said politicians are "a bunch of puppets dancing to a Jewish tune", the prosecutor said.

Bedford-Turner, who is on bail and of no fixed abode, will return to the court on Friday when the trial is expected to conclude.T he mother of a girl saved by a heart transplant today told how she had written to the child donors parents to thank them for their gift of life.

Nicole Doherty, 32, said daughter Evie, five, was the happiest child you ever came across since undergoing the life-saving surgery at Great Ormond Street hospital.

Evie featured in the Standards Give to GOSH campaign over Christmas 2015 that raised 3.5 million for the hospital. She started school last September and has been making huge leaps forward with her learning and walking. Mrs Doherty and husband Paul, 34, plan to take her to Disneyland in Paris next year.

NHS rules mean that the names of organ donors and recipients are kept secret but families are helped to communicate anonymously.

Amazing: Evie Doherty, five, has a new life after her heart transplant at Great Ormond Street. / Eastnews Press Agency

Evie received her new heart in 2016 after almost a year on the waiting list. Mrs Doherty made contact with the child donors family soon afterwards and told the Standard: I wanted to say thank you, but thank you is never enough. How can you say to somebody how thankful you are that they made that decision at their worst time?

If the reason for you deciding was to give somebody life, and life to the most beautiful, caring, amazing child you can, then they did that.

Evie started school last September and has been making 'huge' leaps forward / Eastnews Press Agency

Mrs Doherty, who lives near Colchester, added: The donor and their family have given Evie a life and given us our child. We get the chance to make beautiful memories with her. We want to do everything we can while she is well. I just love to share her story. Its so incredible. Its one of absolute pure happiness. She is doing incredibly well. I wanted to spread the word about how amazing organ donation is. We feel so incredibly blessed that she is even here.

The 3.5 million raised by the Standard and The Independent appeal included 1.5 million in match funding from the Treasury. In a separate appeal, Standard readers raised 16,000 to fund physiotherapy for Evie to help her to learn to walk and overcome a disability in her left arm caused by a series of strokes.

She was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy out of the blue in 2015 and rushed to Great Ormond Street, where she remained for almost a year wired up to an artificial Berlin heart to keep her live.Party time!

The party is already in full swing on the streets of Windsor as the first trains chug in from across the capital.

It was standing room only on services from Slough where the station had made spectators feel welcome with a sign celebrating the nuptials.

The dot matrix board said: "All aboard the royal wedding special to Harry & Meghan Central."

Many of the voices chatting excitedly on the trains had American accents, including Christine Clancy from Virginia.

Her thumbnails were painted with the Union flag and she sported the British flag on her shoes.

Ms Clancy said: "I've always been a royal fan - not an extreme one - I just love British history and love the royals. I just wanted to be part of the wedding celebration.

"It would have been nice if Meghan's dad was walking here down the aisle, everyone was expecting her mum to do it, but Charles - he'll be able to do it with his eyes closed."

Leila Souza, 67, and Adela Welch, 63, travelled from Tampa, Florida to watch the wedding.

The pair have booked a "VIP spot" in a cafe along the procession route to ensure a good view of proceedings.

They have made a sign featuring a picture of Princess Diana on her wedding day, with the words "here in spirit".

Ms Souza said: "When she died Prince Harry was just a little child. We all grieved.

"His mother will be very, very happy today, so she's here in spirit."

Some of the 2,000-plus members of the public who were invited by the couple to watch the day have already begun arriving at the castle.C ambridge University is considering lowering the standard of proof for sexual misconduct cases after 800 students wrote an open letter to the institutions vice-chancellor demanding a change in policy.

The letter claimed people who had experienced sexual misconduct were put off coming forward due to the criminal standard currently required, which calls for allegations to be proven beyond reasonable doubt.

Students said that disciplinary proceedings should not have to adhere to the criminal standard and should instead adopt a civil standard requiring allegations to be proven on the balance of probability.

The University previously admitted that it had a significant problem with sexual misconduct after it received 200 complaints over the course of a few months.

In the letter written by the Cambridge University Students Union Womens Campaign seen by The Telegraph, students wrote:

Upholding a criminal standard of proof actively discourages survivors and victims of sexual harassment, rape and assault from engaging with the disciplinary procedure.

They said by changing the disciplinary system, survivors of sexual assault would have more confidence to access it.

The students added that the current system implied that there is unlikely to be consequences for perpetrators in disciplinary cases pertaining to sexual misconduct, unless the survivor goes to the police

The University acknowledged receipt of the letter in a document released as part of a consultation into the disciplinary process at Cambridge.

It is noted that there has been an open letter to the Vice-Chancellor from the Cambridge University Students Unions Womens Officer requesting, amongst other things, a change in the standard of proof for student disciplinary cases, the consultation document said.

The Review Committee on Student Discipline are of the view that if the student body wants the University to use the balance of probability as the standard of proof when considering allegations of student misconduct then this should be accepted by the University community.

The head of Cambridge's Office for Student Conduct, Complaints and Appeals, Sarah D'Ambrumenil, told the BBC on Wednesday: "The University is currently in a period of consultation about the disciplinary procedure - the discussion is an ideal opportunity for all members of the university to bring forward their views about the standard of proof.

"This will enable the review committee on discipline to reach the best decision for the university, which would ultimately be subject to further university consultation, but we cannot pre-judge what that decision will be."T heresa May today issued an unprecedented apology over Britains role in the kidnap of a Libyan dissident who was tortured by Muammar Gaddafis brutal regime.

The Prime Minister said the Government was profoundly sorry for the ordeal suffered by Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar.

Mrs May said it sincerely regretted the failures over the case and the missed opportunities to alleviate their suffering.

Mr Belhaj, 52, who was leader of the rebel Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, claims MI6 helped the US kidnap him in Thailand in 2004 to return him and his pregnant wife to Libya.

The operation followed Tony Blairs notorious deal in the desert with Gaddafi.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright today announced that a settlement had been reached after he personally spoke to Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhaj, pictured / AFP/Getty Images

Attorney General Jeremy Wright today told the Commons that Mr Belhaj had not sought and would not receive cash compensation, but his wife was being given 500,000, without any admission of liability. The couple have been suing the Government, former Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw, and former head of counter-terrorism at MI6 Sir Mark Allen .

Mr Wright announced that the settlement had been reached after he personally spoke to Mr Belhaj and his wife about the detention, rendition and harrowing experiences that they suffered.

Ms Boudchar, looking dignified, watched the statement from the public gallery with her son Abderrahim, 14, with whom she was five months pregnant at the time of the kidnap. She nodded strongly when Mr Wright said: We shared information about you.

Father of the House Kenneth Clarke said the case should have been settled more quickly and hoped Britain would never again be involved in so embarrassing a matter.

In a letter to the couple, Mrs May wrote: Your accounts were moving and what happened to you is deeply troubling. It is clear that you were both subjected to appalling treatment and that you suffered greatly, not least the affront to the dignity of Ms Boudchar, who was pregnant at the time.

The UK Government believes your accounts. Neither of you should have been treated in this way.

The Prime Minister accepted that the UK Governments actions had contributed to the detention, rendition and suffering of the pair.

She added: The UK Government shared information about you with its international partners. We should have done more to reduce the risk that you would be mistreated. We accept this was a failing on our part. Later, during your detention in Libya, we sought information about and from you. We wrongly missed opportunities to alleviate your plight: this should not have happened.

On behalf of Her Majestys Government, I apologise unreservedly.

The UK Government has learned many lessons from this period. We should have understood much sooner the unacceptable practices of some of our international partners. And we sincerely regret our failures.

Mr Belhaj, who is now a politician, said he was held at a CIA black site in Thailand after an alleged tip-off from MI6, and was reportedly flown via the British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to Tripoli, because at the time Britain and the US were keen to build relations with Gaddafi.

As a long-standing enemy of the former leader, he was tortured until his release in 2010 and his wife was also mistreated during her four-month incarceration. Today he said: At last, justice has been done. My wife and I hope our case will serve as a marker for future generations. A great society does not torture; does not help others to torture; and, when it makes mistakes, it accepts them and apologises. Britain has made a wrong right today.

Ms Boudchar said: This case has forced me to relive the lowest moments in my life for years, and at times it has been a real struggle to keep going.

But by todays settlement I look forward to rebuilding my life with dignity and honour, and living free from the weight of these events with my husband and our five beautiful children.

Mr Straw has previously said that he had always acted in line with British and international law.A dog trainer to millionaires and royals has been vindicated at the High Court after she was accused of failing to tame an out of control puppy.

Tracey Egan was hired by pensioner Jenny King whose fox terrier Izzy was wreaking havoc at her one-bedroom flat in St Johns Wood.

The puppy was running around the home as well as jumping up and biting her owner, the court heard.

Ms Egan, a canine troubleshooter trading as Precious Pooch, took Izzy away on a two-week boot camp in an attempt to calm the puppy down.

However, once returned to her home, Izzy soon lapsed into her old habits of jumping up at people, pulling on hair, and knocking over her water bowl, the High Court heard.

Jenny King, who took Ms Egan to court for breach of contract / Paul Grover/Daily Telegraph

Miss King, 71, wrote to Ms Egan in June 2015, complaining about breach of contract because the terrier had not been tamed. She argued that Ms Egan, who has in the past trained the dogs of royals, had failed to deliver on 10 promised aims, including resolving Izzys habits of nipping, jumping, chewing and barking.

She took the matter to court, demanding a 2,800 refund plus interest, but a judge rejected her claim for damages.

Miss King appealed to the High Court, claiming she had not had a fair hearing, but Judge Nigel Gerald yesterday ruled that she had insufficient evidence to prove breach of contract.

To suggest that, after 14 days, any previous behavioural issues would be, as it were, permanently gone forever is unreal, he said.

That would ignore the fact that we are not dealing with a machine here, but a puppy.

Lively: Izzy the fox terrier

Puppies behave in particular ways and training is always intended to achieve certain results, but those results are not guaranteed.

The evidence implicitly indicated that some, if not all, of the objectives had been achieved.

He added: This was a boisterous puppy, kept in a small one-bedroom flat, who was not properly disciplined and fully exercised.

And thats why it regressed rather than there being any breach of contract.A British-born scientist has died after travelling to an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland to end his own life.

Dr David Goodall, 104, died after taking a fatal sleeping drug and was surrounded by four family members and a close friend.

The renowned ecologist had flown to the clinic from his home in Australia where euthanasia is illegal.

He was not terminally ill but said he had grown tired of living with deteriorating health.

Dr Goodall had arrived at the clinic just before 11am on Thursday morning and enjoyed a final meal of fish and chips and cheesecake, which was his favourite.

David Goodall in a room in Liestal near Basel, Switzerland, where he was helped to end his life / AP

Beethoven's 9th Symphony was played in the room at the suicide clinic in Liestal, near Basel, as he took the fatal overdose of the sleeping drug.

Before taking his own life, Dr Goodall told a packed news conference yesterday: There are many things I would like to do, but it's too late.

"I'm content to leave them undone.

"One should be free to choose the death, when death is at an appropriate time, he told reporters.

"My abilities have been in decline over the past year or two, my eyesight over the past six years.

A room in the Swiss clinic where Dr Goodall chose to end his life / AP

I no longer want to continue life. I am happy to have the chance tomorrow to end it."

Sky News reported that staff at the clinic said Dr Goodall had "gone in peace".

Dr Goodall told a press conference he was "content" to die / EPA

Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since the 1940s, and the number of cases has more than tripled in the last decade.A Canadian zoo is facing charges after a bear was taken through a drive-thru in a pickup truck and hand-fed ice cream through the vehicles window.

The owners of Discovery Wildlife Park in Alberta had driven one-year-old Berkley to a Dairy Queen in order to buy him a frozen treat.

News of the trip spread after the zoo posted a clip on social media of the stores owner feeding Berkley with a spoon. However, the video was taken down after sparking widespread criticism.

The parks owners, Doug Bos and Debbie Rowland, were charged under the Wildlife Act and admitted they had made a mistake by not informing the local authority about the trip.

"What we failed to do under this section was to notify Fish & Wildlife ahead of time that we were taking Berkley off-site, they said in a statement.

"We have been in operation for over 28 years and this is the first time that we have failed to notify Fish & Wildlife before taking an animal off-site.

They said they would plead guilty to the charges and added: "We will pay our fine and have already instituted changes to our protocols and put them into practice to ensure that these notifications are done every time without fail."

The couple previously told Canadian press that the Dairy Queen visit posed no danger to the public as it had taken place before the store opened for the day, and with the bear securely chained in throughout.Eric Weeks, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Physics, holds a sample of the hydrogel particles used in his lab. Known for his excellence in research and teaching, Weeks consistently and generously shares his passion for scientific discovery with students and colleagues. Emory Photo/Video

A data scientist in Silicon Valley. A veterinary pathologist at the Bronx Zoo. A PhD student in history.

All once worked under Eric Weeks, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Physics and chair of the Department of Physics in Emory College of Arts and Sciences. Some of his other former students have gone on to become academics and physicists, but that misses the point, he says.

The world needs great people in all kinds of professions, so Im happy to send great people in all kinds of directions, says Weeks, who joined Emory in 2001. Im open to working with anyone who is enthusiastic.

Known for his excellence in research and teaching, Weeks consistently and generously shares his passion for scientific discovery with students and colleagues. In honor of his leadership and mentorship of graduate and undergraduate students, as well as with his faculty peers, Weeks is the 2018 recipient of the George P. Cuttino Award for Excellence in Mentoring.

The award was established in 1997 by John T. Glover 68C in honor of the late George Peddy Cuttino, a member of the Emory College Department of History from 1952 to 1984.

Weeks track record of mentorship and academic excellence led to his recent appointment as the new director of the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence and associate vice provost for academic affairs. The center supports faculty across the university in the areas of teaching, research and professional development. He will begin the new post this summer.

Weeks credits his own career to a series of exceptional mentors. As a high school student, he took note of how his AP chemistry teacher mentored students: encouraging them in class and then staying in touch with everyone who had taken his class, to show his long-term interest.

Since 2011, Weeks has directly mentored 100-plus students in his lab. Weeks specializes in researching the physics of soft condensed matter  squishy substances that cannot be pinned down on the molecular level as a solid or liquid, including everyday substances such as toothpaste, peanut butter, shaving cream, plastic and glass.

His research has been published extensively in leading scientific journals, reflecting work that has often involved the collaboration of undergraduate and graduate students in his lab.

And he stays in touch with anyone who worked in his lab studying condensed soft materials. Some students send regular updates of their lives, which Weeks includes in a status report he sends to the whole group once a year.

Thats how he knew that Charlotte Hollinger 02C, now works at the Bronx Zoo. Or that Theodore Brzinski 05C is now a colleague, working as an assistant professor of physics at Haverford College in Pennsylvania.

He is a super research mentor for undergraduates and really a mentor for all people, says Patricia Marsteller, a professor of practice in biology and associate dean for undergraduate research and scholarship, who was among those who nominated Weeks for the Cuttino Award.

Mentoring colleagues as well as students

That mentorship includes Weeks own Emory colleagues. He established the Science Education Research Journal Club, or ScERJ, as a way to draw in faculty from Emory College and beyond for discussions about the latest papers in science education and educational research.

The club, which includes postdocs and graduate students, has met every week for 11 years to talk about best practices and success stories for teaching the sciences.

One graduate student who attended regularly ended up using what she had learned from the club during a job interview that asked her thoughts on test design. That student, Xin Du, is now an assistant professor of physics at Aquinas College in Michigan.

Its a mentoring experience working with him, because he brings in all these people from so many disciplines, from across all of the university, to talk about better ways of doing what we love: engage in science and teach, Marsteller says.

The efforts are linked by Weeks insistence that more people have better memories of science. Its the same reason he invites first-graders to his lab every year to play with the malleable properties of corn starch and water (bought just for the elementary students) and sand (the microscopically disordered, macroscopically solid-like material he studies).

I benefitted from great mentors and I got a lot from them, Weeks says. Im happy if my students can get something out of working with me, too. I want them to have fun  and to recognize that science is fun.T he landmark planned summit between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un will take place in Singapore, it has been reported.

The US President earlier this week said the time and location of the historic meeting had been decided and that he would announce the details in the coming days.

Mr Trump has reportedly ruled out the demilitarised zone (DMZ), which divides North and South Korea, and officials are pressing ahead to convene the summit in Singapore.

The Southeast Asian city-state is the preferred location among US officials, who saw its neutrality as an advantage over locations closer to Pyongyang, CNN reported on Wednesday.

It comes after Kim Jong-Un allowed three American prisoners who were detained in the rogue state to walk free ahead of the leaders summit.

People watch a TV news report on screen, showing portraits of three Americans, Kim Dong Chul, left, Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song, right, detained in the North Korea / AP

They are expected to return to the US with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo following his meeting with the North Korean leader yesterday.

During his visit, Mr Pompeo discussed the agenda for a potential Trump-Kim Jong-Un summit. Mr Pompeo said the summit is scheduled to last one day but could be extended by a day depending on how talks progress.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in embrace at Korea Summit / AP

The US President announced the news that the three detainees would be freed in a tweet on Wednesday.

It read: "I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting.

Trump says unless North Korea summit is 'fruitful' he will pull out

"They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with Kim Jong Un. Date & Place set."

Mike Pompeo, the former CIA chief, flew to North Korea for secret talks with the countrys leader over Easter / Twitter/White House

He added that Secretary Pompeo will be landing at Andrews Air Force Base at 2am on Thursday and he will greet them on their arrival.

Kim Dong-chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song were held on charges of committing espionage or unidentified "hostile acts" against North Korea.U S President Donald Trump has welcomed home three American prisoners after they were released by North Korea.

The three men - Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim - returned to the United States after more than a year imprisoned in North Korea.

They were met early on Thursday at the Washington-area Joint Base Andrews by the president and first lady, Melania Trump, along with vice president Mike Pence and his wife, Karen.

The men were freed on Wednesday and handed over to US secretary of state Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang, who had met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un amid final plans for a Trump-Kim summit.

Three US prisoners greeted by President Trump at Joint Base Andrews 1 /14 Three US prisoners greeted by President Trump at Joint Base Andrews Three American prisoners have arrived home after they were released by North Korea Reuters They were greeted by Donald Trump and his wife Melania Reuters The three were freed on Wednesday and handed over to US secretary of state Mike Pompeo Reuters Mr Pompeo met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to finalise details of an upcoming summit with Mr Trump AFP/Getty Images The president said 'it is a special night' for the group AFP/Getty Images Mr Trump thanked his North Korean counterpart for releasing the three from captivity EPA He said he believes Mr Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearising the Korean peninsula. EPA He said of Mr Kim: 'I really think he wants to do something' AP The men released a statement thanking the US government for bringing them home Reuters 'God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world,' they said AP The three will be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre for further evaluation and medical treatment AFP/Getty Images Their release was praised by the White House as a 'gesture of goodwill' AFP/Getty Images The move appeared to signal an effort by Mr Kim to set a more favourable mood for the summit AFP/Getty Images Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday that the date and location of the upcoming meeting had been set following Mr Pompeo's talks in Pyongyang REUTERS

Mr Trump congratulated the men after they had touched down on home soil, saying: "This is a special night for these really great people."

North Korean state media said the men, one of whom had been held since 2015 and the other two since last year, were arrested either for subversion or "hostile acts" against the government.

The three former prisoners were greeted on board the plane by the president and his wife / AFP/Getty Images

The president also thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for releasing the three from captivity, saying he believes Mr Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearising the Korean peninsula.

He said of his North Korean counterpart: "I really think he wants to do something."

Trump: 'This is a special night for these three really great people' / AFP/Getty Images

The president added of the talks between his administration and the North Korean government: "It's never been taken this far."

In a statement released through the US state department, the men said: "We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home.

"We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

Mr Trump and his wife walked up the stairs to board the plane after it landed at the military base in Maryland at around 2.40am (7.40am BST).

Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, flew to North Korea for talks with its leader Kim Jong Un / Twitter/White House

They later emerged with the former prisoners who arrived smiling for photographers.

Two lifted their arms above their heads and made "V for victory" signs.

The three expressed their 'deepest gratitude to the United States government' / AFP/Getty Images

The aircraft was parked before a large American flag suspended between two fire engines.

The three will be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre for further evaluation and medical treatment.

Their release was praised by the White House as a "gesture of goodwill" and appeared to signal an effort by Mr Kim to set a more favourable mood for the summit.

It followed his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut a nuclear bomb test site.

Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday that the date and location of the meeting had been set following Mr Pompeo's talks in Pyongyang.

According to CNN, the Southeast Asian city-state is the preferred location among US officials, who see its neutrality as an advantage over areas close to the North Korean capital.T he hero pilot who safely landed a passenger jet after an engine exploded in mid-air has spoken for the first time about the drama at 32,000 feet.

Former fighter pilot Tammie Jo Shults, 56, said the noise was so loud as the plane started shaking that she had to use hand signals to communicate with her co-pilot.

In a US TV interview with ABC News programme 20/20 to be broadcast tomorrow, Ms Shults remembered her first reaction to the engine failure on Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 on the April 17 flight from New York to Dallas.

As the aircraft carrying 149 people on board suddenly dipped to the left, she said she felt her Navy training kick in.

An April 27, 1988 photo of Tammie Jo Shults when she was a US Navy instructor pilot / AP

My first thoughts were actually, Oh, here we go  just because it seemed like a flashback to some of the Navy flying that we had done, she said.

Praising co-pilot Darren Ellisor, she said: Darren is just very easy to communicate with and we had to use hand signals because it was loud and it was just hard to communicate for a lot of different reasons.

The engine on the Boeing 737 as it sits on the runway / AP

Other passengers held on to her to prevent her from being sucked out of the plane, but she was pronounced dead after the landing in Philadelphia.

Southwest Airlines passenger livestreams video to say goodbye

Captain Shults, one of the first female fighter pilots in the US Navy to fly an F-18 jet, was praised for her calm under pressure and was commended for her bravery by President Trump at the White House this month.

Co-pilot Mr Ellisor said the first they knew about the engine blast was when we had a large bang and rapid decompression".

He said: "The aircraft yawed and banked to the left a little over 40 degrees and we had a very severe vibration from the number one engine.

"There was shaking, everything. And that all kinda happened all at once.

Passengers paid tribute to Captain Shults. This is a true American hero. A huge thank you for her knowledge, guidance and bravery in a traumatic situation. God bless her and all the crew, said Diana McBride Self.I sraeli forces bombed Damascus in retaliation for a rocket attack by the Iranian military on its positions in the Golan Heights.

In response to the rocket barrage, the Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighbouring Syria.

It is the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date and has sparked fears of an all-out war.

Israel said the targets included weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centers used by elite Iranian forces in Syria. It also said it destroyed several Syrian air-defence systems after coming under heavy fire and that none of its warplanes was hit.

The blistering assault was by far the most intensive Israeli action in neighbouring Syria since the civil war broke out there in 2011.

Images show Israeli artillery deployed missiles towards Syrian military targets, on the Golan Heights, next to the Israeli-Syrian border / EPA

Israel has largely tried to stay on the sidelines, but has previously acknowledged carrying out over 100 airstrikes over the past seven years, most believed to be aimed at Iranian weapons shipments bound for the Hezbollah militant group.

But with the civil war appearing to wind down, and Iranian forces looking to establish a foothold on Israel's doorstep, Israel has stepped up its response.

The dramatic escalation of tensions in the early hours of Thursday is said to be the first time Iranian troops have directly attacked Israeli forces rather than using proxies.

Israeli military said Iran fired 20 rockets at its positions in the Golan Heights, which has been on high alert since Donald Trump confirmed the USs withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

An Israeli soldier stands on a tank as another jumps off it near the Israeli side of the border with Syria / REUTERS

Tehran vented anger at Mr Trump for pulling the US out of the accord on Tuesday.

The US president's move to exit the 2015 agreement with Iran was welcomed by Israel but has stoked fears of a regional flare-up.

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome rocket defence system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage. There were no Israeli casualties reported.

The Syrian capital of Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defences over the city was heard throughout the night.

Trump abandons Iran nuclear deal: World leaders react

An Israeli official said Israel was targeting Iranian positions inside Syria. Syrian state TV quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israel was trying to hit air defence positions and radar stations.

An Israeli military spokesman said earlier that Iran's Al Quds force fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, but would not say how Israel determined the Iranian involvement.

The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan, which was captured from Syria in the 1967 war.

Israel "views this Iranian attack very severely," the spokesman told reporters. He said Israel had responded, but did not provide details. "This event is not over," he said.

Syria's state media said Syrian air defences had intercepted "hostile Israeli missiles" early Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus.A t least 20 people have died and hundreds are homeless after a dam burst in Kenya.

Scores of people including children are missing and feared trapped in mud after the dam in Solai, Nakuru county, gave way late on Wednesday causing huge destruction.

Thirty-nine people have been taken to hospital with injuries.

According to the Nation, over 300 families have been left homeless with up to 2,500 residents affected.

In a statement,Lee Kinyajui, the governor of Nakuru said: "The water has caused huge destruction of both life and property. The extent of the damage has yet to be acertained."

Local residents wait inside an ambulance after Patel dam burst its bank / AFP/Getty Images

Television station KTN News says that 20 bodies have been recovered from the scene so far.

People gather at a residential area following the incident / AFP/Getty Images

Kenya Red Cross said that 39 people were taken to hospital on Wednesday evening with search and rescue efforts ongoing.

Residents said they heard an "explosion" before water started to gush out of the dam.

Volunteers search for survivors in a residential area after Patel dam burst its bank / AFP/Getty Images

The dam, 190 kilometres (120 miles) northwest of Nairobi gave way following heavy rain.U S president Donald Trump has hailed a meeting next month with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a "very special moment for World Peace."

The president announced he will meet the secretive state's leader on June 12.

Announcing the meeting's date on Twitter, he said: "The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th.

"We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!"

New York senator Chuck Schumer said the release of detained American citizens by North Korea was 'no great accomplishment' of Kim Jong Un and warned Mr Trump of striking a "quick" and "bad" deal with North Korea ahead of the meeting in a little over a month's time.

Donald Trump welcomes freed North Korea prisoners home to America

Plans for the summit have been in place since the president accepted Kim's invitation to meet in March. It will be the first ever meeting between a sitting US president and North Korean Leader.

North Korea's Kim Jon Un meets South Korea's President Moon Jae-in 1 /18 North Korea's Kim Jon Un meets South Korea's President Moon Jae-in South Korean President Moon Jae-in shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their meeting at the Peace House at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone REUTERS North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shakes hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in EPA North Korean leader Kim Jong Un takes hand of South Korean President Moon Jae-in (R) to cross the military demarcation line Getty Images North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in cross the border line at the border village of Panmunjom in Demilitarized Zone AP North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shakes hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in Reuters Kim walks with Moon at the Joint Security Area (JSA) on the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) EPA North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in inspect an honor guard after Kim crossed the border into South Korea for their historic face-to-face talks, in Panmunjom AP The two leaders meet at the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea EPA North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in inspect an honor guard after Kim crossed the border into South Korea for their historic face-to-face talks, in Panmunjom AP South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attend the inter-Korean summit Reuters Kim Jong Un (2nd L) and his wife Ri Sol Ju (L) attend a farewell ceremony with Moon Jae-in (2R) and his wife Kim Jung-sook (R) AFP/Getty Images Ri Sol Ju (L), wife of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, and Kim Jung-sook AFP/Getty Images The couple's toast at a farewell dinner at the end of the summit AFP/Getty Images The official dinner at the end of their historic summit AFP/Getty Images An image of flowers is beamed onto the Peace House where the summit had taken place during a closing ceremony AFP/Getty Images Kyu Cho, 27, reads a newspaper with a front page story about the inter-Korean summit REUTERS A woman reads a newspaper with a front page story about the inter-Korean summit REUTERS A man walks past a newspaper featuring a front page story about the summit AFP/Getty Images

The news comes after the state released three American prisoners following a meeting between Kim and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Mr Pompeo was visiting the north for his second time this year.

There had been speculation that he could be coming back to the US with the three detained men.

The pending summit has sparked a flurry of diplomacy, with Japan, South Korea and China holding a high-level meeting on Wednesday.A white graduate student at Yale University in the United States called the police on a black graduate student who had fallen asleep in the common area of their campus dormitory.

Lolade Siyonbola, a student at the Ivy League school, posted two videos of the encounter to Facebook on Tuesday.

One post showed Ms Siyonbola in conversation with the white student, who told her she was calling police after finding her in the room at Yale's Hall of Graduate Studies.

Campus police questioned the graduate student for more than 15 minutes, leaving after they had confirmed she is a Yale student who lives in the building.

The clips have been collectively been viewed more than one million times, and attracted thousands of comments online.

Many people responded to protest over what they felt was harassment of Ms Siyonbola by police and a racist assumption by the white student.

At one point in the videos, Ms Siyonbola is heard saying: "I deserve to be here. I pay tuition like everybody else."

She added: "I'm not going to justify my existence here."

According to Ms Siyonbola, she was working on a paper in the Hall of Graduate Studies when she fell asleep in a common room.

Another woman student came in, switched on the lights and said: "You're not supposed to be sleeping here. I'm going to call the police."

In one of the videos online, the white woman is heard saying: "I have every right to call the police. You cannot sleep in that room."

Ms Siyonbola was then questioned for 17 minutes by four police officers in the stairwell outside her room.

She unlocked her dorm room in front of the officers to show she lived there, but they asked her for ID.

After some confusion over her ID - her name was apparently misspelled in a student database - the police told her she was free to go.

A Yale spokeswoman told CNN: "We believe the Yale police who responded followed procedures."

University officials will review the officers' response as they do with every incident, she said.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Ms Siyonbola wrote: "Grateful for all the love, kind words and prayers, your support has been overwhelming. Black Yale community is beyond incredible and is taking good care of me.

"I know this incident is a drop in the bucket of trauma Black folk have endured since Day 1 America, and you all have stories. Share below if you feel led."T he estranged wife of disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein today revealed she was never suspicious of her husband's behaviour as she broke her silence over the sex allegations surrounding him.

British fashion designer Georgina Chapman, 42, made the comments in an interview for Vogue where she spoke for the first time in full since scores of sexual misconduct claims were levelled at her husband.

Ms Chapman, who has two children with the shamed film mogul, left him after a string of allegations were made against him in the New York Times and New Yorker magazine.

They are currently going through divorce proceedings.

Ms Chapman, co-founder of fashion label Marchesa, said: "There was a part of me that was terribly naive - clearly, so naive.

Weinstein and Chapman at the Cannes film festival in 2015 / AFP/Getty Images

"I have moments of rage, I have moments of confusion, I have moments of disbelief!

"I have moments when I just cry for my children. What are their lives going to be? What are people going to say to them?"

"It's like, they love their dad. They love him. I just can't bear it for them!"

The fashion designer said she was never suspicious about her husband's behaviour / Dave Benett

Asked if she was ever suspicious about Weinstein's behavior, Chapman said: "Absolutely not. Never".

She added that he frequently traveled for work and she had never obsessed about where he was.

Rose McGowan says Harvey Weinstein tried to contact her since she went public with allegations against him

"I lost ten pounds in five days. I couldn't keep food down," she said.

"My head was spinning. And it was difficult because the first article was about a time long before I'd ever met him, so there was a minute where I couldn't make an informed decision.

"And then the stories expanded and I realized that this wasn't an isolated incident. And I knew that I needed to step away and take the kids out of here."

Some 80 women, including prominent actresses, have accused Mr Weinstein of miscoduct ranging from rape to harassment.

When asked if she was ever suspicious of her husband, Ms Chapman told Vogue: "Absolutely not. ever. And i've never been one of those people who obsesses about where someone is.

"That's what makes it so incredibly painful: I had what I thought was a very happy marriage. I loved my life."

Scarlett Johanson was pictured at this year's Met Gala wearing Marchesa / Reuters

Weinstein has been accused of sexual misconduct by over 80 women but continues to deny all allegations of non-consensual sex.

Scarlett Johanson was pictured at this year's Met Gala wearing Ms Chapman's fashion label. The fashion designer co-founded Marchesa with Kere Craig in 2004.

Ms Johansson told People magazine: I wore Marchesa because their clothes make women feel confident and beautiful and it is my pleasure to support a brand created by two incredibly talented and important female designers.

Marchesa cacncelled their runway show for their 2018 fall collection as Ms Chapman thought it would be inappropriate to offer gowns for the awards season.

She told Vogue: All the women who have been hurt deserve dignity and respect, so I want to give it the time it deserves. Its a time for mourning, really."

Weinstein, 66, is at the centre of three criminal investigations by police in London, New York and Los Angeles.T he line-up for the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final is complete after 10 more acts successfully made it through Thursday nights semi-final.

In no particular order, Serbia, Moldova, Hungary, Ukraine and Sweden were the first five announced as having made it through.

Australia - who pay their fees to the European Broadcasting Union just as all participants do - were next along with Norway and Denmark.

Slovenia and The Netherlands took the last two spots in Saturday's Grand Final. Russia failed to qualify for the first time in their history.

Through: Moldova entertained with My Lucky Day, earning them a spot on Saturday's stage / BBC Four

The two bookies favourites for glory, Cyprus and Israel, also made it through the glitzy qualifying on Tuesday.

The acts won enough jury and viewer votes combined to return to the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday night for the Grand Final.

Eurovision moments - In pictures 1 /27 Eurovision moments - In pictures Swedish pop group Abba performs their song Waterloo during the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest AFP/Getty Images 1981 Eurovision Song Contest winners Bucks Fizz Getty Images Jedward from Ireland perform in the grand finale of the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest 2011 Getty Images Cliff Richard in a display of enthusiasm outside the Royal Albert Hall, London ahead of the 1967 Eurovision song contest Getty Images Lucie Jones performing the UK's 2017 Eurovision entry 'Never Give Up on You' PA Glasgow born pop singer Lulu (Marie MacDonald McLaughlin Lawrie) performs 'Boom Bang-A-Bang', the British entry at the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest in Madrid Getty Images Finland's Lordi performs the song 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' during the 2006 Eurovision final song contest AFP/Getty Images Conchita Wurst of Austria performs on stage during the grand final of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest Getty Images Pop group Jemini of United Kingdom - the 2003 entry for the Eurovision song contest AFP/Getty Images British singer Sandie Shaw receiving the winning trophy for the 2967 Eurovision song contest Getty Images Scooch - United Kingdom's entry to the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest AFP/Getty Images Members of the t.A.T.u group from Russia are performing during the final concert of the 2003 Eurovision song contest in Riga AFP/Getty Images Ireland's Johnny Logan winning the 1980 Eurovision Song Contest Getty Images Olivia Newton-John poses with policemen in Brighton, during rehearsals for the 1974 Eurovision song contest PA The New Seekers pop group, chosen to represent United Kingdom in the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest. Getty Images English pop singer Cliff Richard with the 'Breakaways' group during rehearsals at London's Talk of the Town. He sang 'Congratulations', the British entry to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1968, reaching second place Getty Images Engelbert Humperdinck of the United Kingdom performs during the grand final of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest Getty Images Celine Dion during the 1988 Eurovision song contest Pat Maxwell/Rex Boy band Blue of the United Kingdom perform in the grand finale of the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest Getty Images Dana International of Israel performs in the 2011 Eurovision cog contest Getty Images Hosts Terry Wogan and Natasha Kaplinsky, with winner Javine PA Katie Price as Jordon at the 2005 Eurovision song contest PA Gina G performs at the 1996 Eurovision song contest PA Katrina and the Waves celebrates their victory after winning the 1997 Eurovision Song PA Graham Norton hosting BBC1's Eurovision: Your Country Needs You PA France's Jacqueline Boyer clutches her trophy after winning the 1960 Eurovision Song Contest at the Royal Festival Hall Getty Images Eurovision Song Contest compere Katie Boyle (on the left) checks the scoreboard for the order of the draw in 1960 Getty Images

The 20 performers join the Big Five - the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Italy - in the Final and the host nation. All six automatically qualify for the Grand Final without having to go through the midweek run.

The 63rd Eurovision Song Contest is being hosted by beautiful quartet Filomena Cautela, Silvia Alberto, Daniela Ruah and Catarina Furtado and the BBC semi-final coverage was fronted by Scott Mills and Rylan Clark-Neal.

Chat show host Graham Norton will once again return for the Grand Final, having taken over from the late Sir Terry Wogan for the 2009 contest. Norton has paid tribute to Wogan in the years since his death with a drink during song number nine, the point Sir Terry warned him not to start drinking until.

The Grand Final will be broadcast on BBC One from 8pm on Saturday 12 May, with the UK represented by SuRie and song Storm.Charles Moore examines a young patient at the HEALing Community Center, which he founded to help bridge the health care gap in Atlanta. Photo by Jack Kearse.

A few weeks into the job, Dr. Charles Moore had seen enough.

Enough patients walking into Grady Memorial Hospital so disfigured by advanced head and neck cancers they could barely breathe. Enough conditions that could have been caught earlier with better outcomes. Enough lost treatment opportunities.

When Moore arrived at Emory in 1998, part of the attraction was the opportunity to gain hands-on experience working at a so-called safety net hospital, a facility that serves all populations, including the uninsured and underinsured, low-income and economically vulnerable.

With the indigent care aspect, I thought it would be a great opportunity to give back, recalls Moore, a professor of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery at Emory School of Medicine and chief of the Department of Otolaryngology for Grady Health Systems.

It seemed like something that would fit with my personality, my desire to help those who otherwise would not have had access to care or who had limited choices, he says. This job allows you to be an important part of that process.

But the realities of seeing people not access health care soon enough haunted him. When I kept seeing these patients over and over again who could have been helped if they had found medical help earlier, I thought, Somebody needs to do something about this.

Finally, he decided, Maybe it should be me.

So Moore began tracking the zip codes of his patients, discovering that some of his toughest, most advanced cases were originating from the neediest West Atlanta neighborhoods. In search of answers, he hopped in his car and ventured into those very areas, uncertain of exactly what he was looking for or might find.

Bus stops. Homeless shelters. Community centers. Church groups. Moore made it his mission to listen. What were the biggest barriers to preventive care? Insurance? Transportation? Household budgets that required choosing between filling prescriptions and paying the rent?

What began as neighborhood talks to increase awareness about head and neck cancers would open his eyes to yawning medical gaps within the community, knowledge that would inspire his own brand of activism  an activism of healing.

Bridging a critical gap

Soon, Moore was filling plastic tubs with medical supplies and taking his skills to the streets  a one-man mobile doctors office  seeking out non-traditional locations where he knew people would have trouble accessing basic health screenings and primary care.

In time, he would simply be known as the doc in the green Subaru, dispensing care from his Tupperware clinics.

Out of those early efforts, Moore would create and found the HEAL (Health Education Assessment and Leadership) Coalition in 2006. Three years later, his work found a brick-and-mortar home in the HEALing Community Center, a federally qualified community health care center created to address the needs of uninsured patients living in poverty through preventive, primary and specialty care.

Now expanded to four locations in metro Atlanta, including two school-based health centers, the HEALing Community Center serves more than 5,000 unduplicated patients annually and also functions as a teaching base for the Emory School of Medicine, Rollins School of Public Health, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Laney Graduate School and Emory College, in addition to several other area universities.

In addition to teaching at Emorys School of Medicine and seeing patients as chief of otolaryngology at Grady, Moore serves as president for the HEALing Community Center, a director of Emorys Urban Health Initiative and numerous medical board appointments  wide-ranging responsibilities that literally cover both sides of his business card.

In recognition of his leadership, commitment and heroic efforts in community health and service, Moore will receive the 2018 Thomas Jefferson Award at the Emory Commencement ceremony on Monday, May 14.

Named and endowed by the Robert Earl McConnell Foundation, the award honors a member of the Emory faculty or staff who has significantly enriched the intellectual and civic life of the Emory community.

Sitting in his modest office at Grady Memorial Hospital, Moore says hes still in shock and unbelievably honored to receive news of the award.

Those who know Moore commend the sweeping impact of his work to bridge the health care gap. I think whats impressive about Charles is that this didnt start overnight, says Douglas Mattox, William Chester Warren Jr. MD Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, who first recruited Moore to consider Emory.

This has been a goal and a mission of his from the beginning, Mattox says. Its only been through his persistence and doggedness that hes gotten where he is. But it hasnt been easy.

In addition to providing hands-on care and enlisting the support of other area providers to meet the needs of the underserved, Moore became a quick study in the fundraising required to support community programs.

Over the last decade, Moore has written grants and helped raise millions of dollars to support community education, provide preventive care and train providers to increase health care access in low-resourced urban and rural communities, says Mattox.

His service on professional, advisory and community service boards is extensive, notes Mattox, including local and national otolaryngology societies, the Governors Advisory Council of the Georgia Shapework Group, the Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, the Executive Council of the American Association for Cancer Education, and the American Cancer Society, where he has served as a board member since 2015.

Phenomenally, all of these activities have not detracted from his clinical and teaching duties at Grady, where he maintains a busy operating room and clinic schedule as well as the administrative duties associated with being chief of service, Mattox noted in his nominating letter.

As for what fuels those sprawling endeavors, Mattox says, I think its his humanity, his concern for the underserved. His faith plays a big role, as well.

Building a life of service

Moore will tell you that hes always been someone who roots for the underdog.

I find it difficult to ignore things that are not right, he says. In my family, thats just how we were raised.

Growing up in the small, rural hamlet of Nedrow in upstate New York, Moore knew he wanted to be a doctor by the age of 4, and his parents supported that dream in every way.

My father worked construction, and would leave a splinter in his hand all day so that I could practice taking it out at home, Moore recalls.

When a sister began volunteering at a facility for individuals with multiple disabilities, Moore tagged along, eventually volunteering himself. I got to see some of the issues that folks with hearing and speech challenges had to deal with on a daily basis, which supported my interest in the medical field.

He attended Union College in Schenectady, New York, majoring in biology and music. Growing up, Moore enjoyed singing and played a little piano and the alto-sax. But while in college, he developed a laryngeal disorder, which restricted him from playing the saxophone.

Though it eventually resolved, the experience drew him into the realm of ear, nose and throat disorders  an interest he carried to studies at Harvard University Medical School, which his parents both worked two jobs to support so I could graduate with no debt.

During his residency at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and an NIH research fellowship, great mentors further nurtured his interest in otolaryngology and neck surgery. When an opportunity arose to work at Emory and Grady Memorial Hospital, Moore didnt hesitate.

My goal is to be a servant leader, he explains. This position feeds my desire to continue to give.

Some days, he is tested. In his office in Grady, Moore displays a letter presented to him by a patient after a day so challenging he had started typing a letter of resignation:

Dr. Moore, it reads, None of us live unto ourselves alone. The minute we are born we begin to owe something to someone. We have a debt to pay. In accepting a job as a public servant or a job that deals directly with the public, we are honor-bound to perform that job to the best of our ability.

Being a doctor, one accepts responsibility not only to the medical profession, but to humanity when history is written, your name may not be mentioned, but your performance as a doctor and as a human being will be remembered. Keep up the wonderful work that you do

On his toughest days, that is enough.

If I can use any talents I might have to help someone, I need to do that, Moore says.D rones are a controversial tech gadget to say the least.

They can pose a risk to aircraft, cause potential privacy issues, and are being used to smuggle contraband into prisons.

Despite their bad reputation, a lot of research is being put into the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) within emergency missions.

At New York Universitys Abu Dhabi campus, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Antonios Tzes, has been manning a project across five different universities in the US, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Greece, to develop drones for use inside buildings, particularly in fire situations.

After designing ground vehicles for rescue operations, Tzes and his team were looking for a way to move away from the ground.

We needed to go up into the air, in confined spaces, and drones were the logical way to do it, he tells the Standard.

Heres what you need to know about how drones can be used in rescue missions.

Drones and rescue missions: a 10-year+ project

Tzes and his team at NYU Abu Dhabi began researching this project around 10 years ago. At the start, they were using drones to inspect tractors in fields, looking at wear and tear of the vehicles.

After we resolved this we thought, why dont we go inside buildings? explains Tzes. At first it was simple experimentation, such as can the drone position itself inside a building.

When we solved this, we decided to do something useful for human beings. And that was search and rescue.

Professor Antonios Tzes of NYU Abu Dhabi

The team arent building new drones  instead, they are adapting and developing them to be used in search and rescue missions. Everything they build is open-source so the technology theyre creating will live on even after they stop working on it.

The drones theyve adapted can go into the building first to scan the surroundings, before relaying the information back to the emergency services who can then go into the building and find the people.

But how does this work?

Adapting drones for indoor emergency use

Adapting drones to be used indoors is pretty complicated. For starters, there is no GPS inside a building, so they need to be fitted with lasers to measure distance.

The drones have microphones fitted in order to listen for voices.

As well, in a building full of smoke, it can be difficult to detect the source of the fire or find any people who may still be inside it. Thats why Tzess team has developed sensors for the drones, such as chemical sensors to look for vital signals, or no vital signals, including sensors to detect methane gas.

The drones can detect methane from decomposing human bodies, explains Tzes. Then the firemen can decide which parts of the building to go into.

Its not just burning buildings that the drones can be used for. Depending on the scenario, different sensors can be fitted to the drones for that purpose, such as a nuclear accident. Then, the vehicle can be fitted with nuclear detectors to find the source of the accident.

Tzes's team aren't building their own drones, instead they are adapting ready-made drones - adding sensors and other technology

The important thing is that the drones work together in whatever scenario. Tzes describes it as sending a swarm of drones into a building in a search mission.

Every drone communicates its status to the neighbouring ones. If Im the leader, I can inform another drone that I didnt find anything suspicious in that segment of the building so go search somewhere else.

This is particularly crucial when it comes to delivering medical supplies. Depending on how large the drone is, it can carry weights from 2.5kg up to 8kg. Tzes hopes that these drones will be used to carry oxygen tanks into burning buildings, for people inside them.

For instance, the leader drone could see someone needs oxygen. It can tell the follower drone with the medical supplies to go to this part of the building and provide the oxygen tank, says Tzes.

Emergency drones: increased autonomy but not fully autonomous

Once the swarm of drones has been set off, they have a high level of autonomy so they can navigate around the building without a human commanding them.

But, these drones are not fully autonomous. There still needs to be a human in the loop making decisions.

If you have a burning building and there is a fire on the 10th floor, do you only search that floor? Who decides to go or not to go to the 11th floor  the drone or the human? says Tzes.

These are issues that need to be properly addressed and we think that, with emergency services, the human should always give the abstract commands.

This element is important for the plans Tzes and the group have for the drones in the future.

Part of the working group is looking at designing low weight manipulators to attach to the drones. This is so the manipulators could be used to perform minor surgeries.

For example, the drone could carry the manipulators, land, and the manipulator performs the surgery with a surgeon operating it during a teleoperation, explains Tzes.

This is still relatively futuristic. Tzes says he wouldnt be able to give an exact date of when this could be ready.

But the idea is that it would bring a surgical robot close to a person in need so a doctor could provide basic surgical operations.

Not heart surgery though, he says.

At the moment, the group is in confidential discussions with agencies over the use of the drones. They could be put to work in real-life emergency situations in under two years.O nePlus is gearing up to release its next smartphone and it looks set to be a big one.

So far, we know the new device will be named the OnePlus 6, replacing the hyped OnePlus 5T as the companys next flagship phone.

The new device will be unveiled next week on 16 May in London. But before then, OnePlus fans have the change to trade in their old device to make way for the OnePlus 6.

If you live in the UK, you can trade in a OnePlus 3 smartphone or newer until the end of May via the phone maker's official site. In return for an old phone, you will receive a voucher up to 205 to put towards your new smartphone.

But until then, here's all the rumours and leaks that have come out so far.

OnePlus 6: what will it look like?

Design-wise, the OnePlus 6 is thought to have a larger, longer screen than previous iterations.

As well, that means it is going to be copying the iPhone X with a notch at the top of the screen, moving away from the thin bezels the OnePlus 5T.

Some new leaked images from GSMArena show the new phone compared to the latest iPhone and the two devices look pretty similar.

Following a leaked spec sheet, it appears the new phone is going to have a 6.28 inch AMOLED display with 2280 x 1080 resolution.

Thats pretty big.

The new device is going to be around 7.5mm thin and weigh only 175g. This means it will have a screen bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S9+, as well as being thinner and weighing less than Samsungs newest device.

It will have a glass rear, complete with a fingerprint scanner, as confirmed by leaks from IT Home.

As well, it's thought the OnePlus 6 will be keeping its headphone jack.

A leaked image of the OnePlus 6 to Chinese website IT Home / IT Home

What will the new OnePlus 6 camera be like?

Let's be honest, a decent camera is one of the main things people look for in a smartphone.

OnePlus always pulls it out of the park with a mega camera and the OnePlus 6 looks to be no exception.

On the back, the OnePlus 6 will have dual-lens cameras with F/1.7 apertures. The two cameras will be 20-megapixels and 16-megapixels. This is the same as the OnePlus 5T for reference.

One the front, the selfie camera will be a whopping 20-megapixels.

If its the camera you care about when it comes to smartphones, then the OnePlus 6 is really trying to compete with the new Samsung device.

The OnePlus 6 will have the same camera specs as the 5T (pictured here) / OnePlus

How will the OnePlus 6 work?

The new device is going to be powered by Android 8.1 Oreo, the latest Android OS, so no surprises here.

In a blog post, the company's CEO Pete Lau confirmed how the new smartphone will work. We now know that the OnePlus 6 will be fitted with the Snapdragon 845 process, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.

Lau says OnePlus wants to create a "truly fast and smooth user experience" with the OnePlus 6 to give customers a "burdenless experience".

These specs will work together to ensure the OnePlus 6 is working hard to give the best power possible, whether that's recording 4K video, or browsing Facebook.

As well, Lau says OnePlus wants to ensure there is a 1/1000 per cent likelihood of your phone freezing, even under constant heavy use.

Sign us up.

Its likely the device will have a 3,450 mAh battery, as well as OnePluss dash charge technology, which fully charges the smartphone in around 30 minutes. However, this hasnt been confirmed in the leaks just yet.

How much will the OnePlus 6 cost?

OnePlus has always positioned itself as a high-end smartphone at a mid-range price.

The latest device, the OnePlus 5T which was released last year, was priced at 449.

According to some price leaking, the OnePlus 6 64GB could cost anything between 374 and 405.

Whilst the largest version, the 128GB model, could cost between 431 and 438.

We'll have to wait for the pricing to be confirmed later this month.

What is the OnePlus 6 release date?

OnePluss CEO Peter Lau confirmed the new smartphone would be coming in the second quarter of 2018. This means it could be anytime between the start of April and the end of June.

In April, it was revealed that the OnePlus 5T is no longer on sale in North America. OnePlus has done this before  selling out stock of its current flagship, and not putting any more on sale in anticipation of a new device.

As well, the company is holding global pop-up events around the world for early birds who are keen to get the new phone before anyone else.

Get your hands on a new OnePlus 6, get exclusive OnePlus goods and celebrate with the team who made the exciting new device.B lue, it turns out, is cold comfort. In fact, the blue light emitted by your screens could have long-term ramifications for your health as well as a short-term effect on your sleep.

The blue part of the visible light spectrum is higher energy than the yellow and red elements.

And as you scroll through Instagram or watch Netflix, this blue light insidiously works its influence.

Research conducted by the University of Exeter and Barcelona Institute for Global Health suggests that blue light in our everyday lives could soon mark the beginning of a sharp rise in cancer rates, namely breast and prostate cancer.

Their findings showed that from the 4,000 people living in 11 separate regions of Spain there was a link between heavy exposure to the LED lighting and a doubling of the risk of prostate cancer, as well as a 1.5-times higher chance of breast cancer.

As well as links to cancer, researchers at Harvard University believe that diabetes, heart disease and obesity can also be caused by exposure to blue light.

Regular exposure stops your body producing melatonin, a hormone that essential to achieving restful sleep.

The simple solution would be to put down your phone, but this will only help at night because light affects the bodys biological clock, which dictates your energy levels. So how do you get the balance right?

Tap up your tech

Most smartphones have inbuilt blue light filters. The iPhones Night Shift function will provide some respite for your eyes: it automatically adjusts the colours of your display to the warmer end of the spectrum, making the display easier on your eyes.

By default, it turns from sunset to sunrise.

Samsung phones have a blue light filter button in the drop-down menu.

For ultimate control, download f.lux. It changes the colour of phone and computer screen displays as bedtime approaches, getting warmer like a sunset (justgetflux.com).

Put on a red light

If you need a night light try a red bulb. Red light has the least power to affect circadian rhythms and suppress melatonin.

There are also red and orange-tinted glasses designed to block blue light.

A Swiss study of 13 teenage boys found that those who wore orange-tinted glasses, also known as blue blockers, felt significantly more sleepy in the evening than those who didnt. Try Cyxuss (20)

Pop a cherry

Combat the effects of blue light by eating cherries.

They are rich in melatonin and researchers at Louisiana State University found cherry juice is an effective remedy for insomnia and aids for longer sleep.

Sunny spell

Theres nothing wrong with a bit of natural blue light from sunshine at the right time  during the day.Countries & Areas

Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia ZimbabweThe misconduct the President is accused of in the case of his refusal to remove from office the chief-prosecutor of the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) is not a matter of constitutionality, but one of legality, the solving of which rests with the courts, reads the opinion sent by President Klaus Iohannis to the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR).

"The mentioned aspects (...) that were proclaimed by the author of the notification as a legal conflict of a constitutional nature do not meet the requirements for such a classification, for they do not refer to: the constitutional authorities that can be subject to it, with respect to the Minister of Justice; they do not refer to a conflict of competencies (either positive or negative) between the public constitutional authorities or a conflictual situation that arises directly from the Constitution; there is no institutional blockage; the accused misconduct is not a matter of constitutionality, in itself, but one of legality, which should be referred to the courts," says the document.

According to the same source, the notification did not show clearly what public institution was allegedly part in the conflict with the Romanian President, what was, in more details, the institutional blockage that was mentioned and the reason behind filing this notification, given that the manner of interpretation and implementation of the legal dispositions represents an act of justice, for which reason the President requested that the notification be rejected as inadmissible.The President's written opinion also mentioned, among other things, that there is a consistent jurisprudence with respect to the President's attribute of removing officials, and in both cases of appointment and removal, the President must carry out an assessment of legality and another one of opportunity."The only limitation existing in terms of both the legality and opportunity of measures the President may take in this field is related to the actual legal norms, which establish his competence in making the assessment of legality and opportunity. The Romanian President must apply these norms every time when such a proposal of appointment or removal is submitted to him, with no other limitation being possible," reads the same document.Based on these arguments, President Iohannis asked the CCR to rule there was no such conflict of a constitutional nature in this case.The CCR head, Valer Dorneanu , announced that the debate on the conflict between powers, in the case of the rejection by the President of the dismissal of the DNA chief, Laura Codruta Kovesi, was postponed until May 20.At CCR's Thursday meeting, both parties supported their point of view. On behalf of the Government pleading was the Minister of Justice, Tudorel Toader , while the Presidency was represented by presidential adviser Simina Tanasescu, who asked for the request to be rejected as inadmissible.Holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union will be a "maturity test" for Romania, head of the European Commission Representation in Romania Angela Cristea said on Thursday, voicing confidence that Romania will pass it with flying colours.

"This year we also celebrate the European Year of Cultural Heritage; there are cities in Romania that are heritage cities, and Alba Iulia, is one of the cities where history is written. Another such city where history is written is Sibiu. While in Alba Iulia a page in the past history was written, in Sibiu we will write a page in the future history, a European page in over a year, on Europe Day, when heads of state or government will meet in Sibiu during the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in order to renew their pledge, their trust in the European design. All this happens during the Romanian Presidency, a maturity test for Romania, but I totally trust Romania will pass it with flying colours," Cristea said in a speech to a Europe Day reception.

The European Commission Representation in Romania organised a Europe Day reception party at the Alba Carolina castle, an event attended by Romania's Minister-delegate for European Affairs Victor Negrescu, representatives of the embassies of Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, France, Finland , Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, MEPs, county and local officials.The founder chairman of the 'Romania Together Movement' / 'Miscarea Romania Impreuna', former European Commissioner for Agriculture and former Prime minister Dacian Ciolos believes that Romania should choose the European values, the rule of law, democracy and not 'authoritarianism, propaganda and the little green people' and demands the Senate President, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, to propose 'where we should take the light from' if it is not mandatory to take it from Brussels.

'Irritated by the proposal forwarded by the European Commission which wants to condition the granting of the European funds by the observance of the rule of law, Mr. Tariceanu, second person in the state says it is not mandatory to take the light from Brussels. In 1945, freshly returned from Moscow in an impetus of political opportunism, [writer, ed. n.] Mihail Sadoveanu was organizing at Bucharest downtown Dalles Hall a conference titled 'Light is coming from the East'. And you, Mr. Tariceanu, where do you propose that we take the light from? Are you bothered by the preoccupation for the observance of the rule of law?' Dacian Ciolos wrote on Wednesday night on his Facebook page.

Moreover, Ciolos asked Tariceanu about his opinion on the 'clear-cut stance' of Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, ed.n.) EU parliamentary group.'What is your opinion on the clear-cut stance of Mr. Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the ALDE EU parliamentary group, the political family you are part of, at European level? He said a few days ago that 'Should a government of a member state does not want our European values, then it does not need our European money either. The EU must stop financing illiberalism.' Obviously, you are in a flagrant short-circuit with the leadership of your European political group,' Ciolos asserts.According to him, in 2018 'it is important to understand what is happening around Romania, to look into history.''Nothing bright has ever come from the East on political and social level for more than a century. And more importantly, nothing good seems to be coming any time soon. As for the light, perhaps it is high time we enlightened ourselves with our own efforts, and not live with the idea that others are giving us the light,' Ciolos adds.Senate President Calin Popescu-Tariceanu says that the European Commission's proposal to 'restrain access to the European funds' for the member states that violate the rule of law is controversial within the Union, because 'there is no connection to be made' between the funds and the rule of law, Romania never having been charged 'officially' by the EU with non-observing the rule of law regulations.'At the EU level, this talk is extremely controversial because normally, there is no connection to be made between the allocation of funds and the existence of the rule of law. The paradox is as follows: Romania, which has been monitored in the last 10 years through the well-known Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) in reports, as you know, has achieved constant progress which unfortunately were never considered enough because the landmarks, the milestones that were established from the very beginning of this mechanism, the four conditionalities have been permanently moved. Romania is not officially charged by the EU that it doesn't observe the regulations of the rule of law and probably what is surfacing today is making a lot of European officials ask themselves how well the CVM has worked, if these things have existed and have been tolerated. Obviously the EC could very well say 'we had no idea of these transgression and abuses' which are a reality and can no longer be denied. These are not simple statements made by one politician or another. So, if we are to refer to the formal things, Romania has no problem with the rule of law,' Tariceanu told the Senate on Wednesday.A first-generation college student whose parents emigrated from China, Wei Wei Chen heeded their advice to embrace every opportunity at Emory. Her openness and charm were on display during a recent Emory Arts Underground pop-up on Cox Bridge. As members sang with a piano player, Chen convinced observers to join her in dancing along. Emory Photo/Video

Wei Wei Chen watched anime growing up as a way to better understand people, but it was watching a skit at Emory College of Arts and Sciences orientation four years ago that made her realize that art could tell her story, too.

Chens parents, who emigrated from China when she was 7 and never attended college, had encouraged her to embrace every opportunity Emory offered. When a student with the Emory Issues Troupe spoke of parents who worked in a flea market, as Chens do, she saw where those opportunities could lead.

I felt seen for the first time, Chen says. All I have ever wanted to do is move and understand people the way I felt moved and seen.

A Deans Achievement Scholar, Chen went on to major in film studies, with a concentration in film and media management. She has spent her time at Emory exceling in a broad selection of coursework and becoming a driving force for the arts in an impressive array of avenues.

Her accomplishments led to her selection as the 2018 winner of the Lucius Lamar McMullan Award.

The McMullan Award, made possible by a generous gift from Emory alumnus William Matheson 47G, honors Chens previous leadership and service to community. Beyond that, it signals that the Emory community expects great things from her, on a grand scale, in her future plans to work in childrens animation and arts management.

It also includes $25,000 to be used in any way Chen chooses.

She pulled from every discipline she could, exposed herself to all kinds of art and every kind of person, says Jim Grimsley, English and creative writing professor of practice who taught Chen in three writing seminars. I see her becoming something of an auteur. She just wants to serve the story.

Exploring who we are as humans

Chen grew up outside Orlando, Florida, where her parents instilled the value of hard work and humility. Effort and intellect served her well in school, though she often questioned teachers not about what she was learning, but why the world was as it was.

When a close friend died suddenly in high school, Chen found solace in art and the idea of following her heart to make decisions.

Around that time, she first heard of Emory through QuestBridge, a national non-profit that links highly qualified, low-income students with a four-year financial aid award to some of the nation's best colleges. Her heart led her to apply. The appeal: Emorys eminence in the liberal arts.

I didnt want to pigeonhole myself, Chen says. Taking acting or studying computer science, it felt like more classes meant more opportunities to explore who we are as humans.

Lori Teague, an associate professor and director of the Emory Dance and Movement Studies Program, recently watched Chen stand up at the Interdisciplinary Humanities Conference on campus to question how Emory could continue to embrace students who do not fit into traditional academic silos.

Teague saw the value of that when Chen enrolled in her movement improvisation class several years ago. Among dance majors, Chen's creative engagement stood out.

What movement does to people is connect them to their own identity; shift them into new environments; and invite them to make connections with others, Teague says. I really remember her curiosity leading her. She invested in her authentic voice. She connects easily, and I think shes going to be amazing because of that.

Change agent for the arts

At the same time Chen was wowing her professors in the classroom, she was pursuing her passion for art through a variety of campus activities. As soon as she could, she became a writer and actor with the Emory Issues Troupe, whose skit had so moved her.

She took over Emory Arts Underground, branding it as the leading arts organization on campus, and helped shepherd Dark Arts, an arts group focused on decreasing mental health stigma, and ScienceArtWonder, which pairs artists with labs to illustrate scientific research.

Chen also worked as a graphic design and marketing intern for the Center for Women at Emory and was a resident and sophomore adviser in Residence Life.

It was there she co-developed an initiative that transported 50 students to see the Alliance Theaters production of Disgraced, then returned to campus for a panel of faculty discussing the plays themes of identity and Islamophobia.

Her activities were about more than her own curiosity or even making good on the opportunities her parents wanted. She took to heart her parents lifelong advice: Work hard. Be kind. Always say thank you.

I cant begin to tell you how many truly inspiring and kind and selfless people I met at Emory, who made me feel so loved, that I wanted to be that for them, Chen says.

Her openness and charm were on display during a recent Emory Arts Underground (EAU) pop-up on Cox Bridge. As members sang with a piano player, Chen convinced observers to join her in dancing along.

Tanushree Khanna, a vice president in EAU, was among those who had already been swept up in Chens energy. As a sophomore at Oxford College, she submitted work to the group, but by the time Khanna arrived on Emorys Atlanta campus, she had become Chens friend and colleague.

Khanna, a senior accounting major, now works with Chen on the board of Emory Arts Underground and at the Undergraduate Residential Center, where they are both resident advisers.

With Wei Wei, her energy is just incredible and she attracts the people who can be from all different areas but are working with passion, Khanna says. You can see shes just getting started, and whatever she does, its going to be amazing.

A future in storytelling

Chens immediate future will be in Hong Kong, where she is spending this summer studying art and culture with the Emory Global Internship Program.

Next fall, she will begin a masters degree in contemporary studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland as one of this years Robert T. Jones Jr. scholars. The program calls for weaving 12 disciplines together to analyze and solve contemporary challenges.

Chen has experience in that sort of exploration. She decided to take a computer science course after working as an intern at the Cartoon Network, where she noted many shows were trying to teach kids how to code. She wanted a better understanding of the animation content.

A close friend who was majoring in computer science also convinced her to try to understand a more linear, logical way of thinking. That practical mindset could become a character in animation she hopes to produce for children and young adults.

If you want to move people, you have to do it in a way they want to be understood, and the only way to do that is to understand who they really are, Chen says. Im so grateful and honored for the opportunity to influence the stories being told.

The McMullan Award adds to those opportunities. The financial award will allow her to pay back her parents for their investment in her Emory education.

My parents said to remember that someone, somewhere is supporting me, Chen says. If I am not giving my all, Im not supporting their belief in me. So I will always give my all.Minister for Romanians Abroad Natalia Intotero paid a working visit to Paris, France to attend a convention of the Congress of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Bishopric of Western and Southern Europe.

According to an official press statement, Intotero made a thorough presentation of the work her ministry and highlighted the excellent co-operation between her ministry and representatives of the Romanian clergy abroad, encouraging them to submit as many projects as possible to support Romanians everywhere.

"The fact that we have many Romanians abroad is also revealed by the number of Romanian parishes and monasteries in the Romanian Diaspora, places where our fellow nationals seek spiritual guidance and which gives then a way to feel closer to home. Whereas in 1998 there were 30 parishes and two monasteries, today there are about 500 parishes and 20 monasteries that operate under the authority of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Western and Southern Europe. The Centennial Year marks the 20th anniversary of the archdiocese and the 10th anniversary of the Romanian Christian Orthodox episcopates in Italy and Spain. It is all the more important that this year, with its great significance, we are more united than ever and conduct projects together," Intotero is quoted as saying in the statement.The minister distributed the attendees 500 pamphlets with information on preventing undeclared work, trafficking in human beings and modern slavery. She called on the priests in attendance to pass on the information materials in their parishes of so that they may reach as many Romanians as possible.The distribution of information materials to Romanians everywhere is part of a national campaign called "Information at Home! Safety Abroad!" launched on Tuesday, which aims to inform Romanian citizens about the risks they may run when deciding to look for a job, study program, or settle abroad.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) expresses its confidence in continuing diplomatic efforts so as to achieve "real progress and the final, comprehensive and lasting settlement of the Iranian nuclear file," reads a MAE press release for AGERPRES.

"As to the decision of the United States to withdraw from the nuclear agreement with Iran, amid a negative appreciation by the US Administration of the policies promoted by Iran and the lack of real guarantees regarding its regional policy and the development of its ballistic program, MAE expresses confidence in continuing diplomatic efforts so as to achieve real progress and the final, comprehensive and lasting settlement of the Iranian nuclear file," the release reads.

At the same time, MAE informs that Romania will continue to cooperate with the representatives of the entire international community and with the United States with regard to the management of the nuclear files."Romania will continue to cooperate with the representatives of the entire international community and the United States, its most important strategic partner, to identify the best ways to improve security at regional and international level and to manage nuclear files in accordance with the Treaty on Nuclear Non-Proliferation, with full observance of the UN Security Council resolutions and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors," the release also reads.The Government will approve, through an Emergency Ordinance, a pack of measures regarding the public-private partnership, a normative act meant to remove blockages and boost investment capacity in Romania, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila made an announcement on Thursday.

"Today we will adopt the Emergency Ordinance on the public-private partnership. By this Ordinance we wish to eliminate the blockages and also to increase investment capacity in Romania. We never had a law in Romania regarding the public-private partnership that was successful. This is, first of all, about unblocking the legislation, about reducing the time needed for granting the agreements, based on a background study they will use to make the selection of the private partners," specified Dancila, in the opening of the Government meeting.

According to her, the new normative act also includes a series of measures referring to the local administrations."In the local public administration they removed all the ex-ante approvals, so that based on the resolutions of the county council or the local council to be able to move directly (...) to the contractual period with the public-private partnership. Moreover, we are introducing for the first time, besides the construction of goods, also the operation of services, which is a first for Romania. At the same time, we exclude the application norms, for the law is clear and it can be applied of a direct manner. However, in order to ensure a good understanding of the law, we will issue a guide of good practices, which is not mandatory, but it can be used for guidance," said Dancila.The PM also added that "there will be established a one-year term for the creation of a special fund for financing public-private partnership at national level."Prime Minister, Viorica Dancila, stated on Thursday at the meeting with the Social-Democrat pensioners, that she will not resign as long as she has the support of the Social Democratic Party (PSD, major at rule, ed.n.) leader Liviu Dragnea and that of the governing coalition (PSD-ALDE, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, minor at rule, ed.n.).

"I saw today or yesterday that the estimates of the National Institute of Statistics (INS) were released and I saw that we have economic growth, the fact that Romania is on a good path, and this good path Romania is moving along is backed by the governing programme, is supported by you, Romania's pensioners. That is why I was expecting that for this result - just like when you get good grades - to be rewarded. It seems like not everybody thinks that way. I therefore feel compelled to tell you here, at the National Council of the Social Democratic Party's Organization of Pensioners, that under no circumstance will I resign, not as long as I have the support of the party's leader, as long as I am backed by the ruling coalition and I have your support," premier Viorica Dancila said at the National Council of the Social Democratic Party's Organization of Pensioners' meeting.Increasing pensions is a necessary measure not only for pensioners, but for the whole Romanian society, and this will continue, Social Democratic Party (PSD) Chairman Liviu Dragnea said on Thursday at the meeting of the National Council of PSD Pensioners' Organization at the Palace of Parliament.

"We have decided that we need to invest in welfare, and we can also find the model for developing the business environment, with fiscal relaxation measures that generate extra incomes, and at the same time to increase pensions and wages. Increasing pensions is not, as one might think, a useful measure only for pensioners, it is a necessary measure for the Romanian society as a whole, it is primarily a guarantee for all who are not yet retired. (...) All Romanian citizens who are working should think that any measure we take for retirees is also valid for them and we take steps, at least until 2020, to create a stable, solid pension system that leaves no pensioner in the poverty area and no pensioner in the situation of thinking whether tomorrow he/she has money for food, to pay bills or for medicines. (...) Medicines are not optional," Dragnea said.

According to him, PSD, whenever in power and even in certain situations when it was not in power, took serious, sustainable measures that are important to increase the incomes of pensioners and make their life better.The PSD Chairman announced that pension rises will continue. "There is no risk that there is no money to pay pensions. (...) There is no risk that the pension budget will not have enough money for pensions. 2017 was a year full of lies," he added.The arrival in the country of Carol of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen and his crowning as Prince of Romania on 10 May 1866, the State Independence on 10 May, 1877 and the coronation of Romania's first king on 10 May, 1881 are events with an extraordinary contribution to what Romania is today - a modern and democratic state, all of these making this day a solemn moment for Romanians, Senate President Calin Popescu Tariceanu wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

He points out that the heroic efforts of all Romanians and the contributions of great politicians of those times in fulfilling the national ideals have offered Romania the possibility to directly manifest itself on the European and international stage as a sovereign and independent state, with a strong desire of maintaining peace and developing cooperation relations.

"The lesson in dignity, courage and sacrifice that these events constantly convey, is for us today more alive than ever. On Royalty Day, let us proudly remember our nation's great history and confidently look towards the future!," Senate President urges.Secretary of State for Euro-Atlantic Bilateral and Strategic Affairs with the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE) George Ciamba had a meeting on Wednesday with Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy Thomas Goffus, the talks focusing on the current security situation and the priorities of the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the United States, a press release of MAE sent to AGERPRES informs.

The two dignitaries voiced their appreciation for the high level of cooperation and expressed their openness for pursuing an intensive dialogue and also the close cooperation and collaboration between Romania and the United States.

Moreover, the developments with regard to regional security have been reviewed. The Romanian dignitary highlighted the strategic importance of the Black Sea region for the Euro-Atlantic security as a whole and pointed out, within the context, the importance of the allied solidarity and of a strong Trans-Atlantic connection, reads the quoted source.MAE specifies that talks also tackled issues on NATO's agenda, in view of July's summit.George Ciamba underscored the need to consolidate the deterrence and defence posture, including on the eastern flank and in the Black Sea region, emphasizing the need to fully and coherently implement the decisions adopted by the NATO Summit in Warsaw.The Secretary of State also mentioned the need to continue to provide active support for partner states, in accordance to their specific needs and interests.Romania will continue to act as a responsible ally, actively contributing to the promotion of security within the Euro-Atlantic area and outside it, Ciamba underscored.According to MAE, the American official expressed the United States' special appreciation towards Romania's efforts in line with the commitments for defence and especially for the valuable contributions of our country in the theatres of operations, indicating that the sacrifice of the Romanian servicemen is duly acknowledged.Romania's three-month interbank offered rate ROBOR, which serves as benchmark for floating-rate loans in lei, climbed on Thursday to 2.75 percent from 2.73 percent the day before, a high since the 2.77 percent registered on October 15, 2014, shows data of the National Bank of Romania (BNR).

According to central bank data, early this year the three-month ROBOR was 2.05 percent, whereas in the similar period last year it was 0.91 percent.

The 6-month ROBOR that is used for pricing mortgage loans went up to 2.88 percent, while the nine-month ROBOR - a measure of what banks charge each other for loans - climbed to 2.92 percent from 2.91 percent on Wednesday. The 12-month ROBOR inched up 0.1 percentage points from the day before, to 2.97 percent.Prime Minister, Viorica Dancila, addressing on Thursday a meeting of the Social-Democrat pensioners, said that she will not resign as long as she has the support of the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Liviu Dragnea and that of the PSD - ALDE ruling coalition.

"Today or yesterday I saw that the estimates of the National Institute of Statistics (INS) had been released and that we have economic growth, that Romania is on the right track and this track Romania is engaged on is based on the governing program and is supported by you, Romania's pensioners. This is why I was expecting recognition for this result - just like when you get good grades. Yet it seems not everybody thinks that way. I therefore feel compelled to tell you here, at the National Council of the Social Democratic Party's Organization of Pensioners, that under no circumstance will I resign, not as long as I have the support of the party's leader, as long as I am backed by the ruling coalition and I have your support," Premier Viorica Dancila told the meeting.

Dancila underscored that she has the responsibility to steer the country away from instability."I am a responsible person, I have served in the European Parliament for 9 years and I have a responsibility to the citizens of Romania, to Romania, to keep the right track so as to not create instability in my country. (...) I want everyone to see Romania as an example set by PSD in terms of economic growth, and I want to carry further this mandate we set off with and where you, the pensioners of Romania, play an essential role," Dancila explained.The PM underscored that she relies on the support of the pensioners."I am relying on your strength, your expertise, your support, and I think we can turn Romania into the country our pensioners and our children want, a country no one would want to leave any more, where we are capable of investments, a country with a governing program capable of moving 1,500,000 citizens to the middle class. I think we can do all this together," Dancila said.



The head of the government also stressed that PSD looks at the pensioners as a priority.



"To the PSD, to me personally, to the party Chairman, Romania's pensioners and pensioner organizations have always been a priority. While others have learned to conjugate the verbs 'to cut', 'to pull down', we have learned to conjugate verbs like 'to grow', 'to build' and, together with you, we have tried and will further try to set a solid foundation by building Romania brick by brick," the PM said.



Dancila also emphasized the need for unity, commending the pensioners for never having moved away from this desideratum and from consensus.



"I know that we have the duty to take further what you have built. I want to carry this program through as long as I have the support of party Chairman Liviu Dragnea, and of the ruling coalition. I know there's a lot to be done and I know something everyone in Romania must appreciate: that you have always talked of unity, consensus, wisdom, inter-generational unity, and now, in the year of the Centennial, we need all this," Dancila said.



The Premier also mentioned the promise she made PSD Chairman Liviu Dragnea that she will carry through the governing program, which has the pensioners at its core.



Referring to delays in the payment of pensions Dancila said the issue has been settled by decision of the PSD National Standing Bureau so that all pension dues by paid by the 15th of each month.Chairman of the Save Romania Union (USR) Dan Barna voiced solidarity with President Klaus Iohannis, after the discrimination watchdog fined the head of the state; Barna said he would be glad if he too were handed down a fine by the National Council against Discrimination (CNCD) for using the syntagm "convicts".

"I stand in solidarity with the President and if I were fined tomorrow, I would be pleased with this. (...) In a normal country, a President is sentenced when he acknowledges an objective fact? In a normal country a convicted person who receives a judge's stigma steps back. This is what our campaign 'No Convicts in Public Offices' is all about. Let them no longer represent the state in the period between the conviction's handing down and rehabilitation. What message do we convey to the youth? That in our country it's OK to be a convict, that it's OK to be a thief, embezzle public money and further steer the country," Barna told private TV broadcaster Digi 24 when the show moderator remarked that USR has embedded the syntagm "convict" in its campaign.

The USR leader also underscored that justice has become the hot subject of debate in Romania, upstaging other subjects."For two years now justice has been a major issue in Romania, all we do day-in, day-out is discuss about justice. Highways, hospitals, hospital-acquired infections have no longer been in the spotlight for a long time. And all this happens because convicted people are at the helm of the country and we are served the message that it is okay for them to be there. This is outrageous. And when the President explicitly says that these are 'convicts ...' - because Liviu Dragnea is a convict (...) - when he explicitly states this, which is a broadly known fact, the sentence hits the one who proclaims it, the one who cries out there is a gang-rape going on in the public square. This is outrageous. The solution is, in fact, the core element of our campaign 'No Convicts in Public Offices'," Dan Barna said.The steering board of the National Council against Discrimination on Wednesday adopted a decision to fine President Klaus Iohannis 2,000 lei for using the term "convicts" in an address this February at a press conference to describe politicians who were attempting to discredit the anti-corruption agency.The Presidential Administration announced that President Klaus Iohannis will challenge the CNCD decision in the competent court.The requested page is currently unavailable on this server.

Back to [RTHK News Homepage]Kosovo is to set up a regular standing army, officially defying everyone, including NATO, although the blocs objections are only half-hearted. The alliance would prefer that the illegal entity of Kosovo change its constitution in order to create an army. Just amend it, and then youre free to have one. This stance looks more like connivance than any real opposition to the move.

Washingtons position is more or less the same. It supports "the gradual, transparent transformation of the Kosovo Security Force into a multiethnic force in line with NATO standards" as long as it complies with the provisions of Kosovos constitution, reflecting that entitys multiethnic democracy. That sounds like an approval with a caveat. In March, US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, Wess Mitchell, went so far as to say that Kosovo "has the right to form professional forces" and that this would not pose a threat to Serbia or Kosovos Serbs. In his opinion, Nobody can place a veto on Kosovos right to develop its armed forces." If thats not offering a green light then what is?

Kosovos Albanians enjoy political support among US lawmakers. Congressman Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, is known as the Kosovo Albanians ambassador to the US without a portfolio. His name is on street signs there and his image adorns postage stamps. He was responsible for an attempt to impeach President Trump, after which Mr. Engel promptly did an about-face to hail the presidents decision to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. As the ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, he has done a lot to spoil US-Russia relations.

The creation of a regular military force in Kosovo is a gross violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244. That document states explicitly that no other military presence except KFOR and Serbias Army shall be permitted without the mandate of the UN Security Council. The very declaration of independence in 2008 by Kosovos parliament was a flagrant breach of that resolution, because no referendum had been held.

The establishment of the force also contravenes the Florence Agreement (Article IV of the 1996 Dayton Peace Accords), which says that regional stability should be maintained with the assistance of the OSCE. The formation of a standing army in Kosovo would mean that a military force was being created within the territory of Serbia, which was a party to the Florence agreement. This is illegal but the president of Kosovo has been pushing hard to achieve this goal. No turning back, he says. The plan would increase the number of active-duty lightly armed regular forces to 5,000 and reservists to 3,000  a considerable force to contend with.

And what do you think justifies such urgency? According to the leader of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, the threat is coming from the Russian military bases in Serbia, from Russia's MIG jets in Serbia and from the Russian military exercises in Serbia." So its Russia again! But Belgrade is free to possess and purchase any warplanes it wants. Has anyone ever heard of any military exercises being conducted by Russia in Serbia that are large enough to pose a threat to other countries? Or of military bases? Could Mr. Thaci name at least one to prove his point? No, because Russia has no bases there and, unlike NATO, it does not conduct military activities in the region. The Russian threat is clearly a fantasy that serves as a pretext for this gross violation of international law that is fanning tensions in the Balkans.

Here is another angle that should be kept in mind. If this military force is created, it will be under the command of a man who has been involved in the illegal trafficking of human organs in Kosovo, as stated by the 2010 Council of Europe report. A standing army headed by a criminal? So, NATO land is going to set up a military force led by someone with an extremely dubious reputation. This is all happening in broad daylight with little media coverage!

No US or NATO official has ever commented on this fact. They always shy away from such thorny issues.

Moreover, the commander of KFOR, Italys General Salvatore Cuoci, stated on April 7 in an interview with Pristinas daily newspaper Zeri that any aggression in Kosovo would be tantamount to aggression against NATO. Lets unpack that for a minute. Kosovo is covered by Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. Essentially this illegal entity has become a part of NATO. Unlike in Crimea, no referendum has been held. This is clearly and unambiguously expressed in his statement  Kosovo has been annexed by the bloc. The general added that his command will provide security at those times when the police cant control the situation.

The plan will entail significant consequences. It is vehemently opposed by Serbia and the ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo. Continuing terrorist activities may prompt the Serbian Army to intervene. The West could have easily prevented this turn of events. It will have to face up to its responsibility for whatever ensues. Moscow has issued warnings to this effect.

The situation in Kosovo is a glaring example that illustrates how little respect the West has for the international law that it insists others must honor. A part of Serbia has been snatched away to create a territory controlled by NATO. But that does not prevent Western leaders from pontificating about the need to play by the rules in the world today. Is there a better example of hypocrisy?Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Wednesday said that Parliament is an authorised institution and it can summon any individual.

Speaking to media here, the PPP chairman, however, said that he would not become part of a demand to summon National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chief for a case of individual nature.

Speaking of Nawaz Sharif, he said that the former premier's 'aliens' remark was strange in itself. "If he has to say something he should say that clearly or else sit back home quietly."

Bilawal claimed that "Mian sahib, through his childish politics, is endangering the entire democratic system."

Turning to Imran Khan, he said the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) did not deliver on his promises to eradicate corruption from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 90 days, and the promise to make southern Punjab a province in 100 days also appears to be a similar vow.

The PPP chairman said if his party won the elections, then they would make southern Punjab a province.Anti Terrorism Court of Islamabad granted bail to PTIs Aleem Khan and Shaukat Yousifzai in Parliament, PTV Attack case on Thursday.

According to the details, Judge, Kosar Abbas Zaidi heard the case, leaders of Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf, Aleem Khan and Shaukat Yousifzai appeared before the court.

The Court Granted bail of both the leaders, who are nominated in Parliament PTV attack case.

On may 12, An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) granted interim bail to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Aleem Khan in the PTV and parliament attack cases.

The PTI leader secured the bail against surety bond worth Rs0.1 million.

On April 9, PTI former secretary-general Jahangir Tareen was granted the bail in PTV and Parliament attack cases. Announcing the decision in the bail petition, the court accepted interim bail for Tareen and ordered him to submit Rs 0.1 million personal bond money.

The cases

The ATC is hearing four cases attack on the state television building, Parliament and SSP Junejo  against PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek leaders.

In August 2014, Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri took to streets in Islamabad against alleged rigging in 2013 general elections and Model Town sit-in. The protest continued for 104 days.During the sit-in, the protesters beat up SSP Asmatullah Junejo on Constitution Avenue when they attacked the PTV headquarters and parts of the Parliament.

A case was then filed against Khan, Qadri and others for torturing the SSP and five other police officers.

PTI leaders Shireen Mazari, Arif Alvi and Asad Umar were granted bail in the cases earlier this year. The ATC also extended the interim bail of Imran Khan in the four cases in January.Pakistan has expressed disappointment over the failure of United Nations Security Councils sanctions committee in listing of Umer Khalid Khurasani, leader of banned outfit Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA).

We are deeply disappointedWali has the blood of hundreds of innocent Pakistanis on his hands, Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said during the weekly briefing on Thursday. If the organisation, JuA, has been listed by the sanctions committee its leader should also have been listed.

Dr Faisal added that this action demonstrated the double standards prevailing in the international fight against terrorism and also showed complete disregard of the sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in this fight.

The sanctions committee did not approve Pakistans request to list Umer Khalid Khurasani alias Abdul Wali, since it could not reach a consensus due to disagreement by a member, the spokesperson said.

[But] the committee has not yet formally conveyed this development to us.

JuA was listed by the sanctions committee in 2017. The banned organisation is based in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan and has been involved in a series of terrorist attacks in Pakistan. Since 2014, when JuA first surfaced, it proved itself to be a lethal terrorist group, perpetrating some of the most brutal attacks in Pakistan.

From August 2014 till date, the group has been involved in 116 terrorist attacks on Pakistan.

In Consolidated United Nations Security Council Sanctions List JuA has been identified as a splinter group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan "associated with Islamic State in Iraq and the Levenant" aka Daesh.

The UNSC list mentions that JuA was banned in Pakistan on the 21 November 2016.National Security Adviser Nasir Khan Janjua says peaceful Afghanistan is imperative for peace in the region.

Addressing a seminar titled "Peace a dividend for development and stability in Afghanistan" in Islamabad today, he said peace offer by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is a good sign for peace process in Afghanistan. The Advisor invited Afghanistan to join Pakistan in projects like China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and China's One Belt One Road initiative.

He said if Pakistan and Afghanistan work together both can become massive trade corridors.

Answering a question regarding Pakistan's relations with India, the Advisor said India has defeated bilateralism by showing reluctance for dialogue.Gary Webber

WBOP District Council Mayor



On a personal basis, the answer to that question is pretty easy for me  The Local Government Act in section 14 states when making a decision, a local authority should take account of  the diversity of the community, and A local authority should provide opportunities for Maori to contribute to its decision-making processes.

Back in 2012 when I was a councillor on our council it was decided on the Mayors casting vote not to propose a Maori Ward. However, in the intervening 6 years, the political, social, demographic and economic landscape has changed to the point where there is now a rational, compelling, defendable argument to support the implementation of a Maori Ward for our council.

In the past our council has had 2 Maori Committees where Maoridom has appointed their representatives to those committees and many have been critical that those people were appointed and not elected.

Those committees are designated to have a representative of every Iwi and Hapu in our district, which in the worst case scenario, with 11 Iwi and 74 Hapu representatives plus 11 Councillors and the Mayor would make a committee of 97  would be a nightmare to manage.

From my own perspective, having 1 elected Maori Ward Member sitting alongside 10 Geographic Ward Members with an elected Mayor is a far more efficient and effective Governance Structure for our council.

Many say this subject is about Democracy, I say they are wrong, it is about fair representation for our district.

Others say the decision was made in secret, again I say they are wrong as there is a legal requirement to take our final proposal out for public consultation which will occur in 2019.

The Local Electoral Act requires Councils to consider Maori Wards as a component of their representation arrangements when undertaking their 6 yearly Representation Review.

We currently have 11 councillors representing 3 geographic wards and our total population is about 48,000, giving our current ratio of 1 councillor for every 4300 residents. We have a Maori population of about 4900 and if we did have a Maori ward the ratio for that councillor would be slightly higher than the geographic ward councillor representing. The net result being there would be 10 Geographic Ward Councillors and 1 Maori Ward Councillor each with a similar workload.

In 2017, the National Party Government amended the Resource Management Act to require councils to create Mana Whakahono a Rohe agreements with Iwi and if necessary with Hapu.

Whilst there is a legal obligation to consider Maori Wards, from a personal point of view, for me it is the right thing to do for fair and equitable representation.

Another option we could have considered was to use our Zoning as the basis for wards and that would have given us 4 Urban Wards, 3 Rural Wards, 3 Horticultural Wards and 1 Lifestyle Ward. Had we taken that approach there would NOT have been a poll because a poll is ONLY required if a Maori Ward is being proposed.

All councillors and tangata whenua members of the forum always knew the decision would go to a poll i.e. under the process, anyone has the right to demand it, and because they knew not every councillor would agree with the decision if it were to recommend a Maori Ward.

However, I must state that at the Committee stage, which was a public meeting where anyone could attend, which included the Mayor and 10 of the 11 councillors and all Tangata Whenua members it was unanimously approved to recommend to council to propose a Maori Ward.

When it did go to council the majority of Council (75%)- those who supported Maori representation  have respected due process and allowed that to happen without leaping into debates or impinging on the rights of others to have their say and now the poll is in front of the community it is important for Council leaders to separate the rhetoric thats being pushed around from the reality.Tauranga MPs from both sides of the political divide are praising the government for a significant funding boost for family violence services.

Social services dealing most directly with the harm caused by family violence will get much needed support as funding to front line agencies increases for the first time in nine years.

Nearly half of those receiving the increase are womens refuges who provide vital support keeping women and children safe, says Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni.

The 30 per cent increase in funding is critical to the governments efforts to begin to turn around New Zealands tragic family violence record.

Additional funding in 2019/20 will enable these critical front line agencies to expand into areas where there isnt currently any support or start addressing over demand in existing services.

Through Budget 2018, the government is allocating an additional $76.157 million over four years to support the delivery of Ministry of Social Development-funded family violence services for victims, perpetrators and their families.

Bay of Plenty Labour list MP and former Tauranga Womens Refuge manager Angie Warren-Clark says in the past nine years the refuge had to operate 24/7, 365 days a year on just $21.25 per hour in base line funding.

Im immensely proud and thankful that our government has listened and put money into front line services for family violence. Those of us who have worked in the sector have spent the last nine years desperately fundraising to meet the needs of our community in helping children and families live their lives free from family violence, this boost to funding will allow agencies to put a greater focus on providing frontline services to those who need it the most.

As Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a Salvation Army event this morning, women, children and whanau have the right to be free from violence.

Bay of Plenty National MP Todd Muller has also praised the funding boost and acknowledges the important work Womens Refuge does in the community.

Our local Womens Refuge is an important social service working with some of our most vulnerable. They deal with situations that most would struggle to confront and I have nothing but admiration for their commitment to our community.

Domestic violence is not a party political issue. Its a challenging community issue that requires us all to stand together and say its not OK. Thats how we make progress.

He says family violence has a devastating impact on individuals, families and communities, and the government needs to be doing what it can to help turn family violence around.

Im pleased to see the Labour government is continuing to build on the work the previous National government carried out to ensure victims of domestic violence are safer, sooner.

I have no doubt this will have a positive impact and I look forward to working constructively across the House with all parties to address this important issue.A Christchurch business might be shouting its staff a trip to Las Vegas, but similar generosity is alive and well in the Bay of Plenty too.

Signature Homes Bay of Plenty/Coromandel franchisees Debbie and Craig Williams are taking their staff to Fiji as a thank you for 10 years of award-winning service.

Debbie says 23 staff are coming on the trip, with seven kindly staying behind to keep the business running while everyone else is away.

The trip came about after winning the Signature Homes National Client Survey Award for 10 years running.

After winning it for the sixth time, we said to our staff at the time that if we can do it 10 years in a row, we were all going to Fiji.

After finally making it 10 in a row last year, all staff employed at the time were given the good news they would be going to Fiji.

Theyll be staying at a resort in Denarau on the western side of Viti Levu, Fijis largest island, for four nights and five days in June.

The franchises operations manager, who has been a part of the team for the full 10 years, is also having her family join her at the franchises expense.

Theyre an awesome team. They give their heart and soul to Signature Homes, so why not reward them? says Debbie.

I think its essential to reward and recognise any good service people give. We have a great team dynamic in the office, and I think that comes down to everyone appreciating each others role in the business.Bay of Plenty

Are you a Customer Service superstar with an interest in medical supplies? Read on, we may have the job for you! The role...



View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nzThe glow from the Kiwi Commonwealth Games efforts is set to shine on Mothers Day as part of a star-studded line-up of Kiwi athletes putting their best foot forward at the Jennian Homes Mothers Day Fun Run and Walk.

Black Sticks golden girls Sally Rutherford and Pippa Hayward, fresh from clinching gold in style with a 4-1 win over Australia, and bronze medal winning Tall Black Finn Delany are part of an inspirational drawcard of 50athletes assisting with the warm-up and 5km event.

Sunday May 13 will see more than 10,000 participants take part in New Zealands largest Mothers Day event across 33 locations nationwide, from Paihia to Invercargill, in efforts to improve the heart health of New Zealand women.

Now in its seventh year, Jennian Homes annual event supports the Heart Foundations Heart Foundation for Women campaign. 2018 also marks the Heart Foundations 50th anniversary year.

Heart disease is the number-one cause of death for women in New Zealand, claiming the lives of more than 55 women each week, and more than 3000 each year.

Rutherford will be attending the Ellerslie event and Hayward in Pukekohe while Delany is in Nelson.

Other past or present Olympic and Commonwealth Games athletes include, bronze medallist boxer Alexis Pritchard (Ellerslie), Black Sticks silver medallist Aidan Sarikaya (Aucklands Long Bay), canoeist Luuka Jones (Tauranga), shooter Natalie Rooney (Timaru) and netballer Shannon Francois (Dunedin).

This chance to meet these athletes arises from Jennian Homes partnership with the New Zealand Olympic Committee to help Kiwi athletes Earn The Fern at the recent Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast and at Rio 2016.

Jennian Homes COO Aidan Jury has no doubt having the support of these Kiwi athletes will prove added motivation for everyone to get active and make a great start to their Mothers Day.

The Jennian Homes Mothers Day Fun Run/Walk continues to grow in popularity each year and we are grateful for these athletes to lend a hand and help save lives and keep more families together.

It just speaks volumes of everyones commitment, athletes and the public alike, to help ensure the women we love are with us for many years to come.

This years event is expected to be the biggest yet, with events at 10 new locations, including Cambridge, Taupo, Napier, Blenheim and Wanaka.

And while the event is enthusiastically embraced by women all over the country, Jennian Homes is this year appealing for more men to get out and show their support.

This event brings women and their health to the forefront, and it would be great to see the men in their lives taking an active support role - whether its looking after the kids so mum can get in some training, cheering her from the sidelines or even lacing up their running shoes and joining in, says Aidan.Bay of Plenty

We are looking for a storeman with an OSH forklift license. You will need to be physically for as the job is about 70% forklift...



View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nzDistrict Heath Boards are ill-equipped to deal with the rising number of infections resulting from medical treatment, a health watchdog says.

An ACC report found the overall cost of claims for treatment-related injuries had more than doubled in the past five years.

It showed that in the year to the end of March 2017, ACC accepted more than 1800 infection-related claims, costing nearly $17 million.

The report also found the overall cost of claims for treatment-related injuries had more than doubled in the past five years.

Waikato DHB had the largest increase in infection-related claims - from 80 infections per 10,000 patients in 2013 to 209 in the year ending March 2017 - a 160 percent increase.

Infections New Zealand said the data showed a growing level of risk in hospitals, which it said was caused by low staffing levels and inefficient management processes.

Its calling for more investment in prevention and better support for health professionals.

But infectious diseases specialist Richard Everts said the figures could be attributed to an increase in high-risk operations.

"For example, we are doing more and more prosthetic heart valve, prosthetic knee and hip replacements, and insertion of vascular devices for blocked aorta and leg arteries, breast implants, mesh for hernias, et cetera," Dr Everts said in a statement.

"The more operations we do that involve inserting foreign material in the human body, the more infections will inevitably occur."

He said an ageing population could also be a contributing factor.

"There are more and more people getting operations in New Zealand who are old, overweight, diabetic and on immune-suppressant medications. These are all risk factors for post-op infection," he said.

"But as long as New Zealanders want to be surgically patched up so they can live longer and more functional lives then a certain number of these people will get an infection."U.S. News & World Report published its annual ranking for best high schools across the country on Wednesday.

The report evaluated 20,548 high schools in all 50 states to assign nationwide and statewide rankings based on several factors including graduation rate and college readiness.

Although no schools in Upstate New York made the national ranking, one school from Downstate scored extremely well. The Baccalaureate School for Global Education in Long Island landed at No. 9.

In the statewide rankings, 7 CNY schools are among the top 25 high schools in Upstate NY. The numbers below reflect the school's New York state ranking, followed by national ranking. Some schools also achieved an additional score for best STEM programs.

#89 Cazenovia High School

#893 in National Rankings

Don't Edit

#85 Jamesville-Dewitt High School

#855 in National Rankings

Don't Edit

#75 Hamilton Junior-Senior High School

#716 in National Rankings

Don't Edit

#69 Fayetteville-Manlius Senior High School

#649 in National Rankings

Don't Edit

2017 Recycled Regatta Congratulations to Daniel Torres, 2017 Recycled Regatta Champion! This is the third year students from the New Hartford Central School Advanced Placement Environmental Science class competed in this fun-filled and inspiring event. The challenge is to create a racecraft solely from at least five different used or repurposed materials. Posted by New Hartford Central School District on Friday, June 9, 2017

#62 New Hartford Senior High School

#555 in National Rankings

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

#57 Ithaca Senior High School

#492 in National Rankings

#91 in STEM High Schools

Don't Edit

#42 Skaneateles Senior High School

#285 in National Rankings

#154 in STEM High School

Don't Edit

READ MORE: Top 25 best high schools in Upstate NY, ranked by U.S. News & World ReportIts 11:00 AM on a Tuesday. Im all alone, crying. Its like Im in a movie, the scene a suitably curated, cinematic kind of depressing. Several old people are dotted around the place. Its the kind of room where idleness and meaninglessness linger comfortably, but right now Im not really aware of that  Im just crying in a movie theatre, alone.

Lets be clear  it wasnt hard for me to watch Lady Bird and cry. This wasnt anything to do with empathy; I just related to it. On a stretch of wall, Lady Bird took my life and painted it in incredible detail with big red letters, because the girl in this movie is me. She is just me. Well, me if I was thin, and white, and had a face for film, having grown up in Sacramento with enough charisma as a High School senior to carry the plot of a feature film. Okay, so not just me. But there are things about her that are me. Hauntingly, cathartically me.

In fact, shes not just me. Shes every girl ever:

ONE: She lost her virginity to a boy named Kyle, who constantly murmured Marxist platitudes at her, and finished in 20 seconds. And it wasnt a big deal, but it also was, and it wasnt amazing, but the beginning was, and she didnt really feel anything for him, but a few minutes after it was over, she got into her Mums car and started bawling. And the whole thing had this incredible weight and was a complete atrocity against the sacredness of the human body. But it was also, like, totally fine.

TWO: Shes every girl ever because she, while conscious of how ridiculous it was, ditched her best-friend for the cool kids, the kind of people who were detached and deep, promising a new world of experience and creativity, but with whom she didnt really connect.

THREE: Shes every girl ever because she applied to colleges, bought her prom-dress, and built her dreams, both with and without thinking about whether her family could afford it, both with and without caring immensely.

Sure, there are lots of coming of age films about sex and dreams and the cool-kids. I want to get on to how this girl echoed me in such a profound way that my brain rang like a bell every time a new unexpected parallel appeared on screen:

ONE: She got nosebleeds regularly (once during sex).

TWO: Her impulse the morning after her first night of surprisingly lonely drunkenness at university was to duck into a Catholic church because it reminded her of home.

BUT MOSTLY: Her most intense, most taken-for-granted relationship was with her mother. Sifting through thrift shops together, mother tells Lady Bird to stop dragging her feet. Lady Bird knows that its not really about the dragging of the feet. Its about obedience, its about power. But Lady Bird also knows that it really is about the dragging of the feet, about how this minute habit is just one of the ways two personalities rub each other the wrong way. They argue about a particularly risque dress (is it avant-garde or just trashy?), the argument turning into this whole annoying exchange about whether or not a certain comment counts as body-shaming.

And suddenly Im not watching Sacramento, but the clothing isle in a Tesco. Its my first trip to Tesco, and were there because its going to be my first winter in the UK, and my mums made the calculation that thermal underwear would be cheaper here.

It keeps going, keeps interlocking, like this. Mother and Lady Bird are waiting for Danny to arrive to take Lady Bird to his Grandmas thanksgiving dinner in the nicer houses across town. Mother is in that place where she knows that Lady Bird is a young girl, that this is her first boyfriend, and that the house is really very nice, but she also resents Lady Bird for wanting to spend Thanksgiving with another family, when theres so much pain and obligation to be work through at home. The whole of this scene is coloured by the one before, where Mother is up in the dead of night, sewing the thrift shop dress in all her hurt and understanding, her wounded energy thrusting into the WRRRRRH of the sewing machine. The pink lace falls away to reveal a creamy black dress, ready for graduation. Mother, my mother, is also at the sewing machine, having heard news of her own mothers hospitalisation. She has to fly to see her the next day, needing me to go with her, but also wanting me to stay, to say goodbye to this school and this country and this period of my life. She wants the creamy dress to fit just right, and in the end it does, but all the prettiness in the world wont shift the atmosphere of awkward resentment the photos outside are taken in the next morning, albeit mixed with a feeling of inexpressible love.

The platitude that would explain this most legibly would be to say: Perhaps they love each other, but they dont like each other. Or a slightly better one maybe would be to say: Perhaps attention is love.

Attention is love. All those moments of cruelty are the product of an intense closeness. The result of a mortal embrace of domestic, everyday life between a mother and a daughter who completely understand each other, but just cant stand each other.

It was the sensitive details that started the crying. Sensitive details like the way in which this mothers face quivered not only on the edge of tears, but also on the edge of a quip or a smile or a laugh. The natural face-state for this intensely sociable mother-matriarch, whose natural state is to dive into life, to have boundless energy without even thinking about it  to terrify her daughters boyfriends, but also to doll out empathy to all her friends. She dolls out empathy to everyone  from her depressed husband to the local check-out clerk. From her son with the banking job sapping his soul to her company colleagues, who use her as private marriage counselling. This is why Lady Birds mother is a nurse.

Towards the end of the movie, in the wake of the movies longest motherto-daughter silence, Lady Bird, having applied to NYU in secret, asks her dad:

Are you and mum going to get a divorce?

Dad laughs, and he says.

(Oh honey,) We couldnt afford it.

The silence settles. Young and sweet, Lady Bird is yet to see with the same obviousness as he does that the thunderstorms of this particular family, however long and loud (or silent), cannot not shake its foundations:

No, he assures her, I love your mother.

But this film isnt about dad. Dad is tragic, harmless and depressed, but it is not about him. Its about a mother and daughter. Its Frankenstein, if Frankenstein had no men. It is about the way the maternal creator, the fierce provider, struggles endlessly with what shes made  an educated, literate, fierce, fragile, beautiful girl on the cusp of adulthood. A reflection of herself, refracted through the privileges of ease, youth, and a love of culture. All the gifts she gave her.

At the end of the movie, Lady Bird leaves without getting a word out of her mother. When she arrives in her New York apartment, she opens up an envelope, given to her by her dad, and in it are these crumpled attempts by her mother to write her a goodbye letter.

She wanted to let you know how much she loved you, but she didnt really know how she didnt want you to judge her writing.

This is the thing, Dad. The love is known, the love is implied, even often expressed. The obviousness of that love is so often confronted on those charity-shop trips that it becomes an annoyance, even a weapon (Why do you hate me? You know I love you.). But the love is not acknowledged with the kind of sincerity demanded by writing. It is not a love made beautiful by words and form. Heres the thing Mum and Dad: I am not smart enough or old enough or big enough to communicate my love to you in words  I am trapped by my age. I feel endlessly, but I cant communicate. I can say things like:

The sad vulnerability of the mother being afraid of the daughter she has created, and afraid of her judging her writing, is part of the tender, tragic strangeness of their kind of the Frankensetien-love, the love engendered by the parents striving to create a better life for their child.

I can say that, and I think that it is true.

But I cant communicate my love to you.Google didn't make a big deal out of it,but the company has revealed a significant shift in its streaming TV strategy.

The company suddenly seems a lot more interested in Android TV, its streaming platform that's long been overshadowed by Google's Chromecast streaming dongles. During its I/O developers conference this week, Google promised cheaper Android TV hardware, a smoother path to market for device makers, better support for app developers, and a general recommitment to getting Android TV onto more streaming devices.

As a whole, these moves could turn Android TV from an afterthought into a compelling alternative to Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV.

Android TV: A recap

I've always had a soft spot for Android TV. Like Chromecast, Android TV devices such as the Nvidia Shield TV let you use your phone or tablet as the remote for popular streaming apps like Netflix. But unlike Chromecast, these devices also offer dedicated remote controls with Google-powered voice search, and they can run proper full-screen TV apps. Given that Google has sold more than 55 million Chromecast dongles since 2013, I'd figured that Android TV's additional features would be a hit with consumers.

Instead, Android TV has floundered, for a variety of reasons:

Android TV was never designed to run on low-cost hardware, which meant it could never compete with less-than-$50 devices such as Roku's Streaming Stick and Amazon's Fire TV Stick. (The cheapest Android TV box to date is Xiaomi's Mi Box, which cost $69.)

Google always seemed to keep Android TV at arm's length. The platform never fully integrated with Google Photos, its Google Play Music app lacked the features of the mobile and web versions, and its native YouTube app was replaced with a generic (and feature-light) web version last year.

After launching its own Nexus Player in conjunction with Asus in 2014, Google left the job of making Android TV streaming boxes to other companies, with inconsistent results. Razer's gaming-centric Forge streaming box launched without a Netflix app, basically making it dead on arrival. Xiaomi's Mi Box never received timely software updates, and the AirTV Player was missing too many features at launch. Nvidia's Shield TV is excellent, but pricey.

Perhaps because of all the above issues, Android TV has never been a high priority for app makers, so it's missing some important apps such as DirecTV Now and the live TV version of Hulu. Android TV features that depend on developer support, such as home screen recommendations and an aggregated live video app, haven't reached their potential. Some device makers, including Nvidia, haven't upgraded their streaming boxes to the latest version of Android TV because app makers aren't supporting the software's core features.

Android TV isn't a complete failure. It continues to serve as the smart TV software on nearly all Sony televisions, and on a subset of televisions from other vendors such as Sharp and Hisense. It also powers some cable boxes in overseas markets, and Google told Variety that Android TV's user base is doubling every year. But when firms like IDC and Comscore measure streaming device market share, Android TV doesn't even register.

Righting wrongs

The changes coming to Android TV are an attempt to fix many of the problem areas I described above.

To attract developers, Google is releasing a cheap Android TV dongle, codenamed the ADT-2. It won't be available to consumers, but a limited number of app makers can get one for free.

According to Android Police, Google has spent the last year making performance a priority so that Android TV can run on cheaper hardware. That report says Google wants Android TV to appear on more streaming boxes, and expects several of those devices to launch later this year.

Also from that report: Google is developing "turnkey" software and hardware, allowing other companies to bring new Android TV devices to market faster and deliver more frequent software updates.

Google is partnering with JBL on an interesting hardware idea: a soundbar that doubles as an Android TV streaming box.

These commitments won't fix everything that's wrong with Android TV. Google still hasn't announced any of its own Android TV hardware, akin to its Pixel smartphones and Pixelbook laptop, and if that doesn't change, it's unclear if other vendors will do a good enough job of carrying the platform forward.

But if Google is able to bring Android TV hardware prices down and get app makers onboard, that doesn't leave much room for Chromecast, and that's all the better for Google's living-room strategy. Unlike Chromecast, Android TV devices can offer Google Assistant without a separate smart speaker, and they compete more directly with streaming boxes from Amazon, Apple, and Roku. And if more people start buying Android TV streaming devices, that could make the platform more interesting to smart-TV and cable-box makers.

I've certainly been wrong about an Android TV resurgence before, but I've always hoped the platform would find its footing. In addition to doing everything Chromecast can, Android TV has first-rate voice search, offers a promising interface for navigating through streaming apps, and allows for wild new ideas like the JBL Link Bar and Channel Master's upcoming Android TV DVR box.

Maybe Google is starting to believe in Android TV too.

Sign up for Jareds Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter to get this column and other cord-cutting news, insights, and deals delivered to your inbox.Chinese tech giant ZTE says it has ceased major operating activities following a ban that prevents US companies from selling hardware and software to the firm for seven years. In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, ZTE said it had enough cash to maintain its commercial obligations, but the situation looks bleak for Chinas second-biggest smartphone maker.

ZTE added that it continues to communicate with relevant US government departments in the hope of modifying or reversing the Denial Order and to forge a positive outcome in the development of the matters.

Last year, ZTE admitted to violating US sanctions by selling US-made technology to Iran and North Korea. The company paid $890 million in fines and said it was in the process of reprimanding the executives responsible for the scheme and would deny them their bonuses. But the company failed to live up to the promise, handing out full bonuses and only firing four employees while retaining 35 others who broke the law. In response to this "pattern of deception, false statements, and repeated violations, the US Commerce Department issued the ban in April.

Reports say that at least 25 percent of ZTEs components come from US firms, such as Intel and Qualcomm, which supplies chips for its smartphones. The ban also covers Google's suite of standard Android apps.

The Denial Order will not only severely impact the survival and development of ZTE, but will also cause damages to all partners of ZTE including a large number of US companies, ZTE said, at the time of the ban.

Analysts say that even if it uses non-US suppliers, ZTE could struggle to stay afloat. Reuters reports that Taiwanese firm Mediatek received a permit from the Taiwanese government to keep selling components to ZTE.

With the DOC opening up an investigation into similar violations of US sanctions on Iran by fellow Chinese phone maker Huawei, a full-blown trade war between America and China could already be here.In a communique, the progressive alliance declared itself in favor of fiscal equity and transparency to strengthen the social role of the State in times of Covid-19. | Read MoreJapan's Kyoto University has opened a large research base in the jungles of the Amazon basin in Brazil.

Previously, no accommodations had been available on the ground for researchers from around the world who are studying flora and fauna, and ecosystem in the area, and they therefore had had to use ships anchored far away or other facilities as their research bases.

The research station, which opened on Tuesday, is expected to help such researchers conduct long-term and comfortable fieldwork.

The university established the base in cooperation with the state-affiliated Japan International Cooperation Agency, major Japanese trader Itochu Corp. <8001> and Brazil's National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA).

The base, named Field Station, is located in the jungle along the Cuieiras River some 130 kilometers by water from Manaus, a Brazilian city in the middle basin of the Amazon River.Comments Policy

Comments that are excessively crude, obscene or profane - especially when they consist of nothing more than gratuitous insults or aspersions upon the character of authors or other commenters - will be vigorously discouraged. Therefore, if you find your comment has been deleted, you will know why.It was the dry laughter that set the mood as much as anything.

AMP's freshly installed interim executive chairman Mike Wilkins had asked the shareholders who filled Melbourne's Grand Hyatt Savoy Ballroom to choose their words "carefully" when asking about the company's recent tribulations.

These were the same investors who in recent weeks witnessed AMP confess at the banking royal commission to not just taking fees from thousands of customers for services they never received, but also to lying about to the corporate cop.

Interim executive chairman Mike Wilkins

Their investments - many held since AMP demutualised 20 years ago - lost more than 16 per cent of their value in the preceding weeks (including another 3 per cent on Thursday) in a share price wipe-out that has erased $2 billion from the company's market value.Almost one million Australians have taken up the higher 50Mbps speed plan on the National Broadband Network, however some are still facing months of delays to connect to the network.

Since discounts were introduced for the 50Mbps speed plan on the NBN in late-2017, 26 per cent of customers have taken up this higher speed package compared to 4.6 per cent in December 2017.

NBN boss Bill Morrow said there had been significant take-up on the 50Mbps speed plan. Credit:AAP

Some telecommunications companies, including Telstra, upgraded their customers without charge to the higher speed plan.

NBN Co chief executive Bill Morrow said customers had mainly upgraded from 25Mbps plans onto 50Mbps with less movement from 12Mbps customers, at the NBNs third quarter results on Thursday.Swift confirmed the suspicions to an arena full of screaming concertgoers while kicking off her Reputation tour in Glendale, Arizona. However, she stopped short of name-dropping Kardashian explicitly.

As fans have long expected, the imagery is a way of reclaiming Kim Kardashian's infamous snake-emoji dig at the American pop star.

Taylor Swift has spoken publicly for the first time about embracing snake motifs in her music videos and on social media.

"A couple of years ago, someone called me a snake on social media and it caught on," the pop star said in between sets.

"Then a lot of people were calling me a liar on social media. I went through some really low times as a result of it ... I didn't know if I was going to get to do this anymore."

Loading

Swift said she eventually decided to take a stand instead of turning her back on fame and her music career.

"I wanted to send a message to you guys that if someone uses name-calling to bully you on social media  and even if a lot of people jump on board with it  that doesn't have to defeat you," she said. "It can strengthen you instead."Seattle: The first breeding female wolverine has been documented south of the transcontinental Interstate 90 in the US in modern times, confirming a comeback for the charismatic carnivore in the mountain range known as the Cascades.

Renowned for their agility, power and all-terrain finesse, wolverines are among the rarest mammals in North America.

A denizen of deep snows, capable of travelling hundreds of kilometres in conditions that send other land animals into hibernation, wolverines were wiped out in Washington state by over-trapping, and shot on sight as vermin, like most other predators in the 1900s.

Remnants of Washington's native wolverine population retreated to Canada. From there, they have begun a slow recolonisation of their native habitat in Washington, starting with the North Cascades.While photos and video from the area show a layer of snow covering lawns, cars and houses, Mr Zmijewski said dry conditions meant there would not be much. He said warmer daytime temperatures - tops of 6 to 13 degrees in the Central Tablelands on Friday, and between 11 and 18 on Saturday - meant the snow "won't really last". Ms Shaw said the snow had already disappeared from her home. "Unfortunately, its all melted this morning, but I can still smell it in the air." Damaging westerly winds are expected to develop through Friday due to the complex low-pressure system near Tasmania, changing to a gusty southerly wind later in the evening.

In alpine areas, peak gusts of more than 120km/h are expected, and the bureau warns of possible blizzard conditions for areas above 1700 metres. The high southerly winds are forecast to continue into Saturday, but should ease by Sunday. A child runs through snow to school in Black Springs in the NSW Central Tablelands on Friday. Credit:Nick Moir High wind for Sydney In Sydney, Saturday is forecast to be warmer with a minimum of 12 degrees and tops of 20 degrees in the city and 17 in the west.

Wind gusts for up to 80km/h are forecast for Sydney on Friday, possibly reaching highs of 100km/h in Sydney's south on Saturday. Ausgrid's chief operating officer Trevor Armstrong said people should make sure their homes are prepared for the severe weather. When we see damaging winds like this, they can lead to disruptions across the network as they can cause power lines to snap or branches and trees to fall on overhead wires," he said. Its a good idea to take a few minutes and put away any loose outdoor items like tools, play equipment and garden furniture before the strongest winds arrive. Securing those items means they wont blow away during strong winds and damage power lines or property."

Light snow fell in Oberon in the NSW Central Tablelands after temperatures plummeted on Thursday afternoon. Credit:Nick Moir Car skids into ditch The bad weather is partially to blame for an incident in NSW on Friday morning. Two adults and a four-year-old child were uninjured after their car skidded off the road into a ditch at Lidster near Orange. Although originally reported to be trapped, the family were able to get out of the vehicle without assistance, police said later. Floods in Hobart CBD

The same complex system has also caused havoc in Tasmania and Victoria. Loading The wild weather caused flash flooding in Hobart's CBD, with cars swept away and emergency crews responding to hundreds of calls for help. More than 13,000 properties lost power as the storms rolled in, while some vehicles were swept away after Hobart received almost 130 millimetres of rain in the past 24 hours. It was only the fifth time since 1893 that Hobart has recorded more than 100 millimetres in one day, the ABC reported.

"When we came down here I didn't even see my car," a woman told the Seven Network. "I thought someone might have stolen it." Police say Hobart's CBD has been hit hard, forcing the closure of many roads as streets turned into fast-flowing rivers, with water surging inside homes and businesses. Flash flooding has also hit the Hobart suburbs of Blackmans Bay, Sandy Bay and Kingston on the city's outskirts. The University of Tasmania's Sandy Bay campus has been closed after some buildings flooded and power was cut.Earning a CV line no-one could have predicted 10 years ago, Kim Kardashian is set to be honoured at fashion's most prestigious awards. The reality star (and fashion designer, app developer and social media ballgame changer) will receive the inaugural "Influencer Award" from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), it was announced on Wednesday. Kim Kardashian attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination exhibition on Monday, May 7, 2018, in New York. Credit:AP The annual CFDA Fashion Awards generally recognise high-end fashion and costume designers. This year's ceremony will be on June 4, with Kardashian expected to attend. In a statement announcing the accolade, the council's chair, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, said Kardashian had "mastered the meaning of influence in the digital age", noting her 200 million social media followers.

"Kim is the most important and powerful influencer in the world," CFDA board member and fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger told Pret-a-Reporter. "Her reach extends far beyond her own brands. Every time she wears, posts or talks about a fashion brand, there is an immediate and significant increase in both awareness and sales." Kardashian, who owns a number of fashion and beauty brands including KKW Beauty and KKW fragrance, reacted to the news excitedly on Twitter. The award, in a way, demonstrates the success of the 37-year-old's rebrand from "famous for being famous" trashy reality star to front-row sitting celebrity, which can be loosely tracked alongside the start of her relationship with her now-husband, rapper/fashion designer/man with foot stuck in mouth Kanye West, in 2012. In a January episode of her family's reality television show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the mother of three revealed her husband sends her email memos keeping her up to date with what the cool kids are wearing.Four weeks after being viciously stabbed 11 times by her ex-boyfriend, a Tinder romance turned ugly, trainee obstetrician Angela Jay returned to work.

Dr Jay was determined not to look weak to her colleagues. "As a blossoming surgeon, I couldn't show weakness," she said.

Paul Lambert, who was killed by police that night in November 2016, had tipped petrol on Dr Jay's head and into her eyes, and was about to burn her to death when she escaped.

Dr Angela Jay tried to hide her emotions after the attack. Credit:Simon Stanbury

"In that moment of indescribable horror, waiting to be lit on fire, I found the courage to run for my life," Dr Jay told the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Annual Scientific Congress this week. She is now an obstetrics and gynaecology registrar in Coffs Harbour, NSW.Zurich: A 104-year-old Australian scientist who travelled to Switzerland to end his life has said he is not without regrets but is "happy" to have the chance.

Ecologist David Goodall, who is not terminally ill, told a news conference in Switzerland that he was ready for the end. He said he chose Switzerland as that country's liberal assisted suicide laws let him commit suicide legally, in contrast to Australia where it remains forbidden.

Professor Goodall, a member of the Order of Australia, answered reporters' questions in the Swiss city of Basel while accompanied by members of euthanasia groups including Philip Nitschke, founder of Exit International.

He understood that his death, planned for Thursday, would be by lethal injection, though he did not know what time it would take place nor many details about the procedure. Some family members would be present, he said.Taxpayers are also big losers; they will be charged $20 million for the administrative farce, caused by the failure by political parties and candidates to comply with an unambiguous requirement in the nations highest law, the constitution.

The immediate casualties are Ms Gallagher (whose Senate replacement will be decided, under the rules, by a recount), three ALP and one independent lower house members (hence four lower house byelections) and Mr Shorten, whose ill-advised gamble the court would acquiesce to his legal pitch failed because it was hopelessly flimsy.

It also triggers a spate of byelections that will provide a proxy poll on the Coalition governments election budget and on the standing of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. The courts ruling that ACT Labor senator Katy Gallagher failed to take reasonable steps to renounce her British citizenship is legally unimpeachable and politically explosive, augmenting the difficulty the government is facing in getting its budgeted cuts in income and corporate taxes through a sceptical, resistant Senate.

The High Courts latest decision on the parliamentary eligibility of dual citizens should definitively end the constitutional fiasco that has now stripped as many as 15 federal lawmakers of their seats.

Mr Shortens contention that he acted in good faith throughout looks as credible as his repeated guarantee that not a single one of his members was in breach of section 44, which directs that aspirants must renounce any dual nationality to be eligible to nominate for elected office. Far from changing the law, as a humiliated Mr Shorten would have it, the High Courts ruling is a clear confirmation of previous adjudications, including rulings last year and in 1992.

The looming Super Saturday of expensive byelections (which will also include one for an ALP lower house member who has resigned for family reasons) was eminently avoidable. Mr Turnbull, having suffered the ignominy of losing several colleagues who fell foul of section 44, including the deputy prime minister and the president of the Senate, offered to refer all remaining suspect parliamentarians to the High Court in a job lot to resolve the mess before last Christmas. In the end, Ms Gallagher tired of the speculation and referred herself to the court.

There is no merit in the argument that there should be a referendum to amend the constitution. Yes, Australia is a nation of immigrants  where half of us were either born overseas or have at least one parent who was  but that does not prevent any Australian from seeking a seat in Parliament. The constitution rightly and clearly compels candidates to renounce dual citizenship before nominations close. Should they be incapable of complying, they have no one but themselves to blame.

A referendum would rudely and needlessly cost taxpayers many more millions. It is not for voters to carry this constitutional responsibility; it is clearly for those who would seek their votes. Such a dubious proposition would be extremely likely to fail  of the 43 referendums since Federation, only eight have been carried. The legal battle is over. The consequent political one has begun.A senior child protection worker who had to work a 19-hour shift "ferrying" a distressed child to an emergency placement and stay in a motel room overnight with another child when no accommodation could be found is suing the Victorian government.

Eileen Canfor alleges her managers at the Department of Health and Human Services failed to respond to her repeated complaints about her team's unmanageable caseload and excessively long shifts, and instead launched an internal investigation into her behaviour.

Senior child protection worker Eileen Canfor is suing the Victorian government for failing to respond to her repeated complaints of overwork. Credit:Eddie Jim

On one occasion Ms Canfor could not find emergency accommodation for a child in need of protection and had to book into a motel at 2:30am and stay with the child herself, her lawyer Josh Bornstein told The Age.

On another, she and fellow staff allegedly had to work a 19-hour shift that included ferrying a distressed child to a late-night emergency placement and finishing at 2am.It only took a weekend to tear down the heritage-listed Corkman Hotel but the two developers responsible will not face justice until more than two years after the demolition that shocked Melbourne.

On Thursday, developer Raman Shaqiri told Melbourne Magistrates Court he would plead guilty to charges related to the razing of the 159-year-old pub but co-accused Stefce Kutlesovski said he would fight all four of his charges.

The Corkman Irish pub in Carlton, built in 1857, demolished last October.

The men were to face a four-day hearing this week but that has now been delayed for seven months because of the divergence in pleas.

Magistrate Sarah Dawes didn't disguise her frustration, slamming the "unacceptable" lag in the case, which will now stall again until 2019. The pub was flattened without council or building authority approval in October 2016.Northcote High School reported the incident to police and well work with them and Fitzroy High School to assist the police," he said. Victoria Police confirmed they were investigating an assault on a teenager outside the school, which happened about 3.45pm on Tuesday. "Investigators have been told a boy was assaulted by a group of teenagers," a spokeswoman said. "The teen suffered bruising to his face and legs." Paramedics were called to the scene at 4pm and took the teenager to the Austin hospital. Video footage of the incident obtained by News Corp shows the teenager being grabbed by his shirt and pulled violently off his bike. He is then pinned to the ground while lying on his back as a boy repeatedly punches him in the head.

The footage appears to show several boys holding large silver-coloured spanners, which they repeatedly swing at Quinn during the incident, hitting him in the legs and back. At one stage, a bystander attempts to intervene but he is also attacked with a spanner. Later in the video, Quinn is pushed violently to the ground and kicked in the head. You got a problem? You got a problem? one of the assailants can be heard saying. Quinn's mother, Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, told 3AW radio on Thursday morning that her son was recovering after the attack.

"Quinn was flipped off his bike and beaten with spanners, kicked, punched and hounded around Northcote tram stop," she said. "Its an incredible level of violence, certainly I would never have expected it. It's [mine] and my husband's worst nightmare, and I know it's the worst nightmare of most parents who have an autistic child," she said. The group had allegedly bullied Quinn and his friend on social media, and forced him to meet them outside Northcote High School on Tuesday afternoon. "Quinn is a very loyal friend and very justice-driven so he contacted these kids on social media, and said, 'Look, you are bullying my friend, I don't like you, you are a bad person', teenage language, that sort of thing," Ms Lahiff-Jenkins said.

"Then the children rang him and said come down to the school, we want to meet outside the front of Northcote High School and if you don't come down we are going to come to your house and rape your mother." Ms Lahiff-Jenkins said the footage was taken by one of Quinn's friends who was at the tram stop and felt she should document the incident so she could provide the footage to police. She learnt of the attack when her son called her from the back of an ambulance. "You put your child out into the world. You can't keep them in your house just because they are autistic, you want them to be able to experience the world like everyone else, and they go out into the community and they are not safe," Ms Lahiff-Jenkins said. "No adults stopped to help, no-one beeped their horns or did anything from their cars.

"You hope people in the community step up for other people. You hope other people will step up and that's not happened." She urged parents to talk to their children more about the way they speak and their behaviour. "We have a problem in society we need to address. I feel very sorry for the parents of this kid because now they have to deal with something which I'm sure will really shock them." Quinn had only recently entered the mainstream school system after attending a school catering for children with special needs. "It's his mental health we are really worried about now," said Ms Lahiff-Jenkins.

"He was confident about going out in the world, as all 14-year-old boys are, very cocky, as a privileged young man he has the world at his fingertips, so I think he's pretty shocked. He didn't set up a fight or intend to have this situation happen, it just happened. And he feels a bit disempowered. He initially was incredibly shocked someone would hurt him like that. He doesn't live a life of violence, he hasn't been exposed to much violence. "He was very surprised anyone would respond this way or treat him like this," she said. Premier Daniel Andrews condemned the behaviour and said it was a "terrible incident". "As I understand it, the school has taken this matter very seriously, as they should," he said.

"As bad as this incident was, as difficult as it is to comprehend, it's one of a very small number of incidents that we see across our schools." Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said it was "one of the most distressing images" he had seen all year. "It's absolutely disgraceful and the police should get involved. My heart goes out to the little boy, to his family. It is an absolute disgrace," he said. "Those children's behaviour is appalling and now the Education Department, those thug's parents and indeed the police all need to come together to solve this because that is obscene behaviour against an innocent kid." Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton confirmed police were investigating.There are no rules around what compensation airlines have to offer.

You could easily argue that Skybus is the best bus service anywhere in Victoria.

It's frequent, every 10 minutes from 6am to midnight. And it keeps going overnight; it's the only public transport in the state that runs 24/7.

The new fleet of bright-red double-deck buses are clean and spacious, and the staff are friendly.

And yet if you need to know why Melbourne needs an airport rail link, try catching Skybus in peak hour. The service is often crowded, and the buses get delayed in the notorious Tullamarine traffic.A bat carrying the deadly lyssavirus bit a Hawthorn man trying to come to its aid last month, prompting authorities to put out a public health warning.

The man was bitten in April when he went to help the injured bat. Tests revealed the bat was carrying lyssavirus, a disease closely related to rabies which is 100 per cent fatal if not treated.

A flying fox at Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary is checked over for lyssavirus. Credit:Mark Wilson

An immediate two-week course of rabies vaccine stopped the man from falling sick. But it prompted Victorias deputy chief health officer Dr Brett Sutton to warn people that they should avoid touching bats.

Australian bat lyssavirus is a rare but fatal disease which may be transmitted from bats to humans. Domestic pets may also be at risk, Dr Sutton said in a warning issued on Thursday.Mettaloka Halwala was alone in a hotel room near Shepparton when he was found dead from complications that arose from his chemotherapy treatment of Hodgkins lymphoma.

Hotel staff opened the door of his room on the morning of November 17, 2015 to find the 58-year-old father of two deceased in his bed, fully clothed in jeans and a shirt, a lit torch beside him.

Mettaloka Halwala with wife Chula and older daughter Dulanjali.

Now, a Victorian coroner has found Mr Halwala's lonely death could have been prevented had he not been let down by a series of systematic failures by the medical profession.

Four days before Mr Halwala's death, a scan conducted at the Austin Hospital showed signs of potentially fatal lung toxicity linked to his cancer treatment.A prisoner who claims a woman confessed to cutting her partners throat during sex read the book Gone Girl before she went to police, a trial was told.

The prisoner was on remand with the woman, only referred to as LR, who is on trial for the murder of her partner in May 2005.

His body has never been found and he was last seen in their Reservoir home.

The prisoner had been charged with the hold-up of a service station when she met LR, whom she shared a close friendship with to the point she claimed LR confessed to the murder in graphic detail.

Under cross-examination in the Supreme Court in Melbourne on Thursday, John Kelly SC accused the prisoner of making the confession up, asking her if she read many books during her time in jail.You got a problem? You got a problem? one of the assailants can be heard saying. Northcote High School principal Susan Harrap said some of the attackers appeared to be students. "This is an awful attack, and some of those involved appear to be our students. Its upset me and the school community," Ms Harrap said in a statement released through the Department of Education. We reported it to police and well continue to do whatever we can to help them with their investigation. Im meeting with the families of those involved to get to the bottom of what happened and appropriate disciplinary measures will be taken by the end of the day." Ms Harrap said she had spoken to officials at Fitzroy High School, where Quinn attends school, and would offer to support the family.

Ill be speaking to students about the incident today to make clear that this type of behaviour is unacceptable and to make sure anyone who is upset gets support," she said. Quinn's mother, Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, told 3AW radio on Thursday morning that her son was recovering after the attack. "Quinn was flipped off his bike and beaten with spanners, kicked, punched and hounded around Northcote tram stop," she said. A boy holds a spanner during the attack on the autistic teenager in Northcote on Tuesday. Credit:News Corp "Its an incredible level of violence, certainly I would never have expected it. It's [mine] and my husband's worst nightmare, and I know it's the worst nightmare of most parents who have an autistic child," she said.

The group had allegedly bullied Quinn and his friend on social media, and forced him to meet them outside Northcote High School on Tuesday afternoon. "Quinn is a very loyal friend and very justice-driven so he contacted these kids on social media, and said, 'Look, you are bullying my friend, I don't like you, you are a bad person', teenage language, that sort of thing," Ms Lahiff-Jenkins said. "Then the children rang him and said come down to the school, we want to meet outside the front of Northcote High School and if you don't come down we are going to come to your house and rape your mother." Quinn was bashed by a group of teens. Credit:News Corp Ms Lahiff-Jenkins said the footage was taken by one of Quinn's friends who was at the tram stop and felt she should document the incident so she could provide the footage to police.

She learnt of the attack when her son called her from the back of an ambulance. "You put your child out into the world. You can't keep them in your house just because they are autistic, you want them to be able to experience the world like everyone else, and they go out into the community and they are not safe," Ms Lahiff-Jenkins said. "No adults stopped to help, no-one beeped their horns or did anything from their cars. A boy swings a spanner at the victim. Credit:News Corp "You hope people in the community step up for other people. You hope other people will step up and that's not happened."

She urged parents to talk to their children more about the way they speak and their behaviour. "We have a problem in society we need to address. I feel very sorry for the parents of this kid because now they have to deal with something which I'm sure will really shock them." Quinn had only recently entered the mainstream school system after attending a school catering for children with special needs. Quinn was attacked outside Northcote High School. Credit:News Corp "It's his mental health we are really worried about now," said Ms Lahiff-Jenkins.

"He was confident about going out in the world, as all 14-year-old boys are, very cocky, as a privileged young man he has the world at his fingertips, so I think he's pretty shocked. He didn't set up a fight or intend to have this situation happen, it just happened. And he feels a bit disempowered. He initially was incredibly shocked someone would hurt him like that. He doesn't live a life of violence, he hasn't been exposed to much violence. "He was very surprised anyone would respond this way or treat him like this," she said. Premier Daniel Andrews condemned the behaviour and said it was a "terrible incident". "As I understand it, the school has taken this matter very seriously, as they should," he said.

"As bad as this incident was, as difficult as it is to comprehend, it's one of a very small number of incidents that we see across our schools." Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said it was "one of the most distressing images" he had seen all year. "It's absolutely disgraceful and the police should get involved. My heart goes out to the little boy, to his family. It is an absolute disgrace," he said. "Those children's behaviour is appalling and now the Education Department, those thug's parents and indeed the police all need to come together to solve this because that is obscene behaviour against an innocent kid." A spokesman from the Department of Education said the behaviour was "totally unacceptable".The government is offering up to $530 to workers earning up to $125,000 a year from July 1 in the form of an offset paid as a tax refund (or used to reduce a tax debt) after they file their tax returns. Mr Shorten said he would support the $530 offset for the year ahead but would increase it to $928 in the year starting July 2019 if Labor won the next election, which is due by May next year. Both major parties are now promising major tax cuts within weeks to the same group of about 10 million workers, with the full benefits going to workers earning up to $90,000 and scaling down to zero for those on $125,000 a year or more. About 4.4 million workers would get the full benefit of $530 from the government every year until June 2022 or receive the full $928 offset from Labor.

Labor will also support the increase in the $87,000 tax threshold to $90,000 from July 1. Mr Shorten reserved his options on the second and third stages of the government plan but escalated his attack on Mr Turnbull for designing a tax plan that offered too much to wealthier workers. By promising to pay down debt faster than the government, Mr Shorten sent a signal that the Labor alternative tax policy would not cost the full $140 billion estimated for the government plan over ten years. Labors claim is only possible, however, because the partys tally of tax increases or cuts to tax concession now amounts to $158 billion over a decade including scaling back negative gearing, taxing trusts and overhauling dividend imputation rules. Labors economic reforms have put us in a much stronger position to cope with international uncertainty, over the decade, Mr Shorten said.

We can pay down national debt, faster, because were not giving $80 billion to multinationals and because weve made the tough decisions. The budget reply speech included a commitment for a Labor government to fund 20 new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners in hospitals in regional and outer suburban areas. Loading Mr Shorten estimated this would enable another 500,000 scans to ensure better healthcare. As well, he said a Labor government would abolish up-front fees for students at TAFE colleges doing courses in areas with major skill shortages.

The cost of this measure is covered by Labors existing $500 million commitment to TAFE but Mr Shorten contrasted the move with the cuts to TAFE under the Coalition government. The Labor moves will intensify pressure on the government to negotiate in the Senate to redesign its tax plan or face rejection from Labor, the Greens, Pauline Hansons One Nation and crossbenchers including Tim Storer, Derryn Hinch and Steve Martin. Treasurer Scott Morrison has insisted he will not split the tax bill into three stages and wants the package deal to commence on July 1, but he lacks the numbers in the Senate to legislate anything beyond the first stage of the plan. The sticking points are the mounting cost of the tax cuts over seven years and the way the benefits increase for workers earning more than $125,000 in the third stage of the reform. Senator Hinch said he favoured the third stage, which sets a single low rate of 32.5 per cent for all earnings between $40,001 and $200,000 a year, but he did not accept the government demand to approve the full package by July 1.The giveaway is that so many of the politicians ensnared in this are genuinely surprised to learn they hold these other citizenships. Sure, some of this is down to the legal quirks of citizenship that exist between nations of the British Empire. But its bigger than that.

Australian citizenship didnt even exist before 1948, and when it did, Australians were still legally considered British subjects until that was finally undone in 1987. But while the law moved on, and while Australian society has changed dramatically, its clear our most deeply received notions of Australian-ness havent quite.

When we think of our migrant communities, were not imagining Kiwis and Brits, which is why while it is common for Australian politicians to insist that migrants assimilate and pledge their loyalty to Australia in citizenship ceremonies, no one seems to notice that Brits in Australia adopt Australian citizenship at a remarkably low rate. No one seriously thinks of Tony Abbott or Julia Gillard as migrants who rose to the highest office in the land. For all the banging on about Australian multiculturalism, their backgrounds are ones of continuity rather than conversion. And to be fair, thats the way the law saw it for a long time.

Put simply, there is barely any cultural reason for these people to have thought about it. If youre white, from an Anglophonic background and an Australian citizen, then you face no questions. Your Australian-ness is presumed and uncomplicated. It never needs to be proven and never needs to be justified. Why should anybody be surprised that when it comes time for them to nominate for Parliament, they overlook their foreignness when they have never been scrutinised in that way in their lives? Their national loyalty is, well, written all over their faces.

Thats not a luxury Penny Wong enjoys. For that matter, its probably not one Mathias Cormann enjoys either. If youre from a non-English speaking background  and especially if youre not white  you experience Australian-ness in a much more conspicuous way.

If youre from a non-English speaking background  and especially if youre not white  you experience Australian-ness in a much more conspicuous way.

You cannot simply claim it, you must proclaim it. Every day seems to require a declaration  even a demonstration  of loyalty. Your life becomes one of constant renunciation because that is the shortest route to countering suspicion and establishing your Australian credentials. You carry something with you that must always be either abandoned or explained. Either way you will be reminded, again and again. And after all that, if for some reason you decide to try your hand at federal politics  and as one glance at our Parliament reveals, most people in this category dont  what are the chances youll simply overlook the possibility youre a dual citizen? How likely is it that this thing for which youve been held to account your entire life, will catch you by surprise?

Weve heard much in the past 10 months about how section 44 is anachronistic in our multicultural age, how it doesnt capture the reality of modern Australia. But the truth is it is not multicultural Australia that has been caught out by it. It is those who see themselves as free of other cultural attachments altogether. Sure, you could amend section 44 to bring it into line with Australian society. But this saga shows its our unspoken, daily-experienced notion of Australian-ness that needs amendment, too.The Liberal Party has launched a last-ditch effort to stop electorate boundary changes which could see two Victorian federal seats fall to Labor at the next election and the Coalition lose government.

The proposed changes, prompted by population growth, would lead to the creation of two new seats in safe Labor territory in Victoria and the ACT.

The draft redistribution could also result in the Victorian Liberal seat of Dunkley, held by Chris Crewther, being handed to Labor and Corangamite placed on a knife-edge.

Chris Crewther (right) campaigning as a candidate with former Dunkley MP Bruce Billson. Credit:Andrew Meares

The Liberal Party has lodged an objection with the Australian Electoral Commission to the proposed boundary changes that would damage their re-election prospects.The Palace sternly dismissed suggestions it had delayed Mahathir's return to the power - this time as a symbol of change in the country he once ruled with an iron fist - and said the king "strongly supports and respects the democratic process and the wishes of his subjects". Finally, it was done. Local newspapers emblazoned with headlines about the first change in government in 61 years. Credit:AP Late on Thursday, more than 30 hours after polls closed and Mahathir first claimed victory, while warning his predecesor against "hanky panky" that could deny the will of the people, Mahathir addressed the nation as its leader, once again. "Nobody in Malaysia had ever seen the kind of support for Pakatan Harapan," he said.

"Finally we had enough people with the guts who stand by us, support us. We were cut off from sources of funds, but some people surreptitiously gave us money." Loading "We lost the flag war [against the government] completely... we were thinking we would perhaps achieve 100 seats in the Peninsula [on the west coast of Malaysia, where 80 per cent of the population lives] and a number of seats in Sabah and Sarawak." Instead, the opposition had secured a parliamentary majority of more than 120 seats. Policy-wise, Mahathir reassured business people "we intend to build up Malaysias economy with the help of investors inside and outside the economy... we would like to see an active stock market".

He again promised to pursue money stolen through the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund scandal - an ominous warning to Najib - but insisted in an earlier press conference that he was not seeking "revenge" on Najib and would follow the rule of law. Defeated Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak as he prepares to 'concede'. Credit:AP He said the new coalition government would meet tomorrow to discuss cabinet posts. The final press conference concluded just before midnight and came after a dramatic day during which the outgoing prime minister said he would "accept the verdict of the people", but stopped short of conceding defeat. Najib said Malaysia's king would decide who the next prime minister would be. And he did.

Flanked by the leaders of the opposition coalition including Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Mahathir declared before his visit to the king that the Pakatan Harapan opposition coalition had secured more than 135 members in the 222 member parliament and "there can be no doubt about who gets majority support in the new Malaysia". Mahathir Mohamad, with Justice Party president Wan Azizah, calls for the right to form government. Credit:AP No single member of the Pakatan Harapan coalition won a simple majority. Wan Azizah's PKR (Justice) party won the largest number of seats, 104, within the coalition. She is the wife of jailed former opposition leader and deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim. Mahathir's return to the prime ministership caps a remarkable series of events in Malaysia. The result dumbfounded most analysts and turned the countrys political system on its head as after decades of one-party rule, the Muslim-majority nation delivered a resounding vote for change.

Opposition party supporters cheer and wave their party flags after Mahathir claimed victory. Credit:AP Mahathir's return to power was preceded by this decision to come out of retirement and teaming up with Anwar Ibrahim - who served as his deputy prime minister in the 1990s, before the pair fell out spectacularly and Anwar was jailed on trumped-up sodomy charges. The Prime Minister-elect has promised to stand aside for Anwar (who is serving the final days of a jail term on specious sodomy charges) to become Prime Minister. In his final press conference on Thursday, he didn't say when he would stand aside. More importantly, seeking a royal pardon for Anwar would be one of the first things the new government did, he said. In the early hours of Thursday morning after the declaration of the results, Malaysians took the streets of Kuala Lumpur, car horns blaring and flags waving as the nation of 31 million people celebrated a historic victory.

A GST imposed by Najib was widely cited by many Malaysians Fairfax Media spoke to for the unpopularity of the Barisan Nasional government. Loading Some also raised questions over the hugely expensive East Coast Rail Link, a 55 billion Ringgit ($19 billion) project largely funded by China as part of its Belt and Road Initiative. Mahathir said again the incoming government wanted to review that project, but that he did not oppose Belt and Road in-principle. For the outgoing prime minister Najib, Mahathir's comments about the state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) sovereign wealth fund scandal raise the prospect of legal difficulties ahead.

As much as $US4 billion has allegedly been misappropriated from the fund in the scandal and the United States, Swiss and Singaporean governments are among those investigating. Loading Najib has always denied allegations of corruption from the US Department of Justice over the transfer of $US681 million into his personal account from the fund as part of the scandal. The country's former Attorney-General had cleared him of any wrongdoing, claiming the money was a gift from Saudi Arabia's royal family and that most of it was returned. Many Malaysians want Najib prosecuted and jailed over the matter.Kuala Lumpur: The victory of Malaysia's opposition parties, led by Mahathir Mohamad, is utterly without precedent in the history of this country.

In one form or another, the Barisan Nasional coalition has ruled Malaysia for 61 uninterrupted years since independence.

Mahathir Mohamad tells the media he has a clear mandate to form a new government in Malaysia. Credit:AP

This is uncharted territory for Malaysia and, at the time of writing, it is still not clear what happens next.

Analysts and pollsters have been shocked by the result, which has turned the political system of a nation of 31 million people on its head and defied south-east Asia's long tendency to move towards one-party rule and authoritarian leaders.Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak says he will "accept the verdict of the people", but stopped short of conceding defeat in Wednesday's dramatic election, prompting his rival, Mahathir Mohamad, to demand that he be allowed to form a new government immediately.

The 92-year-old Mahathir, who appears to have ended 61 years of one-party rule in Malaysia, declared, "we need to have this government today, without delay, there is a lot of work to be done with all the mess this country is in".

Mahathir Mohamad, with Justice Party president Wan Azizah, calls for the right to form government. Credit:AP

Flanked by the leaders of other leaders of the opposition coalition including Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Mahathir said the opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition of parties had secured more than 135 members in the 222 member parliament and "there can be no doubt about who gets majority support in the new Malaysia".

However, right now there was no government in Malaysia, he said.Washington: US President Donald Trump said he will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore for a first ever summit between the leaders of the two countries.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" Trump said on Twitter on Friday.

The two men - whose countries are still technically at war - exchanged fiery rhetoric last year over North Korea's attempts to build a nuclear weapon that could reach the United States."Prior to 1979, Iran and Israel were allies. Iranians have no material stake in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict." When Iran escalated its intervention in Syria to back up Assad, it gradually brought in heavy equipment such as the armed drone that Israel said crossed into its air space in February. "Right now, thanks to Russian military intervention, Assad is secured, though pockets of insurgents remain. So the Islamic Republic can afford to lessen investment against insurgents and focus more on Israel," Toumaj said. Loading "The strategy is to make Syria into a viable front, like southern Lebanon, for both offensive and defence purposes, should another major war break out between Hezbollah and Israel. Iran has also tried to bring in defensive assets to Syria such as Tor air defence system, which Israel has struck to prevent."

How has Israel responded? Israel has launched scores of air strikes in Syria to try to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons from Iran to Hezbollah, according to Natan Sachs, director of the Centre for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. The Israeli government rarely confirms individual strikes, and the Syrian government and Hezbollah do not always acknowledge when they have been hit. But last August, Major General Amir Eshel, the departing commander of the Israeli Air Force, said Israel had launched nearly 100 strikes on convoys since 2012. But unlike Russia and Iran, Israel has done little to sway the outcome of Syria's civil war. "It didn't have a horse in that race, feeling no love for Assad, but fearing the chaos that might follow him," Sachs said. "Now, with the victory of the Assad-Iran side, Iran's main spoils is a long-term military presence in Syria, entrenching it in the country and linking it to Lebanon. This is something Israel will not accept. It now fears the current trend in Syria, with growing Iranian presence, and so it has a strong incentive to stop things now before Iran gets further entrenched."

Was Trump's announcement a factor in the new fighting? The conflict between Israel and Iran escalated just hours after US President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from a 2015 multinational nuclear deal with Tehran. Israel had railed against the agreement since before its inception and Trump had campaigned on the promise of withdrawing from it. The concern now is that the shadow war Israel and Iran have been waging for years, most recently in Syria under the cover of the civil war, has now burst into the open. "It's not a proxy war. It's a direct war and that's what makes it particularly dangerous," said Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel. "Israel and Iran have been in a cold war for maybe 20 years now, but now it's out in the open: direct, kinetic engagement between the forces, with Iranian casualties mounting. The potential for escalation is much greater now than before." He said Trump's announcement might not have helped, but the stage for the conflict was set earlier this year. Iran pushed allied militias toward the Golan Heights and moved rockets and rocket production into Syria to better supply Hezbollah with more accurate weaponry. Iran also installed air-defence systems that can reach into Israel.

The potential for escalation is much greater now than before. Martin Indyk, former US ambassador to Israel What happens now? Sachs said fighting between Iran and Israel in Syria is likely to continue. "This back and forth  an Iranian attack on Israeli posts on the Golan and a widespread Israeli response against numerous Iranian targets in Syria  was not a one-off flare-up or a case of hot heads prevailing," Sachs said. "This is part of a structural conflict unfolding between Israel and Iran in Syria." He added: "Both sides will test each other's limits  and Israel's strict limits were visibly clear in this strike. Iran will now feel the need to react, and push back. Iran is not likely to give up on its goals in Syria after expending so much effort in the civil war there. They may even try to bring Lebanon's Hezbollah into the fray at some point. And Israel is certainly not going to back down from stopping the Iranian entrenchment."The ongoing surge in volcanic activity on Hawaii's Big Island soon could cause a massive explosion from a volcano's summit, scientists and Hawaii officials have warned.

Kilauea, the longest-erupting volcano on the planet, has displaced some 1700 people and destroyed 36 structures since a shifting flow of underground magma last week burst through the surface in a residential neighbourhood about 65 kilometres from the top of the volcano, unleashing torrents of molten rock and toxic gases.

Scientists with the US Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said on Wednesday that the movement of magma from the summit out toward the Leilani Estates neighbourhood, where 14 fissures have opened in the past week, has caused the lava lake at the top of the volcano to drop in elevation.

When that lava lake meets the ground water level - which they think is most likely to happen sometime in the next few weeks - it could lead to a series of powerful steam explosions that could shower the surrounding area in 10-tonne molten rocks and spew ash as far as 30 kilometres downwind, the scientists said during a conference call with reporters.It's AUTO LAB Talk Radio - LIVE from New York - Saturday Morning 7-9 AM May 12, 2018







Auto Lab Talk Radio on New York City's WNYM Radio AM 970 and Streamed Worldwide On The Auto Channel

This Weeks Show: Broadcast Date: May 12, 2018

Car Question or Concern? Call Toll Free 888-692-7234

Auto Lab is a 28 year old interactive automotive-focused New York area radio call-in show hosted by Professor Harold Wolchok. Each week a cadre of experienced hands-on automotive experts are in-studio with advice for the New York area's 12 million people, providing listeners with honest, practical and street-smart car repair and buying advice.

Auto Lab is also about the automotive industry, its history, and its culture, presenting the ideas and advice of leading college faculty, authors, and automotive practitioners in a relaxed, conversational interactive format.

Listeners can hear the past 18 years of archived Auto Lab shows as simulcast on www.theautochannel.com.

Auto Lab Page includes Audio-on-Demand Archives, Auto Programs at Community College Database, Guests Pictures

This Weeks Show: May 12, 2018

IN STUDIO: Auto Lab's Real World Experts Answer Your Questions; Discuss: Repairs, Second Opinions, Regular Maintenance, How To's, Safety, Used and New Car Buying, Ombudsmen Suggestions

 Harold Bendell - Major Auto

 Fred Bordoff - Bronx Community College's Automotive Technology Department-CUNY

 Tim Cacace - Master Mechanix

 Audra Fordin - Great Bear Auto Repairs & What Women AUTO Know

 Michelle Fox-Riding With Us Foundation

 David Goldsmith - Urban Classics

 Jerry Pastore - D & J Diagnostics

 Johanna Pastore - D & J Diagnostics

 Joanne Porcelli, Esq.

 Michael Porcelli - Automobile Services

 Nicholas Prague - MTA

Auto Lab Correspondents Remote Interviews: Featuring Auto Safety News, New Car Reviews, Technology and Latest Auto World Information That Will Effect You!

Robert Erskine, Senior European Correspondent, Suffolk England

DESIGN IT PRINT IT!

John Russell- Senior Correspondent

2018 TOYOTA AVALON TOURING

Russ Rader, Senior Vice President IIHS

ON FOOT, AT RISK STUDY HIGHLIGHTS RISING PEDESTRIAN DEATHS, POINTS TOWARD SOLUTIONS

Robert Sinclair AAA Northeast

AAA'S GREEN CAR GUIDEDonald Trump Jr. Photo: Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan via Getty Image

It appears that an actual human woman has romantic feelings for Donald Trump Jr., the CrossFit evangelist, the man who strikes up conversations with oversized chocolate bunnies, the asshole big-game hunter, the freaking guy who sent suggestive Twitter messages to a model while married.

According to multiple sources who spoke to Page Six, the First Boy is dating none other than Kimberly Guilfoyle, the former Victorias Secret model and current Fox News host who once said that young women should go back to Tinder instead of voting. (Its rumored that Guilfoyle also had a thing with Anthony Scaramucci after his wife filed for divorce in late 2017.)

Because Trump himself is in the midst of divorce proceedings with his wife Vanessa, sources say that the new couple is trying to keep their relationship under wraps, though they arrived together at a party for President Donald Trumps new ambassador to Germany last Sunday  clearly, theyre not putting in too much effort to keep whatever it is that they are a secret. Apparently, Trump and Guilfoyle have been dating for at least a few weeks, though neither of them responded to requests for comment from Page Six.

One source told Page Six, Don Jr. and Kimberly are seeing each other, and are having a great time. While he wants to respect the privacy of his family, he is getting divorced, and he enjoys Kimberlys company.

Guess the ol Trump Boy can log out of all his dating apps for now.Georgina Chapman. Photo: George Pimentel/FilmMagic

In October, dozens of women bravely came forward to accuse former Hollywood titan Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment and assault. Since then, his now-estranged wife Georgina Chapman has remained largely quiet. Although she announced that she was leaving Weinstein, the Marchesa designer otherwise cancelled Fashion Week appearances and had yet to comment on the allegations  until now.

In a new interview with Vogue, Chapman speaks out about the scandal for the first time. Reporter Yashar Ali, who spoke with more than a dozen of Weinsteins survivors, wrote in the Huffington Post on Thursday that it is largely believed that Chapman had at least some knowledge of Weinsteins behavior, as some survivors said he made misogynistic comments in front of her. However, the Vogue article is largely sympathetic to the Marchesa designer. Chapman told the magazine that she was absolutely not and never suspicious about his behavior, explaining, Ive never been one of those people who obsesses about where someone is.

The designer, and mother of two children with Weinstein, said that she hadnt really stepped out of the house in last five months:

I was so humiliated and so broken  that  I, I, I  didnt think it was respectful to go out. I thought, Who am I to be parading around with all of this going on? Its still so very, very raw. I was walking up the stairs the other day and I stopped; it was like all the air had been punched out of my lungs.

She further explained that shes been seeing a therapist since the shock of the allegations. There was a part of me that was terribly naive  clearly, so naive, Chapman said. I have moments of rage, I have moments of confusion, I have moments of disbelief! And I have moments when I just cry for my children. What are their lives going to be?

Chapman said that she lost ten pounds in five days after the New York Times and New Yorker reports about the allegations were published:

My head was spinning. And it was difficult because the first article was about a time long before Id ever met him, so there was a minute where I couldnt make an informed decision. And then the stories expanded and I realized that this wasnt an isolated incident. And I knew that I needed to step away and take the kids out of here.

But on Thursday, Jodi Kantor, one of the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters of the Times investigation into the Weinstein allegations, tweeted that Chapmans statement about the first article was incorrect. The Times report included accusations through 2015, while Chapman was married to Weinstein:

I don't know what Georgina Chapman did or didn't know, but her statement here is incorrect. Our first article about Weinstein had three decades of allegations, 1990-2015. https://t.co/jrMiXrZE2L pic.twitter.com/fkprW0hxiL  jodikantor (@jodikantor) May 10, 2018

In the article, Chapman also spoke about how happy she was with Weinstein before the allegations emerged, and her friends provide details about how they first got to know them as a couple. The interviewer spoke with Chapmans friends Huma Abedin, actor David Oyelowo, and model Karen Elson about the scandal, its impact on Chapman, and their support of the designer. Abedin revealed that she and the designer bonded after the scandal broke, given her own experience with estranged husband Anthony Weiner:

This particular club, ironically, its not such a small one: women who have had to endure it in such a public way, women like Georgina and me. People dont feel sorry for us; you dont get that empathy. People think youre beautiful, youre thin, youre rich, youre photographed on the red carpet, and you get stuck in this category. Theres so much more depth beyond all that with Georgina.

Chapman further divulged that she and her kids left the country after the scandal, heading to London to be with her family in its wake.

In addition to revealing the personal toll that the Weinstein revelations took on Chapman, the article also highlights the scandals impact on Marchesa. Anna Wintour even devoted the editors letter to voicing her support of Chapman and the brand. Read the full interview here.

This post has been updated.Lawyers Marc Agnifilo and Paul DerOhannesian speak to the media after a bail hearing for actress Allison Mack and NXIVM founder Keith Raniere, in relation to sex trafficking charges, in New York on May 4. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

Around 50 Children Sickened at NXIVM Retreat, Report on Cults Doctor Reveals

NEW YORKDozens of children fell ill from a mysterious disease at a retreat hosted in New York by the notorious NXIVM cult, according to a report by the New York State Department of Health.

The 16-page report centers on Brandon Porter, NXIVMs doctor, and accuses him of failing to report the outbreak of the disease. The document also accuses Porter of conducting a barrage of shocking human experiments, such as showing scenes of gruesome murder and decapitation to test subjects without their consent.

About 50 to 60 children were present at the event attended by nearly 400 peopleincluding Porter himselfat the Silver Bay YMCA recruitment office in New York, back in August 2016. During the conference, many of the attendees and most of the children became ill with an undetermined infectious disease. Attendees allegedly suffered from flu-like symptoms, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Porter, 44, had full knowledge that the illness at the conference was a communicable disease, but he failed to report the incident, the New York state Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC) alleges in the document. Porter is also accused of failing to isolate individuals with the disease to an appropriate environment.

The New York-based NXIVM, which operates under the guise of a self-help company that runs executive success programs, is a secret society that previously made headlines when leader Keith Raniere and former Smallville actress Allison Mack were charged for sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit forced labor. The pair recently made their first appearance together at a pretrial hearing in a Brooklyn federal court on May 4.

A former NXIVM spokesperson suggests that Raniere may have experimented with the food served at the event, using the students as test subjects.

Prior to the indictment, NXIVMs enterprise was largely shrouded in secrecy. Members were recruited on the condition that they gave up compromising material about themselves. Once the members were inside, NXIVM regularly demanded more materials as collateral to ensure that they kept secret the societys inner workings.

Secrecy and Human Experiments

Former spokesperson for NXIVM Frank Parlato, writing about the New York retreat on his blog, The Frank Report, said that none of the higher-ups of the society, including Raniere, got sick at the eventonly the students did.

Parlato, who has been publishing information on the societys inner workings since 2008 and who has been credited with assisting in Ranieres arrest, wrote in the August 2017 post that when the students left the event, the leaders told them not to tell anyone what had happened there and, if asked, to say their symptoms were from the flu and not food poisoning.

He suggests that Raniere may have experimented with the food served at the event, using the students as test subjects to learn some important lesson about human reaction.

It might have been a drug experimentation on Keiths part, Parlato wrote.

Dr. Brandon Porter was there. Maybe somebody should ask him.

Porter was charged for conducting illegal and highly perverse experiments for a fright study on human subjects. The OPMC accused Porter of showing subjects an actual video of the horrific and brutal murders and dismemberment of four women by machetes.

Between 2012 and 2017, the doctor also allegedly showed subjects other violent clips without their consent, including a male African-American being viciously stomped by a Nazi; a conscious male being forced to eat a portion of his own brain matter; and a graphic gang rape.

Porter has also been charged for conducting illegal and highly perverse experiments for a fright study conducted on human subjects.

Porter is charged with moral unfitness, gross negligence, and gross incompetence. The OMPC has set a June 27 hearing for Porter to determine whether his medical license should be revoked. If those charges are proven, he could be facing criminal charges by the New York State Attorney General.

The Epoch Times reached out to the New York State Health Department for confirmation of the allegations, but a spokesperson said they were prohibited from commenting on prior or pending Office of Professional Medical Conduct investigations beyond what is publicly available.

The accusations against Porter come after both cult leader Raniere and Mack pleaded not guilty to charges that they persuaded women to join a secret society within the group, resulting in the womens enslavement as sex slaves. According to an October 2017 New York Times feature, some of the women were branded with a symbol that prosecutors said contained Ranieres initials.

More arrests are expected to occur in the coming weeks amid an ongoing investigation into sex trafficking perpetrated by the supposed self-help group. Assistant U.S. Attorney Moira Penza told a judge at the federal Brooklyn court that the government plans to file a revised indictment that would name even more defendants, according to The Associated Press.

Recommended Video: Trump Leads a Listening Session on Domestic and International Human TraffickingMembers of the dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) react inside a police vehicle on their way to attend a verdict announcement at the appeal court in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, May 10, 2018. (Reuters/Samrang Pring)

Cambodian Court Upholds Convictions of 11 Jailed for Opposition Protest

PHNOM PENHA Cambodian judge on Thursday upheld the insurrection convictions of 11 members and supporters of the countrys now dissolved main opposition party.

The decision comes amid growing concern about a crackdown on his critics by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled the country for 33 years, ahead of a general election set for July 29.

The Appeal Court decides to uphold the Phnom Penh Municipal Courts decisionand continues to detain the 11 individuals, Judge Plang Samnang said, without giving a reason.

The 11 members of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) were jailed for terms ranging from seven to 20 years in 2014, after they forcibly tried to reopen the countrys only designated protest venue, Freedom Park, in July that year.

Critics say Hun Sen stepped up pressure on his enemies after his ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) narrowly won a 2013 general election, following the loss of seats to the CNRP.

Such fears were revived after weekend news of the sale of the Phnom Penh Post newspaper to a Malaysian businessman whose public relations firm lists Hun Sen as a client.

That led to the resignation of as many as 13 foreign journalists from the 26-year-old paper, which Cambodian civil society bodies called the countrys last independent paper.

Dozens of radio stations have been forced off the air and an English-language newspaper, the Cambodia Daily, was forced to close last year after the government gave it a months deadline to settle a $6.3-million tax bill.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the case against the opposition aimed to silence government critics ahead of the election.

Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party apparently decided to lock up political opponents to stave off defeat at the ballot-box, Brad Adams, the groups Asia director, said in a statement on Monday.

Recommended video:

Father Punishes Bully Son by Forcing Him to Run to SchoolFormer chairman of Anbang Insurance Group Wu Xiaohui attends the China Development Forum in Beijing, China, on March 18, 2017. He has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for corruption crimes. (Thomas Peter/File Photo/Reuters)

China Sentences Insurance Conglomerate Anbangs Ex-Boss to 18 Years in Prison

The former chairman of Chinas Anbang Insurance Group has been found guilty of fraud and embezzlement and sentenced to 18 years in prison, three months after the state seized control of the insurance conglomerate famed for buying New Yorks Waldorf Astoria hotel.

Wu Xiaohui will also surrender 10.5 billion yuan ($1.65 billion), and his bank accounts, properties, shares, companies, and other assets have been frozen by the police, the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate Peoples Court said in a statement on its website on May 10.

The court said Wu illegally raised 65.2 billion yuan through the sale of insurance products beyond regulatory limits, and embezzled 10 billion yuan from Anbangs insurance fund.

When contacted by Reuters, an Anbang spokesman said the insurer, which is under government supervision, is stable and has sufficient cash flow to fulfill commitments to all customers.

Reuters could not reach Wu or his representatives for comment.

The judgement comes six weeks after a one-day trial in which Wu initially contested the charges against him. In his closing statement, however, he said he understood and regretted the crimes and requested leniency.

In its statement, the court said Wu concealed the extent of his shareholding of Anbang Insurance and Anbang Property & Casualty Insurance Co Ltd. It said he also incited others to fake documents to mislead the regulator into approving the sale of some insurance products.

The downfall of Anbang, widely known for its splashy overseas acquisitions including the $1.95 billion purchase of the Waldorf Astoria, highlights the governments resolve in a sweeping campaign to reduce financial risk and discourage what it sees as profligate investing by large conglomerates.

Authorities officially seized control of Anbang and revealed the prosecution of Wu on Feb. 23. The state takeover would last for one year, during which Anbang will be managed by officials from financial regulators and government bodies.

In April, the banking and insurance regulator approved a 60.8 billion yuan capital injection for Anbang in a state-backed bailout aimed at smoothing the firms transition following Wus prosecution, and aiding government efforts to find private strategic investors.

Founded in 2004, Anbang became one of the most aggressive investors in a wave of major overseas acquisitions by Chinese firms in recent years that have attracted the attention of investors as well as global regulators.

But as Beijing sought to curb capital outflow in recent months, Anbang faced increasing pushback in its offshore deal-making.

Perhaps most important in Chinas business environment is ones political connections. Sources close to the Chinese Communist Party leadership told The Epoch Times back in June 2017 that Wu had ties to the family of Zeng Qinghong, the former Chinese vice premier and right-hand man to former Party leader Jiang Zemin. Jiang and his associates make up an opposition faction at odds with the current leader Xi Jinping and his allies.

The source said Wu had helped the Zeng family and other members of the Jiang faction to launder money overseas, while using his business dealings to spy on and influence foreign dignitaries.

By Shu Zhang. Epoch Times staff member Annie Wu contributed to this report.People stand at ZTE's booth during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, on February 27, 2017. (Paul Hanna/File Photo/Reuters)

Chinese Tech Firm ZTE Says Main Business Operations Have Ceased Due to U.S. Ban

HONG KONGZTEs main business operations have ceased due to a ban imposed by the U.S. government, but Chinas second biggest telecom equipment maker is trying to have the ban modified or reversed, it said on May 9.

ZTE was hit by a ban last month from Washington, forbidding U.S. firms from supplying it with tech parts and software after it was found to have violated U.S. export restrictions by illegally shipping goods to Iran.

As a result of the Denial Order, the major operating activities of the company have ceased, ZTE said in the exchange filings late on May 9.

The U.S. action, first reported by Reuters, could be devastating to ZTE.

As one of the worlds largest telecom equipment makers alongside Huawei, Ericsson, and Nokia, ZTE relies on U.S. companies such as Qualcomm and Intel for up to a third of its tech components.

Analysts have said it will be hard for ZTE to stay competitive even if it could find non-American suppliers.

Taiwanese semiconductor company Mediatek said last week it had received a permit from the Taiwanese government to continue to supply ZTE.

ZTE said it was actively communicating with the U.S. government in order to facilitate the modification or reversal of the Denial Order by the U.S. government and forge a positive outcome in the development of matters.

The ban that threatens to cut off ZTEs supply chain came amid heightened trade tensions between the United States and China. The Chinese regime raised the issue of ZTE last week with a visiting U.S. trade delegation.

ZTE said this past weekend that it had submitted a request to the U.S. Commerce Department for the suspension of the ban.

ZTE appears to have suspended its online stores on its own website as well as on Alibaba Groups e-commerce platform Taobao over the past few days, which display a page being updated message with no products to order.

The Chinese firm did not respond to calls and messages from Reuters seeking comment.

Consumer Cellular Inc., a U.S. wireless operator, said ZTE was unable to continue supplying phones after the sanctions, but had asked the company to hold inventory spots open as it worked to resolve the export ban, said Consumer Cellular Chief Executive John Marick in an interview.

Marick said ZTE has not given guidance on whether its phones can continue receiving software updates from Android, and discussions between the companies have been about ensuring ZTE can supply parts and service to honor phone warranties.

A ZTE employee told Reuters that staff had been reporting to work as normal but with not much to do. The employee, who declined to be named, said business trips had been halted.

Employees at ZTEs headquarters in the southern Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen City were cagey about speaking to reporters after the ban was announced, but some voiced concerns.

One employee said this was the biggest challenge for ZTE since he joined 10 years ago. Another said he hoped the central authorities would help.

ZTE settled the sanction case with the U.S. government last March after admitting in federal court to illegally shipping products with U.S. technology to countries including Iran. The company paid a record fine of nearly $900 million.

Last month, the U.S. government reactivated the ban after it said ZTE violated terms of the settlement and made repeated false statements.

By Sijia Jiang and James PomfretA bank teller counts the stack of Chinese yuan and U.S. dollars at a bank in Shanghai, China on July 22, 2005. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Experts Forecast Dark Days Ahead for Chinas Trade

Chinese economists have analyzed Chinas trade data and the forecast does not look optimistic.

Last week, the Chinese regime announced that it had recorded a current account deficit of $28.2 billion for the first three months of 2018the first quarterly deficit recorded since 2001.

But the Chinese regime was still confident, as it continued to incur a trade surplus with the United States. From January to April, Chinas trade surplus with the United States was $80.4 billion, according to official customs data.

Not So Rosy

However, Chinese economists Deng Haiqing and Chen Xi wrote in a May 8 article in Caixin, a Chinese business magazine, that the numbers are actually not as hopeful as they may appear, due to the depreciation of the U.S. dollar. Comparing April 2018 to April 2017, the U.S. dollar depreciated against the yuan by about 9 percent.

They instead compared the total import and export volume in Chinese yuan, for the same periodJanuary to Aprilthis year and last year. They found that the number was significantly lower this year,  indicating that the foreign trade situation is not optimistic, they wrote.

Deng and Chen further analyzed current trends in the Chinese economy and predicted that they would have a negative impact on growth: domestic consumption has been on the decline, while foreign investments in Chinas manufacturing sector have been sluggish or stagnating. Finally, recent trade tensions with the United States have led to uncertainty in foreign trade.

As land prices and other operating costs continue to rise, particularly in manufacturing hubs such as Shenzhen, many multinationals have begun shutting down their Chinese factories. This week, Japanese tech manufacturer Olympus announced that it will shut down its digital camera factory in Shenzhen, and relocate production to Vietnam.

Last week, South Korean conglomerate Samsung also shut down its Shenzhen factory, citing concerns of falling profits as a result of the United States announced tariffs on Chinese-manufactured tech goods.

Current Trade Trends Point to Trouble

Meanwhile, a widely-read blogger who writes about the Chinese economy under the moniker Manzu Yongshi, also gave a more pessimistic outlook, based on official trade data: in 2017, the growth rate of Chinas total exports grew by 7.9 percent, while the growth rate of Chinas total imports reached 16 percentthat means imports are increasing by double the export rate. As a result of this shift, Chinas total trade surplus in 2017 continued to narrow, reduced by 17.1 percent [compared to 2016], the blogger wrote.

Meanwhile, Chinas deficit in service trademostly due to a high volume of outbound tourism and technology importscontinues to grow. In 2017, that deficit reached new heights: 1.62 trillion yuan (about $255 billion), according to official data.

In the first three months of 2018, the service trade deficit was $76.2 billion.

Going by such trends, if the goods trade surplus keeps falling while the service trade deficit increases, it is very likely that China will incur a total trade deficit in 2018, concluded Manzu Yongshi.

US is Chinas Biggest Customer

The latest trade data also reveals just how much China relies on trade business with the United Statesand why China stands to lose if trade relations continue to sour.

From January to April this year, Chinas goods trade surplus with the United States was $80.4 billion, while Chinas overall trade surplus was 76.7 billionmeaning almost all of Chinas trade surplus comes from exporting goods to the United States.President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump greet the three Americans just released from North Korea, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Tony Kim, upon their arrival on May 10, 2018 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to North Korea and returned with the three men who have been detained in North Korea. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Historic Meeting With Kim Jong Un Will Take Place in Singapore on June 12, Trump Says

President Donald Trump announced that his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place in Singapore on June 12.

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th, Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

The presidents announcement came hours after three Americans who were imprisoned in North Korea returned to the United States accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump met the freed detainees in person at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland at 2 a.m. on Thursday.

On behalf of the American people, WELCOME HOME! pic.twitter.com/hISaCI95CB  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

The release of the detainees was the latest in a series of major concessions by Kim Jong Un ahead of the meeting. The communist leader has already committed to complete denuclearization and peace with South Korea during the meeting with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in last month.

This is a great honor. Hopefully, everything is going to work out at the highest level, Trump said after meeting the detainees on the tarmac. We want to thank Kim Jong Un, who really was excellent to these three incredible people.

Asked if the release of the detainees would be his proudest moment, Trump said that complete denuclearization would top his list.

My proudest achievement will bethis is a part of itbut will be when we denuclearize that entire peninsula, Trump said. This is what people have been waiting for a long time. Nobody thought we could be on this track in terms of speed.

The announcement also comes on the heels of Trumps withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. The president has long criticized the arrangement as a failure.

Recommended Video: Leaders of Two Koreas Shake Hands Before Historic SummitHundreds Gather on Parliament Hill to Celebrate Falun Dafa Day

Elected officials, activists praise benefits of Falun Dafa, call for end to Chinese regimes persecution campaign

The lawn on Parliament Hill on May 9 resembled a ray of sunlight as hundreds of adherents of Falun Dafa wearing bright yellow shirts gathered in celebration of their traditional meditation practice handed down from ancient China.

The event, marking Falun Dafa Day, which is officially May 13, included demos of the practices meditative exercises as well as a parade, performances of Chinese dance, singing, and a performance by a waist drum troupe.

Thank you for making Ottawa gloriously yellow today.  Thank you for bringing the Falun Dafa to Canada, said veteran Liberal MP Judy Sgro, one of the over a dozen elected officials and other VIPs who spoke at the event.

The messages that you deliver of peacefulness, compassion, respect, are the messages that all of us in Canada need to think about every single day, Sgro said.

Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is an ancient meditation practice that was made public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in China in 1992 and then spread around the world. The practice consists of a set of gentle exercises and follows the moral principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

Its good to be with you again on Parliament Hill, and welcome, said Peter Kent, a Conservative MP and former cabinet minister who has regularly attended Falun Dafa Day events in Ottawa and Toronto.

Kent conveyed greetings from Conservative leader Andrew Scheer: Through the promotion of the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, millions of people around the world have benefited from the teachings of Falun Dafa.

Conservative MP Larry McGuire commended Falun Gong adherents for making the world a better place by following their principles.

I support the efforts that youre doing with regards to the peacefulness of the mind, and dealing with the individuals that need that help, he said.

Andrew Bennett, Canadas first religious freedom ambassador under the Conservative government, also spoke.

Its a wonderful sight to see you all here on this lawn before Parliament today, being able to live out your faith, your practice, in this way, he said. May you continue to go from strength to strength.

Physical and Mental Health

Liberal MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette, a former professor of indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba, told of his personal experience at his university observing how Falun Dafa meditative exercises helped his students maintain mental and physical health.

They sometimes were not able to concentrate for long periods of time. Many of them were older students who had not succeeded in school, and so I was looking for something to help them concentrate  something related to meditation, explained Ouellette.

For help, he turned to fellow faculty member Maria Cheung, an assistant professor of social work and a Falun Dafa practitioner. Cheung taught his students about Falun Dafa.

The students had never seen anything like that in their lives before and they very much appreciated everything they learned, he said.

Brutal Persecution

One common theme that virtually all of the speakers addressed was the ongoing campaign of persecution of Falun Dafa in China.

Fearing the immense popularity of the practice, with over 70 million practitioners by the late 1990s, then-Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin launched a brutal campaign against its adherents. The campaign has claimed an unknown number of lives, often due to torture, and left hundreds of thousands of families shattered.

Senator Thanh Hai Ngo, an advocate of human rights, encouraged Falun Dafa adherents to continue to seek an end to the persecution.

When I see a big, big crowd like this, it shows that you are really, really fighting for your human rights. . The Chinese government has to acknowledge this is not right for them to suppress the Falun Gong, he said.

On behalf of the Senate of Canada and me, I will continue to support you.

Conservative MP David Anderson said everyone should be assured freedom of belief, and called on the Chinese regime to stop the persecution.

Its time that the regime in China began to practise truthfulness, that they learned the value of forbearance, and that they began to show compassion to their own citizens, Anderson said.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May referenced the petitions signed by thousands of Canadians that she has presented in Parliament, calling on the Chinese regime to step into the light of tolerance, into embracing the universal truths of human rights, respect for the dignity of each and every human being.

Organ Harvesting

David Kilgour, a former MP and secretary of state for Asia-Pacific, talked about the in-depth investigative work he did with international human rights lawyer David Matas, uncovering Chinas horrendous practice of harvesting organs from living Falun Dafa adherents.

Human trafficking is a terrible thing to do anywhere in the world. Trafficking in human organs where, in the case of China means the death of the so-called donor, is even worse, said Kilgour.

Referencing his research with Matas and American author Ethan Gutmann, Kilgour said that about 150 people are being killed daily in China for their organs.

The Party states current narrative  is to try to get people to believe that this all stopped on Jan. 1, 2015. We know better. I think all of you know better, he said.

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis talked about the private members bill he has introduced in Parliament to target the issue of organ trafficking, as well as Senate bill S-240 introduced by Sen. Salma Ataullahjan on the same issue.

Its been a cross-party initiative, and this bill would do two things, Genuis said.

It would deal with inadmissibility to Canada [of] those who are involved in organ harvesting. It would also make it a criminal offence for a Canadian to go abroad and receive an organ that had been taken from someone without their consent.

Former Conservative MP John Weston, who lived in Taiwan for 10 years, said that if someone is persecuting others, we are all affected.

If in any country or any region, organ harvesting or other kinds of persecution occurs, all of us should work together to oppose it, Weston added.

Magnitsky Act

Conservative MP James Bezan, who was one of the champions of getting Canadas version of a Magnitsky Act passed, said Canada now has more tools to hold international human rights violators to account, including those who persecute Falun Dafa in China.

The legislation, named after Russian dissident Sergei Magnitsky, enables Canadian authorities to impose sanctions on human rights violators around the world, deny them visas, and seize their assets.

I want you to know that everyone here in Canada stands with you to fight against this oppression, to fight against the murderous regime in Beijing, and to ensure that your faith will flourish there and around the world, he said.

Referring to how Chinese regime agents continue to spy on and persecute the Chinese diaspora in Canada, Kent extended a welcome to any agents who will be watching to see what is said here.

Noting how the Chinese ambassador characterized Falun Dafa as being evil, Kent said, If we are to look for evil, we need look no further than the Communist Party of China.

I know, and I share with all of you the dream that one day, all Chinese citizens will enjoy the freedoms of speech and assembly, all the democratic rights that we too often take for granted here in Canada, he said.

A day when the tenets of Falun Gong can be spoken out loud in Tiananmen Square: Zhen, Shan, Ren [in Chinese], truthfulness, compassion, tolerance.

With reporting by Rahul Vaidyanath and Yao LiangUnion of B.C. Indian Chiefs vice president Chief Bob Chamberlin (L) and president Grand Chief Stewart Phillip join protesters opposed to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion in Burnaby, B.C., on April 7, 2018. First Nations in favour of the project are fed up with not being heard. (The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck)

Include Us in the Discussion, Says BC Chief Who Supports Trans Mountain

First Nations in favour of the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion project fed up with not being heard

Federal officials are exploring every available option to get the Trans Mountain pipeline built, but Ottawa faces a wall of opposition including from the B.C. government, municipalities, the green lobby, and a number of Indigenous groupsthe majority, in fact.

But many First Nations leaders are in favour of Kinder Morgan Canadas $7.4 billion project and are frustrated by the perception that all First Nations are in line with those who oppose it.

Currently, 43 Indigenous groups have signed mutual benefit agreements with Kinder Morgan10 in Alberta and 33 in B.C.and several of those have gone public recently stating they support the project and are fed up that those who are against it get all the media coverage.

We just wanted to make sure that, given what was out there in the public eye, the media knew and could report that the Simpcw First Nation had an agreement with Kinder Morgan. Its pretty simple, Chief Nathan Matthew said in an interview.

The Simpcw nation, formally known as the North Thompson Indian band, may have the most on the line among stakeholders. Matthew pointed out that roughly one-third of the pipeline would traverse through their traditional territories, which stretch from Jasper to Clearwater, B.C.

The Trans Mountain expansion project would triple capacity and get Alberta bitumen to international markets by twinning the existing pipelinecurrently North Americas only pipeline with access to the West Coastrunning from Edmonton, Alberta, to Burnaby, B.C.

After Kinder Morgan threatened last month to pull out by May 31 if delays continue, Simpcw issued a statement in an effort to change the narrative that all First Nations are against the pipeline and to voice their frustration with Premier John Horgan and the B.C. government for not hearing their side.

If [the provincial and federal governments] are going to recognize Indigenous peoples rights to self-determination and self-governance and recognize our rights and titles over our traditional territories and be able to make decisions about those things, then there really is an obligation for them, I think, to include us in the discussion, Matthew said.

Matthew noted that its not like his band hasnt considered environmental issues such as oil spills and other factors, including protecting their cultural heritage and traditional lands and mitigating potential damage. The gain would be jobs and training for band members, new infrastructure, and other economic benefits.

All of these components were carefully negotiated with Kinder Morgan in 2015, he said, over a two-year process that included an extensive environmental assessment. And the benefits agreement offered to his people was put to a referendum, which resulted with 78 percent in favour.

Its a very complex issue to deal with but as First Nations we have the responsibility if we are going to be stewards and caretakers of our territories. We have to become informed to make decisions, he said.

Matthew said a financial payment is also a key part of the deal, but Kinder Morgan has a clause that keeps mutual benefit agreements with First Nations confidential, so he couldnt disclose the details.

A total of 133 First Nations were approached by Kinder Morgan in B.C. and Alberta in compliance with a legal duty to consult before going ahead with resource projects. Critics point to the fact that only 43 have signed deals, signifying a majority of First Nations oppose the pipeline. However, the company wasnt seeking an agreement with all 133, as some are well beyond the route of the pipeline and the route of all future tanker traffic.

Kinder Morgan wasnt able to gain the support of B.C.s largest Indigenous groups, specifically the Lower Mainland nations of Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, who are now actively leading the charge against the pipeline. Matthew said he respects all First Nations and where they stand, but no other nation but Simpcw can speak on their behalf.

In the last few months several other First Nations have come out in support of Trans Mountain, most notably the Cheam First Nation.

Chief Mike LeBourdais of the Whispering Pines First Nation told local media that it seems theres a disconnect between us and the province, as to who they say opposes the pipeline. Most of the communities along the pipeline do have agreements and support the pipeline.

Supporting resource development in general

First Nations that are in support of other resource development projects have been raising their voices against opposition movements, as a number of significant projects have died leading to a loss in economic opportunities for Indigenous groups.

Earlier this year, a report authorized by the First Nations LNG Alliance with the B.C. government found that not only do a large number of First Peoples support liquified natural gas projects, but many are disappointed that projects have been halted.

Either we stay with the status quo and say no to these projects or we look at them as an opportunity and find ways for our First Nations to say yes to these projects and do them in a responsible and balanced manner, said Karen Ogen-Toews, CEO of the First Nations LNG Alliance.

Ogen-Toews, a former chief with Wetsuweten in northern B.C., has a background in social work and said she has seen poverty and despair plague her people and other First Nations, and for her its a no-brainer that resource development will open doors to new opportunities to help increase the standard of living for First Nations.

Her job, she said, is to help educate and spread awareness about opportunities with liquefied natural gas in B.C., not just for Aboriginal groups but for the whole province and country.

I still think there needs to be more education in terms of the pipelines that already exist in Canada and focus more on the issue of exporting oil and gas, and this is an opportunity for everyonenot only for First Nations but for B.C. and for Canada.

She added its time for Canada to stop playing the role of little sister to the United Stateswhere almost all of Canadas oil and gas that is exported ends up at below market valueand start selling to international markets where higher prices and profits can be reaped.

Joe Dion, chief executive of First Nations-owned Frog Lake Energy Resources Corp. (FLERC) in Alberta, couldnt agree more.

The U.S. is eating our lunch and buying our oil for cheap and we shouldnt tolerate that. We need to get our act together in our country and that includes working with everybody, including First Nations, he said.

FLERC, which produces 2,000 barrels of oil per day on its traditional territory, providing housing and key infrastructure upgrades, is a First Nation success story when it comes to resource development and will be a model for others looking to find economic stability, Dion noted.

First Nations are finally getting their day in the sun. Getting a piece of the action is really where we have to go, he said.

Without economic development we will see continued poverty and continued court cases and a continued drag in the economy. So were saying lets get on with it, lets make deals with these large companies. They need our agreement anyhow to go through our lands.

Jared Gnam is a freelance reporter based in Vancouver. He broke into the world of journalism covering the Stanley Cup Riot in 2011.Police take position outside the Mobile Police Brigade (Brimob) headquarters in Depok, Indonesia, May 10, 2018. (Reuters/Darren Whiteside)

Indonesia Police Say Hostage Crisis at High-Security Jail Over

DEPOK, Indonesia  A hostage crisis at a high-security jail in Indonesia ended on Thursday after Islamist militant prisoners who killed five police surrendered and released an officer they were holding, police said.

The five members of an elite counter-terrorism force had been sadistically killed by prisoners during the standoff at the jail on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta, police said.

We have minimized the number of victims. The operation ended at 7:15, Police Commissioner General Syafruddin told reporters.

Four police were injured and one inmate killed in the incident which began at the jail late on Tuesday.

It was the highest death toll suffered by the counter-terrorism police force, known as Detachment, or Densus, 88, which was set up in 2003 and received training and funding from Australia and the United States.

Syafruddin said the crisis was resolved with a very soft approach, though earlier on Thursday a Reuters witness had heard several blasts at the jail.

Indonesias chief security minister Wiranto later told a news conference that all the prisoners had surrendered after a police ambush forced the last 10 convicts to give up.

He said 155 convicted militants were involved in what he called an act of terror in the prison.

We cant let our guard down in facing terrorism action and radicalism. This country needs stability, Wiranto said.

The prisoners are suspected of having taken weapons from the police who were killed.

The deputy police chief Syafruddin said that during the trouble five of the officers were killed sadistically. A police spokesman said earlier most were found with deep wounds on their necks, as well as on other parts of their bodies, and one with a gunshot wound to the head

The counter-terrorism squad has been credited for breaking up militant cells in the worlds largest Muslim-majority country in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

But a recent spate of attacks inspired by Islamic State prompted authorities to more than double its force to 1,300 late last year.

In a message carried on its Amaq news agency, Islamic State claimed responsibility and said 10 counter-terrorism officers had been killed.

Police had denied that Islamic State was involved and said a dispute had broken out over checks by prison authorities of prisoners food.

But police also said some of the prisoners had recently met Aman Abdurrahman, who is believed to be the ideological leader of IS sympathizers in Indonesia. He is on trial for terrorism and is being held at the same prison.

Last year, an attack by two suicide bombers, using pressure cookers packed with explosives, killed three police and wounded 12 people at a Jakarta bus terminal.

In January 2016, four Islamic State-linked militants mounted a gun-and-bomb attack at an intersection outside a Starbucks cafe in central Jakarta, killing themselves and four others.

By Darren Whiteside

Recommended Video:

Aurora Australis Illuminates Southern SkiesMissile fire is seen from Damascus, Syria May 10, 2018. (Reuters/Omar Sanadiki)

Israel Says It Attacked Targets in Syria After Iranian Rocket Fire

JERUSALEM/BEIRUTIsrael said it attacked nearly all of Irans military infrastructure in Syria on Thursday, May 10, after Iranian forces fired rockets at Israeli-held territory for the first time.

It was the heaviest Israeli barrage in Syria since the start in 2011 of its civil war, in which Iranians, allied Shiite militias, and Russian soldiers have deployed in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

A war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the Israeli strikes killed at least 23 military personnel, including Syrians and non-Syrians.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Iranian rockets either fell short of their targets, military bases in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, or were intercepted.

The Golan attack was just further demonstration that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted and another good reminder that the president made the right decision to get out of the Iran deal, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News.

Israel said 20 Iranian Grad and Fajr rockets were shot down by its Iron Dome air defense system or did not reach targets in the Golan, territory Israel captured from Syria in a 1967 war.

The Quds Force, an external arm of Irans Revolutionary Guards, carried out the launch, Israel said.

Syrian state media said dozens of Israeli missiles struck a radar station, Syrian air defense positions and an ammunition dump, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies.

Russias defense ministry said Syria had shot down more than half of the missiles fired by Israel, RIA news agency reported.

We hit  almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, Lieberman said, in a question and answer session at the annual Herzliya security conference in Tel Aviv. I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message.

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters the Iranian attack was commanded and ordered by (Quds Force chief General) Qassem Soleimani and it has not achieved its purpose.

Conricus said Israel responded by destroying dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria, as well as Syrian anti-aircraft units that tried unsuccessfully to shoot down Israeli planes.

We do not know yet the [Iranian] casualty count, he said.

But I can say that in terms of our purpose, we focused less on personnel and more on capabilities and hardware  to inflict long-term damage on the Iranian military establishment in Syria. We assess it will take substantial time to replenish.

There was no immediate comment from Iran.

In the Golan Heights, Israeli schools opened as usual on Thursday morning, after sirens sent residents to shelters during the night.

Lieberman said Israel was not seeking escalation on the Syrian front. But Tzachi Hanegbi, a cabinet minister close to Netanyahu, cautioned that more confrontation could come.

I dont think I can tell you that one blow, as effective and crushing as the one they (the Iranians) received last night, is enough to convince a regime that is usually very fanatical and determined, he said on Israel Radio.

New Front

The Israelis fear that Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah are turning Syria into a new front against them. Israel says its occasional strikes in Syria aim to foil that.

Iran vowed retaliation after a suspected Israeli air strike last month killed seven of its military personnel in a Syrian airbase.

Israel regards Iran as its biggest threat and has repeatedly targeted Iranian forces and allied militia in Syria.

On Tuesday, Israeli rockets targeted a military base in Kisweh, a commander in the pro-Syrian government regional alliance said.

That attack killed 15 people, including eight Iranians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, though the commander said there were no casualties. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

Thursdays conflagration came hours after Netanyahu returned from a visit to Moscow, where he discussed concerns about Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia, like Iran, fights in Syria on the side of the Assad government.

Netanyahu said after the discussions that Russia was unlikely to limit Israels armed actions in Syria. The Israeli military said Israel had forewarned Russia of its strikes on Thursday.

There should be work to de-escalate the tensions, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted as saying on Thursday by the Tass news agency. He called the situation very alarming.

French President Emmanuel Macron also appealed for calm.

By Dan Williams and Angus McDowall

Recommended Video:

President Trump Says Change Must Come From Within For Peace In Middle EastMissiles Fired at Israel. Heres How Israel Responded

Iranian forces have shot rockets at Israeli-held territory overnight on May 9. On Thursday, Israel said that it attacked nearly all of Irans military infrastructure in Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israels air strikes were appropriate as Iran had crossed a red line, Reuters reported.

We are in the midst of a protracted battle and our policy is clear: We will not allow Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria, Netanyahu said.

Overnight, Iran fired about 20 rockets at the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, targeting Israeli military positions, a military spokesperson told the New York Times. They were all intercepted or fell short of their mark, officials said.

The U.S. condemns the Iranian regimes provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens, and we strongly support Israels right to act in self-defense.  The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 10, 2018

If there is rain on our side, there will be a flood on their side, Israels defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, was quoted as saying by the Times.

He said, I hope we have finished with this round and that everybody understood.

Israeli blamed the attack on Irans Quds Force, a special forces unit thats affiliated with Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps. Its the first time that Iranian forces have fired directly at Israeli military positions and troops, according to the Washington Post.

This was by far the largest strike we have done, but it was focused on Iranian sites, said Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, who is an Israeli military spokesman. We saw it was very clear what the Iranians were doing, attacking Israel from Syrian soil, he added.

Syrian state-run media, quoting an unidentified Syrian foreign ministry official, reported that Israels overnight attacks was a new phase of aggression, the Post reported.

The White House issued a statement on the tit-for-tat strikes.

The White House said, The Iranian regimes deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East, as Reuters reported.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, meanwhile, condemned the overnight attacks by Iran and called on the country to de-escalate of tensions in the Middle East.

Russia called on both sides to exercise restraint and resolve their differences diplomatically.

The Israelis have claimed that Iran and its Lebanon-based ally Hezbollah are turning Syria into a front against Israel.

Recommended Video:

Why is Falun Gong persecuted?Special counsel Robert Mueller (L) arrives at the U.S. Capitol for closed meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington on June 21, 2017. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Muellers Russian Troll Case Returns to Bite Him as One Defendant Shows up for Trial

After Special Counsel Robert Mueller, with great fanfare, announced charges against a Russian troll farm messing with the 2016 presidential election, the case has now come back to give him a headache: one of the defendants is actually willing to stand trial.

Mueller was appointed to investigate the Russian governments efforts to interfere in the election, including any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and the campaign of then-candidate Donald Trump.

On Feb 16, Mueller indicted 13 people and three companies that ran a campaign mainly through social media intending to spread distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general.

The indictment stated the operation opposed Hillary Clinton and other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and supported Bernie Sanders and Trump.

The defendants could simply not come to the United States to avoid a trial. According to former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy, Mueller didnt expect to ever bring the charges to court.

I guess Mueller thought it was a freebie, for sure, McCarthy told The Daily Caller. He thought it could make this association (of Russian collusion) and it would never be challenged in court.

Then one of the defendants, Russian company Concord Management and Consulting, hired lawyers, Politico reported on April 11, and a month later pleaded not guilty.

The lawyers, Eric Dubelier and Kate Seikaly of Reed Smith firm, demand a speedy trial and full discovery, meaning the Mueller team has to give them access to whatever evidence relevant to the case it has, including materials that undermine its case.

Extensive document requests may bring to light how far Mueller has cast his intelligence gathering net to mount the charges against Concord, but if he refuses to produce the evidence and drops the charges, it may look like he was playing politics rather than pursuing justice.

One thing you never want to do is to indict in a case that youre not prepared to try, McCarthy said.

Mueller has tried to put off the trial, saying Concord hasnt been properly served, but the lawyers dismissed it as pettifoggery because the defendant hasnt tried to quash the summons, indeed, its counsel voluntarily showed up for the trial.

District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee based in Washington, agreed with Concord and so the arraignment went forward on Wednesday, May 9, and the case will resume on July 9.

Mueller has recently met with another legal setback, when federal Judge T.S. Ellis, III, a Reagan appointee, questioned why charges in Muellers case against Paul Manafort have nothing to do with Russia.

Manafort was Trumps campaign chairman for several months. But Muellers charges against him all stem from his work for Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych between 2005 and 2014 and are unrelated to the Trump campaign.

Concord was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman known for once hosting events for Russian President Vladimir Putin at his St. Petersburg restaurant. Aside from holding massive government contracts to feed Russian schoolchildren, government workers, and troops, Prigozhin is allegedly connected to military contractor Wagner Group, which has reportedly fought on the Russian side in Syria and Ukraine.

Prigozhin is also one of the 13 Russians charged by Mueller.

Since December 2016, Prigozhin has faced U.S. sanctions for supporting senior officials of the Russian Federation.

Last year, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Concord for being owned or controlled by Prigozhin.

The Epoch Times Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this story.

Recommended video:

Now Free, Americans Detained By North Korea Greeted by TrumpPeggy Holland stands outside a friends home handing out pamphlets to passersby near the bubble zone of an abortion clinic in Vancouver in this file photo. Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman recently claimed that banning peaceful anti-abortion protests near abortion clinics is not about freedom of expression. (CP PHOTO/Chuck Stoody)

No-go Zones Around Abortion Clinics Are Unconstitutional

Free societies dont protect people from discomfort over their choices

Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman recently claimed that banning peaceful anti-abortion protests near abortion clinics is not about freedom of expression. Yet she has also expressed confidence that her new law would withstand a constitutional challenge.

By speaking of a constitutional challenge, it seems that she knows that this new law tramples on free expression as protected by Canadas Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Its not easy to make a case against peaceful expression on a public sidewalk, so the minister, along with Edmonton and Calgary abortion clinic managers, refer to a collection of illegal and potentially illegal behaviours: aggression, threats, yelling, screaming, interference, bullying, intimidation, harassment, shaming, and blocking access. Perhaps these examples of illegal behaviour will distract people from the prohibition on Charter-protected expression.

It is a criminal assault to push, shove, hit, or punch someone, or even touch someone without consent. Uttering threats to harm a persons life, body, or property is also criminal. Disturbing the peace by yelling and screaming is criminal, and also contrary to municipal noise bylaws.

Criminal Code Section 430 makes it illegal to obstruct, interrupt, or interfere with the lawful use, enjoyment, or operation of property. Its criminal to block access to someone going about their business and engaging in legal activities (which includes getting an abortion). All of these actions could be characterized as aggression, which is illegal, along with interference, threats, yelling, screaming, and blocking access.

But what about bullying, intimidation, shaming, and harassment? Intimidation caused by physical blocking, interference, or obstruction is already illegal.

Intimidation caused by threats is also already illegal. An environmentalist protester cant tell a logger: Chop down that tree and I will chop you down. But threatening some form of moral consequences or psychological harm (e.g. you are on the wrong side of history, karma will repay you for harming Mother Earth or your lust for profits is killing the forest) is perfectly legal.

Intimidation caused by someone criticizing your behaviour is part of living in a free country. How can citizens debate a topic (pipelines, climate change, Donald Trumps presidency) without referringdirectly or indirectlyto standards of good and evil? In contrast to theocratic Iran and communist North Korea, free societies dont dictate the correct answers to difficult questions.

An oil company executive might feel intimidated when confronted on a public sidewalk by Greenpeace protesters, whom she cant avoid seeing and hearing on her way into her office building. But as long as environmentalists threaten no harm to her life or property, and do not physically obstruct her access to her office, any discomfort she may feel is simply part of living in a free country.

In a free society, nobody can be exempt from having her or his actions criticized as immoral by others. Witness the predictable litany of judgment cast by social justice warriors: racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, etc. Should governments pass laws to create safe zones where no person will hear such words?

What holds true for intimidation also holds true for bullying, shaming, and harassment. Feelings of being bullied, shamed, and harassed are normal in a free country, and to be expected, absent physical interference or threats of harm. All Canadians have a right to denounce conduct they believe to be wrong. People exercise this right every day on blogs and Facebook and Twitter and elsewhere, denouncing what they see as political, economic, or environmental injustice.

Whenever citizens exercise this right to speak out against actions they believe to be unjust, this will necessarily offend those who carry out such actions. Feeling offended is the price we pay for living in a free country.

Albertas proposed law is about government deciding that the wrong opinion cant be expressed peacefully on a public sidewalk, just because some people feel very offended by this opinion.

Under the pretence of stopping already-illegal behaviour, this law targets the heart of constitutionally protected expression. This law should therefore be resisted and rejected by all who cherish free societypro-choice and anti-abortion people alike.

Calgary lawyer John Carpay is president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.

 Troy Media

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia May 9, 2018. (Sergei Ilnitsky/Pool via Reuters)

Russia Unlikely to Interfere With Israeli Actions in Syria

JERUSALEMRussia is unlikely to try to limit Israels military actions in Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Since intervening in the Syrian civil war on behalf of President Bashar al-Assad in 2015, Russia has generally turned a blind eye to Israeli attacks on suspected arms transfers and deployments by Assads Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies.

Netanyahu flew to Moscow on Wednesday to meet Putin, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump quit the Iranian nuclear deal and after Syria accused Israel of carrying out a fresh missile strike on an army base near Damascus.

Given what is happening in Syria at this very moment, there is a need to ensure the continuation of military coordination between the Russian military and the Israel Defence Forces, Netanyahu told reporters before departing, referring to a hotline designed to prevent the countries clashing accidentally.

After the talks with Putin, Netanyahu sounded upbeat.

In previous meetings, given statements that were putatively attributed to  or were made by  the Russian side, it was meant to have limited our freedom of action or harm other interests and that didnt happen, and I have no basis to think that this time will be different, he told reporters in a phone briefing.

There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.

Netanyahus relationship with Putin has been buoyed by a long-running Israeli courting of Russian sensitivities.

During his 10-hour Moscow visit, the Israeli leader attended, alongside Putin, annual Red Square celebrations of the anniversary of the end of World War Two. Israel recognises the Russian date, May 9. Most Western powers mark it on May 8.

When the president of Russia invites the prime minister of the state of the Jews to stand alongside him at the parade symbolizing the Red Armys victory over the Nazis, its liberation, also, of the (concentration) camps, of Jews and others  for Russia, that is very significant, Israeli Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told the Ynet news site.

Last week, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman used a Russian newspaper interview to remind Moscow that Israel had not joined Western sanctions against it over the Crimea crisis and the poisoning of a Russian ex-spy in Britain.

Over the last few days, airstrikes have been exchanged in a surge in tensions between Israel and Syria, where Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces have been backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his war against rebels seeking to oust him.

Israel describes Iran as its biggest threat and Hezbollah as the biggest threat on its borders, and fears that Iran and Hezbollah are setting up a front against it.

By Dan Williams

Recommended Video:

President Trump Says Change Must Come From Within For Peace In Middle EastSingapore Likely Summit Venue After North Korea Releases Prisoners

WASHINGTON/SEOULSingapore is the most likely venue for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a U.S. official said, after Pyongyang cleared a major obstacle to the meeting with the release of three American prisoners.

The three prisoners, freed after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Kim in the North Korean capital, were flying back to Washington where Trump said he planned to meet them early on Thursday.

The release of the men appeared to signal of goodwill by Kim and followed his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut a nuclear bomb test site.

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Singapore has emerged as the likeliest location for the planned summit after Trump ruled out holding it at the heavily fortified demilitarised zone between North and South Korea.

Trump, who previously said Singapore was under consideration, said agreement had been reached on a date and venue and details would be announced within three days.

Tweeting about North Koreas prisoner release, Trump wrote, I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health.

I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this and allowing them to go, Trump told reporters at the White House.

The three men are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-Chul, detained in 2015; Kim Sang-Duk, also known as Tony Kim, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST and was detained last year.

We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home, the three said in a statement released by the State Department as their plane stopped over in Alaska.

We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

North Korean state media said they were arrested either for subversion or hostile acts against the government.

Cautious Optimism

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that while there was reason for some optimism about the Kim-Trump summit, the U.S. troop presence in South Korea would not be part of initial negotiations.

Trump has credited his maximum pressure campaign for drawing North Korea to the table and has vowed to keep sanctions in place until Pyongyang takes concrete and irreversible steps to denuclearize.

Pompeo will now meet South Koreas foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha, on Friday to prepare for Trumps meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-In on May 22 and his later meeting with Kim, the South Korean foreign ministry said.

By Steve Holland and Haejin Choi

Recommended video:

I Was a Communist SlaveAnna Schroder (left) and Kylie Grant from Brisbane said that they know that the CCP is murdering Falun Gong practitioners for their organs and support brave Chinese people stand up for their freedom. (The Epoch Times)

Sydneysiders Stand With 300 Million Chinese Who Have Cut Ties With the Chinese Communist Party

As more and more Australians continue to stand up to and speak against the infiltration and influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) overseas, a grassroots movement against the Chinese regime continues to gain momentum in China.

Since The Epoch Times published The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, more than 300 million oppressed Chinese people have renounced their ties and quit the CCP.

On April 21, supporters of the Quit CCP movement gathered in Sydneys Hyde Park to celebrate this milestone.

Despite having been propagandised from a very young age, or from birth, the Chinese people are waking up to the true nature of the CCP, which was in part inherited from the Soviet Union and has brought nothing but bloodshed and sorrow to the people of the Middle Kingdom since its inception.

Paul Folley, general manager of the non-profit Australian TFP, represented his organisation at the event and expressed his support, I think we are seeing a historical moment. We are seeing what I believe is the collapse of the Communist country.

I believe, as it does more and more human rights abuse in China, the Communist [party] will collapse. Because such an artificial, evil system  regime cannot last forever. Its impossible.

I dont believe China needs Communism to be a great country. If China was free and was allowed to be free, the Chinese will be great people anyway.

The Communist Party has suppressed China. I hope this will be the end. I hope that Chinese people will be free of Communism.

Folley also gave recognition to the importance of the Quit CCP movement for its enabling millions of Chinese to withdraw from the party. The Australian people would be very supportive about your view  [because] western people believe in freedom.

Folley believes that the huge number of Chinese people freely choosing to sever their ties to the Communist Party carries an important message for Australians: that most Chinese dont want to be under the CCPs control.

It is very encouraging for us Australian to see you not accepting the control of the Communist Party. You, yourself want to be free of it.

He concluded by saying of Australia, We are determined not to be controlled by China.

Australian Tibetan Council member Kyinzom Dhongdue said that, as a representative of Tibetan community in Australia, she supports the Quit CCP movement.

People in China  people who seek truth and freedom, democracy, human rights  we should not give up. When we combine all forces together, we can win, she said.

The Chinese Communist Party has oppressed millions of Chinese people in China. China today is spending more on internal security than its national defence.

Without the foundations of these basic principles  freedom and human rights in the societies like China, the government cannot last forever.

This kind of movement, people awakening, people seeking truth, this is very powerful.

The Lord Mayor of Parramatta Council in NSW, Andrew Wilson, showed his support at the event. It is a good thing. I am hoping for peaceful change in China, Wilson said.

Also in attendance, Secretary-General of the Vietnamese Association in Australia, Thuy Dinh Tran, said that the Quit CCP movement is very encouraging.

This is the beginning of the end of the days for the Communist regime. The Communist regime has thrived on lies, tricking people to believe what they are doing is right, hiding all the acts of criminal activities like murders.

People are starting to see the truth of the Communist Party, and [that] their economic prosperity is based on killing human beings  based on those criminal activities which cannot last forever.

I think this movement is good, the future is good for China and Chinese people and for many other people around the world who are under the Communist regime.

By your action of quitting the Communist Party, you give us hope. You give hope to many other countries who are under the dictatorship of the Communist Party.

So 300 million people, congratulations! Because you are the light we are going to follow.

Emeritus Professor David Flint, who was unable to attend the event, sent a message of support, which spoke highly of those 300 million people who had quit the CCP.

Courage is a virtue which we Australians especially appreciate  whether it is in war time or in events in peacetime where men and women show selflessness and bravery in the service of others.

As the American Declaration of Independence states, Man has been endowed by his Creator with certain unalienable Rights.

This principle applies to all people, including those who live under the authoritarian one party rule in China.

That some stand up for this by abandoning membership of the ruling party is an act of bravery and must be saluted and encouraged by all in free countries and by their elected representatives, especially those in government.

None of us should be silent in supporting this bravery.

Retired veteran Mr Hu Wei, who had previously served in mainland China as platoon leader, company leader, and staff officer of the army, shared his story of using his real name to quit the CCP on The Epoch Timess website instead of an alias.

At the event, he encouraged more people to step up and cut their ties to the CCP, so they could regain control of their own freedom.

This is a very meaningful and admirable salvation movement; it is salvation for peoples hearts and minds. More than 300 million people have cast off the CCPs evil control and found true freedom.

The sheer number was an indication that the evil Chinese Communist Party has reached its end in history and is faced with imminent collapse.

He added, At this key time in history, I call upon all Chinese people to step up and maintain your conscience, maintain your dignity, and the freedom to pursue your own humanity.

The Sydney representative for the Global Service Centre for Quitting the Chinese Communist Party, Mr Li Yuan Hua, explained that there are many centres that assist Chinese people to quit the CCP. In Sydney, there are more than a dozen such centres servicing local Chinese people and tourists from mainland China. The volunteers for these centres work rain, hail and shine to spread the truth, in order to awaken Chinese peoples conscience, so that they may renounce the CCP.

Every person who chooses to quit the CCP has made the decision from their hearts to cast off the CCP, to cast off the chains the CCP has given them, to cast off the restraints the CCP has given them. It is a spiritual liberation and a reawakening of conscience.

He says that this Quit CCP movement has liberated Chinese peoples spirits from the control of the CCP, and has invaluable contributions towards rediscovering traditional roots, returning to humanity, and rebuilding the relationship between man and divinity.

The number of people who have withdrawn from the CCP reached 300 million on 23rd March 2018, and continues to increase at a rate of 100,000 persons per day.

Reporting by Epoch Times reporter Nina Yan

Recommended Video:

Australias China Experts Discuss Chinese Communist Party Infiltration in AustraliaActivist Sheng Xue addresses the crowd celebrating the Falun Dafa Day on the Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 9, 2018. (Evan Ning/The Epoch Times)

Author: The Most Remarkable Resistance Movement in the History of Humankind

Sheng Xue outlines why the resistance of Falun Dafa adherents to the Chinese regimes persecution is most remarkable

Sheng Xue, an award-winning journalist and author who fled China for Canada after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, has followed the persecution campaign against Falun Dafa since it began in China in 1999.

She was an unexpected guest at the Falun Dafa Day celebrations on Parliament Hill on May 9, and said she came to lend her support.

Its been 19 years [since the persecution began]. There may [be] thousands of resistance movements in the history of humankind. The resistance from Falun Dafa practitioners is the most remarkable, she said.

Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a spiritual meditation practice that follows the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It was made public in China in 1992, and gained great popularity within a very short period of time, with government officials praising the practice for improving physical and mental health of its practitioners.

However, the great popularity of Falun Dafa was seen as a threat by then-Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin, who launched a brutal campaign of persecution against the practice.

Sheng laid out seven reasons to explain why she believed Falun Dafa adherents resistance to the persecution is the most remarkable in history.

The first reason was simply the number of people affected by the persecution, a huge number, said Xue.

Official Chinese regime sources estimated that 70-100 million people were practicing Falun Dafa before 1999. International observers like Human Rights Watch and the U.S. State Department have estimated that Falun Dafa practitioners have accounted for at least half the population of labour camp prisoners, amounting to several hundreds of thousands of people, at points throughout the persecution.

And since the Chinese Communist Party still enforces a policy of punishing the family members, employers, and schools of Falun Dafa practitioners who refuse to renounce the practice, the number of victims is even larger.

The second thing that makes the persecution significant is the length of time19 years. Since communism was established in China, the communist party has crushed any dissent violently and quickly. Falun Gong has been the exception.

The fact that Falun Dafa practitioners have always been peaceful in their fight for freedom of belief is another reason, she said.

As is the fact that the Chinese Communist Party has used the widespread practice of harvesting organs from imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners, a gruesome business that has been condemned by the Canadian Parliament, U.S. Congress, and European Union.

The fifth thing that made the movement distinct was the impact overseas Falun Dafa practitioners had on the world. Xue said practitioners had helped those outside China understand the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party and communism itself.

Her sixth point was that overseas Falun Dafa practitioners had also helped the world understand the broader realities of human rights abuses inside China.

And her final point was that Falun Dafa has spread around the world, despite the persecution.

You [Falun Dafa adherents] are heroes, said Sheng to the crowd of Falun Dafa adherents gathered on Parliament Hill to celebrate Falun Dafa Day. Every one of you is a hero. So, I have to be with you, to stand with you, and to support you.

Canadian MP and former federal cabinet minister Peter Kent, who brought greetings from the leader of the Conservative Party Andrew Scheer to the celebrations, said he shares a dream with all those gathered that one day, Chinese citizens will be free to practice Falun Dafa in China.

I know, and I share with all of you the dream that one day, all Chinese citizens will enjoy the freedoms of speech and assembly, all the democratic rights that we too often take for granted here in Canada, Kent said.

A day when the tenets of Falun Gong can be spoken out loud in Tiananmen Square: Zhen, Shan, Ren [in Chinese], truthfulness, compassion, tolerance.President Donald Trump talks to the media before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington en route to Dallas, Texas, where he will give remarks at the National Rifle Association Leadership Forum on May 4, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Trump Announces Capture of 5 Top ISIS Terrorists

President Donald Trump heralded the capture of five senior members of the ISIS terrorist group as part of a sting operation by American, Iraqi, and Turkish forces.

Five Most Wanted leaders of ISIS just captured! Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

Those captured include four Iraqis and one Syrian and include the top aide to the leader of ISIS, according to the New York Times.

The three-month operation began when an Iraqi intelligence unit tracked down Ismail Alwaan al-Ithawi, also known as Abu Zeid al-Iraqi, to the Turkish city of Sakarya.

Ithawi was a top aide to the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to the Iraqis. Ithawi was issued religious rulings for ISIS, oversaw the terrorist groups indoctrination curriculum, and was part of a group that appointed leaders to head branches of ISIS.

The Iraqis coordinated with the Turks to capture Ithawi and extradite him to Iraq. Once there, he was interrogated and surrendered intelligence over the course of several weeks.

The information Ithawi surrendered was used by American officials to coordinate a coalition strike in mid-April that killed 39 ISIS terrorists.

The American and Iraqi intelligence operatives then coerced Ithawi to lure several fellow terrorists hiding in Syria to cross the border to Iraq where a trap had been set for them.

The Iraqis arrested the group shortly after they crossed the border. The group included Saddam al-Jammel, a regional ISIS leader in charge of the territory around Deir al-Zour. Abu Abdel al-Haq, the head of internal security at ISIS, was also among those captured.

Iraq had described the capture of the ISIS commanders as some of the most wanted leaders of the group.

Trump announced the captures hours after he met three Americans citizens freed from prison in North Korea.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Recommended video: Now Free, Americans Detained By North Korea Greeted by TrumpConnecticuts chief financial regulator is imposing $700,000 in fines on a Westport man and two funds he ran, after determining he misled investors on multiple fronts, while filing evidence that suggested a tenuous relationship with the truth in the words of the order.

Signal Lake Management principal Barton Stuck was arrested Feb. 26 and charged with fraud by federal prosecutors, with Stuck entering a plea of not guilty and released on $100,000 bond. Hearst Connecticut Media efforts to reach Stuck Thursday were not immediately successful.

The purpose of the scheme was for Stuck to enrich himself and to prevent and forestall discovery of the Signal Lake entities failure, stated the office of U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut John Durham in its initial complaint.

He was ordered to surrender his passport and was barred from traveling outside Connecticut, New York and New Jersey without prior authorization of a judge. Stuck has since received permission to travel to Ohio to contest a civil lawsuit filed against him by a former employee there, who claims he was not paid for hundreds of hours of work and otherwise was misled by Stuck on Signal Lakes investment activities.

Stuck had also been sued in 2014 by an affiliate of a New Jersey firm called New Venture Partners which claimed $560,000 representing a defaulted loan to Signal Lake.

The Connecticut Department of Banking issued its own fines earlier this month against Stuck and his Signal Lake Management affiliates, after hearings in November and December in which he disputed the departments findings but investigators questioned the legitimacy of evidence he submitted.

After taking deposition from Stuck on the matter in January 2016  a proceeding at which he stated he was unable to retrieve financial ledgers from a Stamford accounting firm, which later stated it had never been retained as an auditor  the department issued an initial cease and desist order in June 2017, and revealed the fine this week.

Signal Lake lists its address at a Post Road East retail plaza in Westport that includes a UPS store, with Stuck at last report listing his residence on Greens Farms Road in Westport. On his firms website, he lists undergraduate degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a lengthy career investing in the high-tech sector.

According to the Department of Banking, the firm oversaw investments totaling at least $30 million. In prior filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Signal Lake indicated it had assets under management of $145 million, but the department stated the firm in fact had yet to receive those funds at the time of its SEC filings.

Over a series of emails with an unnamed investor who committed $500,000 to Signal Lake Management, Stuck promised he was receiving as much as $225 million in outside investments from other funds, money that the Department of Banking stated never materialized.

The department stated that investors were swayed by Stuck talking up Signal Lakes plans to invest in InPhase Technologies, founded in Colorado with a Bell Labs technique for holographic storage. After visiting the company in 2010, one of those investors learned that InPhase had laid off its staff in advance of a bankruptcy dissolution the following year, which the department stated Stuck had failed to disclose.

Stuck also attempted to introduce as evidence bank statements purporting to show funds committed to Signal Lake, which the Department of Banking determined to be nothing more than a document publicly available on a whistleblower website detailing phony bank documents from an unrelated case.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulmanWASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Wednesday raised the prospect of taking away credentials from news media outlets that he believes are reporting negatively on his administration, claiming that the "Fake News" is "working overtime" against him.

"Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt?" Trump wrote on Twitter. "Take away credentials?"

Trump has long been critical of the news media, but taking away the credentials of White House reporters who cover him would take his animus to a new level.

In his tweet, Trump referred to a study that found 91 percent of network news stories about him are negative.

Shortly before, the anchors on "Fox & Friends" on Fox News discussed a study by the Media Research Center study citing that figure after evaluating the nightly newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC between January and April.

3 1 of 3 Steve Ruark /Associated Press Show More Show Less 2 of 3 ALEX EDELMAN/AFP/Getty Images Show More Show Less 3 of 3





There was also discussion on Fox & Friends" about the tone of the coverage of Trump's announcement Tuesday that he is pulling the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal.

Later Wednesday, the president of the White House Correspondents Association said in a statement that if Trump were to carry out his threat, it would be "an unconscionable assault on the First Amendment."

"Some may excuse the president's inflammatory rhetoric about the media, but just because the president does not like news coverage does not make it fake," said Margaret Talev, a White House reporter for Bloomberg. "A free press must be able to report on the good, the bad, the momentous and the mundane, without fear or favor."

During his presidential bid, Trump's campaign temporarily banned several news organizations from his rallies, including The Washington Post, citing dissatisfaction with the coverage.

If Trump were to deny White House credentials now that he's president, it would be at odds with a pledge he made during a November 2015 interview with Time magazine.

Trump was asked: "Could you assure that even news outlets that you feel are being very unfair to you will continue to have their credentials at the White House if you're elected President?"

Trump responded: "Oh yeah, I would do that. It doesn't mean I'd be nice to them. I tend to do what I do. If people aren't treating me right, I don't treat them right."

Revoking media credentials could restrict the ability of news organizations to report from the White House grounds, to attend press briefings and to travel with Trump on Air Force One.

The president's tweets prompted an outcry on social media, including from Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics.

In a tweet directed at Trump, he wrote: " 'Take away credentials?' These authoritarian impulses of yours are anti-American."

Trump's tweet was the second shot at the media in as many days from the White House. On Tuesday, Stephanie Grisham, communications director for Melania Trump, referred to the "opposition media" in a statement complaining about the focus of some of the coverage of the first lady's rollout of an initiative to support children. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved.

326 E 8th St #105, Sioux Falls, SD 57103 | U.S. Based Support Team at [email protected] | (844) 978-6257

MarketBeat does not provide personalized financial advice and does not issue recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security.



Our Accessibility Statement | Terms of Service | Do Not Sell My Information



 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research.3 hours ago

Have You Made These Year-End Tax Moves? Here's How to Keep More of Your Money

Uh, where did 2021 go? Once you get over the shock that it's already the second week of October, you may want to consider some tactical year-end tax moves. More than two-thirds of Americans experienced financial setbacks in 2020, according to Fidelity.

Read ArticleKXLG radio maintains local ownership after death of Faehn

Drawing from Faehn's guidance and her dedication, Herrboldt said she will ensure that Watertown will keep its "local and live" radio for years to come.We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.Alongside the Egg McMuffins, hashbrowns and hotcakes that have been on McDonalds menus for years, consumers who visit the fast food giants restaurants Thursday might spot something new on the menu boards.

McDonalds Canada starts serving bagels at its restaurants across the country this week, following a four-month pilot in Ontario.

The product addition signals an intensification of breakfast wars in Canada as eateries compete to earn dollars associated with the first meal of the day. In recent years, McDonalds and A&W put pressure on competitors when they expanded breakfast from a short window to all day, putting them head-to-head with offerings from Tim Hortons, Starbucks, Country Style and even, Taco Bell and Burger King.

Read more:

McDonalds higher prices lead to surprisingly strong first quarter worldwide

Peameal bacon sandwich from St. Lawrence Market packs a sodium punch

McDonalds announces plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in bid to improve image

Its a high stakes competition. Breakfast is the fastest-growing part of the day for restaurants since 2012, according to research companies NPD Group and Nielsen, and breakfast sandwiches make up a third of all orders placed during that time of day.

Vote now

McDonalds plans to sell bagels in a variety of flavours: original, everything, multigrain, and cinnamon and raisin. In Quebec, where consumers favour sesame bagels, the company will swap it with the everything variety. Customers can choose between two types of cream cheese or butter to smear on the bagels, and can substitute a bagel for the bread portion of breakfast sandwiches.

Our goal is to grow our breakfast business, said Anne Parks, director of McCafe menu management for McDonalds Canada. We know bagels are a billion-dollar category with over 290 million servings (per year) and it is something our guests have been asking for, so the time is right.

McDonalds menu expansion comes as one of its biggest breakfast rivals, Tim Hortons, and some of its franchisees are engaged in a public battle thats resulted in multiple lawsuits between an unsanctioned franchisee group and the chains parent company, Restaurant Brands International. One alleges the company improperly used national advertising funding and delays in the delivery of restaurant supplies. RBI denies the allegations and they have not been proven in court.

But despite its troubles, Tim Hortons is probably still king when it comes to breakfast, said Mike von Massow, an associate professor of food economics at the University of Guelph.

Even after Tim Hortons dropped to 50th place from fourth place in a recent brand reputation rankings survey, he said he still sees long lines at the chains locations and people drinking their coffee.

People might think less nostalgically or warmly about Tim Hortons, but I doubt it has made a whole lot of difference in terms of sales and if they have gone down, it is only marginally because they are still the dominant player, he said.

When asked if he was worried about other brands trying to swoop in and capitalize on the rough patch that has fallen over Tim Hortons, the coffee-and-doughnut chains president Alex Macedo said the company has some very good competitors. But the Tim Hortons brand is the strongest, he said, and its breakfast products are the best in Canada. Tim Hortons recently-launched plans to keep improving its business should make rivals very concerned, he added.

Parks denied McDonalds bagel launch was timed to take advantage of its competitors troubles, stressing it came about due to customer demand and the results of a survey McDonalds and research company VIGA conducted.

It found that 53 per cent of Canadians that tried McDonalds bagels and were surveyed would recommend them to a friend, she said, and that 61 per cent would order a coffee with their bagel.

This is our journey, Parks repeatedly said. We launched coffee quite a few years ago and it has been very well received by guests. And then we moved into all-day breakfast, which was the next phase of the journey, and what we learned through consumer research is the perfect food that goes with coffee is bagels. So that was the next phase.

Parks wouldnt say whats next for the brands breakfast plans, but admitted that the Canadian branch of the company always keeps an eye on innovations from McDonalds international divisions. Overseas McDonalds locations have sold porridge, breakfast pies, toast, croissants, broth and noodles.

Von Massow said its hard to predict what will be the next hot item in the breakfast wars, but he thinks Canada will see companies try to differentiate themselves in the same way burger brands did with things like angus burgers and innovative toppings.

He anticipates growth from non-meat proteins in the breakfast business.

Eggs do it for some people, but there are other things he said. I am sure in the product development offices of all of these (companies) they are coming up with different things.

Read more about:Japans Furukawa Electric opened in Tangier Automotive City a plant specializing in optical fiber, the first for the Japanese giant in North Africa and the Middle East.

The plant was built for a cost of 200 million dirhams over a surface area of 31,000 square meters and is expected to create 200 direct jobs.

Furukawas investment in Tangier attests to the trust and interest of industry giants in Morocco, said Industry Minister Moulay Hafid Elalamy who was speaking at the inauguration ceremony.

Speaking at the same event, Deputy President of Furukawa said that the plant will help meet an increasing demand in optical fiber linked to household internet.

He added that the Tangier factory is in line with the groups expansion strategy to meet the growing demand in international markets.

The plant will be run by Furukawa US subsidiary Optical Fiber Solutions.EDMONTONMembers of the Iranian community in Edmonton are dismayed by U.S. President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

Its unfortunate to see the Trump administration vetoing this agreement without another agreement in place, said Payman Parseyan, president of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton. This can have long-term negative consequences for everyone at the table.

Iran agreed in 2015 to allow international supervisors to monitor its nuclear activities, reassuring other nations that it is not developing weapons of mass destruction. In return, those nations would lift a number of crippling economic sanctions.

Trump announced Tuesday that the United States will withdraw from the landmark agreement. Tearing up the deal was one of his campaign promises.

The fact is this was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made, Trump said Tuesday. It didnt bring calm, it didnt bring peace and it never will.

Parseyan said the decision had an immediate financial impact.

Its sending the Iranian economy into a downward spiral, he said. The average Iranian is struggling more and more to provide basic needs to their families.

The Iranian rial has indeed plunged since the announcement, which is affecting Edmontonians who rely on remittances or pension payments from Iran, said Behrouz Khani, an Iranian-Canadian in Edmonton.

It makes it harder for people who are living here, Khani said.

He added that there are several Canadian citizens of Iranian descent who rely on family in Iran for their retirement income, too.

They transfer their retirement money from Iran to here every month, or once in while, and now they have lots of issues because the rate goes up, said Khani.

There are 5,000 to 6,000 people with either Iranian or Iranian-Canadian citizenship in Edmonton, according to Parseyan.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Iran nuclear deal wasnt perfect but it helped prevent the country from developing a nuclear weapon.

Trudeau also stressed that Canada is firmly aligned with most countries in supporting the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPCOA).

We know that standing firmly in support of the JPCOA with our NATO allies and others is extremely important, Trudeau said. We regret the decision by the United States to pull out, but we are still hopeful we are going to be able to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Six countries negotiated the deal, including the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council  the U.S., Britain, France, China and Russia  as well as Germany.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the decision underscores the need for Europe to take increasing responsibility for peace and security, similar to the message she delivered after Trumps debut at last years G7 summit.

Parseyan said it is the Iranian people who lose the most.

They dont understand why the average Joe has to suffer because of conflicts between two nations, Parseyan said.

With files from The Canadian Press

Read more about:HALIFAXThe city has applied to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia to close a retail shop selling cannabis because its operating without a development permit.

Coastal Cannapy Medical Dispensary Inc. and the landlord, 3065468 Nova Scotia Ltd., pleaded guilty in provincial court last December for operating without a permit, and the shop was ordered to close. The store is located at 2411 Agricola Street in the citys north end.

Yet they continued to operate and sell, and from our understanding theyve ignored our (order) and the courts order, HRM spokesperson Brendan Elliott said in an interview. So this is a case where there was a persistent, deliberate and flagrant disregard for the land use by-law.

Elliott said theyll also be asking the court to consider attaching the order to the business rather than just the property.

Right now if they wanted to move next door theyd still not be in compliance, but the order that has been directed was only to that property and not to the individuals, he explained.

We would have to go through the whole process all over again of investigating, filing an order, getting them to comply. From our perspective, we cant just go in and shut them down. The courts have to order them to stop.

A hearing date in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia has not been set.

No employee at Coastal Cannapy Medical Dispensary on Wednesday would comment for this story.

In a media release, the municipality said it doesnt issue permits to businesses for the sale of illegal products such as cannabis.

Store-front operations that sell and dispense cannabis (both medicinal and non-medicinal) are operating illegally under federal law, the release stated. When cannabis is legalized in Canada, dispensaries will remain illegal in Nova Scotia.

Read more about:HALIFAXDoctors Nova Scotia is using national palliative care week as a launch pad to release its 10 recommendations to improve palliative care in the province.

At the end of the day we have one chance to die well. Theres no going back and doing it over again, so we need to help facilitate that, said Dr. David Henderson, a Truro-based palliative care physician.

The goal should be for everybody to be able to have a good death and to some extent to look like what the person wants it to be. So if they want to be at home, asking what can we do to help support them so they can be at home versus being in a hospital.

Henderson describes palliative care as more of a philosophy of care focusing on the needs of not only those living with a life-threatening illness, but also their families.

Historically people have always thought about it being something that youre really in your last days or maybe weeks of life, he explained

But it really has been much bigger than that. Depending on where you live in the province, the general focus is more on needs as opposed to time-based.

Henderson said in Halifax, however, palliative care is so gravely under-resourced that theyve unfortunately had to limit who they can see based on how much time they likely have left to live. But in much of the remainder of the province, its more needs-based.

You could have a year or two or more to live, and if there are needs there, the palliative care specialty team could get involved and help out with whatever situation is going on and potentially discharge you and you continue to follow along with your family doctor, he said.

The Doctors Nova Scotia position paper released on Thursday outlines 10 recommendations theyd like implemented to improve palliative care resources and access in Nova Scotia.

Henderson said many studies demonstrate how proper implementation of palliative care improves quality of life, reduces suffering and pain, and lowers health care costs.

So at the end of the day this should be a no brainer, Henderson said. But within our society and our culture were so not interested in talking about death and dying. And for a poor politician, its hard to get re-elected saying Vote for me and Ill promise you a good death. 

Henderson said among the recommendations laid out in the Doctors Nova Scotia document, human resources is the biggest issue from his perspective that needs to be addressed. He said an aging demographic, a family doctor shortage and a need for more home care services is a challenge.

Were seeing greater and greater wait lists and wait times to access not only home care, so home support workers, but also at times now even accessing home care nursing, he said.

Its virtually impossible to be able to have a good home death if you cant have access to home care nursing.

Henderson said while Nova Scotia has a good start with regard to the number of palliative care specialty teams available to help patients and families, many more are needed to keep up with the ever-increasing demand.

He also believes palliative care needs to be considered a health care priority.

You look at various areas of health care, you look at obstetrics. At most 50 per cent of the population of Nova Scotia might have a baby, whereas 100 per cent of the population is going to die, he said.

Only 10 per cent of us die suddenly from a sudden heart attack, a stroke or something. The rest of us are going to have some longer-term condition that were going to know is going to end our life. And were going to have to adapt and work through that and try to maintain the best quality of life that we can until the end. Thats why its so important.

Henderson said his passion for palliative care is buoyed by the many families and patients he has worked with over the years.

You meet such incredible people and in this time for them they often cut through the crap. They get to whats important to them, he said.

My goal is for people to be able to find peace  People get the chance to say things that they want to say before they die because theyre allowed to acknowledge that Yeah, Im not going to be here forever and we should talk about this. It can be so, so rewarding.

The entire Doctors Nova Scotia palliative care position document, including all 10 recommendations, can be accessed at doctorsns.com.

Read more about:A ticket for a minor traffic infraction and a sudden preponderance of black SUVs were Tiffany Babiaks early clues that something was different about her normally quiet downtown neighbourhood.

Then she learned the reason why: Prince Harrys then-rumoured girlfriend Meghan Markle lived just a few blocks over and the area was crawling with security.

Read the latest news about the British Royal family

As word of the royal relationship would eventually spread, so too, did media scrutiny of the tree-lined enclave of stately family homes next to the University of Toronto campus.

The British media were especially hungry for any tidbit related to Prince Harrys love life, but the royal couple had little to worry about, says Babiak.

By and large, she says neighbours closed ranks and kept mum about anything theyd seen of the couple, ensuring theyd have as much privacy as possible under the circumstances.

Everyone got very protective of her because it was just like, its our neighbourhood, and we didnt want these kind of paparazzi driving around and harassing anybody, says Babiak.

It was funny, my (friend) one day went up to one of the SUVs which was idling ... and she went up to the window and she was like, Listen, I dont know who you are but this is a residential neighbourhood so can you turn off your engines? And they were Prince Harrys drivers.

Markle, who is set to marry Prince Harry on May 19, may be a California actress, but shes an honourary Canadian in the eyes of many fans who followed her seven-season run on the Toronto-shot TV series Suits.

We kind of adopted her, Babiak quips. As far as Im concerned shes more Canadian than American.

And from all that appeared, Markle certainly embraced Toronto as her home away from home: volunteering at a local soup kitchen, vacationing with cast members over Canadian Thanksgiving, hobnobbing in downtown hotspots, and taking to social media to tout favourite restaurants and hangouts, biographer Andrew Morton writes in Meghan: A Hollywood Princess.

By 2016, Markle was the promotional face of no less than two storied Canadian institutions  the 92-year-old retailer Reitmans, for which she designed a capsule collection of wardrobe staples, and the Christian charity World Vision Canada, to which she lent her burgeoning celebrity power to promote aid work in the developing world.

Longtime royal watcher Patricia Treble says Markles ties to Toronto portrayed a sparkling version of the city that was young, stylish, and glamorous.

And she provided an invaluable boost to little-known Canadian designers by wearing their clothes abroad, including coats by Mackage and Line the Label, and outfits by Erdem, Greta Constantine and Aritzias Babaton brand.

She really embraced it. Shes worn a lot of fashions from here, youve got Birks, youve got all the outerwear  and shes worn that in Britain which has had a huge impact on the Canadian fashion market. A huge impact, says Treble, a freelance writer and researcher who also helms the blog writeroyalty.com.

But her ascendance as a Toronto tastemaker coincided with turmoil in her personal life, writes Morton, who notes Markle married producer Trevor Engelson in September 2011 just before shooting the second season of Suits.

Her nine-month commitments in Canada meant long stretches of time apart, and it was a Vitamix blender that symbolized their growing divide.

She insisted that her favourite kitchen appliance from their West Hollywood home come with her to Toronto... even though it would have been just as easy to buy a new one, he writes. It sat on the kitchen counter in the Toronto house, a material reminder that her home was no longer in Los Angeles.

The marriage ended in 2013, and was followed by a two-year romance with local celebrity chef Cory Vitiello, further entrenching Markle in a circle of Toronto movers-and-shakers that included marketing and bridal consultant Jessica Mulroney.

Hilda Andrade says she was a frequent follower of Markles social media posts, and was delighted to see her involvement with Reitmans.

I think she brought some freshness to that and some good colours. There was also clothing for those a little bit more chunky like myself and that actually would fit, it was nice, says Andrade, who works at the University of Toronto and admits to being on the lookout for Markle.

She brought some good vibes to the area and (back) then a lot of people would say, Meghan this, Meghan that.

Buzz only intensified when Prince Harry confirmed the royal romance in November 2016.

By the time Toronto hosted Prince Harrys beloved event for wounded military personnel, the Invictus Games, in September 2017, things just went thermonuclear, Treble says.

Because he was here for an extended period of time and the entire British royal press was here, and so everyone was waiting and trying to see: Would they go out in public? Would they be seen together? And when they were, that just became news that rocketed around the world, she says.

I think what caught everyone off guard was just how quickly the romance has blossomed, how quickly they announced their engagement.

Even 10-year-old Velda Armstrong got caught up in royal fever, recalling the time last spring she scrambled to a park in the Annex neighbourhood when she thought she caught a glimpse of the prince.

The grade schooler says she and her friend took a moment to practise their curtsy (her friend also changed into heels) before dashing back to the park, only to find him gone.

He has red hair just like me, says Armstrong. I just find its interesting, what royals wear, and also I saw a video on YouTube about the royals and their kids.

Babiak says the city was certainly energized and is still reeling from the buzz of Markles time here.

Even those people who didnt want to admit it were pretty excited about it, she insists of the royal romances lasting impact.

It kind of makes life a little bit more interesting. You never know who you might run into when you take a walk.

Read more about:I was standing in a cloud forest in northern Peru, 3,000 metres above sea level. Quiet cloaked the more than 400 cylindrical homes and ceremonial buildings that make up the most important settlement of the Chachapoyas, the Cloud Warrior culture. Farther out were limestone walls up to 20 metres high. Tropical greenery sprang through cracks in the stone, while red bromeliads clung to moss-covered trees. In every direction was a backdrop of patchwork farmland clinging to the sides of mountains, above the Utcubamba River Valley.

This visit to the pre-Incan ruins of Kuelap was the first time on my yearlong trek through every destination on The New York Times 52 Places to Go in 2018 list that Id had company  two female colleagues from New York. And for several hours wandering through those ruins in the mist, we barely spoke. None of us cared that we were drenched in rain that hadnt stopped since our arrival.

I think I like this better than Machu Picchu, one of my companions said. Way better. Part of me worries about ruining a good thing by recounting that.

There are indeed some similarities. Both sites were homes to ancient civilizations and both are high in the Andean mountains of the same verdant, dramatically craggy country. But despite Kuelap, which The Times had named No. 29 on the list, sometimes being referred to as the Machu Picchu of the North, it had 60,000 visitors last year, up from 30,000 in 2009. Machu Picchu had a record 1.4 million in 2016, and has had to restrict its entrance policies. Think of Kuelap as a similar kind of spiritual space, minus the lineups and the aggressive souvenir hawkers.

That said, dont skip one of the New Seven Wonders of the World just to be different or to deal with smaller crowds. Kuelap may be best appreciated on a second Peruvian visit; getting there can be a herculean effort and signage is so minimal youll need a guide to understand what youre looking at. Archeologists have explored only 20 per cent of the site, if not less  and tourism didnt really begin in earnest until around 2012.

Getting there can be a bit of a slog. Budget travellers typically make their way to the city of Chiclayo, on the countrys northwestern coast, and then take a 10-hour overnight bus through the mountains. Low on time and worried about bus robberies we had been warned about, we instead flew into the jungle town of Jaen, where the airport recently started receiving one LATAM flight from Lima per day. From there, we still had a 31/2-hour car ride through the Andes to our year-old hotel, Casa Hacienda Achamaqui, a colonial villa nestled in a river valley, with wooden balconies and red brick walkways built for contemplative strolls.

Another 50-minute car ride on a mostly unpaved road got us to the tiny town of Nuevo Tingo, where a cable car to the base of Kuelap opened in 2017. It took us 20 vertigo-inducing minutes to go four kilometres across multiple ravines, a distance that used to require a two-hour drive or a four-hour hike. From there  from there!  we had a 15-minute horseback ride up a muddy mountain path to the ruins themselves. The Indigenous woman who was guiding my horse tackled the mud barefoot. When I asked her if my horse was feeling OK, she laughed and responded, He doesnt talk! Hes a horse!

Outside the walls, locals had set up booths selling grilled plantains filled with cheese. Inside, we spotted one of three llamas, which our guide, Michel Richard Feijoo Aguilar, told us had been brought in around five years ago for the sake of tourists. He pointed out diamond-shaped stone patterns that he said represented the eyes of sacred animals such as jaguars, serpents and condors, and showed us how to spot human bones placed in the walls of homes. The Chachapoyas liked to share their spaces with their ancestors, he said. The most important discovery among those bones has been evidence that the Chachapoyas performed trepanation, a form of brain surgery that involved drilling into the skull to relieve pressure after warriors received bangs to their heads.

Archeologists believe Kuelap was populated from 500 to 1570. The Chachapoyas survived an Inca occupation in the late 1400s, but abandoned the settlement after the Spanish Viceroy Francisco Alvarez de Toledo introduced an evangelical program that forced the displacement of Indigenous populations from their native communities and into colonial towns. The site has remained largely untouched ever since. Spaniards never lived there, and the remaining Chachapoyas returned only to bury their dead. Kuelap is a big cemetery, Feijoo Aguilar said. (Los Sarcofagos de Karajia, consisting of seven anthropomorphic funerary sculptures containing mummies in a remote river gorge, is another area draw.)

The regions capital city of Chachapoyas may seem like an ideal base, but we much preferred Achamaqui. Meals got boring since our hotel had the only restaurant for kilometres around, but we had breakfast every morning in view of a river, and even treated ourselves to massages for around $30 (U.S.).

Those massages proved to be essential after a six-hour, 12-kilometre, round-trip hike we took to the Gocta waterfalls, also in torrential rain, through mud, mud and more mud. Technically two falls, they are among the highest in the world. The awe began at the beginning of the trail, which affords dramatic views, rickety bridges and visits with horses, alpacas and sheep. A stray dog decided to join us halfway there, and followed us the rest of the way, like a Peruvian Lassie.

I spent three uphill hours of the return hike moaning Ive lost all motivation! and the next three days was barely able to walk because my calves were so sore. But I wouldnt trade a year of comfort at home for what it felt like to be there, unable to hear anything but the roar of water, twirling around what looked like the inside of a cloud at the end of the world.

Practical Tips

Almost all points of travel in Peru go through the Lima airport, the most chaotic Ive encountered in a month and a half of solo travel through the Americas. (Miamis would be second.) First, beware the traffic getting there, which took two hours on a Friday night, covering a distance that my driver said takes 20 minutes in the middle of the night. Getting on our flight to Jaen, we were forced to check our bags  then watched plenty of other passengers take theirs on board. The massive crowds are mostly families saying goodbye; manoeuvre around them and breathe easier.EDMONTONPremier Rachel Notleys NDP government made more changes to its abortion clinic bill Wednesday while the Opposition United Conservatives continued to register their displeasure by walking out en masse during votes.

Government members accepted an amendment from Independent Derek Fildebrandt to specifically include the role of municipal bylaw officers in enforcing the proposed legislation, which mandates no-protest zones around clinics.

However, they rejected a second Fildebrandt motion aimed at ensuring the bill wont restrict the freedom of the media to cover news events surrounding the clinics.

Read more:

Alberta UCP slammed for walking out before debate on abortion clinic buffer zone bill

Jason Kenney will abstain from vote on Albertas abortion clinic safe zone law

UCP resolution targeting teens rights to access health care potentially dangerous, pro-choice advocates say

I dont think (privacy of clinic participants) has been abused by the media to date and I dont think it would be abused in the future, but I think (press freedom) is an important aspect to take note of when were writing legislation, Fildebrandt told the house.

NDP Infrastructure Minister Sandra Jansen spoke against the amendment.

Jansen, a former journalist, said mainstream journalists already handle the clinics respectfully. But Jansen said some anti-abortionists billing themselves as journalists would use the amendment to breach the no-go zone and harass staff and patients.

While I appreciate the effort, I will say that I find the implications of this amendment frightening, Jansen said.

Bill 9 would create minimum 50 metre no-protest zones around abortion clinics.

It would also make it illegal for anyone to harass a doctor by phone, mail or online to convince them to not provide abortion services. Anyone breaking the law would face fines up to $10,000 or a year in jail.

UCP Leader Jason Kenney has said the legislation is unnecessary because abortion clinics already have legal tools at their disposal to deal with protests. He said he and his caucus are abstaining from what they call deliberately political and provocative legislation.

Five of the 25-member UCP caucus sat silently during debate of Fildebrandts amendments and walked out when the votes were called.

The UCP has now left the house en masse six times during discussions on Bill 9.

The NDP says the UCP members are failing to meet their responsibilities as legislature members by walking out on an important bill.

Earlier Wednesday during question period, Kenney questioned the governments sincerity, noting, Bill 9 is something they did not even think was important enough to mention in their (recent) throne speech let alone their (2015 election) platform.

The UCP caucus also walked out of the vote late Tuesday night when the government accepted an amendment by NDP backbencher Deborah Drever to increase the safety zones to 150 metres if the proposed minimum of 50 metres doesnt prove effective.

Fildebrandt argued against it.

He said while he is in favour of legislated protections for women and staff, that must be balanced with respect for freedom of speech.

If the bill becomes law, Alberta would join British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador in creating so-called bubble zones.

Notley has said the UCP absence at debate speaks to the partys broader unofficial policy of not standing up for womens rights.

This past weekend, United Conservatives voted to adopt a policy that would mandate parents be told when a minor has invasive medical procedures.

Those on both sides of the abortion debate say that would open the door to mandatory parental consent in abortion procedures for minors.

Kenney has said he will decide what resolutions are part of the partys election platform and reiterated he wont legislate on abortion.

Read more about:MONTREALThe parents of a 10-year-old Montreal boy who has been missing for almost two months are launching a new effort to find him.

Ariel Jeffrey Kouakous parents told a news conference today theyre hoping a new communications campaign will keep their sons case in the public eye.

The effort will involve putting up large yellow billboards near the spot where Kouakou was last seen on March 12 after leaving his home in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough to visit a friend.

Read more:

Missing Montreal boys father urges mayor to form police squad specializing in abductions

Montreal police say divers have stopped search for missing 10-year-old boy

Montreal police go door to door as search continues for missing boy

Leaflets and buttons will also be handed out with the help of the borough and the Missing Childrens Network, which are collaborating on the campaign.

Police say they believe Kouakou fell into a river and drowned, while his father insists he was abducted.

Frederic Kouakou says he intends to launch a petition to persuade Montreals mayor and the police to to set up a special squad to investigate abductions.OTTAWAA Toronto-area cabinet minister says hes going public about a disturbing encounter with airport security guards at a U.S. airport to raise awareness about discrimination.

Navdeep Bains, the MP for MississaugaMalton and minister of innovation, science and economic development had already passed through security at the Detroit airport in April 2017, when guards demanded that he remove his turban.

Discrimination knows no borders, Bains said in an interview Thursday.

Ultimately, what is important for me is that it could happen to anyone, happen to any Canadian. It was important for me to raise this issue, to talk about it, he said.

Bains, who is Sikh, wears a turban and, on Parliament Hill, hes known for his selection of brightly coloured fabrics. Though he flies frequently for his cabinet responsibilities, this was the first time he had faced such a demand.

I felt awkward. I felt very frustrated. But I was very calm, Bains said.

The Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. agency that oversees airport security, says passengers wearing head coverings for religious reasons can keep them on but may be subject to additional security screening.

The incident was originally reported by La Presse. Bains said he faced an initial request to remove his turban at the security checkpoint that was resolved when it was swabbed. He was waiting at the gate when he was approached by a security guard who demanded again that he remove his turban.

There was acknowledgement why I wear the turban and this is part of my faith, Bains told the Star.

Bains said he told security staff, Look, youre doing your job when it comes to security. I understand and respect that. I just want to make sure the proper process is being followed.

Until that point, Bains said, he had been using his regular passport. But he then pulled out his diplomatic passport when asked to confirm his identity. It was only then that security staff backed down from their demand and subsequently apologized.

They acknowledged that an error had been made. They regretted it. They apologized and I accept that apology, Bains said.

The Transportation Security Administration, in a statement released Thursday by assistant press secretary Michelle Negron, said it reviewed security videos and found the officer checking Bains didnt follow procedure and has since received training.

The written statement did not include an apology.

We regret the screening experience did not meet the expectations of Mr. Bains, the agency said. When possible, passengers may remove non-formfitting headwear before proceeding through the security checkpoint. We recognize that passengers may be unable or unwilling to remove items for religious, medical, or other reasons, and should expect to undergo additional screening protocols.

Canadian officials expressed concern about the incident with their U.S. counterparts, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters in Washington Thursday.

We heard about the difficulties that Minister Bains had encountered at the border. My officials spoke with U.S. officials about the situation and expressed Canadas perspective, Freeland said.

I thought that was important for us to support Minister Bains and frankly support all Canadians travelling across the border, she said.

Bains said he faced a similar demand over the Christmas break, when he and his family were at the airport in Antigua returning from vacation. They asked that I remove my turban before I even went through the metal detector, Bains said.

Bains said the two incidents provide an opportunity to talk about diversity and inclusion.

It doesnt matter who I am, if Im a cabinet minister, what my background is, what my profession is, what my status. Its about making sure everyone is treated with respect, Bains said.

This happens to so many people  discrimination exists everywhere and I think we have to talk about it, we have to acknowledge that it exists and then we have to find ways of addressing it, he said.Ontarios elementary educators want to teach the Liberals a lesson.

On Thursday, their union officially endorsed Andrea Horwath and her New Democratic Party for the upcoming election, saying that elementary teachers, like Ontario voters, are looking for new leadership.

Its clear that Ontarians believe its time for change after 15 years of Liberal government, Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, said at union headquarters in downtown Toronto where Horwath made a campaign stop Thursday morning.

Horwath called it a historic endorsement and an incredible moment.

Although ETFO has never officially thrown its support to any one party, for decades the Liberals have received widespread support from teachers.

But Hammond said union members were quite frankly blown away by how progressive and solid the NDP platforrm is, and that it was all costed. That was very important to us.

As well, Hammond said concerns about relations with the governing Liberals have been growing.

For some time now, our members, our executive, have felt that the Liberal government has not been working closely with us for the betterment of students and publicly funded education, he told reporters.

Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne played down the endorsement.

Weve been working with teachers, weve been increasing teachers salaries, Wynne told reporters during a campaign stop at the Hospital for Sick Children.

Were putting more teachers into schools, she said, recalling walking picket lines in solidarity with striking teachers in Toronto in 1987 when she was a parent activist.

The unions, the federations, they make decisions on an election-by-election basis. We havent always had, as a party, the full support of all of the unions or the federations. Thats not the case.

The NDP has pledged to cap full-day kindergarten classes at 26 students, review the education funding formula, scrap and replace standardized testing, ban kindergarten-Grade 1 split classes, hire more teachers and school staff, and put $16 billion into school repairs.

Horwath also said an NDP government would keep a moratorium on school closings and promote turning under-enrolled schools into community hubs.

ETFO  as well as the union representing public high school teachers  recently lashed out at the Liberal government for giving a payout to Catholic teachers that they were told they were not entitled to during bargaining in 2014.

Teachers also have bitter memories of Bill 115, which forced contracts and cutbacks on teachers back in 2012 under then-premier Dalton McGuinty.

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation said that, as of Thursday, it had no plans to endorse a party.

With files from Robert Benzie

Read more about:OTTAWAThe Green Party announced Thursday that an external investigation concluded that accusations levelled against longtime leader Elizabeth May do not constitute workplace harassment.

The now-dismissed complaints, first reported by the Toronto Star in January, came from three former party employees, who accused May of creating a toxic work environment with behaviour that included yelling at staff and putting them down in front of their colleagues.

May strongly contested the allegations at the time and, within days, called for an investigation to put the matter to bed. The party hired Toronto lawyer Sheila Block to conduct the investigation and released a summary of its findings Thursday morning.

According to the summary, Block concluded the allegations against May, if accepted as true, do not rise to the level of workplace harassment, as defined by Ontarios Occupational Health and Safety Act. The summary says that definition would require showing May engaged in a course of vexatious comment or conduct against a worker  that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome.

Speaking to the Star on Parliament Hill, May welcomed the findings and said the complaints were from former employees who had an axe to grind with the Green Party.

The investigation was very thorough and the complaints were found to be without any merit, May said. It was baseless and its the end of it.

She also called the Stars original report bad journalism that failed to consult more widely to gain a fuller perspective.

Elizabeth May says she will not step down as Green party leader while an independent investigator looks into allegations of bullying from three former employees. May says she is grateful for the messages of support she has received. (The Canadian Press)

But thats all right, she said. The investigation has been made public and that should be the end of it.

Block and her team interviewed two of the three former employees who spoke to the Star in January: former Green Party executive director Rob Rainer and Diana Nunes, who was the partys director of finance for more than 10 years. The investigation also interviewed May and a number of other individuals whom we believed could provide additional context, the summary report says.

Rod Leggett, a party spokesperson, said investigators spoke with more than 10 current and former volunteers and staff, not including the complainants, and that the party had no say in who Block and her team chose to interview.

Mays third accuser, Vanessa Brustolin, who worked as a provincial organizer for three months in 2017, did not agree to be interviewed for Blocks investigation.

In an email to the Star on Thursday, Brustolin said she is not surprised by the result of the investigation. She, Nunes and Rainer had raised concerns about the process and, in February, Nunes and Brustolin said they would not participate in the investigation. At the time, they wrote to the party to say they felt the investigation was not sufficiently independent, and raised questions about Blocks experience with workplace investigations. According to her bio on the Torys LLP website, Block is a senior trial lawyer with a broad civil litigation practice.

Brustolin also wanted other party employees who may have complaints about the party leader to be included in the investigation, which was limited to investigating the claims of Brustolin, Nunes and Rainer, according to the summary released Thursday.

I knew this would be the result, Brustolin wrote Thursday. The Green Party would never have commissioned a report, which would have been unfavourable to Elizabeth May. The Green Party of Canada is Elizabeth May.

Nunes and Rainer did not provide comment to the Star on Thursday.

In January, May flatly rejected a series of allegations from the three former employees in a lengthy interview with the Star. She denied ever yelling or screaming in the workplace and said she is the antithesis of the bully leader.

The partys executive director, Emily McMillan worked with May for years at the Green Party and Sierra Club. She also defended the leader, stating in an interview at the time that she had never seen May yell in anger at an employee. I think its sad that a woman in power is held to some kind of standard that youre supposed to be meek and mild all the time, she said.

According to the investigation summary, Rainer made nine allegations of workplace harassment against May, seven of which involved alleged harassment that he personally experienced. The investigation concluded that none of them constituted workplace harassment.

Referring to Rainers complaints involving himself, the summary says: They appear to have been tense interactions between coworkers who did not get along, or situations where Mr. Rainer appears to have taken questions about his job performance personally  But criticisms directed at a persons job performance do not meet the legal standard that is the focus of our investigation.

With regard to Nunes, the summary says she did not have specific allegations against May, only concerns about Ms. Mays treatment of others and about the party administration more generally. In our opinion, even if we accept them as accurate, none of them constitute workplace harassment, the summary says.

The investigation also considered two allegations of harassment from Brustolin, based on documents that included an email from her, as well as interviews with others, the summary says. Block and her team similarly concluded that neither met the definition of workplace harassment.

We therefore conclude that the allegations by the three complainants do not constitute workplace harassment, the summary says.

Read more about:The Polisario has incurred a new setback in its legal maneuvers against Morocco after the Kingdoms phosphate company, OCP, restored ownership of a 55,000 tons of phosphates rock unlawfully held in South Africa following a legal challenge by the Polisario.

The cargo on board Cherry Blossom was seized in South Africa since May 2017 after the Polisario claimed ownership of the shipment in a political trial.

OCP refused to participate in a trial it described as a political piracy wherein Polisario manipulated the justice system of its ally South Africa with no legitimacy to rule on the case. The court had then placed the cargo on auction.

Today, OCP is pleased that its rightful ownership has been restored. The refusal of all potential buyers to bid constitutes clear and irrefutable evidence of the illegitimacy of the ownership granted to the Polisario by the court in Port Elizabeth, said Otmane Bennani Smires, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the OCP Group.

The refusal of any potential buyers to be complicit in this clear breach of basic principles of domestic and international law has demonstrated a unanimous rejection of this type of abusive action that threatens the freedom and security of international commerce, the OCP official said in a statement.

The OCPs withdrawal from the case was a timely appropriate reaction to a politicized trial bluntly revealing South Africas partiality while undermining the ongoing negotiating process on the Sahara under the auspices of the UN Security Council.

Analysts deem that in detaining the cargo, South Africa has made an ideological decision in support of its Polisario allies in a total breach of international law.

Holding the Moroccan phosphates cargos in international ports in response to complaints filed by a separatist entity that is not recognized by the UN is in itself a violation of international law. Such a case could set a dangerous precedent for other separatist groups.

Besides, the Polisario is not recognized by the International community as a representative of the commercial interests of the population of the Sahara, although it is considered as a party in the political process to find a solution to the Sahara conflict.

The return of the Cargo to its legitimate owner the OCP is also indicative of South Africas embarrassment especially after other states in which Polisario challenged Moroccos transactions refused to violate international law.

Last August 2017, it was in Latin America, precisely in Uruguay, that the Polisario attempted to incite a Uruguayan court to order the seizure of a 300-ton shipment of Moroccan phosphate. But, although Uruguay backs the Polisarios separatist thesis, it turned down the request to seize the shipment as Panama rejected a similar demand early June.

The Panamanian court ruled that the separatists request was unfounded and that a Panamanian national court is not competent to rule on a matter of international politics.

South Africa and its ally Algeria are feeling the rug pulled from under their feet with Moroccos return to the African Union. With Phosphates an area of excellence for Moroccos mining industry, separatists proponents have failed so far in undermining Moroccos competitiveness by resorting to legal maneuvers.

Morocco has offered to tackle food security in Africa through the setting up of fertilizers production plants in two of Africas giants that were until recently in the separatist camp before subscribing to the south-south cooperation model offered by Morocco.

Phosphate revenues have also contributed to the development of the southern provinces where Morocco spends seven times more than the revenues reaped from the region.MONTREALFive years after the deadly train derailment that scarred the town of Lac-Megantic, Que., officials are set to begin laying new tracks that will reroute trains around the town and replace those that snake through its haunted core.

But when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives Friday to announce federal funding for the $133-million rail-relocation project many outsiders will be looking on with interest.

A number of cities and towns across the country are determined to follow Lac-Megantics example and lead trains away from their communities. Municipal leaders say they are compelled to act out of an existential fear that what occurred in eastern Quebec in July 2013  when a runaway train carrying crude oil from the United States derailed and exploded, killing 47 people  might happen next in their town or any other place where residents coexist with a railway.

There are movements afoot in Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg and other places that feel they are flirting with disaster.

Were not unique. The lines are getting older, the trains are getting bigger and the risks, I think, are increasing, Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati said.

The CN track in the popular tourist town cuts across roads at 14 different places. Trains carrying dangerous chemicals can stretch for kilometres. Speed limits cause traffic bottlenecks and block the path of emergency vehicles. These problems and risks are exacerbated by the regular mechanical malfunctions, he said.

Theres only one solution, he said. Its to get the dangerous cargo as far away from the people as possible and stop bisecting cities for the convenience of profits, because thats what it is.

A CN spokesperson declined to comment on specific cases of municipalities seeking to reroute rail tracks away from populated areas, saying only that relocating rail lines from urban centres is a very complex and potentially very expensive undertaking.

On top of the costs, railway industry advocates say access to customers is another reason why rail carriers prefer upgrades to existing infrastructure, such as elevated tracks, to relocation.

The mayor of White Rock, B.C., Wayne Baldwin, is learning about the costs and headaches.

The Lac-Megantic disaster prompted the coastal suburb to re-evaluate its own rail safety situation. It led to a realization that there were now 20 passenger and freight trains a day  up from four  passing on tracks that literally hug the waterline.

The freight trains carry a variety of chemical substances in addition to coal that include chlorine, hydrochloric acid, hydrous ammonia and various types of liquid fuels.

The same Bakken crude (oil) that blew up in Lac-Megantic has been going through here as well, Baldwin said. Theyre like 110-car trains so theyre not small and weve had issues. Because of the windy, twisty route that they follow, some of the trains have uncoupled, which is apparently not a good thing.

Part of the train route runs through an area that is prone to landslides, which have interrupted train service on several occasions, and is particularly vulnerable during the rainy spring season.

Its a matter of potential loss of life, quite frankly, he said, adding that it has been a couple of decades since there was a landslide severe enough to derail a train.

If it were a coal train that wouldnt be good environmentally, but it wouldnt cause any loss of life. But if it were a train carrying Bakken crude or chlorine or hydrous ammonia it would be huge.

White Rock and neighbouring Surrey have inquired about relocating the rails, which are owned and operated by Texas-based BNSF Railway. Baldwin said the changes would result in a shorter, quicker route for passing trains, but they must first make their case in an economic feasibility study that would cost an estimated $900,000.

The Manitoba government had considered relocating rail lines that cut through Winnipeg, creating a literal and figurative divide in the city. The project was shut down in 2016 after a change of government.

In Saskatoon, where the government wants to relocate CP tracks to deal with the citys traffic woes, the estimated cost is $589.7-million, according to the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix.

But Judy Harwood, a local reeve in a nearby town where residents would be impacted by the relocation told the paper a CP rail official told her that CP has no designs on doing anything. CP declined to comment to the paper.

In Niagara Falls, Mayor Diodati said the conversation with CN officials has been cordial so far. He said company officials have confided: We dont want to be in the city any more than you dont want us in the city.

They said, show us a business plan that we can entertain since we are the ones pushing for this, Diodati said.

So that is what Niagara Falls is doing. The city has hired consultants and advisers with experience in the rail industry to help them build the case to get the tracks out of town.

Eventually, though, the rail companies must respond.

I think all the mayors and all the politicians from coast to coast, if they all rise up and share their concerns I dont think theyll have any choice but to deal with it, especially if its going to threaten the revenues and the bottom line of the rail company.SURREY, B.C.The RCMP are examining possible links between two violent incidents in British Columbias Okanagan less than 24 hours before a deadly police-involved shooting Tuesday on Vancouver Island.

Sgt. Janelle Shoihet says a preliminary investigation has uncovered possible ties between a shooting that severely injured a man in Vernon and a carjacking in Penticton that injured another victim and ended with the theft of his vehicle.

The Vernon shooting happened at around noon on Monday, and Shoihet says a suspect was seen leaving the area in a 1996 grey Ford Crown Victoria.

Read more:

Man dies after police shooting at B.C. ferry terminal

Several hours later, RCMP in Penticton were alerted to a man allegedly carrying a gun and matching the description of the suspect in Vernon, followed just minutes afterwards by a call about a carjacking and the theft of a Pontiac Vibe.

The suspect escaped and the RCMP say in a news release the Pontiac was traced to a B.C. ferry arriving in Nanaimo on Tuesday morning, when police intercepted the vehicle as it left the vessel.

An unnamed driver was killed Tuesday when shots were fired at the ferry terminal in Nanaimo, and the provinces police watchdog is now investigating.

Investigators are actively working to either confirm or eliminate information in order to conclusively determine if the various incidents are connected, if they are connected to a single individual, or if others are involved, the RCMP says in the release.

Police said Thursday they located the Ford Crown Victoria they had been looking for after a public appeal.

Const. Kelly Brett also said the 24-year-old man shot in Vernon remains in hospital in serious condition.

The RCMP investigation must take care not to impede the Independent Investigations Office as it looks into the Nanaimo shooting, says Supt. Ray Carfantan, assistant district officer of the RCMPs southeast district.

While we wish to advance these investigations, we must be mindful of the nexus to the ongoing Nanaimo investigation by the Independent Investigation Office of British Columbia, he says in the news release. We will continue to support the investigative needs of our units here in the Okanagan to enhance public safety, while respecting that the IIO BC leads the investigation on Vancouver Island.

Ron MacDonald, the chief civilian director of the Independent Investigations Office, has said the agency must determine a number of things in its investigation, including whether the suspect was armed when he was stopped on Tuesday and if there was an exchange of gunfire between the suspect and police.

The agency investigates all police incidents that result in death or serious injury.

Read more about:WASHINGTONCanadas foreign minister found out today why there might only be a few days left to get a NAFTA agreement in 2018.

Chrystia Freeland attended a discussion with top U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

They included the speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, and Kevin Brady, the chair of the House committee that oversees trade legislation.

Read more:

Freeland raises Canadian concerns about American auto proposals for NAFTA

NAFTA negotiators meet this week in another attempt to make deal

New NAFTA auto rules would spike car prices, act as a multibillion-dollar tax, study says

They shared their view of the so-called fast-track law, which sets the rules for votes on trade deals.

The prevailing view in Washington is that it would likely be impossible to get a vote this year on any agreement reached after around May 18, and if it doesnt happen this year a new Congress will consider the issue after the midterm elections.

Freeland says it was helpful to hear from lawmakers who actually wrote and are responsible for implementing the U.S. rules.

She says lots of progress has been made this week, and negotiators are closer to success  although the talks have been mostly seized with the issue of autos, giving little space to hard negotiations on other top files.

Read more about:A Halton region justice of the peaces conduct during a 2017 trial was not the kind of image that this court should present to the public, a judge said in an appeal ruling this week.

For the second time in five months, justice of the peace Denis Lee found himself in the position of being castigated by a judge for comments he made in court.

He called the defendant, who was not present for his own trial, a boar and doubled the fine submitted by the prosecutor for obstructing a licensing inspector to $5,000. The man had also been fined $2,500 for driving a tow truck without a licence.

Now I may get slapped down if it gets appealed or whatever, but I dont care, Lee said at the January 2017 trial.

I love Shakespeare, hes always got a good word for whatever situation and this is To thine own self be true and I think this has to be done in this manner. So the second fine will be $5,000. Both 15 days to pay. And well see what kind of bluster the defendant brings with him for a reopening request or an appeal ...

The prosecutor interjected: An appeal.

Lee:  ... whatever.

The defendant did appeal, and Lee did get slapped down.

The justices comments in this case were unnecessary. They were not judicial, wrote Ontario Court Judge Moiz Rahman in a decision released this week, ordering a new trial. This kind of behaviour not only creates an apprehension of bias requiring a retrial, but it brings disrepute to the court and the office of the justice of the peace.

Justices of the peace, who earn about $132,000 a year, are appointed by the provincial government. Their duties include conducting bail hearings, authorizing search warrants and presiding in provincial offences court, which deals with non-criminal charges such as bylaw infractions.

Lee, a former Burlington city and regional councillor, was appointed in 2007.

In January 2017, he was presiding in the case of Gagandeep Sekhon, who had been arrested in Mississauga. Although properly served with a summons, Sekhon did not appear in court, and so what is known as an ex parte trial took place, where the prosecutor is still required to prove the case.

An ex parte trial like this one would normally be a simple, uneventful matter, Rahman wrote. Unfortunately, from the outset, the trial justice decided that the court ought to serve as a stage. After the court clerk read the charges, and asked the court to enter a plea, the justice responded sarcastically as follows: Im going to throw myself on the mercy of the court and plead not guilty in absentia.

After convicting Sekhon, he decided to double the proposed $2,500 fine for obstructing a licensing inspector to send the strongest possible message to the public, to these tow operators, that this kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable.

The business of dealing with the public is a tough one. And in this instance, we had a city inspector out there trying to do his job and dealing with a boar, Lee said. Im not allowed to call him an idiot because I got slapped down for using that term for a defendant by the judicial council. I dont know if it was the term or the fact that I told him it was the least pejorative term I could think of at the time.

In his appeal ruling, Rahman found that a member of the public reading all of Lees comments would conclude that Sekhons conviction was a foregone conclusion from the outset.

A provincial offences court is the only interaction that most Ontarians will have with the Ontario Court of Justice, Rahman said. A court of record is not a place for a judicial officer to engage in sarcasm or self-aggrandizing humour. Nor is it meant to be used as a soapbox to express the judicial officers personal views. What took place during the appellants trial was not the kind of image that this court should present to the public.

Philip Alexiu, the paralegal who represented Sekhon on his appeal, told the Star that the appearance of judicial impartiality is of paramount importance to the administration of justice and the decision of Justice Rahman upholds this belief.

Rahmans ruling follows that of another Ontario Court judge, David A. Harris, who upbraided Lee in an appeal ruling for his conduct during the trial of a man arrested for driving while using a cellphone.

In that case, the defendant had applied to have his case tossed due to delay, in what is known as an 11 (b) application. Lee dismissed it, but not before lamenting the lack of adequate court resources in Halton. He called himself an anarchist, saying there is part of me that would love to accept this 11 (b) challenge and stuff it up the nose of the bureaucracy and say Hey, were suffering here in Halton.

In his appeal ruling, Harris agreed the application should have been dismissed, but also found Lee did not appear to have conducted the proper analysis before making his ruling.

This is just the latest of a number of appeals that have come to me from the presiding justice of the peace, Harris wrote in his December ruling. His track record is such that I am not prepared to give him the benefit of any doubt with respect to whether he conducted the proper analysis and simply failed to articulate this in his reasons. I do not believe that that happened here.A hidden camera was found in the washroom of a Starbucks at Yonge and King Sts. and police are investigating.

The camera was hidden in an electrical outlet under a sink in one of the stores unisex washrooms. The outlet covering had a hole through which the lens was aimed directly at the toilet.

Toronto police were called to investigate after the stores manager reported it on May 2, but the store closed before they arrived. Police retrieved the camera the next day.

The contents of the recording device are being investigated, according to Toronto police spokesperson Gary Long.

Long said that, as of now, the police have no idea where the device originated and who was behind it.

Its a question Starbucks Canada has not been able to answer.

Tim Gallant, senior communications manager for Starbucks Canada, said that their employees clean and stock the bathrooms several times throughout the day, and that, if they notice anything or are alerted to anything unusual, its immediately reported to the police, and we respect their investigation process.

Toronto police said they wont be able to comment on the content in the camera until the investigation is complete.

A screenshot of an internal message between Starbucks staff discussing the discovery of the camera circulated on Reddit, alerting other location managers to check their washrooms.

Gallant said he could confirm that once alerted to the device, our partners (employees) acted quickly and reported this incident immediately to the police. There was no 24-hour delay. Store leadership in the area were contacted and we confirmed that no other devices were found. Police visited the store the following day to collect the device.

He said they could not comment further, as police are investigating.

Long said no other cases of hidden cameras in Starbucks washrooms have been reported.

Read more:

Starbucks Canada to close stores for sensitivity training following the arrest of two Black men at a U.S. location

Read more about:A man who ambushed and stabbed his ex-girlfriend  an attack witnessed by the womans young daughter  will be sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

The brutal killing of 31-year-old Cotie Weekley, a single mom who worked two jobs to support her daughter Jasmine, has devastated a family and deeply affected the little girl, who is now 8, prosecutor Greg ODriscoll said during a hearing Wednesday, May 9, in Oshawa.

She was just seven when she witnessed her mother murdered, ODriscoll told Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst. Multiple lives have been ruined here. Its profound, its devastating. Its permanent.

Weekley had ended her tumultuous relationship with Wesley Guzylak shortly before she was stabbed to death outside her home on Simcoe Street North in Oshawa on the night of Jan. 22, 2017, court heard.

Crown and defence counsel have submitted a joint proposal of life in prison with no possibility of parole for 14 years and nine months for Guzylak, who has admitted he killed Weekley in a rage fuelled by alcohol and jealousy. The hearing continues in June.

Guzylak sat in the prisoners dock throughout a daylong hearing, hunched forward with his gaze cast down as the judge listened to victim impact statements by members of Weekleys family.

The most heart-wrenching of those was a video in which Jasmine described how her mothers death had impacted her.

My mom, she meant a lot to me, the little girl said as she sat perched on a chair in an interview room. Now shes not here and I cant tell her that I love her.

Cotie Weekleys mother, Lillian Bucosky, delivered a searing description of her enduring grief.

I personally saw the bloodstained snow where my child bled to death, she said. I cant fathom the unimaginable pain and suffering my daughter went through in her final moments. It leaves me numb inside.

Cotie was deeply loved by all of us and now immensely missed by all of us, a weeping Bucosky said. These horrendous actions have completely ruined my life.

Court heard that Weekley and Guzylak began dating in late 2015 but were soon at odds over Guzylaks drinking and abusive behaviour. Prosecutor Jinwon Kim read into the record a number of texts between the two: Weekley describing how Guzylak had hurt her and urging him to quit drinking, and Guzylak alternately begging for forgiveness and menacing the young woman  even going so far as to text at one point, K. You are dead soon.

By January 2017, Weekley was moving on from her relationship with Guzylak and encouraging him to get his belongings out of her house, court heard. On Sunday, Jan. 22, Guzylak, 31 at the time, travelled to Oshawa by public transit from Toronto and broke into Weekleys home. He waited until shortly after 8 p.m., when Weekley arrived home with Jasmine.

He attacked Weekley, stabbing her repeatedly, then left her lying on the ground while he ushered Jasmine from the car into the house, court heard. The little girl then spent the night in the house with Guzylak, who told her hed hurt Weekley because she was cheating on him, court heard.

In the morning Guzylak instructed the child to run to a neighbours house and call 911. Guzylak told Jasmine he was going to hurt himself because he couldnt bear going to jail, court heard.

Police responding to the 911 call found Guzylak with a wound to his neck. The injured man struggled with paramedics and pleaded to be left to die, Kim said.

After a week in hospital Guzylak was arrested. In a statement to Durham police, he claimed hed been in an alcoholic haze at the time of the killing and could remember nothing, Kim said.

But undercover police officers placed in holding cells near Guzylak heard a different version from the accused man, including details about the attack.

He was angry because she wanted to leave him, Kim said, adding Guzylak mused Weekley wanted to move on from her relationship with him, and Now look what she got.

Confronted later with the statements, Guzylak asked a detective for a pen and paper, then wrote a letter of apology to Weekleys family.

In a statement to the court Wednesday, Guzylak said that, while its not an excuse, his alcohol abuse and jealousy triggered the violent outburst.

My alcoholism has destroyed my life, he said.

All I feel is guilt and remorse, Guzylak said as he offered an apology to Weekleys loved ones. I have to live with what I did and all the suffering I caused. I know this will haunt me as long as I live.

In submissions on sentencing, ODriscoll said that, while he committed a heinous act, Guzylak at least spared Jasmine.

He made a choice not to kill her, thankfully, he said.

ODriscoll also noted that by pleading guilty, Guzylak spared the child the trauma of having to testify in court about her mothers killing.

Nevertheless the little girl is profoundly affected by the murder, ODriscoll said. He entered as an exhibit a drawing Jasmine had done  she depicted herself with tears flowing from her eyes as a figure labelled Mommy lay on the ground, a splash of red crayon on her chest. Over that figure stood one labelled Wesley with a pointed object in his hand.

Theres such a sadness to her, ODriscoll said. Shes like an old soul in a childs body.

I dont really get it, Jasmine said in her video statement. When Wesley hurt mommy she passed away, but when Wesley hurt himself he didnt pass away. It doesnt make sense.

No one can really tell me why.

Read more about:When Alek Minassian appears in court Thursday for a second time since his alleged van rampage on Yonge St. last month, he will be represented by two highly-respected and experienced Toronto defence lawyers, the Star has learned.

Courtroom veteran Boris Bytensky confirmed in an email that he has been hired and has asked fellow Toronto defence lawyer Breese Davies to join him representing the 25-year-old.

On Thursday, the Crown is expected to charge Minassian with three more attempted murder charges, bringing his total to 10 first-degree murder charges and 16 attempted murder charges. He is appearing at the 1000 Finch West courthouse via video.

Read More:

Who is Alek Minassian, the man accused in the van rampage?

The day Yonge St. became a war zone: How the van rampage unfolded moment by moment

He will answer to me, says Yonge St. van rampage victim from her hospital bed

Bytensky said he was unable to make any comment whatsoever about this matter. Davies, the principal at her namesake firm, also declined to comment.

Bytensky is partners with lawyers Edward Prutschi and Sonya Shikhman, who describe their boutique firm as offering specialized, talented and experienced legal services which is your best defence against everything the state will throw at you. Neither would comment on the case.

According to his online bio, Bytenskys practice has primarily focused on people charged with criminal offences. He is also an adjunct professor in trial advocacy at Osgoode Hall Law School and currently serves as the Criminal Lawyers Associations representative on various bench and bar committees in the GTA.

In addition to her courtroom work, Davies is known for her extensive contributions to Canadian legal education and the advancement of women in the legal profession. Defence lawyer Sean Robichaud, who recently featured Davies as a guest on his podcast series, said she doesnt shy away from exceptionally challenging cases, such as acting as counsel at the Ashley Smith inquest. Smith, 19, choked to death in a prison in Kitchener, Ont., in 2007.

Robichaud said its the horrific cases such as someone accused of mass murder that put the integrity and fairness of the justice system through the ultimate stress test.

Const. Ken Lam of Toronto police defused a standoff with the suspect of a van rampage that left 10 dead on April 23, 2018. Heres how the suspects arrest unfolded.

In cases like this one due process is most important, and that includes unwavering and competent defence counsel to protect an accuseds rights to a fair trial.

Criminal Lawyers Association president Michael Lacy said while Bytensky and Davies may not be household names, they are widely recognized in the legal community for their impeccable reputations and for being professional, prepared and skilled lawyers.

That is especially important in a difficult, high-profile case such as this, he added.

When you have responsible, capable counsel doing it, what you can be sure of is that whatever the ultimate disposition of the case or the charges against the person you know that justice has truly been served, Lacy said Wednesday. Davies is a vice-president of the association, Bytensky a treasurer, both elected by their peers.

Veteran defence lawyer Frank Addario, a former president of the association, wrote in email that its essential to have good criminal lawyers involved in high-profile cases such as this one.

This type of litigation requires an unflappable lawyer, who is not afraid to be to be criticized ... he or she has to be oblivious to public sentiment and just do the work.Crayons are the only writing tools youll find on the third floor of Southlake Regional Health Centres psychiatric intensive-care unit in Newmarket. Patients must sign them out and return them to staff, without exception.

Morning shaves and grooming in the one bathroom require nurses to stand alongside patients who stare into mirrors that dont shatter. When daily grooming is complete, all toiletries  from toothbrushes to razors  are returned to the nursing station.

In the spartan rooms where gowned residents spend their days  because they arent able to go outside  its getting crowded. To handle the overflow, a former meeting room has been turned into a makeshift patient room. Some rooms on the floor designed for one patient now have three.

Ontarios growing mental health demands have strained hospitals such as Southlake in ways health-care workers here havent seen before  an overcrowding that is undermining care and failing some of our most vulnerable patients, they say.

The Star recently spent two days at the unit speaking with patients, nurses, administrators and the hospitals CEO to document the daily realities of life in a mental health unit where more than a decade of financing shortfalls amid increasing need have heightened anxieties for everyone who shares the tight quarters.

Sandra Gauthier-Boudreau arrives dressed impeccably in a black and white suit jacket and skirt. The 51-year-old is embraced by nurses as she makes her way through the hallways. She has been here before  more than 40 times. The admissions have been voluntary, and involuntary.

A corporate law clerk with three daughters and a supportive husband, Gauthier-Boudreau had her life forever changed by a car crash in 2005. It triggered a dive into depression, suicidal thoughts and self-harm.

The back of her hands show the scars from the cutting she has wrestled with for more than a decade.

I struggled with work and then I struggled with thoughts and then I struggled with daily life, she says. At my worst, on a typical day I was in bed 20 hours. Eating was no longer important to me and I lost 80 pounds. I was just barely living and I didnt really even understand why. I felt I had no purpose. I felt ashamed and guilty that this is what I had become.

Her deepest guilt was reserved for her daughters, now all in their 20s.

They were scared. They couldnt understand what was happening to Mom. They wanted to help. I remember one of my daughters wanting to become a doctor because she saw Mom struggling on a daily basis and she said to me, Im going to grow up and become a doctor so that I can help make you better. That was devastating.

Gauthier-Boudreau has attempted suicide many times, she says. Half of her admissions to the unit were ordered by her doctor for her own protection.

You open the door (at your house)  and police are there. You kind of wonder where this is going. Until they say, Well, you need to come with us. 

Her longest stay was five weeks last year.

It feels like you failed again. You think youre doing OK, and youre not. You think, Why am I feeling this way? Why cant I fight this? Why cant I get any better? 

I come here because I need some calmness, I need to really refocus, regroup. . . . Its hard to do that when you have so many people around Sandra Gauthier-Boudreau Patient

Today, Gauthier-Boudreau stays ready in case theres another knock on the door.

I now have a bag thats fully prepared ready to go at all times, sadly.

She has seen the unit from the first day it opened in 2007 with the sheen of promise to today with the crowded single rooms and the therapy rooms turned bedrooms.

Her biggest grievance is lack of privacy  even during consultations with psychiatrists, other patients within earshot  that she says undermines healing.

Its not good for our recovery. I come here because I need some calmness, I need to really refocus, regroup, she says. Its hard to do that when you have so many people around all the time  Its scary to think that I cant get all the supports that I need at that moment. Its very scary.

Southlake Regional Health Centre is a 407-bed regional hospital with emergency room and in-patient care to 1.5 million people across York Region and south Simcoe. The intensive-care mental health unit has a total of nine beds across the hall from an adult in-patient unit with another 19. Every room is full all the time.

Bob, whose last name is being withheld at his request, is flipping through a wildlife magazine and scribbling notes on pages that sit in neat piles on his bed. The arborist stares out the window, offering advice on proper care for the white pines on the hospital property that rise from small patches of black dirt surrounded by concrete, leading towards the hospitals emergency entrance.

Through that door, the emergency room is a crush of patients, nurses and doctors. In a separate area where patients are assessed, there is little privacy as they meet the on-duty psychiatrists. A security guard keeps watch.

There is no external light. No showers. The goal is to move patients within 22 hours to the third-floor intensive care unit and adult in-patient mental health unit.

It took Andrea two days to make it upstairs  after two nights sitting in the emergency department room.

Its a scary place, says Andrea, whose last name is being withheld by the Star. It makes you feel worse about yourself and it makes you regret the choice to come.

Her family member, who also has mental health issues, never made it when he arrived a month earlier. After four days in the emergency department awaiting a bed, he left.

All he did was lie in the same bed, in a tiny little room, didnt even have a table or a chair, and stayed there for four days and then was discharged. So to him, its Ill never do that again  There was no room up here, and there wouldnt be for weeks.

She fears that his experience at Southlake has led to surrender.

I cried for days over that because now Im afraid hes not going to seek help, she says. It takes a lot of courage to ask for help.

On the third-floor intensive care unit, hurried whispers come from the other side of the nursing station as security is called to help a male patient in his 20s who is dehydrated and refusing medication.

Hospital president and CEO Arden Krystal looks on, concerned. She has sons about the same age. Her eyes well up as the patient looks back at her despondently.

I got into health care to help people. And so I get really deeply impacted by the things I know are a problem, she says. This is, of all the (problems), the one I would want to fix. This is the one that keeps me up at night.

This is, of all the (problems), the one I would want to fix. This is the one that keeps me up at night Arden Krystal Southlake president and CEO, on overcrowding

She watches as a group of security guards and nurses forcibly escort the patient to his room and lay him down on his bed to inject him with medications.

People come into these organizations very, very vulnerable, she says. Theyre scared, and so some of these fears and vulnerabilities are magnified  We owe it to them to give them the very best we can give them.

Southlake has among the highest volume of mental health patients and lowest number of in-patient mental health beds in York Region, hospital officials say. In the heart of Newmarkets booming population, surrounded by nearly 20 group homes and one of the only hospitals in the area offering electroconvulsive therapy, demand is relentless.

Politicians have heard the crisis calls from Southlake and mental health units across the province. And they have made promises to help.

After five years of requesting funding for new mental health beds without approval, the hospital got good news from Ontarios government only days after the Star visited the hospital in March. As part of a promised $63.4-million investment in York Region hospitals, Southlake would get a dozen new mental health beds under a re-elected Liberal government. (The Liberals have pledged $2.1 billion in additional mental health funding over the next four years.)

Last month, Ontario Tory Leader Doug Ford announced a $1.9-billion envelope over 10 years in mental health, addictions and housing supports.

The provincial NDP, if elected, is committing $1.4 billion over the next four years to mental health services, in part to hire 2,600 mental health-care workers caring for 28,000 more Ontarians every year, including mental health supports for students in every high school.

While some mental health patients at Southlake are crammed three to a room, Andreas only roommate is Veronica, a young mother who says she struggles with bipolar, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

On her third day on the unit, Veronica is speaking on the phone with her husband, who has cystic fibrosis, which nearly claimed his life in December.

He actually said he missed me, she says, smiling after hanging up the phone. It is hard because theres not a lot of people (where) one has the physical illness and the other one has the mental. And then when youre both sick at the same time with a different issue, it gets frustrating.

This isnt Veronicas first stay at Southlake. She returned, she says, because it offers safety.

You can find yourself again when you come here. To the outside world  Im the outcast.

Aga Dojczewska, Southlakes manager of mental health, is a nurse who chose this field to help patients suffering with pain you cant see. The care she and her colleagues give those patients isnt what she would hope, she says.

I hear from patients that maybe sometimes the care is not the best and I feel for the patients. I feel for the families. Its not acceptable. Were here to provide best care and sometimes were not there.

She sees the mental health explosion in Canada as an expression of modern life  the pace of our workloads and responsibilities, the breakdown of traditional families and social supports and growing loneliness of those who find themselves in her unit.

I think we used to be a village. And I dont think were a village anymore. Thats hard.

The worst days are when word comes of a patient who takes their own life after being released from the unit, Dojczewska says.

When we hear about it, it feels like theres something that we havent done. Theres something that we havent provided to that could have protected that person. We are here to save lives. Its impacting everybody whenever that does happen.Not since former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty invoked his five-foot rule  banning traditional scrums to keep reporters at a distance while asking questions  has the Queens Park press corps been so vexed and perplexed.

At his news conferences, typically in nondescript hotel meeting rooms, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford doubles or triples the McGuinty gap, standing well behind a rope partition stretching wall-to-wall, creating a no-mans land between politician and press.

A phalanx of TV cameras populates the line with a teleprompter below lens level so Ford can read his remarks. He then takes a handful of questions through an aide flexing a microphone. Quickly exiting through a side curtain, Ford often leaves journalists exasperated and hungry for more information to provide their audiences. Often, his entourage breaks into applause after the last answer to muffle the sound of reporters shouting additional questions.

Read more:

Here are the four candidates wanting to be Ontarios next premier, and what theyre promising

Doug Ford plans to cut taxes for anyone making less than $86,000 a year

Wynne touts hiring of 3,500 new nurses and warns electing Ford means health-care cuts

Its a marked departure from the norm in Ontario politics, where leaders from all three major parties traditionally hold longer scrums with the media before handlers shut things down.

Whats up with the control here? CityNews television reporter Cynthia Mulligan, who hosted Monday nights leadership debate, asked Ford on Thursday at a Mississauga hotel where he announced tax cuts.

Theres a person holding the mic  Im not allowed to hold the mic  were all behind a stanchion, youre several feet away, your sign says for the people, but you seem to be carefully controlling this message and not really being that accessible.

The PC leader bristled at the query, which has been on the minds of reporters in the two months since he was elected to replace the ousted leader Patrick Brown.

I think Ive been pretty open with the the media. I was out in Renfrew the other day, we had the media right in my face. We went to another town, Kanata, we had the media right in front of my face, replied Ford, the frontrunner for premier in the June 7 election.

Comparisons are being made to Stephen Harpers campaigns  often noted for not being media friendly  given that several of Fords officials worked with the former prime minister.

Thats a little bit of a stretch...If you want to get closer to me we can always work that out, but I think this is pretty good, Ford added Thursday, when he took questions for more than double the five minutes of the previous days subway announcement. That announcement resulted in media coverage criticizing a lack of detail as to when new transit lines would be built and where the money would come from.

Its not a free-for-all scrum, added the brother of late Toronto mayor Rob Ford. I think Ive given the press all the access. I meet with the press three times a day, Im on the radio, talking to newspapers, so I dont know how much more you want from me. Were always here, were always open. You can still ask the questions eight feet away rather than two feet. I know the media likes getting close to me.

The Ford election team has also been using one of its staffers to do TV news-style online videos about the leaders campaign for the FordNation Facebook page, prompting the Liberals to file a complaint with Elections Ontario about a possible violation of election financing rules for advertising.

Despite Fords protestations, rivals say his campaign  which is not providing a media bus on which news organizations buy seats, unlike the Liberals and NDP  could be more accessible.

New Democrat Leader Andrea Horwath, who is in her third provincial election since winning the post in 2009, said many voters rely on news coverage to make their ballot-box decisions.

While Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath got a teachers union endorsement on Thursday, Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne and PC Leader Doug Ford both visited Toronto hospitals on the second day of the provinces election campaign. (The Canadian Press)

Mr. Ford is going to have to decide how he is going to engage the Ontario voters, she told reporters at a campaign stop in Toronto.

My opinion is the best way to do that is to be as open as possible, and provide as many opportunities as possible for dialogue to happen ... thats how people get to know you, thats how people get to understand what makes you tick and what kind of a premier you would make.

It is disappointing that Mr. Ford doesnt seem to want to do that.

The Liberal campaign said the Conservatives have been prickly about allowing its observers into campaign events, something that has traditionally been done between parties. In the 1995 campaign, for example, then-PC leader and later premier, Mike Harris, used to light-heartedly welcome the Liberal spy in remarks at events. That spy followed the Conservative campaign buses in a rental car, and was occasionally invited on board to snack and socialize at rest stops.

In this campaign, Fords handlers have kept some information under wraps, such as his appearance Wednesday for a noon speech to a construction trades convention across the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Que.

The event was not on the Ford itinerary provided to the media, with his office arguing it was not an official campaign stop despite the fact he made campaign promises in his remarks.

With files from Kristin Rushowy

Read more about:Kathleen Wynne is hoping front-line health-care providers can nurse her back to political health.

Trailing in every public opinion poll, the Liberal leader said if she is re-elected June 7 her party will be able to deliver on its budgetary promise to hire 3,500 nurses this year.

With Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford vowing to find 4 per cent in efficiencies across the board, Wynne said that translates into $6 billion or more in cuts.

There is no way that you can find between $6 billion and $10 billion in services that are delivered by the government of Ontario without cutting health care, she told reporters at the Hospital for Sick Children.

It is impossible because health care is such an important part of the budget.

Wynne noted that in Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousas March budget, which was passed Tuesday before the legislature was dissolved, the Liberals increased hospital funding by 4.6 per cent, or $822 million.

As well, the government is hiring 3,500 nurses this year, including 2,500 in hospitals and one additional registered nurse in each of Ontarios 627 long-term care homes.

This warms my heart, said Doris Grinspun, chief executive officer of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, which hosted Wynne at Sick Kids as part of its take your politician to work program for National Nursing Week.

While Ford has insisted his cuts would be painless and without job losses, Wynne said weve seen that before when former PC premier Mike Harris was elected in 1995 and closed hospitals and fired nurses.

Some of you have lived through this, the Liberal chief told the 25 nurses standing behind her during the Sick Kids news conference.

She said Fords promise to cut the corporate income tax rate to 10.5 per cent from 11.5 per cent could cost the treasury, which already has a $6.7-billion deficit under the Liberals, about $1.3 billion in lost revenue.

If you break that down, thats about as much as cutting 12,000 nurses from the system. Thats what that would cost: $1.3 billion annually would mean about 12,000 fewer nurses in our system, Wynne said.

So you get nurses or you get tax breaks for big businesses.

Ford, for his part, insisted the health budget would remain intact if he is elected next month.

We believe were going to keep it the same, but were going to find efficiencies, he said at a Mississauga hotel where the PC campaign announced middle-class income tax cuts.

Ford has declined to provide specific details of the 4 per cent of spending he would cut.

At night in Barrie, Wynne rallied the troops in the riding of Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte where former Tory leader Patrick Brown was planning to run.

In the small crowd of about 75 supporters the Liberal leader spotted her Grade 4 teacher.

Miss Scott! I didn't know you were going to be here, said a visibly delighted Wynne.

Gwen Scott, 82, who taught Wynne in 1962-63 at O.M. MacKillop Public School, said she didn't imagine one of her excellent students would grow up to be premier but I'm certainly glad she did.

With files from Robert Ferguson

Read more about:The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has granted its 2018 Climate Resilience Gold Award to Morocco in recognition for the countrys Saiss Water Conservation Project.

The project pioneers the shift from the use of unsustainable groundwater through the transfer of an average of 100 million square meters of surface water from the MDez dam to the Saiss plain, bringing clean, safe and sustainable water to some 350,000 people and farmers in the area and enhancing their capacity to cope with climate change.

Supported by EBRD with 120 million loan, this project is meant to help protect the countrys agricultural sector from the impact of climate change. It also seeks to improve climate resilience with support for the development of a transformative water transfer scheme that will deliver more than 100 million cubic meters of irrigation water to the Saiss plain each year.

The Saiss Water Conservation program will enable the North African country to switch from highly unsustainable groundwater to the use of sustainable surface water resources, as well as improving access to best-practice and efficient irrigation techniques.

The project seeks to enhance community involvement in water governance by scaling up technical skills and institutional capacities and promoting private sector involvement in the adoption of improved, modern irrigation infrastructure and equipment.

This approach will increase the efficiency of water use and services and promote drip irrigation and modern water-demand management methods, strengthening the capacity for climate change adaptation in the Sebou-Saiss basin.

Part of its efforts to mitigate climate change effects, Morocco has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 32 by 2030. In its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) submitted to UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC,) the country has unveiled an ambitious plan to increase the share of renewable electricity capacity to 42 pc in 2020 and to 52 pc by 2030.

Last year, the North African nation opened the worlds biggest concentrated solar power plant, part of the countrys national energy strategy seeking to lower greenhouse gas emissions and crude oil imports through transition to a green economy.JERUSALEMIranian forces based in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights early Thursday, the Israeli military said, triggering a heavy Israeli reprisal and escalating already heightened tensions in what appeared to be the most serious violence in years.

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome rocket defence system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage. There were no Israeli casualties.

Syrias capital of Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defences over the city was heard throughout the night. An Israeli official said Israel was targeting Iranian positions inside Syria. Syrias state news agency SANA quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israeli missiles hit air defence positions, radar stations and a weapons warehouse, but claiming most incoming rockets were intercepted.

Read more:

Israels Netanyahu meets with Putin in Moscow amid new round of Syria strikes

Opinion | Tony Burman: Fighting Iran, embracing North Korea: The flawed vision of Dealmaker Donald

Iran will not renegotiate or add onto the nuclear deal, foreign minister says

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted an unidentified security official as saying Israels attacks inside Syria were the most extensive since the two nations signed a disengagement agreement after the October war of 1973.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesperson, said earlier that Irans Al Quds force fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though he would not say how Israel determined the Iranian involvement. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan, which was captured from Syria in the 1967 war.

Israel views this Iranian attack very severely, Conricus told reporters. He said Israel had responded, but did not provide details.

This event is not over, he said.

Syrias state media said Syrian air defences intercepted hostile Israeli missiles early Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus. Hours later, state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast a live feed of Syrian air defences firing into the sky above the capital, and loud explosions and air defence firing were heard through the night.

Syrian activists reported Israeli airstrikes hitting targets near Damascus. One video posted online showed a large explosion and shrapnel flying in the air. Residents reported loud sounds that rocked their buildings. It was not immediately clear what was hit.

An Israeli army spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on Twitter that Israel was acting against Iranian targets inside Syria, a rare admission by an Israeli official.

Al-Ikhbariya TV said Israel also targeted military posts in southern Suweida province, including an airbase, and struck near Homs in central Syria. The state TV station said the attacks were foiled.

Iranian officials offered no immediate comment on Israels claim about the missile fire. Iranian state media reported on the attack and the subsequent Israeli strikes in Syria, relying on foreign news reports.

Syrian media earlier said the hostilities began with Israeli fire at Syrian positions in southern Syria from across the border. Pro-Syrian media said Syrian missiles then fired at Israeli forces. One TV station, Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen, said at least 50 missiles were fired from Syria at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights. Al-Ikhbariya TV said missiles targeted 10 Israeli positions.

Syrian media said it was the first time in years that Syrians had fired at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights.

Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, anticipating an Iranian attack following Iranian vows to retaliate to what it says are recent Israeli strikes in Syria targeting Iranian outposts.

Late Tuesday, Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near the capital of Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Irans elite Revolutionary Guard, killing at least 15 people, eight of them Iranians.

Last month, an attack on Syrias T4 airbase in Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel. On April 30, Israel was said to have struck government outposts in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen pro-government fighters, many of them Iranians.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied most of the airstrikes. But for months, it has repeatedly said it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

In February, Israel shot down what it said was an armed Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace. Israel responded by attacking anti-aircraft positions in Syria, but an Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Iranian forces moved into Syria after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 to back the forces of President Bashar Assad. As that war winds down, and Assad appears to be headed toward victory, Israel fears that Iran, along with tens of thousands of Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen, will carry out attacks against Israel. President Donald Trumps announcement Tuesday that the U.S. was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran has triggered uncertainty and threatened to spark more unrest in the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to Moscow on Wednesday to meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss military co-ordination in Syria.

Russia has also sent forces to Syria to back Assad. But Israel and Russia have maintained close communications to prevent their air forces from coming into conflict.

Together with Putin, Netanyahu toured a parade celebrating the anniversary of the World War II victory over the Nazis and then met the Russian president at the Kremlin for consultations.

After 10 hours together, Netanyahu said he conveyed Israels obligation to defend itself against Iranian aggression.

I think that matters were presented in a direct and forthright manner, and this is important. These matters are very important to Israels security at all times and especially at this time, he said.

Israel views Iran as its arch-enemy, citing Irans calls for Israels destruction, support for militant groups across the region and growing military activity in neighbouring Syria. Israel has warned that it will not allow Iran to establish a permanent military presence in Syria.

Israels military went on high alert Tuesday and bomb shelters were ordered open in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights following reports of irregular activity of Iranian forces in Syria. After an uneventful night, the military on Wednesday called on residents to return to full civilian routine, meaning studies and excursions would continue as usual, although the shelters would remain open.

Amos Gilead, a retired senior Israeli defence official, told a security conference in the coastal town of Herzliya that Irans intentions in Syria meant a wider conflagration may only be a matter of time.

They want to build a second Hezbollah-stan, he said, referring to the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group that last fought a war with Israel in 2006. They are determined to do it and we are determined to prevent it. It means we are on a collision course.

Read more about:LIESTAL, SWITZERLANDA 104-year-old Australian biologist who drew international attention to his right-to-die case ended his life in Switzerland on Thursday, an advocacy group said.

Exit International, the group that helped David Goodall carry out his wish, said the scientist was declared dead at 12:30 p.m. in Liestal, a town outside the city of Basel, where he had travelled to take advantage of Switzerlands assisted-suicide laws.

My life has been rather poor for the last year or so. And Im very happy to end it, Goodall said Thursday in the room where he died shortly after.

The British-born scientist said this week that he had been contemplating the idea of suicide for about 20 years, but only started thinking about it for himself after his quality of life deteriorated over the last year.

He cited a lack of mobility, doctors restrictions and an Australian law prohibiting him from taking his own life among his complaints, but he was not ill.

Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, where the procedure is available for anyone who acknowledges in writing that they are taking their lives willingly  without being forced. But the practice is frowned upon by many doctors and some others who say it should be reserved for the terminally ill. Goodall and his supporters want the practice to be more accepted as a legitimate choice for elderly people in sound mind.

On Wednesday, Goodall told a crowded news conference that medically assisted suicide should be more widely available.

At my age, and even at rather less than my age, one wants to be free to choose the death and when the death is the appropriate time, he said.

Hundreds of people  some far more frail than Goodall, who used a wheelchair  travel to Switzerland every year to take their lives. The best-known group to help foreigners end their days in the Alpine country is Dignitas, but others include Life Circle in Basel, Goodalls choice.

Goodall took his life with an intravenous drip of pentobarbital, a chemical often used as an anesthetic but which is lethal in excessive doses. A doctor put a cannula in his arm, and Goodall turned a wheel to allow the solution to flow, Exit International said.

Philip Nitschke, director of Exit International, said that before activating the drip, Goodall had to answer several questions so he knew who he was, where he was and what he was about to do.

He answered those questions with great clarity, activated the process while Beethovens Ninth Symphony played in the background, he added.

His last words before losing consciousness were this is taking an awfully long time, Nitschke said, but he died shortly thereafter.

Exit International said Goodall had requested that his body be donated to medicine, or his ashes sprinkled locally.

He wishes to have no funeral, no remembrance service or ceremony, the group said in a statement. David has no belief in the afterlife.

The Swiss federal statistics office says the number of assisted suicides has been growing fast: Nine years ago, there were 297. By 2015, the most recent year tabulated, the figure had more than tripled to 965. Nearly 15 per cent of the cases last year were people under 65 years old.

Read more:

Assisted suicide could violate charter of rights, Liberals acknowledge

Ontario medically assisted dying service could be up and running by May: Health Minister

The next battleground in Canadas assisted dying debate: advance directivesBEIRUTThere may not be much Iran can do about U.S. President Donald Trumps withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but across the Middle East, it has a variety of ways it can hit back at the United States and Americas regional allies.

Iran has expanded its influence far beyond its borders in recent years, sponsoring an army of tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen spread across Iraq and Syria, all the way to Lebanon. A rocket attack overnight on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights may have been a first salvo, underscoring Tehrans reach. Israel responded with a blistering wave of missile strikes early Thursday.

Iran also holds enormous political sway in neighbouring Iraq and in Lebanon, where its main Shiite ally, the militant Hezbollah group, scored significant gains in weekend elections. In Iraq, two powerful political alliances expected to win seats in parliamentary elections on Sunday also maintain strong ties to Iran.

In his speech announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, Trump called Iran the worlds leading state sponsor of terror, citing its support for terrorist proxies and militias such as Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as its activities in Yemen.

The rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia has torn the region apart, playing out on regional battlefields and fanning sectarian flames in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen. Trumps decision will likely intensify those confrontations, and could also embolden Israel to step up its own proxy battles against Tehran.

Here is a look at proxy battlefields in Irans looming confrontation with the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel:

Syria and the Golan Heights

Any confrontation between Iran and Israel is likely to play out first and foremost on the battlefields of Syria, where Iran has built an extensive network of militias during Syrias civil war. Advisers from Irans elite Revolutionary Guards, as well as trainers, commanders and experts, are stationed in military bases across the country.

It also has spy drones that it can use to attack from the sky. In February, Israel shot down what it said was a drone that contained explosives sent by Iran from an airbase in Syria, prompting Israeli airstrikes that killed at least seven Iranians. An Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Israels main concern is southern Syria, near the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, where Tehran has been boosting its presence for years, and where it could launch rocket attacks into Israeli territory.

Israel has said it will do what it takes to fend off Irans military entrenchment. A series of strikes over the last few months  all blamed on Israel  have struck Iranian assets in Syria and killed Iranian forces there.

The strikes have prompted threats of retaliation from Tehran, and Israel has girded for a response, ordering bomb shelters open in the Golan.

Israel will no doubt strike back following any attack on its territory, a scenario that could spiral into a wider conflict that experts say no side is currently interested in.

With Trumps backing, Israel may even feel emboldened to take further pre-emptive action against Iranian targets in Syria. Irans presence in Syria is no match for Israels powerful military, and Irans hopes of salvaging the deal and appearing moderate on the world stage may further hinder its ability to strike back.

Read more:

Americans freed by North Korea get flag-waving welcome from Donald Trump

Americas troubling foreign policy: Trumps deal or no deal

Iran will not renegotiate or add onto the nuclear deal, foreign minister says

Lebanon and Israel

Southern Lebanons rolling hills bordering Israel are another arena of influence for Tehran through its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah.

The frontier has been largely quiet since the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006, and Hezbollah is averse to starting a new confrontation in light of its costly intervention in Syria, where it has lost hundreds of fighters.

Launching a new war could endanger Hezbollahs political support base, including its Shiite constituency, which is wary of another ruinous war with Israel.

Hezbollah has said, however, that it stands ready to defend Lebanon in case of any Israeli attack, and its leader has hinted it may retaliate for repeated Israeli airstrikes in Syria.

Israel has repeatedly targeted weapons shipments destined for Hezbollah, taking advantage of the groups thinly spread fighters preoccupied by the war in Syria.

With the war winding down and the group able to refocus on its longtime foe, Israel, the border between the two countries may again heat up. Embroiled in scandals at home, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may also seek a provocation to divert attention from his domestic crises.

Yemen and Saudi Arabia

The war in Yemen, widely seen as a proxy battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, is another theatre Tehran could exploit to inflict pain on its enemies.

Yemens Shiite rebels, the Houthis, have fired a series of missiles into neighbouring Saudi Arabia during the three-year-old conflict, most recently on Wednesday, a day after Trumps announcement.

The United Nations, Western nations and Saudi Arabia say Iran supplies the Houthis with long-range missiles capable of reaching Riyadh. Iran denies arming them.

Gaza and Jerusalem

Confronted by Iranian-allied Hezbollah on its northern border, Israel also faces another enemy to the south with Hamas in Gaza.

Tehrans relationship with the Islamic militant group has known highs and lows. Hamas developed close ties with Iran after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, with support  both military and financial  peaking following Hamas victory in the 2006 parliamentary elections.

Ties ebbed with the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011, when the Hamas leadership-in-exile left Syria amid President Bashar Assads crackdown on Sunni Muslim rebels, many with ideologies similar to those of the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent movement of Hamas. Ties with Iran have since somewhat recovered, and Hamas is believed to again get funding from Iran.

Since late March, Hamas has been staging weekly mass protests meant to break a stifling, decade-long Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the impoverished territory. Thousands of Palestinians have demonstrated along Israels border fence with Gaza, with some briefly crossing into Israeli territory, hurling burning tires and damaging the fence. Dozens have been killed by Israeli fire and hundreds have been wounded.

The protests are set to intensify Monday when the U.S. Embassy opens in Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of Palestinians are set to descend on the border area and mass breaches of the border fence may be inevitable.

Iraq

Iran sponsors a range of Shiite militias in Iraq and has deep ties to the countrys economy and political system. Many Iraqis fear escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran will destabilize Iraq just as the country is starting to recover.

Riad Hadi, an Iraqi army veteran, said Iraq will end up paying the price for Trumps withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

If they blockade Iran, the pressure release will be Iraq, said the 48-year-old, who was wounded in both legs in a bomb blast in his Baghdad neighbourhood.

On Wednesday, a powerful Iraqi paramilitary group with links to Iran said Trumps withdrawal from the nuclear deal would ignite the region.

We are resistance factions and we are ready to target Americans in the region in case America hits Iran. It will be a violent response, said Jafar Husseini of Iraqs Hezbollah brigades.

There are some 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq training Iraqs military after the country declared victory over the Islamic State group last year.

Assassinations and Attacks

Amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran, a return to assassinations and overseas attacks cannot be ruled out.

Iran blamed Israel for the assassination of at least four Iranian nuclear scientists between 2010 and 2012 and arrested a number of Iranians alleged to have carried out the killings on behalf of Israels Mossad spy agency.

In 2011, U.S. officials said they foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabias ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, the current Saudi foreign minister.

Read more about:BEIRUT  Israeli forces unleashed a heavy bombardment against Iranian military installations in Syria on Thursday in what Israel called retaliation for an Iranian rocket barrage on its positions in the occupied Golan Heights, the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

The two rivals have long fought each other through proxies, and with the new exchange each seemed to be sending a warning that a direct clash between them could swiftly escalate.

If we get rain, theyll get a flood, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned.

Read more:

Israel says Iran launched rocket attack against their military in Golan Heights

Israels Netanyahu meets with Putin in Moscow amid new round of Syria strikes

Trump says hes withdrawing U.S. from Iran nuclear deal

The scope of the attacks  which Israel called its largest in Syria since the 1973 Mideast war  raised the spectre of a full-fledged war between Iran and Israel in Syria, a conflict that could potentially drag the militant Hezbollah and Lebanon into the mix with devastating effects, although both sides appeared to signal they wanted the confrontation to remain contained, at least for now.

Israel, however, has been emboldened by U.S. President Donald Trumps withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this week, and the latest escalation seemed to signal a potentially co-ordinated surge in military activity targeting Iran.

The Israeli military said Thursday it hit nearly all of Irans military installations in Syria in response to the overnight Iranian rocket barrage that targeted Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It was the first time Israel has directly accused Iran of firing toward Israeli territory.

Iranian media described the Israeli attack as unprecedented, but there was no official Iranian comment on Israels claims.

Iran has vowed to retaliate for repeated Israeli airstrikes targeting its forces in Syria. But it seemed to carefully calibrate its response by targeting the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed in 1981 in a move that is not internationally recognized, instead of striking Israel proper.

Tehran is wary of a wider military conflagration with Israel that could jeopardize its military achievements in Syria at a time when it is trying to salvage the international nuclear deal and may be limited in its ability to strike back.

The recent clashes reveal the difficulty both sides face in dealing with an unprecedented situation, said Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East studies at Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs.

The clashes will eventually likely lead not to further escalation, but to the consolidation of new red lines tacitly endorsed by Israel and Iran, he said in an analysis written for the Carnegie Middle East Center.

The extent of the damage inflicted by the Israeli airstrikes was not immediately clear.

Israel said among the targets were weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centres used by elite Iranian forces in Syria. It also said it destroyed several Syrian air-defence systems after coming under heavy fire and that none of its warplanes were hit.

The Syrian military acknowledged that the strikes destroyed a radar station and an ammunition warehouse, and damaged a number of air defence units. It said three people were killed and two were wounded.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the civil war through sources inside Syria, said 23 fighters, including five Syrian soldiers, were killed. It was not immediately clear if any Iranians were among the dead.

The White House swiftly condemned Irans provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens and expressed strong support for Israels right to act in self-defence, while Russia said the Israeli strikes marked a dangerous escalation and urged both Israel and Iran to avoid provoking each other.

In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Iranian regimes deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East.

Israel has carried out more than 100 airstrikes in neighbouring Syria since the civil war erupted in 2011, most believed to be aimed at suspected Iranian weapons shipments bound for the Hezbollah militant group.

But in the past few weeks, Israel has shifted to a more direct and public confrontation with Iran, striking at Iranian bases, weapons depots and rocket launchers across Syria, and killing Iranian troops. Israel accuses Tehran of seeking to establish a foothold on its doorstep, something it has vowed never to allow.

Reflecting the scope of the pre-dawn attack, Russias military said 28 Israeli jets were involved, striking Iranian and government sites in Syria with 70 missiles. It said half the missiles were shot down.

Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, an annual security gathering north of Tel Aviv, Lieberman said Israel would respond fiercely to any further Iranian actions.

We will not let Iran turn Syria into a forward base against Israel, the Israeli defence minister said. If we get rain, theyll get a flood. I hope that we ended this chapter and that everyone understood.

In a statement issued as Israels security cabinet met, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strike sent a clear message that whoever attacks us  we will attack them sevenfold and whoever prepares to attack us  we will act against them first.

Iranian state television announced the Israeli strikes, sourcing the information to Syrias state-run SANA news agency, and described the Israeli attack as unprecedented.

Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 war and annexed it in 1981. In 1974, Israel and Syria reached a ceasefire and a disengagement deal that froze the conflict lines with the plateau in Israeli hands.

Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defences over the city was heard for more than five hours.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow sees Thursdays strikes as a very alarming development.

He noted that in contacts with the leadership of both countries, including a meeting Wednesday between Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, we underlined the necessity of avoiding any actions that might be mutually provocative.

Russia sent forces to Syria to back President Bashar Assad in 2015. But Israel and Russia have maintained close communications to prevent their air forces from coming into conflict. The pan-Arab Al Hayat newspaper reported Thursday that Russia and Israel were developing an agreement to keep Iran out of southern Syria and allow Syrian government forces to retake the region.

Israel said early Thursday that Irans Quds Force fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesperson, said four of the rockets were intercepted, while the others fell short of their targets. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Golan.

Conricus said Israel was not looking to escalate the situation but that troops will continue to be on very high alert.

Should there be another Iranian attack, we will be prepared for it, he said.

The two sides have been on a collision course for months.

In February, Israel shot down what it said was an armed Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace. Israel responded by attacking anti-aircraft positions in Syria, and an Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Earlier this week, Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near Damascus. The Observatory said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Irans elite Revolutionary Guard, killing at least 15 people, including eight Iranians.

Last month, an attack on Syrias T4 airbase in the central Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel.

Read more about:WASHINGTONGina Haspel, President Donald Trumps nominee to lead the CIA, defended the agencys torture of terrorism suspects as her confirmation hearing Wednesday served as another reckoning of the extraordinary measures the government employed in the frantic hunt for the Sept. 11 conspirators.

Haspel, a 33-year CIA veteran who oversaw a secret prison in Thailand in 2002 while an Al Qaeda suspect was waterboarded there, said that she and other spies were working within the law. Though the CIA should never resume that type of work, she said, its officers should also not be judged for doing it.

Im not going to sit here with the benefit of hindsight and judge the very good people who made hard decisions, who were running the agency in very extraordinary circumstances, she told the Senate intelligence committee.

She vowed that she would not start another interrogation program like the one developed under president George W. Bush.

Haspel, 61, rejected Democrats suggestions that she declassify more information about her background, saying that the director should be subject to agency guidelines on keeping its secrets. She bristled and pushed back on charges that the interrogation program was immoral, insisting that her own moral compass is strong, and fought to describe what she said were the CIAs successes in capturing the United States most-wanted men.

Democratic senators peppered her with confrontational questions from the outset. They repeatedly asked for details on Haspels role in some of the most notorious episodes of the interrogation program, including her conveyance of an order from her superior to destroy videotapes documenting 92 of the interrogations.

In her first public account of the destruction, which occurred in 2005, she said there were concerns about the security risk the tapes posed  that the lives of undercover agency officers might be put in danger if they were to become public.

Rumours have long swirled that Haspel appeared in the tapes. Her answer was definitive: I did not appear on the tapes, she said.

Her performance appeared to persuade at least two key senators  Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Maine Republican, and Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat.

At least one influential Republican, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, was unconvinced by Haspels assurances and dealt a symbolic blow to her nomination. In a statement Wednesday night, McCain, a former prisoner of war and the chairman of the Senates armed services committee, said that her refusal to acknowledge tortures immorality is disqualifying, and he urged his colleagues to vote against her.

Kelly Sadler, a speical communications assistant to the president, dismissed the view expressed by McCain, saying Thursday at a staff meeting that it doesnt matter because hes dying anyway, two people in the room told The Associated Press.

The two people described feeling shocked and stunned by the remark. They spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door communications staff meeting.

The White House did not dispute the remark. In a statement, the White House said, We respect Senator McCains service to our nation and he and his family are in our prayers during this difficult time.

The Hill newspaper first reported the comment.

The 81-year-old Arizona Republican was diagnosed in July with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. He left Washington in December and underwent surgery last month for an infection.

Sadler did not respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.

McCains wife, Cindy McCain, responded with a tweet tagged to Sadler: May I remind you my husband has a family, 7 children and 5 grandchildren.

Read more about:WASHINGTONEnvisioning a very special moment for world peace, U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday he will meet North Koreas Kim Jong Un for highly anticipated summit talks in Singapore on June 12. He set the stage for his announcement by hosting a 3 a.m., made-for-TV welcome home for three Americans held by Kims government.

Final details in place, Trump and Kim agreed to the first face-to-face North Korea-U.S. summit since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Its the most consequential and perhaps riskiest foreign policy effort so far in Trumps presidency as North Koreas nuclear program approaches a treacherous milestone  the capacity to strike the continental U.S. with a thermonuclear warhead.

Trump says the U.S. is aiming for denuclearization of the entire Korean Peninsula, but he has yet to fill in just what steps that might include and what the timing would be.

Read more:

Americans freed by North Korea get flag-waving welcome from Donald Trump

North Koreas Kim Jong Un breaks with his flight-phobic father, travels by plane

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in North Korea to finalize Trump summit plans

Were starting off on a new footing, Trump said of himself and Kim as he welcomed the detainees in a floodlit ceremony at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington. He hailed their release as a potential breakthrough in relations between the longtime adversary nations.

He and Kim will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace! he said later on Twitter.

Kim has suspended nuclear and missile tests and put his nuclear program up for negotiation, but questions remain about how serious his offer is and what disarmament steps he would be willing to take. The White House has said withdrawal of thousands of U.S. troops from South Korea is not on the table.

Long before dawn Thursday, with the former detainees by his side on the airbase tarmac, Trump said it was a great honour to welcome them back to the U.S. but the true honour is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.

The ceremony, which also featured a giant American flag suspended between the ladders of two fire trucks, emphasized Trumps penchant for the dramatic as he raised expectations for the summit. And it underscored how closely the fate of his foreign policy agenda is being tied to the North Korean negotiations.

He had wanted to hold the summit in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas but yielded to the concerns of officials who thought a DMZ meeting would focus attention on relations between the North and South rather than the nuclear question.

Vice-President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, other top officials and first lady Melania joined the president for the airbase celebration. The former detainees  Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim  had been released Wednesday at the end of Pompeos visit to North Korea.

They appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft. One said through a translator, Its like a dream; we are very, very happy. They later gave the president a round of applause.

Pence said Pompeo had told him that at a refuelling stop in Anchorage, one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadnt seen daylight in a very long time. The men were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation before being reunited with their families.

Trump thanked North Korean leader Kim for releasing the Americans and said I really think he wants to do something on denuclearization.

Pence said on NBC News, In this moment the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith.

Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who was among several Republican lawmakers who dined with Trump and National Security Adviser John Bolton Wednesday evening before the detainees returned, said their release was a positive development, but he remained cautious about North Koreas intentions.

We are in uncharted waters, he said. This is the highest level diplomacy that the United States has to offer. Failure would be a significant setback to diplomatic efforts.

As for the venue, why Singapore?

Located at the southern tip of Malaysia, the prosperous city state is a regional Southeast Asia hub whose free enterprise philosophy welcomes trading partners from everywhere. It has close diplomatic and military ties with the U.S. and yet is also familiar ground for North Korea, with which it established diplomatic relations in 1975.

Since their independence, theyve very deliberately developed a reputation as an honest broker between East and West, said David Adelman, the former U.S. ambassador.

The White House choreographed the arrival event at the airbase, the image-conscious president telling reporters, I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 oclock in the morning.

The public display stood in stark contrast to the low-key, private reception that the State Department had envisioned, in keeping with a practice of trying to protect potentially traumatized victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after an ordeal.

Shortly after they touched down in Alaska, the department released a statement from the freed men. They expressed their appreciation to Trump, Pompeo and the people of the United States and added: We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

North Korea had accused the three of antistate activities. But their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nations nuclear weapons.

The three are:

Kim Dong Chul, 64, a South Korea-born U.S. citizen and the longest-serving detainee. He received a 10-year prison term with hard labour in April 2016 for allegedly perpetrating state subversive plots and espionage against North Korea. Before his sentencing, the former Virginia resident publicly apologized for slandering North Koreas leadership, collecting and passing confidential information to South Korea and joining a smear campaign on the Norths human rights situation. Other foreigners have publicly admitted crimes but have said later their confessions were given involuntarily.

Tony Kim, who also goes by the Korean name Kim Sang-duk, had a masters degree in business administration from the University of California, Riverside, and taught accounting at a private university in Pyongyang. He was detained at the Pyongyang airport for criminal acts of hostility aimed to overturn North Korea, according to the Norths Korean Central News Agency, which didnt detail those acts.

Kim Hak Song, who worked in agricultural development at an experimental farm run by the same school, the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. He was accused of engaging in unspecified hostile acts against North Korea.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage. Warmbier was arrested in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labour.

We are happy for the hostages and their families, the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. We miss Otto.

Read more about:ISTANBULU.S. President Donald Trumps decision to abandon a nuclear deal with Iran has intensified a heated debate among Iranians over relations with the West, pitting proponents of the landmark accord and diplomacy more generally against staunch conservatives urging a harsh response to the move.

The clash between the camps has played out in parliament, on social media and in the press since Trump announced an end to U.S. participation in the agreement Tuesday.

The deal was signed in 2015, under former president Barack Obama, and curbed Irans nuclear activities in exchange for widespread sanctions relief. Trump said his administration would again impose far-reaching sanctions against Iran, including on oil sales and the countrys banking sector. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the worlds nuclear watchdog, has repeatedly certified Irans compliance under the deal.

Read more:

Trudeau regrets Trumps decision to withdraw from Iran nuclear agreement

Opinion | Tony Burman: Fighting Iran, embracing North Korea: The flawed vision of Dealmaker Donald

Iran will not renegotiate or add onto the nuclear deal, foreign minister says

Reformist newspapers allied with President Hassan Rouhani praised the Iranian leader Wednesdayfor his diplomatic response to the crisis. He said Iran was committed to the accord and he would dispatch his foreign minister to engage in talks with China, Russia and the European Union, which are also parties to the agreement. He said Iran could soon begin enriching uranium beyond levels afforded under the pact.

The pro-reform Etemad published a headline: The nuclear deal without the troublemaker. Other reformist and moderate publications hailed what they said was the logical choice to keep Iran in the deal.

Irans conservatives, however, seized the opportunity to call for a full withdrawal from the deal they had long opposed. News agencies aligned with Irans hard-liners  including the judiciary and the powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps  called for nixing the deal and unifying Iran to resist the United States.

In a dramatic display on the floor of parliament, lawmakers set fire to both the text of the accord and an American flag, chanting Death to America! as the speaker of assembly looked on.

If Iran does not immediately restart enriching uranium, it is treason against our nation, said hard-line parliamentarian and former member of the Revolutionary Guard, Seyed Nasser Mousavi Largani, the Fars News Agency reported.

Revolutionary Guard commander Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said he believes Europe, which is sticking by the agreement, is too weak to uphold the agreement without the United States and the fate of the deal is clear.

The parliament introduced a bill Wednesday that would cap Rouhanis negotiations with Europe, Russia and China at one month. If Tehrans demands are not met, Iran would ramp up its nuclear program, the bill said. It was not clear what guarantees Iran was seeking from the other signatories.

The infighting among Irans political factions paints a picture of the domestic challenges that lie ahead now that the agreement is in jeopardy, said Reza Akbari, who researches Iranian politics at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in Washington, D.C.

Opponents of the 2015 agreement, which curbed Irans nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, are enjoying their I told you so moment, he said. From the get-go, they argued that the United States could never be trusted. They believe now is the best moment for Iran to save whatever dignity it has left and completely withdraw from the deal.

Iran has long insisted its atomic energy program was for peaceful purposes. The United Nations and world powers imposed stringent sanctions on Iran to persuade the government to negotiate the parameters of its nuclear activities.

Rouhani  first elected in 2013, and reelected for a second term last year  championed diplomacy with the West and secured what was then a major victory: the end of sanctions and Irans return to the international stage.

Since then, however, the windfall he promised from the nuclear deal has failed to materialize. Instead, Iran has faced stagnant growth, high unemployment and a collapsing currency. In December and January, widespread street protests broke out as prices skyrocketed.

For now, analysts say, Irans supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, is giving Rouhani flexibility to try to save the deal. The supreme leader has the final say over all major decisions involving foreign and defence policies, including Irans contacts with the West and the countrys missile and nuclear programs.

Khamenei said Wednesday Iran would not stick to the nuclear agreement without a strong guarantee from Europe. He said Iran does not trust the European signatories to the deal.

We agreed on the nuclear pact, he said. But the animosities against Iran did not cease.

Nader Hashemi, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver, said, It seems Rouhani has been given some room by Khamenei to keep the nuclear deal alive.

Iran will likely ramp up elements of its nuclear program in the coming months but do so in a carefully calibrated way. It will try to avoid alienating Europe, Eurasia Group, a New York-based political-risk firm, said in a briefing note Wednesday. Iran will likely increase certain aspects of the program, but will stay away from drastic measures that could prompt an Israeli or U.S. military strike, the note said.

As tensions rise, however, hard-line voices are gaining traction.

Iranian hard-liners are the masters of the art of sabre-rattling, and Trumps decision to withdraw from the agreement just provided them with the best platform to showcase their skills, Akbari said. Recent developments could easily shift the balance of power.

Read more about:Last week, after Angelique EagleWoman resigned from her position as dean of Lakehead Universitys Bora Laskin Law School, citing systemic racism and indifference to Indigenous participation, the school appointed Justice Patrick Smith of the Ontario Superior Court to fill in as interim Dean.

Lakeheads announcement was celebratory and appreciative of Ontarios Chief Justice in releasing Justice Smith to fill this position. Donny Morris, former chief of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, and Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a community partner in the law school, however, have spoken out strongly against the appointment. Why?

Ten years ago Justice Smith sentenced Chief Morris, four band councillors and a community member from the KI First Nation to jail for contempt of court.

They had publicly stated they would not allow a mining company, Platinex, which had advised its investors it had the First Nations consent when it did not, and had bullied the community with a $10 billion lawsuit, onto their traditional territory.

The community explained they had to follow their own law, which required them to protect the land. This statement was found to be in contempt of a court order allowing the mining company onto the land.

I was in court the day Justice Smith sentenced the KI6. He read out his decision to a packed courtroom  a decision that spoke only of how court orders must be obeyed, and how if there were two systems of law, one for Aboriginal people and one for non-Aboriginal people, then we would descend into chaos.

The disbelief and anger in the room as the KI6 were sentenced to six months in jail was palpable. The overwhelming majority of people attending court that day were Indigenous, and they knew there are already two systems of justice in this country.

The KI6 were taken away in white police vans as the people stood outside the courthouse on the packed snow. Many held KI flags. Some wept.

Others cheered in support for Chief Morris, Daryl Sainnawap, Jack McKay, Sam McKay, and Bruce Sakakeep as they were loaded into the van. The lone woman sentenced, Cecilia Begg, was led out a separate door.

After two months in jail, the KI6 were released. The Ontario Court of Appeal found the sentences were too harsh, that imprisonment for a first instance of contempt marginalized the importance of Indigenous rights in Canadian law and would only further estrange Indigenous peoples from the justice system.

When the Bora Laskin Law School opened in 2013, one of its first acts was to sign an agreement with Nishnawbe Aski Nation, the Union of Ontario Indians, Grand Council Treaty No. 3, and the Metis Nation of Ontario to ensure that Indigenous perspectives and priorities were brought to the law school curriculum, and to historical and emerging legal issues.

The law school embraced a mandate to train lawyers in Indigenous rights and law in Canada. It was seen as a new opportunity for local Indigenous students to access legal education.

This mandate was meant to help fulfil the legal needs of First Nations communities, as well as make a difference for those Indigenous people caught up in the justice system. This legal education would centre Indigenous law and rights in the study of Canadian law, countering acts that marginalized such rights, such as the KI6 sentencing decision.

The departure of EagleWoman and appointment of Justice Smith shows just how far the leadership of Lakehead University has strayed from its mandate at Bora Laskin Law School.

Deputy Grand Chief Derek Fox of Nishnawbe Aski Nation said The University should have accepted the recommendations of the Aboriginal Advisory Committee delivered last week, which specially requested that no positions at the law school be filled without input from Indigenous partners.

The university ignored this advice, and made an appointment expressing an extent of indifference and wilful blindness to local Indigenous experience, participation and leadership that is shameful in its racism.

Lakehead University needs to seriously reflect on its role in continuing colonialism and how to change that  rescinding the appointment would be the first step.Trudeau says Canada will apologize for turning away ship of Jewish refugees in 1939, May 9

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be applauded for committing to an official apology for Canadas disgraceful rejection of Jewish refugees aboard the St. Louis in 1939.

Several Jewish Canadians with relatives on the St. Louis reached out to the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) to emphasize the importance of an apology, which is a meaningful statement to survivors and their families.

An apology should not require the government to assume financial liability. Nor is its objective to impose a burden of guilt upon Canadians today, for we know our country has changed dramatically since 1939.

Rather, confronting past injustices should underscore the greatness of our nation today. Canada is a country of high ideals. It takes courage and integrity to acknowledge those times in our history when we failed to uphold those ideals. This will only help ensure Canada always stands for what is right in future, particularly in the fight against antisemitism and bigotry in all forms.CIA nominee Gina Haspel says tough lessons learned from interrogation, May 9

The only tough lesson the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) learned from operating torture chambers around the world is that it is above all laws. From Vietnams Phoenix program to Guantanamo Bay, anything goes.

Impunity springs eternal at the fabled agency, especially for the likes of Gina Haspel, U.S. President Donald Trumps nominee to lead the CIA. Haspel supervised a torture chamber in Thailand shortly after the 9/11 attacks. She also participated in the decision to destroy videotapes showing prisoners being tortured.

Its difficult to imagine a more complete repudiation of due process and rule of law than one will find in the career histories of those who enable the CIAs torture chambers. They need not worry, though  no one has ever been held to account. In fact, many will get promotions.One after the other, Latin American countries rally the rank of supporters of Moroccos territorial integrity. After Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Brazil to mention but a few, came the turn of Paraguay whose MPs unanimously adopted a resolution backing Moroccos autonomy initiative to end the Sahara conflict.

The resolution expresses support for Moroccos autonomy initiative, which reflects the serious and credible efforts to prepare conditions propitious for finding a politically acceptable solution to the long-lasting regional dispute.

The Paraguayan Parliament welcomed the efforts deployed by Morocco and its commitment to back the UN process aiming to find a political, peaceful, fair and lasting solution to the Sahara conflict.

The MPs also voiced support for the efforts undertaken by the UN Secretary General and his personal envoy to settle the dispute. They stressed the need for neighboring countries to contribute to settle the stalemate over the Moroccan Sahara.

The Paraguayan MPs echoed the concerns of the UN Security Council regarding the inhuman conditions suffered by the population held against their will in the Polisairo-run Tindouf camps in the Algerian territory.

In this regards, they urged Algeria to enable a head-count of the camps population and to alleviate their suffering under the yoke of the Polisario militias.Trump pulls U.S. out of horrible Iran deal, May 9

I find it difficult to believe that the North American media cannot recognize the one and only reason for U.S. President Donald Trumps decision to pull out of the Iran deal. By now, everyone should be aware of Trumps single-minded obsession with undoing everything that his predecessor Barack Obama accomplished.

We saw the persistent and unrelenting campaign against Obamacare. We saw the pullout from the Trans Pacific Partnership. We saw the opposition to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. There have been many more. It is personal.

The way Trump summarily dismissed the pleas of all other countries that were signatories to the agreement is an egregious display of American arrogance.

It is a shame that Trump is not being called out for what this is. Instead, the decision is legitimized and accepted as a sound and rational part of American foreign policy.

Michael Prince, Toronto

Once again, Donald Trump has shown his political immaturity by pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. His only aim is to create terror and fear in the world order, which is painfully endeavouring to move toward a peaceful solution to nuclear weapons.

Iranian government leaders must not cow to the threats but, at the same time, must show maturity by not indulging in rhetoric that may only worsen the situation. They must faithfully adhere to the treaty and work with the other five governments sharing the treaty. The remaining members should find a befitting solution to this madness.

Raza Kara, Richmond Hill

Read more about:Since its release in 1970, many people (married ones especially) have taken issue with the signature line from the hit movie Love Story: Love means never having to say youre sorry. But I imagine the person most constitutionally averse to this notion is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a man who says sorry more often than a Canadian tourist in a crowded airport.

Where his Prime Minister father, the late Pierre Trudeau, wasnt a fan of state-issued apologies, our rueful leader appears quite comfortable doling them out.

The PM has made a series of official apologies addressing various historical wrongs since he took office in 2015. Two years ago, for example, he issued an apology for the 1914 Komagata Maru incident, in which hundreds of Sikh, Muslim and Hindu passengers were unjustly turned away at the Canadian border. Their Japanese steamship returned to India, where 19 passengers were shot and killed upon arrival and many others imprisoned.

Read more: Trudeau says Canada will apologize for turning away ship of Jewish refugees in 1939

Last year, the PM issued an apology to survivors of Canadas residential schools. He also asked the Pope himself to apologize for the churchs role in operating the notoriously exploitative, abusive institutions. (Unfortunately, the pope declined).

And just this week the PM announced plans to formally apologize on behalf of the Canadian government, in the House of Commons, for the tragic incident of the MS St. Louis in 1939, when Canada refused asylum to the more than 900 Jewish German refugees on board. The MS St. Louis was forced to return to Europe, where 254 of its passengers were later murdered in the Holocaust.

When Canada denied asylum to the 907 German Jews on board the MS St. Louis, Trudeau said in a recent statement, we failed not only those passengers, but also their descendants and community. It is our collective responsibility to acknowledge this difficult truth, learn from this story, and continue to fight against anti-Semitism every day, as we give meaning to the solemn vow: Never again. I look forward to offering this apology on the floor of the House.

Unfortunately, not everybody is looking forward to hearing it.

Many critics of the Prime Minister, some of them Jewish, are a little annoyed by the prospect of a staged mea culpa that will address a tragic event whose victims are, by and large, not around to receive it. Some of these formal apologies are, after all, rather bizarre, because the people saying Im sorry are so rarely the wrongdoers and the people saying I forgive you are rarely the wronged. As a result, they can come off as cheap and hollow, even to the ears of the people you think might appreciate them most.

Heres Sally Zerker, whose Jewish, Polish ancestors were denied visas to Canada in the 1930s, writing about the prospect of a government apology for the MS. St. Louis tragedy in the Canadian Jewish News last year:

It will not bring back my relatives, or offer me any solace. Instead, it will whitewash a government that did nothing to help the Jews who were fleeing the Nazis and ignored the type of anti-Semitism that was endemic in Canada until the 1970s. Ultimately, it is nothing but a shallow, empty, meaningless act. An apology cant right this wrong.

But it can publicize it. And this is where I disagree with Zerker and other critics of government apologies. Were living in a world where the United States government appears allergic to facts and routinely winks at white supremacists. A world where the leaders of the womens march, arguably the largest feminist movement on the continent, can pal around with horrendous anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan and retain their status as heroines of an intersectional movement.

A world where, according to the Anti Defamation League, anti-Semitic hate crimes  from violent assaults, to Jewish kids being harassed at school, to vandalism of synagogues  surged 57 per cent last year. Meanwhile, according to a survey released on Holocaust Remembrance Day (Jan. 27) this year, 22 per cent of American millennials havent heard of the Holocaust or are unsure of what it is, and two-thirds do not know what Auschwitz is.

All of this is to say that while I agree with Trudeaus critics that formal apologies are sometimes silly and performative  and perhaps lacking in meaning for some victims and their families  they are also factual and newsworthy. They breathe new life into old wrongs and in doing so they bring awareness to those wrongs.

Its for this reason that I find it difficult to object to a perfectly harmless government statement that might, even if it doesnt heal any wounds, inspire an uninformed Canadian to Google MS St. Louis.

Its a sorry thing to say, but formal apologies may be most useful not for the oppressed, but for the clueless.

Read more about:The 2018 election was over before it began: Wednesday was merely the formal campaign kickoff to kicking the Liberals out of power and electing Doug Ford to the premiers office.

So say many pundits, pollsters, and politicians pursuing power. But beware people in the know, for no one really knows how the votes will add up on June 7th.

Public opinion polls cast the Progressive Conservative leader as the frontrunner, Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne as a dead duck, and New Democratic Party Leader Andrea Horwath as a dark horse on the move.

Read more:

Here are the four candidates wanting to be Ontarios next premier, and what theyre promising

Opinion | Linda McQuaig: Ford knows to keep secret where hell swing his axe

Does Doug Fords crowd-for-hire rally mean U.S.-style political campaigning is here to stay?

But be skeptical of anyone selling certainty in a closely-watched campaign. If politics is broken, polling is beyond repair.

From the upset victory of Donald Trump in 2016 to the Liberal majority of 2014, the polls were pointless  people didnt speak their mind, or didnt yet know their own mind. Unlike the hyper-partisans who stalk Twitter or flock to mass rallies, most voters dont truly turn their minds to Ontario politics until closer to election day.

But this election feels different. The personalities and policies are more controversial than at any time in recent memory.

Campaigns matter. Campaigns are also maddening.

Politicians make implausible promises or unsupported accusations. Their pitches rely on hype and hope, fear and frustration.

By all accounts, this is a change election. But be careful what you wish for  change can be unpredictable, and a fresh face isnt always unfamiliar.

While Ford feels new and unblemished, he is arguably as much of a retread as his rivals. Ford ran and lost for mayor in 2014, and bears the scars of his years as a controversial city councillor alongside his brother Rob as mayor (imposing new taxes and collecting a rebuke from the integrity commissioner along the way). He stunned the Tories by coming from behind to win the leadership, suspended the partys platform, renounced its core promises, and is reverting to the PC formula of cutting programs to achieve prosperity  details to come.

Wynne bears the baggage of five years as premier, weighed down by a further 10 years of Liberal rule that makes her an easy target for decisions good, bad and ugly  from the gas plants boondoggle to privatizing half of Hydro One. But her unpopularity has prodded her party to propose a slate of progressive policies  from a $15 minimum wage to expanded pharmacare and free child care for pre-schoolers  provided people overlook their surging debt projections (as voters usually do).

Ontario's three main party leaders squared off Monday in the first debate before Junes provincial election. Andrea Horwath, Kathleen Wynne and Doug Ford were asked after the debate how they plan to combat criticisms they face. (The Canadian Press)

Horwath hopes to leapfrog from last place into government as the default choice among voters disaffected with the other two parties. Untested in government, she benefits from the other two leaders attacking one another. But Horwath has been around as leader far longer than her two rivals, having assumed the NDP mantle nearly a decade ago without making much of a mark in provincial politics (apart from her disastrous 2014 election gambit, when she tried to lure PC voters but lost loyalists along the way). Now she is reverting to a progressive platform that promises expanded child care, pharmacare and denticare.

Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner gets the least exposure, having been excluded from the televised debates. Thats too bad, given Fords costly promise to take Ontario out of the fight against global warming by dismantling programs that make polluters pay.

Ford is a flashpoint, Wynne a lightning rod, and Horwath is offering shelter in a storm. Yet beyond their bitter personal rivalries, their competing promises dont add up:

Ford promises to find $6 billion in painless cuts; Wynne plans a deficit of $6.7 billion; Horwath pledges to buy back more than $6 billion in Hydro One shares. All three leaders political ambitions are exceeded by their policy ambitions.

Its easy enough to pick holes in each partys plan (the Tories havent yet presented one). Tempting as it is to write them all off as incoherent or untrustworthy, that would be a campaign cop-out.

By dint of desperation or inspiration, democracy is about choosing, not just complaining. An election is not a referendum on the party in power, but a contest among rival parties competing anew for power.

Elections require careful comparisons, even if that means deciding on the lesser of three or four evils. The alternative is apathy and abdicating your vote  which means letting others decide for you.

Tune in and stay tuned. No matter what people say, the campaign has just started  and with four long weeks still to go, it is far from over.

Read more about:Justin Trudeau has been working assiduously to invoke the ghost of Stephen Harper, but this week the ghost himself appeared, no Liberal conjuring needed.

There was the former prime minister, in a full-page ad in The New York Times, offering a full-throated endorsement of Donald Trump, specifically the U.S. presidents widely-condemned decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and to re-impose sanctions.

Mr. President, You Are Right About Iran, says the top half of the page, paid for Rafael Bardaji, a former chief of staff to Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar.

Mr. President, we the undersigned, stand in complete support of your leadership on Iran.

Harpers name tops the list of 12 signatories, with former Conservative foreign affairs minister John Baird not far behind.

In March, Harper and Aznar made the same argument in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, arguing that the 2015 deal provides a roadmap for Iran to realize its nuclear ambitions.

Leaving aside the obvious reticence of any Canadian leader to cheerlead for Trump on any decision, Harper has been consistent in his views on Iran.

They manifested themselves most notably in his ill-advised 2012 move to shutter the Canadian embassy in Tehran.

He has also been consistent in using U.S. media to further a message, in or out of government, most notably in using the same Wall Street Journal to condemn Jean Chretien for not joining George W. Bushs 2003 misadventure in Iraq.

Harper is not expressing a view different than the position staked out by the party under Andrew Scheer, if public statements by his foreign affairs critic, Erin OToole, are any indication. But the party has not officially taken a position and Harpers intervention makes the former prime minister the story and it allows the Liberals to highlight its support for the deal by taking on Harper.

Just the way they want it and just what Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland did Thursday, taking the opportunity to tell reporters that her government regrets the U.S. decision to pull out of an important and useful agreement. She said she discussed ways to move forward without the U.S. participation with her British counterpart Boris Johnson.

Painting Scheer as Harper redux, leading the Harper party, has been a preoccupation with Trudeau, a strategy unveiled at the partys Halifax convention last month.

Last week, my colleague Susan Delacourt counted seven Harper references from Trudeau in a single question period, but that appears to have been merely a warm-up. Wednesday Trudeau mentioned Harper an even dozen times.

He invoked Harper to criticize him on his performance on the environment, his changes to the Canada Elections Act, his treatment of seniors, his record on the economy and his cuts to the security budget.

Outside the House, he told reporters that Canadian policy on Iran would be crafted in Ottawa, not Washington.

Playing the bogeyman card from the past is a tried-and-true tactic.

Conservatives used Pierre Trudeaus National Energy Program to keep Alberta a largely Liberal-free zone for years.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that Canadian foreign policy is only made in Canada. Trudeau commented after former prime minister Stephen Harper signed a newspaper ad supporting the U.S.s Iran nuclear deal withdrawal. (The Canadian Press)

Provincially, think of the references to the Harris Tories, a frightening image successfully deployed by Ontario Liberals.

Bob Rae is in the bogeyman hall of fame. Harper used memories of his tenure as NDP premier to push back against Jack Laytons orange wave at the Ontario border in 2011 and well know that provincial NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is a real threat to take power in the current election when Raes name starts popping up again.

Rae even used his own bogeyman status in weighing his decision whether to run for the federal Liberal leadership.

That Rae was elected almost 28 years ago does not seem to matter because there is no statute of limitation on invoking the ghosts of leaders past. One keeps invoking the bogeyman until it no longer works.

The strategy of painting Scheer as Harper with a smile may bear fruit because Scheer is still largely unknown and Trudeau is taking the opportunity to brand his opponent ahead of the 2019 election.

But the Conservative leader is hardly as toxic as Harper had become after almost a decade in power, even if the party has not yet moved beyond the Harper era on policy and Scheers front bench is dotted with Harper cabinet veterans.

Harper would likely be quite content to have the 2019 vote feature the Liberals taking on his legacy. It remains to be seen how comfortable the current Conservative team would be heading into a battle framed that way.

Tim Harper is a former Star reporter who is a current freelance columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @nutgraf1

Read more about:Donald Trump has threatened to walk out of nuclear talks with North Korea unless Washington gets everything it wants. He may be too late.

Momentum is building for a comprehensive settlement of the Korean stalemate. That momentum seems bound to continue  with or without the U.S. president.

In the West, the Korean conflict tends to be viewed simply as a standoff over the Norths possession of nuclear weapons  one that can end only when dictator Kim Jong Un gives them up.

In Asia, particularly in South Korea, matters are much more complicated. South Koreans elected their current president, Moon Jae-in, in large part because he promised rapprochement with the North.

And while this desire for reconciliation is not universally held (many South Koreans mistrust the North), it is strong enough that earlier this year, when Kim offered an olive branch, Moon was quick to accept it.

Since then, the two Koreas have seized the initiative  first symbolically through the Norths participation in the Souths Winter Olympics and later substantively through a whirlwind of meetings culminating in an April summit between Moon and Kim at Panmunjon, on the border between the two states.

Both have been careful not to alienate their sponsors. Kim has made two pilgrimages to Beijing to ensure that Chinese President Xi Jinping is onside. Moon has lavishly credited Trump for the thaw, even suggesting the U.S. president be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In fact, the entire peace process to date has been driven by the two Koreas. Through their enforcement of United Nations sanctions China and the U.S. may have helped encourage Kim to seek a deal. But it is worth noting that he is also following his long-stated plan  first turning North Korea into a nuclear state to ensure its security and now focusing on ways to improve its economy.

In this latter aim, he has found a willing ally in Moon, who is anxious to reactivate South Koreas so-called sunshine policy toward the North and provide Pyongyang with any aid that does not run afoul of UN sanctions.

Even Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a hawk on the North Korean question, signed on this week to the subtle wording agreed to by Kim and Moon that calls for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Thats a goal that Pyongyang usually interprets as applying not only to its own missiles but to U.S. forces stationed in Japan and Guam that are capable of waging nuclear war against the North.

The upcoming June 12 summit in Singapore between Trump and Kim will be important. No question about that. America is a major force in the region. As well, it and other members of the 1950-53 UN Command (including Canada) are still technically at war with North Korea.

But it is not at all clear that Kim will accede to Trumps demand that he immediately abandon his nuclear weapons  even in exchange for a U.S. security guarantee. As the Iranians discovered this week, agreements inked by one U.S. president arent always honoured by his successor.

Its more likely that Kim will put forward the wording he used in China this week promising phased measures designed to eventually achieve denuclearization.

A few months ago, any recalcitrance shown by Kim to the nuclear issue would have put an abrupt end to talk of reconciliation between North Korea and the rest of the world.

Now Im not so sure. The peace train is rolling in the Korean Peninsula. Countries like Canada that traditionally take their cue from the U.S. might want to hop aboard  even if Trump doesnt.

Thomas Walkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Follow him on Twitter: @tomwalkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Follow him on Twitter:

Read more about:Glenna Gardiner remembers the dull landscape image from childhood. As a kid she didnt understand why her dad cared so much about the painting, which he insisted was a Tom Thomson piece. When Gardiner got older, and learned how famous Thomson was, she assumed her dad had been joking about the pieces origins.

Turns out this is the real thing.

As Gardiner prepares to collect a small jackpot from the now-verified Thomson Sketch for Lake in Algonquin Park at an art auction in Toronto later this month, she recalls the paintings unusual journey to stardom.

I inherited it from my father. When he died there was a bunch of paintings leftover, and my sister took what she wanted, and I took the leftovers. This was one of the leftovers, she said.

Gardiner, a retired nurse, said the painting hung on the wall of her Edmonton home for several years after her father passed away in 2000, but it was eventually relegated to the basement, where it sat in a stack of old paintings.

But things changed when she and a friend re-organized her basement. Her friend, she said, insisted it could be worth something.

Gardiner was doubtful, but her friend persisted.

She kept after me because I didnt know who to link to to get it evaluated, she said.

So she gave it to her friend as a birthday gift.

I sent it to her as a gag and said she was the only person that had been interested and if it was worth anything wed go on a cruise. I had mailed it down, which I (later) discovered youre not supposed to do with a good painting.

Still convinced it was worth something, Gardiners friend took the painting to Heffel Fine Art Auction House in Vancouver where its authenticity was quickly verified.

Now in the hands of art experts, its expected to sell for $125,000 to $175,000, and thats a conservative estimate according to auction house vice president Robert Heffel.

A renowned Canadian landscape painter, Thomson did the small 18x25 centimetre sketch on site at Lake Algonquin in northeastern Ontario in 1912 or 1913, and later produced a larger version, which is now held by the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

Out in the field he would do the oil sketches, and the (larger) canvases were studio works, said Charlie Hill, a retired curator from the National Gallery of Canada.

Hill said discoveries like this are rare because most of Thomsons art is now accounted for. However, he thinks its likely a few more previously unknown Thomson pieces will surface in the coming years.

He was very productive during his brief career, so it seems inevitable that sketches will continue to show up, Hill said.

Heffel had the painting verified by the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa which found that a special paint called Freemans White, used only by Group of Seven up until 1920, was present in the sketch. Thomson has long been linked to the famous group of Canadian landscape painters.

Joan Murray, former curator for the Art Gallery of Ontario and the foremost expert in Thomson works, also verified the painting. Murray has spent 40 years cataloguing Thomsons art and speculated the Claremont, Ont., native would be surprised by how famous he has become.

If Thomson could only be alive today, he would die of shock, she said.

Gardiner said she has no misgivings about selling the painting. For the record, her friend returned the painting after it was assessed and the two remain close.

She decided it was really my painting and it belonged to my family. Talk about a good friend.

Theyre still planning that cruise and Gardiner said she also wants to buy a nice easy chair with some of the money from the sale. The rest, she said, shell give to her son.

I think my dad would be pleased that its sort of run its course. Im hopeful that it goes to some place more public, that more people can enjoy it, she said.

The painting will be on display in Toronto later this month, with the auction May 30 at Design Exchange on Bay St.

Correction: Previous versions of this story incorrectly stated where the auction will take place. It is in Toronto, not Vancouver.

Read more about:VANCOUVEREnvironmental groups in B.C. laid out their vision for B.C.s renewed environmental assessment process Wednesday.

They called for legislation that prioritizes sustainability, commits the province to meeting its climate targets, and recognizes First Nations as decision-makers.

All major projects in B.C. must go through an assessment that examines potential environmental, economic, social, heritage and health effects before they can be built, says the B.C. government.

The province announced plans in March to review that process for the first time in more than a decade.

It is expected to release a discussion paper outlining recommended changes for public comment by June.

We havent had a change in our environmental assessment legislation in B.C. since 2001 and those amendments significantly weakened the process, said Anna Johnston, a staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law Association.

So were long overdue for a revamping of environmental assessment in British Columbia.

Ahead of the upcoming public consultation period, 23 environmental, social, legal and community groups, including West Coast Environmental Law, have detailed the changes to the process theyre hoping to see.

Included are clear criteria and rules to ensure projects that are approved will contribute to sustainability.

Johnston said she wants to see a complete culture shift and more independence in how assessments are done.

In their vision for next-generation environmental assessment, the 23 organizations called for a body thats independent from government and industry to oversee the regime.

They also want to see more projects assessed.

Currently, only projects of a certain size are assessed. But Johnston noted smaller projects should be assessed too because their cumulative effects add up.

The other issue with a system that only assesses projects above a certain threshold is that it encourages proponents to set their projects just below the threshold that would trigger a review, she said.

Pat Moss, the executive director of the Northwest Institute, which conducts environmental research in northwest B.C., said the cumulative impacts of all projects in a region must also be considered.

Currently, assessments look at individual projects as if nothing else is happening, she said.

In areas such as northwest B.C. where multiple LNG projects have been proposed, there is a need for regional assessments that consider the impacts of a multitude of project proposals.

Climate change, she added, needs to be a fundamental consideration in project assessments going forward.

The groups are also calling for the province to implement the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and share decision-making authority with First Nations.

While the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs was not a signatory to the vision document released Wednesday, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip said First Nations consent-based decisions on resource projects are critical.

British Columbia is notorious for having the weakest environmental assessment oversight in the entire country. They have never rejected a major project, he said.

B.C. is in dire need of an environmental assessment overhaul, he said.

First Nations have said they arent opposed to major project development, they just want to make sure they have substantive input into decisions.

The new process must respect the rights of First Nations, which are both constitutionally protected and confirmed by the courts, Phillip said.

Otherwise were going to be at the barricades and in the court rooms for decades to come with all major projects.

In a statement in March, Environment Minister George Heyman said, Our government wants to ensure we have a process thats transparent, science-based, timely and provides early indications of the likelihood of success.

He added that the revitalization would contribute to his governments commitment to fully implement the UN Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Read more about:VANCOUVER  Its not easy to be a woman who makes less money than men in B.C.

On average, women in this province make 65 per cent of the hourly pay men do, and rank sixth out of Canadas 10 provinces for average annual wages. A Vancity study concluded this leads to greater levels of work-related stress for women in this province.

This comes as no surprise to activists and researchers who say B.C. has a long way to go to improve pay equity in this province. While Ontario this month became the first province to pass legislation that will require employers to report on gender pay gaps, B.C. is one of four provinces that still lacks any kind of pay equity legislation.

Compared to B.C., that puts Ontario ahead both on pay transparency and on pay equity, said Irene Lazinger, president of the BC Federation of Labour. We want to see pay equity legislation in BC  I think pay transparency legislation is a good companion piece.

Canadas Human Rights Act requires equal pay for work of equal value. In addition to that national requirement, six provinces (Quebec, Nova Scotia, Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and P.E.I.) have their own laws outlining standards employers must meet to ensure pay equity.

By the most recent data available, each of the provinces with pay equity legislation have lower gender wage gaps than the four provinces without pay equity legislation: B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

The province with the lowest wage gap is P.E.I., with women working full-time earning about 11 per cent less than men. Newfoundland does the worst, with women earning 29 per cent less. B.C. women make 23 per cent less than men.

Sylvia Fuller, an associate professor at UBC who specializes in work and labour, said B.C. has a lot of catch up to do on pay equality.

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Labour said theres no plan for that ministry to introduce pay equity legislation. Mitzi Dean, the Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equity, said in an email to StarMetro that Pay equity is an important issue for our government, and we know there is work to be done.

Dean said the governments minimum wage increases and parental leave policies were instances of the government supporting women in work through policy in other ways.

For pay transparency legislation to work to close the wage gap, Fuller said, it needs to have teeth  ways to hold employers who dont do well on wage equity to account.

Ontarios new legislation will require employers to track compensation gaps based on gender and other diversity characteristics, post the results in their workplaces, and report them to the province. Coupled with the new rule prohibiting recourse for employees who discuss their compensation between them, Fuller said the law could arm women with knowledge to help them bargain for pay increases.

Thats a good starting point for people to say: what are we doing wrong? Fuller said. But she also thinks the law falls short of having teeth.

Ideally this information should be publicly available, rather than available internally within workplaces. It brings public scrutiny to the issue, she said.

But for that to happen, Fuller thinks there needs to be a culture shift in favour of greater transparency.

When youre introducing new legislation you also need to have a public education campaign about it, she said. We need to get to a point where people are talking, about pay gaps, she said.

Read more:

Enough talk about closing the gender pay gap. Its high time for action

Low wages, small workforce leaves booming B.C. restaurants without chefs

Broaden labour market stats to include job quality indicators, advocate says

Read more about:VANCOUVER  Those who want to replace our voting system in B.C. hold a double-digit lead over supporters of the current electoral system, a new province-wide poll has found.

But while 57 per cent of British Columbians want proportional representation  in which the number of seats more closely reflects the popular vote  theyre split over the B.C. NDPs path toward a referendum on a still-undetermined question this fall, according to an Angus Reid Institute survey released Wednesday.

Only 43 per cent of respondents support the current first-past-the-post voting system. Unlike the two previous referenda that required 60 per cent to pass, the NDP has stated the vote will require a simple majority.

Support for proportional representation is very different depending on your political perspective, said Shachi Kurl, the Institutes executive director, in a phone interview. If you are a B.C. Liberal voter, youre far more likely to be vehemently opposed to a change in electoral systems than if youre a past NDP or Green voter.

One area where voters are split on the issue is how the NDP is going about setting up the referendum. Faced with B.C. Liberal accusations the government is trying to bring in a system that favours the NDP, just over half polled said they trust the province to come up with a ballot question thats fair  and just under half did not have faith in a fair question.

Thats not the only area that B.C. remains deeply divided one year after the razor-tight 2017 election, when the B.C. Liberals lost their majority after 16 years in power by a mere 1,566 votes.

According to the wide-ranging survey, B.C. is also split on a wide range of issues, with stark polarization between its coastal urban centres and the Interior, as well as divisions over what respondents said were the top issues  housing affordability was most important to half in B.C.; followed by the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which was top issue for four-in-ten respondents.

The polarization of British Columbians on almost every key ballot question in the province today is really quite breathtaking, Kurl said.

One thing many respondents did agree on, however: the largest group, representing 42 per cent, think B.C. is on the wrong track, while just 29 per cent say its on the right track. (A similar number said they arent sure.)

But there isnt even consensus among those folks about why the province is headed in the wrong direction, Kurl noted. Perhaps predictably, a large majority (69 per cent) of B.C. Liberal voters overwhelmingly disapprove of the NDPs direction.

But of the NDP and Greens own supporters, only 49 and 39 per cent respectively felt the province was headed in the right direction, even though the minority NDP is governing thanks to an alliance with the Greens.

This government is carrying the expectations of a lot of people, Kurl said. Obviously, some havent seen the kind of change they were looking for.

For instance, B.C. Liberal voters opposed the NDPs efforts to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline, but even some of the NDP and Green backers felt B.C. hadnt done enough.

More Greens opposed the B.C. governments pipeline handling (51 per cent) than support it (44 per cent).

Just 54 per cent of NDP voters supported their governments handling of Kinder Morgan; a significant minority  four-in-ten  said they dont approve.

Overall on the pipeline, the B.C. NDP drew most praise in the City of Vancouver, where 52 per cent backed its stance. But everywhere else, more than half opposed the government handling on the issue, most strongly outside the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. In the rest of B.C., 65 per cent disapproved of the NDP, and just 28 per cent support it.

Another divide was generational: voters over 55 years old tended to oppose the NDPs pipeline approach, compared to younger voters under 34 years old.

However, Premier John Horgan holds a far higher approval rating than B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson, who has a 26-point approval to Horgans 47 per cent. And one-in-three British Columbians approve of Green leader Andrew Weaver, who holds the balance of power in the province.

The survey of 809 adults had a margin of error of 3.4 per cent, and was conducted May 4-7.

Read more about:VANCOUVERThirty-eight years into helping women in northern British Columbia who are just released from jail, Karen Underhill still feels the fear of imagining them standing alone on the Highway of Tears, uncertain whether theyll even make it back to their home, which are sometimes hundreds of kilometres away.

Sentenced for a range of crimes, often the women are escorted by sheriffs to the Prince George Regional Correctional Centre from small towns or Indigenous communities, such as Smithers or Terrace, with no facilities of their own.

The towns dot British Columbias frozen and forested north and the women must make their way back to them after being released from jail. Upon release, they are given a Greyhound ticket home and left to their own devices.

Some stranded women tell Underhill they intend to hitchhike back to their towns connected by Hwy. 16, also known as the Highway of Tears. The highway is 720 kilometres of pavement running through northern B.C. It is the scene of at least 18 unsolved murders or disappearances of women, many who were thought to be hitchhiking when they disappeared. Some groups say more than 30 women are thought to be missing or murdered.

Many of the released women are troubled with mental health or addiction issues and have a history of being physically or sexually abused, Underhill said.

If we said no to them, theyd be on our streets, Underhill said. Theyd be missing.

About two to three times a week, her job is to provide a safety net for released women at the Phoenix Transition Society in Prince George, a 10-room shelter for women fleeing abuse or trying to straighten their lives where Underhill is executive director.

Dozens of women each year end up staying a while. Others only stop by long enough to down a cup of coffee and make a phone call before leaving for the Greyhound station to catch a bus home.

Its then she begins to worry about them.

Where our Greyhound is, we have a liquor store, we have a hangout, we have people waiting for people, Underhill said.

Women regularly miss their bus or become too intoxicated while waiting and arent allowed on, she said. Because the tickets are only valid on their release date, suddenly the women find themselves stranded in Prince George. Sometimes the women sell tickets for quick cash.

Often, they come back to Phoenix for help or they bounce around the city and get into more trouble, Underhill said, including ending up back in jail for breaching their release conditions.

We know they didnt get on the bus when they show up three days later, she said.

Its a problem that is expected to worsen as Greyhound reduces service to its northern routes, cutting off some towns entirely. BC Corrections said it is actively looking for a solution to transport released inmates back to remote areas.

The department stressed it makes considered efforts to ensure those released from a facility have a means to get home and a means to reintegrate, including working with Indigenous groups. Prisoners are sometimes also released at times coinciding with their bus departure. Provincial Health Services will become involved where mental illness is a factor.

BC Corrections doesnt track the number of tickets it purchases but said in 2017 it spent $33,500 on bus tickets for prisoners being released from the Prince George facility.

Its not just women who are affected. Defence lawyers and advocates in the north said men are also becoming stranded after being released from jail and falling back into drugs or alcohol rather than going home.

Kamloops, B.C.-based criminal and human rights lawyer Bill Sundhu travels to the remote islands of Haida Gwaii regularly to defend clients.

Many of his clients make the 800-kilometre journey to Prince George escorted by sheriffs via plane and then a van to serve time, he said. When released, they get a bus ticket to Prince Rupert and must rely on a ferry to get back to the islands.

Bus service cuts could strand even more released inmates Mandatory minimum sentences are causing some prisoners to become stranded in Prince George upon release. Lawyers and advocates say they could be serving their time in their home communities instead. To Whitehorse BRITISH COLUMBIA ALBERTA ALASKA Dawson Creek Fort Saint James Hwy 16 Prince Rupert Houston HAIDA GWAII Prince George Valemount Closing bus routes To Whitehorse Dawson Creek Hwy 16 Prince Rupert Houston Prince George HAIDA GWAII Valemount BRITISH COLUMBIA Closing bus routes Distance from Prince George In km In hours Haida Gwaii 941 km 18 hrs, 30 min (including ferry) Prince Rupert 718 km 8 hrs, 16 min Dawson Creek 403 km 4 hrs, 30 min Houston 307 km 3 hrs, 30 min Valemount 292 km 3 hrs, 50 min Source: Google maps, hellobc.com

Sometimes they become stranded waiting for ferries  which dont run every day  and fall back into alcohol and drugs, he said. Hes seen some prisoners make the tedious trip to Prince George to serve as little as nine days.

According to Sundhu, other lawyers and advocates, many never should have been sent from their communities, blaming mandatory minimum penalties forcing them to leave when instead they could serve conditional sentences in their towns.

Its a profound failure of our minister of justice and this government, Sundhu said. Addressing mandatory minimums was in the mandate letters that the minister of justice got when she received her appointment in 2015.

He said the justice system moves slowly and sometimes between conviction and sentencing, a person can have their life back on track but is sent to jail by a reluctant judge forced to hand down the sentence anyway, upending their progress.

Sundhu wants federal Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to follow through on her governments commitment to re-examine the minimums. In 2015, the new federal Liberal government said it would examine the effectiveness of such minimums. Nearly three years later most remain, frustrating opposition party members and advocates.

The minimums have drawn fire from judges and lawyers alike. Some argue they are unconstitutional and dont deter crime, which proponents say is the purpose.

Mandatory minimums have long existed in Canada for some serious crimes, such as first-degree murder, but under Stephen Harpers Conservative government, the number of such sentences steadily increased. Some of them deal with repeat offenders and apply to crimes such as betting and drunk driving, according to the Department of Justice.

Of the 256 Charter challenges being tracked by the Department of Justice, 68 per cent are related to mandatory minimums.

Peter MacKay, a former attorney general for the Conservative government, said minimum sentences brought in when he was in government mostly apply to violent, sexual or gun crimes. He said the penalties were meant to reflect societys dim and serious view of certain offences.

That was the intention, lets be clear, he said, to send a message of deterrence generally, and specific deterrence to the individual and to like-minded individuals, these crimes are not dealt with by way of a slight tap or a slap on the wrist.

MacKay said he doesnt believe arguments the sentences dont deter crime. They arent a new construct, he said, pointing out Pierre Trudeau introduced some when he was prime minister.

Ian McLeod at the Department of Justice said the review of the sentences is ongoing. McLeod pointed out since 2015 the Supreme Court of Canada has struck down three such sentences, including those related to gun crime and drug trafficking.

But Kim Pate, an independent senator from Ontario, said reform isnt moving fast enough. Some laws have been overturned by courts while others havent because of incomplete information. Meanwhile Parliament hasnt tabled anything to fix it, Pate said.

The reality is elected officials are about getting elected. And theres a view addressing mandatory minimums or repealing them, or a lot of the crime bill issues are not popular and the public wouldnt support them, she said. My experience tells me the opposite, actually  if you can give a clear, cogent explanation for why something doesnt make any sense.

Pate aims to table legislation in the Senate by the end of this month to deal with the issue by giving judges more discretion to not impose the sentences. Prior to her Senate appointment, Pate worked for years in the penal system, including the Elizabeth Fry Society. She remains an advocate for women prisoners, many of whom are Indigenous.

She said, taxpayers arent fools and would rather not pay the costs associated with incarcerating people for extended periods of time.

Back in Prince George, where there could always be more resources at Phoenix house, its all out of Underhills hands. She said what would help her the most is some extra funding so outreach workers could accompany women just released from prison and encourage them to board their buses home.

But even then she said theres no guarantees the women she sees would get on the bus.

We just take that deep breath hoping she got the bus, Underhill said, and then deal with it in the morning if she missed her bus.

Correction - May 10, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Hwy. 16 is the scene of at least 18 unsolved murders. In fact, it is the scene of at least 18 unsolved murders or disappearances of women.

Read more about:Gina Haspel during her Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing. Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Gina Haspel, President Trumps pick to lead the CIA, told Senators Wednesday that she would not reinstate the brutal torture program the agency ran at black sites after 9/11, pledging to put her moral beliefs ahead of any immoral orders.

I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if it was technically legal, Haspel said. I would absolutely not permit it.

Given Haspels time running a black site in Thailand though, Senators were predictably eager to have her define her morality. Haspel didnt bite.

Asked by Virginia Senator Mark Warner to define her moral code, Haspel would only insist that her moral compass is strong. When New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich asked if the torture techniques used by the CIA at black sites were moral, she said that she supports the stricter moral standard the U.S. has decided to hold itself to. Asked why her morals didnt prevent her from carrying out immoral orders during the Bush administration, Haspel essentially said she was just following orders when she ran the black site where Fatima Boudchar was tortured. The Morocco-born Boudchar wrote about her time at the Thai prison in the Times this week:

I have no idea how long I was in the Thai secret prison because no one would let me sleep. The cell was white and stark, with nothing in it but a camera and hooks on the wall. The masked abductors were waiting. I was terrified. They chained me to the hooks. Because I was midway through my pregnancy, I could barely move or sit.

Some of what they did to me in that prison was so awful I cant talk about it. They hit me in the abdomen just where the baby was. To move me, they bound me to a stretcher from head to toe, like a mummy. I was sure I would shortly be killed.

California Senator Kamala Harris pushed Haspel to denounce torture. The president has asserted that torture works, the California Democrat said. Do you agree with that statement?

Senator, I  I dont believe that torture works, Haspel said, before suggesting that it might have worked in the aftermath of 9/11. I believe that in the CIAs program, and Im not attributing this to enhanced interrogation techniques  valuable information was obtained from senior Al Qaeda operatives.

Is that a yes? Harris asked.

No, its not a yes. We got valuable information from debriefing of Al Qaeda detainees, and I dont think its knowable whether interrogation techniques played a role in that, Haspel said.

Despite her pledges to abide by a strict moral code, Haspel did not take the opportunity to say she would not waterboard a suspect if so ordered.

If the CIA has a high-value terrorism suspect in its custody and the President gave you a direct order to waterboard that terrorist, what would you do? Maine Senator Susan Collins asked.

I do not believe the president would ask me to do that, she said.

She may be alone in that belief. Trump has repeatedly endorsed waterboarding, even suggesting that the U.S. should do a hell of a lot worse during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Despite her less-than-ideal showing with Democrats, Haspel won the public support of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, not long after the hearing ended. With Kentucky Senator Rand Paul declaring his intention to vote against Haspel and Senator John McCains absence from Washington, the GOP needs to pick up at least one Democratic vote to confirm the 61-year-old CIA veteran. With Manchin in the fold, the votes are there, as long as no other Republicans defect.VANCOUVERDisasters such as last summers wildfires, floods, lightning storms and landslides are the new normal consequences of climate change and British Columbia is ill-equipped to protect the public, according to an external review in response to last years floods and the wildfires that tore through the province.

The report dropped the same day that thousands of people were ordered to evacuate from South Central B.C. due to flooding.

Former cabinet minister George Abbott, who co-authored the report containing 108 recommendations on how to prepare for future devastation, said the province would need to allow the public to join the fight in future disasters.

They are equipped to help in lots of cases, Abbott said. Thats what we believe B.C. should be encouraging: partnership.

The resources of BC Wildfire Service were stretched well, well beyond their limits  having trained and equipped allies on the land base can only be helpful.

In an interview, he said the province simply couldnt cope with the magnitude of the threat  and that our emergency services are still not resourced enough for the danger coming our way.

2017 was by no means an anomaly or a one-off, Abbott said. It is something that we have to prepare for every year. There is a world of evidence that climate change is impacting us in a series of profound ways.

Last year, these shortfalls hampered efforts to mitigate damage, he said. The situation was made worse by an out-of-date paper-based system for handling and compensating evacuees, causing incredible frustration for thousands of people left out-of-pocket as they fled.

Province-wide, 65,000 people were evacuated in what became the worst fire season of the past 100 years. Hundreds of those evacuees came from the Cache Creek and Ashcroft region.

Abbott  once minister of sustainable resource management  is not being facetious when he refers to his five-month tour of disaster-affected towns and cities across B.C. as his fire and brimstone tour.

He was commissioned for the independent review by the provincial government last year, along with Chief Maureen Chapman, of the Skawahlook First Nation.

Doug Donaldson, minister of forest, lands and natural resource operations, told reporters his government has already started preparations for 2018 flood and fire season, and is already implementing 19 of the reports 108 recommendations  thanks to $50 million budgeted over three years for wildfire prevention and risk-reduction.

On July 7, 2017, a barrage of 170 lightning strikes in the Cariboo region sparked an outbreak of 160 fires.

That was a really pivotal date, Abbott explained. It was simply not possible for BC Wildfire Service to address all those 160 fires immediately; theres just not enough manpower, theres not enough aircraft, theres not enough resources to manage that magnitude of threat.

The effects of the fires can still be seen  and felt  this year as residents are forced to evacuate due to flooding thats been exacerbated by water-absorbing plants being wiped from the landscape. Already, thousands of people have been forced from their homes to escape rising waters and the flood risk has increased through April as more snow fell at higher elevations.

On a ridge overlooking the Cache Creek airport, you can still smell the soot. When this area burned last summer, the Elephant Hill fire was just getting started, scorching more than 1,900 square kilometres of wilderness. The fire also tore through 120 buildings and residences around the towns of Ashcroft and Cache Creek, where insurance claims hit $27 million.

Elephant Hill was so big that it and the even larger Hanceville-Riske Creek fire to the north accounted for $127 million in insurance claims alone.

Almost a year and a winters worth of snow later, the Elephant Hill fire is technically still active  a potential threat to locals who hoped the nightmare was over.

Boston Flats resident Marianne Rumball said the fire swept in with no warning  and no official evacuation call.

They didnt have enough people, Rumball said. They didnt have enough firefighters. BC Wildfire thought the fire was out.

Al Starkburg learned his home was destroyed when his daughter called him five days after he fled Boston Flats.

She said, Dad, Im watching it on the news. Your house is gone, he said. It would be almost another month before he was able to go back to the site and start sifting through the ashes.

Rumball and Starkburg agree there needs to be a better system in place to decide when evacuations are necessary and to ensure people know early on.

It should be like the old air-raid sirens, Starkburg said.

Warming temperatures and more extreme weather are predicted to increase the number of major wildfire-starting lightning storms  at the same time the changing climate causes more landslides, more wildfires and greater ice melt flowing over drier land thats more susceptible to flooding. The fires torch water-absorbing plants from the landscape, worsening floods.

In the Kootenay Boundary region, more than 2,500 residents have been ordered to leave the Grand Forks area  from Christina Lake to Greenwood  in the past two days as floodwaters reached levels not seen since 1948. Water levels were expected to continue rising overnight, while a boil water advisory was also issued in the region as rapid snowmelt and heavy rains threatened water quality.

Another 54 properties were ordered to evacuate in the Okanagan-Similkameen regional district, after both the Town of Osoyoos and the district declared local states of emergency in response to flooding along the Similkameen River.

Theres already been multiple flood alerts and evacuations, some people are already living through 2018 floods, Abbott said. Is there reason for apprehension? Absolutely. The great bulk of the snow melt is yet to come.

Abbott said the province should adopt a registration system so landowners, ranchers, First Nations and forestry contractors can be reached by emergency authorities and know what equipment and capacity they have to help on the ground.

With emergency responders stretched well, well beyond their limits, Abbott said its time to consider a return to the era before the 1970s when ranchers, forestry contractors and others on the land were directly involved in fighting wildfires.

Abbott argues such partnerships are essential to preventing worsening wildfires from overwhelming authorities. Still, that doesnt mean British Columbians should defy mandatory evacuation orders.

Unless youre able to stand and fight fires, you really should get out of harms way, he said. However, there were a significant number of people in 2017  First Nations, ranchers, farmers, logging contractors  who rather than evacuate did stay and did fight those fires.

Those people were able to address the fires when they were small, Abbott said; the province should not only be encouraging their efforts but registering and training them, too.

Thinking of her trailer park tenants, Rumball said it was the underinsured who were left in the lurch after the fires. She said five families from the trailer park still have no permanent home.

For those with no insurance, the Red Cross and other agencies sprang into action to help, Rumball said. At the other end of the spectrum, those with adequate insurance were ultimately made whole again, though not without a lot of haggling over the past year.

But those in the middle, who had some insurance but not enough, were left holding the bag, Rumball said. One of Abbotts recommendations is for insurance companies to offer incentives for homeowners who wildfire-proof their properties, including fire-resistant walls and fire-activated outdoor sprinkler systems.

Read more about:GRAFTON  A country superstar readily accepted an invitation to perform for a good cause requested by a good friend.

Mickey and I have been working together for thirty-plus years, promoter Ron Young said of Mickey Gilley, who is taking the Historic Boat Works at The Loading Dock stage Friday, June 8, for An Evening With Mickey Gilley.

Ron Young Nashville Productions brought Gilley to Godfrey four years ago as a benefit for 5As no-kill animal shelter in Alton; this time 100 percent of the proceeds from the upcoming concert will benefit the Grafton Police Department.

Now, audiences are in for a treat when Gilley performs in Grafton, of which he had never heard until Young asked him to do the show.

I told him just follow me there, Young recalled to The Telegraph.

Gilley essentially told his life story candidly and with humour through music and classic images projected overhead when he played the Godfrey show. Hes prone to tell of his experiences with his cousins Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggart, who he said have been great influences throughout his life, especially Lewis in his musical career.

Gilley, now himself in his 80s, played at Lewis and Clark Community College in the decade of the 80s when Young, of Godfrey, arranged a show.

As of this month, I am celebrating thirty-six years in the music industry. Ive worked with a lot of entertainers in these years, said Young, who also spent 25 years working in law enforcement. I heard the Grafton Police Department was looking for a fundraiser, I approached the city, stepped up to the plate and put in $2,000 of my own money to make this happen. Being previously law enforcement myself, I know how it is to need something and be short on funds to get it.

Grafton is not only a first for Gilley, but the concert is a first for the Grafton Chamber of Commerce, which is the lead sponsor of a live show by such a well-known, beloved superstar.

Its a community effort; the chamber took the lead to make sure the logistics were handled, Grafton Chamber of Commerce President Jamie Clayton said to The Telegraph. From the city of Grafton to the businesses and volunteers, if it wasnt for them, we couldnt do the show. These are the shows Mickey Gilley likes to do  shows that benefit causes and organizations.

Over the years, Young has worked with Aaron Tippin; Johnny Paycheck; John Conlee; Tommy Cash, the brother of Johnny Cash; Little River Band; and, Molly Hatchet, who is being brought to Altons Macs Time Out during Altons Fourth of July celebration Tuesday, July 3, by Ron Young Nashville Productions, in conjunction with Macs.

I feel great doing a first show in Grafton, with the country music legend plus a special guest, and her name is Little Miss County, Young noted.

Gilley is known as the original Urban Cowboy for his appearance in the 1980 movie, Urban Cowboy, which also used his famous former club, Gilleys, in Pasadena, Texas, as its central location.

Room Full of Roses became Gilleys first hit in 1974, when it broke open his career. A fan at the LCCC show four years ago brought Gilley a red rose with babys breath, which he accepted from the stage.

Gilley scored 39 Top 10 country hits, with 17 reaching the number one spot on charts. His hits include Dont The Girls Get Prettier at Closing Time, Bring It On Home to Me, Headache Tomorrow, Heartache Tonight, Lonely Nights and a remake of Stand By Me.

Gilley continues to overcome challenges to perform for his fans. One such challenge includes recovering from an accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. He was told hed never walk again, but within two years he regained the ability to walk and use his hands almost as before.

I enjoy performing and singing as much these days as I ever have, Gilley recently said.

Proceeds from the show will help Grafton police overcome some immediate challenges, such as funds for radios and safety apparel to replace used jackets, gun belts and other support items. The funds raised will not be used to pay salaries, overtime or purchase vehicles, Clayton said.

Doors will open for An Evening With Mickey Gilley at 7 p.m. for general admission seating; the show will begin at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at www.ticketweb.com; The Loading Dock in Grafton; or, by calling the Grafton Chamber President Jamie Clayton at 618-567-9646.

An Evening With Mickey Gilley is sponsored by the Grafton Chamber of Commerce, the city of Grafton and Ron Young Nashville Productions.

Reach Jill Moon at 618-208-6448 and Twitter @jill_moon.ALTON  Aldermen unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday that sets a public hearing regarding the city potentially asking voters this fall if it should abolish Alton Township.

Alderwoman Tammy Smith, 4th Ward, had voted no in committee Monday, concerned about continuation of general assistance services. Once assured at the Alton Township trustees meeting Wednesday that the services would continue, she voted in favor of the two identical resolutions at that session, and at the subsequent, City Council meeting.

The services still would be maintained, it doesnt have to be in the same building, Alton Township Supervisor Don Huber said.

The public hearing will be held during the regular City Council meeting at 6:30 p.m., June 13, in Alton City Council Chambers, 101 E. Third St.

Following that step, an alderman would have to refer a resolution to committee for a recommendation vote; then the resolution would go to the City Council for a final vote on placing the question on the Nov. 6 General Election ballot.

The city has until Aug. 20 to pass the resolution and file papers with the Madison County Clerks Office in order to get the question on the ballot. The results of the election would be binding, as opposed to some previous advisory ballot questions in Alton.

Some aldermen, who also serve as township trustees because the city and township are coterminous  with the same boundaries  have expressed concerns about cost of maintaining the township. Alton Township has two offices  the supervisor, which oversees operations and provides general assistance services, and the assessor.

According to the Madison County Clerks office, the township will levy $643,695.97 for the 2017 property tax year. Of that, $164,222.48 is for general assistance, stop-gap help for citizens needing emergency funds.

Even if the township is abolished, the supervisor and assessor would finish their four-year, elected terms in office unless they retire. Hubers term ends in May 2021; Assessor Julie Campbells term expires Dec. 31, 2021.

The resolution that aldermen approved Wednesday says if voters approve the township dissolution, the city would take over the offices responsibilities, but officials have not worked out those details.

While no one spoke on the township issue, the mayors yearly appointments drew fire from one alderman, namely the re-appointment of Deputy Police Chief Terry Buhs.

He approached me and my wife to discuss his lack of residency, why he did not have to live in the city of Alton, 3rd Ward Alderman Michael Velloff said. Velloff, who said Buhs still lives in Brighton, said Buhs told him he owns more property in Alton than Velloff, and so pays more property taxes than the alderman and so does not have to live in the city.

The alderman also said Buhs questioned Velloffs wife, who works for the University City (Missouri) School District, if she cares about the city where she works, where she grew up and where her mother still lives.

Velloff said his wife told Buhs, Im not required to live in the community where I work. Velloff said Buhs address online, on a police callout list and with the citys personnel office all show the same Brighton location.

Terry does not live in the city, the city code requires him to move here within 90 days, Velloff said. It hasnt happened, it is still not going to happen.

Velloff had moved to pull out Buhs and Police Chief Jason Jake Simmons reapointments, and obtained a second, so the Council would vote on them separate from the long list of other reappointments.

Vote was 6-1 on the two police reappointments, with Velloff casting no votes each time.

After the meeting, Buhs declined to comment on Velloffs allegations.

Mayor Brant Walker then told a Telegraph reporter that Buhs had taken out an occupancy permit for a home in Alton on Aug. 9, 2017  just short of 90 days after the May 10 contentious meeting when the mayor first appointed Buhs. The votes on Simmons and Buhs appointments that evening both were 4-3.

Walker said after Buhs got the occupancy permit and building inspection, he forgot to file the paperwork with the personnel office to show he is an Alton resident.

It was a clerical error, Walker said.

Walker would not say on which property Buhs has an occupancy permit, citing city policy not to disclose addresses of police officers.

The slate of other re-appointments was nearly identical to that of May 2017, with the exception of Bud Hinners as electrical inspector and Ethan Hausman as plumbing inspector.

The position of deputy fire chief, though, was not filled to replace Mark Harris, who is retiring. Harris, who was hired at AFD in 1991, was not at the meeting and has declined Telegraph requests for an interview on his career. The position reportedly will remain open until this fall, when a fire academy has openings for any new firefighters that Alton hires, and AFD promotions likely would follow.

Aldermen also unanimously approved committee/commission/board appointments and re-appointments in another omnibus vote, as follows: James Killion Beautification Enhancement Committee: Monica Semnacher and Cas Sheppard; Alton Community Relations Committee: the Rev. Wade Dobson and Sarah Robertson; Historical Commission: Deanna Barnes; Police Pension Fund, Kirby Ontis; and Appearance Review Commission, Margaret Hopkins.

The Council only had one ordinance up for vote on the agenda, setting a no parking zone on the north side of the 1600 block of Greenwood Street.

The panel also unanimously approved resolutions effecting permission for officials to: pay a $773.85 bill to Halpin Music from the Municipal Band fund; sign a 10-year, $1 per year lease with Chris Bohn for a vacant, city-owned lot at 26 E. Sixth St., payable in advance; amend city traffic code allowing a stop sign on Fourth Street at the intersection of George Street for eastbound and westbound traffic, and eliminate a stop sign on Third Street at Langdon Street; and pursue the legal process to effect demolition of a derelict house at 1432 Thorpe St.

Reach Linda N. Weller at 618-208-6450 or on Twitter @Linda_WellerEAST ALTON  Work on Berkshire Boulevard, the third of four major street projects lined up for the village of East Alton, will be delayed after the bidding process returned no suitable bids.

Work was expected to begin soon on the project, which will include patching and street overlay, as well as work to the sidewalks and curbs along the road, but only one bid was received before bids were opened on April 28. The bid, for $662,428.71 from DMS Contracting Inc. of Mascoutah, was considerably over the budget for the project, according to Sheppard, Morgan & Schwaab engineer Dave Godar.

Engineers made some minor changes to the project in hopes of garnering more interest in the next round of bidding, which wont happen until June.

Weve got our fingers crossed that well get a better bid next time, Godar said.

Despite the delay, East Alton Mayor Joe Silkwood said the hope is to still begin work later this summer.

The project is a shared undertaking with Madison County and the Illinois Department of Transportation, which will fund 75 percent of the work through federal Surface Transportation Program (STP) funds, which are administered by the state by way of the Federal Highway Administration. The other 25 percent is being provided by Madison County.

East Alton paid roughly $88,000 for design engineering for the project, and another estimated $62,000 will be paid for construction engineering. The villages Motor Fuel Tax fund will cover both costs.

Motor Fuel Tax funds, which are distributed to municipalities by the state, have a number of different uses, including purchasing salt, stoplight repairs, patching potholes and sidewalk repairs, but when discussing the project in February Silkwood said being able to do a half-million dollar project without putting any burden back on the taxpayers was an efficient use of the money.

The undertaking is the third such project for the village in recent years. Two years ago, Shamrock Avenue was the beneficiary; last year, East Alton Avenue was done.

The Berkshire Boulevard work has been on the books for about four years, Silkwood said. Next year, the village will turn its focus to Franklin Avenue. Preliminary work and design engineering have already begun on that project, according to Silkwood.

Spring clean-up approaching

April showers bring May flowers, and May brings a new feature to the village  a spring clean-up event.

Silkwood said the week of May 21 will be the villages spring clean-up in which residents can put out bulk items and general rubbish and junk not suitable for garbage pickup. Items such as electronics, tires, shingles, car parts, concrete, or hazardous materials like oil, paint or asbestos wont be taken.

A lot of residents have expressed interest in (a clean-up event), Silkwood said.

The bulk item pick-up will coincide with residents normal trash days.

Reach managing editor Nathan Grimm at 618-208-6456.SPRINGFIELD  A movement is afoot to get President Donald Trump to pardon former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Former Illinois First Lady Patti Blagojevich is saying her husband is the victim of FBI targeting, something she apparently believes Trump can identify with.

Its not necessarily an ineffective strategy on her part, but it certainly would be bad public policy if Blagojevich were to get special treatment.

The man belongs in prison. He was sentenced to 14 years and he has served six.

Yes, I can sympathize with the Blagojevich family. Im sure his wife, Patti, and his two daughters miss him. But sadly, its a very American story. More than 1.57 million men and women sit in this nations prisons and jails. Thats a national disgrace.

We imprison a greater percentage of our citizens than any other industrialized nation. And sadly, the politicians who give out pardons seem much more concerned about the former politicians wanting pardons than about the other 1.5 million people.

Look no further than Blagojevichs predecessor in the U.S. House of Representatives, Daniel Rostenkowski. After going to prison, President Bill Clinton decided to pardon the once-powerful congressman. And then there is Mel Reynolds, a former congressman who was convicted of statutory rape and bank fraud. Clinton used his pardon pen to spring him from the can, too.

And Richard Nixon pardoned labor leader Jimmy Hoffa. And Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon. And Ronald Reagan pardoned corrupt former Maryland Gov. Marvin Mandel. And Trump pardoned Joseph Arpaio, the former tough-guy sheriff and current Arizona U.S. Senate candidate.

You get the idea. If you want to get a pardon, it sure helps to have once been someone important.

I had a front-row seat on Rod Blagojevichs political self-immolation during his six years in office. During my 30 years in the news business, Ive been lied to by the best of them, but he took political prevarication to a whole new level.

Blagojevich lied so much that he makes Bruce Rauner seem like a piker. And folks, thats saying something.

Blagojevich is a man who blended arrogance with incompetence to create the most corrupt administration in the states history.

A lot of folks will remember Blagojevich for his dishonesty, most famously for trying to sell a U.S. Senate seat.

For me, it was the smaller slights that are the most memorable. A couple of years ago I listed a number of these in this column. Shortly after I published the list, I received a nasty note from Patti Blagojevich defending her husband.

Ill spare you the details by just saying denial aint just a river in Egypt.

That said, it has to be hard for his wife and children to carry a surname synonymous with corruption. Its not as if a Blagojevich can blend into the background like a Smith, Jones or Anderson.

Rod Blagojevich has pretty much exhausted his appeals.

Hes a man sinking in quicksand and running out of vines to grasp. A pardon looks like his only hope to leave prison early.

I understand why he wants to go home and I understand why his family wants him home. But I dont understand why society would want to cut this guy a break.

The best argument Ive heard is that this sort of wheeling and dealing is just part of the political process and Blagojevichs offenses are no different than what other politicians do.

Sorry, Gov. Blagojevichs actions were worse than just about anything Ive seen in the nearly 30 years Ive been covering Illinois politics.

And, yes, there is a lot of corruption in Illinois politics. But just because there are a lot of corrupt politicians, doesnt mean we shouldnt adequately punish any of them.

Rod Blagojevich should serve every minute the judge gave him.

Scott Reeder is a veteran statehouse journalist. He works as a freelance reporter in the Springfield area and produces the podcast Suspect Convictions.A

statement of faith should describe your Christian faith and how you see it as

relevant to your involvement with IJM. The statement can either be incorporated

into the cover letter or submitted as a separate document and should include,

at a minimum, a description of your spiritual disciplines (prayer, study, etc.)

and your current fellowship or place of worship.Mengo Hospital wasfounded in 1897 in Kampala, and is the oldest hospital in Uganda. It currentlyserves as an urban community hospital that provides modern medical care. MengoHospital provides comprehensive care including radiology, obstetrics,dentistry, orthopedics, and surgery. Additionally, Mengo Hospital providescritical training and education to health professionals through its variousprograms in midwifery and nursing, health sciences, and laboratory technology.Mengo Hospital also has a dedicated research and development team that works tofind new solutions to health issues in Uganda.How the West was lost. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Europe cant keep doing this. All of this. Its the same charade, over and over:

1) The United States threatens to do something mindlessly destructive.

2) European leaders meet with the monstrous clown the American people chose to represent them.

3) They try to reason with the nightmare caricature of Yankee chauvinism; then to flatter to him; finally, they beg him, as though asking the U.S. not to sabotage its own interests is some kind of favor.

4) He pretends to consider their perspective  then does whatever he thinks his fellow Fox News viewers want him to do.

So it was with the Paris climate accord, the steel and aluminum tariffs, the embassy in Jerusalem, and finally, this week, the Iran nuclear agreement.

That last one might just be unforgivable. Less than three years ago, the U.S. promised Britain, France, and Germany that it would suspend sanctions on companies and countries that did business with Iran, so long as Tehran suspended its nuclear weapons program. British, French, and German firms proceeded to make investments and forge business relationships in Iran. The Iranian regime ditched its highly enriched uranium, tolerated an invasive inspection program, and fully complied with its obligations under the agreement. The United States denies none of this.

But it has decided to break its word, and reimpose sanctions on its allies anyway. Europe was willing to address Americas concerns  to forge some side agreement to combat Tehrans ballistic missile program, or deter its interventions throughout the Middle East. But the bizarre philistine whom the Americans chose to lead them had no interest: He preferred to sabotage a viable nonproliferation agreement, strand European assets in Iran, and undermine Americas credibility on the world stage ostensibly, just so he could go on television and announce the death of his predecessors signature diplomatic achievement.

Its just too much. Transatlantic relationships are supposed to be two-way streets. Europe is a full-grown political and economic union, with the worlds largest economy, best museums, and a respectable stash of nuclear weapons  it deserves better than this.

Such is the mood in Brussels this week, where EU leaders are determined to thwart Donald Trump, save the Iran deal, and, perhaps, begin formulating a new foreign policy that might allow the bloc to assert more independence from the basket case on the other side of the Atlantic.

At this point, we have to replace the United States, which as an international actor has lost vigor, and because of it, in the long term, influence, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, told Belgiums Flemish regional parliament.

Meanwhile, a senior adviser to the European Union told the New York Times that Trump and Europe have fundamentally different objectives, and we have to stop being wimps. Other officials called for putting more teeth into talks with Washington, and asked, Cant we defend what our own interests are?

Alas, that question might be less rhetorical than it sounds. The foreign ministers of Britain, France, and Germany are preparing to meet with Iranian officials on Monday to determine how the agreement can be preserved without the United States cooperation. The fundamental challenge is finding a way to ensure that Iran still derives enough economic benefits from the agreement to override its interest in pursuing a nuclear weapon. European politicians are ready to take radical measures to realize that objective  but European businesses might not be.

EU leaders have discussed providing firms that do business with Iran special financing from the European Investment Bank, and passing legislation that protects European firms from American sanctions  modeled after a blocking regulation from 1996 that deflected sanctions against European companies that violated Americas Cuba embargo.

But even if Europe goes forward with such confrontational measures, its corporations might still see little profit in jeopardizing their access to the American market: Most companies have much less to gain by embracing Tehran than to lose by alienating Washington; Americas banking system is more valuable than Irans oil fields.

Europe may be ready to treat Trump as adversary. But its not clear whether it has the resources to defy his will.RBI's directive to make Know your Customer (KYC) mandatory for mobile wallet transactions has taken a toll on the industry. According to banking regulator's data, mobile wallet transactions which stood at 326.3 million in January 2018, have declined to 310.01 million in February (volume-wise). In October last year, banking regulator had asked mobile wallet companies to comply with KYC norms mandatorily.

Wallet providers not complying with the requirements within 12 months would face severe operational restriction, it had said. The new norms have already come into effect from March 1.



The customers will not lose money from mobile wallets even if they remain non-compliant to the KYC guidelines but the usability of the wallet will be severely limited. Users will be able to undertake transactions for purchases with the available balance in the wallet. But loading money will not be possible.



PayU, one of the largest online payments processor yesterday said that wallet transactions have reduced from 74.52 per cent in September 2017 to 22.13 per cent in March 2018, through its platform. On the other hand, UPI has seen a tremendous increase of about 200 per cent from 25.48 per cent in September 2017 to 77.87 per cent in March 2018 on transactions processed through PayU.



PayU transactions trends showed that UPI has fared well not just in comparison to wallets but other modes of payments such as debit and credit cards too.



"UPI has come as a boon for ease of transactions for the consumers in India. It has greatly affected the transaction volumes of other payment options on the PayU payment gateway. Consumers now want money to move as quickly as sending a message and UPI is the key to it, said B. Amrish Rau, CEO of PayU India.



The growing popularity of UPI could be attributed to the fact that UPI players offer lucrative cashback to incentivize customers, which could be a vital reason for UPIs growing popularity. As per PayU insights, consumers prefer to use UPI mode of payment while shopping on e-commerce sites. Of the total UPI transactions processed through PayU, 72.43 per cent comes from e-commerce sites followed by professional technical services and education, which have close to 9 per cent and 5 per cent share respectively.



Among all the players in the market who offer UPI services, BHIM, Tez, and PhonePe have emerged as the dominant ones. Tez has been able to massively increase its share of PayU transactions over time by increasing from a mere 6.86 per cent in September 2017 to 44.92 per cent in March 2018, making it the leading player in the UPI space. However, BHIM which was the top performer in September 2017 has now decreased its share to just 21 per cent from the initial 41.20 per cent.

Traders' body CAIT today said Walmart's $16 billion acquisition of home-grown retailer Flipkart will affect India's retail sector "very badly" and demanded scanning and scrutinising the deal from "different angles" by the government.

US retailer Walmart Inc has announced acquisition of 77 per cent stake in Flipkart in its biggest takeover till date. The deal values the 11-year old Indian e-commerce firm at $20.8 billion.

"A regulatory authority should be constituted by the government which should scan the details of Walmart-Flipkart deal and it should be scrutinised from different angles like competition and cyber security, predatory pricing, deep discounting and loss funding," said CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal.

"After assessing the deal, we will either represent to government or to the Competition Commission, or we will go to court," he added.

Besides, Khandelwal said traders are facing several problems with regard to GST portal, adding that the traders' body has submitted representations to the finance ministry in this regard.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) today launched a nationwide campaign to popularise Bharat QR, for the trading community to embrace this payment solution. In the first phase, CAIT will train 1,000 traders and organise 300 workshops, conferences and seminars till October 2.

"The basic reason why we are promoting Bharat QR is the GST Council has taken a decision that on digital transactions they will be offering discounts which will be 1.5-2 per cent but the situation on the ground is that most of the traders do not have digital payment means with them," Khandelwal said.

According to him, Bharat QR will play a pivotal role in encouraging over 60 million micro and small merchants to accept digital payments.

Bharat QR, the world's first asset light, interoperable payment solution, offers seamless, safe and secure transactions to both merchants and consumers.Nitin Gadkari, Union minister for Ganga rejuvenation, rivers and water resources, blamed the slow progress of the clean-up of the river Yamuna in Delhi for the pollution and subsequent damage to the Taj Mahal in Agra.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Gadkari lamented that despite holding several meetings with the Delhi authorities, one of which was just two days ago, there continued to be lots of problems.

He said that there has been no progress regarding the river cleaning. Unless the waters are cleaned in Delhi, the pollution will flow into Agra, and see, how it it damaging the Taj, he said.

The minister said that he would now insist on a meeting with the chief minister, deputy chief minister, chief secretary and lieutenant governor of Delhi on the subject.

Gadkari also appeared to 'tone down' the NDA government's promise of a nirmal and aviral (clean and free flowing) Ganga, saying that he would be able to deliver an 80-90 per cent nirmal ganga before the next elections.

The flow in the river, however, was second priority. He said studies on how to ensure enough water all year through in the Ganga were under way, but this would take time to be accepted and even longer to be implemented.

Referring to the progress of nirmal ganga, the minister said that all the villages (4,000 plus) along the river's banks had been proclaimed open defecation free. He said that the main nullahs emptying pollutants into the river in Kanpur continued to be a challenge, but this problem would be rectified by October.Union Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain courted controversy after he rebuked a retired school teacher in Nagaon district of Assam for highlighting the bad condition of roads in his neighbourhood.

On May 8, at a Swachh Bharat programme in the district, presided over by Gohain, a retired school teacher, who was asked to speak, publicly deplored the pathetic condition of the roads near his neighbourhood. On hearing this, Gohain stood up, blocked the mike of the teacher in full public view and rebuked him for raising the issue. A video clip of the incident went viral sparking massive protests against the minister across Assam. Student organisations burnt the minister's effigy while the state primary teachers association demanded an apology from the minister. Abusing a teacher in a public meeting by a public representative is not acceptable, they said.

But Gohain doesnt seem perturbed about the noises around him. He said to THE WEEK, I am not going to say sorry to anyone. That man who spoke was a Congress agent. I have not understood why he spoke like that at the function, which was meant for some other purpose. I found out later that there was only a small patch of road, about which he was mentioning. I will do whatever is necessary. But I reiterate that I have an issue with problems being raised in this manner.

Gohain said nobody should raise grievances in public and that there was a need to crosscheck the background of people who attend these events. I have no problem in meeting people. Hundreds of people come to me daily with their grievances. I do address all of them. But using public meetings or rallies to raise your issues is not right, said Gohain.

The problem is with the attitude, said Sushmita Dev, Congress MP from Assam. See, as a minister, he [Gohain] must have done a lot. But, if you are not listening to people, you are killing democracy. Development is an ongoing process and it needs peoples participation. The minister, in this case, should have taken down the streets name from the teacher and made sure his problem was addressed immediately. But, like they say, arrogance and the BJP go hand in hand, she told THE WEEK.

Dev is also the president of the All India Mahila Congress.

Meanwhile, the construction of Indias longest road and railway bridgethe Bogibeel Bridgeconnecting Dibrugarh in Assam to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh is on its last legs. It will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi the end of this year. The bridge, 32 metres above the water level, will be the second longest in Asia, with three lane roads on top, and double lane rail below. The decision to construct the bridge was even strategic, as it would help the armed forces at the China border get stocks and ammunition from Assam and neighbouring states.In an unusual case, the Kerala High Court has christened a child of an estranged couple belonging to different religions after they fought over the matter.

The court intervened after both father and mother, locked in a matrimonial dispute, were aggrieved by the "inaction" on the part of the municipality to issue a birth certificate in respect of their second child showing the name as per their respective wishes.

While the mother said the child was baptised as 'Johan Mani Sachin', the father claimed that the name that they agreed to was 'Abhinav Sachin.'' Abhinav Sachin was the name given to their second child on the 28th day ceremony (as per Hindu practice in Kerala for naming the newborn), the father had informed the court.

The court observed that it was an urgent requirement that a name be given to the child so that he could be admitted to a school, where a birth certificate would be a pre-requisite for admission.

Counsel for the mother submitted that although the name given in the baptism certificate pertaining to the second child is 'Johan Mani Sachin', she was ready to give up the name 'Mani' in a gesture of reconciliation with the father.

The father, however, insisted that the name 'Abhinav' be retained in the place of 'Johan'.

In his judgment recently, Justice A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar took note of the differences between the parents.

"..... as a conciliatory measure and with a view to pacify both the parents of the child, it would be in the interests of justice to accede to the wishes of both the parents to the extent possible and therefore, assign the name 'Johan Sachin' to the second child of the petitioners in both these writ petitions," the judge said. The judge said the name 'Johan' would represent the wishes of the mother and the name 'Sachin' as a surname would satisfy the requirement of the father as it would identify the child as his.

Justice Jayasankaran said this course of action would be in the interests of the minor child, who is now in the mother's custody, with occasional custody granted to the father as per the directions of the family court, where the matrimonial dispute is pending.

Disposing of the writ petitions, the judge directed the Registrar (Births & Deaths) to issue the certificate within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of the judgment.A man related to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested today by the Anti-Corruption Bureau in connection with the PWD scam.

Vinay Bansal, son of Kejriwal's brother-in-law, was arrested this morning, ACB chief Arvind Deep said.

Three FIRs, including one against a company run by the chief minister's brother-in-law Surender Bansal, were registered by the ACB in this case on May 9 last year.

Three companies, including Renu Constructions (owned by Bansal, Kamal Singh and Pawan Kumar), were included in the FIRs.

In a complaint, Rahul Sharma, founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), had alleged that Kejriwal and PWD minister Satyendra Jain misused their office for grant of contracts to Bansal. However, they were not named in the FIR.

RACO, an organisation which claims to monitor construction projects in the national capital, had alleged that a firm linked to Bansal was involved in financial irregularities in building a drainage system in north-west Delhi.

It was also alleged that the bills sent to the Public Works Department (PWD) for unfinished works were false and fabricated.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has 'decimated' India's foreign policy and is creating a 'disaster' foreign policy, charged AICC chief Rahul Gandhi, during a media interaction in Bengaluru on Thursday.

I wished the PM support as he is the leader of our country I expected the PM to raise the Doklam issue. But our PM went to China after the Chinese went to Doklam. But he did not speak a word about Doklam with the Chinese president. He had no agenda. Did India walk into China without an agenda? The agenda is Doklam, Maldives and Nepal and we are surrounded on all sides. Our foreign policy has been completely decimated across the board, said Rahul.

Alleging that the PM was taking foreign policy to be a one man show, Rahul said, Our PM views foreign policy as an individual exercise. He is under the impression that he can go and hold a personal conversation with presidents of China and Nepal and everything will magically happen. There is a huge process involved in it, and the PM has to take into account extremely talented people sitting in the foreign ministry. He needs to carry his own people with him. Are there any conversations happening with the finance minister and the defence minister on the strategy? No. It is a one-man show.

The Congress chief chose to elaborate on the China issue, saying he was passionate about it.

The central challenge in our country is of giving jobs to our people and China is a competitor, a rising power too. We have to manage our foreign policy with extreme care. I see fundamental blunders being committed. I saw a video of a Pakistani Day parade with Chinese troops marching in it. What does that tell you? I see a complete change of Russia with regard to India, as they are supplying weapons to Pakistan, which they have never done before. So, a disaster is being created in foreign policy. Frankly, it is very dangerous for this country. That is why you hear a louder expression from my side, said Rahul.

During the press meet, Rahul evaded questions on his recent declaration that he would be the next prime minister. Modi, in a counter, had questioned the sanctity of an alliance when the Congress chief was going ahead declaring himself as the next PM, even as the Congress party is still in talks with their future allies.

Let me remind you, this election is not about me or the PM; it is about the future of Karnataka. The PM wants to distract the people by raising non-issues, said Rahul, unwilling to elaborate.Tension prevails in the district of Saharanpur in western Uttar Pradesh, after the brother of the district chief of the dalit group Bhim Army was shot dead on Wednesday. Sachin Walia (25), brother of Bhim Army activist Kamal Walia, was killed under mysterious circumstances on Wednesday on the occasion of Maharana Pratap Jayanti.

Bhim Army supporters have accused the Rajputs (the upper caste group of the area) of killing Sachin.

Sachin's mother, Kanti, in her complaint to police, named Sher Singh Rana, Kanha Rana, Nagendra Rana and Updesh Rana for being involved in the incident. Among the accused, Sher Singh is accused in the murder of bandit queen Phoolan Devi.

This incident has made the atmosphere quite tense in the district. Heavy deployment of Rapid Action Force (RAF) has been undertaken and internet services suspended.

In May last year, riots had broken out in Saharanpur, after the killing of a dalit. In retaliation, members of both dalit and Rajput communities clashed with each other, resulting in large-scale violence. Then, the Bhim Army was accused of instigating violence in the area and its chief, Chandrashekhar Azad, was arrested subsequently.

The situation in the district was already tense on the occasion of Maharana Pratap Jayanti and the killing of Sachin has aggravated the situation.

As soon as the news of the killing became viral, members of the Bhim Army started reaching the district hospital in a large numbers. Across the district, Bhim Army activists were asked to assemble at certain points. This situation continued till late on Wednesday evening. Bhim Army activists resorted to road blockades and dharnas in the district, disrupting the movement of traffic.

The Senior Superintendent of Police Bablu Kumar said the incident was mysterious in nature and a complaint had been registered, and added the police was probing the role of the persons named in the complaint.Has Mike Pences obsequious submission to Trump forfeited his distinctive usefulness to conservatives? Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

When Donald Trump chose Mike Pence as his running mate in July 2016, there was a strong sense that the Indiana governor could serve as his new bosss ambassador to the more conventional conservatives whose party Trump had taken by storm. Pence had been a leading member of the right wing of the House Republican caucus for years. He was especially close to the Christian right, an important segment of the party that wasnt initially keen on the great orange heathen, with his crude ways and history of ideological heterodoxy. Pences approach was cool while Trumps was bubbling hot. And in the wake of either victory or (as seemed more likely in the summer of 2016) defeat, the stolid Hoosier looked like an ideal bridge between Trumpists and conservatives who were either resisting the new tribal chief or going along grudgingly.

Now, nearly two years later, Pence is ostensibly in a much stronger position, as conservatives have become Trumps base of support in the electorate and the Congress. The veep still has an indispensable function as the central figure in the conservative Evangelical supposition that Trump is surrounded by genuine men and women of faith who will continue to shine a light unto his path and perhaps even bring the self-absorbed worshiper of the golden calf of money and power to Jesus.

But in a White House known for extreme turbulence and the constant ebb and flow of POTUS affections, fears, and moods, Pence has chosen to maintain his status via a degree of obsequiousness that is embarrassing even to watch. As Jonathan Chait observed last year, the vice-president has made a particularly cringeworthy habit of publicly admiring Trumps broad-shouldered leadership traits. Becoming Chief Toady may have solidified Pences position as putative successor to Trump as leader of the GOP and of MAGA country. But it is beginning to destroy the subtle separation of the party from Trump and Trumpism that made him especially useful to Trump-o-skeptic conservatives.

That is made plain by a remarkable column from the man who in the days before Hannity and Breitbart News was often regarded as the high priest of conservative punditry, George Will. One of the few #NeverTrump figures on the right who has neither wavered nor flagged in his disdain for the 45th president, Will has become so disgusted with Pences behavior that he is deeming him to be worse than Trump himself. He has, says Will, now replaced Trump as Americas most repulsive public figure.

Last June, a Trump Cabinet meeting featured testimonials offered to Dear Leader by his forelock-tugging colleagues. His chief of staff, Reince Priebus, caught the spirit of the worship service by thanking Trump for the blessing of being allowed to serve him. The hosannas poured forthfrom around the table, unredeemed by even a scintilla of insincerity. The vice president chimed in but saved his best riff for a December Cabinet meeting when, as The Posts Aaron Blake calculated, Pence praised Trump once every 12 seconds for three minutes.

What seems to have provoked Wills fury more than all this routine of over-the-top brown-nosing was Pences decision during an Arizona appearance to give a big shout-out to convicted-and-pardoned felon Joe Arpaio, the great champion of racial profiling and a big buddy of Trumps:

Pence, oozing unctuousness from every pore, called Arpaio another favorite, professed himself honored by Arpaios presence, and praised him as a tireless champion of . . . the rule of law. Arpaio, a grandstanding, camera-chasing bully and darling of the thuggish right, is also a criminal, convicted of contempt of court for ignoring a federal judges order to desist from certain illegal law enforcement practices. Pences performance occurred eight miles from the home of Sen. John McCain, who could teach Pence  or perhaps not  something about honor.

Arpaio is also running for the Senate, which makes Pences praise not just morally offensive but politically significant. But Pence is playing his assigned role as the great symbol of the compete surrender of the Republican Party, and of the conservative movement that is supposed to animate it, to dark forces typified by Arpaio.

And so Will hurls an anathema at the whole pack of them:

Because [Pences] is the authentic voice of todays lickspittle Republican Party, he clarifies this years elections: Vote Republican to ratify groveling as governing 

There will be negligible legislating by the next Congress, so ballots cast this November will be most important as validations or repudiations of the harmonizing voices of Trump, Pence, Arpaio and the like. Trump is what he is, a floundering, inarticulate jumble of gnawing insecurities and not-at-all compensating vanities, which is pathetic. Pence is what he has chosen to be, which is horrifying.

Now even more than in 2016, when Will never even came close to coming to the aid of his party, the columnist is self-isolated in openly encouraging Democratic votes in November. But his contempt for Pence nonetheless signifies that if the whole Trump political enterprise comes to grief, the vice-president no longer has the reputation for independence that could make him the politician to pick up the pieces. Hes worked very hard to become Trumps most loyal acolyte. He cannot survive the destruction of his bosss cult.Islam Hussein is a living martyr of the civil war raging in Yemen. Here in Kochi, he has a reason to smile. He had lost both hands below the elbow joint as well as vision in both eyes in a bomb blast in Yemen. He has now regained 90 per cent vision in the left eye.

Meeting the media after treatment at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Hussein smiled and raised both his hands. Hussein, who dreamt of becoming a doctor, saw his ambition shattered when a bomb blast debilitated him while he was in eleventh grade. He could no longer see the world and both his hands and legs were damaged.

Hussein lives close to the ancient village of Taizz, which is situated in the hills of central Yemen. The civil war is intense in this area and there are over 600 youths here who are in a similar condition. Most of them have lost either their hands or eyesight or hearing sense in bomb blasts.

But Hussein and his family refused to accept his fate and lead a life of misery. Doctors at a hospital at Yemen told him that his legs had to be amputated. But Husseins father decided to take him to a hospital in Egypt instead. Treatment there saved his legs but both hands beyond the elbow had to be amputated.

His family brought Hussein to Kerala for another trial hoping to make his life better. It produced good results. Corneal transplant surgery conducted at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences helped Hussein regain 90 per cent vision in his left eye and the other eye was saved from total blindness. The procedure was led by Ophthalmology department head Dr Gopal S. Pillai and Dr Anil Radhakrishnan.

During the last three years, 500-600 people have lost their limbs and lives every year in the war. I am lucky to be alive. Now I can see the world, this is my rebirth, Hussein said with tears in his eyes.

Husseins father Ahamed Mohammed, who is a teacher, and his mother Dikra Hussain have now decided to spend two more years in Kochi to reconstruct his hands.The World Health Organization declared an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In a news release on Tuesday, the WHO informed that the DRC government reported the outbreak after two confirmed laboratory tests in Bikoro in the Equateur Province.

Two out of five suspected patients were tested positive for the epidemic at the National de Recherche Biomedicale in Kinshasa. Over 21 suspected viral haemorrhagic fever and 17 deaths have been reported around Ilkoko Iponge in the past five weeks. The health ministry said that more specimen are being collected for testing.

The WHO said that it is working closely with the DRC government to contain the spread of the viral disease. The world health body has already deployed its medical experts and is working closely to scale up its operations and to draw other health partners to the medical scene. The medical department in the country is primarily dependent on the support from the WHO and other health partners for its emergency response.

According to reports, the first multidisciplinary team comprised of experts from WHO, Medecins Sans Frontieres and Provincial Division of Health has already been sent to Bikoro to strengthen coordination and investigations.

WHO will be deploying epidemiologists, logisticians, clinicians, infection prevention and control experts, risk communications experts and vaccination support teams in the coming days in addition to supplying technical needs such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

WHO has released $1 million from its emergency contingency fund to support response activities for the next three months. All the neighbouring countries have been alerted.

This is DRCs ninth outbreak of EVD since the discovery of the virus in the country in 1976. The deadliest outbreak of the disease was in 2014 when 11,315 people died and over 28,000 cases were reported. The death toll was more than five times that of all the previous outbreaks of the disease combined. DRC experienced its last outbreak in 2017 in Likati Health Zone, Bas Uele Province. This was well contained through the efficient coordination among the government, health department, international partners and the WHO. The death toll in 2017 was restricted to four after the WHO successfully set up a ground coordination support and an incident management system within 24 hours of the government declaring the outbreak.

EVD is a viral hemorrhagic disease that can prove fatal if not treated in time. The fatality rate stays at 50 per cent. The disease shows early symptoms similar to other diseases like typhoid and malariafever, headache, muscle pain and chillsand this makes it difficult to identify it in its initial phases.

In later stages, however, an infected person may experience internal bleeding resulting in vomiting and coughing blood. If suspected, the disease can be identified through two blood testsEnzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR). No perfect cure has been found for the disease yet, but treatment focuses on supporting the body by providing fluids, replacing lost blood and treating other infections that develop.Iranian forces in Syria launched a rocket attack on Israeli army bases in the Golan Heights early on Thursday, Israel said, prompting one of the heaviest Israeli barrages against Syria since the conflict there began in 2011.

The attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, just past midnight, marked the first time Iranian forces have hit Israel from Syria, where they have deployed along with Iran-backed Shiite militias and Russian troops to support President Bashar al-Assad in the countrys civil war.

Dozens of Israeli missiles hit a radar station, Syrian air defence positions and an ammunition dump, Syrian state media said, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies.

I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said at the Herzliya security conference, near Tel Aviv, on Thursday morning.

Israel said 20 Iranian Grad and Fajr rockets were shot down by its Iron Dome air defence system or fell short of the Golan targets. The Quds Force, an external arm of Irans Revolutionary Guards, carried out the launch, Israel said.

It was commanded and ordered by (Quds Force chief General) Qassem Soleimani and it has not achieved its purpose, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters.

Israel struck back by destroying dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria, Conricus said, as well as Syrian anti-aircraft units that tried unsuccessfully to shoot down Israeli planes.

We do not know yet the (Iranian) casualty count, he said.

But I can say that in terms of our purpose, we focussed less on personnel and more on capabilities and hardware ... to inflict long-term damage on the Iranian military establishment in Syria. We assess it will take substantial time to replenish.

Israeli schools in the Golan Heights opened as usual on Thursday morning, after sirens had sent residents to shelters during the night.

I do not reside on the border of New Zealand-Australia. We are located here facing Syria and Lebanon and this is the reality which we will overcome together, especially with the IDF (Israel Defence Forces), said Alex Gudish, a Golan settler.

The Israelis fear that Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah are turning Syria into a new front against them. Israel says its occasional strikes in Syria aim to foil that.

Iran vowed retaliation after a suspected Israeli air strike last month killed seven of its military personnel in a Syrian air base.

Israel regards Iran as its biggest threat, and has repeatedly targeted Iranian forces and allied militia in Syria.

Expectations of a regional flare-up were stoked by US President Donald Trumps announcement on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal. Hours later, Israeli rocket rockets targeted a military base in Kisweh, a commander in the pro-Syrian government regional alliance said.

That attack killed 15 people, including eight Iranians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, though the commander said there were no casualties. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

The Trump administration cast its hard line against the Iranian nuclear deal as a response, in part, to Tehrans military interventions in the region.

The Golan flare-up with Israel is just further demonstration that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted and another good reminder that the president made the right decision to get out of the Iran deal, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News.

The tensions worry Russia, which wants to stabilise Syria.

Thursdays flare-up came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from a visit to Moscow, where he discussed Syria concerns with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Conricus said Israel forewarned Russia of its strikes on Thursday, which Syrian state media first reported hit Baath City in Quneitra, near the border. Further waves of missiles followed. Syrian state media said Israeli missiles had been brought down over Damascus, Homs and Sueida.

Air defences confronted tens of Israeli rockets and some of them reached their target and destroyed one of the radar sites, Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing a military source. Another rocket hit an ammunition warehouse, it said.

Syrian state television broadcast footage of its air defences firing, and playing patriotic songs. Damascus residents described explosions in the sky from air defence systems.

Lebanons National News Agency reported Israeli jets circling over Lebanese territory early on Thursday before exiting.

ReutersDozens of Islamic militant prisoners who took over a police detention centre near Indonesia's capital and killed five officers surrendered to police today, the country's top security minister said.

The riot erupted late Tuesday at the headquarters of the elite Mobile Brigade police in Depok, on Jakarta's southern outskirts, where four days earlier authorities arrested three militants they accuse of planning to attack police.

Most of the prisoners surrendered on Thursday before dawn following an ultimatum from security personnel, said Coordinating Minister for Political, Law and Security Wiranto, who goes by one name.

About 10 inmates refused to give up but shortly were subdued when police fired smoke bombs and tear gas.

He said those involved were detained terrorists. They committed cruelty by seizing weapons, holding hostages, torturing and even killing the officers in cruel and vile manners, beyond the limits of humanity, Wiranto said at a news conference.

He said inmates had controlled about 30 guns and weapons they took from officers and a store room.

Earlier, Deputy National Police Chief Muhammad Syafruddin said all 155 inmates were involved in the riot. He said they took nine officers hostage and killed five of them, while another four were tortured.

One inmate was killed, police said.

The Islamic State group's Amaq News Agency published a report after the riot broke out saying the melee was between its fighters and the counter-terrorism squad.

Those provoking the riot were about 30 to 40 inmates from Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, a network of Indonesian extremist groups that pledges allegiance to Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, National Police spokesman Setyo Wasito said in an interview with local MetroTV.

Police have said the incident was triggered by a trivial disagreement about a delay in an inmate getting food from his family.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has carried out a sustained crackdown on Islamic militants since the 2002 Bali bombings by the Jemaah Islamiyah network that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.

The network was neutralised following the arrests of hundreds of its militants and leaders. But new threats have emerged recently from Islamic State group-inspired radicals who have targeted security forces and local infidels instead of Westerners.

It was the second riot in the detention centre since November, when detained militants attacked prison guards who were searching for contraband and cellphones.President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal has cast a shadow over an already fraught election in Iraq, where Tehran and Washington have vied for influence since the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The removal of a Sunni dictatorship cleared the path for the countrys Shiite majority, from which the three top contenders for the premiership, including incumbent Haider al-Abadi, are drawn. The outcome of the May 12 ballot is too close to call.

Whoever wins must balance Iraqs interests  and the need to reduce the struggling economys dependence on oil  with those of the United States and Iran, whose intensifying rivalry makes that more difficult.

Abadi and his main rivals  predecessor Nuri al-Maliki and new challenger Hadi al-Amiri, a hardline militia commander at the head of a powerful paramilitary coalition aligned with Iran  tilt heavily towards Tehran.

With Trump increasing pressure on Iran, its Shiite clerical leadership will be even more determined to maintain its patronage in Iraq.

For Iran, Iraq is the most important Arab state, even more than Syria and Lebanon, where it also holds political and military sway. That is because Iran and Iraq share a border and Iraq is positioned in the heart of the Gulf region.

Iraq is also Irans main route for supplying arms and fighters to Syria, where it has deployed with allied Iraqi and Lebanese Shiite militias to back President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war.

One concern for Iraq is the risk of clashes between the 5,000 US troops there and Shiite paramilitaries notionally under Baghdads command but answering to Irans Revolutionary Guards, and to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Iraqis are very worried. They dont want Iraq to become a new theater of... war between Iran and the United States, said one senior Western envoy. If there is a war between Iran and the United States, part of it will be here.

The US and Iran had found a common enemy in Islamic State, which at one point held about a third of Iraq, mainly in the north and the west.

Its rapid advance owed much to the collapse of Iraqs army, hollowed out by the sectarian policies of the Maliki government.

Many Iraqis attribute the jihadis subsequent defeat to men like Amiri and the Iranian-trained militias, rather than to US-led coalition forces.

America mainly provided air power, while relying on Kurdish fighters on the ground in both Syria and Iraq.

PROXY WAR

But while Iran sees Iraq as the most strategically important Arab state, some experts believe Tehran will focus more on Israel and the Syrian battlefield.

The conflict there threatens to draw in Israel. Only hours after Trumps announcement on the Iran nuclear deal it launched air strikes against what it says were Iranian and Hezbollah assets, creeping closer to Israels borders.

Iranian forces in Syria shelled Israeli army outposts across the Syrian frontier overnight, Israel said, prompting one of the heaviest Israeli strikes in Syria since the war began in 2011.

Iraqs foreign ministry called Trumps decision hasty and rash, and said Washingtons withdrawal from the nuclear accord goes in the direction of escalation which would bring nothing but destruction and the desolation of war in the Middle East.

In the worst-case scenario, diplomats in the region said, Iran would target US interests in Iraq as their militias did in 2005 by firing rockets into the US embassy in Baghdad. But Iran might prefer to steer clear of Iraq and use Syria instead.

IRAQI DILEMMA

Iraqs Shiite leaders nonetheless face a dilemma about how to balance policy between the United States and Iran.

Some Iraqi leaders, among them Abadi, say they want to steer clear of US-Iranian rivalries.

They would want to follow the model of non-aligned policies, friends of all, said another Western diplomat.

Others, including Amiri, believe that Iraqs single most important relationship is with Iran, and that they have to reinforce that relationship.

Also important to Iraq is building bridges with the minority Sunni community, although some politicians are wary of Abadis tentative rapprochement with Sunni Saudi Arabia, nurtured after decades of estrangement.

Their greatest nightmare is to wake up and have the Sunnis or Arabs undermine their ascendancy and dominance in the system, as happened with Daesh, said the second Western diplomat, referring to Islamic States advances in 2014.

They are reminded that Iran will be their ultimate resort when that nightmare happens... When the (Islamic State) caliphate was declared, they (the Iranians) were the first to come to their rescue, not the US or anybody else.

Iraqs Shiites do not want to be dominated by Iran, but Trumps move this week against Tehran may make that harder.

After (Trumps decision) the question is how do you implement a balanced policy when Iran will use Iraqs airspace to arm its militias in Syria? What will they do?, said the diplomat.

Powerful militias trained, funded and armed by Iran and led by Amiri might answer to Tehran rather than Baghdad.

Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has built Shiite militias at the heart of the so-called Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) into a structure to rival the Iraqi army and security forces.

It did something similar within Lebanons Shiite Hezbollah movement, which has helped Tehran project military strength across the region.

ReutersThe ultimate insider, who nobody wanted in the White House. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc.

Until just before Donald Trumps inauguration, Michael Cohen hoped that hed be invited to join his boss in the White House. He wasnt expecting attorney general, but he was holding out for a senior job that would have also allowed him to continue being an attack dog for the president, a source told the Daily Beast.

Cohen was reportedly left behind in New York at the urging of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and various others who thought it unwise to install the presidents self-described fixer in the West Wing. They were right (just imagine if we were learning that the White House counsel paid off various Trump paramours), but the decision is at the root of the latest scandalous Cohen revelations. Being personal attorney to a president who has teams of vastly more qualified lawyers left Cohen with a lot of time on his hands, so he began pursuing lucrative consulting offers. Ironically, Cohen was selling his knowledge of the Trump White House, which hed just been shut out of.

Trumps unexpected win left corporations scrambling for someone who could give them insight into how the new administration would operate, and anyone with real or perceived access to Trump had plenty of opportunities to cash in.

Everyone was hiring Trump whisperers in 2017  every single hanger-on in the Trump orbit made a fortune in 2017, one Republican consultant told Politico. And not necessarily to influence them, just to try to figure out who are the right people to talk to.

The question was Who is the real influence? the consultant said. Is it Gary Cohn? Steve Bannon? Wilbur Ross? How do we get to Jared and Ivanka? Does anyone know Dina Powell? Does anyone listen to Steven Mnuchin? Theres no point talking to Reince Priebus, right? Every single client we had was trying to figure it out.

Cohen portrayed himself as the one person who could answer these questions. One GOP strategist described his pitch to CNN: I dont know whos been representing you, but you should fire them all. Im the guy you should hire. Im closest to the president. Im his personal lawyer.

Its unclear how true this was even before Cohen was excluded from the White House. While he reportedly spoke to Trump several times per day during the transition, one source said Trump never talked to Cohen about substantive matters that corporations might be interested in.

Statements from several of Cohens clients suggest they pieced this together, but not before paying him millions of dollars. Through Essential Consultants, the limited liability corporation Cohen set up to pay Stormy Daniels, the Swiss drug company Novartis agreed to pay Cohen $1.2 million over the course of a year. On Wednesday the company said in a statement that it believed that Michael Cohen could advise the company as to how the Trump administration might approach certain U.S. health-care policy matters, including the Affordable Care Act.

After an initial meeting with Cohen, Novartis determined that he would be unable to provide those services, the company said, but since he could only be terminated for cause they opted to keep paying him until the contract ran out.

AT&T, which was pursuing a merger with Time Warner along with other business that required Trump-administration approval, hired Cohen to provide insights into understanding the new administration. The White House moved to block the deal anyway.

Aside from his consulting activities, Cohen also signed a $500,000 contract to work with Squire Patton Boggs, a large legal and lobbying firm that has deep connections to both parties in D.C.  but not the Trump team. A person at the firm familiar with the Cohen deal told the Washington Post that hiring him was a no-brainer, since it seemed having the presidents personal lawyer on board would be good from an optics perspective with the new administration.

Cohen only managed to refer five clients, and his year-long arrangement with the company was terminated in March. The New York Times reports that he mostly operated independently from the firm. While Boggs paid for his office, the firm did not have a key and he used his own separate computer server. The company said in a statement that Cohen merely referred a handful of routine legal matters to the firm which were completely unrelated to his work for the president. A source told the Post that he met with executives and attended meetings too, but the firm is now trying to downplay the relationship. They paraded him to clients all those months, the person said.

Though from what weve learned so far, it seems Cohen was particularly bad at guiding companies through Trumpworld, these sorts of arrangements arent uncommon. As the Daily Beast explains, good government refers to it as shadow lobbying.

Its the practice of influencing policy and policymakers through activity informal enough to fall short of the legal definition of lobbying. An army of consultants, government relations executives, and political intelligence professionals earn tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of dollars each year through such soft advocacy, and none of its activities are disclosed to the public.

At the very least, Cohen was fully submerged in the swamp his boss was ostensibly in D.C. to drain. Its also possible that he should have registered as a lobbyist. But we still dont know what exactly Cohen promised the companies, and whether he was able to deliver, which could constitute far more serious crimes. Did he, for instance, consult with a firm connected to a Russian oligarch to conceal payments for services requested by the Kremlin, or did he merely engage in shady but lawful exaggeration to dupe various companies into thinking he was the key to navigating the Trump White House?

Only time  and Robert Mueller, whos apparently been looking into this for months  will tell.Albany

Jon Grant is tired of the upkeep involved in owning a house.

"There are are a lot of responsibilities," Grant, who is in his sixties, said. "It's overwhelming."

The founder and principal of Maryland-based GSX Ventures is looking to downsize and move into an apartment  a change that's part of a nationwide shift, as more empty-nesters sell their suburban homes and opt to live in apartments in walkable areas.

"Seniors are more mobile, they don't want to live in their homes," he said. "It's a whole new era."

With that in mind, Grant is changing his plans to build housing for students on Western Avenue and is now looking to develop upscale apartments for empty-nesters, snow birds and young professionals instead. There's demand among those groups for luxury apartments, and the property is near shopping and restaurants, he said.

He originally proposed building a 117-unit, 327-bed complex with office and retail space at 1211 Western Ave. near the University at Albany. The project was met with opposition from neighbors worried about density, traffic, infrastructure and how the complex fit into the area  another reason Grant decided to alter his plans. In January, Mayor Kathy Sheehan sent a letter to the city Planning Board asking them to deny a permit for the project until concerns from residents and business owners were "adequately addressed."

Grant withdrew the original application and he and his lawyer, Andy Brick, met with city leaders to discuss the new project, which would include 137 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with 273 beds along with retail and office space. Brick said the project is expected to cost around $30 million.

The complex would include balconies, courtyards with grills, a clubhouse, a computer lounge, two levels of parking and other amenities, with rents ranging from $1,300 to $2,400. It also wouldn't require the special permit from the city that was needed to build the student housing and is about 25 percent smaller than the original plans, Grant said.

The reception to the new proposal was positive, he added.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Residents still have the same concerns about the project, said Councilman Tom Hoey, who represents Albany's 15th Ward. The new plans were discussed at a recent neighborhood meeting. They'd hoped the project would be smaller and include condominiums rather than apartments, he said.

"Same pig, different shade of lipstick," Hoey said.

Both proposals involve knocking down an existing three-story office building on the property currently occupied by Sage Engineering Associates.

GSX developed Aspen Albany, a 277-unit apartment complex on Washington Avenue Extension across from the University at Albany.Israeli missiles hit military bases in Damascus. Photo: Uncredited/AP/REX/Shutterstock

The Israeli military attacked dozens of Iranian targets in Syria overnight in retaliation for what it says were Iranian strikes on its own forces in the Golan Heights. Iranian media described Israels barrage as unprecedented, and the Associated Press called the back-and-forth the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

Israel said its strikes targeted compounds, logistics centers, and weapons storage sites belonging to the Quds Force of Irans Revolutionary Guard. Israel has hit almost all of Irans infrastructure in Syria, Israels defense minister Avigdor Liberman said Thursday. If it will rain in Israel, there will be a Biblical flood on the other side.

The IDF has struck dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria in response to the Iranian rocket attack against Israel. Quds force is behind attack and has played the initial price. IDF remains ready for various scenarios but does not seek to escalate the situation. pic.twitter.com/4rC8gHK2LG  Jonathan Conricus (@LTCJonathan) May 10, 2018

Reports on the casualties from the strikes vary, with the Syrian Army Command claiming three deaths and Syrian Observatory for Human Rights saying that 23 military members were killed.

An Israeli military spokesman said the barrage was a response to the 20 rockets that Iran fired at its positions in the disputed Golan Heights territory. If confirmed, it would be the first time Iran has directly fired on Israel after years of fighting proxy wars. Those rockets either missed their targets or were intercepted by its Iron Dome air defense system, the spokesman said.

The escalation in fighting between Syria and Iran follows a ratcheting up of tensions after President Trumps withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, a move that Israel supported. Shortly after Israels overnight strikes, the White House put out a supportive statement. The United States condemns the Iranian regimes provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens, and we strongly support Israels right to act in self-defense, the statement said.Malta

If GlobalFoundries wants to win a larger piece of the computer chip market from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and fight off a surging Samsung, it will likely have to grow much larger.

At least for now, however, raising new capital in an initial public offering isn't part of the company's immediate plans to scale up.

But an IPO could potentially be in the cards at some point in the future, according to Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the CEO of Mubadala Investment Co., the Abu Dhabi investment fund that owns GlobalFoundries.

Bloomberg TV reporter Erik Schatzker asked Al Mubarak about an IPO during a sit-down interview that was published Thursday but appears to have been filmed earlier in the week when Al Mubarak visited Fab 8 as part of a weeklong tour of the United States.

"What ultimately validates GlobalFoundries as an investment? An IPO?" Schatzker asked Al Mubarak.

"Could be," Al Mubarak said after pausing for a few seconds to consider the question. "Ultimately, that could be an option. I don't think we're there today. But I believe certainly when the right time comes... an IPO is something that would make sense, maybe. But not now, certainly not now."

Mubadala is the sole owner of GlobalFoundries, which means it is privately held and doesn't have the pressures from Wall Street that come with having its stock traded by the public.

Right now, GlobalFoundries is the No. 2 computer chip foundry in the world behind TSMC. But it's an uneven fight. TSMC has more than 50 percent of the market with $32 billion of the $62 billion in worldwide foundry sales in 2017, according to IC Insights.

GlobalFoundries by comparison had $6 billion in revenue, giving it a hold on the No. 2 spot, although Samsung, which had $4.6 billion in foundry sales in 2017, recently announced plans to spend $6 billion on a new cutting-edge chip factory in Hwaseong, South Korea that will help it gain market share in the foundry business.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Despite Samsung's push to knock off GlobalFoundries and eat more of TSMC's business, GlobalFoundries isn't going away any time soon.

Al Mubarak was in Malta on Monday in part to make the case that Fab 8 and GlobalFoundries, the biggest U.S.-based foundry company and the sole maker of high-end chips for the Department of Defense, is a "national asset" deserving of federal support for things like utility infrastructure, workforce development and research and development.

Such support would be likely if GlobalFoundries seeks to build a second factory at its Fab 8 site in Malta, where it currently employs between 3,300 and 3,500 workers. Such a project could cost as much as $10 billion, and the company would likely need as much as $2 billion in government financial assistance and tax breaks to move forward..

Al Mubarak stressed in his interview with Bloomberg that Mubadala has spent $15 billion over the past 10 years at the Fab 8 site, including research expenditures.

"This is a huge investment," Al Mubarak said. "This is a massive long-term play."For music directors of orchestras and ensembles, deciding what pieces to play on a concert is the fun part that comes before the budgeting, the purchase or rental of the music and the slog of rehearsals. As principal conductor of the Capital Region Wind Ensemble, Brett L. Wery has become a master at the fine art of programming.

The ensemble's concert on Sunday, May 20, is titled "Release the Hounds" and each piece relates in one way or another to man's best friend. The program opens with "Orion's Sword" by Alan Lee Silva. Students of astronomy know that the sword of Orion, the great hunter in the winter sky, points directly at the "dog star," also known as Sirius. Sure enough, the next piece on the program is Joel Puckett's "The Shadow of Sirius," a flute concerto featuring soloist Jacqueline Wright, the ensemble's principal flutist.

After the concerto comes Wery's own Dance Suite. He explains that the piece is akin to a Baroque dance suite, a once-popular form in which composers like Bach and Handel took popular dances like the courante, saraband, and gigue and transformed them into concert music. Wery does the same with the tango, waltz, polka, and fox trot. Each movement has a title and that's where we find the next dog connection. One of the movements is titled "Dog Day Tango" but it's a lazy tango that evokes the hottest days of summer. "It's indolent and slow and sags back into its lawn chair at the end," says Wery.

Next up, "Aesop's Fables" by Scott Watson will feature as narrator Dean William Bennett, a professor of history at Schenectady County Community College. Dogs appear in several guises during the piece. It's divided into four movements, titled "The Hare and the Tortoise," "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," "The Dog and the Bone" and "The Wolf and His Shadow."

The concert ends in high spirits with "The Hounds of Spring" by Alfred Reed, a rousing favorite in band literature. The title comes from a phrase in a poem by the Victorian English poet Algernon Charles Swinburne: "When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces." On top of the "hound" theme, Wery figured that those of us in the Northeast knew something about "winter's traces."

"Programming a concert is like being a curator at a museum," says Wery. "Putting a great painting in the right place draws you through the room. Making a concert program works in much the same way. It's about making a compelling space for the listener."

"I enjoy programming and find it very satisfying," continues Wery. "I've often told my wife, I wish I could make a living just creating programs for other people."

"Release the Hounds" will be performed at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 20 at Schenectady County Community College's Taylor Auditorium. Tickets are $8-$10. Call 518-381-1231.

Chromatics lineup

Putting together a full season of concerts by visiting artists had its own challenges. Evan Tublitz handles that responsibility for the Troy Chromatics, which recently announced its 2018-19 season. Here's a run-down of what's in store:

Sept. 21: The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will perform music of Arvo Part, Tchaikovsky and Theofanidis, plus Chopin's Concerto No. 2 with soloist Nobuyuki Tsujii, the blind Japanese pianist who tied for the gold medal at the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition.

Nov. 11: The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra will join together for a concert of instrumental and sacred choral works by J.S. Bach and Part.

Feb. 2, 2019: The Pinchas Zukerman Trio will perform music by Beethoven, Arensky and Brahms.

Feb. 28, 2019: "Bernstein Centennial Celebration" features conductor John Mauceri conducting the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Along with the overture to "Candide" and symphonic dances from "West Side Story," the all-Bernstein program includes some rarities like A Musical Toast, Three Meditations from MASS and the flute concerto "Halil" plus some lesser-known songs with mezzo Isabel Leonard.

April 11, 2019: Light classics and music from the cinema will be performed by the Janoska Ensemble, a string trio with piano that records for Deutsche Grammophon.

Prices for subscriptions and individual seats have not yet been announced. Watch troychromatics.org for more information.

Departing leader saluted

The Empire State Youth Orchestra is honoring Helen Cha-Pyo, its dynamic music director for the last 16 years, who is leaving to take the same position at the New Jersey Youth Symphony. At Cha-Pyo's final concert, on April 29 at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, the board announced a new fund and an award named for the departing maestra.

The new endowment fund was established by an anonymous $80,000 contribution, which was matched with an additional $40,000 by other donors. Annual proceeds will support the Helen Cha-Pyo Baton Award of $1,500, which will be given annually to an outstanding senior member of the orchestra who carries the spirit of community that characterized Cha-Pyo's tenure. An additional $5,000 of annual earnings will be applied to costs of instruments and private instruction for economically challenged students.

Joseph Dalton is a freelance writer based in Troy.Elizabeth Rosner sees the warning signs, and doesn't pull any punches.

"We are living in a time where dehumanizing speech, racism, vicious anti-immigrant rhetoric and misogyny are the norm," she says from her home in Berkeley, Calif. "At the end of that road is genocide."

Rosner, a Schenectady native, is the author of "Survivor Cafe: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory," a meditation on how we tell the stories of human atrocity: How (and whether) cultures pass down the lessons of their gravest errors in order to prevent more genocide, more slavery, more nuclear bombings.

The daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Rosner is strongly influenced by her parents' experience, and "Survivor Cafe" centers on three trips with her father to Buchenwald concentration camp in 1983, in 1995 and in 2015. These visits, fraught with personal history and memorialization, call to mind other human atrocities: the killing fields in Cambodia, the African slave trade in America, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. She asks: How have these past traumas affected generations of people today? And are we holding ourselves accountable for our past wrongs?

"I write about epigenetics," Rosner says, referring to a scientific theory that trauma is physically passed down through generations of people. "There are studies showing that trauma modifies the expression of certain parts of DNA. ... What happens to our ancestors is carried in us, too, and that applies to people who are descended from Holocaust survivors and slaves and people who are descended of Native Americans and on and on and on."

She will speak about her book at the Town of Ballston Community Library in Burnt Hills on Monday at 6:30 p.m. Registration is encouraged, and can be done through visiting toblibrary.sals.edu, or by calling 518-399-8174.

She talks about "restorative justice," a movement to make right the wrongs of the past. For example, after World War II, Germany was made to pay reparations. Compare that with the inert movement for reparations to the descendants of African-American slaves in the United States. And as we struggle to find avenues for restorative justice for past atrocities, how do we even contend with what's happening in the world today? "Some of us are still shocked by the regularity of traumatic news reports," Rosner says. "And the fact that there is genocide occurring even now in places like Myanmar  we feel bombarded by it and yet we've also come to expect it in the daily conversation and news."

If you're feeling a little despairing at this point, Rosner doesn't blame you. "We all have to guard ourselves around how much of this we absorb on a daily basis," she says, "and yet it feels dangerous to not know. We can't choose ignorance because it's more comfortable, but we also can't tolerate this amount of bad news. It's not healthy to be ingesting bad news so regularly and so relentlessly."

But shielding ourselves from the bad things happening around us right now could lead to a kind of "moral injury," she said, which refers to the harm done to our consciences when we don't do enough to prevent an atrocity. Given the enormity of these past traumas, however, it's hard to feel anything but futility on an individual level.

However, that doesn't mean there aren't forces of good battling evil in every area of our lives, Rosner says when asked if she sees any hope for righting these wrongs. We should turn to that goodness, and align ourselves with it, and fight to prevent terrible things from repeating themselves. There's never been a better time to do that than right now.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

"Recovery has to be active. And so is remembrance. Remembrance is an action," Rosner says. "It's not passive and it's not being reflective. It's asking ourselves what do we have to do differently to prevent future genocide."

That includes paying attention to what's happening right now. "What a demagogue can do, what blind following can look like, what hate speech can look like, and why neo-Nazis feel empowered should be of huge concern," she says. "It's not an accident that white supremacists feel like they have one of their own in the White House. What all genocides have in common is a conviction that other races, other beings, aren't as human as you are. That they don't have the rights that you have. Don't have the rights to live like you have. It begins with dehumanization in words and in deed."

"I'm not being hysterical when I say that," she adds. "I'm being historical."

More Information If you go Elizabeth Rosner discusses "Survivor Cafe" When: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Monday Where: Town of Ballston Community Library, 2 Lawmar Lane, Burnt Hills How much: Free, though registration is encouraged More info: toblibrary.sals.edu or 518-399-8174 See More Collapse

Brianna Snyder is a frequent contributor to the Times Union and its magazines.

Correction: In the originally published story, Elizabeth Rosner was misquoted in a branch of scientific theory of which she writes. That would be epigenetics. The story has been changed to reflect that.

SCHENECTADY - At a November press conference, Mayor Gary McCarthy announced with much fanfare that he had filled two high-profile posts, naming Michael Eidens public safety commissioner and Kristin Diotte director of development.

Two months earlier, McCarthy, in a more low-key affair, appointed Christopher Lunn as his chief building inspector when that department was being reformed after a fatal apartment fire and accusations that some employees were not properly trained.

The three new hires all lived outside the city.

Last week, the Schenectady Board of Residency, which hadn't met for several years, convened to consider granting waivers to Eidens and Lunn.

The five-member residency board, which is headed by McCarthy, unanimously approved the waivers to Eidens, a Glenville resident, and Lunn, who lives in Colonie, the mayor said. Eidens' predecessor, the late Wayne Bennett, lived in Clifton Park.

The residency rule applies to anyone hired after July 12, 1988 and generally states that employees should live near their workplace in case of an emergency and that city workers tend to take more interest in a place where they reside.

The law provides for a person to move into the city within six months of getting the job or lose it. The residency board considers requests in writing from the mayor for a waiver, which by law must be granted annually. It also considers hardship situations, case by case.

The mayor looks into complaints about those flouting the law and can fire an employee 10 days after the person is notified. That employee can appeal.

Troy and Albany have similar residency laws. But over the years in Schenectady, the law has been loosely applied and some mayors, including McCarthy's predecessor, Brian U. Stratton, opted to hire people they considered best qualified for the job and not require them to live in the city. Stratton took the position that attracting experienced employees trumped hiring city residents, particularly with fiscal problems and what at the time was a beleaguered police force.

Councilman Vince Riggi said Wednesday that he understands the spirit of the law.

"It makes sense but there's some wiggle room with it because sometimes it's being used and then other times it's not being used," said Riggi, adding he doesn't have any issues with the waivers to Lunn and Eidens, which are good for a year. "I have no problem with it whatsoever as long as it's a level playing field, that's how I feel about all the rules we have in the city."

McCarthy points to the fact that the majority of his newly hired department heads either have or will soon be moving to Schenectady.

On Wednesday, Diotte and the city's director of operations, Alex Sutherland, who was hired in September, both said they recently moved into the city.

When McCarthy promoted Eric Clifford to police chief in the summer of 2016, the mayor was adamant that the chief had to be a city resident. Clifford promised that if he got the job that he would sell his place in Rotterdam and move to Schenectady. He now lives in neighborhood around Central Park.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Fire Chief Raymond Senecal, whom McCarthy promoted to the top job 2014, is among the holdouts.

Asked Wednesday about the matter, Senecal seemed to indicate he hasn't had time.

"This job is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week job, and I am still currently seeking residency," said Senecal.

State law allows firefighters to live in the county where they work or a contiguous one.

For Schenectady police, under their union agreement, officers lose the first five years of holiday pay if they live outside the city.

Finance Commissioner Anthony Ferrari co-owns a popular Italian restaurant in the city but lives in Rotterdam, while General Services Commissioner Paul LaFond lives on city-owned property in Niskayuna where the city's water system is located.

But both Ferrari and LaFond were city employees before the residency rule took effect in the summer of 1988, said McCarthy.

In 2013, McCarthy did not reappoint Assessor Tina Dimitriadis after the two clashed when she refused to move to Schenectady from Colonie, where she was caring for her sick father. Dimitriadis lived in Troy when Stratton hired her.

Earlier that same year, McCarthy promoted then-Assistant Chief Brian Kilcullen to lead the police. He allowed Kilcullen, who owned a home in Milton, to stay with his parents in Schenectady during the workweek.There's another invasive insect to worry about in upstate New York.

Spotted lanternfly, an invasive pest from Asia, could affect the state's forests as well as the agricultural and tourism industries, the state Department of Environmental Conservation is warning.

The insect primarily feeds on tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) but can also feed on more than 70 plant species, including grapevine, hops, maple, walnut, fruit trees and others.

Here's what they look like:

 Nymphs are black with white spots and turn red before transitioning into adults. They can be seen as early as April.

 Adults begin to appear in July and are approximately 1 inch long and  inch wide at rest, with eye-catching wings. Their forewings are grayish with black spots. The lower portions of their hindwings are red with black spots and the upper portions are dark with a white stripe.

 In the fall, adults lay 1-inch-long egg masses on nearly anything from tree trunks and rocks to vehicles and firewood. They are smooth and brownish-gray with a shiny, waxy coating when first laid.

As of this spring, New York has no infestations, though it's possible they are present in low numbers and have not been detected yet, DEC said. A dead spotted lanternfly was found in Delaware County last fall.

The insect was first discovered in Pennsylvania in 2014 and has since been found in New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia.

Feeding on a plant by sometimes thousands of spotted lanternflies stresses plants, making them vulnerable to disease and attacks from other insects. The insects also excrete large amounts of sticky "honeydew," which attracts sooty molds that interfere with plant photosynthesis, which affects the plants' growth and fruit yields.

There is special concern for New York's annual yield of apples and grapes, with a combined value of $358.4 million, DEC said.

Native insects also secrete honeydew, but the large populations of spotted lanterflies result in large accumulations of the sticky mess. In Pennsylvania, people can't be outside without getting honeydew on their hair, clothes and belongings.

Spotted lanternflies can jump and fly short distances, but spread primarily via humans when the insect lay their eggs on vehicles, firewood, outdoor furniture and stone that is then transported elsewhere.

What are the signs of an infestation?

 Sap oozing or weeping from tiny open wounds on tree trunks, which appears wet and may give off fermented odors.

 One-inch-long egg masses that are brownish-gray, waxy and mud-like when new. Old egg masses are brown and scaly.

 Massive honeydew build-up under plants, sometimes with black sooty mold.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

DEC is working with the state Department of Agriculture and Markets and the U.S. Department of Agriculture before it becomes widespread. The goal is to find the insects early or prevent them from entering the state altogether.

The agencies plan trapping surveys in high-risk areas as well as inspections of nursery stock, stone shipments and commercial transports from Pennsylvania.

What can the public do?

 Learn how to identify spotted lanternfly.

 Inspect outdoor items such as firewood, vehicles, and furniture for egg masses.

 If you visit states with spotted lanternfly, be sure to check all equipment and gear before leaving. Scrape off any egg masses. Visit the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture webpage for more information.

If you believe you've found spotted lanternfly in New York:

 Take pictures of the insect, egg masses and/or infestation signs as described above (include something for scale such as a coin or ruler) and email to spottedlanternfly@dec.ny.gov.

 Note the location (address, intersecting roads, landmarks or GPS coordinates.)

 Report the infestation to iMapInvasives,ALBANY  Former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is not ruling out running for New York attorney general this year, but said he won't seek to be selected to the post by the state Legislature.

"It does have the look and feel of a backroom deal," Bharara said of the Legislature's selection process, which will be driven by the Democrat-controlled state Assembly. "And that's not something I want to be a part of right now."

Bharara made the comments in an episode of his podcast, "Stay Tuned with Preet," that was released on Thursday  three days after the stunning resignation of Eric Schneiderman following allegations in the New Yorker magazine of abusive behavior towards four women.

Bharara said he was "stunned and dismayed, disgusted" by the allegations against Schneiderman, and glad he had resigned.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has arranged a process beginning next week in which candidates seeking appointment to the attorney general post will interview in public. It's unclear when a vote  in a joint session of the Assembly and state Senate  would take place.

"They should not have a dog-and-pony show in the state Legislature," Bharara said of the replacement process. "And they should do the thing that makes the most obvious sense, at least to me, and appoint as interim attorney general Barbara Underwood."

Underwood, the state's solicitor general, was sworn in Tuesday as acting attorney general.

Bharara said that she was eminently qualified and would effectively run the office while a political campaign played out this year to replace Schneiderman, who until this week had been planning to seek a third term in office.

"It's an important job; it's an important time  so we'll see," Bharara said." "I'm busy. I've got this podcast. And I love you guys, and I would miss you."

In late 2016, President-elect Donald J. Trump asked Bharara to stay on board as U.S. Attorney, but then fired him a few months after inauguration.

"It's an important job, attorney general  and it's never been more important," Bharara said, observing that the rule of law was under attack by the Trump administration and that pockets of corruption were still prevalent in New York.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

"But frankly, I will tell you, I don't know that I want that job. I've said many, many times (that) politics is not my cup of tea," he said. "It's not. There are a lot of things you've got to do in politics  given the current framework, given the current campaign finance system  and I have always tried to find ways to serve, and serve most of my adult life, in a position where I didn't feel I had to compromise based on politics. And I feel that very strongly."

Bharara said many people had reached out  on social media, plus phone calls, emails and street encounters  and asked him whether he was running for attorney general. He said he was flattered.

As a federal prosecutor, Bharara gained a reputation as a fierce enemy of corrupt politicians. His office cut a swath through the Legislature, climaxing with the back-to-back 2015 arrests of Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos.MILTON - The fate of the town's deal to purchase Boyhaven, the 300-acre Boy Scout camp, looks grim.

Moments after the Town Board voted to ask for a sixth postponement on the closing, the board of the Twin Rivers Council of the Boy Scouts of American voted unanimously Wednesday night to deny Milton any more chances if it doesn't close on the property by 1 p.m. Friday.

Mark Switzer, the executive and CEO of the Twin Rivers Council, said if the town doesn't come up with the $1 million by the appointed deadline, it will go back out to bid with the property.

"Our intention was to sell to the town," Switzer said. "It was an ideal opportunity because the council members want to preserve it as green space."

Switzer said the town never asked for a formal postponement. If it did so, the Council, which has been holding onto the land for the town, would likely ask for some payment for the town's continual deferment of the closing.

"We are the Boy Scouts of America," Switzer said. "We hold ourselves to the highest standards. But it's costing our program and if the town doesn't close by Friday, we are moving on."

Larry Woolbright, the chair of the town's planning board who has been working out the details for a year, believes the deal is dead.

"We are done," Woolbright said. "Last night, when the board took no action, I was devastated and speechless. This morning, I'm angry. The town killed it."

The plan for the purchase was unraveling slowly as the town continually missed closing deadlines. The deal was further damaged after an anonymous donor, who was willing to give the Twin Rivers Council $500,000 toward the town's purchase, withdrew. The donor, whom only Woolbright knew, stepped away because he was being hounded to reveal his identity.

"Right before the donor withdrew, he said to me, 'I didn't know it would be so hard to give away half a million dollars,'" Woolbright said.

The Boy Scouts, knowing the loss of the donor was difficult for the town, gave the Town Board one more chance to close on the deal. Saratoga PLAN offered to loan the town money for the purchase. They, along with the Nature Conservancy and the Open Space Institute, also offered to co-own it with the town. Woolbright, with the help of Saratoga PLAN and the Friends of the Kayaderosseras, also raised $117,000 toward the purchase. But Woolbright said it was clear the town never wanted to buy the land.

"The town wasted my time and the Council's time, Woolbright said. "I can only conclude the town didn't want it in the first place."

Wednesday's meeting, heavily attended by Boyhaven supporters who carried signs reading "Buy Boyhaven," was meant to come up with a plan for purchase. Instead, the Town Board took no action aside from tabling it, crushing any chance for a deal.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

"This is the most disgusting thing in the world," said town Councilwoman Barbara Kerr. "In not going to blame the Boy Scouts. They have been patient and given us every chance. It's the town and the board. It's very obvious someone is working against us."

Councilman Benny Zlotnick, also a strong supporter of the purchase, said he was saddened by the town's inaction.

"I was up all night, thinking of ways to do this," Zlotnick said. "Believe me, if there were, we would do it. I believe public sentiment on our side. But a few people wanted to kill the deal. I'm not one of them."

Frank Rossi, Jr., an attorney and developer, was among those who opposed the project as it was proposed. He, along with the Ballston Journal, felt the donor should reveal himself to the town board, just in case he earned his money illegally. On Wednesday night, Rossi said he considered suing the donor for withdrawing.

Rossi said he believed town voters should have been allowed to vote on the purchase.

Woolbright, however, believes the town would have earned back what it spent. The state Department of Environmental Conservation was planning to purchase 200 of the 300 acres for an estimated $900,000, Woolbright said. He also lined up a $50,000 open space grant. He was also planning to go for another $250,000 grant from the state. That was on top of the $117,000 he raised.

Rossi said the DEC deal was never guaranteed. But on Thursday, DEC said it was still interested in purchasing Boyhaven property.

"DEC remains interested in speaking with Camp Boyhaven's new owners about the long-term conservation of this property," said DEC spokeswoman Erica Ringewald.ALBANY  Gov. Andrew Cuomo's appointment of a special prosecutor to probe allegations of physical abuse of four women by former Attorney General Eric Schneiderman stoked an internal debate Wednesday among the state's district attorneys about whether to challenge or criticize the governor's intervention.

The unrest among the prosecutors was sparked by Cuomo's use of state Executive Law to remove Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. and appoint Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas "to investigate, and if warranted, prosecute, any and all matters concerning the public allegations against Mr. Schneiderman."

The women's allegations that Schneiderman slapped, threatened, choked and spit on them during unrelated incidents were revealed in an article published by The New Yorker on Monday. Schneiderman resigned a few hours after the article was published online and Vance declared that his office would investigate the accusations, along with the New York Police Department.

But a day later Cuomo announced he had issued an executive order taking the case away from Vance, in part, because Schneiderman's office had been investigating the Manhattan district attorney's decision not to prosecute the alleged mistreatment of women by fallen Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein  specifically, that he groped a model in 2015.

"There can be no suggestion of any possibility of the reality or appearance of any conflict or anything less than a full, complete and unbiased investigation," Cuomo said in a letter released Tuesday evening that was addressed to Singas and acting Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood.

Vance fired back that same evening, issuing a two-page letter to Cuomo saying the only conflict was created by Cuomo when he asked the attorney general to review the handling of the Weinstein case by the Manhattan district attorney and the NYPD. He characterized Cuomo's actions in the Weinstein allegations as possibly politically motivated and "an unwarranted intrusion by an elected executive into a charging decision by an independent prosecutor."

Vance also said that there was no potential conflict with his office investigating the abuse allegations against Schneiderman once he resigned as attorney general on Monday night.

"At that point he became a private citizen like any other we investigate, and he is no longer in a position to influence the actions of his former office," Vance wrote.

The war of words continued late Wednesday afternoon when Cuomo's chief counsel, Alphonso David, sent a letter to Vance  that, like the prior letters, was publicly released  asserting, "it is frankly absurd to think that you can investigate an office that is simultaneously investigating your own conduct. ... Moreover, credible women's organizations have come forward with concerns about your handling of sexual abuse or harassment cases."

As the battle unfolded, the state's district attorneys privately debated what position to take and whether to criticize Cuomo or support Vance, according to sources briefed on their discussions.

Oneida County District Attorney Scott D. McNamara, president of the state district attorneys association, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

The organization, of which Schneiderman had been a member before his resignation, has had a prickly relationship with Cuomo over the governor's 2015 executive order that gave Schneiderman the authority to intervene as a special prosecutor in cases involving fatal encounters between police and unarmed civilians.

The state district attorneys association had criticized and internally debated the constitutionality of Cuomo's 2015 order, but voted last year not to file a motion in support of a court petition s filed by Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel E. Abelove challenging Cuomo's action.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

The petition by Abelove was thrown out and he was later indicted by Schneiderman's office on charges that he lied to a grand jury about his handling of a fatal police shooting case in the city of Troy. The case against Abelove is pending.

Cuomo had signed the 2015 order following a series of controversial fatal encounters between police and unarmed civilians in New York and across the nation.

Despite any concerns about Cuomo's decision to push Vance off the new investigation of Schneiderman's alleged misconduct, it's unlikely the district attorneys association will challenge the move in court.

Dennis C. Vacco, a former state attorney general, said that state law empowers a governor to appoint a special prosecutor at their discretion when there may be a potential conflict of interest involving a local district attorney.

In 1996, Gov. George Pataki removed Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson from a cop-killer case after Johnson pledged that he would not enforce the death penalty. Pataki assigned Vacco as special prosecutor, and an appeals court later upheld the decision.

"I think that while this (Schneiderman abuse case) is not quite the same circumstances as the incident back in the 90s involving the cop homicide, the governor clearly has the authority to do this," Vacco said.

Vacco, who is in private practice in Buffalo, said he also thinks that Cuomo made the right decision to remove Vance. And he added the investigation should examine whether Schneiderman improperly used any state resources "in the form of advancing his trysts or covering them up."

"Youd think that Cy would welcome it ... being relieved of the implication that somehow his decision, no matter how fair and balanced, was going to be attacked as retribution by the Schneiderman supporters," Vacco said. "Cuomo has taken that off the table."Gina Haspel at her confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

After Gina Haspels confirmation hearing on Wednesday it appeared likely that she had the votes to become the next CIA director. But that night Senator John McCain released a statement urging his colleagues to reject her nomination, potentially giving wavering senators the cover they need to oppose her.

McCain has been home in Arizona battling brain cancer since the end of last year, and is not expected to return for the vote. His presence might have changed the course of the hearing, as he could have pressed her for answers as a survivor of torture from when he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

I believe Gina Haspel is a patriot who loves our country and has devoted her professional life to its service and defense, McCain said. However, Ms. Haspels role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge tortures immorality is disqualifying. I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination.

Haspel, who once ran a CIA black site in Thailand, said she would not reinstate the torture program the agency ran in the days after 9/11. However she dodged many other questions, declining to call the enhanced interrogation that occurred on her watch immoral, or say whether she would waterboard a suspect if ordered to do so.

Due to McCains absence the Senate effectively has 50 Republicans and 49 Democrats. Since Republican Senator Rand Paul said he plans to vote against Haspel, she needed to pick up at least one Democratic vote. She appeared to find it shortly after the hearing when Democrat Joe Manchin said he would support her. However, Politico reports that there are still a few undecided senators who might be swayed by McCains statement, including fellow Arizona Republican Jeff Flake, Democrats Doug Jones and Claire McCaskill, and Republican Mike Lee.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is expected to vote on Haspel some time next week, and then her nomination will be put before the full chamber.Washington

Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump's nominee to the lead the CIA, defended the agency's torture of terrorism suspects as her confirmation hearing Wednesday served as another reckoning of the extraordinary measures the government employed in the frantic hunt for the Sept. 11 conspirators.

Haspel, a 33-year CIA veteran who oversaw a secret prison in Thailand in 2002 while an al-Qaida suspect was waterboarded there, said she and other spies were working within the law. Though the CIA should never resume that type of work, she said, its officers should also not be judged for doing it.

"I'm not going to sit here with the benefit of hindsight and judge the very good people who made hard decisions, who were running the agency in very extraordinary circumstances," she told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

But poised to take over the agency, Haspel appeared eager to move past one of its darkest chapters.

She vowed that she would not start another interrogation program like the one developed under President George W. Bush. It involved brutal techniques like waterboarding, stripping them naked, slamming them against the wall, forcing them to stay awake for as long as a week and subjecting some to medically unnecessary rectal feeding.

Haspel, seeking to shape the public's impression of her in her first high-profile appearance, introduced herself as an Army "brat" born in Kentucky and a "typical, middle-class American"  albeit one who spent her adult life on the rise in the world of intelligence gathering.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

But as senators began to press her on her views on torture, Haspel, 61, shrugged off the mantles of everyday citizen and spy-novel protagonist, revealing the disposition of a hardened secret agent.

She rejected Democrats' suggestions that she declassify more information about her background, saying that the director should be subject to agency guidelines on keeping its secrets. She pushed back on suggestions that the interrogation program was immoral, insisting that her own "moral compass is strong," and fought to describe what she said were its successes in capturing the nation's most-wanted men.

The interrogation program "has cast a shadow over what has been a major contribution to protecting this country," she said, citing the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.SCHENECTADY  A jury on Thursday returned guilty verdicts against Joevany "Moon" Luna and Kyshaaan Moore for their roles in the 2016 contract killing of Charles Dembrosky outside his home on Campbell Avenue.

Luna, 43, was convicted of first-degree murder, which carries the possibility of life without parole. Moore, 27, was acquitted of first-degree murder but convicted of second-degree murder, which brings a sentence of 25 years to life. The Wilmington, Del., men were both convicted of conspiracy and weapons charges.

Tarchand Lall, the man who allegedly paid them $10,000 to kill Dembrosky, faces an upcoming first-degree murder trial as well. Assistant District Attorneys Peter Willis and Jennifer Assini alleged Lall wanted Dembrosky dead to collect on an insurance policy on Dembrosky's life that Lall took out in May 2016.

After the verdict, Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney alleged that Lall, who was recently charged with criminal solicitation while he remains in custody at the county jail, tried to arrange a second murder on the same blueprint.

"The allegation is that he was trying to repeat the scheme with another victim ... trying to get somebody else murdered for life insurance proceeds," Carney said.

Dembrosky was found shot once in the neck during the pre-dawn hours of Nov. 19, 2016.

In the 10 days preceding the murder, Luna  a Panamanian native who had no ties to upstate New York  exchanged 67 phone calls or text messages with Lall.

Prosecutors introduced what they described as overwhelming evidence against Luna and Moore.

They noted Luna's cell phone number called the victim's cell phone in the hours before Dembrosky was killed. Cellphone data showed that on the night of the murder, the cell phones of Luna and Moore pinged off cell phone towers from Wilmington to Schenectady.

Carney said the ability to map out the killers' digital trail was key to breaking the case. "It's not something that would have been possible at the beginning of my tenure. We didn't even have cell phones," said Carney, who has been in office since 1990.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Camera footage on the Thruway captured a license plate of a red Mazda 6 sedan  matching the one owned by Moore's girlfriend  traveling north on the night of the murder.

Street camera footage captured the car outside the Schenectady home of Lall on the night of the murder. Prosecutors said it showed Luna and Moore, neither of whom had ties to Schenectady, were there to collect the money and get directions to Dembrosky's home.

Meanwhile, Luna's ex-girlfriend, Brandi Moore (no relation to Kyshaan Moore) testified against Luna. She had received some of the money from Lall at a Wal-Mart in the Wilmington area.

Luna attorney Mark Juda tried to pin the murder on Brandi Moore. Kyshaan Moore's lawyer, Michael Mansion, argued that his client had no involvement with Lall and the evidence against him was lacking.

The verdicts were returned after less than a day of deliberations.SARATOGA SPRINGS - The city school district is touting its proposed $15.6 million capital project as one that will lower energy costs, improve safety on all eight campuses and inspire students to more fully enjoy the outdoors. And it will all be done at a zero cost to taxpayers.

Superintendent Michael Patton said he's received "really positive reactions from stakeholders" for his Great Outdoor Project, which is being fully paid for by its capital reserve fund of $7.5 million and a $8.1 million bond, which will, in large part, be paid back in state building aid.

"There are multiple benefits that all the stakeholders, staff, teachers, booster clubs, PTA, Rotary, Lion's Club like," Patton said of the project that will go up to vote on Tuesday with the district's proposed 2018-19 budget of $125.9 million and three board seats. "Everyone was positive."

But there is one group of people not so enthusiastic. Two dozen neighbors whose homes border the high school like everything about the Great Outdoor Project except for the lighted multi-use artificial turf field that will be installed near their homes. Another concern is traffic safety on their narrow side streets, where there is often congestion because high school students already park there.

Donna Decker, who lives on Joseph Street, said while she supports most of the project, she wishes it included more parking for students because she believes the parking situation on her street, as well as Elm and Empire Avenue, is already dangerous.

"It's quite a disturbance here now because the traffic comes in three ways," Decker said. "There is a blind spot over at Empire and there are no sidewalks."

Aside from traffic safety, Decker is also concerned about the artificial turf field. Made out of synthetic fibers and tire crumbs, she believes it could be a carcinogen. The theory is controversial and the school district says such concerns have been refuted by studies including one from 2010 out of the University of California at Berkeley. But Decker is not convinced they are conclusive, and the scientific community has yet to come to a consensus on the matter, according to numerous reports.

"There is leaching and outgassing of toxins from turf fields," Decker, who is a principal at Amsterdam Greater School District, said.

She said she's concerned that there isn't enough data available to say artificial turf fields like the one proposed are safe for kids to play sports on and would like parents and voters to make an educated decision when they vote on the issue.

Erik Reimann, who lives on Empire Avenue, said he he's concerned about the overall impact on the neighborhood.

"It's great for kids but it's a parking nightmare," Reimann said. "I want more information before I vote."

Other neighbors like Rita Young, also of Empire Avenue, can't understand why anyone would be opposed.

"I don't like to be disturbed, but anything that supports the youth population and sports, I'm supportive of," Young said. "Absolutely."

Decker, who is circulating a petition against the artificial turf field, said that she would prefer to see funding going toward school security.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Patton said that security is a factor in the capital improvements with new outdoor lighting and fencing at all of the schools. He also said the new bus loop at Greenfield Elementary will provide additional safeguards for students being picked up and dropped off.

He finished by saying he does understand the parking problem, which he said has been on-going at the high school.

"We don't have a lot of space," Patton said. "We are trying to address it. I'm meeting with the city's commissioner of public safety. We are telling our students to be careful how they drive and park on city streets. I think we are being very respectful of the neighbors. We want to come up with a viable solution and alternatives to parking. It's an ongoing conversation."

Decker said even if the project is approved, she'll seek to work collaboratively with the school board.

"I'll work on improving the plan for the field," she said.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the concerns of Donna Decker regarding the traffic situation in her neighborhood and the artificial turf surface..[May 09, 2018] TUV Rheinland: Cybersecurity Trends 2018

COLOGNE, Germany, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- How can businesses better protect themselves from the increasing volume and complexity of cyberattacks while preparing for the opportunities of automation and digitalization of industries? TUV Rheinland sheds the light on these questions in our "Cybersecurity Trends 2018", available for download at http://www.tuv.com/en/cybersecurity-trends-2018 "Our goal is raise awareness to increasing cybersecurity risks impacting business and safety of our clients," shared Frank Luzsicza, Executive Vice President ICT & Business Solutions, TUV Rheinland. "In this year's report, we focus on where we see the most significant threats and opportunities emerging. We highlight the implications of our increasingly connected world, how global regulation is responding, the need to inject trust into cybersecurity, ways to protect ourselves from 'intelligent' cyberattacks, and what we should do to close the skills gap in an environment starved for cybersecurity talent, yet overwhelmed by volumes of data," said Frank Luzsicza. Similar to previous years, our report is based on a survey of TUV Rheinland's leading cybersecurity experts and input from clients in Europe, North America and Asia. Following are highlights of the 8 cybersecurity trends identified this year: TREND 1: A rising global tide of cyber-regulation increasing the price of privacy Data protection is a critical concern in an increasingly digital world and May 25, 2018 is a turning point for data protection in Europe. It marks the end of the transitional period for the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as it becomes enforceable by law. It disrupts data governance and how information is protected for any organization controlling or processing EU citizen personal data, and leads a growing list of emerging data protection regulations from around the globe. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to 4% of global turnover -- a significant sum that demands attention. Expect to see the EU Commission hold major global companies accountable for GDPR violations. TREND 2: The Internet of Things drives the convergence of safety, cybersecurity, and data privacy In 2016, Mirai proved that Internet of Things (IoT) devices can be effectively weaponized as botnets. Today, product development, time to market considerations, and technical power constraints leave IoT devices exposed by exploitation of critical vulnerabilities. The impact of data breaches now extends far beyond simple data monetization to 'kinetic' threats to health and safety, as devices and systems are directly connected to open networks. It is widely accepted that the state of IoT security is poor and, with over 500 connected devices expected to cohabit with us in our homes by 2022, these represent a major risk to safety, cybersecurity, and data privacy. TREND 3: Operational Technology emerges as a frontline for cyberattacks The industrial internet is already transforming global industry and infrastructure, promising greater efficiency, productivity and safety. To compete means to move process equipment online, often unwittinglyexposing component vulnerabilities to cyberattacks. Manufacturing plants are targeted to obtain intellectual property, trade secrets, and engineering information. Attacks on public infrastructure are motivated by financial gain, hacktivism, and national state agendas. Fear of a 'worst-case scenario', where attackers trigger a breakdown in systems that underpin society, was highlighted this year at the World Economic Forum. Industrial systems are particularly susceptible to supply-chain attacks, adversaries have recognized this, and are targeting them.



TREND 4: With cyber defences in place, focus shifts to threat detection & response Recent cyberattacks on high-profile organizations are proving that, against the sophisticated and persistent cybercriminals, preventative controls alone are not enough. Today, it takes organizations, on average, over 191 days to detect a data breach. The longer it takes to detect and respond to threats the greater the financial and reputational damage done to the organization by the incident. Due to the vast growth of security log data, limitations of incumbent technologies, ineffective use of threat intelligence, inability to monitor IoT devices, and shortage of cybersecurity talent, organizations are exposed to costly dwell times.

TREND 5: Increasing use of Artificial Intelligence for cyberattacks and cyber defence As organizations undergo a digital transformation, there is a growing volume of increasingly sophisticated and persistent cyberattacks. Malware is becoming smarter, able to 'intelligently' adapt to and evade traditional detection and eradication measures. With a global shortage of cybersecurity talent, organizations are losing the cyber arms race as a result. The volume of security data now far exceeds our legacy capability to use it effectively, leading to a growing number of AI-enabled cybersecurity use cases: accelerating incident detection and response; better identifying and communicating risks to the business; providing a unified view of security status across the organization. TREND 6: Certifications become necessary to inject trust into cybersecurity It is broadly accepted that cybersecurity and data protection are of critical importance in an increasingly digital world, but how can you judge the effectiveness of an organization's cybersecurity posture? There is a growing concern for trust in cybersecurity, evidenced by existing and emerging standards. For CISOs and product manufacturers alike, certification validates you have done what you say you have done. Today, however, product security assurance certification schemes tend to focus on the critical infrastructure and government sectors only. Where does that leave the manufacturers of consumer products? TREND 7: Passwords being replaced by biometric authentication Our digital lives are ruled by a complex web of online apps each requiring a username and password to control access. To protect the data behind these apps, selecting an obscure and complex password, and changing it often, is good practice, but also quite rare. With exponential improvements in computing power, and easy access to lots of it in the cloud, the time it takes to brute force passwords is rapidly reducing. What took nearly 4 years in 2000, now takes only 2 months. Add to that the fact stolen, hacked, and traded, passwords have never before been so openly available. As a result, it is increasingly commonplace to encounter biometric authentication (facial, fingerprint, iris, and voice) included in everyday mobile, tablet, and laptop devices, as well as physical access and online services. TREND 8: Industries under siege: Healthcare, Finance, and Energy The majority of cyberattacks are undertaken by criminal organizations and are motivated by money. The value of information on the dark web depends on demand for the data, the available supply, its completeness, and ability for reuse. As a result, healthcare and financial personal information are highly sought after. Medical records can fetch $1-$1,000, depending on how complete they are, while credit cards can fetch only $5-$30 dollars, if bundled with the information necessary to do immediate damage. Other cyberattacks have more political and nation-state motives, here disruption to critical services through attacks on the energy sector is a key risk in 2018; as evidenced by recent news of Russia's campaign of cyberattacks targeting the US power grid, which is suspected to have been underway for several years. More detailed information and assessments of the challenges in 2018 by TUV Rheinland can be found in the Cybersecurity Trends 2018 whitepaper. http://www.tuv.com/en/cybersecurity-trends-2018 About TUV Rheinland TUV Rheinland is a global leader in independent inspection services, founded 145 years ago. The group maintains a worldwide presence of more than 20,000 people; annual turnover is nearly EUR 2 billion. The independent experts stand for quality and safety for people, technology and the environment in nearly all aspects of life. TUV Rheinland inspects technical equipment, products and services, oversees projects, and helps to shape processes and information security for companies. Its experts train people in a wide range of careers and industries. To this end, TUV Rheinland employs a global network of approved labs, testing and education centers. Since 2006, TUV Rheinland has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact to promote sustainability and combat corruption. For almost 20 years, TUV Rheinland has been supporting the private and public sector with comprehensive consulting and solution expertise in Cybersecurity and Telecommunications through digital transformation processes. The business stream's core business areas include cybersecurity solutions, digital transformation consulting, planning of telecommunication infrastructures, IT services, management consulting and development of innovative research projects. With more than 600 specialists around the world, ICT & Business Solutions provides a comprehensive service portfolio for a protected digital enterprise. For more information please visit http://www.tuv.com/informationsecurity SOURCE TUV Rheinland Singapore Pte Ltd

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] OBU Smart LED TVs Launched in India With Affordable Price

MUMBAI, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- 32 inches in-built sound bar android smart TV launched at Rs. 12,999 India and UK-based electronics brand, OBU, on Wednesday launched new Smart TVs in India. OBU made its entry into the market with its 24-inch, 32-inch, 40-inch, and 50-inch models. 11 models are available with in-built soundbar, full HD, 4k, smart, non-smart features. All products are available on Amazon starting today. OBU Smart TV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qgjwYOoxoh74L-OzMHu7DETU2o21X-od OBU'S LED range start from Rs. 8,700/ to Rs. 29,999/. OBU's television sets will be manufactured in India. The Smart TVs run on Android 4.4 and above, with pre-installed apps like Gmail, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Netflix. It also features Aptoide, which allows users to download any app. The company claims that the flagship model - 50-inch, 32-inch - comes with unique design and features a olden slim frame that looks attractive.



The main unique selling proposition of OBU technology Inc.'s own brand is the jumbo extended warranty services, which has the largest service network pan India, with 350+ pin code service network. OBU claim that their onsite service will cater to the semi-urban rural area also through its network. All OBU's products come with 3-year full onsite manufacturer warranty. "The company has already planned its manufacturing line of LED TV for the next two quarters at Sanand, Ahmedabad. We aim to capture 1 to 2 % of total TV market share. We will mainly focus on the offline and rural market," said OBU technology CEO Aadil Arodiya.

"We are offering Indian consumers the best smart Android TV experience at affordable price to suit every pocket," added Arodiya. About OBU OBU makes Smart, Internet Enabled, UHD, Full HD and HD Ready LED TV in 32 (80cm), 40 (102cm), 48 (122cm), 55 (140cm), 65 (165cm), among others. OBU uses components sourced from the world's top suppliers to make a wide range of LED televisions at its comprehensive facilities. By investing a lot of time, knowledge and expertise on the manufacture and production of high quality LED TVs, OBU is frequently at the forefront of new, ground-breaking concepts. The Company strives to ensure that its customers receive high-quality, technically sophisticated products. We have been accepting challenges and delivering phenomenal results in regards of cost, quality and service within the time frame required by our valuable customers. Two things however haven't changed despite the massive change in scale-of-operation - our commitment to quality in each and every unit that bears our name, and the pride of being thoroughly an Indian manufacturing company. Media Contact:

Adil Arodiya

obutvs@gmail.com

+91-9601334315

Director

OBU Technology

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] Infosys Releases New Capabilities for its AI-powered Enterprise Service Management Cafe

BENGALURU, India and LONDON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- UK-based water company taps this solution based on ServiceNow to improve its core business and employee service experiences Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, has released new enhancements to its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered plug-and-play solution, Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe. The new capabilities further advance the adoption of ServiceNow with more than 40 solutions ready to be deployed across IT service management, user experience and mobility, as well as business process automation across human resources (HR), facilities, travel logistics and finance. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/Infosys_Logo.jpg )

For IT teams, Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe accelerates the deployment of ServiceNow with pre-configured process templates in a managed services environment. For end-users, the Cafe provides a streamlined, intelligent and intuitive user experience. Key Highlights of the Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe: Chatbots deliver faster, smarter service desk solutions with ServiceNow The solution offers an option to leverage chatbots with the power of AI and automation that work in tandem with ServiceNow to get queries addressed. Customers receive a seamlessly integrated bot that empowers users to take advantage of self-service, helping reduce direct tickets to the service desk and significantly improving user satisfaction. Leverage the solution beyond IT to support other business functions Extends ServiceNow beyond IT to support other business functions including customer service management (CSM), HR, facilities management, project portfolio management (PPM), security operations, cloud management platform and governance, risk and compliance (GRC). Customers are able to establish a single integrated enterprise platform with world-class solutions for enhanced user experience, better control, transparency and maintenance. Vertical solutions and business domains include persona-based self-service portal The user friendly service catalog caters to vertical industry solutions, including retail, financial services and manufacturing. This improves user satisfaction significantly through a persona based self-service portal, featuring a simple two-click service-catalog solution. The offering includes vertical specific solutions like Restaurant-in-a-Box, Enterprise Software library for manufacturing domain, Meet the Expert, Travel Management and more to address customers' real-time challenges. Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe enables companies to leverage plug-and-play solutions that address pain areas specific to industry verticals and automate them on the ServiceNow platform. CXO/Servie Management dashboards help executives get actionable insights



Provides intuitive preconfigured reports and dashboards that help CXOs have a real-time view of service health. It offers self-service, license management, AI and orchestration dashboards based on industry standard and best practices. Cafe Mobility solution delivers work where employees need it

Delivers enhanced experiences for users on the go, with iOS and Android apps enabling users to create, update, track and approve tickets on the move. Customers such as UK-based water company, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water (DCWW), are tapping the solution today, transforming their enterprise service experience. Peter Jones, Head of Service, DCWW, said, "Our main goal at DCWW was to transform the way colleagues access IT services through an intuitive portal supported with automated workflow. We found Infosys' unique 'transformation first' approach a valuable proposition to help us design and deliver the solution in a collaborative manner which enabled us to focus on improving our core business and service experiences." Tom Reuner, Managing Partner, Business Operations Strategy and M&A Advisory at HfS Research, said, "With its single code and data model, as well as its focus on automation, collaboration and workflows, the ServiceNow platform has evolved into a critical enabler for an organization's digital journey. By leveraging AI and broader automation capabilities, the Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe offering is transforming the user experience beyond traditional areas of service management to streamline and drive innovation across business functions such as HR and Finance. Infosys stands out by supporting clients with a vision that is refreshingly devoid of the ITSM jargon. Its vision of service experience transformation is guiding clients to overcome the traditional organizational stovepipes that all too often scupper innovation." Tony Beller, Vice President worldwide alliances and channels, ServiceNow, said, "ServiceNow transforms work by automating workflows across the enterprise. The Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe's newer offerings simplify service management, helping clients think beyond IT and applies AI to accelerate customer success." Narsimha Rao Mannepalli, Executive Vice President, Head of Cloud & Infrastructure Solutions and Infosys Validation Solutions, Infosys, said, "The new capabilities added to our Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe offering will help to further drive innovation for our clients, not just across IT, but into other business functions as well. At a time where organizations are undertaking a digital transformation, our Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe solution enables faster implementation and improvement of ServiceNow projects, allowing clients to make significant savings which the whole business will benefit from." About Infosys Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to create and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From engineering to application development, knowledge management and business process management, we help our clients find the right problems to solve, and to solve these effectively. Our team of 200,000+ innovators, across the globe, is differentiated by the imagination, knowledge and experience, across industries and technologies that we bring to every project we undertake. Visit http://www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise thrive in the digital age. Safe Harbor Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements concerning our future business opportunities and growth prospects. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. These filings are available at http://www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] ScrumStart's Unique Success Story That Evolved Around a Simple Concept of 'Trust'

PUNE, India and LONDON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ScrumStart; a two-year-old technology services and consulting venture funded by SRKay Consulting Group, is showing exemplary promise with its unique 'Trust Business Model'. Becoming profitable within the first year of its operations, with customers spread over four continents and office locations in the U.S.A., the UK, the Nordics and India, ScrumStart will be the template for success for all upcoming ventures of SRKay. SRKay Consulting Group is the investment venture of the billion-dollar Indian diamond conglomerate SRK Exports that invests and accelerates in technology ventures that solve business problems using cutting-edge technology. "The ScrumStart team made it very easy for us to have a quick start with the trust model and take faster benefits through their implementation vehicle, named Virtual Captive. Just like a captive company, they have transparent pricing, co-hiring, and training and give their clients the freedom to build-operate-transfer the setup in future. ScrumStart makes it sweeter with a CapEx free option for companies to have an OpEx only model if they wish to set up their captives, which surprisingly comes out to be much more efficient than company-owned captives," says one of the clients ofScrumStart.



"The kind of response our Trust Business Model has generated in such a short time is highly encouraging and is a ratification of the principles espoused by the model. It took some time before we could evolve our offering to a level that started eliciting customer interest. We are probably the only company that has a transparent pricing model for all our technology consulting services. Our practices give our customers a very high degree of confidence," says Santosh Panicker CEO of ScrumStart. "As investors, we love the Trust Business Model and believe that this model would make ScrumStart the industry trendsetter very soon," said Alok Kumar, Partner SRKay.

In a short span of two years since inception, ScrumStart has several global clients, and the number is increasing steadily. With, the recently opened office in Chicago, ScrumStart has already planned out their growth strategy in the biggest technology market. About ScrumStart ScrumStart pioneers Virtual Captive model that replaces and compliments the traditional IT/ITeS captives and technology services using a unique Trust Business Model. Backed by a billion-dollar business house, ScrumStart is run by experts who have been involved in setting up and running the most successful captives in India. The innovative Virtual Captive solution offered by ScrumStart combines the advantages of both models of outsourcing: traditional outsourcing and company-owned captives. For more information, visit: https://www.scrumstart.net/ About SRKay Consulting Group

SRKay Consulting Group invests and accelerates innovative, high-potential and early-stage opportunities and businesses, alongside offering premium business advisory services to start-ups as well as established organizations. The area of focus is on long-term investments in futuristic ideas that aim to make the world a happier and a better place. The Group's investment interests include businesses that seek to differentiate themselves through the use of cutting-edge technology, solving real-life business problems. For more information, visit: http://srkay.com

Media Contact:

Akshay Sharma

akshay@srkay.com

+91-9168620572

Head - Digital Marketing

SRKay Consulting Group







[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] SmartUp Launches Its Global Blockchain Incubating Platform

To tackle the current challenges of financing and resources matching as well as low market transparency, hence providing startups with one-stop incubation service HONG KONG, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The rise of startups is encouraging more and more passionate entrepreneurs to join the movement. However, nearly 99% of them need to cope with the two major challenges: capital and resources, without which 70% of them would go bankrupt within two years after establishment. Although there are incubators willing to help these startups, the lengthy application process and application barriers are dampening the fast moving startup community and lead to failure due to the matching quality capital and resources efficiently. SmartUp has a solution for this problem. To tackle the challenges of financing and resources matching and low market transparency, SmartUp, a Hong Kong based blockchain project, is dedicated to building a 24x7 (Anytime, Anywhere, Anyone) global blockchain incubating ecosystem to provide one stop incubating services, including startup supports, business consulting, lead investing and fundraising, as well as business networking, which enable startups to find the most suitable service in response to their needs. "We hope to connect global projects, investors and co-workers with the revolutionary blockchain technology to build a global smart incubation platform with mutual trust and benefits, providing them with a one-stop incubation ecosystem. Our team consist of talents from global financial market, startups and with solid blockchain development experience, who will enable SMART IDEA to match with quality capital and resources effectively, and ultimately promote the startup development ," said Ric Wu, Founder of SmartUp.



With the adoption of revolutionary blockchain technology, SmartUp's global blockchain incubation platform is more competitive than traditional incubators: Smart Credit Checking: Based on real transaction records, user feedback, as well as third party professional rating, it creates for its project sides, investors, as well as co-workers to form a complete range of smart rating credit check system. It assists investors and their co-workers around the world in analyzing tens of thousands of projects and presents them with valuable reference. Global Resources Matching: SmartUp gathers professionals from different are as of expertise. Projects can match with local and global professionals via SmartUp and enable cross border, seamless and efficient matching. Lead Investment & Global Fundraising: SmartUp team includes talents with global financing, startup and listed company backgroun ds and have years of investment experience. Besides lead investment, smart contract splits each project into smaller ones and lowers investment threshold, which in turn attracts more investors. Mr. Wu continued, "All transactions taking place on SmartUp would be kept on blockchain and could not be modified, while the ecosystem chains are scattered across the whole computer network as computing nodes. No single node (computer) is capable of controlling the data that are protected by consensus algorithms. The platform applies zk-SNARK (zero-knowledge proofs), which will protect investors' privacy. With smart contracts, investors could verify prior investments on specific projects without compromising their identities."

Through smart contracts, a decentralized ledger and digital encryption technologies to connect with global investors and co-workers, project owners not only can use SIT token to settle service fees, but also, compared with traditional funding, SIT token investment could save up to three-quarters of costs. As a globally circulated token, investors can use SIT token for funding, solving issues related to capital and foreign exchanges, which allow investors to invest freely across the world. In the meantime, a smart contract also splits each project into smaller ones, which helps lower investment threshold, which in turn attracts more investors. Using SIT Token, users could enjoy credit checking service of project owners and their partners. SmartUp would generate income through incubation service, lead investing and funding, market value management and M&A, as well as credit checking. SmartUp is issuing SIT token to support platform and blockchain development, acquired capital will be used for technological improvement, business expansion, legal matters and general expenses. About SmartUp SmartUp is a global blockchain incubating platform connecting enterprises and individuals. It connects diversified types of projects, companies, individuals, and services, as a result of irrefutable, transparent and temper-free features. The platform also provides a comprehensive service for startups through SIT, which would help create a complete credit system. For detailed information, please visit: www.smart-up.co SOURCE SmartUp

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] Akeneo Accelerates Global Growth with Client Wins and New Executives

BOSTON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On the heels of acquiring Israeli AI startup Sigmento, the open source enterprise product information management (PIM) leader, Akeneo today announced that it has signed a wave of international companies as new enterprise clients. Akeneo's new clients include Schuler Shoes, an American legacy shoemaker founded in 1889; Hanger Clinic, a premier provider of orthotic and prosthetic solutions with 700 clinic locations around the United States; Rural King, an all-American farm supply store founded in 1960 with 150 locations; and Fossil, the American fashion designer and manufacturer with 59 offices in 150 countries around the world. "Our company has achieved triple-digit growth for the fifth consecutive year," said Fred de Gombert, CEO and co-founder of Akeneo. "It's clear that retailers and manufacturers are realizing the increasing importance of streamlining their product data across omnichannel consumer touchpoints. We are confident that more enterprise clients will join the Akeneo PIM family in 2018." Akeneo today also announced the appointment of Johan Benoualid as vice president of global sales and Christel Grizaut Billault as vice president of marketing. The new hires bring decades of experience in global ecommerce sales and marketing, which will help Akeneo as it accelerates its expansion in Europe and North America. Benoualid has spent more than 15 years helping category-leading technology companies drive growth and market adoption. Prior o joining Akeneo, he served as south Europe managing director at Hootsuite, the social media management platform, where he was instrumental in driving the company's expansion across France, Spain and Italy. Before Hootsuite, Benoualid worked at Adobe, where he helped the software giant increase market penetration of its industry-leading martech products.



Billault is an accomplished marketing executive with 20 years of experience and a successful track record in creating powerful integrated marketing strategies for Fortune 1000 companies. Prior to joining Akeneo, she held multiple senior marketing positions at Acronis, a leading hybrid cloud data protection company, and before that, she managed corporate marketing and communications programs for global technology companies that included Altiris, a Symantec company; Tripwire, and Baltimore Technologies. Benoualid and Billault join Akeneo's expanding transcontinental team of 130 people based across Europe and the U.S., which represents a 50 percent growth in headcount since last year.

About Akeneo:

Akeneo is a global leader in Product Information Management (PIM) solutions that enable retailers and corporate brands to deliver a consistent and enriched customer experience across all sales channels, including ecommerce, mobile, print, and retail points of sale. Akeneo's open source enterprise PIM dramatically improves product data quality and accuracy while simplifying and accelerating product catalog management. Leading global brands including Sephora, Shop.com, Auchan, Jabra, Sunbelt Rentals and Faber-Castell trust Akeneo's solutions to scale and customize their ecommerce initiatives. Using Akeneo, brands and retailers can improve customer experience, increase sales, reduce time to market, and boost marketer productivity. Akeneo is based in the United States, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, and Israel. For more information, please visit https://www.akeneo.com. Contact: David Wamsley

www.rosebudpr.io

dave@rosebudpr.io View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/akeneo-accelerates-global-growth-with-client-wins-and-new-executives-300646091.html SOURCE Akeneo

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]No pee tape needed. Photo: MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP/Getty Images

In the waning weeks of 2016, when the intelligence community and many politicians were passing around terrifying reports about Donald Trumps links to Russia like samizdat, the frightening possibility arose that the sanctity of the United States government might be compromised in a way no living American had experienced. This was just one of the unnerving things about the rise of Trump, and it was one that many well-informed observers doubted. Russia, after all, was poor and weak. To imagine that a country with an economy smaller than Canadas or Italys could leverage a superpower ten times wealthier beggared the imagination. And yet that paranoid, absurd belief seems to be creeping closer to reality than seemed possible even in those dark postelection days.

The New York Times has confirmed the explosive claims made by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stormy Daniels, that Columbus Nova  a New York investment firm whose biggest client is a company controlled by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg  deposited half a million dollars into a secret account set up by attorney Michael Cohen to pay off Trumps sexual partners. The possible reasons for this arrangement run from brazenly corrupt to far worse. Columbus Nova said the hefty sum was a consulting fee paid to Cohen, hardly a benign explanation.

5 of the Most Blatantly Unethical Moves by the Trump Administration

Columbus Nova reportedly retained Cohens services after Andrew Intrater, the companys American chief executive, met him while attending Trumps inauguration with Vekselberg, who is his cousin. Like all Russian oligarchs, Vekselberg operates in cooperation with the Putin government. The payments gave Russia several sources of possible leverage over Cohen and Trump. First, the money itself could amount to some kind of bribe, in return for which a favor would be expected. Second, Russia had knowledge of the secret payoff, which it could always expose. Third, the possibility (at minimum) exists that Russia knew the account was being used to silence Trumps mistresses, yet another source of kompromat.*

For all the speculation about the existence of the pee tape, the latest revelations prove what is tantamount to the same thing. Russia could leverage the president and his fixer  who, recall, hand-delivered a pro-Russian peace plan with Ukraine to Trumps national-security adviser in January 2017  by threatening to expose secrets they were desperate to keep hidden. Whether those secrets were limited to legally questionable payments, or included knowledge of sexual affairs, is a question of degree but not of kind.

Perhaps even more alarming has been the response of the political system to this crisis. The House of Representatives has assigned Devin Nunes, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, as its point man to defend Trump against the Mueller investigation. The Department of Justice has a long-standing policy of keeping Congress out of active investigations, for the obvious reason that elected officials have a powerful incentive to interfere. Nunes has demanded the virtually unlimited right to get inside the Mueller probe. Officials in the Department of Justice have come to suspect his goal is to compromise the investigation by handing information from the prosecutors over to Trump.

The Washington Post tonight reports another, and even more fanatical, step in Nuness crusade. Last week, Nunes demanded a piece of information that the FBI and other intelligence officials believed would endanger a top-secret intelligence source. They prevailed on Trump to support their request to withhold the information which, they argued, would risk severe consequences including potential loss of human lives.

Nunes is not only demanding the secret be revealed to him, but threatening to vote to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt. And officials who secured Trumps support may have left out the fact that the source provided information to the Mueller investigation. As a result, several administration officials said they fear Trump may reverse course and support Nuness argument.

Think for a moment what this report tells us. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who enjoys the full backing of his partys leadership, is willing to risk what his own government describes as the betrayal and potential loss of life of an intelligence source. And officials within this government believe the president would do the same, all in order to obstruct an investigation into the presidents secretive ties to a foreign power. They are acting as though Trump is compromised by Russia, or at the very least, that he cannot be trusted to defend his own countrys security against it. The sordid Russia scandal has already brought some version of a very dark nightmare scenario to life.

This post has been updated with additional information about Columbus Novas relationship with Michael Cohen.

Update: This was published Tuesday night, in the wake of immediate disclosures in the media that emphasized the role of Vekselberg. My interpretation of Cohens payments, and especially the headline, leapt to the darkest conclusion too quickly. Subsequent reporting has fleshed out the picture and presented the payments as an effort by Cohen to cash in on his access. The payments look more like traditional in influence peddling, albeit an especially gross form carried out in a way designed to avoid any public disclosure, and not a way to funnel money to Trumps mistresses. The assumptions here about Cohen remain possibilities, but worst-case scenarios, not proven fact.[May 10, 2018] Blast Motion Successfully Obtains Injunction Against PPG Technologies, Inc. for Patent Infringement

The United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania ("Court"), in the case of Blast Motion, Inc. ("Blast Motion") vs. PPG Technologies, Inc. ("PPG"), issued an order granting Blast Motion an injunction and default judgment against PPG. The District Court has issued an injunction against PPG and its principals, officers, directors, shareholders, employees, affiliates, agents, successors and assigns are, as of May 9, 2018, enjoined from making, using, selling, importing, or offering motion sensor hardware, software and/or designs that operate (and/or would enable products to operate) in the same or substantiall similar manner as the PPG technology accused of infringing multiple claims for U.S. Patent No. 8,903,521.

This injunction shall continue until the expiration of the '521 patent or until modified by the Court.



The injunction order against PPG is not directed to any claim or defense in the co-pending patent litigation between Blast Motion and Diamond Kinetics. Blast Motion's patent case against Diamond Kinetics is currently scheduled for trial in May 2019.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180510005436/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] Oncolytics Biotech Receives Special Protocol Assessment Agreement from FDA for Phase 3 Clinical Trial of Pelareorep In Metastatic Breast Cancer

CALGARY, Alberta and SAN DIEGO, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oncolytics Biotech Inc. (TSX:ONC) (OTCQX:ONCYF), currently developing REOLYSIN (pelareorep), an intravenously delivered immuno-oncolytic virus turning cold tumors hot, today announced that it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under a Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) for the protocol design, clinical endpoints and statistical analysis approach for the company's phase 3 study evaluating pelareorep for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. The company previously received Fast Track Designation for pelareorep for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer in May 2017.

"This agreement with the FDA, outlining the specific clinical pathway forward in metastatic breast cancer, is an important milestone in advancing pelareorep along a path to potential regulatory approval," said Dr. Matt Coffey, President and CEO of Oncolytics Biotech. "Its a confirmation from the FDA that our design and protocols will support an application for approval and advances pelareorep to be a phase 3 asset. We now look forward to implementation of the Agencys guidance and to the advancement of pelareorep through this final phase of clinical development." Final details of the phase 3 clinical trial will be made available at the launch of the study and on www.clinicaltrials.gov. About REOLYSIN/Pelareorep

REOLYSIN, also known as pelareorep, is a non-pathogenic, proprietary isolate of the unmodified reovirus: a first-in-class intravenously delivered immuno-oncolytic virus for the treatment of solid tumors and hematological malignancies. The compound induces selective tumor lysis and promotes an inflamed tumor phenotype through innate and adaptive immune responses to treat a variety of cancers. About Oncolytcs Biotech Inc.





, also known as pelareorep, an intravenously delivered immuno-oncolytic virus. The compound induces selective tumor lysis and promotes an inflamed tumor phenotype -- turning "cold" tumors "hot" -- through innate and adaptive immune responses to treat a variety of cancers. Oncolytics' clinical development program emphasizes three pillars: chemotherapy combinations to trigger selective tumor lysis and immuno-therapy and immune modulator (IMiD) combinations to produce innate and adaptive immune responses. Oncolytics is currently planning its first registration study in metastatic breast cancer, as well as studies in combination with checkpoint inhibitors and targeted and IMiD therapies in solid and hematological malignancies. For further information, please visit: www.oncolyticsbiotech.com. This press release contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and forward-looking information under applicable Canadian securities laws (such forward-looking statements and forward-looking information are collectively referred to herein as forward-looking statements). Forward-looking statements, including the Company's belief as to the potential and mode of action of REOLYSIN, also known as pelareorep, as a cancer therapeutic; and other statements related to anticipated developments in the Company's business and technologies involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, among others, the availability of funds and resources to pursue research and development projects, the efficacy of pelareorep as a cancer treatment, the success and timely completion of clinical studies and trials, the Company's ability to successfully commercialize pelareorep, uncertainties related to the research and development of pharmaceuticals, uncertainties related to the regulatory process and general changes to the economic environment. Investors should consult the Company's quarterly and annual filings with the Canadian and U.S. securities commissions for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to the forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against placing undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws.

Company Contact

Michael Moore

Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications

858-886-7813

mmoore@oncolytics.ca Investor Relations

Robert Uhl

Westwicke Partners

858-356-5932

robert.uhl@westwicke.com Media Contact

Jason Spark

Canale Communications

619-849-6005

jason@canalecomm.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] Only 14 Percent of Organizations Fully Prepared for GDPR Requirements Despite Enforcement Later This Month

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HyTrust announced today results from a survey of security professionals revealing that only 14 percent of organizations believe that they are fully ready to meet the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which takes effect May 25. Forty percent of respondents reported varying degrees of not being prepared, and a surprising 26 percent said they were unsure whether they were prepared. The European Union law governing data protection and privacy for EU citizens carries hefty penalties of up to 4 percent of an organizations worldwide revenue for non-compliance with the requirements. The survey was conducted mid-April during the RSA Conference 2018 held in San Francisco. The spirit of GDPR is to do the right thing to protect private information, said John De Santis, chairman and CEO, HyTrust. While the potential fines are headline grabbing, the intent of the regulation is not to impose fines. HyTrust encourages organizations to quickly get to the desired right end state of implementing and automating sound security controls and encryption now, rather than spend a lot of time and money scaring management into funding studies. Good security practitioners turn to HyTrust to do right through automation, which is the most efficient and cost effective way possible. Other findings included the following: 73% of respondents reported being surprised by the extent of the changes their organizations must undergo to meet the GDPR requirements. (Of those, 21% were surprised by the amount of new technology needed to make those changes.)

25% admitted that the cost for required changes was greater than expected.

15% were surprised by the amount of new hiring necessary to achieve compliance.

26% were surprised over the exteniveness of necessary changes to security and IT policies.

40% indicated that no changes were required to their current data encryption policies, but 60% said that some level of change was necessary.

Of those requiring change, 17% said that they encrypt data in places where they had not done so previously.

23% have changed their encryption-key policies to meet GDPR requirements. (Encryption-key policies are valuable to segment data access and control its lifecycle, including proper retirement and secure disposal.)

19% of organizations claimed that they now segment their data and encrypt based on data type and usage. (Data segmentation is an important step to protect Personally Identifying Information (PII) and meeting regulatory requirements.)



Resources



Infographic: Are you ready for GDPR?  http://bit.ly/2KQ1lpO

Are you ready for GDPR?  http://bit.ly/2KQ1lpO White Paper: The European Union General Data Protection Regulation, HyTrust Product Applicability  http://bit.ly/2I6DfcR

The European Union General Data Protection Regulation, HyTrust Product Applicability  http://bit.ly/2I6DfcR Press Release: GDPR Compliance and Fines May Affect Almost 80% of Organizations Surveyed  http://bit.ly/2rxE9Va About HyTrust HyTrusts mission is to make private, public and hybrid cloud infrastructure more trustworthy for enterprises, service providers and government agencies. HyTrust provides solutions that automate security controls for software-defined computing, networking and storage workloads to achieve the highest levels of visibility, granular policy control and data protection. HyTrust customers benefit from being able to accelerate cloud and virtualization cost savings while improving their security posture by automating and enforcing security policies in real time, adapting quickly to compliance requirements and preventing unplanned outages. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., HyTrust is backed by the leading providers of strategic IT infrastructure including VMware, Cisco, Intel and Fortinet; by the vanguard of innovative solutions for the intelligence community, In-Q-Tel; and by a world-class group of financial investors including AVP Growth, Epic Ventures, Granite Ventures, Sway Ventures, Trident Capital and Vanedge Capital. Press and Analyst Inquiries

press@hytrust.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] Baylin Technologies Announces Participation at Black Sea Defense & Aerospace Show, May 16-18, 2018 Bucharest, Romania

TORONTO, May 10, 2018 /CNW/ - Baylin Technologies Inc. ("Baylin") (TSX: BYL) (the "Company" or "Baylin"), a diversified leading global wireless technology management company, today announced that its subsidiary, Advantech Wireless Technologies ("Advantech") would be attending next week's Black Sea Defense and Aerospace (BSDA 2018) Show in Bucharest, Romania. Advantech Wireless will be presenting its Engage Class SATCOM Flyaway Terminal Solutions which are fully integrated tri-band systems designed for easy deployment and use. Mr. Cristi Damian, VP Business Development at Advantech, explains that "the terminals are high efficiency, ruggedized tri-band ready Satellite Flyaway Antennas, which can cover X-Band, Ku-Band or Ka-Band, by replacing the feed only. The antennas are fully motorized with an advanced, integrated satellite finding controller." The new systems add critical features such as Anti-Jamming GPS, light weight miniature C4I computer platforms and a bonded secure satellite and GSM hub offering a rapidly deployable mobile communication solution. The RF section includes state-of-the-art Second Generation GaN Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPAs) and Block-Up Converters (BUCs). Randy Dewey, President and CEO of Baylin advises, "These advaced C4I systems are addressing some of the most critical aspects of modern warfare. Today's intentional or unintentional GPS jamming sources can bring down satellite links, cellular networks and can severely disturb air traffic. The anti-jamming GPS functions added to our Satcom terminals mitigate this issue. In addition to a completely encrypted bonded solution for Cellular and Satcom links, these terminals offer a completely integrated and flexible solution for military grade communication in hostile environments".



Please visit the Advantech Wireless Team at BSDA 2018, May 16-18 in Bucharest, Romania at Booth B529. About Baylin

Baylin (TSX: BYL) is a diversified leading global wireless technology management company. Baylin focuses on research, design, development, manufacturing and sales of passive and active RF products and services. We aspire to meet our customers' needs and anticipate the direction of the market.

Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement This news release contains statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward looking information" under applicable securities laws, including statements relating to, the customers and potential sales of products by Baylin and assumptions regarding the future performance of Baylin. Certain statements made in this news release that are not historical facts are also forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect management's current internal projections, expectations or beliefs and are based on information currently available to Baylin. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "predict", "potential", "continue" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. A number of factors could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to those described under "Risk Factors" in Baylin's most recent annual information form, which is available on SEDAR. Baylin has made a number of assumptions in making forward-looking statements in this news release. Although management believes that the forward-looking statements contained herein are based on reasonable assumptions, an investor cannot be assured that actual results will be consistent with such statements. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Baylin cannot provide any assurance that forward-looking statements will materialize. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and Baylin undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise except as may be required by applicable securities laws. SOURCE Baylin Technologies Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] PrinterLogic and Cranel Imaging Announce Strategic Partnership

ST. GEORGE, Utah, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- PrinterLogic, a leader in enterprise print management software solutions, today announced a distribution partnership with Cranel Imaging, a division of Cranel Inc. The agreement gives Cranel Imaging's network of value-added resellers (VARs) and office equipment dealers (OEDs) access to PrinterLogic's advanced print driver management and deployment capabilities. These tools empower enterprise customers to eliminate print servers and provide a self-service portal for end users to install their own printers. PrinterLogic's printer and driver management platform reduces cost and complexity in virtually any print environment. "Partnering with such a knowledgeable and experienced distribution partner like Cranel is a great opportunity for both companies to grow," said Garrett Helmer, senior vice president of channels at PrinterLogic. "Cranel's partners and their customers will be amazed by the time and money saved by eliminating print servers altogether and simplifying printer management." Key benefits of PrinterLogic for Cranel's partners and their customers: Centralized driver management PrinterLogic enables IT administrators to configure, deploy and update printer drivers from one centralied console. This allows customers to build a single printer driver repository to consistently deliver the right driver to every printer in the organization.

PrinterLogic enables IT administrators to configure, deploy and update printer drivers from one centralied console. This allows customers to build a single printer driver repository to consistently deliver the right driver to every printer in the organization. Eliminate print servers and cut costs PrinterLogic makes it easy to eliminate print servers altogether, significantly reducing print-related costs. The software reduces IT overhead expense and empowers users to install printers themselves without help-desk assistance. In addition, centrally managed direct-IP printing reduces printer downtime resulting in further cost reductions associated with troubleshooting.

PrinterLogic makes it easy to eliminate print servers altogether, significantly reducing print-related costs. The software reduces IT overhead expense and empowers users to install printers themselves without help-desk assistance. In addition, centrally managed direct-IP printing reduces printer downtime resulting in further cost reductions associated with troubleshooting. Universal printing functionalityPrinterLogic works with all custom and printer manufacturer driversas well as providing its own universal driver for fail-safe printing. Multi-platform support for Windows, Mac and Linux workstations ensures full-featured, dependable printing, even in mixed environments.



Scott Slack , vice president of marketing and services at Cranel. "Including PrinterLogic's solutions as part of our offerings will add tremendous value and provide a great return to our partners and their customers." About PrinterLogic

Thousands of enterprises use PrinterLogic's patent-pending printer and driver management platform to deliver mobile, pull and virtual printing, while eliminating print servers. Buyers Laboratory (BLI) awarded PrinterLogic "Outstanding Enterprise Print Environment Platform." In 2017 the company launched PrinterCloud, the first cloud solution that eliminates print servers. In 2018 BLI named PrinterCloud "Outstanding SMB Print Environment Management Solution."

For more information, visit www.printerlogic.com.

About Cranel Imaging

Cranel Imaging's distribution business provides technology solutions to ECM, VARs and ISVs, Office Equipment Dealers (OEDs) and Check Automation Partners. We deliver a solid technology portfolio, product and business expertise, support and exceptional services from a team of skilled professionals dedicated to customer business advancement. For more information, visit www.cranelimaging.com. Media Contact

Zachary Allen

Method Communications

(801) 461-9751

zachary@methodcommunications.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/printerlogic-and-cranel-imaging-announce-strategic-partnership-300646020.html SOURCE PrinterLogic

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] GTT Wins Three Gold Stevie Awards in 2018 American Business Awards

GTT Communications, Inc. (NYSE: GTT), the leading global cloud networking provider to multinational clients, announced today that it has been recognized with three gold Stevie Awards in the 16th annual American Business Awards. The American Business Awards honors organizations across diverse sizes and industries in categories that include company, management, customer service and innovation. This year's award program included more than 3,700 nominations. GTT was named a Gold Stevie Award winner for the second year in a row for Telecommunications Company of the Year; Fastest-Growing Company of the Year - Up to 2,500 Employees;and Executive of the Year, Telecommunications. These wins reflect GTT's continued success in the market, including 57.0% revenue growth in 2017 over 2016 and the completion of seven acquisitions in 2017.



"We are honored to be recognized with three Gold Stevie Awards for the second consecutive year," stated Rick Calder (News - Alert) , GTT president and CEO. "We are executing our growth strategy as we deliver on our purpose of connecting people across organizations, around the world and to every application in the cloud." The awards will be presented at a banquet on June 11 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York.

About GTT GTT is redefining global communications to serve a cloud-based future, connecting people across organizations, around the world and to every application in the cloud. Our clients benefit from an outstanding service experience built on our core values of simplicity, speed and agility. A Fortune Future 50 company, GTT owns and operates a global Tier 1 internet network and provides a comprehensive suite of cloud networking services to any location in the world. For more information on GTT, please visit www.gtt.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180510005381/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Life Sciences Specialist Matt Corcoran Joins Alliant

Matt Corcoran, one of the life sciences industry's foremost insurance authorities, has joined Alliant as Vice President. The Philadelphia-based industry specialist will provide integrated insurance and risk management solutions to a broad spectrum of clients as Alliant continues to strengthen its presence within this key vertical.

"Matt will provide our team with a powerful combination of technical acumen and strategic thinking," said Peter Arkley, President, Alliant Specialty. "His unmatched expertise provides us with the opportunity to offer clients across all areas of the life sciences industry a highly specialized approach designed for the complex and often unpredictable nature of their business."

Thrughout his career, Corcoran has gained extensive experience working with clients in a broad range of industry sectors, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, contract manufacturing, and healthcare-related technology, as well as healthcare-focused venture capital and private equity firms.







Prior to joining Alliant, Corcoran was Emerging Life Sciences Leader within the Philadelphia office of a global insurance brokerage firm. There, he grew and serviced a diverse portfolio of clients with both national and international operations.

Corcoran is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He can be reached in the Wayne, PA office of Alliant at (610) 635-3326 or at Matt.Corcoran@alliant.com.

About Alliant Insurance Services

Headquartered in Newport Beach, CA (News - Alert) , Alliant Insurance Services, Inc. provides property and casualty, workers' compensation, employee benefits, surety, and financial products and services to clients nationwide, including public entities, tribal nations, healthcare, energy, law firms, real estate, construction, and other industry groups. More information is available on the company's website at www.alliant.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180510005230/en/[May 10, 2018] Glassdoor And Battery Ventures Recognize Segment As One Of The Best Cloud Computing Companies To Work For

SAN FRANCISCO, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Segment, the customer data platform, was recognized as one of the 50 Highest Rated Private Cloud Computing Companies To Work For in a new list released by Battery Ventures, a global investment firm, and Glassdoor, one of the worlds largest job and recruiting sites. The list highlights 50 independent, private companiesall business-to-business cloud companieswhere employees report the highest levels of satisfaction at work, according to employee feedback shared on Glassdoor. The distinction placed Segment at No. 13 (out of 50 total) with an overall company rating of 4.7 on a scale of 1-5. The broader average across Glassdoor is 3.4. Segment CEO Peter Reinhardt has a 100 percent approval rating on Glassdoorcompared to an average of 69 percent for all 770,000 employers on the site. The company has a 97 percent positive business-outlook rating, again based on feedback shared by employees. The broader Glassdoor average is 48 percent. A positive business outlook means employees believe business will improve in the next six months. Since we first partnered with Glassdoor to compile this list in 2016, the cloud has only grown in influence and market power, said Neeraj Agrawal, a Battery general partner who specializes in cloud investing. It was also significantly tougher to make the list this year, with companies requiring a higher Glassdoor rating to make the cutshowing that companies cant rest when it comes to focusing on culture and employee happiness. More broadly, we view these ankings as a key indicator of company health and potential growth, said Agrawal, who also serves on the board of Glassdoor. A Glassdoor economic research study and third-party studies show that companies with high employee satisfaction often post stronger financial performance.



Segments culture is built around impact  the idea that every team member, regardless of their role, works on projects that make a difference, said Adriana Roche, vice president of People and Places at Segment. We see the positive feedback from our employees as a sign that we are succeeding in building a community where people are excited about the work they do every day. It is a testament to the strength of our core values and the amazing work by everyone at Segment. Glassdoor noted that employees at these highly-rated companies commonly mention in online reviews that they enjoy working for mission-driven companies with strong and unique company cultures; employers that promote transparency; and companies with experienced senior leaders who regularly and clearly communicate with employees. For instance, according to one anonymous employee review of Segment on Glassdoor:

My Segment co-workers are some of the smartest, most ambitious, but also most humble and most encouraging people, I've ever worked with. In addition to the amazing team, Segment is built on strong company values that drive us to work hard, pay attention to the details, help one another out and never forget that we as people and as a company are part of a larger community that we must help take care of. Full lists of the Battery/Glassdoor highest-rated 50 private cloud companies and 25 public cloud companies to work for can be found here. About Segment

Segment is the infrastructure for your customer data. Use one API to unlock 200+ tools for every team in your company. With Segment, developers can stop building tedious and expensive one-off data integrations while business users can compute important traits about each customer and push this data to their favorite apps for analytics and personalization. Segment is trusted by thousands of companies including Gap Inc., New Relic, Instacart, Intuit, and Time. For more information visit https://segment.com. About Battery Ventures

Battery strives to invest in cutting-edge, category-defining businesses in markets including software and services, Web infrastructure, consumer Internet, mobile and industrial technologies. Founded in 1983, the firm backs companies at stages ranging from seed to private equity and invests globally from offices in Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, London and Israel. Follow the firm on Twitter @BatteryVentures, visit our website at www.battery.com and find a full list of Battery's portfolio companies. Disclaimer: Views contained herein are for informational purposes only and should neither be considered investment advice nor construed or used as an offer and/or recommendation to buy or sell a security. Danielle Stickler

segment@bateman-group.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] InnoStudio Continues To Push Chemistry Towards The Stars

BUDAPEST, Hungary and BOSTON, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- InnoStudio is pleased to announce that its proposal for holding a Special Session on Space Chemistry at the 69th International Astronautical Congress entitled Space Chemistry: a Key to Fostering Space Exploration has been accepted. This is the first time that a special session on this topic will be held at such a prestigious event. The congress will take place in Bremen, Germany between the 1st and 5th October 2018. The above special session will be held as part of the technical programme. We believe that the acceptance of this topic as a special session greatly emphasizes the importance of Space Chemistry for the future of the Space Industry.

IAC2018 Special Sessions are to supplement the regular technical programme of the congress and provide a sample of the state-of-the-art research and development in both academia and industry in special, novel, challenging and emerging topics in the field of space. Special Sessions emphasize multi-disciplinary and transversal aspects, as well as cutting-edge topics of space exploration. The list of accepted Special Sessions can be found at http://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/iac- 2018/technical-programme/special-sessions/. We are also happy to announce that InnoStudios experts will give a presentation at the 3rd Space Chemistry Symposium  Chemistry in Space & Past, Present & Future, which will be held on the 254th ACS National Meeting &am; Exposition between 19th and 23rd August 2018 in Boston, US.



The topics of the symposium will cover a wide range of pioneering chemistry technologies from space perspectives, including flow chemistry, nanomaterials and new platforms for microgravity research onboard the International Space Station. These innovations are expected to make an essential contribution towards facilitating space exploration missions and human expeditions. Finally, a perspective article written by InnoStudios space experts was published in the Journal of Flow Chemistry. The paper summarizes the state of the art of space chemistry, analyzes the suitability of flow chemistry in an extraterrestrial environment, and discusses some of the challenges and opportunities in space chemistry.

Read the article here: https://akademiai.com/doi/pdf/10.1556/1846.2017.00033 For more information please contact Richard Jones, CEO: richard.jones@innostudio.org About InnoStudio Inc. InnoStudio Inc. was founded in 2013 as a spin-off of Cominnex Inc. The companies belong to Darholding, which is a leading innovation house specialized on innovative spin-out companies. The three pillars of success are: a strong scientific background, a wide network of relationships with top companies and a special management approach. InnoStudio Inc. is specialized in innovating on high risk, high gain fields with high importance such as:  Nanotechnology: applying dynamic flow systems for generating nanoparticles, primarily for life science and chemistry related fields. e.g. Innostudio formulates first-tier agrochemical substances in collaboration with Agrothetis Inc.  Artificial Intelligence and Chemometrics: adapting them for developing software solutions needed by sister corporations in the Darholding network and other users for pharma and bioscience related discovery, flow chemistry, microfluidics and nanotechnology.  Improving bioavailability of natural products: adapting complex physicochemical solutions, including nanotechnology, for enhancing and optimizing skin penetration of natural products in aromatherapy, cosmetics and other flavour and fragrance fields.  Space Chemistry: bringing experimental chemistry to space by incubating a research and development team of specialists. Together with two other companies of the Darholding network, ThalesNano Inc. and ComInnex Inc. the Space Chemistry Studio of InnoStudio is working on the Space Chemistry Project for shaping the future of chemistry in space. The Space Chemistry Project was founded by the Flow Chemistry Society on Switzerland in 2014 for bringing chemistry to the space. Today it has more than 40 members from 5 continents. (http://spaceflow.org/)



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] Westcore Funds Officially Become Part of Segall Bryant & Hamill Fund Family

Segall Bryant & Hamill (SBH) announced today that the Westcore family of mutual funds will be officially integrated into the Segall Bryant & Hamill Funds. The restructuring of the mutual funds comes as a result of SBH's acquisition of Denver Investments, the advisor to the Westcore Funds. On May 2, 2018, SBH announced that it had closed on the acquisition of Denver Investments, creating a firm with nearly $20 billion in combined assets.* "We're very excited to welcome our talented new colleagues from Denver," said Philip L. Hildebrandt, SBH's Chief Executive Officer. "And we're thrilled that SBH clients will now have access to nearly all of our investment strategies through our newly expanded mutual fund family." Segall Bryant & Hamill Funds will offer 18 different mutual funds across 14 asset classes. Mutual fund offerings include domestic small cap, mid cap, large cap and all cap equity; international, global and emerging markets equity; and taxable and tax-free fixed income. The fund tickers for the former Westcore Funds will remain the same, but the fund names will be changed to reflect that Segall Bryant & Hamill is now the advisor to the funds. "Our expanded suite of mutual funds complement our extensive range of separate accounts and our ability to customize portfolios to meet client-specific needs," said Mark Rewey, SBH's Director of Marketing and Business Development. "In particular, we have the ability to offer fixed income solutions across the entire maturity and ratings spectrum, as well as expertise in domestic, international and emerging market small cap equities." As part of SBH's acquisition of Denver Investments, SBH has created a new Advisor Solutions team, led by Mr. Rewey. The Advisor Solutions team works with financial advisors and other investment professionals to help them address the unique needs of their clients.



*Assets under management(AUM) totaled approximately $19.9 billion as of March 31, 2018, reflecting the combined AUM of Segall Bryant & Hamill and Denver Investments as of that date. About Segall Bryant & Hamill

Segall Bryant & Hamill is an independent investment firm headquartered in Chicago, with offices in Denver, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Naples, Florida. The firm was established in 1994 and had approximately $19.9 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of March 31, 2018, reflecting the combined AUM of Segall Bryant & Hamill and Denver Investments at that time period. The firm offers domestic, international and global equity strategies; fixed income strategies and solutions; and alternative strategies for institutional clients and individual investors. For more information, please visit www.sbhic.com. For information about the Segall Bryant & Hamill Funds, please visit www.sbhfunds.com. There can be no guarantee that any strategy (risk management or otherwise) will be successful. All investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal. Please consider a Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. A prospectus, which contains this and other important information about the Fund(s), is available at www.sbhfunds.com/literature. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing. The Segall Bryant & Hamill All Cap Fund, Segall Bryant & Hamill Small Cap Value Fund, Segall Bryant & Hamill International Small Cap Fund, and Segall Bryant & Hamill Emerging Markets Fund are distributed by IMST Distributors, LLC. All of the funds of the Segall Bryant & Hamill Trust are distributed by ALPS Distributors, Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180510005844/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Trump with Kim Dong-chul (2nd right), Kim Hak-song (behind) and Tony Kim (2nd left) upon their arrival at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

Three Americans who were imprisoned in North Korea were welcomed home early on Thursday morning by President Trump, along with other top government officials. Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim, and Kim Dong-chul flashed peace signs as they emerged from the airplane, and they appeared to be in decent health.

The men were all taken captive in the last three years, and spent months in brutal North Korean prison camps. They were released ahead of Trumps summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which is expected to take place in mid- to late June, possibly in Singapore.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo retrieved the men during a trip to Pyongyang to finalize the details of the summit. After being flown to a U.S. military base in Japan, the men were taken to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

The president and First Lady boarded the plane to meet the freed hostages around 3 a.m., as Pompeo, Vice-President Mike Pence, and Second Lady Karen Pence waited on the tarmac. Trump then emerged from the plane, followed by the three men.

Trump offered a compliment to the North Korean dictator, saying We want to thank Kim Jong-un, who really was excellent to these three incredible people.

Kim Dong-chul described his time in the North in less pleasant terms, saying through an interpreter, We were treated in many different ways. Me, I had to do a lot of labor, but when I got sick, I was also treated by them. He said being back in the U.S. felt like a dream. We are very, very happy.

Just before boarding Marine One and heading back to the White House, Trump noted that the men must be getting great ratings. I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for three oclock in the morning, he said.KBRA Releases European RMBS Rating Methodology and UK Addendum

Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) is pleased to release its methodology for rating securities backed by European residential mortgages and the related UK Addendum. The European RMBS Methodology addresses KBRA's approach to rating mortgage securitisations consisting of residential collateral originated in European countries. The UK Addendum is a country specific addendum that addresses analytical considerations specific to prime, buy-to-let, and non-conforming mortgages in the United Kingdom.

The publication outlines several determinants used in formulating KBRA ratings, which include the following: (i) Review and analysis of the loan originator, servicer, and other key transaction participants, (ii) Review of Agreed Upon Procedure Report(s), (iii) Loan credit analysis and RMBS modelling, (iv) Assessment of the securitisation framework from a structural and legal perspective; and (v) Ongoing surveillance of the transaction.

For more details, please click here for access to the methodology.

The release of this RMBS methodology follows KBRA's publication of its Reverse Mortgage Securitisation Global Rating Methodology on March 8, 2018.

RelatedReports:







CONNECT WITH KBRA

Twitter

LinkedIn

Download the iOS App

YouTube

About KBRA and KBRA Europe

KBRA is a full service credit rating agency registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an NRSRO. In addition, KBRA is recognized by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners as a Credit Rating Provider and a certified Credit Rating Agency (CRA) by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited is registered with ESMA as a CRA.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180510005868/en/[May 10, 2018] TriLinc Global Impact Fund Makes Impact Investments in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America

TriLinc Global Impact Fund ("TriLinc" or the "Company") announced today that it recently approved $4.4 million in term loan and trade finance transactions with companies operating in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. The transaction details are summarized below. TriLinc is an impact investing fund that provides growth-stage loans and trade finance to established small and medium enterprises ("SMEs") in developing economies where access to affordable capital is significantly limited. Impact Investing is defined as investing with the specific objective of achieving a competitive financial return as well as creating positive, measurable impact in communities across the globe. TriLinc recently approved $4.4 million in term loan and trade finance transactions that meet the Company's requirements for underwriting, economic development, and societal advancement, as described below: Between April 10, 2018 and April 30, 2018, TriLinc participated in five separate transactions, totaling $3,708,229 as part of an existing $10,000,000 senior secured trade finance facility with four different Nigerian soft commodity exporters that source crops at farm gate from local, smallholder farmers and then process them for export. The transactions are set to mature between September 25, 2018 and November 30, 2018 and are secured by a pledge of goods, assignment of proceeds, and insurance coverage. On April 23, 2018, TriLinc funded $668,682 as part of an existing $15,000,000 senior secured 4.2-year term loan to a consumer lender in Colombia that services public sector employeesand retirees within small and medium size government agencies throughout the country. Priced at 11.25%, the transaction is set to mature on August 1, 2021, and is secured by the portfolio of payroll deduction loans and all cash flow stemming from such assigned deduction loans, with a cash flow coverage ratio of 1.1x. The borrower anticipates that TriLinc's loan will assist the borrower in originating new payroll deduction loans, which would provide middle income consumers with timely and flexible financing for voluntary private consumption.



"TriLinc's recent investment activity demonstrates our commitment to continuing to provide reliable capital to our existing borrower companies," said Gloria Nelund, CEO of TriLinc. "TriLinc's financing supports borrower companies, like the consumer lender in Colombia, to more effectively service their local client base through the timely delivery of a quality product." About TriLinc Global Impact Fund

TriLinc is a non-traded, externally managed, limited liability company that makes impact investments in SMEs in developing economies that provide the opportunity to achieve both competitive financial returns and positive measurable impact. TriLinc invests in SMEs through experienced local market sub-advisors, and expects to create a diversified portfolio of financial assets consisting primarily of collateralized private debt instruments. In addition, the Company aggregates and analyzes social, economic, and environmental impact data to track progress and measure success against stated objectives. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws and regulations. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "predict," "project," "should," "will" and other similar terms and phrases, including references to assumptions and forecasts of future results. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to differ materially from those anticipated at the time the forward-looking statements are made. Although the Company believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that the expectations will be attained or that any deviation will not be material. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement contained herein to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the Company's expectations. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180510005914/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] Pinkerton Presents Free Workplace Violence/Active Shooter Training

ANN ARBOR, Mich., May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pinkerton, the world's leading provider of services and solutions that help organizations identify and mitigate non-insurable risk, partnered with the Rotary Club of Miami-Brickell to present a free workplace violence and active shooter training seminar for business leaders and C-suite executives from the Miami area. The event was held on Thursday, May 10 at Christ Journey Church in Coral Gables, Florida, in front of nearly 200 attendees. During the seminar, Pinkerton risk management experts discussed tactics business leaders and executives can implement to help mitigate these types of incidents from occurring, including best practices related to employment screenings and due diligence, and foundational skills that can be used to develop a risk mitigation plan. They also provided insights into the mindset of the potential shooter and how that information can aid in avoidance or diffusion of the crisis, as well as how to make good decisions in the fraction of a second during a life or death situation. The presenttion also covered crisis communication planning and how to recover from an incident should it occur.



"Our goal with this presentation was to help the business community throughout the Miami area understand that shootings and other acts of workplace violence are risks that need to be planned for as carefully and thoughtfully as other types of risk, like cyber-attacks or hurricanes," said Jack Zahran, president of Pinkerton. "It's about creating a fundamental mind shift in business leaders to get them to put strong, actionable policies and procedures in place long before an incident occurs instead of waiting until it's too late." Pinkerton plans to replicate the Miami training event in markets across the U.S. in the comings months to give business leaders solutions they can immediately implement to better prepare for and prevent against shootings and other workplace violence events.

Pinkerton is the world's leading provider of corporate risk management solutions. As a trusted partner to many of the world's largest organizations, Pinkerton offers a wide range of services dedicated to helping business leaders plan for and mitigate against a wide-range of non-insurable risk through a dynamic, holistic approach to risk management. The company's cutting-edge philosophies and methodology help close the risk gap while ensuring ongoing business continuity. For more information, visit www.pinkerton.com.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pinkerton-presents-free-workplace-violenceactive-shooter-training-300646457.html SOURCE Pinkerton

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] Circa Reports Significantly Improved Sales and Operating results for the First Quarter Ended March 31, 2018

CALGARY, May 10, 2018 /CNW/ - Circa Enterprises Inc. (CTO-TSXV) (the "Company" or "Circa"), a manufacturer of equipment for the telecommunication, electrical utility, and construction industries, reports results of operations for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018. Summary of first quarter operating results: Q1 2018 consolidated sales of $7.3 million , an increase of $1.8 million or 33% over Q1 2017 sales of $5.5 million

, an increase of or 33% over Q1 2017 sales of Q1 2018 profit from continuing operations of $330,000 , an increase of $280,000 over Q1 2017 profit from continuing operations of $50,000

, an increase of over Q1 2017 profit from continuing operations of Earnings per share of $0.03 in Q1 2018 compared to earnings per share of $0.01 for Q1 2017

in Q1 2018 compared to earnings per share of for Q1 2017 Q1 2018 EBITDA of $676,000 , an increase of $598,000 compared to EBITDA of $78,000 for Q1 2017 (see below for explanation and calculation of EBITDA)

, an increase of compared to EBITDA of for Q1 2017 (see below for explanation and calculation of EBITDA) Working capital of $7.1 million EBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. EBITDA is a non-IFRS financial measure and does not have any standardized meaning prescribed by International Financial Reporting Standards and, therefore, may not to be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. Management believes that EBITDA is a useful supplemental measure, which provides an indication of the results generated by Circa's primary business activities prior to consideration of how those activities are financed, amortized or taxed. Readers are cautioned, however, that EBITDA should not be construed as an alternative to comprehensive income determined in accordance with IFRS as an indicator of the Company's financial performance. EBITDA is calculated by the Company as follows:











Three months 31 Mar 2018 Three months 31 Mar 2017

$000's $000's Earnings for the period from continuing operations 330 50 Income taxes 90 (27) Interest 22 - Depreciation and amortization 234 55 EBITDA 676 78

Consolidated sales for the first quarter of 2018 were $7.3 million -- a $1.8 million or 33.1% increase over the same three month period in 2017. Sales in the Telecom segment increased $1.3 million as the Company recorded $1.4 million of sales from the Guardian Telecom acquisition and saw a reduction in orders on its legacy surge protection line due to decreased demand for copper-based infrastructure products. Sales in the Circa Metals segment were up $0.5 million on strong custom sales activity and a greater market share of Hydel brand sales in the quarter, compared to the same period in 2017. As a result of the strong first quarter sales, the Company posted after tax profit of $330,000 in the first quarter of 2018 compared to profit of $50,000 in the first quarter of the previous year. This earnings improvement was due to the higher sales and improved gross margins in both segments and partially offset by higher selling, general and administrative costs. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased in the Telecom segment as the Company absorbed the operations and infrastructure of the Guardian Telecom business. Included in the higher expenses were non-cash amortization charges associated with the acquisition. Management has been taking steps to reduce costs in the Guardian business while investing in other areas to expand the product line in order to grow sales. Grant Reeves, Circa's President and Chief Executive Officer, stated: "The Company reported impressive results for the first quarter that extends to eight consecutive quarters of positive earnings. Both divisions are executing on our strategic objectives and we are pleased with the strong start to the year. We expect our Metals business to continue its success with new product introductions and market share gains. We are excited to be marketing the Guardian Telecom products aggressively and expect strong organic growth from this product line." CIRCA ENTERPRISES INC. Condensed Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

Unaudited

Three months

ended 31 Mar 2018 Three months

ended 31 Mar 2017







$000's $000's





Sales 7,298 5,485 Freight 186 151 Net sales 7,112 5,334 Cost of sales 4,914 4,102 Gross profit 2,198 1,232 Selling, general and administrative expenses 1,757 1,209 Operating profit 441 23 Other income 1 - Finance costs 22 - Profit before tax 420 23 Income tax expense (recovery) 90 (27) Profit for the period from operations attributable to shareholders

of the Company 330 50 Other comprehensive income



Exchange differences on translating foreign operations, net of tax 72 1 Total comprehensive income for the period attributable to

shareholders of the Company 402 51





Earnings per share (in $'s)



Basic and diluted 0.03 0.01 Circa Enterprises Inc. is a public company with operations in Alberta, Ontario and Florida. The outstanding common shares of Circa Enterprises Inc. are listed and trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the trading symbol CTO. 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 Company's quarterly financial statements and related management's discussion and analysis have been filed with certain securities regulatory authorities in Canada and may be accessed electronically through the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. SOURCE Circa Enterprises Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] Star2Star's John McGovern Recognized As CFO Of The Year Honoree For Second Consecutive Year

SARASOTA, Fla., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Star2Star, provider of the Worlds Most Complete Full Spectrum Communications Solution, congratulates Chief Financial Officer, John McGovern, for his second nomination for the Tampa Bay Business Journals (TBBJ) CFO of the Year award.

Twenty CFOs from the Tampa Bay area were selected amongst nominees by a panel of independent judges. These finalists are being recognized for their contributions to the financial health and prosperity of their organizations. Among the twenty honorees, judges will also reveal a single category winner for large company, medium company, small company, and government and non-profit organizations at the CFO of the Year luncheon on May 10. This TBBJ event is being hosted at the Hilton Downtown Tampa. We are very proud of our CFO and thrilled that he is receiving recognition for his hard work at Star2Star for the second year in a row, said Michelle Accardi, President and Chief Revenue Officer at Star2Star. We wish you the best of luck, John--you exemplify the work ethic and dedication thatStar2Star is all about.



I am honored to be nominated and selected as a finalist for the 2018 CFO of the Year Award, John McGovern said upon hearing of his selection as an honoree. It is humbling to be recognized in this peer group of incredibly talented CFO honorees and I feel privileged to be part of our exceptional Star2Star team. Many thanks to the Tampa Bay Business Journal for this opportunity. About Star2Star Communications

Founded in 2006 in Sarasota, Florida, Star2Star Communications empowers global business success with a Full Spectrum Communications Solution. With options ranging from Hosted to Hybrid, Star2Star offers unparalleled value, reliability, quality, and scalability. Star2Star unifies business communications including voice, video, fax, mobile, chat, and presence management. Merged with Blueface, the leading pan-European UCaaS provider, Star2Star possesses a global influence and customer base. Blueface's proprietary cloud voice platform supports businesses of all sizes, ranging from small-to-medium to large enterprises and strategic wholesale customers.

Star2Star's award-winning, patented Constellation Network overcomes the reliability and quality limitations of other communications technologies and enables companies to choose the deployment methodology that aligns best with their needs. For businesses who require high-quality voice, redundant networks for continuity, and ultra-reliable communications, Star2Star's Hybrid architecture offers the highest guaranteed SLAs in the industry at an affordable price. Businesses with less complexity, who seek the best communications capabilities for their employees and customers, can consider Star2Star's Hosted solution the optimal choice. With a customer retention rate of 99.85%, Star2Star has been recognized by a multitude of leading analysts. In the past seven years, Star2Star was named to the Forbes Most Promising Companies list, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 five times, and the Inc. 500|5000 seven times. The company was also named by IHS as a Top 10 Hosted Business VoIP/UC Provider and has been in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UCaaS, Worldwide for the last four years. Casey OLoughlin

coloughlin@star2star.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] Scotiabank to Acquire 51% of Banco Cencosud in Peru and Enter Into Partnership Agreement

TORONTO and LIMA, Peru, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Scotiabank today announced its Peruvian subsidiary, Scotiabank Peru, has reached an agreement with Cencosud Peru to acquire a 51% controlling interest in Banco Cencosud, which offers credit cards and consumer loans in Peru, for approximately CAD $130MM. Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will also enter into a 15-year partnership to manage the credit card business and provide additional products and services to customers. Scotiabank and Cencosud already have similar partnership arrangements in Chile and Colombia. Scotiabank will become the second-largest credit card issuer in Peru following the closing of the transaction. The terms of the transaction are not financially material to Scotiabank. This agreement is subject to regulatory approval. Cencosud is the second largest supermarket and fourth largest department store chain in Peru. Cencosud has operated in the country since 2007 under the Supermercados Wong, Supermercados Metro and Tiendas Paris brands, as well as shopping centres. Today, Banco Cencosud has more than 315,000 active clients and approximately CAD $240MM in outstanding loans in Peru. "Building on our existing partnership with Cencosud enables us to increase Scotiabank's market share and presence in Peru and provides us with a larger base of customers to offe our leading financial products and services," said Ignacio (Nacho) Deschamps, Group Head, International Banking at Scotiabank. "This transaction also aligns to Scotiabank's broader international strategy to increase scale in the Pacific Alliance economies of Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia."



"Working together with Cencosud, Scotiabank will look to strengthen and build our credit card and consumer loan portfolio," said Miguel Uccelli, Country Head and Chief Executive Officer of Scotiabank in Peru. "Scotiabank Peru will leverage this increased partnership to build new customer relationships and drive organic growth in the Bank's retail portfolio." Scotiabank in Peru and Latin America

- Scotiabank established a presence in Peru in 1997. - Scotiabank increased its presence with the acquisition of Banco Wiese Sudameris and Banco Sudamericano in 2006, Banco del Trabajo in 2008 and Citibank's Commercial and Retail portfolio in 2015. - In 2008, Scotiabank entered the Pension Funds business with the acquisition of Profuturo. Scotiabank increased its client base to 1.8 million with a 50% acquisition of AFP Horizonte. - Today, Scotiabank's banking division in Peru has close to 10,500 employees, 310 branches, 975 ABMs across the country and 3.5 million retail, corporate, commercial and institutional customers. - Scotiabank operates in 11 countries across Latin American, with a primary focus on Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Colombia. About Scotiabank

Scotiabank is Canada's international bank and a leading financial services provider in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Central America, and Asia-Pacific. We are dedicated to helping our 24 million customers become better off through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of more than 89,000 employees and assets of over $923 billion (as at January 31, 2018), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto (TSX: BNS) and New York Exchanges (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit http://www.scotiabank.com and follow us on Twitter @Scotiabank. Media enquiries - Scotiabank, Juan Iramain, +1-416-866-4362, juan.iramain@scotiabank.com ; Investor Relations - Scotiabank, Adam Borgatti, +1-416-866-5042, adam.borgatti@scotiabank.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] A world's first carbon-free primary aluminium smelting process technology to be developed in Canada

Rio Tinto and Alcoa are joining forces in a research and development joint venture located in the Saguenay MONTREAL, May 10, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - Rio Tinto and Alcoa, two large Canadian producers based in Quebec and members of the Aluminium Association of Canada, announced the creation of a new joint venture, with the support of the government of Quebec, the government of Canada and the company Apple, aimed at developing and marketing an innovative and revolutionary technology in the aluminium industry. This will, among other things, optimize production and eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of primary aluminium by electrolysis. The only output resulting from this new process will be oxygen. "Through this alliance and this unprecedented combined effort, Rio Tinto and Alcoa are helping Canadas aluminium industry to reposition itself as a global leader in low-carbon aluminium production. Combined with the use of hydropower, Canada's future carbon-free aluminium production will re-define the sustainable production standard, while creating value in a low-carbon world", said Jean Simard, President and CEO of the AAC.



The Canadian aluminium industry currently produces an average of 2.0 tons of CO 2 equivalent per metric ton of aluminium, which is already the lowest carbon footprint in the world. "The financial implication of the federal and Quebec governments demonstrates their commitment to research and development in green technologies and the importance of Canada's world class aluminium industry in the Quebec and Canadian economy. The research, to be done in the Saguenay region, will also contribute to the maintenance and development of a world-class expertise in Quebec," added Jean Simard.

The AAC is proud to support its members in their innovation and development projects, and to continue to work for the global reach of the Canadian aluminium industry. About the Aluminium Association of Canada (www.aluminium.ca/en)

The Aluminium Association of Canada (AAC) is a non-profit organization representing three Canadian world-class aluminium producers: Alcoa, Alouette, and Rio Tinto operating ten smelters in Canada, nine of which are in Quebec, and employing over 8,000 workers. SOURCE Aluminum Association of Canada

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][May 10, 2018] A.M. Best Removes From Under Review with Developing Implications and Affirms Credit Ratings of Cincinnati Equitable Life Insurance Company

A.M. Best has removed from under review with developing implications and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B+ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "bbb-" of Cincinnati Equitable Life Insurance Company (Cincinnati Equitable) (Cincinnati, OH). The outlook assigned to these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable. The ratings reflect Cincinnati Equitable's balance sheet strength, which A.M. Best categorizes as adequate, as well as its marginal operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. This rating action precedes the close of the company's pending acquisition by Global Bankers Insurance Group (Global Bankers), which is expected to close in 2018, and follows A.M. Best's discussion with the new management team related to the organization's preliminary business strategy under the new ownership structure. A.M. Best has assessed that the rating profile of the company is unlikely to be directly affected by the acquisition over the near term, should the transaction be consummated, and as a result, has removed the ratings of Cincinnati Equitable from under review. Nevertheless, A.M. Best will continue to monitor Global Bankers' evolving business plan for Cincinnati Equitable through further discussions with the new management team over the near to medium term, and will evaluate he impact of these changes on the rating profile of Cincinnati Equitable.



This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on A.M. Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see A.M. Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Understanding Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper media use of Best's Credit Ratings and A.M. Best press releases, please view Guide for Media - Proper Use of Best's Credit Ratings and A.M. Best Rating Action Press Releases. A.M. Best is the world's oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2018 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180510006304/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]PrimeLending Welcomes Amy Wirshing (NMLS 302440) to Downtown Boise Branch

Dallas-based residential mortgage originator PrimeLending, a PlainsCapital company, announces the addition of Amy Wirshing as a loan officer at the PrimeLending office located at 950 West Bannock Street, Suite 450, Boise, ID 83702.

Wirshing brings more than 10 years of mortgage industry experience to PrimeLending and has helped hundreds of homebuyers through the home loan process.

"As we continue to gain market share in Idaho, we are extremely excited to welcome someone of Amy's caliber to our growing team," said branch manager Jeremy Bordner.

In her new role, Wirshing will work with residents in the community on purchase and refinance mortgage loans needed throughout the greater Boise area.

"My goal is to make the mortgage process go as smoothly as possible and surprise people with how easy it really can be with the right team of people behind you," said Wirshing.

With a 96% customer satisfaction rating1 and more than 7,000 5-Star Zillow reviews nationwide, PrimeLending has been known for making home loans simple for more than 30 years.







To learn more about the downtown Boise branch, be sure to visit its website at https://lo.primelending.com/downtownboise and "like" its Facebook (News - Alert) page at https://www.facebook.com/PrimeLendingDowntownBoise/.

About PrimeLending

PrimeLending, a PlainsCapital Company, is a national residential mortgage originator. In 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 PrimeLending was listed as a top 10 mortgage lender in the nation in purchase units.2 Offering fixed-rate, adjustable-rate, FHA, VA, USDA and jumbo home loans, refinancing and relocation programs, PrimeLending is authorized to make loans in 50 states and the District of Columbia. Founded in 1986, PrimeLending is a wholly owned subsidiary of PlainsCapital Bank, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTH). More information at PrimeLending.com.

1 Survey administered and managed by an independent third party following loan closing. 96% satisfaction rating refers to the rating customers gave to PrimeLending's loan officers.

2 Ranked by Marketrac for purchase units nationally for Jan.-Dec. 2012-2017.

All loans subject to credit approval. Rates and fees subject to change. 2018 PrimeLending, a PlainsCapital Company (NMLS: 13649). Equal Housing Lender. PrimeLending is a wholly owned subsidiary of a state-chartered bank and is an exempt lender in ID. v010918

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180510006313/en/Its springtime for Trumpism. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

In certain respects, Donald Trump has been a far more normal Republican president than many pundits had predicted (or are willing to admit). Upon taking office, the mogul left his most heretical deviations from GOP dogma at the White House gates: The populist insurgents welfare chauvinism gave way to Paul Ryanism; his neo-isolationism, to something resembling conventional right-wing hawkery; his gestures of tolerance toward the LGBT community, to the pious persecution of transgender Americans.

On other fronts, the presidents apparent abnormality has had less to do with his ingenuity than with our collective amnesia: There is nothing abnormal about a Republican administration launching a crusade against voter fraud that is, in reality, a crusade against Democratic voter participation; or about one imposing tariffs on foreign steel; or running up the deficit; or sabotaging regulatory agencies; or even politicizing federal law enforcement.

And yet, it would be a mistake to suggest that Trumps innovations have been purely stylistic, that hes merely stamped his garish branding on the GOPs classic product. Beyond the unprecedented illiberalism of the presidents rhetoric, his approach to governance has been substantively distinctive enough to warrant its own title. Trumpism is real.

True, the president hasnt converted his party to the populist paleoconservatism he preached on the campaign trail. But he has implemented an immigration policy that serves white nationalist aims to a degree without modern precedent; elevated corruption into a philosophy of government; and prioritized spectacle over substance in his approach to foreign affairs to the point that Americas geopolitical strategy is now less neoconservative or isolationist or realist than it is nihilistic.

Taken together, these innovations amount to a novel variation on the conservatism Trump inherited  one that truly came into its own this past week. To see why this is the case, consider three developments from the past five days:

(1) The White House stripped legal status from 57,000 Honduran immigrants  who had been residing in the United States for decades  over the fervent objections of the State Department.

American immigration policy has long been cruel, and shaped by nativist fears. Donald Trumps approach to policing undocumented immigration is less distinct from Barack Obamas than many of the latters admirers would like to believe.

Nevertheless, the current administrations overall immigration agenda is markedly different from those of its predecessors. Racist cruelty is not merely a feature of Trumpist immigration policy, but its first principle: The White Houses overriding goal is to inflict terror and suffering on Americas nonwhite noncitizens, as a means of combating the ceaseless importation of Third World foreigners with no tradition of, taste for, or experience in liberty  as former White House national security adviser Michael Anton once described Americas status quo immigration regime. (The president gave less eloquent expression to this same worldview, when he insisted that America did need not any more immigrants from shithole countries.)

This reality is best illustrated by Trumps treatment of immigrants with temporary protected status (TPS). Established by Congress in 1990, TPS allows migrants whose home countries have been destabilized by natural disasters or civil strife to live and work in the U.S. legally, on a temporary basis. In practice, it has provided hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the developing world with de facto permanent residency in the U.S. Over the past two decades, various earthquakes and hurricanes led the United States to give large numbers of Salvadorans, Haitians, and Hondurans TPS; then, the resiliently adverse political and economic conditions in those countries led our government to allow those migrants to keep their protected status, indefinitely.

Many of these immigrants have now lived the majority of their adult lives in the United States. Some have started families here  TPS recipients are the fathers and mothers of an estimated 273,000 U.S.-born children, all of whom are entitled to American citizenship. In a different political era, Congress might have passed legislation providing this population with permanent legal status by now. But with comprehensive immigration reform paralyzed on Capitol Hill, previous administrations  Democratic and Republican  have simply allowed TPS recipients to renew their protected status every 18 months. After all, what good would be served by deporting hardworking, longtime U.S. residents, who are raising American citizens, back to countries plagued by poverty and violence?

The Trump White House refuses to answer that question.

Instead, it has moved to deport 300,000 Central American and Haitian TPS recipients without providing any justification beyond a transparently fraudulent appeal to legal necessity: Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has insisted that her hands are tied  the administration is legally obligated to withdraw these immigrants protections once the conditions that prompted them subside. Honduras has recovered from Hurricane Mitch; temporary means temporary. If Congress wishes to give these people permanent status, it can do so.

But this narrative is patently false: U.S. law requires the Executive branch to consider whether the TPS recipients home countries are stable enough to accept a large number of deportees before it terminates their protected status. And as the Washington Post revealed this week, career officials in the departments of State and Homeland Security concluded that those countries werent. In fact, U.S. diplomats warned the White House that deporting TPS recipients en masse was likely to produce a bonanza for smuggling networks and gangs, as many of those longtime U.S. residents would seek extralegal means of returning to this country.

The administration ignored this advice. When Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke extended protections for Hondurans last fall, John Kelly called her from Asia to convey his frustration, while Stephen Miller hectored other DHS staff. Duke resigned in February; last Friday, the administration moved to expel the 57,000 Honduran recipients of TPS, despite the fact that their home country is suffering from an epidemic of gang violence so severe, many of its citizens joined the caravan that marched from Central America to the U.S. border just last month.

Between the 300,000 immigrants stripped of TPS and the 700,000 Dreamers denied DACA, the Trump administration has attempted to revoke the legal status of roughly 1 million longtime U.S. residents; all while offering no explanation for its actions beyond the bogus claim that they were legally required.

The reason that the White House has neglected to disclose the actual rationale behind these policies is simple: Its true motivation is too incendiary to formally acknowledge.

You cannot expel immigrants who have been thriving in the U.S. for two decades, out of concern that they might prove unable to assimilate. You cant deport a population that has a higher labor-force participation rate than native-born Americans on the grounds that it will be a burden on the U.S. economy. You cannot claim that your immigration policy is motivated by concern for public safety, when you move to deport law-abiding longtime residents  even though your diplomats warn that doing so will benefit criminal gangs and smugglers. And you certainly cant claim that your hard-line immigration agenda puts the interests of all American citizens first, when youre trying to separate hundreds of thousands of American citizens from their mothers and fathers. None of the polite restrictionist arguments apply.

But an impolite argument does: If the Trump administrations goal is to combat the demographic threat posed by Americas rising population of Third World foreigners, then its TPS policy makes perfect sense. Trump cant stem the tide of new, nonwhite immigrants without Congresss help. But he can expel those with only a temporary claim to legal residence. And so that is what he has done. Which is to say: A mild form of ethnic cleansing is now a cornerstone of American immigration policy.

Protecting the racial character of the United States was an explicit goal of American immigration law until 1965  and has been an implicit one since January 2017.

(2) The president declined to condemn his former attorney for openly selling access to his administration.

The American government runs on legal bribes. It is unclear whether Congress would have the resources to function if corporations suddenly stopped paying armies of lobbyists to supply lawmakers with legislative language. And every White House has well-connected friends who make a buck off leasing their access to the halls of power.

But Trumpist corruption is different than the D.C. standard. The Trump White House does not treat influence-peddling as an open secret, but as a philosophy of government. The president routinely argues, in no uncertain terms, that the state should safeguard his personal interests. He has excoriated his attorney general for failing to protect him the way (that he imagines) Eric Holder protected Obama. Trump and his administration have openly threatened to punish businesses and billionaires who fund media critical of his presidency  while theyve done massive regulatory favors for a local news broadcaster that retails their propaganda. And, of course, the president and his family have worked to convert his public power into personal gain in myriad, conspicuous ways.

His Cabinet officials have heeded this example, together amassing a cornucopia of corruption scandals more varied and abundant than than any previous administration has ever assembled. A few have resigned for their offenses; the most serious offenders have not.

And none of it has had an appreciable effect on the presidents (admittedly low) popularity. Trump has ostensibly pioneered a form of corruption in which the public is inundated by so many scandals, no single one can linger in the news long enough to make a significant impression  a form of immunity many have analogized to Montgomery Burnss immunity to disease:

But the administrations innovative brand of mind-bogglingly ostentatious corruption reached new heights this week, when a lawyer representing the porn star whom the president paid to keep quiet about their alleged affair in October 2016 (in apparent violation of campaign finance law) revealed that Trumps lawyer had collected millions of dollars from major corporations that were looking to buy access to  and influence over  the White House.

AT&T has publicly admitted to paying Michael Cohen $200,000 for his insights into the administration, just as that administration was reviewing the telecoms desired merger with Time Warner. The Swiss drugmaker Novartis has confirmed that it paid the presidents attorney $1.2 million in hopes of influencing Trumps approach to repealing the Affordable Care Act. And an investment firm tied to a Russian oligarch deposited $500,000 in Cohens Essential Consultants LLC, the same limited liability corporation that Cohen used to pay off Stormy Daniels.

And yet, as of this writing, the president has felt no need to feign concern over these revelations, or even so much as publicly address the now-public fact that his personal lawyer was selling access to his administration. Previous presidents (almost certainly) would have been compelled to put out a statement expressing shock and dismay at their once trusted advisers shady scheming, while reassuring the American people that their White House wasnt for sale. But Trump doesnt have to; because his White House is  and proudly so.

(3) The president withdrew the United States from a functional nuclear deproliferation agreement  thereby, undermining its diplomatic credibility and alienating its allies  primarily because he wanted to announce that he was doing so.

The United States has long been a reckless, lawless actor on the world stage. It remains doubtful that Trump will ever do as much damage to American interests and human welfare as the last Republican to occupy his office. And yet, as delusional and destructive as George W. Bushs foreign policy was, you couldnt fairly call it nihilistic. His administration had a clear idea of what it wanted to change about geopolitics, and a clear theory of how American power could be marshaled to bring those changes about. (Say what you want about the tenets of neoconservatism  at least its an ethos.)

Trump has neither. The mogul did not run for president because he had any deeply held convictions about how he wanted to change the world, but merely because he had a deeply felt desire to change how the world saw him. Thus, he is essentially indifferent to the realities of geopolitics; his concern is primarily with how those realities appear to his fellow Fox News viewers. This is why he prefers to get his information about foreign affairs from Steve Doocy, rather than from the most powerful intelligence apparatus ever assembled by humankind. The Trump doctrine isnt about putting America First or achieving Peace Through Strength. Its objective is far more innovative: instead of using propaganda as means of advancing his preferred policies, Trump uses policies to advance his preferred propaganda.

The president nearly announced Americas withdrawal from the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement last April  because he wanted to produce a splashy headline to mark his 100th day in office. It took vigorous, last-minute lobbying from the White House staff to prevent Trump from upending Americas diplomatic and economic relationships with its neighbors for the sake of winning a news cycle. But no one succeeded in stopping Trump from pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord to achieve the same objective. In announcing that decision, the president insisted that he was open to staying in the deal if it could be made fair to the United States  even though the agreements carbon emissions targets are self-imposed, and thus, Trump was free to revise Americas at will.

Critically, Trumps quest for spectacle is not constrained by any overarching worldview. Earlier this year, the president wanted to use Syria as a prop for performing his isolationism, and therefore called on his advisers to plan an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from that country. Weeks later, Fox News broadcast the bodies of dead children from an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria, and Trump promptly decided that hed prefer to play the role of world policeman, instead.

This week, Trump took his privileging of propaganda over policy to harrowing new heights. On first glance, the presidents decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Iran nuclear agreement may look more like an example of Republican extremism than Trumpist idiosyncrasy. After all, every major conservative media outlet and political figure opposed Barack Obamas diplomatic breakthrough, and most called for it to be undone at the first opportunity. But most Establishment Republicans understand that theres a difference between how their party chooses to represent reality on cable news, and what reality actually is. No Republican president would have entered the Iran deal  but its unlikely than any other Republican president would have exited it in the manner that Donald Trump did this week.

The reason for this is simple: Withdrawing from the agreement, over the opposition of all its other signatories, requires accepting immense diplomatic costs with little discernible benefit.

Less than three years ago, America promised Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China that it would suspend sanctions on companies and countries that did business with Iran, so long as Tehran suspended its nuclear weapons program. European and Asian firms proceeded to establish investments and trade relationships with Iran, while Tehran dutifully paused its proliferation efforts (even Trump does not actually deny that it has). And yet, the U.S. is abrogating the agreement anyway  and vowing to impose sanctions on our allies firms unless they abandon their investments in Iran. The effect of this behavior is to antagonize our core European allies, and forfeit the credibility that underwrites all of Americas diplomatic efforts, not least its imminent attempt to broker a denuclearization deal with North Korea, which will require convincing Pyongyang that the U.S. can be trusted to honor its promises to regimes it does not like.

The ostensible reason for accepting these grave costs is not to prevent Tehran from gaining a nuclear weapon (the deal was achieving that objective), but rather to impose economic hardships on Iran that will undermine its ability to expand its regional influence. Its unclear why America would have a greater interest in protecting Saudi hegemony than preventing nuclear proliferation. But even if one accepts that premise, Trumps decision makes little sense: Europe remains committed to the agreement and is already taking measures to ensure that the deal still benefits Irans economy, including by providing Tehran with European Investment Bank financing.

The reality is that America just poisoned its relations with the EU because Donald Trump wanted to go on television and say that he had killed Barack Obamas rotten deal. Maintaining the Iran agreement required Trump to bless his predecessors diplomatic victory every six months, by extending a waiver on U.S. sanctions. It took heroic efforts on the part of James Mattis and Rex Tillerson to get Trump to bite that bullet last year. But this president simply could not be expected to formally pass up the opportunity to realize a propaganda victory  over and over again  while John Bolton, Israel, and Saudi Arabia were all imploring him to indulge his instinct.

Americas diplomatic credibility is now dead. But Trumpism is alive and kicking.MOUNTAIN VIEW, California  Android Auto faces a unique challenge: Pack more features into Google's platform for vehicle infotainment systems without forgetting that a driver's primary focus is to drive without distraction. New Android Auto features due this summer try to keep that balance by improving management of everything from music to messages.

Take Android Auto's improved media app, which I got to see in a demonstration inside a Range Rover Velar during the Google I/O conference this week. This car tapped into Android Auto features by connecting its infotainment system to an Android phone (a feature introduced by Google in 2016).

When we launched the media app, the first thing that popped up on the Range Rover's infotainment system was a menu filled with album and audiobook covers, giving me an at-a-glance view of the different things I could listen to. Google calls this approach "content-forward browsing."

MORE: Android Auto FAQ: Everything You Need to Know

If I looked closely  ideally when the car was stopped or parked  additional metadata could tell me if a particular piece of music or an audiobook had already been downloaded, so that I would know that playback would continue regardless of how strong my cellular connectivity was.

Android Auto's search function will see improvements, too, with Google Assistant letting drivers use voice commands to look for albums, songs and artists. Searches also summon up related content on the infotainment panel. After we asked Google Assistant to play a J.J. Cale song on Spotify, the assistant obliged  but the infotainment display also showed other songs, albums and related artists we could select.

As for messaging, Google says it is improving the notification layer and adding support for group messages. A text that popped up on the Range Rover's infotainment display made it clear who was texting, who was included on the message and  since we were parked  a small preview of the text. (If we had been driving, the Google Assistant would have offered to read the message aloud instead.) Messaging is also moving to the RCS standard at the heart of Google's new Chat mobile messaging efforts.

The infotainment panel in the Range Rover Velar is wider than what you might see in other automobiles, giving Google a chance to show off a widescreen redesign in the Android Auto interface.

Menu items letting you toggle between navigation, media playback and taking hands-free telephone calls now appear in a vertical strip on the left side of the display  closer to the driver, a Google rep told me  while the main display is flanked by a secondary screen on the right. That means if you've got the media app in the main screen, the secondary portion of the display can still show something like navigation information.

Those aren't the only Android Auto changes Google was showing off at I/O. The company replaced the built-in infotainment system on a Dodge Ram truck with a Google-designed alternative (above) to showcase how Google Services like Maps and the Play Store can be integrated into embedded systems running Android Auto.

This isn't just a pie-in-the sky concept, either: Just before Google I/O, Volvo announced that its Sensu infotainment systems in future cars will incorporate Google Services. Volvo had previously pledged to use Android Auto to power its in-car systems.

Image Credits: Tom's GuideNvidia put a fork in its now infamous GeForce Partner Program, citing recent negative commentary as the primary reason for the abrupt cancellation.

The statement is the companys first official response to the alleged foul play that was first brought to light back in March, with several outlets reporting that the program puts an unfair burden on its partners to align their gaming brands exclusively with Nvidia.

Several AIB partners rebranded many of their AMD-based graphics cards a short time later, with Gigabyte dropping its Aorus moniker from its RX580 Gaming Box and Asus renaming its entire AMD GPU lineup. AMD made a direct response to the surging reports of the implications, giving more credibility to the claim that the GPP could be having an effect on how vendors brand their respective gaming products.

Nvidia claimed in its blog that its shutting down the GPP because it would prefer to cancel the program rather than battling misinformation. The company further dismissed the allegations of wrongdoing by claiming that the program was quite transparent, and that no bad blood existed between Nvidia and its AIB partners:

With GPP, we asked our partners to brand their products in a way that would be crystal clear. The choice of GPU greatly defines a gaming platform. So, the GPU brand should be clearly transparent  no substitute GPUs hidden behind a pile of techno-jargon.Most partners agreed. They own their brands and GPP didnt change that. They decide how they want to convey their product promise to gamers. Still, today we are pulling the plug on GPP to avoid any distraction from the super exciting work were doing to bring amazing advances to PC gaming.

Although the cancellation of the Nvidia GPP may give those who already believe that the Green Team is pure evil all the confirmation they need that the program was indeed toxic, the surge of negative press coverage over the ambiguity of the published guidelines could just be enough of a headache for Nvidia to throw in the towel, and one could hardly blame them.Introduced for the 2013 model year, the first-generation Cadillac ATS wont get a replacement. The luxury automaker just confirmed that the four-door sedan will be discontinued after the 2018 model year. The ATS was developed as a competitor for the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, but it wasnt exactly successful against its German rivals in the U.S. Following sales of more than 20,000 units per year between 2013 and 2016, ATS deliveries dropped to only 13,000 examples in 2017. Cadillac will continue to offer the ATS Coupe model into the 2019 model year; a company spokesman told Motor Authority .

More changes are likely to happen at Cadillac in the coming months after GM fired president Johan de Nysschen, replacing him with Steven K. Carlisle, president of GM Canada.

While the "ATS" badge will go into the history books, Cadillac isnt leaving the compact segment. Both the ATS and CTS will be replaced by the upcoming CT5, while a smaller, compact sedan, likely called the CT4, will be launched soon. The CT4 and CT6 will join the flagship CT6, and both will feature rear-wheel-drive configurations. Much like the ATS and CTS, they will also get higher performance V-Sport versions.

More changes are likely to happen at Cadillac in the coming months after GM fired president Johan de Nysschen, replacing him with Steven K. Carlisle, president of GM Canada.

The Cadillac ATS is assembled in Lansing, Michigan, but also in China, where its being built by SAIC-GM. The lineup includes the performance-rated ATS-V and the ATS-L, the latter being a longer wheelbase variant for the Chinese market. In 2013, the ATS was named the North American Car of the Year.

References

Cadillac ATS

Read our full review on the 2013 Cadillac ATS.

Read our full review on the 2017 Cadillac ATS.

Read more Cadillac news.

Source: MotorAuthoritySelf-driving cars are getting more and more sophisticated by the day. Despite recent news about autonomous cars failing, many automakers are in the race to develop a successful, safe autonomous car. Audi has thrown its hat in the mix as well with its fully self-driving car based on the Aicon Concept Car, and it will hit the roads in 2021. Read on to know more.

Is it any different? Oh, its completely different!

The car is, in a true sense, an autonomous vehicle which requires no human input

Talking about the car, The Aicon Concept was revealed at the 2017 Frankfurt Auto Show. Now, the USP of the Aicon is that its a fully electric self-driving car and has no steering wheel or control pedals whatsoever! Yep, the car is, in a true sense, an autonomous vehicle which requires no human input (you cannot take control even if you want to). This car is right out of a sci-fi movie. Everything here is controlled by voice, gestures, and touch.

The future is almost here

Aicon's initial pilot fleet will be tested in environments with highly detailed maps in 2021

According to Audi, it envisions a future where the vehicle can be hailed for commuting in busy urban environments. Since there is no manual option to override the autonomy, Aicons initial pilot fleet will be tested in environments with highly detailed maps in 2021. However, we have no news of where the fleet will be tested and at what capacity. If all works well and the test-run is successful, we can expect the car to reach the dealers by the middle of the next decade.

Who else is in the race?

Currently, Waymo is leading the pack, as the company plans to start commercial ride-hailing service later this year. Waymo will serve an area of 100 square miles in Phoenix, Arizona, and the cars will be on their own all the time. To remind you, Arizona suspended Ubers self-driving car testing after a pedestrian fatality. Will Waymo be allowed to start commercial services in the same state? We are not very sure.

Our Take

For the self-driving technology, Audi and the entire VAG family is working with Aurora Innovation

The Aicon is arguably the most advanced car conceptualized till date and is not some random car with a futuristic design and no practicality. For the self-driving technology, Audi and the entire VAG family is working with Aurora Innovation. Aurora is a company based out of the U.S. and was founded by the engineers who previously worked for Waymo, Uber, and Tesla on the self-driving technology. We dont mean to startle you, but all the three companies mentioned have had their share of bad luck with autonomy at some point in time. With that in mind, can we expect the Aicon to be safer? We can only hope. However, to achieve complete success of products like the Aicon, humans will have to be banned from driving. (We hear you, fellow driving-enthusiasts). What are your thoughts on the Audi Aicon? Let us know in the comments section below.

References

Read our full review on the 2017 Audi Aicon Concept.

Read more Audi news.

Read more autonomous cars news.

Source: Motor AuthorityThe pdf AU Assembly Decision (138 KB) that all Member States of the African Union sign and ratify the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in order to usher its entry into force as expeditiously as possible was made during the 10th Extra-ordinary Summit on the AfCFTA on 21 March 2018.

During the Summit, the Agreement establishing the AfCFTA was presented for signature, along with the Kigali Declaration and the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Right to Residence and Right to Establishment. In total, 44 of the 55 AU Member States signed the pdf Consolidated draft text of the AfCFTA Agreement (2.83 MB) , 47 signed the Kigali Declaration and 30 signed the Protocol on Free Movement.

On 10 May 2018, Kenya and Ghana became the first countries to deposit the instruments of ratification of the AfCFTA. The Chairperson of the African Union Commission received the Special Envoy of the Republic of Kenya and the Ambassador of the Republic of Ghana during a special ceremony in Addis Ababa to mark the occasion.

The following statement was delivered by AUC Chairperson H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat:

Depositing of the instruments of ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by Kenya and Ghana

Today is indeed a historic day in the annals of the African Union. We warmly welcome you and would like to thank you as the two first countries who deposited the instrument of ratification of the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), following the ratification of the Agreement by your Parliament.

I congratulate both countries (Kenya and Ghana) for being the first AU Member States to deposit their instruments of ratification with the African Union Commission.

The speed with which your countries ratified the AfCFTA Agreement is a testament to the commitment that you have always shown, not only to Africa in general but also to the African Union.

Your leadership role also presages the role played by your respective RECs in the African Union and therefore the AfCFTA. So this moment should not be underestimated.

Your countries have led the way in signalling to the rest of the AU Member States that the process of our integration is irreversible and will benefit all citizens of Africa.

We encourage other Member States to follow your action. We note with greatest appreciation the fact that other Member States have ratified the AfCFTA Agreement.

We congratulate the governments and people of both countries and we appreciate your commitment to the landmark achievement of the legal foundation of the African integration agenda. We expect to receive more instruments of ratification anytime from now.

I look forward to you encouraging other signatories to the AfCFTA Agreement to ensure that a minimum of twenty-one (21) additional instruments of ratification are deposited with the Commission before the end of 2018. That is the expectation of our Heads of State and Government.

Once again, on behalf of the African Union Commission, many congratulations to the People and Government of Ghana and Kenya. We wish your people the very best in obtaining the most from the implementation of the AfCFTA once the Agreement comes into force.

I thank you.Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un lookalikes provide a preview of June 12. Photo: Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images

The historic meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong-un will take place on June 12 in Singapore between two men working toward a very special moment for World Peace!, Trump announced on Twitter Thursday morning.

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

The announcement comes just hours after Trump welcomed three Americans home from North Korea where they were detained in the countrys brutal prison camps. The release of the prisoners, all of whom were taken captive within the past three years, was reportedly a precondition to the meeting.

In preparation for the summit, Trump will host South Koreas President Moon Jae-in at the White House on May 22. In the days preceding the sit-down with Kim, Trump will also huddle with world leaders at the G7 summit in Quebec.William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal debate on Firing Line in 1968. Photo: ABC via Getty Images

On January 14, 2009, incoming president Barack Obama ventured to the home of George Will to have dinner with a group of right-wing luminaries including Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Larry Kudlow, David Brooks, Rich Lowry, Peggy Noonan, Michael Barone, and Paul Gigot. Every one of those figures opposed essentially every single one of Obamas major policies, both during the preceding campaign and during the two terms that followed, frequently in hysterical and paranoid terms.

Why, then, would Obama even bother? Because he believed there was a certain value in bouncing his ideas off the conservative opposition, probing his own thought for weaknesses, and searching for useful points to take from the opposing side.

The merits (or lack thereof) of listening to conservative opinion has become a point of contention and angst among liberal journalists. Staffers at the New York Times and The Atlantic have both held gripe sessions, which leaked publicly, to air internal complaints about their conservative columnists. (Both have right-of-center voices, and the Atlantic hired and immediately fired right-wing provocateur Kevin Williamson.) Meanwhile, some of the smarter liberal writers, like Dave Roberts and Brian Beutler, have argued that liberal media should give up its attempts to represent conservatives on the op-ed page. Their case reflects the renewed belief on the left, which has understandably gained force from the election of Trump, that exposing liberal or mainstream news audiences to conservative argument has no value at all.

I would agree with many of the premises these writers offer. Trump is merely the latest evidence of the intellectual degeneration of conservatism. Probably the single most common theme of my professional work has been arguing that American conservatism is a dogma incapable of grappling with reality. Conservatives have greeted every new advance of social policy, from child labor laws to civil rights to Obamacare, as overweening exercises in socialism doomed to fail, and both the nature of their ideology and the structure of the movements internal political logic has prevented conservatives from acknowledging their repeated failures.

Trump has exposed the underlying crisis in an especially dramatic fashion. Trump so completely disregards the value of ideas that he does not confine his wild lies to notions that have been nurtured on the right, like climate-science denial or the IRS targeting scandal. Instead Trump denies statements he has made on camera, concocts his own conspiracy theories on the fly, and makes barely any effort to keep his story straight. Trump has abandoned even the pretense that words have value. It is almost impossible for even a pseudo-intellectual to defend him outright, which is why the conservative pundit class has mustered some half-hearted anti-anti-Trumpers but few outright Trump defenders.

This divide provides the argument against the existing litany of conservative voices in the mainstream media. The anti-Trump conservative columnists at the Times and other elite organs, writes Roberts, are alienated from the animating force in U.S. conservatism, which is Trumpism. They command no divisions. They have nothing to do with what is going on in American politics today.

But representing the views of conservative America is not the only function of conservative columnists. They also put useful pressure on liberal ideas. The theories of philosophers like John Stuart Mill, and the premise of democratic government, is that ideas have to be contested openly, or else will harden into dogma. All political communities have an inherent tendency to gravitate toward the positions of whoever holds their shared belief most ardently.

Roberts, and my colleague Eric Levitz, urges liberal publications to bring in more left-wing and socialist writers to challenge their liberal readers from the left. That idea certainly has merit as a supplement to challenging them from the right. But as a substitute, an ethos that permits criticism of liberalism and Democratic politics exclusively from the left is a formula for intensifying rather than resisting the gravitational pull of orthodoxy.

Conservative media have always been filled with bitter criticism of the Republican Party. Yet that criticism takes the predictable form of criticizing leaders for their fecklessness and lack of ideological courage. This form of denunciation is completely different than criticizing ones own side for going too far, either in policy ambitions or in aggressiveness of political tactics. Exhorting ones own side to push harder or go farther is essentially the opposite of breaking ranks.

And there are certain kinds of flaws in liberal politics that conservatives are far better suited to identify. Liberals need to at least be presented with cogent challenges to their beliefs about governments capabilities in the economic sphere, and lack of capability in the military sphere, and the speed at which culture can and should be changed, in order to test and sharpen them.

In theory, liberals can fulfill the role of calling out their own sides shortcomings and errors. In practice, not many liberals like to do so these days. When I started in opinion journalism, left-of-center opinion writers were heavily incentivized to criticize the Democratic Party from the right. (Conservative media had, and still have, very different incentives.) I frequently found it hard to be published in general-interest magazines because my perspective was too partisan and liberal.

That incentive system has corrected itself, and perhaps overcorrected. Social media has formed tribal bonds that make progressive writers far more reluctant to violate tribal taboos. Upsetting your friends, not to mention setting off angry tweetstorms and alienating the allies you might want to rally to your side in the inevitable online flame wars, can be a hassle. Even if you enjoy it, as I must confess I do, it is a time suck. It is much easier to tell yourself that the more important targets are those on the opposing side. And after all, especially in a world where Republicans control the entire government, they are.

But if everybody on your side devotes all their attention to the biggest problem in the world, then nobody will look after the other problems. Criticizing the left amounts to a small minority of my work, but every time I do it, I am met with a hail of friendly critics wondering why I am focusing on the smaller problem at the expense of far larger ones. The huge stakes of the partisan struggle have all kinds of spillover effects, one of which is to raise the social and professional costs of holding fellow members of your coalition to account.

Neither Beutler nor Roberts directly challenges the value of holding ones side to account. Instead, they argue that conservatives are almost categorically incapable of meeting the intellectual standards of the liberal media. The editors who have responded to Trump by opening their platforms to more conservatives, while trying simultaneously to uphold the standards of their institutions, have repeatedly seen their best intentions run aground because most conservatives dont share those standards, writes Beutler. There is no Goldilocks conservative up for hire and there never will be.

I find this case not so much wrong as incomplete. It is hard to find conservatives who literally never commit factual errors or obvious logical fallacies. Its not that easy to find liberals immune to these shortfalls, either. And while I believe there is a gap in the intellectual standards between opinion journalism of the left, which is an offshoot of the culture of journalism, and opinion journalism of the right, which comes out of activism, I think the gap has shrunk over the last decade or so.

It is easy for the left to exaggerate the scale of the gap because we tend to flyspeck errors committed by the other side while going easy on the errors committed by our own. This bias is hard-wired into the human brain. All of us  left, right, and center  naturally interpret friendly reasoning in the best possible light, and unfriendly reasoning in the worst. Social media has played a role here, too. A large portion of Twitter consists of competing mobs whipping up outrage or demanding corrections over the factually, logically, or morally weakest points made by any member of the opposing tribe. Nobody manages to summon the same level of outrage over false, illogical, or outrageous claims made by their own side. Conservatives who write for liberal publications are subjected to a much higher public standard than their liberal colleagues, whose weakest work is more easily forgiven or overlooked, rather than held up for ridicule.

Ive been thinking a lot recently about a 2014 post by Scott Alexander, titled Beware Isolated Demands for Rigor. He shows how completely legitimate questions about statistical validity, if only applied to the opposing side, can pose a hindrance to objectivity. The liberal media publishes plenty of flawed columns. Standards are vital, but if we fall for the temptation of using them only as grounds for excluding conservatives, standards are ultimately having the effect of closing our minds rather than opening them.

Ive been making two arguments that seem to be in tension, and may even appear impossible to reconcile: that conservatism is a failed dogma and that liberals need to take it seriously. These two seemingly polar ideas can be reconciled, though, as follows: Liberalism has succeeded in adapting itself to the world because, unlike conservatism, it has opened itself to internal correction.-:- Message from Tripadvisor staff -:-

This topic has been closed to new posts due to inactivity. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.

To review the Tripadvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html

We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.Hi all

Thinking of visiting New York with my 10 year old daughter for the first time at the end of August. Looking at basing ourselves in NJ or potentially Brooklyn at someplace with a pool and travelling into NYC itself a few times. We will have a hire car and will want to visit a beach a couple of times. If we stay on Long Island then I guess there's Coney Island, Long Beach and Fire Island etc (and the Hamptons further out). If we stayed in NJ/on the west side then I was looking at visiting Ocean grove and Spring Lake (or perhaps driving further to Long Beach Island).

I was thinking that the latter beaches to the south would be less busy then those nearer NYC - would I be right in that assumption, or will they all be busy?

Thanks

RossTrying to plan logistics: two people, two bits of luggage and hand luggage...

We arrive at the airport at 5 o'clock in the morning... and have booked to go on a cruise that day. (which leaves at noon). Does anyone have any recommendations on what to do with our time, is it best to get to Hanoi city by bus, and use the Cruise transfer shuttle from Hanoi. Or get a transfer directly to Halong Bay and chill there? We will have luggage with us too, is there anywhere we can leave them safely in Hanoi? What time do things open in Hanoi? I don't fancy wondering around empty streets with heavy luggage. After the cruise trip, we join a tour group that starts in Hanoi, that bit is easy, we use the Cruise shuttle back to the hotel. But can anyone help with recommendations for the first bit? Many thanks in advance.Re-posted on NYC Board - I can't figure out how to delete it from here - My husband and I will be in NYC for four nights with our 11 year old and our 8 year old. I lived in NYC many years ago, but this is our first trip with the kids. I'm trying to narrow down our restaurants and make sure there are no activities we missed. We are coming from L.A., so we don't need to go to places like Shake Shack and Eataly. My kids will eat almost any cuisine (Asian, Mediterranean, seafood, steak, etc.), although they don't like things they view as weird (foam, brains, etc.) Budget is flexible but would prefer a mix - not all high end or low end, and I prefer places that are less stuffy and that will be more "fun" for the kids. We will be staying in Midtown but are happy to travel.

Tuesday

- Arrive early, explore Midtown (Rockefeller Center, Empire State Building, Grand Central etc).

- Lunch in midtown - Any ideas? I'm tempted to make a reservation at Serendipity so we can have frozen hot chocolate without a wait, but I don't want to waste a chance for a good meal.

- More time in Midtown in the afternoon.

- Dinner, possibly in Little Italy. Any ideas for decent Italian food? I know there are much better Italian restaurants, but I think Little Italy would be a fun destination for the kids.

Wednesday

- Central Park (zoo etc.) in the morning

- Looking for a restaurant in between the Park and the Museum of Natural History, probably the Upper West Side

- Museum of Natural History in the afternoon

- Looking for a decent restaurant near Times Square - are there any? Again, open on cuisine

- Lion King tickets at 7pm

Thursday

- (what to do before heading to the Lower East Side? I'd say the High Line, but it's in the wrong direction, the Intrepid might push us too late for us to make Katz's and the Tenement Museum, not sure what to do until about 11 am)

- Katz's Deli for lunch

- Lower East Side Tenement Museum tickets purchased for 1:30

- Late afternoon with family

- Dinner - Looking for an idea - maybe in the Village or Soho, again because I'd like to explore those neighborhoods with the kids

Friday

- Statue of Liberty and Ellis island (tickets purchased), 1 World Trade Center

- Lunch will be on the go

- Dinner with family arranged

Thank you in advance for any ideas!

Edited: 3 years agoI am working on putting together an itinerary and am looking for a couple suggestions for restaurants around items that we have pre-booked.

We have Hello Dolly tickets at the Shubert Theater for 8:00 PM on June 23. We are looking forward to seeing Bernadette Peters. (Hopefully our Row B Center Mezzanine tickets are good ones). Anyway, we would like to do a nice dinner before the show. We are looking at $50-75 per person before tax and tip. I have looked at Mercato and Capital Grille as two possibilities. Are these in reasonable walking distance of the theater? Are there other/better options? We love Italian (Southern, Northern, pretty much everything Italian), steaks, sushi, seafood, etc. Really open to about anything.

We have statue of liberty tour tickets for a 9am departure on June 24. I think we will likely be done around noon to 1 and am looking for a good spot in the financial district to eat. We plan to explore the financial district, head over to the Brooklyn Bridge that afternoon most likely. Budget is flexible, but would prefer to keep it no more than 30-40 a person. I looked at Fraunces Tavern, but am open to any suggestions. My other thought was to head to Little Italy (my wife had relatives come through that area many years ago) and find somewhere to eat there. Any suggestions at all around Little Italy would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!Arrival: Time to clear immigration and customs is variable. For your hotel check in, be prepared to have to leave your bags and wait until later to get your room. Have things you may need readily available to pull from your bags before handing them over to the hotel.

What time does the free walking tour start and end? Note that if you purchase 5pm 911 Memorial Museum tickets, there is a chance that flight delays could cause you to miss it.

The 911 museum takes a good 3 hours and is very emotional. You may not feel like going to Times Square after. Plus your plans are starting to run late here. Presumably you'll have dinner at some point, plus Times Square plus the rooftop bar after possibly leaving the museum at 8pm. It's a lot for travel day.

Day 2: I don't understand this list. You can't possibly do all of it in one day and why do Brooklyn Bridge in isolation? If Woodbury is a must, that's a whole day. HOHO bus doesn't fit here. Even if you drop Woodbury, I don't know that HOHO is how you want to spend this day. It could be miserably hot and muggy baking on the top level and buses get hung up in traffic.

Day 3: Too many timed tours. It means you are just keeping appointments and lose the ability to find time to do other things in other places. Plus it may feel like not a fun way to spend the day. It seems like you may be thinking of buying one of the big passes so are trying to get the most out of that investment. Re-think that.

Central Park is best explored on foot. Bikes are permitted only on bike paths, and that's not the best view of the park.

Day 4: That's a whole lot of time on a bus. How much time will you actually have in DC? What time is the bus scheduled to return?

IMO, your current plans are too focused on tourist pass activities and you are missing out on exploring neighborhoods and just doing things that will let you soak in the vibe and make you fall in love with the city. Plus nothing cultural (no art? music? theater?)See if you can get a copy of "AIA Guide to New York City" from a local library or bookstore. It's written by architects, but, unfortunately, its last edition came out in 2010, so it's good for the great buildings of the 20th century and before, but not good for the amazing burst of construction of this century, The book is narrow enough to fit in a big pocket, but it's heavy, and you may not want to lug it around NYC.

I will add the NY Public Library to your must-see list. The extensive - and expensive - restoration has been outstandingly well done. It's close to Grand Central and the Chrysler Building, so you can do the 3 buildings together. The bronze elevator doors in the Chrysler Building lobby! Wow!

You will like a guided tour of Rockefeller Center -- there's so much art inside and outside. You can combine it with a visit to the Top of the Rock observation deck. You will need timed tickets for TOTR. Wait until it's a day or two before you want to visit and check the online weather forecasts for good viewing weather. Go to TOTR before sunset to see the city in daylight and stay until after sunset to see the city lighted up, including the lights on the Empire State Building.

Sometimes the ESB has an elaborate light show on the exterior of its building, which you can see only if you are a distance away from the building, such as from TOTR. Check the ESB website for the light show schedule:Julia Roberts, giving a master class on long shorts.

Long shorts are stylish again, my mother told me last weekend. Then, dreamily, I love long shorts.

Long shorts is a euphemism for Bermuda shorts, an article of clothing that became popular in the 40s and then again in the 90s. These truncated jeans, or extended shorts, are, as my mother wisely announced, making a comeback: Brands like the Brooklyn-mom-favorite Caron Callahan, playful French label Bless, and even the Reformation have recently released updated takes on the style. And the beautiful people have been photographed giving them a spin: This Instagram of model Paloma Elsesser is what piqued my interest in the style in the first place. This picture of Man Repeller editor-in-chief Leandra Medine didnt hurt, either.

In theory, I like Bermuda shorts: The length makes them appropriate for work and could solve the problem of how to dress comfortably for both freezing offices and sweltering commutes. But lets address the obvious: Worn incorrectly, the things can be ugly or unflattering or both. The cutoff point draws extra attention to the thigh, an area some of us take great sartorial pains to hide. But as with most things, if styled properly, this does not have to be the case. Since I havent worn a long short since middle school (denim, Abercrombie & Fitch), I turned to the designer Caron Callahan, the Cuts fashion news writer Emilia Petrarca, and the Cuts fashion editor Lindsay Peoples Wagner, all of whom gave me some helpful pointers on how to wear these strange in-betweenies.

Accentuate your waist and ankles

If your longer short is slightly loose, Callahan told me, itll look great belted with an oxford shirt tucked into them, to show off your silhouette. As for shoes, Id go with something a little more covered up, like an espadrille. Petrarca suggested a kitten heel, or sandal that wraps around your ankles, so your legs look longer, and not like SpongeBob SquarePants.

Dress them up

Another way to go is to dress it up, says Callahan. When I think of longer shorts, I think of Lauren Hutton in American Gigolo. Wear them with a nice blazer and a blouse.

Make a suit

Or treat them like trousers, and wear them with a matching jacket, like a little summer suit, says Callahan. This look would look great with a pair of oxfords.

Go loose

Petrarca feels that looser is better, when it comes to long shorts. I have a pair of green ones which hang at my hip, she says. I roll up the hem to make them a bit shorter, and wear them either with a tight T-shirt or a blouse tucked into the front. If you go loose on loose, youll look like youre at camp. But, she warns, dont wear a top thats too buttoned up  otherwise, itll have a militant effect. Try a floaty Nili Lotan top, she recommends.

And if youre going to go tight 

Kim Kardashian, who often wears a tight Bermuda short, does not look good in them to me because of how she styles them  heels and a bodysuit, which makes her look like a bad workout video from the 80s, says Wagner. But the model Paloma Elsesser wears tight Bermuda shorts and makes them look amazing  she wears them with dad sneakers and a T-shirt, or a printed loose shirt and Adidas slides. Her tomboy aesthetic really compliments them.

get the strategist newsletter Actually good deals, smart shopping advice, and exclusive discounts. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us.

The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best womens jeans, rolling luggage, pillows for side sleepers, ultra-flattering pants, and bath towels. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.

Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.

Since we don't know your exact dates we can't say which hotel will be in budget. I'd look closest to Columbus circle because that is at the southwest corner of the park and near a subway station that has a lot of lines. On any of the bookings sites you can enter that as your location and it will tell you the exact distance of each hotel. FYI, it's only one stop away from Lincoln center so not that much of a difference.

The hotels on the south east corner of the park would be a second choice only because they are not as near good subway lines.They say good things come in small quantities, well does this apply to people too? Is beauty determined by size? Are smaller people more beautiful than bigger people? Is size something people consider before labeling a person pretty or not pretty? I do not know what other people think; what I know is that there are plus size people taking the world by storm. Flaunting their curves and showing the world what their mother gave them. Here are some famous plus size models, showing the world that thick is beautiful.

Here are some of Africa's best plus size models. Plus size models black include:

Plus size models in Kenya

Kenya has had some various plus size models fashion shows, this in other words, is to say that Kenya has not been left behind as it has its fine share of thick, fine women. Here are a few plus size models Kenya:

Cynthia Obada

She is a size 16 model in Kenya. A last born in her family; though she was mostly mistaken to be the oldest due to her size. She learned over the years to embrace her body and shape, love her curves and most of all, be proud of who she is. This did not come easy though, as she went through a period of depression after an incident that happened to her when she was young. She says that one day as she was walking, a man who was asking for directions caller her what would be translated to mean mother in English. She said that she cried the whole day after that and went ahead to stay indoors for weeks. During that period, she refused to eat and tried different concoctions, all with the aim of losing weight. She got through all this through counselling and the love of her family.

Right now she is proud of who she is and is busy headlining fashion shows across Kenya. She is also giving back to the community by counseling girls who feel ashamed of their body.

Mary Ogonyo

She grew up being bullied and called many names because of her body size. She said being big doesn't make her any ugly, adding that she is just bigger but very beautiful; and indeed she is beautiful. After numerous pill tryouts and regular visits to the gym, she still found herself growing bigger. Her Family did not spare her when it came to insults as her father once told her she would not get a husband because of her size. She learned to accept herself as she is and is now busy taking the fashion industry by storm.

Jagero Lydiah Avvanah

She is famous for saying that someone loving their body when they are in good shape is like only loving your kids when they are behaving well. What happens when they misbehave ? Do they stop being your children?

She says she loves herself and wont let the world tell her otherwise irregardless of her body size. She insists that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes; either big or small. In 2012, she was crowned Miss Culture Siaya County. Indeed beauty does come in different sizes.

Plus size models in Africa

Africa is spearheading as well as encouraging plus size models and modelling in general. Africa has a couple of well known models:

Teiko Dornor

She is the organizer of Miss Plus Africa. She owns an inspirational blog where she encourages every girl to have confidence and look past their body size because at the end of the day, a persons nature and personality are what matter rather than body size and image.

She studied Law but had to put her law career on hold so as to concentrate on her modeling career; she has that rare combination of beauty and brains. She is originally from Ghana but is mostly based in the United Kingdom. She created Miss Plus Africa out of her passion for modeling and frustration of people ridiculing plus size women. Miss Plus Africa is also her way of giving back to the community and showing plus size models that they belong in the modeling industry.

She feels most beautiful when surrounded by love, positivity, and knowing the endless possibilities that this world has to offer.

Plus size models in South Africa

Maneo Magoleng

She was born in a family of seven, in the village of Maneo, but later moved to the city to search for greener pastures. She admits that modeling wasnt easy; to the point that she thought of quitting and going back to the village. But a voice inside her was telling her to keep going, not to give up and stay strong.

Apart from plus size modeling she also does; photo shoots, lingerie modeling, and is a designer. She is into acting, poetry, and writing; I guess she is what we would call a Jack of all trades.She says that every picture of her tells a story. She is also what we can an Africanist and a strong believer of togetherness. She urges Africans to stand together, protect, and have one another.

Through modeling, she has leanred; self confidence, self love, self appreciation, and she urges fellows plus size women to do the same.

Trene Rama

She is also another South African who came into fame after being shortlisted as one of the twenty finalists in the Miss BBW International Beauty Pageant. She was born in South Africa but later moved to United Kingdom when she was fifteen years old. She was scouted for the pageant at a shopping mall and was forced to apply by a friend. She ended up applying because she was comfortable with her body.

She also holds a degree in Psychology with clinical and health psychology from the University of Bangor in North Wales.

Miss BBW, (the beauty pageant in which she was a finalist), aims to bring people together to celebrate the beauty of size in a non-judgmental environment. Their slogan is Not everyone wants to be a size zero and we are here to prove that there is life after plus zero'. She moreover believes that the importance of Miss BBW International should not be underestimated as it is important in providing a different type of role model for young girls.

READ ALSO: Curvy and beautiful: Gorgeous plus-sized model parades her seductive figure

Lesego Legobane

She is another model from South Africa. Apart from being a model, she is also a blogger, a photographer, and a body-positive activist. She believes that people should love their bodies even if the world tells them not to, or paints a negative picture to a certain body size, skin tone etc.

She rose higher to fame in 2017, when she put a guy who was body shaming plus size women in his place. This was ON Twitter, when a guy posted a picture of a slender woman with the caption, The girls I want, and a picture of Lesego Legobane who is a plus size woman with the caption, The girls that want me. Lesego Legobane, also known as Thickleeyonce, replied the tweet saying I dont want you. The replied attracted so much popularity to the point that it reached celebrities like; Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, and Ava Duvernay. She gained a lot of followers after this.

Plus size model jobs in Kenya.

There are plus size models jobs in Kenya. There is a particular agency in Kenya that is leading in creating jobs for plus size women. Plus Fabulosity: House of Style,has established its reputation for its fresh approach in providing representation of the highest quality to its plus-size models. Founded by Ms. Francisca Mwende, it aims to bring expertise and business knowledge to the plus-size modeling industry in Kenya. She has great experience in the modeling industry as she was crowned Miss Malaika Parklands, University of Nairobi 2011/2012.

Being totally different from the other modeling agencies in Kenya, Plus Fabulosity celebrates women and men who are in their plus side of life.

Apart from modeling, they also offer jobs in:

Editorial

Runway

Catalog

Print

Show room

Lingerie

Swimsuit

Fitness

Fit

Tea Room

Host

Body Part Modelling

Commercial

Glamour

This shows that the modeling agency has a lot to offer and is the leading job creator for plus size people in Kenya.This agency, together with other agencies, are giving plus size models confidence in their body size. Not only is it not unusual to see plus size models fashion show, but now you also see plus size models in bathing suits. Plus size models in swimwear are showing the world that what a size six can do; a size sixteen can also do. Moreover, plus size models in dresses and other elegant clothing continue to rock the fashion scene.

Truly, thick is beautiful.

Source: Tuko.co.ke- Chebukati claimed despite having publicly resigned, the officials were still receiving salaries

- The three commissioners dramatically stepped down citing lack of confidence in Chebukati

- Their resignation came days after IEBC CEO Chiloba was suspended over audit queries

- The electoral body was left with Chebukati and two commissioners, Guliye and Molu

- The remaining three officials can't make legally binding decisions due to quorum hitch

It has emerged that the three Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) officials who publicly announced their resignations on April 16, 2018, are still receiving their monthly pay cheques.

The three ex-officials, Consolata Maina, Paul Kurgat and Margaret Mwachanya, are also allegedly still in possession of IEBC properties including state-provided security details and vehicles.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati said he on April 20, 2018, wrote to the former IEBC commissioners asking them to hand over everything that belonged to the Commission. Photo: Citizen TV.

READ ALSO: Mke wa pasta awatahadharisha wanawake dhidi ya kuvalia suruali

Appearing in court on Wednesday, May 9, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said he had penned a letter to President Uhuru Kenyatta and the National Treasury boss, Henry Rotich, informing them to stop with immediate effect paying Maina, Kurgat and Mwachanya because the the trio had ceased to be employees of the commission.

According to the chairman, the three ex-commissioners had not formally exited their positions as required by law and therefore were still on the government's payroll.

TUKO.co.ke understands the commissioners were supposed to formally write to the president notifying him of their resignations.

READ ALSO: Chebukati is as dirty as Chiloba - Mutula Kilonzo

The president was then expected to declare their positions vacant within 14 days, after which the Public Service Commission (PSC) was to embark on the process of replacing the officials.

Considering the president did not announce any vacancy at IEBC within the 14 days since Maina, Kurgat and Mwachanya told the public they had stepped down, one can presume the trio are still employees of the IEBC.

Chebukati said he on April 20, wrote to the supposedly former IEBC officials asking them to hand over everything that belonged to the Commission, a directive he said was not complied with.

READ ALSO: IEBC Chair Chebukati sends Chiloba on compulsory leave

The trio had quit working for IEBC citing lack of faith and confidence in Chebukati.

They also had issue with the suspension of IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba who was sent on a three-month compulsory leave on April 7, 2018, over audit queries.

"The events leading to the suspension of Chiloba have greatly shaken our already feeble confidence in the Chair. Given this severe deterioration of confidence in the Commission's chair, we find our position as commissioners under his leadership no longer tenable," Maina, Kurgat and Mwachanya said in a statement.

The electoral body was left with Chebukati and two commissioners, Ayub Guliye and Boya Molu.

These three are however unable to make legally binding decisions due to lack of quorum.

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.

Universities' crisis - Lecturer's strike continues! - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko Newspaper- Museveni penned peppered letter to UN boss to express anger over the change of office location

- He argued Uganda deserved to host the UN office because of its contribution to regional peace

- UN decided to set base in Nairobi following intense lobbying by the Kenyan government

- Uganda's displeasure could be attributed to the fact that hosting the UN office also comes with lucrative business opportunities

A major diplomatic row looms between Kenya and Uganda following relocation of the United Nations (UN) field missions co-ordination office from Entebbe to Nairobi.

President Yoweri Museveni penned a scathing letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres protesting the decision to move the high level UN office from Uganda.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

Yoweri Museveni (left photo: Carl Court/Getty Images) protests UN's move to relocate office from Uganda to Kenya. Uhuru Kenyatta (right photo: The East African) yet to react.

READ ALSO: Jamaa apokonywa simu Nairobi akijipiga 'selfie' na mpenzi wake

In the hard-hitting protest letter cited in a report by Uganda's Daily Monitor, Museveni said giving preference to Nairobi over Entebbe was unfair and in bad faith because Kenya and Uganda are friends.

Museveni further argued Uganda had contributed immensely in promoting regional peace and security.

He claimed Uganda was the first country in East Africa to dispatch troops to the war-torn Somalia under the UN-approved African Union Peace-Keeping Mission (AMISOM), and therefore deserved to host the UN's field missions base in Africa.

READ ALSO: Museveni and Magufuli enter deals that underline their continued isolation of Kenya

Nairobi was among three African cities that were recommended by Antonio Guterres to the UNs Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. Photo: Huffington Post.

TUKO.co.ke established Nairobi was among three African cities that were recommended by Guterres to the UNs Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), a 16-member committee of experts, to host the field missions co-ordination office.

The other preferred locations were Budapest, Mexico City.

It is understood the advisory committee settled on Nairobi after intense lobbying from the Kenyan government.

TUKU.co.ke understands Guterres is yet to respond to Museveni's letter concerning the relocation from Entebbe to Nairobi.

READ ALSO: Lawmakers from northern Uganda threaten to secede after Parliament passed Age Limit Bill

President Uhuru Kenyatta's point-man, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary (PS) Macharia Kamau, who is also ex-Permanent Representative to the UN, is said to have played a huge role in persuading the UN's Secretariat to set base in Nairobi.

Hosting the UN's field missions office is a high-stakes affair because it comes with lucrative business opportunities such as logistical supplies, which helps explain why Museveni wants to keep it.

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

Top 5 Tone-Deaf Quotes About Africa - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko.co.ke- The DP issued a strong statement on the situation with dams in the country

- He was hosting officials from the ministries of Water and Agriculture in his Karen home

- Among the issues discussed was how to effectively utilise the consistent long rains

Deputy President William Ruto has asked contractors to comply with the accepted engineering standards for safety while building dams to avert calamities caused by poor workmanship.

Ruto said dams built to store water have sometimes failed in some parts of the country with the resulting loss of life, social, economic financial and environmental losses.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Mwanamke wa miaka 24 mashakani kwa kushiriki ngono na mwanafunzi wa darasa la 7, Kisumu (picha)

Ruto said dams built to store water sometimes failed in some parts of the country with the resulting loss of life, social, economic financial and environmental losses. Photo: Ruto/Facebook

READ ALSO: Communication Authority warns Kenyans against receiving calls from these numbers

Addressing senior officials from the ministries of Water and Agriculture at his Karen office, Nairobi, on Thursday May 10, Ruto said dams should be built on accepted engineering standards of design and construction.

He said the existing ones should be properly maintained with proper application of the current technology.

Safety measures should be addressed during construction of dams, said Mr Ruto.

Safety measures should be addressed during construction of dams, Ruto insists. Photo: Ruto/Facebook

READ ALSO: Death toll rises to 43, Solai Boys High school closed in dam tragedy

Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui (Water and Sanitation), Principal Secretaries Joseph Irungu (Irrigation) and Fred Segor (Water) were present.

The DP at the same time praised efforts being made by relevant departments to improve rainwater collection and stocking across the country.

He added the country was keen to improve its water harvesting capabilities and curb wastage.

The Deputy President, at the same time, praised efforts being made by relevant departments to improve rainwater collection and stocking across the country. Photo: Ruto/Facebook

READ ALSO: Uhuru, Ruto spent KSh 665 million on entertainment in last 6 months of 2017

Segor said 141 small dams have been built across the country, saying 90% of the dams have been filled with water now that rains were pounding most parts of the country.

These dams are being targeted at households so that they get water for drinking and for agricultural activities through irrigation purposes, Segor said.

According to Ruto, building of water dams across the country remains key to empowering farmers and turning their dreams into realities as far as food production was concerned.

It is encouraging that the Ministry of Water has gone to an extra mile to identify potential areas to harvest water whether in public or private lands so that they can engage in irrigation activities aimed at improving their lives and thus eliminate food insecurity in the country, he added.

His sentiments came at the back of raging waters in Solai, Nakuru county which swept away homes and schools leaving thousands displaced and vulnerable.

The tragedy occurred when the Solai Dam broke its banks on nearby settlements, sweeping everything on its path.

READ ALSO: Gideon Moi behind Kapedo insecurity - Turkana leaders claim

TUKO.ke has learnt that by Thursday, May 10 evening, the death toll stood at 43.

At least 43 people passed away as a result of the Solai dam bursting its banks. Photo: Atanas/Twitter

There has been a raging debate on who is primarily to blame for the loss of lives and property across the country as a result of heavy rainfall.

A lot of fault has been thrown at the government over poor drainage after it emerged the Ndakaini dam which sources water to the city, was recording very low water levels despite heavy downpour.

Story by Bethuel Kaino - TUKO correspondent

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.

Universities' crisis - Lecturer's strike continues! Tuko TV:

Source: Tuko Kenya- Kassim was jointly accused alongside others not before the court

- The politician stole goods worth KSh 850,000

- The charge sheet showed he also destroyed property valued at KSh 1 million

Matuga MP and Amani National Congress (ANC) Deputy Party leader Kassim Ali Sawa is facing charges related to petty theft of goods worth KSh 850,000 in an alleged robbery with violence case.

The Mombasa Magistrate Court was on Thursday, May 10, told of how Kassim stole a refrigerator, 35 plastic chairs, counter table and 20 cooking oil jerricans belonging to business man Riziq Fundi Bakari.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

He was jointly accused alongside others not before court that he also made away with 20 bundles of wheat flour, computer, television set, welding toolbox, a phone and a locker.

READ ALSO: Mwanamke wa miaka 24 mashakani kwa kushiriki ngono na mwanafunzi wa darasa la 7, Kisumu

ANC Deputy Party leader Kassim Ali Sawa is facing charges related to petty theft of goods worth KSh 850,000 in an alleged robbery with violence case. Photo: Ali Kassim Tandaza/Facebook.

READ ALSO: Traffic police officer killed by speeding bus in Voi

The charge sheet showed the suspects raided Bakari's restaurant and picked the items besides destroying the property valued at KSh 1 million.

He allegedly committed the offense in 2009.

The businessman had opened a food joint in a business premises the lawmaker had leased out to him.

However, he did not plead to the charges since the chief magistrate who had booked the case was absent.

Kassim unsuccessfully vied for the Matuga parliamentary seat in 2007 on an ODM party ticket but lost.

But in a 2010 by-election, the Orange party threw its weight behind PNU's Chirau Ali Mwakwere forcing Kassim to decamp to ANC under the opposition coalition, NASA.

He then won the seat on the Musalia Mudavadi's party.

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.

Universities' crisis - Lecturer's strike continues! - on TUKO TV

Source: Tuko- Guterres responded to Museveni's letter informing him the UN office will not be moved

-Museveni had protested proposal to shift the UN service base from Entebbe to Nairobi

- Hosting the UN service centre comes with lucrative business and employment opportunities

President Yoweri Museveni can now breathe easy after the United Nation (UN) rescinded decision to shift its base from Uganda to Kenya.

Thanks to Museveni's spirited fight, Ugandan's Entebbe will continue to be the UN's regional service centre until further notice.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Mwanamke wa miaka 24 mashakani kwa kushiriki ngono na mwanafunzi wa darasa la 7, Kisumu

UN Secretary General Antonnio Guterres (left photo: Huffington Post) told Yoweri Museveni (right-top photo: Kampala Post) UN office will remain in Entebbe. Uhuru Kenyatta (bottom right) lost.

READ ALSO: Diplomatic row looms between Kenya, Uganda after UN moved office from Entebbe to Nairobi

Confirming the new development on Thursday, May 10, Uganda's Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa told New Vision the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had responded to Museveni's letter informing him the UN's service centre will remain in Entebbe.

Museveni had penned a fiery letter to Guterres protesting the decision to move the high level UN office from Uganda to Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

READ ALSO: Museveni could become president for life as Uganda's Parliament votes to remove age limit

In the letter, Museveni said giving preference to Nairobi over Entebbe was unfair because Kenya and Uganda are friends.

He further argued Uganda had contributed a lot in promoting regional peace and security.

Uganda, Museveni claimed, was the first East African country to send troops to the war-torn Somalia under the UN-approved African Union Peace-Keeping Mission (AMISOM), and therefore deserved to host the UN's field missions base in Africa.

READ ALSO: Museveni and Magufuli enter deals that underline their continued isolation of Kenya

Nairobi was one of three cities that had been recommended by Guterres to the UNs Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), a 16-member committee of experts, to host the field missions co-ordination office.

The other cities were Hungary's capital, Budapest, and Mexico City.

TUKO.co.ke understands the UN advisory committee settled on Nairobi after intense lobbying from the Kenyan government.

Kenya's Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary (PS) Macharia Kamau, who is also ex-Permanent Representative to the UN, is said to have played a huge role in persuading the UN's Secretariat to shift its base to Nairobi.

READ ALSO: Lawmakers from northern Uganda threaten to secede after Parliament passed Age Limit

Hosting the UN's field missions office comes with lucrative business and employment opportunities, which explains why Museveni staged a spirited fight to stop the opportunities from slipping away.

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.

The 23-year-old Kenyan who speaks 8 foreign languages (Amazing Story) - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko Newspaper- An article in the paper indicated Ali and three CDF officials embezzled KSh 25 million

- He wants the media house to pull down article and apologise unconditionally

- The media house 12 hours to retract the article or end up in court

Nyali MP and former KTN investigative reporter Mohammed Ali has threatened to sue the Star newspaper for defaming him through a false publication.

The MP through McKay Advocates firm served the Nairobi Star Publications on Thursday, May 10, with a letter demanding the media house withdraw an alleged defamatory publication it had made about him.

In the letter seen by TUKO.co.ke, Ali popularly known as Moha Jicho Pevu said the Star through its writer Ernest Cornel tainted his reputation by publishing an article indicating he is part of a group embezzling Constituency Development Funds (CDF).

READ ALSO: Mwanamke wa miaka 24 mashakani kwa kushiriki ngono na mwanafunzi wa darasa la 7, Kisumu

Nyali MP Mohammed Ali accuses The Star Newspaper of publishing a false story about him to taint his reputation. Photo: Moha Jicho Pevu/Facebook.

The story published on Thursday, May 10, is titled, Mohammed Ali caught up in a CDF bursary scam as he fires three.

The article published on the newspaper and the digital platform of the Star states the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) commenced investigations against Ali over irregular award of bursaries.

READ ALSO: Moha Jicho Pevu pulls a surprising move at Johos inauguration after their bitter fall out

It explains the MP and his CDF Manager Mwalimu Mwanyumba are on the spot for alleged issuing of school fees to ghost students and favouring private over public schools.

In the article, Ali is reported to have embezzled KSh 25 million from the CDF kitty which he directed to four private schools and went ahead to sack three officials to conceal the illegalities.

The Nyali MP accuses the media house of publishing a negative story about him without getting his side of the matter. Photo: Mohammed Ali/Facebook.

According to the article seen by TUKO.co.ke, Ali fired CDF Project manager Fadhili Hassan, Information Communication Technology (ICT) head Joshua Musyimi and driver Ruto Ngetich.

Cornel quotes Ngetich who says he was sacked because of questioning scandalous deals but states he was unable to get Alis response because he was unreachable.

The Star prominently published on print and online an article with intent to peddle lies and paint him in negative light, read part of the demand letter.

READ ALSO: Nairobi county is dead, Uhuru should step in and disband it - lawyer Ahmednasir

One of Alis lawyer Paul Nyaosi states the MP has never been investigated by EACC officers, explaining he also has no powers to fire or hire CDF committee members where he is only a patron but not a signatory.

The publication is malicious and aimed at portraying my client in bad light within his constituents, family and society. The title together with the content was meant to say Ali is a fraudulent leader, not of good moral standing and is depriving Kenyans of their tax, continued the demand letter.

The former journalist wants The Star to unconditionally apologise for the publication associating him with corruption scam. Photo: Mohammed Ali/Facebook.

The legislator accused the newspaper of refusing to get his side of the story hence denying him right to fair hearing, reiterating he was available but was not reached by the writer.

Ali now wants the media house to pull down the online version of the story and apologise unconditionally in print and online with equal prominence the alleged defamatory story was given.

READ ALSO: Kenya loses bid to host UN service centre after Museveni's angry letter to Guterres

The MP through his lawyers has given the Star 12 hours to heed to their demands failure to which he will commence legal action against the media house.

The vocal MP tweeted on Thursday, May 10, that his lawyers had taken up the matter, saying the constitution protects his right not to be defamed.

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.

The 23-year-old Kenyan who speaks 8 foreign languages (Amazing Story) - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko.co.keOver the past day, the situation in the Joint Force Operation area in eastern Ukraine remained difficult. The intensive fighting continued throughout the contact line.

The units of the joint forces did not allow the enemy to improve its tactical positions, the Joint Forces Operation Headquarters press center reports.

"The tensest situation was observed near Avdiivka (18km north of Donetsk), Pisky (12km north-west of Donetsk), Shyrokyne (20km east of Mariupol). Russian-occupation troops fired artillery and mortars 20 times. Small arms, grenade launchers, weapons on infantry fighting vehicles were used 53 times to shell Ukrainian positions," the report reads.

The units of the joint forces carried out active military operations in the area of Avdiivka industrial zone, the village of Piske, gave an adequate response and destroyed the enemys firepower.

According to intelligence, five militants were killed and another seven were wounded just in Avdiivka direction.

During the current day, May 10, the fighting is ongoing in Donetsk and Mariupol directions. No casualties among Ukrainian troops have been reported.

olUkrainian servicemen came under enemy fire in eastern Ukraine 14 times on May 10, Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Dmytro Hutsuliak has said.

"Fourteen attacks on our strong points have been recorded in the area of the Joint Forces Operation. The enemy shelled out positions from 120mm and 82mm mortars near the villages of Artemove, Zaitseve and Prychepylivka in the Luhansk sector. In general, the occupiers launched 40 mines of different calibers at our positions," he said.

According to him, the enemy also used small arms and grenade launchers near Novozvanivka in the Luhansk sector and near Avdiyivka, Vodiane, Krasnohorivka, Opytne, Shyrokyne and Butivka mine in the Donetsk sector.

"Joint Forces units defended actively. Our military returned fire in six cases," Hutsuliak said.

opPhoto: JMichl/Getty Images

Summer hikes call for summer hiking sandals: Your regular boots will be too hot, and despite being waterproof and lightweight, low-top hiking shoes or trail runners arent ideal for crossing streams or hiking waterfalls. Unlike hiking shoes or trail runners, hiking sandals can get wet without getting waterlogged, said Alex Beale of 99 Boulders, an outdoor-gear review site focusing on climbing and camping. To find the best ones for both men and women, we spoke with a group of eight experts that includes trail guides, outdoor gear buyers, experienced hikers, and even one of the fastest women to ever hike the Appalachian Trail. They passed along their advice for what to buy  everyone really likes Chacos  and even some hiking socks for anyone interested in a sporty socks-and-sandals look.

Best all-around hiking sandal

Chaco, the chunky, durable sandal company, was a near-unanimous favorite: Five people we spoke to said these specific ones are the best all-around hiking sandals. There were a few rationales: Chacos come with super-grippy Vibram soles that are heavy-duty and dense, said Paul Ronto of RunRepeat, who is an experienced hiker in his own right and told us he does 90 percent of his hikes in sandals. You not only have confidence that your feet will grip onto the slickest surfaces, but as you hike on rocky terrain, your feet will also be protected, unlike some sandal brands that use lightweight, softer rubber for their soles.

Steve Silberberg, head guide at Fitpacking, a backpacking adventure company that helps people lose weight while getting outdoors, prefers Chacos when hiking in the desert for their thick soles and because theres no Velcro to wear out from use. I hike in both Chacos and Tevas in the desert, but the Velcro on Tevas wears out after a fair amount of use. Silberberg also warned against sandals with a less-substantial sole: If youre hiking in the desert, skip the Crocs. Even though theyre lightweight, cactus spines will penetrate them and become lodged in your foot.

Matt Schonwald, a certified ski-mountaineering and avalanche guide and founder of BC Adventure Guides, recommends the Chaco Z/1 for its simplicity: I do not like bells and whistles  they usually cause blisters, fall apart, or just underperform. The Chaco Z/1 Classic is made up of only eight components, including a strong sole and customizable straps. So its about as simple as it gets.

Crucially, people also say Chacos feel the best. All models in the series have also earned seals of acceptance from the American Podiatric Medical Association for promoting foot health  the only sandals on this list to do so  and fans of the shoe agree: I walked 1,200 miles in a single pair on the Pacific Crest Trail, says Michael Hervey, a senior instructor with Outdoor Outreach, of his bombproof Chaco sandals. Photographer Erika Skogg, a National Geographic explorer, loves that theyre incredibly weatherproof and seem to last forever, even after years of travel wear and tear.

Plus, Chaco lets you design your own one-of-a-kind pair, so you can finally have the taco-printed, houndstooth, or Pac-Man-adorned sandals you always wanted.

Best sandals for difficult terrain

When the trail gets steeper, less predictable, and rockier, extra security and protection are key. For these types of trails, Silberberg recommends Keen Whisper sandals for women and Keen Clearwater CNX sandals for men. I love these sandals first and foremost because they are close-toed, which gives me the freedom to power through rivers without the worry of stubbing my toes. I also love that they are lightweight, they have outstanding traction, and are quick-drying and washable. And while Chacos remain his go-to, Ronto also mentioned Keen sandals for those whore worried about exposed toes on difficult terrain: Keen sandals protect your feet a bit more with their toe cup.

The Chaco Z/2 has all the benefits of the Z/1, but with an added toe loop to keep your feet in place when trails turn rocky and treacherous. Ive hiked, camped, paddleboarded, biked, and basically lived in them over the summertime, says Taylor McFarland, administrative assistant at the Sierra Club New Jersey chapter. McFarland has worn hers, from hiking in the parks of Monmouth County to dancing at Mountain Jam, the annual music festival held at Hunter Mountain. Matt Smith, youth-programs manager at Outdoor Outreach, said his Z/2s are still going strong after a decade of more than 500 outings, from the jungles of Ecuador, the mountains of Yellowstone, the forest of Northern California, and the beaches of San Diego.

Best sandals for long hikes

Still more Chacos: Kelly Maggs, a merchandise manager for footwear at REI, prefers the Z/Cloud for its pillowy footbed, a necessity for arch support on long hikes. The Z/Clouds soft feel comes from an extra layer of polyurethane foam that adds cushioning without packing on weight. I love the strap adjustments to customize the fit to my foot, she said. And the great grippy outsole so I stay upright when scrambling on rocks.

Most experts agreed that their hiking sandals had to meet the high standards they set for their boots. Although Merrell and Chaco share the same parent company, Merrells expertise in hiking-boot technology informs this sandals design. Nicole Brown, founder of Women Who Hike, a community for female hikers with chapters organizing group hikes in all 50 states, Canada, Europe, and Australia, likes the Merrell All Out Blaze sandal because it features the same durable, slip-resistant Vibram sole found on many hiking boots by Merrell. Since its durable enough for any adventure, she recommended it as a reliable hiking sandal for trails with stream crossings and waterfalls, and its great for hiking mixed terrain, including hikes with any rock scrambling. Also, unlike the Chaco buckle closure, the Velcro straps on these sandals allow for easy on-and-off, and quick tightening or loosening on the go.

[Editors note: The open-toed version of this sandal is sold out, but the closed-toe version is still available for men and women at Amazon, starting at $75 and $85 respectively.]

Merrell Choprock Strap $126 Like the Merrell All Out Blaze mens sandals, this pair of womens Merrell hiking sandals feature a grippy Vibram sole and durable construction with Velcro straps for quick and easy adjustments mid-hike. $126 at Amazon Buy

Best packable hiking sandal

Xero Shoes Z-Trail - Lightweight Hiking and Running Sandal $80 now 25% off $60 For backpacking and camping trips that last more than a day or two and cover lots of different terrain, it can be helpful to have the choice between traditional hiking shoes and sandals. Like the name suggests, Xero shoes weigh very little and give the sensation of hiking barefoot. Plus they roll up like a lil burrito for easy packing. Every year, our family hikes a trail that goes to the top of South Arapahoe peak, says Jennifer West, a movement coach who loves hiking the Colorado Mountains. West packs these minimal but grippy sandals in her backpack for areas of the trail with water: They take up next to no space in my backpack, they have great grip, and they dry quickly. $60 at REI Buy $80 at Zappos Buy

Best budget hiking sandal

Less than half the price of a pair of Chacos, the Teva Orginal Universal sandals are an affordable pick that also feature adjustable straps and a sole with lots of grip for traction on uneven terrain. And just like Chacos, theyre designed to get wet so theyll be able to handle hikes that go from trail to river and back. Maya Eliahou, a backpacker and recent Berkeley grad whos been hiking since she was 5 years old, told us she prefers Tevas Original Universal sandals for simple hikes or short backpacking trips with water crossings or swims. She adds, I use my Teva Original Universals because theyre about $50 and very light compared to other Teva models at 5.4 oz. per shoe. They get the job done. Eliahou also mentioned that shed heard great things about the Cairn Pro sandals from Bedrock, but reportedly didnt love the feeling of the strap between my toes.

Best socks to pair with hiking sandals

Wearing sandals over socks is so uncool to the extreme that its actually become cool again. When hikers do this, they go with wool socks under hiking sandals. Wool is naturally moisture-wicking and odor-resistant, so these socks are actually a good match for active hikers and wet terrain. Erika Skogg said, If its a cold summer morning in Alaska or Montana, I usually start the day with Chacos and thick wool socks because I know how quickly those mornings can transition into hot afternoons. She loves these cozy, lightweight Darn Tough socks that she can throw in her pack when it warms up. Theyre made in Vermont and come with a lifetime guarantee. Matt Schonwald agreed: Any sock from Darn Tough will be the best socks you own. These two pairs for men and for women will keep your feet cool and dry in hot weather thanks to moisture-wicking materials.

get the strategist newsletter Actually good deals, smart shopping advice, and exclusive discounts. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us.

The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best womens jeans, rolling luggage, pillows for side sleepers, ultra-flattering pants, and bath towels. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.

Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman says that the introduction of new rules for the privatization of state-owned enterprises will put an end to the shadow component of this process.

"The state-owned enterprises of strategic importance will not be sold. Small enterprises will be sold through an electronic auction like ProZorro absolutely openly and transparently, there will be no controlled privatization... This decision will put an end to the shadow privatization in the country. It is a strong blow to corruption," Groysman said at the Cabinets meeting on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

It is necessary to attract highly qualified advisers to the process of preparation for privatization of large state enterprises, who will correctly prepare it and provide information to the potential buyers and investors, Groysman noted.

As reported, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the Law "On Privatization of State Property" on January 18, 2018.

In March, the State Property Fund reported that they had approved about 600 facilities of small-scale privatization, which will be put up for sale in 2018.

olPresident of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has highlighted the geostrategic danger of Russia's construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline at the meeting with the leaders of Germany and France Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron.

"Of course, we have raised the issue of Nord Stream 2. We touch upon this issue in negotiations with Germany and in negotiations with the European Commission, and now it is also one of the talking points that will be carefully discussed. It [the pipeline] poses an extremely great danger: not only for Ukraine and not only financial one, I would like to note. It is a geostrategic danger and a danger to security as well," Poroshenko said in a commentary to journalists in Aachen, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

He stressed that the gas transportation system of Ukraine was also one of the elements of deterring the aggressor so it was impossible to treat this extremely important function irresponsibly.

In this context, the Head of State noted that Ukraine now enjoyed broader support in the European Union.

"I, as the President, the Ukrainian government and the CEO of Naftogaz as a part of the delegation are doing our best to bring an impartial picture and prevent Russia from using the Nord Stream 2 as an element of hybrid aggression, not only against Ukraine, but against the Europe on the whole. I emphasize: we will do everything in our power," Poroshenko said.

olGerman Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier is ready to work closely with the Ukrainian authorities to improve the economic situation in Ukraine.

He said this in a comment to an Ukrinform correspondent ahead of his visit to Kyiv.

"We will work very closely so as to improve the situation in Ukraine," Altmaier said.

He said that he had held in Aachen "very good talks with representatives of the Ukrainian government, the Ukrainian president, and the foreign minister," and these talks would continue in Kyiv.

Altmaier intends to visit Kyiv and Moscow on May 13-14. He plans to hold talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman and Energy Minister Ihor Nasalyk in Kyiv.

opPresident of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko held talks with President of the European Council Donald Tusk in Germany.

This is reported by the press service of the Head of State.

"During the working visit to Germany to attend the Charlemagne Prize ceremony, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko met with President of the European Council Donald Tusk. The leaders agreed to hold the next 20th Ukraine - EU Summit in the summer of 2018 in Brussels," the statement reads.

As noted, Poroshenko informed Tusk of the situation in the Donbas, the JFO course and the recent facts of violation of the Minsk agreements by the Russian side. The interlocutors also discussed the issue of the continuation and possible strengthening of the regime of sanctions against Russia.

The leaders discussed the implementation of reforms in Ukraine, particularly the establishment of the anticorruption court, the reform of the national security system, the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, as well as the ways to enhance the EU assistance.

As reported, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, President of France Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet in Aachen, Germany, on May 10. According to Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk, the meeting will be an important preparatory stage for a comprehensive meeting in the Normandy Four format.

olThe Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague has issued a unanimous judgment that Russia is responsible for violating the rights of Ukrainian investors and should compensate their companies for damages from annexation of Crimea.

"On May 2, 2018, having deliberated, the Tribunal issued its unanimous Award on the Merits, addressing issues pertaining to liability and damages," the court said in a press release.

This is the first judgment, according to which Russia is obliged to pay compensation (worth about $159 million) as a result of annexation.

Russia has to compensate for losses from March 21, 2014, when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on annexation of Crimea. It is expected that the Kremlin will appeal the decision of the Tribunal.

The trial was initiated by 18 Ukrainian companies and one individual against Russia on June 19, 2015. The claimants contended that, as of August 2014, Russia breached its obligations under the Ukraine-Russia bilateral investment treaty by interfering with and ultimately expropriating their investments in real estate located in Crimea.

After the hearing on the merits in this matter was held from October 5 to October 6, 2017, the Tribunal invited the parties to file post-hearing submissions by December 11, 2017, but Russia ignored this opportunity.

On March 23, 2018, the Tribunal declared the hearings in this arbitration closed.

opFirst Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Iryna Gerashchenko has stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to destabilize the whole of Ukraine and Europe, in particular, through interference in the upcoming elections in Ukraine.

She stated this during a meeting at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), the Ukrainian Embassy in the United Kingdom reported on Twitter.

"Putin doesn't need Donbas but destabilize whole #UA and thus Europe, incl. through interference into future presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine," she said.

According to the information on the website of Chatham House, the meeting was also attended by Igor Kozlovsky, Director, Centre for Religious Studies, Donetsk, and Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Director for Research, Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Office, Amnesty International.

At this event, the panel discussed recent developments in prisoner exchanges, humanitarian efforts to support vulnerable groups and the spillover effects of the conflict on the rest of Ukraine. They examined the obstacles to improving the humanitarian situation in Donbas and suggested ways to strengthen assistance provided by Ukraines Western allies.

ishFirst Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Iryna Gerashchenko says that during the period of Russias aggression in Ukraine more than 4.4 million Ukrainians have suffered and more than 2,000 military personnel have been killed.

This was reported by the press service of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

Gerashchenko participated in a round table at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, on the topic "The Conflict in Donbas: The Human Dimension" held in London on May 9.

"Iryna Gerashchenko informed the experts of the leading analytical centers of the UK about current situation in security and humanitarian situation in Donbas. She noted that during the Russian Federation's aggression in Ukraine more than 4.4 million Ukrainians had injured and more than 2,000 military personnel had been killed," the report reads.

During the discussion, Gerashchenko has reported on a number of issues of the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on the settlement of the situation in Donbas, which remain blocked. According to her, one of such issues is the introduction of a tripartite mechanism for searching for missing persons in Donbas with the participation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. At the same time, the politician says that today more than 300 people are still missing.

The representative of the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group stresses that the initiative of the Ukrainian side to transfer 23 citizens of the Russian Federation convicted of crimes against Ukraine's territorial integrity within the humanitarian subgroup for the release of political prisoners of the Kremlin, unfortunately, remains unanswered.

As previously reported, Gerashchenko said that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to destabilize the whole of Ukraine and Europe, in particular, through interference in the upcoming elections in Ukraine.

ishGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that partners will continue to make every effort to restore Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

She stated this in the German city of Aachen in her speech in honor of the winner of the Charlemagne Prize in 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron, according to Ukrinform's correspondent in Germany.

"We know that it is often time consuming to resolve international conflicts, but we will continue to make efforts to secure the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," Merkel said.

She also welcomed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's presence in Aachen.

As reported, a trilateral meeting between Poroshenko, Merkel and Macron took place in Aachen before the Charlemagne Prize award ceremony.

opThe Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved a strategy for the revival of aircraft construction until 2022.

This decision was made at a government meeting on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The strategy is aimed at the stable development of the aircraft industry and the creation of conditions for the formation in 2022 of cost-effective and high-tech production of aviation equipment to ensure a gradual growth of production and a sale of new competitive models of serial, modernized passenger and transport aircraft, helicopters, small and unmanned aircraft carriers.

ishGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron support Ukraine's position on the impossibility of implementing the security component of the Minsk agreements without the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said this at a briefing after a meeting with the German and French leaders in Aachen on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"The security component of the Minsk agreements, as practice shows, cannot be fulfilled without a full-fledged peacekeeping force in the occupied Ukrainian Donbas. I would like to thank the German chancellor and the French president for supporting this position by Ukraine, just as our U.S. partners did," he said.

Poroshenko stressed that the key to Ukraine is that the Russians should support a draft resolution with a clearly outlined roadmap, taking into account the Minsk agreements and UN peacekeepers. These provisions, he said, should be included in the decision of the UN Security Council.

At the same time, the head of state noted that he had informed the German and French leaders about the escalation of hostilities on the part of Russian terrorist forces in Donbas.

Poroshenko is on a working visit to Germany on May 9-10. This is the third visit by the head of state to Germany over the past four months.

opPhoto: Courtesy of the Retailer

The first time I saw a round beach towel was last summer, at Rockaway Beach, when I laid eyes on this Ban.do one, printed to look like a cross section of a watermelon. I immediately wanted one. Did I need it? No. Did I consider buying it anyway? Absolutely.

Unbeknownst to me, this watermelon was part of a growing craze on Instagram (see the thousands of posts under the hashtag #roundbeachtowel for yourself). You could say that the round-beach-towel trend first took off when a collection of round towels from Australian brand the Beach People  or roundies, as the brand likes to call them  sold out in weeks following their launch in 2013. After the Beach Peoples roundies went viral, spherical beach towels started popping up everywhere, from local brands like Kassatex, dedicated round-towel companies like the Round Towel Company, and even at Target (where they debuted some in collaboration with Marimekko).

And with millennial brand Ban.do starting a micro-trend last year of watermelon round towels, specifically (the design is so popular that its been reproduced by H&M, plus retailers on Amazon and Bed Bath & Beyond  its basically ubiquitous if you search for round beach towels), an entire range of food-related round towels has followed: sushi rolls, pizza, grapefruit slices, and doughnuts.

Theres no real practical argument to make for the round beach towel. Sure, theyre roomy, sort of like beach rugs  you could reasonably fit two or more people on there if you intended to sit picnic-style instead of laying out  but mostly theyre fun and charming. And at the beach, thats really all that matters. Below, we perused all the round beach towels online to find the best patterns and styles out there.

get the strategist newsletter Actually good deals, smart shopping advice, and exclusive discounts. Email This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Terms & Privacy Notice By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us.

The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best womens jeans, rolling luggage, pillows for side sleepers, ultra-flattering pants, and bath towels. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.

Every editorial product is independently selected. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved the brand of Ukraine  Ukraine Now  at the meeting on Thursday.

"In general, it's strange that we did not have the brand of Ukraine for 27 years of our independence. Now we have taken the first step in order to brand the country and make a single framework. The most important thing is that we will be able to use this brand in work with different target audiences, with different topics and, indeed, to open up all the opportunities for our beautiful country and do it right now... May 10, 2018, Ukraine receives its brand: Ukraine Now," Groysman said at the Cabinets meeting on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

He thanked the Information Policy Ministry of Ukraine and the entire team, including the international partners, who worked on the project.

"For the first time, the technical tasks for open and transparent competitions are based on serious research of the target audience, which the single brand is oriented towards. The foreigners are the audience whom we want to present Ukraine to as a country of opportunities, a country of freedom and new emotions," State Secretary of the Information Policy Ministry of Ukraine Artem Bidenko said.

He added that the research had been carried out by the British experts within the framework of cooperation with the Government of the United Kingdom.

olThe Russian Federation ignored the hearing and did not file any post-hearing submissions.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague, the Netherlands, has ruled that the Russian Federation must compensate some Ukrainian companies about US$159 million in losses caused by the annexation of Crimea.

"Having consulted the Parties, on 23 March 2018, the Tribunal declared the hearings in this arbitration closed according to Article 29(1) of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules 1976. On 2 May 2018, having deliberated, the Tribunal issued its unanimous Award on the Merits, addressing issues pertaining to liability and damages," reads a PCA press release published on May 9.

Read alsoNaftogaz expects to recover from Russia $8 bln over assets seized in Crimea

According to the court ruling, Russia is responsible for violating the rights of Ukrainian investors starting March 21, 2014, when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the annexation of Crimea.

It is worth noting that this is the first ever ruling under which Russia is compelled to pay compensation in connection with the annexation. The lawsuit against Russia was lodged by 18 Ukrainian companies, as well as by one individual.

The PCA confirmed its jurisdiction over property relations in Crimea in the summer of 2017. Russia did not recognize the award, after which it began to ignore the case. The court reminds that after the hearing on the merits in this matter was held on October 5-6, 2017, the Tribunal invited the parties to file post-hearing submissions by December 11, 2017. The claimants filed their post-hearing brief, together with an additional valuation report, on December 11, 2017. However, the Russian Federation did not file any post-hearing submissions.

The PCA appoints three plenipotentiaries, but the Kremlin refused to nominate its own, so he was appointed in The Hague.

According to Investment Arbitration Reporter, the litigation concerns a number of residential and commercial properties in Russian-occupied Crimea, including hotels, apartment buildings and individual residential apartments.The president said he had discussed with the leaders of Germany and France the issue of having the occupied peninsula returned under Ukraine's control.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko calls on his country's European partners to introduce a new set of sanctions for organizing and holding the illegal presidential elections in the occupied Crimea on March 18, on the anniversary of the illegal annexation of the peninsula by Russia.

"Sanctions have been thoroughly discussed," the head of the Ukrainian state told journalists following tripartite negotiations with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron held in German Aachen Thursday, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Read alsoUK set to strengthen anti-Russia alliance"Sanctions should be prolonged while new, additional sanctions should be introduced, especially for those who took part in the organization and holding of elections in Crimea, the election of the president of the Russian Federation - illegal Crimea elections, as evidenced by a number of statements by authoritative international organizations and Ukraine," Poroshenko said.

Also, the president said he had discussed with the leaders of Germany and France the issue of having the occupied Crimea returned to Ukraine.

"Obviously, we talked about de-occupation [of the Crimean peninsula] and introduction of sanctions for the illegal holding of elections," the head of state added.

Read alsoPoroshenko: Russia wanted to split Ukraine into several parts in 2014"We are coordinating our actions and a package of sanctions regarding the implementation of Minsk agreements and the cessation of Russia's aggression in Donbas, which are inseparably linked with the package of sanctions over the illegal annexation of Crimea," Poroshenko said.Almost two years have passed since the last meeting of the Normandy Four leaders. Now, on May 10, the German chancellor, the president of France and the Ukrainian president sat down to hold negotiations without the Russian leader.

The Normandy Four at the level of heads of state - Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia - last met in October 2016, in Berlin. After that, a series of elections started in Europe, including in the said countries, so it was not easy for all presidents and a chancellor to come together again. In the summer of 2017, the Normandy Quartet discussed the situation in Donbas by phone. In particular, the talks concerned prisoner exchange, cessation of supplies to Donbas of Russian arms, and implementation of Minsk agreements in general. But, as it followed from the developments, they yielded no real results. Finally, on May 10, on the margins of the international Charlemagne Prize awarding ceremony in Germany's Aachen (this time the prize went to French President Emmanuel Macron), Angela Merkel and Macron met with Petro Poroshenko.

It is difficult to claim that the summit was held in a full-fledged Normandy format, since the fourth party, Russia, did not attend. On the eve of the negotiations, German Chancellor Angela Merkel even specified that it would not be a meeting in the Normandy format precisely because of the absence of Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, both the president of Ukraine and European leaders had plenty of things to discuss without that fourth party.

So, according to Western experts, whose opinions a number of German publications have gathered, such a format of negotiations - "an informal meeting of allies" - is necessary to agree on a common position before arguing about something with Putin. In addition, an important topic should be the discussion of the internal situation in Ukraine, in particular, regarding the speed of implementation of necessary reforms. Like, the meeting without Russia will allow Germany and France to criticize Poroshenko, without weakening publicly his negotiating positions with Putin. Another goal of the summit is an attempt to restore communication between the Normandy Four leaders after a long break.

Ukraine, on its part, is interested in supporting its European partners in the idea of a UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas. The thing is that Ukraine and Russia have different approaches as for the deployment of "blue helmets" in eastern Ukraine. And each of the countries has prepared its own draft UN resolution on the matter. In particular, the Ukrainian draft says peacekeepers should be deployed throughout the conflict zone, in particular, on the Russian-Ukrainian border, while Russia shall not participate in the mission. At the same time, the Russian draft proposes to place peacekeepers only on the line of contact, that is, to leave the border, as it was, without external control, which will allow different "humanitarian convoys" to continue crossing into Ukraine unchecked to supply weapons to pro-Russian militants...

However, the main problem of different visions on peacekeepers is not about European leaders not being able to decide which resolution to support. For example, Angela Merkel has repeatedly stated that Germany supports precisely Ukraine's draft. The main problem is that Russia, as a member of the UN Security Council, has the opportunity to apply a veto to the Ukrainian peacekeepers project, as it has the right to do so. "We clearly emphasize that Russians should support the draft resolution, where the road map would be clearly implemented, taking into account Minsk agreements and taking into account peacekeepers, and this should be included in the decision of the UN Security Council. This is a key position for us," Poroshenko said following the summit in Aachen.

They should, of course, but they are not yet seen very much striving to do so. And it is in this context that it is important to resume full-fledged negotiations in the Normandy format at the level of the heads of state - it is much easier to bargain with the Kremlin together than one by one.

Actually, according to Poroshenko, at a meeting with Merkel and Macron, it was possible to coordinate steps for holding a full meeting in the Norman format in the near future, most likely in Paris. "We know that on [May] 18 and 23, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron will meet with Putin.We have clearly agreed on and coordinated those steps and the agenda we need to pursue to hold a Normandy Four meeting in the near future," Poroshenko said.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin admits that the pause in the Normandy Four's work has been too long. However, according to press secretary for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, the issue of resuming meetings at the level of heads of state has not yet been discussed.

"So far, there have been no discussions with the Russian side. Indeed, the pause in the Normandy process has already been quite long, for various reasons. Therefore, we will wait for some concrete initiatives," Peskov said.

As for what the parties will have to bargain with Putin, Poroshenko says that with the leaders of Germany and France in Aachen he discusses the issue of de-occupation of the Crimean peninsula and new sanctions for setting up and holding the illegal elections in the occupied Crimea on March 18, on the anniversary of the illegal annexation of the peninsula by Russia.

"Obviously, we talked about de-occupation [of the Crimean peninsula]... Sanctions have been thoroughly discussed. Sanctions should be prolonged while new, additional sanctions should be introduced, especially for those who took part in the organization and holding of elections in Crimea, the election of the president of the Russian Federation - illegal Crimea elections, as evidenced by a number of statements by authoritative international organizations and Ukraine," Poroshenko said.

"We are coordinating our actions and a package of sanctions regarding the implementation of Minsk agreements and the cessation of Russia's aggression in Donbas, which are inseparably linked with the package of sanctions over the illegal annexation of Crimea," the Ukrainian president added.

On the other hand, Russia also has something to offer European partners, in exchange for them turning a blind eye to the continued Russian aggression in Ukraine and simply express concern, yet again. It is about the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline with the support of Germany. While Poroshenko met with Merkel and Macron in Aachen, telling that "Ukraine now has more support among the countries of the European Union in resisting the construction of the Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream-2 in the Baltic Sea," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Moscow met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and said that the German Federal Government supports the implementation of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline bypassing Ukraine.

At the same time, Lavrov said that "the leadership of the Russian Federation and Gazprom" said that they do not mind that a certain amount of transit through Ukraine be preserved. The main thing is that it should be economically justified, rather than politically imposed." "We are ready for such consultations with the Ukrainian side, and today we told our German colleagues about this," he added.

In addition, while the full-fledged summit in the Normandy format remains hypothetical, Heiko Maas said in Moscow today that the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov, had already agreed to a meeting of the Normandy Four foreign ministers.

The German minister added that the meeting is an important point in order to resume and give new momentum to the Minsk process.

In other words, although Ukraine at the level of heads of state enlisted the support of Germany and France in its confrontation with Russia, in fact it may turn out that the Europeans' own interests will be higher than the Ukrainian ones.

Tatiana Urbanskaya

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterThe more years pass since Nazi Germany in 1945 surrendered to the anti-Hitler coalition, the fewer witnesses remain of those events, and the more some unscrupulous politicians in Ukraine are trying to speculate on the theme of Victory Day and play into the Kremlin's hands, which turned the topic into mass hysteria.

For several years already, on May 8, Ukraine has been marking Day of Memory and Reconciliation, and on May 9 - the anniversary of the Victory over Nazism in World War II. Earlier, for Ukraine, as for other post-Soviet states, a pompous military parade was the norm on Victory Day. However, with the beginning of Russian aggression, this tradition finally fell into oblivion. Ukrainians, unlike their northern neighbors, do not perceive this date through the "we can do that again" prism. On the contrary, the key message is "Never again." Therefore, instead of saber-rattling on cities' main squares, on May 8 and 9, Ukrainians lay flowers at the monument of Eternal Glory, paying respects to the heroes who contributed to ending WWII, and meeting with war veterans.

At the same time, every year in major cities across Ukraine, along with acts mentioned, a so-called "Immortal Regiment" rally is held, invented by Russian spin doctors. In principle, there would be nothing wrong with people taking to the streets to honor the memory of their ancestors who fought in WWII, if not for the aggressive attitude of participants in such marches towards their own country and their fellow citizens, as well as some completely inappropriate appeals like "Putin, come!"

All this has little in common with the memory of those who died in the terrible grinder of war or understanding of what those few veterans who are still among us have lived through. And even more so, this has nothing to do with victory over Nazism.

In fact, on the eve of May 9, law enforcers were expecting provocations during such rallies. "We forecast some tensions not only in Kyiv, but also in Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, but we have sufficient forces and resources [to counter provoctaions], and I think that our citizens need not worry. We will ensure order," said Serhiy Knyazev, head of the National Police.

Ukrainian police were put on alert to make sure everything goes smooth on Victory Day. According to Artem Shevchenko, a speaker for the interior ministry, some 27,000 police were deployed to ensure law and order across Ukraine, of whom 4,000 - in the capital City of Kyiv alone.

Contrary to general expectations, the day went very calm in Dnipro, except for a few minor incidents where police detained a man with an unregistered traumatic pistol with cartridges to it and several administrative violations were reported over banned Soviet-era symbols and St. George ribbons.

In Kyiv, some 2,000 police were deployed to provide order at an assembly point of the Immortal Regiment rally's participants outside the Arsenalna metro station. Officers were doing security checks with metal detectors and K9 units involved. In general, everything was rather smooth, apart from a couple of skirmishes, unsuccessful attempts by a group pro-Ukrainian activists to "have a conversation" with people's deputies from the pro-Yanukovych Opposition Bloc, Nestor Shufrych and Vadym Novynsky, some anti-Ukrainian slogans chanted and several people detained for carrying a banned "St. George's ribbon" (mother of the late ex-deputy of the "Party of Regions" Iryna Berezhna), as well as a man detained on approach to the Eternal Glory park, carrying a hunting rifle, that's according to Kyiv PD chief Andriy Krishchenko.

In Kharkiv, the Immortal Regiment rally went even more inconspicuously. About 300 people gathered at the Memorial of Glory, carrying portraits of WWII participants. The group, led by a chief of the city's office of the currently banned Communist Party, Alla Oleksandrovska, were from time to time heard chanting slogans like "Fascism will not pass!" And "Happy Victory Day!" A few participants shouted that "Kharkiv is a Russian city!" However, about 15,000 who chose not to join the Russian-style rally but also laid flowers at the Memorial of Glory, did not fall for such provocations.

However, in Odesa, participants of the Immortal Regiment rally revealed who really sought that it be held in Ukraine. Among the activists, there was a group of participants of the so-called Anti-Maidan rally on the Kulikovo field, where more than 40 people were killed at the House of Trade Unions during mass riots on May 2, 2014. Instead of carrying portraits of their family members, heroes of WWII, this group were for some reason carrying portraits of those killed in the Trade Unions' House. Also among the photographs of those supposedly perished in WWII was a portrait of the pro-Russian TV presenter Grigory Kvasnyuk, who died in 2017. Participants of this march chanted "Fascism will not pass!" and "Bandera demons, get out of Odesa!" From time to time, chants were heard along the lines of "Donbas, we are with you!" and "Glory to Putin!" As a result, law enforcers removed from the march a man who was praising the Russian president.

Meanwhile, in the city of Donetsk, now occupied by pro-Russian militants, a "military parade" was held alike that in Moscow. "Peaceful miners" (as the Kremlin calls its proxy forces in Donbas) showcased weaponry, which, according to Russian propagandists, they had, in due time, found in coal mines: BTR-80 armored personnel carriers, BMP infantry fighting vehicles, T-64 and T-72 main battle tanks, Strela-10 surface-to-air missile systems, Gvozdika self-propelled artillery units, Grads MLR systems, mortars, Rapira anti-tank guns, D-30 and Msta-B howitzers...

In general, according to Ukraine's law enforcement agencies, more than a thousand rallies and other events were held on this day across the country. Given the scale of commemorations, the number of violators remained rather low. It appears, Ukrainians are becoming less likely to engage in Russia-invented provocations under the guise of remembrance.

UNIAN

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterThe NSDC Secretary says media outlets thus promote a terrorist organization.

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) Oleksandr Turchynov has appealed to the SBU Security Service of Ukraine that they impose sanctions against the Ukrainian media that broadcast the "victory parade" from the occupied city of Donetsk titled "Broadcast from the DPR" [the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic"].

"Adequately repelling information aggression [propaganda] is a necessary and important element of our country defenses. That is why I wrote an official letter to the SBU regarding the investigation into the offense, and including in the sanctions list electronic media, which provided a live broadcast of the [Victory Day] celebration by Russia's occupation troops in Donetsk," he wrote on Facebook.

Turchynov says the move is, in fact, promotion of a terrorist organization.

In particular, the May 9 events in the so-called "DPR" were broadcast by the Ukrainian weekly news magazine Korrespondent.

Read alsoPoroshenko launches system of counteracting anti-Ukrainian broadcast in Donbas

"And this happens in response to the Russian information and propaganda aggression that is already threatening the whole democratic world. Taking into account that Ukraine is at the forefront of this war, we need to immediately implement best practices and experience in enforcing Ukrainian legislation," Turchinov said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian-led occupation forces held a "victory parade" in Donetsk, where they showcased military equipment, namely BTR-80 amphibious armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, T-64 and T-72 tanks, Strela-10 surface-to-air missile systems, Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer, Grad MLRS, regimental mortars, Rapira anti-tank guns, and Masta-B owed howitzers.A modular brand book is yet to be developed that will become a kind of unified voice of Ukraine around the world.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the country's brand, "Ukraine NOW UA", developed jointly with experts to become the base for Ukraine's presentation across the world.

Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman presented the corresponding decision on Thursday.

"The Government and Ministry of Information Policy team have along with experts been working on the creation of the "Ukraine NOW" brand. The work is now completed. It will be Ukraine's brand in the world," Groysman said, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

Read alsoPoroshenko: Russia wanted to split Ukraine into several parts in 2014It is assumed that a modular brand book will be developed based on the brand, to become a kind of a unified voice of Ukraine around the world.

The brand logo is designed in a way to be easily used not only for presentations and information products, but even as a sticker on anything from travel bags to buses and planes.Five Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in action and one was killed in action on May 9.

Units of the Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation (JFO) did not let Russian-led forces in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, improve their battle positions in the past day.

"The JFO units were actively defending their strongholds, which did not let the enemy improve the tactical position," the JFO press center said on Facebook on May 10 in an update for May 9.

Intense fighting continued along the entire contact line, it said.

The situation near the town of Avdiyivka and the villages of Pisky and Shyrokyne escalated most.

Read alsoTwo Ukrainian villages in Luhansk region under heavy artillery fire, 75-year-old woman wounded

"The JFO forces were conducting intensive military operations in the area of the Avdiyivka industrial zone and the village of Pisky, gave an adequate response and destroyed enemy weapons. According to reconnaissance reports, the enemy lost five people as killed in action and seven as wounded in the Avdiyivka sector alone," the update said.

The Russian occupation troops mounted 20 artillery and mortar attacks on the Ukrainian troops, opened aimed fire at the JFO positions 53 times, using small arms, grenade launchers, cannons of infantry fighting vehicles. In some locations, the enemy resorted to active assault actions.

On May 9, one Ukrainian soldier was killed in action near the village of Krymske. Three Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in action near Avdiyivka and two were wounded near the town of Volnovakha in Donetsk region.

On the morning of May 10, fighting continued in the Donetsk and Mariupol sectors. No Ukrainian casualties have been reported for that period.No Israelis were hurt and there was only limited damage to Israeli positions in the Golan.

Israel and Iran lurched closer to an all out war in Syria on Thursday, May 10, after Iranian forces allegedly fired rockets into the Golan Heights and Israel responded with some of its heaviest airstrikes in years.

The exchange of fire was the most direct confrontation between the Middle East rivals after years of escalating tensions in Syria and came just one day after Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear agreement and reimposed sanctions on Tehran, The Telegraph reported.

According to the Israeli military, Iranian forces based in Syria fired a barrage of around 20 rockets at Israeli troops in the Golan, the mountainous region Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and has occupied since.

No Israelis were hurt and there was only limited damage to Israeli positions in the Golan, a military spokesman said.

Israel said the Quds Force, the expeditionary wing of Irans Revolutionary Guard, carried out the attack at around 12.10am on Thursday. Israel accused General Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Quds Force, of being behind the attack.

"It was ordered and commanded by Qassem Soleimani and it has not achieved its purpose," said Lt Col Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the Israeli Defence Forces.

Read alsoTwo Russian pilots die in military helicopter crash in Syria: agencies

Israel struck back with widespread strikes against dozens of targets inside Syria, Lt Col Conricus said. The attack appeared to be one of the largest Israel has carried out since it began periodic strikes against Iran and its ally Hizbollah inside of Syria.

Among the targets were Iranian intelligence bases, a Quds force logistics headquarters, and a weapons depot at the Damascus international airport, according to Israel.

Syrian regime air defence systems also fired missiles at attacking Israeli aircraft. Israel said that it struck several of the anti-aircraft systems and also destroyed the Iranian Uragan rocket launcher used to fire the rockets into the Golan.

Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system brought down four of the rockets, the military said.

Syrian state media reported Israeli missile attacks targeting Baath City in Quneitra, near the border with the Golan Heights. The Syrian regime said it had intercepted several missiles over Damascus, Homs and the southern city of Suwayda.

There was no immediate word on casualties inside of Syria.

Israel said it had informed Russia, Syrias ally, of the strikes before carrying out the attack. The Israeli and Russian militaries have a "deconfliction channel" designed to stop the two sides from accidentally attacking each other in the crowded skies above Syria.On May 7, Vladimir Putin, after another repetition of a presidential oath, delivered a lengthy speech about Russia's beautiful future. Having spent 18 full years on the Olympus, he said there was no time for a warm-up and that the there was much hard work ahead. It is all the more remarkable that, even after his second term expired, the permanent Russian leader compared his job to that of a "slave on a galley." By now, the level of his ambition has grown significantly.

Addressing the Russians with his program speech highlighting the plans for the next six years, the Kremlin's chief also greeted his "compatriots who live abroad" who, in his opinion, watched and listened to the solemn ceremony of his reinstatement for yet another term in office. Hardly anyone has forgotten that it was the "protection" of the so-called compatriots, or more precisely the Russian-speakers (who had not been particularly asked if they sought such "guardianship") became the pretext for the Russian occupation of Crimea and Donbas. Therefore, such "concern" about Russian compatriots is a reason for all Russia's neighbors to seriously beware the Kremlin's possible act.

The Russian political elite likes to reflect on the sufferings of "compatriots" abroad, automatically turning these people into the fifth column, because, in the Russian perception, these people must sabotage and destroy the countries in which they live, naturally, for the sake of Great Russia.

Hardly anyone has forgotten that it was the "protection" of the so-called compatriots, or more precisely the Russian-speakers (who had not been particularly asked if they sought such "guardianship") became the pretext for the Russian occupation of Crimea and Donbas

However, Russia completely loses any interest in the population that Moscow threatens to "protect" as soon as the Russian flag is raised over their territory and Russian rules start applying. An average person automatically becomes a serf. The situation in the occupied Donbas is a clear confirmation of this. And it's not just about the curfew that the "Russian world" has brought.

A month ago, a group of State Duma deputies and members of the Federation Council, whom Moscow had appointed to "represent" the occupied Crimea, submitted two bills proposing that those living in the occupied areas of Donbas be aligned with Russian citizens on the issue of employment and migration. In particular, it's about abolishing employment permits and canceling the rule of limited stay in the Russian territory (under 90 days within 180 days). It is interesting to note that a long-time and experienced "compatriots defender" Konstantin Zatulin did not sign these draft laws. From the humanitarian perspective, the decision is understandable, especially if one takes into account that Russian Gauleiters left the occupied Donbas residents jobless, having shut down factories and flooded coal mines.

Nobody wants to build Russian pseudo-republics, where people have no rights at all, only threats to be thrown behind bars into some basement

But it turns out that these bills were sacked by the presidential administration. That's the administration of that same country leader who in his recent inauguration speech conveyed greetings to "compatriots" living abroad. In the occupied Donbas, there is a chance that many actually watched him speak as occupation authorities had shut down all Ukrainian TV channels to fill information space with pseudo-Russian greatness.

The most amusing thing is the explanation why Putin's administration actually vetoed the bills. It's not even about a new package of sanctions that could be introduced for the actual de-jure annexation of Donbas. It's is much simpler. Nobody wants to build Russian pseudo-republics, where people have no rights at all, only threats to be thrown behind bars into some basement. And the Kremlin officials understand perfectly well that those who stayed and chose not to move to a free Ukraine will pack their stuff and leave for good to Russia, away from the looted Donbas, which is lying in ruins. But no one wants them in Russia, that's the thing.

The way out of this situation is simple - turn off the Russian TV, and move to the free Ukraine. However, this advice does not apply to those who fought against their own country. They will have to prove they are worth being granted amnesty.

Roman Tsymbaliuk, MoscowStreet art in La Candelaria. Photo: Devasahayam Chandra Dhas/Getty Images

It wasnt that long ago that graffiti was thought of in the same vein as cocaine in Bogota. Police cracked down on graffiti artists hard. Too hard. In 2011, they chased down and killed 16-year-old artist Diego Felipe Becerra, better known then as Tripido, when he was spray-painting his signature Felix the Cat image on a wall near Calle 116 and Avenida Boyaca. The police tried to cover it up, tampering with evidence and accusing Becerra of being an armed robber, but his parents and the citys street art community were having none of it. There were protests throughout the city and two officers were eventually arrested. It was a turning point. Today Bogota is one of the most street-art-friendly cities on Earth, with walls as high as seven stories on major streets being used as canvases. Police now protect the rights of artists and the city frequently supports street art culture through incentives and city-sponsored projects. Christian Petersen, a.k.a. CRISP, a graffiti artist who also gives tours, gives us the lowdown on where to find Bogotas best public works.

The first contact you have with graffiti in Bogota is coming in from the airport along Avenida El Dorado [Calle 26]. Throwups, bombs, paint-roller pieces, graffiti writing, even some of the citys biggest sponsored walls line Calle 26. Long walls from local legends Ink Crew, MAL Crew, Erre, CTO, Kontra, and Jotados, as well as the iconic Kiss of the Invisible by Vertigo Graffiti, have been commissioned by the city along this street. The best day to check out Calle 26 is on Sunday and holidays, when the city closes off the roads for a bicycle route that runs all through Bogota. It turns Calle 26 into a rolling gallery for cyclists and pedestrians.

La Candelaria. Photo: 2018 Anadolu Agency

La Candelaria, the most historical part of the city, showcases some of the best work from local and international artists like Ciclope (Argentina), Kiptoe (USA), Kike (Argentina), Amazon (Brazil), and Ericailcane (Italy). The art is spread throughout the area: on hostels, storefronts, parks, cultural institutes, and even on the shipping containers that house the vendors of La Plaza de la Concordia, the oldest plaza in Bogota. Its a mix of colonial architecture and its rich history, with a mural on every corner.

Downtown. Photo: Hernan Garcia Crespo/Flickr.com

Bogotas downtown area, including Avenida Caracas and Carrera 10, is the best spot to see big-format walls. In the last few years, the city has commissioned some of Bogotas tallest walls with many reaching eight floors and up. Above the busy downtown streets are now tower walls from international artists like Mantra (France), Anis (Chile), Mamani Mamani (Bolivia), and Boa Mistura (Spain), as well as collaborative murals from local artists, like the 115-foot-high El Beso de Los Invisibles on the side of a building at Calle 26 and Carrera 13a. Most are within walking distance from one another.

Puente Aranda. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Since 2016, Vertigo Graffiti has also turned Distrito Graffiti [Puente Aranda], an industrial area of the city, into a must-see. With the help of the secretary of Culture, they have invited more than 50 artists to paint two blocks worth of brick warehouses. Surrounding a convention center, this area has turned into Bogotas own Wynwood, with walls from international artists like The London Police (England), Sabotaje al Montaje (Spain), Los CMS (Venezuela), Jade (Peru), Spok (Spain), Flop (Brazil), El Pez (Spain), Bikisimo (Puerto Rico), Esteban Del Valle (USA), Kenor (Spain), Farid Rueda (Mexico), El Xupet Negre (Spain), and BIO from the world famous TATS CRU (USA).

Los Puentes. Photo: young shanahan/Flickr.com

Macro murals, or murals that have been painted on several houses to create a single design, have popped up in the outer barrios of Bogota. Most of these have one focal point where you can view the mural as a whole. Its being used as a strategy to bring color and opportunity to some of Bogotas low-income neighborhoods and the secretary of Habitat has created some of the countrys biggest murals. The first of the three projects created was in the Los Puentes neighborhood with a total of 383 houses painted. The second was in El Consuelo with more than 500 houses; and the last, recently completed in Buenavista, has more than 700 houses. Its best to join a tour to see these.

The third edition of the LAVAMOATUMBA Project is a two-story house in La Macarena, painted by more than 30 artists from Galeria Fenix. The idea was to occupy abandoned spaces with street art and murals, using the space as a gallery before they are torn down. Since its beginning, the project has involved more than 200 artists, filling three different houses with expos, workshops for kids and adults, and film and independent design festivals.

Galeria Beta in Barrio San Felipe is a conceptual art gallery that has been supporting the urban art scene in Bogota since 2016. Through their Proyecto Zeta project, they have created several different exhibitions highlighting the work of many Colombian and international graffiti artists.

One of the first graffiti stores in Bogota, Skinny Universal in Barrio Galerias opened more than ten years ago. It has become the home of Auster, the first 100 percent Colombian aerosol company, made specifically for graffiti artists. Apart from being a paint store, you can find all type of supplies, accessories, and independent clothing brands from local artists. It also hosted the first-ever Colombia exhibitions of major graffiti artists STINKFISH and OBEY.

Galeria Visaje Graffiti. Photo: Visaje Graffiti/Facebook

Galeria Visaje Graffiti in Teusaquillo promotes cultural activities and events. In recent years, theyve held exhibitions promoting the work of emerging artists, as well as showcasing some of the old-school artists here in Bogota. They also have a great collection of stickers, clothes, screen prints, and original works.Union team continues its dominance for Bike to Work Day(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) will work together with Indonesia to do research-based studies that helps to meet the present day's challenges. In this regard a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with a delegation of religious scholars from Indonesia who recently visited the AIOU

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th May, 2018 ) :Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) will work together with Indonesia to do research-based studies that helps to meet the present day's challenges.

In this regard a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with a delegation of religious scholars from Indonesia who recently visited the AIOU. It was agreed that the two sides will find out ways and means for developing partnership in the field of research and publication, both at faculty and the students' level.

The delegation representing the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS) showed keen interest in strengthening its working relations with the University's Faculty of Arabic and Islamic Studies.

While welcoming the delegation, Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Shahid Siddiqui said the brotherly Islamic Country of Indonesia enjoys great love and respect among the people of Pakistan and the bilateral cooperation between the two sides at the academic-level will help to meet common challenges in the socio-economic fields.

The AIOU, he said will welcome the Indonesian students to take benefit of its rich potential in the field of Arabic and Islamic Studies.

The two sides could also undertake research-related projects, besides jointly holding conference in the field of Islamic studies.

He hoped that the letter of Intent signed by the AIOU and the ICRS will provide them opportunity to have faculty and student exchanges. The letter was signed by the Dean Faculty of Arabic and Islamic Studies Dr Shah Mohyuddin Hashmi, while the ICRS was represented by Dr Dicky Sofjan.

Senior diplomat from the Indonesian Embassy in Islamabad Wisnu Suryo Hutomo was also present on the occasion appreciated the AIOU-ICRS' collaborative partnership, hoping it will pave the way of regular interaction working together in the areas of common interest.

He lauded the rich potential of the AIOU in the academic field and its pioneering role in promoting Arabic language. Dr Zahid Majeed, incharge International Collaboration and Exchange Office gave a presentation on the working of the AIOU on the occasion.The President of AJK, Sardar Masood Khan, on Wednesday appealed to the United States and the international community to pay attention to the humanitarian crises in the Indian-held Kashmir unleashed by the brutalities of the Indian soldiers, saying, the world should not treat Kashmiris as pariah.

WASHINGTON, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th May, 2018 ) :The President of AJK, Sardar Masood Khan, on Wednesday appealed to the United States and the international community to pay attention to the humanitarian crises in the Indian-held Kashmir unleashed by the brutalities of the Indian soldiers, saying, the world should not treat Kashmiris as pariah.

"We have a human rights and humanitarian crisis in the Indian-held Kashmir," the President said while talking to APP during his visit to Washington to draw the attention of the Trump administration and the world towards gross violation of human rights in Kashmir, which has been duly highlighted by the leading American media.

He said that Indian forces, after failing to suppress the sentiments and struggle of the Kashmiri people for their right to self-determination, were now using killing, torture, ethnic cleansing and rape as instruments of war.

The AJK President, in this regard, mentioned the rape and murder of an 8-year old Kashmiri girl by Hindu men in an temple. "Indian forces and those involved in these heinous crimes are enjoying total immunity,"he said, alluding to the fact that these criminals were given protection by the ruling Bharatia Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sardar Maood Khan said that the US was talking about the situation in the middle East and the crisis on the Korean Peninsula, but no one is paying attention to the very serious issue of Kashmir, which is a nuclear flash point and could endanger the world peace.

"If there has to be a solution, the US will have to be involved, directly or indirectly," he said while adding that the people of Kashmir were ready for dialogue to resolve the issue but India had closed all doors for diplomacy and has resorted to use of force to silent the genuine Kashmiri struggle.

He said that development in resolving the decades-old Korean crisis has re-kindled hope that complicated issues like Kashmir can be resolved. The Ambassador underlined the need for a close engagement with the United States, adding that while the Trump administration maintains close ties with India due to its economic and political interest, there was a need to shake the world conscious and draw their attention towards the human crisis in the held valley.

The AJK President said that Pakistan needs to be stable, both political and economically, to be able to effectively help the Kashmiri people and find a lasting solution to the problem. Meanwhile, the AJK President also held a meeting with the American and Pakistani media at the Pakistan Embassy in the United States.

Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudry was also present on the occasion. President AJK in his remarks strongly condemned the continuing use of brutal and indiscriminate force by the Indian occupation forces resulting in killing and maiming of Kashmiris in the Indian-held Kashmir.

He highlighted the pattern in these atrocities which deliberately target young innocent and unarmed Kashmiris staging peaceful protest for their right to self-determination and against the long illegal and inhumane Indian occupation of Jammu & Kashmir.

He underscored that despite 70 years of unspeakable oppression, India will never be able to break their will or succeed in misleading the world community through its malicious propaganda campaign painting the just, legitimate and indigenous Kashmiri struggle for self-determination as "terrorism." "If there is any element of terrorism in Kashmir, it is the Indian state terrorism.

He expressed concern over India's intransigence to engage in a dialogue on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir," he added. President Masood Khan said that Kashmiris are heartened by the US engagement with North Korea and the possibility of rapprochement on the Korean Peninsula and stressed the importance of dialogue and diplomacy for resolution of the longstanding issue of Jammu and Kashmir.

In this regard, he urged the US and the international community to play a constructive diplomatic role to end Indian atrocities against Kashmiris in the IOK and promote peace in the region by encouraging India to engage in a dialogue with Pakistan and the people of Kashmir.

The President said that the US is the preeminent global leader and a permanent member of the Security Council and in the past, it has played a role in moving the Kashmir issue towards resolution.

Therefore, he said, we pin our hopes on Washington to help us move the Kashmir issue towards a diplomatic and political solution. "If a chronic conflict like North Korea can see a breakthrough, so can Kashmir", he said, adding that Kashmiris aspirations for a just, democratic and lasting solution must be respected.

The President AJK will be participating in community events on the Capital Hill in Washington DC and other places in Virginia, Maryland and New York to draw attention of the people and Government of the United States towards the humanitarian crisis in Kashmir.Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry has said the government was in favour of making new provinces on administrative basis but not on ethnicity

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th May, 2018 ) :Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry has said the government was in favour of making new provinces on administrative basis but not on ethnicity.

Talking to a private tv channel, he said making new provinces was not possible for any single political party and all political parties should sit together for the purpose and make a plan in that regard.

The minister said those parliamentarians who were in South Punjab Front and joined the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), they were not sincere for new province because they had never raised their voice in the Parliament on the matter in last five years.

Replying to a question, he said it was right of every person to join any political party according to his own wish. Tariq Chaudhry said that Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) was still the biggest political party and Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was the most popular leader among the masses, adding that the PML-N would win upcoming general election on the basis of its five years performance.

He said unity was need of the hour as Pakistan was facing internal and externals threats, adding all political parties should avoid politics on the sensitive matters.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) has enrolled around 145,761 learners in its ongoing literacy programme during last year. Talking to APP, NCHD official, Rai Riaz Hussain said the commission has established around 6000 literacy centers under PC-I across 91 districts of the country with an aim to improve Human Development Indicators.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th May, 2018 ) :National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) has enrolled around 145,761 learners in its ongoing literacy programme during last year.

Talking to APP, NCHD official, Rai Riaz Hussain said the commission has established around 6000 literacy centers under PC-I across 91 districts of the country with an aim to improve Human Development Indicators.

The project covers all the four provinces Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan (GB), Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), he added.

Rai Hussain said NCHD being the national lead agency for literacy in Pakistan has been working to improve literacy situation in the country and to contribute towards Vision-2025 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Commenting on the progress of the project, he said the project is working successfully as 200 staff members had been trained to execute the project while 600 Local Area Supervisors had also been hired and trained to assist 6000 teachers that were appointed to impart education under the programme.

He said the designed literacy centers were made functional just after the completion of the teachers' training while the local area supervisors mostly comprising of women were trained for five days.

NCHD, National Program Coordinator, Syed Akbar Ali told APP that Pakistan was facing a huge challenge of widespread illiteracy with around 64 million adult (10+ age) illiterates and 5.2 million out of school children of Primary age (5-9) group in the country.

According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2015-16, he said, the overall literacy rate of the country was 58 percent while the literacy rate of rural areas was 49 percent against 74 percent in urban areas.

Pakistan is one of the least literate countries in Asia and the fourth largest contributor to the world's non-literate population, he added. He said the government is well aware of the situation and has taken important initiatives particularly one of the goals of Pakistan Vision-2025, to achieve 90 percent national literacy rate by the year 2025.

NCHD since its inception had established 164,190 Adult Literacy Centers across the country and admitted about 3.84 million adult learners (mostly women). It also covered 134 districts of the country and provided 15 million books to the learners while 3.5 million students were graduated till 2013, he concluded.Pakistan on Thursday expressed its disappointment over the failure of United Nations Sanction Committee to list terrorist organization Jamat-ul-Ahrar leader Umer Khalid Khurasani, also known as Abdul Wali, deeming it complete disregard of its sacrifices in the fight against terrorism

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th May, 2018 ) :Pakistan on Thursday expressed its disappointment over the failure of United Nations Sanction Committee to list terrorist organization Jamat-ul-Ahrar leader Umer Khalid Khurasani, also known as Abdul Wali, deeming it complete disregard of its sacrifices in the fight against terrorism.

During his weekly media briefing here, Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said if Jamaat-ul-Ahrar had been listed by the Sanctions Committee, its leader, who had the blood of hundreds of innocent Pakistanis on his hands, should also have been listed.

"This action demonstrates the double standards prevailing in the international fight against terrorism and also shows complete disregard of the sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in this fight," he added.

He said,"The listing of Jamat-ul Ahrar leader could not reach consensus due to the objection by a member, although the committee has not yet formally conveyed this development to us." Replying to a question, Dr Faisal said the Foreign Secretary undertook a very comprehensive and successful visit to Dhaka in connection with the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers meeting, where she met the OIC Secretary General, foreign ministers of member countries and her counterparts.

He said the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir continued to endure untold sufferings, and face gross and systematic violations of their human rights, use of pellet guns and extra-judicial killings by the occupation forces.

He reaffirmed that Pakistan remained in full solidarity with the people of Jammu & Kashmir, calling upon the world community to play its rightful role in promoting a just and lasting solution of the dispute.

Regarding the recent controversy of Quaid-e-Azam's picture in Ali Garh Muslim University, India, he said the Quaid's picture had been displayed in the university since 1938. There were also reports of replacing of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's picture with that of Indian Prime Minister Modi in Khair Town Guest House, Aligarh, he added.

He said it was in sharp contrast with the tolerance in Pakistan where the pictures / statues of Gandhi continued to be displayed at the Islamabad Monument museum. The growing intolerance, xenophobia and prejudice, especially against Muslims and Pakistan in India, he said, was very dangerous, most of all for India itself.

It also reflected the fanaticism rampant in the Indian society being fuelled by those in power, he added. Replying to another question, he said the restrictions on Pakistani diplomats in the US would be implemented on May 11 and the same would be on a reciprocal basis.

Negotiations were underway between the two sides, on the matter, he added. Regarding the Bangladesh's proposal for India's inclusion in OIC, he said India's inclusion as an observer state had never been on the OIC's agenda.

Any statement by the Bangladeshi foreign minister was given in individual capacity and did not reflect the principled stand of the OIC, he added. The spokesperson said Pakistan's relations with Russia or the US were not at the expense of each other. "Our engagement with Russia is expanding while our relationship with the US and NATO remains equally good."President Museveni has extended the term of the Commission of Inquiry into land matters by at least 18 months following the expiry of its term on May 9, 2018.

In December 2016, Museveni appointed Court of Appeal judge, Catherine Bamugemereire to head the seven-man committee to probe into land matters but the Commission was held back for several months due to lack of funds hence starting its work in May 2017.

Justice Catherine Bamugemereire

Addressing journalists today at the National Archives Centre in Wandegeya, Justice Bamugemereire communicated the president's decision to renew the term of her Commission in a legal notice No.6 of 2018.

"As you notice today is the 10th of May and that would be one year and one day since this commission was set up. I would like to inform members of the public that HE the president of Uganda found it fit to renew the term of the Commission." said Bamugemereire.

This is the third time Museveni is extending the term of the Commission. The initial six-months tenure started in May 2017 and expired on November 9, 2017. The president then granted them another extension for six months.



According to Bamugemereire, the president under the same legal notice dated 4th May 2018 also appointed Dr Douglas Singiza as secretary to the Commission replacing Lady Justice Olive Kazare who was earlier promoted to judge of the High court.



Museveni also appointed Daniel Lutiba as a deputy secretary and John Bosco Suuza Lujakata as deputy lead counsel from assistant lead counsel and Andrew Odiiti as new assistant lead counsel of the Commission.



Ebert Byenkya, the lead counsel of the Commission told URN that the 18 months extension starts counting from the date of the issued legal notice and that they hope to have a final report on the land inquiry at the end of the 18 months.



He said that the Commission is next week planning to give an update on their inquiry for the past one year and the pending cases. Byenkya however said that the Commission does not have the required finances for the next 18 months. He hopes that the funds will be provided in the 2018/2019 financial year.



The Commission has so far spent Shs 13 billion in the past one year with another supplementary request of Shs 7.8 billion before parliament's budget committee.



The Commission's mandate is to probe efficiency of the laws, policies and processes of land registration, acquisition, administration and management. It is also tasked with scrutinising the work of relevant bodies in the reservation of wetlands, forests, road reserves, and national parks, among other gazetted spaces.



The probe is mandated to investigate and inquire into the role of the Uganda Land Commission (ULC) in administering public land and the Land Fund. The commissioners are Frederick Ruhindi, Mary Oduka Ochan, Robert Ssebunnya, Joyce Gunde Habaasa, Dr Rose Nakayi and George Bagonza.Visa Consular Shukhrat Zaripov and Commercial Attache Jasur Saydakhmedov from Uzbekistan Embassy in Pakistan said that Uzbekistan was listed on top among countries producing the best quality cotton and talks were underway for cooperation with Pakistan on cotton production technology.

MULTAN, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th May, 2018 ) ::Visa Consular Shukhrat Zaripov and Commercial Attache Jasur Saydakhmedov from Uzbekistan Embassy in Pakistan said that Uzbekistan was listed on top among countries producing the best quality cotton and talks were underway for cooperation with Pakistan on cotton production technology.

Addressing a gathering of industrialists and business persons at the Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) here Thursday, they dilated that Uzbekistan produced the best cotton seed after the best research efforts, adding that the Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture (MNSUA) Multan was in contact with Uzbekistan authorities and talks were underway for cooperation in cotton production technology.

They said that relations between Pakistan and Uzbekistan were improving and Pakistanis were being issued visas after five to seven days of filing applications, adding that Uzbekistan was pursuing same visa policy for trade and tourism delegations or individuals.

Tourism aspirants get one-month visa while those who apply for trade get six months to one year visa, they added. They said that trade, political and cultural relations between the two countries were improving, however, efforts were afoot to remove hurdles in transportation between the two countries and streamline cooperation in banking sector.

They said that transportation to Uzbekistan was difficult due to situation in Afghanistan but some companies opt for travel through Iran, which, however, was a costly affair.

There exist numerous opportunities for the two countries for joint ventures in medicines, agriculture and industrial products.

Pakistanis could export fruit and vegetables, particularly from South Punjab, to Uzbekistan, they added. They said that Uzbekistan was on top of list among countries producing the best quality cotton.

Uzbekistan utilises 60 per cent of the cotton production at home and rest is exported to other countries at comparatively lower price. They said that Uzbekistan was a big consumer market and products produced there carry European Union Certification.

MCCI president, Malik Israr Ahmad Awan, said that the two countries should improve cooperation in energy, transport, communications, agro-based industries, security, tourism and culture and suggested frequent exchange of trade delegations through chambers of commerce, and private sector could play a dynamic role that would be result oriented.

He said that cooperation in tourism could bring financial benefits for both countries, adding that religious tourism can be promoted as mausoleums of eminent Muslim personalities were present in both countries.

The MCCI president proposed joint ventures for manufacturing quality Uzbekistan agriculture machinery in Pakistan. MCCI Vice President Khawaja Farooq said that Uzbekistan products packing did not carry details in English language and lack of communication in banking systems of two countries were creating difficulties for the business community.Canadian guidelines recommend against population-based screening for prostate cancer because of the risk of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. We sought to assess whether a higher proportion of patients receiving surgery had clinically significant cancer over time.

All hospitals in Eastern Ontario that perform prostatectomy participate in a Prostate Cancer Community of Practice, which prospectively maintains a database for the region. Using these data, we conducted a retrospective cohort study that included all patients who underwent prostatectomy from 2009 to 2015 in the region. We examined trends in biopsy findings, clinical stage, prostate-specific antigen level and Gleason score. We then determined whether the proportion of patients with clinically significant cancer (Gleason score  7 or stage pT3) increased over time.

During the study period, 1897 patients underwent prostatectomy in Eastern Ontario (mean 271 surgeries/yr). The proportion of patients who were determined to have National Comprehensive Cancer Network intermediate or high-risk disease increased from 46.7% in 2009 to 90.2% in 2015. The proportion of men with clinically significant cancer on prostatectomy increased from 59.7% in 2009 to 93.1% in 2015. Adjusted analyses suggested that the proportion of patients with clinically significant cancer increased by 5% per year during the study period.

There has been a change in the tumour characteristics of patients who undergo prostatectomy in Eastern Ontario. In recent years, almost all patients have had clinically significant cancer, which suggests that overtreatment of prostate cancer has decreased.

CMAJ open. 2018 Apr 30 [Epub]

Luke Witherspoon, Johnathan L Lau, Rodney H Breau, Christopher Knee, Michael Fung Kee Fung, Robin Morash, Ranjeeta Mallick, Ilias Cagiannos, Christopher Morash, Luke T Lavallee

Affiliations: Division of Urology (Witherspoon, Lau, Breau, R.N. Morash, Cagiannos, C. Morash, Lavallee), Department of Surgery, The Ottawa Hospital and University of Ottawa; Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (Breau, Knee, Mallick, Lavallee); Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Department of Surgery (Fung), The Ottawa Hospital and University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29716916Pope Francis meeting children during his visit to Nomadelfia, Italy, on May 10, 2018. (ANSA)

Pope Francis paid a pastoral visit to the Italian town of Nomadelfia, where Fr. Zeno Saltini initiated a community inspired by the first Christian community.

By Robin Gomes

Pope Francis on Thursday visited the central Italian town of Nomadelfia where he was moved by the warmth and family spirit of the community started there by Father Zeno Saltini in 1947.

Nomadelfia was the first of two-stop half-day Italian visit, that also took him to Loppiano associated with the Focolare Movement.

Nomadelfia is named after a Catholic community of families and lay unmarried people who adopt a lifestyle of brotherhood inspired by the first Christian community.

Model of first Christian Community

Meeting a delegation of the Nomadelfia Community, the Pope described them as a prophetic reality that aims to bring about a new civilization, implementing the Gospel as a form of life that is good and beautiful.

The Pope said, The law of brotherhood, that characterizes your life, was the dream and goal of the whole existence of Fr. Zeno, who wanted a community of life inspired by the model outlined in the Acts of the Apostles.



The multitude of those who had become believers, he said, had one heart and one soul and no one considered what belonged to them his property, but everything was common among them".

The Pope thus urged the Nomadelfia Community to continue this way of life, trusting in the power of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit, through their clear Christian witness.

Children

Pope Francis drew attention to the sensitivity of Fr. Zeno for suffering children, especially orphans, for whom the only language they understood was that of love.

The Pope said that Fr. Zeno was able to identify a particular form of society where there was no room for isolation or solitude, but where different families and members recognized one another as brothers in the faith, in a bond more solid than those of kinship, which the Holy Father described as consanguinity with Jesus.



The elderly

Another aspect of the Nomadelfia Community that touched Pope Francis was the loving attention towards they elderly who even in bad health remain in the family are supported by the entire community.

The Pope thus encouraged the Community to continue incarnating this model of fraternal love carrying forward the spirit of Fr. Zeno.The body that oversees the ancient Angkor Wat Temple Complex in Cambodia has said it detained four Chinese nationals this week for alleged drilling at the site.

Long Kosal, the Apsara Authoritys spokesman, said that the men were construction workers employed by a Chinese company that was contracted to study the restoration of the sites waterways, but they did not inform the authorities before they started drilling at the site.

They are working on waterway restoration from the Mekong River to the Tonle Sap Lake, but they did not contact the Apsara Authority or sent in the request in order to set the location to measure the Tonle Sap Lake. They just came and drilled, he said.

Nuon Than, deputy director of the Heritage Protection Police, and Keat Bun Than, director of the same unit, declined to comment on the case.

The China Embassy could not be reached for comment.

Meas Ny, a social development researcher, claimed the Apsara Authority had been irresponsible and negligent in performing their duties.

Most importantly is the implementation of the law. It means that the relevant authorities must fulfill their responsibility, so if there is anyone who abuses the law...it degrades every institution, he said.

The numbers of Chinese immigrants in Cambodia has reportedly increased dramatically in recent years along with a flood of Chinese investment in the country.

This has prompted fears over rising crime and impacts on Cambodian businesses, leading a senior Chinese official to call on Prime Minister Hun Sen to protect Chinese nationals in Cambodia.The United Nations and a major human rights group have demanded the immediate release of Cambodias jailed former opposition leader, Kem Sokha, calling his imprisonment inhumane and shameful.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) said in a statement on Wednesday that Sokhas arrest and continued detention violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements.

"WGAD also found that international norms relating to Kem Sokhas right to a fair trial were not observed. While the WGAD emphasized the fact that Kem Sokha should not be tried because his detention is arbitrary, it's nonetheless considered that his right to a fair trial was violated, the groups said.

It added that WGAD and FIDH were concerned by Sokhas health after suffering from a damaged shoulder, high blood pressure, and hyperglycemia.

The eight-month pre-trial detention of Kem Sokha is not only arbitrary but also shameful and inhumane. Kem Sokha did not commit any crime and is being punished exclusively for his unwavering fight for democracy. He must be immediately released, along with all other detained opposition members and supporters, said Debbie Stothard, secretary general of FIDH.

Phay Siphan, a government spokesman, could not be reached for comment.

Ruling Cambodian Peoples Party spokesman Sok Eysan said that the authorities had followed the proper procedure and claimed that the organizations issuing the statement were biased.

Speaking at a meeting of garment workers on Wednesday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said he would not pardon Sokha.President Trump says he'll meet Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore. Malaysia swears in its new Prime Minister. The U.S. clamps down on movement of Pakistani diplomats. We meet a woman who turned a hobby into a successful business, refugee teens who make their lives better, and doctors fighting the battle against aging.Experts say the release of three detained Americans from North Korea is the latest sign of improving relations between the United States and North Korea ahead of a planned summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. Trump said he believes the meeting could be very good for the region and the world, but told reporters Wednesday "everything can be scuttled." VOA diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine has more from the State Department.British Prime Minister Theresa May issued a rare formal public apology Thursday to one of 15 Libyan Islamists delivered into the hands of Col. Moammar Gadhafi by British and American intelligence services and tortured after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States.

In a letter read out in parliament by Attorney General Jeremy Wright, May apologized to Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife, Fatima Boudchar, who was four months pregnant when she was rendered. In the letter sent to the couple, May said the British government was "profoundly sorry" for their "appalling treatment."

What happened to you is deeply troubling, May wrote in her letter, which lawyers characterized as unprecedented and the deepest apology offered by a Western government for abuses thrown up during the war on terror. The UK Government believes your accounts. Neither of you should have been treated in this way, May said.

The letter concluded, The UK governments actions contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering. The UK government shared information about you to its international partners. We should have done more to reduce the risk that you would be mistreated. We accept that this was a failing on our part.

Wright told lawmakers in the House of Commons the government had reached an out-of-court settlement with the couple.

The apology concludes a complex legal battle by Belhaj and his wife over the role of British politicians and spies in the couple's 2004 rendition from Thailand to Libya. Belhaj, a former leader of the now defunct Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, was jailed and tortured by Gadhafis henchmen.

The apology coincides with renewed public attention in the United States on the issue of rendition and torture. This week, U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee to head the CIA, Gina Haspel, a 33-year veteran of the agency, was questioned about her past role at a covert detention site in Thailand, where terror suspects were waterboarded.

Boudchar, who watched from the Commons public gallery as the apology was disclosed to lawmakers, later said outside the British parliament, This is a historic day for us. The British government apologized to us for what we've been through. We've waited six years for this apology.

Boudchar is to receive compensation of $676,000, but Belhaj didnt seek any money.

In several interviews with VOA in 2012 and 2013, Belhaj, now a leading politician in Libya, emphasized his only aim in filing a legal action in the British courts was to secure a public apology from the British government and to prompt a debate about how the war on terror should be conducted. He detailed to VOA the torture hed undergone in Libya, but expressed no animus toward Britain and the United States, although he said he also was considering taking legal action against the U.S. government.

Fighting Gadhafi

Belhajs LIFG was composed of Islamist dissidents who tried for more than two decades to overthrow Gadhafi and mounted an insurgency in eastern Libya. LIFG members fought with the mujahideen in Afghanistan against the Soviet-installed government of Mohammed Najibullah, but their primary reason for being in the country - according to their leaders Belhaj and Sami Mostefa al Saadi - was to learn insurgency skills for the battle against Gadhafi in Libya.

Many LIFG members fled in the weeks and months after the 2001 U.S. intervention in Afghanistan, fearing the U.S. wouldnt distinguish between them and al-Qaida, according to Belhaj. Some, however, did formally join al-Qaida.



Belhaj was released six years after his rendition - 18 months before the 2011 uprising against Gadhafi. Boudchar was freed from a Libyan jail shortly before giving birth.

Two weeks after the couple were rendered to Libya, Britains then-prime minister Tony Blair, paid his first visit to Libya to meet Gadhafi for what was dubbed the summit in the desert. During the summit, the Libyan autocrat announced he was joining the war against terror and gave the go-ahead for a lucrative gas exploration deal for Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell.

Former LIFG members now describe themselves as Islamist modernizers.

Several told Human Rights Watch for a report the rights group released in 2012 that they were tortured by U.S. interrogators before being rendered to Libya, where they were tortured again. When Gadhafis intelligence boss interrogated Sami Mostefa al Saadi, that boss bragged, Before 9/11, you went to countries where we couldnt reach you. But now, after 9/11, I can just pick up the phone and call MI6 or the CIA.

In Afghanistan, the Libyan Islamists kept al-Qaida at arms length, al Saadi told VOA in a 2013 interview. It is a claim confirmed by several independent experts who have studied the group. Osama bin Laden, on several occasions, urged the anti-Gadhafi Libyans to join in with al-Qaida. And in two notable meetings in Kandahar, he debated the Libyan Islamists. He was polite, never lost his temper, al Saadi told VOA. He was soft-spoken but obdurate.

Former LIFG members complain that in the pursuit of al-Qaida suspects, British and American intelligence failed to distinguish between al-Qaida militants targeting the West, and Islamists engaged in armed opposition against repressive regimes in their own countries. They say London and Washington accepted at face value Gadhafis claims the LIFG was part of al-Qaida. We werent, Belhaj told VOA in 2012. "Our fight was with Gadhafi."

Former LIFG members do acknowledge that some in the West still harbor doubts about their motives - acknowledging that with several of their numbers subsequently joining al-Qaida, their position wasnt helped in explaining the difference.

Reacting to the apology, Belhaj, in Istanbul on a visit, said, I welcome and accept the prime ministers apology, and I extend to her and the attorney general my thanks and sincere goodwill.

Martha Spurrier, director of the British rights group Liberty, said, The governments unreserved apology for the unimaginable suffering Mr. Belhaj and Ms. Boudchar have endured is welcome. Justice was delayed, but at least it hasnt been denied.

She said, though, a full judge-led inquiry into Britains involvement in torture and rendition is still needed. Until torture survivors and the British public know the full extent of the UKs failings, ministers cannot claim to have learned the lessons to prevent this ever happening again, she said.All but a handful of foreign journalists on staff at The Phnom Penh Post, Cambodias last remaining independent daily newspaper, resigned on Wednesday. Citing differences over the meaning of editorial independence, they quit within days after new owners fired its editor-in-chief who refused to remove a published article from the website linking the new owner of the paper to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The resignations mean only a few foreign journalists in the newsroom when the paper was sold remain with the Post. The English-language newspaper, which had employed Cambodian and foreign journalists since its founding in 1992, was known for a feisty voice often critical of the government and well-connected economic interests.

The journalists move came after the sale of the Post by Australian mining businessman Bill Clough to Malaysian public relations executive Sivakumar S. Ganapathy.

Sivakumars public relations firm lists Hun Sen as a client. Sivakumar has not responded to requests for comment from Voice of America, which has tried to reach him since the sale of the Post was announced Sunday. Sivakumar issued a statement dated May 6 refuting links to Hun Sen, calling the reporting totally untrue and cannot be concluded based on what took place between the PR firm and the client more than 25 years ago.

Fears of crackdown

The journalists resigned after staging a walkout and meeting with representatives of the new owner.

I doubt the Post will continue to be the fearlessly independent press it has been for 26 years, Erin Handley, a former Post reporter told the VOA Khmer Service in an email exchange. My resignation is a decision I did not take lightly, but on an emotional level it feels like I am betraying my Khmer colleagues, who I am so incredibly proud of.

The sale of the Post and the subsequent upheaval comes amid concerns over the governments crackdown on the press and critics in the run up to a general election set for July 29. Hun Sen and his party are expected to win, having dissolved the main opposition party in November.

The Post had come under pressure in recent months following the closure of its rival English-language daily, The Cambodia Daily, which was hit with a hefty tax bill. The Post was also handed a tax bill to the tune of $3.9 million, which was settled ahead of the sale, according to a statement from Clough.

Son Chhay, a former MP with the now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, said that the closure of the Daily and the sale of the Post, coupled with the quieting of numerous radio stations that broadcast critical coverage of the Hun Sen regime, had stifled debate ahead of the July general election.

If The Phnom Penh Post, which we always thought of as a newspaper offering publication without fear or favor, was sold to serve political interests, I think its a big regret and it will cause criticism of the media landscape in Cambodia, he said.

Press freedom, timing of sale

In its 2018 World Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) recorded the crackdown on media freedom in Cambodia, which fell 10 places and is now ranked 142 out of 180 countries.

From the outside looking in, the most troubling thing is the timing of the tax bills settlement and the Posts subsequent sale. The odds of them not being connected seem incredibly remote, the papers former editor-in-chief, Chad Williams, told Reuters Sunday.

Thats troubling because it suggests the Cambodian government may have used the threat of a shutdown to essentially coerce the sale, Williams said.

Sok Eysan, spokesman for the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP), rejected the allegations of government influence in the sale.

Its a selling and buying. They made a bilateral contact. The government didnt interfere with this, he said.

'My trade is journalism'

Kay Kimsong, the editor-in-chief of the English and Khmer-language editions, was fired Monday after representatives of the new owner ordered senior staff to remove the article on the papers sale from its website.

He refused.

Five senior staff members resigned in protest that day, as did CEO Marcus Holmes. More than 20 staff members signed a statement that expressed disgust at Kimsongs dismissal, and many staffers walked out.

A lawyer for Sivakumar, identified by the Post on Tuesday as Ly Tayseng, a Cambodian, said the new editor-in-chief, identified as Joshua Purushotman, would vet articles in future editions. According to LinkedIn, Purushotman spent a decade working in PR.

The Post reported Tayseng said that the article on the sale was ordered removed because it damaged our reputation and declined to discuss the alleged inaccuracies in detail.

According to the new owner, he thinks that I have made a huge mistake, Kimsong said. They think the article should not have been published.

My trade is journalism and I dont know what else to do, he told VOA Khmer. There are two options  one is that if I cant go back to newspapers, I will just sell fried noodles.

Loss of independence

In a staff meeting, Tayseng and Purushotman said Kimsongs firing was a money-saving business move as the new owners had hired a new top editor, and only wanted to pay one, according to the Posts own story.

Chhay Channyda, chief of staff at the Post, said she was concerned by the possible loss of independence under the new management.

This is what we worry about because on the first day when there is a new boss or new company, they came to ask us to remove an article that we wrote, she said.

Yon Sineat, a reporter, said she saw the takeover as a serious threat to press freedom.

We are concerned that we will not be able to fully practice our journalism or write to reflect the truth, she said.

Tipping point

For many of the foreign journalists, the tipping point was when the article, which outlined our new publishers companys previous business and government connections, was taken down, and despite our protests, it didnt seem like it would go back up, Handley, the former Post reporter told the VOA. That appeared to be a breach of our editorial independence and  (it) became increasingly clear that the editorial staff and the new management had irreconcilable ideas about what editorial independence entails.

Handley told VOA that while I cant speak for my Khmer colleagues, only my own impressions, but I think there was despair and hopelessness in the newsroom, and perhaps a sense of resignation or inevitability.

Handley said the foreign and Cambodian journalists supported each other.

There are few stories non-Cambodians could report solo  we rely on them and they are key, she wrote. So I dont pretend arrogance  the loss of non-Cambodian staff sends a message, but it is important to bear in mind that non-Cambodian reporters can afford to be a lot more cavalier. However, the resignation of all foreign news staff sends the message that there are consequences for trying to undermine the intelligent, in depth and independent ethos of our masthead.

In the run-up to the July 29 national elections, Cambodias independent press is in ruins, according to Reporters Without Borders.

The 24-year-old Cambodia Daily published its last edition September 4 with the headline Descent into Outright Dictatorship. Days later, Radio Free Asia, which like the Voice of America is based in Washington and operates under the auspices of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, closed its Phnom Penh news bureau because of similar pressure over a tax bill.

Two former RFA reporters, Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, were charged with espionage in another case in November. They were denied bail recently.

Aun Pheap, a veteran Cambodian journalist, has been granted refugee status by the United Nations refugee agency and has fled to the United States, fearing arrest on charges related to reporting before the June 2017 local elections.

Additional reporting by Say Mony in Washington.Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont on Thursday proposed member of parliament Quim Torra as candidate for head of the Catalan government as the region attempts to put an end to a seven-month impasse and form an administration.

Catalan lawmakers must pick a leader to form a government by May 22 to avert more elections, following a standoff during which separatist politicians put forward candidates who were blocked by the courts for being either abroad or in jail.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called regional elections in December after sacking the previous administration for illegally declaring independence from Spain. However, pro-independence parties again won a majority of seats.

Torra is a lawyer and journalist who has been active in pro-independence lobbies in the wealthy region. He has published several books about the history of Catalonia, according to the Catalan parliament website.

Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium after being sacked as regional leader, is currently in Berlin waiting for German courts to rule on a Spanish request to extradite him on a charge of misuse of public funds.

Puigdemont proposed Torra as candidate in an address released on his YouTube video channel. Torra will need to be confirmed in a vote of confidence in the Catalan parliament.

"Our group proposes member of parliament Quim Torra to be president of the Catalan government so he can take on this responsibility in the next few days and so that a government can be formed immediately," Puigdemont said.

Spain's Constitutional Court on Wednesday accepted an appeal from the government that effectively blocked pro-independence politicians in Catalonia from voting in Puigdemont while he remains absent.A total of 116 legislators have signed on the petition against tax proposals on mobile money transactions.

MPs on parliamentary forum on public finance management and that of Greater North parliamentary Forum launched the collection of signatures with the aim of petitioning the speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga.

A section of MPs including deputy opposition leader of opposition Roland Mugume Kaginda (Rukungiri Municipality), Gaffa Mbwatekamwa (Kasambya), Okin Ojara (Chwa West) and John Baptist Nambeshe (Manjiya) told journalists at parliament that they hope to collect 320 signatures by end of this week.

According to the legislators, the proposal to levy 1% tax on the value of transactions-payments and withdrawals on mobile money in the financial year 2018/19 national budget estimates will reverse the move towards financial inclusion.

Since the proposal to introduce a levy on the mobile money transactions was mooted, civil society organisations and the public have argued that the tax on mobile money transactions will hurt the poor and vulnerable and will frustrate financial inclusion since most districts in Uganda lack access to banking services. However, more than 10 million Ugandans access financial services through mobile money.

Why would they tax mobile money? For us, we think its a bad idea as you know most of the rural areas dont have banking institutions and majority of them rely on mobile money financial services, Kaginda said.

This tax will increase the cost of sending and receiving money which will negatively affect the value chains in agriculture, access to energy, utilities, trade services and Uganda could suffer a reversal of gains towards financial inclusion, Kaginda added.

Mbwatekamwa said that the tax proposal could promote money laundering and other black market operations and thereby proposed that the ministry of finance increases the excise duty from the proposed 10% to 17.5% on mobile money withdraw fees to generate Shs 122 billion.

According to Mbwatekamwa, while his proposal will fetch Shs 33 billion less than what could be generated from the 1% tax on transactions; it will avert numerous economic disasters.

Would I save money on mobile phone when I know they are going to tax it? When I know that when I am carrying my cash, I will not be taxed. If this tax goes ahead, I am seeing very many people who have been in mobile money business lose their businesses and turn dangerous to the economys security, Mbwatekamwa said.

According to Nambeshe, taxes are all over and too much for Ugandans to bear and that the move to tax mobile money transactions does not include Ugandans in the financial sector since the economy is doing badly and government is not working on making it better.

If you are to frustrate financial inclusion in Uganda, then expect those low-income earners not to sit silent. Are you aware that you are driving the mobile money users into crime because many people would prefer money laundering as a last resort? This will be a disaster, Nambeshe said.

Chua West MP Okin Ojara said that government should first conduct studies and plan before proposing tax measures including the one on the ban on importing old vehicles.

namuloki16@gmail.comChilean bishops are arriving in Rome ahead of an expected brow-beating next week from Pope Francis, who says he was misled about a bishop at the center of the Chilean church's sex abuse scandal.

One top-ranked churchman is apparently not coming: Cardinal Javier Errazuriz, retired archbishop of Santiago, who sits on Francis' kitchen cabinet. Abuse survivors have laid much of the blame for the scandal on Errazuriz, whom they accuse of discrediting victims and covering up abuse rather than punishing pedophiles.

Errazuriz was quoted by Chile's La Tercera paper as saying he wasn't coming for personal reasons.

The executive committee of the Chilean bishops conference said Thursday that the 30-plus bishops were coming with "humility and hope.'' They praised Francis' recent meetings with victims of the Reverend Fernando Karadima of Chile, saying his example "showed us the path that the Chilean church is called to follow.''

Francis had invited Juan Carlos Cruz, James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo to the Vatican so he could personally apologize for having discredited them during his January trip to Chile. Francis had said their accusations against a Karadima protege, Bishop Juan Barros, were "calumny'' and demanded they present proof of his wrongdoing.

The men, who had frequented Karadima's posh Santiago community when they were teens, say that Barros witnessed and ignored their abuse. He has denied their accusations, but twice offered to resign.

Francis twice rejected his resignation, after apparently being counseled that Barros was innocent. Francis hasn't said who counseled him, but Errazuriz has admitted he didn't initially believe accusations against Karadima, and in more recent emails he called Cruz a liar and a "serpent.''

Francis summoned the bishops to the Vatican last month, warning that he wanted to discuss short-, medium- and long-term reforms to the church. In the letter, he admitted he had made "grave errors in judgment'' about the Barros case, but blamed a "lack of truthful and balanced information'' for his missteps.

Francis did his about-face after receiving a 2,300-page report compiled by top Vatican investigators who traveled to Chile and interviewed 64 people  victims, priests and lay Catholics  about the scandal.Health officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo are racing to contain a new Ebola outbreak announced this week. At least two people are confirmed to have died of Ebola this month in a remote village of northwest DRC, very close to the border of the smaller, neighboring Republic of Congo.

The DRC's health minister, Dr. Oly Ilunga, has been keeping people updated on social media, tweeting that on Thursday -- some 24 hours after the initial announcement -- a team of 12 experts landed in Mbandaka, the city closest to the outbreak.

Ilunga said that Ebola had been confirmed in two of 17 hemorrhagic fever deaths seen in recent weeks in the northwest village of Bikoro. The area has reported 21 cases of hemorrhagic fever in all.



"Our country, he said in an open letter to the Congolese population, is facing a new epidemic of Ebola that is a public health emergency of international concern.

The World Health Organization has released $1 million from its emergency fund to respond to this outbreak. WHO and medical aid group Doctors Without Borders are leading the response, and have sent experts to the site.

MSFs DRC emergency team is already on site and has been supporting the Ministry of Health to deploy a rapid and tailored response to the emergency since last Saturday, the group, known by its french acronym MSF, said in a statement. MSF will continue to adapt its response according to the needs on the ground.

The aid group declined to give more details, saying its experts were still gathering information.



This is not the first time

This is not Congos first encounter with the hemorrhagic fever, which causes an acute, serious illness which is often fatal if left untreated. It is transmitted to people from wild animals and can be spread through human-to-human transmission.

Ebola derives its name from the place it was first discovered, the Ebola River, a tributary of the Congo River, in 1976. The average survival rate is 50 percent, according to the WHO.



WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told VOA this is Congo's ninth outbreak of Ebola since the virus was first identified, including one last year that he said "was contained relatively quickly."

"So we are hoping to do the same thing this time around -- to send quickly teams to the area where the virus has been confirmed to be circulating, to be in position to identify those who are sick, to be in position to identify those who have been potentially exposed, to put in place all those necessary measures that are used every time when there is an Ebola outbreak to try to stop the transmission as fast as possible," he said.

This latest outbreak has occurred in an area near the banks of the Congo River, just across the border from the Republic of Congo. Because this region is poor in infrastructure, its many waterways are vital for transport and trade activities.



Ebola killed more than 11,000 people in a two-year epidemic that ravaged Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia between 2014 and 2016. So far, none of the recent outbreaks in Congo have been connected to that event.

The WHO's Jasarevic said that to contain the newest outbreak, it is crucial that people in and around Bikoro cooperate with local health authorities.

"It is really important that communities in this particular area are engaged, are working together with authorities in terms of safe burial practices, in terms of proper contact tracing, to be compliant with those procedures," he said. "The community engagement has been proven as a key component in successful containment of an Ebola outbreak.Pressured by more than a week of sometimes deadly demonstrations, Ethiopias mining ministry agreed late Wednesday to suspend the gold-mining operations of a company accused of releasing dangerous chemicals in the countrys south.

The suspension is in response to the demands of the people, Bacha Faji, a spokesman for Ethiopias Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas, announced Wednesday evening on state-run media.

The move at least temporarily halts operations by Mohammed International Development Research and Organization Companies, or MIDROC, at a site near the town of Shakiso and the Lega Dembi River.

The ministry spokesman promised an independent investigation into MIDROC and said operations would resume if and when all stakeholders agree on the result of that investigation.

The company, owned by African-born Saudi billionaire Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, has operated the mine since the late 1990s.

MIDROC did not respond to a VOA query about the suspension. No update was available on its website.

The decision came in the wake of at least two deaths related to a wave of protests in the restive Oromia region. The protests began April 30, following news that the mining ministry had renewed MIDROC's mining permit for another 10 years.

The deaths occurred in or near the town of Adola, in the Oromia regions East Guji zone.

On Tuesday, at least one person was fatally injured when demonstrators marched to the local police station to demand the release of detained compatriots, witnesses told VOA.

Chala Ware, Adolas deputy mayor, told VOA that demonstrators crowded into the compound, and amid jostling, some fell into a drainage ditch.

Im not sure if the injuries were from gunshot or a fall, he said, acknowledging that one person died and two others were hospitalized.

But a demonstrator who asked VOA to withhold his name out of fear of arrest said police had used tear gas on protesters, some of whom blindly stumbled into the ditch. Police retrieved them and took them inside the station, Damara said, noting that Red Cross workers who had shown up with stretchers initially were not allowed access.

Dembela Edema, another man, told VOA he saw the bodies of four demonstrators at Adola Hospital. He also reported seeing seven injured demonstrators. VOA was not able to confirm the deaths with official sources.

Also, sources told VOA on Wednesday that Chala, the Adola deputy mayor, has since been arrested. VOA repeatedly tried to phone him but got no answer.

On Wednesday, businessman Guta Dadhi was shot and killed while driving just outside the city. He was rushed to Adola Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A local resident told VOA that Ethiopian military troops, on heightened alert because of the unrest, were responsible for his shooting.

Also Wednesday, roughly 2,000 demonstrators marched peacefully in Guji zones Girja district, said district administrator Miesso Gelgelo. He said they were making the same demand they had for years: Find a solution to the damage the MIDROC gold mine is causing us.

Demonstrators allege that chemicals used at the mine poison the water and air, leading to respiratory illnesses, miscarriages, birth defects and disabilities. They also charge that the commercial mining undercuts economic well-being in the area, displacing people from their homes and providing few jobs for locals.

Jalene Gemeda of VOA's Horn of Africa service contributed to this report, which was changed to provide more information and to correct the name of the dead businessman. He initially was misidentified as Shakiso Guta.Israel said Thursday its fighter jets struck dozens of Iranian military targets inside of Syria overnight in response to rockets attacks by Iranian forces on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Israeli military said its airstrikes focused on intelligence sites, weapons storage and logistics centers, and that the jets also destroyed several Syrian air defense systems.

It also warned it would not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria and said Syrias government will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a security conference Israel struck almost all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria. He added, I hope that we ended this chapter and that everyone understood.

Iran is a Syrian ally, and its military has been supporting President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia, another Assad backer, called for both Israel and Iran to show restraint, while French President Emmanuel Macron called for a de-escalation between the two sides.

Syrias state-run SANA news agency reported Israeli airstrikes hitting air defense positions, radar stations and an ammunition depot while saying anti-aircraft systems were able to shoot down dozens of Israeli missiles.

Israel blamed Irans Al Quds force for firing missiles targeting Israeli military positions in the Golan Heights, and said no damage and no casualties were reported.

In the past, Israel has rarely commented on its military activity in Syria where it is believed to have conducted multiple sets of airstrikes against Iranian forces.

Israel has been on high alert in recent days after Iran threatened retaliation for a series of airstrikes on its military positions inside Syria last month that killed at least seven Iranians. Iran blames Israel for those strikes, while Israel has not confirmed or denied the attacks.

Israeli intelligence has said it anticipated possible Iranian action after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the nuclear agreement with Iran.Amid threats from Islamic State group, getting in and out of the polling stations safely will be the prevailing thought on Iraqi voters' minds May 12 when the country goes to the polls to choose a new parliament and the prime minister.

Islamic State militants have threatened to carry out attacks ahead of the elections  the first ones since the group's defeat in the country.

IS last month began a social media campaign discouraging people from participating in the elections and threatening to target polling stations.

On April 20, the group posted an infographic on social media detailing three attacks it claimed it conducted in Anbar, Kirkuk and Diyala provinces. It said its members killed 25 candidates, party members and their guards in the attacks that targeted "polytheistic democracy," referring to Iraqi political candidates for the elections.

The group on April 22 released an audio message accusing the Iraqi government of being a proxy of Iran. Later, the group's main outlet, Amaq News Agency, released a video allegedly showing IS jihadists shooting two election "advocators" in the town of al-Tarmiyah, in the Saladin province.

IS also has claimed responsibility for the assassination of a 45-year-old candidate from the National Coalition alliance.

Security arrangements

Iraqi officials are confident, however, that they can handle the IS threat and say the polling stations will be well protected.

Saad Maan, the spokesman of Iraq's Interior Ministry, told VOA that security forces have prepared a "careful" plan to protect the stations and voters.

"The plan will provide utmost safety and security of elections in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities," he said. "Everyone can be assured to vote safely. We will protect the polling stations, the transfer of ballot boxes, and voters."

IS militants remain active mostly in Kirkuk, Diyala, Saladin and Nineveh provinces that are disputed between the central government and the Kurdistan region, and the vast desert terrain of Anbar.

Iraq will close its airports and border crossings for 24 hours during the election.

The shutdown will come into effect at midnight Friday. Security forces also will suspend travel between provinces and restrict the movement of vehicles Saturday.

Ali Hussaini, the spokesman of Popular Mobilization Forces in northern Iraq, told VOA that Iraqi forces will take additional security measures in those areas that are politically contentious due to the conflicting territorial claims of Kurds and Arabs.

Hussaini said IS militants threatened villagers in southern Kirkuk and Hawija town with kidnapping if they vote in elections set for Saturday.

"Iraqi forces will be deployed to Hawija and its surrounding areas on the election day to guarantee that everyone votes freely," he told VOA.

Regional influence

Iran has great influence over Shiite majority Iraq's political landscape. Major candidates, including incumbent Haider al-Abadi and his rivals Nuri al-Maliki and Hadi al-Amiri, all lean toward Iran.

Reza Haghighat Nejad, an Istanbul-based analyst on Iran, says the victory of Iran's allies in the upcoming election of Iraq can be quite significant. "It can greatly shake the balance of power in the region and change the form of diplomacy practiced by regional players."

Iran is not the only country that has influence on the political field in Iraq. Denise Natali, another Turkey-based analyst, said Iran, Turkey and Gulf states are trying to back certain candidates.

"That will continue even after the elections and during the process of the formation of a coalition government in Baghdad. External influence on Iraq cannot stop as long as the Iraqi state remains weak within," Natali said.

There are close to 7,000 candidates in the field who are running for 329 parliament seats. The May 12 election will be the fourth since the ouster of the Saddam government in 2003, and analysts say that in order for Iraq to remain free of external influence, all the major parties will have to agree on protecting Iraq's sovereignty.There has been a serious clash between Israel and Iran in Syria.

Israel launched a fierce assault on more than 50 Iranian targets in Syria. The military said the Air Force hit weapons depots, logistics sites and intelligence centers used by elite Iranian forces, many of them near Damascus.

Missiles also destroyed several Syrian air defense systems after Israeli jets came under heavy fire. All planes returned safely to base.

The Israeli blitz came after Iranian forces fired 20 rockets at the Golan Heights, causing little damage but no casualties.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel has a very clear policy: He said it will not allow Iran to turn Syria into a forward military base against the Jewish state.

Lieberman said that in response to Irans arrogance, Israel destroyed almost all of Iran's infrastructure in Syria.

If we get rain, then they will get a flood, the defense minister said. Lieberman also said he hopes this round of violence is over.

Nitzan Nuriel, a former counterterrorism chief, says Israel does not want an escalation, so the ball is in the court of Iran.

They need to decide if they want to increase the friction, or they understand that at this stage they cannot take actions against us, and they need to wait. And if this is the case, that will be the end of this very short and aggressive conflict. We dont want to carry out more attacks. We wanted to send a message, a very strong message, and I think that we did it, said Nuriel.

Some observers fear that this clash could signal a new and dangerous phase in Syria's civil war, with two regional powers on a collision course.A grouping of major powers urged Lebanon on Thursday to uphold a policy of keeping out of regional wars, after Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies emerged stronger from a general election.

The International Support Group (ISG) for Lebanon, which includes the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Britain and European Union, also called on Lebanon to resume dialogue about a national defense strategy.

Lebanon agreed a policy of "disassociation" in 2012 to keep the deeply divided state out of conflicts such as the war in neighboring Syria. Still, the Hezbollah group is heavily involved in the war across the border, sending thousands of fighters to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military.

Israel said it struck nearly all of Iran's military infrastructure in Syria on Thursday after Iranian forces fired rockets at Israeli-held territory for the first time.

"We look forward to working with the new government as it follows up on its international commitments, including under resolutions 1559 [2004] and 1701 [2006] to extend the authority of the Lebanese state across all of its national territory and to ensure its monopoly over the legitimate use of force," a joint ISG statement said.

The resolutions involve the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon, the disarmament of all militias including Hezbollah and the terms of a 2006 cease-fire agreement between Lebanon and Israel.

The United States, which has given Lebanon's army substantial support, classifies the heavily armed Hezbollah as a terrorist group and condemns its role in the Syrian conflict.

Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, together with parties and politicians aligned to it, won more than half the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament Sunday.

Though Western-backed Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri lost more than a third of his seats in the election, the Sunni leader is widely expected to form another unity government that will include Hezbollah and other main parties. Talks over cabinet posts are expected to take some time.

The ISG statement also called for the new government to "move swiftly to enhance the economic climate in Lebanon by implementing structural and sectoral reform measures."

Lebanon is banking on foreign aid and loans to revive its stagnant economy, but international donors want to see reforms before they release some of the $11 billion of aid and soft loans pledged in April.

Lebanon has received sizeable Western aid to help it cope with hosting one million refugees from Syria.

President Michel Aoun said this week he intended to call dialogue to address issues including "a national defense strategy"  implying discussion of Hezbollah's arms  but without giving further details.

The staunchly anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces, a Christian party, emerged a winner after the vote, nearly doubling its lawmakers to around 15.Not much is known about the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, the group that claimed responsibility for killing four U.S. and four Nigerien soldiers in western Niger last October.

However, the group's leader, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, is a well-known figure in regional jihadist circles.

Al-Sahrawi "is a longtime veteran of the West African subregion with deep networks in Mali," according to Jacob Zenn, fellow of African and Eurasian Affairs for the Jamestown Foundation in Washington and a consultant on countering violent extremism. "He is able to manage groups of multiple ethnicities that engage in both terrorist attacks and criminal activity."

Al-Sahrawi was once a commander for Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, where he became associated with Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the one-eyed leader of the group.

Later in 2011, al-Sahrawi was one of the extremists who came together to form the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, MUJAO, one of the jihadist groups that seized control of northern Mali for several months in 2012.

In 2015, al-Sahrawi issued a bay'a, or pledge of allegiance, to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the overall leader of the Islamic State militant network.

According to Zenn, al-Sahrawi still has connections to many of the AQIM sub-groups in Mali because of his experiences. But his loyalty is to the Islamic State.

ISGS operational capacities

On September 1, 2016, ISGS fighters attacked a gendarmerie post in Burkina Faso, just across the border from Niger, where they killed two guards. A month later, ISGS killed three policemen in an attack on a police outpost just a few kilometers from the Malian border in Burkina Faso.

Perhaps the most brazen attack by ISGS before the ambush of the U.S. soldiers at Tongo Tongo was the attempted jailbreak at a high-security prison in Niamey, Niger. The prison held suspected Boko Haram militants and other Islamists from the Sahel and Sahara regions.

Weeks after the attempted jailbreak and more than a year after the pledge of allegiance by al-Sahrawi, IS officially acknowledged the bay'a.

But even with the notoriety that came with killing the American and Nigerien soldiers in October 2017, ISGS has limited capabilities.

Zenn said the group "is able to engage small-scale confrontations with conventional militaries, as well as small-scale asymmetric kidnappings," but the group has a limited number of fighters. "Perhaps no more than 200," said Zenn, speaking to VOA last month.

Also, ISGS has no known operational or any other ties to its bigger and more potent Islamist group neighbor, the Islamic State West Africa Province, or the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram, which is also an IS affiliate.

The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara has generally not been able to carry out attacks on hard targets the way AQIM-affiliated groups have in Burkina Faso, Mali and Ivory Coast.

But experts like Zenn believe the group poses a risk to economic targets, like French uranium production sites, and in sparsely populated rural areas.

Niger and its Sahel neighbors formed the military alliance called G5 Sahel to fight ISGS and other extremist groups in the area, while at the same time its military is also fighting Boko Haram along its border with Nigeria and Chad as part of the Lake Chad Multinational Joint Task Force.After failing to coax Washington to stick with the Iran nuclear deal, and facing protests at home over his labor and pension reforms, French President Emmanuel Macron may find solace Thursday in Germany, where he will be given a prestigious European award for another key ambition: far-reaching goals to reform and revamp the European Union.

The Charlemagne Prize, which he will receive in the German spa town of Aachen, remains more of an aspirational nod to Macron's European ambitions than his ability to actually unify the region. Named after the medieval emperor who ruled over a swath of western and central Europe, the prize is awarded to those contributing to European unity.

Angela Merkel won the prize a decade ago for her work in unifying the bloc. Ironically, the German chancellor is now counted as one of the roadblocks in Macrons call for a post-Brexit European Union to forge closer economic, political and defense bonds.

Its easier for him to reform France because hes in charge, said Charles Grant, director of the London-based Center for European Reform think tank, or CER, who believes Macron will ultimately succeed in implementing some but not many of his proposed EU changes. The problem with Europe is hes not in charge.

In Aachen, Macron is slated to deliver a major speech on the 28-member bloc  that dwindles to 27 with Britains slated 2019 departure  described as a continuation but not a replica of one he delivered at the Sorbonne University in Paris last September. There, the French president outlined a raft of priorities, from creating a European rapid response defense force and common asylum policy to deeper eurozone integration.

One immediate deadline is looming to add substance to the rhetoric. Macron and Merkel are to present a joint plan for reforming the 19-member eurozone by June. But there is another in the not-so-distant future. European parliamentary elections are slated for next year, and some fear euroskeptic parties will score strongly.

No longer a continent in crisis

Macrons election a year ago, beating far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, has bucked a populist wave elsewhere in Europe, which saw Hungarian leader Victor Orban re-elected to a third consecutive term in April, and anti-establishment parties in Italy surging in March elections.

In Germany, France's co-partner in an EU that emerged from a 50s-era coal and steel pact, a weakened Merkel and her coalition government are reluctant to push eurozone reforms too far.

Still, some analysts point to encouraging signs for a more unified Europe. One is public support for the European Union itself, with a 2017 Eurobarometer survey showing three-quarters of Europeans view the bloc positively.

And despite Britains planned 2019 exit, Europe no longer appears to be a continent in crisis, wrote researchers Kermal Dervis and Caroline Conroy in a Brookings Institution report last month. Even in debt-strapped Greece, a majority of respondents now support the EU.

At least some of Macrons proposed reforms will be adopted in the long term, the Brookings report predicted, injecting new dynamism into the EU, making European citizens more enthusiastic about the bloc and increasing its ability to assert its economic and social values on a changing world stage.

More broadly, Macrons leadership role in the EU is a sharp departure from recent tradition. Under Merkel, Germany has been Europes main motor over the past decade, and Washingtons go-to European interlocutor under former President Barack Obama. Today, it is France that is putting its stamp on international affairs in the Middle East and the Sahel, and President Donald Trumps European calls are more likely placed to Paris, not Berlin.

European resistance

So far, however, the French president has little to show for it. Trumps decision to pull out of the Iran agreement on Tuesday has left Europeans scrambling to salvage it, and Macron has yet to secure permanent European exemptions to U.S. metals tariffs.

Macron is also facing German resistance to many of his European reform proposals. On defense, France and Germany recently agreed to jointly develop new military weapons, including a next-generation fighter plane. But there is less appetite in other areas, notably the French leaders call for closer eurozone financial integration, complete with a eurozone budget and finance minister.

If Macron is to push Berlin further, he must first prove himself at home, CERs Grant believes. Frances own economy is only recently emerging from years of lackluster performance. But in March, the country finally met the EUs 3 percent public deficit cap  posting a surprising 2.6 debt-to-public-deficit ratio  for the first time in more than a decade.

If he does succeed in reforming the French economy  which I think he is doing  it will be much harder for the Germans to say no on eurozone reforms, Grant said.

Still Macron faces considerable resistance at home.

Tens of thousands of French took to the streets last Saturday, marking Macrons year anniversary in office with massive rallies against his proposals. Striking rail and airline employees are snarling commuting schedules and costing their employers billions of dollars in losses. The president's popularity has hit record lows. Yet the majority of French also support Macrons rail reforms  and crucially his young La Republique en Marche party controls the French parliament, assuring his legislation safe passage.

A bigger roadblock to eurozone reforms lies outside France. Italy  Europes third-largest economy  faces a political deadlock and a shaky economy, making any substantial deepening of the financial union unlikely in the immediate future, Grant said.

Cautious optimism

More fundamentally, perhaps, the French president's vision of Europe is at odds with those of populist leaders and parties that are resonating in many parts of the continent. Macron has called for a more flexible bloc, which tacitly allows more pro-European countries to forge ahead and more skeptical ones to lag behind. Other EU member states have not signed on to the idea, but analysts such as Grant believe it will become a reality in fact, if not in rhetoric.

Others are cautiously optimistic the French leader may prevail in his European ambitions, but only with a massive effort in rallying European public opinion to his side  mirroring, in some ways, his surprising victory in last year's elections.

Macron will need a Europe en March  a project for the democratic unification of Europe, international affairs experts Brendan Simms and Daniel Schade wrote in The New Republic.  The French cannot be armed missionaries  that never worked  but they must be the animating spirit of the union.Mexico on Thursday indicated time was running out to see whether NAFTA nations could agree a new deal in the short term while Canada struck a upbeat tone, saying top-level talks this week had achieved a great deal.

Major differences remain between the three members of the North American Free Trade Agreement after more than eight months of largely slow-moving negotiations launched at the insistence of Washington, which wants major changes to the 1994 pact.

A source close to the talks said U.S. officials have told Canada and Mexico that May 17 or 18 is the deadline for a text that could be dealt with by the current U.S. Congress. A second source confirmed that those dates had been discussed.

Need solutions before elections

Mexicos Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said he expected to learn by the end of Friday whether a new deal was possible in the short term.

I think we will be finding out through the day and tomorrow ... if we really have what it takes to be able to land these things in the short run, Guajardo told Reuters.

Top-level talks between the three members this week hit an obstacle as the United States and Mexico sought to settle differences over the key issue of automobiles.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer wants a quick agreement to avoid running into complications caused by a Mexican presidential election on July 1 and U.S. midterm Congressional elections in November.

'Getting closer'

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said the three nations had made a lot of progress since Monday ... we are definitely getting closer to the final objective.

Freeland, speaking to reporters after meetings with senior U.S. legislators on Capitol Hill, sidestepped questions as to when an agreement might be reached.

Guajardo told Reuters that we have suitcases for two weeks if necessary.

U.S. President Donald Trump regularly threatens to walk away from NAFTA, underscoring uncertainty over the pact. Business executives complain that the lack of clarity is hitting investment.

Mexico has launched a counterproposal to U.S. demands to toughen automotive industry content rules and boost wages. U.S. President Donald Trump blames cheaper wages in Mexico for manufacturing job losses in the United States.

Many major issues remain

Many other major issues crucial to a deal are still unresolved, including U.S. demands for a five-year sunset clause, and elimination of settlement panels for trade disputes.

After meeting with Lighthizer on Thursday, Guajardo told reporters that the talks were not just covering autos.

You cannot think that in a process of negotiations were going to solve one item without reviewing the overall balance of the agreement, he said. Were going over all the items. Its very important to stress that.Mr President, if you believe in God, whenever you find a moment to talk to Him/Her, thank Him/Her that you found us for subjects.



Which leader, in their obsession with power and control, wouldnt wish for such a submissive lot!



You slap them on one cheek and, beyond the biblical suggestion of turning the other cheek, they also lay down to be caned. Soon you may belch and we instead present it as evidence of energy.



I watched in amusement as you made some uncharitable and careless statements on Labour day recently. Clearly, if the title Fountain of Honour were to be followed for its demands on presidents utterances, you would have reserved many of the comments you made  even if you honestly felt so.



For that title, our expectations of whoever occupies that office, both in word and deed, are ideally high. But there you were, up in all honours and state security at the podium, saying how you almost went back to the bush because of the medical workers strike over poor pay and terrible working conditions; and telling the astounded nation how you were only restrained from doing so!



Oh dear, president of the Republic of Uganda in 2018!



It quickly went through my mind that if the entire nation approached frustrations with government this way, then all bushes would fill. Thank God, we are restrained.

That idle idea aside, what worried me most wasnt really what the president said. By now, if we are keen students of his speech history, we shouldnt be shocked by anything.



Do we expect any utterance to beat the omega of citizen disregard: I am not your servant. I am a freedom fighter. I fight for my beliefs?



As Tarrus Riley sings, when relationships grow old, they have a tendency to go cold. We should no longer expect to be cajoled and addressed as honey, like it was in the 1980s.



Isnt it known that when you see a man open a car for a woman, then either the car is new or the woman is? We are at the stage of insensitive bluntness in our national relationship with the president.



What worried me instead, as I watched the president speak, was that there were still people in the background that found his outrageous statements worth applauding. They clapped, thumped their feet on the ground, and giggled.



Even when he seemed to dishonestly impute, conveniently leaving out all his massive privileges, that he is only sacrificing to work for his kind of salary (Shs 3,600,000), they nodded in approval!



When he said he is bringing Cuban doctors out of anger with the Ugandan ones who are leaving people to die as they strike for better pay and improved conditions of work, they clapped!



Who is actually letting our people die in hospitals? If we may grant that, by putting down their tools, doctors let patients die: for how long was it and for what reason?



Then, by leaving hospitals to rot under poor facilitation as government continues to fund things like removing age limit and patronage networks (and for a long time), isnt this to let people die?



That in three decades of rule we only have one (old model) radiotherapy machine, which came after the breakdown of a donated one and so much noise; who is letting Ugandans die?



Ultimately, if it must be Cubans (tongue in cheek) to save our health sector, obviously they can only do so by coming in to lead the country.



You who clap at anything, could I hear some applause to that? While you are at it, if you are not facilitated to do so, I think we either underestimate the effect of applause on an actor or we know but wouldnt care.



One time, a terribly drunk cousin of mine climbed onto the stage as Eagles band was performing. He was wildly cheered as he danced and staggered around the raised platform. Then he made way through his zip and abirigated at the audience!



I think it is the careless applause from sycophants and food-hunters that sometimes sends the president into the excitement of saying what sits at his heart.



Therefore, whereas I would expect him to be the first filter of his public utterances, at the level he has reached, it is now so much about the quality of citizens we are. How is it that it is possible for a leader to speak in such a way and it passes, just like that!



No protest, no public condemnation, no demand for withdrawal of the statements  apart from a handful of people here and there. At most, the response is in social media jokes about Cubans coming.



Maybe, we have hit a deep level of apathy and powerlessness, or it is what psychologists call internalised oppression syndrome. This is the acceptance and incorporation of an oppressed group of their status which could lead to resignation, fear of violence, and gratefulness for being allowed to survive.



Taking advantage of widespread low citizenship awareness, some peoples thinking has been controlled to think that the president (who symbolises government) is only doing them a favour by extending services to them.



Hence, they will clap euphorically when he gives them a road  even if it is just an insignificant fraction of what they are entitled to.



In his small phenomenal book titled Mis- Education of the Negro, Carter Woodson observes that when you control a mans thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions.



You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his proper place and will stay in it. Yes, the president must thank God that we found our place where we sit and take it in all.

jsssentongo@gmail.com



The author heads the Centre for African Studies at Uganda Martyrs University.Kavitha Kamalbabu needed a break. She had raised her two children and the youngest was now in kindergarten. It was time to turn attention to her career. The 36-year-old wanted to code. The mecca of high tech -- Silicon Valley  wasn't an option because she needed to stay close to home and family in Indianapolis, Indiana.

"I chose Kenzie Academy because of its life project-based learning," she said.

Kamalbabu is now at the top of her class, getting a two-year degree as a software developer. Kenzie, based in Indianapolis, was established to keep talent in Middle America and to create a mini tech capital.

"Our point is to bring people from Indianapolis to stay in Indianapolis," said founder Courtney Spence. To do that, they place students in local companies as quickly as possible after their enrollment.

For one class, Kamalbabu, originally from India, found herself asking questions about measuring beer and learning how data increases profit. The class was taking a tour of Steady Serve  a local beer management system that invented a device to measure the content of kegs to reduce waste and fraud.

In the past, CEO Steve Hershberger hired from big universities near Silicon Valley. Now, he needs coders to work on the connection between beer kegs to his iKeg app, and he is choosing interns from Kenzie because of the quality he sees in the candidates.

"It's like they folded the country and brought San Jose [the heart of Silicon Valley] into Indianapolis."

By the numbers

Indianapolis is Middle America. Located in the Corn Belt, Indiana is known for its farms -- the state's model is "The Crossroads of America." City leaders said that perception is changing. Indianapolis deputy mayor of economic development Angela Smith Jones calls Indianapolis "Western Silicon Valley" with a "great startup culture."

Last year, technology companies in Indianapolis contributed $7.7 billion into the citys economy and employed 75,000 people.

Job postings for emerging tech are up 40 percent over last year, and the city's unemployment rate is currently 3 percent, which is lower than the national average.

The average tech industry wage in Indiana is $76,860.

Its on the cusp of what we are seeing as being a tech boom, Spence said.

Not so fast

But students majoring in tech at Stanford University  a research school located in the heart of Silicon Valley  were unimpressed. Freshman Max Comolli said he wouldn't be enticed to leave California for Indianapolis because of the opportunities and "such a great tech scene already established."

Masters candidate Diego Garcia said when he thinks of high tech, he thinks of "California or New York, not Indianapolis." But freshman Alexa White from Detroit, Michigan, thinks a tech capital in the Midwest would "benefit the field" and create diversity.

The gender diversity hasn't reached Kenzie, although school officials said they actively recruit females. The next class of 18 students starting later this year will have three women. Of the current class, only Kamalbabu and an African American are female.

Statistically, women  and especially women of color  make up a small percentage of the tech field. But 24-year-old Mya Williams called it a "pleasant surprise" when she saw Kamalbabu on the first day of class because she thought she would be the only female. Williams said young girls aren't encouraged to concentrate in math and science. "They get looked over when it comes to software," she said.

To Asia and beyond

Kenzie officials plan to duplicate the academy model, starting in Malaysia. Spence goes a step further. "We have a commitment to replicate it around the world," she said.With the opening of the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem only days away, the embassy changed its Twitter handle to reflect the move from Tel Aviv.

In a Twitter post on Thursday, however, the embassy said its new Twitter handle was USEmbassyJerusalem, when, in fact, the correct one is @usembassyjlm.

Despite the inevitable problems that occur during large relocations, the embassy is slated to open on Monday  fulfilling U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign promise to move the embassy to Jerusalem.

The relocation amounts to U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a decision that delighted Israelis and angered Palestinians. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, as the capital of their future state.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat has urged diplomats, civil society groups and religious leaders to boycott the inaugural event.

"Those who attend the ceremony will be sending an ominous message, a message that they encourage flagrant violations of international law and [of] the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people," he said.

Of the dozens of countries that have embassies in Israel, nearly all are in Tel Aviv.

Trump will not attend the event marking the opening of the new embassy, but his administration will be represented by Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Trump's daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, senior White House aide Jared Kushner.U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday he thinks it's time for special counsel Robert Mueller to conclude his criminal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice by trying to thwart the probe.

Pence told NBC News, "In the interests of the country, I think it's time to wrap it up."

There is no indication, however, that Mueller is close to ending his year-long probe. His legal team has been negotiating with Trump's lawyers over whether the president will sit for an interview and under what terms, such as the topics to be discussed, the length of the questioning and whether Trump would testify under oath.

If no agreement is reached, Mueller has suggested that he could subpoena Trump to testify under oath before a grand jury, which could spark a legal dispute that would have to be decided by the Supreme Court over whether a sitting president can be forced to testify.

Its been about a year since this investigation began," Pence told NBC. "Our administration's provided over a million documents. We've fully cooperated in it."

Pence added, I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion.

The vice president was asked about news that Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, collected more than $2 million after the 2016 election by promoting himself as someone with access to Trump and someone who could provide insight into the new president's thinking on policy issues.

But Pence called it a "private matter" and "something I don't have any knowledge about."A son of an American man who went missing in Iran 11 years ago said the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal presents a new opportunity to bring his father home.

In an interview with VOA Persians NewsHour program in Washington on Wednesday, Doug Levinson said the U.S. and Iranian governments should take advantage of that opportunity to resolve the case of his father, Robert Levinson.

The elder Levinson disappeared March 9, 2007, while visiting Irans Kish Island as a private investigator. He had retired from a 22-year career with the FBI nine years earlier.

I think that the way this would be resolved is through the highest levels of government, Levinson said, singling out the role of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The only way we are going to get this done is if [Khamenei] finds the mercy to send my father back to his family.

Robert Levinsons wife and seven children have been campaigning publicly for 11 years to try to locate him.

He has been away from our family for such a long time  we have had several weddings and births of grandchildren, and he is missed so much, Doug Levinson told VOA.

A statement posted on the familys Facebook page said Levinsons return should be a priority in any new U.S. negotiations with Iran. In his Tuesday speech announcing the U.S. exit from the 2015 nuclear deal, President Donald Trump offered to enter into talks with Iran on a new and lasting agreement that benefits the people of Iran and the wider region. Iran made no direct response to that offer.

In 2013, several U.S. news outlets reported that Levinson had been part of a rogue CIA intelligence mission, a claim that U.S. authorities have not confirmed. Iranian officials have long denied knowledge of his whereabouts.

In a letter to the editor of the New York Law Journal published on Wednesday, Robert Levinsons daughter Sarah Moriarty adopted a more critical tone toward Iran.

For the past 11 years, we have been unable to get any acceptable response from the Iranians as to what happened to my father. We have been told repeatedly that Iran is a country of laws, and the Iranian judiciary is scrupulous in its adherence to those laws. We know firsthand this is a lie, she wrote.

In an interview with VOA sister network RFE/RL last year, Levinsons wife, Christine, said FBI officials privately told the family that they believe Tehran is holding Levinson. The FBI has not publicly confirmed that assessment.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOAs Persian service.No matter where they live, young people are capable of coming up with fresh ideas about how to improve life in their communities. At a recent exhibition, held in the sprawling Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan, teenage Syrians showcased inventions geared toward making refugee camps more livable. VOA's George Putic has more.The Roman Catholic archbishop of Taiwan said on Thursday that he will invite Pope Francis to visit the country for a Church congress next year, a trip that would likely infuriate China.

"No pope has ever landed in Taiwan," Archbishop John Hung said in remarks at a reception at Taiwan's embassy to the Vatican.

He later told Reuters he liked to "dream the impossible" and that he would extend the invitation next week when he and other bishops from Taiwan meet the pope.

Hung said he felt the pope should visit the island because the people there "have suffered."

China claims Taiwan as its own and considers the self-ruled island a wayward province. The island has about 300,000 Catholics.

The Vatican is one of only 19 states that still recognize Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China. Beijing, which has no diplomatic relations with the Vatican, insists that if countries want relations with it they must break ties with Taiwan.

Last month the Dominican Republic became the latest country to switch from Taiwan to Beijing.

The Vatican and Beijing have been holding talks on the naming of bishops in China, whose Catholics are divided between an "underground" Church loyal to the pope and a government-backed Church.

The talks appear to have stalled recently. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has previously invited the pope to visit.U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place in Singapore on June 12.

"We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!," Trump said on Twitter Thursday, hours after he personally welcomed home three Americans freed by North Korea.

During the event at Joint Base Andrews, in the state of Maryland, 25 kilometers from the White House, the president, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, boarded a U.S. Air Force C-40 Jet to briefly speak with the three men who had been imprisoned in North Korea.

Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also greeted the three Korean-Americans when they came off the military plane.

After handshakes the president, standing alongside the three men, expressed thanks to North Korean leader Kim for releasing them, stating that I really think he wants to do something to bring North Korea into the real world.

WATCH: Trump greets freed hostages



Trump has said the goal for his upcoming talks with Kim is for North Korea to agree to denuclearize.

Secretary of State Pompeo, who traveled to North Korea to secure the release of the detainees, said holding such a summit would have been more difficult had the Americans still been detained



A senior U.S. official present for the exchange of detainees in Pyongyang told journalists traveling with Pompeo that a North Korean official informed the secretary of state that Kim had granted amnesties to the three Americans.

In a joint statement released by the State Department late Wednesday, the three men expressed "deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States" for their return.

Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song were teaching at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology when they were separately detained in 2017, accused of participating in anti-state activities and trying to overthrow the government.



The third detainee, Kim Dong Chul, was arrested in Rason on the northeast tip of North Korea in October 2015 and sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor the following year after being convicted of espionage.

Kim Dong Chul, speaking in Korean, when asked by a reporter how the Americans fared in North Korean custody, replied somewhat cryptically we were treated in many different ways, adding that however, when he became ill in captivity he was given medical treatment.

Vice President Pence said the U.S. did not make any concessions to North Korea in order to secure the release of the Americans. "Sending these three Americans home before any concessions have been offered I think is a testament to the president's policy of peace through strength," Pence told ABC News.

The three returnees, whose families were not present for their arrival at the base in Maryland, are to undergo evaluations and medical treatment at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.



White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that the maximum pressure campaign has worked, adding that in addition to the presidents efforts some of that success is due to our allies and partners, especially the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea.U.S. President Donald Trump says Iran is likely to engage in new negotiations on its nuclear program. Trump told reporters Wednesday the United States will impose some of the strongest sanctions on Iran ever and that the United States will work toward a deal with Tehran that will ensure the world's safety. Iran has rejected suggestions to renegotiate any part of the 2015 agreement. Britain, France and Germany say they will continue to uphold the agreement with Iran. VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports.U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an act that Jewish groups praise as helpful in their efforts to reclaim lost property in Poland but which the Polish government says is discriminatory.



The White House says Trump signed the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today  or JUST  Act. It requires the State Department to report to Congress on what steps dozens of countries in Europe have taken to compensate Holocaust survivors or their heirs for assets seized under Nazi German and Communist rule.



The law does not give the U.S. any powers to act against any country and does not single out Poland. But Poland is the only country in Europe that has not passed legislation to compensate former owners for assets seized in the upheavals of 20th-century European history, and Warsaw sees itself as the target of the law.



A spokesman for Polish President Andrzej Duda reacted by saying that Poland should not be expected to pay compensation for losses and damages caused by Nazi Germany, which initiated World War II and brutally occupied Poland.



Krzysztof Lapinski said the U.S. act "can be dangerous in the sense that claims can be formulated" and that diplomatic talks should address the issue.



The Nazis' seizure of Jewish-owned property in Poland during the war and the murder of most of Poland's Jewish population was followed after the war by the Communist state's seizure of large amounts of property that was nationalized. Most of the original owners of that property were not Jewish.



Since the fall of communism, some claimants have regained lost property on a case-by-case basis through courts, but so far Poland has not passed comprehensive legislation regulating the process. That has created a situation that has been riddled by fraud.



Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz says he believes the U.S. pressure through the JUST Act unfairly sets Jewish claimants above non-Jewish ones, creating tensions in Poland. He argued that Polish law treats all Polish citizens equally.



"This position of the [U.S.] Congress is not good because it wants some privileges for the Jews, for the Jewish community, but not for the Poles. I think that the Poles who live in the U.S. may feel hurt by that,'' Czaputowicz told The Associated Press.



He said some non-Jewish Poles fought against Nazi Germany and then settled in the United States, leaving behind property that was seized by the Communist regime.



"Their property here remains without any settlement and nobody speaks on their behalf, only on the behalf of the Jews. That is not good because that divides our society," Czaputowicz added.



The World Jewish Restitution Organization said Thursday that Czaputowicz was wrong in describing the JUST Act as discriminatory, saying that it covers "both Holocaust victims and other victims of Nazi persecution."



Gideon Taylor, WJRO Chair of Operations, also argued that legislation Poland's ruling party presented last year promising some compensation to some victims would have "excluded the vast majority of Holocaust survivors and their families."



The legislation is being re-written.



"[We] have long advocated for the passage of legislation that would provide restitution to all property owners whose property was wrongfully taken  both Jewish and non-Jewish owners," Taylor said.U.S. President Donald Trump personally welcomed three freed Americans returning home from North Korea early Thursday morning, declaring were starting off on a new footing with Pyongyang.

During the event at Joint Base Andrews, in the state of Maryland, 25 kilometers from the White House, the president, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, boarded a U.S. Air Force C-40 jet to briefly speak with the three men who had been imprisoned in North Korea.

A large American flag held up by two firetrucks with extended ladders served as a backdrop for their arrival.

Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also greeted the three Korean-Americans when they came off the military plane.

After handshakes, the president standing alongside the three men expressed thanks to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for releasing them, saying, I really think he wants to do something to bring North Korea into the real world.

Relishing one of the high points, so far, of his unconventional presidency, Trump joked that the air base event probably broke a record for 3 a.m. television ratings.

He later tweeted his welcome home:

The detainees were jointly released the previous day in Pyongyang shortly after Pompeo met for 90 minutes with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The development comes ahead of a planned summit between Trump and Kim..

WATCH: Analysts Say Release of 3 Americans Is an Important Sign from North Korea

US-North Korea summit

Trump has said the date and location of the summit will be announced within days, but it will not occur at the Korean Demilitarized Zone as he had previously suggested as a possible venue.

Singapore is the likeliest location for the summit, according to White House officials.

Trump has said the goal is for North Korea to agree to denuclearize.

A senior U.S. official present for the exchange of detainees in Pyongyang told journalists traveling with Pompeo that a North Korean official informed the secretary of state that Kim had granted amnesties to the three Americans.

In a joint statement released by the State Department late Wednesday, the three men expressed deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for their return.

Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song were teaching at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology when they were separately detained in 2017, accused of participating in anti-state activities and trying to overthrow the government.

The third detainee, Kim Dong Chul, was arrested in Rason on the northeast tip of North Korea in October 2015 and sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor the following year after being convicted of espionage.

Kim Dong Chul, speaking in Korean, when asked by a reporter how the Americans fared in North Korean custody, replied somewhat cryptically we were treated in many different ways, adding that however, when he became ill in captivity he was given medical treatment.

Vice President Pence said the U.S. did not make any concessions to North Korea in order to secure the release of the Americans. "Sending these three Americans home before any concessions have been offered I think is a testament to the president's policy of peace through strength," Pence told ABC News.

The three returnees, whose families were not present for their arrival at the base in Maryland, are to undergo evaluations and medical treatment at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Progress made on summit

A U.S. official who participated in the latest talks in Pyongyang said substantial progress was made in planning for the summit and we also agreed to meet again in person to finalize the details.

Pompeo told reporters traveling with him that holding such a summit would have been more difficult had the Americans not been released.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that the maximum pressure campaign has worked, adding that in addition to the presidents efforts some of that success is due to our allies and partners, especially the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea.The blog ad industry has blackballed me and all of my websites because of my political views, so I can no longer support this site through ads. Accordingly, I have posted

my resume

for prospective employers to view.Turkey has pushed back hard against U.S. President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned of serious consequences, with analysts saying Turkey could find itself drawn into a dispute between Washington and Tehran.

Erdogan spoke by telephone with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, Wednesday. Local media, citing a Turkish presidential source, said Erdogan reaffirmed his support of the nuclear deal and criticized Trumps decision.



We dont need new crises in the region, Erdogan said in an interview with international broadcaster CNN, warning the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal could have not only regional, but global repercussions.



States must stand by the treaties they have signed. If they dont, all international treaties of the past could be suddenly ignored one day, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara.

Turkey does not want to be pulled into a U.S.-led effort; that would pit Turkey against Iran, said analyst Sinan Ulgen of Carnegie Europe. Although they are regional rivals and back opposing sides in the Syrian civil war, Ankara and Tehran are cooperating in efforts to end the conflict. Such efforts, Ulgen warns, could be jeopardized by escalating U.S.-Iranian tensions.

It would have an impact as regards to Syria, where Iran is an important player and Irans contribution is needed if some sense of normalcy is to be returned to Syria. So for many of these reasons, Turkey does not want Iran to be pushed into a corner into a much more confrontational environment. And that is generally seen as being a very unwanted and destabilizing dynamic, Ulgen said.

Turkey is hosting around 3 million Syrian refugees and wants an end to the conflict to allow their return. Significant numbers of Turkish armed forces are also deployed in Syria against a Syrian-Kurdish militia that Ankara deems as terrorists.

Ankara is also alarmed at the potential economic fallout of the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal. Trumps announcement, that the U.S. will impose the "highest level" of sanctions on Iran, sent a chill through Turkeys troubled financial markets, causing the Turkish lira to fall sharply on the news. The currency has already hit record lows this year because of growing international investor concerns over forthcoming June elections and an overheating economy.

Erdogan reportedly reaffirmed his countrys economic commitment to Tehran in his conversation Wednesday with Rouhani. Iran is a strategic trading partner for Turkey, supplying gas and oil. The two neighbors have committed themselves to expanding trade to $35 billion. Bilateral trade was around $10 billion in 2016, the last available figures.

Renewed U.S. sanctions on Iran could put Ankara on a collision course with Washington.

Weve seen this in the past. Turkey will not comply with U.S. sanctions, political columnist Semih Idiz of al-Monitor website said. It (Turkey) will not stop importing Iranian gas and oil, maybe the Turkish banks will be more careful because of what happened to Halkbank but that's about it. U.S.-Turkish relations are not at a really good position anyway, Idiz added.

Earlier this year, a New York court convicted Hakan Atilla, a senior executive with Turkish state-owned Halkbank, on violations of U.S. Iranian sanctions. Next week, Atilla is due to be sentenced, while the bank faces potential heavy fines.

Ankara has strongly condemned the prosecution, maintaining Turkey is not bound by unilateral U.S. sanctions. The case is one of a myriad of issues straining ties between the two NATO allies.

Trump threatening the toughest sanctions, the U.S. has ever imposed on Iran raises the prospect of a further escalation in bilateral tensions - a danger analysts say Ankara will be seeking to avoid.

There are certainly people in Washington that understand Turkeys position, analyst Ulgen said. That was also the case before ...in the (President Barack) Obama years, when he decided to impose unilateral sanctions against Iran. Turkey was granted a number of exceptions; that could be the case going forward as well, Ulgen added.

Next week in Washington, Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu is expected to press his nation's case on sanctions when he meets with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Both sides will muddle through given Turkeys strategic importance in the region, columnist Idiz predicted.

But analyst Ulgen is more cautious, warning that Cavusoglu could have a hard time convincing Washington.

Now with not only the U.S. president but also his close collaborators starting with the new secretary of state, Pompeo, and National Security Adviser John Bolton, these men have a very heavy anti-Iran agenda. So it remains (to be seen) whether Turkey could diplomatically convince these people of its own priorities, given its geography, given its history with Iran.

Ugandan lawmakers oppose a recommendation from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that the U.N. move a major logistics base out of the country. The lawmakers say the move would be an injustice, given the sacrifice that Ugandan troops have made in Somalia over the years.



A letter this month from Guterres to the U.N. Advisory Committee recommended the logistics base be moved from the Ugandan city of Entebbe to Nairobi in Kenya. The move would be part of an effort by the U.N. to reduce its 45 regional centers around the world to four.

The base currently supports 11 U.N. missions in Africa, including missions in Mali, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan's Darfur region. Hundreds of Ugandans are employed at the base.

Legislators argue that Uganda is being cast aside despite its location in the heart of a region plagued by immense conflict.



The motion before parliament was introduced by Theodore Sekikubo, who noted that Uganda was the first country to send peacekeeping troops to Somalia in 2007.



We lost four choppers. We have lost untold numbers of lives. We have paid the ultimate price. And therefore its so undiplomatic, its so discomforting that this reciprocity is being paid in the negatives," Sekikubo said.



Ugandan soldiers make up the largest contingent in AMISOM, the African Union mission in Somalia, which has been protecting the Somali federal government and fighting militant group al-Shabab for more than a decade.

Legislator Ssemujju Nganda says if the U.N. cant appreciate such sacrifices, it can leave.



The auditor-general in various reports has been complaining that the U.N. doesnt want to pay at Entebbe. In fact we should be celebrating that they are leaving. Because they occupy our old facility, the old Entebbe Airport for free. The money that you want to get as a result of employing 1,500 Ugandans is money that you can get when you develop the old airport and it begins serving the regional market, Nganda said.



Ugandas prime minister, Ruhakana Rugunda, says the government is engaging with the U.N. secretary-general so that an amicable settlement can be reached.



It was convenient, it was cost effective. It was in the long run cheaper for the U.N. to run its services using Entebbe.... And, in our view, that center should remain.



U.N. committees are expected to discuss the proposed relocation of the base and make a final decision in July.The United Nations' refugee agency says it has airlifted 132 vulnerable migrants from Libya to Niger, the first group to be flown out after a two-month halt in such evacuations.



The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says the group of refugees and asylum-seekers was flown from Tripoli to Niger's capital, Niamey, on Thursday. UNHCR's humanitarian evacuation program had been halted in early March amid concerns from Niger's government that migrants were arriving there faster than previous arrivals could be resettled elsewhere.



UNHCR tried to fly out the migrants on Tuesday but the flight had to turn back to Tripoli because of technical problems.



The U.N. has been trying to empty government-controlled detention centers in Libya as part of a stepped-up effort to tackle the smuggling and slavery of migrants.Pyongyangs interest in taking incremental steps and Washingtons opposition to this phased approach toward denuclearization is emerging as differences that need to be resolved for a successful summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to analysts.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned Wednesday from his visit to Pyongyang after a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that was planned to draw up a framework for denuclearization talks for the upcoming summit.

Returning with three Americans who had been detained in North Korea, Pompeo said, I had a good and lengthy conversation with Chairman Kim in preparation for the presidents summit.

Trump on Wednesday tweeted that Pompeos latest Pyongyang talks went well.

During a Cabinet meeting, Trump said the date and location will be announced in three days and ruled out the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, silencing speculation about one possible location of the meeting. U.S. media were reporting late Wednesday that Singapore seemed the likely site for the meeting.

It is unclear if during his meeting with Kim, Pompeo narrowed the gap over how to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

A U.S. official who accompanied Pompeo and participated in the talks in Pyongyang said, We also agreed to meet again in person to finalize the details, indicating more details need to be hammered out with the North ahead of the Trump-Kim summit.

While making a brief refueling stop on Yokota Air Base in Japan en route to Pyongyang, Pompeo said the U.S. is not going to do this in small increments, where the world is essentially coerced into relieving economic pressure on North Korea, referring to the process of denuclearization.

A senior State Department official reinforced Pompeos remarks, saying the U.S. is taking bold steps of reversing that formula, referring to bold steps as a contrast to the past decades of incremental, gradual, long-term eventual disarmament that failed to secure the peace.

Kim, during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this week, said North Korea and the U.S. should take phased and synchronous measures to achieve denuclearization.

If Kim means taking a phased approach in a matter of months, I dont think thats a problem, said Christopher Hill, a chief U.S. delegate who negotiated with North Korea during the George W. Bush administration. If hes talking about decades, I think thats a very, very big problem.

Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, believes a denuclearization process could take several years, but it could also be done in weeks.

Any nuclear agreement will be a multiyear process to completely remove and destroy Pyongyangs WMD, he said, referring to weapons of mass destruction. But much can be done in a matter of weeks to disable and dismantle substantial element of WMD.

Ken Gause, director at the International Affairs Group at the Center for Naval Analysis, suggests Washington and Pyongyang could have an agreement on denuclearization drawn up ahead of the summit.

The question is whether they have privately, through back channels, reached  broad parameters of some sort of an agreement, Gause said. Otherwise, I dont think theyll have a summit if they did not have that worked out.

He speculated a potential promise on denuclearization that Kim could have made might include some concessions by North Korea on dismantling [a] certain part of its [nuclear weapons] program and ballistic missiles program. But I think thats as much as North Korea would give up," he added.

Gary Samore, a former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction under the Barack Obama administration, thinks the U.S. will most likely give credible security assurances in exchange for North Koreas agreement to denuclearize.

The U.S. has not stated what incentives it would give North Korea for giving up its nuclear and ballistic missiles programs, other than to say that Trumps maximum pressure sanctions will not be relaxed until it takes concrete steps to denuclearize.

During his summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said although North Korea expressed its commitment to denuclearize, the actual steps to achieve the process will be difficult.

The leaders of South Korea, Japan and China met in a trilateral summit in Tokyo, creating an added momentum for the anticipated Trump-Kim summit. The three leaders agreed to cooperate on getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.The United States is imposing travel restrictions on Pakistani diplomats starting Friday, Ambassador Aizaz Chaudhry told VOA Thursday.

"In my opinion, this is not the right decision," Chaudhry told VOA's Urdu service. "Both countries have to come close to each other, and measures like these do not help us to that end."

The State Department says it has "nothing to announce on the matter at this time," but has previously said it has the "authority to impose a range of travel controls" under the 1982 Foreign Missions Act.

Last month, Pakistani media reported that diplomats would be restricted from traveling more than 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the embassy in Washington or consulates in other cities without permission.

Pakistani diplomats previously have been allowed to travel throughout the United States without limits.

Pakistan's foreign ministry has called it a matter of reciprocity because most foreign diplomats, including Americans, face travel restrictions in Pakistan because of security concerns.

But, according to Chaudhry, there may be other issues behind the U.S. decision.

"Probably they [the U.S.] have some other grievances, which is under discussion. We believe that matters can be solved. A mechanism has been worked out," he said. "This step was not necessary. But now that they've taken this decision, they must have thought it through."

Relations between the United States and Pakistan have been cold in recent months, since the U.S. suspended more than $1 billion in security aid to Pakistan.

A frustrated President Donald Trump issued a New Year's Day tweet, saying the U.S. had given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid and gotten nothing but "lies and deceit" in return. He has accused the Pakistanis of giving safe haven to terrorists the U.S. is fighting in neighboring Afghanistan.

Pakistan has denied it is looking to destabilize Afghanistan and said it wants to work to find common ground with the United States.The White House has condemned Iranian rocket attacks on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as an "unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East."

In a statement issued Thursday morning, the White House said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) "bears full responsibility for the consequences of its reckless actions" and warned the guard and its "militant proxies" not to take "further provocative steps."

Israel said Thursday its fighter jets struck dozens of Iranian military targets inside of Syria overnight in response to the attacks.

The Israeli military said its airstrikes focused on intelligence sites, weapons storage and logistics centers, and that the jets also destroyed several Syrian air defense systems.

It also warned it would "not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria" and said Syria's government will be held accountable for "everything happening in its territory."

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a security conference Israel struck "almost all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria." He added, "I hope that we ended this chapter and that everyone understood."

Reactions to developments

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strikes against Iranian targets in Syria were "appropriate" because the Persian Gulf nation "crossed a red line."

Netanyahu also warned Syria that Israel would retaliate if the Syrian military acted against his country.

"We are in the midst of a protracted battle and our policy is clear: We will not allow Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria," Netanyahu said.

Iran is a Syrian ally, and its military has been supporting President Bashar al-Assad. Syria's foreign ministry said Israel's attacks are the "start of a new phase of aggression" against Syria and will do nothing but "increase tensions in the region."

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, another Assad backer, said the Israeli airstrikes were "a very alarming development" and urged both Israel and Iran to refrain from provoking each other.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson condemned Iran's attacks, urged Iran to refrain from further actions that could destabilize the region, and called on Russia to pressure Syria to work toward a broader political settlement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron called for a de-escalation between the two sides.

Israel on high alert

Syria's state-run SANA news agency reported Israeli airstrikes hitting air defense positions, radar stations and an ammunition depot while saying anti-aircraft systems were able to shoot down dozens of Israeli missiles.

Israel blamed Iran's al-Quds force for firing missiles targeting Israeli military positions inside the Golan Heights, and said no damage and no casualties were reported.

In the past, Israel has rarely commented on its military activity in Syria where it is believed to have conducted multiple sets of airstrikes against Iranian forces.

Israel has been on high alert in recent days after Iran threatened retaliation for a series of airstrikes on its military positions inside Syria last month that killed at least seven Iranians. Iran blames Israel for those strikes, while Israel has not confirmed or denied the attacks.

Israeli intelligence has said it anticipated possible Iranian action after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the nuclear agreement with Iran.Yale University says it is "deeply disturbed" by a video showing a black student being questioned by police at the behest of a white student.

Student Sarah Braasch reportedly called Yale campus police to question student Lolade Siyonbola, whom Braasch awoke in a dormitory common room Monday.

"You're in a Yale building and we need to make sure that you belong here," an officer told Siyonbola, who livestreamed the incident on Facebook.

Siyonbola's first video shows Braasch saying, "I have every right to call the police," as she takes smartphone photos of Siyonbola. Continuing to take photos, Braasch moves toward Siyonbola, who enters an elevator. The doors close and the video ends.

Much of the second, 17-minute video Siyonbola shot shows campus police waiting in a hallway outside her dorm room after she opened the door to show them that she lived there. She and police remained mostly quiet as police seemed to await instructions on their radios about a glitch with Siyonbola's identification card.

"I don't want to talk about it," Siyonbola said calmly when an officer tried to make small talk as the two stood uncomfortably in the hallway. "I deserve to be here. I pay tuition like everybody else. I'm not going to justify my existence here."

Three officers come and go in the video: a white male, an olive-skinned female and an African-American male who identified himself as a supervisor. After explaining his position, he told Siyonbola that police were "doing our job" and suggested that she be "more helpful." It is a mildly tense moment among otherwise measured exchanges.

"This isn't harassment," he added.

"That's exactly what it is," she responded.

"I am deeply troubled by an incident that took place Monday night in the Hall of Graduate Studies," wrote Kimberly Goff-Crews, vice president for student life, in a published letter online.

"This incident and others recently reported to me underscore that we have work to do to make Yale not only excellent but also inclusive," Goff-Crews wrote. "I strongly believe we must strive to create an environment that values equity and justice and in which all students are empowered to pursue their personal and professional goals  environment that is diverse, intellectually challenging, and broadly welcoming."

Goff-Crews said the student who made the call to police had been "admonished" by Yale police.

On social media, Braasch was vilified. Some commenters suggested she be removed from the university. She did not respond to VOA efforts to reach her.

Siyonbola is a master's candidate in African-American studies. Braasch is a doctoral candidate in philosophy. On her Yale department page, she is described as receiving her master's degree in philosophy "to address the sub-human legal status of the world's women."

"We still have so much more to do," Goff-Crews wrote.Mike Saburi

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - A crocodile attacked Zanele Ndlovu as she canoed with her fiance in Zimbabwe, ripping her arm so badly it had to be amputated. But the pair, due to marry just five days later, refused to allow the trauma to delay the ceremony.

The Zimbabwean told Reuters TV the crocodile punctured the inflatable boat carrying her and British fiance Jamie Fox, leaving the couple scrambling for their lives in the waters of the Zambezi.

Firstly I was just pushing, kicking and trying to fight the croc as much as I could and eventually one of the tour guides managed to pull me out of the water and got me onto one of their canoes, said Ndlovu.

The tour guides also pulled out Fox, and Ndolvu was airlifted to a Bulawayo hospital for treatment. Doctors amputated her shattered arm just above the elbow.

The pair married five days later after Ndlovu said she saw no reason to cancel. Friends and relatives attended.

The couple plan to settle in Britain. Fox said: I think the first thing we are going to explore is a fully functioning prosthetic arm. (Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Editing by William Maclean)The leader of the MDC-T formation, Nelson Chamisa, says his party is concerned about the Zimbabwe Defence Forces involvement in politics.

Speaking at Chatham House in London on Wednesday, Chamisa said despite the armys move to remove former president Robert Mugabe from power last November, he is confident that there are some soldiers who are still professional enough to stay away from politics.

We are extremely concerned that the military ofcourse played a pivotal role in politics of our country in the context of what happened in November but also in the context of what is happening now in terms of elections  What we want to see there is the politics of engagement by civilians. So, yes, we are concerned but we are fortified by the fact that we also have a lot of soldiers who are professional, who respect the will of the people, who will respect the will of the electorate.

In response to a question on booting out Chinese companies from Zimbabwe if elected president in the forthcoming presidential poll, Chamisa said there is need to have mutual relations between the two nations.

Our relationship with China, like l indicated, should not be a relationship of unequal, should be a relationship of win win, if we are to do business lets do business on the bases of the set values, set notes, our good governance, human rights observance, non-exploitation of citizens of both countries that is the basis of our engagement .

Yes, China is a big global player but also understand historical issues around our relationship with United Kingdom. We need to revive that, this cat and mouse relationship with the British government or British people is not helping our country because we have a historical link that we need to harness and harvest out, we must cream off that important relationship. So, the immediate thing we are going to do is to restore good and happy relations between the British and Zimbabwean people so that we mutually build our country.

Chamisa, who is accompanied by Peoples Democratic Party leader Tendai Biti and former Education Minister David Coltart, is expected to meet with some state officials before appearing in a televised interview.Swiss Guards replace cast iron helmets with lighter headgear.

The Vatican's Swiss Guards have begun to replace their traditional cast iron helmets with much lighter headgear in PVC, produced with the aid of 3D printing technology.

The move is designed to provide the pope's army with more comfortable helmets when standing guard for hours at a time, with hidden air holes to offset the summer heat.

The first batch of 95 helmets, out of a total shipment of 150, arrived at the Vatican recently. The new headgear was developed by Swiss engineer Peter Portmann and Swiss firm 3D-Protoyp.

Peter Portmann with Commander Christoph Graf

The new-look helmets reportedly cost 880 each - roughly half the old price - with a similar design to the original apart from an additional feature of the coat of arms of Pope Julius II, who founded the army in 1506.

The 120 current Swiss Guards belong to the world's oldest standing army which celebrated its 500th anniversary in 2006. The guards must be male and of Swiss nationality, as well as being Catholic, unmarried and aged between 19 and 30. They must also have undergone intensive Swiss military training and be a minimum height of 174 cm.

In addition to protecting the pope, the army performs ceremonial duties and assists at Vatican functions, and is famous for its ancient halberd weapons and its blue, gold and red uniform. The soldiers serve for between two and 25 years.

Photo SwissinfoPlease enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue.

The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website:

We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service.It's a big day for Fortis Healthcare Limited (FHL). Having played the belle of the ball over the past few weeks - with its suitors aggressively competing against each other and repeatedly sweetening their bids for the healthcare major - the company is scheduled to pick a winner today.

The FHL board has to choose between four binding bids, submitted by Manipal-TPG, IHH Berhad, the Munjal-Burman combine and KKR-backed Radiant Life Care. Recently, in a letter to the shareholders, the four directors currently in the line of fire said that the board decided to consider only binding bids as "the non-binding bids involve considerable uncertainty and merely running a due diligence process does not guarantee a binding bid, which the board had wanted in the best interest of the company". They had added that "considering the need for a certain and quick solution for the company, it was considered prudent that only binding bids should be considered". Here's a quick recap of the offers on the table.



Manipal-TGP: The revised offer made last Sunday valued FHL at Rs 8,358 crore, or Rs 160 per share. The consortium will be investing around Rs 3,300 crore in the deal for FHL, of which Rs 2,100 crore will be invested in the company and Rs 1,200 crore will be used to buy the 30.93 per cent stake held by private equity firms in SRL Diagnostics. Also, as per the terms of the latest offer, Manipal Hospitals will merge with FHL, as against the earlier proposal to demerge Fortis' hospitals business and merge it with Manipal Hospitals.

Munjals-Burmans: On May 1, the Munjal-Burman combine presented the FHL board with a "revised investment proposal" to invest Rs 1,800 crore directly, without any due diligence. Its previous offer proposed a direct infusion of Rs 1,500 crore, so the new deal is significantly sweeter.

Of the proposed investment amount, Rs 800 crore will be invested through preferential issue of equity shares and the balance through preferential issue of warrants, based on FHL's current business and financial position. The offer letter also proposed a strategic sale of the SRL Diagnostics unit after divesting FHL's stake in it.

IHH Healthcare Berhad: The same day, the Malaysian hospital chain also upped its offer for FHL by 9 per cent. The "Enhanced Revised Proposal" offered an immediate equity infusion of Rs 650 crore at a valuation of Rs 175 a share, up from its previous offer at Rs 160 per share, along with a subsequent equity infusion of Rs 3,350 crore subject to satisfactory completion of the due diligence process.

Yesterday, IHH submitted a clarification to the FHL board saying that the due diligence exercise shall only result in a 'go' or 'no-go' outcome, as the case may be, where the subsequent equity infusion is concerned. "The due diligence is not intended to be a price adjustment mechanism for the subsequent equity infusion," it added.



KKR-backed Radiant Life Care: This offer letter proposed a binding offer to purchase the Fortis hospital in Mulund, Mumbai, "without due diligence and as a going concern at an enterprise valuation of Rs 1,200 crore as the first step". The second part of the offer - non-binding at this stage and subject to due diligence - proposed spinning off SRL Diagnostics "for the time being so that FHL can run an independent competitive sale process".

Radiant further proposed a demerger of the hospitals business from FHL into a new company followed by an all-cash open offer to shareholders of the new entity at a price of Rs 126 per share. The offer is subject to Radiant being able to acquire 26 per cent or more shares of the new company. "In order to fund RHT stake acquisition, we propose a rights issue offer by NewCo [new entity]. The entire rights offer amount would be back-stopped by Radiant," the offer letter added.



Choosing between these bids is not the only major decision facing the company. The company also has to decide on the fate of the four directors whose removal has been sought by two institutional shareholders - National Westminster Bank Plc as trustee of Jupiter India Fund and East Bridge Capital Master Fund, which together hold a 12.04 per cent stake in the company. The allegation against them is that they failed to maintain corporate governance and fairly represent interests of all shareholders. The institutional shareholders have demanded that the matter of removal of these directors from the company's board be taken up at the company's EGM on May 22.

With PTI inputsThe $16-billion Flipkart-Walmart deal, in which the US retail giant Walmart is buying 77 per cent of the Indian e-commerce giant, would lead to a number of tax implications. Though much of it would depend on the way the deal is structured, tax experts are of the view that the deal would end up in a Hutchison-Vodafone like situation, where Walmart will need to withhold appropriate taxes, while purchasing holdings of non-resident investors in order to comply with Indian requirements.

The tax on the deal arises due to indirect transfer provisions of Indian income tax laws. The tax provisions say income arising out of transfer of share of a company registered outside India is taxable in India, if such shares derive substantial value from assets located in India.

"The value of shares of a foreign company is deemed to be substantially derived from India where the value of the Indian assets is greater than 50 per cent of its worldwide assets, which will be apparently satisfied in Flipkart's case," says Rakesh Nangia, Managing Partner, Nangia & Co LLP, a chartered accountancy firm.

Flipkart India has an interesting shareholding. It is held by Flipkart Singapore, which in turn is held by shareholders like Softbank USA and Tiger Global, Mauritius. Though major assets or the capital assets of the entire transaction is located in India.

"When non-resident investors offload their shares in Flipkart's Singapore parent company to Walmart, such transfers could be regarded as indirect sale of shares of Flipkart India and accordingly, would trigger capital gains tax in India for such non-resident investors, subject to tax treaty benefits, if any, available to such investors," says Nitesh Mehta, Partner/Transaction Tax, Tax and Regulatory Services, BDO India.

This indirect transfer tax provisions were introduced through retrospective amendment in 2012 after the Vodafone controversy. Tax rate could be 20-40 per cent depending on whether gain is a long term gain or short term. "For resident shareholders say employees or Indian founders, the deal would trigger capital gains tax in India which would be taxed at 20-30 per cent depending on whether the gain is long term or short term," says Nitesh Mehta.

The question though is given the kind of complex shareholding, what is (are) the tax treaty(ies) that comes into the picture in this whole transaction. There seems to be some difference in opinion on it among tax experts. While most tax experts are of the opinion that the deal would trigger the Singapore treaty, L Badri Narayan, tax partner in law firm Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan, has a different view.

According to him, since Softbank US and Tiger Global, Mauritius, are selling their holdings in Flipkart Singapore, the Indo-US and Indo-Mauritius treaties would come into the picture, and not the Singapore treaty as there is no change in Flipkart Singapore's holding in the Indian subsidiary.

According to L Badri Narayan of Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan, the US Treaty says that the capital gains arising from the transaction should be treated as per the domestic law of the individual state, which effectively means that Indian law would be applied to the transaction. However, it is the Mauritius leg of the transaction involving Tiger Global's sale of its holding in Flipkart Singapore that could lead to some ambiguities, says L Badri.

Whichever treaties come into picture, there are complications associated to them. Irrespective of their tax residents, if a seller of shares in Flipkart Singapore is a tax resident of a country with which India has a tax treaty which exempts such capital gains from tax in India, then the seller may claim treaty benefits provided they fulfill the limitation of benefits requirements.

The Indo-Singapore and Indo-Mauritius tax treaties were recently amended doing away with the capital gains tax exemption in respect of any investments made after 1 April 2017 from these countries.

According to Amit Maheshwari, managing partner of Ashok Maheshwary and Associates, investments made prior to 1 April 2017 could be grandfathered. However, grandfathering would be subject to satisfaction of limitation of benefit conditions.

Under the Singapore treaty, to avail of treaty benefits, an tax resident must have an annual expenditure on operations is at least $200,000 in Singapore for each of the 12-month periods prior to the date of such gain. Under Mauritius treaty limitation of benefit clause, treaty benefits cannot be availed if an entity's expenditure on operations in that state is less than Mauritian Rupees 1.5 million in the immediately preceding 12- month from the date the gains arise.

Also read: Flipkart deal to create 10 million jobs in India, says Walmart CEO Doug McMillonPrime Minister Narendra Modi rarely misses an opportunity to meet with visiting CEOs of global companies. It's not just a photo-op but also helps build personal equation with the global honchos or founders of large companies.

So why did the PMO turn down a meeting request from Doug McMillon - the CEO of the world's largest company, the $486 billion Walmart Inc.?

In fact, taking a cue from the PMO, even commerce minister Suresh Prabhu's schedule underwent a last minute change, cancelling the meeting with McMillon.

It appears that the government may be trying to distance itself from being perceived as blessing the $16 billion deal that gave Walmart a 77 per cent stake in India's largest startup and the biggest e-commerce company-Flipkart. The company was valued at $20.78 billion.

Especially, since affiliates of the RSS such as Swadeshi Jagran Manch as well as retailers' bodies such as The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) have already raised strong objections to the deal. SJM convenor Ashwani Mahajan has called it a back-door entry into India's multi-brand retail market where foreign firms are not allowed a majority holding. CAIT believes it will sound the death knell for small businesses in India, which is believed to be among the biggest support base for the ruling BJP.

So what did Walmart CEO make of the icy cold vibes from the government? "I didn't really take it that way at all. We meet with the government at all kinds of levels all the time and have met before and am sure will meet again. We meet at state level as well as national level here and in other countries. We meet with NGOs, academics, senior people. I haven't had any concerns about the support. I think this investment is good for the country and I think people generally realise that. So I haven't given it that much of a thought," says Doug McMillon, global CEO of Walmart to BusinessToday.In at an Editors' roundtable in New Delhi. "We're not really new to the country. That's not the most important thing. We don't really need a photo-op."

Does he see in trouble in getting regulatory clearances? "We'll obviously let the Competition Commission of India take a look at it. We're actually pretty clear that this is good for the Indian customers, it will create jobs and help society. Which is what we are here to do."

McMillon also believes that the Flipkart-Walmart deal will create around 10 million jobs in India. This includes both direct and indirect jobs. The US-based retail behemoth said that it will create jobs by developing supply chains and commercial opportunities.

Walmart had earlier said that its collaboration with Flipkart will also support small businesses by procuring directly from them. The company had said that it will support farmer by sourcing its inventory locally. The deal will also see significant input into supply chain, with focus on cold storages. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based giant said it will partner with kirana owners in India to help them reform their retail practices.FIA constituted committee for implementation of SC judgement in Asghar Khan case

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has constituted a committee for implementation of the Supreme Courts Oct 19, 2012 judgement in the Asghar Khan case.



FIA director general Bashir Memon notified the committee headed by additional director general Ehsan Sadiq and asked it to submit its progress report to the apex court next week.



The Supreme Court had ordered Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf and the FIA director general on May 7 to apprise it about the progress made to implement the courts verdict in the Asghar Khan case.



Following the Oct 19, 2012 verdict of the apex court, the FIA had constituted a team headed by former director general Ghalib Bandesha, Dr Usman Anwar, Qudratullah Marwat and Najaf Mirza.



The FIA had launched the probe into the Asghar Khan case by the end of 2013, almost a year after the Supreme Court ordered an investigation into Rs140 million distribution (among politicians and others) to stop the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from coming to power in 1990.



Till 2015, the FIA reportedly recorded statements of then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, retired Air Marshal Asghar Khan, former ISI chief retired Gen Asad Durrani, Mehran Bank owner Younis Habib, advocate Yousuf Memon (who allegedly gave money among others to the veteran politician Javed Hashmi) and veteran journalist Altaf Hassan Qureshi.



In its detailed judgement of Nov 8, 2012, the Supreme Court had also ordered the FIA to initiate proceedings against the politicians who allegedly received donations to spend on election campaigns in the general elections of 1990 with the objective to block chances of the PPP winning the elections. In case sufficient evidence was collected, the judgment had ordered, the FIA was required to prepare cases for trial against the recipients of the funds.



Authored by then chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the detailed judgement spread over 140 pages had emphasised that all officers who obeyed unlawful commands were individually liable and in the event of failure of the state authorities to take action, the rights of the people of Pakistan were to be upheld by the apex court.



The verdict had conceded that the 1990 general elections were polluted by dishing out Rs140m to a particular group of politicians only to deprive the people from being represented by their chosen representatives.



The judgement had also held that the president of Pakistan, the army chief, the ISI chief or their subordinates certainly were not supposed to create an election cell or to support a political party / group of political parties, because if they did so, the citizens would fail to elect their representatives in an honest, fair and free process of election, and their actions would negate the constitutional mandate on the subject.



The judgement had stated that in the general elections of 1990 the election cell was established in the presidency to influence the elections and was aided by retired Gen Aslam Beg who was the army chief and former ISI director general Asad Durrani and they participated in the unlawful activities of the election cell in violation of the responsibilities of the army and ISI as institutions which was an act of individuals but not of institutions represented by them respectively.PM termed NAB latest action as pre-poll rigging

ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday blasted the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the National Assembly for its faux pas over alleged money laundering to India by the partys supreme leader Nawaz Sharif.



Lashing out at NAB Chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal for ordering a probe merely on the basis of a media report alleging that Mr Sharif as the countrys chief executive had transferred $4.9 billion to India, the prime minister asked NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq to constitute a special committee to summon the NAB chairman and seek an explanation.



However, Mr Abbasis proposal to form the committee was rejected by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) whereas the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement sought time for consultation with the leadership on the issue.



When the opposition reminded the ruling party that it had rejected a similar demand of the opposition parties when the Panama Papers scam had surfaced some two years ago, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sheikh Aftab admitted that it was their mistake.



We accept that we should have come to parliament (on the Panama Papers issue) and should not have handed over our internal matters to the outsiders, the minister said.



The prime minister termed the NABs latest action as pre-poll rigging, saying the allegations of money laundering against Mr Sharif were being levelled at a time when general elections were just two months away.



He sought the oppositions cooperation in amending the accountability laws, saying they still had time to do it before the expiry of the National Assemblys term on May 31.



The NAB chairman should be summoned to clear his position as a very serious allegation of sending money to the enemy country has been levelled against the former prime minister, Mr Abbasi said.



He read out a press release issued by NAB on Tuesday announcing that the bureau had started verifying whether Mr Sharif was involved in sending $4.9bn to India.



According to NAB, the World Banks migration and remittance book released in September 2016 carried information that foreign exchange reserves of India increased by $4.9bn after receiving the huge amount sent through money laundering, inflicting losses to Pakistans national kitty.



While the World Bank promptly responded to the NAB move and stated the report does not include any mention of money laundering nor does it name any individuals, the State Bank of Pakistan said the estimates showed in the WB report were based on assumptions which did not reflect the reality.



PPP parliamentary leader Naveed Qamar said they should not create a wrong precedent by summoning the head of an institution as it could be termed interference in NAB affairs.



Asad Umar of the PTI, however, categorically rejected the prime ministers proposal and said, If parliament intervenes to suppress the voice of the investigative institutions, it will be setting a dangerous trend and we cannot accept any such committee, he declared.



Pakhunkhwa Mili Awami Party president Mehmood Khan Achakzai, whose party is part of the ruling coalition, supported the PMs proposal.



Hours after the NA debate, NAB issued a statement clarifying that it was conducting the verification of the allegation as per law.



The bureau rejected the impression of revenge or hurting anyone saying NAB does not believe in revenge and (is) determined to eliminate corruption without any discrimination.



It said that the bureaus press release was based on a media report which had referred to the World Banks Migration and Remittance Fact Book Report 2016 alleging the sending of $4.9bn to India.University in Bannu banned entry of Manzoor Pashteen

PESHAWAR: The University of Science and Technology in Bannu has banned not only the entry of Manzoor Pashteen, the youth spearheading Pakhtun Tahaffuz Movement, but also has forbidden its staff members and students from wearing the specific cap calling it all subversive activities .



Looks like growing influence of PTM in universities and popularity of the traditional Mazari cap of Manzoor Pashteen that is emerging as a symbol of unity and peace among his followers has alarmed the UST Bannu administration that looks upon this specific cap as a sign of ethnic divide and a political statement.



The strong worded notification issued few days ago leaves nothing unclear about what was forbidden and what would be the punishment for violation of the instructions given to all staff members and students.



The notification, issued on May 4 by the administration of UST Bannu, sates: All activities, which encourage social/ethnic divide, or anything which is against the interest of the federation of Pakistan is banned in the university.



The notification further explaining subversive activities states that distribution of such pamphlets or wearing specific caps whether by the staff members of students are forbidden and must be reported immediately. The notification is signed by the director administration and addressed to all heads of departments, all chairmen, the provost and hostel wardens of the university.



The entry of Manzoor Pashteen, who is a former student of Gomal University, is also banned in UST Bannu including hostels. Legal action will be taken against those students/staff members, who would facilitate his entry to the university, warned the administration, making it a point to direct the provost and wardens to ensure students dont assemble on this pretext in hostel and those, who are found involved, should be expelled and their admissions should be cancelled.



Dr Javed, the director administration of UST Bannu, when contacted to know why such a stern notification was issued not to allow even wearing a cap when no uniform dress code was in vogue in the public sector universities, he could only say that if a group of students wore a certain headgear they stood out and created a divide.



He said that the notification was issued after consultation with the vice-chancellor as a meeting of PTM was expected in the area and university administration sensing security threat could not allow its students to hold a gathering or allow such a gathering since political activities in universities were banned.



In order to prevent students from holding a gathering on the premises of the university, we issued this notification, said Dr Javed. He admitted that there was no direct approach from Manzoor Pashteen about holding any such gathering.



Dr Javed, however, only justified ban on the use of a specific cap associated with Manzoor Pashteen and simply said that it created disunity when a certain number of students were wearing a certain headgear.



Mohsin Dawar, a political activist and PTM leader, terms such notifications instructed and ones that expose that the universities are under pressure. Such a notification exposes authorities fear of PTM too.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...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Rio Tinto and Alcoa have unveiled a new process to make aluminium that they say eliminates all direct greenhouse emissions from the traditional smelting process, and that they believe is the industrys biggest innovation in more than a century.

Technology giant Apple is also involved in the project, with its chief executive officer Tim Cook saying the company hoped to one day use aluminium made without direct greenhouse gas emissions in its products.

Aluminium production could slash its emissions Credit:Robert Rough

In an announcement released to Fairfax Media ahead of an event in Canada early Friday morning (Australian time) Rio and Alcoa said they would form a joint venture company, Elysis, to develop the new smelting process. They hope to have the process commercialised in 2024.

The joint venture company will be based in Montreal, Canada, with a research facility in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec.Canberra obstetrician Stephen Robson sees the effects of genetic conditions regularly, but now has hope many could be eradicated in the foreseeable future.

The Canberra specialist is the obstetrician for Mackenzies Mission, which was handed $20 million in Tuesday nights budget for a trial of genetic screening for thousands of couples around the country.

Canberra obstetrician Stephen Robson. Credit:Jamila Toderas

It is the first project to come out of the $500 million over 10 years the government has allocated to Australian Genomics Health Futures Mission, which aims to use genomics to create tailored medical treatments.

The mission began off the campaigning of Sydney parents Rachael and Jonny Casella, who lost their baby Mackenzie to spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) last year.Disgraced former federal MP Craig Thomson faces being struck off as a solicitor on grounds he is "not a person of good fame and character" over the scandal that saw him use union credit cards to pay for sex and personal expenses.

Thomson, 53, was convicted in 2014 of 12 counts of theft and fined $25,000 after he spent more than $5000 on escorts and restaurant meals while he was national secretary of the Health Services Union between 2003 and 2007.

Former Labor MP Craig Thomson outside court in 2014. Credit:Pat Scala

He was elected the Labor member for Dobell in the 2007 federal election, serving as an MP until he lost his seat to Karen McNamara in 2013.

In March this year, the Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of NSW launched proceedings against Thomson that seek to have him declared guilty of professional misconduct and found "not a fit and proper person to remain on the Roll of Legal Practitioners of the Supreme Court of New South Wales".You got a problem? You got a problem? one of the assailants can be heard saying. Paramedics were called to the scene at 4pm and took Quinn to the Austin Hospital. Quinn's mother, Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, told radio station 3AW on Thursday morning that her son, who was left with bruising on his face and legs, was recovering after the attack.

"Quinn was flipped off his bike and beaten with spanners, kicked, punched and hounded around Northcote tram stop," she said. "Its an incredible level of violence, certainly I would never have expected it. It's [mine] and my husband's worst nightmare, and I know it's the worst nightmare of most parents who have an autistic child."

The group had allegedly bullied Quinn and his friend on social media, before forcing him to meet them. "Quinn is a very loyal friend and very justice-driven so he contacted these kids on social media and said, 'Look, you are bullying my friend, I don't like you, you are a bad person', teenage language, that sort of thing," Ms Lahiff-Jenkins said. "Then the children rang him and said come down to the school, we want to meet outside the front ... and if you don't come down we are going to come to your house and rape your mother." Ms Lahiff-Jenkins said the footage was taken by one of Quinn's friends who was at the tram stop and felt she should document the incident so she could provide the footage to police. She learnt of the attack when her son called her from the back of an ambulance.

"You put your child out into the world. You can't keep them in your house just because they are autistic, you want them to be able to experience the world like everyone else, and they go out into the community and they are not safe," Ms Lahiff-Jenkins said. "No adults stopped to help, no-one beeped their horns or did anything from their cars. "You hope people in the community step up for other people. You hope other people will step up and that's not happened." She urged parents to talk to their children more about the way they speak and their behaviour. "We have a problem in society we need to address."

The principal of the school attended by some the alleged attackers said the "awful" incident had upset the school community. "I'm meeting with the families of those involved to get to the bottom of what happened, and appropriate disciplinary measures will be taken," the principal said. Ms Lahiff-Jenkins said she was concerned for Quinn's mental health. "He was confident about going out in the world, as all 14-year-old boys are, very cocky, as a privileged young man he has the world at his fingertips, so I think he's pretty shocked," she said. "He didn't set up a fight or intend to have this situation happen, it just happened. And he feels a bit disempowered. He initially was incredibly shocked someone would hurt him like that. He doesn't live a life of violence, he hasn't been exposed to much violence."

Premier Daniel Andrews condemned the behaviour and said it was a "terrible incident". "As bad as this incident was, as difficult as it is to comprehend, it's one of a very small number of incidents that we see across our schools," he said. Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said it was "one of the most distressing images" he had seen all year. "It's absolutely disgraceful ... My heart goes out to the little boy, to his family. It is an absolute disgrace," he said. "Those children's behaviour is appalling and now the Education Department, those thugs' parents and indeed the police all need to come together to solve this because that is obscene behaviour against an innocent kid."Another WA sex offender is set to be released back into the community despite a judge ruling that he remains a serious danger to the public.

Christopher John Bentley is set to be released from jail later this month.

Bentley is expected to be released from prison later this month.

In a decision handed down last week, Justice Joe McGrath determined Bentley remained a serious danger to the community, but that he should be released subject to a five-year supervision order with 53 conditions attached to it.

Bentley, 57, has committed sexual offences against three women. One victim in 2001 and two further female victims on the same date in 2002.The state's financial watchdog has permanently banned Perth insurance broker Antonino Gucciardi from the financial services industry for misleading, deceptive and dishonest conduct.

Mr Gucciardi was employed as an insurance broker by Arthur J Gallagher & Co, formerly OAMPS Insurance Brokers, from August 2011 until October 28, 2015.

He then became an "authorised representative" of AJG until July 2016, continuing to sell their products on a commission basis.

During these periods he created invoices for clients that failed to disclose broker fees and true insurance premiums, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission found.

He had also charged clients excessive broker fees to meet his broking budget, thereby misrepresenting the true cost of those services to both his clients and AJG.The Gorgon Gas project off WAs north-west coast has released millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere instead of injecting it underground as environmental approvals required, because of technical problems with its gas injection system.

The conditions stated that Chevron had to implement all practicable means to reinject all carbon dioxide removed during gas processing into deep aquifers below the island.

The Chevron-operated Gorgon Project. off WA's coast.

The minimum requirement was 80 percent, calculated on a five-year rolling average. If the amount fell significantly below 80 per cent Chevron had to report this and take steps to offset these emissions.

The Barrow Island operation had still not yet injected any carbon dioxide underground, West Australian Environment Minister Stephen Dawson confirmed in Parliament on Tuesday in response to a question from Greens MP Robin Chapple.The shock death of a teenage boy in WAs remote Kimberley region five years ago has been found to have most likely been caused by a crocodile attack.

An inquest was held into the boys death in Broome last year, with a report released this week by state coroner Sarah Linton detailing the tragic circumstances leading up to the discovery of his body on March 14, 2013.

The 15-year-old, who was in the care of the Department for Child Protection at the time of his death, had an extensive history of absconding from foster carers and residential placements.

The boy's injuries were consistent with having been attacked by a crocodile. Credit:Glenn Campbell

He was last seen walking towards mud flats in the morning of March 13, 2013, away from the La Djadarr Bay Community, located between Broome and Derby.Has there ever been a more weird collection of tax cuts?

Ahead of the budget we were promised simple cuts. What we got was a collection of changes so eccentric they are almost impossible to explain quickly and even harder to make sense of quickly. Here goes.

Illustration: John Shakespeare

Instead of concentrating tax cuts on low- and middle-earners as promised, Scott Morrison has changed a tax threshold, one faced by only the top 20 per cent of earners, and overlaid a new and bizarrely-shaped so-called tax offset on top of an existing offset to give Australians earning between $48,000 and $90,000 a year an extra $530 a year and Australians below $37,000 a lower sum of $200, and those earning something in between, something in between.

But they wont get it in their pay packets as extra pay. In fact they wont get it at all during the next financial year, even though it is due to come in on July 1.Washington: Three companies on Wednesday acknowledged making large payments to the consulting firm of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, as an attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels said he has additional evidence linking a Russian oligarch and payment to Cohen.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG and US telecommunications company AT&T said they made payments to Cohen's firm, Essential Consultants, in efforts to gain intelligence into the Trump administration's thinking on issues affecting them. South Korea's Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd (KAI) said it hired the consultancy for services on accounting matters.

Three companies acknowledged making large payments to the consulting firm of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer. Credit:AP

A senior official at Novartis told NBC News that Cohen reached out shortly after Trump's November 2016 election win "promising access" to the new administration.

Stat News also reported that Novartis' then-chief executive Joe Jimenez instructed his team to strike a deal with Cohen.Moscow: President Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen received payments of a reported half million dollars after the 2016 presidential election, from a company controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, one of Russia's richest men and a member of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.

The reason for that payment is not clear. But the Russian billionaire has not shied away from showing his support for the American president: he attended Trump's inauguration, his spokesman confirmed at the beginning of the year. He was able to do so with tickets given him by his American cousin, Andrew Intrater, who is president of the investments firm Columbus Nova, an affiliate of Vekselberg's.

Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg Credit:AP

And in the past, Vekselberg crossed paths with other key Trump-related figures. In December 2015, he attended the now-infamous 10th anniversary gala for the Kremlin-owned RT channel, where Putin sat beside Michael Flynn, who was later -- briefly - Trump's national security adviser.

Vekselberg, who was one of two dozen Russian business executives and government officials to be sanctioned in April as part of the US response to the poisoning of a Russian double agent in London, is now under intense scrutiny.Information Services Group considered last year moving out of state to accommodate its growing operations. It ended up finding a new home just a mile from its old one in Stamford.

The IT advisory and research firm marked Wednesday the opening of its new 18,000-square-foot headquarters at 2187 Atlantic St., in the citys South End, after relocating last month from its longtime downtown offices. Supported by state subsidies, ISGs new hub in the Harbor Point complex reflects the companys technological advances and provides opportunities for future expansion, company officials said.

Were excited about staying here, ISG CEO and Chairman Michael Connors told a group of about 50 who attended an opening ceremony at the new offices. We did give a little think to moving to Florida, but we think we have more room (in Stamford) for expansion in our people and talent. The city of Stamford has been very good to us.

ISG did not disclose which cities in Florida the company had scouted, but officials said state-funded enterprise-zone tax credits influenced their decision-making.

It was definitely a factor of consideration when we thought about which state and which city we should reside in, Connors said. It showed support, both verbally and in action.

The amount of enterprise-zone credits is still being finalized, according to Thomas Madden, Stamfords economic development director.

Madden and Mayor David Martin, who both attended the ceremony, expressed optimism about ISGs role in the local economy and ability to support municipal projects such the development of an innovation district encompassing the city center and the launch of an autonomous-vehicle zone.

It really solidifies what Stamford has been working on under Mayor Martin in the past four years, Madden said. The big thing weve been looking at is making sure we have the right tech companies here and have them utilize our high-speed gigabit internet throughout Stamford.

The state investment would pay off by ISG contributing about $50 million to the local economy during the next few years, Connors said. The firm estimates its local economic impact reached about $11 million last year.

In the recently renovated 2187 Atlantic, ISG has taken the entire eighth floor, which features panoramic views of the downtown and South End. Approximately 25 will be based there full time. Up to 50 will work there daily, focusing on client work, training and other meetings.

ISGs headquarters had been based in about 9,000 square feet on the ninth floor at 281 Tresser Blvd. The company had operated in that downtown office block since its founding.

We wanted to be in a physical space that was vibrant, emerging and growing, Connors said. As we measured and considered alternatives, we felt the Harbor Point area met all of our criteria.

The new offices include a tech bar for employees, similar to an Apple stores Genius Bar, a training center for employees and clients and a space where the company can showcase digital services such as robotic process automation involving software bots. RPA technology automates functions such as extracting and sending out overdue invoices, freeing up workers to focus on other tasks.

Worldwide, ISG employs about 1,300, including about 500 at its Global Operations Center in Bangalore, India. It also maintains offices in Guildford, England; Paris; and Frankfurt.

The company serves some 700 clients in about 20 countries. The list comprises about 20 Connecticut-headquartered companies including Pitney Bowes and Marriott International subsidiary Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide  both based in Stamford  Norwalk-based Xerox and United Technologies.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; Twitter: @paulschottWhen a teen tragically dies in a skateboard accident, the General Assembly tightens the helmet laws. When group home workers call a strike, lawmakers come through with raises as replacements show up for training. When 140,000 retirees lose Medicare premiums subsidies, Democrats and Republicans unite to find the money.

And when vandals paint swastikas on Jewish cemetery headstones, the legislature adds Holocaust classes to the states mandatory curriculum.

The pattern is clear. Legislatures since at least 1787 are reactive bodies, said Rep. Bob Godfrey, D-Danbury, a 29-year state House veteran. Its what parliaments and legislatures do. We react.

Unfortunately, Connecticut desperately needs more than small-ball reaction like the examples above all of which passed in the last few days. Were screaming out for broad economic reforms, changes in the way government prods the economy. In a big way.

As the General Assembly closes out another year of work, we can look back on lots of broad economic reforms aired in debates, reports and public hearings. All of them failed.

Some were big, such as the sweeping tax changes recommended by a commission on economic growth, or a series of bills aimed at updating gambling policy or a cohesive plan to finance transportation upgrades for the next 30 years.

Some were very targeted: legalizing marijuana, allowing Tesla to sell cars without franchised dealerships, allowing Tweed New Haven airport to expand its runway, restructuring the underfunded teachers pension fund and enacting paid family medical leave in order to attract more young professionals.

All of those could boost the Connecticut economy, not by doing the same old things but by acting differently. All of them required a leap of faith. All faced opponents with plenty to lose.

And in the end, most didnt so much as come up for a vote in either chamber.

Thats not good enough for a state that was No. 49 in overall economic growth in 2017, a state that has shrunk by 7 percent since the Great Recession in total economic size as the U.S. has grown by 11 percent.

A dollar short

As of late Wednesday it appeared we would have a budget deal that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is likely to sign. The pact will deliver some forward-thinking measures, such as restoring Medicaid to parents who earn less than about $21,000 and have children at home.

And it will leave the state with about $1 billion in the bank.

But an adopted budget doesnt make for a successful economic plan in a state that desperately needs one. Just look at the projected shortfalls the next governor will face: $2 billion in 2020 and rising from there.

Why the failure, year after year?

The perpetual fiscal crisis makes forward thinking almost impossible. It takes money to make money and we aint got it. Electronic highway tolls, marijuana, paid family leave and other ideas all met opposition in part because they required large up-front investments though, to be sure, opponents had broader concerns.

Heck, we cant even afford to study our options. When a key legislative committee asked the state Department of Economic and Community Development to study five big ideas, Commissioner Catherine Smith said, and I paraphrase, No can do, sorry. Youve cut our staffing by 20 percent.

Another clear cause, as my colleague Emilie Munson described in a story Sunday, is the close division between parties. Republicans and Democrats are tied 18-18 in the Senate. One holdout can kill any teetering bill. And Democrats hold a slim majority of 79-71 in the House (with one seat unfilled).

Baked in the culture

Its much deeper than money and political gridlock. The core of Connecticut culture holds us back. Look at what we do in this state: Insurance, defense manufacturing and finance. Protect your butt, protect your house, protect your nation, protect your assets. We are risk-averse - the land of steady habits -- at a time when the states getting ahead are taking chances.

Take marijuana, for example. Legal sales would add at least $50 million a year to state coffers, maybe more. I get that lots of people dont think we should be in the business of sanctioning unhealthy drugs. But Massachusetts pot goes on sale this summer and anyone can drive an hour or less to buy a 6-month supply. Its here, folks. Take the money or leave it.

The whole way government operates seems to prevent real economic reforms. I dont think it was this way before TV came in, said Rep. Livvy Floren, R-Greenwich, whos been in the General Assembly for 18 years.

To her point, time-consuming grandstanding has replaced quiet, barroom compromise. Famously, lawmakers of both parties were known to head for the local restaurants a generation ago, together.

They may get along fine. Rep. Steven Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, and Rep. Chris Davis, R-Ellington, hugged on the way out of the House Chamber at midnight last Thursday after they led their respective sides in a bitter debate over casino expansion. Its nothing personal, they told each other, as they shared a bond of youth.

But thats not the same as Democrats and Republicans working together from the political center, over drinks and dinners.

Left and right

Liberals such as David Pickus, president of the SEIU District 1199 health care workers union, decry what he called the takeover by the right-wing of the Republican Party. Conservatives recall when the liberal wing in the House was much smaller than it is today.

Naturally, one persons meaningful reform is another persons disastrous policy. Big change shouldnt be simple or easy. And in Connecticut, where half say the answer is higher public investment and half says its lower taxes, it definitely isnt.

Then theres Malloy. Economic reforms in the past  notably the income tax under former Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr.  have come from governors in the thick of the legislative battles.

Malloy has cut the size of government dramatically, much to unions chagrin, and restructured the state employee benefits plans. History will be a lot kinder to him than his abysmal poll numbers. But hes the first governor in decades who never served in the legislature, and hes not adept at building consensus, with the glowing exception of his bipartisan gun-control legislation four months after the Sandy Hook massacre.

He tries to be directive and we think were in charge, so its a problem, said Floren, who added that Malloy has bold ideas and worked well with her when he was mayor of Stamford, a slice of which she represents.

Follow the voters

So where do we go from here? We can push for structural changes, such as keeping omnibus bills alive when a session ends. That way, lawmakers wouldnt have to start over every year.

We can hope to elect a consensus-builder as the next governor. Both parties have at least one with a chance to win.

We can agree to compromise for the greater good. Imagine if business had consented to a small payroll tax and a higher minimum wage, and labor had agreed to some binding arbitration rules changes in municipal contracts and to stop fighting to keep the estate tax. Wow.

We can fight our cautious nature and think hard about new ways of doing things. For example, Joe McGee, vice president of policy for the Business Council of Fairfield County, is convening private companies and investors to help bring high-speed trains to the New Haven line.

Weve got to do this in a new way, he said. All there is in the legislature is no, no, no, no.

To that end, we can urge regular, moderate citizens not part of a special interest on the left or right to bend lawmakers ears.

Ive never seen us be ahead of the population on issues, said Godfrey, the Danbury lawmaker, former chairman of the Council of State Governments, a national forum. Were always behind the curve of the public. Theyre the leaders.GREENWICH  If a peaceful walk outside to check out birds followed by hearty breakfast is your idea of a perfect Saturday, then Audubon Greenwich has an event made just for you.

To mark the "year of the bird," Audubon Greenwich is holding a special event Saturday for 2018 Migratory Bird Day. It will take place at Audubons bird sanctuary at 613 Riversville Road. Attendees can look for warblers, vireos, tanagers and orioles, which are making their way northward.

The walk will be followed by breakfast and family activities indoors. The breakfast is $10 per person, but the walk is free and all ages are welcome. But to take part, youll have to be up bright and early: The walk will begin at 6:30 a.m. with the breakfast lasting from 8:30 to 10.

Ryan MacLean, communications and marketing assistant for Audubon Greenwich, called it a "celebration of the journeys of all migratory birds as they stop here in Greenwich on their way back from their wintering grounds in Central and South America." The birds are on their way to Canada, and MacLean said this is the best chance to see them.

Events marking Migratory Bird Day will be taking place across the continent, MacLean said. The migration path goes north from South America to Canada, where the breeding grounds are for many of these bird species.

This is a great chance to enjoy some time outdoors and ... learn about our sanctuary and how they can help birds by planting native plants in their yards that can provide food and shelter," he said. "The breakfast makes everything more celebratory, and its a great time for the whole family, so people of all ages can attend."

Audubon Greenwich is a reliable spot to provide shelter to birds as well as sustenance from the local insect population as well as the orchard on the property, MacLean said.

"Birders and bird lovers should come out and enjoy this, to see these migratory birds. It is also an excellent opportunity for people to see the sanctuary and learn how they can make a habitat right in their own backyards if they wish." he said.

The breakfast tradition dates back more than 20 years, MacLean said, with up to 100 people attending some years. Saturdays event will be special because the breakfast will be held in the newly renovated Ketay-Asnes Barn for the first time in 10 years.

The year of the bird will be celebrated with events throughout 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which Audubon Greenwich called the most powerful and important bird-protection law ever passed. Audubon Greenwich seeks to raise awareness of the law even as more than 1,300 bird species are under threat and 197 are critically endangered and on the brink of extinction as of 2017.

More information is available online at www.greenwich.audubon.org .

kborsuk@greenwichtime.comUpdated 12:35 p.m.

Just after midnight, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy applauded the House and Senate for the bipartisan effort in crafting a 2019 budget adjustment.

I commend you on working together once again, he said, speaking to both chambers in his closing remarks. Bipartisanship is something to be celebrated. Its something to be fostered in the years ahead.

Malloy had not yet read the budget, which was not finalized until Wednesday evening. He promised to read it in full in the coming days.

He celebrated the economic progress the state has made since 2011 under his administration.

Average General Fund growth has been at its lowest and the executive branch at its smallest in decades, he said. Meanwhile, labor agreements will save the state $42 billion over the next 20 years. And socked away in the states emergency reserves is over $1 billion.

Speaking of the years ahead, I leave the Office of the Governor with a hope and a belief that Connecticut can focus on fiscal discipline and restraint in the years ahead, he told lawmakers. That you can do whats necessary to shore up our budget reserves and prepare for whatever comes next.

Updated 11:25 p.m.

Following Senate approval, the House overwhelmingly voted to approve a bipartisan deal adjusting the state budget which takes effect July 1.

This budget reflects all of Connecticuts needs currently, said Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, chair of the Appropriations Committee.

142 House members favored the compromise budget, and eight members opposed it, including Democrats Rep. Mike DAgostino and Rep. Josh Elliot, both of Hamden, and Republican Rep. Jason Perillo of Shelton. Their vote was completed 45 minutes before the end of the legislative session at midnight Wednesday.

The passage followed a last-gasp effort by Republicans to put their parties budget proposal to a vote. Republicans were proud of their framework, which included making a payment toward Connecticuts unfunded liabilities not contained in the bipartisan budget, said Rep. Melissa Ziobron, R-East Haddam.

The amendment failed after a 68-82 vote in which all Democrats and three Republicans voted against the proposal.

There were many items that Republicans would have liked to see in the bipartisan budget that did not make it in, said House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby. But lawmakers especially minority party members  do not live in a perfect world, she said.

Unfortunately we saw what happened last year with vetoes and overrides, and vetoes and overrides, and hold-backs of (education cost sharing grants) and hold-backs of municipal aid, Klarides said. These are threats that we do not take seriously any more; these are threats that became a reality.

To avoid that reality, she urged her caucus to vote for the compromise agreement.

Updated 11:00 p.m.

The second bipartisan budget deal in seven months was passed unanimously by the Senate with just over an hour to spare before the legislature adjourns.

Lawmakers gushed over the election-year budget adjustment, which takes effect July 1. It contains no new tax increases, they said, but avoids cuts to municipal aid, transportation and other programs that were planned in the two-year budget passed in October.

While other states in our nation and the national government itself seems to be locked in gridlock and so many people at so many levels have forgotten about why they were elected, to make government work, to serve the people and would rather to see something fail than to see something pass by a compromise vote, we fortunately are different from that in Connecticut and better than that in Connecticut, said Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven.

The House must now vote on the plan before midnight Wednesday, or call a special session to continue debates.

Top Democratic and Republican leaders declared the compromise outside the House on Wednesday afternoon in a show of unity following days of closed-door negotiating.

I think it is once again a monumental step for the state of Connecticut that a bipartisan deal for the second time in a row has been reached, said Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven.

The $20 billion budget adjustment blocks increases in bus and rail fares and cutbacks in service and fully funds the Medicare Savings Program, which provides payment assistance for health care costs for many low-income residents. It is expected to be signed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, leaders said.

I think those categories were of great concern to all members on a bipartisan basis, and they were addressed in this adjustment bill, Looney said.

The plan also covers funds to avoid cuts to the HUSKY A health insurance for poor and disabled residents. It leaves $1.1 billion in the states Rainy Day Fund for future emergency state spending. But it transfers $721 million from the fund to reimburse hospitals for paying a state provider tax and pay off the current $382 million deficit.

Neither party was able to work out a reduction of the car tax mill rate that they supported.

Republicans lost some controversial proposals aimed at reducing union benefits, including reduced collective bargaining options for state employees and eliminating overtime pay for calculating retirements. A GOP proposal to make an initial lump-sum payment toward state pension obligations did not make it into the final deal.

If Republicans were going to agree to a Plan B, said House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, they had to be sure that vision and those policies that we believe actually move the state forward  not just fix it for the time being  are in there. We feel that most of those have been included.

It took compromise on all sides, said House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin.

Negotiations were pushed along by a mutual desire to avoid a special session  in which legislators would return to the Capitol this summer to work on the budget, cutting into campaign time.

With more revenue coming into state coffers this spring, they were eager to reverse some of the more draconian cuts they approved to municipal and education aid, the Medicare Savings Program and transportation, legislators said.

In the past two weeks, each party has pitched several 2019 budget plans that generally inched closer together with each iteration. As of Wednesday morning, the two spending proposals differed by less than $20 million in a budget of $20 billion.Welcome Guest! You Are Here:A Chinese company with a wealth of port-operating experience and large agricultural interests is another possible suitor to buy the Port of Churchill.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/5/2018 (1247 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Chinese company with a wealth of port-operating experience and large agricultural interests is another possible suitor to buy the Port of Churchill.

Executives from Herun Group Co. Ltd., one of the largest firms in China, flew to Churchill last month to kick some tires.

Herun owns 11 ports worldwide and recently purchased a port in Brazil, Chinas largest trading partner. It is also a processor of grains and oilseeds, so it has interest in Churchill on two fronts.

"To me, in order to make this situation work for the railroad and Port of Churchill, you really need to have a company that is in the business," said Joe Ng, chairman of JNE Group of professional engineers based out of Hamilton, which arranged the tour.

"Otherwise, new people come in and after two years they cant utilize the rail and port and they bail out."

Herun has a genuine interest because it imports raw materials such as canola and soybeans for its crushing facilities in China. It has been mostly involved in oilseed crushing but is expanding its flour processing and is interested in Canadian grains, Ng said.

So that the port stays in Canadian hands, it would partner with the Manitoba Metis Federation, which would own a 51 per cent share.

Herun is willing to meet port owner Omnitraxs asking price of $20 million without any government support, Manitoba Metis Federation president David Chartrand said.

"Herun made it very clear theyre prepared to come up with a substantial amount of cash," he said.

The company in the lead position is Missinippi Rail and One North, a consortium of First Nations in partnership with Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Inc. It has been in discussions with Omnitrax and Ottawa since late last year.

But the head of Omnitrax Canada, Merv Tweed, told the Free Press last week the above buyers have only signed a letter of intent and that the company has received letters of interest from several other Canadian companies. "We are continuing discussions with a number of interested parties," Tweed said.

Another potential buyer, a First Nations consortium called iChurchill, surfaced last week with an offer that includes using the northern port to ship grain, wood and possibly oil.

Ng conceded Herun is late to the party. "Weve come in late so we have to wait until other people finish talking. Its no different than a lineup at a counter," said Ng, who was named 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year by the Association of Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurs.

Chartrand said he did not want to be seen as trying to upstage first nations in their attempts to buy the port, but talks have dragged on. Chartrand said he has been in discussions with Omnitrax for more than a year but MMFs original partner was unwilling to cede 51 per cent ownership to the MMF. Herun has agreed to those terms, he said.

The MMF would also come up with some funds. "The MMF has cash to put up, too," Chartrand said.

The chief financial officer along with another executive flew to Churchill about a month ago for a tour of the port. The president of Herun was also supposed to attend but was held over in the U.S. due to mechanical problems with his private jet, Chartrand said. He was travelling from Brazil, where he had signed documents to purchase the Brazilian port.

Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The purchase would include the rail lines, which would have to be repaired, as well as some land and buildings in locations like the northern town of Gillam. An estimated $46 million worth of repairs to the track is needed but thats no different than the deal being discussed with other potential buyers.

Ottawas $5 million in maintenance payments to Omnitrax would have to be continued, too, Chartrand said.

Churchill Mayor Mike Spence, who co-leads One North, said he was unaware of the Herun visit and may have been away at the time. Omnitrax could not be reached for comment.

Ng said Herun realizes Churchill has a short navigation season but is looking to the future. "As far as theyre concerned, the worlds turning warmer every year, and there might be longer and longer shipping seasons as years go by," he said.

Churchills port owned by Omnitrax ceased operations in August 2016. Churchill residents have been without rail service since the rail line was severely damaged by flooding last May. Omnitrax and the federal government are arguing in court over who is responsible for repairing the track.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.caUber unveiled its flying-car concept this week, saying it wants to do its part to advance the electric air-taxi industry. At its second annual Elevate Summit in Los Angeles, the ride-hailing giant introduced a prototype for its Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing vehicles (eVTOL), which are designed to carry four passengers in ride-sharing flights in dense, urban markets.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/5/2018 (1247 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Uber unveiled its flying-car concept this week, saying it wants to do its part to advance the electric air-taxi industry. At its second annual Elevate Summit in Los Angeles, the ride-hailing giant introduced a prototype for its Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing vehicles (eVTOL), which are designed to carry four passengers in ride-sharing flights in dense, urban markets.

At last years Elevate Summit, Uber announced that it planned to do test flights in 2020 and hoped to deploy the vehicles in 2023. The company says the vehicles will be piloted at first, but that they will eventually be autonomous.

Last fall, Uber signed an agreement with NASA to help develop unmanned traffic management concepts and aerial systems. Uber also has other partners in developing the systems and technology for eVTOL vehicles, which take off and land like helicopters, and are being touted as an answer to land-traffic congestion.

Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The release of its drone-like prototype is part of a collaborative approach Uber says is important to making sure safety and design concerns are addressed early.

"The closer we get to moving riders by way of eVTOL technologies, the more important it becomes to advance the State of the Art for these aircraft," said Mark Moore, Ubers aviation engineering director, in a statement. "Our existing partners are experts in their respective fields, and its our job to equip them with the tools and resources needed to make urban aviation transit a reality."

The flying vehicles would fly 1,000 to 2,000 feet in the air at speeds of 240 km/h to 320 km/h, according to Uber. The company also said the aircraft could be recharged in under five minutes during peak hours. They will be rolled out first in Los Angeles and the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Another Silicon Valley company, Kitty Hawk, is testing electric pilotless air taxis that seat two. The startup, backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, announced in March it is conducting the tests in New Zealand.

Ubers unveiling of an aircraft prototype comes as it deals with issues on land: it is awaiting federal investigators conclusions about a March crash in which one of the companys self-driving vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona.

 Mercury NewsA victim of sexual assault perpetrated by her doctor told a Winnipeg judge she didn't go to police for more than two decades because she feared being persecuted by members of the community.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/5/2018 (1246 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A victim of sexual assault perpetrated by her doctor told a Winnipeg judge she didn't go to police for more than two decades because she feared being persecuted by members of the community.

She may have been right.

The woman -- who is protected from being identified through a court publication ban -- was reading her victim-impact statement Thursday in court, detailing how her life has been damaged in the years since she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Dr. Ramon Jovel. The abuse started when she was 18 and a recent refugee to Canada, and lasted about three years.

When she said she had been scared to go to police because "I am afraid of being persecuted by members of the community," dozens of the doctor's supporters sitting in court groaned loudly, while some chuckled.

Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Justice Karen Simonsen brought a quick halt to the sentencing hearing, and admonished the spectators in the courtroom, the majority of whom were wearing blue T-shirts emblazoned with "We support our doctor."

"That kind of reaction during the reading of her (victim-impact) statement is entirely unsatisfactory," Simonsen said. "I will ask all of you to leave if it happens again."

A few minutes later, Simonsen made a point of verbally describing what had happened, as the courtroom's recording devices only capture audio. "When she was reading her statement, about her concerns of members of the community, many members (here) groaned and shook their heads," the judge said.

After hearing arguments by Crown and defence lawyers, Simonsen reserved her sentencing decision.

'He changed my life forever'

Jovel, 66, was found guilty of sexual assault after a trial earlier this year.

Crown attorney Danielle Simard is seeking a five-year prison sentence, while defence lawyer Marty Minuk is seeing two years, at most.

Court was told that between 1991 and 1994, starting when the victim was 18, Jovel repeatedly touched her vagina and breasts, and once removed his pants to rub his erect penis against her. During examinations, Jovel would turn the room's lights off.

Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The victim said Thursday Jovel's actions have negatively affected her life for years.

"My wounds are not fresh anymore, but my scars will last forever," she said. "It has been 26 years since I was a victim... He changed my life forever."

Minuk told the court the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba stripped Jovel of his medical privileges "within two hours of the conviction."

When asked by the judge whether Jovel was planning to practice again, Minuk responded: "With a conviction like this? it is unlikely he'll ever practise again."

Minuk also told the judge Jovel is currently being treated for prostate cancer, along with other health issues.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.caWelcome Guest! You Are Here:

Home Regional News EastOTTAWA  Steinbach-area MP Ted Falk sparked a ruckus Wednesday in Parliament when he blurted out his opposition to abortion. The Liberals have been quick to make hay of the Tory MPs remarks.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 9/5/2018 (1247 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  Steinbach-area MP Ted Falk sparked a ruckus Wednesday in Parliament when he blurted out his opposition to abortion. The Liberals have been quick to make hay of the Tory MPs remarks.

During question period, an NDP MP asked about access to abortion in rural areas  on which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government was already working to make sure "reproductive-health services, including abortions" are accessible in all provinces.

"We will always be unequivocal in standing up for a womans right to choose," Trudeau said, prompting Falk to yell: "Its not a right."

The House of Commons erupted into jeers as the Speaker called MPs to order. NDP MP Anne Minh-Thu Quach responded, "Mr. Speaker, its horrible what we just heard."

Conservative MP Ted Falk.

Neither Falks constituency nor his Hill offices responded to an afternoon interview request.

Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef asked the Speaker to have Falk withdraw his "offensive" comment, but the Speaker ruled such a move would overstep parliamentary rules, because it was "a question of debate."

The Speakers response prompted some MPs to cry "shame."

Winnipeg Centre MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette tweeted about the exchange shortly it happened, as did NDP MP Niki Ashton, who represents northern Manitoba. She called Falks comments "a chilling reminder that the fight for a womans right to choose is far from over in our country, too."

Monsefs predecessor, Labour Minister Patty Hajdu, tweeted: "This is the foundation of gender equality. It is indeed a right worth protecting."

On Thursday, anti-abortion activists will take to Parliament Hill for the annual March for Life event.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.caA program that has helped Concordia Hospital patients with extreme cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is expanding across the province.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/5/2018 (1247 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A program that has helped Concordia Hospital patients with extreme cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is expanding across the province.

The Concordia pilot, operational since 2015, connects COPD patients in their own homes with the educators and specialists who can help them manage the type of flare-ups that often land them in hospital.

Already, the program has expanded this year to include Seven Oaks General Hospital and Selkirk Regional Health Centre.

Brandon Regional Health Centre plans to launch its program in the coming weeks, with the goal of expanding it to cover the entire Prairie Mountain Health region. The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority hopes to bring St. Boniface Hospital on board this fall.

"This is a big deal," said Craig Hillier, regional manager of respiratory therapy with the WRHA.

COPD and bronchitis were among the most common reasons given for the three million acute inpatient hospitalizations catalogued across the country in 2016-17 by the Canadian Institute for Health Information  second only to childbirth.

In Manitoba, Hillier said, COPD ranks in the top five.

"It shortens your life expectancy and it shortens your quality of life," he said. "We know that every time you have an exacerbation, a flare-up of your COPD, that your lungs deteriorate and you dont get back to where you were before that."

Thats where the outreach program comes in.

The Concordia pilot started with one unit targeting the highest-risk patients  those people who get out of breath getting dressed or walking less than 30 metres, Hillier said. An education action plan would be created while the person was recovering in hospital and then handed over to a community partner upon discharge.

Then, the person would receive a form of home care: visits from respiratory therapists, nurses and physiotherapists, as warranted.

Hillier said the program was modified after the hugely successful Halifax-based INSPIRED program (Implementing a Novel and Supportive Program of Individualized care for patients and families Living with REspiratory Disease), which has been recognized as a leading Canadian practice for COPD care.

The results were incredibly positive, he said, and "it was a real eye-opener in terms of what we could do to keep people receiving good care and managing the disease well in the community."

In the Prairie Mountain Health region (which covers about 67,000 square kilometres including the cities of Brandon and Dauphin), those involved with the program are setting up region-specific policies and procedures, as well as training staff for a late spring launch at the Brandon Regional Health Centre, said Pamela McTavish, the regions co-project lead.

The hospital has not done COPD home visits, she said, but providers are looking forward to seeing the impact it has on patients daily lives. "Everyone is very excited."

The Interlake-Eastern Regional Health Authority launched its program at the Selkirk hospital in early April, said Karen Wood, the regional manager of home care and the home independence program. The hospital is looking to it as an important connector between the care someone receives in hospital and the care they receive once theyre discharged.

"They feel very supported in the hospital, they feel educated, but then they go home and they feel a little lost again," Wood said. "Its that continuation of good care."

While the Selkirk program is just a one-year pilot, she said the hospital is actively working on integrating it into the home-care support program it already has, so it can carry on after.

Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

In 2016, RiskAnalytica conducted a national and provincial analysis following the first pilot, which included Concordia.

Per the research firms estimates, the province could see 200 or so patients enrolled annually over the course of the first five years.

While that amounts to less than 0.5 per cent of Manitobans who have COPD, RiskAnalytica estimated the province would save an annual average of 500 ER visits, 300 hospitalizations and 2,800 hospital bed days. Those numbers are expected to go up the longer the program is in action.

The efficiencies are important, Hillier acknowledged, but so is the patient benefit.

"Patients reported that they felt better," he said. "Were really excited about being able to do something for them in their community, in their home, where theyre the safest and happiest, usually."

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.caIt was the Canadian version of Mark Zuckerbergs recent appearancebefore the U.S. Congress: two Facebook executives showed a lot of contrition when they testified last month before a parliamentary committee.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/5/2018 (1247 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

It was the Canadian version of Mark Zuckerbergs recent appearancebefore the U.S. Congress: two Facebook executives showed a lot of contrition when they testified last month before a parliamentary committee.

And like their American counterparts, Canadian lawmakers spent a lot of time berating Facebook for its past laxness with its users data. But few asked forward-thinking questions about another important problem with Facebook: how can the social media giant prevent bots and fake news from disrupting elections in Canada?

The same committee heard earlier testimony from Canadas Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien, who warned data from Facebook users in Canada could be used to influence the electoral process here, just as it has in the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere.

Computer-generated propaganda

The role of political bots in Canada has been examined by University of Ottawas Elizabeth Dubois and Concordia Universitys Fenwick McKelvey. In their groundbreaking report, they show computational propaganda could be "creating the conditions for a voter suppression campaign resembling the Robocalling Scandal."

During his testimony before the parliamentary committee, Kevin Chan, Facebook Canadas head of public policy, said his company is using artificial intelligence to spot fake accounts used in the past to flood the social network with politically dubious posts. He also said Facebook is rolling out advertising transparency measures that will double-check the identity of political advertisers on its platform.

But these efforts only address part of the problem. Because, as the NDPs Charlie Angus pointed out during Chans testimony: "Facebook is the news for the vast majority of people."

The leading source of news

Indeed, for several years, its been clear Canadians get most of their information through Facebook. As a journalism professor, Ive been curious to know exactly what information reaches people on Facebook.

With print, radio, television and even online news sites, researchers can easily measure the space or airtime devoted to politics, sports, arts or any subject. This type of media content analysis has been done for decades.

In the late 19th century, German sociologist Max Weber saw a link between media content and the "cultural temperature" of society. American political scientist Harold Lasswell later constructed the communication model at the heart of most media content analysis in the 20th century with the following formula, coined in 1948:

"Who, said what, in which channel, to whom, with what effect?"

But this sort of content analysis is impossible to do on Facebook. Only Facebook knows who said what to whom. And only Facebook has the power to measure to what effect.

In 2014, I tried to figure out who said what to whom on Facebook. I devised a research project to determine what kind of information Facebook selects for people to see on their news feeds.

Where does Facebook news come from?

My plan was simple. I wanted to ask a representative sample of Facebook users in my home province of Quebec to let me record, three or four times a day, the Top 25 items appearing on their news feeds. I then wanted to examine what kind of news people get when they connect to Facebook: which media outlets it comes from, what content is posted and what proportion of the Top 25 items in the news feeds was actually news.

Of course, I would have collected data only with the participants consent. But that wasnt enough. I also needed Facebooks permission. So I asked them.

I spoke with Kent Foster, who was just starting as Senior Program Manager of Academic Relations with Facebook. He asked me to send a detailed research proposal, which I did.

A couple of weeks later, Foster replied:

"Your proposal was circulated and thoroughly reviewed internally by several teams. The subject of your research touches on a very sensitive topic of data privacy. While I explained that you are proposing to obtain consent from participants in your study, there is no internal group that is interested in supporting this type of collaboration."

Back then, I didnt make much of this refusal. But the Cambridge Analytica scandal shed new light on my aborted research project.

The app at the heart of the scandal, developed by University of Cambridge researcher Aleksandr Kogan, was very different from what I had in mind in 2014. This Is Your Digital Life collected data about you through your friends. Even if you never installed it, but one of your friends did, it could know everything about you.

In contrast, apart from participants demographic information (age, gender, location, education) to help me build a representative sample, my proposed project didnt tap into the rich set of personal and sensitive data made available by Facebook. The type of data I wanted to collect was limited to what appears on ones news feed.

Facebook protecting itself

After the Cambridge Analytica fiasco hit, I reopened Fosters email and read it with fresh eyes. The "very sensitive topic of data privacy" he was writing about now seems bogus. In fact, it appears Facebook was not protecting its users. It was protecting itself.

I wasnt interested in users personal data. I was interested in Facebooks data. I now believe Facebook refused my request because accessing this data would have allowed me to understand how its news feed algorithm worked.

Facebook recently announced it was open for research. It wants to let scholars assess social medias impact on elections. An independent commission is to be set up to review research proposals and act as a trusted third party between scholars and the social media company.

Great news! I will resubmit my proposal and maybe enrich it by looking at links between a users activity on Facebook and the content of their news feed. Facebooks answer will be telling in how transparent it has truly become. In my opinion, it should let academics examine the raw data it sends to Canadian voters.

Want to get a head start on your day? Get the days breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Lisa Eadicicco argues in Time magazine that in order to protect its users, Facebook needs to be more transparent. I couldnt agree more.

Transparency breeds trust. And trust (by its users) in the long run benefits Facebook. But if Facebook doesnt open its doors to researchers, Canadian politicians should force the door open through legislation.

It might be too late to do it for the Ontario election in June, but it surely can be worked out for the Quebec election in October. At the very least, it should be possible for the next federal election in October 2019.

Only then will we really be able to measure who says what to whom and to what effect in Canada.

Jean-Hugues Roy is a professor at the school of media, Universite du Quebec a Montreal.

This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca.13 Wall Street equities research analysts have issued "buy," "hold," and "sell" ratings for Munchener Ruckvers in the last year. There are currently 1 sell rating, 5 hold ratings and 7 buy ratings for the stock. The consensus among Wall Street equities research analysts is that investors should "hold" Munchener Ruckvers stock. A hold rating indicates that analysts believe investors should maintain any existing positions they have in MEURV, but not buy additional shares or sell existing shares.

View analyst ratings for Munchener Ruckvers or view top-rated stocks.The following companies are subsidiares of Eastman Chemical: BP - Aviation Turbine Oil Business, CP Films Vertriebs GmbH, Commonwealth Laminating & Coating (Hong Kong) Limited, Commonwealth Laminating & Coating Inc, Crown Operations International LLC, Dynaloy, Eastman Administracion S.A. de C.V., Eastman Chemical (Barbados) SRL, Eastman Chemical (China) Co. Ltd., Eastman Chemical (China) Co. Ltd. - Guangzhou Branch, Eastman Chemical (China) Co. Ltd. - JingAn Branch, Eastman Chemical (Gibraltar) Limited, Eastman Chemical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Eastman Chemical (PPU) Pte. Ltd., Eastman Chemical AMI GmbH, Eastman Chemical AMI LLC, Eastman Chemical AP Holdings B.V., Eastman Chemical Adhesives (Hong Kong) Limited, Eastman Chemical Advanced Materials B.V., Eastman Chemical Argentina S.R.L., Eastman Chemical Asia Pacific Pte Ltd-Indonesia Rep Office, Eastman Chemical Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Eastman Chemical Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. - Vietnam Representative Office, Eastman Chemical Australia Pty LTD - New Zealand Branch, Eastman Chemical Australia Pty. Ltd., Eastman Chemical B.V., Eastman Chemical B.V. - Czech Republic Representative Office, Eastman Chemical B.V. - Denmark Branch, Eastman Chemical B.V. - Filiale Italiana, Eastman Chemical B.V. - France Branch, Eastman Chemical B.V. - Hungarian Commercial Representative Office, Eastman Chemical B.V. - Poland Representative Office, Eastman Chemical B.V. - South Africa Representative Office, Eastman Chemical B.V. Taiwan Branch, Eastman Chemical B.V. The Hague Zug Branch, Eastman Chemical Canada Inc., Eastman Chemical Company Investments Inc., Eastman Chemical EMEA B.V., Eastman Chemical Europe Middle East and Africa LLC, Eastman Chemical Europe S.a.r.l., Eastman Chemical Fibers IP GmbH, Eastman Chemical Fibers IP LLC, Eastman Chemical Finance B.V., Eastman Chemical Finance CN S.a.r.l., Eastman Chemical Finance EUR S.a.r.l., Eastman Chemical Finance GBP S.a.r.l., Eastman Chemical Finance SGD S.a.r.l., Eastman Chemical Finance USD S.a.r.l., Eastman Chemical Financial Corporation, Eastman Chemical GDL S.a.r.l., Eastman Chemical Germany Holdings GmbH & Co. KG, Eastman Chemical Germany Management GmbH & Co. KG, Eastman Chemical Germany Verwaltungs-GmbH, Eastman Chemical Global Holdings LLC, Eastman Chemical Global Holdings S.a.r.l., Eastman Chemical GmbH, Eastman Chemical HK Limited, Eastman Chemical Holdings do Brasil Ltda., Eastman Chemical Hong Kong B.V., Eastman Chemical Iberica S.L., Eastman Chemical India Private Limited, Eastman Chemical Intermediates (Hong Kong) Limited, Eastman Chemical International GmbH, Eastman Chemical International Holdings B.V., Eastman Chemical International LP LLC, Eastman Chemical Japan Ltd., Eastman Chemical Korea B.V., Eastman Chemical Korea Ltd., Eastman Chemical Latin America Inc., Eastman Chemical Ltd., Eastman Chemical Ltd. - Australia Branch, Eastman Chemical Ltd. - Singapore Branch, Eastman Chemical Ltd. - Taiwan Branch, Eastman Chemical Luxembourg Finance S.a.r.l., Eastman Chemical Luxembourg Holdings 1 LLC, Eastman Chemical Luxembourg Holdings 1 S.a.r.l., Eastman Chemical Luxembourg Holdings 2 S.a.r.l., Eastman Chemical Luxembourg Holdings LLC, Eastman Chemical Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., Eastman Chemical Malaysia B.V., Eastman Chemical Middelburg B.V., Eastman Chemical Netherlands Limited, Eastman Chemical Products Singapore Pte. Ltd., Eastman Chemical Regional UK, Eastman Chemical Resins Inc., Eastman Chemical S.C.S., Eastman Chemical Singapore Pte. Ltd., Eastman Chemical Switzerland GmbH, Eastman Chemical Technology BVBA, Eastman Chemical Texas City Inc., Eastman Chemical US Finance LLC, Eastman Chemical Uruapan S.A. de C.V., Eastman Chemical Workington Limited, Eastman Chemical do Brasil Ltda., Eastman Cogen Management L.L.C., Eastman Cogeneration L.P., Eastman Company UK Limited, Eastman Fibers Korea Limited, Eastman Fibers Singapore Pte. Ltd., Eastman Foundation, Eastman Global Holdings Inc., Eastman International Holdings LLC, Eastman International Management Company, Eastman Italia S.r.l., Eastman Kimya Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Eastman LAR Distribucion S. de R.L. de C.V., Eastman Mazzucchelli Hong Kong Limited, Eastman Mazzucchelli Plastics (Shenzhen) Company Limited, Eastman Servicios Corporativos S.A. de C.V., Eastman Spain L.L.C., Eastman Specialties Corporation, Eastman Specialties Holdings Corporation, Eastman Specialties OU, Eastman Specialties S.a.r.l., Eastman Specialties Wuhan Youji Chemical Co. Ltd, Eastman de Argentina SRL, Ecuataminco S.A., Flexsys America L.P., Flexsys America LLC, Flexsys Chemicals (M) Sdn Bhd, Flexsys K.K., Flexsys Rubber Chemicals Limited, Flexsys Verkauf GmbH, Flexsys Verkauf GmbH - France Branch, Flexsys Verwaltungs- und Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Genovique Specialties Corporation, HDK Industries Inc., Holston Defense Corporation, Huper Optik (GP) L.L.C., Huper Optik International Pte. Ltd., Huper Optik U.S.A. L.P., Industriepark Nienburg GmbH, Kingsport Hotel L.L.C., Knowlton Technologies LLC, Monchem International LLC, Mustang Pipeline Company, Nanjing Yangzi Eastman Chemical Ltd, Novomatrix Inc., Novomatrix International Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Qilu Eastman Specialty Chemicals Ltd, S E Investment LLC, Sakra Hyco Pte. Ltd., Sakra Island Carbon Dioxide Pte Ltd, Scandiflex do Brasil Ltda., Solchem LLC, Solchem Netherlands C.V., Solutia (Thailand) Ltd., Solutia Brasil Ltda., Solutia Canada Inc., Solutia Chemicals France S.a.r.l., Solutia Chemicals India Private Limited, Solutia Chemicals India Private Limited - Branch, Solutia Deutschland GmbH, Solutia Europe BVBA - Portugal Representative Office, Solutia Europe BVBA - Russia Representative Office, Solutia Europe SPRL/BVBA, Solutia Greater China LLC, Solutia Hong Kong Limited, Solutia Inc., Solutia International Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Solutia Italia S.r.l., Solutia Japan Limited, Solutia Performance Products (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Solutia Performance Products Solutions Ltd., Solutia Singapore Pte. Ltd., Solutia Solar GmbH, Solutia Therminol Co. Ltd. Suzhou, Solutia Tlaxcala S.A. de C.V., Solutia UK Holdings Limited, Solutia UK Investments Limited, Solutia UK Limited, Solutia Venezuela S.R.L., Southwall Europe GmbH, Southwall Insulating Glass LLC, Southwall Technologies Inc., St. Gabriel CC Company LLC, Sterling Chemicals Inc, SunTek Australia Pty. Ltd., SunTek Films Canada Inc., SunTek UK Limited, TX Energy LLC, Taminco Argentina S.A., Taminco BVBA, Taminco BVBA - France Rep Office, Taminco BVBA - Hungarian Commercial Representative Office, Taminco BVBA - Oficina de Representacion en Espana, Taminco BVBA - The Philippines, Taminco Chile S.p.A, Taminco Choline Chloride (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Taminco Corporation, Taminco Finland Oy, Taminco Germany GmbH, Taminco Global Chemical LLC, Taminco Group BVBA, Taminco Group Holdings S.a.r.l., Taminco Holding Netherlands B.V., Taminco Intermediate LLC, Taminco Italia S.r.l., Taminco Limitada, Taminco Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Taminco US LLC, Taminco Uruguay S.A., Taminco de Guatemala S.A., Taminco de Honduras S.A. de C.V., Taminco do Brasil Comercio e Industria de Aminas Ltda., Taminco do Brasil Produtos Quimicos Ltda., Te An Ling Tian (Nanjing) Fine Chemical Co. Ltd., TetraVitae Bioscience, V-Kool International Pte. Ltd., and Yixing Taminco Feed Additives Co. Ltd..Theresa Mays Conservative government suffered another defeat in the House of Lords on Tuesday, as peers voted for an amendment to the European Union (EU) withdrawal bill. They said that remaining in the European Economic Area (EEA) should be a Brexit negotiating objective.

The EAA, which includes countries such as Norway and Iceland, is a flexible version of the single market offering most of the benefits of a customs union without being subject to institutions such as the European Court of Justice or the common agriculture or fisheries policies.

Earlier in the day, the Lords also voted to remove the Brexit date of March 29, 2019, from the withdrawal bill and agreed on an amendment to allow the UK to replicate any new EU law in domestic law and continue to participate in EU agencies after Brexit.

The 247-to-218 vote in favour of the EAA amendment is being described as an unexpected triumph for a cross-party group that included the Liberal-Democrat partys 100 or so peers, 83 Labouritesnearly half the partys totalwho defied the whip, 17 Conservative rebels and most crossbench (unaligned) members.

The defeats came on the final day of debate on the bill in the Lords. It will be sent back to the House of Commons for further discussion, and the government hopes it will appear on the statute book before the end of May.

A Department for Exiting the European Union spokesperson said, The referendum was a vote to take control of our borders, laws and money. Ongoing participation in the EEA would mean having to implement new EU legislation automatically and in its entirety without having a say on how it is formulatedand it would also mean continued free movement. We will now consider the implications of this decision.

The defeat, the 13th so far for the government, is a major setback for May, who was forced to agree to a humiliating deal with the EU on the proposed Brexit transition period. She abandoned all her red lines and agreed to abide by European Court of Justice rulings, to continue paying into the EU budget and ensure EU citizens full rights, including free movement, for a number of years, whilst also agreeing that the UK will have no representation or say in EU decisions taken during the transition.

Since then, for fear of splitting the Conservative Party, she has ruled out a customs union but prevaricated over two possible post-Brexit trading models proffered by her cabinet Brexit subcommittee. One is a customs partnership under which the UK would collect EU import tariffs on behalf of Brussels: the other is a highly streamlined maximum facilitation, or max fac customs check arrangement favoured by the hard Brexiteers.

Last week, May failed yet again to make a final decision on the preferred customs option after a Brexit subcommittee meeting during which Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, and the International Trade secretary, Liam Fox, spoke forcefully against the customs partnership.

May, along with Chancellor Philip Hammond, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley, and Business Secretary Greg Clark, supports the partnership proposal. On Sunday, Clark said that customs checks would be a nightmare for big business. Frictionless trade was something that weve made a public commitment to and we need to make sure that we get that right, he declared.

Clarkes comments were anathema to the hard Brexiteers who thought they had extinguished the partnership model, referring to it as a dead parrot.

On a visit to Washington Tuesday, shortly before the EAA vote, Johnson launched a tirade against the partnership proposal as a crazy system whereby you end up collecting the tariffs on behalf of the EU at the UK frontier . If the EU decides to impose punitive tariffs on something the UK wants to bring in cheaply theres nothing you can do.

Thats not taking back control of your trade policy, its not taking back control of your laws, its not taking back control of your borders and its actually not taking back control of your money either, because tariffs would get paid centrally back to Brussels, he said.

May was not strong enough to publicly rebuke Johnson, but a Number 10 spokesperson repeated that the proposal was still an option. Dominic Grieve, the Conservative former attorney general and a backbencher in favour of continuing customs union membership, leapt in to declare, I dont think [Johnson] is in any way inhibited by normal propriety in government.

I can see why, in view of the difficulties and the divisions, [Mays silence] may be an exercise in restraint on her part but it doesnt make it any more desirable that a cabinet minister should express himself in the pages of the Daily Mail in this fashion.

Grieve suggested that there are an overwhelming number of members of parliament who think that a continuing relationship with the EU, facilitating frictionless trade, is absolutely essential for our economic interests.

The EAA vote is also a crisis for Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose peers were under orders not to support the amendment, which was tabled by a Labour peer, Lord Alli.

The issue of Brexit has long been a focus of the efforts of Labours right wing to oust Corbyn. They will now increase pressure on him to endorse membership of the Single European Market and a second referendum on British withdrawal from the EU.

The Blairites not only centre their hopes to arrest Brexit on encouraging sympathetic Tory MPs to rebel against May when parliament votes on the end deal. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has pleaded openly with the Tories to recognise that the defeat of Brexit is the best means of preventing a Corbyn-led government. Brexit would cause major damage to Britains geo-political standing and the Wests ability to challenge the rise of competitorsmost notably China and Russiahe has said.

Following the EAA vote, Chuka Umunna, the Labour MP who heads a pro-Remain cross-party grouping that includes senior Tories and business groups, demanded the Corbyn leadership stop dithering and state its position. The time for constructive ambiguity is overour members and our voters will be delighted with this clear signal that we will not go along with this Tory Brexit, he declared.

Labour MP Owen Smith, whom Corbyn was forced to sack from his front bench in March after he called for a second referendum, tweeted, Despite the Whip, Labour Peers voted in significant numbers tonight and have won the vote to keep the option of Single Market membership on the tableensuring the Commons will now have a vote to do the same. Democracy in action!

The Peoples Vote campaign, which is calling for a referendum on the final Brexit deal, called both May and Johnsons proposals unworkable. It issued a statement from Labour MP Rupa Huq saying, To put jobs first, to protect the Irish peace process and to give our young people a future we should stay in the customs union and single market and put any final Brexit deal to a peoples vote.Tuesdays decision by President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear agreement has pushed the Middle East to the brink of a catastrophic regional conflict that could rapidly draw in the major powers.

Within minutes of Trumps announcement, Israeli fighter jets violated Syrian airspace to launch a missile strike on a government base close to Damascus. The strikes caused the deaths of 15 people, including at least seven Iranian military personnel stationed in the country to support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The situation escalated further late Wednesday, as reports emerged of Israeli shelling of Syrian army positions from the Golan Heights. Rocket sirens sounded in the north and explosions were heard. According to the Golan Regional Council, several towns in the region were targeted by rocket fire.

The Israeli military released a statement early Thursday accusing Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds force of firing 20 rockets at army border posts in the Golan. It claimed several projectiles had been intercepted and reported no injuries.

According to the Syrian state news agency, Sana, Israeli war planes began firing missiles at targets near Damascus early Thursday, soon after the alleged Iranian attack. As of this writing, the extent of these air raids and whether they caused any casualties remain unclear.

Tel Aviv justified Tuesdays air strike with the unsubstantiated claim that Tehran was preparing to strike Israel in retaliation for a raid on the T4 airbase in April that claimed the lives of nine Iranians. The absurdity of such allegations is obvious, given that Iran would have nothing to gain from being the first to launch an attack just as Trump was set to announce his decision on the Iran nuclear agreement.

Everything points to the Israeli attack having been closely coordinated with the US. On Sunday, Israeli media began reporting unverified allegations of an Iranian plot to strike targets in Israel. Then on Tuesday, CNN reported that the Pentagon was concerned about alleged preparations for an Iranian strike.

In light of this, it is all but certain that the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu, informed in advance of Trumps decision, planned the aggressive strike on the Syrian airbase to coincide with the US announcement, with the aim of provoking a response from Iran that would serve as the pretext for a wider military assault.

The air strike was accompanied by a campaign to whip up a war fever in Israel. Amid the reports of an immanent Iranian attack, the military revealed that it had deployed additional batteries for Israels Iron Dome missile defence shield in the north, while the US embassy in Tel Aviv prohibited US government employees from traveling to the Golan Heights without prior authorization.

Speaking from Moscow, where he traveled to secure Russian assent to Israels continued targeting of Iranians in Syria, Netanyahu preposterously compared the Tehran regime to the Nazis. He belligerently asserted Israel's right to defend itself from Iranian aggression, and alleged that Iranian forces were using Syria as a base to move troops and lethal weapons into position for an attack.

Underscoring that Tuesdays air strike is merely a foretaste of what is to come, an Israeli government defence official told Haaretz, The strikes on the Iranian missiles in Syria are a drop in the ocean. Even the army understands that this wont prevent missiles and other systems from arriving in the area and were seeing that happen.

Trumps abandonment of the Iranian deal is only the latest in a long line of reckless actions by US imperialism that have emboldened the unstable Zionist regime to provoke a military conflagration across the Middle East.

Israel's bombing of Iranian targets inside Syria has been intensified following the US air strike on pro-Assad forces in early February that killed dozens of Russian military personnel in Deir Ezzor province.

Over the past month alone, Israel has struck inside Syria on at least three separate occasions, including Tuesdays strike, killing dozens of Iranians.

Washington is encouraging Israel to go on the offensive as it prepares for war with Iran. In Syria, where the US has sought, in collaboration with Islamist rebels, to overthrow the pro-Iranian Assad regime for over seven years, killing hundreds of thousands of Syrians in the process, American forces are focused on thwarting attempts by Iran to open up a land bridge from Tehran to Damascus. To this end, US air power and ground forces have been directed towards holding territory in the east of Syria near the Iraqi borderterritory that is also home to much of the countrys oil reserves.

In its drive to consolidate control over the energy-rich Middle East, Washington is determined to confront Russia in Syria, even at the risk of inciting a conflict fought with nuclear weapons.

Trump made clear in Tuesdays White House address announcing Washingtons withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement that plans for war with Iran are far advanced. He announced that the highest level of economic sanctions would be imposed against the country, indicating that the next step in an escalation of the conflict would involve military force.

That Trump is aware of this fact was clear from the tone of his speech. The president of a country that has waged virtually uninterrupted war over the past quarter-century in the Middle East and Central Asia denounced Tehran as the leading state sponsor of terror in the world. In language usually reserved for enemy nations during a war, Trump ranted against Tehran's malign and sinister influence across the Middle East.

On Wednesday, Trump issued a bellicose threat to Iran, warning that it would face very severe consequences if it restarted its nuclear programme.

Under these conditions, the bourgeois-clerical regime in Tehran, confronting a deepening crisis, may conclude that its only option is to fight back. Representatives of the hard-line faction, including the head of the powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps, have already proclaimed the nuclear accord dead and dismissed claims by the European powers that it can be revived without Washington.

While a clash between Israel and Iran poses the most immediate war threat in the Middle East, Trump's torpedoing of the Iran deal has further destabilised an already explosive region. Apart from Israel, his announcement received endorsements from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two countries bitterly hostile to Iranian influence in the Persian Gulf. Riyadh has waged a genocidal war in Yemen since 2015 against Houthi rebels it claims are backed by Tehran.

In a speech last May, Trump called for Saudi Arabia to take a leading role in the formation of an anti-Iranian alliance across the region. His administration, following from where Obama left off, has supplied weaponry and intelligence to enable Saudi aircraft to continue their murderous bombing raids in Yemen, which have killed tens of thousands of civilians.

Just days prior to Trump's announcement, it was revealed that US special forces have been operating in Yemen since December 2017.

As oil rose to over $77 in the wake of Trumps Iran announcement, Saudi officials declared they would consult with the UAE on increasing oil production to stabilise prices, a move that would severely impact Iran.

Seizing on missiles fired into Saudi Arabia by Houthi rebels Wednesday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir blamed Iran for the attack, which he said amounted to a declaration of war. Iran has to be held accountable for this, he ominously declared. We will find the right way and at the right time to respond to this  We are trying to avoid at all costs direct military action with Iran, but Iran's behavior such as this cannot continue.

Al-Jubeir also vowed that should Tehran restart its nuclear programme, Riyadh would take steps to acquire nuclear weapons.The North Korean regime headed by Kim Jong-un handed over three American prisoners to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the conclusion of talks in Pyongyang yesterday, as a sign of good faith ahead of talks with President Donald Trump. Trump hailed the prisoner release as another step forward in his administrations push to bring North Korea under US influence and transform the balance of forces in East Asia to the strategic and military detriment of China.

The three prisoners, all Americans of Korean background, were arrested in North Korea on allegations of espionage. Kim Dong-chol, a Christian missionary in his 60s, was arrested in 2015 and sentenced to 10 years hard labour in a typical North Korean show trial. Tony Kim, who was working at the privately-operated, largely Christian-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), was arrested in April 2017. Kim Hak-song, another Christian missionary who claimed he intended to establish an experimental farm at PUST, was arrested in May 2017. Pompeo reported that the men are in reasonable health.

According to a tweet sent by Trump, Pompeo and Kim Jong-un agreed on a still undisclosed date and venue for a meeting of the US and North Korean leaders. The talks will most likely take place next month at the Peace House building on the North-South Korean border, where Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a summit on April 27.

The two Koreas signed a declaration committing to cultural and economic cooperation; the signing of a formal peace treaty to end the 1950-53 Korean War; and, through complete denuclearisation, a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

Ahead of talks with Kim, the Trump administration has set out the US terms for a rapprochement with North Korea. They are, in Pompeos words, the permanent, verifiable, irreversible dismantling of North Koreas weapons of mass destruction program  without delay.

Ostensibly, this would involve North Korea shutting down its reactors, which are capable of producing weapons grade material, and handing over to US agencies its small arsenal of nuclear warheads. North Korea is believed to have dozens of facilities connected with the nuclear and missile programs. Hundreds of US or United Nations inspectors would have to be inserted into the country to carry out verification.

North Korea been brought to the brink of economic collapse by sanctions, above all because China, for its own reasons, has assisted the US to enforce them. The Pyongyang regime is signalling that it is prepared to submit to Washingtons demands in exchange for guarantees that its corrupt ruling clique remains in power and its wealth is protected. It is indicating, however, that it will propose a timeframe for so-called denuclearisation that stretches out over a protracted period, even decades.

North Korea also wants a formal peace treaty with the United States and some form of guarantee that it will not be subjected to future aggression. The ruling clique in Pyongyang will most likely ask for substantial financial pay-offs from South Korea in exchange for opening up North Korea to investment and offering up the North Korean working class as a brutally repressed source of cheap labour for transnational corporations.

Beijing is stepping up its diplomatic efforts to pressure Pyongyang not to make any concessions to Washington that undermine Chinese interests. While formally endorsing the proposed talks, it recognises that behind the moves by US imperialism toward a rapprochement with North Korea is its broader strategy of preventing China from developing as a rival centre of global economic and military power.

The day before meeting with Pompeo, Kim Jong-un was flown to the northern Chinese city of Dalian for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinpinghis second meeting with Xi in two months.

A particular concern of China is the THAAD missile defence systems that the US has deployed in Japan and South Korea on the pretext of providing protection against North Korean attacks. In reality, the THAAD batteries are part of the US preparations for a potential nuclear war with China. In the event of a US first strike, the anti-missile systems are intended to shoot down any nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) launched in retaliation by the Chinese military.

There is little doubt that Beijing will have sought to pressure Pyongyang to make the removal of the THAAD system one of the conditions for any agreement over denuclearisation.

Kims statements in Dalian were markedly at odds with the Trump administrations rhetoric about a rapid dismantling of North Koreas nuclear weapons capabilities. He referred instead to a step-by-step and synchronised measures that will ultimately realise denuclearisation and lasting peace on the peninsula. [emphasis added]

Historically, North Korea has defined denuclearisation as meaning the withdrawal of American forces from South Korea and the end of the US-South Korean military alliance.

Russia, which also borders North Korea, is seeking to influence the outcome of talks with the US as well. Its foreign minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to visit Pyongyang before any summit between Trump and Kim. Moscow has formally indicated that any agreement on the Korean peninsula must be made through the six party talks that involve China, Russia and Japan, as well as the US and North and South Korea.

The meeting between Trump and Kim could quickly break down. To a great extent, Trump has staked the domestic credibility of his already besieged administration on North Korea submitting to a rapid denuclearisation.

The North Korean state media has condemned the Trump administrations public boasting that Pyongyang was pressured into the talks by sanctions and American strength. A Korean Central News Agency editorial asserted that the agreement to hold talks was an expression of self-confidence as it [North Korea] has acquired everything it desires.

This weeks Trump administration decision to renege on the 2015 agreement with Iran has only heightened the prospect that the US-North Korea talks will collapse into mutual recriminations.

The North Korean regime has no reason to believe that any pact it makes with Trump will be honoured by the current or future administrations. As the WSWS Perspective noted yesterday: If and when US strategic priorities change, or circumstances allow, Washington will invoke the most flimsy and contrived pretext to jettison a Korean denuclearisation agreement.

If Pyongyang, with the tacit backing of both China and Russia, refuses to submit to US dictates, the prospect of war on the Korean peninsula will re-emerge with renewed intensity.The fight by New Zealand nurses and other public hospital workers for decent wages and conditions is in a critical phase. Around 27,000 are voting this month on the New Zealand Nurses Organisations (NZNO) proposal for two 24 hour strikes in July. These would be the first nationwide strike by nurses in 29 years.

NZNO members have twice rejected a 2 percent wage increase presented to them by the union which would have been outstripped by soaring costs for housing, transport, food and electricity. Wages have been effectively frozen for at least a decade. A registered nurses starting salary is just $47,000, about 30 percent lower than in Australia. Many health workers have demanded an increase of around 20 percent.

The nurses struggle is part of an upsurge of the working class internationally against unceasing attacks on jobs, public services and living standards in the years following the 2008 financial crash. In the US tens of thousands of teachers have joined strikes across several states. Protests and strikes have erupted in many countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. In the Pacific region health workers recently walked out in New Caledonia, while Tahiti experienced a general strike in February.

Since New Zealands Labour Party formed a coalition government last October there have been strikes by rail, port and bus workers and protests by midwives and nurses against low pay. Teachers are also demanding significant wage increases.

The urgent task is to unite the entire working class in an industrial and political fight against austerity. This requires a conscious struggle against all the parties in parliament and the trade unions, which have for decades suppressed any resistance to pro-business restructuring.

The NZNO has no principled opposition to healthcare cuts. It is currently negotiating with the government in a misnamed independent panel, which aims to avoid a strike and impose a sellout agreement. As in the recent rail disputes in New Zealand and New South Wales, the nurses union has put forward no specific claim for a pay increase or higher staffing levels, leaving the government to decide what offer it considers affordable.

Like trade unions throughout the world, the NZNO is led by a privileged bureaucracy with ties to private businesses that benefit from the underfunding of public health. Former NZNO leader Geoff Annals, who is representing the union in the negotiations, is chief executive of the not for profit insurer Accuro Health. He also chairs the private health insurance peak body, the Health Funds Association.

The NZNO has promoted illusions in Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, declaring in a Facebook post that having a female leader who is pregnant is for many a welcome sign of progress.

The notion that a government led by a woman will be more sympathetic to nurses is false. The fundamental division in society is not gender, but class. Ardern, like former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark, represents the capitalist elite and has nothing in common with working-class women.

The government has no intention of addressing the healthcare crisis. It has refused to raise taxes on corporations and committed to keeping public spending at the same level as the 20082017 National Party government. Health Minister David Clark has admitted that more than $14 billion is needed to repair and build new hospitals over the next decade, but the government has only committed $10 billion.

Labours promise to reduce patient fees for doctor visits by $10 will be delayed. Clark also indicated nurses will not receive pay equity with workers in similar male-dominated jobs in the current term of government.

The government promised to reduce poverty and record homelessness, which have placed great pressure on health services. But instead of building tens of thousands of public houses, the government will spend tens of billions of dollars to upgrade the military and expand the police, in preparation for war and social unrest.

Since the 1980s the public health system has been starved of funding by Labour and National Party governments alike. Public funding as a proportion of total health spending shrank from 88 percent in 1980 to 77 percent by 2010.

The 19841990 Labour government of Prime Minister David Lange launched a sweeping pro-market agenda. Taxes were slashed for the wealthy and corporations, while government services, including forestry, rail and telecommunications, were prepared for privatisation, with tens of thousands of job cuts.

Labour closed dozens of hospitals and began privatising aged care. Patient charges were introduced for prescription medicines. Nurses tried to fight back after their wages were frozen, holding their first-ever nationwide strike in February 1989. Then-Health Minister Helen Clark instructed health boards to work within budgets that were being slashed by 3 percent.

Despite widespread public support, after just one 24-hour strike the nurses union dropped its demand for a $30 per week pay increase and settled for $6 to $12, about 2 percent.

The unions betrayals paved the way for more hospital closures and other attacks by the 1990s National Party government and the 19992008 Labour government of Helen Clark. Private hospitals were expanded, while tens of thousands of people languished on public surgery waiting lists. Labours promise to close the gender pay gap in the public sector, including health, proved to be empty: the gap remained virtually unchanged in 2009.

Health workers are being compelled to organise independently of the pro-capitalist unions. The Facebook group, New Zealand, please hear our voice, established in early March by anonymous nurses, called nationwide protests on May 12. Many nurses used the forum to call for a strike and denounce the union bureaucracy.

The group administrators, however, have severely restricted discussion, deleting many comments critical of the NZNO and the Labour Party. They have censored posts of World Socialist Web Site articles to prevent nurses from accessing socialist analysis of their struggle.

This attack on the ability of nurses to democratically discuss their dispute is aimed at subordinating them to the union and its perspective of making futile appeals to the government. Group administrators have publicly stated that they have very similar goals to the union. On Saturday they will present a petition calling on Ardern to increase healthcare funding, staffing and wages by unspecified amounts.

The Socialist Equality Group calls on health workers to break decisively from the Labour Party, the trade unions and their apologists and establish rank-and-file committees controlled by the workers themselves. These committees will coordinate with other sections of the working class who are coming into struggle against austerity, including workers in Australia, the Pacific and internationally.

This fight requires, above all, a party based on socialism and internationalism. Free, high-quality healthcare is incompatible with capitalism, in which everything is subordinated to the accumulation of private profit. Tens of billions of dollars must be redirected from the military and the rich to expand the health system. The banks and major industries must be nationalised and placed under democratic control.

The SEG urges workers who agree with this perspective to join us.About 1,000 teachers and paraprofessionals in Pueblo, Colorado continued their walkout for the third day on Wednesday. For Colorado educators who are fighting the effects of years of de-funding public education alongside their counterparts across many states, Teacher Appreciation Weekobserved this week throughout the USrang particularly hollow this year.

This is the first strike in the state since 1994 and the first ever for Pueblo, where teachers had worked without a contract since last August.

On Tuesday, nearly 1,000-strong, educators and their supporters picketed the District 60 administration building and held a lively rally. And on Wednesday several hundred teachers protested at Mineral Place Park. Carrying signs including On strike for my students, Support Public Education, Do you work your best when you work for peanuts? and Highly qualified, poorly paid, the teachers were also joined by many students.

We would rather be in school. Sometimes you dont always want to be there, but for these teachers who pour everything into us, we should show our support and pour everything into them as well, said Palo, a sophomore.

The Colorado Education Association (CEA), the Colorado Paraprofessional Education Association (CPEA), and two administrators from District 60 addressed the Wednesday rally, all parties hypocritically claiming they supported the educators. The fact is the district is adamant in refusing to budge from its Friday offer; a miniscule one-time bonus of roughly $1,000 per teacher for this school year, and a cost of living adjustment of 2.5 percent and a monthly stipend of $50 next year to supposedly offset skyrocketing health care premiums. These scraps were previously rejected by the rank and file in two separate votes.

Moreover, the district said it would open Haaff Elementary to all students and four high schools to online students on Wednesday. One teacher angrily described this as a type of scabbing explaining to the World Socialist Web Site that the aim was to deplete the substitute teachers pool and maximize pressure on strikers.

For its part, the CEA sought to prevent the strike. As in teacher struggles in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona, it was the initiative of rank-and-file teachers that forced the strike action, in this case by means of a series of sickouts. When the CEA was unable to quash the rebellion, they sought to isolate it. Despite the fact that on April 26-27as Arizona teachers carried out a statewide strikemore than 10,000 Colorado teachers walked out to demonstrate at the capitol, the union did everything in its power to prevent a statewide walkout in Colorado.

The CEA has limited its demands to insultingly inadequate sums. It has asked that the 2 percent increase be in the form of a cost-of-living adjustment and a $30 per month health insurance payment this year. It has pointedly refused to raise any demands to address the statewide per-pupil funding crisis, or to impinge on the profits of big business in any way. Colorados major profit-takers included military contractor Lockheed Martin, energy companies Newmont Mining and Xoom Energy, telecommunications giant Ultra Mobile, and financial services companies Optima Tax Relief, Quick Bridge Funding, Goldco Precious Metals and Access Point Financial.

As was done in the betrayal of the 60,000-strong Arizona teachers strike and the West Virginia and Oklahoma strikes, the union has sought to divert the energy of teachers away from expanding their struggle and uniting with other sections of workers in favor of promoting Democratic Party candidates. In Colorado, this has taken the form of advocating for gubernatorial candidate Cary Kennedy (also endorsed by the Colorado AFT), whose program calls for support to charter schools and standardized testing.

The Democratic Party has long spearheaded the assault on public education in Colorado, most recently under the current term-limited governor, multimillionaire John Hickenlooper, also a supporter of charter schools. Since 2008, the Democrats have overseen the elimination of $8.6 billion from the states funding of public schools. In addition, Hickenlooper admitted that the state borrowed over a billion dollars from the state education fund.

A major part of Colorados education shortfall is the ongoing transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars from state residents to Wall Street interests via, among other measures, the 1992 Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), a constitutional amendment passed by voters. First enacted under Democratic Governor Roy Romer, the measure has been retained since that time, except for a five-year period beginning in 2005. At the same time, the state enacted a plethora of business tax cuts including the Advanced Industry Tax Credit, Colorado FIRST, Enterprise Zone Tax Credits and dozens more.

Under these regressive tax policies, Colorados public services have been seriously defunded. K-12 spending went into a drastic decline. Colorados support to public schools fell to 48th in the nation, while higher education support went to 46th.

Since 2012, teacher health insurance costs in the state have increased by 70.4 percent and per-pupil spending has fallen precipitously. Half of Colorados school districts have cut back to a four-day week. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has estimated that $340 million in property taxes will be lost in 2019 alone as a result of TABOR. Additionally, Colorado has now fallen to the bottom of national rankings in providing children with full vaccinations; at one point the vaccination program was suspended because the state couldnt afford to buy vaccines.

Unlike the well-heeled unions, which have suppressed any struggle over this social counterrevolution, teachers are deeply angered by the terrible inroads that years of underfunding and budget cuts have created and are looking for a broad-based solution. Its pretty frustrating, Julie Cain, a high school teacher, told NBC News. Sometimes we have old textbooks that are falling apart. We dont have computers in our classroom.

Many pointed to the 20 percent turnover rate in Pueblos District 60 as a result of low wages, lack of supplies and increased class sizes. Eva, a fifth grade teacher at Heros Academy, posted a video on Facebook stating, We cannot keep highly qualified teachers in our classrooms. Something needs to change to have a highly qualified teacher in every room with every student.

In a similar vein, Marie from Corwin International Magnet School said, I am out here today to support Pueblo students. We cannot sustain the beauty of Pueblo with fading schools. We have got to have teacher voices in the classroom  We cannot continue to lose this fight. For a beauty city and state, we have to have great public schools and thats what were out here fighting for right now.

Meanwhile, students continue to take the initiative to support their teachers around the country. About 80 students at Ballard High School in Des Moines, Iowa walked out of school on Tuesday to support the fight for a pay increase by their teachers. Elizabeth Schmidt, a junior, and Mackenzie Kraling, a sophomore, circulated a flyer that said teachers in the Ballard district were not going to receive a pay increase this year, adding that their teachers are expected to work more.

It is starting the conversation. Were drawing attention to something that is important, which is showing love and respect for our teachers, which is something we really need to do now in society, Kraling told a local media outlet.Google and Amazon are assisting authoritarian governments in the Middle East aligned with Washington to censor the internet and prevent the use of encrypted communications by their populations.

On May 1, the developers of the Signal encrypted messaging application revealed that over the previous month, Google and Amazon took steps to stop Signal from continuing to bypass censorship measures in place in Egypt, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Workers, youth, journalists, lawyers and human rights advocates will no longer be able to use the application to send encrypted messages and evade government surveillance.

All of these affected countries are ruled by blood-soaked and repressive regimes. Egypt is run by General Abdel Fatteh el-Sisis military dictatorship, which came to power in a US-backed military coup in 2013 through the overthrow of the elected Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi and the slaying of more than 1,600 of his supporters on the streets of Cairo. In the five years since, el-Sisis government has rounded up and imprisoned some 60,000 opponents and sentenced 1,000 to death in political trials. The UAE, Qatar and Oman are controlled by despotic monarchies.

Around December 2016, these governments instructed internet service providers to begin blocking all traffic to Signals servers. In response, Signal implemented a change to its software code, known as domain fronting, to make its web traffic appear to service providers and censors as though it were directed to Googles web domain (google.com). This allowed users to continue using the messaging service just by updating the app on their phones.

Sometime in mid-March, 2018, however, Signal received a 30-day advance notice from Google that it was introducing internal changes to stop domain fronting. The changes came into effect on April 16.

When Signals developers announced plans to switch from Google to the web domain of Amazons online marketplace in the Middle East, Souq.com, Amazon quickly sent a letter in late April warning that it would immediately suspend Signal if you use third party domains without their permission. Then on April 27, Amazon modified its system architecture to prevent domain fronting altogether.

The practice of domain fronting requires that the front be a widely-popular service. In order to block Signal, government censors would previously have had to block traffic to Google or Amazons online market as well. According to Signals public statement, the changes by Google and Amazon mean there is no alternative to prevent government censorship of its application.

The change has implications beyond Signal. Other applications aimed at allowing users to evade surveillance and censorship, including the secure and anonymous web browser Tor, as well as the Great Fire Free browser, which is specifically designed to evade the Chinese governments internet firewall, also reportedly rely or have relied on some form of domain fronting.

Explaining its decision to end domain fronting in a statement to the Verge, Google claimed that it has never been a supported feature at Google but that until recently it worked because of a quirk of our software.

Yet in 2014, Googles CEO Eric Schmidt co-wrote a New York Times op-ed declaring his support for such measures, claiming that obfuscation techniqueswhen one thing is made to look like anotherare also a path forward. A digital tunnel from Iran to Norway can be disguised as an ordinary Skype call  and the collateral damage of blocking all traffic is often too high for a government to stomach.

In the intervening period, Google and the other technology giants have completely integrated themselves into the campaign for internet censorship and surveillance by the US intelligence agencies.

Under changes introduced in April 2017, Google has begun censoring left-wing, socialist and anti-war websites, principally the World Socialist Web Site, by removing and demoting links to these publications in its search engine results. Under the banner of combating Russian-backed fake news, Google and Facebook have hired thousands of content censors, largely drawn from the intelligence agencies, to monitor content that is posted online, assisted by a rapidly expanding network of artificial intelligence algorithms.

There is no doubt that the coordinated decisions by Google and Amazon, which have vast foreign-policy implications for Washington, were made in close consultation with the State Department and CIA in order to assist their allies in repressing their populations. The change also assists the censorship efforts of the Russian government, which in mid-April, after Google announced it was ending domain fronting, ordered the shutting down of the Telegram secure messaging service, and sought to prevent it from using domain fronting.On Wednesday, a three-day strike by 24,000 service workers of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) in the University of California (UC) system came to a close. Drawing mass support by other sections of the workers and students at UC schools, the health and service workers now face the systematic efforts of the union to isolate their struggles and push a sell-out contract in close coordination with the university administration.

The strike attracted an additional 29,000 UC nurses and administrative workers from the California Nurses Association (CNA) and University Professional (UPTE) union, respectively, who overwhelmingly voted to carry out a sympathy strike alongside AFSCME workers on Tuesday and Wednesday. A significant number of students and educational faculty offered additional support by posting on social media, canceling class and joining the picket line.

In a potentially deadly effort to intimidate strikers on Monday at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) a still unnamed driver, who had initially got out of his car and issued angry threats against striking workers, drove through the picket line and dragged one food service worker across an intersection on the hood of his car. Three other strikers were treated for minor injuries.

Despite this, and even as the state-wide strike was being wound down by the unions, thousands of workers staffed picket lines across the 10 campuses and five hospitals of the UC system on Wednesday.

The demands of the strikea 6 percent yearly wage increase, a freeze to health insurance premiums, and an end to contracting out positions to lower-paid part-time and temporary staffexpose the circumstances that confront UC workers and workers around the United States and the world, including the attack on working conditions and stagnant wages combined with rising living expenses and health care costs.

lie, a custodian with more than 30 years experience, told the WSWS, Theyre trying to cut so many things, thats why we are here. Speaking to the outrageous cost of rent, fuel, and food in California compared to the national average, he said, The cost of living is going too high When you went to the shopping mall, you used to have at least $20 to spend, now you have nothing for your wife and kids.

Although the hospital and university administrators have the capability to hire private security, outsource private staff, and they treat the nurses like garbage, Elie pointed out, We run the UC. Without us the managers would have to do it themselves. We used to have eight security, now we just have four. How are they supposed to do their jobs?

When asked about extending the strike and his thoughts on the union, Elie said, I have no problem with that but the money the union is giving us is not enough for my family. We get $75 a day, thats $25 less than a normal day.

Elie is one of the many rank-and-file workers who expressed a desire to continue the strike beyond the limited time frame enforced by the union. Instead of expanding the strike and linking up the struggle of nurses, graduate employees and faculty with a militant struggle to win all their shared demands, the unions are actively working to isolate the strike from other sections of the working class, promote the dead-end politics of the Democratic Party, and eventually ink a sellout deal behind closed doors with the university elite.

After offering employees a 3 percent yearly wage increase and a lump-sum payment of $750, which they rejected in a 97 percent vote for the three-day strike, the UC administration has made clear their intransigence in the face of workers demands.

UC spokesperson Claire Doan proclaimed, All [striking workers] have done is hurt care for our patients and our students, adding that their wages and health care coverage are already better than the market average. On top of causing surgeries and treatments to get rescheduled, the three-day strike has, according to the university representative, done nothing to change our position on their unreasonable demands for their excessive raises and benefits.

Though the union leadership will verbally oppose these insulting statements, their actions will prove their allegiance to protecting the profits of the university over the basic demands of workers. As the WSWS has warned, UC workers should not forget that their current contract, which has done nothing to keep pace with the rising cost of living and increases to out-of-pocket pension costs, was proclaimed a victory by AFSCME in 2014.

Now that the strike has been ended, the union will attempt to push a sell-out contract onto the service and health workers that allows the UC to rid itself of its retirement obligations and push a 401k-style pension on new hires. Reflecting the growing militancy of the working class in opposition to the political establishment and union leadership across the US, UC workers will find themselves in direct conflict with the unions, UC administrators and the Democratic Party-dominated state government as they continue the fight for decent jobs, health care and living conditions.

We urge all UC workers to form rank-and-file committees, independent of the unions, to unite their fight for wages and benefits with the struggles of the entire working class against inequality and war. Facing the same conditions as teachers, autoworkers, and the entire working class, the health, service and administrative workers at the University of California must broaden their struggle into a broad political counter-offensive against the repressive and anti-democratic policies of the Democrats, Republicans and the capitalist system at large.The night-time raid last week by hundreds of police on a refugee camp in Ellwangen was a deliberate state provocation aimed at intimidating anyone who dares to oppose the aggressive and often illegal deportation measures of the German state.

At the beginning of last week, around 50 residents of a refugee shelter in the small town of Ellwangen in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg protested against police seeking to apprehend and deport a young refugee from Togo who lived in the home. According to the unanimous opinion of eyewitnesses, no violence was involved.

Three days later, five squads of heavily armed and hooded police and special forces stormed the shelter. In Gestapo style, they kicked in the doors of the property early in the morning, roused the surprised residents, handcuffed them, and forced them outside.

Photos, video clips and statements made by those affected made clear that the brutal police operation was primarily aimed at spreading fear and terror. The images of masked stormtroopers wrestling helpless refugees to the ground were not only directed at deterring asylum seekers but also at intimidating the millions of people expressing their solidarity with the most vulnerable members of society.

Resistance to the brutal deportation policy of the federal and state governments remains substantial despite the waves of xenophobia propagated by the media. Demonstrations, protests and blockades to defend refugees are increasingly common. At Frankfurt Airport alone, 237 pilots refused to carry out deportations last year.

There have been a series of spontaneous initiatives opposing deportations. Last year, 300 students in Nuremberg confronted police seeking to deport one of their classmates. Last month, defiant neighbours in Witzenhausen, Hesse, prevented a surprise police operation from arresting and deporting a refugee whose asylum procedure had not been decided upon.

Resistance to the governments restrictive asylum policy and brutal deportation practices is growing, along with opposition to the government's military policy and its moves towards massive rearmament. The overwhelming majority oppose the governments planned drastic increase in defence spending and associated cuts in the social sphere. Extended protest strikes in the metal and electrical industry and in the civil service are indications of intensified class struggle.

This growing resistance is now to be intimidated and nipped in the bud. This is the significance of the state operation in the Ellwangen refugee camp. The message is, Civil disobedience is no longer acceptable, let alone more militant forms of protest and resistance. Anyone who expresses his solidarity with the victims of state violence and does not obey the orders of the authorities will be hounded without mercy.

The detention of the 23-year-old asylum-seeker from Togo was illegalhis case had not yet been decided by the Administrative Court in Stuttgart. This was made clear by his lawyer in Stuttgart, who plans to file a constitutional complaint against the state of Baden-Wurttemberg.

This, however, has done nothing to prevent the media and politicians of all parties from supporting the police terror in Ellwangen and hysterically calling for a powerful state while ignoring basic democratic rights.

The head of the Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria, Alexander Dobrindt, has denounced refugee workers and their lawyers as part of an anti-deportation industry, which threatens social harmony and undermines the rule of law. Germanys Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) described the protest by refugees as a slap in the face for law-abiding people, and announced it was no longer acceptable that almost every second asylum case ends up in court.

The Interior Minister is striving to accelerate the construction of so-called anchor centres where asylum seekers are concentrated together and incarcerated. Such camps already existed in the early 1920s in the Weimar Republic, as the newspaper Freitag reported three years ago. At that time, they served as deportation camps for Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe and were officially called concentration camps. The subsequent use of such camps by the Nazis is well-known.

The Greens, who lead the government in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, the Social Democratic Party, the Free Democratic Party and the Left Party have all campaigned against refugees in a manner similar to that of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

As has often happened in German history, this development reveals the limits of the countrys thin democratic facade. Faced with the slightest opposition the ugly face of the authoritarian state becomes visible.

The days when students were encouraged to express solidarity with the weak and schools were named after opponents of fascism, such as Sophie Scholl, are over. Even Mahatma Gandhi and his policy of nonviolence are out. If this trend continues, not only will Bertolt Brecht soon disappear from the curriculum, but also Friedrich Schiller. Anyone who, like Schillers Wilhelm Tell, does not bow down to the dictator Gessler, is to be treated as a criminal.

The slander and persecution of refugees across Europe and in the United States is being used to jettison all basic democratic rights. In Austria, the conservative Peoples Party has brought the right-wing extremist FPO into the government to this end. In Germany, the ruling grand coalition is taking over the politics of the AfD.

The reason for this shift to the right is the profound crisis of capitalist society. The same government that expends so much energy in sending refugees back to their war-torn villages and towns is working hard to acquire new weapons systems to be used in the next round of military destruction.

Militarism and growing social inequality are incompatible with democracy. As resistance to this reactionary policy grows, a police state is being erected to target not only refugees but the entire working class.

The Socialist Equality Party (SGP) in Germany defends the rights of refugees and opposes all attempts to divide the working class. Regardless of nationality, skin colour or religion, workers must unite in a joint struggle across national borders to oppose capitalism and war.Inigo Errejon, number two in the leadership of the pseudo-left Podemos Spain and candidate for premier in next years Madrid regional election, has called for a grand deal with the new right Ciudadanos (Citizens).

Errejon called for Ciudadanos to work together with Podemos in a transitional cabinet to regenerate the institutions in the Madrid region and restore their dignity, following the resignation of Popular Party (PP) regional premier Cristina Cifuentes last month in a corruption scandal.

Errejon declared, I want the next regional premier to be elected through a grand deal with the PSOE [Socialist Party], Ciudadanos and us for a democratic alternative that will make democratic elections take place in a better political climate within a year.

This week, Ciudadanos rejected Errejons appeal and agreed to a new clean PP candidate for regional premier, Angel Garrido. However, Errejon will not be overly disappointed. His whole anti-PP campaign was a cover for junking whatever remains of Podemos radical phrase-mongering to facilitate Podemos further integration into bourgeois politics.

Errejon has insisted that Podemos rectify its original sin of refusing to make agreements with other parties. He has dropped the terms triple alliance and dynastic blocreferences to the PP, PSOE and Ciudadanosand now talks about the regenerative and democratic forces comprising Podemos, PSOE and Ciudadanos.

He also insists that Podemos abandon the catastrophic discourse about the economy, which marked the partys launch, where it spoke about nationalisations of top companies and control of the banks. It must now develop, in words that would resonate with its military cadre, a general project of order with authority and prestige.

Errejons public embrace of Ciudadanos confirms the populist, nationalist and pro-capitalist politics at the heart of Podemos.

Guided by Stalinist-influenced academics and theoretically rooted in a postmodernist rejection of Marxism and the revolutionary role of the working class, Podemos articulates the interests of affluent layers of the middle class. Its orientation to Ciudadanos is an expression of the global phenomenon of the pseudo-lefts right-wing trajectory.

Syriza made its sordid deal with the small xenophobic Independent Greeks (ANEL) party only after it came to power in Greece. Podemos is prostituting itself, first to the PSOE and now to Ciudadanos, even before it has a sniff of some future power-sharing arrangement and knowing it will be consigned to functioning as a junior partner.

Ciudadanos is a neo-liberal formation, which wants to impose deep structural reforms in Spains labour market, health and pension systems, whilst reducing corporation tax and top income tax. It is the most determined advocate of Spanish nationalism, criticising the PP government for its lack of resolve in Catalonia and, by extension, the whole of Spain. This week, Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera threatened PP Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy that Ciudadanos would stop supporting his minority government if he did not harden his position in Catalonia.

Ciudadanos has been fashioned from a once obscure anti-separatist party in Catalonia into a Spain-wide party winning over 3.5 million votes in the 2015 general elections and 40 of the 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies. Polls suggest it would become the largest party in Congress if elections were held now, having made dramatic headway since the Catalan independence crisis erupted last year. Its ability to win support in Spanish-speaking working class areas in Catalonia is a devastating indictment of the PSOE and its junior partner, Podemos, which make no significant appeal to any section of the working class, let alone advance a perspective for class unity.

According to London School of Economics professor Luis Garicano, Ciudadanos main policy architect, We have to reform everything except the Monarchy and the borders of Spain.

In 2014, Garicano told the Financial Times, A stable two-party political system has been among Spains greatest strengths in the post-Franco era. But since 2008 the brutal economic crisistogether with growing evidence that large sections of both parties have operated as engines of patronage, graft and influence peddlinghas undermined the legitimacy of the system and allowed two existential threats to the constitutional order to flourish. He listed the two threats as the break-up of Spain--due to the crisis in Catalonia--and the growth of working class opposition, which he identified with the growth of Podemos.

Errejon felt confident to launch his overture to such a nakedly right-wing outfit because his appointment to head the partys list was engineered by his erstwhile rival, Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, to head off a bitter factional crisis, including an attempt to topple him. As part of the deal Ramon Espinar, who controls the Madrid regional committee and is allied with Iglesias, was appointed number three on the list.

Little of substance separates the two factions, and it was never more than a question of how far the party should lurch to the right. Iglesias prefers the sort of confidence-and-supply agreements that the Portuguese Socialist Party (PSP) and the Podemos-like Left Bloc have agreed, whilst Errejon favours formally joining in a coalition or filling ministerial positions.

Errejons call for co-operation with Ciudadanos is proof that there never really was much separating the two parties. Both emerged as the decades-long two-party set-up involving the PP and PSOE began to crumble following the 2008 global economic crash and was further discredited during years of austerity. Ciudadanos and Podemos both sough to divert opposition to the social counter-revolution against the working class behind criticisms of the PP/PSOE caste and its cronyism and corruptionCiudadanos from the right and Podemos from an ostensible left standpoint.

Support for Podemos has plummeted since it was launched four years ago with a popular anti-austerity message. In less than a year, Podemos has gone from being an alternative to the ruling PP to the fourth-ranked political force, behind Ciudadanos, and ever further from its goal of surpassing the PSOE. The working class has witnessed first-hand how Podemos rules in the local governments of changeimposing austerity, cuts, strike breaking and attacks on migrants. Polls suggest that only around half of its supporters (some 2.7 million people) will vote for it again, that one-quarter are demobilized and the remainder would vote for another party.

The Pabloite Anticapitalistas has adopted its usual charade of criticising the capitulation and betrayals of the Podemos leadership, before insisting that the partyon which it depends for positions and privileges in the state machinecan be saved by creating a new space with other actors outside of Podemos to step up the pressure on Iglesias, Errejon et al.

Raul Camargo, Madrid Regional Assembly deputy and Anticapitalistas leader, complained that Podemos is moving people away from participation, generates disaffection in broad sectors of society and promotes a logic of ruthless competition more typical of a company than of a political space that aspires to transform society.

In the next breath he declared, we are going to start a movement to try to convince everyone (including Errejon-Espinar) that there is another way to do the things that can be more useful, both to win and to transform things.

Podemos spokesperson in the Assembly and Anticapitalistas leader Lorena Ruiz-Huerta declared, I cannot accept the offer of Errejon and Espinar for me to join their list, which is not built around a political project for the Community of Madrid, but to a distribution of seats 60-40. El Espanol revealed that its Anticapitalistas sources had said that such protestations were more a plea for attention than a real threat to leave.

The Iglesias faction brushes aside the Anticapitalistas pleas saying they only represents 15 percent of Podemos and would not have any future outside the party. The Errejon faction, El Espanol continues, say they want to reach out to the Anticapitalistas, but they will not lose any sleep if they do not succeed.

Podemos co-founder Juan Carlos Monedero criticized the Anticapitalistas because, Podemos has to build a Broad Front and all are needed, otherwise, the right will continue to govern. The Anticapitalists, Monedero warned, should also think that the last time they stood by themselves [in an election] they received 23,000 votes in Spain, whereas now they are perhaps the Trotskyist group with the greatest institutional presence in the world.

He hoped that this responsibility would maybe make them change their mind.Country

United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of ZimbabweFor years, Joseph James DeAngelo showed up regularly to Charlies Cafe in Citrus Heights, California, a suburb of Sacramento. He would shuffle into his favorite booth and bark orders at the waitresses or complain about his order, according to the restaurants owner, Charlene Carte.

Carte couldnt help but notice his negative attitude and nicknamed him Mr. Happy.

Last month, she learned that authorities believe he had another name: the Golden State Killer.

I was in shock, she tells PEOPLE about the moment she discovered DeAngelos suspected dark side as one of the countrys most notorious serial killers. Its scary to know I was that close [to him].

DeAngelo  a 72-year-old former police officer, retired mechanic and father of three  was arrested on April 24 and soon charged with murder in eight of the 12 killings committed by the Golden State Killer in the 70s and 80s.

Police say DeAngelo is also suspected of the four other homicides.

Joseph James DeAngelo

A composite sketch of the Golden State Killer

Over a 10-year-period, from 1976 to 1986, the Golden State Killer was linked by DNA and method to 12 slayings, 45 sexual assaults and more than 120 burglaries from Sacramento to Southern Californias Orange County.

The killers victims ranged in age from 13 to 41 and included women at home alone or with their children or husbands. The attacks began in Sacramento in 1976, with the June 18 rape of a woman in the Rancho Cordova-Carmichael neighborhood.

Authorities have said DeAngelo only came onto their radar recently and was caught through the use of DNA.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

This guy has been on the run for 40 years, Carte tells PEOPLE. This is scary, knowing Ive talked to this man, had many conversation with him, dealt with his attitude and anger. And any time, he couldve snapped.

At least twice a week before his arrest, Carte says DeAngelo would come into the lively restaurant that serves country-style home cooking between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and order breakfast or lunch. He often got the tuna salad.

Story continues

From left: Newlyweds Katie and Brian Maggiore, two of the Golden State Killer's slain victims

The restaurants other regular customers include law enforcement, Carte says, from detectives to SWAT team members.

He never showed any signs that he was on the run, she says. He never showed any signs that he was a killer or a rapist. He was just your Average Joe, but a grumpy old man.

According to jail records, DeAngelo is being held at the Sacramento County Main Jail without bail. He is 5-feet-11-inches and weighs 205 lbs., records show.

We have the law to suggest that he is innocent until hes proven guilty and thats what Im going to ask everyone to remember, his attorney, who previously declined to comment to PEOPLE, said after DeAngelos initial court appearance, according to the Associated Press. I feel like hes been tried in the press already.

It is unclear if DeAngelo has pleaded to his charges.

I feel sorry for all of the women and what he did to them, Carte says. He hurt a lot of people. He thought he was going to get away with it.The manhunt is over.

Salt Lake City police confirm they have taken Shaun French into custody, and are now considering him the suspect in the slaying of 15-year-old Utah girl Baleigh Bagshaw.

Baleigh was killed on Monday, and French, who was apprehended in Colorado, had been missing ever since.

According to police, Baleigh called her mother on Monday at around 3 p.m., just after arriving home from school. It was something the girl did every day, Sgt. Brandon Shearer of the Salt Lake Police Department told reporters at a press briefing.

While on the phone with Baleigh, the teens mother heard her being brutally attacked in their home, said Shearer. Eventually, the call was lost, police said.

Baleigh Bagshaw

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Shaun French

The mother called a neighbor who called 911. Police arrived at the Bagshaw residence to find Baleighs lifeless body.

It has not been announced how Bailey died, but Shearer told reporters, It was a very violent attack.

A warrant was issued for Frenchs arrest in the wake of the murder.

The warrant alleges hed had a previous unlawful sexual encounter with Baleigh, and charges him with unlawful sexual acts with a minor.

Bagshaws mother could not be reached for comment.

It was unclear if Bagshaw had entered pleas to the charge he faces, or if he has an attorney.By Jessica McKinney

Graduation season is supposed to be filled with cheers, laughter, and joy, but unfortunately for one high school in South Carolina, its ceremony will be rather quiet. According to a new report, friends and families have been prohibited from cheering or making any noise whatsoever during the senior graduation. And if they break the rules, they could be fined $1,000, Greenville News reports.

The absurd cheering ban was issued via a slideshow presentation ahead of the schools graduation ceremony. Since graduation is a dignified and solemn occasion, graduating seniors and their guests should behave appropriately, the presentation reportedly read. Please ask your guests not to call out, cheer, whistle, or applaud during the reading of names and presentation of diplomas. The citation for family members yelling out is $1,030.

While the high school administration seems to be cracking the whip on the new regulation, the Greenville Police Departments says they will not be enforcing proud families as harshly as the school makes it seem. According to Police Sgt. Johnathan Bragg, families will not be penalized for cheering, whistling, or applauding. If someone starts yelling obscenities, thats a different story, Bragg said. That would get into the disorderly realm.

The convocation will reportedly be held at Bon Secours Wellness Arena this month.

This post South Carolina High School Threatens Families: No Cheering Or Pay $1,000 Fine first appeared on Vibe.The White House Correspondents Association blasted President Donald Trump on Wednesday after he suggested earlier in the morning that he would consider revoking press credentials for journalists who displeased him.

Some may excuse the presidents inflammatory rhetoric about the media, but just because the president does not like the news coverage does not make it fake, said WHCA president Margaret Talev. A free press must be able to report on the good, the bad, the momentous and the mundane, without fear or favor. And a president preventing a free and independent press from covering the workings of our republic would be an unconscionable assault on the First Amendment.

Also Read: White House Correspondents Association Dragged for 'Cowardly' Michelle Wolf Criticism

Comment on President Trump remarks on Twitter today about news media coverage. pic.twitter.com/mry3puZXKA  WHCA (@whca) May 9, 2018

The rebuke from Talev comes after a dyspeptic day for President Trump on Twitter, which included his latest threat to take action against the fake news media.

The Fake News is working overtime. Just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake), he wrote. Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?

The Fake News is working overtime. Just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 9, 2018

Based on other tweets from Wednesday morning, it appeared the president was watching Fox & Friends as is widely reported to be his custom at the White House. If credentials were revoked it would prevent White House journalists  the members of Talevs association  from covering administration developments and would be particularly noteworthy for regular events, like the daily morning briefing and Oval Office gatherings.

Story continues

Talev and the WHCA have been under a microscope in recent weeks over the stand up performance of comedian Michelle Wolf at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner last month, which Talev declared was not in the spirit of the group. Wolf came under fire, with many attacking the routine as overly cruel to White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

Related stories from TheWrap:

The Hill Pulls out of Future White House Correspondents' Dinners After Michelle Wolf Routine

Seth Meyers: Michelle Wolf 'Is Filthy' and 'Mean, Which Is What We Love About Her' (Video)

Michelle Wolf's Career Will Be Fine  Just Ask Stephen Colbert

Is Criticism of Michelle Wolf Sexist? Rachel Bloom Says YesHeavy rain caused a dam to burst near the Kenyan town of Solai, killing dozens of people and displacing hundreds, authorities said.

The walls of the Patel dam ruptured Wednesday evening as unsuspecting residents were having meals nearby. The International Federation of the Red Cross team on the ground counted 26 dead bodies.

The number is likely to go up because some people are still stuck in the debris, in the mud, Euloge Ishimwe of the International Federation of the Red Cross in Nairobi told ABC News.

PHOTO: A child walks through his home which was partly destroyed by flood water after a dam burst, in Solio town near Nakuru, Kenya, May 10, 2018. (Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

About 500 people have been displaced, he said.

We heard from colleagues on the ground that they are worried that two other dams in the area could also burst, Ishimwe added. Its a very scary situation right now because the rain is still ongoing.

Kenya: 132 dead since March as seasonal rains cause floods

PHOTO: People walk among houses that were destroyed by flood water after the Petal dam burst its banks near the town of Solai, Kenya, May 10, 2018. (EPA via Shutterstock)

Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka tweeted an image of the destruction in the Solai area, about 120 miles from the capital Nairobi.

Harrowing images of destruction caused in Solai area when Patel Dam burst last night. pic.twitter.com/6TlwzDd4xY  Mwenda Njoka (@mwendanjoka) May 10, 2018

Even before the breach, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said floods had displaced more than 270,000 people in the East African country and the number is expected to rise to 280,000 by the end of the week as more heavy rain is expected.

PHOTO: Heavy machinery aid rescue efforts near destroyed houses after a dam burst, in Solio town near Nakuru, Kenya, May 10, 2018. (Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

Kenya has seen weeks of heavy rain after a severe drought.Photo credit: Getty Images

From Delish

When it comes to ice cream flavors, vanilla is up there with the most reliable. As well as being the essential component of a Mr Whippy, its the perfect accompaniment to desserts and is a common sweet treat in many household freezers. But the classic summer scoop is a thing to be savored, as vanilla ice cream has been disappearing from menus.

After a recent shortage of the spice led to a drastic rise in prices last year, some independent retailers have revealed they are no longer stocking the flavor.



Harvests in Madagascar, the country that produces 80% of the worlds vanilla, mean that the price of vanilla pods has risen by up to 500%. As Reuters has reported, a cyclone in Madagascar damaged a lot of the plantations and high demand for the product has caused a long-lasting surge in costs. Priced at around $600 (443) per kilo, the ingredient is now valued higher than silver, the BBC notes.

Photo credit: Getty Images





For some smaller UK ice cream businesses, trying to absorb this extra cost has been a challenge.

"The price of a good quality 4-fold vanilla extract has gone through the roof  currently over 250 per litre, Jamie Marsh, co-owner of Devon-based brand Rookbeare Farm told Good Housekeeping. "However, if you want a delicious clean product there is no alternative. At Rookbeare we have decided to absorb the extra cost rather than compromise the products."

However, other smaller companies have decided to rethink their use of the popular flavouring. Julie Fisher, the founder of London-based ice cream brand Ruby Violet, said vanilla is now off the menu in her stores.

"It's crackers, we have had this problem for the last year and had to take vanilla off the menu due to the rocketing of prices," she told The Telegraph. "A lot of people still come in and ask for vanilla and when I tell them we don't have it anymore they think it must be a joke, they can't believe it." Award-winning brand Judes, based in Hampshire, has also been affected by the price increase, but is aware of high customer demand.

Story continues

"Vanilla remains though the favourite flavour in the country, and we have just launched a new Vanilla Clotted Cream product. Within the first month, this is selling as much as our signature Salted Caramel flavour," a spokesperson for the company explained to Good Housekeeping. "At this stage, because of the popularity of vanilla, we have decided to absorb the cost increase rather than use a vanilla flavouring, in the hope that the cost will come down in future years."

For now, vanilla remains one of the nations favorites. Perhaps fans of the sweet snack will have to become a little more adventurous this summer.

Follow Delish on Instagram.

You Might Also LikeBasel (Switzerland) (AFP) - A 104-year-old Australian scientist burst into song Wednesday as he told a roomful of journalists that he was looking forward to finally being allowed to end his life.

David Goodall does not have a terminal illness but says his quality of life has deteriorated significantly in recent years and that he wants to die.

"I no longer want to continue life," Goodall told the dozens of journalists and television crews who had crammed into a small room at a hotel in the northern Swiss city of Basel to hear him speak.

"I am happy to have the chance tomorrow to end it, and I appreciate the help of the medical profession here in making that possible," he said.

When asked whether he had chosen any music to listen to in his finally moments, he said he hadn't thought about it.

- Ode to Joy -

"But if I had to choose something, I think it would be the final movement of Beethovens ninth symphony," he said, before belting out a verse from the Ode to Joy, in German, to loud applause.

Goodall was barred from seeking help to end his life in Australia, so he was forced to travel to Switzerland, something he has said he resents.

"I would have preferred to have (ended) it in Australia, and I greatly regret that Australia is behind Switzerland" when it comes to right-to-die laws, he said.

The 104-year-old said he hoped the widespread interest in his case would spur Australia and other countries to rethink their legislation.

- An instrument for change? -

"I would quite like to be remembered as an instrument of freeing the elderly from the need to pursue their life irrespective," he said.

The honorary research associate at Perth's Edith Cowan University set off from Australia a week ago, and stopped in Bordeaux, France to see family before arriving in Basel on Monday.

He was speaking alongside Philip Nitschke, the founder of Exit International which helped him make his final journey, and Moritz Gall of Eternal Spirit, the Swiss foundation that has agreed to help him die.

Story continues

Goodall secured a fast-track appointment with the foundation after he attempted but failed to commit suicide on his own earlier this year.

"It would have been much more convenient for everyone if I had been able to, but unfortunately it failed," he said of the suicide attempt.

But he said he was happy that he had been offered the "Swiss option", since he has been able to see most of his large family, which is spread over several countries, in the run up to his final day.

Assisted suicide is illegal in most countries and was banned in Australia until the state of Victoria became the first to legalise the practice last year.

But that legislation, which takes effect in June 2019, only applies to terminally ill patients of sound mind and a life expectancy of less than six months.

According to Swiss law meanwhile, anyone who is of sound mind and who has over a period of time voiced a consistent wish to end their life can request so-called assisted voluntary death, or AVD.

Eternal Spirit, one of several foundations in Switzerland that assist people who want to end their lives, said Wednesday that Goodall had undergone two medical visits by different doctors since arriving in the city.

- No hesitation -

"Tonight the board of the foundation will study the documents and also judge the wish to die of David Goodall," Eternal Spirit head Erika Preisig said in an email, adding that the answer would "likely" be yes.

But Gall stressed to reporters that Goodall had the option until the very last minute to back down if he changed his mind.

Asked if he had any hesitations or doubts, the 104-year-old said: "No. None whatsoever."

In assisted dying, the person must be physically capable of carrying out the final deed on their own.

Most Swiss foundations ask patients to drink sodium pentobarbital, an effective sedative that in strong enough doses causes the heart muscle to stop beating.

Since the substance is alkaline and burns a bit when swallowed, Eternal Spirit has instead opted for intravenous infusions.

A professional prepares the needle, but it is up to the patient to open the valve that allows the short-acting barbiturate to mix with a saline solution and begin flowing into their vein.

Goodall said he expected his death to take place around noon on Thursday.

Exit International and Eternal Spirit are advocating for all countries to introduce systems similar to the Swiss one, allowing people to choose to die "in dignity".

"This is a human right, to be able to make an elected decision by a rational adult to take this step," Nitschke said.At 104, David Goodall believes he's ready to die.

The Australian scientist is so prepared, in fact, that's he's left for Switzerland, where he will be allowed to legally end his own life through assisted suicide.

Goodall spoke to reporters from France Monday as he neared his final destination, according to APTN.

"I am glad to arrive," he said from a wheelchair. "The message I would like to send is: Once one passes the age of 50 or 60, one should be free to decide for oneself, whether one wants to go on living or not."

Goodall wants his decision to send a message to legislators who he hopes will one day legalize assisted suicide in places like Australia.

Goodall reiterated his frustration about not being as free or as mobile in his later years as he once was.

He was expected to meet with a doctor Tuesday and will hold a news conference Wednesday.

Goodall acknowledged he was "a bit sorry to say goodbye to my family in Bordeaux, but that's the way it was."

Switzerland is one of only two countries, along with Colombia, that allows foreigners to enter the country for assisted suicide.

RELATED STORIES

Semi-Trucks Band Together to Save Man Threatening Suicide on Bridge

Police Find Mother Falsely Believed She Had Cancer After Family's Murder-Suicide

Authorities Rescue Man Attempting Suicide on New York Bridge

Related Articles:On Wednesday, North Korea released three American citizens who had been held in one of the countrys notorious labor camps.

The State Department, led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, delivered a statement confirming that the three hostages had boarded a flight home.

During Secretary Pompeos visit, the North Korean leadership released three American detainees. President [Donald] Trump appreciates leader Kim Jong Uns action to release these American citizens, and views this as a positive gesture of goodwill, the State Department said in a statement. The three Americans appear to be in good condition and were all able to walk on the plane without assistance. All Americans look forward to welcoming them home and to seeing them reunited with their loved ones.

Trending: Novartis CEO During Michael Cohen Deal Also Helped Lead Big Pharma's Most Powerful Lobbying Group

Pompeo-Kim

Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

Late Tuesday night, Trump tweeted: "I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with Kim Jong Un. Date & Place set."

The three hostages released are Kim Dong-chul, Kim Sang-duk and Kim Hak-song, who were arrested in North Korea and sentenced to around a decade each of hard labor.

Don't miss: Netflix and Viz Media to Release New Anime Series Seis Manos in 2019

Story continues

Kim Dong-chul was arrested in 2015 in North Korea, two years before the other hostages, on spying charges. He had confessed to attempting to smuggle military secrets out of North Korea on a USB stick, but its unclear if the confession was forced.

Kim Sang-duk, who is also known as Tony Kim, has been described as a religious man in his 50s who went to North Korea to discuss relief and humanitarian aid work. He had previously been teaching at a university in China, and had also spent several months with the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before his arrest. He was detained in April last year by the North Korean government, which accused him of attempting to overthrow the government.

Kim Hak-song is an expert in agriculture who had been teaching rice-growing at the PUST in order to help the country overcome its chronic food shortages. He had also been ordained as an evangelical Christian pastor.

All three men are ethnic Koreans who became naturalized U.S. citizens.

Most popular: Is There a Second Black Hood? 'Riverdale' Episode Hints at Second Killer

Pompeo had traveled to North Korea on Wednesday to prepare the groundwork for an upcoming meeting between Trump and North Koreas leader Kim Jong Un.

Some experts said that the hostage release, a gesture of goodwill from the repressive Kim regime, suggests that North Korea is serious about the upcoming summit. But it doesnt necessarily mean there will be a major breakthrough on tough issues like the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

What we are witnessing, with North Korea releasing three American hostages, is truly historic, and points to the very real possibility of a game-changing summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C., told Newsweek.

The chances of Kim giving up his nuclear weapons are still slim to none. Or, what Kim may want to give up those nuclear weapons could be a price we could never meetlike hundreds of billions of dollars and the complete removal of U.S. military forces [from South Korea], Kazianis added.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekWASHINGTON  President Donald Trump warmly received three Americans back from North Korean imprisonment early Thursday, calling their release a vindication of his aggressive foreign policy strategy. But many Americans jailed by other repressive regimes around the world appear to have gained little from Trumps ad-hoc and often confrontational international approach, their advocates say, and in several cases the president may have actually made it harder for them to come home.

After tweets promoting the event and White House emails inviting camera crews, Trump posed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland with Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong-chul, whom the North Koreans released to show goodwill ahead of a summit between the U.S. commander in chief and North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un.

Elsewhere, American families remained separated from their loved ones.

Consider the Americans trapped in Iran. At least six are known to be there: Robert Levinson, Xiyue Wang, Karan Vafadari, Morad Tahbaz and father and son Baquer and Siamak Namazi. Some U.S. green card holders are also detained.

Trumps decision this week to withdraw the U.S. from a groundbreaking international agreement over Irans nuclear program dramatically escalated tensions between the two countries and torpedoed the main dialogue between American and Iranian officials.

Supporters of the jailed U.S. citizens were already worried that the administration did not focus on their plight as it frequently issued laundry lists of various other troubling Iranian actions and did not impose punishments specifically over the detentions.

The rhetoric and the commitment and the inclusion of a need to secure the release of the American citizen hostages and the end of hostage-taking as a matter of their foreign policy has not been operationalized into meaningful and unequivocal action, Jared Genser, an attorney for the Namazis, told HuffPost.

Genser had a White House meeting less than 24 hours after Trump withdrew from the deal and noted that the issue was on officials radar. He even got a top aide to take Trump a laminated printout of a tweet about the Namazis that he issued during his campaign. We hope the president is able to do for the Namazis what hes now done on North Korea, Genser told HuffPost.

Story continues

But without deal-related economic benefits to use as leverage with Iran, Trump might have little influence over Tehran on the prisoner issue, according to Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post journalist who had been jailed in the Islamic Republic and was released in 2016, at least in part because of goodwill the Obama administration created through the nuclear negotiations.

If Trump decides to leave the deal, he will effectively be abandoning American citizens  the very same ones he has vowed to save, Rezaian wrote last month. After Trumps speech, Rezaian asked what happened to concern for those Americans.

They didnt make it into Trumps address, which instead repeated criticisms of the Iranian government. Asked about the cases at a State Department background briefing, an official said Americans safety was the administrations priority but then acknowledged the skepticism among the press. Well, I know, you can make that face, but its true, the official added.

The Trump administration has also harshly criticized the government of Venezuela and on Tuesday called for the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro. American Joshua Holt has been imprisoned in the country since 2016. Trump mentioned Holt by name when he announced new sanctions against Venezuela last year. But the dialogue that might secure Holts release is being led not by his administration but by key outside figures who are talking with Maduros inner circle.

Protesters at a rally for Austin Tice, an American journalist held in Syria, in Washington on November 2, 2016. President Donald Trump tried to bring him home last year but failed. (Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS via Getty Images)

And in Syria, Trump officials efforts to start a dialogue with the regime of President Bashar Assad over the fate of missing journalist Austin Tice appear to have fallen apart because of poor coordination. Weeks after then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo broached the subject with the Syrian government, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley surrendered what could have been a key bargaining chip: She walked back the United States anti-Assad position, handing Damascus a boon that Washington might have used as leverage.

Assad further damaged hopes for Tice once the Syrian leader turned chemical weapons on his people again that April and Trump responded with airstrikes.

Conversely, other governments holding U.S. citizens have received warm words from Trump  and little pressure to send the Americans back.

The president repeatedly praised Egypts strongman President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi on the campaign trail and in his early months in office. He then held a high-profile celebration when Sisi released an American aid worker who spent nearly three years in jail, Aya Hijazi. More than one year later, Trump has yet to publicly name any of the multiple other U.S. citizens who are among more than 50,000 people in Egypts poorly run jails.

Theres a sentiment in Congress and among those families whove been victimized by Egyptian officials in various ways that the administration isnt doing enough, said Praveen Madhiraju of the nonprofit Pretrial Rights International. He represents two of an estimated 15 Americans held in Egypt: Mustafa Kassem and Ahmed Etiwy. Earlier this year, Vice President Mike Pence became the highest-ranking U.S. official to mention them in public. (Many families of Americans detained abroad choose to keep their identities hidden, often on the advice of U.S. officials who say a public outcry can hinder diplomacy.)

Capitol Hill pressure and anger over Cairos dealings with North Korea has pushed the Trump administration to withhold $300 million of the $1.3 billion military aid package Egypt receives from the U.S. annually. But the perception that Sisi will have an easy ride under Trump persists, and theres little indication of consistent attention to the issue.

The United States has enormous leverage with Egypt to secure the release of the Americans and the green card holders jailed there, and the only way that we will see all these cases resolved is for the White House to follow up on Pences comments, said Genser, who also represents two U.S. permanent residents held without due process since last summer.

Turkey, whose autocratic leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has also received plaudits from Trump, is meanwhile holding American pastor Andrew Brunson and trying him before what his home-state senator, Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), has called a kangaroo court. While the president has mentioned that case repeatedly, his approach to helping Brunson so far has involved multiple steps aimed at pleasing Erdogan. The Trump team has discouraged congressional talk of sanctions against Turkey and encouraged Washington law enforcement to drop charges against Turkish security guards who beat protesters in the capital last year.

Despite the fact that the Turks have an almost 100 percent track record of responding to sticks, we still feed them carrots, a Senate aide told the Wall Street Journal last month. It makes no sense.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.A Disney (DIS) destination may be the happiest place on earth for kids, but for many parents its a little too expensive to make it all that happy. With amusement park admission prices up another 9% this year, trips to Disney are increasingly one of the most expensive places for families to vacation.

And its not just the ticket prices thatll get you. Once youre in the park, there is a constant barrage of spending traps placed strategically to get your kids to ask you to spend even more. Failing to plan for ways to save throughout your trip can set you back hundreds of dollars.

To save time and money, youre just going to have a better vacation if youre a planner, says Joanie Demer, co-founder of The Krazy Coupon Lady. Yahoo Finance interviewed Demer to learn some of her favorite ways to spend less and enjoy the vacation even more.

Book FastPass rides 30 to 60 days before your trip

Theres nothing worse than standing in a long line for two hours (with whiny kids in tow) for a ride that only lasts a minute. To avoid this, reserve your rides in advance with the FastPass. Everyone gets three free passes with their ticket purchase so the key is to be the first to book it.



Demer advises that you set your alarm for 7 a.m. exactly 30 days before your trip. If youre staying at a Disney property, youre allowed to book your FastPasses 60 days in advance. Without these reservations, expect to stand in line for double the amount of time thats estimated on the sign in front of each ride.

Take advantage of the MaxPass

Keep in mind that each Disney destination has different FastPass options so its worth taking the time to look it up before you go. For those visiting Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif., the MaxPass is available for an additional $10 per day per visitor.

Using this feature by downloading this app helps maximize your experience so you can book FastPass rides from your phone and make selections in other theme parks while youre on the go. It ends up saving me money because I no longer book multi-day Disney vacations because we can get everything done in a day, thanks to this extra $10, says Demer. A Disney representative told Yahoo Finance that this MaxPass feature is currently only available in Anaheim.

Story continues

More Disneyland-specific savings

If you want to make a whole vacation out of your stay in Southern California, Demer says the single best way to save is to take advantage of the CityPASS thatll get you three days at Disneyland Resort, one day at LEGOLAND, and one day at SeaWorld. Buying this bundle will save you about 30% on each ticket and costs $367 for those ages 10 and up and $337 for those ages 3 to 9.

The best times to visit Disney

Crowds magically disappear and prices drop at the heels of both peak seasons: January and September. Demer goes to Disney with her family during the first week of school in September for the great weather and the short lines. Youre going to miss all the germs and the head lice and the awful stuff that goes around that first week and you dont have to worry about booking FastPass rides because itll be much quieter at both Disneyland and Disney World, says Demer.

Meet Disney characters during breakfast

A popular add-on experience is a character meal where your children will be greeted with many of their favorite life-size Disney characters as theyre dining in a fancy Disney hall. Breakfasts will cost much less than dinners and Demer likes to take her family for a late breakfast buffet so they can fill up and skip lunch.

We want to hear from you! What are some ways youre saving money and time at Disney? Connect with me on Twitter @Jeanie531 or on Instagram @JeanieOnMoney

WATCH MORE FROM JEANIE:

5 things you need that are cheaper than your next takeout order

8 money-saving travel hacks on Southwest, Spirit, and JetBlue

4 millionaire money habits to teach your kids

9 morning hacks for busy parents to save 30 minutesKhalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks, says he has information to share with lawmakers about CIA head nominee Gina Haspel ahead of her Senate confirmation hearing.

Mohammed, who was repeatedly tortured by the CIA following his 2003 capture in Pakistan, sought permission this week from a Guantanamo Bay judge to share six paragraphs of information about Haspel with the Senate Intelligence Committee, reported The New York Times.

From Guantanamo, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed wants to tell the Senate Intelligence Committee something about Gina Haspel. https://t.co/u5jowMhzyQ  Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) May 8, 2018

Haspel, who has drawn criticism for her role in a controversial CIA interrogation program, faces what is likely to be a tough confirmation hearing before the committee on Wednesday.

The nature of Mohammeds information about Haspel is unknown. One of his attorneys, Marine Lt. Col. Derek Poteet, told the Times that he was not able to describe the information. Poteet said that it comes directly from Mohammed and that defense lawyers agreed that the information was important.

The CIA used several torture techniques on Mohammed, including waterboarding him 183 times and subjecting him to sleep deprivation and rectal rehydration, while the al Qaeda operative was in custody in clandestine prisons in Afghanistan and Poland.

Its not clear whether Haspel was involved in Mohammeds torture in any way. She has come under scrutiny, however, for serving as the head of a black site prison in Thailand in the early-2000s, where another terror suspect was tortured. Haspel has been accused of playing a part in destroying videotapes of those sessions.

Haspel is expected to tell lawmakers that she will not restart the CIAs controversial interrogation program as the agencys director.

Story continues

Its unclear whether Mohammeds request for permission to share the information about Haspel will be approved before Wednesdays hearing.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Wallace C. Gregson

Security, Asia

A South Korean soldier stands guard at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, South Korea, April 18, 2018. Picture taken on April 18, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

We might not get a resolution from a day or two of talks, but a path and a process would be helpful.

How America and North Korea Can Make the Most of the Summit

The much-awaited U.S.-North Korean summityet unscheduledmight just get something done, if imperfectly. Two accomplished showmen, each a national leader and fully invested in making this a success, hype the Summits potential. Mooted times and proposed locations add intrigue and suspense. This is like a Super Bowl countdown with no set date or stadium. Unilateral declarations and concessions without details are mooted. Kim appears so accommodating on nuclear capability, release of detainedmore accurately: imprisonedU.S. citizens, and retention of U.S. presence in South Korea that hes suddenly moved from brutal tyrant to honorable statesman. The Olympic charm offensive worked. But, what do we have to lose? After all, if a good deal is not on offer, we can always walk away. Right? But what is inside a good deal?

Many precedents and diplomatic norms were crushed to get to this point. But the way things have always been done failed to produce results. North Koreas nuclear ambition was made clear twenty-seven years ago. Our conventional diplomatic efforts since then, and even unconventional proposals like the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization to provide North Korea with light-water reactor power generation, failed to produce results. Now not only North Korea, but China and Russia, are in full pursuit of fundamental change to the global liberal international order that prevented yet another great power war throughout the Cold War. That global order also generated economic recovery. It looks like its well past the time that we can continue to admire the problem and be content with conventional diplomacy and bargaining. If we are to arrest the progress of the revisionist powers, North Korea may be a good place to start. But hazard awareness is essential.

Story continues

Perhaps we can find a diplomatic adaptation of the physicians Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm. Adapted for this event: Do nothing that will allow Kim or China or Russia to damage our alliances.

Kim has proven one thing as we head toward this summit. Nuclear weapons work. They provide great leverage. Kim got great photo ops and a sumptuous dinner reception with Xi Jinping and a similar summit with President Moon. Perhaps more significant, no U.S. president ever met with his father or his grandfather, yet now we are eager to do so, and coming to him. Kims early education at his comfortable European school included watching in grisly fascination the killing of Muammar el-Qaddafi. That days lesson showed what happens to tyrants who give up nuclear arsenals. Abandoning our agreement with eleven nations in the Trans Pacific Partnership and backing away from international agreements within the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action over Irans nuclear program show how unilateral and temporal these things can be. Hoping that elimination of Kims nuclear capabilities is on the cards at this pending summit is fanciful. We need to think of other outcomes.

The Park-Kim Summit made history. The images and symbolism of the leaders holding hands while stepping back and forth across DMZ border markers ignited optimism around the world. Kims stated willingness to move toward denuclearization and from Armistice to Peace Treaty may open a door to greater stability. Peace, or at least absence of hostilities in our time, perhaps?

Pursuing a treaty to end the Korean War is certainly a worthwhile endeavor. Its better than the alternative, and how can we refuse? Its been tried before. Chinas Zhou Enlai proposed a treaty in 1954. The current armistice agreement, signed in July of 1953, sought a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea. Since its July 1953 signing by the UN Command, the North Korean Peoples Army and the Chinese Peoples Volunteer Army, weve endured deadly provocations, including assassinations, ship seizures, ships sunk, aircraft shot down, armed infiltrations, artillery shelling, and other violations. The ROK Blue House and the ROK Cabinet endured separate attacks. U.S. soldiers were murdered in the DMZ. But in general, the Armistice held. So far. Now the growth of North Koreas destructive powernuclear, chemical, biological and cyberand its global-power projection capability mandate a look for solutions beyond armistice. A valid, enduring treaty capable of bringing stability out of this knife-edge existence would be a wonderful thing.

We will be negotiating with something very different than a conventional nation-state. The very nature of the North Korean regime, often called with accuracy the Kim Family Regime (KFR), decisively affects Kims strategies and goals. The regime, with no visible legitimate means of support common to national life elsewhere, thrives. The elite, the KFR, and somewhere between one and three million core supporters, live well. They must be kept happy. Now the regime poses a global threat as well as its familiar, enduring regional menace.

Too small for survival as an autarkic economy like the Soviet Union and surrounded by much larger neighbors with a history of competition over the peninsula, the KFR consistently confounds conventional wisdom. We assumed that the end of Soviet subsidies following the USSRs collapse meant the end of North Korea. Far from collapse, in 1991 we learned of North Koreas vigorous pursuit of nuclear weapons capability. Perhaps the KFR profited from Pakistani nuclear physicist and metallurgical engineer Abdul Qadeer Khans entrepreneurial approach to nuclear proliferation.

We worked for strong sanctions resolutions at the United Nations. North Korea repeatedly declared sanctions an act of war. In June 1994 this became a crisis. U.S. forces not already in the region prepared for deployment. Secretary of Defense William Perry later admitted that we were looking into the abyss. Then former President Carter appeared in Pyongyang and offered a face-saving way to cool the immediate crisis. The crisis receded but did not end. With this denouement, we establishedperhaps unwittinglya cycle destined to repeat with subsequent KFR outrages. The KFR commits some outrage, we consider preemptive attack, then move to negotiations, agreements, to KFR cheating, to sanctions, then sanctions erosion, and inevitably a return to provocation as North Korea wills. Over time the outrages reveal continuous rapid growth of North Korean capability.

The Kim family regime gains this remarkable success as a product of criminal sovereignty. North Korea uses state sovereignty to protect itself from external interference in its domestic affairs while dedicating a portion of its government to carrying out illicit international activities in defiance of international law and the domestic laws of numerous other nations. The proceeds of these activities are then used in a number of ways to sustain North Koreas existence and to enable other policies. For example, criminal proceeds are distributed to members of the North Korean elite (including senior officers of the armed forces); are used to support Kims personal life style; and are invested in its military apparatus.

The KFR global criminal enterprises interests will be at the table. Its privileged existence in many countries, declared and clandestine, must continue to thrive and provide resources to the center if the KFR is to survive. Conversely, the KFRs success makes the global enterprise more powerfulfor example: nuclear proliferation for profit. Sanctions that really are effective, and energetic international efforts to crack down on this organized crime, cannot be tolerated by North Korea. Current UN sanctions call for countries hosting North Korean laborers to repatriate them in two years. You can bet this will be on the table. Kims VX attack in the Kuala Lumpur Airport, in a country that hosts many Korean laborers, may also be recalled as a capability demonstration intended to impress hosting countries.

Networked global trade and communications ensure that events in Korea are everybodys business, even without conflict. The issues of the peninsula cannot be separated from other regional issues, or even global issues. All will play as part of the negotiations as different parties seek compensation for their support of any settlement.

The active combat phase of the Korea War from 1950 to 1953 was largely confined to the Peninsula. To state the obvious, a future war wont be confined. Technology ensures that were all within range. Japan will be a special target for both geographic and historical reasons. Japan will keenly watch the negotiations for implications on U.S. presence, and Japans future defense needs.

Japan is very well aware of the North Korean missile threat. On August 31, 1998, a North Korean missile flew over Honshu, Japans main island. Japan looks to greatly enhance air and missile defense in the very near term. Its essential that they achieve the capability to deny Kim any assurance that he can successfully strike Japan. Surveillance and weapons capable of prompt attack of North Korean missiles before they reach mid-course flight are essential. Strike weapons may be coming.

At a minimum, Japan needs the ability to defeat North Korean missiles in boost phase. This offers deterrence by denial, reducing the KFRs confidence of successfully striking Japan. This capability vastly devalues Kims recent missile and warhead investments. It would be best done as an alliance capability. That requires U.S. presence, in strength. Ultimately Japan must consider nuclear deterrence if the United States is not present, not relevant, or not trusted. South Korea will surely face similar questions. A widely proliferated region will be the result of diminished trust in U.S. deterrent capabilities. Perhaps the alternativerobust deterrence by denialoffers a way to strengthen our alliances while others seek to weaken them.

The armistice, an imperfect end to combat operations among multiple combatants in the early days of the Cold War, was and remains unstable. The Peoples Republic of China, through the Peoples Volunteer Army, signed the Armistice. They also signed a treaty with North Korea in 1961. If Mao exerts any residual influence from his mausoleum, it may matter to China that Maos son lies in a martyrs cemetery in Pyongyang. China is also North Koreas largest trading partner. China has deeply held national interests in Korea and in Asia, and their own set of lousy options to manage. At a minimum they will have much to say about any agreement, let alone an actual treaty to resolve the conflict. They do not favor a collapse of North Korea, something that ultimately affects their sanctions enforcement.

Chinas negotiation through actioncreation of factsis already underway. New historical sovereignty claims over the South China Sea emerge based on a newly-discovered map dated to 1951. China is installing missiles on its newly-built features in the Spratly Islands. China still pressures Japan over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and imposes costs on Japan with repeated aerial and sea incursions into Japanese territory. Taiwan is pressured through PLA Navy exercises in the Taiwan Strait, aerial intrusions by PLA Air Force aircraft, and now even threats to foreign commercial airlines over their maps. Chinas civil aviation is eroding past understandings of operations in and around Taiwan. Renewed economic and political pressure is applied to South Korea over the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) installation. U.S.-China trade talks recently started, perhaps with major consequences for the strength of the liberal international global order created following World War II. Chinese cooperation on peninsular issues will not be a charitable donationthey will have a price.

Russias interests are less clear, but the demographic challenges of Russias Far East will ensure active involvement. As a member of the Six Party Talks series, Russia will be looking for opportunities globally as a price for support. More assured access to the sea is an enduring Russian objective. Russia will likely seek yet more sanctions relief, restoration of their lost diplomatic presence in the United States and an end to U.S. pressure elsewhere on other matters as payment for support.

The Republic of Korea, Japan, and Taiwan fear a separate peace. Campaign rhetoric that demeans the value and contribution of allies, gratuitous trade pressure, and U.S. personalization of North Korean issues with no mention of allies raises anxiety. Taiwan fears becoming a bargaining chip for Chinas support of a settlement in Korea. This possibility is often mooted in academic discussions.

Unmentioned in popular denuclearization discussions is the massive North Korean arsenal of conventional tube and rocket artillery in deeply buried and hardened shelters in the Kaesong Heights just north of Seoul, the mega-city that is South Koreas capital. Estimates of weapons counts vary, but judgment that this can devastate the city with millions of casualties is unanimous. Any agreement must take account of North Koreas conventional threat and how it may be rendered safe. Or at a minimum deterred.

Hazards and challenges abound. The connections among many issues offers a wicked problem. The North Korean nuclear issue is one bookend, the global international liberal order is the other. Perhaps we wont get a resolution from a day or two of talks, but a path and a process would be helpful. North Korea, along with its friends, China and Russia, have fundamentally changed the status quo. The current crisis offers opportunities to solve that problem, to act not only here, but throughout the region and beyond in solid partnership with our allies.

Wallace C. Gregson, a retired Marine and former assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs (200911), is currently senior advisor at Avascent International and senior director for China and the Pacific at the Center for the National Interest.

Image: A South Korean soldier stands guard at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, South Korea, April 18, 2018. Picture taken on April 18, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

Read full articleArchaeologists have uncovered the tomb of a great Ancient Egyptian army general at the archaeological site of Saqqara in the countrys north, according to a statement released by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.

The tomb, which is roughly 3,300 years old, has not yet been fully excavated, and no human remains have been found. However, a team led by Ola El-Aguizy, a professor of Egyptology at Cairo University, found sufficient evidence to confirm the high status of its ownera general named Iwrhya.

According to inscriptions found at the tomb site, Iwrhya, who may have been foreign born, began his military career during the reign of King Seti I (1294 B.C. to 1279 B.C.), eventually working his way up to achieve one of the highest positions in the Egyptian court under the rule of Ramesses II (1279 B.C. to 1213 B.C.).

Trending: Brock Turner Judge Defends Sentencing, Says Brown v. Board of Education Was Unpopular Too

The tomb has a number of different rooms and contains some exceptional artistic features that can be dated to the reigns of both Seti and Ramesses, suggesting that it was constructed over different phases, the researchers say,

Saqqara is a vast ancient burial ground that once served as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis. The tomb itself is located to the south of a pyramid built by the pharaoh Unas, who ruled Egypt more than 4,300 years ago.

GettyImages-455539752

MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/Getty Images

Don't miss: Republican Who Claims Holocaust Was Orchestrated by Gay Nazis Wins Enough Support For Massachusetts Governor Primary

The artwork found on the walls depicts interesting and unusual scenes of everyday activities, most of which are related to Iwrhyas military career and his relations with neighboring countries.

Story continues

One scene, for example, shows the mooring of boats carrying wine jars. Meanwhile, a block that likely detached from the northern wall depicts an infantry unit and charioteers crossing a waterway filled with crocodiles. The researchers think this scene may represent the eastern borders of Egypt, due to the presence of fortified walls.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekA stunned Iranian nation anxiously watched on Tuesday as President Donald Trump announced the United States would withdraw from the historic nuclear deal with Iran and reinstitute crippling economic sanctions. Now, those born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution might be wondering: Were the hardliners and conservatives right about the futility of dealing with the U.S?

Reaction in Iran to Trumps announcement was swift. President Hassan Rouhani went on state TV to attempt to salvage the nuclear deal upon which he has staked his political career. He said Iran would stick by the terms of the agreement if the other signatories  the U.K., France, Germany, China, Russia and the E.U.  could prove they would meet their commitments.

But hardliners, who have always been against the 2015 deal, stoked outrage against the U.S. Some staged a mass burning of U.S. flags in the center of Tehran. In parliament, lawmakers burned a flag as well as a copy of the deal. Activists demanded Rouhani resign along with his Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who was central to negotiating the deal  known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)  with the Obama administration.

The most emphatic reaction, however, was from Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei. You heard what worthless things the American president said last night, he told Iranians in a televised speech. He lied maybe up to 10 times and he threatened the state and the nation. I tell him on behalf of the Iranian nation: Mr. Trump, you cant do a damned thing!

He accused the U.S. of entering into the deal in bad faith. When the nuclear issue started some persons told me why do you insist on keeping the nuclear program? We told them that Americas problem with Iran isnt about the nuclear program. Now you see that thats true. We accepted the JCPOA but they continued their enmity with the Islamic Republic. Now the U.S. wants Iran to reduce its regional presence and missile program, he added. If we accept these they will come up with something else.

Story continues

In a sharp break with the more moderate Rouhani, Khameini poured scorn on the idea of preserving the deal with the existing signatories. Now they say we can continue with the three European countries, I dont trust these three countries either; dont trust them, he said. If you want to make arrangements with them get actual guarantees from them or they will also all do the same as America  if you cant, then we cannot continue the JCPOA.

The heads of Irans military echoed Khameinis comments about the U.S. The withdrawal of America is a good omen, said Major General Mohamad Ali Jafari, commander of the Guards Corps according to the semi-official Fars News Agency. It was clear that the Americans cannot be trusted and that they will never act on their commitments  This shows that the uranium enrichment was just an excuse, their main problem is with Irans military and missile might and its influence in the region.

The deal lifted the harsh sanctions regime imposed on the country in return for strict limitations on Irans nuclear program. However the Iranian side always complained that it did not get the economic benefits that it had been promised. The United States and Israel as well as regional Arab governments such as Saudi Arabia complained that Iran was using the deal to increase its reach in the region and interfering in other countries such as Yemen, Syria and Iraq. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of lying about its compliance with the terms of the deal, though UN inspectors determined that Iran was living up to its commitments.

Some Iranian analysts believe that Trumps decision to withdraw completely may actually strengthen Iran. Trump has miscalculated grossly, said Amir Mohebbian, a prominent conservative political analyst and university professor in Tehran. Before the deal the world and the U.S. were united against Iran. Now the world and Iran are united against the U.S. withdrawal.

But Mohebbian predicted the deal would collapse and Iran would restart its nuclear program in earnest. Its not likely that the deal can survive after this, and this gives Iran legitimate rights to exit and upgrade its nuclear program, he said. As a result, the prospect of military confrontation is greater. When diplomacy fails the military has to step in to compensate. If the other signatories to the deal are unable to provide Irans interests and benefits from the deal, the playing field will change.

The full ramifications of the U.S. withdrawal will take time to emerge, but the most dramatic effect may be on the youth who had hoped that the nuclear deal would pave the way for more global integration of their country. When the deal was signed three years ago, young Iranian men and women took to the streets to wave one dollar bills as a sign of better economic times to come. These young people had never accepted the official portrayal of the United States as the Great Satan; many dreamed of being able to study or work there.

Now, with the deal never having really impacted their lives positively, and its imminent collapse already setting off a steep devaluation of the national currency, many feel betrayed. After Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement it isnt really strange that he would do the same here, but its still saddening that this opportunity was lost, said Kianoosh Pedrood, a 35-year-old engineer who specializes in water treatment.

Mohebbian said the impact might be felt for years to come. What Trump taught the Iranian youth is that international law is meaningless, what matters is power, power and power. With enough power you can ride over all the laws, he said. When this generation takes over the reins theyll strive to achieve that power at whatever cost.

For Pedrood the whole nuclear deal reminds him of an old Persian idiom. It takes one madman to nix what took 40 wisemen to fix, he quoted, adding, Now the power is in the hands of madmen.Donald Trump personally welcomed home three Americans released from detention in North Korea, a triumphant middle-of-the-night moment for the president as he prepares for a landmark summit with Kim Jong Un.

The three men flew to Washington after their release to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was dispatched to Pyongyang on Tuesday in the hope that Kim would agree to free the detainees. Trump and his wife Melania boarded the former prisoners plane at Joint Base Andrews shortly before 3 a.m. on Thursday to greet the men.

On behalf of the American people, WELCOME HOME! Trump said on Twitter Thursday.

On behalf of the American people, WELCOME HOME! pic.twitter.com/hISaCI95CB  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

The return of prisoners the U.S. has called hostages clears an obstacle to direct talks between Trump and Kim. The president said on Wednesday that he expects to announce a date and location for the summit within days and that he had ruled out the Korea Peninsulas Demilitarized Zone. An administration official later said that he is leaning toward Singapore.

Trump thanked Kim for releasing the men. This is a special night for these three really great people and congratulations on being in this country, Trump told reporters at the airbase.

The U.S. aims to persuade Kim to give up his countrys nuclear arsenal, and Trump has engaged in what he calls a maximum pressure campaign to ratchet up sanctions on North Korea and lean on other nations to cut diplomatic ties.

I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful, Trump said. I really think he wants to do something and bring that country into the real world, he said of Kim.

The true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons, Trump said.

Story continues

Pyongyang Trip

The former detainees are all Korean-American men who share the common surname Kim but are not related. They were handed over to Pompeo during his second trip to Pyongyang this year, a visit that wasnt announced before Trump himself disclosed it on Tuesday while the secretary of state was in the air.

Asked if he might visit Pyongyang himself in the future, Trump said it could happen. He joked that the homecoming event would set a 3 a.m. television ratings record.

We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home, the detainees said in a statement as they flew to Washington. We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

Kim Dong Chul was sentenced to 10 years hard labor in 2016 on charges he conducted espionage for South Korea. South Koreas intelligence agency denied any ties to the man.

Kim Hak Song was detained last year for what North Korean media described as hostile acts against the country.

Kim Sang Dok, also known as Tony Kim, was intercepted in April 2017 at Pyongyang International Airport after being invited to teach accounting at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

Live Broadcast

The homecoming event was broadcast live on cable news networks, and the men were greeted by a large American flag strung between two fire trucks parked on the tarmac.

Pompeo was informed after a meeting with Kim Jong Un on Wednesday that the men had been granted amnesty. They were brought to the airport and left North Korea on Pompeos plane at about 8:42 p.m. local time on Wednesday. The secretary of state and the detainees arrived at Joint Base Andrews on Thursday on separate planes.

Vice President Mike Pence, who joined Trump at the homecoming, said Wednesday that all three men seem to be in good health and were glad to be heading home. Pence also spoke Wednesday with the parents of Otto Warmbier, the American college student who had been detained in North Korea for trying to steal a propaganda poster from a hotel. Warmbier died shortly after being returned home from North Korea in a coma last year.

After meeting Trump and Pence the former detainees boarded a bus to travel to Walter Reed military hospital in Bethesda, Maryland for evaluation and any treatment. Pence, meanwhile, said on Twitter he would sit for interviews with NBC, ABC and CBS to be broadcast on their morning news programs.WASHINGTON  On Wednesday, Gina Haspel, a veteran CIA officer who reportedly oversaw a secret prison in Thailand where an alleged terrorist was waterboarded and later helped destroy videotapes documenting interrogation sessions, will make the case to a Senate committee that she should be confirmed to be the director of the spy agency.

It will be the first time that Haspel, who has spent years undercover, will speak publicly about her career, and some lawmakers are urging the CIA to declassify documents that explain her role in the torture program. Haspel, the current acting director of the CIA, has never publicly atoned for her involvement in the now-defunct interrogation operation and the subsequent cover-up. If confirmed, she will serve under a president who campaigned on bringing back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.

Demonstrator Maboud Ebrahimzadeh is lowered onto the board during a simulation of waterboarding outside the Justice Departement in Washington November 5, 2007. (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

When Haspel appears before the Senate committee for her confirmation hearing, lawmakers will not just be evaluating her record. They will be deciding whether overseeing torture is disqualifying. Because most of the people who were tortured by CIA officials, at times under Haspels watch, cannot tell their stories, HuffPost asked several people who have been waterboarded as part of mock interrogations or military training to describe the experience. (The military quietly banned the use of waterboarding in training in 2007 because it was too brutal, HuffPost reported in March.)

The people interviewed by HuffPost were waterboarded once, and they knew it was a controlled procedure. The CIA waterboarded one of its prisoners, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 183 times, according to a Senate report on the agencys torture program.

George Wolske, former Navy aircrewman

Wolske was waterboarded during Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape training in March 1969 at North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego when he was 25 years old. Now 72, Wolske says he still thinks about the experience.

I tell you, it was years ago when I went through it, but it was, perhaps the most searing, burning learning experience Ive ever been through. The whole process is introduced and taught as an element of torture. And that it is.  The brief introduction to waterboarding [in SERE training] is so intense, so mentally violent, to the person on the receiving end, it is something you will never forget. You are actually brought to the point of thinking youre going to drown.

Story continues

It only takes a few minutes. It is that intense and that real. They put you down on a board, put you on your back, strap you down, you cant move. They begin pouring water on your face. Its going up your nose, you cant breathe. In that flash of a moment, you recognize that the only thing that really matters in life is oxygen. You can do without a whole lot of stuff  but if you cant breathe, you are going to die.

I always thought that George Bush and Dick Cheney should go on the waterboard and find out what thats like. Likewise for Gina Haspel.

[Being waterboarded] is always in the back of my mind, it has never gone away. Honestly, for about three weeks afterward  Im a very calm person normally  but after that experience, for three weeks, any little sound, somebody poking me or brushing up against me, I would twitch, I would jump. I was on edge.

Chris Jaco, former military pilot

Jaco was waterboarded during SERE training at the Air Force Academy in 1970.

When it happened, we didnt really know  heck, I was 19 years old  I didnt really know what waterboarding was. It was to give you a feeling and understanding to know what it was like, what you might be able to expect if you were to be captured. 

It felt like you were choking to death on water and couldnt stop it from being that way. I do remember  Im a tall person, but not an extremely big person or a particularly strong person  but I was throwing people off of me because it was so overwhelming. When youre choking on water, youre not really thinking, Wow, this is just training, I gotta see what it feels like. You were a little afraid at the moment. It was like, I cant breathe, waters going up my nose and my throat was basically filled with water.

They would ask questions  you were to try to not answer them if you felt you could. I got to the point where I was just throwing people off of me and I ran out of the tent at the time. So I was finally subdued and put in a hot box. Its a very, very small box with a door in it, youre not usually in a very comfortable position. Usually, its in a very hot place. 

I would say military people need to have some types of experience to understand what could come. Now, when it comes to the waterboard, I believe theres been enough movies and television shows that have shown fake waterboarding, that you kind of get an idea about it. I dont think you would actually have to experience that.  You can extrapolate from the things youve already experienced in SERE training of what it might be like without actually have to be choked almost to death by water.

Jeromy Shane, former Army interrogation instructor

Shane was waterboarded in 2003 during SERE training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

It was the worst thing Ive ever felt. Because when youre being waterboarded, youre actually inhaling water.  Theres no way to tell your body that this is going to end. Your body thinks youre drowning and stops acting appropriately. ... Its physically painful. I dont know if youve ever gotten water up your nose while youre swimming. Its that over and over again until whos doing it makes it stop. Youve got water in your lungs, your brain is on fire, your nasal cavity is on fire, your throat is completely swollen up.

Malcolm Nance, retired interrogator

Nance was waterboarded in 2006 during SERE school at North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego. An outspoken critic of the use of torture, Nance testified in 2007 about the experience of being waterboarded before a congressional panel and the U.S. Helsinki Commission. The Pentagon banned the use of waterboarding in SERE training shortly after he testified. Here are excerpts from his testimonies:

Waterboarding is not a simulation. Unless you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word.  Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration  usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threaten[ed] with its use again and again.

In my case, the technique was so fast and professional that I didnt know what was happening until the water entered my nose and throat. It then pushes down into the trachea and starts to process a respiratory degradation. It is an overwhelming experience that induces horror, triggers a frantic survival instinct. As the event unfolded, I was fully conscious of what was happening: I was being tortured.

Chris Sampson, journalist and researcher

Sampson volunteered to be waterboarded in 2015 as part of a BBC documentary. While pouring the water into his nose and mouth, the interrogator asked him if he was born as a bunny rabbit. Sampson said yes. He was waterboarded for 18 seconds.

The water starts filling up my nasal cavity, turning me into an inverted water vessel. Going through my nasal cavity, it started to hit my throat. Thats when you see me physically convulsing, trying to fight off the board.  Once it started hitting a sort of critical point, my brain says, Go negotiate this somewhere else  which is when you see me say, Yes  yes, I was born a bunny rabbit.

Thats clearly an insane response. If the question had been, Do you run around trying to bomb things? Are you a member of al Qaeda? Do you wear a tutu in the morning?  anything youre asked, youre going to comply with because your natural survival skills are going to take over. 

I spit up a big chunk of water, I had it all in my sinuses, my whole nasal cavity filled out, my throat filled up, it was just beginning to hit my esophagus going upward. I had zero cognitive relationship to what they were asking as it was occurring.

Charlie Thompson, former naval aviator

Thompson wrote for Mic in 2012 about being waterboarded at a SERE training facility near Warner Springs, California.

A wet bath towel was placed over my face covering my mouth, nose and eyes and the water flowed continually. The first sensation is that of suffocation followed shortly thereafter by being unable to expel water that had saturated the towel and gotten ingested or inhaled. We were eventually told that this sensation was that of drowning. And, this is probably correct.

In any event, my ears began to ring and lights flashed in behind my unseeing eyes and my struggles abated. However, just before I lost consciousness, the ... officer ordered stop and the towel was removed. He then repeated the question Id avoided and coughed, gagged, spluttered out USS Guppie. Continue, he ordered, and the process was repeated, but the next time when asked what ship Id flown from I answered that it was the Constellation.

This was apparently a satisfactory answer (though it was a lie since I clearly hadnt flown off any ship). He then ordered that I be taken off the board. When the restraints were removed, I rolled off the board and onto my hands and knees. I could not have stood up if my life depended on it. And I remained there vomiting water, and gasping for breath when I was asked You bomb peace loving people in city you kill women and children? I shook my head in the affirmative.

At that point Id have confessed to being the reincarnation of Jack the Ripper if it meant I could avoid another session on  I shiver when I say it  the infamous waterboard.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Apple is scrapping plans to build a $1 billion green data center in Ireland.

The tech giant made the announcement on Thursday, citing delays in the approval process.

Despite our best efforts, delays in the approval process have forced us to make other plans and we will not be able to move forward with the data centre, Apple said in a statement on Thursday.

Apple had announced plans to build the data center in February 2015, choosing its location in rural Ireland to take advantage of green energy sources nearby, reports Reuters. However, two people appealed the plans, delaying its approval for the last three years.

While an Ireland High Court ruled in October that Apple could proceed with the data center, the appellants took the case to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is expected to announce whether it will hear the case today, but previously warned that the case may need to be referred to the European Court of Justice, which would lead to further delays.

Apple will nevertheless proceed with a second planned data center in Denmark, and noted that the decision not to move forward with the one in Ireland would not have an impact on future projects in the country.

If it had been built, the data center in Ireland would have been one of the biggest in Europe, servicing Apples European business in online services for Apple Music, iCloud, the App Store, Messages, Maps, and Siri, according to The Independent.YEREVAN, May 8 (Reuters) - Thousands of supporters of Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan gathered in the capital on Tuesday in anticipation of a vote in parliament set to install him as prime minister.

The vote follows days of mass protests by Pashinyan's supporters that forced Armenia's veteran leader, Serzh Sarksyan, to step down as prime minister and set the scene for a dramatic change in power in the former Soviet state.

"We made a revolution in our country," said Karine Balayan, a 19-year-old who was wearing a T-shirt bearing Pashinyan's portrait. "The whole world will respect us."

The tumultuous events have been watched warily in Moscow, which sees Armenia as a strategic ally and does not want a change of rulers that pulls it out of its orbit. Moscow has a military base in Armenia. Pashinyan has said he will keep close ties with the Kremlin.

Armenia's ruling Republican Party, closely allied to the ousted Sarksyan, holds the majority in parliament.

In a concession to the strength of the protests, which for a day last week brought the country to a virtual standstill, the party has signalled that it will put its votes behind Pashinyan's candidacy when parliament votes later on Tuesday.

"By the end of the parliamentary session, Armenia will have a prime minister. The Republican Party's votes will go towards making up for any votes missing from the 53 needed for the election of a prime minister," Republican Party lawmaker Samvel Farmanyan said.

Pashinyan, a former journalist who spent time in jail on charges of fomenting unrest, is the only candidate.

His election as prime minister would mark a rupture with the cadre of leaders who since the late 1990s have controlled Armenia, a country of about three million people nestling in mountains between Turkey and Iran.

Crowds of Pashinyan supporters were gathering on Republic Square, in the capital Yerevan, in anticipation of their leader becoming prime minister.

"It's a great day in the history of Armenia...We will live in a free and democratic country," said one of them, Mger Abramyan, a 69-year-old pensioner.

Pashinyan's protest movement was sparked when Sarksyan, barred by the constitution from seeking another term as president, became prime minister instead. Many Armenians saw that as a cynical ploy by Sarskyan and his associates to extend their hold on power.

The protests led by Pashinyan, wearing his trademark camouflage T-shirt and military-style cap, channelled a sense among many Armenians that corruption and cronyism was rife in the ruling elite. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze and Hasmik Mkrtchyan, Writing by Christian Lowe, Editing by Angus MacSwan)Planets don't just come out of nowherethey're slowly built up from a disk of material that gradually sticks together.

Now, astronomers think they've caught a glimpse of that process in action just hundreds of light-years away from Earth, according to a new paper accepted for publication by the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The planet orbits a pair of stars known collectively as CS Cha, which are located about 538 light-years away from Earth and are only 2-3 million years old. The new object is likely about 20 times the mass of Jupiter, which puts it right at the border between being a very large planet and being a very small star. Whether a giant planet or a tiny star, the object is more than 200 times farther away from its stars than Earth is from the sun.

Trending: Brock Turner Judge Defends Sentencing, Says Brown v. Board of Education Was Unpopular Too

Read more: NASA's New Telescope Won't Be Able to Tell How Likely Alien Life Is on New PlanetsThis Is Why

"It could be a brown dwarf but also a super-Jupiter in its toddler years," lead author Christian Ginski, an astronomer at Leiden University in the Netherlands, said in a press release. "The classical planet-forming-models can't help us."

The problem is, they can't get a very clear look at the companion objectbecause it is blocked by the very thing that makes it so interesting, which astronomers are pretty sure is a disk-shaped cloud of dust. That would likely indicate that the object is a planet that's still growing, pulling together mass from that cloud.

Don't miss: Republican Who Claims Holocaust Was Orchestrated by Gay Nazis Wins Enough Support For Massachusetts Governor Primary

05_09_toddler_planet

C. Ginski & SPHERE

The scientists mostly used an instrument called SPHERE attached to the Very Large Telescope located in Chile. But they also looked back as far as 19 years ago, comparing it with older images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Story continues

That two-decade perspective convinced the team that the likely planet really was orbiting the pair of stars, rather than the scientists just catching the three objects when they happened to be crossing paths. They also hope to continue the research into the future to get a better estimate of the new object's size and what's going on around it.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekAustralia's oldest scientist has died after flying to Switzerland to end his life by assisted suicide.

Despite not having a terminal illness, David Goodall, who was 104, believed his quality of life had deteriorated and he secured a fast-track appointment with an assisted dying agency in Basel, reigniting the end-of-life debate.

An assisted suicide group confirmed this afternoon the scientist had passed away and doctors told MailOnline his last words were: "This is taking an awful long time."

Prof Goodall's family were at his bedside when he flicked a switch to send the lethal injection coursing round his body.

Beethoven's Ode to Joy played as his relatives wept and the world-renowned ecologist closed his eyes and died within two minutes.

Prof Goodall with Carol O'Neill of Exit International, which advocates for voluntary euthanasia Credit: Exit International/GoFundMe

The 104-year-old was meant to turn a wheel to release the Nembutal, but when he couldn't do it, doctors replaced it with a switch.

This meant he had to be asked mandatory questions for a second time, including his name, his date of birth, why he was at the clinic and what he understood would happen to him, to which he replied: "'I hope my heart stops," according to MailOnline.

Talking to ABC on his 104th birthday in April, the ecologist said: "I greatly regret having reached that age.

"I'm not happy. I want to die. It's not sad particularly. What is sad is if one is prevented.

"My feeling is that an old person like myself should have full citizenship rights including the right of assisted suicide."

Prof Goodall made headlines in 2016 when his university tried to force him from his role on the grounds that, at the age of 102, he was no longer fit to be on campus.

Assisted suicide is illegal in most countries around the world and was banned in Australia until the state of Victoria became the first to legalise the practice last year.

But that legislation, which takes effect from June 2019, only applies to terminally ill patients of sound mind and a life expectancy of less than six months.

Story continues

At the age of 104, David Goodall said he was ready to die despite not having a terminal illness Credit: Exit International/AFP

Other states in Australia have debated euthanasia in the past, but the proposals have always been defeated, mostly recently in New South Wales state last year.

Exit International, which helped Mr Goodall make the trip, said a the beginning of the month it was unjust that one of Australia's "oldest and most prominent citizens should be forced to travel to the other side of the world to die with dignity".

Assisted Dying

"A peaceful, dignified death is the entitlement of all who want it. And a person should not be forced to leave home to achieve it," it said on its website.

The group then launched a GoFundMe campaign to get plane tickets for Goodall and his helper upgraded to business class from economy.

Prof Goodall, an honorary research associate at Perth's Edith Cowan University, fought attempts to banish him from the campus two years ago.

After an uproar and support from scientists globally, the decision was reversed.

He produced dozens of research papers and until recently continued to review and edit for different ecology journals.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Thursday it was reviewing a Florida crash of a Tesla Inc vehicle earlier this week that killed two teenagers. NHTSA said in a statement it was "gathering information on the tragic crash in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to understand all of the facts. The agency will take appropriate action based on its review. The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday it was opening a probe into the crash and sending four investigators. Earlier, Tesla said its autopilot system was unlikely to have been a factor in the crash. Autopilot, a form of advanced cruise control that has come under scrutiny after two crashes this year, was not engaged when the Model S car drove off the road and hit a concrete wall, catching fire, the company said, adding it had not yet seen logs from the crash. "We have not yet been able to retrieve the logs from the vehicle, but everything we have seen thus far indicates a very high-speed collision and that autopilot was not engaged," a Tesla spokesperson said. The NTSB has four active investigations into crashes of the company's electric vehicles. While admitting that serious high-speed collisions could result in a fire, the Tesla spokesperson defended the car's safety record, saying a gas car in the United States is five times more likely to catch fire than a Tesla vehicle. In the event of an accident, eight airbags protect front and rear occupants, and the battery system automatically disconnects from the main power source, Tesla has said previously in promotional materials for the car. "Should the worst happen, there is no safer car to be in than Model S," according to a company brochure for the 2014 Model S. NHTSA previously has said it is investigating two other Tesla crashes earlier this year, including a fatal March crash involving Autopilot in California. (Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Patrick Graham and Bernadette Baum)Heres a look at some of the companies the Yahoo Finance team will be watching for you.

AXA Equitable (EQH) tops our list. Shares of the French insurers U.S. division were priced at $20 ahead of its IPO today. But it was expected to fetch $24  $27 each. That means it came in $1B short, but its still the biggest U.S. IPO of the year. AXA will trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Apple (AAPL) is abandoning a big project in the Emerald Isle, for now. The tech giant says its cancelling plans to build a billion dollar data center in Ireland. Apple originally applied to build the center back in 2015 and finally got approval last year. However, a new appeal sent the case back to court. Apple calls the decision disappointing, but it doesnt rule out future business in Ireland.

Google (GOOG) is making another big change to make it easier for you to use its products. The tech titan is redesigning Google Drive to match its newly renovated Gmail. New elements include centering icons with the search bar, using cleaner graphics and simpler colors. All users should receive the update by next week.

Tesla (TSLA) is at the center of another fatal crash investigation. This time, two Florida teens died after the driver crashed a Model S into a concrete wall. It ended in a fiery explosion. The National Transportation Safety Board says its focusing on the fire created by the electric cars lithium-ion battery. The agency says, for now, Teslas controversial Autopilot system isnt part of the investigation. Tesla is cooperating with authorities.

Wells Fargo (WFC) admitted to keeping fee rebates that should have been passed on to a Tennessee public pension fund while acting as its trustee, according the Wall Street Journal. The pension fund says since 2010, Wells Fargo has improperly retained $47K belonging to the fund. Wells is blaming a system error.Sarajevo (AFP) - Bosnian prosecutors on Thursday brought charges against eight people for running a human trafficking network that sent undocumented minors to pick pockets at tourist sites in Paris and other French cities.

The crimes were committed from 2012 to 2015 and made the group nearly three million euros ($3.5 million), they said.

The eight men were charged notably with "organised crime, international human trafficking ... forgery of documents, money laundering, bribery," in both Bosnia and France, a prosecutors' statement said.

The suspects recruited women, children and minors in Bosnia, who were then transported to France to be forced to commit "thefts and pickpocketing in public places, subways, museums... and to send the money to the accused in Bosnia," the prosecutors said.

The accused also illegally obtained ID and travel documents for persons transported to France.

A former employee of the Bosnian embassy in Paris was targeted in an earlier probe and sentenced after pleading guilty.

The accused, none of whom has been arrested, include a municipal employee.

The operation was led in close cooperation with the French authorities as the "crimes seriously threatened security of citizens in France," the statement said.

In 2014 a French court sentenced the ringleader of a gang that forced young girls, mainly from Bosnia, into picking pockets on the Paris Metro to 12 years in prison.

Police said that at one time Fehim Hamidovic's gang was responsible for up to 75 percent of thefts on the Metro, Paris's underground rail network.

The gang trained the girls to pick pockets and find potential targets -- often Asian tourists known for carrying significant amounts of cash.

About 20 members of the gang were also on trial and sentenced to between one and five years in prison.

The gang was busted in 2010 and police estimated it stole a total of 1.3 million euros in Paris in 2009.British-born academic Dr David Goodall has explained why he has chosen to end his own life at the age of 104.

Dr Goodall, who was born in Britain but lived for much of his life in Australia, travelled to Switzerland to visit a euthanasia clinic.

Wearing a sweatshirt with the slogan Ageing Disgracefully, he addressed a press conference today (Wednesday) on the eve of his death to explain his decision.

I am rather surprised at the wide internet in my case. I am very appreciative of the hospitality of the Swiss federation and the ability which one has here to come to an end gracefully, he told reporters.

David Goodall, 104, reacts during a news conference a day before he intends to take his own life in assisted suicide (REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth)

I am happy to have this chance, though I would have preferred to have had it in Australia, and I greatly regret that Australia is behind Switzerland in this move, and that most countries are in fact behind Switzerland.

One wants at my age, and even rather less than my age, one wants to be free to chose their death at an appropriate time.

My abilities have been declining over the past year or two  well my eyesight has for the past five or six years.

I no longer want to continue life. I am happy to have the chance tomorrow to end it and i appreciate the help of the medical profession here in making that possible.

He assured the gathered press that he had no regrets about the decision he had made.

MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO

He also said that his family supported his decision and that none of them had tried to change his mind.

There are many things I would like to do I suppose but its too late. I am content, he said.

Story continues

Philip Nitschke, founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International, 104-year-old Australian scientist David Goodall and lawyer Moritz Gall, from left, attend a press conference a day before Goodalls assisted suicide in Basel. (Georgios Kefalas/Keystone via AP)

Dr Goodall received a round of applause from those gathered after bursting into song during the press conference.

When one reporter asked him if he had chosen a piece of music to listen to during his last moments he replied that he had not, but that he would chose the final movement of Beethovens ninth symphony.

Dr Goodall then sang a section of the piece of music to the delight of those present.

Dr Goodall will die on Thursday with a number of family members present.Two years after sentencing Brock Turner to six months for sexually assaulting a woman behind a dumpster while she was unconscious, Judge Aaron Persky has compared his controversial ruling to the unpopularity of school desegregation.

The Santa Clara County Superior Court judge defended himself and his ruling in a press conference in Palo Alto, California, on Tuesday. Persky is facing a recall vote in June over his ruling in the Turner case, which critics claim was unjustly lenient.

RTSH0B9

REUTERS/Stephen Lam

Trending: Search for Aliens: Is Congress About to Start Funding New NASA Research?

Brown v. Board of Education was unpopular in many states, Persky said, referencing the 1954 Supreme Court decision that ruled racial segregation was illegal. Imagine for a moment if those federal judges had been faced with judicial recall in the face of that unpopularity.

We ask judges to follow the rule of law, not the rule of public opinion, Persky added, according to Buzzfeed News.

Michele Dauber, a law professor at Stanford Law School, has been an outspoken critic of Persky and is leading the effort to have him recalled.

Don't miss: Billboard Threatening 'Liberals' Over Trump Impeachment Will Be Removed: Better Get Your Guns

Judge Persky has a long pattern bias in favor of privileged men, such as college athletes like Brock Turner, who have committed violence against women, Dauber said in an email to Newsweek. Persky has repeatedly abused his discretion on behalf of abusers. As a result, voters in this county have lost confidence in his ability to be fair.

Dauber called Perskys comparison to the Brown v. Board of Education as absurd. In Brown, the Supreme Court bravely ruled with the powerless against the powerful. In Brock Turners case, Persky did the exact opposite, she wrote. That was neither brave nor commendable.

Story continues

The law professor also took to Twitter to call Persky tone-deaf and clueless.

Most popular: Video: White Woman Calls Police on Black Family's BBQ for 'Trespassing' in Oakland Park

Sentencing a privileged elite recruited athlete sex offender to 6 months in jail and probation is not a courageous decision. It is business as usual. The fact that he would say that just shows how clueless he is about this and the impact it had on women, Dauber tweeted in reaction to Perskys press conference.

The recall effort received the endorsement of The Mercury News in an editorial published on Tuesday.

Voters need to stand up and make a statement on behalf of women and men about the seriousness of sexual assault. Peskys sentence failed to do so to an extent that he will never again be able to serve as a respected, effective judge. He should be recalled, the newspapers editorial board wrote.

Persky faces a recall vote during the June 5 election.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekTurning the ship before it hits the icebergBUCHAREST (Reuters) - A Bucharest court acquitted former Romanian prime minister Victor Ponta on Thursday of charges of forgery, money-laundering and being an accessory to tax evasion. Ponta, 45, is a former member of the ruling Social Democrat Party who served as premier from 2012 until 2015 when he resigned after a deadly night club fire triggered massive street protests. Anti-corruption prosecutors can appeal the decision. The case concerned Pontas time as a lawyer and prosecutors had accused him of colluding with Dan Sova, a former transport minister in his cabinet who was also acquitted in the trial. Transparency International ranks Romania among the European Union's most corrupt states and Brussels, which keeps its justice system under special monitoring, has praised magistrates for their efforts to curb graft. Anti-corruption prosecutors have been cracking down on high-level graft in recent years, convicting people across parties at a steady rate of just under 90 percent in 2017 of those who stood trial. (Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Toby Chopra)Abuja (AFP) - Nigeria's main opposition party has said President Muhammadu Buhari is unfit to run the country after he again left for London on medical grounds.

The 75-year-old former military ruler last year spent five months in London seeking treatment for an undisclosed illness that he said required multiple blood transfusions.

He flew out again on Tuesday, citing a request from his doctor, and pledged to be back in Nigeria on Saturday.

But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said in a statement on Tuesday evening it was an admission that he was "unwell, ailing and unfit to attend to state matters".

The disclosure had "put to rest speculation on the health status of the president, as well as his attendant inability to effectively govern".

The party also hit out at what it said were the "deception, lies and beguiling" of the president's office about the head of state's health.

Before the last election in 2015, the PDP -- then in power under president Goodluck Jonathan -- claimed that Buhari had terminal prostate cancer.

Buhari rejected the assertion and claimed a leaked medical report showing he was being treated for the condition was faked.

But with so many absences and uncertainty about his condition, his health is likely to become a major issue as he seeks re-election in February next year.

In particular, there will be questions about whether he will be able to manage months of rigorous campaigning.Sydney (AFP) - Bum-biting is common mating behaviour among certain wombats, researchers revealed Thursday, shedding light on the secret sex lives of the furry marsupials in a discovery that could protect the species as a whole from extinction.

Scientists monitoring the breeding patterns of the southern hairy-nosed wombat found females became more physically active when ready to mate and were more likely to bite males on the bottom when most fertile.

Researchers are tracking their behaviour in a bid to improve captive breeding of the critically endangered northern hairy-nosed wombat -- one of the world's rarest species.

"With only about 200 northern hairy-nosed wombats remaining, being able to breed these animals may one day ensure the survival of the species," said University of Queensland professor Stephen Johnston.

"There has been no captive breeding of the northern hairy-nosed wombat, and even the southern species fails to breed regularly in captivity."

Australia's three wombat species face threats to their survival from predatory dogs, diseases and competition for food from kangaroos.

The aggressive nature of wombats -- their love bites on the rump can rip out tufts of fur -- makes collecting behavioural data challenging, researchers said, with the latest findings offering a "significant step forward".

Johnston said that the amorous behaviours discovered by researchers could serve as "cues for animal husbandry managers" to bolster chances for the success of wombat breeding programs at zoos and wildlife enclosures.By Brendan Pierson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A California man was arrested on Thursday on charges he hacked and vandalized websites associated with the U.S. Military Academy and the office of New York Citys comptroller.

Billy Ribeiro Anderson, 41, was arrested at his home in Torrance, California, and will be brought to New York to face the charges, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman in Manhattan.

A lawyer for Anderson could not immediately be identified.

According to a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, Anderson hacked the website of the Combating Terrorism Center, an academic body at the military academy in West Point, New York. Prosecutors said he defaced the website by having it display the words "Hacked by AlfabetoVirtual," his pseudonym.

Anderson allegedly also hacked the website of New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer in July 2015, causing it to display "Hacked by AlfabetoVirtual," "#FREEPALESTINE" and "#FREEGAZA."

While the complaint focused on these two incidents, it said Anderson also committed more than 11,000 other defacements of "various U.S. military, government, and business websites around the world" using the pseudonym AlfabetoVirtual."

A defacement involves a hacker infiltrating a website and replaces its public content with his or hers own.

Anderson is charged with three counts of computer fraud.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)California just became the first state to require that all new homes be installed with solar panels, a continuation of its ambitious plans to completely wean itself off fossil fuels within two decades.

All five members of the California Energy Commission voted for the mandate Wednesday morning, which will go into effect on January 1, 2020 for single family or "multi-family" buildings three stories or less. Other, less visible standards were also put in place, like improved window insulation to contain costly, climate-controlled air.

The state  which is itself the world's fifth largest economy  is already well on its way to meeting aggressive renewable energy goals. State law requires California to generate half its power from renewables like wind and solar by 2030. Utilities say they'll likely meet this goal 10 years ahead of schedule, in 2020.

SEE ALSO: Leonardo DiCaprio's latest venture seeks to bring rural dwellers out of the dark

Solar panels on new homes can certainly be a boon, powering your fridge and air conditioning during the day while sending any excess power back into the grid. But they won't be as significant as other, less flashy mandates.

"They speak to the future," Michael Picker, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, an agency separate from the state's energy commission, said in an interview.

"But a much more brilliant solution were energy efficiency standards," said Picker, referring to the 1970s-era rules mandating that antiquated, power-hungry appliances become far more efficient. While energy demand has doubled across the U.S. since the 1970s, California's has remained flat, even with its active economy and burgeoning population, said Picker.

"It's hard for people to love [the 1970s' mandate], because people dont see it," he said. "Solar is not bad, but it's expensive and it does produce new challenges."

Story continues

The U.S. is importing more solar panels, mostly from Asia.

Image: U.S. Energy Information administration

There are some grievances about added costs from installing solar, which the state estimates could tack on over $10,000 to building a new home. But the energy commission said new homes with solar panels will cut energy use by over half, saving homeowners around $80 a month.

"That is something that is paying across over the lifetime of the building," Hope Corsair, program director and associate professor in electrical engineering and renewable energy at the Oregon Institute of Technology, said in an interview.

Overall, the price of producing solar energy has dropped significantly, mostly because the price of photovoltaic solar panels  the type mandated on Californian homes  has dropped, the U.S. Department of Energy said last year.

Corsair said that in concept, this solar mandate "is great," especially in places that have a lot of power demand, but not enough supply. Solar installations can pick up the slack here, without emitting heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

In March 2017, both wind and solar energy combined to produce 10 percent of the nation's power.

Image: U.S. ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION

But, Corsair cautions that "the problem starts when you install solar in a location that already has enough power."

During the day, especially at high noon when the sun is directly overhead, the panels will typically produce too much energy.

"This energy has to go somewhere," she said, and that means that it will be sent back into the greater electric grid. (Most homeowners don't have expensive battery storage units like like Telsa's Powerwall). This can certainly be a good thing  providing clean power for the area to use. But much of today's power grid isn't capable of accepting flows of energy back into the grid, when it's already pouring loads of energy out into the community. Corsiar related this to trying to pour water back into an active sprinkler  it's just can't be done.

"The power grid is far more complex than water piping," said Corsair, and if there's too much energy being pumped back into the grid, equipment can be damaged, or certain power plants may have to be turn on and off, causing overall increases in carbon pollution. This has actually happened in Germany, she said.

"You can only move so much power over a transmission line," said Corsair. "Youll find parts of the electrical grid that are 75 or 100 years old."

Solar panels on homes won't be California's renewable savior in and of itself, but they will be part of the greater renewable solution. "It's not any one thing that works," said Picker, citing that tightly-sealed insulation in homes and efficient appliances continue to contribute to the carbon-mitigation effort.

California already has sprawling solar farms in its Mohave Desert.

Image: Wikimedia commons/Department of the interior

Even when California homes are powered almost entirely by renewables like solar, they may still need to rely on some natural gas-burning for some time, even if these carbon-emitting plants are only used for around 200 hours a year, said Picker. When the sun starts setting, especially when it's hot, solar power alone won't be able to power many homes, requiring energy producing "peekers" to rapidly fire up and meet demand.

"You need something you can spin up real fast," said Picker. "It's a counter-effect, and we can deal with it."

Exactly how much electricity California will produce on new rooftops in the Golden State's neighborhoods isn't known. But it relies on one major factor.

"It depends on how much new building construction there is," said Picker.By Robin Respaut

(Reuters) - The California State Teachers' Retirement System decided on Wednesday to publicly engage retailers of military-style assault weapons in the wake of public outcry over mass shootings, as opposed to immediately reducing investments in these companies.

The decision by the nations second largest pension fund came after California State Treasurer John Chiang urged CalSTRS to use "the power of its purse strings" and "deny weapons of mass carnage to another killer stalking our innocent loved ones."

The pension fund has already divested from firearms manufacturers, but the board said that with retailers, it preferred to take a high-profile engagement strategy.

The plan calls for the fund to hire two new positions devoted to actively engaging retailers. It allows the board to reconsider divestment if it "fails to achieve an acceptable outcome," but did not specify what would be considered unsuccessful engagement.

The plan would prioritize "a public communication plan to highlight areas of firearm concern and applaud responsive companies."

Unlike other CalSTRS engagements, where our staff practices quiet diplomacy, this plan advances a more public approach, to leverage the public pressure that has been mounting in this country in response to recent tragic gun violence, said Harry Keiley, CalSTRS' Investment Committee Chair. We encourage other institutional investors to consider conducting similar activities.

CalSTRS' decision follows a vote by the California Public Employees' Retirement System board in March to not divest in assault rifle retailers and wholesalers, saying the move would do little to reduce gun violence.

Both proposals were pushed by Chiang, who is running for governor of California.

CalSTRS', in documents discussed on Wednesday, noted exposure to retailers and wholesalers of assault-style rifles exceeds $420 million, the majority of it passively held in an investment in Walmart Inc .

Story continues

However, two weeks after February's mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, Walmart amended its firearms sales policy by raising the minimum age for purchasing firearms and ammunition to 21 years. Walmart ended sales of modern sporting rifles, including the AR-15, in 2015, the company said in a February statement. It doesn't sell handguns, except in Alaska.

The CalSTRS board on Wednesday listened to statements from about a dozen members of the public, including teachers, parents, and family members of victims of mass shootings, who called on the board "to be an agent of change" by supporting divestment.

In 2013, CalSTRS divested from publicly traded companies that manufactured firearms after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Following the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, weapon manufacturers, too, have been under increasing scrutiny to acknowledge a growing public discourse over weapon sales to the public.

Sturm Ruger & Co executives said on Wednesday a majority of investors backed a shareholder resolution calling for the company to produce a safety report, a rare rebuke to management and the first time in memory such as resolution passed at a publicly traded gunmaker.

The pension fund's total portfolio reached $222.5 billion as of March 31.

(Reporting by Robin Respaut in San Francisco; Editing by Daniel Bases and David Gregorio)WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson has given $30 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund to shore up Republicans as they work towards retaining control of the House of Representatives in the November elections, Politico reported on Thursday.

Two senior Republicans confirmed the donation to the news outlet. The leadership fund did not return a request for comment.

The contribution will become public in the organization's campaign finance filing this month, Politico said.

Republicans secured the donation last week after they convinced Adelson how crucial it was to protect the Republican majority in the House, the report said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan met with the billionaire at his Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, along with Adelson's wife, Miriam and Norm Coleman, the former Minnesota senator who chairs the Republican Jewish Coalition, it said.

Corry Bliss, who oversees the super PAC, and Ryan aide Jake Kastan, also attended, Politico said.

(Reporting by Washington newsroom; Editing by Bernadette Baum)Shanghai (AFP) - Chinese telecom giant ZTE said its major operations had "ceased" following last month's US ban on American sales of critical technology to the company, raising the possibility of its collapse.

The firm's products depended on American chips and other components and is unable to continue operating without key supplies.

"Major operating activities of the company have ceased" as a result of the US decision, it said in a filing Wednesday.

ZTE, which makes telecoms equipment and handsets, is still "actively communicating" with the US side "to facilitate the modification or reversal" of the ban and "forge a positive outcome", the filing said.

US officials imposed the seven-year ban last month after ZTE allegedly made false statements regarding its settlement of a case involving the illegal sale of goods to Iran and North Korea. The firm pleaded guilty to the charges in March last year and was hit with $1.2 billion in fines.

The tough sanctions come as the battle over technology takes centre stage in a US spat with China focusing on trade and industrial policy.

At the time the measure was introduced, one Chinese investment bank estimated the firm had only one or two months' supply of hardware and software components on hand.

In Wednesday's statement the firm said it still "maintains sufficient cash and strictly adheres to its commercial obligations".

Trading of its Hong Kong and Shenzhen-listed shares has been halted since the US decision.

Beijing has been closely following the developments around ZTE, a company with 80,000 employees and which is headquartered in southern China.

The company said Sunday it had submitted a request to the US commerce department for a stay of the export ban, along with supplemental information.

And Chinese officials protested against the ban in discussions with a high-level US delegation last week and said the US side would discuss the matter with President Donald Trump.By Diane Bartz and John Miller

WASHINGTON/ZURICH (Reuters) - An attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels said he has additional evidence linking a Russian businessman to U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, as international and U.S. companies on Wednesday acknowledged large payments to Cohen's consulting firm.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG <NOVN.S> and U.S. telecommunications company AT&T Inc <T.N> said they made payments to Cohen's firm, Essential Consultants, in efforts to gain intelligence into the Trump administration's thinking on issues affecting them. South Korea's Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd (KAI) <047810.KS> said it hired the consultancy for services on accounting matters.

Novartis and AT&T said they were contacted by the office of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller about the situation in late 2017, and provided all the information requested. Both companies said they now consider the matter closed.

A senior official at Novartis told NBC News that Cohen reached out shortly after Trump's November 2016 election win "promising access" to the new administration. Boston-based Stat News also reported that then Novartis Chief Executive Officer Joe Jimenez instructed his team to strike a deal with Cohen.

A Democratic U.S. senator called for hearings about the company payments to the firm run by Cohen, a longtime attorney and self-described "fixer" for Trump.

Payments to the companies "may well have been used to influence the president of the United States, using Michael Cohen and his shell company as a conduit," Senator Richard Blumenthal said at a news conference.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, at a regular press briefing, referred questions about the reported payments to Trump's outside counsel. Asked whether Trump had taken any action to benefit Novartis, AT&T or KAI, Sanders said: "Not that I'm aware of."

Story continues

The payments were first mentioned on Tuesday by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Daniels, who says she had a one-time sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 and was paid $130,000 by Cohen in October 2016 shortly before the elections in November to stay quiet about it. Trump denies having sex with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. She has sued both Trump and Cohen.

In television interviews with ABC News and MSNBC, Avenatti declined to say how he obtained information about the payments.

Cohen said a report published on Tuesday by Avenatti's law firm detailing the payments was inaccurate. In a court filing, Cohen's lawyer Stephen Ryan said Avenatti appears to have Cohen's actual bank records and questioned how he could have obtained them lawfully.

Bank records of the company payments to Cohen's firm and payments from Columbus Nova LLC, a New York-based investment firm linked to Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg should be released, Avenatti said in the interviews.

Vekselberg, who has ties to the Kremlin, and his Renova Group conglomerate were sanctioned by the United States in April, freezing assets of up to $2 billion.

A lawyer for Columbus Nova has said Vekselberg had nothing to do with the transaction Avenatti said amounted to $500,000.

Novartis admitted it made a costly mistake in making payments totalling nearly $1.2 million to Cohen's firm. Trump took office in January 2017 and Novartis signed a one-year contract a month later. After meeting with Cohen in March 2017, Novartis determined the firm was not going to be able to provide the type of U.S. healthcare policy information it was seeking.

"In hindsight, this must be seen as a mistake," Novartis spokesman Michael Willi told Reuters, making sure to note that the arrangement was struck under former CEO Jimenez and in no way connected to new CEO Vas Narasimhan.

GAINING INSIGHTS

AT&T confirmed payments of $200,000 to Essential Consultants, although a source familiar with the matter told Reuters it likely paid more than that and could total as much as $600,000. South Korea's KAI said on Wednesday it paid $150,000 to Cohen's firm.

AT&T said it hoped to gain "insights" into the new administration at a time when it sought approval from antitrust regulators for an $85 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc <TWX.N>.

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island, the top Democrats on antitrust subcommittees, wrote to the Department of Justice on Wednesday urging investigation of the payments, including whether there were efforts to influence the department.

"This is not the first time that questions have arisen regarding potential interference by this administration in antitrust law enforcement," the lawmakers said.

Washingtons influence industry is jammed with consultants hired by corporations and trade associations to provide government intelligence about elected officials. Often, they provide information about the inner-workings of an important government office, such as the White House and leadership in Congress.

By choosing not to communicate directly with elected officials on behalf of corporate clients, consultants are not required to register with the government and report lobbying. This form of consulting grew dramatically under former President Barack Obama, who imposed regulations barring lobbyists from taking government jobs or entering the White House.

The U.S. Treasury Department's inspector general's office said on Wednesday it opened an investigation into whether confidential banking records involving Cohen may have been leaked. The Washington Post first reported the investigation.

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion by people associated with Trump, who denies any coordination between Moscow and his campaign. The Kremlin denies meddling in the election.

Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to once again decry news coverage about him. One post said that "despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake)."

(Reporting by John Miller in Zurich, Diane Bartz, Ginger Gibson, David Shepardson, Tim Ahmann, Eric Beech and Susan Heavey in Washington and Joyce Lee in Seoul; writing by Bill Berkrot; editing by Grant McCool)More than five decades after he first hit the campaign trail, Malaysias longest-serving former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is once again canvassing votes at the age of 92. His stunning political encore pits him against the ruling party he helped entrench as the dominant power in Malaysias political life. In the May 9 election, Mahathir is seeking to unseat his former protege, the incumbent Najib Razak.

Mahathir defined his nations transition from a moribund post-colonial state to one of Asias fastest-growing economies. During his 22 years in power, he bootstrapped Malaysia into a prosperous exporter  both of commodities and of semiconductors. The gleaming Petronas Towers, the worlds tallest buildings when they opened in 1996, were a symbol of the countrys future. Mahathir envisioned that Malaysia would be a fully developed nation by 2020.

The nations patriarch  who is so ubiquitous that across the country he is often invoked by the single letter M  is now pitted against his scandal-tainted successor. Najib, a scion of Malaysias political elite and son of the countrys second prime minister, is accused of embezzling at least $1 billion from a state investment fund called 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). The U.S. Justice Department says Najibs associates have pilfered at least $4.5 billion. Najib denies any wrongdoing.

Mahathir, who stepped down in 2003, blames such unbridled corruption for the rising cost of living aggrieving many voters. After his calls for Najib to resign went unheeded, Mahathir stepped of retirement to lead an opposition alliance.

Read More: Mahathir Mohamad on Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak: He Should Step Down

Its hard to oust a prime minister, Mahathir said at a recent rally in his home state of Kedah just days before the polls.

Mahathir should know  he cemented Malaysias single-party dominance, centralizing all power for himself and ensuring the ruling United Malays National Organization won every election. (It hasnt lost at the polls since independence in 1957.) Now hes hoping to shift voters loyalties to a historic tsunami of support for an opposition coalition comprised of political figures he once persecuted and imprisoned. Should they overcome an asymmetric election systemic to win, Mahathir has pledged to reinstate the very civil liberties and checks on power he curtailed.

Story continues

TIME spoke with Mahathir on May 7 at the tail end of his grueling, cross-country campaign that has defied any criticism of his age or stamina.

Supporters of former Malaysian prime minister and opposition party Pakatan Harapan's prime ministerial candidate Mahathir Mohamad in Langkawi on April 28, 2018.

Why, at the age of 93, are you coming back and attacking the party-state you helped build?

I thought that I could retire. But almost immediately after I stepped down the succeeding prime minister [Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi] went off track. So eventually I left the party and I campaigned against him. He was succeeded by the present prime minister [Najib Razak who] I thought would be a very good prime minister because his father [Abdul Razak] was an iconic leader. People loved him. I thought he would be like his father, but he was totally different. He believes that with money he can do anything. But because he didnt have any he decided to steal money, huge sums of money. Delegations came to see me [asking], Please do something. I tried to advise him. But it didnt work. So eventually I decided I would go against him.

Recent polling shows voters say they care about economics, not 1MDB. But you insist these are linked.

The level of corruption by this prime minister is unprecedented. But in the rural areas, they cannot even understand this big a sum of money. But what they do understand is that they are leading a worse life because the prices of things are going up. New taxes have been introduced. They cannot get scholarships for their children or their educated children cannot get jobs. The government now earns much more money than during my time. Three times more, because the economy is going quite well. But the money was diverted elsewhere and stolen by the prime minister. So there was a shortage of funds. To overcome the shortage of funds for the government, he imposed new taxes.

How do you think Malaysia should position itself in response to Chinas rise?

We have lived with China for over 2,000 years. We have traded with China. They never conquered us. When China became politically and economically powerful they had this idea that the South China Sea belongs to them. Now, of course we have islands in the South China Sea that belong to us. But we tried to avoid clashing with them. See, the fact is, China is there and we have to live with China. Its not easy. We will have to try to talk to them, but keep being friendly with them.

With the U.S. and China engaged in a tariff standoff that could devolve into a trade war, what do you think export economies like Malaysia should be doing to limit negative impacts?



Well Malaysia is a trading nation. It has been so for hundreds of years. Of course any disturbance in the market effects Malaysia. But now we are dealing with the world market. So we need to find out, how does it effect us  this particular policy, that particular policy  and try to manage it. I am very unhappy that there should be trade wars because this will not work for anybody. On the other hand, the idea that all countries must be absolutely open, that there should be free trade, and there should be competition  we are a small nation. We cannot compete with America. We cannot compete with Europe. We need some protection for our self.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak after submitting his documents at the nomination centre in Pekan on April 28, 2018.

Youve been calling Najib your mistake. How much do you feel Najib is a product of the political environment you created and benefited from?

This environment was not created by me, although people like to say so. This was a system we adopted when we became independent. We have a democratic system, but our democracy is not as liberal as in the U.S. We have racial problems, we need to limit people from irritating each other. So you can be free, but there is a limit. If you start stirring up trouble between races, well have to put a stop to that. That was the system we adopted actually from the British. They introduced the Internal Security Act to declare a state of emergency, suspend the law, and parliament, and arrest people without trial. Arresting without trial was done by the first prime minister, by the second prime minister, the third prime minister and then by me. When I became prime minister, I released a lot of political detainees. This seems not to have been noticed by anybody, because they dont like to give me credit for such things. Somehow or other, I made a name for myself for being very critical of the West, and things like that.

Would a more open and democratic Malaysia with strong independent institutions have prevented the rise of Najib and these financial scandals?

No, this man is bent upon abusing the law. What he believes is that with money he can do everything. Najib has overcome the separation of powers between the executive and the legislative and the judiciary. All three now are under his control. I think he has bribed all of them.

Youve been accused of stifling dissent and hampering freedoms in Malaysia. Do you think such repression hampered the nations productivity and enabled todays financial scandals?

What is the evidence? During my time, I was accused of being undemocratic and all that. And yet this country developed at the highest rate during my tenure as prime minister. From an agricultural country it was turned into an industrialized country. It was called one of the tigers of Asia. Now if I was so oppressive, why should the country have prospered? People would have run away. But people were coming in droves to invest in Malaysia.

Youre working alongside your former deputy prime minister again, the jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. Many believe the sodomy and corruption charges against him were politically motivated first by you, and more recently by Najib.



It is very difficult to explain. You see, when I was prime minister, security was the concern of the police. And the police insisted that on security matters, I listen to them. In the case of Anwar, police came to tell me that this man had committed sodomy and all that. A man with that kind of reputation I had to stop him from becoming the future prime minister. In the end, it is the judge who makes the judgement. But I accept that since I was prime minister, I am responsible for whatever happens in this country.

Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim ahead of the verdict in his final appeal against a conviction for sodomy in Kuala Lumpur Febr.4, 2015.

If you still believe he is guilty why are you lining him up as prime minister again?

You dont punish a man for a lifetime, for whatever crime. There are some crimes where in America you are charged for 250 years, or with a lifetime imprisonment. But in most cases, a person who was guilty of something, after a certain period I think we should overlook what he has done in the past. Nowadays, if the people want him, who am I to object to the peoples wishes?

A majority of Malaysians now favor strict implementation of Sharia law and hardline Islamist parties play an increasingly prominent role in politics. What role do you see Islam playing in the future of Malaysia?

There was this formation of an Islamic party which is something that is quite wrong because you cannot take Islam for yourself. Islam belongs to everybody. This Islamic party tries to make use of so-called Islamic laws in order to gain support. But its not even Islamic law, it is far more severe. During my time, they had this proposal to impose Sharia law. I had to fight against them. The moment I stepped down they came back with this proposal. Najib found it convenient to entertain them because he was losing grip over the Muslim Malays. So he backed the Islamic party and their demand for Sharia. And because of that, we are now more divided than ever.

One of the promises in the oppositions manifesto is term limits. Ive been told these were your idea.

I was there for five terms. But we find that after me came these two prime ministers who abused their power. So we believe that a prime minister should not stay for too long. Two terms would be just nice.

If you win and are appointed prime minister, how long do you plan to stay in power?

Well, Im 93-years-old. How long can I last? I dont want to stay for very long, but in the initial stages we need to solve a lot of problems. The others do not have the experience. So they want me to help in the initial stages. Maybe two years. Maybe three years. Even if I retire after that, I hope to be able to advise the government.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Student loans are one of the biggest stressors facing college graduates. In fact, the Federal Reserve of St. Louis says that nearly 44 million Americans owe $1.5 trillion in student loans. Many students dont have another option to finance their education, but more and more universities are doing their part to help.

This month, Dartmouth College announced plans to eliminate loans from its student financial aid packages and increase the size of scholarship awards. Currently, half of all Dartmouth undergraduates receive some form of financial aid. The hope is that eliminating student loans will provide more opportunities for middle- and low-income families.

Every deserving student will have the opportunity to enjoyand excel inthe full Dartmouth experience. Our residential life will be more vibrant than ever, as we will attract an incredibly diverse mix of students from all socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural backgrounds, said President Phil Hanlon in a statement.

Like other colleges, Dartmouth has students who struggle with debt. Currently, students whose families make $100,000 or less are already exempt from having to take out loans. Even so, some students still need extra assistance, and the university says that the average amount borrowed hovered around $23,400 for 2017 graduates.

Dartmouth College is doing away with student loansc

Dartmouth is just the latest school to take this step. According to US News and World Report, there are currently 50 institutions that offer a no-loan policy to lower-income families. Overall, just 16 schools offer the no-loan option to every student, regardless of family income.

Many of the schools offering loan-free financial aid packages are Ivy league universities with tuition costing $45,000 or more per year. This includes Harvard University, Princeton and Yale. The 2018-2019 school year will be the first year that Brown University will remove loans from its financial aid packages.

One reason Ivy league schools are leading the charge is their access to endowments, or money thats been donated and can be used for improvements to the institution. At the end of 2016, Harvards endowment stood at $36 billion, followed by Yale with $25 billion.

Story continues

Dartmouths endowment is as robust, so it started a campaign entitled The Call to Lead, to fund their loan-free program. The hope is to raise $3 billion, $500 million of which will be used for financial aid. Of that, $80 million will be used in the initiative to eliminate loans from Dartmouth financial aid packages.

Since announcing the campaign on May 1, Dartmouth has raised $20 million.

Dartmouth will implement these financial aid policy changes in the coming years as the endowed funding is secured through the campaign, said a Dartmouth spokesperson.

Brittany is reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @bjonescooper.

Recent graduates: Heres how not to default on your student loans

The 5 highest paying college majors

Free college tuition could become a reality  at least in these states

How FAFSA changes will affect your college financial aidRome (AFP) - Mercy, Francesca, Newman, Diabam and Sophia were the names their mothers chose. What they had no control over was where their babies were born.

As hundreds of thousands of migrants risk their lives on the perilous sea crossing from North Africa to Europe, dozens of newborns have taken their first breath aboard rescue ships in recent years.

"There were a lot of people in the rubber boat, we were all packed together... the pain was awful," said Stephanie, a Nigerian woman who gave birth to Francesca aboard an aid boat.

There are many elements of a tortuous sea crossing that can push pregnant women travelling aboard crammed vessels into labour -- stress, the vibration of boat engines, even the relief of being rescued from danger.

But the chance of a woman having to give birth on the perilous voyage is ultimately a question of numbers.

Since 2014, almost 80,000 women have landed on Italian shores, not including adolescents.

The majority of them are young and many are pregnant.

"I've met many women who were raped," said Marina Kojima, a Japanese midwife who spent several months aboard the Aquarius, a rescue ship jointly run by NGOs SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

"Often they have to sell their bodies in order to get a place on the boat."

For these women, pregnancy makes the perilous journey through the desert into hellish Libya even more difficult, and giving birth at sea can be a scarring experience.

- Births, deaths -

Giulia Marinig, a recently qualified doctor, remembers a hectic 48 hours in October 2016 when three women went into labour aboard the Dattilo migrant rescue ship.

"We barely had time to realise what was happening and after just 45 minutes a little boy was born," said the 26-year-old.

"I was working on autopilot. Just trying to do my best for the patients, we didn't sleep for two days."

Marinig reckons there were around 30 other heavily pregnant mothers on board the Dattilo, and a number of women carried babies in their arms they had recently given birth to in Libyan detention centres.

Story continues

Even if their birthing suites amounted to the ship's hard floors with plastic crates as cots, the successful deliveries that night brought a shimmer of light to dark two days -- 10,500 migrants had been picked up in the Mediterranean and a total of 50 corpses discovered.

For relief workers, delivering newborns alive and healthy is such a powerful experience that the European Union re-baptised its anti-trafficking operation in the Mediterranean Sophia in tribute to a Somali girl born in August 2015 on a German ship.

A baby born aboard the Aquarius in 2017 became the inspiration behind this year's French Eurovision entry, simply called "Mercy".

And the tributes go both ways.

Stephanie chose to name her girl Francesca after Pope Francis while little Desire Alex, born on the NGO boat Aquarius in 2016, was named after the ship's captain.

- Citizenship dead-end -

But even if the 35 babies born aboard Mediterranean rescue vessels in recent years defy the odds to make it safely to Europe, their ordeal is just getting started.

According to maritime law, children born at sea are considered nationals of the ship's flag carrier: Italy for Francesca, Germany for Sophia, the United Kingdom for Mercy.

But in these countries, restrictive citizenship laws mean the babies are not entitled to a European passport.

Upon arrival in Italy, their unusual birth affords them no special treatment and they often get lost among the masses.

Mercy and her mother were taken to Mineo reception centre in Sicily, the largest in Europe and long dogged by scandals of embezzlement and trafficking.

It still houses nearly 3,000 people who sometimes wait years for an answer to their asylum applications.

Little Francesca, and two others, Newman and Favor, born on the Aquarius in 2016, were luckier: their parents were taken in by smaller centres which offered legal support, Italian courses and independent accommodation.

On the advice of German sailors, Sophia's mother continued her journey and was granted asylum in Germany.

They all share the same hope: that their children can go to school and grow up to live a life less precarious than their birth.Democrats convinced that special counsel Robert Mueller is on the path to taking down President Trump reacted with shock and indignation to Vice President Mike Pences call Thursday for the investigation to be wrapped up quickly.

As Muellers investigation continues to turn up evidence into ties between the Russian government and Trumps presidential campaign, as well as possible obstruction of justice stemming from the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, Democrats have increasingly cheered it on, while Republicans have grown bolder in calling for its end.

In an interview Thursday with NBCs Andrea Mitchell, Pence joined the growing chorus of those in his party.

In the interest of the country, I think its time to wrap it up, Pence said. I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., summed up the Democratic response to that idea.

Extremely irresponsible, for somebody who should know better, to try and influence the special counsels campaign, Swalwell told Mitchell. Theyre still counting Russians. Under every rock you pick up, out of every tree that you shake, a Russian falls out. So theyre still counting Russians. Theres also just a failure to come clean. Youve seen guilty pleas now from Mike Flynn, from George Papadopoulos, from Rick Gates. So when you lie, the investigation takes longer, and then the president is still screwing around with whether or not hell sit down in the special counsels witness chair. Hes been provided the questions. He could move this thing along a lot faster if hed just sit down and cooperate.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, had even harsher words for Pence.

VP Pence has now brought his sycophancy to a whole new level, Schiff tweeted. With questions concerning which senior transition officials were aware of Flynns secret talks w/ Russian Ambassador still unanswered and new revelations every day, investigation must continue without his interference.

Story continues

Of course, no one is more hostile to Muellers investigation than Trump himself, who regularly posits justifications for shuttering it, as he did earlier this week.

Is this Phony Witch Hunt going to go on even longer so it wrongfully impacts the Mid-Term Elections, which is what the Democrats always intended? Republicans better get tough and smart before it is too late!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2018

President Trump signals to the press that he will come over to talk as he leaves the White House for Dallas to address the National Rifle Association on May 4. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Theres almost no chance that Mueller will wrap up his investigation before the midterm elections, which puts the ball in Trumps court, and that has many Democrats worried that hell move to quash the probe.

I think it would be a constitutional crisis, but lets hope that he does not. The three things that could happen: The president could let the investigation proceed, which Republicans in the Senate, at least, are encouraging him to do, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a press conference on April 12. We havent seen too much of that in the House. Secondly, he could fire Mueller or, third, [Deputy Attorney General Rod] Rosenstein. I think they are synonymous. They are the same thing. The firing of Rosenstein should be viewed by the public as the curtailing of the investigation, effectively firing Mueller from doing the job that hes there to do. Since Christmas we have been prepared for the president taking such an action, hoping that he would not, but prepared if he did.

In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor following the April 9 raid on Trump lawyer Michael Cohens office and residence, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer was more blunt: Interfering with the investigation would be a disgrace.

Constitutional questions aside, a growing number of Republicans now believe that Muellers investigation is unfair. Still, 76 percent of Americans in a CBS News poll released this week believe Trump should cooperate if hes asked to be interviewed.

For Democrats, and Republicans who oppose Trump, the waiting game is the hardest part. The daily anticipation for the next news in the investigation is similar to children staying up late on Christmas Eve in the hope of glimpsing Santa Claus, and is epitomized by the millions of messages posted to Twitter that contain the words Mueller, please hurry.

Mr. Mueller, please hurry up.  Terry McMillan (@MsTerryMcMillan) March 13, 2018

Ive said it a 100 times, please hurry Mueller Team #inners  Free bird (@TearsInHeaven09) April 20, 2018

Hurry, Mr. Mueller, please hurry. An insane man is our militarys Commander in Chief. He must be removed as soon as possible.  @AdamsFlaFan (@AdamsFlaFan) May 8, 2018

For those convinced of the presidents corruption, the wholesale repudiation of the Trump White House is considered only a matter of time.

I believe if the facts are unveiled, whether it is in the next six months before the November election or after, that Republicans are going to be hard-pressed to stand with this president and to deny that he has colluded with Russia and that hes obstructed justice, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said in an interview with MSNBCs Joy Reid. I think, even as they see it now, some of them are whispering. They are embarrassed, theyre worried, theyre scared that this president is going to take them down eventually.

.@MAXINEWATERS: Even as Republicans see it now, some of them are whispering. They are embarrassed. They are worried. Theyre scared this president is going to take them down eventually #AMJoy pic.twitter.com/qHn7j0On1p  AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) April 29, 2018

For now, both parties are operating on faith: on the part of Democrats, that the investigation will bring Trump down, and among Republicans, that it will prove to be, as Trump says, a pointless witch hunt. And the longer it goes, the more those positions seem to harden.

Read more from Yahoo News:

(Cover photo credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)President Donald Trump's decision to leave a multilateral nuclear agreement with Iran may be a violation of international law that alienates the U.S. from a global community seeking to combat the proliferation of nuclear weapons, according to some experts.

The 2015 deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and struck between the U.S., Iran, China, Russia, Germany, France and the U.K. offered Iran billions of dollars of sanction relief in exchange for halting of its nuclear production. After years of condemning what he has referred to as "the worst deal ever," Trump finally withdrew the U.S. from the agreement, despite pleas from its other signatories and advice from experts.

"It's a material breach as well as a denunciation in violation of the terms, both the material breach and the denunciation are in violation of standard treaty practice," Leila Sadat, director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at the Washington University School of Law, told Newsweek.

Trending: Brock Turner Judge Defends Sentencing, Says Brown v. Board of Education Was Unpopular Too

"Generally it's not in the practice of peace-loving states that are interested in the stability of international institutions to do this," she added, calling the development "very alarming."

GettyImages-956113088

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Sadat said that, while states often have the right to denounce international agreements they are a party to, they are often expected to do so within the framework of the deal. A unilateral withdrawal that ignores any fitted mechanisms to address grievances and work with other signatories, however, showed the international community that "the U.S. may be an unreliable partner."

Story continues

The deal's five other signatories have urged the U.S. not to renege on the promises it made under the former administration of President Barack Obama, who ended decades of mutual hostility to forge the deal. The U.S.-Iran feud has its roots in a CIA-backed 1953 coup that swapped a democratically-elected Iranian prime minister with the pro-West absolute monarchy he had weakened. This monarchy, led by the Shah, was ultimately overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that precipitated a U.S. Embassy takeover and left both nations without formal diplomatic ties.

When Obama struck the unprecedented nuclear agreement with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, hardliners in both countries were outraged. In the U.S., Trump became one of the leading opposition figures to the deal and vowed to tear it up as he came to office, bringing with him a harsher approach to traditional U.S. foes such as Iran and North Korea, whose supreme leader he has since courted ahead of upcoming, historic talks.

Don't miss: Republican Who Claims Holocaust Was Orchestrated by Gay Nazis Wins Enough Support For Massachusetts Governor Primary

Related: Syria Hit by New Strikes As Trump Cancels Iran Deal and Israel Calls High Alert

"What is odd about the presidents approach, in particular, is that Iran has, over the past few years, shown increased willingness towards at least a limited rapprochement and taken concrete steps to alleviate concerns about its nuclear capability. And of course, it does not yet have a nuclear weapons program. North Korea, however, has not," Sadat told Newsweek.

"So I find the presidents position towards the two states puzzling. One has actually taken steps to address U.S. concerns but is being 'punished'; the other has done nothing but say it is willing to do something in the future [having now tested its actual nuclear weapons] and is being rewarded," she said.

RTS1QLSD

IAEA/NSSP/IEER/Reuters

Trump's decision ignores the recommendations of his European allies and is instead closely aligned with Israel and Saudi Arabia, whichlike the presidentsay Iran has used its sanctions relief funds to develop ballistic missiles and support foreign militias that threaten regional stability. Sadat said the timing of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's slideshow last week that claimed to prove Iran had once planned to develop nuclear weapons and the Trump administration's alleged hiring of the Israeli intelligence firm Black Cube to investigate former Obama administration officials who supported the nuclear deal was "suspicious."

Most popular: Black Navy Veteran Says He Was Attacked by Dallas Night Club Bouncers

The International Atomic Energy Agency has verified Iran's compliance with the deal on at least 10 occasions and has maintained daily access to the country's nuclear facilities, which are heavily restricted under the terms of the 2015 nuclear accords. While national security adviser John Bolton claimed Tuesday the U.S. was now in "technical non-compliance"but not in violationof the JCPOA by withdrawing, the U.S. may have long ago broken its commitment when Trump began actively discouraging trade with Iran, something prohibited by the deal.

Matthew Bolton (no relation), a professor of political science at New York City-based Pace University, emphasized the dangerousness Trump's decision would have, not only on U.S.-Iran relations, but on the global nuclear non-proliferation trend. He expressed concern that the U.S. would break with the vast majority of world opinion to walk away from a deal that prevented Iran from attaining a nuclear weapon.

"This is really actually going to anger a lot of countries," Bolton told Newsweek. "In international law, it is a custom that you keep your word, this is a violation of the international norm."

He continued: "When a country goes outside the norm, it essentially makes their diplomacy more expensive."

RTS1PCOV

Amir Cohen/Reuters

Both Sadat and Bolton agreed that the U.S. had likely violated United Nations Security Council resolution 2231, which bound all countries to abide by the JCPOA in July 2015. Shortly after Trump's announcement, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who helped Rouhani negotiate the deal, blasted the "U.S. persistent violations & unlawful withdrawal from the nuclear deal" on Twitter, saying he would now be charged with examining whether Iran could work with remaining signatories to save the deal.

That same day, U.N. General-Secretary Antonio Guterres stated he was "deeply concerned" by the U.S.'s decision to exit the deal, which he said "represents a major achievement in nuclear non-proliferation and diplomacy and has contributed to regional and international peace and security."

Shortly before Trump declared the U.S. withdrawal from the agreement, Israel sent reserved troops to the occupied Golan Heights near Syria and warned citizens to seek shelter from what may be an imminent attack from Iran-backed militias in Syria. No attack came, yet unclaimed airstrikes destroyed suspected Iranian and Syrian military positions south of Damascus. Israel, which is widely believed to maintain its own covert nuclear weapons program, routinely neither claims nor denies such attacks in neighboring Syria.

"I won't say that the entire post-World War II world order in the international community is unraveling," Sadat told Newsweek, "but you see it fraying at the edges."

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekDNA techniques used to identify the Golden State Killer suspect may hold the key to unlocking the 50-year-old Zodiac Killer case, according to detectives.

In April, former police officer Joseph DeAngelo was arrested in Citrus Heights, California in connection with a series of murders and rapes committed in the 1970s and 1980s by the so-called Golden State Killer. DNA from a relative of DeAngelo taken from a genealogy website was used to link him to the crimes.

GettyImages-952196314

Getty Images

Trending: Woman 'With 11 Husbands' Buried Alive and Stoned to Death by Islamic Militants in Somalia

Now police believe the technique could be used to track down the notorious serial killer responsible for five murders in Northern California between 1968 and 1969, who sent taunting, cryptic letters to police and the press in which he referred to himself as "Zodiac."

Vallejo police detective Terry Poyser told the Sacramento Bee his agency had submitted two envelopes containing letters from the Zodiac Killer for a type of advanced DNA analysis that has only recently become available.

Poyser told the publication that the lab would attempt to obtain a full DNA profile of the Zodiac Killer from saliva left on the envelopes and stamps of the letters sent to police, with the results expected as soon as a few weeks away.

Don't miss: Who is Tim Chung? Kylie Jenner's Body Guard Isn't Her Daughter's Father

"If we get a good profile, then you start tracking back," Poyser said. "It really comes down to DNA. Without it, you have nothing. It's a 50-years-old case."

Story continues

The use of DNA from a genealogy website to identify DeAngelo marks a breakthrough for law enforcement, but has been criticized by civil rights defenders as a potential violation of privacy laws.

Prior to the capture of the Golden State killer suspect, police forces were limited to searching federal databases of convicted felons for DNA matches.

Most popular: Saudi Arabia Says It Will Build Nuclear Bomb if Iran Does

The Zodiac Killer has been linked to the murders of David Faraday, Betty Lou Jensen, Darlene Ferrin, Cecelia Shepard, and Paul Stine in the San Francisco Bay area between 1968 and 1969. Two further people shot and wounded by the Zodiac survived.

In a cryptic message mailed to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1974, someone claiming responsibility boasted of committing 37 killings in total.

The hunt for the killer was depicted in 2007 movie Zodiac, directed by David Fincher.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekCoal baron Don Blankenship has conceded defeat in Tuesday night's West Virginia Senate primary, much to the GOP's relief. As of nearly 10 p.m. Eastern, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey was polling ahead of the pack of his five primary competitors.

Blankenship, who served a jail sentence after being convicted of violating safety standards in a deadly mine explosion that claimed 29 lives, built much of his campaign on slamming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom he called Cocaine Mitch, and claiming the mantle of a candidate who is, in his own words, Trumpier than Trump.

Republicans warned that electing Blankenship in the primary could mean throwing the general election to Joe Manchin, one of the Senates most vulnerable, and most conservative, Democrats.

Trending: In Pictures: The 50 Best Places to Retire in the U.S.

Which is why Blankenships surging popularity in the days approaching Tuesdays election threw the GOP into a panic, spurring President Donald Trump to weigh in on the contentious race.

To the great people of West Virginia we have, together, a really great chance to keep making a big difference. Problem is, Don Blankenship, currently running for Senate, cant win the General Election in your State...No way! Remember Alabama. Vote Rep. Jenkins or A.G. Morrisey! Don't miss: Millennials Are the Most Anxious Generation, New Research Shows  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2018





Problem is, Don Blankenship, currently running for Senate, cant win the General Election in your State...No way! Trump wrote in a Monday tweet to West Virginia voters. Vote Rep. Jenkins or A.G. Morrisey!

Blankenship brushed off the presidents warning, insisting that hed been misled by GOP leadership, which had made a flawed assessment of the race.

Story continues

Most popular: Clash Royale New Cards 2018: Rascals Card Release Teased in Latest Update

The President is a very busy man and he doesnt know me, and he doesnt know how flawed my two main opponents are in this primary," Blankenship said Monday. "The establishment is misinforming him because they do not want me to be in the U.S. Senate and promote the presidents agenda.

Blankenship reportedly ceased campaigning on Tuesday, choosing instead to see a tailor who fit him for the suit he intended to wear to defeat Manchin in November. I am going to need a new suit for the general, Blankenship said, according to his top aide, who shared the quote with CNNs Dan Merica.

Tuesday night wasnt a total wash for the ex-con though: At midnight, Blankenships parole will expire. And earlier that night, when it already seemed he would lose, Blankenship was already seeing the bright side of his particular situation.

"I get my guns back in a day or two, so I am going to win either way tonight," he reportedly said.

don-blankenship

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekMr Trump made the announcement from the White House's diplomatic room - REUTERS

Donald Trump pulled America out of the Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, reimposing sanctions on the regime and delivering on an election campaign promise.

The US president said the defective 2015 agreement would not stop Iran developing a nuclear bomb and signed a presidential memorandum enacting the US withdrawal.

Iran has been accused of failing to be honest about its nuclear ambitions while supporting terrorist groups and acting in an increasingly hostile way across the Middle East.

Britain, France and Germany condemned the move in a joint statement and promised to stay within the nuclear agreement claiming that it was the only way to prevent a Middle-Eastern nuclear arms race.

However, the White House announcement was welcomed by Israel - which released new intelligence on Iran's nuclear programme last week - and several Arab nations.

Mr Trump made the announcement from the White House's diplomatic room Credit: Reuters

Mr Trump said: It is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement.

The Iran deal is defective at its core. If we do nothing, we know exactly what will happen.

In just a short period of time the worlds leading state sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the worlds most dangerous weapon.

Therefore I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

The US president added: Any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could also be strongly sanctioned by the United States.

President Hassan Rouhani addresses the nation in a televised speech following the announcement Credit: Iranian Presidency Office

Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president, warned that if negotiations with other partners to the deal failed then the countrys uranium programme will restart.

Story continues

Shortly after the announcement, there were widespread reports of an explosion in Syria, believed to be the result of an Israeli strike on Iranian forces.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights later said at least nine pro-government fighters were killed, including members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

On Wednesday, footage emerged of hardline Iranian MPs lighting a paper US flag on fire in parliament and shouting "Death to America". The politicians, including a Shiite cleric, held the flaming flag alight as their colleagues joined their chants. They also burned a piece of paper representing the nuclear deal and stomped on the papers' ashes.

The impromptu demonstration reflected broad public anger in Iran after Mr Trump's decision.

The decision to reimpose sanctions raises fears that European companies who trade with the Iranian government and do business in America could be hit with sanctions.

Mr Trump has long been a critic of the Iran nuclear deal, which was signed by his predecessor Barack Obama and lifted sanctions in turn for the countrys nuclear programme being curbed. Mr Obama criticised the decision as a "mistake".

Mr Trump said he was open to striking a new, wider deal with Iran that would address behaviour such as the countrys ballistic missiles programme and involvement in Syria and Yemen.

The US president said he wanted a real, comprehensive and lasting solution that would thwart Irans nuclear ambitions.

He also made clear he was delivering on a 2016 election campaign pledge, saying: "The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them."

The re-imposition of sanctions will come into effect between three and six months from now. It includes sanctions on Iranian oil exports, the country's central bank, and Iranian businesses.

Iran nuclear deal | Key details

European companies with significant presences in the US could be caught up if they do not curtail business in Iran before the sanctions come into effect.

Some of them were exploring ways to continue doing business in Iran after making significant investments following the announcement of the nuclear deal three years ago.

The UK, France and Germany issued a joint statement saying they regret the decision and making clear they would remain in the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The statement said: Our governments remain committed to ensuring the agreement is upheld, and will work with all the remaining parties to the deal to ensure this remains the case including through ensuring the continuing economic benefits to the Iranian people that are linked to the agreement."

Mr Trump signs a document reinstating sanctions against Iran Credit: AFP

It went on: We encourage Iran to show restraint in response to the decision by the US; Iran must continue to meet its own obligations under the deal, cooperating fully and in a timely manner with IAEA inspection requirements.

EU leaders are expected to meet within days to discuss how the deal can be rescued. Mr Rouhani, the president of Iran, said Iran would stay in the nuclear deal for now but was prepared to return to enriching uranium if its interests were not preserved.

He denounced Mr Trumps speech as psychological warfare against Iran but said his country would not bow to pressure. Our people have always been victorious in the face of conspiracies and we will also emerge victorious at this juncture."

But he warned: "I have ordered Iran's atomic organisation that whenever it is needed, we will start enriching uranium more than before."

Russia said it was "deeply disappointed" by Mr Trump's decision.

Iran nuclear deal | The sanctions explained

In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it was "extremely concerned" that the US was acting in its own "narrow" and "opportunistic" interests and "grossly violating the norms of international law".

It added: "Washington's actions undermine international confidence in the International Atomic Energy Agency. The decisions are a new confirmation of Washington's incompetence."

The ministry said it was open to discussion with other members of the Iran deal.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister and a leading critic of the Iran deal, said Mr Trump had made a brave and correct decision to withdraw from the agreement.

"Israel fully supports President Trump's bold decision today to reject the disastrous nuclear deal, Mr Netanyahu said in a speech moments after Mr Trumps address.

The Israeli leader has consistently warned that the deal would pave the way for Iran to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons and called the agreement a recipe for disaster.

Shortly before Mr Trumps speech, Israels military said it had detected irregular activity of Iranian forces in Syria and ordered Israelis on the Golan Heights to ready their bomb shelters.

Israeli officials have been saying for several weeks that they expected Iran to retaliate for a suspected Israeli strike against the T4 airbase in Syria, which killed seven Iranians.

9:48PM

Obama: Trump made 'serious mistake'

Former president Barack Obama, whose administration finalised the Iran nuclear deal, called Mr Trump's action a "serious mistake".

Mr Obama said in a lengthy statement: "The reality is clear. The JCPOA is working  that is a view shared by our European allies, independent experts, and the current U.S. Secretary of Defense. The JCPOA is in Americas interest  it has significantly rolled back Irans nuclear program."

He went on: "I believe that the decision to put the JCPOA at risk without any Iranian violation of the deal is a serious mistake.

"Without the JCPOA, the United States could eventually be left with a losing choice between a nuclear-armed Iran or another war in the Middle East."

8:41PM

Saudi Arabia backs Trump

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia said it "fully supports " the US measures,, expressing concerns over the deal's sunset clauses, Iran's ballistic missiles program, and its "support for terrorism in the region".

KSA always believed that the intl community cannot address Iran's pursuit of WMD, without addressing the mass destruction Iran is inflecting on the region. Any future deal must address Irans ballistic missile program, and its increasing financial/military support for terrorism.  Khalid bin Salman    (@kbsalsaud) May 8, 2018

8:24PM

May, Merkel and Macron push back

In a joint statement, Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron insisted they will stay in the nuclear agreement.

"It is with regret and concern that we, the Leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom take note of President Trumps decision to withdraw the United States of America from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

"Together, we emphasise our continuing commitment to the JCPoA... We recall that the JCPoA was unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council in resolution 2231."

The leaders said the world "is a safer place" as a result of the deal as they warned the US against imposing sanctions on European companies.

"We urge the US to ensure that the structures of the JCPoA can remain intact, and to avoid taking action which obstructs its full implementation by all other parties to the deal."

The European allies also urged Iran to "show restraint" in response to the decision by the US.

8:11PM

EU foreign affairs chief tells Iran: "Do not dismantle this deal"

James Crisp in Brussels writes:

Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign affairs chief, told the Iranian people to stay true to their commitments despite President Trump's decision to pull out of the deal as she promised the European Union would stay committed to the agreement.

"Do not let anyone dismantle this agreement. It is one of the biggest achievements diplomacy has ever delivered and we built this together," she said shortly after Mr Trump's announcement.

"Stay true to your commitments as we will stay true to ours. Together with the rest of international community we will preserve this nuclear deal."

In a possible warning to Mr Trump, who threatened sanctions on any countries helping Iran, she added: "The European Union is determined to act in accordance with it security interests and to protect its economic investments."

EU leaders are meeting on May 17 in Sofia. Trump's decision on Iran deal has now been added to the agenda for discussions.

7:59PM

Iran: we will enrich uranium in 'weeks'

Iran's president has threatened to enrich uranium "more than before" if negotiations fail.

Hassan Rouhani said there was a "short time" to negotiate with the countries remaining in the nuclear deal, speaking live on Iranian state television shortly after Mr Trump. Mr Rouhani said he will be sending Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to countries remaining in the accord.

"I have ordered Iran's atomic organisation that whenever it is needed, we will start enriching uranium more than before," the president said. He said Iran would start this "in the next weeks" if negotiations with other countries failed.

7:56PM

Pompeo: Sanctions to go into 'full effect'

"As we exit the Iran deal, we will be working with our allies to find a real, comprehensive, and lasting solution to the Iranian threat," Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, said in a statement.

"We have a shared interest with our allies in Europe and around the world to prevent Iran from ever developing a nuclear weapon. But our effort is broader than just the nuclear threat and we will be working together with partners to eliminate the threat of Irans ballistic missile program; to stop its terrorist activities worldwide; and to block its menacing activity across the Middle East and beyond.

"As we build this global effort, sanctions will go into full effect and will remind the Iranian regime of the diplomatic and economic isolation that results from its reckless and malign activity."

7:54PM

Israel 'greatly appreciates' decision

Raf Sanchez, Jerusalem Correspondent, reports:

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister and a leading critic of the Iran deal, said Mr Trump had made a brave and correct decision to withdraw from the agreement.

"Israel fully supports President Trump's bold decision today to reject the disastrous nuclear deal, Mr Netanyahu said in a speech moments after Mr Trumps address.

The Israeli leader has consistently warned that the deal would pave the way for Iran to build an arsenal of nuclear weapons and called the agreement a recipe for disaster.

Shortly before Mr Trumps speech, Israels military said it had detected irregular activity of Iranian forces in Syria and ordered Israelis on the Golan Heights to ready their bomb shelters.

Israeli officials have been saying for several weeks that they expected Iran to retaliate for a suspected Israeli strike against the T4 airbase in Syria, which killed seven Iranians.

7:52PM

Iran: Trump decision 'illegal'

Iranian state television has said Mr Trump's withdrawal from the deal is "illegal, illegitimate and undermines international agreements".

7:42PM

Europe hits back at Trump

James Crisp, Brussels Correspondent, writes:

Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, tweeted "Policies of @realdonldtrump on #irandeal and trade will meet with a united European approach. EU leaders will tackle both issue at the summit in Sofia next week".

Charles Michel, Prime Minister of Belgium, tweeted: "No #irandeal means more instability or war in the Middle East. I deeply regret the withdrawal by @realdonaltrump from #JCPOA. EU and its international partners must remain committed and Iran must continue to fulfil its obligations".

Emmanuel Macron, who has made concerted efforts to convince Mr Trump to stay in the deal tweeted: "France, Germany, and the UK regret the U.S. decision to leave the JCPOA. The nuclear non-proliferation regime is at stake."

Earlier on Tuesday, officials from the EU, UK, France and Germany met with Abbas Aragchi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, for talks in Brussels over how to salvage the deal.

At the European Commission's daily press briefing, a spokeswoman insisted officials had already begun work on how to protect European companies and the economy from the threat of rising oil prices reacting to Mr Trump's expected decision. She refused to give details.

This is important for the Europeans who wanted to keep the deal going without US.

7:38PM

Macron: 'We regret the US decision'

The French President said he regretted Mr Trump's decision, after weeks of lobbying the US president to remain in the agreement.

7:31PM

Mike Pompeo on way to North Korea

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is currently on his way to North Korea, Mr Trump also revealed during his speech.

America's top diplomat is finalising details ahead of the landmark summit between Mr Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The president said: "At this very moment, Secretary Pompeo is on his way to North Korea in preparation for my upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un. Plans are being made. Relationships are building. Hopefully, a deal will happen and, with the help of China, South Korea, and Japan, a future of great prosperity and security can be achieved for everyone."

7:27PM

Other countries could be hit by sanctions

Mr Trump warned that other countries that continued dealing with Iran could be hit by sanctions, saying: "Any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could also be strongly sanctioned by the United States."

The new US ambassador to Germany tweeted:

As @realDonaldTrump said, US sanctions will target critical sectors of Irans economy. German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.  Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 8, 2018

7:21PM

Trump: I will withdraw from nuclear deal

"I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal," the president said, calling the accord "defective at its core".

Mr Trump said he will also institute the "highest level" of economic sanctions on the country.

"Today's action sends a critical message: the United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them."

7:19PM

'Sunset clause' could spark 'arms race'

Mr Trump highlighted the agreement's so-called "sunset clause", which sees restrictions on Iran's nuclear enrichment programme lifted after 2025.

"If I allowed this deal to stand, there would soon be a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Everyone would want their weapons ready by the time Iran had theirs," he said.

Mr Trump added the deal failed both to halt Irans nuclear ambitions and the country's development of ballistic missiles.

"Since the agreement, Iran's bloody ambitions have grown only more brazen," he said.

7:18PM

Iran 'continued to build its weapons'

Mr Trump cited the Israeli evidence produced last week in suggesting Iran has continued to build its nuclear weapons programme.

He said the intelligence documents "conclusively" showed the "Iranian regime's history of pursuing nuclear weapons".

7:17PM

Trump: 'Disastrous deal an embarrassment'

The president said the he had been "embarrassed" by the deal signed by the Obama administration. "In theory, the so-called Iran deal was supposed to protect the US and its allies from the lunacy of an Iranian bomb... In fact, the deal allowed Iran to continue enriching uranium and reach the brink of a nuclear breakout", Mr Trump said.

"At the point when the United States had maximum leverage, this disastrous deal gave this regime - and it's a regime of great terror - many billions of dollars. Some of it in actual cash.

"The fact is this was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made."

He called it "a great embarrassment to me as a citizen and to all citizens of the United States"

7:13PM

Trump begins speaking

"The Iranian regime is the leading state-sponsor of terror", Mr Trump said.

"Over the years Iran and its proxies have bombed American embassies and military installations, murdered hundreds of American service members and kidnapped imprisoned and tortured american citizens."

Mr Trump arrives to announce his decision on the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement Credit: Reuters

"The Iranian regime has funded its long reign of chaos and terror by plundering the wealth of its own people.

"No action taken by the regime has been more dangerous than its pursuit of nuclear weapons"

7:09PM

Israel on 'high alert' for Iranian movement

Israel's defence force says it has spotted Iranian military in Syria and has ordered bomb shelters to be prepared on Israeli-held Golan Heights.

6:50PM

Pence told Congress Trump will withdraw

Mike Pence, the Vice President, reportedly told Congress the US will begin the process of withdrawing from the agreement.

.@VP Pence informed congressional leaders Pres. Trump would announce that the Admin will withdraw (or begin process of withdrawing) from the Iran deal, per sources. Pence is talking to GOP senators now behind closed doors.  Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) May 8, 2018

6:47PM

Iran will respond to Trump tonight

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani will respond on state television shortly after Mr Trump's expected withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

"If Trump speaks, President Rouhani will respond tonight" on television, according to an Iranian official.

6:22PM

Outcry from former Obama aides

It took five years of diplomacy to build the sanctions regime and two years of diplomacy to reach a Deal. Trump is blowing that up with no understanding of what's actually in the Deal, no plan for what comes next, and no support from our closest European allies, Russia or China. https://t.co/59c3uQtKI5  Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) May 8, 2018

As someone who spent years of her life putting in place sanctions on Iran under Bush and Obama, I am horrified by the delusional view that we can easily regain the leverage that took years of painstaking "sanctions diplomacy" with our allies, Russia, China, Japan and India.  Kelly Magsamen (@kellymagsamen) May 8, 2018

There was no negotiation - and all of that changed with JCPOA. Blow up the deal and you're back there tomorrow! 4/4  John Kerry (@JohnKerry) May 1, 2018

6:13PM

Trump will withdraw - US sources

Mr Trump will withdraw the US from the nuclear accord, according to two sources briefed on the decision told AP.

However it is not clear what form the withdrawal will take - as the sources do not know which sanctions the president plans to immediately re-impose.

He has several options. A more limited move could leave Mr Trump more room to potentially stay in the deal if other members agree to toughen it. If he moves to reimpose all sanctions it could potentially throw the entire agreement into jeopardy.

5:42PM

Over 100 European political, diplomatic and military figures appeal to Trump

Over 100 former defence ministers, British politicians and ambassadors have appealed to Mr Trump not to take "unilateral action that would jeopardise the deal and trigger a crisis in US-Europe relations".

The figures, which include former Nato Secretary General George Robertson, signed a statement co-ordinated through the pan-European security think-tank the European Leadership Network.

The group of signatories comprises 106 serving and former politicians, ministers, diplomats and military chiefs.

5:39PM

Iran will act 'fiercely'

Iranian lawmakers said its parliament will oblige the government to react "fiercely" if Iran's rights are ignored by the US.

"We parliamentarians, of different political affiliations, support the establishment's stance against renegotiating the (nuclear) deal. America cannot impose its illegitimate demands on Iran ... and ignore Iran's rights," they said in a letter addressed to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

5:00PM

Iran will react 'in its own national interests'

Iran said it will react to Donald Trump's decision based on its own national interests.

Abbas Araqchi, the deputy foreign minister, told IRNA: "Iran is monitoring the US and European stance closely, and will react to the US decision based on its own national interests."

His comments followed a meeting with envoys from the UK, France, Germany and the European Union in Brussels.

4:44PM

Trump tells Macron he will withdraw

Mr Trump told the French president he will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and reinstate all sanctions related to it during his phone call, according to the New York Times.

However Mr Macron's office denied the report and said the president gave no indication of his decision.

4:39PM

Republicans urge Trump to stay in deal

The top Republican on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee said the US should continue to fix flaws in accord and "enforce the hell" out of it, but not withdraw.

Speaking hours before Mr Trump was due to announce his decision, Ed Royce said tearing up the deal would not recover cash sent to Iran's government or "galvanize" allies into addressing Iran's dangerous activities.

"I fear a withdrawal would actually set back those efforts," he said in a statement.

4:34PM

How America feels

Nick Allen in Washington writes

As Mr Trump prepared to make his announcement a new poll showed more Americans are against the Iran deal than for it. According to a national survey by the Pew Research Center 40 per cent disapproved and 32 per cent approved of the deal, with 28 per cent offering no opinion. The overall levels of support and opposition to the deal were similar to a survey taken shortly after it was announced in 2015. However, there was a notable shift in Republican opinion of the deal. Towards the end of 2015 73 per cent of Republicans disapproved of the deal, but that and that figure is now 53 per cent. The most recent survey showed 27 per cent of Americans said they had heard "a lot" about the agreement, 46 per cent said they had heard "a little," and 26 per cent had heard "nothing at all" about it. Meanwhile, a CNN poll showed 63 per cent of Americans saying the US should not withdraw from the agreement. The same poll showed that 62 per cent believed Iran had violated the terms of the deal.

4:14PM

Iran 'not afraid' of US military attack

Iran's revolutionary guard is not afraid of US sanctions or military attack and is prepared for the worst scenarios, its deputy commander said on Tuesday.

"Our nation is not afraid of U.S. sanctions or military attack. Our enemies including America, the Zionist regime and the allies in the region should know that Iran has prepared for the worst scenarios and threats," Hossein Salami was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.

4:13PM

Trump expected to quit deal, European officials say

Senior European officials expect Mr Trump to announce he is pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, European officials said, after they struggled to persuade him that the accord has halted Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The reports followed a phone call between Mr Trump and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, during which they discussed the announcement.

One senior European official closely involved in Iran diplomacy said US officials had indicated late on Monday that the president would withdraw from the deal but it remained unclear on what terms, and whether all sanctions would be reimposed.

A senior Western diplomat said France, Britain and Germany - which were also party to the agreement - were working on the assumption of a hard US exit after a call last week between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and European officials at which he made clear talks on rescuing the deal would not go further.

"He let it be known that it was over," the diplomat said.

European officials understood this to mean that Mr Trump would not renew sanctions waivers, a move which would in effect kill the deal.

3:23PM

EU meets with Iran ahead of announcement

Envoys from Britain, France and Germany met with Iran's deputy foreign minister in Brussels to discuss the nuclear deal, according to a German official.

After the meeting, the envoys urged all parties to avoid an "uncontrolled escalation" in the Middle East, the official said.People watch a TV news report on screen, showing portraits of the three American detainees, Kim Dong Chul (left) Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song (right) (AP)

Donald Trump has revealed that three American detainees in North Korea are on their way back to the US after being released by Kim Jong-un.

News of the three mens release had been expected for several days but the President made the announcement on Twitter after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to Pyongyang for talks.

Trump tweeted: I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the three wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health.

I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with Kim Jong Un. Date & Place set.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 9, 2018

Secretary Pompeo and his guests will be landing at Andrews Air Force Base at 2:00 A.M. in the morning. I will be there to greet them. Very exciting!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 9, 2018

In another Tweet, Trump said Mr Pompeo and the detainees will be landing at Andrews Air Force Base at 2am on Thursday (7am BST).



He said: I will be there to greet them. Very exciting!

The prisoners, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, were accused of anti-state activities by North Korea.

MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO

The family of Tony Kim say welcomed the release, expressing their thanks for Trump for engaging directly with North Korea.

Story continues

Mr Pompeo, the former CIA Director, was in Pyongyang to discuss arrangements for a meeting between the President and Kim Jong-un.

Trump added that there had been a good meeting with the North Korean leader, confining that a date and time for the summit had been set.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is leaving North Korea with three American detainees (Rex)

NBC NEWS: Family of Tony Kim, an American released by North Korea: We want to thank all of those who have worked toward and contributed to his return home. We also want to thank the President for engaging directly with North Korea. pic.twitter.com/IYWmz36cK2  Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) May 9, 2018

Mr Pompeo said earlier that senior official Kim Yong Chol had been a great partner in working to make the summit a success.

He said: For decades, we have been adversaries. Now we are hopeful that we can work together to resolve this conflict.

Mr Kim said the summit was not a result of sanctions that have been imposed from outside, but the will of the Korean people.

However, Trump has previously said that his pressure tactics brought North Korea to the negotiating table.

Donald Trump said a meeting with Kim Jong-un has been arranged as he confirmed the release of US detainees (Rex)

Mr Pompeo is only the second sitting Secretary of State to visit North Korea (Rex)

Mr Pompeo, who first travelled to North Korea as CIA chief in early April, is only the second sitting Secretary of State to visit the reclusive nation with which the US is still technically at war.

The first was Madeleine Albright, who went in 2000 as part of an unsuccessful bid to arrange a meeting between then-president Bill Clinton and Kim Jong-uns father, Kim Jong Il.

A Trump-Kim meeting seemed a remote possibility just a few months ago when the two leaders were trading threats and insults over North Koreas development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests.

Kim Jong-un (left) held diplomacy talks with South Korean president Moon Jae-in (right) last month (Rex)

But momentum for diplomacy built this year as North and South Korea have moved to ease tensions, including with their own leaders summit late last month.

In March, Mr Trump unexpectedly accepted an offer of talks from Mr Kim after the North Korean dictator agreed to suspend nuclear and missile tests and discuss denuclearisation.

According to South Korea, Mr Kim says he is willing to give up his nuclear missiles if the United States commits to a formal end to the Korean War and pledges not to attack the North.BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union called reports about Iranian strikes against Israeli army posts from inside Syria "extremely worrying" and said Israel had the right to defend itself. It also called on all regional actors to show restraint and avoid any escalation. "Reports about last night's Iranian attacks against Israeli army posts from inside Syria, to which Israel responded by striking against Iranian targets in Syria, are extremely worrying," said a spokeswoman for the bloc's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini. (Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Kevin Liffey)BEIRUT (Reuters) - Europe has a "limited opportunity" to preserve the nuclear deal with Tehran, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani told French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call on Wednesday, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency. "Under the current conditions, Europe has a very limited opportunity to preserve the nuclear deal, and must, as quickly as possible, clarify its position and specify and announce its intentions with regard to its obligations," ISNA quoted Rouhani as telling Macron in the phone call. Macron traveled to the United States in late April in an attempt to convince U.S. President Donald Trump not to withdraw from the nuclear deal. Rouhani told Macron that Iran's rights under the deal related to the selling of oil, banking, investment and insurance must be "guaranteed" in a transparent and clear way, ISNA reported. Foreign companies who have contracts with Iran must also announce their decision after Trump's withdrawal from the deal, Rouhani told Macron, according to ISNA. He also said Iran has met its obligations under the deal and has never enriched uranium for a weapons program. In a speech on Tuesday, Trump said the nuclear deal would allow Iran to enrich uranium to "reach the brink of a nuclear breakout." "Despite what Trump thinks, enrichment in Iran has never been for obtaining a nuclear weapon but instead has been for scientific and technical pursuits," Rouhani told Macron, according to ISNA. (Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would be withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran deal, and added that sanctions on Iran would be restored.

Oil prices reacted by moving 3 percent higher.

Burberry dropped more than 7 percent after losing one of its shareholders.

European shares closed broadly higher Wednesday afternoon, as investors digested news that the U.S. is pulling out from the Iran nuclear accord.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 ended 0.57 percent higher with most sectors and major bourses trading higher.

Oil and gas stocks were the top performing sector, up by more than 2.6 percent by the end of European trade. These were supported by news that the U.S. is withdrawing from the Iran deal. President Donald Trump announced his decision late Tuesday and added that sanctions on Iran would be restored. Removing the U.S. from the accord was a campaign promise made by the president during the run-up to the 2016 election.

As a result, oil prices have been on the rise with both Brent and WTI crude moving up by around 3 percent.

On the other hand, travel and leisure stocks fell 1.1 percent on average. This was due to rising concerns over geopolitical issues, but also earnings. In particular, shares of Compass CPG-GB were down by nearly 5 percent after the company announced some foreign exchange impacts on its latest set of results.

A network giant in Europe looks set after Vodafone announced it is to spend 18.4 billion euros to buy European assets from John Malone's Liberty Global. Subject to approval, Vodafone will buy Liberty's operations in Germany, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Looking at luxury, Burberry dropped more than 6 percent Wednesday. The British brand lost one of its shareholders  Albert Frere's Groupe Bruxelles Lambert sold its entire stake in the company.

Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna was among the top performers in Europe, up by nearly 6 percent. This was after posting its latest results and receiving a ratings upgrade. Imcd was also higher by close to 7.5 percent after reporting a 17 percent increase in EBITA growth during the first quarter of the year.

Story continues

In the United States, markets opened higher , also supported by a strong rally in oil prices.





More From CNBC

Revelations about the finances of a private company set up by President Donald Trumps personal lawyer have raised questions about his activity during the first year of Trumps presidency.

On Tuesday, a lawyer for adult film actress Stormy Daniels unveiled a report alleging that Michael Cohens company, Essential Consultants LLC, received payments from AT&T, Novartis and Korea Aerospace, as well as a Russian oligarch. All of this went to the same coffers from which Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet about an alleged affair with Trump. (Trump denies any affair.)

The New York Times, NBC News and the Associated Press reviewed financial documents which confirm much of the report by Michael Avenatti, Daniels lawyer. Cohen said the document is inaccurate.

The report raises questions about how Cohen operated, what business he did for Trump and what else the money was spent on.

Heres a timeline of what we know.

Dec. 10, 2015: Viktor Vekselberg attends dinner with Michael Flynn

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) speaks with Skolkovo Foundation President Viktor Vekselberg in 2014. (Getty)

Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg was among the attendees at a gala dinner at a Moscow hotel celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Russian TV network RT. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who was advising Trumps campaign at the time, was paid $45,000 to speak at the gala and sat next to Putin at the head table. Flynn later pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents.

Oct. 17, 2016: Michael Cohen founds Essential Consultants LLC

Cohen established Essential Consultants LLC in Delaware shortly before the presidential election, according to corporate documents reported by the Wall Street Journal. As a limited liability corporation, the business does not have to reveal much publicly, especially in Delaware, which is known for lax corporate records laws.

Oct. 22, 2016: Trump criticizes AT&T-Time Warner deal

During a speech in Pennsylvania, Trump criticized a potential deal between AT&T and Time Warner on the very day it was announced. As an example of the power structure Im fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because its too much concentration of power in the hands of too few, he said.

Story continues

President Trump speaks on the AT&T-Time Warner deal: It's "not good for the country" https://t.co/Q9CvfCoWO9 pic.twitter.com/oMdtOJIfSC  CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 21, 2017

Oct. 27, 2016: Essential Consultants pays Daniels attorney $130,000

Stormy Daniels in her interview with Anderson Cooper broadcast on CBS' 60 Minutes on March 25, 2018. (Getty)

In an appearance months later on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Avenatti revealed a receipt from a bank in San Francisco that shows a $130,000 payment from Essential Consultants to Daniels then-attorney, Keith Davidson, on Oct. 27. Cohen has acknowledged authorizing the payment, but never confirmed the exact date.

Nov. 8, 2016: Trump elected president

January 2017: Columbus Nova hires Cohen

In the new document, Avenatti alleges that Vekselberg and his cousin, Andrew Intrater, sent eight payments to Cohen through a private equity firm called Columbus Nova beginning in January 2017 and continuing through August. In a statement, the company said it hired Cohen as a business consultant on real estate investments and called claims that Vekselberg was involved patently untrue.

Jan. 20, 2017: Vekselberg attends Trumps inauguration

Chief Justice John Roberts administers the oath of office to Trump in 2017. (Christopher Morris)

Vekselberg was one of at least half a dozen politically connected Russians who attended Trumps inauguration as a guest of one of his closets American business partners, a spokesman told the Washington Post. Intrater, Vekselbergs cousin, gave $250,000 to Trumps inauguration, while Vekselbergs longtime business associate Leonard Blavatnik gave $1 million, according to federal filings.

Early 2017: AT&T hires Cohen

AT&T said in a statement this week that it hired Essential Consulting and other firms in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration, but that it did no legal or lobbying work for us and the contract ended in December of 2017. Avenatti says the company paid $200,000 in late 2017 and early 2018  a timeline AT&T disputes  but CNN reported that the amount may have been higher.

Cohen did not legal or lobbying work for us, and our contract with Cohen expired at the end of its term in December 2017, AT&T wrote in an email to all U.S. employees. It was not until the following month in January 2018 that the media first reported, and AT&T first became aware of, the current controversy surrounding Cohen.

February 2017: Novartis signs a one-year contract with Cohen

Swiss drugmaker Novartis signed a one-year contract with Cohen in February of 2017 for almost $1.2 million. In a statement, Novartis said this week that it hoped for advice on how the Trump Administration might approach health care issues such as the Affordable Care Act, but one month into the contract it met with Cohen and determined that he would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated.

As the contract, unfortunately, could only be terminated for cause, payments continued to be made until the contract expired by its own terms in February 2018, the statement said.

November 2017: Korea Aerospace pays Cohen

The Avenatti document said that Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. paid Essential Consultants $150,000 on Nov. 27, 2017. A company spokesman confirmed the payment, saying it was sent when work was completed on a contract to provide advice on legal consulting concerning accounting standards on production costs. The company provides aircraft components to Boeing and is jointly bidding with Lockheed Martin to see a military jet.

November 2017: Mueller contacts Novartis about contract with Cohen

Novartis said it was contacted in November of 2017 by Special Counsel Robert Muellers office about the contract with Cohen. In hindsight, this must be seen as a mistake, a senior company spokesman told Reuters.

Novartis, which began paying Michael Cohens Essential Consultants in Feb. 2017 for consulting on healthcare policy matters, says it was contacted by Mueller in *November 2017* about the payments. https://t.co/gb7LUN4Sbp  Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) May 9, 2018

November 2017: Vekselbergs company removes Columbus Nova from its website

Earlier iterations of the Renova Groups website list Columbus Nova as one of its companies, according to archived versions available on the Wayback Machine. Sometime in November of 2017, it dropped the reference and the website is now listed as under construction. An attorney for Columbus Nova told NBC News the firm has managed assets on behalf of Renova Group but is not owned by Vekselberg.

Early 2018: Mueller team questions Vekselberg

Federal agents working with the Mueller investigation stopped Vekselberg after he stepped out of a private plane at an airport in the New York area in either late March or early April, searching his electronic devices and questioning him, according to the New York Times.

January 2018: Novartis CEO dines with Trump at Davos

President Donald Trump looks on ahead of a special address on the closing day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday, Jan. 26, 2018. (Getty)

During the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, incoming Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan met with Trump and 16 other European business executives at a private dinner, according to STAT News. In a statement, Novartis said the dinner was in no way related to the Cohen contract.

Suggestions to the contrary clearly misrepresent the facts and can only be intended to further personal or political agendas as to which Novartis should not be a part, it said.

April 6, 2018: Treasury Department sanctions Vekselberg

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Vekselberg and six other of Russias richest men and 17 top officials over meddling in the 2016 election, preventing them from traveling to the United States or opening a bank account with any major company or bank in the West. The sanctions were levied after Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation which had been opposed by the Trump Administration.

April 9, 2018: FBI raids office and hotel room of Cohen

FBI agents raided Cohens office and hotel room on April 9, seizing business records, emails and documents on several subjects, including payments to Daniels from Essential Consultants.

May 7, 2018: Avenatti releases document on Essential Consultants payments

After significant investigation, we have discovered that Mr. Trumps atty Mr. Cohen received approximately $500,000 in the mos. after the election from a company controlled by a Russian Oligarc with close ties to Mr. Putin. These monies may have reimbursed the $130k payment.  Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 8, 2018

-With reporting from Haley Sweetland Edwards in New YorkPresident Donald Trump arrives for a roundtable discussion on tax reform in White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia, on April 5. At right is West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey. (Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)

Patrick Morrisey is President Donald Trumps new man in West Virginia.

The Mountain State Republican won a heated primary on Tuesday, defeating U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins and Don Blankenship, the former coal baron who mounted an insurgent campaign for the nomination after emerging from a year in prison following his conviction for conspiring to violate mine safety laws. Morrisey, who has served as the states attorney general since 2013, picked up support early in the race from the party establishment.

In a victory speech, Morrisey said that for too long the Washington elites have looked down on West Virginia and our values.

Our victory will ensure that West Virginia rises again, he said.

Thank you West Virginia. Now its onto defeating Liberal Joe Manchin in November. #wvsen https://t.co/IlFqJZIoBC pic.twitter.com/5CfZL74nTT  AG Patrick Morrisey (@MorriseyWV) May 9, 2018

In the days ahead of the vote, with internal polls showing Blankenship surging, the establishment mounted a last-minute effort to make sure he didnt become the nominee. Blankenship was the chief executive of Massey Energy when the companys Upper Big Branch mine exploded in 2010, killing 29 miners.

President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Monday to urge voters in West Virginia to reject the former coal executive, saying Blankenship cant win the General Election in November.

To the great people of West Virginia we have, together, a really great chance to keep making a big difference. Problem is, Don Blankenship, currently running for Senate, cant win the General Election in your State...No way! Remember Alabama. Vote Rep. Jenkins or A.G. Morrisey!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2018

Responding to Trumps tweet, Blankenship predicted on Monday that he would not only win the primary but that he would beat Joe Manchin even without the support of the establishment.

Story continues

Instead, Morrisey will face two-term incumbent Sen. Joe Manchin, the presidents most dependable Democrat in the Senate, who cruised to an easy victory Tuesday over progressive primary challenger Paula Jean Swearengin to secure the Democratic nomination. Despite voting in favor of the White Houses agenda 61 percent of the time, the president has targeted Manchin, the lone Democratic senator in a state Trump won by 42 percentage points in 2016 and remains extremely popular.

Trump first waded into the race last month at a roundtable event on taxes in White Sulphur Springs. Standing beside Morrisey and Jenkins, he called on voters to oust Manchin. Blankenship did not receive an invitation.

We have to get more Republicans in office, Trump said. Youre going to have a chance to get a senator thats going to vote our program. Thats going to help you in so many ways.

Blankenship tried to paint Jenkins and Morrisey as establishment pawns, while mainstream Republican groups poured money into the race in hopes of keeping Blankenship off the ticket. Upper Big Branch had made Blankenship the face of greed and recklessness for many West Virginians.

A group with ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell aired anti-Blankenship advertisements, and McConnell prodded Trump to get involved and weigh in on behalf of Jenkins and Morrisey. Blankenship had dubbed McConnell Cocaine Mitch and created a firestorm when he referred to the Kentucky senators father-in-law as a Chinaperson and later defended his use of the racist term.

McConnells political team trolled Blankenship late Tuesday, posting a graphic of the senator in a cloud of cocaine with the words, Thanks for playing, Don.

If Morrisey wins on Nov. 6, it would mark a milestone in the presidents takeover of what was once known as the bluest state in America. The states other senator, Shelley Capito, is a Republican who worked closely with the White House on rolling back environmental regulations to bolster coal. Last August, Gov. Jim Justice, a billionaire coal executive, announced his decision to switch parties and become a Republican at a rally with Trump. All three of the states U.S. representatives are Republicans. The GOP commands majorities in the state Senate and House of Delegates, and it controls five of six offices of the executive branch.

But Morrisey faces a formidable opponent in Manchin. The 36-year veteran of West Virginia politics has served as governor and secretary of state and enjoys the advantage of incumbency and the biggest war chest in the race. Manchin handily defeated his primary opponent, progressive activist Paula Jean Swearengin, on Tuesday and raised nearly $6 million by last month. Thats far ahead of Morriseys $1.9 million.

Vice President Mike Pence was among those who congratulated Morrisey on his victory. The great people of [West Virginia] need a senator who supports the #MAGA agenda, he posted to Twitter.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

Congratulations to @MorriseyWV on his victory tonight. @RealDonaldTrump and I look forward to working with him. The great people of WV need a senator who supports the #MAGA agenda.  Mike Pence (@mike_pence) May 9, 2018

Dave Jamieson contributed to this report.

Related Coverage

West Virginias Biggest Utility Eyes Renewables Over Coal, Despite Trump

West Virginia Governor To Switch Parties, Join GOP

Don Blankenship's Mine Took This Man's Son, Brother And Nephew. Now Blankenship Wants His Vote.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.The family of Tony Kim, who was among a trio of U.S. citizens held prisoner by North Korea before their release Wednesday, says they are grateful he is free and showed their gratitude to President Trump.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left North Korea with Kim, Kim Hak-song and Kim Dong-chul, who've been held for more than a year.

Their release precedes planned talks between Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Trump announced the Americans had been freed on Twitter.

I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with Kim Jong Un. Date & Place set.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 9, 2018

"We are very grateful for the release of our husband and father, Tony Kim, and the other two American detainees," the family said. "We ask that you continue to pray for the people of North Korea and for the release of all who are still being held.

Tony Kim had taught at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology and was arrested for "hostile criminal acts" against the regime in April 2017. Hak-song had been doing research at the college and was detained a month later for the same alleged offense.

Dong-chul was accused of spying and arrested in 2015.

The three are the only known Americans detained by North Korean officials.

Former prisoner Otto Warmbier, a U.S. college student, was sentenced to hard labor and released last year. He arrived home in a coma and died shortly afterward. His family has sued the communist country, alleging their son was tortured and died as a result.

RELATED STORIES

Otto Warmbier's Parents Say Son Had Obvious Signs of Torture Upon Returning From North Korea

Story continues

Dennis Rodman Takes Credit for Otto Warmbier's Release, Cries Over Backlash About North Korea Trips

2,500 Mourners Gather to Bid Final Farewell to Otto Warmbier in Emotional Funeral Service

Related Articles:Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi addressing worshippers at a mosque in Mosul in 2014 - AFP

Donald Trump boasted on Thursday about the capture of Isil's five most-wanted, as it emerged a key aide to leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and four others were captured in a sting operation in Iraq.

"Five Most Wanted leaders of ISIS just captured!" the US President tweeted shortly after 3pm. It is not yet known if the US played any role in the operation.

A security advisor to the Iraqi government told Reuters that Iraqi agents had used an app on the mobile phone of the senior aide to lure four commanders from the group into a trap.

Ismail al-Eithawi, who also uses the alias Abu Zaid al-Iraqi, was captured in February in Turkey by Turkish authorities and handed over to Iraqi agents, Iraqi security advisor Hisham al-Hashimi said.

Hashimi described Eithawi as a direct aide to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) leader Baghdadi, responsible for funds transfers to the group's bank accounts in different countries.

Five Most Wanted leaders of ISIS just captured!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

Iraqi agents used the Telegram messaging app on Eithawi's mobile phone to lure other Isil commanders to cross the border from Syria into Iraq, where they were captured, Hashimi said. Those held include Saddam Jamal, a Syrian who served as the group's governor of Syria's eastern Euphrates region.

Hashimi described Eithawi and Jamal as the two most senior Isil figures ever to be captured alive. The capture of all five was announced on Iraqi state TV on Wednesday.

Hashimi said the operation was carried out in cooperation with U.S. forces, part of an American-led coalition fighting against Islamic State on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border.

Following Eithawi's capture, Iraqi and American intelligence agents were able to uncover bank accounts used by the group and also secret communication codes he used, Hashimi said.

Story continues

FAQ | Islamic State

Apart from Eithawi and Jamal, the operation captured three field commanders: Syrian Mohamed al-Qadeer and two Iraqis, Omar al-Karbouli and Essam al-Zawbai, Hashimi said.

"The noose is tightening around him," Hashimi said, referring to Baghdadi, whose real name is Ibrahim al-Samarrai.

Baghdadi, who declared himself ruler of all Muslims in 2014 after capturing Iraq's main northern city Mosul, is now believed to be hiding in the Iraqi-Syrian border region after losing all the cities and towns of his self-proclaimed caliphate.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said last month he would "take all necessary measures" against militants based in Syria. The Iraqi air force has carried out several air strikes since last year against Isil positions in Syrian territory.

Abadi declared final victory last December over the ultra-hardline group within Iraq. But the militants still pose a threat along the border with Syria and have continued to carry out ambushes, killings and bombings across Iraq.

Isil militants last month restated their loyalty to Baghdadi, in what is believed to be their first public pledge of allegiance to him since his self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq collapsed last year.Sen. Jeff Flake joined Democrats Thursday in calling for more information on Gina Haspels role in the CIAs destruction of 92 videotapes that documented enhanced interrogation techniques used against two terror suspects.

Haspel has been nominated to be director of the CIA, and the Senate is preparing to vote on her appointment.

Gina Haspel, President Trumps pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, May 9, 2018. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)

As the Senate considers the nomination of Gina Haspel to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, it is critical that all Senators have access to information detailing Ms. Haspels role in the 2005 destruction of videotapes belonging to the CIA, Flake, R-Ariz., said in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. These tapes contained important information relating to the use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques that are now illegal.

In 2002, Haspel held a supervisory position at the secret CIA black site in Thailand where the videos were made and subsequently destroyed. Two U.S. detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, were subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, which the CIA documented in its hundreds of hours of footage.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked Haspel whether she had advocated destroying the tapes.

Senator, I absolutely was an advocate if we could within and conforming to U.S. law and if we could get policy concurrent to eliminate the security risk posed to our officers by those tapes, Haspel responded.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., speaks to reporters, March 20, 2018. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

At the same time, however, Haspel said she never watched the tapes herself, but she realized that their contents were so graphic that their release would endanger the CIA officers who carried out what has since been deemed to be torture.

Several Democrats have sought the declassification of the CIAs Durham Report, which offered an assessment of the destruction of the tapes, and Flake has made his vote on Haspels nomination contingent on it.

I respectfully request that the Durham Report be made available for every Senator to review in the proper setting as soon as possible, prior to casting a vote for or against Ms. Haspel, Flake wrote in his letter to Sessions. It is critical that all Senators have access to the same important, relevant information regarding the person nominated to lead the CIA.

Story continues

The American Civil Liberties Union sent a March 16 letter to every member of the Senate, sounding an alarm on Haspels role at the CIA black site in Thailand.

In addition to her role overseeing torture, Ms. Haspels participation in the destruction of videotapes of the torture program, over objections of White House counsel and CIA General Counsel among others, is alarming, the letter stated.

Citing her role in CIAs enhanced interrogation program, Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., has come out against Haspels nomination.

Flake said Thursday that McCains voice matters here, adding, Im glad hes spoken up.

Read more from Yahoo News:By Sonya Dowsett MADRID (Reuters) - Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont on Thursday proposed member of parliament Quim Torra as candidate for head of the Catalan government as the region attempts to put an end to a seven-month impasse and form an administration. Catalan lawmakers must pick a leader to form a government by May 22 to avert more elections, following a standoff during which separatist politicians put forward candidates who were blocked by the courts for being either abroad or in jail. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called regional elections in December after sacking the previous administration for illegally declaring independence from Spain. However, pro-independence parties again won a majority of seats. Torra is a lawyer and journalist who has been active in pro-independence lobbies in the wealthy region. He has published several books about the history of Catalonia, according to the Catalan parliament website. Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium after being sacked as regional leader, is currently in Berlin waiting for German courts to rule on a Spanish request to extradite him on a charge of misuse of public funds. Puigdemont proposed Torra as candidate in an address released on his YouTube video channel. Torra will need to be confirmed in a vote of confidence in the Catalan parliament. "Our group proposes member of parliament Quim Torra to be president of the Catalan government so he can take on this responsibility in the next few days and so that a government can be formed immediately," Puigdemont said. Spain's Constitutional Court on Wednesday accepted an appeal from the government that effectively blocked pro-independence politicians in Catalonia from voting in Puigdemont while he remains absent. (Editing by Kevin Liffey)PARIS (Reuters) - France and its European allies will work hard to safeguard the interests of their businesses in Iran, a source at the office of French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday, after the United States said it was reimposing strict sanctions on Tehran.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday pulled the United States out of a landmark 2015 nuclear accord, thrashed out with five other major powers and Iran, that lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said he would meet French businesses involved in the region as Peugeot maker PSA urged the European Union to adopt a common position and planemaker Airbus said it was keeping a close eye on the situation.

"We will obviously do everything, in conjunction with our businesses, to protect their interests," the source said.

French exports to Iran doubled in 2017 to 1.5 billion euros ($1.78 billion), driven by the export of jets and aircraft parts, as well as automobile parts, according to customs data. Total trade between France and Iran hit a nine-year high last year of 3.8 billion euros.

The United States will give a six-month wind down for energy-related sanctions, including banking and shipping of energy products, and a 90-day wind down for everything else including passenger aircraft, a U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday.

A second State Department official said the United States would be encouraging foreign firms to move out of Iran.

Asked if it would be possible to trade with Iran in euros rather than dollars to skirt the sanctions, the Elysee official said: "That's part of the discussion to be had but it's not necessarily that simple."

"We're going to speak with our companies, our European partners," the French official said. "We'll deal with this at the European Union level with the United States."

The official said discussions with U.S. authorities would include the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which is tasked with overseeing U.S. economic sanctions.

Story continues

Licenses for Boeing Co and Airbus to sell passenger jets to Iran will be revoked, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday.

($1 = 0.8430 euros)

(Reporting by Marine Pennetier and Jean-Baptiste Vey; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Brian Love and Jon Boyle)PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron called for a de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East on Thursday after Israel said Iran had launched an overnight rocket strike from Syria on an Israeli military base and that it had responded with its own missiles. "The president has been kept regularly updated. He calls for a de-escalation in the situation," Macron's office said in a statement. Macron will discuss the Middle East in a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel later on Thursday, the Elysee said. (This version of the story was corrected to make clear Israel says Iran launched strike, not Syria) (Reporting by Richard Lough; Editing by Gareth Jones)President Trump on Tuesday said he would exit the Iran nuclear deal.

Here's how the decision is likely to play out in the region and why it could lead a third conflict in the region and another failed state.

President Donald Trump 's announcement that the U.S. will withdraw from the Iran deal and seek to reimpose sanctions proves one thing: the president isn't afraid to pull the trigger.

Some advocates of the treaty would say, yes, he pulled the trigger on a nuclear pistol pointed at his own head, but, let's take a look at the facts, and then project what is likely to happen.

European firms are desperate to do business with Iran, but have been held up by fears that Trump might decide to put sanctions back in place, and they have put a lot of pressure on the German and French governments to help avoid this outcome.

Now, in the wake of the president's decision, they will probably redouble the political pressures on their governments to seek a better deal and get the sanctions lifted.

Iran is struggling with its economy, in part because the hoped-for benefits of lifting sanctions have yet to materialize. Now they are under even more pressure. Some in Iran have threatened to retaliate by reinitiating their nuclear program - but there are other considerations.

Israel is concerned about Iranian military preparations in Syria , as well as a nuclear threat, and has been warning Iran and the United States.

Israel has already struck Iranian preparations in Syria several times. But, over the years, Israel has several times sought U.S. help, or at least U.S. support and back-up in striking Iran's nuclear program.

Under the Obama Administration, the answer was, No. Under President Trump, and with the emerging condominium of interests between the Saudi's and the Israeli's, the possibility of war between Israel and Iran is rising.

Were that to happen, President Trump's actions in quitting the Iran accord would place a large share of the responsibility on the United States, increasing the likelihood that the U.S. would, in fact, support and reinforce Israel.

Story continues

Saudi Arabia would be only too pleased to see Israel, with the backing of the U.S., strike Iran, as Iran well understands, especially if this were to disrupt Iran's ability to sell its petroleum.

War would also likely disrupt Iran's Hezbollah party in Lebanon and curtail Iran's movement toward the Mediterranean.

Russia , like Saudi Arabia, would welcome a spike in the price of oil, and the subsequent opportunity to expand its armament sales in the region. It will not be struck by either Israel or the United States, should the U.S. engage militarily, nor will it defend Iran.

Turkey would not be unhappy to see a regional rival struck and Iranian military efforts in Syria disrupted.

Thus, weighing the factors in balance, there is good reason for Iran to be open to European proposals to strengthen the provisions of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the Iran nuclear deal, and then try again to gain U.S. support.

Over many years the Iranian government has been hardline, determined, but, ultimately, rational. Only time will tell whether they respond now with outraged nationalism, and restart their nuclear program, or whether the cooler heads will prevail.

My own bet would be for a brief period - a few weeks - of calm while the Europeans try to salvage the deal by negotiating some marginal enhancements.

They might succeed if they can assuage Iranian pride by becoming the submissive demandeurs. But Iran has long anticipated strikes by Israel or the U.S., and has no doubt prepared assiduously. We should expect them to resist anything that seems to be "blackmail" by the Great Satan.

If this isn't resolved in a few weeks, Iran will likely move to complete its nuclear weapons program.

Should Israel and the U.S. strike, the hardliners in Iran will reckon that this will only increase popular support for the regime, while in Washington the unrealistic hopes that a few strikes will bring regime change will be replaced by the grim recognition that these strikes will lead the way to the third major U.S. military engagement in the Middle East begun without a clear strategy for successful conclusion.

The hardliners on both sides will have confirmed the enemy they have long decried. The world will see a destructive, futile, and useless war, likely to lead to yet another failed state.

Commentary by Retired General Wesley Clark, a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center. Follow him on Twitter @GeneralClark .

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.





More From CNBC

Come summer, millions of vacationers flock to Americas stunning state and national parks. While most outdoor enthusiasts arent shy of brushing up against wildlifeafter all, thats part of the funclose encounters with bears arent at the top of most peoples wish lists.

Of course, bear attacks are extremely rare. Most years, you could count on one hand the number of people harmed by a bear in the United States. But people still need to be wary of bears. And for those hiking in areas where bears are present, packing spray is a good idea, says Chris Servheen, an adjunct research associate professor of wildlife conservation at the University of Montana and a former grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

I carry it myself, Servheen says. Its easy to use, and almost 100% effective.

But not any spray will do. The personal-defense pepper spray some people carry in their cars or purses will not work on a bear, Servheen says. You need bear sprayalso known as bear deterrentwhich is a product made specifically for bears. Bear spray contains different active ingredients (capsaicin and related capsaicinoids) than pepper spray.

The research confirms that its highly effective. A 20-year study, published in the Journal of Wildlife Management, of bear-spray incidents in Alaska found that these sprays stopped a bears undesirable behavior more than 90% of the time. The few times someone using spray sustained an injury, that injury was minor. Even when wind interfered with the sprays accuracy, it still reached the bear and helped scare it off, the study shows.

Some of the same researchers conducted a related study on the use of firearms as bear deterrents, and found them to be more or less useless. If you manage to shoot the bearand thats a big ifyou may just wound it and make everything worse, Servheen says. Bear spray, on the other hand, infuses and irritates the mucous membranes in the bears eyes and nose. The bear cant smell or see, and its in pain, so all it wants to do is get out of there, he says. (The spray wears off after an hour or two, and there is no lasting harm done to the bear, he adds.)

Story continues

But there are a few important caveats for those heading outdoors armed with bear spray.

For one thing, it wont do you any good at all if you keep it stowed in your pack, stuffed in your sleeping bag, or stashed anyplace else out of reach. If you cant get to it in a matter of seconds, its not much use to you, Servheen says. He recommends wearing it on your belt or pack strap, or keeping it in a pants pocket thats easily accessible.

Also, bear spray doesnt work like bug spray; you cant spritz some of it on your backpack or tent and expect bears to keep their distance. The spray is only effective when discharged into a bears face at fairly close range. How close? Twenty to thirty feet at most, Servheen says.

Also important: If you buy bear spray, you need to know how to use it. Familiarize yourself with your particular spray can, which will include a safety mechanism and trigger, Servheen says. While both are simple to use, even simple activities can seem difficult if youre trying to execute them with a four-hundred-pound bear lumbering toward you. He recommends thinking through the motions youd perform if you had to pull out your bear spray and fire it. Think about pointing it down at the ground as you spray, he says. Why? When a bear is coming toward you, its head is likely to be low and close to the ground. Hold the spray up at shoulder level, and your aim may be too high to hit the bear in the face.

Finally, Servheen recommends making noiseclapping or talkingwhenever youre hiking, and especially if youre walking into the wind, through thick brush, or in other areas where a bear may not see, hear or smell you. Surprising a bear can provoke an aggressive response borne of self-defense, he says. The best way to walk stay out of trouble with bears is to avoid an encounter in the first place.ex googlers humu cofounders

Courtesy of Humu

Google's former HR head, Laszlo Bock, along with two other ex-Googlers, recently launched a startup called Humu.

The company's goal is to make work better for people in a range of industries.

Bock said that, when hiring, Humu looks for people who display conscientiousness and altruism.

Research suggests that both traits are important predictors of job performance.



Laszlo Bock made a name for himself as a leading thinker on how to make people happier and more productive at work. Until 2016, he was the senior vice president of people operations at Google; during that time, he published the bestseller "Work Rules," in which he distilled lessons from Google into actionable insights for anyone.

Last year, Bock and two other ex-Googlers launched Humu, a startup dedicated to making work better for people in a range of industries.

Humu, which is the brainchild of Bock, Wayne Crosby, and Jessie Wisdom, has just raised over $40 million in funding. The company's goal is to use behavioral change technology to make people happier in their jobs, thereby increasing productivity and decreasing attrition. Humu's strategies are based on new innovations in machine learning as well as on decades of scientific research into human behavior.

Business Insider recently spoke with Bock and Crosby, who runs product and engineering at Humu and was the director of engineering at Google.

Humu currently has just over 20 employees; Bock and Crosby said the company is growing quickly. When they interview candidates, they look for two personalty traits in particular: conscientiousness and altruism.

Bock explained that conscientiousness  generally defined as being organized and hardworking  is a strong predictor of job performance. A growing body of research backs him up.

One 2009 study, published in the European Journal of Personality, found that emotionally stable and conscientious people reported earning higher incomes and liking their jobs more. As some of the first researchers to study the role of conscientiousness in job performance stated: "Those individuals who exhibit a strong sense of purpose, obligation, and persistence generally perform better than those who do not."

Story continues

It might come down to conscientious people's approach to goals: As University of Illinois psychologist Brent Roberts previously told Business Insider, conscientiousness people are better at setting goals, working toward them, and overcoming obstacles on the way there.

Humu asks job candidates to talk about instances when they displayed conscientiousness and altruism

As for the link between altruism and job performance, Bock explained that it comes down to how likely the candidate is to help a suffering person. That, in turn, translates to how sympathetic the person will be to Humu's clients, and how adept at finding out their specific issues.

Bock's remarks recall the observations of Wharton psychologist Adam Grant, author of "Give and Take." Grant argues that those who are willing to help others are more likely to succeed in business than those who use others as stepping-stones.

Humu generally doesn't use any trickery to figure out whether a candidate is conscientious or altruistic. According to Bock, they might ask the candidate simply to talk about a time they displayed either conscientiousness or altruism. Or, they might ask to hear about a time when the candidate solved a tough problem.

What Humu really wants to know is whether and how the person followed through. Bock said: "Did they go the extra mile? Did they worry about somebody who wasn't in their own swim lane? Did they act like an owner rather than an employee?"

NOW WATCH: The 3 key words to use on your resume to land the interview

See Also:

SEE ALSO: Google's former HR exec has a new startup  and he's looking for a specific quality in the people he hiresGoogle is trying to make the world of smart home devices more secure. (Image: Reuters/Beck Diefenbach)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.  Connected internet of things gadgets, like connected thermostats, cameras and speakers, suffer from security updates that arrive late or never. So Google (GOOG, GOOGL) has a solution in mind, and it involves the mobile operating system that has long suffered from security updates arriving late or never.

Android Things, the IoT platform Google unveiled at its I/O conference here, aims to transcend the problems Android has experienced on phones by taking device makers out of the update loop. Gadgets built on this foundation, Google says, will ship with software hardened against hacking attempts and at least three years of guaranteed, automatic security patches.

So, in theory, we should get smart devices that arent stupid about security and dont get taken over remotely. That would be a welcome addition to a market currently swamped by security vulnerabilities that have allowed hard-to-detect privacy violations and fueled massive denial-of-service campaigns against web infrastructure.

How are you supposed to shop for a smart device?

Here in the reality of 2018, IoT security remains a big bag of unknowns. Manufacturers will introduce connected appliances without clear statements of how long theyll get bug fixes  even though these things, if used like the non-connected sort, will stay in service for decades.

Even answering basic questions about security features in an allegedly-smart device seems too difficult for some companies, while government regulation has been patchy and sometimes slow to respond to clear failings by firms. One reason: Its hard to know that a device without a screen or a user interface of any sort has been hacked.

That can lead to a certain willful ignorance or learned helplessness. I dont think that consumers are quite thinking about security yet, observed summed up Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with Creative Strategies.

All this contributed to a horde of connected cameras and other devices being hijacked and enlisted into the Mirai botnet in October of 2016, then employed to launch denial-of-service attacks that left much of the internet unreachable across the U.S. In other cases, hackers have been able to tune into the video feeds of connected cameras by exploiting vulnerabilities in them.

Story continues

Various third parties are trying to get a sense of the problem. For instance, Underwriters Laboratories is developing its own cybersecurity labeling program, Consumer Reports (disclosure: I occasionally write there as well) has begun testing connected devices for privacy and security, and a group of researchers at Princeton University is building a database of IoT security.

Things to know about Android Things

With Android Things, Google hopes to give developers and customers more than just vague assurances. This platform is built on Google-certified chipsets from such manufacturers as Qualcomm (QCOM) around which those companies can build smart devices. Then it adds a secured and stripped-down version of Android, on which developers can write apps using standard Android tools.

Google promises a minimum of three years of security fixes for each major release. That itself is well short of the lifespan of a thermostat or an LED bulb; Google hasnt said what the maximum period of update support would be for Android Things, but its definitely not just three years. The developer blog post announcing this platforms 1.0 release notes additional options for extended support.

Devices running this platform have been emerging since January  see, for example, the Lenovo Smart Display that Lenovo introduced then at CES, or the LG smart speaker shipped last month. But Android Things role went unadvertised until Google formally announced this effort on Monday.

During a keynote Wednesday morning, Android Things project-management lead Vince Wu said Android Things would soon show up in additional Google Assistant-based smart speakers and Smart Displaysand would work for everything from connected doorbells to point-of-sale terminals. Note, however, that Googles own Nest thermostats dont yet run on this platform.

Other attempts to address this problem

Milanesi, the Creative Strategies analyst, offered a tentative endorsement of Googles move but noted the companys competition. At CES Samsung announced that it would incorporate its Knox security platform into its smart-home devices, and Apple (AAPL) has been pushing its own HomeKit platform, under which Apple reviews and approves the security of third-party devices.

Last month, Microsoft (MSFT) introduced its own IoT platform, Azure Sphere. Based on the open-source Linux operating systemitself a major departure for the firmthis includes a full 10 years of guaranteed updates, a duration much closer to the service life of household gadgets.

The best possible next development would be to see the likes of Google and Microsoft prominently advertise their guaranteed-update timelines, if not get into some one-upmanship on that front.

Being able to compare the support pledges on different connected gadgets would mean you wouldnt have to feel so dumb when trying to buy a smart device. Until then, consider yourself more than welcome to hold off on flinging yourself into the connected-home lifestyle.

More from Rob:

Email Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro.WASHINGTON  Hours after President Donald Trumps CIA director nominee Gina Haspel refused to condemn torture during her confirmation hearing, a Republican Senate candidate in Wisconsin blasted Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) for her silence about the nomination amid widespread Democratic skepticism toward Haspel.

Baldwin has not yet taken a public position because she has not had the chance to meet with the nominee, her office told HuffPost Wednesday evening. Haspel canceled a scheduled meeting and they are attempting to reschedule it.

Wisconsin state Sen. Leah Vukmir (R) argued that Baldwin would be backing terrorism if she opposed Trumps controversial nominee.

After Sen. Baldwins outrageous support of the Iran deal, its no surprise that she would rather give the man behind the 9/11 attacks and other terrorists hugs and safe spaces than take adequate action to protect America and confirm Gina Haspel quickly, Vukmir said in a press release. This is a dangerous time for America, and our CIA director should be willing to do what it takes to protect our nation, our citizens and our freedoms.

Vukmirs press release included a bizarre image showing Baldwin with Khalid Sheikh Muhammed, the man accused of planning the Sept. 11 attacks and a torture victim, who asked to submit testimony about Haspel. The image also labeled her as being with team terrorists.

The image included in the press release. (Photo: Leah for Senate)

Haspel, the Trump nominee, played a role in the Bush administrations torture and detention program after Sept. 11. She oversaw a CIA black site in Thailand, where agents waterboarded at least two detainees (one before her tenure). She was also involved in destroying videotapes that showed the CIA interrogating its first detainee under the program.

Some Democrats and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have said they will not vote for Haspel, in keeping with the general post-Bush administration consensus on Capitol Hill against using torture. Most Democrats are expected to eventually vote against her. Baldwin is among the senators who hasnt publicly taken a position.

Story continues

Trump, who has spoken approvingly of waterboarding and other torture tactics, has loudly supported Haspel. The day before her hearing, he tweeted, Gina Haspel, my highly respected nominee to lead the CIA, is being praised for the fact that she has been, and alway will be, TOUGH ON TERROR!

Subjecting captured terrorist suspects like Muhammed to torture and imprisonment outside the regular U.S. justice system at Guantanamo Bay has prevented the U.S. from successfully convicting them. Most terrorism analysts say the tough tactics actually make counterterrorism work more difficult  by complicating prosecution, prompting false statements and making U.S. partners abroad less likely to hand suspects over.

Baldwin is a top target for Republicans in the 2018 midterms. But the one-term senator is popular in her purple state, which is showing some signs of a Democratic resurgence after Trump eked out a narrow win there in 2016. She released her latest ad, highlighting her work on the opioid crisis, this week.

An establishment favorite, Vukmir is one of two high-profile candidates seeking to win the GOP nomination to run against Baldwin in an Aug. 14 primary. Her attack comes before a Republican party convention in Milwaukee planned for this weekend.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.On Wednesday morning, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello sat beside Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky at one of the companys swanky buildings in San Francisco. The two were announcing a partnership to bring more tourism to the island, where some residents are still without power and even without homes, following the ravages of Hurricane Maria in September. One of the best ways to help an economy is to continue to send visitors there, Chesky said.

Airbnb is just one stop on a whirlwind tour Rossello is making to some of the most prominent companies in Silicon Valley, as he tries to take advantage of the bittersweet limelight that the Category 4 storm has put on the U.S. territory. Devastation also means a chance to reimagine things as the island rebuilds, and the 39-year-old is casting Puerto Rico as a blank canvas for innovators to come and experiment.

The leader of 3.4 million people is also pushing for a bigger investment: statehood. At Airbnb, he criticized what he sees as two tiers of citizenship and argued that statehood would super charge the islands long struggling economy. We need to ask ourselves, in the 21st century, if we are satisfied with the notion that this standard bearer for democracy has a colonial territory, he said. In our view, that needs to change.

TIME sat down with the Democrat after the press conference to talk about how the recovery is going, why hes courting Big Tech and whether Donald Trump has been a good president for Puerto Ricans.

The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Looking back on everything the federal government and Trump have done in the wake of Hurricane Maria, do you give it a 10 out of 10?

As I told the President himself, recoveries are evaluated as time goes along. There have been some things Ive been very happy with and some things that I havent. Ill give you examples of both. Ive been very unsatisfied with the Army Corps of Engineers and their effort to rebuild the energy grid. Ive been unsatisfied with some of the additional bureaucratic steps that have been added for Puerto Rico, particularly on the FEMA side. On other fronts, weve been working well with FEMA. I was also very satisfied in the emergency phase with the militarys involvement. Were all going to be evaluated on how this ends up.

Story continues

So not quite a 10 out of 10.

I shy away from giving a number. I dont tend to give grades. I used to do that when I was a professor. Not anymore.

How are people feeling in terms of getting their lives back together?

In the majority of cases, its already reaching normalcy. The school system opened. Businesses are opening. Tourism by June is expected to reach pre-Maria levels but probably even higher. One of the things that was always lagging behind was energy. Today, 98% of clients are being served. But that is the grand scheme of things. There are some places where people dont have jobs and their homes havent been fixed. Even though it is smaller scale, about 22,000 clients still dont have access to energy and there are some places where 40% of the municipality doesnt have energy. That is a hard pill to swallow and weve been working as quickly as possible to mitigate that.

You mentioned that the profile of Puerto Rico has been raised because of the storm. It seems like a mixed bag as you try to draw tourists. Other regions like Napa saw many people cancel trips after high-profile wildfires, for example.

We didnt choose the catastrophe, it came to us. Because of that, theres a level of profile. Compared to Napa, a lot less people knew about Puerto Rico. In fact, polls show that prior to the storm about 25% of American citizens knew that we were American citizens. After all of the media coverage, about 85% know now. We need to use this as an opportunity to showcase Puerto Rico for what it is, what it has, what needs to be changed. Because prior to the storm, we didnt have the political wherewithal and we didnt have the bully pulpit. Now we at least have some of the bully pulpit.

Does it surprise you that such low numbers of Americans were aware that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens?

Puerto Rico is a very delicate issue. It is sort of a geopolitical black hole. In the past, because there were so many issues  the United States has to deal with Russia, Iran  you could sort of put it into a second or third tier. Not a lot of people would fight about it, and we didnt have the political structure  because we dont have senators or congressmen  to put that idea out there. Now, after the storm, there is this awareness about Puerto Rico.

Was I surprised? No. We had measured it, and it was always very disappointing. Again, a majority are now aware. The follow up question is: Should they be treated equally? Or should we have this colonial territory system prevail in the 21st century? The way that Congress was designed is that issues are not attended to unless they are highly critical. I think its a critical question.

When you met with President Trump, did you speak to him about the statehood issue?

We spoke about it. I speak to everyone about it. He said he wasnt going to touch upon those issues, that he was going to let the people of Puerto Rico decide. I just take what was in the Republican platform and the Democratic platform. When you read those statements, theyre very clear. On the Republican side, it says they will respect the will of the people of Puerto Rico if they so choose to become a state. What we need is a path forward for that to happen.

You have spoken before about mobilizing Puerto Ricans in the midterms, particularly because of the tax plan [that treats the island like a foreign competitor]. Are you still working on that?

Im doing that. Its not about being a Republican or Democrat, but if you are a friend or an opponent to the people of Puerto Rico. We have a platform. We have registration drives in some of the critical states. We can show that we have political force and influence on the national stage. Whats the objective right now? Time is really not our friend, so were really focusing on certain areas: Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, some districts in Texas and so forth.

What brings you to Silicon Valley?

My aspiration in this rebuilding process is that Puerto Rico can become a blank canvas for innovation. A lot of funds are going to come to Puerto Rico for the rebuilding, and it presents a unique opportunity to build smarter and get the best innovators in the world to come and showcase what they have to do  in areas of energy, transportation, overall technology infrastructure, the housing side. What we are doing over here is making sure all the stakeholders know that Puerto Rico is not only open for business but has this unique opportunity to showcase models that they might have on paper or a small scale.

If we leverage some of the opportunities  five years, ten years down the road  Puerto Rico could become a destination for the human cloud, as were calling it. In the future, its going to be even more clear that jobs are geographically independent and people are going to choose wherever they have a better quality of life. We want to make Puerto Rico that spot.

Theres been a lot of talk about tech companies based here working harder to create jobs elsewhere, to make sure other parts of the country arent left behind. Do you think they have a civic responsibility to think about other places?

I would say they do. Also on a pragmatic level, it benefits them  if you expand from just one place, adding diversity, adding a different mindset, having different world views, being able to tap into emerging thoughts and technologies from elsewhere. In my view, it can only add value.

As you go to these firms, if youre trying to pitch Puerto Rico as an alternative to places like Colorado or Texas, what are your biggest challenges and advantages?

The biggest challenges are things like energy costs and reliability and the bureaucratic red tape the government has. Ive declared war on both of them. The major benefits are we have unique value propositions on the tax front. We have a highly skilled labor force on the high-end manufacturing side. And just the natural beauty of being in Puerto Rico and having it be a place for people to move, when companies set up base.

Besides the citizenship issue, what do you think people in the States most misunderstand about Puerto Rico?

The fact that it is a colonial territory.

The word colonial is jarring.

It is, but its the truth. It was a colonial territory for 400 years with Spain and for 100 years within the United States. What other word can you use for it?

A second thing is that a lot of Puerto Ricans are moving to the States. Were U.S. citizens, so there are no visas. All we have to do is buy a plane ticket. There are now 5.6 million Puerto Ricans in the United States, which is almost double what we have back home.

Thirdly, the fact that even being a territory, the vast majority of Puerto Ricans are proud U.S. citizens. We serve in the U.S. military at the highest per capita rate in the nation. There are a lot of unknowns.

Do you feel like Trump has been a good president to Puerto Ricans so far?

I can only say what the President has done. He has always responded to our petitions. We got a historic amount of funding for the recovery. So in my capacity as governor, I have to call balls when theyre balls and strikes when theyre strikes, and I have to say he has responded to our petitions.

My concern is that sometimes within the structure of the federal government, those petitions dont manifest and bureaucracy takes over. Other interests take over. And some of those dont get fulfilled. But there is time to fix them, and my hope is that the President and folks in the administration will not put up additional obstacles for Puerto Rico, but actually help us achieve these aspirational goals I have defined.

We have a small window of opportunity and whatever we do in the next six months will define the Puerto Rico we have in the next 10 years.Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - A senior Hamas official signalled support Thursday for thousands of Palestinians to breach the border fence from Gaza into Israel at protests to coincide with next week's US embassy move to Jerusalem.

In his first major briefing to international media since becoming Gaza head of the Islamist group in 2017, Yahya Sinwar implied he would like to see thousands of Palestinians crossing into Israel as part of more than a month of protests.

Asked what he wanted to see from protests on Monday and Tuesday, Sinwar pointed out Israel has never specifically defined its borders.

"What's the problem with hundreds of thousands breaking through a fence that is not a border?"

Sinwar said he hoped Israel would not shoot at what he called "peaceful" protests.

Fifty-two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since protests and clashes began on March 30 calling for Palestinian refugees to be able to return to their former homes in what is now Israel.

The majority of those killed were shot during protests and clashes near the border.

No Israelis have been hurt, though protesters have thrown stones and rolled burning tyres towards soldiers along the border.

Israel says there have also been infiltration attempts.

Sinwar said the lack of Israelis hurt was evidence the protests were peaceful.

But he warned the protests risked spiralling out of control, blaming Israel for imposing a blockade on the strip and its two million residents since Hamas took control in 2007.

Israel says the restrictions are necessary to restrict Hamas, with whom it has fought three wars since 2008.

- 'The tiger is loose' -

It accuses the Islamist movement of spending money that could go towards easing the humanitarian crisis on weapons and building tunnels to be used for attacks.

"The Gaza Strip is like a hungry tiger that has been starved and left in a cage for 11 years," Sinwar said.

Story continues

"Now the tiger is loose, and nobody knows what it will do."

Gaza suffers from high levels of unemployment, while more than 95 percent of the water is not fit for consumption due to pollution.

Israel says it only opens fire when necessary to stop infiltrations, attacks and damage to the border fence, while accusing Hamas of seeking to use the protests as cover to carry out violence.

Palestinians say protesters are being shot while posing no threat to soldiers and there have been international calls for an independent investigation.

Thousands are expected to gather along the border on Monday, which coincides with the controversial opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem.

There are fears protesters could try and breach the fence, leading to more bloodshed.

Palestinians, who also consider Jerusalem their capital, reacted furiously to President Donald Trump's December 6 announcement that he would move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the divided holy city, with widespread street protests.

Hamas has controlled Gaza since forcing out the internationally recognised Palestinian government in 2007.

Despite technically being second in control to Ismail Haniya, Sinwar, who came from the groups military wing, is seen as the dominant force in the Islamist movement.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by the Jewish state, the United States and the European Union.Google (GOOG, GOOGL) is a massive company, with its fingers in a thousand pots. Theres Google Docs, Google Maps, Google Assistant, Google Home speakers, Google Photos, Gmail, Android, self-driving cars, and on and on.

At its annual Google I/O developer conference, then, the company has adopted a clever system for putting these projects on display, so that developers can try them out and ask questions: Yurts.

(If youre not Mongolian, heres a refresher: Yurt: A traditional portable, round tent covered with skins or felt and used as a dwelling.)

I wandered through them this week, and took a few notes on some of the most interesting demos.

The keynote speech at Googles I/O conference drew 7,000 spectators.

Visual Assistant

Googles voice-controlled Assistant is getting smarter (and more ubiquitous) all the time. This summer, companies like Lenovo, LG, and JBL will offer new Google Home devices with screens, much like the Amazon (AMZN) Echo Show and Echo Spot before them.

Therefore, Googles been working on ways to show you the answers to your questions on those screens, or your phone  instead of just speaking them. (Assistant punts you to your screen, in devspeak.) Thats especially handy when you ask for, for example, a recipe (you get cooking videos), a YouTube video, or details about the Mona Lisa.

Lenovos Google Smart Display, coming in July, adds a screen to the smart-speaker concept.

At one of the yurts, a rep demonstrated a sample app: A Google Home speaker asks you to name three animals whose parts you want to combine (head, body, legs)  and then directs you to look at your phone, where it has created a cartoon of that hybrid critter.

Lookout

In the Accessibility yurt, a mockup of a kitchen and living room were the setting for demos of Lookout. This is a new app, coming soon, for people with sight impairments: you point your phone at anything (mug, bowl, cereal box, painting of a leopard, person), and the Assistant identifies it by name and position, so you know what youre looking at. Cheerios, 12 oclock, shell say. Your phone can hang in a sling around your neck, camera facing out, identifying everything it sees.

Story continues

Microsofts (MSFT) Seeing AI app, for iPhone, does the same thing and is already available, but Googles version has a few nice tweaks; for example, you can hold your hand over the lens briefly to shut off Lookouts speaking, and then double-tap the phone to make it resume.

Smart Home Smarts

For months, reviews of the Amazon Echo and Google Home smart speakers inevitably concluded like this: Unfortunately, Googles devices fall down in the smart-home department. The Amazon can operate thousands more thermostats, door locks, lights, and other home devices than Googles machine can.

Google must have gotten really tired of hearing that. Nick Fox, VP of Google Assistant, says that since January, Google has increased compatibility with the worlds smart devices from 1,500 devices to 5,000 devices. We want it to be in everything, he told me. Were partnering with all the major manufacturers. (Amazon, for its part, now says that Echo works with 12,000 smart home devices.)

That new breadth was on display in one of the yurts, where a rep speaking to his phone commanded lights to go on, music to start, an outdoor camera to turn on, and even misters to start spraying the houseplants.

TensorFlow on display

One of the most enlightening yurts was the TensorFlow tent. Thats Googles machine-learning technology, which is open-source (free for anyone to download, use, and even adapt).

The exhibit I loved wasnt anything fancy; it was a robotic toy car driving around and around a figure-8 track. But the guys who taught the car to self-drive arent Google employees or even professional engineers. They created this car kit (DonkeyCar.com) as a hobby, and made it available for anyone to set up themselves.

Machine learning takes many forms, but one of them is called behavioral cloning: You, the human, repeat some task over and over, and the machine learns how to do it by watching you. Thats how the DonkeyCars (and, in an infinitely more sophisticated way, self-driving cars) work. You drive them around a track for 20 minutes with a remote controland after that, they can navigate the course themselves.

The figure-8 track had been set up by Googlethe little cars had never seen it before arriving at the conference. But after 20 minutes of manual driving, the creators were able to turn off the remote control and let the car zoom around by itself.

Waymo Getting Ready

Waymo, the self-driving car division of Alphabet (Googles parent company), displayed two gleaming white self-driving vehiclesa Pacifica minivan and a Jaguar iDrive. Reps noted that Waymo is the only self-driving car company that currently has fully autonomous cars on U.S. roads with nobodyno safety driver, no engineerbehind the wheel.

When you summon a Waymo self-driving taxi, this Jaguar will come to pick you up.

In fact, the companys Early Rider program, in Phoenix, has been operating a free self-driving taxi service for residents. Its like Uber, except the car that picks you up has no driver in it. Waymo plans to launch a commercial self-driving taxi service later this year in limited areas.

Should be quite a ride!

David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes non-toxic comments in the comments below. On the web, hes davidpogue.com. On Twitter, hes @pogue. On email, hes poguester@yahoo.com. You can sign up to get his stuff by email, here.

More from David Pogue:Hanoi has demanded Beijing remove military equipment from contested islands in the South China Sea, saying reported missile installations are a "serious violation" of Vietnam's sovereignty.

The warning follows a report from US network CNBC last week that China had installed anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles on the Spratly Islands, an archipelago in the resource-rich waterway also claimed by Vietnam.

Hanoi called the latest moves a threat to peace and asserted Vietnam's historical and legal rights to the islands, which it calls the Truong Sa islands.

"Vietnam requests China... not to militarise (and) withdraw military equipment that were illegally deployed on structures under Vietnam's sovereignty," foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement late Tuesday.

Vietnam and China have long sparred over who owns what in the South China Sea, which is believed to hold oil and gas deposits.

Tensions reached a fever pitch in 2014 when China moved an oil rig into waters claimed by Hanoi.

That sparked violent protests in Vietnam, though much of the wrangling between the communist neighbours over the disputed waterway has taken place behind closed doors since then.

The Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also have also claims in the sea, but Vietnam has remained the most vocal opponent to Beijing's build up in the waterway.

Beijing hit back after Hanoi's demand to remove the missiles, with foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang telling reporters Wednesday, China has "indisputable sovereignty" over the islands -- which it calls the Nansha islands -- and surrounding waters.

Washington last week warned Beijing of unspecified "consequences" over its militarisation of the disputed waterway.The people on Hawaiis Big Island are evacuating areas where there are high levels of sulfur dioxide leaking out of the lava emitted by the Kilauea Volcano. Lava, dangerous gases and earthquakes are all potential risks on the island, but if the weather changes, another risk will be added to that listacid rain.

Its reasonably normal for this volcano, Mark Elliot a meteorologist for The Weather Channel, told Newsweek. The Kilauea Volcano is known for emitting a lot of sulfur dioxide, he added, though not all volcanoes have the same makeup.

The gas can mix with the oxygen and any water vapor in the air, as well as with sunlight, to form sulfuric acid. Its an unsafe gas to breathe in too much of, Elliot said, but luckily its a gas humans detect easily; the smell is similar to that of rotting eggs or fireworks. When water vapor turns into rain and passes through that sulfuric acid in the air, the product is acid rain.

Trending: Trump Reveals Where He Will Meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un

The volcano erupted days ago and has continued to leak gas into the air, making sulfuric acid in the downwind areas likely, Elliot said. The forecast for an area where the gas has been leaking, not far from the volcano, included rain for Wednesday through Thursday evening.

Acid rain mainly impacts health, agriculture and the drinking water systems in the area where acid rain falls, Elliot said. Additionally, there are short and long-term effects the rain can have.

In the short term, the gases in the air that cause acid rain have the largest impact on asthma sufferers and those in more high-risk groups, like the elderly. Youre not breathing in as much oxygen as you should be, so it messes with you, Elliot said.

Don't miss: This Netflix Email Scam Will Steal Your Credit Card Details, Cyber Experts Warn

Symptoms can include difficulty breathing and irritation in the throat, lungs or eyes, according to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. The longer-term effects of the sulfur dioxide are less well-known but are something researchers are trying to study, Hawaii News Now reported.

Story continues

The rain also impacts the health of plants; while some are more sensitive than others, acid rain can do significant damage and even kill some plants. The plants are affected by it pretty substantially in that it is an acid falling onto the plants, it can mess up the leaves it can get into the root system, Elliot told Newsweek.

Lastly, the rain can contaminate drinking water supplies. The chemicals in acid rain can cause other elements, like lead, to leach from rain catching materials or out of roofs and plumbing. Residents should be careful about their drinking water because they might not know if its been contaminated following acid rain.

Most popular: Women Candidates Score Another Victory as FEC Rules Campaign Funds Can Be Used for Child Care

As long as the volcano continues to release the gas into the air, theres a potential for acid rain to fall on the island. As of Wednesday, researchers were unsure when the volcanos activity would die down.



hawaii smoke

U.S. Geological Survey via Getty Images

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekVerulam (South Africa) (AFP) - Armed attackers struck a mosque outside the South African city of Durban on Thursday, stabbing to death an imam and injuring two others in a country known for its peaceful religious relations.

Three men entered the large mosque after midday prayers, carrying guns and attacking the victims with knives and then releasing a petrol bomb that set fire to the building.

Police said the attackers remained at large after escaping in a Hyundai car from the Imam Hussain mosque in Verulam town, on the outskirts of the eastern port city.

"The motive of the attack is unknown at this stage. Verulam police are investigating three counts of attempted murder and arson," police spokeswoman Nqobile Gwala said in a statement.

The incident appeared to be unprecedented in South Africa, where about 1.5 percent of the country's 55 million population is Muslim.

Paul Herbst, spokesman for the private IPSS medical rescue service, told AFP that the imam had his throat slit and passed away a few hours after the attack.

"There were three people in the mosque -- a caretaker, a worshipper and the imam and they were held up by three armed men," Herbst said.

"The (imam) was tied up and thrown to his knees and his throat was slit. The other two men were also stabbed -- one was stabbed in the abdomen and the other in the groin of his left leg.

"Before the assailants left the mosque, a petrol bomb was thrown into the mosque and it was set alight."

The imam was treated by paramedics on the scene and transferred to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

- 'Sudden attack' -

Prem Balram, spokesman for the Reaction Unit South Africa security company, said he had arrived at the mosque to find two victims covered in blood lying in the forecourt of the mosque.

He said a third victim had been attacked inside the building and had jumped out of a window when it was set alight.

"Eyewitnesses said three attackers with guns had used knives. One knife was left behind," Balram told AFP.

Story continues

"There have been theft and robbery incidents at mosques before, but not like this, when nothing appears to have been taken."

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan is due to start next week.

"It is the first time anything like this has happened in South Africa, let alone in KwaZulu-Natal province," Faizel Suliman, chairman of the SA Muslim Network, told AFP.

"It was a sudden attack and at this point we don't have enough information. Speculation about the motive is quite dangerous at this point."

The South African parliament's police committee condemned the attack.

"A mosque is a religious institution, and South Africa's constitution guarantees and protects the right to religious practices," its chairman Francois Beukman said.

"This kind of attack on three innocent people is totally unjustified. We want our communities to live in harmony, practising their religions without fear."CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP)  U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia enters the general election campaign with a huge financial advantage as he prepares to defend his seat in November against Republican Patrick Morrisey.

Morrisey, a two-term state attorney general, defeated a congressman and a former coal company executive with deep pockets in the Republican primary Tuesday to earn the chance to challenge Manchin. The incumbent easily won the Democratic primary as he seeks his second full six-year term in a race that's widely regarded as one of the best GOP takeover opportunities.

Manchin, who has held elected office in West Virginia for the better part of three decades, is expected to face the most difficult re-election campaign of his career against the comparative newcomer Morrisey.

"Batten the hatches. It's going to be a long ride," Robert Rupp, a political history professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College, said Wednesday.

Manchin outraised Morrisey by a more than 2-to-1 margin during the primary campaign. The difference in cash on hand was much greater  Manchin's campaign reported $5.3 million in his latest federal filing, compared to $835,000 for Morrisey.

Rupp said money may not be that much of a liability for Morrisey, who can expect a boost from outside groups to cut into Manchin's advantage in individual contributions, which were $3.1 million in the primary. Manchin's campaign has said he had more than 11,000 donors in the primary.

Morrisey also must deal with another disparity  43 percent of West Virginia voters are registered Democrats, compared to 32 percent registered Republicans. Yet West Virginia gave President Donald Trump his largest margin of victory in 2016 and has trended hard toward Republicans in recent years.

Rupp said Manchin will have to "stand against the red tide" in West Virginia.

"It's going to be hard for him to do it," Rupp said.

Morrisey was the lone Republican to hold statewide office after he was elected in 2012. The GOP now controls five of the six offices.

Story continues

In the 2014 election, Republicans claimed majorities in both houses of the Legislature for the first time in eight decades, and Shelley Moore Capito became the first GOP U.S. senator elected in West Virginia in more than a half century.

In his primary win, Morrisey credited a Monday tweet from Trump, who told Republican voters to support him or Rep. Evan Jenkins and not former coal executive Don Blankenship. Trump now must decide how aggressively he'll back Morrisey over Manchin, who is one of Trump's only allies among Senate Democrats on many votes.

In his Tuesday night victory speech, Morrisey invited the president to make frequent visits between now and November.

"I think the president is going to be a huge ally in this race," he said in an interview.

Manchin touts himself as a bipartisan problem solver who works "for West Virginians."

He said he has a "good relationship" with the president and is always willing to work with him. He expects GOP leaders to make sure the White House backs his opponent but has a message for Republicans who have supported him.

"If it makes sense for West Virginia, makes sense to me, I vote for it, doesn't matter whether it's Democrat or Republican," Manchin said.

Manchin at times has expressed frustration with partisan gridlock in Washington, including in 2016 when he weighed a campaign to return to the governor's office. That theme played out again during this year's primary campaign, when Manchin used the phrase "Washington sucks" in advertising and again in his nomination statement.

"Some people in Washington care more about dividing us and playing politics than getting to work and solving these problems," he said. "I've always believed you can't build anything up if you're tearing each other down. That's got to change."

Immediately after his primary win, Morrisey went after Manchin, saying he "has failed our state." Morrisey said he'll put his record of fighting the state's opioid epidemic up again the former governor's.

Morrisey took heat from Jenkins during the primary about his New Jersey roots but doesn't expect that to be a problem in the fall campaign.

"My record reflects the strong West Virginia values that most people have," Morrisey said.By Darren Whiteside and Nilufar Rizki DEPOK, Indonesia (Reuters) - A hostage crisis at a high-security jail in Indonesia ended on Thursday after Islamist militant prisoners who killed five police surrendered and released an officer they were holding, authorities said. The five members of an elite counter-terrorism force had been "sadistically" killed by prisoners during the 36-hour standoff, which officials called an "act of terror" at the jail on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta. "We have minimized the number of victims. The operation ended at 7:15," deputy chief of national police Syafruddin told reporters. Four other police were injured and one inmate killed in the incident which began late on Tuesday. The death toll was the highest suffered by the counter-terrorism police force, known as Detachment, or 'Densus', 88, which was set up in 2003 with funding and training from Australia and the United States. Indonesian President Joko Widodo thanked security forces for their efforts in containing the crisis. "The state and all the people are never afraid and will never give the slightest room to terrorism and also to efforts that undermine the security of the country," Widodo told a news conference. Syafruddin said the crisis was resolved with a "very soft approach", although earlier on Thursday a Reuters witness had heard several blasts at the jail. Indonesian media reported those blasts were controlled explosions carried out by police to clear the area of any booby traps. Chief security minister Wiranto told reporters that all 155 convicted terrorists who were involved had surrendered after a police "ambush" forced the last 10 convicts to give up. All the convicts were moved to a maximum-security prison on Nusakambangan Island in central Java. PRISONERS SEIZED WEAPONS Authorities said the prisoners had armed themselves with about 30 weapons, including long-range rifles, taken from officers and a storage area in the jail for weapons confiscated during police operations. Deputy police chief Syafruddin said "five officers were killed sadistically", and a police spokesman said most were found with deep wounds to the neck and elsewhere on their bodies. One officer was found with a gunshot wound to the head. Funerals were held on Thursday for the police victims, including one officer who had recently become a father, media said. Former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Christian who is serving a sentence for blasphemy against Islam at the same prison, was safe and still in the jail, his sister Fifi Lety Indra said. The counter-terrorism squad has won international praise for breaking up militant cells in the world's largest Muslim-majority country in the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. But a recent spate of attacks inspired by Islamic State prompted authorities to more than double its strength to 1,300 late last year. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the clashes at the jail, in a message carried on its Amaq news agency. Police had denied Islamic State was involved and said a dispute had broken out over checks by prison authorities of prisoners' food. But police also said some prisoners had recently met Aman Abdurrahman, who is believed to be the ideological leader of IS sympathizers in Indonesia. He is on trial for terrorism and is being held at the same prison. Last year, an attack by two suicide bombers, using pressure cookers packed with explosives, killed three police and wounded 12 people at a Jakarta bus terminal. In January 2016, four Islamic State-linked militants mounted a gun-and-bomb attack at an intersection outside a Starbucks cafe in central Jakarta, killing themselves and four others. (Additional reporting by Gayatri Suroyo, Bernadette Christina Munthe and Kanupriya Kapoor; Writing by Ed Davies and Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Paul Tait, Darren Schuettler)Legal cannabis is going to take Canadian commerce by storm, if experts at major Canadian banks are correct in their forecasting.

In a report released this week, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce predicts Canadas appetite for legal marijuana will match its appetite for wine and exceed its appetite for spirits by 2020.

While the federal government has adjusted its original July 2018 timeline for legalization in order to consult with Indigenous communities about sharing revenue from cannabis sales, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently vowed cannabis will be legal by this summer.

In the two years following legalization, the bank estimates Canadians will consume 800,000 kilograms of cannabis, almost all of which will be of the recreational variety.

We believe that by 2020, the legal market for adult-use cannabis will approach $6.5 billion in retail sales, CIBC said. For context, this is greater than the amount of spirits sold in this country.

The bank looked to U.S. states Colorado and Washington  where marijuana is already legal  to try and predict the trajectory legal marijuana sales will take in Canada.

Their research showed that legal cannabis sales have grown in Colorado by a compound annual growth rate of 30 per cent since sales began in 2014. That, CIBC points out, is a hearty growth rate.

The bank says the case is similar in Washington, despite the fact that sales there were sluggish in the first year due to regulatory setbacks, unprepared municipalities, a complicated tax structure, and high prices.

To put this in perspective, the combined populations of Washington and Colorado are less than that of Ontario, the report says. Yet these two states combine for nearly $3 billion in sales, and over $650 million of annual revenue from taxes, licences and fees.

As legalization day approaches, both government and industry have set to work profiling Canadas major marijuana consumers for the sake of policy development and marketing. Statistics Canada identified in 2012 that 49.4 per cent of males and 35.8 per cent of females 15 years old and older in Canada had consumed marijuana, and that most of the people who consumed it were between the ages of 25 and 44.

Story continues

The federal agency has also determined that Canadians in the Territories pay the most for medical and non-medical marijuana, at $9.51 per gram, while those in Quebec pay the least, at $5.86 per gram.





As part of a survey of marijuana users in North America, media website Civilized.life partnered with PSB Research and collected demographical information about users in each country. Their data  presented in the infographic above  paints a slightly different picture of the average Canadian cannabis smoker from that of Statistics Canada.

While different demographic studies yield slightly different results and data on demographics is likely to change once cannabis becomes legal, the broad view remains the same.

There seems to be just one conclusion that most everyone can agree on, the CIBC report says. Witnessing the development of this industry will be fascinating to watch.Israeli military says projectiles were launched from Syria

IDF says military was moving against Iranian targets in Syria

Missile fire is seen from Damascus, after Israel responded to a rocket attack on the Golan Heights with strikes inside Syria. Photograph: Omar Sanadiki/Reuters

Arch-enemies Iran and Israel edged closer to all-out war on Thursday after Israels military said its positions in the Golan Heights were fired at with a barrage of Iranian rockets, prompting it to respond with extensive strikes targeting Tehrans forces across Syria.



The attack, if confirmed, would mark the first time Iran has fired rockets in a direct strike on Israeli forces, dramatically ratcheting up what has for years been a conflict fought through proxies.

Several but not all of the Iranian rockets were intercepted by Israeli defences, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman, Lt Col Jonathan Conricus, told reporters.

At approximately 12.10, 10 minutes past midnight, forces belonging to the Iranian Quds Force fired approximately 20 projectiles  most of them are probably rockets but that is yet to be determined  towards the forward line of IDF positions in the Golan Heights, he said.

So far we are not aware of any casualties, any IDF casualties, he said. A preliminary assessment found there was minimal damage, he added.

Israel accused the general in charge of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps external operations branch of orchestrating the attack.

It was ordered and commanded by Qassem Soleimani and it has not achieved its purpose, Conricus said.

The occupied Golan Heights has been on high alert since Donald Trump confirmed he was pulling the US out of the Iran nuclear deal.

The IDF views this Iranian attack very severely, Conricus said. This event is not over.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, the IDFs Arabic-language Twitter account said its military was moving against Iranian targets in Syria and warned Damascus not to intervene. Conricus said Israel had notified Russia before the strikes began. The military later said it had hit dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria.

Story continues

The Syrian capital was shaken with explosions as jets flew overheard before dawn, with residents posting videos online of what appeared to be air defence missiles running bright streaks through the night sky and reporting loud sounds that rocked their buildings.

Syrian state media said its anti-aircraft batteries were responding to a new wave of Israeli missiles and is dropping them one by one. However, it added, missiles struck radar, air defence positions and ammunition warehouses. Explosives fired from Israel also hit southern Syrias Quneitra province, adjacent to the Golan Heights, it said. There were no reported casualties.

Iran did not immediately comment.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted an unidentified security official as saying Israels attacks inside Syria were the most extensive since the two nations signed a disengagement agreement after the October war of 1973.

Israel has warned it will not permit Tehran to establish a permanent military presence in Syria, accusing Iran of moving drones and missiles into its Arab neighbour. Iranian forces have been sent to aid the Syrian government in a devastating seven-year civil war against insurgents.



Donald Trumps move to exit the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran was welcomed by Israel but has stoked fears of a regional flare-up.

Just minutes before Trump was due to speak on Tuesday, the IDF said it had identified irregular activity of Iranian forces in Syria and had decided to unlock and ready bomb shelters in the Golan, where it shares a frontier with Syria.

Additionally, defence systems have been deployed and IDF troops are on high alert for an attack, it said. The IDF is prepared for various scenarios and warns that any aggression against Israel will be met with a severe response.

Hours after Trumps announcement, Syrian state media said that its air defences had brought down two Israeli missiles. The Syrian Observatory monitoring group, which tracks the conflict, said that attack killed 15 people, including eight Iranians. Israel did not comment on the strikes.

In February, Israel said it had downed an armed Iranian drone that penetrated its airspace. Since then Israels air force is believed to have struck Iranian targets operating in Syria several times, including a 9 April strike on the countrys largest airbase, killing seven Iranians. Tehran has vowed revenge.

The Quds Force is an external arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, which Israels intelligence community said was tasked with a retaliatory attack.

Israels prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the biggest critics of the Iran deal and close Trump ally, told his cabinet on Sunday he was determined to block Irans aggression against us even if this means a struggle.



Better now than later, he said. We do not want escalation but we are prepared for any scenario.

Trumps daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, are due to arrive in Israel in the next few days for the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. The US presidents decision in December to recognise the city as Israels capital has infuriated Palestinians and reverberated across the region.

The occupied Golan Heights is a plateau captured from Syria in 1967 by Israel in a move not recognised by the international community.Israel on Thursday just after midnight local time reported that Iranian forces fired 20 rockets at its military bases in occupied Golan Heights.

The Iron Dome defense system intercepted some of the missiles and damage to Israeli military bases was limited, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson told The Times of Israel. No Israeli casualties were reported.

Related: Trumps Madness Is a Danger to Our National Security, Ex-CIA Director Says After Iran Nuclear Deal Withdrawal

Trending: Search for Aliens: Is Congress About to Start Funding New NASA Research?

Israeli military officials are attributing the attack to members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Forces.

The IDF sees this Iranian attack on Israel with severity, a spokesperson for the military Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said. This event is not over.

Don't miss: Billboard Threatening 'Liberals' Over Trump Impeachment Will Be Removed: Better Get Your Guns

Israels army countered the attack with artillery fire at a military base in the Quneitra border region with Syrian regime forces, according to the Syrian state media. There were reports that Israel's Air Force missiles targeted Iranian positions in Syria.

The crossfire comes a day after Israel opened bomb shelters in the northern Golan Heights based on the identification of irregular activity by Iranian forces in Syriathe same day that President Donald Trump announced he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal. Trumps decision means sanctions on Tehran would be imposed anew.

RTS1QLRO

AMIR COHEN/REUTERS

Most popular: Video: White Woman Calls Police on Black Family's BBQ for 'Trespassing' in Oakland Park

Story continues

Sirens blasted in Golan Heights during the attack and the IDF told residents to stay in the bomb shelters. A video shared on social media appeared to show rockets making their way from Syria toward Israel.

Some analysts had anticipated an attack. In the past month, Tehran has threatened to retaliate on attacks from the Israeli air force; the most recent, on May 9, killed seven Iranians at the Syrian air force base T4, according to Haaretz. On Tuesday, a Syrian report claimed that Israel struck a military base south of Damascus that Iranian forces used.

The IDF said Tuesday that non-combat reserves were being called up, that troops were on high alertand that any aggression against Israel will be met with a severe response.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekIranian forces in Syria have sent rockets hurtling toward army bases in the Golan Heights, across the border in Israel, according to reports. Israel fired back on Thursday, hitting dozens of Iranian targets in Syria.

The exchange was the first outbreak of military violence since President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, a move that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly supported. On Thursday, the White House condemned Irans rocket attacks but failed to mention Israels strikes on military targets in Syria.

The United States condemns the Iranian regimes provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens, and we strongly support Israels right to act in self-defense. The Iranian regimes deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East, the White House said in a statement.

Trending: 'Golden State Killer' Detective Paul Holes Is Now a True Crime Heartthrob

Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bears full responsibility for the consequences of its reckless actions, and we call on the IRGC and its militant proxies, including Hizballah, to take no further provocative steps.

956785488

Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images

The Israeli military said a unit of Irans Revolutionary Guard had launched 20 artillery rockets into the Golan Heights shortly after midnight on Wednesday. Some of the rockets were deflected by Israels Iron Dome missile defense system, while others caused damage to Israeli military facilities. No one on the Israeli side was reported to have been injured. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Israel had retaliated with its largest strike in Syria since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011, and that Israel had hit nearly all Iranian military facilities in Syria.

Story continues

Don't miss: Number of Incarcerated Women and Girls Skyrocketed 700 Percent Since 1980

Syrias military later reported that three people had died in the Israeli attack. Israels military said that it had targeted Iranian intelligence and logistical facilities close to Damascus.

Analysts say that Trumps decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal has emboldened Tehran, which feels it has less to lose if it enters into conflict with U.S. allies. It also emboldened religious hardliners in Iran, whose leadership quickly announced that it would start rebuilding its nuclear program if the other signatories of the Iran deal do not maintain the agreement.

Experts say Iran could have a nuclear weapon within a year if it abandons the terms of the deal.

Israel has been carrying out strikes against Iranian facilities in Syria for the past several months. Israel killed around seven Iranians in April with its strikes in Syria. Wednesday's action from Iranian forces was the first time Tehran retaliated against Israel's attacks on its military presence in Syria. Military experts are now watching to see if the situation will escalate.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekThe Israeli military launched strikes on Iranian positions in Syria following an alleged Iranian missile barrage on Israeli positions along the Syrian border, marking the latest escalation in a confrontation that could erupt into a new war in the Middle East.

Dozens of positions were hit as Israel responded to the alleged first incidence of Iranian forces directly targeting Israeli positions from Syria, the Washington Post reported.

U.S. President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear dealunder pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuis thought to be the catalyst for the attacks. In the past 48 hours, there have allegedly been three rounds of strikes, two from Israel and one from Iran.

Trending: Nuns Tortured 60 Children by Burning Their Skin, Shoving Faces in Toilets, Authorities Say

Just hours after Trump announced his decision on Tuesday, a suspected Israeli airstrike hit an Iranian-linked military installation south of the Syrian capital of Damascus. The attack reportedly targeted missiles aimed at Israel, and killed at least eight Iranians and seven Syrians.

Missile fire Syria

REUTERS/Alaa al Faqir

On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Iranian troops based in Syria fired 20 rockets towards Israeli positions in the Golan Heightsthe strategic plateau sitting along the Syrian border occupied by Israel in 1967 after the Six-Day War. The IDF said four missiles were intercepted by the countrys Iron Dome defense network and the rest fell on Syrian territory, causing no casualties.

The IDF claimed that Irans Quds special forces were behind the attack, but did not specify how they knew. This is the first time that Israel has directly accused Iranian troops of firing on Israel.

In response, Israel undertook its most extensive bombardment of Syria for several decades, targeting dozens of weapons stores, missile launchers and intelligence facilities in a wave of air and artillery strikes. Although Syrias state news agency Sana claimed that some Israeli missiles had been shot down near Homs, many more found their way through. The IDF also targeted Syrian air defense systems after Israeli warplanes came under fire.

Story continues

Don't miss: Rudy Giuliani Quits Firm Because Mueller Work Is Taking Longer Than He Anticipated

RTS1QP3N

REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

It is not yet clear how many Iranian and Syrian casualties there were from the overnight attacks which targeted positions in southern and central Syria, including around the capital Damascus. Russia was reportedly given pre-warning of the strikes.

Israel has repeatedly warned it will not accept a permanent Iranian foothold in Syria, where Tehrans forces are fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad. Israeli leaders have avoided becoming too embroiled in the seven-year civil war across the border, but have launched more than 100 attacks in the country over the years.

Though most have targeted Iranian weapons shipments destined for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, recent months have seen an uptick in direct attacks on Iranian bases and personnel. Victory for Assads forces looks inevitable, and Israeli leaders fear that increased stability in Syria will allow Iran to cement its military presence.

This week's attacks are the latest in a series of suspected Israeli airstrikes on Iranian positions in Syria this year. Iran had already vowed retaliation for an attack in April on the T4 air base near Homs, in which seven Iraniansincluding the commander of a drone unitwere killed.

Most popular: Jared Kushner-Linked Chinese Executive Sentenced to Prison for Massive Fundraising Fraud

Israel warned Syria not to hit back following last nights attacks. IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus noted that Israeli forces are on very high alert in case of retaliation. Should there be another Iranian attack, we will be prepared for it, he said. Conricus believes the strikes will have significantly degraded Irans ability to target Israel, noting, It will take substantial time for the Iranians to replenish these systems.

RTS1QLRZ

REUTERS/Amir Cohen

A U.S. State Department official told The Times of Israel, We stand with Israel in the fight against Irans malign activities and we strongly support Israels sovereign right to defend itself.

It is not yet clear how recent developments will change U.S. strategy in the region. There have been suggestions that Iran might respond to the failure of the nuclear deal by launching attacks on the U.S. and its allies via proxy forces in the region, whether in Syria, Iraq, Yemen or Lebanon.

Thousands of American troops are deployed in Iraq and Syria, where Iran has significant influence. During the U.S. occupation of Iraq following the 2003 invasion, there were allegations that Iran was funding and arming the Iraqi insurgent groups that were attacking U.S. troops.

Upon withdrawing from the nuclear deal, Trump reportedly ordered the U.S. military to prepare plans to meet all possible modes of Iranian aggression against the United States, our allies and our partners.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBaghdad (AFP) - Iraq is gearing up for key parliamentary elections on Saturday, some five months after declaring victory over the Islamic State group, with the dominant Shiites split, the Kurds in disarray and Sunnis sidelined.

A lull in violence ahead of the fourth such nationwide vote since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003 has spurred some hope for Iraqis, but surging tensions between key players Iran and the United States could rattle the country.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi -- who has balanced off Washington and Tehran -- is angling for a new term as he takes credit for the brutal fightback against the jihadists and seeing off a Kurdish push for independence.

But stiff competition from within his Shiite community, the majority group that dominates Iraqi politics, should fragment the vote and spell lengthy horse-trading to form any government.

Whoever emerges as premier will face the mammoth task of rebuilding a country left shattered by the battle against IS.

Despite a rare period of calm, more than two and a half million people remain internally displaced and the jihadists still pose a major security threat.

Over 15 blood-sodden years since the US-led invasion upended Iraqi politics there is also widespread disillusionment with the same old faces from an elite seen as mired in corruption and sectarianism.

- Shiite rivals -

Abadi -- who took over as IS rampaged across the country in 2014 -- is facing two leading Shiite challengers to his Victory Alliance, which has pitched itself as an attempt to bridge Iraq's Shiite-Sunni divide.

Ex-prime minister Nuri al-Maliki -- a bitter foe despite coming from the same Dawa party -- is widely reviled for stirring sectarianism and losing territory to IS, but draws support from a hardline base.

Former transport minister Hadi al-Ameri -- who has close ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guards -- is hailed by many as a war hero after leading paramilitary units that fought IS alongside Baghdad's troops.

Story continues

He wants US forces that helped battle the jihadists to leave Iraq for good, challenging Abadi's cautious foreign policy that has seen him build bridges with Iran's rival Saudi Arabia.

Overall just under 7,000 candidates are standing and Iraq's complex system means no single bloc looks set to get anything near a majority in the 329-seat parliament.

"There is certainly a contest between the three main lists for the post of prime minister, but that will not impact the system that sees the Shiites control and run Iraq," said Jordan-based analyst Adel Mahmud.

Among the other groups jostling for position in the negotiations to come is an unlikely alliance between Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr and secular communists that is looking to ride a wave of protests against corruption.

- Sunnis, Kurds struggling -

Votes in the Sunni heartlands once dominated by IS -- including Iraq's devastated second city Mosul -- are up in the air as traditional alliances have been shredded by the fallout of jihadist rule.

Abadi is aiming to be the first Shiite leader to make inroads there but apathy is high as people struggle to rebuild their lives and few efforts have been made to reach out to the hundreds of thousands still displaced in camps.

Political forces in the Kurdish community -- often seen as potential kingmakers -- are also in disarray after a controversial vote for independence in September backfired spectacularly.

Baghdad unleashed a battery of sanctions and seized back disputed oil-rich regions in the wake of the ballot and the Kurds now look set to lose some of their clout on the national stage.

In a sign of the disenchantment with Iraq's squabbling elite, the country's top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani has broken with previous habits and not urged people to cast ballots.

Instead he demanded that Iraq's nearly 24.5 million registered voters refuse to re-elect legislators who have already held government jobs and proved to be "corrupt and failing".

The swirling uncertainty around the elections has sparked concern that IS -- which has threatened to attack the vote -- could profit from any power vacuum.

There are also fears that a spike in tensions between the US and Iran after President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal could spill over into Iraq, where both play major roles.

But while the situation remains combustible, analysts say that for now no side appears keen on destabilising Iraq as it emerges from the turmoil of the war against the jihadists.

The US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement "will of course have a direct influence on the political situation in Iraq," said Iraqi political expert Essam al-Fili.

"But the situation is sensitive and parties loyal to Iran will surely want to join forces with a moderate Shiite figure who can get American approval."Iraq today has a unique opportunity to chart a new path away from 15 years of chaos and upheaval.

Following the defeat of ISIS, the security situation is better than it has been for many years. Politically, there are glimpses of a move from identity to issue-based politics in various cross-sect electoral alliances. For instance, Islamists associated with Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have joined forces with secularists linked to the Iraqi Communist Party. Many Iraqis now see corruption as just as bad as terrorism, and the gap between elite and citizen has become more important than the gap between Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd.

But despite these hopeful signs, the political class and Iraqs state institutions remain stale; over 90 percent of the political parties and electoral entities running in these elections are the same. Rather than supporting the strengthening of institutions and the political culture through methods like new political parties or independent commissions to regulate electoral bylaws, Iraqs foreign allies, from Washington to London to Brussels, appear more concerned with upholding the status quo, once again focusing on personalities from the old elite.

The short-term logic is that in extraordinary circumstances, preferred political personalities can later fix the institutions. But this is a crucial mistake, which has failed in Iraq in the past and risks squandering todays opportunity for reform.

This mistake is reinforced by the tendency to push for elections as the main process of state-building and democratization. Although the decision to hold elections on time is constitutionally mandated in Iraq, international partners pushed for them too hastily and jeopardized the chance to build new institutions such as political parties and civil society monitors.

In a place like Mosul, where residents are just coming out of a traumatic three-year spell under ISIS, rushing into elections favours an old elite who can easily organize. New and emerging leaders, including teachers, engineers, social workers and civil society activists, have been unable to develop political platforms and institutions or mobilization strategies. As a result, for the next four years, the same leaders who abetted political dysfunction before ISIS took over the city are likely to govern again.

Story continues

In the lead-up to the upcoming elections, many analysts are still insisting that Western countries should interfere in the government formation process that follows to help ensure a moderate coalition of a mix of Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni elites. Yet this is the same failed strategy Western countries took in 2006 and 2010, when they supported former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, who they believed would then build the Iraqi state.

During two key government formation processes, analysts argued that Maliki was a break from sectarianism. U.S. diplomats often praised the the more nationalist Maliki. In 2006, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad endorsed Maliki as prime minister by claiming, Maliki has deep concerns about expanding Iranian influence in Iraq.

Then, in 2010, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill argued, in an Iraqi body politic that is attempting, albeit haltingly, to move toward a nationalist focus and away from the sectarian politics that shaped the 2005 election, the [opposition] INA is seen as strongly sectarian and more religious than Malikis SLA. Ultimately, when Maliki formed the government in 2010, the White House applauded a clear rejection of the efforts by extremists to spur sectarian division.

Yet Malikis stint as premier ended in failure when ISIS captured one-third of Iraq in the summer of 2014. His over-centralization of power and perceived sectarian-based, Iran-allied policies failed to build strong independent institutions. And many Iraqis remember Washingtons role in supporting the former prime minister.

Fundamentally, the flawed process of supporting individuals first and institutions later rarely translates to effective state-building. Beyond the consequences of simply getting it wrong as they did with Maliki, choosing personalities assigns top-down legitimacy to the same leadership.

For Iraqs allies, this process has often seemed the easier option, as many have typically been late to understand bottom-up dynamics and the complexities of new and emerging leaders in society. Moreover, supporting individuals rather than building institutions reinforces the status-quo of elites who can more easily mobilize.

As much as it may be an uphill climb, however, the short 15-year history of the new Iraq has taught that foreign interference in government formation does not build strong institutions but rather solidifies the old, dysfunctional elite. Rather than directly interfering and choosing preferred leaders, Iraqs international partners need to better understand long-term political trends and help to facilitate the building of independent institutions to create a level playing field and hold the elite accountable.

This piece was originally published by Chatham House.Israel and Iran lurched closer to an all out war on Thursday after the Israeli military struck almost all of Irans bases in Syria in response to what it said was a Iranian rocket barrage fired at the Golan Heights.

The exchange of fire was the most direct confrontation between the two Middle East rivals after years of standoff in Syria and came just one day after Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear agreement and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

Israeli carried out its largest wave of airstrikes in Syria since the 1973 war, striking around 50 Iranian military bases, supply depots, and intelligence sites as well as Syrian regime air defence batteries, the Israeli military said.

"We, of course, struck almost all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, and they need to remember this arrogance of theirs, said Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli defence minister. If we get rain, they'll get a flood.

The wave of strikes was in response to a barrage of 20 rockets which Israel said were fired by Irans Revolutionary Guard towards the Golan, a mountainous region that Israel annexed from Syria after capturing it in 1967.

There were no casualties on the Israeli side. The Israeli military said its Iron Dome missile defence system had intercepted four of the rockets at around 12.10am on Thursday, while the other 16 fell harmlessly inside of Syrian territory.

At least 23 people were killed by the Israeli strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It was not clear how many of the dead were Iranians. Iran has neither confirmed nor denied that it was responsible for the rocket barrage.

Israel has said repeatedly it will not allow Iran to build up a permanent military presence in Syria and is prepared to go to war to stop it. "Whoever hurts us, we will hurt him sevenfold. Whoever tries to hurt us, we will act to hurt him beforehand, said Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.

Story continues

Tensions between the two sides have risen sharply since April 9, when a suspected Israeli strike on the T4 airbase in central Syria killed at least seven Iranians. Iran vowed revenge for the bombing and Israel has been warning for weeks that it was expecting an Iranian attack.

In February, Iran allegedly launched an armed drone from Syria into Israel. Israel shot down the drone and carried out a wave of airstrikes in response. One Israeli F-16 was shot down by Syrian air defence systems during the attack, the first time Israel has lost a warplane in combat since 1982.

Britain and the US were quick to issue messages of support for Israel and condemning Iran. The United Kingdom condemns in the strongest terms the Iranian rocket attacks against Israeli forces. We strongly support Israels right to defend itself, said Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary.

Syrian forces fired missiles at the Israeli attack Credit: AFP

Both the UK and US called on Russia to do more to rein in Irans presence in Syria and avoid a further escalation. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, also condemned the attack in phone call with Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian president.

The Israeli attacks are likely to strain the relationship between Iran and Russia, who are fighting on the same side in Syria on behalf of the Assad regime.

Israel warned Russia of its intention to launch strikes ahead of time but Russian forces in Syria appear to have done nothing to shield their Iranian allies. Hours before the Israeli attack, Vladimir Putin hosted Mr Netanyahu as an honoured guest at a military parade in Moscow.

Missiles seen over Damascus Credit: Reuters

While Israel has scored tactical military victories over Iran in Syria, it has struggled with a broader diplomatic campaign to convince world powers to clamp down on Iran in Syria. Mr Netanyahu travels regularly to Moscow to make this point but his diplomatic efforts have so far yielded few visible results.

Bahrain also voiced support for Israels strikes, in an unusual example of an Arab state publicly applauding Israel for dropping bombs on the territory of a fellow Arab state. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations share many of Israels fears about Iran.

Golan Heights - How the strikes unfolded

Golan Heights - Weapons used

Israel said the rockets were fired by the Quds Force, the expeditionary wing of Irans Revolutionary Guard, and accused its leader, General Qassem Soleimani, of personally ordering the attack.

"It was ordered and commanded by Qassem Soleimani and it has not achieved its purpose, said Lt Col Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the Israeli Defence Forces.

By Thursday afternoon quiet had returned to the Golan Heights and tourists mingled with UN Observers on Mount Bental, a mountain affording sweeping views into Syria.

Nathan Gabah, a 24-year-old businessman relaxing in the late afternoon sun at the beauty spot, said he heard explosions on Thursday morning from his home city of Safed, around 30 miles from the site of the alleged Iranian barrage.

There was a vroom and a bang, like a bomb, he said, describing the firing of an Iron Dome anti-missile battery near by.

Im not worried at all. Then again I have a friend who is really scared. It varies from person to person, he shrugged. "It doesn't feel like we've suddenly gone to war."Jerusalem (AFP) - Unprecedented clashes between Israel and Iran over Syria have sparked calls for restraint from world leaders worried about the risk of all-out war, even as both sides say they want to avoid a regional conflict.

All eyes will be on any fresh military activity Friday after Israel carried out widespread deadly raids against what it said were Iranian targets in Syria on Thursday in response to rocket fire towards its forces that it blamed on Iran.

The reported exchange of fire came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trump's decision Tuesday to withdraw from the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a move Israel had long sought.

The bombardment led to calls for calm from Russia, France, Germany and Britain and the European Union, while the United States put the blame squarely on Iran and stressed Israel's right to "self-defence".

Germany and Britain joined the United States in denouncing the rocket fire towards the Israel-occupied Golan Heights they also said was carried out by Iran, while France reiterated its "unwavering support for Israel's security".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had "crossed a red line" and that the resulting bombardment against targets in Syria "was a consequence".

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani told German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a telephone call that he did not want "new tensions" in the Middle East.

Rouhani did not mention Israel's strikes in Syria, or those against the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

But the chairman of his country's parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, Allaeddine Boroujerdi, condemned the strikes, warning that "Israel has entered a dangerous game".

The Israeli raids in Syria, which a monitor said killed 23 fighters, were one of its largest military operations in recent years and the biggest such assault on Iranian targets, the Israeli military said.

Story continues

"We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.

"I hope we've finished this episode and everyone understood."

Israel carried out the raids after it said 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the Golan Heights at around midnight.

It blamed Iran's Quds force, adding that Israel's anti-missile system intercepted four while the rest did not land in its territory.

There were no Israeli casualties.

If confirmed, it would be the first time Iran has sought to directly attack Israeli-controlled territory aside from an alleged attempted drone assault in February.

- 'New phase' -

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported that dozens of rockets were fired from Syria towards the Israeli-occupied Golan, without saying who fired them.

A senior pro-regime military source in Syria confirmed the salvo of rockets, insisting Israel had fired first.

Later, in the early hours of the morning, explosions were heard in Damascus, while live images were broadcast on television showing projectiles above the capital and several missiles destroyed by anti-aircraft systems.

Syrian state media said Israeli missile strikes had hit military bases as well as an arms depot and a military radar installation, without specifying where.

The official SANA news agency said "dozens of missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft systems in Syrian airspace", acknowledging a number had reached their targets.

Israel's military later confirmed it had carried out the raids, saying some 70 military and intelligence targets had been struck and all of its aircraft had returned safely.

Syrian air defences, which fired dozens of times on Israeli jets, were also targeted, he said.

Syria said it was the Israeli strikes that marked a "new phase" of direct involvement in the country's seven-year conflict.

Its army said three people had been killed.

In a rare if not unprecedented move for an Arab country, Bahrain backed Israel's right to "defend itself" after the strikes.

- Russia hotline -

Bahrain is a close ally of Saudi Arabia and the two countries, whose foreign policies are often in lockstep, view Iran as the chief threat to the region.

Israel has long warned it will not accept Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria, where the Islamic republic is supporting President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the civil war.

It has been blamed for a series of recent strikes inside Syria that have killed Iranians, though it has not acknowledged those raids.

The Jewish state says it has conducted dozens of raids in Syria to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to Iran-backed Hezbollah, another key foe of Israel.

Israel had been preparing itself for weeks for possible Iranian retaliation.

Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal has added to tensions and led to a new level of uncertainty over how Iran will respond.

At a rally in Indiana on Thursday Trump said he still wanted intrusive inspections of Iran's nuclear sites to continue despite his decision to withdraw from the pact.

European allies are scrambling to save the hard-fought deal but have found themselves increasingly critical of Washington's stance.

In an interview with the French daily Le Parisien, France's foreign minister condemned Washington's decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran as "unacceptable" move that unilaterally punished European companies for trade with Iran.

burs-mjs/dwo/dv/jta/slsIsraeli airstrikes target Iranian military installations in Syria An Israeli soldier walks in an old military outpost, used for visitors to view the Israeli controlled Golan Heights, near the border with Syria, Thursday, May 10, 2018. (Photo: Ariel Schalit/AP)

The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked nearly all of Irans military installations in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the occupied Golan Heights, in the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

Israel said the targets of the strikes, its largest in Syria since the 1973 war, included weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centers used by elite Iranian forces in Syria. It also said it destroyed several Syrian air-defense systems after coming under heavy fire and that none of its warplanes were hit. (AP)

See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter and Tumblr.Rome (AFP) - Italian anti-establishment and far-right parties said they took "big steps" Thursday towards forming a populist government to end months of deadlock.

According to the Italian press, the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the anti-immigrant League party have asked President Sergio Mattarella to give them until Monday to resolve the stalemate, failing which fresh elections could be held.

M5S leader Luigi Di Maio and League chief Matteo Salvini met at the lower house Chamber of Deputies on Thursday morning.

"Big steps were made towards the composition of the executive and the nomination of the prime minister," the pair said in a statement after the morning round of talks.

A question mark still hangs over who would clinch the top spot in a M5S-League coalition -- Both Di Maio and Salvini have said they are willing to step back and let someone else take the premiership but, according to the press, neither has completely given up on their ambitions to lead the country.

Later Thursday Salvini took to Twitter saying, "We are working for you," with a photo of him posing next to a giant bulldozer.

A beaming Di Maio said, "I cannot hide my joy that we can finally begin to take care of Italy's problems," in a Facebook video.

This afternoon experts began to pour over the parties' key proposals in order to forge a government contract.

Talks over policies will likely be complicated given the serious differences between the two parties -- in particular regarding the M5S's flagship universal basic income policy, which the League has said will create a culture of dependency.

- Berlusconi breakthrough -

A breakthrough in negotiations for the two parties came Wednesday when Salvini's right-wing coalition partner, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, gave the green light for the pair to form a government without his Forza Italia party.

Salvini and Berlusconi's coalition won the most seats in the March election, but the 81-year-old ex-premier has been a sticking point in the ensuing horse-trading.

Story continues

Di Maio insisted Salvini dump the scandal-dogged media mogul Berlusconi and form a government with the M5S and without Forza Italia.

Late Wednesday Berlusconi announced he would not block a possible coalition deal between the two parties.

Between them they would have enough seats in both houses of parliament to form a majority.

After three failed rounds of consultations hosted by President Sergio Mattarella, Italy had looked to be heading either for a caretaker government, chosen by the president, or fresh elections.

Both the League and Five Star are staunchly opposed to a caretaker government and without their support the initiative would not pass a confidence vote in parliament.

The alternative could be fresh elections as early as July.

"Either we reach a conclusion, or we return to the voters," Salvini said.Japan showed it was still part of the wider discussion about North Korea after Wednesday's trilateral meeting with China and South Korea, experts said.

However, Tokyo's stance toward Pyongyang still differs from that of Beijing and Seoul.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is the only leader from a major stakeholder country to not publicly arrange a meeting with North Korea Kim Jong Un this year.

" Japan has been very isolated on the North Korean issue," said Richard McGregor, senior fellow at think tank the Lowy Institute in Australia.

Tokyo has, however, managed to show it's still part of the wider discussion on the reclusive regime after a trilateral meeting with China and Korea on Wednesday, experts said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have both met with Kim in the last few weeks. United States President Donald Trump , meanwhile, is expected to hold a meeting with Kim in coming weeks.

Because of those meetings, "for Japan, it was particularly important to try and play themselves back into this game, which of course, they are in the center of, whether they like it or not," McGregor told CNBC's "The Rundown."

The trilateral meeting, the first such event in three years, was held in Tokyo on Wednesday and came against the backdrop of domestic political concerns surrounding Abe.

On Wednesday, China, Japan and South Korea agreed to cooperate in seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Abe, for his part, praised efforts by the other two nations to engage North Korea and said further efforts on denuclearization were essential.

Abe said after Wednesday's summit that his country will seek to normalize ties with North Korea if the nuclear and missile issues, along with that of the abduction of Japanese citizens, are solved comprehensively.

Pyongyang has admitted to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens decades ago to train spies. Five have returned to Japan.

Story continues

Even with a show of unity between the three East Asian countries, there are differences between Tokyo's stance on North Korea and Chinese and South Korean positions, said experts.

That is, Japan favors maximum pressure on the hermit regime, while the other two countries lean toward engagement.

"Abe, at some point, is going have to do some gymnastics. He's going to have to react to decisions that are being made at these summits that Japan is not a party to, and find a way to keep Japan engaged to still get what Japan wants out of the process," Tobias Harris, a Teneo Intelligence analyst, told CNBC's "Squawk Box."

Reuters contributed to this report.





More From CNBC

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Wednesday urged the U.S. Senate to reject Gina Haspels nomination as director of the CIA.

McCain released a statement just hours after Haspel went before the Senate Intelligence Committee for her confirmation hearing. In her testimony, Haspel told lawmakers that she would not restart the agencys defunct torture program if confirmed to head the CIA, but she repeatedly dodged questions about the morality of the program.

In his statement, McCain said he understood the urgency that drove the decision to resort to torture as a method of interrogation after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But as I have argued many times, the methods we employ to keep our nation safe must be as right and just as the values we aspire to live up to and promote in the world.

He continued: I believe Gina Haspel is a patriot who loves our country and has devoted her professional life to its service and defense. However, Ms. Haspels role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge tortures immorality is disqualifying. I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination.

McCain is a fierce opponent of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. The senator, who fought in the Vietnam War, was held in solitary confinement and tortured as a prisoner of war in Hanoi for more than five years.

Haspel, a 30-year CIA veteran and current acting director of the agency, headed up a clandestine base in Thailand, where she reportedly oversaw the interrogation of a terrorism suspect that included waterboarding. She also reportedly played a part in helping to destroy recorded tapes of the interrogations in 2005.

Despite McCains comments, his good friend Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced Thursday that he would back Haspel. Graham said she has rejected the interrogation policies of the past and should be confirmed as soon as possible as we live in a time of continuing threats.

Story continues

At the time of Haspels nomination in March, McCain responded by calling the United States use of torture against detainees one of the darkest chapters in American history.

Haspels role in the CIAs torture program has generated bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill. More than 100 retired and former career and non-career U.S. ambassadors sent a letter to the Senate on Wednesday expressing serious concern over her nomination.

McCain, 81, was diagnosed with brain cancer last July and has been recovering at his Sedona, Arizona, home after undergoing surgery for an intestinal infection last month. He will likely be absent when the Senate votes on Haspels confirmation.

This piece has been updated with Grahams comments.

Related Coverage

More Than 100 Former Ambassadors Write Letter Opposing Gina Haspel Nomination

Protesters Decrying Torture Dragged From Gina Haspel Senate Hearing

Gina Haspel Grilled On Torture Techniques

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Arizona senator laments return of old fears and animosities in new book and has no regrets about giving Steele dossier to Comey

John McCain: If we want to retain our competitiveness in the fastest growing communities in the country well stop letting the zealots drive the debate. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Republicans are on the wrong side of the immigration debate, John McCain says in a forthcoming memoir, published as he has retreated to his ranch in Arizona but is still delivering blunt assessments in Washington.

On Wednesday night, McCain tweeted that the attitude to torture of Gina Haspel, the nominee to become head of the CIA, whose confirmation is in the balance after a bruising Senate hearing earlier in the day, was disturbing  and disqualifying. He called on the Senate to reject Haspels nomination.

I believe Gina Haspel is a patriot who loves our country & has devoted her professional life to its service & defense. However, her role in overseeing the use of torture is disturbing & her refusal to acknowledge tortures immorality is disqualifying. https://t.co/ocDtdqU2Sx  John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) May 10, 2018

McCain, who has undergone treatment for brain cancer, cast the decisive vote to sink Donald Trumps effort to scrap Barack Obamas flagship healthcare legislation last summer. But he has not returned to Washington since December, and it is unclear if he will be present to vote on Haspels confirmation.

In his new book, the ailing senator continues his eleventh-hour comeback as the career rebel on Capitol Hill.

The question of immigration has long set him apart from his Republican colleagues, but he writes in The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations that the party will change when the politics for them change.

Right now, Republicans are on the wrong side of that progress, McCain continues, and if we want to retain our competitiveness in the fastest-growing communities in the country well stop letting the zealots drive the debate, and fix the problems that [give] them their soapbox.

Story continues

The passage on immigration articulates the Arizona senators disagreement with Donald Trumps nationalistic, America First view of the world. McCain argues that immigration is a pillar of American exceptionalism while Trump has touted a crackdown on undocumented immigrants and sought to restrict legal immigration.



In the book McCain implores Republicans to reject conservatives who fear America is being contaminated by the customs of non-European immigrants.



Theyre still a small fraction in the Republican party. But theyre the ones getting all the attention right now. They need to be confronted, not ignored or winked at or quietly dismissed as kooks, McCain writes. They need to be confronted before their noxious views spread further and damage for generations the reputation of the Republican party.

McCain co-authored the Restless Wave with his longtime collaborator Mark Stalter. The Guardian obtained an early copy of the book, which is to be published on 22 May. An HBO documentary on his life will air on 28 May.

The book offers a wide-ranging appraisal of his own career, one marked by unrealized presidential ambitions and a lofty view of America on the international stage.

Written in McCains plain-spoken, occasionally brusque manner, the senator and Vietnam war veteran admits that a stage 4 cancer diagnosis acts as ungentle persuasion to acknowledge that his current term in the Senate will be his last. The result, he writes, is that I can speak my mind without fearing the consequences much.

Throughout the book McCain offers candid analysis of some of his most controversial positions, including his support for the Iraq war and, more recently, his decisive vote against a Republican bill that would have repealed the Affordable Care Act.

McCain also defended his decision to pass on to the then FBI director, James Comey, a dossier compiled by a former British intelligence Christopher Steel containing unverified claims that the Russian government had compromising material on Trump.

I did what duty demanded I do, McCain says of alerting the FBI. He continues: I discharged that obligation, and I would do it again. Anyone who doesnt like it can go to hell.

And he expresses regret for not choosing Joe Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-Independent and a close friend, to be his running mate, calling the decision another mistake that I made. Instead, he says he listened to his advisers, and chose Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor and Tea Party favorite who critics say paved the way for Trump-style politics.

McCain reserves space for assessing Americas political leaders. Though he is fiercely critical of Obamas foreign policy and writes that he had heated disagreements with all six presidents who held office while he served on Capitol Hill, McCain saves perhaps his harshest criticism for Trumps leadership.

Senator John McCain meets President-elect Barack Obama in Chicago after losing the 2008 election to him. Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Its hard to know what to expect from President Trump, whats a pose, whats genuine, McCain writes.

He has declined to distinguish the actions of our government from the crimes of despotic ones, he continues. The appearance of toughness or a reality show facsimile of toughness seems to matter more than any of our values. Flattery secures his friendship, criticism his enmity.

Trump and McCain have had a strained relationship since the early stages of the 2016 campaign when Trump said McCain, who was tortured and held for more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison, was not a war hero.

I like people who werent captured, said Trump, who received five draft deferments, including one for bone spurs on his feet. After a 2005 Access Hollywood video of Trump bragging about sexually harassing women, McCain said he would not support Trump for president.

Friends of the ailing senator have reportedly told the White House that McCain does not want Trump at his funeral, and would instead like Mike Pence to attend, according to the New York Times. Barack Obama and George Bush are expected to be eulogists, the report said.Benghazi (Libya) (AFP) - With a new anti-jihadist offensive and a parade to show off his military might, Libya's Khalifa Haftar is seeking to reassert his strongman status after a recent hospitalisation fuelled speculation over his health, analysts said.

The 75-year-old returned to Benghazi, his redoubt in eastern Libya last month, after a two-week stint in a Paris hospital, during which he made no public appearance.

He quickly got back to work, launching a military campaign this week aimed at retaking the eastern city of Derna from jihadists.

His absence had fuelled rumours about his health on Libyan social media. Some outlets even went as far as announcing his death, paving the way for speculation about his successor.

"Many of his opponents in western Libya crowed that the Libyan National Army's days were numbered," the International Crisis Group said in a report published Tuesday, referring to the self-styled force led by Haftar.

The strongman's Islamist and jihadist foes hoped to reverse losses they suffered in 2017 when Haftar's LNA pushed forces of the Benghazi Revolutionaries' Shura Council out of the eastern city after three years of fighting, the ICG said.

Accused by his opponents of wanting to establish a new military dictatorship in Libya, Haftar supports a parallel government that rules over eastern Libya and challenges the authority of the UN-backed government based in Tripoli in the west.

Since dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted and killed in 2011 Libya has been plagued by anarchy as militias, tribes and jihadists struggle for power.

- 'Savior' -

Returning to Benghazi on April 26, Haftar was greeted with fanfare at the city's airport, where he assured the crowd he was "in good health".

He appeared again on Monday, presiding over a military parade that saw thousands of LNA fighters march through the streets of Libya's second city.

Haftar, who presents himself as the scourge of Islamist militancy, was celebrating the fourth anniversary of his ongoing anti-jihadist "Dignity" operation, initially launched in 2014 to retake Benghazi after it fell to hardline militias.

Story continues

Wearing a military uniform during Monday's parade, Haftar announced the launch of a new operation to "free" the city of Derna from jihadists.

The coastal city of nearly 150,000 people, about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) east of Tripoli, is the only urban centre in the country's east that falls outside the LNA's control.

Derna is currently held by the Mujahideen Shura Council of Derna, a ragtag collection of Islamist and jihadist militias that includes Al-Qaeda and is hostile to both Haftar and the Islamic State group.

"Being the saviour of Derna would give Haftar a new allure in front of the world," said Federica Saini Fasanotti of the Washington-based Brookings Institute.

- 'Existential threat' -

A deadly IS attack earlier this month on the headquarters of Libya's electoral commission in Tripoli "did the rest, in terms of commitment," she said.

"Libyans are scared... and a strong man apparently can easily gain a consensus," she told AFP.

Even though a military operation "will never be enough to win peace in Libya", said Saini Fasanotti, "the better moment to act is now, in order to reassure his people and to show to his enemies that he is stronger than before, in spite of his illness".

By putting thousands of troops on display Monday, Haftar wanted to "send a message to his opponents and the international community about his ability to bring Libya's military institution under his command," Ehab el-Mejbri, a political analyst at Benghazi University, told AFP.

Tim Eaton, an analyst with London-based Chatham House, said the timing of the Derna offensive "may be in part motivated by Haftar's desire to restate his strongman credentials".

"While many will view Haftar's bloody campaign in Benghazi as a victory for Libyan institutions over the rule of militias and extremists, for others -- particularly within Islamist circles -- it has established Haftar as an existential threat that must be opposed at all costs," he said.Gun control has been a hot topic of debate in the U.S. for decades, though it recently received renewed fervor following the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14, where 17 people were killed and 17 more were wounded.

The tragedy sparked heated debate on both sides -- while some are calling for stricter laws regarding gun ownership, others fear such laws will take away their right to bear arms.

But in the case of private property, the decision to keep firearms on the premises may not be up to you. For tenants in apartments or rental homes, depending on the state you live in, your landlord may have the ability to restrict gun ownership.

While the Second Amendment establishes the right to bear arms, it does not keep individual property owners from restricting the presence of guns. Retail stores across the U.S. place signs at entrances that establish the spaces as a gun-free zones -- and in many cases landlords will do the same.

[Read: The Future of Affordable Housing in the Trump Era.]

The ultimate decision on whether guns can be restricted in any form in rental property comes at the state level, where "it varies a lot on how gun laws are interpreted," says Michael Skojec, senior counsel at Ballard Spahr LLP, a law firm specializing in litigation on behalf of property owners, developers and property management regarding real estate and fair housing.

Whether you own a gun or are looking to keep as far away as possible from one, it's important to understand how your right to bear arms and your tenant rights coexist, differ and intersect. Here's what you should know about a landlord's ability to restrict firearms.

What States Decide

Like many issues regarding residential property, landlord-tenant laws are largely left to individual states to determine and regulate.

The major exception, of course, is fair housing. The Fair Housing Act was originally enacted in 1968 and protects against housing discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability or family status. Gun ownership is not a protected class under fair housing laws and is therefore subject to potential restrictions or laws based on the state.

Story continues

Most states remain silent on the issue, which effectively allows landlords to stipulate in the lease whether firearms are allowed on the property or not.

"If there's no state law that says they are prohibited from limiting guns, then the default would be that as a private landlord, you can prohibit any activities on your property that you want, other than those that might discriminate under discrimination laws," Skojec says.

[Read: What New Fair Housing Act Guidelines Could Mean for You.]

Some states go further and establish that a landlord has the express right to ban guns from their property. Tennessee law explicitly allows landlords to prohibit firearms in their rentals by including the ban through a clause in the lease or by following a uniform landlord-tenant act that exists in some counties in the state. If a Tennessee landlord posts signs prohibiting firearms that follow state requirements, a violating tenant could even be subject to criminal prosecution.

Minnesota, on the other hand, forbids landlord prohibitions of firearms outright. As the 2017 firearm possession statutes note: "A landlord may not restrict the lawful carry or possession of firearms by tenants or their guests."

Other states limit a landlord's right to establish rules but leave room for some restrictions. Ohio law, for example, restricts landlords from prohibiting tenants or their guests from possessing a firearm when they are concealed carry licensees.

Public Housing Rules

Regardless of the state, restrictions on gun ownership in public housing where the federal government plays a more direct role are tougher. "Whenever the government is involved and providing any restrictions or prohibitions directly -- not a landowner but a government agency -- then that constitutional amendment has to be respected," Skojec says.

Skojec recalls a federal case out of Delaware in 2012 -- Doe v. Wilmington Housing Authority -- which ruled policies restricting firearm possession could stand as long as they fell under "reasonable regulation." In this case, that included limiting guns in common areas and requiring gun owners to be able to provide the proper paperwork for ownership, possession or transport of a firearm.

In appeal, however, the case was redirected to the Supreme Court of Delaware, which ruled that the state's constitution, which defines the right to bear arms more broadly than the U.S. Constitution, and the housing authority's policies violated rights established by the state.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development does not offer any guidance on the issue of firearms in public housing, leaving it to state laws and local housing authorities to decide. In Virginia, the law specifically prohibits restrictions on lawful firearm possession for public housing only, unless the restriction follows a federal law or regulation. In states that don't specify, Skojec says many public housing authorities will err on the side of reasonable regulation -- establishing rules for common areas, but otherwise allowing a gun to be lawfully kept in a rental and appropriately transported to and from the home.

[Read: How a New HUD Rule Changes Section 8 Housing Vouchers.]

When You're Not Sure

In states where prohibitions on gun possession are not allowed, any clause in a lease agreement violating that law would not be upheld in court. Even in states where restrictions are permitted, a landlord should get legal advice to ensure any clauses in the lease follow the law. "The best thing is to have their attorneys draft the lease to put the language in there," says Kris Taylor, president and owner of American Tenant Screen Inc., a tenant-screening company.

But even when a landlord can ban firearms from his or her property, if it's otherwise lawful ownership, there's little immediate recourse to get a gun off the property. Police departments enforce local laws, and if the gun is registered, properly stored and not being used in a threatening manner, the quickest action is through eviction court for violation of the lease.

Whether you're a proud firearm owner or you prefer to live in a gun-free zone, it doesn't hurt to ask if there is a policy when you tour the rental or apply for a lease. Otherwise, you likely won't hear about any restrictions until you're going through the contract with a leasing agent, unless there are signs displayed. Taylor says her company doesn't include any information about gun ownership in its tenant screening process, but they've also never had a request by landlords, either. "It's not something that we ask or people ask us to do," she says.

For the sake of avoiding future problems, if you fundamentally disagree with a landlord's firearm policy, look to live elsewhere in the same way you'd avoid an apartment building that doesn't allow dogs if you have a Labrador retriever.Aachen (Germany) (AFP) - France's President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday pressed German Chancellor Angela Merkel to move decisively and quickly on reforming the European Union, warning that the bloc stands at a critical juncture as a United States led by Donald Trump turns inward.

A year after he took office, Macron voiced his impatience at Germany, which has so far proved resistant to his flagship reform proposals aimed at shoring up the EU following the shock of Brexit.

Using the occasion of an award ceremony in Aachen where he received the prestigious Charlemagne prize for efforts in boosting EU integration and cohesion, Macron made an impassioned plea to Merkel to take swift action.

"Don't wait, act now," he said, urging Germany to overcome its "fetish" for budget and trade surpluses and back reforms even if it meant loosening its purse strings.

At a time when the United States is going its own way in ditching the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord, as well as threatening allies with punitive trade tariffs, Macron said Europe needs more than ever to stand united and show greater strength.

"If we accept that other major powers, including allies... put themselves in a situation to decide our diplomacy, security for us, and sometimes even make us run the worst risks, then we are not more sovereign and we cannot be more credible to public opinion," Macron said, in a clear attack against Trump's decision to quit the hard-fought Iran accord.

Trump has also warned European companies to pull out of Iran or face sanctions.

But Macron urged Europeans to stand up against diktats from abroad. "Don't be weak," said the 40-year-old president.

"We need to choose, build, speak with all so as to construct our own sovereignty that will be the guarantor of stability in (the Middle East)."

- 'Take destiny in own hands' -

Merkel too underlined that Europe can no longer count on the United States.

Story continues

"It is no longer such that the United States simply protects us, but Europe must take its destiny in its own hands, that's the task of the future," she said in Aachen.

But she also acknowledged that disagreements still dog many proposals for further integration of the bloc, even though she and Macron have promised to agree on a common roadmap for the future of the EU by a major summit in Brussels in June.

Macron has made little headway to date on a range of ambitious projects, most notably a common eurozone budget and finance minister, a joint military "rapid reaction force" and an EU tax on the revenues of technology giants.

The stakes for Europe are high as France, Germany and Britain face a period of outright confrontation with historic ally United States, over both Iran and Trump's plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the EU.

Washington has already warned that European companies will be subject to fresh sanctions against Tehran, setting a six-month deadline to end any business in Iran or risk heavy penalties.

Discussions on the eurozone are "difficult" between France and Germany, acknowledged Merkel, who was hamstrung for half a year after inconclusive elections in September left her struggling to find coalition partners.

She agreed that "the European economic and currency union must be made more sustainable," but crucially, the German leader was silent on Macron's call for a common eurozone budget.

Her party has also firmly slapped down the proposal of a finance minister for the bloc.

Undeterred, Macron insisted Thursday that he wants "a more integrated eurozone, with its own budget".

He also took aim at the Germans over their reluctance to spend, as well as their wariness of any plan that potentially draw resources from richer countries to help out struggling ones.

Turning the tables on the German argument, Macron said: "In Germany, there cannot be a perpetual fetish for budget and trade surpluses, because they are achieved at the expense of others."

Germany has been under fire for keeping a tight grip on its purse strings despite its record surpluses.

Berlin on Wednesday forecast that state coffers will receive around 63.3 billion euros more in tax intake through to 2022.

Although Finance Minister Olaf Scholz pledged tax breaks and investments, he did not announce any increased in spending for Europe. Rather, Berlin has vowed to keep its budget balanced.Malaysia's scandal-plagued prime minister and his rival, 92-year-old former authoritarian leader Mahathir Mohamad, made final pitches for votes Tuesday on the eve of one of the tightest elections in the country's history.

Prime Minister Najib Razak faces a tough fight at Wednesday's polls to retain power at the head of the coalition that has ruled Malaysia for six decades, in the face of a challenge from Mahathir.

The veteran ex-leader, who led Malaysia with an iron fist for 22 years, came out of retirement to take on his former protege Najib due to an explosive corruption scandal surrounding sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

Mahathir has thrown in his lot with an opposition alliance packed with parties he crushed while in power, electrifying an election race that had long looked like an easy win for the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.

However most analysts still expect the government to edge another victory, as they have tight control of Malaysia's weakened institutions, while critics accuse them of wide-spread manipulation of the electoral system.

In a speech on the northwest island of Langkawi, which was broadcast live to rallies across the country and on Facebook, Mahathir urged voters to swing behind his opposition alliance, Pact of Hope.

"We need to defeat Najib and Barisan Nasional because our country has been destroyed," he said.

"We can only regain our dignity by changing the government."

Najib has been accused of involvement in the scandal surrounding 1MDB, in which billions of dollars were allegedly looted from the fund in a campaign of fraud and money-laundering.

Najib, who set up the fund, and 1MDB deny any wrongdoing.

Mahathir spoke in front of a large picture of himself with jailed opposition icon -- and his former nemesis -- Anwar Ibrahim, showing both men smiling.

The pair fell out dramatically in the 1990s -- with Anwar imprisoned during Mahathir's rule -- but have joined forces again to take on the government, in one of the most dramatic twists of a gripping election season.

Story continues

- 'Party of the future' -

In an address on state TV that aired at the same time as his rival's speech, Najib announced a series of measures that will be implemented if the government wins.

These included people aged 26 and below being exempted from income tax, and two additional public holidays.

"Barisan Nasional is a party that looks to the future," he said.

"We are not a party of the past, we don't play with leaders who have already retired."

The ruling coalition, which has governed Malaysia since independence in 1957, has seen its popularity slide in recent years due to graft scandals, divisive racial politics in the multi-ethnic country and anger at rising living costs.

But it will be tough for the opposition to beat BN, with critics accusing the coalition of gerrymandering and engaging in electoral fraud. The coalition insists the elections are free and fair.

Earlier, leading independent pollster Merdeka Center released its final opinion survey which showed the ruling coalition maintaining power but losing the popular vote, for the second consecutive general election.

Under the Malaysian system, a party needs to get a majority of MPs in parliament to win power but not the most votes.

The survey conducted in peninsular Malaysia between April 28 and May 8 showed BN winning 37.3 percent of the popular vote, with Mahathir's opposition coalition winning 43.4 percent.

The survey did not include voters in Malaysia's two states on Borneo island, where the government has traditionally enjoyed strong support.San Francisco (AFP) - US Senator John McCain called Wednesday for lawmakers to reject Gina Haspel's nomination to head the CIA due to the role she played overseeing the torture of detainees.

Senate Armed Services Committee chair McCain, who was tortured while being held prisoner in North Vietnam, is battling brain cancer and is unlikely to vote on Haspel's nomination, but is a widely-respected elder statesman in US politics whose views carry significant weight.

"Ms Haspel's role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge torture's immorality is disqualifying. I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination," McCain said in a statement.

From 2001-2004, Haspel was a deputy group chief of the Counterterrorism Center, which ran the so-called "enhanced interrogation" program, and then chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, who directed the program.

During part of that period, she oversaw the CIA's secret prison in Bangkok, where Al-Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were repeatedly waterboarded during lengthy interrogations.

McCain, a navy pilot, was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967.

Taken prisoner, his severe injuries weren't treated and he was repeatedly bound and beaten. He was not released until 1973.Prince Harry and Meghan Markles royal wedding is fast approaching. And while the couples family, friends, and fans are clearly overjoyed about the nuptials on May 19, the fact that a British royal is marrying a biracial American woman still draws criticism.

But Parisa Fitz-Henley, who plays Markle in Lifetimes made-for-TV movie Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance, says she has hopes that the love story  both onscreen and in real life  will send a message about what relationships really look like.

I hope that people will be able to see past titles and nationalities and races, and all of the other things that truly in a capital T true sense dont really matter, and see people coming together, she explained during a Build series discussion on Tuesday. The Jamaican-American actress, who said she never saw interracial families on television, went on to say that she hopes the film, which will premiere May 13, will inspire everyone to see themselves in Harry and Meghans love story.

The impact this royal wedding will have on racism and classism in the U.K. and beyond has yet to be determined. But Fitz-Henleys analysis that this TV film (and ultimately Harry and Meghans real-life bond) is a really sweet homage to a love, a friendship  a friendship thats tested by challenges, like all of us seems pretty spot-on.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.Meghan Markle talking to children as she leaves the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey - PA

Meghan Markle has told friends she "cannot wait to be a mother", saying she "would absolutely love to have children", her former agent has claimed.

Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne, Ms Markle's friend and agent, disclosed the former actress had shared the news she was dating Prince Harry during a whispered conversation over lunch, and spoken about her hopes of having a family.

Appearing in a Sky documentary, she claims she had once asked Ms Markle if she saw children in her future when they were travelling together for work in the Cayman Islands.

"She said to me, 'I would absolutely love to have children, and I can't wait to be a mother'," Ms Nelthorpe-Cowne said.

Ms Markle is to marry Prince Harry on May 19 at Windsor Castle, becoming an official member of the Royal Family.

Meghan Markle meets children in Cardiff Credit: WPA Pool

The Prince has previously spoken regularly about his desire to have children, his affection for his nephews and niece Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, and his godchildren.

In his engagement interview with Ms Markle, in November, he said of having children: "One step at a time and hopefully we'll start a family in the near future."

Prince Harry has fun with a toddler at the Invictus Games Credit: Samir Hussein

Interviewed for Harry and Meghan: A Love Story, which broadcasts on Sky One at 9pm on Wednesday, Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne also shares details of one of their last meetings together before Ms Markle embarked on life in the UK.

"Meghan and I were at lunch and she was really excited that day at lunch and I said to her you look fantastic Meghan. What's going on in your life, you seem excited?" she said.

Britain's Prince Harry plays with children as he visits a Fit and Fed school holiday programme Credit: AP Pool

"And she [Meghan] said well yes, I have a date tonight. And I said really, with who, do I know him? And she said yes I'm sure you'll know him, I'm meeting Prince Harry. In a whisper she sort of said it.

Meghan Markle hugs children from a street dance class in Cardiff Credit: Geoff Pugh

"And I said who? And she said, Prince Harry, I'm meeting Prince Harry tonight. And I said Prince Harry?!"Melania Trump at the White House, announcing her Be Best initiative on Monday - REUTERS

Melania Trump has been once again accused of plagiarism, with allegations that she repurposed a 2009 booklet to launch her Be Best campaign for child wellbeing.

Mrs Trump on Monday announced that her project as first lady would be an initiative to support wellness in children, reducing cyber bullying and helping reduce the opioid crisis.

As part of the initiative she produced an online booklet which bore a striking resemblance to one produced by the Obama administration, with the same pictures and text.

On Tuesday Mrs Trump's office issued a statement in response to the accusations of plagiarism.

"After delivering a strong speech that was met with a standing ovation and positive feedback, the focus from opposition media has been on an educational booklet, 'Talking with Kids about Being Online'. produced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2009."

The White House said that, instead of plagiarising the text, she had simply "added branding" to the original content, to "amplify" its message.

The row bore echoes of the controversy over Mrs Trump's 2016 campaign speech, when she was found to have copied word for word sections of a speech written for Michelle Obama.

Mrs Trump's speechwriter admitted to taking her suggestions to echo Mrs Obama too literally.Teknaf (Bangladesh) (AFP) - Huge quantities of meth are seeding unrest inside Bangladesh's refugee camps, as jobless Rohingya turn drug runners for a criminal chain that stretches back to Myanmar -- and the soldiers who drove them out.

The little red methamphetamine pills, better known as 'yaba', that have got Southeast Asia high for decades are pouring westwards from Myanmar.

Rohingya refugees are moving them across Bangladeshs Cox's Bazar district, which hosts around one million of their stateless Muslim minority.

And drug money is bringing new problems to an already traumatised refugee community.

Bangladesh authorities warn shootings, extortion and kidnappings linked to drug disputes are on the rise, adding another layer of complexity and danger to life in the seething camps.

"Many young men are falling into the drug lords' trap," says Abdus Salam, a Rohingya community leader in the Shamlapur refugee camp. "It's very easy to exploit refugees."

Over 100 Rohingya have been arrested on drug charges since last August, when a vicious crackdown by Myanmar's army expelled the Muslim minority into Bangladesh in huge numbers.

Drug seizures in Cox's Bazar are skyrocketing, as organised crime gangs recruit from the vast pool of cheap and expendable labour.

On March 15, 1.8 million tablets were dumped along the Cox's shore by spooked traffickers. Days later, a further 900,000 were found abandoned in boats.

But a lot more are getting into Bangladesh undetected, according to the country's Department of Narcotics Control, which estimates 250-300 million pills will be popped this year.

Drug money is also blurring dividing lines in unexpected ways, as ethnic Rakhine Buddhists -- who loathe the Rohingya and helped force them out -- elbow their way into the trafficking racket into Bangladesh.

With the price of a yaba pill tripling to $3-$3.5 in Bangladesh "no one cares who is Buddhist or Rohingya", explains Bangladesh Border Guard commander Lieutenant Colonel Asadud Zaman Chowdhury.

Story continues

- Meth town -

Nearly all of Bangladesh's yaba arrives from Myanmar across the Naf river, which last year was packed with boatloads of fleeing Rohingya, their exit framed by dark billows of smoke from torched villages.

Now, the boats also ferry pills, made in the meth labs of eastern Myanmar.

They arrive around Teknaf, where locals say the trickle-down of narco profits can be seen in the souped-up motorbikes and lavish homes that stand out in an otherwise scruffy district.

A single main road runs from Teknaf north to Cox's Bazar City.

It is peppered with checkpoints, but still the poorest locals and increasing numbers of Rohingya take the daily risk of muling drugs.

On a recent Friday AFP witnessed two seizures within an hour along the road.

The first was of 12,000 of the vanilla-scented pills, found stuffed under a seat on an abandoned bus, which was aptly named the 'Nil Enterprise.'

Shortly afterwards, a woman travelling with her young daughter was arrested with drugs stashed inside pouches of tamarind. She could be jailed for up to two years.

- Soldiers -

On the other side of the border, the identities of those at the pinnacle of the Rakhine drug pyramid remain elusive, but lower down the chain, officials, local businessmen and soldiers have all been caught.

On Monday an army private was arrested at a checkpoint in Myanmar's Maungdaw district with 200,000 tablets -- a subsequent search led to a stash house with 1.6 million pills packed in bags ready for transit.

On October 1, 2017, while Rakhine was still white-hot with violence, a pair of soldiers were detained in Maungdaw town -- a few kilometres from the Naf river -- with nearly two million yaba pills worth around $2.8 million locally.

Big pay days are also stirring unlikely alliances.

Speculation is mounting that Rakhine and Rohingya militant groups, both fighting Myanmar's state for different reasons, are collaborating over drugs.

"They are involved in trafficking together to buy weapons," a Myanmar drug police source told AFP, requesting anonymity.

- Guns and gangsters -

Trapped in poverty and unlikely to return to Myanmar any time soon, Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar are using drug money to claw their way from penury.

"I got involved in this business five years ago after meeting a powerful local man," a Rohingya mule-turned-dealer told AFP, requesting anonymity as he feared reprisals.

The money got his family out of the refugee camp to an apartment in Cox's Bazar city.

"If I don't do it, someone else will," he added.

But where the drugs flow, violence follows.

Anwara Begum pushes her finger through a hole in a t-shirt made by the bullet that killed her son, Hossein Ali, in a squalid lane of the Nayapara camp near Teknaf.

Police linked the killing to drugs and a notorious thug in the camp with alleged ties to a Rohingya militant group.

The victim's family deny the drug link, saying Hossein was killed over a festering dispute between families.

Regardless of the motive, his murder -- and a spate of kidnappings -- has electrified the Rohingya camp grapevine with fear and rumour.

"Thirty or forty guys in each camp are gangsters," says his older brother Hassan Ali, 32, who says he was the intended target.

"I don't feel safe anymore, but we have nowhere to go."Mexico City (AFP) - Mexican authorities said they arrested a third suspect Thursday in the killing of three film students who were abducted, tortured and dissolved in acid, a crime that caused national outrage.

Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said the suspect, identified only as Jonathan "N," was arrested in a dawn raid by federal police in the city of Metepec, in central Mexico, after a manhunt across four states involving several security agencies.

Navarrete called it an important advance in "a very painful and very symbolic case."

The students -- Javier 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.

Investigators say members of the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel appear to have mistaken them for members of a rival group, the New Plaza Cartel, because they were staying in the house of a relative who had ties to the latter.

Witnesses said they were intercepted by a group of men disguised as police who ushered them into two other cars and fled.

They were then taken to a cartel safe house and tortured, investigators say. When Aceves died of his injuries, the kidnappers killed the other two students and dissolved the bodies in barrels of hydrochloric acid.

The case drew outraged protests from tens of thousands of their fellow students, backed by Mexican film luminaries such as Oscar-winning directors Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron.

Authorities are still searching for a fourth and final suspect in the case, Navarrete said.

Jonathan "N" is accused of giving the order to get rid of the students' bodies.

Another suspected arrested last month, a rapper and YouTube star known as "QBA," has confessed to dissolving the bodies in acid, according to investigators.

QBA, whose real name is Christian Omar Palma Gutierrez, allegedly received 3,000 pesos ($159) a week to work for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

He has a YouTube page with 135,000 subscribers and millions of views where he posted professionally shot rap videos about violence, weapons and drugs.At 5:06 p.m. on May 8, Michael Avenatti, the ubiquitous lawyer for adult-film star Stormy Daniels, tweeted a bombshell. Avenatti, whose client is suing President Trump, said he had obtained a list of alleged wire transfers dating from October 2016 to January 2018 into and out of a company controlled by Michael Cohen, Trumps personal lawyer. Among the alleged inflows to Essential Consultants LLC: half a million dollars from a firm controlled by an aluminum baron close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies with business before the Trump Administration, including telecom giant AT&T and Swiss pharmaceutical behemoth Novartis. Going out, Avenatti claims: the now famous $130,000 mystery-money payment to Daniels, hundreds of thousands of dollars to Cohens own bank accounts and millions of dollars in unaccounted for payments to unknown parties.

In the hours following the tweet, several of Cohens clients confirmed the payments, and it became clear that a new front had opened up in Trumps legal and political battlefield. For the past year, Trump had railed against the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller as a witch hunt into nonexistent election collusion with Russia. Avenattis disclosures, coming just a month after an FBI raid of Cohens temporary residence and office, showed that the Justice Department probe has expanded to encompass the business and political activities of Trumps inner circle during the transition and under his presidency, including payments allegedly made in the Presidents personal interest. The broadening investigation is a problem for Trump that firing Mueller cant solve.

Later that evening, Trumps lawyers Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani left a message for the Presidentthey didnt want to take Trump away from monitoring his Secretary of States negotiations over the release of three Americans from North Korea, so they said it wasnt urgent. At around 8:30 p.m., Trump got on the phone. I dont know anything about it, Trump told his lawyers, and after about 15 minutes spent going over the details, Giuliani told TIME, Trump signed off. It doesnt involve him, Giuliani said. Nobodys concerned about it. Giuliani denies that the company was used for payouts on Trumps behalf. Cohen did not respond to TIMEs requests for comment.

Story continues

In the perverse pay-to-play world that Washington has become, its not clear that any of the Essential Consultants transactions were illegal. Its common for powerful corporations to hire Washington insiders to influence government decisions: Fortune 500 companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on efforts to revise pending rules or regulations, halt or shape new legislation, and otherwise sway lawmakers to serve their interests. Nor do the documents make clear whether Cohen, who is reportedly under federal investigation for possible bank fraud and violation of election laws, was simply enriching himself without Trumps knowledge. Cohen reportedly used the company to pay for his own luxury expenses, like a Mercedes-Benz and private club dues. Cohen did not respond to TIMEs requests for comment, but on May 9 his attorney filed court papers challenging portions of Avenattis account.

But in the larger sense, the payments to and from the Presidents personal lawyer may well be damaging to Trump on a number of fronts. They validate the continuing Justice Department probe and raise a host of questions that any prosecutor in the nation would feel compelled to answer: Was Trump aware of payments made on his behalf? Did he know where the money came from? Did he do anything in return, either in a personal or an official capacity?

Moreover, the revelations underscore Trumps disregard for presidential ethics, despite his campaign pledge to drain the swamp. They threaten to erode Trumps grip on supporters who dont much care about Russia but may have less patience for influence peddling. Democrats certainly hope so. This investigation has completely metastasized, says Zac Petkanas, a Democratic strategist who is tracking the investigation. It has many different heads, and not all of them are Russian heads.

For a multimillion-dollar company, Essential Consultants has a light footprint. It has no website, no board and no employees. Cohen, the sole owner of the firm, legally established it in mid-October 2016, about a week after the Access Hollywood tape that captured Trump bragging about grabbing womens genitals upended the presidential race. About 10 days later, Cohen allegedly used the company to make the $130,000 payment to Daniels, through her then lawyer Keith Davidson in an effort to keep her from talking about the affair she says she had with Trump in 2006, shortly before the birth of Trumps son Barron.

That was just the beginning. Cohen received or disbursed at least $4.4 million between late 2016 and into this year. Some of the largest payments to Essential Consultants came from companies that appeared to have tangible financial interests pending before the U.S. government at the time. In 2017, for example, AT&T stood to gain enormously if the Justice Department approved its proposed merger with Time Warner. Avenatti contends that AT&T began a series of payments to Essential Consultants in October, which totaled $200,000 by January 2018. In a May 8 statement, AT&T said it had hired Cohen to provide insights into understanding the new Administration.

Another major payment to Cohens company arrived in November 2017 from Korea Aerospace Industries. The aircraft manufacturer is bidding for a multibillion-dollar contract to provide trainer jets for the Air Force, alongside American defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Korea Aerospace paid Essential Consultants $150,000 for what it says was advice on accounting standards on production costsan area of expertise that appears outside Cohens bailiwick.

Swiss pharma giant Novartis also has a particular set of interests in the workings of the new U.S. Administration. In March 2017, a court ordered the company to turn over records related to a long-running federal investigation into alleged kickbacks and bribes paid to U.S. doctors. Former Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez met with Trump in late January 2017. Starting in February that year, the company paid Essential Consultants $100,000 a month for services focused on U.S. health care policy matters. After Novartis executives met with Cohen in March, the company determined that Michael Cohen and Essentials Consultants would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated, a spokesman said on May 9. Novartis nevertheless kept up the payments for a full year, until the contract expired.

What, if anything, it received in return is unclear. Last year, the FDA approved Rydapt, a mast cell disorder and leukemia drug, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved limited reimbursements for its rare-blood-cancer drug, Kymriah, which runs $475,000 for a course of a treatment. Incoming chief executive Vasant Narasimhan was also invited to an exclusive sit-down dinner with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2018.

On May 9, the company confirmed that its arrangement with Essential Consultants has attracted the attention of Muellers team, which questioned the company over its payments to Cohen. In hindsight, this must be seen as a mistake, Novartis spokesman Michael Willi told Reuters.

Perhaps most intriguing, though, are the $500,000 in payments to Essential Consultants from Columbus Nova, a New York investment firm whose biggest client is the Renova Group, which is, in turn, controlled by the Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Vekselberg and Renova are both under U.S. sanctions imposed in retaliation for Russias meddling in the 2016 election. Earlier this year, investigators with special counsel Mueller reportedly questioned Vekselberg about his investments in Columbus Novas private equity funds. A lawyer for Columbus Nova wrote in a statement May 8 that the firms payment to Essential Consultants had no connection to Vekselberg.

The White House brushes off the Avenatti allegations. This is yet another irrelevant thing that is made into a big thing, Giuliani told TIME. Avenatti, for his part, says more is coming. Weve only begun to scratch the surface relating to the information we have, he tells TIME. We have a whole host of additional information relating to Essential Consultants.

Thats bad news for Trump. Theres certainly a corruption angle here, says former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti, noting that it is not clear what Cohen was being paid to do. He doesnt appear to have any set of skills that can answer [that].

The disclosures make clear that the Justice Departments investigations are in fact expanding and accelerating into territory Trump has previously said the lawmen have no business looking at. Experts were quick to place the range of possible legal liabilities from negligible to catastrophic: possible lines of inquiry include bank fraud, campaign-finance or Lobbying Disclosure Act violations, and even bribery. If the money passed through a shell to Trump, wrote Harvard law professor Noah Feldman in Bloomberg, it will look as if Trumps fixer set up a shell company to accept bribes on the Presidents behalf.

Trump campaigned against Washington corruption, and the work of Cohens company may be a particularly stark example of it: money flowing in from foreign interests and big corporations with business before the President, producing undisclosed results on the other side. Which means that when it comes to questionable behavior by Trump and his allies, the President is no longer liable just to the traditional square-jawed work of Justice Department prosecutors, but also to the slash-and-burn tactics he himself rose to power employing.

Avenatti is the first to acknowledge he is turning Trumps playbook against him. The California lawyer says that back when he was in college at the University of Pennsylvania, he took a class where Trumps longtime hard-knuckled political adviser Roger Stone made a memorable guest appearance. You could say that Roger Stone taught me a lot of the skills Im using today, Avenatti says wryly. Whether that ends up being more damaging to Trump than the traditional legal investigation remains to be seen, but its clear now that the President faces a whole new kind of fight.

With reporting by MOLLY BALL, TESSA BERENSON, NASH JENKINS and JUSTIN WORLAND/WASHINGTON; and ALANA ABRAMSON and SUSANNA SCHROBSDORFF/NEW YORKBy Bernie Woodall

(Reuters) - Michigan police looking for the body of a 12-year-old girl who disappeared decades ago and the remains of up to five other teenage girls, some missing since the 1970s, said on Wednesday they have found evidence on a former farm outside Detroit linking the site to the case.

The dig on the farm, where a decade ago police found the body of another teen who was murdered by Arthur Ream, entered its third day on Wednesday and police indicated they expect to find remains at the site.

Ream, 69, is serving a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole in the murder of the 13-year-old. Ream's son knew the girl, whose body was found a decade ago, buried under 18 inches of soil on the same farm.

Investigators returned to the farm after they reopened the cold case of the 1979 disappearance of Kimberly King, 12, from nearby Warren.

"We do have probable cause to believe that this is a grave site. No question about it, that Kimberly King and other young female victims who were murdered are buried here, Warren Police Department Commissioner William Dwyer told a news conference.

Investigators have been encouraged by what they have learned since serving a search warrant on the farm on Monday, he said.

"I am not commenting on what we found, but what we have found makes us very cautiously optimistic that were on the right track, Dwyer said, adding that it could be hours or another day or two before any bodies are discovered.

Asked if the police were dealing with a serial killer, he said, "We would suspect that, yes."

Kimberly King's older sister, Konnie Beyma, said she is hoping for closure. "It brings a great deal of hope to bring her remains home," she said.

None of the six victims knew one another or Ream, Dwyer said.

Officials have said that Ream could be charged in other deaths if more bodies are discovered.

Nearly three dozen law officers and FBI agents are searching the site, Warren Mayor Jim Fouts said. Their search is concentrated in wooded areas off an open field, where officers were directed after investigators received tips from fellow inmates of Ream, who turned 69 on Wednesday, Dwyer said.

Ream has not been cooperative in the current search, Fouts and Dwyer said.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Editing by Leslie Adler and Dan Grebler)iStock/Thinkstock(BASEL, Switzerland) -- "One should be free to choose their death, and when is it an appropriate time," said Australian scientist, David Goodall, who ended his life at euthanasia clinic in Switzerland. He was 104.



The scientist was not ill, but he had limited mobility, failing eye sight and said he had lost the desire to live any longer.



Goodall traveled to Switzerland this month, with assisted suicide advocates, after a public campaign in which he advocated for free choice about when to die.



His wishes to end his own life were blocked in his home country, Australia, where euthanasia is still illegal.



This week, he appeared at a press conference alongside colleagues from Exit International, an advocacy group that supports elderly people who want to end their lives. Goodall was the first member.



He had apparently planned few details for his last moments, beyond the campaign for free choice to die, even for those who are not terminally ill.



After singing a few refrains of "Ode to Joy" by Beethoven, he told the gathered journalist that he had been contemplating suicide for at least two decades. He said he did not want a last dinner, since difficulty with digestion had caused him to lose interest in food.



Goodall had asked for and received assistance from Life Circle, a Basel-based organization that helps foreigners with the euthanasia process in Switzerland.



Faced with the prospect of ending their lives alone in their homes, hundreds of people who wish to die travel to Switzerland for euthanasia every year. Most of them are terminally ill.



The number of assisted suicides in Switzerland was almost 1,000 people in 2015, the most recent year statistics were available, according to the Swiss federal statistics office.



Goodall argued that other countries should legalize the procedure so people in very poor health, as well as those who are ready to die, don't have to travel to Switzerland.



"I no longer want to continue life, I'm happy to have the chance to end it," Goodall said.



Goodall said goodbye to family in Australia, but some decided to travel with him to Basel to be with him at the end of his life.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will pull the U.S. out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on the country.

Growing tensions in the Middle East don't dampen the region's investment prospects, said Hazem Ben-Gacem, Investcorp's head of corporate investment for Europe.

Amid concerns that President Donald Trump decision on the Iran nuclear deal could escalate geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, an investment firm executive said the region, in fact, is "very stable" for doing business.

Trump on Tuesday announced he will pull the United States out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reinstate sanctions on the country. Experts warned that Trump's decision could further strain Washington's relationship with a number of allies and increase risks in the Middle East .

But Hazem Ben-Gacem, head of corporate investment for Europe at Bahrain-based Investcorp, on Wednesday shrugged off concerns that the development could dampen prospects in the Middle East.

"If you look through history, whether it's 100, 200, 500 years, this region has had its own share of positive and challenging news. However, that has never stopped the region from growing and developing," Ben-Gacem told CNBC's Hadley Gamble at the Gateway Gulf Investor Forum in Bahrain .

"And that's what we find quite exciting: It is a very stable region to do business in and that's something very important as an investor," he added.

He noted that over the last two decades, the company has been able to "buy, manage and exit" its investments in the Middle East, which is "what any investor would like to see." Investcorp has more than $22.2 billion in assets under management and the company has been a major investor in the region, especially in Saudi Arabia .

But that's not to say the region's geopolitical developments have no impact on the company's investment decisions, Ben-Gacem clarified.

Story continues

"Any major news which is reported, we really take a look at it from a global perspective: It will have as much of an impact on our businesses in Europe as it would with North America and as it would with Saudi," he said.





More From CNBC

Catania (Italy) (AFP) - More than 100 migrants who were stranded in the central Mediterranean for three days during a diplomatic standoff between Rome and London after their rescue off the coast of Libya arrived in Italy on Thursday.

Rome decided this week to allow 105 people to land in Italy following a back-and-forth with British authorities over who should take them. Nearly 700,000 people have landed on Italian shores since 2013.

One of the group to arrive at Sicilian city Catania on Thursday, which included six women, 32 teenagers and six children, was Vitoria, a 21-year-old Nigerian who told AFP that she had been in Libya for just over a year before setting off over the weekend.

She said that she had spent nearly six months in dreadful conditions in a Libyan prison after a failed first crossing last year. The country's notorious detention centres have been blasted by human rights groups and the United Nations as "inhuman."

"I was not afraid of the water, because God created the water. I'm not afraid of death. We all die one day. I'm more afraid if the Libyan police were to catch me again, because they are so wicked," she said.

Vitoria was one of those who had been on the Aquarius rescue ship, chartered by SOS Mediterranee and Medecins Sans Frontieres, since Monday night, after being saved on Sunday by a smaller boat -- the Astral -- run by a Spanish NGO following a call from the Italian coastguard.

The crew on the first boat had been told that Libya was coordinating the rescue operation, meaning that the migrants were to be taken back to the North African country.

However when the Astral met the migrants on Sunday the Libyan coast guard were nowhere to be found and didn't respond to radio calls. At that point they decided to take them on board, and that's where the standoff began.

As it was not officially coordinating the rescue, Rome asked London to deal with the migrants as the Astral bears the Union flag. On Sunday night London asked the Astral to transfer them to the Aquarius, which flies the flag of Gibraltar.

The two ships met Monday morning about 30 nautical miles off the coast of Tripoli, but waited all day for written confirmation of the transfer from either London or Rome.

In absence of a response from London -- the British coast guard told AFP that the incident wasn't their responsibility -- Rome authorised the transfer on Monday night, but waited until Tuesday night to give the go ahead for them to travel to Catania.Vice President Mike Pence wants special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the probe into possible connections between Donald Trumps presidential campaign and Russia, to wrap it up.

On Thursday morning, NBCs Andrea Mitchell interviewed Pence and asked about Mueller.

She first pressed Pence on whether Mueller could be trusted. Pence didnt answer that question or her follow-up about whether this investigation is a hoax.

Instead, Pence responded, What I think is that its been about a year since this investigation began. Our administration has provided over a million documents. Weve fully cooperated in it. And in the interest of the country, I think its time to wrap it up. I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion.

His comment raised a red flag for Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, who mentioned the interview with Mitchell on his show on MSNBC later that morning.

Scarborough theorized that Pence might not be revealing all that he knows about the investigation, particularly about former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Mike Pence has been claiming that he was just out in the dark, said Scarborough.

.@JoeNBC reacts to Mike Pence's remarks on Mueller investigation pic.twitter.com/ONpApSxIBB  Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) May 10, 2018

And that he was just this clueless, hapless Indiana Hoosier that Donald Trump and the rest of the White House said nothing to. But youve just got to start asking yourself, if Mike Pence wants to kill an investigation that is pursuing how the Russians tried to undermine American democracy in 2016  my gosh, makes me sad to say this  but I guess we have to start asking the question why does Mike Pence want to kill this investigation?

Story continues

Scarborough called Pence the Spiro Agnew for the Trump administration, referring to Richard Nixons first vice president, who resigned after pleading no contest to an income tax evasion charge.

Also on HuffPost

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

He has supported LGBT discrimination under the banner of "religious freedom."

He REALLY opposes same-sex marriage.

Pence has long been an outspoken opponent of marriage equality, and in floor speeches during his time in Congress, described marriage as being ordained by God.



Of the Supreme Courts 2015 ruling that granted same-sex couples the right to tie the knot nationwide, he reportedly said that he said he was disappointed that SCOTUS had failed to recognize the historic role of the states in setting marriage policy, but nonetheless noted that he believed in the rule of law.

He's opposed hate crime protections for LGBT people.

In 2009, Pence was an outspoken opponent of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which officially expanded federal hate crime legislation to include violence directed at members of the LGBT community.



At the time, Pence blasted President Barack Obama for using the measure to advance a radical social agenda, according to USA Today, and argued that the law could be used to curb free speech rights.

He didn't want "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repealed.

Pence was no fan of President Obama's decision to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," which banned gay and lesbian people from serving in the armed forces.



In 2010 he told CNN he did not want to see the military become a backdrop for social experimentation," and said, "We ought to put their interests and the interests of our national security first."

He opposed Obama's 2016 transgender bathroom directive.

In May, Pence spoke out against the Obama administration's directive advising public schools to allow trans students to use the bathroom that best corresponds with their gender identity or risk losing federal funding.



The federal government has not business getting involved in issues of this nature, Pence said.

His stance on HIV/AIDS prevention is questionable at best.

In 2000, Pence suggested that money from a program to help those with HIV/AIDS should be repurposed toward organizations that provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior, BuzzFeed reports.



He's also suggested that needle exchange programs, which can be used to help prevent the spread of HIV, encouraged drug use.



Last year, Pence reluctantly allowed for a short-term needle exchange program to be put into place in Indiana following a spike in HIV infections across the state.



"I do not enter into this lightly," he told The Indianapolis Star. "In response to a public health emergency, I'm prepared to make an exception to my long-standing opposition to needle exchange programs."

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.The Daily Beast

Patrick Pleul/ReutersElon Musk announced during a shareholder meeting on Thursday that Tesla will move its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Texas, weeks after the governor boasted that the billionaire likes the states social policies.Texas last month enacted a restrictive new abortion law that bans the procedure in pregnancies that are more than six weeks and and deputizes private citizens to sue anyone who assists in providing one.In reaction to the law, another billionaire, SalesforcesMonica Lewinsky was uninvited to an event after former President Bill Clinton accepted an invitation to the same functionand shes not happy about it.

"Dear world: please don't invite me to an event (esp. one about social change) andthen after I've accepteduninvite me because Bill Clinton then decided to attend/was invited," Lewinsky wrote on Twitter Wednesday. "It's 2018. Emily Post would def not approve."

Although Lewinsky did not offer an explanation as to what the event was, Huffpost and Clintons representation both confirmed that the activist was talking about an annual philanthropic summit run by Town & Country Magazine that commences Wednesday morning.

Trending: The Predator Trailer Reveals Return of AVP Weaponry

dear world:

please don't invite me to an event (esp one about social change) and --then after i've accepted-- uninvite me because bill clinton then decided to attend/was invited.

it's 2018.

emily post would def not approve.

_Me  Monica Lewinsky (@MonicaLewinsky) May 9, 2018

In a follow up Tweet, Lewinsky added that the magazine attempted to ameliorate the situation by offering her an article in their publication.

p.s. ...and definitely, please don't try to ameliorate the situation by insulting me with an offer of an article in your mag. Don't miss: Video: Black Man Choke Slammed Outside Waffle House After Prom By Cop  Monica Lewinsky (@MonicaLewinsky) May 9, 2018

Angel Urena, Clintons spokesperson, responded on Twitter, claiming that her client did not know Lewinsky was also invited to the event or that her invitation was rescinded due to his appearance.

Story continues

"President Clinton was invited to address the Town & Country Philanthropy Summit," he wrote. "He gladly accepted. Neither he nor his staff knew anything about the invitation or it being rescinded."

RTS10I2G

Reuters

Most popular: Rick and Morty Season 4 Just the Beginning, Adult Swim Orders 70 New Episodes

In the 1990s, Clinton and Lewinsky engaged in an affair while the then 22-year-old was an intern at the White House. When the infamous extra-marital relationship was revealed in 1998, authorities launched a high-profiled investigation into the matter, thrusting Lewinsky into the limelight. Clinton was impeached for lying under oath and obstructing justice, but was later acquitted in another Senate trial.

Now Lewinsky, 44, is an anti-bullying activist and fashion designer. In February, Lewinsky wrote a powerful personal essay for Vanity Fair, where she reflected on the scandal and praised the #MeToo movement for allowing her to view the incident through a different lens.

"Given my PTSD and my understanding of trauma, it's very likely that my thinking would not necessarily be changing at this time had it not been for the #MeToo movement  not only because of the new lens it has provided but also because of how it has offered new avenues toward the safety that comes from solidarity," she wrote. "Now, at 44, I'm beginning (just beginning) to consider the implications of the power differentials that were so vast between a president and a White House intern."

Town & Country Magazine did not respond to Newsweeks request for comment.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekOn Thursday, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released the 3,000 Facebook ads that Russia paid to run on the platform from 2015 through 2017, including those that were posted during the 2016 elections.

According to a House analysis, the advertisements came from the Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-backed troll farm that Democrats say spreads misinformation and amplifies partisanship among Americans.

In addition to the ads, which the IRA paid Facebook around $100,000 to run, the group published 80,000 other posts on the site, organically reaching an estimated 126 million Americans.

House analysts noted the ads fit within a well-defined set of categories, all of which touch on the most divisive political topics of our time. The posts played both sides of the debate on subjects like immigration, gun control, political candidates and veteran affairs.

The ads would also simultaneously bolster certain communities online presence on one hand, while encouraging detractors to attack that same community on the other. They targeted divisions along racial and religious lines, in addition to LGBTQ issues.

The main goal of the Russian propaganda and misinformation effort is to divide America by using our institutions, like free speech and social media, against us, Facebooks vice president of ads, Rob Goldman, said in February. It has stoked fear and hatred amongst Americans. It is working incredibly well. We are quite divided as a nation.

The full 7.9 gigabytes of ads can be downloaded here, via the Democrats House Intelligence Committee website.

Check out a small sample of the ads below:

"Not My Heritage Rally"

According to the House analysis, the IRA paid 2,840 rubles (about $46) to promote a "Not My Heritage Rally." The ad targeted 18- to 50-year-olds who lived within 12 miles of Jackson, Miss., and had 9,306 impressions and 261 clicks.

"NO MORE CHAOS!"

This sponsored Instagram ad features an image of a hooded black man standing next to a vandalized a police car. The IRA paid 1,498 rubles (roughly $24) for the ad, which specifically targeted law enforcement officers and people who work in the military. It earned 7,588 impressions.

"The Police should protect not Brutalize"

This ad for an IRA-managed Facebook page called "Black Matters" had 2,461 impressions and 75 clicks. The ad cost 392 rubles -- a little more than $6.00.

#BlueLivesMatter

This Instagram ad, featuring an image of a black man spearing a white police officer with the American flag, targeted people who are interested in Ted Cruz or Fox News. The IRA paid 8,865 rubles (roughly $140) for 36,217 impressions and 103 clicks.

Anti Hillary Clinton

This anti-Hillary Clinton ad focused on immigration and was aimed at members of the "Being Patriotic" Facebook page and their friends.

Sharia Law

This ad targeted people who liked the "United Muslims of America" Facebook page, and friends of their connections.

"No Invaders Allowed"

Numerous ads sought to build a following for an anti-immigrant IRA-backed Facebook page called "Secured Borders."

Heart of Texas

An event sponsored by one of the IRA's more successful Facebook pages, "Heart of Texas," encouraged followers to attend a secession rally. The IRA paid 2,392 rubles (roughly $39.00) for the ad, which targeted people who lived within a 10-mile radius of Austin, Texas. It had 3,658 impressions and 222 clicks.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Salt Lake City police investigators said a 24-year-old suspect was arrested Wednesday after being accused of killing a 15-year-old Utah girl. The girl's mother reportedly overheard her murder on a cell phone call and was forced to listen helplessly while her daughter was killed.

Sgt. Brandon Shearer of SLCPD told reporters that a search for the girl's boyfriend, homicide suspect Shaun French, ended in Colorado where authorities arrested him around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. Officers found the body of 15-year-old Baleigh Bagshaw during a welfare check at the girl's residence around 3 p.m. Monday. Police said the teen called her mother to check in when her killer attacked, leaving her mom on the phone to listen in on the assault before the phone went dead. Her mom then called police and asked them to check in on the home.

Trending: What Is Dark Matter? Scientists May Be on Cusp of Finally Detecting Elusive Material

While she was on the phone with her mother, she was brutally attacked while inside of her home, Shearer said Tuesday. Her mother heard the attack going on and then the phone went dead. I cant even guess what the mother would be going through right now. Our hearts and thoughts are with her and the whole family through this horrible ordeal."

Police declined to say where French was arrested in Colorado but thanked the public for tips that helped lead to his capture Wednesday. French reportedly had a "previous sexual relationship" with the victim and previously lived in the home in which the homicide took place. Police told reporters he was not currently living with her at the time of the murder. He had been considered armed and dangerous but was taken safely into custody by Colorado law enforcement.

Screen Shot 2018-05-09 at 4

Salt Lake City Police Department: Baleigh Bagshaw

Don't miss: What Is the 'Queen of the Hill' Rule? How GOP Lawmakers Plan to Force DACA Vote

Story continues

"My sweet cousin Baleigh has been taken to heaven after arriving home from school in Salt Lake City, UT. It's not my place to share the details, but it's an awful situation. Please keep her family in your prayers," wrote Jeffery P. Lewis in a Facebook post linking people to a GoFundMe page for her funeral costs.

Shearer said the home is still cordoned off and was being investigated, but that the phone call overheard by her mother lead them to believe her final moments involved a horrifying scene.

It was a very violent attack, so theres quite a bit of evidence and its widely spread throughout the home and throughout the area, Shearer said. Were just making sure were taking our time and collecting all the necessary evidence to continue to investigate the case.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekThousands of children have traveled north from Central America, with their mothers when they could, and alone when they could not, to flee gang-sponsored violence in their countries. They made their way to the southwest border of the United States, knocking on our golden door, seeking protection.

The numbers have varied year-to-year, up and down, with a high of 68,541 unaccompanied children under the age of 18 apprehended by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents at the United States-Mexico border during federal fiscal year (FFY) 2014.

Most recently, during the first six months of FFY 2018 (October 1, 2017 - March 31, 2018), there were 21,720 unaccompanied youth apprehended, compared to the 28,593 during the same period in FFY 2017. Most fled El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and then Mexicofrom which fewer than one quarter (24%) originated.

Trending: All the Ways Trump Has Undone Obama's Legacy After Iran Nuclear Deal Withdrawal

GettyImages-545176370

MARVIN RECINOS/AFP/Getty Images

They did not come here to join Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, or other gangs. They traveled thousands of miles on foot or riding the roof of la bestia (the beast), fast-moving freight trains from which many fell and others were pushed. They came here, boys and girls alike, seeking refuge from conscription in gangs, sex trafficking, slavery, and war in their countries.

They came to the U.S. in search of economic opportunities and reunification with family members. They certainly did not come all this way, and under these circumstances, to join a gang in New York, California, Texas, Illinois or Florida.

Story continues

Recently, a colleague, Michelle Brane with the Womens Refugee Commission, met Carlos, a 14-year-old from Honduras, at a shelter for unaccompanied children. Gangs started trying to recruit Carlos when he was eight years old. His mother did not want him to travel on his own because she did not want to be separated from him, but Carlos told her, Dont you prefer talking to me on the phone over seeing me on a slab? Leaving is my only choice.

In President Trump's State of the Union speech in January, he said gang members "took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as unaccompanied alien minors. I am calling on the Congress to finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed MS-13 and other criminal gangs to break into our country.

Don't miss: Primary Election Day 2018: Results, Live Blog From Key Races in West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina

Why do some people begrudge others the very things we want for our own children? What is it about a country founded upon the rule of law that characterizes federal statutes, U.S. Supreme Court (USSC) rulings, and federal consent decrees in which the U.S. government is a party, as loopholes?

These children who are fleeing violence in their countries need our help.

RTR3VLU7

REUTERS/Jose de Jesus Cortes

MS-13 gang members are being removed by our Great ICE and Border Patrol Agents by the thousands, but these killers come back in from El Salvador, and through Mexico, like water. El Salvador just takes our money, and Mexico must help MORE with this problem. We need The Wall!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 23, 2018

There are two federal statutes and one legal settlement that shape U.S. policy for the treatment and administrative processing of unaccompanied minorschildren under the age of 18 who lack lawful immigration status in the U.S. and are without either a parent or legal guardian in the U.S. or without one who is available to provide care and physical custody.

Most popular: Texas Teacher Suspended After Discussing Sexual Orientation Sues School For Discrimination

These are the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, and the Flores Settlement Agreement of 1997, each one specifically designed in part to protect other parents children. Last September, the Department of Justice issued both a legal opinion and a memorandum that would reverse both Congress and the Courts clear and consistent commitment to these children.

I have worked in the fields of corrections and criminal justice, immigration and law enforcement my entire career. I have led five agencies in three states and two cities and opened the Office of Detention Policy and Planning at DHS headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Misstating the mission and the membership of violent gangs such as MS-13, which originated here, and suggesting youth who fled gang violence in Central America and Mexico now make up its membership in the U.S. does not help. Isolating youth targeted by gangs in their country and now in ours, is ill-advised.

Discouraging foreign-born youth from coming forward for assistance from law enforcement only serves to empower gangs such as MS-13. Misstating crime data is counterproductive. The fact is that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes and less likely to join gangs in the U.S. than U.S.-born individuals. Conflating unilateral immigration enforcement with advancing public safety does little to inform or improve upon important what works public policy decisions.

We can do better. We can honor our co-commitments to protecting children in need and preventing harm from those who present risk. Indeed, we must.

Dr. Dora Schriro is Commissioner at the CT Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, former Senior Advisor to DHS Secretary Napolitano on ICE Detention and Removal and founding Director, ICE Office of Detention Policy and Planning.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekA top pharmaceutical company confirmed Wednesday it cooperated with the special counsel investigating Russias interference in the 2016 election when asked about payments made to President Donald Trumps personal attorney. The payments were made to the same company Michael Cohen, Trumps personal lawyer, used to pay off an adult film star who claimed to have a sexual encounter with the president.

Some of the payments to Trump attorney Michael Cohen were made by global pharmaceutical company Novartis, the company confirmed in a statement to BuzzFeed on Wednesday.

Novartis not only confirmed it had set up a one-year agreement with Cohen that was focused on US healthcare policy matters, but that it was approached by the special counsels office in November 2017 and asked about the payments. The deal with Cohens company, according to the statement, ran from February 2017 to until this past February. He was paid $100,000 per month.

Trending: Brock Turner Judge Defends Sentencing, Says Brown v. Board of Education Was Unpopular Too

The company stated it had complied with special counsels request for information and that it considered the matter closed.

"Novartis was contacted in November 2017 by lawyers from the Special Counsels office regarding the companys agreement with Essential Consultants. Novartis cooperated fully with the Special Counsels office and provided all the information requested, the companys statement read. Novartis considers this matter closed as to itself and is not aware of any outstanding questions regarding the agreement."

Don't miss: Republican Who Claims Holocaust Was Orchestrated by Gay Nazis Wins Enough Support For Massachusetts Governor Primary

Cohens company, called Essential Consultants, was used to pay Stormy Danielsthe adult film start whose real name is Stephanie Clifford$130,000 for her silence about an encounter with Trump in 2006.

Story continues

GettyImages-951519110

Getty Images/Spencer Platt

The Novartis's announcement highlights the apparent scope and breadth of Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation. To date, Mueller has questioned numerous associates of the president, as well as White House staff, but how deep the probe delved into Cohens finances was previously unknown.

Most popular: Black Navy Veteran Says He Was Attacked by Dallas Night Club Bouncers

Payments made to Essential Consultants, as well as Cohens other businesses and law practice, have come under scrutiny after federal investigators raided his office, hotel room and home last month.

Federal officials reportedly took documents and other records, and were looking for information about the payment made to Daniels as well as former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, who also claimed to have an affair with Trump. The payment to McDougal was made by American Media Inc., which owns the National Enquirer and whose top executive is a friend of Trumps.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekA Muslim woman is suing the Sheriffs Office of Ventura County, Calif., for forcibly removing her hijab while she was in custody.

Jennifer Hyatt was arrested on Jan. 1, 2017, when she was involved in a dispute with her husband that was noticed by a law enforcement officer, reads the lawsuit, the text of which was provided by the Council on American-Islamic Relations Los Angeles County chapter (CAIR-LA).

Hyatt wears a hijab in accordance with her religious beliefs. It covers her hair, ears, neck, and part of her chest when she is in public and when she is in the presence of men who are not members of her immediate family, as her religion requires women to cover much of their body for the sake of dignity, modesty, and bodily integrity.

Photo: Getty Images

While being searched at the detention center, an officer snatched one piece of Hyatts two-piece hijab off her head while male deputies were in the room. This is when she told the officers that she was a practicing Muslim woman and, based on her faith, could not be seen by other men without her hijab. Not in here, youre not, an officer allegedly replied before violently yanking the second part of her hijab off, permitting any passerby to see her head completely uncovered. She asked for something else, like a blanket, to cover her head but was denied and wasnt given any privacy. She continued to ask for a headscarf and finally attempted to cover her head with her hands.

I was spoken to like I was trash and deserved everything that was happening to me while in custody, the 44-year-old said in a statement. My hijab was yanked off my head in front of many men despite my continued requests to wear it, I felt naked and humiliated the entire duration of my custody. I am seeking justice because I do still have the right to be a covered Muslim woman  even in jail.

CAIR-LA held a press conference for Hyatt on Wednesday, at which she reiterated her desire to seek justice. From the moment I was taken into custody, I was treated rudely by the men and women who took an oath to uphold the law and protect and serve everyone equally under that law, she said. I was spoken to like I was less than human and humiliated, both mentally and emotionally. She said she felt naked during the entire time she was in custody and that male officers and inmates had seen parts of her body that they should not have seen, according to her religious beliefs.

Story continues

CAIR-LAs lawsuit says this treatment violated the First Amendment, the 14th Amendment, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), and the California Constitution.

Under the U.S. Constitution, its a First Amendment issue, Hyatts civil rights attorney Marwa Rifahie tells Yahoo Lifestyle, noting that the free exercise clause affords people the right to exercise their religion without burden from the government infringing their rights to do that. She explains that the federal law called the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act is in place to protect the publics constitutional rights to exercise their religion. Institutions that are ignoring these laws are going to be held accountable under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act  thats the whole reason it was enacted by Congress.

Rifahie is very familiar with this type of case. This is the third one reported to CAIR-LA in the past two years. In the law enforcement context, Muslim women are being arrested and having this issue while in custody, she says. Its a big issue.

In CAIRs 2018 Civil Rights Report, federal government agencies instigated 35 percent of all anti-Muslim-bias incidents reported in 2017. State and local police instigated 58 bias incidents in 2017, and thats just what was reported. There were 126 bias incidents reported in a jail/prison in 2017. Of course, hijab-related discrimination is common throughout the country, in and out of prison; there were 279 hijab- or headscarf-related bias incidents in 2017.

Theres more discrimination around women who wear a hijab, and it seems its because theyre the most visible, or its easier to identify them as Muslim because of the way that theyre dressed; it results in discrimination toward them, Rifahie reasons.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.



North Korea has released three prisoners amid excitement over an historic summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-Un.

Kim remains a murderous dictator who can't be trusted to give up his nuclear weapons.

I have interviewed many North Korean d efectors whose tales of horror must not be forgotten.

President Donald Trump has done what would have seemed impossible just several months ago. Not only has he gotten North Korea , the most rogue of rogue regimes, to stop missile and nuclear weapons testingthanks to a maximum pressure campaign that could end up bankrupting the regime but three American hostages were just released, creating the conditions for a summit between the president and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.

Considering how last winter it seemed possible that nuclear war was about to be unleashed, potentially putting at risk millions of lives around the world, Trump deserves the highest of praise and indeed the Noble Prize .

In fact, with every new breakthrough, the pages of history are being written and rewritten when it comes to relations in Northeast Asia, with the implicit hope that the Korean War will finally come to an end and that Pyongyang will have the wisdom to truly seek better ties with Washington and the entire world.

But though North Korea seems to be committed to some sort of denuclearization, I simply can't shake this pit in my stomach. For I know the history of Pyongyang's promisesmore like breaking every pledge they have ever made.

Kim will never give up his nukes

I also know the chances of Kim giving up his nuclear weapons are still slim to none. His demands for giving up those nuclear weapons could be a price we could never meetlike hundreds of billions of dollars and the complete removal of U.S. military forces.

History cries out for us to be skeptical, to listen to Kim's own people, who were promised a communist paradise, but who were treated worse than slaves. In interviewing several North Korean defectors while researching a book project, I saw the mental and physical scars they will never heal from.

Story continues

What one defector told me in 2014 seems even more relevant now than ever: "The Kim family not only killed my entire family but they broke my soul into pieces that I will never be able to put back together. You don't talk to monsters like thatyou fear them. You run from them. And you never trust them. Ever."

The nature of this vile regime, that lies, cheats and steals whatever it wants to survive, along with a human rights rap sheet filled with millions of innocent dead men, women and children serves as the ultimate warning to trust nothing that comes out of Kim's mouth.

Several examples only go to show the lengths North Korea will go to when it wants to silence internal dissent or hush up anyone internally who cries out for anything resembling freedom.

A reign of terror

First, if you dare speak out in anyway, or are suspected of speaking out, youalong with multiple generations of your familywill be hauled away, most likely to be never heard from ever again. Your friends and co-workers will wonder what happened to you, but none will ever voice their worries publicly, knowing that if they do, their families could end up with the same fate.

Next, you may or may not have a trialbut the verdict is guaranteed. You will be sentenced to serve in a prison camp that more resembles the worst horrors of Hitler or Stalin's most terrible reigns of terror. You will be starved, you will be worked to the bone, and your capturers will hope you die from your labor.

From there, it gets far worse. As the days pass, desperation will set in. You will be willing to eat anythinginsects, grass, leaves, bark, mice and perhaps undigested corn from the waste of cowsall to survive.

Grotesque stories must be retold

If you are a woman in these camps, you face even more horrific treatment. You are routinely raped in the most violent of ways, sometimes by multiple assailants, for days on end. If you become pregnant by your rapist, you will be forced to undergo an abortion, many times with no pain killers whatsoever.

And if you try to hide your pregnancy, in an attempt to save the life of your unborn child, you will be killed in the most horrific of ways, but only after you watch your baby murdered beforehand.

Such descriptions are grotesque, but must be retoldagain and againto serve a constant reminder of the nature of the regime that we are now trying to negotiate with. All the photo-ops and slick media campaigns to rehabilitate the Kim family's image can't wash away the blood this regime has on its hands.

While I am hopeful that Kim Jong Un may have had his come to Jesus moment and truly wants to give up his nuclear weapons and potentially open his nation economically and politically, history cries out for us to be wary. The Kim family's victimsincluding America's own Otto Warmbier and millions moredemand from us such skepticism.

Commentary by Harry J. Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest. He also serves as executive editor of its publishing arm, The National Interest . He previously served as part of the foreign policy team for the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Ted Cruz. Follow him on Twitter @Grecianformula .

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.





More From CNBC

At the time Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis entered into a contract with Michael Cohens limited liability company, its CEO had just been elected to a leadership position at one of the most powerful lobbying groups in American politics.

Joseph Jimenez was CEO of Novartis in February 2017 when the company entered into a $100,000-a-month consulting agreement with Essential Consultants LLC, the company set up by Cohen, Donald Trumps personal attorney, in October 2016. Cohen had previously used the shell company to make a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump, who has denied the allegations.

On January 31, 2017, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the lobbying group representing the pharmaceutical industry in Washington, D.C., issued a press release announcing its members had elected Jimenez their chairman-elect.

Trending: Trump Reveals Where He Will Meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un

It was a tense moment for the industry, which didnt know what to expect from the new president.

Just a few weeks earlier, Trump attacked Big Pharma for getting away with murder in his first news conference as president-elect, causing industry stock prices to dip. Also on January 31, Jimenez joined other pharma industry CEOs and the head of PhRMA to meet with Trump at the White House. Within the next month, Jimenezs company had agreed to a deal with Cohen.

GettyImages-951547268

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Cohen is under criminal investigation relating to his business dealings, although there is no indication that Jimenez, PhRMA or Novartis engaged in any wrongdoing in connection with the Trump lawyer.

Don't miss: This Netflix Email Scam Will Steal Your Credit Card Details, Cyber Experts Warn

Jimenez could not be reached for comment, and PhRMA referred questions to Novartis. A spokesperson for Novartis told Newsweek he had no information on whether Jimenez authorized the deal or if the deal involved any coordination between the company and PhRMA.

Story continues

PhRMA spent $25.8 million on lobbying in 2017, the fourth highest total of all lobbying groups that year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That figure was up from $19 million in 2016.

In a statement on Wednesday, Novartis said it believed Michael Cohen could advise the company as to how the Trump administration might approach certain U.S. health care policy matters, including the Affordable Care Act. Those beliefs turned out to be unfounded, however, when the company realized in its first meeting with Cohen that he and Essential Consultants would be unable to provide the services Novartis expected.

However, Novartis couldnt get out of the contract without cause and eventually paid out the full value of the yearlong deal to Cohen. The drugmaker wasnt the only company that paid Cohen for his services: AT&T and Columbus Nova, an investment management company linked to a Russian oligarch, also paid Cohen hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Most popular: Women Candidates Score Another Victory as FEC Rules Campaign Funds Can Be Used for Child Care

Novartis said it had been contacted by special counsel Robert Muellers office about the payments in November 2017, adding that Novartis considers this matter closed as to itself.

The company also emphasized on Wednesday that the deal was made while Jimenez, not current CEO Vasant Narasimhan, was leading the company.

The engagement of Essential Consultants predated Vas Narasimhan becoming Novartis CEO, and he was in no way involved with this agreement, the company said. In September of last year, Novartis announced Jimenez would retire, a move Bloomberg called a surprise departure. He also stepped down from his leadership role at PhRMA around the same time.

In May 2017, Jimenez told investors he and PhRMA were monitoring developments in Washington. Were watching it very closely. Were heavily involved, he said.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBy John Miller

ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis (NOVN.S) confirmed it had a $1.2 million (885,543.5 pounds) contract with the firm of Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, adding it soon realised it had made a mistake but had not been able to stop payments until the deal ended.

The drugmaker, which has not been accused of any illegal activity, made monthly payments of $100,000 to Cohen's Essential Consultants between February 2017 and January 2018.

The Swiss company said on Wednesday it had been approached in November last year by the U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office who wanted to know about the payments, while probing potential meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

"Novartis cooperated fully with the special counsel's office and provided all the information requested. Novartis considers this matter closed," it said.

The contract was approved in early 2017 under the former Novartis chief executive Joe Jimenez and was part of its efforts to learn more about how the new Trump administration might approach certain U.S. healthcare policy matters.

Jimenez did not respond to requests for comment.

"In hindsight, this must be seen as a mistake," senior Novartis spokesman Michael Willi said of the contract.

An initial meeting under the agreement in March 2017 had in fact prompted Novartis to conclude Cohen, now the subject of a criminal investigation, would not be able to deliver the anticipated services, Novartis said.

"The decision was taken not to engage further," it said in one of several statements issued on Wednesday.

But the contract could only be terminated for cause, Novartis said, so payments continued to be made until the contract expired in February 2018.

"NO INVOLVEMENT"

The company was caught flat footed this week when Michael Avenatti, an attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels, named Novartis among those that had made payments to Cohen's firm until January 2018.

Novartis spent Wednesday seeking to shield its new CEO, saying the deal with Cohen was struck long before Vas Narasimhan was promoted to replace Jimenez on Feb. 1.

Story continues

It said Narasimhan, a Harvard-trained doctor who has vowed to burnish Novartis's reputation as a maker of innovative drugs and leave years of allegations of wrongdoing behind, "had no involvement whatsoever" in the Cohen contract.

While Narasimhan was among business leaders who dined with Trump in Davos at the World Economic Forum in January, Novartis said that had nothing to do with its contract with Cohen.

"This agreement was also in no way related to the group dinner Dr. Narasimhan had at the World Economic Forum in Davos with President Trump and 15 Europe based industry leaders."

Jimenez also met the president after he took office at a Jan. 31, 2017 meeting in the White House. At the time, Jimenez was the incoming chairman-elect of the powerful Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) industry lobby.

In U.S. television interviews with ABC and MSNBC, Avenatti declined to say where he had received the information about the payments to Cohen from.

Avenatti, who also alleged payments were made separately by AT&T (T.N) and Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd , raised questions about the Novartis contract, saying it was unclear what healthcare expertise Cohen could provide to a global drug firm.

Daniels maintains Cohen paid her $130,000 via Essential Consultants to hush up a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.

The president denies any affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Russia denies election interference allegations, while Trump also has denied any collusion.

(Additional reporting by Michael Shields in Zurich and Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Keith Weir and Alexander Smith)By Danilo Masoni

MILAN (Reuters) - European shares were supported on Wednesday by strength in oil stocks after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of Iran's nuclear agreement, boosting crude prices.

While some well-received earnings updates also provided support, shares in companies with exposure to Iran fell, with plane maker Airbus (AIR .PA) and car makers Renault and PSA all trading down more than 1 percent.

By 0823 GMT, the pan-European STOXX 600 had risen nearly 0.2 percent to fresh three-month highs, while higher crude prices helped the commodity-stocks-heavy FTSE index gain 0.4 percent.

The oil and gas index was the biggest sectoral gainer, up 1.5 percent at a three-year high as crude rallied after Trump's move on Iran raised the risk of conflict in the Middle East and cast uncertainty over global supplies.

"Whilst other signatories remain onboard, Trumps decision potentially turns the geopolitical instability dial up a notch, especially in the Middle East," said Accendo Markets analysts in a note.

Shares in oil majors Total, Royal Dutch Shell and Eni were all trading up between 1.1 and 2.3 percent.

But higher oil prices weighed on travel stocks like airlines, whose sector index was also hit by a 1.8 drop in Europe's largest travel and tourism group TUI Group, as its earnings update failed to inspire.

Elsewhere, Siemens rose 4.6 percent after the German industrial giant raised its full year profit guidance, offsetting worries over exposure to Iran.

Analysts at Jefferies reiterated their buy rating on the stock, saying the quarterly performance of Siemens was strong apart from the results of its power and gas (PG) business.

"This was a very mixed picture from Siemens with PG taking the shine off what were actually very good results... with the core automation businesses doing especially well," they wrote.

In the consumer sector, AB Inbev gained 2.3 percent after a reassuring quarterly update from the world's largest brewer, while Imperial Brands advanced 4.3 percent after the tobacco company posted results that were slightly ahead of estimates.

Story continues

Equities in Europe have recently outperformed Wall Street, supported by a weakening euro against a surging dollar, while the earnings season has also been supportive.

According to Thomson Reuters data, earnings beats on the MSCI EMU index outnumbered missed by nearly 6 to 3 so far, with first quarter growth seen at 3.2 percent in local currency.

In M&A news, Vodafone agreed to pay $21.8 billion to buy Liberty Global's assets in Germany and a number of other countries to take on rivals with a broader offer of superfast cable TV, broadband and mobile.

"We see the move (if completed) as positive strategically in terms of creating a stronger, converged operator," said UBS analysts, adding that the absence of an equity issuance to fund the deal was a positive.

(Reporting by Danilo Masoni; Editing by Jon Boyle)Peshawar (Pakistan) (AFP) - Pakistan's top judge has ordered the first official investigation into the country's deadliest terror attack, a massacre at a school that killed more than 150 people in 2014, authorities said Thursday.

Relatives of the victims -- mainly children -- have long called for an accounting of the security and intelligence failures that allowed Pakistani Taliban gunmen to storm the school, run by the powerful military, in the northwestern city of Peshawar on December 16 that year.

No government or military official has ever been held to account for the security failings. Criticism of Pakistan's powerful armed forces, especially their counter-insurgency operations, is largely seen as a red line in the country.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar ordered the formation of a judicial commission to examine the attack during a court hearing in Peshawar Wednesday, Abdul Latif Yousafzai, advocate general of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told AFP.

The inquiry was set to be completed in two months, he added.

No official explanation of the timing was given. But the announcement comes after the newly formed Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) civil rights group has made the issue a central demand in recent months, putting renewed pressure on the government.

PTM is set to hold a massive rally in the sprawling port city of Karachi on Sunday, which is home to millions of ethnic Pashtuns and expected to draw thousands of supporters.

Following the announcement, families of the victims cheered the decision, with some moved to tears.

Ajun Khan, who lost his only son in the attack, told AFP he hopes the commission can uncover who was responsible for the negligence that allowed the militants to execute the hours-long bloodbath.

"We want the commission to probe the incident and place a responsibility for the negligence and failure of the state to protect our children," Khan said.

The investigation comes after a dramatic improvement in security across the country following several successful military offensives targeting extremist strongholds.

The alleged mastermind behind the school attack was killed in a drone strike in 2017, according to the Pakistani Taliban, who have claimed responsibility for it.

The Pakistani state has also said it has hanged at least four men involved in the attack, though the nature of their role has not been made public.Washington (AFP) - A comprehensive probe into last year's deadly attack on US and local forces in Niger uncovered a series of avoidable blunders leading up to the assault, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Four American soldiers and four members of Nigerien partner forces were killed in the October 4 ambush, when scores of jihadists overran their convoy in southwestern Niger, near the Mali border.

While the Pentagon said all four US soldiers fought bravely and "died with honor," investigators found they had not been properly trained ahead of the mission and pointed to problems with how it was approved in the first place.

The US soldiers, who belonged to a special operations team, had deployed to the western African nation in the autumn to conduct counter-terrorism assistance and training with the Nigerien military. Currently about 800 US troops are in Niger.

But at the time of their deployment, only half of the US team had conducted any collective training together, according to an eight-page summary of findings of the investigation, which itself remains classified.

Their mission on October 3 was to "find/fix and, if possible, capture" a key member of a group calling itself the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, the summary states.

Though the summary did not name the target, officials later said it was Doundoun Cheffou, suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of US aid worker Jeffery Woodke, who was seized at gunpoint from his home in October 2016 in the Tahoua region.

However, the US team commander had "inaccurately characterized" the nature of the mission in order to get it approved at a low level instead of requesting permission from battalion-level commanders based in Chad.

The language used for the initial mission had been cut and pasted from previous operations and "a lack of attention to detail in quality control and quality assurance," together with inadequate approvals, "all contributed to a general lack of situational awareness and command oversight at every echelon," the report summary states.

Story continues

And prior to setting out on the operation, the US team failed to conduct pre-mission rehearsals or battle drills with their Nigerien counterparts, the report found.

Eleven US personnel and more than 30 Nigeriens went out on the mission.

Investigators found "individual, organizational and institutional failures and deficiencies that contributed to the tragic events," but did not identify one single failure or deficiency as the sole reason.

General Thomas Waldhauser, head of Africa Command, told Pentagon reporters that US forces are now "far more prudent" in their missions and have beefed up firepower and drone support.

"It provides adequate and more resourceful force protection measures in order to still keep up with the enemy forces on the ground," he said.

- French 'show of force' -

Pentagon officials also published a detailed, 10-minute reconstruction of the ambush itself, which started as the US-Nigerien eight-vehicle convoy headed out of the remote village of Tongo Tongo, having stopped there for water.

The troops were not even wearing body armor when the assault first began, and had to stop their convoy to don it.

Enemy fire was initially light, but quickly intensified as jihadists surged through a wooded area alongside the convoy.

The video describes how the convoy was forced to split up and how it was outflanked by over 100 enemy fighters.

Officials praised the actions of the French air force, which flew Mirage jets in a low-altitude "show of force" over the jihadists, screaming overhead at the same level as treetops.

Because the French could not tell where the US troops were on the ground, they did not engage the enemy, but the overflights caused them to retreat for cover, "likely saving the lives of the surviving members of the" US team, the summary states.

Major General Roger Cloutier, who led the probe, said three of the US soldiers' bodies had been placed in or by a jihadist vehicle, and had been stripped of all their gear.

The jihadists "were driven off by French aircraft," he said.

The fourth American to die was Sergeant La David Johnson, and the video shows he became separated from his comrades. His body was not found until 48 hours after the attack -- he had taken cover under a the branches of a large thorny tree.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has issued a series of recommendations in light of the report, including better pre-deployment training.

Waldhauser said Special Operations Command will eventually award medals for valor to the troops on the mission.A hostage crisis involving Islamist prisoners at a high-security jail outside Jakarta has been resolved nearly two days after a deadly riot broke out at the prison, Indonesian officials said Thursday.

Hundreds of police and armoured vehicles were deployed to rescue a police officer taken hostage by inmates after chaos erupted late Tuesday at the facility inside the Mobile Police Brigade headquarters in Depok, leaving five officers and an inmate dead.

In the pre-dawn operation, 145 prisoners "surrendered unconditionally" and the hostage was released with no further casualties reported, said Chief Security Minister Wiranto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Another ten inmates holding out against police later surrendered after tear gas was used, according to Wiranto.

Several blasts heard near the prison on Thursday morning were caused by police destroying home-made bombs created by the prisoners, police said.

Rioting broke out after several prisoners demanded they be given food sent to them by their families and managed to grab some of their jailers' firearms in the ensuing fracas.

Some of the inmates involved in the clashes were Islamist militants jailed on terror-related charges, according to police.

The Islamic State group was quick to claim responsibility for the riot through its Amaq News Agency, but authorities rejected that claim.

Among the facility's prisoners is Aman Abdurrahman, an Islamic radical jailed for orchestrating an attack in Jakarta in 2016 that left eight people dead.

Former Jakarta governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, who was jailed for two years for blasphemy after losing a re-election bid, is also held in the jail.

Abdurrahman and Purnama, better known as Ahok, are not housed in the part of the prison where the riot broke out.

Indonesia's overcrowded prisons are notorious for their poor conditions and outbreaks of violence.

Two years ago, nearly 500 inmates broke out from a prison after complaining about overcrowding and extortion.Police in North Carolina are under fire after a video emerged of an officer choking and slamming an African-American man.

In a video posted to Facebook, an officer in a tactical vest can be seen pushing a young African-American man in formal attire against a wall, choking him and then hurling him on the ground in front of a Waffle House.

Get your hands off me, the man repeatedly shouts.

The town of Warsaw, North Carolinas chief of police told the Raleigh News & Observer that his department was investigating the incident, as was district attorney Ernie Lee.

We are currently investigating the whole incident, interviewing witnesses and gathering additional video, police chief Eric Southerland said in a statement.

Anthony Wall had taken his 16-year-old sister out for food after she attended prom and got into an argument with Waffle House employees, the 22-year-old Mr Wall told ABC11. When the police arrived, he said, things turned violent.

I was pretty much trying to scream for air and trying to breathe because he was holding my throat and that's when I got aggressive with him because you are choking me, Mr Wall said.

He was charged with resisting arrest and with disorderly conduct relating to his altercation with the restaurant staff.

Video of the incident has garnered hundreds of thousands of views.

Related Video: Mom of Waffle House Victim Accepts Her Diploma

Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.

After 20 years on the force, Sgt. Kevin Rorie was overcome with emotion as he signed off one last time for the Lassen County Sheriff's Department in California.

Getting into his car Saturday, Sgt. Rorie said, "I dont know if I can do this." As he stared out the window, he appeared to contemplate his career and what he was going to say.

He picked up the radio and signed off for the final time, breathing heavy and eventually breaking down in tears.

As he struggled to speak into the radio, he told dispatch, "It has been an incredible journey and I have been proud to wear the badge."

He gave his last transmission and thanked everyone for their help over the years.

"That whole thing wasn't planned," Sgt. Rorie told InsideEdition.com. "My crew did that for me. That was a last-minute thing because technically my retirement date isn't until July, July 5th. So it was a last-moment thing so it was pretty emotional. I wasn't hesitant  I was just choked up about it, not prepared .I didn't have much time to rehearse because it was spur of the moment. I had a few other thoughts I wanted to share, but I couldn't."

Dispatch replied, thanking him for "20 years of faithful and dedicated service," and wishing him an enjoyable retirement.

He said wasnt sure what he was thinking anything once dispatch thanked him, but did say he felt like "a big baby."

The emotional final broadcast was recorded by colleagues and posted to Facebook over the weekend. It has been viewed nearly 500,000 times.

Sergeant Kevin Rorie #106, thank you for your service. Kevin served the community of Lassen County for 20 years . Hard not to tear up on his last radio transmission tonight. Love you brother!! Posted by Lassen County Deputy Sheriff's Association on Saturday, May 5, 2018

Sgt. Rorie says he and his wife are not on social media and discovered it was posted through his daughter, who has a Facebook account.

Story continues

When she said this went viral I wasn't sure what that meant," he admitted. "So she had to explain that to me what going viral means. But I was really touched, overwhelmed by the response. I got a lot of text messages from friends and family, but other than that it was quite a shock."

The humble sergeant said the video wasnt about him but for the law enforcement community and his colleagues.

The video truly, that whole thing wasn't about me," he added. "That was about all law enforcement. It was truly about my crew that did that for me, so I can't take credit for that."

RELATED STORIES

Daughter of NYPD Hero Who Died on 9/11 Follows in Dad's Footsteps as She Becomes Cop

Pennsylvania Cop Drives 84-Year-Old Man to Hospital So He Can Visit Ailing Wife

Quick-Thinking Cop Catches Boy After He Falls From Window

Related Articles:By Matt Spetalnick and James Oliphant WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea released three American prisoners and handed them over to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, clearing a major obstacle to an unprecedented summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The men, who were freed after Pompeo met Kim, were on their way home aboard the chief U.S. diplomat's plane, and Trump said he would greet them when they arrived at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on Thursday morning. "We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," the three said in a statement released by the State Department as their plane stopped over in Alaska. "We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world." The release, praised by the White House as a "gesture of goodwill," appeared to signal an effort by Kim to set a more favorable tone for the summit and followed his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut a nuclear bomb test site. While Kim is giving up the last of his American detainees, whom North Korea has often used as bargaining chips, their return could also be aimed at pressuring Trump to make concessions as he tries to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear arsenal, something it has not signaled a willingness to do. The release gave Trump a chance to tout a diplomatic achievement just a day after his decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal drew heavy criticism from European allies and others. "I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health," Trump wrote on Twitter. "I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this and allowing them to go," Trump told reporters at the White House. Kim's handover of the Americans was in response to an "official suggestion" from Trump, the North Korean state news agency KCNA said in its account of the talks with Pompeo. It was their second encounter in less than six weeks to prepare the first-ever meeting between sitting U.S. and North Korean leaders. Trump said agreement had been reached on a date and venue for the summit and details would be announced within three days. He ruled out the heavily fortified demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, increasing the possibility the meeting could take place in Singapore, which he previously said was under consideration. FIRST STEP Kim said the summit would be an "excellent first step" toward an improved situation on the Korean peninsula, according to KCNA. Though tensions have eased recently, it was just months ago that fears of war were running high in the region. The family of Tony Kim, one of the freed prisoners, said in a statement: "We are very grateful for the release of our husband and father, Tony Kim, and the other two American detainees." The fate of the three Korean-Americans had been among a number of delicate issues in the run-up to summit, which is being planned for late May or early June. As Pompeo returned to his Pyongyang hotel from a 90-minute meeting with Kim, the secretary of state crossed his fingers when asked by reporters if there was good news about the prisoners. A North Korean official came to the hotel shortly afterwards to inform Pompeo that Kim had granted them "amnesty," according to a senior U.S. official present for the exchange. "You should make care that they do not make the same mistakes again," the North Korean official was quoted as saying. "This was a hard decision."The three, who walked without assistance to Pompeo's plane and were seated near medical personnel, were in the air less than an hour after leaving custody. "They were happy to be with us on this plane, to be sure," Pompeo told reporters during the flight. They are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul, detained in 2015; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST and was detained last year. North Korean state media says they were arrested either for subversion or "hostile acts" against the government. 'VERY PRODUCTIVE' Speaking to reporters, Pompeo said his meetings in Pyongyang were "very productive." The two sides agreed to meet again to finalize details of the summit, a U.S. official said. KCNA said Kim and Pompeo reached a "satisfactory consensus" on the issues they discussed, but provided no specifics. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that while there was "reason for some optimism" about the summit, the U.S. troop presence in South Korea would not be part of initial negotiations. There was also no sign that Pompeo's visit had cleared up the question of whether North Korea would be willing to bargain away nuclear missiles that might threaten the United States. Trump has credited his "maximum pressure" campaign for drawing North Korea to the table and has vowed to keep sanctions in place until Pyongyang takes concrete steps to denuclearize. But former spy chief Kim Yong Chul, director of North Koreas United Front Department, said in a toast to Pompeo over lunch in Pyongyang: We have perfected our nuclear capability. It is our policy to concentrate all efforts into economic progress ... This is not the result of sanctions that have been imposed from outside. Daniel Russel, until recently the most senior U.S. diplomat for Asia, said the prisoner release would reduce tensions, but was not a sign that peace was at hand. "We should hold off on awarding ourselves Nobel prizes. North Korea is stating clearly that what is on the table is merely tension reduction and possible ultimate global arms reduction. It is not talking about eliminating its own nuclear program. (Reporting by Makini Brice, Susan Heavey, Matt Spetalnick, David Brunnstrom, Lesley Wroughton, James Oliphant, Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington; Additional reporting by Ju-min Park, Josh Smith and Christine Kim in Seoul; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, James Dalgleish and Lincoln Feast.)Athens (AFP) - Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla on Wednesday began their first joint official visit to Greece, a country of mixed feelings for the British royal family.

"The relationship between our two countries goes back such a very long way," Charles told Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos at the presidential palace in Athens.

"I know we have shared an awful lot together over many, many years," he said.

Britain was among the powers that in the 19th century helped Greece secure independence from the Ottoman Empire, and the two countries were allies in both world wars.

"Your visit adds a very important link in this chain of friendship," Pavlopoulos said.

The three-day visit comes as the Prince's Trust International, an initiative founded by Charles that has helped nearly 900,000 disadvantaged youths in the UK, expands its skills training activities to Greece.

"Knowing that Greece, and so many Greeks, have been going through such a very difficult time in recent years, I wanted to find a way  however small and inadequate  to help the young people of Greece achieve their full potential," the prince told Kathimerini daily.

In a meeting with Charles, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras noted that he had accepted an invitation from his British counterpart Theresa May to visit London on June 26.

The 69-year-old heir to the throne has frequently visited Greece privately for holidays.

But this is just his second official visit to the country of his father's birth.

Apart from anything else, Greece is in my blood and I have long had a fascination for her ancient culture and history," Charles told Kathimerini ahead of the visit.

"Not to mention the fact that I have been so fortunate to have visited some of Greeces many beautiful and unique places," he added.

Charles, who laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Athens, will also visit an allied cemetery and on Thursday and will travel to the island of Crete on Friday for a tour of the ancient Minoan palace of Knossos, excavated by the British archaeological school.

Story continues

Greek media noted Wednesday that Greece is the only European country never visited by Charles' mother Queen Elizabeth II in an official capacity.

Charles' father Prince Philip was born on the Greek island of Corfu in 1921, the son of Prince Andrew of Greece.

Shortly after Philip's birth, the Greek royal family was forced to flee the country following defeat to Turkey in the 1922 Asia Minor campaign.

Prince Andrew commanded an army group in the campaign, and he narrowly avoided being executed alongside the royalist prime minister and other officials in the angry popular backlash that followed the defeat.Moscow (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks, after expressing his "deep concern" over US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

Netanyahu, who has backed Trump's decision on Iran, Israel's arch-foe, said after the meeting that he shared his "views on issues that include Iran's secret nuclear archive" and the "current tension" with the Russian leader.

"I presented Israel's obligation and Israel's right to defend itself from Iranian aggression from Syrian territory, against the state of Israel," he added in a statement on Wednesday evening.

Ahead of the meeting, Putin had said he would discuss "problems in the region," saying that "the situation unfortunately is very acute".

"I want to express a hope that we will manage not just to discuss but also to seek a solution that would lead to a shift in the situation."

In comments to his national Security Council, Putin expressed his "deep concern" over Trump's decision announced on Tuesday and stressed the importance of the accord with Iran.

Netanyahu before leaving Israel for the visit said that "the meetings between us are always important and this one is especially so".

They would "think together how we can act correctly in the region, how we can remove the threats that exist in the region in a responsible and reasonable way".

- 'Bold' move-

The two leaders on Wednesday watched a Red Square parade marking the anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Netanyahu thanked Putin for referring to the Holocaust in his parade speech, likening the Nazi extermination campaign to Iran's attitude to Israel.

"It's hard to believe, but 73 years after the Holocaust, in our Middle East there is a country Iran that openly calls for the destruction of the state of Israel," he said in translated comments.

Story continues

"But there is a difference between what was then and what is today: we have our own country," he added.

Russia's foreign ministry said on Tuesday it was "deeply disappointed" by Trump's announcement that the United States would pull out of the Iran deal, while Netanyahu strongly supported the US president's "bold" move.

Moscow and Tehran have close political and economic relations.

In the nuclear field, Russia has already built one reactor at Iran's Bushehr plant, the country's only nuclear power plant, and has started work on two new ones.

By contrast Netanyahu on Monday held a televised presentation of what he called "proof" of Iran's alleged past military nuclear ambitions.

Netanyahu and Putin have held a series of meetings and phone conversations in recent months, particularly related to the conflict in Syria where Israel has vowed to prevent Iran building a military presence.By Dan Williams and Angus McDowall JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israel said it attacked nearly all of Iran's military infrastructure in Syria on Thursday after Iranian forces fired rockets at Israeli-held territory for the first time in the most extensive military exchange ever between the two adversaries. It was the heaviest Israeli barrage in Syria since the 2011 start of the civil war in which Iranians, allied Shi'ite Muslim militias and Russian troops have deployed in support of President Bashar al-Assad. The confrontation came two days after the United States announced its withdrawal, with Israel's urging, from a nuclear accord with Iran. Israel destroyed dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria, as well as Syrian anti-aircraft units that tried unsuccessfully to shoot down Israeli planes, Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said. Syrian state media said Israel launched dozens of missiles and hit a radar station, Syrian air defense positions and an ammunition dump, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies. The Syrian Army Command said Israel's attack killed three people and injured two others. A Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the strikes killed at least 23 military personnel, including Syrians and non-Syrians. The White House, in a statement, condemned Iran's "provocative rocket attacks" from Syria and said it supported Israel's right to defend itself. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's air strikes were "appropriate" because Iran had "crossed a red line." "We are in the midst of a protracted battle and our policy is clear: We will not allow Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria," Netanyahu said in a brief video address. Expectations of a regional flare-up, amid warnings from Israel that it was determined to prevent any Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, were stoked by U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement on Tuesday about the withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. The United States portrayed its rejection of that agreement as a response, in part, to Iran's military interventions in the Middle East, underpinning Netanyahu's tough line towards Tehran. Israel said 20 Iranian Grad and Fajr rockets were shot down by its Iron Dome air defense system or did not reach targets in the occupied Golan Heights, territory captured from Syria in a 1967 war. The Quds Force, an external arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, carried out the rocket salvo, Israel said. There was no immediate comment from Iran. Iran and Israel were already drawing deeper into confrontation before Trump pulled the United States out of the deal, but his move has shaken up the region. Within Iran, it could empower hardliners while weakening the moderate camp that has sought better relations with the West. 'EVERYONE GOT THE MESSAGE' Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Iranian rockets either fell short of their targets - military bases in the Golan - or were intercepted. "We hit ... almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," Lieberman said at the annual Herzliya security conference near Tel Aviv. "I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message." The White House said, "The Iranian regime's deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East." The Syrian foreign ministry said the Israeli attack indicated "the start of a new phase of aggression" against Syria. Thursday's exchange followed a suspected Israeli rocket strike in Syria on Tuesday on a military base in Kisweh, hours after Trump's announcement on the nuclear deal. The Syrian Observatory for Human rights said 15 people, including eight Iranians, were killed in that attack. A commander in the pro-Syrian government regional alliance said there were no casualties. Israel, as it has typically done in similar incidents, neither confirmed nor denied a role. France urged Iran on Thursday to refrain from all "military provocation" and cautioned it against "all temptations for regional hegemony". German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the overnight attacks by Iranian forces and called on Iran to contribute to de-escalation of tensions in the region. Russia, generally friendly to Israel but fighting in Syria's civil war on the same side as Iran, called on both to show restraint and resolve differences through diplomatic means. Russia's defense ministry said Syria had shot down more than half of the missiles fired by Israel, RIA news agency reported. Conricus, the Israeli military spokesman, said the military focused on inflicting "long-term damage on the Iranian military establishment in Syria" and assessed "it will take a substantial time to replenish". The Israelis fear that Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah are turning Syria into a new front against them. Israel says its occasional strikes in Syria aim to prevent such an outcome. Israel regards Iran as its biggest threat and has repeatedly targeted Iranian forces and allied militia in Syria. (Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Dahlia Nehme and Tom Perry and Ellen Francis in Beirut; Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Angus McDowall; Editing by Will Dunham, Tom Perry, Mark Heinrich and Peter Graff)Sen. Ron Johnson used all kinds of delay tactics to prevent President Barack Obama from getting a federal judge confirmed. (Photo: Bill Clark via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  The Senate voted Thursday to confirm Michael Brennan to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit  a vacancy that Republicans prevented President Barack Obama from filling for six years.

The vote, 49 to 46, was entirely partisan.

Until now, the seat was the nations longest circuit court vacancy. It was empty since January 2010, and it had been up to Wisconsins two senators to work with the White House to fill it. The reason it went unfilled for so long largely came down to one person: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

Obama nominated Victoria Nourse to the seat in July 2010. Johnson denied her a confirmation hearing for all of 2011 by refusing to turn in his so-called blue slip, a Senate tradition whereby home-state senators have the ability to stop or advance a judicial nominee in the Judiciary Committee. Nourse withdrew her nomination in early 2012, calling the system broken.

Nourse had been recommended for the court seat by Wisconsins judicial nominating commission. But after she withdrew, Johnson said he wanted a new system of picking judicial nominees. He disbanded the states nominating panel and worked with Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) to create a new one. That took another year.

Johnson then said the panel couldnt put forward a 7th Circuit nominee until Obama nominated people to two other district court vacancies in the state. That added another year to the process. By the time the panel was seeking applications for the 7th Circuit, it was July 2014 and the seat had been empty for four years.

The commission had eight candidates to recommend by January 2015, but couldnt reach a consensus. The process stalled out in May, so Baldwin submitted all of their names to the White House to let the administration pick someone. Johnson fumed that Baldwins move was partisan and said the nomination process should start all over.

By January 2016, six years after the seat became empty, Obama nominated Donald Schott  one of the eight people chosen by the state panel. Baldwin gave the green light for him to get a hearing by turning in her blue slip, and reluctantly, Johnson did too. Schott got his hearing in June 2016. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked action on Obamas court picks for the rest of the year, and Schotts nomination expired.

Story continues

That left the seat open for a Republican president, Donald Trump, to fill, which was Johnsons and McConnells goal all along.

Mitch McConnell has been very effective at denying Democrats the ability to fill empty court seats, and then filling up all those seats when Republicans are in power. (Photo: Alex Wong via Getty Images)

After years of denying votes to Obamas judicial picks, McConnell is now aggressively moving forward with filling those empty court seats with young, conservative, lifetime judges. Trump has been nominating people at record-breaking levels, and many of his picks have records of being anti-LGBTQ rights, anti-abortion rights or anti-voting rights.

This is my top priority in the Senate, McConnell told conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt last week. By appointing and confirming these strict constructionists to the courts who are in their late 40s or early 50s ... I believe were making a generational change in the country.

Brennans confirmation is rich with irony. He wrote an editorial endorsing the blue slip process in 2011 after Johnson refused to return his blue slip for Nourse. He didnt earn the support of Wisconsins judicial nominating commission.

And the same Republicans who used blue slips to deny Obama the seat have now ignored the tradition of blue slips to help Trump fill it. Baldwin never turned in her blue slip in for Brennan, but Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman, gave him a hearing anyway and Republicans sent his nomination to the Senate floor.

Democrats have fumed about the hypocrisy surrounding this court seat. Some already opposed Brennan, a 57-year-old Milwaukee lawyer, on his merits. Among other things, Brennan has discounted the concept of the the glass ceiling being real, and raised some eyebrows in his confirmation hearing when he couldnt say if racial bias exists in the criminal justice system.

How is Sen. Baldwins right to consult on judges for her state any less important than Sen. Johnsons? Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday on the Senate floor. Its mind-bending hypocrisy. Its an appalling double standard.

Until this year, it had been three decades since the Senate confirmed a judge without positive blue slips from both home-state senators.

Before Brennan, the Senate held a confirmation vote in January for now-U.S. Circuit Judge David Stras of Minnesota. Then-Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) did not turn in a blue slip for Stras, but Grassley gave him a hearing anyway and sent his nomination to the floor.

Also on HuffPost

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy (bottom 2nd L) reacts while chatting with Chief Justice John Roberts (C) during a new U.S. Supreme Court family photo including Justice Neil Gorsuch (top R), their most recent addition, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 1, 2017. Also pictured are Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (front row, L-R), Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Stephen Breyer, Justice Elena Kagan (back row, L-R), Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts (seated C) leads Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (front row, L-R), Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Stephen Breyer, Justice Elena Kagan (back row, L-R), Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Justice Neil Gorsuch in taking a new family photo including Gorsuch, their most recent addition, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 1, 2017.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy (bottom L) chats with Chief Justice John Roberts (bottom R) during a new U.S. Supreme Court family photo including Justice Neil Gorsuch (not pictured), their most recent addition, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 1, 2017. Also pictured are Justice Elena Kagan (back row, L-R), Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Sonia Sotomayor. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts (seated L-R), Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Stephen Breyer, Justice Sonia Sotomayor (top L) and Justice Neil Gorsuch (top R) chat during a new U.S. Supreme Court family photo including Gorsuch, their most recent addition, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 1, 2017.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy (L) chats with Chief Justice John Roberts (R) during a new U.S. Supreme Court family photo including Justice Neil Gorsuch (not pictured), their most recent addition, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 1, 2017.

U.S. Justice Neil Gorsuch (top R) leans in to speak to Justice Stephen Breyer (bottom R) as the members of the U.S. Supreme Court including Chief Justice John Roberts (seated L), Justice Clarence Thomas (seated C) and Justice Sonia Sotomayor (top L) gather for a new family photo with Gorsuch, their most recent addition, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 1, 2017.

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts (seated C) leads Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (front row, L-R), Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Stephen Breyer, Justice Elena Kagan (back row, L-R), Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Justice Neil Gorsuch in taking a new family photo including Gorsuch, their most recent addition, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 1, 2017.

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts (seated C) leads Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (front row, L-R), Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Stephen Breyer, Justice Elena Kagan (back row, L-R), Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Justice Neil Gorsuch in taking a new family photo including Gorsuch, their most recent addition, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 1, 2017.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Bucharest (AFP) - Former Romanian prime minister Victor Ponta was on Thursday cleared of fraud and other charges by the country's high court after a corruption probe.

Ponta, 45, had been accused of 17 separate counts of forgery, complicity in tax evasion and money laundering, all dating from 2007-2011 while Ponta was working as a lawyer.

Ponta, who was leader of the Social Democrats and prime minister between 2012 and 2015, had claimed his innocence.

Prosecutors have 10 days to appeal the verdict.

Ponta was charged in the summer of 2015 while still in office, a first in a country where politicians often broke laws with impunity.

According to anti-corruption prosecutors, he received the equivalent of 55,000 euros ($62,000) from an acquaintance, Dan Sova, with whom Ponta had signed a business deal.

To justify the cash, which was paid in several monthly instalments, Ponta produced 17 invoices falsely claiming to have worked for Sova's legal firm, prosecutors told the court.

Sova, for his part, was cleared of charges ranging from complicity in abuse of power and tax evasion to money laundering.

Ponta resigned in November 2015 after huge street protests sparked by a nightclub fire which cost the lives of 65 people -- a tragedy blamed on corrupt officials waiving security protocols.Moscow (AFP) - Following Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria, Russia has positioned itself as a mediator between the Middle Eastern rivals as it has maintained good relations with both countries.

"The Kremlin is sitting on two chairs," Russian analyst Alexei Malashenko told AFP.

"It is a complex and difficult situation for Russia that has links with both of the sworn enemies."

Israel carried out raids on dozens of Iranian military targets on Thursday after it said around 20 rockets were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights.

Russia was quick to call for restraint, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying on Thursday that "all issues should be solved through dialogue".

He added that Russia had warned Israel to avoid "all actions that could be seen as provocative" the day before the strikes, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

Video: Why Syria is Bombing Israel and the Connection to Iran

For more news videos visit Yahoo View.

Russian analyst Fyodor Lukyanov said relations between Putin and Netanyahu were "very good" and that the meeting, on the eve of the strikes, showed Russia could play a major role in the Israel-Iran dispute.

"Moscow could use its good relations with the two countries to help them communicate and make sure confrontation does not exceed certain limits," Lukyanov said.

- Major player -

Russia has become a major player in the Middle East since intervening in the Syrian war on the side of the Damascus regime in September 2015. Analysts also highlight its role as mediator in other conflicts in the area.

"The role of Russia as a mediator is strongly appreciated in the region. This role will be reinforced if the crisis between Israel and Iran worses," said Alexander Krylov, a foreign policy expert at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Story continues

Krylov told AFP that Russia's "additional value" is that it has good relations with forces that other actors refuse to speak to such as with Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and the Kurds.

Russia's good ties to Israel were demonstrated by Netanyahu's visit, he said.

"I do not rule out the idea that Israel gave some clues to Russia about the strikes," Krylov said.

But even if Russia considers Israel's security concerns over Iran legitimate, Lukyanov said, it sees Iran as an "indispensable partner on many issues, especially in Syria".

Russia, Iran and Turkey regularly meet to discuss the regulation of the Syrian war, where the three countries have positioned themselves as major players.

Unlike Turkey, Iran and Moscow are unflinching allies of the Bashar al-Assad regime and often maintain a united diplomatic front.

Analyst Alexei Malashenko said Russia would do everything possible to maintain relations with both Israel and Iran without taking a stand, especially since Israel's strikes "do not threaten" Moscow's position in Syria.

"If Israel were to defy Russia's dominant role, Russia would react and take a stand. This is unlikely to happen because Israel knows Russia defines the rules in Syria," said Lukyanov.

- 'Anti-Iranian sentiment' -

But if escalation continues, Moscow will find it difficult to keep playing a mediator's role.

"Even with the best intention, nobody can bring Iran and Israel to the same table," said Malashenko.

He added that Russia is also closely watching Washington's exit from the Iran nuclear deal, which the Kremlin has opposed. On Thursday Moscow said it would continue a "close collaboration" with Iran on the agreement.

Lukyanov said it may not have been coincidental that the Israeli strikes took place shortly after US President Donald Trump announced his country's withdrawal from the deal.

"Iran's enemies can only be inspired by this decision: there is a very strong anti-Iranian sentiment," Lukyanov said. "Increased US pressure on Iran has certainly helped Israel fulfill its agenda."A 15-year-old girl, Baleigh Bagshaw, was killed in her Salt Lake City home on Monday afternoon while talking on the phone with her mother, who heard screaming as her daughter was attacked.

She was on the phone checking in with her mother after arriving home from school, when she was violently attacked, Salt Lake City Police said on Tuesday.

Her mother called neighbors, who went to the house and contacted police shortly after 3 p.m. on Monday.

It was a very violent and brutal attack that occurred here in the home, Salt Lake City Police Sgt. Brandon Shearer told reporters on Tuesday, calling it a horrendous crime.

Police have named Shaun French, 24, as a suspect in the homicide. He was found in Colorado on Wednesday and arrested on three counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor based on an earlier encounter with Bagshaw, Shearer told reporters on Wednesday.

French previously had a sexual relationship with Bagshaw, Shearer said, and he previously lived with the family. Salt Lake police are working on extraditing him back to Utah.

There is now an active warrant for Unlawful Sexual Acts with a Minor out for Shaun French, the #PersonOfInterest in the #Homicide of Baleigh Bagshaw. The warrant stems from previous contact with the victim. Help us find him! #SeeSomethingSaySomething pic.twitter.com/q3yAGnnzkV  SLC Police Dept. (@slcpd) May 8, 2018

A GoFundMe page to pay for Bagshaws funeral costs had raised more than $9,000 as of Wednesday night.

In interviews with the Deseret News, Bagshaws co-workers and classmates described her as a hard-working, bubbly person with a great smile and a great attitude.

She was really sweet, said Gwendolyn Robinson, who co-owns the store where Bagshaw worked. She worked very hard. She was a good girl.By Rania El Gamal

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia indicated on Wednesday that it could raise its oil output to offset any potential supply shortage as a result of new sanctions on Tehran, after U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal.

Oil prices had been supported by expectations that Trump would pull out of the deal, which could hit Iranian crude exports and feed geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, home to one-third of the world's daily oil supply.

Trump said on Tuesday that the United States was reimposing the "highest level of economic sanctions" on Iran, but he did not provide details. The original 2015 agreement had lifted sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear programme.

Saudi Arabia "will work with major producers and consumers within and outside OPEC to limit the impact of any supply shortages," a Saudi energy ministry official said on Wednesday, according to state news agency SPA.

"Following the U.S. decision to withdraw from the nuclear agreement with Iran, Saudi Arabia is committed to supporting the stability of oil markets for the benefit of producers and consumers and the sustainability of the global economic growth," the official said.

U.S. crude (CLc1) settled down $1.67 at $69.06 per barrel and Brent (LCOc1) settled down $1.32 at $74.85. [O/R]

It was the busiest day in U.S. front-month contracts since August, and for Brent the busiest in almost a month.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is in the midst of an oil supply-cutting deal with non-OPEC producers such as Russia that has helped erase a global glut and boosted oil prices above $75, the highest since 2014.

OPEC meets next in June, where it is widely expected to continue with the supply cuts until the end of 2018.

But a drop in Iranian exports due to a return of U.S. sanctions, plus involuntary supply losses in other OPEC members such as Venezuela, would mean the supply cut would be significantly larger than intended. That raised worries of a quick rise in oil prices.

Story continues

Iran produces about 3.8 million barrels per day (bpd) and the country is OPEC's third-biggest producer, behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Its production accounts for about 4 percent of the world's oil supplies.

Since the Iran nuclear deal went into effect, its exports have risen to about 2.5 million bpd, from less than 1 million bpd. A majority goes to Asia, with Europe receiving about 600,000 bpd.

Last month, Trump accused OPEC in a tweet of "artificially" boosting oil prices.

(Reporting by Rania El Gamal; editing by Hugh Lawson and Rosalba O'Brien)WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday that the release of three detained American citizens was "no great accomplishment" of North Korean President Kim Jong Un and that President Trump was weakening U.S. foreign policy by exalting the release. The Americans should never have been detained in the first place, Schumer said on the Senate floor. "Their release should not be exalted, it should be expected. It is no great accomplishment of Kim Jong Un to do this." Schumer said Trump must seek strong, verifiable commitments from North Korea to disarm. "I worry that this president, in his eagerness to strike a deal, and get the acclaim and a photo op, will strike a quick one and a bad one, not a strong one, not a lasting one" with North Korea, Schumer said. (Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)The never-ending search for extraterrestrial life is about to get a big boost thanks to a new research effort from the Breakthrough Listen project. Breakthrough Listen is a scientific endeavor dreamt up by scientists who believe we should be listening for aliens rather than looking for them. The program uses radio dishes to hunt for signs of life, such as communications signals drifting in space from intelligent civilizations.

The group is ramping up its efforts and will be using the radio scanning hardware at the Parkes Observatory in Australia to scan a larger chunk of the sky than ever before, with an incredible 1,500 of listening scheduled already.

Don't Miss: This is why my iPhone X looks so much better than yours

Breakthrough Listen, which was created by researchers at SETI  the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence  will be gathering a huge amount of data. The newly-upgraded tools are capable of handling as much as 130 gigabits of data per second. In total, the researchers expect to gather nearly 100 petabytes of data during the experiment, and theyre hoping that somewhere in the noise is a signal that suggests intelligent origins.

With these new capabilities, we are scanning our Galaxy in unprecedented detail, Danny Price of the Breakthrough Listen project said in a statement. By trawling through these huge datasets for signatures of technological civilizations, we hope to uncover evidence that our planet, among the hundreds of billions in our galaxy, is not the only where intelligent life has arisen.

The ultimate goal of the Breakthrough Listen project is to scan one million stars, including those in neighboring galaxies, in the hopes that a radio signal from some intelligent civilization gets caught in the net. Nobody can really say what the odds are that the project will be successful, but by listening for technological indicators of life rather than trying to see them, the scientists hope that they can prove the existence of extraterrestrials at far-off locations that could never be directly observed (in a visual sense) with current technology.

Story continues

Last last year, Breakthrough Listen set its sights on the mysterious Oumuamua asteroid after it flung itself around the Sun and back out into space. Some in the scientific community openly wondered if it could possibly have extraterrestrial origins, and the group decided to listen for signs of radio communication coming from the strange visitor. They heard nothing but silence. Lets hope this new initiative returns something more.

BGR Top Deals:

Trending Right Now:

See the original version of this article on BGR.comBy Roberta Rampton and David Brunnstrom JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump welcomed three Americans who had been held prisoner in North Korea back home on Thursday, thanking its leader Kim Jong Un for their release and sounding upbeat about a planned U.S.-North Korea summit. The former prisoners, freed after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Pyongyang for a second meeting with Kim in less than six weeks, landed at around 2:40 a.m. (0640 GMT) at Joint Base Andrews near Washington. Trump and his wife, Melania, boarded the plane for about five minutes before the three men stepped out, shaking hands with the president and waving to media and military personnel. "Frankly, we didn't think it was going to happen and it did," Trump said after thanking Kim for releasing the men. "Were starting off on a new footing. This is a wonderful thing that he released the folks early." Trump said he believed Kim wanted to bring North Korea "into the real world" and had high hopes for their planned meeting, which would be the first between a serving U.S. president and a North Korean leader. "I think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful," Trump said. "My proudest achievement will be - this is part of it - when we denuclearize that entire peninsula." Trump and Kim engaged in a bellicose exchange of rhetoric last year over North Korea's development of nuclear missiles capable of reaching the United States. Tensions began to ease, coinciding with the North's participation in the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February. There has been no sign that Pompeo's visit has cleared up the central question of whether North Korea will be willing to bargain away weapons its ruling family has long seen as crucial to its survival. However, the release of the three men marked a dramatic victory for Trumps embattled White House at a time when his foreign policy is under withering criticism after Tuesday's U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. His administration has also been under fire for ethics violations and a chaotic turnover of personnel, as well as a federal investigation of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 presidential election. MADE-FOR-TV MOMENT The arrival of the released prisoners in the dead of night created a made-for-TV moment for Trump, a former reality television host. "I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for three oclock in the morning," Trump joked to cameras. Details of the planned Trump-Kim summit have yet to be announced, but a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Singapore had emerged as the likeliest location. Trump said it would be held in a few weeks and details would be announced within three days. The three former prisoners were Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul, detained in 2015 and sentenced in 2016 to 10 years' hard labor; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who taught for a month at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST and was detained last year. They appeared to be in good health but were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in nearby Maryland for further medical evaluation. "I was treated in many different ways, but overall I had to do much labor and when I became ill I received some treatment," Kim Dong-chul said via a translator. The trio thanked Trump and other officials for bringing them home. "We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return," they said in a statement released as their plane made a stop in Alaska. Until now, the only American released by North Korea during Trump's presidency was Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old university student who returned home in a coma last summer after 17 months in prison and died days later. His death escalated U.S.-North Korea tensions. Trump said he wanted to pay his "warmest respects" to Warmbier's parents. North Korean state media said the three were arrested either for subversion or "hostile acts" against the government. A North Korean official told Pompeo that Kim had granted the three "amnesty," a senior U.S. official said. 'NO CLARITY' The release appeared to signal an effort by Kim to improve the mood for the summit and followed a recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut a nuclear bomb test site. Trump has credited his "maximum pressure" campaign for drawing North Korea to the table and vowed to keep sanctions in place until Pyongyang takes concrete steps to denuclearize. But former spy chief Kim Yong Chul, director of North Korea's United Front Department, said in a toast to Pompeo over lunch in Pyongyang: "We have perfected our nuclear capability. It is our policy to concentrate all efforts into economic progress ... This is not the result of sanctions that have been imposed from outside." Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that while the release of the detainees was not an explicit precondition for a Trump-Kim meeting, the North Koreans understood that they had to do it for any progress to be made. "The North Koreans have still said nothing to indicate that they are willing to give up their nuclear weapons" she said. "We have no clarity about Kims intentions." Vice President Mike Pence echoed that caution, even while praising Kim for making moves toward peace. "What Kim Jong Un has said publicly and in discussions is that he is prepared to negotiate to achieve complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Pence told the CBS "This Morning" program on Thursday. "Those words are important, but we'll see what they mean." A land divided - https://tmsnrt.rs/2KdXMcS American detainees in North Korea - http://tmsnrt.rs/2pmE3ks (Additional reporting by Steve Holland in WASHINGTON; Haejin Choi and Christine Kim in SEOUL; Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Nick Macfie and John Stonestreet)JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand slumped to its weakest in three sessions on Wednesday and looked vulnerable to further falls after U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of an international nuclear deal with Iran hit global risk sentiment. By 0640 GMT the rand was 0.82 percent weaker at 12.6700 per dollar. It had held steady near the 12.50 mark for most of the previous session before being floored by a combination of safe-haven buying and light liquidity late on. Trump on Tuesday pulled the United States out of an international nuclear deal with Iran, raising the risk of conflict in the Middle East, upsetting European allies and casting uncertainty over global oil supplies. "This (decision) led to a U.S. dollar rally and resulted in U.S. Treasuries moving higher. This should affect emerging markets adversely as a global risk-off sentiment takes hold," said analyst at Rand Merchant Bank Michelle Wohlberg. Bonds were also weaker, with the yield on the benchmark 2026 issue rising 8 basis points to 8.47 percent, its highest since the second week of February. Stocks were set to open slightly firmer at 0700 GMT, with the Top-40 futures index up 0.1 percent. (Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana; Editing by Catherine Evans)The Southwest Airlines pilot hailed as a hero for safely landing Flight 1380 after a deadly engine explosion last month said that as the chaos unfolded in the air, it felt like a flashback to her naval training.

Captain Tammie Jo Shults and her co-pilot, Darren Ellisor, spoke to ABCs 20/20 in their first interview since the emergency landing. One passenger, Jennifer Riordan, died after suffering fatal injuries when she was sucked partway through a window that was shattered by shrapnel from the engine explosion. Other passengers described a frightening scene on board

My first thoughts were actually, Oh, here we go, just because it seemed like a flashback to some of the Navy flying that we had done, Shults said in a clip of the 20/20 interview released on Wednesday.

Shults was one of the first female fighter pilots in the U.S. Navy, and she has faced adversity in a career where she has been consistently outnumbered by men. But passengers on Southwest Flight 1380 have praised her composure during the crisis, when she calmly spoke to air traffic controllers and made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.

We had to use hand signals because it was loud, and it was just hard to communicate for a lot of different reasons, Shults said.

Southwest pilot Tammie Jo Shults speaks out for the first time in exclusive interview on @ABC2020 with @ABC's @MarthaRaddatz https://t.co/wXzcKYC86D



WATCH: Friday at 10p ET #ABC2020 pic.twitter.com/5WyJj9fWUs  ABCNews PR (@ABCNewsPR) May 9, 2018

Ellisor said the plane was traveling at about 32,000 feet when they heard a large bang and felt the airplane bank to the left. We had a very severe vibration from the No. 1 engine, he said. It was shaking everything, and that all kind of happened all at once.

The complete 20/20 interview will air on Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.Michael Avenatti makes extraordinary allegation that Cohen received cash from company affiliated with billionaire linked to Vladimir Putin

Michael Cohen. The payments were allegedly made between January and August 2017. Photograph: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Donald Trumps attorney and legal fixer, Michael Cohen, was paid half a million dollars by a company affiliated with a Russian oligarch closely linked to Vladimir Putin, according to extraordinary allegations published on Tuesday.

The claim was made in a research document drafted and posted online by Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic film actor known as Stormy Daniels, who alleged she was paid in 2016 in return for agreeing not to disclose that she had sex with Trump.

Cohen was said by Avenatti to have received $500,000 through a US affiliate of the Renova investment group owned by Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire closely associated with Putin who was placed under sanction by the US government last month. The payments were allegedly made between January and August 2017.

An attorney for the Renova affiliate, Columbus Nova, said it hired Cohen as a business consultant and that Vekselberg had no involvement in the payments. Cohen, his attorney, and the Republican National Committee  for which Cohen is a deputy finance chairman  did not respond to requests for comment.

Avenattis document said the money was paid to Essential Consultants, the same company Cohen used to pay a $130,000 settlement to buy Cliffords silence in October 2016. The document said Essential also received funds from other major companies, some of which had business before the federal government.

AT&T, the telecoms corporation, confirmed it had made payments to Cohens firm during 2017 for insights into understanding the new administration. Novartis, a Swiss-based pharmaceuticals firm, did not dispute that it paid Cohen.

Vekselberg has reportedly been interviewed by investigators working for Robert Mueller, the special counsel looking into alleged collusion between Russia and Trumps team during the 2016 election campaign. Vekselberg has not been accused of any wrongdoing. CNN subsequently reported on Tuesday that he was specifically asked by Muellers investigators about the alleged payments to Cohen.



Story continues

The 61-year-old Vekselberg amassed a fortune through his Renova conglomerate, which spans energy, heavy industry and finance, probably making him Russias ninth-richest person. He has remained in the Kremlins favour and was last year given a state honour by Putin.

Vekselberg was also a guest at a now notorious December 2015 dinner in Moscow celebrating the RT television channel, which was attended by Putin and Michael Flynn, Trumps former national security adviser.

Columbus Nova is described on its website as the US investment vehicle for the Renova Group. The company was listed within the Renova Group structure on Renovas official website as recently as November 2017. The site was not accessible on Tuesday. The companys chief executive, Andrew Intrater, contributed $250,000 to Trumps presidential inauguration fund in January last year and a further $35,000 to Trumps re-election fund in June last year.

It was not clear from Avenattis document whether these contributions were connected to the new allegations. Intrater did not respond to an email asking whether the allegations were accurate.

An attorney for Columbus Nova, Richard Owens, said in an email that the company was owned by Americans and that Vekselberg had no involvement in the payments to Cohen.

After the inauguration, the firm hired Michael Cohen as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures, said Owens.



Avenatti asserted that Cohen also collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees from corporate clients. AT&T was said to have paid Cohens firm $200,000 in four monthly installments from October 2017. Trumps administration was at the time considering whether to allow an $85bn merger of AT&T and Time Warner, which it has since rejected.

In an emailed statement, AT&T said: Essential Consultants was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration. They did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017.



Avenatti said that a subsidiary of Novartis paid Cohens company almost $400,000 in late 2017 and early 2018. Novartiss incoming chief executive, Vas Narasimhan, was one of several businesspeople invited to dinner with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on 25 January.

A spokesman for Novartis said in an email: Any agreements with Essential Consultants were entered before our current CEO taking office in February of this year and have expired.

Avenatti has become one of the most publicly visible foes of Trump and Cohen since being recruited to represent Clifford in the fallout of the payoff and secrecy agreement arranged by Cohen being publicly revealed. Clifford has filed civil lawsuits against Trump and Cohen.

Avenatti told the Guardian last weekend, without offering any new evidence, that he believed Trump would have to resign from the presidency: I firmly believe there is going to be too much evidence of wrongdoing by him and those around him for him to be able to survive the balance of his term.Beirut (AFP) - Hundreds of Syrian rebels left an area south of Damascus on Thursday, a monitor and state media said, leaving the capital threatened only by the Islamic State group.

Fifteen buses carrying hundreds of fighters and their relatives left the towns of Yalda, Babila, and Beit Saham on the southern edge of Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

"The convoy is on its way to opposition territory in northern Syria," the Observatory told AFP.

In all, the Observatory said, 8,400 people had been evacuated from the three towns since a deal was reached one week ago for the negotiated withdrawals.

"For the first time since 2011, there are no opposition fighters in or around Damascus except the Islamic State group," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based monitor.

IS still controls a pocket of territory inside the Yarmuk Palestinian camp and the adjacent Hajar al-Aswad district, both inside Damascus.

Government forces have been pressing a ferocious weeks-long assault against them there and continued to carry out air strikes there on Thursday.

The agreement for Yalda, Babila, and Beit Saham was reached on May 3 and follows a pattern of similar deals through which Syria's government has recaptured swathes of territory around Damascus.

"Yalda, Babila, and Beit Saham south of Damascus have been cleared of terrorism, after the final wave of terrorists who did not want to reconcile (with the government) left to northern Syria with their families," said state news agency SANA.

It said government security forces were preparing to enter the three towns, which had for several years fallen under a "reconciliation" agreement with the Syrian state.

That meant they remained in rebel hands but a local ceasefire was enforced.

This year, however, President Bashar al-Assad has appeared more determined than ever to secure the entirety of the capital and its surroundings with a blend of military pressure and negotiated withdrawals.

It used the same strategy on the Eastern Ghouta rebel stronghold, which it recaptured last month, and on an area northeast of the capital.ROME (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic archbishop of Taiwan said on Thursday that he will invite Pope Francis to visit the country for a Church congress next year, a trip that would likely infuriate China. "No pope has ever landed in Taiwan," Archbishop John Hung said in remarks at a reception at Taiwan's embassy to the Vatican. He later told Reuters he liked to "dream the impossible" and that he would extend the invitation next week when he and other bishops from Taiwan meet the pope. Hung said he felt the pope should visit the island because the people there "have suffered". China claims Taiwan as its own and considers the self-ruled island a wayward province. The island has about 300,000 Catholics. The Vatican is one of only 19 states that still recognize Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China. Beijing, which has no diplomatic relations with the Vatican, insists that if countries want relations with it they must break ties with Taiwan. Last month the Dominican Republic became the latest country to switch from Taiwan to Beijing. The Vatican and Beijing have been holding talks on the naming of bishops in China, whose Catholics are divided between an "underground" Church loyal to the pope and a government-backed Church. The talks appear to have stalled recently. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has previously invited the pope to visit. (Reporting By Philip Pullella, Editing by William Maclean)Managua (AFP) - Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to Nicaragua's streets Wednesday, rallied by students demanding justice, democracy and the departure of President Daniel Ortega.

Throngs of young people, who have rallied on and off in weeks of demonstrations, chanted "They were students; they weren't criminals" -- referring to people killed in the unrest that exploded on April 18.

The protests broke out against Ortega in mid-April but their deadliness, the brutality of the repression by security forces and arbitrary arrests, sparked national outrage and fueled protests across the Central American nation.

Ortega, a 72-year-old leftist leader who has ruled Nicaragua for the past 11 years, has yet to engage in dialogue, despite increasing pleas from the Roman Catholic Church, which has offered to mediate.

Demonstrators chanted "They must go" and waved signs charging that Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, are "thieves" and "murderers."

Nicaragua's legislature has created a truth commission to investigate the deaths, but students and rights groups have questioned its impartiality and demanded an outside probe.

The latest rally included university students, farmers, small business owners and other people around the country.

The wave of anti-Ortega unrest was triggered by an aborted attempt to reform the near-bankrupt social security system, but quickly expanded to include a wave of grievances against the president, including claims of corruption and repression.

The protests pose a serious challenge to Ortega's authority, though thus far no figure has emerged to front the anti-government movement.About an hour before Secretary of State Mike Pompeos plane took off from the North Korean capital Wednesday night, three Americans, Kim Hak Song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong Chul, were given back their freedom. Their release following more than a year in the countrys secretive prisons marked a significant diplomatic detente as Pompeo lays the groundwork for a forthcoming summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The release of American prisoners, which Pyongyang has been accused of using as political bargaining chips, has been a priority of the White House as it moves for more engagement with the Kim regime. But the last time North Korea freed a detained U.S. citizen, in June 2017, what almost looked like an act of good faith took a sudden and sinister turn; Otto Warmbier, by then a 22-year-old college student, died within a week of returning to his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio in a coma.

Read more: Kim Jong Un Begins Writing a New History as the First North Korean Leader to Visit the South

The three detainees who have just been released landed early Thursday morning at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, D.C., where they were greeted by President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence. Throughout two flights they took to get home from the North Korean capital, they reportedly remained sequestered from contact beyond a team of medical professionals, including a psychiatrist. The State Department discussed only the most basic details about them, according to the Associated Press, and little is yet known about their health status. All three walked across the tarmac in Pyongyang before boarding, and off a medical plane upon their arrival in the U.S.

Who are these three Americans, who lost more than a year of their lives in detention? What did they do, and why were they taken prisoner? Heres what we know about Kim Hak Song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong Chul.

Story continues

Kim Hak Song

Authorities are believed to have arrested Kim Hok Song, who was in North Korea for several weeks working at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), as he was about to leave the country on May 6, 2017. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported his arrest for hostile acts toward the state, but offered no details about his age, occupation or alleged crime.

The university said in a statement that Kim, also known by the Chinese version of his name Jin Xue Song, was apprehended after concluding a trip to carry out agricultural development work at the schools experimental farm. Kim was the second American staffer at the school to be arrested last year after his colleague, Tony Kim, was apprehended in April. It is unclear what, if any, connection the two prisoners may have had with each other.

President Donald Trump applauds as Kim Dong-chul gestures upon his return with Kim Hak-song and Tony Kim after they were freed by North Korea, at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on May 10, 2018.

North Koreas first private university, PUST was founded and remains operated by actors outside the country, mostly Evangelical Christian organizations. While it is a secular school  North Korea keeps a tight grip on information about religion  the university chiefly employs Christian staff. The school has close historical ties to Yanbian University in Jilin, China, near the border with North Korea. Tony Kim reportedly worked as a professor there, while Kim Hak Song is believed to have studied and perhaps worked at the school. Representatives of PUST have stated that the arrests of Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song are not connected in any way with the universitys work.

Born in Jilin and educated mostly in California, Kim was an ethnic Korean who is believed to have emigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1990s, according to CNN. Citing two men who said they studied with him in the U.S., CNN reports that Kim likely became a citizen in the 2000s, then later moved back to China. His classmates described him as a proud Korean with a passion for issues related to food security and agriculture. North Korea is persecuting their savior, a person who came to help them. This is wrong, David Lee, one of the men who said he studied with Kim, told CNN.

Tony Kim

Tony Kim, also known by his Korean name Kim Sang Duk, was also a teacher at PUST. Few further details are known about the man, believed to be in his 50s, who was abducted at the airport in Pyongyang while trying to leave the country on April 22, 2017. Reports in Korean state media did not specify the allegations against him. Upon his arrest, PUST issued a statement that his detention was related to an investigation into matters not connected in any way with the work of PUST, and that life on campus and the teaching at PUST is continuing as normal. (An almost identical statement was released in response to his colleagues arrest.)

Read More: Jailed U.S. Reporters: Business As Usual for North Korea

The chancellor of the university, Chan-Mo Park, told the New York Times that Kim was involved in some extracurricular activities, such as volunteering at an orphanage. According to the Times, Kim most recently lived in North Korea with his wife, who may still be in the country. Citing the prisoners Facebook page, the Times reports that Kim studied accounting at the University of California, Riverside and Aurora University, and spent about a decade working as an accountant in the U.S. before returning to Asia.

FILE - In this May 3, 2018 photo, people watch a TV news report on screen, showing portraits of three Americans, Kim Dong Chul, left, Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song, right, detained in the North Korea, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea. President Donald Trump says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on his way back from North Korea with three American detainees, saying they

Kim Dong Chul

South Korea-born Kim Dong Chul, 62, was arrested in Oct. 2015 on charges of espionage and other undisclosed crimes. Kim is a naturalized U.S. citizen and resident of Fairfax, Va., who ran a trade and hotel services firm in the special administrative zone between China and the DPRK. His secretive detention was only brought to public attention about three months later, when authorities decided to introduce the prisoner to a CNN crew visiting Pyongyang. He was convicted in March 2016 and sentenced to 10 years hard labor, about a week after Warmbiers conviction  both sentences were handed down shortly after the U.S. had levied steeper sanctions against North Korea in response to missile testing.

Kim also delivered a public confession and apology, wherein he said that in 2013 he began spying on behalf of South Korean conservative elements, the New York Times reported at the time. The North Korean government reportedly arranged a limited press conference that was covered by South Koreas Yonhap News Agency and Chinas state-run Xinhua. The few reports about the conference said he admitted to bribing North Korean residents for information about Pyongyangs nuclear weapons program.Lome (AFP) - Togo's opposition says its wants answers from the government about its dealings with French tycoon Vincent Bollore, who has been charged in France over his business dealings in Africa.

The main opposition grouping the National Alliance for Change (ANC) called on Prime Minister Selom Komi Klassou to provide details about Bollore's involvement in the main port in Lome.

ANC president Isabelle Manavi Ameganvi on Wednesday said a previous letter requesting information, sent two years ago, "remained unanswered".

Bollore, 66, was charged last month in connection with the awarding of two lucrative port concessions in Lome and the Guinean capital Conakry.

It was alleged his group's communications arm undercharged the presidents of Togo and Guinea for work on their election campaigns as sweeteners for contracts to operate both ports.

The industrialist has denied any wrongdoing.

Ameganvi called on Klassou to answer questions in parliament, in particular over exact details of the tendering process for the Lome port concession.

She also wanted to know how much the Bollore group paid to Togo's treasury since 2010 from contracts linked to state projects.

Togo's civil service minister Gilbert Bawara said last week that the government was "unconcerned" by the French case against Bollore.

He called it "ridiculous, scandalous and even a bit condescending to imagine that... a communications firm could have any influence whatsoever over a presidential election in an African state".Town & Country magazine disinvited Monica Lewinsky from its annual philanthropic summit on Wednesday because Bill Clinton was attending, HuffPost has learned.

Lewinsky tweeted, somewhat cryptically, on Wednesday:

dear world:

please dont invite me to an event (esp one about social change) and then after ive accepted uninvite me because bill clinton then decided to attend/was invited.

its 2018.

emily post would def not approve.

Me

Through a spokesperson, Lewinsky declined to comment beyond her tweets.

dear world:

please don't invite me to an event (esp one about social change) and --then after i've accepted-- uninvite me because bill clinton then decided to attend/was invited.

it's 2018.

emily post would def not approve.

Me  Monica Lewinsky (@MonicaLewinsky) May 9, 2018

President Clinton attended the summit on Wednesday to introduce Emma Gonzalez, an advocate for gun control and survivor of the Feb. 14 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Through a spokesman, Clinton said he did not know about Lewinsky being disinvited.

President Clinton was invited to address the Town & Country Philanthropy Summit, press secretary Angel Urena said on Twitter. He gladly accepted. Neither he nor his staff knew anything about the invitation or it being rescinded.

HuffPost confirmed with attendees that Lewinsky was uninvited from the summit.

Story continues

The magazine issued an apology on Thursday morning, writing in a tweet, We apologize to Ms. Lewinsky and regret the way the situation was handled.

We apologize to Ms. Lewinsky and regret the way the situation was handled.  TOWN&COUNTRY (@TandCmag) May 10, 2018

Lewinsky, who famously had an affair with Clinton when he was in office, has seen her profile and reputation rise along with the current Me Too moment. Many have acknowledged the sexist way she was villainized by the press and many politicians in the 90s. She was sent into exile for years, as shes written, while Clintons reputation as an elder statesman only grew.

The move by Town & Country struck many as exactly the wrong thing to do  particularly at a time when women are finally being heard when it comes to issues of sexual harassment.

 @ townandcountry should be ashamed of themselves. Do they let their heads of the magazine prey on their interns? tweeted Hollywood producer Judd Apatow on Wednesday. Would they disinvite them after abusing their power to get what they wanted from them?

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This is what everyone is fighting against. @townandcountry should be ashamed of themselves. Do they let their heads of the magazine prey on their interns? Would they disinvite them after abusing their power to get what they wanted from them? https://t.co/7y5r878JSM  Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) May 9, 2018

Maxwell Strachan contributed reporting. This story has been updated throughout.

Also on HuffPost

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.President Donald Trumps new ambassador to Germany has shown questionable diplomatic skills by managing to offendi his new hosts within hours of taking on the role.

Soon after his official welcome in Berlin, Richard Grenell waded into the furore surrounding Trumps decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and appeared to threaten German businesses, the Washington Post reported.

Trumps decision to leave the nuclear deal and re-impose sanctions on Tehran puts European businesses in a tough spot. Though the European signatories to the deal say they are willing to remain in the agreement, companies that continue to conduct business with Iran could find themselves subject to punishing American sanctions.

Trending: Brock Turner Judge Defends Sentencing, Says Brown v. Board of Education Was Unpopular Too

One hour after the U.S. embassy in Berlin tweeted to announce his arrival as ambassador, Grenell took to his own Twitter account to warn, German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.

As @realDonaldTrump said, US sanctions will target critical sectors of Irans economy. German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.  Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 8, 2018

German industry leaders and politicians immediately hit back at what they considered ill-timed threats. Its not my task to teach people about the fine art of diplomacy, especially not the U.S. ambassador. But he does appear to need some tutoring, said Andrea Nahles, the leader of Germanys Social Democratic party, which is part of Chancellor Angela Merkels coalition.

Michael Tockuss, chairman of the German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce was as critical, commenting, Im sure that our foreign ministry will indicate to the ambassador that its not his role to give direction or utter threats to German companies.

Story continues

Don't miss: Republican Who Claims Holocaust Was Orchestrated by Gay Nazis Wins Enough Support For Massachusetts Governor Primary

The chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, warned, Germans are eager to listen, but they will resent instructions.

Richard Grenell

ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images

American-German relations have deteriorated considerably since Trumps election victory. The president is said to resent Americas continued trade deficit with Germany, and the lack of personal chemistry between Trump and Chancellor Angela Merkel does little to ease his bitterness. The chancellor warned last week that U.S. withdrawal from the Iran deal could lead to war, and offensive comments by a new American ambassador are unlikely to help healing the fractious relations between the two nations.

Grenell was already starting from a tricky position, having complained that Germany should have joined the U.K., France and U.S. in airstrikes on Syrian positions last month. When a van drove into a crowd of people in Munster on April 7, Grenell was admonished for spreading unconfirmed rumours that two attackers had fled the scene. It was later confirmed that German citizen Jens Alexander Ruther was a lone assailant.

Most popular: Black Navy Veteran Says He Was Attacked by Dallas Night Club Bouncers

GettyImages-508010680

ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

After years of sanction, Iran has forged an increasingly lucrative commercial relationship with European nations since the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed in 2015. Within a year, Iranian exports to the European Union increased by 375 percent. European firms have spent the past three years investing in Iran, and stand to lose out if the deal goes south.

Germany sells industrial machinery, chemical, electronics and other high-quality goods to Iran. From January to October 2017, $2.8 billion in German products went to Iran. Berlin maintains a huge trade surplus, only importing $328 million of Iranian goods in return. New sanctions will eat into this valuable revenue stream.

In response to the criticism, Grenellan early supporter of Trump and former Fox News contributorsaid he used the exact language sent out from the White House talking points & fact sheet. Grenells failure to apologize for his remarks merely added fuel to the fire. Is that some sort of apology from Americas (pretty undiplomatic) top diplomat in Germany? asked news anchor Christian Sievers.

Grenell is not the first Trumpian ambassador to run afoul of his new hosts. In December, Americas ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, gave an awkward television interview in which he was asked to explain previous assertions that there were no-go areas of the Netherlands where cars and politicians were being set on fire.

Hoekstra branded the interviewers question as fake news. When he realized footage existed of him making his original comments, Hoekstra denied he used the term fake news seconds earlier. With the interviewer lost for words, this response seemed to at least buy Hoekstra some brief respite. He later issued an apology for both his original comments and the later interview.

Just perfect.

Dutch journalist to new US Ambassador: you said there were 'no go zones' in Netherlands, where are they?

Ambassador: That's fake news, I didn't say that

Journalist: We can show you that clip now.

Ambassador: Err __ pic.twitter.com/8ohIOzmYAc  Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) December 22, 2017

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek(WASHINGTON)  President Donald Trumps nominee to be CIA director said Wednesday that she does not believe torture works and she would not carry out any presidential order she thought was immoral.

Facing tough questioning by members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Gina Haspel said her moral compass is strong.

I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if it was technically legal, said Haspel, a 33-year veteran of the agency. I would absolutely not permit it.

She was responding to a question about what she would do if she received a directive from Trump that she found to be morally objectionable.

Trump has said he supports subjecting terror suspects to harsh interrogation tactics like waterboarding, which simulates drowning, and a hell of a lot worse. Haspel said Wednesday she doesnt believe Trump would ask her to resume waterboarding and that CIA must undertake activities consistent with American values.

Haspel, 61, faces what will likely be a close confirmation vote in the full Senate, in part because she was chief of base of a covert detention site in Thailand where terror suspects were waterboarded.

Protesters shouting Prosecute the torturers! and Bloody Gina disrupted the hearing several times, and police escorted them out of the room. Haspel was stone-faced throughout.

Haspel said that she agrees with others at the CIA who have said that valuable information was obtained during the debriefing of al-Qaida detainees. But she adds that its not known whether harsh interrogation techniques played a role in that.

Haspel said the spy agency learned tough lessons from its use of harsh detention and interrogation tactics on terror suspects after 9/11.

It is important to recall the context of those challenging times immediately following 9/11, she said. Having served in that tumultuous time, I can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and without reservation, that under my leadership, CIA will not restart such a detention and interrogation program.

Story continues

Committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who supports Haspel, stressed that said the hearing was not about the now-defunct CIA interrogation program, but about who should lead the agency in the future as it faces current threats to U.S. national security.

Haspel said that being in the public spotlight is new for her because she spent more than 30 years in the shadows working undercover and acquiring secret information from dead drops and meetings in dusty back alleys of third-world capitals.

She portrayed herself as a typical middle-class American with a strong sense of right and wrong who just doesnt happen to have any social media accounts. She said she was born in Kentucky and while her family has deep roots there, she grew up as an Air Force brat, following her father to postings all over the world.

Haspel emphasized her experience, saying, I know CIA like the back of my hand.

I joined CIA in 1985 as a case officer in the clandestine service, she said. From my first days in training, I had a knack for the nuts and bolts of my profession. I excelled in finding and acquiring secret information.

Haspels fate hinges on how well she fields tough questions from senators about details of her time running a covert detention site where terror suspects were waterboarded, a tactic that simulates drowning, and seek an explanation for why she wanted videos of the sessions destroyed.

Last month, the CIA released a memo showing Haspel was cleared of wrongdoing in destroying the tapes. The Justice Department also investigated, but no charges were filed. The 2011 memo that the CIA released summarizes a disciplinary review conducted by then-CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell. He said that while Haspel was one of the two officers directly involved in the decision to destroy the tapes, he found no fault with what she did.

Asked whether she would support the destruction of the tapes today, Haspel said she would not. She said she never saw the videos and was not depicted on them, but that the destruction was important at the time to protect the CIA personnel showed on the tapes from being targeted by militants.

Haspels critics outside Congress argue that anyone who willingly participated in one of the CIAs darkest chapters should not head the spy agency. They argue that having Haspel as the face of U.S. intelligence will undercut Americas effort to champion human rights.

Democrats have complained that the CIA has failed to declassify enough information on her career, leaving the public in the dark about the person who might end up leading the CIA.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and three of his Democratic colleagues recently wrote a letter to Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, asking that his office, which oversees all U.S. intelligence agencies, declassify the documents.

Wyden warned it would set a damaging precedent if this administration is allowed to get away with what I consider to be a secret confirmation for the most visible official in U.S. intelligence.

If confirmed, Haspel said she will follow the legal framework the U.S. has since imposed that bans any tactic not spelled out in the Army Field Manual. Under U.S. law, all government employees, including intelligence agents, must abide by Army guidelines for interrogating prisoners  guidelines that dont permit waterboarding.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said he appreciates that Haspel has acknowledged the history of the program and that she is committed to upholding the law, but it is not enough. He said no one should get credit simply for agreeing to follow the law.

Haspel said she would put more intelligence officers in the field abroad and says there has been an outpouring of support from young women at the CIA who hope she becomes the first female CIA director.

It is not my way to trumpet the fact that I am a woman up for the top job, but I would be remiss in not remarking on it  not least because of the outpouring of support from young women at CIA who consider it a good sign for their own prospects, Haspel said.The U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal threatens to reopen a long-dormant dispute over Iranian sanctions between the United States and Europe.

The last time Europe and the United States went head-to-head on the issue, the sitting U.S. president was forced to back down.

Analysts warn the EU could once again threaten to use so-called blocking statutes to prohibit European companies from complying with U.S. sanctions.

President Donald Trump 's move to withdraw the United States from the Iran nuclear deal and restore sanctions on Tehran threatens to reopen a long-dormant dispute with Europe and inflame trade tensions with the Continent, analysts and sanctions experts warn.

History is not on Trump's side. The last time America and Europe went head-to-head over Iranian sanctions, Europe pushed back and the United States was forced to back down.

Market watchers are now questioning whether the European Union will deploy the same legislative weapons it used 20 years ago, when the Clinton administration threatened sanctions against European companies. In response, the EU passed so-called blocking statutes that prohibited European companies from complying with U.S. sanctions, giving them cover to continue with business as usual.

Then as now, the Europeans had a lot to lose. The EU is one of the largest markets for Iranian petroleum products. European multinationals like French oil major Total FP-FR and aircraft maker Airbus have announced billions of dollars in deals since sanctions ended in 2016.

The EU could use the blocking statutes to protect these companies if Trump threatened sanctions, EU Ambassador to the United States David O'Sullivan said last year.

The result of the late 90s standoff was a sort of cold war that simmered for a decade, in which the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations kept the sanctions on the books, but did not enforce them for fear of sparking a trade war with Europe. But it remains to be seen whether Trump, a president prone to brinkmanship and trade tariffs, would also back down.

Story continues

"We have seen Britain, France, Germany and indeed Iran pledge themselves to keep the agreement going. I think what we've done here is just open the door to what will be a pretty tumultuous period ahead," said former U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, a diplomat who has served in several Republican and Democratic administrations.

"It may result in some other options or modifications that would ease all of this. It may not. But it's going to be playing out over a number of weeks before we can really measure what happens,

" he told CNBC's " Squawk Box " on Wednesday.

Relations with Europe are already frayed over Trump's threat to slap tariffs on the Continent's goods and his withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. The president's nuclear deal exit will "amplify the crisis in trans-Atlantic relations" and prod France and Germany to look for ways to fire back, according to risk consultancy the Eurasia Group.

"These nations and other U.S. allies now facing renewed sanctions will both explore U.S. intentions on implementation and at the same time consider adopting blocking legislation and/or other ways of hitting back at the Washington," Eurasia Group analysts said in a briefing Tuesday.



In pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, Trump ignored the pleas of European leaders and announced his administration would immediately restore the full range of sanctions against Iran that were in force prior to 2016. That means European companies cannot enter into new business deals with Iran and must wind down existing contracts in three to six months.

Immediately afterward, the leaders of Britain, France and Germany  as well as Iran's president  said they would try to preserve the deal without the United States. The European leaders called on Trump not to take any action that would get in the way of that goal.

But that is exactly what U.S. sanctions would do. In order for the U.S. sanctions to be successful, European companies must stop doing business with Iran. And if European companies stop doing business with Iran, the nuclear deal will almost certainly collapse.

"This is back to 1997," said Richard Nephew, the lead sanctions expert for the U.S. team that negotiated the Iran nuclear deal.

"It is going to be nightmarish to convince the Europeans to back our sanctions effort now without them actually being supportive of it politically," he said.

The EU and United Nations only got on board with sanctions beginning in 2006 after evidence surfaced that Iran was running a secret nuclear weapons research program.

Those sanctions led to years of painstaking negotiation among Iran, Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. The talks culminated in the 2015 nuclear deal, which lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear activity and submitting to international inspections.

European cooperation was critical to the success of the nuclear sanctions. Reductions in Iranian oil purchases from Europe alone accounted for half of the drop of roughly 1.4 million barrels a day in Iranian crude exports.

That action also came swiftly. The EU adopted sanctions in 2012 that curtailed all purchases of Iranian oil by member countries within six months.

"There are critical differences between where we are today and where we were then," said Amos Hochstein, who coordinated Iran oil sanctions for the Obama administration.

"The first and most important is that Europe is not following with their own embargo, their own sanctions on energy, which means that for the first part of the sanctions implementation, you won't have this big takeoff of Iranian oil  650,000 barrels  that will come off the market even if the European companies do comply," Hochstein told CNBC's " Squawk on the Street " on Wednesday.

U.S. law allows countries to continue buying Iranian oil so long as their home country significantly cuts overall crude imports from Iran. The Obama administration asked countries to reduce oil supplies by 20 percent every six months.

If the Trump administration follows that model and European countries do the bare minimum to comply with the sanctions, it would take six years to shrink European purchases to zero, Nephew estimated in a recent report .

It is possible that another event could head off a trade dispute between Europe and the United States. Iran could grow frustrated and abandon the deal.

Europe and the United States could also find a face-saving way to revise the nuclear deal. Trump's demands include placing permanent restrictions on Iran's nuclear activity, expanding inspections, sanctioning its ballistic missile program and addressing its role in Middle East conflicts.

Some analysts say that is simply too much for the Europeans to concede.

"We're asking for the moon across a whole range of activities and we're giving them very, very little," Nephew said. "I can't believe that that's not going to backfire at some point."





More From CNBC

Photo credit: Getty Images

From Esquire

Donald Trump ran for office saying he was the best deal maker for America. On Tuesday, he announced that he was walking away from the Iran nuclear agreement, arguing he could get a better deal than the one Barack Obama struck in 2015. He may well have been right. A better deal was in the offing, but by withdrawing from the current agreement he made getting it that much more unlikely.

Trumps decision effectively torpedoed the effort of key European allies to try and improve on the deal, leaving them increasingly convinced that their views no longer matter in Washington. It also further destabilizes the Middle East, as Iran and its neighbors again worry about who will try and get the bomb first. And it sends an unmistakable message to North Korea that any deal it signs with this administration can be undone by the next. None of that adds up to the win Trump so clearly craves.



Trump never liked the Iran deal. Its an insane agreement, hes said, and called it the worst deal ever. Last year, he repeatedly said he wanted to withdraw from the agreement. And this January he declared he would do so this month unless the European parties to the agreement were willing to negotiate a better one.

The president listed three main concerns to be addressed: Irans ballistic missile program, its regional behavior, and the fact that key provisions of the deal (including limits on the production of nuclear materials) would sunset in 2030.

Photo credit: Getty Images

For the past four months, top officials from Britain, France, Germany, and the United States have met frequently to hammer out an agreement to address these three issues. And they made significant progress.

The Europeans agreed to impose stiff sanctions in case Iran continued development of longer range missiles. They also agreed to take a much stronger stance against Iran for its regional misbehavior in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

Most importantly, they agreed that if Iran were to restart production of nuclear materials in 2030 and came within less than a year of being able to produce a nuclear bomb, they would reimpose sanctions. The one thing the Europeans were not prepared to do was to demand Iran agree to these terms or in any other way rewrite the actual deal.

Story continues

Trump wasnt satisfied. He wanted to rewrite the deal now. But rather than using the next 12 years to see how the Europeans would help achieve his core aims, he walked away from the one agreement that effectively capped Irans nuclear program for another decade. He could have had the better deal he wanted. The Europeans met him more than half way. It would have been a triumph of diplomacy. A real win. But Trump wanted more.

In so doing, the president got a whole lot less than we currently have. By walking away, the nuclear deal effectively becomes null and void. America has violated its terms, and now so can Iran. It can start enriching uranium tomorrow without limit. It can limit the most intrusive inspections. It can act today in ways Trump and the critics of the deal thought was unacceptable twelve years from now.

Worse, our European allies now realize that trying to engage with this administration to settle differences really does not matter. Trumps Iran decision follows other decisions Americas allies strongly opposed: abandoning U.S. participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, withdrawing from the Paris agreement on climate chance, moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, imposing stiff tariffs on steel imports. Each time Europeans tried to dissuaded Trump from taking these actions. Each time they failed. The lesson is clear. Allies no longer count in Trumps Washington.

That isnt the only lesson, however. By abandoning real constraints on Irans nuclear program, the Trump administration is sending a signal that diplomacy and negotiations arent a real option when it comes to preventing nuclear proliferation-perhaps the gravest threat to global security we face.

Photo credit: Getty Images

However imperfect, the Iran deal capped its nuclear program for fifteen years and kept a highly intrusive inspection regime in place for much longer. Now, uncertainty about what Iran will do will give other regional actors like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, even Turkey, a reason to think again about their own non-nuclear status. They will hedge against a possible Iranian nuclear breakout by leaving open the option of getting their own nuclear weapons. That is a recipe for instability, miscalculation, and possibly even war.

And what lesson should Kim Jong-un learn from all this? Trump officials say that it sends a clear signal that Washington isnt interested in just any deal-it wants complete denuclearization. But Pyongyang likely sees the decision as proof the United States cannot be trusted-that any deal reached with one president can be discarded by the next. That will make reaching any agreement with North Korea that much more difficult.

It also sends the message that when it comes to North Koreas nuclear program, Trump wants an all-or-nothing deal. Anything short of complete denuclearization-no nuclear weapons, no nuclear production facilities, no nuclear research, and highly intrusive inspections-would be a bad deal. Anything like the Iran agreement-no weapons, but allowing limited, verifiable production of some nuclear materials-would be unacceptable.

Yet, with North Korea possessing 60 weapons or more, large uranium and plutonium production facilities, and no inspectors on the ground, an Iran-like deal with Pyongyang would be a miraculously grand achievement. That, too, now seems beyond reach.

Ivo Daalder is president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and former U.S. ambassador to NATO.



You Might Also LikeHis decision to pull the United States out of the Iran deal could place the lives of Americans  and people around the world  in danger. And all for nothing

Imagine the president of the United States of America sitting in the White House Situation Room with his top national security advisers and deciding that there are not enough threats to US national security. There are not enough wars and humanitarian crises around the world. The United States is bored. Imagine the president deciding to manufacture a new national security crisis that will directly threaten America, its allies and the world.

Sounds like the work of fiction, right? Unfortunately, not. President Trump announced his decision for the United States to violate the diplomatic agreement that is currently preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon  and with that decision Trump produced a new, unnecessary crisis.

In July 2015, Iran and a six-nation negotiating group reached a landmark agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that ended a 12-year deadlock over Tehrans nuclear programme. The deal, struck in Vienna after nearly two years of intensive talks, limited the Iranian programme, to reassure the rest of the world that it cannot develop nuclear weapons, in return for sanctions relief.



At its core, the JCPOA is a straightforward bargain: Irans acceptance of strict limits on its nuclear programme in return for an escape from the sanctions that grew up around its economy over a decade prior to the accord. Under the deal, Iran unplugged two-thirds of its centrifuges, shipped out 98% of its enriched uranium and filled its plutonium production reactor with concrete. Tehran also accepted extensive monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has verified 10 times since the agreement, and as recently as February, that Tehran has complied with its terms. In return, all nuclear-related sanctions were lifted in January 2016, reconnecting Iran to global markets.

Story continues

The six major powers involved in the nuclear talks with Iran were in a group known as the P5+1: the UN security councils five permanent members  China, France, Russia, the UK and the US  and Germany. The nuclear deal is also enshrined in a UN security council resolution that incorporated it into international law. The 15 members of the council at the time unanimously endorsed the agreement.

Read a full explainer here

Lets quickly go over how we got here. Just a few years ago, Iran was working to get a nuclear weapon, and making progress. After years of a sustained, highly coordinated campaign of sanctions backed by most of the world, the economic pressure forced Iran to come to the negotiating table. The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China and Russia got Iran to agree to stop its nuclear weapons program and to never attempt to get a nuclear weapon.

In the almost three years since the deal was signed, not only has the IAEA confirmed that Iran is complying with the deal, but the Trump administration  the very administration now violating the deal  has repeatedly verified Irans compliance. The US secretary of defense, James Mattis, said the verification mechanisms in the deal are robust, and the head of the IAEA called them the worlds most robust.

But forget the facts and the details. Trump wants out. So now what?

The most consequential result could be an eventual war with Iran that engulfs the Middle East. Iran could kick out inspectors and develop a nuclear weapon. Iran could ramp up its support for terrorism and proxy wars. Arab states like Saudi Arabia could try to get their own nuclear weapons and respond to Iranian escalation with more escalation in Syria and Yemen. And all of that could lead to more conflict in the Middle East, including potential wars with Israel and the United States.

That should be worrying enough. But theres more.

At a time when Trump has already created a rift with allies in Europe over climate change, trade and more, Trumps violation of the Iran deal doesnt just put the screws to Iran  it puts the screws to Europe as it faces new potential US sanctions. These are the very allies that the United States needs not only for all manner of global challenges, but also for the new deal with Iran that Trump supposedly wants to pursue. Treating ones allies as adversaries is not a recipe for success. And sure enough, very quickly after Trumps announcement, the leaders of the United Kingdom, Germany, and France jointly announced their continuing commitment to the deal.

Likewise, the numerous other countries that were essential in pressuring Iran into talks for the nuclear deal  China, Russia, India, Japan, among others  seem even less likely to help. Many of them need oil from the region to fuel their economies, and it took years of painstaking diplomacy to get these countries to reduce their economic ties with Iran in the years leading up to the 2015 nuclear agreement. It seems highly unlikely that they would do so again when there is no evidence of Iran violating the agreement.

And if the US goal is now to force Iran to make a new and lasting deal  as Trump put it  why would Iran agree to negotiate when it believes the word of the United States is good for nothing?

So where does that leave the United States? Alone, with a self-inflicted wound that will injure others as collateral damage.

The best-case scenario is that Iran remains in the agreement for now (which Rouhani immediately indicated Iran would) as the other parties continue to comply in the face of potential US sanctions, which tanks US relations with allies and partners around the world.

The worst-case scenario is war.

There was  and still remains  a much better path. The United States could continue to ramp up its activities to push back against Iran around the region. It could start working with allies and partners now to develop plans for continuing to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons when parts of the deal expire years from now.

The nuclear deal is not perfect, but it reduces the chances for conflict, and achieves a key goal that the United States, Israel and allies had long sought: stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. And yet, in dumping the deal, Trump has offered no alternative to achieve this goal.

Its not clear that Trump is looking for more violent conflict. But his decision to pull the United States out of the Iran deal very well could place the lives of more Americans  and people around the Middle East and beyond  in danger. And all for nothing.By Jonathan Landay, Joseph Ax and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - A day after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, several families of American prisoners held in the Islamic Republic urged the White House to start humanitarian talks with Tehran to win their release.

The families made the appeal as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was returning home on Wednesday with three Americans freed from imprisonment by North Korea, with whom Washington is hoping to pursue denuclearization talks.

Already tense relations between Washington and Tehran hit a new low with Trump extracting the United States from the 2015 international nuclear accord, making it unlikely either country would be in a mood to engage in any talks soon.

The White House did not immediately respond when asked by Reuters if the administration was open to holding talks with Iran on the prisoners.

The Trump administration has repeatedly demanded their release.

Two are dual Iranian-U.S. nationals 81-year-old Baquer Namazi and one of his sons, Siamak Namazi, 46, who were sentenced to 10 years in prison in October 2016 on charges of spying and collaborating with the United States.

"The situation of my family obviously has to remain as a separate humanitarian issue and it should be disconnected from all the difficulties that the two countries are facing," said Babak Namazi of his father and brother after delivering that message to two senior administration officials at a White House meeting.

Babak and Jared Genser, a Namazi family attorney, said they urged the officials to open a private dialogue with Iran.

Given the release of the Americans by North Korea, Genser added, "our view is that it should be a lot easier ... to get American hostages out of Iran as compared to American hostages out of North Korea."

Wendy Sherman, who led the U.S. negotiating team in talks that culminated in the nuclear accord during the Obama administration, expressed concern that Trump's "reckless action" likely means "that it will be even longer before Americans detained and missing in Iran come home."

Story continues

At least seven American citizens or permanent residents have been arrested in Iran since 2016, their lawyers or relatives have told media, of whom one has been freed on bail.

Iranian authorities previously have denied holding detainees for ransom and accuse Western governments of holding Iranians on trumped-up charges.

Kazem Gharibabadi, deputy head of Irans Council for Human Rights, part of the judiciary, has said more than 56 Iranians are imprisoned in the United States and an unspecified number in other countries.

Hua Qu said her imprisoned husband, U.S. citizen Xiyue Wang, had become a "political pawn and a victim of this deteriorating relationship."

His case, she said, will hopefully receive more attention from U.S. officials, who previously raised it with their Iranian counterparts at quarterly meetings on the nuclear deal with little progress to show for it.

"To raise it once and wait for three months is too slow," said Hua, speaking by telephone from her home in Princeton, New Jersey. Echoing Namazi and Genser, she said the administration should pursue a dialogue with Iran solely focused on prisoners.

"This is a humanitarian issue, and there should be a humanitarian solution. I don't think putting this into a complicated political situation is the solution," she said.

Xiyue Wang is a Princeton University graduate student who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on spying charges by an Iranian court in July 2017.

A married couple, Karan Vafadari, a U.S. citizen, and Afarin Neyssari, a U.S. permanent resident, were sentenced to 27 years and 16 years of imprisonment respectively, on charges which included espionage, according to the family.

"My brother is still in prison. He was/is never been political. I just hope they dont use him as a political tool while the too countries are in bad terms," Vafadari's Washington-based sister Kateh told Reuters.

As of November 2017, Irans Revolutionary Guards had arrested at least 30 dual nationals during the past two years, mostly on spying charges, according to lawyers, diplomats and relatives.

The dual nationals include Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, who was arrested in April 2016.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian, was convicted of plotting to overthrow Irans clerical establishment, a charge strongly denied by her family and the Foundation, a charity organization that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News.

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay, Joseph Ax and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Editing by Yara Bayoumy and Grant McCool)Former CIA Director John Brennan accused President Donald Trump of lying about the Iran nuclear deal he withdrew the U.S. from on Tuesday, and said, This madness is a danger to our national security.

Related: All the ways Trump has undone Obama's legacy after Iran Nuclear Deal withdrawal

Brennan served under former President Barack Obama, who forged the deal in 2015. He tweeted on Tuesday that Donald Trump simultaneously lied about the Iranian nuclear deal, undermined global confidence in U.S. commitments, alienated our closest allies, strengthened Iranian hawks, & gave North Korea more reason to keep its nukes.

Trending: New Nikes Could Have Built-in TreadmillsBut They're Not for Exercise

This madness is a danger to our national security, added Brennan, who was CIA director from 2013 until Trumps inauguration.

In his speech Tuesday announcing that the U.S. would no longer honor the deal, Trump said there was definite proof of the Iranian regimes pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Don't miss: 9-Year-Old Virginia Girl Born Without Hands Wins National Handwriting Contest

The fact is, this was a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made, Trump said. It didnt bring calm, it didnt bring peace, and it never will.

Brennan, now an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, said in an interview with the latter that Trump has a very flawed understanding of the deal, which six countries signed requiring Tehran to limit its nuclear weapons development program in exchange for the lifting some sanctions.

05_09_18_BrennanIran

Alex Wong/Getty Images

Most popular: Third-hand Smoke: Scientists Warn of Exposure to Cigarette Chemicals Where No One Has Smoked in Decades

Story continues

The former CIA director referenced Obamas statement on the withdrawal that laid out clearly the facts of the deal and what type of assurances we have that Iran is not going to pursue this.

With the wave of the hand, Mr. Trump has sent a very bad signal to Iran, to North Korea, to our allies, as well as to Russia and China, in terms of, can they count on something that Washington agrees to when administrations change, Brennan said.

He continued: He has hurt, I think, the prospects for peace and for successful diplomacy. By basically discarding something that was hard-fought and well supported by our allies as well as members of the security council of the United Nations.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekFILE PHOTO: Logo of Saudi Aramco is seen at the 20th Middle East Oil & Gas Show and Conference (MOES 2017) in Manama, Bahrain, March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo

Thomas H. Kee Jr. is president and CEO of Stock Traders Daily.

Sometimes the decisions made by players in the oil sector are easy to anticipate using a good-old-boy approach. With that, what will Iran do now that sanctions are being imposed again, and what will OPEC do, if anything, given anticipated changes in Iranian oil exports?

First, we need to roughly estimate what that change will be. Our model suggests that roughly 25% of Iranian oil exports will be curtailed over the course of a year, but far less over the next 180 days, which is the window provided by the US Treasury to comply with the sanctions. This assumes that waivers are provided like they were last time sanctions were imposed.

Over the next few months Iranian oil exports will likely decline by approximately 15%.

According to the most recent OPEC report, Iran was producing about 3,814 tb/d. Using that figure, we expect 572 tb/d to come offline in the months immediately ahead, and 953 tb/d to come offline in a year. This equates to our 15% and 25% estimates.

However, recent reports suggest that Iranian export capacity is more like 5,000 tb/b. Iran has not been increasing exports even though they have been working hard to increase capacity because of the existing OPEC deal. At the same time, Iran has also been vocal against Saudi Arabia and the deal.

Saudi Arabias interest in pushing oil to new highs

Iran would rather increase exports than pressure oil prices higher. Given the upcoming Aramco IPO, Saudi Arabia has a vested interest in pushing oil to relative highs, so there have already been conflicts pertaining to the existing OPEC agreement. Sanctions increase those tensions.

Furthermore, OPEC will, given special situations, exempt countries from participating in deals like this. In every respect, the imposition of sanctions on Iran would be a special situation, too.

That presents an important good-old-boy question. If Iranian oil exports are going down in the future, why not ramp them up right now and try to offset that future pain? Iran does not seem to like the OPEC deal anyway, so this is exactly what we expect Iran to do.

Story continues

Iran will ramp up production imminently and exclude itself from any ongoing OPEC agreement.

That opens a new can of worms. Saudi Arabia has said that they would pick up any slack in the market caused by these sanctions, but what about the other OPEC members? Why shouldnt they be able to increase production too if Saudi Arabia is willing to? This will add additional pressure on OPEC.

Ultimately, we expect this to bring an end to the existing OPEC deal sooner than later. Russia, at bare minimum, will not sit idle if Saudi Arabia begins to increase production in the face of an existing deal.

The splintering of the existing OPEC deal has already begun, and we expect it to cause OPEC to dissolve the deal before the end of the year. To the chagrin of Saudi Arabia, this might also dent their plans to issue their IPO when oil was at its highest relative price.

Ultimately, President Trump may have prevented the biggest IPO in history from having the best price possible. If the OPEC deal dissolves and OPEC production increases to where it would normally be, oil prices are likely to fall from these lofty levels.

Read more:

Oils run may be over

The FOMC just set the stage for a market crashPresident Donald Trump welcomed home three American citizens who were held in North Korea and were released after negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The president was joined by first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, to the Joint Base Andrews near Washington, D.C., around 2:30 a.m, where the plane carrying Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the three Americans arrived from North Korea shortly afterward.

Kim Dong Chul, who had spent the longest time in North Korean jail of the three, after his arrest in 2015 on spying charges, was the first one to step out of the plane, raising his arms and hands in a victory sign.

Trending: Not-So-Happy Mothers Day! How Having Children Increases Pay Gap Between Men and Women

Read more: Who are the three American prisoners? Trump announces release after North Korea agrees to hand over custody

Kim Sand Dukalso known as Tony Kimwho was arrested last April, came out second, and Kim Hak-song, who was detained in May, followed.

05_10_Prisoners Released

Jim Bourg/Reuters

Don't miss: School District Allegedly Punished LGBT Student by Forcing Them to Read Bible Passages

"This is a special night for this really great people. Congratulations on being in this country," Trump told them once they all gathered in front of the reporters, who wanted to know how the former detainees felt being home.

"It's like a dream, and we're very very happy," Kim Dong Chul said in Korean, his words translated via an interpreter. He said he had to do hard labor, but that North Korean doctors treated him when he fell ill.

Using warm words to describe the former prisoners, Trump also took the opportunity to pay his respect to another American citizen who was detained in North Korea, student Otto Warmbier.

Story continues

Warmbier was released last year and brought back home in a coma. He died shortly afterward. "Otto Warmbier was a great young man who really suffered. His parents are incredible people," Trump said.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBy Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he had high hopes of "doing something very meaningful" to curtail North Korea's nuclear ambitions at a summit in Singapore next month, after Pyongyang smoothed the way for talks by freeing three American prisoners. The date and location of the first-ever meeting of a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader were announced by Trump on Twitter. "The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" Trump wrote. He made the announcement after a U.S. government aircraft touched down at Joint Base Andrews near Washington carrying the Americans who were released by North Korea in a move to clear the way for the bilateral summit. The ex-prisoners are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul, who was sentenced in 2016 to 10 years' hard labor; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who taught for a month at a foreign-funded university before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught there and was detained last year. North Korean state media said they were arrested for subversion or "hostile acts" against Pyongyang. Trump faces a difficult task persuading Kim to abandon nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests that heightened U.S.-North Korean tensions throughout 2017. The two men exchanged fiery rhetoric last year over North Korea's attempts to build a nuclear weapon that could reach the United States. But tensions have since eased, starting around the time of the North's participation in the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February. Trump greeted the freed Americans in the early morning hours. He said on their arrival that he believed Kim, who has led North Korea for seven years and is believed to be in his mid-30s, wanted to bring his country "into the real world." "I think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful," Trump said. "My proudest achievement will be - this is part of it - when we denuclearize that entire peninsula." New U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has visited Pyongyang twice in recent weeks - once as head of the CIA - but there has been no sign he cleared up the central question of whether North Korea will be willing to bargain away nuclear weapons that its rulers have long seen as crucial to their survival. Trump is embarking on the meeting with Kim after announcing on Tuesday the United States was pulling out of a 2015 accord imposing international oversight of Iran's nuclear program. The move raised questions over whether North Korea might now be less inclined to negotiate its own nuclear deal with Washington. Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke by telephone on Wednesday. The White House said they "affirmed" the shared goal of North Korea abandoning its nuclear weapons program. Japan worries it could be the target of any first use of nuclear weapons by Pyongyang. White House officials, without providing specifics, said on Thursday the meeting could be scuttled if North Korea did anything unacceptable over the next month. "Were not under any illusions about who these people are," National Security Council official Victoria Coates told reporters. "We know who were dealing with here. But we got up front our people home rather than that having been an afterthought." 'PHOTO OP' WORRY Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate, warned Trump against going too far, too fast in Singapore. The Republican president, he said, should insist on strong, verifiable disarmament commitments from North Korea. "I worry that this president, in his eagerness to strike a deal and get the acclaim and a photo op, will strike a quick one and a bad one, not a strong one, not a lasting one," Schumer said. During Trump's presidency, Kim has overseen a series of weapons tests to showcase his military's progress on medium- and long-range missiles and atomic weapons that put the world on edge. Last year, North Korea conducted more than a dozen tests that had missiles flying over the Sea of Japan, while another led experts to believe North Korea could possibly hit the mainland United States with a missile. Trump has credited a U.S. "maximum pressure" campaign for drawing North Korea to the negotiating table and vowed to keep economic sanctions in place until Pyongyang takes concrete steps to denuclearize. But former spy chief Kim Yong Chul, director of North Korea's United Front Department, said in a toast to Pompeo over lunch in Pyongyang this week: "We have perfected our nuclear capability. It is our policy to concentrate all efforts into economic progress." Kim recently promised to suspend missile tests and shut a nuclear bomb test site. The choice of Singapore will put the summit on friendly turf for Trump, as the island nation is a strong U.S. ally and the U.S. Navy frequently visits its port. White House spokesman Raj Shah said Singapore was chosen because it could ensure the security of both leaders and provide neutrality. The wealthy financial and shipping hub is seen as a gateway between Asia and the West and has been called the Switzerland of Asia," in contrast to North Korea's isolated economy that its leaders now want to modernize. Nonetheless, Human Rights Watch has described Singapore as having a "stifling" political environment with severe restrictions on "basic rights." Singapore said in a statement late on Thursday it was pleased to host the meeting between Trump and Kim, adding: "We hope this meeting will advance prospects for peace in the Korean Peninsula." U.S. officials had looked at several sites other than Singapore for the historic meeting. Trumps own preference was for the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, but aides argued it would look too much like Trump going to Kims turf. Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a rare round of talks at their heavily fortified demilitarized zone at the end of April, pledging to pursue peace after decades of conflict. South Korea said on Thursday: We hope the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula as well as permanent peace on the peninsula will successfully come about through this summit. (Reporting by Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington and James Oliphant aboard Air Force One; Writing by Richard Cowan and Mary Milliken; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney)JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md.  President Trump traveled to an Air Force base outside of Washington in the wee hours of Thursday morning to greet three Americans who were returning home after being released from prison in North Korea. In brief remarks to reporters on the tarmac, Trump suggested the release of the men showed his efforts to negotiate with the North Korean regime are working.

The fact that we were able to get them out so soon is  really a tribute to a lot of things, including a certain process that is taking place right now. And that process is very important, so we will see what happens, said Trump.

Standing with the returnees, Trump noted he is planning to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. On Wednesday, he said the time and place of that summit has been set and would be revealed publicly in three days.

News reports have named Singapore as the likely site for the meeting.

At the Air Force base, where the plane carrying the men landed at 2:42 a.m., Trump thanked Kim for releasing the men and said the North Korean leader really was excellent to them.

We very much appreciate that he allowed them to go before the meeting. It was sort of understood that wed be able to get these three terrific people during the meeting and bring them home after the meeting, Trump said.

Trump said freeing the men, all Americans of Korean ancestry, was a big thing, very important to me. He said it indicated Kim might be interested in changing North Koreas current status as an isolated pariah on the world stage.

I really think he wants to do something. I think he did this because I really think he wants to do something and bring that country into the real world. I really believe that, said Trump.

America has technically been at war with North Korea since 1950. Fighting in the Korean War stopped in 1953 with an armistice that led to a cease-fire, but the U.S. and its ally South Korea never signed a formal peace treaty with the north.

Story continues

If the meeting happens, Trump would become the first sitting president to meet a North Korean leader. The negotiations for a potential summit came after Trump stepped up rhetoric against North Korea and infamously promised to rain fire and fury down on the country.

Trump touts his self-professed dealmaking ability as a major diplomatic weapon. He said he has developed a unique relationship with Kim.

Its never been taken this far. Theres never been a relationship like this, said Trump.

The three men  Kim Dong-chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song  were taken into custody between 2015 and 2017. Each was charged with a different crime. The North Korean regime has a history of giving foreigners harsh sentences, as they are seen as valuable potential bargaining chips.

Kim Dong-chul, who had been charged with espionage, spoke to reporters through a translator and described how it felt to be back in the U.S.

President Trump speaks as he stands with Tony Kim, left, Kim Dong-chul, center right, and Kim Hak-song, right, after they arrived at Andrews Air Force Base early Thursday morning. Vice President Mike Pence, far left, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, second from right, look on. (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP)

Its like a dream. We are very, very happy, he said.

He was also asked about his treatment in North Korean custody.

We were treated in many different ways. Me, I had to do a lot of labor, but when I got sick I was also treated by them, he said.

The returnees arrival was turned into a dramatic press event by the White House, which brought reporters to the base and hung a massive American flag between two fire trucks as a backdrop for their arrival. Trump acknowledged this attention during his remarks.

Its very early in the morning. I think you probably broke the all-time in history television rating for 3 oclock in the morning. That I would say, Trump said, adding, I want to just congratulate  these are three great people  and congratulations.

Speculation about the release of detainees had been swirling for a week. On May 2, Trump referred to the hostages in a tweet that falsely accused the Obama administration of failing to secure their release. Two of the three were arrested after President Barack Obama left office. Obama secured the release of 11 American hostages from North Korea during his presidency.

In a jovial mood, Trump used the word great at least six times during his remarks. He paid tribute to Otto Warmbier, an American student who had been arrested in North Korea for taking a poster as a souvenir and who died shortly after he was returned home after suffering mistreatment while in prison.

Trump also took a jab at one of his favorite media targets, the New York Times, for a report that noted Secretary of State Mike Pompeos absence as the president withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal caused concerns in some Washington circles.

I think our secretary of state, despite the fact that the New York Times said he was missing, he was in North Korea, Trump said. But I think our secretary of state has done a fantastic job.

Trump then turned to Pompeo and addressed him.

Mike, did you know that you were missing? They couldnt find you. They couldnt find him because he was in North Korea, said Trump.

Trump was upbeat throughout the event, which allowed him to celebrate a victory amid a continuing onslaught of headlines about his legal problems. However, his diplomacy had its limits. He repeatedly ignored questions about whether hed be willing to do the same thing with Iran and pursue talks after exiting the nuclear deal.

Still, when it came to North Korea, Trump was brimming with optimism. Just before Trump left, Yahoo News asked if he might visit North Korea one day.

It could happen, Trump said.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:

(Cover photo credit: Susan Walsh/AP)By Matt Spetalnick and Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on his way to North Korea on Tuesday to prepare for an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as President Donald Trump signaled the possibility that three Americans detained there could soon be released. Breaking the news of Pompeo's second visit to North Korea in less than six weeks, Trump said America's chief diplomat was expected to arrive very shortly and that the two countries had agreed on a date and location for the summit, though he stopped short of providing details. While Trump said it would be a "great thing" if the detainees were freed, Pompeo, speaking to reporters en route to Pyongyang, said he had not received such a commitment but hoped North Korea would "do the right thing." His visit, he said, was intended to finalize a summit agenda that could enable a "historic, big change" in relations between long-time foes. The detainees' release could signal an effort by Kim to set a more positive tone for the summit, which is being planned for late May or early June, following his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut Pyongyangs nuclear bomb test site. While Kim would be giving up the last of his American prisoners, whom North Korea has often used as bargaining chips with the United States, a release could also be aimed at pressuring Trump to make concessions of his own in his bid to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear arsenal, something it has not signaled a willingness to do. "Plans are being made, relationships are building," Trump said of the planned summit during remarks otherwise focused on his decision to pull the United States out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. "Hopefully, a deal will happen. And with the help of China, South Korea and Japan, a future of great prosperity and security can be achieved for everyone," Trump added. Pompeo made a secret visit to North Korea over the Easter weekend, becoming the first U.S. official known to have met Kim, to lay the groundwork for the planned summit. The meeting occurred before Pompeo's Senate confirmation as secretary of state. Trump suggested that dropping out of the Iran nuclear accord, which he has frequently denounced as a bad deal, would send a "critical message" not just to Tehran but also to Pyongyang. "The United States no longer makes empty threats. When I make promises, I keep them," Trump said. But critics of Trump's decision to leave the Iran deal say it could undermine his credibility in North Korea's eyes, fueling doubts whether he would abide by any nuclear agreement. FATE OF THREE DETAINEES Pompeos latest trip raised the prospects that the three Korean-American detainees - Kim Hak-song, Kim Sang-duk and Kim Dong-chul - could be turned over to him. Asked whether that could happen, Trump told reporters: Well soon be finding out. It would be a great thing if they are. Pompeo, whom aides say has played a key role in negotiations with North Korea on the issue, said, "We have been asking for the release of these detainees for ... 17 months," according to a transcript provided by the State Department of his remarks to reporters aboard his plane. "We'll talk about it again today," he said. "I think it'd be a great gesture if they would choose to do so." Pompeo said he was hoping to nail down a framework for the summit, the first-ever meeting of sitting U.S. and North Korean leaders. Trump has said the meeting could take place at either the heavily fortified demilitarized zone between North and South Korea or in Singapore. Pompeo, when he was still the CIA director, met Kim on this last trip but said he did not know whom he would meet this time. If he does see Kim again, he would be only the second secretary of state to sit down with a North Korean leader. The last was Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who went on an unsuccessful trip in 2000 to arrange a meeting between President Bill Clinton and Kim's father, Kim Jong Il. Pompeo said he hoped to set out conditions to allow Trump to achieve the goal of "complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization" of North Korea, but insisted that sanctions would not be lifted before that. "We are not going to head back down the path that we headed down before," he said. "We're not going to relieve sanctions until such time as we achieve our objectives." A senior State Department official said Washington would be looking for "bold steps" by North Korea rather than incremental agreements on nuclear disarmament that Pyongyang has violated in the past. Pompeo's latest visit followed talks between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on April 27 at the demilitarized zone, the first summit for the two Koreas in over a decade. The North-South summit produced a declaration of goodwill but was short on specific commitments and failed to clear up the question of whether Pyongyang is really willing to give up nuclear missiles that now threaten the United States. U.S. officials have been pressing Kim to free the three remaining American detainees as a show of sincerity before the summit. Trump and Kim have exchanged insults and threats over the past year but tensions have eased in recent months. Until now, the only American released by North Korea during Trumps presidency was Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old university student who returned to the United States in a coma last summer after 17 months of captivity and died days later. Warmbier's death escalated U.S.-North Korea tensions, already running high at the time over Pyongyang's stepped-up missile tests. The three still being held are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST. (Refiles to drop extraneous word "unprecedented" in second paragraph.) (Reporting by Matt Spetalnick, David Brunnstrom, David Alexander and John Walcott; Editing by Leslie Adler and James Dalgleish)A woman who accused President Donald Trump of forcibly kissing her has won the uncontested primary for Ohio House of Representatives.

Rachel Crooks has claimed that Trump forced himself on her in 2006 while she was working as a receptionist at Trump Tower.

She came forward with the accusation in 2016, just before the presidential election and in the wake of the release of the infamous Access Hollywood tape on which Trump boasted of groping women.

Trending: Trump's New Ambassador Has Upset the Germans Just Hours Into His Job

0205_Rachel_Crooks

Monica Schipper/Getty Images

In an interview with The Washington Post in February, she said she was working as a receptionist for real estate firm Bayrock when she introduced herself to Trump while waiting for an elevator.

"He started kissing me on one cheek, then the other cheek. He was talking to me in between kisses, asking where I was from, or if I wanted to be a model," Crooks said. "He wouldn't let go of my hand, and then he went right in and started kissing me on the lips."

Don't miss: 3D Printed Weapons Threaten Global Security, Think Tank Warns

After the Post published Crookss account of the incident, Trump claimed in a tweet that he did not even know her.

"A woman I don't know and, to the best of my knowledge, never met, is on the FRONT PAGE of the Fake News Washington Post saying I kissed her (for two minutes yet) in the lobby of Trump Tower 12 years ago. Never happened! Who would do this in a public space with live security cameras running," the president tweeted.

In response. Crooks challenged Trump to release Trump Tower security camera footage from the location, date and time when she alleges the incident took place.

Story continues

Most popular: Teacher Trying to Text Herself Accidentally Sends Expletive-Filled Complaint About Student with Autism to Parent

"Please, by all means, share the footage from the hallway outside the 24th floor residential elevator bank on the morning of January 11, 2006," her campaign account tweeted. "Let's clear this up for everyone. It's liars like you in politics that have prompted me to run for office myself."

On her campaign website, Crooks says that her decision to run for office was not mainly about the incident with Trump.

"Rather it is about a lack of honesty and integrity in politics, and a desire to bring about positive change," her campaign website states.

She will face incumbent Bill Reineke in Novembers election.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPeter Brookes

Security, Middle East

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after signing a proclamation declaring his intention to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement in the Diplomatic Room at the White House in Washington, U.S. May 8, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

The nuclear deal hasnt reduced Tehrans threat to international security and stability.

Trump Was Right to Terminate the Iran Deal

Highly controversial? Yes. But President Trumps decision to withdraw from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)also known as the Iran nuclear dealwas totally justifiable.

The deal was a well-intentioned effort by the Obama administration to limit Irans nuclear programincluding its nuclear weapons program. But from the beginning, there were a number of reasonable concerns about the JCPOA.

How About That Sunset?

The fact is that Tehran didnt sign up to limit its nuclear-power (or weapons) program forever, but rather for just a period before being unbridled from the JCPOA. The JCPOA essentially kicks the can down the road to the next president after Trump.

Iran needs to sign up to limiting its nuclear activities in perpetuity.

Going Ballistic

Despite early calls for it to do so, the JCPOA doesnt fully address Irans ballistic-missile program. Ballistic missiles are a common delivery system for weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons.

Since Iran lacks a highly capable globalor regionalNavy or Air Force, Tehran would have to rely on its ballistic-missile arsenal to deliver nuclear weapons against any of its self-perceived enemies, including the United States.

The concerns over Irans missile program is evident in UN Security Council Resolutions 1929 and 2231, which attempt to limit Irans activities involving nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. Tehran has been accused of violating both resolutions.

Restrictions on ballistic missiles must be part of any new, comprehensive agreement.

Hide-and-Seek

Another troubling aspect of the JCPOA is that the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors arent allowed to check Iranian military sites. This is beyond comprehension.

Since nations would likelyeven probablydevelop nuclear weapons within the context of a military program, it is only reasonable to expect that inspectors would be able to visit military sites where illicit nuclear activities may be taking place.

Story continues

Verification of compliance is essential. Iran historically hasnt been fully forthcoming on its nuclear activities, including its weapons programa fact recently buttressed by revelations uncovered by Israeli intelligence operations. Tehran may still be hiding unauthorized activities beyond the inspectors purview.

Comprehensive, no-notice inspections need to be part of any future agreement.

Bad Behavior

While admittedly not part of the JCPOA, Irans destabilizing activities abroad are deeply troubling. The nuclear deal arguably hasnt appreciably reduced Irans threat to international security and stability.

But Iran has become more fully integrated into the international economy with the lifting of punitive economic sanctions under the JCPOA. This has provided it with revenue streams that are helping fund its aggressive adventurism in the region.

Iran is supporting the ruthless regime in Syria in the bloody civil war there. Tehran is also aiding the Houthis rebels in Yemen, allowing them to indiscriminately rain missiles down on Saudi Arabia.

Iran, of course, is an active state sponsor of terrorism, supporting the likes of Hezbollah and Hamas, according to the U.S. government. In Afghanistan, its supporting some elements of the Taliban, continuing to destabilize the long, war-torn country.

Bottom-line: Iran is very dangerous.

Despite the American withdrawal from the JCPOA, there is still time for diplomacy while the U.S. economic sanctionsthat will go after a broad range of Iranian economic activitiesare reimposed.

While a parade of European leaders made their way recently to Washington to preserve the JCPOA, these same senior officials could now engage in the diplomatic heavy lifting of getting new negotiations started, especially considering their less-hostile relations with Iran.

President Trump made the right call. For the sake of American and international security and interests, a new nuclear deal is neededone that addresses, at a minimum, the glaring flaws in the current JCPOA.

The first step toward a new agreement is the recent U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal. The next thoughtful step is for Iran to willingly come back to the table to tackle these fundamental and reasonable concerns.

Dr. Peter Brookes is a Heritage Foundation senior fellow and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense.

Image: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after signing a proclamation declaring his intention to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement in the Diplomatic Room at the White House in Washington, U.S. May 8, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Read full articlePresident Trump told his lawyers on Tuesday night he didnt know about payments made to his personal attorney by a Russian oligarch and businesses lobbying the federal government.

After the payments were revealed by Stormy Daniels lawyer, Michael Avenatti, and then largely confirmed by news accounts and the companies themselves, Trump lawyers Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani called the president to ask him about it.

I dont know anything about it, Trump told his lawyers, according Guilianis recollection of the phone call.

Guiliani said Trumps legal team is confident Special Counsel Robert Mueller doesnt believe the President had a role in the transactions. He was good on it, Guiliani said. Nobodys concerned about it. It doesnt involve us. If it involved us Mueller would have kept it.

Asked if the President directed Cohen to accept payments from companies like Novartis and AT&T, Guiliani said, I have no idea. I doubt it. Guiliani believes the news helps Trumps legal team because it feeds the impression that the investigations are moving far from Russian interference.

They are chasing rainbows, Guiliani said. This is yet another irrelevant thing that is made into a big thing.

Read More: Everything We Know About Michael Cohens Essential Consultants Business

Given that the special counsels initial mandate is to investigate Russian collusion with Trumps campaign, Trumps legal team will try to block them from everything they can do which would be far afield from that, he said.

Discussions over whether Trump will agree to be interviewed by Mueller are right now on hold, he said. Trump shouldnt take steps to shut down Mueller investigation, he said, but Mueller himself should bring it to a close because they dont really have anything.

Guiliani said he was reluctant to call the President Tuesday night because he didnt want to take him away from monitoring his Secretary of States negotiations over a summit with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the release of three Americans from North Korea. Sekulow and Guiliani initially left a message at the White House saying they would like to talk to Trump, but it wasnt urgent and only if he had free time. Sekulow declined to comment on the phone call.

During the call, Trump sounded exhilarated and happy and satisfied with what was happening on North Korea, Guiliani said. Which is a hell of a lot more important than some stupid claim that is probably two-thirds false from this ambulance-chasing lawyer.

-With reporting by Tessa Berenson/WashingtonThe new U.S. ambassador to Germany upset his host countrys business and political leaders his first day on the job.

Within hours of assuming his post on Tuesday, Richard Grenell set an aggressive tone for diplomacy in the U.S.-allied country by tweeting a threatening message to German businesses following President Donald Trumps decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal.

German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately, Grenell wrote.

As @realDonaldTrump said, US sanctions will target critical sectors of Irans economy. German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.  Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 8, 2018

Some German businesses and politicians were displeased.

Its not up to me to teach the U.S. ambassador how to be diplomatic, but he does seem to need a bit of tutoring, said Andrea Nahles, the leader of Germanys Social Democratic Party, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Wolfgang Ischinger, chairman of the Munich Security Conference and a former German ambassador to the U.S., tweeted: Ric, my advice, after a long ambassadorial career: explain your own countrys policies and lobby the host country  but never tell the host country what to do, if you want to stay out of trouble. Germans are eager to listen, but they will resent instructions.

Grenell defended his comments, tweeting that he used the exact language sent out from the White House talking points & fact sheet.

But Grenell will find little support for that view in Germany. His confirmation came just a day ahead of a visit to the White House by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who  like French President Emmanuel Macron days earlier  urged Trump not to abandon the Iran deal.

The Senate confirmed Grenells nomination in April, filling a position that had been empty for over a year. Grenell, a Republican and close political ally of Trump, is a former Fox News commentator and worked with incoming national security adviser John Bolton at the United Nations under President George W. Bush.

Story continues

With his confirmation, Grenell became one of the most prominent openly gay Trump appointees. Among his supporters is Stuart Milk, co-founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation and nephew of the late gay civil rights leader.

Elements of Grenells past, including derogatory comments about women, made him a controversial pick. Grenell has a history of stirring controversy on social media, and the Senate vote was initially delayed after several Democrats voiced concerns about Grenells reputation for launching sexist attacks through his Twitter account and disparaging women in media and politics.

Also on HuffPost

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to issue a $120 million fine to a Florida man alleged to have made almost 100 million robocalls to trick consumers with exclusive vacation deals from well-known travel and hospitality companies. In 2017, the FCC first alleged that Adrian Abramovich made 96 million robocalls during a three-month period in 2016. The commission proposed a $120 million fine but did not finalize it until Thursday. Abramovich and his legal representatives could not be immediately reached to comment on the fine. In April, he told a Senate panel that he was "not the kingpin of robocalling that is alleged." He denied engaging in fraudulent activities and said "it was always my intent with the FCC to negotiate toward an appropriate fine within my ability to pay such an amount." Abramovich declined to answer some questions about his case, invoking the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The FCC said the calls, which violated U.S. telecommunications laws, appeared to offer vacation deals from companies such as Marriott International Inc, Expedia Group Inc, Hilton Inc and TripAdvisor Inc. TripAdvisor complained to the FCC in 2016 after getting complaints from consumers claiming it was robocalling them. Consumers who answered the calls were transferred to foreign call centers that tried to sell vacation packages, often involving timeshares. These call centers were not related to the major companies, the FCC said. Abramovich told the Senate he had been engaged in legitimate telemarketing for more than 15 years and that the calls were offering real vacation packages. The FCC said in June "Abramovich is the perpetrator of one of the largest  and most dangerous  illegal robocalling campaigns that the Commission has ever investigated." Those robocalls impacted other people and services, the FCC said. Abramovich "engaged in regular mass-robocalling campaigns during 2015 and 2016" that "repeatedly disrupted a critical telecommunications service used by hospitals and emergency medical providers, it said. U.S. consumers get nearly 2.5 billion monthly robocalls - automated, prerecorded calls that regulators have labeled a scourge, according to FCC estimates. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said last year Americans are mad as hell at robocalls and the agency gets more than 200,000 complaints annually. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, said the commission must do more to address robocalls. YouMail, a company that blocks robocalls and tracks them, estimated that 3.4 billion robocalls were placed in April in the United States, an all time high. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)London (AFP) - Britain apologised on Thursday for contributing to the mistreatment of Abdel Hakim Belhaj, a former Islamist fighter turned politician who was kidnapped and handed over to Libya in 2004 and subsequently tortured, in an unprecedented admission of culpability.

"The UK government's actions contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering," Prime Minister Theresa May said in a letter to Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar, which was read out in parliament by Attorney General Jeremy Wright.

"On behalf of Her Majesty's government, I apologise to you unreservedly," the letter read.

Belhaj, who became Tripoli's military commander after Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi was ousted in the 2011 revolution, claimed British complicity in the couple's capture by the CIA and later torture by his regime.

The British government accepted the couple "were subjected to a harrowing ordeal which caused them significant distress", and said that it had reached "a full and final settlement" with them both.

Boudchar will receive A500,000 (570,000 euros, $670,000) compensation, but Belhaj did not seek any financial settlement, only an apology.

At a news conference in Istanbul, where he lives, Belhaj expressed "his gratitude for this courageous move".

"This apology is accepted and it puts an end to years of suffering," he said.

In an earlier statement, he argued Britain had "set an example for other nations to follow".

"For more than six years I have made clear that I had a single goal in bringing this case: justice. Now, at last, justice has been done," he said.

"A great society does not torture; does not help others to torture; and, when it makes mistakes, it accepts them and apologises."

Boudchar was four-and-a-half months pregnant when she was kidnapped, telling the Guardian that she had been taped to a stretcher for the 17-hour flight to Tripoli.

Story continues

She was released shortly before giving birth.

"This is a historic day," Boudchar told reporters outside Britain's parliament.

"My message to the world's governments is to support solidarity with no injustice to others."

- 'Unacceptable practices' -

Belhaj was held for more than six years and said he was subjected to torture.

"Your accounts were moving and what happened to you is deeply troubling," wrote May.

"The UK government believes your account, neither of you should have been treated in this way".

The prime minister added that "we should have understood sooner the unacceptable practices of some of our international partners. We sincerely regret our failures."

Belhaj initially said he was taking action against MI6's former counter-terrorism chief Mark Allen.

Papers found after Kadhafi's ouster showed the British official had told the Libyan government that it was "the least the UK could do" to help capture Belhaj.

He also sued ex-foreign secretary Jack Straw, but dropped both of the cases as he mediated a "full and final settlement" with the government.

Cori Crider, a lawyer for the family from London-based human rights group Reprieve, called the settlement "a victory for everyone who opposes injustice, secret detention, and torture".

The Freedom from Torture organisation said it should be "the beginning not the end of a proper accounting for the sinister pattern of UK complicity in the years after the 9/11 attacks".

Chief executive Sonya Sceats added: "It is even more urgent that the government goes ahead with the judge-led inquiry into UK involvement with torture as promised by (former prime minister) David Cameron".

Cameron set up an inquiry in 2010 headed by a retired appeal court judge, but it has stalled over secrecy concerns and issued only an interim report in 2013.

- Vanished from public life -

Belhaj fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan and became the leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which sought to overthrow Kadhafi and replace his regime with an Islamic one.

Following his release from prison in Libya, Belhaj founded the conservative Islamist party Al-Watan and a pro-Islamist television channel.

He had an office in Tripoli where he regularly received Western envoys.

Belhaj and his men were part of the Fajr Libya faction which seized Tripoli in 2014.

As a party leader, he participated in talks held in Morocco which brought about Libya's interim Government of National Accord (GNA) in December 2015.

However, he has vanished from Libyan public life since then and is now based in Istanbul.

In May 2017, pro-GNA armed groups seized the prison where former leaders of the Kadhafi regime, including Abdallah Senoussi and Saadi Kadhafi, were being held under the control of Belhaj's men.

The same day, the headquarters of his television channel was torched.

It was later transferred to Istanbul from where it continues to campaign.United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN chief Antonio Guterres on Wednesday denounced "the recent and sharp escalation in the Yemen conflict," after strikes targeting rebels in Sanaa were met with an attempted attack aimed at Saudi Arabia.

On Monday, the Saudi-led coalition said it was behind two air raids on the office of the presidency in Yemen's rebel-held capital, which were reported to have killed six people and wounded dozens.

Then on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's air defenses intercepted two ballistic missiles over the capital Riyadh, the latest in a series of attacks claimed by rebels in neighboring Yemen.

Guterres is "deeply concerned" over the exchanges, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

"The Secretary-General appeals to the parties to refrain from further escalation as this adversely impacts the chances for peace," the statement said.

"The Secretary-General reminds all parties to the conflict that they must uphold international humanitarian law, including taking steps to protect civilians."

Since November, the Iran-backed Huthi rebels have intensified missile attacks into neighboring Saudi Arabia, including targeting its capital.

Saudi Arabia launched a military coalition in Yemen in 2015, aimed at pushing back the Huthis and restoring the internationally recognized government to power.

The conflict has left nearly 10,000 people dead, tens of thousands wounded, and millions on the brink of famine in what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.Washington (AFP) - US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday he hopes to see progress to reduce large differences with China in trade talks where hundreds of billions of dollars in commerce are at stake.

"The gap is wide," Ross said in congressional testimony, a week after he led a delegation to Beijing to try to resolve the thorny dispute.

A high-level Chinese delegation will be coming to Washington next week, and "I'm hopeful we will make further progress with them," he said.

The US has threatened tariffs targeting $150 billion in imports, while China has warned $50 billion in goods are in the firing line.

Vice Premier Liu He -- considered Xi's right-hand man on economic issues -- is due in Washington next week after he led talks in Beijing last week with a high-level US delegation that made little headway in resolving the standoff.

Ross said the US officials presented a detailed list of requests for changes in China's trade policy "product by product and quantity by quantity." Agricultural goods -- which have been targeted for retaliation by Beijing -- figured prominently.

China "responded in kind" with a counterproposal, so the sides are now working on "a very specific set of bids and asks."

In response to a question from a senator, Ross said President Donald Trump has ordered the Agriculture Department to do all it can to minimize the impact of any tariffs.

"We're all well aware that it's horribly unfair for one industry to bear the brunt of retaliation in our efforts to help other parts of economy," Ross said.

"We'll do our level best to resolve the problem."

The US reportedly has demanded Beijing reduce the bilateral trade deficit by $200 billion a year.SAN ANTONIO (Philippines) (AFP) - US and Philippine troops stormed ashore from the disputed South China Sea on Wednesday for military exercises that President Rodrigo Duterte had promised to scrap, but quietly allowed to carry on.

The decades-old tradition appeared headed for the history books last year as a newly-elected Duterte pivoted toward China -- and away from long-time ally the US.

But the number of troops taking part in the drills has increased by a third from last year to 8,000, a return to figures seen in years past when the exercises served as a thinly-veiled deterrent to a rising China.

The reason for Duterte's change of heart on the two-week drills codenamed "Balikatan", or "Shoulder-to-Shoulder", may be down to what experts see as careful efforts by the Filipino military to restrain their unpredictable president.

"The fact it's being done under this administration means they (Duterte's government) now have a better understanding of the security equation," political analyst Victor Andres Manhit told AFP.

Though the bulked-up manoeuvres -- including a live-fire component that was dropped last year -- took place on a naval base just 180 kilometres (110 miles) east of the Filipino-claimed Scarborough Shoal that China has controlled since 2012, the drill's leaders barely mentioned Beijing.

"We are an island nation. That's why we need to improve our capabilities on amphibious operations," Philippine Major-General Emmanuel Salamat told reporters.

"We're not concerned about Scarborough. We're concerned about what we're doing here."

China claims most of the South China Sea, a strategic waterway believed to harbour significant oil and natural gas deposits, but their assertion was ruled illegal in 2016 after Duterte's predecessor Benigno Aquino filed suit before an international maritime tribunal.

Duterte has since reversed course and set the ruling aside, along with long-simmering friction over competing claims to the waters, in order to court Chinese trade and investment.

Story continues

He has also cut two major annual naval exercises with the US and last year reduced the Balikatan contingent to 5,400 American and Filipino troops.

The decision came at a low point for US-Philippine relations, when Duterte hurled insults at the American ambassador to Manila and served notice that the 2017 edition would "be the last military exercise" with the United States.

Much of Duterte's ire appeared to have been triggered by American criticism of his deadly anti-drug crackdown, which has claimed thousands of lives and been condemned by rights groups as a possible crime against humanity.

The renewed ramping up of the US-Philippine war games coincides with improving ties with Washington under President Donald Trump, who has said drug dealers should face the death penalty.

Analysts said Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, a retired general and ex-defence attache to Washington, and other advisers had helped moderate Duterte's position.

"He (Lorenzana) could handle, in a very effective way, most of the president's biases without ruffling feathers," said Roilo Golez, a former national security adviser of ex-Philippine leader Gloria Arroyo.

US Marine Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Gaskell, who took part in the landing exercise Wednesday, sidestepped media questions on Duterte's anti-US claims.

"We are welcomed here, walking in the airport, throughout your country, (but also) by the Filipino armed forces who we've interacted with," he said.

"So we're really happy to be here."Moments after answering a phone call from her 15-year-old daughter, a Utah woman listened in horror as the girl was brutally slain  and now, authorities are searching for a person of interest in her death.

Salt Lake City police have launched a multi-state manhunt for 24-year-old Shaun French in connection with the killing of Baleigh Bagshaw.

According to police, Baleigh called her mother Monday at around 3 p.m., just after arriving home from school. It was something the girl did every day, Sgt. Brandon Shearer of the Salt Lake Police Department told reporters at a press briefing.

While on the phone with Baleigh, the teens mother heard the teen being brutally attacked in their home, said Shearer. Eventually, the call was lost, police said.

The mother called a neighbor who called 911. Police arrived at the Bagshaw residence to find Baleighs lifeless body.

It has not been announced how Bailey died, but Shearer told reporters, It was a very violent attack.

A warrant has since been issued for Frenchs arrest, alleging hed had a previous unlawful sexual encounter with Baleigh.

While not an official suspect, French definitely has a connection with Baleigh and the family, so it wouldnt be out of the ordinary for him to be in the area, said Shearer.

As of Tuesday, no arrests had been made in the case, and police were continuing to gather evidence from the scene.

Shaun French

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Police ask the public to be on the lookout for French, believing he could be in Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, or Indiana. They suspect he is making his way to Cleveland, where he is said to have friends.

French wears glasses and has a beard.

He is probably driving a camouflage-painted 1991 Daihatsu Rocky with Wyoming license plate #19-13974.

French is armed and police say he should not be approached if spotted. Instead, 911 should be called.

Anyone who may have any information on the case or Frenchs whereabouts is asked to call (801) 799-3000.Christine Levinson wakes up every morning, hoping this will be the day her husband  the father of their seven children  is finally freed from Iran, where he has spent the last 11 years as a prisoner.

Each day, Levinson said, she is crushed. And the pain seemed almost worse this week after learning that three American detainees in North Korea were freed and now in the U.S. It was another group of released U.S. prisoners that didnt include Bob Levinson, the longest-held hostage in American history.

Weve been left behind, Christine Levinson, 67, told TIME on Thursday. Were happy that everyone who has been released has been released, and were happy for their families, but it makes it extremely difficult.

Bob Levinson, a retired FBI agent, went missing from Kish Island in Iran in 2007 while on a mission for the CIA, according to his family and an Associated Press investigation. Levinsons family has long advocated for his safe release. Last year, they filed a lawsuit against Iran in U.S. federal court. But their efforts have been met with repeated disappointment.

Weve seen a lot of hostages come home, said Doug Levinson, the couples youngest child. The one constant is everybody else comes home except for my father. I hoped it would get easier, but it doesnt. Every single time its like ripping off a scab.

Bob Levinson

The State Department and its Bureau of Consular Affairs said it does not publicly disclose the number of Americans who are prisoners in other countries. There are at least four Americans being held hostage in Iran, including Baquer Namazi, an ailing 81-year-old, his son Siamak Namazi, Xiyue Wang and Levinson, according to a February statement from President Donald Trumps administration, which called for the hostages immediate and unconditional release.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said U.S. officials were doing our best to get them all back. There are Americans being held in several places, he said, according to a State Department news release. When I was the CIA director, I could see the State Department and all of the United States Government was focused on getting every one of those Americans returned wherever they were.

Story continues

In an interview with CBS last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif said Iran would consider a prisoner swap with America if the U.S. shows a change in attitude.

It is a possibility, certainly from a humanitarian perspective, but it requires a change in attitude, Zarif said. You do not engage in negotiations by exercising disrespect for a country, for its people, for its government, by openly making claims including this illusion about regime change. Then you do not leave much room for a genuine dialogue.

Bob Levinsons family believes he is still alive and well in Iran. We have no reason to believe otherwise, that hes been killed or that hes died, said his son, Doug. Theres no evidence and theres no reason to believe that Iran would do anything to hurt him, knowing how valuable he is to America and the U.S. government.

The family remains optimistic that the U.S. and Iran can still negotiate Levinsons release, despite President Trumps decision this week to pull the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal and hit Iran with new sanctions.

Bob Levinson

It gives us a new opportunity to do something to get my father home, to talk to Iran, said Doug Levinson, who was 13 when his father vanished overseas. Im very hopeful. Weve never wavered in our hope that one day well break through.

The pain of being away from his father for so long has also not wavered. I feel like hes been forgotten, Doug Levinson said. Every time theres a deal, every time hostages get released, its like what about him?

My father is a patriot. Were a patriotic family, he said. Its awful to feel like the country I love so much has personally failed my father who has given it so much.

Bob Levinson is now 70-years-old and has no idea his family has grown to include eight grandchildren. Hes missed high school and college graduations, as well as three weddings.

Bob Levinson and his wife, Christine Levinson

Each of these events is very, very hard without him there, Christine Levinson said from the couples home in Coral Springs, Fla. You cant describe it really. Its awful.

Tomorrow, Bob Levinson will miss his 44th wedding anniversary.

I always toast to him in the evening, his wife said, but other than that, its just a difficult day to get through.Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela on Thursday strongly rejected the takeover of its Caribbean oil stocks by ConocoPhillips, after the US company enforced a $2 billion international arbitration award last month.

Caracas' oil ministry said it "strongly rejects the actions taken by the US firm ConocoPhillips to take the assets of the Venezuelan state oil company in the Caribbean."

A ConocoPhillips source said the company was enforcing the award at four locations in the Caribbean, without specifying the facilities affected.

Press reports said the affected assets are in Curacao, Bonaire and Saint Eustace.

ConocoPhillips was awarded $2 billion in an April 25 decision of the International Chamber of Commerce against Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA over the 2007 government takeover of two of the company's units.

"As we said at the time of the award, we will pursue all available legal avenues to obtain full and fair compensation for our expropriated investments in Venezuela," the US company said in a statement.

Oil expert Orlando Ochoa said the US oil firm's actions were targeting goods, not facilities.

"It has proceeded to freeze the Venezuelan crude that is in the terminals of Saint Eustace, Bonaire and some products that are in the Curacao refinery," Ochoa told AFP, estimating that the measure involves some 15 million barrels of oil, worth around $750 million.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday he was unconcerned about US sanctions against his government and a deluge of international lawsuits for delays in debt repayments.

"The sanctions of the gringos, the threats, we don't care about them. Do they cause damage? Yes. But they will not stop us."

"Venezuela does not surrender to sanctions, threats, aggressions and lies," the socialist president said in a comments broadcast on radio and TV.

Maduro is seeking re-election for a second six-year term in a May 20 vote boycotted by the opposition and branded illegitimate by much of the international community.

Washington this week imposed sanctions on 20 companies -- 16 of them in Venezuela, and four in Panama -- as well as three Venezuelan nationals including a former top intelligence official indicted in the US for narcotics trafficking.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu observed a military parade marking the defeat of Nazi Germany alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday.

Although Putin and Netanyahu are at odds over the former's backing of Iran and his pro-regime stance in the Syrian civil war, the Israeli leader said relations between Moscow and Israel remained strong.

"The meetings between us are always important, and this one is especially so," Netanyahu said in a video message reported by The Jerusalem Post. "In light of what is currently happening in Syria, it is necessary to ensure the continued coordination between the Russian military and the IDF," he said, referring to the Israeli Defense Forces.

Trending: Destiny 2 Rasputin Armory Codes - How to Find & Use in Escalation Protocol

But despite Netanyahu's statement, relations between Russia and Israel over Syria are complex. Moscow has backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2015, while Israel has carried out attacks against Syrian government targets. Assad is also supported by Israel's archenemy, Iran, and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that fought a war with the Israelis as recently as 2006.

After the U.S.-led strikes on regime targets allegedly involved in targeting civilians with chemical weapons, Russia threatened last month to upgrade Syrian defenses, something Israel vehemently opposes.

Related: Vladimir Putins new bulletproof limo cost $192 million and took six years to make

Don't miss: Woman 'With 11 Husbands' Buried Alive and Stoned to Death by Islamic Militants in Somalia

Netanyahus visit on Wednesday is his first trip to Russia since the strikes. His appearance at the parade added a symbolic element to the meeting, said Micky Aharonson, former foreign relations head at the Israeli prime ministers National Security Council.

Story continues

The parade will show new weapons systems like robotic vehicles, new hypersonic missiles, and the prime minister of Israel will be actually sitting there and watching some weapons systems he requests Russia to avoid sending to the enemies of Israel. The S-300 and S-400 systems, for example, she told the Israel Project podcast. These weapon systems are already on Syrian soil, but they are in Russias hands, so they are Russia-Israel coordinated.

05_09_Putin_Netanyahu



Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive to watch the Victory Day parade, marking the 73rd anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, at Moscow's Red Square on May 9.

Maxim Shipenkov/Pool/Reuters

Most popular: Who is Tim Chung? Kylie Jenner's Body Guard Isn't Her Daughter's Father

The Russian military currently has S-300 and S-400 anti-air defenses, designed to defend against incoming jets and missiles, at its bases in Syria. The Assad regimes own defenses were provided by Russian but are much older. Moscow has tested more than 600 items of new equipment in Syria, and some are expected to roll out on the Red Square this week, providing a first glimpse for potential buyers. The Uran-6 robot sapper and the Uran-9 remote-controlled tank are among them.

Another customer of Russian arms is Iran. Although the U.S. has officially announced it is returning to diminished-trade terms with Iran by nixing the international nuclear deal, other countries continue to support it. Russia, one of Tehrans most significant providers, is among them.

The Iranian military has already acquired an S-300 from Russia and has purchased Soviet-made fighter jets, tanks and other missiles in the past. Iranian officials have reportedly expressed an interest in upgrading to new Russian warplanes and tanks. The Israeli government has urged Russia against striking new deals to bolster Irans armed forces.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekChen Kane, Ramya Ramjee

Security, Middle East

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud is seen during a photo opportunity at the United Nations headquarters in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Levy

The Trump administration would be wise to drop its artificial deadlines and coordinate strategies on both the Iran and Saudi Arabia agreements.

Washington's Plan for a Nuclear Agreement with Saudi Arabia May Be in Jeopardy

President Trumps decision yesterday to nix the Iran Nuclear Deal was reckless. However, it provides a golden opportunity for the Trump administration to bolster nuclear negotiations with another Middle Eastern State, Saudi Arabia. The two countries are negotiating a nuclear-cooperation agreement but a sticking point has involved whether the Saudis will agree to forego dual-use technologies that can be used to produce either nuclear energy or nuclear weapons. Given the Trump administrations claim to have left the Iran deal based on nonproliferation concerns, it now has leverage to apply the same policy to Riyadh.

The administration hopes to submit a final agreement with Saudi Arabia for congressional approval by mid-June. Such an agreement is necessary for the United States to transfer significant nuclear material, equipment, or components from the United States to Saudi Arabia and could considerably help U.S. companies like Westinghouse be shortlisted later this year to build the countrys first two nuclear reactors. By submitting the deal by mid-June, the administration would meet the deadline for the shortlist as well as legal requirements that the current Congress have ninety days to block the deal or have it automatically approved.

Trumps claim that his withdrawal decision from the Iran deal will strengthen his hand in negotiating a better Iran deal is yet to be proven. But Trump can prove that he truly wants to prevent an arms race in the Middle East by insisting on specific provisions in the nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia that will make it harder for Riyadh to use its nuclear energy program for weapons purposes.

An outstanding issue in the talks is whether the Saudis will agree to forego uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing, two dual-use technologies that can be used to produce fuel useable in nuclear reactors but can also be used to produce the highly enriched uranium or separated plutonium needed for nuclear weapons. A decade ago, Iran and Saudi Arabias neighbor, the United Arab Emirates, pledged not to engage in any enrichment or reprocessing activities whether the materials and facilities were supplied by the United States or others. Saudi Arabia has resisted making a similar unconditional pledge. Other nonproliferation measures that could ensure the Saudi energy program will not be used for weapons purposes would include the adoption of the Additional Protocol, an agreement that provides the IAEA additional monitoring and access rights, acquisition from foreign suppliers of nuclear fuel for the entire life of the reactor, and the return of the spent fuel from the reactor to the supplier.

Story continues

To secure an agreement with the United States that will pass Congress, the Saudis may agree on a moratorium on enrichment and reprocessing. But in order not to lag too far behind Irans capabilities, they would likely tie their pledge to Irans enrichment activities. In an interview in mid-March, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman warned: Without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible. Given the United States just exited the Iran deal, it is unclear for how much longer Iran will abide by its enrichment restrictions.

According to President Trumps announcement yesterday, the United States will now reimpose stringent sanctions on Iran and is considering new penalties. If the Trump administration reimposes all U.S. nuclear-related sanctions, including secondary sanctions targeting international trade with Iran, then European countries will find it extremely difficult to do business with Iran. Under such a situation, Iran may decide that its main reason for joining the deal, namely economic recovery through foreign investments, cannot be achieved, and withdraw from the deal. This does not mean that Iran will start enrichening above the 5 percent agreed in the deal immediately, but Irans nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi has said that if such a decision is made by Iran, then it will only need four days to ramp up to 20% enrichment.

Given the uncertainties about Irans response over the next few months to Trumps action, as well as the good will Trumps decision has generated in Riyadh, the administration might also want to probe the possibility of extending the negotiations in order to win nonproliferation concessions and submit the agreement to a new Congress in January. By then, hopefully the direction of Iranian actions on its nuclear program and any U.S responses will be clearer and allow Washington to tailor the Saudi agreement accordingly. To be sure, this could risk the chances for the U.S. bidRiyadh may want to move more quickly, or it may decide to work with a non-U.S. company that places fewer restrictions on its enrichment and reprocessing capabilities. But there is little practical reason that Saudi Arabia cannot postpone its bid decision and plenty of political and diplomatic reasons for it do so. Yet, even in the case that Saudi Arabia keeps to its schedule, the U.S. nuclear industry could still play an important role. Although a reactor deal would produce the highest revenue, there are many other important areas through which the United States can assist the Saudi nuclear programfrom developing its power grid, building related infrastructure to training personnel, and developing independent legislative body.

The administration would be wise to coordinate strategies on both the Iran and Saudi Arabia nuclear programs. Preventing the two countries from having a nuclear-weapon capability and competing in a nuclear arms race is the goal. The rest can wait.

Chen Zak Kane is director of the Middle East Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Washington, DC.

Ramya Ramjee is an intern at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Washington DC, and a student at the University of Southern California.

Image: Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud is seen during a photo opportunity at the United Nations headquarters in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Levy

Read full articleBrandon Cory Lecroy

A white South Carolina man who allegedly attempted to hire an assassin to kill his black neighbor has been arrested. Brandon Cory Lecroy, 25, wanted his neighbor to be hanged and a flaming cross to be placed on the man's property. Unfortunately for Lecroy, the "hitman" he spoke to was in fact an undercover FBI agent.

According to an affidavit cited by indexjournal.com, Lecroy called the undercover agent on March 20 and said $500 and hes a ghost. He apparently even gave explicit details on when the best time was to murder the neighbor.

Trending: Destiny 2 Rasputin Armory Codes - How to Find & Use in Escalation Protocol

Lecroy, of Hodges in Lexington County, was planning to take control of the property once his neighbor was dead. He had allegedly paid $100 as a downpayment for his neighbor's murder.

Lexington Councilman Theo Lane told indexjournal.com that the situation was obviously disturbing. Any time I hear something like that, I question the mental stability of anyone who can even contemplate something like that, Lane said.

Lecroy now faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. On April 9, he was arrested and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. He is being kept at Federal Medical Center, Devens in Ayers, Massachusetts.

According to Fox Carolina, Lecroy had more targets in mind for the future. He told the undercover FBI agent that he wanted a 9mm ghost gunwhich would be untraceable.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekLolade Siyonbola, a black graduate student at Yale University, had been writing a paper in her dorms common room when she dozed off. She awoke to a white schoolmate threatening to call the police if she didnt leave.

Siyonbola, a 34-year-old African studies student, broadcast part of what happened next in two Facebook Live videos around 2 a.m. Tuesday. The first video shows her confronting the white student who ordered her to get out.

I have every right to call the police, the student, identified by Siyonbola as philosophy P.hD candidate Sarah Braasch, is heard saying in the video. You cannot sleep in that room.

Minutes later, two police officers arrive to begin what would turn into a 17-minute interrogation of Siyonbola, which she captured in her second video.

I was sleeping in the common room and [Braasch] comes in and turns the lights on and was like, Why are you sleeping here? Youre not supposed to be sleeping here. Im going to call the police, Siyonbola told the officers.

Siyonbola told police the woman had called the cops on a friend a few months earlier, because he was in the stairwell and he was black.

Police asked Siyonbola to prove she lived in the building, so she showed the officers to her room and unlocked the door. Police said they needed more proof.

I really dont know if theres a justification for you even actually being in the building, Siyonbola told officers before reluctantly showing them her student ID.

I deserve to be here, she can be heard saying as she waited for police to verify her ID. I pay tuition like everybody else. Im not going to justify my existence here.

After two more officers arrived and Siyonbolas ID was verified  her name was apparently misspelled in the student database  police permitted her to leave.

Braasch did not immediately respond to HuffPosts request for comment.

Siyonbolas recordings of the incident sparked outrage on social media, with thousands sharing and commenting on the videos. The controversy adds to recent national news stories of white people calling the police to report innocuous encounters with black people.

Story continues

This is so infuriating! one person commented. Im so sorry you had to deal with this but you handled it better than I wouldve. She should have been arrested for making a call like that.

Siyonbola, who did not immediately respond to HuffPosts request for comment, wrote on Facebook Tuesday that she was grateful for all the love, kind words and prayers.

Black Yale community is beyond incredible and is taking good care of me,

Siyonbola wrote. I know this incident is a drop in the bucket of trauma Black folk have endured since Day 1 America, and you all have stories.

Yale officials addressed the incident in emails to students this week.

I am deeply troubled by an incident that took place Monday night in the Hall of Graduate Studies, Kim Goff-Crews, Yales vice president for student life, wrote. One graduate student called the police to report another student in the common area, who had every right to be there.

She continued: All of us in senior leadership recognize that incidents such as this one are being framed within a difficult national context. I want to underscore our commitment to carry out our mission as a university in an ethical, interdependent, and diverse community of faculty, staff, students, and alumni, where all are respected.

Other recent encounters involving police summoned by white people to respond to complaints about people of color include a white woman who this month reported a group of black women who had rented an Airbnb near San Bernardino, California. Last month, two black men were arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia while they waited for a friend to arrive.

UPDATE: 4:00 p.m.  Yale Police Chief Ronnell Higgins issued a statement Thursday appearing to confirm Siyonbolas account of the incident.

The responding officers informed the caller that the student who had been in the common room was an authorized resident who had every right to be there, according to the statement. They also explained that this was not a police matter and were reporting the incident to the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Read Higgins full statement below:

Yale Police responded to a call in the early hours of Tuesday, May 8 at 1:40 a.m. The caller reported that she was a student at the Hall of Graduate Studies (HGS) and said that there was a woman sleeping in the common room on the 12th floor, and that she did not know who the person was. Three police officers responded to HGS around 1:45 a.m., where the caller met them at the entrance and showed them her ID. She then let them up in the elevator, which stopped at the fifth floor where another student appeared. At this point, the caller pointed to the other student and said, This is her. Protocol is for police to separate the parties involved, so two officers stayed with the woman on the fifth floor and the investigating officer went with the caller to the 12th floor. The investigating officer spent over 11 minutes initially with the caller to assess the situation, while the other two officers spent about 15 minutes with the other woman to assess the situation and to confirm her identity. After reviewing the scene in the 12th floor common room and seeing a computer, books, and notebooks in addition to a blanket and pillow on the couch, the investigating officer determined that the person who had been sleeping in the common room was likely a student, so the officer asked the caller to wait in her room on the 12th floor. The investigating officer reported what she found to the other two officers on the fifth floor and to a supervisor who had arrived to assess the situation and determine whether assistance was needed. The officers were having a difficult time confirming the other students identification due to the use of the students preferred name in the system that was different from the official name on the ID. The supervisor worked with dispatch and security to clear up the matter, taking down the students information and giving her a case number. The assessment of the ID took about 15 minutes, which is longer than usual. At that point, the investigating officer, with her supervisor, went to the 12th floor, where they spoke to the caller again for another seven minutes. Another officer also followed. They informed the caller that the student who had been in the common room was an authorized resident who had every right to be there. They also explained that this was not a police matter and were reporting the incident to the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Officers left HGS Studies at about 2:34 a.m.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Rachel Crooks, one of dozens of women who have accused President Trump of sexual harassment, just took a step toward being able to fight him and his policies.

On Tuesday, Crooks won her primary bid for a seat in the Ohio state legislature. Crooks was running unopposed and will now face Republican State Rep. Bill Reineke in November. While the district Crooks hopes to represent leans red, if Crooks wins, she will become the first Trump accuser to hold elected office.

Crooks decided to run in part because of her run-in with Trump. On her campaign website, she explains that the experience has shaped her, and led her to push for honesty and integrity and work to bring about positive change.

Crooks alleged that in 2006, when she was 22 and working as a receptionist at Trump Tower, Trump kissed her without her consent. Trump has denied the claims.

In February, Trump took to Twitter, writing, A woman I dont know and, to the best of my knowledge, never met, is on the FRONT PAGE of the Fake News Washington Post saying I kissed her (for two minutes yet) in the lobby of Trump Tower 12 years ago. Never happened! Who would do this in a public space with live security

A woman I dont know and, to the best of my knowledge, never met, is on the FRONT PAGE of the Fake News Washington Post saying I kissed her (for two minutes yet) in the lobby of Trump Tower 12 years ago. Never happened! Who would do this in a public space with live security......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2018

Crooks replied in kind, writing later that day, Please, by all means, share the footage from the hallway outside the 24th floor residential elevator bank on the morning of January 11, 2006. Lets clear this up for everyone. Its liars like you in politics that have prompted me to run for office myself.

Please, by all means, share the footage from the hallway outside the 24th floor residential elevator bank on the morning of January 11, 2006. Lets clear this up for everyone. Its liars like you in politics that have prompted me to run for office myself. https://t.co/ir7EEKoXRU https://t.co/GmkkZ5jUc7  Rachel Crooks for Ohio (@RachelforOhio) February 20, 2018

Crooks has been one of several Trump accusers who has publicly shared her experiences. In December last year, she joined 15 other Trump accusers at a press conference, in which they shared their individual accounts of sexual misconduct by Trump.Meghan Markle is now in Madame Tussauds - Paul Grover for the Telegraph

If you didn't manage to snag a ticket to the Royal wedding, this could be the next best thing.

Fans of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle can take a photograph with the uncanny waxworks of the happy couple from May 18.

Madame Tussauds in London unveiled their figurine of Meghan Markle and a revamped Prince Harry ahead of opening the exhibit to the public later this month.

The likeness of the American actress, standing alongside her groom Prince Harry, has been unveiled in anticipation of the Royal Wedding.

Harry's figure, which was originally made to celebrate his 30th birthday, has been updated and both will be accessible to the public the day before their nuptials on May 19.

The attraction is holding a "stag and hen do" before the Royal wedding at which over-18s can take photographs with the waxwork figures.

Meghan Markle wears the dress she wore for their engagement Credit: Paul Grover for the Telegraph

Her waxwork is wearing the green PAROSH dress she wore for their engagement announcement as well as a replica of her diamond engagement ring.

Harry's figure, originally created in 2014 to mark his 30th birthday, has been updated for the occasion.

Tussauds London's general manager Edward Fuller said: "Excitement ahead of the royal wedding is reaching fever pitch and we have been inundated with questions about when people can finally meet 'Their Royal Likenesses'.

A replica of the ring Credit: Samir Hussein/ WireImage

"There is a lot of love out there for Meghan and Harry and we're following their lead by inviting the great British public to join the couple in their wedding celebrations here at Madame Tussauds London."

The attraction said it will offer free entry to guests named Meghan or Harry on the day of the royal wedding.

Madame Tussauds London's sister attraction in New York will also reveal its own Meghan figure later today.

The Times Square location is naming the figure an "American Princess", and she will strike a different pose, and wear an outfit designed by British label Self-Portrait.Thank you for reading!

Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.Hamas is talking about sacrificing the lives of more than 200 Palestinians on the Israel-Gaza border fence when the riots reach their peak next week. Israeli officials estimate that even if the riots get out of hand and Palestinians manage to cross the fence and reach a traffic route on the Israeli side, the death toll wont cross 100.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



This body discourse sounds insane, but both sides are approaching this collision with their eyes open. These numbers definitely dont sound baseless to those who saw young Palestinians running amok on Friday towards the Palestinian side of Kerem Shalom, and saw the fire, the plunder, the look of murder in their eyes. Even Hamas has lost control over these people.

And the calculations continue: Hamas believes that at the height of the clashesNakba Day and the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalemthe organization will manage to recruit hundreds of thousands of people to storm the fences. Israel believes that despite the Palestinian efforts, Hamas wont be able to recruit more than 100,000 people.

Even Hamas has lost control over these people (Photo: EPA)

In last Fridays clashes, despite the violent riots and the attempts to breach the fence in several places, not a single Palestinian was killed. Thats no coincidence. The army is doing its utmost to reduce the number of casualties from live fire, excluding radical cases.

This may not sound convincing in light of the killing of three Palestinians in the southern strip on Sunday after a terrorist cell tried to infiltrate the fence and damage security infrastructure nearby. Nevertheless, the fact is that after nearly two months of provocations and sabotage every single weekend, the army is practicing restraint.

Each group of snipers is supervised by a regiment commander, who is the only one to approve any shooting. Every fired bullet is listed. Every bullet that inflicts an injury beyond the legs is investigated by the Gaza Division commander, Brig. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, who personally briefs the snipers. The Sniper School instructorsmainly female instructors, by the wayare with the snipers to solve professional problems. The experience gained in the past few weeks has led to a drop in the number of casualties.

Everyone is preparing for next weeks explosion as if its an inevitable predestination. The defense establishment is dealing with the day after May 15. The army is outlining two possible scenarios. In the first scenario, the number of casualties on the Palestinian side creates a situation in which the Hamas leadership is no longer willing or able to restrain the military wing, and a military conflict erupts, possibly leading turn into another war in the strip.

Friday's riots (Photo: AP)

The second scenario is that after the May 15 explosion, which seems inevitable by now, a diplomatic-economic initiative will emerge to solve the siege issue. This will mainly be an implementation of the plan initiated by the former coordinator of the governments activities in the territories, with the governments blessing, which enlists a group of countries that are already willing to carry out unprecedented water, sewage and electricity infrastructure projects in the strip. The flow of funds will provide the strips residents with an occupation solution and a ray of hope for the future.

This plan is stuck because of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas objection. At the end of his political career, the elderly Palestinian leader has decided that if he cant implement the Palestinian state vision, hell just let Israel and Hamas burn each other.

Up until today, the entire Gaza reconstruction process has gone through a system connected to the international institutions and the Palestinian Authority. The European countries and the United States are incapable of working directly vis-a-vis Hamas in the strip, as long as Abbas is in charge.

Abbas. The elderly Palestinian leader has decided that if he cant implement the Palestinian state vision, hell just let Israel and Hamas burn each other (Photo: Reuters)

The Israeli government must make a critical decision: Should it allow an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian activity in the strip, through systems overriding the PA. This government doesnt seem capable of reaching such a decision. While the Europeans understand the obstacles placed by Abbas and are threatening to go around him eventually, they need Israels cooperation.

There is a solution for all this insanity. Hamas keeps relaying messages to the defense establishment that its still interested in a hudna. The Hamas leadership is made up of different streams, and the stream pushing for a hudna is represented by elected leader Yahya Sinwar.

There are different assumptions about the meaning of this hudna. Hamas itself has conveyed to Israel in the past year different versions of a restricted or wider hudna, which include not only Gaza but the West Bank as well. These demands and conditions have never been discussed, as Israel refuses to talk to Hamas. The Egyptians, however, are willing to talk.

It may be time to go around the Palestinian Authority and give a dialogue a chance. This may be the only way to stop what looks like the next war in the strip.Iranian forces in Syria launched a rocket attack on Israeli army bases in the Golan Heights early on Thursday, Israel said, prompting one of the heaviest Israeli barrages in Syria since the conflict there began in 2011.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



IDF Spokesperson Brigadier-General Ronen Manelis said Thursday morning that none of the 20 rockets fired by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force hit Israeli territory. Four of the rockets, he said, were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system and the rest landed on Syrian territory.

In response, the IDF attacked more than 50 Iranian targets in what Manelis defined as "one of the greatest operations of the Israel Air Force in the past decade."

IAF hits vehicle used to launch Iranian rockets (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

"The Quds Force paid a heavy price. It will take the Iranians a long time to rehabilitate," the IDF spokesperson said.

"The IDF has been engaged in a wide-scale disruption operation against an attempt by the Quds Force to carry out an offensive against Israel," Manelis said. "We have operated several times against ticking Iranian bombs and have succeeded in preventing a number of terror attacks and Iranian strikes in the past month."

The IDF spokesperson added that "the Quds Force, led by Qassem Suleimani, targeted us and failed to achieve the desired outcome. At the Quds Force's orders, and under Iranian command in the attack's command and control circles, about 20 rockets were fired by Hezbollah experts and Shiite militias with Iranian weapons, and none of them hit Israeli territory. Four of them were intercepted by the Iron Dome and the rest landed on Syrian territory. The fired weapons were Grads and Fajr-5 rockets from a vehicle about 30 to 40 kilometers from the suburbs of Damascus."

He added that "there were no injuries and not a single post sustained damage. The rest of the reports are false. This is an achievement resulting from a proper preparation of the air defense system and of the IDF forces. It's a success, but we're prepared for other options. This Iranian operation is a shameless act by Iran and the Quds Force."

According to Manelis, in addition to dozens of Quds Force targets in Syria, the IAF also attacked logistic headquarters, a military camp and intelligence posts.

"We attacked the vehicle that launched the rockets at Israel. All the targets were destroyed and all our planes return to Israel safely despite significant antiaircraft barrages fired by the Syrian army. We also struck five batteries of the Syrian antiaircraft system, which fired dozens of missiles at our planes," the IDF spokesperson said.

Syrian antiaircraft fire against Israeli missiles

X

"We warned the Syrian army not to intervene. This night reflects what we are preparing for the future. The Quds Force chose to act against the State of Israel in the wrong place. We won't accept an Iranian entrenchment in Syria and the Quds Force has paid a very heavy price. Any further attempt by the Quds Force to target Israel will be met with a very heavy price."

The General Staff, Manelis added, has been conducting evaluations of the situation with IDF commanders on a daily basis in the past month. "We are not seeking a deterioration and we are prepared for what happens next. Tonight we thwarted Iranian abilities that threatened the State of Israel and we have abilities that have yet to be implemented. If the Syrians allow direct activity against Israel they will pay a price. It will take the Iranians a long time to rebuild the operational, military and intelligence infrastructure we hit tonight. We informed the Russians about this activity in advance."

The attack on the Golan Heights, just past midnight, marked the first time Iranian forces have hit Israel from Syria, where they have deployed along with Iran-backed Shiite militias and Russian troops to support President Bashar Assad in the seven-year-old civil war.

The Iranian attack Wednesday night activated air raid sirens in the Golan Regional Councils, prompting residents to enter bomb shelters.

Syrian state media said dozens of Israeli missile strikes hit a radar station, Syrian air defense positions and an ammunition dump, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies.

Antiaircraft fire in Syria (Photo: EPA)

Israel struck back by destroying dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters, as well as Syrian anti-aircraft units that tried unsuccessfully to shoot down Israeli planes.

"We do not know yet the (Iranian) casualty count," he said.

"But I can say that in terms of our purpose, we focused less on personnel and more on capabilities and hardware ... to inflict long-term damage on the Iranian military establishment in Syria. We assess it will take substantial time to replenish."

Golan Regional Council head Avi Malka said Thursday morning that after a status evaluation it has been decided to have no changes to the school schedule in the Golan Heights. The shuttle services and public transportation will operate as usual in the area.

The Golan Heights farmers have been instructed to proceed as usual as well. The operations center in the council and nearby communities remain in constant contact with the IDF.

'Right decision'

The Israelis fear that Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah are turning Syria into a new front against them. Israel says its occasional strikes in Syria aim to foil that.

Iran vowed retaliation after a suspected Israeli air strike last month killed seven of its military personnel in a Syrian air base.

Israel regards Iran as its biggest threat, and has repeatedly targeted Iranian forces and allied militia in Syria.

Expectations of a regional flare-up were stoked by US President Donald Trump's announcement on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal. Hours later, Israeli rocket rockets targeted a military base in Kisweh, a commander in the pro-Syrian government regional alliance said.

That attack killed 15 people, including eight Iranians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, though the commander said there were no casualties. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

The Trump administration cast its hard tack against the Iranian nuclear deal as a response, in part, to Tehran's military interventions in the region.

White House press secretary in Fox News interview

X

The Golan flare-up with Israel "is just further demonstration that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted and another good reminder that the president made the right decision to get out of the Iran deal," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News.

Russia warned

The tensions worry Russia, which wants to stabilize Syria.

Thursday's flare-up came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from a visit to Moscow, where he discussed Syria concerns with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Conricus said Israel forewarned Russia of its strikes on Thursday, which Syrian state media first reported hit Baath City in Quneitra, near the border. Further waves of missiles followed. Syrian state media said Israeli missiles had been brought down over Damascus, Homs and Sueida.

"Air defenses confronted tens of Israeli rockets and some of them reached their target and destroyed one of the radar sites," Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing a military source. Another rocket hit an ammunition warehouse, it said.

Syrian state television was broadcasting footage of its air defenses firing, and playing patriotic songs. Damascus residents described explosions in the sky from air defense systems.

Israeli media said residents of Metula, on the Lebanese border, had been instructed to go to bomb shelters. There was no official confirmation.

Lebanon's National News Agency reported Israeli jets circling over Lebanese territory early on Thursday before exiting.Following an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights and Israeli retaliation against the Quds Forcean external arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guardsthat allegedly launched the attack against Israel overnight Wednesday, the IDF said in a statement that "the attack on Syria represents our abilities and what we have in store.

"We will not allow Iranian entrenchment in Syria. The Quds Force paid a heavy price tonight, and for any other attempt on its part to hurt Israel it will pay even more.

"Iran will need a lot of time and resources to rehabilitate its operational, military and intelligence infrastructures we hit tonight," the IDF said.In the wake of Israeli strike on Syria on Thursday, a Syrian official said to the Lebanese newspaper al-Nashra, "The recent escalation is a main issue in the Syria.

"The Israeli aggression will be met with defensive means and rocket launching at Isreali targets," the official added.IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said in an Ynet interview on Thursday morning that the "IDF attack on Syria took place as part of a pre-planned operation, based on solid intelligence and extremely high abilities of the IAF.

"It will take the Quds Force months to recover from the Israeli strike," Manelis added.

"This strike is a message to everyone who seeks to harm us and undermine Israel and its sovereignty, especially in front of its citizens. The IDF is prepared for any scenario," he went on to say.Iraq captured five Islamic State commanders after its intelligence services lured them into crossing from neighboring Syria, Iraqi state TV reported on Wednesday.

It described the five as "some of the most wanted" leaders of the group. They were named as Saddam al-Jammel, Mohamed al-Qadeer, Ismail al-Eithawi, Omar al-Karbouli and Essam al-Zawbai and were shown in yellow prisoner uniforms.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said last month he would "take all necessary measures" against militants based in Syria. The Iraqi air force has carried out several air strikes since last year against Islamic State positions in Syrian territory.Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday he hoped the latest round of violence with Iran on the Syrian frontier was over.

"I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message," Lieberman said at the Herzliya security conference near Tel Aviv.

"Israel hit almost all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," Lieberman added.

"None of the Iranian rockets struck inside Israeli-held territory, and they either fell short or were shot down by Israeli defenses," he went on to say.

On the Golan Heights, Israeli schoolchildren went to class as usual on Thursday morning and sirens had sent residents into shelters overnight.Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday at the Herzliya Conference that "destroying Iranian infrastructures in Syria isn't an absolute victory."

Lieberman also warned against complacency and smugness, saying: "We are not interested in escalation. We have no interest in conquering Syria. We do not interfere in the civil war. We hope that one day they will stop talking about the destruction of Israel," he added.

"Iran tried to hurt Israel, yet no missile landed in Israel's territory. All of them fell on Syrian territory or were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system.

"The IDF damaged almost all of Iran's infrastructures in Syria, and they have to remember that if it rains in Israel, it would pour in Syria," he concluded.Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday that, unlike Iran, Israel wasn't trying to build a new border and expand.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



"Iran is the one constantly trying to expand and create new proxies and fronts," Lieberman told the Herzliya Conference, addressing the escalation in Syria on Wednesday night following an Iranian attack on Israeli bases in the Golan Heights and the Israeli strikes against dozens of Iranian targets in retaliation.

"We hit almost the entire Iranian infrastructure in Syria," he said. "They must understand that if it rains here, it will pour there.

Lieberman at the Herzliya Conference, Thursday morning (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

"Their activity isn't limited to the State of Israel," the defense minister added. "We see Iranians operating in Yemen, in Iraq, in Lebanon and in Africa as well. Iran is perhaps the only country today which represents extremism not only through ideology but also actively and with a willingness to sacrifice its own citizens and its future for the sake of that radical ideology."

Lieberman reiterated the IDF spokesperson's comments that not a single Iranian missile hit Israeli territory.

Lieberman was asked by his interviewer, Major-General (res.) Amos Gilad, former head of the Defense Ministry's Political-Military Affairs Bureau, where was Israel headed from here. "The elected president may be (Hassan) Rouhani," the defense minister replied, "but supreme leader (Ali) Khamenei is the one calling the shots. He holds the reins. We saw him deliver a blatant speech against the United States and (President Donald) Trump and we saw an Israeli flag being burned inside the Iranian parliament. That's the direction Iran is headed in today, unfortunately."

'We have no conflict with the Iranian people'

Addressing the possibility of a civilian revolt in Iran, Lieberman said: "The Iranian currency is collapsing, as is the entire economy there. Their fanatic regime is willing to sacrifice the young generation's future for this ideology. Last week, the Telegram (instant messaging service) stirred a row in Iran after Tehran blocked the app. There was a huge commotion. I hope that we'll eventually see changes in the Middle East, as well as in Iran's relations with the world and with Israel. We have no conflict with the Iranian people."

Lieberman said Syrian President Bashar Assad wasn't happy with the Iranian presence either. "His abilities are very limited. He is fighting for his survival and keeps murdering his citizens."

Syrian antiaircraft fire, Wednesday night (Photo: Reuters)

Asked whether Israeli should change their daily routine following the recent events, the defense minister said: "I would like to warn against complacence and smugness. This isn't an absolute victory. It's all limited to a conflict between us and the Iranian Quds Force in Syria. Everyone wants to limit the conflict to this slot. I'm sure that not everyone in Iran agrees with the Quds Force's activity in Syria.

"We have no interest in occupying Syria, we are not intervening in the civil war, we are not meddling with our neighbors' affairs. We hope that one day they'll stop talking about destroying Israel. We have no interest in escalating the situation, but we must be focused. We have a persistent enemy which has been trying to target us for years. This is a new stage and I say we have to remain cautious and modest and avoid getting carried away. I hope we have managed to end the new chapter of dealing with the Iranian extremism for now."

The defense minister sees another threat, this time from Lebanon. "There are bad news, and we have to pay attention. In the elections that just ended, Hezbollah basically completed its takeover of Lebanon. They say it was democratically elected? Hitler was democratically elected too. The Lebanese army is turning into a branch of Hezbollah and will operate directly through (Hezbollah leader Hassan) Nasrallah. It's a new reality. Like with the Iranians in Syria, we don't want to return to Lebanon and dont want to build settlements there."

Lieberman added that "Israel is dealing with several conflicts simultaneously. With Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the friction isn't a reflection of Hamas' success but of its failure. Hamas has failed in managing the Gaza Strip, providing Gaza's residents with work and livelihood, which is why it's trying to divert the anger against us and shirk responsibility. They are talking about a grave humanitarian situation, but have invested in tunnels rather than in the health system, in electricity or water. The recent outburst of violence created by Hamas cost them over $20 million.

"There is a radical leadership here, like in Tehran, which is willing to sacrifice children for the sake of an extreme ideology to harm Israel. In the coming days they will try to provoke us and blame the violence on the US embassy move. We are prepared and will deal with the threats simultaneously. When we say we are prepared to solve the Gaza problem, we are telling them to give up their aspiration to destroy Israel and agree to demilitarization. That's something we won't compromise on."

As for the peace process in the region, the defense minister said: "In the modern world, to have a stable country with an ability to live in peace with its neighbors, we need a strong and successful middle class, like in Switzerland and Norway. There is no poverty there and no oligarchs, and 90 percent of the population belongs to a strong and successful middle class. In the Arab world, there is 90 percent poverty and lack of hope, and that's one of the problems. In a country like Yemen, where 60 percent are Sunni and the rest are Shiites, including Houthis, the majority of the population can't read or write. Clearly, it's difficult to reach stability with such a country."

Lieberman said he hopes Sunni Arab countries would "come out of the closet."

"Who supported (US President Donald) Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear agreement with Iran? Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. So I think it's time for those moderate countries to 'come out of the closet' and start talking openly. Just like there's an axis of evil, it's time for the Middle East to also have an axis of moderate countries."

'A clear red line'

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, a member of the Political-Security Cabinet, told the Herzliya Conference on Thursday that the message of the Israeli strike in Syria was that Israel won't allow Iran to create a front against Israel.

"Tonight we painted the red line we have drawn in Syria in a clear red color with a clear message: Whoever crosses this line will be targeted. We won't allow Suleimani or Khamenei or anyone else fire missiles at the State of Israel and advance abilities in an attempt to threaten the Israeli front and home front. We won't allow Iran to built a front against the State of Israel in Syria. This is a clear message which was operationally implemented overnight in a really unusual and exceptional intelligence and IDF operation. This is a policy we have drawn as a red line and we stand behind it."

Minister Katz at the Herzliya Conference (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

As for the possibility that the Iranians tried to bring long-range antiaircraft missiles into Syria, Minister Katz said: "I don't think we have reached that stage, but any missile ability aimed at disrupting the IDF's ability to act in the air or to threaten the Golan Heights, the Israeli home front, is an ability we will prevent and won't allow in Syria. This is a very clear line.

"We have to understand that there are three stages here. Iran has been in Syria for 20 years now to help Hezbollah and the Shiites. In the past seven years, it has reinforced its abilities to fight ISIS, it has brought Hezbollah in and it has done other things. As of last August, after ISIS was basically defeated in Syria, Iran started opening a front against the State of Israel, arming itself with offensive weapons, with defensive weapons, and bringing 80,000 to 100,000 Shiite militia soldiers from all over the Middle East to Syria to build an offensive model against Israel. That's something we won't allow."

Minister Katz was asked whether the Russians had given Israel the green light for the IDF's overnight operation in Syria. "The Russians don't really greenlight such operations," he replied. "There is no friction between us and the Russians. We dont harm Russian soldiers, Russian abilities, and they dont intervene and dont stop Israel from acting. That shouldnt be taken for granted. Russia isn't preventing the Iranian entrenchment, but it isn't stopping Israel from acting.

"Israel is determined and it has the intelligence abilities to locate the Iranian presence and the special operational abilities to act. It has basically created an Iranian dilemma: Either pull out of Syria or suffer the consequences and get dragged into a conflict. We won't invade Syria to get Iran out of there. In the end, Iran has to make the political decision, as a result of internal pressure from a public that is economically collapsing there because of the aggressive policy and the money being spent and the American sanctions on the way. At the end of the day, we have to break the Iranian desire to be here, to get Russia to put a bit more pressure to maintain stability and stabilize Syria, and to get the Americans to increase the pressure."

Asked whether the overnight strikes have ended of the current round between Israel and Iran in Syria, Katz replied: "The round hasn't ended yet. We're at the beginning of the road, but we made significant progress yesterday."Dick Cheney and Leon Panetta, who served at the highest levels of US government, see potential unintended consequences of the Trump administrations decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, including possible military action in the Middle East.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The men were speaking at the Context Leadership Summit in Las Vegas, a hedge fund-themed conference that brought together investors, money managers and former policy makers.

Former Vice-President Cheney: 'I dont expect military action but it is anyones guess. Its the Middle East' (Photo: AFP)

Cheney, who served as vice president in the George Bush administration, and Panetta, who served as President Barack Obamas defense secretary, pondered the consequences a day after US President Donald Trump left the international agreement, raising the risk of conflict in the Middle East, upsetting European allies and casting uncertainty over global oil supplies.

Panetta said the most worrisome issue for him is that Iran might continue to enrich uranium to build its nuclear capabilities. That could prompt Israel to react, Panetta said.

I dont think Israel is going to stand by and allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon because they would view that as a direct threat to the existence of Israel, Panetta, 79, said.

It would be my sense that Israel would seriously consider some type of military action to deal with that.

Given the US relationship with Israel, the United States would probably have to be part of that, he added.

Trump's announcement about US withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal

X

Cheney, 77, who said he never liked the Iran nuclear deal, agreed there could be conflict in the region even though he is not thinking that the United States would be automatically drawn in.

I dont expect military action but it is anyones guess. Its the Middle East, he said.

Both men said US allies in the region could play a critical role in helping keep the geopolitical balance. Panetta recommended a NATO-like coalition, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Jordan and Turkey.

Global world'

More long-term dangers for the United States include Chinas growing power, Cheney said.

Over a long term they are more likely to represent a strategic challenge to the US than Russia or any of the other nations out there, he said.

Both Cheney and Panetta, who both served as US defense secretary during their careers, worried about Chinas decision to militarize islands in the South China Sea and urged a stronger US military presence in the region.

Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta with former US President Barack Obama (Photo: AFP)

I think it is very important for us to talk with them, communicate with the Chinese, but to do it from strength, Panetta said. The best way to do that is to simultaneously increase both diplomatic and military might, he said.

The men spoke on a panel dubbed a Bi-partisan Discussion on the Future of US Politics.

Each has a child who is now serving in Congress and said they were confident the next generation of lawmakers would work harder to build government consensus.

Panetta said it was a mistake by the Trump administration to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, and by walking away, the United States gave China a chance to expand its influence.

This is a global world. We cannot isolate ourselves from that world, Panetta said.

In discussing trade agreements, Cheney recommended staying in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which President Trump has criticized.

NAFTA has been a good deal, he said. I hope we do not do something foolish in terms of trade policy.

One thing they were both quick to agree on is that Gina Haspel, Trumps pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, should be confirmed.

President Trump warned Iran on Wednesday against resuming its nuclear weapons program. I would advise Iran not to start their nuclear program, Trump told reporters at the start of a Cabinet meeting when asked about the potential consequences. I would advise them very strongly. If they do there will be very severe consequence.Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon called upon the Iranians Thursday morning to "go home," saying "you have nothing to do in Syria."

In a Ynet interview, Kahlon said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Security Cabinet's decision not to allow Iranian entrenchment in Syria was absolutely correct.

"If Iran entrenches itself in Syria with weapons, it would close our airspace and attack half of the country with missiles. We wouldn't know how to explain our children how we had let that happen," Kahlon added.The White House says US President Donald Trump has signed an act that Jewish groups praise as helpful in their efforts to reclaim lost property in Poland, but which the Polish government says is discriminatory toward Poles.

The White House said Wednesday Trump signed the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Todayor JUSTAct. It requires the State Department to report to Congress on what certain countries have done to compensate Holocaust survivors or their heirs for assets seized under Nazi and Communist rule.

The law does not give the US any powers to act against any country and does not single out Poland. But Warsaw has strongly opposed it.

Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz recently told The Associated Press it sets Jews above non-Jewish claimants and "divides our society."Members of the Security cabinet were summoned Thursday to convene at the Kirya Base in Tel Aviv at 6 pm following the overnight Israeli strike in Syria after Iran launched rockets into Israel from Syrian territory.Russia's defense ministry said on Thursday that Syria had shot down more than half of the missiles fired at it overnight by Israel, RIA news agency reported.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



According to the report, the Israeli strike was carried out by 28 planes which fired at least 60 missiles, including 10 surface-to-surface missiles.

A Syrian war monitoring group said the attacks killed 23 fighters, including five Syrian soldiers.

Interception of Israeli missiles in Syria

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Thursday the overnight attacks struck several military posts for Syrian troops and Iranian-backed militias near the capital, Damascus, in central Syria and in southern Syria.

The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdurrahman, said five Syrian soldiers, including two officers, and 18 militia fighters were killed. Abdurrahman says it is not immediately clear if Iranians were among those killed. He said the toll was likely to rise because some of the wounded are in critical condition.

The Observatory said the strikes targeted suspected locations of the Lebanese Hezbollah group, as well as areas where Iranian advisers are believed to be based.

Meanwhile Thursday, the TASS news agency quoted Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov as saying his country was concerned about growing military tensions between Israel and Iran over Syria and calling for them to de-escalate after recent missile strikes.

"This is all very alarming, it causes concern. There should be work to de-escalate the tensions," TASS quoted Bogdanov as saying.

French President Emmanuel Macron also appealed for calm.

"The president has been kept regularly updated. He calls for a de-escalation in the situation," Macron's office said in a statement.

Macron will discuss the Middle East in a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel later on Thursday, the Elysee said.

British Ambssador to Israel David Quarrey says Israel has a right to defend itself (Photo: Eli Attias)

UK Ambassador to Israel David Quarrey said Thursday that his country was concerned about the escalation on Israel's northern border amid Iranian attack on Israel and the IDF's retaliation.

Querry said in a Ynet interview that he expected London to condemn the Iranian attack and to support Israel's right to defend itself, as it did after an Iranian drone infiltrated Israel in February.

Hamas issued a statement saying, "We condemn the ongoing attack on the Palestinian people and on the region's countries and the Israeli escalation against Syria. This proves that Israel is the Arab nation's main enemy and its greatest threat and is mongering terror in the region.

"Hamas stresses the Arab and Islamic countries' right to defend their lands and their right to respond with force to any act of aggression, and this requires the Arab nation to put all its energies and abilities into deterring the enemy and thwarting its plans, which are negatively affecting the Palestinian issue and the region," the Palestinian organization said.

Lieberman: We hit almost all Iranian infrastructure

Israel said it attacked nearly all of Iran's military infrastructure in Syria on Thursday after Iranian forces fired rockets at Israeli-held territory for the first time.

It was the heaviest Israeli barrage in Syria since the start in 2011 of its civil war, in which Iranians, allied Shiite militias and Russian soldiers have deployed in support of President Bashar Assad.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Iranian rockets either fell short of their targets, military bases in the Golan Heights, or were intercepted.

Photo: Reuters (Photo: Reuters)

Expectations of a regional flare-up, amid warnings from Israel it was determined to prevent Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, were stoked by US President Donald Trump's announcement on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal.

The Trump administration portrayed its position against that agreement as a response, in part, to Tehran's military interventions in the regionunderpinning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tough line towards Iran.

The Golan attack was "just further demonstration that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted and another good reminder that the president made the right decision to get out of the Iran deal," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News.

Israel said 20 Iranian Grad and Fajr rockets were shot down by its Iron Dome air defence system or did not reach targets in the Golan.

The Quds Force, an external arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, carried out the launch, Israel said.

Syrian state media said dozens of Israeli missiles struck a radar station, Syrian air defence positions and an ammunition dump, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies.

"We hit ... almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," Lieberman said, in a question and answer session at the annual Herzliya security conference in Tel Aviv. "I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message."

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters the Iranian attack was "commanded and ordered by (Quds Force chief General) Qassem Suleimani and it has not achieved its purpose".

Conricus said Israel responded by destroying dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria, as well as Syrian anti-aircraft units that tried unsuccessfully to shoot down Israeli planes.

"We do not know yet the (Iranian) casualty count," he said.

"But I can say that in terms of our purpose, we focused less on personnel and more on capabilities and hardware ... to inflict long-term damage on the Iranian military establishment in Syria. We assess it will take substantial time to replenish."

There was no immediate comment from Iran.

In the Golan Heights, Israeli schools opened as usual on Thursday morning, after sirens sent residents to shelters during the night.

Lieberman said Israel was not seeking escalation on the Syrian front. But Tzachi Hanegbi, a cabinet minister close to Netanyahu, cautioned that more confrontation could come.

"I don't think I can tell you that one blow, as effective and crushing as the one they (the Iranians) received last night, is enough to convince a regime that is usually very fanatical and determined," he said on Israel Radio.

New front

The Israelis fear that Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah are turning Syria into a new front against them. Israel says its occasional strikes in Syria aim to foil that.

Iran vowed retaliation after a suspected Israeli air strike last month killed seven of its military personnel in a Syrian air base.

Israel regards Iran as its biggest threat, and has repeatedly targeted Iranian forces and allied militia in Syria.

On Tuesday, hours after Trump's announcement on the nuclear deal, Israeli rockets targeted a military base in Kisweh, a commander in the pro-Syrian government regional alliance said.

That attack killed 15 people, including eight Iranians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, though the commander said there were no casualties. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

Thursday's conflagration came hours after Netanyahu returned from a visit to Moscow, where he discussed concerns about Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Netanyahu said after the discussions that Russia was unlikely to limit Israel's armed actions in Syria. The Israeli military said Israel had forewarned Russia of its strikes on Thursday.The Central District Attorney's Office filed Thursday an indictment against Baruch Klein, grandson of United Torah Judaism's MK Menachem Eliezer, for smuggling nine Kg. of cocaine two weeks ago.

24-year-old Baruch Klein was detained at Ben Gurion Airport after flying in from Belgium with cocaine hidden in his suitcase as well as wine bottles containing a liquid drug, according to the indictment.Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid said Thursday during a security conference in Herzliya that "Europe has to stop burying its head in sand and think Iranians have become Norwegians.

"I warned the EU's leaders that escalation is inevitable and that we must not try to appease Iran, but rather act against it with force and without hesitation.A Syrian war monitoring group says Israeli attacks on several sites in Syria have killed 23 fighters, including five Syrian soldiers.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Thursday the overnight attacks struck several military posts for Syrian troops and Iranian-backed militias near the capital, Damascus, in central Syria and in southern Syria.

The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdurrahman, said five Syrian soldiers, including two officers, and 18 militia fighters were killed. Abdurrahman says it is not immediately clear if Iranians were among those killed.If the Treasury is convinced that the defense establishment needs more money and resourcesit will receive them, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon told Ynet on Thursday morning following Wednesday night's escalation between Israel and Iran in Syria.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



"We see the security threats to the State of Israel eye to eye," he added.

Kahlon said he was amazed when he first heard about the amount of missiles Hezbollah has accumulated.

Kahlon at the Ynet studio, Thursday (Photo: Moshe Kahlon)

The Political-Security Cabinet will convene for a special discussion at the Kirya Base in Tel Aviv at 5:30 pm Thursday, following the Israeli attack on 50 Iranian targets overnight in response to 20 rockets fired at the Golan Heights from Syria.

Conveying a direct message to Tehran, Kahlon said: "Go home. You have nothing to do in Syria, especially when you target Israel. You want to build hotels or resorts? Fine. But if you come there as an army, to open another front, we already have Hezbollah, and now we'll have Syria, and we have Gaza, thank you very much. They have nothing to do in Syria, definitely not as an army and definitely not as an entrenchment, and we will pursue a zero tolerance policy."

Addressing the fortification budget, Kahlon said offered the following example: "Several months ago, the defense minister asked for an extra 150 million shekels to fortify public facilities in the north. We transferred the money. I said to the Defense Ministry and to the chief of staff, 'If you're missing any money, we'll add more. We'll sit down, hold discussions and look into it. If it's true, we'll give you the money."

Israeli tanks in the Golan Heights (Photo: Reuters)

According to the finance minister, the Treasury allotted a sum "according to the Defense Ministry and army's demand. Let them work, let them do whatever it takes. They have our support. If they need more, we'll transfer more.

"Three years ago," Kahlon said, "I attended a cabinet meeting for the first time and we were presented with a report on Lebanon and on the amount of missiles Hezbollah has. I said to myself, 'Where were we this entire time? How did we let this happen? The prime minister and cabinet's decision not to allow an Iranian entrenchment in Syria is absolutely correct. Otherwise, we won't be able to explain to our children how the Iranians entrenched themselves there, closed our airspace and are covering half of the country with missiles."

As for the security tensions in the north, Kahlon said "it's no secret that the Iranians tried to retaliate the events of the past few weeks." The sense of euphoria following the overnight military operation is the real threat, he said. "That's exactly where the danger lies, in complacence and euphoria.

"The army was prepared, ready and alert ahead of this operation and we have an intelligence advantage there. It's no secret," he added. "On the other hand, the IDF hasn't exhausted even 50 percent of its abilities in this case. The IDF has other goals and abilities to thwart such attacks on Israel. Every activity that threatens Israel's security will be met with the harshest and most painful response."

Asked what would be the next step if Wednesday night's operation failed to deter the Iranians, Kahlon said: "'We'll do whatever we have to do to kick them out of there.

"Any preventive measure that should be taken is being taken. At the moment, they are having a lot of trouble entrenching themselves because of our supremacy at this time, both from an intelligence perspective and from an operational perspective. We must implement it and send the Iranians back home. We have no business with them. This isn't their border. We share a border with Syria, and we even share a border with Gaza and with Lebanon. The Iranians, apart from threatening to destroy the State of Israel, aren't doing anything else."

Lapid: I warned EU an escalation was inevitable

Meanwhile Thursday, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid criticized European leaders following the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement with Iran.

"They must stop burying their head in the sand and thinking that the Iranians will become Norwegian," he told the Herzliya Conference. "I warned the European Union that an escalation was inevitable and that they shouldnt try to appease Iran but rather act against it aggressively and without any hesitations."

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid at the Herzliya Conference, Thursday (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Addressing Netanyahu's contribution to Trump's decision on Iran, Lapid said: "Netanyahu's associates led an attack against me. I opposed and I still oppose the nuclear agreement. I'm part of the Israeli effort to lead to a change or cancel the agreement. The agreement can't be left the way it is. There is no disagreement between me and the government over this issue. Cancelling the agreement is not the strategy; it's a tool in a much wider battle.

"The prime minister was wrong to address Congress behind President Obama's back. It created a serious rift with the Democratic Party which hasn't been amended since then. In fact, it has only gotten worse. There may have been a nuclear agreement we could have lived with.

"I am also saying that the prime minister was to expose sensitive information on television. It made the enemy wake up. If that intelligence information would have been presented in a closed forum, it would have had a much bigger impact. None of the relevant players changed their mind following Netanyahu's show."

Avi Gabbay (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Labor leader Avi Gabbay congratulated the IDF on its overnight operation in Syria. "The defense establishment's perception that the Iranians should be prevented from creating another front against us is correct and accurate and requires strikes like the ones we saw last night, and the same applies to the southern front.

"Our top commitment is to ensure the long-term existence of the State of Israel and its security. Unfortunately, the Netanyahu government is caught in a conception that the conflict can be managed with the Palestinians forever and that this conflict has nothing to do with the conflict with Iran. I think that's a mistake. We must create a political horizon to lower the intensity of the conflict and increase regional stability."

Ron Ben-Yishai, Alexandra Lukash, Itamar Eichner and Inbar Tvizer contributed to this report.A day after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, several families of American prisoners held in the Islamic Republic urged the White House to start humanitarian talks with Tehran to win their release.

The families made the appeal as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was returning home on Wednesday with three Americans freed from imprisonment by North Korea, with whom Washington is hoping to pursue denuclearization talks.

Already tense relations between Washington and Tehran hit a new low with Trump extracting the United States from the 2015 international nuclear accord, making it unlikely either country would be in a mood to engage in any talks soon.Residents of the Golan Heights went through a tense night Wednesday after 20 rockets were launched into Israel from Syrian territory, leading to a wide-scaled IDF attack on Iranian targets in Syria.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The Golan Heights' residents said Thursday morning was relatively quiet, and seemed to be maintaining vigilance, yet they continued with their routine as much as possible.

Children head to school as usual, Thursday morning (Photo: Avihu Shapira)

"We spent the night in a security room," said Kibbutz El Rom's resident Mirit Cohen. "Our children slept with us, we are well trained and prepared for these kinds of events.

"The night was a bit tense, but all in all we feel safe. This has been a routine morning for us, knowing the IDF is keeping us safe," Cohen added.

A resident of Moshav Sha'al, located in the northern Golan Heights, said the air raid siren went off the minute he and his family went to bed around midnight.

"I immediately received a message on my phone instructing us to enter the security rooms. We kept being updated by the local council's situation room about what was going on," Haziza said.

'We weren't surprised about the turn of events. The tension in our region has been rising recently, and we've been feeling it very vividly. We know what to do and continue with our routine," he went on to say.

Syrian antiaircraft fire (Photo: Rueters)

El Rom's director of tourism Eran Levi said that for now there were no cancelations of vacations scheduled for the coming weekend.

"Several buses with German and American tourists are scheduled to arrive today. Moreover, numerous guides who regularly work with us said they will come to support us. So far everything is okay," Levi said.

"We felt our biggest concern yesterday. Today people feel it's behind them and they can resume their routine. In my opinion, those who come here want to show their support for the State of Israel."

Another El Rom's resident said she sent her children to school with no fear. "We are not scared and continue with life as usual. Once in a while, the air raid siren goes off, and then we go into the security room. This is how we live here and that's that."

Golan residents feel protected by IDF (Photo: Avihu Shapira)

El Rom's security coordinator, Motti Fiada, described Wednesday night's events. "Air raid sirens began going off around midnight. Rockets were fired, most of them were intercepted, and we heard the IDF retaliate.

"Naturally, due to past experience, our residents are well trained and know how to protect themselves," he said.

"We all went into the security rooms and followed the Home Front Command and Golan Heights Regional Council's instructions," Fiada elaborated.

"We operated like a well-oiled machine, and luckily the whole event ended quickly and easily. The mental strength our residents show is unique and its effect is evident. Our children went to school this morning, farmers are working in the fields since dawn. We resumed our routine completely and expect many visitors during the weekend," Fiada explained.

"The residents are not indifferent, but are very far from being hysterical. We keep practicing entering safe zones and this is exactly what we'll do during the night," he concluded.Syria's Army Command said Thursday that only three people were killed and two injured Wednesday night in Israeli strikes after Iranian forces fired rockets at Israeli-held territory for the first time.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



A war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the strikes had killed at least 23 military personnel, including Syrians and non-Syrians.

Antiaircraft missiles in the Damascus sky (Photo: EPA)

Syrian state media said Israel launched dozens of missiles and hit a radar station, Syrian air defense positions and an ammunition dump, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies.

"We destroyed most of the missiles fired by Israel," the Syrian army boasted. "The Syrian army's general command is prepared and ready to deal with every strike in full force. We are also committed to thwarting any attempt to support terror groups operating in our country."

Syrian television broadcast

X

Russia's defense ministry said earlier that Syria had shot down more than half of the missiles fired by Israel, RIA news agency reported.

Syria's Army Command added that "thanks to our air defense system's preparedness and abilities, we managed to intercept many of the Israeli missiles directed at some of our military sites at dawn. These attacks have no purpose other than bolstering the terror groups operating in the country."

According to Israeli and foreign reports, the IDF attacked 50 Iranian targets in Syria after 20 rockets were fired at the Golan Heights. Some of the rockets were shot down. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

Syrian media, however, presented a different picture of the events, with Syrian news anchors praising the Assad army.

"The Zionist enemy won't withstand another powerful blow like the one it was dealt last night," a Syrian television presenter said. According to another report, "Planes at Ben-Gurion Airport can't keep up with the number of people trying to flee Israel."

"Syria is the strongest army in the world thanks to the great Assad and his army," said another television presenter.

Syrian propaganda

One of the Syrian media outlets reported that Syria's air defense system "successfully shot down dozens of missiles fired from the Israeli air force's planes at targets in the Damascus area."

The report added that the Syrian rockets "humiliated the Iron Dome," which according to Syrian journalists "failed to intercept the rockets launched from Syria at nine military targets, including Israeli intelligence bases."

The Syrian media failed to mention the damage inflicted on Quds Force targets by the IDF, as well as a strike in the Idlib area by Russian warplanes, which killed members of two families in a small village in the area.

The Syrian claims are "backed" by plenty of pictures and videos.

A missile 'interception' according to Syrian television

Syrian television further argued that "Israel and the United States are presenting false claims about the Iranian nuclear program" and that "Israel is using this opportunity" to justify strikes in Syria.

The situation was slightly different on social media. While state media remained loyal to the regime, some Syrians voiced their disappointment over the failure to retaliate the ongoing Israeli strikes in Syria, while others mocked Iran's "empty threats."

Many Syrians repeated the conspiracy theory the rebel forces are operated by Israel and that the Islamic State is actually an Israeli force operating inside the country, receiving funding, training and weapons from Israel to carry out its missions.The Latest on the war in Syria, where Israel responded to a rocket attack by launching a wave of missile strikes on Iranian positions.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron are calling for de-escalation in the Middle East after an alleged Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights prompted Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria.

Merkel and Macron met in Aachen, Germany Thursday on the sidelines of a ceremony where Macron was awarded a prize for contributions to European unity. The German government said they discussed events in the Middle East and called for "level-headedness and de-escalation in the region."

Merkel alluded to the two countries' support for the Iran nuclear deal. She said: "We know that we face an extremely complicated situation here. The escalation of the last few hours shows it is truly a matter of war and peace, and I can only call on all involved to exercise restraint."Russia calls on Israel and Iran to show restraint in their standoff and to resolve their differences by diplomatic means only, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters on Thursday.A top official from the Arab Gulf country of Bahrain is defending what he says is Israel's "right" to defend itself after Israel launched overnight strikes on Iranian targets in Syria.

Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa wrote on Twitter Thursday that so long as Iran uses its forces and missiles to try and destabilize the region, "it is the right of any country in the region, including Israel to defend itself by destroying sources of danger."

Israel says Iranian rocket attacks on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights prompted the overnight strikes. Iran has not commented on the accusations.

Bahrain, a close US ally, considers Iran a regional threat. The tiny island-nation accuses its Persian Gulf neighbor of arming and training Shiite Bahraini protesters with the aim of destabilizing the Sunni-ruled country. Bahrain has also welcomed President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear accord with Iran.A top official from the Arab Gulf country of Bahrain is defending what he says is Israel's "right" to defend itself after Israel launched overnight strikes on Iranian targets in Syria

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa wrote on Twitter Thursday that so long as Iran uses its forces and missiles to try and destabilize the region, "it is the right of any country in the region, including Israel to defend itself by destroying sources of danger."

Israel says Iranian rocket attacks on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights prompted the overnight strikes. Iran has not commented on the accusations.

Syrian antiaircraft fire (Photo: EPA)

Bahrain, a close US ally, considers Iran a regional threat. The tiny island-nation accuses its Persian Gulf neighbor of arming and training Shiite Bahraini protesters with the aim of destabilizing the Sunni-ruled country. Bahrain has also welcomed President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear accord with Iran.

The United States on Thursday condemned Iran's "provocative rocket attacks" from Syria and supported Israel's right to defend itself.

"The Iranian regime's deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East," the White House said in a statement.

It said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps "bears full responsibility for the consequences of its reckless actions."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron (Photo: AFP)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron called for de-escalation in the Middle East.

Merkel and Macron met in Aachen, Germany Thursday on the sidelines of a ceremony where Macron was awarded a prize for contributions to European unity. The German government said they discussed events in the Middle East and called for "level-headedness and de-escalation in the region."

Merkel alluded to the two countries' support for the Iran nuclear deal. She said: "We know that we face an extremely complicated situation here. The escalation of the last few hours shows it is truly a matter of war and peace, and I can only call on all involved to exercise restraint."

Britain condemned the Iranian rocket attack "in the strongest terms."

In a statement Thursday, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson urged Iran to refrain from actions that could destabilize the region. Johnson also called on Russia to press the Syrian government, its ally, to work toward a broader political settlement.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson (Photo: Reuters)

Russia said the Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities in Syria marked a dangerous escalation, urging both Israel and Iran to avoid provoking each other.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow saw Thursday's strikes as a "very alarming development."

He noted that in contacts with the leadership of both countries, including a meeting Wednesday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "we underlined the necessity of avoiding any actions that might be mutually provocative." Netanyahu visited Moscow Wednesday to attend celebrations marking the WWII victory anniversary.France urged Iran on Thursday to refrain from all "military provocation" after Israel said Iranian forces had fired rockets from Syria at Israeli army bases in the Golan Heights.

France "demands Iran desist from all military provocation and warns it against all temptations for regional hegemony," the French foreign ministry said in a statement.Former Shin Bet head Yoram Cohen said Thursday Israel should aspire to establish a peace agreement that will enable it to preserve its Jewish and democratic character.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



"In my opinion, reaching an agreement with the Palestinian Authority is an Israeli national interest and we have to aspire attain it," Cohen said during a security conference in Herzliya.

Such an agreement, Cohen added, would dramatically reduce Israeli control over the Palestinians and will diminish hostility and animosity, as well as foster security understandings, which would preserve Israel as a Jewish democratic state.

Fmr. Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen said a peace agreement with the Palestinians will be beneficial for Israel (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Cohen emphasized that substantial differences between the Israeli and Palestinian stances about core issues, lack of willingness on the Palestinian Authority's part to make significant compromises, an ongoing stalemate in peace talks and the Authority's inability to provide a proper response to existing and future security threats all prevent the two sides from reaching a peace agreement in the next few years.

"One can say that during the past decade, Israel and the Palestinians went through a dramatic change," Cohen analyzed

"The Palestinian Authority used to be a unified system, but Gaza's split from the West Bank led to the existence of a separate entity (in Gaza) that is guided by a different kind of logic," Cohen explained.

"The Palestinian Authority's logic was one that aspired to a peace agreement and Hamas's logic is based on resistance," he went on to say.

The Hamas terror group worked on a logic predicated on resistance, Cohen said (Photo: EPA)

"The different stances of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have resulted in a rift between them, which led to contradictory actions, and mutual achievement prevention. The outcome is the absence of reconciliation," Cohen lamented.

The former security agency chief also stated there has been a deceleration in Hamas's military strength building in Gaza, saying the terror organization has lost many valuable assets during the past few years.

"Hamas's attempts to spread terror across the West Bank during the last decade have failed. I was privileged to be among those who led the cease-fire agreement after Operation Protective Edge," he said.

"Since August 25, 2014, all Gazan factions have withheld from shooting into Israel and maintain the state of calm," Cohen continued.

"As we all know, we are witnessing the quietest period we've had in two decades," he posited.

Israel should be worried about Gaza's infrastructures, Cohen claimed (Photo: AFP)

According to Cohen, Israel should be worried about Gaza's infrastructures, including water, sewage, and energy infrastructures. "People can't provide for themselves. There is no poverty, but it's difficult to obtain fluid money and use it. We all know that the lack of growth engines indicates this situation will last for many years to come," Cohen elucidated.

"Recent sanctions the Palestinian Authority has imposed on Hamas as part of its pressure mechanism have obviously also harmed Gaza financially," he concluded.MOSCOW - The foreign ministers of Germany and Russia said on Thursday they were working to preserve the Iran nuclear deal after US President Donald Trump announced Washington would leave it and ordered sanctions reimposed on Tehran.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said it was crucial Iran sticks to its obligations under the international 2015 deal despite Trump promising to impose new sanctions on Tehran. Moscow, he said, could use its influence on Tehran to that end.

"It is necessary that Iran stays in the agreement. It is in Iran's interest, too, to keep the agreement alive," Maas said after meeting Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the deal on Tuesday, saying it was deeply flawed, a stance at odds with major US allies and Russia and China. Under the accord, reached before Trump took office, Iran curbed its nuclear fuel production drive and won sanctions relief in return.

Maas said Germany was seeking more details from the United States about fresh sanctions Washington was considering.Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said Thursday that while Wednesday night's strikes in Syria were successful as far as Israel was concerned, they might not be enough to deter the Iranians from opening a front against the IDF in the Golan Heights.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



"The results of this night are definitely good for Israel," he told Ynet. "I hope the Iranians assess the situation and realize they shouldn't try to open a front against us. In general, the Israeli policy against Iran's belligerent attempts at entrenchment is the right policy."

According to Ya'alon, this was not the first time the Iranians have tried to open a terror front against Israel from the Golan Heights.

Fmr. defense minister and IDF chief of staff Ya'alon had doubts as to the efficacy of the Israeli strikes, but said they were nevertheless warranted

"It happened in the past, in 2015. They used proxies, and did not stop until those three proxies were gone," the former defense minister said. "Only then did they realize that the IDF has an intelligence advantage, that their actions are transparent to us and that we have the ability to deal with them, so they stopped."

Ya'alon continued, "They only resumed that activity recently, in February, with their attempt to infiltrate Israel with a drone . That was thwarted too. The IDF destroyed many of the targets of the threatening Iranian entrenchment in Syria, and they failed to implement what they wanted to do, whether as a result of their recklessness or as a result of the Iron Dome's ability to intercept their rockets.

They paid a heavy price here. I'm not sure it will end there, but I certainly hope they have learned their lesson."

'Israel's Iran strategy is misguided'

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amiram Levin, former GOC Northern Command, iterated his belief in a separate interview that Iran will indeed take a step backwards following the Israeli strikes overnight, but stressed the overall conflict with the Islamic republic was far from over.

"First and foremost, the Iranians are shocked with Donald Trump's decision (to withdraw the US from the nuclear deal ed). They are weak economically and militarily and the IDFunlike themhas prepared itself well, with intelligence, the air force and other forces, but that all has to do with short-term tactics," he said.

Maj.-Gen. Levin said Israel's strategy on Iran should be more limited in scope (Photo: Avi Moalem)

"In the longer term, Iran is an enormous countryboth size- and population-wiseand it is geographically distant. It has Hezbollah in Lebanon. We have opened a front against Iran, and things are much more complex now," he opined.

"I presume Iran will take a step backwards. It can plainly see it's failing, and can't penetrate Israel with its rocket due to proper preparations (on Israel's part)," the former senior officer said. "It doesn't have outstanding assets on the Syrian side. What it does have are time, patience and size."

He continued, "I think Israel's strategy, which (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) has adopted from the get goto try and push Iran out of all of Syriawas misguided. A strategy of limited goals would have sufficed.

"To determineboth in military action and in coordination with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and the US that Iran won't cross farther west than the Suwayda-Damascus road, Putin could have stomached that, as could Iran. But what happens if they entrench on the Syrian-Iraqi border. Will we attack then as well? Where do we draw the line?"

The Iranian vehicle targeted by the IAF (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

Another former IDF official, Lt.-Col. (res.) Miki Segal, who headed the Iran branch of Military Intelligence Directorate's Research Department, spoke about the matter as well, saying, "There is a clear message to the Iranians herethat so long as they are in the Syrian arena, they will continue being hit with such attacks."

"It should be said this is only one facet of the overall campaign Israel is waging against Iran, whether it's against the nuclear program , its presence in Syria and Lebanon or anywhere else Iran endangers Israeli interests," he explained.

"As long as there's intelligence indicating there's still an Iranian presence in Syria that may threaten Israel, these kinds of strikes will continue, as will combating Iran on the strategic and tactical fields," he added.

"The Iranian public is very enlightened and smart," Lt.-Col. Segal claimed. "This is a people with a glorious history, and residents are well aware of the goings-on in Syria and Lebanon, and are aware of Iran's exploits throughout the world."

"That's reflected in Iranian social media, which touch on both Iran's supposed accomplishments and its failures in Syria. They are exposed to international media, and Arab media, and are entirely aware of the price the Iranian people keep paying for its regime's misadventures abroad," he continued.

"After the previous strike on the T-4 Airbase, which was attributed to Israel, dissenting voices were raised in Iran on two fronts, calls for revenge since more than seven Revolutionary Guards operatives were killed but also calls saying, 'No to Syria, no to Lebanon, no to Gaza and no to Palestine,'" Segal concluded.US President Donald Trump announced on his Twitter account Thursday that the planned historic summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place June 12 in Singapore.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



When the two leaders convene for the "highly anticipated meeting," Trump said they will "both try to make it a very special moment for world peace."





President Trump (L) announced he will meet North Korea's Kim June 12 in Singapore (Photo: AFP)

The Senate's top Democrat, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, was less enthused with the meeting, saying he feared the president, "in his eagerness to strike a deal, and get the acclaim and a photo op, will strike a quick one and a bad one, not a strong one, not a lasting one" with North Korea.

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

In his Senate floor speech, the New York Democrat also commented on the release of three American hostages by North Korea earlier Thursday, much ballyhooed by President Trump, and said he thought it was "no great accomplishment" since they should never have been detained in the first place.

Senate Minority Leader Schumer disparaged Trump's enthusiasm with the meeting (Photo: EPA)

Trump welcomed the three hostages at the Andrews Air Force Base near Washington earlier in the day. They returned to the US along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who visited Pyongyang to finalize the summit meeting's details with Kim.

Trump hailed the hostages' release as a promising sign en route to the Korean peninsula's denuclearization, saying it was a "great honor" to welcome the hostages back to the States and adding that the "true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons."

President Trump and his entourage welcoming the hostages (: )

X

The president, much to Schumer's chagrin, thanked the North Korean despot for releasing the hostages and iterated his belief that Kim truly desired achieving denuclearization . "I really think he wants to do something," Trump said.

"My proudest achievement will be when we denuclearize that entire peninsula. People have been waiting for that for a long time," Trump added. "I really think (Kim) wants to do something to bring that country back into the real world."

Regarding his expected meeting with Kim, Trump concluded by saying, "We have a very good chance of doing something meaningful."

Trump (2nd right) and the three hostages (Photo: EPA)

Earlier this week, Pyongyang criticized "misleading" claims that maintained that the American administration's policy of maximum political pressures and sanctions pushed North Korea back to the negotiating table.

The country's official news agency quoted a foreign affairs ministry official as warning that such claims were a "dangerous attempt" to scuttle the detente brewing in the peninsula after the previous historic meeting between the two countries' leaders.

During said summit, held in South Korea, Kim agreed to a series of measures intended to improve relations with the South , and voiced his willingness to also discuss denuclearization.

North Korea's Kim (L) met his South Korean counterpart (Photo: AFP / KCNA via KNS)

The North Korean leader did not, however, expound on the exact conditions under which his country will consent to forsake its nuclear programand whether it will hold onto the nuclear arsenal it currently possessed.

Nevertheless, Trump and other senior American officials have said time and again that Washington's hard-line policy on North Koreaalong with the pressures exerted on its chief ally China played a critical role in completely transforming the situation in the region, where tensions have previously run high.

Only a year ago, when Kim carried out long-range ballistic missiles tests and was embroiled in a coarse war of words with Trump, it seemed inconceivable for denuclearization to even be on the table, they maintained.

Meanwhile, the North Korean statement, it seems, was intended to strengthen Kim's position in anticipation of the summit with Trump, with North Korea claiming Kim himself was steering events.

"The US is intentionally provoking the Democratic People's Republic of Korea during a period in which the situation in the Korean peninsula is edging towards peace and reconciliation," the foreign affairs ministry official was quoted as saying.New footage and additional details from the Israeli Air Force (IAF)'s overnight strike in Syria, during which over 50 Iranian targets were bombed, emerged on Thursday evening.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



New video released by the IDF Spokesperson's Office was taken via a missile targeting an S-22 Syrian aerial defense system, which tried to fire anti-aircraft missiles at IAF fighter jets.

Footage of IDF missiles bearing down on rocket launch pad (:  ")

X

The attack, which the air force said was the most extensive strike in Syria since 1974, lasted an hour and a half.

The Syrian S-22 launcher targeted by the IAF (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

Nevertheless, a senior IAF official sought to put the strike in perspective, saying that Iran's Quds Force still has the ability to fire rockets from Syria.

"The Iranians are motivated to bring their own anti-aircraft systems to Syria, and we'll know how to deal with that too," he said. "Every Syrian battery that threatens us will be attacked and won't get in our way."

"We assume the Iranians have long-range rockets, with a range of over 40 kilometers, and we're prepared for them as well," he added.

The senior officer noted that IAF's planes were able to operate successfully despite problematic weather conditions and what he referred to as "crowded skies" over Syria.

Israel informed Russia and the United States of the attack before it commenced, the IAF officer noted.

The strike in Syria overnight was coordinated with Russia and the US, an IAF officer said (Photo: Reuters)

"The coordination with the Russians was maintained, and they were updated we were going to operate in the area, and there was full coordination with the Americans about the operation," he said.

The IAF was also able to implement the conclusions it drew from the February 10 incident in which an Israeli F-16 jet was downed by Syrian aerial defense.

"The Syrians fired dozens of missiles at us last night, of all kinds, including the SA5, and every battery that fired was destroyed," he said. "There's concern that if we destroyed their existing batteries, like the SA5, then later they'll get the S-300 system, which is more advanced, but we are sending a message that every battery that threatens our planes will be destroyed."

"We've warned the Syrians that we would continue operating against the Iranians in Syria, and we won't let the danger they pose become realized," he added.

The officer also confirmed that on Tuesday night, Israel obtained intelligence about a rocket launcher that was about to fire at Israel, but IAF planes were able to thwart the threat by bombing the launcher.

However, the rockets fired overnight Wednesday were not discovered in advance. "They remade their plans. We didn't identify the launcher last night before it fired. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. But it was attacked shortly after it fired," he said.

Wednesday night's retaliatory attack came in the wake of the launch of 20 rockets at Israel by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force. None of the rockets fell inside of Israel, and four of them were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.

The Russian Defense Ministry said 28 Israeli F-15 and F-16 planes carried out the attack, firing at least 60 missiles.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported at least 28 dead in the Israeli attacks, while the Syrian army claimed only three fatalities.

Brig.-Gen. Amit Fisher (Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

Brig.-Gen. Amit Fisher, the commander of the 210th "Bashan" Division, which is in charge of the Golan Heights, said that, "We received a lot of aid from the Iron Dome. Thanks to an intelligence effort and good and advanced fire capabilities we were able to hit significant enemy forces that have been acting against us recently. We were ableat night, in several hours of fightingto reach the significant achievements we wanted. We're prepared to identify any enemy coming into the area, coming close to the border, watching the border, or threatening it."

"We want a quiet border, like we've had for over 40 years. Enemy forces that come near the border and try to carry out attacks against us, we'll make sure to keep them away from the border by any means necessary," Fisher added.The rocket attack aimed at Israeli bases in the Golan Heights by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Wednesday night was a failure. Nevertheless, the IDF carried out punishing strikes on dozens of Iranian infrastructure targets in Syria in retaliation.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The Iranians were apparently aiming for a limited strike that would not result in widespread IDF retaliation, but would merely allow them to salvage their national pride without exacting too high a price.

Missiles intercepted over Syria

X

Despite the futility of the Iranian missile strikethe IDF having suffered no loss of life or property and all of the Iranian missiles being either intercepted or falling on the Syrian side of the Golan Heightsthe IDF responded disproportionally, according to Israels red line doctrine as articulated by the prime minister, defense minister and the army chief of staff.

Syrians fire surface-to-air missiles at Israeli jets (Photo: Reuters)

About two hours after the Iranian assault, the IDF carried out pre-planned airstrikes that destroyed much of the Iranian military's infrastructures in Syria.

The commander of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, Qasem Soleimani, will need a great deal of time and funds in order to recoup the bases, intelligence posts and logistical sites destroyed in the strike. Iranian public opinion will not be pleased.

Qasem Soleimani

Israels red line policy states that any attack on its sovereignty will be met with an immediate response; any Iranian transfer of hi-tech weaponry that endangers the Israeli populace or may interfere with the IDFs freedom of operation will be targeted; and the use of unconventional weaponsnuclear, chemical or biologicalagainst Israel will not be tolerated.

A similar red line policy regarding Israeli retaliation exists in the south, on the Gaza front.

Another Israeli red line that was crossed Wednesday night was Syrian antiaircraft fire targeting IAF jets as they were attacking Iranian targets. No Israeli aircraft were hit, but Israel destroyed five Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries.

This is in addition to the considerable amount of antiaircraft batteries that Israel hit at the beginning of the year in response to the downing of an Israeli jet.

The Israeli strike was also meant to signal to President Bashar Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin that the continued military presence of Iran in Syria will harm their vital interests: the constant skirmishing between Israel and Iran on Syrian territory will torpedo efforts to end the long and bloody Syrian civil war and further delay Assads regaining control over allor mostof Syria and the rebuilding of the country.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards revenge attack, though very limited and unsuccessful, was a blatant violation of Israeli sovereignty and a direct Iranian aggression on Israeli territory; no doubt a violation of international law and a casus bellijustification for war.

However, since the Iranians failed and the fact that Israel suffered no losses and is also uninterested in a dangerous deterioration into war on the northern front, it is safe to assume that the IDF hit the Iranians hard enough to serve as an effective deterrent. The strike was nonetheless measured so as to prevent further escalation.

Soleimani and the Iranians can now claim to have avenged their men who were killed in earlier (alleged) Israeli airstrikes but remain cautious so as not to extract a further punishing Israeli response.

Volatile Palestinian situation taken into consideration

In all likelihood, when considering their response, the prime minister, defense minister and the chief of staff took into consideration the potentially explosive events next week including the transfer of the American Embassy to Jerusalem, Nakba Day, and the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

In a scenario where a conflict with Iran in the north drags on, perhaps even spiraling into Lebanon, the IDF could be facing multiple fronts in the north, the south, the West Bank and the civilian home front.

Although the IDF is built to deal with such a scenario and fight a three-front war (plus the home front), there is currently no desire to enter into a long, drawn out war with mass casualties and significant economic damage. There is no doubt that this was taken into consideration when Israel planned its response to Irans failed strike.

On the other hand, it was clear to Israeli policymakers that if Israel showed restraint in the face of Iranian Quds Forces aggressions, it would erode Israeli deterrence power vis-a-vis Iran. Therefore, the best solution for all parties would be for Russia to assume the position of responsible adult and broker a ceasefire between the two sides.

Such a ceasefire would have to guarantee Israel that Iran will cease its attempts to establish itself in Syria, at least for a few months, as well as cease its attacks against Israel.

Meanwhile, the situation will calm and perhaps it will be possible to achieve a more stable agreement. We must keep in mind that Iran has an interest in not allowing the situation in Syria to further escalate in order not to confirm US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus claims against them, also aggravating their status in Europe and Russia and affecting their economic situation.

What exactly happened Wednesday night?

Around midnight, the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force tried to carry out a revenge attack against IDF first-line bases in the Golan Heights. No Israeli towns were hit and none of the 20 rockets launched by Shiite militants landed in Israeli territory.

IAF air defenses intercepted four of the rockets over the Syrian Golan Heights. The rest were not targeted as they were determined to not present a danger to IDF bases or Israeli towns.

This is the second time Iran has attempted to attack Israel from Syrian territory. In the past, all the attacks carried out against Israel from Syria were by Iranian proxies, primarily Hezbollah, but there were also instances of forces loyal to the Syrian regime, acting in the name of the Iranians, shooting rockets into Israel.

In every instance, Israel reacted by destroying the launchers or their operators in Syria. The latest attack was carried out by Iranian officers, a fact that presented Israeli security officials with a dilemma: should Israel respond, in accordance with the red line policy, and hit the Iranians but risk escalating the situation or, perhaps, overlook the incident and hope that the Iranians will see the matter as closed.

Israel chose the former, unwilling to risk the erosion of military deterrence, effectively acknowledging that the northern front will remain tense.

When the Iranians launched an armed UAV into Israel in the beginning of this year, the IDF downed the aircraft and responded by attacking the command center, killing the Iranians manning the controls. In the subsequent skirmish, an IAF F-16 was downed by a Syrian missile and Israel destroyed three Syrian anti-aircraft batteries that targeted its planes.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards officials (Photo: AFP, EPA, Reuters)

The Revolutionary Guards have an interest in blurring their fingerprints to avoid harsh international censure, especially during this sensitive period when the US seeks to re-impose economic sanctions on Iran. They also seek to avoid casualties among their men, as it triggers Iranian home front opposition to their governments misadventures in Syria in support of the Assad regime against Israel.

When Soleimanis men began planning their revenge against Israel for its strike on the T-4 Airbase , they planned a surface-to-surface missile attack against an IDF base in northern Israel. But the Quds force commander and the Iranian Air Force commander assigned the mission to a joint force of Iraqi-Shiite militia members who received instruction from Hezbollah rocket experts.

T-4 base

Those units failed to carry out their mission, probably due to Israeli strikes in recent days. Therefore, the Revolutionary Guards decided to carry out the attack directly, despite the risks and international complications involved.

Presumably, in order to increase their chances of success, the Iranians chose short-range rockets that are easier to conceal and move secretly. Their launchers are small and can hardly be detected from the air or by ground sensors.

Such rockets can also be launched by timer and remote control from improvised launchers buried in the ground. Their two drawbacks, though, is their lack of accuracy and the fact that their warheads only hold about 40 kilograms of TNT.

Nevertheless, such rockets can cause considerable damage and loss of life if they were to fall on Israeli bases without warning. Due to the ease in concealing them, the Revolutionary Guards succeeded in launching the rockets butas expectedIsraeli defenses, primarily the Iron Dome, prevented them from hitting any Israeli targets.

What now?

Now, after last nights harsh response in Syria, Israel will decide how much further it wishes to challenge the Iranians until they decide that they cannot allow themselves to be on the receiving end anymore of Israels punishing strikes, and end the bellicosity on their own. Alternatively, they will carry on into a full scale war that might include Hezbollah and its massive arsenal of rockets in Lebanon.

Such a scenario is undesirable to both sides, but it is entirely in the realm of possibility considering the current explosive atmosphere.

Meanwhile the IDF and the Quds Force continue the dangerous game of walking on the edge while avoiding a full blown war. The question remains, for how much longer can this continue?News

Ajo, Arizona - Ajo Station Border Patrol agents apprehended a male Guatemalan national Sunday evening after he re-entered the U.S. illegally northwest of Lukeville.

Agents arrested 38-year-old Luis Quisquinay-Mendoza and transported him to the Ajo Station for processing.

During a subsequent fingerprint and criminal records check, agents discovered that Quisquinay was convicted in 2009 for sexual molestation of a minor in Jackson County, Missouri, and removed from the country in 2011.

Quisquinay now faces prosecution for immigration violations including re-entry as a felon.

All persons apprehended by the Border Patrol undergo criminal history checks using biometrics to ensure illegal immigrants with criminal histories are positively identified.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials welcome assistance from the community. Citizens can report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol and remain anonymous by calling 1-877-872-7435 toll free.Arizona News

Ajo, Arizona - In an effort to further the lines of communication between agents and the community, Ajo Border Patrol Station is hosting their first Coffee with a Cop event on May 10, 2018.

Border Patrol agents are inviting members of the community to come out and join them at Verrado Coffee Company located at 1829 N Verrado Way, Buckeye AZ, 85396 between 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., Thursday.

Coffee with a Cop is a national campaign which began in 2011 as a way for law enforcement to interact with the citizens and communities they serve. Community members will have an opportunity to meet and discuss issues of concern with U.S. Border Patrol Agents who work and live in their community. These informal gatherings help build trust and relationships between law enforcement and community stakeholders. Community members will have an opportunity to meet US Border Patrol Agents who work and live in their community.

The event will give attendees a chance to ask questions and discuss issues of concern with US Border Patrol agents.

The Border Patrol is not only dedicated to reducing illicit activity along border communities but it is committed to fostering and contributing to the betterment of the local communities they serve and live in.Arizona News

Tucson, Arizona - U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists working at Arizonas ports of entry are busy this week making sure that importations of Mothers Day flowers are free from insects, pests and diseases that could harm the agricultural and floral industries of the United States. The U.S. Mothers Day observance is this Sunday, May 13th.

The Mothers Day period is a time when our CBP agriculture specialists see an increase in the number of floral arrangements arriving at local area ports, said Tracy Filippi, Supervisory Agriculture Program Manager for the Tucson Field Office. CBP agriculture specialists work constantly to ensure that the flowers or plants they will see are free from insects, pests and/or disease.

CBP strongly encourages the public to consult the CBP website before they import floral arrangements so they know which flowers are permissible and which are prohibited or restricted. CBP suggests those who plan to import flowers and plants from Mexico to advise their florist that the arrangements are destined for U.S. delivery. Some flowers and plant materials commonly found in floral arrangements at southwest border ports of entry are prohibited. Those include chrysanthemums and choysia (and other greenery fillers) due to pest risk.

While a relatively small number of harmful pests are found among the millions of stems inspected by CBP, a single dangerous pest could cause millions of dollars of damage to our nations crops.

CBP recommends that people who wish to import flowers, plant materials, and other agriculturalitems consult the CBP Info Center section on the CBP website before they travel.

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1283/kw/Flowers%2C%20bring%20flowers%20into%20the%20United%20States

They should also declare all items acquired abroad to CBP officers to avoid civil or criminal penalties and reduce the risk of introducing pest and disease to the U.S.

Traditionally, Mothers Day, Valentines Day and the Easter holiday weekend are times when CBP agriculture specialists are very busy inspecting floral arrangements. At international ports of entry, land borders, and international mail facilities, CBP agriculture specialists are the front line in the fight against the introduction of insects, pests and diseases into the United States.Border News

Three Points, Arizona - Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended a Mara Salvatrucha, MS-13 gang member from El Salvador on Saturday morning west of Three Points, Arizona.

Agents working on Federal Route 19 near mile marker 20 arrested a man, later identified as 24-year-old Salvador Campos-Rodriguez, who was in the country illegally. During processing, agents learned that Campos was an MS-13 gang member previously removed from the U.S. in 2017. He will remain in custody pending a court disposition for criminal immigration violations.

All persons apprehended by the Border Patrol undergo criminal history checks using biometrics to ensure illegal immigrants with criminal histories are positively identified.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials welcome assistance from the community. Citizens can report suspicious activity to the Border Patrol and remain anonymous by calling 1-877-872-7435 toll free.Border News

Nogales, Arizona - Nogales Border Patrol agents arrested three commercial shuttle passengers in the past seven days for attempting to smuggle dangerous narcotics through the Interstate 19 Immigration Checkpoint.

On May 2, agents conducting immigration inspections of shuttle passengers discovered a 19-year-old Tucson woman with almost $6,000 worth of heroin concealed near her groin.

Friday, agents arrested a 38-year-old woman from Foley, Alabama, after finding her in possession of close to $6,000 worth of cocaine.

Yesterday, agents found two packages of heroin, worth close to $10,000, hidden on a 14-year-old boy from Nogales, Arizona.

All three subjects, identified as United States citizens, were arrested and charged with narcotics smuggling. The cases were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations.Border News

Lukeville, Arizona - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Arizonas Port of Lukeville arrested two U.S. citizens after seizing almost 21 pounds of methamphetamine from them Saturday.

Officers referred a 25-year-old Glendale, Arizona woman and her 36-year-old male passenger, from Peoria, Arizona, for a secondary inspection of her Dodge sedan after the pair applied to return to the United States from Mexico. An alert by a CBP canine to an odor it was trained to detect led officers to discover approximately 21 pounds of methamphetamine, worth nearly $63,000, and a non-factory compartment in the vehicle.

The drugs and vehicle were seized, and both arrested subjects were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations.

Federal law allows officers to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of charges for criminal activity without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless and until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

CBP's Office of Field Operations is the primary organization within Homeland Security tasked with an anti-terrorism mission at our nations ports. CBP officers screen all people, vehicles and goods entering the United States while facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel. Their mission also includes carrying out border-related duties, including narcotics interdiction, enforcing immigration and trade laws, and protecting the nation's food supply and agriculture industry from pests and diseases.Border News

Tucson, Arizona - As temperatures rise, Tucson Sector Border Patrol officials want to remind the public that this time of year is an especially dangerous time in Arizonas deserts.

Since Friday, Border Patrol agents have rescued 46 people stranded or lost in the desert, bringing the number to 52 so far this month. At least seven of those were from rescue beacon activations. Tucson Sector maintains 34 rescue beacons that, when activated, initiate an immediate response from the nearest Border Patrol asset.

It is physically impossible for the average person to carry enough water to survive several days of walking through Arizonas desert. In addition, a lack of infrastructure in remote areas makes it impossible to quickly find help in an emergency. As a result, Border Patrol agents often find migrants who were abandoned because they could not keep up with their human smuggler.

Although Tucson Sector employs more than 275 emergency medical technicians and more than 20 paramedics, theres no guarantee that someone stranded in a remote area will be found in time to prevent the loss of life.

Arizonas desert shows no mercy for those unprepared for its remote, harsh terrain and unpredictable weather. The Border Patrol advises anyone in distress to call 9-1-1 or activate a rescue beacon as soon as possible.Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents assigned to patrol the Colorado River arrested a Mexican national illegally present in the United States after he brandished a knife and threatened an agent on Friday.

At approximately 3:15 p.m., Friday, a Yuma Station agent made contact with an individual attempting to disguise himself as part of a labor crew working near County 15  Street and the Salinity Canal. During initial contact, the male subject became hostile and pulled out a knife. The agent then pulled out his duty weapon and gave the individual verbal commands to drop the knife. The individual discarded the knife and fled westbound towards Mexico. A short foot chase ensued and agents apprehended the subject. Footprints revealed that he had illegally crossed into the U.S. from Mexico earlier in the day.

During processing, agents identified the subject as a previously deported Mexican national on supervised released after being sentenced to 3  years in prison for two counts of vehicle theft in Yuma in 2012 and 2013. The man is being prosecuted for re-entry after deportation and entry without inspection.

Federal law allows agents to charge individuals by complaint, a method that allows the filing of criminal activity charges without inferring guilt. An individual is presumed innocent unless or until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents effectively combat smuggling organizations attempting to illegally transport people and contraband through Southwestern Arizona and California. Citizens can help the Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection by calling 1-866-999-8727 toll-free to report suspicious activity. Callers may remain anonymous.Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - When news broke of a fire at the beloved castle park in December 2015, members of the Yuma community sprang to action that very night, setting up donation accounts and organizing fundraisers to bring the playground back. Then, when insurance announced they would cover the cost of rebuilding, the City promised to apply the donations to bigger, better, safer improvements. This Saturday, several of those new features will come to life.

The City of Yuma is proud to invite residents to the unveiling of the first expansion at the Stewart Vincent Wolfe Creative Playground, 10 a.m. to noon Saturday inside Yumas West Wetlands Park.

Since its reopening, the citizens of Yuma have been eagerly anticipating the expansion of the Stewart Vincent Wolf Creative Playground to make it bigger, better and safer, said Yuma Parks and Recreation Director Debbie Wendt. Now, with the fundraising efforts and support of those citizens, and the hard work of the Parks and Rec staff, the first phase of the expansion is here, and we invite everyone to come out Saturday.

The playgrounds rebuilding project incorporated some better, safer features including a fire suppression system and enhanced security features. Saturday will mark the first bigger additions to the playground area.

The new features include:

A zipline with two bays, one of which is ADA accessible, allowing children of all abilities to experience the thrill of racing along the 66-foot track and enjoy a new adventure in an exciting, safe way.

A giant TriNet climbing structure, nearly 18 feet tall, which can support up to 60 children climbing all at once.

A comfort swing which utilizes face-to-face design, allowing parents to swing and interact with their small children while maintaining eye contact.

Wood chip ground cover around each new feature for increased comfort and safety.

Two additional features  a six-piece musical feature and a water feature have been planned as additional expansions and could be installed if community donations continue.

Anyone interested in contributing to the growth and enjoyment of the Creative Playground can do so by donating through the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area, 180 W. 1st St., Suite E. Checks should be made out to the heritage area, with a note in the memo line for the bigger, better playground.

Once again the City of Yuma would like to thank everyone for the steadfast support as we work hard to create something wonderful, literally, from the ashes of something terrible, and we invite you to celebrate the next steps towards a bigger, better, and safer Castle Park, Wendt said.As ladies, most of us enter into relationships with the aim of finding the future husband who will spend the rest of their lives with us.

At a moment when we are so prepared to tie the knot and start a family, we also get to find out that time is running out so fast.

The relationship that we started years ago still seem what it is...a relationship and not a marriage.

Most of us fear to approach our man, sit him down and talk to him about real life issues. Issues about what happens in the next few years and whether or not you still remain relevant to their love life.

READ ALSO: 6 dark situations that make marriage look like death sentence for Ghanaian men

In this article, YEN.com.gh offers tips on specific things you need to do after dating a guy for some time but never has popped up the question.

1. Ask the hard questions.

Never make conclusions when you realise he never popped up the question of seeking your hand in marriage. Sometimes it is all a matter of asking the right questions to get the needed answers. Asking the right questions can not only give you the best answers but also get you think along the same lines with your lover.

2. Re-evaluate the relationship

It is always important to think about your relationship if indeed your man has not popped up the question the whole of 2017. With a new year beckoning, it will be very important to look into your relationship once again to find out what exactly is going wrong in your relationship. You will be surprised at the answers you get.

3. Lead him on

Men always would love to be led on to pleasure lands. No one would want to do anything by themselves. You will be surprised to note that many Ghanaian men love to see their lovers leading them on. Marriage is never a one-man thing. You need to start up the conversion and who knows!

4. Assess yourself

As ladies, we often tend to blame anything on men but most of the issues we face are never about them. If he has not popped up the question, you need to assess yourself. There could be some bad habits he finds worrying. Or maybe he takes you to be that image of pleasure whenever he s bored.

5. Change things

Noting will change in your relationship until you change it yourself. As women, we have the power of making our relationship either a successful one or a painful memory. Without us, relationships are bound not to be successful and this is the more reason why you have the power to make your relationship what exactly you need.

6. Walking away or staying

If a relationship does not work, it will be left for us to either stay in it or move on with our lives. After all, we are in a relationship not just to experience love but also fulfill our heartfelt dream of getting married to the man or woman that we most love.

Check out some of the trending news in Ghana in YEN.com.gh's video below:

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish on YEN.com.gh? Please contact us on Facebook or Instagram now.

Source: Yen.com.ghFormerly known as Kumasi Technical Institute, Kumasi Technical University is one of the higher learning institutions in Ghana that ensures students are well trained in ways that will enhance their employability skills and relevance in the marketplace. It is a centre dedicated to the training of young professionals from all around Africa and beyond. Anyone seeking admission to learn there will not go wrong by doing so.

Image: twitter.com, @Chief919267

Source: Twitter

Kumasi Technical University is one of the oldest and most recognized universities in Ghana. It was mainly dedicated to providing students with the necessary technical diplomas and sub-professional courses. However, in 2016, because of the technical university act, it started providing Ghanaian students with higher education degrees in applied arts, technology, and engineering.

Kumasi Technical University programmes

Kumasi University is most famous for the quality of its technical courses, as it was already a polytechnic institution before it became a university that serves higher education students. The university has different programmes that are tailored towards meeting the differing needs of students who apply to the institution Here is a list of all Kumasi Technical University courses at the degree level:

READ ALSO: Ghana School of Aviation: requirements

B.Tech degree programmes

Bachelor of Technology in Entrepreneurship & Finance

Bachelor of Technology in Fashion Design And Modeling

Bachelor of Technology in Marketing

Bachelor of Technology in Procurement Management

Bachelor of Technology in Health Statistics

Bachelor of Technology in Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering

Bachelor of Technology in Accounting with Computing

Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering

Bachelor of Technology in Environmental Statistics

Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering

Bachelor of Technology in Computer Technology

Bachelor of Technology in Oil and Gas Engineering

Bachelor of Technology in Building Technology

Bachelor of Technology in Estate Management

Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering (two years - top-up)

Bachelor of Technology in Agribusiness with Entrepreneurship

Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering (four years)

Bachelor of Technology in Library and Information Science

Bachelor of Technology in Data Science

Bachelor of Technology in Hospitality Management and Catering Technology

Bachelor of Technology in Secretaryship and Management

Part-time programmes

Diploma in Procurement & Materials Management

Diploma in Business Administration

Diploma in Electronic Marketing

Diploma in Public Relations

Diploma in Computerized Accounting

Diploma in Banking Technology and Accounting

Diploma in Library and Information Science

Diploma in Mechanical Engineering

Certificate in Accounting

Diploma in Health Statistics

Diploma in Agribusiness & Finance

Diploma in Business Studies

Diploma In Mass Communication and Journalism

Image: twitter.com, @ChristBreakfast

Source: Twitter

M.Tech Post Graduate programmes

Master of Technology in Health Statistics

Master of Technology in Chemical Engineering

Master of Technology in Environmental Statistics

Master of Technology in Water and Environmental Engineering

Master of Technology in Financial Statistics

Kumasi technical university short courses

If you are looking for short courses to improve yourself or add up to your certificates, here are some of the exciting short courses that you might want to consider:

Computerized Accounting

Certificate in Banking Operations

Mastering Customer Experience

Industrial Electrical Wiring and Control Systems

Domestic and Commercial Electrical Wiring

Solar energy (Photovoltaic Design and Installation)

Electrical Motors & Generators Rewinding

Quality Laboratory Control And Management Workshop

Process Plant and Equipment Operations

Hands-On Gas Chromatography Workshop

Advanced Word Processing

Industrial Health, Safety and Loss

Advanced Spreadsheet Package

Executive PowerPoint Presentation

Mechatronics System and Analysis Control

Motor Vehicle Diagnostic Process and Scanning Analysis Techniques

Techniques in Handling New Fashion Fabrics and Textiles

Applied Basic Hydraulics

Fashion Klinic (Grooming)

READ ALSO: GIJ 2020/2021 registration, courses, admission, location, fees

Higher National Diploma Kumasi Polytechnic courses

Besides the degree programmes available at the institution, there are also higher national diploma programmes that interested students can apply for. These include:

HND Fashion Design and Textiles Studies

HND Accounting with Computing

HND Marketing

HND Purchasing and Supply

HND Secretaryship and Management Studies

HND Accountancy

HND Science and Industrial Laboratory Technology

HND Medical Laboratory Technology

HND Civil Engineering

Higher Diploma in Health Statistics

HND Chemical Engineering

HND Mechanical Engineering

HND Interior Design and Technology

HND Hotel, Catering and Institutional Management

HND Agribusiness and Entrepreneurship

HND Entrepreneurship and Finance

HND Dispensing Technology

HND Estate Management

HND Building Technology

HND Statistics

HND Computer Science

HND Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Image: twitter.com, @hapaSpace

Source: Twitter

Entry requirements for HND programmes

Before admissions are granted, prospective students are expected to meet the admissions requirements for them to be considered. The following are Kumasi Polytechnic courses and cut off points:

SSSCE applicants

Six passes (A-D) in all subjects, including English Language and Mathematics

At least three (3) of the passes must be relevant to the area of specialization

WASSCE applicants

Six passes (A1-D7) in all subjects, including English Language and Mathematics

Possess a minimum of C6 in any three (3) of the elective subjects relevant to the area of specialization

ABCE/ 'O'&'A' Level applicants

Five (5) ABCE credits or five (5) GCE Ordinary Level credits, including English Language and Mathematics

At least two (2) GCE 'A' Level/ABCE passes

GBCE applicants

Five (5) credits, including English, Business Mathematics and Integrated Science/Social Studies

DBS applicants

Four (4) SSSCE/WASSCE credits, including English Language and Mathematics plus a minimum of three DBS passes.

Technical School applicants (Certificate II)

Passes in English Language, Mathematics, Integrated Science, and any three (3) relevant trade courses

Mature applicants

Age must be 25 years

Proof of age with a birth certificate or any other legitimate documentary that validates acclaimed age. The document must be, at least, five years old at the time of application

Must possess, at least, two (2) years work experience (letter from the employer is required)

Write and pass an examination, which will be conducted by the University

Those applying for HND Dispensing Technology/Medical Laboratory Technology/Science and Industrial Laboratory Technology must possess relative hospital/industrial experience with 'O' Level/WASSCE/SSSCE pure science background (Chemistry and Biology) as well as credits in English and Mathematics (core)

READ ALSO: Achimota School prospectus, houses, fees, courses, contact

Entry requirements for B.Tech degree programmes

For anyone seeking admission to study a degree course in the institution, below are specific requirements that must be met:

Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering (2 years top-up)

HND (First Class or Second Class Upper Division) in Civil Engineering with, at least, two (2) years work experience

Second Class Lower Division holders will have to attend an interview

Image: twitter.com, @GhanaCampusBlog

Source: Twitter

Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering (2 years top-up - regular)

HND Chemical Engineering Certificate with a minimum of two (2) years post-graduation industrial experience

First Class and Second Class Upper Division

Applicants with Second Class Lower Division would be required to pass an interview

Applicants with other Engineering and Chemistry backgrounds would be required to take relevant Chemical Engineering and Chemistry courses as prerequisites

Bachelor of Technology in Electrical/Electronic Engineering

The requirements include:

For the Higher National Diploma (HND) graduates

HND Electrical/Electronic Engineering with a minimum of Second Class Lower Division

At least two years of post HND work experience in the relevant field is essential

For Electrical Engineering technician Part III (EET III)

At least two years of post-EET III work experience in the relevant field

Must pass a bridging course for two semesters

Must possess EET I, EET II, and EET III certification

Foreign applicants with qualifications considered to be equivalent to HND will be considered for direct entry while those with qualifications equivalent to EET III will go through the bridging programme.

Bachelor of Technology in Accounting with Computing

HND Accountancy/Accounting with Computing certificate and a minimum of two (2) years of work experience

ACCA and ICA certificates with a pass in six (6) or more subjects

First Degree from other fields or discipline

Bachelor of Technology in Procurement Management

HND Purchasing & Supply (2nd Class Lower or better) or its equivalence with a minimum of two (2) years post qualification work experience

Diploma in Procurement & Supply from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS UK) qualification

HND from other fields or disciplines with a qualification not less than 2nd Class Lower Division as well as five (5) years work experience in procurement related fields

First Degree from other fields or discipline

Bachelor of Technology in Building Technology

HND (First Class or Second Class Upper Division) in Building Technology with a minimum of two (2) years work experience

Second Class Lower Division holders will have to attend an interview

CTC II Final (old scheme) or CTC III Final (new scheme) with at least a pass in all the four (4) major components. Also, a credit in English Language and Mathematics at GCE 'O' Level or SSSCE/WASSCE Level shall be required

Bachelor of Technology in Estate Management

HND Estate Management (2nd Class Lower or better) or its equivalent with a minimum of two (2) years post qualification work experience

Applicants with Lower Class would be required to attend an interview

Bachelor of Technology in Entrepreneurship & Finance

HND Entrepreneurship (2nd Class Lower or better) or its equivalent with a minimum of two (2) years work experience

Bachelor of Technology in Fashion Design and Modeling

HND Fashion Design and Textiles Studies (2nd Class Lower or better) or its equivalent with a minimum of two (2) years post qualification work experience

HND applicants with equivalent qualifications to HND Fashion Design from a recognized institution would be required to pass an interview

Bachelors of Technology in Health Statistics, Environmental Statistics, and Financial Statistics

HND (First Class or Second Class Upper Division) in Statistics with a minimum of two (2) years work experience. Candidates with Second Class Lower Division will have to attend an interview

Diploma qualifications from elsewhere assessed to be equivalent to HND may be considered

Kumasi Technical University fees

The course a student is applying for determines how much they would pay. To get accurate information on what you are to pay, you can either visit their official website or the school's admissions office for details.

Kumasi Technical University is a centre of excellence for the training of young professionals in many required technical fields. With a mission to provide a favourable environment for research and entrepreneurship to attract students from local Ghanaian communities and international ones, it has become one of the sought-after institutions in the country.

READ ALSO:

College of education Ghana: online admission application 2020

iCampus login, registration, student portal

KNUST portal: login, registration, admission

Source: Yen- Kweku Baako says theres nothing like the Ashanti Kingdom as Ghanas constitution does not recognize any Kingdom in the country

- The ace journalist says he will not kneel to beg the Asantehene

Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has waded into the Ashantehene controversy by stating publicly, he will not kneel before the overlord of the Asanteman, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II in any circumstance.

Speaking on Accra based Peace FM on the matter of top NPP executives going on their knees publicly to beg the angry king who threw them out of his palace.

President Akufo-Addo and Asantehene

READ ALSO: Stonebwoy schools Patapaa on how to make good music ?

Abdul Malik Kweku Baako opined that even though he has great respect for the Asntehene and also described him as a wise person, he will never go to the extent of going on his knees before him.

This country is a Republic, those who chose to pacify the Asantehene Otumfuo by kneeling down, theyre entitled to that, that was their own choice. Kweku Baako wouldt do that, of cause notwhat are you talking about? I wont do that! Im not a coward and I speak my mind. Anybody out there is entitled to disagree with me, but Ill speak my mind.

The Asantehene was reportedly angry over concerns that some members within the NPP government are attempting to pitch him [Asantehene] against the Ohyehene and Akyems.

Join YEN on Instagram to be always informed and entertained!

This led to an entourage from the governing New patriotic Party (NPP) to go on their knees to passionately plead with the Asante king and assure him everything possible will be done to ensure that his grievances with the party are addressed.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo also on Tuesday met the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II over recent concerns that some government functionaries were working to malign the Asantehene.

Ghana trends: All About Shatta Wale Highs and Lows:

READ ALSO: Patapaa to perform at Ghana Meets Naija 2018

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish on YEN.com.gh? Please contact us on Facebook or Instagram now.

Source: YenKumawood actress, Rosemond Brown, is this time around, in the news for all the beautiful reasons.

YEN.com.gh has in its possession, a lovely photo of the actress wearing a wine-coloured dress.

The movie star, who has been the subject of discussions in recent times, had a glowing skin, lovely jewelry and a beautiful smile as well.

READ ALSO: Former president Rawlings reveals the man of God who led him to Jesus

She had a beautiful message for her fans as well. She expressed her appreciation to all her fans for their constant with her on her social media pages.

According to her, she really feels the love and for that reason, she prays for Gods blessing for them all.

Her fans, who could not resist complimenting her, had lovely messages for her:

@ghana_guy wrote: "My one and only Rosemond.... Akuapim Kardashian"

@rosina.owusua responded to the message, saying, "Amen; may God bless you more my dear. You are on point.."

@yaabay_skincaregh exclaimed: "Wow, you look beautiful "

Rosemond Brown recently became the talk of town, following her verbal exchanges with Delay, a television show hostess and an entrepreneur.

A planned interview with the Delay did not come off as planned, and this led to discussions among a cross-section of Ghanaians, who sought to make an input into the matter.

READ ALSO: Wizkid finally responds to Shatta Wale's comment about him

Ghana trends: All About Shatta Wales highs and lows:

Use the comments section below to share your views on this story. Do you have a story to share or you have information for us? Get featured on YEN.com.gh. Message us on Facebook or Instagram

Source: YenTop Ghanaian actress, Nana Ama Mcbrown has lashed out at some social media users who have widely criticized her husband, Maxwell over their public appearance.

According to the actress, her husband doubles as her manager therefore he needs to accompany her to every event.

Nana Ama Mcbrown with husband, Maxwell Mensah

READ ALSO: Meet the deputy CEO of GTDC who was paid for 16 months for sitting down in office

Nana Amas responds comes after some social media users accused her of forcing he [Maxwell] to love her.

But speaking to Joy News exclusively, the Kumawood superstar maintained that she cannot force her husband to follow her to events if she is not willing to do so.

The actress insisted although she is capable of doing things on her own, her husband accompanies her to events because he wants to ensure her safety.

She further called on her social media critics to concentrate on their personal lives allow them to be.

READ ALSO: Hajia4Real 'breaks the rules'; confuses her fans with eye-popping photos, video in New York

However, Nana Amas husband has rubbished the claims in an earlier reports, insisting that he could not be talking and smiling in public for no apparent reason.

"When I 'm walking, I should just be talking for no reason?", Maxwell was quoted.

Maxwell suggested that he was not a mentally deranged person therefore could not be talking and smiling just to please the media.

READ ALSO: Ghana Cylinder Company CEO 'fired' by angry board members

Ghana trends: All About Shatta Wale's Highs and Lows:

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YEN.com.gh has sighted a video of a taxi attempting to flog a seemingly mentally retarded passenger for failing to pay her taxi fare.

In the video which is fast going viral, the taxi driver is seen with a cane standing by the woman who was gesticulating like a mad person.

This was after those around had pleaded with the driver to have mercy on the woman.

READ ALSO: Ebony's 'boyfriend' O'Gee drops latest track from her and fans go haywire (VIDEO)

Narrating what happened, the taxi driver who identified himself as Attah from Tabora, a suburb of Accra, stated that the woman asked him to being her to Hitz FM, located at Kokomlemle.

Upon reaching her destination, the woman told him to wait for her to collect money from someone for the fare.

After waiting for sometime without seeing the lady emerging with his money, Attah said he followed up to check what was happening.

READ ALSO: Adom FM's morning show host Captain Smart suspended

It was then that Attah found the woman acting weird and talking gibberish like a mad person.

Sensing that he had been made to work in vain, Attah took out a cane from his car in a bid teach the woman a lesson.

But for the intervention of some people around, the situation might have escalated and different story would have been told now.

READ ALSO: Actress reveals how a man disappointed her after bragging to 'kill' her in bed (VIDEO)

According to Attah, the woman had not showed any signs of madness when he picked her and she did not even talk on their way.

He thus suspected the woman was taking the madness hence his decision to show her that he was equally mad.

Attah cautioned cab drivers to pay attention and screen passengers both directly and indirectly should they ask for their services.

READ ALSO: Shocking revelations on how HIV is killing young people between 15 to 25 years

It is not yet known if the woman was actually mad or was faking her.condition as the driver suggested.

Check out some of the trending news in Ghana in YEN.com.gh's video below:

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish on YEN.com.gh?

Please contact us on Facebook or Instagram now

Source: Yen- The company has refused calls from drivers to reduce the service fee charge they make on Uber rides

- There are fears among some Ghanaians that this may drive up cost of rides.

General Manger for Uber West Africa, Lola Kassim has reiterated that her company will not reduce the 25% commission it makes off drivers fares. This comes as a blow to their driver-partners.

She was responding to the two separate demonstrations held by some Uber drivers in Accra two weeks ago. Their demand was for the company to reduce the commission or service fee it takes from them.

READ ALSO: Shocking revelations on how HIV is killing young people between 15 to 25 years

Uber, a ride-sharing multinational corporation, provides the platform for private car owners to offer transportation to individuals at competitive market rates. Uber makes a percentage off the fare as service fee.

Model Afua Rida patronising an Uber ride

However, it seems the concerns of the drivers will not be met. Speaking on the matter, Ms.Kassim pointed out that the service fee helps Uber maintain and run their business worldwide.

READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo on a week-long vacation in UK

She added that Ubers 24-hour logistical support as well as global marketing depends on the commission they take from drivers. These reasons and more, she says, are why the service fee will not be reduced.

Uber Ghana has already formed a high-powered team to deal with the matter. Head of Communications for West Africa, Francesca Uriri is in the country. This can only be a sign of eagerness to solve the problem.

On their part, the drivers are protesting the 25% as to high citing the cost fuel in the country as well as maintenance of their vehicles. But Ms. Kassim hopes that Ubers willingness to talk to drivers would help the issue.

There are already fears among members of the general public that Uber will bend to pressure by increasing the cost of rides. So far, it is not clear if that it is an option Uber will take.

READ ALSO: Jerry Rawlings troubled at high population rate

It is important to note that if this happens, traditional taxi drivers will be the winners as they have been the ones most affected by Ubers lower pricing.

Check out some of the trending news in Ghana on YEN.com.gh's video below:

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish on YEN.com.gh? Please contact us on Facebook or Instagram now

Source: YenYEN.com.gh has been following with keen interest the recent development in the camp of RuffTown Records since the sudden demise of Ebony Reigns.

During the funeral of Ebony on March 24, Bullet, Ebonys former manager and CEO of RuffTown Records, introduced a new lady whom he stated would be Ebonys replacement.

The lady is called Wendy Addo, but popularly known as Wen Shayy as her music or stage name.

Wendy Addo, popularly called Wen Shayy, "Ebony's replacement"

READ ALSO: Stonebwoy shares heartbreaking throwback photo using walking sticks

Unfortunately, Bullets introduction did not go down well with some Ghanaians, especially, Ebonys father.

According to Mr. Opoku Kwarteng, Ebonys father, Bullet was too quick to introduce a new Ebony.

Bullets gesture, Mr. Kwarteng explains, was a way to show that he did not really care about Ebonys death but only how to make quick money with the new replacement.

READ ALSO: You were just his tour guide - Actress who claims Bill Asamoah is a 2-min man exposed

Apart from Ebonys father, some other Ghanaians have often embarrased Wen Shayy whenever she tries to do something on social media.

Recently, YEN.com.gh sighted a video of Wen Shay together with Bullet, and OGee the MC, who has been rumoured to be Ebonys boyfriend.

In that video which was shot at the 2018 Ghana DJ Awards, Wen Shay was giving a free style asking Ghanaians to watch out for her.

But she was lambasted on social media with claims that she was unacceptably trying to copy the late Ebony Reigns.

READ ALSO: Ebonys 'replacement' gives off free style in latest video, and fans cant take it no more

However, some people believe that Wen Shay is her own kind of uniqueness, and can indeed take over Ebonys place if she tries hard.

Others also believe that she is a queen in her own rights, and can indeed make an impact in the music industry.

YEN.com.gh brings you five photos of Wen Shay which proves that she is indeed ready to take the music industry by storm.

1. In the photo below, Wen Shayy gives off an infectious smile somewhere on the streets outside Ghana. Also, her curves are something that would not escape anyone's eyes.She's indeed a queen in her own rights.

READ ALSO: Shoutout to Shatta Wale  Wizkid finally speaks after Wale attacked him months ago

2. Wen Shayy is really feeling all queeny in this photo.

3. Here, Wen Shayy treats her fans and followers to a cool bikini and poolside view. It is really clear that she loves to have fun, just like the late Ebony Reigns.

READ ALSO: Ebony's response to her managers when they asked her about her 17 tattoos

4. Here, Wen Shayy admires herself as she takes a selfie

5. Wendy Addo shows her fine backside with this pose.

6.Wen Shayy is a family person too!

Meanwhile, Wen Shay has stated that her first song would be out soon.

In an Instagram post, she urged her fans to look forward to her hit song.

All the best to her and RuffTown Records.

READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo on a week-long vacation in UK

Ghana trends: All About Shatta Wale Highs and Lows | Yen.com.gh

READ ALSO: Anger, hate, greed and pride are enemies; avoid them  Moesha Boduong

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



Guwahati: Opposition Congress on Wednesday demanded a referendum on the Citizenship (Ammendment) Bill, 2016, which triggered an outrage in Assam as several organisations, indigenous people of the state have opposed the controversial bill.





Former Assam Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi said that, in democracy, it is obvious that there will be differences of opinions and people have right to raise their voice if any initiative taken by the government might be hurt them.





Slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP, the three times former Chief Minister said that, the BJP-led union government has moved to pass the bill to grant citizenship to the non-muslims immigrants of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan in the name of persecution while people of Assam have strongly opposed the bill.





"Let there be a referendum on the Citizenship (Ammendment) Bill, 2016," Gogoi said.





Gogoi further said that, BJP has promised to protect the indigenous people of the state during election campaigns, but they didn't.





"Why is Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal silent on the bill," Gogoi questioned.





It is to be mentioned that, various organisations, groups, people of Brahmaputra and Barak Valleys had expressed their views before the 16 member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) led by BJP MP Rajendra Agarwala which conducted hearings on the bill in the state for three days.









In Brahmaputra valley, most of the indigenous groups, organisations had

opposed the bill while Bengali majority Barak valleys groups, organisations

had expressed their support on it.





Addressing a press conference held in Guwahati, Tarun Gogoi said that, the BJP-led union government is trying to set Assam on fire by introducing the bill.





"We are opposing the bill and we will not allow to grant citizenship to the Hindu Bangladeshi," Gogoi said.





On the other hand, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president and Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Bora said that, the AGP who is in part of the BJP-led Assam coalition government is fooling the people of Assam by saying that they will withdraw its support to the state government and will pull out within a second if the bill is passed.





"It is a time to save Assam, indigenous people, Assamese community, our culture, our language and there is widespread anger across the state against the bill. But AGP is waiting for the bill to be passed to withdraw support from the government. Historical Assam Accord was signed after six years long Assam agitation and they are the signatories of the accord," Ripun Bora said.





On the other hand, while the Congress opposed the bill, a section of the party in the Bengali community dominated Barak valley had interestingly supported it.





Former minister and senior Congress leader in Barak valley alleged that, the previous Congress government cabinet had also decided to grant citizenship to the Hindu Bangladeshis.





The Congress and other 254 organisations, groups had met the JPC in Silchar in Southern Assam on Tuesday and Wednesday.



JERUSALEM, May 10: Iranian forces based in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights early Thursday, the Israeli military said, triggering an Israeli reprisal and escalating already heightened tensions in what appeared to be the most serious violence in years.





The Israeli military said its Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage. There were no Israeli casualties.





The Syrian capital of Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defenses over the city was heard throughout the night. An Israeli official said Israel was targeting Iranian positions inside Syria. Syrian state TV quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israel was targeting air defense positions and trying to hit radar stations.





Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said earlier that Irans Al Quds force fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though he would not say how Israel determined the Iranian involvement. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan, which was captured from Syria in the 1967 war.





Israel views this Iranian attack very severely, Conricus told reporters. He said Israel had responded, but did not provide details.





This event is not over, he said.





Syrias state media said Syrian air defenses had intercepted hostile Israeli missiles early Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus. Hours later, state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast a live feed of Syrian air defenses firing into the sky above the capital, and loud explosions and air defense firing were heard through the night.





Syrian activists reported Israeli airstrikes hitting targets near Damascus. One video posted online showed a large explosion and shrapnel flying in the air. Residents reported loud sounds that rocked their buildings. It was not immediately clear what was hit.





An Israeli army spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on Twitter that Israel was acting against Iranian targets inside Syria, a rare admission by an Israeli official.





Al-Ikhbariya TV said Israel also targeted military posts in southern Suweida province, including an air base. The report quoted a Syrian official as saying those attacks were foiled.





Syrian media earlier said the hostilities began with Israeli fire at Syrian positions in southern Syria from across the border. Pro-Syrian media said Syrian missiles then fired at Israeli forces. One TV station, Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen, said at least 50 missiles were fired from Syria at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights. Al-Ikhbariya TV said missiles targeted 10 Israeli positions.





Syrian media said it was the first time in years that Syrians had fired at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights.





Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, anticipating an Iranian attack following Iranian vows to retaliate to what it says are recent Israeli strikes in Syria targeting Iranian outposts.





Late Tuesday, Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near the capital of Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Irans elite Revolutionary Guard, killing at least 15 people, eight of them Iranians.





Last month, an attack on Syrias T4 air base in Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel. On April 30, Israel was said to have struck government outposts in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen pro-government fighters, many of them Iranians.





Israel has neither confirmed nor denied most of the airstrikes. But for months, it has repeatedly said it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.





In February, Israel shot down what it said was an armed Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace. Israel responded by attacking anti-aircraft positions in Syria, but an Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.





Iranian forces moved into Syria after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 to back the forces of President Bashar Assad. As that war winds down, and Assad appears to be headed toward victory, Israel fears that Iran, along with tens of thousands of Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen, will carry out attacks against Israel. President Donald Trumps announcement Tuesday that the U.S. was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran has triggered uncertainty and threatened to spark more unrest in the Middle East.





Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Moscow on Wednesday to meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss military coordination in Syria.





Russia has also sent forces to Syria to back Assad. But Israel and Russia have maintained close communications to prevent their air forces from coming into conflict.





Together with Putin, Netanyahu toured a parade celebrating the anniversary of the World War II victory over the Nazis and then met the Russian president at the Kremlin for consultations.





After 10 hours together, Netanyahu said he conveyed Israels obligation to defend itself against Iranian aggression.





I think that matters were presented in a direct and forthright manner, and this is important. These matters are very important to Israels security at all times and especially at this time, he said.





Israel views Iran as its archenemy, citing Irans calls for Israels destruction, support for militant groups across the region and growing military activity in neighboring Syria. Israel has warned that it will not allow Iran to establish a permanent military presence in Syria.





Israels military went on high alert Tuesday and bomb shelters were ordered open in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights following reports of irregular activity of Iranian forces in Syria. After an uneventful night, the military on Wednesday called on residents to return to full civilian routine, meaning studies and excursions would continue as usual, although the shelters would remain open.





Amos Gilead, a retired senior Israeli defense official, told a security conference in the coastal town of Herzliya that Irans intentions in Syria meant a wider conflagration may only be a matter of time.







Imphal, May 9 : Two security personnel were died and one seriously injured in a powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in Manipurs Imphal East district today.





The blast occurred at around 2 pm at Koirengei, Imphal near CRPF outpost gate.





In the explosion two security personnel died on spot and one received severe injuries.





It is second blast in less than 24 hours targeting security personnel in Manipur.



Kathmandu, Nepal: Indian Prime Minister Naredra Modi is arriving in Nepal tomorrow for a two day state visit. The government and its allies have intensified their preparations with much more fanfare to welcome Modi.





As Prime Minister KP Oli and his Indian counterpart Modi are scheduled to inaugurate Arun-III Hydropower project during Modis two day state visit in Nepal, the government has taken the issue as of a big achievements made from the governments side.





Likewise, both the prime ministers are also scheduled to jointly inaugurate Ramayana Circuit and Janakpur-Ayodhya direct bus service during Modis stay in Janakpur.





The government has prepared a to-do list manage the state visit of Indian Prime Minister Moidi. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Modi will pay courtesy calls on President Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Vice-president Nanda Bahadur Pun on May 11.





In the same day, both the prime minister will hold bilateral talks. Though the issues and agendas of the bilateral talks are yet to make public, the government authorities used to say that various issues related to Nepal-India relations will be discussed during the bilateral talks.



No date set for parly probing of Mugabe over Marange diamonds  report

11 may 2018 News

Former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe will not appear before a parliament committee this week as the august houses clerk is yet to write to the fallen leader.

A parliamentary committee on mines and energy resolved last month to summon Mugabe to answer questions on corruption in the diamond industry.

He claimed in 2016 that Zimbabwe only received $2 billion from about $15 billion obtained from diamond sales since 2006.

"The committee had already resolved to invite the former president to give evidence," AFP quoted committee chairperson Temba Mliswa as saying.

"It is the clerk of parliament who will write to him (Mugabe) to come to parliament."

The committee previously interviewed former ministers, police and intelligence chiefs to answer on diamond mining operations at the vast Chiadzwa gem fields.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&PolishedContact:

Mostly, the Rude Pundit doesn't give a shit what you have to say, but, if you have to say it, you can write to Lee Papa here: rudepundit(at)yahoo(dot)comvia Global Dialogue Volume 8, Issue 1 (April 2018)

Since roughly the middle of the twentieth century, it is only in the Anglo-American West that academic Marxism has loomed larger than political Marxism. In most of the world (and not just Eastern Europe or the former Soviet Union), Marxism has been far more important as a political ideology than as an academic persuasion. That is why, when writing about places outside the West, discussions on aMarx and sociologya need to be placed within a larger societal context.

Established between 1920 and 1925, the Communist Party of India (CPI) was the second largest party in the first three national elections held in 1952, 1957 and 1962, although it won less than 30 seats against the 360-plus won by the Indian National Congress. However, the CPI had the distinction of forming the worldas first democratically elected communist government in 1957 in the southern state of Kerala (current population 33 million). The CPI-Marxist, or CPM (formed after a split in 1964) was re-elected continuously for 34 years (from 1977 to 2011) in the eastern state of West Bengal (population 91 million). But the electoral importance of communism has declined and today its major impact is felt through the ongoing armed conflict between the Indian state and a coalition of Maoist groups based among tribal peoples in the forested regions of central India, mainly in the state of Chhattisgarh (population 26 million). A more limited source of influence is through student organizations with allegiance to Marxist parties or movements.

Marxism has also been significant in the Indian academy, but its influence is greater in history, economics, and political science than in sociology. Within sociology three scholars have had the most impact; all of them served as presidents of the Indian Sociological Society (or its predecessors).

The earliest of these was Dhurjati Prasad Mukerji (1894-1961), an influential intellectual who taught at the joint department of economics and sociology at Lucknow University from 1922 to 1954. Mukerji was mainly interested in the Marxist method, which was the subject of his book On Indian History: A Study in Method (1945). He called himself a aMarxologista rather than a Marxist because of his reservations about Marxism and its doctrinaire tendencies that prevented it from addressing the specificities of the Indian context.

Akshay Ramanlal Desai (1915-1994) was arguably the scholar who did the most for the development of Marxist sociology in India. He entered academics relatively late, after having worked as a full-time organizer for nationalist, Marxist, and finally Trotskyist political organizations (in which he retained lifelong membership). His doctoral thesis in sociology submitted to Bombay University was published in 1948 as The Social Background of Indian Nationalism and remains a perennial classic today, after twelve reprints, six editions, and numerous Indian-language translations. The book uses the amaterialist conception of historya to connect the economic transformations triggered by colonialism to the sociocultural and political changes that ultimately produced nationalism. Desaias argument that capitalist development had already begun in the colonial period ran counter to the party line of the CPI and the CPM who asserted that Indian society was still asemi-feudal.a Apart from nationalism, he also published books on peasant and agrarian struggles in India as well as book-length discussions on human rights and their violation by the state. Desai joined the department of sociology in Bombay in 1951 and went on to head it in 1969. His overall contribution is in having made an explicit attempt to develop a Marxist sociology in India and in promoting this approach among his students and other scholars he mentored.

Dattatreya Narayan Dhanagare (1936-2017) studied with the British Marxist sociologist Tom Bottomore at the University of Sussex and spent most of his career teaching at the University of Pune, India. Dhanagareas best known works are on social movements, notably Peasant Movements in India (1983) and Populism and Power (2015). Through his writings and his graduate students, Dhanagare made a significant contribution towards promoting class analysis in Indian sociology.

Marxist perspectives have been more prominent in history (where they are dominant) and economics (where they are a significant minority). Internationally acclaimed examples of Marxist scholarship in these disciplines are to be found in the so-called amode of production debatea and the work of the Subaltern Studies school.

From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, an entire generation of scholars (mostly economists) engaged in a wide-ranging effort to characterize the mode of production of agrarian India since the colonial period. Taking its cue from the Maurice Dobb-Paul Sweezy debate on the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe, the Indian mode of production debate focused on the specifics of transition in a feudal-colonial agrarian system. It raised the question of defining capitalism in agriculture to new levels of theoretical sophistication by addressing in rich empirical detail themes such as: waged versus family labor; productive versus unproductive uses of surpluses; the role of extra-economic coercion in the capital-labor relation; the feasibility of a acolonial mode of productiona ; and the implications of Marxas distinction between the formal and real subsumption of labor by capital.

The group of scholars working under the rubric of Subaltern Studies from the early 1980s to the 2000s came together in an attempt to critique existing versions of Marxist historiography and especially its treatment of Indian nationalism. Arguing that this history focused on the elite and ignored the subaltern classes, this collective produced a Gramscian interpretation of elite nationalism as a regime of adominance without hegemonya marked by athe failure of the Indian bourgeoisie to speak for the nationa as well as the weakness of the subaltern mobilizations. The subaltern historians emphasized social and cultural history and folk forms of resistance and mobilization. The collective has since been disbanded though its members remain active academics and intellectuals.

Finally, Marxism is a routine part of the social science curriculum in Indian universities (except, lately, in economics). Marxist perspectives retain their significance in India today, but tend to be more diffuse and hybrid, reflecting broader global trends.If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE). Quirky Texas statute operates to make being married an aggravating factor in sexual assault cases in Texas | Main | Nevada defense attorney loses latest battle, but may still be winning war, in effort to preclude an execution defendant apparently seeks 

May 10, 2018

High-profile recipient of federal clemency headed to prison once more, and then...

The life and legal sagas of Mel Reynolds could surely serve as a remarkable movie script, but today it was the subject of (another) federal sentencing proceeding. This USA Today article, headlined "Former U.S. congressman Mel Reynolds is headed back to prison -- and then Africa," provides highlights from a remarkable life story:

Disgraced former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds is headed back to prison. The controversial ex-congressman from Chicago was sentenced Thursday to six months in federal prison for failure to file income tax returns for four years, from 2009 to 2013, despite making about $400,000 as a consultant for two Chicago-area businessmen in Africa during that time. Reynolds, a Democrat who served in the House from 1993 to 1995, saw his storybook political career upended when he was convicted in 1995 of sexual assault of a 16-year-old campaign worker. While serving his sentence for the statutory rape conviction, Reynolds was convicted on a series of charges that included bank fraud, misusing campaign funds and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. Those charges resulted in an additional 78-month federal prison sentence. He served 42 months on those charges before then-President Bill Clinton commuted the sentences. The former congressman, who represented himself at his four-day bench trial last year on the tax fraud charges, insisted that the money he received was for business expenses and was not taxable income. At his sentencing hearing, he made an argument that had he filed taxes he may have actually been owed a refund. U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman noted that Reynolds' argument seemed to conflate tax credits with tax deductions, and dismissed it.... Born to a poor family in Mississippi and later living as a youth on public assistance in Chicago, Reynolds climbed his way out of poverty and earned advanced degrees at Harvard University and was awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University before running for office. "It is really tragic that you squandered the type of opportunity you've had and failed to become what you could have become," Gettleman said before handing down the sentence. Following the hearing, Reynolds struck a defiant tone in brief comments to reporters. The former lawmaker, who is slated to begin his sentence Aug. 1, said that he planned to move Africa after he completes his prison term. He will receive credit for two months he spent in federal custody before posting bail ahead of his trial. Im done with America, Reynolds said. I am going to go home to Africa. Ive given up on America. Reynolds had entered a consulting agreement to hunt for business opportunities in Zimbabwe on behalf of two prominent Chicago-area businessmen, Elzie Higginbottom and Willie Wilson. Higginbottom testified that he ended the partnership with Reynolds in 2012 after Reynolds managed to only land a single contract to sell latex gloves to Zimbabwe hospitals. Frankly, at the end of the day, (Reynolds) knew better, federal prosecutors argued in their sentencing memorandum in which they recommended Reynolds face at least a two year prison sentence. His personal behavior has repeatedly reflected his willingness to engage in fraudulent, criminal conduct and his readiness to mislead and defy courts in an attempt to obstruct justice.... Reynolds argued that it was unfair that he continue to be punished over and over for his previous convictions. "I started from nothing but I became something," Reynolds said. "To put me in jail serves what purpose?"

May 10, 2018 at 05:45 PM | Permalink

Comments

Yet another black man lynched on nitpicking charges by the vile feminist lawyer and its male running dogs. Had he been white, he would have received community service, in a plea deal.

For example, I, a white male, was fined $15,000 by the IRS for filing a Form 5500 late. I wrote back, citing  1.6664-4 Reasonable cause and good faith exception to section 6662 penalties. Basically, I said, I am a nice person, and did not really mean to violate the law. Because I am white, there was no problem, anymore.

The lawyer profession is fully under the control of the feminists in 2018, the way it was fully under the control of the KKK in 1918.

Posted by: David Behar | May 10, 2018 6:24:20 PM

Don't you just love how he tries to claim that his current troubles only exist because of his earlier convictions when they are for entirely separate time periods? Although if he wants to move to Africa and scam people there I'm all for that.

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | May 10, 2018 10:57:59 PM

SH: I am interested in an analysis of his sentencing were he white. He was radicalized at Harvard University, true. But his harsh treatment is racist.

Posted by: David Behar | May 10, 2018 11:58:13 PM

I am actually surprised he did not draw a heavier sentence, a sex offender with other priors getting caught in yet more criminal behavior. He obviously learned nothing from the first go-round (not even to be smarter about his offenses).

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | May 11, 2018 12:54:51 AM

Doug, from Behar's comments on the last five postings, your encouragement that he post less often and with more civility has fallen on deaf ears.

bruce

Posted by: bruce cunningham | May 11, 2018 9:33:53 PM

Hi, Bruce. Feminist customer for you. Has good mitigating factor.

http://www.azfamily.com/story/38152568/pd-woman-sent-65000-texts-to-man-said-she-wanted-to-bathe-in-his-blood

Posted by: David Behar | May 12, 2018 2:22:49 AM

The devaluation of male murder victims by the vile feminist lawyer profession. That victim's execution was cruel and unusual. It does not matter. The feminist is privileged by the lawyer profession.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/woman-who-ran-over-spouse-released-from-prison/vi-AAx9Ifb?ocid=spartandhp

Posted by: David Behar | May 12, 2018 11:45:50 AM

Supremacy, listen to the bells, for whom do they toll for? Dah.......

Anyway regarding black/white/anycolor:

No matter what color you are, if your the one breaking the law, then you get to do the time. Ignotance of the law is no excuse, neither is a poor family or the fact that you have never worked a day in your life or your parents and their parents.

Enough said, its very simple.

Posted by: MidWestGuy | May 12, 2018 5:19:33 PM

Supremacy, whats with this vile feminist lawyer crap... You just dont get it...

Go grind your axe somewhere else, what is wrong with you....

Posted by: MidWestGuy | May 12, 2018 5:22:40 PM

Post a comment House Judiciary Committee approves FIRST STEP Act by a vote of 25-5 after lots of discussion of amendments | Main | Mapping out the politics for the path forward for federal prison (and sentencing?) reform 

May 9, 2018

Lots of sentencing fun  thanks to enduring Johnson fallout  to be found in cert pool relists

The Justice of the Supreme Court will have a conference tomorrow to discuss cert petitions, and that means John Elwood has another of his always valuable "Relist Watch" posts up at SCOTUSblog. This version of relists has lots that should interest sentencing fans, and I will reprint those parts here:

May 9, 2018 at 05:41 PM | Permalink

Comments

Post a comment Lots of sentencing fun  thanks to enduring Johnson fallout  to be found in cert pool relists | Main | Sentencing Project reports on "Incarcerated Women and Girls, 1980-2016" 

May 9, 2018

Mapping out the politics for the path forward for federal prison (and sentencing?) reform

I am unsure how big a deal to make out of the passage of the FIRST STEP Act out of the House Judiciary Committee today (discussed here) because I am not sure it create much more confidence about the chance of the Senate moving forward with a form of federal criminal justice reform that can actually become law. This new Politico article discusses the political uncertainty that is now the reality:

Congress on Wednesday edged closer to a rare bipartisan achievement during a hotly contested election year after a House panel voted overwhelmingly to send a prison reform plan to the floor  despite persistent internal GOP tensions in the Senate over the White House-backed bill. The prison legislation, a key priority of Jared Kushner, won easy approval in the House Judiciary Committee. It was a striking turnabout after backers scrapped a vote on an earlier version two weeks ago amid waning support. But the bills lopsided 25-5 vote masked ongoing disputes among Senate Republicans and House Democrats over its omission of sentencing reforms opposed by President Donald Trump. Critics of the measure say those sentencing reforms are crucial to any deal. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has allied with Democratic supporters of a broader criminal justice package that includes both sentencing and prison reform provisions. GOP leaders in both chambers want to instead move the narrower prison bill, which would authorize training for prisoners thats aimed at reducing recidivism rates. As the House panel moved to okay the bill, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas)  a previous backer of the broader criminal justice overhaul who has narrowed his sights to prison reform  said he hoped to negotiate with Grassley on a path forward.... Grassley and Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, his lead Democratic partner on the Senate criminal justice package, said Wednesday that they were encouraged by the Houses progress but giving no ground on their position. For any criminal justice reform proposal to win approval in the Senate, it must include these sentencing reforms, Grassley and Durbin said in a statement. Lobbying on the House prison bill also has become contentious in recent weeks, pitting one of the legislations lead cosponsors, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), against the top Democrat on the Judiciary panel, fellow New York Rep. Jerry Nadler. Jeffries has worked for months with Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) on the bill, omitting the sentencing provisions that are a nonstarter with the White House in part because of longstanding opposition from Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Nadler took part in a Tuesday meeting with opponents of the legislation and made an impassioned plea to delay consideration of the bill during the markup. Jeffries, however, downplayed the tension after the bill sailed through the judiciary panel. He said everyone involved in the bill supports addressing sentencing laws; the disagreement is over when that should happen. Mass incarceration has been with us for almost 40 years. Its going to take more than one singular legislative magic wand to eradicate it, Jeffries said in an interview. We all agree that sentencing reform should be a part of any broad criminal justice reform effort that takes place. The First Step Act represents the beginning of the end of overcriminalization in America. A House floor vote on the bill is possible before the Memorial Day recess, according to multiple sources. But the proposal still faces formidable foes, from powerful civil rights groups like the ACLU and key senators such as Grassley and Durbin. Dozens of advocacy groups, including the NAACP, sent another letter opposing the prison bill to House members on Tuesday. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), another supporter of the broader criminal justice package, reiterated in a Tuesday interview that I want to see sentencing reform and prison reform move together, and I worry that this bill doesnt make that happen. Booker met Monday night to discuss strategy on the bill with Durbin, Jeffries, Nadler, Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). But supporters of the broader and narrower approaches to criminal justice left entrenched in their positions, according to a source with knowledge of the meeting.... The bill, if successful, would likely be the last major bipartisan effort to clear Congress before the election. And it would be a major victory for Kushner, who has failed to score any significant wins in the White House, despite a disparate policy portfolio that has included everything from bringing peace to the Middle East to tackling the nations opioid crisis. The key for this is a realization that perfect doesnt exist on the Hill, Collins said in an interview. Although we want to have done some more, this is a very valid first step. The White House "look[s] forward to a vote in the full House" on the legislation, deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said by email. The bill would authorize $50 million annually for five years for educational and vocational programs for prisoners with the goal of equipping inmates for life after incarceration and reducing repeat offenses. In a major win for progressives, the bill also includes a technical tweak to current law that would increase good time credit for prisoners from 47 days to 54 days per year. The change, which would be applied retroactively, would lead to the immediate release of 4,000 prisoners, according to the bills supporters.

Some of many prior related posts:

May 9, 2018 at 06:25 PM | Permalink

Comments

I would think that one argument Democrats should be making, in an appeal to their Republican colleagues, is that the federal government has become too involved in criminal law, which was traditionally left to the states. The 1790 Crimes Act listed roughly 23 federal statutory crimes, all of which were connected to constitutional limits, such as murder on the high seas and piracy. The Federal Judicial Center has some interesting graphs showing the increase in federal criminal cases over the past 250 years. A large number of federal criminal laws today seem to be premised on the same broad interpretation of the commerce clause that conservatives are often opposed to. The pickle seems to arise from the fact that the "tough on crime" issue position is an electoral winner and as such the federalization of criminal law provides Republican legislators with a source from which to draw electoral support. From a political strategy perspective, I think liberal Democrats in Congress would benefit from tying together criminal reform with states' rights and a and federalism, arguing that it is hypocritical to want a smaller federal government and yet support a broader federal role in the area of criminal law.

I recently reread Ex Parte United States (1916), which I had forgotten even existed, and chuckled at the fact that none of this judiciary-congress struggle over crime and sentencing is in any way new. Even that case was just dealing with a tension that can be traced back to English judges struggling with parliament. Maybe bring back the benefit of clergy?

Posted by: Anonuser879 | May 9, 2018 11:15:53 PM

The modern state is going to be more complicated than 1790, or even 1915 so that sort of thing can be taken too far. There is room for local option here but Republicans aren't going to stop at this issue. Next up: well, fine, let's have local laws allowing GLBT discrimination and overturn PPACA.

Posted by: Joe | May 10, 2018 1:29:28 PM

These proposals are all lawyer quackery, for the purpose of displaying false piety. None will have any effect on the explosion in the number of crimes in our nation.

Posted by: David Behar | May 10, 2018 3:51:55 PM

The "tweak" referred to at the end of this post is significant. In addition, it should be pointed out that the law does not change the number of days credit per year, but rather (I assume) changes how the credit is calculated. The statute, 18 U.S.C. Section 3624(b)(1), has long provided for up to 54 days of good time credit per year. However, the Bureau of Prisons has taken the view that "54" actually means 46 or 47 days per year, because otherwise the inmate would be getting good time credit on time not actually served. (On a 10-year sentence you would think you would get 540 days off at the outset, but wait! That's a year and a half when you won't be in custody, why should you get good conduct credit for time you have not actually served? So reasoned the BOP.) In short, the BOP's policies have consistently required that the inmate be given credit for the time actually served, rather than subtracting 54 days from every year of the sentence imposed. Applying Chevron deference, the Court, in Barber v.Thomas, 560 U.S. 474 (2010), held that the regulation was a reasonable implementation of the statute. Presumably this law reverses that interpretation.

Posted by: Late Inning Relief | May 10, 2018 4:38:39 PM

Post a comment Sentencing Project reports on "Incarcerated Women and Girls, 1980-2016" | Main | Quirky Texas statute operates to make being married an aggravating factor in sexual assault cases in Texas 

May 10, 2018

Oregon Supreme Court upholds 112-year aggregate sentence for juve mass murderer Kip Kinkel

A helpful reader made sure I did not miss the notable Oregon Supreme Court's ruling today in Kinkel v. Persson, 363 Or 1 (Oregon May 10, 2018) (available here). The defendant in this case, Kip Kinkel, is a high-profile juvenile offender because back in 1998, at age 15, he killed his parents and then the next day at his high school shot two classmates and wounded 25 others. The start of the Oregon Supreme Court majority opinion explains the sentencing proceedings and the court's ruling:

Petitioner pled guilty to four counts of murder and 25 counts of attempted murder, as well as pleading no contest to a twenty-sixth count of attempted murder. As part of a plea bargain, petitioner and the state agreed that he would receive concurrent 25-year sentences for the four murders. They also agreed that each side would be free to argue that the mandatory 90-month sentences for each of the attempted murders should run consecutively or concurrently. After a six-day sentencing hearing, the trial court ordered that 50 months of each 90-month sentence for attempted murder would run concurrently but that 40 months of each of those sentences would run consecutively to each other and to the four concurrent 25-year sentences. As a result of that ruling, petitioners aggregate sentence totals slightly less than 112 years. In this post-conviction proceeding, petitioner argues that, because he was a juvenile when he committed his crimes, the Eighth Amendment prohibits the imposition of an aggregate sentence that is the functional equivalent of a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Petitioners federal argument entails primarily three issues. The first is whether, as a matter of state law, petitioners Eighth Amendment claim is procedurally barred. See ORS 138.550(2) (barring post-conviction petitioners from raising grounds for relief that were or reasonably could have been raised on direct appeal); Verduzco v. State of Oregon, 357 Or 553, 355 P3d 902 (2015) (applying a related statute). If it is, the second issue is whether Montgomery v. Louisiana, ___ US ___, 136 S Ct 718, 193 L Ed 2d 599 (2016), requires this court to reach petitioners Eighth Amendment claim despite the existence of that state procedural bar. Third, if petitioners Eighth Amendment claim is not procedurally barred, the remaining issue is whether and how Miller v. Alabama, 567 US 460, 132 S Ct 2455, 183 L Ed 2d 407 (2012), applies when a court imposes an aggregate sentence for multiple crimes committed by a juvenile. As explained below, we hold that, even if ORS 138.550(2) does not pose a procedural bar to petitioners Eighth Amendment claim, his claim fails on the merits. More specifically, the issue in Miller was whether the Eighth Amendment prohibited a juvenile from being sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for a single homicide. The Court held that such a sentence could be imposed but only if the trial court found that the crime reflected irreparable corruption rather than the transience of youth. The Court did not consider in Miller whether a juvenile who has been convicted of multiple murders and attempted murders, as in this case, may be sentenced to an aggregate consecutive sentence that is the equivalent of life without the possibility of parole. This case thus poses a different issue from the issue in Miller. Beyond that, we conclude that the facts in this case, coupled with the sentencing courts findings, bring petitioner within the narrow class of juveniles who, as Miller recognized, may be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

May 10, 2018 at 04:01 PM | Permalink

Comments

I support this decision, and the application of the Italian Death Penalty in general population. I estimate his lifespan to be 1-2 years.

Posted by: David Behar | May 10, 2018 6:33:32 PM

Except he's already survived the better part of 20.

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | May 10, 2018 11:08:15 PM

This is the first case to receive merits review of a "Miller" claim in a JLWOP case in OR. The rest have been barred on the procedural basis that the court here decided to not discuss.

Posted by: John | May 14, 2018 11:53:01 AM

Post a commentNajib is seeking to retain power at the head of a regime that has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957, but veteran ex-leader Mahathirs shock comeback has upended the election race.



Angered by a massive financial scandal that has tarnished Malaysias international image, Mahathir has teamed up with an alliance of parties that opposed him when he was in power, and which includes jailed opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim  his former nemesis.

Najibs ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition is seen as likely to win due to an electoral system that critics say is heavily stacked in their favour, but analysts predict the government will lose the popular vote for the second consecutive election.

Under the Malaysian system, a simple majority of MPs in parliament is required for victory, rather than the popular vote.

The race is expected to be tight however. The opposition alliance has gained ground in recent weeks as Mahathir, who ruled with an iron fist for 22 years, has chipped away at the governments key support base, the Muslim Malay majority.

Long queues were forming at voting centres across the country, which opened at 8:00 am (0000 GMT). They were due to close at 5:00 pm (0900 GMT) with results expected on late Wednesday or in the early hours of Thursday.

Lim Kok Tong, a 43-year-old voter in the capital Kuala Lumpur, said he was "hoping for change".

"When governments realise that they can be replaced, they will be attentive to their citizens," said the voter from the countrys sizeable ethnic Chinese minority, who typically support the opposition.

In the northern city of Alor Setar, former civil servant Jaafar Hassan, 69, said he had voted for the ruling coalition.

"I know Mahathir. He is a good man but he has become arrogant  this is his biggest mistake," he said.

Under pressure

Najib is under pressure to score an emphatic win after the government lost the popular vote for the first time at the last elections in 2013, and observers say his position as prime minister could be under threat if he does not do well.

Voters in the multi-ethnic country have become increasingly disillusioned by divisive racial politics, the rising cost of living and graft scandals.

The controversy surrounding state fund 1MDB has only added to Najibs woes. Billions of dollars were allegedly stolen from the fund, which was set up and overseen by Najib. The leader and 1MDB deny any wrongdoing.

But in rural areas the rising cost of living is the main concern, and has hit poor Malays hard, particularly after the introduction of an unpopular sales tax in 2015.

Najib, from the countrys revered ethnic Malay nobility, voted in his constituency of Pekan and said the election had been "quite vicious".

"The most important thing is for people to decide on the destiny of this nation, and it must be based on facts," the 64-year-old told reporters.

Critics have raised the alarm about alleged manipulation of the system to tilt the poll in BNs favour through a redrawing of electoral boundaries which created constituencies packed with Malay voters, who traditionally back the government.

The opposition was increasingly targeted as the campaign heated up, with police launching a probe into Mahathir for allegedly breaking a controversial new law against "fake news" after he claimed a plane he chartered was sabotaged.

In an eve-of-election address, Najib promised tax exemptions for the young and more public holidays if his coalition wins while in a rival speech,

Mahathir urged voters to dump a government that he says has "destroyed" Malaysia.

Najib has countered Mahathirs attacks by focusing on the ex-leaders own authoritarian track record while in office.

Some 15 million voters have been registered to vote at the election and 222 parliamentary seats are being contested. VNSThese martyrs laid down during the anti-French and American resistance wars in Laos.



The local authorities and military commands of Quang Binh province and Khammouane Province of Laos joined hands to seek and transfer the remains of fallen soldiers and experts to Vietnam during dry seasons from 2017-2018.





By MINH PHONG  Translated by Kim KhanhMay is a momentous moment for climate change in the Pacific with key milestone events happening in our region.

It includes the ground-breaking ceremony to commence construction of the Pacific Climate Change Centre (P.C.C.C.) at Vailima tomorrow.

A high level dialogue on climate change and biodiversity for Pacific leaders took place with the Hon Jean-Yves Le Drian, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France on 4 May. This was held during the three day Presidential visit of H.E Emmanuel Macron and his delegation to New Caledonia.

Also to take place in May is the very first Pacific Resilience Partnership Taskforce meeting as the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific unfolds, the Bonn Climate Change Conference is underway consisting of a range of different meetings under the UN Framework for the Convention on Climate Change, and on 11 May construction of the Pacific Climate Change Centre will begin construction with a ground breaking ceremony.

The Paris Agreement was described as An equitable and irreversible agreement demonstrating solidarity, by Hon. Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister of Foreign Affairs, France during the high level dialogue on climate change and biodiversity. He also said that the French development agency (AFD) is to become a fully-fledged development bank which will be active in the Pacific region and completely aligned with the Paris Agreement.

Director General of S.P.R.E.P, Leota Kosi Latu, participated in the high level dialogue and also met with President Macron during his visit to New Caledonia.

This is a special year for S.P.R.E.P. and our Members as we celebrate our 25 year anniversary and begin construction of the Pacific Climate Change Centre; we were able to commemorate our partnership with France as a strong supporting Member and partner, said Leota.

S.P.R.E.P. was founded on the principles of conservation for a sustainable environment for the Pacific, and as the years have passed, so have our environmental challenges as the urgency for climate action has grown. It was an honour to be able to talk with President Macron and Minister Le Drian, knowing our SPREP Island Members and France fully understands the important role of the Paris Agreement.

France is one of the five metropolitan members of S.P.R.E.P., and has supported S.P.R.E.P. in its capacity to support its Pacific Members on climate change adaptation issues and biodiversity conservation.

This high level dialogue between the French delegation and the leaders of the Pacific has occurred at a crucial time for the Pacific region as we prepare for the beginning of a new era in climate change adaptation and capacity development.

Tomorrow, S.P.R.E.P. will host the ground breaking ceremony to commence construction of the Pacific Climate Change Centre (P.C.C.C.), in partnership with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Government of Samoa. It will also be the launch of the 25 year anniversary celebrations of S.P.R.E.P., for which a calendar of events are to follow.

The Centre will be the regional hub for enhanced and inclusive collaboration and coordination to support climate resilient development and responses to climate change in the region. Development of the Centre is guided by a steering committee consisting of a wide range of key stakeholders including Member countries, partners, donors and agencies of the Council of the Regional Organisations of the Pacific (C.R.O.P.).

The Centre will host climate change experts, researchers and officials for applied research, training and policy initiatives.

While this is based at the S.P.R.E.P. headquarters, the Pacific Climate Change Centre will belong to our Pacific island region as a whole. It was during the high level dialogue on biodiversity and climate change that we heard from our island Members the importance of urgent action to address climate change impacts. We hope that this PCCC will be one catalyst to bring that about, and for the construction to happen during our 25 years of being, thats an additional bonus to add to our Pacific achievements, said Leota.

S.P.R.E.P. was established as an independent organisation based in Samoa through the signing of the SPREP Agreement in June, 1993.

Construction of the Centre is funded by the Government of Japan, through grant aid to the Government of Samoa. It will be constructed according to green guidelines which includes 50% of the energy to be driven by solar panels with the hope that it will be powered 100% by renewable energy in the future.

The ground breaking ceremony of the Pacific Climate Change Centre and launch of the S.P.R.E.P. 25 year anniversary will take place tomorrow.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.Lesbian owned Wolfe Video offers this crime thriller which offers a better sub-plot than its main story. Melanie Brockmann Gaffney stars as Viola, a Boston detective still mourning the loss of her wife two years earlier. She and her partner EJ (Sarah Hollis) are trying to find and save the life of Darlene (Aly Trasher), who's been kidnapped after stumbling onto a murder plot involving a play called The Russian Doll which is currently in production--the playwright/star (Peter S. Adams) has lived off the play for decades. Only he's not the playwright--he stole The Russian Doll from its true author, driving the author to commit suicide.

Now, many years later, the real playwright's daughter and her boyfriend are plotting to kill the thief. Darlene is the daughter's roommate who needs to be kept silent. There are several disturbing sequences in which Darlene is tortured for trying to escape from her captors.

Russian Doll is an OK thriller, though far from a great one. Far more interesting to LGBT viewers is the sub-plot involving Viola's attempts to move on from the memory of her late wife and to start dating again. Sparks fly when Viola's Mom introduces her to the beautiful Faith (Marem Hassler). The attraction between the two women is obvious, but Viola finds herself unable to let go of her wife's ghost. She still lives in the house they shared and, two years later, has yet to remove her wedding ring. Viola soon has an erotic dream involving herself and Faith which suggests that she might finally be weakening.

The film randomly moves back and forth between the two storylines, each of which has nothing to do with the other. It's almost as though Melanie Brockmann Gaffney is starring in two completely different, unconnected films.

The Russian Doll story does offer a few nice twists, such as when its revealed that two of the characters are actually the playwright's daughter and her boyfriend in disguise. And in the film's most shocking sequence, the thief is shot to death live on stage in front of an audience.

The acting is decent. Gaffney is convincing as a cop determined to crack her case. She's even better as the grieving widow, struggling to come to grips with the memory of her wife and with her burgeoning feelings for the new woman in her life--Gaffney and Hassler have great chemistry as the fledgling couple.

Trasher is superb as the kidnapping victim who's determined to break free. No matter what her captors do, she fights back, giving them quite a run for their money. And Peter S. Adams is wonderfully creepy as the thieving playwright who ruined someone's life and just doesn't care.

While no masterpiece, Russian Doll does have its moments.

Wolfe's disc includes the film's theatrical trailer, as well as an English subtitles option.Broward Sheriff Scott Israel says BSO Captain Ira Goldberg is under investigation by the department for a social media post that has been branded homophobic by a local gay Republican.

On May 6, Goldberg, head of BSOs Community Outreach, made the comment in question on Gilbert Montalvos Facebook page.

Gilbert, its truly sad you have to hire people to come help your protest. I hope you offered them money instead of sexual favors. Those men deserve better. Montalvo, a gay man who is a Republican committeeman and vice president of the Broward Log Cabin Republicans, has called Goldbergs comment homophobic and wants to see Goldberg fired. Asked if SFGN would be able to interview Goldberg, Israel said no.

He should be fired. This man is in charge of community outreach. Hes obviously a homophobic person, said Montalvo of Goldberg.

Shortly after Goldberg wrote his first comment, he told Montalvo he didnt care who he told about it. I wont be deleting anything. I stand by what I say. Call the media, wrote Goldberg.

This man is drunk with power. Its called narcissism, Montalvo said. He added that Goldberg has since deleted his comments. In an interview with SFGN, Israel said he had seen the post and directed Internal Affairs to investigate. Maybe down the road Ill be able to speak to you more in depth, said Israel, who declined to comment further.

Israel did say that his department was working to bring all of Browards communities together, including the LGBT community. When we become a more tolerant community, we become a safer community. We respect people with dignity and thats who I am.

According to BSOs social media policy, Employees are prohibited from disseminating content that is inconsistent with the duties, conduct and responsibilities of a Broward Sheriffs Office employee including content that could be reasonably interpreted as having an adverse affect upon department morale, discipline, operations, safety of staff, or perception of the public.

The policy goes on to include a prohibition on unprofessional and derogatory comments, including those that are of a sexual nature. All tend to undermine the public trust and confidence required by employees of the Broward Sheriff's Office, reads the policy. The penalty for violating the policy includes disciplinary action, including possible termination of employment.Jeffrey Dahmer, the cannibalistic serial killer, once lived in South Florida.

With the recent release of the movie My Friend Dahmer, I thought it a good time to remind people that Dahmer lived in South Florida for a short while in 1981 after a stint in the military. The movie is based on the true biographical graphic novel by Derf Backderf (who coincidentally got his career start as a cartoonist for the Palm Beach Post in the 1980s).

Unbeknownst to anyone at the time Dahmer had already killed hitchhiker Steven Hicks a few years earlier, but none of that was learned until after his notorious 1991 arrest when police raided his Milwaukee apartment and found evidence of cannibalism, body parts stashed all over the apartmentsome in jars of acid, and others frozen.

Most of Dahmers crimes took place outside of Florida, but there has been speculation he killed people while he lived down here. We know so much about his time here in part because several writers have attempted to connect Dahmer to the kidnapping and murder of Adam Walsh, which took place that summer of 1981.

For 6 months that year Dahmer had been living just a few miles away in Sunny Isles Beach.

Shortly after graduating high school with no real plan of action for what to do with his life and at the urgency of his father, Dahmer entered the U.S. Military. In spring of 1981 Dahmer was discharged primarily for alcohol abuse. Because military officials did not feel Dahmers issues in the military would directly affect others outside of the military, his discharge was deemed honorable. Offered a one-way ticket by the government to anywhere in the country free charge, Dahmer, not able to face his father and sick of the cold weather, chose Miami.

Miami was probably far from what Dahmer had pictured. At the time Miami Beach was mostly run down and full of low income retirement homes. With no money he made a home for himself among many other drifters along Sunny Isle.

One day Ken Haupert, the manager of Sunshine Subs in the strip mall at NE 170th St. and Collins Ave. noticed Dahmer digging through the dumpster behind his business. Haupert invited him in for something to eat and learned of Dahmers recent discharge from the military. He offered Dahmer a job and even put him up in a room at the nearby Bimini Motel.

Haupert had difficulty with Dahmer as an employee, he often came to work looking very disheveled and sometimes even drunk. Often Haupert would just send him home and try again the next day.

Perhaps the most startling thing to happen during Dahmers employment was the time Dahmer had approached Haupert to inform him of a dead body behind the sub shop that Dahmer claims he had been stepping over all morning when unloading trash into the dumpster.

Miami-Dade Police records show that Dahmer did indeed report finding a dead body on July 7, 1981. This was just a few weeks before the infamous kidnapping of Adam Walsh, son of Americas Most Wanted host, John Walsh. Adam was kidnapped from the Hollywood Mall on July 27, which was only a few miles away from where Dahmer was living. A few years ago Hollywood Police closed the case and pinned it on Jacksonville serial killer Otis Toole, who had already died in prison in 1996.

But was Toole really guilty?

True crime writer and former reporter for the Hollywood Sun Tattler newspaper Arthur Jay Harris has set out to trace Dahmers time in South Florida and has written several books on the topic. He is the reason we know so much about what Dahmer did here. Harris is convinced Dahmer may have been responsible for this crime. Many witnesses reported Adam was kidnapped by someone in a blue van. Sunshine Subs owned a blue van that employees regularly had access to that disappeared for days on end often. Did Dahmer have access to this van? Could he have used it to kidnap Adam Walsh?

Harris did present some interesting observations. Exactly two weeks before Walsh was kidnapped, a young boy named Terry Keaton was playing in a similar Atari display in the Sears at the Twin City Mall in North Palm Beach. A man attempted to grab him and Keaton got away but not without making quite a ruckus in the store. The attempted kidnapper also got away but several people got a good look at him, enough so that North Palm Beach police were able to publish a police sketch which resembled what Dahmer would have looked like at the time.

Harris along with Willis Morgan, a witness who claims to have seen Dahmer at the Hollywood Mall that day, looked into more about the man Dahmer found behind the sub shop. They located an abandoned meter room next to the dumpster where the body was found. Relatively untouched since 1981 there was an aged axe leaning against the wall and what looked like blood splatter. The discovery was so intriguing, ABCs Primetime even did an investigation with luminal which did indeed prove there was blood on the wall. Is this perhaps where Adam Walsh was killed? Again, we may never know. But it is indeed an interesting coincidence.

Dahmer was asked about the Walsh case in 1991 after his arrest. He denied having had anything to do with it. Hollywood police eventually dismissed him a suspect since it did not fit his typical M.O. Though in reality it would be hard to tell if Dahmer was responsible for more killings than he admitted to. It is known that he very much did not want to be subject to the death penalty, which did not exist in Wisconsin, but did exist in Florida. Harris believes Toole was spoon-fed information by police and often got a lot of information wrong before he got it right concerning the Walsh case. And, since by the time police closed the case in 2008 Toole had already died, it seemed easy to pin it on him.

As for Dahmer, unable to make something of himself in South Florida, his father wired him money to return home by the end of the summer of 1981. The rest of Dahmers story is history.

If youd like to read more about Jeffrey Dahmers time in Florida and his possible involvement in Adam Walshs murder, check out Arthur Jay Harris Jeffrey Dahmers Dirty Secret or Willis Morgans Frustrated Witness. Both offer great insight on the case and what South Florida was like at the time.

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) there are currently 6 unidentified bodies that were found in Broward and Dade counties from the summer of 1981. We dont know who the victims were or what happened to them.

Could these be additional Dahmer victims? At least 4 of them fit Dahmers primary interest of young men.Earth's magnetic field provides an invisible but crucial barrier that protects Earth from the solar wind--a stream of charged particles launched from the sun's outer layers.

The protective properties of the magnetic field can fail due to a process known as magnetic reconnection, which occurs when two opposing magnetic field lines break and reconnect with each other, dissipating massive amounts of energy and accelerating particles that threaten air traffic and satellite communication systems.

Just outside of Earth's magnetic field, the solar wind's onslaught of electrons and ionized gases creates a turbulent maelstrom of magnetic energy known as the magnetosheath. While magnetic reconnection has been well documented closer to Earth, physicists have sought to determine whether reconnection also happens in this turbulent zone.

A new research paper co-authored by University of Maryland Physics Professor James Drake suggests that the answer to this question is yes. The observations, published in the May 10, 2018 issue of the journal Nature, provide the first evidence of magnetic reconnection occurring at very small spatial scales in the turbulent magnetosheath. However, unlike the reconnection that occurs with the Earth's magnetic field, which involves electrons as well as ions, turbulent reconnection in the magnetosheath involves electrons alone.

"We know that magnetic energy in churning, turbulent systems cascades to smaller and smaller scales. At some point that energy is fully dissipated. The big question is how that happens, and what role magnetic reconnection plays at such small scales," Drake said. "This study shows that reconnection indeed can happen at the electron scale, with no ions involved at all, suggesting that reconnection may help dissipate magnetic energy at very small scales."

By drawing a clearer picture of the physics of magnetic reconnection, the discovery promises to advance scientists' understanding of several open questions in solar physics. For example, electron-scale magnetic reconnection may play a role in heating of the solar corona--an expansive layer of charged particles that surrounds the sun and reaches temperatures hundreds of times higher than the sun's visible surface. This in turn could help explain the physics of the solar wind, as well as the nature of turbulent magnetic systems elsewhere in space.

NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission gathered the data for the analysis. Flying in a pyramid formation with as little as 4.5 miles' distance between four identical spacecraft, MMS imaged electrons within the pyramid once every 30 milliseconds. These highly precise measurements enabled the researchers to capture turbulent, electron-only magnetic reconnection, a phenomenon not previously observed.

"MMS discovered electron magnetic reconnection, a new process much different from the standard magnetic reconnection that happens in calmer areas around Earth," said Tai Phan, a senior fellow in the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley and the lead author of the paper. "This finding helps scientists understand how turbulent magnetic fields dissipate energy throughout the cosmos".

Because turbulent reconnection involves only electrons, it remained hidden from scientists looking for the telltale signature of standard magnetic reconnection: ion jets. Compared with standard reconnection, in which broad jets of ions stream out tens of thousands of miles from the site of reconnection, turbulent reconnection ejects narrow jets of electrons only a couple miles wide.

But MMS scientists were able to leverage the design of one instrument, the Fast Plasma Investigation, to create a technique that allowed them to read between the lines and gather extra data points to resolve the jets.

"The key event of the paper happens in 45 milliseconds. This would be one data point with the regular data," said Amy Rager, a graduate student at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., who worked at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to develop the technique. "But instead we can get six to seven data points in that region with this method, allowing us to understand what is happening."

With the new method, MMS scientists are hopeful they can comb through existing data sets to find more of these events and other unexpected discoveries as well.

"There were some surprises in the data," Drake said. "Magnetic reconnection occurs when you have two magnetic fields pointing in opposite directions and they annihilate each other. In the present case a large ambient magnetic field survived after annihilation occurred. Honestly, we were surprised that turbulent reconnection at very small scales could occur with this background magnetic field present."

Magnetic reconnection occurs throughout the universe, so whatever scientists learn about it near Earth can be applied to other phenomena. For example, the discovery of turbulent electron reconnection may help scientists understand the role that magnetic reconnection plays in heating the inexplicably hot solar corona--the sun's outer atmosphere--and accelerating the supersonic solar wind. NASA's upcoming Parker Solar Probe mission will travel directly toward the sun in the summer of 2018 to investigate these questions--armed with a new understanding of magnetic reconnection near Earth.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.Mark Harder is hoping Wes Delight can provide a lot of joy this season.

The three-year-old male pacer will race this Saturday (May 12) in a $23,066 division of the W.N. Reynolds Memorial Stakes at Yonkers Raceway as he tunes up for a North America Cup bid next month. Last year, Wes Delight won three of 11 starts and earned $124,077 for owners Harder, Rick Phillips, and Deena Frost.

So far this year, the colt beat older horses in his seasonal debut and finished second to Dorsoduro Hanover in a division of the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes at the Meadows despite traffic trouble around the final turn.

I think hes the real deal, Harder said. He showed a lot of talent last year at 2, but just struggled with his gait a little bit. Hes come back good and strong this year. He was very good at the Meadows last week. He sat behind (leader) Pedro Hanover and he stopped and took us out of the race. But when he got free, he had a lot of pace late.

Wes Delight is a son of Bettors Delight out of Maid West, a half-sister to stakes winner Gimmebackmybullets. Wes Delight was purchased for $55,000 at the 2016 Lexington Selected Sale. He is the 5-2 morning line favourite in his Reynolds division, which is the first of three for the three-year-old male pacers, and will have Corey Callahan in the sulky.

He will have a couple of races before we head off to the North America Cup, Harder said. Big plans, but I think he can go with those horses. Hes not a big horse, but he travels like a bigger horse. He gets over the ground [well] and has good desire. Hes got a personality and is just a nice horse to be around. Hes just a happy horse.

Harder also will send out horses in the other two Reynolds divisions, 4-1 Iluvtomakemoney in the third and 12-1 Major Offense in the second.

Iluvtomakemoney, a son of Well Said out of millionaire Symphony In Motion, has won six of 15 career races and heads to the Reynolds off a victory in a division of the Pennsylvania Stallion Series. He has earned $93,901 lifetime and is owned by breeder Joseph Jannuzzelli. Tim Tetrick will drive the gelding.

Hes just a good little hard-hitting horse, Harder said. Hes not overly abundant in talent, but he goes to the races and makes money. Hes always right there. Well keep him away from the big boys. Youre better off being a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big pond.

Major Offense, who is eligible to the upcoming Art Rooney Pace at Yonkers, won twice in his first three races this year but is winless in three starts since then. For his career, the son of Art Major-Northwestern has won two of 12 races and earned $29,056 for the same ownership group as Wes Delight. George Brennan will drive Major Offense; his first opportunity in the bike behind the gelding.

It seems like hes tailed off a little bit, like he doesnt really like it (at Yonkers) much, Harder said. We decided to give this race a shot and I made a driver change just to see if it made a difference. Hes just not getting away in good spots and hes gapping off. Well see if George can light a fire in him a little bit and get him involved.

How he races will determine whether we go to the Rooney or not. Its doubtful at this stage.

Rob Harmons Kwik Talkin is the 5-2 morning line favourite in the second Reynolds division and Harmons Mach N Cheese is the 5-2 choice in the third.

In addition to the Reynolds action for the boys, Yonkers hosts three divisions for the three-year-old female pacers as well.

First race post time is 6:50 p.m. (EDT).

(USTA)'The Road to Edmond' - A Provocative Faith-Based Movie Launches National Tour

Contact: David Trotter, 949-335-2925COSTA MESA, Calif., May 9, 2018 / Standard Newswire / -- 8TRACKstudios announced the launch of a national tour to promote its newest film, The Road to Edmond, with screenings across the country.Starring Tripp Fuller and Nathanael Welch, The Road to Edmond is a provocative faith-based feature film that follows a youth pastor on a life-changing road trip after his church puts him on a two-week "Jesus timeout" for embracing a teenage girl who comes out to him as being gay. With a backpack full of gear, he sets out on his bike to clear his head and soothe his heart, but God seems to have other plans when the youth pastor has an unexpected encounter with a cynical traveler  accompanied by his dead father  on their way to Edmond, Oklahoma."People have come to expect faith-based films to have a preachy message and a certain style," said David Trotter, director of The Road to Edmond. "This film is breaking the mold by telling a story where the characters question faith, sexuality, and Jesus."Filmed in Oklahoma and Colorado, The Road to Edmond is based on real-life stories emerging from evangelical churches across the nation as they hold a traditional viewpoint on heaven, hell, and homosexuality while their youth pastors are helping young people navigate questions about same-sex attraction and who ends up in heaven. The film is unrated and includes upper-body male nudity, cursing, and alcohol and drug usage."My Grandfather once said, 'It takes a mature person to laugh at yourself,'" said Tripp Fuller, co-star of The Road to Edmond and founder of the Homebrewed Christianity podcast. "This film is an invitation to laugh at ourselves and remember the beauty underneath all the trappings of religion."Tripp Fuller, co-star, and David Trotter, director, will be on hand at each screening to introduce the movie and host a Q&A afterwards.To watch the trailer and review upcoming screening dates, visit www.theroadtoedmond.com/screeningsFun, Uplifting Drop Off Film, Tackles Greed, Discrimination, and Teen Envy

Contact: Stephen Penn, Exploration Films , 719-481-4599, penn.stephen@explorationfilms.com MONUMENT, Colo., May 9, 2018 / Standard Newswire / -- Exploration Films announces the upcoming release of Drop Off, a moral tale about three young, underprivileged teens who stumble onto a discarded duffel bag filled with cash. Faced with the choice of notifying the police, or hiding the much-needed stash in a remote cave the young teens turn to a new adult friend who "won't ask a lot of questions." Having experienced the tragic loss of his own wife and son, the troubled man (Wilson Pruitt) agrees to create a 'philanthropic fund,' to help avoid the potential loss of home (Tim), health (Cruz) and parents (Josh).Pursued by the two criminals who disposed of the cash, the desperate teens soon learn that money doesn't bring happiness. When their pastor gently reminds them to seek the Truth, they realize there's only one way to find lasting peace.Written, directed and produced by Lyman Dayton, the Drop Off cast includes Youtube sensation and the Pepsi/Hard Rock Cafe "2017 Rising Artist of the Year," Alex Boye', as Pastor Aiken. America's Got Talent fans may also recognize Boye' from the show's 10th season. The humorous, heartwarming 90-minute film, Drop Off, also features Jacque Gray (Lana), Paul D. Hunt (Verdugo), Shawn Stevens (Winston Pruitt), Tyler Truman (Agent Benson), Nicole Weeks (Samantha) and introduces Lucas Van Orden as Tim Parker, Jimmy Linares as Cruz, and Porter Nielsen as Josh.Exploration Films signed on to release Drop Off in North America in September. The film is currently available for licensed broadcasting, and will be available on VOD and DVD following a nationwide broadcast on Daystar Network May 12th . Pre-orders are available at www.explorationfilms.com . As a leading film distributor, Exploration Films brings quality faith and family documentaries and feature films to market. The Colorado-based team strives to deliver inspiring content that elevates the culture and evokes the best in the human soul.For more information about licensing or sharing Drop Off, please contact:Stephen Penn at 719.481.4599, or email penn.stephen@explorationfilms.com Website www.explorationfilms.com/dropoff.html Alex Boye: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Boy%C3%A9 Alex Boye Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCCdZ3uBYxb_wt85dvvt2kvQPope Emeritus Benedict XVI Gets Political in New Book

Contact: Kevin Wandra, 404-788-1276, KWandra@CarmelCommunications.com SAN FRANCISCO, May 10, 2018 / Standard Newswire / -- A major theme of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI has always been that of the relationship between faith and politics. Pope Francis, in his foreword to the English-language edition of FAITH AND POLITICS, selected writings of Pope Benedict XVI that will be published by Ignatius Press on August 15, 2018, says, "[Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's] firsthand experience of Nazi totalitarianism led him even as a young student to reflect on the limits of obedience to the state for the sake of the liberty of obeying God."In FAITH AND POLITICS, Pope Francis further quotes from one of Ratzinger's texts, addressing the conflict between Christianity and Marxism: "The state is not the whole of human existence and does not encompass all human hope. Man and what he hopes for extend beyond the framework of the state and beyond the sphere of political action."When Ratzinger worked alongside St. John Paul II, Pope Francis added, "He elaborated and proposed a Christian vision of human rights capable of questioning on a theoretical and practical level the totalitarian claim of the Marxist state and the atheist ideology on which it was based."Ratzinger has explored various aspects of the association between faith and politics in books, speeches, homilies and dialogues throughout his career, from his years as a theology professor to his tenure as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and, most recently, as Pope Benedict XVI. The reader will find some of these texts collected in FAITH AND POLITICS. Titles such as "Politics and Truth: Jesus Before Pilate," "Truth, Values, Power: Touchstones of Pluralistic Society" and "If You Want Truth, Respect the Conscience of Every Person" give some idea of the range of topics covered.As Pope Francis concludes in his foreword, the texts presented in FAITH AND POLITICS "can help all of us not only to understand our present day and to find a sound orientation for the future but also to be a true and genuine source of inspiration for political action that places the family, solidarity and equity at the center of its attention and of its planning and, thereby, truly looks to the future with farsighted wisdom.""This is the only book that collates all of Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's most significant speeches and essays on political themes inside the one volume," Professor Tracey Rowland, John Paul II Chair of Theology at the University of Notre Dame (Australia), says of FAITH AND POLITICS. "This book will be of enormous value for all Catholics involved in public life as well as for students of ethics and political theory. Ratzinger's works have a classical quality whose relevance does not date. This is likely to be a standard reference work in the field of Catholic political theory and theology for generations."For more information, to request a review copy or to schedule an interview with Mark Brumley, CEO of Ignatius Press, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or KWandra@CarmelCommunications.com ) of Carmel Communications.New Ad: 'On Duty' -- CCC Releases New Ad Telling Bill Schuette's Life Story

Contact: Jordan Gehrke, 586-799-2056



GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., May 9, 2018 /Standard Newswire/ -- Today the CCC PAC released a new film, "On Duty."



The ad can also be viewed at "OnDutySchuette.com."



The ad shows Bill Schuette as a 6 year old boy, greeting himself each morning in the mirror with, "Good Morning, Governor! Bill Schuette, On Duty."



The ad takes viewers through Bill Schuette's life: a child growing up amidst impossible wealth and privilege, his C average in law school, his failure of the California Bar, his unwillingness or inability to ever get a real job and punch a clock, and above all, his relentless, never ending series of attempts at public office.



The ad also shows Schuette harassing unsuspecting neighbors with his relentless campaigning, kissing babies and pouring people coffee whether they want it or not.



"Bill Schuette is an ambition fueled career politician who has never held a real job in his lifethe only thing he's ever cared about is people calling him Governor," said Jordan Gehrke, strategist for the PAC. "This ad shows voters the real Bill Schuette in a light hearted way."



The ad is being backed up with a six figure digital buy statewide, along with a significant statewide TV buy.



Dozens of Bangladeshis were killed by lightnings on Thursday as pre-monsoon thunderstorms wreaked havoc across the South Asian country. In the last 24 hours, 29 people have died from lightning in 12 districts. Almost all of them are farmers. More than 112 people had been killed in strikes in the first 10 days of May. Unprecedented!

Scores of people die every year after being struck by lightning during Bangladeshs wet season, which runs from April to October, but officials say the numbers are exceptionally high this year.

More than 112 people  mostly farmers who harvest rice during this time of the year  had been killed in strikes in the first 10 days of May. This means that every day, 10-12 people are dying from lightning strikes.

Experts say deaths are rising as Bangladesh, one of the worlds poorest nations, witnesses the increased deforestation of rural areas. Farmers are known to chop down trees to free up space to grow more rice. Disaster management officials are trying to reduce the high death toll by planting five million palm trees to provide better shelter.

Authorities declared lightning a natural disaster after 82 people were killed in a single day in May 2016. Independent monitors estimated that some 349 Bangladeshis died from lightning that year. This year is on track to beat this record!

Follow us: Facebook and Twitter

29 killed in lightning strikes across Bangladesh  IOLThe temporary dining decks, installed last year to help restaurants keep business during the coronavirus pandemic, will by next month be removed or reconstructed to stretch only along the length of respective eateries' storefronts.World leaders react

Al Jazeera News :

President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw the United States from a multinational nuclear agreement with Iran, saying the deal is "defective at its core" and announcing "the highest level of sanctions" against Tehran. Under the deal signed in Vienna with six world powers - the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union - Iran scaled back its uranium enrichment programme and promised not to pursue nuclear weapons. In exchange, international sanctions were lifted, allowing it to sell its oil and gas worldwide. However, secondary US sanctions remain. United Nations inspectors have repeatedly confirmed Iran's compliance with the deal. Trump said the agreement - also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - was a "horrible one-sided deal that should never ever have been made".

In response, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran would bypass Washington and negotiate with the other signatories of the deal, calling the US move "unacceptable".

Following Trump's speech on Tuesday, there was an immediate reaction by world leaders, including the other parties to the landmark deal. Here's a round-up of statements from around the world:

"France, Germany and the UK regret the US decision to leave the JCPOA," French President Emmanuel Macron, a champion of the deal, wrote on Twitter. "The nuclear non-proliferation regime is at stake," he added.

"We will work collectively on a broader framework, covering nuclear activity, the post-2025 period, ballistic activity, and stability in the Middle East, notably Syria, Yemen and Iraq."

France's Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said in a radio interview "the deal is not dead". He said Europe's foreign leaders will meet next week with representatives from Iran to talk about the future of the JCPOA. Germany also reiterated it also wants to uphold the deal. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said "the deal makes the world safer", adding that Germany could find no legitimate reason for pulling out of the deal.

On Twitter, UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said he regretted the US no longer taking part in the nuclear deal. "UK remains strongly committed to the JCPoA, and will work with E3 partners and the other parties to the deal to maintain it," he added.

The top European Union diplomat, Federica Mogherini, called on the international community to preserve the Iran nuclear deal.

"The EU will remain committed to the continued full and effective implementation of the nuclear deal," Mogherini said from Brussels.

"We fully trust the work, competence and autonomy of the International Atomic Energy Agency that has published 10 reports certifying that Iran has fully complied with its commitments.

"The lifting of nuclear-related sanctions is an essential part of the agreement. The EU has repeatedly stressed that the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions has a positive impact not only on trade and economic relations with Iran, but also mainly, [it has] crucial benefits for the Iranian people."

China, one of the countries that signed the JCPOA, joined the Europe its response, saying the country is committed to protecting the deal as it stands.

China's special envoy to the Middle East, Gong Xiaosheng, said in a press conference in Iran the agreement promoted peace.

"Having a deal is better than no deal. Dialogue is better than confrontation." he said according to Xinhua news agency.

Russia, one of the signatories of the deal, said it will try to keep the deal functioning despite Tuesday's decision by the US.

Yevgeny Serebrennikov, first deputy head of the defense and security committee in the Russian Upper House of Parliament also told RIA news agency Trump's decision could put the nuclear talks between the US and North Korea at risk. Speaking at a press conference in West Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu applauded Trump's decision.

"Israel fully supports President Trump's bold decision today to reject the disastrous nuclear deal with the terrorist regime in Iran.

"Israel has opposed the nuclear deal from the start because we said that rather than blocking Iran's path to a bomb, the deal actually paves Iran's path to an actual arsenal of nuclear bombs and this within a few years time.

"The removal of sanctions under the deal has already produced disastrous results. The deal didn't push war further away, it actually brought it closer."

In a written statement, the former US president, whose administration negotiated and signed the deal, issued a list of points as to why Trump's decision is "so misguided". "The reality is clear. The JCPOA is working - that is a view shared by our European allies, independent experts, and the current US Secretary of Defence," Barack Obama wrote.

"The JCPOA is in America's interest - it has significantly rolled back Iran's nuclear programme.

And the JCPOA is a model for what diplomacy can accomplish - its inspections and verification regime is precisely what the United States should be working to put in place with North Korea.

"Indeed, at a time when we are all rooting for diplomacy with North Korea to succeed, walking away from the JCPOA risks losing a deal that accomplishes - with Iran - the very outcome that we are pursuing with the North Koreans."

Saudi Arabia, a regional rival of Iran and longtime US ally, said that it supports Trump's decision.

"The kingdom supports and welcomes the steps announced by the US president toward withdrawing from the nuclear deal ... and reinstating economic sanctions against Iran," the Saudi foreign ministry said.

Riyadh's allies in the Gulf - the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain - also welcomed Trump's decision.

The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that he was "deeply concerned", urging the remaining parties of the deal to abide by their commitments.

"It is essential that all concerns regarding the implementation of the plan be addressed through the mechanisms established in the JCPOA. Issues not directly related to the JCPOA should be addressed without prejudice to preserving the agreement and its accomplishments," Guterres said.

Both Australia and Japan have also said they regret the US decision. Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on all sides to use restraint in their response. Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono issued a statement saying Japan hopes the pulling out does not affect Iran's capabilities of adhering to the JCPOA.





Malaysia`s Mahathir Mohamad on course to be world`s oldest elected leader

Mahathir Mohamad is on course to become the world's oldest elected leader at 92, after a shock victory in Malaysia's bitterly fought election.

The former PM came out of retirement and defected to the opposition to take on his one-time protege Najib Razak, beset by corruption allegations.

His historic win has ousted the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which has been in power since independence in 1957.

Jubilant Mahathir supporters filled the streets as the victory became clear.

Mr Najib has said he will "accept the verdict of the people", but correspondents say a smooth transition to power is not a given after such a major political upheaval.

No single party within the coalition won a majority, so technically it now rests with Malaysia's king to decide who forms a government.



How have people reacted?



"Yes, yes, I am still alive," Mr Mahathir told a news conference in the early hours of Thursday. He said his coalition would not seek revenge but would "restore the rule of law".



He also announced - to cheers among his supporters - that there would be a two-day public holiday, adding: "But there will be no holidays for the winners."



The official results showed the opposition Pakatan Harapan - the Alliance of Hope - secured 113 of the 222 seats being contested, including some which have only ever been held by the government. BN took 79 seats.





Rising living costs and long-running allegations of corruption weighed heavily on many voters and saw them peel away from Mr Najib and his once unshakeable coalition.



"I feel that with this change we probably can see something better in the future," Suva Selvan, a 48-year-old doctor, told AFP.



"Our hope for the future is a better government, fair, free and united."



How did Mahathir manage to win?



Mr Mahathir was prime minister, at the head of the BN coalition, for 22 years, from 1981 until he stepped down in 2003.



Under his leadership, Malaysia became one of the Asian tigers - the group of countries which saw their economies expand rapidly in the 1990s. But he was an authoritarian figure who used controversial security laws to lock up his political opponents.



Most infamously his deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, was sacked and accused of corruption and sodomy - and later jailed on the latter charge - when he called for economic and political reforms.



Mr Mahathir was also a mentor to Mr Najib, who became prime minister in 2008.





But Mr Najib has been dogged by corruption allegations. He has been accused of pocketing some $700m from the 1Malaysian Development Berhad, a state investment fund he set up.



He has vehemently denied all allegations and been cleared by Malaysian authorities but the fund is still being investigated by several countries. Mr Najib has been accused of stifling Malaysian investigations by removing key officials from their post.



Those allegations led to Mr Mahathir's surprise defection in 2016 from Barisan Nasional to join the Pakatan Harapan, saying he was "embarrassed" to be associated "with a party that is seen as supporting corruption".



Then in January, he said he would run for the leadership again.



But despite his historic win, uncertainty hangs over his tenure. Prior to his win, he intended to govern for two years before stepping down. He promised he would arrange a pardon for Anwar, clearing the way for him to be re-elected and take the top job.



'Mountain of challenges'



Analysis: Jonathan Head, BBC South East Asia correspondent



This morning Malaysia has woken to an entirely new situation, the first transfer of power in its history, albeit to a very familiar leader. But there are huge unknowns. How willingly will Barisan Nasional, the coalition which has, in various forms, run the country since independence and embedded itself into all areas of governance, relinquish power?



How well will a disparate coalition, united largely by their desire to oust Najib Razak, work together in government? How smoothly will the plan to gain a pardon for imprisoned opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, and then for Mr Mahathir to hand the premiership to him within two years, actually proceed? And how will they treat Mr Najib, and his high-spending wife, both accused of greed and corruption?



After all the jubilation over an impressive act of defiance by Malaysian voters, there is a mountain of challenges to face.



What controversies surrounded the vote?



Ahead of the election, there were allegations that voting would not be free and fair.



The government recently passed a law redrawing election boundaries, leading to accusations that it had gerrymandered constituencies to ensure they were filled by Malay Muslims, traditionally BN supporters.



A controversial fake news law was also recently introduced, which critics say could be used by the authorities to muffle dissent. Mr Mahathir is himself being investigated under that law after alleging that his plane had been sabotaged.



And in the days before the poll, election reform group Bersih 2.0 accused the Election Commission (EC) of multiple "electoral crimes", including irregularities in postal voting and failing to remove dead people from the electoral roll.



The government had insisted the election would be free and fair, with Mr Najib saying that the EC acted "for the good of all". -- Source : BBC Online



Kuntal Barais Displaced in Dhaka

Sheikh Arif Bulbon :

Kutal Barai, the young artist did his BFA and MFA in the Painting Department of University of Development Alternative (UODA). He has attended more than 20 group exhibitions at home and abroad.

He was awarded the Honorable Award for the 17th Asian Art Biennale by Bangladesh, National Art Gallery, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.

The solo art exhibition by Kuntal Barai titled Displaced in Dhaka is being held at La Galerie of the Alliance Francaise de Dhaka (AFD) in the citys Dhanmondi area now. The exhibition was inaugurated on May 4.

Prof Nazrul Islam, academic, urban expert and art writer, inaugurated the exhibition as the chief guest, while Giusepee Semenza, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Italy-Dhaka, Shahjahan Ahmed Bikash, Associate Professor and Chairperson, Faculty of Fine Arts, UODA, art critic Mustafa Jaman and eminent artist Munirul Islam also attended on the occasion.

A number of studies state that Dhaka has reached the peak of criticality with its unplanned growth. Overpopulation, traffic congestion, 'development' sprees, and insanitary conditions have reached an all-time high. Where for a select few who can bear the brunt of a megalopolis gone haywire, Dhaka is a necessary evil, but the majority of the dwellers of Dhaka do not find the city a safe haven anymore.

The project is a survey of all of these and more. As an artist Kuntal Barai's work takes into account the chaos as well as the sense of loss we have developed over the years. Still the artist believes there is an organic form of life in this chaos through which a new vision may one day burst into view.

Therefore, Kuntal's work neither is a mere depiction of the lived experience nor is it only an interpretation where the real has been dissolved into conventional aesthetic standards. It is in fact a mixture of both.

There are about 100 artworks to be despaired in the exhibition and the media he uses are mixed media, printing and acrylic. The exhibition will continue till May 19. nPower Ministry to be paperless within three years: Nasrul



State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said his ministry will enter paperless work within next three years.

"We have to be innovative and communicative for better and improved services alongside expansion of our areas of works," he said this on Wednesday while addressing a function at Bidyut Bhaban in the city.

Power Division in association with Access to Information (a2i) Programme of the Prime Minister's Office organised the 'Innovation Showcasing-2018'.

Additional Secretary of Power Division Maksuda Khatun presented a keynote paper highlighting 16 proposals of different power related companies and organisations.

Chaired by Power Division Secretary Dr Ahmed Kaikaus, the function was addressed, among others, by Principal Coordinator (SDG Affairs) to the Prime Minister's Office M Abul Kalam Azad and Secretary (coordination and reform) of Cabinet Division NM Ziaul Alam.

Appreciating the adoption of innovation in the power sector, Nasrul said the Power Ministry is going to take Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and integrate e-filing system.

"We have a target to provide service as early as possible. Innovation should be implemented," he said.

The State Minister said the government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, always encourages innovation to give better services without any hassle.Fixture of Bangladesh-Afghanistan T20I series finalized

Sports Reporter :

The fixture of three-match Twenty20 International series between Bangladesh and Afghanistan was finalized on Wednesday night. Director of BCB Akram Khan confirmed this matter. India will host the series.

According to the fixture, Bangladesh will take on Afghanistan in the first T20I at the Rajib Gandhi International Stadium in Dehradun, India on June 3. Bangladesh will face Afghanistan in the second T20I at the same venue on June 5. Bangladesh will meet Afghanistan in the third T20I at the same venue on June 7. All the matches will start at 8.30 am BST (Bangladesh Standard Time).

Before the T20I series, Bangladesh will play against Afghanistan in a warm-up match.

Bangladesh team will leave the city for India on May 29.

Bangladesh team will return home on June 8.

It may be mentioned that Bangladesh's T20I ranking is 10, while Afghanistan's T20I ranking is eight.Trump summit `historic` chance to build `good future`: Kim

It was the first time Kim is known to have acknowledged the planned meeting with Trump.

AFP, Seoul :

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hailed a planned meeting with US President Donald Trump as a "historic" opportunity during talks with America's top diplomat Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang, according to state media Thursday.

Kim, who is at the centre of a whirlwind of diplomacy as the international community looks to curtail the North's nuclear programme, said his summit with Trump "would be a historic meeting" and an "excellent first step".

He said it would help towards improving the situation on the Korean peninsula and the "building of a good future", in comments published on North Korea's official KCNA news agency.

It was the first time Kim is known to have acknowledged the planned meeting with Trump, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.

Pompeo was in the North to discuss arrangements for the high-stakes summit, expected within weeks, as well as to secure the release of three Americans detained in North Korea.

Kim said he had granted "amnesty" to the three men "who have been detained in the DPRK for their anti-DPRK hostilities", according to KCNA.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday ruled out the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula as a venue for his upcoming summit with Kim Jong Un.

Trump, who had previously named the DMZ and Singapore as possible sites for the landmark meeting, told reporters at the White House the time and place would be announced "within three days."

Asked if the meeting would be held in the DMZ, as Trump had suggested last week, he said it would not be.

Trump's comments came as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo headed home after meeting in Pyongyang with Kim to discuss the summit preparations.

Returning with Pompeo are three Americans who had been detained by Pyongyang, the White House said.

Trump has said that the date and venue for the summit have now been set, but cautioned that the arrangements were still being worked out.

"Everything can be scuttled," he said, when asked if the summit plans could yet be derailed.

"A lot of good things can happen, a lot of bad things can happen," he said.Putin voices deep concern at Trump Iran move: Kremlin

Vladimir Putin has expressed \"deep concern\" over the Iran nuclear deal .

AFP, Moscow :

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said he was seriously concerned by US President Donald Trump's abandoning the Iran nuclear deal and said talks with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would discuss the "acute" situation.

Putin in comments to his national Security Council expressed "deep concern over such a decision and once more stressed the importance of this document," the Kremlin said, referring to the deal.

Putin later held talks with Netanyahu, who has backed Trump's decision on Iran, Israel's arch-foe.

Netanyahu before leaving Israel for the visit said that "the meetings between us are always important and this one is especially so".

The leaders' initial remarks, published in a transcript by the Kremlin, did not refer to the Iran nuclear deal directly.

Putin said the meeting would discuss "problems in the region," saying that "the situation unfortunately is very acute".

"I want to express a hope that we will manage not just to discuss but also to seek a solution that would lead to a shift in the situation," Putin said.

Netanyahu said they would "think together how we can act correctly in the region, how we can remove the threats that exist in the region in a responsible and reasonable way".

The two leaders earlier Wednesday watched a Red Square parade marking the anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Netanyahu thanked Putin for referring to the Holocaust in his parade speech, likening the Nazi extermination campaign to Iran's attitude to Israel.

"It's hard to believe, but 73 years after the Holocaust, in our Middle East there is a country Iran that openly calls for the destruction of the state of Israel," he said in translated comments.

"But there is a difference between what was then and what is today: we have our own country," he added.

Russia's foreign ministry said late Tuesday it was "deeply disappointed" by Trump's announcement that the United States would pull out of the Iran deal, while Netanyahu strongly supported the US president's "bold" move.

Moscow and Tehran have close political and economic relations.Obama-era architect of climate accord seeks to keep it on track

Reuters, Bonn :

A U.S. architect of the Paris climate accord under ex-President Barack Obama has been working to bolster the pact at global talks in Germany, reckoning it matches long-term U.S. interests despite U.S. President Donald Trump plans to pull out."I don't want to see the Paris Agreement roll off the tracks," Todd Stern, who was Obama's Special Envoy for Climate Change, told Reuters during two-week talks ending on Thursday in Germany on a detailed "rule book" for the 2015 Paris Agreement.

"That's not in the interests of the United States," he told Reuters. Stern is with the World Resources Institute think-tank at the Bonn meeting of almost 200 nations and also works at the Brookings Institution.

He, and many other delegates, said the United States has been concerned for decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations to ensure that rules governing environmental pacts were strong and oblige China, for instance, to abide by the same standards as rich nations. In Bonn, the U.S. delegation is also insisting on strong rules for reporting and monitoring greenhouse gas emissions in a rare overlap between Obama's and Trump's interests. A rule book is due to be in place by the end of 2018 at a meeting in Poland.MELANDAH(JAMALPUR): A guardians\' meeting was held on the occasion of reception to scholarship achievers of Ababil International School in Melandah Upazila yesterday.Pvt airliners ask for jet fuel price cut, end of disparity

Economic Reporter :

Top officials of private airliners here on Tuesday sought government initiative to reduce price of jet fuels and remove discrepancy of fuel prices between domestic and foreign airliners.

At a pre-budget discussion they said the domestic airliners will face difficulties in keeping their services operational if the discrepancy is not removed.

"This overpricing and discrepancy in jet fuel price need to be addressed for our survival," said US-Bangla Airlines CEO Asif Imran.

A foreign airliner pays Tk 65 per litre whereas a domestic airliner pays Tk 91 per litre for fuel, he said.

The official said if the domestic airlines depend on foreign airports like in Kuala Lumpur, huge foreign currency will be spent which is not good for Bangladesh.

Novoair Managing Director Mofizur Rahman also supported Asif and said they are not given any choice. "We are compelled to purchase the fuel at a price offered here. We have no choice."

He said they are ready to pay VAT but the current fuel price is not within their reach.

Rahman said both the tourism and aviation sector will have to grow together. "We need to work together.

Without aviation sector, tourism cannot flourish."

In reply, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister AKM Shahjahan Kamal said, "This is a logical proposal. I will look into it."

He also asked parliamentary standing committee chairman on Civial Aviation and Tourism Ministry Faruk Khan to look into the matter during standing committee meeting.

Faruk Khan said he is fully agreed with the proposals came from various stakeholders. "Fuel cost should be the same."

The Aviation and Tourism Journalists Forum of Bangladesh (ATJFB) hosted the pre-budget discussion at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU).

Acting chief executive officer of Bangladesh Tourism Board (BTB) Nikhil Ranjan Roy, Novoair Managing Director Mofizur Rahman, US-Bangla Airlines CEO Asif Imran, adviser of Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB) Masud Hossain, Deputy Secretary General of Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB) Nurul Alam Shaheen and BTB Director Zamiul Ahmed, TOAB adviser Faridul Haque and General Manager at Biman Bangladesh Airlines Shakil Meraj, among others, spoke at the discussion.



ABC News(ACAPULCO, Mexico) -- Up a dusty road, in a sun-dappled field in northwest Mexico, a small team of workers quietly tend to the crops on a farm.



But hidden in between the crops of corn and garbanzo beans are fields of pretty purple flowers that have become the root of an American catastrophe.



They are poppies -- parts of which are used as raw material for heroin. The workers -- some of them armed -- use sawed-off deodorant cans to collect the gum from the poppy buds. They say each container they fill can fetch $200.



The woman who owns the farm said she is a grandmother who was deported from Los Angeles five years ago and is in the process of petitioning to return to the United States.



She said that when she farms poppies, she feels "very bad." "I feel dirty," she said. "But I need money. What could I do?



To make money, she said she's an Uber driver who harvests poppies on the side.



I need the money, she said. I have a lot of payments."



In the age of President Donald Trump, Mexico has become a heated part of the national debate. But what is often overlooked in the furor over Mexicos role in illegal immigration and the influx of opioids into the U.S. is the fact that the seemingly bottomless American demand for drugs is fueling a crisis in Mexico.



Nightline took an extraordinary tour of the inner workings of the Sinaloa drug cartel, the single largest exporter of heroin to the United States. "Nightline" Co-Anchor Dan Harris went to the highly dangerous frontlines of Mexicos unprecedented spike in violence fueled by battles over the lucrative heroin trade and increasingly in places where Americans go on vacation.



After the gum from the poppies is harvested, its cooked into heroin. The cartel contracts with a large network of freelance cooks, who change their work sites regularly to avoid authorities.



Nightline was escorted by a fixer assigned to us by the cartel to one of these cook sites. At this particular site, young men were working out of a poorly ventilated abandoned house where the air was thick with a powerful chemical smell. Their equipment was just two metal pans and a stick, which were used to stir the concoction.



The main cook said he was 25 years old and had been doing this work since he was 15, but he said he had never injected heroin. Its like a disease that can trap you until you die, he said.



When asked if he had any misgivings about making the drug knowing how toxic it is, the man said he didnt want his own family members using heroin, but if others made that choice for themselves, that was on them.



The cooks said their cooking process -- which takes an entire day to get to the final product -- would yield a kilo of heroin, which would earn them $1,500. But by the time its distributed to the U.S., they said that same kilo could sell for up to $45,000.



These men said even if Trump fulfilled his promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, it wouldnt stop them because, one cook said, they have a tunnel to move the heroin from Tijuana, Mexico, into the U.S. or they transport it by car.



When asked what it would take to shut down the heroin industry, the cook said it would never stop.



Another young man, who wore a mask over his face during our interview, said he smuggles heroin into the U.S. using a car and admitted to being a user himself.



He had a briefcase filled with both heroin and cocaine, and demonstrated how he and an associate load the drugs into a hidden compartment in the door of his car. He said they will drive the drugs to the border and then put them into other cars to drive across. He said his boss finds American citizens to drive the drugs over the border.



The drugs' final destination, he said, was Los Angeles.



He said Trumps threat of a border wall doesnt worry him. We will keep getting drugs to the other side, he said, and if we dont, it will be the Americans who will come to Mexico for them.



In 2016, the Sinaloa cartel took a huge hit when its leader, Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, was arrested. He goes to trial in New York in September. But in this part of Mexico, it was evident that the cartel was still essentially in control.



And cartel territory is still a very dangerous part of the country. The army was on patrol, but its a hostile environment for the Mexican government as well.



Sinaloa is a place where people worship narco-traffickers, where the local cemetery is filled with garish monuments to dead drug lords that even have Wi-Fi and air conditioning. It is a place where criminals are celebrated in song.



The cartel has armed enforcers who appeared in full battle gear and showed off their weaponry, much of which was made in America. One of their commanders, who said he was somewhat of a mid-level enforcer, admitted that his job involves killing people.



The first time he killed someone, he said, took a toll on him at first, and its something he would never forget. But it doesnt affect him anymore, he said. He also admitted to using cocaine, which he said relaxes him in this stressful job.



This enforcer also admitted that El Chapos arrest did hurt the cartel for a while because it set off a violent power struggle. But now, its business as usual, he said.



In recent years, the Mexican government has broken up many cartels, but it seems to have only fueled violence. In 2017, drug violence was blamed for nearly 30,000 murders in Mexico -- the highest number since the government began keeping records in the 1990s.



The violence has spread to Mexicos popular tourist destinations for Americans. Places like the legendary resort city of Acapulco have seen horrific crime where police have been ambushed and political candidates assassinated. Even Cancun has seen a spike in murders, and much of it is driven by gangs fighting for a slice of the lucrative American market for heroin.



There has long been drug crime in Acapulco, but for years it was controlled by one powerful cartel. But when the government killed or captured the cartels top leaders, smaller gangs splintered off and started fighting for control.



But Vice Attorney General Jose Bonilla, the second-highest ranking law enforcement official in the state, insisted the tourist areas of Acapulco were safe.



So when you tell me, 'What happened with the violence in Acapulco,' the violence in Acapulco is not on the touristic city, Bonilla said.



He said the fact that the U.S. State Department had put out a warning for Americans about coming to Acapulco was U.S. officials being overcautious.



But a few hours after Bonilla met with Nightline, there was a murder reported on one of the resort citys main avenues not far from the beach.



The victim was a 54-year-old man with the family who owned a small food stand in a mall there. His family said he was being extorted for money from the cartels and refused to pay, so they shot him six times in the face.



The responding officers said it would be very difficult to catch the person who shot him.



The next day, at the businessmans funeral, police officers stood alongside the family in mourning. They said it is not uncommon for gangs to open fire on funerals of their victims.



The dead mans son, who agreed to be interviewed if his face wasn't shown out of fear of being the next target, said his father meant everything to him. He also said he didnt expect the police to catch his fathers killer. Once they return the body, he said, the police will close the case and there wont be an investigation.



Despite the efforts of the Mexican government to pretend otherwise, the violence has decimated the tourist business in Acapulco and Americans rarely visit.



But as the violence in Mexico spikes, murders are on the rise in places Americans do frequent, such as Cabo San Lucas and Cancun, which some experts fear could become the next Acapulco and that the Mexican government is too corrupted by drug money to stop it or shut down the drug industry.



Ivan Rivera Lopez, who has worked at the morgue in Acapulco for five years, spends his days collecting dead bodies. Over the course of just a few hours, Lopez collected three bodies from homicide crime scenes. One body had been found dumped in the woods on the outskirts of the resort town. Another body had appeared to have been tortured and then dumped on the street.



He said he never becomes immune to the work he does and the constant presence of violence in front of him. Because it is a human life, he said.



When asked if this day has been particularly busy, Lopez said this was normal.



Over the course of four days, Nightline shot footage of six homicide scenes, but there were many more we werent allowed to film.



At the city morgue, unclaimed and unidentified bodies were overwhelming the state here. We witnessed badly decomposing bodies in poorly functioning freezers. One body of an unknown male had been there since August 2016.



The morgue director, Dr. Ben Yehuda, said his team is trying to work through a backlog of bodies.



We were overwhelmed at first because we had too many dead bodies to process when we took over, he said.



Morgues in the state receive about eight to 10 bodies of murder victims per day, and they are now shipping the bodies to a facility in the state capital to relieve some of the burden, according to news reports.



There is a hilltop outside of Acapulco where 30 nameless people are given a temporary resting place in large, concrete slabs. They plan to build a dozen more of these structures, Yehunda said.



They are monuments to a cycle of drug consumption and violence on both sides of the border -- a war with no end in sight.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.China's imports from Belt, Road countries grow faster than exports

Xinhua, Beijing :

China's imports from "Belt and Road" countries increased faster that of exports for the first time in 2017, according to a think tank report.

The value of China's imports from Belt and Road countries stood at 666 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, an increase of 20 percent year on year, or 39 percent of China's total imports value, according to a report compiled by the State Information Center, a State Council think tank.

In the same year, China's exports to those countries came in at 774.26 billion U.S. dollars, a rise of 8.5 percent year on year. The growth of imports outpaced exports for the first time since the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed five years ago.

China's combined trade with those countries reached 1.44 trillion U.S. dollars, up 13.4 percent year on year, 5.9 percentage points faster than China's overall trade growth.

The Belt and Road Initiative was proposed by China in 2013 to boost trade and investment among countries along the ancient Silk Road trade routes from Asia to Europe and Africa.

China's trade with Central Asia countries grew at the fastest rate, followed by Eastern Europe. Countries including Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, India and Russia rank among China's top 10 trading partners along the routes, contributing nearly 70 percent of China's trade with Belt and Road countries.

China mainly sells mechanical and electrical products to Belt and Road countries, and imports mechanical and electrical products as well as fossil fuel from them, the report said.

Chinese private companies do the biggest chunk of trade, followed by foreign-invested companies and state-owned firms.

Yu Shiyang, director of the department of big data development under the State Information Center, said that amid rising protectionism by some countries, China's trade with Belt and Road countries had risen at a brisk pace, showing the initiative was being implemented well, featuring free trade flow.

The report covers 71 countries along the Belt and Road summarizing the current trade picture and projecting future trends.CCC Myaor A J M Nasir Uddin speaking at a view exchange meeting with Panpimon Suwannapongse, Ambassador of Thailand to Bangladesh on implementation of Binna Grass Project at the Port City on Wednesday.Women migrant workers : Some concerns

Rifat Zafreen :

Women migrate to different countries for work purpose are said to be women migrant workers. They migrate in different ways depending on issues. Worldwide women migrate. If they come from a country which facilitates them with professional skills, training, migrating women with all these will have a stronger bargaining position. If they migrate legally, in a documented way to a country which has stronger human rights structure, labour regulatory framework, it could be hoped that women migrant workers would be fine there. Migrating in a documented way and working in a regulated part of economy, the rights of the women workers are ensured while for any contractual work or temporary migrants there is few labour rights and it prevails especially in the Gulf States. Yet, women still face issues of discrimination even after getting migrated under quite a formal and documented way.

Migration of female workers from Bangladesh has increased by around 430 percent in last eight years since government has been exploring new destinations and opportunities for its female workforce. According to the data of the state owned Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), the number of female migration for overseas jobs, especially to Middle East countries has jumped to 1,18,088 in 2016 from 37,504 in 2012. According to the same source there are 3,68,411 Bangladeshi migrants working abroad till April 2017. The female migration for the overseas jobs was 56,400 in 2013, 76,007 in 2014, and 103,718 in 2015.

Majority of our female workers are employed in Saudi Arabia. They are also working in the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Singapore, UK, Italy, HongKong, Cyprus and other countries of the world. Our female workers thus are working in around 43 countries and the maximum number go to the Middle Eastern Countries. We are still exploring new labour markets for our aspirant migrants.

Their number is increasing every year. Jordan is the top Bangladeshi worker recruiter over the last five years, followed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Lebanon and Qatar. Jordan recruited 97,424, Saudi Arabia 89,902, the UAE 72,594, Oman 51, 631, Lebanon 46,468, and Qatar 22,582 Bangladeshi female workers from 2012 to 2016. The BMET data showed that between 1991 and 2016, the UAE was the largest Bangladeshi women recruiter as it employed 1,22,729 workers, Saudi Arabia 1,21,735, Jordan 1,09,948, Lebanon 1,02,565, Oman 55,403, Qatar 22,713, Mauritius 15,945, Kuwait 7,793, Malaysia 6,562, Bahrain 4,264, Singapore 1,116, and Hong Kong 1,307. A UN study on "External Market Analysis for Women Migrant Workers of Bangladesh" showed that around 95 percent of the Bangladeshi women travel abroad as migrant domestic workers mainly to the Arab countries.

The out-bound Bangladeshi women workers are mostly employed at the low-paid and hazardous jobs, which often put them in to vulnerable situation while there is a good demand for skilled and professional women, including nurses, caregivers, babysitters, drivers (taxi cab domestic), front desk attendants, receptionists and cashiers in the Middle Eastern countries, Europe and Asia. Statistics shows majority of our female migrant workers are engaged in household and cleaning jobs while those in Jordan are working in garment sector as well. In the Gulf States and other Middle East countries our female workers get paid of Tk 18,000-20,000 a month which is between Tk 55,000 and 65,000 per month in Hong Kong and Jordan. It was also revealed that skilled and semi-skilled workers earn higher salary and enjoy a much better living, working and social conditions compared to the illiterate and unskilled workers.

Research says female migrant workers send 90% of their income that male workers send that of 50% in the country. Our female migrant workers thus go abroad to change their fate and to earn foreign currency and thus help to keep the wheel of our economy active and moving. They are the integral part of our national pride.

Even after having such huge contribution many of these female migrant workers are not safe. They get deceived by the middle man to go to abroad or even after going and reaching there.

Many of them even get completely bankrupt, while many of them get sexually, physically and mentally tortured and harassed. Thus they face different types of challenges at home and their own workplace. In some cases these female workers do not even get their due and justified wage. Getting betrayed by the recruiting agencies many of the ill fated female migrant workers get bound to return home empty handed.

Though they sign agreement before going and even reaching there. Most of the time these workers do not even know what they are signing in as they are not even allowed to go through the agreement paper properly. Many of them do not know how to read or write that they somehow manage to sign their names on the paper. These workers in many cases lie about the torture they undergo while they face court under legal procedure, if taken.

Our government has taken different initiatives in stopping all these anomalies and oppressions on them.

The Labour Welfare Wing of the Bangladesh missions abroad monitor the status of the migrant female workers, especially those who work as maid servants and house help through communicating the concerned ministry, police department, immigration, legal aid providing organizations, employers and in some cases hospitals of the migrating countries.

Besides, to provide shelter to the tortured female workers, one Safe Home has been founded in Riyadh of Saudi Arabia, two in Zeddha and one in Oman. These Safe Homes provide them food, treatment and other required necessary things and even arrange tickets for their return.

Under legal steps penalty is ensured and even license get cancelled if any recruiting agencies are proved to be deceiving and cheating these workers.

Under Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseers Employment, Manpower, Employment and Training Bureau directed 68 training centres and recruiting agencies provide 30 days training and 3 days departure orientations to the female migrant workers before going abroad.

These orientations and trainings give them idea on personal management, financial management, reintegration etc and thus the female migrant workers get primary idea on their own skill, professional skill, different culture & environment, food etc which helps them adjust in a new country and new environment far from their own.

Migrant female workers can call directly to Friend Call Centre at +88 01784 333 333, + 88 01794 333 333 or +88 02-9334888 and inform about their complaints if they need any assistance.

This is a toll free call centre. According to their complaints, Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment ensures its all out support to them. UN Committee of Rights to protect the migrant workers' interest opines in 2017 that Bangladesh should take necessary steps to implement Law-Act in order to ensure the interest, rights and security of the migrant workers. The country has to have strength to control over the recruiting agencies. Government has to increase its interference and role in the recruitment process. And finally, the contribution of the migrant workers in the welfare of the socio economic status of the country has to be evaluated and focused properly, the committee opines.

Even after having such facilities, many of our female migrant workers get tortured and deceived. Infact in all sorts of agreements related to female migrant workers, whether the agreements are women friendly and humane are to be ensured. Besides, both the sender and receiver countries need to preserve the data verifying the actual information of these workers.

Information of which country our female workers are going to, which job they are going to have, through whom they are going to have their job, for which reason they are getting back if so, how much foreign currency they are sending and how far they are playing role in the family and economy, has to be preserved in the database and also posted in the website of the concerned Ministry. All these have to be monitored regularly.

Recruiting agencies also have a huge role to play. If the agencies perform their duty with utmost sincerity and honesty, there will be no problem or it would be very easy to tackle any situation to help and keep our female migrant workers safe, secure and honoured. We also have a great role to play.

In most of the cases society and even family do not want to accept the betrayed and deceived female migrant workers if they get back. Family and society have to be broad enough to get out of the typical and stereotype idea and mentality. Government has to promote exclusive and special programs and ensure different help services and advice to these returned female migrant workers to heal and boost up their social and psychological loss and challenges they face.

In the world labour market, the number of female migrant workers is half of the total and this number is increasing gradually since their participation has increased a lot. Many of these workers get into trouble of having security since they are unskilled.

To keep their interest and security intact Convention on Human Rights and Empowerment for Women can play a leading role in ensuring safety for our female migrant workers. Our world should be a world free of torture, repression and deception on women and so on women migrant workers. We can expect, long for, dream and act accordingly to have that expected and ideal world for us with all our sincere combined effort and desire.Rohingya crisis and role of ICC

THE International Criminal Court (ICC) has demanded Bangladesh's opinion on whether The Hague-based court has jurisdiction to run a case on atrocities against Rohingyas. The demand appears somewhat vague to us.

The pre-trial Chamber of the ICC has sent a letter in this regard on Monday and sought Bangladesh's opinion by June 11 either publicly or confidentially. The letter clearly mentioned by stating - "The Chamber hereby invites the competent authorities of Bangladesh to submit written observations, either publicly or confidentially, on the prosecutor's request no later than 11 June."

First hand evidence acquired from Google satellite images, verbal accounts of refugees, photos of torching villages, beating up of refugees and clear marks of physical torture and rapes are all there. However, it is easily understandable that proof or evidence of the first degree are vital preconditions before commencing any form of trial , especially trials relating to grave crimes against humanity.

Now it's up to the government to decide how quickly it wants to pursue the legal course of action. What's even more puzzling is that last Wednesday a number of International relations experts' and diplomats said that the Bangladesh government should not be a party to encourage the International Criminal Court (ICC) to exercise jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the crime of deporting Rohingyas.

Questions involuntarily arise - why not? Why should the big-scale crimes against more than a million helpless Muslims in Myanmar not be investigated?

Referring to the ICC's letter, the Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights Matthew Smith wrote to the Foreign Ministry that the government of Bangladesh should encourage the ICC to exercise its jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the international crime of deportation of Rohingya Muslims.

On one hand a section of the international community is encouraging Bangladesh for a fair trial regarding the persecution of Rohingyas while on the other another section is preventing it. Perhaps they fear that the trial might put the repatriation process in jeopardy. We mark a clear division and conflict of interests among the experts of the international community.

The final point is that the refugees or the entire Rohingya community for that matter has not received any justice either at home or abroad. Furthermore, chances of their appropriate repatriation, as Myanmar citizens, cannot be said to be very bright at the moment. Not only do they deserve justice, they also deserve to get back their homes, properties and citizenship with dignity. It is right at this critical juncture that the ICC, international community and Bangladesh must immediately prioritise their duties while uniting under a single umbrella.

What should take place first - trial or rapid and proper repatriation? The crisis is entering a critical phase, especially for Bangladesh.





Ban on mango harvesting, marketing till May 20

BSS, Rajshahi :

A ban has been imposed on mango harvesting and marketing in the district till May 20 next to give optimum time for natural ripening of the delicious seasonal fruit.

District administration has taken the decision after a fruitful discussion with farmers, traders and others concerned at conference hall of Deputy Commissioner Office here on Wednesday.

The decision was taken to prevent the artificially ripening of immature mango through mixing harmful chemicals and marketing those.

Chaired by Deputy Commissioner SM Abdul Kader, the meeting was addressed, among others, by Additional District Magistrate Subrata Paul, Additional Superintendent of Police Abdur Razzaque Khan, Deputy Director of Department of Agriculture Extension Dev Dulal Dhali, Deputy Director of BSTI Khairul Islam, Scientific Officer of Fruit Research Station Murshedul Bari, farmer Zillur Rahman and trader Azmal Hossain.

Considering the time variation of ripening of different varieties of mango, the meeting imposed ban on harvesting Gopalbhog

before May 20, Himsagar, Khirsapat and Lakhna before June 1, Langra before June 6, Amropaly and Fazli before June 16 and Ashwina before July 1.

Dev Dulal Dhali told the meeting that that most of the mangoes will become matured and ripen within the stipulated time and then those could be harvested normally.

He said the indigenous varieties of mangoes have started ripening. But the two most delicious and famous varieties- Gopalbhog and Khirshapat- need some more days to ripen. To this end, the mango growers and traders were kept in close observation and monitoring relating to the issue.

"Mangoes mixed with deadly chemicals such as carbide is extremely hazardous for human health. The chemical has a long-term affect on human body," Agriculturist Dhali said.

He said only 100 gram of calcium carbide can ripen nearly 100 kilogram of mangoes while the chemicals could cause deadly diseases like cancer, kidney and liver complications.

The meeting was told that district administration will work to ensure all requisite privileges and security to the farmers and the traders concerned.

Monitoring committee will be formed to oversee enforcement of the decision. If anyone who will be found guilty of harvesting immature mango and marketing those through mixing harmful chemicals will be brought to book.

DC Abdul Kader says formalin-mixed mango is harmful for the public health. So, in addition to the field-level strict surveillance, mango harvesting and marketing has been banned till May 20.

He said drastic action will be taken against those who will be found guilty of violating the ban. Simultaneously, the truck-bus owners associations were also asked to refrain from mango loading, unloading and transporting during the restricted period.

Mango is the leading seasonal cash crop of the country's northwest region and dominates the economy in the two districts famous for the delicious fruit.'Robber' killed in gunfight

UNB, Chuadanga :

A suspected ringleader of a robber gang was killed in a reported gunfight with police at Gobindahuda village in Damurhuda upazila early Thursday.

The deceased was identified as Mirajul Islam Mia, 47, son of Hafez Mandal of Hatibhanga village in the upazila.

Ahsan Habib, Assistant Superintendent of Chuadanga Police, said Mira was a member of a notorious robber gang

'Jamu-Akram Bahini' and wanted in nine cases including that of robbery.

A team of police arrested Mira along with two bullets on Wednesday afternoon.

Later, police along with Mira conducted a drive in the area to recover arms, police said.

At one stage, the associates of Mira opened fire and hurled bombs to police in a bid to snatch away him from police custody, prompting them to retaliate that triggered a gunfight.

Mira caught in the line of fire and died on the spot while the others managed to flee the scene, police said.

The law enforcers also recovered one shutter gun, two crude bombs and some sharp weapons from the spot.Banking sector on the brink, says Fakhrul

Staff Report :

The major opposition BNP has said the country's banking sector lost over Tk 2 lakh crore depositors' money over the past nine years and the ruling party men have plundered it from banks, non-banks and such other financial institutions using fake cover of business loans.

Party Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam said it at a press briefing yesterday held at chairperson's political office in the city's Gulshan referring to findings from media and other sources.

He came up heavily on the finance minister for ignoring the big grabbing of banks money passing it as nothing. It can't be easily understood, he said.

He blamed the government for lacking good governance where party men are running banks, non-banks and other financial institutions enjoying impunity loan scandals.

He said party men and influential persons having access to the government have grabbed the money and the stealing continues unabated.

Mirza Fakhrul said the country's banking sector has been ruined while the overall economy is facing setback from loots, plunder and mismanagement. Citing the remark

of a major think tank, he said the year 2017 was 'a year of banking scandal' while another major national daily has characterized the last 10 years of Awami League regime as 'the decade of banking scandal.'

Fakhrul said, "the government has appointed party men at crucial posts in banks

and non-bank financial institutions; the banking sector is losing thousands of crore taka every year." He further said, "they are granting loans to people in political consideration making the banks empty."

He said the US intelligence agency - FBI is right when it said officials from within Bangladesh Bank were involved in the stealing of bank money. Referring the Islami Bank takeover by a business group, he said, "the government has handed over the bank to a special business group; the news that the bank is now facing serious liquidity crisis is shocking. He said many depositors are facing difficulty in getting money. The resignation of the government appointed chairman of the bank is also intriguing.

BNP secretary general said, besides the banking sector, big mega projects are also flooded with corruption. The share market has been laundered mercilessly. He criticized the government for virtual handing over of private banks to their sponsors allowing four members of a family to sit as directors for three tears at a time instead of two family members for two terms. As a result, banks have become private properties to avoid accountability and allow loan frauds.

Attorney General`s appearance confirms too much bureaucracy and too little politics

The Appellate Division of Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain on Wednesday set May 15 for order after completing hearing of the bail petition of Begum Khaleda Zia and two appeals filed opposing her bail by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the government.



Any politically guided government would have stayed away from Begum Khaleda Zia's corruption cases to show that the government has no political vendetta against the leader of the main rival party. But some highly placed men in power including the Prime Minister articulated often and loudly showing jubilation at her conviction on Zia Orphanage Trust case. The allegation is not that she has stolen any money but Taka two crore was temporarily misused that it was later refunded.



The government by its own acts have created the public perception that the government is manipulating the criminal cases for political persecution. It had no difficulty in feeling no shame for ignoring the fact that never before banks were so happily plundered by men enjoying favourable relationship with the government. Corruption with public money is no corruption.



The Attorney General appeared unnecessarily in the hearing only to give a certificate that the Anti-Corruption Commission has rightly initiated the case against Begum Khaleda Zia because, in his words, government money was stolen. So the huge amounts of money the government people are stealing is no stealing because the money is government's money. But there is no government money for the government to take freely. They are also stealing public money.



It is normal for a person sentenced to five years imprisonment to get bail by the court. Begum Khaleda Zia was on bail all along during the trial. It is also a fact that an appeal is continuation of the trial so her conviction has not been finalised. As she was on bail during trial so she should remain on bail. The High Court Division accordingly granted her bail.



There are hundreds of cases to support that bail was granted for such short sentences of imprisonment, unless there existed special reason for not being trustworthy. She is an elderly lady and Prime Minister for three times and did not misuse bail. Yet we have to admit that granting bail is the discretion of the court but it is judicial discretion. Other than this we make no comment. We shall wait for the order of the Appellate Division till 15th May.



Mentionably, the HC on March 12 granted Begum Zia four months' bail in Zia Orphanage case in which she was sentenced to five years in prison. She landed in jail on February 8 but one week later, the SC stayed the HC bail order following two leave-to-appeal petitions by the ACC and the government.



Attorney General (AG) Mahbubey Alam's participation in the hearing of ACC's appeal against Begum Zia's bail petition has raised bitter controversy in the open court forcing the Chief Justice to intervene. The ACC is an independent body and has its own team of lawyers. Begum Zia's lawyers found it most unusual as to why the AG is opposing bail when the case is to be argued by ACC lawyers independently and they were desperately trying for cancelling her bail granted by the High Court Division.



We are sure the appearance of the Attorney General was irrelevant and only added to the bad reputation of the government not having faith in the rule of law.



Somehow the government has created, through its overzealous followers, an atmosphere in which the fundamental rights and liberty of people have no guarantee as provided by the Constitution. The wish of the government is supreme.



Some of us are proving to be jelly fish having no backbones. That is the moving idea behind the present government in choosing those who have no integrity and no courage.HRW urges BD govt to draft new law for upholding freedom of speech

Staff Reporter :

Human Rights Watch has urged the government of Bangladesh to draft a new law for upholding the principles of free speech and internet freedom.

In a new report published on Wednesday, the New York-based rights group mentioned that scores of people had been arrested in the past five years in Bangladesh for criticising the government, political leaders, and others on Facebook, as well as in blogs, online newspapers.

While the arrests were made under section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act (ICT Act), the HRW pointed out that the proposed Digital Security Bill to replace the existing law is "even broader than the one it seeks to replace".

The proposed Act, article 32 of which is being widely criticised, "violates the country's international obligation to protect freedom of speech", said the HRW report titled "No Place for Criticism: Bangladesh Crackdown on Social Media Commentary".

It was launched ahead of scrutiny of Bangladesh's human rights record in the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on 14 May 2018, as part of a process known as the Universal Periodic Review.

The HRW insisted that the government should take this opportunity to commit to ending its crackdown on dissent and criticism, including that made by the political opposition, and instead, pledge to lead a robust public campaign on the right to free expression.

"The government of Bangladesh acknowledges that the current Section 57 of the ICT Act is draconian, and needs to go," said HRW's Asia Director Brad Adams.

"But the new law being proposed is hardly an improvement, creating a series of new offences that will undoubtedly be used for years to come against government critics in the country's highly politicised criminal justice system."

The HRW report said the government should work with domestic and international experts to draft a new law that fully upholds the principles of free speech and internet freedom.Yes, the decision belongs on the local level

No, no one should be able to dictate whether people wear masks

Vote

View ResultsThe best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option.

Manga release schedules:



Nothing right now.





Other Events Coming Up:

Nothing right now.





First Published on May 7, 2018

Have you ever experienced the silence of land  when the only sounds that you hear are fluttering prayer flags, the call of the birds, the tinkle of the prayer bells and the soothing calm of gushing water? A silence  so strong that you automatically lower your voice, even if you are gasping at the unbelievable beauty of the land. The endless green valley bound by black mountains and only highlighted by the colors of flowers.

It might sound fairytale-like. But I did find this in Phobjikha Valley of Central Bhutan.

Phobjikha Valley in Bhutan

Phobjikha Valley was not a part of my original itinerary. It happened with a spontaneous change of plans while at Punakha. With an extra day in hand, we chose to do a day trip to Phobjikha Valley. Little did we know that this would turn out to be the best part of our Bhutan Trip. A highlight that will make us happy that we did what we did and a tad bit sad for we could not stay longer. Without much ado, let me share my experience in Phobjikha Valley so that you dont make the mistake of not including it in your Bhutan itinerary.

About Phobjikha Valley

Phobjikha Valley is actually a glacial valley at an altitude of 3000 m above sea level. It is located in Central Bhutan and is quite a sparsely populated area. It borders the Jigme Singye Wangchuck National park that hosts exotic wildlife like the red fox, leopards, wild boars and more.

The key occupation of the villages here is agriculture. You will only find turnips and potatoes growing in the fields. The valley is also, home to nomads and yak herders.

River flowing through Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan

The Valley has two rivers  Nakay Chhu and Gay Chhu. These have an interesting legend connected to them. Nakay Chhu and Gay Chhu were actually supposed to be a snake and boar respectively. They decided to have a race. If Nakay Chhu won it, then rice would be grown in Phobjikha Valley but if Gay Chhu won, it would never be. As fate had it, Nakay Chhu lost his way and meandered across Phobjikha. If the legend is to be believed  the land in the bowl-shaped Phobjikha Valley is unfit for rice cultivation.

Besides its inherent beauty, the Phobjikha Valley is famous for two things  the first being Gangtey Monastery and the other being the Black Necked Cranes. What about them  you got to read on further.

Drive from Punakha to Phobjikha Valley

Drive through Wangdue Valley to Phobjikha

Our original Punakha plan was to head out to the Pho Chhu river for river rafting. However, the plan flopped as we found that the river rafting was a little over-budget. Within 15 minutes, we hopped into the car  enroute to Phobjikha. Suchit, our cabbie told us that it was a decision that we would not regret. Somehow, something told me  he was right.

Rhododendrons along the drive to Phobjikha

Snowcapped Black Mountains, Bhutan

Maybe it was the mountains that peeked through the green pines or the gushing river that ran beside us in the valley or the rhododendron corners, every tiny thing seemed so beautiful. There was no need to stop for these just followed you everywhere. Frankly if one had to stop, you would much rather be walking for every meter was just a new scene.

Close up of the snow-capped mountains enroute to Phobjikha Valley

The only brief stop that we made was to capture the snow-peaked mountains and the Tarai Gray Langurs, who were as curious about us as we were about them. These creatures need a special mention for they are a threatened species. They are quite rare and on a decline for varied reasons. Spotting them here in their natural home was quite a privilege.

Tarai Gray Langur found enroute to Phobjikha Valley

Yaks in Phobjikha Valley

First Glimpse of Phobjikha Valley

The air turned cooler and cooler as we drove the winding roads of the mountains. Snuggled in our down jacket, yet reluctant to close our windows, we enjoyed the changing scene. The appearance of the Yaks marked our proximity to Phobjikha valley. We turned to the other side of the same Black mountains to enter its sunken valley. The first glimpse of it made me feel as if I were in Switzerland. The same cool misty wind with endless green stretches only dotted with cows. Sigh!

People of Phobjikha Valley

Friendly faces and cute kids waved out to us as we entered the Gangtey village and begin our first of the many things to do in Phobjikha valley  explore the Gangtey Monastery.

First Stop: Gangteng Monastery in Phobjikha Valley

Phobjikha Valley with Gangtey Monastery

Since our trip was on the spur of a moment, we could not plan for the famed Gangtey Nature Trail. Suchit tried reaching out to other guides and groups to see if he could find someone who we could join. Sadly, that was not to be. Nonetheless, there was no reason why we could not visit the place that gave the Valley another name  Gangteng Monastery.

History of Gangtey Monastery

Gangteng Monastery at Phobjikha Valley

Built in the 1610s, this monastery is quite an important one in Bhutan. It represents a prominent school of Buddhism called the Nyingmapa School. It is also, the main monastery of Pema Lingpa traditions. Now does that all sound Greek and Latin to you?  Let me make it a little simpler.

Buddhas depicted on Gangtey Monastery, Phobjikha Valley. Guru Padmasambhava in the center

Pema Lingpa is the 2nd most important Guru after the famous Guru Padmasambhava. The main Guru Padmasambhava had predicted his birth in Bhutan. It is said that Pema Lingpa had many divine qualities. One famous incident was that he actually dived in a lake with a Butter Lamp and emerged with a treasure and the lamp still burning. Responsible for the spread of Buddhism, he was considered as the King Terton of Bhutan.

Gangtey Gompa. Phobjikha Valley

It is his grandson  Pema Trinley, who arrived in Gangtey and built this monastery. He was the first head priest of the Gangteng Gompa and his descendent expanded this same monastery in a typical Dzong Style (Fortress in Bhutan as explained here). The current royal family  Wangchuck Dynasty is said to be descendants of Pema Lingpa.

Architecture of Gangtey Gonpa

The elaborate windows of the prayer hall of Gangtey Monastery, Phobjikha Valley

Made of wood and stone, the Gangtey Monastery is a sight to behold. The original building was built by the villages in Phobjikha Valley but needed some restoration over the years. This was done in the 2000s. The monastery is painted using mineral colors locally called Dotshoen, something that is still maintained.

Doors of Gangtey Monastery, Phobjikha Valley

The main temple is quite a building with its traditional Bhutanese windows of dark wood and colorful paints. The windows and the doors are quite vibrant and make the whole atmosphere so cheerful. The corners of every ledge and roof have interesting dragons popping out on them.

Corners of Gangtey Monastery in Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan

Around the main temple are the living quarters of the monks and even a prayer room. Melodious chanting welcomed us as we walked around the main temple till we finally entered it. No pictures were allowed in, which was just as well for it helped me take in the gorgeous statues of Buddha and the lovely wall paintings done by the monks themselves. Quite like the Punakha Dzong, there were two thrones  one for the Head Priest and the other for the King. Though smaller than the Punakha temple, this one was no less beautiful.

One of the smaller temples around the main temple of Gangteng Monastery, Bhutan

Walking out of the monastery, I gazed down at the quiet Phobjikha Valley. The Gangteng Monastery was the only thing that contributed to the sound of the otherwise silent valley of Phobjikha. And that too, in the most melodious manner. What struck me strongly was the sound of the fluttering prayer flags and the swirl of the prayer wheels with the mild sound of a singing bowl that signaled the start of the meditation session. Even the locals visiting it did not interrupt the silence.

Phobjikha Valley as seen from Gangtey Monastery

The sacredness of this monastery in this valley was evident, not just by the devotion displayed by the locals or by its strategic location on the Black mountains. It was the behavior of the migratory birds that reaffirmed the holy nature of the monastery. What about that behavior  you will know soon enough!

Lunch at Dewachan Hotel

Cattles grazing in Phobjikha Valley

Since the trek was not to be, we set off from Gangtey Monastery to Dewachen Hotel for our lunch. Winding to the bottom of those hills and finally onto the valley. The scenery looked even more unreal. My daughter too, equated this to nothing less than Switzerland. The interesting thing was that the flatbed of the valley was left undisturbed while the periphery was where the farms and houses were built.

Ema Datshi at Hotel Dewachen, Phobjikha Valley, Bhutan

Suchit, our cabbie, had preordered lunch for us as he knew we did not want to waste any time. Also, being a remote area, things are not pre-prepared. An authentic Bhutanese meal awaited us at one of the few hotels of Phobjikha valley  yummy Ema Datshi with Red Rice and Dal. Add to that their salad  Hogi. Wait  I forgot the starter  the warm Butter Tea  Suja.

View of Phobjikha Valley from our lunch table

It was only when the food appeared that we realized that we were famished. So caught we were with the beauty of Phobjikha that our rumbling tummies were quite ignored. We wolfed down the food while enjoying the view from the hotel.

Walking through Phobjikha Valley

The Evergreen Phobjikha Valley with the Black Mountains in the backdrop

With the slight drizzle that had started, the already cold Phobjikha valley somehow became even more pleasant. Mind you  I am not so comfortable with cold but somehow, this cold was just pleasant. Suchit drove us into the valley to experience what it would be on flat land. To quote his words  You have not really visited Phobjikha Valley unless you have walked it. I frankly would add to that  Unless you have laid down on the grassy valley, you definitely have left your experience incomplete. And yes, I would term my experience incomplete.

Jumping with joy in the Silent Valley

Black Necked Crane Information Center, Phobjikha Valley

Remember the other thing that I mentioned the valley was famous for  the Black Necked Cranes? Well, time to tell you about that. These wondrous creatures come all the way from Tibet every Winter to spend the next few months at Phobjikha. They are a rare set of birds and are in the endangered category. The Buddhists, especially the Bhutanese, consider them as sacred and a sign of prosperity and longevity. In fact, they celebrate their arrival with the Crane festival in November.

Home of the Black Necked Cranes  Phobjikha Valley

The Black-necked cranes are said to carry messages from heaven and if they fly over a farm, the locals believe that they will get a good harvest. Some even believe that they carry the souls of the deceased lamas and hence, they return to Phobjikha for Gangtey Monastery.

Here is where I will reveal the astonishing tale of why the Gangteng Monastery is considered sacred. These birds, when they fly in, circle the monastery thrice before they descend into the Phobjikha Valley. When they return, they repeat the same and leave. Call it a freak of nature or an actual celestial phenomenon. There is definitely something about that monastery that is sacred.

Black Necked Crane in Phobjikha Valley

When we visited Phobjikha in April, the birds had all flown back. Except for Karma. This bird could not fly back as it was injured some years ago. It now resides at the Black Necked Crane information center in Phobjikha in a protected environment. The protection is from the wild animals that could attack it. And since, he was around, we paid him a visit.

Karma  the lone Black Necked Crane in Phobjikha

The Black Necked Crane Information Center is a small set up for the protection of these birds. You can see a small documentary on these birds while you are here, which pretty much tells you what I shared in this section. You can even buy some local arts but the main reason to visit is Karma. It is quite amusing to see him for his dwellings has all that he needs, including a mirror that he can see himself in.  . It felt sad to see him in a wide enclosure but I believe, he was injured in the first place by a dog or a wild animal.

Returning back to Punakha

Overcast skies in Phobjikha Valley

It was past 4 pm and the skies did start opening up to some rain and hail. Since we had to get back to Punakha, we bundled up and left Phobjikha valley wistfully. I dragged my feet till I could and stared out as long as possible for I really did not have enough of this lovely destination. Never did I realize how the silence of a land can be charming. I kept thinking that if I had that one full day, and even if I had finished seeing all that I did, I still would want to stay here for another day. Maybe just roll on that grass, or walk amidst the cows or even just sit by the river. I know that with the company of that silence, I would not get bored.

Other things to do in Phobjikha Valley

The two main places to visit in Phobjikha are the Gangtey Monastery and the Black Necked Crane Center. However, if you do have time, here are a few other things to do in Phobjikha valley that you can add to your list 

Visit the Chendebji Chorten. Legend has it that it covers an evil demon.

Head to the Khumbu Lhakhang  one of the oldest temples in the silent valley

Embark on a three-day hike  the Phubja Valley trek that takes you through bamboo and fir forests

If you are short of time, try the Gangtey Nature Trail that starts from the Gangtey monastery. This trail also allows you to get a peek at the Khewa Lhakhang temple.

Try some archery with the locals. It is a favored sport in Bhutan and trust me, not at all easy!

Pin this

How to get to Phobjikha Valley?  There is only one airport in Bhutan  in Paro. There are very limited flights into Bhutan from the rest of the world.

 Once you are in Paro, you need to hire a car and head to Punakha or Phobjikha directly. The only way into Phobjikha is by road. What is the best time to visit Phobjikha Valley? Phobjikha valley is quite cold through the year. Spring and Summer time (March to June) is quite bearable even though the temperature might go down in minus. However, if you are looking to spot the Black necked cranes, then winters are the only option. The birds normally arrive in November and stay on till early March. Another reason to go in November is the Crane festival (called Teschu) that is held at the Gangtey Monastery to welcome the black-necked cranes. The festival, held in the 8th lunar month, showcases the colorful culture of Bhutan with its unique costume and masked dances. It is normally celebrated over 10 days. Where to stay in Phobjikha Valley? There is very limited accommodation in Phobjikha. You need to book your Phobjikha hotel well in advance and most likely through a local travel agent. The internet will offer you only a few choices. Dewachen hotel  where we had our lunch, seemed like a good option for your stay.

There are plenty of homestays and open-air camps offered in the valley. Again, all these can be accessed via the local agents.

Additional Travel Tips

The temperature in Phobjikha valley is always low. You will need warm clothes and closed shoes while here. Remember to dress in layers.

Please check this complete Bhutan Travel Guide for all the permits and other formalities needed to visit Bhutan

Booking Resources

You will find Booking.com useful for booking hotels in Bhutan. Do consider clicking through the links and booking your stay.

There are quite a few tours of Bhutan available on Klook.com. In fact, this link has one that includes a tour of Gangtey Valley. Check it out.

Amazon is a perfect for shopping for your travel requirements like hiking boots, all weather coats etc that you might need for Bhutan. Do consider clicking this link to buy them,

Disclaimer: This article includes affiliate links. This means that at no cost to you, I will receive a small commission if you purchase through my link. Thank you for supporting me with this.

Popularly referred to as a Restless Ball of Energy. My Mom refuses to entertain my complaints about my equally restless daughter & assures my husband that I was born with a travel bug. I am a Post-Graduate in Marketing by qualification and a travel blogger by passion. Besides travel, I enjoy photography and if you dont find me at my desk, I would be out playing badminton or swimming or just running. I believe in planning for every long weekend through the year. And when I cannot travel physically, I travel virtually through this travel blog. My travel stories have also, got published on various websites and magazines including BBC Travel, Lonely Planet India and Jetwings. I have recently published my first book  When Places Come Alive  a collection of stories that are based on legends, landscapes, art and culture of a place which is available in both ebook and paperback format.Qatar's Public Works Authority Ashghal has announced plans to develop the West Bay North Beach area in Doha, creating a "major viable, connected, sustainable and attractive waterfront destination of choice".



The project is expected to complement the existing recreational, leisure and hospitality offering within the city and the wider Doha Municipality area, said a statement from Ashghal.



Accordingly, the authority is launching a competition to attract Qatar-registered companies as well as international consultants and architects to "bring fresh ideas to develop the waterfront."



The waterfront's development will include key connections through West Bay North from City Center Doha, existing hotels/residences, Doha Metro and the Corniche, it stated.



The participating companies are being encouraged "to be genuine, creative and innovative" in their approach, while at the same time "realistic and achievable."



The challenge for these companies from Ashghal is that the West Bay North Beach development must be operational within four years.



Under this contest, the participants must submit their 'Visioning master plan' options, each supported with a 3-minute 3D animated fly-through and computer-generated imagery, by June 11, said the statement from Ashghal.



And the winner will walk away with the QR300,000 ($81,848.4) cash prize, it added.-TradeArabia News ServiceMicrosoft has announced that Emaar Hospitality Group, the hospitality and leisure business of Dubai-based Emaar Properties, has chosen to adopt Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations as part of a visionary digital-transformation journey.



We are a global leader in providing memorable lifestyle experiences, said Olivier Harnisch, chief executive officer of Emaar Hospitality Group. We are transforming our business model through digitization that would take us to the next level in providing world-class service to our guests. In this, we are setting our fundamentals right and we needed core business applications that will drive new operational efficiencies and support future innovation. With Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, we have the balance between back-end control and customer-facing agility.



As Emaar Hospitality Group mapped out its digital transformation roadmap, the company decided to optimise its operations by replacing outdated legacy systems with a Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations that brings agility, flexibility and the power to balance the intricacies of financial control with the changing needs of guests.



Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations allows organisations to unify global financials and operations, and because of its Common Data Model, business leaders have access to a holistic information ecosystem that allows them to make fast, informed decisions. Dynamics 365 also helps provide a 360-degree view of the whole business to key personnel, who can use visual representations of vital operational areas to adapt quickly to changing market demands, and drive business growth.



Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations enables the end-to-end digital transformation of a business, said Sayed Hashish, regional general manager, Microsoft Gulf. Emaar Hospitality Group will now have the ability to completely redefine its business processes, and deliver a consistent, customer journey while dramatically improving both service levels and employee productivity, and greatly reducing operational costs. Microsoft has a longstanding partnership with Emaar and we look forward to continue supporting their vision with our technologies and innovations.



Emaar Hospitality Groups implementation of Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is part of a larger business-transformation programme that will enable the organisation to expand its business reach and introduce new operating models, while continuing to improve its world-leading customer service levels.



Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations will help Emaar Hospitality Group staff close books faster, deliver robust reporting, increase profitability with business intelligence, and ensure global compliance. The solution will also bring newfound agility and efficiency to the groups delivery of service to guests, allowing more efficient planning, scheduling, resourcing and cost management. The groups hotels and restaurants will also benefit from a modernised supply chain with unified, advanced, predictive warehousing and stock management, to ensure they can always fulfil their guests desires. - TradeArabia News Service

Abu Dhabis Mubadala Investment Company is looking at bigger deals and is set to scout for investments more widely and boost its presence over more industries, mainly after its recent tie-up with another local fund doubled its size, reported Bloomberg.



The combination of Mubadala and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council in March created an entity with more than $250 billion of assets, enough to join an exclusive club of sovereign wealth funds and national state pension plans that compete globally with private equity for the largest acquisitions, stated the report citing its top official.



"With that scale we have the ability to look at deal flow all over the world," remarked CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak.



"It allows us to have a larger, diversified portfolio, in terms of both geography and sectors, and that gives us a better investment profile," Al Mubarak said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Malta, New York.



Created in 2002, Mubadala is part of Abu Dhabis efforts to diversify its economy by turning oil revenue into profitable investments while also attracting expertise and jobs.



After merging with Abu Dhabis International Petroleum Investment Co., Mubadala last month said 2017 revenue rose 14 per cent. It used its integrated portfolio to increase stakes in existing companies, sell mature assets and enter new sectors in international markets, said the top official.



The fund consolidation is part of a broader evolution in Abu Dhabis approach to managing its capital after crude prices fell in recent years. The emirates two largest lenders -- National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank -- were also combined last year to create First Abu Dhabi Bank.



The funds objective, Al Mubarak stressed, is still to generate an attractive rate of return, and it now has the financial firepower to pursue opportunities previously out of reach.



There have been other changes. While Mubadala was once a buy-and-hold investor, since January Al Mubarak has embarked on initial public offerings for two companies in its portfolio, Emirates Global Aluminium PJSC and Cepsa Trading SA.



The culture of these investment companies, the ones Ive been involved with, was about accumulating assets and then just maintaining it, said Al Mubarak in the interview.



The shift that has happened over the last couple of years, that Ive tried to push at Mubadala today, is a monetization strategy that makes sense, not with a view to cash out but with a view to reinvest, he stated.



Al Mubarak expects EGA to go public in the second half of this year or early 2019. Mubadala has also hired banks to manage a share sale for Cepsa, a Spanish energy company, which will hopefully happen this year.



The fund also is considering the sale of a majority stake in EMI Music Publishing, which owns the rights to some 2.1 million songs, and is in talks with Sony Corp. and its other partners in that investment, he added.The Bahrain Development Bank (BDB) has launched a $100 million Venture Capital Fund of Funds aimed at boosting the start-up ecosystem in Bahrain and the Middle East.



The fund was set up following instructions from HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and chairman of the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB).



The Al Waha Fund of Funds will invest in venture capital funds that have a presence in Bahrain  providing additional capital to funds supporting start-ups in Bahrain and across the Middle East, said a statement.



Khalid Al Rumaihi, chairman, BDB, said: This is very exciting news for the start-up ecosystem both here in Bahrain and across the Middle East. We know that access to capital is one of the biggest constraints on growth for start-ups, so this fund will help businesses in Bahrain and across the Middle East to get access to the capital they need to expand.



Venture capital investment in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region is a fraction of the level in markets like the US and China  this means there are entrepreneurs with great ideas that are not realising their potential because they cannot access the funding required, he said.



We are delighted to be able to utilise the strengths of Bahrain as a regional financial centre and its growing start-up ecosystem to support the growth of a new wave of innovative businesses across the region, he added.



The fund was launched at Gateway Gulf Forum, which is being held under the patronage of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and brings together over 500 global investors and business leaders to explore ways of unlocking the opportunities being created by the economic transformation in the GCC.



The event provides a direct route into accessing the GCC market by showcasing major investment-ready projects worth $18 billion, with projects in the planning phase driving up the value of the project pipeline to $26 billion.



The event also offers an opportunity to match funding with large-scale infrastructure projects in Bahrain.



As well as providing additional capital to regional start-ups, the fund is expected to help attract additional venture capital funds to Bahrain, enhancing the local start-up ecosystem.



Bahrains ecosystem has benefitted from a number of major economic reforms in recent years, including a reduction in the minimum capital required for starting a business, measures to enable onshore crowdfunding in conventional and sharia-compliant finance and the introduction of a regulatory sandbox for fintech.



These advances were reflected in the recent Global Startup Ecosystem Report, released by the Global Entrepreneurship Network and Startup Genome, which included Bahrain in global ecosystems to watch in both fintech and gaming.



Bahrain was the only Arab country to be included in either list, it stated.  TradeArabia News ServiceOpportunities for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the GCC, driven by economic diversification across the region, were highlighted at the final day of the investment forum - Gateway Gulf, which was held in Manama, Bahrain.



The event which kicked off on May 8 concluded May 10 at the Four Seasons Hotel.



At the forum, Eng Ibrahim Al-Omar, Governor, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (Sagia), underlined the growing inward investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia and the region.



Al-Omar said: A total of 13 per cent of the worlds trade passes through the Red Sea and this really presents a good opportunity for the whole region.



When it comes to FDI, we have seen a growth in foreign direct investment in Saudi Arabia of about 50 per cent in Q1 this year compared to Q1 last year, he added.



From attracting FDI to empowering local businesses, the forum explored key opportunities and challenges facing businesses and governments across the GCC as the region undergoes an unprecedented paradigm shift from public to private sector-led growth, said a statement.



Technology-led innovation emerged as a key driver of growth across sectors, with speakers including Dr Klaus Kleinfield, chief executive officer, Neom, conceived as a new hub for innovation, knowledge, and trade located on the Red Sea.



A series of announcements highlighted the progress being made across the GCC in fostering supportive ecosystems for start-ups to drive innovation. These included the announcement of Bahrains plans to establish a $100 million Fund of Funds to open up new funding avenues for innovative young businesses.



Speaking on a panel about how governments can embrace innovation to support growth, Rasheed Al Maraj, Governor, Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), said: When we first started looking at fintech, the biggest hurdle was the fear factor. For any regulator to think about change in the landscape can bring anxiety because naturally we target certainty, so we avoid risk that can prevent financial instability.



But what we decided at the CBB is that this coming technology is of immense benefits to the economy of Bahrain, thats why we took the dive and made the necessary regulations and pushed industry to start looking at this and introduce changes we think will help the economy at large, he said.



The importance of putting social impact at the heart of innovation and investment strategies was emphasised throughout the days conversations.



Dilip Rao, CEO, Ripple, said: Its not so much about technology, its about what we do with that technology. What is the problem were trying to solve? When blockchain first emerged, it was overhyped. What is happening now is people are knuckling down to specific use cases.



On a separate panel about investing in a challenging world, Mahmood Alkooheji, chief executive officer, Mumtalakat, Bahrains sovereign wealth fund, said: We do projects that are commercially viable. But before we invest we ask ourselves two fundamental questions. Is this a growth area and will it affect peoples lives positively?



Investments in Bahrains thriving industrial sectors were also front and centre of the forum, with the announcement by the Bahrain National Oil and Gas Authority (Noga) of a $1 billion Energy Fund, the first such fund in the GCC, which will provide institutional investors with access to local energy assets. The fund is a strong example of a broader trend in which economic reform is opening up opportunities in the region which have previously been unavailable to private sector investors.



The forum also saw the inauguration of Italian water heat maker Ariston Thermos first manufacturing plant in the Middle East and North Africa region. The 7,000-sq-m plant, based in Bahrain International Investment Park (BIIP), will produce up to 250,000 electric water heaters for export each year.



Food manufacturers are also increasingly turning to Bahrain to supply the Gulf and wider Middle East and North Africa (Mena) market, where growing populations are driving increased demand in a market worth $125 billion.



The expansion of Malaysias Power Root, the manufacturer of Alicafe coffee mix and other instant hot beverages, into the Mena region was also announced at the forum.



Power Root will be investing over $14 million in a large production facility located in BIIP. This investment is expected to generate over 160 new jobs for the local workforce. The decision to locate in Bahrain rests on the strong logistics links offered by the kingdom, as well as the uniquely open, supportive business environment.



These major manufacturers join a strong pipeline of foreign direct investment secured thanks to Bahrains pro-business regulatory environment, low operating costs, fast access to regional markets and strong human capital.



In 2017 the Bahrain EDB achieved a record level of international investment, attracting $733 million across 71 companies, which will create around 2,800 high-value jobs over three years and drive new opportunities for Bahrains talented youth, who were the focus of the final session of the conference.



The inaugural forum which was hosted under the patronage of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and Chairman of the Bahrain Economic Development Board, facilitated open dialogue and showcased projects worth $26 billion across multiple sectors to government and business leaders and investors from the GCC and around the world.



The event featured over 90 speakers, and 850 registered participants from more than 40 countries, it stated.  TradeArabia News ServiceIBM and Red Hat have announced a major expansion to their relationship, which will enable IBM and Red Hat customers to benefit from the combined power of both companies technologies in private and public clouds.



The agreement builds on IBMs recent move to re-engineer its entire software portfolio with containers, including WebSphere, MQ Series and Db2.



Container technologies are fast becoming a safe and reliable way to move applications across multiple IT footprints, from existing data centers to the public cloud and vice versa. Going hand-in-hand with IBMs shift to containerized software, is Red Hats expansive portfolio of enterprise-grade, cloud-native, and hybrid cloud infrastructure solutions, which, when combined, provide a clear pathway for enterprises to adopt hybrid cloud computing.



Through the agreement, IBM and Red Hat customers can now:



 Maximize their existing technology investments and move them more easily to the hybrid cloud with IBM Cloud Private and Red Hat OpenShift serving as the common foundation;

 Build and deploy containerized applications on one single, integrated container platform IBM Cloud Private providing a single view of all enterprise data;

 Allow developers to design, modernize, and deploy new applications more quickly while taking advantage of IBMs cloud-based services such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain with IBM Cloud Private on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.



As part of the agreement, IBM will extend its private cloud platforms (IBM Cloud Private and IBM Cloud Private for Data) and its middleware offerings to Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform as Red Hat Certified Containers. Customers can benefit from the speed and simplicity of the IBM Cloud Private self-service catalogue, deployment engine and operational management on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform across all footprints of the hybrid cloud including the IBM public cloud.



This extended collaboration is already available to customers, as organizations with eligible Red Hat subscriptions can currently use their Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform subscriptions on IBM Cloud via the Red Hat Cloud Access solution.



The companies will also partner to provide joint consultancy and implementation services through the IBM Garage and Red Hat Consulting and the solution will be supported by world-class IBM Technology support services and Red Hat Services.



The news parallels a joint development plan designed to accelerate the availability of key pieces of Red Hats portfolio on IBM Power Systems. Additionally, IBM, in collaboration with Red Hat, also announced that IBM PowerAI is now available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.



Today, 90 per cent of Fortune 100 companies and more than 100 billion mission-critical transactions per day run on IBM systems. Meanwhile, Red Hat has become the leading Linux platform for the enterprise and one of the primary catalysts fuelling Kubernetes adoption for global IT organizations.



Paul Cormier, president, Products and Technologies, Red Hat said: Todays enterprises need a succinct roadmap for digital transformation as well as confidence in deployment consistency across every IT footprint.



By extending our long-standing collaboration with IBM, were bringing together two leading enterprise application platforms in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and IBM Cloud Private and adding the power of IBMs software and cloud solutions. Together, were providing customers with a supported, consistent offering across their computing environments, he added.



Arvind Krishna, senior vice president, IBM Hybrid Cloud said: With IBMs recent move to containerize its middleware, todays landmark partnership between IBM and Red Hat provides customers with more choice and flexibility. Our common vision for hybrid cloud using container architectures allows millions of enterprises  from banks, to airlines, to government organizations - to access leading technology from both companies without having to choose between public and private cloud.



Sam Fatigato, CEO, Coda Global, said: "IBM and Red Hat are leaders in delivering enterprise flexibility with strong support for open standards and hybrid cloud environments. This partnership aligns with Coda Global's strategy to help customers modernize their applications leveraging container-based cloud computing with enterprise-grade management and scale. Coda Global empowers businesses to rapidly bring their greatest ideas to market, and the combination of IBM Cloud Private and Red Hat OpenShift helps us to deliver with speed, quality, and scale.  TradeArabia News ServiceThe award-winning Ferrari World Abu Dhabi is bringing back Ramadan Free View, allowing guests to discover whats beneath the iconic red roof on Yas Island, without the cost of admission.



Guests will be able to enter the regions leading theme park for free, paying only for rides and attractions of their choosing.



Once at the park, friends and families can select their preferred experience from one of three customised options, purchasing what suits them best. The ticket options include an unlimited rides pass at only Dh175 ($47.6) per person which includes the record-breaking Flying Aces and gravity-defying Turbo Track, which launches guests from inside the park, through the roof to the highest point of Yas Island at 64 meters. The kids package is guaranteed to ignite excitement in the little ones for Dh125 ($34) per child, where they can enjoy experiences such as the Junior Training Camp, Nellos Adventureland and Bennos Great Race, among many others. For those looking to experience a variety of attractions, the option to pay Dh50 ($13.6) is available for selected rides, excluding rollercoasters.



The Ramadan Free View offer will be applicable throughout Ramadan starting with the official announcement of the first day of the holy month, from 6pm  12am on Thursday and Friday, and 611pm on Saturday, until the first day of Eid-Al-Fitr. Tickets pricing remain as normal on weekdays, and on weekends until 6 PM. - TradeArabia News ServiceJordan's Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) welcomed the first Norwegian Airlines flight on May 8, marking the start of biweekly flights between Amman and Copenhagen, Denmark.



A welcoming ceremony was held, at which the inaugural flight was honoured with the customary water salute. Numerous officials were welcomed at the event, including representatives from both Airport International Group and the Jordan Tourism Board.



This step came as part of Airport International Groups efforts to accommodate a multitude of passenger needs, and introduce yet another previously unserved route.



Airport International Group CEO, Kjeld Binger, stated: We are pleased to welcome Norwegian Airlines here at QAIA, as this is yet another step in the right direction, offering passengers new, in-demand flight alternatives to and from Jordan, especially within Europe.



"In our position as Jordans prime gateway to the world, we strive to facilitate comfortable, convenient and economical travel for all our passengers traveling through QAIA, by partnering with world-renowned carriers such as Norwegian Airlines. We are confident that this partnership will increase the number of passengers arriving in Jordan, which will not only contribute to enriching local tourism and the Jordanian economy specifically, but will also attract even more airlines to become a part of the QAIA family.



In turn, chief commercial officer at Norwegian Airlines, Thomas Ramdahl, said: We are excited to have launched our new route between Amman and Copenhagen, in partnership with Queen Alia International Airport, and look forward to the mutual benefits it will garner for both countries, strengthening economic cooperation and facilitating an influx of tourists to and from these two historically significant cities. We offer a vast range of short and long-haul flights at Norwegian Airlines, to a myriad of destinations globally, and provide affordable fares for all, which is what we aim to do through this partnership. - TradeArabia News ServiceRoyal Jordanian (RJ) will witness a landmark digital transformation through its new-term partnership with Amadeus IT Group.



The airline has signed for the full Amadeus Altea suite, meaning its critical systems including reservation, inventory and departure control will be moving onto Altea technology, as well as renewing its distribution agreement with Amadeus.



The new agreement will support Royal Jordanians efforts to enhance the customers' experience from the moment they plan to book until they board the aircraft.



The innovative solutions will make the travel experience seamless by giving passengers more options, like paying for services at the airport or paying a small fee to lock in a fare at a particular price when they book online.



Passengers will also benefit from improved RJ call centre and sales teams who will be better able to offer Royal Jordanian products to customers, allowing for a more flexible offering and personalized packages that suit passenger needs. In addition, through Amadeus Altea technology Royal Jordanian will have access to the latest NDC capabilities.



Furthermore, during disruption times, passengers will be able to rebook themselves onto flights easily, and use self-service tools to improve their journey, making the overall travel experience smoother and more responsive.



This move sees Royal Jordanian transition away from the current technology environment, in which its processes were handled across multiple vendors and different systems, to a single integrated platform that will allow the airline to better serve passengers and benefit from streamlined internal processes.



The full suite of Amadeus IT solutions will also support Royal Jordanians strategy aimed at increasing revenues by upselling ancillary services through multiple channels, improving RJs competitiveness and business performance and helping it better measure its key performance indicators.



Royal Jordanian president Stefan Pichler said: One of the key success pillars in our turnaround plan is the continuous enhancement of passenger services across all touch points. In line with Royal Jordanian's technology strategy, and in an effort to anticipate the evolution of our traveller experience, we are delighted to expand our core systems portfolio in the passengers' service with Amadeus.



He added: Through our strong partnership with Amadeus, we are confident that this year will mark the beginning of a digital transformation of our passenger journey. This will include many services, such as ancillary products and a branded fare suite, departure control system, loyalty programme, payments platform, online and mobile booking, and many more.



Maher Koubaa, vice president Airlines Middle East, Turkey and Africa at Amadeus, said: We are proud to have been selected as Royal Jordanians strategic partner as it embarks on a significant digital transformation that will see its systems modernised to support new, more efficient, revenue-generating processes. We look forward to helping the airline work towards its business goals, while ensuring the passenger experience is kept front of mind. - TradeArabia News Service

iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- An exhaustive U.S. military investigation into the deaths of four American soldiers in a deadly ISIS ambush in Niger last October found that their mission had been approved without proper authorities and that their unit had not been fully trained for their mission.



In the wake of the report's findings made public Thursday, Defense Secretary James Mattis has ordered changes to address the shortfalls in training and authorities uncovered by the report. U.S. Africa Command has already put in place new training and equipment for U.S. troops serving in western Africa.



The months-long investigation presented the first complete narrative of the circumstances surrounding the deadly ambush in northern Niger on October 4, which killed Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson and Sgt. La David Johnson.



They were part of a team of Green Berets accompanying a platoon of Nigerien soldiers that was ambushed as they left the village of Tongo Tongo close to the border with Mali.



I take ownership for all the events connected to the ambush of 4 October, said General Thomas Waldhauser, the commander of U.S. Africa Command at a Pentagon news conference. Again, the responsibility is mine.



Waldhauser said that as a result of the investigation, Africom has already made changes to make U.S troops in western Africa safer.



We are now far more prudent in our missions, said Waldhauser. The missions we actually accompany on have to have some type of strategic value in terms of the enemy we're going against.



"'Do they have a strategic threat to the United States?' he asked.



While the U.S. troops in western Africa may be conducting fewer missions as a result, they have also been beefed up with increased firepower and drone surveillance, the option to use armored vehicles and additional response teams.



Major General Roger Cloutier, who headed Africoms investigation, told reporters there were a series of contributing factors to what occurred in Tongo Tongo. But he also said none of those factors was the direct cause of the enemy attack.



The direct cause of the enemy attack in Tongo Tongo is that the enemy achieved tactical surprise there, and our forces were outnumbered approximately three to one, said Cloutier.



The force of nearly 120 ISIS fighters was the largest ever encountered by U.S. troops in Niger.



Among the contributing factors, investigators found that the 12 members of the team, which had arrived in Niger just weeks before, had never really trained as a full unit prior to their deployment.



Investigators concluded that there were also "contradictory and ambiguous" issues at various levels of command that "resulted in confusion regarding the proper approval" for the team's initial mission plan.



For example, the investigation found that on October 3 the team, based in the town of Oualllam, had set out on a counter-terrorism operation targeting the top leader of ISIS in the Greater Sahara, which operates along Niger's border with Mali.



According to a summary of the Africa Command investigation, the commander of Team Ouallam and his company commander "inaccurately characterized the nature of the mission" in the mission plan presented to a higher ranking officer.



Cloutier attributed the mischaracterization to sloppy paperwork, cutting and pasting information from a previous mission plan, and a lack of attention to detail.



The company commander, also a captain, approved the mission plan "based upon an incorrect belief that he had the authority to do so."



But in fact, the counter-terrorism mission to kill or capture the ISIS leader should have been approved by a higher-ranking officer, such as a Lt. Colonel stationed in Chad.



Waldhauser also noted that Africa Command is re-emphasizing that the mission of U.S. troops in West Africa is to advise and assist local forces and not take the lead in a military operation by engaging in direct combat.



He said that was the point of the by, with and through strategy designed to advise local troops.



Our authorities are there to keep us out of direct combat, so it's important that gets reemphasized, Waldhauser added.



The investigation praised the heroism of the soldiers killed and wounded in the ambush, and Waldhauser predicted that there will be awards for valor in this case.



There could be disciplinary action as well, as investigators recommended that U.S. Special Operations Command review the actions of three individuals involved in the incident.



Defense Secretary Mattis agreed with the report's recommendations to establish "clear and unambiguous guidance for the planning and approval of military operations, conducting a holistic review of certain equipment requirements, ensuring appropriate turnover procedures within the theater, and certain acts with respect to coordinating support from partner nation forces."



Mattis also gave the Department of Defense, the Army and U.S. Special Operations Command 120 days to address systemic issues brought to light by this investigation."



They include reviews of current training and policies for the training of partner forces as well as policies that could affect military units from not training together fully as a unit prior to a deployment.



How the Green Beret team from Oullam got to Tongo Tongo in the first place and was left so vulnerable to attack by a large ISIS force was a key focus of U.S. Africa Commands investigation.



The joint U.S.-Nigerien team did not find the ISIS leader in the town of Tiloa and instead carried out a "key leader engagement with a partner force commander."



As the team left Tiloa, bound for their base in Ouallam, the Lt. Colonel in Chad ordered them to participate in a second kill-or-capture mission targeting the same ISIS leader at a location farther north.



Their new mission was to support a second special operations team that was to actually carry out the kill-or-capture mission. But bad weather forced the second team's helicopters to turn back.



According to the report's summary, the commander in Chad "ordered Team Ouallam to execute the mission. The mission was unsuccessful in capturing the target."



ABC News has previously reported that in this portion of the mission the Green Beret team carried out intelligence reconnaissance of an abandoned campsite, where it was believed the ISIS leader had recently visited.



With the completion of that mission, the joint U.S.-Nigerien patrol headed to their home base in Ouallam.



But because the Nigerian troops needed water, the joint patrol stopped in the village of Tongo Tongo.



After a stay in the village, which ABC News has previously reported lasted 90 minutes, the convoy of U.S. and Nigerien forces left Tongo Tongo at 11:40 a.m. The investigation found there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the villagers were complicit in the ambush.



The joint patrol was immediately attacked south of the village by a force of more than 120 ISIS fighters.



The investigation found that the convoy of five Nigerien vehicles and three American vehicles received small arms fire from a wooded area. At that point, the team commander radioed to his higher headquarters "troops in contact" -- a message that led to the deployment of additional ground forces and aircraft that did not arrive until hours later.



What followed was a nearly two-hour-long battle during which at various times the American team was separated. Their vehicles withdrew from several positions where they were taking "overwhelming" enemy fire.



Black, Johnson and Wright were killed close to the scene of the initial location as they withstood withering enemy fire.



Johnson was killed about a mile from that location after he heroically held off ISIS fighters as long as he could.



Search teams did not find his remains for two days following the battle because his last location was outside the original search area and an earlier errant report that he might have been held hostage in another village to the north.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.

0108263 License for publishing multimedia online



Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349The immediate outlook for the Middle East looks more uncertain in light of President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal. That decision, added to ongoing conflict in Yemen and Syria, and Saudi Arabia's battle for dominance with Iran and its allies, further complicates the wider region. But commerce and industry ministers from Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as Gulf business leaders, said the region had managed to prosper despite a backdrop of conflict.

As CNBC writes in the article War is nothing new to us and we're prospering despite the conflicts, Middle East ministers say, "In the past 50 years, this region has always been at war, whether it's the Gulf War, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, today it's the Yemen war, this will go on. But in that same period of time the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) has prospered tremendously," Jassim Al Seddiqi, CEO of the Abu Dhabi Financial Group, said during the Gateway Gulf Investment Forum in Bahrain on Wednesday. "The margins in the GCC are superior, the tax regime is superior. Please don't forget South Korea has been a neighbor to North Korea for a very long time and yet it has prospered in the last 30 years," he added.

The Gateway Gulf forum taking place in Manama, Bahrain, is aimed at exploring ways to attract foreign investment into the Gulf as well as looking at the challenges the region faces, such as youth unemployment, the diversification process, boosting private sector involvement and geopolitical instability. Perhaps the most tumultuous events of the last 10 years have been the Arab Spring of social uprisings in late 2010 to 2011 that showed the appetite, particularly among the young, for change. The rise of the so-called Islamic State, which grew partly out of a power vacuum in parts of Iraq and Syria, has also dominated the region in the last few years, as have civil wars in Syria and Yemen, widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi and Iran.

Bahrain's Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Zayed Al Zayani, said investors were not deterred by the backdrop. "Risk is always factored into the investment. No investment in the world is riskless," he said during the panel, entitled "The Rise of the New GCC." "But when you look at the stability of the region as an investor you wouldn't take an isolated year or two, you'd look more at the trend and cycle, so I think with all our challenges, with all our threats, with all the risks around, the GCC as a region has proven to be sound."

The Gulf refers to countries that surround the Persian Gulf in the core of the Middle East, and mainly refers to those that are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a political and economic alliance of six Middle Eastern countries  Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman.

Despite its location, long-time GCC nemesis Iran is excluded from the group. Iraq, though in the region, is also not in the GCC.

Economic transformation

Bahraini minister Al Zayani told the panel that the GCC is "about to embark on a new journey." "The countries in the GCC have developed stable economies driven by oil revenues and today diversification seems to be the top agenda item," he said. He said Bahrain had had a "head start" on diversifying its economy, having started its diversification process in the 1960s and 1970s by diversifying into, and deregulating, various industries. As part of this diversification process, governments are trying to encourage the private sector to take a leading role in the economic transformation, while policymakers take more of a regulatory role.

Khaled Nasser Abdullah Al-Roudan, Kuwait's minister of commerce and industry, told the panel that government cooperation with the private sector is a necessity. "Oil will not be the only source of revenue to rely on in the future, therefore all these economic reforms are positive steps taken by GCC counties and there is cooperation to attract foreign direct investment," he said.

Representing the private sector, Kuwait's Alshaya Group's Executive Chairman, Mohammed Alshaya, said the key ingredient to economic success was the GDP (gross domestic product) per capita and getting populations to spend more. "No investment is riskless and look at the history of the GCC, with all our challenges and threats, the GCC has proved to be sound and growing. And people who have invested here have come back and invested further," he said.China has a big stake in ensuring that the Iran nuclear deal stays intact as its investment and influence in the Middle East grows. As South China Morning Post writes in an article "Why Iran nuclear deal fallout could scuttle Chinas Middle East ambitions ", if there is a clear loser in the demise of the Iran nuclear deal, it is likely China. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump virtually killed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which six world powers  the United States, Russia, China, France, Britainand Germany  had agreed on in 2015 to curb the military dimension of Irans nuclear programme in return for relief from economic sanctions.

China played an important role in the negotiations leading to the deal, and together with Russia and the three European signatories has tried to save it in the past months. Russia, France, Britain and Germany have already said that they are still committed to the deal and will work to forge a new agreement. The Chinese leadership is likely to join forces with them. International stability is key to Chinas long-term strategic plans.

As a trade-oriented power, China has an interest in preventing further destabilisation of the Middle East, where it has strong economic ties with Iran, but also with Israeland Saudi Arabia, two regional arch-rivals of Tehran. China was Irans top trading partner in 2017, as well as Saudi Arabias second-largest and Israels third-largest.

The signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action did not eliminate confrontation in the region, but contributed to reducing the danger of a direct conflict between Iran and Israel, and between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Now that the nuclear pact seems doomed, the risk of an all-out war involving these three actors has increased, also considering that Israel recently escalated attacks on Iranian positions in Syria, and reports say Saudi Arabia is stepping up cooperation with Washington to fight pro-Iranian Houthi rebels in Yemen.

In this new scenario, Chinas plans to make the Middle East a key section of its Belt and Road Initiative, which is designed to increase connectivity across Eurasia, could be derailed. Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the infrastructure scheme in September 2013 and Beijing aims to gain greater access to markets in West Asia through its new silk routes. From 2014 to 2017, China invested about US$64 billion in the region, of which some US$10 billion were channelled into transport projects, according to the China Global Investment Tracker.

China would need a stable geopolitical environment to preserve its considerable investments in the Middle East, which is also the countrys main source of oil and gas. For instance, last year, the Export-Import Bank of China signed a US$1.5 billion contract to fund the electrification of a high-speed railway between Tehran and the eastern city of Mashhad.

As for investments in Israel, a Chinese firm will be running the port of Haifa for 25 years starting from 2021, while another one was chosen to construct the port of Ashdod in 2014. In addition, some Chinese funds will help build a light rail line in the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv.

The Belt and Road Initiative is also expected to be linked to Riyadhs Saudi Vision 2030" plan, which is aimed at promoting Saudi Arabias position as an international trade hub.

Some say China could actually benefit from Trumps withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, as the US presidents move could foster increased cooperation between Beijing and Tehran in both the military and economic spheres.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action restricts the export of advanced offensive weapons to Iran until 2020. Tehran could have more access to Chinese-made weaponry with the termination of the agreement. In the past, China transferred missile technology to the Islamic republic. The Iranian government could now focus on the acquisition of naval assets to bolster its sea-denial capabilities against the US navy in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

Mojtaba Zonnour, chairman of the Iranian parliaments committee on nuclear policies, said last month that China and Russia were willing to build small nuclear power plants in his country. Irans semi-official Fars News agency emphasised that these systems could be used to develop nuclear submarines. Building vessels of this type is no easy task, and it remains to be seen whether Tehran will be able to carry out such an expensive military project.

But the simple fact that China may help the Iranians deploy submarines powered with highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium cannot but anger the US and its key allies in the area  Israel and Saudi Arabia.

On the economic front, China, which was until recently able to skirt the US sanctions regime against Iran, could increase its exports to the Iranian market, since European traders are likely to take care not to run into Washingtons secondary penalties.

But Trumps recent bashing of big Chinese companies doing business with Iranian entities  for example, smartphone maker Huawei Technologies and telecom equipment producer ZTE  signals that the US president is going to make Beijing pay a high price for its engagement with Iran.

Gone are the days when China could comfortably weave its diplomatic web across the Middle East under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action umbrella, building upon economic strength to complete its transition from a great regional power to a global one.On May 9, the citizens laid flowers to the Sambek heights memorial, bloknot-taganrog.ru reported. Representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora, deputies, students, city people came to the memorial. 'Sambek heights' - a place where pitched battles raged for the liberation of Taganrog, every inch of this land was tainted with the blood of the Red Army soldiers. It is the place where Azerbaijan's 416th rifle division died. This memorial was built with funds from the Republic of Azerbaijan, and its opening was attended by Azerbaijani president Heydar Aliyev.

Not long ago, Ilham Aliyev allocated funds to repair the memorial. This is the only monument in Russia dedicated to Azerbaijani soldiers, who died in the Great Patriotic War. Today, residents of the city paid tribute to the soldiers - liberators, who fought together for peaceful world, without paying attention to eye shape and skin color. The residents of the city laid a flower garland and carnations at the Eternal Flame memorial.Turkish energy company LNG Gaz Uretim Depolama ve Sats A.S. will set up the country's first onshore LNG production and storage facility, president of the company Cevat Evliyaoglu said Tuesday. On May 3, Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) approved its application to build two onshore LNG storage facilities in Afyonkarahisar and Corum.

As Turkish Daily Sabah writes in the article Turkey to build first onshore LNG production, storage facility, "although in small volumes, the project will be Turkey's first efforts in LNG production and non-marine storage," Evliyaoglu said.

"EMRA is working on the tarification of the storage facility. This will also be a first for EMRA and set a precedent for future projects. After the tarification, we will start negotiations with financial institutions and banks for project finance," he said.

Turkey, which is Europe's third-biggest gas importer, is struggling to increase its natural gas storage capacity.

In 2017, a gas storage facility was opened in the central Anatolian region. The country also commissioned an offshore Floating Storage Regasification Units (FSRU) in December 2016. A second FSRU was launched in the Mediterranean region of Hatay in early February.

"In the past, Turkey would store natural gas in its gaseous form in storage or underground facilities," Evliyaoglu said, adding that FSRUs store gas in liquefied form, but can access coastal areas only. "We will not only be the first in LNG production, but also the first to store LNG storage onshore in Anatolia," he said.

The company's facilities will have a production capacity of 208 cubic meters of LNG per day and storage facilities of 2,000 cubic meters of LNG, Evliyaoglu said. "For Turkey, this is a strategic project to ensure natural gas supply security. Capacities are expandable in line with the demand from LNG users and natural gas demand from the national transmission line," he said.

The liquefaction method enables gas to be stored by decreasing its volume by 1/600th in a gaseous state based on standard conditions for temperature and pressure. According to Evliyaoglu, the $35 million project will start in June and is set for completion within a year and a half.The Azerbaijani-Russian historical documentary exhibition "Heydar Aliyev: Person, Mission, Heritage", dedicated to the 95th anniversary of birth of the national leader of Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev, officially opened in the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku today. Deputy chairman of the Federation Council of Russia Ilyas Umakhanov discussed role of Heydar Aliyev played in the Russian-Azerbaijani relations in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza.

- How important was Heydar Aliyev's role in establishment and strengthening of ties between Russia and Azerbaijan after the collapse of the USSR?

- I would say that Heydar Aliyev was absolutely logical, legitimate guarantor of development of the Russian-Azerbaijani bilateral relations in various fields - politics, economy and interregional cooperation. Creation of independent Azerbaijani Republic and strengthening of bilateral ties, good-neighborliness, friendship and mutual support between modern Russia and modern Azerbaijan are all associated with his name.

That's why there's so much interest in this exhibition in the Heydar Aliyev Center, in that rich exposition. I think that researchers, experts and scientists who organized this exhibition did a great job. It's a great example not only for Azerbaijan, but also for other post-Soviet states, that shows how to honour our history and how to remember our leaders.

- Grigory Karasin said during the opening ceremony that if Heydar Aliyev was a head of the USSR government, perhaps the fate of the Soviet Union would be completely different. Do you agree with that?

- This point of view has been voiced several times, and it's especially interesting that today it was expressed by official representative of the Russian Federation, deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin. I think it's a justifiable position.

- What trends will determine the Russian-Azerbaijani relations in the near future?

- Security and stability not only in the Caspian region, but also in the Greater Caucasus depend on Russia and Azerbaijan. I think that two Presidents, who have just been elected - Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev - will pay a lot of attention to this during their talks. Another important trend is development of our bilateral economic relations. We often say that there are no political problems between Russia and Azerbaijan, but potential of economic cooperation between our countries is extremely high. I think that when Vladimir Putin talks about breakthrough in different areas, we can also expect one of such breakthroughs in economic cooperation with Azerbaijan.Meeting with Donald Trump would be pointless because the deep state  not the president  controls the US, Bashar Assad said in an interview. He noted that the agenda of the deep state is to create conflict aimed against Russia.

In an exclusive interview with Athens daily Kathimerini, Assad said there was no reason to meet face-to-face with Trump, since the US president says something today, and does the opposite tomorrow, and is likely not even being in control of policy decisions.

[W]e dont think the president of that regime is in control, Assad told the paper, referring to Trump. We all believe that the deep state, the real state, is in control, or is in control of every president, and that is nothing new. It has always been so in the United States, at least during the last 40 years, at least since Nixon, maybe before, but its becoming starker and starker, and the starkest case is Trump.

Assad also dismissed the possibility of a third world war breaking out in Syria, telling the Greek newspaper that Moscows levelheadedness has so far prevented a catastrophic escalation  even as the US aims to expand the conflict, RT reported.Today marks the 95th birthday anniversary of the national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev, who served as the President of the Republic in 1993-2003.

Heydar Aliyev was born on 10 May 1923 in Nakhichevan. He graduated from the Nakhchivan Pedagogical College and started to study at the architectural department of the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute (now the State Oil Academy of Azerbaijan), but the incipient war impeded the completion of his education.

Since 1941, Heydar Aliyev headed a department at the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Nakhchivan, and in 1944, was sent to work at state security bodies. He received special education in the cities of Leningrad and Moscow.

In 1957 he graduated from the History Department of the Azerbaijan State University. Having worked for twenty five years at state security bodies, Heydar Aliyev worked as a deputy chairman of the State Security Committee under the Council of Ministers of the Azerbaijan SSR since 1964, and from 1967, held the office of chairman of the committee, and rose to the rank of a major general.

Elected as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan at the Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan in July 1969, Heydar Aliyev became the head of the republic.

Elected as a candidate to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union's Communist Party in 1976, and a member of the Political Bureau in 1982, Heydar Aliyev was appointed the first deputy chairman of the USSR's Council of Ministers. While on this position, Heydar Aliyev headed the most significant areas of the USSR's economic, social and cultural lives.

For 20 years, Heydar Aliyev was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Azerbaijan SSR, and for five years, worked as a first deputy chairman of the USSR's Council of Ministers.

In October 1987, Heydar Aliyev resigned from his post, as a sign of protest against the policy pursued by Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and personally the Secretary General Michael Gorbachev.

In connection with the tragedy committed on January 20, 1990 in Baku by the Soviet troops, Heydar Aliyev, appearing the next day at the Representative Office of Azerbaijan in Moscow with a statement, demanded that the organizers and executors of the crime committed against the people of Azerbaijan be punished. As a sign of protest against the hypocritical policy of the USSR leadership towards the critical conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, in July 1991, he left the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Since July 1990, Heydar Aliyev lived in Baku, then in Nakhchivan. He was elected to the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan, he also held the post of the Chairman of the Supreme Assembly of the Autonomous Republic of Nakhchivan, the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the chairman of the Yeni Azerbaijan Party.

On 24 July 1993 Heydar Aliyev became the acting President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and on October 3, 1993, he was elected the President of the Republic.

On October 11, 1998, Heydar Aliyev was re-elected president for the second term. In 2003, he refused to participate in the next presidential elections due to health problems. He died on December 12, 2003 at the Cleveland Clinic in the US. On December 15 Aliyev was buried at the Alley of Honor in Baku.Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, first vice president Mehriban Aliyeva, family members, as well as relatives and loved ones of national leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev visited the Alley of Honors as May 10 marks the 95th anniversary of his birth.

President Aliyev laid a wreath at the national leaders grave and the state anthem of Azerbaijan was played.

Ilham Aliyev and family members also put flowers at the grave of the national leaders wife, ophthalmologist and academician Zarifa Aliyeva, as well as the graves of prominent statesman Aziz Aliyev and renowned physician, scientist Tamerlan Aliyev.

Among those in attendance at the commemorative ceremony were the republic's prime minister Novruz Mammadov, Parliament speaker Ogtay Asadov, head of the Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev, ministers, committee chairs, company heads and MPs.An Azerbaijani-Russian exhibition titled 'Heydar Aliyev: personality, mission, heritage,' organized on the occasion of the 95th birthday of national leader Heydar Aliyev, has officially opened in the Heydar Aliyev Center today in Baku.

The exhibition, organized with the support of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, features more than 300 exhibits, including photos, documents and video materials about Heydar Aliyev's life and work.

According to the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, the ceremony was opened by the director of the Heydar Aliyev Center Anar Alakbarov. "The Heydar Aliyev Center researches the heritage of Heydar Aliyev, various kinds of exhibitions are opened here, we have a unique exposition devoted to the life and work of the national leader. The presence of Russian artists, sculptors and art representatives in the Heydar Aliyev Center is very important for us. We hold presentations, panel discussions and festivals," he said.

"Recently, the exhibition of Alexander Vasilyev has been opened here. I want to thank the Russian delegation for the contribution to this exhibition's opening, it is very valuable for us. The Russian Presidential Administration has given us great honor and played an important role in organizing this event," Anar Alakbarov thanked.

The Departmental Chief of the Russian President on inter-regional and cultural relations with foreign countries, Vladimir Chernov, delivered a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Dear friends, I heartily welcome you at the opening of the historical and documentary exhibition 'Heydar Aliyev: Personality, Mission, Heritage,' organized on the occasion of the 95th birthday of this outstanding statesman, true patriot and faithful son of his homeland. Heydar Aliyev's political wisdom and foresight, his ability to delve into the essence of the most difficult issues, a great organizational talent, earned him a high reputation among compatriots and abroad. Having led independent Azerbaijan during a difficult time, he became a true leader of his country, who made a lot to consolidate the Azerbaijani society" Vladimir Putin's message says.

"I note that Heydar Aliyev considered building of friendly, good-neighborly relations with Russia, strengthening of mutually beneficial cooperation and constructive partnership between our countries as one of the key conditions for the successful development of Azerbaijan. It is gratifying that this policy is worthily continued by the current President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. This exhibition was a result of joint efforts of historians, archivists and representatives of government departments of our countries. I would like to thank all those who took part in organizing this event," Vladimir Chernov cited a letter from Russian President as saying.

The President's Aide for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov, in turn, delivered a message from Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. "It is Heydar Aliyev who deserves special credit for strengthening the relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, which are currently characterized as strategic. During the years of independence, our states managed not only to preserve but also develop the traditions of good neighborliness and mutually beneficial cooperation. It is noteworthy that numerous archival documents and photographs are presented at the exhibition held in Baku, which allow not only see the multifaceted nature of Heydar Aliyev's personality, but also touch his heritage," the message of Ilham Aliyev reads.

"I am glad that a colorful catalog has also been published for this landmark event, in which the continuity of the political course laid down by the national leader can be clearly traced. I hope that the publication will take a worthy place in the funds of many libraries. I would like to express deep gratitude to the Russian side, which initiates this project, as well as thank historians and archivists of both countries. I am convinced that the exhibition will contribute to the strengthening of friendship between our peoples," Ali Hasanov cited the letter of the president as saying.

Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Ilyas Umakhanov, Acting Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Grigory Karasin and Russian Federal Archival Agency deputy head Andrei Yurasov also addressed the opening ceremony.

The exhibition was prepared by experts from the Archive of the President of the Russian Federation, the Russian Ministry of Culture, the Russian State Archive, the Russian Foreign Policy Archive, the Russian State Archive of Economics, the Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts, the Russian State Archive of Recent History, the Russian State Museum of Political History, the press service of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Heydar Aliyev Center (Baku).Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has congratulated Dmitry Medvedev on getting appointed Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, BelTA reported citing the press service of the Belarusian leader.

The congratulation message reads: The Republic of Belarus highly appreciates the relations of brotherly friendship and strategic partnership with the Russian Federation. Belarus and Russia implement large-scale integration projects together. I am convinced that efforts of the two governments to develop mutually acceptable decisions on matters of the bilateral trade and economic relations will fully meet interests of the nations and will help raise their living standards.

Alexander Lukashenko wished strong health, good luck, and every success to Dmitry Medvedev.It is impossible to resolve the Syrian conflict without Russia, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow.

"I would like to point out that it is impossible to resolve the Syria issue without Russia," TASS cited Maas as saying.

The top diplomat also noted that "Germany realizes its responsibility for what goes on in Europe" and in German-Russian relations. "The prerequisite for dialogue between Germany and Russia, as well as between Europe and Russia, is that we do everything possible to listen to arguments concerning issues we disagree on, look to the future and search for ways to resolve serious issues the world has been facing," hr stressed.

"In this regard everyone can make their contribution, for instance as far as Syria goes," Maas added.The European Union should give up its delusional idea of a United States of Europe, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday in pledging to defend his nations Christian values and fight EU migrant settlement quotas, Reuters reported.

The Union must function as an alliance of free nations and give up on its delusional nightmares of a United States of Europe, Orban told parliament in his inaugural speech. The EU must return to the grounds of reality. As a first step, it must change its thinking about migration.Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said that it will take substantial time for Iran to replenish after the Israeli attack.

Conricus said that Israel struck back by destroying dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria, as well as Syrian anti-aircraft units that tried unsuccessfully to shoot down Israeli planes.

"We do not know yet the (Iranian) casualty count," Reuters cited him as saying.

"But I can say that in terms of our purpose, we focused less on personnel and more on capabilities and hardware ... to inflict long-term damage on the Iranian military establishment in Syria. We assess it will take substantial time to replenish," the spokesman added.

Israel said that Iranian forces in Syria launched a rocket attack on Israeli army bases in the Golan Heights early on Thursday. The attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights marked the first time Iranian forces have hit Israel from Syria, where they have deployed along with Shi'ite militias and Russian troops to support President Bashar al-Assad in the country's civil war.

Dozens of Israeli missiles hit a radar station, Syrian air defense positions and an ammunition dump, Syrian state media said, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies.Moscow expects Iran and Israel to exercise restraint and use only political and diplomatic means to resolve the situation, Acting Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Certainly, we know that pretty tough statements are being made," he said. "Of course, Moscow is concerned about the growing tensions and hopes that all parties will show restraint and resort exclusively to political and diplomatic means to solve all existing problems," TASS cited the spokesman as saying.

On Thursday morning, Israel attacked tens of Iranian military facilities in Syria in response to a missile attack on the army positions in the Golan Heights. Earlier on Thursday, Irans Quds Force had launched at least 20 missiles and other projectiles on the frontlines of the Israeli army in the Golan Heights, according to Israel.Moscow is ready to search for generally acceptable approaches together with its Western partners, including Berlin, Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said, opening talks with his German counterpart Heiko Maas.

However, the prospects for cooperation continue to be marred by the situation that emerged through no fault of Russia,

"We are ready to look for generally acceptable approaches with our German and Western partners even under the current situation, which we find utterly unsatisfactory, that has been created through no fault of ours," TASS cited Lavrov as saying. He added that the situation "continues to cast a shadow over any prospects for cooperation both in Europe and on the global stage as a whole."

Russia counts on cooperation on a whole range of issues in "bilateral relations, on international affairs precisely as far as Germany is willing to go," he noted. "Russian-German ties constitute a relationship between the two leading powers on the European continent. Europes situations have always depended on their state of affairs," Lavrov pointed out.

"When hard times struck these relations, the entire continent was affected. On the contrary, when Russia and Germany were able to come to terms with each other that was beneficial for all Europeans," he noted.

Lavrov stressed that "the historic reconciliation between our two peoples, which took place, in a very large measure, thanks to our countrys active support for German unification, was of paramount importance for Europes destiny." "It was hoped that this would be followed by a genuine unification of Europe, that the common European home based on equal and indivisible security will be built. Unfortunately, this did not happen, but we do bear in mind that strategic objective," he added.French President Emmanuel Macron said that U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was a mistake and Europe needed to stick to the agreement and discuss broadening it.

"Along with our partners, we need to prevent tensions escalating in the region," Macron told Germany's ARD television, according to an interpreter's German translation.

"It is therefore necessary, as of today, to immediately broaden the topics of discussion to make it possible for all parties to move towards a broader agreement at some point," Reuters cited the president as saying.Armenias Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made his first government appointment today, the press service of the country's government said

Pashinyan picked Eduard Aghajanyan as head of the Prime Minister's office, ARKA reported.

After a month of non-violent anti-government protests across the country Armenia's parliament on May 8 elected opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan to become the country's next prime minister.

Lawmakers elected Pashinyan by a 59-42 vote after a leader of the ruling Republican Party, Vahram Baghdasarian, announced his party would give Pashinyan 11 votes, which helped put him over the top.Armenia's new Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan plans to dismiss the chiefs of the police and the National Security Service.

Pashinyan wrote on his Facebook page that he signed a recommendation to the republic's President Armen Sarkisyan.

"I just signed the proposal addressed to the RA President about relieving Vladimir Gasparyan from the position of RA Police Chief, and Georgi Kutoyan - of NSS Director," News.am cited Pashinyan as saying.A protest is being held outside the Yerevan Municipality building, in the capital city of Armenia.

According to the respective press release by the initiative group of this demonstration, they demand the resignation of Yerevan mayor Taron Margaryan and the dissolution of the current municipal council.

"A statement-demand substantiating Taron Margaryans resignation will be presented during the rally. Also, an 'Open Loudspeaker' will operate, whereby the citizens will present the illegalities, the financial misuse committed by Taron Margaryan and the RPA [members of the Yerevan] Council of Elders, and the numerous unresolved problems that exist in the capital city," the press release says.

Margaryan was appointed the Yerevan mayor in 2011.Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his greetings to the participants in the 10th International Economic Summit Russia - the Islamic World: KazanSummit 2018, held in Kazan on May 1012.

"The agenda of your meeting covers efforts to promote international cooperation in finance, trade, investment, infrastructure development and other areas," the message reads.

The president noted that the participants of the summit will discuss "economic, scientific and technological modernisation in its various aspects, as well as ways to fight poverty and overcome humanitarian conflicts and crises".

"Russia supports the efforts your countries are undertaking to promote justice, equality and mutual benefit in international economic relations, as well as to prevent unfair competition, diktat and unlawful sanctions," he noted.

"I would like to reaffirm Russias interest in further expanding constructive partnerships with the countries of the Islamic World. In this context, we attach great importance to the work of Russia  the Islamic World Strategic Vision Group headed by President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov," Putin concluded.Iran does not want "new tensions" in the Middle East, President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday in a telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Arab News reported.

"Iran has always sought to reduce tensions in the region, trying to strengthen security and stability," Rouhani said, according to a statement on the website of Iran's presidency.Russia is concerned about the escalation of tensions between Iran and Israel and has asked the parties to provide details of the missile attacks, Russian Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and African Countries and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said.

"All of this is very alarming and raising concerns. It is necessary to deescalate tensions. We are verifying all the details now," TASS cited Bogdanov as saying.

"Weve got contacts with all parties," Bogdanov noted, adding that there were contacts with the Israeli side on May 9.

On Thursday morning, Israel attacked tens of Iranian military facilities in Syria in response to a missile attack on the army positions in the Golan Heights. Earlier on Thursday, Irans Quds Force had launched at least 20 missiles and other projectiles on the frontlines of the Israeli army in the Golan Heights, according to Israel.Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said that a convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea may be signed at a summit of the Caspian states, which is planned to be held in Astana in August 2018.

He noted that intensive work is underway at the level of experts in connection with Caspian Seas legal status. "We want the upcoming Astana summit of Caspian states will yield results," the deputy foreign minister said.

Karasin added that the signing of the convention on Caspian Seas legal status will contribute to stability in the region, APA reported.The US has chosen the most dramatic option to act on Irans nuclear program, Russias Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said after consultations in Tehran on Thursday, RT reports.

The US had a lot of other options to move on this issue where they find it necessary, but the most dramatic and far-reaching one was chosen, Ryabkov said.

During the consultations in Tehran, the issue of maintaining the agreement on the Iranian nuclear program was discussed, as well as overcoming the consequences of US economic sanctions on Tehran.Turkish Airlines passengers in transit through Istanbul with a six- to 24-hour layover will be able to tour the city for free.

The airline has curated five tours of the city on all days of the week. After passport control for the connecting flight, passengers can sign up for Touristanbul at the Hotel Desk in the International Arrivals Terminal of Istanbul Ataturk Airport.

Tours include visits to Walls of Constantine, Dolmabahce Palace, Topkap Palace, Grand Bazaar, Old Book Market and Blue Mosque. Some tours are a simply drive around the city, while some are walks through its iconic places.

Tour timings are 8:30am to 11am, 9am to 3pm, 9am to 6pm, noon to 6pm and 4pm to 9pm.Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif described the US decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as unlawful.

"In response to US persistent violations & unlawful withdrawal from the nuclear deal, as instructed by President Rouhani, I'll spearhead a diplomatic effort to examine whether remaining JCPOA participants can ensure its full benefits for Iran," Zarif wrote on his Twitter page. "Outcome will determine our response," the Iranian Foreign Minister stressed.Today, Russia and post-Soviet countries are celebrating one of the most important holidays of the year  Day of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Celebrations, including military parades and solemn marches were held in all regions of the country. The 'Immortal Regiment' rally was held in Moscow and other cities after holding the parade: tens of thousands of people took to the streets with portraits of relatives who participated in the Great Patriotic War. The celebrations finished with fireworks in most cities.THANH HOA  Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical LLC (NSRP) successfully released the second shipment of gasoline RON 95 (MOGAS95) in the central province of Thanh Hoa on May 8.

Some 7,000cu.m of RON 95 was purchased by Long Hung Trading and Service Company Limited. The entire volume was loaded on to the vessel PVTrans Dragon (owned by PVTrans Ships Management Company) for dispatch to the Vietnamese domestic market.

Turki Alajmi, CEO of NSRP, said he was delighted with the success of the second shipment as it showed that the commissioning of the refinerys units was continuing well and smoothly.

Everyone at NSRP is doing their best to operate the refinery to meet the increasing petroleum demand in the Vietnamese market, he said.

7000 m3 of GASOLINE RON 95 to load onto the PVTrans Dragon Vessel  PSM.  File Photos

Located in Nghi Son Economic Zone, NSRP is the second refinery in Viet Nam with a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day (10,000,000 tonnes per year).

The construction of the NSRP project started in July 2013 and was completed in April 2017. Since then, the company has commissioned some 3,000 systems in the refinery with the support of over 1,000 employees, both Vietnamese and foreign, working full-time on site.

The products of NSRP will be mainly offtaken by Petrovietnam (petroleum products) and some major international offtakers (petrochemical products).  VNSHA NOI  Vietnam Airlines Corporation has announced that it will switch operations to Terminal T2 from T1 at Baiyun International Airport in Chinas Guangzhou City from May 19 to improve its services.



Covering an area of some 880,700sq.m., the new terminal is one of the largest terminals in China and can serve 45 million passengers per year.



At the terminal, Vietnam Airlines will run check-in counters from 25 to 33. Fast-track services for Golden Lotus members with Platinum membership status and business-class passengers will be applicable at the new terminal.



The 4,200sq.m. business-class waiting lounge is on the fourth floor and will serve Golden Lotus members and business-class passengers from May 19.



Vietnam Airlines has informed passengers of the change in English, Vietnamese and Chinese.



Relevant authorities will provide further information to passengers at Terminal T2 and will also increase bus services to the airport.



Other airlines operating in T2 include China Southern Airlines, Air France, China Airlines, Aeroflot and Korean Air.



Currently, Vietnam Airlines runs three direct flights connecting Ha Noi, HCM City and a Nang to Guangzhou, with 17 flights per week. Last year, the carrier transported nearly one million passengers between Viet Nam and Guangzhou, up by nearly 28 per cent from the same period last year.  VNSHCM City  Tourism co-operation between Viet Nam and Cuba has great potential, delegates heard at a seminar in HCM City yesterday.

Cuba is famous in Viet Nam and HCM City as one of the best tourism destinations in the world, Le Truong Hien Hoa, director of the citys Tourism Promotion Centre, said.

Co-operation to promote tourism is strong between the two nations, especially in HCM City where many tourism promotion activities are undertaken.

Ho Xuan Lam, deputy director of HCM City ITPC, the organiser of the seminar, said: The seminar will provide useful information to the business community to invest in the Cuban tourism industry and introduce Cubas charms to Vietnamese tourists.

Indira Lopez Arguelles, Cubas consul general in HCM City, said: The Cuban tourism industry began to see strong growth soon after Cuba and the US had announced the establishment of diplomatic relations in December, 2014.

Lifting of the embargo was needed for the Cuban private sector to develop strongly, and it is a foundation to promote economic reform.

She summed up the various policies related to investment in Cuba, such as visa procedures, tourism development policies, incentives for Vietnamese companies that invest in hotels and restaurants, resorts, healthcare services, spas, logistics, supermarkets, and convenience stores.

Cuba has recently started to open up its economy to foreign trade and investment in ports, railway and airports, information technology infrastructure, and mining.

It has prioritised sectors like food processing, and seeks to promote exports of medical services and pharmaceutical products.

Tourism is now its fastest-growing industry and earner of the second highest amount of foreign exchange.

Cuba has beautiful and untouched beaches and a rich history.

Last year a record 4.7 million tourists visited the country, fetching revenues of $3 billion. The country is believed to have the potential to become the second biggest tourism destination in Central America behind only Mexico.

The island nation has 65,000 hotel rooms and 17,000 private hostel rooms for tourists.

It plans to build more hotels and hostels, targeting a total of 108,000 rooms by 2030, and expand Havana airport.

This is a big opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises in the real estate, restaurant, hotel and hostel businesses, Hoa said.

Viet Nam and Cuba established diplomatic relations in 1960, and bilateral ties have always been exceptionally close and warm.

Economic, trade and tourism ties have grown rapidly in recent times.

The seminar was attended by executives from 80 enterprises in the tourism, restaurant, hotel and resort, spa, and logistics industries. -- VNSHA NOI  The Viet Nam-Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA), which took effect on December 20, 2015, has played an important role in attracting investments from the South Korea to Viet Nam and helping the Southeast Asian nation integrate deeper into the regional economy.

Le An Hai, Deputy Director of the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT)s Department of Asia and Africa Markets, made the statement at a forum on VKFTA utilisation and implementation held in Ha Noi yesterday. Viet Nam is currently the fourth largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) from South Korea, while the East Asian country is the biggest foreign investor in Viet Nam with total registered capital of more than US$58 billion, Hai stressed.

The target of increasing bilateral trade volume to $100 billion by 2020 is possible towards creating more linkages between the two countries, he said, adding that the prominent feature in bilateral trade relations was that the structure of imports and exports has been complementary, not directly competitive.

He said that products on which Viet Nam and South Korea committed to reduce taxes have shown good growth after the VKFTA entered into force.

He suggested that the governments should support businesses in taking advantage of preferential commitments to attract investment, increase exports and technological innovation.

Businesses should actively study new markets, including taxes and quotas, as well as new management mechanisms, he added.

Park Chulho, General Director of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in Ha Noi, said that the free trade deal with Viet Nam has opened opportunities for South Korean businesses to expand their markets. The seminar would help enterprises of both nations to share experience and take advantage of preferential policies offered by the VFKTA, he said, adding that the move will foster two-way trade in the future.

Important discussions, including a report on Vietnamese companies business capacity and analysis on the goods origin certification system in Viet Nam and in South Korea, were presented at the event. Thanks to Viet Nams tax reduction roadmap and preferential policies, some sectors like energy, high-quality agriculture, environment and manufacturing industry will attract more investors from South Korea, said an MoIT representative, adding that South Korea is likely to continue to be a leading FDI investor in Viet Nam in the coming years.

Two-way trade jumped from $500 million in 1992 to $61.5 billion in 2017, of which $14.8 billion came from Viet Nams exports, up 30 per cent from the previous year, and $46.7 billion from the Southeast Asian countrys imports, a year-on-year increase of 45.3 per cent. South Korea ranked first among 125 nations and territories pouring capital into Viet Nam, with total registered capital hitting $57.7 billion as of late December 2017.  VNSHA NOI  Viet Nams benchmark VN-Index was unable to maintain its uptrend yesterday as selling pressure continued to hit large-cap stocks.

The VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 0.33 per cent to close at 1,056.97 points, down from its intraday peak growth of 0.9 per cent.

Yesterday also marked the second session in which the VN-Index was hit by last-minute selling pressure, a similar pattern to the previous session. It has lost total 0.5 per cent after the last two days.

Market trading liquidity was little changed from Tuesday with more than 161 million shares traded, worth VN5.17 trillion (US$230 million).

Declining stocks dominated the market breadth and outnumbered gainers by 147 to 124 while 59 other stocks ended flat.

Large-cap stocks underperformed as the VN30 Index, tracking the performance of the 30 largest stocks by market capitalisation, inched down 0.14 per cent to 1,046.39 points.

Sixteen of the 30 largest stocks in the VN30 basket declined, including insurer Bao Viet Holdings (BVH), Vietcombank (VCB), consumer goods producer Masan (MSN) and logistics firm Gemadept (GMD).

According to Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities Co (SHS), sellers have taken over the market trading conditions in the last two sessions, indicating that investor sentiment remains low about the markets short-term prospects.

Given low trading liquidity at the moment and the dominance of sellers on the market, the VN-Index shows few signs of improvement over the coming sessions, SHS said in its daily report.

Of the 20 sectors on the stock market, only four saw share prices rise, which were energy, construction materials production and construction industries.

Among 16 sectors with decreasing share prices were insurance-finance, property development, banking and rubber production.

Bao Viet Securities Co (BVSC) reported that there is still chance for the VN-Index to recover, however, that could be short-lived on the increase of selling pressure in large-cap stocks and lack of cash flow on the market.

Investors remained firmly cautious as they worried the market would continue its downtrend, for the index had been unable to break through the level of 1,070 points, the company said.

BVSC forecast the VN-Index would continue to test the 1,070 point level again today. If surpassing this level, the VN-Index would head to the short-term range of 1,090-1,125 points.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX Index dropped 1.17 per cent to end at 123.86 points, totalling a two-day decrease of 2.1 per cent.

Trading liquidity on the northern bourse declined sharply, with nearly 43.6 million shares traded, worth VN602 billion.  VNSHA NOI  Around 430 firms from 30 countries and territories are displaying their best at the 25th Vietnam International Exhibitions on Products, Equipment, Supplies for Pharmaceutical, Medical, Hospital and Rehabilitation  Vietnam Medi-Pharm 2018 which opened in Ha Noi on Wednesday.



The four-day event was co-hosted by the Ministry of Health, the Vietnam Medical Products Import-Export JSC (Vimedimex) and the Vietnam Advertisement & Fair Exhibition (Vietfair).



Speaking at the event, Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said domestic and foreign businesses were encouraged to invest in medical equipment, hospital and health services. The Vietnam Medi-Pharm offered chances for businesses to exchange information on various fields in the medical sector and step up investment in health services development to meet peoples demand, she added.

Major products on display at 535 stalls include pharmaceuticals, health food, medical equipment, health care products, chemicals and lab equipment.

This is the first time Polish enterprises attend the event with software on medical cost, electronic spare parts and automation.



The Ministry of Healths display area will disseminate the Party and States policies and laws on health care, achievements and major tasks of Viet Nams medical sector this year.



Concurrent events will be the Vietnam International Hospital Exhibition, the International Rehabilitation & Healthcare Technology Exhibition & Conference, the International Dental Exhibition, and seminars and forums on cardio-vascular diseases, and vaccination.



As part of the exhibitions there will be consultancy on medical law, pharmaceutical market, public health care and epidemics prevention, among others.



The Vietnam Medi-Pharm was first held in 1994 and has become an annual event held in May in Ha Noi.  VNSHCM CITY  The 10th International Environment and Energy Technology Exhibition (ENTECH Vietnam 2018) kicked off at Saigon Exhibition and Convention Centre in HCM City on Wednesday.



Addressing the opening ceremony, Nguyen The ong, Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Environment Administration under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said that over the past years, Viet Nam has rolled out many measures to protect the environment and boost sustainable development in industrial and agricultural production.



Enterprises as well as production and trading establishments should promptly renovate their production process and services by applying advanced, environmentally-friendly technologies.



Running through May 11, ENTECH Vietnam 2018 has seen the participation of 120 domestic and foreign enterprises with 160 booths showing hundreds of products and technologies in environmental treatment, new energy, renewable energy and eco-products.



The annual event offers a chance for enterprises from other countries, especially those that are strong in environment technology and energy, to seek business opportunities in Viet Nam as well as Southeast Asia.



It is also a venue for domestic firms to access new technologies and connect with foreign partners, thus improving their capacity in engaging in domestic energy and environmental projects.



Vu Ngoc Tinh, Director of the Centre for Environment Consultancy and Technology, said that the new features of ENTECH Vietnam 2018 included activities to promote partnerships between Viet Nam and other countries in environmental technologies and energy, and encourage the signing of memorandum of understanding and cooperation deals among enterprises.



According to the organisers, last year, the exhibition drew 170 companies from six countries with 220 booths, attracting 35,800 visitors.  VNSHA NOI  Viet Nams turnover from textiles and garment exports to Australia is predicted to reach a double-digit growth after the signing of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

This was said at a workshop in Ha Noi on May 9.



Jointly held by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) and the IEC Group of Australia, the event focused on measures to help Vietnamese textiles and garment enterprises increase exports to Australia.



According to Nguyen Phuc Nam, deputy director of the Department of Asia-Pacific Market under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Australia is a potential market for Vietnamese textiles and garment exporters, although the market share of Vietnamese products in Australia remains small.



Truong Van Cam, vice chairman and secretary general of VITAS, said the current growth of textiles and garment exports to Australia was just below 10 per cent, but with the signing of CPTPP, the rate was expected to reach a double-digit growth.



Reports presented at the workshop showed that total textiles and garments import turnover of the CPTPP member countries exceeded US$53 billion in 2017, of which Australia was the third-largest import market, with a total turnover of over $6.2 billion, accounting for 11.67 per cent.



Viet Nam earned over $4.8 billion from exporting textiles and garments to other CPTPP member nations in 2017, making up 9.07 per cent of the market share.



As committed in CPTPP, Australia will reduce its import duties to 5 per cent in the first three years after the agreement comes into effect and to zero per cent from the fourth year for almost all products.



Moreover, Australia is gradually shifting to importing and outsourcing of textiles and garment products in Viet Nam because of cheaper labour cost and lower tax rates than in China.



Cam said Australias textiles and garment import turnover grew by 3 to 5 per cent annually in the past five years. In 2017, the country imported some $9.32 billion worth of textiles and garment products from various countries. Viet Nams exports to Australia reached only $173 million, equivalent to just 1.9 per cent of its total textile import turnover.



Viet Nam is facing serious competition from China as the latters textiles and garment market share in Australia amounts to 60 per cent.



According to Tran Van Quyen, a representative of Woolmark Company of Australia in Viet Nam, the purchasing power of Australian consumers is even higher than that in the United States and Europe. However, orders from Australia are usually small because Australian firms operate in the form of online businesses, so they usually order in small quantities to avoid a large inventory.



Large Vietnamese enterprises are not interested in small orders, while small firms do not have a social responsibility certificate to qualify for exports to Australia.



To get better access to the market, Vietnamese businesses should enhance promotion and study more to understand its characteristics, Nam said.  VNSLOS ANGELES  Twenty years ago, a bathrobe-wearing stoner and his two buddies entrenched themselves in the public consciousness with a strange little movie about bowling, White Russians and a ruined rug.

Ethan and Joel Coens idiosyncratic, hopelessly complex The Big Lebowski distilled the unfussy, slacker spirit of 1990s Los Angeles into a Raymond Chandleresque crime caper.

It received no Oscar recognition and pretty lukewarm reviews for a byzantine plot which the Coens themselves admitted never really mattered  but it has proven its staying power.

Today it is nothing less than a cultural phenomenon, with its own religion, Dudeism, boasting 450,000 "ordained priests".

Bathrobe-clad fans gather at the annual Lebowski Fest, which comes to Los Angeles in two weeks, to celebrate Jeffrey The Dude Lebowski, played by Jeff Bridges when he could still get away with board shorts.

"Im so proud of being part of this movie. Its just a good movie, a really good movie," the 68-year-old Oscar winner said at a recent screening in Hollywood, hosted by Turner Classic Movies.

The Dude, a drama-averse, unemployed slacker with a penchant for vodka with Kahlua and cream, provides the drama as he embarks on a quest to replace his beloved rug, destroyed in a twisted case of mistaken identity.

Along for the ride are John Goodmans loose-cannon Vietnam vet Walter Sobchak and Steve Buscemis virtually mute sidekick Donny.

Off-kilter thriller

Despite eventually making Rolling Stones list of "10 Best Stoner Movies of All Time," it was neither a critical nor commercial hit on its release.

David Denby, of New York magazine, called it an "off-kilter thriller with a sad-sack hero" while for Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, the story was "disjointed, incoherent and even irritating".

The most scathing critics have largely recanted in the intervening years, recognsing that they were too quick to dismiss a film with lines so quotable that many entered the lexicon.

"The Dude abides," said by an insouciant Bridges as his way of rolling with the punches, is perhaps the most frequently-quoted, although the characters introductory spiel is just as delicious.

"Im the Dude, so thats what you call me," he insists. "That or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino, if youre not into the whole brevity thing."

Bridges said The Dude referring to his almost identically-named foe Jeff "The Big" Lebowski as "human paraquat" (toxic herbicide) was the only improvised line in the film, while every "man" and "dude" his hippy character utters was meticulously planned.

Good writing

"Thats one of the great things about the Coen brothers  it seems like its happening in the moment but thats good writing, really," Bridges said.

"As actors, we all realized that and said, Weve got to get these lyrics down, like it was a song we were singing."

"Lebowski" was released in March 1998, although the 20th anniversary celebrations are taking place throughout the year, including screenings in 600 US theaters in August.

Bridges, a youthful 48 when it came out, has been asked in countless interviews  including by AFP  if he would be interested in doing a sequel.

John Turturro is currently making a spin-off called Going Places, based on 1974 French comedy Les Valseuses but starring his Lebowski character, the charmless, menacing Jesus Quintana.

But he didnt cast Bridges, who said in October last year he would jump at the chance to be in a genuine, Coen-made sequel.

"I am so proud of that movie and proud to have been a part of it," he said. "These guys, the Coen brothers, are masters. They make it look easy."  AFPHA NOI  The Goethe Institute Hanoi has launched a contest inviting all Vietnamese people to engage with their dialogue on Karl Marx, marking celebrations for his 200th birthday.

Karl Marx was born in 1818 in Trier, which then belonged to Prussia. The Goethe Institute Hanoi will mark this anniversary by exploring the life, work, and most importantly, the impact of this multi-faceted thinker.

The contest will include short essays or fictional stories of about 500 words in length. Art works such as plays, poems, comic strips and picture stories or cartoons and artistic or documentary short films of no more than 90 seconds in length are also accepted.

We want to call on all people, not only scientists and researchers, but also others from fields such as art to join the contest, said Goethe Institutes director Wilfried Eckstein at a press conference held on Thursday.

People can write in Vietnamese and English and send their work via email to Vietnam-marx200@goethe.de before four deadlines on May 15; June 4; July 2 and August 20. After each deadlines a jury will select the items to publish on the website.

Translation: One world for all!

By May 15, the organisation asks especially for design suggestions for a t-shirt celebrating the Marx 200 event. From the proposals, the organisation will choose the best to be used in the course of the Marx 200 campaign.

All texts will be presented to the jury in an anonymous format in order to protect the contestants identity. A public discussion and exhibition of the artistic submissions will take place on the weekend of September 21-22. Four topics on the dialogue will be Marx and Religion; Marx and Mass Consumerism; Marx and Globalisation and Marx and the Liberation of the Human Being.

The project will examine the enduring significance of the German philosopher, politician, and economist in modern Vietnamese society and politics. It is supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ha Noi National University (USSH Hanoi) and Justus-Liebig University Giessen.  VNSHCM CITY  The Erato School of Music & Performing Arts will host a Guitar Concert featuring Vincent Fillatreau from 8pm to 10pm on May 24 at 107 Ton Dat Tien Street, District 7.

Fillatreau began his music studies at the Conservatoire National de Toulouse where he was awarded the golden medal in viola and chamber music.

He has also been member of the Super World Orchestra in Tokyo and Solo Violist at Karlsruhe Opera Orchestra Germany, and has travelled around the world with various groups of chamber music.

Tickets are VN150,000 (US$7) and VN100,000 ($4.5) for students.  VNSTruong Nguyen Thanh.  Photo Hoa Sen University

A professor at Hoa Sen University in HCM City who shot to fame when he taught a class on innovation wearing a pair of shorts has come up short at the hand of some bureaucrats rigid interpretation of regulations.

The professor, also famous for encouraging students to think outside the box, was chosen to fill the vacant position of the universitys chancellor by its board of directors, but the municipal education department vetoed the move, citing a lack of experience.

Dr. Truong Nguyen Thanh has since decided to part ways with the university, returning to a position he held earlier in a prestigious school in the United States.

The relevant rule being cited from the Law on Higher Education says that a candidate must hold a doctoral degree and have at least five years of experience in a management position, either as faculty dean or the head of a university office to qualify for promotion as chancellor.

Since Thanh has only served as vice chancellor of Hoa Sen University since January 2017, he is not qualified for the position as per current laws, no matter how strong his academic profile and background, the department contends.

Born in 1962, Thanh earned his PhD in computational chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1990. He taught at the University of Utah between 1992 and 2002, and served as president of HCM Citys Institute for Computational Science and Technology from November 2007 until June 2017. His experience in both the United States and Viet Nam would make him an ideal candidate for the universitys top job, one would have thought.

Our bureaucrats think otherwise. One wonders whether they thought of, or bothered about, the wider ramifications of their rejection.

The rejection has made headlines in Viet Nam for several days, and the general reaction has been one of surprise and anger, stirring up fresh criticism against such rigid interpretation of regulations at a time when serious efforts are being made to encourage talented citizens and diaspora to return home and serve the country, particularly in improving the quality of higher education.

In Professor Thanhs case, the question of his competence to lead a university does not arise. His record is one that would attract and inspire younger generations to achieve similar excellence and serve their home country.

Will they think the same now?

While the departments rejection can be seen as objective and rational from a very narrow point of view, education expert Pham Hiep says theres no clinching evidence that shows a person with five years of management experience can automatically perform well as a chancellor.

Director of the Education Ministrys Higher Education Department, Nguyen Thi Kim Phung, admitted that the regulation on appointing university chancellors has its limitations. The regulation is not suitable for some cases and it cause difficulties in choosing talented people for such positions, she told the Vietnam Television.

There are so many factors that have to be assessed in a prospective candidate for a university chancellors position, including professional capacity, educational background, experience, ethical standpoint and so on, but to stand rigid on the minimum five years of experience in a management position, either as faculty dean or the head of a university, has not served the purpose of the rule, which is to get properly qualified people in top positions. Instead, in this particular instance, it has done the opposite  rejected an obviously qualified candidate.

In many developed countries, a university chooses its leaders on its own, based on different conditions and requirements, depending on each development period. The focus for each period can differ. It can be fund raising, for a certain phase, political and diplomatic outreach for another phase, and boosting enrollment for yet another phase. So a chancellor is not necessarily one who has years of working experience at a university. A university can even recruit a person from outside to work as a chancellor because he/she has relevant experience and skills required for that particular phase.

And it is not just the education sector that does this. The health care sector does the same. Many hospital directors are not doctors. They could be lawyers or specialists in hospital management.

Thanhs case highlights shortcomings in Viet Nams policies to attract talents from overseas to work in the country. The professor said in a Facebook post that he has set aside his dream of supporting the development of Viet Nams higher education to return to the US and take up his old job at the University of Utah.

There is still a big gap between our policies and reality. Such cases show that many preferential policies adopted can run into a brick wall of rigidity.

We have to remember that ultimately, in such failures, it is our students, our younger generations that lose out.

We should understand why only one of the 15 winners of the Road to Mountain Olympias Peak" quiz shows has come back to Viet Nam to work after graduating from universities in Australia. Many overseas students, especially research fellows, choose not to return to Viet Nam, so that they can work in really professional environments, where they do not have to constantly think of making ends meet or rely on unprofessional, non-meritorious factors for career advancement.

A report prepared by the Ministry of Education and Training some years ago showed that a shocking 70 per cent of students studying abroad did not return after graduation. The report made headlines in all local newspapers, but there has been no slowing down of the brain drain.

The 2018 Global Talent Competitiveness Index, published in January by INSEAD, the Business School for the World, ranks Viet Nam 87th out of 119 surveyed countries. Switzerland leads the rankings, followed by Singapore. The report is a comprehensive annual benchmarking measuring how countries and cities grow, attract and retain talent, providing a unique resource for decision makers to understand the situation and develop strategies for boosting their competitiveness.

Professor Thanhs case should be taken as an opportunity for policymakers to review regulations as well as their interpretation. We need flexible laws that can be interpreted and implemented in ways that would meet their actual objectives.

Surely, reversing the brain drain is a no brainer; as is attracting talents from around the world to contribute to preparing and developing our country to succeed in the Industry 4.0 era. The lesson is fundamental: If we dont learn from our mistakes, we are doomed to repeat them.  VNSHCM CITY  Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City is still at risk of being flooded during the rainy season, as all of the drainage canals are blocked with trash.

The latest report by the HCM Citys Steering Centre of the Urban Flood Control Programme showed that the drainage system of the airport has been blocked by trash both inside and outside the airport.

Specifically, inside the airport, the 1,000mm drain from the Tan Son Nhat Petroleum Joint Stock Company to Nhat Ban Canal was partially blocked by construction waste. Some of the open ditches also showed signs of degradation.

The drainage system inside the airport was considered to be incomplete and incomprehensive, and failed to effectively connect to the drainage system outside the airport.

In the landing area and the warehouse, water could not flow out due to narrow sewers.

Meanwhile, the three main drainage directions comprising the Hy Vong, Nhat Ban and A41 canals outside the airport were all covered and encroached by construction waste and household garbage.

Hy Vong, the key drain in the north of the airport, was blocked by tonnes of trash, including household garbage, construction waste and even dead animals, causing serious pollution in the surrounding area.

The drain under Cong Lo Bridge was contained with stagnant water. The water was black and had a horrible smell.

Tran Thi Chon, a resident in Ward 15, Tan Binh District told news.zing.vn that hundreds of kilogrammes of garbage were thrown down to the canal everyday. Thus, the water could not flow through the canal and spilled out of the surrounding area when it rained.

It would surely flood the airport, she said.

In the A41 canal running through a residential area nearby, some parts of the canal have gone from 3.5 metres in depth to just 0.5 metres due to being filled with trash.

Representatives of the centre said that serious flooding in the landing area and the runway has caused chronic delays. Roughly 40 per cent of all flights in the country were from or to Tan Son Nhat Airport.

Last year, an image of planes parked in large pools of water went viral on social media.

In 2016, heavy rains flooded several parts of the airport, with water rising as high as 20 centimetres, threatening to compromise the airports power generators, and prompting employees to barricade the area with sand bags.

Although the city has approved two projects to upgrade the drainage system to the airport, theyre yet to be implemented.

As planned, the project of upgrading the A41 canal will be completed this year. However, the site clearance of the project took longer than expected. The Peoples Committee of Tan Binh District said it is still waiting for the Department of Finances reply on the level of compensation for affected households.

The second project of upgrading Hy Vong Canal was approved in 2016, but has not yet been implemented due to a shortage of finance. The city is still mobilising investment capital.

According to the centre, it is necessary to improve the drainage system inside the airport to make sure that it can connect properly with the drainage system outside.

The dredging of the Hy Vong and A41 canals ought to be carried out soon to avoid further catastrophe.

Prof Le Huy Ba, former head of HCM Citys University of Industrys Science, Technology and Environment Management Institute told Thanh Nien (Youth) newspaper that it is too late to kick off the upgrading of the two canals this year as the rainy season is approaching.

He said that temporary measures such as dredging all of the canals, with the support of specialised machines, will help in the meantime.  VNSHA NOI  o Thi Men, 63, from Yen Phong District, Bac Ninh Province, suddenly experienced shortness of breath while playing with her grandchild. Her son rushed her to the provincial hospital. The diagnosis results showed she had a tumor in the left atrium and needed surgery to remove it as soon as possible.

Cardiac myxoma, also known as atrial myxoma, is a benign tumor of the heart. About 75 per cent of cardiac myxomas appear in the left atrium of the heart. According to Le Ngoc Thanh, director of Hospital E in Ha Noi, women have a higher chance of suffering and account for 75 per cent of patients. Anyone aged from three years old can have myxoma. The average age of sufferers is 37 and there are more young women diagnosed with cardiac myxoma.

The incident rate of cardiac myxoma is from 0.2 to 0.3 per 1000 people. Meanwhile, symptoms of the disease are commonly vague, even the first symptom can be a stroke which may lead to death.

Fortunately, as Mens son works in the medical field, she was transferred to Hospital E to have a surgery. After a week, she completely recovered and was discharged from the hospital.

Speaking to VTC , Le Ngoc Thanh said Mens case was serious as the tumor was large and had high mobility. Therefore, it could have broken or detached from the atrial septum, causing vascular occlusion.

According to the doctor, cardiac myxoma develops in the wall which divides the two upper chambers of the heart. The most common symptom is shortness of breath with activity, accounting for 75 per cent. In more serious cases, patients experience difficulty breathing in the upright position or when asleep. Other symptoms include dizziness, chest pain or tightness and fainting.

A patient with cardiac tumor may have a tumor plop, an abnormal heart sound caused by the tumors movement which can be heard through a stethoscope by a doctor during an examination. Electrocardiogram, echocardiography and cardiac catheterization are other ways to diagnosis the disease, Thanh said.

A patient with a cardiac myxoma must have surgery immediately to prevent any dangerous complications. According to him, to remove a tumor, doctors have to perform an open heart surgery with a long cut of 20 to 25 cm in which a patients breastbone is sawed then repaired using wires. The method not only causes pain, leaves bad scars and imposes a threat of breastbone inflammation.

Since 2015, Hospital E has offered 3D laparoscopy to remove cardiac myxoma as a type of a minimally invasive heart surgery.

After undergoing the surgery, patients will not need to use any painkiller and also can take care of themselves a week after having a tumor removed, said Le Ngoc Thanh from Hospital E.

However, better prevent than cure. Doctors recommend people to have echocardiography to detect the disease at its early stage.  VNSMany private pre-schools in Ha Noi are open and operating illegally regardless of regular inspections conducted by the citys education authority. Photo vietq.vn

HA NOI  Many private pre-schools in Ha Noi are open and operating illegally regardless of regular inspections conducted by the citys education authority.

This has raised serious concerns over poor management of authorised agencies.

Last month, a supervisory board of the citys Peoples Council conducted surprise inspections at private pre-schools and found a high number of unlicensed classes.

Tran The Cuong, representative of the council and a member of the inspection team, said they found 70 nursery classes without operation certificates and about 600 classes with more children than was allowed.

Authorities say, because the classes failed to meet requirements on a number of levels, including infrastructure and teachers, they could not be licenced as schools.

Cuong said local authorities had no information about these unlicensed nursery classes until they accidentally heard a baby crying when going by the classes.

He also added that most of these pre-schools failed to obey requirements on the number of kids each class.

Many classrooms in Hai Ba Trung District had the area of 15 square meters, but crammed about 20 children into each one.

Under the Ministry of Education and Trainings regulation, there must be at least 1.5 square metres per child in each class.

Other classrooms were located in small alleys with no playgrounds or toilets. All were renovated from residents house, which failed to meet requirements on fire prevention, food hygiene and safety and light system.

Many classes usually switched teaching staff, and some teachers were found not to be trained about nursery education. Some businesses even hired old people with poor health and lack of skills to work as babysitters.

Cuong said local authorities were not active in tightening control and cracking down on illegal nursery classes.

Hoang Thi Tu Anh, another member of the inspection team, said the number of illegal nursery classes should be more than 70 as reported.

She said one business was found to have eight classes. Of that, only two were licensed. But she said she believed the rest of six were still operating due to loose management.

Le Thu Hang from the council said the procedures of establishment and control of private nursery classes was under the management of communes and wards and should be implemented easily.

She also added that these classes were controlled by the heads of public pre-schools in the same locality. However, the heads of public schools were quite busy with their schools and had no time for other schools.

Currently, there were no specific penalties for these people in case something happened at private schools.

Hang cited Kim Chung Commune in ong Anh district as an example. Many private nursery classes were set up to meet the high demand of workers at an industrial zone, but there was no one directly in charge of controlling these classes.  VNSHA NOI  A tragic inferno swept through Hoa Phat Steel Complex in the province of Hai Duong on Monday, killing three workers and injuring one.

According to representatives of the company, a hot blast furnace slag dropped on bags of refractory materials, triggering the fire.

On Wednesday, another fire blazed at a 1,500sq.m warehouse of Phuoc Sinh Paper Company in Vinh Loc Industrial Zone, Binh Chanh District, HCM City.

The warehouse, which contained 3,000 tonnes of paper along with other goods and equipment, was completely destroyed despite efforts of firefighters to extinguishing the blaze.

According to Pham Van Bang, deputy director of the citys firefighting force, it was a huge challenge to get the blaze under control as the paper rolls were so flammable, creating a favorable condition for fire to uncontrollably blow up.

The main causes of the two accidents, however, are still under investigations.

Fires at manufacturing facilities have increased, in both quantity and damage, reported the Police Department of Fire Prevention, Fighting and Rescue under the Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

Due to the huge collections of flammable materials, goods, machines and gadgets, industrial zones are always under threat of fire. In the event of fire accidents, damages include not only asset loss but also casualties.

Data collected by Department for Economic Zones Management under the Ministry of Investment and Planning indicates that Viet Nam has had more than 300 industrial zones existing or under construction, spanning a total area of 96,300ha.

The main hosts of those mega manufacturing facilities are the provinces of Bac Ninh, Vinh Phuc, Hai Phong, Binh Duong and ong Nai.

According to MPS in 2017 alone fires at industrial zones accounted for 43 per cent of the fire related accidents.

Bac Ninh Province, the largest hub of industrial zones in Viet Nam, witnessed 18 fires at manufacturing facilities in just five years, from 2011 to 2015, causing total losses of up to VN447 billion (US$19.6 million).

Industrial zones in HCM City experienced 19 blaze from 2014 to July 2016, leading to damages of more than VN540 billion ($23.7 million). Therein, the Van Thanh Mattress Company at Tan Phu Trung Industrial Zone, Cu Chi District alone incurred the loss of VN85 billion ($3.7 million) in a fire accident that occurred on May 27, 2016, Vietnam News Agency reported.

Besides the tragedies that occurred at Hoa Phat Steel Complex and Phuoc Sinh Paper Company, the first months of 2018 witnessed numerous blaze-related accidents. In the Kangna Textiles Company, in Tien Giang Province on April 29, and in the Hoanh Than Viet Nam Textiles Company in ong Nai Province on March 17 for example.

Fire not only causes financial losses but also damages the local environment. Moreover, it negatively impacts companies reputations and ruins local capabilities of attracting investment.

Therefore, it is imperative to improve fire prevention and fighting capabilities in industrial zones.

Better to prevent than cure

Fires at industrial zones are triggered by several causes, mainly due to poor fire prevention and fighting.

Flammable materials are commonly used to construct heat resistant ceilings. Moreover, fire prevention and fighting focuses solely on checking the operation of firefighting equipment, while peoples capability of dealing with fire is not ensured. Therefore, when a firefighting force is finally mobilised, a fire usually spreads out widely, obstructing efforts to extinguish it and rescue victims.

It is therefore of paramount importance that awareness is raised, and skills of fire prevention and fighting at industrial zones are improved. It is also important to classify materials and goods to prevent fire from spreading.

Experts recommend that companies construct facilities based on their functions with suitable firefighting systems to ensure normal operations alongside being able to control threats to workers.

On May 4, the Ministry of Information and Communication published a document on workplace safety and fire prevention.

The document is a combination of brochures, ebooks and books with vividly detailed illustrations aiming to equip workers with essential skills in embracing workplace safety as well as preventing fire and other accidents in the workplace.

This month marks the month of action for occupational health and safety under the theme of Actively preventing and controlling dangerous factors in the workplace to limit occupational accidents and diseases.  VNSHCM City  The Peoples Court of HCM City yesterday sentenced Bui Hieu Vo from the central province of Ha Tinh to four and a half years in prison for conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.

According to the indictment, 56-year-old Vo, a resident in Go Vap District, HCM City, made comments and collected documents on social networks to oppose the authorities settlement of the Formosa-related marine environmental incident in several central provinces and land compensation in oi Nhai in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

He accessed unofficial, groundless documents online. Since September 2015, Vo had used a Facebook account named Hieu Bui to post information distorting, criticising and opposing policies of the Communist Party of Viet Nam and the Vietnamese State, as well as Party and State leaders.

His fabricated information provoked public unrest, and disrupted political security and social order and safety, the indictment said.

On March 17, 2017, the security agency conducted an urgent search on Vos apartment on Nguyen Van Cong Street where police officers collected 57 documents stored in the Facebook account of Hieu Bui.

Similar documents were also found in his laptop and other social accounts and email, along with 36 printed documents.

According to the HCM City Department of Information and Communications, 25 of the documents included contents defaming and slandering Party and State leaders, and 14 others inciting violence, harming national security and social order and safety.

At court, Vo admitted his wrongdoings and committed to not repeating such actions.

Political defamer arrested

Thanh Hoa police yesterday announced that they have arrested a man for allegedly abusing democratic rights to defame Party, State and provincial leaders.

37-year-old Nguyen Duy Son from Sam Son City was detained on Tuesday afternoon. According to the police investigation, Son signed up and used a Facebook account of Nguyen Son to post and share distorted information to humiliate and discredit several officials between December 2017 and March 2018.

Son used to work as a management staff member at the Sam Son College Preparatory School before he was fired.

His actions were deemed to harm the credibility of the Party and the State, stir public doubt on officials and leaders.  VNSHA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc underlined the need to focus resources on tackling climate change in the Mekong Delta region.

His words come in the wake of landslides along river banks, canals and seashores, threatening life and property of local residents.

At a working session with representatives of 13 Mekong Delta localities in Ha Noi on Wednesday, Phuc listed An Giang, ong Thap, Ca Mau and Bac Lieu as the most affected areas by landslides.

He said following the issuance of Government Resolution No. 120 on sustainable development in the Mekong Delta in response to climate change, mid- and long-term capital has been allocated to deal with 17 out of 42 dangerous spots.

Apart from reinforcing dykes, localities in the region should address issues of public concern, such as unplanned and over-exploitation of sand and gravel, while planting more trees, Phuc said.

He also urged the localities to adjust the planning of residential areas and production, along with stepping up cooperation with regional countries in regulating water flow, especially during the dry season.

Phuc decided to allocate a part of the State budget to Mekong Delta localities, helping them build urgent and important facilities, and a part of the countrys ODA (official development assistance) fund to set up a climate change fund in the region.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) was assigned to make proposals to support localities, which will be sent to the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).

MPI will submit the proposal to Phuc before May 15.

MARD reported that landslides occurred at 562 locations along river banks and seashores spread across 786km, of which 42 spots stretching across 149km were especially dangerous. The ministry said it needed some VN6.99 trillion (US$307.56 million) to reinforce such eroded locations.  VNSDAMASCUS  The Syrian army early on Thursday shot down dozens of Israeli missiles launched at Syria, state media said citing a military source, as tensions escalated in the region.

"Dozens of missiles were shot down in Syrian airspace by anti-aircraft systems," the official SANA news agency said, without specifying if the missiles were aimed at the Syrian capital, where explosions were heard early on Thursday.

"Israel was aiming to destroy anti-aircraft defences and radar," SANA added.

Iranian forces in Syria have fired around 20 rockets and missiles at Israeli army positions in the part of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel, the Israeli army said early on Thursday.

The missiles, some of which were intercepted by Israels anti-missile system, did not cause any casualties, army spokesman lieutenant-colonel Jonathan Conricus told journalists.

He added that the Israeli army responded, but did not explain the nature of the retaliation.

The rockets were fired shortly after midnight (2100 GMT Wednesday) by men from the Iranian al-Qods brigade at the front lines of the Israeli army in Golan.

"We know that comes from the al-Qods force," Conricus said, adding: "The Israeli army takes very seriously this Iranian attack against Israel."

This incident comes amid heightened tensions between Israel and Iran over the situation in Syria after several operations attributed to the Israeli army against Iranian interests in the war-torn country.  AFPASUNCION  Paraguay announced on Wednesday that it intends to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, becoming the third country to do so after the United States and Guatemala.

In a brief statement, Paraguays foreign ministry said it had "begun the process of executing the presidential decision."

"We are very pleased by the important decision to move the Paraguayan embassy. This decision by (President Horacio) Cartes is fair and brave," Israeli ambassador Zeev Harel told daily newspaper ABC de Asuncion.

According to Israels foreign ministry, Cartes may attend the opening of the new embassy on May 21 or 22  accompanied by president elect Mario Abdo Benitez, who is set to assume power in August.

Paraguays announcement comes days ahead of the US embassys relocation on May 14, which coincides with the 70th anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel.

US President Donald Trumps decision to move the US embassy  a move that broke with decades of diplomacy and international consensus  has sparked major protests by Palestinians, who consider east Jerusalem the capital of their future state.  AFPPRESS RELEASE  Sand Diego, Peggy Whitson, the first female commander of the International Space Station (ISS) and holder of the record for most days in space by a NASA astronaut; Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman in the world to go into space; Brad Tilden, Chairman/CEO of Alaska Air Group, parent company of Alaska Airlines;Bruce Whitman, Chairman, President and CEO of FlightSafety International;Lloyd Fig Newton, the first African American pilot in the United States Air Force Thunderbirds; Richard I. Bong, Americas Ace of Aces and recipient of the Medal of Honor, Americas highest military award; and the Corporate Angel Network / Air Charity Network, national charitable organizations whose missions are to transport those in serious need;to be enshrined at this years International Air & Space Hall of Fame Celebration.

Join the San Diego Air & Space Museum in celebrating the honorees on Wednesday, October 3, 2018, in the Edwin D. McKellar Pavilion of Flight. Guests from around the world are assembling for a spectacular evening of fun and extraordinary recognition, as each guest is treated to an experiential peek into the lives of these air and space legends. Since 1963, the International Air & Space Hall of Fame has honored more than 200 of the worlds most significant pilots, crew members, visionaries, inventors, aerospace engineers, business leaders, preservationists, designers and space explorers.

Were especially pleased to honor this exemplary Class of 2018 because these men and women are amongst the most talented figures in air and space history, said Jim Kidrick, President & CEO of the San Diego Air & Space Museum. Aviation and space exploration, as embodied by the honorees in the International Air & Space Hall of Fame, directly represents the human pioneering and exploring spirit. October 3 is THE day of the year every guest will remember for the rest of their lives. Guests come from all over the globe just to be in the room with our Honorees and join in this celebration.

The International Air & Space Hall of Fame is the most prestigious induction of its kind in the world and is composed of hundreds of air and space pioneers, engineers, inventors and innovators, along with adventurers, scientists and industry leaders. NASA Mercury, Geminiand Apolloastronauts and Russian cosmonauts are honored in the Hall, as well as famous legends such as the Wright Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Neil Armstrong and Amelia Earhart. Notable inductees include Buzz Aldrin, Chuck Yeager, Igor Sikorsky, Wernher von Braun, Jack Northrop, Jackie Cochran, William Boeing, Sr., Reuben H. Fleet, Glenn Curtiss, Walter Zable Sr., Fran Bera, Wally Schirra, Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, T. Claude Ryan, Jimmy Doolittle, Bob Hoover, Linden Blue, Patty Wagstaff, and many more. Click THIS link.

Proceeds from the International Air & Space Hall of Fame celebration benefit the Museums youth education programs. Inspiring kids to undertake tough science and engineering challenges is a critical first step for our future, Kidrick said. We must also give them the resources and impetus they need to pursue science education degrees.

The International Air & Space Hall of Fame Class of 2018:

Peggy Whitson

Whitson is an astronaut who holds the record for most days spent in space of any NASA astronaut with a total of 665 days. Whitson was the first female commander of the International Space Station (ISS) with Expedition 16, and in 2017 became the first female astronaut to command the ISS twice.

Ellen Ochoa

Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman in the world to go to space in 1993, serving on a nine-day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. A veteran of four space flights, Ochoa logged nearly 1,000 hours in space. Currently she serves as the Director of Johnson Space Center. She is the JSCs first Hispanic director, its second female and 11thoverall director.

Brad Tilden

Tildens passion for Alaska Airlines has redefined travel fare expectations for airline customers  and ensured the highest quality air travel experience. A 25-year veteran of Alaska Airlines, he now serves as Chairman/CEO of Alaska Air Group, parent company of Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air and the recently acquired Virgin America. Hes leading the transition to replace Virgins Airbus fleet with Boeing jets.

Bruce N. Whitman

Whitman joined FlightSafety International in 1961 and since 2003 serves as Chairman, President & CEO. He is Director Emeritus of the Civil Air Patrol and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. He also serves on several boards, including Orbis International and Corporate Angel Network.

General Lloyd W. Fig Newton  USAF

Newton was the first African-American pilot in the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. A retired United States Air Force four-star general, he served as Commander, Air Education and Training Command from 1997-2000. Newton was a superb command pilot with more than 4,000 flying hours, including in the F-117 stealth fighter. Currently, Newton is Chair of the National Business Aviation Association.

Major Richard I. Bong  USAAF

Americas all-time Ace of Aces, Bong downed 40 enemy planes in the Pacific theater of WWII while flying the P-38 Lightning fighter. His many decorations for outstanding skills and extraordinary courage included Americas highest award the Medal of Honor. He died on August 6, 1945 at the young age of 24 while testing one of our first fighter jets (P80). Thousands attended his funeral, and many more lined the route to the Wisconsin cemetery where he was buried.

Corporate Angel Network / Air Charity Network

National charitable organizations whose missions are to transport those in serious need. Corporate Angel Networks sole mission is to transport cancer patients to hospitals, at no cost, in order to receive a specialized form of treatment. Air Charity Network provides free air transportation to specialized health care facilities or distant destinations due to family, community or national crisis.

More than 600 regional, national and international business, air and space leaders are anticipated to attend the 2018 International Air & Space Hall of Fame Gala, including prominent representatives and Hall of Fame members from prior years.

The San Diego Air & Space Museum is Californias official air and space museum and education center. The Museum is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution and it was the first aero-themed Museum to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. Now showing: SPEED: Science in Motion, a fun interactive special exhibition for adventurers of all ages. The Museum is located at 2001 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101. The Museum and gift store are open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with admissions until 4:30 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.May 17 , Town Hall Seattle and 7:30 p.m. Admission is $5 at the door or available at On, Town Hall Seattle and The Museum of Flight host a lecture and book signing with space experts, Alan Stern and David Grinspoon, who will share insight from their new book Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto. The authors will present an inside look at the triumphs and challenges of the most revealing spaceflight since NASAs Voyager missions to Uranus and Neptune. The program begins atAdmission is $5 at the door or available at townhallseattle.org

New Horizons and the Book

Imagine a roughly minivan-sized space probe screaming through space at more than 32,000 miles per hour more than 3 billion miles from Earth, focusing its instruments on the long mysterious icy worlds of the Pluto system. This is the life of the NASA spacecraft New Horizons

In their book, Stern and Grinspoon tell the story of the men and women behind the New Horizons mission, their decades-long commitment, the political fights within and outside of NASA, and the sheer human ingenuity it took to design, build, and fly the mission. They outline the science, politics, egos, and public expectations that fueled the greatest space mission of our time, and reveal plans for New Horizons next encounter 1 billion miles past Pluto.

The Authors

Dr. Alan Stern is Principal Investigator of the New Horizons mission. A planetary scientist, space program executive, aerospace consultant, and author, he has participated in 29 NASA space missions and has been involved at the highest levels in most aspects of American space exploration.

Dr. David Grinspoon is an astrobiologist and planetary scientist, award-winning science communicator, and prize-winning author. In 2013 he was appointed the inaugural Chair of Astrobiology at the Library of Congress. He is a frequent advisor to NASA on space exploration strategy, and is on the team for the Curiosity Mars Rover. Grinspoons previous books include Earth in Human Hands and Lonely Planets, and his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Scientific American, Los Angeles Times, and others.Americasand Daytonsaviation heritage will be on display in Texas this weekend as Wright B Flyer Inc. takes part in the San Antonio tricentennial celebration.

Wright B Flyer is sending the Valentine Flyer, a full-scale Wright Model B replica named for its builder, to the Armys Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, where Wright B Flyer volunteers will assemble and display the flyer on the historic posts parade field. San Antonio tricentennial planners expect large crowds to see the flyer and other military heritage exhibits among other events taking place across the city.

Its Wright B Flyers second excursion to San Antonio. In March 2010, a dozen Wright B Flyer volunteers took two aircraft to San Antonio to help celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first solo military flight by Army Lt. (later Maj. Gen.) Benjamin Foulois. Foulois taught himself to fly at Fort Sam Houston by corresponding frequently with the Wright brothers. The 2010 activities included taxiing one flyer on the parade field while the other one flew overhead.

Located in south-central Texas, San Antonio dates its age from 1718, when Spanish explorers founded it as a colonial outpost. It contains five 18th-century Spanish frontier missions, including the Alamo and San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.

Wright B Flyer is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization based at Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport in southern Montgomery County and northern Warren County. It promotes Americas aviation heritage by displaying and flying replicas of the Wright brothers first production airplanes, manufactured in the Wright Company factory in west Dayton and elsewhere under license. Wright B Flyer is a partner of the National Aviation Heritage Alliance.Officials unveiled a memorial monument May 3 dedicated to Lt. Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews and crew members of the B-24 Liberator, Hot Stuff, which crashed on nearby Mt. Fagradalsfjall, Iceland, 75 years before. Andrews, members of his support staff and crew members died in the crash. Only one crew member survived. I like to think that the monument not only represents the crew of Hot Stuff, General Andrews, [and] the passengers, but also the 26,000 men of the 8th Air Force who lost their lives during WWII, said Jim Lux, memorial event coordinator.

Before the fateful flight, the crew had been ordered back to the United States for a publicity tour to help sell war bonds, and as a reward for being the first WWII bomber crew to complete 25 missions with its crew intact. Lux said his research revealed that Andrews had been called back to Washington, and Hot Stuff was the next flight out. So, Andrews took the place of the co-pilot, and his staff replaced several of the original crew. The flight was due to stop in Iceland before crossing over the Atlantic, but instead crashed amidst inclement weather.

An Air Power Pioneer

An advocate of a separate air force, Andrews is considered to be one of the founding fathers of the United States Air Force. He was selected to organize and command the General Headquarters Air Force, the first centralized command of what would later become the U.S. Army Air Forces. Andrews was also the only general to command three theaters of operations during World War II, including the Caribbean Defense Command, U.S. Army in the Middle East Command and European Theater of Operations Command. To honor him after his death, Camp Springs Army Air Field in Maryland was renamed Andrews Air Field in 1945. It later became Andrews Air Force Base and is now Joint Base Andrews.

Several of the crews family members attended the ceremony, along with special guests Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, 3rd Air Force Commander, and Col. E. John Teichert, 11th Wing and JBA commander. An Air Force B-52 Bomber and an Icelandic Coast Guard helicopter each provided a ceremonial flyover of the event. We are proud to be an enduring memorial to Lieutenant General Andrews, Teichert said. He was an amazing officer, leader, warrior and air power advocate. The memorial itself was six years in the making, requiring partnerships between Icelandic residents to find land for the memorial, raise the funds, and design it. Lux said the motivation behind the effort was twofold: first, to recognize the Hot Stuff crew, and two, to revive Andrews legacy. It represents the heroism [and] the dedication of a group of individuals that gave their all for our country and to defeat the enemy of WWII, said Lux.Man Reported Missing Last Month Found Safe

Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

Apr. 19, 2018 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 19, 2018 | 02:31 PM | PADUCAH, KY

Police say a man reported missing last month is okay.



According to Paducah Police, 49-year-old William R. Brown has been located, is in good health, and is no longer considered missing.



Brown had been reported missing to police on April 19.





Original story:

Local police are asking for help finding a man reported missing.



According to Paducah Police, 49-year-old William R. Brown was reported missing about 9:30 Thursday morning.



He had last been seen about 8:30 am Wednesday on County Park Road. Police say they were told Brown is suicidal and had made comments about wanting to harm himself.



Brown is 5'6" tall and weighs about 160 pounds. He is bald on top with very short hair, and has blue eyes. He was last seen wearing a dark colored t-shirt and jeans.



Anyone with information about William Brown should contact Paducah Police at 270-444-8550 or other law enforcement.Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required.

Your Full Name: (optional)

Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required.Its out of character for me to advise a political leader on what I believe is best for his or her country.

Im writing to you personally because of what I believe is the most perilous time in world history  far more serious than anything preceding WW I and II, as well as throughout the Cold War.

You have detailed intelligence Im not privy to. You surely know the threat my country poses to yours, many others, and world peace  Trumps disgraceful JCPOA withdrawal and reimposition of nuclear-related sanctions the latest example.

Ive explained many times that Washington wants all sovereign independent governments replaced by pro-Western ones, wars of aggression and color revolutions its favored strategies  Russia, China and Iran its key targets for regime change.

America has been hostile to country since the 1917 revolution  with brief periods of better relations, followed by resumed hostility.

I know my countrys history from inception, a deplorable record of belligerence and betrayal  waging endless wars of aggression, consistently and repeatedly breaching treaties, conventions and other deals agreed on.

It can never be trusted. How abysmally its treated your country in the post-Soviet period alone is clear proof of its ill intentions.

Its hostile to you personally for championing world peace and stability, wanting cooperative relations with all other nations, respecting rule of law principles, and advocating multi-world polarity.

Democracy in America is pure fantasy. None whatever exists, an anathema notion from the nations founding, rejecting it at home and abroad.

US aims under Republicans and what I call undemocratic Dems pursue goals opposite yours. They want you replaced with pro-Western puppet rule, Washington gaining another imperial trophy.

Conflict in Syria was launched by Obama for regime change. Theres nothing civil about whats going on.

Trump escalated what his predecessor began, wanting Iran isolated ahead of something similar against its government  using ISIS and other terrorists as imperial foot soldiers, supporting the scourge it pretends to oppose.

Washington considers Russia its mortal enemy, not your partner politically, economically or militarily.

Patience isnt always a virtue  never in dealing with a hegemon seeking unchallenged global dominance, wanting planet earth carved up for profit, people everywhere exploited, sovereign states turned into vassal ones.

I once said Putins Russia is back, proud and re-assertive, not about to roll over for Washington.

I strongly support your September 2015 intervention in Syria at the behest of Assad to combat terrorism.

Yet today, US forces control about one-third of Syrian territory, according to its UN envoy Bashar al-Jaafari, a distinguished figure I respect greatly.

I feel the same way about you  but extremely dismayed. Despite combating terrorism in Syria, twice you reduced Russias minimal force in the country unwisely, believing war on ISIS was won  clearly not nor against other US-supported terrorists in the country.

Al-Nusra and likeminded groups remain resilient, ISIS weakened but not defeated. US and other foreign-supplied weapons, training and funding support them.

Geneva, Astana and Sochi conflict resolution talks achieved no significant breakthroughs because Washington and its imperial partners want endless war and regime change, not peace and stability.

Passivity in the face of its aggression encourages more of it. Failure to supply Syria with S-300 air defense systems left it vulnerable to repeated attacks  in my judgment heading for something much more serious than already.

The only effective way to deal with US, Israeli and allied aggression is by confronting it forcefully  something you havent done, encouraging escalation, I believe things likely heading for full-scale war you havent tried to prevent, relying on failed diplomacy.

Ive explained confronting Washington forcefully is high-risk. Failure to do it, I believe, is higher risk.

Appeasement doesnt work with hegemons  not with Hitler ahead of WW II or bipartisan extremists in Washington now, their actions risking unthinkable nuclear war if not confronted and stopped.

I urge you to reconsider your current strategy in dealing with Washington. It surrounded Russia with hostile military bases, imposed countless illegal sanctions on numerous individuals and entities.

Your government was falsely accused of aggression in Ukraine, annexing Crimea, involvement in downing MH-17, meddling in Americas electoral process, interfering in European and upcoming Mexican elections, Brexit, mass doping athletes, mischief-making Russian trolls and bots, cyberwar, sabotage, hybrid warfare, the Skripal incident and more  endless US hostility, including vicious propaganda proliferated by government officials and supportive media.

Failure to forcefully confront US rage for dominance encourages escalated belligerence. Appeasing or inattention to hegemonic Washington risks something far more serious ahead than already.

In the interest of world peace and stability, I strongly urge you to challenge US aggression in Syria to prevent having to defend your homeland against it.

You understand all of the above far better than I do. I wish youd pursue a course I believe is most effective in dealing with hegemonic Washington and its warmaking partners.

Challenging their imperial agenda forcefully is the only language they understand, the only effective strategy. Years of diplomacy accomplished nothing.

Nor will it ahead with Washington. Continuing what hasnt worked is defeatism. I hope henceforth youll go a different way.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home  Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Source: An Open Letter to Vladimir Putin  Stephen LendmanYes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain.

Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred.

For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here.Turning off the asphalt, I enter the Deliblato Sands steppe, between the Danube and the Carpathian Mountains in the northeast of Serbia, where the first bird to greet me is a Northern Wheatear, followed by a Crested Lark. The wires are decorated with only about a dozen European Bee-eaters: is it still too early, or has the local colony dwindled?

Deliblato Sands comprises an elongated elliptical tract of sand, spreading north from the Danube, about 35 km / 20 mi in length and 15 km / 10 mi in width. Dominant easterly winds have shaped the prominent dune relief rising from 70 m / 200 ft a.s.l. (the altitude of the Danube) up to 200 m / 650 ft a.s.l. Continental climate and the absence of surface water took care of the rest.

In front of us, the dirt track is cut deep into the aeolian dune overgrown with feather grass (Stipa joannis) with its fronds seductively glistening in the sun. A small bird lands at the tussock at the edge of the track: slim, longish tail, sandy-coloured with unstreaked buff-white underparts. The only unstreaked pipit around here and a characteristic breeder of sand dunes is the Tawny Pipit and this one shows well, holding to the grass edge.

Two European Rollers await us on the wires, while one Eurasian Hoopoe flies by. On the opposite side is a smallish falcon, obviously too short-tailed for a Common Kestrel, a Eurasian Hobby first comes to mind but a male Red-footed Falcon on migration it turns out to be. They do not build nests, but occupy old nests of Rooks and breed colonially among them. Red-footed Falcons breeding range starts less than 50 mi north of here and I hope that some will choose to join a local rookery and stay.

A pair of European Turtle Doves on a wire, followed by two soaring Common Buzzards. Wait, those fingers, the upper one is not a buzzard a small eagle, its a dark morph Booted Eagle! They are quite a rare breeding species in Serbia, declining as we speak, but one pair breeds nearby. Yet, when I visit the area, a sighting is far from a common occurrence.

Wandering through the short grass, theres a flock of Sand Martins (a.k.a. Bank Swallows)  in 1990s, their local colonies along the 10 km long section of the Danube riverbank summed together reached 15,000 active nests, but that number is now lower. One harrier in flight, a female Montagus Harrier, and a male is nearby! They are rare breeders here, but at least, this species numbers are on the increase.

Female Montagus Harrier at Deliblato Sands, by Aleksandar Urosevic

Some nice birds indeed, but lets look back and ask ourselves not what have we seen, but what we havent? There wasnt a single European souslik or ground squirrel (Spermophilus cittelus). 11 years ago, alongside my bird notes I wrote of numerous sousliks observed along this same route. Two years ago for the first time I noted that not a single souslik was seen, and it hasnt been seen ever since. Add into that picture that the last time I observed the endangered Saker Falcon in Serbia was here  but three years ago, when squirrels were still present.

The story is even worse with the vulnerable Eastern Imperial Eagle. In order to prevent sand storms choking nearby villages, from 1818 to 1907, half of the sand dunes surface was afforested, mostly with pine (until the disastrous forest fire of 1953) and non-indigenous false acacia. Today the stands of acacia occupy one third of the nature reserve. Tasty sousliks lived along the edge of this odd forest. Hence, it comes as no surprise that this area was one of the last strongholds of Imperial Eagles in the country (6 to 7 breeding pairs up to the mid-1980s). The last time I observed an Imperial Eagle here was in 2007, but that was a non-territorial, immature bird. There are no breeding pairs left in this forest and nowadays we have only one left in the whole of Serbia.

I must digress further. Taking part in a wind farm development workshop in the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, I learned that no less than 8 construction permits are issued and that the Deliblato Sands should become encircled with wind generators from all sides. On that occasion, a raptor expert Sasa Marinkovic raised an important and still unanswered question: How should we treat a locally extinct threatened species in a wind farm environmental impact assessment? The EIA methodology says nothing about it and yet, if ever a reintroduction of this species should be attempted, this nature reserve makes an obvious location choice.

At the time being, no eagles were recorded within the EIAs made for the proposed wind farms, which, I am sure, made the process of obtaining a permit much easier. The construction has started and I am afraid that we are all at loss because of it.

Cover photo: European Bee-eater at Deliblato Sands, by RoksanaMay is flowering with fashionable things.

Treat your toes to a trip to the new Rothy's boutique on Fillmore Street, shop pretty-in-pink home goods at Batch, and don't miss the Allbirds pop-up at Shinola.

(Courtesy of Rothy's)

Guess what? You can buy Rothy's in an actual store.

Yes, they're still made of 100 percent recycled fibers from plastic bottles. Yes, they're still cute and comfy, ideal for hill hopping and cocktailing. The news: Now you can shop Rothy's flats IRL at the San Francisco brand's first brick-and-mortar store on Fillmore Streetin the former spot of a much-loved and longtime shoe repair shop (oh, synergy). The shoes, available in three styles (Point, Flat and Loafer) and a gajillion colors and patterns, are sparingly displayed in the pint-sized but cool Steven Volpe/MEM Architecturedesigned space. Keep your eye feet out for the store's exclusive trio embroidered with "SF" and a red heart. (The camouflage pointy toe has our name all over it!) Prices range from $125 to $165. // 2448 Fillmore St. (Pac Heights), rothys.com





(Courtesy of Everlane)

To celebrate the launch of its $100 wrap dresses, Everlane's Mission store is staying open late next Thursday and Friday, May 17th and 18th. Yes siree, from 6pm to 8pm, you and all your frock-loving friends are invited to try, tie and buy the radically transparent brand's quartet of tank-style and short-sleeve wrap dresses in black, rose, royal blue, poppy and yellow. Made of drapey wrinkle-resistant Japanese GoWeave fabric, each style is comfortable, flattering, and up for anything. Along with wine from Scribe, special guests (and complements to your new dress) include Vrai & Oro jewelry and Ilia lipstick. // 461 Valencia St. (Mission), everlane.com





(Courtesy of Batch)

Batch is seriously blushing.

The Nob Hill lifestyle showroomwhose furniture, housewares, art, and accessories instantly Lonny-fy any roomis having a pink moment. Batch's cavernous space will be filled with the new-for-spring local and global brands dedicated to the most demure of shades for three more weeks. (FYI, there's plenty of magenta, too.) A few favorites in the curated room vignettes include treasures from Able, Art.com, Bells & Becks, Joonie, Krista Skehan, Leon & George, Mandi Smethells, Mozaiko Designs, Plum and Public Bikes. Maybe the next collection will be all about the blues. // 1648 Pacific Ave. (Nob Hill), visitbatch.com





(Courtesy of Shinola/Allbirds)

Shinola lets Allbirds crash for a while.

Because that's what friends are for. Shinola is happily hosting a months-long pop-up for its Jackson Square neighbor and BFF Allbirds. Through July, the purveyor of well-designed watches, leather goods, and bicycles will be adding wool (and tree) kicks to its lineup. Wait, isn't Allbirds brick-and-mortar located just a couple of storefronts away on Hotaling Place? Indeed it isbut the teensy boutique is getting a makeover so it can accommodate more shoppers seeking new pairs of Runners, Loungers and Skippers. Gosh, we remember the days (two years ago) when Shinola was the first place founders Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger set up temporary retail shop. All shoes are $95. // Shinola, 53 Hotaling Place (Jackson Square), shinola.com, allbirds.com





(Courtesy of Bespoke Watch Projects)

SF watch fanatics: Clear your calendar next weekend.

For the first time ever, the most popular watch show in the U.S. is taking place in San Francisco. From May 18th to 20th, more than a couple of dozen indie brands will be on hand at the Chandran Gallery to sell and celebrate timepieces. Wind-Up Watch Fair is free and open to the public. One person who couldn't be more thrilled with this news? Designer John Beck McConnico, of Oakland's Bespoke Watch Projects. For the past five years, he has been producing handmade mechanical and vintage-inspired watches (prices range from $500 to $1,200). As such, he's earned his place as the only Bay Area brand exhibiting at the event. // 459 Geary St. (Union Square), chandrangallery.comThere's no denying itSan Francisco has an unparalleled musical past.

The Bay Area has been home to some of the industry's bestfrom Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin all the way to Journey, MC Hammer, and Green Dayand has hosted every major player (hello, Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones) in genres as diverse as our culture.

In the 1950s, North Beach held a jazz scene where the Beat Generation hung out; and the '60s, of course, brought psychedelic rock and counterculture to the forefront with the Fillmore at the heart of it, the concert hall of the same name bursting with the sounds of Santana, the Who, and the Doors, as well as jazz and R&B stars including Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, and Otis Redding. During the Summer of Love, in 1967, Rolling Stone magazine published its first issue from its original headquarters on Montgomery Street.

When the '70s hit, punk arrived along with the Dead Kennedys, later making way for modern bands such Metallica, who settled in San Francisco after having gotten their start in Los Angeles. Since then, the Bay Area has turned out Third Eye Blind, Counting Crows, Kendrick Lamar, and G-Eazy to name a few.

The result of this, of course, is a history of countless epic shows. We've selected six that were truly unforgettable.Chloroprene Rubber Market

Global Chloroprene Rubber Market Research Report- by Grade (Linear, Cross-linked, Sulfur Modified, and Crystallizing Resistant), by End Use (Automobile, Construction, Furniture, Chemical Industries, Textiles, and Others) and Region- Forecast till 2023

Global Chloroprene Rubber Market  Overview

Chloroprene Rubber (CR), also known as chlorobutadiene rubber and sometimes roughly referred as Neoprene is a prominent diene-based elastomer. CR finds its uses in range of applications, from custom applications in the general rubber industry to the demanding chemical and automotive applications where high-performance is expected. Similarly, it is absorbed in various sectors such as construction, furniture, and textiles, amongothers.

Although CR is a bit more costly than Natural Rubber, it is widely preferred for some of its special properties like good chemical resistance, low risk of glazing, high resistance to aging and ozone and hence a better wear resistance than natural rubber. Its augmented adoption in some of the burgeoning industries consecutively helps the market of CR to grow further to reach the heights on the global platform.

Recognizing the potential of the market to grow further in the years to come, Market Research Future (MRFR) has published a detailed study report giving out the market forecast for the period 2017  2023. In its analysis, MRFR asserts that the global Chloroprene Rubber market is expected to garner exponential growth by 2023, growing at a considerable CAGR during the review period of 2017-2023.

Furthermore, growing population and urbanization worldwide are propelling the market growth. Improving economic conditions worldwide, provide impetus to the market growth, improving the consumers purchasing power. Seminal efforts &investments put in the development of innovative products, by the eminent market players are paying off well, driving the market growth.

Get Sample of Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4933

Augmenting demand for protective linings in many chemical plants backed by the rapid industrialization, increasing demand for chloroprene based rubber components in automobiles, coupled with the adhesives modified with Chloroprene, impact the market growth positively. Moreover, increasing demand for weather and cold resistant products such as wetsuits in marine applications, and growing demand for chloroprene based bearing pads in building bridges owing to increasing intra and inter-trade & transportation is anticipated to be a prominent driver for Chloroprene Rubber Market during the review period.

On the other hand, factors such as stringent regulations imposed by the government bodies worldwide, to restrict the use of toxic organic chemicals such as vulcanizing agents used in the production of Chloroprene Rubber, are expected to impede the market growth during the assessment period.

Global Chloroprene Rubber Market  Competitive Analysis

Vendors operating in the Chloroprene Rubber Market strive to deliver the best quality products based on innovative technologies, and best practices. The high growth potential CR demonstrated by the market is likely to attract many entrants to the market resulting into intensified competition further.

Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:

January 22, 2018  ARLANXEO (the Netherland), a leading global synthetic rubber company announced its expansion plans for chloroprene rubber production capabilities at the facility in Dormagen, Germany. Taking place in the first quarter of 2019, the production capacity will be increased to 70,000 tons per year.

Global Chloroprene Rubber Market  Segments

Global Chloroprene Rubber Market is segmented into 3 Key dynamics for easy grasp and enhanced understanding.

By Grades/Types: Comprises  Cross-Linked, Linear, Sulfur Modified, and Crystallizing Resistant among others.

By End-Use Industries: Automotive, Construction, Furniture, and Chemical Industries, Textiles, amongothers.

By Regions: North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World.

Global Chloroprene Rubber Market  Regional Analysis

Europe region accounted for the largest market share in 2016, and is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The dominance of Europe market is mainly due to the growing markets for Automobiles, Construction, & Furniture among others, mainly in Germany, the UK & France. Moreover, factors such as high adoption rate by the automobile manufacturers coupled with the increased expenditure in innovation backed by the increased affordability of consumers are predicted to drive the market in the forecast period.

North America accounted for the second largest market share of the global Chloroprene Rubber market in 2016. The market is further predicted to witness a tremendous growth on account of high consumption potential, increasing production capacities, and rising economic growth rate. The US among the other North American countries is a significant contributor to the regional market growth and is expected to account for phenomenal accruals, witnessing a considerable demand during the forecast period, 2017 to 2023. While surging in value & volume, Canada market is estimated to grow at a moderate CAGR on account of increasing production of crude oil.

While Asia Pacific market for Chloroprene Rubber, emerging as the fastest growing market will register a moderate CAGR during the review period. Increasing infrastructure activities mainly in India & China will contribute to the regional market a great deal, accelerating the use of chloroprene based bearing pads. The burgeoning automotive sector in India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan is expected to raise the demand for chloroprene based automotive components which, in turn, is predicted to fuel the regional market growth over the forecast period, 2017 to 2023.

Latin America is expected to perceive substantial growth in the market due to increasing demand for Chloroprene Rubber in the end-use industries backed by the increasing consumer spending on passenger cars and intervention of new technologies in chloroprene rubber. Furthermore, penetration of lightweight transportation trucks and vehicles in countries such as Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil is predicted to boost the existing growing chloroprene based tire market in this region.

Get Complete Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/chloroprene-rubber-market-4933

About Market Research Future:

At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.

MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.

Media Contact

Company Name: Market Research Future

Contact Person: Abhishek Sawant

Email: Send Email

Phone: +1 646 845 9312

Address:Market Research Future Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar

City: Pune

State: Maharashtra

Country: India

Website: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4933Luxvacation.com is a reputable company for luxury vacations. It recently offers new vacation packages to more exciting destinations.

LUXVACATION is one of the leading companies in the luxury vacation industry. It offers two types of vacationSnow & Ski and Sea & Sun. The company now offers new vacation packages to the worlds best destination for luxury vacations. For Snow & Ski, the destinations are French Alps, Austrian Alps, Swiss Alps and the United States. Meanwhile, for Sea & Sun the destinations are Caribbean, French Riviera, Greece, United States and Spain.

For complete information regarding the vacation destination, please visit their official website at www.luxvacation.com

With various vacation packages from Luxvacation, travelers can experience the true joy of luxury vacations. The booking process is also easy and the site even offers instant booking for the quicker booking process. After the booking process is completed, the company will send complete information regarding the destination and it can even arrange transportation and driver to take travelers to the vacation home they have booked.

After that, a local representative of the company will meet the travelers at the property or the airport to hand them the keys. The local representative also will give a tour of the house and show all the best points of the vacation home.

We understand how frustrating it can be to search for a nice vacation home when we are not familiar of the place. There are many companies that can help us, but most of them have limited option when it comes to the luxurious residence for vacation. Since we have experienced all those bad things, we know what travelers really want when it comes to luxury travel and we are working hard to fulfill their expectations, said the representative of Luxvacation

Luxvacation.coms service is more than just finding a dream vacation home for travelers. To bring the travelers vacation experience to the next level, this company also offers various other services such as airport transfer, grocery shopping and also pre-order meals. For snow and ski vacation, the company also provides luxury rental for ski and snowboarding equipment.

About Luxvacation.com

Luxvacation is a provider for luxury vacations. It helps travelers find luxury vacation homes all around the world, particularly in Europe, North America and the Caribbean. This company aspires to give its customers the most enjoyable travel experience by helping them find the most comfortable and luxurious vacation homes in the area.

Media Contact

Company Name: LuxVacation Ltd.

Contact Person: Alexander

Email: Send Email

Phone: +33182882406

Country: France

Website: www.luxvacation.comSun Protection Products

This report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies

Global Sun Protection Products Market Outlook

Market Overview

Rising awareness among consumers towards the importance of sun protection products and introduction of new skin protection products with more effective formulation are the key factors driving the growth of global sun protection products market. Excessive emission of green house gases and deforestation lead to the depletion of ozone layer. Exposure to UV radiations is the major reason behind premature aging of skin and can also lead to skin cancer. According to the reports of WHO, further decrease in stratospheric ozone by 10% can lead to additional 300,000 victims of non-melanoma and 4,500 additional cases of melanoma cancer across the globe annually. Thus, sun care products became vital products for the consumers to protect their skin from harmful effects of UV radiations. To deal with the rising concerns, sun protection products like lotions, creams, gels and beauty balms are launched into the market with varying SPF levels for different skin types and consumer requirements. Beauty products market effectively dominating the global industry, accounting for growth in total global sales by 100% over past 15 years and accounted USD 450 billion. Skin care products and hair care products are the major segments of the beauty products market, worth more than USD 100 billion in 2015. Wide range of sun protection products with rise in benefits such as SPF protection which results in consumers adoption of sun care products with multi-benefit skin care and beauty cosmetics offerings for daily use. Advanced formulations and higher perceived value for money, made these products popular among consumers, which is expected to propel the growth of global sun protection products market. In order to meet consumers demand, companies and manufacturers are looking for innovative formulations to increase their revenue. Happy Skin, a cosmetic brand, has launched its UV gel cream in Philippines, a water based gel with moringa seed oil Protects skin against dirt, pollution and UV rays.

Market Segmentation

 By Product Type

o UV Protection Products

o After-sun Products

o Self-tanning Products

 By Body Parts

o Skincare Products

o Haircare Products

 By Product Forms

o Sun Protection Gel

o Sun Protection Lotions

o Sun Protection Wipes

o Sun Protection Spray

o Sun Protection Colored

o Sun Protection Powder

Request a Sample Report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2316658-global-sun-protection-products-market-outlook-2024-global-opportunity-and-demand

 By End User

o Men Care products

o Women Care Products

 By Geography

o North America (US, Canada) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion)}

o Europe (UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, Russia, Poland and Rest of Europe) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion)}

o Middle East and Africa (GCC Countries, North Africa, South Africa and Rest of Middle East & Africa) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion)}

o Latin America (Brazil, Mexico and Rest of Latin America) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion) }

o Asia Pacific (China, Japan, India, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Rest of Asia-Pacific) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion) }

o Rest of the World{Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion) }

Growth Drivers and Restraints

Being niche segment of the beauty care products, sun care consumers spend over USD 8.0 billion on sun care products in 2015 across the globe, but in terms of sales of beauty products, it only account for 2% market share of total beauty and personal care products market and less than 10% market share of total skin care products. Rising awareness among the population in growing economies such as India, China, Brazil, Russia, Canada and others are fostering the growth of global sun protection products market. In 2015, Latin-America witnessed double digit growth of nearly 20% and the sun protection products market has been making roads in the money-spinning Asia-Pacific market. On the other hand, North America and Europe witnessed change in growth rate pattern for instance, 2% decline in North America and 0.5% growth in Western Europe, indicating shifting of consumers to other categories such as BB (Beauty Balm) creams. Sun care protection registered overall growth of 5.4% in 2015 owing to growing sales of BB creams in North America and Western Europe. UV protection products expected to remain the largest segment, with nearly 90% of total sun protection products sales over the forecast period. Implementation of nanotechnology in sun care products to give better protection from UV rays and to provide smoother texture to the product when applied to skin. LOreal and Shiseido are using are some of the beauty products giants in the global market using nano-particles in their beauty products. However, seasonal climatic changes and wide range of alternatives expected to impact the sales of sun protection products across the globe. Manufacturers are focusing on development of multi-beneficial products and BB creams to sustain the market competition. UV filters are the basic ingredients to meet the consumers rising demand of higher protection from UV radiation. Among all UV filters, homosalate is anticipated to be the fastest growing in Western Europe over the forecast period, followed by zinc oxide.

Market Size and Forecast (2016-2024)

Sun protection products expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 6.8% over the forecast period owing to rising demand for multifunctional skin care products. The global sun protection products market grew by 2.5% and reached USD 8.3 billion in 2015 and further the market is expected to reach USD 14.1 billion by 2024.

In 2015, Europe was the leading region, and expected to dominate the market by 2024. Latin-America is expected to contribute over USD 2.8 billion to sun care market by 2024. Brazil is anticipated to be the largest contributor in the region with over 90% growth to the sun protection category. Moreover, Asia-Pacific is expected to narrow down the gap with Western Europe from USD 0.80 billion to under USD 0.30 billion, with prospect of overtaking the market over the forecast period.

Key Market Players

 LOreal S.A

o Synopsis

o Business strategy

o Product Portfolio

o SWOT Analysis

 Pioneer Corporation

 Shiseido Co. Ltd.

 Lancaster

 Johnson and Johnson

 Clarins Group

 Neutrogena Corporation

 Lancaster

 Beiersdorf AG

 Unilever PLC

 Bioderma Laboratories

 Avon Products

Scope Background

Market Synopsis

Market Segmentation

The global sun protection products market is segmented as follows:

 By Product Type (Market Size, Demand Analysis and Growth Analysis)

 By Product Forms Type (Market Size, Demand Analysis and Growth Analysis)

 By Body Parts Type (Market Size, Demand Analysis and Growth Analysis)

 By End User Type (Market Size, Demand Analysis and Growth Analysis)

Global Sun Protection Products Market Report covered insights of below mentioned regions:

 North America (U.S., Canada) {Market Size, Growth Analysis}

 Latin America (Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and Rest of Latin America) {Market Size, Growth Analysis}

 Europe (Germany, Italy, Spain, France, The U.K., Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Rest of Europe) {Market Size, Growth Analysis}

 Asia-Pacific (China, India, Singapore, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Rest of Asia Pacific) {Market Size, Growth Analysis}

 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) {Market Size, Growth Analysis}

 Rest of World {Market Size, Growth Analysis}

Market Dynamics: Growth Drivers, Restraints and Opportunities

 Risk Factors

 Regional Variations

 Recent Trends and Developments

Key Market Players

 Synopsis

 Business Strategy

 Product Portfolio

 SWOT Analysis

Porters Five Force Model

Market Landscape: Competition and Beyond

Market outlook for business players and entry level players to ascertain their business in dynamic ecosystem

Expert Analysis

Concluding Remarks

Continued

Access Complete Report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/2316658-global-sun-protection-products-market-outlook-2024-global-opportunity-and-demand

Media Contact

Company Name: Wiseguyreports.com

Contact Person: Norah Trent

Email: Send Email

Phone: +1 646 845 9349, +44 208 133 9349

City: Pune

State: Maharashtra

Country: India

Website: www.wiseguyreports.comThe killing of four American soldiers in Niger in October drew attention to the role of US troops in western Africa, where several terror networks roam freely.

The United States has enemies all around in the region. Niger shares a border with Mali, where an al Qaeda affiliate and other Islamist groups thrive in the vast desert. It also borders Libya, where ISIS and other extremists are regrouping, and Nigeria, where Boko Haram runs amok.

The Defense Department said ISIS-affiliated fighters ambushed the US soldiers on October 4.

On Thursday, the Pentagon released a summary of a months-long investigation into the soldiers' deaths, pointing to a series of failures and deficiencies, including a lack of adequate training, that contributed to the ambush.

However, the document claimed that "no single failure or deficiency was the sole reason for the events of 4 October."

Here are things to know about US operations in Niger:

American troops have been in Niger for years

The United States has previously acknowledged it has troops there. But it's never gone into much detail.

In 2013, the White House announced that President Barack Obama had deployed 100 military personnel to Niger.

"This deployment will provide support for intelligence collection and will also facilitate intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali, and with other partners in the region," Obama said in a letter to the House speaker.

Since then, the number of US troops in the nation has risen to about 800.

Small groups of US special operations forces advise local troops as they battle Boko Haram and al Qaeda.

Niger is crucial to the war on terror

US officials consider Niger strategically important in the war on terror.

The country, along with Chad and Mali, serves as a bridge between north and sub-Saharan Africa, and all three are significant transit routes for local al Qaeda and ISIS affiliates. The terror groups use these routes to generate revenue that helps them recruit, expand and export attacks, according to US officials.

ISIS also uses the transit routes to move fighters northward, where they gain easy access to Europe and the West. The terror group is attempting to infiltrate the gold mining industry in Niger so it can sell the precious metal on the black market and finance terrorism, according to one official.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb -- the terror group's local affiliate -- operates along the border between Mali and Niger despite a French-led military counterterrorism operation. The US military says it largely plays a supporting role by providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets in support of French forces.

"Niger is an important partner of ours, we have a deep relationship with them," said Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the director of the Joint Staff.

The slain American soldiers -- Staff Sgts. Bryan Black, Dustin Wright and Jeremiah Johnson and Army Sgt. La David Johnson -- were part of a team advising and assisting Niger forces when they were attacked last year. Five Nigerien soldiers also died in the ambush.

Before the Pentagon document's release, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, had told CNN on Wednesday that he believes the troops "were engaged in a mission that they were not authorized by law to participate in and that they were not trained to participate in. And that is a significant reason that they tragically lost their lives." Kaine sits on the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees.

The US works with allies in the region

The United States is not the only nation with a large presence in the region, McKenzie said.

France has about 5,000 forces in the area, he said. The French operation also involves forces from Germany, Mali, Niger and other countries.

"We have about 1,000 forces distributed over the Chad Basin, most of them in Niger, but not all of them," McKenzie said last year.

The Chad Basin area includes the nations that border Lake Chad: Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

Nigeria militant group Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, is a threat to the nations in the Chad Basin.

The US has drones there, too

Last year, the US military started moving its drone operation from Niger's capital, Niamey, to Agadez.

This year, the US Africa Command will launch its MQ-9 Reapers -- "hunter/killer" drones with advanced intelligence gathering capabilities -- from an air base just outside the city.

Agadez is more centrally located and will provide the US military with surveillance over a larger, more significant area.

The $100 million project is a massive undertaking and has included outreach to local communities.

A US Army civil affairs team worked on community efforts this year to build relationships and engage with people whose lives will be affected by the drone operations

Africa Command described the construction of the Agadez air base as "projected to be the biggest military labor troop project in US Air Force history." The United States has been using a local airport while the base is under construction, according to US Africa Command.A team of Royal Marines is preparing for an historic 2,000-mile (3,200 km) journey along Norways coastline.

Royal Marines commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Telemark raids in Norway will use Inmarsat satellite communications to stay connected and share the stories they unearth during a 2,000 mile coastal journey by bike and sea kayak. The eight-strong, self-sufficient team will cycle up to 200km and paddle up to 40km a day.



Norway 75 will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Telemark raids  an Allied operation which successfully halted Nazi Germanys plan to develop nuclear weapons.



Travelling by sea kayak and bike, the team will revisit the sites of a number of critical World War II Commando/SOE operations that led up to the raids, linking up with the Norwegian Home Guard, local historians, and families with connections to the events.



Throughout the expedition this June and July, Norway 75 will rely on Inmarsat to stay connected.



Challenge Director Capt Tim Pitcher explained: Were using Inmarsat because of the need for satellite communications in the high north when operating at reach  satellite phones for SOS if we need it but also for tracking features, vehicle-mounted satellite systems to stay in touch with the other vehicles and the teams that are either on the bikes or the sea kayaks.



Inmarsat is supplying an IsatPhone 2 satellite phone and a range of BGAN broadband terminals including highly compact equipment to stow away in kitbags and a system for comms-on-the-move.



As well as celebrating combined Commando/Special Operations Executive raids of the past, the expedition will also highlight and support the ongoing work of the Royal Marines Charity and its efforts to support good mental health.



Kelvin Hughes, a world leader in the development, manufacture and supply of maritime navigation, surveillance and security radar systems, is delighted to announce that it has secured Type Approval in China for its SBS-700-2 radar system.





The SBS-700 is part of the Kelvin Hughes family of shore-based radar systems which has been specifically developed to meet the stringent operational requirements of port, harbour and river traffic operators as well as government agencies responsible for the protection of the coastal and littoral zones.



Aimed at the basic and standard capability type as outlined in IALA V-128, the SBS-700-2 features the latest Kelvin Hughes magnetron technology, incorporating a high dynamic range, a low noise front end, and an FET modulator to improve range discrimination.



Suitable for deployment as a single radar site, the SBS-700-2 can also be integrated into a larger radar sensor network using industry standard protocols.



Adrian Pilbeam of Kelvin Hughes, commented: This is excellent news for Kelvin Hughes. Securing this Type Approval for the SBS-700-2 will allow us to respond to Chinas rapidly expanding VTS and coastal surveillance market.Note: So much sadness here. The family has lost their precious daughter following a measles rubella vaccine. The school sent a child who "unconscious" onto the school bus. And the child was cremated without an autopsy after this sudden death - which has been attributed to gastroenteritis. That's gut injury. Measles vaccine. Gut injury. Death. The lack of autopsy prevents any further discussion or scientific answers as to Miss Kaur's death. In America, you will learn of every case of measles as if the Black Death has knocked on your door. You will be told that the young gastroenterologist in the United Kingdom who some 20 years ago asked whether MMR vaccination MIGHT be connected to gut injury and autism is now a disgraced monster. Over and over and over. You will not hear about this case, however. Rest in Peace, child.



##

From Tribune India



The cause of death of six-year-old Gurnoor Kaur, who died after being administered the MR vaccine in Bathinda on Saturday, could not be ascertained as the Health Department did not conduct her post-mortem examination. They contended that her family had not given their consent for it.



However, her family said they were never asked to get the autopsy done. Subsequently, she was cremated at her native Jai Singhwala village during the day. Notably, an hour after her cremation, Civil Surgeon HN Singh held a press conference and attributed her death to gastroenteritis. Civil Surgeon Hari Narain Singh said, We could not get the post-mortem done as parents of Gurnoor Kaur did not give their consent to do so. The childs condition worsened after 28 hours of the MR vaccination and according to experts, side-effects of the vaccine are witnessed a few minutes after the vaccination. So it is clear that the child did not die due to the vaccine.



Kulwant Singh, father of the deceased, said, No official asked us to get the post-mortem conducted.



Beant Singh, the girls uncle, said, Gurnoor was a healthy child and had no signs of any ailment until she was administered the MR vaccine. Although she was normal on Friday after the MR vaccination, on Saturday afternoon, Harnoor was brought home in an unconscious state by the school van driver. Beant Singh said, The school management neither informed us regarding the deteriorating condition of the child nor did they admit her to hospital. She was sent home 15 km from her school in an unconscious state, which wasted a lot of crucial time. She was declared brought dead at hospital. Amanpreet Singh, incharge of the Adarsh School, said, The child was a bit inactive but after being given water, she was normal. We would have taken her to hospital, if her condition was not normal.







In 2015 the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, was signed by the P5+1 - China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the European Union and Iran. Under this agreement, which was spearheaded by President Barack Obama, Iran gave up the majority of its enriched uranium stockpiles and reduced production considerably.

Considered one of the greatest achievements of Obamas presidency, the Iran Nuclear Deal, as it often called, was designed to ensure that the countrys nuclear programme served exclusively peaceful purposes. In return for Irans cooperation, North America agreed to lift most of its nuclear-related sanctions.

With the JCPOA in place, the Tehran Regime was able to become less diplomatically isolated, and the faltering economy began something of a rehabilitation. Now, however, this all seems to be under threat. In the latest of his now-expectedly brash moves, President Donald Trump has announced the withdrawal of the United States from the deal. While some dont believe he is telling the truth, for now, it seems that the POTUS has pulled the plug, and his announcement is fact.

The Official Statement by President Trump

On 8 May 2018, Trump held a press conference to tell his fellow Americans of his administrations latest efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. This involved ending the JCPOA agreement, and signing a presidential memorandum to begin reinstating North Americas nuclear sanctions on the Tehran Regime.

Leaving no room for doubt, the President said that economic sanctions of the highest levels would be instituted, and that any nation helping Irans nuclear cause was liable to face similar consequences. North Americas leader first asserted that the deal needed to be terminated or renegotiated in October 2017, and there have been discussions to this effect. French President Emmanuel Macron even used his April 2018 state visit to propose new conditions.

Is Trump Acting Like a Bull in a China Shop?

While much of the world disapproves of Trumps actions, they could actually have positive outcomes. If other countries follow suit and apply sanctions, the regional aggression of Tehran could be weakened and, should it become necessary, acting militarily against nuclear facilities in Iran would be easier.

But are they likely to become necessary? Most people agree that Trump has been influenced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long opposed the deal and said it could lead to an arms war in the Middle East. In his speech, Trump cited the historical evidence for Irans nuclear programme that Netanyahu had presented in his regular prime-time television address in Israel.

With out-of-date information and the Presidents propensity to make bull-headed decisions, people wonder if that is what is happening now. On the other hand, is it all part of his supposed plan to set off a war in Middle Eastern areas? Something that many believe will trigger World War 3.If this is the case, what exactly is there to gain, and where does that leave other world powers? America and Iran support opposing sides in Syria, for example. What might the effects be there?

The Fresh Danger for Israel is Closer

Netanyahu may be glad of Trumps withdrawal, but many of the best political minds in the world think the Jewish state is in greater peril than it was before. The conflict between Israel and Iran is not new, but direct hostilities have recently been seen for the first time. Israel has staged several strikes against the weaker country, and while the military might of Iran is less than that of Israel the JCPOA is a large part of why a direct army or a Hezbollah attack has not been launched.

If the Nuclear Deal is done away with, this firebreak will no longer be in place, anything could happen and Israel may be under immediate threat. The other powers that signed the agreement are scrambling to find ways to ensure that it holds, and we can only hope they are successful. Trump may claim that he is trying to pressure Iran into coming up with a better deal and ultimately help the Iranians, but the fact that he seems to have no back-up plan suggests otherwise. As he determinedly steams onwards, the rest of the world needs to work out how to contain him, or get out of the way  and which option is better.

Image source:

https://pixabay.com/en/trump-president-usa-america-flag-2546104/

https://pixabay.com/en/statue-of-liberty-mushroom-cloud-2629937/

Sources:

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/09/politics/donald-trump-iran-lessons/index.html

https://news.sky.com/story/you-have-made-a-mistake-iran-hits-back-at-trumps-decision-to-exit-nuclear-deal-11364895

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-donald-trump-is-about-to-put-israel-in-immediate-danger-1.6070248

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/what-happens-if-trump-pulls-out-of-the-iran-nuclear-deal-1.6031700What Do Iraq's Elections Mean for the Remaining Assyrians?

Iraqis go the polls on Saturday (12 May) for the first time since the military defeat of Islamic State, whose campaign of terror against non-Muslims pushed thousands of the country's last Christians to flee their homeland. Only about 200,000 to 300,000 Christians are thought to remain in Iraq now, mostly in the Nineveh Plains and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the country's north. Around 700,000 emigrated in the violent years that have followed the 2003 US-led invasion and the 2014 appearance of IS, and tens of thousands more have fled to Kurdistan. Politically weak, Christians will be hoping the election process helps rather than hinders the country's slow progress towards peace.

The vote is going ahead despite a plea from Sunni and Kurdish MPs to delay it to allow more time for people to return home. It has already been postponed from last September, when the military action against IS was ongoing. More than 2.3 million Iraqis, mainly Sunni Muslims but also tens of thousands of Christians, remain displaced. Many of the displaced Sunnis are in camps around the former IS strongholds of Mosul and the western Anbar region, and in Anbar the army is still sporadically attacked by IS jihadists.However, a spokesman for the Iraqi Embassy in London told World Watch Monitor that displaced Iraqis would be able to vote as long as they had the required form of identification. "The High Electoral Commission in Iraq has provided all the necessary requirements for all Iraqis to vote with no exception," he said, adding that displaced people who no longer have their biometric card, nor the electronic card used in previous years, still would be able to cast their vote if they could produce an official document with their name and photo attached to it. Some 24 million Iraqis are eligible to take part in Saturday's elections for the 329 seats of the Council of Representatives. Those elected then will determine the president and prime minister. 'A NOD TO PLURALISM' Under the country's quota system, established in 2004-05 after the removal of Saddam Hussein by US-led forces, Christians are allocated five of those seats, and the other non-Muslim minorities a total of four. The Christians' seats are in Baghdad, Mosul, Kirkuk, Duhok and Erbil. Dr. Erica Hunter of London University's School of Oriental and African Studies told World Watch Monitor the quota system was "one of the problems" for Christians. "While they have a representation, they realise it is a tokenism to pluralism," she said. "Clergy say, 'We don't have any say, and nothing really gets done,' because the whole scenario is on the much larger demographic of the Shia and Sunni communities." In the absence of greater decision-making power, Christians' prime concern, she said, is "the security and stability and safety of their communities". The Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Louis Sako, has repeatedly urged Chaldeans to take part in the vote. In a statement to be read in churches 6 May, he urged people to choose "those who can best serve them and their homeland", and expressed a hope for the election to take place in a "sound, secure and fair manner, so as to come out with a strong national government representing all components." In a previous statement he warned voters against backing "inexperienced and opportunist" candidates. WHO'S WHO? According to the political structure established post-2003, the role of Prime Minister is reserved for members of Iraq's Shia majority. In his forthcoming term, whoever is elected will need to lead the country through major post-conflict reconstruction, rebuild relations with the Sunnis and reduce corruption in the oil-rich country. Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi is standing for re-election, as is his divisive predecessor, Nouri Al-Maliki, both of whom come from the Islamic Dawa Party. Another frontrunner, Hadi Al-Amiri, is a militia leader who fought against Iraq during its war with Iran. A candidate popular with Christians is the former vice president Ayad Allawi, 74, a secular liberal, although he is seen as not powerful enough to win the top role. "Whoever comes in will need to be a peacemaker," Sir Terence Clark, a former British ambassador to Iraq, told World Watch Monitor. The election comes eight months after a Kurdish vote in favour of secession was rejected by Baghdad. "Somebody has got to sit down with the Kurds and sort out their grievances as part of a federal state". "Another major obstacle is to reconcile the grievances of the Sunnis," he said. "Sadly, Al-Maliki seemed to aggravate the differences; Abadi has made some efforts but not enough. And whoever comes in next has got to do a lot more than has been done before." Al-Abadi has reached out to Sunni voters and is prepared to work with Sunni politicians, while Reuters has reported that Al-Maliki is planning to reject the post-2003 power-sharing agreement that allots government roles to larger non-Shia communities. Sir Terence said the sense of grievance among the Sunnis that led to the creation of ISIS had not been resolved. "If anything, it has been exacerbated, by the failure of the central government to respond quickly to the needs of the people in the Sunni areas, which were last to be liberated from ISIS' control." Therefore, he said, the threat of extremist violence has not gone away following what he called the "nominal" defeat of IS. CHRISTIAN VOTE DIVIDED Christians, now being so few in number, know their political power is severely limited. In previous elections there has been one main Christian party, the Assyrian Democratic Movement, and Christians have backed it or sometimes nationalist secular parties. However this time there are as many as 12 Christian parties taking part in the elections -- some Assyrian, some Chaldean; some candidates were closer to the Kurdish agenda and others to the Shia -- weakening the Christian voice and re-opening denominational divisions. "The Christian vote is completely split now", said Robert Ewan, an Iraqi-born journalist in London. Another change in the demographic make-up of the country is the spread northwards of Shia Iraqis. Since government forces reclaimed the oil-rich city of Kirkuk from the Kurdish troops who had defended it from IS, members of Shia Hashd militias have begun moving into towns in the Nineveh Plains not far away. They have had little trouble in buying up properties from those Christians who have decided to emigrate. According to the ecumenical Nineveh Reconstruction Committee, which aims to rebuild nine Christian towns and villages, some 37,000 of the more 100,000 Christians who fled their homes in the Nineveh Plains in 2014 for the Kurdish region have returned home. But Fr. Salar Kajo, who is part of the committee, said: "We have to rebuild now. If we take more time, families will leave and Christianity will disappear from Iraq." Sixteen-year-old Issac, a Syriac Catholic from Qaraqosh in the Nineveh Plains, spends his days cleaning and repairing the town's damaged churches while his family awaits relocation. "Our house was completely burned; repairing it isn't possible. I have no hobbies," he told World Watch Monitor. "And I don't go to school because our family decided to leave the country as soon as we can." Eighteen-year-old Yousif, also from Qaraqosh, said: "I don't have many friends any more. Pretty much all of them left the country over the last few years. They are in Australia, the United States and France now." But he told World Watch Monitor: "There is still fear among the Christians that there still could be attacks. But there is also courage among the Christians that chose to stay in this country." Christians have been scapegoated for too long to tolerate much more violence. With their political power limited by design and weakened by division, their best hope lies with a government that works to heal the grievances left by 15 years of bitter conflict and incorporates all the country's religious and ethnic groups. Only with the establishment of a lasting peace and a citizenship that moves beyond religious favouritism will Christians be persuaded to return home, and, if they have already, to stay.The Iraqi Elections and the Assyrians

Iraq 3.0 is about to get going this month. ISIS has been territorially defeated and pushed into adopting insurgent tactics once again. Minoritized groups such as the indigenous Assyrians and Yazidis are trying to piece their lives back together in their ancestral homeland of the Nineveh Plain?--?an area rendered fertile for onslaught and occupation after a decade long campaign of destabilization waged by the Kurdistan Regional Government as a prelude to ISIS. Among the ruins, hope emerges for these brutalized and battered people. Christian Assyrians were among the biggest losers in The New Iraq, having put down their weapons after the overthrow of Saddam in compliance with coalition policy, thereby rendering themselves defenseless amid the ensuing sectarian strife and violence. Meanwhile, disparate groups of Arabs and Kurds continued to reinforce their arsenals in a bitter struggle for land and power that seems to persist indefinitely. Iraq's democratic experiment has thus far only yielded unprecedented levels of corruption and failure, but there is a new dawn in Iraq brought into full view after the defeat of ISIS. A small modicum of positive energy has been rekindled among much of the population, and a renewed belief in the Iraqi armed forces has reignited some optimism about the future of a Federal Iraq. It is no secret that the Federal Government has repeatedly failed the most vulnerable groups in the country?--?both legislatively and materially?--?as it grappled with a new found freedom from dictatorship. When Iraqis lose, Assyrians lose more?--?such is the nature of the relationship between minoritized groups and a state historically unable to enforce law and security free of sectarianism and leveraged deal-making. In this endeavour, Assyrians cannot call on any powerful sponsor?--?a prerequisite for survival, nevermind prosperity. As usual, Assyrians enter these elections allotted a minority quota of 5 seats in the Iraqi Parliament. Each list?--?a mechanism which enables Iraq's numerous political parties to run together and then share power given success?--?must comprise of 10 candidates. This compliments the system of proportional representation Iraq utilises which almost always never sees one single party garner a majority in parliament, almost necessitating the need for negotiation and compromise between parties after the election has been concluded. The most recent figures I have seen confirm a total of 6,904 candidates within 143 political parties (204 total, with rest being "independently" represented) over 32 lists will contest the upcoming elections. As of writing, there are 67 Assyrian candidates spread across 7 different lists running for 5 quota seats in parliament. This means that 7/32 lists, and 67/6,904 candidates are Assyrians contesting 5 quota seats reserved out of a parliament of 328 seats. To give you another angle: 22% of the officially registered lists are contesting 1.5% of the total seats available. If that ratio seems off and embarrassing, that's because it is. But we have to understand these numbers. Never have so many people contested for so little. Here is a brief who's who and what they represent and thoughts on the quota system: List 113?--?Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council (or Majlis Shabi) Majlis is a political party founded and funded by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in 2007 through its willing accomplice and former Minister of Finance, Sargis Aghajan?--?an ethnic Assyrian. Its purpose was to both muffle any independent Assyrian political voice whilst buying loyalty from Assyrians to push KDP policies, namely the annexation of Assyrian territories to the KRG. Sargis Aghajan was the face of this party until his disappearance from all public life after the break of Wikileaks, and his revelations therein. The Zaito clan?--?who own and administer Babylon Media?--?are staunch supporters of this list. Salwan Zaito recently declared that Aghajan did "the work of Jesus" at a political rally, inspiring the wrath of Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako in a politically charged rebuttal. Majlis also endorse the Nineveh Plains Guards?--?a force formed in 2007 of unknown size and capability--who fall squarely under peshmerga command. The KDP ventriloquise Majlis into asserting this proxy force as the rightful defenders of the Nineveh Plain, despite having no operational value outside of a few flashy propaganda videos. Many leadership figures in the Churches serving the Assyrian people also support this force, in line with KDP policy. Wahida Hermiz, a Majlis MP in the Kurdistan Regional Government, regularly appears on Kurdish media outlets owned by the Barzani family declaring her support for an independent Kurdistan and condemning any other military force in the Nineveh Plain other than peshmerga. These activities are in line with the party's international efforts: Loay Mikhail has been a paid lobbyist for Majlis (and by extension the KDP) in Washington D.C. for years. His job, as seen here, is to push for the annexation of the Nineveh Plain to the Kurdistan Region through direct lobbying and the undertaking of collaborative political activities, none more pronounced than lauding the coalition of traitors present at the Brussels Conference last year. He also serves as a senior adviser for the "Safe Haven Project" overseen by the group In Defence of Christians alongside Western opportunists like Stephen Hollingshead?--?who also advocates for Majlis policies (annexation of the Nineveh Plain, support for the peshmerga-controlled Nineveh Plains Guards). Most recently, the KDP have been mobilising people, including Kurds, to vote for Majlis candidates, specifically Rehan Hana Ayoub in Kirkuk?--?whose quota seat is currently occupied by Imad Youkhana from the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM). This has brought about condemnation by the Sons of Mesopotamia political party (Abnaa Nahrain). Majlis currently holds two seats in Baghdad's parliament. List 115?--?United Beth Nahrain This list is primarily composed of members of the Beth Nahrain Democratic Party and Union-- two more Kurdistani party, albeit two which hold no seats in parliament. Curiously, Joseph Sliwa?--?an ethnic Assyrian member of the Iraqi Communist Party?--?is the only person on the list who currently holds a seat in Baghdad's parliament. The head of the BNDP, Romyo Hakkari, regularly appears on Kurdistan 24 and Rudaw?--?media channels operated and funded by the KDP?--?pushing KDP policies (such as the failed referendum) and propagandizing for the annexation of the Nineveh Plain to the Kurdistan Region (a referendum on annexation is a KDP policy?--?they would assure a favourable outcome). The BNDP's military extension, the Nineveh Plain Forces (NPF) were launched as part of the KDP's response to the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU), and comprised of a 50-strong unit of men who fell completely under Peshmerga command during the ISIS offensive. KDP media were keen to direct journalists and observers towards this group and away from the NPU. Since the annihilation of ISIS as a territorial force and the thrust northwards in the Nineveh Plain from the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), the NPF has since disappeared, serving as they did no operational function?--?unlike the NPU who participated directly in the liberation of Assyrian towns. List 131?--?Syriac Assembly Movement This list, three members short of a full ten, has Salwan Momika as its key figure in the background. Momika and his affiliates are another group of Kurdistanis who are, much like the BNDP and Majlis, not secretive about their KDP proxy status. The newly installed mayor of Bakhdida, the largest Assyrian town in the Nineveh Plain, is an affiliate of the BNDP and Dawronoye movement?--?voted in as he was by the corrupt and KDP-dominated Nineveh Provincial Council by a ratio of 12--1. This "movement" officially holds one seat on this council too. There is little else to note about their potential to grasp power save for the fact that the "Syriac" vote has not been primarily determined by sect affiliation in the past, and is thus almost entirely divided between existing parties. A brief foray into military affairs by Momika only yielded a Facebook page, a few guys holding the red Aramean flag, and a few photo opportunities with the now defunct NPF?--?two branches of the same dawronoye tree. This list holds no seats in Baghdad's parliament. List 139?--?Chaldean Alliance List Louis Sako, the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, has decided to formally weigh in on Iraqi political affairs by helping form and endorse a list of candidates along sectarian lines. Deliberately breaking with reality and the truth of peoples, Louis Sako is pushing an agenda which declares Chaldeans are a separate ethnic group from Assyrians, and is hoping to reap the benefits of doing so via a political platform. He even goes so far as rejecting the tri-name, Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac, fashioned as it was to simultaneously "unite" and reward the sectarianism espoused by the main Churches serving the Assyrian people. What has since emerged is a flurry of activity on social media pages as well as on the ground (and even diaspora student pages). The Chaldean Church is actively pushing its parishioners to vote for Chaldean Alliance candidates, even urging parishioners to do so during Church services. There are also stories of blackmail and withholding of services perpetrated by the clergy within diaspora communities. However, the rewards of instituting such despicable behaviour remain to be seen: if these threats, the blackmail, coercion and priestly authority translate into votes, the Assyrian community as a whole will suffer for it at a time they can ill afford to. Regarding policy, there is nothing distinctive about this list other than pushing a sectarian identity as a platform. The members of this list are politically Kurdistani in that they and those who endorse them fully support KDP policies much like Majlis?--?the pool of voters Sako is targeting. In 2016, Sako personally went as far as discouraging support to the NPU during the height of the ISIS offensive, calling for Assyrians who want to contribute to security to either join the peshmerga or Iraqi Army proper. His subordinates, such as second in command Archbishop of Arbil Bashar Warda, echo this sentiment and push for some configuration of peshmerga and the Nineveh Plains Guards attached to Majlis to have jurisdiction in the political and military battleground of the Nineveh Plain. List 166?--?Babylon Movement Amongst the Assyrian community, this list is largely an unknown given that it is a political project by prominent Arabs affiliated to the Badr faction of the Popular Mobilisation Units (PMUs). Riyan Kildani is the face of the Babylon Brigades, an overwhelmingly Arab militia with a Christian face serving as its political arm. The initial thrust of this project was projecting a diverse PMU, but has since evolved into an opportunistic land grab of territories in Nineveh by Arabs who recognise the economic and geopolitical significance of having influence in these areas. The Assyrian community simply have no ties to it. A curious recent addition to this list is Faiez Abdmikha (Jahwarah), the Assyrian mayor of Alqosh who was deposed by the KDP-dominated Nineveh Provincial Council. Abdmikha notably had an existing relationship with Riyan Kildani?--?both being natives of Alqosh. The prospects and potential success of this list are unclear, but it is incredibly unlikely they will garner any support among the Assyrian community. Will they be able to attract the votes of others through bribes and corruption? Quite possibly. If the prominent Arabs orchestrating this from behind the scenes were serious about rehabilitating the Assyrian presence in Nineveh, they simply would not be standing up a rival force to the NPU, much less a rival political player. Here, they are behaving in an identical manner to the KDP. The fact that this list has been put together proves that another problem is being deliberately created for the already besieged Assyrian community. List 144?--?Rafidain List (Assyrian Democratic Movement?--?ADM) This list is almost entirely composed of Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM?--?or Zowaa) candidates, bar Emanual Khoshaba, the head of the Assyrian Patriotic Party, and one of his associates. Khoshaba was the political leader of the Dwekh Nawsha militia?--?a unit of 10--20 men of varying origins whose primary output as a force was social media activity. This anomaly aside, proving as he does only to diversify the list of ADM candidates, the list is headed by apex politician Yonadam Kanna, the long-standing leader of the ADM, who won the last internal leadership contest with no rival and every single vote (which I critique in the second half of this piece). This omniscience and omnipresence has yielded a lot of cynicism and resentment among many Assyrians. Some individuals unsuccessfully attempted to dislodge him at varying moments and have since left to form their own political party?--?Abnaa Nahrain?--?who are contesting the elections as the only other Assyrian party not under the spell of Kurdish or Arab groups and agendas. At this time however, it is best to focus on policies and not individuals. The ADM are the political party which sponsors the NPU?--?the first legitimate force of Assyrians recognised by both Iraq and coalition forces. In Iraq at present, the ADM serve as the NPU's political channel?--?crucial in order for the NPU to survive operationally in the ongoing administrative chaos of Iraq's northern territories. The ADM occupy a significant place in the imagination and memory of many Assyrians, being as they are the first Assyrians to organise and rebel against the Ba'athist regime in 1979. In this fight, they offered martyrs and many families are haunted by these losses to this day. After 2003, they have struggled to assert themselves in the corrupt machinery of the Iraqi political system, dominated as it was (and still is) by a new political order defined by greed. Assyrian numbers continue to dwindle in the face of Islamic extremism and Kurdish nationalism and gangsterism. Swathes of land have been stolen and homes lie in rubble or have their deeds simply rewritten?--?the question for Assyrians is always how much can our political representatives be blamed for our woes? Here is their election platform: In this, inspecting policy is always best. However, most of what is written on paper inside Iraq in terms of defined actions must often be kept secret to prevent groups like the KDP from dedicating its considerable resources towards thwarting them. The most important accomplishment the ADM have played a key role in is the formation of the NPU. This success cannot be underestimated or overlooked in relation to our present and future in Iraq. It is a force salaried by the Federal Government and recognized and trained in part by coalition forces. No other group competing for support from the Assyrian people has come close to demonstrating the capacity to build power by asserting our agency amid a sea of hostile actors. No other group vying for votes publicly supports the NPU either. Yacoub Yakoo, an Assyrian ADM MP in the KRG asks the question, "why is Zowaa (ADM) a target for all of the non-Assyrian parties? Why have these parties spent millions of dollars creating problems for us, dividing us, and trying to drive us out of parliament?" He claims it is because the ADM are the ones who adopt and follow through on pro-Assyrian policies. The ADM currently holds two seats in the Iraqi Parliament?--?Baghdad and Kirkuk. List 154?--?Sons of Mesopotamia (Abnaa Nahrain?--?AN) AN is a political party whose leadership is composed almost entirely of ex-ADM members and dissidents. In this, they are not a creation of the KDP, nor do they serve any other agenda. They are entirely a protest party and organise themselves accordingly, both to good and bad effect. The good means Kanna's pragmatism is sometimes abandoned in favour of more overt expressions of disapproval or approval?--?towards Assyrian interests. The bad sees them withhold support for the NPU since it is sponsored by a rival political party (equalising them as they did to the other fake militias owned by the KDP), regardless of the benefit Assyrians feel in real terms by having them secure our towns as we try and rebuild them?--?against Assyrian interests. One AN candidate recently referred to the NPU as the "NP-Gnu" (steal, theft), only to claim that is only what certain individuals have called the group in the Assyrian town of Bakdida. Relaying the words of what some people allegedly say in Iraq is in itself an act of bias and calculation. A lot of people say a lot of things. What is reported is always selective?--?by journalists, politicians and ordinary citizens. The least we owe ourselves and each other is taking responsibility and ownership for what we select?--?and backing it up with evidence if challenged on it. Once quizzed however, no evidence was presented to support this. Odd behaviour by a party official: if one cannot identify any evidence of a serious allegation that has come to one's attention, one simply should not keep it alive by repeating it. Thus, this reference was nothing but a cheap slur. The party consists of academics, lawyers and even poets. It is the party self-identifying intellectuals among the Assyrian community will naturally gravitate towards?--?especially those who are obsessed and resentful of Kanna's hold over the ADM. Here, AN seek to be a home for anti-Kanna sentiment to flourish. The problem with this self-imposed characterisation is that they deliberately render themselves a short-term project which runs parallel to Kanna's political career. The resentment is so great that it scuppered plans for AN and the ADM to run on a joint list to increase their chances of success. This deal fell through after terms were not agreed. According to contradictory reports: the ADM claimed AN wanted Kanna off of the list altogether, whilst AN claimed they merely said he should not be head of the list. The failure of these negotiations is ultimately an opportunity missed at the most crucial of times. Both parties failed the Assyrian community with this petty bickering, yet in the context of these elections and what is at stake (namely, the NPU), it was AN's protesting which is ultimately more to blame. AN currently hold no seats in Baghdad's Parliament. Does the quota system work for Assyrians? The quota system is supposed to reserve minorities a seat at the table to relay their demands, but we must examine what have these seat(s) have yielded in terms of benefits in order to manage our expectations of them. It seems that our situation is always getting worse, and this reached its peak with the onslaught of ISIS. The seats occupied by the ADM were useful in legitimising an Assyrian militia in the theatre of war to reclaim territory. This political face enabled the NPU to take its place among all other groups in Iraq, demonstrating that Assyrians are equal to all other constituent groups and capable of fighting for our own place in the country. Without the ADM's offices, logistical nuance, political relationships and supporter base, the NPU would exist as it does today. Without the NPU, Assyrians would only be able to call proxy militias with no operational value managed by Kurds or Arabs. But what kind of dynamic does the quota system create between Assyrians? This is the most important question. Within the quota system, Assyrians only compete with each other. This is crucial to realise, since it sets the foundation for all of the painfully crude and divisive rhetoric from all of our ("our" used very loosely) political parties when confronted with each other's agenda. For Assyrians, the only political opponents are other Assyrians, not non-Assyrians who enact the actual policies that affect us. Assyrians only need to challenge other Assyrians; undermine other Assyrians; and object to other Assyrians. At no point do they need to confront the real victimisers and oppressors on an election platform. What good is the quota system if it doesn't even serve its own specific purpose of safeguarding the voice and representation of minorities when more than half of the list running in the election are KDP-creations and affiliates? What good is it when even Arabs have their own proxy with no connection to the Assyrian people? As time has wore on in Iraq, this quota system has been repeatedly abused by non-Assyrians who have the resources to abuse it. And all for a pitiful 5 seats. This is not even factoring how clergy have just as many if not more meetings with local and international politicians than our elected representatives do. Moreover, the quota system concedes both that we are not part of mainstream society and that mainstream society is not fit enough to accommodate us or our demands. And there is truth to it. Our ethnic identity is still not given indigenous status; our language is not enshrined in the Iraqi constitution as an official language alongside Arabic and Kurdish; our genocides, including Simele, are not recognised; and our towns lie in ruins, being fought over by the more equal Arabs and Kurds. What the quota system seeks to provide is an avenue to address these failures and prejudices, but it cannot. I contend that 5/328 seats in any parliament, much less one characterised by obscene levels of corruption, is not the defining element of our degradation as a people and our offensively minute position in Iraqi society. Even if all 5 seats were occupied by one party with one vision, I honestly do not think there would be much change on the ground. In any case, 5 people in parliament do not have influence in matters outside of their small constituency?--?that responsibility is on people themselves. And people don't care about seats, they care about security, heating, electricity, employment, and education. These are the things politicians in Iraq sacrifice at the altar of their own unchecked greed. In a country where 99% of all government revenue is generated by the oil sector, only 1% of Iraqis work in the oil sector. Where most governments rely on meticulous paper-trails and the taxation of private individuals and companies to support public spending projects-- the Iraqi government directly creates its own source of revenue by being the sole owners and administrators of Iraq's oil industry. Thus, corruption will not be addressed in Iraq until its economy is diversified away from government monopoly. It is important for Assyrians to digest that in the context of what our potential representatives promise and what they can feasibly deliver. The upcoming elections are nevertheless important for Assyrians for three reasons.

We should not concede to the superior resources of Kurdish parties and their handful of Assyrian accomplices which seek to divide and distribute our lands between them. These lands belong to our mothers and fathers and to our sons and daughters, not a violent mafia engaged in a turf war. If we abandon the political process owing to growing apathy and hopelessness, we also abandon the Assyrians who still must believe in it given the overwhelming weight of arms and violence against them. We must not leave our fate in the hands of others, and we must contribute to our own protection according to our needs and agenda. The only way a robust case for this can be made is if individuals are given a mandate in a representative democracy and held accountable for their actions. Lastly and most importantly, Assyrians need to ensure the NPU have a political channel in Baghdad's parliament. It is unclear what their fate would be if the worst possible scenario should occur: the ADM loses both it's current seats. In this case, the NPU may very well stop receiving support from the Federal Government. If this should happen, the lives of ordinary Assyrians would be entirely in the hands of Kurdish peshmerga and Arab soldiers-- groups who have already demonstrated their primary interests are their own, not ours.

Considering the above, the ADM must be supported as Assyrians seek to rebuild Nineveh. It has consistently objected to the annexation of the Nineveh Plain to the Kurdistan Region; it objected to the referendum being administered in the Nineveh Plain (the only areas which were not forced to participate were areas secured by the NPU); and it helped stand up the only recognised fighting force of Assyrians in Iraq as an urgent response to ISIS. The last element in particular is our only bit of leverage in a country which has deprived of us any-- and we must not surrender it.Assyrians in Sweden Critical of Government's Position on Genocide Bill

Swedish PM Stefan Lovfen delivering a speech at the Assyrian Association of Sodertalje in April 2014. ( AINA) Stockholm (AINA) -- Assyrians and Armenians in Sweden have reacted strongly after Swedish prime minister Stefan Lovfen revealed in an interview that his government has no intention to make genocide recognition part of Swedish foreign policy. The announcement was ill received by the large Assyrian community, which makes up a significant portion of the electorate in several key voting districts. With local and national elections looming later in September this year many in the Assyrian community are now calling for a boycott against the ruling Social Democratic Party.

In 2014, only a few months before Mr Lovfen was elected the new prime minister he attended the Assyrian new years celebrations in Sodertalje, a town with a large Assyrian population. During his visit he promised the community that if he was elected, his future government would ratify the genocide recognition bill which had passed in the Swedish parliament in 2010. It's this broken promise which has upset the Assyrians and Armenians.

Sweden maintains strong relations with Turkey, which go back several centuries to the times Sweden was a formidable power. It's no secret that the genocide issue is seen as a threat to Swedish-Turkish relations. For the thousands of Assyrians and Armenians who have made Sweden their home for since 1970, genocide recognition goes beyond everyday diplomacy. As one Assyrian man commented on the issue: "Who would have accepted to hold back a full recognition of the Holocaust for the sake of good relations with Germany had it not admitted its crimes?"Sean van Dort is the new chairman of the Global Shippers Forum (GSF), which represents international supply chain managers.

He succeeds Bob Ballantyne, chief executive of the Freight Management Association of Canada, who has chaired the GSF since its incorporation in 2011.

Van Dort is director of logistics and digital services integration for MAS Capital, a major apparel manufacturer based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and he has been a member of the GSF board since 2015. Until recently, he was chairman of the Sri Lankan Shippers Council.

Speaking at the GSF annual meeting in Melbourne, Australia, van Dort said: "I am grateful for the confidence of the GSF members in confirming my appointment as their chairman.

"Thanks to the wise guidance of Bob Ballantyne, who I am pleased will be remaining on the GSF board, and the enormous efforts of its secretary general, Chris Welsh, the GSF has become a major influence in facilitating global trade and ensuring the needs and priorities of cargo owners are heard and respected in international trade and transport agencies.

"As an organisation, GSF is poised to expand its membership and the services it offers its members. I am proud to be taking over as chair of GSF at such a crucial time in its development."

Welsh announced at the end of March that he is retiring and will step down from his GSF role at the end of this month.

The GSF is the global voice for shippers, created in 2006 as the successor to the Tripartite Shippers Group, first organised in 1994.

The GSF is focused on the impact of commercial developments in the international freight transportation industry and the policy decisions of governments and international organisations that affect shippers and receivers of freight.

Read more air cargo people news

Share this story



https://www.aish.com/jw/id/Alibaba-Loves-Israel.html

Jack Ma, China's most successful entrepreneur, kvells over the Jewish state.

Israel's global status got another uptick this week when Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba  the Chinese version of Amazon.com  spent three days in Israel, praising it repeatedly as "inspirational" and full of "creativity, wisdom, persistence and vision."

Alibaba is a global giant with 66,000 employees, a market cap of half a trillion dollars, and holder of the largest IPO in financial history. Ma, whose personal wealth is $42 billion, was ranked as the world's "second greatest leader" by Fortune magazine.

This week, Ma compared the State of Israel with Alibaba: both have excelled despite countless obstacles and setbacks.

"There were thousands of times I said to myself and to colleagues at Alibaba: Never give up," says Ma. In Israel, "people are born to believe never give up. This is what has made Israel a miracle in only 70 years."

"Rather than read about Israel, you should come here, feel it, and touch it."

In his first visit to Israel, Ma brought along 40 senior Alibaba's managers  a visit closely watched on the global business stage. So the BDS movement could not have been pleased as Ma glowed how Israel "is so peaceful and prosperous... Rather than read about Israel, you should come here, feel it, and touch it."

As part of a $15 billion global expansion, Alibaba is now opening a R&D center in Tel Aviv  focusing on artificial intelligence, computer vision, and other disruptive technologies.

Ma praised the Jewish trait of "chutzpah  the courage to challenge convention," and expressed amazement that in Israel

You dont have any diamonds here, but you have the biggest diamond exchange in the world. You dont manufacture cars, but you have the best technology for car manufacturing. You dont have oil, you dont have water, you dont have any resources  but you make yourself so strong.

Beyond the business side of the trip, Ma focused on Jewish heritage and the Jewish people's return to its homeland. Ma visited the Israel Museum, and at the Western Wall echoed core Jewish values: "Teach history, preserve the tradition, and honor what our forefathers did."

Ma's visit to Israel was personal in another important way. Having failed his college entrance exams four times, Ma was genuinely thrilled to receive an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University. Watch his remarkable speech:In the early morning hours of June 6, 1944, thousands of Allied soldiers stormed into the beaches of northern France in what became the largest seaborne invasion in history. In the space of a single day, Operation Overlord put over 180,000 troops ashore in Normandy, creating a beachhead that eventually allowed more than 3 million Allied soldiers into German occupied Western Europe, setting the stage for the final phase of the war in Europe.

In the months leading up to D-Day, the Allied powers organized a series of training exercises involving full dress rehearsal and live ammunition in order to give the soldiers a small taste of what they would experience during the actual landings. One such rehearsal took place in a small sleepy Devon village named Slapton.

American troops landing on Slapton Sands in England during rehearsals for the invasion of Normandy.

Slapton was located on the southwest coast of England where it meets the English Channel. It was chosen because Slaptons beach looked very similar to the one in Cotentin Peninsula, the westernmost of the five beaches along Normandy where the real assault would take place. This particular beach was code named Utah.

In late 1943, some 3,000 residents of Slapton were evacuated to make way for Exercise Tiger, the code name for the D-Day landing rehearsal scheduled for the following spring. The American troops who were to rehearse there were the so-called Force U, tasked with landing on Utah Beach.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, wanted Exercise Tiger to be as realistic as possible. He insisted that live ammunition be used instead of blanks so that his soldiers could feel, see and even smell what a real battlefield looked like. In order to simulate the Channel crossing, the assault troops were taken on a long winding route through Lyme Bay. General Eisenhower wanted his men to experience the rough sea, he wanted his men to get accustomed to seasickness. Before the landing, there was to be naval artillery bombardment of the beach, and during the landing itself troops placed on land playing the role of German defenders were to fire live rounds over the heads of the incoming men to simulate real battlefield conditions.

The first phase of the exercise from 22 to 25 April, 1944, went without incident. Trouble began on the morning of 27 April when some of the ships participating in the exercise fell badly behind schedule, forcing the American Rear Admiral Don Pardee Moon to delay the entire exercise by one hour. The landing was now to take place at 8:30 am instead of 7:30 am. Unfortunately, this crucial information was not adequately relayed to all ships.

Some of the landing crafts, unaware of the rescheduling, landed on the beach just when the rescheduled naval bombardment began raining shells down on the unsuspected men. Then for some perplexing reasons, the mock German troops on land began mowing down their comrades on the beach with gunfire.

Royal Engineer Jim Cory watched in horror from an observation post as soldiers streaming from landing craft were 'mown down like ninepins'. Cory counted 150 bodies before he fled.

What he saw that day tormented him until his death last year, wrote the Guardian. His widow, Mary, who recounted his story last week, said: 'He always hoped that one day he would get an official answer.'

The mens uncharacteristic behavior was never fully explained.

Rehearsal landing in Slapston Sands

As many as 450 men may have been killed on the beach that day. Yet there is not a single official mention of the incident in Army records. The entire exercise was hushed up for fear of embarrassment to the Allies, and those who survived were sworn to secrecy by their superiors. All the dead were hastily buried in a mass grave nearby, and a couple of months later the bodies were secretly transported by trains to an unknown location. Its only about forty years ago that details of the massacre started to surface as curious locals began to question the skulls and bones, and other military artifacts that periodically washed up ashore on Slapton and on nearby beaches over the decades.

The incident of the friendly fire on Slapton beach wasnt the only fiasco during Exercise Tiger. The very next day, a convoy of eight landing crafts unexpectedly bumped into a group of nine German E-boats patrolling Lyme Bay. Of the two ships assigned to protect the convoy, only one was present; the other was at Plymouth undergoing repairs. The convoy was like sitting ducks. Torpedoes tore into the vessels and blew them apart. 300 more American troops were dead, taking the toll to over 750.

Landing on Utah beach in June 1944.

Theres a surprising amount of confusion about the final death toll. Estimates range from 749 to 946a figure that is all the more staggering when you realize that more people were killed in the rehearsal for the landing at Utah Beach than the actual landing itself197 were killed in action at the Utah Beach landing on June 6, 1944.

The lessons learned from that grim episode eventually helped lower casualties during the actual Normandy landings. Many men during the T-4 convoy attacks drowned because they were not properly trained to put on their life vests. Better life jacket training was put into place, and troops were trained how to pick up survivors floating in the water. The most important change was that they fixed their broken communication system by standardizing the radio frequencies so that miscommunication could never happen on the big day.

A Memorial plaque at Utah Beach. Photo credit: Jebulon/Flickr

The Allied organized more landing exercise on English beaches over six phases after the Exercise Tiger fiasco. This one was code named Exercise Fabius. The 1st and 29th American Infantry Division returned to Slapton Sands to rehearse the landing on Omaha Beach. As if on a curse, the Omaha beach landing turned out to be the most difficult and bloodiest of all Normandy landings with American troops suffering between 2,000 and 4,700 casualties.

After the war, the US army presented a memorial which now stands on Slapton Sands thanking the villagers who left their homes to provide a battle practice area for the successful assault in Normandy. No mention of the lost lives was made on the memorial plaque.

In 1984, locals salvaged a Sherman Tank from the sea bed and installed it at the southern end of the beach at Slapton as a memorial commemorating those who died during Exercise Tiger.

Photo credit: Barry Lewis/Flickr

The memorial presented by the US Army to Slapton. Photo credit: Tom Bastin/Flickr

Slaptons beach today. Photo credit: Dave Johnson/FlickrMelbourne-based writer Rachael Lopez contemplates how her new baby has taught her to look up.

My eight-month old baby loves staring at people on trains. Hell choose someone interesting and fixate on their face for the entire journey. Most of the time, though, no connection is made because their attention is elsewhere. As he looks up from his pram with his big brown eyes, all he sees is everyone looking down at their device. Occasionally hell get someones attention and its beautiful to watch him smile and giggle with a complete stranger. I know he managed to brighten someones day and they his. Because all babies yearn for connection. And its all any of us want, really.

Disconnect to Reconnect

In late April I spent a week in the country drinking tea, reading books and trying to avoid mosquito bites. I challenged myself to go off social media for a month as I wanted to be more present with my family. One of the books I read while away was Slow by Australian writer and host of The Slow Home podcast, Brooke McAlary. She encourages her readers: Switch off our phones and get outside. Talk to people at the coffee shop. Offer a stranger an anonymous kindness. . . Pay attention to the person sitting next to us. Pay attention to the child whose eyes so often only see yours turned away.

Walking Attentively

Each week at a local cafe, I gather a group of women for a book-club to chat about spiritual growth books. Our latest find is Sensible Shoes by Sharon Garlough and its about four women on a journey of spiritual formation. Three words keep appearing throughout: awake, attentive and alert. If Im mindlessly scrolling, clicking and snapping photos, I not only fail to be present with those physically around me. I find myself dulled to Gods creation, too distracted to notice His presence and detached from His work in the world.

Look up

How do these three words speak to me in my not-yet-slow life?

Awake  not just with caffeine but drinking-in my surroundings, the beauty of nature, art and architecture.

Attentive  not looking for likes but attune to Gods presence and the people around and with me.

Alert  not to notifications but watchful for opportunities to share Gods love with others.

As a new mum, I often get asked milestone questions. Is he sleeping through the night yet? Nope. Can he crawl yet? Nope. But another question I get asked a lot is What do you love most about being a mum?

My baby teaches me to look up.Posted on: May 10, 2018 1:09 PM

[Episcopal News Service, by David Paulsen] When the tiny border community of Lajitas, Texas, celebrates Holy Eucharist on Saturday (12 May), the Revd Paul Moore will consecrate the bread and wine standing in the middle of the Rio Grande, with water soaking the bottom of his vestments and without a clear sense of whether his feet are planted on the American side or the Mexican side. This is the second year that Moore, an Episcopal priest from Silver City, New Mexico, will preside over a Eucharist in the river as part of the Voices From Both Sides celebration, an annual event that serves as a kind of community reunion for people from both sides of the border.

For me, it was a statement that borders are political, not spiritual, realities, Moore told Episcopal News Service. That people in the church are joined and are one.

The US government previously declined to actively patrol the Lajitas Crossing, and Mexicans and Americans passed freely across the river to visit relatives, shop, attend school and work. That changed on Mothers Day weekend in 2002, when US authorities detained 20 people on immigration charges and made clear they were ending the open passage as part of an effort to secure the border after the 2001 September 11 terror attacks. Now, anyone entering the US by crossing the river at Lajitas risks arrest.

Except on this one day.

Starting in 2013, the organisers of Voices From Both Sides arranged for federal and local authorities to bend the rules a little for a few hours, allowing for this border-straddling party, with music, food, drinks and religious worship.

The organisations have kept us informed since the beginning, and basically no one is crossing the border, so no laws are being broken, Bill Brooks, a US Customs and Border Protection spokesman, told the San Antonio Express-News in 2015 in a story about the third Voices From Both Sides.

People from both sides meet in the middle of the river but end the day back on the side where they live.

I hope it continues to keep on, because its just a day, said Marcy Reed, an Episcopalian who lives about 15 minutes away in Terlingua, Texas.

She and her husband are teachers at the school in Terlingua, and some of their students have family members back in Mexico. Voices From Both Sides is a way for those relatives and friends to reconnect without having to drive hours out of their way, Reed said.

I was really nervous last year with Trump in office, Reed said. Would President Donald Trumps tougher stance on immigration mean an end to Voices From Both Sides? I really wasnt sure it was going to happen. It still did.

She wasnt able to make it last year to participate in the service led by Moore, but she hopes to be there this time. Moore, rector of Church of the Good Shepherd, is fluent in Spanish and will preside over a bilingual Eucharist, with help from the Revd Sarah Guck, assistant rector at Good Shepherd.

Last year, the Episcopal service was first on the days lineup at 10.30 am, which meant the sound system hadnt been set up yet and only about 150 to 200 people had arrived for the days festivities. Even so, about 30 people from both sides of the river received communion.

This year, Moore is expecting an even bigger turnout for the Eucharist, which is scheduled for 11.30 am (CDT, 4.30 pm GMT).

Wed love to have more people join us, he said.

In addition to his parish duties, Moore is chair of Rio Grande Borderland Ministries. The Diocese of the Rio Grande is the largest among the contiguous 48 state and covers 800 miles of border in Texas and New Mexico. Moores church is about 90 miles away from Mexico, and he works with other churches along the border on a unified ministry that focuses on the needs of the border in every way, he said.

The church is engaged on issues like poverty and hunger, Moore said, as well as immigration. Hes gearing up for an eight-hour drive to Lajitas on 11 May, bringing with him on the long journey a Christian message that Jesus love transcends international borders.

Christian beliefs have political implications, he said. And one of the political implications here is, you can divide us politically, but you cannot divide us spiritually.

Residents of the Big Bend region of Texas, however, also are divided by and forced to overcome great geographic distances. Reed and her She and She and her husband sometimes drive 80 miles to attend St James Episcopal Church in Alpine, Texas, because services are sporadic at Santa Inez in Terlingua. Along the way, they take advantage of the better grocery options in Alpine.

They sometimes take trips into Mexico, such as when a student invites them to a quinceanera, or 15th birthday, in San Carlos. The community of Paso Lajitas on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande has all but dried up since the river crossing closed. Now, a trip that once took a few minutes by pickup truck across the river instead takes three or four hours by way of the official border crossing to the west in Presidio, Texas.

Its hard for Reed to imagine a terrorist using Lajitas as an entry point into the US It would be such a crazy place to cross. Theres just nothing here, she said.

At the same time, I dont think anyones coming over here stealing anyones jobs in Terlingua, she said. There arent a lot of jobs to steal.

Before the federal government cracked down on river crossings, the flow of people in both directions knit together the communities on both sides of the river, Reed said. The impact didnt seem to radiate any farther.

To me, if it wasnt broke dont fix it, she said. Everything was fine the way it was.Posted on: May 10, 2018 11:55 AM

The Bishop of West Malaysia, Archbishop Moon Hing, has welcomed the unprecedented victory for Malaysias opposition in yesterdays general election. The result ends the 62-year rule by the Barisan Nasional coalition, led by the United Malays National Organisation. The countrys former Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, came out of retirement at the age of 92 and switched allegiance to the Pakatan Harapan, and spoke of his regret at past mistakes and promised to end corruption. In a speech overnight in Malaysia, he said that the new government would not conduct a witch hunt; but said that former Prime Minister Najib Razak would have to face the consequences if he is found to have broken the law. Mr Razak has been accused of corruption.

The Pakatan Harapan-led coalition have won 135 seats in the countrys parliament  well ahead of the 122 needed to form a government. But at the time of writing, Mr Mohamad had not been sworn in as Prime Minister. The Guardian newspaper reports that outgoing prime minister Najib Razak was offering bribes to opposition MPs to persuade them to switch sides.

We need to have this government today without delay, Mohamad told journalists at a press conference. There is a lot of work to be done. You know the mess the country is in and we need to attend to this mess as soon as possible and that means today. So we expect that today, well, Ill be sworn in as prime minister.

The countrys news agency Bernama has said that Dr Mohamad would be sworn in at 9.30pm MYT (1.30pm GMT) today.

In a message to Anglicans in his diocese, Archbishop Moon Hing said: As we rejoice and thank God for this miraculous landslide election in our excited exhaustion, we should celebrate the results of this Mother of all Elections together with this Sundays Mothers Day celebration in all our churches.

The archbishop posted a prayer on the dioceses Facebook page:

Almighty God, the sovereign Lord,

we give thanks and praise for the tenacity, wisdom and justice

you have delivered to us in this Mother of all Elections;

grant the leaders of the new government of Malaysia mercy and grace in their hearts;

forgiveness and humilty in their approach;

justice, integrity and transparency in their execution.

Grant to them the guidance of the Holy Spirit in their vision,

to show and lead in the way to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with you.

Together we ask this in the name of your Son, one God now and forever.

Amen.(ANSA) - Brescia, May 10 - The father of Sana Cheema, a 25-year-old Brescian of Pakistani origin who died in Pakistan in April, has confessed to murdering the woman, Pakistani media reported on Thursday.

The father, Ghulam Mustafa, an Italian citizen like his daughter, was arrested in Pakistan three weeks ago on suspicion of being behind an honour killing.

An autopsy report, extracts of which ANSA has received, shows that the "neck bone was broken", suggesting Cheema was strangled. The woman was killed by relatives for refusing an arranged marriage, according to her friends. Her brother, Adnan Mustafa, and uncle, Mazhar Iqbal, were also arrested. The father, brother and uncle have reportedly been charged with murder and unauthorized burial. The father and brother risk the death penalty, police inspector Furqan Shahzad told ANSA. Another two people are reportedly 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. 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.

NAPLES - The president of the Propeller Club at the port of Venice, Massimo Bernardo, opened a debate on the role of the port and north-east Italy in the Silk Way urging for inter-cultural unity in the Mediterranean.

''One of the great questions of the 'One Belt One Road' which we should all answer I think concerns the indispensable dialogue between different cultures, all connected within the same belt by exclusive economic-financial interests yet still far from a 'road' - a virtual way that will connect the world's east and west'', he said.

The Silk Way is the infrastructural development project of China towards the West.

Bernardo, in statements reported by Nautica Report, explained that it is necessary to build a ''cultural osmosis that is at the basis of true economic growth to reach the only common objective represented by more well-being, not just economical but social, for everyone''.

Investments are underway also in countries that are not geographically part of the Silk Way in Africa, South America and Australia, participants said.

According to the Asian Development Bank, 45 Asian countries should invest 26,000 billion dollars by 2030 to build infrastructures both in the energy sector and logistics.

Italy should take advantage of the opportunity, said Alessandro Panaro of the Research Center for the South, the Centro Studi e Ricerche per il Mezzogiorno: ''With the elevated rate of traffic - he said - being reported in the Suez Canal (+11% in 2017 on 2016), the increase of naval traffic (+24% from 2012 to 2016) and renewed growth in some Mena countries (Middle East and North Africa), the Mediterranean is finding new centrality in the maritime sector worldwide. China is investing significantly in terminals and ports in the Med area and we must reflect on ways to attract commercial vessels and intensify relations with China to take advantage of the great opportunities that will ensue for our port systems. It will however be necessary to show that our logistic and maritime system is efficient, solid and most of all without individualism''.

In this respect, the president of business association Confindustria for the Venice-Rovigo area, Vincenzo Marinese, stressed the complementarity of the ports of Venice and Trieste and the need for an industrial plan with tax-free zones and economic areas with fiscal incentives, the reallocation of the manufacturing industry and promotion of exports.CATANIA - The Aquarius ship flying the British flag operated by NGOs Sos Mediterranee and MSF with 105 migrants on board, including many women and children, arrived on Thursday morning at the port of Catania, Sicily. The migrants were rescued aboard a dinghy and had been waiting to land for days. Police and rescue organizations have been deployed to assist the migrants.

Eight women and 34 minors, including six children under 13, were on the boat. The data was provided by Sos Mediterranee. The migrants come from nine countries including Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan. Most of them said they were fleeing Libya due to instability in the country.

Porti: Venice Propeller, dialogue for Silk Way Panaro, Italian ports must be competitive with China

(ANSAmed) - NAPLES, MAY 10 - The president of the Propeller Club at the port of Venice, Massimo Bernardo, opened a debate on the role of the port and north-east Italy in the Silk Way urging for inter-cultural unity in the Mediterranean.



''One of the great questions of the 'One Belt One Road' which we should all answer I think concerns the indispensable dialogue between different cultures, all connected within the same belt by exclusive economic-financial interests yet still far from a 'road' - a virtual way that will connect the world's east and west'', he said.



The Silk Way is the infrastructural development project of China towards the West.



Bernardo, in statements reported by Nautica Report, explained that it is necessary to build a ''cultural osmosis that is at the basis of true economic growth to reach the only common objective represented by more well-being, not just economical but social, for everyone''.



Investments are underway also in countries that are not geographically part of the Silk Way in Africa, South America and Australia, participants said.



According to the Asian Development Bank, 45 Asian countries should invest 26,000 billion dollars by 2030 to build infrastructures both in the energy sector and logistics.



Italy should take advantage of the opportunity, said Alessandro Panaro of the Research Center for the South, the Centro Studi e Ricerche per il Mezzogiorno: ''With the elevated rate of traffic - he said - being reported in the Suez Canal (+11% in 2017 on 2016), the increase of naval traffic (+24% from 2012 to 2016) and renewed growth in some Mena countries (Middle East and North Africa), the Mediterranean is finding new centrality in the maritime sector worldwide. China is investing significantly in terminals and ports in the Med area and we must reflect on ways to attract commercial vessels and intensify relations with China to take advantage of the great opportunities that will ensue for our port systems. It will however be necessary to show that our logistic and maritime system is efficient, solid and most of all without individualism''.



In this respect, the president of business association Confindustria for the Venice-Rovigo area, Vincenzo Marinese, stressed the complementarity of the ports of Venice and Trieste and the need for an industrial plan with tax-free zones and economic areas with fiscal incentives, the reallocation of the manufacturing industry and promotion of exports. (ANSAmed)Migrants: Aquarius vessel with 105 on board in Catania They had been waiting to land for days

(ANSAmed) - CATANIA, MAY 10 - The Aquarius ship flying the British flag operated by NGOs Sos Mediterranee and MSF with 105 migrants on board, including many women and children, arrived on Thursday morning at the port of Catania, Sicily. The migrants were rescued aboard a dinghy and had been waiting to land for days. Police and rescue organizations have been deployed to assist the migrants.



Eight women and 34 minors, including six children under 13, were on the boat. The data was provided by Sos Mediterranee. The migrants come from nine countries including Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan. Most of them said they were fleeing Libya due to instability in the country. (ANSAmed).



Syria: Israel strikes Iranian targets After rockets hit Golan Heights

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, MAY 10 - Israeli forces have struck almost all of Iran's infrastructure in Syria, in response to an Iranian rocket attack last night on the Golan Heights, Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday.



''I hope we finished this chapter and that everyone got the message'', the minister said, adding that no Iranian rocket hit Israeli territory.



The Israeli military said 20 rockets were fired by Iranian Revolutionary Guards at its positions overnight.



The rockets were shot down by Israel's Iron Dome air defense system or fell short of the Golan Heights.



The attack ''was commanded and ordered by (Quds Force chief General) Qassem Soleimani and it has not achieved its purpose'', military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said.



He said the Iranian attack against Israel was ''very serious''.



Israel responded by targeting dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria, including weapons depots, logistics sites and intelligence centers, Conricus said in what he described as Israel's most relevant operation in the area over the past few years.



''We do not know yet the (Iranian) casualty count'', he said.



''In terms of our purpose, we focused less on personnel and more on capabilities and hardware'', Conricus added, to inflict ''long-term damage on the Iranian military establishment in Syria''. ''We assess it will take substantial time to replenish''.



(ANSAmed).



BEIRUT - At least 23 people have died in Israeli raids last night on Iranian targets in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human rights. The UK-based monitoring group has a vast network of sources on the ground.

Meanwhile, the Russian defense ministry on Thursday said Israel launched 70 missiles in the attack. According to the ministry, ''28 Israeli F15 and F16 jets were used in the attack, launching some 60 air-to-surface missiles, while over 10 tactical surface-to-surface missiles were launched from Israeli territory''.

The raids, the ministry said, targeted areas where Iranian troops are deployed as well as positions with Syrian air defense systems near Damascus.State of emergency no limit to democratic elections  Turk FM replies to criticism from UN human rights chief

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, MAY 10 - The state of emergency declared following the failed coup in Turkey in 2016 "does not represent an obstacle to holding democratic elections", the Turkish foreign minister said on Thursday.



His comments came in response to criticism from Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on Wednesday. "It is difficult to imagine how credible elections can be held in an environment where dissenting views and challenges to the ruling party are penalized so severely," Al Hussein said. "In Turkey the state of emergency measures are implemented only against terrorists and circles linked to terrorism. There are no measures that limit citizens' rights and freedoms," insisted the minister, saying the accusations are motivated by purely political considerations. "Elections were also held in France under the state of emergency," he added. The UN estimates at least 160,000 people have been arrested in Turkey under the state of emergency. (ANSAmed).



Syria: Assad, 'Moscow's wiseness will avoid WWIII'

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, MAY 10 - Syrian President Bashar al Assad ruled out the possibility of a ''third world war'' in the Middle East following escalating tensions between Iran and Israel and the US and Russia in an interview to Greek daily Ekathimerini quoted Thursday by Syrian government agency Sana.



''Thanks to the wise Russian leadership a large-scale clash has been avoided'', Assad was quoted as saying.



According to Assad, the US presidency ''tries to provoke conflicts'' but ''Russia has avoided this scenario''.



''We are not in the context of a cold war, nor are we facing a third world war'', Assad said. ''The hope is to avoid a direct conflict between powers''. (ANSAmed).



Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.Abu Dhabi International Airport has implemented smart Passenger Flow and Queue Management technologies, to boost efficiency in day-to-day operations across check-in, security, immigration and baggage-claim in Terminals 1 and 3. The new technology will dynamically manage airport resources and ultimately increase capacity and passenger satisfaction.

The airport adopts smart technologies which include the Internet of Things (IOT) and business intelligence that ensures efficient, smooth and proactive Airport operations. The turnkey project included sensors installation, provision of infrastructure and integration between the Passenger Flow Management solution and different airport and airlines operational systems. It entailed the design and implementation of a Desk Planner module that enables the airport to forecast desk demand for security and immigration areas. The collected data allows the airport operations to react with necessary measures against any challenges in the passenger flow that might arise, in timely manner.

More than 450 sensors have been installed in 19 areas across the two terminals enabling real-time monitoring. The system also ensures queue management efficiency and incident management, as well as allocating resources based on the predictive analytics of passenger flow and volume, thus aiding in seamless airport processes.

Abdul Majeed Al Khoori, Acting CEO of Abu Dhabi Airports commented: This project has been key in meeting the growing challenge of balancing the increased volume of passengers and operational efficiency. With the implementation of this smart technology, we are enabled to increase operational efficiency by receiving real-time data on passenger flows. The intelligence that the system is delivering has already proven its value by providing actionable information and real time inputs during recent Low Visibility Operations.

He added: As a regional hub for aviation, Abu Dhabi International Airport is truly embracing a progressive model for the airport of the future. Improving customer service whilst maintaining the highest standards in safety, security and operational efficiency, through innovative solutions is one of our key goals at Abu Dhabi Airports.

The project began its trial operations in December 2017, as part of Abu Dhabi Airports initiative towards the digital transformation to a smarter airport. It will kick-start with an application accessible on mobile, tablet and desktop devices, feeding directly to the Airport Management Center and other digital channels for airport operations staff and stakeholders.

The project was executed as collaboration between Abu Dhabi Airports and Dubai Technology Partners LLC (DTP), the regions leading systems integrator for the aviation industry, jointly with Xovis, the leading provider of people flow monitoring solutions.Etihad Aviation Group recently hosted its Pitch Day and awards ceremony to celebrate the winners of the second edition of its Fikra University competition.

The programme, run in partnership with Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC), aims to foster entrepreneurship and innovation among university students across the UAE and provide participating students with the opportunity to put forward solutions for a range of challenges facing the aviation industry.

Held at Etihads Training Academy in Abu Dhabi, the ceremony was attended by the senior leadership teams from Etihad and ADAC, as well as students and representatives from a number of major universities in the UAE.

There were four winning students this year. The first winners were a team of three students from the American University of Dubai who developed an innovative fast boarding process utilising unique algorithms. The final winning student was from the American University of Sharjah who developed a cargo-tracking device that can significantly increase efficiency of the cargo monitoring process.

The winners will be awarded with career defining opportunities for internships at Etihad Aviation Group, ADAC, or one of their select strategic partners.

In its second year, the programme has seen 44 universities participating in the competition, up from 18 in the first year, with 2,850 students registering to take part. Over 400 ideas were submitted with the winning ideas selected by a panel of experts who then provided mentoring and advice to the students to help them develop their ideas. The students then presented their ideas to a panel of senior management team members from Etihad and ADAC.Worlds biggest e-commerce deal angers traders body, RSS affilate.

Walmart for long has been trying to gain a significant foothold in India and the Flipkart acquisition will provide it what it had longed and lobbied for so hard.

New Delhi: American retail behemoth Walmart Inc announced Wednesday that it was acquiring a 77 per cent stake in Indias largest e-commerce firm Flipkart for about $16 billion (Rs 1.05 lakh crores), in what was pegged as the worlds biggest e-commerce deal.

This will give the US retailer access to the Indian e-commerce market, that is estimated to grow to $200 billion within a decade. This deal means the Indian e-commerce space will now be dominated by two US retailers  Walmart and Amazon. In the US, Walmart and Amazon are locked in an intense competition to get the upper hand in retail, which will now be extended to India.

The deal, where co-founder Sachin Bansal and Japans Softbank are exiting, values Flipkart at $20.8 billion. It is also the biggest M&A deal in India this year.

Walmart for long has been trying to gain a significant foothold in India and the Flipkart acquisition will provide it what it had longed and lobbied for so hard.

Binny Bansal, who co-founded Flipkart with Sachin Bansal 11 years ago, will retain his 5.5 per cent stake and will be chairman of the companys board. Walmarts Krish Iyer will be the CEO of the company which will continue to be based out of Bengaluru.

Walmart and Flipkart will remain separate brands and the Indian e-commerce firm will have an independent board, which will be revamped to give representation to the US firm.

The deal is subject to clearance from the Competition Commission of India and other regulators. It is expected to close later this year.

While the earlier UPA-2 government had allowed FDI in multi-brand retail, the BJP-led NDA government has been against it, making it difficult for foreign companies to expand in India by opening new stores. Walmart now operates just 20 stores in the wholesale segment which sell only to small businesses. The Flipkart deal is likely to change this, and allow Walmart to expand without opening stores, experts said.

Morgan Stanley has estimated the e-commerce market will grow to $200 billion in India in about a decade, and online sales are growing at about 35 per cent a year.

Small traders association CAIT, which has been sceptical about big MNC companies with huge cash piles to burn and gain marketshare through deep discounts said the deal is nothing but in the long run a clear attempt to control and dominate the much potential retail trade of India by Walmart through e-commerce, which is only a bridge to reach out to the offline retail market of India.

Opposing the Walmart-Flipkart deal, RSS affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Walmart was using the e-commerce route to circumvent the rules to attack the Indian market. Via Flipkart this is not only a backdoor entry, but they are barging into the Indian market. This will further eliminate small and medium businesses, small shops, and opportunity to create more jobs, SJM co-donvenor Ashwani Mahajan said. He said the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, RSS and BJP have a consensus that FDI in multi-brand retail will kill entrepreneurship, is anti-farmer and rightly this is kept out.

Besides the 77 per cent now held by Walmart and Binny Bansals 5.5 per cent stake, the remainder of the business will be held by some of Flipkarts existing shareholders,

including Tencent Holdings, Tiger Global Management and Microsoft Corp. Walmarts investment includes $2 billion of new equity funding, which will help Flipkart accelerate growth in the future, said Walmart. It said the company is also in discussions with additional potential investors who may join the round, which could result in Walmarts investment stake moving lower after the transaction is complete. Even so, the company would retain clear majority ownership, Walmart said. Googles parent Alphabet Inc is seen as a potential investor which may get as much as 15 per cent.

India is one of the most attractive retail markets in the world, given its size and growth rate, and our investment is an opportunity to partner with the company that is leading transformation of e-commerce in the market, said Doug McMillon, Walmarts president and chief executive officer.

Besides its own site, Flipkart owns fashion portals Myntra and Jabong and controls 34 per cent of online sales, which is followed by Amazon, with 27 per cent marketshare.

Amazon has committed to invest $5.5 billion in India to expand aggressively. Amazon was also said to have put in an aggressive offer to buy 60 per cent of Flipkart, but the board of the Indian firm is said to have favoured the Walmart offer.

Walmart entered India in 2009 through a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises, and took full control of that business in 2013.Payment to Iran may become difficult if EU also pulls out.

New Delhi: The US decision to reinstate financial sanctions on Iran will not impact Indias oil imports from the Islamic Republic as long as European countries dont follow suit, officials said on Wednesday.

India pays its third largest oil supplier in Euros using European banking channels and unless these are blocked, imports will continue, they said.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that the US will withdraw from the 2015 accord to curb Irans nuclear program and reinstate financial sanctions on the gulf nation.

Soon after the announcement, oil prices rebounded to trade at the highest level since 2014 with Brent crude oil climbing 2.5 per cent to $76.75.

Immediately there will be no impact but we have to wait and watch how other nations particularly the European block, react, said A.K. Sharma, director (finance) of Indian Oil, the countrys largest oil firm.

If the EU were to continue status quo and not re-impose sanctions, Iranian supplies to India will continue unhindered, he said. But paying Iran for the oil India buys would become difficult in case European countries join the US and impose financial sanctions and block banking channels, he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who personally lobbied Trump to remain in the deal, said: France, Germany, and the UK regret the US decision to leave the JCPOA.The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955.

Guwahati: A day before the visit of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government, in which the BJP is also a partner, decided to oppose the Citizenship (Amendm-ent) Bill 2016, proposed by the BJP-led NDA to make migrants of six communities eligible for citizenship of India.

The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Conrad K. Sangma ahead of the visit of the JPC to solicit views from the state government and stakeholders.

The proposed amendment and visit of the JPC has already surcharged the atmosphere of Assam where hundreds of organisation and stakeholders have submitted their representation to the JPC opposing and supporting the bill. However, Cabinet resolution of Meghalaya government has also come as serious embarrassment for the BJP led alliance government in Assam. The Opposition Congress on Wednesday questioned the silence of the BJP leaders in Assam. Referring instances of Meghalaya, former chief minister Tarun Gogoi dared Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and his deputy Himanata Biswa Sarma to clarify the stand of the government on proposed amendment bill.

Joining growing opposition to the bill, the leading minority organisations of the state like All-Assam Minority Students Union and other associates of All-India United Democratic Front led by MP Badrudddin Ajmal, also opposed the bill while accusing the Central government of triggering communal polarisation in Assam.

Clarifying the stand of the Meghalaya government on proposed amendment bill, the deputy chief minister and spokesperson of the state government Mr Prestone Tyns-ong said, We have seen the draft bill introduced in the Parliament and after thorough discussion, we have decided to say No to the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.

The Citizenship (Amend-ment) Bill, 2016, was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955.

The proposed bill seeks to grant citizenship to minority communities  Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christi-ans  from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India.

Mr Tynsong said the state cabinet has decided to oppose the Bill as it does not serve the purpose of the people of the state, which is a small tribal one.

He said that the Bill is dangerous taking into consideration that Meghalaya and the north eastern region is bound by Bangladesh, Nepal, China and Myanmar.

This looks dangerous as a Christian or a Hindu once they are here for six years can become a citizen of India, he added.

Meanwhile, NGOs in the state, including the Federation of Khasi-Jaintia and Garo People (FKJGP), has decided to stage a protest during the visit of the JPC.Sources in the ministry of home affairs said Singh assured Mansoor of all help from the Central government in restoring normalcy in the university.

New Delhi: While tension continues to prevail at Aligarh Muslim University, vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor on Wednesday met home minister Rajnath Singh to discuss issues concerning the premier academic institution, engulfed in controversy over a portrait of Muhammad Ali Jinnah on its premises.

Sources in the ministry of home affairs said Mr Singh assured Mr Mansoor of all help from the Central government in restoring normalcy in the university. Mr Mansoor later told reporters that the meeting was fixed long ago and had nothing to do with the current controversy.

I have requested the home minister to send Central government officials for the recruitment of students in central services like the engineering service, he said. The vice-chancellor said the portrait of the Pakistan founder had been hanging in the AMU students union office since 1938 and it was a non-issue. BJP MP Satish Gautam had written a letter to Mr Mansoor objecting to the portrait, triggering a row that led to two youth being arrested in connection with incidents of violence and exams being postponed to May 12.

The vice-chancellor on Tuesday told students on a sit-in over the issue to get back to their studies. In an open letter, he urged them not to fall into the trap of certain forces which are bent upon destroying the image of our alma mater and are playing with your bright future. The university has formed a 16-member coordination committee of senior faculty members to talk with the protesting students. Several AMU students are on an indefinite dharna after a clash with the police on May 2 when they were demanding action against right-wing protesters who had entered the campus, shouting slogans. They are asking for a judicial probe into the police inaction and the manner in which the row erupted after the BJP MP objected to the portrait.PM Modi said Congress did not allow the functioning of Parliament to avoid giving constitutional status to the OBC Commission.

The Prime Minister on Thursday addressed SC, ST, and Slum Morcha workers of Karnataka BJP via Narendra Modi app. (Photo: Twitter)

Bengaluru: Reaching out to Dalits and other backward communities ahead of the elections in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said his government was trying to fulfill BR Ambedkar's dream of a powerful and prosperous nation.

Hitting out at the ruling Congress in Karnataka, PM Modi said the party failed to confer the Bharat Ratna on Ambedkar when it was in power.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the SC, ST, OBC and Slum Morcha workers of Karnataka BJP via Narendra Modi app, said, "Our government has made the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act more stringent".

He also reminded the workers that the BJP had the maximum number of members of Parliament belonging to the SC/ST, OBC and minority communities.

Hitting out at the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it did not allow the functioning of Parliament to avoid giving constitutional status to the OBC Commission.

"We are trying to fulfill Ambedkar's dream of a powerful and prosperous nation," he said.

Earlier, the Prime Minister had reached out to the party office-bearers and workers of the women and youth wings through the application.

Karnataka will go to polls on May 12 and the counting of votes and results were be announced on May 15.In a letter to Police Commissioner and CM, the constable asked permission to beg to take care of ailing wife and manage household expenses.

Dnyaneshwar Ahirrao is posted with the security team at 'Matoshree', the residence of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. (Photo: File | Representational)

Mumbai: A constable with the Mumbai police has sought permission to "beg in uniform", saying he can not support his family as he hasn't been receiving salary for the last two months.

In his letter to department superiors, Police Commissioner Datta Padsalgikar and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, constable Dnyaneshwar Ahirrao has asked permission to beg to take care of his ailing wife and manage household expenses.

In the letter, Dnyaneshwar Ahirrao, attached to the Local Arms unit, said he had taken leave from March 20 to March 22.

However, as his wife's leg got fractured, he could not report to duty when the leave expired, he said.

Ahirrao, posted with the security team at 'Matoshree', the residence of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, claimed that he informed, over phone, his unit in-charge about the emergency leave he was availing of for five days. Following his wife's treatment, he resumed duty on March 28, he said.

But following this, he stopped getting the salary, his letter said, without revealing more information.

"I have to take care of my sick wife, old parents and a daughter. Besides, I have to pay monthly instalment of the loan I have taken. But since my salary has been stopped, I am unable to meet these expenses. So I want permission from you to beg in uniform," the letter said.

Dnyaneshwar Ahirrao himself could not be contacted for more details.

When contacted, Vasant Jadhav, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Local Arms Unit, said, "The matter comes under the administration department. I can not comment on it."The Rohingyas, who fled to India after violence in Myanmar, are settled in Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan.

A view of the inhuman conditions inside a Rohingya camp in Hyderabad. There are 70 such camps where about 4,000 Rohingyas live. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Rohingya immigrants are not being discriminated and all health, sanitation, medical and educational facilities were being provided to them, the government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told the top court that in pursuance to its April 9 order, a team was constituted comprising members of Ministry of Health and a representative from the Ministry of Home Affairs which visited the refugee camps at Mewat in Haryana and Kalindi Kunj in Delhi on April 23 and 24.

The team interviewed women in the camps and inspected the sanitation, water, medical and other facilities which are being provided by the government, the centre said.

"As per the observations given in the inspection reports, reasonably available facilities are provided to the Rohingya illegal immigrants. The answering respondent (Health Min) submits that no discrimination has been made between the Rohingya refugees and other slum dwellers (resident Indians) of nearby areas."

"This is with respect to health, sanitation, medical and educational facilities. ... In any event, despite the constraints, there is no discrimination observed against the Rohingya with respect to the availability of facilities," the Ministry told the top court in an affidavit.

The document was filed in pursuance to the top court's order directing the centre to file a comprehensive status report on the civic amenities at two Rohingya camps in Delhi and Haryana after it was alleged that basic facilities like drinking water and toilets also not available there. The matter was posted for further hearing on May 11.

The bench was hearing petitions, including one filed by two Rohingyas, Mohammad Salimullah and Mohammad Shaqir, challenging the Centre's decision to deport over 40,000 refugees who came to India after escaping from Myanmar due to widespread discrimination and violence against the community.

The Rohingyas, who fled to India after violence in the Western Rakhine State of Myanmar, are settled in Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan.The meet comes in wake of letter written by Justice J Chelameswar urging CJI to discuss KM Joseph elevation issue.

On April 26, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had announced that the government had cleared the elevation of advocate Indu Malhotra and put on hold the elevation of Justice KM Joseph. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court collegium headed by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra will meet on Friday to reconsider the Centres stand not to elevate the Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court KM Joseph as a judge of the apex court.

The meeting comes in the wake of a letter written by Justice J Chelameswar urging the CJI to take a call urgently to discuss the Justice Joseph issue.

Last week the collegium, which also includes Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph deferred its decision after briefly discussing wide range of issues and it remained inconclusive. The adjourned meeting is to take place on Friday to re-consider the case of Justice KM Joseph, in the context of letters written by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on April 26 and 30.

Also Read: Collegium must reiterate stand to elevate KM Joseph: Justice Chelameswar to CJI

The collegium is also likely to consider the names of Judges from Calcutta, Rajasthan, and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh High Courts for elevation as Judges of the Supreme Court, in view of the concept of fair representation.

On April 26, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had announced that the government had cleared the elevation of advocate Indu Malhotra and put on hold the elevation of Justice Joseph though both the proposals were sent on the same time on January 10 this year. Malhotra was sworn in as a judge of the apex court on April 27.

While seeking reconsideration of Justice Josephs elevation, Prasad wanted adequate representation for minorities and other High Courts, which are not represented.

Under the Memorandum of Procedure on appointment of Judges which is existing now, once the proposal is returned for reconsideration, and if the collegium reiterates the appointment, the government is bound to accept the same but there is no time limit on such appointment.

At present, the strength of judges in the Supreme Court is 24 with seven vacancies.

It is likely that in Fridays meeting, recommendation will be made to fill remaining vacancies with fair representation to High Courts, which are not represented.India is developing the Chabahar port in Iran and therefore has strategic interests in the Islamic nation.

New Delhi: Avoiding any criticism of the United States under President Donald Trump, who has taken his country out of the Iran nuclear deal, India  in a tightrope walk on Wednesday  said Irans right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy should be respected. New Delhi pushed for a resolution of the issue through constructive dialogue. India is developing the Chabahar port in Iran and therefore has strategic interests in the Islamic nation. At the same time, it is also wary of annoying the US with which it has close strategic ties.

The Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed in 2015 and had then paved the way for the lifting of US sanctions on Iran that had severely affected the Iranian economy. According to foreign media reports, Iran  which had in 2015 reached a pact with five permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, UK, Russia, France and China) and Germany  had then agreed to significantly slash its stores of centrifuges, enriched uranium and heavy water, all key components for nuclear weapons. This had enabled Iran to pursue its nuclear programme for peaceful purposes without any global opposition. The United States, under then President Barack Obama, had pushed for the deal strongly three years ago. But with President Trump announcing the pullout, the stage is set for reimposition of US sanctions on Iran.

In a statement in New Delhi, the external affairs ministry said: India has always maintained that the Iranian nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully through dialogue and diplomacy by respecting Irans right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy as also the international communitys strong interest in the exclusively peaceful nature of Irans nuclear programme. All parties should engage constructively to address and resolve issues that have arises with respect to the JCPOA.

Reacting to these developments, Iran said it would spearhead a diplomatic effort to examine whether the remaining JCPOA participants can ensure its full benefits for Iran, adding that the outcome would determine the Iranian response.The blast was so powerful that it not only injured five people but also badly shattered the grocery shop.

The injured were immediately rushed to different hospitals in Imphal, but two BSF jawan succumbed to their injuries at RIMS Hospital. (Representational Image)

Guwahati: At least two BSF jawans were killed and three civilians injured in a powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) explosion triggered near the 49 BSF battalion situated along National Highway 2 in Imphal on Wednesday.

Security sources in Imphal told this newspaper that the IED, suspected to have been triggered by some timer device, exploded at about 1.30 pm when the BSF jawans were out on routine sentry duty.

The IED ripped off at the side of the highway near a grocery shop situated adjacent to the battalion gate. The blast was so powerful that it not only injured five people but also badly shattered the grocery shop.

The injured were immediately rushed to different hospitals in Imphal, but two BSF jawan succumbed to their injuries at RIMS Hospital.

The deceased jawans have been identified as Riflemen N.N. Meitei, 30, and Sanjay Tirki, 28; while the inured civilians were identified as H. Mubi, 35, M. Premlata, 40, and Bindya Thakuri, 19. M. Premlata, the grocery shop owner, is said to be in a critical condition.

Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh condemned the bomb attack and said his government will not remain a silent spectator. We will hunt them down and book them as per the law, he said. He also visited the hospitals where the bomb blast victims have been admitted.

The chief minister said: We do not understand the intentions of the perpetrator, the message they are trying to convey. But they should not forget that nobody is above the law.

None of Manipurs militant groups have claimed any responsibility for the attack so far.

This is the second attack on the paramilitary forces in the state this week. On Tuesday, two hand grenades were lobbed at an Assam Rifles facility in Imphal city, seriously injuring a jawan attached to the force.Many senior Congress leaders not only defied the party line but also made provocative statements in support of the bill.

Guwahati: Bogged down by internal conflict over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, the Opposition Congress has sought a referendum on the controversial bill in Assam to solicit the view of the indigenous people of the state.

As many senior Congr-ess leaders not only defied the party line but also made provocative statements in support of the bill, former CM Tarun Gogoi said, We want a referendum on the issue to make things clear.

Meanwhile, Assam police on Thursday interrogated senior Congress leader and former minister Ardhendu Dey at Hojai on charges of his alleged attempt to incite communal tension while advocating citizenship for Hindu Bengali who came from Bangladesh because of religious persecution.

Mr Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, Congress MLA from southern Assams Karimganj district, said that citizenship should not be denied to anyone figuring in the 2014 electoral rolls even if his or her nationality is in doubt. Former Congress minister Gautam Roy, supporting the Bill, took the middle path. The migrants should be distributed across India and Assam should not be made to bear their burden, he said.

The stand of the Congr-ess against the bill has created a further embarrassment for the party as Mr Gogoi as chief minister until 2016 advocated asylum to Hindus and other minorities facing religious persecution in Bangladesh. A Cabinet resolution was taken in 2011 for giving refugee status to such minorities.

A year later in 2012, Mr Gogoi also submitted a memorandum to then PM Manmohan Singh stating that people who flee Bangladesh due to discrimination and religious persecution should not be treated as foreigners.

However, Assam Congress has rejected the earlier stand of the party and asserted that they are opposed to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.The SP president also blamed the UP police for the unrest in Aligarh Muslim University.

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, on Thursday, claimed that most police encounters in Uttar Pradesh were fake and that the government had misused the police for this.

Mr Yadav, while talking to reporters here, demanded that the Yogi government should provide a list of those killed in encounters to prove that they were all notorious criminals who carried a reward on their head.

He said that a compensation of Rs 50 lakhs should be given to the family of Narendra Gujjar, against whom a fake cow slaughter case was registered and he was tortured to death in police custody in Meerut.

It is the duty of the government to see that everyone gets justice. Has the situation worsened to that extent where no one can even plead for justice? Will the BJP now deprive the people of their right to justice? he asked.

Mr Akhilesh Yadav said that as many as 50 dreaded criminals had been killed in over 1,400 encounters in the past over one year in the state, while 3,435 history-sheeters were put behind bars following encounters.

The SP president also blamed the UP police for the unrest in Aligarh Muslim University. If the government wanted, the situation would not have worsened there, he stated.The district administration, too, adopted a cautious approach and permitted only 200 people to celebrate the occasion.

According to reports, Sachin Walia, brother of Kamal Wali, the Bhim Army district president, was shot from a short distance from where the Maharana Pratap Jayanti celebrations were to take place.

Lucknow: Exactly a year after the Thakur-Dalit clashes took place in Saharanpur on the occasion of Maharana Pratap Jayanti, tension gripped the district once again on Wednesday when the brother of the district Bhim Army president was shot dead under mysterious circumstances.

District magistrate P.K. Pandey had ordered shutting down of internet services till further orders. He has also called for deployment of para-military forces as a precautionary measure.

According to reports, Sachin Walia, brother of Kamal Wali, the Bhim Army district president, was shot from a short distance from where the Maharana Pratap Jayanti celebrations were to take place.

He was taken to a hospital where he was declared brought dead. His family has said that Sachin was shot dead but the identity of the assailants is not yet known.

As soon as the news of the murder spread, tension prevailed in the district and a heavy deployment of police was made in the areas where clashes had taken place last year.

The Bhim Army, it may be recalled, had given a call to boycott celebration of the Maharana Pratap Jayanti and had urged the district administration not to give permission for any such programme.

It had warned residents from celebrating Maharana Pratap Jayanti, leading to 800 police personnel being deployed at the Maharana Pratap Bhawan.

The district administration, too, adopted a cautious approach and permitted only 200 people to celebrate the occasion.

It may be recalled that in May 2017, Thakurs and Dalits had clashed when the two were celebrating anniversaries of Dr B R Ambedkar and Maharana Pratap. A Thakur youth was killed which led to escalation of violence in the region.Among the four accused, one has been sent to police custody till May 14, while three minors have been sent to a children's home.

The incident took place near Chembur Camp bus stop in the early hours Tuesday. (Representational Image | Pixabay)

Mumbai: A 36-year-old man died after allegedly being assaulted by four people including three minors during a fight over a taxi in suburban Chembur, a senior police official said Wednesday.

The incident took place near the Chembur Camp bus stop in the early hours Tuesday.

Krishna Boyanna, 18, and his three friends, minors, wanted to take the taxi in which the victim Surendra Singh and two others were travelling, the official said.

Singh and his companions were about to get down but were taking their time to pay the fare. Irked, the accused asked them to get down immediately, the official said.

This led to a spat, and the accused allegedly hit the other group with paver blocks, the official said.

Singh sustained serious injuries and was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, he said.

A case of murder was registered at the Chembur police station, said DCP (Zone VI) Shahaji Umap.

While Boyanna was arrested and a court sent him in police custody till May 14, the three minors were also apprehended and sent to a children's home, he said.Sources said the former Prime Minister was in no mood to support any government headed by him.

New Delhi: Barely days to go before the Karnataka verdict is out, hectic parleys are on among the Janata Dal (Secular)-BSP combine and the Congress over averting a BJP government in case of a hung Assembly.

Top sources said that BSP chief Mayawati was pitching for Congress dalit face M. Mallikarjun Kharge as the chief minister in case incumbent Siddaramaiah fails to deliver a majority for the Grand Old Party.

Mr Siddaramaiah, who left the JD(S) to join Congress in 2005, belongs to the OBC Kuruba community and is credited with having stitched together the powerful AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and dalits) combination.

The Karnataka chief minister fell out with JD(S) chief and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda after he left the JD(S) to join the Congress and Mr Gowda has since then held a personal grudge against him. Sources said the former Prime Minister was in no mood to support any government headed by him.

In such a scenario, Ms Mayawati has indicated to the Congress leadership that she would favour a dalit as the chief minister and Gulbarga MP and the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mr Kharge was the best choice as he was perceived to be close to Mr Deve Gowda also.

The BSP has come up with this suggestion as this could be the only way out to prevent JD(S) from joining hands with the BJP in the event of a hung Assembly, the sources told this newspaper. Both the Congress and the JD(S), however, remained non-committal in the matter and Congress leaders insisted that it would get a majority and form the government on its own. On the campaign trail. Congress leaders, including Party president Rahul Gandhi, have repeatedly attacked Mr Deve Gowdas son Mr H.D. Kumaraswamy calling him the B-Team of the BJP.

JD(S) general secretary, Danish Ali told this newspaper: Instead of fighting the BJP, Congress is trying to destroy regional secular forces. If Congress is going to destroy regional forces, it will only strengthen BJP. Thats why BJP is growing. If they are doing it again, then Karnataka is also going to BJPs hands. In the interest of secular people, a regional secular force like JD(S) must exist strongly.

He further said: No one can challenge the secular credentials of H D Deve Gowda. He does not need a certificate from the Congress. Mr Gowda as Prime Minister despite being in coalition dismissed BJP government in Gujarat and handed over the state to Congress.The PM asked BJP workers to remain vigilant and not allow Congress leaders to succeed through such conspiracies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves at his supporters during an election campaign rally at Chikmagalur in Karnataka. (Photo: PTI)

Bengaluru/New Delhi: The confiscation of 9,000-odd voter ID cards in Bengaluru proved a manna for Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the penultimate day of electioneering in Karnataka as he lambasted the ruling Congress for trying to rig the election with fake ID cards to prevent its imminent exit from power.

Addressing rallies in four key towns on Wednesday, Mr Modi said: The Congress Party has slowed down its election rallies in the past few days on realising that the time has come to make an exit from the seat of power. You may have seen media reports that one lakh fake ID cards produced by the Congress Party have been seized already. What was the need for the Congress to resort to such tactics? he asked, while alleging that the party was planning to resort to such tactics in 40-50 Assembly constituencies. The PM asked BJP workers to remain vigilant and not allow Congress leaders to succeed through such conspiracies.

Congress leaders on Wednesday however challenged Mr Modi to get the premises of top BJP leaders, including state unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa, checked by the income-tax department instead of levelling allegations against its leaders, or enacting a midnight drama on the confiscation of voter ID cards in the city.

Party spokespersons Randeep Singh Surjewala and Priyanka Chaturvedi said: We challenge the Prime Minister: Get the premises of all these leaders (Yeddyurappa and Reddy brothers) checked, instead of levelling allegations which have no foundation.

Irked by the searches carried out in Badami and Chamundeshwar Assembly constituencies, where chief minister Siddaramaiah has entered the fray, Mr Surjewala wondered why Mr Modi did not initiate action against Mr Yeddyurappa, against whom as many as 15 cases of corruption are pending in the Supreme Court. Around 9,000 fake voter identity cards were recovered from a flat in a constituency in Karnataka, setting off a war of words between the Congress and the BJP, which demanded countermanding of the election for the seat, claiming the Congress was behind the racket, a charge the latter dismissed as a lie.

Karnatakas chief electoral officer Sanjiv Kumar, however, told the media that the voter ID cards found at a flat in Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency looked genuine but a deputy election commissioner-rank official was rushing from New Delhi to Bengaluru for a probe.

It was earlier suggested that somebody was trying to break into our (computer) system to prepare fake ID cards... that is not so, he said, adding it was for the Election Commission to take a decision on whether to countermand the election or not.

Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said Congress candidate and sitting R.R. Nagar MLA Munirathna Naidu was behind the alleged racket, which was exposed by BJP worker Rakesh.

Congress spokesman Mr Surjawala hit right back, alleging that flat owner Manjula Nanjamari and Rakesh, who was dubbed by Mr Javadekar as the whistleblower in the matter, had BJP connections and both had contested the Bengaluru Municipal Corporation elections on saffron party tickets.

Both the Congress and the BJP rushed to the Election Commission, making allegations against each other and demanding action. The Congress delegation to the EC, led by senior party leader Anand Sharma, alleged the BJP was indulging in malpractices while the BJP team, comprising Union ministers J.P. Nadda, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Smriti Irani, Dharmendra Pradhan and S.S. Ahluwalia, demanded the elections to Rajarajeshwari constituency must be countermanded.

After meeting the EC officials, Union minister Smriti Irani said: Voter IDs are proof of voter confidence and to reinstate that, elections to Rajarajeshwari constituency must be countermanded, and we have put forward this demand to EC.

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma alleged that a concerted attempt was being made by the ruling party at the Centre, with the assistance of Central agencies, to subvert the process of free and fair polls, target Congress candidates and carry out midnight raids.

BJP president Amit Shah also tweeted on the issue, saying: Congress Party should be ashamed of themselves! Everything about their party is fake  their tears for the poor, their claims of development, their commitment to social justice. Now the Congress is using fake voter IDs to create fictitious voters and rig the 2018 Karnataka polls.On the eve of his Nepal visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hails the age-old close and friendly ties with the Himalayan nation.

New Delhi: On the eve of his two-day visit to Nepal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday described it as a reflection of his governments commitment to neighbourhood first policy, and said as the Himalayan state entered a new era, India would continue to remain its steadfast partner. Mr Modi will embark on his visit to the Himalayan nation on Friday and it will be his third visit to that country as Prime Minister.

It reflects the high priority, India, and personally I, attach to our age-old, close and friendly ties with Nepal, the Prime Minister said in a statement. He said his visit closely follows the state visit of Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli to India last month.

These high-level and regular interactions reflect my governments commitment to the neighbourhood first policy, in consonance with the motto of sabka saath, sabka vikas, the statement said. Mr Modi said the two countries have completed several bilateral connectivity and development projects in the last few years, and initiated transformational initiatives for the benefit of their people.

Prime Minister Oli and I will have the opportunity to take forward our recent wide-ranging discussions in New Delhi on issues of mutual interest, and to advance our cooperative partnership across diverse sectors, he said.

As Nepal enters a new era of consolidating gains of democracy and achieving rapid economic growth and development, India will continue to remain a steadfast partner of government of Nepal to implement its vision of samriddha Nepal, sukhi Nepali (prosperous Nepal, happy Nepal), read the statement.

Mr Modi said he was also looking forward to visiting Janakpur and Muktinath.Bhujbal will join active politics after undergoing further medical treatment.

Mumbai: Senior NCP leader and former deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal - who was granted bail in a money laundering case on Friday by a city court - was on Thursday discharged from KEM Hospital, after which he thanked Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray for the latters support.

Mr Bhujbal will join active politics after undergoing further medical treatment.

Mr Bhujbal expressed that though he was jailed in connection with the construction of Maharashtra Sadan, the truth would eventually come out.

Mr Bhujbal was granted bail by Bombay high court on May 4 but was admitted to KEM Hospital, and discharged Thursday morning.

He told members of the press, I was with the Sena for 25 years, so the relationship remains, because of affection. Mr Thackeray advised my son Pankaj to take care of my health. I am very much thankful to him for supporting me during a bad time. Mr Bhujbal said that his experience in jail was pathetic.

He also said that after getting bail, he immediately got a call from NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

I was jailed in connection with the construction of Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi, but BJP MPs also praised the construction work. I am happy and the truth will come out before the public, he said.

Mr Bhujbal thanked the dean of KEM hospital, Dr Avinash Supe, and his team, for taking care of him. The senior leader will undergo operation and further treatment as per medical advice.

Mr Bhujbal clarified that he would join party work after medical treatment.5 months on, MU is yet to assess more than 1,000 answer papers.

Mumbai: Nearly five months after the examinations were conducted in December 2017, the Mumbai University (MU) is yet to assess more than 1,000 answer papers of Masters of Commerce (MCom) students. On their part, MU officials have claimed that as MCom is a post-graduate (PG) course, there are fewer teachers.

A MU official said, The number of papers that is pending for assessment and evaluation is very less but one major reason for the delay is less number of teachers. Though the online assessment system is working perfectly, if the number of teachers available for assessment is less, the process will eventually slow down.

While the evaluation of semester one of the MCom course has been completed, officials claimed that the results would be declared in a couple of days. While nearly 1,000 answer papers of semester III of MCom. are pending assessment, which will take another five to six days.

Students are a worried lot as it has been five months since the exams. Sakshi Chitre, a student, said, Nobody is concerned about what we are going through since the past five months. They have delayed it so much when the results should have been out in February itself.

Another student, Rahul Jain, questioned, The university is breaking its own rules year after year since the time they have started the online assessment system. My question is why have they taken up any new system when they are not ready to implement it properly?

There are about 40,000 to 42,000 MCom students awaiting their results. Apart from MCom, results of another 10 courses are yet to be declared. Although the MU will not give a deadline, it has assured that results will be declared by next week.

Last years fiasco

The results of examinations conducted in April-May last year were declared after five months. For these examinations, the MU used the newly introduced on-screen marking system for the first time. Frequent technical problems, lack of coordination between teachers and MU officials were the main causes of the delay. The final-year students faced a tough battle due to this situation.Commandos posted videos, pics of killing which have gone viral.

C-60 was involved in the recent operations in which 37 naxals were killed.

MUMBAI: A battalion of the specialised counter-naxal commando unit of the Gadchiroli police, C-60, which was involved in the recent anti-naxal operations in which 37 naxals were killed in the district, allegedly breached operational protocol during action. The battalion members allegedly took pictures of themselves after killing the naxals in gross violation of protocol.

They had allegedly celebrated the operations success and danced, clicking pictures and making videos, which have now gone viral.

The home department has told them to stay away from the public eye as naxal groups might identify them.

Commandos involved in naxal operations are always prevented from disclosing their identity as per protocol.

It was a very sensitive matter. But the expected protocol was not followed. The C-60 commandos are very prestigious for the police force. They get special training to deal with naxals and revealing their identity is dangerous. After such a huge operation, there are chances of retaliation, a senior official from the home department said. Now they have been told to keep a low profile and avoid publicity, the official added.

In the massive naxal operation last month, the gun battle began after the ultras launched an attack on the patrolling party.

According to the police, this was the time when naxals cross over the state border and enter Maharashtra to rob contractors trading in tendu leaves.

The police had also stepped up vigilance when they received input on the movement.Asked by a journalist if he deserved a Nobel Peace prize, Trump said although everyone thought he did, he would never say it himself.

'You know what I want to do? I want to get it finished. The prize I want is victory for the world, not for even here. I want victory for the world. Because that's what we're talking about. So that's the only prize I want,' Trump said in response. (Photo: AP)

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he is not interested in winning a Noble Peace Prize but wants victory for the world.

Asked by a journalist if he deserved a Nobel Peace prize, Trump said although everyone thought he did, he would never say it himself.

"You know what I want to do? I want to get it finished. The prize I want is victory for the world, not for even here. I want victory for the world. Because that's what we're talking about. So that's the only prize I want," Trump said in response.

The South Korean president had recently said Trump deserved to win the Nobel Peace prize for his efforts with regard to North Korea.

Read: Trump should win Nobel Peace Prize, says South Korea's President

Trump said his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would be a very good thing for the region and the world.

"This is something that nobody thought was going to happen for years or more. I really believe it's going to be a great thing for North Korea, a great thing for South Korea and Japan. I want to thank (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping). He was very helpful to us two days ago on something very specific," the president said.

"We are working trade with China. They are doing okay because they're helping us, and I guess they're probably doing a little bit better because they're helping us. But they have really helped us on North Korea. We appreciate it and we appreciate President Xi," he said.

Trump said he spoke with his South Korean counterpart.

"I just spoke to President Moon and explained what was taking place with respect to the three gentlemen. And President Moon of South Korea was very, very happy to hear it. He, likewise, has been incredibly helpful," he said.

"So the relationships we have with (Japanese) Prime Minister Abe, President Moon and President Xi, I think it all goes into what is taking place right now. We very much look forward to having the meeting between the United States and North Korea. That will be announced over the next couple of days," Trump said.The men, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, were released Wednesday amid a warming of relations between the longtime adversaries.

Washington: Three Korean-Americans who were detained in North Korea for more than a year were greeted by President Donald Trump beneath a giant American flag after they returned to the mainland US on Thursday.

Despite a middle-of-the-night landing, first lady Melania Trump and a host of senior administration officials joined Trump to celebrate the occasion. The president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men travelled to take a private moment with them.

#WATCH US President Donald Trump receives three US citizens freed by North Korea, at an airbase near Washington pic.twitter.com/v6J2pfnNd6  ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2018

The men, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, were released Wednesday amid a warming of relations between the longtime adversaries.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo secured their release in Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on final plans for a Trump-Kim summit. The Americans had boarded Pompeo's plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to a Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the US.

Read: Mike Pompeo along with 3 US detainees returning home from N Korea: Trump

According to the White House, the three men would be transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation and medical treatment. Their families were not on hand for the ceremony.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," they said.

"We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

Singapore has emerged as the likely summit site, late this month or in early June, as Trump seeks to negotiate denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in his highest-stakes foreign policy effort yet. Trump announced Wednesday that the demilitarized zone between the Koreas would not host the summit. Pompeo said the meeting would last one day and possibly a second.

Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Korea's leader for the prisoners' release "I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this" and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the "official suggestion" of the US president, said North Korea's official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.

Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental US.

Those advances were the subject of President Barack Obama's starkest warning shortly before Trump took office, and this is a crisis he's convinced his negotiating skills can resolve.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kim's willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating US moves to tighten sanctions branded "maximum pressure" by the president.

The wee-hours ceremony Thursday was to be an early celebration for an issue that has already put the prospect of a Nobel Peace Prize on Trump's mind.

"Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it," he said Wednesday when asked if the award was deserved.

The release capped a dramatic day of diplomacy in Pyongyang. After Pompeo's 90-minute meeting with Kim Jong Un, he gave reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked about the prisoners as he returned to his hotel. It was only after a North Korean emissary arrived a bit later to inform him that the release was confirmed.

The three had been held for periods ranging from one to two years. They were the latest in a series of Americans who have been detained by North Korea in recent years for seemingly small offences and typically freed when senior US officials or statesmen personally visited to bail them out.

The highly public and politically tinged arrival ceremony for the former prisoners organized by the White House was in stark contrast to the low-key and very private reception that the State Department had envisioned and carried out from the moment they took custody of them.

Department officials took great pains on their release in North Korea, as well as on their flights to Japan and Alaska, to keep them sequestered not only from the two journalists traveling with Pompeo but also from staffers not immediately involved in their cases. The trio, along with medical personnel, including a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Pompeo's plane in a small section of 12 business class-sized seats that was cordoned off by curtains on both ends.

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns in keeping with the minimal amount of information they had released since the men were imprisoned.

The fact that Trump was going to Andrews to welcome them home in person was almost an afterthought to Pompeo, who, when briefing reporters on their release, noted it last of all.In a separate action, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against Ahuja, Majidi and Shor.

Anilesh Ahuja, 49, of New York, the founder, chief executive officer, and chief investment officer of a New York-based investment firm that managed hedge funds focused on structured credit products.(Photo: File | Representational)

New York: Two Indian-origin men have been charged by federal authorities in the US with securities and wire fraud for inflating the value of private funds they advised by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Anilesh Ahuja, 49, of New York, the founder, chief executive officer, and chief investment officer of a New York-based investment firm that managed hedge funds focused on structured credit products, was arrested on Wednesday, Audrey Strauss, the Attorney for the United States said.

In addition, Strauss announced the unsealing of charges against Ashish Dole, a former chief risk officer and trader at the firm, and Frank Dinucci, a former salesman at a broker-dealer.

Dole, 34 of White Plains had pleaded guilty last November to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud and one count of securities fraud. Dinucci has also pled guilty and is cooperating with the government.

Charges were also filed against Amin Majidi, a former partner and portfolio manager at the firm and Jeremy Shor, a former trader.

Ahuja, Majidi 52, and Shor, 46 are charged with participating in a scheme, from in or about 2014 through 2016, to commit securities fraud and wire fraud relating to the mismarking of certain securities held in hedge funds that the firm managed, thus fraudulently inflating the net asset value of those funds as reported to investors and potential investors.

At its peak, the mismarking across all funds managed by the firm exceeded USD 200 million.

The charges carry up to 25 years in prison and a maximum fine of USD 5 million.

Investors rely on a hedge funds performance numbers when deciding whom to trust with their capital. To compete with other peer funds, Neil Ahuja, founder of an investment firm, allegedly manipulated the firms performance numbers, using fraudulently inflated values for the firms securities holdings and lying to investors about how the firm would mark its positions, Strauss said.

She added that by allegedly cooking the books, Ahuja and his co-defendants made the fund appear more attractive to would-be investors and dissuaded current investors from withdrawing their investments.

In a separate action, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against Ahuja, Majidi and Shor.

According to the allegations in the charging documents, from at about 2014 through 2016, Ahuja, Majidi, Shor and others, including Dole and Dinucci participated in a scheme to defraud the firms investors and potential investors by deceptively mismarking each month the value of certain securities held in various funds, fraudulently inflating the net asset value of those funds as reported to investors and potential investors. At times, the net asset value was overstated by more than USD 200 million across the funds managed by the firm.

The mismarking scheme evolved as a result of demands by Ahuja and Majidi that the firm maintain its track record of success and keep pace with the performance of peer funds, regardless of market conditions or the actual performance of the funds.Abbasi urged the Opposition to consider bringing amendments to the Accountability Law.

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday said a parliamentary committee should be constituted to investigate the allegations of laundering $4.9 billion to India leveled by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against former premier Nawaz Sharif.

Speaking in the National Assembly, he said the committee should summon the chairman and other officials of the NAB and seek evidence and relevant record from them in support of their allegations. The Prime Minister said: These are very serious allegations which have brought bad name to the country. Therefore, the evidence even prima facie should be sought from the NAB chairman and facts should be presented before the parliament and the masses.

Mr Abbasi urged the Opposition to consider bringing amendments to the Accountability Law.

He said the political parties had already agreed to these amendments and further debate or a meeting will be held to move forward the process.

Mr Abbasi pointed out that the institution of NAB was established by a military dictator  Pervez Musharraf - to change the loyalties of members and break up the political parties. He regretted that the political parties failed to make the NAB such an institution which fulfilled the requirements of justice and play its due role against corruption.

Mr Abbasi said that several NAB cases were being heard against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, but he does not expect justice being delivered in the cases.

The Prime Minister said that the allegations leveled against the former PM Nawaz Sharif also amounted to pre-poll rigging. Earlier, the World Bank rejected reports that Nawaz Sharif had laundered $ 4.9 billion to India.It is unclear whether the agreement to allow 300,000 Filipinos is limited to domestic workers or includes other jobs. At present, some 200,0000 Filipinos work in Chinas underground economy. It is unclear whether theyd benefit from an amnesty. Two years ago, the first Filipino domestic workers appeared in a number of Chinese cities. Rights groups are concerned about their rights.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies)  China and the Philippines are close to an agreement that could double to 500,000 the number of Filipinos working in China.

The landmark agreement would grant legal employment status to 300,000 Philippine nationals, said William J Lima, Manilas special envoy to China, and it is expected to be signed by the end of this year,

Appointed by Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte to deal with Beijing on a range of key economic and trade issues, Mr Lima estimated that around 200,000 Filipinos were already working illegally in China, most of them domestic workers.

With the 300,000 we expect to be permitted to work legally in mainland China under the deal, added to the 200,000 black market workers we estimate are already working there, that would make the total number close to half a million, he said.

However, he did not explain whether the deal to create 300,000 legal positions was limited to domestic workers or extended to other types of employment, nor did he say if unauthorised Filipino workers in China would be granted amnesty.

For now, some small issues remain to be ironed out, like the differences in employment-related health service provisions available in China and the Philippines.

Speaking about the issue last month, Filipino Labour and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello said that China needed Filipino cooks, carers, domestic workers, musicians and nurses.

In fact, right after Chinese President Xi Jinping met his Filipino counterpart Duterte in Hainan province at the Boao Forum last month, senior Chinese and Philippine officials inked a memorandum of understanding on the employment of Filipinos to teach English in China.

Chinas Foreign Ministry said that both sides were agreed upon in the memorandum but did not say if Filipinos can work in other areas.

Unlike Hong Kong, whose doors are open to foreign domestic workers from the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries of Southeast Asia, mainland China has always adopted a different policy. Only two years ago did some of them start to arrive in mainland cities.

Eman Villanueva, spokesman for the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, warned that Filipino domestic workers may leave Hong Kong for teaching jobs on the mainland because many of them were teachers in the Philippines before coming to the city. In mainland China, they would be paid $ 1,500 US per month.

What is more, the monthly minimum wage for domestic workers in Hong Kong is HK,410 (US$ 560). Employment agency bosses have said unauthorised maids in the mainland are paid 6,000 to 7,000 yuan (US0 to US,100) a month.

Allan Bell, chairman of the concern group Hong Kong Domestic Workers Roundtable, said Filipinos keen to work on the mainland needed to be careful about bogus contracts where they are promised a teachers job, but end up with another, lower-paid, job.

Foreign domestic workers are facing issues in getting fair treatment in Hong Kong even with a robust legal system and professional law enforcement. The situation in China may be very different, he said.

Currently, some 10 million Filipinos work abroad. Through their remittances, they contribute to the countrys economic development.

In the past, their revenues also saved the Philippines from financial crisis and remain a cornerstone of the national economy.

According to the Philippines central bank, Filipinos abroad sent home at least 1,400 billion pesos (US$ 2.6 billion) between January and November last year.by Mathias Hariyadi

The officer of the anti-terrorist unit of the Iwan Sarjana police was immediately transported to the hospital. The disorders lasted around 36 hours. About 145 prisoners surrendered without resistance. Minister of Jakarta: "There was no concession or negotiation".

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - With the surrender of all the terrorist inmates, after almost 36 hours this morning the revolt in the detention center at the headquarters of the National Police Mobile Brigade (Mako Brimob) in Kelapa Dua, Depok regency (West Java) ended.

The Minister of Political, Legal and Security Affairs of Jakarta ,Wiranto, said that the armed forces of Jakarta broke into the prison and that the prisoners, who had stolen 30 weapons from police personnel and killed five officers, had surrendered.

"About 145 prisoners surrendered without resistance," the minister said. "Others resisted, but surrendered to the crushing forces of the authorities." Wiranto denies that there were negotiations with terrorists: "There was no concession or negotiation. The order was given to surrender to the security forces through a negotiator. If they had not accepted the ultimatum, we would have proceeded with a large-scale military operation ".

Hours before, around midnight, in exchange for a ration of food, the detainees released the hostage captured at the beginning of the revolt, the officer from the anti-terrorist unit of the Iwan Sarjana police. He suffered numerous injuries to his face and body and was immediately transported to the police hospital. Local media reports that his five colleagues were killed. Yesterday, the Islamic State (IS) had claimed responsibility for the action.

There are about 130 detainees of the Mako Brimob detention center and are suspected or convicted of terrorism. The prison is a maximum security structure. It is assumed that the rebels are linked to Amman Abdurrahman, leader of the terrorist group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (Jad). He too is condemned for terrorism within the structure.by Bernardo Cervellera

The seven prelates arrived two days ago. The pastoral challenges are at the centre of the visit: proclaiming the word of God, dialogue, the lack of local clergymen, foreign clergymen, migrants, relations with Catholics in mainland China. Talks between China and the Holy See cast their shadow. For Taiwans Ambassador Lee, Pope Francis and the Vatican remain concerned about the fate of the people of Taiwan.

Vatican City (AsiaNews)  The seven members of the Chinese Regional Bishops' Conference of Taiwan arrived in the Vatican two days ago for their ad limina visit.

The prelates are Taiwan Parish (Taipei) Archbishop Hung Shan-chuan (), Kaohsiung Archbishop Liu Cheng-chung (), Hsinchu Parish Bishop Li Keh-mien (), Taichung Bishop Su Yao-wen (), Chiayi Bishop Chung An-chu (), Tainan Bishop Lin Chi-nan () and Hualien Bishop Huang Chao-ming ().

The ad limina visit includes praying over the tombs of the apostles, meeting Pope Francis, and visiting various department of the Roman curia.

The bishops will meet with the pontiff next Monday. The delegation prepared two gifts for the Holy Father  a Franz Porcelain product based on an artwork by Giuseppe Castiglione, an Italian missionary who served as a Qing court painter, and a painting by Taiwanese artist Shen Chen ().

During their visits to the various Vatican dicasteries, the bishops are focusing on their pastoral challenges. These include first and foremost strengthening evangelisation and finding the right balance between proclaiming the word of God and engaging in dialogue Taiwans other cultures and the religions.

Other important issues are the shortage in local clergy; the place of foreign priests who need time to learn the language and integrate into the culture of Taiwan; migrant workers, especially mariners; and the fraternal relationship with Catholics in the Peoples Republic of China.

For Taiwans episcopal leaders, this is the first ad limina visit during the pontificate of Pope Francis. The previous one took place ten years ago with Benedict XVI.

Since Pope Francis took office, relations with mainland China saw a small opening that might lead to renewed diplomatic relations between China and the Holy See in the future.

At present, the Vatican is one of 19 states that still have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, the only one in Europe. Diplomatic relations with Beijing would mean a break with Taiwan.

In view of this, many Catholics on the island have expressed concern over the years about the lack of international support for Taiwan, fearful of a simple takeover of the island by the mainland.

The Vatican has always said that even if it established diplomatic relations with the peoples Republic of China, it would not stop caring for Taiwans Catholics, nor break its friendship with the people of Taiwan.

This evening, the Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Holy See will hold a reception in honour of the bishops.

Ambassador Matthew Lee stressed that Pope Francis has always been concerned about Taiwan. In fact, over the past year, the pontiff has sent high-ranking Vatican officials to Taiwan to participate in international exchange activities. He has also offered prayers for the people of Taiwan every time there has been a natural disaster, according to Lee as reported by the Central News Agency.

Before leaving Taiwan, the bishops met with President Tsai Ing-wen. Vice President Chen Chien-jen (), a Catholic, also hosted a dinner to express the government's support for Catholicism and the importance it attaches to Taiwan-Vatican relations.All three are Evangelical Christians. Trump welcomed them in person along with First Lady Melania, Mike Pence and John Bolton. The US is optimistic about the upcoming summit. The date and place will be announced within three days with Singapore as the likely location.

Washington (AsiaNews/Agencies)  The three US nationals freed by Kim Jong-un returned home a few days before the summit with US President Donald Trump.

The three men were welcomed at the Joint Base Andrews by US President Donald Trump, his wife Melania, National Security Adviser John Bolton and Vice President Mike Pence.

The plane landed at around 2:40 am in Washington. In their trip home, the three were accompanied by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was on his second visit to Pyongyang.

After boarding the plane to welcome the freed hostages and escorting them down the airstair, Trump thanked Kim Jong-un for their release.

The US president said he believes Kim wants to bring North Korea into the "real world" and was hopeful that the long-anticipated summit with the North Korean leader might be a breakthrough.

North Korean media gave prominence to Pompey's visit, reporting that Kim decided to grant the Americans amnesty in response to an "official suggestion" from Trump.

As the aircraft flew over Alaska, the three men thanked the US government for "bringing us home". They also thank[ed] God and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return".

The three are Evangelical Christians of Korean origin. Kim Dong-chul, 64, is a missionary who was arrested in North Korea on 2 October 2015 for allegedly spying and subversive acts. He ran a company in the Norths north-eastern Rason special economic zone.

Before his sentencing, the former Virginia resident publicly apologised for slandering North Koreas leadership, collecting and passing confidential information to South Korea, and joining a smear campaign against the Norths human rights situation.

Tony Kim, who also goes by the Korean name Kim Sang-duk, was engaged in humanitarian work and had been teaching for a month at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) when he was arrested.

Kim Hak-song, also a missionary, worked in agricultural development at an experimental farm run by PUST

All three were sent to a labour camp where political prisoners are believed to be subjected to harsh conditions.

The amnesty granted to the three US citizens appears be a sign of appeasement from Kim Jong-un ahead of the upcoming summit.

In his address, Trump noted that date and place for the meeting will be announced shortly, either in late May or early June, in Singapore.by Vladimir Rozanskij

May 9 (the conquest of Berlin by the Russians) is the most beloved national holiday in Russia, the most solemn day in the history of the nation. This year the festival coincided with the new inauguration of the reign of "Tsar Putin IV" and the confirmation of Dimitri Medvedev. Young people involved in demonstrations beaten by "volunteers" dressed as Cossacks. According to Patriarch Kirill, military power exalts the Christian nature of Russia.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Victory over Nazi-fascism was celebrated yesterday (photo 1). In the rest of the world it is attributed to the previous day, May 8, when the allies on both sides (American and Soviet) entered Berlin; but it was precisely on May 9 that Marshal Zukov proclaimed the Russian conquest of the German capital, whose partition was the very symbol of the subsequent cold war.

As confirmed by recent polls, May 9 is the most beloved national holiday in Russia: over 70% consider this day as the most solemn day in the history of the nation.

Before the fall of the Soviet Union, the favorite national holiday was on November 7th, a commemoration of the October Revolution, which received the maximum support from the authorities. Suppressed after the end of communism, in the national memory the revolution was replaced by the institution of the November 4 national day of reconciliation, which commemorates the expulsion of the Polish invaders and the end of the "Torbidi" in 1612, which allowed the ascent to the throne of the Romanov dynasty. In fact, very few Russians really remember the reasons for this solemnity, and all the rhetoric is concentrated on May 9, as an outpouring of Soviet pride along with the national one.

In reality, Russian history is marked by terrible defeats, which have thrown the country into long periods of foreign domination or social and economic depression: the internal struggles of the ancient princes, the medieval "tartar yoke", the numerous humiliations suffered by the Turks or the Poles , the long night of Soviet totalitarianism.

At the same time, Russian self-consciousness is nourished by sensational victories, almost always obtained through immense sacrifice and sustained by a strong apocalyptic perception of its universal mission of salvation. This was the case with the first victory over the Tatars in 1380, inspired by St. Sergius of Radonezh with his warrior monks; with the capture of Kazan 'of 1552, when Ivan the Terrible made the walls of the Mongols fall with the prayers to the Mother of God; with the uprising of Minin and Pozarskij in 1612, blessed by the patriarch Ermogen, left to die of hunger by the Polish armies of the fake Tsar Dmitry. The most striking was certainly the defeat of Napoleon in 1812, when the Muscovites themselves burned the capital before the eyes of the Corsican dictator, while Tsar Alexander I was waiting in prayer in the palace chapel in St. Petersburg.

The feeling of being destined to "save the world", and not just one's own country, has always inspired the Russians, called to be the "third and last Christian Rome", as the prophecy of Philotheus of Pskov said at the end of the fifteenth century. This happened in the Second World War, when Stalin had to transform the Marxist ideology into the most extreme Russian mysticism to resist the terrible Nazi invasion of the Barbarossa Operation. The Russians seem to know how to win only by destroying themselves, as in Napoleon's Moscow or in Hitler's Stalingrad, or in the thousand days of siege of Leningrad. The more this absolute dedication is exalted today, when - not surprisingly - the May holidays coincide with the new enthronement of Tsar Putin IV, who confirmed the government of the faithful Medvedev to "revive Russia".

Victory, the Cossacks, St. George

Victory is the foundation of the current state ideology, in continuity with the recent and ancient history of its people. Paternalistic rhetoric and capillary propaganda anesthetize every other yearning of the masses and erase the sins of the powerful, as seen in the repression of youth demonstrations on May 5th. The youngsters and teenagers on the street were not beaten up by the policemen, but by "volunteers" dressed as Cossacks, now openly admitted next to the police, to symbolize a force that comes from the people themselves, and not from the top. The Cossacks, in fact, are the synthesis of this history of tragedies, rebellions and oppressions, and great victories on external and internal enemies: men outside the borders, who serve the tsar in the name of faith and of the destiny prepared by God.

The catchphrases that exalt Russian "great sacrifice", the podvig of monastic origin (almost a Christian jihad) have been joined in recent years by the frivolous symbols of the "ribbons of St. George", distributed in their thousands to all the participants (photo 2) to give the Victory a more spiritual and at the same time more military sense, given that the holy Palestinian martyr is patron of Moscow and the army. The same patriarch of Moscow, Kirill (Gundjaev), has exalted the heroism of fathers and soldiers. By depositing the a wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier (photo 3), the patriarch declared that "Victory has been conquered by our grandparents and great-grandparents, but the tradition of the victors is preserved in the memory of our people and in the life of our Armed Forces".

According to Kirill, military power exalts the Christian nature of Russia: "We see that today the Armed Forces are rightfully acquiring ever greater authority and respect among the people, because their ability to defend the Homeland boosts the pride of all for one's own country ... is a great responsibility, to be exercised with the force of arms and with the power of the spirit. It is the Church that forms the spirit, and for a strong people the Church must work forcefully ". Thus, the militant Church of Russia is ready for new grand conquests.Hi everyone.

I am currently still waiting for my 820 parner visa to be decided, I uploaded my requested documents in APRIL 2018 but still not heard back from there as of yet.



I am so confused with what to do with my life right now.. I am currently living with my partner at his mums house (were both not on the lease) we want to get our own place Asap as were not getting along with his mother (personal reasons) BUT Im hesitant to move out and sign a lease without my visa even being approved yet!! I have no idea what to do, what if I pay a bond a sign a lease and my partner visa Is not successful (absolute worst case scenario)

Has anyone experienced something similar and what was the outcome? Advice? Recommendations?

Thank youPhoto of Traffic Light Information system courtesy of Audi.

Audi of America has expanded its Traffic Light Information (TLI) to Phoenix and areas of Kansas City, Kansas, to bring its connected communication capability to 10 U.S. cities and 2,250 intersections now activated around the country.

Audi models equipped with the feature receive real-time signal information from the traffic management system that monitors traffic lights via an on-board 4G LTE data connection. During red lights, the TLI feature displays the number of seconds remaining before the signal will switch to green.

The feature is included with Audi's Connect Prime package that's available on select 2017 and 2018 models.

Audi launched the connected-infrastructure project in Las Vegas in 2016. It's now operating in select cities across seven states and the District of Columbia. Other enabled cities include Arcadia and Palo Alto in California, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Palo Alto, and Portland, Ore.

Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) technologies are designed to reduce congestion, enhance mobility and alleviate driver stress. The automaker envisions future forms of V2I technology to include integration with the car's start/stop function, Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory (GLOSA), optimized navigation routing, and other predictive services.

Related: 600 D.C. Intersections Now Support Audis Traffic Light InformationPhoto of 2018 F-Series Super Duty Limited courtesy of Ford.

A fire at a parts supplier has impacted production of several leading fleet vehicles including Ford's F-150, Super Duty trucks, and General Motors vans, according to reports.

Manufacturers have seen a shortage of die-cast components, as a result of the May 2 fire at Meridian Magnesium Products of America in Eaton Rapids, Michigan. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and BMW have also curtailed production.

General Motors has halted production of its full-size vans and FCA has said production of its Chrysler Pacifica has been affected, reports the Detroit News.

Ford has suspended production of its F-150 at its Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri and Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan. Super Duty production is also off-line at the Kentucky Truck Plant, Ford announced.

To address the issue, Ford plans to shift its Super Duty trucks to the Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake so production can resume. Ford accounts for less than a third of the parts produced at the Meridian plant, according to the company.

Meridian is owned by Wanfeng Auto Holdings Group Co. Ltd., which is based in Shanghai.

Related: Ford Boosts Expedition, Lincoln Navigator ProductionBakersfield, CA (93308)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers late. Low 58F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers late. Low 58F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.LONDON (AP)  Britain acknowledged Thursday that its intelligence agents played a role in the kidnapping and torture of an opponent of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and the man's wife  a rare admission of wrongdoing by British spies.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright told lawmakers that Prime Minister Theresa May had apologized "unreservedly" to Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar, acknowledging that Britain's actions "contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering."

Belhaj, a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group that had opposed Gadhafi, and Boudchar were kidnapped by the CIA in Thailand in 2004 and sent to Libya. Boudchar, who was pregnant at the time, says she was tortured and released before giving birth to a son. Belhaj spent six years in custody and says he was tortured repeatedly.

Belhaj and Boudchar say a tip-off from British intelligence helped the CIA abduct them. They have spent years pursuing British officials through U.K. courts seeking compensation and an apology.

Wright told lawmakers that the pair had now withdrawn their claims against the British government, former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Mark Allen, a former senior officer in the MI6 intelligence agency.

He said as part of an out-of-court settlement, Boudchar would receive 500,000 pounds ($677,000). Belhaj did not seek financial compensation, saying he only wanted an apology.

Wright said the settlement contained no admission of liability. But he read from May's letter to the couple, which said Britain was "profoundly sorry for the ordeal that you both suffered and our role in it."

"The U.K. government's actions contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering," the letter said.

"The U.K. government shared information about you with its international partners. We should have done more to reduce the risk that you would be mistreated. We accept this was a failing on our part."

Boudchar was in the public gallery of the House of Commons with her son, now 14, to hear the apology. Belhaj was given a copy of May's letter by Britain's ambassador to Turkey in Istanbul, where the family now lives.

In a statement issued by his lawyers, Belhaj said: "I welcome and accept the prime minister's apology, and I extend to her and the attorney general my thanks and sincere goodwill."

Boudchar said the case "has forced me to relive the lowest moments in my life for many years, and at times it has been a real struggle to keep going. But by today's settlement I look forward to rebuilding my life with dignity and honor."

In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Boudchar said she was chained to a wall and tortured by the CIA when she was pregnant while being detained at a secret site in Thailand. She said she wanted to know what Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump's nominee to head the CIA, knew about her mistreatment.

Haspel, a 33-year CIA veteran, is believed to have run a CIA "black site" in Thailand in the early 2000s.

The renditions happened at the height of the U.S.-led "war on terror," and at a time when Britain was trying to improve relations with Gadhafi, a former international pariah who had recently renounced weapons of mass destruction.

In 2004, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair met Gadhafi in Libya, beginning a thaw in relations dubbed the "deal in the desert."

After Gadhafi was overthrown and killed in 2011, documents were discovered that disclosed the cozy working ties between Gadhafi's spies and Western intelligence officials.

They included a faxed letter from MI6 congratulating Gadhafi's intelligence chief Moussa Koussa on the "safe arrival" of Belhaj, saying that it was "the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years."

Wright told lawmakers that in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Britain and its international partners "were suddenly adapting to a completely new type and scale of threat."

He said British agencies "were in some respects not prepared for the extreme demands suddenly placed on them" and were too slow to understand "the unacceptable practices of some of our international partners."

"The government has enacted reforms to ensure that the problems of the past will not be repeated," Wright said.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.NEW YORK (AP)  A New York congressional candidate given permission Thursday to use campaign funds for child care expenses called the decision by federal officials "a game changer" for mothers as a record number of women run for office.

The Federal Election Commission voted 4-0 to allow the expenditure by Liuba Grechen Shirley, who is running in a Democratic primary in the Long Island district currently represented by Republican Rep. Peter King.

The FEC had previously permitted tapping campaign funds for "occasional" child care, but the 36-year-old candidate required more consistent care for her 2- and 3-year-old children as she ran for office.

"This is a game changer for moms and working parents across the country who are thinking about running for office but don't know how to juggle going without a salary and taking on the extra childcare expenses," Grechen Shirley posted on Facebook.

The ruling is expected to apply to other candidates who want to use campaign funds for new childcare expenses created by them campaigning.

"It's an added campaign expense; the same as opening an office or installing safety lights on a candidate's house," said Christina Reynolds, vice president of communications for Emily's List, a group working to help Democratic women run for office.

Before running for Congress, Grechen Shirley worked from home as consultant and cared for her children full-time. Her husband works full time.

Since March, she has paid a baby sitter $22 an hour from campaign funds to watch her two children, according to Newsday.

Grechen Shirley is among a record number of women running for the U.S. House, many of them Democrats motivated by dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress.

Her request to the FEC drew support from fellow-Democrat Hillary Clinton and from more than two-dozen members of Congress.

"By allowing candidates to use their private campaign funds to pay for childcare, the FEC is opening the door for working parents to have a voice in elective politics," Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama said in a statement. "This decision brings us closer to creating a representative government that reflects the diversity of the American public."

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.The Israeli military says it has attacked dozens of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the long-contested Golan Heights.

Here are some facts about the area and why it matters today:

The Golan Heights is a plateau at the southwestern corner of Syria overlooking the Sea of Galilee and northern Israel, roughly 40 miles (65 kilometers) long and 15 miles (25 kilometers) wide. Militarily, it is strategic high ground, with broad views of both Israel and Syria below.

 Syria shelled northern Israel from the Golan Heights between 1948 and 1967. Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed it in 1981, but the world still considers it occupied.

 In 1974, Israel and Syria agreed to a cease-fire and a disengagement and U.N. peacekeepers deployed to the area. After the Syrian civil war, the peacekeepers left the area for several months after dozens of them were taken hostages by Syrian rebels. In 2016, the peacekeeping force returned with 1,100 troops currently deployed in the area.

 Israel and Syria held peace talks starting in 1991 and even appeared close to a deal in 2000. Disagreement over the fate of the Golan Heights foiled the talks.

 Syria fought in three wars against Israel in 1948, 1967 and 1973, and battled Israel when it invaded Lebanon in 1982. Israel also acknowledged this year it carried out a 2007 airstrike in eastern Syria targeting an unfinished nuclear reactor built by North Korea. Syria and Israel have never made peace.

 During Syria's civil war, Israel has carried out more than 100 airstrikes in Syria, targeting suspected weapons shipments by Iran to the Lebanese Hezbollah group. As the war now looks to be winding down, Israel has stepped up its tempo of strikes against Iran, viewing any permanent Iranian military presence in Syria as a threat.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.JERUSALEM (AP)  The Latest on the war in Syria, where Israel responded to a rocket attack by launching a wave of missile strikes on Iranian positions (all times local):

7:40 p.m.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's office says the German leader has condemned an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights in a phone conversation with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

She also reaffirmed European powers' continued support for the Iran nuclear deal.

Merkel's office said the two leaders spoke Thursday. It said in a statement that Merkel underlined the support of Germany, France and Britain for the nuclear deal so long as Tehran continues to fulfill its obligations under that agreement. Merkel advocated opening talks with Iran on its ballistic missile programs and its activities in countries such as Syria and Yemen.

The statement said Merkel condemned the overnight attacks on Israeli positions "and called on Iran to contribute to de-escalation in the region." It didn't say how Rouhani responded.

___

3:45 p.m.

The White House has condemned Iran's "provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens" and expressed strong support for "Israel's right to act in self-defense."

The statement from press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders comes after the most serious direct military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date. The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked nearly all of Iran's military installations in neighboring Syria in response to what it described as an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the occupied Golan Heights.

Sanders says: "The Iranian regime's deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East."

___

3:20 p.m.

A top official from the Arab Gulf country of Bahrain is defending what he says is Israel's "right" to defend itself after Israel launched overnight strikes on Iranian targets in Syria.

Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa wrote on Twitter Thursday that so long as Iran uses its forces and missiles to try and destabilize the region, "it is the right of any country in the region, including Israel to defend itself by destroying sources of danger."

Israel says Iranian rocket attacks on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights prompted the overnight strikes. Iran has not commented on the accusations.

Bahrain, a close U.S. ally, considers Iran a regional threat. The tiny island-nation accuses its Persian Gulf neighbor of arming and training Shiite Bahraini protesters with the aim of destabilizing the Sunni-ruled country. Bahrain has also welcomed President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear accord with Iran.

___

3:15 p.m.

Russia says the Israeli strikes on Iranian facilities in Syria have marked a dangerous escalation, urging both Israel and Iran to avoid provoking each other.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow sees Thursday's strikes as a "very alarming development."

He noted that in contacts with the leadership of both countries, including a meeting Wednesday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "we underlined the necessity of avoiding any actions that might be mutually provocative." Netanyahu visited Moscow Wednesday to attend celebrations marking the WWII victory anniversary.

Israel said it struck dozens of Iranian targets overnight in response to a rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, the biggest Israeli strike in Syria since the 1973 war.

___

3 p.m.

Britain has condemned "in the strongest terms" a suspected Iranian rocket attack against Israeli positions in the Golan Heights.

In a statement Thursday, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson urged Iran to refrain from actions that could destabilize the region. Johnson also called on Russia to press the Syrian government, its ally, to work toward a broader political settlement.

The attack in the Golan prompted Israel to launch a wave of missile strikes at Iranian targets inside Syria. Iran has not commented on the exchange of fire. Syria's military said the Israeli strikes killed three people and damaged a number of its air defense units.

___

2:15 p.m.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron are calling for de-escalation in the Middle East after an alleged Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights prompted Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria.

Merkel and Macron met in Aachen, Germany Thursday on the sidelines of a ceremony where Macron was awarded a prize for contributions to European unity. The German government said they discussed events in the Middle East and called for "level-headedness and de-escalation in the region."

Merkel alluded to the two countries' support for the Iran nuclear deal. She said: "We know that we face an extremely complicated situation here. The escalation of the last few hours shows it is truly a matter of war and peace, and I can only call on all involved to exercise restraint."

___

2 p.m.

Syria's military says overnight Israeli airstrikes killed three people, wounded two and destroyed a radar station, an ammunition warehouse, and damaged a number of air defense units.

Syrian Brig. Gen. Ali Mayhoub, who read the statement on Syrian television Thursday, says Syrian air defense systems had intercepted "the large part" of the incoming Israeli strikes.

Mayhoub did not say whether Iranian forces or Iran-backed militiamen were among those killed or wounded.

Israel's defense minister says the military struck "nearly all" of Iran's military facilities in Syria. A Syrian war monitoring group says the strikes killed at least 23 people, including five Syrian soldiers.

___

1 p.m.

The Russian military says Israel fired more than 70 missiles at Iranian facilities in Syria and that Syrian air defenses shot down more than half of them.

Israel says it struck dozens of Iranian targets overnight in response to a rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights. It was the biggest Israeli strike in Syria since the 1973 war.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that 28 Israeli F-15 and F-16 fighter jets launched about 60 air-to-surface missiles during the two-hour raid early Thursday. It says Israel also fired over 10 tactical surface-to-surface missiles.

Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and has been waging its own air campaign on his behalf since 2015.

___

12:45 p.m.

A Syrian war monitoring group says Israeli attacks on several sites in Syria have killed 23 fighters, including five Syrian soldiers.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Thursday the overnight attacks struck several military posts for Syrian troops and Iranian-backed militias near the capital, Damascus, in central Syria and in southern Syria.

The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdurrahman, said five Syrian soldiers, including two officers, and 18 militia fighters were killed. Abdurrahman says it is not immediately clear if Iranians were among those killed.

He says the toll is likely to rise because some of the wounded are in critical condition.

The Observatory says the strikes targeted suspected locations of the Lebanese Hezbollah group, as well as areas where Iranian advisers are believed to be based.

___

Noon

Syrian President Bashar Assad has accused U.S. President Donald Trump of saying one thing one day and the opposite the next, saying "I don't think in the meantime we can achieve anything with such an administration."

Assad spoke in an interview with the Greek Kathimerini newspaper published Thursday, before Israel carried out airstrikes in Syria in response to what it said was a cross-border rocket attack by Iranian forces.

He appeared to be referring to conflicting messages from the White House on how long it plans to keep American troops in Syria and its plans going forward.

Assad says wise Russian leadership has managed to avoid a full-blown conflict with Washington. He says: "I hope we don't see any direct conflict between these superpowers, because this is where things are going to be out of control for the rest of the world."

Both Russia and Iran have provided crucial military support to Assad's forces.

___

9:30 a.m.

Israel's defense minister says the military has struck "nearly all" of the Iranian infrastructure sites in Syria.

Avigdor Lieberman says Thursday Israel responded fiercely to an unprecedented rocket attack by Iranian forces in Syria against Israel. He says no one was harmed in Israel and all the rockets were either intercepted or fell short.

Lieberman told the Herzliya Conference, an annual security gathering north of Tel Aviv, that "if it rains on us it will be a flood on them."

Israel attacked dozens of Iranian targets overnight in response to the rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights. It was the most serious military confrontation between Israel and Iran to date and Israel's biggest strike in Syria since the 1973 war.

___

7:50 a.m.

The Israeli military says it attacked dozens of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, in the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

Israel says the targets included weapons storage facilities, logistics centers, intelligence sites and logistic sites used by elite Iranian forces in Syria. It also says it destroyed several Syrian air-defense systems after coming under heavy fire. It says none of its warplanes was hit.

The blistering Israeli assault was by far the most intensive Israeli action in neighboring Syria since the civil war broke out there in 2011. Israel has tried to stay on the sidelines but has acknowledged over 100 airstrikes over the past seven years.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (AP)  Staging a made-for-TV, still-of-the-night arrival ceremony, President Donald Trump welcomed home three Americans freed by North Korea and declared their release a sign of promise toward his goal of de-nuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking early Thursday on an air base tarmac with the former detainees by his side, Trump called it a "great honor" to welcome the men to the U.S., but said "the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons."

Trump also thanked North Korea's Kim Jong Un for releasing the Americans, and said he believes Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. "I really think he wants to do something," the president said.

First lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other top officials joined Trump to celebrate the occasion at Joint Base Andrews near Washington. The men, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, had been released Wednesday amid a warming of relations between the longtime adversaries.

Shortly before 3 a.m. the president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men had traveled and spent several minutes meeting with them privately. The group then emerged at top of the airplane stairway, where the men held up their arms in what appeared to be gestures of triumph.

As the men entered into view, U.S. service members on the tarmac burst into applause and cheers.

"This is a special night for these three really great people," Trump told reporters. On the U.S. relationship with North Korea, Trump declared, "We're starting off on a new footing."

The freed prisoners appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft. They were joined by a translator who said it felt "like a dream" to be home and that the men were "very, very happy" to be freed. They later gave the president a round of applause.

After Trump's remarks, the three men boarded a bus for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The White House said earlier they would be evaluated and receive medical treatment at the Washington-area facility before being reunited with their families.

The White House pulled out all the stops for the event, hoisting a giant American flag between two fire trucks on the tarmac and inviting reporters to witness the return.

In usual Trumpian fashion, the president bragged to reporters, "I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 o'clock in the morning."

The highly public and politically tinged display stood in stark contrast to the low-key and very private reception that the State Department had envisioned and carried out from the moment it took custody of the men, and in keeping with a tradition of trying to protect potentially traumatized victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after their ordeal.

Department officials took great pains on the prisoners' release in North Korea, as well as on their flights to Japan and Alaska, to keep them sequestered not only from the two journalists traveling with Pompeo but also from staffers not immediately involved in their cases. The trio, along with medical personnel, including a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Pompeo's plane in a small section of 12 business class-size seats that was cordoned off by curtains on both ends.

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns in keeping with the minimal amount of information they had released since the men were imprisoned.

Pompeo had secured their release in Pyongyang after meeting with Kim on final plans for the Trump-Kim summit. The Americans had boarded Pompeo's plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to the Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the U.S.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska  for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon  the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," they said. "We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

Singapore has emerged as the likely host of the summit, late this month or in early June, as Trump seeks to negotiate denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in his highest-stakes foreign policy effort yet.

Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Korea's leader for the prisoners' release  "We want to thank Kim Jong Un"  and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the "official suggestion" of the U.S. president, said North Korea's official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.

Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental U.S. Those advances were the subject of President Barack Obama's starkest warning shortly before Trump took office, and this is a crisis he's convinced his negotiating skills can resolve.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kim's willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating U.S. moves to tighten sanctions  branded "maximum pressure" by the president.

The three were the latest in a series of Americans who have been detained by North Korea in recent years for seemingly small offenses and typically freed when senior U.S. officials or statesmen personally visited to bail them out.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Warmbier was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

"We are happy for the hostages and their families," the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. "We miss Otto."

After the release of the detainees Thursday, North Korea's state-run media explicitly mentioned plans for the summit for the first time Thursday. Pyongyang has been exceptionally cautious about its public framing of Kim's recent diplomatic moves, which are a major shift from the more aggressive focus on missile launches and nuclear development that heated tensions to a boil last year.

___

Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey and Ken Thomas in Washington and Eric Talmadge in Pyongyang contributed to this report.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.PASCO COUNTY, Fla. -- The Pasco County Sheriffs Office is assisting Port Richey Police in tracking down a documented gang member with an extensive criminal history now wanted in connection with an incident last month at the Grand Boulevard Motel.

Several active warrants on Paul PJ Vescio

Identifying gang members significant challenge for detectives

Vescio considered armed and dangerous

According to information from the sheriffs office, Paul "PJ" Vescio got into a fight with his girlfriend at the motel on April 23. During the fight, he allegedly pistol whipped her, threatened to shoot her, pointed the gun at her face and did not let her leave the motel for two weeks.

This is just the latest case Pasco law enforcement has handled in recent weeks involving a gang member or suspected gang member. On the same day the alleged incident between Vescio and his girlfriend began, the sheriffs office announced the arrest of Daniel Santos, 22, for allegedly orchestrating a multi-million dollar fraud ring.

Santos was taken into custody in Miami, where he was in the company of a known Blood gang member. Investigators said Santos is also a suspected gang member.

I think youre seeing an increase in crime activity with gang members involved. Per se, is it going to be related to the gang or to better their gang? Not necessarily, said Pasco Sheriffs Office gang detective Monte Schuler.

The county did see an example of that kind of crime back in December, when the president of the local chapter of the Outlaw Motorcycle Club was fatally shot near the intersection of the Suncoast Parkway and State Road 54, allegedly by members of a rival gang.

Schuler said some in law enforcement can go their entire careers without seeing a case like that.

We havent had that in years, he said.

Overall, Schuler said the biggest challenge when it comes to investigating gangs is identifying members.

Theres just so many of them out there, not only in Pasco, but nationwide that we dont even know of, so documentation is huge for us, said Schuler.

Vescio has active warrants for false imprisonment, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, and felon in possession of a firearm. Authorities ask anyone who knows where he is to call 911. He is considered armed and dangerous.SEBRING, Fla. -- More than a thousand people gathered at Fireman's Field in Sebring for a candlelight vigil honoring Highlands County Deputy William Gentry.

RELATED STORIES:

Gentry was shot in the line of duty when he responded to a neighborhood dispute over a dead cat on Sunday. He died the next day.

Some people in the crowd knew him personally.

"Very caring, loving person," said Janet Hill. "He had a quirkiness about him, but that just made him William."

Spiritual leaders at the vigil prayed for peace and for Gentry's family, and attendees lit candles as motivational songs played in the background.

His family decided not to attend, but Sheriff Paul Blackman passed along a message from Gentry's mother.

"She just wants everybody to know that she's very thankful," Blackman said. "She feels blessed that this many people have responded to a horrible situation that's happened to her son, and that she certainly loves the community she lives in and thanks them for that."

Those present said it's important to show support for law enforcement.

"We've just got to stay together," said Lake Placid's mayor John Holbrook. "We've got to love each other. Live each day to the fullest because you cannot tell what's going to happen in the next hour, the next day or the next year."

Both the Polk County Sheriff's Office and Orange County Sheriff's Office have provided support to help deputies deal with the loss.

Gentry will be brought home from the Medical Examiner's Office on Thursday, May 10. His procession will be traveling from Polk County and is scheduled to be at the county line about 10 a.m. and proceed down U.S. 27 to Stephenson-Nelson on the Sebring Parkway.

Funeral services will be held Tuesday.For Immediate Release, May 10, 2018 Contact: Brett Hartl, (202) 817-8121, bhartl@biologicaldiversity.org Bishop, House Committee Trying to Kill Lifesaving Protections for Grouse, Prairie Chickens Armed Services Committee Amendment Would Also Strip Protections From Endangered Beetle WASHINGTON In a party line vote, the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee passed an amendment late Wednesday night by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) that would prohibit the greater sage grouse and lesser prairie chicken from being protected under the Endangered Species Act for the next 10 years. The amendment would also immediately end protections for the American burying beetle, short-circuiting the science-based process thats legally required by the Endangered Species Act. Rob Bishop is determined to sign the death warrant for these birds as a gift to his friends in the oil and gas industry, said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. Its shameful that hes hiding behind our military to justify this cruel proposal. The military has been a good steward of its land and natural resources. It doesnt need or want this, and is already effectively conserving sensitive wildlife like the prairie chicken and burying beetle. Bishop has repeatedly targeted the grouse, prairie chicken and burying beetle, including slipping this rider into previous National Defense Authorization Acts. In 2017 the U.S. Geological Survey concluded that the lesser prairie chicken continues to decline across its remaining range. The USGS has predicted that all remaining populations of the chickens will fall below the critical threshold of 500 birds by 2037, when the agency says no population will have more than a 25 percent chance of avoiding extinction. The birds core habitat faces a nearly unprecedented rate of oil and gas development; the western Permian Basin includes the highest lease rates in the United States. For example, in a 2017 auction in New Mexico, 99 percent of the parcels offered by the Bureau of Land Management for development were leased for development. A multiyear effort by the U.S. Department of the Interior resulted in the department adopting land-use plans in 2015 that restricted fracking and oil drilling inside important sage-grouse habitat. That in turn protected hundreds of species like pronghorn, elk, golden eagle and native trout that depend on intact sage brush landscapes. Beginning in 2017 Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has taken steps to dismantle those plans and allow new oil and gas extraction in these areas. Those steps include putting nearly 2 million acres of sage-grouse habitat on the auction block, despite the fact that greater sage grouse populations continue to decline across the West. These three amazing animals are going to go extinct because of the greed of Rob Bishop and Ryan Zinke, said Hartl. Two of Americas most iconic bird species will be lost forever in our lifetimes just to enrich a few special interests. The best available science continues to demonstrate that the American burying beetle is highly endangered. The beetle has declined by more than 90 percent and is ranked by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered. Captive-breeding and reintroduction efforts increased the total number of populations from just two in 1989 to more than 20 by 2011, but the species is still missing from most of its historic range. Despite the existence of a habitat conservation plan that allows for oil and gas development while simultaneously protecting the American burying beetle, the oil and gas industry continues to push to strip protections for the insect. In 2017 three oil and gas associations sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in an attempt to strip Endangered Species Act protections. In March Congress required the Fish and Wildlife Service to complete a status review of the burying beetle by September 2018, and to either downlist or delist the burying beetle if the best available science indicates such action is warranted. Congress shouldnt interfere in decisions that are best left to expert scientists that understand how extinctions happen, said Hartl. The American people do not support these radical and malevolent political proposals.For Immediate Release, May 10, 2018 Contacts: Paul Achitoff, (808) 262-8283, achitoff@earthjustice.org

Todd Steiner, (415) 488-8752, TSteiner@TIRN.net

Miyoko Sakashita, (510) 844-7108, miyoko@biologicaldiversity.org Court Orders Hawaiian Shallow-set Longline Fishery to Close to Protect Loggerhead Sea Turtles

HONOLULU Complying with a federal court order, the National Marine Fisheries Service has immediately closed the Hawaiian shallow-set longline fishery for the rest of 2018 in order to protect endangered loggerhead sea turtles. Conservation groups are applauding the fishery closure that runs from May 8 through Dec. 31, 2018. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by Turtle Island Restoration Network and the Center for Biological Diversity, represented by Earthjustice, challenging the annual sea turtle interaction limits. After the court invalidated the inflated sea turtle limits, the lower limits compelled an immediate closure of the Hawaiian shallow-set longline fishery.



The National Marine Fisheries Service, which is supposed to be protecting our wildlife, has instead been illegally helping the longliners push sea turtles to the brink of extinction, said Earthjustice attorney Paul Achitoff. We wont allow it.



We scored a victory for loggerhead sea turtles, said Todd Steiner, biologist and executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network. For decades the Hawaii longline fishery has gotten away with killing and injuring sea turtles, seabirds and marine mammals. A healthy ocean belongs to all of us and shouldnt be threatened by a small group of industrial fishing vessels.



In December 2017 the court found that the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to properly analyze the Hawaii-based swordfish longline fisherys impacts on the endangered loggerhead sea turtles it kills and injures before permitting an expansion of that fishery in 2012. The Fisheries Service had authorized the fishery to interact with up to 26 leatherbacks and 34 loggerhead sea turtles, doubling the number of sea turtles it hooks or entangles.



Sea turtles could go extinct if deadly longlines arent better regulated. For a few months, sea turtles will get a respite from millions of deadly hooks, said Miyoko Sakashita, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. But more needs to be done to address permanently the very real harm caused by longliners in the Pacific. Sea turtles become hooked while trying to take longline bait, or become entangled while swimming through the walls of nearly invisible lines and hooks  encounters that can drown the turtles or leave them fatally injured. Seabirds such as Laysan and black-footed albatrosses also dive for the bait and become hooked; worldwide, longline fishing has caused precipitous declines in most albatross populations.For Immediate Release, May, 10, 2018 Contact: Hannah Connor, (202) 681-1676, hconnor@biologicaldiversity.org Analysis: 490,000 Pounds of Toxic Pesticides Sprayed on National Wildlife Refuges Pesticide Use on Crops Grown in Refuges Spikes in California, Oregon, Arkansas, Tennessee, Maryland WASHINGTON Americas national wildlife refuges are being doused with hundreds of thousands of pounds of dangerous agricultural pesticides every year, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by the Center for Biological Diversity. The Center report, No Refuge, reveals that an estimated 490,000 pounds of pesticides were dumped on commodity crops like corn, soybeans and sorghum grown in national wildlife refuges in 2016, the most recent year for which data are available. The analysis was conducted with records obtained by the Center under the Freedom of Information Act.



These refuges are supposed to be a safe haven for wildlife, but theyre becoming a dumping ground for poisonous pesticides, said Hannah Connor, a senior attorney at the Center who authored the analysis. Americans assume these public lands are protected and I think most people would be appalled that so many pesticides are being used to serve private, intensive agricultural operations. The pesticides include the highly toxic herbicides dicamba and 2,4-D, which threaten the endangered species and migrating birds that wildlife refuges were created to protect. Refuge pesticide use in 2016 was consistent with pesticide applications on refuges over the previous two years, the Center analysis showed. Americas 562 national wildlife refuges include forests, wetlands and waterways vital to thousands of species, including more than 280 protected under the Endangered Species Act. Yet intensive commercial farming has become increasingly common on refuge lands, triggering escalating use of highly toxic pesticides that threaten the long-term health of these sensitive habitats and the wildlife that depend on them. In 2016 more than 270,000 acres of refuge land were sprayed with pesticides for agricultural purposes. The five national wildlife refuge complexes most reliant on pesticides for agricultural purposes in 2016 were: Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex in California and Oregon, with 236,966 pounds of pesticides;

in California and Oregon, with 236,966 pounds of pesticides; Central Arkansas Refuges Complex in Arkansas, with 48,725 pounds of pesticides;

in Arkansas, with 48,725 pounds of pesticides; West Tennessee Refuge Complex in Tennessee, with 22,044 pounds of pesticides;

in Tennessee, with 22,044 pounds of pesticides; Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge Complex in Tennessee, with 16,615 pounds of pesticides;

in Tennessee, with 16,615 pounds of pesticides; Chesapeake Marshlands National Wildlife Refuge Complex on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia, with 16,442 pounds of pesticides. Additional findings from the report: Aerial pesticide spraying: In 2016, 107,342 acres of refuge lands were aerially sprayed with 127,020 pounds of pesticides for agricultural purposes, including approximately 1,328 pounds of the notoriously drift-prone dicamba, which is extremely toxic to fish, amphibians and crustaceans. Glyphosate: In 2016 more than 55,000 agricultural acres in the refuge system were treated with 116,200 pounds of products containing glyphosate, the pesticide that has caused widespread decreases in milkweed plants, helping to trigger an 80 percent decline of the monarch butterfly over the past two decades. 2,4-D: In 2016 more than 12,000 refuge acres were treated with 15,819 pounds of pesticide products containing 2,4-D, known to be toxic to mammals, birds, amphibians, crustaceans, reptiles and fish and is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of endangered and threatened salmonids. Paraquat dichloride: In 2016 more than 3,000 acres of corn and soybean crops on refuge lands were treated, mainly through aerial spraying, with approximately 6,800 pounds of pesticides containing paraquat dichloride, known to be toxic to crustaceans, mammals, fish, amphibians and mollusks and so lethal it is banned in 32 counties, including the European Union. These pesticides are profoundly dangerous for plants and animals and have no place being used on such a staggering scale in our wildlife refuges, Connor said. The Interior Department needs to put an end to this outrage and return to its mission of protecting imperiled wildlife, not row crops.

The Internet Society and the African Union Commission launched new personal data protection guidelines for Africa at the Africa Internet Summit held in Dakar, Senegal this week.

 bluebay via 123RF

Key recommendations

A foundation for trust in the digital environment

Using the internet and other sources to inform themselves about the risks and benefits of the digital economy or their online activities. This includes being aware of agreements they make when they sign up for "free" services or use social media platforms that may profit off their data.



Understand and exercise their rights, and act, when needed. There is a corresponding role for governments to empower individuals to do so by ensuring citizens know how to exercise their rights under privacy and personal data protection laws.



Develop their capabilities to protect their interests online. Supervisory authorities and governments should take steps to ensure that service-providers and product vendors are transparent about their business models and product capabilities, so consumers can make informed choices about the privacy implications of products and services.

The new set of guidelines highlight how privacy protection and the responsible use of personal data are critical factors in building greater trust online and in advancing the digital economy in Africa.The Personal Data Protection Guidelines for Africa were jointly developed by the Internet Society - a global non-profit organisation that promotes the open development, evolution and use of the internet - and the African Union Commission to facilitate the implementation of the AUs Convention on cybersecurity and data protection (known as the Malabo Convention), adopted in 2014.The guidelines recommend a range of actions for governments, policymakers, citizens and other stakeholders to take at the regional, national, organisational and individual level. Among the key recommendations for governments is that they should respect and protect individuals rights to privacy online and offline.Recent global events have shown us that the lack of appropriate protection for personal data can have a profound impact not just on individuals but also on society at large, to the point of endangering democratic systems, said Dawit Bekele, African regional bureau director for the Internet Society. These guidelines explain how people can take a more active role in the protection of their own data as well as the role that other stakeholders, including governments and legislators, have in ensuring the proper use of data.Two key principles of the guidelines urge all AU Member States to: recognise privacy as a foundation for trust in the digital environment and prioritize the sustainable and responsible use of personal data in the digital economy.In addition, there are recommendations for citizens who are concerned about their data and privacy including:The Malabo Convention is the first step towards developing national legislative frameworks for cybersecurity and data protection in Africa. The guidelines launched today provide a path forward for the member states that have signed the convention, and hopefully encourage more countries to join, says Moctar Yedaly, head of information society division, African Union Commission.Ten startups from across Africa have been selected to take part in the inaugural Disrupt Africa Live Pitch Competition, which takes place in Nairobi next week.

The Live Pitch Competition , the first of its kind to be launched by Disrupt Africa, will be co-located with AHUB East , taking place at the East Africa Com event on Wednesday, May 16 at the Radisson Blu in Nairobis Upper Hill.A total of 10 tech startups from four African countries have been selected to take part in the competition, which will see them pitch their innovative products and solutions to a judging panel formed of Stephen Gugu, manager of the Viktoria Business Angels Network (VBAN); Aaron Fu, managing director of MEST; Hannah Clifford, director of Nairobi Garage; and Gabriella Mulligan, co-founder of Disrupt Africa.Six of the selected companies are from Kenya, namely IoT-based e-health startup Beacon , agricultural supply chain platform Taimba , dairy farm digitalisation startup LishaBora , bitcoin-based crowdfunding platform Drofund , and insurtech startups Kakbima and WazInsure Tanzania is represented by agri-tech startups Leo Leo and KilimoPoint , and Zambia by The Local Electricity Project , which sells an educational kit which gives young people everything they need to create new ways of generating electricity using local resources.One Nigerian startup  digital publishing platform Publiseer  has also made the cut.The winning startup will earn an expenses-paid trip to Cape Town to pitch their startup at AfricaCom , Africas premier tech conference, in November 2018; a one-on-one investor meeting with Gugu; a marketing package worth US$500 from Disrupt Africa ; and six months free membership of the Nairobi Garage Club Space on Ngong Road.We were really impressed by the quality and diversity of applications for our first live pitching event, and look forward to welcoming the teams to Nairobi next week, said Disrupt Africa co-founder and judging panellist Gabriella Mulligan.There are some great prizes up for grabs for the winning startup, but all participants stand to benefit from pitching their innovative solutions to an audience of potential partners and investors, and networking with industry stakeholders over the course of the event.iProspect CPT is excited to announce the appointment of Shaneel Singh to Chief Strategy Officer. Shaneel holds a Bachelor's Degree with a quadruple major in Marketing, Media, English and Performance studies, as well as an Honours Post Graduate Bachelor's Degree in Social Sciences. Shaneel has worked in all tiers of the digital advertising ecosystem from bidding on ad networks, through to programmatic and training new staff on digital platforms. He will be reporting to Jaco Lintvelt (Managing Director AMNET SSA & iProspect South Africa).

Shaneel Singh

Shaneel boasts a solid track record in digital, previously being the Digital Account Director at Netbooster/Artefact for Sub Saharan Africa where he was involved in global account pitches. He has a client history including Estee Lauder Group of Companies, Mercedez Benz, ABSA, Woolworths, Johnson & Johnson, KFC and MTN. Some of his achievements include launching the first paid media Twitter and Periscope campaign in Africa, being President of the Social Committee at Limbik group, being a guest speaker for Post Graduate Marketing students at Stellenbosch University as well as working in an award-winning ad operations team across all paid media channels, which won an IAB Ad Operations bookmark award in 2015.His new role will see him heading up Strategy for the iProspect CT office on the portfolio of clients, as well as working on new business for the company. He will work on aligning the companies vision with existing clients as well as ensuring that they service their portfolio using the latest technologies and efficient media channels and tools required.Shaneel is excited and ready for the challenge, he stated: I am honoured to be part of the DAN network and looking forward to adding value to the current portfolio of clients and future new business from a strategic point of view.On this new appointment, Jaco Lintvelt stated: "I am very happy to welcome Shaneel into iProspect. iProspect South Africa are experiencing great organic as well as new business growth and we have a very experienced and motivated team that is behind this success that Shaneel will now form part of. With Shaneels experience in digital strategy, we are now positioned to deliver even greater innovative solutions to our clients that will deliver real business outcomes for them."These are exciting times for the South African PR sector - as a relatively young industry in a world where the speed with which we are able to exact change is greater than ever before, local agencies literally have the opportunity to rewrite the PR rulebook.

The rise of the FrankenAgency

Agencies are abhorrent at insight and analytics

Bell Pottinger should have pushed back

Ethics will come to the fore in crisis

Are brands just pulling heartstrings?

This was the view point from which industry thought leaders tackled a broad range of issues affecting communications professionals at the Holmes Reports In2Innovation Summit in Sandton on 8 May.But amid the conversations around the growing need for rapid transformation, the most important question of the day was - are we as an industry innovating?The answer from We Communications International president, Alan Van der Molen, was  in short  not nearly as much as we should be.He pointed out that the most significant trend we are seeing among agencies at the moment is consolidation  not innovation. As part of a trend, which he calls the  FrankenAgency Epidemic , large holding companies such as WPP and Omnicom are merging their agencies to cut costs.And this at a time, says Van der Molen, when agencies should be taking a more aggressive stance and playing across the entire media system rather than just in earned media, where they are highly limited. Instead consolidation forces companies to swim in very particular lanes so they dont compete among their various lines of business.There has been a 50% decline in journalists worldwide  meaning we have less people to smile and dial, Van der Molen commented. Agencies must get better at dropping branded content with very particular outcomes in mind. And we need to understand the ecosystem for delivering that content.He believes that operating across paid, earned and owned will help agencies become more scientific and creative. Agencies must also develop far better insight and analytics abilities, he said, adding that right now the industrys capabilities in this area are abhorrent.To do this, Van der Molen suggests agencies must drive new skill sets, something which We will be focusing on through the development of Motion Labs  a platform, which, through collaboration with smart, young entrepreneurs, will help communications professionals understand how content moves.Along with improving capabilities in terms of research and insights, Tom Manners, MD of Clockwork Media, pointed out that agencies also need to offer more strategic counsel to clients rather than simply acting on instructions.In fact, the foresight to push back on a truly horrendous brief might have seen Bell Pottingers story end quite differently, commented Robyn De Villiers, chairman and CEO of Burson-Marsteller in Africa. She said that if we isolated the question of whether or not Bell Pottinger was successful in their PR campaign  the answer would be yes, they would get 100% for fulfilling their brief. The issue, De Villiers said, wasnt that they shouldnt have taken on the client, but rather that they should have pushed back on the brief.Thought leaders agreed that issues like the Bell Pottinger crisis, have prompted PR professionals to call for the industry to be held to a much higher ethical standard.The role of ethics and brand purpose dominated many of the discussions which took place during the summit. Risk plans will increasingly include ethical risks and must become living documents which companies look at all the time, said De Villiers.Only some of risk management is controllable and when the incidents which a brand cant control occur, brands must have an anchor, commented Heidi Brauer, brand mama and CMO at Hollard Insurance. She pointed out that anchor is a brands way of being  its culture and ethics.The question of ethics bled into an extremely interesting panel on ESG. James Brice, group CEO of the EBS Advisory, questioned whether businesses are simply ticking boxes when it comes to CSI, doing just enough and no more. He also questioned the level of authenticity in corporate reporting. No-one trusts perfection, he said, saying that companies must learn to report the bad with the good.Jean Pierre Verster, equity portfolio manager at Fairtree Capital, agreed, saying the best way to truly change corporate behaviour would be to change the incentive for behaving differently. He says, in Japan, for example, company equity is tracked  and those companies with better equity receive greater investment.Reporting alone isnt enough to encourage equity, Verster commented. Rather executives should be remunerated according to their long-term ESG goals.At the end of the day, it comes down to this  are companies simply stating values rather than implementing them? Are brands simply pulling on the heartstrings of a country thats desperate for hope? Brice questioned.And if so, what needs to happen within the communications industry to regulate this?This company article has been removed.According to Knight Frank's PIRI 100 index, Cape Town's luxury residential property market showed the second-best performance worldwide last year with growth of 19.9%.

Increasingly desirable residential address

Demand and supply related factors

Cape Towns unique geographic constraints

Only Chinas Guangzhou (27.4%) recorded higher growth in its luxury residential property market with Cape Town beating the remaining top 10 cities, which included Aspen (19%), Amsterdam (15%), Seoul (13.2%), Frankfurt (12.9%), Seattle (12.2%), Paris (12%), Sydney (10.7%) and Madrid (10.6%).The PIRI 100 index, or prime international residential index, formed part of Knight Franks 2018 Wealth Report , which tracks data on wealthy and ultra-wealthy individuals from around the world. Cape Town is fast becoming a truly global holiday destination and an increasingly desirable residential address for South Africas high net worth individuals, as well as those from abroad, said Deon de Klerk, head of Wealth for Africa Regions at Standard Bank. The luxury residential property market in the city has really been able to capitalise on its newfound reputation as the Monaco of the South.The stellar performance of Cape Towns luxury residential property market is further underscored by the fact that the overall index increased just 2.1% in 2017, only moderately outperforming the rather moribund 1.4% growth recorded in 2016. Two thirds of the locations in the PIRI 100 index recorded static or positive annual price growth in 2017, with only 11% of the locations posting double-digit returns.Knight Frank attributes the strong performance of Cape Towns luxury residential property market, which also outperformed the citys wider mainstream market by some margin, to a combination of both demand and supply related factors. On the demand side, the areas near Table Mountain, including the Atlantic Seaboard and City Bowl, continue to attract strong inward migration from other parts of South Africa as well as sustained foreign buying.On the supply side, prices were further underpinned by the lack of existing stock or new development opportunities in Cape Towns prime locations, most of which are sandwiched between the mountains and the ocean. Anecdotally we know that there is a lot of semi-grating occurring, with many South Africans opting to relocate to the Western Cape before they consider emigrating to other countries, said De Klerk.Typical prices in Cape Town range from R1.2m for a small studio apartment to R30m for a penthouse apartment. Two-bedroom, two-bathrooms apartments with secure parking fetch about R5m on average, the report said. In the last two years, Cape Town has set South African records for both the highest-ever sale price achieved for a residential home - R290m for a house in Bantry Bay  as well as the highest-ever rental price - R450,000 a month for an estate in Constantia. There is also limited opportunity to boost stock in the prime locations around the City Bowl and Atlantic Seaboard thanks to Cape Towns unique geographic constraints, which ironically are also the greatest assets for the citys luxury residential market as they pose a significant physical barrier to entry.The Knight Frank report also highlighted Cape Towns Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), which opened in Cape Town in September 2017, adding to the citys already burgeoning appeal to high net worth individuals. The museum houses 21st Century Art from Africa and its diaspora, including the private collection of German philanthropist and former Puma chief executive Jochen Zeitz.Art, wealth and property have been bedfellows for millennia, the Knight Frank report said. Cape Town can comfortably add all three to its well-documented appeal.Reduced revenue and the increased cost of water supply infrastructure mean that the City of Cape Town has to raise water tariffs. This was the reasoning provided at a discussion hosted by the city on the proposed new water tariffs on Wednesday, 9 May.

Theewaterskloof Dam on 24 April 2018. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

Drop in average water demand

Low income households

Theewaterskloof dam in October 2010. Photo from Google Maps

Water meter size

If we used to sell 1,000-million litres [of water] a day but now we can only sell 500-million litres a day, we need to still cover the costs of the whole network, said Gisela Kaiser, executive director of informal settlements, water and waste.So our costs are not a lot less than for 1,000 litres, but our revenue is now halved, so we actually have to double our unit cost, said Kaiser. And thats really what we mean by having to increase tariffs just because our sales are down.Water usage in Cape Town dropped significantly over the past year, but Kaiser said this also meant that the citys revenue declined.According to the latest, the average water demand dropped by about 45% from February 2017 to February 2018. This translates to a shortfall in revenue of nearly R2bn in the current year.The proposed new water tariffs would most heavily affect monthly water usage up to 10,500 litres. The tariff for water usage between zero and 6,000 litres would increase from R26.25 per 1,000 litres to R40.73. And the tariff for usage between 6,000 and 10,500 litres would increase from R46.00 per 1,000 litres to R48.88. (These amounts exclude VAT.)But monthly water usage between 10,500 and 35,000 litres would still carry a much higher tariff: R127.13 per 1,000 litres. Using more than 35,000 litres of water will cost R768.64 per 1,000 litres, which the city describes as punitive. (10,500 litres per month is exactly equivalent to a family of seven using 50 litres per day each in a 30-day month.)People will see different tariff increases depending on how much water they use and whether they are domestic or industrial [users], said Kaiser.Indigent households, of which the report states there are about 268,000 in Cape Town, will not be charged for monthly water usage up to 10,500 litres. Using more than 10,500 litres will carry the same tariffs for all households.Bertus Saayman, manager of financial and commercial activities for the Department of Water and Sanitation, said that people earning less than R3,500 would not be charged for monthly water use lower than 10,500 litres.According to the report, the new tariffs must be in place from 1 July 2018.A fixed charge has also been proposed by the city to cover the costs of the pipe network and the new projects to increase the water supply to the city. The fixed cost for the whole pipe network is a lot more than the cost of the actual water that flows through it, and thats why we had to introduce a fixed charge into the mix, said Kaiser.The fixed charge is calculated relative to the size of a households water meter. The report states that 95% of households have a water meter size of between 15 and 20mm, meaning that they will pay a fixed charge of R115 per month or less.Saayman said that the size of a households water meter will be indicated on water bills from 1 July 2018.We do not work at making a profit, said Kaiser. The revenue that we foresee will cover our costs to provide water and sanitation services  Our revenue and expenses have to balance. She said water had been historically underfunded and that the drought had made everyone realise the value of water.The tariff proposals form part of the citys 2018/19 budget. The new budget has not been finalised yet and will go to the City Council for approval on 30 May 2018.Mzansi's loved household favourite celebrates a Mother's Day with a difference

Imagine taking Mothers Day and making it even bigger? Impossible? Think again! In 2018, Blue Ribbon has decided to give mothers across the country a chance to experience a Mothers Day like never before.Instead of only one day to celebrate the heartbeats of society, Blue Ribbon is taking over an entire month of May to give back to moms in South Africa.Mothers May is a celebration of moms every single day for an entire month - showing appreciation for all they do. Be it time, treats or travel- all moms are different and have different desires. This year they stand the chance to be appreciated, and so much more, courtesy of Blue Ribbon, who are asking moms to tell them what theyfor Mothers Day.Mothers May also seeks to create an open and honest conversation for mothers across the country where they have an opportunity to divulge what their guilty pleasures and desires are, with like minded moms across the country.Mothers Day is a very important day on most peoples calendars - a time to show appreciation and give back to our moms or mother figures in our lives. Whether its a gift or simply time, we want moms to experience the perks of the day for longer than 24 hours. Mothers May is just that! Blue Ribbon has put together tailored experiences that give back to moms in a memorable way. We also want to get the conversation going and hopefully impact moms lives for the better, and have some fun while doing it, commented Blue Ribbon Senior Brand Manager Thoko Zungu.Every day for the whole month of May 55 lucky ladies will win experiences from movie dates, spa days, shopping vouchers and more. The Mothers May campaign kicked off on 2 May and throughout the month thousands of prizes and giveaways will take place to keep the festivities alive in true Mothers May fashion.Go to www.facebook.com/blueribbonbread to find out more on the competition.Lukanyo Mnyanda recently returned to South Africa from Bloomberg in Edinburgh to join Business Day (where he worked as economics editor after graduating) this time as editor, succeeding Tim Cohen. His position took effect on Tuesday, 1 May.

Lukanyo Mnyanda, editor of Business Day.

Briefly, how do you feel about moving back to South Africa and joining the Tiso Blackstar Group as editor of Business Day?

What does your role entail?

The aim is to produce a product thats sustainable in the current digital environment. That means producing business and politics news that is accessible to the reader and is important news when they pick it up in the morning. Its a big challenge in this age of social media and instant commentary.

What do you love most about your career and the media in particular?

Tell us a bit about your experience in the industry; any highlights youre particularly proud of.

Whats at the top of your to-do list?

What are you currently reading/watching/listening to for work?

Tell us something about yourself not generally known.

I am honoured to come back to SA to leadat such a crucial stage in the evolution of our democracy. I am especially proud to be coming back to this great newspaper, which I first joined as a young graduate more than 20 years ago. He says hes looking forward to contributing to the next stage of its development and working with some great journalists.Andy Gill, MD of Tiso Blackstar Group, adds, We are pleased to be able to appoint someone of Lukanyos stature and expertise. We are especially happy to be bringing SA talent back home at such an important time for media in the country.Here, Mnyanda goes on to share how he feels about moving back to South Africa at such a time as this and the challenge that lies aheadThe most overriding feeling is one of pride and amazement that Im actually here. After all these years away, this was not an opportunity I expected would come up  and even when it did and I applied, I wasnt taking anything for granted as Im sure a number of talented people were also in the running. There is also an extreme sense of responsibility when I think of people whove been here before me. Im not talking just about the editors (its had some famous ones), but the journalists I encountered when I arrived. Big names and I hope to make them proud.Bringing out a newspaper every weekday. On one level its as simple as that. After 13 years working in newswires, its really exciting to see the physical paper in the morning. Maybe technology wont kill newspapers after all.Which brings me to the next point:Interacting with really smart and interesting people from all walks of life.Its all been a highlight  from my first job as an intern at home newspaper, the, to walking in here for the first time at. But, maybe getting my internship at the Herald  its hard to believe as a first-year student I was brave enough to simply call Robert Ball (managing editor at the time) and ask him for a meeting.Taking our coverage of business forward. South Africas story of the past 10 years has been so dominated by politics that now might be the time for business to take the front foot.I still have a box of things to arrive from the UK, so my bookshelf isnt exactly full. I managed to carryby Martha Evans in my hand luggage. And a few days ago I picked up a copy ofby Abigail Calata and Lukhanyo Calata.I am a bit of an open book.Thotbox is a media sales company that specialises in community radio airtime sales by integrating all regional radio stations to form a national grid.This job expired on 14 May 2018.This job expired on 15 May 2018.This job expired on 25 May 2018.



By Ritu Mousumi Tripathy



W ith humanity's ever-increasing quest for space exploration reaching newer heights, space race in the present century has taken unprecedented turns. From developing reusable space launch vehicles to planning inter-planetary missions to set up colonies on the Moon and eventually on Mars, the space faring nations are surely aiming for the farthest in the infinite Universe.



While NASA is back in the race by successfully launching its latest Mars lander mission, InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) this month, the US space agency has also started work on its "lunar gateway" programme, which aims at setting up an orbital outpost in the vicinity of the Moon in the 2020s. The orbital outpost will help extend human presence in deep space, especially in Mars, hopes NASA.



The other big power, China, too has recently listed out its deep space exploration missions over the next decade, including a mission to Mars and a probe to asteroids for mining purposes and more ambitiously, even using them as possible space stations in future for manned deep space missions.



NASA, for its part, has also spelt out an asteroid haunting mission, "Psyche". Scheduled for launch in 2022, the spacecraft would arrive at the metallic asteroid, 16 Psyche, in 2026 for an in-depth study of one of the ten most massive space rocks lying in the asteroid belt of our Solar System.



Joining the bandwagon of such ambitious deep space exploration missions in the 21st century is India. The country has already made remarkable global imprint by successfully sending a mission to Mars in its maiden attempt. The MoM or Mangalyaan spacecraft, launched in November 2013, entered the orbit around the Red Planet on its very first attempt, on September 24, 2014, creating a world record and placing India in an elite club of countries -- US, Russia and ESA (Europe) -- having sent probes to Mars successfully.



The ISRO-led mission has already outlived its initial lifespan of six months, and is still going strong. The space agency ISRO continues to collect vital data and information from all five payloads of the Martian spacecraft.



Before the Mars mission, India has already tasted success in its Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission which proved the existence of water on the Moon's surface.



Now, the country is preparing for yet another crucial mission  the Chandrayaan-2. This second lunar exploration mission is going to be a fully indigenous one comprising of an orbiter, lander and a rover.



Chandrayaan-2, set for launch in October-November 2018, will be ISRO's first inter-planetary mission to "soft-land" a lander/rover on a celestial body. The probe is expected to reach the lunar orbit in a month or two.



The six-wheeled rover, which will move on the lunar surface after getting detached from the lander, will send back important scientific data and information which will be used for understanding lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice, according to ISRO.



What would make this indigenous mission all the more interesting and equally challenging is "an ancient site" at which the spacecraft's lander would set its foot to explore the lunar surface. It would be the Moon's south pole which is a "very tricky area" with rocks formed a million years ago, according to ISRO Chief K Sivan. This could possibly help in understanding the origin of our Universe.



Moon's south pole has been of immense interest to scientists and explorers as it is believed to be cradling potential resources such as water ice and hydrogen. The south pole contains areas of permanent darkness where sunlight never reaches the bottom. The craters formed in this permanently shadowed region thus are quite unique.



Most of the lunar missions in the past have explored the area around the equator of the Moon.



NASA too had sent a fast-track, low-cost mission, LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite), in June 2009 to crash-land near a crater, Cabeus, in the Moon's south pole region. Incidentally, ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 mission had just discovered the presence of water molecules on the lunar surface around that time.



The US's LCROSS mission too found evidence of presence of water in the south pole region of Moon with NASA stating that the concentration and distribution of water and other substances in that part required further analysis.



With the Chandrayaan-2 now getting ready to explore that region yet again after nearly a decade, space scientists and explorers world-over would be hopeful of getting fresh clues as regards to the presence of water and other essential resources in the area which could pave the way for setting up lunar bases in future.



If ISRO achieves success in this critical mission, it will be yet another remarkable feat for India as only three other countries  the US, Russia and China  have been able to "soft-land" their spacecraft on the lunar surface previously.



But most importantly, India will surely take a major leap forward in its journey towards the more ambitious human space flight programmes in the foreseeable future.

DOYLESTOWN >> A Middletown Township couple was convicted in absentia Wednesday, Oct. 6 in a case of child neglect one doctor described as the worst hes ever seen. Albert Dunkowski, 54, and Christine Dunkowski, 47, were convicted by a Bucks County jury of three counts each of endangering the welfare of a child. The Dunkowskis appeared for the first two...Campus News

Diversity in Medicine scholars to work with patient populations that need them most

Karole Collier (left) and Bradley Frate, students in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, are among 10 statewide recipients of the new Diversity in Medicine scholarship. Photo: Douglas Levere

By ELLEN GOLDBAUM

Medical school is a daunting financial proposition for anyone, but for those from underrepresented groups it can be a deal-breaker. That financial barrier is one of the major factors leading to the lack of physicians from underrepresented groups. Even in a diverse state like New York, where African-Americans and Hispanics/Latinos comprise more than 30 percent of the population, they make up only 12 percent of the physician workforce, according to data from the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University at Albany. UB medical students Karole Collier and Bradley Frate are part of a statewide effort to change that. Both students in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB were among 10 statewide recipients of the new Diversity in Medicine scholarship first funded by the New York State Legislature in 2017 and renewed in the state budget passed last month. The renewal means they will have most of their medical school tuition covered for 2018-19. In return, the students must commit to work in a New York State-designated medically underserved community. Collier and Frate are also graduates of UBs post-baccalaureate program funded by the state Department of Health and supported by the Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY), which also sponsors the scholarship program. The yearlong, intense, academic program provides students from economically or educationally underserved areas with guaranteed acceptance at a New York State medical school provided the student successfully completes the program. The highly competitive Diversity in Medicine scholarship is available to post-baccalaureate graduates from any of the AMSNY state-funded pipeline programs. It is reserved for students with excellent academic track records who also exhibit a dedication and eagerness to practice in underserved communities.

Consequences of health inequities

For Karole Collier, whose family lives in Brooklyn, the scholarship provides her with the freedom to focus on the underserved. She said that receiving the scholarship was important to her on many levels. Receiving the scholarship was quite empowering and a confidence boost. It truly intends to elevate and support those who may be overlooked. Her commitment to the underserved began in her teens, when her father spent a year in the hospital after a routine hernia operation, which should have taken just a few days. While her father did eventually recover, the experience opened her eyes to how health disparities can affect individuals on a deeply personal level. Like many others, my father, a fairly healthy and compliant 50-year-old was subjected to limited access, scarce resources and numerous socioeconomic and historical inequities, she said. Even while he was still hospitalized, Collier, then an undergraduate, began to conduct research on surgical disparities. She later volunteered at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, where she was exposed to some of the challenges of working with underserved populations. During a summer study abroad program, she traveled to Swaziland, where she studied barriers to treatment for AIDS patients. Collier participates in many activities that conduct outreach to Buffalos underserved populations. She is president of the UB chapter of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), the nations oldest and largest organization focused on the needs of medical students of color. Its programs are dedicated to ensuring that medical education and services are culturally sensitive and to increasing the number of African-American, Latino and other students of color entering and completing medical school. Collier is also a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Task Force for Student Academic Environment, which is conducting a self-study for the schools Liaison Committee on Medical Education accreditation.

Choosing a specialty without a financial burden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But in the span of 10 days, chief executive Doug McMillon has begun dramatically redrawing the retailers map, and theres likely more to come as it places bets to remain on top. All of a sudden, everything is in play, said Dave Marcotte, an analyst at Kantar Retail. In less than two weeks, Walmart has agreed to cede control of its British business to a competitor and spend $16 billion to acquire Indias e-commerce leader in its biggest-ever ...

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The takeover saga at Fortis Healthcare, one of Indias leading healthcare chains, reached the culmination on Thursday, with the board choosing the Hero Enterprises-Burman Family Office offer as the best for the hospital and diagnostic chain. The Board, post having detailed discussions on the pros and cons of each offer, decided by majority, to recommend the offer of Hero Enterprise Investment Office-Burman Family Office (the last offer made on May 1, 2018)," Fortis Healthcare said in a statement to the BSE on Wednesday.

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A multination trade route being developed by India to halve shipment time for container cargo to Russia, Central Asia, and Afghanistan could be among the casualties of US President Donald Trumps decision to end the earlier nuclear agreement with Iran. After Tuesdays decision by Trump to reinstate sanctions against the Iranian government, India might have to deal with a bloated import bill as global crude oil prices soar, while the budding trade opportunities between India and Iran in non-oil goods have been cut short.

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Although the much speculated Supreme Court Collegium meeting did not take place on Wednesday, four of the five senior most judges reportedly met at the chamber of CJI Dipak Misra to discuss the reiteration of Justice K M Josephs name for elevation to the apex court.

An apex court official said while there was a likelihood of the meeting being held on Wednesday, it was for the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra to fix the date but as of now there is no official word on it. "There is no official confirmation when the Collegium would meet," the official said, ...Takeover battle: Fortis Healthcare board opts for Munjal-Burman offer The takeover saga at Fortis Healthcare, one of Indias leading healthcare chains, reached the culmination on Thursday, with the board choosing the Hero Enterprises-Burman Family Office offer as the best for the hospital and diagnostic chain. The Board, post having detailed discussions on the pros and cons of each offer, decided by majority, to recommend the offer of Hero Enterprise Investment Office-Burman Family Office (the last offer made on May 1, 2018)," Fortis Healthcare said in a ...

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In the days preceding, the onset of the age of information, living in a foreign country was considered to be a luxury, an accomplishment of a milestone in life. It has been a consistent trend, to want to live and work in another country. In poetic terms, it is the proverbial fledgeling taking the leap of faith, out of the nest.

The dynamics of visa sanctions have changed, from its predeceasing practices. There are various avenues in the visa categories that one can pick and select from, basis their situation and convenience. Visas differ on the grounds of age, purpose, investment ...Chinese airlines are planning a massive expansion in Indian skies, with the relationship between the two nations showing signs of improvement. Beijing sent an official proposal to double seat allotment for its carriers, and New Delhi has responded favourably, Business Standard has learnt.

The two sides are likely to meet for bilateral talks in the first week of June. If approved, this will be the first time since 2008 that the two countries will rewrite their air service agreement. The seats are likely to be granted under a new formula developed for giving flying rights to countries where ...The government is looking for participation from American companies in the development of airports as it seeks to make the segment more competitive, a top civil official said on Thursday.

The are present in a large way in the area of aviation technology in the country, particularly in safety and security.

"One area of cooperation with the US is We are also looking at inviting the and to provide competition in development of airports," civil aviation secretary RN Choubey said.

The government had recently said it plans to invest close to Rs 1 trillion in the next five years for capacity augmentation and development of greenfield airports.

As the civil firms up plans to achieve one-billion passenger trips per annum over the next 15-20 years, junior minister for aviation Sinha had last week said the alone would infuse Rs 201.78 billion in the next four to five years for development of infrastructure at 21 airports.

In addition, a capex outlay of Rs 500 billion is expected to be infused for the development of greenfield airports such as Navi Mumbai, Jewar in UP and Mopa in Goa, he had said.

The aviation secretary also said that the ministry as part of removing regulatory uncertainties in the area of was planning to have some kind of tariff structure in the bidding documents itself.

The tariff regulator AERA determines airport tariffs five years at a time, which is a regulatory exercise. But then it also leads to regulatory uncertainty as the airport developer does not know what tariff will be fixed by the regulator, he said.

"Any uncertainty is not good for business. Therefore, what we are now proposing is that the airport bidding document itself should have the tariff indicated in it, so that there will not be a need to go back to the regulator," Choubey said.

Bidding document for the Jewar airport, which secured 'in-principle' approval from the early this week, will have indicative tariff structure, according to Choubey.As part of its Article IV consultations with member countries, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made it clear to oil exporters last year that their fiscal deficits would worsen and current account surpluses be in jeopardy.

As the US walks back into sanctions on Iran, those countries would heave a sigh of relief. Nowhere was the strain more evident than in an IMF staff report on Saudi Arabia for 2017. Non-oil growth is expected to pick up this year but overall Gross Domestic Product growth will be close to zero, given the decline in oil production. It went on to ...With the pulling out from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, the subsequent sanctions that would be imposed by Washington D C on would affect the work at undertaken by and Iran, says a defence expert.

Speaking to ANI, defence expert, said, "Chabahar was supposed to enable to be able to access bypassing When the American sanctions are in place, importing equipment to for a joint project would be a problem."

"More importantly, has invested almost half a billion dollars in creating their infrastructure. It is a relatively nascent stage. Chabahar is a work in progress. But, it has long-term implications. In terms of India, it is having a co-hold in a very crucial maritime part of the region," he added.

The is located in southeastern on the Gulf of Oman. It serves as Iran's only oceanic port. The port is intended to provide an alternative route for trade between India and

In October last year, India sent its first shipment of wheat to through the Chabahar Port.

Commenting on US Donald Trump's decision to walk out from the Iran Deal, Shankar underscored that he had exited the deal due to his "own assessment", adding that whatever decision his predecessor took, he had outwardly rejected it.

Acknowledging that it would lead to a turbulence within the region, he added that much depends upon the European countries on how to deal with the US.

"A lot will depend on Iran's response and also kinds of responses from and For India, we need to calibrate our position depending on responses at different levels."

Trump on Tuesday announced the US withdrawal from the Iran deal or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), calling it as an "embarrassment" and "defective at its core".

He terminated the US participation in the JCPOA citing that the deal failed to protect America's national security interest.

Shankar asserted that the sanctions on Iran's trading activities would complicate energy imports with India.

"Iran is an important energy supplier, it is the third largest supplier of If the US is going to be very inflexible with Iran's trade, we would be affected. We would have to see how this plays out," he said.

He called for collective efforts to be done by the European countries to prevail upon Trump's decision. He, however, stressed that this would be unlikely.

The Iran nuclear deal was signed between six countries in 2015 - Iran, the US, Britain, Germany, Russia, France, and for lifting economic sanctions on in exchange for limitations to the country's nuclear programme.

Other world powers have vowed to uphold the landmark deal. The deal places restrictions on Iran's nuclear programme.With the US pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, India will take all measures to safeguard its interests in the West Asian nation, a senior official said here on Thursday.

"We are closely monitoring the developments," spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in response to a question at a media briefing here.

"We are assessing the implications which this might have on our interests," Kumar said.

"At this stage, I can share with you that the government will take all necessary measures which are required to safeguard our interests."

Announcing Washington's exit from the deal signed between Iran and the six world powers (Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US) on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said he will not sign the waiver of nuke-related sanctions against Iran but re-impose sanctions lifted under the accord against Tehran and nations it has business links with.

India has key interests in Iran, including the strategic and the North South Transport Corridor that will link India with Central Asia and

India is also the biggest oil customer of Iran after China.

Following Trump's announcement, Kumar on Wednesday said that India has called on all parties to "engage constructively" to resolve all contentious issues.

"India has always maintained that the Iranian nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully through dialogue and diplomacy by respecting Iran's right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy as also the community's strong interest in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme," the spokesperson said in response to queries.

"All parties should engage constructively to address and resolve issues that have arisen with respect to the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action)."Fever pitch campaigning in Karnataka for assembly elections to be held on Saturday (May 12) came to an end on Thursday evening.

The campaigning by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) was electric in content and delivery, ranging from mud-slinging of rival opponents to religion.

The run-up to the elections saw top ministers and leaders from every party, attempting to woo voters across the state with their signature campaigning styles.

Till the very last minute, the BJP consistently sought to expose the Congress for allegedly resorting to foul means to win the elections.

On Thursday, hours before the curtains came down on campaigning, key leaders, Rahul Gandhi. Piyush Goyal and Amit Shah addressed separate press conferences during which they highlighted key aspects and focus areas of each party's campaign that lasted close to two months. The BJP believes that a win in Karnataka will be its gateway to dominating in the South. The Congress is of the view that a win in Karnataka will give it the clout in requires to challenge the BJP in the 2019 general elections, while the Janata Dal (Secular) is essaying the kingmaker's role in anticipation of a possible split verdict.

Campaigning in Karnataka is taking place for 224 assembly seats. A total of 2,655 candidates are in the fray and 4.96 lakh people, including 2.52 crore men and 2.44 crore women will take part in the election on May 15. Over 15 lakh people are first-time voters in the 18-19 age group.

The surfacing of a huge number of fake voter identity cards from an apartment in Bengaluru's Jalahalli area and the Election Commission stepping in to investigate it has dominated the media space over the last 48 hours.

Both the Congress and the BJP continue to indulge in charges and counter-charges.

Talking to ANI, Union Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation, and former state chief minister Sadanand Gowda alleged that the Congress candidate from Rajarajeshwari Nagara, Munirathna Naidu, was behind the fake ID cards row.

"MLA Munirathna Naidu runs democracy at his will. We will not allow Congress Goonda raj. 20000 Voter ids are in control of the Congress candidate at a private place along with laptops and printers. I personally saw how the Congress cheats democracy. We demand a total investigation to this," he said.

Addressing a rally in Karnataka's Tumkuru district, BJP President Amit Shah said that the Siddaramaiah-led Congress has already accepted defeat and now has to rely on wrong measures to win the election. Addressing a press conference at the end of the BJP's campaign, Shah predicted that the BJP will win over 130 seats.

He said that law and order in Karnataka was in an abysmal state, and added that 24 BJP and RSS workers were killed in Karnataka and that the Congress government made no efforts to nab the culprits.

He maintained that the Congress is attempting to win the state polls by hook or crook. He said that even if the BJP loses the elections, it would never seek to form an alliance with the SDPI and the PFI.

Retorting to the allegations made by the BJP, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, "Congress is constantly under surveillance of BJP government. This is the 12th time I am fighting elections but for the first time, these raids are being conducted at the time of elections. They are misusing government machinery."

"It is the Election Commission's job to investigate. I don't have to say anything about it," he added.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, one of BJP's star campaigners, called out the Siddaramaiah Government for celebrating 'Tipu Jayanti' while objecting to the installation of a statue of Chattrapati Sivaji Maharaj in the state.

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also used his signature style to woo the majority Hindu population of the state when he asked the voters to vote for Lord Ram and Lord Hanuman to lay the foundation of what he called 'Ram Rajya' in the state. He said Lord Ram belong from Uttar Pradesh and his trusted aide Lord Hanuman belong from Karnataka, hence, people should vote for 'Ram Rajya' in the state.

Apart from blame games and mud-slinging, the party manifestoes tried their best to woo traditional voter banks. However, Siddaramaiah stole the BJP's thunder to an extent when he accepted the proposal to give special religious status to Lingayats - a traditional voter base of the BJP.

The BJP constantly brought out the issue of farmer suicides in the state and assured the voters that the Yeddyurappa-led BJP Government, if voted to power, will waive off farmer loans up to Rs 1 lakh for each farmer. He even said that with a fund of 1.5 Lakh crore every field in Karnataka will be watered.

He even said that the Modi Government had initiated 116 schemes for the minorities in the state, but the Siddaramaiah Government did not let them reach the people of Karnataka.

However, Congress President Rahul Gandhi refuted all claims of the BJP of being concerned about the minorities, he said, "While Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay his tribute to BR Ambedkar, he stays quiet when people from SC and ST communities are attacked. People will throw out Narendra Modi and the BJP from Karnataka first, followed by Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh."

Former Prime Minister and JD(S) Supremo Deve Gowda, in coalition with BSP in the state, is also a faction that can't be ignored. In case of a hung assembly in the state, the JD(S) will be the deciding factor for the fate of BJP and Congress. The JD(S) also has the support of the electorally influential Vokkaligas in the state, a group eyed by both the BJP and the Congress.

All eyes now shift to May 12 and May 15.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The crucial May 12 Karnataka assembly election is being looked at as a game changer for the Congress across the country and as a gateway for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into the south.

Right from the start of campaigning, if there is one thing that has stood out and remained constant, it is the religious undertone at most of the BJP and Congress rallies.

For long, the saffron party has been accused by the Opposition of promoting a religion-centric campaign, relying on Karnataka's majority Hindu population, which stands close to 84 percent.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath recently said that by voting for the BJP, the people of Karnataka will lay the foundation stone of what he called as "Ram Rajya" in the state.

"Uttar Pradesh is the land of Lord Ram and Karnataka is the home to Lord Hanuman. By voting for the BJP, you are actually voting for Lord Rama and Lord Hanuman," he said while campaigning for the party in the state in the week gone by.

The Siddaramaiah-led government in Karnataka, which had accused the BJP of being communal, however, has not been able to stay away from stepping into the murky waters of identity

Just ahead of Saturday's election, Siddramaiah has accepted a proposal to recognise Lingayat as a different religion. Though caste has rarely had an impact on elections in Karnataka, the Lingayats do have a history of being a BJP vote bank that influences outcomes in a majority of the state's 224 assembly constituencies.

Siddaramaiah has been eyeing the Lingayat vote bank ever since he accepted the recommendation of the Nagamohan Das Committee to give a separate religious status to the Lingayats. This move of the Karnataka Chief Minister is aimed at making it tough for the BJP by snatching away an influential and traditional vote bank.

While the Congress has relied on its time-tested AHINDA formula, which stands for Alpasankhyataru (Minorities), Hindulidavaru (Backward Classes) and Dalitaru (Dalits), calling themselves a party for all, its temple-running and visiting spree is a proof that it is not that far off from what they accuse the BJP of - wooing the majority (Hindu) population. In fact, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala went to a great extent to prove the Hindu credentials of party chief Rahul Gandhi. He described Rahul not only as a Hindu, but a Janeudhari Hindu -- one who wears the Brahminical thread.

Siddaramaiah, who has always claimed that he would never follow the BJP's brand of communal politics, cannot risk not wooing the majority Hindu voters in the state, and said there is a "Ram" in his name and the BJP should stop calling him anti-Hindu.

For the BJP, it was easy to target Congress and call it out on appeasement and corner the Hindu voter base of the party. The Congress' celebration of 'Tipu Jayanti' has always been pointed out by the BJP as anti- Yogi Adityanath had recently said that Siddaramaiah had objected to a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj coming up in Karnataka, but had no problem in celebrating Tipu Jayanti. "By celebrating Tipu Jayanti, Siddaramaiah is insulting the minorities and the poor of the country," the Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

In line with the battle over identity, electioneering also targeted food habits. Yogi Adityanath challenged Siddaramaiah to ban the sale of beef in his state if he his Hindu, to which, Siddaramaiah retorted that the BJP cannot question anybody's food choice. One of the first changes Siddaramaiah introduced after coming to power was to overturn the beef ban in the state.

In fact, last year when the Centre issued a notification - Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules-2017'- which banned the scope for cattle slaughter, the Siddaramaiah Government resisted it by stating that it is a state subject, and therefore, not binding on Karnataka. He even called the move unconstitutional.

Apart from the Hindu and minority votes, there is one another faction that both parties are eyeing, the Vokkaliga, the traditional vote bank of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S). The Vokkaligas have the extra push that can give a party an edge over the rest.

Even as campaigning for the May 12 polls ends today, Rashtriya Hindu Sena chief Pramod Muthalik has filed a petition in the Supreme Court claiming that the Congress manifesto for Karnataka is aimed at luring Muslims and other minorities through targeted schemes.

The BJP thus far has reaped the benefit of identity in places like Uttar Pradesh, but historically, the run-up to elections in Karnataka don't ever reveal much or enough to signal an assurance of political victory post campaigns charged with religious undertones.

However, if there is one major weapon that all parties risk not using, it is the weapon of identity

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India and Panama agreed to work together to deal with the menace of terrorism.

Addressing a press briefing, Preeti Saran, Secretary (East) of the Ministry of External Affairs said, "Importance of working together very closely in dealing with the menace of terrorism was also a part of the discussion. Panama agreed for collaboration in Intelligence sharing. Human trafficking issues and mutual legal assistance treaty on criminal matters would also be taken into consideration.

She further informed that India and Panama signed two Memorandum of Understandings (MoU), one on visa exemption for diplomatic official and consular passport and the other on the work plan for cooperation in the agriculture sector.

The MoUs were signed in presence of Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and Panama President Juan Carlos Varela.

India has also offered two lines of credit - 10 million dollar line of credit for Bio-Technology and 15 million dollar for Innovation sector- to Panama.

Saran further said that Panama has also eased their visa policies to allow greater Indian participation, business and tourism.

"Panama has introduced new laws which would encourage greater investments in Colon Free Trade Zone," she added.

Saran further said that the Panama President was interested in more Indian investments in IT, agriculture, cold storage warehouses, textile, automobile and pharmaceutical sectors.

The two countries also discussed about collaborating academic and education field, she added.

Vice President Naidu also thanked Panama for giving its support to India for its candidature for the Indian Court of Justice (ICJ).

Vice President Naidu and the Panama President also talked about reciprocal support for a non-permanent seat at the security council for their respective candidate.

Saran further informed that Panama President Varela broke protocol and came to receive Vice President Naidu at the entrance. The discussion lasted for almost two hours.

Vice President Naidu, who is on a five-day visit to Central America, reached Panama on Tuesday.

He is on a three-nation visit to Guatemala, Panama and Peru which commenced from May 6.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three police officers on their way to election duty were killed in Karnataka's Bagalkot city on Thursday.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Balegouda, Circle Police Inspector KS Shivaswami and car driver Venugopal died after their jeep collided with a truck near Mallapur crossing in Bagalkot city.

The deaths took place in the wee hours of Thursday.

They were on their way to Bagalkot from Bangalore for the election duty.

This incident took place exactly two days ahead of the much anticipated Karnataka elections, which is scheduled take place on May 12.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday became the second president to visit the Siachen base camp of the Indian Army in Ladakh, and conveyed the whole country's respect for the soldiers protecting Indian borders at the highest battlefield in the world.

"There was a special reason behind my excitement to meet you. I wanted to personally convey you the message that there is special respect in heart of all Indians for the soldiers and officers guarding the borders," Kovind said in his address to the Army personnel at the camp.

"Siachen is the highest battlefield in the world and living a normal life in such an atmosphere is difficult. Having to be ready to fight the enemy in these conditions is even more difficult, and it is an honour for me to meet the brave soldiers who are here protect our country," he added.

In his address, the President also remembered the soldiers who were killed in action here, "I bow to those soldiers who sacrificed their lives here."

President Kovind also came with another message to convey on behalf of Indians, "I came here to also give you the assurance that each citizen stands by your families and their well-being is always in each Indian's prayers."

While concluding his address, Kovind invited the soldiers to Rashtrapati Bhawan, "Whenever you come to Delhi, you are welcome to visit the Rashtrapati Bhawan."

The President also laid a wreath at a memorial in the camp and later interacted with the soldiers posted there. Army Chief General Bipin Rawat was also present.

Kovind is the second president to visit the camp, after former president APJ Abdul Kalam, who visited in 2004.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Merck Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Merck KGaA, Germany, continues the second stage of their Africa Oncology Fellowship Program that started in 2016 with the aim to increase the limited number of oncologists in Africa.

In June 2017, BIO Ventures for Global Health (BVGH), and the African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) released a white paper on the African continent's emerging cancer crisis. Over 20percent of African countries have no access to cancer treatments at all, while access is limited and sporadic in other countries. Later-stage diagnosis in African patients contributes to poorer outcomes. For example, 5-year female breast cancer relative survival rates are 46percent in Uganda and 12percent in The Gambia, compared with around 90percent in developed countries, the report cited.

"One of the main objectives of Merck Foundation is to build a strong platform of qualified medical, paediatric and surgical oncologists across the continent through the Merck Africa Oncology Fellowship Program," said Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation

20 candidates from Uganda, Zambia, Ethiopia, Namibia, Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, Liberia, Tanzania, and Kenya have enrolled in the Merck Africa Oncology Fellowship Program in partnership with African Ministries of Health, the University of Nairobi, Kenya, Tata Memorial Centre, India, and Cairo University, Egypt.

"We are very proud of our contribution, to lead Africa to a better future through changing the landscape of Cancer care in the continent," Kelej added.

In partnership with Ministries of Health and Academia across Africa, the Merck Africa Oncology Fellowship Program provides one-year and two-year oncology fellowship programs and a three-year master degree in medical oncology at Tata Memorial Centre, India, University of Nairobi, Kenya, University of Malaya, Malaysia, and Cairo University, Egypt, respectively.

Launched in 2016, with the aim to increase the limited number of qualified oncologists in the continent, three medical doctors from Sub-Saharan African countries, Kenya and South Africa were granted a two-year Africa medical oncology fellowship training at the University of Nairobi. Also, Merck Foundation supported another two African doctors from Ghana and Tanzania for the Paediatric and Adult Medical Oncology Fellowship program that is conducted annually at Tata Memorial Centre, India.

In 2017; Merck Foundation partnered with more African countries such as; Rwanda, Liberia, Zambia, Ethiopia, Botswana and Uganda to provide ten candidates with the one-year oncology fellowship program in India and three candidates from Liberia, Ghana and Namibia to conduct a master degree in clinical oncology at Cairo University, Egypt.

"In 2018, We will continue to enroll more candidates and engage other countries on this program as we firmly believe this is a vital component of improving the quality and accessibility of cancer care in Africa. We have received requests from countries such as; Niger, guinea, Gambia, the Central African Republic to partner with them through their first ladies' offices and Ministries of Health to provide our fellowship program to their doctors with the aim to improve access to quality cancer care in their countries and across the continent. Merck Foundation will continue their long-term commitment to further partner with more Sub-Saharan African Countries to realize their vision to create a strong platform of future trained oncologists," Kelej said.

The partnership between Merck Foundation and the African first ladies' organisation has been established in Jan 2018, to cooperate in building healthcare capacity with the special focus on cancer, diabetes and fertility care in their countries with the support of their Ministries of Health.

Merck Foundation has supported the African governments to define their strategies, to emphasise on building professional capacity and focus on long-term training, with the aim to develop trained oncologists and not only relying on drug or equipment donation, which will help them to be independent and would overcome their major challenge, which is the lack of skilled oncologists and healthcare professionals in general.

Merck Foundation strongly believes that building professional healthcare capacity is the right strategy to improve access to quality and equitable cancer care in Africa. It will train the first medical oncologist in some Sub- Saharan African countries such as the Gambia and Guinea Conakry where they never had an oncologist or cancer care facility, we are making history there, and through them, we will transform people's lives every day.

Since 2013, Merck Africa Asia Luminary features a workshop dedicated exclusively to improve access to cancer care through capacity building through Merck Foundation, www.merck-foundation.com. It convenes key players from the global, regional and local cancer network, health ministers, and first ladies, with the goal of encouraging dialogue among stakeholders, raises awareness of the issues, explores partnership opportunities to generate ideas for potential solutions to existing challenges.

"A world where everyone should lead a healthy and fulfilling life, this is Merck Foundation's vision. We are working together to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals- SDGs. The SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, calls us to sustainably invest on building healthcare capacity to improve access to safe, effective, quality, and affordable healthcare solutions for all by 2030," Kelej emphasised.

The African Union has targeted by 2063, every citizen will have full access to affordable and quality health care services, and integrated and comprehensive health services and infrastructure will be in place, where services are available, accessible, affordable, acceptable and of quality.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday refused to comment on the media reports surfacing that Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif laundered 4.9 billion dollars to India, saying, " This is something that former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has to respond to."

"This is an allegation that has been made by (Pakistan's National Accountability Court) NAB. This is something that we do not have to respond. I think this is something that former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has to respond to," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said whilst addressing the media briefing.

Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has ordered an inquiry against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and others for allegedly laundering 4.9 billion dollars to India, according to reports in the Pakistani media.

A statement by the NAB, which ordered the inquiry based on a media report, claimed that the amount was laundered to the Indian finance ministry after which Indian foreign exchange reserves witnessed an increase and Pakistan suffered as a result, reported Pakistan's Geo News.

According to the media report, the incident was mentioned in the Bank's Migration and Remittance Book 2016.

However, the Bank denied the media reports claiming that its 2016 report on remittances mentioned that Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif laundered 4.9 billion dollars to India, raising a question on the credibility of the anti-corruption watchdog.

On a related note, on Thursday Nawaz Sharif challenged the National Accountability Court (NAB) chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal to present evidence of money laundering against him within 24 hours or else resign.

"NAB chairman should present all evidences they had against me within 24 hours. If you fail to present evidence, then you (Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal) should publicly apologise to the nation and resign," Nawaz said, while addressing an emergency press conference in Islamabad against the anti-graft body.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kathmandu [Nepal], May 10 (ANI): The authorities in Nepal have completed the preparations to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his two-day State visit to Nepal.

The flags of Nepal and India have been stalled in the poles at various locations in the capital city Kathmandu as well as Janakpur and Muktinath temple.

The preparations for the guard of honor are completed in the Tundikhel where he will be given guard of honor and the City Hall where he will be given public felicitation.

With some hours left for the Prime Minister to land in Nepal, the hopes of the residents of Kathmandu have increased.

"The existing relation between India and Nepal will further strengthen with the visit of PM Modi. Nepal can benefit from this visit," Shoyeb Khan, a resident of Kathmandu told ANI.

Apart from the smoothening the relations between the two countries, the residents of Kathmandu also take the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Nepal as the chance to grace Nepali culture of welcoming the guests.

"Our friendly neighbor India's Prime Minister is arriving on visit to Nepal. Definitely as per the culture and the tradition of Nepal we have the honor to welcome and grace him and should take it positively," Binod Maharjan another resident of Kathmandu stated.

India, which had shivering relation with Nepal in the past during the tenure of incumbent Prime Minister of Nepal KP Sharma Oli, now seems to improve the course.

"I will take his visit as a course correction between the two countries, that's all," Saroj Bhusal, a post graduation student told ANI.

Prime Minister Modi will start his two-day State visit to Nepal on Friday by visiting the religious sites of the Himalayan Nation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chief Minister of Nepal's Province No. 2 Mohammad Lalbabu Raut, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to commence his two-day State visit to the Himalayan nation, expressed optimism, saying, " We are looking forward to" his visit.

"We are looking forward to this visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We are leaving no stone unturned to make his visit in Janakpur a memorable and historical one," he said

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday will commence his two-day State visit to Nepal.

He will be arriving in the country's historical and ancient city of Janakpur on May 11.

During his visit, Prime Minister Modi and his Nepali counterpart will jointly inaugurate the hydro-electric project Arun III.

Prime Minister Modi will also visit Janaki Mandir which will be followed by a civic reception hosted by mayor of Janakpur at Barhabigha ground.

There will be a call by Foreign Minister of Nepal Pradeep Gyawali. This will be followed by a ceremonial reception. He will also call on President of Nepal Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun.

The two sides will hold bilateral talks as well.

PM Modi will also visit Muktinath temple and will depart for India on Saturday evening.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The reported tenant of the Bengaluru flat where nearly 1000 voter identity cards were seized has denied any connection with the accommodation.

Nearly 9,746 voter ID cards, five laptops and one printer were seized from a flat located in the Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency of Bengaluru on Tuesday, one of the 223 constituencies where voting will be held on May 12.

Rangaraju, the man who according to flat owner Manjula Nanjamari is the tenant of the falt, told ANI on Thursday that "I have no connection with the flat. I stay with my family in a different flat in the same building. I'm not involved in this case."

He said a fact needs to be realized that if he wanted to do 'such illegal acts' then would he be doing from the building where he lives.

"When my family is staying in the same apartment if I wanted to do these kinds of things will I do in my apartment or in the same building?" he asked.

Rangaraju said he belongs to a middle-class family and does not have that much money that he could afford two apartments on rent.

Flat owner Nanjamari on Wednesday said that the property was not rented by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporter Rakesh, as alleged by the Congress.

"The tenants are Rekha and Rangaraju, this is fake news that Rakesh is the tenant," Nanjamari had told ANI.

The BJP says that the scam was the brainchild of the Congress, which points out that the flat owner is a BJP leader, a charge BJP denies.

The BJP delegation comprising of Union Ministers Smriti Irani, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, JP Nadda, Dharmendra Pradhan, S.S. Ahluwalia, and BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi on Wednesday met the Election Commission in New Delhi and demanded to countermand election to Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency in Karnataka over the seizure of around 10000 voter identity cards.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South Korea has asked North Korea to hold official talks as a follow-up to the agreements signed during their recently concluded summit.

According to the Yonhap news agency, the meeting will be aimed at discussing follow-up measures on agreements made by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during their meeting on April 27 at Panmunjom (Demilitarised Zone).

South Korea's unification ministry proposed this and is awaiting the North Korea's answer.

"We are making arrangements with the North for the high-level meeting, and when the date is determined, we will let you know. We expect that the meeting could take place in the middle of next week," said a Unification Ministry official.

During their meet Moon and Kim signed a joint declaration where they agreed to stop all hostile acts against each other and promised economic co-operation.

The Yonhap news agency further reports that the issue of South Korean citizens being detained in North Korean prisons could be possibly raised during the official talks.

The statement comes at a time when both Koreas have decided to sign a peace treaty formally later this year, ending the 65-year-old war.

The Korean War took place between 1950 and 1953, which ended with a ceasefire and signing of an armistice agreement. Technically, both the countries are still at war since no peace treaty has been signed between them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A person was killed on Thursday at a mosque in Verulam near Durban in South Africa when three armed men slit the throats of three worshippers.

The paramedics are reportedly attending to the wounded.

It is being reported that the attackers, who have fled, are three Egyptian nationals, however, it is yet to be officially confirmed.

A section of the mosque was set ablaze, according to several media reports.

The motive for the attack is still unknown.

An investigation is underway.

More details are awaited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan on Wednesday expressed its disapproval over United States President Donald Trump's decision to leave the Iranian nuclear deal, after various other international leaders condemned the move.

As reported by The Tribune, Pakistan's Foreign Affairs office released a statement saying that the country is upset with Trump's administration unilateral move over the nuclear deal.

"Pakistan believes that International treaties and agreements concluded through painstaking negotiations are sacrosanct" the release read.

The release further stated that such an action would undermine the confidence of international communities in such treaties.

"Arbitrarily rescinding such agreements will undermine confidence in the value of dialogue and diplomacy in the conduct of international relations and the peaceful resolution of disputes," it added.

The statement further read that Pakistan believes the Iranian deal, formally known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), represents a very good example of a negotiated settlement of complex issues, through dialogue and diplomacy.

The Foreign office further expressed its concern that the deal to not get scrapped entirely.

"We have noted the willingness of the parties to the Agreement to work together on upholding their respective commitments as stipulated in the JCPOA, despite US decision to withdraw from it," the statement further said.

The United States President Donald Trump's decision can have implications on Pakistan as the latter has close defence bilateral agreements with Iran.

It shall further impact the gas pipeline project between the Pakistan and Iran.

United States President Donald Trump announced his decision of withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal on Wednesday, citing the deal failed to protect America's national security interest.

He further said to sign a presidential memorandum to begin reinstating US nuclear sanctions on Iran.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday dwelled upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day State visit to Nepal, explaining the nitty-gritty of the same.

"PM will be arriving in Janakpur on 11 May, which is tomorrow; he will leave (for Nepal) tomorrow morning. The first stop will be Janakpur. Darshan at Janaki Mandir will be followed by a civic reception hosted by mayor of Janakpur at Barhabigha ground," said MEA's official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar whilst addressing the media briefing.

"He will leave for Kathmandu in the afternoon of tomorrow. There will be a call by Foreign Minister of Nepal Pradeep Gyawali. This will be followed by a ceremonial reception. He will also call on President of Nepal Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun. This will be followed by the bilateral talks between the two Prime Ministers. Nepal's Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will host dinner in the honour of PM Modi in the evening of May 11," Kumar added.

Divulging the details of day two of the Prime Minister's visit, the MEA spokesperson said, "On the morning of May 12, Prime Minister Modi Muktinath temple in Mustang district. He will come back to Kathmandu and offer prayers at Pashupathi Nath Temple."

Later, the Prime Minister will meet the leaders of various political parties of Nepal, which will be followed by a civic reception that will be hosted by mayor of Kathmandu in honour of the visiting Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Modi will depart for India after the civic reception.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw him as a "threat," and hence, directed most of his anger towards him.

Addressing the press along with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and other senior party leaders here, Gandhi said, "Mr Modi has got anger inside of him. He has got anger for everybody, not only me. I am a lightning rod for that anger, I attract that anger because he sees a threat from me. But that is his problem. It is not my problem."

Responding to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders' jibes about his temple visits, including the name 'Election Hindu' tagged to him, Gandhi said, "When the BJP uses the term 'Election Hindu' it defines their own perspective of the religion."

"Throughout last 15 years, I've been visiting temples, mosques, gurudwaras, every religious institution I come across. BJP doesn't like this. I don't think they understand the meaning of the term Hindu. It's a perspective. It's something which lives with you throughout," he added.

He also explained the purpose behind those visits, "Our people have different religious beliefs. As a leader of a political party, it is my job to stand with them in their beliefs and so whoever invites me to whichever institution, I will go to because I respect their perspective. I will, however, not go to a single institution that divides the society."

Further, commenting on the aggressive campaign by the BJP in poll-bound Karnataka, which includes Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as the star campaigner alongside the participation of other Union Ministers, Gandhi said, "I can tell you why the BJP Union Ministers are campaigning in Karnataka - P-A-N-I-C. Panic. Congress showed them what they're capable of in Gujarat and now, they have clearly demonstrated what they're capable of in Karnataka."

Campaigning for the elections will end at 5:00 p.m. later in the day.

The election in Karnataka will be held on May 12 in 223 of the 224 constituencies of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, while the counting of votes and announcement of results will take place on May 15.

The election for one constituency has been postponed following the death of B.N. Vijay Kumar, Jayanagar BJP candidate.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to commence his two-day State visit to Nepal, today.

After landing in Nepal, Prime Minister Modi's will visit country's historical and ancient city of Janakpur.

Prime Minister Modi will also visit Janaki Mandir which will be followed by a civic reception hosted by mayor of Janakpur at Barhabigha ground.

During his visit, Prime Minister Modi and his Nepali counterpart K.P. Oli will jointly inaugurate the hydro-electric project Arun III.

The two sides will hold bilateral talks as well.

Prime Minister Modi is also scheduled to meet with President of Nepal Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun.

Prime Minister Modi will also visit Muktinath temple in Mustang District and will depart for India on Saturday evening.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday has challenged the National Accountability Court (NAB) chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal to present evidence of money laundering against him within 24 hours or else resign.

"NAB chairman should present all evidences they had against me within 24 hours. If you fail to present evidence, then you (Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal) should publicly apologise to the nation and resign," Nawaz said, while addressing an emergency press conference in Islamabad against the anti-graft body.

The emergency presser comes barely days after the Bank denied the media reports claiming that its 2016 report on remittances mentioned that Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif laundered 4.9 billion dollars to India, raising a question on the credibility of the anti-corruption watchdog.

Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has ordered an inquiry against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and others for allegedly laundering 4.9 billion dollars to India, according to reports in the Pakistani media.

A statement by the NAB, which ordered the inquiry based on a media report, claimed that the amount was laundered to the Indian finance ministry after which Indian foreign exchange reserves witnessed an increase and Pakistan suffered as a result, reported Pakistan's Geo News.

According to the media report, the incident was mentioned in the Bank's Migration and Remittance Book 2016.

Stating that NAB has "lost all its credibility" following "baseless allegations", the former premier continued, "The severity of the allegations cannot be ignored. It has been proven how the head of an institution made my media trial a mission."

"My media trial and character assassination have become NAB's mission," said he.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday arrested Vinay Bansal, the son of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's deceased brother-in-law Surendra Kumar Bansal, in connection with alleged irregularities in road and sewer development works by the Public Works Department (PWD).

Bansal was a partner in his father's company Renu Construction, which was involved in the alleged scam.

According to three FIRs registered by the ACB against Kejriwal and others on May 8, 2017, the Delhi Government's PWD committed illegitimate favoritism in awarding a tender to Surendra Kumar Bansal's Renu Construction for road and sewer construction projects.

The complainant, founder of NGO Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), Rahul Sharma alleged that the tender was awarded at 46 percent lower than the estimated cost of Rs 4,90,000.

It was also alleged that the product quality was inferior.

The Delhi Police stated that the arrest was made based upon the unsatisfactory answers of the accused during the questioning, regarding Mahadev Company from whom the company claimed to have bought the raw materials.

In the course of the investigation, Mahadev Company was found to be non-existent.

However, the Delhi Government alleged political vendetta behind the arrest, claiming that the construction work undertaken by Bansal's firm was given a clean chit by Sriram Labs, which was directed by the ACB to do the inspection.

It also claimed that a third party certification of the construction was done by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)After Congress President Rahul Gandhi was recently attacked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for publicly declaring his prime ministerial ambition, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) bickering ally Shiv Sena came out in his support.

"In this country, every person has the right to dream of becoming the Prime Minister. If Modi ji calls himself a 'pradhan sewak' then any 'sewak' of this country can become the Prime Minister," said Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut.

Raut's statement comes days after the Congress President said that he would become the Prime Minister if his party emerged as the single largest party in the 2019 general elections.

Following which, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the remarks suggested that the Prime Minister's seat was reserved for just one dynasty.

Another BJP leader Subramanian Swamy dubbed Rahul's remark as "immature" and said that it might push other parties away from forging an alliance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States President Donald Trump has warned of severe consequences if Iran resumes its nuclear program.

This comes just the day after he pulled out of a landmark multilateral nuclear accord.

On being asked what if Tehran restarted its nuclear efforts, Trump said, "I would advise Iran not to start their nuclear program; I would advise them very strongly," "If they do, there will be very severe consequences," as quoted by Arab News.

After the US' withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had warned that his country could resume uranium enrichment "without limit" but would refrain from doing so for now.

In announcing the US pullout on Tuesday, Trump called the accord as an "embarrassment" that was "defective at its core".

The Iran nuclear deal was signed between six countries in 2015 - Iran, the US, Britain, Germany, Russia, France and China for lifting economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limitations to the country's nuclear programme.

Other powers have vowed to uphold the landmark deal. The deal places restrictions on Iran's nuclear programme.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha will hold bilateral talks with United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pertaining to North Korea alliance issues.

According to the South Korean news agency, Yonhap, this will be Kang's first official meeting with Pompeo in Washington DC, scheduled for May 11.

"They plan to have in-depth consultations on ways for South Korean and US diplomatic authorities to coordinate for the denuclearization of North Korea and establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula through the success of the North Korea-U.S. summit," Yonhap quoted the South Korean foreign ministry as saying.

Kang and Pompeo will devise a strategy for producing favourable results during the Kim-Trump summit.

The official meet comes at a time when the two Koreas have decided to sign a peace treaty formally later this year, ending the 65-year-old war between the two countries.

Earlier, Pompeo, on his second trip to Pyongyang, had met North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un and fine-tuned details ahead of the Trump meeting, scheduled to be held in late May or June.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj left on a two-day visit to Myanmar here on Thursday.

The visit is part of on going high level interaction betweens the governments of India and Myanmar, according to a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement.

MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted on Swaraj's departure to Myanmar.

Neighbourhood first! EAM @SushmaSwaraj emplanes for Nay Pyi Taw on a bilateral visit to Myanmar on 10-11 May. EAM will hold discussions with Myanmar leadership to further reinforce our bilateral ties.

During her visit, Swaraj will hold discussions with the Myanmar leadership on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest to both countries.

As per the MEAstatement, the discussions are expected to review progress made on decisions taken during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Myanmar in September last year.

Several key agreements covering diverse aspects of India-Myanmar bilateral relations are expected to be signed during the visit.

India has emerged as a key development aid partner for Myanmar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj on Thursday met with President of Myanmar Win Myint.

Earlier in the day, Sushma Swaraj reached the capital of Myanmar, as part of her two-day official visit to the country.

She was received by Permanent Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the government of Myanmar, Myint Thu.

The visit is part of the ongoing high-level interaction between the governments of India and Myanmar, according to a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement.

During her visit, Swaraj will hold discussions with the Myanmar leadership on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest to both countries.

As per the MEA statement, the discussions are expected to review progress made on decisions taken during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Myanmar in September last year.

Several key agreements covering diverse aspects of India-Myanmar bilateral relations are expected to be signed during the visit.

India has emerged as a key development aid partner for Myanmar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday ascertained that deriving conclusions on the implications of the United States (US) withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the Iran nuclear deal at the moment would be "too early."

"We will take necessary measures to safe guard our interest. It is too early to come to a conclusion on implications of US withdrawing from JCPOA," MEA official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said ,when asked about the impact on collaboration at Chabahar Port after the US sanctions on Iran, while addressing the media briefing.

United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced the US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or Iran nuclear deal.

President Trump further called the Iran nuclear deal as "defective," adding that Washington would reinstate sanctions against the Islamic republic.

"President Trump is terminating the United States' participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran and re-imposing sanctions lifted under the deal," the White House tweeted.

Former US President Barack Obama branded Trump's Iran decision as a serious mistake.

"There are few issues more important to the security of the US than the potential spread of nuclear weapons or the potential for even more destructive war in the Middle East. Today's decision to put the JCPOA at risk is a serious mistake," Obama tweeted.

The Iran nuclear deal was signed between six countries in 2015 - Iran, the US, Britain, Germany, Russia, France and China for lifting economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limitations to the country's nuclear programme.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence received former three former American detainees who returned from North Korea earlier in the day as Trump on Thursday.

President Trump received Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong-Chul at Maryland in the US where they had reached in a helicopter.

"It is a great honour. Hope everything works fine." Trump said.

I just want to say that they are really great people. Congratulations." he added.

He said, "That (denuclearisation) is what the entire was waiting for a long time. Nobody thought North Korea will be on this track in terms of speed."

He said that the true victory would be if the Panmunjom village (Demilitarized Zone) gets rid of nuclear weapons.

"We would like to appreciate that (North Korean leader)Kim Jong Un allowed to release them before the meeting (US-North Korea) summit" Trump added.

He said, "IT was very important for all of us to get them out. Kim did this as he wants to do something. We are going to have success."

He further said that a new relation has been forged between the US and North Korea and added, "A year ago, one would say it was not possible."

Trump further mentioned of the US citizen Otto Warmbier, an American college student, who was arrested in North Korea last year for allegedly removing a political propaganda poster from a Pyongyang hotel he died after being transferred to the US in a deep coma.

Trump said, "I have my sympathies with parents of Otto Warmbier's who was a great young man who really suffered. His parents became friends. We met them the other day."

He also praised Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as he said "Mike was in North Korea. He has done a fantastic job."

Pompeo recently went to North Korea a trip which was second within a month and returned with the detainees.

The three detainees were held captive on charges of espionage or for doing "hostile acts" against the North Korean government.

Meanwhile the Yonhap news agency, reported that Pompeo is expected to reveal the exact date and location of the summit between President Trump and Kim Jong Un.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In yet another incident of sexual assault against minors, a six-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a 17-year-old neighbour here on Wednesday night.

The minor was sleeping at her house when her neighbour barged into her house and took her to a farm nearby, where he allegedly raped her.

The girl later narrated the ordeal to her family, following which a case was registered at the Alinagar Police Station.

A police investigation is underway for the same.

The accused is absconding and a search operation has been launched to nab the culprit.

In the recent past, there has been a surge in sexual crimes against minors in the country.

In January, an eight-year-old girl, who belonged to a nomadic Muslim tribe in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua, was allegedly abducted, drugged, gang-raped, tortured and killed.

In Indore, an infant below the age of one was allegedly raped and killed.

Taking cognizance of such crimes, President Ram Nath Kovind, on April 22, promulgated the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018, for effective deterrence against the commission of rape.

The ordinance seeks the death penalty for the rapists of girls below 12 years of age and stringent punishment for perpetrators of rape particularly of girls below 16 years, thereby strengthening the POCSO Act.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Friday arrived in Peru on the third leg of his three-nation visit to Central America.

Vice President Naidu, who is on a five-day visit to Central America's Guatemala, Panama and Peru, departed from Panama for Peru on Thursday.

He reached Panama on April 9 where India and Panama signed two Memorandum of Understandings (MoU).

Before visiting Panama, the Vice President was in Guatemala where India and Guatemala signed a MoU for expanding cooperation in the area of diplomatic training.

Vice President Naidu's three-nation visit commenced on May 6. The agenda of visiting these places is to enhance bilateral ties with the country.

His weeklong visit is a part of the government's strategy of reaching out to various countries and regions of the for enhanced engagement at higher levels to improve bilateral relations for mutual benefit.

This is the Vice President's first overseas visit after assuming office last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers were injured in a clash which broke out between TMC and BJP cadres on May 8 in Gosaba village of South 24 Parganas district.

A TMC worker alleged that some BJP workers had attacked their three party cadres. after a BJP meeting over panchayat elections in West Bengal.

Following the clash, more than 30 houses of BJP workers were allegedly vandalised by TMC workers on May 9.

Last month, six policemen were injured in a BJP-TMC clash at Usti in South 24 Parganas district over filing of nominations for the panchayat elections.

The panchayat polls in the state will be held on May 1, 3 and 5.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The stock is quoting at Rs 200, up 1.29% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. Tata Motors-DVR is down 24.5% in last one year as compared to a 13.91% jump in NIFTY and a 9.36% jump in the Nifty Auto.

Tata Motors-DVR is up for a fifth straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 200, up 1.29% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is down around 0.08% on the day, quoting at 10733.15. The Sensex is at 35313.92, down 0.02%. Tata Motors-DVR has slipped around 0.37% in last one month.

Meanwhile, Nifty Auto index of which Tata Motors-DVR is a constituent, has slipped around 0.6% in last one month and is currently quoting at 11419.75, down 0.31% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 52.56 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 19.29 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark May futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 200.15, up 1.21% on the day. Tata Motors-DVR is down 24.5% in last one year as compared to a 13.91% jump in NIFTY and a 9.36% jump in the Nifty Auto index.

The PE of the stock is 37.46 based on TTM earnings ending December 17.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Central government on Thursday said it has planned to set up at least 100 more community radio stations across the country in 2018.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani made the announcement at the 15th Asia Summit here, in which 228 delegates from 39 countries are taking part.

"We have a vibrant community radio system in our country, with 215 community radio stations in operation and 100 more in the pipeline," Irani said.

In its endeavour to encourage the community radio movement in the country, the Minister said, the government had increased subsidies for setting up community radio stations from 50 per cent to 90 per cent for the northeastern states and 75 per cent in other states subject to a maximum limit of Rs 7.5 lakh.

She said: "The time has come to put laws, ethics and rules into place which will help in balancing the industry, so that one dominant player doesn't rule the roost."

According to her, the power of radio in today's digitised world is such that the Prime Minister reaches out to every citizen through his programme "Mann Ki Baat" which is transmitted simultaneously in 24 languages and reaches around 86.88 per cent of the population.

In the inaugural session of the three-day event, the Minister said the industry had a great role in India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"While the direct estimated impact of our media industry is close to Rs 1.35 lakh crore, but if you look at the indirect and induced benefits, our media industry today has an output of Rs 4.5 lakh crore which amounts to 2.9 per cent of India's GDP with close to four million people associated with it.

"It is one of the fastest growing advertising markets, expected to touch 10.59 billion dollars by the end of 2018 and the mobile spend is estimated to grow to 1.55 billion dollars in 2019," Irani said.

Talking about government's interventions and how the government was supporting the media industry in India, Irani said: "The FDI limit has been increased to 100 per cent in our cable and DTH satellite platforms."

"Today, we have close to 323 FM channels operational in our country. And, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have just paved the way for the auction of 363 channels now in 236 cities in the subsequent batches this year."

Over the emerging media scenario, Irani said that India is poised to have over 969 million internet users. "The media has become consumer centric. That is one of the changes that the digital industry has brought into the media field."

--IANS

rak/nir/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)David Goodall, a 104-year-old Australian scientist who had campaigned for the legalisation of assisted dying in his home country, ended his life at a Swiss clinic on Thursday, a representative from the pro-euthanasia group Exit International said.

Goodall, a respected botanist and ecologist, died at the Life Circle clinic in Basel, Switzerland, after administering a lethal drug under the guidance of doctors, ABC News Australia reported.

Exit International, which represented the scientist, said Goodall passed away while listening to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".

Euthanasia is illegal in Australia, thought the state of Victoria is planning to allow assisted dying from mid-2019. Goodall's home state Perth is currently debating whether to introduce the policy.

The story of the academic, who is one of the first Australians to undertake the procedure due to old age rather than a terminal illness, attracted international headlines and further inflamed a highly divisive debate.

His supporters applauded his decision to take charge of his fate after declaring his life was no longer worth living.

But critics warned his decision solely on the grounds of old age set a "dangerous precedent".

The grandfather of 12 had attracted over $20,000 in donations from the public to help fund his journey to Europe from Australia earlier this month.

Earlier this week, Goodall said he resented having to travel so far to carry out his plan, but was relieved the end was near. "Life stopped being enjoyable five or 10 years ago," he said, in part because of his failing mobility and eyesight.

"I am glad to arrive (in Basel). I'll be even more pleased when further steps of my journey are completed. I have been able to say goodbye. I was a bit sorry to say goodbye to my family in Bordeaux but that's the way it was."

Goodall said he hoped his story would lead to the legalisation of assisted dying in other countries. "I'm looking forward to it," he said of his imminent death.

"What I would like is for other countries to follow Switzerland's lead and make these facilities available to all clients, if they meet the requirements, and the requirements not just of age, but of mental capacity."

Several US states have a form of physician-assisted suicide, as do countries including Japan, Belgium and Switzerland.

Born in London in 1914, just months before the outbreak of World War I, Goodall and his family moved to Australia when he was a child. He went on to hold academic positions across the world, including in the UK, the US and Australia.

--IANS

soni/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 18 people were injured in an explosion during an improperly conducted science experiment at a high school in the US state of Tennessee.

The explosion was caused on Wednesday by an unintentional chemical reaction in the science lab of Merrol Hyde Magnet school in Hendersonville city, which caused a temporary fiery-flash lasting three to five seconds, Xinhua news agency reported quoting the Fire Department chief as saying.

Seventeen students and a teacher were injured and were treated at the site.

Eight of them, who suffered second-degree burns, were later sent to a hospital. The Fire Department chief said that all were expected to be discharged from the hospital soon.

Classes for the rest of the day at the school were cancelled.

--IANS

and/soni/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three gangsters involved in a kidnapping case were arrested here after a brief shootout, police said on Thursday.

A special police team arrested Manjeet Dabas, 32, Arshu Shokeen, 30, and Bhagat, 30, involved in the kidnapping of a 20-year-old son of an ex-councillor of outer Dehi area in September 2016.

Police had earlier announced a cash reward of Rs one lakh for the arrest of Dabas and Rs 50,000 each for Shokeen and Bhagat.

Special Cell Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said Shokeen was arrested from Jhajjar in Haryana late Wednesday evening. He was taken to Delhi and interrogated, during which he told police that his two accomplices Dabas and Bhagat will visit Darwka's Sector 23 late in the night to meet him, following which they too were arrested.

Police investigation revealed that Dabas and accomplice Mahesh Thekedar were the kingpin of the kidnap conspiracy, the officer said.

The victim was signalled to stop by one of the accused wearing a traffic policeman's uniform and another in khaki. As the victim stopped his car, an SUV arrived at the spot and the victim was bundled into it and whisked away.

The victim was taken to Sirsa in Haryana and then to Navalgarh in Rajasthan and Hansi in Haryana.

After the kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rs 50 crore, the ex-councillor paid Rs one crore and promised another Rs one crore after the safe release of his son.

The victim was released in Gurugram on October 3, 2016.

Later, the case was transferred to the Delhi Police Crime Branch.

--IANS

mg/tsb/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Gurugram authorities have appointed 76 Duty Magistrates to oversee offering of Friday prayers by the Muslims, an official said on Thursday.

Hindutva outfits in Gurugram had on Wednesday urged the district authorities to designate open spaces for Friday prayers away from temples.

They also sought a verification of citizenship documents of persons offering Muslim prayers in the open areas.

A 15-member team comprising five Muslims from the corporate sector, five 'imams' and five Muslim villagers was formed to visit all 76 sites in the city where 'namaz' is offered in the open and try to bring down the number.

"Police had identified 76 sites where 'namaz' is offered in the open. The team had time till Thursday morning to visit all of these sites and ensure that the Friday prayers on coming Friday was not offered on greenbelts and roads. But since no final decision was taken till late Thursday, the administration appointed 76 Duty Magistrates to maintain law and order," a government spokesperson said in a statement.

--IANS

pradeep/tsb

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An abducted boy was rescued and five of his abductors were arrested on Thursday morning here, the police said.

Sunny Kumar, a Class 9 student was abducted in Saran district two days ago and the abductors had demanded a ransom of Rs 60 lakh for his release from his father, a contractor, and threatened to kill the boy if the amount was not paid soon.

Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj said a joint police team of Patna and Saran rescued Sunny. "Police raided a lodge in Bahadurpur locality here, rescued the boy, arrested five abductors and seized arms," said Maharaj.

According to the police officials, the abductors had kept Sunny in a room of a lodge. Sunny was kidnapped when he was returning home after school. The abductors were living in the lodge disguised as students.

Earlier this week a minor girl, a Class 3 student of a private school, was abducted in broad daylight by criminals in Purnea district. The abducted girl was the daughter of a businessman. However, the police rescued the girl within six hours and arrested the abductors.

Over a dozen cases of abduction have been reported in the state in 2018.

In January, a 16-year-old boy, son of a property dealer, was kidnapped for ransom and was later found murdered.

--IANS

ik/and/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress candidate N. Munirathna Naidu from Bengaluru's Rajarajeshwari Nagar Assembly segment has been booked in connection with the recovery of about 10,000 voter ID cards from a flat, along with over a lakh counterfoils of acknowledgement slips, police said on Thursday.

"He (Naidu) was named as an accused in the FIR registered on Thursday on the basis of a complaint over the recovery of the voter ID cards from the apartment," Additional Commissioner of Police (West) Bijay Kumar Singh told IANS here.

Naidu is also an outgoing legislator of the ruling party from the same constituency he is contesting in the May 12 Karnataka Assembly polls.

The Congress candidate was booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Representation of People Act, 1951, for bribery and undue influence in an election.

The police had arrested two persons on Wednesday -- one for committing the electoral offence of keeping a large number of voter cards there and another for breaking into the apartment where the voter cards and counterfoils were kept, without informing the Election Commission (EC) authorities, Singh told IANS earlier.

State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sanjiv Kumar told reporters here on Wednesday that a total of 9,896 voter cards and over a lakh counterfoils resembling acknowledgement slips were seized from a flat in the assembly constituency.

Preliminary investigation showed that the voter cards were genuine, but the counterfoils were yet to be verified, Kumar had said.

"All the materials have been seized and investigation is going on under the supervision of the EC. The materials indicate a planned work over a period of time to survey and locate the vulnerable electors and induce them through middlemen," he said.

The ruling Congress blamed the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the incident, calling it a conspiracy hatched by the party leaders in the apartment that allegedly belonged to a former BJP Corporator Manjula Nanjamari.

On the other hand, the BJP urged the EC to countermand the election in the constituency, terming the incident an attempt by the ruling Congress to rig the election.

The Assembly election across 223 constituencies of the state will be held on May 12. Votes will be counted on May 15.

Of the 225-member lower House, election in the Jayanagar seat in south Bangalore has been countermanded owing to the death of BJP candidate B.N. Vijaya Kumar on May 4, while one member is nominated.

--IANS

bha/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In India, while over 79 per cent of women deliver in a health institution, only 41.6 per cent of them breastfeed within the first hour, Unicef said on Thursday.

The UN body released a new analysis on the number of babies missing out on breastfeeding which found that approximately 7.6 million babies each year were not breastfed globally.

The analysis noted that babies were much more likely to be breastfed at least once in low- and-middle-income countries like Bhutan (99 per cent), Madagascar (99 per cent) and Peru (99 per cent) than those born in Ireland (55 per cent), the US (74 per cent) or Spain (77 per cent).

The US alone accounts for more than one-third of the 2.6 million babies in high-income countries who were never breastfed.

According to the Unicef, 95 per cent children in India at some point were breast fed in their early years.

"The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data indicates that 54.9 per cent children are exclusively breastfed and exclusive breastfeeding is on an average for 2.9 months. Use of water and other fluids is one the main reasons for discontinuation of exclusive breastfeeding," a Unicef statement said.

"However, within low-and-middle-income countries, wealth disparities affect how long a mother will continue to breastfeed her child. Babies from the poorest families have rates for breastfeeding at 2 years that are 1.5 times higher than those from the richest families," it added.

The gaps are widest in West and Central Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, where babies from the poorest families have breastfeeding rates at two years that are nearly double those from wealthier families.

--IANS

som/ksk/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Thursday launched a nationwide campaign to support the Union government's target of 30 billion digital transactions in 2018-19.

According to CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal, the campaign envisages encouraging over 60 million micro and small merchants to accept digital payments via 'Bharat QR'.

'Bharat QR' is a 'person to merchant mobile payment solution' which is mutually derived among NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India), Visa and Mastercard payment networks.

Further, Khandelwal highlighted the need for traders to equip themselves with the available digital payment systems on the back of the GST Council's recent decision to provide incentives for usage of digital payments in GST transactions.

"Usage of POS (point of sale) terminals costs bank rentals and other expenses for the traders whereas Bharat QR is simply a unified code made available through a bank having no rentals or other charges," Khandelwal said.

"It is important that the government pushes for one common national QR code standard as per the Bharat QR specifications. Acceptance of Bharat QR by the community of 60 million micro and small merchants will be an important enabler to meet the government's target of 30 billion digital transactions. We urge the Government to provide the policy support and incentives to accelerate the acceptance of Bharat QR."

He added that the campaign which commenced on Thursday will continue till October 2, 2018, during which CAIT will train 1,000 traders as 'Master Trainers' and hold around 300 seminars, workshops and conferences in different cities to impart education on Bharat QR.

--IANS

rv/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canadian police have launched an investigation after a human foot washed up on the shores of British Columbia, marking the 14th time since 2007 that tides have carried a shoe-clad foot to the provinces coastline, the media reported.

The latest discovery was made on Gabriola Island in the strait of Georgia earlier this week, the Guardian quoted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) as saying on Wednesday.

A man was walking along the beach when he came across what appeared to be a disarticulated foot inside a hiking boot. The boot had become lodged in a logjam, the RCMP said in a statement.

The find was the latest in a series that has sparked global speculation.

Since 2007, another 13 feet have washed up in British Columbia, all of them clad in running shoes.

Some have linked the finds to natural disasters, such as the 2004 tsunami, or plane or boat accidents at sea, the Guardian reported.

Others have theorised that the feet might be the work of a serial killer or organised crime.

The last sneaker-clad foot was found in December 2017 along the southern coast of Vancouver Island.

The province's coroner service later said the foot belonged to a 79-year-old Washington state man who had gone missing and was later found dead. The investigation is ongoing.

In prior cases, the provincial coroner's office ruled out foul play, noting that none of the feet showed signs of trauma.

Eight of the feet have been identified and they included two pairs. The remaining lone feet all belonged to men.

In the case of this latest find, police said they are currently working with their forensic identification service and the provincial coroner in an effort to identify the remains.

--IANS

ksk/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Indian designer Sanjukta Dutta will style Miss Grande Region 2018 Jessie Schroeder for the Cannes 2018 red carpet in Indian handloom Assamese silk.

The designer from Assam has designed a beautiful black gown, the fabric for which is woven by rural artisans of Assam. The motifs have been specially handcrafted with a strong significance to the culture of northeast India, said a statement.

"The golden motifs represent the agriculture prop of northeast India called Jaapi, which is the traditional hat used by the farmers and is a sign of honour usually presented to the guests. I am very happy that I am taking the culture and the rich handloom of India to Cannes," said Dutta.

Schroeder will wear her creation at the red carpet on May 14.

An engineer-turned-fashion designer, Dutta has been instrumental in taking Assamese fashion and handloom on both Indian and global platforms. Her creations have been donned by the likes of Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu, Dia Mirza and Preity Zinta and featured in fashion weeks in the country and abroad.

The traditional Assamese 'Anga-vastra' presented to Britain's Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton during their visit to the state in 2016 were also designed by Dutta.

--IANS

nv/rb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Indian filmmaker Aneek Chaudhuri, whose "White" -- a silent film on rape --will be shown at the 71st Cannes Film Festival on Friday, hopes the platform helps the movie reach the right people globally.

"White" tells about the fight that comes after women face rape -- and it tells this through the narrative of three women leading their lives differently and how they try to come out of rape incidents in their own unique way.

That the film is silent, is an attempt to lend a touch of universality to the topic.

"'White' is based on the topic of rape and it is quite a universal topic. I wanted it to reach the masses globally where language would not pose to be a barrier," Chaudhuri told IANS in an email interview.

The first tale is of a factory girl getting raped inside the work premises and her story of survival.

The second story is of a single mother and her inability to face her own child after the heinous crime on the lady, and the third is about a raped married village woman, who gets the support of her husband who attests his name on the victim child.

Chaudhuri said he didn't chose rape as a subject.

"Rather it has chosen me. Being a filmmaker, I had responsibilities towards the society and in order to do so, I needed to utilise my camera and project the issue.

"Being a son, a brother, a sister and a father, I always possess this certain insecurity as women are not safe these days. With all those ongoing events, I believe will reach the policy makers and I foresee a change," said the 26-year-old.

"White" is his second film to be showcased at Cannes after "The Wife's Letter". The former will be showcased as part of the Marche du film section.

While there's a Indian delegation trying to push the envelope for the country's regional films, Chaudhuri feels more needs to be done.

"Smriti Irani (Minister of Information and Broadcasting) is doing a fine job... It's a step indeed but the problem is she should be exposed to films other than those which have already received accolades in the last one year.

"There are many more great quality movies being made in Bengal which are nowhere in the scene. However, I foresee a good future ahead."

Visibility at a fest like Cannes helps.

"Cannes help you approach policy makers in the form of distributors and buyers, who are indirect policy makers though but again help your film reach the right people globally.

"Moreover, personally it will help me in networking with a lot of people," said Chaudhuri, who was in a managerial job at an MNC before the filmmaking bug bit him.

He rues the battle to get a theatrical release.

"State intervention is indeed required and being a filmmaker in Bengal, I do not see a sound future here. Henceforth, I look forward to digital platforms.

"Of course, apart from reaching global audiences, I would like to make it approachable to the Indian audiences as well; but we will wait as it finishes the session of festivals."

(Radhika Bhirani can be contacted at radhika.b@ians.in)

--IANS

rb/nv/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The gfovernment on Thursday warned online companies involved in the business of data commerce not to use collusive methods to influence India's elections.

"The data must be available but anonymous. All the online companies who are in the business of data privacy or data commerce must understand these nuances," Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in his address at the 15th Asia Summit.

"India cannot be the centre of date pilferage. We are strong believers in the freedom of elections and data commerce through collusive methods cannot be used to influence India's elections," he said.

Giving an example, Prasad said he had taken a firm stand when the Facebook and data mining firm Cambridge Analytica's data breach issue came up last month.

Cambridge Analytica has been accused of harvesting personal information of over 50 million Facebook users illegally to influence polls in several countries.

The IT Minister supported the freedom of press and its prosperity in open society but raised questions over the ethics of journalism and the accountability of

He said freedom of press is integral to our polity and that a free can prosper only in an open society, but accountability of media is integral to society.

"The ethical journalism in my view is that it should be fair, true and should present both sides properly. Media of today in the garb of sensationalism, paid news, fake news, too much of unravelling insidious practices seem to duck larger issues," Prasad said.

He said the government did not want to interfere but those who firmly believe in the freedom of media and insist upon their rights also need to understand that there was something like accountability also. "Ethical journalism flows from those abiding values."

About the benefit of digitalisation, the Minister said we have got 1.20 billion Aadhaar cards, the "digital identity to supplement the physical identity.

"We opened over 300 million bank accounts for poor and linked it to Aadhaar. Now, we have started sending funds directly to the bank accounts of poor of various entitlement. And, we have saved Rs 83,000 crore, close to 10 billion dollars, which used to be pocketed by middlemen and fictitious elements."

--IANS

rak/vsc/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actress Deepika Padukone showed her first red carpet look from Festival de Cannes this year as a L'Oreal Paris brand ambassador and she looked no less than an angel, and epitome of elegance, in a sheer white caped gown.

She opted for a sheer lace creation by designer Zuhair Murad with nude lip and smoky eyes done by L'Oreal giving the finishing touch to her entire getup.

Giving a glimpse of her look to her fans on Instagram, she posted a picture of herself and wrote: "Ready to rock and roll."

Before this the actress also shared a picture in a white T-shirt, blue denims and nude heels from the festival.

L'Oreal Paris is celebrating 21 glorious years as the official make-up partner for the Festival de Cannes. Known for weaving magic and beauty at one of the most prestigious events of global cinema, it will rule the red carpet with the theme of #Summer Escape this year.

Apart from Deepika, Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who will be completing 17 years at the red carpet, will be attending the festival on May 12 and May 13 .

Even the just married Sonam Kapoor will be completing 8 years at Cannes and will attend the festival on May 14 and May 15.

Some of the other L'Oreal Paris spokespersons that will be seen on the red carpet include Julianne Moore, Helen Mirren & Doutzen Kroes.

--IANS

nv/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Warehousing solutions provider Embassy Industrial Parks on Thursday announced that it has won the "World's Greatest Brands and Leaders 2017-18 Asia GCC Award" for the logistics sector.

An Embassy Industrial Parks statement here said that Jitu Virwani, Chairman of the joint venture between Embassy Group and American private equity firm Warburg Pincus, received the award at a ceremony held in Dubai on Wednesday.

"The Award list uses extensive primary and secondary data research across 16 industries and 62 sub-categories, to select 100 winning brands and leaders from Asia and the Middle East," it said.

"The company is aggressively expanding their portfolio of next generation warehousing facilities to over 30 million sq ft within the next two years. They have signed MoUs worth over Rs 1,000 crore each with the governments of Haryana and West Bengal."

The company, which focuses on buying land to develop into world-class warehousing facilities, has three industrial parks -- one each in Pune, Gurugram and Farrukhnagar (Haryana) and is looking at cities like Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai.

--IANS

bc/him/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Goa BJP on Thursday begged to differ with the recent "pro-Karnataka" comments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah over the Mhadei issue during the poll campaign in Karnataka.

Addressing a press conference at the party's state headquarters in Panaji on Thursday, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson and South Goa MP Narendra Savoikar said the Goa BJP had faith in the inter-state water dispute tribunal which is currently adjudicating the dispute.

When asked to react to Shah's comment at a poll rally in Karnataka's Hubbali region, where the BJP President promised to resolve the Mhadei dispute in six months and that waters from the multi-state river would flow into Karnataka, Savoikar said: "He (Shah) has said, the issue will be solved immediately after (BJP comes to power). So far, as we are concerned, the matter right now is before the Tribunal... We will rely on the Tribunal award. Both states have placed their say before the Tribunal".

Savoikar also said Shah had only promised to "resolve" the issue in his speech, while also accusing the Congress party of having double standards on the Mhadei issue.

When asked if the BJP's Goa unit would be raising the Mhadei issue with Shah, during the latter's one-day visit to Goa on Sunday, and expressly pitch for Goa's case, Savoikar said: "The party president is visiting the state as a part of the organisational side. What the agenda will be, how much time will he give us..."

Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra are currently contesting parties before the Mhadei inter-state water disputes tribunal over the controversial Kalsa-Bhandura dam project across the Mhadei river, through which Karnataka aims to divert water from the Mhadei basin to the nearby basin on the Malaprabha river.

The Tribunal hearing the dispute is expected to deliver a verdict in a few months.

Mhadei, also known as the Mandovi river, is considered as a lifeline in the northern parts of the coastal state.

It originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea in Panaji in Goa, while briefly flowing through Maharashtra.

The river's course is 28.8 km in Karnataka, and over 50 km in Goa.

--IANS

maya/pgh/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a embarrassment for Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Governor P. Sathasivam on Thursday rejected the name of his close aide A.A. Rasheed from the list of five Information Commissioners sent to him by the government for approval.

Receiving a complaint against Rasheed, the Governor sought a police report and finding it went against Rasheed, struck out his name.

A senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader in the state capital, Rasheed is perceived as being close to Vijayan.

Sathasivam however cleared the remaining four names, which include that of the press secretary of former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan.

The posts of five state information commissioners were vacant for a long time as there were too many aspirants and the CPI-M took its time to select the five.

--IANS

sg/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Issuing an interim order on Thursday, the Delhi High Court stayed a trial court ruling that revoked the ban on publication and sale of a book on Baba Ramdev.

Justice R.K. Gauba said that it would file a detailed order in the matter later and directed Juggernaut, the publisher, to file a detailed response on Ramdev's plea.

The court was hearing Ramdev's plea challenging the order of the trial court, which lifted the ban on publication and sale of "Godman to Tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev".

In April, the trial court lifted ex parte the interim injunction on the publication and sale of the book.

The publication and sale of the book had been restrained on August 4, 2017.

The publisher claims in the plea that the book on Ramdev provides an in-depth look into how Patanjali actually works, which debunks the claims around its success.

--IANS

akk/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A high-voltage, high-decibel campaign, often turning bitter and personal, for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly elections, billed as the quarterfinal before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with huge stakes for both BJP and Congress, ended Thursday evening amidst predictions of a close fight and a hung Assembly.

Leaders of the three main contending parties -- ruling Congress, BJP and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) -- including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda, who had invested heavily in the month-long campaign, held road shows and press conferences to wind up the mass contact programme of wooing the electorate.

Earlier in the day, Modi, who adddressed more than 20 meetings in the last 10 days to boost his party's campaign, gave a final push by addressing the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Caste (OBC) party cadres from the poll-bound state through his Narendra Modi mobile app.

Braving the summer heat and dust, hundreds of contestants, cadres, supporters of national, regional, state and fringe parties raced against time to reach voters for their valuable ballot on the D-day -- Saturday.

Polling will be held in 223 constituencies as election to the Jayanagar constituency in south Bengaluru has been countermanded due to the death of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate B.N. Vijaya Kumar on May 4.

The Karnataka elections will be followed by polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh this year end in what is expected to be an indicator of the things to come in the parliament election in the summer of 2019.

On the last day of electioneering, Gandhi addressed the media and held road shows at Hubballi, while BJP President Amit Shah campaigned in Badami in Bagalkot district from where Siddaramaiah is contesting from second seat.

The Congress chief toured across the districts of Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Tumakuru and Bengaluru in his last leg of campaigning over the last three days.

Gandhi's extensive campaign over the last few months across the state included several corner meetings, public rallies, road shows, dining at public eateries with the locals, visits to prominent religious institutions and riding a busy metro in the capital city etc.

The party's former president and Gandhi's mother Sonia Gandhi addressed a lone public meeting in Vijayapura district on Tuesday after Modi addressed a meeting on the same day.

The ruling Congress also flew in the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram among several other campaigners to further the party's winning prospects at the hustings.

Since May 1, the Prime Minister addressed a whopping 21 rallies within a span of six days across the districts of Chamarajanagar, Udupi, Ballari, Shivamogga, Raichur, Dharwad, Bengaluru among few others.

During the days that the Prime Minister wasn't in the southern state, he made use of technology to connect with the party's cadres through his personal mobile app.

The opposition BJP also brought in a slew of Union Ministers including Smriti Irani (Information and Broadcasting), Nirmala Sitharaman (Defence), Ravi Shankar Prasad (Law and Justice), Piyush Goyal (Railways) to interact with theAsouthern state's electorate and pitch for the party's attempt to return to power.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also made several visits to the state.

The BJP, which came to power on its own for the first time in Karnataka in 2008 but lost to the Congress after five years in the May 2013 assembly election, hopes to make a foray into the south again ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The party hopes to make up its possible losses in the north where it had peaked four years ago.

The JD-S cadres led by party leader Deve Gowda and his son and state President H.D. Kumaraswamy held several road shows and rallies across the state since the election was announced on March 27.

The party also had Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati appealing to Karnataka's electorate to dismiss both Congress and BJP in BSP-JD-S rallies held in Bidar and Bengaluru. Both the parties have tied up for contesting in the southern state's election.

In all, 2,654 candidates are in fray for the ensuing election on Saturday to elect the state's 15th Legislative Assembly.

Of the total candidates in fray, including 219 women, 222 are from the ruling Congress, 223 from BJP, 201 from Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), 1,155 Independents and 800 from other national, regional and fringe parties, according to the poll panel.

The state capital and tech hub Bengaluru, which alone has 28 Assembly segments of the state's total 224 constituencies, has a total of 449 candidates in the fray. Of them, 37 are women and 412 men. Voting will be held across 27 of the tech hub's Assembly segments, after the election in Jayanagar was countermanded.

A single phase polling will be held for the 223 constituencies, including 36 reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and 15 for Scheduled Tribes (STs).AThe votes will be counted on May 15.

--IANS

bha/ps/vsc/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Leading Swedish home furnishings retailer IKEA is likely to open its first India store here next month.

The store, spread over 13 acres with a built up space of 4,00,000 square feet, will feature over 7,000 IKEA products of which almost 2,000 will be priced below Rs 200.

John Achillea, IKEA Telangana Managing Director, on Thursday announced the installation of IKEA's wordmark.

While the company said the store will be opened shortly, officials in the Industry Department of Telangana said the store will be inaugurated in June.

The store will also have a 1,000-seater restaurant which is IKEA's largest in over 400 stores it has globally.

The store is coming with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore. It will create direct jobs for 800 people -- half of them, the company promises, will be women.

In November last year, IKEA opened its experiential centre, providing a sneak peek into its products and solutions.

Headquartered in the Netherlands, IKEA designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories, and is considered to be the largest furniture retailer in the world.

The company officials said last year that they plan to open 25 stores in India by 2025. The next store will come up in Mumbai in 2019. This will be bigger than the Hyderabad store with five lakh square feet.

--IANS

ms/him/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The government is in touch with the Afghan authorities following the abduction of seven Indians in Afghanistan on May 6, a senior official said on Thursday.

"At this stage I can share with you that we are in touch with the Afghan authorities in this matter," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in response to queries at a media briefing here.

Kumar said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj as well as National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had telephonic conversations with their counterparts in Afghanistan.

"We have requested all possible assistance from them," he said, adding that this being a sensitive matter, he would not like to share anything more at this time.

The six Indians, along with an Afghan, all employees of Indian company KEC, were abducted on May 6 from Bagh-e-Shamal village in Afghanistan's Baghlan province.

According to local officials, the incident occurred while the employees were travelling to the area where the company has a contract for an electricity sub-station.

The Baghlan provincial council linked the incident to the Taliban.

--IANS

ab/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israel bombed dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria on Thursday as a retaliation against an alleged rocket attack in the occupied Golan Heights area by Tehran, the Israel Defence Force (IDF) said.

On Wednesday night, Iran had allegedly launched 20 rockets at Israel from outside Damascus, around 40 km from the border, although no casualties were reported, reports Efe news.

The attack, if confirmed, would mark the first time Iran has fired rockets in a direct strike on Israeli forces.

"The IDF has struck dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria in response to the Iranian rocket attack against Israel," spokesperson Jonathan Conricus tweeted.

Conricus accused the Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, led by Major General Qasem Soleimani, of carrying out the rocket attack and told reporters that the Israeli strikes were part of an ongoing operation in which the IDF had managed to foil a number of similar attacks from Iran.

Israel had intercepted four of the rockets, while the rest fell inside the country but failed to hit any of the targets.

Conricus said Israel's operation was one of the biggest air operations in recent years and the biggest against Iranian targets.

The IDF spokesperson said that the strikes focused on destroying Iranian capacities in Syria while avoiding civilian casualties.

None of the Israeli fighters suffered any damage despite anti-aircraft firing from Syria, he added.

Authorities urged the citizens of Golan Heights - the intended target of the rocket attacks -- to be on alert while stressing that normal life would resume in the area.

"IDF remains ready for various scenarios but does not seek to escalate the situation," Conricus tweeted.

soni/hs

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday evening that Israel has the "obligation and right" to defend itself against Iranian aggression from the Syrian territory.

He made the comments during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, where the two leaders discussed the developments in the Middle East, Xinhua reported.

"The Iranians declare their intention to attack us," Netanyahu's office cited him as saying in a statement.

Iran is trying to transfer forces and deadly weapons to Syria with the "explicit goal" of attacking Israel as part of their strategy to destroy it, he added.

Netanyahu also presented his perspectives on issues including Iran's secret nuclear archive obtained by Israel's spy agency and the rising tension between the two countries.

"These matters were presented in a direct and forthright manner," and "are very important to Israel's security at all times and especially at this time," he explained.

Earlier in the day, Netanyahu, along with Putin and Serb President Aleksandar Vucic, attended the parade in Red Square commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

--IANS

ahm/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Riding on the "popularity" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP is confident of winning the May 12 Karnataka Assembly election, claimed Union Human Resource Development Minister and party's state in-charge Prakash Javadekar.

"The BJP will win the assembly elections with majority because the people have confidence in the development model and leadership of Modi. They will vote for us to ensure good governance in the state," asserted Javadekar in an interview here.

Betting on anti-incumbency against the ruling Congress, the opposition BJP is also banking on "trust" the people have in its chief ministerial nominee B.S. Yeddyurappa, who was its maiden Chief Minister in south India a decade ago when the party came to power in the state for the first time and ruled for 5 years.

Ironically, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost in the 2013 Assembly to the Congress after Yeddyurappa left it in 2012 and formed the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) in 2013 to win six seats and reducing it to 40 seats across the state.

"People's love and respect for Yeddyurappa, positive voting and anti-incumbency will enable our party to secure majority to form the next government," said Javadekar.

In the 225-member state legislative assembly, including one nominated member, a party requires 113 legislators to form a government with a simple majority.

Polling, however, will be held in 223 constituencies across the state instead of 224 seats due to countermanding of the election in Bengaluru's Jayanagar segment following the death of BJP contestant B.N. Vijaya Kumar on May 4.

"The people want clean governance more than anything when it comes to choosing a party that will form the next government in the state," he reiterated.

Claiming that the people have lost faith in the "corruption-ridden Congress", Javadekar alleged there was no development in the state during its five-year rule, when about 3,500 farmers reportedly committed suicides, adding that "political murders occurred, law and order broke down and society was divided."

A survey by the election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), however, found the factors for the electorate while casting their vote were the candidate, followed by his/her party and its chief ministerial candidate.

"As the Congress lost elections in many states over the last four years, it is evident that the people everywhere were voting it out and opting for the BJP, which is only for the country's development," pointed out Javadekar.

The Congress had lost assembly elections in 12 states, including Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland since 2014.

The trend shows the Congress is bound to lose Karnataka as well and will be in power only in Punjab and Puducherry in the country," Javadekar said.

Admitting that due to "unforeseen incidents", Yeddyurappa resigned in July 2011 as chief minister after the state's anti-graft ombudsman (Lokayukta) named him in a multi-crore mining scam that rocked the state during the BJP tenure, (2008-13), Javadekar said the party was certain that Yeddyurappa would not only win, but also remain in power for the next five years.

On announcing scam-hit Yeddyurappa as the Chief Minister's face even before the state assembly election was declared on March 27, Javadekar said the party had a state-specific strategy to name its chief minister candidates in some states.

"There was no difference of opinion in the party on choosing Yeddyurappa as the chief ministerial face after the courts had cleared him of the charges. Hence, we don't see naming him as our chief minister affecting the voter's decision in any way," affirmed Javadekar.

Ruling out a hung verdict after the vote counting on May 15, the 67-year-old minister said the BJP would secure majority to form government on its own than seek support of other parties like the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S).

"Every party has a right to fight the election, so does JD-S. But there is no question of the BJP not getting a majority," added Javadekar, playing down a hung Assembly projection by opinion pollsters and surveys by media outlets and non-government organisations (NGOs).

It may be noted that Congress formed the first coalition government in the state with JD-S in May 2004 after a hung verdict. JD-S withdrew its support 20 months later, resulting in the fall of the N. Dharam Singh-led Congress government in February 2006.

Tying with the BJP soon, its leader H.D. Kumaraswamy formed the state's second coalition government and was its chief minister for 20 months till October 2007. When the JD-S withdrew support to the BJP-led government in November 2007, President's rule was imposed for six months, leading to Assembly elections in 2008.

On the impact of the Congress government granting minority status to a section of Lingayats for education and job benefits, Javadekar said the move had recoiled on the ruling party, as they (Lingayats) understood that it was a political game to deny Yeddyyurapa the chief minister's post again.

(Bhavana Akella can be contacted atAbhavana.a@ians.in)

--IANS

bha/fb/hs

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed the anticipatory bail application of actor and Bharatiya Janata Party member S.Ve. Shekher.

It was in connection with the derogatory remarks about female journalists that he had posted on his Facebook page.

Dismissing the petition, the court said the police could take action against Shekher.

When his social media post had created an uproar, the former legislator had deleted it saying that he had forwarded a message to his Facebook page without reading it.

He said when a friend had pointed out that the content of the post was abusive, he had removed the post.

"I do not endorse the views expressed in it. I come from a family that respects women and women journalists," he said.

--IANS

vj/in/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore next month.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace," he tweeted.

Earlier in the day, Trump welcomed three American detainees who were freed on Wednesday while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on a visit to Pyongyang.

Trump, who was accompanied by wife Melania, told reporters it was "nice" of the North Korean leader to release the men ahead of their planned summit.

--IANS

him/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the BJP government at the Centre was committing "fundamental blunders" and creating a disaster in the name of foreign policy with Russia strategically leaning more towards Pakistan.

Addressing a press conference two days ahead of the voting in Karnataka, Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign policy decisions were dangerous for this country, particularly in the wake of the presence of Chinese troops in Pakistan.

"Let me tell you, in my view... China is a competitive power, China is also a rising power. We are in an environment where we have to manage our foreign policy with extreme care. Fundamental blunders are being made, fundamental blunders," Gandhi told reporters.

Citing a video showing Chinese troops marching during the Pakistan Day military parade, Gandhi asked the Modi government if they knew "what does that tell you".

"I see a complete change in the position of Russia with regard to India. I see the Russians supplying Pakistan with weapons which they have never done before," he said.

"So there is a disaster that has been created in the foreign policy. And it is dangerous for this country."

--IANS

sar/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the BJP-led government of decimating the country's foreign policy and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have raised with China the Doklam issue and its efforts to encircle India.

Addressing a press conference two days ahead of the voting in Karnataka, Gandhi answered questions on a range of issues, including a BJP leader's remark to dub him "election Hindu" and alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party does not understand the meaning of the word Hindu.

He did not give a direct answer to a query about the move of the Siddaramaiah government to recommend minority status to the Lingayats and said that the Congress seeks to empower communities.

"There is a difference between helping a community express itself, empowering a community. What the BJP is busy doing with the Dalits and with minorities is crushing them, killing them, humiliating them. There is big difference. The Congress perspective is -- we help people empower themselves," he said.

Answering a query on BJP's chief ministerial candidate B. S. Yeddyurappa calling him an "election Hindu", Gandhi said he had been visiting temples and other religious institutions.

"For some reason, the BJP does not like this. For some reason, the BJP gets very uncomfortable.

"I don't think they understand the meaning of the term Hindu because the term is a perspective, a viewpoint. It is something in the heart; it lives with you throughout. That statement is demonstrative of how they view their religion. I do not view my religion like that," he said.

Gandhi said he had expected Modi to go as a leader of our country and speak to the Chinese about Doklam during his visit to the communist country.

"The Prime Minister went to China after the Chinese entered Doklam (Sector in northeast) but did not mention a word about Doklam. He didn't say a word," he said.

Gandhi said Modi had a conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping "without an agenda".

"Are you telling me there is no agenda? There is an agenda called Doklam. There is an agenda called Maldives. There is an agenda called Nepal.

Of course, there is an agenda. What does he mean by going to China and having discussion without an agenda. We are surrounded on all sides. That is the agenda," he said.

"Our foreign policy has been completely decimated. And it is because the Prime Minister views foreign policy as an individual exercise," the Congress chief said, adding that there were huge forces involved and Modi needs to carry people with him.

Citing a video clipping showing Chinese troops marching during the Pakistan Day military parade, Gandhi asked the Modi government if it knew "what it tells you".

"Let me tell you, in my view... China is a competitive power, China is also a rising power. We are in an environment where we have to manage our foreign policy with extreme care. Fundamental blunders are being made, fundamental blunders," Gandhi said.

"I see a complete change in the position of Russia with regard to India. I see the Russians supplying Pakistan with weapons which they have never done before. So, a disaster has been created in the foreign policy. And it is dangerous for this country," he added.

--IANS

ps/tsb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday hit out at the Congress for "disrespecting" Dalit icon Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar and accused it of preventing the OBC Commission from getting a constitutional status in Parliament.

Interacting with the SC/ST, OBC, Minority and Slum Morchas of the Karnataka BJP through the 'Narendra Modi Mobile App', the Prime Minister said there was no place for Dalits in the hearts of the Congress and asked it to mention a single thing done by it for the betterment of the community.

"There is no place for Dalits in the heart of the Congress. This has been continuing for last many decades. Even the Congress has no respect for Ambedkar. They did everything to defeat him in the 1952 general elections and the bypoll to Bhandara parliamentary constituency in 1953," he said.

He said the Congress humiliated Ambedkar till they were in power. "They did not even confer the Bharat Ratna on him. It was only when Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji formed the government that Babasaheb was conferred the title", he said.

He stated that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was working on developing Panchteerth of Ambedkar. "Taking inspiration from all the great saints, today we are trying to fulfil Babasaheb's dream of a powerful and prosperous nation", Modi remarked.

Attacking the Congress for not letting the OBC Commission get a constitutional status in Parliament, he said they were only involved in vote bank and never cared about empowering the weaker sections.

"You will be surprised to know that during the Congress regime, OBC leaders used to demand a constitutional status to OBC Commission but they (Congress) never cared. They only remain involved in vote bank .. To stop the OBC Commission getting constitutional status, they did not allow the Parliament to function," he said.

Noting that the BJP had the maximum number of MPs from the SC, ST, OBC and minority communities, the Prime Minister said that leaders of various morchas had a paramount role in connecting directly with people and furthering the party's reach. He urged them to further the reach of the party's initiatives among the weaker sections.

Invoking Ambedkar, social reformer Jyotiba Phule, Sant Kabir and Ravidas's contribution to fight social injustice, Modi said their efforts were inspirational and continued to show his government the way.

During the interaction, Modi also took questions from the BJP leaders and spoke at length about several welfare measures being undertaken to uplift them.

Highlighting several initiatives being undertaken by the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, Modi said that in 2015 the government strengthened the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and increased the offences listed in the Act from 22 to 47 to empower the weaker sections.

He said that "Stand up" and "Mudra Yojanas" were helping to make SC/ST, OBC and women financially empowered.

Mentioning several pro-poor schemes launched by his government, Modi spoke about how India was rapidly growing.

"Today India is the second largest steel manufacturer in the world, second largest mobile phone manufacturer and fourth largest automobile manufacturer," he said, adding that 99 cities are on the verge of becoming smart cities and 500 cities are having a positive impact of the AMRUT scheme.

--IANS

bns/qd/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad not to respond to Israel's large-scale air attack on Syria.

"Yesterday I conveyed a clear message to the Assad regime: Our activity is directed against Iranian targets in Syria," Netanyahu said in a video statement. "But if the Syrian army takes action against us, we will act against it," Xinhua reported.

"That is exactly what happened yesterday, Syrian army launched ground-to-air missiles against us, and therefore we hit them," he said.

Reiterating a demand voiced by Israel in the past months, Netanyahu urged the international community "to prevent Iran's al-Quds Force from entrenching itself in Syria."

He warned that Israel will act forcibly to any response to its attacks. "If anyone hurts us, we will hurt them sevenfold. And if anyone prepares to harm us, we will take preemptive action to harm them first," he said.

Israel carried out an extensive attack on Syria overnight between Wednesday and Thursday. Israel's military said the attack targeted Iranian military sites and was a retaliation to earlier rockets that were launched towards military positions in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights but failed to reach Israeli territory.

The Syrian army said three people were killed and two were wounded in the attack.

--IANS

ahm/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The wait was finally over for his family, relatives, and party leaders and supporters, as jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad arrived in Patna on Thursday evening to attend his elder son's marriage on May 12.

Lalu Prasad was received by his elder daughter and Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti, his sons - former Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Tejashwi Yadav -- and some senior party leaders.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief was welcomed at the Patna airport like a hero, with hundreds of party leaders, workers and upbeat supporters holding his colourful pictures in hand and raising slogans in his praise.

He is availing a three-day parole granted by Ranchi's Birsa Munda Central Jail authorities, to allow him to attend the marriage. He is currently serving his jail term following conviction in the fodder scam.

With a festive mood already prevailing at Patna's sprawling 10, Circular Road bungalow -- allotted to former Bihar Chief Minister and Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi, his presence is set to add more colour to the celebrations.

Former Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav got engaged last month to former Minister and senior RJD leader Chandrika Rai's daughter Aishwarya Rai. The wedding will take place here on May 12.

Earlier in the day, accompanied by a team of doctors and policemen, Lalu Prasad left the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS), where he is admitted for treatment, for Patna by a private carrier.

He will, however, remain under constant watch of the camera during the marriage, in line with the conditions of the parole. He will also not meet and speak to party leaders, media persons and not engage in any political activity.

"All his movements would be captured by video cameras," a jail official said.

Lalu has been undergoing treatment at RIMS after he was brought back to Ranchi from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, on May 1.

He was admitted to RIMS on March 17 as he complained of uneasiness in the jail.

The RJD chief has been convicted in four fodder scam cases since 2013, the latest being the Dumka treasury case in which a special CBI court sentenced him to 14 years in jail.

His provisional bail plea hearing is due to be taken up at the Jharkhand High Court on May 11.

--IANS

ik-ns/nir/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and heads of all Pakistani airlines were summoned by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar on Thursday in a case pertaining to fake degrees of pilots.

The Chief Justice said that Abbasi "will have to appear in the court in the capacity of the Chief Executive Officer of Pakistan's Airblue Limited airline and not as the Premier", Dawn online reported.

The judge said he was issuing notices to heads of all Pakistani airlines as the matter had been pending for the last four months.

He directed the heads of Pakistan International Airlines, Serene Air and Shaheen Air International apart from Airblue Limited to appear before the bench.

During the hearing, Civil Aviation Authority Director Nasir Ali Shah told the court that the authority received on Thursday the reports on pilots' degrees from Shaheen International Airline and Serene Air in Karachi, while the report of Airblue was received on Wednesday.

Talking about Pakistan International Airlines, Shah said that degrees of 1,972 people were verified while 24 pilots were found to be holding fake degrees.

During the hearing, the Chief Justice took a suo motu notice of lawyers holding fake degrees and sought a report on the issue form all bar councils within a month.

--IANS

soni/him/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela met here on Wednesday with the Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu, to whom he proposed using Panama's logistics platform as a means to expand Indian presence in Latin America.

"Panama has put its geographical position at India's disposal to become its gate to the rest of the region, as a hub for logistics and air connectivity," Varela said during a joint press conference with Naidu, Efe reported.

"We want to help India strengthen its competitiveness in world trade by means of our logistics platform," Varela added.

The Panamanian President said that he had agreed to build a "much more robust" bilateral agenda with the Indian Vice President, focusing on establishing "technological, scientific and agricultural" projects, as well as promoting tourism.

Naidu's visit to Panama takes place a month after the Panamanian government announced the liberalization of visa requirements for tourists from India, a decision which could have a positive effect on tourism and trade, Varela explained.

The Panamanian president also said that his meeting with Naidu was part of a larger foreign policy aimed at strengthening Panama's ties with "Asian and Middle Eastern emerging markets, regions with which we have not had close relationships."

"India is the fifth largest economy and the second most populated country in the world. India's success is linked to its rich culture and its commitment to entrepreneurship, science, innovation, technology and a highly-qualified workforce," Varela said.

Naidu thanked the Panamanian government for liberalizing its visa requirements and praised the Central American country for its economic dynamism.

--IANS

ahm/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President on Thursday attacked Prime Minister over the allegation that leader B Sriramulu had bribed former of India K G seeking an order favouring a mining company owned by G Janardhan Reddy.

The party, which levelled the charge, also demanded a high-level inquiry into the alleged bribery case.

"This is how Modi and Yeddy (B S Yeddyurappa) are getting 'Reddy' to loot Fortunately, the people of will not let that happen," tweeted Gandhi as he attached a National Herald news report with a headline "Sting videos: alleges BJP's B Sriramulu involved in bribing then CJI in 2010".

The news report said: "Alleging that the then of India K G gave a favourable order to a mining company owned by G Janardhan Reddy a day before the CJI retired in 2010, Congress claimed on Thursday that Rs 100 crore was paid by Reddy for the order."

Sriramulu is contesting against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Badami constituency in the May 12 assembly election.

"Just one day before CJI retired, he passed an order in a case related to Reddy brothers mining company," Karnataka Congress tweeted quoting state's working President Dinesh Gundu Rao.

"Now several videos have been released which show how bribe deals were done btw CJI's son-in-law and Sriramulu/Reddy brothers," Karnataka Congress tweeted Rao's statement at a press conference.

"The videos that have surfaced today show how Sriramulu and middlemen Captain Reddy, Balan, Swamiji Rajnish and CJI Balakrishnan's son-in-law Sreenijan discussed bribe deals in order to get a favourable judgement from SC in the Obalipuram case," he said.

"Despite supporting corrupt and jailed leaders in their own party, the Prime Minister comes to Karnataka and levels baseless allegations against us.

"This big expose has shown how corrupt Reddy-Sriramulu gang bribed the CJI. Will and PM Modi answer?" Rao said.South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha will meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington to prepare for an upcoming summit between the two countries' leaders.

The summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his American counterpart Donald Trump at the White House on May 22 will precede the one between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, reports Efe news.

Kang and Pompeo will discuss the outcome of the recent inter-Korean summit in which all parties agreed to work on the total denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula ahead of the US-South Korea summit, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

The foreign representatives "plan to have in-depth consultations on ways for South Korean and US diplomatic authorities to coordinate for the denuclearisation of North Korea and establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula through the success of the North Korea-U.S. summit" the ministry added.

The two will hold a joint press conference at the end of their talks.

--IANS

ksk/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South Korea's IT developer Samsung SDS Co. said on Thursday it has bought stakes in the US-based graphics processing unit (GPU) virtualisation solution provider Bitfusion Inc.

Samsung SDS did not provide the details of the deal, including the size of the shares acquired and the price, citing business issues, Yonhap news agency reported.

The South Korean company said the deal would help the company improve its competitiveness in the Cloud computing business, as Bitfusion's technologies would help in improving GPU performance.

The GPU industry has been expanding sharply on the back of the development of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data technologies, Samsung SDS was quoted as saying.

Samsung SDS has been joining forces with major tech giants such as Amazon and Microsoft to beef up its Cloud computing operations.

--IANS

sku/and/qd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court collegium will meet on Friday to reconsider its recommendation to elevate Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice K.M. Joseph and other judges to the top court.

The apex court sources said the collegium, which includes Chief Justice Dipak Misra and the top four senior judges, will meet at 1 p.m.

Besides Justice Joseph, the collegium will also consider names of judges from the Calcutta, Rajasthan, and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh High Courts for elevation as Judges of the Supreme Court.

The development came in the wake of a letter by second senior-most judge of the apex court, Justice J. Chelameswar, to Chief Justice Misra on Wednesday seeking reiteration of collegium's January 10 unanimous recommendation for elevating Justice Joseph.

With just six working days left before Justice Chelameswar bids adieu to the Supreme Court, he said the recommendation must be done at the earliest and the file carrying the reiteration sent back to the government.

Though Justice Chelameswar, a member of the collegium, is retiring on June 22, the top court is left with six working days before it goes for a six-week summer break next weekend.

On May 2, the collegium, which also includes Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Madan Lokur, met and deferred a decision on the government's request to reconsider its recommendation for the elevation of Justice Joseph.

The meeting was inconclusive but no specific date was given for the next meeting of the collegium which was speculated to take place this week.

Justice Kurian Joseph earlier said the Central government should not have rejected the recommendation as this has never happened before.

The top court collegium, recommending the elevation of Justice Joseph on January 10, said: "The collegium considers that at present Justice K.M. Joseph, who hails from Kerala High Court and is currently functioning as Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court, is more deserving and suitable in all respects than other Chief Justices and senior puisne Judges of High Courts for being appointed as Judges of the Supreme Court."

However, the Central government while returning his recommendation for reconsideration said Justice Joseph stood at number 42 in the seniority of High Court judges and there are 11 Chief Justices of different high courts who are senior to him -- a clear suggestion that his elevation to the Supreme Court would be at their expense.

The Centre also raised the principle of proportionality contending that Kerala High Court was a "comparatively small High Court" with a sanctioned strength of 42 judges and was a parent high court for the top court judge Justice Kurian Joseph, the Chief Justices of three High Courts -- Justice K.M. Joseph himself (Uttarakhand), Justice T.B. Radhakrishnan (Chhattisgarh) and Justice Antony Dominic (Kerala).

The Central government also flagged the absence of SC/ST judges in the top judiciary.

There is a perception that the government was standing in the way of the elevation of Justice Joseph because of his judgment in 2016 striking down the Central government's decision to impose President's rule in Uttarakhand, but Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has denied this.

--IANS

gt-pk/him/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An ojha (quack doctor) was detained on Thursday in connection with the death of a 63-year old jatra (folk theatre) artiste due to snake bite while she was performing at a religious singing session with the reptile in West Bengal's Hasnabad, police said.

The victim Kalidasi Mondal allegedly did not get medical help for three-four hours after the snake bite, though the incident occurred in an area very near to the village hospital. She was attended to by the quack doctor Dayal Thakur, who tried to revive her.

After the incident, Thakur, who was associated with the singing troupe, fled.

"The quack treated Kalidasi after the snakebite and she died before reaching the hospital. That is why the relatives of the deceased have filed a police complaint," Debdulal Mondal, officer-in-charge, Hasnabad police station, told IANS over phone.

Hasnabad is located close to the Indo-Bangladesh border in North 24 Parganas district.

The hospital declared her brought dead.

According to sources, the relatives of the deceased feel that someone, jealous of Kalidasi's fame, had replaced the non-poisonous performing snakes with a venomous one.

"In the initial stage of the investigation, nothing of this sort has been found. Apparently, the quack had no motive as he too had a long association with the troupe," said Mondal.

Kalidasi was associated with the Jatra troupe for almost twenty years. She had earned a lot of fame in the adjoining villages as well for her performances with live snakes.

She had also opened her own 'Paala Gaan' singing troupe.

--IANS

bnd/ssp/vd

A

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Telangana government on Thursday launched a new scheme in which the farmers in the state will get Rs 8,000 per acre each every year as crop investment support.

Launching the programme titled 'Rythu Bandhu', Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao claimed that Telangana is the first state in India to implement a farmer investment support scheme.

The government plans to spend Rs 12,000 crore every year under this scheme, benefiting 58 lakh farmers. The financial assistance will be for two crops each year.

The Chief Minister told a public meeting at Indira Nagar in Karimnagar district that under the first phase, the government has made Rs 6,000 crore available in the banks.

KCR, as Rao is popularly known, distributed cheques among the farmers to formally launch the scheme.

He also distributed 'pattadar' pass books among farmers. The land title documents were prepared after a comprehensive land survey across the state. He pointed out that the survey identified 1.40 crore acres as cultivable land in the state.

KCR said the exercise for purification of land records was taken up for effective implementation of the 'Rythu Bandhu' scheme.

Ministers and officials will distribute cheques and pass books among farmers across the state over the next one week.

KCR claimed that Telangana, the youngest state of India, is redefining the future of agriculture in the country by implementing innovative schemes.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief said he was committed to irrigate one crore acres of land by completing all irrigation projects.

He claimed that Telangana is the only state supplying 24-hour free electricity to farmers. The state government has waived crop loans and was also implementing a Rs 5 lakh insurance scheme.

A day before the launch of 'Rythu Bandhu', the Chief Minister on Wednesday announced the waiver of Rs 700 crore water dues, benefiting lakhs of farmers.

KCR spoke about the all-round progress the state has made during the last four years and reiterated his commitment to transform it into 'golden Telangana'. He listed several schemes launched by his government for the welfare of all sections of people.

KCR said his government could do all this because Telangana is a rich state. He claimed that Telangana is the only state in the country to record 20 per cent growth in its revenues during the last two years.

He targeted the opposition parties, especially the Congress, saying TRS had achieved in four years what they could not in the last 70 years.

The TRS chief appealed to the people to vote for the party in next year's elections so that the government can continue its journey on the path of rapid growth of the state.

--IANS

ms/pgh/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Forty-four-year-old Sridevi Balasubramanian -- popularly known as Shri Bala in the hospitality circuit -- juggles effortlessly between the worlds of numbers and commercial kitchens.

"Accounting is my profession, which provides my livelihood. Cooking is my passion, providing me self-satisfaction," Bala, who is now anchoring the Tamizhaga Ula -- Tamil Nadu Tour -- at the The Park hotel here, told IANS.

She is a consultant for an intellectual property rights (IPR) firm here and also anchors food festivals across cities.

The Tamizhaga Ula is themed on the five types of land -- Mullai (cropland), Marutham (forest), Neithal (coastal), Kurunchi (mountain) and Palai (desert) -- as mentioned in ancient Tamil literature.

Under each category there are dishes (starters to desserts) cooked with ingredients that are available in those topographies, Bala said.

The starters, Kumbakonam Morekali (traditional rice flour and buttermilk) and Vadachennai eral karamani pakoda (spiced prawn deep fried with black eye pea), arrived at the table.

To give an idea as to the type of land they come from, names of localities/towns are prefixed to the dishes, Bala said.

The Morekali, a traditional dish not available in restaurants, tasted nice, while the prawn fry was crunchy with the right spice levels.

Meanwhile, Bala noted with a smile that the only thing common between her two different professions was cooking.

"In accounting, one can cook the books and in the other one cooks food," Bala said. "During my school days, I learnt cooking from my uncle P.S. Sankaran. He was the son of Meenakshi Ammal, the cookbook pioneer in the state."

"Hailing from a Tamil Brahmin family, the stipulation of cooking and tasting meat at the catering technology institute put an end to my dreams of becoming a qualified chef," Bala mused.

But destiny had a different command menu.

Bala quit her job as Chief Financial Officer of the IPR firm. At home, she cooked dishes and posted their pictures on Facebook. That got her in touch with Chef Ashish Bhasin of Trident BKC, Mumbai.

"He allowed me to anchor a South Indian food festival at his hotel in 2016 after I passed a test held at Trident Hotel, Chennai," she said.

"Today I cook and taste non-veg dishes. A chef should taste the food before sending it out for guests," Bala added, serving Kovai maravalli keerai bhajji (assorted vegetable pakoda in a tapioca and keerai/greens batter) which was very nice.

Soon the taster's portions of main course started to arrive.

For vegetarians, the millet-based Trichy thinai idiyappam (millet string hoppers) and the Rameswaram kurakkan appam matched well with Thanjavur ezhu curry koottu (seven assorted country vegetables in coconut gravy with spices) and Cuddalore masal vada kuzhumbu (vada cooked in tangy gravy).

The mild and flavourful Thuthukudi vazhaithandu biryani (banana stem dum cooked with jeera samba rice and bay leaves) goes well with the Cuddalore masal vada kuzhumbu.

Bala's interest is the cuisine of the Sangam era -- 300 BC to 300 AD -- and the cuisines of the Chera, Chola, Pandya and Vijayanagar kingdoms.

"I have read books and had discussions with archaeologists. What is available from the ancient literature are the ingredients that were available in those days and not the recipes," she said.

The non-vegetarians can have a mix and match of Banana stem biryani with the mildly spicy Pallipayalam kozhi (country chicken cooked with home ground spices and coconut).

The meat eaters can also mix Kumari kuzhambu (Kanyakumari style seer fish curry) or Sivagangai kari kuzhambu (lamb curry) or the country chicken curry with plain steamed rice or just go for the Dindigul mutton dum biryani made with jeera samba rice.

Queried whether she could cook with the ingredients that existed in a bygone era, Bala said: "Yes. But it would taste rustic."

For the sweet tooth Thanjavur serki bath is recommended.

FAQs:

What: Tamizhaga Ula food festival

Where: 601 restaurant at The Park Hotel

When: May 4-13 for lunch and dinner

Cost for two: Rs.1,700 plus taxes

(Venkatachari Jagannathan's visit was at the invitation of The Park. He can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in)

--IANS

vj/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ahead of his two-day visit to Nepal starting on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that India attaches high priority to friendly relations with the Himalayan nation.

Stating that he is visiting Nepal at the invitation of its Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, Modi said in a pre-departure statement: "This will be my third visit to Nepal as Prime Minister. It reflects the high priority India, and personally I attach to our age-old, close and friendly ties with Nepal."

The Indian Prime Minister's visit comes soon after the visit of Oli to India last month, his first trip abroad after assuming office in February.

"These high-level and regular interactions reflect my government's commitment to the Neighbourhood First policy, in consonance with the motto of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas'," Modi said in his statement.

"Together, our two countries have completed several bilateral connectivity and development projects in the last few years, and have initiated transformational initiatives for the benefit of our two peoples."

Modi said that he and Oli will have the opportunity to take forward their wide-ranging discussions in New Delhi last month on issues of mutual interest, and to advance our cooperative partnership across diverse sectors.

The Indian Prime Minister also said that he will be visiting Janakpur and Muktinath apart from Kathmandu.

"Both these places attract a large number of pilgrims every year. They are living testimony to the ancient and strong cultural and religious ties between the peoples of India and Nepal," he said.

"As Nepal enters a new era of consolidating gains of democracy and achieving rapid economic growth and development, India will continue to remain a steadfast partner of Government of Nepal to implement its vision of 'Samriddha Nepal, Sukhi Nepali'."

Modi also said that he is looking forward to meeting the political leaders and friends in Nepal.

"I am confident that my visit will further cement our people-centric partnership with Nepal on the basis of mutual benefit, goodwill and understanding."

On Friday, Modi will fly directly to Janakpur from Patna and will be welcomed by Oli at the Ram Janaki Temple. The Indian leader will perform a special 'puja' at the temple and then take part in a civil felicitation programme in the Bahra Bigaha area.

Modi will later inaugurate the Ramayan Circuit, which is one among the 13 tourist circuits under the "Swadesh Darshan Scheme" of India.

From Janakpur, he will fly to Mustang where he will pray at the Muktinath temple. He will then reach Kathmandu, according to the travel itinerary made public by the Nepal government.

Nepali Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa said the Indian leader's visit will be religious and cultural. There will be no political agreements.

--IANS

ab/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday in Chile that US President Donald Trump's decision to move Washington's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem violates international law.

"It takes away legitimacy from the US as an intermediary in the (Israeli-Palestinian) conflict with its support and alliance with the State of Israel," added Abbas during an appearance before reporters along with his Chilean counterpart and host, Sebastian Pinera, at La Moneda Palace, Efe reported.

The Palestinian leader said that he had worked to hold peace negotiations based on international law and "the two-state resolution with the 1967 borders," and he reiterated that Jerusalem has been an "occupied city since 2017" and is the capital of the state of Palestine.

Trump promised last December to move Washington's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a decision that poses a challenge to the international consensus not to recognize any sovereignty over the latter city until Israelis and Palestinians conclude a peace accord.

Abbas took advantage of his trip to Chile to reiterate his "respect" for the Jews and his "feelings" for the victims of the Holocaust several days after some of his comments were broadly condemned for being anti-Semitic.

The Palestinian leader said that the Holocaust is "one of the worst crimes of humanity," while at the same time adding that he yearned for the day when "the suffering of six million Palestinians who are living the tragedy of exile in different countries for 70 years" may also be ended.

On April 30, Abbas had attributed the Holocaust and other attacks on Jews in Europe to "social" and "financial" issues, such as that community engaging in "usury" and money-lending, and he said that the pogroms were not due to religious motives or anti-Semitism.

Pinera, meanwhile, said that Chile supports the two-state solution and Israelis and Palestinians resolving their differences via negotiations within the framework of the United Nations.

The Chilean leader also emphasized the links between Chile and Palestine and noted that there are some 350,000 citizens of Palestinian origin in his country, the largest such contingent outside the Arab nations.

Abbas arrived in Chile on Tuesday from Venezuela and on Thursday he will depart for Cuba, the last stop on his Latin American tour.

--IANS

ahm/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Donald Trump on Thursday hailed the fact that five of the "most wanted" Islamic State leaders have been captured recently, including Abu Zeid al-Iraqi, one of the main collaborators of the organisation's chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

"Five Most Wanted leaders of ISIS just captured!" Trump tweeted, referring to a coordinated operation to arrest the men by Iraqi and US intelligence agencies, Efe reported.

Among the IS leaders captured are four Iraqis and one Syrian, according to the New York Times, citing Iraqi sources.

The result of the three-month operation to capture the terrorist leaders, who had been hiding in Syria and Turkey, represents an important victory for the Iraqi and US intelligence agencies.

Two Iraqi officials explained to the New York daily, on condition of anonymity, that they had been following the trail of several of the IS leaders for months, but early this year they received intelligence information that led to their arrests.

An Iraqi unit responsible for undercover missions had traced one of those detained - Ismail Alwaan al-Ithawi, known as Abu Zeid al-Iraqi - from Syria to the Turkish city of Sakarya, about 100 miles east of Istanbul, the Times reported.

Abu Zeid al-Iraqi, one of the main associates of top IS leader Abu Bakr, had been living in Turkey with his Syrian wife under his brother's identity.

The terrorist, who was in charge of making bank transfers into the accounts the IS maintains in different countries and one of Abu Bakr's closest confidants, was captured by Turkish authorities and handed over to Iraq.

Iraqi and US intelligence spent several weeks interrogating Abu Zeid to acquire information about the location of the other leaders, who were in hiding.

Saddam al-Jammel, a Syrian who had headed the IS operations near the eastern Syrian town of Deir al-Zour, and Abu Abdel al-Haq, an Iraqi who had been the group's head of internal security, were two of the terrorists captured, The Times reported.

--IANS

ahm/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump nominated Diane Gujarati, a prosecutor of Indian descent, to a federal judgeship on Thursday in an unusual move as she had been former President Barack Obama's choice for the position.

The White House announced that Trump is sending the nomination of Gujarati, who is the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division of the federal prosecutor's for the Southern District of New York, to the Senate for confirmation as a District Judge on the Federal court for New York's Eastern District, which covers parts of the city as well the suburbs on Long Island.

Obama nominated her for the judgeship towards the end of his term in September 2016 but she was not confirmed by the Senate requiring Trump's renomination.

Her father, Damodar Gujrarati, is an emeritus professor of economics at the US Military Academy at West Point, which trains army officers.

Her renomination by Trump shows both her legal standing as well as the administration's difficulty in finding candidates within its ideological spectrum who will be able to win Senate support.

She is expected to have a smooth sailing in the Senate because of the support of presidents from both parties.

A graduate of the Ivy League Yale University's law school, she has also been an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law.

Federal New York Eastern District Court is located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.

The federal prosecutor's office for Southern District of New York, where started in 1999, is one of the most high profile jurisdictions in the US as it includes Wall Street as well as the state's capital Albany.

Formerly headed by Preet Bharara, the office had prosecuted several important people in finance, including Rajat Gupta, Raj Rajaratnam and Mathew Martoma for insider trading on Wall Street and also several important politicians like New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Gupta, one of the highest ranking Indian-American business leaders, was managing director of consulting firm McKinsey and was sentenced to two years in prison and fined millions of dollars.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

al/him/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump welcomed the three freed American detainees who reached here on Thursday morning after they were released by North Korea.

Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Tony Kim were freed on Wednesday while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on a visit to the North Korean capital Pyongyang to discuss Trump's upcoming summit with leader Kim Jong-un, CNN reported.

No family members or friends of the freed Americans were present for their arrival due to protocol reasons, said an official. The men had to first debrief intelligence officials before heading to their homes, the official added.

Speaking on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews Air Force Base, Kim Dong Chul said his release felt "like a dream". "We are very, very happy."

Trump, who was accompanied by his wife Melania, told reporters it was "nice" of the North Korean leader to release the men ahead of their planned summit. According to reports, administration officials had been instructed to move forward with plans to convene the Trump-Kim meeting in Singapore.

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence were also present to welcome the three men home.

"Frankly we didn't think this was going to happen. It's a very important thing to all of us to be able to get these three great people out," Trump said.

After their meeting with the US President, the men were expected to go to Walter Reed Medical Centre in Maryland for further evaluation and medical treatment, according to White House Press Secretary Lindsay Walters.

They issued a joint statement on Wednesday thanking Trump saying: "We would like to express our deep appreciation to the US government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the US people for bringing us home."

Trump has marked the men's arrival as a major milestone ahead of his upcoming historic summit with Kim. He had previously said the release of the men was part of working towards the denuclearisation of North Korea.

--IANS

and/soni/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Punjab Police on Thursday said it has arrested two men, armed by foreign-based Khalistani handlers, to carry out targeted killings in the state.

It was part of a nefarious design to radicalise and use Punjabi youths to create a communal divide in the state to further their separatist Khalistani agenda, police added.

Accused Sandeep Singh and Amar Singh were arrested from the Faridkot-Kotkapura highway after their motorcycle collided with a Mahindra Scorpio vehicle.

"The accused have links with terror modules busted in connection with the targeted killings reported in the state," a police spokesman said here on Thursday.

A search on their persons led to the seizure of two .30-bore pistols and 40 rounds, provided by their handlers, he added.

He said that the two were in touch with Australia-based Gurjant Singh, who has been charged by the National Investigation Agency in the October 2017 murder of Ravinder Gosain of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Ludhiana.

"On questioning, the two disclosed that they had been in touch with their handlers through social media and encrypted VoIP calls, and were assigned the task of carrying out killings of targets to be assigned by their handlers.

The terror module was busted by Punjab Police on May 29 last year.

"The link of these two youths with other possible module members and Khalistani operatives is being investigated," the spokesman said.

--IANS

js/tsb

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) on Thursday protested against the UGC team's visit to St. Stephen's College to assess the latter's bid for autonomy status, calling it a violation of the law under which the university was established.

A 10-member team from the University Grants Commission (UGC) visiting the college faced protests by teachers who opposed the autonomy as a ploy for increasing privatisation of higher

"The colleges of Delhi University have autonomy conferred by the DU Act 1922, statutes and ordinances, whereas this committee grossly violates that autonomy... In the name of autonomy, the UGC-MHRD is imposing not only disintegration of DU but also privatisation and contractualisation," Rajesh Jha, an Academic Council member of the university, told IANS.

Another member of the council, Hansraj Suman, said the college's decision for autonomy was passed in neither the Academic nor the Executive Council of the varsity.

"The Delhi University gives its constituent colleges academic freedom. St. Stephen's College already conducts its admissions and appointments differently from the rest of the university colleges, what else does it need the autonomy for," Suman said.

As per a new framework towards building a "liberalised regime in the sector", the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in March had decided to grant graded autonomy to a total of 52 universities and eight colleges -- not including St. Stephen's College, the application for which is still underway.

The 'autonomy' thus granted will enable the learning institutions the freedom to start new courses, off-campus centres, skill development courses, research parks and any other new academic programmes, while still being under the ambit of the UGC.

--IANS

vn/qd/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Gurugram Special Task Force (STF) has arrested a dreaded Haryana criminal who carried a bounty of Rs 1 lakh on his head, police said on Thursday.

The criminal was identified as Jitender alias Jeeta, a resident of Tandaheri village near Haryana's Jhajjar district.

Acting on a tip off, the STF team arrested Jitender from the under-construction Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) expressway near his village.

He was involved in two cases of murder and attempt to murder.

Police said he was awarded a jail term of 20 years by a Haryana court.

"Jitender was in jail and came out on parole but did not return," said a senior police officer.

"A pistol, cartridges and a Pulsar bike were also recovered from his possession," the police officer added.

--IANS

pradeep/pgh/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rome, May 11 (IANS/AKI) The fight against terrorism is "a top priority" for Italy, the coordinator of its chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe told a meeting on returning foreign fighters here on Thursday.

"Countering terrorism represents a top priority," Italian diplomat Vinicio Mati Mati in opening remarks to the 'The Reverse Flow of Foreign Terrorist Fighters: Challenges for the OSCE Area and Beyond' conference.

"Cooperation between OSCE Members is essential for preventing violent extremism and effectively tackle the challenge of foreign fighters," he said.

OCSE states need to focus on cooperation and on sharing information because foreign fighters returning from conflict zones to the OSCE area and beyond are "a transnational threat", Mati said.

The two-day conference through Friday aims to foster regional and international co-operation on foreign fighters returning to Europe and to look at ways to mitigate the security risks they pose.

Over 350 high-level participants are attending the meeting including government minister and experts, international and sub-regional organizations, academics and civil society representatives from OSCE member states and partners - amid fears that returning or relocating foreign fighters may stage terror attacks at home, incite terrorism, recruit and fundraise for terrorist groups, OSCE said.

--IANS/AKI

vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Arjun Kapoor says it's high time people stop using the term "women empowerment" for the sake of it, and he feels change will happen for the better when the mindset of the men changes in the country.

Arjun, who has been associated with the Girl Rising campaign, interacted with the media at 'Bend The Gender Awards' here on Wednesday.

Sharing his views on women empowerment, Arjun said: "After working for so many years in the film industry, I have realised that in our film industry, we still have to give some sort of opportunities to women to come out, pursue a career, to make a life, to be independent, and to make choices.

"The term 'women empowerment' has been in vogue from the last few years. A lot of people make use of it but they only use for the sake of it. Actually they don't put it to use. I always thought that empowerment of women will take place when the men of India will change their mindset. So, we thought that we need to honour those men this year who have somewhere made a difference to their partners, sisters or children's life."

Arjun who played a house husband in Kareena Kapoor Khan-starrer "Ki & Ka", said supporting a woman does not necessarily mean helping them and sometimes just being with them quietly can also inspire a woman.

"In India, we often say that girls are not capable of doing certain things. But if a husband can support his wife to achieve her dreams and goals, then I think he is a true hero.

"The same would be the other way around. If a woman can go out and help a man achieving his ambitions, dreams and hopes, then we always say behind every successful man there is woman because of her sacrifices. The same way, I feel that behind every successful woman, every man needs to be there, so they should not just talk about a change, they should pick up a change because it's been very demoralising to see the small thinking of people towards women."

Asked whether an actress should have a shelf life when it comes to working in films, he said: "Come on, I am speaking to you a day after my sister's (Sonam Kapoor) wedding. She is going to continue working in films and she has one film releasing ('Veere Di Wedding').

"Anushka (Sharma) has been working since the last six months after getting married. Kareena is a prime example after her pregnancy break. I feel making sure that women are safer and comfortable is necessary for actresses to grow and to be able to harness their skills."

The "2 States" actor urged the media to highlight the change seen in the film industry, as compared to other fields and industries.

"If you see a film like 'Raazi', around 7-8 years back, it would have been a male-driven film. But today it's content driven and it's based on a true story. Makers of it haven't changed the gender of the protagonist and maintained essence of it.

"So, the way we are trying to change the mindset of people through 'Bend The Gender Awards', similarly our film and film industry will take some time to evolve, but at least we are trying that. We should give credit to the film industry where it is due. We are still way more secular, open than other fields and I think media should highlight that."

--IANS

iv/rb/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- One person is suspected to have died in a fresh outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said on Thursday.



Thus far, 11 suspected cases of haemorrhagic fever have been recorded, including two laboratory-confirmed Ebola cases, the Democratic Republic of Congos health ministry said in a statement. There are several types of haemorrhagic fever besides Ebola, meaning not all suspected cases are that specific virus.



Three health professionals are among those suspected to be infected, officials said.



Medical teams from the government, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Doctors Without Borders, a frontline medical charity, traveled Tuesday to the area of the latest outbreak to investigate and assist with containment.



This is the ninth cycle of Ebola recorded in the DRC. The disease was discovered in 1976 and named after the eponymous Ebola River that cuts across the north of the country.



The disease is believed to be spread by bats, who can incubate the virus without being affected by it. The bats can then infect other animals living in the same trees, such as monkeys.



The aggressive Ebola epidemic, which triggered international alerts between 2013 and 2016, was the most widespread outbreak of the virus, killing more than 11,300 people and infecting nearly 30,000 others. The virus spread across the West African coast through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.



Small outbreaks caused by passenger travel out of the contaminated areas, including a humanitarian worker being evacuated back home, were recorded in the U.S., U.K., Sardinia and Senegal.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Punjab Police has arrested two men who were armed and operationalised by foreign-based Khalistani handlers to carry out targeted killings in the state, an official said.

The accused were here to carry out killings as part of a nefarious design to radicalise and use youths to create a communal divide to further their separatist Khalistani agenda, a state police spokesperson said today.

"The motorcycle-borne men, identified as Sandeep Singh and Amar Singh, have alleged links with the terror modules busted in connection with the spate of targeted killings in the state earlier," the spokesperson said in a release.

He claimed that they were in touch with Australia-based Gurjant Singh, who has been charged by the NIA in the October 2017 murder case of Ravinder Gosain of the RSS in Ludhiana.

The highly radicalised accused were nabbed today from the Faridkot-Kotkapura national highway after their motorcycle collided with a Mahindra Scorpio vehicle. They were found to be carrying arms, the police said.

"The search of the accused led to the recovery of two pistols (.30 bore) and 40 live rounds, which they revealed to have been provided by foreign based Khalistani handlers," the spokesperson said.

On questioning, the men disclosed that they had been in touch with the handlers through social media and were assigned the task of carrying out killings.

"They further told the police that they were in regular touch with Gurjant Singh, who had come to notice first for his radicalisation activities over Facebook," he said.

According to the police spokesperson, the members of the terror module that was busted by them on May 29 last year, had formed a sub group called 'Khalistan Zindabad', which was linked to the radical website 'International Sikh Federation', founded by Gurjant.

Gurjant was also subsequently found to be involved in financing the KLF/ISYF terrorist module that carried out eight incidents of targeted attacks/killings in Punjab between January 2016 and October 2017.

The link of these two arrested youth with other possible module members and Khalistani operatives is being investigated, said the spokesperson.

While Sandeep Singh, aged 26, is a resident of BangiNihal village in Bathinda while Amar Singh (48) is a resident of Haryana.

A criminal case under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Arms Act and other relevant provisions of the law has been registered against the accused.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Twenty four Bangladeshi youths were today arrested with suspected terror links from the Agartala railway station, a senior police official said.

All of them were carrying fake Aadhaar cards and a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is coming from Guwahati tomorrow to interrogate the youths, the official said.

Acting on a tip-off, Mobile Task Force (MTF) personnel raided the railway station and arrested the 24 Bangladeshis, who reached here from Delhi in the Tripura Sundari Express, MTF Superintendent of Police Abhijit Chowdhury told PTI.

The MTF, a section of the state police, deals with illegal immigration and related cases.

"All of them were carrying fake Aadhaar cards, showing they were issued from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. We checked the Aadhaar cards online and found they were fake. Some of them had identity cards issued from different madrassas of our country," Chowdhury said.

A team of NIA is coming from Guwahati tomorrow to interrogate them, Chowdhury said adding, that "we cannot rule out the possibility of their link with any terrorist outfit".

"The youths were not carrying any valid passports. Three had Bangladeshi passports but those have been expired long back," he said.

Following the arrests, the DGP asked various central and state intelligence agencies to interrogate them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Punjab government said it has identified 3.26 lakh farmers for debt relief during the month of May.

This is part of the government's efforts to complete the process of farm loan relief to 10.25 lakh marginal farmers before November this year.

Disclosing details of the progress of the debt relief scheme, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh directed officials of the concerned departments to hold Tehsil-level functions to expedite relief disbursement among the beneficiaries identified for the loan waiver from cooperative banks.

The chief minister said that ministers and party MLAs will hand over loan waiver certificates to the beneficiaries at the Tehsil level functions.

In the next phase, the farmers who had availed crop loan from public sector banks and other commercial banks would be covered under the scheme, Singh said.

The Finance Department had been holding meetings with state level bankers' committee to procure data of such banks to ascertain the eligibility of the farmers, he added.

Once the data is in place, the loan amount would be released to these banks, with the government committed to complete roll-out of the scheme by October 31, 2018, he added.

The chief minister pointed out that in a bid to further simplify the scheme, the government had issued another notification on February 16, 2018, to facilitate the release of debt relief in case of death of the farmers, NRI cases and to the farmers who do not have an Aadhaar card.

Now such cases shall be settled by a committee under the supervision of concerned SDM, he added.

The chief minister reiterated his government's commitment to fulfil its poll promise on debt waiver for farmers, irrespective of the financial constraints faced by the state. Adequate funds were being arranged to provide relief to the burdened farmers, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three persons, suspected to be involved in kidnapping the son of an ex-councillor from northwest Delhi in 2016, were arrested by the Delhi Police's Special Cell following a shootout, police said today.

The accused, carrying cash rewards on their heads, were identified as Manjeet Dabas alias Chandpuria (32), Arshu Shokeen (30) and Bhagat alias Bhanu (30), they added.

Dabas was carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh while a reward of Rs 50,000 each was announced for apprehension of Shokeen and Bhagat by the Delhi Police commissioner, police said.

On September 27, the victim, a resident of Budh Vihar, had left his home in his car. As he reached near a shop in Netaji Subhash Place, he was signalled to stop by a person wearing a traffic policeman's uniform and another person in khaki uniform.

As the victim stopped his car, a Scorpio came there and he was bundled into it. A case was registered at the Netaji Subhash Place police station and the accused had allegedly demanded Rs 50 crore from the victim's father, an ex-councillor from Buddh Vihar, police said.

The father of the victim negotiated with the accused and paid Rs 1 crore to the kidnappers with a promise to pay another instalment of Rs 1 crore after the safe release of his son, they said.

The victim was released in Gurgaon on October 3, 2016 by the kidnappers after receiving the ransom money. Later, the case was transferred to the Crime Branch, who arrested four associates of Dabas while he remained at large.

A team of Special Cell was tasked to trace the remaining accused. Sources were eployed and technical surveillance was mounted, police said.

On May 9, the Special officers received information that Shokeen would be coming to visit his maternal uncle at Jhajjar (Haryana) in a car, they said.

A trap was laid at Gurgaon Road, Jhajjar and Shokeen was nabbed. During interrogation, Shokeen revealed that he used to visit his family members at his hideout at Chhawala occasionally, police said.

A trap was laid at the service road and Dabas and Bhagat were seen coming on a motorcycle. When they were asked to stop, they sped away, they said.

The police personnel tried to stop the bike but the duo lost balance and fell down and started running, said Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, deputy commissioner of police (Special Cell).

They fired at the police when they were asked to stop and the policemen also fired in retaliation. Subsequently, the duo was nabbed.

Dabas did his graduation from Delhi. Thereafter, he completed B.Ed from Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh). He joined Civil Defence and worked as a volunteer for some time before taking to crime, he said.

Shokeen did his graduation from open university in 2012 and also worked with Reliance Life Insurance till 2014. The trio was employed by one Mahesh Thekedar in the plan to kidnap the ex-councillor's son.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)AINRC chief N Rangasamy today demanded the resignation of the Narayanasamy-led Congress government in Puducherry for its 'failure' to maintain law and order and deliver on its promises.

It is amusing to note that Chief Minister V Narayanasamy had sought Lt Governor Kiran Bedi's resignation on moral grounds, when the government headed by him had been 'failing' the people on several counts, he told reporters here.

"Will not the people demand the resignation of the Congress government for its failure to maintain law and order and tackle unemployment problem," the former chief minister asked.

Rangasamy said the Chief Minister was accusing the Lt Governor of putting obstacles in implementation of schemes, though the truth was that he (Narayanasamy) was not capable of addressing the concerns of the people at large.

"There is no point in blaming the Lt Governor for anything and everything. The failure of the ministry to deliver on its promises has caused a chaotic situation and the government should take responsibility and resign," he added.

A delegation of All-India N Rangasamy Congress would soon meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi and submit a memorandum on the law and order situation in Puducherry, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today lambasted the SAD leaders for allegedly ruining the state and accused them of pushing it to the last position among the states on economic front.

Addressing a rally in favour of Congress candidate for Shahkot by-poll, Hardev Singh Laddi, he also mocked SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal for demanding Laddi's arrest.

On May 4, Laddi and two others were booked by police for alleged illegal sand mining in different villages of Jalandhar district.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had on Monday alleged that the Mehatpur SHO, who registered the case against Laddi, was upset over his earlier transfer and is in touch with AAP's Sukhpal Singh Khaira and SAD's Daljit Cheema and the FIR against Laddi appeared to be a fallout of the same.

The chief minister dismissed Badal's demand for Laddi's arrest as frivolous and alleged that the former deputy chief minister was used to talking out of his hat.

"Do you represent Election Commission? Who are you to make this demand? They are making statement whatever comes into their mind. Baba (Parkash Singh Badal) has grown old so he cannot speak and but his junior (Sukhbir) is speaking rubbish," Amarinder said.

He said Akalis ruined the state during their regime. They had a history of damaging the interests of Punjab, right from the time of the state's reorganisation.

"We were at number one position in the country (on economic front) and they (Akalis) have pushed the state to 29th spot now," the chief minister said in the rally.

From health to education, agriculture to industry, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) "destroyed" every institution in Punjab and continued to work against the welfare of the state and its people even now when they are in the opposition, he said.

He also lashed out at the Akalis and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for spreading a canard over the issue of school History books and urged the people of Shahkot to vote for the betterment of their area and the state.

The Shiromani Akali Dal had alleged that a major portion of Sikh and Punjab history had been removed from the Class 12 curriculum. After which Amarinder had constituted a six-member oversight committee to examine the recommendations of the 2014 panel that reviewed the history syllabus and oversee all history books in the future.

Amarinder said that it was their own Education Minister Daljit Cheema who had set up the committee, in 2014, for review and finalisation of the History syllabus.

"Cheema was the minister in 2014 and he had formed a committee to bring change in History book and now they accuse us of deleting history of Sikh Gurus from Class 12 book," he said.

The Akalis, led by the Badals, had failed to do anything for Punjab or its people during their 10-year rule, while AAP's Sukhpal Singh Khaira was "misleading" people by spreading untruths instead of raising issues related to the welfare of the people, said the chief minister.

Speaking at the rally at Dana Mandi, the chief minister said he would not talk big like SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal or Khaira but could assure the people of Shahkot of implementing all their genuine demands.

Amarinder said every vote for Laddi would be a vote for the future of Punjab as the Congress was the only party that could bring the state's progress back on track and that believed in implementing every single poll promise.

He said he had known Laddi for a long time as a man with a "clean heart and commitment of purpose".

He reiterated his government's commitment to the implementation of its farm loan waiver scheme, irrespective of the financial burden it had inherited from the SAD-BJP government.

Speaking on the occasion, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Sunil Jakhar said the bypoll was an opportunity for the people of Shahkot to make amends for their earlier mistake of voting for the Akalis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The AMU Alumni Forum in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has submitted a memorandum to the Consulate General of India in the country demanding prompt action against right wing activists who entered into the varsity's campus on May 2 and allegedly indulged in an "unprovoked attack" on students.

The memorandum, addressed to the President of India, claimed the "armed hooligans" were planning to attack former vice president Hamid Ansari, who was visiting the AMU campus.

President of the forum, Syed Qutubur Rahman, said similar memorandums were being sent to the President from different AMU alumni associations all over the middle-east.

Similar memorandums condemning the police lathi charge have been sent from alumni associations in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Australia, USA, South Korea and New Zealand, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's relative Vinay Bansal, arrested in connection with an alleged scam in the Public Works Department (PWD), was today remanded in one-day judicial custody by a Delhi court which refused the Anti-Corruption Branch's plea seeking three-day police custody after he fainted before it.

Duty Metropolitan Magistrate Neeti Suri Mishra rejected the ACB's application for three-day police remand of Bansal, a nephew of Kejriwal, saying he was not medically fit.

The magistrate said that the accused fainted in the court during the arguments and



according to his medical report his blood pressure is on the higher side.

"Since the medical condition of the accused is not good, I do not consider it appropriate to send him to police custody today. The application of the investigating officer (IO) is accordingly dismissed," the magistrate said.

In a court room packed with lawyers and mediapersons, Bansal fainted during the hearing and a stretcher was brought to take him to the ambulance stationed outside the court premises. The proceedings were halted for a few minutes.

Bansal, who was produced before the court at 4.25 pm, was taken to the Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital nearby in the CAT ambulance.

The court directed the IO to inform the Tihar Jail superintendent to ask the staff concerned to be present at the hospital for taking his custody from the IO.

Seeking three-day remand, public prosecutor Balbir Singh argued that Bansal's custodial interrogation was necessary for digging out the true factual position in the case.

Opposing the remand, Bansal's counsel B S Joon said the FIR was lodged in 2017 and since then no evidence has been found against the accused.

He said the FIR has wrongly levelled allegations under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act which are meant for public servants and Bansal was not one.

The court, after hearing the arguments, sent him to one-day judicial custody, directing that he be produced before it tomorrow.

Bansal, who is the son of Kejriwal's late brother-in-law Surender Bansal, was arrested this morning by the ACB.

Three FIRs, including one against a company run by the chief minister's brother-in-law Surender Bansal, were registered by the ACB in this case on May 9 last year.

Three companies, including Renu Constructions (owned by Bansal, Kamal Singh and Pawan Kumar), were named in the FIRs.

In a complaint, Rahul Sharma, the founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), had alleged that Kejriwal and PWD minister Satyendra Jain misused their office for grant of contracts to Bansal. However, they were not named in the FIR.

The RACO, an organisation which claims to monitor construction projects in the national capital, had alleged that a firm linked to Bansal was involved in financial irregularities in building a drainage system in north-west Delhi.

It was also alleged that the bills sent to the Public Works Department (PWD) for unfinished works were "false and fabricated".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Advertising sector watchdog ASCI upheld complaints against 193 misleading advertisements in February, including those of Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Himalaya Drug Company, Ola, Vodafone, among others.

The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) evaluated 290 complaints in the month.

Amongst the 193 advertisements which it held misleading, 154 belonged to the healthcare category, 18 to the education category, eight to the food and beverages category, two to personal care and 11 were from other categories, ASCI said in a statement today.

From the total of 187 advertisements picked by ASCI's suo moto surveillance, complaints against 163 advertisements were upheld. Of the 103 advertisements complained against by the general public or by industry members, 30 advertisements were upheld by the CCC.

The watchdog upheld the complaint against Hindustan Unilever's Lifebuoy Soap's advertisement, stating that it was misleading by ambiguity and implication.

"In the advertisement the celebrity Kajol poses as a doctor, wherein she states 'doctor se suno...Isiliye Silver Lifebuoy' and the last frame of the TVC, shows four people in white coat, giving an impression that doctors have endorsed the product.

"In the absence of any market research data indicating that medical professionals in general recommend the advertised product, such visual presentation was considered to be misleading by ambiguity and implication," ASCI said.

It pulled up Himalaya Drug Company's baby care range advertisement for claiming it was the number one brand, it provides safest baby care products and most gentle baby care products, as "they were inadequately substantiated and were misleading by exaggeration and implication that other competitor products are less safe or less gentle".

The advertising sector regulator found that RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group's Too Yumm brand's advertisement contravened ASCI guidelines on advertising of food and beverages.

"The advertisement's claims, 'Eat Lot and Fikar Not' and 'Eat anytime, anywhere, as much' encourage excessive consumption and product if overindulged as suggested in the TVC, it can add to calories,fat calories and sodium," it said.

ASCI upheld complaints against cab aggregator Ola's advertisement claim of 'Ola Auto Rs 29 for four kilometres', as misleading by omission of a qualifier that the offer is subject to terms and conditions.

The regulator also pulled telecom service provider Vodafone's advertisement claim of unlimited calls Rs 198 per month as false and misleading in view of the capping of 250 minutes per day and 1,000 minutes per week.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Members of the country's fastest growing minority group are running for federal office, dozens of them as Democratic candidates deliberately playing up their Asian roots against a president they say demonizes the immigrants that make America great.

The candidates include former refugees from Vietnam and children of immigrants from South Korea and India. They live in places where Asian Pacific Americans make up a large chunk of the electorate and in places where they do not. Their chances of winning vary.

But the candidates' unabashed celebration of their foreign ties is notable for a group of people who have had to prove their "American-ness," no matter how long their families have been in the country.

"I think partly it is a reaction to the current administration which has in its policies and statements sent out a very xenophobic message," says Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., who is campaigning for a third term in the House.

"It's also a recognition that what makes America great is immigration and the American dream; it's what people all over the world come to seek," he said.

Christine Chen, executive director of the nonpartisan Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, or APIAVote, says 2018 could be a watershed year for civic participation.

Asians, who make up 6 percent of the population, have traditionally lagged in voting due to language and cultural barriers and minimal outreach from political parties, she says.

In the 2016 presidential election, for example, about 49 percent of eligible Asian voters cast ballots. That was less than the 65 percent for whites and 60 percent for blacks but slightly higher than the 48 percent figure for Latinos.

It's hard to say definitively how many Asian Pacific Americans are running for Congress, although The Associated Press identified at least 80 candidates of both parties. More than a dozen candidates are Republicans, and the rest are Democrats, including incumbents.

There are currently 18 Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders in Congress; three are in the Senate.

"What's fascinating with the congressional candidates is they're coming from everywhere," Chen said, ticking off races in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, New Jersey and Texas.

"What we're hoping is with all these people running, and if they win, that will continue to change how people perceive the community." Among the candidates are nearly three dozen Asian Pacific Americans seeking to overturn Republican seats in the U.S. House as part of a broader Democratic surge to take control of the chamber. Some of them have already been eliminated, but others have advanced.

Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Aftab Pureval, for example, won Ohio's Democratic primary on Tuesday. He faces incumbent Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, in November.

A National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman, Jesse Hunt, said that the GOP also has compelling and diverse candidates. Republican Young Kim, for example, is a Korean-American who is on the June 5 California primary ballot.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A charge sheet filed by the Anti- Squad (ATS) against two suspected operatives last month has claimed that an unidentified associate of one of the two arrested men talked about assassinating Prime Minister Narendra

"Yeah let's take out with a sniper rifle," is a line from a conversation cited in the charge sheet, attributed to an associate of Ubed Ahmed Mirza.

The charge sheet against Mirza and Mohammad Kasim Stimberwala -- both arrested last October -- was filed before the chief judicial magistrate at Ankleshwar in Bharuch district.

As per a WhatsApp chat between Mirza and his associate, identified only as 'Ferrari', on September 10, 2016, Mirza talked about buying pistols.

In response, according to the charge sheet, 'Ferrari' said, "Yeah, let's take (Prime Minister Narendra) out with a sniper rifle Insha-Allah".

When 'Ferrari' mentioned a Russian-made gun, Mirza promptly replied, "I want it".

In another WhatsApp chat with Ferrari on July 26, 2016, Mirza was told that handlers had asked its modules and lone-wolf attackers in to use machetes and big chopping knives to target people.

Instead of taking the risk of buying guns and assembling explosives, one can target people, "especially foreign citizens", using chopping knives, Ferrari told Mirza.

According to an ATS official, the process to identify the other people who figure in these chats, including 'Ferrari', is underway.

The ATS has alleged that Stimberwala and Mirza were "highly radicalised by the Jehadi ideology of Islamic State and were actively planning lone-wolf attacks on Jews".

While Stimberwala worked as a laboratory technician at a hospital in Ankleshwar, Mirza was a practising lawyer at the Surat district court.

Abdullah el-Faisal, a radical preacher based in Jamaica, and suspected handler Shafi Armar have been shown as absconding accused in the charge sheet.

ATS claimed Stimberwala and Mirza were in touch with el-Faisal and Armar to plan attacks on Jews in They conducted a recce of some of the targets and were planning to send radicalised youths outside to take part in terrorist acts, the charge sheet said.

Both have been charged under IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 121-A (sedition) and 125 (waging war against any Asiatic power in alliance with India), apart from the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

(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.)Odisha government today decided to start the first regional air connectivity operation between Jharsuguda and Bhubaneswar from June 14 under the Centre's UDAN scheme, official sources said.

The decision in this regard was taken at the State Level Monitoring Committee on RCS-UDAN held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary AP Padhi.

The Centre has launched the 'Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik' (UDAN) scheme which is aimed at boosting regional connectivity with low-cost flights.

Reviewing the preparedness for starting the UDAN operation, the chief secretary suggested the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to expand the facilities for training of security personnel.

Secretary of the General Administration, Public Grievances and Civil Aviation department, A K Meena said the operation certificate for Jharsuguda airport has also been sanctioned.

He said state Home department has deputed the security personnel for Jharsuguda.

Meanwhile, Rourkela air strip has also been made ready for the UDAN operation and an MoU has been signed between Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and AAI regarding air strip management and operation, the sources said.

Today's meeting also decided that state government would also provide security and fire personnel for the Rourkela airstrip.

Application has already been submitted for civil aviation license for Rourkela, Meena said adding that flight operation would start after getting the license.

The average price of a ticket for these flights would be around Rs 2,500, sources said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress national general secretary C P Joshi today accused the Narendra Modi-led BJP government of setting new record of corruption in the country.

"All capitalists involved in corruption and scams have links with the BJP and BJP government has set new record of corruption in the country, Joshi said addressing 'Mera Booth, Mera Gaurav' programme in Tonk district.

AICC general secretary and Rajasthan in-charge Avinash Pandey exuded confidence that booth-level workers will strengthen the party in the Assembly elections and emerge as winning party. He urged the party workers to expose the shortcomings of the BJP government.

AICC general secretary Mohan Prakash said that it was important to corner the "anti-people" BJP government and urged the party workers to expose its ill-policies.

Narendra Modi is a smooth talker and people of the country voted him to power, but he breached trust of the people who are now feeling cheated, Prakash said.

Rajasthan Congress Chief Sachin Pilot said that people now see the Congress with a hope and party has strengthened despite being in the opposition from last four years.

Booth level party workers have strengthened the party who have not let the Congress down. Party workers will uproot the BJP government with their hard work in the state, Pilot said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP's Jammu and Kashmir unit today opposed Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's call for a unilateral ceasefire during the month of Ramzan till completion of the Amarnath Yatra claiming such a step was not at all in "national interest".

The party's state unit said militants were demoralised due to Army action and a unilateral ceasefire would ease pressure and allow them to re-energise.

Referring to an all party meeting held yesterday, BJP state unit's chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi said an opinion came up during the discussion for a unilateral ceasefire on the lines of one declared by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

"We have a strong view...Unilateral ceasefire in the present situation is not in national interest at all," he added.

Flanked by another BJP spokesperson Arun Gupta, Sethi said the terrorist leadership in Kashmir Valley was under pressure because of the prolonged efforts of the Army.

"There are large scale casualties of militants taking place on daily basis. Currently militants are holed up. They are under pressure", he said.

The raising of the demand for unilateral ceasefire is aimed to give a way out to the demoralised militants, ease pressure, and to save them, he said.

Yesterday, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who heads the PDP-BJP government in the state, had said Centre should consider a unilateral ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir starting from Ramzan in mid May till the completion of the Amarnath yatra in August.

She made the remarks after a four-hour all-party meeting, which was convened to discuss the situation in the Kashmir Valley especially after a tourist from Chennai was killed in stone pelting on May 7.

Speaking here today, Sethi said the state BJP was not at all of this opinion. He also emphasised that a call for a unilateral ceasefire was not a unanimous decision at the meeting. The issue was raised by Independent MLA Engineer Rashid , Sethi claimed.

There was no debate on it and BJP did not agree to it, he told reporters here.

"Our point is clear that pressure created by Army on the terrorists should continue along with 'operation all out' and to a large extent listed militants have been eliminated and only few among them are active," Sethi said.

The way the 'operation all out' is continuing, soon all militants will be wiped out from Kashmir, he said.

It was a different time and situation when a unilateral ceasefire was undertaken by the then Vajpayee government on the borders and in the hinterland, he said.

The BJP spokesperson said militancy was in its last phase and it would be not a wise decision to go for a unilateral ceasefire.

Kashmir will return to peace and normalcy in the same way as the peace and normalcy prevailed in Punjab, he said.

On stone pelting in Kashmir, Sethi said there were "stone pelting units" operating from Shopian to Baramulla in Kashmir. They keep moving from place to place to engineer stone pelting on Army and para military forces, he said.

He said relaxation of any type at this stage will mean stepping back on the process of restoration of normalcy in Kashmir. "Today's stone pelter is a potential terrorist of tomorrow. We will not agree are buy any argument that the hands of army should be tied," he added.

Taking a dig at the withdrawal of FIRs against first-time stone pelters, the BJP leader said government did not achieve the desired results.

"First-time stone pelters continue to resort to stone pelting and have not stopped pelting stones post amnesty. It is a serious issue and we need to review the amnesty scheme", he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Seeking to propagate the "pro-farmer" policies of the Modi government, the Kisan Morcha of the BJP will start 'Kisan Samvad' (dialogue with farmers)under which it will train its volunteers who will fan out across the country to highlight the Centre's works, its chief Virendra Singh said today.

Speaking to reporters, Singh also said that some people have become supportive of genetically modified (GM) crops after being opposed to it earlier but their impact has to be assessed before the government decides on their future.

Singh said the Kisan Morcha will organise a training workshop for its volunteers from May 18-20 in Gurgaon. Singh is the BJP MP from Bhadohi in Uttar Pradesh.

Over 200 volunteers of the Kisan Morcha are expected to attend the event.

The move comes amid what opposition parties have described as "growing agrarian distress" in the country, including in some BJP-led states such as Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The 2019 general election is less than a year away.

The volunteers, who will be trained in the workshop, will further pass on the knowledge to other volunteers at the state, district and block levels.

"The aim is that every village should have at least five volunteers of the Kisan Morcha who can explain people the pro-farmers policies of the Modi-government. Until now, no government has allocated nearly 52 per cent of its budget for farmers and villages as the Modi dispensation has done," he said.

Singh said another purpose of the exercise is to hold a dialogue with the farmers and understand their problem.

"This will also give an opportunity to dispel the lies spread by the opposition against the Modi government," Singh said.

He noted that engaging in dialogues is a good way of communication of reaching out to people in comparison to rallies and road shows as "it has its limitations".

Singh said he recently engaged in such dialogues with farmers in Belgaum, Dharwad and Tumkur areas of poll-bound Karnataka.

He added that the Kisan Morcha has been conducting programmes at the district level.

When asked about the GM crop issue, the Kisan Morcha president said many people are not satisfied with it while an equal number of people are satisfied.

Singh, who has opposed GM crops, said some people who were against it have started believing in it. "It has be to investigated whether GM is good or not. Some people who did not believe in the GM (crops) are now believing in it," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain has apologised "unreservedly" for its role in the capture of a Libyan dissident who was later tortured by the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi's government.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright says Prime Minister Theresa May has written to Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar acknowledging that Britain's actions "contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering." Belhaj, a former fighter in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group that had opposed Gadhafi, and his wife were kidnapped in Thailand in 2004 and sent to Libya.

They say British intelligence provided information that helped the CIA abduct them and have spent years pursuing British officials through UK courts seeking compensation and an apology.

Boudchar was in the public gallery of the House of Commons on Thursday to hear Wright's apology.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)For Maharashtra Chief Secretary D K Jain, it was a routine official meeting, till a member of the visiting Bangladeshi delegation jogged his memory: They were classmates in a Rajasthan school in the early 1970s.

The chance meeting of the two school buddies, after over four decades, took place last evening at Mantralaya, the state secretariat building in south Mumbai, an official said.

The meeting was part of efforts to strengthen mutual ties between the two countries, the official said.

Soon after the meeting began, Altamas Kabir, editor of Dainik Sangbad, who was a part of the delegation, went up to Jain and told him that they were classmates from class 6th to 11th during 1971-76 at the Mayo Secondary School at Ajmer.

Sangbad is a Bengali language daily newspaper, founded in 1951 and published from Dhaka.

"Hello friend, I am Altamas Kabir. We are childhood friends. We were not only in the same school but in the same class," Kabir told Jain, a 1983-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, who last month took charge as the state's top bureaucrat.

Jain was visibly pleased to meet his schoolmate after so many years.

"The official nature of the meeting turned personal and Jain interacted with Kabir, recalling old days and acquaintances. Other members of the delegation and the state government officials present at the meeting found the incident just like a scene from a Bollywood film," the official said.

Members of the delegation spoke about the craze for Mumbai and Bollywood in Bangladesh, the official said. There was also a discussion on commercial relations and industrial investment between the two countries, he added.

Kabir also invited Jain to visit Bangladesh, the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israel carried out widespread deadly raids against what it said were Iranian targets in Syria after rocket fire towards its forces it blamed on Iran, drawing global calls for restraint.

The reported exchange of fire came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trump's decision Tuesday to withdraw from the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a move Israel had long sought.

The bombardment led to calls for calm from Russia, France, Germany and Britain and the European Union, while the United States put the blame squarely on Iran and stressed Israel's right to "self-defence".

Germany and Britain joined the United States in denouncing the rocket fire towards the Israel-occupied Golan Heights they also said was carried out by Iran, while France reiterated its "unwavering support for Israel's security".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had "crossed a red line" and that the resulting bombardment against targets in Syria "was a consequence" on Thursday.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani told German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a telephone call that he did not want "new tensions" in the Middle East.

Rouhani did not mention of Israel's strikes in Syria, or those against the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

But the chairman of his country's parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, Allaeddine Boroujerdi, condemned the strikes, warning that "Israel has entered a dangerous game".

The Israeli raids in Syria, which a monitor said killed 23 fighters, were one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and the biggest such assault on Iranian targets, the Israeli military said.

"We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," said Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

"I hope we've finished this episode and everyone understood." Israel carried out the raids after it said 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the Golan Heights at around midnight.

It blamed Iran's Quds force, adding that Israel's anti-missile system intercepted four while the rest did not land in its territory.

There were no Israeli casualties.

If confirmed, it would be the first time Iran has sought to directly attack Israeli-controlled territory aside from an alleged attempted drone assault in February.

"We know that comes from the Al-Quds force," army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, referring to the special forces unit affiliated with Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported that dozens of rockets were fired from Syria towards the Israeli-occupied Golan, without saying who fired them.

It said the rockets followed a "first Israeli bombardment on the town of Baath" in Quneitra province.

A senior pro-regime military source in Syria confirmed the salvo of rockets, insisting Israel had fired first.

Later, in the early hours of the morning, explosions were heard in Damascus, while live images were broadcast on television showing projectiles above the capital and several missiles destroyed by anti-aircraft systems.

Syrian state media said Israeli missile strikes had hit military bases as well as an arms depot and a military radar installation, without specifying where.

The official SANA agency said "dozens of missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft systems in Syrian airspace", acknowledging a number had reached their targets.

Israel's military later confirmed it had carried out the raids, saying some 70 military and intelligence targets had been struck and all of its aircraft had returned safely.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chinese airlines are looking to increase their services to India, the fastest growing aviation market in the world, a senior government official said today.

Carriers from both sides are keen to operate more flights into each other's territory amid the thaw in the Indo-China ties, particularly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in an informal summit last month, according to a source.

At present, five Chinese carriers together operate 42 weekly services to three Indian cities -- Delhi, Mumbai nd Kolkata -- from five cities in China.

When asked whether Chinese carriers have expressed interest to expanding their operations in India, Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey replied in the affirmative and said the ministry would take a call on it.

"But (before taking a call), we will keep in mind that the interest of our airlines should be protected," he told PTI.

According to the source, budget carriers -- IndiGo and SpiceJet -- whose international operations is currently confined to the Gulf and South-East Asia, have plans to spread wings to China.

While Choubey confirmed that some of the domestic carriers have plans to expand their international route network to China, he declined to share their names.

Air China, China Southern, China Eastern, China Airlines and Shangdong Airlines currently flies to India with the China Southern operating the maximum 14 flight per week of the total 42 seats a-week allocated to them.

Apart from state-owned Air India, Naresh Goyal-promoted Jet Airways is the other carrier flying to China from India through its code share partner China Eastern Airlines.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The CIA continues to be very concerned about the potential connection between extremist groups and Pakistani nuclear scientists and is very closely monitoring this, a top official from the spy agency has told lawmakers.

"There was very deep concern about potential contacts, and we continue to monitor this very closely, between extremists and Pakistani nuclear scientists," Gina Haspel, US President Donald Trump's nominee for CIA director told the members of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee during her confirmation hearing yesterday.

Haspel, if confirmed by the Senate, would be the first female head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). She was responding to a question from Senator John Cornyn.

"(Recently reading through a book) I was reminded that post-9/11, President Bush was concerned about reports he had received that Osama bin Laden and al Qaida were meeting with the Pakistani officials connected with their nuclear programme to gain access to a nuclear device that they might then use for a follow-on attack against the cities like Washington DC," Cornyn said.

"Without divulging classified information, can you confirm that there were concerns about follow-on attacks using nuclear devices, biological weapons, other weapons of mass destruction that might have killed more innocent Americans as happened on 9/11? Was that the environment in which you and the country were operating in at the time?" Cornyn asked.

There were very grave concerns on that front, Haspel answered.

"And indeed, al Qaida had those kinds of programmes, efforts to acquire crude, dirty bombs, efforts to develop -- they had a programme -- a biological weapons programme. I remember the operative who was in charge of that," Haspel said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Already under investigation for a payment to a porn star, President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney is facing intensifying legal and ethical scrutiny for selling his Trump World experience and views at a hefty price to companies that sought "insight" into the new president.

One company, pharmaceutical giant Novartis, acknowledged yesterday it paid Michael Cohen USD 1.2 million for services, though they ended after a single meeting.

Others, including some with major regulatory matters before the new administration, acknowledged payments totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars over at least several months.

The corporate ties could suggest Cohen was peddling his influence and profiting from his relationship with the president. They also raise questions about whether Trump knew about the arrangement.

Cohen's corporate ties were first revealed in a detailed report released by an attorney for pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels. The report alleged that Cohen used a company he established weeks before the 2016 election to receive the payments from a variety of businesses including USD 500,000 from one associated with a Russian billionaire.

Financial documents reviewed by the Associated Press appear to back up much of attorney Michael Avenatti's report.

Cohen's lawyers said late yesterday that much of the information released by Avenatti was "completely inaccurate."



They told a New York judge that Avenatti made statements "in an apparent attempt to prejudice and discredit Mr. Cohen" as he seeks to intervene in a civil case Cohen brought stemming from April 9 raids on his home and office. The raids were carried out by federal agents looking for evidence in a criminal probe.

The lawyers wrote that some of the information Avenatti published Tuesday did appear to come from Cohen's actual bank records.

Aventti responded on Twitter, saying the attorneys "fail to address, let alone contradict, 99 per cent of the statements in what we released. Among other things, they effectively concede the receipt of the USD 500,000 from those with Russian ties."



Three companies confirmed the payments, including Novartis and AT&T, both saying Cohen's Essential Consultants was hired to help them understand the new president during the early days of the Trump administration.

Novartis said in a statement that it paid Cohen USD 100,000 a month for a year-long contract, thinking the longtime New York legal "fixer" with few Washington ties could advise on health care matters. After a single meeting they decided "not to engage further."



Some of the companies that engaged Cohen also had contact with Trump personally. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson met with him during the transition and has visited the White House as the company has sought approval to absorb Time Warner.

The current CEO of Novartis attended a dinner with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this year, though the company stressed that the agreement with Cohen's company predated his time as CEO and he was not involved with the deal.

Just what Cohen was selling was a key question yesterday, particularly given that public records show he is not a registered lobbyist. Cohen could enter these relationships without violating federal lobbying laws if he did not seek to influence Trump on the companies' behalf. But hiring Trump's personal attorney for advice on how to understand the president would be highly unusual.

Public Citizen President Robert Weissman said Cohen's consulting work sounds more like pay-to-play lobbying.

"It stretches the imagination that the work was just for advice. There is no reason that he would have any blinding insights," Weissman said. "Sending money to a shell company, instead of his business, that sets off some alarm bell.

Nothing of this seems right." Some of the dealings have caught the attention of the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. A spokesman for Novartis said the company was contacted in November by Robert Mueller's office regarding its agreement with Essential Consultants, which expired this year.

AT&T also said it was contacted last year by Mueller's office "regarding Michael Cohen." The company said it "cooperated fully, providing all information requested in November and December of 2017." AT&T added that its consulting contract with Cohen expired at the end of the year and it has received no questions since.

Cohen also used the company to pay a USD130,000 payment to Daniels just before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with the president. Cohen is under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York, but has not been charged.

Getting into a taxi in New York City yesterday, Cohen said of Avenatti, "His document is inaccurate," according to NBC

Cohen has told associates that Avenatti's claims are overheated, and he has maintained that he has not done anything wrong, according to a person familiar with the attorney's views but not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

Cohen, who until January 2017 worked for the Trump Organization, was a fixture in the company's headquarters in Trump Tower in the weeks before the president took office. Ex-campaign officials did not recall Cohen or Trump ever discussing Cohen's plans to launch consulting firm, according to three ex-campaign officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Some who used to work for Trump defended Cohen's actions, assuming he did not break any regulations about lobbying.

"Corporations want to pay for insight, advocacy and expertise on a White House," said former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg.

"Michael offered that. He didn't do anything wrong, he did what lots of people have done over the years."



The Treasury Department's Office of the Inspector General said yesterday it was investigating how allegations about Cohen's banking records became public, a response to the memo released by Avenatti.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP president Amit Shah today accused the Congress of making desperate attempts to win elections in an "undemocratic" way, but said such machinations would not work and his party would win 130 plus seats.

Shah referred to the alleged "bogus" voter ID card scandal, saying, "it tells us how desperately the Congress wants to win the election."



"The way bogus voter cards were made in a flat... the way counterfoils of forms for inclusion of voters were found, the way colour printers and computers were found there, it tells us how desperately the Congress wants to win the election," the BJP president said.

Shah said for the past six months, Congress had been making desperate attempt to win elections in an "undemocratic" way.

"People are behind BJP in a big way and such atempts will be rendered useless. Without any doubt, defeat of Congress is written large on the wall," he said.

Ruling out a hung assembly, Shah said there was no question of seeking support from any party to form government.

"There is no question of hung assembly....We are far ahead of the halfway mark.

As per the feedback I have gathered from my leaders and party workers, we are winning more than 130 seats and there is question of seeking support from anyone to form government," he told reporters here.

"I have traversed 50,000 km across Karnataka ... We have experienced people's ire against Siddaramaiah's government," he said.

Shah, who extensively campaigned in the state, was addressing a press meet here after leading a massive road show in Badami constituency from where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is contesting besides Chamundeshwari seat in Mysuru.

Replying to a query whether party scheduled tribes leader Sreeramulu would be made Deputy Chief Minister (in the event of party's victory), Shah said after the election results, it would discuss the issue with an "open mind."



Shah said unlike the last term, B S Yeddyurappa would remain chief minister for the entire term because the Narendra Modi government at the centre "will be rock solid behind him" to expedite the development works in the state.

"Yeddyurappa will remain Chief Minister for the entire five-year term unlike the previous one where the then government at the centre wanted to remove his government, but the present Modi government will be rock solid behind him."



"Therefore, the question does not arise to disrupt his government. Yeddyurappa will remain chief minister till the end of the term," he said.

Replying to a query, Shah said there is a big ideological difference between Congress and BJP, and his party would never sit with SDPI and PFI, but on the other hand, Congress would join hands with them to form government.

"The Congress is not bothered to take support of traitors," he said.

Social Democratic Party of India is a political wing of Islamic outfit, Popular Front of India.

On Congress President Rahul Gandhi's allegations that the Prime Minister had launched personal attacks, Shah said, "On an average, if you see, such attacks have been for 2 to 3 minutes, but it appeared to be too much because the media played it or the entire day to gain TRP."



"The state election result is very vital for BJP to make inroads into the southern states," he said.

On controversial Reddy brothers, Shah said "no BJP candidate is having case pertaining to illegal mining. Nor do we have any relations with Janardhana Reddy," he added.

Asked why tickets are not given to a Muslim to contest polls, Shah said the party does not do it on the basis of caste and religion, and the media should not do analysis on these parameters as it is bad for the country.

Shah said BJP workers have visited as many as 56,000 polling booths in the state and held 400 roadshows and rallies. More than 35 top leaders of the BJP campaigned, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The CPI(M) today demanded that the Puducherry government constitute a Special Investigation team and conduct an 'impartial' probe into the 'killing' of its party cadre at Palloor in nearby Mahe recently.

"An SIT should be constituted to bring all the accused to book," CPI(M) state secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, told reporters after visiting the house of the slain party worker at Mahe, an enclave of Union Territory of Puducherry.

The deceased, Babu, who was a local CPI(M) leader and former councillor, had been facing threat for some time and police did not take heed to the threats. Puducherry police should take responsibility for the murder, he said.

He also wanted Puducherry Chief Minister, V Narayanasamy, to take necessary steps to form SIT and ensure a fair probe.

Alleging that the killing was a 'well planned' conspiracy by the RSS, Kodiyeri said it was an attempt to stop the growth of the marxist party in Mahe.

Shortly after Babu was killed, in an apparent retaliatory attack, a BJP worker was fatally attacked on May 6 night.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The UN Security Council has urged Myanmar to create "conducive" conditions to ensure safe and dignified return of Rohingya Muslim refugees and hold accountable perpetrators of violence, including sexual abuse against children.

Since August last year, nearly 700,000 minority Muslim Rohingyas have fled violence in Myanmar across the border into Bangaldesh's Cox's Bazar, joining several hundred thousand more that were already settled there in overcrowded camps.

A team of the United Nations' powerful body visited Bangladesh and Myanmar from April 28 to May 1, and took a first-hand look at the humanitarian crisis.

"The members of the Security Council urged the government of Myanmar to step up its efforts to create conditions conducive to the safe, voluntary and dignified return of Rohingya refugees and internally displaced persons to their homes in the Rakhine State and to address the root causes of the crisis through implementation of the Rakhine Advisory Commission recommendations, including those related to human rights, citizenship, poverty alleviation and development," the Council said in a statement.

In light of the importance of undertaking transparent investigations into allegations of human rights abuses and violations, they also urged Myanmar to fulfil its stated commitment to holding accountable perpetrators of violence, including sexual violence and abuse and violence against children.

The Council members said they were struck by the scale of the humanitarian crisis and remain "gravely concerned" by the current situation.

In Bangladesh, the members of the Security Council visited the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, where they met Rohingya refugees.

They also met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Minister of State Mohammed Shahriar Alam, acting Foreign Secretary M Khurshed Alam, Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammed Abul Kalam, other senior government officials and representatives of the UN country team in Bangladesh.

The members of the Security Council appreciated the Bangladesh Government's efforts to provide refugees protection and assistance and expressed their determination to continue supporting Bangladesh in providing refugees with sustainable support.

In Myanmar, the members of the Security Council met State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing among other high-ranking government officials.

They also visited the Rakhine state and observed the situation, including widespread destruction of villages, as well as reception centres and transit camps under preparation by the government of Myanmar.

The members welcomed the signing of an MoU and the Arrangement on the Return of Displaced Persons from the Rakhine state between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

They urged Myanmar to work with Bangladesh and the UN to allow the voluntary return of all refugees in conditions of safety and dignity to their homes in Myanmar, including through intensified bilateral consultations and implementation of the MoU and the Arrangement.

The members also called on the government of Myanmar to grant the UN agencies and their partners immediate, safe and unhindered access to the Rakhine state, as well as to other domestic and international non-governmental organisations providing humanitarian assistance, and as an initial confidence-building measure.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Private steel maker Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) today said ratings agency Crisil has upgraded its credit ratings to stable outlook.

"The credit rating upgrade by CRISIL comes soon after similar upgrades by CARE and ICRA," JSPL said in a statement.

The credit ratings of Jindal Steel and Power Limited have been upgraded by leading rating agency Crisil to stable outlook, it said.

"The credit rating by three leading rating agencies CRISIL, ICRA and CARE is a clear reflection of the promise for growth by JSPL. The company is well poised to continue the superlative performance and growth curve during this fiscal," Naushad Ansari, CEO, Steel Business, JSPL said.

During January-March 2018, JSPL's consolidated loss widened to Rs 424.69 crore from Rs 100.01 crore in the year-ago-quarter.

However, on standalone basis, JSPL has reported Rs 145 crore profit after tax during the last quarter of 2017-18 fiscal, Ansari said.

This has happened after quite number of quarters, he said adding "there are other areas also where the company has done well".

JSPL reported its highest ever steel production and sales in Q4 2018 and for the FY 2017-18 with the 5 Million Tonne Per Annum (MTPA) integrated steel plant at Angul getting fully commissioned.

The company's debt, Ansari said, has come down to Rs 42,000 crore from Rs 46,000 crore. The company looks to keep reducing its debt.

The consolidated steel production was at about 1.7 million tonnes in January-March 2018, a 32 per cent rise over the same quarter.

In Oman, Jindal Shadeed recorded its highest production of 0.46 million tonnes of crude steel during the said quarter as against 0.39 million tonnes in last quarter of 2017.

The company's mines at Mozambique produced 0.33 million tonne Run-of-mine (ROM) in last quarter of FY18. The Wongawilli mines in Australia continued their ramp up and produced 0.1 million tonne.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has congratulated Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling on becoming the longest serving chief minister of a state in India.

"I would like to offer congratulations on your becoming the longest serving Chief Minister in India.... I admire your more than two decades service to the people of Sikkim," he said in a letter to Chamling yesterday.

The 67-year-old president of Sikkim Democratic Front became the longest serving chief minister on April 29 when he completed 23 years 4 months and 17 days at the helm of Sikkim, surpassing former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu's record.

Chamling had taken oath as chief minister for the first time on December 12, 1994 and has been continuing in the post in a row through five Assembly polls.

In his letter, the Dalai Lama also complimented Chamling for his efforts to maintain social harmony among the different communities of Sikkim.

"I am confident that you will continue to work for the people of your state, particularly by improving the lives of the less privileged section," he said.

The Dalai Lama said he has been visiting Sikkim since 1956 and have personally witnessed its development over the years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi Bar Association (DBA) today strongly opposed the Supreme Court order restraining them from going on strike or boycotting a judge, saying



no authority has the right to check their right to protest.

Reacting sharply to yesterday's apex court order after a woman lawyer raised the issue of safety and security of women advocates practising in trial courts, the DBA said in a press release that they will not succumb to pressure from any corner on the issue of strike or boycott.

"The bar associations are formed to protect the independence and fearless voice of advocates. The Supreme Court or any other authority has no right to restrain any bar association from going on strike or boycotting the court of a judge ....

"The bar will not succumb to any pressure from any corner whatsoever on the issue of strike or boycott. The lawyers are pillars of democracy and have to work fearlessly and therefore cannot be made puppets of anyone," the DBA release said.

DBA Secretary Jaiveer Chauhan, however, said that no strike or boycott will be carried out in the city courts tomorrow and they will attend the hearing in the case of the woman lawyer scheduled in the matter in the apex court.

As judicial work was hit yesterday in the six district courts here -- Patiala House, Tis Hazari, Saket, Rohini, Karkardooma and Dwarka-- due to the lawyers' strike, the apex court had restrained the Delhi's Tis Hazari Court Bar Association from going on strike or boycotting any judge of the court.

The striking lawyers were protesting against alleged false implication of its office bearers in an assault case lodged by a woman lawyer.

The apex court had yesterday directed the Police Commissioner to provide adequate security, preferably by a woman police officer, to the victim lawyer who appeared in person, along with senior advocate Indira Jaising, that she was scared to record her statements in the court.

The woman lawyer had told the court that an incident had taken place on May 4 in which she was manhandled and humiliated by members of bar. She brought the incident to the notice of Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Kumar, who directed registration of an FIR.

She had said that after the court directed the lodging of an FIR, the Bar Association allegedly boycotted the judge and went on strike.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi government's proposal for procurement of 1,000 standard floor CNG buses to be run under the Cluster scheme is likely to get the Cabinet's nod tomorrow, officials said today.

The deadline for Cabinet approval to the proposal for procurement of 1,000 each of electric and CNG buses was set April 30, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia had said in a speech while presenting budget for 2018-19 in the Assembly.

The proposal was however not on the agenda of the Cabinet that cleared various other government proposals yesterday.

"The proposal for 1,000 CNG buses for Cluster scheme is likely to get Cabinet nod in its meeting expected tomorrow," said a government official seeking anonymity.

The proposal for 1,000 e-buses will come up before Cabinet later on as it is being currently firmed up by concerned departments, he said.

The BJP charged that government's timeline for procurement of new buses has gone "haywire", although it was specified by Sisodia in his budget speech.

"It is a matter of deep concern that the public transport policy of the government is in doldrums now," alleged Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly and BJP MLA Vijender Gupta.

Under the cluster scheme, 1,648 buses are being run by the Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System (DIMTS). Another 3,900 low floor buses are run by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).

As per independent sources, the city requires 10,000 to 15000 buses for meeting transport needs of commuters in the city.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A section of Delhi University teachers today appealed to Dalit and minority voters in Karnataka to defeat the BJP in the May 12 assembly election, alleging the government led by the party at the Centre took steps to end reservations in appointments of faculties, privatise and make the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act toothless.

In a press conference, Delhi University Forum for Social Justice Convener Suraj Mandal said, "There is an atmosphere of hatred in the country and the Modi government has stopped all the means of employment, pushing the youth towards the path of religious frenzy and caste prejudice. In the garb of a court order, the Modi government on the one hand has turned the SC/ST Act toothless and disabled its spirit and on the other reservation in appointments of the faculty positions has been done away with in all the universities of the country."



Delhi University teachers have been fighting against a circular of the University Grants Commission (UGC), dated March 5, 2018, on the reservation in faculty positions.

According to a statement issued by the Delhi University Teachers Association(DUTA), the move would end reservation in appointments in university/colleges as the number of vacancies department/subject wise are limited.

Mandal, who is a grandson of former Chairman of Backward Classes Commission Late B P Mandal and an associate professor with Swami Shraddhanand College, said, "We appeal to Dalit, backward, tribal, minority...and many other and their organisations for defeating the anti-social justice BJP in the election in Karnataka.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delight, disbelief and a degree of apprehension about a former strongman taking the reins of power again -- Malaysians were stunned today after the scandal-ridden coalition was finally unseated by a challenge from Mahathir Mohamad, 92.

Mahathir's opposition alliance stormed to a historic win at the elections, toppling the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition that had ruled Malaysia for more than six decades.

It was a stunning -- and totally unexpected -- win for the nonagenarian, who had ruled Malaysia with an iron fist and came out of retirement due to an explosive corruption scandal that ensnared Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Most Malaysians, who turned out in droves to vote out Najib, were delighted but huge crowds did not hit the streets to celebrate -- many were simply exhausted after a bitter election campaign and the gargantuan effort of pushing out a deeply entrenched government.

There was a sense of catharsis after the opposition alliance, boosted by the presence of political titan Mahathir, finally ousted a coalition that has for years been accused of massive corruption, fanning racial tensions in the multi-ethnic country and economic mismanagement.

"Honestly, I feel like we have just gained independence," Nor Hisham Rahmat, 45, told AFP, expressing a common sentiment among voters. Nor Hisham is from Johor in southern Malaysia, one of several states where the local legislature fell to the opposition for the first time since Malaysia became independent in 1957.

He said people's livelihoods had been affected under Najib's rule due to the rising cost of living, a major issue in the election campaign.

"People are suffering. That is why BN was toppled," he said.

Toh Gian Ming, a 53-year-old businessmen, said he hoped the corruption that plagued public life under Najib would end with a change in government.

"I expect all the abuses under Najib will end. I long for a clean and just government," he said.

Ganesan Karuppannan, a 54-year-old lawyer, said the country had descended into a "dictatorial situation" in recent years.

"People's feelings were not respected, the rule of law was disappearing by the day and every institution in this country has been messed with," he said.

Mahathir undoubtedly helped to carry the opposition to victory by appealing to voters sick of Najib's corruption-plagued rule, but his comeback has also been controversial.

Many remember him fondly as a key figure in the transformation of Malaysia from sleepy Southeast Asian backwater into a relatively affluent, economic success story.

But he was also known as an authoritarian leader, who threw political opponents in jail and hollowed out the country's democratic institutions.

"Mahathir ruled the country with an iron fist -- a tiger never changes his stripes -- and Mahathir's style of rule will continue to be authoritarian," said 33-year-old businessman P. Punithan.

"Democracy and human rights were never part of his DNA.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Officials of the telecom department and aviation ministry will meet next week to chart out the framework and guidelines for operationalising 'in-flight' data and voice connectivity, a top DoT official said today.

Telecom Commission - the highest policy making body of Department of Telecom (DoT) - on May 1 cleared a proposal for allowing wider in-flight connectivity that is now available in most of the developed markets.

The decision will pave the way for travellers to use internet and voice services on mobile phone during flights in the Indian airspace.

"We plan to hold a meeting coming Monday (May 14) or Tuesday (May 15) with officials of Civil Aviation Ministry on this," Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan told reporters on the sidelines of CII Broadband Summit here.

Telecom operators may or may not be part of the upcoming meeting which will look at evolving a framework for in-flight connectivity, she added.

Earlier, Sundararajan had expressed hope that the facility will be rolled out in 3-4 months, once the modalities of the niche licences and back-end agreements are worked out.

Major airlines, including Air India and Vistara, have welcomed the government's decision, and Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu has said he will ensure "earliest implementation" of the proposal.

While mobile phone use will still be restricted during takeoff and landing, Telecom Commission has approved the lifting of a ban on the use mobile phone and internet services at cruising altitudes.

Globally, many airlines are already offering wi-fi for passengers, but they currently have to switch off the facility when they enter the Indian airspace.

AirAsia, Air France, British Airways, Egypt Air, Emirates, Air New Zealand, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways and Virgin Atlantic are among 30 airlines that are already allowing mobile phone use on aircraft.

A separate category of licencees - in-flight service providers - will be created for offering such services, and licence fee for such niche providers will be pegged at Re 1.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Accusations that Bashar al-Assad's forces used chemical weapons against the Syrian town of Douma last month are a "farce", the Syrian president said today.

"If you look at the videos, it's completely fake," Assad told Greece's Kathimerini daily.

"When you have chemical weapons, how could the doctors and nurses be safe, dealing with the chemical atmosphere without any protective clothes, without anything, just throwing water at the victims? And the victims became okay just because you washed them with water... It's a farce," he said.

"They talk about 45 victims - when you use WMD (weapons of mass destruction) in such an area, you should have hundreds or maybe thousands of victims," Assad said.

Images of adults and children appearing to be suffering from the effects of a toxic weapon attack sparked international outrage.

The gruesome footage from the apparent April 7 attack horrified the world and prompted unprecedented Western strikes on Syrian military installations.

Syria and close ally Russia have accused Syrian volunteer rescue workers of staging the video footage at the behest of the United States and its allies.

Assad insisted that his army gave up its chemical arsenal in 2013.

He also argued that it would make no sense for his army to use such weapons when they were in full control of the area.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)State electoral authorities today directed TV channels not to air a "sting" video showing a state BJP leader allegedly trying to bribe a kin of a former Chief Justice of India to get a favourable verdict for mining baron G Janardhana Reddy in an illegal mining case.

The direction comes hours after State Home minister Ramalinga Reddy called what the Congress described as an 'explosive press conference' and released the video clippings which were in circulation on social media.

Congress claimed the "sting" operation revealed that alleged attempts were made to bribe to seek a favourable verdict for Reddy.

The party alleged that just one day before the then CJI retired, he passed an order in a case related to Reddy brothers' Oblapuram Mining Company.

"Now several videos have been released which show how bribe deals were done btw CJI's son-in-law & Sriramulu/Reddy Brothers: @dineshgrao," said Karnataka Congress quoting its working President Dinesh Gundu Rao in a tweet.

It said the videos that have surfaced today show how Sriramulu, middlemen and son in-law of the former CJI discussed bribe deals, hoping to get a favourable judgement from the Supreme Court in the Obalipuram case.

Sriramulu, a confidant of tainted mining baron and owner of Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) Janardhana Reddy, is contesting from two constituencies Molakalmuru and Badami in the May 12 assembly polls.

In Badami, he is pitted against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Rao has also sought response from BJP and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.

The Congress has been criticising BJP and the Prime Minister for their decision to give tickets to eight persons from the Reddy "camp" including his brothers G Somashekara Reddy and G Karunakara Reddy.

"Do not believe in such fake stings which make rounds now and then," BJP president Amit Shah said at a press conference, when asked about the "sting videos" circulating in the social media.

As the channels started airing the video footages shared by the Congress, electoral authorities took note of it and issued notices, chief electoral officer (CEO) office sources said.

A channel executive told PTI that the election commission said in the notices to all the news channels and publication houses that they cannot air any such content within 24 hours of election.

An officer in the CEO's officer said a report has been sent to the election commission about the video and directions have been issued to the news channels not to air the video clip.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least five labourers were killed in an explosion at an illegal stone quarry in Jharkhand's Dumka district, police said today.

The blast took place at the quarry in Kulkulidangal village under the Shikaripara police station last night, Superintendent of Police Kaushal Kishore said.

All the five bodies have been recovered, he said, adding that three of the victims hailed from West Bengal.

Two bodies were recovered from the quarry today.

Earlier, three persons injured in the explosion were taken to a hospital in Rampurhat in neighbouring West Bengal where they died, the police said.

A police team from Shikaripara police station rushed to the spot after West Bengal Police informed them that bodies of three persons killed in the explosion at the quarry were lying in the Rampurhat hospital, Officer-in-charge of the police station, Manoj Kumar Thakur said.

The deceased were identified as Naresh Ghosh (35), Bimal Bhandari (47), Rakesh Rai (18), Shakir-ul-sheikh (20) and Laden Sheikh (46).

The first three hailed from West Bengal's Birbhum district while the other two were from Pakur district of Jharkhand.

Rai and Laden Sheikh were blown up to pieces in the explosion, police said.

How the blast happened is yet to be ascertained, Thakur said, adding that investigation is underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Five civilians have been shot dead in an alleged raid involving US forces in southern Somalia, elders said today.

Ali Mohamed Moalin, a traditional elder close to Afgoye in Lower Shabelle where the alleged raid took place on Wednesday night, said "two military helicopters" were involved as well as "some foreign special forces".

District police officer Ibrahim Abdi confirmed the military operation saying it was targeting Islamic militants of the al-Qaeda aligned Shabaab group.

"There was a raid by Somali special forces near Afgoye last night, they were targeting Al-Shabaab, but we have been informed about civilian casualties. The security forces are investigating the reports," he said.

Somali commandos often launch operations side-by-side with the American forces that train them. Air assaults and missile strikes have increased in recent months, and with them allegations of civilian casualties.

"There are five dead bodies of innocent farmers who have been killed by the special forces last night," said Moalin.

"Several other people were wounded, and three others taken alive in the helicopters," he said, a claim that could not be immediately verified.

"The Somali government must ask questions about this brutal raid on innocent farmers who were sleeping when they were killed," said Shamey Yusuf, another elder.

The US Africa Command said it was looking into the allegation of civilian deaths.

The five bodies were taken to a hospital in the capital Mogadishu on Thursday afternoon.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Kerala government today decided to strengthen tourism police force and recruit more women personnel as part of a series of measures in view of the recent rape and murder of a foreign holidayer near beach resort Kovalam here.

The decision aimed at ensuring safety and security of tourists was taken at a high level meeting state Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran held with senior tourism and police officials.

Other decisions included providing uniforms of a different colour for tourism police, imparting training in interacting with the holidayers and launch of a mobile app that would help in contacting police personnel, Surendran said.

The meeting was held in the backdrop of the tragic death of 33-year-old Latvian woman, who came here for holidaying and treatment at Kovalam, he said.

The woman had gone missing under mysterious circumstances on March 14 and her highly decomposed and headless body was recovered from a mangrove forest at nearby Thiruvallam on April 21. Later, police arrested two local youths on the charge of raping and murdering her.

Noting that all tourist destinations would soon have new 'Destination Committees', the Minister said representatives from the home and tourism departments, local governing bodies and industry stakeholders would be included in these panels.

The committees would meet on a regular basis and chart out plans to be implemented in the tourism sector in their areas.

Surendran said tourism wardens, both men and women, would be appointed to aid the police and given special training.

Further, all vendors and guides at tourist destinations would be given identity cards and uniforms.

Their selection would be done only after proper police verification, he said.

Besides, all tourism destinations would have mandatory closed circuit television cameras with a view on safety.

People with criminal inclinations would be kept away from the tourist destinations of the state, he said adding strict action would be taken against those who indulge in the use of narcotic substances.

State Police Chief Loknath Behera, Range IG Manoj Abraham, Tourism Secretary Rani George, Tourism Director P Balakiran and Kerala Tourism Additional Director (General) Jafar Malik were among those who took part in the meeting.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The board of Fortis Healthcare today recommended the binding offer of the Munjal-Burmans combine to the shareholders after 18 months of hectic parleys with several potential investors for the sale of its business.

The board decided by majority to recommend the revised offer of Hero Enterprise Investment Office-Burman Family Office made on May 1 for an upfront equity infusion of Rs 800 crore at a price of Rs 167 per share through preferential allotment, Fortis Healthcare Ltd said in a late-night filing to the BSE.

The Munjal-Burmans further agreed to invest another Rs 1,000 crore via preferential issue of warrants priced at Rs 176 per share, it added.

Of this Rs 250 crore will be upfront, being an amount equivalent to 25 per cent of the consideration of warrants at a price of Rs 176 per share, Fortis Healthcare Ltd said.

Reacting to the development, Sunil Kant Munjal said: "We are delighted that the board has accepted our offer, which is, unarguably, the best solution."



"We are sure that the shareholders will see the intrinsic value in our proposal and repose confidence in us. As long-term investors, we are committed to help make Fortis the finest healthcare institution in the region, and create value for all stakeholders," he added.

Anand Burman said that Fortis is a national healthcare asset which has a good spread across the country and hoped to help the company become what it ought to be.

"Going forward, the immediate plan of action for the company should be to build on its strengths, retain talent, expand business and institutionalise processes at Fortis," he said.

The board also approved the appointment of Sabina Vaisoha and Rohit Bhasin as independent directors of the company for a period of five years from March 27 and April 19, 2018, respectively, it added.

Fortis Healthcare had received binding offers from four entities - KKR-backed Radiant Life Care, IHH Healthcare, Manipal/TPG consortium, and Munjal and Burman family offices.

On May 6, Manipal Health Enterprises had revised its offer for Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL) again, raising the value to Rs 8,358 crore. Earlier on April 24, MHEPL and TPB combine had revised their offer for Fortis raising the value to Rs 6,322 crore. The earlier revised offer of April 10 valued Fortis hospital business at Rs 6,061 crore.

The consortium, which is the first to make a binding offer to Fortis, had initially valued the hospital business of the healthcare chain at Rs 5,003 crore in its offer on March 27.

MHEPL also offered to subscribe to equity shares of FHL by way of preferential allotment for Rs 2,100 crore at a price per equity share of Rs 160.

Malaysia's IHH Healthcare Berhad and Munjals-Burmans (combine) had on May 1 revised upwards their respective offers for Fortis ahead of the deadline set by the board of the healthcare chain for submission of binding bids.

The other suitor IHH Healthcare Berhad increased its offer to directly invest in Fortis Healthcare at Rs 175 per share. It had earlier made a non-binding offer to invest in Fortis at Rs 160 per share.

IHH had then revised it to binding offer to immediately infuse Rs 650 crore by way of a preferential issue and allotment of equity shares at Rs 160 per share in FHL as part of an overall proposal to invest Rs 4,000 crore.

The Munjal-Burman combine also revised their proposal offering to increase their investment to Rs 1,800 crore, without any due diligence directly into the company from a previously revised offer of Rs 1,500 crore. Under their revised offer, they proposed to invest Rs 800 crore through a preferential allotment of equity shares at Rs 167 per share.

Further, another Rs 1,000 crore was offered to be invested via preferential issue of warrants priced at Rs 176 per share. Initially, they had proposed to invest Rs 1,250 crore in Fortis at Rs 156 per share.

KKR-backed Radiant Life Care had also revised bid for Fortis with a binding offer to acquire its Mulund hospital for an enterprise value of Rs 1,200 crore and a proposal to acquire stake in hospital business.

It had initially offered to acquire at least 26 per cent stake in the healthcare chain at Rs 126 per share, excluding its diagnostic business SRL.

The fifth bidder, Fosun Health Holdings, an arm of Fosun International, which made a non-binding proposal to invest a total of USD 350 million (over Rs 2,295 crore) at a price up to Rs 156 per share, did not revise its offer.

From its first hospital at Mohali in 2001, Fortis Healthcare has grown to be a leading integrated healthcare delivery service provider in India.

Currently, the company has 45 healthcare facilities (including projects under development), around 10,000 potential beds and 314 diagnostic centres in India, Dubai, Mauritius and Sri Lanka.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Chairman Sanjiv Singh today said the decision of oil PSUs not to hike petrol and diesel prices since April 24 was aimed at stabilising them and it 'incidentally' coincided with Karnataka elections.

He said before prices were stabilised, there were daily spikes varying from 25 paise to 35 paise, resulting in change in fuel prices by Rs two or Rs three every 15 days.

"We strongly believe this was unrealistic. So, we thought of stabilising that, tapering it down to a certain extent. Now incidentally it has coincided with some of the state elections. It was not the intention (of oil marketing companies)," he told reporters here.

Singh, who was here to review the financial performance of group company Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd, said today's oil prices in international markets were not supported by fundamentals. There were other factors also.

Noting that the oil firms had freedom to vary the prices in line with international prices, he said, "now, some more development has taken place in the international market recently. Lets see how prices stabilise".

Responding to a question on the US decision to withdraw from Iran nuclear deal and its impact, he said India was buying about 15 per cent Iranian crude.

"So, lets see. I am sure we will be able to find a solution which will be good for the company and for the country", he added.

He also noted that the US had given some window. Other countries are still discussing... I am sure we will find a solution", he said.

"India buys about 15 per cent Iranian crude. So, lets see. I am sure we will be able to find a solution which will be good for the company and for the country", he said.

There have been apprehensions that the US decision may adversely impact India's oil import from the Persian Gulf nation as well as Chabahar port project.

Iran is the third largest supplier of crude oil to India after Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

On bringing petroleum products under the Goods and Service Tax, Singh it would be welcome measure as there would be a uniform pricing policy.

Oil companies were unable to take input tax credit while they pay GST for input components for the raw material, he said.

"This impact we are not passing on to the consumer. We support very strongly that these products should be brought under GST so that there is uniformity and there is lot of simplicity between all those who are not only buying but also who are trading these products", he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Government has initiated inter-ministerial consultations on a draft ordinance to overturn a Supreme Court verdict that put safeguards on arrest of those accused of committing atrocities on SCs and STs, official sources said today.

A draft is ready with the Ministry of Social Justice and it could be placed before the Union Cabinet in coming days if the government's review plea before the Supreme Court fails to yield a favourable ruling.

"The next hearing is on May 16 and much would depend on that," said a senior official in the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry.

Another government functionary said there is no clarity as yet on exact date for the proposal to be placed for the Cabinet approval. "But a cabinet note detailing the reason for bringing the ordinance has been circulated to ministries for consultations," the functionary said.

The proposed ordinance would make it clear that notwithstanding any judgement or any other law in force, the provisions of the Act shall remain valid.

"Once promulgated, this would mean the ordinance would overturn the SC order," explained a law ministry official.

Sources aware of deliberations within the government at different levels said promulgating an ordinance to restore the original provisions would help calm tempers.

Introducing a bill in the monsoon session of Parliament slated for July to amend the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 to overturn the SC order is the second option before the government, the sources said.

Recently, the Supreme Court refused to stay its March 20 order diluting certain provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

While hearing observations by attorney general K K Venugopal on a review petition filed by the Centre, the apex court had said that it is not against the Act but the innocent should not be punished.

Dalit groups had organised protests across the country on April 2 against the alleged dilution of the Act through the Supreme Court's March 20 verdict.

The protests had turned violent at several places which left several people dead. Opposition parties also accused the government of failing to protect Dalit rights.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last month asserted that his government will not let any dilution in the law aimed at preventing atrocities on SCs and STs.

In its March 20 order, the apex court had laid down new guidelines for police officers on how to ensure that innocent people, especially public officials, are protected from false complaints under the act.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi High Court today pulled up the Haryana government for not issuing any tenders till date for repair of the old sub-branch canal, which carries water to the national capital, despite payment of Rs 28.16 crore to it by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) for the work.

It directed that the tender process and award of the work shpuld be completed by June 15.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar was displeased with the fact that the neighbouring state had not yet encashed the cheques for the amount of Rs 28.16 crore though they were sent in March and directed it to immediately encash them.

"No steps appear to have been taken since our last order of March 13," the court observed and directed that the tender process and award of the work be completed at the earliest and not later than June 15 so that the authorities would be ready to commence repairs as soon as the monsoon hits Delhi.

The high court on March 13 had directed Haryana and Delhi to take steps to immediately carry out the repairs of the Delhi Sub-Branch Canal (DSBC).

The bench said any delay in commencing the work would lead to wastage of water which would be really needed by the national capital.

It also said that non-encashment of the cheques was leading to the DJB having to maintain the amount in its account without getting any accrual or interest on the money which could have been spent on salaries.

Haryana said it had not encashed the cheques as DJB had also sent a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with it and the same had to be signed before the amount could be encashed.

The state also said that there was still time to carry out the tender process as the repairs can be carried out only after the monsoon hit the capital which was expected to be on or after July 1.

The DJB on the other hand refuted the allegation and claimed that the neighbouring state was not signing the MoU because it has no intention of repairing the canal as any water saved would accrue to the benefit of the national capital.

It also said the monsoon could reach Delhi around the middle of June.

After hearing both the sides, the bench directed the Haryana government to forthwith encash the amount and immediately commence the process of issuing tenders for the repair work as there was no certainty regarding arrival of monsoon.

The court was hearing a PIL moved by advocate S B Tripathi who has said that the population in Delhi was increasing each day, but the raw water available to the city was same or even decreasing.

Tripathi has also moved a fresh application seeking directions to DJB and Haryana to carry out 100 per cent concrete lining of the old DSBC, similar to Munak canal, to reduce seepage of water.

The plea has claimed that presently due to seepage, 50 per cent of the 330 cusec water released into DSBC by Haryana is lost and this wastage can be brought down to 5 per cent by concrete lining.

It has also said the work can be carried out during monsoon when there is sufficient water available in Yamuna river and DSBC can be shut for repairs.

The bench had earlier asked the Haryana government to ensure it releases the entire quantity of water it is required to according to the undertaking given to the court.

Haryana has to release 719 cusecs of water per day into Munak canal and 330 cusecs per day in DSB canal, according to the undertaking and earlier court orders.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Madras High Court today dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of actor-politician S Ve Shekher in a case of sharing a social media post derogatory to women journalists, and sharply rebuked him saying that when a celebrity like him forwards such messages, it sends a wrong message to the society.

There cannot be harsher words than these which portray all working women coming up in life as "sacrificing their chastity" and the future of such women is at stake, Justice S Ramathilagam observed while directing the police to proceed in the case in the same manner as they would investigate a matter involving a common man.

"When a celebrity forwards messages like this, the common public will start believing that this type of things are going on. This sends a wrong message to the society at a time when we are talking about women empowerment," the judge observed.

"Forwarded message is equal to accepting the message and endorsing the message. What is said is important, but who has said it is more important in a society because people respect persons for their social status," the judge said.

After seeing such posts from a person who is popular and has lot of connections with the media for long, public will look at every working woman with a suspicious eye, she observed.

A case was registered last month by the cyber cell of the police under various sections of IPC, following which Shekher, a BJP member, filed the anticipatory bail petition.

"The language and the words used are not indirect but direct abusive, obscene, foul language which is not expected from a person of this calibre and age who claims to be a literate with lot of credentials, with lot of followers," Justice Ramathilagam said.

Instead of being a role model to his followers, he set a wrong precedent, the judge added.

The judge, while stating that law is same for everyone and people should not lose faith in judiciary, added that "mistakes and crimes are not same. Only children can make mistakes which can be pardoned. If the same is done by elderly people it becomes an offence."



"No one has any right to abuse women and if it is done, it is a violation of rights. If sharing bed is the only way to come up in life then does it include all women who are holding high posts now?," Justice Ramathilagam said.

Observing that in public life every act is watched by the public, the judge said "control of emotions, showing emotions in a controlled form is a leadership quality."



Words from people who are in public life should bring peace and harmony and should not incite hatred and disharmony," she added.

The forwarded message had shaken the society in which women hold equal citizenship with all rights without gender disparity, the judge said.

"After hearing from intervening petitioners and the petitioner it is but natural to feel that when the offended public including women were arrested during a protest why the person who is the root cause for such a protest is not dealt with according to law," she noted.

In his petition, Shekher submitted that 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.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Madras High Court today ordered that the report of an inquiry committee looking into the alleged attempt by a woman college teacher to lure students to extend sexual favours in return for higher mark be kept in a sealed cover once it was submitted.

A division bench comprising Justices V Parthiban and P D Audikesavalu gave the interim direction during the hearing of a petition by the Revolutionary Students Youth Front against the appointment of the committee headed by former IAS officer A S Santhanam by Governor Banwarilal Purohit.

Petitioner, represented by its Tamil Nadu co-ordinator D D Ganesan, sought an interim injunction restraining Santhanam from submitting any report before the completion of the CB-CID probe into the issue.

The bench said an apprehension had been expressed that the report of the committee was likely to be submitted before the petition could be heard and in that event the criminal investigation may likely to be diluted.

The court said if any report was submitted by the committee before the next hearing of the petition, it shall be kept in a sealed cover till further orders.

Purohit had on April 16 appointed the committee to look into 'certain immoral' happenings surrounding an assistant professor of Aruppukottai-based Devanga Arts College, affiliated to the Madurai Kamaraj University.

The decision was taken in his capacity as Chancellor of the university, he had said.

The assistant professor was arrested last month in connection with her alleged advise to students "to adjust with some officials" in return for higher marks and money.

The scandal came to light when an audio of purported conversation between her and some students went viral in the social media last month, triggering a public outrage.

The petition submitted that it was obvious that the assistant professor had the back up of some persons holding very high positions.

It said the assistant professor had mentioned certain programmes in which the governor had participated in order to buttress the rare privileges that she was provided with during such events.

She had mentioned about this in order to authenticate her claim that she had in fact had high level connection, it claimed.

The petitioner further contended that the governor had appointed the inquiry committee without any official proceedings and in a manner not known to law.

He claimed that the governor had no power or jurisdiction to set up such committee and the suo-motu action created an impression that something was wrong.

The petitioner sought a special investigation team headed by a retired high court judge to probe the case under the watch of the court.

A similar petition challenging the appointment of the committee filed in the Madurai bench of the high court was dismissed yesterday.

Justices S Govindaraj and G R Swaminathan of the bench had held that the governor has the powers as the chancellor (of state-run universities) to order such an inquiry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Helmet manufacturers today lauded the government's decision to bring all two-wheeler helmets under mandatory certification of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

"We are in high spirits with the government decision as they have taken the much needed step considering the alarming number of fatalities of two wheeler riders due to road accidents," ISI Helmet Manufactures Association President Rajeev Kapur said in a statement.

The government's decision will encourage the usage of helmet while riding a two-wheeler that too with complete safety, he added.

The government has recommended bringing two wheeler helmets under mandatory certification of BIS, and having 'two-wheeler' marking in word or picture on them, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari announced yesterday.

The new helmets to be designed on the recommendations of a committee will also be India-specific and will weigh at least 300 grams less than the existing ones, he had said.

In order to reduce fatalities in road accidents, the government had formed a committee headed by Joint Secretary, Transport, Abhay Damle which after studying various aspects came out with a set of recommendations for helmets that include a reduction in weight by at least 300 grams.

Kapur said around 80 per cent of helmets used by two-wheeler riders across India currently do not meet ISI standards and the market is flooded with such sub-standard products which compromise on safety despite a fourth of all road deaths involve two-wheeler occupants.

"Also the committee's point on up gradation of visor standard to provide scratch resistance performance and improved optical quality was much needed and is highly appreciated," he added.

As per the findings of a study, a number of accidents also happen due to the presence of scratches on the visor, Kapur said.

Around 1.5 lakh people lose their lives in India in road accidents every year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Following are the highlights at 1730 hours:



IN THE PIPELINE:



Bengaluru: BJP President Amit Shah's Karnataka election campaign storiesNew Delhi: SC reserves judgement on pleas challenging AadhaarTOP STORIESMDS15 KA-POLLS-RAHUL-SONIA ORIGIN"My mother more Indian than many Indians" : RahulBengaluru:"My mother is more Indian than many Indians," an emotional Rahul Gandhi said today, as he responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sarcastic barb at UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi over her foreign origin.

DEL13 BIZ-WALMART-CEO



Flipkart deal good for India, says Walmart CEO



New Delhi: World's largest retailer Walmart Inc today tried to assuage concerns around its USD 16 billion takeover of Flipkart, saying the deal is good for India as it will help create millions of jobs over time and help the economy through local sourcing of goods by the company.

FGN6 MALAYSIA-ELECTION-LD NAJIB



Malaysia leader concedes defeat after historic election loss



Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak, who led the ruling National Front coalition to a historic election loss, conceded defeat today and said the country's king will appoint a new premier.

Nation



DEL19 UP-3RD LD-STORM



Up storm toll rises to 16, fresh storm warning



Lucknow: The death toll in the storm that hit parts of Uttar Pradesh last night has risen to 16, an official said today as the Met office issued another bad weather alert for the state.

CAL4 LALU-LD PAROLE



Lalu granted 3 days parole for son's marriage



Ranchi/Patna: Jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad was today granted a three- day parole to attend his son's wedding in Patna this Saturday, a senior jail officer said today.

BOM4 MH-LD BHUJBAL



Sena bound to have concern for me as I spent 25 years with them: Bhujbal



Mumbai: Senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who was granted bail in a money laundering case, today said the Shiv Sena was bound to have some concern about his health as he had been with the saffron party for 25 years.

DEL15 PREZ-SIACHEN



Prez visits Siachen base camp; expresses gratitude to soldiers



Siachen: President Ram Nath Kovind today visited the Army base camp in Siachen, the world's highest battlefield, and expressed gratitude to the soldiers posted there.

DEL17 RAIL-ELEPHANT-BEES



Sound of bees to keep elephants off rail tracks creating a buzz



Guwahati: The sound of honeybees downloaded from the internet to keep elephants away from railway tracks has created quite a buzz after the novel idea introduced by the Northeast Frontier Railway brought down the number of accidents. By Ananya Sengupta



MDS21 KA-POLL-SHAH ROADSHOW



Amit Shah holds massive road show in Badami



Badami (Karnataka): In a display of strength, BJP president Amit Shah today took out a massive road show in Badami from where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is in the fray in the Karnataka assembly polls.

Legal



LGD21 SC-COLLEGIUM



Justice Chelameswar writes to CJI on elevation of Justice K M Joseph



New Delhi: Justice J Chelameswar, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India asking him to convene a meeting of the collegium to urgently forward to the Centre the name of Uttarakhand Chief Justice K M Joseph as the judge of the apex court.

LGD26 SC-3RD LD WB PANCHAYAT POLLS



SC stays Calcutta HC order on WB panchayat polls



New Delhi: The Supreme Court today stayed the Calcutta High Court order asking the West Bengal State Election Commission to accept nomination papers filed through e-mail for contesting the panchayat elections in the state.

Foreign



FGN22 MYANMAR-SWARAJ



Swaraj in Myanmar to hold talks with country's leadership



Nay Pyi Taw (Myanmar): External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj arrived here today on a two-day visit during which she is expected to hold discussions with Myanmar's top leadership on key bilateral and regional issues, including the situation in the Rakhine state from where thousands of Rohingya Muslims had fled following violence last year.

FGN16 NEPAL-MODI



Nepal all set to welcome PM Modi



Kathmandu: Nepal is all set to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is arriving in the country tomorrow for a two-day state visit during which he will hold talks with the top leadership here with a focus on implementing key India-assisted projects and building mutual trust.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Arjun Kapoor believe pay disparity in film industry is a sensitive issue but finds it "crass and rude" to talk about how much one gets paid.

On the pay disparity in Bollywood, he says it is "not about actors topping actresses", but for several years it has been the heroes who have generated business at the ticket windows for a film.

"We are not saying that if you give them (actress) more money, we will not work. I have never asked how much my co-star is paid," Arjun told reporters at 'Bend the Gender' event here last evening.

"For many years, there has been a certain growth of business because the main lead is a hero, an actor is the protagonist. The audience is used to seeing certain kind of films," he said.

He, however, believes that in the last few years things have changed for women in the industry as the commercial success of a film has led to female actors getting more remuneration.

"I hate calling it a woman-centric film, but, for example, if 'Raazi' does well, Alia Bhatt will be paid a lot of money for her next film," he said.

"Like 'NH 10' works, Anushka Sharma's salary will change. It is a sensitive thing to discuss, people's prices, I find it very crass and rude. I feel this conversation leads nowhere as no one knows the truth except the bank manager and those who make the contract," he said.

The actor said the situation is not perfect but nowadays there are lot of ways to compensate an actor, like if a film does well, they are paid after the release.

"With every passing film, you are not seeing just a certain kind of cinema. The way cinema changes, similarly this conversation will decrease," he said.

Asked about the #MeToo campaign and female stars' standing in Bollywood, he said actors like Kareena Kapoor Khan are the best example of women having a great career even after marriage and child.

"I am talking to you after the wedding of my sister Sonam Kapoor, she will continue working. Anushka Sharma has been working after her wedding. Kareena is a prime example, she has been back on set fter Taimur (her son) was born," he said.

What is more important, according to Arjun, is to make a safer and comfortable environment for female actors to grow and harness their skills.

"A story like 'Raazi' seven or ten years back could be hero-driven but today it is content-driven. It is based on a true story and they have not changed it and made it with a guy. Evolution is there.

"India is a very big country so I am trying to change the thinking with 'Bend the gender'. The film industry will not change or evolve overnight. We are making efforts, so we give credit to the film industry as we are way more secular and open," he said.

Arjun felicitated those who stood for women's rights under the banner 'Bend- The Gender Heroes' at the event.

"I felt we need to present those men who have made a difference in the lives of their partner, sister, daughters, and are supportive and encouraging, one can support just by standing by their side," he said.

"We say behind every successful man there is a woman as she sacrifices a lot, so same way, men need to be there for women. Women are not given the opportunity," he said.

In real life, he thinks his sister Anshula Kapoor is more talented than him.

"...she inspires me, she is so educated, she is correct and sorted. I want women in our country to do whatever they want to do," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The bride was ready and so was the bridegroom--just like any other marriage ceremony, but with a difference as the protagonists were transgender activists who entered wedlock here today.

When Ishan tied the nuptial knot with his long time friend Surya, it turned out to be to be the first legal transgender marriage in Kerala's history.

The couple also got their marriage registered under the Special Marriage Act.

They are the first transsexual couple to marry in Kerala, having undergone sex change surgeries some years ago.

Besides members of their families and friends, the crowd in attendance included activists and some politicians.

The marriage hall was tastefully decorated, the relatives and others jubilant with the centre of attention being the couple in their colourful attire.

The two, who are in their 30s, had braved several odds ranging from gender issues and religious barriers to societal stigma, to enter wedlock.

Ishan, a woman once, and Surya, originally a man, had undergone sex change surgery some years ago.

Looking graceful in a traditional silk saree and ornaments, Surya said she was excited about the new episode in her life.

"We want to lead a normal family life and be a role model to our fellow community members," Ishan told reporters.

The ceremony at an auditorium in the heart of the city was marked by the presence of a number of transgenders, who danced to some foot-tapping film songs when the "bride" entered the auditorium.

A number of dignitaries including former Rajya Sabha Member T N Seema (CPI-M), writer-activist J Devika, CPI-M councillor I P Binu were among those who attended the marriage function.

Hailing from a middle class family at Vattiyurkkavu here, Surya, a well-known TV artiste, underwent the sex change surgery and became a woman in 2014.

A member of a conventional Muslim family at Vallakkadavu here, 33-year-old Ishan is working with an NGO of transgenders.

Both of them were estranged from their families for some time as the relatives were against their decision to change gender.

But, when they decided to get married after surgery and expressed their desire to lead a normal life, their families gave their approval for the marriage and promised all support.

Both Surya and Ishan are members of the government's Transgenders Justice Board.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The India Club in London, a hub for Indian nationalists in the UK during the Indian independence movement in the 1930s and 40s, is facing partial demolition of the building.

The Club, which has its roots in the India League which campaigned for Indian independence in Britain, had applied to Historic England for a listing as a historically important landmark to prevent the demolition. However, the application was turned down this week on the grounds that there were similar organisations operating for the Indian community at the time.

"We are deeply disappointed with the decision which undervalues more than 50 years of India Club's historic, social and cultural importance," said Phiroza Marker, the manager of India Club.

"The rejection of the listing application is not only a personal blow to us as proprietors of 143 Strand, but also to the multitude of people who are intrinsically linked to the building through generations of their family history," Marker said.

"India Club has played a key role in immigrant history in the UK, as indicated by accounts from immigrants of the sub-continent that it was their first port of call and a home away from home," she said.

The club, which has functioned as an Indian restaurant on The Strand in the heart of London since 1946, is located on the first floor of the 26-room Strand Continental hotel.

The freeholder of the building, Marston Properties, has put in an application with Westminster City Council for the "partial demolition and extension of existing seven-storey building with alterations at ground and basement levels" to create a new hotel.

The application has attracted an unprecedented 26 public appeals against such a move, with the club being categorised a "secret gem" and as having "unique historical value to Londoners and visitors".

"We would urge Westminster City Council to reject the planning application and preserve India Club for future generations," said Phiroza Marker, whose family has also collected over 21,000 signatures on an online petition for the council titled "Save the India Club".

Her father Yadgar Marker is the director of Goldsand Hotels Limited, trading as The Strand Continental Hotel which houses the India Club. The family has been campaigning to prevent demolition since the first emerged last year.

The Club is the contemporary incarnation of the India League established by Annie Besant in 1921 and then revived by Krishna Menon, India's first High Commissioner to the UK, in 1929.

A number of Indian and British parliamentarians, including Lord Karan Bilimoria and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, have backed the ongoing campaign to save its legacy.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The contribution of Indians in the construction of the strategic Panama Canal has been recalled as Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu visited the famous waterway through which five per cent of the global trade transits.

Breaking protocol, President of Panama Juan Carlos Varela Rodriguez accompanied Naidu to the canal yesterday.

This was an unscheduled engagement of the Panamanian President that surprised the diplomats of both the countries, an official statement said.

Vice President of Panama Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado also accompanied Naidu.

Rodriguez spent almost six hours with Naidu starting with a one-to-one meeting followed by delegation level talks, the banquet and visit to the Panama Canal.

At the Panama Canal, a detailed audio-visual presentation was made to Naidu explaining the origins of the path breaking canal project, its advantages and the volume of trade being transited through the canal and the passage of vessels with a system of locks.

Construction of the canal started in 1904 and the first ship sailed through it in 1914.

The US handed over the Canal to Panama on December 31, 1999. About five per cent of the world trade transits through this canal.

IndiaPanama canal connection was fondly recalled during the visit of Naidu to the canal, the statement said.

He was informed of the participation of Indians in the construction work during 1904-14 and the captain of the first vessel that sailed through the expanded canal being an Indian.

A Gujarat-based company has won the bid for preparing tender document for construction of a new bridge on the canal, the statement said.

President of Panama told Naidu that the new bridge would be a show-case project and he was happy with the Indian connection with the project.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)On the eve of his two-day visit to Nepal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India would remain a steadfast partner of the Himalayan nation in its quest for growth and development.

The prime minister exuded confidence that his visit will further cement people-centric partnership with Nepal on the basis of mutual benefit, goodwill and understanding.

Modi's visit to Nepal is seen as an attempt by both the countries to bring back normalcy in ties after a spell of uneasiness as it comes little over a month after his Nepalese counterpart K P Sharma Oli came to India.

Describing his two-day trip to Nepal as a reflection of his government's commitment to "neighbourhood first" policy, Modi said the Himalayan nation has entered a new era and India would continue to support it.

"As Nepal enters a new era of consolidating gains of democracy and achieving rapid economic growth and development, India will continue to remain a steadfast partner of government of Nepal to implement its vision of samriddha Nepal, sukhi Nepali' (prosperous Nepal, happy Nepal)," Modi said in a statement.

Oli's visit was seen as an attempt to repair Nepal's ties with New Delhi. In 2016, the Nepalese leader had publicly accused India of interfering in his country's internal matters and trying to topple his government.

"Prime Minister Oli and I will have the opportunity to take forward our recent wide-ranging discussions in New Delhi on issues of mutual interest, and to advance our cooperative partnership across diverse sectors," Modi said.

He said his visit "reflects the high priority, India, and personally I, attach to our age-old, close and friendly ties with Nepal".

"These high-level and regular interactions reflect my government's commitment to the 'neighbourhood first' policy, in consonance with the motto of sabka saath, sabka vikas'," he said.

Modi said the two countries have completed several bilateral connectivity and development projects in the last few years, and initiated transformational initiatives for the benefit of their people.

In addition to Kathmandu, the prime minister said he was also looking forward to visiting Janakpur and Muktinath. Both these places attract a large number of pilgrims every year.

"They are living testimony to the ancient and strong cultural and religious ties between the peoples of India and Nepal," he said.

Modi said he was also looking forward to meeting political leaders and friends in Nepal.

"I am confident that my visit will further cement our people-centric partnership with Nepal on the basis of mutual benefit, goodwill and understanding," he noted.

The prime minister's first stop will be historic city of Janakpur where he will offer prayers at the Janaki temple. He will also be given a civic reception at Janakpur.

In the afternoon, Modi will travel to Kathmandu where he will meet Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari and Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun. In the evening, he will hold delegation-level talks with Oli, External Affairs MInistry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

The prime ministers are likely to sign a number of pacts and inaugurate the Rs 6000-crore Arun 3 project which is expected to generate around 900 MW of power.

Modi will also attend a banquet hosted by Oli tomorrow.

On Saturday, he will visit Muktinath. He will come back to Kathmandu in the afternoon and offer prayers at Pashupathi Nath temple, Kumar said.

Later, Modi will meet the leaders of various political parties which will be followed by a civic reception to be hosted by the mayor of Kathmandu.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Shares of Indian Bank today plummeted nearly 9 per cent after the company reported 59 per cent decline in net profit for the quarter ended March of 2017-18.

The stock dropped 8.17 per cent to end at Rs 314 on BSE. Intra-day, it tanked 10.23 per cent to Rs 306.95.

On NSE, shares of the company plunged 8.65 per cent to close at Rs 313.

Led by the sharp fall in the stock, the company's market valuation slumped Rs 1,341.84 crore to Rs 15,081.16 crore.

In terms of equity volume, 8.70 lakh shares of the company were traded on BSE and over one crore shares changed hands on NSE during the day.

State-run Indian Bank today reported 59 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 131.98 crore for the quarter ended March 31, as provisions for bad loans nearly tripled.

The bank had reported a profit of Rs 319.70 crore in the same period of 2016-17.

Total income during the quarter however rose to Rs 4,954.20 crore, as against Rs 4,601.89 crore in the same period a year ago, Indian Bank said in a regulatory filing.

Although the gross non-performing assets (NPAs) during the quarter declined marginally to 7.37 per cent from 7.47 per cent, the provisions for bad loans increased three-fold.

In absolute terms, gross NPAs were at Rs 11,990.14 crore, up from Rs 9,865.13 crore in the year-ago period.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India's intellectual property regulations and liabilities laws pose a major barrier to foreign companies, specially from the US, that prevents them from increasing their footprint in the country's huge market, pharma sector leaders have said.

Andrew Plump, chief medical and scientific officer of Takeda Pharmaceuticals, a major Japanese drugmaker, said his company has a very limited presence in India.

"But it is open to increase its footprint in India, with the improvement in IP protection laws and those related to liabilities," Plump said.

"I think more and more there's an intent in India to try to open up its doors. I think if that happens, and if it facilitates entry of innovative patent protected pharmaceuticals you will see value driven companies coming into India," Plump told PTI on the sidelines of the 12th annual biopharma and healthcare summit here.

"Historically it (IP sector regulations and liabilities law) has been not just a hindrance but a barrier and impediment (for the US pharma companies to invest in India)," Plump said.

On Tuesday, Takeda announced plans to acquire London-listed Shire Plc for USD 62 billion, which is being described as the biggest ever overseas acquisition by a Japanese company.

"Our geographical spread hasn't taken us to India, which is quite unusual for us because we're a company that thinks about patients and access and there's such a huge unmet medical need in India. So, I'm hopeful that as we move forward we'll find ways to bring medicines to patients in India," he said.

Observing that India has outstanding data scientists, strong capabilities that it has in the pharma sector, Plump said relative to the academic excellence in India, relative to the population size and, a concentration in healthcare, "it's underrepresented in R&D" in healthcare.

According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, India's pharmaceutical industry is expected to grow to USD 100 billion by 2025.

William W Chin, professor of Medicine, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School acknowledged that it is important that the ecosystem that helps one discover and develop medicines focus on meeting great unmet medical needs.

"You heard today all the complexity of the disease, ..how long it takes to develop a medicine. And as a business model, it needs to have a certain incentive for people to invest, and also for companies to continue to take risk in these areas. Because for every medicine that works, there are probably nine that fail," he said.

Chin argued that there are many diseases that could benefit from what he called as disruptive innovation.

Noting that the Indian government has made good progress recently, Chin said changes in science and regulatory policy which allows for more rapid development of medicines.

"An example would be improving how clinical trials are done with safeguards to participants, privacy and the like," he said.

"But I think that the government will need to continue to invest in those academic groups and even companies want to innovate. They have to provide additional incentives for companies to solve the problems, but also create medicines that could be used for the global market as well, in which case it becomes very important to help the economy of India also," Chin said.

Karun Rishi, head of the US India Chambers of Commerce, which organises the annual US-India Biopharma and Healthcare Summit, said that India can be a significant player in artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchain technologies.

"The use of Blockchain can add muscle to the digital economy especially in the Biopharma and healthcare sector. This is one area, we see India playing a significant role globally," Rishi said.

The 12th edition of the annual biopharma and healthcare summit attracted top corporate leaders from the American pharma sector with a collective research and development budget of more than USD 50 billion.

During the day-long session, scientists, academicians and experts from the sector brain stormed on various aspect of India's biopharma and healthcare sector.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An Indian-origin businessman in the UK has been charged with his wife's murder, nearly three months after her body had been discovered in their home in Wolverhampton.

Gurpreet Singh, 42, was charged yesterday by West Midlands Police detectives with the murder of 38-year-old Sarbjit Kaur.

"This is a murder that has really shocked the local community and we have been working flat-out to move the investigation forward," said Detective Chief Inspector Chris Mallett from West Midlands Police's Homicide Team.

"This is a significant development and we continue to support Kaur's many friends and family," he said.

Singh appeared before Birmingham Magistrates Court today charged with his wife's murder, who had been found unconscious in her home on February 16.

A post-mortem examination revealed that Kaur died as a result of asphyxiation. The state of the home at the time had led to speculation that she had been killed as a result of a burglary gone wrong.

It emerged that Singh, who heads Dhanda Properties business in Wolverhampton area, had been the last person to see his wife alive earlier in the day before she was found dead by paramedics.

"Kaur was attacked inside her own home. This is a shocking case, the likes of which are extremely rare, and we have a team of officers working on this murder inquiry to establish what happened and to finding the person or people responsible," Mallett had said at the time as part of a public appeal for information in February.

The police noted that the interior of the home was in an "untidy state", which could indicate it had been searched, and they believed some items are missing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iran does not want "new tensions" in the Middle East, President Hassan Rouhani said today in a telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"Iran has always sought to reduce tensions in the region, trying to strengthen security and stability," Rouhani said, according to a statement on the website of Iran's presidency.

Rouhani did not mention Israel's strikes Thursday against what the Jewish state said were Iranian targets in Syria, or those against the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Tehran comes into effect immediately for any new contracts but gives a wind-down period of 90-180 days, the White House has said.

"We have announced a withdrawal from the deal. So, we're out of the deal. The president signed a decision memorandum that instructs the departments and agencies to effectuate that. Part of that is reinstituting all of the nuclear-related sanctions that were waived by the Obama administration. So the sanctions are in effect as soon as they're promulgated," said National Security Advisor John Bolton.

"What that means is, with respect to any new or prospective contract that's covered by it -- with firms covered by our jurisdiction, that they are forbidden. So, in other words, no new contracts in the prescribed areas.

"For contracts that already exist, there is a wind-down period to allow an orderly termination of the contract, so that people who in good-faith reliance on the waiver of the sanctions -- have engaged in business are not totally surprised," Bolton explained.

He said there are going to be different wind-down periods depending on the nature of the commodities.

"But I don't really think anybody in the business world is surprised at this action," he said.

Bolton said it's entirely possible that additional sanctions will follow as new information comes to light.

"That's something that we should pursue vigorously because we want to put as much economic pressure on Iran as we can, and deny them the revenues that they would have gotten from the transactions we're now eliminating," he said, reiterating that the decision that Trump signed on Tuesday puts sanctions back in place that existed at the time of the deal.

"What that means is that within the zone of economics covered by the sanctions, no new contracts are permitted," he said, adding that the US Treasury will be announcing what they call wind-down provisions that will deal with existing contracts.

"This contingency has been posted on the Treasury Department website since 2015 because of the potential for the use of the provisions of Resolution 2231, which we're not using because we're out of the deal. In other words, the concept that there would be a wind-down period has been there for a long time. That's basically the pattern we are following. But the fact of the sanctions coming back in is effective right now," Bolton said.

A senior state department official explained that the US is providing a six-month wind-down for energy-related sanctions.

"So that's oil, petroleum, petrochemicals, and then all of the ancillary sanctions that are associated with that," the official said.

So, for example, banking sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran in particular because it is involved in Iran's export of oil and the receipt of revenues. Shipping, shipbuilding, ports all of those sanctions that are related to both the energy sector and then the banking and the shipping or transportation of that energy will all have a six-month wind-down period.

"Everything else is going to have a 90-day wind-down. So the architecture of the Iranian sanctions programme was quite complex, but everything else includes things like dealing in the trial, providing metal precious metals and gold to the Iranian regime, providing US banknotes," the official said.

In addition, within the first 90 days, the treasury department is going to work to end terminate the specific licenses that were issued pursuant to the statement of licensing policy on civil aviation.

"So treasury's going to be reaching out to those private sector companies that have licenses and work to terminate those licences in an orderly way that doesn't lead to undue impact on the companies," the state department official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iraqi forces in coordination with US-backed Syrian forces have captured five senior Islamic State group leaders, the US-led coalition said today in a statement.

The arrest was a "significant blow to Daesh," coalition spokesman Army Col Ryan Dillon said, using the Arabic acronym for the extremist group.

A Pentagon spokesman, Marine Maj. Adrian JT Rankine-Galloway, said the US credited Iraqi security forces with the militants' capture "on the Iraq-Syria border." "These arrests are a significant blow to ISIS as we continue to remove its leadership and fighters from the battlefield," Rankine-Galloway said.

IS fighters no longer control significant pockets of territory inside Iraq, but do maintain a grip inside Syria along Iraq's border.

The US -led coalition supported Iraqi ground forces and Syrian fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces in the more than three-year war against IS.

After Iraqi forces retook the Iraqi city of Mosul from IS last summer, Syrian forces on the other side of the border claimed a series of swift victories, but the campaign was stalled recently when Turkey launched a cross-border raid into Syria's north.

Earlier this month the coalition announced a drive to clear the final pockets of IS territory inside Syria.

US President Donald Trump tweeted about the anti-IS raid Thursday, saying those arrested were the "five most wanted" IS "leaders." It was unclear what criteria, if any, Trump was using to describe the IS operatives as the "five most wanted." A US national security official said there were no indications that the operation had captured Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of IS who has long been the coalition's top target. The official wasn't authorized to discuss the targets publicly and requested anonymity.

Last year the Pentagon said that there were "some indicators" that al-Baghdadi was still alive a month after Russia claimed to have killed him in a strike near the Syrian city of Raqqa. None of the statements released Thursday from the president or the coalition named the IS fighters arrested.

IS fighters swept into Iraq in the summer of 2014, taking control of nearly a third of the country. At the height of the group's power their self-proclaimed caliphate stretched from the edges of Aleppo in Syria to just north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Now, with the group's physical caliphate largely destroyed, anti-IS operations are increasingly focused on targeting the extremists' remaining leadership.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Israeli military today said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighbouring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, in the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

Israel said the targets included weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centers used by elite Iranian forces in Syria. It also said it destroyed several Syrian air-defense systems after coming under heavy fire. It said none of its warplanes was hit.

The blistering Israeli assault was by far the most intensive Israeli action in neighbouring Syria since the civil war broke out there in 2011.

Israel has largely tried to stay on the sidelines, but has previously acknowledged carrying out over 100 airstrikes over the past seven years, most believed to be aimed at Iranian weapons shipments bound for the Hezbollah militant group.

There was no immediate word on Iranian casualties. Syria's capital of Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defenses over the city was heard throughout the night.

Syria's state agency SANA quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israeli missiles hit air defense positions, radar stations and a weapons warehouse, but claiming most incoming rockets were intercepted.

In recent months, Israel has warned that it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria. Iran has accused Israel of carrying out a series of deadly strikes on Iranian military positions in Syria in recent weeks, and had vowed retaliation.

Iran has sent thousands of troops to back Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Israel fears that as the fighting nears an end, Iran and tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen will turn their focus to Israel.

Lt Col Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Israel was not looking to escalate the situation. But he said troops will continue to be on "very high alert." "Should there be another Iranian attack, we will be prepared for it," he said.

Iran's ability to hit back could be limited. Its resources in Syria pale in comparison to the high-tech Israeli military. Iran also could be wary of military entanglement at a time when it is trying to salvage the international nuclear deal.

Earlier today, Israel said Iran's Al Quds force fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights. Conricus said four of the rockets were intercepted, while the others fell short of their targets.

The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan, which was captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war.

Syria's state media said Syrian air defenses intercepted "hostile Israeli missiles" early today that were fired over southwestern Damascus.

Hours later, state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast a live feed of Syrian air defenses firing into the sky above the capital, and loud explosions and air defense firing were heard through the night.

Syrian activists reported Israeli airstrikes hitting targets near Damascus. One video posted online showed a large explosion and shrapnel flying in the air. Residents reported loud sounds that rocked their buildings. It was not immediately clear what was hit.

Al-Ikhbariya TV said Israel also targeted military posts in southern Suweida province, including an air base, and struck near Homs in central Syria. The state TV station said the attacks were foiled.

Iranian officials offered no immediate comment on Israel's claim about the missile fire. Iranian state media reported on the attack and the subsequent Israeli strikes in Syria, relying on foreign reports.

Syrian media earlier said the hostilities began with Israeli fire at Syrian positions in southern Syria from across the border.

Pro-Syrian media said Syrian missiles then fired at Israeli forces. One TV station, Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen, said at least 50 missiles were fired from Syria at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights. Al-Ikhbariya TV said missiles targeted 10 Israeli positions.

Syrian media said it was the first time in years that Syrians had fired at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights.

Late Tuesday, Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near the capital of Damascus.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, killing at least 15 people, eight of them Iranians.

Last month, an attack on Syria's T4 air base in Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel. On April 30, Israel was said to have struck government outposts in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen pro-government fighters, many of them Iranians.

Israel considers Iran to be its most bitter enemy, citing Iran's hostile rhetoric, support for anti-Israel militant groups and development of long-range missiles.

President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the international nuclear agreement with Iran, with strong support from Israel, has further raised tensions.

Israel and Iran have appeared to be on a collision course for months.

In February, Israel shot down what it said was an armed Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace. Israel responded by attacking anti-aircraft positions in Syria, but an Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Moscow yesterday to meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss military coordination in Syria.

Russia has also sent forces to Syria to back Assad. But Israel and Russia have maintained close communications to prevent their air forces from coming into conflict.

Together with Putin, Netanyahu toured a parade celebrating the anniversary of the World War II victory over the Nazis and then met the Russian president at the Kremlin for consultations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israel's army said today it hit dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria overnight after rocket and missile fire toward its forces it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation in tensions.

"The (Israeli military) has struck dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria," Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists.

He said they targeted intelligence, logistics, storage and vehicles as well as the origin of the rockets. It was one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and the biggest against Iranian targets.

Conricus however stressed Israel was not seeking an escalation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Jammu and Kashmir police crime branch has expanded its probe in the Kathua rape and murder case to identify those who allegedly signed the attendance register at a Meerut college on behalf of an accused while he had gone to his village where the crime was committed, officials said here today.

They said a crime branch team was camping in Meerut and taking inputs from the local police there.

The police team has examined some of the witnesses as it is alleged in the charge sheet that Vishal Jangotra, accused of raping an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, had tried to create an alibi of his absence from the crime scene by allegedly "resorting to manipulation of records and creation of false evidence with the connivance and assistance of his father Sanji Ram".

The officials said three people, who are suspected to have signed the attendance sheet on his behalf, are wanted by the crime branch.

The three were in judicial custody after being arrested by the Meerut police in connection with a question paper leak case.

Jangotra, who is pursuing a bachelor's degree in agriculture from a college in Meerut district, has been charged by the crime branch of raping and helping in the murder of the girl in Kathua along with a juvenile, the main accused and a relative of Sanji Ram, and special police officer Deepak Khajuria alias Deepu.

The juvenile, whose bail plea was rejected by a court last month, is the main accused in the case.

The crime branch had earlier put its investigation on hold and was awaiting an order of the Supreme Court which had been petitioned by the victim's side for taking the trial out of Kathua and the accused side pleading for handing over the investigation to the CBI.

In its May 7 order, the apex court had said "the pivotal fact around which the controversy centres, is abduction, rape and murder of an eight year old girl".

"An FIR was lodged at Hiranagar Police Station, Kathua...The investigating agency, namely, the Crime Branch, which took over the investigation on 22nd January, 2018 from the local police has already filed the charge sheet on 9th April, 2018, in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kathua in the State of Jammu and Kashmir," the order had said.

The apex court had transferred the case to the court of the District and Sessions judge in Pathankot, Punjab, 30 km from Kathua.

The crime branch, according to the officials, has also seized some more documents and sent it to 'Questioner of Examined Documents' (QED) in the national capital for verifying the handwriting samples.

A report from Central Forensic and Scientific Laboratory about the CCTV tapes seized from the examination centre was also expected soon, the officials said, adding that a supplementary charge sheet was expected to be filed by second week of June.

The officials suspect that someone from the university had allowed Jangotra to write his answer sheet after the examination was over on January 15 as his train had reached late from Jammu.

The officials also alleged that the accused had deliberately visited an ATM and was seen looking at the camera to create an alibi for himself.

In its charge sheet, the crime branch had mentioned that some officials of the university had allegedly received a "huge amount of kickback from accused Sanji Ram".

"This aspect needs further investigation as records are to be collected from concerned college and university....after conducting further investigation supplementary charge sheet shall follow," the charge sheet had said.

Jangotra is among eight people who have been charge sheeted by the crime branch in the rape and murder of the girl.

The charge sheet also claimed that Sanji Ram, the alleged main conspirator, had planned the kidnapping of the girl only to drive away the nomads from the Kathua region.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Justice J Chelameswar, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India asking him to convene a meeting of the collegium to urgently forward to the Centre the name of Uttarakhand Chief Justice K M Joseph as the judge of the apex court.

The government had on April 26 returned the Collegium's recommendation to elevate Justice Joseph seeking its reconsideration, saying the proposal was not in accordance with the top court's parameters and there was adequate representation of Kerala in the higher judiciary from where he hails. It had also questioned his seniority for elevation as a judge of the apex court.

An apex court official said, in his letter sent to the CJI late last evening, Justice Chelameswar has conveyed that he was reiterating his decision for the elevation of Justice Joseph as the judge of the top court since there was no change in the circumstance that had led the collegium to recommend his name to the government on January 10.

It is also learnt that, Justice Chelameswar, who retires on June 22, has responded to all the points raised in the communication to the CJI by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad expressing reservations on the elevation of Justice Joseph.

The meeting of the Collegium was expected to take place yesterday but Justice Chelameswar was on leave. Besides the CJI and Justice Chelameswar, other members of the collegium are Justices Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph.

Justice Kurian Joseph, during his visit to Kerala last week, had also reportedly made it clear that he was in favour of reiterating the recommendation of the collegium on the issue of Uttarakhand Chief Justice Joseph.

Though no official word was there on when the collegium would meet, the official said it is for the CJI to fix the date as there is no other agenda but to discuss the issue of returning the recommendation relating to Justice Joseph to the Centre.

Earlier also, notwithstanding the letters written by the collegium members to the CJI which had come into the public domain, the Centre had disregarded the recommendation about Justice Joseph.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A relative of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) today in connection with the PWD scam, even as the ruling AAP alleged that the move was aimed at "maligning" the image of the party supremo and harass his kin.

Vinay Bansal, son of Kejriwal's brother-in-law, was arrested this morning from his residence in north west Delhi's Pitampura area, a senior ACB official said.

Reacting to the development, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, "In the last three years, the Delhi Police and the ACB worked only for the central government and the LG, and to trouble the AAP leaders and their relatives".

Three FIRs, including one against a company run by the chief minister's brother-in-law Surender Bansal, were registered by the ACB in the PWD scam case on May 9 last year.

Three companies, including Renu Constructions (owned by Bansal, Kamal Singh and Pawan Kumar), were included in the FIRs.

In a complaint, Rahul Sharma, founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), had alleged that Kejriwal and PWD minister Satyendra Jain misused their office for grant of contracts to Bansal. However, they were not named in the FIR.

RACO, an organisation which claims to monitor construction projects in the national capital, had alleged that a firm linked to Bansal was involved in financial irregularities in building a drainage system in north-west Delhi.

It was also alleged that the bills sent to the Public Works Department (PWD) for unfinished works were "false and fabricated".

AAP's Delhi unit chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said the arrest was an attempt to malign the chief minister's image and harass his relatives.

He said the contract in question was given to Bansal's company in Januray, 2015 while Kejriwal came to power a month later.

"Contractors are asked to submit bills of the material used to ensure their quality. The quality of all this material has been inspected and certified by IIT Roorkee and SriRam Labs. These two are the most reputed labs in the country. So, where is the scam?" Bharadwaj tweeted.

However, the Anti Corruption Branch defended the arrest of the chief minister's kin.

"This is not an arrest made in haste. Bansal was evasive during questioning. He earlier claimed that he was not an active partner in the company, but it was found out that he owned



50 per cent of the shares along with his father," the official added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's nephew Vinay Bansal was arrested today by an anti-graft body in connection with alleged financial irregularities in a drainage project for the PWD, prompting the AAP to allege that it was a conspiracy to malign the party chief's image and harass his relatives.

While Bansal was sent to one-day judicial custody by a Delhi court, his arrest immediately triggered a political slugfest in the national capital with the BJP's Delhi unit demanding Kejriwal's resignation and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia alleging that the Centre was using Delhi Police and the Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) only "to harass and trouble" AAP leaders and their relatives.

The ACB officials said Bansal was found to be a 50 per cent stakeholder in a firm named Renu Constructions that was allegedly involved in financial irregularities in building a drainage system in north-west Delhi.

Bansal was arrested in the morning from his residence in north west Delhi's Pitampura area, a senior ACB official said. Duty Metropolitian Magistrate Suri Mishra denied the ACB's application for three-day police remand saying Bansal is not medically fit, while sending him to a one-day judicial custody.

Rebutting the AAP government's claim that a third party audit had cleared the project, the ACB sources said that four PWD officials had "colluded" with the company in the alleged wrongdoing. They alleged that Bansal was evasive during questioning and had claimed that he was not an active partner in Renu Constructions.

The ACB officials said they have found records, agreements, acceptance of measurements, bills, etc, signed by Bansal and there was also correspondences like request of approval of drawings that had his signature.

Three FIRs, including one against a company run by the chief minister's brother-in-law Surender Bansal, were registered by the ACB in the PWD scam case on May 9 last year. Three companies, including Renu Constructions (owned by Bansal, Kamal Singh and Pawan Kumar), were named in these FIRs.

In a complaint, Rahul Sharma, founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), had alleged that Kejriwal and PWD minister Satyendra Jain misused their office for grant of contracts to Bansal. However, they were not named in the FIR.

RACO, an organisation which claims to monitor construction projects in the national capital, had alleged that a firm linked to Bansal was involved in financial irregularities in building a drainage system in north-west Delhi.

The ACB officials said the partnership agreement between the PWD and Renu Constructions before the award of work was signed by the father-son duo, Surender and Vinay Bansal and investigation revealed that Renu Constructions had procured steel and cement from a firm named M/S Mahadev Impex that was later found not to exist.

The PWD had estimated the project cost to be around Rs 4.9 crore but the firm had bid for an amount of about Rs 2.64 crore and the project was completed at a cost of approximately Rs 3.1 crore.

"The internal quality assurance team of PWD did not inspect the work despite the tender being 46 per cent of the estimated cost. Prima facie, PWD officials deliberately overlooked checking the construction quality to favour the contractor for undue pecuniary gains," the ACB source said.

Rejecting the charges, Deputy CM Sisodia said the "justice" still exists in the country and the police and the ACB would be "exposed" once the case goes to courts.

He said the action against Bansal was part of a chain of arrests of AAP MLAs and harassment of AAP ministers and their relatives.

"For the Centre and the Lt Governor in the last three years, Delhi Police and ACB only exist to harass and trouble AAP leaders, ministers, their relatives and even their children.

"If they (police and ACB) do not do it, they are pulled up. Centre and L-G are only taking one work, which is how to trouble AAP leaders," Sisodia told reporters here.

He also said that the IIT Roorkee had done a third-party audit of the concerned drainage system project and submitted a report. and the work was found to be done well by the PWD as well.

"After the complaint, the ACB also did a separate inquiry by Sri Ram Labs which also said the work was satisfactory," Sisodia said.

AAP's Delhi unit chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said that it was "an attempt to malign the chief minister's image and harass his relatives." He rejected allegations of any scam in the contract allotted to Bansal's company.

Bharadwaj said the contract was given to Bansal's company in January 2015 while Kejriwal came to power a month later.

"Contractors are asked to submit bills of material used to ensure that quality of material like steel, cement, bricks. The quality of all this material has been inspected and certified by IIT Roorkee and SriRam Labs. These two are most reputed labs in India. Where is the scam?" Bharadwaj tweeted.

BJP however mounted an attack with its Delhi unit chief Manoj Tiwari demanded Kejriwal's resignation and alleged that the scam happened under the Chief Minister "patronage".

"It is amply clear with the arrest of Bansal in the PWD's bogus payments scam, that he had Chief Minister's patronage in his misdeeds," Tiwari said in a statement. He further said that Kejriwal has lost all "moral right" to rule and he should quit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has invited Israel's aerospace industry and cyber security firms to set up their bases in Haryana.

Khattar visited Israeli Aerospace Industry (IAI) where he was briefed by Israeli officials about the innovations made in the fields of aerospace and defence.

He invited IAI to set up ancillary units in the Hisar Aviation Hub being set up by his government, a statement said.

He has also invited the consortium of cyber security companies under Israel Aviation Industry to set up base in Haryana which houses top 200 companies in the world, it said.

During the discussions, officials from IAI evinced keen interest in the aviation hub and agreed to visit Hisar next month, it added.

The IAI has entered into USD 1 billion contract with the India government under which it is obliged to invest or procure 30 per cent material from the local market.

The officials assured to explore Haryana as a top priority.

Khattar also visited the manufacturing plant of Unmanned Ariel Vehicle (UAV) and jets and invited IAI to set up ancillary units in the proposed Hisar Aviation Hub.

Highlighting Hisar's proximity to Delhi International Airport, Khattar said the place had less humid atmosphere which is vital for UAV and other defence materials.

He said Hisar aviation hub enjoyed a strategic geographical location and could be made into a manufacturing base for Israeli aviation industry from where the entire south-eastern market can be served.

Khattar also led a strong delegation of officers of Haryana Police who held interactions with their Israeli counterparts.

The visit of the delegation is aimed to learn from Israeli experts how law and order machinery can be improved to check crime and beef up security and intelligence network of the Haryana Police.

The delegation also visited headquarters of the United Hatzalah of Israel, along with the Chief Minister. United Hatzalah runs emergency rescue operations across Israel based on volunteers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad was today granted a three- day parole to attend his son's wedding in Patna this Saturday, a senior jail officer said today.

Prasad, 69, who has been convicted in three fodder scam cases by a special CBI court in Ranchi since December last year, is currently undergoing treatment at the RIMS hospital in the Jharkhand capital.

He has been granted parole for three days, Inspector General of Prison Harsh Mangla told PTI.

However, the IG Prison was not categorical about the effective date of parole and said it depended upon when the jail authorities would release him. Mangla added that as per the rules, the travel time is not counted in the duration of the parole.

Bhola Yadav, RJD General Secretary and a close aide of Prasad, told PTI in Ranchi that they were planning to go to Patna by the evening flight.

"Flight tickets are being arranged to go to Patna by evening flight today," Bhola Yadav, who is also an RJD MLA in Bihar, said adding Prasad is likely to return to Ranchi on May 14 on completion of parole.

Prasad's elder son and former Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadav's marriage with daughter of RJD MLA Chandrika Rai is scheduled on May 12 in Patna.

The RJD chief was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) In Delhi on March 29 for specialised treatment and was discharged on April 30. The hospital had said his condition had improved significantly but the former Bihar chief minister alleged a "political conspiracy" behind his discharge.

The application on behalf of the RJD chief, moved on Monday last, had sought a five-day parole but only three days were granted. Asked about it, the Jharkhand Prison IG said, "We decided on the matter considering the need."



RJD supporters in Patna were upbeat about Prasad's return to Patna. Prasad could not attend the engagement ceremony of his son in Patna on April 18 following which Tej Pratap had tweeted "Miss you PAPA".

The 10, Circular Road bungalow, allotted to former chief minister and Prasad's wife Rabri Devi, has been abuzz with wedding preparations for the past few days. 'Slogans of Lalu Yadav Zindabad' resonated in the complex as soon as the supporters learned that the RJD supremo has been granted parole and that he would be coming to Patna.

The party's national spokesman and Rajya Sabha member Manoj Jha said, "We are glad that our leader has finally been allowed to attend wedding of his son."



"We are, however, disappointed at the shabby treatment meted out to him at every stage," he told PTI.

Jha alleged that Parasad was "forcibly sent back" to Ranchi from AIIMS "notwithstanding his fragile health which deserves best-possible medical care".

"Now, he has been granted parole for only three days though he had sought it for just two more days. This once again proves that the ruling dispensation in the country is devoid of basic human sensitivity," Jha alleged.

"We do not even know whom to complain. Every institution has been subverted for settling political scores. But, the people of Bihar are watching all the events intently. We have full faith in their wisdom and their power to give a befitting reply to those who are drunk on power," he said.

Meanwhile, a number of political leaders are expected to attend the wedding of Tej Pratap Yadav and Aishwarya Rai. The bride's grandfather Daroga Rai was the chief minister of Bihar in early 70s from Congress.

A huge stage is being erected at the sprawling Veterinary College ground where the couple will exchange garlands in the presence of guests.

"We are expecting about 20,000 guests from across the country. Invitations have been sent to almost every major political figure and luminaries from various walks of life," Bihar RJD president Ram Chandra Purve said here.

Prominent among those who have been invited to the wedding are UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Bihar Governor Satya Pal Mallik, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and Chief Justice of the Patna High Court Rajendra K Menon and Yoga guru Baba Ramdev.

Pandals have been also erected at the house of Rabri Devi where pre-wedding rituals will be conducted as well as at the residence of Chandrika Rai, where the marriage will take place in a traditional way.

In Prasad' s native Phulwaria block in Gopalganj district, his nephew Ramanand Yadav said that they had received an invitation and so have many others in the village. "Hundreds of people from here will be visiting Patna to give their blessings to the young couple," he said.

Ram Das and Dayanand Pandey, both priests at local temples, said they were going to the wedding. Asked about how they feel about the high-profile event, one of them said, "We are not at all worried about how much 'dakshina' we will be offered. They (the Lalu family) are magnanimous people and know how to treat poor people like us well".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A two-year-old male leopard was found dead today on a railway track in the Mukundra Hills National Park here, an official said.

The leopard may have accidentally come before a train, Field Director Ghanshyam Prasad Sharma told PTI.

The carcass was sent for post-mortem to ascertain the exact cause of death, he said.

The accident took place on the Darrah-Jhalawar route which is used by trains plying between Delhi-Mumbai, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A man-eater leopard killed an elderly woman in Jakhnidhar area of Uttarakhand's Tehri district.

The incident came to light today morning when some villagers saw the half eaten body of 65-year-old Bichna Devi while going to give fodder to their livestock, forest range officer Ashish Dimri said.

The Forest Department has put up a cage in the area to trap the leopard besides giving an immediate financial assistance of Rs 90,000 to the next of kin of the woman.

The woman, a resident of Kastal village, was going to attend the marriage of her nephew in the neighbouring Mandar village last evening when she was apparently attacked by the big cat near the basic school in Myundi village.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A vegetable vendor allegedly committed suicide after receiving an electricity bill of Rs 8.64 lakh for the month of March which the power distribution firm later said was an erroneous one caused due to a missing decimal point.

Jagannath Nehaji Shelke (36) allegedly hung himself in the early hours of Thursday as he was distressed over the bill and several visits to the local office of the state-run Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) were in vain, his kin today said.

Shelke was served a bill, in the last week of April, of Rs 8.64 lakh after 61,178 units of electricity was charged to him, with MSEDCL officials now claiming that the correct figure for the units consumed at Shelke's household should have been just 6,117.8



This amount would have come to around Rs 2,803, they said.

The incident took place in Bharatnagar locality within Pundliknagar police station limits, said officials.

A suicide note left behind by the deceased stated that he was frustrated with the exorbitant bill since his household consumed electricity worth around Rs 1,000 on an average every month.

An account assistant at the power utility, Sushil Kashinath Koli, was suspended yesterday for alleged dereliction of duty, said officials.

The MSEDCL, which had earlier said that it had nothing to with Shelke's death, later took action against its employee after the deceased's suicide note was widely circulated on social media.

His family members today said that they would not cremate Shelke's body, which is in the morgue of a local hospital, till the officials responsible for the tragedy were arrested under charges of abetment of suicide.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Israel's army said today it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces which it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies.

The incident came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from a key 2015 Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, a move Israel had long advocated.

The raids were one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and the biggest such assault on Iranian targets, the military said.

"We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a security conference on Thursday morning.

"They need to remember the saying that if it rains on us, it'll storm on them. I hope we've finished this episode and everyone understood."



Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight.

It blamed the rocket fire on Iran's Al-Quds force, adding that Israel's anti-missile system intercepted four of the projectiles while the rest did not land in its territory.

No Israelis were wounded.

If confirmed, the incident would be the first such rocket fire by Iranian forces in Syria towards Israel.

"We know that comes from the al-Quds force," army spokesman lieutenant-colonel Jonathan Conricus said, referring to the special forces unit affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said dozens of rockets were fired from Syria toward the Israeli-occupied Golan, but did not confirm they were fired by Iranian forces.

It alleged the rockets followed a "first Israeli bombardment on the town of Baath" in Quneitra province.

A senior pro-regime military source in Syria confirmed the salvo of rockets, but insisted Israel had fired first.

Later, in the early hours of the morning, explosions were heard in Damascus, while live images were broadcast on television showing projectiles above the Syrian capital and several missiles destroyed by Syrian anti-aircraft systems.

Syrian state media reported that Israeli missile strikes had hit military bases as well as an arms depot and a military radar installation, without specifying the locations.

The official SANA agency added that "dozens of missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft systems in Syrian airspace", saying a number of missiles had reached their targets.

Israel's military later confirmed it had carried out the raids, saying dozens of Iranian military targets had been struck and all of its aircraft had returned safely.

Conricus said intelligence, logistics, storage and vehicles as well as the origin of the rockets were targeted.

Syrian air defences, which fired dozens of times on Israeli forces, were also targeted, he said.

There had been no comment from Iranian officials. Lieberman called the rocket fire "a new phase".

"We don't want an escalation, but won't let anyone attack us or build an infrastructure to attack us in the future," he said.

"We're facing a new reality. The Iranian attempt to bring anti-aircraft systems to our borders and close our skies is intolerable and unacceptable."



An Israeli military statement said "this Iranian aggression is another proof of the intentions behind the establishment of the Iranian regime in Syria and the threat it poses to Israel and regional stability."It added that it "will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory."French President Emmanuel Macron called Thursday for "de-escalation" between Israel and Iran, adding that he would discuss the issue later in the day with German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Israel has long warned that it will not accept Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria, where Tehran is supporting President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the country's seven-year civil war.

Israel has been blamed for a series of recent strikes inside Syria that have killed Iranians, though it did not acknowledge those raids.

It does acknowledge carrying out dozens of raids in Syria to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to Iran-backed Hezbollah, another key foe of Israel.

Israel had been preparing itself for weeks for possible Iranian retaliation.

Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal has added to tensions and led to a new level of uncertainty over how Iran will respond.

Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has provided massive military and diplomatic backing to Assad's regime.

"I told President Putin that it is the right of every state, certainly the right of Israel, to take the necessary steps in order to protect itself from this aggression," Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to Iran's presence in Syria.

Netanyahu and Putin have held a series of meetings and telephone conversations in recent months, particularly regarding Syria.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At the age of 92, Malaysia's former strongman leader Mahathir Mohamad is poised to become the world's oldest prime minister after a stunning election victory against scandal-haunted leader Najib Razak.

In a win that overturns decades of dominance by the country's main coalition, Mahathir has secured an unlikely second act in the twilight of his political career.

A former doctor who entered in 1964, Mahathir governed Malaysia with an iron fist for 22 years, with accusations of rights abuses overshadowing a period that also saw Malaysia transform from a sleepy Southeast Asian backwater into a relatively affluent country.

His return to frontline started when he fell out with his one-time protege Najib over allegations huge sums were looted from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

In a volte-face that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago Mahathir teamed up with parties that he suppressed while in power to take on the party he once led.

It was a gamble for the opposition coalition Pact of Hope to join forces with Mahathir, a divisive figure in the country.

He is remembered fondly by some as a champion of country's Muslim Malay majority and the father of modern Malaysia, credited with policies that helped the economy blossom.

But he was also criticised for disregarding human rights, undermining the judiciary, jailing political opponents and pushing policies that exacerbated racial divisions in the multi-ethnic country.

He was notorious for his acid-tongued attacks on his foes and what he saw as Western neo-colonialism -- in one outburst, he described Europeans as greedy, warmongering sexual deviants.

But the bet paid off -- he succeeded in eroding the key Malay support base of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, helping to bolster the opposition alliance's core supporters in urban areas and among minority groups, in particular ethnic Chinese who make up about a quarter of the population.

During a vicious election campaign, he energetically toured the country, attacking Najib over his mismanagement of the economy and the 1MDB financial scandal.

Mahathir was spurred out of retirement over allegations huge sums were looted from 1MDB, which Najib set up. Najib and 1MDB deny any wrongdoing.

"The biggest mistake that I have made in my life is choosing Najib," he said in one broadside.

"I want to fix this mistake."



The most remarkable aspect of Mahathir's political comeback has been his reconciliation with former nemesis Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar was Mahathir's heir-apparent until the premier sacked him in 1998 over political differences, and he was subsequently jailed on charges of sodomy and abuse of power. His conviction was widely condemned by rights groups and the international community as politically motivated.

After being released Anwar led the opposition to its best-ever showing in 2013 elections, but was imprisoned again in 2015 under Najib's government. Mahathir has vowed to hand power to Anwar once he is released.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said today he accepted the will of the people after his long-ruling coalition suffered a shock election loss to 92-year-old former strongman Mahathir Mohamad.

"I accept the verdict of the people," the leader, who looked shattered after his coalition's defeat, said, adding that because no single party got a majority in parliament, it was up to the king to decide who will become prime minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 35-year-old man, employed with a private hospital in Noida, allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself in east Delhi's New Ashok Nagar area, police said today.

Abhinav shot himself last night when he was alone at his residence, they said, adding no suicide note was found from the spot.

However, it was found that he had differences with his wife which might have prompted him to take the extreme step, the police said.

He had been married for two years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 45-year-old man, allegedly linked to an international fake Indian currency racket, was arrested and fake notes with a face value of Rs 8 lakh in Rs 2,000 denomination was seized from him, police said today.

The Special Cell of the Delhi Police said that the arrested, identified as Kamil, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Samili district, is the member of West Bengal's Malda and the Indo Bangla Border-based module, they said.

Police said Kamil would supply Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICNs) in various areas after getting consignment from the module.

For the last few months, a team led by inspector Rahul Kumar Singh was working to bust the module of one Martuz, a resident of Malda, who is operating the module and circulating FICN to different parts of the country through his associates.

DCP (Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said that a specific information was received that Kamil has collected a huge consignment of FICN from the Martuz and would be meeting one of his associates near the Seelampur Metro Station bus stop to deliver the consignment.

In a statement, Yadav said that accordingly, a trap was laid at the vantage points near the Seelampur Metro Station Bus Stop and Kamil was spotted with a bag under a foot over bridge.

"He (Kamil) waited for some time when no one turned up, he was about to move, police team swooped in and detained him, the search of his bag led to recovery of small bag wrapped in a mosquito net," the statement said.

"The smaller bag contained two packets of ploythene in which four wads of FICN in denomination of Rs 2000 notes amounting to Rs 8 lakh were recovered," it said.

Yadav said that during the preliminary interrogation, Kamil revealed that he procured the consignment of FICNs from one Martuz in West Bengal after paying Rs 2.5 lakh for delivery.

The accused had procured the consignment two days ago and had come from Malda, West Bengal to deliver the same to his associate, he said.

Police said that efforts were on to identify the names of his other associates and to unearth the entire module of fake currency notes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An ex-serviceman allegedly stabbed his wife to death before committing suicide by hanging himself from a tree in Makhanpur village here, the police said today.

Kuldeep Singh (55) attacked his wife, Balvinder Kaur, with a sharp-edged weapon yesterday following a heated argument with her over some issue, they said.

Singh locked his son and daughter-in-law in a room before attacking his wife and fled soon after, the police said.

Kaur was rushed to the GMC hospital by her son and neighbours, where she was declared brought dead, they said.

Singh's body was later found hanging from a tree on the outskirts of the village, they said.

The bodies were handed over to the family after



postmortem and an investigation is underway, the police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign against North Korea has worked, the White House has said, ahead of President Donald Trump's historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The White House statement comes a day after North Korea released three Americans who were detained in the country for months.

"The President has talked about, certainly, that the maximum pressure campaign has worked. We have seen North Korea make progress since that campaign started," White House Press Secretary Sarah sanders told reporters.

Sanders said Trump had also been very clear that some of the success was due to America's key allies and partners like South Korea's President Moon Jae-In, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who played a "big role" putting pressure on North Korea.

"They have all played a big role in the maximum pressure campaign. But a lot of that is due to the fact that the President has spent time developing relationships with those individuals, and they've collectively been able to put pressure on North Korea," Sanders said yesterday.

Trump told reporters yesterday that the time and venue for his summit meeting Kim had been decided and would be announced in three days, ruling out the Demilitarised Zone that divides the Korean peninsula as a venue for the meeting.

Trump had spoken with Moon Jae-in to discuss Pompeo's visit to North Korea.

"The two leaders welcomed North Korea's decision to release three American detainees, and expressed hope for joyful family reunions," said a readout of the call.

Trump would host Moon at the White House on May 22.

Sanders said the President viewed the release of three prisoners by North Korea as a positive gesture and a step in the right direction from the North Korean leader.

"However, total denuclearisation will remain the top priority," she said.

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard called for building on the momentum.

"The nuclear threat posed to us by North Korea is real, and the need to denuclearise North Korea is urgent. Historic progress has already been made.

"Those calling for delays or setting preconditions before direct talks between President Trump and Chairman Kim are grossly out of touch with and naive to the seriousness of the threat that the people of Hawaii live with every day," she said.

"We cannot keep kicking the can down the road. We must build on the momentum of the historic summit between North and South Korean leaders, and do all we can toward a successful US-North Korean summit to denuclearise North Korea," Gabbard said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The members of several social organisations, including a students' body, today opposed the idea of granting citizenship to migrants during a meeting with the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Citizenship



(Amendment) Bill, 2016, at the State Convention Hall here.

The Bill has been introduced in the Lok Sabha with an aim to provide citizenships to persecuted minorities from the neighbouring countries after at least six years of their residence in India.

The North East Students Organisation (NESO), in a petition to the committee, said the people of the region should be provided with "constitutional safeguards".

"We oppose the proposed Bill in totality and demand that Inner Line Permit system be introduced for the entire region," NESO chairman Samuel B Jyrwa said.

"The Bill is another effort to encourage infiltration of the Hindus from Bangladesh into the different states of the region. People here are shocked to see that religion is a criterion in the bill," he said.

In all, 10 different organisations, including the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (Tripura) and the Grand Council of Chiefs (an organisation of tribal communities), were present at the meeting.

"Tripura is flooded with immigrants and the indigenous people have been reduced to a minority in their very own land," INPT leader M Debbarma said.

Quoting census data, Debbarma blamed influx of the Bangladesh nationals as the reason behind the drop in percentage of the indigenous tribals in Tripura - 62 per cent in 1941 to just 30 per cent in 1991.

Earlier in the day, the members of the Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People and pro-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA-P) staged a peaceful rally in the city to protest against the proposed Bill.

The Khasi Students' Union also held a demonstration on the premises of the State Convention Hall to oppose the Bill.

JPC chairman and BJP MP Rajendra Agrawal, who was present at the meet today, said all opinions and views will be compiled in a report and submitted to the Parliament.

Asked if the JPC will hold meetings in all states of the North East, Agrawal said, "We have held sittings in Guwahati, Silchar and Shillong. If needed, the committee can think of holding hearing sessions in other states later."



The ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance, which has the BJP as one of its constituents, had earlier this week said it would oppose the Bill tooth and nail.

Stating that the Bill is "dangerous" for a small state like Meghalaya, Deputy Chief Minister P Tynsong said it does not benefit the people of Meghalaya in any way.

"This (Bill) looks dangerous as a Christian or a Hindu, once they are here for 6 years, can become a citizen of India," he had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Militant outfit People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) today claimed responsibility for the blast outside a BSF camp in Manipur that left two securitymen killed and three civilians injured.

In a statement, the PREPAK said the bomb explosion was carried out by its cadres near the gate of the Border Security Force (BSF) camp at Koirengei in Imphal East district.

Two BSF personnel were killed and three civilians injured in the blast that took place outside the gate of BSF's Manipur Sector Head Quarters at Koirengei yesterday afternoon.

The PREPAK was formed in 1977 and its main demand is the expulsion of outsiders from Manipur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Dozens of Islamic militant prisoners who took over a police detention center near Indonesia's capital and killed five officers surrendered to police today, the country's top security minister said.

The riot erupted late Tuesday at the headquarters of the elite Mobile Brigade police in Depok, on Jakarta's southern outskirts, where four days earlier authorities arrested three militants they accuse of planning to attack police.

Most of the prisoners surrendered before dawn today following an ultimatum from security personnel, said Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security Wiranto, who goes by one name.

About 10 inmates refused to give up but shortly were subdued when police fired smoke bombs and tear gas.

He said those involved were "detained terrorists."



"They committed cruelty by seizing weapons, holding hostages, torturing and even killing the officers in cruel and vile manners, beyond the limits of humanity," Wiranto said at a conference.

He said inmates had controlled about 30 guns and weapons they took from officers and a store room.

Earlier, Deputy National Police Chief Muhammad Syafruddin said all 155 inmates were involved in the riot.

He said they took nine officers hostage and killed five of them, while another four were tortured. The last hostage, a chief sergeant, was released just after midnight in exchange with food.

One inmate was killed, police said.

Syafruddin said the inmates would be moved to other penitentiaries including the prison island of Nusa Kambangan off the southern coast of Java.

The Islamic State group's Amaq Agency published a report after the riot broke out saying the melee was between its fighters and the counterterrorism squad.

Those provoking the riot were about 30 to 40 inmates from Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, a network of Indonesian extremist groups that pledges allegiance to Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, National Police spokesman Setyo Wasisto said in an interview with local MetroTV.

Police have said the incident was triggered by a trivial disagreement about a delay in an inmate getting food from his family.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo expresses gratitude to all security forces involved in the efforts to control the situation and restore security in the Mobil Brigade's headquaters.

"I need to emphasize, the state and the whole nation are never afraid and will never give any room to terrorism and efforts that disturb the security of the country," Jokowi said.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has carried out a sustained crackdown on Islamic militants since the 2002 Bali bombings by the Jemaah Islamiyah network that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.

The network was neutralized following the arrests of hundreds of its militants and leaders. But new threats have emerged recently from Islamic State group-inspired radicals who have targeted security forces and local "infidels" instead of Westerners.

It was the second riot in the detention center since November, when detained militants attacked prison guards who were searching for contraband and cellphones.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A large number of municipal workers have gone on a three-day strike since yesterday across Haryana in support of their demands, including



regularisation of the contractual employees.

Nearly 30,000 employees of over 80 municipal corporations, municipal committees and councils have gone on a strike, claimed Subhash Lamba, general secretary of Sarv Karamchari Sangh, an umbrella body representing various employees unions in the state.

"Our main demands are regularisation of nearly 20,000 contractual employees and equal pay for equal work. We are also demanding a hike in minimum pay of safai karamcharis from Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 per month. The statewide strike was until tomorrow, but it can be extended indefinitely," Lamba said.

He said the BJP government in the state had failed to keep the promises made to the employees in its poll manifesto.

The other major demands of the striking employees include implementation of cashless medical facilities for contractual employees, increasing allowances of both permanent and contractual employees, risk allowance and better safety equipment for those engaged in cleaning sewers.

A large number of municipal employees also took out protest march at different places in the state in support of their demands.

Lamba said the striking employees belong to civil, public health and fire brigade departments, among others.

He also said that as a result of the civic employees going on strike various services were affected in the state.

"Garbage has also started to pile up at various places...However, despite our advance notice to the government about our move, nobody from their side has come forward to engage in talks with us," he claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu has underlined Panama's strategic significance to India as he met Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela Rodrigues and discussed bilateral cooperation in agriculture, trade, health, culture and education.

During their talks yesterday



, he also sought Panama's support for India's candidature to the Human Rights Council (HRC) for the term 2019-2021 and also called for greater exchange of high-level visits between the two nations to deepen bilateral relations in various areas of mutual interest.

Panamanian Vice President Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado also accompanied them during their talks.

The two leaders witnessed the signing of an MoU between India and Panama on exemption of visas for holders of diplomatic and official passports. They also witnessed signing of MoU in the field of agriculture.

Naidu also visited the Panama Canal. Breaking protocol, President Rodriguez accompanied him to the famous canal.

This was an unscheduled engagement of the Panamanian President that surprised the diplomats of both the countries, a statement said.

Indian labourers in the 19th Century had contributed in building Panama railways and the canal.

Naidu during his talks with Panamanian leaders also reaffirmed India's support for Panama's candidature for the UN Security Council's non-permanent seat.

India also reiterated its resolve to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

"I am happy to know that Panama helped consolidate Latin America's support against the global scourge of terrorism," Naidu said.

"India recognizes Panama's significance on account of its strategic location, robust economy and its active diplomatic pursuits," he said.

He said there was a need for greater exchange of high-level visits, especially at the political level, to deepen bilateral relations further in various areas of mutual interest.

"India and Panama always had cordial ties. They are the oldest in the Central American region. These ties are based on our common values and a shared commitment to democracy, pluralism, multi-culturalism, and the rule of law," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

Panama is the first country in Central America that established diplomatic relations with India, he said.

Naidu also interacted with the Indian diaspora.

Naidu is in Panama on the second leg of his three nation tour to Latin America.

He said his visit to the three Latin American countries of Guatemala, Panama and Peru was a part of the government's strategy of reaching out to various countries and regions of the world for enhanced engagement at higher levels to improve bilateral relations for mutual benefit.

"Reaching out to the unreached is necessary for our country to play its due role in the emerging world order keeping in line with our strengths and commitments for peace and prosperity," he told the Indian community.

"In the increasingly integrating global scheme of things, the progress and well being of the aspiring Indians is intrinsically linked with that of the people of Panama and other countries," Naidu said.

"This warrants exploring opportunities for increased trade and investments for mutual benefit of India and the partnering countries. India and Latin American countries have complementarity and not 'competition' and there is huge scope for walking on a new path for mutual benefit," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A naxal was today killed in an exchange of fire with security forces in Rajnandgaon district in Chhattisgarh, officials said.

The incident took place in a forest area near Dudagad village under Bakarkatta police station limits, they said.

A combined team of Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Special Task Force (STF) was on a patrol duty, when the naxals opened fire on them, police officials in Rajnandgaon told PTI over phone.

The security forces retaliated and the exchange of fire continued for a while. After some time, the rebels escaped into the interior parts of the forest.

When the security forces searched the area, they found the body of the naxal. They also recovered a pressure bomb and some naxal-related material from the spot.

The deceased is yet to be identified, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A girl student, who had to remove her innerwear to appear for NEET here on May 6, has filed a police complaint alleging that an external observer had stared at her 'inappropriately.'



Based on her complaint, a case was registered under IPC sect 509 (eveteasing by word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and investigations have begun, police said.

The student who appeared for the National Eligiblity-cum-Entrance Test conducted by Central Board of Secondary (CBSE) at the Lion's school at Koppa here, had to remove her brassieres along with some other girls as it contained metal hook before writing the test.

According to the complainant, she was not comfortable writing the examination as a male external observer kept staring at her 'inappropriately.'



"The invigilator came and stood before her several times. He did not look at her face.. but at her chest. she tried to cover herself with the question paper," her sister told television channels.

"My sister was mentally tensed. The invigilator came near her two to three times.. she found it difficult to write the exam properly, she was uncomfortable," she said.

Police said they have begun investigations and are trying to talk to students who had also appeared for the test in the same school.

"We are trying to speak to more witnesses who appeared for the test in the school. We are trying to get the list of other students who wrote the test in this school," the sources said.

Meanwhile, the CBSE's Regional officer here, Tarun Kumar, told PTI that they had not received any complaint on the matter so far.

On the police complaint, he said, "We are enquiring and a report is expected by next week."



Last year, a controversy had erupted after a girl student from Kannur complained that she was forced to remove her inner wear to write the test.

Over one lakh students had appeared for the test from Kerala this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nepal is all set to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is arriving in the country tomorrow for a two-day state visit during which he will hold talks with the top leadership here with a focus on implementing key India-assisted projects and building mutual trust.

This will be the third visit of Prime Minister Modi to Nepal and the first high-level visit from India since the formation of the new Government in Nepal.

He will start his visit from the historic city of Janakpur, the birthplace of Sita, tomorrow morning.

In Janakpur, Modi will visit 20th century Janaki temple and offer special prayers. Later, Prime Minister Modi will be accorded a civic reception by the Janakpur Sub-Metropolitan City at Barhabigha ground.

Ahead of the visit, Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali along with India's Ambassador Manjeev Singh Puri visited the city to take stock of the arrangements. The security has been tightened in the city with the deployment of more police personnel.

In the afternoon, the Prime Minister will fly to the capital, Kathmandu, where he will be given a guard of honour by the Nepal Army.

Welcome gates with pictures of Modi and his Nepalese counterpart KP Oli have been installed at different places on the way to the main city area from the Tribhuvan International Airport. Roads have been decorated with flags of Nepal and India.

The prime minister will call on Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun and President Bidya Devi Bhandari in the afternoon.

In the evening, Modi will hold delegation-level talks with Oli.

Later, both leaders will jointly lay the foundation stone of Arun-III hydro power project through a remote system and issue a press statement. Modi will also attend a banquet hosted by Prime Minister Oli.

On Saturday, Prime Minister will visit historic Muktinath temple in Mustang district situated in north-west Nepal to offer prayers Modi will attend a reception hosted by



Ambassador Puri in his honour.

Leaders of various political parties in the country will call on Prime Minister Modi in Kathmandu.

Oli on Tuesday held discussions with former prime ministers and former foreign ministers about Modi's visit. He briefed them about issues to be taken up with Modi and solicited their advice. Oli also informed Parliament about the visit.

The visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between India and Nepal, and will enable leaders to discuss matters of mutual interest and to strengthen cooperation in all areas of age-old, multi-faceted and expanding partnership between the two countries, the Ministry of External Affairs said in New Delhi said in a statement last week.

Official sources in New Delhi earlier said that during Modi's two-day visit, India will seek to consolidate relationship with the new Nepalese government headed by Oli who has returned to power riding on a spectacular electoral victory and now leads a stable dispensation after years of political instability.

The aim will also be to bring "substance" and "seriousness" in ties, a source said, while expressing the hope that "it will further build trust between the two neighbours".

They said both sides will deliberate on the implementation of the ambitious rail project to link Kathmandu with Raxaul in Bihar and connecting landlocked Nepal with river transport system with India, apart from several other key connectivity projects.

India had offered these mega projects during Oli's visit here last month, seen as a move to counter China's efforts to expand influence over Kathmandu by offering various infrastructure projects.

Nepalese PM Oli had visited India around a month back which was seen as an attempt to repair Nepal's ties with New Delhi. In 2016, Oli had publicly criticised India for interfering in Nepal's internal matters and accused it of toppling his government over the issue of Madhesis, who are mostly of Indian-origin.

Modi and Oli are likely to sign a number of pacts and inaugurate the Rs 6000-crore Arun 3 project which is expected to generate around 900 MW of power.

The sources said there may be an announcement on the proposed Ramayan circuit, under which fifteen destinations like Ayodhya, Nandigram, Shringverpur and Chitrakoot



will be developed to promote religious tourism.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The National Green Tribunal has sought response of the Centre and civic bodies here seeking cancellation of the approval granted the DDA to allot land at Sonia Vihar and Ghonda Gujran areas to set up landfill sites.

A bench headed by Acting Chairperson Justice Jawad Rahim issued notice to the Ministry of and Forests, Delhi Development Authority, Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi Pollution Control Committee, East Delhi Municipal Corporation and sought their reply before May 14, the next date of hearing.

The Supreme Court had on May 4 stayed the proceedings related to the landfill sites at Ghazipur and Bhalswa in Delhi pending before the tribunal.

The tribunal's notice came on a plea filed Ghonda MLA Shri Dutt Sharma and others seeking a direction to restrain the DDA from allotting an area of 130 acres at Sonia Vihar and a 50-acre plot at Ghonda Gujran to the EDMC for handling and processing waste.

The petition, filed through advocate Abhinav Singh, said that if the project is started by the EDMC for landfill sites at the two areas, it will adversely affect the ecosystem and the overall ecology since there are several densely populated colonies nearby.

It said the approval given on the recommendation of the Central Pollution Control Board and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute was based on wrong facts and that it violated the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

The petition sought a direction to the DDA to cancel the allotment of lands in question falling within the active floodplain of the Yamuna.

It also asked for a direction to the authorities to conduct a cumulative impact study to record the status of ecology and in the two areas.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nicolas Cage has been signed on to star in thriller "Kill Chain".

The 54-year-old actor will feature in the project being described as a film in the vein of the "greatest detective noirs", according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The film is to be written and directed by Ken Sanzel, who produced "Numb3rs" and wrote "The Replacement Killers".

A movie by Millennium studios, it follows three strangers and how they inevitably become entangled in a conflict none of them anticipated.

Paul Hertzberg is attached to produce.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP legislator and former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singhwas elected as the speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly today.

Singh, who is an MLA from Billawar constituency in Jammu region, was elected as the speaker by a voice vote in a one day special session of the Assembly here.

The motion to elect Singh was moved by Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Basharat Bukhari and seconded by Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta.

Singh defeated Congress MLA from Bandipora, Usman Majeed.

However, the Opposition staged a walkout from the Assembly alleging that rules and proper procedures were not followed for the election of the speaker.

Earlier, when the House proceedings began this afternoon, National Conference (NC) MLA Mohammad Shafi Uri alleged that rules regarding notifying the members of the election well before time were not followed.

Uri said the rules clearly state that the secretary assembly shall send notices to all the members.

But some members have not been notified, Uri said, adding that Singh had submitted his nomination form before the issuance of the notification for the post.

If no such notice has been sent to every member, then this election should not happen as it is the question of the dignity of the House. Why have the rules been relaxed? Why are you (deputy speaker) degrading this House? he said.

Following the uproar by the Opposition, Deputy Speaker Nazir Gurezi adjourned the House for half an hour.

Unfortunately, the opposition is adamant that the election be delayed, but it cannot be done, Gurezi said.

As the deputy speaker conducted the elections, the opposition staged a walk-out from the House.

The opposition parties, led by National Conference MLA Ali Mohammad Sagar, accused the deputy speaker of bulldozing the Constitution.

You are bulldozing the rules and the Constitution. We are not adamant, but the ruling parties are. They want to break the rules and violate the constitution, Sagar said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)There is no place for Dalits and backward classes in the heart of the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today, asserting his government is trying to realise B R Ambedkar's dream of a powerful and prosperous India.

Launching a blistering attack on the Congress over the way it has treated Dalits, Modi said the party showed no respect for Ambedkar.

The Congress, he alleged, used "all its power" to defeat Ambedkar when he contested Lok Sabha election in 1952 and Bandara Lok Sabha by-election in 1953.

"That is the reason why Baba Saheb had to face defeat and insult. Let Congress show at least one thing it did to honour Baba Saheb," he said.

Addressing BJP's SC/ST/OBC and Slum Morcha workers through his Namo App, Modi said, "There is no place for dalits and backward classes in the heart of the Congress."



"This has been happening for decades. Till the time the Congress party was in power, Baba Saheb was not given Bharat Ratna," he said.

Maintaining that Ambedkar dreamt of an India which takes everybody forward together, he said the BJP is trying to fulfil his dream by implementing various schemes.

The government, he said, is making efforts to ensure there is social justice and equality.

Modi said 'Stand Up' and 'Mudra' Yojanas are playing a major role in the financial empowerment of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, OBCs and women.

Noting that the BJP has the most number of MPs belonging these categories, Modi said, it was for the first time after Independence that the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government created a separate ministry for scheduled tribes.

Also, it was under Vajpayee that the government created a separate national commission for scheduled tribes, he said.

Modi said the BJP has its governments in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh which have sizeable tribal population.

It is also in power in northeastern states like Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura, and is part of coalition dispensations in Nagaland and Meghalaya.

"This shows that tribal people are fully supporting BJP," he said.

He said the party's manifesto for Karnataka elections has details of the programmes its government will undertake for empowerment of the scheduled tribes.

In Chitradurga, Mysuru, Uttar Kannada and Bagalkot, the government will set up four 'sindhoora laxman training centres' for vocational training, he said.

Modi said the Congress never thought of giving constitutional status to OBC Commission.

"What problem they have I am yet to understand. Every time they create obstacles despite the community's demand for it," he said.

The Congress, he said, did not allow Parliament to function to block the government's move to accord constitutional status to OBC Commission.

Modi said his government made provisions of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act more stringent and increased the number of offences listed under it from 22 to 47.

"The government did this because I know what problems the poor face, what pain Dalits and tribals suffer, and what kind of language is used against them."



He asked BJP workers to visit the homes of people belonging to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes to reassure them that BJP will work for their welfare.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)NCP chiefSharad Pawar today said his party and the Congress have decided to fight the 2019 polls as allies and there would be no problem in formalising seat-sharing with the Grand Old Party in Maharashtra.

The NCP was a constituent in the erstwhile Congress-led UPA governments in Centre and Maharashtra, before both the parties had an acrimonious break-up ahead of the 2014 assembly elections.

"There will be no problem in seat-sharing with the Congress, as both the parties have decided to contest the 2019 polls together in an alliance," Pawar said while addressing party workers here.

On the occasion, NCP leader Sachin Ahir was re-elected as president of the Mumbai unit of the party.

Pawar said the Congress had discussed the prospects of forging a pre-poll alliance withlike-minded partiesand it has been decided that the upcoming polls will be fought together.

Speaking about party leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who was discharged from a city hospital today after he was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in a money laundering case after two years of incarceration, the NCP chief said he was hopeful of Bhujbal's acquittal.

"The first step of gettingbail (for Bhujbal) is accomplished successfully. I am confident that the second step of (Bhujbal's) acquittal would also be successful," he said.

In the 288-member Maharashtra House, the Congress and the NCP each has 41 MLAs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iran has stuck to its commitment under the 2015 nuclear deal, the head of the UN's atomic watchdog said, a day after the US withdrew from the international agreement calling it "defective at its core".

President Donald Trump had announced at the White House that the US would be withdrawing from the deal, and unilaterally begin reinstating economic sanctions against Iran at "the highest level".

"Iran is subject to the world's most robust nuclear verification regime under the JCPOA, which is a significant verification gain. As of today, the IAEA can confirm that the nuclear-related commitments are being implemented by Iran," said Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), refering to the deal.

The 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)was reached by Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the US and the European Union.

It sets out rigorous mechanisms for monitoring restrictions placed on Iran's nuclear programme, while paving the way for the lifting UN sanctions against the country.

"It is clear to me that we cannot prevent Iran nuclear bomb. The Iran deal is defective at its core. Therefore, I am announcing today that the United States would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal," Trump had said.

The US President did not claim that Iran was in violation of the terms of the deal, but described its so-called "sunset provisions" which lift restrictions on the country's ability to enrich uranium within 10 to 15 years as "totally unacceptable".

UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres said in a statement shortly after the US announcement, that he was "deeply concerned" by the decision, and called on the remaining parties to preserve the deal.

The IAEA has repeatedly said that according to its inspectors on the ground in Iran, no violations of the agreement had taken place, and there has been no evidence of any activity relating to any "nuclear explosive device", after 2009.

The IAEA Director General said the agency would be "closely following developments related to the JCPOA, as requested by the United Nations Security Council and authorised by the IAEA Board of Governors in 2015.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)National Conference (NC) working president hit out at Chief Minister today, saying she would "shamelessly cling to power even as her party's alliance partner did not agree with her.

Omar was reacting to the reports that had not agreed to the proposal that the Centre should consider a unilateral ceasefire in starting from in mid May till the completion of the Amarnath yatra in August.

The proposal was announced by the chief minister after an all-party meeting yesterday.

Mehbooba had said all parties agreed that there s



We didn't agree to ceasefire in the all-party meet. There was no consensus on sending an all-party delegation to meet PM, chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi said in Jammu.hould be a ceasefire.

Taking to Twitter, Omar said, What was the point of @MehboobaMufti calling an all party meeting to build a consensus around initiatives in Kashmir when her ally in the Govt doesn't agree with her! Yet she will shamelessly cling to power because that's all that matters to her.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Punjab government will soon roll out a one-time settlement policy for revival of sick units, state industry ministerSunder Sham Arora said.

An official release quoting the minister said that the government was committed to reviving the industry in Punjab and one-settlement policy was just a first step in this direction.

Addressing a gathering of industrialists in Ludhiana, the minister saidthousands of units wereshut down in the state due to wrong policies of the previous SAD-BJP government in its 10-year's regime.

Calling them the backbone of Punjab's development, Arora said the industrialists will have complete freedom to raise their issues and problems before the government and they will not have to shift their units out of the state.

To attract the more investment, the Punjab government has also introduced a new industrial policy which is set to bring investments worth Rs 60,000 crore in the state, he said.

Arora said Ludhiana airport will get more air connectivity in coming days as more flights would start operating from here which will help in growth of business.

The state government signed memorandum of understandings (MoUs) with 21 industrial houses in Ludhiana, worth Rs 1,336.87 crore.

Several industries representing different verticals including Happy Forgings, Ludhiana Beverages, Million Exports, Eastman International Bonn Group of Industries committed fresh investments in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court today directed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to throw open the Eastern Peripheral Expressway for the public by May 31, asking why were they "waiting" for its inauguration by the Prime Minister.

The apex court said if the 135-km expressway, which envisages signal-free connectivity between Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gautam Budh Nagar (Greater Noida) and Palwal, is not inaugurated on or before May 31, it should be thrown open for public who were facing traffic congestion in Delhi.

The Eastern and the Western Peripheral Expressways were planned in 2006 following the top court's order to build a ring road outside the national capital for channelling the traffic not bound for Delhi. The apex court had asked the Centre in 2005 to build the expressway around Delhi by July 2016 to decongest and "de-pollute" the national capital.

Today, the directions by the bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta came after it was informed by the NHAI counsel that the construction work was complete.

When the counsel said it was earlier scheduled to be inaugurated on April 29 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi but could not be done due to his prior commitments, the bench asked "why don't you inaugurate it?"



The court also said, "According to the newspapers, the Prime Minister will not be here tomorrow and day after tomorrow".

The bench also observed that it was earlier informed that the work of expressway was complete and it was likely to be inaugurated on or before April 20.

In a connected development soon after the court expressed anguish over the delay in opening of the expressway, Union Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari came out with a statement saying the expressway was almost ready to be inaugurated.

"Earlier there was little delay as a railway road overbridge could not be completed. Now that work has almost been completed. We are seeking time from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it will soon be inaugurated," Gadkari said.

During the hearing in the apex court, the NHAI counsel also said the ministry has sent a request to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) for this.

Advocate Aparajita Singh, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, told the bench that the people of Delhi were reeling under pollution and traffic problems and the NHAI should open the expressway for public use.

"Why you are waiting for it? You open it," the bench told the NHAI's counsel who again said it would be inaugurated by the Prime Minister.

To this, the bench said, "That is the problem. The High Court of Meghalaya was not inaugurated, but it is functioning for the last five years there. You cannot pass on the buck and say PMO, PMO only".

The amicus requested the court that expressway should be open for public and inauguration could be done later. She said "I think even the PMO will not have any objection".

The NHAI counsel assured the apex court that the Eastern Peripheral Expressway would be inaugurated by May 29.

"The NHAI shall ensure that the inauguration takes place on or before May 31, failing which it will be thrown open for public as Delhi is under traffic congestion and any delay in opening of the Eastern Peripheral Expressway will not in the interest of people of Delhi," the bench said.

In a jocular vein, Justice Lokur asked the NHAI that the expressway could also be inaugurated by Additional Solicitor General ANS Nadkarni, who was present, saying he had taken a lot of pain in this case. This led to peals of laughter in the courtroom.

Meanwhile, the counsel for Haryana government, informed the bench that 81 per cent work of the 135-km Western Peripheral Expressway was complete and the private entity doing the work has assured that construction would be completed by June 30.

According to the timeline, work on Western Peripheral Expressway, which connects Kundli to Palwal via Manesar in Haryana, was to be completed by February 2019 but the construction would be completed by June this year, the counsel said.

"Then you will say the Prime Minister will inaugurate it so wait," the bench said and asked Haryana government to ensure that the private concessionaire, involved in the work, sticks to its date of completion and the expressway be inaugurated immediately thereafter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said the role of the opposition was critical in strengthening democracy as it had to act as a buffer between the government and the people by channelizing dissent.

She said the opposition, by bringing to the fore the dissent of the people, helped the government in its due discharge of duties.

"Yesterday, at the all-party meeting also, I appealed to the opposition to help the government by reaching out to the people in their own way and channelise their grievances, Mufti said in the Legislative Assembly after the election of Nirmal Singh as the new speaker.

She reminded the House of her role as the opposition leader during which she visited every corner of the state, saying it indirectly helped the government of the day to further improve their service delivery and address the issues.

Likewise, she said, the opposition at present should play its role by becoming a bridge between people and the government to put across their grievances and difficulties so that these are discussed at appropriate fora like the Assembly.

For this, whatever support is required from the government, will be extended, she said.

The chief minister said dissent is the essence of democracy and people in both the government and the opposition should be tolerant enough to criticism and opposition.

The position of presiding officer of the House demands that the voice of every section and thought be heard and addressed appropriately which needs patience and tolerance, Mufti said.

Complimenting Singh on assuming the responsibility of the speaker of the House, the chief minister said over the past three years he discharged his responsibilities as the deputy chief minister of the state without any prejudice and with utmost tolerance.

Being a man of letters, Singh earned respect and accolades from every section of the society. I hope he will further elevate this position with his knowledge, genteel behaviour and accommodative attitude, she said.

Earlier, Singh was elected as the speaker of Legislative Assembly in a one-day special session of the legislature.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan said today that the controversy over the portrait of its founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the Aligarh Muslim University showed "growing intolerance and prejudice" in India towards Muslims and Pakistan.

Foreign Office (FO) spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal said at a weekly briefing that traditionally pictures of all life members (of the AMU students' union) are displayed in the AMU and Jinnah's picture has been on display since 1938.

"The row over the picture's display on the demand of a member of the incumbent government indicates the growing intolerance, xenophobia and prejudice especially against Muslims and Pakistan in India and is very dangerous, most of all for India itself," he said.

BJP MP Satish Gautam had written a letter to AMU Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor objecting to the portrait, triggering a row that led to two youths being arrested in connection with incidents of violence and exams being postponed to May 12.

The vice chancellor has said that the portrait of the Pakistan founder had been hanging in the AMU students' union office since 1938 and it was a non-issue.

Faisal said: "It also reflects the fanaticism rampant in Indian society being fuelled by those in power.

"This is in sharp contrast with the tolerance in Pakistan where the pictures/statues of (Mahatma) Gandhi, continue to be displayed at the Islamabad Monument museum".

Faisal also said that the government and people of Pakistan strongly condemned the indiscriminate use of force by the Indian forces against Kashmiris and urged the world community to break its silence.

India cannot get representation in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in any form because India was an "aggressor" and responsible for the human rights violations in Kashmir over the last 70 years.

Bangladesh has proposed restructuring of the charter of the OIC to pave the way for inclusion of non-Muslim countries like India as an "observer state".

The OIC is a 57-member grouping of Muslim majority nations.

He said there are numerous OIC resolutions condemning India's actions in Kashmir. "So, how a country that is already violating the OIC resolutions can become a part of that organisation?"



Faisal also said Pakistan was ready for unconditional talks with India.

"We are ready to engage in unconditional dialogue with India on all issues, including the core Jammu and Kashmir dispute, Sir Creek, Siachen and terrorism," he said.

He also said that Pakistan's mission in India was in touch with authorities for release of Nasreen who is jailed in Amritsar and suffering from stomach tumor and liver malfunction.

He said Nasreen's ailing 90-year-old aged mother wishes to see her reunited with her family.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)- Pakistan's top judge has ordered the first official investigation into the country's deadliest terror attack, a massacre at a school that killed more than 150 people in 2014, authorities said today.

Relatives of the victims -- mainly children -- have long called for an accounting of the security and intelligence failures that allowed Pakistani Taliban gunmen to storm the school, run by the powerful military, in the northwestern city of Peshawar on December 16 that year.

No government or military official has ever been held to account for the security failings.

Criticism of Pakistan's powerful armed forces, especially their counter-insurgency operations, is largely seen as a red line in the country.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar ordered the formation of a judicial commission to examine the attack during a court hearing in Peshawar yesterday, Abdul Latif Yousafzai, advocate general of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told AFP.

The inquiry was set to be cmpleted in two months, he added.

No official explanation of the timing was given. But the announcement comes after the newly formed Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) civil rights group has made the issue a central demand in recent months, putting renewed pressure on the government.

PTM is set to hold a massive rally in the sprawling port city of Karachi on Sunday, which is home to millions of ethnic Pashtuns and expected to draw thousands of supporters.

Following the announcement, families of the victims cheered the decision, with some moved to tears.

Ajun Khan, who lost his only son in the attack, told AFP he hopes the commission can uncover who was responsible for the negligence that allowed the militants to execute the hours-long bloodbath.

"We want the commission to probe the incident and place a responsibility for the negligence and failure of the state to protect our children," Khan said.

The investigation comes after a dramatic improvement in security across the country following several successful military offensives targeting extremist strongholds.

The alleged mastermind behind the school attack was killed in a drone strike in 2017, according to the Pakistani Taliban, who have claimed responsibility for it.

The Pakistani state has also said it has hanged at least four men involved in the attack, though the nature of their role has not been made public.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court today stayed the Calcutta High Court order asking the West Bengal State Election Commission to accept the nomination papers filed through e-mail for the panchayat elections and directed the poll body not to declare s those candidates who have won unopposed as winners.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra termed as "worrying" the High Court order allowing e-mail filing of nomination papers and the nearly 17,000 candidates of the ruling party winning unopposed in the panchayat polls in the state.

But the bench, which also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, did not agree to the submissions that the poll process was vitiated and should be stayed, observing that there were a plethora of judgements which have held that once the poll process has begun, it cannot be interfered with by any court.

"Once the election process starts, it cannot be interfered with. I have said this in one of the cases in the morning also," the CJI reiterated.

The counsel for CPI(M) and the BJP alleged that several of their candidates were not allowed to file nomination papers, which has led to 34 per cent candidates, belonging to the ruling Trinamool Congress, winning unopposed.

"The High Court order has read the Information Technology Act into into the Representation of People Act. Both things are worrying -- the High Court order directing the State Election Commission to accept nominations through e-mails and 34 per cent candidates winning unopposed," the bench said.

"There shall be a stay on the Calcutta High Court order," it said, adding that the state poll panel "shall not declare the results" of those candidates who have won unopposed.

The bench directed the state and the poll panel to ensure "free and fair" panchayat elections on May 14 in West Bengal.

However, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the state poll panel, opposed the plea regarding the winning candidates and said this was not part of the litigation.

Referring the High Court order on nomination papers as "the most absurd kind of order", Dwivedi said the nomination papers are filed before the returning officer (RO) and candidates sign the documents. After such filings, the RO scrutinises the nomination papers and either accepts or rejects them on merits.

Here, the High Court simply asked the state poll panel to accept the nomination papers, he said, adding, "what will happen to the procedures prescribed under the law".

At the outset, senior advocate Ashok Bhan, appearing for CPI(M), referred to Constitution schemes and said the right to contest elections was being infringed in the state due to the prevailing circumstances and it was reflected from the fact that 34 per cent candidates have won the panchayat polls unopposed.

Senior advocate P S Patwalia, representing the BJP, also said there has been no contest for 17,000 out of nearly 54,000 panchayat posts, which indicated the position at the ground level.

When both lawyers alleged that the poll panel was acting at the behest of the state government, it was strongly opposed by the West Bengal Election Commission.

The bench made it clear that the "singular legal question" was whether the nomination papers can be filed electronically and can the IT Act be read into the RP Act.

The bench posted the plea of the state poll panel for further hearing on July 3.

On May 8, the high court had directed the SEC to accept the nominations of those candidates named by CPI(M) who had filed their papers through e-mails within the stipulated time before 3 pm on April 23.

The SEC today moved the apex court challenging the Calcutta HC order directing it to accept the nominations of candidates who have filed their papers electronically within the stipulated time for the panchayat elections.

The CPI(M) has claimed that many of its candidates were prevented from filing nominations by the state's ruling Trinamool Congress.

The SEC petition arrays CPI(M) as a respondent, besides the state government, the ruling Trinamool Congress, state panchayat secretary and others.

Passing the order, the HC had observed that the poll process itself involved participation and to shut out an intending bona fide candidate from participating in it, thwarted the very basic democratic principles on which it stood.

The court had said that though the filing of nominations through e-mail was not a recognised procedure under the West Bengal Panchayat Act of 2003, but in a situation where allegations of obstructing candidates from filing nominations had surfaced and had also been noted by the SEC, it should have allowed the filing of papers through e-mail.

The SEC, being a constitutional body, has to act "fairly, transparently and independently" to advance the democratic principles by allowing the intending candidates to contest, the high court had said.

The CPI(M) had submitted a list of over 800 intending candidates, claiming they were prevented from filing nominations at the designated offices and had hence sent their documents to the SEC through e-mail.

The SEC had said it had received 340 complaints on the last day of filing of nominations, of which 25 were sent through e-mail.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Paraguay's Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the country will shift its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, following the US and Guatemala in a change long sought by Israel's government but opposed by Palestinians.

The ministry said in a statement yesterday that it "has begun the process" of carrying out the order by President Horacio Cartes.

Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said earlier this week that Cartes would attend the opening ceremony, which he said would occur by the end of May.

However, the spokeswoman for Paraguay's Foreign Ministry, Elvio Venega, said no date has been determined. The Paraguayan statements did not indicate if Cartes would go to Israel for the ceremony.

The president, whose five-year term ends Aug. 15, is expected to resign within a few weeks so that he can be sworn into a seat to which he was elected in Paraguay's Senate. The constitution forbids officials to hold two posts simultaneously.

The US officially opens its embassy in Jerusalem on May 14 followed two days later by Guatemala.

President Donald Trump overturned decades of US policy last year by announcing the Jerusalem move.

Israel claims the entire city as its eternal capital. Palestinians want east Jerusalem as their future capital and were infuriated by the declaration.

Most countries maintain embassies in Tel Aviv and have balked at moving them until the international legal status of the city has been resolved.

Cartes' decision irked some within Paraguay as well. Luis Castiglioni, who has been designated as the future foreign minister by President-elect Mario Abdo Benitez, told the Mil radio station that "it would have been better to consult with the president-elect in this case, which could have geopolitical consequences.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is responding well to his treatment in the US, Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said today.

Prabhu spoke to the chief minister and expressed hope that he would return soon to resume his responsibilities of "developing Goa as a leading state".

Parrikar, 62, is currently undergoing treatment for a pancreatic ailment at a hospital in the US.

The former defence minister left for USA in the first week of March.

Prabhu wished a speedy recovery to Parrikar in a twitter post today.

"Spoke to @manoharparrikar, who is responding well to medical treatment in the US. Wishinghim well for speedy recovery so he returns to India soon to resume his responsibilities of developing #Goa as leading state," the Union minister tweeted.

BJP president Amit Shah is expected to visit Goa on May 13 to address the party workers near Panaji.

Before leaving Goa, Parrikar had formed a cabinet advisory committee to guide the state administration on governance and other issues, in his absence.

The committee comprises Sudin Dhavalikar (of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party), Francis D'Souza (of the BJP) and Vijai Sardesai (of the Goa Forward Party).

The MGP and the Goa Forward Party are allies of the ruling BJP in the coastal state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Penelope Cruz has revealed that she received pay at par with her co-star and husband Javier Bardem for the Asghar Farhadi-directed film "Everybody Knows".

The 44-year-old, who has collaborated with Bardem on films such as "Jamon, Jamon", "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and "Loving Pablo", talked about working together on their new project.

When asked whether she got equal pay, Cruz told Variety, "Actually, yes."



The debate around equal pay kicked off after it was revealed that Mark Wahlberg earned nearly USD 1.5 million more for reshoots on the film "All the Money in the World", which was way more than what his co-star, Michelle Williams, made.

Cruz, who got married to Bardem in 2010, said they do not take their work home.

"We don't take the characters home at the end of the day. We have similar ways of work. The fact that we know each other and trust each other helps," Cruz said.

"It's not something we plan on doing every two years. That will be once in a while, if we feel it's right. I don't think it will be too often," she added.

"Everybody Knows" ("Todos lo saben"), which also stars Argentine actor Ricardo Darin, has been written and directed by Farhadi.

The Spanish-language psychological thriller follows the story of Laura, who lives with her husband and children in Buenos Aires. When they return together to her native village in Spain for a family celebration, an unexpected event changes the course of their lives.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A plea was today moved in the Delhi High Court alleging that Jet Airways had cleared two of its pilots to continue flying despite aviation regulator DGCA suspending their license for allowing unauthorised entry into the cockpit of a flight operated by them.

The matter was initially mentioned before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, which asked the petitioner to file an application.

Subsequently, the petitioner, journalist Rajneesh Kapur, filed an application alleging that Jet's Vice President (Operations), in contravention of the order of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), had directed that both the suspended pilots be used for flight duties.

The application, filed through advocate Nikhil Borwankar, also claims that one of the two pilots had also undertaken a flight while his license was suspended.

The plea also questioned the appointment of the VP (Operations), alleging that his nomination to the post has not been confirmed by the DGCA.

It also alleged that the Senior Vice President of Operations, a foreign national, was appointed to the post without any security clearance and it was he who had nominated the Vice President of Operations.

The application was filed in Kapur's main petition in which he has alleged that Jet Airways was flouting national and international flight safety regulations by allowing unauthorised persons to travel overseas by "masquerading" as crew on a "general declaration".

The petition has claimed that the general declaration, which is a declaration of the passengers, air crew and cargo, being ferried in an international flight by the flight operator, allowed people "to avoid obtaining a visa and pass undetected into foreign territory".

In support of his allegation, the petitioner has cited the January 2018 incident of a Jet Airways cabin crew member being arrested by the Department of Revenue Intelligence for being in possession of contraband foreign currency worth over Rs three crore.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said he supports use of social media for poll campaigns but warned against "data pilferage" and other collusive methods to influence elections.

He said the government supports social media and has asked all intermediaries to check against any improper content flows.

The comments come in the backdrop of a major controversy over alleged Facebook data breach globally, including of lakhs of Indians, by a British firm Cambridge Analytica purportedly for influencing elections.

Speaking at the Asia Media Summit 2018, the Union minister also sought a debate within media on whether the issue of 'ethical journalism' was being addressed and whether there was flowing "under the garb of sensationalism, paid news, fake and too much of other insidious practices".

He, however, maintained that he is "very clear" that the government does not want to interfere in this issue.

Prasad warned all companies in the field of data commerce against misuse of citizen data and any attempt to influence elections.

The minister said that he supports campaigning for elections on social media, but cautioned that "India cannot become centre for data pilferage".

"We are a strong believer (in) freedom of our elections and data commerce... collusive methods cannot be used to influence India's election," he said.

The minister said that the government supports social media and under IT Act it has asked "intermediaries"-- firms hosting content -- to ensure that no improper content flows through them.

"We have got an IT Act where we have framed regulations for intermediaries that you must ensure that content going through you is not dangerous, is not libelous, does not impinge upon security, integrity of country... you don't promote child pornography and other naked pornography.

"I think intermediaries have to understand that point very clearly," he said.

Prasad said that social media has empowered ordinary Indians and given them voice but expressed concern on language used on the new form of media.

According to him, every institution in democracy is accountable and those who believe in free media and insist upon their rights should understand this.

"Those who firmly believe in freedom of media and insist upon their right of respecting that also need to understand there is something called accountability also. Ethical journalism flows from that abiding value," Prasad said.

The minister also noted that free media can only prosper in an open society and there is no freedom in a closed society.

"Open society thrives on democracy. Accountability is integral to democracy. Any institution -- the government, the courts, the legislature and the media -- all have to be accountable," he said.

Dwelling upon the issue of ethical journalism, the Law Minister also said that it must be fair, true and properly presented, empowering the consumers of in a decent and independent fashion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu will tomorrow discuss the credit-related issues of gems and jewellery exporters with bankers in Mumbai.

The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) is organising a banking summit in the maximum city to discuss credit-related matters.

The industry has been urging bankers not to reduce their current credit limits as this would hamper and erode exports and employment creation.

"We want to address their problem. It's a genuine problem. They are facing lot of challenges. We will tell banks to come out with a foolproof system but do not deprive the sector of credit," Prabhu told PTI.

The meeting assumes significance as the Reserve Bank in March banned issuance of letters of undertaking (LoUs) and letters of comfort (LoCs), used extensively for trade finance, following the Nirav Modi fraud case.

Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar and SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar would participate in the deliberations, among other government, industry and bank officials.

The country's gems and jewellery exports contracted by 8 per cent to about USD 32.72 billion in 2017-18.

Main export destinations are the US, Europe, Japan and China. America accounts for about one-fourth of the country's total gems and jewellery exports.

The labour-intensive sector contributes about 14 per cent to the country's overall export.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Civil society organisations, heritage groups, teachers and students associations among others today took out a protest march against the government's decision to involve a private enterprise for "maintenance" of the Red Fort.

Around 100 protestors raised slogans of No Company Raj Again as they held the protest march from the Rajghat to the Red Fort on the occasion of the 161st anniversary of the first War of Independence -- the revolt of 1857.

Late last month, the Bharat Dalmia Group signed an MoU with the government under which it was allowed to maintain the monument.

Under the agreement, the Dalmia Bharat Group has agreed to make available certain basic amenities at the monument within six months. These include providing drinking water kiosks, street furniture like benches and signages to guide the visitors, according to the government.

The protestors, however, alleged the move was in line with the RSS' efforts of "rewriting and erasing history according to their whims and fancies".

They said the MoU allows the Bharat Dalmia Group to place their company's name on signages on the fort campus and to establish interpretation centres in the name of providing brief history of the monument.

CPIML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that in its 370-year-old it existence, the Red Fort has just gone from being an iconic symbol of India's resistance and Independence to becoming a world heritage site then why such a symbol is handed over to a private corporate entity.

"The Red Fort is a symbol of our national sovereignty, we can't agree with the idea of giving it to the corporate hands. Our ancestors fought against the 'Company Raj' of the East India Company and the British Colonial Empire and we will also struggle against the divisive of hate, bigotry and violence, and allowing corporate companies to re-establish a new Company Raj," Ovais Sultan Khan, social activist and Managing Trustee of Anhad said.

The protest was organised by Anhad in collaboration with left-wing student organisation All India Students' Association (AISA), the Centre for Dalit Literature and Art, Dalit Lekhak Sangh, the Democratic Teachers' Front, the IPTA, the Jan Sanskriti Manch, the Progressive Writers' Association and other groups.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A section of St. Stephen's College teachers and members of the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) staged a demonstration outside the college today to protest against a UGC team's visit over grant of autonomous status.

The teachers alleged that the move would lead to self-financing courses, fee hike, "autocratic managements", "precarious service conditions of employees and decline in academic standards".

"The committee set up to examine applications from colleges for grant of autonomous status visited today. The principal tried to keep many of the senior teachers away from meeting the committee today. A similar ploy was adopted for students as well as staffers," DUTA president Rajib Ray and St. Stephen's College Staff Association president Nandita Narain said in a joint statement.

St. Stephen's College principal John Verghese confirmed to PTI about the visit by UGC team, but refused to comment further.

Ray said a delegation of teachers, staffers and students of the college, however, met the committee and expressed their opposition to the move.

"Prior to this visit, 44 out of 56 permanent teachers currently in Delhi had submitted representations to the UGC chairperson opposing the grant of autonomy to the college. Such pressure by the teachers resulted in the UGC committee that visited today asking for a meeting with all the permanent teachers, all current students available and all karamcharis," Ray said.

Various aspects of financial and administrative misgovernance as well as victimisation and harassment of students and teachers have been explained to the members of the committee, he said.

"Graded autonomy and autonomous colleges lead to self-financing courses, fee hike, autocratic managements, precarious service conditions of employees and decline in academic standards," he added.

The UGC committee, chaired by former Vice Chancellor of Allahabad University Prof. Rajan Harshe, has been tasked to examine applications from colleges for grant of autonomous status.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has rejected being re-appointed as leader of the region, following pressure from Spain's government.

In a video statement from Germany, he proposed political newcomer Quim Torra as his successor.

Separatist allies announced Saturday they would try to have Puigdemont, currently in Germany after being detained there in March on a European arrest warrant, re-appointed as president by next week after the regional parliament voted through reforms allowing him to take the role without being present.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal today sought the World Bank assistance for infrastructure development in the state.

In a meeting with a team of the World Bank here, the finance minister said that potable drinking water, sewerage, sanitation, health, agriculture, remodelling of ponds and governance reforms are the major areas, which need to be improved.

The minister expressed hope that the intervention of the World Bank would help in raising the per capita income of the state.

During the meeting, it was discussed that agriculture methods were outdated and vicious circle of two crops badly hit the quality and availability of the drinking water especially in rural areas.

The minister said the World Bank assistance could enable the state to provide quality drinking water, sewerage and other amenities.

Prominent among others who were present in the meeting included World Bank's Senior Operations Officer Bathula Amith Nagaraj, World Bank's programme leader Sumila Gulyani, World Bank's Senior Economist Jorge Coarasa, World Bank's Lead Operation Officer Bhavna Bhatia besides senior officers of the state, said an official release.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today that while he had not been directly apprised of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's appeal for a unilateral ceasefire during Ramzan, he will talk to her about it.

"I have not held direct talks with her on the issue but I have got this information...I will talk to her after going to New Delhi," Singh told reporters at the sidelines of an event organised by the BSF on the outskirts of the state capital.

He was asked to comment on J&K chief minister's appeal to the Centre to consider a unilateral ceasefire starting from Ramzan in mid-May till the completion of the Amarnath Yatra in August.

To a question on a tourist from Chennai being killed in stone pelting in Kashmir, Singh said it was "most unfortunate". "The incident of a tourist dying due to stone pelting is most unfortunate...everyone is condemning it," he said.

Asked about the BJP's prospects against a united Opposition in the coming bypolls in Kairana (Lok Sabha) and Noorpur (Assembly), Singh said, "Despite all parties joining hands, the BJP will win both the seats."



We will win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as the Narendra Modi government has undertaken so many development works that people will not be able to ignore, he said.

"Development works cannot be totally ignored," he said adding the BJP was set to form government in Karnataka.

Earlier, addressing a teachers' conference here, Singh said the role of teachers was not only to build the character of students, but also nation building.

"Knowledge in life is not everything. Along with knowledge, values are also needed. There are many who became terrorists after getting technical degrees," Singh, who is the local MP, said.

"Friedman has written that there are many similarities between Infosys and Al-Qaeda. In both the organisation, educated youngsters work. The role of one of these is destructive while the other is welfare-oriented. The only difference between the two is that of values," Singh said referring to author Thomas Friedman.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)They were considered the Jai-Veeru of Indian startup panorama, and when one decided to finally exit the company they founded 11 years ago it was really a sad moment for the other.

Sachin Bansal's decision to exit Flipkart after its takeover by Warlmart was a "very emotional moment", said the company's co-founder Binny at a select media briefing today.

Asked if he didn't try and convince Sachin to stay on, Binny, 35, said: "That's an understatement."



As US retailer Walmart acquired a majority stake in Flipkart, Sachin sold his 5.5 per cent stake for about USD 1 billion and exited the company.

The two Bansals are not related but came to know each other as they were passing out of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2005 and decided to move to Bangalore, now known as Bengaluru.

They launched Flipkart in 2007 as the 'Amazon of India'. It was valued at close to USD 21 billion as Walmart yesterday bought 77 per cent stake in it for USD 16 billion.

While Binny decided to continue with the company, Sachin, 36, exited.

"More than anything else, it is a very emotional moment for all of us. Sachin and I go a long way. We met in 2005 when we were passing out (of IIT, Delhi). Both of us moved to Bangalore. We were a group of 8 friends from IIT Delhi and we used to hang out together all the time and we were best of friends," said Binny recalling the Flipkart journey.

"I think both of us have been sort of a pillar of support to each other," he said, wishing Binny very best for his future endeavours.

In a Facebook post, Sachin said his work at Flipkart "is done" and "it's time to hand over the baton and move on."



After moving to Bangalore, Sachin joined Amazon and recommended Binny, earning an employee recommendation bonus. He, however, had to soon return it as Binny left Amazon in just 8 months.

The two then started a company together with Rs 4 lakh capital. Just Amazon, it started with selling books online.

"We would do whatever it takes to do the business. He and I would ride my bike for 40-50 km every day in Bangalore, picking up books from various distributors, coming back, packing them (for dispatch to customers who had ordered)," Binny said.

The company has since grown and crossed 100 million registered customers in 2016.

"If I go back 10 years, its just amazing how we started what we did. Through the last 10 yrs one thing which really held both of us together was the shared values and making sure we do the right thing for customer always," he said adding both ensured that they thought big and audacious.

A lot of Flipkart values, he said, come from the strong belief that Sachin brought and helped bring strong foundation.

But like most investor-driven companies, there comes a time when a debate happens on founder versus non-founder. In 2016, Sachin became executive chairman, as Binny replaced him as CEO. A few months later, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, a senior executive from Flipkart's largest investor, Tiger Global, who was interim CFO at the e-commerce giant in 2013-14, came back as head of category design.

Soon, he tightened the targets and fired quite a few senior executives for poor performance. On January 9, 2017, Kalyan was declared Flipkart CEO - the first non-founder CEO of an Indian startup Unicorn, while Binny became Flipkart Group CEO.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov today called for dialogue between Israel and Iran following Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria that marked a sharp escalation between the two enemies.

"This is a very disturbing trend. We proceed from the fact that all issues should be solved through dialogue," Lavrov said at a press conference, adding that Moscow warned Israel to avoid "all actions that could be seen as provocative.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court today directed the Centre to take a decision by June 30 this year on the issue of banning import of pet coke in the country.

The apex court also asked the government to consider implementing the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) first in Delhi as the people were "struggling" due to pollution in the national capital. NCAP is aimed at tackling air pollution problem in 100 cities across the country.

You have lots of programmes but you can't implement it. You can't implement the programmes in Delhi and you are talking about pan-India. You at least implement it (NCAP)in Delhi first," a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta told Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni, who was appearing for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

"We are struggling in Delhi for years due to pollution. You implement the NCAP here at least," the bench said.

The court was hearing a matter related to a PIL filed in 1985 by environmentalist M C Mehta who had raised the issue of air pollution in the Delhi-NCR.

Nadkarni told the bench that the comprehensive action plan to tackle air pollution in Delhi-NCR would be notified in its entirety within four weeks.

He told the bench that parts of the comprehensive action plan have already been implemented in Delhi-NCR.

The bench, however, asked Nadkarni to ensure that the programmes aimed at tackling air pollution were not only notified, but also implemented properly.

It posted the matter for further hearing in July.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Calcutta High Court today said the State Election Commissioner and state officials would be held personally liable and have to pay compensation if the loss of life and property in the coming panchayat election was higher than that in the 2013 poll.

The panchayat poll will be held on May 14, according to an announcement of the SEC after the Supreme Court's direction to it to ensure "free and fair" election.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice J Bhattacharya and Justice A Banerjee hoped that the state government and the SEC would take steps to ensure that the election be free, fair and peaceful, whenever it is held.

The court made it clear that in case the loss of life and violence in the polls was higher than in the 2013 election, the high state officials who submitted the report on security arrangement before it and the State Election Commissioner, who approved it, would be personally liable and pay compensation apart from the government.

The bench said that this would be done if it was found that the senior state government officials' decision was not fair and unbiased and the submission of their report and approval by the SEC was communicated to the court only to mislead it about the adequacy of the security arrangement.

"Under such circumstances, compensation to be paid will be recovered and realized not only from the salary of the responsible officer of the state who submitted the misleading report before this court and the State Election Commissioner who approved such report consciously knowing the consequence thereof but also from their retiral benefits and from their personal properties by way attachment and sale thereof," the court said.

If the entire compensation money payable in this regard could not be recovered this way, the state government would be liable to pay the remaining part of such compensation.

"Since the SEC is happy with the arrangement made by the state administration, we deem it proper not to pass any further direction for the time being," the bench said.

The court said in case the SEC felt that further force was required in view of any changed circumstances, it would take necessary steps for mobilisation of the additional force and the state government would extend all help and cooperation.

The bench noted the state's position that Rs 10 lakh would be paid to the next of kin of an official in case of his death on election duty and if it was caused by violence, Rs 20 lakh was to be paid.

In case of permanent disability like loss of limbs or eyesight a minimum ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh would be given, which would be doubled in case of such mishaps being caused by extremist or un-social elements.

Observing that the high court had no independent mechanism for assessing the law and order problem of the state, the bench said its maintenance was a state subject. "State government is the appropriate authority to take decision as to how the law and order problem of the state will be managed," it said.

The bench, however, did not specify the date for holding the election.

A single bench had earlier said that the date of May 14 for holding the elections, as had been announced by the SEC, could be regarded as tentative and not final.

It had said that the division bench presided by the chief justice would decide on the date of election after the state and the SEC submit reports on security arrangements for holding the polls.

Petitioners had prayed for deployment of central forces for conducting the rural polls and sought compensation in case of loss of lives and destruction of property.

The state had told the court that it had enough armed forces to hold the elections and that there was no need to call in central paramilitary forces for the purpose.

Appearing on behalf of the government, Advocate General Kishore Datta told the division bench on Tuesday that 71,500 armed police personnel would be deployed for holding the polls.

Of them, 500 would be of the rank of inspector and 10,000 sub-inspectors and assistant sub-inspectors, while the rest 61,000 would be constables, homeguards and from the National Volunteer Force (NVF), Datta said.

In addition, 80,000 civic volunteers would be deployed, the AG said.

According to the reports placed by the state and the SEC, polling is going to be held at 47,415 polling booths.

The AG told the court that one armed policeman and one civic volunteer will be deployed in each booth.

In 2013, central paramilitary forces had been deployed along with state forces for holding the panchayat elections in the state.

Another division bench presided by Justice B Somadder is hearing an appeal on the SEC's decision to hold the election in a single phase, while it had earlier announced a three-phase election.

Appellants CPI(M) and PDS, both opposition parties in the state, claimed that the commission had not followed a single bench order of holding meaningful discussion with stakeholders before announcing the date/dates for the elections.

Hearing in the appeal was adjourned for the day and may be taken up again tomorrow by the division bench of Justice Somadder and Justice A Mukherjee.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today appealed to the Election Commission to provide protection to police and civil officials in the Shahkot assembly constituency for a free and fair bypoll.

In a memorandum to the EC, SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said the manner in which the station house officer of Mehatpur in Shahkot, who booked Congress candidate Hardev Singh Laddi, was allegedly harassed by the state government, it had "demoralised" the entire official machinery in Shahkot.

Cheema said, "The treatment meted out to Mehetpur SHO Parminder Bajwa by the Congress government has demoralised the police as well as civil machinery in Shahkot and unless remedial action was taken by the EC, free and fair election was not possible in the constituency."



Cheema said the Congress government had sent a "clear message" to officials that in case they did not "toe the party's line", they would also meet the same fate as the Mehatpur SHO.

"In case the EC does not move immediately to ensure protection of all these officers in Shahpur the entire election process will become a farce," Cheema said.

"SHO Parminder Bajwa was awarded with the DGP's Commendation Disc by the Jalandhar Police on January 22 this year for his outstanding policing achievements. It was understandable that the same police officer was vilified as mentally unstable solely because he registered an FIR against the Congress candidate," as per memorandum submitted by the SAD.

The party also demanded arrest of Laddi.

A delegation of Akali Dal comprising senior leaders Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa , Balwinder Singh Bhunder, MaheshInder Singh Grewal, Daljit Singh Cheema and Naresh Gujral will visit the Election Commission officer in Delhi tomorrow to submit a detailed memorandum on the prevailing circumstances in the Shahkot assembly constituency which is going to polls on May 28.

"We will highlight the misuse of official machinery, harassment of SHO before the EC," said Cheema.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had earlier described the arbitrary registration of FIR by the SHO against the Congress candidate as part of a political conspiracy and had also accused him of being in touch with leaders of SAD and AAP.

The state government had also demanded the transfer of the SHO for free and fair bypoll.

Laddi among others was booked by police for alleged illegal sand mining in different villages of Jalandhar district.

Shahkot bypoll was necessitated following the death of MLA Ajit Singh Kohar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan's ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif today demanded the resignation of anti-corruption watchdog chief for ordering a probe against him on the basis of a false media report which claimed that he had allegedly laundered USD 4.9 billion to India.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday announced inquiry against Sharif on the basis of the report that USD 4.9 billion was laundered from Pakistan to India in 2016.

The World Bank has denied as "incorrect" the Pakistani media reports.

Sharif in a press briefing grilled NAB chief Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal for failure on his part to probe the report at internal level before going public with it.

"Does the NAB not know that the World Bank had issued a clarification two years ago and said there had been no money laundering? Does it not know that reputed newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, Dawn, Business Recorder had reported on the issue?", he asked.

He said that the NAB used an "unknown column in an unknown newspaper published four months ago" against him to begin an investigation.

"It is NAB's duty to answer all my questions within 24 hours and address these reservations. Failing to do so, the NAB should apologise to the nation and the chairman should resign," Sharif demanded.

He said that the NAB's actions against the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders were part of a pre-poll rigging.

The NAB chief defended his department and said anti-corruption drive will continue without any favour or prejudice to anybody.

"Whatever the NAB is doing it's doing for the country, for the people," the NAB chairman said in Peshawar.

"The NAB does not need any advertisement or any appreciation. If someone criticises or insults the NAB it's up to them but the NAB has been and will continue to exercise its rights in accordance with the law, the Constitution and also keeping in mind others' dignity," Iqbal said without naming Sharif or the botched probe into the money laundering.

He said that asking someone about the source of money or who they spent it while in public office was not a crime.

"And let's suppose it is a crime, then this crime will continue to be committed because it's in the interest of this country. The situation right now is that we can't tolerate corruption any more," the NAB chairman said.

The issue of flawed of laundering USD 4.9 billion to India has been echoing in media and Parliament as PML-N and the government heavily criticised the NAB.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi speaking in the National Assembly yesterday accused the NAB of bias against Sharif and targeting him on the basis of a report which had already been rejected.

Sharif, 68, is facing three corruption cases in the accountability court following the Supreme Court's verdict in the Panama Papers case.

Pakistan's Supreme Court had disqualified Sharif last year, forcing the three-time prime minister to resign. He has also been disqualified from holding public office for life.

Sharif has dismissed the corruption charges as politically motivated. If convicted in the three corruption cases, he could be jailed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)SIAM plans to rope in a consultant to conduct a study to find solutions for accelerating exports in the wake of decline in passenger vehicles shipments, a senior official of the auto industry body said today.

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) is also engaging with the government in order to address issue related to GST refund as various exporting companies have been unable to claim input tax credit even after making payments upfront.

The pending sum has now crossed Rs 2,000 crore mark thus affecting the capability of various companies, especially the smaller ones, according to SIAM.

"We plan to do a study on export opportunities and for that we plan to appoint a consultant. It will take a holistic view on various issues relating to automobile exports," SIAM Deputy Director General Sugato Sen told reporters here.

The move is also aimed to ascertain reasons, specially for the decline in passenger vehicles exports, from the country, he added.

Although two-wheeler exports from the country have been in the positive zone, passenger vehicle (PV) shipments have witnessed a decline over a period of time.

In 2017-18, PV exports declined for the first time in seven years with a dip of 1.51 per cent. PV exports in 2017-18 were at 7,47,287 units as against 7,58,727 units in the previous year, according to the SIAM data.

In April also PV exports declined by 15.89 per cent to 50,921 units as compared to 60,538 units in April 2017.

Sen said SIAM had also got a study done 3-4 years ago to suggest ways to improve automobile exports from the country.

"At that time the consultant had stated that there needs to be a strategy regarding FTAs," he added.

Commenting on the GST input tax credit refund issue, Sen said there is 'huge' outstanding amount that is pending and is also hurting exports.

"We are talking to the government regarding this. Unless this issue is sorted exporters will continue to suffer," he added.

In April, various prominent exporters including Nissan, Ford and Renault saw decline in exports.

Nissan's shipments fell by 79.92 per cent during the month to 1,265 units, while Ford saw exports drop by 55.21 per cent to 7,853 units. The American automaker had said earlier that its exports were down as it focussed on the launch of new model--Freestyle in the country.

Renault saw exports dipping by 25.14 per cent to 798 units in April.

In 2016-17 fiscal, in value terms India's PV exports stood at USD 6.5 billion, representing 2.3 per cent of the country's overall exports across industrial segments. In the April-February period of 2017-18, the PV exports in value terms stood at USD 6.3 billion, 2.32 per cent of India's overall exports.

Mexico, South Africa, the US, Algeria and Italy are India's top automobile export markets in value terms currently.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)With a focus on digitisation and innovation, Siemens today announced the expansion of its industry 4.0 offerings by launching four MindSphere application centres (MACs) in the country.

Located in Pune, Noida and Gurugram (two), the MACs will enable Siemens in India to develop future-oriented analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for infrastructure, process industries and power sectors, the company said in a release.

"India continues to be a high-priority market for Siemens. These centres will enable us to apply our industry knowledge, scale up our digital enabled solutions and enhance long-term support to customers in infrastructure, process industries and the power sectors," Siemens AG chief technology officer and member of the managing board Roland Busch told reporters here on the sidelines of the Siemens Innovation Day.

Mindsphere is Siemens' open, cloud-based operating system for the IoT that connects products, plants, systems and machines with advanced analytics capabilities.

Busch further said the digital solutions provided by Siemens would enable customers to reduce costs, improve reliability and develop new business models.

Siemens managing director and chief executive officer Sunil Mathur said the company is assisting over 100 digital projects in India with around 150 customers across all the segments.

"In these centres, our experts will work together with Siemens customers to co-create solutions, which will be part of over 100 digital projects that will transform the entire value chain, and deliver productivity, flexibility, speed and quality in the customers' operations," Mathur said.

According to Busch, Siemens is the first company worldwide to set up 20 of these centres (MAC) for digital customer applications in 17 countries.

Around one million devices and systems worldwide are now connected through MindSphere, he said, adding this figure will soon reach 1.25 million.

During 2017, Siemens' revenue from digital technologies, for instance, rose to 5.2 billion euros, of which 4 billion euros was attributable to software and 1.2 billion euros to digital services.

"This corresponds to a 20 per cent increase year-over-year and means that Siemens clearly outpaced market growth of about eight percent," said Busch.

He further said that the company will increase its R&D expenditures this year and invest around 450 million euros more, taking the total spendings to 5.6 billion euros in fiscal 2018, from 5.2 billion euros in fiscal 2017.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Slamming the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal's nephew in connection with a PWD scam, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today alleged that for the Centre and Lt Governor, Delhi Police and ACB only exists to "trouble" AAP leaders and their relatives.

Vinay Bansal, son of Kejriwal's brother-in-law, was arrested by Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi government this morning from his residence in north west Delhi's Pitampura area.

Sisodia said that the good thing in this country is "justice" and asserted that they (Police and ACB) will be "exposed" like earlier when this case also goes to the court.

He said that the action against Bansal is a part of chain of arrest of AAP MLAs and "harrasment" of AAP minister and their relatives.

"For the Centre and the Lt Governor in the last three years, Delhi Police and ACB only exist to harass and trouble AAP leaders, ministers, their relatives and even their children.

"If they (police and ACB) do not do it, they are pulled up. Cente and L-G are only taking one work which is how to trouble AAP leaders," Sisodia told reporters here.

He claimed that IIT Rourkee had did a third party audit as per terms of contract of the project and submitted a report and PWD also had said that work was done well.

"After the complaint, ACB also did a separate inquiry by Sri Ram Labs which also said that work was satisfactory," Sisodia said.

Three FIRs, including one against a company run by Surendra Bansal, father of Vinay Bansal, were registered by the ACB in this case on May 9 last year. Surendra Bansal, who is married to the sister of Kejriwal's wife, died of heart attack last year.

In a complaint, Rahul Sharma, founder of Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), had alleged that Kejriwal and PWD minister Satyendra Jain misused their office for grant of contracts to Bansal.

It was also alleged that the bills sent to the Public Works Department (PWD) for unfinished works were "false and fabricated".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today called on Myanmar President U Win Myint soon after she arrived here for talks with the country's top leadership on key bilateral and regional issues, including the Rohingya refugee crisis.

An estimated 7,00,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's Rakhine State since August last year after large-scale violence following a military crackdown. The exodus of refugees in large numbers has resulted in a major crisis in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Swaraj is here on a two-day visit for discussions on a number of bilateral and regional issues, including the situation in the Rakhine State from where lakhs of Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh.

External Affairs Minister Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet: "A key partner in Act East Policy! EAM @SushmaSwaraj called on the President of Myanmar, U Win Myint in her first engagement in Myanmar".

Myanmar is one of India's strategic neighbours and it shares a 1,640 km border with a number of northeastern states, including militancy-hit Nagaland and Manipur.

On her arrival in Nay Pyi Taw, Swaraj was warmly received by India's Ambassador Vikram Misri and Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Myanmar U Myint Thu.

"EAM will hold discussions with Myanmar leadership to further reinforce our bilateral ties," Kumar said.

In December, India had announced a development assistance of USD 25 million for the Rakhine State.

India yesterday sent to Bangladesh its second relief consignment to help tens of thousands of displaced following a military crackdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today arrived here on a two-day visit during which she is expected to hold discussions with Myanmar's top leadership on key bilateral and regional issues, including the situation in the Rakhine state from where thousands of Rohingya Muslims had fled following violence last year.

Myanmar is one of India's strategic neighbours and it shares a 1,640 km border with a number of northeastern states, including militancy-hit Nagaland and Manipur.

On her arrival in Nay Pyi Taw, Swaraj was warmly received by India's Ambassador Vikram Misri and Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Myanmar U Myint Thu.

"EAM will hold discussions with Myanmar leadership to further reinforce our bilateral ties," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

She is expected to hold discussion on the situation in the violence-hit Rakhine state.

An estimated 6,00,000 Rohingya Muslims had fled Myanmar's Rakhine State since August last year after large-scale violence there.

In December last, India had announced a development assistance of USD 25 million for the Rakhine state.

India yesterday sent to Bangladesh its second relief consignment to help tens of thousands of displaced following a military crackdown.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today commenced her two-day visit to Myanmar, during which she will be meeting President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

She will also meet the Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar armed forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

Seven agreements on different aspects like capacity-building and renovation of a pagdoa among others are expected to be signed during the visit.

"Neighbourhood first! EAM @SushmaSwaraj emplanes for Nay Pyi Taw on a bilateral visit to Myanmar on 10-11 May. EAM will hold discussions with Myanmar leadership to further reinforce our bilateral ties," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted as Swaraj left for the neighbouring country.

"This (visit) is a part of the high-level engagement between the two countries. We plan to sign seven documents," Kumar told reporters at the MEA's weekly media briefing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Myanmar in September last year while Suu Kyi came to India in 2016 to attend the BRICS-BIMSTEC Outreach Summit.

Asked about the impact of Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) on Indo-Russian defence exchanges, Kumar said all issues that concern New Delhi have been raised with Washington.

"There are several such proposals and issues that have been announced by the US government. There are forums which exist between India and the US to address all such issues.

"There have been visits which have taken place. Recently the Foreign Secretary (Vijay Gokhale) was in the US. All issues which are of concern to us have been raised with the US," Kumar said.

The CAATSA was signed into a law in August 2017 and came into effect in January this year. The law mandates the Trump administration to punish entities engaging in significant transaction with the defence or intelligence sectors of Russia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three Indian naval ships sailed out of Singapore today to join upcoming MALABAR exercise which will be held jointly with the US and Japanese navies off Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

Speaking to reporters at the sailing off, India's High Commissioner to Singapore Jawed Ashraf said the Eastern Team fleet is continuing India's commitment and objective to see the oceans remain "peaceful, open space and uncontested".

"These ships are on their way to MALABAR exercise with the navies of United States and Japan, and one of them, INS Sahyadri, will take part in the 'RIMPAC' exercise," he said.

RIMPAC or the Rim of Pacific Exercise is the biggest maritime warfare exercise involving navies of several countries. It is held by the US Navy biennially in the ocean around Hawaii.

The US-Japan-India joint naval exercise comes amidst flexing of muscles by China in the regional waters.

During the deployment while on MALABAR exercise, the ships will be building partnerships and closer bonds with the navies of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

"In a way, our engagement with the region is growing with regular exercises," he said, stressing on the excellent relations with major maritime power.

INS Sahyadri and INS Kamorta as well as tanker INS Shakti, with 730 navy personnel, were in Singapore for three days, interacting with the local Navy.

Ashraf underlined India and Singapore's naval relations, which last year saw visits by India's eight navy ships and two coast guard ships.

"With Singapore, we have the longest and uninterrupted exercise which has been going on for 25 years," he said.

The envoy also highlighted the success of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium, a platform where navies can communicate with each other and develop a sense of understanding, which has now grown to 34 member countries including Singapore.

MILAN, he said, was another naval exercise promoting multi-lateral exercises and understanding in managing oceans.

He stressed India's good relations with many of the littoral states, saying "we will continue to build on that".

"We are conscious of the need to work with others (navies) to prevent any contesting (in the Ocean)," said the envoy, adding that the Indian Ocean remains most peaceful and the most uncontested region.

The US had last week warned China that it would face "consequences" for military buildup in the disputed South China Sea in the Pacific Ocean where Beijing has deployed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems.

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea. China claims almost all of South China Sea. Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims.

In April, the Chinese military held its largest ever maritime drill in the disputed South China Sea during which it displayed for the first time the country's aircraft carrier strike group and the most advance weaponry of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The drill was held amid frequent forays made by US naval and aircraft into the South China Sea to assert the freedom of navigation especially around the artificial islands built by China, where it has also established garrisons.

Meanwhile, the Indian High Commission here said the visit of naval ships seeks to underscore India's peaceful presence and solidarity with friendly countries towards ensuring good order in the maritime domain.

"Indian Naval assets have been increasingly deployed in recent times to address the main maritime concerns of the region. The current deployment will contribute towards the Indian Navy's efforts to consolidate inter-operability and forge strong bonds of friendship across the seas," it said in a statement.

India and Singapore share a rich history and a strategic relationship, it said, adding that a number of bilateral agreements exist between the two countries in various spheres.

An Indian naval delegation also interacted with Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) representatives during their visits on board under construction RSN's new Littoral Mission Vessel (LMV) RSS Justice and at International Fusion Centre.

The three Eastern Fleet Ships had arrived in Singapore on 6 May.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three Mexican soldiers were killed in an ambush in the violent state of Guerrero, in a town whose mayor was also found murdered the same day, the defense ministry has said.

After receiving an anonymous tip that armed men were hiding out at a ranch in the municipality of Coyuca de Catalan, an army patrol went to the site on Tuesday night and was attacked by unknown gunmen, the ministry said in a statement issued yesterday.

"Three soldiers were killed. Three more were wounded and evacuated to military medical facilities," it said.

The ambush came on the same day that the mayor of Coyuca de Catalan, Abel Montufar Mendoza, was found dead inside a car in the neighbouring city of Ciudad Altamirano, his body riddled with bullets and naked from the waist down. Montufar was running for a seat in the Guerrero state legislature in Mexico's July 1 general elections.

It is unclear whether there is a link between the two crimes, Guerrero state security spokesman Roberto Alvarez Heredia told Mexican TV network Milenio.

Dozens of candidates have been murdered in Mexico since election season opened in September.

Public safety is one of the biggest issues of the campaign, after Mexico registered a record 25,000 murders last year.

The country is awash in violence linked to its powerful drug cartels. Guerrero, the scene of vicious cartel turf wars, is one of the states hardest hit.

Since the Mexican government deployed the military to fight drug trafficking in 2006, the country has registered more than 200,000 homicides, though the statistics do not track how many were linked to organized crime.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Donald Trump personally welcomed home three American detainees today after they were released by Pyongyang, seen as a diplomatic win for the US President ahead of his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The Americans -- Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim -- were freed yesterday while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on a visit to the North Korean capital to finalise the details of the summit.

The trio had been jailed for anti-state activities and placed in North Korean labour camps.

Trump and his wife Melania entered the plane after it landed in the early hours of Thursday and a few minutes later emerged with the three Americans of South Korean origin to wave to the media.

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence were also on hand to welcome the three men home.

Speaking to the media on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews Air Force Base, Kim Dong Chul said his release felt "like a dream."



"We are very, very happy," he said.

The three former detainees earlier issued a joint statement thanking Trump for their release.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," the trio said.

President Trump told reporters that it was "nice" of the North Korean leader to release the three men ahead of their planned summit.

"Frankly we didn't think this was going to happen ... it's a very important thing to all of us to be able to get these three great people out," he said.

Trump said he wanted to pay his "warmest respects" to the family of Otto Warmbier, the American who was released by the North Koreans in a vegetative state, only to die days later.

Asked if this was his proudest achievement, Trump said that would be "when we denuclearise that entire peninsula".

"It's a great honour. But the true honour is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons," he said.

Trump was also asked about the prospects of making a deal with the North Korean leader.

"I really think he wants to do something and bring his country into the real world," Trump said.

"I think this will be a very big success. It's never been taken this far, there's never been a relationship like this."



Trump has previously said the release of the three Americans was part of working towards the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

"Some great things can happen, and that's what we hope," he added.

Trump said yesterday that he would announce the location and the timing of the summit in three days time. The two leaders are expected to meet sometime in June.

US media said Trump scored a diplomatic victory with North Korea releasing the three imprisoned American citizens.

After their meeting with Trump, the three men were expected to go to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland for further evaluation and medical treatment, CNN quoted White House Press Secretary Lindsay Walters as saying.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Donald Trump today thanked Kim Jong-un for releasing three American detainees as he personally welcomed them back to the US, a development seen as a diplomatic win for him ahead of his planned summit with the North Korean leader.

The Americans -- Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim -- were freed yesterday by North Korea while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on a visit to the North Korean capital Pyongyang to finalise the details of the summit.

The trio had been jailed for anti-state activities and placed in North Korean labour camps.

Trump and his wife Melania entered the plane outfitted with medical facilities after it landed in the early hours of Thursday and a few minutes later emerged with the three Americans of South Korean origin to wave to the media.

"We're starting off on a new footing. This is a wonderful thing that he released the folks early," Trump said.

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence were also on hand to welcome the three men home.

Speaking to the media on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews Air Force Base in a Maryland suburb of Washington DC, Kim Dong Chul said his release felt "like a dream."



"We are very, very happy," he said.

The three former detainees earlier issued a joint statement thanking Trump for their release.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," the trio said.

President Trump told reporters that it was "nice" of the North Korean leader to release the three men ahead of their planned summit.

"Frankly we didn't think this was going to happen ... it's a very important thing to all of us to be able to get these three great people out," he said.

Trump said he wanted to pay his "warmest respects" to the family of Otto Warmbier, the American who was released by the North Koreans in a vegetative state, only to die days later.

Asked if this was his proudest achievement, Trump said that would be "when we denuclearise that entire peninsula".

"It's a great honour. But the true honour is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons," he said.

Trump was also asked about the prospects of making a deal with the North Korean leader.

"I really think he wants to do something and bring his country into the real world," Trump said.

"I think this will be a very big success. It's never been taken this far, there's never been a relationship like this."



Trump has previously said the release of the three Americans was part of working towards the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

"Some great things can happen, and that's what we hope," he added.

Trump said yesterday that he would announce the location and the timing of the summit in three days time. The two leaders are expected to meet sometime in June.

US media said Trump scored a diplomatic victory with North Korea releasing the three imprisoned American citizens.

Meanwhile, the families of the three Americans were not on hand for the welcoming ceremony. An official told CNN that the men had to first debrief intelligence officials before heading to their homes.

After their meeting with Trump, the three men were taken to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland for further evaluation and medical treatment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump today announced that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore for a historic meeting to discuss the denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula.

Trump's announcement came hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned home from North Korea with three detained Americans.

Trump, who personally greeted the trio at the Andrews Air Force Base, praised Kim for their release ahead of their summit.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!," Trump tweeted.

The summit, which has been in the works since Trump accepted Kim's invitation to meet in March, will be the first ever meeting between a sitting US president and North Korean leader.

US officials had also considered holding the summit at the Korean demilitarized zone or in Mongolia, but ultimately settled on the city-state of Singapore as the location.

Pyongyang's weapons programme has seen tensions on the Korean Peninsula reach ratchet up in recent months, prompting fresh rounds of sanctions and fiery rhetoric from Trump and Kim.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump greeted three Americans released by North Korea at an air base near Washington early today, underscoring a much needed diplomatic win and a stepping stone to a historic summit with Kim Jong Un.

Trump and first lady Melania made the short helicopter ride from the White House to Joint Base Andrews to personally welcome Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong-chul back to the United States, after their release from North Korea yesterday.

The president and his wife strode up the steps into the blue and white plane to greet them privately before coming out before TV cameras in the middle of the night.

Trump praised Kim for freeing the Americans ahead of the planned summit between the two leaders.

One of the former prisoners waved his arms from atop the steps, and another while down on the tarmac.

"It was understood that we would be able to get these three terrific people during the meeting and bring them home after the meeting," Trump said.

"He was nice in letting them go before the meeting. Frankly, we didn't think this was going to happen. And it did." Remarking on the sudden shift in US relations with North Korea and the upcoming summit, Trump said: "We're starting off on a new footing... he released the folks early. It's a big thing. Very important to me.

"And I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful and if anybody would have said that five years ago, 10 years ago -- even a year ago -- you would have said that's not possible."



He added: "A lot of very good things have happened." The North Korean regime granted the three men "amnesty," a US official said, removing a major point of friction between Washington and Pyongyang and a potential obstacle to talks between the Cold War foes.

The men flew home with the new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Two of the men, agricultural expert Kim Hak-song and former professor Tony Kim, were arrested in 2017, while Kim Dong-chul, a South Korea-born American businessman and pastor in his 60s, was sentenced to 10 years' hard labour in 2016.

The White House said all three men were able to walk unassisted onto a US Air Force plane that carried them and the Secretary of State out of North Korea.

A second plane, with more robust medical equipment, accompanied them. "All indications are at this point that their health is as good as could be given that they've been held," Pompeo told reporters travelling with him.

The trio later released a statement of thanks conveyed via the State Department.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," they said.

"We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world." The family of Tony Kim also voiced gratitude to "all of those who have worked toward and contributed to his return home" -- and specifically thanking Trump for "engaging directly with North Korea."



Before the plane's arrival Trump described the men's release as "a gesture of goodwill." The White House said Trump spoke with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in yesterday about Pompeo's visit to North Korea, and that the two presidents welcomed the release of the Americans and "expressed hope for joyful family reunions."Trump supporters declared their release an unbridled political victory, evidence, Vice President Mike Pence said, that "strong leadership and our America First policies are paying dividends." The development appears to pave the way for a much-anticipated summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim, scheduled to take place within weeks.

"It was absolutely imperative that the Trump Administration secure the release of the three Americans well before any summit," said Jean Lee, an analyst at the Wilson Centre.

In his first reported comments on the summit, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his sit down with Trump "would be a historic meeting" and an "excellent first step" according to state media.

Trump says a time, date and location have been decided for his historic summit with Kim, although US officials say there is still some fine-tuning to be done.

The most likely location appears to be neutral Singapore.

The president told reporters the administration would announce the details "within three days" but revealed it would not be at the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea.

"I think that Chairman Kim is trying to set good conditions for the summit. I think we are having good conversations, productive conversations," Pompeo said. "We're planning on it will be a single day, but in the event that there is more to discuss, there'll be an opportunity for it to extend into the second day as well."



The meeting will discuss North Korea's nuclear and ballistic weapons program, which may soon give Pyongyang the capability of striking the continental United States.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three Korean-Americans who were detained in North Korea for more than a year were greeted by President Donald Trump beneath a giant American flag after they returned to the mainland US today.

Despite a middle-of-the-night landing, first lady Melania Trump and a host of senior administration officials joined Trump to celebrate the occasion. The president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men traveled to take a private moment with them.

The men, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, were released Wednesday amid a warming of relations between the longtime adversaries.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo secured their release in Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on final plans for a Trump-Kim summit. The Americans had boarded Pompeo's plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to a Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the US.

According to the White House, the three men would be transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation and medical treatment. Their families were not on hand for the ceremony.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," they said.

"We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."



Singapore has emerged as the likely summit site, late this month or in early June, as Trump seeks to negotiate denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in his highest-stakes foreign policy effort yet. Trump announced Wednesday that the demilitarized zone between the Koreas would not host the summit. Pompeo said the meeting would last one day and possibly a second.

Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Korea's leader for the prisoners' release "I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this" and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the "official suggestion" of the US president, said North Korea's official agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.

Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental US.

Those advances were the subject of President Barack Obama's starkest warning shortly before Trump took office, and this is a crisis he's convinced his negotiating skills can resolve.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kim's willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating US moves to tighten sanctions branded "maximum pressure" by the president.

The wee-hours ceremony Thursday was to be an early celebration for an issue that has already put the prospect of a Nobel Peace Prize on Trump's mind.

"Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it," he said Wednesday when asked if the award was deserved.

The release capped a dramatic day of diplomacy in Pyongyang. After Pompeo's 90-minute meeting with Kim Jong Un, he gave reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked about the prisoners as he returned to his hotel. It was only after a North Korean emissary arrived a bit later to inform him that the release was confirmed.

The three had been held for periods ranging from one to two years. They were the latest in a series of Americans who have been detained by North Korea in recent years for seemingly small offenses and typically freed when senior US officials or statesmen personally visited to bail them out.

The highly public and politically tinged arrival ceremony for the former prisoners organized by the White House was in stark contrast to the low-key and very private reception that the State Department had envisioned and carried out from the moment they took custody of them.

Department officials took great pains on their release in North Korea, as well as on their flights to Japan and Alaska, to keep them sequestered not only from the two journalists traveling with Pompeo but also from staffers not immediately involved in their cases. The trio, along with medical personnel, including a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Pompeo's plane in a small section of 12 business class-sized seats that was cordoned off by curtains on both ends.

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns in keeping with the minimal amount of information they had released since the men were imprisoned.

The fact that Trump was going to Andrews to welcome them home in person was almost an afterthought to Pompeo, who, when briefing reporters on their release, noted it last of all.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two people, including an assistant police inspector, were today killed when a vehicle hit their car near Gandhi Path bridge on Ajmer-Delhi national highway, police said today.

The accident took place when an unidentified vehicle hit their car coming from Dudu town, Investigating officer and Constable Durga Prasad said.

Bodies of deceased, identified as Rattan Lal (57) and Arvind Kumawat (32), were handed over to their family members after post-mortem, Prasad said.

A case has been registered and a manhunt is launched to nab the accused, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain's state-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland said today that it has been fined USD 4.9 billion (4.1 billion euros) by the US Justice Department over its role in the subprime crisis.

RBS said in a statement that it reached a preliminary deal with the US Justice Department "to resolve its investigation into RBS's issuance and underwriting of US residential mortgage-backed securities between 2005 and 2007".

It follows a separate fine of USD 5.5 billion agreed in July 2017 with the Federal Housing Finance Agency over the same matter.

Edinburgh-based RBS, which remains 71 percent owned by the British government after receiving the world's biggest banking bailout at the height of the subsequent 2008 global financial crisis, described the as a "milestone".

"Today's announcement is a milestone moment for the bank," said chief executive Ross McEwan.

"Reaching this settlement in principle with the US Department of Justice will, when finalised, allow us to deal with this significant remaining legacy issue and is the price we have to pay for the global ambitions pursued by this bank before the crisis.

"Removing the uncertainty over the scale of this settlement means that the investment case for this bank is much clearer."



The lender added that USD 3.46 billion of the settlement will be covered by existing provisions, while it will take another USD 1.44billion charge for the second quarter of 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A woman who alleged the son of a BJP MLA had raped her has threatened to immolate herself if the "accused" person was not arrested by May 21.

The police have stepped up her security as the 28-year-woman also claimed today she was getting life threats since the past two days pressuring her to enter into a compromise with the persons she had accused, officials said here.

The legislator has refuted the charges levelled by the woman and alleged the Samajwadi Party was playing politics to malign his image.

Refuting MLA Roshanlal Verma's claims, the woman said she was running from pillar to post since the past five years to get justice but to no avail.

The woman said she would immolate herself if the MLA and his son were not arrested by May 21.

Meanwhile the SP Dr N Chinappa said security of the victim had been stepped up and a gunner was provided to her.

The woman, who staged a 'dharna' at the collectorate office on Monday, had alleged she was raped by MLA's son and also held captive in 2011.

The lawmaker had however clarified that it was "old matter" in which the police had given a "clean chit" and accused the opposition Samajwadi Party of playing politics to malign his image.

"It's an attempt by the Samajwadi Party to malign my image. On November 23, 2016, the CB-CID had filed the final report in the matter and termed the matter as fake. The woman had herself given a statement before a magistrate that neither was she abducted nor was she raped and my son's name was included under pressure of SP leaders," BJP MLA Roshanlal Verma had told reporters.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US has approved the appointment of a prominent Pakistani investment banker Ali Jahangir Siddiqui as the country's new envoy in Washington, media reports said today, amidst the impasse over imposition of restrictions on the movement of diplomats in each others' country.

In March, the Pakistan government had announced that Siddiqui, a Karachi-based businessman, would be the country's next ambassador to the US and sent relevant papers to the US State Department for agrement.

But the agrement for the new envoy was received by the Pakistan Embassy only two days ago, Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary said.

"The embassy had received the agrement for the new ambassador, Ali Jahangir Siddiqui, on Tuesday, paving the way for his appointment," Chaudhary was quoted as saying by the Dawn.

An agrement is the approval of a diplomatic representative by the state to which he or she is to be accredited.

Diplomatic norms do not allow a host government to tell another government who to send as ambassador, but they also place no obligation on the host government to approve the appointment.

Chaudhary is expected to leave his job on May 29, just two days before an interim government is likely to take charge in Islamabad, as general elections are likely to be held in Pakistan in July.

The appointment of new ambassador is coming at a time when the US is all set to impose a restriction on the movement of Pakistani diplomats in Washington and at its four consulates in New York, Los Angeles, Texas and Chicago, the report said.

As per the restrictions, from May 11, diplomats will not be able to travel more than 40 kilometres from their posts without prior notice. Earlier, the restriction was to come into effect from May 1, but was deferred to resolve certain issues, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iran's "reckless" deployment of offensive rocket and missile systems into Syria aimed at Israel is a highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East, the White House today said, underlining that Israel has a "right to act in self-defence".

The response by the White House came after Israel accused Iran of launching 20 rockets from installations in Syria at Israeli military outposts in the Golan Heights.

Israel responded to that strike by launching airstrikes against dozens of Iranian targets in Syria. According to Israeli local media, the Israeli military said it was the most extensive Israeli strike in Syria in decades.

Condemning the Iranian regime's provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens, the US has strongly supported Israel's "right to act in self-defence".

"The Iranian regime's deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

"Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bears full responsibility for the consequences of its reckless actions, and we call on the IRGC and its militant proxies, including Hezbollah, to take no further provocative steps," Sanders said in a statement.

The United States also calls on all nations to make clear that the Iranian regime's actions pose a severe threat to international peace and stability, said the White House Press Secretary.

"As the Iranian regime once again uses Syrian territory to attack Israel, America stands with Israel, our ally and fellow democracy, and strongly supports the Jewish state's right to defend her people," Senator Marco Rubio said.

"The United States should hold the Iranian regime fully accountable and impose severe consequences if Iran's forces or proxies harm the citizens of our nation or our allies in the Middle East," Rubio said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump today announced that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore, the first-ever summit between the top leaders of the two Cold War rivals to discuss the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

Trump's announcement came hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned home from North Korea with three detained Americans.

Trump, who personally greeted the trio at the Andrews Air Force Base, praised Kim for their release ahead of their summit.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!," Trump tweeted.

In April, Trump had stunned the world by accepting an invitation to meet Kim in an unprecedented sit-down.

Trump and Kim had previously traded insults and threats. The breakthrough came after the recent landmark talks between North and South Korea.

At a summit last month, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed to work to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons, although the means of achieving this were not detailed.

The main issue under discussion at the Trump-Kim summit will be North Korea's nuclear weapons, which the US is demanding Pyongyang give up.

There has been no word from North Korea on its agenda or what it might offer, although a key issue is certain to be the presence of 30,000 US military personnel in South Korea, along with the removal of sanctions.

Trump has struck a cautiously optimistic tone in discussing the prospects of reaching a deal during his upcoming summit with Kim, saying he is hopeful a historic agreement can be brokered while also warning the talks could prove unfruitful.

But the President saw the release of the three Americans as yet another reason for optimism as he prepares for the summit.

"We are starting off on a new footing -- I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful. A lot of very good things have happened," Trump said as he greeted the three former prisoners.

The Americans -- Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim -- were freed yesterday by North Korea while Pompeo was on a visit to Pyongyang to finalise the details of the Trump-Kim summit.

The trio had been jailed for anti-state activities and placed in North Korean labour camps.

"I really think he wants to do something and bring the country into the real world," he added of Kim. "It's never been taken this far, there has never been a relationship like this. I really think a lot of progress has been made."



The summit, which has been in the works since Trump accepted Kim's invitation to meet in March, will be the first ever meeting between a sitting US president and North Korean leader.

US officials had also considered holding the summit at the Korean demilitarized zone or in Mongolia, but ultimately settled on the city-state of Singapore as the location.

Singapore has been used before for high-profile diplomatic occasions. In 2015, the leaders of China and Taiwan held historic talks in the South East Asian city-state - their first in more than 60 years, the BBC reported.

The US and Singapore have a close relationship. Singapore has diplomatic ties with North Korea but suspended all trade with Pyongyang in November last year as US-led international sanctions were tightened following a series of provocative actions by the reclusive state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) today told the Supreme Court that a scheme proposed by it on compensation to victims of sexual assaults should be implemented throughout the country.

The NALSA told a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that the legal services authority should be given power on its own to grant compensation to such victims and there should be madatory reporting of cases of sexual assaults and acid attacks.

The apex court, while suggesting minor corrections in the scheme proposed by the NALSA, said the authority should also consider the aspect of recovery of funds if the cases lodged were found to be false.

"If there is a false case, there has to be recovery. We hope there is no false case. You think about recovery of fund, otherwise you will be stuck in civil suits," the bench said.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising, assisting the court as an amicus curiae, told the bench that the scheme applied to women and girl child victims only, but the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) was "gender neutral".

The bench suggested there could be an identical scheme for minor male victims too.

On being asked by the bench whether the proposed scheme was shared with the state governments, the NALSA said it was uploaded on their website and objections were invited from all stakeholders, including states, their legal services authorities and the civil society.

The bench, while observing that this was in a nature of "model scheme", said it would take up the matter for further hearing tomorrow.

The NALSA had earlier told the court that hardly 5-10 per cent sexual assault victims across the country were getting compensation under the relevant schemes in various states.

The apex court had said it would consider in July the issues related to section 228-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which deals with disclosure of identity of victims of sexual offences and utilisation of Nirbhaya Fund by states.

Nirbhaya Fund was announced by the Centre in 2013 after the December 16, 2012 gangrape and murder case in Delhi to support the initiatives on women's safety across the country.

The top court had earlier observed that nothing would materialise if money from the Nirbhaya fund was not properly spent on women's welfare.

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 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.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The vitriol-filled campaign for the Karnataka Assembly elections ended today with top leaders of the BJP and Congress, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, making a last-gasp effort to sway the voters in a likely cliffhanger.

From corruption to communalism, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's Rs 70 lakh Hublot watch to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, the electoral potboiler had it all.

Like all state polls since he assumed the reins of power in New Delhi, Modi helmed the BJP's adrenaline-charged campaign despite the party having declared B S Yeddyurappa its chief ministerial candidate, while Rahul Gandhi helmed that of the Congress.

Though Modi remained out of the electoral scene for a long time after addressing a public meeting in February, he launched a blitzkrieg on May 1, addressing over a score of rallies in his bid to wrest the key southern state, which BJP chief Amit Shah dubbed as the party's "gateway to south", from the Congress.

Always high on energy during elections, he adddressed at least three rallies every day when he was in Karnataka, or else interacted with workers of the BJP's different frontal organisations through the 'Namo App'.

Though development remained part of the political discourse, it was overtaken by a slanging match between the two parties over corruption.

The prime minister and Amit Shah raised the issue of the killing of RSS and BJP workers by SDPI, a radical Islamist political party floated by the Popular Front of India, which Modi said was the "abc of communalism".

Shah claimed two of the candidates fielded by the Congress were, in fact, members of the SDPI.

On day one of his campaign, Modi raked up the issue of Sonia's foreign origin at an election rally where he dared the Congress chief to speak for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Karnataka government in any language, including his "mother's mother tongue".

An emotional Rahul Gandhi hit back today at a press conference where he said,"My mother is an Italian. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many Indians I have seen."



Modi repeatedly addressed the Siddaramaiah ministry as "seedha rupaiah government (a government that takes bribes for work) and "10 per cent commission government".

Provoked, Siddaramaiah first called the Modi dispensation a "90 per cent commission government" and then served legal notices to Modi and Shah, demanding an apology and threatening to file Rs 100 crore civil and criminal defamation suit if they did not tender it.

Rally after election rally, Rahul Gandhi targeted BJP's chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa over corruption when he helmed the state while BJP was in power between 2008 and 2013.

"Will Modi ji tell the people of Karnataka why a man who spent time in jail for corruption is the BJP's CM candidate? Why the BJP has given 8 tickets to Reddy brothers and their associates who looted Rs 35,000 crore from the people of Karnataka?" he asked, as he sought to paint the saffron party into a corner.

The Congress president frequently referred to fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi in his speeches, alleging the government allowed him to flee the country after defrauding the Punjab National Bank fraud.

Modi, who has powered the BJP to victory after victory in Assembly polls in states in the last four years, also invoked nationalism and B R Ambedkar, after he was in the Congress president's firing line over a string of attacks on Dalits. He slammed the Congress for raising questions about the Army's surgical strikes in PoK.

Though Modi did not campaign in Karnataka today, he addressed BJP's SC/ST/OBC and Slum Morcha workers through his Namo App and said, "There is no place for dalits and backward classes in the heart of the Congress." He accused the Congress of "insulting" Ambedkar, a Dalit icon.

Sonia Gandhi, who avoided the rough and tumble of elections for two years after she was taken ill during a roadshow in Varanasi ahead of the Uttar Pradesh polls, also addressed a rally in the Lingayat stronghold of Vijayapura where she said "Modi is possessed by the devil of 'Congress mukt Bharat' (bhoot lag gaya hai)".

Apart from Shah, who vigourously campaigned across the state over the last two months, the BJP fielded its Hindutva mascot Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who toured the communally sensitive coastal belt of Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada district.

Adityanath exhorted electors to elect a government that can protect people from "jihadi" forces.

After Rahul Gandhi publicly declared he was ready to become the prime minister if Congress emerged as the single largest party, Modi mocked him, calling him a "dynast" and wondering whether the nation will accept him as its leader.

The campaign was hit by a "fake" voter ID card scandal in it dying moments, but election officials said those appeared to be genuine.

Nearly 10,000 cards were recovered from a flat in Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency on Tuesday, setting off a war of words between the Congress and BJP, with each alleging the owner of the apartment owed allegiance to the rival party.

The contentious issue of the Siddaramaiah government recommending religious minority status for the numerically strong Lingayat community took a back seat as the two parties appeared unsure about its electoral fallout.

Opinion polls and surveys have projected a thriller of a contest, with neither BJP nor the Congress getting a majority on its own and the JD(S) of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda playing the kingmaker.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two days after the discovery of a huge cache of Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) at an apartment here, police today registered an FIR namingsitting Congress MLA Munirathna as one of the accused.

Briefing reporters, the chief electoral officer of Karnataka Sanjeev Kumar said all the reports on the case had been submitted to the Election Commission of India.

Similarly, the deputy commissioner had visited the spot, gathered information and sent a report to headquarters.

He said the commission would take a decision soon whether to countermand the election in Rajarajeshwari Nagar assembly constituency where the seizures were made.

Declining to divulge more information, Kumar said, "Everydetail of the FIR cannot be shared but what you are saying (about the sitting MLA being an accused) is a fact.."



Asked about the recommendation he has made to the ECI, Kumar said it was not something to be discussed as sharing the details would vitiate the process of decisionmaking.

The CEOsaid about 800 EPICs found in the apartment were verified andthey were found to be 100 per cent genuine and original.

"Some of them are as old as 2012, which cannot be manufactured overnight."



Kumar also clarified that the integrity of the electoral list was not compromised.

"That can becompletely ruled out because more than 800 have beenthoroughly verified. There is no problem with the electoral roll," he said.

The CEO said the FIR was registered under various IPC sections and the Representation of People Act-1951.

Explaining the modus operandi, Kumar said a systematicsurvey was carried out in the RR Nagar constituency of eachhousehold with photographs of voters and their houses.

Details like their names, cases and even requirements like widow pension card, old age pension card and ration card was done, he said.

"Systematically, it is for influencing the voters. That is very much there. That is the precise case."



To a question whether a person accused of electoral malpractice can contest elections, Kumar said, "Let us not jump to conclusion. FIR is not a charge sheet. FIR is not even a conviction. There are three stages."



Munirathna, however, refuted the allegation.

"I have built many houses under Rajiv Awas Yojana.

After giving so many facilities in the constituency, why did I or my party require to collect the voter ID?" he said.

He said such incidents used to take place in Hebbal assembly constituency in Bengaluru where voter IDs of the minorities were collected.

Following registration of the FIR, BJP national president Amit Shah accused Congress of making desperate attempts to win elections in an "undemocratic" way.

He said the developments in the last three days have sent a shockwave among those having faith in democracy.

"The way bogus EPIC were made in a flat at RR Nagar, the way counterfoils of forms for inclusion of voters were found, the way colour printers and computers were found there, it tells us how desperately the Congress wants to win the election," Shah said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Traders' body CAIT today said Walmart's USD 16 billion acquisition of home-grown retailer will affect India's retail sector "very badly" and demanded to scan and scrutinising the deal from "different angles" by the government.

US retailer Inc has announced the acquisition of 77 per cent stake in in its biggest takeover till date. The deal values the 11-year old Indian e-commerce firm at USD 20.8 billion.

"A regulatory authority should be constituted by the government which should scan the details of Walmart- deal and it should be scrutinised from different angles like competition and cybersecurity, predatory pricing, deep discounting and loss funding," CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal told PTI.

"After assessing the deal, we will either represent to government or to the Competition Commission, or we will go to court," he added.

Besides, Khandelwal said are facing several problems with regard to GST portal, adding that the traders' body has submitted representations to the finance ministry in this regard.

The Confederation of All India (CAIT) today launched a nationwide campaign to popularise Bharat QR, for the trading community to embrace this payment solution. In the first phase, CAIT will train 1,000 and organise 300 workshops, conferences and seminars till October 2.

"The basic reason why we are promoting Bharat QR is the GST Council has taken a decision that on digital transactions they will be offering discounts which will be 1.5-2 per cent but the situation on the ground is that most of the traders do not have digital payment means with them," Khandelwal said.

According to him, Bharat QR will play a pivotal role in encouraging over 60 million micro and small merchants to accept digital payments.

Bharat QR, the world's first asset light, interoperable payment solution, offers seamless, safe and secure transactions to both merchants and consumers.The Supreme Court today stayed the Calcutta High Court order asking the West Bengal poll panel to accept nominations through e-mail for the rural polls, describing as worrying both the electronic filing and nearly 17,000 candidates of the ruling TMC winning unopposed.

Simultaneously, the State Election Commission (SEC) announced that the panchayat polls will be held on May 14, ending days of uncertainty. The apex court, while refusing to stay the poll process, said the elections should be conducted in a "free and fair" manner.

The top court also directed the SEC not to declare those candidates who have won unopposed as winners. The ruling Trinamool Congress welcomed the order, saying the opposition's intention to postpone the polls has been "defeated".

But the bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra did not agree with the submissions that the poll process was vitiated and should be stayed, observing there were a plethora of judgements which held that once the poll process has begun no court can interfere with the process. The bench also comprised Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud.

"Once the election process starts, it cannot be interfered with. I have said this in one of the cases in the morning also," the CJI reiterated.

The SEC today moved the apex court challenging the Calcutta HC order on May 8 directing it to accept the nominations of candidates who have filed their papers electronically within the stipulated time for the elections.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the apex court order retaining the panchayat election date in the state on May 14 as per the earlier schedule, was good for the people.

The counsel for CPI(M) and the BJP alleged that several of their candidates were not allowed to file nomination papers, which has led to 34 per cent candidates, belonging to the ruling Trinamool Congress, winning unopposed.

"The High Court order has read the Information Technology (IT) Act into the Representation of People(RP) Act. Both things are worrying -- the High Court order directing the State Election Commission to accept nominations through e-mails and 34 per cent candidates winning unopposed," the bench said.

"There shall be a stay on the Calcutta High Court order," it said, adding that the state poll panel "shall not declare the results" of those candidates who have won unopposed.

However, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the state poll panel, opposed the plea regarding the winning candidates and said this was not part of the litigation.

Describing the High Court order on nomination papers as "the most absurd kind of order", Dwivedi said the nomination papers are filed before the returning officer (RO) and candidates sign the documents. After such filings, the RO scrutinises the nomination papers and either accepts or rejects them on merits.

Here, the High Court simply asked the state poll panel to accept the nomination papers, he said, adding, "what will happen to the procedures prescribed under the law".

The bench also made it clear that the "singular legal question" was whether the nomination papers can be filed electronically and can the IT Act be read into the RP Act.

The High Court had directed the SEC to accept the nominations of those candidates named by the CPI(M) who had filed their papers through e-mails within the stipulated time before 3 pm on April 23. The CPI(M) has claimed that many of its candidates were prevented from filing nominations by Trinamool Congress.

SEC secretary Nilanjan Shandilya told reporters in Kolkata that the counting of votes will take place on May 17 and repolling, if any, will be held the day before.

The TMC alleged that the three opposition parties--BJP, Left Front and Congress--have ganged up against the ruling party in order to stop the developmental work in the state.

"The people of the state want to cast their votes. We have full faith on the people of the state. But the opposition BJP, Left Front and Congress were afraid of facing the election as they knew that they don't have the mass support," TMC party secretary general Partha Chatterjee told reporters in Kolkata.

On the SC's bar on declaration of unopposed candidates as winners, Chatterjee said the matter will heard again on July 3.

"The tenure of this Panchayat ends in August. So there is nothing to worry about. We will abide by the court order".

The Calcutta High Court earlier in the day expressed the hope that the polls will be free, fair and peaceful whenever it is held and left it to the government and State Election Commission to decide on security requirements.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi High Court has given its nod to a woman, who entered into wedlock just four days after turning an adult, to live with her husband, rejecting the allegation of her parents that she was a minor and forcibly taken away by him.

It said since she married the man of her own free will and was living happily with him, there was no occasion for it to issue any direction.

It said the woman, who got married against the wishes of her family, being an 18-year-old, was free to make her choice as to whom she wanted to marry.

The woman and her husband are both Muslims.

While her parents claimed that she was a minor and was forcibly taken away by the man, the teenager said she entered into wedlock of her free will four days after turning an adult and did not want to return to her parents.

She also urged the court that security be provided to her, her husband and in-laws as she apprehended a threat from her parents.

A bench of justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta asked the Delhi Police to assess the requirement and provide appropriate security to them as and when needed.

In its order last week, the court said, "The girl is an adult and is free to make her choice as to whom she wants to marry and whom she wants to live with."



It said, "Her marriage to the man has been verified by the police to be true. Since she has done so of her own free will, there is no occasion for the court to issue any direction in that regard in this petition."



The judges also directed the parents to return her certificates and documents, including school marks sheet, identity card and bank passbook.

The teenager's mother had filed a habeas corpus petition seeking a direction for production of her daughter before the court, alleging she was forcibly taken away by the man.

The court, however, was informed by the police that the woman, who was born in 2000, had turned major on March 10 and she got married on March 14. She also intimated her family about her 'nikah' on March 26. As per her school records, she turned 18 on March 10.

When the newly wed couple appeared in the court, the judges spoke to the teenager in-chamber during which she confirmed that she married the man whom she knew for last four years. She said they had lived in the same locality.

The teenager, who was doing a BA course at a Delhi University college, also told the court that she married him on her own free will and without any pressure or coercion and her husband and in-laws were supportive.

The judges also separately interacted with the woman's parents, who insisted that she was a minor, and conveyed to them the decision of their daughter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India and China are sitting down to discuss their future, conscious that it rides on the ability to manage contradictions, which is no small development, former foreign secretary S Jaishankar said here.

The former top diplomat, who served as Ambassador to China and the United States, was addressing a lecture organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), a think tank at the National University of Singapore, yesterday.

Touching upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province, he said that world history has shown the dangers of rising powers remaining self-absorbed.

"Growing capabilities and influence actually require greater engagement with the world, not less," Jaishankar said.

"As Asia rises, there are lessons that could be drawn from the experiences of others, especially Europe. It would appear that this realisation is as strong in Beijing as it is in New Delhi," said the former envoy, a distinguished visiting research fellow at the ISAS.

"India-China relations have always had a global context and will always have one. In an uncertain world, the Wuhan meeting was an important step in the direction of greater stability," he said.

If its bilateral implications are concerned, the focus seems to have been on measures to strengthen stability and manage differences, Jaishankar said, adding that some extra effort seemed to have gone into finding common ground, whether on trade or on Afghanistan.

These are actually the only two nations with over a billion in population each. They are also among the world's major economies now. Their experiences in development and governance are worth exchanging, he said.

The intent of the Wuhan Summit was actually laid out last June when the two leaders met in Astana. At that time, they declared that the relationship between India and China must be a factor of stability in an uncertain world, the former diplomat said. "They also desired that differences between India and China should not become disputes."



However, this was followed shortly thereafter by the face-off at Dokalam.

Significantly, he said, its conclusion saw the two countries reiterate these very approaches at the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit at Xiamen in September 2017.

"Since then, there have been intensive exchanges at senior policy levels between them, including the foreign ministers and the national security advisers," Jaishankar noted.

The engagement between India and China has to be on the basis of political equality. It has to be conducted with mutual sensitivity, especially as both polities have made their core interests known to each other, he stressed.

"They have ambitions as rising powers and it is logical that these can often intersect. Differences between neighbours or rising powers are not unnatural in world politics. But how well they are managed is really the test of diplomacy," Jaishankar added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A zookeeper in southern China was killed reportedly by a tiger at a controversial wildlife centre, notorious for selling 'tiger wine', media reports said.

The man, aged around 50, went to clean a tiger enclosure with a colleague at the Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village in Guilin, a city in the Guangxi autonomous region on Tuesday, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

His colleague left the man, who has not been named, alone in the enclosure. His family were told later that day that he had been mauled by the tiger, the paper quoted state-run China National Radio as reporting.

Family members told the radio station that they went to the park yesterday demanding compensation and, above all, an explanation as to how he had died as they had not been given any evidence to back up the zoo's claims.

The wildlife centre has been frequently criticised for its sale of products such as 'tiger wine'.

In 2004, another keeper at the zoo was killed when he was attacked by a lion at feeding time.

Chinanews.com reported that the park has been closed since late 2017 for remodelling, and in recent years has been building additional facilities such as a five-star hotel and Chinese medicine research centres and production facilities.

The park has become notorious for selling traditional "medicines" such as wine apparently made using bones and other body parts from tigers despite questions about the legality of the trade.

According to some media reports, tiger skeletons are steeped in alcohol to produce expensive elixirs, which are still sold around China for high prices, the report said.

The sale of tiger bones has been illegal on mainland China since 1993.

The animal centre advertises itself as home to thousands of wild animals, including over 1,300 tigers, 400 black bears, 200 African lions, as well as monkeys, birds and crocodiles.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)By Sijia JiangHONG KONG (Reuters) - ZTE Corp's main business operations have ceased due to a ban imposed by the U.S. government, but China's second biggest telecom equipment maker is trying to have the ban modified or reversed, it said on Wednesday.ZTE was hit by a ban last month from Washington, forbidding U.S. firms from supplying it with components and technology after it was found to have violated U.S. export restrictions by illegally shipping goods to Iran."As a result of the Denial Order, the major operating activities of the company have ceased," ZTE said in the exchange filings late ...By Chris PrenticeNEW YORK (Reuters) - A giant sugar crop from India this year will more than compensate for the lowest output in a decade from central Brazil, millers and traders said this week, putting the market on course for two years of record global oversupply.The worldwide sugar glut has made sugar the worst performing commodity of the year. Raw sugar futures are down nearly 25 percent to date in 2018, and have fallen below production costs for many of the world's millers and processors. Prices are near their lowest levels since 2015.India has outperformed market expectations in the ...(Reuters) - India's Fortis Healthcare Ltd's board has accepted an investment offer worth 18 billion rupees ($267.7 million) from the Hero-Burman consortium, following a fiercely contested bidding war for the cash-strapped hospital chain.Hero Enterprise Investment Office and the Burman Family Office had made a binding offer to invest 8 billion rupees through a preferential share issue at 167 rupees apiece and 10 billion rupees via preferential issue of warrants at 176 rupees per warrant. The recommendation by Fortis' board would be sent to shareholders for approval, Fortis said.Hero ...By Dmitry Zhdannikov, Olesya Astakhova and Rania El GamalLONDON/MOSCOW/DUBAI (Reuters) - When Qatar negotiated a deal to increase its holding in Rosneft it told the Russian oil company it wanted higher returns on its existing stake before it bought more, three sources familiar with the deal said.Qatar's request was one of the triggers which prompted Igor Sechin, Rosneft's boss and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, to propose last week a $2 billion share buyback and an $8 billion debt reduction, marking a significant shift in the oil company's strategy. Days later, Qatar's sovereign ...Many people have grown accustomed to talking to their smart devices, asking them to read a text, play a song or set an alarm. But someone else might be secretly talking to them, too. Over the past two years, researchers in China and the United States have begun demonstrating that they can send hidden commands that are undetectable to the human ear to Apples Siri, Amazons Alexa and Googles Assistant. Inside university labs, the researchers have been able to secretly activate the artificial intelligence systems on smartphones and smart speakers, making them dial phone ...LOGAN  The trial for Neal O. Eddington finished its second day of testimony in 1st District Court, with the alleged victims roommates and investigators taking the witness stand. Prosecutors also played a recorded phone call between the defendant and the victim, and an interview investigators had with Eddington. The 24-year-old South Jordan man is accused of raping a woman while the two were on a first date.

The day earlier, the victim described how on the night of October 5, 2017, the defendant became aggressive, threatening and forced her to perform oral sex multiple times. She claimed to have repeatedly told him no, at least 20 times.

During Wednesdays testimony, the roommates told the court about being introduced to Eddington, after the victim invited him to their town home to watch a movie. One of the women explained having an uneasy feeling meeting him. A second roommate, whos bedroom is next to the victims, said she never heard any loud noises, screams or calls for help that night.

Prosecutors then played a pretext phone call, recorded by police after the victim had reported the assault. On it, Eddington appears to sound shocked, when the victim tells him, he hurt her. He is heard saying, he thought she was enjoying what happened, and didnt remember hearing her say stop.

Later, during a video recording of Eddington being interrogated by investigators, the defendant explained that the victim gave him confusing signals during the night. He said, she would tell him to stop and then tell him to start again. He told the investigator, he thought everything they did was consensual and he never forced her to do anything. He concluded saying, they fell asleep together, with her cuddling up to him.

Defense attorneys claim the victim didnt allege to being raped until feeling ashamed that her roommates knew the defendant spent the night with her. The also believe the victims account of the assault changed from her previous testimony, given during a January preliminary hearing.

The trial is expected to continue through Thursday.

Eddington remains out of jail on bail. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

will@cvradio.comCopenhagen: The man who wants to save our plastic world

Published on May 18, 2018

Story by Emil Staulund Larsen

en

it

es

de

fr

Unless we act now, the world's oceans will have more plastic than fish in weight by the year 2050. Although Europe isn't necessarily faced with the direct consequences of plastic waste, it still produces millions of tonnes of plastic each year. So where does a Danish biologist, sailor, diver and father of two sons stand in all of this? Right at the heart of the problem.

For our YoTambien project, we dove into the themes of Yo!Fest @ the EYE2018, Europe's largest youth-led political festival, to explore the issues that matter to young people the most. This article focuses on the theme "protecting our planet".

---

Im walking alongside Henrik Beha Pedersen next to the canal at Islands Brygge, in the centre of Copenhagen. Despite the fresh temperatures, the sun is shining. A soft breeze carries small objects scattered across the black boulders next to the water. We should arrange a clean-up here, Henrik says. A few metres from us, a concrete platform is occupied by a mute swan, Denmarks national bird. In the water next to it, a plastic bag floats by.

Look at all that plastic over there! he exclaims. While we walk down the scenic harbour, Henrik is rambling on about how irritating it is that we think trash only ends up in the streets of low-income countries. Just look at it, he insists, pointing to all of the plastic objects floating in the water and in between the boulders.

Out of sight, out of mind

A lot of the waste that Europe doesnt know what do to with is exported to low and middle-income countries. Out of sight, out of mind seems to be the dominant mantra. In 2016, for example, of the 8.5 million tonnes of plastic waste produced by European citizens, 1.6 million tonnes were shipped to China.

But Henrik isnt just a guy who talks about change. He walks the walk. The 54-year-old Dane is somewhat of a plastic waste hero. In May 2014 he founded Plastic Change, a Danish organisation that actively carries out clean-up missions globally and raises awareness about the consequences of increasing plastic pollution in the oceans and the environment in general.

In the middle of our chat about EU waste exports, Henrik decides to climb down between the boulders. We should really arrange a clean-up here, he says again, his head bent over a yellow plastic bag that he has managed to salvage from the rocks. He mutters the words what a waste to himself multiple times. More rubbish washes up next to the rocks, and he starts putting all he can find in the larger plastic bag. A straw, a pharmacy bag, a red cup, some glittery candy wrappers objects from everyday lives, everywhere.

Two men pass by wearing matching black T-shirts. They are carrying big trash bags and pick up tools. Henrik looks up at them from the rocks: Thats awesome. Good job guys. The two workers seem slightly surprised by the encouragement they have received from Henrik, but its all part of the change that he wants to see. While the men walk on, Henrik climbs up from the boulders and another plastic bag floats behind him in the canal.

Gazing into the plastic ball

While we eat Danish rye bread, Henrik tells me about how he ended up working with plastic. He studied to become an environmental biologist, specialising in the cocktail effects of chemicals. After finishing his studies, the Dane went on to work for Greenpeace, first as a campaign manager and later as the programme leader of Greenpeace Denmark.

The environment and the protection of it has been the governing principle of what I have been doing for the last 20 years, he tells me. But five years ago, Henrik decided to part ways with Greenpeace and pursue his own vision. I took out some time after Greenpeace just looking into the crystal ball. I was trying to get a feeling of where I could [have the most impact] for the world and for nature with my experiences, he explains, looking into the distance of the canal.

In his younger years, a few incidents pushed Henrik to go down the yellow plastic road. With a smile on his face, he recalls the time he hitchhiked through Europe and North Africa with a friend and stumbled upon a pile of plastic in the backyard of their hotel in Tunisia. He tells me how the pile was about two metres tall and twenty metres wide, stretching his arms out to indicate the size, knife and fork in hand. We started playing with the plastic, building sculptures from it. It was the first time I started thinking about this fantastic material that had only been used once, and was now lying in the backyard, he explains.

Being a sailor and a diver as well as an environmental advocate, Henrik has spent a significant amount of time  20 years to be exact  in oceans and seas across the world. I saw an emerging issue around plastics in nature and in the oceans. I felt a need to focus on that, and Greenpeace wasnt on that track at that moment, he confesses. After he quit Greenpeace, he started asking himself how he could make a positive change for the environment. He also asked his two sons. Their answer? Dad, you need to work with plastic.

Henriks tone becomes more serious. We have a huge responsibility towards the next generation. That is the basis [] of Plastic Change. But whats more, theres a link between the issue of plastic and the climate: overconsumption. We cant just consume and not think about reducing our consumption, he explains. Every now and then, I have to stop asking questions to let Henrik eat his rye bread.

As human beings, we can do a lot

After our walk along the canal, we go back to the Plastic Change offices. Upon walking in, two things catch my eye. First, the large white plastic ball hanging from the ceiling, decorated with repurposed white plastic bottles of different shapes and sizes, forming a globe with mountains and trees. Second, the office dog Else, who curiously comes to check if newcomers have any snacks for her. Henrik greets the dog, without giving her treats. He takes me to a quiet office while the rest of the team is having lunch.

We take a seat, and Henrik continues energetically, despite the grim topic. Our biggest challenge is how we can make it something that people can afford in their daily lives and that everyone can take part in solving. As human beings and as individuals, we can do a lot, he says, mentioning small things like bringing your own water bottle, separating trash or reusing shopping bags.

As an organisation, Plastic Change has several activities. They publish learning materials and academic writing on plastic waste, arrange clean-ups, designed a bench made from reused ocean plastic, organise plastic-photo competitions and even developed an app called Beat the Microbread in which users can check if a product contains micro-beads simply by scanning the barcode. Still, for Henrik, its not enough: I think its important that we also focus on the responsibility of the plastic industry and politicians. We can only solve this together. He hopes that one day, Plastic Change will be the go-to organisation when it comes to plastic waste.

Plastic soups

The plastic hero struts around the office space with skin that is visibly more tanned than his colleagues. A few days earlier, Henrik was sailing in the Pacific Ocean to see how critical the plastic waste situation has become. We want to see, feel and expose the issue. Being close to the ocean and picking up pieces of plastic in the middle of the plastic soups, and sending photos of what we see back home is a strong way for us to raise awareness, he tells me.

Earlier this year, a young sperm whale washed ashore in Cape Palos in southeast Spain, dead. Inside the whale, scientists found 29 kilos of plastic rubbish, just a fraction of the 8 million tonnes of plastic we are throwing away each year. On his boat, Henrik has encountered plastic soups, which are millions of pieces of plastic concentrated in certain areas of the ocean, floating on the surface. In the past years, the Plastic Change has travelled to places like Hawaii, where Henrik and his team organised clean-ups on beaches and trawled plastics out of the waters. I became really angry when I saw all the micro plastics. Its just such a system failure, Henrik says passionately. We have had a party with plastic. That party is over now. It has been the Wild West.

Still, Henrik doesnt want to abolish plastic. Time and time again, he insists on how fantastic a material plastic is. We havent been able to value the single-use products after they have been used, he adds, referring to return schemes as a way to avoid waste. He is a big fan of the EUs circular economy strategy. Being Danish, that isnt too surprising. In Denmark, citizens pay minor deposits for many beverages. Once finished, consumers can return the plastic bottles and reclaim their deposits. Discussions of whether or not to introduce a similar concept with plastic bags are slowly surfacing as well. Its a simple and efficient system, that has proved to be extremely successful in Denmark, with 90% of all plastic bottles being collected for reuse throughout the country. We need a movement of young people, Henrik adds, The next generation needs to be asking themselves how they can reduce their plastic consumption, and take part in a society where every piece of plastic is reused and never ends up in nature.

My day with Henrik has come to an end. Before closing the door of the Plastic Change offices behind me, Henrik manages to slip in one one last conjecture. Contrary to his light and energetic attitude, his last words make my heart feel heavy: If we dont succeed, we will be drowning in and eating plastic in the future.

---

Cafebabel is a media partner of Yo!Fest, the annual political youth-led festival organised by the European Youth Forum that mixes political debates and workshops with live music and artistic performances. The festival is once again being organised as part of the European Youth Event - EYE2018 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The #EYE2018 provides a unique opportunity for over 8,000 young Europeans to make their voices heard and shape a vision for the future of Europe. This series will explore the event's five core themes: Keeping up with the Digital Revolution, Staying Alive in Turbulent Times, Working out for a Stronger Europe, Protecting our Planet and Calling for a Fair Share. Follow the EYE and Yo!Fest on social media.

Story by Emil Staulund Larsen Danish freelance journalists and Mundus Journalism student| BY Ricki Green |

Ray Ali and Carlo Mazzarella from Clemenger BBDO Melbourne have taken out Australian radio advertisings top award, the Gold Siren, at the 2018 Siren Awards held tonight in Sydney.

The Sound Booth spot, for client beyondblue, also won the Silver Siren for best single radio ad. The campaign aimed to raise awareness about anxiety and encouraging those with symptoms to seek help.

The Siren Awards are judged by the Siren Council, comprised of creative directors and producers from leading advertising and creative agencies and studios across Australia.

The spot completed a trifecta by also winning the Client Award, a $5,000 cash prize which is judged by a separate panel of clients, rather than agency creative directors.

Ali and Mazzarella (pictured above) said the most effective radio ads are those that are not too complicated: Working on the anxiety campaign, we learned how crippling a condition it can be, often stopping people from finishing things they want to achieve. We thought that this could be a pretty powerful concept to explore.

The awards were hosted by comedian Cam Knight and attended by creative writers, directors and producers from leading creative agencies and executives from the radio industry.

The Silver Siren for best radio campaign (three or more ads in a campaign) went to Tim Newton and Wilora Keeley (pictured right) from J. Walter Thompson Perth for a powerful campaign for the WA Police Union in support of a 1.5% pay increase for police officers.

The How much to? campaign uses real-life scenarios to pose confronting questions about how much money it would take to encourage the average person to do the job faced by police.

Matt Perrott from Uncanny Valley won the Silver Siren in the craft category for production of the NSW Water Safety spot for the NSW Government.

The 14th annual Siren Awards, run by Commercial Radio Australia, are designed to encourage excellence and creativity in radio advertising.

The Gold Siren and the Silver Siren winners across the craft, single and radio campaign categories, were selected from hundreds of entries throughout 2017-18 over five rounds, plus a final call.

Says Joan Warner, CEO, CRA: The awards are a reminder of how effective audio is in getting a message across. We congratulate all the finalists and winners on the high level of quality that has been displayed through all the rounds of award entries this year.

Ali and Mazzarella receive automatic entry for their winning ad into the international Cannes Advertising Lions Festival in June. The creatives and their client also win accommodation, airfares and delegate passes to attend the event.

2018 Siren Award winners:

Gold

Ray Ali & Carlo Mazzarella

Clemenger BBDO Melbourne

Sound Booth for Beyondblue

Silver

Radio Single

Ray Ali & Carlo Mazzarella

Clemenger BBDO Melbourne

Sound Booth for Beyondblue

Silver

Radio Campaign

Tim Newton & Wilora Keeley

J. Walter Thompson

How much to? for WA Police Union

Silver

Radio Craft

Matt Perrott

Uncanny Valley

NSW Water Safety for NSW Government

Client Award

Ray Ali & Carlo Mazzarella

Clemenger BBDO MelbourneLooking for a celebration? Crack an egg in honour of World Egg Day

In the mood for a celebration? Crack an egg  its World Egg Day Oct. 8, an international event established in Vienna back in 1996 to help fete the wonderful versatility of this humble food, not only for all its nutritional and delicious benefits, but to honour all the farming families who help put eggs on the table for everyone, certainly Canadians coast-to-coast.Thursday, May 10, 2018 at 6:20PM

Apple has played a crucial role in an international joint venture that could forever change global manufacturing of aluminum. A key component used in the production of Macs, iPads, iPhones and Apple Watch products, many technology companies like Apple prefer aluminum because of its strength and lightness as well as the various ways it can be treated.

By using aluminum in its products at scale, Apple has been able to find ways to make production more effecient and less wasteful as well as develop new processes.

Leading aluminum manufacturing companies Alcoa and Rio Tinto have developed, "a revolutionary process to make aluminum that produces oxygen and replaces all greenhouse gas emissions from the traditional aluminum smelting process. The technology represents the culmination of decades worth of research and development," Apple's statement said.

According to the news. Alcoa, Rio Tinto, the Government of Canada, the Government of Quebec and Apple agree to provide a combined investment of CAD $188 million, which is a large investment in Canada, where the smelting will take place.

Apple is committed to advancing technologies that are good for the planet and help protect it for generations to come, said Tim Cook, Apples CEO. We are proud to be part of this ambitious new project, and look forward to one day being able to use aluminum produced without direct greenhouse gas emissions in the manufacturing of our products.

Todays announcement in Saguenay, Quebec, which was attended by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard and Apple Senior Director Sarah Chandler, involved research and development that has spanned decades. Apples involvement started in 2015, when three of its engineers went in search of a cleaner, better way of mass producing aluminum



Fun fact about aluminum, while it is used today in everything from aircraft parts to computer bodies, it was once the rarest and most expensive element in the world and was valued more than gold. The cap of the Washington Monument is made from aluminum. althought at that time it was worth $1 per ounce.Thursday, May 10, 2018 at 9:29AM

Chinese smartphone and communications manufacturer ZTE is reportedly on life support following a crushing US ban. The company has apparently ceased all online and retail operations in the wake of a ban imposed by the US goverment. ZTE is China's second largest telecom equiptment maker, it made its name in North America selling affordable smartphones as well as portablw Wi-Fi hotspot devices.

ZTEwas banned for illegally shipping goods to Iran, the result is the ceasing of major operating activities for the companies. "ZTE appears to have suspended its online stores on its own website as well as on Alibaba Groups e-commerce platform Taobao over the past few days, which display a page being updated message with no products to order," a report from Reuters says.

For customers of ZTE or users of their devices, the repercussions are long reaching. We don't know is ZTE smartphones will continue receiving updates from Android, which seriously undermines customer experience and phone service.

ZTE made a splash in Canada a few years ago by releasing midrange devices which features many premium features. The company has competed on price but provided solid options for the entry-level and prepaid markets in Canada.Photo: The Canadian Press Police investigate the scene of a shooting where one man is dead and three RCMP officers were injured in St. Paul, Alta., on Friday, May 9, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

UPDATE 1:30 A.M. MAY 10

Church officials in Alberta confirm a priest died during a terrifying series of incidents that injured several police officers and left a suspect dead.

Lorraine Turchansky, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton, confirms that Father Gilbert Dasna died Friday.

Mounties say they transported an injured man to hospital in St. Paul, northeast of Edmonton, on Friday afternoon after responding to a distress call in the town.

At about the same time, gunshots rang out outside the town's RCMP detachment, and police began hunting for a black Dodge pickup that was seen leaving the area.

Police say the truck later rammed a police cruiser, seriously injuring an officer inside and leading to a shootout that left the suspect in the truck dead.

The man who police took to hospital was pronounced dead upon arrival, police say they don't know if the death is connected either to Friday night's incident or the suspect who was in the Dodge truck.

Turchansky says Dasna was serving with the St. Paul diocese and was a member of the Sons of Mary Mother of Mercy congregation, which she said is based in Nigeria.

Bishop Paul Terrio of the Diocese of St. Paul was out of the country, Turchansky said, but is on his way back to Alberta after learning the news.

Three officers were injured. The worst injured was a female officer who was in the RCMP vehicle that was rammed, and police said she suffered extensive injuries to both legs.

Police said Saturday that she was in serious condition but that her injuries were not life-threatening.

The two other officers, police said, have been treated and released.

Police haven't released the name of the suspect in the truck who died.

UPDATE: 6:40 a.m. May 10

The main street of a small Alberta town erupted in bloody chaos Friday, leaving two people dead and three RCMP officers wounded in a terrifying series of events police could only describe as "horrific."

It started around the supper hour, just as shops in the quiet town of St. Paul were closing and people were heading home or to restaurants for supper.

Chief Supt. Randy McGinnis said suddenly, gunshots were heard just outside the town's RCMP detachment. Members ran out and saw a black Dodge pickup truck leaving the parking lot and speeding eastbound toward main street.

At the same time, a call was coming in about a male in distress at another location. Mounties responded and transported an injured man to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

"We don't know if there's any connection between the deceased and the black Dodge pickup truck," said McGinnis, but it is being investigated.

Meanwhile, other officers looking for black Dodge found it on the east side of town but it then turned around and headed back into the core, where McGinnis said it appeared to "purposely ram one of our marked police cars."

Within minutes, all hell broke loose.

Former TV reporter Mike Vanderhoek, now an oilfield worker who lives 20 kilometres outside of town, happened to be a few blocks over when he and a friend heard what they thought sounded like two rifle shots.

He said he then saw a police cruiser come speeding into the hospital's emergency entrance, and suddenly there was a "shootout."

"It was really surreal for a town like St. Paul," said Vanderhoek. "Some people were ducking behind cars to take cover."

He said he initially wasn't scared, and even started taking photographs of the scene.

"While it was going on, it was just confusion," he said. "When it was over, my guts turned inside out."

McGinnis said when the driver of the black Dodge started shooting at the officers, they returned fire, killing the man.

A young male RCMP officer with just two years service on the force was hit in the hand by a bullet, while a senior male officer with 15 years on the job was hit in the face by flying glass.

The worst injured was the female officer who was in the RCMP vehicle that was rammed.

"She has extensive injuries to both legs," said McGinnis, and not only had to be extracted from the crushed vehicle by the Jaws of Life but was then airlifted to hospital in Edmonton.

McGinnis said the officer, who has four years experience, was listed in serious but stable condition.

Both the male officers were treated and released Friday night.

McGinnis said it was a stroke of good luck that no civilians were hurt.

"This vehicle, as it was speeding westbound back into the downtown core, was going around vehicles in the opposite lane," he said. "It's a movie scene, to tell you the truth. I haven't seen a horrific movie scene like this in a while, and that's the only way I can describe it."

Town councillor Ken Kwiatkowski agreed.

"It's very surprising," he said. "This is something you'd probably only see in the movies. For it to happen in St. Paul, it's just unbelievable."

Kwiatkowski said a lot of people in the town of 5,400 would probably know the officers in the detachment, which he described as fairly large.

"I think most people know everyone," he said. "We're a very tight-knit community."

St. Paul is actually just 251 kilometres from Mayerthorpe, where four Mounties were gunned down in March 2005 by self-described police-hater James Roszko. They had been guarding a hut on Roszko's farm as part of a marijuana grow-op and automobile chop-shop investigation.

Roszko then killed himself. Dennis Cheeseman and his brother-in-law, Shawn Hennessey, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for giving James Roszko a rifle and a ride the night before Roszko ambushed the RCMP officers on March 3, 2005, near the town of Mayerthorpe.

Late Friday, Alberta Justice Minister Jonathan Denis issued a statement saying the events in St. Paul "are a reminder of the very real dangers faced by law enforcement, as they put themselves at risk in the line of duty to protect and serve Albertans."

He said the incident is being investigated by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which is standard procedure in any officer-related shooting.

McGinnis pointed out that officers in the region have had a couple of major traumas to deal with in recent months, including an incident where a man drove a vehicle into an elementary school, killing an 11-year-old girl, and a shootout in January in Vegreville.

"Member mental health has taken a big hit here in the last nine months," he said, noting that two RCMP psychologists and a chaplain will be helping out in the days to come.

"We had members from Cold Lake, Bonnyville, Elk Point and Lloydminister all attending, because when the call comes out on the radio `shots fired,' you can imagine the adrenaline gets going and members want to get here to help."

McGinnis said the driver of the black Dodge was not known to police, and they have no idea what motivated the carnage.

"We are hoping that within the next couple of days we have the motive identified."

Photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS RCMP vehicles and a black pick up truck are shown at the scene of a shooting in St. Paul, Alberta on Friday May 9, 2014. Police RCMP say three of their officers have been injured in a confrontation with a gunman in St. Paul, Alta. Chief Supt. Randy McInnis says two of the officers were sent to Edmonton by air ambulance while the third remained in St. Paul.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Rhea Labrie

8:16 p.m. May 9, original story: RCMP say three of their officers have been injured in a confrontation with a gunman in St. Paul, Alta.

Chief Supt. Randy McInnis says two of the officers were sent to Edmonton by air ambulance while the third remained in St. Paul.

The gunman was reportedly killed in the confrontation.

McInnis characterizes the situation as "mayhem" and says they are still in the process of "trying to get things under control."

He says more information will be released later.Photo: SOSLIP

Welcoming and integrating immigrants to the community means helping them find careers, and that's exactly what the South Okanagan-Similkameen Local Immigration Partnership will be focusing on this spring.

The organization will be placing an emphasis on skilled trade career options.

"Many countries don't offer apprenticeship programs," said co-chair Doug Holmes. "We want to expose newcomers to the benefits of these thriving careers in trades and to the current demand employers are experiencing."

A partnership with South Okanagan Immigrant and Community Services this April offered an "Introduction to Trades" workshop. Twenty immigrants learned from the Dean of Trades at Okanagan College, Steve Moore.

Also so far this spring was an industry tour, during which a group of immigrants visited building sites, manufacturing plants and training facilities.

All of this was meant to build momentum for the upcoming Connect 2018 forum, a full-day conference at Okanagan College June 9. There will be panel presentations from those in the industry, success stories from immigrants working in trades and breakout sessions with employers.

"The forum will be both educational and entertaining," Local Immigration Partnership co-chair Petra Veintimilla said.

Immigrants can register for the event here.Photo: Contributed

Grade 6 students Rowan Broadhead and Ava Lee-Gock from Vernon have proven their French Immersion skills at the provincial level.

Both were awarded top honours at the recent Concours dart oratorie, a provincial French public speaking competition recently held at Simon Fraser University.

Broadhead, from Beairsto, won second place with his presentation called 'Les pesticides,' while Lee-Gock a late immersion student from Harwood took home third place presenting 'La creme glacee.'

We are very proud of all our students in the French program, said Superintendent Joe Rogers. Studies have shown that learning a second language increases overall cognitive development, and our teachers, at Harwood for the late immersion program, Beairsto and Seaton, are doing a tremendous job teaching over 1000 students in the program."

"The results from Concours speak to that.

Students participating in Concours are required to prepare and present a 3 to 5 minute speech all in French on a subject chosen by themselves.

The competition progresses through a series of stages starting with a competition in the students classroom, moving to a school district competition, and ending with the provincial competition.

Other Vernon finalists in the weekend competition include Beairstos Ulyana Doerksen in the Grade 6 Francophone category with, 'Les cafes des chats' and Harwoods Grade 7 late immersion, JLee Howitt, with 'Gord Downie.'Mission Creek has been steadily rising the last several days  but the worst could be just around the corner.

The River Forecast Centre predicts Mission Creek's discharge rate will spike to 140 cubic metres per second late Thursday, up from its current rate of about 100.

During last spring's flooding, Mission Creek's discharge hit a maximum of about 105 cubic metres per second, while the creek reached 115 cubic metres per second during the 2-13 freshet.

According to the River Forecast Centre's historical data, a discharge of 119.7 cubic metres per second is considered a one-in-100-year event.

Due to the forecast, the River Forecast Centre issued a flood warning for Mission Creek and its surrounding tributaries Wednesday afternoon.

BC Wildfire Service crews were working at the mouth of the creek, Wednesday, installing bladder dams and sandbags along its banks.

The Central Okanagan Regional District Emergency Operations Centre says it's well prepared for the rising waters.

At this point, not anticipating any big problems from the increasing flow rate tomorrow ... we are focusing attention on the low-lying areas between Lakeshore Road and the lake, said Adrian Nieoczym.

Farther upstream, Mission Creek has spilled its south banks near Casorso Road, flooding a low-lying vacant area.

Flooding has also closed the Mission Creek Greenway from the Hollywood Road South entrance to Scenic Canyon Regional Park to Field Road.UPDATED: 5:34 p.m.

Multiple homes along the creek, from Silver Star Road to 20th Street are faced with rising waters, again.

A Vernon man is fighting against BX Creek as the water spills over its banks and into his home.

Ted Walker's home, just off Silver Star Road and 20th Street started to flood Wednesday morning after rain and warm weather caused BX Creek to rise significantly.

"The height of the sandbag wall is ominous," Walker said. "We're getting water in the basement."

"From the floods last year it pushed in through and made a pathway and now it doesn't take much from the creek when it comes up to push the water in."

Walker wishes more was done in advance to help prevent extreme flooding.

"This could have been dealt with beforehand," he says. "The creek could have been dredged while it was dry in September, October and November of last year."

"We could have had the creek bed restored back to where it belonged rather than at a state where it is right now, where it is full of debris."

Friends and family of Walker were on scene piling sandbags more than three feet high.

BX Creek is already almost level with the top of the sandbags and water is pushing through the cracks.

"Cleaning out the culverts is a great thing but when you're cleaning out the culverts down to the base of that and the creek bed is three feet higher you're not really accomplishing a whole lot."

Kara Barkved lives in the neighbourhood and wants to see action.

"Last spring it was really bad, and this spring it seems to be worse," says Barkved.

Barkved has lived near BX Creek since 2009. She says she and her neighbours are getting the run around by both RDNO and the City of Vernon and they want answers.

"Makes our neighbourhood so mad that this has happened again," she said. "My husband is helping divert the creek with a bunch of high school kids. He is 73 and has had a heart attack and a stroke."

Barkved, like her neighbours wants somebody to take responsibility for the creek.

"It was the same thing and the same people last year," she said.

"It is an interesting situation because we're told that BX Creek is a riparian environment and is protected by the federal government, so nobody can cut down trees or clear up the forest debris."

Barkved says that she and her neighbours want to see a berm installed to keep this from happening year after year.

She says that on top of the flooding concerns, some of the cottonwood and willow trees along the creek are starting to come down as well.

"I just wish somebody would take responsibility for this area. That is my hope."

Flooding is expected to worsen over the course of Wednesday night and into the coming days.

ORIGINAL:3:42 p.m.Photo: Colin Dacre Protestors in front of the polling station during last year's PIB by-election

A dissident group within the Penticton Indian Band remains unpleased with how the First Nation is being governed.

In a news release sent to media Wednesday, the group declared it is persisting with a legal challenge of Novembers by-election to replace five resigned councillors.

The release also raises questions about the recent departure of two senior band administrators and the appointment of new PIB Development Corp. CEO Jonathan Baynes as acting Band Manager.

This transfer places Mr. Baynes in charge of both the administration and business operations of the Penticton Indian Band, which is a conflict of interest, the group alleges.

Membership was not consulted on or made aware of the change until it was effective. This left the membership out of the decision-making and possibility of providing additional options or support to the leadership.

The group of "concerned members" are also demanding an update on the financial position of the band.

During last years political turmoil the opposition group was aligned with former Chief Jonathan Kruger, who was one of the five who resigned his council seat last year. The group has remained unhappy with Chief Chad Eneas from the very early stages of his term.

In a responding statement, Jonathan Baynes said his appointment as band administrator is an interim one to ensure the PIB complies with financial laws and policies.

The details relating to the termination of previous band administrator are obviously confidential, but were made with the best interests of the band in mind, especially as it move through this transition.

With regard to claimed conflict of interest in the band administrator role, it should be noted that PIBDC is a PIB company and is mandated to act in the best interest of the band at all times. There are some exciting initiatives coming out of PIB Development Corporation which will benefit not only PIB but all surrounding communities."

Baynes said the dissident group is trying to use the media to advance individual agendas," but noted it's not unexpected "with the pace of change underway."

The PIB plans on dramatically increasing communication in the next couple months, he added.Photo: CTV A toddler was airlifted to BC Children's Hospital after falling from a fourth-storey window in Langley, Wednesday.

A two-year-old child fell from a fourth-storey window in Langley Wednesday afternoon.

The child was airlifted to BC Children's Hospital after the fall at a home on Douglas Crescent.

The extent of the child's injuries is unclear at this time, but police said the child was conscious and breathing.

While police attended the scene, the incident appears to be an accident.

 with files from CTV VancouverPhoto: Chelsea Powrie

City of Penticton crews have closed the bridge over Ellis Creek off of Industrial Avenue heading into the Wholesale Club parking lot as they manage debris flows coming downstream.

City manager Peter Weeber says the bridge has been acting as a choke point for debris and staff have been working constantly to keep it clear.

The rocks are rolling down the creek from the flow and starting to accumulate at the bridge.

He said the bridge is the one section of the creek that is proving to be a problem for the city. The rest of the creek seems to be handling the torrent of water reasonably well.

with files from Chelsea PowriePhoto: RCMP Vehicle last seen in West Kelowna involved carjacking and shooting.

Police have released more information about a fatal police-involved shooting that took place at the Nanaimo ferry terminal on Vancouver Island, and how it is connected to a shooting in Vernon and a carjacking in Penticton.

On Monday, a shooting occurred in the 2700 block of 43 Avenue in Vernon at noon.

A man is suffering life-threatening injuries after he was found with gunshot wounds in the parking lot across from W.L. Seaton Secondary school.

The shooter was seen leaving the area in a grey 1996 Ford Crown Victoria with a sticker in the lower side rear-window.

According to police, the shooter was a caucasian male, five-foot-nine with blonde hair.

The same vehicle was then seen in West Kelowna at about 1:25 p.m.

Later that same day, at approximately 8:35 p.m., Penticton RCMP were called to a motel on Westminster Avenue after a report of a man with a gun.

The man was seen in possession of a high-visibility vest and matched the description of the suspect in the Vernon shooting, said Sgt. Janelle Shoihet.

The man fled the scene before police arrived.

At 8:45 p.m. on the same day, Penticton RCMP responded to a report of a carjacking on Maple Street.

Once inside the car, the male assaulted the victim, said Shoihet. The victim was forced from the vehicle in the 900 block of Main Street, Penticton."

The owner of the car, a blue-grey Pontiac Vibe, told police what the man looked like, and it matched the description of the suspect.

He sustained serious, but non life-threatening injuries.

On Tuesday morning, the victims stolen vehicle was seen on a ferry nearing the Departure Bay terminal in Nanaimo.

When he drove off the ferry, officers surrounded his vehicle and the man produced what officers believed to be a firearm.

Officers fired their weapons at the man, who later succumbed to his injuries and died.

Police are now searching for the Ford Crown Victoria vehicle last seen in West Kelowna and are asking for anyone who thinks they witnessed anything to contact RCMP.

The Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia has taken over the investigation.Photo: Contributed

I would like to provide an update to my April 25 report on the growing problem of illegal immigration.



There have been more than 20,000 illegal crossings over the Canadian border from the United States to apply for refugee status in Canada.



It has been reported that an unofficial RCMP station is being constructed near the location where most of the illegal border crossing occurs and that the Liberal government has issued a tender notice to construct a temporary refugee camp near the Canada-U.S. border.



As to the question if these border crossings are illegal or irregular, the Prime Minister has now commented on this matter in Question Period and stated Crossing a border between official border crossings is illegal.



Here in the Okanagan, and in Ottawa, Liberal MPs are increasingly feeling the heat from families of citizens trying to legally enter Canada, and finding more and more delays.



This heat is causing these same Liberal MPs to push back.



Apparently pointing out the growing illegal border entry problem is stoking fears," according to one local Liberal MP.



While in Ottawa, the Public Safety Minister has stated that coming across the border in a way that tries to circumvent the law, or defy proper procedure is not a free ticket to Canada."



The Liberal government provided statistics that stated that asylum seekers must go through a rigorous process and that they estimate more than 90 per cent of irregular migrants do not fit the criteria and will have to leave Canada.



Unfortunately for the Liberal government, this week a media headline stated that they have used misleading statistics.



The article, using information from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), reported that of the 2,552 irregular border crossers who had their claims finalized in 2017, nearly half, 1,360, were approved.



Another problem not mentioned by the Liberal government is related to actual deportations.



The IRB data provides information on the total number of illegal entries referred to the agency, including the original country of origin.



The data is further broken down to how many claims are accepted, rejected, abandoned or withdrawn, including pending claims..



However, data relating not just to deportation orders, but successful deportations is missing.



The lack of successful deportations is a fundamental part of this problem.



Media sources have reported that only one per ent of illegal border crossers have been deported.



To summarize, we have the Liberal government suggesting 90 per cent of illegal border crossers will not qualify for status, contrasted with the IRBs data that shows close to a 50 per cent approval rate, while only one per cent of those who are rejected have been deported.



While Liberal MPs can make accusations that they believe raising these concerns is stoking fears on immigration," I categorically reject that view.



From my perspective, supporting legal immigration to Canada is how we ensure fairness for those citizens who are making every effort to fully comply with Canadian law.



My question this week is:UPDATE: 9:30 p.m.

A section of Huckleberry Road has gave way after creek water came flooding down Goudie Road and Huckleberry Road Wednesday.

Patty Hanson, the regional district director for Central Okanagan East Electoral Area said the whole road gave away.

ORIGINAL: 7:40 p.m.

Water from Daves Creek in Joe Rich came gushing towards a section of Goudie Road causing it to be washed out.

Resident Hartmut Witschel lives nearby and captured the raging water on video at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Heavy rainfall caused the creek to overflow near the Goudie fire hall, but Witschen said he's been watching the water rise higher each day.

I was expecting it overnight we had 10 mm of rain, this morning we had 10 additional, so 20 mm of rain in a really short time, he said.

Rushing water caused the section of Goudie Road to be closed between Huckleberry Road and Sun Valley Road.

The water is going really quickly, he said. I think its getting worse.

Firefighters are investigating areas around Joe Rich as more water has reportedly covered roads near Highway 33.

Castanet reader Justin Trevor sent in photographs from Huckleberry Road showing it too has been washed out.Photo: Denise E Mission Creek in Kelowna on Wednesday.

Downpours in many parts of the Southern Interior have added to flooding woes across the already soggy region, prompting new flood warnings for several rivers, forcing more evacuations and closing a number of roads.

The River Forecast Centre has issued flood warnings for Mission Creek in Kelowna, as well as the West Kettle, Kettle and Granby rivers in the Boundary region and the Salmon River near Salmon Arm.

Flood watches are posted for a number of rivers, including the Similkameen where high water has cut Highway 3 west of Keremeos and states of local emergency have been declared in parts of the Okanagan-Similkameen Regional District, as well as the Town of Osoyoos.

Another 29 properties were ordered evacuated Wednesday night in Grand Forks as the Kettle River continues to surge, bringing the total number of evacuations in the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary to 33, while nearly 800 more properties are on evacuation alert.

Rising levels of Brown Creek isolated 28 properties north of Grand Forks late Wednesday and the regional district says rivers in the area are expected to reach their highest levels since 1948.

EmergencyInfoBC, the body that provides information during provincial emergencies, says flooding has led to evacuation orders or alerts in seven regional districts and seven First Nations around the province.Photo: Jamiel Moore-Williams

Two Vancouver police officers are being criminally investigated after a Taser incident in February.

Jamiel Moore-Williams was Tasered after jaywalking on busy Granville Street.

B.C.s Deputy Police Complaint Commissioner ordered a probe of the incident last month after viewing video captured by one of Moore-Williams' friends.

Moore-Williams offered to show his ID and claims he was racially profiled by police.

That allegation was rejected, but RCMP are now investigating the officers' use of force in the violent takedown.

"We are investigating allegations under the Criminal Code, but ultimately it will be up to the BC Prosecution Service to determine whether charges are appropriate," the RCMP said in a statment.

"The police officers could be charged criminally," said the former UBC athlete's lawyer, Donna Turko.

 with files from CTV VancouverUPDATE: 7:45 p.m.

Almost 2,800 residents from 1,390 properties have been evacuated in the past 24 hours from the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary region due to extensive flooding, and while the Granby River may have reached peak flow, the Kettle River continue to rise.

Earlier Thursday, water levels exceeded the recorded high set in 1948. The RDKB says river forecasts show the Granby River may have peaked, while the Kettle River will continue to rise overnight, and possibly beyond Friday.

This very difficult flooding situation is going to continue through tomorrow and possibly longer," said Chris Marsh, director for the RDKB Emergency Operations Centre. "We have every resource at our disposal working to help with evacuations, emergency response, and recovery for those people who are displaced."

So far, 120,000 sandbags have been deployed throughout the area, and Emergency Social Services are set up at the Grand Forks Curling Club and Midway Community Centre.

"It's inspiring to see how people come together in these times as a community so full of resilience and strength, said Roly Russell, RDKB board chair.

The overflowing Granby River, which flows from north of Grand Forks, has flooded downtown Grand Forks, closing several streets, while the Kettle River has also overflowed through parts of Grand Forks, along with areas of Carmi, Beaverdell, Westbridge and Midway.

UPDATE: 7:25 p.m.

Pam Atkinson spent an hour walking around downtown Grand Forks Thursday to check out the extensive flooding, and by the time she walked back to where she had came from, flood water had already covered her path.

"Earlier this morning we were down there and there was not that much and then we went back later this afternoon," she said. "It was just increasing so rapidly."

Atkinson owns a home higher up from the downtown area, and hasn't been impacted by the flooding.

She's in the process of moving to Grand Forks from Kelowna, but she says others in the community say they've never seen the Granby and Kettle Rivers flood like they did today.

"The residents that we were talking to downtown say they expect to have another foot of flooding," she said. "It's pretty unreal, it's going to take a while for them to clean up all their homes and businesses.

"I feel so bad for all the people affected."

Despite the unprecedented flooding, Atkinson says the community is working together to lay sandbags and do what they can to mitigate the effects.

UPDATE: 5:45 p.m.

Large parts of Grand Forks are underwater Thursday evening after the Granby River flooded its banks, forcing thousands to flee their homes.

Video from the small community shows downtown streets completely underwater, while homes are surrounded by brown, murky water.

"This used to be a road in here," Pam Atkinson says in a video, pointing towards several flooded homes.

Other video from the area shows large trees careening down the river, as large fields adjacent to the river are underwater.

DriveBC warned motorists Thursday night the intersection at Highway 3 and 2nd Street is underwater.

"Be advised that if flood levels continue to rise that vehicles with limited clearance may not be permitted to cross this intersection," DriveBC said.

UPDATE: 12:50 p.m.

Evacuation orders have expanded to 1,125 additional properties in the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary.

Almost 2,500 residents are now under evacuation order due to imminent flooding danger in the Kettle and Granby River flood plains.

The latest evacuations affect RDKB Areas C, D, and E, from Christina Lake through the west boundary, including Grand Forks.

These include 114 properties in the Christina Lake area, 380 in the City of Grand Forks and south valley, 89 in the North Fork area, 12 properties in Greenwood, 35 properties in Midway, six properties in Rock Creek, 142 in the Christian Valley area, 141 in the Beaverdell area, 158 in the Carmi area, and 48 in Westbridge and north.

This is in addition to 33 properties ordered evacuated over the past two days, for a total of 1,158 properties representing nearly 2,500 residents.

Residents at the affected properties must leave immediately.

As of this morning, all properties within the 200-year flood plain have been escalated to evacuation orders. River flows are likely to rise through the remainder of the day and overnight.

Affected residents, including those staying with family or friends, should register as soon as possible at the Emergency Social Services Reception Centres at the Grands Forks Curling Rink, 7230 21st St. or Midway Community Centre, 692 7th Ave.

ORIGINAL: 8:50 a.m.

More than 1,100 people have been ordered out of their homes in the Boundary at the headwaters of the Granby, Kettle and West Kettle Rivers.

The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary issued the order Thursday morning, bringing the total number of people out of their homes in the region up to 1,258.

Another 1,558 people at 779 addresses  virtually all properties on the West Kettle River, Kettle River, Granby River, Christina Creek and Christina Lake floodplain  remain on on evacuation alert and are being asked to prepare to leave at a moments notice.

Rivers in the Boundary are expected to reach the highest levels since the devastating floods of 1948. Rivers and lakes should peak within the next 24 hours. Many evacuation orders are being prompted by water levels cutting off road access to homes, even if individual homes may not be directly threatened by flooding.

Without overland access, emergency responders will be unable to reach residents and residents will be unable to reach emergency services, the RDKB says Lack of access and egress is a threat to life and safety.

Evacuee reception centres are up and running, including in Grand Forks at the Curling Centre and in Midway at the Community Church. More information for evacuees can be found here.Photo: knowyoursource.ca

Overdose drug deaths have spiked again in B.C.

There were 161 suspected illicit drug overdose deaths across the province in March, the second-highest monthly total to date, BC Coroners Service stats reveal.

That's a 24 per cent increase over March 2017, and a 58 per cent increase over last month.

The most deadly month so far has been December 2016, when 162 people died.

Preliminary data indicates that through the first three months of 2018, fentanyl was detected in 83 per cent of OD deaths.

Through the first three months of this year, there have been 391 suspected illicit drug overdose deaths in B.C.

Vancouver has been the scene of 102 of those deaths, averaging 34 per month.

No deaths have been reported at supervised consumption sites, or overdose prevention sites.

The Coroners Service reminds users not to do so alone.

More than 1,400 British Columbians died due to suspected illicit drug overdoses in 2017.Photo: DriveBC

A washout has caused Highway 6 to close in both directions near Needles, B.C.

The highway is closed about 30 km west of Needles, according to DriveBC.

There is no estimated time of reopening.

The next available update is at 10 p.m.Photo: The Canadian Press

WestJet pilots have overwhelmingly voted to give their union a strike mandate.

The Air Line Pilots Association says members voted 91 per cent in favour of strike action.

About 95 per cent of WestJet's 1,500 pilots and WestJet Encore's 500 pilots voted.

The result was announced with eight days remaining in the 21-day cooling-off period after which the union can launch a strike or the airline can lock out employees.

Although the pilots will be in a legal position to commence job action on May 19, the union says it has committed to not strike over the Victoria Day long weekend as bargaining continues.

The union says negotiations will continue starting next week in Halifax and it is committed to staying there for as long as it takes to get a first collective agreement done.Photo: RCMP

Police are continuing to investigate a kidnapping and crime-spree as the trial for Afshin Ighani approaches next month.

At a pre-trial conference Thursday in Penticton, Crown prosecutor John Swanson said RCMP have very recently obtained a warrant to draw Ighanis blood to test it against a partial DNA profile found on a handgun stashed under the hood of the car he was arrested in.

Igani, 45, is facing ten counts related to a manhunt and police chase following a shooting in Oliver last year. While he was wanted for attempted murder, Igani allegedly took a woman hostage with a imitation firearm before being arrested in Princeton on April 22, 2017.

Charges related to the Oliver shooting were dropped in Dec. 2017 after the victim and key witness died of unrelated causes.

A five-day trial for the kidnapping is set to start June 4. Lawyers agreed to reconvene beforehand if the DNA test results warrant it, potentially triggering Charter issues.

Ighani is now being detained at the North Fraser Pretrial Centre, as he has also been charged with stabbing two inmates and assaulting a female guard in separate incidents at the Okanagan Correctional Centre in Oliver.

He may have outstayed his welcome at the Okanagan Correctional Centre, defence lawyer Paul McMurray said.

Ighani has been ordered deported from Canada twice for his criminal activity, but both times had the decision overturned.Okanagan Lake and all of its creeks and streams have always flooded.

Dams have been built, but water levels continue to dramatically rise and fall. That fluctuation is natural and is not a problem. The very expensive problem for us all is that, in the recent past, houses and other structures were foolishly built on known flood plains.

We spend huge amounts of public money every year attempting to keep rising water away from property that is mostly private. Most of our spending is on temporary measures like sandbags and bladder dams. All these efforts are at best mediocre at keeping the water out.

Because they are temporary, they result in enormous piles of garbage, and it takes a lot of time to install then remove them. A lot of that garbage becomes landfill, and a substantial amount remains in our waterways and on our beaches, like the hundreds of unrecovered sandbags from last year's flood.

Is there a better way? Yes. Kelowna is a relatively new city. All around the world, for thousands of years, cities have effectively dealt with these same issues. We don't have to reinvent the wheel.

First, we should gradually remove structures that are too close to the edges of our waterways. There are already laws in place that restrict how close new construction can be  that's what we should be aiming for with the older buildings.

When the land along the shores becomes a strip of beaches and parkland, periodic flooding becomes much less of a problem. Second, where it's impractical or undesirable to remove buildings, a dike or seawall with a multi-use path on top should be built.

We can continue to waste money and produce unnecessary trash using ineffective, unattractive temporary flood-mitigation measures. PLANKelowna thinks that most Kelowna citizens would rather invest in the two strategies above that would cost less in the long-term and provide highly desired waterfront parkland for all of us to enjoy.

Our mayor and city council can do this, or if not, we can vote on Oct. 20 for a council that will.

Al Janusas, PLANKelownaPhoto: Contributed

A bizarre and dangerous series of incidents has landed a man and woman in jail.

It started with the couple crossing the centre line of Highway 1 near Sicamous and smashing the Ford F350 pickup truck they were driving into a transport truck.

The collision caused the pickup to roll into the ditch.

After coming to a rest, the male driver and the female passenger got out of the wreck and started asking passersby for help.

BC Ambulance Services, the Eagle Valley Rescue arrived on scene. As well as an off-duty Sicamous firefighter who stopped to help.

The couple stole the vehicle belonging to the firefighter and took off.

Witnesses tell police the couple was seen speeding in the now-stolen Honda Civic, the male driving, the female in the passenger seat.

The couple eventually ditched the stolen Honda Civic on Highway 97A near Powerhouse Road south of Armstrong.

An RCMP police dog handler began a track of the couple from the vehicle, which led to an abandoned house east of the highway.

They both surrendered to police without further incident.

Police say the Ford was reported stolen out of Calgary in April and the man was wanted by the Kelowna RCMP on two warrants including charges of breach of probation and failing to appear.

The 32-year old man from Calgary and a 23-year old woman from Manitoba remain in custody. Both are facing charges of possession of stolen property and theft of a motor vehicle.

Police are continuing to investigate the matter.Madison Erhardt

UPDATE: 6 p.m.

The Village of Keremeos has declared a state of local emergency as the Similkameen River and its tributary creeks flood properties and roads.

A state of emergency allows local authorities to order evacuations, and enter private property when an emergency threatens lives, properties or the environment.

ORIGINAL: 1:35 p.m.

Creeks and rivers continue to rise across B.C.'s Southern Interior.

Thousands of people have been ordered to leave their homes in the Kettle and Granby river watersheds as officials warn of unprecedented flooding due to extremely heavy snowpacks, sudden downpours and unseasonably warm temperatures

Evacuation orders were issued Thursday for the approximately 1,500 properties covering a large area along the Granby, Kettle and West Kettle rivers, as well as in the Carmi region south of Big White Mountain, including Beaverdell.

Tuesday's intense rain caused several washouts east of Kelowna in Joe Rich. A large gap was seen in the middle of Huckleberry Road, where water has been carving its own path to Mission Creek.

In Kelowna, Mill Creek has flooded into an area of Parkinson Recreation Centre. The water does not seem to have impacted any of the homes just metres away.

DriveBC has reported several road closures due to flooding  Highway 3 is closed 14 kilometres west of Keremeos, with no estimated time of opening. Highway 6 is also closed 33 km west of Needles Ferry because of a washout.

Flood watches were issued for a number of rivers, including the Similkameen, where the Highway 3 flooding has cut off Keremeos. States of local emergency have been declared in parts of the Okanagan-Similkameen Regional District, as well as the Town of Osoyoos.

For more information, go to EmergencyInfoBC, which provides lists of evacuation orders or alerts in seven regional districts.Photo: Colton Davies

Shuttleworth Creek has taken out a bridge passing over it at the end of 14th Ave. in Okanagan Falls.

The bridge provides access to the driveway of a home at the end of the road, just outside the evacuation zone ordered this morning.

Residents say the creek was flowing over the bridge until it gave way this morning. There is talk of a bottleneck, caused by a series of debris jams, upstream behind Peach Cliff Estates.

Downstream from the bridge, Maple Street is under more than a foot of water

It's usually a gentle creek, said one Okanagan Falls resident.

with files from Colton DaviesPhoto: Mike Biden PenSAR training file photo

Penticton and District Search and Rescue is reminding those that get lost in the backcountry to stay put and wait for rescue, after a missing man walked more than 50 kilometres overnight from the Carmi area into Okanagan Falls.

PenSAR search manager Randy Brown said they were called out to assist police in the search for a motorcyclist reported missing Tuesday east of Penticton.

This guy just kept walking, Brown said, explaining search crews eventually located the man around noon the next day in Okanagan Falls, more than 50 kilometres from where his motorcycle was.

A dozen volunteers were involved in the search, on foot and ATVs, it just expends a huge amount of time and energy, especially if you are walking and get dehydrated, then cold  it compounds things, he said.

Know that you will be reported missing and stay with your vehicle.

PenSAR volunteers were also called out Monday to assist in the search for four lost hikers in Okanagan Mountain Park. The group was airlifted out of the park by an RCMP helicopter.

Crews have been helping regional districts deliver evacuation alerts to residents in the Faulder and Keremeos areas.

Brown said PenSAR volunteers have been working long days this week, having to balance rescues with their day jobs.Photo: File photo

A confrontation at a suburban Victoria construction site ended up with one man being shot with a nail gun.

A Langford man faces assault charges in the incident, which happened in Colwood Wednesday afternoon.

The victim was rushed to hospital with a nail embedded in his abdomen.

"A matter like this shows how dangerous weapons of opportunity can be," said RCMP Const. Matt Baker.

 with files from CTV Vancouver IslandPhoto: BC SPCA

The SPCA is investigating after a sick, blind dog was dumped in the forest on the Sunshine Coast.

Seven-year-old Pugsley was "completely emaciated" when an off-duty RCMP officer rescued him while out hiking.

The pug was covered in fleas, had infected ears, and had only partial vision in one eye.

As well, the poor mutt suffers from megaesophagus, which causes it to regurgitate its food.

The BC SPCA has launched an animal cruelty investigation into the dog's abandonment, and says it has identified Pugsley's former owner.

More than $3,200has been raised to help pay for the dog's surgery and treatment.

Pugsley is now doing much better and is up for adoption.

 with files from CTV VancouverFeliz Dia de las Madres.



Its a day when we honor and celebrate that special bond of motherhood and love. Not just our own mothers, but all women who are mothers and maternal figures. Did you know that Mother's Day, El Dia de la Madre, is celebrated on different months of the year for Latinos?



Here in the U.S. (including Hawaii & Puerto Rico), we celebrate Mothers Day on the second Sunday of May. The actual date varies (this year its May 13), but its always on that second Sunday. We aren't alone, several Latin American countries also observe Mothers Day on Mays second Sunday.



Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Curacao, Ecuador, Honduras, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.



But did you know Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala celebrate on May 10th? I grew up observing Mothers Day twice each May. In addition to the U.S. holiday, we also observed it on May 10th, which is the traditional Mothers Day in El Salvador. Here's how. Puerto Rican mother and Salvadoran father. That's how.



Other Latin American countries like Paraguay celebrate on May 15th, Bolivia on May 27th, Nicaragua on May 30th, and Dominican Republican the last Sunday in May except if the day falls on Pentecost Sunday, in which case Mothers Day will be celebrated on the first Sunday of June.



Lets not forget Costa Rica which celebrates on August 15th, Argentina the third Sunday in October and finally, Panama on December 8th.



You can see how much this holiday can vary. We understand that not all Latina mothers are created equally (that's a good thing). Regardless of acculturation and how much a part of the U.S. multicultural audience we may be, we continue to honor family and cultura (culture).



Resource: http://www.holidays.net/mother/mothers_day_global.htm

* * *Eighteen months after being rescued from rapidly dwindling streams on Walden Ridge north of Chattanooga, the embattled and endangered Laurel Dace finally has cause to celebrate.

More than 450 juveniles of this green-bodied, red-bellied native fish recently hatched from eggs spawned at the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute. These tiny, nearly-translucent fry are the offspring of 29 adult Laurel Dace living at the institute. This population  or brood stock  is being kept at the institute to propagate this federally endangered fish and includes 19 adults recently collected from Bumbee Creek in Rhea County and 10 rescued from the same stream during the historic drought that baked the Southeast in the latter half of 2016.



Recent surveys have indicated that the Laurel Dace are persisting in only two streams out of their historical range of eight, said Tennessee Aquarium Reintroduction Biologist Meredith Harris. This puts the species at a higher risk of extinction whenever we experience extreme weather events.



In November 2016, the Southeast was in the grips of a historic, months-long drought. This catastrophic dry spell withered the streams where the Laurel Dace was known to exist, transforming them into rapidly diminishing pools of water in which the few remaining populations were isolated and trapped.



The Laurel Dace was already struggling due to runoff sedimentation from area farms. Due to poor agricultural practices, silt blanketed the bottom of its native waterways, smothering its eggs and any newly hatched larvae. The regional drought represented the second blow in a potentially knock out combination.



Faced with the prospect of losing the species entirely, biologists from the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute and U.S. Fish and Wildlife mounted a rescue operation. The scientific teams visited creeks on the Cumberland Plateau known to house Laurel Dace. There, they collected 18 individuals to help safeguard against the possibility of extinction.



Eventually, the rains returned, the creeks rose and the remaining Laurel Dace held on to their tenuous existence. Some of the rescued fish were retained in human care, however, so scientists could determine how most effectively to care for them and the best methods to propagate them.



For a species thats on the brink and under-studied, developing these protocols is a critical step to ensuring scientists can safeguard it from future calamities, Ms. Harris says.



Weve been doing reintroduction and propagation protocols with many other species at the Conservation Institute, but this is the first time that weve worked with anything in this group of minnows. Its very different, she said. Were feeling our way through it, but the results look really promising so far.



The appearance of hundreds of baby Laurel Dace in the propagation room at the Tennessee Aquariums freshwater science center speaks to the success of that effort and represents an important step in securing a better future for the species, she adds.



Were getting more eggs weekly, Ms. Harris said. It seems promising that well be able to develop the right methods to propagate them and eventually reintroduce them in the future.

It is the first time the diminutive defender has received an international call-up, a reward for an excellent debut season as a first-year scholar in which he has helped our youth team claim an unprecedented quadruple of trophies.

The 17-year-old has made 35 appearances across the Academy teams this term and scored his only goal of the campaign in last weekends national league final victory against Manchester United.

Lamptey joins Conor Gallagher, George McEachran and Jon Panzo in Neil Dewsnips squad as Chelseas four-man contingent once again tops the club representation in an England age group. The young Lions will take on Uruguay, Hungary and the hosts in the Chinese province of Sichuan at the end of May.

The current focus for England's youngsters is the European Under-17 Championship, which is currently taking place on home soil. Steve Cooper's side, the world champions at that age group, secured their place in the last-eight on Thursday evening despite a 1-0 defeat to Switzerland. Tino Anjorin, our schoolboy midfielder and FA Youth Cup final goalscorer, started in Rotherham and played the opening hour. England will now face Norway in the quarter-finals on Sunday.

Our one other Chelsea Academy representative at the tournament has already secured his place in the knockout round ahead of the final group-stage games. Daishawn Redan is the joint-top scorer with three goals in the opening two games for the Netherlands, who are guaranteed top spot in Group D.

-In other Academy news, defenders Josh Grant and Richard Nartey have both signed new contracts to keep them at the club until the end of the 2018/19 season.

Chesterfield signs no-cost deal to add solar panels to 17 facilities The Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors recently approved the first-ever rooftop solar power program for government facilities and school buildings throughout the county. Included in the first wave of the...

Yes, experts say expectant mothers should get vaccinated Misinformation surrounding COVID-19 vaccines and womens reproductive health quickly spread after the first shots became available last December. Since then, common myths that COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility, miscarriages and birthing...Baker recommends patients seek alternatives to EpiPens if they can't get the devices, though patients should make sure to familiarize themselves with how the different devices work. Also, patients may use expired EpiPens if absolutely necessary, he said, though he added that they may be less effective. His nonprofit said patients also should be sure to call 911 and receive medical treatment.Advocates for the poor say the changes could deepen poverty throughout the country by taking food assistance from those who sorely need it. They argue that the vast majority of food stamp recipients are children, disabled or elderly, and say many of those who are able to work already do. But as the economy continues to bounce back from the Great Recession, the Trump administration and some Republicans in Congress are pushing more aggressive policies to get people off various forms of public assistance and into jobs.It's all because of a May 2 fire that severely damaged the main plant at the Meridian Magnesium Products of America factory in Eaton Rapids, Michigan, near Lansing that makes structural parts, about one-third of which goes to Ford. Multiple automakers have turned to Meridian to produce parts made of the lightweight metal as they try to shed pounds to meet government fuel efficiency standards.Beer geeks are already wringing their hands that the sale of Goose Island Beer Co. to Anheuser-Busch -- better known as Budweiser -- will compromise one of craft beer's leading lights.

But Goose founder and Chief Executive Officer John Hall said the brewery's commitment to interesting and creative beer, like the recently released Pepe Nero (a black saison) or the upcoming Big John (a stout aged with cocoa nibs) will not change.

"They didnt buy us to change what were doing," says Hall, who will remain as CEO.

If AB was going to water down the product, "I wouldnt have done it. I wouldnt have worked 23 years to build what I have to (throw) it away in five minutes."

Hall also issued a letter to Goose fans this morning on the company's web site, touting the ability for "growth and innovation" as a result of the deal.

The big shake up on the local beer scene was announced this morning. Anheuser-Busch will pay a total of $38.8 million for the brewery on Fulton Street that sends its beers across the globe. Though jarring in an industry that prides itself on independence and creativity, the move isn't completely unexpected. Anheuser-Busch has had a hand in the company since 2006, when the Portland, Ore.-based Craft Brewers Alliance -- of which AB has a minority interest -- took a minority ownership of Goose. AB has played a role in Goose's distribution ever since.

Brewmaster Greg Hall, whose father started the brewery in 1988, will be stepping down and be replaced by (the appropriately named) head brewer Brett Porter. Porter was previous head brewer of well-respected Oregon brewery Deschutes Brewery before coming to Goose last year.

I'm told Greg will announce his future plans in the next few weeks.

Goose's two brew pubs in the city, on Clark Street and Clybourn Avenue, are not involved in the deal and will continue to be owned by John Hall and a group of partners.

The Stew and the Tribune's Breaking Business will be updating the story throughout the day.Rincon let me into the kitchen at Rica Arepa to see how it's done. He starts with arepa flour (he prefers the P.A.N. brand), which he mixes with water and a little salt to form a wet dough. He pulls off a piece, shapes it into a ball and weighs it to ensure a consistent size. Then he flattens it by hand into a pancake shape and places it on a griddle, where it cooks for 5 minutes or so on each side. When pulled off, the arepa has a crackly golden-brown exterior. Rincon then takes a knife and slices horizontally along one side of the arepa to open it. A gust of steam rises out of the arepa. It's now ready for any number of different fillings.As a result, brewpubs have become a popular means for the largest beer companies to wedge their craft brands into local beer scenes far from home. The biggest beer company of them all, Anheuser-Busch, has pubs open or in planning for several of the craft breweries it has bought in recent years: 10 Barrel Brewing in Denver and San Diego, Golden Road Brewing in Oakland and Sacramento, and Goose Island in Philadelphia and Toronto, among several other international locations.Legendary beer writer, homebrewer and minority stake brewery owner Randy Mosher  who owns a little piece of both 5 Rabbit Cerveceria and Forbidden Root  has the moment pinned to 2000: the year that America's breweries overtook America's home brewers in terms of beer quality at their festivals. Yes, home brewers can be that good. Empirical Brewing will remind us how good with a home brew festival, Homebrew Thunderdome. A $20 ticket gets unlimited samples of more than 30 home brews from nine different home brew clubs. These clubs take their beer seriously, so the guess here is that the quality will be anywhere from good to great. 1 p.m., 1801 W. Foster Ave.At least eight women have come forward in recent months to claim that Piven acted in a physically aggressive or threatening manner toward them years ago. Piven has vehemently denied the accusations and even released polygraph test results to prove his innocence. Piven representatives did not return a Tribune request for comment. CBS also did not return a Tribune call for comment after network representatives said they were "looking into" the allegations against him. Piven's freshman drama, "Wisdom of the Crowd," was canceled by CBS last year."Bittenbinder came every year. By the way, Detective J.J. Bittenbinder wore three-piece suits. He also wore a pocket watch. Two years in a row, he wore a cowboy hat. He also had a huge handlebar mustache. None of that matters, but it's important to me that you know that. He did not look like his job description. He looked like he should be the conductor on a locomotive powered by confetti. But instead, he made his living in murder. He was the weirdest  person I ever saw in my entire life.""I make it something that feels relevant to the time that we find ourselves in, but I also try to make it relevant to my own personal life and often that connects with the work that I'm in the midst of doing," said James, who has also delivered commencement speeches at Loyola and Dominican universities. "I try not to say all the cliches, or if I do, to couch them as cliches.""The easy, humble answer is to say, 'Hey, it was all in a day's work,'" he said. "But I will be honest with you: Every time I look up at the TVs in the newsroom and see the cable channels and I see that clip airing over and over again, it's a strange sensation. I mean obviously as a journalist, you know, you want your work to make an impact. At the time I had no idea how large an impact this would have. But having said all that, you or any journalist worth their salt would have asked the same questions, given the timing of the circumstances," with the interview coming two days after the firing.There are, of course, the notorious and horrifying propaganda machines. Footage from the 1933 Hitler Youth rhapsody "Hitlerjunge Quex," shown in the U.S. as "Our Flags Lead Us Forward," paves the way for Leni Riefenstahl films, and for the truly nightmarish 1940 "Jew Suss," directed by Veit Harlan. Goebbels is quoted at one point in his definition of propaganda as "an art form alluring people into an idea so in the end, they are captivated by it, and can no longer free themselves from it." He could be speaking of the power of the medium he exploited.Tilt it one way, and "Let the Sunshine In" becomes a dramatic portrait of a woman's sensual restlessness. Tilted the other way, it's a bittersweet romantic comedy. (At one point the banker informs Isabelle that she's conducting herself like "a tacky bedroom farce.") The film keeps weaving back and forth, intriguingly. Some shots are simply beautiful in their formal rightness; there's a two-minute take, for example, of an early scene in a quiet bar between Binoche and Beauvois, capturing brilliantly the push and pull of two people not quite right for each other. "It's just not feasible," she says to herself, later, distraught, after her latest tryst. The line comes just as she's having trouble removing her thigh-high, spiked-heel boots, and it's a rich moment.Immediately after Broadway, "Having Our Say" had a rare commercial sitdown production at the Briar Street Theatre; the sisters just got in under the wire before blue men took over the joint. One performance from that show has remained stuck in my head all these years: it was the work of an actress named Francis Foster who played Sadie. I just looked her up: Foster died in 1997. Sad as that discovery made me, I suppose it is to be expected. This was a play about centenarians. Bessie died in 1995 at the age of 104. Sadie kept going until 1999, by which time she was 109, an age that very few reach, even by the standards of today."Refrigerator": Most of humanity has uploaded their consciousnesses to IceBox in hopes of reaching digital utopia, and Benjamin must grapple with his last day on Earth after he wins a spot. Through June 10 at First Floor Theater at the Den, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 773-697-3830 and www.thedentheatre.comLed by a fierce and fearless female lawyer with a hunger for justice, the team reopens investigations, putting their own lives in danger to exonerate the innocent that were 'proven' guilty. Our lead's motivation comes from her infamous past; as a young adult she was found guilty and later exonerated in a high-profile case in which she became a tabloid sensation, household name and national celebrity. While a hero and a victim to some, her bold and bullish tactics garner her some enemies-- one of whom will do anything to see her go down for a crime we know she did not commit. We will watch her defend others as she fights to maintain her own innocence.Part 1 can be both captivating and off-putting, depending on how much a viewer enjoys watching a drug user hit rock bottom in a fancy hotel suite. It's 1982 and Patrick (Cumberbatch) learns that his father, David (Hugo Weaving), has died in New York; it's up to Patrick to travel from London to retrieve his father's cremains, and he unwisely chooses the trip as an opportunity to quit heroin cold-turkey. Most of the hour is therefore spent chronicling Patrick's descent into a rarefied hell, pumping himself full of booze, downers and uppers until acquiescing to the needle and spoon, testing the hotel's tolerance for a well-heeled guest.Instead, we find out early on what happened, and the novel is much richer for Drnaso's decision to focus not on the question of whodunit but why. Sabrina's horrific and nauseating fate is soon revealed not only to her loved ones, but to the broader public, which learns that the man responsible for her disappearance "was active on various message boards ranging from body-building and men's rights to theoretical physics and organic farming. Apparently, he was banned from several online groups for dominating the discussions with long, vitriolic rants."The procedure is one of the most complicated ear constructions in the U.S., according to an ABC News report, and allows for the formation of new blood vessels in the cartilage. This means Burrage will also have feeling in her new ear once rehabilitation is complete, the Army's statement said."It's a chance to send a bouquet to a mother who may not have someone to send her flowers," Dyme said. "I don't want to overstate our impact. I'm sure it's very little. But I think what flowers do really well is let you know someone cares. Some of the moms may not be getting a lot of those signs on a regular basis, so I think it's kind of cool that we can let them know someone in the community cares."Harvey Weinstein's estranged wife, designer Georgina Chapman, is speaking out in a tearful interview. She says she never knew of her husband's alleged misconduct, and weeps for their two small children.



The interview is in Vogue magazine. Chapman says she thought she had been in a happy marriage, but was "clearly, so naive."



Earlier this week, Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour came out in support of Chapman on Stephen Colbert's late-night show. And on Monday, Scarlett Johansson wore a gown by Chapman's fashion line Marchesa at the Met Gala, which Wintour presides over.



Wintour is seen as the most influential arbiter of American fashion. She also writes an editor's letter in Vogue in which she says it's wrong to blame Chapman, who should instead be receiving compassion and understanding.The message  now being repeated in viral videos on social media  was not intentional. It was so subtle, in fact, that most people likely did not catch it right away. But the image of young African-Americans being shoved around allegedly for misbehaving surely registered with someone who filed it away for future use.Here again, the Flamingo sets a high standard. The piece looks stable because it stands on legs yet it has a soaring quality, not only because it rises to a height of 53 feet but also because its two curving legs, which are remarkably thin and graceful, frame entrancing voids and views beneath them. In contrast, Calatrava's piece seems to balance tenuously, like an oversized version of a red, curled-up leaf that was blown onto a swath of grass. The Flamingo's elegant abstraction has the virtue of subtly suggesting its namesake creature. At this stage, Calatrava's design seems more literal and less graceful. But it is not without promise."She was the candidate with unanimous support," Gowen said. "At this point, there is no agreement, there is no contract." He would not specify when the board would vote on her contract; the next scheduled meeting is in late June.Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder in November 2015 on the same day as the release of police dashboard camera video showing the white officer shoot the black teen 16 times. The footage shows Van Dyke opening fire within seconds of exiting his police SUV in October 2014 as McDonald walked away from police with a knife in his hand, contradicting written reports by Van Dyke and several other officers who contended McDonald lunged at police with the knife.The woman who started the petition spoke to the Tribune on the condition of anonymity, citing safety concerns. She lives in California and was surfing the internet looking for cat videos in early 2017 when she came across something on YouTube called "Pitbull Jack Russel terrier mix VS Cat." She clicked the link, thinking it would show the two animals playing, and was horrified to see a dog ripping apart a cat. The woman said she found more videos of this nature posted by the same user.The agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was working undercover with Chicago police near 44th Street and Hermitage Avenue about 3:15 a.m. Friday when someone fired shots from a gangway. The agent, who is in his late 20s, suffered a gunshot wound near one of his eyes and was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition. His condition was later stabilized.Salgado and five other officers were accused in 2009 of taking $3,800 in cash and coins while executing a search warrant at a North Lawndale residence and failing to document that they confiscated the money, records show. About three years later, Salgado and about a dozen other officers were accused of taking $400 during a search warrant at another residence in the West Side neighborhood and not recording it, according to the records. Internal affairs cleared all the officers of wrongdoing in both instances.The resulting battle over whether the social media posts were relevant put federal prosecutors in an unusual position of having to offer a defense for a Chicago police officer against allegations of racism. Najm was placed on desk duty while the department reviewed the posts. He has since been put back on active duty.On the evening of April 27, the man grabbed the woman by the arms and shoved her, leaving bruises on her arms, police said. According to a source, the two firefighters worked at the same firehouse at 7974 S. South Chicago Ave. but make runs on different vehicles. The argument was about the performance of their crews, the source said.Other zone changes would provide the same fares for riders who board at stations on different lines, but at similar distances from downtown. For example, the Ashland stop on the Metra Electric District would move from Zone D to Zone C, the same zone as the 119th Street stop on the Rock Island District. This would reduce the one-way fare from Ashland to downtown from $6.25 to $5.50."And I want everybody in this room to make the commitment to go out and vote 10 times," Ricketts, a Republican, told the crowd at the NRA's annual meeting last week in Dallas. "Not the Chicago way 10 times. I want you all to make a commitment in this election year that you will go out and vote, and that you will get nine other of your friends and your family, your co-workers to go out and vote as well."Reported thefts took place between 6:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. April 16 in the 5800 block of South Prairie Avenue; at 1 p.m. April 16 on the 400 block of East 60th Street; at 7:20 a.m. April 26 in the 5800 block of South Indiana Avenue; between 7 p.m. April 28 and 3:59 p.m. April 29 on the 5900 block of South Indiana Avenue; and at 5 p.m. May 8 in the 5800 block of South Michigan Avenue."We have talked to several of them and are deeply saddened by the experiences they are sharing with us," Orr told the congregation during a midweek worship service. "We do believe that we owe these women some apologies. The tone of our first response had too much emphasis on defending Bill and cast some of the women in an unfair and negative light. We are sorry.""I urged him that if he has anything to do with the rules of the trial that he should make sure they don't have state representatives who are lawyers be the House managers  rather to do like we did where there was a professional prosecutor, as you will, that is assigned by the House," Cullerton said.The effort comes after public health officials reported that four people have died in recent weeks after using synthetic cannabinoids believed to be laced with rat poison. Another 164 people have been sickened by the substance also known as "fake weed," showing up in hospital emergency rooms after coughing up blood or experiencing bleeding in their urine, nose or gums. Most cases have been reported in the Chicago or Peoria areas.Michael Cohen leaves federal court in New York, Thursday, April 26, 2018. President Donald Trump said that his personal attorney Cohen represented him "with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal," after previously denying any knowledge of a payment Cohen made to the porn actress who alleges an affair with Trump. (Seth Wenig / AP)LONDON  Britain acknowledged Thursday that its intelligence agents played a role in the kidnapping and torture of an opponent of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi  a rare admission of wrongdoing by British spies.



Attorney General Jeremy Wright told lawmakers that Prime Minister Theresa May had apologized "unreservedly" to Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar, acknowledging that Britain's actions "contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering."



Belhaj, a former fighter in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group that had opposed Gadhafi, and his wife were kidnapped in Thailand in 2004 and sent to Libya. Boudchar, who was pregnant at the time, says she was tortured and then released before her son was born prematurely but Belhaj spent six years in custody.



Belhaj and Boudchar say British intelligence provided information that helped the CIA abduct them and have spent years pursuing British officials through U.K. courts seeking compensation and an apology.



Speaking in the House of Commons, Wright said the pair had withdrawn their claims against the British government, former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Mark Allen, a former senior officer in the MI6 intelligence agency.



He said as part of an out-of-court settlement, Boudchar would receive 500,000 pounds ($677,000). Belhaj did not seek financial compensation, saying he only wanted an apology.



Wright read from May's letter to the couple, which said Britain was "profoundly sorry for the ordeal that you both suffered and our role in it."



"The U.K. government's actions contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering," the letter said.



"The U.K. government shared information about you with its international partners. We should have done more to reduce the risk that you would be mistreated. We accept this was a failing on our part."



Boudchar on Thursday was in the public gallery of the House of Commons with her son, now 14, to hear Wright's apology. Belhaj was due to speak later in Istanbul.



In a statement issued by his lawyers, Belhaj said: "I welcome and accept the prime minister's apology, and I extend to her and the attorney general my thanks and sincere goodwill."



Boudchar authored an opinion piece for the New York Times, published Tuesday, criticizing Trump's pick to lead the CIA, Gina Haspel, who operated the secret "black site" prison in Thailand where the family believe they were held before being shipped to Libya.



"The worst torture of my life wasn't done to me by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's thugs. It was done in Thailand at the hands of the C.I.A.," Boudchar wrote.The intelligence committee Democrats released a sampling of the ads purchased by Russia's Internet Research Agency last year, but they are now releasing the full cache of ads that Facebook officials turned over to the panel after acknowledging in September they had discovered the Russian efforts. The release of ads from early 2015 through mid-2017 does not include 80,000 posts that the agency also shared. Some of the ads are partially redacted, part of an effort by Facebook and the committee to protect unsuspecting people whose names or faces were used.House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., walks to a meeting Feb. 6, 2018, at the Capitol. Nunes has requested from the Justice Department all documents about an individual who people close to the matter say is a sensitive, longtime intelligence source for the CIA and FBI. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP)Michael Cohen, personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, leaves federal court in New York on April 16, 2018. The South Korean aviation firm that paid $150,000 to a shell company run by Cohen was seeking to land a lucrative defense contract from the U.S. government. (Victor J. Blue / Bloomberg)Trump used one of his signature rallies in northern Indiana to paint a rosy picture of his presidency, pointing to low unemployment, "booming" job growth and optimism under his watch. Two days after Indiana wrapped up a divisive Republican Senate primary, the president praised a lengthy ticket of House and Senate candidates by name and predicted Democrats would dismantle his agenda if they regained control of Congress.The board goes to great lengths to both minimize America's descent into criminal war and torture in the aftermath of 9/11 and Haspel's role in it. The times were "perilous"; "nothing about the Central Intelligence Agency is easy for outsiders to comprehend"; Haspel was "extremely good at her job"; "Haspel ... is also a proven administrator"; the torture was only "one part of her record." Haspel may get "rave reviews from former national security officials from Democratic and Republican administrations," but she sure doesn't get high-fives from torture victims, including U.S. Sen. John McCain, who opposes her nomination with words the board chose to ignore: "Ms. Haspel's role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge torture's immorality is disqualifying. I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination."270 E. Pearson St., No. 803, Chicago: $3,000,000 | Listed: Aug. 24, 2021



This three-bedroom home has three full bathrooms, two half-baths, custom built-ins and millwork, two fireplaces and views of the lake and city. This home has an open floor plan with a formal dining room, living room and family room. The kitchen is equipped with a double oven, custom cabinetry, an island and hardwood flooring. The primary bedroom suite has a private office and a bathroom with double sinks, a tub and a separate shower. The living room and the library, which features built-in shelving, both have fireplaces. This home is located in a building with a 24-hour door staff. A south-facing terrace, a wine refrigerator and two deeded parking spaces complete this home.



Agent: Caroline Druker and Matthew Druker, Baird and Warner, 847-471-5115 and 847-490-5115



*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 more quickly we can help students make informed decisions about their future careers, the better," said Jeff Bott, a Buffalo Grove High School teacher and division head. "College has become expensive for everyone, and it's important for us to help students figure out in advance if something is or isn't the right job for them.""This was something we would have eventually done ourselves, but it would have taken a lot of time to get the funds together  probably at least seven years," Bejarano said as he watched electrical work being done inside the building. "The guys came over yesterday and did all the prep work to make sure things were ready and we here first thing this morning. This is going to save us a lot of money  especially with our electric bill."It will be sharing best practices and resources across the city's different school districts and schools, city officials said. It also will focus in part on graduation rates, getting students to college and helping residents prepare for the workforce."It was clear from the outset of this process that multiple parties were not concerned about the rules set forth in the ordinance, the material flaws in the application or the current condition of the remnant structure," he said. "The landmark ordinance has only been enforced a couple of times and that was evident in this recent process."Around 7 a.m. Wednesday, a student reported that as they parked their car in the student parking lot, a man in a car called out to the student, according to St. Charles police. The man asked if the student needed a ride. The student refused, and the man drove out of the lot, police said in a statement.That surprise may have been spoiled earlier when a city official let slip the news about the new nameplate outside the room that holds exhibits of the history of the Aurora Fire Department. But judging from the smile on Goodwin's face and the way he warmly embraced the hand of every person who stepped up to congratulate him, this homecoming could not have been more special.Monday, May 28, is the date, and as has become a tradition, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Barrington Memorial Post 7706 and the Barrington American Legion Post 158 will arrive promptly at the cemetery at 7.30 a.m with their color guard to pay tribute to the veterans who rest at peace in the cemetery.I have observed many students grow and develop into quality human beings and citizens. In my heart, I have always known #220 and their families to be a special place and people. Never was this more evident three years ago, when I was faced with two difficult tragedies  a personal illness and the death of my son. The members of the community and students rallied their support. Meals were brought to my home in Chicago. The words, actions and prayers from the students were the most helpful in my healing process.Google became even more omnipresent when it changed its terms of service in 2013, according to Wilson. From that point on, data collected about you from one Google service could be used to identify and target you on any other Google service. And any information you posted could be repurposed, reposted or shared with other parties."What I think is quite clear is that we can work together, in the last analysis. And that what has been going on with the United States over the period of that last three years, the divisions, the violence, the disenchantment with our society, the divisions  whether it's between blacks and whites, between the poor and the more affluent, or between age groups, or in the war in Vietnam  that we can work together. We are a great country, an unselfish country and a compassionate country. And I intend to make that my basis for running.""The Quokka-Nut Island will be geared towards smaller children age 2 to 5, so there's more stuff for younger ones. We already have a few areas in the park  the play structures and the zero-depth pools and the kiddie slides  but that's been one of the things on our list. We wanted to increase those areas and provide more options for families with little ones," Donati said. "This new area will have four new kiddie slides, a zero-depth pool that will almost double the size of the existing pools that we have and then we're going to have some play features and different interactive things for the little ones as well.""He is a powerful, articulate, highly educated and cultured, soulful performer, educator and conductor," she said. "I am only hoping that the strength of his character carries him through what is going to be the biggest challenge of his life. There are a lot of people praying for him and waiting to know what they can do to help out."According to police and court records, a woman called 911 on April 21 to report that a man driving a newer-model yellow Camaro tried to pull her over near the intersection of Illinois Route 56 and Winfield Road. The caller told police that the driver of the Camaro pulled alongside her, displayed a gold-colored badge and gestured to her as if he wanted her to pull over."We just wanted to play some really aggressive, heavy stuff but also keep the big, melodic hooks. We just have had enough experience writing music and learning a lot of things that it's come to a really cool point in our career," he said. "This record has a lot of experience behind it and can take our band to another level.""We saw everything on Facebook before my mom did," Joilyn Wilson said of how she and her three siblings felt her mother was being harassed. The police and animal control officers were polite and professional, she said. Some in the Facebook group seemed like bullies, she said.Among the 35 names on the stone memorial are nine officers who served at the state correctional center, eight from the Joliet Police Department, five each from the Will County sheriff's department and Illinois State Police, two each from Lockport and Crest Hill police, and one each from Frankfort police, Illinois Conservation police, Illinois Youth Center and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.I read about the Elgin firefighters complaining again. Now in order to get more firefighters, we have to raise property taxes, according to them. How many of these Elgin firefighters live in Elgin? I see a photo of a firefighter who lives in Hampshire. Hampshire's fire department is a very small fire department. Can Hampshire afford to hire full-time men? No. So why are these guys wanting all this big money? If they don't live in Elgin, the tax increase for firefighters doesn't affect them. They get their big money and go back to their little towns, where they have part-time or volunteer fire departments. It just doesn't make sense. They are just greedy people. They are not worried about taxpayers who are struggling to get by right now.On the low end, with the least amount of improvement, the district could spend $26.1 million without relying on bonds. This would mean the district's debt would be paid off without incurring new debt and so a homeowner with a $500,000 home would see his or her taxes dip by $800 annually.Highland Park police have charged a Kansas man with felony domestic battery, robbery and unlawful restraint after they say he refused to let a Highland Park woman he knows get out of his vehicle as he drove around for hours."I think that's so important, and it shows that we're not just transparent, but we understand the times," he said. "Females are more a part of the workforce today than any time in my lifetime. Now that they are in the workforce, they should have more of a voice in the workforce."According to Contreras, the last time Cambray was seen before he disappeared was on Christmas Day, when he and friends gave his girlfriend a ride home and, on their way back, he decided to get out of the friend's vehicle at a BP service station at Grand Avenue and Jackson Street. He did not tell his friends where he was going, just that he had to do something, according to Contreras."The project will be physically completed with (deactivation and decommissioning) in 2018," Walker said last year. Although the federal government designated decades ago that the waste would go to Yucca Mountain in Nevada for permanent storage, the facility has not yet opened, and Zion is stuck with the waste until a solution can be found."Meeting with people from the district in this format gives me the opportunity to have in-depth and respectful discussions such as this one on issues that matter to us all," Roskam's statement said. "I encourage these students to stay engaged and informed on issues that they are passionate about, like gun safety, and am pleased that we were able to connect on such an important subject."Michelle was looking forward to prom and graduation, Math said. The family had plans to move to Indiana so that she could live at home while studying engineering at Purdue University starting in the fall, she said."The Quinlans' gift commitment of $3 million over three years represents the largest single gift in the 89-year history of our school," said Fenwick president Fr. Richard Peddicord. "It is an unrestricted gift to the 'Centennial Campaign for Fenwick High School,' and will be used to jump-start construction of the new parking garage."A: I was reading "A Moveable Feast" and preparing to teach a class on memoirs. "A Moveable Feast" is about his time as a young whipper-snapper in Paris. When I was reading that, I became really interested in 1920s Paris. Was there a more deliciously dazzling time ever? He mentioned Hadley a few times. I really wanted to know about their story, not just his story. I thought, I could write "A Moveable Feast" from Hadley's point of view, and then we could get a side of the man we hadn't seen. I had been publishing since 1999, and I had the idea for "The Paris Wife" in 2008."I'm always reluctant to say it's the only such document ever created," said Judith Cohen, the museum's chief acquisitions curator, "but to the best of our knowledge it is  it is the only one we have ever seen. Auschwitz, in the moments before gassing. In the extermination camps it was almost impossible to write material that was preserved."Brown, D-Gary, served in the Indiana House of Representatives for 35 years before announcing he would not seek reelection last fall to run for County Council. Much of Brown's work in the Legislature focused on public health issues, and he is the past chairman and member of the Standing Committee on Public Health. Brown was a leader during the 2007 push to create the Healthy Indiana Plan.Nevaeh Hayes, the student town attorney, reported that the real town attorney, Joseph Svetanoff, met with two companies regarding property on Broadway where the proposed community center would be located. He said discussions continue to proceed well, with satisfactory results expected in the coming weeks.Explore the crescent moon at the Thomas Conway Observatory as the Calumet Astronomical Society hosts an open house from 8:30-10:30 p.m Saturday, May 19, at 19160 Chase St., Lowell. Members of the Society will have their telescopes and binoculars set up on the observing patio to take visitors on a tour of the night sky. In addition, the observatory will be open and visitors will have an opportunity to take a look through the eyepiece of its 16-inch telescope. Inclement weather or cloudy sky conditions could cause this event to be canceled with little advanced warning. Visit the CAS website, www.casonline.org, for a status update before heading to the observatory."There's something very special we always remember about the brave men and women of law enforcement. They go into this fearlessly," he said, adding that also applied to firefighters and members of the military. "They realize that on any random day, they may never return home."The hours-long closed hearing gave Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen time to review series of email communications between Snyder and his attorneys that were used by federal investigators. Whether the emails contained privileged information, Van Bokkelen would need to rule on a request to either dismiss the corruption charges against the mayor or disqualify the U.S. Attorney's Office's trial team.Police said the men stole two cellphones and one wallet from the men. One of the victims was an employee, the other was making a delivery to M & H. The men did not try to make money from the business itself, Police Chief Brian Budds said.Another feature will include the "bumping out" of the intersection of Burlington and Lawn avenues in order to make the pedestrian crossing area smaller, and the sidewalk area of the corner bigger. The existing crosswalk is about 50 feet from one side to the other, and that can make crossing difficult, especially during heavy traffic. Train traffic also can lead to more turns, which can be dangerous for pedestrians, Biernacki said.Katie Carden, principal at Saints Faith Hope and Charity, praised Jenks, who has been with the school four years, saying "her genuine spirit and kindness draw people in to her." Jenks, of Skokie, is part of the school's improvement committee and is its advanced education chair, Carden said. Jenks also instituted a house system for students that allows them to form bonds outside their regular class and age group, Carden said.A Wilmette resident told police April 20 that he got an anonymous letter, postmarked from Birmingham, Alabama, saying the sender had information about something the resident was hiding from his wife and family. Like the other letters, that letter went on to threaten that if the resident didn't send $8,300 in Bitcoins to a Bitcoin account the information would be sent to the resident's wife. The letters also typically include a confusing page long set of instructions detailing how to pay the online "confidentiality fee.""I knocked on doors and what people kept saying over and over was 'my rent continues to increase, I love this neighborhood but when my lease is up I have to move, and I have to move very far west or very far south," she said. "I would like to see the state be more progressive and really identify resources that we can give the city and municipalities to be able to bring rent stability."In the real world, Di Renjie was a seventh-century politician in the court of Chinese empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty (618-907).





But he has evolved into a Chinese version of Sherlock Holmes in the 18th-century novel Di Gong An by an anonymous writer.





Dutch writer Robert van Gulik translated the ancient novel in the 1940s as the Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, making Di known in the West as Dee.





Now, the famous character-who has inspired a series of screen productions in recent years-will return to big screen in the upcoming period-action film Detective Dee The Four Heavenly Kings. Taiwan actor Mark Chao is again playing Detective Dee in the third installment of Hong Kong director Tsui Hark's Detective Dee franchise.





The new movie will hit Chinese theaters on July 27, seeking to tap into the lucrative but fiercely contested summer box-office season.





The first film, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010), featured Andy Lau as Dee, while Mark Chao appeared in the second installment, or prequel, Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon (2013).China, Japan and South Korea injected fresh confidence into global growth on Wednesday by reaffirming their commitment to economic globalization as well as trade and investment liberalization.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in made the pledge here at a trilateral meeting, giving a big boost for free trade against a rising undercurrent of protectionism in the world.

PLEDGE OF COMMON DEVELOPMENT

During the meeting, which marked the resumption of the trilateral leaders' meeting mechanism after a two-and-a-half-year hiatus, the three sides agreed to meet on a regular basis to expand their common interests and manage disputes.

China, Japan and South Korea are three big economies in the world, and are each other's key partner in trade and economic cooperation, said the Chinese premier, adding that they shoulder great responsibilities for boosting regional development, guiding regional economic integration and safeguarding regional peace and stability.

Strengthening trilateral cooperation, Li said, not only meets the needs of the three countries, but also accords with the expectations of the region and the international community at large.

Abe, for his part, pledged Tokyo's adherence to free trade. He said that as major traders in the world, the three sides all support free trade and open markets.

He called upon the three countries to come up with high-level trade rules that suit the current circumstances in the 21st century.

Meanwhile, Moon called the three nations inseparable cooperation partners, and said he hopes that the content of trilateral cooperation can be enriched.

The leaders' meeting came as some developed countries are retreating from free trade and threatening to flog others with soaring tariffs.

Against this background, China, Japan and South Korea can become important forces for promoting trade liberalization, said Tatsuhiko Yoshizaki, chief economist at Japan's Sojitz Research Institute.

"The world needs more voices calling out the fact that trade is not a zero-sum game, but win-win (cooperation)," Yoshizaki said.

TRILATERAL FTA, "3+X" COOPERATION IN THE MAKING

Besides their meeting, the three leaders also attended a business summit of their countries and a joint press conference.

They pledged to accelerate the negotiations for a trilateral free trade agreement (FTA) and to achieve the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) at an early date.

The Chinese premier also suggested that China, Japan and South Korea join hands to promote the building of an East Asian Economic Community, and stand together in an even more steadfast manner to safeguard the rules-based multilateral free trade system.

Pointing out that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative is creating new room for trilateral cooperation, Li said the three sides can carry out cooperation within a "China-Japan-South Korea+X" framework.

He proposed that the three countries roll out joint projects of this kind in production capacity cooperation, poverty reduction, disaster management and energy saving, so as to promote the development of other countries in the region.

The three countries' political will to speed up talks on a trilateral FTA and the RCEP will surely provide positive energy for promoting regional integration and growth, and for maintaining the trend of trade and investment liberalization, said Jin Jianmin, a senior fellow at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo.

NEW SPACE FOR COOPERATION

On expanding investment and industrial capacity cooperation, each of the three countries has its advantages, and prospects for their cooperation are broad, Li told the business summit.

Beijing is willing to work with Tokyo and Seoul to strengthen cooperation in such areas as digital economy, artificial intelligence, environmental protection, and medical and health services, Li said.

Noting that the next year marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of the China-Japan-South Korea cooperation mechanism, Li urged businesses of the three countries to join hands not only to bring benefits to the three countries but also to provide new driving force for world economic growth.

For his part, Abe said that the resumption of trilateral cooperation creates new opportunities for the three countries' economic development and mutually beneficial cooperation.

He called for more people-to-people exchanges and more cooperation in finance, scientific research and technological development, as well as in dealing with population ageing.

Noting that the Korean Peninsula is taking an important turn for peace, the South Korean president said this will create more business opportunities.

Moon urged the three sides to step up cooperation in such fields as joint research and development, energy, medical services, environmental protection and disaster relief, so as to bring tangible benefits to the people of the three nations.You are here: Business

China has agreed to grant Japan RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) quota of 200 billion yuan (about $31.36 billion), Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Wednesday.

Li announced the decision during his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.

The granting of the RQFII quota would help Japanese financial institutions to actively invest in China's capital market through the RQFII, he said.

During the meeting, Li also pointed to energy efficiency, environmental protection, scientific and technological innovation, high-end manufacturing, finance, sharing economy, and gerontics services as key areas where China and Japan should enhance cooperation.

The two sides have agreed in principle to sign a currency swap deal at an early date, and this will help safeguard financial market stability and promote investment facilitation, Li said.

China holds a positive attitude toward establishing RMB clearing bank in Tokyo, the premier said.

Li arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday for an official visit to Japan and to attend the 7th China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting. The trilateral meeting was resumed after a two-and-a-half-year suspension.You are here: Business

Chinese tech giant Tencent has announced several high-profile deals to help British creative companies tap the Chinese market.

The Shenzhen-based company has signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK Department of International Trade on Wednesday in London.

The pact is designed to deepen ties between the social media-to-gaming giant and Britain, a key Chinese trading partner.

Seng Yee Lau, senior executive vice-president of Tencent, says the agreements will see the company use its digital technology strength to help bolster the UK's creative and cultural industry products.

Liam Fox, the UK's secretary of state for international trade, says the deals will "accelerate the growth of the global digital creative industries, in which the UK is a world leader".

In the film sector, Tencent's subsidiary, Penguin Pictures, will work with the BBC in a three-year partnership on co-production and content distribution.

The deal comes in the wake of last year's successful co-production of the nature documentary "Blue Planet II," which garnered a record-breaking 220 million views, partly thanks to huge viewer numbers in China.

Other collaboration agreements include the creation of a British version of the "QQ Speed Mobile Game," a 3D-mobile racing game launched in 2017, which has 100 million registered users.

A partnership with Nature Research will also support collaboration between the healthcare industry and AI research in the UK and China.

Tencent, one of China's top three internet companies alongside Alibaba and Baidu, is a pioneer in China's digital economy growth.

It's best known as the parent company of WeChat.When you think about delivery by drones, you probably envision a sleek flying machine whooshing over a leafy neighborhood before gently descending and dropping off its cargo in front of a futuristic house.

Tech-avid cities, however, are only part of the story about how transport drones can change people's lives.

A case in point is a promise made by Liu Qiangdong, the founder and CEO of JD.com, a leading e-retail platform in China, to Pingshitou, a village in Hebei province looking for way out of poverty.

Since 2015, JD has been helping the county that includes Pingshitou fight poverty, mostly by boosting local sources of income such as tea, porcelain and mushrooms. The villagers of Pingshitou were so impressed by what Liu's company had done that they asked him to be their honorary village chief, a request Liu, born in a poor village himself, readily accepted.

The villagers knew they had made the right choice when Liu announced during his inauguration speech that he would make them ten times richer by the end of 2022 (the average annual income of Pingshitou was 3,200 yuan, about US$500, in 2016). The rousing promise was backed by more than Liu's personal commitment to eliminating poverty, as the cutting-edge drone technology developed by JD was exploring its potential away from urban areas.

The hilly terrain of Pingshitou means taking walnuts, the village's major produce, to outside markets is arduous. This puts real life limitations on the villagers' ability to make money, which is where JD's drone fleet comes in.

One of the earliest proponents of drone deliveries in China, JD set up its drone research department, JDX, in May 2016 and conducted its first drone delivery service in the same year. About one and a half years later, the most advanced JD drones were able to serve a radius of 240 km, with a top speed of 100 km/h, according to Liu.

JD took its first step in turning the rapid progress of its drone research into tangible benefits for people living in Pingshitou by conducting their first drone transport test in the village on March 16 this year. As the drone was being put through its paces, excited villagers took out their phones to capture a glimpse into the future, some wondering if drones could bring fertilizer to the village.

For JD VT1, a logistics drone unveiled in August last year that's capable of carrying packages as heavy as 200 kilograms, that should not be much of a challenge. Drones with even higher weight limits are also in the pipeline.

JD has launched regular drone service in nearly 30 villages in the provinces of Shaanxi and Jiangsu to facilitate the transport of produce since 2016, eager in their pursuit to fight poverty with drones. In December 2017, Liu announced that JD planned to build 185 drone airports across Sichuan province, weaving a network of transport that can send produce from deep in the mountains to anywhere in the country within 20 hours.

While much technology seems to be employed in specs one-upmanship, producing increasingly pricey gadgets that people only recently began to find it hard to live without, JD's poverty-fighting drones are a bracing reminder that in their unglamorous missions to far-flung areas where most people are yet to see an iPhone, technology can make a difference that matters.You are here: China

Wu Xiaohui, former chairman and general manager of Anbang Insurance Group, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for fundraising fraud and embezzlement of corporate funds.

The Shanghai Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court announced the sentence Thursday.







Wu was also deprived of his political rights for four years, and had 10.5 billion yuan (1.6 billion U.S. dollars) of his property confiscated, according to the court sentence.





His illegal gains and yields generated will be retrieved, the sentence said.





The court found that Wu, having concealed his shareholder status, had controlled the Anbang Property and Casualty Insurance Co. and the Anbang Insurance Group through several companies under his control.





Since January 2011, Wu used Anbang and other companies as a financing platform and directed others to cheat the insurance regulator to gain approval and extension of insurance products with fake documents.





Between July 2011 and January 2017, Wu illegally absorbed a huge amount of funds by directing people to defraud the regulators and the public via misrepresentation to sell the public investment-purpose insurance products that exceeded approved amounts, the court said.





During this period, Wu used false excuses to transfer part of the illegally-raised insurance premium to over 100 companies he personally controlled for payment of personal debts, business operations and investment in Anbang Group.





By the time his violations came to light, he had defrauded over 65.2 billion yuan.





Also, the court found that Wu had taken advantage of his position to illegally embezzle 10 billion yuan from Anbang.





The police sealed and freezed the assets of Wu and the companies he controlled, during the investigation.





The court said the ruling was made with consideration of the facts, nature, circumstances and harm to society of the crimes.





Over 50 people, including Wu's family, journalists and members of the public attended Thursday's public sentencing.





The court heard the case on March 28 and information about the trial was made public on the court's Weibo account.





The trial came after China decided to take over Anbang for a year to maintain normal operations at the company and protect consumer rights, in February.





China's insurance law stipulates that an insurance firm can be taken over by regulators if it is insolvent, or illegal activities hurt the public interest and threaten its solvency.





Established in 2004, Anbang has total assets of nearly 2 trillion yuan, with more than 30,000 employees and over 35 million clients globally, according to the company's website.



An Interactive Chinese American Heritage Map (ICAHM) was released at the Chinese American Museum of Chicago last Saturday.

Developed by the United Chinese Americans (UCA), the map unveils itself as a website on the Internet, where browsers can quickly dig out any historical incident related to Chinese Americans in the past more than 200 years through key words search, timeline selection, and category selection.

Zhang Xiaoyan, UCA Chairman of Board and ICAHM Project Lead, said the significance of the map is preserving history and empowering the next generation. A thorough understanding of the 200-year history of Chinese Americans in the United States can lead to better proposals and blueprints for the Chinese communities in the country in the future.

The future world will be data oriented. Only when Chinese Americans master the data on themselves can they win the future, Zhang added.

It is learned that the interactive map is an open system where everyone can add data and historical incidents. It is still in the testing phase, collecting only 76 historical incidents. The official version will be presented to the public in September.

Zhang believes that in five to ten years, the interactive map will become a detailed database on the history of Chinese Americans, providing historical reference to the development of Chinese Americans in the United States as a whole.Recently, news of a girl who spent 12,000 yuan (US$1,884) on a taxi from Hangzhou to Beijing went viral online.



The passenger known as Xiaojun hailed the taxi at Hangzhou Railway Station, Zhejiang province in east China. She asked the driver to take her to Beijing in the north of the country some 1,200 kilometers away. After negotiation, the driver took her to Beijing for 12,000 yuan. The girl paid the fare when she got to her destination.

However, when the taxi driver returned to Hangzhou, he received a complaint from Xiaojun's family, who said the normal fare for such a distance should be half of what the girl paid. They also claimed the girl has schizophrenia, thus asking the driver to return part of the fare.

Normally, people will take a train or plane to travel from Hangzhou to Beijing. A ticket for a second-class seat of bullet train costs some 530 yuan, while a plane ticket can cost thousands of yuan depending on airline companies' discount policies.

The news soon angered the public on social media platforms, as many people felt the taxi driver was innocent and shouldn't refund the cost.

Qingchen 918 said, "Isn't it dubious that a mentally ill person is allowed to take so much money with her? What's wrong if I'm simply so rich that I want to take a taxi to Beijing? ... I don't think the driver should return the fare. Instead, he should ask for a compensation for reputation loss."

Chaofantuosu VS said, "Normally, a taxi driver will check with you two or three times where you want to go. I think the driver must have checked this even more times for a destination as far as Beijing. As for schizophrenia, isn't it the responsibility of her family to keep an eye on her?"

Renge Fenliexing Wangu Buhua said, "The deal was reached after negotiation, which proved the girl was in the normal state of mind. If she is mentally ill, her family should produce a doctor's certificate, and in such a situation, her family shouldn't have allowed her to go out on her own. The driver shouldn't return the fare."

But the case might be more complicated than what the public's reaction. Zheng Ruoyang, the head of Zhejiang Handing Law Firm, said the crux of the problem is the mental ability of the girl. If she is fully disposed, and the fare was paid of her own accord, her family has to accept the deal. But if she is diagnosed as having an unfit disposition for such a decision or having a limited disposition when taking a taxi, the driver has to return the fare under law.

Since the driver had followed his customer's instruction to take her to her destination, the girl's family needs to share part of the trip's cost, and how much the family should afford depends on if the driver can prove he had duly checked the girl's state of mind, Zheng added.You are here: Travel

 Flash

Thailand's popular beach destination Phuket and China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will boost trade and tourism cooperation.



The signing was witnessed by Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai and Chief Executive of the Macao SAR Chui Sai On.

Chui is on a three-day visit to Thailand.

Chui said Macao aims to expand cooperation with Thailand in education, traditional Chinese medical science and markets of Portuguese-speaking countries under the Belt and Road Initiative. He said Thailand is one of Macao's key partners in southeast Asia in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Don said the two sides have discussed exploring potential cooperation in areas of economy, tourism, medical science and innovative cultural industry, adding that Thailand hopes to drum up investments from Macao to its Eastern Economic Corridor.

Macao recorded 198,222 Thai visitor arrivals last year, a year-on-year decline of 16.1 percent, 54.2 percent of them same-day visitors, according to the Statistics and Census Bureau.

The Macao SAR government will host the 2018 Traditional Medicine International Development Forum and the Economic and Financial Promotion Forum in Bangkok on Thursday. Flash

Three soldiers died and three more were wounded during an attack by gunmen in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, authorities announced on Wednesday.

The Ministry of National Defense said the soldiers were attacked on Tuesday night at a ranch named El Pozo, in the municipality of Coyuca de Catalan, after answering an anonymous tip-off that armed men were on the site.

"The soldiers were carrying out reconnaissance when they were attacked with gunfire by an unknown group," said the statement.

The ranch where the attack occurred is owned by the family of Abel Montufar, the mayor of Coyuca de Catalan and a state deputy in Guerrero for the ruling PRI party.

Montufar was shot dead on Tuesday as he campaigned nearby ahead of general elections on July 1.

Gunmen kidnapped him before leaving his body in a vehicle near the town.

Guerrero's security spokesperson, Roberto Alvarez Heredia, said on Wednesday morning that there was no indication linking the two attacks.

"We have no element to link this attack (on the soldiers) with that on...Abel Montufar," he said in an interview with Grupo Formula.

For the last two years, Guerrero has had Mexico's highest homicide rate. This trend has continued in 2018, with a number of ambushes on police and soldiers as well as numerous people being driven out of their homes due to violence.

The government blames the violence on rival gangs fighting to control the production of opiates in the mountains of Guerrero and its transportation to the U.S.







 Flash

Premier Li Keqiang (L), Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (C) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in take questions from journalists after the seventh leaders' meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday. [Photo/Xinhua]





Leaders of China, Japan and South Korea on Wednesday reaffirmed their countries' shared commitment to safeguarding peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula as well as Northeast Asia.

The pledge was included in a joint statement on the April 27 inter-Korean summit issued at the seventh China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting in Tokyo.

In the statement, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in appreciated the efforts made by the international community so far to induce positive changes on the peninsula.

The Chinese and Japanese leaders, said the statement, applaud and welcome the historic summit between Moon and top leader Kim Jong Un of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

It added that Li and Abe also appreciate the signing of the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula, and the confirmation of the common goals of realizing complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and establishing a permanent peace mechanism.

The three leaders said they strongly hope that on the basis of the inter-Korean summit, relevant parties will continue to work hard, especially through the planned summit between the DPRK and the United States, to help address the concerns of all parties and safeguard regional peace and stability.

They also reiterated that safeguarding peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia is a common responsibility of the three countries and they will continue to work together for that. Flash

The three US nationals previously detained in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) are are currently on their way back home with the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on May 9, 2018. [Photo/CGTN]





The White House on Wednesday confirmed the release of three U.S. citizens detained in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), saying U.S. President Donald Trump appreciates the release and views it as "a positive gesture of goodwill."





According to the White House statement, at the direction of Trump, "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other representatives of the United States government traveled to Pyongyang" on May 9 to prepare for Trump's upcoming meeting with DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un.





During Pompeo's visit, the DPRK's leadership released the three U.S. detainees, said the White House.





"President Trump appreciates leader Kim Jong Un's action to release these American citizens, and views this as a positive gesture of goodwill," it said.





The White House added that the three people "appear to be in good condition and were all able to walk on the plane without assistance."





"All Americans look forward to welcoming them home and to seeing them reunited with their loved ones," it noted.





Earlier on Wednesday, Trump tweeted that Pompeo is on his way back from the DPRK with three released U.S. citizens that had been detained.





"I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from" the DPRK "with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting," Trump tweeted.

Saying that the three "seem to be in good health," Trump added they would land at Andrews Air Force Base at 2:00 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT).





Noting that he will be there to greet them, Trump hailed the news, saying "Very exciting!"





The three Korean-Americans, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, had been detained in the DPRK for one to two years.





According to media reports, Kim Dong Chul was a South Korea-born U.S. citizen and former Virginia resident. He was sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison with hard labor after being convicted of espionage.





Tony Kim was detained at Pyongyang's airport in April 2017 and accused of unspecified "hostile acts" against the DPRK. He taught accounting at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.





Kim Hak Song, an ethnic Korean born in China, was detained in May 2017 for "hostile acts." He worked in agricultural development at an experimental farm run by the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, which was founded in 2010 with donations from Christian groups.





The U.S. president also tweeted "Date & Place set" on Pompeo's second visit to the DPRK, referring to his anticipated summit with Kim.





He also said Pompeo had a "good meeting with Kim Jong Un."





Pompeo said Tuesday while on the plane to the DPRK that his visit was aimed to nail down a framework for the possible Trump-Kim meeting.





Pompeo said he would also talk about the release of the three men.





"We have been asking for the release of these detainees for 17 months. We'll talk about it again today," he said.





Their release would be a "great gesture" he said, adding that he hoped the DPRK would "do the right thing."





U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said Pompeo met Kim in Pyongyang, and had a productive discussion on a range of issues, including the upcoming Trump-Kim meeting.





Nauert said Pompeo also secured the release of three U.S. citizens and is delighted to bring them home.

Trump said on May 4 that the two nations are engaged in substantial dialogues over the detainees' issue.

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported earlier that the three men had been relocated in a hotel near Pyongyang in April.





The summit between Trump and Kim is forecast to be held in May or early June.













 Flash

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang [Photo/fmprc.gov.cn]





China said on Wednesday it "regrets" the decision by the United States to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, and Beijing will continue its commitment to safeguard and implement the deal, the Foreign Ministry said.





The agreement, known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was reached among multiple parties and approved by the United Nations Security Council, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang said in a daily news conference. All parties involved should carry it out with seriousness and safeguard its integrity, Geng said.





Doing so will help maintain the international nonproliferation regime, promote peace and stability in the Middle East and serve as an example of solving hot spot issues through political means, Geng said.





"China calls on all parties to ... stick to the direction of a political and diplomatic settlement, handle their differences properly and come back to the right track of implementing the deal as soon as possible," Geng said. China will maintain talks with all parties, he said.





U.S. President Donald Trump announced in a speech on Tuesday that his country will withdraw from the deal and reinstate its sanctions on Iran, and that Iran is "going to want to make a new and lasting deal".





Trump's announcement has also sparked concerns and opposition from the other parties to the deal.





In a joint statement issued by the British Prime Minister's office, the leaders of France, Germany and Britain said they took note of Trump's decision "with regret and concern".





The deal was struck between Iran and the US, Britain, France, Russia and China, plus Germany and the European Union, in Vienna in 2015.





The deal asks Iran to limit its nuclear program in return for the lifting of economic sanctions the international community imposed on the country.





In a statement on Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it was "deeply disappointed by the decision of U.S. President Donald Trump to unilaterally refuse to carry out commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action," according to AFP.





Iran President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic will remain in the nuclear deal with other signatories without the U.S.





"From this time on, the nuclear deal is an accord between Iran and five countries," Rouhani said in live speech broadcast from state TV.





Ruan Zongze, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said the U.S. is sending the "wrong signals" by quitting the Iran nuclear deal, as such moves will undermine future efforts to solve issues in the Middle East through talks.





Emma Ashford, a research fellow with the Cato Institute, a think tank in Washington, said in an analysis on Tuesday that by leaving the nuclear deal without offering any clear strategy or plan for an alternative, "Trump is opening Pandora's box, increasing the risks of escalation and bringing us gradually closer to conflict with Iran."



 Flash

U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad speaks at the 2018 Annual Conference on Sustainability in Beijing on May 9, 2018. [Photo courtesy of the Paulson Institute]

China and the United States share great potential for cooperation in promoting environmental protection and green development.

This was one of the key messages of the 2018 Annual Conference on Sustainability, co-hosted by the Paulson Institute and the China Center for International Economic Exchanges in Beijing on May 9.

U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad said that the collaboration between China and the United States, the world's two largest economies, is crucial to addressing important environmental issues.

He said companies that have helped the United States tackle environmental problems are ready and willing to promote sustainability in China with their innovative environmental solutions.

According to the ambassador, two major memorandums of understanding involving liquid natural gas were signed between the two countries during U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to China last November, which Branstad said is a good example of bilateral cooperation on environment protection.

At the opening of this year's Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in his keynote speech that "economic globalization is an irreversible trend of our times." He advocated increased exchanges and cooperation to "jointly meet challenges in climate change, environmental protection, energy conservation and emissions reduction."



His statement was echoed by the Chinese speakers at Wednesday's conference.

Zhou Xiaochuan, the former governor of the People's Bank of China, said that China will continue to enhance international cooperation on green finance and facilitate the sharing of experience to boost its development.

Shi Zihai, the deputy secretary general of China's National Development and Reform Commission, also said that international exchange and collaboration are important for China to promote green development.

"China will learn from the advanced practices of other countries, including the United States, to explore a path towards green development that fits China's reality," he said.

Henry M. Paulson Jr., the chairman of the Paulson Institute, said the annual conference is dedicated to "creating more opportunities for China and the United States to take joint or complementary action on important global problems."

According to Paulson, the theme of this year's conference, "New Era, New Drivers," represents what he called "a fundamental shift happening in the Chinese economy."

He said that rapid growth is no longer the focus of the Chinese economy, and that pursuing quality and sustainability of growth has instead become its defining feature. Flash

Three U.S. citizens that were just freed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) arrived in Washington early Thursday, as the two countries saw their ties warm up in recent weeks.

A plane carrying the three U.S. detainees arrived at Joint Base Andrews shortly before 3 a.m. local time (0700 GMT), minutes after another plane carrying Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who helped bring the detainees back, landed.

The three detainees, named Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim, Kim Dong-chul, are all U.S. citizens of Korean descent. They were arrested by DPRK authorities in 2015 and 2017 on different charges.

Pompeo, who has visited Pyongyang twice in recent weeks to pave the way for an upcoming meeting between DPRK top leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, secured their release Wednesday.

To fully capitalize on the diplomatic success, Trump and other senior government officials greeted the detainees at the airport in a carefully choreographed ceremony. A giant U.S. flag was hoisted by two fire trucks in the background. After the planes landed, Trump stepped on board for a brief greeting before emerging alongside the detainees. Missing from the ceremony however, were the relatives of the detainees.

"This must have broken your ratings records at three in the morning," Trump told reporters there.

The detainees will be taken to a nearby hospital for further check-ups.

U.S.-DPRK ties have taken a drastic turn in recent weeks, as both countries replaced fiery rhetoric with friendlier gestures. Trump and Kim are expected to conduct a historic meeting late May or in June. Trump said that the date and location has been decided and will be announced soon.By Cyril Altmeyer, Reuters | May 09, 2018

Air France KLM has raised its estimate of the impact to the company from a wave of strikes to around EUR 400 million(US$473.6 million), compared to a previous EUR 300 million estimate, said a group spokeswoman on Wednesday.

Shares in Air France KLM were down 1.6 percent in early session trading, with the stock having lost around 50 percent in value since the start of 2018.

Air France's French unions have been staging a strike in protest over pay demands, with the dispute having led to the resignation of Air France KLM boss Jean-Marc Janaillac.

Air France had offered workers a pay rise of 2 percent in 2018 and a further 5 percent over the following three years, but French unions, which have demanded 5.1 percent this year, have complained management is not serious about talks.

After negotiations reached a deadlock, Janaillac called a for a vote on May 4, the results of which went against him.

Janaillac had been CEO for less than two years, running into the same union resistance to reform as his predecessor. His exit raises questions over Air France's ability to cut costs to compete with Gulf carriers and low-cost airlines.

The French government, the national carrier's largest shareholder with a 14 percent stake, has said it will not ride to the rescue of Air France.Sun Huaishan, a former senior political adviser, pleaded guilty to taking bribes of 39.75 million yuan ($6.23 million), the intermediate people's court in Hulun Buir, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, announced on Wednesday.

Sun, 65, was formerly a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee and head of the Committee for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Compatriots and Overseas Chinese of the CPPCC National Committee.

Sun is accused of taking advantage of his posts to seek profits for certain businesses and individuals. He helped secure land-use rights, approvals for business operations, project approvals and promotions of personnel while serving as director of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, deputy secretary-general and Standing Committee member of the CPPCC National Committee and member of Communist Party of China Central Committee from 1994 to 2016, according to the indictment by the Hulun Buir people's procuratorate.At a conference to mark the 200th birth anniversary of Karl Marx in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 4, President Xi Jinping said Marx's theories shine with the brilliance of truth even after the profound changes in human society. The most valuable and influential asset that Marx has left us with is Marxism, which "illuminated the path of humanity's exploration of the law of history, and humanity's search for their own liberation".

In his speech, Xi summarized the characteristics of Marxism saying it is a people-centric scientific theory, which creatively reveals the law of social development. As such, Marxism is the theory of the people, aimed at building a system based on ideology to strive for liberation of humanity. Marxism is also a practical theory, which guides people's action to change the world. Marxism is a continuously developing open system as well, which has always stood at the forefront of the times.

Marx's profound exploration of the world may have been based on the existing systems and conditions during his times, but it goes beyond his times in terms of spirit and philosophy. It is the essence of the spirit of those times as well as all times, including the present and the future. Therefore, Marxism is trans-generational universal truth, but it has to be developed so that it can be applied to the reality of modern times.Haunted by the horror Updated: 2018-05-11 06:31 (HK Edition)

The scars people bear from a disaster such as the Wenchuan earthquake are not only on the body. Volunteers left in despair that they could not save more become the walking wounded, carrying their emotional anguish for 10 years. Dara Wang reports.

Someone was calling for help. "Please! I beg you! Help me!" The voice carried an urgent plea.

To this day, that voice haunts Zhang Tao, tearing at his conscience for 10 years.

Zhang was nearly exhausted after working almost non-stop for two days, trying to rescue survivors of Sichuan's Wenchuan earthquake that struck on May 12, 2008.

Zhang and three others were driving on a national road from Shifang to Hanwang when they heard the woman cry out. Zhang pulled over to the side of the road and got out, looking over the total ruin of the village. The stricken woman was the only living thing he could see - buried in about 10 square meters of rubble.

She was "exhausted, her body was frail but in her eyes was the will to live". But there was no hope. The lower part of the woman's body was "gone" and Zhang was unable to remove the debris surrounding her.

Reluctantly he turned, leaving the woman to her fate as he carried on searching for those who still could be helped.

Zhang could not forget the woman in her white cotton top, left there, without help. "I cried and cried until I could not cry anymore," Zhang recalled.

Zhang, a volunteer, who had been visiting the area when the earthquake struck, carried on trying to help, first with the rescue and then with the recovery following the quake that killed more than 80,000 and left more than 5 million homeless. The image of the woman he had abandoned to her fate never left him.

It was more than a week after the incident when he confronted the disaster at Luoshui Middle School, in Hongbai town, one of the hardest hit areas.

The 72-hour "golden period" for disaster rescue was now long past. The operation had moved to the recovery phase. The work was not without urgency. Unstable structures, shaken by the quake, were still in danger of collapse, endangering life and limb of survivors.

"I could smell the heavy odor of death, mixed with disinfectant fluid smell, once I stepped into the campus." Zhang recalled the shock of seeing the ruin that just two weeks before had been a teaching facility.

Anyone who had survived the quake had been taken to safety but hundreds of the dead remained buried deep underground. "There were still hundreds of survivors standing around," Zhang recalled. "They cried. Their eyes were hollow, their faces expressionless."

Many were parents of children who were still missing. The demolition was the end of all hope for them - but they had no strength to raise any protest.

"They just stood there and cried," Zhang said.

Meanwhile, the severely injured were waiting nearby for the arrival of helicopters to take them for treatment. Zhang slept on the track of the excavator, managing only two to three hours of sleep at a time.

He stayed on call - ready to respond to pleas for help at any time, day or night.

Many survivors of disasters are guilt-ridden, feeling that they too should have died. It's called survivor guilt. In Zhang's case he was left in despair that he could not save more, though he knew he had done his best. He became one of the millions - the walking wounded - who suffered no physical injury from the earthquake but carried emotional scars that lingered unseen, wreaking havoc on the mental health of those left behind.

The woman whose pleas went unheeded by Zhang couldn't have been helped, explained doctor Zhang Li, of the Sichuan-Hong Kong Rehabilitation Center, who had come to assist in the trembler's aftermath. The moment the debris that trapped the woman was removed she would have expired from massive bleeding from severed arteries and lethal toxins from hypoxia. She was kept alive for a short time only by the pressure from the debris on her lower limbs. She was one of thousands of hopeless cases.

Zhang seemed unconvinced. His feelings of guilt over the woman's death persisted.

The sudden feeling of death

Zhang Tao and his cousin prospered in the aftermath of the earthquake. Excavators were in high demand and the local government purchased his excavators in priority, to compensate their efforts.

But life seemed meaningless to him.

He took fright if someone bumped his chair, creating a tremor. The shudder of an elevator coming to a stop frightened him.

Once, in 2011, he found himself unable to breathe. His heart was pounding and he was light-headed.

"I was freaked out. I thought I would die," recalled Zhang, who was sent to the emergency room at a hospital in Chengdu. After a thorough physical examination, doctors found no physical cause for the event. There were subsequent occurrences - all with no identifiable source.

On April 20, 2013, the magnitude-7 Lushan earthquake struck Sichuan province, killing some 200 people.

As soon as the earthquake happened, Zhang rushed to the stricken area in Lushan, bringing tents and bottles of water he had purchased. But he was barred from entering the area, informed that his involvement would only obstruct professional rescue teams.

Zhang felt that he had been deprived of the chance to make up for his guilt and to bring back meaning to his life.

A numb, breathless feeling of impending death began to weigh heavily on him. By March of this year, he was ravaged by the feeling up to three times a day.

"I felt the whole world was unreal and unsafe. I became emotionally detached day by day," Zhang said.

Zhang was afraid to drive a vehicle and so walked over 10 kilometers to get home from work every day. When he came home, his wife and daughter would be asleep. The quiet stillness of the house made him feel worse.

A friend suggested he should see the psychosomatics department at the Sichuan-Hong Kong Rehabilitation Center of the Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital.

He was diagnosed with panic disorder.

'So that explains it'

The director of the psychosomatics department, Zhou Bo, said Zhang Tao had witnessed too many injuries and deaths during his rescue efforts, frequently accompanied by afterimages. The experience conditioned his mind to easily associate any shaking sensation with impending death, Zhou said.

While the symptoms may not be immediately apparent, once the initial crisis is over, severe physiological reactions like Zhang's feeling of impending death occur. The trauma may drive some to suicide, Zhou said.

Zhou also pointed out that many hospitals in Sichuan do not have specialized departments focused on mental health. Many emergency doctors do not routinely perform psychological assessments. Zhang went to emergency departments frequently over the years but obtained no specific diagnosis of his condition.

Zhou said while doctors from Hong Kong provided substantial support in many departments of the center, including emergency, orthopedics and prosthetics after the quake, they provided no help or exchange in the psychosomatics area.

The psychosomatics department of the center was not established until 2011. Most of its doctors, including Zhou, came from the psychology group under the neurology department. The department has only 60 beds and 13 doctors. Meanwhile, some 40,000 people attended the department seeking therapy last year, Zhou said.

With regard to mental health therapy, Zhou was emphatic: "The earlier, the better."

Zhang was hospitalized for 20 days in March. During his hospitalization, he was prescribed therapeutic procedures, including biofeedback, as well as medication.

Zhang is required to take medication every day, an approach not everyone agrees with. Timothy To Wing-ching, the executive director of the Post Crisis Counseling Network in Hong Kong, said: "Medicine can control the symptoms and decrease them to a certain level. But it is very hard to cure the mental disease," he said. "In most cases, once the patient quits the medicine, the symptoms come back again."

A decade after the earthquake, people are still traumatized by the after-effects, visibly and invisibly. Zhang Tao is trying his best to follow the doctor's instructions and believes the center can cure him. It is still tortuous to recall the trauma but he hopes his experience can help more people like him get diagnosed and be restored to health.

Contact the writer at

dara@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 05/11/2018 page8)Updated : 2018-05-09

(chinadaily.com.cn)

China (Liaoning) and Hungary Friendship Week 2018 opened at Liaoning Grand Theatre in Shenyang, capital of Northeast Chinas Liaoning province, on May 8.

The event was sponsored by the Liaoning Provincial Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the Liaoning Foreign Affairs Office, Embassy of Hungary in China, and Beijing Hungarian Cultural Institute.

More than 200 people attended the opening ceremony, including artists from Hungary, teachers and students from universities in Liaoning, and foreign residents in Shenyang.

During the friendship week, activities including Chinese and Hungarian cultural exchanges and the film culture of Hungary will be held.

More than 40 artists and folk handicrafts people from Hungary will join Liaoning artists to show unique cultures of the two places.

China (Liaoning) and Hungary Friendship Week 2018 opens at Liaoning Grand Theatre in Shenyang, on May 8. [Photo/Xinhua]

Children sing at the opening ceremony of the friendship week in Shenyang, May 8. [Photo/Xinhua]

Artists play traditional Chinese musical instruments at the opening ceremony of the friendship week in Shenyang, May 8. [Photo/Chinanews.com]SEOUL, South Korea- At age 12, Sungju Lee survived on the streets of North Korea by scrounging food with street gangs. Nineteen years later, he is living in Seoul, soon to start a doctorate in conflict analysis and resolution at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

"I found that I could be a bridge between North and South Korea someday, somehow," Lee said.

Lee defected to South Korea in 2003. After converting to Christianity in high school, he pursued undergraduate studies in Korea and a master's degree in the United Kingdom. Lee now works with a humanitarian organization to help North Korean defectors leave China. Lee said he chose the work because his faith has given him empathy for defectors' plights. However, Lee's success is atypical.

Behind a veneer of recent diplomatic cooperation, North and South Korea's populations have grown apart over the six decades since the Korean War ended. Many North Koreans who defect to South Korea have trouble adapting to a vastly different society. For some, conversion to Christianity can help them transition to life outside North Korea's borders. Faith can guide defectors who are finding their lives' purposes, adjusting to South Korean cultural values and making peace with their suffering in North Korea.

"Faith is important for defectors," Lee said. "Faith is the candle on your footstep."

When Lee came to South Korea at age 16, he said he was expelled from South Korean public school for fighting. His inconsistent educational background in North Korea put him at the bottom of the class, and he turned to physical aggression as an outlet.

"Everyone thought that I was stupid because the results of my exams were really bad. I was really good at fighting, and that was the only thing that I could do," Lee said.

Lee passed an exam to graduate from middle school and was invited to attend a Christian mission high school in Busan. He converted to Christianity after one year at the school. Over time, Lee said his faith helped him resolve conflicts without violence.

Defectors can have difficulty grasping religion because its practice is prohibited in North Korea. Instead, the government requires citizens to adhere to the state-sponsored juche ideology instituted in 1972. Juche emphasizes self-reliance, political and economic isolationism, veneration of the dictator and devotion to the communist state.

Some scholars speculate that juche may have been inspired in part by Christianity, especially because its purported founder, Kim Il Sung, grew up with Christian parents. Lee said he felt surface-level similarities when he started attending church.

"At church, God and the elderly people had power over the normal people, and in North Korea, Kim Il Sung and [the Communist party], who were the elderly, had power over the normal people," Lee said. "The system was similar, and I hated to go to church."

Michael Kim, a 29-year-old who defected to South Korea two years ago, was also skeptical of Christians. He said North Koreans are forced to denounce any "wrong ideas" like religion.

In North Korea, Kim worked in a high-level position in Kim Jong Un's government. But when he feared party officials turned against him, he was forced to leave the country. Kim was despondent for the first few months after defecting. Even two years later, a look of pain flashed across his face as he reminisced about the family and friends he left behind.

"I thought, 'I wasted my life of 27 years. Why did I have to be born in North Korea? Out of six billion people all around the world, why me?'" Kim said.

Kim's depression is common among defectors. Four in ten have depressive symptoms and half report at least mild anxiety, according to a 2011 study of more than 100 defectors living in South Korea. The South Korean government reports that defectors' suicide rates are triple those of South Koreans. Many defectors have been traumatized by starvation, extreme poverty, scenes of death, torture, family dissolution, and stretches in refugee camps.

When Kim first met a pastor who offered to pray for him, he said he was suspicious, but the man's persistent kindness won him over. Kim began reading the Bible, going to church and praying. He said his studies changed his outlook.

"I used to shout at the workers and force them to work in North Korea," Kim said. "Now, I am so very happy to get a warm heart when I am reading the Bible."

When defectors first arrive in South Korea, they attend an acculturation center named Hanawon. Defectors are interrogated to ensure they are not spies. Once vetted, they take three months of classes on South Korean culture, capitalist society and job skills. Hanawon also introduces defectors to religion, and offers a choice of weekly Buddhist, Catholic and Protestant gatherings.

Esther Park, a 29-year-old North Korean defector whose name has been changed for security reasons, said she first heard of Christianity at Hanawon. She did not originally choose a Protestant service for any high philosophical or moral ideal. She just liked the music.

"I liked the songs and I liked being with church people because they were friendly and nice, but I had no idea about God," Park said.

Park said that becoming a Christian helped her find meaning in her suffering. Over a period of seven years in China, she said she was deported back to North Korea three times. Park said the experiences were "difficult, miserable and unstable." Confirming her descriptions, a United Nations report stated that repatriated North Koreans were subject to "imprisonment, execution, torture, arbitrary detention, deliberate starvation, illegal cavity searches, forced abortions and other sexual violence."

Park said that her faith has helped her forgive the people who hurt her. She is channeling her motivation to spread Christianity to her homeland into studying North Korean refugee, migration and citizenship issues.Ashley Kim watches over her two small kids as they scamper around the back pews of Living Faith Presbyterian, a church that sits on Pico Boulevard on the edge of Koreatown. The 35-year-old second-generation Korean American says that she has always gone to the same church as her parents, but this isn't technically true.

Her church, Living Faith, holds its English language services in the same sanctuary as The Way Presbyterian Church, which holds their services in Korean. They may share the same space, but Living Faith divested from The Way in 2012. Separated by language, the two churches represent the divide between first and second generation immigrants, and what may work for the first generation doesn't always translate to the second.

Kim's parents attend the 11:00 a.m. Korean language service; Kim, her husband, and their two kids attend the 1:00 p.m. English language service. She greets her parents in the narthex (the church lobby) as she and her family wait for their service to start.

"Just in the past few months, we started trying to have lunch with them because now we have little ones and they love seeing grandma and grandpa," Kim says.

Acclimating to a new country can be both frightening and confusing. Religious institutions have long been landing pads for immigrants seeking a familiar foothold in an unfamiliar land. Korean churches are no different. But as first generations of immigrants die out, and second-generations want services in English, when does a Korean Presbyterian church become just a Presbyterian church?

Andrew Park, 41, the lead pastor for Living Faith Presbyterian Church, isn't preaching this Sunday. Instead, he is seated with his family in the front row, watching as Aaron Sunu, the assistant pastor, handles the sermon.

After his congregants leave, Park carefully considers the tension between filling the needs of different generations and staying true to one's beginnings.

"We come out of an immigrant church. We started out Korean American and we should not necessarily be ashamed of that; ashamed that so many of us in our congregation are Korean American, second generation," Park says.

He believes that there is a balance between attracting non-Koreans and honoring the roots of their immigrant story.

"There are some people who think, 'we need to be diverse right now.' And I think that is something that we should be longing for and praying for, but not at the point where you are insecure or ashamed that, right now, [the congregation is] mostly Korean American. I think that's ok...that's our story as a church," Park says.

Aaron Sunu, the assistant pastor, agrees that becoming more than just a Korean immigrant church will take time and could create friction amongst its members.

"Those who desire to "stay true"... need to stay faithful in preaching the gospel because the gospel surpasses all cultural, generational, and demographic boundaries... the church can also make sure there aren't any explicit Korean words or references being used in the service or ministry, which would alienate those who don't understand," Sunu says.

Park acknowledges that ethnic churches like his have a long road to go to seem welcoming to non-Koreans. Not only is the majority of the church's signage in Korean, but the majority of its members are as well. Non-Koreans may feel like interlopers, that they are in a space that is not for them.

"It's going to make it more challenging [to become] more diverse, this being our starting point," Park says.

Living Faith started out as the English service for The Way. Park describes their old relationship as if they were a department underneath the larger Korean church, the same way the State of California is a part of the United States. Over time, they realized their need for independence, unable to make major decisions without approval from the Session (a group of elders from the Way). Park alludes to an incident where a missionary from Living Faith needed to be "disciplined," but it was up to the Session, many of whom didn't know this missionary or his background.

"We had to meet with the Session, keep them updated on the situation so that they could make thoughtful, well-informed decisions. But we found that even meeting together was difficult since they were so busy with their own congregation... we couldn't officially move forward without The Way Church's Session's approval and actions," Park says.

Park feels that Living Faith's relationship with The Way is friendly, and although The Way never asked for rent, Living Faith pays a nominal fee for use of the church. Park sees this as tacit support for his congregation from The Way.

The support is necessary-Ashley Kim and her parents aren't they only ones with different generations attending different services. Pastor Park says that a handful of families are split between services.

Like many of his followers, Park's parents immigrated from South Korea in the 1960's. After making their way to Sacramento, California, his parents spoke English to Andrew growing up-he laughs as he mentions that he can't speak Korean.

Park believes that because there is less of a language barrier with his English service, over time his church will become more diverse. But he also feels that it's important to honor the Korean immigrant story.

As Park and his congregation move away from their heritage as an immigrant church, they face the challenges of a more diverse future. Like all immigrants, they'll have to answer the question of how much of your motherland do you bring with you and how much do you leave at the church doorPope Emeritus Benedict XVI Gets Political in New Book Retired pope illustrates the relationship between faith and politics in highly anticipated new book that features a foreword from Pope Francis



Contact: Kevin Wandra, 404-788-1276,



SAN FRANCISCO, May 10, 2018 /



In FAITH AND POLITICS, Pope Francis further quotes from one of Ratzinger's texts, addressing the conflict between Christianity and Marxism: "The state is not the whole of human existence and does not encompass all human hope. Man and what he hopes for extend beyond the framework of the state and beyond the sphere of political action."



When Ratzinger worked alongside St. John Paul II, Pope Francis added, "He elaborated and proposed a Christian vision of human rights capable of questioning on a theoretical and practical level the totalitarian claim of the Marxist state and the atheist ideology on which it was based."



Ratzinger has explored various aspects of the association between faith and politics in books, speeches, homilies and dialogues throughout his career, from his years as a theology professor to his tenure as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and, most recently, as Pope Benedict XVI. The reader will find some of these texts collected in FAITH AND POLITICS. Titles such as "Politics and Truth: Jesus Before Pilate," "Truth, Values, Power: Touchstones of Pluralistic Society" and "If You Want Truth, Respect the Conscience of Every Person" give some idea of the range of topics covered.



As Pope Francis concludes in his foreword, the texts presented in FAITH AND POLITICS "can help all of us not only to understand our present day and to find a sound orientation for the future but also to be a true and genuine source of inspiration for political action that places the family, solidarity and equity at the center of its attention and of its planning and, thereby, truly looks to the future with farsighted wisdom."



"This is the only book that collates all of Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's most significant speeches and essays on political themes inside the one volume," Professor Tracey Rowland, John Paul II Chair of Theology at the University of Notre Dame (Australia), says of FAITH AND POLITICS. "This book will be of enormous value for all Catholics involved in public life as well as for students of ethics and political theory. Ratzinger's works have a classical quality whose relevance does not date. This is likely to be a standard reference work in the field of Catholic political theory and theology for generations."



For more information, to request a review copy or to schedule an interview with Mark Brumley, CEO of Ignatius Press, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or



Share Tweet Contact: Kevin Wandra, 404-788-1276, KWandra@CarmelCommunications.com SAN FRANCISCO, May 10, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- A major theme of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI has always been that of the relationship between faith and politics. Pope Francis, in his foreword to the English-language edition of FAITH AND POLITICS, selected writings of Pope Benedict XVI that will be published by Ignatius Press on August 15, 2018, says, "[Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's] firsthand experience of Nazi totalitarianism led him even as a young student to reflect on the limits of obedience to the state for the sake of the liberty of obeying God."In FAITH AND POLITICS, Pope Francis further quotes from one of Ratzinger's texts, addressing the conflict between Christianity and Marxism: "The state is not the whole of human existence and does not encompass all human hope. Man and what he hopes for extend beyond the framework of the state and beyond the sphere of political action."When Ratzinger worked alongside St. John Paul II, Pope Francis added, "He elaborated and proposed a Christian vision of human rights capable of questioning on a theoretical and practical level the totalitarian claim of the Marxist state and the atheist ideology on which it was based."Ratzinger has explored various aspects of the association between faith and politics in books, speeches, homilies and dialogues throughout his career, from his years as a theology professor to his tenure as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and, most recently, as Pope Benedict XVI. The reader will find some of these texts collected in FAITH AND POLITICS. Titles such as "Politics and Truth: Jesus Before Pilate," "Truth, Values, Power: Touchstones of Pluralistic Society" and "If You Want Truth, Respect the Conscience of Every Person" give some idea of the range of topics covered.As Pope Francis concludes in his foreword, the texts presented in FAITH AND POLITICS "can help all of us not only to understand our present day and to find a sound orientation for the future but also to be a true and genuine source of inspiration for political action that places the family, solidarity and equity at the center of its attention and of its planning and, thereby, truly looks to the future with farsighted wisdom.""This is the only book that collates all of Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's most significant speeches and essays on political themes inside the one volume," Professor Tracey Rowland, John Paul II Chair of Theology at the University of Notre Dame (Australia), says of FAITH AND POLITICS. "This book will be of enormous value for all Catholics involved in public life as well as for students of ethics and political theory. Ratzinger's works have a classical quality whose relevance does not date. This is likely to be a standard reference work in the field of Catholic political theory and theology for generations."For more information, to request a review copy or to schedule an interview with Mark Brumley, CEO of Ignatius Press, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or KWandra@CarmelCommunications.com ) of Carmel Communications.We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to formWe attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message.Asociatia Obsteasca DEMOS anunta concurs pentru angajarea unui expert/grup de experti/a unei companii care sa presteze servicii pentru lansarea afacerii socialeAKRON, Ohio -- The family of a 17-year-old boy who fatally shot himself in the back of a patrol car has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city of Akron and its police department.

The 21-page suit filed Thursday says police officers failed to thoroughly search Xavier McMullen before they put him in the back of a patrol car during an Aug. 25, 2017 arrest. It also says officers left the boy unsupervised and waited 20 minutes to investigate a loud "pop" believed to be the gunshot that killed him.

Xavier's mother, Lisa Carswell, filed the lawsuit in Summit County Common Pleas Court. It names the city of Akron, its police department and more than a dozen officers as defendants.

The lawsuit seeks more than $25,000 in compensatory damages, in addition to punitive damages.

Spokespersons for the city of Akron and the Akron Police Department each declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday afternoon.

The Summit County Medical Examiner's Office determined that Xavier shot himself in the head while sitting in the patrol car. His death was ruled his death a suicide. Investigators found a .45-caliber gun near the boy in the back seat, police said.

The boy's hands were cuffed behind his back when the shooting happened, police said.

The Akron Police Department disciplined Officer Devin Ray earlier this year for his failure to thoroughly search Xavier, according to a disciplinary letter signed by Akron Police Chief Kenneth Ball and Capt. Steven Swartz.

Ray was docked 24 hours of pay for violating the police department's transportation and prisoner control procedure, according to the disciplinary letter.

Six police officers took Xavier and two 18-year-old boys into custody while investigating an armed robbery on 10th Street SW, police said.

Officers learned the suspects ran away to a house on 7th Street SW near Kenmore Boulevard. Xavier and two 18-year-old men were arrested at the house, police said.

The officers placed the three suspects in separate police cruisers while they continued to interview witnesses. One of the officers returned to his police cruiser a short time later and found Xavier dead, police said.

The other two men arrested in connection with the robbery later pleaded guilty to obstructing justice in the case, Summit County court records show.

Mathew W. Allen, 19, and Anthony W. Criss, 18, were each sentenced to two years of probation when they pleaded guilty Dec. 13, court records say.

To comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments page.BEREA, Ohio -- Assault, North Rocky River Drive: Police are looking for a 41-year-old Cleveland man who allegedly punched another Cleveland man, 45, outside Circle K, 825 N. Rocky River.

The incident began at about 9 a.m. May 5. The older man and a Cleveland woman, 51, were driving south on Ohio 237 and had stopped at a red light at Sheldon Road. The light turned green, but the vehicle in front of the couple didn't move. The older man, using two profanities, yelled out his car window, demanding that the other driver -- later identified as the younger Cleveland man -- move his vehicle.

The younger man pulled his vehicle into a Sunoco station on North Rocky River. The older man drove into the Circle K lot to buy chip dip. The older man's female companion entered the store while he stood outside the car and smoked a cigarette.

Suddenly, the younger man drove into the Circle K lot, parked, stepped out of his vehicle and approached the older man. He asked the older man if he were the one who had yelled at him. The older man said yes, and told the younger man to stop acting like a certain ethnic type. The younger man asked the older man if he wanted to fight. The older man said no.

Nevertheless, the younger man moved toward the older man, who opened his vehicle's rear door to create a barrier between the two. The younger man swung his fists over the door and pushed the door into the older man. The older man pushed back on the door, then started running away.

The younger man grabbed the older man's jacket, then punched him twice in the back. The older man spun and freed himself.

Meanwhile, the woman had walked out of the store, and she took a cell-phone photo of the younger man's license plate. The younger man moved toward the woman, who asked the younger man not to hurt her. The younger man climbed back into his vehicle and drove away. The woman took another photo of his license plate.

Police have issued a warrant for the younger man's arrest.

Disturbance, Pecan Drive: A 20-year-old Brook Park man, wanted for alleged crimes in Berea, was arrested at about 12:30 a.m. May 6 inside a house on Pecan.

Police were called to the house due to complaints about loud music. As police arrived, they saw a man and woman in the front yard, and a second man inside the house. The woman, upon seeing police, ran into the house and turned off the music.

Police asked for and were given permission to enter the house. The man inside identified himself as the 20-year-old Brook Park man, and police handcuffed him after determining he was wanted. The man smelled like alcohol. When police asked him how much alcohol he had consumed, the man told police to show affection to one of his rear body parts.

At the police station, the man begged officers to take off his handcuffs so he could beat them up. He said he would use one of the officers' own flashlight to beat him.

Theft, Pulaski Street: Two "road closed" signs and about 15 traffic cones were stolen between 3 p.m. May 4 and 9:45 a.m. May 8 from Pulaski near North Rocky River Drive.

The signs and cones belonged to Infrasource Construction LLC, hired by Columbia Gas of Ohio Inc. to perform work in Berea.

A resident living in the area said he had heard laughing and noise, possibly by juveniles, in the middle of the night recently. The resident added that several marker flags and stakes had recently been pulled from the ground.

Operating a vehicle under the influence, West Bagley Road: A Broadview Heights man, 35, was arrested at about 10:45 p.m. May 4 after police caught him driving drunk on West Bagley.

Someone had called police about two intoxicated men entering a Ford Escape outside Tower in the Park apartments, 55 Barrett Road. When police arrived, they saw the Escape leaving the parking lot, making a wide turn and straddling two lanes while doing so.

The Escape turned onto West Bagley and drifted left of center, then straddled the two eastbound lanes. Police stopped the vehicle near Runn Street.

Police smelled alcohol in the Escape. The driver denied drinking but failed field sobriety tests.

Marijuana possession, Ohio 237: A Cleveland man, 21, was arrested and cited at about 11 p.m. May 5 after police found a marijuana cigarette and three containers with marijuana residue in his car.

Police had stopped the man's car after determining that the temporary license of the vehicle's owner had expired.

The Cleveland man said his brother owned the car. However, police then learned that the man's own license had been suspended, and that he was wanted in Bedford Heights.

To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page.CHESTERLAND, Ohio --Sand-mining company Fairmount Santrol, Inc., is a step closer to relocating its headquarters from Chesterland, in Geauga County, to Independence.

The Cuyahoga County Community Improvement Corp. has recommended that the county grant $500,000 in economic development loans to Fairmount Santrol, Inc., for its proposed new headquarters.

Fairmount Santrol plans to take over office space at 3 Summit Park Road in Independence. The term of the loan will be seven years, and the estimated annual tax benefit from this project totals $389,381, according to a press release from the Greater Cleveland Partnership. It is not clear, at this time, when the move would officially take place.

The move will bring 79 jobs to Cuyahoga County, including 52 jobs from Fairmount Santrol, according to the Greater Cleveland Partnership. The remaining jobs come from Unimin, which has merged with Fairmount Santrol. The Unimin jobs are relocating from New Canaan, Connecticut.

"The Greater Cleveland Partnership has been working with Fairmount Santrol and our partners at Team NEO, JobsOhio and the City of Independence on this complicated project for some time," Joe Roman, CEO of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, said in a statement. "It will secure the presence of a combined, publicly-traded company with annual sales of over $2 billion, and bring a number of new, high-quality corporate jobs to our region."

In February, the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved an eight-year job-creation tax credit valued at $1.46 million to support what's described as a headquarters move and consolidation. Read that story here.

Fairmount Santrol mines sand used for fracking in the oil-and-gas industry, and has facilities throughout North America, Europe and Asia.U.S. District Judge Dan Polster

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- As a group of protesters stood outside the Carl B. Stokes U.S. Court House in downtown Cleveland on Thursday demanding billions of dollars for opioid treatment, a federal judge inside told dozens of attorneys inside that he still wants to resolve a massive swath of litigation over which he presides.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster reiterated to the attorneys that he still wants a settlement, despite setting a March 2019 trial date for lawsuits brought by three local Ohio governments against drug companies over the nation's opioid epidemic.

Polster said he does not view the trial dates as giving up on a settlement, but rather to push closer toward a settlement.

"I absolutely see it as an aid in settlement discussions," Polster told his courtroom, and those listening in overflow courtrooms and on a conference call. "It's not a substitute or a replacement. It's necessary to do it and we're doing it but it's not a substitute or a replacement in any way."

Following the open hearing, Polster and the attorneys convened for a series of closed-door settlement talks.

The judge's comments came as his grand vision of brokering a settlement in 2018 for cases both in front of him and in state courts is appearing to evaporate.

While he made his settlement intentions known early, attorneys have indicated that they want to test the legal veracity of their claims and defenses.

Because of this, Polster has also allowed for a series of "bellwether trials," or test cases that give attorneys an idea of how future cases may play out.

The first trial will be for lawsuits filed by the city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga and Summit counties in Northeast Ohio.

Polster said Thursday that he still wants to take steps this year "to turn the trajectory of this epidemic down."

The federal lawsuits say drug manufacturers overstated the benefits and downplayed the risks of addiction when treating pain with opioids, and that drug distributors failed to properly monitor suspicious orders of painkillers. Companies sued include Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and the Ohio-based Cardinal Health.

Drug companies have maintained that painkillers such as Oxycontin have legitimate medical uses approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

David Cohen, a special master appointed by Polster to help with the case, told the judge at Thursday's hearing that the purpose of the litigation "is to make it easier to come to a resolution, and we believe that's really the point of it and that that will happen."

Francis McGovern, another special master appointed by the judge, also said settlement talks are continuing to find a solution for how to abate the nation's epidemic, including discussing "prospective injunctive relief."

While he did not specify what that would entail, such actions would likely go toward furthering Polster's previously-stated goal that he would like to see fewer prescription painkillers on the streets.

Outside the courthouse, a few dozen protesters stood on the sidewalk, carrying signs and occasionally chanting. Their goal: to make sure any settlement puts billions of dollars into treatment programs to help people with opioid addictions.

There is a court proceeding at 9 for the opioid litigation. Outside the federal courthouse, a few dozen protest to ensure settlement money (should one be reached) go toward addiction treatment. pic.twitter.com/RcrXh0i6a8  Eric Heisig (@eheisig) May 10, 2018

The signs included slogans such as "Make Them Pay," and "Big Pharma Lied. People Died." Many former drug users were in attendance.

Greg Williams, a co-founder of the recovery advocacy group Facing Addiction and an organizer of the protest, said people told him stories about how the settlements for a series of lawsuits against Big Tobacco companies in the 1990s were not used by governments to abate problems associated with smoking cigarettes.

Members of several local chapters of the Teamsters union held up signs that said drug distributors McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health "make a killing on opioids." All three are defendants in the litigation.

"They've put profits over people, and we're in a mess," said Travis Bornstein, president of Teamsters Local 24 in Akron. Bornstein carried a sign to commemorate his son Tyler, who died of a heroin overdose in 2014.

Some remain optimistic that a settlement can be reached.

Mike DeWine, Ohio's attorney general and the Republican nominee for governor, said at his victory party Tuesday night that he hopes Polster can broker a settlement. DeWine has sued the drug companies, and while he has participated in settlement talks in Cleveland federal court, his case is being heard by a judge in Ross County.

"I think a universal settlement is in everyone's interest," DeWine said.

Cleveland.com reporter Andrew J. Tobias contributed to this report.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An Akron man aligned with the online hacking collective Anonymous was arrested Thursday for launching cyberattacks on websites for the city of Akron and its police department, according to the FBI.

James Robinson, 32, admitted he was responsible for the attacks on the Akron websites akronohio.gov and akroncops.org between Aug. 1 and Aug. 5, as well as for attacks against the U.S. Department of Defense and the Defense Information Systems Agency, the FBI says.

Authorities say the attacks left the websites inaccessible to the public and other users for stretches of time.

A Twitter account named @AkronPhoenix420 took credit for the attacks on the city websites and linked to a video called OpEXPOSED AKRON PD." The video contained an image of someone in a Guy Fawkes mask that said, among other things, that "it's time we teach the law a lesson," "Akron PD abuses the law" and "this week the city of Akron experienced system failures on multiple domains including their emergency TCP ports," the FBI says.

The Guy Fawkes mask is a symbol associated with Anonymous. The tweet taking credit for the Akron attacks also included the hashtags #Anonymous and #TangoDown, the FBI says.

The Twitter account also took credit on April 25 for another attack on Akron's website.

Federal investigators linked Robinson to the Twitter account, according to a news release.

Agents searched his home on Edison Avenue on Thursday. They found a Guy Fawkes mask and a cellphone with a cracked screen similar to one seen in a picture tweeted by @AkronPhoenix420, officials say.

Robinson is charged with one count of knowingly causing the transmission of a program, information, code and command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally causing damage to a protected computer.

The attacks the FBI says Robinson launched are referred to as "denial of service" attacks, which overwhelm websites with internet traffic and essentially shuts the websites down.

The FBI says Robinson's Twitter account took credit for many cyberattacks, including several in 2018 that bore similar characteristics to the ones in Akron. Those attacks included websites for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Information Security Agency and the U.S. defense and treasury departments.

Robinson told agents on Wednesday that he wanted to cooperate with investigators in any way he could, according to the affidavit. In addition to saying he was the person behind @AkronPhoenix420 and claiming responsibility for the cyberattacks in Akron, Robinson said he conducted others but could not recall all of them, the FBI says.

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Thursday's crime and courts comments section.CLEVELAND,Ohio -- Will President Trump's endorsement of Mike DeWine for Ohio Governor end up hurting DeWine more than helping him?

In a post-primary tweet, Trump sang the praises of DeWine (while mistyping his name. Is Trump a closet cartoonist"?) and called his opponent, Richard Cordray a "socialist."

"Congratulations to Mike Dewine on his big win in the Great State of Ohio. He will be a great Governor with a heavy focus on HealthCare and Jobs. His Socialist opponent in November should not do well, a big failure in last job."

-@realDonaldTrump May 9, 2018

Cordray responded to Trump in a tweet of his own.

Very telling that you think $12 billion dollars back to 30 million consumers is a failure, @realdonaldtrump. I never backed down from you or Wall Street. All your name calling won't stop me from fighting those who want to cheat Ohio families, unlike @MikeDeWine.

Trump greeting freed American prisoners at 3:00 AM helps DeWine.



Trump tweeting to Americans at 4:00 AM hurts DeWine.

This morning at 3:00AM, President Trump found something better to do with his time than tweet, when he greeted the three American prisoners released from North Korea, as they landed at Andrews Air Force base.

In his brief address to reporters, as he stood next to the freed Americans, the president also made special mention of Otto Warmbier and his parents.

The president's greeting of the freed prisoners and brief remarks about them, Warmbier and the upcoming talks with Kim Jong Un, arguably marked Trump's finest moment as president, to date.

If Ohioans see more of the president who showed up at Andrews Air Force base at 3:00AM, Trump's endorsement of DeWine will be a plus for the Republican candidate.

If Ohioans instead get a lot more of the president who posts idiotic tweets a 4:00AM and continues to be tangled up in bad news coming out of the Michael Cohen raid, Russian Investigation and Stormy Daniels case, than Trump's endorsement will be a minus for DeWine.

Since Trump won Ohio, he has earned a high job disapproval rating. His win in Ohio was aided by independent voters and disaffected Democrats either staying home, or coming out to vote for him over Hillary Clinton. How many of those Ohio independents and disaffected Democrats are still in Trump's camp?

During the primary, DeWine and Mary Taylor stopped just short of spray tanning themselves orange in trying to grab Trump's coattails while not tripping over his long red tie. That strategy will not be as effective for DeWine in the general election.

DeWine and Cordray are similar candidates in some ways. Both have had long political careers. Both are former Ohio Attorney Generals. They are running for governor, but both could be running for who is the most boring but proficient political dweeb. In the time of Trump, that is actually a compliment and would be a welcomed change of style for many voters.

Cordray has already lost to DeWine once. And right now, I would still give DeWine the edge. Mainly because DeWine has the benefit of being the current Ohio Attorney General who has been pinging on the Ohio radar more in recent years while Cordray had been away in Washington D.C. serving as the nation's consumer watchdog in the Obama administration and briefly in Trump's.

Both men are qualified and capable of being solid Governors of Ohio. Both may be bland, but that's better than being trumpian.CLEVELAND, Ohio - Political debates along party lines simply don't exist in some parts of Cuyahoga County.

That's because there aren't any Republicans around, or at least Republicans interested enough to show up to vote.

Not a single Republican vote was recorded in 32 separate Cuyahoga County precincts in Tuesday's gubernatorial primary, cleveland.com found in analyzing unofficial election returns from the 975 precincts.

In 51 other precincts, there was just one Republican vote.

Most of these precincts are on the East Side of Cleveland, but some also are in eastern suburbs, plus Linndale to the west.

The numbers could increase once the official tally is released.

Note: an earlier version of this story included only in-person voters; the revised numbers now include absentee voters.

Yet, Cuyahoga County is a big deal for both parties - No. 1 in the state for both Democratic and Republican voters on Tuesday.

According to the unofficial count, 128,709 votes were cast in Cuyahoga County in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and 57,567 in the Republican primary.

Second for both was Franklin County, which includes Columbus. There were 91,417 Democratic voters and 56,785 Republican voters.

The cities in Cuyahoga County with one or no Republican votes for governor recorded are Cleveland (70 precincts), East Cleveland (6), Warrensville Heights (3), Euclid (1), Garfield Heights (1), Highland Hills (1) and Linndale (1).

The precinct with the fewest Democratic voters was Chagrin Falls Township, with eight. But there were only 12 GOP voters in the small precinct, according to the unofficial tally.

Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner.

Previously:CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Inspired by the groundbreaking research done at the Cleveland Clinic, entrepreneur Ronald E. Weinberg, his wife Terri, and their family, have pledged $30 million in support of the Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute.

In recognition of their gift, the skyway connecting much of Cleveland Clinic's main campus will be named the Weinberg Family Skyway, the Clinic announced this week.

"It makes us feel good knowing the good it's going to do," Ronald Weinberg said about the gift. "Research makes things better in the future." He is director of the private equity firm Weinberg Capital Group.

The Clinic's research efforts interest Weinberg because he is chair of the Clinic board of directors' research and education committee. He has gotten to know Dr. Serpil Erzurum, the new chair of the Clinic's Lerner Research Institute, who was appointed chair in 2016.

"She has brought a new energy into the research area," Ronald Weinberg said. "This is certainly an opportunity to be able to support it."

Erzurum has worked to find additional funding for the research institute, and is focusing its attention onto cardiac disease, cancer, disorders of the brain and eye, and inflammatory diseases. "That impressed both Terri and me," Weinberg said.

The Lerner Research Institute is one of the largest research institutes in the nation, with a $270 million research budget and 4,000 ongoing clinical studies.

Weinberg, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, moved to Cleveland in the 1970s. He co-founded with Norm Harbert the Hawk Corporation in 1989. Hawk, which manufactured friction and brake materials, grew into a worldwide company before it was sold in 2010.

The Weinbergs don't plan to earmark their gift for any specific research area at the institute. "They are all worthy causes," he said.CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland school district has backed off plans to break up the Whitney Young gifted school and move some students into the John F. Kennedy High School building.

District CEO Eric Gordon announced new plans at a community meeting Wednesday night, after loud complaints to the school board last month and a protest by students at district offices Tuesday.

The new plan will keep the award-winning program serving fifth through eighth graders intact and on the same campus. It drew immediate applause from a crowd of more than 200 students, parents and neighbors gathered in the Whitney Young auditorium Wednesday evening.

Students, who had heard about the new plan at school earlier in the day, held up signs saying "Thank You" and told Gordon that they appreciated him listening to them.

Gordon told the crowd that he had believed in 2015 that he had a plan that the community supported, based on conversations with former City Councilman Terrell Pruitt, so he had started to carry it out.

That plan, now scrapped, would have split the Whitney Young Leadership Academy for grades 5 through 12 in half, putting high schoolers into John. F. Kennedy High School and mixing younger students into another elementary school.

"The swing we were proposing was essentially eliminating the Whitney Young program as we know it," Gordon said.

Students, parents and alumni had immediately objected to the school losing its identity and to mixing gifted students with others at the high school.

The new proposal, which will go to the school board later this month, will keep the Whitney Young at its current site at 17900 Harvard Avenue intact and still serving grades 5 through 12.

It won't be a simple change.

Because the district is building one new elementary school at the Whitney Young site and has sold the Charles Elliot elementary school in the neighborhood to the Breakthrough charter school chain, the new plan will force a complicated shuffle of students and programs,

For this fall:

The Whitney Young program will squeeze into two floors of the current building while students from the Charles Elliot elementary in the same neighborhood move into one floor of the building.

Elliot students will also use the separate "annex" building on the Whitney Young site.

For 2019 and beyond: There will be another shuffle when the new school, now under construction right behind Whitney Young, opens over the holidays.

The old Whitney Young school and annex will close and be demolished to make way for fields and parking.

Elliot students will move into the new school.

All grades of the Whitney Young program will move into a new annex of 14 portable classrooms the district will add behind the new school. That will keep the gifted program together and avoid moving students into JFK.

The new annex for Whitney Young will be attached to the new school near the middle school grades, though students from both schools will share the gym and cafeteria. Gordon assured parents that high schoolers will be kept separate from preschool and kindergarten students.

He also told residents that the program has been losing students and that it cannot survive long term if enrollment does not improve. He said that the community and district must work to draw more students for the school to remain.

The district has not decided what to name the new school yet, simply calling it the Ward I school in planning. The district will her from the community before the school board decides later this year, Gordon said.CLEVELAND, Ohio - The ECOT online school may have committed fraud by withholding data from the state so it could collect more state funding, Ohio Auditor Dave Yost found in a new audit of the school Thursday.

The possible criminal activity centers on an issue that the recently closed Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) and the state have been fighting about for two years -- how much time students spend working on their online courses.

That's a key factor in determining state funding for online schools and is at issue in an $80 million fight between the school and Ohio Department of Education that is awaiting a ruling from the Ohio Supreme Court.

Thursday's audit raises a yet another problem for ECOT.

Yost said ECOT knew the state would demand detailed data of how much time students spent online working on classes, so it started collecting that information in the 2016-17 school year.

But the school, Yost said, withheld much of that data from Ohio Department of Education investigators, which led to inflated student attendance counts and won the school more undeserved funding.

He could not say how much money the school received improperly.

"By withholding information, ECOT misled state regulators at the Department of Education, and ECOT was paid based on that information," Yost said in a press release. "I believe this may rise to a criminal act."

Yost has referred the audit and related work papers to the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office for possible criminal prosecution.

ECOT lawyer Marion Little said Yost's accusations are political and that ECOT followed directions of ODE and should not be held to some other standard.

"What they gave is what the department thought to be acceptable," Little said. "Where in the statute does it say what you have to provide? It doesn't."

The audit also found that three companies with connections to ECOT founder William Lager owe the state almost $250,000 for improper use of tax dollars for political advertising last year, instead of on schools.

Karl Schneider, a lawyer representing one of the companies, said he would challenge that finding.

"Mile wide, inch deep investigations have a tendency to lead to unsubstantiated conclusions that generally fail when tested with evidence in the court system, which is the case here," Schneider said.

The audit prompted loud complaints from Democrats, who believe that Ohio Republicans, including Yost, gave ECOT and other charters too much leeway for years.

State Reps. Teresa Fedor and Tavia Galonski, Democrats of Toledo and Akron, wrote to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine asking him to investigate further.

"Taxpayers, students and their families deserve to know the truth about the extent of ECOT officials' criminal activity to defraud the state out of tens of millions of dollars," they wrote.

Rich Cordray, who just won the Democratic nomination for governor, also blamed Republicans for not taking action against ECOT sooner. He pointed specifically at DeWine, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, as part of the problem, though he did not lay out any specifics.

The audit also drew praise from the charter sector. John Zitzner, a founder of the highly rated Breakthrough charter school chain, said he supports Yost looking at the school.

"I'm OK with anybody taking aim at any institution that's not using public dollars properly and not serving kids," Zitzner said.

Until it closed in January, ECOT was the biggest charter school in Ohio, with a peak enrollment over 15,000 students. That allowed it to collect over $100 million a year in per-student state funding.

But the state began requiring online schools to show student participation in classes, starting with the 2015-16 school year. Legislators also required online schools to start tracking participation as part of a charter school reform law that passed in the fall of 2015.

Under the new requirements, ECOT could document class participation of only 6,300 of its 15,300 students for the 2015-16 school year -- a 59 percent gap -- leading the state school board to demand that ECOT repay $60 million.

Then again last September, the state found that for the 2016-17 school year ECOT can properly document about 11,600 of the 14,200 students it claimed. ECOT could not prove that the other 18.5 percent of its students did enough classwork to satisfy the state.

That's another $20 million for the state to recover.

Repayment of that money sparked the Ohio Supreme Court case still awaiting a decision. Budget problems because of that repayment also led the school's sponsor to close the school in January.

Thursday's audit, however, drills down further into ECOT's 2016-17 funding. Because ECOT withheld data from ODE, and ODE did not force the school to provide it, Yost said, ECOT owes more than the $20 million back to the state.

Here's how that works:

Because of the 2015 law change and ODE's change of funding approach, ECOT added a program called ActivTrak to all student computers for the 2016-17 school year. That program, Yost said, "records all activity on a computer, including which websites, documents or programs a student is using and for how long."

ECOT, however, just shared log-in time with ODE, not which websites students were actually on and how much time computers sat idle.

"ECOT did not submit information to ODE detailing what students were doing during the time tracked by ActivTrak," Yost said in his release.

The Ohio Department of Education did not demand it, either.

"With the level of incompetence displayed by both the school and ODE, the regulator, it's amazing that any money went to education whatsoever," Yost said. "The Department of Education did not require proof that the students were engaged in learning, and ECOT was more than happy to oblige in providing watered-down information that the Department inexplicably accepted, even though they knew more-detailed information was available."

ODE spokesperson Brittany Halpin objected to Yost's criticism of the department, noting that it has been pushing ECOT in court over student participation.

"No one has held ECOT more accountable for the education of students than the Department of Education, and our work to return approximately $80 million to Ohio's taxpayers continues," Halpin said.

Determining exactly how much ECOT was overpaid is difficult. ECOT computers, since its closure, are now under court supervision, and there are limits to how much data on individual students can be released.

Yost's office is working with the court to determine the best solution.

Earlier this week, Yost's staff visited ECOT to "mirror" data stored on ECOT computers, essentially preserving it for further investigation.

Yost renewed his call for Ohio to change how it funds online schools. Unlike traditional schools where teachers can see student participation in class, online schools can't measure learning in person.

He has proposed shifting to paying the schools based on students passing classes or portions of classes instead.

Yost's findings about improper advertising center on a television ad campaign on Columbus stations last year opposing state attempts to recover money from the school.

One ad featured recent graduate Lionel Morales blaming the fight over "bureaucrats" trying to close the school and end school choice in Ohio.

"Let us learn. Fix the broken system - Ohio's children," a written message states at the end of the ad.

Though Ohio has no law specifically banning charter schools from advertising, Yost maintains that spending tax dollars on political ads is not a valid purpose.

Yost ordered ECOT to stop the ads last June and ECOT agreed to stop days later. But the audit finds that ECOT tried to hide its ad spending by having a company owned by Lager family members -- Third Wave Communications -- place the ads for it.

Yost said that company was paid a $42,000 consulting fee per month and paid for the ads from that fee. The audit lays out complicated connections and communications between ECOT, Third Wave and two companies owned by Lager -- IQ Innovations and Altair Management -- leading to that payment.

"The only reasonable understanding of this process is that it was designed to disguise the use of public money to pay for the non-public purpose of the lobbying ad," the audit states.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The man who left a MetroHealth psychiatric ward in his hospital gown on and IV tubes sticking out of his arm is now charged with several felonies after he was accused of stealing a car with a 16-month-old boy inside.

Travis Burke, 23, is charged with aggravated robbery, kidnapping and theft. He was arrested about three hours after stealing the car, police said. Police took him to an area hospital, where he remains. He will make his first court appearance once he's released from the hospital, according to court records.

Burke's troubles began on May 4 when he was arrested by Mentor police after he overdosed in the bathroom of Sheetz gas station in the 7700 block of Lakeshore Boulevard, according to Mentor police. He was charged with possessing drug paraphernalia and falsification.

A judge set his bond at $8,000 and Burke was sent to the Lake County Jail to await the adjudication of his case.

Burke tried to hang himself about 9:30 a.m. Monday in the Lake County Jail, Lake County Deputy Sheriff Frank Leonbruno said. He tied a bed sheet around his neck and jumped from the second floor of his jail pod.

Several inmates pulled Burke to safety and jail medical staff treated him before he was taken to TriPoint Medical Center. Burke complained of numbness in his legs and was flown in a helicopter to MetroHealth, Leonbruno said.

Leonbruno said officials, fearing that Burke had suffered a spinal injury, gave him a medical furlough. He said because Burke only faced non-violent misdemeanor charges, no law enforcement official was assigned to his hospital room to ensure he stayed put.

A MetroHealth spokesperson said the hospital is not allowed to force people to stay in the hospital.

Burke, still wearing his hospital gown and with disconnected IV tubes sticking out his arm, left the hospital about 5 p.m. He ended up at a home in the 3800 block of Fulton Road, less than a mile west of the hospital, according to police reports.

A 35-year-old man told police he was in his car with his 16-month-old son when he hopped out in order to fix a broken wire on his garage door. He left the car doors unlocked and the engine running.

Burke hopped in the driver's seat and immediately locked the doors, according to police. He struggled with the manual transmission and the man jumped on the hood of the car to try and stop Burke, police reports say.

Burke pulled off, knocking the man to the ground. He sped off on Interstate 71 as the man ran to the Second District Police Headquarters to notify police because his cellphone was still inside the car, police reports say.

The man also notified police he was a concealed carry permit holder and had a handgun in the center console of the car.

Police scoured the neighborhood and alerted neighboring police departments to watch for the car, a 2012 Honda Civic. They also tracked the man's stolen cellphone.

Officers found the car on Winchester and Madison avenues in Lakewood. The toddler was unharmed in the backseat, but the gun was missing, police reports say.

Investigators scoured the area, searched two homes in Lakewood and Cleveland and contacted family members and ex-girlfriends in an attempt to find him, according to police reports.

A witness told police three women picked up Burke on West 117th Street and drove him into Cleveland, police reports say. While police were searching for Burke, he sold the gun to his drug dealer in Cleveland, according to police reports.

The gun was not found.

Burke called an ex-girlfriend and police tracked the cellphone he used to East 55th Street and Superior Avenue, where police arrested him, still wearing the hospital gown.

To comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments page.MENTOR, Ohio - The Mentor Board of Education on Tuesday night authorized reimbursing parents who paid nearly $455 apiece, nearly $235,000 in all, for a trip to Washington, D.C., that the school system had to cancel last week because a tour company failed to pay bills.

Mentor's 511 eighth-graders were among 5,600 students across Ohio who missed field trips because Discovery Tours of Mayfield Village failed to meet its contractual obligations.

The company declared bankruptcy on Monday.

The school board also authorized the Squire Patton Boggs law firm to take any legal action necessary to recover money paid to Discovery Tours.

Lester Potash, an attorney for three members of the Cipolletti family who ran the tour company, said they had insurance as tour operators that may help the parents recover their advance payments.

The company principals and family members have been unavailable to answer questions. They claim in their filings in the bankruptcy case that they have about $1.4 million in assets but owe about $3.9 million.

The affected Mentor students, however, will get a trip after all, thanks to the generosity of Greater Clevelanders and area businesses, the school district reported.

On May 17 and 18, all of the eighth-graders embark on a overnight excursion to Cedar Point, where the amusement park will put them up for the night in the refurbished Breakers Hotel.

The next day will let the kids chose from a day at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame or a Cuyahoga River cruise on the Nautica Queen.

Last stop will be FirstEnergy Stadium for a group photo on the field.

The trip is open to all eighth-graders even if they did not plan on going to Washington.CLEVELAND, Ohio - City Councilman Kerry McCormack urged the city on Wednesday to employ other smart technology as it prepares to replace its street lights with modern, brighter LED lighting.

At a meeting of council's Utilities Committee, McCormack suggested that the city provide WIFI that would open unserved areas to Internet access and install sensors that could detect gunshots and alert police.

McCormack, whose Ward 3 includes downtown, Ohio City and Tremont, made the remarks as the committee considered and eventually approved Mayor Frank Jackson's plans for upgrading street lights.

Jackson wants to replace all 61,000 of Cleveland's streetlights with LED lighting and mount hundreds of security cameras on the polls to improve safety around recreation centers and on streets.

The effort, dubbed the Safe Smart CLE Initiative, will enable police to brighten lights in trouble spots and monitor camera-covered areas in real time. The new lights will also alert the city when they malfunction.

Lights will be equipped with controls that will allow the city increase or decrease the brightness remotely so officers in district police stations and at headquarters can make better identifications of people in trouble spots.

"To me, it's a great plan," McCormack said. The LED lights are more efficient than the incandescent lights used now, are better for the environment and will save the city money because they use less electricity and last longer.

But McCormack said the city needs to look at other technology, too.

City Council already has approved borrowing money for the lighting project. The ordinance approved by the Utilities Committee would allow the work to proceed. City Council could give the ordinance final approval before beginning its summer recess in early June.

Once council acts, Utilities Director Robert Davis said, upgrading the lights will take about 18 months. The city also plans to remove old, unused light poles.

The cost of the upgrade is estimated at $25 million.

More from Cleveland City Hall:

Cleveland looks to cut its utility bills by teaming with Cleveland schools, regional sewer district

Cleveland vital statistics office to close for afternoon May 16 for staff training

Cleveland leaders say there have been no talks with the Browns about a new stadium

Follow me on Facebook.XENIA, Ohio -- A woman who worked in the food service area of the Greene County Adult Detention Center was arrested on accusations she was smuggling methamphetamine into the jail.

Melissa J. Penn, 51, of Vandalia, Ohio, is now an inmate in the facility where she worked, according to the Dayton Daily News, held on two counts of suspicion of illegal conveyance of drugs, a third-degree felony.

The Greene County Sheriff's Office tells WDTN Channel 2 that Penn had been under investigation for the past two weeks.

She was arraigned Wednesday in Xenia Municipal Court.

Reports do not specify how the drug were being smuggled into the jail or what was being done with them.

To comment on this story, please visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments page.FINDLAY, Ohio -- This is what gratitude looks like.

A beagle named Gregory was two days from being euthanized at Franklin County Dog Shelter but was saved by the Ohio animal shelter Hound Rescue and Sanctuary.

A photo posted on Facebook of Gregory with Joe Kirk, who works at Hound Rescue, indicates Gregory knew he had a close call as he can be seen snuggling up to Kirk with a grateful look on his face.

"Gregory is one thankful and appreciative Beagle!" Schenley Hutson Kirk, Joe's wife, writes in the post. "He KNOWS he is SAFE! He is Heartworm Positive and will be going through treatment, but he knows he is in good hands! We will get him healthy and provide him all the love he so deserves and a wonderful future!"

According to Today, Kirk told his wife that Gregory snuggled with hime during the entire two-hour car ride back to the shelter near Findlay.

There is no euthanasia at Hound Rescue, where Gregory will live until he is adopted. Today reports a couple in Columbus already has offered to adopt Gregory.

"That is why we do what we do. That is what makes it all worthwhile, knowing that we are able to save the lives of these dogs in need," Schenley tells Today. "And their appreciation and the love they give back is amazing. There's nothing better."CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An armed robber carjacked a 19-year-old woman in the city's Tremont neighborhood, leading to two police chases on Tuesday, according to police.

Two men -- ages 22 and 18 -- and a 15-year-old boy were arrested on series of charges related to both the chases and the robbery, according to police reports and jail records. Formal charges have not yet been filed in the case.

The carjacking happened about 11 p.m. Monday on Literary Road near Thurman Avenue, according to police.

A man walked up to the woman with a hood pulled tight around his face, police reports say. He pointed a handgun at her and threatened to shoot her unless she gave him the keys to her 2016 Lincoln Zephyr, according to police.

The woman gave the robber her keys, then asked if she could get the purse from her car. The robber allowed her to take her purse before he sped off in her car, police reports say.

A detective with the fugitive task force about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday spotted the stolen car driving on Lee Road and Harvard Avenue. Officers followed the car until the driver sped off on East 136th Street and Caine Avenue, according to police.

A police supervisor authorized the chase, police reports say.

The officers chased the car several blocks until the driver briefly stopped. A 15-year-old boy and another man got out of the car and ran away, police reports say. Officers caught up to the teen and arrested him, but they didn't find the other man, according to police.

The stolen car sped away.

Detectives suspected the group could be involved in recent armed robberies in the Tremont and Ohio City neighborhoods, according to police reports. Officers went to the home of one of the suspects and saw the stolen car, according to police reports.

On the way, they spotted a Lincoln SUV parked in front of the home, police reports say. The driver saw the officer and drove away, police reports say.

The officer's supervisor again approved the chase, which lasted about 15 minutes until it ended on Alonzo Avenue near East 153rd Street, police reports say. The driver and passenger jumped out of the car and ran, according to police.

Officers caught up with both men shortly after and arrested them, police reports say.

Cleveland police, the FBI and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms all questioned the trio after their arrests, according to police reports.

To comment on this story, please visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments page.The Plain Dealer has started a series featuring the state's tiny towns and townships that are off the beaten path and largely ignored. We began the series May 6, with the story of the minuscule, six-tenths of a square mile, town of Savannah in Ashland County, the home of the last tree planted by Johnny Appleseed.

In coming months, we will file additional stories about other small towns with hidden treasures known only to locals. These are towns that would be worth visiting -- if only people knew what they had to offer.

Readers were quick to respond with suggestions for towns we should visit after my first story ran, but I can always use more ideas.

So, what tiny Ohio towns do you suggest would be worth a look? It should be a one-tank trip from Cleveland and offer something unique, like the apple tree in Savannah; or Anna and Martin Bates, the married giants that lived in Seville, in Medina County; or the "Little Sure Shot" rifle shooting contest in Greenfield during the annual Annie Oakley Festival.

From there, the article will dig deeper into the town's culture and history to determine what makes it unique, and why people should visit. If you know of a person in that town who could add to the story, please include that information.

Email me at at msangiacomo@plaind.com and tell me why you think the town is special. I can also be reached at 216-870-0014.A number of 2020 hopefuls including Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, have floated a plan that would guarantee every American worker a job. Booker has already introduced a bill that would allow 15 local areas to test the idea, and a Rasmussen Reports poll found 46 percent of Americans favor a jobs guarantee plan. But economists argue the plan would come with an enormous price tagand implementing it would be far more difficult than many realize. What do you think?

PERSPECTIVES

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is proposing a plan that would guarantee every American worker a job paying $15 an hour and healthcare benefits, according to The Washington Post. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) already introduced a similar plan that would allow 15 local areas to test out a version of a jobs guarantee.

Ady Barkan of The Nation argues the richest country in the world ought to be able to guarantee its citizens jobs. Those who are concerned about cost should consider how much we already spend on welfare programs. If we could guarantee every American who wanted a job could get one, we could drastically reduce costs elsewhere as we welcome more people into the workforce.

The concept of a federal jobs guarantee isn't new. FDR included the right to employment in his famous Second Bill of Rights. It just makes sense that we would want every American citizen to be a productive, contributing member of society. Ideas once believed to be radical, like universal healthcare, have now entered the mainstream. Guaranteed full employment is the logical next step.

But others argue a jobs guarantee is a totally ridiculous proposal we shouldn't take seriously. For one, it would be extremely expensive.

Second, it's important to consider exactly who is unemployed any why. As Dylan Matthews points out on Vox, many of those who are currently unemployed are disabled, and therefore unable to work certain jobs.

In a perfect world, we would have full employment, and anyone who wanted a job would be able to get one, but the realities of implementing a federal plan that promises everyone a $15 per hour job is extremely difficult and deserves to be meticulously thought out. For now, the only thing Sanders' plan guarantees is a high price tag.

The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Digital, Inc. property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say.OLMSTED FALLS, Ohio -- Director of Economic Development Paula Accordino said the city plans on seeking additional grant money to provide seniors with added programming at the Jenkins Place Senior Center.

The funding is tied to the Cuyahoga County Division of Senior and Adult Services' Community Social Services Program (CSSP). City Council must approve the grant application.

"We might want to do something more innovative, so we're meeting with some of the seniors at the Jenkins Place to see what they feel they need," Accordino said. "We're trying to involve them in program decision-making and direction."

The deadline for the CSSP grant application is June. The idea is to offer more evidence-based programming at the senior center, which is located at City Hall.

"That's what Cuyahoga County is focused on, things that are proven to provide seniors with increased wellness, health," Accordino said. "Evidence-based programs are rigorously studied models that demonstrate reliable and consistently positive changes in important health-related and functional measures.

"Right now, Jenkins Place offers some programs through our partners, including SAIDO (Learning) instructed by The Renaissance. It's a verified memory improvement tool. We also provide Tai Chi-Easy and Fall Prevention. And, Silver Sneakers exercise is provided through Olmsted Community Center."

Olmsted Falls is currently receiving an annual $20,000 Cuyahoga County Division of Senior and Adult Services grant toward senior services that expires at the end of this year.

"I know that Cuyahoga County values the work here in our Community Center, so I think they feel it's important to continue funding," said Accordino, who expects to hear whether the city received the grant this fall.

In the meantime, City Council will also soon decide whether to allow the merging of the Olmsted Community Center and the Jenkins Place Senior Center. If approved, the agreement authorizes the former to provide senior services and programming at the latter.

Mayor James Graven said the move that would not only eliminate duplicate programming but enhance services. There's also a cost savings tied to the city annually paying the Olmsted Community Center $19,500 for a part-time director and $3,750 for program administration.

"I think it's a good thing for the city and the seniors," At-Large Councilman Paul Stibich said. "The city will save money and seniors will get improved programs and activities. It also opens the door to expand other recreation programs for residents."

Previously, it was reported that Olmsted Falls was saving $46,000 annually due to the elimination earlier this year of the full-time Jenkins Place Senior Center director's position.

It should have been noted that the position carried a $31,824 salary with optional healthcare costs, while a part-time coordinator, which was also eliminated, was paid $14 per hour and was budgeted at $8,400. Combined, the city estimated it will be saving $46,000.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Democrats on Thursday again jumped on Republican Auditor Dave Yost's response to the scandal surrounding a shuttered online charter school accused of fleecing the state out of $80 million.

The party hopes that the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow controversy -- Republicans including Yost received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from entities affiliated with the school -- will help propel their candidates to victory this year. Democrats are taking every opportunity to blast Republicans on this issue.

They got another chance Thursday when Yost, the GOP nominee for attorney general, announced the results of an audit showing that the school may have committed fraud by misleading the state so it could collect more public money.

Emblematic of the politics surrounding ECOT: The Ohio Democratic Party unveiled a website critiquing Yost's relationship with the school. Yost's Democratic opponent Steve Dettelbach and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray released separate statements attacking the Republican response to ECOT. And Yost announced Thursday he's donating the money he received from ECOT to charity. Republican auditor candidate Keith Faber followed, and said he's donating contributions he received from ECOT founder Bill Lager to "high quality charter schools." Republican secretary of state candidate Frank LaRose also plans to donate the money he received from ECOT to help support the families of fallen service members and police officers.

Yost announced at a news conference that he's referred the ECOT case to prosecutors, but it's not soon enough for Democrats.

Dettelbach, in a statement, criticized Yost for not contacting authorities sooner. A whistleblower approached the auditor's office a year ago with information about the potential fraud. The auditor's office referred the case to authorities within the last 10 days, Yost said.

"Finally, after years and years, Dave Yost has admitted that a fraud occurred on his watch that cost Ohio taxpayers $80 million and counting," said Dettelbach, a former U.S. attorney said in a phone interview. "I know as a federal prosecutor for 20 years that fraud cases just don't get better with age."

Yost said it's common practice for the auditor's office to wait until the end of an investigation to refer a case to prosecutors. He said that if he approached federal prosecutors or local prosecutors about ECOT they would have told him to put the case together, and then come back.

"The criminal referrals always happen at the conclusion or near the conclusion of our work," Yost said.

Dettelbach, a former federal prosecutor, vehemently disagreed.

"It's not only not the norm, it absolutely endangers the case. Evidence disappears, witnesses disappear," Dettelbach said. "These kinds of things are very time sensitive. And it is not what happens. It is not the norm."

Yost at his news conference touched on the politics surrounding ECOT, blasting criticism from Democrats that he had attended ECOT graduations.

"Think about what those kids did, the 1,500 kids that graduated. They got out of bed every morning, and didn't have anybody standing over them. No teacher taking attendance, and they did the work anyway. And they learned," Yost said. "So that's why I went to ECOT, and shame on the people that are demagoguing this issue to call into question those kids' achievements. I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

Dettelbach had choice words for Yost's defense of his relationship with ECOT.

"I believe in supporting the students. This is not the students' fault. This is not the families' fault," Dettelbach said. "But there are a lot of graduation ceremonies in the state of Ohio and a lot of hard working students who could use some recognition from the auditor of state, and Dave Yost chose to go three times to the graduation ceremony at ECOT."COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A proposed constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana in Ohio completed the first step Thursday in qualifying the measure for a statewide ballot.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine certified that the petition language for the "Marijuana Rights and Regulations" amendment was a "fair and truthful" summary of the proposed measure. The amendment would allow people age 21 and older to possess, produce, transport, use, sell and share cannabis.

It will now go to the Ohio Ballot Board, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers headed by Secretary of State Jon Husted, to determine whether the measure is one or multiple ballot issues. Once approved by the Ballot Board, supporters will need to collect at least 305,591 signatures of registered Ohio voters to put the issue on the ballot.

The measure is sponsored by a group called Ohio Families for Change. DeWine rejected the group's initial proposal because the proposed petition summary did not match the amendment language.

The group had been shooting for the November ballot but likely won't have enough time to collect the required signatures before the July 4 deadline for this year's general election. Ohio Families for Change spokesman Jonathan Varner said the group is looking at filing signatures for the 2019 November election.

"This is unfortunate, because people are being arrested daily for activity that simply shouldn't be criminal, only to support a black-market system," Varner said in an email. "We're confident that when voters have the opportunity to vote on this issue, they will overwhelmingly approve it.

Ohio voters in 2015 rejected a constitutional amendment that would have legalized cannabis but required all commercially sold marijuana to be grown at 10 sites promised to campaign investors.

The amendment certified Thursday does not limit grow sites, but allows the state legislature to regulate a recreational marijuana industry.

The amendment also:

Allows for people to grow marijuana at home in private spaces;

Does not limit how much marijuana can be grown or bought for personal use;

Restricts marijuana business licenses to people with two years residency in Ohio for the first seven years the amendment is in place;

Leaves the state's medical marijuana program alone;

Requires marijuana business license fees to be comparable to other types of business licenses;

Allows landlords to restrict home-grow and employers to maintain drug-free workplaces.

"It gives the small entrepreneur an equal footing with the cannabis conglomerates, while decriminalizing personal adult use of marijuana," Varner said. "It goes beyond existing Ohio law to protect consumers from dangerous chemicals and pesticides that can be found in cannabis, and has stringent measures to keep marijuana away from persons under 21 years of age."

Mobile readers, click here to read the proposed amendment.VIK, Iceland - Lesson learned in Iceland today: This is a destination that requires more than what fits into one carry-on bag.

Half of what I brought is hanging in my hotel room, soaked, the result of a rainy hike on a glacier atop a volcano, exploring ice caves.

Was it worth it? Absolutely. It was the one of the most fascinating travel experiences I've had, ever - hiking through lava ash and ice to access sleek, curvy caves that may be gone next week.

But I have no idea what I'm going to wear for my next adventure.

The tour began in Vik, a small town on Iceland's south coast, where we met guide Magnus Kristjansson from Southcoast Adventure. He drove seven of us in his 4x4 vehicle down a bumpy, gravel road through terrain that Apollo astronauts used in the 1960s to train for the moon landing.

Our final destination also was other-worldly: Myrdalsjokull glacier, the country's fourth largest, which sits atop Katla, an active volcano that is overdue for an eruption. (Magnus assured us that an eruption wasn't likely to happen during our one-hour stay - given that the country's scientists closely monitor these things - but added that it couldn't be completely ruled out.)

Outfitted with helmets and crampons, we made our way through lava ash and across streams to the icy cavities carved from 800-year-old ice.

We stood inside one cave, perhaps 15 feet across and 35 feet high, with a large opening up top, staring toward the light. And we crouched through another, tunnel-like space, not tall enough to stand in, dark until we emerged at the other end.

Tomorrow's cavers may be able to access these same spaces - or not, depending on Mother Nature, said Magnus. These tours aren't offered in the summer, as the warm temperatures render the caves unstable and dangerous.

Global warming is having an effect, too, said Magnus. "The glaciers are melting enormously fast," he said. "Every year, you notice it. You can see it with your own eyes."

During my short visit, I couldn't see the effects of global warming - but I could feel the effects of the nonstop rain and wind. After an hour, my pants were drenched, my gloves ruined, my boots soaked through.

Still, I was thrilled. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

But what am I going to wear tomorrow?

More on Iceland's South Coast: My daughter, Rachel, and I started our morning in Reykjavik and headed southeast along Route 1 (the Ring Road). We made a couple of stops on the way to Vik, about 21/2 hours away, where we are spending two nights:

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, a lovely 210-foot cascade with a path that winds behind the falls. I got wet here too, but nothing like what I was in for in the afternoon.

We drove past (and stopped to photograph) Eyjafjallajokull, the volcano that erupted in 2010, famously disrupting air travel throughout Europe.

And we explored Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach, with sand created by (you guessed it) volcanoes. Framing the beach are dramatic basalt columns of volcanic rock, plus jagged sea stacks, also formed by volcanic activity. Visit on a calm day, if possible; the surf here is dangerous.

Information: We booked the Ice Cave Under the Volcano tour through Arctic Adventures. It was about $200 each.

Coming next: More exploring along the South Coast, including a boat tour of Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon.

Susan Glaser's previous Iceland travel blogs:

First day in Iceland: Why locals don't use umbrellas, and other fun facts

Editor's note: Plain Dealer Travel Editor Susan Glaser took one of the first Wow Air direct flights from Cleveland to Iceland, and will return May 16 on the first Icelandair flight to Cleveland. She'll be posting on cleveland.com from Iceland all week, and will compare the airlines and write more about Iceland in The Sunday Plain Dealer Travel sections May 20 and June 6.Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

The wow gold Viso 1 also circumvents a docked iPhone or iPod's digital to analog converter, feeding an all digital signal to the all digital Viso 1.The speakers project an oversize, 180 degree soundstage though lack some depth. The two layers CdS and CdTe are critical because they constitute the electronic junction that converts light into electricity.

Certain fruits and vegetables have a beneficial diuretic effect; they include pineapple, leafy greens, asparagus, leeks and parsley. And when I got in the race . 6, 1965, in the hamlet of Phu Bai, Quang Tri Province. There is no question that conservatives dominate the political gabfests on radio and television.

Hazel made his ruling after a five minute court session in which Bomar's lawyer, Mark P. O'Neill, one of the Philadelphia region's most prolific developers of residential and commercial properties, had filed a lawsuit against Citizens, one of his company's primary lenders, in January 2010, claiming that it breached its financial commitments to him.

Evergreen Media Corp., which owns WUSL FM (Power 99), paid $103 million to acquire WDAS (1480 AM and 105.3 FM), the influential adult urban contemporary and gospel music stations. L elles vont pondre sur les plages de la baie Missisquoi et de ses affluents.

Money, media and parity have made it worse. Use a clean, soft toothbrush to massage onto skin. Cpl Galloway consistent, thorough, and professional approach to any task has been his trademark; qualities he has imparted on those who worked alongside of him..

But now the seal has been broken. Your legs should be staggered, one in front of the other and slightly bent. Glass in the tournament semifinals at the VCU Siegel Center. Thursday at Mount Tabor CGC, with burial in the church cemetery.. But, I can't look at it that way.

Il a 40 ans depuis quelques mois. His roommate, Ian Altman (21, Newport News), was arrested after being found unconscious in a Norfolk hotel room and transported to a hospital.. It all began when I starting playing the awesome game by Sierra Quest for Glory "So you want to be a hero" or Hero's Quest 1 back then my HDDless PC would ask me to change floppy disk everytime I changed the screen.

"Moriah Jefferson has a lot to do with that, especially if the opponent has one primary ball handler," Auriemma said. La religion est constamment en train de se recomposer. Wield the Force with the Star Wars The Old Republic Gaming Mouse by Razer, featuring gaming grade wireless technology for complete swiping freedom and a fully programmable twelve button MMO thumb grid for more skills at your fingertips.

Hi guys! Best time for you to join Safewow Mothers Day Hot Sale now:up to $8 cash coupon for buying WOW GOLD US/EU and other products on safewow from May 11 to May 18, 2018

SMD2-$2 cash code (When you order over $30+ );

SMD5-$5 cash code (When you order over $70+ );

SMD8-$8 cash code (When you order over $100+ ).

At the same time , safewow new member system is online now,Don't lose chance to be a new member and you can gain extral 1%-8% discount for buying any Products.

Never miss using "SW7ALL" discount code to buy WOW GOLD US/EU on https://www.safewow.com/wow-gold-us any time.Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

Market Overview:

The major growth driver of Acoustic Microscope Market includes rising nanotechnology sector, growing technical advancement in microscope manufacturing, and fast growing semiconductor industry and government support on R&D innovation among others.

Hence the market for Acoustic Microscope is expected to grow at HIGH% CAGR (2016-2022).

However, high cost of instruments and stringent government rules and heavy custom duty charges on equipment are some of the factors which are hindering the growth of Acoustic Microscope Market.

Acoustic Microscope is new approach that represent the development and performances of science and innovations. This techniques helps the most researcher and scientist to do in depth analysis specimens and sometimes at micro level. Studying the different specimens in deep with the acoustic microscope device will help the scientist to get accurate information and they do analysis on basis of available information. This may lead to new treatment solution for any diseases or new product.

The scientist working in research centers, laborites, and other fields they always searching new techquie and tool to improve their study. This demand have given rise to acoustic microscope marker during past few years. Sectors like medical, automotive, aerospace, life-science and many others are pushed by the acoustic microscope device.

Get Sample Report @

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1367

Today this technology is also known as scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) with more advance function and better result. Looking at the growth, Market Research Future recently gave out the market insights till 2022. According to this MRFR analysis, the global acoustic microscope market is set to witness huge growth during the forecast phase. The industry will excel further in regards to market shares.

Key Players:

Bruker optics, Inc. (U.S.)

Applied materials, Inc. (U.S.)

Carl Zeiss (Germany)

Danaher Corporation (U.K.)

Nikon Corporation (Japan)

FEI Co. (U.S.)

Hitachi High Technologies Corporation (Japan)

JEOL Ltd. (Japan)

Leica Microsystems (Germany)

Olympus Corporation (Japan).

Segmentation:

The industry for acoustic microscope is fragmented by method, by type, by application, and by region. Methods are divide by X-ray radiography, infrared imaging, and non-destructive testing. The type is divided by Scanning acoustic microscope (SAM), confocal acoustic microscope (CSAM), and C-mode scanning acoustic microscope among others. The application is further divided by automotive, semiconductor, aerospace, medical, industrial, and life-science industry among.

The regional analysis of acoustic microscope is being studied for region such as Asia pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. It has been estimated that North America region would dominate the market in the early phase. The market is expected to shows a steady and considerable growth in Europe. Asia Pacific will show a positive growth during the forecast period.

Regional Analysis:

North-America is dominating the Global Acoustic Microscope Market with the largest market share in the region, and therefore accounting for $HIGH million and is expected to grow over $HIGH billion by 2022. Acoustic Microscope Market in Asia-Pacific market is expected to grow at CAGR of HIGH% from $ HIGH million in 2016 to $HIGH million by 2022. The European market for Acoustic Microscope Market is expected to grow at HIGH% CAGR (2016-2022).

Access Full Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/acoustic-microscope-market-1367

Competitive Outlook

Key players are approaching new techniques so that they can offer this technology in more affordable price with advance functionality. The same would improve market performance. Heavy investments are made by major players in the R&D sector.

Drivers:

The SAM technology is current trend in industry. This device has unique features such as, specimen can be view without any damage. The focusing factor play major role because beam can scan the sample even when it is inside the water. Apart from this, capturing image even at deeper layer, perfect measurement, all this factor are fueling the market demand for acoustic microscope industry.

The in depth magnification and high resolution ability of this device can be used for studying different structures and damages in component of machines in various industries. Even, the growing demand of application in medical, semiconductor, aerospace industries are creating lucrative opportuneness for the manufactures of this market.

On other side, the one of the factor that can hold the demand of the market is high cost.

About Market Research Future:

At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.

MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.

Contact Us:

Market Research Future

Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers

Pune  411028 Maharashtra, India

Phone: +91 841 198 5042

Mail: sales@marketresearchfuture.comQuesto comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

Market Overview:

The global market for organic spices and herbs has witnessed continued demand during the last few years and is projected to reach around 3,687 kilo tons by the year 2023, at a CAGR of 3.722% during the forecast period 2017 to 2023. Increase in versatile demand across various food and beverage segments particularly for convenience foods and beverages is likely to drive the global organic spices and herbs market.

Asia Pacific region is estimated to dominate the market with more than 75% of market share in the year 2017 due increasing production of organic spices in India, China and Vietnam since last few years. Guatemala and Mexico are major markets for organic spices and herbs in the North and Central American region. Strong potential for production as well as higher consumption favors organic spices and herbs market growth the most among these regions.

India is the major producer, consumer and exporter of herbs & spices in the world. India has wide variety of herbs & spices due to different agro-climatic conditions and soil types. Hence, India remains prime focus for organic herbs & spices market due to huge potential for both supply and demand. Vietnam, Indonesia, Spain and Guatemala are among the other top emerging markets for organic herbs & spices. The world demand for organic herbs & spices is growing rapidly especially in developed countries like Spain, U.S., Japan and Australia.

Receive a Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4175

Increasing importance of herbs & spices for various flavors in foods and medicinal properties has resulted in higher demand for herbs & spices. On the other hand, rising awareness for food safety related to pesticide residues in herbs & spices and related health hazards has triggered higher demand or organic herbs & spices. Demand for organic foods has been slower due to reluctance among farmers to shift from traditional methods of farming to organic farming. Change in food trends and adoption of various international food forms encouraging herbs & spices consumption in raw form further encourages demand for organic herbs & spices.

Global Key Players:

The leading market players in the Global Organic Spices and Herbs market primarily are Organic Spices Inc.(U.S.), Frontier Natural Products Co-op (Norway), Rapid Organic Pvt Ltd (India), Earthen Delight (India), Yogi Botanical Pvt Ltd (India), The Spice Hunter, Inc. (U.S.) and Starwest Botanicals, Inc. (U.S.)

Latest Industry Updates:

Dec 2017 Manarcadu Social Service Society located in Kerla, India launches organic, dry fruits brand related to fruits and juice. MASS was instrumental in empowering farmers to achieve organic certification and export their produce including spices & herbs, coffee and cocoa to Europe, keeping Fairtrade and organic standards.

Nov 2017 San Francisco Equity Partners Portfolio Company Red Monkey Foods Acquires San Francisco Salt Company. Red Monkey Foods is a leading provider of premium store brand organic spices & herbs and seasonings.

Jan 2016 IFC to invest in agri-commodity firm Olam to expand in India, Nigeria. Singapore-based commodities company Olam International Ltd is raising $175 million from International Finance Corp, the company has taken loan from World Bank, to finance its projects in India and Nigeria. The part of funding will be also used to upgrade organic spices and sugar facilities in Maharashtra and Kerla in India.

Sep 2017 Spices & Herbs export including organic spices & herbs in India rises 35% in first quarter of 2017. Garlic has registered the maximum growth in terms of volume and value. It contributed significantly to the overall exports during the period, rising more than 150 per cent in volume. Fennel registered a growth of 92 per cent in terms of volume. The exports of other seed spices such as mustard, aniseed and dill seed grew by 83 per cent in terms of volume.

Access Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/organic-spices-herbs-market-4175

Regional Analysis:

In 2016, Asia-Pacific region is dominates the market in terms of volume and value followed by North America. India, China and Vietnam are major organic spice producers in the Asia-Pacific region. Presence of various agro-climatic zones and seasons support various organic spices & herbs production in this region. Guatemala and Mexico are major organic Spices & Herbs market in the American region. Strong potential of spices & herbs production and consumption favors organic spices & herbs market growth the most among the various regions in the world. India is the major producer, consumer and exporter of Spices & Herbs in the world. India has wide variety of spices & herbs due to different agro-climatic conditions and soil types. Hence, India remains prime focus for organic spices & herbs market due to huge potential for both supply and demand. Vietnam, Indonesia, Spain and China are among the other top emerging markets for organic Spices & Herbs.

Market Segments:

The global organic spices & herbs market has been divided into spices type, herbs type, form, application and region.

On The Basis Of Spices Type: Chilies, Garlic, Ginger, Turmeric, Cumin, Pepper, Cinnamon, Cloves, Cardamom and Others

On The Basis Of Herbs Type: Basil, Mint, Marjoram, Parsley, Oregano, Sage, Bay Leaves, Dill, Thyme, Rosemary, Celery, Kaffir lime leaves and others

On The Basis Of Form: Whole, Powder, Crushed/Chopped, Essential oil and others

On The Basis Of Application: Culinary, Meat &Poultry Products, Sauces & dips, Snacks & Convenience Foods, Soups & Noodles, Ready to Eat Meals, Beverages, Personal Care and other

On The Basis Of Region: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and ROW.Continue Reading Below Advertisement

That slightly minimalist "coexist" design was made by a Polish graphic designer named Piotr Mlodozeniec, who submitted it to a contemporary art museum in Jerusalem in 2000. But maybe you're a little bit more familiar with this version:

Coexist, LLP Preaching tolerance for all religions, genders, peace signs, yin-yangy things, and ... Satan?

Five years after Mlodozeniec's submission, a group of Indiana University students came across the logo on the internet. They thought it was such a powerful message that they modified it into their own version. That's when the "coexistence" business went a little hostile. The students not only decided against asking the original artist for permission, but they also trademarked their version and started selling T-shirts and bumper stickers to millions of hippies. Then, as with all things, U2 got involved. After Bono spotted Coexist graffiti in Chicago, he heavily incorporated it into the band's Vertigo tour, even stopping the music to lecture his fans about the meaning of the design -- something we imagine U2 fans have gotten used to by now.

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

When Mlodozeniec and others started objecting to these college kids' greedy antics, they threatened legal action against anyone else trying to use the logo for profit. Eventually, a mess of lawyers started untangling what had happened, and Mlodozeniec was given a credit on the U2 DVD. This has led to numerous legal battles, all of which should've gotten resolved by one of the lawyers saying, "Can't we just ... you know?" But Mlodozeniec isn't in it for the money or revenge; he simply doesn't want people to think he designed the second version of the logo. Or as he described it, "It looked really poor and bad." He can coexist with thieves, he can coexist with bullies, but he can't coexist with such shitty artists.The tearing down of Theresa Mays portrait at Oxford University prompts the reflection that there have long been bolshie and bigoted students who dont play by democratic rules.

But two things have changed in recent years. One is there appear to be more of these intolerant and bullying young people than there used to be. Banning things, and people they dont like, is becoming depressingly widespread.

The second development may be even more disturbing. University authorities and dons are increasingly turning a blind eye to the extreme activities of students, and in some cases colluding with them.

Mrs May was one of 12 alumnae whose pictures were put up last week in the school of geography, where she studied more than 40 years ago. As only the second women prime minister produced both by this country and Oxford, it was right she should be celebrated.

'Oxford is the casualty of this shameful story. For if the people who run one of our leading universities cant teach students to respect the views of those with whom they disagree, what hope is there for any of us?'

The first, of course, was Margaret Thatcher, who Oxford dons chose to insult in 1985 when they voted by 738 to 319 against giving her the honorary degree to which, as an alumna of the university, she was virtually entitled. Plus ca change.

When, soon after it was displayed, Mrs Mays portrait was targeted by students and academics opposed to her policies  it was surrounded by angry messages while activists lobbied on social media for its removal  the university authorities should have dug in their heels.

They should have stated that Mrs May is the democratically elected Prime Minister of Great Britain, and it is fitting that her old university should honour her. It would be an act of rudeness and a piece of unwarranted censorship to take her picture down, and it wont be going anywhere.

But unfortunately they said none of these things. They have instead cravenly acceded to the clamour of the mob, attempting to cover up their own pusillanimity with the vague undertaking that the picture will be reinstated at some time in the future in an unspecified place.

A tweet about the portrait that was taken down at Oxford University. Mrs May was one of 12 alumnae whose pictures were put up last week in the school of geography, where she studied more than 40 years ago

This capitulation is on one level a slight to Mrs May, though I am sure, given the brickbats that are daily flung at her in Parliament and the media, she is robust enough to survive this latest fusillade.

No, more than the Prime Minister, Oxford is the casualty of this shameful story. For if the people who run one of our leading universities cant teach students to respect the views of those with whom they disagree, what hope is there for any of us?

The essence of a liberal education is that issues should be debated in a civilised way through the exercise of intelligence  and not shouted down or, as is now the custom in many universities, no-platformed, which means that people whose views the Left dislikes arent allowed to open their mouths.

When I was at Oxford four decades ago, hard-Left students periodically attempted to boycott visiting Tory ministers, while some of them led a lengthy sit-in at the Examination Schools. But the university disapproved of the miscreants illiberal behaviour, and sometimes disciplined them.

Now an undisclosed number of Leftish dons have lent their support to the campaign to banish Theresa Mays portrait, while the authorities sneak it away as though they can perfectly well see how offensive it must be.

Ban what you dont like, or disagree with: that is the terrifying new mantra of a growing number of students. And instead of opposing such harmful idiocy, the university appears to side with the little tyrants who espouse it.

Where will it end? Not so long ago, some overbearing Oxford students tried to force the removal of a statue of the imperialist Cecil Rhodes from the facade of Oriel College, whose generous benefactor he was. On that occasion the college authorities stuck to their guns, though a few dons sided with the students.

But in todays academia, swathes of history must be obliterated, and the world re-ordered, to suit the prejudices of daft extremists. Not long ago, the Leftish columnist (and overgrown student) Afua Hirsch proposed that Nelson be pulled down from his column in Trafalgar Square because he once spoke up for his slave-owning friends in Parliament.

It wont be long before some of these blinkered fanatics refuse to study the philosophers John Locke or David Hume because they held views now deemed racist, or cold-shoulder historians and novelists considered to be Right-wing. For all I know it has already happened.

Theres no doubt that Oxford, like most universities, provides increasingly fertile territory for such illiberal views because the overwhelming majority of dons are Left-wing. It is now virtually impossible for someone who is right-of-centre to become the head of an Oxford college.

'No doubt they prefer another alumna of St Hughs College, Oxford  namely the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, the current darling of the worlds luvvies and liberals'

What is true in Oxford applies across the board. Weeks before the 2015 election, a poll in the Times Higher Education supplement found that only 11 per cent of university lecturers intended to vote Tory. The rest piled up behind Labour, the Greens and the Lib Dems.

As for Brexit, the figures are even starker. A YouGov poll published in January 2017 suggested that 81 per cent of professors and lecturers voted Remain, while a meagre eight per cent backed Leave.

In other words, the Academy  that somewhat portentous word now used to describe universities  does not, politically speaking, reflect wider society or many, if not most, of the taxpayers who bankroll these institutions.

So we should hardly be surprised the authorities in Oxford have lined up behind the extremists who called for the removal of the portrait of Theresa May. They may not approve of their bully-boy tactics, but they probably sympathise with their political beliefs.

In fact  though I fear debate with such people is useless  Theresa May is about as far as is possible from being the racist that some of her Oxford detractors allege.

She has launched the Race Disparity Audit, which examines how people of different backgrounds are treated in health, education and the criminal justice system. As Home Secretary she urged greater sensitivity on stop and search by the police, which some in the black community had believed was being used disproportionately against them.

And as far as Brexit is concerned, she is doggedly trying to honour the democratically expressed views of a majority of Britons. But I dont expect such considerations will weigh with student numbskulls.

No doubt they prefer another alumna of St Hughs College, Oxford  namely the human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, the current darling of the worlds luvvies and liberals. A few days ago she was at the Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, parading herself like a film star in an elaborate red mosaic gown.

Earlier in the evening, she had been arrayed in another fabulous and doubtless equally exorbitant creation, with a train so voluminous that it could have been worked up into a dozen army tents.

Between these two former students of St Hughs, I know where my sympathies lie. I prefer the one whose portrait is not considered worthy of the school of geography, though she was burning the midnight oil on her countrys behalf while Amal Clooney  with more than a little self-regard  was disporting herself in New York.

And I suggest that, in striving to achieve the best possible Brexit deal for Britain, Theresa May is much closer to the majority of her fellow countrymen than the illiberal student militants of Oxford and their misguided university protectors.For much of this year the world has been fixated by fears of nuclear Armageddon erupting over North Korea.

But over the past 48 hours, alarming developments in the Middle East remind us of the even greater likelihood of conventional warfare on a cataclysmic scale in the region.

Now that its heavyweights  Israel and Iran  have traded blows for the very first time, we ignore that threat at our peril.

After 20 Iranian rockets were fired from Syria at military positions held by the Jewish state on the Golan Heights, Israel responded by launching dozens of missiles at Iranian forces in Syria early yesterday.

They hit a radar station, air defences and an ammunition dump  killing at least 23 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which is based in the UK.

This is not all-out war, but it certainly takes us to the brink. This weeks events seem about to drag them together into a gigantic and highly unstable flash point

Irans rockets  fired by the Quds Force, a wing of the Revolutionary Guards  either fell short of their targets or were knocked out by Israels Iron Dome defence system.

This is not all-out war, but it certainly takes us to the brink.

In the Middle East, two major conflicts have been simmering side by side for years  the Arabs versus the Israelis, and the Shiite Muslims against the Sunni Muslims.

This weeks events seem about to drag them together into a gigantic and highly unstable flash point.

Iran, which is not an Arab nation, is the chief Shiite power. Since the revolution of 1979 which over threw the pro-Western, modernising Shah and imposed the harsh religious rule of the Ayatollahs, it has been spreading radicalism. The regime detests the West: it refers to America as the Great Satan, and Britain as the Little Satan.

Tanks are deployed near cows close to the Syrian border in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on May 10.Israel's army said today it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies. Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight

Iraq is dominated by Shiites, as indeed is Lebanon after Hezbollah, the para-military party allied to Iran and which loathes Israel, won this months general election.

The Ayatollahs in Iran back the Syrian government of Bashar al- Assad. Surrounded by hostile pro-Western nations, Iran needs all the allies it can find to help protect its regional interests.

Support for Syria also allows it to station forces far to the West of its own borders  closer to the Mediterranean, in fact, than it has been since the days of the Persian empire 1,400 years ago.

A UN soldier from the United Nations Disengagement Forces loads his machine gun as he stands watch near the Israeli-Syrian border in the Golan Heights, on May 10

An Israeli flag is seen placed on Mount Bental in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on May 10. Israel's army said today it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight

A mock road sign for Damascus, the capital of Syria, and a cutout of a soldier, are displayed in an old outpost in the Israeli controlled Golan Heights near the border with Syria

An Israeli soldier climbs on a multiple rocket launcher vehicle, near the Syrian border in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights on May 10. Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight

Lebanese soldiers inspect remains of a surface to air missile that landed in the southern Lebanese village of Hebarieh, early on May 10. Dozens of rockets were fired from Syria on the Israeli-occupied Golan overnight, a war monitor said, without confirming Israeli reports they were fired by Iranian forces

Those forces, as we are seeing, are within easy striking distance of Israel. But thats only half the story. Tensions are also at breaking point between Shiite Iran and Saudi Arabia, the leading Sunni country. The two nations have been fighting a proxy war in Yemen, with the Iranian-backed forces enjoying most of the success.

However, it is Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states which control a majority of the regions colossal oil resources. Now, many hardliners in Tehran are saying that, with Irans superior military power, it could seize those oilfields if they wanted.

And the ultra-hardliners in Tehran, who are even more numerous, welcome that plan because it would inevitably bring America and its allies (including Britain) into a war they know we wouldnt have the stomach to fight. With such immense conventional forces arrayed on both sides, Iranian military planners believe the result would, in all probability, be a stalemate. While Iran would be prepared to take hundreds of thousands of casualties, they are betting that the Western allies would not.

An image released by the government-affiliated 'Central War Media' in Syria purportedly shows Syrian air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Damascus' airspace

That, bizarrely, would be seen in the Middle East as a win for Iran. If the Great Satan cannot overcome its enemy, its enemy is victorious. No matter how much Europe would want to stay out of another Gulf War, its naive to imagine for one moment that it could do so. For one thing, the Americans would expect the support of Britain and Nato. For another, we rely on the Middle Easts oil.

And Britain is already deeply involved, for economic reasons as far as Saudi is concerned, and for moral reasons when it comes to its long-time ally, Israel.

Small wonder, then, that Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson argued so vehemently against President Donald Trumps decision this week to tear up the 2015 agreement which reduced economic sanctions on Iran in return for a freeze on nuclear development.

The idea of provoking more conflict, and giving Tehran an excuse to restart its experiments with enriched uranium, seems wilfully reckless.

But Trump has a rationale for his action. He argues that his aggressive tactics over North Korea have forced dictator Kim Jong-un to the negotiating table, and kickstarted a process which might even bring about the reunification of the two Koreas.

Absurd as it may seem, suggestions that he is a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize  as Mr Johnson did at the weekend  should not be dismissed lightly.

When President Obama began talks with Iran to persuade them to abandon their nuclear programme, much was made of an Axis of Evil  a loose alliance of Iran, North Korea and other rogue states, intent on global mayhem.

But what Trump has proved in his face-off with Little Rocket Man Kim is that Obamas evil axis is an illusion. North Korea isnt interested in Iran. Dictators dont do solidarity.

Trump hopes that by reimposing sanctions, he will force the Ayatollahs back to the table  and this time they will agree not only to cancel their nuclear weapons programme but also to cut back their conventional military forces and to withdraw from Syria.

Thats the goal, but the difficulties with the plan are twofold. Firstly, with America ending the trade deal, in economic terms Iran has nothing left to lose.

In theory, it can still deal with Europe (which continues to support the 2015 deal): in practice, it cant buy any items that rely on U.S. digital technology, such as the Airbus planes it dearly desires, and it cant borrow from international banks that have dealings with America (which means all international banks).

Secondly, Iran is not a one-man dictatorship. Power is shared between religious, political and military leaders, all of whom are competing to prove they are more hardline than the next, all of them convinced America isnt prepared for a ground war fought to the last man.

Its true that the U.S. does not want to commit ground troops. Israel, too, is anxious to avoid fighting with tanks and assault rifles against an enemy with long experience of guerrilla warfare.

Netanyahu tells Tehran it crossed a red line by shelling Golan Heights Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Iran had 'crossed a red line' by firing 20 rockets across the border early on Thursday Netanyahu said Israel's strikes on Iranian targets in war-torn Syria were an 'appropriate' response after the Islamic Republic 'crossed a red line' by striking military positions 'We are in the midst of a protracted battle and our policy is clear: We will not allow Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria,' Netanyahu said Later, in a statement issued as Israel's security cabinet was meeting, Netanyahu said the strike on Iran's military installations inside Syria sent a 'clear message' to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad not to attack Israel Netanyahu warned 'whoever attacks us - we will attack them sevenfold and whoever prepares to attack us - we will act against them first' He said that 'we are in a continuous campaign' and that 'Israel's military had carried out very extensive strike against Iranian targets' in Syria. Netanyahu said Syrian batteries fired at Israeli forces 'and therefore we struck them.' Advertisement

Thats why the Israeli response to Irans failed missile attack was so swift and emphatic: If it rains on us, it will storm on them, warned Israels defence minister Avigdor Lieberman. Iran is promising to respond, though this does not necessarily mean an all-out missile attack. Reprisals could take the form of terrorist attacks, either in the Middle East or further afield.

Whatever happens, we are closer to open war between Iran and Israel, with the Saudis and U.S. potentially being drawn in virtually from the start, than we have ever been.

Is there any chink of hope? Curiously, there is and it comes from an improbable source. Russia, which has been so belligerent over Ukraine and Syria, does not want to see Iran dominate the Middle East where it now has significant interests.

So President Vladimir Putin may hold the balance of power here. Its worth remembering that the monstrous Russian dictator Josef Stalin was the Wests vital ally in World War II. Significantly, the Israeli PM was in Moscow to mark the Russian victory over the Nazis on Wednesday.

Strange as it may seem, because he can talk to all sides, Putin could be the leader who can avert a Third World War.

Mark Almond is the director of the Crisis Research Institute in Oxford.Did you happen to catch Ed Milibands unhinged performance in the Commons on Wednesday, during one of his rare appearances at Westminster since he lost the 2015 election?

If you missed it, and have access to the internet, I cant recommend too strongly that you track it down and have a look.

For its a truly chilling reminder of what a fortunate escape we had, and what a weird creature might be our Prime Minister today if voters hadnt had the sense to send him packing.

Scroll down for video

Did you happen to catch Ed Milibands unhinged performance in the Commons on Wednesday, during one of his rare appearances at Westminster since he lost the 2015 election?

In my time, Ive sat through quite a few nutty speeches in the Commons  for some ten years from a pew in the Press Gallery above the Speakers Chair, and for the 30-odd years since from the sofa in front of the TV.

But I cant remember ever having witnessed a display quite as deranged as Mr Milibands on Wednesday.

There he stood, in a sparsely attended House, bellowing at the top of his cracking voice, flapping his arms around in a frenzy  in the words of one sketchwriter like an auctioneer at a cattle-market.

As my mate John put it more brutally in the pub at lunchtime yesterday: It was like watching the local loony raging in an empty street.

Crackdown

Eyes bulging, elongated forefinger wagging like a conductors baton during the Flight Of The Bumblebee, Red Ed couldnt stand still. At times seeming close to tears, he kept turning left and right before spinning round to harangue the almost empty benches behind him.

As for what was exciting him so much, it was his abiding obsession with the media  the subject of three of his four speeches in the Commons this year.

Earlier, he had broadcast on Radio 4s Today programme an unsubstantiated rumour that callous journalists had posed as medical staff to interview relatives bereaved in the Manchester bombing. He claimed this was a proven fact. It isnt.

Now he was back on his hobby-horse, demanding the re-opening of the 50million Leveson inquiry, which led to a draconian crackdown on Press freedom. Not draconian enough for Mr Miliband.

He wasnt pursuing a personal vendetta against my trade, of course. Champions of ever tighter Press regulation, to govern what the public may and may not be told, would never do any such thing. They think only of others less fortunate than themselves.

Its surely coincidence that so many of these warriors for state control turn out to have had run-ins with newspapers over revelations their publicists would have preferred to keep from the public eye.

I think of Max Mosley, Hugh Grant, Steve Coogan and Zac Goldsmith, who sat together at the Leveson Inquiry, where they were memorably described by the Mails Quentin Letts as: Our stern quartet of trouser-droppers. No, perish the thought that Mr Milibands relish for further Press regulation might be motivated by his own less-than-respectful coverage in the papers.

On Wednesday, he assured us he cared only about the victims of the voicemail-hacking scandal  victims to whom he, David Cameron and Nick Clegg had made a solemn pledge that Leveson would be a two-part inquiry.

No ifs, no buts, no maybes, he said, a clear promise to victims of the Press. And here we come today, and we have the Government saying, Lets dump this promise. Its too expensive  its a distraction.

HOW DARE THEY? he howled. How dare they say that to the McCanns, the Dowlers and all the other victims? HOW CAN WE BE HERE? I say to members across the House, in whatever party, that this is about our honour  this is a matter of HONOUR, of a promise we made.

Bilge

At this stage, Jacob Rees-Mogg rose to point out, with his habitual impeccable politeness, that the Rt Hon member was talking bilge.

It seems to have escaped his attention that David Cameron is no longer Prime Minister, that Nick Clegg is no longer Deputy Prime Minister and that two former MPs and one existing MP cannot bind their successors. A new Parliament has the right to consider these matters afresh, and that is what is rightly being done today after countless police investigations and prosecutions, many of which ended in acquittal.

But Mr Miliband was in no mood for reason. I give way to the honourable gentlemans constitutional knowledge, he said, adding with theatrical menace: But I do not give way to him on morality.

Blimey! When a crackpot like Mr Miliband lays a charge of immorality against one of the most moral members of the House, it really is time to call in the shrinks. So in the absence of the professionals, let me bring my own saloon-bar psychiatry to bear on the poor fellows condition, and his apparently pathological loathing of Press freedom.

Mr Miliband gesticulated wildly in the Commons as he claimed the failure to call the second round of the inquiry was a breach of 'honour'

If you ask me, the former Labour leader was utterly shell-shocked by his defeat in 2015. Indeed, he was so convinced he would win that he is said to have been writing his victory speech when the exit polls came through, making it clear he was wasting his ink.

He desperately needed someone or something to blame  anyone but himself and the idiotic policies he espoused, which were only a few millimetres to the right of Jeremy Corbyn and equally guaranteed to reduce the country to penury.

So who better to blame than the Right-wing media  those running dogs of capitalism whom hard Left-wingers have always accused of brainwashing voters into forsaking their natural Socialism?

It never seems to occur to them that by far the most influential voice in the media  that of the BBC  is institutionally sympathetic to the Left in any contest against the Tories. Nor does it appear to cross their minds that millions choose to vote Conservative  and prefer papers such as the Mail to the Guardian, come to that  because they are small-c conservatives by nature.

Humiliation

By that, I mean instinctively patriotic and more concerned with getting on in life and looking after their families than with smashing the rich or setting up state-funded transsexual awareness workshops in every town and village.

No, to poor, confused Mr Miliband, the only possible explanation for his humiliation at the polls that night was the evil influence of my trade.

After all, hadnt we been perfectly beastly to him about that unfortunate tussle he had with the bacon sandwich? And what about all the mockery that came his way when he delivered that conference speech, learnt by heart, in which he clean forgot to mention immigration or the UKs terrifying deficit?

Even before his defeat, hed shown the beginnings of paranoia when he announced in 2014 that powerful vested interests were out to get him. This was despite the fact that the only PVIs to have much effect on his career were the trade unions who handed him the Labour leadership after he stabbed his better- qualified brother in the front.

In my humble submission as a wholly unqualified psychiatrist, therefore, I reckon it was his election downfall the following year that pushed him over the edge and turned him into the nutcase we saw in the Commons on Wednesday.

Yet there may be one grain of sanity behind his crackers attacks on newspapers. Could it be that somewhere in that disturbed mind, he realises the hard Left will never flourish in a Britain where Press freedom prevails, giving voters access to both sides of any argument? Indeed, only where the state can decide what people are allowed to think and know will his brand of politics stand a real chance.

Mr Corbyn certainly understands this. Hence his dark warning to the Press in February: Change is coming. Its a change no self-respecting freedom-lover could ever wish to see.Huda Kattan became a multimillionaire businesswoman by blogging and she shared her tips on how influential social media has been in her successful career.

The 34-year-old started her career as a makeup artist and beauty blogger in 2010 but has managed to grow her personal brand as well as her cosmetics company, Huda Beauty, through the internet alone, amassing over 25 million Instagram followers to date.

Huda who is based in Dubai, spoke with DailyMail.com on the importance of social media in terms of boosting a business profile as well as what prospective candidates looking for jobs need to do in order to land a successful career.

Successful businesswoman: Huda Kattan became a multimillionaire entrepreneur by blogging and she shared her tips on how influential social media has been in her successful career

Career: The 34-year-old started her career as a makeup artist and beauty blogger in 2010 but has managed to grow her personal brand as well as her cosmetics company, Huda Beauty

'Social media is everything,' Huda, who is currently seeking a PR executive to join her Dubai team, admits.

'It's transformed the business. We first started using Facebook when we launched the brand and saw how traffic to our blog just skyrocketed,' she said of her and her two sisters Mona and Alya.

Although Huda started out with just one platform, once she started using Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat they all became 'the driving force behind the success of the brand, particularly Instagram which is now our biggest platform,' she admits.

Huda explains that her company would have never been able to grow as quickly as it did, let alone reach millions of consumers without using social media, going so far to say that it's the main reason she was able to become the entrepreneur she is today.

'Word of mouth can only get you so far, so I really am indebted to social media sites for giving me a platform to reach so many people and create a business out of a hobby,' she said of Huda Beauty.

'It wasn't as though we were using social media platforms to leverage the brand - we grew alongside social media and are continuing to grow and evolve at the same rate as social media,' she confessed.

These platforms are so important to Huda in fact, when she creates new products, she asks her social media followers what they want.

As for some advice to those looking to get hired, Huda says your presence on every social platform is detrimental, even admitting that when she's hiring a prospective candidate the first thing she does is check all of their social accounts.

Beauty guru: Huda who is based in Dubai, shared the importance of social media in terms of boosting a business profile as well as what candidates need to do in order to land a job

Hiring: Huda says your presence on every social platform is detrimental and when she's hiring a prospective candidate the first thing she does is check all of their social accounts

'Your social presence is super important!' she exclaims. 'We always check LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook before we invite candidates in for an interview - it helps me understand what kind of person they are.'

When creating a social media presence or personality, Huda says that the more unique you are the better admitting, 'Having a uniqueness to you will make you stand out for sure. For creative jobs like photographers and content creators, I love seeing unique and creative content that inspires me.'

Besides having a social presence Huda says the two other most important aspects are attitude and passion which she says are non-negotiable because she hires people who have a 'positive, can-do attitude' while being passionate and wanting 'to change the world of beauty.'

'Positivity can change everything from how you approach a situation to how you manage other people so attitude is really important to me. One thing I can't stand is when I hear someone say something isn't possible,' she admits.

'It makes me crazy to hear this because we're proving every day that anything is possible. I am really drawn to people who are self-managed, who I can trust to just run with a project and own it,' she continued.

Huda shared advice for people trying to succeed in business and says the key is the people you surround yourself with: 'You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with,' Huda says. 'Focus on the right things and surround yourself with the right people.

Huda Kattan's top tips for becoming a successful businesswoman 1. Social presence: When hiring prospective candidates, Huda admits she always checks LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook before inviting people in for an interview because: 'It helps me understand what kind of person they are.' 2. Attitude: Huda explains that being positive is important because it shoes how you 'manage other people,' admitting that one thing she can't stand is hearing someone say 'it's not possible.' 3. Passion: You have to really care about what you're doing in order to succeed and Huda admits that she is always looking for people who are passionate and 'want to change the world.' Advertisement

'Your surroundings are super important so you want to spend your time with people who uplift and inspire you and are constantly challenging you. It's very easy to absorb the energy around you, so you need to make sure that energy around you is positive and upbeat,' she explains.

In order to become an entrepreneur there are different ways you can achieve success and Huda believes, 'There is great power in planning and routines and because of that I am super efficient and get a lot done in a day.

'I always set time aside for personal planning in the evenings and mornings and once I get to the office, I always keep 30 minutes aside for myself to plan for the day ahead and get into the right mind set. If I don't plan in advance then I can run into problems because I don't feel prepared.

Although being a businesswoman sounds like the ideal life it's not as easy as it seems and Huda wants people to know, 'An entrepreneur also needs to be ready to sacrifice a lot.

'Starting a business means passing on amazing opportunities sometimes and dedicating yourself 100 per cent to your vision. When you really want something you have to work for it and never give up,' she details.

As for her last bit of advice for those trying to become a mogul, 'Authenticity is also very important. You don't need to be flawless, but you need to own your flaws. It makes you relatable as a boss and a mentor,' Huda advised.Never has the dream-fulfilling purpose of adoption been clearer than in this emotional portrait of an adoptive mother on the day she took her new son home.

When Lauren Koller, of Austin, Texas, met the baby boy she and her husband would be taking home in August last year, she was overcome with emotion.

Luckily, the little boy's birth mother was there to comfort her, wiping the tears from her face. Also luckily, there was a photographer on hand to capture the powerful moment on film.

Moving moment: Birth mother Felicia Metcalf (left) wipes the tears from the eyes of Lauren Koller, who adopted her baby boy

So loved: Lauren and her husband Mel had tried for years after her 2010 wedding to have children before deciding to adopt

In a post submitted to Love What Matters, Lauren described how she and her husband Mel tried to have children for a number of years after marrying in 2010 before turning to adoption.

They met with an agency in 2015 and were soon approved as a 'family in waiting.'

They would stay that way for two long, 'emotional' years.

But then, in April 2017, everything changed. Lauren wrote: 'Upon our return home from a vacation abroad, we received a phone call from our caseworker about a birth mom who had narrowed her search to us and another family.

'Heeding our caseworkers advice, we wrote a letter to her introducing ourselves and answering some questions she had. A few days later we get the news that she has chosen us!'

Baby makes three: The couple waited for two years as a 'family in waiting' before getting the call that Felicia had chosen them

Bonding: Felicia and Lauren established regular contact in the months prior to the birth

Couldn't wait: The little boy was born on August 18, 2017, and the couple were lucky enough to meet him on the day of his birth

Mel and Lauren met with the birth mom, named Felicia Metcalf, and established regular contact. Lauren gushed about the mother's 'selfless love' for the baby and wrote that they 'ere honored she chose us to be his/her mommy and daddy.'

Four months later, on August 18, 2017, a baby boy was born. Lauren and Mel were able to meet him on the day of his birth.

'The wait was long, but the love was instant. Words cant describe the joy and fullness of our hearts,' she wrote.

The couple had to wait an agonizing 30 days further before they were able to take the little boy home, but on 'a warm, bright day in September,' they expanded their family officially.

As Lauren held her little boy on the day she took him home, photographer Sara Easter of Sara Liz Photography snapped away so the family would never forget the big moment.

Forever changed: Lauren gushed that 'the wait was long, but the love was instant'

Lifetime love: Mel and Lauren have an open adoption and plan for Felicia to be a part of the baby's life

At one point, Lauren became so overwhelmed that she was moved to tears. Birth mom Felicia leans in and wiped them from her face.

'[This] was particularly touching because Lauren and Felicia clearly had such a strong bond,' Sara told People.

'It was evident that they both cared deeply for this baby and wanted the best possible life for him.'

Lauren and Mel are now raising their son in an open adoption and stay in regular contact with the birth mother. 'We want him to grow up knowing who she is, his story and how much he is loved by so many,' she wrote, adding: 'Love, not DNA, truly makes a family.'Advertisement

There's something intriguing about a house you can't see, and that's exactly what fans can expect in the latest episode of The World's Most Extraordinary Homes.

Tonight the BBC Two show visits Rural House in Spain, built for a Michelin star chef, which is a collection of 11 specially crafted steel boxes made to look like agricultural containers, and cleverly hidden by a man-made ridge. Even more incongruously, it's located just metres away from a farmer's slurry pit.

Viewers will also see a spectacular property that doubles as a miniature village, the brainchild of three sisters who all wanted to live on the same plot of their father's land.

Elsewhere a unique 45m diameter 'ring' house sits on a vast hilltop, its moving glass walls offering 360 degree views of the spectacular scenery, and a fourth property manages to evoke Stonehenge with its concrete girders.

Presenters Caroline Quentin and Piers Taylor explore all four extraordinary Spanish homes in tonight's episode, revealing how the architects behind them have pushed the boundaries and rewritten the rule book.

Here, FEMAIL offers a sneak peek inside each of the homes...

RURAL HOUSE

Rural House is a collection of eleven metal blocks set in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and hidden in farmland

The minimalist interior betrays nothing, even the television is contained in its own metal box that rises out of the floor

The property is surrounded by farmland, with the living room looking out on to a slurry pit where the cows graze

The unusual structure of Rural House, nestled in the foothills of the Pyrenees in Olot, Spain, recently won architect Rafael Aranda the prestigious Pritzker Architect Prize.

Built for a famous chef and her family, it is designed to look like series of agricultural buildings that merge with the landscape.

Eleven blocks made entirely of rusted metal and linked by a steel corridor feature a master bedroom at one end and three bedrooms at the opposite end.

The kitchen and dining room are in one section, with a very minimalist open plan living in the next.

Inside, steelwork runs throughout as part of the interior decor, with belongings and utility rooms hidden behind steel doors that are flush with the walls.

Even the television is kept hidden out of sight in a metal box that rises up from the floor of the living room.

The minimalist approach is too much for presenter Caroline Quentin who says: 'It's aesthetically pleasing, but I imagine it can be a challenge to live with.'

Michelin star chef Fina Puigdevall wanted somewhere she can retreat to away from the busy nearby city of Olot where she works

The entire house is made of metal with the architect has taking an extremely minimal approach

Fina's hub - the kitchen - is also kept clutter-free with the steel doors hiding away tools and ingredients

The architect built the house in deliberate contrast to its owner's busy lifestyle. As an in-demand Michelin star chef, Fina Puigdevall wanted somewhere to retreat that was quite literally hidden away from the busy hub of the city centre of Olot.

She said: 'I think its a great idea that you enter the house below ground level. You never see cars, just nature.

'The smell is very important to me and the sound of the birds and when cows arrive in the morning you can hear them pulling up the grass in the field.

HEMEROSCOPIUM HOUSE

The unusual property is made up of seven vast concrete and steel beams each supporting each other in and upward spiral held in place by a 20 tonne piece of granite as a counterweight

Decor is kept sleek and modern throughout, with the enormous glass windows allowing the gaze to go straight through the house

The striking concrete girders took owner and architect Anton Garcia Abril a year to calculate their positioning

Hemeroscopium House is on the outskirts of Madrid, surrounded by traditional suburban properties which make its striking concrete girders stand out even more.

Owner and architect Anton Garcia Abril spent an entire year calculating the positioning of each element, creating an upward spiral of concrete and steel beams that each support each other, and are held in place by a 20 tonne piece of granite as a counterweight.

Although it's modern, Caroline says the contemporary property feels historic: 'It reminds me a little of Stonehenge,' she says.

For Ancient Greeks Hemeroscopium was a place only existed in the mind that meant where the sun sets

Anton's four children all share one enormous room with two bunk beds and a striking feature just outside...

... Just outside their bedroom window is a swimming pool that sits inside one of the steel girders

The eye is immediately drawn to the structure, but other striking elements are woven in too, like a swimming pool on the ground floor and a courtyard perfect for barbecues.

Another surprise lies just outside the window of the children's bedroom - where two bunk beds are situated for the owner's four children - where there is a second swimming pool sunken inside one of the beams, perfect for an early morning swim.

The concrete walls have been left exposed through the house, making it part of the decor within the enormous open plan living space, master bedroom and children's bedroom.

A HOUSE FOR THREE SISTERS

The property in south Spain has three identical and separate houses for three sisters to live in with their families

All three houses are linked with one shared courtyard where they often come together to eat and enjoy family time

South Spain is the location of the plot of land where A House For Three Sisters was built by Blancafort-Reus Architecture.

Maria, Rene and Manuka inherited their father's land in Bullas and their dream was to all live there as one big family.

It resulted in the creation of a mini 'village', three separate homes linked together by a shared courtyard at the centre.

Each house also has its own private courtyard area in case there's a need for personal time away from each other

The separate houses each have a master bedroom which has a roof terrace looking out at the surroundings

The interior decor has a homely feel to it, with Caroline pointing out that it looks lived in and not pretentious

The houses are all identical - although one is 'flipped' according to architect Piers - but each have a private outside space, a roof terrace off the master bedroom and a downstairs living area with a further two bedrooms.

The sisters jointly run a successful fashion business in the centre of city, so their mini village is a perfect retreat - close, but with each having their own personal living space.

'Five years ago we decided to build the dream,' said the women.

SOLO HOUSE 2

The house shaped in a ring sits on top of the hill in the Spanish forest land looking out at the panoramic landscape

While it looks like there may not be much space for living - there is ample room in the slender portions of domestic space

Each area has a moving wall that allows guests to open them and bring nature directly into the living space

Solo House 2 is a holiday home built in Matarranam in north west Spain, an area that has barely been touched by tourism.

The concept of the circular structure was realised via an arts project, which gave architects a plot of land and, turning tradition on its head, given free reign over what was built on the site.

Assigned a plot on a hilltop plateau, the architects built a 45m diameter circular design to make the most of the panoramic views.

The walls of glass help the building dissolve into the landscape, and they all slide, to encourage the huge expanse of surrounding nature to become part of the house itself.

The bedroom and bathroom both look out onto the beautiful scenery by moving away the walls

The curve of the property allows a 360-degree viewpoint of the Spanish hillside and is a perfect retreat from the hustle and bustle

Steel poles were dug into the land to support the structure, which was then poured with concrete to create the circle shape

While it appears there isn't much room for living, the ring is divided into four crescent shapes of domestic space at four points.

There is an outdoor utility room, a master bedroom, two more bedrooms and living area with kitchen diner.

Nearby is a second high concept house perched on top of the hill surrounded by trees.

The owner of both, Christian Bordais, wanted to challenge preconceptions of how were supposed to live.

The World's Most Extraordinary Homes airs on BBC Two tonight at 8pmMeghan Markle's wedding to Prince Harry may not be for another 10 days, but fans of the romance will be able to grab a preview of the very special event this weekend, when the Lifetime movie Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance hits screens.

However, before either the movie release date, or the wedding itself, the actress who stepped into Meghan Markle's shoes in order to play her on the screen is seizing her moment in the spotlight, revealing what it has been like to take on the role of the soon-to-be royal.

In a sit down with Oath's Build series, Jamaican-born actress Parisa Fitz-Henley expressed her hope that the story help people 'be able to see past titles and nationalities and races, and all of the other things that truly in a capital "T" true sense dont really matter, and see people coming together'.

All smiles: Parisa Fitz-Henley, 41, who plays Meghan Markle in the new Lifetime movie Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance, has discussed what it means to her to take on the role

Snuggled up: Parisa stars opposite Scottish actor Murray Fraser, who plays Prince Harry, in the film, which will air on Sunday

Big day: The movie is airing just a week before Meghan and Prince Harry are too be married

Parisa added that growing up she 'never saw interracial families on television,' which is why seeing Harry and Meghan together has meant so much to her.

'It's just a really sweet homage to a love, a friendship - and a friendship that's tested by challenges, like all of us,' she said.

'I hope people will see themselves in it and take a little hope with them as they go.'

Parisa also revealed in an interview with the Today show that it was the engagement video that Meghan and Harry filmed shortly after the Prince popped the question that got Parisa interested in the role.

Movie time: Parisa, pictured with her co-star Murray, revealed that she had expressed a desire to play Meghan before she even found out there would be a movie

Big news: Parisa, who is pictured in New York on Tuesday, received news of the audition while she was 'in the woods' with her parents 'covered in dirt'

'It was after I saw the engagement interview they did I said "Im so taken with this woman and this couple. It would just be fun to audition,"' she said.

And to Build, Parisa claimed that she called up her agent right away, saying that, hypothetically, if there were to be a movie made about the couple, she would want that audition.

'And then it was just weeks later. I was in the woods with my parents, covered in dirt, and this email came in and was like: "Okay, you're going to try and be the most glamorous woman in the world in a couple of days,"' she said.

After landing the role, Parisa and the filmmakers did their best to take her already similar look a step further, to make the transition for the viewer 'seamless.'

Lots of love: The royal relationship means even more to her because she 'never saw interracial families on television' growing up

Meet and greet: Parisa also opened up about the hair and make-up transformations she went through for the role

'We really took time to have the hairstyles that she does, to make sure that some of the freckles match and little things,' she said.

The make-up artist on set even used such convincing contouring to make Parisa's nose looks more like Meghan's that the actress herself was startled by the likeness on screen.

'I really want her just one day to come back to acting for a little and play my sister. I just want her to do that one day,' she added, before turning to the camera to address her lookalike directly.

'Meghan, if you ever want to, I think we should make something together.'Few crazes have taken the nation by storm as much as gin  in the past 12 months, thirsty Britons drank 51 million bottles of it, which is 27 per cent up on the previous year.

Sales have topped 1 billion, and the number of distilleries in the UK has doubled in five years. But its not just gin thats had a make-over. The days when the only choice of tonic was normal or slimline are long gone.

Originally, tonic water was a way to get British soldiers in far-flung places to take quinine, a bitter chemical found in the bark of the cinchona tree, which gives some protection against malaria.

Modern tonic water still contains quinine, though much less than it once did.

Helen McGinn explored the best ways to make a satisfying gin and tonic this summer using flavoured mixers and taste tested a selection of popular tonic waters (file image)

But the trend for flavoured tonics, pioneered by top-selling UK brand Fever-Tree, has transformed the variety of tonics available within just a few years.

From lemon to grapefruit, orange, peppercorn, rosemary and more, the choice of tonic is enough to make you feel dizzy before youve even had a drink.

But how do you go about making the perfect gin and tonic?

THE ART OF GLASS

Use a good glass. Preferably one with a wide-ish brim so you can stick your nose in and get the most out of the aromas of the botanicals (plant-based flavours such as juniper or lemon peel) in the drink.

The Spanish use a Copa or balloon-shaped glass with a stem to drink theirs (and they drink a lot) but traditionally over here we have gone for a highball or tumbler.

Then theres the ice. Fill a glass with a handful of ice cubes  four or five. If the drink isnt cold enough, youll notice the alcohol rather than the botanicals.

LET A SPIRIT GUIDE YOU

Next, match the tonic to your gin. Always start with the gin. After all, were talking about a G&T, not a T&G.

A good tonic will show off the gin, not mask it. Once youve picked your gin, think about the main botanical ingredients (a good label should tell you the key flavour characteristics) and try to match your tonic accordingly. A simple rule of thumb is to think like with like, so a crisp, citrussy gin generally works better with a citrussy tonic than an aromatic one.

Helen doesn't recommend mixing Fentimans Pink Grapefruit Tonic Water (pictured) with Sipsmith London Dry gin

Tonic water should deliver a distinct touch of bitterness so if you cant taste the quinine, give it a miss. For a lighter drink, there are plenty of slimline options. Look for natural rather than artificial sweeteners.

There are hundreds of possible botanical combinations but to be called gin, juniper must be the main one. Most gins have six to 12 botanicals, such as coriander seed, angelica root and citrus peels. The botanicals determine the flavour profile  citrussy, floral, spicy  so look at the ingredients and it should give you an idea of what to expect.

TRENDY TONICS

All these tonics were tried and tasted using the same gin  Sipsmith London Dry  picked for its purity and relatively restrained botanical flavours.

Fentimans Pink Grapefruit Tonic Water 500ml, 1.40, Asda

This starts well; the colour is lovely. But on its own, sweetness and bitterness fight like toddlers. Luckily, the gin calms everything down and it really does work well as a mixer. Its refreshing and not too heavy. 3/5

Drink with: A citrussy gin.

Helen claims Fever Tree Refreshingly Light Mediterranean Tonic Water (pictured) pairs well with a citrussy or floral gin

Fever Tree Refreshingly Light Mediterranean Tonic Water 500ml, 1.80, Tesco

This is very delicate, with a gentle floral character. It really lets the gin take the spotlight, supporting it beautifully. This is the light version with 32 per cent fewer calories, meaning I can have another drink without feeling too guilty. 5/5

Drink with: A citrussy or floral gin.

Merchants Heart Pink Peppercorn Tonic Water 200ml, 1.35, Ocado

Light on aroma but with real weight on the palate and fruity, spicy flavours. The quinine taste really comes through at the end, carried by its pleasing bubbles. Rounder and sweeter than most, a weighty gin will balance the flavours best. 4/5

Drink with: A spicy or juniper-rich gin.

Helen believes Merchants Heart Pink Peppercorn Tonic Water (pictured) would taste pleasing with a spicy or juniper-rich gin

The London Essence Co Grapefruit & Rosemary Tonic 4 x 200ml, 3.49, Waitrose

I really wanted this to be good, not least because I love the packaging. But the flavours seem to clash rather than get along when tasted on its own. However, put it with the gin and it tastes pretty good, even it does remind me of Parma Violets. 3/5

Drink with: A citrussy or herbal gin.

Luscombe Grapefruit Tonic Water 24 x 200ml, thedrinkshop.com, 20.95

This one has a subtle tang of grapefruit and is tasty enough to enjoy on its own, not just as a mixer. But when added to gin, the grapefruit flavour gets a bit lost. Still, the trademark bitter quinine note is there and its crisp and refreshing overall. 3/5

Drink with: A citrussy gin.

Helen says the taste of The London Essence Co Grapefruit & Rosemary Tonic (pictured) clashes with Sipsmith London Dry

Schweppes 1783 Floral Tonic Water 600ml, 1.95, Ocado

Smelling this on its own, before adding the gin, Im transported back to childhood  it smells just like pink Play-Doh! Sadly it has the same sort of plasticky taste to it, even with the gin. A bitter disappointment, quite literally. 1/5

Drink with: A floral gin, if at all.

Schweppes 1783 Cucumber Tonic Water 600ml, 1.55, Ocado

Its got a pretty convincing cucumber aroma to it but, on its own, is a little to sweet on the palate. As a mixer the cucumber aroma takes over, completely dominating the flavours of the gin in the glass.1/5

Drink with: A strong floral gin.

Helen describes Luscombe Grapefruit Tonic Water (pictured) as crisp and refreshing

Lamb & Watt Basil Tonic Water 4 x 200ml, 3.15, Ocado

This one has organic blue agave in it, the same plant tequila comes from, used in this case to give it some sweetness. Indistinct on its own but it is suitably fresh. When mixed with gin, it lets the gin do the talking and adds a gentle herby lift. Subtle, but does the job. Use a sprig of basil as your garnish. 3/5

Drink with: A citrussy gin.

Fever Tree Elderflower Tonic Water 500ml, 1.80, Waitrose

More pungent than most, this one is punchy enough to drink on its own when pepped up with a twist of lime peel. Put it with gin and it still holds its distinctive elderflower character, adding weight to the overall flavours. And the touch of sweetness rounds it off nicely, leaving a smooth taste in the mouth. 4/5

Drink with: A floral or citrussy gin.

Helen was disappointed by Schweppes 1783 Floral Tonic Water (pictured) and claimed it tastes of plastic

Fentimans Mediterranean Orange Tonic Water 500ml, 1.91, Waitrose

This ones super aromatic on first sniff with a slightly bitter, pithy taste on its own. When mixed with the gin, the latter struggles to get through and the tonic turns everything orange, in flavour and colour. 2/5

Drink with: A citrussy or herbal gin.

AND WHAT ABOUT THE GARNISH

A garnish isnt there just to look good. It needs to add something to the drink, whether thats aroma or taste.

Try to balance them with the botanicals in the G&T if you are using a flavoured one.

Yes, a twist of lemon peel or a slice of cucumber is fine, but it doesnt end there! Here are some of the very trendiest alternatives . . .

Helen suggests pairing Lamb & Watt Basil Tonic Water (pictured) with a citrussy gin

A SPRING OF TOASTED ROSEMARY:

Put a sprig of rosemary in the oven for ten minutes at a low heat, then add it to an earthy gin such as Berry Brothers & Rudd London Dry 70cl, 25, bbr.com, which has a strong juniper note  toasting it will give it a glorious rich aroma.

SLICE OF MELON OR RASPBERRIES:

This gives a wonderfully juicy edge. Try with Pink Manchester Gin 70cl, 38, manchestergin.co.uk. Made by a Mancunian couple who fell in love over a few G&Ts. This is their pink take on the spirit, infused with raspberries.

Helen claims Fentimans Mediterranean Orange Tonic Water (pictured) turns the flavour and colour orange

BASIL AND HALF A CHERRY TOMATO:

Sounds odd but its hugely refreshing.

STAR ANISE OR CINNAMON:

The gentle menthol kick makes a refreshing change and the seeds look lovely. A cinnamon stick also works well with spicy gins.

CORIANDER LEAVES:

Use for a floral gin such as Rock Rose Spring Edition 70cl, 39.95, masterofmalt.com. The botanicals used to make it include dandelion, coltsfoot and gorse flowers.When a teenager found a prom dress that was perfect, but just missing a little something, she took matters into her own hands.

Nazmayde Castillo, a high school student in Birmingham, Alabama, found her dress with the help of her boyfriend MJ Johnson, who has a hefty Instagram following thanks to his creative recreations of looks by the likes of Beyonce and Nicki Minaj.

On prom day, MJ shared photos of himself and Nazmayde in their outfits, including his girlfriend's stunning blue and cream gown, which has layers of cobalt roses as the shirt.

Getting creative: Alabama teen Nazmayde Castillo has gone viral thanks to her creative prom dress, which was crafted using a $50 dress off of Fashion Nova

Looking good: In a viral Instagram post, Nazmayde's boyfriend MJ Johnson revealed that he found the dress for her online

A little extra: After finding the mini dress, Nazmayde came up with the idea of using cobalt flowers to make the dress a gown

After the photos prompted dozens of requests for where Nazmayde found the dress, MJ revealed shared a post revealing that the original dress was picked up from Fashion Nova for just $50.

But there was more to the look than just some successful online shopping.

'I found it on @fashionnova for her and she had the idea to add flowers at the bottom ... thats it,' MJ wrote in the caption of his post. 'A $50 dress is all flowers was all it took. We both creative as hell.'

He included a photo of the original dress from Fashion Nova, showing that it was a curve-hugging mini dress, with a skirt finishing above the knee.

Nazmayde then took that dress and created the skirt with the help of her crafty aunt- but even a discerning eye wouldn't be able to tell the gown was a DIY job.

Perfect posing: The teenager's aunt helped her make the dress perfect for prom, taking two days because they had to go and buy more flowers

Seamless looks: Once the flowers were sewn on, the look was finished with 'a little touch of blue glitter'

Going big: MJ's post explaining the history of the dress has received more than 47,000 likes on Instagram

Speaking to Teen Vogue, MJ revealed that 'the skirt took like two days because she had to buy more flowers.'

After sewing together all the flowers, the dress was finished off with 'a little touch of blue glitter.'

The couple then posed for their pictures, with MJ looking dapper in a cobalt blue suit to match his glamorous girlfriend.

MJ's post explaining the backstory of the dress has been liked on Instagram more than 47,000 times, and gained the couple plenty of praise.

'I wouldnt even look at the dress on the left because it would be too short for me, but the way you designed the dress on the right, I would buy it in a heartbeat,' gushed one user.

Another said: 'You can wear a dress for $50 make it look like $500 dress. You have to be open minded & creative. Great job!'Christine Forster married her partner of 10 years, Virginia Edwards, earlier this year after Australia voted in favour of changing same-sex marriage laws.

She's never been one to shy away from a debate and has spoken openly and often about how her views differ from that of conservative ex-PM Tony Abbott - who also happens to be her brother.

On the Thinkergirls most recent podcast she explained to a listener who had started at a new job how to come out as gay to his colleagues.

Christine Forster (middle) married her partner of 10 years, Virginia Edwards (left), earlier this year after Australia voted in favour of changing the marriage laws

Jason, who is an industrial painter, said while he is very proud of his sexuality, the very heterosexual males he works with makes it feel like he has to come out all over again.

Christine said he should start by having 'one on one conversations with the people that you trust.'

'Once he's out to one or two of his friends he will feel more comfortable,' she explained.

To lighten the seriousness of the moment she also said it helps to crack some jokes around the announcement.

To lighten the seriousness of the moment she also said it helps to crack some jokes around the announcement

'Attack it on a broader sense with humour. Don't be intense about it. If other people are uncomfortable, crack jokes and make light of it.'

Despite having married her female partner Christine said she still has to 'come out' in new situations.

'It happens all the time. In some ways I had an easy ride because everyone knew who I was. In different places, work places, you have to do it all the time. It can be very uncomfortable,' she said.

'People now know that being gay is something Australia is okay with. I have physically noticed a difference (since the plebiscite). You see so many couples being demonstrative. The country has accepted us.'

Christine Forster married her long-term partner at a ceremony in Sydney

Christine Forster married her long-term partner at a ceremony in Sydney.

Ms Forster and Virginia both said they were 'very excited' to be tying the knot with the former prime minister's sister telling reporters at the time 'it's been a long time coming'.

Mr Abbott, who opposed same-sex marriage, attended the ceremony and said he was 'very happy' for the couple.

'I'm looking forward to having a new sister-in-law,' he said previously.

Ms Forster, a City of Sydney councillor, played a prominent role in the campaign for gay marriage which was legalised after 62 per cent of participants in a national postal survey backed the move in mid-November.A self-proclaimed 'plastic surgery enthusiast' is hoping doctors will be willing to give his nose a 'little tweak and a little finishing' after having a botched rhinoplasty at the age of 21.

On Wednesday night's premiere of the E! reality series Botched, Joey Prixx meets with plastic surgeons Dr. Terry Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif about fixing his nose  and he's no stranger to going under the knife.

Joey has done everything from adding silicone butt implants to his backside to having the sweat glands under his arms removed, but it is his nose that he is unhappy with.

Surgery addict? Joey Prixx wants plastic surgeons Dr. Terry Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif to fix his nose on Wednesday's season five premiere of the E! reality series Botched

Almost there: 'My nose is like a canvas that's half painted. It's almost there. It just needs a little tweak and a little finishing,' he says

Ouch! When he had gotten his first rhinoplasty at the age of 21, a doctor put an implant over his nose, but it slipped down and broke through his septum six months later

'My nose is like a canvas that's half painted. It's almost there. It just needs a little tweak and a little finishing,' he says in a clip for the episode.

When he had gotten his first rhinoplasty at the age of 21, the doctor put an implant over his nose, but things didn't turn out the way he had hoped they would.

'It was a nightmare. After six months it slipped down and broke through my septum,' he explains. 'I went to the surgeon and he tried using a clamp and scalpel to try and trim it and just kind of push it back into my nose and hope it was going to close over. It didn't.'

Joey had another surgery to have the implant removed, but when he woke up after the procedure his 'nose was really bumpy at the top.'

'I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with plastic surgery. I would say that I'm a plastic surgery enthusiast,' he says.

Whoa: Joey, a self-proclaimed 'plastic surgery enthusiast,' had '350cc solid silicone butt implants' put into his bottom

Then and wow: He says it was by far the most painful thing he has ever done to himself

Dedication: Joey admits that he wasn't able to sit down for six weeks after the surgery

Growing up, he and his mother used to watch plastic surgery shows together, and they had a 'huge impact' on the person he has become today.

'I first started modifying myself when I was 15 years old and I started going tanning. I would wear color contacts,' he recounts. 'I get lip fillers. I literally pierced everything  except for my earlobes. I skipped that because that's boring.

'I've had the sweat glands from my under arms removed,' he adds. 'I haven't sweat since the procedure.'

But Joey really proved his dedication to his physical transformation when he had '350cc solid silicone butt implants' put into his bottom.

'It was by far the most painful thing I've ever done to myself. I couldn't sit for six weeks, but it was worth it,' he insists.

Hasn't sweat since! Joey also had the sweat glands from his under arms removed

Transformation:Joey first started modifying myself when I was 15 years old by going tanning

Work of art? 'I literally pierced everything  except for my earlobes. I skipped that because that's boring,' he says

Is there a difference? 'I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with plastic surgery. I would say that I'm a plastic surgery enthusiast,' Joey explains

Real Housewives of New Jersey star Kim DePaola also appears on Wednesday's premiere.

After two surgeries on one breast and three on the other, Kim is hoping that the doctors will be able to fix her botched breasts.

'I got breast implants,' she tells the doctors. 'I thought the left breast was swollen and maybe I had an infection. Something was wrong. When I go back to the same surgeon, he says, "No, the right breast deflated."'

Her original surgeon assured her that they didn't redo both of her implants, and he opted to just add another one to her right side instead.

However, Kim says she could actually feel the corner of the implant and decided to find another surgeon. Dr. Dubrow is baffled when the reality star explains that her second surgeon decided to give her bigger implants.

Famous face: Real Housewives of New Jersey star Kim DePaola also appears on Wednesday's nights premiere

Trouble: After two surgeries on one breast and three on the other, Kim is hoping that the doctors will be able to fix her botched breasts

Consultation: Dr. Dubrow notes that Kim's left breast has 'thin skin, little bit of rippling and the nipple's going down'

'If the body didn't like the implant at one size. It's going to like it a lot less at a larger size,' he tells the camera.

When Dr. Dubrow examines Kim, he realizes just how difficult it is going to be to fix her botched breasts.

'Let's look at the left one first. Thin skin, little bit of rippling and the nipple's going down. The treatment for that is to lower the pocket a little bit. That'll allow the nipple to come up and put a silicon implant in,' he explains before moving on to her right breast.

'This one is classic encapsulation which is very significant. There are four grades. Grade one means soft, essentially no encapsulation. Grade four means super firm, painful and displaced,' the doctors says. 'You have grade four.'

The encapsulation has left her with very little soft tissue to work, and Dr. Dubrow compares her breasts to a quagmire.

Painful: The doctor tells her she has grade four encapsulation, meaning she has super firm and displaced right breast

Going for it: Dr. Dubrow warns Kim that there isn't any guarantee that the surgery will work because she has very little soft tissue to work with, but she has faith in him

'I have to find the right balance between manipulating her scar tissue to relieve her of her symptoms, but leaving her enough soft tissue so her breasts are aesthetically pleasing,' he explains.

Dr. Dubrow warns Kim that there isn't any guarantee that the surgery will work, but she has faith in him.

'It's very scary when you don't know. Will it happen again? Will I be in pain again? But I honestly have such faith in Dr. Dubrow, I feel great about it. I feel really great,' she says.

The doctors' third consultation is with a woman named Christina who was left with a twisted nose after a car accident.

Christina explains her car was T-boned 15 years ago and her lungs collapsed, so her physical appearance was the last thing on her doctors' minds.

'They weren't even worried about my face at the time. They were just worried about saving my life,' she tells the doctors.

Next up: The doctors' third consultation is with a woman named Christina who was left with a twisted nose after a car accident

Botched: It took several years for her nose to start twisting, but things only got worse when she went to an ENT doctor to fix it

Giving up: 'If the doctors decide that they can't fix my nose, I will not look to have another surgeon do it,' she says

'It took several years for it to start twisting. It was like a slow progression,' she says of her nose. 'So I went to an ENT doctor and I could tell he was a little hesitant 'cause they don't have the specialty as plastic surgeons do, but he went in with the more senior doctor.'

Christina's twin sister is quick to point out that they 'were arguing before she went under anesthesia about how to proceed.'

'I don't think they had a plan,' she adds.

'If I was the patient and two doctors are fighting over me about what they're gonna do, I'd cancel that surgery immediately and I'd run out door!' Dr. Nassif tells the cameras.

Christina says she is only going to go under the knife again if Dr. Nassif and Dr. Dubrow are willing to take on her case.

'If the doctors decide that they can't fix my nose, I will not look to have another surgeon do it,' she explains. 'Because if the best of the best can't fix it, then I really don't want to trust anyone else.'A distraught woman has revealed she suffered a tragic stillbirth just hours after her crippling pain was dismissed by hospital staff.

Maricel Prado, from Perth's Wellard, was 38 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to Fiona Stanley Hospital in February after she began experiencing pain.

The 30-year-old was expecting a healthy full-term IVF baby - but just two hours later, her baby daughter Ysabella no longer had a heartbeat.

Scroll down for video

Maricel Prado shared a distressing footage of herself cradling her baby daughter Ysabella after she was tragically stillborn earlier this year

The 30-year-old spoke of her anguish after her baby no longer had a heartbeat at 38 weeks

'I've tried to be strong but deep inside I can't,' she told 7News.

After one failed IVF attempt, Mrs Prado and her husband Dennis were overjoyed when they finally fell pregnant with their first child.

Mrs Prado claimed at over 38 weeks, she attended the hospital in pain but staff tried to send her home to wait.

But she decided to remain at the hospital because she was feeling uneasy after her pain worsened. The nurses then gave her pain relief.

'She just asked me if I wanted morphine and I said "yes". I didn't ask anything at all after that because I trusted her,' she said.

After being told she was in labour, she was given a spare bed before staff left her unattended.

But just two hours later, little Ysabella was stillborn.

Taking to Facebook, the grieving mother shared a distressing footage of herself cradling her stillborn daughter as she broke down in tears.

'Whilst I was at the hospital during labour, I felt that the midwives were not monitoring me and our baby, as they should have been doing especially after I was administered morphine,' Mrs Prado said.

'But I thought I have to put my trust in the hospital staff to take care of me and our baby. It is difficult for us to come to terms with the fact that we believe our baby's death could have been avoided.'

The expectant parents had decorated their daughter's nursery room before she stillborn

The grieving mother showing her late baby daughter's wardrobe after she tragically died

An internal investigation found several factors may have contributed to the baby's death, including the hospital being understaffed when the mother was admitted, 7News reported.

Other factors included lack of communication between staff, the unit was busy at the time and an admission form was not completed.

Director of clinical services Dr Paul Mark, of South Metropolitan Health Services, expressed his sincere condolences to the family.

'On behalf of Fiona Stanley Hospital, I would like to express my sincerest condolences to Mr and Mrs Prado at this extremely difficult time,' he told Daily Mail Australia in a statement.

'An investigation into the circumstances surrounding Mrs Prado's time in the maternity unit has been completed.

The grieving couple were left distraught after their baby daughter no longer had a heartbeat

'This found there were shortcomings in the risk assessment of Mrs Prado.

'This may have led to a missed opportunity for closer monitoring of Mrs Prado and her baby, although it could not be determined if this would have changed the very sad outcome.

'Again, I would like to express our sincerest condolences to Mr and Mrs Prado.'

By sharing her story, Mrs Prado said nothing will ever bring her baby daughter back but she hoped no other family goes through the same suffering.

'An apology won't make things right,' she said.

'It won't bring our baby back. But by identifying what we believe are failings and lessons from our baby's death, I hope steps will be taken to improve maternity care and ensure no other parent loses a baby the same way to us.'Social media star Rozalia Russian may look every inch the style queen but, she reveals, her life hasn't always been so blessed.

The stunning fashion blogger, who has an Instagram following of 233,000, recently shared her family's story of how they arrived in Australia as new immigrants.

Speaking to Whimn, Ms Russian, 30, said that as a three-year-old her family fled strife-ridden Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, with just two suitcases and $250.

Rosalia Russian (pictured) has shared her story of how her family arrived in Australia as new immigrants

Touching on details of the family's escape, Ms Russian recalled that not only were the family fleeing potential starvation but also the horrors of a violent civil war.

'My mum, Jelena, tells the stories of being pregnant with me and queueing all day for meagre rations with my brother Stanislav, who was 12,' she told the publication.

She said the final straw came after school children 'were rounded up and had their ears cut off' by insurgents fighting the government.

She said a family decision was made to emigrate to Australia as at the time the government was seeking skilled workers and her father was an electrical engineer.

Their situation, one of incredible poverty, meant Ms Russian's mother had no other choice than to sell her collection of precious heirloom jewellery to fund the trip.

The 30-year-old social media star shared how her mother sold her jewellery to fund the family's move to Australia

Now every inch a glamorous figure, Ms Russian revealed her life hasn't always been so blessed

She said stones and diamonds were sold to pay for plane tickets and the remaining gold was melted down and turned into a chain her mother wore around her neck to sell in Australia.

In 1991 the family left their apartment in Uzbekistan, telling family and friends to take what they wanted, before flying Moscow to secure temporary visas from the Australian embassy and then onto Melbourne.

'We got a little flat in Elsternwick. Neither of my parents spoke English. My mum started work as a cleaner and Dad delivered newspapers,' Ms Russian said.

Ms Russian recalled that not only were the family fleeing potential starvation but also from the horrors of a violent civil war

She said her parents worked tirelessly to support the family and spent as much time as they could learning to speak English.

Three years later the family were granted permanent residency. Her grandparents were also able to move to Australia through her parents' efforts.

Her family thrived in Australia, her father became an electrician and her mother received a degree in engineering at Monash University and a second degree in Geographic Information Systems from Melbourne University.

Ms Russian (pictured second from left) is married to Melbourne nightclub owner Nick Russian (pictured right)

Despite her difficult start, Ms Russian has also gone on to embrace success.

She studied advertising and marketing then later worked for a property developer before marrying Melbourne nightclub owner Nick Russian.

As well as being a major fashion figure, Ms Russian is also a mother of two, she has a son, Kingston and the couple share a daughter, Willow.

Recently Ms Russian decided to upgrade her engagement ring despite the fact her and her husband have been married for nearly five years

Although she and her husband are married, the social media star recently took to Instagram to flaunt her 'brand' new diamond engagement ring.

Ms Russian's decision to 'upgrade' her engagement rock comes despite the fact she has been married her husband for nearly five years.

In a short Instagram clip, she coupled her new lavish ring with a diamond-encrusted wedding band and a matching bracelet from Australian brand Anton Jewellery.

Ms Russian star has collaborated with the fine jeweller on their new campaign, dubbed Regal.They are the hipster Byron Bay couple who shot to fame for sharing explicit details about their steamy sex life on Instagram.

And Mitch Gobel and his bohemian girlfriend Sally Mustang have revealed they got matching black lip tattoos as a form of 'marriage'.

The young duo were inked during a 'ritual' in an enchanting forest.

Taking to social media, the pair expressed their love for one another as they spoke about the meaning behind their lip ring inspired tattoos.

Mitch Gobel and his bohemian girlfriend Sally Mustang have revealed they got matching black lip tattoos as a form of 'marriage'

The hipster Byron Bay couple shot to fame for sharing explicit details about their steamy sex life on Instagram

'When we first felt drawn to get our lip tattoo it was a way of union for Mitch and I. I guess in some ways, what a marriage is for other people,' Sally said.

'A way to show our connection is much more than skin deep. My soul honors your soul and I'm devoted to you. Tribe. Family. Love.

'For real, is now represented by the line on my face.'

Sally explained their tattoo artist, known as Peri Poke Priestess, told the couple the line was an interpretation of something 'much more than just our union'.

The pair expressed their love for one another as they spoke about the meaning behind their lip ring inspired tattoos

Following the ritual, Mitch spoke fondly about Sally on Instagram as he wished her a 'happy birthday'

'[We were told] people who are drawn to this marking are collectively coming together. For truth, for change, for consciousness,' she said.

'Peri explained that this will be the stitching and imprinting of your truth, not just in this lifetime but in every dimension and galaxy you exist in.

'During the ritual, I was completely transported to the knowing. The remembering, and the connection. The experience was beyond magic.

'I'm so honoured to have you as our guides. My lips now speak and seek the truth. I love you Mitch.'

Following the ritual, Mitch spoke fondly about Sally on Instagram as he wished her a 'happy birthday'.

'It's been a pretty incredible year watching you grow. It's crazy to be where we are now compared to where we were this time last year. What a trip,' he said.

Their latest posts comes nearly a year after the couple shocked their Instagram fans when they announced their split - but the breakup lasted just a month before the pair rekindled their love

Sally explained their tattoo artist, known as Peri Poke Priestess, told the couple the line was an interpretation of something 'much more than just our union'

'The plants have guided, and transformed you - made you stronger, more fierce and expanded your magic.

'It's inspiring to see you getting sexier and more beautiful with age, but the true beauty is within. Your heart, your spirit and your mind radiate more beauty than anything else within my small world.

'No rainbow could ever compare to the colours I see within you and the light that shines from your soul. You are my person, my people, my gypsy and I say that with great pride and appreciation.'

Their latest posts comes nearly a year after the couple shocked their Instagram fans when they announced their split.

But the breakup lasted just a month before the pair rekindled their love.The Prince of Wales kissed an icon depicting the resurrection of Christ as he visited a church in Athens.

Charles was touring the Byzantine Church of Kapnikarea, one of the final pit stops of his tour of the Greek capital, on Thursday when he came across the ancient tableau.

Earlier this morning, the royal was granted a reception with the head of Greece's Orthodox Christian Church, Archbishop Ieronymos II.

The prince was led to a room full of paintings of former archbishops of Athens and was welcomed by other Greek bishops, before signing the visitor's book.

The Archbishop told him: 'Welcome to the land of half of your ancestors.'

Charles has long been interested in Orthodox Christianity, privately visiting monasteries in Romania and Greece - where his paternal great-grandfather reigned and his father, Prince Philip, was born.

Sealed with a kiss: The Prince of Wales kisses an icon depicting the resurrection of Christ as he visits the Byzantine Church of Kapnikarea, Athens, on Thursday morninh

Charles and Camilla said they were 'touched' to have been granted an audience with high-ranking clergymen during their tour of Athens this morning

Charles and the head of Greece's Orthodox Church Archbishop Ieronimos (right) pose for a photo at the entrance of the Archbishop's office in Athens

On tour: The royal couple arrived in Greece for a three-day visit Wednesday, meeting the country's prime minister and president. They will visit the island of Crete Friday

The couple were given a warm welcome as they toured the Greek capital. After visiting the 11th century Church of St Eirini and the stalls of St Eirini Square, they tried traditional Greek coffee in a local cafe

Replying to the Archbishop's greeting, the prince said: 'I'm most grateful for your extremely generous welcome. I'm enormously touched that you should receive me here on this visit to Athens.'

Charles also received a gift of an icon of the Virgin Mary from the Archbishop.

He joked: 'I'm afraid my gift is very inadequate in return.'

Charles then handed the Archbishop a family photo of himself and the Duchess of Cornwall before signing the visitors' book.

He was then joined by Camilla at the Commonwealth War Graves, where the prince laid a wreath at the stone of remembrance to pay respects to Commonwealth servicemen.

Charles then visited the Piraeus Harbour by himself where he received tours of HMS ECHO, HMC Valiant, the Hellenic Naval Trireme and the Hellenic Ship AVEROF.

Charles was joined by Camilla at the Commonwealth War Graves, where the prince laid a wreath at the stone of remembrance to pay respects to Commonwealth servicemen

The sun was shining brightly during the solemn occasion, with the Duchess taking advantage of a parasol to protect herself from the harsh rays

The Prince wore his military medals for the ceremony, including the Queen's Service Order, the Coronation Medal and the Jubilee Medal - not forgetting the Order of Merit around his neck

During the ceremony, the laid a wreath at the stone of remembrance to pay respects to Commonwealth servicemen. He is expected to take over as the head of the Commonwealth

The couple walked through a beautiful trellis walkway on their way to the Commonwealth War Graves on Thursday morning

On board the Piraeus Harbour, he was greeted by Commander Andrew Norgate, Commanding Officer.

During his tour, he was briefed on ECHO's work with EU Naval Forces and given a tour of the ship, meeting members of the Ship's Company and seeing the deck laid out for migrant rescue.

Before departing, he presented a Long Service and Good Conduct clasp to Warrant Officer Doody, and Commander Norgate said a few words of thanks.

The Prince also boarded a historic Greek warship now serving as a floating museum, the Georgios Averof, on the next leg of his whistlestop tour.

Charles boards HMS ECHO during a visit to Piraeus Harbour. He was greeted by Andrew Norgate, Commanding Officer, and have the opportunity to tour the ship

The Prince chats to crew on board HMS Echo. He was briefed on ECHO's work with EU Naval Forces and given a tour of the ship, during which he saw the deck laid out for migrant rescue

Charles meets crew members. Before departing, he presented a Long Service and Good Conduct clasp to Warrant Officer Doody, and Commander Norgate said a few words of thanks

Charles shares a joke with Andrew Norgate, Commanding Officer, as they climb on board the HMS Echo today, the second pit stop on a busy day of engagements in Athens

Charles views a dinghy used by immigrants as he visits HMC Valiant during a visit to Piraeus Harbour this morning

He also attended a reception for senior members of the armed forces at the yacht club.

The Duchess, meanwhile, visited a Unesco literacy event at the Kaisariani Monastery before undertaking a tour of a women's shelter.

Before the couple attend a reception at the British ambassador's residence, Charles will go to a British Council reception outside the Stavros Niarchos Centre.

The royal couple arrived in Greece for a three-day visit of Greece Wednesday, meeting the country's prime minister and president. They will visit the island of Crete Friday.

A feast for the eyes! Charles and Camilla samples the local delicacies on Thursday morning as they visited Kapnikarea, Athens on the latest leg of their five-day tour of France and Greece

Camila couldn't hide her delight as she surveyed a stand of koulouri, traditional Greek bread rings which were dusted with sesame seeds. She wore a pistachio-coloured tunic

The couple, who arrived in Athens on Wednesday afternoon, surprised locals when they stopped at the Kapnikarea area to try out some traditional Greek coffee

Whistlestop tour! The couple earlier stopped for refreshment during a walkabout in the Kapnikarea area of central Athens

The couple earlier stopped for refreshment during a walkabout in the Kapnikarea area of central Athens.

After visiting the 11th century Church of St Eirini and the stalls of St Eirini Square, they tried traditional Greek coffee in a local cafe.

Afterwards they visited stalls with local delicacies including loukoumades, traditional Greek doughnuts, and koulouri, traditional Greek bread rings, before heading to the final stop on the tour - the Byzantine Church of Kapnikarea.

Despite enjoying a range of local delicacies including a traditional cup of Greek coffee (pictured), local protesters holding placards called on the royals to go vegan

The couple were given a warm reception from locals in Athens. Yesterday, the pair delighted fans when they described next week's royal wedding as 'marvellous' and 'special'

Large crowds gathered in the city centre today to catch a glimpse of the royal couple this morning as they near the end of their three-day tour of Greece

Camilla, 70, swapped last night's designer gown for a pistachio-coloured tunic and floral clutch bag, shielding her eyes in a pair of dark wayfarers, while her husband kept it formal in a navy suit.

The couple, who are on a five-day royal tour of France and Greece, spent last night at a banquet hosted by president Prokopios Pavlopoulos and his wife Vlassia in the Greek capital.

After arriving in Athens on Wednesday, Charles met the country's Left-wing prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, while Camilla visited the Benkai Museum with his partner, Betty Baziana.

And the pair delighted fans when they described next week's royal wedding as 'marvellous' and 'special'.

Daytime look: Camilla, 70, swapped last night's designer gown for a floral clutch bag, shielding her eyes in a pair of dark wayfarers, while her husband kept it formal in a navy suit

Charles and Camilla spent the morning sampling local delicacies at Kapnikarea and the surrounding shopping area, getting stuck into traditional doughnuts and bread rings

Ladies first? While Camilla was keen to try out the tasty bread rings, her husband beat her to it as he enthusiastically grabbed a bag from the vendor

Spoilt for choice: While there were a variety of koulouri bread rings on display, Camilla appeared to indulge her sweet tooth when she opted for a sugar-coated variety

Private tour: After arriving in Athens on Wednesday, Charles met the country's Left-wing prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, while Camilla visited the Benkai Museum with his partner

Non-stop schedule: Their trip, which kicked off on Monday morning, has already taken them to Nice, Lyon and the medieval city of Eze

Royal visit: Charles and Camilla were on their last engagement of a three-day tour of France on behalf of the British Government before flying onto Athens

Busy itinerary: The couple, who are on a five-day royal tour of France and Greece, spent last night at a banquet hosted by president Prokopios Pavlopoulos and his wife Vlassia in Athens

Asked about his son Prince Harry's forthcoming nuptials to Meghan Markle at a flower market in Nice yesterday morning, the heir to the throne said: 'Obviously marvellous. I'm sure it will be a very special day for everybody. '

Charles and Camilla were on their last engagement of a three-day tour of France on behalf of the British Government before flying onto Athens.

Their trip, which kicked off on Monday morning, has already taken them to Nice, Lyon and the medieval city of Eze.Ivanka Trump cut an elegant silhouette as she headed out to work on Thursday morning in a classic black and white ensemble.

The first daughter, 36, left her home in Washington, D.C. around 8:40, dressed in a black sweater with three-quarter sleeves and a round neckline.

She paired it with a flowy, ankle-length white skirt with a high waist, bracing for the warm temperatures set to reach 80 degrees in D.C. in the afternoon.

Two-toned: Ivanka Trump cut an elegant silhouette as she headed out to work on Thursday morning in a classic black and white ensemble

Greeting the day: The first daughter, 36, left her home in Washington, D.C. around 8:40, dressed in a black sweater with three-quarter sleeves and a round neckline

Outfit: She paired the top with a flowy, ankle-length white skirt with a high waist, bracing for the warm temperatures set to reach 80 degrees in D.C. in the afternoon

Ivanka finished off her outfit with the same pointed black stilettos she wore the previous day as part of an all-black ensemble.

She hid her eyes behind a pair of black sunglasses and kept her long hair down in a glamorous wavy hairdo, having apparently received a professional blowout from her glam squad.

Her husband Jared Kushner was also spotted leaving for work on Monday, leaving out around 7:20.

Ivanka's fellow White House adviser stuck to his classics, wearing a dark suit paired with a white shirt and a blue tie.

He smiled as he walked towards the parked Secret Service car waiting to whisk him off to work.

On Wednesday, Ivanka relied on a foolproof little black dress as she headed out to work, dressed head to toe in the dark hue.

The senior White House adviser left a little after 8, cutting a chic figure in the $2,390 broderie-anglaise-lined black dress by Oscar de la Renta.

Staples: The first daughter finished off her outfit with the same pointed black stilettos she wore the previous day as part of an all-black ensemble

Details: She hid her eyes behind a pair of black sunglasses and kept her long hair down in a glamorous wavy hairdo

Prep: The White House adviser had apparently received a professional blowout from her glam squadpresumably in preparation for a work event

Commute: Ivanka kept her eyes trained ahead of herself as she walked towards the parked SUV waiting for her

She added a black belt to accentuate her waist, giving more structure to her outfit, relying on the scalloped lace hem of her skirt to add a pop of texture to the overall ensemble.

The dress' simple bodice, meanwhile, features short sleeves and a round neckline, making it a wise choice given that the temperatures in D.C. were predicted to reach 78 degrees on Monday.

Ivanka kept the rest of her outfit simple, complementing the dress with a pair of pointy black stilettos and a pair of matching shades to face the sunny weather.

The first daughter wore her long hair down, having pulled it onto her right shoulder to reveal her dangle pearl earrings.

Her husband Jared, meanwhile, was photographed heading out around 7:30.

He smiled as he walked towards his parked car, having stuck to his classics in a blue suit paired with a paler shirt in the same hue, as well as a gray tie.

Ivanka and Jared were later pictured at a Cabinet meeting, listening as President Donald Trump speaking about three hostages released from North Korea.

Heading out: She stepped onto the black SUV waiting for her outside of her home

Classics: Her husband Jared Kushner was also spotted leaving for work on Monday, leaving out around 7:20 in a dark suit paired with a white shirt and a blue tie

The first daughter also attended a White House event held on Monday in support of military spouses, standing close to her father as he delivered a speech.

Ivanka watched on as President Trump signed an executive order recognizing the contributions of military mothers and spouses and promoting their employment.

In keeping with the Mother's Day theme of the occasion, Trump made sure during his speech to pay tribute to some of the women in his life in addition to the first lady, whom he had praised previously during his address.

He singled out Ivanka, Karen Pence and Kellyanne Conway for their support.

'Thank you, Karenand Karen, and Ivanka, and Kellyanne,' he said after praising Melania's popularity. 'Thank you all for being here. Thank you very much.'

The trio of women was also spotlighted during Melania's introduction; the mother-of-one, who looked elegant in a $2,995 belted navy blue jacket dress from Michael Kors, took the time to thank all three for 'all of the hard work they have done on the executive order that [my husband] will be signing'.

Sartorial: Ivanka headed out to work on Wednesday morning cutting a chic figure in a $2,390 black dress by Oscar de la Renta

Details: She added a black belt to accentuate her waist, giving more structure to her outfit, relying on the scalloped lace hem of her skirt to add a pop of texture to the overall ensemble

Gathering: On Monday, the first daughter attended a White House event held in support of military spouses, standing close to her father as he signed an executive order

Right hand women: While signing the order, the President was joined by his wife, daughter Ivanka, Kellyanne Conway, and Karen Pence in the East Room of the White House

Hard work: Second lady Karen, Ivanka, and Kellyanne were all praised by both the President and the first lady for their hard work in helping to push the executive order through

Melania also paid tribute to her fellow mothers during the speech, praising the military wives and mothers 'not only for your love for your children, but for the dedication and sacrifice you make on behalf of our country each and every day'.

The first lady, who has one child12-year-old son Barronwith her husband, also opened up about some of the more difficult aspects of motherhood, paying mind not only to the strong bond between a mother and her child, but to the 'fear' that can often come with that strong level of emotion and love.

'Mother's Day, which is this Sunday, is celebrated just one time per year,' she began after taking the podium.

'I don't know about all of you, but I think mothers should be celebrated each and every day.

'As a mother myself, I know what goes into raising a child. It takes an incredible amount of strength, a lot of time, a generous amount of patience, and all of your love. As moms, we are so incredibly privileged to be able to bring children into this world and be part of helping them grow into adults.

'Children bring us endless amounts of both joy and fear. They fill us with pride through their triumphs and they love us in a manner that only other mothers can understand.

'Because of the powerful bond between a mother and her child, when they feel emotions, so do we. Whether they are happy or nervous, sad or excited, we feel those things with them. I think it is one of the most powerful and beautiful parts of motherhood.'Vogue editor-in-cheif Anna Wintour address rumors that Monday night's Met Gala would be her last, and also shared some inside tidbits about the big event held earlier this week.

Wintour, 68, doesn't appear to be giving up the reins of the fancy fete anytime soon, despite rumors this week to the contrary.

And speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, it's clear she was still very much running the show and managing every detail of the 2018 gala.

Chat show: Anna Wintour visited The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday, May 9

Denied: When stopped by press outside and asked about rumors that this was her last time chairing the ball, she said: 'I hope not'

What really went down: The 68-year-old, pictured at the 2018 event on Monday, dished on some of the inside details

Earlier this week, there was speculation that Wintour would be stepping down from chairing the event after this one. She is rumored to be leaving her post at Vogue this summer after the publication of the September issue, and some wondered whether she'd retire from the Costume Institute as well.

But when Extra asked her if this was the case on Wednesday, she replied simply: 'I hope not.'

On The Late Show, she spoke more about what goes into planning such a big event, and how she's been recovering since Monday night.

'It's been a lot of recovery time and wondering who's upset about where they sat, and what went wrong, and what went right,' she said.

When Colbert expressed surprise that people get upset about seating arrangements, which are meticulously planned, Wintour admitted that there are 'in-depth discussions' about them among guests.

Colbert, who was a guest himself, was sitting at a table of 26 people including Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, and co-chair Amal Clooney ('who never sat down,' he said).

He was next to Sienna Miller and James Corden's wife Julie  whom Anna figured Colbert could bond with over their shared late night television connection.

Good time: She commented on some of her best dressed and laughed with Colbert

Star-studded: Colbert attended with his wife and was sitting a celebrity-packed table with Hugh Jackman, Sienna Miller, and others

When Colbert asked about why he was sitting with the stars near him, Wintour told him: 'Obviously you are a star attraction, and I thought you were very well dressed.'

Colbert also revealed that everyone at the table decided to wait to eat until Wintour sat down  but they were quickly interrupted for a surprise performance by Madonna in the great hall.

'Pope Rihanna had told you that at the sound of the bells you had to move,' Wintour said.

'Rihanna ... took the theme extremely seriously and nailed it,' she added, discussing the best dressed of the night.

She also liked Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, but her 'very favorite' was Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest who was advising on the exhibition and wore his real robes.

'And apparently all night people were coming up to him and saying, "I really like that you came as a sexy priest. And you look so authentic!" Wintour revealed, to much laughter from the audience.

Approved! 'Rihanna ... took the theme extremely seriously and nailed it,' the fashion editor said

Bold: Wintour also liked Chadwick Boseman's on-theme ensemble

Real deal: She said her 'very favorite' was Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest who was advising on the exhibition and wore his real robes (left, with George Clooney and Cardinal Dolan)

On that point, Colbert asked Wintour if she'd heard of any push-back against the theme of the exhibit, to which Wintour insisted she did not.

'We worked very closely with the Vatican through the whole process and Cardinal Dolan, as I believe you know, was one of our guests of honor,' she said.

The Vogue boss was also a fan of Amal Clooney's Richard Quinn dress, but revealed that she actually changed outfits inside the event.

'It was made of tin foil, so she was little bit concerned it might rip during the evening,' she said. 'So she went into the gift shop and she changed into this extraordinary Tom Ford dress, which is designed to look like stained glass.'

Finally, Wintour commented on the Marchesa dress worn by Scarlett Johansson. Marchesa has been noticeably absent from red carpet events since last fall, when news broke of Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual assaults. Weinstein's ex-wife, Georgina Chapman, is co-designer of Marchesa.

ScarJo explained her choice to wear a Marchesa dress to the Met Gala, saying that Chapman should not be punished for the sins of her husband  a sentiment that Wintour approves of.

Experimental: Amal Clooney co-chaired the event this year and wore a Richard Quinn dress that was made of tin foil

Costume change! Amal was afraid of tearing the Richard Quinn design (left) and changed later in the gift shop, putting on a Tom Ford number (right) designed to look like stained glass

Crew: Amal is pictured with her husband George Clooney and friends Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber

'I totally agree with that,' she said. 'Georgina is a brilliant designer and I don't think that she should be blamed for her husband's behavior.

'And I think it was a great gesture of support on Scarlett's part to wear a dress like that, a beautiful dress like that, on a public occasion.'

The supportive comments about Chapman appear to clear up the mystery of weather Marchesa will make a comeback in the fashion community.

In fact, Wintour seemed keen to clear up a few uncertainties on Wednesday, including she she'd be moving on from the Met Gala.

Showbiz411 had reported earlier this week that this may have been the last time that Wintour hosted the event, as she is rumored to be leaving Conde Nast this summer.

With rising budgets, lower donations, and the drama-packed spectacle of the guest list and red carpet, the site suggested that Wintour's departure could mean and end to the Met Gala as we know it.

The event  which this year centered around the exhibit 'Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination'  was held on Monday after a year of planning. Wintour co-hosted with Rihanna, Donatella Versace, and Amal Clooney.

All for it: She also supported Scarlett Johansson's decision to wear Marchesa, agreeing that Georgina Chapman should not be punished for ex-husband Harvey Weinstein's sins

She is currently artistic director for the company, but is rumored to be stepping away after the publication of Vogue's September issue in August.

Showbiz411 speculated that when she leaves her position, she may also step down as gala chair, a position she has held since 1995.

It certainly would be the end of an era if Wintour stopped hosting the event. In 2014, the institute it raises money for was renamed the Anna Wintour Costume Center, and the editor transformed it from a local fete only know by New York City elite to a worldwide spectacle.

And if she does leave, the gala itself may get an overhaul. Though in recent years it has turned into a parade of celebrities and flashy outfits, it actually began in 1946 as a way to raise money for the Costume Institute  and is still primarily a fundraiser.

Guests at this year's event were expected to fork over up to $50,000 for the chance to attend, with designers shelling out up to $500,000 to buy a table for the night and fill it with a bevy of stars wearing their designs.

But despite tickets costing a small fortune, the 2017 gala didn't raise quite as much as the year before. Gross receipts for the event were reportedly $12.2 million, compared to $13.5 million in 2016.

And yet the gala also cost more money to put on, with the Met spending $3.859 million on the event. In 2016, it spent $3.556 million.

Numbers have not yet been revealed for 2018.

Ain't no party like a fashion party! It was rumored that this might have been Wintour's last time as chair (pictured in 2017)

Years of service: She has been gala chair since 1995 (pictured left in 2015 and right in 2016)

Flashback: She has been attending the gala since taking over as the boss of Vogue in the '80s (pictured in 1989)

Changes: Wintour is rumored to be leaving Conde Nast this summer (pictured left: 2011, center: 2010, right: 2008)

While it's unlikely that the gala, which has been held annually for over 60 years, will come to an end completely  whether or not Wintour stays  it's possible that there may be a shift in how it's put on.

That may be a relief for some stars who've come to see the gala as a chore that's both high-pressure and hyper-exclusive.

'The overall ambience isnt super friendly,' a gala regular told Page Six this weekend. 'Its not like walking into a party where you know everyone and everyones happy to see you.

'If you walk into the girls bathroom, all the celebrities are hanging out together, smoking together and ignoring everyone else,' the regular added.

Plus, 'its very dog-eat-dog. People wont move out of the way [on the carpet] for the next person.'

'Its very high school,' added another insider. 'There are plenty of people who have enough money for Met Ball, but . . . if [Wintour] doesnt deem you worthy, youre not coming. Considering that its a fund-raiser, thats extremely elitist.'

In fact, Wintour signs off on every single guest, including those invited by designers who buy tables. She approves every detail, including the seating charts, and has been known to ban certain celebrities.

Price of style: The gala costs a fortune to put on. The Met spent $3.859 million in 2017, compared to $3.556 million in 2016

Star critics: Several celebrities have publicly bashed the event, including Amy Schumer and Gwyneth Paltrow

Some celebrities, though, decide not to go on their own. Demi Lovato told Billboard that the party was too 'cliquey' after attending in 2016, while Gwyneth Paltrow dubbed it 'un-fun,' 'crowded,' and 'boiling.'

'If you had a million arms and all the people you would punch in the whole world, theyre all there,' said Tina Fey, who called it a 'jerk parade.' 'Clearly, Ill never go again.'

Amy Schumer also called the ball 'punishment.'

Last year, celebrity-watchers got a peek of what actually goes on inside the gala  and some of that clique-like behavior  when several stars posted selfies taken inside the event, and particularity inside the bathroom.

Though Wintour has banned attendees from posting on social media, many broke the rules last year.

Photos and video from the night that were posted on Instagram and Twitter showed a huge crowd of famous faces in the bathroom, including Kendall Jenner, Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Lily Aldridge, Diddy, Brie Larson, Frank Ocean and Emily Ratajkowski.

Also pictured were Karlie Kloss, Hailey Baldwin, Taylor Hill, Michelle Monaghan, Kate Bosworth, Cara Delevigne, Ashley Graham, Elizabeth Banks, and Kerry Washington.

What selfie ban? Last year, dozens of stars posted photos and video on social media from the event

Uh-oh: Several stars, including Bella Hadid, were also seen smoking in the bathroom

Above the law? New York law bans smoking indoors, but celebrities like Behati Prinsloo, pictured center posing with Taylor Hill and Hailey Baldwin, lit up anyway

While most were just smiling for the cameras or hanging out, a few were captured with cigarettes in hand, brazenly defying New York's indoor smoking ban.

Behati Prinsloo, Bella Hadid, Dakota Johnson, and Paris Jackson were all seen smoking in the bathroom, as were Francis Bean Cobain, Mr. Robot actor Rami Malek, designer Marc Jacobs, and designer Stella McCartney.

The flagrant disregard for local laws caused a bit of trouble days later, with board members and donors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art criticizing the behavior.

The New York City Smoke-Free Air Act prohibits smoking in nearly all indoor workplaces, and calls for a fine of $200 to $400 for first-time violators. Second violation within the first year carry a $500 to $1,000 fine, while third or subsequent violations within a year carry a $1,000 to $2,000 fine.

'As a donor to the Met, I was so insulted to see all these "celebrities" smoking and taking selfies of themselves in the bathroom,' a source told Page Six. 'Mostly, its disrespectful to the art collection, which needs to be kept 100% smoke-free. I would honestly like to see these people fined by the city.'

For the 2018 gala, the Met reportedly took steps to prevent a repeat, posting 'No Smoking' signs and having guards patrolling for rule-breakers.It looks like Donald Trump Jr.'s rumored new girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle will be a perfect fit as far as his family is concerned, at least when it comes to getting on with his stepmother, Melania.

While on the surface, the two women might appear to have nothing more in common than their long brunette locks, high cheekbones, and statuesque figures, but at a closer glance, Kimberly, 49, bears many remarkable similarities to the first lady  certainly more than Don Jr.'s estranged wife, Vanessa.

First of all, Kimberly is political royalty in her own right; she served as the first lady of San Francisco when her former husband, Gavin Newsom, was mayor. The co-host of The Five is also just a year older than Melania, and they both got their starts in modeling before becoming public political figures.

Lookalikes: Donald Trump Jr.'s rumored new flame Kimberly Guilfoyle (R), 49, has an uncanny resemblance to his 48-year-old stepmother, Melania (L)

Dating? Don Jr., 40, and Kimberly (pictured with Harris Faulkner) arrived together at a party in honor of Richard Grenell, Trump's new ambassador to Germany on May 6

Kimberly was born and raised in San Francisco and grew up in what SFGate described as a 'decidedly working class' background.

Her father, Anthony Guilfoyle, is an Irish immigrant who did construction work and served in the military before becoming a real estate investor. Her mother, Mercedes, moved from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and taught special education. She died of leukemia when Kimberly was 10.

'My mother was just everything to me, I loved her so much, I always wanted to be around her. I loved how I saw people react to her,' she told Mediaite in 2015.

'She was a warm woman who worked in education with people with emotional challenges. I got my sense of giving back and how when you have many blessings, pay it forward.'

Melania, who was born in Slovenia, came from a similar working class background. Her father, Viktor Knavs, was a car dealer, and her mother, Amalija, designed children's clothing.

The first lady sponsored her parents' move to the United States, and Michael Wildes, a New York-based immigration lawyer who represents the first lady and her family, told the Washington Post in February that the Knavses are living in the country on green cards.

Similarities: Melania and Kimberly share the same brown hair and statuesque physiques

Doppelgangers: The two, who are only a year apart, both have high cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes

There have been claims that Melania obtained a degree from University of Ljubljana; however, CBS News reported that she only attended the school for a year before returning to modeling.

Although Melania thrived as a model, Kimberly told SFGate in 2001 that, for her, modeling 'was a means to an end, period'.

Don Jr.'s alleged new love interest modeled swimsuits and lingerie just like his stepmother did, but she opted to use her earnings to attend law school after graduating from the University of California, Davis.

'I knew I wanted to go to law school and it ended up being a great way to pay for it. I modeled everything from clothes, swimwear and lingerie, including Victoria's Secret!' she told People in 2014.

'I met an incredible number of interesting people through modeling and really learned a lot about self-confidence and self-worth.'

Her decision to make money as a model certainly paid off in more ways than one; Kimberly received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1994.

Big breaks: Melania and Kimberly both got their starts as models before becoming public figures

Differences: Although Melania thrived as a model, Kimberly said that, for her, modeling 'was a means to an end, period.' She used her modeling money to attend law school

Having had relatively modest upbringings, Kimberly and Melania are both drawn to powerful, wealthy men.

Melania famously met Donald Trump at a Fashion Week party in 1998 when she was just 28 years old.

She is said to have refused to give the then 52-year-old real estate mogul her phone number because he was with a date, but she ended up calling him a few days later.

But it wasn't until 2005 that the former model became Trump's third wife, when they said 'I do' at their lavish Palm Beach wedding.

Kimberly, meanwhile, dated oil tycoon Billy Getty before starting her relationship with Gavin, whose father, William Alfred Newsom III, is an administrator of the Getty family trust.

She wed Gavin, then a city supervisor, in 2001, and two years later he was elected the mayor of San Francisco. He is now the lieutenant governor of California and currently running for governor of the state.

Support system: Like Melania, Kimberly helped campaign for her former husband, Gavin Newsom, when he was running for mayor. They are pictured at an election night party in 2003

Political royalty: Kimberly served as the first lady of San Francisco when Gavin was elected in 2003. They're pictured together in 2004

First lady duties: Donald Trump and Melania hosted Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie Abe at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, last month

Royal visit: As the first lady of San Francisco, Kimberly and her former husband welcomed Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall (pictured in 2005)

Like Melania, Kimberly knows a few things about hosting foreign dignitaries.

As the first lady of San Francisco, she and her former husband welcomed Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, on their first official visit to the city during their U.S. tour.

'I spent three days with them and it was a wonderful experience,' she told People in 2014. 'During one of the formal dinners, I was sat next to Prince Charles who was kind enough to share the rest of his apple tart dessert with me.'

In addition to her role as first lady, Kimberly served as San Francisco's assistant District Attorney from 2000 to 2004 before moving to New York City to pursue a career in television. Kimberly and Gavin's bi-coastal relationship put a strain on their marriage, and she filed for divorce in 2005.

In 2006, the same year she joined Fox News, Kimberly married furniture heir Eric Villency, the CEO of Villency Design Group. They welcomed their son, Ronan Anthony, in October 2006, less than five months after they said 'I do.'

First lady style: Kimberly looked ladylike in a black and white coat with a bow. The outfit is similar to ones that Melania has worn as first lady

Second husband: After divorcing Gavin, Kimberly married furniture heir Eric Villency, the CEO of Villency Design Group in 2006. They divorced three years later.

Single mom: Kimberly and Eric's son, Ronan, was born in October 2006, less than five months after they said 'I do'

Only children: Melania's son, Barron Trump, 12, is just a little over six months older than 11-year-old Ronan

Not only are Kimberly and Melania just a year apart, their only sons are around the same age as well. Barron Trump, 12, is just a little over six months older than 11-year-old Ronan.

However, unlike Melania, Kimberly is a single mom. She and Eric announced their separation in 2009 and eventually divorced.

The Fox News host, who has repeatedly defended the Trump family on-air, was rumored to have dated Anthony Scaramucci last year.

Kimberly confirmed last year that she had been in contention to serve as Trump's press secretary. She reportedly turned it down and extended her contract with Fox.

She and Don Jr., 40, run in the same New York City social circles, and she has hobnobbed with both him and his estranged wife, Vanessa, a former model-turned-mother-of-five.

Out and about: Kimberly and Don Jr. ran in the same New York City social circles. They are pictured with his now estranged wife Vanessa (second from right) in 2007

Old friends? Kimberly was all smiles when she posed for a photo with Vanessa at a party in New York City in 2007

Vanessa, 40, filed divorce papers in Manhattan Supreme Court in March after 12 years of marriage to Don Jr.

The divorce was listed as 'uncontested,' meaning Vanessa is not asking for full custody of the children and Don Jr. does not object to the filing.

'After 12 years of marriage, we have decided to go our separate ways,' the pair said in a joint statement.

'We will always have tremendous respect for each other and our families. We have five beautiful children together and they remain our top priority. We ask for your privacy during this time.'

Lawyers for Trump's eldest son have since asked the court for a statement on Vanessa's net worth after it was revealed she inherited millions from her father's investment in Rao's marinara sauce.

Fan: The Fox News host (pictured with Don Jr. and Vanessa in 2008) has repeatedly defended the Trump family on-air

Former flame? Kimberly was rumored to have dated Anthony Scaramucci (center) last year

Don Jr. has been dating Kimberly for a few weeks, sources told Page Six.

One source said the they are 'seeing each other' and 'having a great time.'

'While he wants to respect the privacy of his family, he is getting divorced, and he enjoys Kimberly's company,' he person added.

Don Jr. and Kimberly were recently seen arriving together at a party in honor of Richard Grenell, Trump's new ambassador to Germany.

Sources said the couple 'stuck close to each other' at the party on Sunday and left together to grab dinner at the upscale Harry Cipriani restaurant in Manhattan.

Three may be a lucky number for the Trumps.

Melania is the president's third wife, and if Don Jr. and Kimberly were ever to get married, he would be her third husband.An endometriosis sufferer said strangers often congratulate her because the condition makes her stomach swell so much she looks nine months pregnant.

Emily Mulet, 38, from Davie, Florida, was officially diagnosed with endometriosis in 2013, a painful disorder in which tissues from the womb grow outside the uterus.

The mother sadly experienced an ectopic pregnancy with her former partner and doctors found evidence which suggested endometriosis during surgery.

Scroll down for video

Family: Emily Mulet, 38, was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2013. She is thankful she was able to have her son, Reggie, before her condition got worse

Swollen: Endometriosis causes tissues from the womb to grow outside the uterus. Emily said people often mistaken her for being pregnant

Love: Emily, from David, Florida, said the pain from the disease can often be debilitating. Pictured is her with her son and niece

The mom-of-one said she has battled the 'debilitating' symptoms of the disorder for over 18 years, including periods that are so painful she has to miss work each month.

Emily, a personal cruise consultant, said the pain in her back and abdomen can be so intense her doctor has prescribed codeine, an opiate, to help her cope on particularly tough days.

The condition also causes Emily's stomach to swell so much that strangers regularly ask her if she is pregnant.

'I am not a skinny woman by any means,' Emily said. 'I have curves but when I have a flare up, I get so big and bloated and huge it can look like I'm pregnant.

'People often ask me when I'm due, or if I'm expecting. It's embarrassing.

'One day I was in the baby aisle buying something for my niece and a lady asked me how long I had left.

'I don't take offense because I know people mean well, but it's not fun. This condition really impacts women's lives.'

She added: 'I've been single for a long time now and I have no interest in being in a relationship right now because of this.

Fighter: Emily tries to battle against the pain, but sometimes it prevents her from going to work. Pictured is her with her son, who is now 19 years old

Expecting: Emily got pregnant with her son when she was 18-years-old. She is now thankful for that experience because endometriosis can prevent women from getting pregnant

'When I'm in so much pain and so bloated and uncomfortable, I don't feel pretty, I don't feel sexy, I don't feel desirable. It's so lonely.

'I haven't had any experience with men treating me badly but it's my own fear.

'I was in a relationship for a very long time and my partner was nothing but supportive, but right now I have no desire to be intimate with anyone.'

Emily describes the pain as debilitating, especially when she is on her period.

'It's horrific abdominal pain, it's back pain,' she said. 'It literally feels like someone is hitting my back with a hammer.'

The disease impacts her intestines, so she now has to live with irritable bowel syndrome. Emily even has to miss work sometimes if she is in too much pain.

'I try to power through but sometimes I just can't get out of bed,' she said. 'I take codeine which helps relieve the pain but it knocks me out.

'I'm lucky to have very understanding employers but I work in sales and any day you can't come in, that's commission you are missing out on.

'It definitely has an impact financially.'

After almost two decades battling the condition, Emily has decided to undergo a hysterectomy this autumn, an operation to remove her womb, fallopian tubes and ovaries.

Thankful: Doctors say the 38-year-old will probably not be able to get pregnant again. She feels thankful that she has her son

Warrior: Emily has decided to undergo a hysterectomy this autumn to help with the pain. The procedure will remove her womb, fallopian tubes and ovaries.

Emily hopes that the procedure will help her have a pain-free life, excel at her job, and perhaps even find love after years of turmoil.

Emily said: 'My doctors suggested I have a hysterectomy three months ago and I've taken a little time to think about it.

'Making the decision to have a hysterectomy is very difficult. It feels like by taking away your womb, you might be taking away what makes you a woman.

'But I thought about it. I have been battling this intense pain every month since I was 18 years old. It's become unbearable.'

Endometriosis can make it more difficult for women to have children, depending on the severity of the condition.

Although Emily said it was tough to come to terms with the fact she will never have more children, she feels very lucky to have son Reggie Rivera, 19, a student.

Emily said: 'Even though I'll never be a mom again, I have a niece who I love and I've made peace with it.

'I always wanted to be a mom so I feel very lucky that I am one because a lot of women with this condition don't have that chance.

'I feel blessed.'Advertisement

A teenage lesbian couple took their prom pictures at Taco Bell before the dance because it is their favorite fast-food joint - and the photo shoot has since gone viral.

Riley Papile and her girlfriend Abby Creneti hired a photographer to take their prom pictures before the dance at their high school in Horsham, Pennsylvania.

In honor of Riley's love for Taco Bell (and their empty stomachs), the couple decided to take part of their pictures at their favorite fast-food chain ahead of the dance on May 25.

Dressed up: Riley Papile (left) and her girlfriend Abby Creneti (right) took part of their prom pictures at Taco Bell because of how much Riley loves the fast food restaurant

Hungry: The photo shoot was scheduled ahead of the senior prom at Hatboro-Horsham High School in Pennsylvania

Friends: Riley even hoped behind the counter during the shoot because she is known by most of the employees at the local Taco Bell

'I eat at tacos probably five days a week on average,' Riley told PEOPLE. 'I am not proud of it, but man those tacos are good.'

The couple already wanted to incorporate tacos into their pictures because of how Abby asked Riley to the junior prom, which was held in April.

Abby, who is a junior at Hatboro-Horsham High School, asked her girlfriend to her prom with a sign that read, 'Ry, taco 'bout prom?'

Their photographer, Rachel Beck, came up with the idea to take the shoot to Taco Bell, which neither teen opposed.

So on the day of the shoot, they dressed up in floor-length dresses, makeup and styled hair before heading to a local Taco Bell.

Drink up: The couple said the photo shoot was perfect because they were hungry anyway

Pose: They did receive some weird looks from people at the fast-food chain, but the couple said it was a fun shoot

Cute: Abby (right) asked Riley to her junior prom in April with a sign that read, 'Ry, taco 'bout prom?'

Beautiful: Many people were supportive of the couple's creative idea to shoot at Taco Bell. The restaurant even shared Riley's post and called them the 'Queens of Taco Bell'

During the shoot, the couple shared tacos and quesadillas while laughing about the bizarre looks they were getting from onlookers.

Riley, who is known by most of the Taco Bell employees, even jumped behind the counter for part of the shoot.

On social media, people were commenting on the creativity of the photo shoot and how touched they were by their LGBT relationship.

Taco Bell even retweeted their photo shoot calling the couple the 'Queens of Taco Bell'.

But Riley admitted to Fox News that the people in the fast-food chain were not impressed by the dressed-up couple.

'We got a lot of weird stares from customers as we were both in gowns in a fast food restaurant,' she said.

Overall, it was a fun experience for the couple who are now turning their sights on the senior prom to be held later this month.Britain may shortly face another Mid Staffs hospital scandal, according to the leader of the Royal College of Nursing.

Janet Davies warns nursing shortages are as bad as they were during the crisis, adding the number of vacancies has reached a 'critical' stage.

Up to 1,200 patients died as a result of poor care between January 2005 and March 2009 at Stafford hospital, which is run by the Mid Staffordshire NHS hospital trust.

A report into the incident claimed it occurred due to 'a chronic shortage of staff, particularly nursing staff'.

It is often described as the worst hospital-care scandal of recent times.

In January this year, Ms Davies said the NHS is 'haemorrhaging' nurses after 33,000 quit in one year.

One in 10 nurses are leaving their position in England every 12 months, which is enough to staff more than 20 hospitals and means quitters outnumbered joiners by 3,000 last year.

Scroll down for video

Britain may face another Mid Staffs scandal due to nursing shortages, expert warns (stock)

WHAT WAS THE MID STAFFS HOSPITAL SCANDAL? Up to 1,200 patients died as a result of poor care between January 2005 and March 2009 at Stafford hospital, which is run by the Mid Staffordshire NHS hospital trust. It is often described as the worst hospital-care scandal of recent times. Inadequate care was blamed on cost cutting and poor decision making. The hospital's board is thought to have cut staff to save 10 million between 2006 and 2007 in order to gain foundation trust status. How were patients treated? A public inquiry into the scandal revealed patients went without pain relief, were left unwashed for a month, had food placed out of their reach and were left sitting in soiled sheets for hours. Families were forced to clean some patients' dressings and wounds to reduce their risk of infection. Many patients were sent home too soon or misdiagnosed. A report stated 'a chronic shortage of staff, particularly nursing staff' was to blame. Morale was also low, with many staff reportedly showing a disregard for patient welfare. How did it come to light? The scandal came to light when the Healthcare Commission became aware of the hospital's unusually high death rates in mid 2007. By January, the watchdog identified seven different patient safety alerts and launched an inquiry. At the time, the hospital blamed the deaths on 'coding errors'. A full public inquiry was commissioned in June 2010, after the previous Labour Government refused persistent requests from the relatives of victims to hold such an analysis. Source: The Guardian Advertisement

'We are in a really, really difficult position'

Ms Davies told the Nursing Times: 'The number of vacancies and the increase in demand is critical, and we are in a really, really difficult position.

'Not having enough staff to the job that you should be doing is the one thing that really pushes nurses out of the profession.

'It is the biggest issue for nurses'.

She noted that the Mid Staffs crisis was due to a deliberate cut in staffing numbers rather than a fall in nursing applicants.

In an attempt to counteract the problem, Ms Davies said the RCN will not give up on efforts to have the Government offer nursing grants.

Bursaries were scrapped in 2017, requiring nurses and midwives pay 9,000 a year in fees.

Ms Davies fears shortages will push nursing associates, which is a new support role, into doing tasks meant for registered nurses.

Ms Davies would also like to see more funds being invested into nursing recruitment rather than filling apprenticeships.

Nursing quit rates up 20%

Nurses leaving the profession are up by 20 per cent since 2012-to-2013, which adds extra pressure to already strained hospitals and requires staff be pulled off special research projects to help out.

Of those quitting, more than half are under 40, with many citing stress and rising workloads for being behind their decisions to leave.

Although the Government is increasing the number of nurse training places by 25 per cent this year, it will be three years before they graduate, with one in nine nursing positions currently being vacant.

Ms Davies claims that in order to motivate nurses to stay, they need to be paid more and offered greater support.

Mary Trevelyan left her job as a nurse at a London hospital after she was often reduced to tears at the end of her shift by the stress of her working day.

Ms Trevelyan, who only worked for the NHS for two-and-a-half years, was signed off for three months due to stress and depression, and doubts she will be able to work for the health service again.Surrounded by a team of surgeons and hooked up to machines which are keeping him alive, these incredible pictures show the moment a nine year-old boy's heart is removed and replaced during a transplant operation.

Schoolboy Max Johnson, 10, had spent seven months waiting for a donor heart before undergoing the nine-hour operation.

In a UK first, camera crews were allowed to film the incredibly complex procedure and footage shows the moment the donor heart starts beating again.

Max suffers from cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle that affects its size, shape and structure, and spent seven months hooked up to a pump which was keeping him alive.

A transplant was his only hope and a 'perfect match' arrived at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, one of Europe's leading multi-organ transplant centres, in August.

It was from a nine year-old girl, Keira Ball, who had been killed in a car crash.

Scroll down for video

Schoolboy Max Johnson, who had cardiomyopathy, spent seven months waiting for a donor heart before undergoing a nine-hour operation (thought to be pictured recovering in hospital)

Surgeon Asif Hasan removed Max's heart, telling theatre staff: 'Throw it in the bin'

Surgeons had just four hours to place the donated heart into Max's body. The organ was donated from nine-year-old Keira Ball who tragically died in a car crash last August

Keira's siblings (pictured) and parents met Max earlier this month to hear her heart beating

Max's swollen heart was the size of a rugby ball

In the BBC documentary, viewers see the most complete picture of the process of organ donation ever shown on television.

His mother Emma, 47, who was in theatre for the start of the operation, recalled how the donor organ 'could not wait to start beating' once it was put inside her son.

'The surgeons were talking to it and said "you are waking up too soon, little one", she said.

In the programme Max's severely damaged organ - bloated to the size of a rugby ball - is shown 'cemented' to his chest cavity by damaged tissue.

Surgeon Asif Hasan removes the organ, telling theatre staff: 'Throw it in the bin.' Max's chest can be seen cut open, without his heart inside as he is kept alive by machines.

Footage also shows the donor heart's journey from when it arrives at the front door of the hospital and is wheeled into theatre in a plastic box.

It takes 40 minutes to 'plumb' the organ into Max, who is kept alive via a bypass machine

After three hours and 10 minutes 'on ice', doctors confirmed the heart was working normally

In a UK first, camera crews were allowed to film the incredibly complex procedure

Max had a serious heart disease, with the donated, matched organ being his 'only hope'

WHAT IS CARDIOMYOPATHY? Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle that affects its size, shape and structure. The condition is usually inherited. The three main types of cardiomyopathy are: Hypertrophic - heart wall is thickened

- heart wall is thickened Dilated - heart muscle becomes stretched and thin

- heart muscle becomes stretched and thin Arrhythmogenic right ventricular - heart muscle cells cannot be kept together All of these types of cardiomyopathy affect the heart's ability to pump blood around the body efficiently. They can also impact the way electrical signals make the organ beat. There is no cure, however, in most cases people's quality or length of life is unaffected. Therapies may include medication, treatment to normalise heart rhythm, pacemakers and, in rare cases, heart surgery or transplants. Source: British Heart Foundation Advertisement

Donated heart 'plumbed' into Max's body in 40 minutes

The donated heart had travelled 400 miles from a hospital in Devon and surgeons had just four hours to put it in place.

At one point, Mr Hasan calls out: 'Not ready yet.' It then takes 40 minutes to 'plumb' the donated organ into Max's body, while the bypass machine keeps him alive.

The new heart is then 'brought back to life' with oxygen and a small electric current.

Mr Hasan watches for the first 10 to 15 minutes to ensure there are no problems as Max's blood is pumped around his body.

'It is starting to beat now,' Mr Hasan said, as monitors confirm that after three hours and 10 minutes 'on ice' the heart is working normally.

Keira had suffered serious head injuries in a car crash near her home in Barnstaple, Devon at the end of July.

Her mother Loanna was left fighting for life.

Three days after the accident, doctors told Keira's father Joe there was nothing more they could do and he took the decision to allow her to become an organ donor.

Earlier this month, Mr and Mrs Ball and Keira's sisters Keely, 13, Katelyn, 12, and brother Bradley, eight, travelled to Cheshire to meet Max and listened to her heart beating inside him.

In the emotional first meeting, Mr Ball, 35, wiped away tears and embraced Max, now 10, after holding a stethoscope to his heart.

Max, who had been at risk of 'imminent death' after 196 days on a transplant waiting list, told Mr Ball: 'I cannot thank you enough.

'Words aren't enough. It is special to be able to say thank you in person.' Mrs Johnson told the Ball family: 'When the call came to say the heart was there, you are happy for your own child, but devastated for the donor family.

'There are such conflicting emotions. We thought of you at Christmas, and we will think of you when the anniversary of the operation comes around.'

It is rare for a donor family to meet the recipient, but Mr Johnson hopes that will change after their meeting with the Balls.

Using a process called ex vivo perfusion, surgeons can reanimate organs, medicate them and keep them alive outside the body, for longer while they are transported to the recipient patient

Surgeons featuring in the BBC documentary believe they have made a pivotal breakthrough

WHAT IS EX VIVO PERFUSION? Usually performed on lungs, ex vivo perfusion is an experimental technique that rejuvenates poor-quality organs in order to make them fit for transplantation. It involves keeping organs 'active' outside of the body by providing them with warmth, nutrients and blood substitutes. This replicates the condition organs are in when inside people's bodies. Such a technique may lead to less donor organs being wasted and recipients' waiting times being reduced, which could save lives. Advertisement

Calls for opt-out organ donation system

Keira's organs saved four lives, including that of another little boy who received her pancreas and liver.

Her parents have set up a charity in her memory called Inspired By Keira, which helps other parents who have lost children while Max has been the face of a campaign to change the law on organ donation to an opt-out system.

In this country, there is a chronic shortage of suitable organs being donated for transplant.

Britain has amongst the worst rates of family consent for donation in Europe.

But surgeons featuring in the BBC documentary believe they have made the pivotal breakthrough.

Using a process called ex vivo perfusion, they can now reanimate organs, medicate them and keep them alive outside the body, for longer whilst they are transported to the recipient patient.

This allows organs to be sourced from much further afield. It also means doctors have much more time to assess an organ's function, removing the risk of an organ failing post-transplant.

MPs have also voted in favour of replacing the current system of organ donation with an opt-out scheme, in which everyone is considered a donor unless they specifically say otherwise.

It is hoped the new legislation will be called Max's Law once it is in place.Mass vaccinations will not stop Ebola outbreaks, scientists have warned amid fears the virus could reach epidemic levels in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Health officials in the African country have already confirmed six cases of the deadly virus, considered one of the most lethal known to science.

But it is suspected 17 people have died from Ebola - and the Congo Health Ministry has already warned that 'our country is facing another epidemic'.

Scientists fear it is a 'public health emergency', as an Ebola pandemic killed at least 11,000 as it decimated West Africa between 2014 and 2016.

All nine countries that neighbour DRC have been alerted over the possible spread of Ebola - and international aid teams have been flown into the country to help.

But a new Kent University study claims a mass vaccination programme won't help to control the fresh outbreak, which experts worry could quickly spread.

Health officials in the African country have already confirmed six cases of the deadly virus, considered one of the most lethal known to science (pictured, Red Cross workers carrying a corpse out of a house in Sierra Leone during the Ebola pandemic of 2014-16)

Professor Martin Michaelis and colleagues examined the prospects of a major Ebola campaign to dole out jabs to at-risk patients by looking at 35 old studies.

Writing in the Frontiers in Immunology, they revealed that controlling an outbreak of the virus depends entirely on surveillance and the isolation of cases.

At least 80 per cent of the population would have to receive the vaccine to establish herd immunity, as the average infected patient passes it onto four other people.

But, Professor Michaelis and colleagues pointed to a trial during the Ebola pandemic, which showed less than half of patients were given a experimental jab.

Currently, there are no vaccines to protect patients against Ebola - and scientists are unsure if any of the ones under investigation will work in the long-term.

Doling out vaccines to populations would also be 'costly and impractical', Professor Michaelis and colleagues claimed, as many people at risk live in remote, rural areas.

Where is the outbreak happening?

The new outbreak is occurring in the northwestern town of Bikoro - which is around 324 miles (522km) north of the capital Kinshasa.

In the past 24 hours, it has emerged cases of a haemorrhagic fever - believed to be Ebola - have been reported since December, with deaths in January.

However, the Congo Health Ministry only confirmed the outbreak two days ago, and revealed two people had been struck down by the virus.

Local health chiefs in Bikoro, in the Equater province, with a population of 8,000, today confirmed four new cases of Ebola, including two hospital workers.

But the World Health Organization warns there has been 21 suspected cases of an Ebola-like fever and 17 deaths since the start of April.

Tests are yet to confirm if all of those patients had Ebola - but officials suspect it is likely, due to the virus being endemic in the DRC.

They warned it was a 'public health emergency' (a health worker is pictured spraying a colleague with disinfectant during a training session for Congolese health workers to deal with Ebola four years ago)

Has the DRC been struck by Ebola before?

DRC escaped the brutal Ebola pandemic, which was finally declared over in January 2016 - but it was struck by a smaller outbreak last year.

Four DRC residents died from the virus in 2017. The outbreak lasted just 42 days and international aid teams were praised for their prompt responses.

Health experts credit an awareness of the disease among the DRC population and local medical staff's experience treating for past successes containing its spread.

The country's vast, remote geography also gives it an advantage, as outbreaks are often localised and relatively easy to isolate.

Bikoro, however, lies not far from the banks of the Congo River, considered to be an essential waterway for transport and commerce.

Further downstream, the river flows past Kinshasa and Brazzaville, capital of Congo Republic - two cities have a combined population of over 12 million people.

Named after the DRC's Ebola river

The new outbreak is is the country's since the discovery of the killer virus, which was named after the Ebola river in the north of DRC, in 1976.

The Congo Health Ministry said on Tuesday: 'Our country is facing another epidemic of the Ebola virus, which constitutes an international public health emergency.

'We still dispose of the well trained human resources that were able to rapidly control previous epidemics.'

Neighbouring countries alerted

Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Burundi and the Republic of Congo - which border the DRC - have all been alerted.

While Kenya - which doesn't border the country - yesterday issued warnings over the possible spread of Ebola.

Thermal guns to detect anyone with a fever have been put in place along its border with Uganda and at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

Concerned health officials in Nigeria, which also doesn't border the DRC, have put similar measures in place to keep its population safe.

International aid teams deployed

The WHO, Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Provincial Division of Health traveled to Bikoro earlier this week in an effort to stem the outbreak.

Health chiefs stated on Tuesday a team of epidemiologists, logisticians, clinicians, and other infection experts will be deployed to the DRC.

The WHO has released 738,000 ($1m) from its Contingency Fund for Emergencies to support response activities for the next three months.

Dr Peter Salama, WHO deputy director general, said on Tuesday that it is urgently working to 'reduce the loss of life and suffering' from the Ebola outbreak.

Ebola is often fatal if untreated - around 50 per cent of patients die. It is transmitted to people from wild animals and can be spread from human to human.An international survey revealed a significant lack of awareness surrounding the disease known as lupus.

To raise awareness, May 10 is World Lupus Day  a global call-to-action on behalf of the millions of people affected by lupus.

To help improve the understanding of lupus, take action and sign the lupus awareness pledge.

Imagine a disease that is so unpredictable that it can affect the entire body without ever being diagnosed, confusing doctors and sufferers alike.

That's lupus and currently, some 15,000 British people suffer with it.

But while, staggeringly 90 percent of sufferers are women, few of us know what it is, or have even heard of it.

Indeed, Selena Gomez, 25-year-old pop star, ended her world tour early in August to recover from lupus-related panic attacks and depression.

Raising awareness: Selena Gomez, who has lupus, has been a vocal advocate for sufferers

In the hours after, Google trends saw more than a 1,000 percent spike in searches for 'what is lupus?'.

A global survey by pharmaceutical company GSK this year also found that 26 percent of people across 16 countries did not know lupus is a disease, and over half did not know that lupus can result in serious health complications.

So, what is lupus?

It is an illness in which the immune system produces too many antibodies which causes reactions leading to inflammation of parts of the body, skin, or organs.

Despite lupus being triggered by genetic or possibly environmental factors, the GSK survey also found that 41 percent of people feel less than 'comfortable' shaking hands with someone with lupus, indicating they believe it is infectious.

The disease, says the charity Lupus UK is complex and deceiving and otherwise known as the 'invisible disease', because it works in flares and periods of remission.

In the UK, the number of people with lupus is estimated by researchers as 15,000, but there is no actual number because so many cases go undiagnosed and in fact, the numbers could be much higher .

'One research study in Birmingham suggested that one in 500 adult women has lupus in the UK whereas 15,000 cases only accounts for one in 3500,' says Paul Howard from Lupus UK.

The symptoms differ from person to person, from mild to life-threatening, but the main symptoms are painful and swollen joints, fever, hair loss, severe fatigue, and a skin rash. But in short, it affects the body on a large scale.

There is no cure for lupus, but it doesn't affect life expectancy. Medication can be used to control the symptoms, typically steroids, immune suppressants, antimalarials, or even in some cases such as Selena Gomez, chemotherapy.

But these offset an array of complications themselves, such as weigh-gain with steroids, bone thinning, or stomach weakening.

For Lupus Awareness Month, we spoke to three women who live with lupus, with incredibly interesting stories.

'Nobody knew what was going on': Mother-of-two who suffered 10 miscarriages was wrongly told she had leukemia, meningitis, pneumonia and kidney failure - before doctors finally discovered her lupus

Sue Hayes, 67, lives in Surrey with her husband Mick. They have two grown children, Matt and Nicola

Sue Hayes, 67, was told she would die at 38

At the age of 38, I had to say goodbye to my children, after the doctor held my hand as he told my husband Mick and I that I had 24 hours to live.

Lupus had overtaken every organ in my body, my skin, and my blood. Doctors had misdiagnosed my illness for years, and one even wrote 'hypochondriac' on my medical notes.

The day before my diagnosis, resting in hospital after a collapse, a specialist nurse told me that I was wasting hospital time and I should give the bed to someone who needed it.

I actually doubted myself, was I making everything up? But that's the thing with lupus, it masks itself. It's called the great deceiver because it doesn't always show.

It took years of being unwell to finally be diagnosed with the worst case of lupus my doctors had ever seen, despite not really knowing anything about it.

I had had 10 miscarriages between my children, who, would regularly find me passed out on the kitchen floor, the colour of paper.

They initially thought it was leukaemia, meningitis, pneumonia, internal bleeding, and kidney and liver problems.

I was even close to being put on the kidney transplant list. It was actually a trainee doctor who suggested it could be lupus.

The doctor laughed and said, 'I've never seen a case of that in my life, and I doubt you will'. But after doing the lupus test, after around 180 blood tests, it came back as positive.

On death's door, the doctor told us he wanted to give me a huge overdose of steroids, to 'break the lupus up like an atomic explosion'.

He said it could kill me, but it worked.

The condition forced her onto steroids to control her symptoms, and she went from a size 12-28 in a month

After, I went from a size 12-28 in a month, as steroids make you put on weight. It was unbelievable.

I had every mirror in the house taken down, and wore huge tents made of two pieces of material sewn together. I was sitting on the bed with my son one day, and he just burst into tears. He looked at me and said 'mummy I can hear you, but I can't see you'.

Back then, in the 90s, nobody had really heard of it, or knew about it, despite British politician Hugh Gaitskell dying it from it in 1963 just before becoming prime minister.

I was so confused and had to research it myself. I had to stop working as I was taking too much time off; one time was seven months when I had cerebral lupus.

I was a career driven girl I was signed off as disabled about 10 years after my diagnosis, and now receive full disability living allowance.

I can look really healthy in-between flares, but even on my best day, I will ache everywhere. And on my worst day, I'm almost dead!

I have very gritty, sore eyes, which looks like conjunctivitis. I get ulcers in my mouth, up my nose and down my throat, up to 100 at a time.

Any illness I get, I get it twice as bad, because the steroids have destroyed my immune system. My teeth are falling out and I recently had a heart attack and stroke, but of course it's hard to tell if this is my lupus or age.

I've managed to control it to a point, but I can't party or socialise like I once could.

I've lost a lot of so-called friends who thought I was lying when I couldn't attend their wedding or whatever. But you can't waste any more energy by not accepting it.

Above all, the strongest thing you need is a positive attitude, and I'll tell you why: When I was told I was going to die, my husband Mick defiantly said 'no she isn't'.

He held my hand the whole night, and believe it or not, I could literally feel him willing his strength into me.

In the morning, the specialist did her checks, and said to Mick, 'her kidneys are now working 75 percent. This wasn't us, this was you'. That's when I realised a positive attitude really works. Or maybe the lupus just calmed down!

She said she lost a lot of so-called friends 'who thought I was lying when I couldn't attend their wedding or whatever'. Pictured: Sue with her husband Mick

'To everyone else I look fine, but I'm in terrible pain': Aspiring interior designer, 24, describes agony of being forced to drop out of university as her lupus worsened

Amy Baker, 24, is studying interior design in London and volunteers for Lupus UK. She has a pen-pal system with other young lupus sufferers, and finds social media helpful to interact with others, under hashtags such as #spoonie

I can't live like a normal 24-year-old. I want to be throwing myself into university, going out and socialising, going to clubs and doing everything. But it's just impossible.

I was diagnosed at 15 years old, two weeks before my GCSE exams.

My grandmother noticed I had chilblains on my feet, which are like red sores, when I was 12, and then I began getting problems with my eyes and lips.

They would swell to four times the size and be so itchy, as well as my stomach, arms and legs. It didn't really affect me at school, but at the age of A-levels, things got worse.

Amy Baker, 24, was diagnosed nine years ago, as her whole-body itching got worse and worse

The fatigue is not the type everyone else has. It's like a really bad hangover with flu but all the time.

I have this along with pain through my nerves, called nerve burn, hair loss, and regular urine infections.

I take stomach protectors just because of the amount of medication I'm on, the steroids, anti-malarials, ant-histamine, sleeping pills, and so many more.

Like most people I also put on weight from the steroids, although I've managed to lose three stone of that.

I have to explain to people when they can't see anything wrong with me. I feel like rubbish and think I look terrible, but to everyone else I look fine.

There is a lot of judgement because if they don't understand it, they question my behaviour. In fact, one day when I really should have been resting because my eyes had swollen, I went to my lecturers, and it was actually nice for everyone to be sympathetic for once.

Public transport is particularly hard. Being in London and using the underground, people won't offer their seat because I look like a healthy 24-year-old, but I'm in pain standing.

I feel like I can't ask, even though I carry a priority seat card, and that's how lupus causes anxiety.

A couple of years ago my doctor and I battled to get a drug called Benlysta which is proven to be very successful with combating the symptoms.

My doctor put in an application for me, but the government and NHS are declining the use. Both my application and appeal were declined.

I wrote to MPs and Jeremy Hunt twice, but both letters I received back were exactly the same. I really struggled at that point, because I knew there was a drug that could potentially change my life. I felt as though I had had no help or support.

I get scared, but not about how lupus is making me feel. What I get scared about, especially at the moment with just starting university, is wondering if I'll fall back so much I'll have to give up.

Being in London and using the underground, people won't offer their seat because she looks like a healthy 24-year-old, but she's in pain standing. 'I feel like I can't ask, even though I carry a priority seat card, and that's how lupus causes anxiety,' she says

I didn't work for two years before I came to university, I wasn't able to. I got to the point I was severely depressed. I was stuck in limbo trying to get into work and it wasn't working.

Before I went to university, I attempted a retail job, a teaching assistant, a jewellery shop assistant, and a coffee barista, all which I couldn't last more than three weeks at. I had to move back in with my mum, my friends were all busy living their lives, and I was so lonely.

Things have improved a lot since then. I accepted that I have a disability, and this opened a lot of doors to support.

The support system online is overwhelming. The sense of achievement from fundraising really helps me too, such as a skydive I did this weekend gone.

Click here to donate to Amy's Just Giving page

'My skin was bubbling': Brownie leader, 42, looks back on 20 years of painfully testing drugs in a bid to control her lupus

Tracy Hodgson, 42, works for Hampshire County Council. She is a proud auntie and Brownie leader

Lupus gave Tracy extreme anemia

I was running the checkout line in Waitrose as a trainee manager, aged 21, when I had a phone call patched through to me from my GP.

I'd been unwell for about six months, and eventually had a blood test. The doctor couldn't believe I was working, or driving for that matter, and told me to come to hospital.

I was admitted that day with severe anaemia, and the hospital started me on blood transfusions immediately.

I'd had an array of odd symptoms which I had written off as being run-down. My joints were stiff and painful and I was struggling with things like getting out the bath, dressing and brushing my hair.

Work was taking every ounce of my energy, I'd fall asleep in my uniform exhausted as soon as I got home. My hair was falling out and I'd lost a lot of weight from lack of appetite.

After looking for the cause of the anaemia, my parents and I were told I had lupus. I had no idea what it was, but felt huge relief to have a diagnosis and that it wasn't leukaemia, as I had heard doctors discussing.

It can often take seven years for lupus to be discovered. As soon as I was diagnosed things made more sense.

At university, my student nurse suggested the severe fatigue I was experiencing was just stress from moving away from home.

As a young child, my mum dressed me in a t-shirt over my swimming costume on holiday, because I would react so badly to the sun. Actually, these symptoms put together with hair loss, painful stiff joints, and extreme fatigue, was my lupus.

I was determined to continue my trainee programme with Waitrose after my diagnosis.

Tracy swims regularly which is a great way to relax and helps her to manage her weight

I knew I could prove to them that I was able to complete my training. Even then, only 20 years ago, lupus was seen as a disease with a very poor prognosis. My employers were extremely cautious so I was forced to compromise and continue my training at a slower pace.

I persevered and after 10 years and successfully becoming an Office and Administration Manager I chose to leave to start a 9-5 job to put my health first.

At my lowest point I was hospitalised with a terrible skin reaction after being put on new medication.

My skin was bubbling and peeling on the whole upper half of my body.

The drug was stopped and I wanted to go back to work but they didn't want me, even though I felt capable, until I was fully healed.

She's had a dozen stress fractures and three major fractures in her feet from simple injuries

Then, at the age of 24 I developed Lupus Nephritis, inflammation of the kidneys, and was treated with intravenous steroids and Cyclophosphamide (chemotherapy drug).

I feel so lucky that by treating the disease aggressively with cycles of these drugs my kidneys have recovered well.

Now, 22 years after my diagnosis, I am a long way into my 'lupus journey', as you might call it.

I have now been on daily steroids over half my life, along with 10 other medications a day. Long term steroid use has thinned my bones in my hip, spine and feet giving me osteopenia.

I can now only wear hospital issue orthopedic footwear, as I've had about a dozen stress fractures and three major fractures in my feet from simple injuries.

Those are the worst days of my lupus. The injuries have taken months and months to heal, and in the past I have been housebound, in pain and miserable.

One of the frustrating elements of lupus is the change it can make to your appearance with skin rashes, hair loss, weight gain and 'moon face' from the steroids.

Being on steroids for so long has made me gain weight but I don't stress about this as am so grateful to feel in better health.

I swim regularly which is a great way to relax and helps me to manage my weight.

Even after a long day I push myself to swim as it will stretch out my body & make me feel better from the exercise endorphins!

They say we always need rest but I now know my body well and how much I can do and when I do need to give in and rest.

I am a glass half full kind of girl and generally always look on the bright side. There are compromises to be made, my clubbing days are certainly over! I can't drive or walk too far and I mainly work at home.

I have to be very organised attending regular hospital appointments for monitoring. I don't want lupus to define me, I want it to be what I have achieved in life. There is most definitely life with lupus, life is what you make it.Nearly half of US cancer doctors have recently recommended medical marijuana to patients, although most say they don't know enough about medicinal use.

The results reflect how marijuana policy in some states has outpaced research, the study authors said.

All 29 states with medical marijuana programs allow doctors to recommend it to cancer patients.

But no rigorous studies in cancer patients exist. That leaves doctors to make assumptions from other research on similar prescription drugs, or in other types of patients.

Forty-six percent of oncologists suggested it for cancer problems to at least one patient last year, the Dana Farber study said. But 56 percent say they do not have the knowledge to do so

'The big takeaway is we need more research, plain and simple,' said Dr. Ilana Braun of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who led the study published Thursday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Patients want to know what their doctors think about using marijuana. In the new study, cancer doctors said their conversations about marijuana were almost always started by patients and their families, not by the doctors themselves.

Overall, nearly eight in 10 cancer doctors reported having discussed marijuana with patients or their families, with 46 percent recommending it for pain and other cancer-related problems to at least one patient in the past year.

Among those who said they recommended marijuana, 56 percent said they did not have sufficient knowledge to do so.

'They're not as close-minded as you might think, and they also feel they have a lot to learn,' Braun said.

The survey was conducted in a random sample of cancer doctors; researchers got completed surveys from 237 doctors, or 63 percent.

Marijuana is considered an illegal drug by federal officials and federal restrictions have limited research.

Last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine concluded the lack of scientific information about marijuana poses a risk to public health.

There's evidence marijuana can treat chronic pain in adults and medications similar to marijuana can ease nausea from chemotherapy.

In the study, 67 percent of cancer doctors said they view marijuana as a useful addition to standard pain therapies, with 75 percent saying it posed less risk of overdose than opioids.

About half view marijuana as equal to, or more effective than, standard treatments for cancer-related nausea.

Marijuana isn't harmless. The National Academies report said pot smoking may be linked to higher chances of traffic accidents, chronic bronchitis from long-term use and schizophrenia and other causes of psychosis, especially in the most frequent users.

Dr. Steven Pergam of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance answers questions about marijuana's safety from his colleagues at the treatment center.

His responses depend on the patient. A dying patient with cancer that's spread?

'Whatever they want to do to make themselves comfortable,' said Pergam, who wasn't involved in the new research.

A patient with leukemia, however, should be warned of a theoretical possibility of a fungal infection tied to cannabis use.

'If we're not comfortable having these discussions, patients will get information from other sources, and it's not going to be as reliable,' he said.ACTS OF INFIDELITY by Lena Andersson (Picador 14.99)

ACTS OF INFIDELITY

by Lena Andersson (Picador 14.99)

I havent been able to stop thinking about this truly stunning read.

When playwright Ester meets Olof  an actor in her play about a man trapped in an unhappy marriage who meets another woman, but wont leave his wife  she falls madly in love.

Life imitates art as they begin a relationship.

Olof insists that he wont get divorced. But his actions  meeting her for sex and organising dates  suggest otherwise. To Ester, anyway.

She pores obsessively over his communications, analysing the words, tone and length of time to reply as if she is conducting research.

There is no doubting Esters intelligence  except in relation to Olof. But, every time shes had enough, he throws her a crumb of hope.

Years of more lows than highs pass and Ester realises she has become a mistress.

Its so insidious and calculated, and this intellectual giant of a woman so blind to reality, that I wanted to shake her. Endless wisdom and elegance  buy immediately.

KISMET by Luke Tredget (Faber 12.99)

KISMET

by Luke Tredget (Faber 12.99)

This critique of our over-reliance on technology and what it means when a matchmaking app replaces traditional dating is another blinder.

Anna is a 29-year-old journalist who isnt sure her boyfriend is the one.

She downloads Kismet, an online dating tool that gives every potential partnership a rating based on a complicated compatibility algorithm, to see if she can find someone with a higher score.

In this recognisable, yet terrifyingly mass-addicted, world, everyone has either met their partner on Kismet or is looking for one there. The collective obsession with a high score means any match who doesnt come with a top rating attached is discarded without another glance.

Then Anna meets an 81  the highest number shes ever heard of. Rather than focus on chemistry and how he makes her feel, every time she looks at him, she sees an 81 flashing above his head and discounts any doubts.

YOU ME EVERYTHING

YOU ME EVERYTHING by Catherine Isaac (Simon & Schuster 12.99)

by Catherine Isaac (Simon & Schuster 12.99)

Fans of Jojo Moyess multi-million-selling Me Before You will adore this similarly heart-warming and heart-breaking read.

Protagonist Jessica is only 22 when she has her unplanned, but wholly adored, son William.

But her relationship with boyfriend Adam doesnt survive much beyond the labour ward, thanks to him staggering in stinking of booze and covered in lipstick.

Jessica never feels like a single mother because her parents are always there, dispensing practical and emotional support.

Fast-forward ten years, though, and her beloved mum is diagnosed with an incurable disease.

When she suggests Jessica and William spend the summer at Adams house in France, Jessica reluctantly agrees to go. She knows her son needs to build a relationship with his father  especially given the big secret shes harbouring.ISLANDER by Patrick Barkham (Granta 9.99)

ISLANDER

by Patrick Barkham (Granta 9.99)

The cliche is that Britain is an island nation, writes Patrick Barkham, but it is, of course, several nations that share innumerable islands. We might count 6,000, or more if we include riverine islands, man-made islets or rocks revealed by the tide. Of these, about 132 islands are permanently inhabited.

According to the novelist D. H. Lawrence, small islands are dangerously seductive places for people seeking escape who swiftly discover that they cannot escape themselves.

With a fondness for islands dating back to his childhood holidays, Barkham decided to test Lawrences theory, visiting 11 islands, from the Isle of Man with a population of 85,000, to the tiny, uninhabited Essex island Ray.

Barkhams elegant, perceptive and often very funny book is an evocative celebration of the charm of small islands.

THE GREEDY QUEEN

THE GREEDY QUEEN by Annie Gray (Profile 8.99)

by Annie Gray (Profile 8.99)

When Victoria, his daughter, was born in 1819, the Duke of Kent described her as plump as a partridge.

Eighteen years later, when she ascended the throne, the sharp-penned society diarist Charles Greville recorded that the young Queen eats quite as heartily as she laughs. I think I may say she gobbles.

A year later, Victoria shared with her prime minister, Lord Melbourne, her horror on discovering that she weighed nearly 9st (she was only 5 ft 1 in).

In this entertaining account of Queen Victorias eating habits, the food historian Annie Gray records not just the monarchs surprisingly eclectic tastes in food (she was fond of a glass of beer and an authentic curry, made by one of my Indian servants), but a century of culinary change.

In many ways, argues Gray, the Victorian period saw the birth of modern food culture.

PATRONISING BASTARDS by Quentin Letts (Constable 9.99)

PATRONISING BASTARDS

by Quentin Letts (Constable 9.99)

This is a work of peppery polemic . . . It represents the subjective views of a scurvy parliamentary sketchwriter, critic and Marches blunderbuss, no more, no less, writes Quentin Letts in the Note to readers (and libel lawyers) that prefaces his invigorating jeremiad about all the people he most detests: The sticklers and swaggerers, the hectoring Snoots Who Know Best . . . the technocrats who dehumanise our countrys institutions.

Letts identifies a smug, self-perpetuating, invisible Brahmin class . . . a furtive elite driven by the desire to own minds, not acres, who received a richly deserved brace of kicks in the kidneys with the results of the 2016 EU referendum and the 2017 General Election.

His range of dislikes is gloriously catholic, encompassing luvvies, life peers, modern art, clean eating, corporate mission statements, the decline of proper hymns in church, the health and safety brigade and much, much more.THE WONDERFUL MR WILLUGHBY

by Tim Birkhead (Bloomsbury 17.99)

MRS MOREAU'S WARBLER

by Stephen Moss (Faber 18.99)

In 1661, well-born Francis Willughby committed a murder. This endlessly inquisitive father of modern ornithology waited beneath a tree, gun in hand. An unfamiliar bird wheeled towards its lofty nest  pow!  the creature fell, to be finished off with a wrung neck.

Back at home, Willughby started to dissect. Thus, the handsome Honey-buzzard (otherwise known as Willughbys Buzzard) was identified and added to his list of species.

Many will shudder at that story. But Professor Tim Birkhead, a passionate ornithologist, issues a warning against modern sentimentality: There is no ornithology without specimens.

In the 17th century, scientists had no option but to kill in the pursuit of knowledge.

Authors Tim Birkhead and Stephen Moss consider ornithology throughout the ages (file image)

In this engrossing biography of the first true ornithologist, Birkhead takes us on an imaginative journey to the time of Charles II, when there was no classification of animals, birds and plants; when men such as Willughby often endured great hardship in order to make ground-breaking discoveries. His results were published (in 1676) as Willughbys Ornithology, four years after his death at the age of 36.

Its difficult to imagine the extraordinary energy of men such as Willughby.

Birkhead has himself spent 40 years studying birds and I take for granted the fact that I can recognise most species.

But this is due to the insatiable curiosity of those great seekers of history, who noticed tiny details of a birds plumage and painstakingly set their discoveries down.

It wont come as any surprise to learn that Britains Christmas card favourite, the robin, was also commonly called ruddock and redbreast. In Mrs Moreaus Warbler, a lively account of how birds got their names, naturalist Stephen Moss points out that people prefer old names handed down the ages to the official names decided by committee.

A bird may be tagged in many different ways: the barn owl has more than 30 folk names, which Moss sees as evidence of the richness, complexity and downright quixotic quality that marks them out as part of our culture.

Here is a plethora of wonderful stories: Moss uses detective work, folklore and experience to explain why the Dartford warbler is never seen in Dartford, and why the Wheatear was called white-arse by the Anglo-Saxons.

Pictured left: THE WONDERFUL MR WILLUGHBY by Tim Birkhead (Bloomsbury 17.99) Pictured right: MRS MOREAU'S WARBLER by Stephen Moss (Faber 18.99)

The warbler of the title owes its moniker to a love story  that of Reg and Winnie Moreau, a civil servant and a nanny who met in Egypt in the Twenties. Moreaus masterpiece on bird migration was finally published 50 years later. In it, he acknowledged the contribution of his darling, diminutive wife, after whom he named a hitherto unknown warbler.

Inevitably, there is a note of foreboding: Having chosen to make their lives alongside us . . . they are now facing serious  and, in some cases, possibly terminal  declines.

What of the corncrake, destroyed by industrialised farming? Where can the barn owl go when barns become chi-chi homes?

The men who once hunted birds for science at least had a purpose.

Our advanced societies are killing them just as ruthlessly, through wanton carelessness.The University of Florida has placed a lecturer who shoved and grabbed students during a graduation ceremony on paid administrative leave.

School spokeswoman Margot Winick said Tuesday that the marshal, whom she refused to identify, is a lecturer in the chemistry department.

The marshal rushed about 30 graduating students through the commencement line, and pushed and shoved others, The Gainesville Sun reported.

When some students who are members of historically black fraternities and sororities began performing choreographed movements representing each of their organizations, the marshal grabbed them aggressively and shoved them.

Video from Saturday's graduation ceremony at the University of Florida shows a lecturer aggressively yanking several minority students off the stage

The graduates did a celebratory dance as their names were called, prompting the man to forcibly shove them along

University President W. Kent Fuchs said in a statement that the school 'failed' to create a commencement atmosphere where all students could celebrate equally.

Winick says the school is investigating the marshal's actions and its commencement policy.

Throughout Saturday's two-and-half-hour graduation ceremony the man, who has not been named by the school, is seen hurrying students of all ethnicities along as their names are called.

It appears his role was to make sure the students were orderly and swiftly walked across the stage to receive their diplomas.

However, he may have been getting impatient near the end as he aggressively grabs and shoves several male and female students when they stop to do a victory dance.

Those at the graduation posted video footage on Twitter, sparking outrage as people claimed that he was discriminating and only acted excessively violent with the black students.

One Twitter-user wrote: 'Every time a Black student took more than TWO seconds, he aggressively pushed them.'

Students, parents and alumni took to Twitter to express their outrage

One Twitter user says she almost fell when she was pushed by the faculty member

The school's president Kent Fuch issued a statement apologizing for the 'aggressive' behavior

One alumni who is also Chancellor at North Carolina A&T State raised concerns about the school's 'practice'

One alumni who is also a professor at the university called the incident 'unacceptable'

An alumni wrote that she is 'completely disgraced at the treatment of these students who earned their spot on that stage.'

University of Florida president Kent Fuch issued an apology on Twitter early Sunday morning.

It reads: 'During one of this weekends commencement ceremonies, we were inappropriately aggressive in rushing students across the stage. I personally apologize, and am reaching out to the students involved.

'The practice has been halted for all future ceremonies, and we will work to make sure all graduating students know we are proud of their achievements and celebrate with them their graduation.'

Even then, 1985 graduate Todd Simmons raised his concern over the 'practices' the the president was referring to.

Simmons, who is also Associate Vice Chancellor for University Relations at North Carolina A&T State University, responded in a tweet.

'I appreciate your candor. I [would] also respectfully suggest an inquiry is in order regarding how such a practice came to be approved & carried out in the 1st place, w/ what appear to be clear racial differences, in front of thousands. The vids are disturbing,' he wrote.

Bill Shorten is doubling down and refusing to apologise for his guarantee that no Labor MP's were dual citizens because the party had such a thorough vetting process, despite three members suddenly resigning this week.

Labor backbenchers Susan Lamb, Justine Keay and Josh Wilson all dramatically resigned from the House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon after revealing they held dual citizenship.

Minor party MP Rebekha Sharkie, who too was elected in 2016, also quit after the High Court found Labor senator Katy Gallagher was ineligible to sit in federal parliament because she is a dual Briton.

Scroll down for video

Bill Shorten is doubling down on his previous guarantee that no Labor MP's were duel citizens because the party had such a thorough vetting process despite three Labor MP's resigning due to being duel citizens

All of the MPs were deemed British citizens when the writs for the 2016 federal election were issued, which is in breach of the constitution.

Labor leader Bill Shorten, who last year said 'we have a strict vetting process, there is no cloud over any of our people', now says he acted in good faith after relying on Labor's legal advice.

In an interview with 7's Sunrise last year, Mr Shorten was asked directly is he could assure the public that all Labor MP's and senators were eligible to sit in parliament.

Labor MP Josh Wilson (pictured) announces his resignation to the House of Representatives yesterday.

Labor member for Longman Susan Lamb (pictured) also had to step down and resign from her role

'Yes I can, I am satisfied, Labor has a very stringent vetting system,' Mr Shorten said in response.

Frontbencher Tony Burke says Labor had been relying on the so-called 'reasonable steps' test.

'We now have a precedent that basically knocks out the reasonable steps test,' he told Sky News on Thursday.

Mr Burke argued the opposition had tried to refer the MPs as part of package deal with the government, some of whose own MPs were in doubt.

'It's ended up where it has. We're now in by-elections and the resignations will be in today for those members and they're off in their electorates fighting their campaigns,' he said.

Meanwhile, Labor is turning the spotlight on Liberal backbencher Jason Falinski, who insists he doesn't hold Polish citizenship.

Labor member for Braddon Justine Keay (pictured) also had to quit due to being a British duel citizen

The MP lodged a new letter from the Polish Embassy on Wednesday.

'I can confirm that according to our records you have never had a Polish passport, or a Polish identity card, and you have never applied through our Embassy to relevant Polish authorities to confirm the possession of Polish citizenship,' the ambassador wrote to Mr Falinski.

But Mr Burke says he can't reconcile that with documents held by the National Archives showing Mr Falinski's father and paternal grandparents all declared their nationality as Polish in 1958.

There are now five federal lower-house seat by-elections pending. Four, including three for Labor, are as a result of the citizenship issue and the fifth is due Labor's Tim Hammond leaving his seat for family reasons.

They are likely to be held on the same day, with June 16 the earliest possible date for a by-election Super Saturday.A well respected Victoria head chef and his family face the threat of deportation next year after he failed the English test for permanent residency six times.

Luciano Gandolfo, 50, understands he's unlikely to be allowed a seventh attempt at the International English Language Testing System test because of his age and will 'most probably' be deported back to Italy.

'I've been talking in English for the past 25 years,' Luciano told 3AW breakfast radio hosts Ross Stevenson and John Burns on Wednesday.

'It's quite hard, you have to do four sections, speaking, writing, reading and listening. My problem is most of the time is I fail in writing. We want to become residents and stay here for good.'

Luciano Gandolfo (pictured) and his family hope to stay in Australia beyond next March when his visa expires

Mr Gandolfo came to Australia with his wife Mary Ann and daughter Catherine, now 11, eight years ago.

He worked at highly respected restaurants in Darwin and Melbourne before the family moved to Geelong three years ago.

He's the head chef at popular Geelong restaurant Centra under a sponsored 457 visa that's due to expire in next March.

'Born Sicilian, Luciano has played a key role in the development of our meals including helping select the highest quality ingredients that make our Italian grounded menu. Luciano has cooked and lived in 12 different countries and with this experience Australia is so lucky to have him in our country, let alone in Geelong at Centra,' a 2017 post on the restaurant's Facebook states.

Mr Gandolfo has the support of his employer and sponsor Cameron O'Keefe, who described the Italian to the Geelong Advertiser as the 'heart and soul' of the kitchen.

'Our goal is to get him to stay here. (Mr Gandolfo) loves the venue, he loves Geelong,' Mr OKeefe told the publication.

Mr Gandolfo added: 'I want to do all I can to stay here in Australia. I am a good citizen. I work and pay taxes.'

The chef vowed to do everything he can to secure residency for himself and his family in Australia as his daughter speaks very little Italian.

'Not much, only a little, she speaks English from the beginning,' Mr Gandolfo told 3AW.

'It would be very hard for her.'

Luciano Gandolfo has been the head chef at the Centra in Geelong for three years, where his menu gets rave reviews

There was overwhelming support for Mr Gandolfo on social media.

'This is absolutely ridiculous this man has worked hard paid his taxes can speak English so just because he can't pass the written test he is tone deported Yet there are others that come here and commit crime and they only get a slap on the wrist. This country has gone nuts,' one woman posted on 3AW Facebook page.

Another added: 'My parents migrated like many others from Italy without speaking reading or writing English. Over the years they learnt to speak English. They worked hard and contributed to Australian society. And he also has children- they can read and write for him when necessary. If there is anyone who should remain here it is Luciano!'

The Department of Home Affairs said it does not comment on individual cases.Advertisement

Iran and Israel traded blows on the Syrian border overnight, marking the first time Tehran has directly attacked Israel.

Last night, Iranian forces fired 20 rockets from Syria at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights, the Israeli military said.

UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli strikes killed at least 23 military personnel, including Syrians and non-Syrians.

Israel said the Iranian rockets were either shot down by its Iron Dome air defence system or fell short of the Golan targets, claiming the Quds Force, an external arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, carried out the launch.

In retaliation, Israel launched dozens of missiles on Iranian positions in Syria, which hit a radar station, air defence positions and an ammunition dump, Syrian state media said.

The exchange of fire came less than a day after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which lifts sanctions on Tehran in exchange for a halt on its nuclear program.

Israel said Iranian forces had fired 20 artillery rockets at their military bases in the disputed Golan Heights and that their Iron Dome defence system had intercepted a number of them

Israeli Merkava tanks are deployed near the Israeli-Syrian border in the Golan Heights today after some 20 rockets were fired at Israeli military bases by Iranian forces from southern Syria just after midnight

Firing back: This photo supplied by Syrian state media allegedly shows Israeli missiles hittin air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus, Syria

The Israeli Iron Dome defense system is seen above on the Golan Heights attempting to intercept suspected Iranian missiles being launched from Syria

The project was given a bigger boost when the Obama administration sought and received hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding

Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, anticipating an attack from Iran following the Iranian regime's vows to retaliate to what it says are recent Israeli strikes in Syria targeting Iranian outposts. Pictured: Israeli Merkava tanks are deployed near the Israeli-Syrian border today

An Israeli soldier is seen next to a signs pointing out distance to different cities on Mount Bental next to the Syrian border today

It was the heaviest Israeli barrage in Syria since the start in 2011 of its civil war, in which Iranians, allied Shi'ite militias and Russian soldiers have deployed in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

'We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria,' Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a security conference on Thursday morning.

'They need to remember the saying that if it rains on us, it'll storm on them. I hope we've finished this episode and everyone understood.'

An IDF spokesperson said Iran's Quds force fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though would reveal how Israel determined the Iranian involvement.

If Israeli claims are true, it would be the first time Iranian troops have directly attacked Israel rather than using proxies such as Islamist militant group Hezbollah.

Trading blows: Iranian forces reportedly fired 20 rockets on the Golan Heights, to which Israel responded with dozens of strikes on Iranian positions in Syria

This frame grab from video provided on Wednesday by Syria News shows people standing in front of flames rising after an attack on an area known to have numerous Syrian army military bases in Kisweh, south of Damascus

The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, which was captured from Syria in the 1967 war.

People in Metula, a town in northern Israel, were reportedly asked to enter 'secure areas' following an explosion in the area.

While the IDF blames Iran for firing the initial barrage of rockets into the Golan Heights, Syrian media claims Israel fired first.

US LEAVING IRAN DEAL COULD SEE SPIKE IN OIL PRICES The United States' immediate reinstating of sanctions on Iran, could lead to a global spike in the price of oil. Oil prices are already at their highest level since November 2014 and as Iran is the world's fifth biggest oil producer, any new sanctions is likely to affect the market. However, U.S.-ally Saudi Arabia has said to will help meet the oil demands if Trump's withdrawal from the Iran deal would create any shortfalls. Advertisement

Israel's response saw war planes targeting Iranian positions inside Syria, according to an IDF spokesman.

Targets included the Mezzeh airbase in Damascus, according to Israeli media. More than 30 Israeli missiles have reportedly struck targets near the city, with the Russian military claiming 70 were fired - and half of them downed.

Russia's defence ministry said: '28 Israeli F-15 and F-16 aircraft were used in the attack, which released around 60 air-to-ground missiles over various parts of Syria. Israel also fired more than 10 tactical ground-to-ground missiles.'

Russia said Syria's air defence systems shot down more than half of the missiles, while the extent of the damage was still being assessed.

'The locations of Iranian armed groups and also the positions of the Syrian army's air defences in the area around Damascus and in the south of Syria were attacked,' the ministry said.

Syria's state media said Syrian air defenses had intercepted 'hostile Israeli missiles' early Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus.

'Air defenses confronted tens of Israeli rockets and some of them reached their target and destroyed one of the radar sites,' Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing a military source. Another rocket hit an ammunition warehouse, it said.

Syrian state television was broadcasting footage of its air defenses firing at incoming rockets, and playing patriotic songs.

Long-exposure photographs showed Israeli artillery launched to intercept projectiles fired from Syria early today

THE GOLAN HEIGHTS: SYRIAN TERRITORY ANNEXED BY ISRAEL The Golan Heights form a strategic plateau between Israel and Syria of about 460 square miles. Israel captured it in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally. About 18,000 Israeli settlers have moved to the Golan, which also borders Jordan, since 1967. Some 20,000 Druze Muslims also live there. Israel gave the Druze the option of citizenship though most rejected it. Syria tried to regain the Golan Heights in the 1973 Middle East war, but the assault was thwarted. The two signed an armistice in 1974 and the Golan has been relatively quiet until recently. The Golan contains important water sources and has further strategic value because it overlooks northeastern Israel including the Sea of Galilee, a tourist attraction and Israel's biggest reservoir. In 2000, Israel and Syria held their highest-level talks over a possible return of the Golan and a peace agreement. But the negotiations collapsed. Source: Reuters Advertisement

It said Israeli warplanes were firing the rockets from outside Syria's borders and targeting Baath City in Quneitra province.

Earlier, Syrian media said the hostilities began with Israeli fire at Syrian positions in the country's south from across the border. Pro-Syrian media said Syrian missiles then fired at Israeli forces.

One TV station, Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen, said at least 50 missiles were fired from Syria at Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights.

It was the first time in years that Syrians had fired at Israeli forces in Golan, Syrian media reported.

The news that Israel and Iran had exchanged fire saw several world leaders call for de-escalation in the area, amid concern about growing military tensions between the two nations.

This morning, France's President Emmanuel Macron was first to call for de-escalation, and will be meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel later today to discuss the Middle East.

This was echoed by Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who said: 'This is all very alarming, it causes concern. There should be work to de-escalate the tensions,'

An air defense missile is seen over Daraa, Syria on Thursday. Daraa is very near the southwestern border with Jordan and not far from the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights

Anti-aircraft missiles are seen from the Syrian capital of Damascus before dawn on Thursday

The above image shows more Syrian air defense missiles as seen in the sky over the capital Damascus on Thursday

Syria's state media said Syrian air defenses had intercepted 'hostile Israeli missiles' early Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus

Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, anticipating an attack from Iran following the Iranian regime's vows to retaliate to what it says are recent Israeli strikes in Syria targeting Iranian outposts.

Late on Tuesday, Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near the capital of Damascus.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

Last month, an attack on Syria's T4 air base in Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel.

On April 30, Israel was said to have struck government outposts in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen pro-government fighters, many of them Iranians.

SOHR said the attacks killed 23 fighters, including five Syrian soldiers.

The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdurrahman, said five Syrian soldiers, including two officers, and 18 militia fighters were killed. Abdurrahman says it is not immediately clear if he believed Iranians were among those killed.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied most of the airstrikes.

But for months, it has repeatedly said it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov today called for 'restraint on all sides', adding that Moscow was 'concerned' at the development.

The strikes came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has provided massive military and diplomatic backing to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's seven-year civil war.

At the meeting Putin also expressed 'deep concern' over US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from a key 2015 Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, a decision Netanyahu supported.

On Wednesday the Russian leader called the situation in the Middle East 'unfortunately very acute'.

Netanyahu had told Putin that 'it is the right of every state, certainly the right of Israel, to take the necessary steps in order to protect itself from (Iranian) aggression)', his office said in a statement Wednesday, referring to Iran's presence in Syria.

An Israeli Iron dome system is seen deployed near the Israeli-Syrian border in the Golan Heights

An Iron Dome anti-missile system can be seen near the Israeli side of the border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday

An Israeli tank can be seen near the Israeli side of the border with Syria in Golan Heights

The Israeli-occupied section of the Golan Heights was placed on high alert due to 'irregular activity by Iranian forces' across the demarcation line in Syria

An Israeli artillery unit takes position near the Syrian border in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights

Israeli soldiers stand on top of their Merkava tanks deployed near the Israeli-Syrian border in the Golan Heights

Israel has long objected to an Iranian military presence near the Golan Heights frontier

In February, Israel shot down what it said was an armed Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace.

Israel responded by attacking anti-aircraft positions in Syria, but an Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Iranian forces moved into Syria after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 to back the forces of President Bashar Assad.

As that war winds down, and Assad appears to be headed toward victory, Israel fears that Iran, along with tens of thousands of Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen, will carry out attacks against Israel.

Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, an annual security gathering north of Tel Aviv, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel would response fiercely to any further Iranian actions.

'We will not let Iran turn Syria into a forward base against Israel. This is the policy, a very, very clear policy, and we're acting according to this policy,' he said.

'We, of course, struck almost all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, and they need to remember this arrogance of theirs. If we get rain, they'll get a flood. I hope that we ended this chapter and that everyone understood.'

This morning's exchange of fire comes after President Donald Trump's announcement on Tuesday that the US was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran triggered uncertainty and threatened to spark more unrest in the Middle East.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday blasted President Trump, calling him a liar and saying that his move to pull out of the deal was 'foul play'.

Iranian protesters burn US flags during an anti-US gathering outside of the former American embassy in central Tehran

Iranians reacted angrily on Wednesday to President Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Protesters are seen above walking on the US flag in Tehran

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comments came Wednesday as he met with a group of school teachers in Tehran, a day after Trump announced he was renewing sanctions on Iran.

'From day one, I said several times that the United States is not to be trusted. I said it publicly and privately. I said if you want to sign an agreement, first make sure that necessary guarantees are made,' Khamenei said in his speech

'What happened is a foul play on the part of the United States, and it does not surprise us,' he said during a speech he gave in Tehran.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Moscow on Wednesday to meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss military coordination in Syria.

Russia has also sent forces to Syria to back Assad.

But Israel and Russia have maintained close communications to prevent their air forces from coming into conflict.

Together with Putin, Netanyahu toured a parade celebrating the anniversary of the Second World War victory over the Nazis and then met the Russian president at the Kremlin for consultations.

Rules of the agreement: Behind the historic 2015 Iran nuclear deal

Trump withdraws from Iran deal President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the nuclear deal with Iran, abruptly restoring harsh sanctions in the most consequential foreign policy action of his presidency. He declared he was making the world safer, but he also deepened his isolation on the world stage and revived doubts about American credibility with a rationale that contradicted the analyses of U.S. and foreign intelligence sources. The 2015 agreement, which was negotiated by the Obama administration and included Germany, France and Britain, had lifted most U.S. and international economic sanctions against Iran. In exchange, Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear program, making it impossible to produce a bomb and establishing rigorous inspections. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the nuclear deal with Iran But Trump, a severe critic of the deal dating back to his 2016 presidential campaign, said Tuesday in a televised address from the White House that it was 'defective at its core.' On Wednesday, he warned Iran against resuming its nuclear weapons program. 'I would advise Iran not to start their nuclear program,' Trump told reporters at the start of a Cabinet meeting when asked about the potential consequences. 'I would advise them very strongly. If they do there will be very severe consequence.' He claimed the deal 'was going to lead to nuclear proliferation all over the Middle East' and bragged the sanctions would be among the strongest 'that we've ever put on a country.' U.S. allies in Europe had tried to keep Trump in and lamented his move to abandon it. Iran's leader ominously warned his country might 'start enriching uranium more than before.' The sanctions seek to punish Iran for its nuclear program by limiting its ability to sell oil or do business overseas, affecting a wide range of Iranian economic sectors and individuals. Iran's government must now decide whether to follow the U.S. and withdraw or try to salvage what's left with the Europeans. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he was sending his foreign minister to the remaining countries but warned there was only a short time to negotiate with them. Trump also left open the possibility of a new deal, and told reporters Wednesday: 'We'll make either a really good deal for the world or we're not going to make a deal at all. He predicted Iran would choose to negotiate eventually, or face consequences. The administration said it would re-impose sanctions on Iran immediately but allow grace periods for businesses to wind down activity. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Trump's announcement as a 'historic move.' Trump said Tuesday that documents recently released by Netanyahu showed Iran had attempted to develop a nuclear bomb in the previous decade, especially before 2003. Although Trump gave no explicit evidence that Iran violated the deal, he said Iran had clearly lied in the past and could not be trusted. Iran has denied ever pursuing nuclear arms. In Iran, many are deeply concerned about how Trump's decision could affect the already struggling economy. In Tehran, Rouhani sought to calm nerves, smiling as he appeared at a petroleum expo. He didn't name Trump directly, but emphasized that Iran continued to seek 'engagement with the world.' Advertisement

After 10 hours together, Netanyahu said he conveyed Israel's obligation to defend itself against Iranian aggression.

'I think that matters were presented in a direct and forthright manner, and this is important. These matters are very important to Israel's security at all times and especially at this time,' he said.

Israel views Iran as its archenemy, citing Iran's calls for Israel's destruction, support for militant groups across the region and growing military activity in neighbouring Syria.

Israel has warned that it will not allow Iran to establish a permanent military presence in Syria.

Israel's military went on high alert on Tuesday and bomb shelters were ordered open in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights following reports of 'irregular activity of Iranian forces in Syria.'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) traveled to Moscow on Wednesday to meet with President Vladimir Putin (right) and discuss military coordination in Syria

After an uneventful night, the military on Wednesday called on residents to return to 'full civilian routine,' meaning studies and excursions would continue as usual, although the shelters would remain open.

Amos Gilead, a retired senior Israeli defence official, told a security conference in the coastal town of Herzliya that Iran's intentions in Syria meant a wider conflagration may only be a matter of time.

'They want to build a second Hezbollah-stan,' he said, referring to the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group that last fought a war with Israel in 2006.

'They are determined to do it and we are determined to prevent it. It means we are on a collision course.'Live music, crowds of revellers and bars jam-packed until morning light: five years ago, Sydney's Kings Cross was bustling.

Then, in February 2014, the New South Wales government introduced strict lockout laws which all but killed its capital's nightlife and made Kings Cross a ghost town.

The struggle of small businesses, from bars and clubs to restaurants, has been well documented - but there is one section of the night time economy few have mentioned: prostitution.

Live music, crowds of revellers and dozens of bars packed until morning light: five years ago, Sydney's Kings Cross was bustling. Pictured: Prostitutes on the streets

The struggle of small business, from bars and clubs to restaurants, has been well documented - with many complaining the laws have destroyed the night time economy. Pictured: Kings Cross at night

There is one section of the economy which few have complained about: prostitution. Pictured: A 'nightwalker' offers her services through a car window

A brothel called Number 100 advertises which women are working with a daily twitter post to loyal followers. Pictured: A prostitute's twitter post retweeted by the brothel

The Number 100 prostitutes themselves also advertise their services with teasing bedroom Tweets

Kings Cross was once infamous for its so-called nightwalkers - women who would stroll along the roadside offering sex and take cash from drunken revellers who wanted to buy it.

Now, these women are rarely seen. One prostitute said last year: 'There used to be about 25 of us working the main strip in Kings Cross on any given weekend. Now it's down to a handful.'

The decline has been noticed by revellers, too. One man posted on Reddit on Wednesday: 'I use to work in a club in Kings Cross and they (prostitutes) were literally everywhere.

'I went there tonight for the first time in ages and the place has really been cleaned up.

'Didn't see one working girl and the whole night vibe is gone... What has happened?!'

Kings Cross (pictured) was once infamous for its so-called nightwalkers - women who would stroll along the roadside offering sex and taking cash from drunken revellers

Last month, Daily Mail Australia reported how sex workers were advertising on classified advertisements website Craigslist. Pictured: One of the adverts

The decline in the number of people visiting Kings Cross has clearly reduced the number of 'nightwalkers' - but there are other reasons for this shift besides the lockout laws.

Around the world, prostitutes are increasingly using the internet to find clients, whether via dating apps, house-sharing websites or simply on Twitter. They say it is safer and they can make more money this way than on the streets.

Sydney's lockout laws The laws were passed in February 2014 in response to campaigns after after two young men were killed in drunken attacks in 2012 and 2014. Under the laws, inner-city bars must refuse entry to anyone after 1.30am and stop selling alcoholic drinks after 3am. The curfew has forced several iconic bars and venues to close their doors, including Newtown Social Club, Goodgod Small Club, Hugos Bar and Lounge and The Soho. Thousands of people have taken to the streets with the Keep Sydney Open movement to furiously campaign against Sydney's dying nightlife, but the city appears to have lost its shine. Advertisement

Prostitutes at one Melbourne brothel, for example, post daily tweets advertising their services with teasing bedroom pictures.

The brothel, named Number 100, calls itself 'the home of the happy ending.'

Open seven nights a week, it advertises which women are working with a daily twitter post to loyal followers.

'Indulge in a nude, body-to-body sensual encounter with one of our gorgeous ladies and you'll want to come again,' the brothel's Twitter bio reads.

The prostitutes' tweets often get dozens of retweets and replies: using the internet can be much more effective for them than working the street.

Other prostitutes have admitted to using Tinder to advertise their services.

One who uses the name Lilly Chatte described how she replies to men she matches with saying she would be happy to meet up 'but it won't be free.'

She told The Sun: 'Men will always pay for sex. All the men I have met on Tinder solely want to meet for sex, they don't want to date.

'I charge 60 for 15 minutes, 80 for 30 minutes and 100 for an hour. I am making so much money now I work out of a hotel.

'On a busy day I entertain up to ten men within 24 hours, but usually just three or four.'

And it's not just dating apps and websites that are used for buying and selling sex.

Last month, Daily Mail Australia reported on how sex workers were advertising on classified advertisements website Craigslist.

A new app has been developed which connects sex workers, male and female, to users (pictured) - Rendevu was founded in a bid to create a safe space for sex workers in NSW

Perverted landlords are offering free rent in return for sex while some of the site's users are offering sexual favours to get free accommodation.

One lengthy post advertised for a 'sexually submissive female pet' to make herself 'sexually available'.

Another was was titled: 'Bi guy fit 39 will be your sex slave for bed for 2weeks' and read: 'Will do as you or any one in your house pleases for bed for week nothing of limits willing to please you.'

The growth of the online sex industry has been facilitated by new apps, too.

Founded in Sydney, Rendevu is a new Uber-style app which matches individual sex workers and escort companies with clients.

Surrounded by family homes in a sleepy Melbourne suburb, Number 100 Johnston Street looks like a normal terraced house. But inside is a seedy world of 'mischief, wonder and temptation.'

Mila Jovi, who runs a Sydney-based escort agency that uses the app, described it as a 'game changer'.

She told Daily Mail Australia: It's super safe, because everyone is vetted and customers have to put their credit card details into the app before they receive their booking.

'I had one case before Rendevu where one of my girls turned up and the client didn't have enough cash to pay. This eliminates all of that and makes safety not as big of a concern as it has been.'

There is little doubt that Sydney's lockout laws have pushed prostitutes out of sight, but this must be seen in the context of a wider market shift from the street to the screen.

Tinder and Craigslist did not respond to requests for comment. Twitter has been contacted for comment.This is the chilling moment a knife-wielding accused terrorist confronts police just moments after allegedly hacking his neighbour to near-death in an ISIS-inspired attack.

Ihsas Khan was charged with committing a terrorist act and wounding with intent to murder after Wayne Greenhalgh was repeatedly stabbed in western Sydney in 2016.

Dramatic video shown in court this week showed police yelling at Khan to drop the knife before an officer fired his Taser and the alleged terrorist fell to the ground.

Ihsas Khan was charged with committing a terrorist act and wounding with intent to murder over the 2016 attack in Minto in Sydney's west

This is the chilling moment Khan, a knife-wielding accused terrorist, confronted police just moments after allegedly hacking his neighbour to near-death in an ISIS-inspired attack

In a chilling police interview shown in court, Khan spoke of his admiration for Farhad Jabar, the teenager who shot dead Sydney police employee Curtis Cheng.

When asked what he wanted to achieve by stabbing Mr Greenhalgh, Khan replied: 'To kill and be killed... Someone who's discharging his obligation of Jihad.'

The court heard the 24-year-old had been taking anti-psychotic medication at the time and pleaded not guilty due to mental illness as his Supreme Court trial got underway last month.

In a chilling police interview shown in court, Khan (right) spoke of his admiration for Farhad Jabar, the teenager who shot dead Sydney police employee Curtis Cheng

Wayne Greenhalgh (pictured in hospital) was repeatedly stabbed in western Sydney in 2016

Prosecutor Peter Neil SC told the jury Khan repeatedly yelled 'Allahu Akbar' as he attacked the then-57-year-old without warning on Saturday September 10.

Khan had planned to attack a stranger on September 11 to mark the anniversary of the 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, the court heard.

But a day earlier, Khan spotted his victim wearing a t-shirt with an American motif and decided to attack, prosecutors said.

Khan wanted to exact 'revenge for what he regarded as injustices for Muslims in the Middle East', according to Mr Neil.

Police fired a taser at Khan (pictured left and right), sending the accused terrorist to the ground

When asked what he wanted to achieve by stabbing Mr Greenhalgh, Khan replied: 'To kill and be killed... Someone who's discharging his obligation of Jihad'

Mr Greenhalgh (pictured), a Parramatta Eels supporter, was lucky to survive the 2016 stabbing

Khan allegedly said United States soldiers had killed his 'brothers and sisters in Iraq' and yelled out 'you rape our women, you rape our children, you bomb our country'.

Mr Neil said the 'intelligent' university student was motivated by a religious, political or ideological cause to influence the Australian government or intimidate the public.

The court heard Khan said: 'Maybe if I butcher a guy the government would think again about sending the air force [to Iraq].'

Khan allegedly said United States soldiers had killed his 'brothers and sisters in Iraq' and yelled out 'you rape our women, you rape our children, you bomb our country'

Khan spotted his victim (right) wearing a t-shirt with an American motif and decided to attack, prosecutors said

Defence barrister Mark Ierace SC told the jurors many of the facts of the stabbing wouldn't be disputed with Khan admitting he'd 'tried to slaughter a guy'.

But he said Khan suffered schizophrenia and severe obsessive-compulsive disorder at the time and a central issue during the trial would be his mental state.

The prosecutor argued Khan's psychiatric condition didn't stop him controlling his actions or knowing they were wrong.

The trial continues.Matt Lauer was spotted near his home in the Hamptons on Wednesday with boxes of pizza and an unshaven look as the former Today show anchor continues to languish in television exile following inappropriate sexual behavior.

Lauer was seen in casual attire after what appeared to be a short trip to the pizza parlor.

He was seen loading boxes of pizza into the trunk of his SUV.

It comes as it was learned Wednesday that the NBC workplace investigation into his sexual misconduct has been completed after six months.

Scroll down for video

Matt Lauer was spotted carrying boxes of pizza and a drink near his home in the Hamptons on Wednesday

His fast food fix came the same day NBC released an investigation about his behavior

Lauer was seen in casual attire after what appeared to be a short trip to the pizza parlor

Lauer confessed to 'engaging in sexual activity' with an NBC employee, which led to the network's decision to terminate him in November

Lauer was also seen carrying a drink near his Hamptons home. He donned a cap and shades

He loaded up the pies into his Range Rover, not wearing his wedding ring

The findings were shared with staff at the network on Wednesday.

The report reveals that on November 22, a 'complainant alleged that Matt Lauer had engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace with her on several occasions in 2014.'

One day later, Lauer was asked about the claims being made by the employee.

'During the interview, Lauer admitted to engaging in sexual activity with the complainant,' states the report.

'The Company determined that his conduct violated Company policy and terminated Lauers employment on November 28, effective immediately.'

The report also revealed that NBC has cleared all senior employees and found no proof that any current executives had knowledge of Lauer's misconduct.

The former Today show anchor continues to languish in television exile following inappropriate sexual behavior

He adjusted the brim on his Yankees cap after loading in the pizzas, his gray stubble glistening in the sun

In the wake of Lauer's firing, more women came forward.

'Within the two weeks after Lauers termination was announced publicly by NBC News on November 29, 2017, the Company received information about three additional women, who each alleged that Lauer had engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace with them in 2000, 2001 and 2007, respectively,' states the report.

The report was sent along with a memo from Andy Lack, the Chairman of NBC Universal.

'The last few months have been extraordinarily difficult, with our dedicated journalists doing some of our best work ever while we endured a painful period in the spotlight including a thorough and deserved examination,' read the memo.

'This has been felt by everyone in the organization, most importantly several of our colleagues who were deeply affected. I admire their bravery and am profoundly grateful for their candor.'

Lack then stated: 'When we first told you about the decision to dismiss Matt Lauer, I said we had been presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident. As you will see in the report, that turned out to be the case.'

No more hair and makeup: The disgraced former anchor took his citrus beverage to the front

Admission of guilt: Lauer confessed to 'engaging in sexual activity' with an NBC employee, which led to the network's decision to terminate him in November

Finding: Soon after, three other women 'alleged that Lauer had engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace with them in 2000, 2001 and 2007'

The CEO of Universal, Steve Burke, instructed General Counsel Kim Burke to launch her investigation to determine three things, whether 'any current members of NBC News or Today Show leadership, News HR or anyone else in a position of authority in the News Division had any information about inappropriate workplace behavior by Lauer prior to November 27, 2017, and, if so, what, if anything, was done to address the behavior; there have been other incidents of inappropriate workplace behavior in the News Division, and if so, whether such incidents were reported and addressed appropriately; and employees in the News Division are comfortable reporting concerns about workplace behavior, and if not, why not.'

Investigators 'found no evidence indicating that any NBC News or Today Show leadership, News HR or others in positions of authority in the News Division received any complaints about Lauers workplace behavior prior to November 27, 2017.'

That discovery was bolstered by the four women who came forward as they all revealed that they did not tell their direct manager or anyone in a position of authority.

One of the women did reveal that she told a manager about an 'inappropriate interaction with Lauer where he placed his hand on her thigh and made a sexually suggestive comment.'

That was in 1996, and she was removed from assignments with Lauer from some time before her 2001 sexual encounter with the host.

This does however contradict a recent claim made by Ann Curry, which the report addresses as a footnote.

'Ann Curry has stated in the press that, in 2012, a woman came to her claiming that Lauer had sexually harassed her and that Curry then told management at the time that they should be concerned about Lauers behavior toward women,' reads the report.

'In a discussion with the investigation team, Curry confirmed that she did not disclose to anyone in management that she had received a specific complaint. Curry declined to share with the investigation team the identity of anyone in management with whom she spoke at the time or the identity of the woman who came to her with a complaint about Lauer.'

That footnote closes out by stating: 'The members of NBC News and Today Show leadership at the time with whom we spoke denied having any such conversation with Curry.'

Two of the four women also told investigators that they were of the belief that 'former NBC News or Today Show leadership knew or must have known about Lauers alleged inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.'

It is then noted in the report that all 'former leaders' interviewed 'denied any such knowledge' and that the investigation was 'unable to otherwise substantiate it.'

Report: Ann Curry would not tell investigators the name of the person she reported Lauer to after a woman told her she had been harassed by the newsman

A number of people that were interviewed also remarked about comments and jokes made about Lauer.

'The investigation team also found that Lauer frequently engaged in sexual banter or joking in open working environments with other employees present or in a position to overhear his comments,' states the report.

'While the nature and frequency of that conduct did not rise to the level of creating a hostile work environment, and no witnesses described it as such, it may have contributed to an atmosphere where some employees who may have had concerns assumed nothing would be done to address them, particularly given Lauers perceived importance to the News Division.'

The investigation also did not rely on interviews alone.

'The investigation team also conducted targeted email account searches and reviews, including the email accounts of Lauer and NBC News and Today Show leadership, reviewed text messages on Lauers work-issued phones, and reviewed other relevant documents and information,' stated the report.

'BCUniversal Legal department records and HR records for both NBCUniversal and the News Division were reviewed, together with records from the Comcast NBCUniversal complaint helplines and web portal, to determine whether there were any prior complaints about Lauer.'

One of the women who engaged in sexual activity with Lauer, Addie Collins Zinone, spoke about her month-long affair in interviews last year.

That incident occurred in 2000 when she was just a 24-year-old production assistant at Today.

While Zinone said the relationship was consensual, she added that the power dynamics had made her later regret the relationship.

She said that Katie Couric helped get her a job at Today right out of college and that she and Lauer had a professional working relationship right up until her last weeks on the show.

It all changed around June 2000, when Zinone got an instant message from Lauer one day, complimenting her on her appearance.

At the time, Lauer was already married to his second wife, Annette Roque.

'It said, "wow, you look great." I don't remember verbatim. "Whatever you're doing with your life, it's agreeing with you,"' Zinone recalled in an interview on Megyn Kelly Today.

'I thought, well, that's nice.'

Zinone went on to thank Lauer for the compliment. She then took the opportunity to let him know she was leaving the show soon to start a reporting job in West Virginia. She asked if she might be able to chat with him before she left to get some career advice, and Lauer agreed.

Assistant: One of the women who engaged in sexual activity with Lauer, Addie Collins Zinone (above with Lauer in 2000), spoke about her month-long affair in interviews last year

Zinone said a month went by without any word from Lauer. Then he sent her another awkward message.

'One day, I got another message that said, "Okay, now you're killing me. You look great today. It's a bit tough to concentrate,"' Zinone told Megyn.

'And my first reaction was, is this really you? Did somebody sit down and steal your log-in?' she said.

Zinone said Lauer insisted that it was him and said: 'I hope you don't take me to personnel for saying this'.

Zinone took the opportunity to remind Lauer that she was leaving again and if he wanted to have the conversation they planned. So the next day he set up lunch.

But the lunch did not go as Zinone planned.

'During the lunch, it didn't go to professional advice. It went quickly to accomplishing his goal. And I realized that,' she said.

She says she knew what his intentions were when he asked that they leave the lunch separately.

Back at the office, Zinone said she was overwhelmed by a feeling of confusion.

'I was trying to be normal. I'm a P.A. back to the office. All this nervous energy and I didn't know what to do with it. I was confused. I thought, what is happening?' she said.

So she messaged Lauer, telling him how she was feeling 'really nervous' and he suggested that she come meet him in his dressing room.

It was there that they had their first sexual encounter.

'I realize that sounds very naive and silly of me because I walked over there to do that. In that moment, I didn't have anybody to sort of share my fears and confusion with, except for him. What am I going to say to people? This just happened,' she said.

She said their sexual relationship lasted for about a month, then she went to West Virginia to start her new job.

Their first sexual encounter lasted approximately 10 minutes according to Zinone, and the last occurred in the bathroom at a convention center she said.

In 2001, a married NBC staffer claimed she woke up in Matt Lauer's office with her pants halfway down her legs after having sex with the anchor until she passed out in an interview with The New York Times.

The woman told The New York Times that the longtime Today Show host's assistant had to take her to see a nurse after the alleged encounter in 2001.

The former employee, who was in her 40s at the time, said Lauer first made advances towards her while covering a story away from their New York headquarters in the late 1990s.

She described moving away from him during a car journey to the airport because he was sitting 'uncomfortably close', to which he apparently replied: 'You're no fun'.

Then, in 2001, she claims the married Lauer summoned her to his office at 30 Rock in New York to discuss work. She says he then used a button under his desk to lock the door and then told her to unbutton her blouse.

She said the veteran broadcaster then stepped out from behind his desk, pulled out a chair, bent her over, and started having sex with her until she fell unconscious.

The woman told The Times she woke up a while later on the floor of his office with her pants halfway down her legs, prompting his assistant to take her to seek medical attention.

The ex-staffer, who has not been named, is one of a string of women who have come forward accusing Lauer of sexual misconduct.

She did not tell NBC about the alleged incident at the time because she thought she could have done more to stop Lauer's actions, and she left around a year later.

Lauer has been married for almost 20 years to wife Annette, a former model who was born in the Netherlands.

The two wed in 1998, just one year after he was made a co-anchor of the show.

Lauer and his wife have three children - Jack, and Romy and Thijs -who live in East Hampton with their mother while their their father stays in the city alone from Monday through Thursday in an Upper East Side bachelor pad.

His first marriage, to television producer Nancy Alspaugh, ended in divorce in 1988.

Lauer was also briefly engaged to television newscaster Kristen Gesswein, but they split in 1996, two years before he married Annette.

Lauer and his wife came close to splitting back in 2006 after Annette filed court papers stating that he husband valued his work over his family and was 'extremely controlling.'

Furthermore, Annette claimed at the time she suffered 'cruel and inhuman' treatment at the hands of Lauer, who also demonstrated 'extreme anger and hostility towards her.'

Matt filed his own legal action days later, saying any 'cruel and inhuman treatment' he may have exhibited was 'provoked' by his wife.

The pair will reportedly divorce, though there had been no news of a court filing at this time.

They do: Lauer has been married for almost 20 years to wife Annette, a former model who was born in the Netherlands (pair above in 2015)

This report's release comes just a few weeks after Lauer broke his silence for the first time since his firing from Today last November.

'I have made no public comments on the many false stories from anonymous or biased sources that have been reported about me over these past several months,' Lauer told The Washington Post.

'I remained silent in an attempt to protect my family from further embarrassment and to restore a small degree of the privacy they have lost. But defending my family now requires me to speak up.'

He continued: 'I fully acknowledge that I acted inappropriately as a husband, father and principal at NBC. However I want to make it perfectly clear that any allegations or reports of coercive, aggressive or abusive actions on my part, at any time, are absolutely false.'

That Post story detailed new allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct against Lauer that were made by three women who were NBC employees at the time of the incidents.

One woman said Lauer exposed himself to her in his office and asked her to touch his genitals; a second women claims she had sex with Lauer in his office during the workday; and a third said she was gifted a sex toy by Lauer.

It is unclear which of those women, if any, were included in the NBC report.

Workplace relationship: Zinone said their sexual relationship lasted for about a month, then she went to West Virginia to start her new job.

Curry also revealed in that report that she reported Lauer personally to two members of NBC management after she was approached by a woman in tears who said she had been 'sexually harassed physically'.

A woman approached me and asked me tearfully if I could help her,' said Curry.

'She was afraid of losing her job... I believed her.'

Curry said she then approached two members of NBCs management team and urged them to keep an eye on Lauer and 'how he deals with women.'

She would not however name the two individuals she spoke to about the allegations, and an NBC spokesperson said on Thursday that there is no record of Curry ever speaking to anyone in management.

Those individuals are no longer in management positions at NBC.

The chairman of NBC, Andy Lack, was the one who had the task of firing Lauer back in November, and the next morning he was reportedly forced to defend his decision.

Lack and NBC later launched an internal investigation in order to determine 'why this was able to happen, why it wasnt reported sooner, and what we can do to make employees feel more empowered to report unacceptable behavior.'

And while he has called Lauer's behavior 'reprehensible,' others have come to the former anchor's defense.

Three former NBC employees defended Lauer by saying his sexual relationships with NBC employees were always consensual.

One of those individuals also claimed that Lauer dismissed concern over his behavior by saying it was just the result of a troubled marriage.Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Matt Hancock arriving in Downing Street, London, for a cabinet meeting

Shortly after becoming a junior minister, Matt Hancock foolishly likened himself to former prime ministers Winston Churchill, William Pitt and Benjamin Disraeli. Predictably, he was ridiculed  especially by fellow Tory MPs.

Since then, the clever and hard-working MP has learnt to disguise his boundless ambition, emerging as one of the shrewdest, politically adroit members of the Commons  a man of whom big things are expected.

When the 39-year-old became Secretary of State for Digital, Culture Media and Sport in January, he took the admirably firm position of making sure newspaper-hating zealots did not reboot the second part of the Leveson inquiry.

Equally commendably, he set about tackling one of Levesons most egregious failings  not addressing how the amoral Wild West of social media giants should be properly regulated.

As a result, Hancock has fearlessly taken on big tech companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter. He summoned bosses of the firms to a meeting after saying they were failing in their duty of care to customers, following revelations that users personal data had been secretly harvested.

It is not for companies, he declared, to decide on the delicate balance between privacy and innovation, but for society as a whole.

The father of three young children also wants limits on the amount of time that youngsters can spend on certain websites.

He has been praised for tackling the menace of fixed-odds betting terminals, which allow people to wager up to 100 every 20 seconds or potentially 18,000 in one hour.

He favours a 2 cap on bets  in defiance of Chancellor Philip Hammond, who, disgracefully, is worried about the potential loss of tax revenue.

Shortly after becoming a junior minister, Matt Hancock foolishly likened himself to former prime minister Winston Churchill

After studying at Oxford and Cambridge, Hancock worked in his familys software firm before taking a job as an economist at the Bank of England.

There he was spotted by the then shadow chancellor George Osborne, who appointed him his chief of staff.

After being elected MP for West Suffolk, he co-wrote a book, Masters Of Nothing, with fellow Tory MP Nadim Zahawi, which called for corrupt bankers to be jailed.

Within three years he became Minister of State and colleagues are convinced that because he impressed the Cabinet Secretary he was promoted to become Culture Secretary.

His wide brief covers a host of areas  from Press regulation, to the provision of reliable and fast broadband to sport.

Indeed, his qualifications for the latter role are unusually impressive  being the only modern MP to have ridden a horse race winner, coming first at Newmarket in a charity race in 2016.

After seeing off Leveson 2 with such aplomb, many say Hancock could reach greater heights in politics than his mentor and friend George Osborne ever did.EastEnders actress Dame Barbara Windsor hinted at her battle with Alzheimer's disease in two previous interviews in the past six years, it emerged today.

The 80-year-old actress has kept the devastating news secret since she was first told in 2014, but her symptoms are said to have grown worse in recent weeks.

She said in December 2017 that she did not like to perform anymore, saying how she wanted audiences to remember her for her roles in the Carry On films.

Dame Barbara Windsor walking arm in arm with husband Scott Mitchell, the last time she was pictured in public in London last month

The actress, who was out and about in London with Mr Mitchell on April 6, has been taking medication to battle Alzheimer's disease

Speaking to the Daily Mirror at the time, she revealed that she had given up her tradition of performing in pantomime, saying: 'My life is different now.

'It took me a long time to get used to it because all of a sudden you look at your age and go 'Oh Christ, I'm getting older.' I do like to perform.

'But I don't do it so much now. I suddenly thought 'No, I won't do it now. Let them see me in Carry On films and they'll still think I'm like that.'

Her husband said he first noticed symptoms in 2009, just before his wife left EastEnders for the first time, when she began finding it difficult to learn her lines.

Then in 2012, she told the Daily Mirror that she was struggling to remember scripts and the demands of the show had become too much on her personal life

Dame Barbara said at the time: 'You hit an age when you have to study that bit harder  unless you are June Brown who, at 84, can pick it up and learn it in a second.

She added: 'That is a bit of old age I have got, scattiness. I just forget things.'

Also today, her husband revealed how he urged Eastenders bosses to kill off her character Peggy Mitchell after Dame Barbara was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Barbara's husband said he first noticed symptoms in 2009, just before his wife left EastEnders for the first time, when she began finding it difficult to learn her lines. Pictured: The EastEnders star with David Walliams and his mother

Peggy Mitchell's final scene in Eastenders was aired on May 17 2016

She was shown taking her own life after she was given a terminal cancer diagnosis

Dame Barbara played Peggy Mitchell (pictured) on the soap from 1994 until she left for good in 2016

Scott Mitchell has told how he convinced executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins that the character should be written out of the BBC soap.

He said Dame Barbara first went to him to suggest she should she should leave for good after her memory loss worsened. But he told her: 'I can't kill an iconic character'

Mr Mitchell, who revealed today how his wife is battling the disease, told him she would not be coming back after her final stint on the show in 2016.

He told The Sun: 'Barbara contacted the Executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins to make the suggestion and, at first, he said, 'I can't kill an iconic character'.

'So I went to see him and, without giving the full situation, confided that she was really struggling to learn lines and wouldn't ever be coming back again after this.

'I asked that she have an autocue on set, just as a safety net. But in the end, she just used it to refresh her memory between takes. If you saw the Peggy death scenes, you could see she wasn't reading it.

'Ironically, I think it's some of the best work she ever did. I was incredibly proud of her.'

Barbara's husband Scott Mitchell revealed how his wife began to cry in the neurologist's office when they were given the bad news in April 2014

Dame Barbara joined the cast of Eastenders in 1994 to play Peggy Mitchell, She left for two years between 2003 and 2005, announced she would quit in 2009, but then returned for one of episodes in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Her last appearance aired on May 17 2016 when Peggy took her own life after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

In a heartbreaking interview today, Mr Mitchell told how the 80-year-old has been taking medication to manage the illness, but her memory loss symptoms have worsened.

He described how his wife - famed for her loveable laugh - began to cry in the neurologist's office when they were told she had the degenerative brain disease in April 2014.

The star's close friend Jane Moore, who interviewed Mitchell said she now 'can't be left at home on her own' and 'gets confused.'

Speaking on ITV's This Morning the journalist said the star is 'thrilled' at the reaction from the public after her diagnosis was revealed.

The actress has been taking medication to manage the degenerative disease, but her symptoms have grown worse in recent weeks. Pictured left, on Eastenders and right, in Carry On Camping

She said now it has been made public it will make their life easier.

The Loose Women panellist said: 'He can't leave her on her own in the house any more.

'He used to be able to pop out for half an hour but he can't now as she gets to confused as to where he's gone.

'Now he'll be able to take her out more which will be a release for him and for her and to get people to come round and be with her'

Mr Mitchell, 55, told The Sun: 'Firstly, I hope speaking out will help other families dealing with loved ones who have this cruel disease

'Secondly, I want the public to know because they are naturally very drawn to Barbara and she loves talking to them.

'So rather than me living in fear she might get confused or upset, they'll know that if her behaviour seems strange, it's due to Alzheimer's and accept it for what it is.'

He added: 'When the doctor told us, she began crying then held it back, stretched her hand out to me and mouthed, 'I'm so sorry...

WHAT IS ALZHEIMER'S? Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain, in which build-up of abnormal proteins causes nerve cells to die. This disrupts the transmitters that carry messages, and causes the brain to shrink. More than 5 million people suffer from the disease in the US, where it is the 6th leading cause of death, and more than 1 million Britons have it. WHAT HAPPENS? As brain cells die, the functions they provide are lost. That includes memory, orientation and the ability to think and reason. The progress of the disease is slow and gradual. On average, patients live five to seven years after diagnosis, but some may live for ten to 15 years. EARLY SYMPTOMS: Loss of short-term memory

Disorientation

Behavioral changes

Mood swings

Difficulties dealing with money or making a phone call LATER SYMPTOMS: Severe memory loss, forgetting close family members, familiar objects or places

Becoming anxious and frustrated over inability to make sense of the world, leading to aggressive behavior

Eventually lose ability to walk

May have problems eating

The majority will eventually need 24-hour care Source: Alzheimer's Association Advertisement

'I squeezed her hand back and said, 'Don't worry, we'll be OK'.

'I can't protect her any longer. I'm doing this interview - and I would like to make clear that I'm not being paid for it and it's the only one I'll be doing - because I know that rumours are circulating in showbusiness circles.

'And, since her 80th birthday last August, a definite continual confusion has set in, so it's becoming a lot more difficult for us to hide.

'I don't want it to come across that she's sitting there unable to communicate, because she's not.

'We're still going out for walks or dinner with friends and we still laugh together a lot. She loves going out and it's good for her - she comes alive. And of course, the public are naturally very drawn to her, which I don't want to stop.

'But as soon as we leave the house, I live in constant terror that she's going to say something, or suddenly have a panic attack, or get photographed when she's not looking right.

'I didn't want someone else to dictate how or when the diagnosis came out, so that's why I'm speaking about it now.

'I'm doing this because I want us to be able to go out and, if something isn't quite right, it will be OK because people will now know that she has Alzheimer's and will accept it for what it is.'

Mr Mitchell, a former actor who now manages other EastEnders stars, decided only to tell their trusted friends after Barbara was diagnosed because they had started to notice signs of memory loss.

He said Dame Barbara, his wife of 18 years who is also known as 'Bar', had struggled to accept the diagnosis.

'We walked out of the neurologist's office and it was almost as if she chose to forget what we had just been told.

'That's Bar 100 per cent. And I understood because who would want to take that in? Sometimes, denial is easier, isn't it?

'It was important to her to keep going through life without people looking at her in any different way. And I respected her wishes on that.

'For it to have come out any earlier would have been detrimental to her well-being and her health.

Television hosts Piers Morgan and Lorraine Kelly were among the first celebrity names on social media to pay their respects to Barbara and her husband Scott

Mr Mitchell said he first realised there was something not quite right in 2009 when his wife first left EastEnders.

He said: 'Barbara had always prided herself on her memory and would say if anyone wanted to know anything, they'd phone her. But she started to find it difficult to learn her lines.

Ross Kemp, who acted alongside Dame Barbara in Eastenders paid tribute to the couple for 'talking openly' about her diagnosis

Other celebrities to pay tribute to the star included Radio DJ Tony Blackburn and presenter Eamonn Holmes, who uploaded a picture with Dame Barbara and his wife Ruth Langsford

'She also had a couple of freezes when working, which was unusual for her. But we didn't think anything of it.'

He said by 2012 she began to repeat stories and sentences and was told she should visit Dr Kennedy.

Then by 2016 her repetitiveness became even more common and she became confused during conversations.

Barbara was born in Shoreditch to a fruit and veg cart seller and a dressmaker.

The Dame has enjoyed a decorated career on stage and on the screen.

The TV icon - who became a Dame in 2016 - made her first film debut at the age of 17 in The Belles Of St Trinian's (1954).

Windsor as Daphne Honeybutt in Carry On Spying in 1964 (left), and posing for a risque New Year Year shoot in 1969 (right)

She received a BAFTA Award nomination for Sparrows Can't Sing (1963), and a Tony award nomination for the Broadway production of Oh, What A Lovely War! (1964).

She then became known for her comedic talents when she starred as the 'good time girl' in the Carry On series between 1964 and 1974.

She was cast in EastEnders as Peggy Mitchell in 1994, for which she received the Best Actress Soap Award at the 1999 BSAs and a Lifetime Achievement at the 2009 BSAs.

In 2016, Barbara won the Outstanding Contribution Award at the TV Choice Awards, and Best Exit at the Inside Soap Awards, for her portrayal of Peggy's death.

There are more than 850,000 dementia sufferers in the country, with Alzheimer's disease the most common form.

Symptoms of the disease often include difficulties with thinking and memory loss.

Dr Aarmer Khan, of Harley Street Skin Clinic and author of Turn Back Time, tests patients' DNA and gut bacteria to determine whether they are prone to the gene that causes Alzheimer's or dementia.

He told MailOnline: 'Its so important to offer these tests to my patients so they can be aware at a young an age as possible if they could be struck down by this condition.

'The effect that Alzheimer's on the person with the condition and their loved ones is life changing and early testing can predetermine susceptibility to the early onset and later in life onset of this disease, giving us the knowledge to keep it at bay and fight back.'

Barbara Windsor poses and smiles for the camera with Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly at the Bafta Awards in London in 2000In demand schools have taken extreme measures to make sure all of their enrolments are legitimate by hiring private investigators to follow the families of their students.

Brisbane State High School reportedly hires private investigators to make sure student live within the catchment area of the school, 7 News revealed on Thursday.

The private investigators allegedly go so far as to film families checking their mail or playing with their kids in public, covertly checking on the validity of parents living arrangements.

Scroll down for video

It's been revealed that the Brisbane State High School hires private investigators to follow its student's families to make sure they live within the catchment area of the school

Education Minister Grace Grace supports schools going to those lengths to prevent parents scamming the system

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Brisbane State High School for comment.

Education Minister Grace Grace said she supports schools going to those lengths to prevent parents scamming the system.

Youre not going to get away with falsifying information, there is evidence there often that the right thing isnt being done,' Miss Grace said.

Stretton State College principal Jan Maresca said there was an 'increasing number of parents' who were taking out short term leases to fall within the school's catchment area.

Stretton State College does its own detective work to check up on 'dodgy enrollments' by subscribing to pricey real estate software that allows them to check current living status

Stretton State College does its own detective work to check up on 'dodgy enrollments' by subscribing to pricey real estate software that allows them to check current living status.

Kevan Goodworth of P&CS Queensland said it was a 'question of fraud' if parents were falsifying their applications for enrolment.

However, schools will continue to do what they can to ensure that the students in their facility are form within the correct catchment areas.Members of a right-wing men's group which holds bizarre initiation rituals including beatings have allegedly bashed a member so badly there were fears he would lose an eye.

The group, who call themselves Proud Boys, allegedly turned on one of their number after a night out drinking in Sydneys inner-city and two of them have now been charged with assault.

The Proud Boys are 'western chauvinists' who ask members to vow not to masturbate more than once a month. They believe 'West is best' but claim not to be racist.

The group was started in the United States by conservative commentator Gavin McInnes, a co-founder of Vice Media who has been described as the 'godfather of hipsterdom'.

Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes attends a protest against sharia law in New York last year

Proud Boys members are required to get a tattoo as part of a series of initiation rituals

Members of the Proud Boys take part in a protest in Toronto, Canada, last year.It is not suggested that any of the people pictured were involved in the altercation in Sydney

A group of about 20 Proud Boys had been drinking in Surry Hills on the evening of April 7 when they were refused service at the Evening Star Hotel on Elizabeth Street about midnight.

Some of the group then turned on one of the members they believed had stepped out of line and drawn unwanted attention to them during the course of the night.

In what was allegedly a prolonged assault the 56-year-old member suffered head and face injuries and it was feared he would lose sight in one eye.

He was treated at scene before being taken to St Vincent's Hospital in a serious but stable condition.

After a month-long investigation New South Wales police arrested two of the alleged attackers on Tuesday and charged them with assault.

A 26-year-old man was charged with common assault and affray. He was granted conditional bail and is due to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on June 14.

An Australian member of the Proud Boys men's group shows off his freshly-inked tattoo

A group of Proud Boys was refused service at the Evening Star Hotel in Surry Hills before they allegedly turned on one of their own. Two members have since been charged with assault

The right-wing group Proud Boys was founded in New York City by Gavin McInnes in 2016

A 40-year-old man was charged with common assault affray. He was granted conditional bail to appear before Downing Centre Local Court on June 7.

Founded in New York in 2016, there are Proud Boys chapters across the US as well as in Canada and Great Britain, and now Australia.

Proud Boys members can be spotted by their black Fred Perry brand polo shirts with yellow piping.

Among the group's odd rituals is the requirement that nominees be beaten up by members until they can name five breakfast cereals. These assaults are often filmed.

Local Proud Boys, who do not engage with the media, have been spotted gathering in increasingly large numbers at hotels in capital cities.

Inquiries into the alleged assault continue. Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.Locals of an Australian outback town say authorities have forgotten them as they struggle to deal with gangs terrorising the streets.

Opal mining town Mintabie sits 1000 kilometres northeast of Adelaide and will soon be wiped off the map after a report found it was being used as a haven for illegal activity.

'I've never ever seen anything to this extent, it reminds me of South Africa where you've got to put barbed wire around your fence, and you sit inside and have an armed guard out the front of your property,' resident Angela Ellis told 7 News.

Angela Ellis said authorities have forgotten locals as they struggle to deal with gangs terrorising the streets

Locals claim shops and pubs are being trashed and people assaulted by violent gangs

'It's out of control, you've got the pub been broken into three times, the indigenous kids are coming in and throwing rocks.'

Locals claim shops and pubs are being trashed and people assaulted by violent gangs.

About 60 people still live in the town and they claim authorities have left them in the lurch.

'If you try and ring SAPOL you end up with Port Augusta, you can't get hold of anybody,' Ms Ellis said.

'It's scary, someone's going to be hurt.'

The town was found to be an access point for drugs and alcohol into the AYP lands, according to a government report.

About 60 people still live in the town and they claim authorities have left them in the lurch (trashed property pictured)

The findings on the Mintabie township raised concerns about drug dealing, lawlessness and violence, the Advertiser reported.

In December of 2015 there were reports of 'a woman being imprisoned in her house and sexually assaulted, verbal threats towards store owners, three cars being set alight, a deliberately lit grass fire near the school, and a break and enter at the school'.

The residents of the town and its small number of businesses had been subject to leases that were reviewed each year.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kyam Maher said local government had accepted the recommendations in the report, including the termination of its lease on the Mintabie township.

The government commissioned the review after the owner of the town's general store was found guilty of taking money from customer's bank accounts.Digital Minister Margot James announced the U-turn in the wake of the Windrush scandal

Illegal immigrants could escape detection after ministers announced the Home Office will no longer use NHS records to track them down.

Patient records will now only be shared to help trace individuals facing deportation because they have committed a serious crime.

Ministers tightened the rules after MPs raised concerns the policy breached patient confidentiality. Sharing NHS information with enforcement officers had been part of Government efforts to create a hostile environment for illegal immigrants.

Digital Minister Margot James announced the U-turn in the wake of the Windrush scandal during the Parliamentary debate on the Data Protection Bill.

She said a memorandum of understanding on the exchange of information between the NHS and the Home Office over illegal immigrants, which is said to have been taking place since 2005, was being suspended.

In 2016, confidential information on 8,527 people contained in their NHS records was requested by the Home Office.

NHS Digital, the data network for the healthcare system, provided 5,854 matches  including surnames, dates of birth, gender, last known addresses and dates of registration. It did not request details of medical conditions or any treatment received.

She told MPs that the data would only be used in future to trace an individual who is being considered for deportation action having been investigated for or convicted of a serious criminal offence.

Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston, who chairs the Commons health select committee and had lodged an amendment to change the rules, said she was delighted.The Ministry of Defence will be forced to hand over service records of British troops to help a police probe into the Troubles.

Officials will have no choice but to comply with the planned investigation into hundreds of veterans, many in their 70s, who served in Northern Ireland.

Personal details of the troops, their service records and any other documents relating to operations are likely to be requested, Whitehall sources said. This is set to make it much easier to prosecute British troops than IRA terrorists caught up in the legacy investigation.

MPs reacted with anger to the revelation last night, which followed the news that a proposed amnesty for UK soldiers had been dropped.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, above, told colleagues it would result in a fresh witch-hunt of British troops. They now have no protection from prosecution and face being investigated over events from four decades ago

It had been hoped that British soldiers would be protected from prosecution during the investigation, which is being led by the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Sources said Theresa May was deluded if she believed that the probe would ensure IRA terrorists were investigated on the same scale as British troops.

Julian Lewis, who chairs the Commons defence committee, said: The IRA didnt keep full documentation of its terrorist activity. This is part of the asymmetry on the matter. We will have tried to behave by the book and thats why it is so much easier to pursue a soldier rather than a terrorist. We followed the rules and they didnt.

The Government must show some backbone on this issue. We close down options in the face of criticism instead of trying to fight our corner and negotiate in a tough manner.

On Tuesday it emerged that ministers had dropped proposals for an amnesty and a statute of limitations for British troops who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

It had been written into a draft consultation document last year but was then taken out following opposition from Sinn Fein.

500k to probe veteran, 77 The prosecution of a dying Army veteran over the killing of an IRA suspect 44 years ago has already cost taxpayers at least 500,000. Before the case has even come to trial, the Ministry of Defence has paid to cover the legal fees of Dennis Hutchings, below. The total cost could pass 1million. The 77-year-old is to face a charge of attempted murder over the fatal shooting of John-Pat Cunningham, 27, in June 1974. His supporters claim the case should never have been brought because there is no fresh evidence and no witnesses. Mr Hutchings, from Cornwall, has already been cleared twice. He said: It is a disgrace this has dragged on for three years. Doctors say kidney disease will kill him within two years. Advertisement

The removal of the key chapter that introduced age limits for those who could be prosecuted sparked a row in Cabinet.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson told colleagues it would result in a fresh witch-hunt of British troops.

They now have no protection from prosecution and face being investigated over events from four decades ago.

Speaking at PMQs yesterday, the PM defended the latest probe because she said it would mean terrorists would be investigated at the same time.

The Prime Minister said: We have an unfair situation at the moment  that the only people being investigated for these issues that happened in the past are those in our Armed Forces or those who served in law enforcement in Northern Ireland  that is patently unfair.

Terrorists are not being investigated, terrorists should be investigated and that is what the Government wants to see.

Under the plans, both soldiers and IRA terrorists would face proportionate investigations.

But a Whitehall source said: There is a delusion if people think this will create an even playing field.

The IRA are not sitting in offices with documents about where they attacked and when.Ian Murray, Labour MP for Edinburgh South, and 'I think the public would be surprised that as a result of tighter and more up-to-date data protection laws they receive even more unwanted junk mail'

Homeowners face a deluge of junk mail after the Royal Mail encouraged businesses to exploit a loophole in data protection laws.

Companies across the UK have been advised by the Royal Mail to send unaddressed letters in a bid to dodge new EU laws that hope to crackdown on junk mail.

The new laws, which will come into force on May 25, will only allow businesses to send letters to the public if they have specific permission or a legitimate reason, the Telegraph reported.

But the Royal Mail has found a loophole and has sent out pamphlets telling firms how to navigate the new restrictions.

The leaflet reminded firms: Dont forget the power of unaddressed mail as a way to contact people without needing their personal details.

MPs and campaigners have called the move frustrating and an unwanted waste of paper and suggested the Royal Mail have not behaved responsibly.

Ian Murray, Labour MP for Edinburgh South, told the Daily Telegraph: I think the public would be surprised that as a result of tighter and more up-to-date data protection laws they receive even more unwanted junk mail.

Individual businesses will determine if this kind of blanket junk mail marketing works but Im sure most consumers would see it as an unwanted waste of paper.

Julian Knight MP, a member of the digital, culture, media and sport committee, said: The new rules are about positive consent for how your data is used, so you are always in control of how are you are contacted.

For too long our private personal data has been used for purposes which people havent consented for, resulting in frustrating amounts of information and junk mail for consumers.

Businesses including the Royal Mail should not be trying to find ways around this.

Although in 1983 the Mailing Preference Service was set up so households could opt out of receiving junk mail, it is thought that on average customers still receive around 650 pieces of unwanted mail a year.

But those who sign up for the service are not protected from unaddressed letters. Even with the introduction of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May, unaddressed letters could still get through.

Some families could receive up to seven unaddressed leaflets per day from Royal Mail alone and the regulator, the Information Commissioners Office, would not be able to do anything about it.

James Daley, director at consumer group Fairer Finance, told the Daily Telegraph: It is particularly disappointing to see an organisation that was until recently owned by the Government failing to stick by the spirit of the rules.

The Royal Mail has found a loophole and has sent out pamphlets telling firms how to navigate the new restrictions in data protection laws

GDPR is being introduced to protect people from spam and unwanted mail. Clearly businesses need to be able to market responsibly, but encouraging unwanted advertising doesnt sound particularly responsible to me. If we cant rely on Royal Mail to lead the way, then we cant expect much of anyone else.

A spokesman for the Royal Mail said: We take its responsibility as a media owner very seriously and we comply with relevant advertising laws and regulations.

Targeted door-to-door mailings help to underpin the Universal Service. They provide a very valuable service to companies of all kinds as they seek to provide their goods and services.

We are committed to giving households control over the unaddressed mail they receive so that they can make an informed choice. Royal Mail runs a door-to-door opt-out scheme for unaddressed mail if customers want to stop receiving unaddressed mail.

An ICO spokesman said: If an organisation is sending mail or leaflets to every address in an area and does not know the identity of the people at those addresses, it is not processing personal data for direct marketing, and the GDPR rules will not apply. However, it may still need to comply with other guidelines and codes on marketing and advertising.Cambridge University has been accused of making it too easy for sexual predators to be cleared in disciplinary cases as students called for urgent reforms.

The university currently relies on evidence that is beyond reasonable doubt  the criminal standard of proof.

However, more than 800 students have called for changes to the disciplinary system.

They want the decisions to be based on the balance of probabilities  the lower, civil standard of proof.

More than 800 Cambridge University students have called for changes to the disciplinary system

They have signed an open letter to vice-chancellor Professor Stephen Toope, claiming that upholding a criminal standard of proof actively discourages survivors and victims of sexual harassment, rape and assault from engaging with the disciplinary procedure.

It comes after the university admitted in February that it had a significant problem with claims of sexual harassment. Students said that changing the sexual assault rules will give survivors and victims of sexual assault more confidence to access [the disciplinary procedure].

The letter states: By requiring cases to be proven beyond reasonable doubt the university is implying that there are unlikely to be consequences for perpetrators in disciplinary cases pertaining to sexual misconduct, unless the survivor goes to the police. We ask that the balance of probabilities be adopted.

The universitys review committee on student discipline is now considering changing the standard of proof required for misconduct claims, according to a document seen by The Daily Telegraph.

Sarah DAmbrumenil, head of the office for student conduct at Cambridge, said: The university is currently in a period of consultation about the disciplinary procedure.

This week Oxford University launched a crackdown onalcohol-fuelled parties at a number of its colleges amid complaints about debauched behaviour.

Students at Wadham College will be forced to drink watered-down cocktails while Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) has suspended its 'bops' until the end of term.

Students' hi-jinks have caused controversy over the years, with university officials trying to step in to put an end to the fun.

Oxford University has launched a crackdown on alcohol-fuelled parties at a number of its colleges. Pictured, students at one of the most notoriously debauched events in Oxford University's social calendar: the annual summer party of the Piers Gaveston Society

An Oxford freshers' party was advertised online with pictures of the organisers lying on the floor surrounded by bottles of vodka

Wadham College has now reformed its alcohol policy at Queerfest - a week-long celebration of LGBTQIA - and Wadstock - a music festival.

Drinks promotions will be scrapped at the events, with cocktails limited to half pints and a maximum alcohol content of 6% ABV, according to Cherwell, Oxford's weekly student newspaper.

The recommendations came in response to complaints of drunkenness at college social events.

Last October, security had to be called in to an alcohol-fuelled party at Oxford University after the gilded students' behaviour got out of hand.

Undergraduates stripped off at the notorious 'bop' at prestigious Christ Church college, with male scholars going topless while females stripped down to their bras.

Bouncers were drafted into the college-funded party as revellers downed half-pint cocktails costing around 50p each.

The freshers' party was advertised online with pictures of the organisers lying on the floor surrounded by bottles of vodka.

In November 2017, an LMH student was criticised for trivialising the 'lived experience of survivors' of sexual assault after attending a bop dressed as film producer Harvey Weinstein.

The student appeared as Weinstein for LMH's 'horror movie classics' themed party, Cherwell reports.

And last June half-naked students were pictured standing at a bus stop next to stunned families while they waited to be whisked off to a society ball.

Debauched: Security had to be called in to an alcohol-fuelled party at Oxford University after students' behaviour got out of hand and they stripped off

Every year students are pictured at one of the most notoriously debauched events in Oxford University's social calendar: the annual summer party of a secretive dining club called the Piers Gaveston Society.

Founded in 1977, and named after the purported gay lover of Edward II, the Society boasts just a dozen full-time members at any one time.

Famous alumni over the years include actor Hugh Grant, billionaire financier Nat Rothschild and society conman Darius Guppy.

The Society's main event comes after the end of each summer's exams.

It sees every Piers Gaveston member invite between 20 and 30 liberally minded friends to a clandestine, all-night bash, traditionally held in the grounds of a stately home or country estate.

Here Oxford students can drink, dance, take class-A drugs, and indulge in casual sex in conditions of utmost secrecy.

Piers Gaveston party goers over the years have included Nigella Lawson, Tom Parker Bowles - stepson of Prince Charles - and David Cameron.There were 1.3 million students enroled in university courses in 2016

Young Australians are choosing university education over vocational trades, despite the fact TAFE courses often give graduates higher paychecks.

The starting salary for students who obtain qualifications at TAFE and private colleges is $2,000 more than for university graduates according to a study on behalf of Skilling Australia Foundation.

Mark Crindle, the researcher for the study, told The Australian: 'Confusion about career earnings, employability and course relevance has led to a culture of belief that only university qualifications guarantee a future career.'

The starting salary for TAFE and private colleges is $2,000 more than for university graduates according to a study on behalf of Skilling Australia Foundation (stock image)

Skilling Australia chief executive Nicholas Wyman also told the publication that this would come as a shock to parents as 80 per cent of them want their child to get a university degree.

In 2017 research from National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) showed that there were only 265,000 people in the vocational sector as of December 31 2016.

This is a 4.5 per cent decrease from the previous year

NCVER also writes that between January and September 2017 there were 327,900 goverment-funded VET students in New South Wales.

This is a 8.5 per cent decrease from the same period in 2016.

There were 1.3 million students enroled in university courses in 2016.

TAFE NSW Managing Director Jon Black told Daily Mail Australia: 'Key point being that while there is obviously an important role for universities in our nations future, a VET pathway to a job and a career should be regarded as a valid and inspiring first choice.'

Mr Black said in a speech at Careers Counsellors: 'Half a million jobs in the next five years do not need a bachelor or higher university degree.

'Career advisors, teachers and parents need to have the conversation with students around the benefits of pursuing trades and apprenticeships, rather than falling into a generalist degree like arts, which is shown to have weaker employment outcomes.'

In 2016 research from National Centre for Vocational Education Research found that there were only 282,000 people in the vocational sector, according to the SBS (stock image)

Mr Black spoke about how there is a flood of students who have degrees returning to TAFE to study with Sydney's Ultimo campus having more than 30 per cent of our students already have a degree but have come back to study at TAFE NSW (stock image)

Mr Black spoke about how there is a flood of students who have degrees returning to TAFE to study.

He said: 'Increasingly were seeing many people who have a degree under their belt. Take our Ultimo campus for example, where more than 30 per cent of our students already have a degree but have come back to study at TAFE NSW.'

Mr Black references an Able Skills study that states that 48 per cent of university students thought they could have earnt more money if they hadnt gone to uni.

This is while 31 per cent said their degree was a waste of money.

However, according to a media release from Universities Australia, three in five students with incomplete degrees still found the course helpful (stock image)

In contrast, recent ABS data confirms that if you have a Bachelor degree, in the long term the median salary sits at $245 more per week than someone with a vocational qualification.

Data also reveals that university graduates are 2.5 times less likely to be unemployed than those who don't have a post-school qualification.A woman drowned and her three-year-old daughter is presumed dead after their family boat capsized while sailing on a Pennsylvania river on Monday.

Madelyn Binkley has been identified as the girl who went missing, according to the Tribune-Review.

Authorities in Pennsylvania resumed the search on Wednesday, though officials say that the child is presumed to have drowned, according to the York Daily Record.

Her mother, Mary Bredbenner, and a family dog died in the accident. Their bodies were recovered.

Scroll down for video

Madelyn Binkley (seen left with her mother and right) has been identified as the girl who went missing. Her mother, Mary Bredbenner, and a family dog died in the accident. Their bodies were recovered

The girls father, Cody Binkley, survived. Cody Binkley is Bredbenners boyfriend. He was rushed to a hospital and treated for hypothermia

Authorities say that the family was on their boat as it floated along the Susquehanna River at around 10pm on Monday. The states Fish and Boat Commission is investigating what caused the 12-foot boat to capsize

The girls father, Cody Binkley, survived.

Cody Binkley is Bredbenners boyfriend. He was rushed to a hospital and treated for hypothermia.

Authorities say that the family was on their boat as it floated along the Susquehanna River at around 10pm on Monday.

Rescue workers called off their search late Tuesday after 12 hours in which sonar, cadaver dogs, and police helicopters were used to try and find Madelyn

Authorities in Pennsylvania resumed the search on Wednesday, though officials say that the child is presumed to have drowned'

The states Fish and Boat Commission is investigating what caused the 12-foot boat to capsize, according to WGAL-TV.

Binkley called 911 after the boat capsized.

Rescue workers called off their search late Tuesday after 12 hours in which sonar, cadaver dogs, and police helicopters were used to try and find Madelyn.

After the search was called off, volunteers continued looking for the girl.

Suspending the search was not a call that anybody likes to make for the sheer fact that it's not just a person but a child.

A lot of these guys have been out here all 12 hours and they need a break, they need sleep, they need to regroup, Swatara Public Information Officer John Kibe told WGAL.

They want to go out. They want to do what they can. But at some point, there has to be a time to call.Caitlyn Jenner has hit back at critics who questioned her suitability as a voice for the transgender community.

Delivering Channel 4's Diversity Lecture in the House of Commons, the transgender activist said she 'would never apologise for working hard and being successful'.

Members of the transgender community in the UK and US had criticised Channel 4 for inviting Jenner to give the lecture.

Transgender comedian Shon Faye said ahead of the speech that the former Olympian's life story 'is as far removed from what British politicians need to be hearing and considering on this 'issue'.

Transgender activist Caitlyn Jenner has hit back at critics who questions her suitability as a voice for the transgender community

Delivering Channel 4's Diversity Lecture in the House of Commons, the transgender activist said she 'would never apologise for working hard and being successful'

RuPaul's Drag Race star Carmen Carrera said that Jenner's 'number one mission was to be the Mother Theresa of this community'.

During her keynote speech to an audience that included MPs in Commons' Churchill Room, Jenner justified her decision to give the lecture.

She said: 'When I came out, the first year was great. Then all of a sudden I got this 'person of privilege'.

'I didn't get it when it came to the trans community, as we have a very marginalised community.

'I didn't start off being privileged.

'For years I was living on 10,000 dollars (7,300) a year, living in a 145 dollar-a-month apartment, driving a 150 dollar 1963 VW Bug, training my butt off and training to make it in life.

'I will never apologise for everything that I've been able to do because I have worked very hard for everything.

'So I'm not going to apologise for working hard and being successful. But what that does is yes, give me a sense of privilege - but it also gives me a platform.

'I always suggest to every trans person out there, everybody has a platform that they can utilise to make it just a little bit better for the next generation coming up.'

During her keynote speech to an audience that included MPs in Commons' Churchill Room, Jenner justified her decision to give the lecture

She said: 'When I came out, the first year was great. Then all of a sudden I got this 'person of privilege'

The reality TV star said she was humbled by the opportunity to speak in the House of Commons.

Jenner later spoke about the work she had done to raise awareness of transgender issues in the US.

She also discussed how the media scrutiny surrounding her transition caused her to consider taking her own life.

The reality TV star said she was humbled by the opportunity to speak in the House of Commons.

She criticised US President Donald Trump's proposed ban on transgender soldiers in the American military. Jenner said his administration had set the US transgender community back by 20 years.

She urged Parliament 'not to go down the same road' as the US on the rights of transgender citizens.

Jenner said she had been in London for a couple of days and praised the city for being what 'could be the most culturally diverse city in the world'.

Jenner was introduced at the event by Channel 4's chief executive Alex Mahon. She is the third person to give the channel's Diversity Lecture, after actors Idris Elba and Riz Ahmed.The mother of an autistic teenager who was bashed by a gang of thugs armed with spanners says she feels sorry for the attackers' parents.

Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins, 14, was ambushed and beaten by five attackers with wrenches and spanners in a horrifying attack outside Northcote High School in Melbourne's north on Tuesday.

After horrific footage of the attack surfaced on Wednesday night, the victim's mother Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins has spoken out.

Scroll down for video

Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins, was attacked by five armed youths outside Northcote High School

In a candid interview with 3AW's Neil Mitchell on Thursday, Mrs Lahiff-Jenkins said the young thugs who attacked her son could be anyone's children.

'I don't imagine that these are five specific bad kids, all our kids could be out there behaving this way,' she said.

'I feel very sorry for the parents of these kids, because now they have to deal with something that I'm sure will shock them.'

Describing the attack as 'pretty gruesome', Mrs Lahiff-Jenkins said it was her and her husband's 'worst nightmare'.

The Melbourne mother said Quinn was extremely lucky to escape with only bruises from the attack, but said it was his mental health she was most worried about.

When asked what led to the beating, Mrs Lahiff-Jenkins said her son was trying to defend his friend, also believed to be autistic, who was being bullied.

She said her 'justice-driven' son messaged one of the boys on social media pleading with them to stop the bullying.

'The children rang him and rang him and said, 'Meet us at the school, and if you don't come we're going to come to your house and rape your mother,' she told 3AW.

Mrs Lahiff-Jenkins said her son was so upset, he jumped on his bike immediately.

Quinn was thrown off his bike by one of the boys who was carrying a wrench (pictured in black shirt)

Confronting footage of the attack, obtained by the Herald Sun, shows Quinn being thrown off his bike by one of the boys who was carrying a wrench.

Five boys then attacked Quinn, jumping on him, pushing his head into the pavement and beating him with weapons.

Quinn was seen defenseless, trying to block the punches coming from the attacker.

Once he regained his footing, a boy grabbed his head and kneed him in the face.

Quinn was then cornered between two boys armed with wrenches who attacked him from both sides before chasing him into traffic where he was held down and kicked in the head.

Quinn's mother, Carmen, got the heartbreaking call from her son while he was in the ambulance.

Quinn's mother, Carmen (pictured), got the heartbreaking call from her son while he was in the ambulance

Victoria Police are now investigating the assault outside Northcote High School (pictured)

Ms Lahiff-Jenkins took to Twitter to share the incident with her followers, posting, 'They had been bullying him on social and calling his phone threatening to rape his mother if he didn't come to meet them.'

'Over the phone the ambo was very mocking and said tell your mother the truth, that you organised a fight - and my son was howling and screaming and so distressed and the medic was very dismissive and was saying ''well you don't organise fights do you''.

'They had been using homophobic language to taunt him and he had been telling them off saying things like 'he's not ashamed to be gay, he's proud' and things like that and the abuse escalated.

'All 4-5 of them punching kicking and whacking with spanners.

'And the effects on his mental health will be profound. It's so hard to be a teenage boy, let alone grapple with the social weight of autism without being targeted by bullies.

'My husband and I despair for our special boy.'

She said Quinn was now too afraid to leave his house.

Victoria Police is now investigating the assault.One in five people cared for in their own homes have gone without meals and felt unsafe moving around without assistance, a report reveals.

The survey, by a group of charities, also found that two fifths were unable to leave their home without help.

More than a quarter of families with someone who needs care said their relative had been unable to cope with washing or dressing, the survey for the Care and Support Alliance found.

The campaign group said the social care system was failing to provide carers for those who could live at home but needed help with daily routines.

More than a quarter of families with someone who needs care said their relative had been unable to cope with washing or dressing, the survey for the Care and Support Alliance found (stock image)

The research also provided the latest indicator of the scale of bed blocking, in which thousands of older patients whose treatment in hospital has ended continue to occupy beds because there is no care package available for them at home.

It found that one in eight families have a loved one who has had to stay in hospital because they were too frail to go home without care, and there was no one to look after them. The findings were gathered from a survey of nearly 4,000 people who need care, as well as the family members who provide it.

Homes to repay 2m fees A care home group has agreed to pay over 2million to residents who were forced to hand over fees before they had secured a place. Sunrise Senior Living claimed the fees were imposed to maintain its facilities. But the Competition and Markets Authority said it was unclear how the money had been used. The compensation payments, which will average 3,000, will be paid to people who spent less than two years in a Sunrise home. The fees were not refunded to anyone who lived in a home for more than 30 days. Sunrise said: We are voluntarily embarking on this reimbursement programme. Advertisement

The alliance of more than 80 charities including Age UK, Scope and the Alzheimers Society, blamed the Government for failing to put more money into social care.

The Government is expected to put forward a social care initiative in a Green Paper by the end of July. Government support for social care at home has been falling since the early 2000s.

The report yesterday said the number of adults who get care at home fell by a quarter in four years after 2010, and more than 6billion has been taken out of the care budgets of councils.

The fall in levels of care at home has come alongside the development of the 15-minute visit  in which care workers are required to provide all necessary assistance for a vulnerable person in a quarter of an hour.

Of the 3,915 people surveyed, one said her mother was not given lunch, but was left cold soup by her bed.

Mark Lever, co-chairman of the alliance, said: The stories of frustration and heartache we heard are all too common.

Regardless of someones condition or age, people should be getting care so they can live safely and with dignity. The Government must ensure the upcoming Green Paper proposes effective ways of meeting the countrys social care needs and urgent funding is also required.A woman who starved her 18-year-old dog Charlie until he was 'skin and bone' has escaped a jail term.

Nancy Thompson, 57, faced the Adelaide Magistrates Court this week for charges of animal neglect, which she blamed on her now deceased mother-in-law.

Magistrate Paul Foley told Thompson it was the worst case of neglect he has ever seen, 7 News reported.

Scroll down for video

Nancy Thompson, 57, starved her dog Charlie, 18, until his hips, ribs and spine were visible (pictured)

'It defies reason to conclude you werent aware of the condition the dog was in, its the most serious example of neglect Ive seen, it was literally skin and bone, there was no flesh to be seen on the dog whatsoever,' he said.

Thompson (pictured) faced the Adelaide Magistrates Court for charges of animal neglect

Despite his comments, Magistrate Foley suspended a three month jail sentence and instead put Thompson on a good behaviour bond. He also allowed her to keep her other dogs.

RSPCAs Cheryl Doudle collected Charlie after two complaints were made about the dog's condition.

'The dog was in a horrendous condition, it was the skinniest dog Ive ever seen, Im surprised it was still alive, it was just like a walking skeleton,' she said.

'When I seized him I wasnt even sure of what breed he was because he was so thin.'

When Charlie was finally rescued he was incredibly malnourished to the point that his hips, ribs and spine were all clearly visible and his nails were cutting into his pads.In a police interview shown in court, Ihsas Khan - who is accused of yelling 'Allahu Akbar' as he stabbed his neighbour - likened the alleged attack to eating a chocolate bar

An accused Islamic terrorist who allegedly yelled 'Allahu Akbar' as he attacked his neighbour with a hunting knife likened the stabbing to eating a chocolate bar in a chilling police interview.

Ihsas Khan was charged with committing a terrorist act and wounding with intent to murder after Wayne Greenhalgh was hacked to near-death in Minto, western Sydney, in 2016.

A detective asked Khan how he felt after allegedly stabbing the then 57-year-old in a police interview shown in court on Wednesday.

'[It felt] like eating a Picnic bar. You don't really think about it, do you?' the 24-year-old calmly responded.

When Khan was told his alleged crime was 'more extreme' than eating a chocolate bar, he replied: 'I think it's the same.'

Ihsas Khan was charged with committing a terrorist act and wounding with intent to murder over the 2016 attack in Minto in Sydney's west

The allegedly self-radicalised Muslim was then asked if he thought the alleged stabbing was 'normal'.

'Is it normal for you to drop bombs in Iraq and Syria? It's the same thing,' Khan responded, adding that he 'felt nothing' and didn't regret his alleged actions.

When asked what he wanted to achieve by stabbing Mr Greenhalgh, Khan said: 'To kill and be killed... Someone who's discharging his obligation of Jihad.'

He also spoke of his admiration for Farhad Jabar, the teenager who shot dead Sydney police employee Curtis Cheng.

When Khan was told his alleged crime was 'more extreme' than eating a chocolate bar, he replied: 'I think it's the same'

Wayne Greenhalgh (pictured in hospital) was repeatedly stabbed in western Sydney in 2016

Khan is seen confronting police just moments after allegedly hacking his neighbour to near-death in an ISIS-inspired attack

Dramatic video shown in court this week showed police yelling at Khan to drop the knife before an officer fired his Taser and he was arrested.

The court heard the 24-year-old had been taking anti-psychotic medication at the time and pleaded not guilty due to mental illness as his Supreme Court trial got underway last month.

Prosecutor Peter Neil SC told the jury Khan repeatedly yelled 'Allahu Akbar' as he attacked the then-57-year-old without warning on Saturday September 10.

Khan had planned to attack a stranger on September 11 to mark the anniversary of the 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, the court heard.

But a day earlier, Khan spotted his victim wearing a t-shirt with an American motif and decided to attack, prosecutors said.

Wayne Greenhalgh (pictured right) was rushed to hospital after he was stabbed in Minto in 2016

Khan wanted to exact 'revenge for what he regarded as injustices for Muslims in the Middle East', according to Mr Neil.

Khan allegedly said United States soldiers had killed his 'brothers and sisters in Iraq' and yelled out 'you rape our women, you rape our children, you bomb our country'.

Mr Neil said the 'intelligent' university student was motivated by a religious, political or ideological cause to influence the Australian government or intimidate the public.

The court heard Khan said: 'Maybe if I butcher a guy the government would think again about sending the air force [to Iraq].'

The court heard Khan (pictured in school photo) said: 'Maybe if I butcher a guy the government would think again about sending the air force [to Iraq]'

Defence barrister Mark Ierace SC told the jurors many of the facts of the stabbing wouldn't be disputed with Khan admitting he'd 'tried to slaughter a guy'.

But he said Khan suffered schizophrenia and severe obsessive-compulsive disorder at the time and a central issue during the trial would be his mental state.

The prosecutor argued Khan's psychiatric condition didn't stop him controlling his actions or knowing they were wrong.

The trial continues.A family who pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars by selling their cattle farm say they decided to leave their home of five generations to escape Melbourne's urban sprawl.

The Laffans sold their 600-hectare Deloraine farm in Beveridge, 40kms north of Melbourne, to Chinese development tycoon Zeng Xiong Lin for a staggering $200million.

The family chose to sell the property as booming developments in the city's outskirts continue to creep towards the area, where they have run cattle for about 100 years, news.com.au reported.

The Laffan family - who pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars by selling their cattle farm (pictured) in Beveridge, 40kms north of Melbourne - say they decided to leave their home to escape urban sprawl

The 600-hectare (1,482.63 acre) Deloraine farm (pictured) was sold to a Melbourne development tycoon for $200million

Biggin & Scott Land managing director Frank Nagle said the family are delighted by their expert property deal which made them multi-millionaires.

'They're fifth generation cattle farmers. They're farming cattle as we speak ... They're happy,' Mr Nagle told the publication.

He said Melbourne's urban sprawl had 'caught up with them', forcing them to sell the property they acquired in 1964 for roughly $150,000 - the equivalent of approximately $13million today.

The land was once graced by bushranger Ned Kelly, who would ride his horses through the farm during the 19th century.

Now it's prepared to be subdivided to accommodate up to 6,000 homes, once approved for housing, the Financial Review reported.

The Laffans' sale was one of two recent property deals, totaling $400million.

Biggin & Scott Land managing director Frank Nagle said the family are delighted by their expert property deal which made them multi-millionaires. Pictured: Deloraine farm

Mr Nagle said Melbourne's urban sprawl had 'caught up with them', forcing them to sell the property. Pictured: Deloraine farm

A second property in Clyde North, 42kms from Melbourne, was also bought for $200million by Sydney-based developer Goldmate Group, led by Kim Ni.

The land will be able to support up to 1,300 residential lots.

Industry professionals have forecast a boom for the northern regions outside Melbourne's suburbs, claiming property owners are sitting on 'a proverbial housing gold mine' due to the area being rezoned for residential housing.

Mr Nagle said Melbourne's growing population has sent demand for house and land packages in the area booming.

Once fully developed, the combined value of the two properties will be worth $4billion.

Industry professionals have forecast a boom for the northern regions outside Melbourne's suburbs (stock image)

As a result, developers will pay upwards of $1million per hectare for property in the newly rezoned areas.

Mr Nagle told Commercial News that the sale of the Laffans' property would be 'industry defining'.

'This land can accommodate 6,000 lots, together with a huge public park in Mt Fraser  four schools, a major water feature and direct Hume Freeway access,' he said.

A chance to buy large areas of land and have it rezoned for residential dwellings was 'described' as rare by Taylors Strategists' Nick Hooper.

'People talk a lot about creation of major townships and creating a vision and this is one of those opportunities for those developers who really want to make their mark,' he said.North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un has been photographed smiling and laughing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just moments before three American detainees boarded a flight home from Pyongyang after months in captivity.

The plane carrying Pompeo and the three Americans - Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim - touched down on US soil in Anchorage, Alaska on Wednesday for a brief refueling stop before continuing on its journey to Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump tweeted late Wednesday that he was 'Looking forward to greeting the Hostages (no longer) at 2:00 A.M.'

'President Trump appreciates leader Kim Jong Uns action to release these American citizens, and views this as a positive gesture of goodwill,' the White House said in a statement.

After months of anticipation and drama, the release of three American detainees by North Korea played out amid high-stakes diplomacy and was only sealed about an hour before Pompeo was wheels-up from Pyongyang.

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un has been photographed smiling and laughing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just moments before three American detainees boarded a flight home after months in captivity

Photographs of Kim and Pompeo shaking hands were released by the North Korean government on Wednesday

In a major diplomatic coup for the Trump administration, Pompeo managed to secure the release of three Americans detained by the North Korean government

It was the culmination of Pompeo's 12-and-a-half-hour visit to the North Korean capital, which included a 90-minute meeting with Kim

The three men walked on their own from a van and onto Pompeo's plane.

It was the culmination of Pompeo's 12-and-a-half-hour visit to the North Korean capital, which included a 90-minute meeting with Kim.

Returning to his hotel from that meeting, Pompeo had given reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked if there was good news about the detainees.

A North Korean official came to the hotel shortly after to inform Pompeo that Kim had granted amnesties to the three and that they would be released at 7pm local time, according to a senior US official present for the exchange.

Carl Risch, the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, and a doctor went to another hotel to pick up the men and bring them to the airport, the official said.

They finally left custody at 7:45pm, and by 8:42pm they were flying home.

As soon as the plane cleared North Korean airspace, Pompeo called Trump to inform him of the releases with the men all apparently in good health; then other officials notified their families.

'They all walked up the stairs themselves, with their own power, so good enough to do that,' Pompeo told USA Today.

Even before Pompeo's plane had touched down for a stopover at Yokota Air Base in neighboring Japan, the president announced to the world by Twitter that the '3 wonderful gentlemen' were free.

The plane carrying Pompeo and the three Americans - Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim - touched down on US soil in Anchorage, Alaska on Wednesday for a brief refueling stop before continuing on its journey to Washington, DC

Earlier on Wednesday, the US government plane on which Pompeo and the three newly freed men were traveling (left) landed at Yokota U.S. Airbase in the outskirts of Tokyo before refueling for the long haul back to North America

Two fire trucks are hoisting up a large American flag which will greet the freed detainees once they arrive at Joint Base Andrews sometime around 2:00am Eastern Standard Time

President Donald Trump tweeted late Wednesday that he was 'Looking forward to greeting the Hostages (no longer) at 2:00 A.M.'

In a statement released by the State Department, the former detainees expressed their 'deep appreciation' to the US government, Trump, Pompeo and the American people 'for bringing us home.'

They are the latest in a series of Americans to be held in North Korea for alleged anti-state activities in recent years, only to be freed during the visit of a high-level US official or statesman.

Their releases draw a line under an issue that had weighed on plans for a historic summit between Kim and Trump that will focus on North Korea's nuclear weapons.

'We're granting amnesty to the three detained Americans,' the North Korean emissary told Pompeo at Pyongyang's Koryo Hotel, according to the senior US official who requested anonymity to discuss the exchange.

'We issued the order to grant immediate amnesty to the detainees.'

'That's great,' the secretary of state replied.

The North Korean official then advised that the releases would follow a 'very brief ceremony' - which he described as more like a legal process.

The official closed with a gentle warning for the U.S. to prevent a repeat: 'You should make care that they do not make the same mistakes again,' the official said.

'This was a hard decision.'

U.S. citizen Kim Hak-song was detained 'on suspicion of acts against the state'

Kim Dong-chul, pictured above, left and right, had been detained since 2015. He was arrested for spying and had been sentenced to 10 years' hard labor

North Korea's official news agency, KCNA, said early Thursday that Kim 'accepted an official suggestion of the US president for the release of Americans who have been detained in the DPRK for their anti-DPRK hostilities,' referring to the initials of the authoritarian nation's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The dispatch also made the first official mention by the North of plans for the Trump-Kim summit.

The Trump administration has made clear it regarded the arrests as politically motivated, and had been bitterly critical of North Korea's refusal to grant consular access to the three, other than a brief visit by a US envoy last June.

Tony Kim, also known as Kim Sang-Duk, was a Korean-American professor and aid worker before his arrest

The envoy had repatriated college student Otto Warmbier, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor for stealing a propaganda poster.

Warmbier died in June 2017, days after he arrived back in the US with severe brain damage.

Since then, pressure to win the releases of the other three men, whom the administration has referred to as 'hostages,' has intensified.

Relatively little is known about the men, all Korean-Americans, and the circumstances in which they ended up in North Korean custody.

Kim Dong Chul, a former Virginia resident who had reportedly run a company on North Korea's border with Russia, had been sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison with hard labor after being convicted of espionage.

Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, who had both taught at a university in Pyongyang that was founded with donations from Christian groups, had been held for about one year and apparently had not been tried.

President Trump triumphantly announced the release of the trio of Americans in his own style  with a pair of tweets

Tony Kim's son Sol Kim, a graduate student in California, is the only relative of the detainees to have appealed in public for their freedom.

On learning of the release of Tony, who also uses the name Kim Sang-duk, his family expressed gratitude and credited Trump for engaging directly with North Korea.

'We ... want to thank the President for engaging directly with N. Korea. Mostly, we thank God for Tonys safe return,' they said.

On learning of the release of Tony, who also uses the name Kim Sang-duk, his family expressed gratitude and credited Trump for engaging directly with North Korea

The family also called for prayers for 'the people of North Korea and for the release of all who are still being held.'

Washington and Pyongyang have remained in a state of war since the fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War ended and do not have formal diplomatic ties, complicating efforts to handle the cases of American detainees.

Typically, Swedish diplomats based in North Korea handle US consular affairs.

Pompeo, the most senior US official to meet with a North Korean leader since 2000, was making his second visit to the isolated nation in five weeks - and less than two weeks after becoming top diplomat.

Before Wednesday, the only American released by North Korea during Trumps presidency had been Otto Warmbier (above), a 22-year-old university student who returned to the US in a coma last summer after 17 months of captivity and died days later

Some in Washington had expressed disappointment that Pompeo's first trip, made in secret when he was still CIA director, did not win the freedom of the three captives.

Pompeo said Wednesday he was 'thrilled' the men were now out.

'Though we're not quite back home yet, I welcomed them back,' he said, recounting his first words with the men after they were freed.

'They were happy to be with us on this plane to be sure,' he said.

The three boarded under their own steam, when most of the US delegation had already got on the plane.

They were seated with medical personnel in a curtained off area of the aircraft.

After arriving at the stop in Japan, the men transferred to another plane with more medical facilities and were expected to land at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington in the wee hours of Thursday, where Trump planned to greet them.Twelve Qantas workers have been rushed to hospital after a gas leak at the airline's headquarters in New Zealand.

Witnesses said they heard a 'chemical explosion' and saw employees 'staggering like zombies' from the office in Auckland's CBD at 9am local time.

The Fire and Emergency department confirmed it had discovered fumes coming from the building's air-conditioning system.

Witnesses saw employees 'staggering like zombies' from the office in Auckland's CBD

Nine people were rushed to hospital with vomiting and chest pains. Fifty more were assessed by paramedics at the scene

The building was evacuated and cordoned off. It is not yet known what the chemical substance was.

A Qantas spokesman said: 'Emergency services attended the scene and a number of people were taken to hospital in a stable condition.

'They are our first concern and we are monitoring their progress.'

Twelve people were rushed to hospital with vomiting and chest pains. Some 100 more were assessed by paramedics at the scene.

The building (pictured) was evacuated and cordoned off. It is not yet known what the chemical substance was

Qantas has sent 12 employees to hospital after a gas leak at the airline's headquarters (pictured) in New ZealandLinda Vester (pictured) accused NBC anchor Tom Brokaw of assault, and says she was shocked by his 'vehemence and spitefulness,' towards her and her claims

One of the women who has alleged sexual misconduct against NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, says she is appalled by his reactions to her claims.

Linda Vester, 52, wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post saying she was shocked at what she called his 'vehemence and spitefulness,' towards her and her allegations.

'He denied the truth and instead attacked my career and my motives. Shaming and blaming a victim has long been the effective strategy when women speak out,' she added.

Vester added she is not seeking a settlement, but she did express her concern over NBC's usage of the 78-year-old Brokaw's various supporters who signed a petition for him.

'While I expected Brokaw to object to my revealing his behavior, I didn't expect many prominent and important women at the network to sign a letter supporting him.

'Their statement says Brokaw treated them with respect. I do not doubt that he did. I know he helped some women in their careers.

The 78-year-old anchor Tom Brokaw penned a scathing letter to colleagues speaking out against Linda Vester's allegations of sexual misconduct against him

'NBC also required its own journalists to mention the petition of support concurrently with reports on the harassment story. There is nothing wrong with standing up for a friend or a co-worker.

'But NBC News's actions had the effect of communicating to other victims that they wouldn't be believed and would be better off staying silent,' Vester cautioned.

Vester - a former war correspondent for NBC who later anchored NBC News at Sunrise before leaving the network in 1999 to join Fox News - accused Brokaw of making unwanted advances on two occasions.

She told The Washington Post and Variety magazine that Brokaw, 26 years her elder, forcibly tried to kiss her in 1994 and 1995, while he was the network's star anchor.

Brokaw said in response that he met Vester twice, 'both at her request' because she wanted career advice.

'The meetings were brief, cordial and appropriate, and despite Linda's allegations, I made no romantic overtures towards her at that time or any other,' he said in a statement.

Brokaw denied the allegations made by Vester in a scathing email that was obtained and published by the Hollywood Reporter.

'It is 4am on the first day of my new life as an accused predator in the universe of American journalism,' wrote Brokaw.

'I was ambushed and then perp walked across the pages of The Washington Post and Variety as an avatar of male misogyny, taken to the guillotine and stripped of any honor and achievement I had earned in more than a half century of journalism and citizenship.'

Megyn Kelly warned the over 60 female employees at NBC who defended Brokaw in a letter by saying: 'You don't know what you don't know'

Brokaw went on to write about the pain Vester's accusations have caused him, and made no effort to hide his disdain for the former NBC employee.

'I am angry, hurt and unmoored from what I thought would be the final passage of my life and career, a mix of written and broadcast journalism, philanthropy and participation in environmental and social causes that have always given extra meaning to my life,' noted Brokaw.

'Instead I am facing a long list of grievances from a former colleague who left NBC News angry that she had failed in her pursuit of stardom.'

He continued: 'She has unleashed a torrent of unsubstantiated criticism and attacks on me more than twenty years after I opened the door for her and a new job at Fox news.'

Brokaw then tried to explain what happened between himself and Vester on the night in question, while also criticizing how the press handled the claims.

'Linda Vester was given the run of the Washington Post and Variety to vent her grievances, to complain that I tickled her without permission (you read that right), that I invaded her hotel room, accepted an invitation to her apartment under false pretenses and in general was given a free hand to try to destroy all that I have achieved with my family, my NBC career, my writing and my citizenship,' stated Brokaw.

'My family and friends are stunned and supportive. My NBC colleagues are bewildered that Vester, who had limited success at NBC News, a modest career at Fox and a reputation as a colleague who had trouble with the truth was suddenly the keeper of the flame of journalistic integrity.'

NBC initially appeared to looking into Brokaw's behavior after an internal memo sent by Chairman Andy Lack was released.

'As you have all seen now in reports, there are allegations against Tom Brokaw, made by a former NBC News journalist, which Tom emphatically denies. As we've shown, we take allegations such as these very seriously, and act on them quickly and decisively when the facts dictate,' wrote Lack.

Mad: 'I deeply resent the pain and anger she inflicted on my wife, daughters and granddaughters,' said Brokaw (above with his wide Meredith)

Vester says that NBC is also using the signed letter of support by 60 women in a way that tells other alleged victims of sexual misconduct that it is not okay to come forward

'The same report included claims against Matt Lauer. As you know, since the week we terminated Matt's employment, NBC Universal has been conducting a review, led by general counsel Kim Harris -who has extensive experience in conducting reviews of this kind- with a team of legal and HR leaders. Kim has advised us that the review is nearing its conclusion, and we will have findings and further steps to share with you as soon as next week.'

Lack then closed out the memo by stating: 'Once again, our highest priority is to ensure we have a workplace environment where everyone feels safe and protected. We are absolutely committed to making this a reality--there can be no exception.'

Brokaw visited the network's offices in New York City just a few hours after Megyn Kelly warned her co-workers to be careful about voicing their support for Brokaw in the wake of sexual misconduct claims.

'You don't know what you don't know, and that's not in any way to impugn Tom, who I love and who's been so good to me,' Kelly said on Today.

Two days earlier, over 60 women including Andrea Mitchell, Rachel Maddow, Mika Brzezinski and Maria Shriver signed a letter defending Brokaw.

'Tom has treated each of us with fairness and respect. He has given each of us opportunities for advancement and championed our successes throughout our careers,' read the letter signed by those women.

'As we have advanced across industries - news, publishing, law, business and government - Tom has been a valued source of counsel and support. We know him to be a man of tremendous decency and integrity.'Australian smokers are now paying 20 per cent of the national health bill out of their own pockets thanks to hefty tobacco taxes.

The 2018-19 Federal Budget has revealed revenue from tobacco excise and customs duties will rise to a whopping $17billion by next year.

While the number of smokers nationwide has dropped to 14 per cent, that minority are responsible for an ever-increasing proportion of the country's tax revenue.

Scroll down for video

Australian smokers are paying 20 per cent of the national health bill out of their own pockets thanks to hefty tobacco taxes (stock image)

The number of daily smokers nationwide has dropped to 14 per cent, but that minority are being slugged by skyrocketing tobacco excise hikes (pictured is an Australian cigarette pack)

The 2018-19 Federal Budget has revealed revenue from tobacco excise and customs duties will rise to a whopping $17billion by next year (stock image)

Spending on health during the 2019-20 financial year is expected to hit $80billion, with 21.25 per cent of that money coming from taxes paid on tobacco.

Federal revenue earned from tobacco products has risen from $5billion in 2001 to a predicted $17billion in 2019, making up 3.6 per cent of total government revenue.

This year's budget saw no change in the 12.5 per cent excise increases which have been in place since 2013.

Smokers will be stung next on September 1, when they are slugged by the second of four consecutive 12.5 per cent tobacco excise hikes.

The rivers of tobacco excise gold started flowing after Scott Morrison (pictured, left, with Malcolm Turnbull) penciled hefty excise increases into his first Budget three years ago

The tax hike is expected to result in a price increase of about $3 for a typical packet. Last year, the price of 30 Winfield Blues jumped $2.70, from $32.50 to $35.20.

Smokers are more likely to be from socio-economically disadvantaged groups, yet they contribute heavily to the national health bill in tobacco taxes.

In 2015 more than one in five people living in the country's most disadvantaged areas smoked daily, compared with 8 per cent in the richest areas.

Poll Do you think cigarettes are too expensive? Yes No I don't know Do you think cigarettes are too expensive? Yes 175 votes

No 37 votes

I don't know 7 votes Now share your opinion





The economic and social - including health - costs of smoking was estimated to be $31.5billion in 2004-05, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Since then smoking patterns have changed substantially, and more recent data in needed to inform policy evaluations, the AIHW said.

Smoking was the leading risk factor contributing to disease and death in 2011, making up nine per cent of the disease and injury burden.

An estimated 15,000 Australians die every year due to smoking, according to a 2008 study cited by the AIHW.

Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm told Daily Mail Australia 'practically everyone' should thank smokers for their contribution to the Budget bottom line.

'(It's) not just Scott Morrison but everyone who uses hospitals and schools and practically everyone else should be thanking smokers,' he claimed.

The excise is not the only tobacco-related measure the Treasurer is using to get the Budget back in black.

'(It's) not just Scott Morrison but everyone who uses hospitals and schools and practically everyone else should be thanking smokers,' said Senator David Leyonhjelm

Mr Morrison announced the government will crack down on organised crime groups importing cheap, illegal tobacco, often known as 'chop chop'.

The government is forming a task force dedicated to foiling illegal tobacco smuggling and the tax office will be given new powers to detect and destroy illegal crops in Australia.

The Treasurer claims the effort will bring more than $3.6 billion into the government's coffers.

Mr Leyonhjelm, a self-described libertarian, said the black market had only boomed in Australia in the first place thanks to the high cost of legal tobacco.

He cast doubt on whether the money would ever arrive, arguing the government would need to both defeat illegal tobacco smugglers and drive their customers back into the legal market.

Beer and spirit excise duties are also fuelling the forthcoming Budget surplus

'The assumption they're making is all the smokers who currently smoke illicit tobacco will go back to smoking legal stuff, even though it's 2, 3, 4 times the price,' Mr Leyonhjelm said.

If the funds don't arrive, there will be no surplus, he argued. Mr Leyonhjelm's party has previously received donations from tobacco giant Philip Morris.

Two thirds of smokers will live shorter lives because of their habit, national health figures state.

Meantime, beer and spirit drinkers and car owners are also doing their bit to help get the Budget into the black.

Beer, spirits and petrol excise and customs duties will slightly increase year on year over the forward estimates.Hundreds of thousands on the dole stand to lose their benefits if they have outstanding court fines or are on the run from the law.

Australians applying for benefits will be subject to police checks from March next year.

If they are found to have unpaid fines or a warrant out for their arrest, they will have their benefits stopped or halved if they have children.

Thousands of dole bludgers stand to lose their benefits if they have outstanding court fines or are on the run from the law

The new rules will affect 62,306 claimants in Queensland alone. They owe a total $190million in unpaid fines, reported The Courier-Mail.

The Federal Government also plans to get the unpaid fines by deducting them from welfare payments each fortnight.

The fines include speeding tickets and punishments for public transport violations.

Federal Social Services Minister Dan Tehan said: 'This measure will help with the clearance of arrest warrants, as well as helping people with outstanding warrants avoid jail time.'

It comes after it was revealed more than 70 per cent of welfare cheats who are sentenced to prison for defrauding Centrelink don't actually serve time behind bars.

Over the last two years, only 247 of the 857 who were convicted for defrauding Centrelink and sentenced to a spell in prison actually served out their sentence

Over the past five years, 2012 convicted fraudsters have been sentenced to jail time for welfare rorts, according to data released to Daily Mail Australia by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.

But only 572 actually end up serving their sentences in prison, with the rest being released due to a 'recognisance release order'.

In 2013-14, 324 people were sentenced to a term of imprisonment but only 91 actually served time. The trend continued each year leading up to 2018.

In 2014-15, 106 people out of 367 sentenced served time in prison, while in 2015-16 128 out of 464 ended up behind bars.

Over the last two years, only 247 of the 857 who were convicted for defrauding Centrelink and sentenced to a spell in prison actually served out their sentence.

Those who don't serve time are 'released forthwith' according to the CDPP.

About 500,000 people have dobbed someone in who they believe is cheating the welfare system in the last five years.

Since July last year the government has received 8,000 tips leading to the identification of more than $18million in debts.

The information is revealed as welfare recipients with unpaid court fines or outstanding criminal warrants will be targeted under new hardline government measures laid out in the budget.

People with outstanding Centrelink debts of more than $10,000 will be aggressively pursued as the government tries to get money back from people who are no longer on welfare.

'We will ensure our targeted safety net helps people when they need it, but that people receive only what they are entitled to, nothing more and nothing less,' Social Services Minister Dan Tehan said in a statement on Tuesday.

'When welfare recipients have received money they are not entitled to, we will ensure those debts are repaid.'

The Turnbull government has stared down demands from a rare alliance of business, industry and community groups calling for an increase to the Newstart allowance in the budget.Freezing cold blasts are set to hit Sydney and bring about the coldest temperatures in 40 years, as Melbourne is drenched with a month's worth of downpours in just three days.

The first spell of freezing weather will hit Sydney on Friday and another will descend on the city by Sunday as a low pressure system moves through.

Winds of up to 90km/h are expected to lash Sydney, while Melbourne experiences its wettest few days of the year.

Scroll down for video

Freezing cold blasts are set to hit Sydney and bring about the coldest temperatures in 40 years

Melbourne will be drenched with a month's worth of downpours in just three days

At least 20mm of rain is predicted for Melbourne on Friday, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing a severe weather warning for parts of Victoria

The first spell of freezing weather will hit Sydney on Friday and another will descend on the city by Sunday as a low pressure system moves through

Temperatures in the city will plummet to 9C on Friday from a max of 25C on Thursday, with a high of 17 leading in to the weekend.

At least 20mm of rain is predicted for Melbourne on Friday, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing a severe weather warning for parts of Victoria.

Melbourne is set to experience its coldest May weather since 1978 on Thursday and Friday as temperatures struggle to rise above 12C.

Snow is expected to fall in parts of Victoria and New South Wales on Friday.

The arctic blast will be unusually cold for this early in the year, with most areas south of Sydney to cool by 10C in just 24 hours, a Weatherzone spokesman told Daily Mail Australia.

The cold snap will be an abrupt end to an uncommonly warm Autumn.

Melburnians will feel the cold the most and should brace for strong wind chills and rain.

Melbourne is set to experience its coldest May weather since 1978 on Thursday and Friday as temperatures struggle to rise above 12C

Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra should prepare for an unusually cold set of days as a blast of Antarctic air sends temperatures plunging 10 degrees across the south-east

A cold air mass sitting about 2,000km from the shores of south-east Australia is set to cross the mainland from Thursday (pictured) coming from a polar vortex sitting above Antarctica in the Southern Ocean

Temperatures will sit at 2C to 6C below average for May across south-east South Australia, Victoria and southern NSW.

Melburnians will feel the cold the most and should brace for strong wind chills and rain.

The low pressure system could hit between 8pm and 10pm on Wednesday, bringing possible hail, thunderstorms and about a months worth of rain by the end of the week, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

But it's good news for those who want to hit the slopes, with other parts of Victoria expecting heavy snowfall, dumping up to 40cm of powder and reaching about 900m over the Alps.

The sudden drop is a far cry from last month when Sydneysiders enjoyed the hottest April day on record (view of Sydney city skyline pictured)

Sydney will experience an abrupt change from a balmy 26C on Thursday to just 17C on Friday.

But gusty winds are set to drop temperatures in the NSW capital even by another three degrees, a Weatherzone spokesman said.

This is a far cry from last month, when Sydneysiders enjoyed the hottest April day on record.

Canberra is forecast to shiver through its coldest May day in 18 years, barely reaching double figures, with some forecasters predicting a maximum of 9C.

An autumn cold snap was the cause of snow interrupting the Canberra Raiders NRL match in May of 2000.

An autumn cold snap was the cause of snow during the Canberra Raiders NRL match (pictured) in May of 2000

Canberra is forecast to have its coldest May day in 18 years, barely reaching double figures. Some residents recorded hail in their backyards last week (pictured)

A cold air mass sitting about 2,000kms from the shores of south-east Australia is set to cross the mainland from Thursday

Sydney and Melbourne have enjoyed a very warm start to May, with average maximum temperatures five degrees above usual levels.

'Sydney especially has had a very warm Autumn so far,' a Weatherzone spokesman said.

'So when this cold air comes through from Thursday, it will be a severe jolt.'

Temperatures in the region are expected to come back into the 20s from next week, a Weatherzone spokesman told Daily Mail Australia.

Melbourne will feel the the icy plunge as the city can expect a maximum of 13C on Thursday with heavy rainfall and the chance of thunderstorms (a Melbourne city view is pictured 30 minutes apart)Almost five years after the brutally bashed body of Scott Hammond was found in his home, police have arrested a man over the murder of the 48-year-old, who was known locally for setting his pit bulls on people.

Mr Hammond died from blunt force trauma to the head at his Tahmoor home on the outskirts of Sydney in July 2013, sparking a lengthy police inquiry.

On Thursday morning police arrested a man in Sydney's west over the alleged murder.

Officers raided a home in Heckenberg and arrested a man who is assisting police with their inquiries.

Almost five years after the brutally bashed body of Scott Hammond (pictured) was found in his home, police have arrested a man over the murder of the 48-year-old, who was known locally for setting his pit bulls on people

Police in 2013 said the murder may have been a revenge attack on Mr Hammond, who had been convicted for setting his vicious dogs on people.

In 2012 he pleaded guilty to using his pit bull terriers to attack people in three separate incidents, including a teenager.

Mr Hammond's body was found in his living room and a pit bull, suffering paralysis, was also found at the property.

The crime scene did not reveal evidence of a struggle, police said at the time.

'If you stayed on the right side of him he was a good bloke,' one woman said at the scene following the murder. 'I know he had a lot of enemies.'

Police said Thursday's arrest had eventuated from 'old-fashioned policing and tugging on coats'.

Camden Police Area Commander Detective Superintendent Ward Hanson praised the officers who had been working on the case, some of whom had been investigating the murder since day one.

Supt Hanson said Mr Hammond's mother Jodie had hoped the killer would be found, but she died before any arrest was made.The head of a Chinese insurance company which owns the Waldorf Astoria has been jailed for 18 years for duping investors out of $10billion.

Wu Xiaohui, 51, was jailed in Shanghai on Wednesday.

As the head of Angbang Insurance Group, which he founded in 2004, he aggressively acquired properties including the New York hotel around the world.

He was arrested last year amid growing suspicion he was misappropriating money when Angbang launched a wild, international buying spree.

As part of it, he tried to invest in Jared Kushner's Manhattans skyscraper, 666 Fifth Avenue.

Wu Xiaohui (pictured in March 2017 before his arrest), 51, was jailed in Shanghai on Wednesday for 18 years

The company also launched a failed, $14billion bid for the Starwood hotel group.

In February, Chinese officials took control of Angbang as Xiaohui faced trial.

Prosecutors said he fraudulently obtained $10billion which he masqueraded as investments in Angbang but used illegally to pay off personal debt or make his own investments.

As part of their investigation, they found savings accounts and properties he bought with the money.

To secure the money, he lied to investors by offering higher return rates than anyone else.

Xiaohui admitted the fraud during a one-day trial last year but it has taken this long for him to be sentenced.

In addition to his prison term, authorities are seizing $1.6billion of his assets.

Xiaohui founded Angbang Insurance Group in 2004. As its head, he fraudulently raised $10billion in investments

The government also gave Angbang a bailout of $9.6billion earlier this year which means it now controls a majority stake in the company.

According to Chinese news site Xhinua, his sentence was given in light of the 'social harm' his crimes caused.

The Anbang case is one of a string of scandals in what had been a stodgy Chinese insurance industry long-dominated by state-owned insurers.

The industry's former top regulator was charged in September with taking bribes and other insurers have been accused of reckless speculation in stocks and real estate.

The Communist Party has made reducing financial risk a priority this year after a surge in debt prompted rating agencies last year to cut Beijing's credit rating for government borrowing.

Among properties that the insurance company owns is the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan which it bought for $2billion in 2014

Anbang is being run by a committee of officials from China's insurance regulator, central bank and other agencies. They have said its obligations to policyholders and creditors are unaffected.

Over the years, Anbang grew to more than 30,000 employees with 35 million clients. It diversified into life insurance, banking, asset management, leasing and brokerage services.

Speculation is rife over possible sales of Anbang's assets, which, in addition to the iconic Waldorf - purchased for almost $2 billion - include Dutch insurer Vivat NV, the San Francisco Westin St. Francis and hotels, real estate and insurance holdings in Canada, Belgium and South Korea.A Victoria wildlife educator has addressed theories of whether Australia's dangerous snakes could become even more deadlier.

Nick Petropoulos recently posted a YouTube video in response to reports that venomous snakes in Australia such as taipans, Eastern brown and red-bellied black snakes are crossbreeding with harmless carpet pythons to produce deadly 'hybrids'.

'While stories of hybrid super snakes may be common place in some communities, the snake family is far more diverse than many people realise,' the video description states.

'Hybrid snakes are known to occur in captivity between many species, although they are almost always between two species of the same genus.'

Scroll down for video

Different species of carpet pythons can crossbreed, according to reptile expert Nick Petropoulos, pictured in a recent YouTube video

So is it possible for different species of snakes to crossbreed and become even more deadlier?

As Mr Petropoulos explains in the five minute video, venomous snakes and pythons about as closely related as dogs are to sea lions and ferrets because they are separated taxinomically.

'Because of this level of separation, hybrid animals between the two species are unheard of,' he said.

'While snakes look fairly similar, they're actually such a huge family that a lot of them aren't closely related. They just share a few features in common and haven't diverged as far as other species.'

The dangerous red-bellied black snake can't crossbreed with a python. 'You can all sleep tight because we'not going to have a hybrid super snake endangering mankind,' Nick Petropoulos said

Mr Petropoulos decided to do one of his weekly YouTube videos on the claim to dispel the misconception.

'It's a common myth I used to hear all the time from farmers when I was working in central and north Queensland,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'Humans are more related to monkeys than pythons are to venomous snakes.'

He insisted there's 'zero truth' to claims that the hybrid snake exists.

'It's not genetically possible,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'Don't believe what everyone what tells you. People in the rural areas believe it because it's what their father or grandfather told them.'Just two months after his wife filed for divorce, it appears Donald Trump Jr is already off the market - and coupling with a Fox News host.

Don Jr, 40, has been dating Kimberly Guilfoyle, 49, for a few weeks, sources told Page Six.

One source said the pair are 'seeing each other' and 'having a great time'.

'While he wants to respect the privacy of his family, he is getting divorced, and he enjoys Kimberly's company,' they added.

Don Jr and Guilfoyle arrived together at a party on May 6 in honor of Richard Grenell, Trump's new ambassador to Germany on May 6. They are pictured here with Fox News host Harris Faulkner

Trump Jr and Guilfoyle have known each other for years. They are pictured here with Vanessa Trump and Guilfoyle's ex-husband Eric Villency in 2008

They reportedly left together to grab dinner at the upscale Harry Cipriani restaurant in Manhattan (pictured above)

Don Jr and Guilfoyle, a co-host on The Five, were recently seen arriving together at a party in honor of Richard Grenell, Trump's new ambassador to Germany.

Sources said the couple 'stuck close to each other' at the party on Sunday and left together to grab dinner at the upscale Harry Cipriani restaurant in Manhattan.

Vanessa Trump, 40, filed divorce papers in Manhattan Supreme Court in March after 12 years of marriage to Don Jr.

The divorce was listed as 'uncontested', meaning Vanessa is not asking for full custody of the children and Don Jr does not object to the filing.

'After 12 years of marriage, we have decided to go our separate ways,' the pair said in a joint statement.

Sources said the couple 'stuck close to each other' at the party on Sunday and left together to grab dinner at the upscale Harry Cipriani restaurant in Manhattan

Guilfoyle is pictured here with Vanessa Trump at a party in New York City in 2007

Vanessa Trump, 40, filed divorce papers in Manhattan Supreme Court in March after 12 years of marriage to Don Jr

'We will always have tremendous respect for each other and our families. We have five beautiful children together and they remain our top priority. We ask for your privacy during this time.'

Lawyers for Trump's eldest son have since asked the court for a statement on Vanessa's net worth after it was revealed she inherited millions from her father's investment in Rao's marinara sauce.

Guilfoyle was a prosecutor in Los Angeles and San Francisco. She served as San Francisco's District Attorney from 2000 to 2004.

She was previously married to Gavin Newsom, a prominent Democrat who served as mayor of San Francisco and is the current Lieutenant Governor of California.

Guilfoyle was previously married to Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who served as mayor of San Francisco and is the current Lieutenant Governor of California. They are pictured here in 2003

The Fox News host, who has repeatedly defended the Trump family on-air, was also rumored to have dated Anthony Scaramucci last year. They are pictured here in 2016

The couple divorced in 2005 and Guilfoyle went on to marry Eric Villency, the CEO of a design firm, the following year.

Guilfoyle had a son with Villency in 2006 and the pair divorced three years later.

The Fox News host, who has repeatedly defended the Trump family on-air, was also rumored to have dated Anthony Scaramucci last year.

Guilfoyle confirmed last year that she had been in contention to serve as Trump's press secretary. She reportedly turned it down and extended her contract with Fox.

On Wednesday Trump Jr took to Instagram sharing a story about Kai waking him up early and then going to the gym.

On Tuesday he shared pictured of his 'daddy daughter date' with her where they went to the New York Stock Exchange.

On Wednesday Don Jr posted pictures of his 'daddy daughter date' with his daughter Kai

Don Jr took his 10-year-old daughter out for dinner and to see the New York Stock ExchangePolice are investigating whether the death of a mother from blood poisoning was directly linked to a procedure she had performed by body modifier Brendan Russell.

Samantha Strickland, 31, died in April 2017 after she contracted septicaemia, or blood poisoning.

The mother from the NSW Central Coast, had been a customer of Russell prior to her death, where she had a sub-dermal silicon implant placed in her hand.

Samantha Strickland, 31, died in April 2017 after she contracted septicaemia, police are investigating

Russell, 37, pictured, was charged last week with prohibition of genital mutilation after he allegedly used a branding iron to burn off part of a woman's vagina

Police said they are also looking at complaints by other former customers of Russell who have come forward since he was charged

Russell, 37, was charged last week with prohibition of genital mutilation after he allegedly used a branding iron to burn off part of a woman's vagina.

Russell has only been charged with the one alleged offence, and is on bail.

A police source confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that detectives from Strike Force Nellivale - which was set up to investigate Russell and the body modification industry - are currently probing Ms Strickland's death as part of their inquiries.

A police source said the woman had a procedure by Russell in 2017, and allegedly 'went back to him several times to get it fixed after it became grossly infected'.

There is no suggestion that the infection was caused by Russell but only that she suffered from an infection.

Ms Strickland, pictured here following a fresh haircut, the week before her death

Russell has only been charged with the one alleged offence, and is on bail

The body modification artist is pictured here posing with a client he worked on

Body piercer charged with genital mutilation allegedly 'used a branding iron' to 'burn off' part of a woman's vagina during unlicensed operation in the back of tattoo shop Brendan Russell, 37, from the NSW Central Coast, was charged last week with prohibition of genital mutilation, after a former customer went to police. Court documents allege that Russell 'used a branding iron to burn off the labia majora' of the woman. The alleged genital mutilation took place between January 1 and December 31 in 2016, according to the court documents. Police allege the woman went to Russell at his workplace, a tattoo studio in Newcastle West. She was allegedly unhappy and embarrassed over the outcome of the procedure and complained. Branding irons heat up to just over 1000C. They are used in hospitals and for scarification, and create an instant third-degree burn. Advertisement

Ms Strickland, a popular and much-loved body piercer, was described as beautifully kind, caring and accepting by friends following her shock death.

'I don't even know what to say... You changed my life,' wrote one friend.

'Rest easy, and look after your beautiful girl from up there where ever you are,' said another.

While others described their hearts as 'shattered' by the news.

Ms Strickland was an advocate of the body modification industry, posting deep messages about changing her appearance to 'recreate' herself.

Police said they are also looking at complaints by other former customers of Russell who have come forward since he was charged.

Russell will face Gosford Local Court on May 15.

Brad Hazzard has vowed to crackdown on the body modification industry and tighten regulations.

'I have asked the Ministry of Health to expedite regulatory changes announced last week as part of the cosmetic surgery review,' he said.

'This so-called body modification can lead to permanent maiming.'

Russell, pictured, is on strict bail conditions and isn't allowed to practice body modification or teach others until bail conditions are lifted

'This so-called body modification can lead to permanent maiming,' Brad Hazzard said. Russell pictured branding a client's headAn Oklahoma jury has convicted the youngest of two brothers for stabbing to death their parents and three of their siblings in a 2015 massacre.

Jurors found Michael Bever, 19, guilty of five counts of first degree murder and one count of assault and battery on Wednesday night.

His older brother Robert, now 21, was convicted in 2016 and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.

Michael Bever, now 19, (pictured above in April) was found guilty on Wednesday of five counts of first degree murder for killing his parents and siblings in a stabbing massacre in 2015

The pair murdered their parents, David and April Bever, younger brothers Daniel and Christopher, and their sister Victoria in a frenzied stabbing attack in July 2015 at their home in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

Their 13-year-old and two-year-old sisters survived. Robert and Michael fled to the woods behind their house after the attack but were arrested after being sniffed out by a police dog.

On Wednesday, a jury took five hours to convict Michael on all charges. He collapsed when he heard the verdict, local network KJRH reports.

During Michael's trial, he said the attack was driven and orchestrated by his older brother who had a 'hated' for society and 'everyone'.

He admitted that he was obsessed with Columbine but claimed he only went along with his brother's murderous plot to save his own life.

Michael, who was 16 at the time of the killings, pleaded not guilty on that basis.

He will be sentenced on Thursday morning. A life sentence is inevitable but the jury must decide whether he ought to ever be eligible for parole.

The killings began at around 11.30pm on July 22. It started with the boys attacking their 13-year-old sister.

She testified that they lured her into a bedroom where they slit her throat and stabbed her in the torso and arms. Miraculously, she survived.

As they attacked her, their mother April, 44, came to the bedroom to find out what was going on.

Robert (pictured in red before the killings) stabbed Daniel, 12, (right), Christopher, 7, (left), five-year-old Victoria (in pink) and their parents. Their 13-year-old sister (second from left) and two-year-old sister (on Robert's lap) survived

Parents David and April were slaughtered in the massacre. The brothers said it was driven by Robert's hatred of 'everyone' and society

The brothers hid in the woods after the attack and were found by a police dog. They are shown above in the mugshots taken immediately after they were caught with mud on their faces

Michael (left in his 2015 mugshot) was 16 at the time. Robert, then 18, is seen (right) after being cleaned up

In this February 2016 picture, Robert leads his younger brother into court in shackles. Michael claimed he was just trying to save his own life by going along with the killings

That is when they turned on her. She was stabbed nearly 50 times in the head, neck and torso.

Fifty-two-year-old David Bever was killed by 28 stab wounds to the head, neck and torso.

Robert is now 21. In October 2016 (pictured) he took a plea deal which found him guilty of all five murders but spared him execution in exchange for life without parole

Daniel, 12, was able to call 911 before he succumbed to the nine stab wounds he sustained.

The youngest victim was five-year-old Victoria who the brothers stabbed 18 times. Two-year-old Autumn was asleep throughout the attack and was not harmed.

During his trial, prosecutors heard how Michael tricked his siblings into opening locked doors as they hid from Robert by pretending that he too was under attack.

When police arrived at the family home, there was blood on the porch.

Michael and Robert had fled to the woods behind the house and were found by a police dog.

The brothers had planned to steal their parents' car and drive to Washington State after carrying out the killings.

They wanted to shoot five people at a time in random attacks along the way using guns and ammunition Robert had been able to buy online.

Much of Michael's trial relied on claims made to police by the 13-year-old sister who survived (left). She was spared having to testify in court in October 2016 in exchange for Robert being spared executionTwo women who admitted to viciously assaulting a paramedic don't want to go jail because they've had difficult lives.

Amanda Warren, 32, and Caris Underwood, 20, on Thursday appeared before Victoria's County Court to appeal the jail sentences they received for assaulting a paramedic in Melbourne in 2016.

Warren was ordered to spend eight months in jail, and Underwood four months when they appeared for sentencing in Melbourne Magistrates Court last December.

The women admitted punching and kicking Paul Judd as he and another paramedic tried to treat a patient in Reservoir.

Lawyers for both women say the pair had tough childhoods but have started to turn their lives around since their drunken assault.

Two women, including Caris Underwood (left), who admitted to viciously assaulting a paramedic don't want to go jail because they've had difficult lives

Amanda Warren (pictured) on Thursday appeared before Victoria's County Court

Assault victim Paul Judd is seen outside court after the two women were jailed in December

They both pleaded guilty last year to intentionally causing injury, while Warren has also admitted to criminally damaging the ambulance by ramming it with a car.

Mr Judd broke his foot in the violent attack and has required multiple surgeries since.

The experienced ambulance worker has not been able to return to work since the violent attack in April 2016.

Unless there are 'special reasons', Victorian laws introduced in 2014 demand a mandatory minimum jail term of six months for anyone who intentionally injures an emergency worker.

Defence lawyers for Underwood (left) and Warren previously argued special circumstances were present and the pair should avoid jail

Underwood (pictured) was sentenced to four months jail in DecemberA man suspected of having sex with 15-year-old Utah girl and named as the key suspect in her murder, has been arrested.

Baleigh Bagshaw, 15, was found dead at her Salt Lake City home on Monday, sparking a national manhunt for Shaun French, 24, who is accused of having a sexual relationship with her.

French was tracked down and arrested Wednesday in southeast Colorado.

He has been charged with three counts of third-degree felony unlawful sexual activity with a minor, and has been named as a suspect in her murder by police.

Shaun French, 24, (pictured in his mugshot, left) is accused of having sex with 15-year-old Baleigh Bagshaw (right) who was murdered at her home in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Monday

The teen had been returning from school, and was chatting to her mother on the phone when she was 'brutally attacked' and killed, police said.

Her mother heard part of the assault before the line went silent. She alerted a neighbor, who went round to check on Baleigh before alerting police, who found her dead at just after 3pm.

Baleigh always phoned her mother when she got home from West High school, Deseret News reported.

She was meant to be working at Leatherby's Family Creamery, an ice-cream shop, but her mother phoned to say she could not come in due to a 'family emergency'.

Co-worker Gwendolyn Robinson described the teenager as 'very sweet', adding: 'She worked very hard. She was a good girl.

'I expect her to be walking into work still. It's not computing.'

Salt Lake Police Sgt. Brandon Shearer said: 'While she was on the phone with her mother, she was brutally attacked while inside of her home.

Shaun French, 24, (left) has been named as a person of interest in the teenager's (right) death, stemming from an unlawful sexual encounter he is accused of having with her

'Her mother heard the attack going on and then the phone went dead. At that time, the mother called a neighbor to go check on Baleigh.

'I can't even guess what the mother would be going through right now. Our hearts and thoughts are with her.'

Shearer called it a 'very violent attack' but police have not yet released a cause of death.

Police said that certain 'evidence' was 'widely spread throughout the home and throughout the area.'

French used to live in the same house as Baleigh but was not living there at the time of her death. He'd moved in with the family in February 2017, when Bagshaw was 14 years old and he was 23 years old.

A relative of Bagshaw told police they saw French having sexual relations with the girl on three occasions.

Baleigh enjoyed building props and sets at West High's theater.

French is thought to be driving a camouflage-painted Daihatsu SUV with a Wyoming license plate number 19-13974 along the Interstate 80 towards Cleveland, Ohio

French, who is now on the run, used to live in the same house as Baleigh but was not living there at the time of her death

Friend Talia Zamir, 15, said: 'She was incredibly smart and talented and she always got along with people around her. She was really friendly and nice.

'And that's what makes everything so heartbreaking, honestly.'

Sister-in-law Nichole Newman Cannon wrote: 'I will always remember the funny jokes at the times I needed my head lifted up.

'You will be greatly missed by your siblings. Love and miss you!'

French was described as 'armed and dangerous' and is being hunted on three counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

His Facebook page says he works at Intermountain Plantings Inc. and attended high school in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

He is thought to be driving a camouflage-painted Daihatsu SUV with a Wyoming license plate number 19-13974 along the Interstate 80 towards Cleveland, Ohio.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise funds Baleigh's funeral expenses. The total is currently approaching $9,000.

French is being held in Colorado and is due to be extradited.Two hundred walruses surprised residents on an Alaskan peninsula after arriving en masse on a beach.

Port Heiden's Tribal Council president John Christensen Junior spoke of his shock when he discovered the huddle while on a beach ride last month.

He smelt a stench so followed his nose for a couple of miles and was startled to see a beach crowded with walruses.

'We thought something was dead, so we were looking for dead sea otters or seals on the beach so we could report them to the LEO (Local Environmental Observer) Network,' he said.

'We were wondering what those white things in the sky were,' he said. 'You could see their tusks in the air. When we got closer, we could see their bodies.'

Pacific walruses rest on a beach a few miles outside Port Heiden, a town of just 100 people. Alaska as biologists believe they are searching for new places to forage for food

The walruses are not common on the Alaskan peninsula so it was an unexpected find when Port Heiden's Tribal Council president John Christensen Junior discovered them on the beach

Two weeks later, Mr Christensen saw more than a thousand walruses gathered about 20 miles (32 kilometres) outside the village, which has a population of 110.

Joel Garlich-Miller, a US Fish and Wildlife Service biologist with a focus on walruses, is not sure why they are gathering on the Alaska Peninsula, the land mass that juts from mainland Alaska toward the Aleutian Islands, but it may be related to food availability.

Male and female walruses spend winters in the Bering Sea but separate when ice recedes with warmer temperatures.

Females and their calves ride the sea ice north all the way through the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea, using ice as a platform to dive for clams and other molluscs and rest.

Male walruses traditionally spend summers in the Bering Sea, often on islands or remote locations in Bristol Bay roughly 130 miles north of Port Heiden, Mr Garlich-Miller said.

In the late 1980s, as many as 10,000 walruses would gather on Round Island, part of a state wildlife sanctuary.

In recent years, however, only 2,000 to 3,000 show up on Round Island, Mr Garlich-Miller said.

That could be an effect of sea ice not forming as far south as in past years and male walruses spending more time in the northern Bering Sea, he said.

However, big bull walruses regularly go on foraging trips of five to seven days before 'hauling out' to rest on land and may be spreading out to find better areas for diving, he said.

'They are trying to optimise their foraging,' he said. 'One can imagine these many thousands of animals can probably put a hurt on some of the resources they're targeting.'

A chief concern for the agency is keeping walruses safe in the resting areas.

Noisy approaches by people can startle herds, sending walruses stampeding into water, which can crush and kill vulnerable animals.

Frequent disturbances also can drive walruses away from preferred resting areas, Mr Garlich-Miller said, causing them to expend more energy foraging and affecting their overall body conditions.James Packer's former fiancee Tziporah Malkah has hit out at a reporter after escaping a conviction for assaulting her ex-boyfriend and three police officers.

The 44-year-old, formerly known as Kate Fischer, engaged in the bizarre interview outside Victor Harbor Magistrates Court, south of Adelaide, on Tuesday after pleading guilty to the attack.

She was allowed to walk free from court - because of her clean record and early guilty plea - and faced a media pack who asked her if she 'has a problem with police', Adelaide Now reported.

Scroll down for video

Tziporah Malkah (right) hit out at a reporter outside Victor Harbor Magistrates Court, south of Adelaide, on Tuesday after escaping a conviction for assaulting her ex-boyfriend and three police officers

Malkah (pictured) was allowed to walk free from court - because of her clean record and early guilty plea - and faced a media pack who asked her if she 'has a problem with police'

'I have a problem with you,' Malkah told the reporter, before leaving in the back seat of a taxi.

Prior to her comments, she briefly told reporters she was pleased with the magistrate's decision to not record a conviction.

'I think I got off fairly ... it was a really good outcome today, and I'd like to thank you all for coming to share my joy,' Malkah said.

She also revealed she was 'sorry' and had written a letter of apology, which was released by Magistrate Brian Nitschke on Thursday.

'I have a problem with you,' Malkah told the reporter, before leaving in the back seat of a taxi

Prior to her comments, Malkah (left) briefly told reporters she was pleased with the magistrate's decision to not record a conviction

She also revealed she was 'sorry' and had written a letter of apology, which was released by Magistrate Brian Nitschke on Thursday

Malkah wrote in the letter that she had hit 'an all-time low' when she drunkenly assaulted ex-boyfriend Guy Vasey.

'I am very sorry for my offences before the court, and the first thing I need to say is that I am embarrassed, ashamed and make absolutely sure there is no repeat behaviour,' Malkah wrote.

She described her actions as 'idiotic' and said she was rebuilding her life in Sydney 'on stronger foundations and faith'.

Malkah added that she will be abstaining from alcohol after her actions.

She was accused of assaulting her then-partner during an argument in January about marijuana and a sick cat.

Malkah (pictured) wrote in the letter that she had hit 'an all-time low' when she drunkenly assaulted ex-boyfriend Guy Vasey

She described her actions as 'idiotic' and said she was rebuilding her life in Sydney 'on stronger foundations and faith'

Malkah (pictured) wrote that she will be abstaining from alcohol after her actions

The court heard Malkah was drunk when police were called to the house she shared with Mr Vasey, with whom she had been in a relationship for less than a year.

The two had been arguing over marijuana and Malkah had tormented Mr Vasey about his sick cat, threw groceries at him and poured milk over his head.

She then struck the sides of Mr Vasey's face four to five times in a 'cat scratching-like motion' before he left the property to call the police.

Malkah pleaded guilty to one count of assault, one count of resisting police, three counts of assaulting a police officer and one count of disorderly behaviour.

She was fined $1200 and placed on an 18-month good behaviour bond.A nine-year-old boy is upset at police for rudely calling out 'next' after he had queued up for to 20 minutes to give them a thank you note.

Jackson had wanted to express his gratitude to his local area command at Cranbourne in Melbourne's south-east for protecting him from 'naughty people'.

'Dear Victoria Police, my name is Jackson,' his handwritten letter said.

'I would like to congratulate you on your risky work.

Scroll down for audio

A nine-year-old boy is upset at police for rudely calling out 'next' after he had queued up for 20 minutes to give them a thank you note

Jackson had wanted to express his gratitude to his local area command at Cranbourne in Melbourne's southeast for protecting him from 'naughty people'

'I see people be naughty on the news. I like to know I am protected by you.'

The Melbourne boy said a busy, young constable's reaction at Cranbourne Police Station, in the city's southeast, wasn't what he was hoping for after he had queued up.

His parents had encouraged him to drop off the letter on Wednesday night after footy training after he had suggested thanking them in person.

'I was there for about 20 minutes, waiting in a line and when the man came, it was a young man, he was working in a police station and I gave him the letter and I said, "I writ you a thank you note for your good work and thank he said, "Thanks, mate. Next",' Jackson told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Thursday.

Asked how he felt by that response, Jackson said: 'Sad.'

'Because he didn't really say, "Oh, thank you".'

The boy's mother said she felt disappointed and was worried the police reaction would leave a poor impression on her son who is sensitive about news events.

'I realise they are busy but a few minutes to at least read the letter and thank Jackson would have sufficed, but now I fear that a lasting impression has been cast on a young person who has always been taught to respect and expect the police to help in times of need,' she said.

Jackson said a busy, young constable's reaction at Cranbourne Police Station, in Melbourne's southeast, wasn't what he was hoping for after he had queued up

Jackson said he still believed police did a good job.

Senior Sergeant Melissa Rodgers from Cranbourne Police Station said the officer who abruptly greeted Jackson was busy but nonetheless disappointed he had upset the boy.

'I've spoken to that officer this morning and I'd start by saying he's very disappointed and upset that he's upset Jackson,' she told 3AW on Thursday.

'I'd like to invite Jackson and his parents to come back to the station and meet him personally to try and make amends.'A woman who crashed her unregistered car is accused of punching an off-duty police officer who witnessed the smash in the face.

The woman was allegedly drunk when she ran her red Holden Barina into a curb on the corner of Joseph Banks Drive and Solander Road in Sydney's west at 3.20pm on Tuesday, police said.

The off-duty police officer, from the State Crime Command, witnessed the incident and rushed over to render aid and speak with the 43-year-old female driver, 9 News reported.

The woman was allegedly drunk when she ran her red Holden Barina into a curb on the corner of Joseph Banks Drive and Solander Road (pictured) in Sydney's west at 3.20pm on Tuesday, police said

The woman allegedly became increasingly 'aggressive' before reportedly punching the officer in the face.

Police allege she had two children, aged 10 and 11, in the car with her at the time.

After additional officers arrived at the scene, they administered a breathe test on the woman.

After officers arrived at the scene they administered a breathe test on the woman, which allegedly came back with a positive reading (stock image)

The test allegedly came back with a positive reading, at which point she was arrested and taken to Quakers hill Police station for a secondary test.

It's alleged the secondary test came back with a reading of 0.165.

As a result, police charged the woman with high range drink driving, using an unregistered car, negligent driving and assaulting an officer in execution of duty.

The incident comes in the wake of police announcing a crack down on drink driving after nine NSW mothers were caught drink driving with kids in the vehicle (stock image)

She will now face the Blacktown Court on May 28.

The incident comes after police announced a crack down on drink driving following the arrest of nine NSW mothers who were allegedly caught drink driving with kids in the car.

Police announced any mothers found to be drink driving with children in the car will now be named and shamed.

Police Assistant Commissioner Michael Corboy spoke told 60 Minutes he had no sympathy for those caught drink driving.

Sydney mother Susan Lung, 42, (pictured) had her drink driving charges dropped, despite allegedly blowing 0.445 - nearly nine times the legal limit

'That to us is extremely dangerous... it is criminal, these are completely avoidable incidents. There is nothing more devastating to our officers than pulling a dead child out of a car,' he said.

The final straw which led to the crackdown was Sydney mother Susan Lung, 42, having her drink driving charges dropped, despite being found passed out at the wheel of her car and blowing 0.445 - nearly nine times the legal limit.

Research also indicated that one in four Australian women aged between 35 and 59 drink excessively, saying the cause of it was the stresses of balancing live and work responsibilities.At least 11 people have died in a powerful storm in northern India, a week after another unseasonable storm caused deaths and destruction in the same region.

The dust storm, with winds blowing up to 60 miles per hour, swept parts of Uttar Pradesh state on Wednesday night, demolishing homes and downing power lines.

A similar unseasonal dust storm and thundershowers a week ago, left more than 120 people dead, 73 in Uttar Pradesh state alone.

Incoming: Rain clouds hover over the city in New Delhi, India on Wednesday

Yesterday's storm saw several villages and towns plunged into darkness after it uprooted electric poles and downed wires.

In addition to the 11 deaths, 25 people were injured, a government official said.

The storm also hit New Delhi and parts of northern Himachal Pradesh and western Rajasthan states, but with weaker winds and no immediate reports of any casualties.

The India Meteorological Department said the stormy conditions were subsiding in northern India.

Loss: Relatives mourn a 24-year-old man who died when he was crushed under the debris of a ceiling that fell in heavy storm winds on the outskirts of Agra last week

Damage: A family look at a house which had its roof destroyed in last week's storm

On Wednesday night, four people died in Etawah district, three in Mathura district and one each in Agra, Aligarh, Kanpur and Firozabad towns in Uttar Pradesh state, Awasthi said.

The monsoon season is nearly six weeks away in India.

N. N. Srivastava, another Uttar Pradesh state official, said the storms have affected the lives of more than 100 million residents who also lost cattle, buffalo and crops.

Schools and colleges were closed in several districts based on the storm warnings, he said.Stephen Colbert took a swipe at the companies who reportedly paid Donald Trump's attorney Michael Cohen for access to the president on his Wednesday show.

Trump's lawyer and right-hand man has come under fire after porn star Stormy Daniels' attorney posted what he claimed were Essential Consultants LLC's accounts - the shell corporation Cohen set up to pay Daniels for her silence about her alleged affair with Trump.

They appeared to show that Cohen had been paid $1.2million by pharmaceutical giant Novartis - reportedly to provide access to Trump.

'Side effects of taking money from Novartis may include headache, nausea, and extended jail time,' said The Late Show host in his opening monologue.

Scroll down for video

Stephen Colbert took a swipe at the companies who reportedly paid Donald Trump's attorney Michael Cohen for access to the president on his Wednesday show

'Side effects of taking money from Novartis may include headache, nausea, and extended jail time,' said The Late Show host in his opening monologue

Telecommunications firm AT&T acknowledged this week that it hired Cohen to gain 'insights' into Trump and his administration, paying him at least $200,000 in 2017, according to sources.

'You paid for insights into this administration?' an incredulous Colbert asked.

'He's a horny old racist who likes cheeseburgers more than his children. $200,000, please!'

The conglomerate is currently seeking government approval for acquisition of Time Warner - CNN's parent company.

Telecommunications firm AT&T acknowledged this week that it hired Cohen to gain 'insights' into Trump and his administration, paying him at least $200,000 in 2017, according to sources

'He's a horny old racist who likes cheeseburgers more than his children. $200,000, please!' Colbert joked, in response to the AT&T payout

Colbert said that Daniels' lawyer's claims that that Cohen received payments from AT&T, while their merger was pending before the Trump administration, was 'a huge accusation.'

'You obviously can't say that without backing it up with somethinglike AT&T admitting that they did it,' said Colbert.

AT&T confirmed just that to The New York Times earlier this week, saying they had engaged Cohen 'to provide insights into understanding the new administration.'

Cohen is also accused of taking $500,000 - 'or as Donald Trump calls it: three-and-a-half porn stars', Colbert quipped - from a company linked to Viktor Vekselberg, the Russian oligarch with ties to the Kremlin, and $150,000 from Korea Aerospace Industries.

'Beautiful day here in New Yorkunless you're Trump attorney and man who looks like cigarettes smell, Michael Cohen,' Colbert joked.

President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen (pictured as he arrives at his hotel in New York City, U.S., May 9) has been under fire since his accounts were reportedly made public

Stormy Daniels (left) lawyer Michael Avenatti (right) first revealed the Novartis payments to Cohen. The funds went into an LLC also used to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels as part of a hush agreement

Critics like Michael Avenatti are already saying the payments violate Trump's pledge to 'drain the swamp'

A portion of the Navartis payments were first revealed by Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti as among part of what he said were $4 million in funds flowing through Cohen's LLC bank account in 2017 and 2018.

The firm said the contract was 'focused on U.S. healthcare policy matters.'

But anonymous members of the company now are claiming the deal was more about access.

'He reached out to us,' a Novartis employee told STAT amid the fallout from the revelations.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders got pressed repeatedly about payments by Novartis, AT&T, and other firms to Cohen, and was asked whether Trump knew about the marketing.

'I'm not aware. I would refer you to the outside counsel,' she responded.President Trump's pick for CIA director Gina Haspel received less than stellar reviews from Senator John McCain Wednesday following her confirmation hearing.

McCain released a public statement seen on his official website where he urged the Senate to reject Haspel for the role, based on her role in the enhanced interrogation program during the Bush Administration.

The senator said in part: 'Like many Americans, I understand the urgency that drove the decision to resort to so-called enhanced interrogation methods after our country was attacked. I know that those who used enhanced interrogation methods and those who approved them wanted to protect Americans from harm.

'I appreciate their dilemma and the strain of their duty. But as I have argued many times, the methods we employ to keep our nation safe must be as right and just as the values we aspire to live up to and promote in the world.'

McCain went on to say: 'I believe Gina Haspel is a patriot who loves our country and has devoted her professional life to its service and defense. However, Ms. Haspels role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing.

'Her refusal to acknowledge tortures immorality is disqualifying. I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination.'

President Trump, however, praised Haspel's performance and released a contrasting statement to social media hours after McCain.

Trump wrote: 'Gina Haspel did a spectacular job today. There is nobody even close to run the CIA!'

The president's nominee to head the CIA told U.S. lawmakers that her 'moral compass is strong' and she would never resume the agency's harsh interrogation program, often denounced as torture, that has threatened to derail her confirmation.

Acting CIA Director Gina Haspel concludes her testimony at her Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., May 9, 2018, where she faced repeated questions about the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) speaks at a press conference about the National Defense Authorization Act in Washington, U.S., October 25, 2017. McCain on Wednesday called on the Senate to reject Haspel's CIA nomination

McCain said in part: 'Ms. Haspel's role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing'

President Trump, however, praised Haspel's performance and released a contrasting statement hours after McCain

Haspel, currently the spy agency's acting director, told her Senate confirmation hearing she would not carry out any order from Trump she found morally objectionable, though she did not say she would refuse an order to use waterboarding, a form of simulated torture, to get answers from a terrorism suspect.

'I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if was technically legal. I would absolutely not permit it,' Haspel told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The hearing was dominated by questions about Haspel's role at the CIA in the use of harsh interrogation methods during former President George W. Bush's administration, as well as the destruction of videotapes documenting the tactics.

'Having served in that tumultuous time, I can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and without reservation, that under my leadership, on my watch, CIA will not restart such a detention and interrogation program,' Haspel testified.

Haspel said U.S. law now clearly prohibits such interrogation methods, and 'I fully support the detainee treatment required by law.'

Trump vowed as a candidate to resume waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning previously used by CIA interrogators but now banned, and promised techniques 'a hell of a lot worse.'

Republican Senator Susan Collins asked Haspel what she would do if Trump gave her a direct order to use waterboarding on a 'high-value terrorism suspect.'

President Trump sent out a fundraising appeal blasting Democrats for opposing Haspel under the subject line 'Gina'

'I do not believe the president would ask me to do that,' Haspel said, but did not say that she would refuse.

Haspel said there are 'other U.S. government entities that conduct interrogations,' adding, 'We're not in the business of interrogating detainees' at the CIA and that she would not restart the interrogation program under any circumstances.

Public questioning of Haspel on issues such as the effectiveness of the interrogations, CIA drone strikes and agency 'renditions' of suspected militants to third countries may be limited because the operations remain classified.

'CIA has learned some tough lessons,' Haspel said, explaining that in retrospect the agency was not prepared to conduct the detention and interrogation program employed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by al Qaeda militants.

Haspel needs 51 votes for confirmation as the first woman director of the CIA in the 100-seat Senate, where Trump's fellow Republicans hold a 51-49 majority. The agency's former deputy director, she would succeed Mike Pompeo, a Republican former congressman confirmed last month as secretary of state.

STRESS POSITION: Gina Haspel arrives to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on her nomination to be the next CIA director in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on May 9, 2018

Haspel already has the strong support of many Republicans. As he opened the hearing, the panel's Republican chairman, Richard Burr, praised Haspel.

'I believe your intellectual rigor, honorable service and outstanding judgment make you a natural fit to lead the CIA,' he said, urging that the hearing not be made 'a trial about a long-shuttered program.'

But Haspel could face a difficult time being confirmed. At least one Republican, Senator Rand Paul, has said he opposes her, and others have said they will wait to see how she does at Wednesday's hearing. No Democrat has yet expressed support.

'MORALLY QUESTIONABLE BEHAVIOR'

Senator Mark Warner, the committee's top Democrat, has said his vote on Haspel's confirmation will largely depend on how she expresses her current views on the harsh techniques and a 2005 decision to destroy tapes of interrogations when she was chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, then the CIA's clandestine service chief.

Democrats pressed Haspel on her role in destroying videotapes of the interrogation sessions before they could be made public. Under questioning, Haspel acknowledged she 'absolutely was an advocate' for destroying the tapes, saying she feared an 'irresponsible leak' of the video that would reveal the identities of CIA agents and put them at risk.

Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich asked her, 'Doesn't that feel like a cover-up?'

'I never watched the tapes, but I understood that our officers' faces were on them and it was very dangerous,' she said.

UP AGAINST THE WALL: CIA nominee Gina Haspel arrives to her confirmation hearing at the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill, where she is expected to get grilled on her role in the enhanced interrogation program

An undercover officer for most of her more than 30-year career, Haspel in 2002 served as CIA station chief in Thailand, where the agency ran one of the secret prisons where suspected al Qaeda extremists were interrogated using procedures that included waterboarding, which simulates drowning.

Warner and other Democrats expressed frustration they have not been given more details of Haspel's long record with the agency, much of which remains classified.

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said the agency was feeding 'small pieces' of information to senators to bolster her nomination while keeping any damaging records under wraps.

Warner also said he would want Haspel's commitment to cooperate in investigations into Russia's role in the 2016 U.S. election. Trump has called those investigations a 'witch hunt.'

Haspel's testimony was interrupted by a protester who yelled, 'Bloody Gina' and 'You are a torturer,' before being removed by police. Before the hearing, a small group of protesters shouted, 'Say no to torture,' before also being removed.

Haspel said the United States needs to do more to address China's 'overt and illicit efforts to steal' U.S. technology.

'Having served in that tumultuous time, I can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and without reservation, that under my leadership CIA will not restart such a detention and interrogation program,' Haspel said in excerpts of her testimony released ahead of the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

Haspel could face a difficult time being confirmed. At least one Republican, Senator Rand Paul, has said he opposes her confirmation, and others have said they will wait to see how she does at Wednesday's hearing.

ARE THERE WATER BREAKS? Acting CIA Director Gina Haspel arrives to testify at her Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., May 9, 2018

Protesters are removed before Gina Haspel testifies at the Senate Intelligence Committee on her nomination to be the next CIA director in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on May 9, 2018

No Democrat has yet expressed support for Haspel.

Two sources familiar with preparations for the hearing said Haspel is regarded inside the CIA as a supporter of the so-called harsh interrogation techniques, and there is little if any record of her expressing objections or reservations about them. They said Haspel also agreed that harsh interrogation tactics produced valuable intelligence.

A 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee investigation concluded that these methods were 'not an effective way of obtaining accurate information or gaining detainee cooperation.'

An undercover officer for most of her more than 30-year career, Haspel in 2002 during President George W. Bush's administration served as CIA station chief in Thailand, where the agency ran one of the secret prisons where suspected al Qaeda extremists were interrogated using procedures that included waterboarding, which simulates drowning.

Gina Haspel(C) arrives to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on her nomination to be the next CIA director in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on May 9, 2018

Gina Haspel met with Senators seeking support for her nomination to run the CIA

President Donald Trump touted Haspel's nomination on Twitter

In response to a complaint on Monday by the intelligence panel's top Democrat, Senator Mark Warner, that it was selectively declassifying information about Haspel's 32-year CIA career to make her look good, the agency on Monday turned over a stack of personnel records detailing Haspel's service. The documents are classified.

Senator Ron Wyden, one of the committee Democrats most skeptical of Haspel's nomination, said the documents could, and should, be made public to answer questions about her record.

'The vast amount of her background can be declassified without compromising what are called sources and methods,' Wyden told reporters.

Senator Richard Burr, the panel's Republican chairman, said there are no plans to make such documents public. (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by John Walcott, James Dalgleish and Lisa Shumaker)A 15-year-old boy has been arrested over the bashing of a autistic teenager by a gang of thugs armed with spanners.

Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins, 14, was ambushed and beaten by five attackers with wrenches and spanners in a horrifying attack outside Northcote High School in Melbourne's north on Tuesday.

Police arrested a boy over the assault on Thursday, Seven News reported.

Scroll down for video

Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins, was attacked by five armed youths outside Northcote High School

After horrific footage of the attack surfaced on Wednesday night, the victim's mother Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins has spoken out.

In a candid interview with 3AW's Neil Mitchell on Thursday, Mrs Lahiff-Jenkins said the young thugs who attacked her son could be anyone's children.

'I don't imagine that these are five specific bad kids, all our kids could be out there behaving this way,' she said.

'I feel very sorry for the parents of these kids, because now they have to deal with something that I'm sure will shock them.'

Describing the attack as 'pretty gruesome', Mrs Lahiff-Jenkins said it was her and her husband's 'worst nightmare'.

The Melbourne mother said Quinn was extremely lucky to escape with only bruises from the attack, but said it was his mental health she was most worried about.

When asked what led to the beating, Mrs Lahiff-Jenkins said her son was trying to defend his friend, also believed to be autistic, who was being bullied.

She said her 'justice-driven' son messaged one of the boys on social media pleading with them to stop the bullying.

'The children rang him and rang him and said, 'Meet us at the school, and if you don't come we're going to come to your house and rape your mother,' she told 3AW.

Mrs Lahiff-Jenkins said her son was so upset, he jumped on his bike immediately.

Quinn was thrown off his bike by one of the boys who was carrying a wrench (pictured in black shirt)

Confronting footage of the attack, obtained by the Herald Sun, shows Quinn being thrown off his bike by one of the boys who was carrying a wrench.

Five boys then attacked Quinn, jumping on him, pushing his head into the pavement and beating him with weapons.

Quinn was seen defenseless, trying to block the punches coming from the attacker.

Once he regained his footing, a boy grabbed his head and kneed him in the face.

Quinn was then cornered between two boys armed with wrenches who attacked him from both sides before chasing him into traffic where he was held down and kicked in the head.

Quinn's mother, Carmen, got the heartbreaking call from her son while he was in the ambulance.

Quinn's mother, Carmen (pictured), got the heartbreaking call from her son while he was in the ambulance

Victoria Police are now investigating the assault outside Northcote High School (pictured)

Ms Lahiff-Jenkins took to Twitter to share the incident with her followers, posting, 'They had been bullying him on social and calling his phone threatening to rape his mother if he didn't come to meet them.'

'Over the phone the ambo was very mocking and said tell your mother the truth, that you organised a fight - and my son was howling and screaming and so distressed and the medic was very dismissive and was saying ''well you don't organise fights do you''.

'They had been using homophobic language to taunt him and he had been telling them off saying things like 'he's not ashamed to be gay, he's proud' and things like that and the abuse escalated.

'All 4-5 of them punching kicking and whacking with spanners.

'And the effects on his mental health will be profound. It's so hard to be a teenage boy, let alone grapple with the social weight of autism without being targeted by bullies.

'My husband and I despair for our special boy.'

She said Quinn was now too afraid to leave his house.

Victoria Police is now investigating the assault.A family source said that they are still grieving but that Mellon would not have wanted the party to be canceled as it had been planned for months

Scott arrived at the Beverly Hills mansion to perform for 200 guests via helicopter

His daughter, Araminta 'Minty' Mellon, celebrated her sweet 16 on Saturday with a lavish party that had rapper Travis Scott performing at it

Billionaire banking heir Matthew Mellon passed away on April 16 following a lifelong battle with substance abuse - his funeral was April 28

Billionaire banking heir Matthew Mellon's daughter celebrated her sweet 16 in Beverly Hills with a lavish party, just a week after her father's funeral.

Mellon died aged 54 after battling life long addiction issues.

Mellon's daughter, Araminta 'Minty' Mellon celebrated her 16th birthday on Saturday and shared a video of the celebrations to her Instagram account.

The lavish party was held at an expansive, 28,000-square-foot mansion, with Kylie Jenner's rapper boyfriend Travis Scott performing for the 200 guests in attendance.

'We're still devastated, but Matthew wouldn't have wanted the party to be canceled. That's not who he was,' a close family friend told Page Six.

Scott, who recently fathered baby Stormi with Jenner, arrived via helicopter to the Beverly Hills mansion of Michael Ovitz, the former head of Creative Artists Agency. Minty's mother, Jimmy Choo co-founder Tamara Mellon and Ovitz have been together for seven years.

Scroll down for video

Life goes on: Matthew Mellon's daughter Araminta 'Minty' Mellon (pictured) celebrated her sweet 16 on Saturday, just a week after her billionaire banker dad's funeral

The lavish party was held at an expansive, 28,000-square-foot mansion, with rapper Travis Scott performing for the 200 guests in attendance

Scott, who recently fathered baby Stormi with Kylie Jenner , arrived via helicopter to the Beverly Hills mansion of Michael Ovitz, the former head of Creative Artists Agency

Travis hugged Minty in the video which she shared to her Instagram account

Ovtiz's mansion is filled with art from around the world including works by Pablo Picasso, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Jasper Johns

'The party was spectacular,' one guest reported to Page Six.

Most of the guests were friends and classmates of Minty's, so there were lots of kids dancing, and only a handful of adults in attendance.

Among the adult guests was music mogul LA Reid, whose children grew up with Minty.

Minty's father was tragically found dead in his Mexico hotel room on April 16, the same day he was due to check into a rehabilitation clinic.

Among the adult guests was music mogul LA Reid, whose children grew up with Minty

Matthew Mellon was 54 when he passed away after battling life long addiction issues just before he was supposed to check into a Mexican rehabilitation center

After his death Minty took to Instagram and shared a sweet throwback photo writing: 'My father was one of the most amazing, caring, and selfless people i have ever met. my love for him could never be describe into words. i miss you so much daddy and i hope you are in a better place now.'

The party had been in the works well before the billionaire passed away. He was buried on April 28.

Mellon died of a heart attack after taking the hallucinogenic drug Ayahuasca, a family friend revealed.

Throwback: Minty shared this photo to Instagram after her father's death and wrote: 'My father was one of the most amazing, caring, and selfless people i have ever met. my love for him could never be describe into words. i miss you so much daddy and i hope you are in a better place now'

Scott, who recently fathered baby Stormi with Jenner (pictured together above at Monday's Met Gala), arrived via helicopter to the Beverly Hills mansion

Mellon, who had been battling an OxyContin addiction and once spent $100,000 a month on the drug, was 88 days sober when he took his private jet to the Cancun center for 'maintenance'.

Mellon was born in New York City into one of the oldest banking families, descending from of Mellon Bank founder Judge Thomas Mellon and American banker and Drexel University founder Anthony Joseph Drexel.

He was raised between Delray Beach, Florida and Northeast Harbor, Maine and inherited a cool $25million when he turned 21, according to Vanity Fair.

After attending The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School he led prosperous careers in fashion, telecommunications, and finance.

Mellon made his own fortune off crypto-currency.Advertisement

Donald Trump welcomed three Americans imprisoned in North Korea back to the U.S. in the wee hours of Thursday morning, and said words most observers thought no American president would ever utter: 'We want to thank Kim Jong Un.'

The president and his wife Melania arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington at 2:00 a.m. to greet Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, and called them 'incredible people.'

In extraordinary scenes, Trump and the first lady clapped and cheered as the men walked down the steps with their arms in the air and giving triumphant 'V' signs signifying both peace and victory.

Their first steps back on American soil came hours earlier, in Alaska, when the plane carrying them home stopped to refuel.

On the tarmac in suburban Maryland, Trump said: 'These are great people. Frankly, we didn't think this was going to happen, but it did. It was important to get these people out. This is a special night for these three really great people.'

Trump also thanked Kim Jong-un for freeing 'the folks early.' calling it 'a wonderful thing' and adding he believes the North Korean despot 'really wants to do something' and bring the hermit kingdom 'into the real world.'

He said: 'We're starting off on a new footing. I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful, and if anybody would've said that five years ago, 10 years ago, even a year ago, you would've said, 'That's not possible.'

'My proudest achievement will be when we denuclearize that entire [Korean] peninsula,' he added.

The freed trio were joined by a translator who relayed their sentiment that being home felt 'like a dream' and that the men were 'very, very happy' to be freed. They later gave President Trump a round of applause.

Kim Dong-chul, speaking about his time in North Korea, said: 'We were treated in many different ways. For me, I had to do a lot of labor. But when I got sick, I was also treated by them.'

Scroll down for video

Donald Trump and Melania welcomed three Americans imprisoned in North Korea back to America to cheers and applause

Trump shook hands with former detainee Kim Dong-chul (center) upon his return with Kim Hak-song and Tony Kim (both behind) in extraordinary scenes

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, warmly embraced former North Korean detainee Tony Kim upon tthe plane's 2:00 a.m. arrival at a Maryland air base

The prisoners walked onto American soil with their arms in the air giving triumphant 'V' signs signifying peace and victory

Trump called the prisoners 'wonderful people' and thanked Kim Jong-un for letting them come home ahead of the Trump-Kim summit

Trump also thanked the North Korean dictator for freeing 'the folks early,' calling it 'a wonderful thing' and adding that he believes Kim finally wants to bring his country 'into the real world'

President Trump, first lady Melania and Vice President Mike Pence walked with the freed Americans after they landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland

A giant American flag flew between two Maryland fire trucks as the plane landed, giving the men a heroes' welcome after the president had promised the world there would be 'quite a scene' when they arrived.

The three men were released Wednesday after up to three years of imprisonment and hard labor when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left Pyongyang following a meeting with Kim to formalize final plans for a Trump-Kim summit in late May or early June.

He added that the talks between his administration and the North Korean government have 'never been taken this far.'

While Trump said North Korea's Kim Jong Un 'was excellent to these three incredible people,' Vice President Mike Pence hinted in an ABC interview they had endured harsh conditions.

Pence said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told him that at a refueling stop in Anchorage, 'one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadn't seen daylight in a very long time.'

Who are the Americans freed by North Korea today? Kim Dong Chul Kim Dong Chul is pictured in tears while he was held by North Korea in 2016 A naturalized U.S. citizen born in South Korea, Kim Dong Chul was seized in North Korea on October 2, 2015 and accused of spying. Though a resident of Virginia  he became an American citizen in 1987  Kim had lived with his wife in Yanji, China since 2001. He worked just across the North Korean border in the Rason-Sonbong special economic zone, where he ran a hotel services company. He was also a pastor. Very little was known about his status until a CNN news crew interviewed him during their visit to Pyongyang in January 2016. He told reporters during a news conference organized by the dictatorship two months later that he was a spy, explaining that he 'apologized for trying to steal military secrets in collusion with South Koreans' and called his own actions 'unpardonable.' The North accused him of receiving a USB drive and various papers containing nuclear secrets during a meeting with a defector from the regime. After a one-day trial in April, he was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for his supposed espionage. But previous victims of the regime have explained that they were forced to make similar public declarations of their guilt after being tortured, despite being innocent. Kim Hak-song Kim, who is in his mid 50s, was born in Jilin, China, and educated at a university in California Kim Hak-song, also known as Jin Xue Song, had been working for the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), undertaking agricultural development work with the school's farm. He was arrested at a Pyongyang railway station in May 2017 on suspicion of committing 'hostile acts' against the government, as he was boarding a train headed for his home in Dandong, China. Kim, who is in his mid 50s, was born in Jilin, China, and educated at a university in California, CNN reported, citing a man who had studied with him. He said Kim returned to China after about 10 years of living in the U.S., where he is a citizen. PUST was founded by evangelical Christians overseas and opened in 2010, and is known to have a number of American faculty members. Pupils are generally children from among the North's elite. It is not known whether Kim was sentenced for his supposed 'hostile acts.' Kim Sang-duk Kim is a former professor at Yanbian University of Science and Technology in China, close to the Korean border Korean-American Kim Sang-duk  known as Tony Kim  was arrested in April 2017 at Pyongyang's main airport as he tried to leave the country after teaching for several weeks as a guest lecturer, also at PUST. Kim is a former professor at Yanbian University of Science and Technology in China, close to the Korean border. Its website lists his speciality as accounting. He graduated from the University of California Riverside in 1990 with a master's degree in business administration. South Korea's Yonhap news agency has reported Kim as being in his late 50s and said he had been involved in relief activities for children in rural parts of North Korea. It cited a source who described him as a 'religiously devoted man.' He was detained with his wife at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang on April 22, 2017 while waiting for a flight. Police later arrested Kim but did not explain why. His wife was allowed to leave the country. PUST said the arrest was not related to his work at the university. In a Facebook post, Kim's son had said that his family has had no contact with him since his arrest. Kim will soon become a grandfather. Advertisement

Trump said he will not disclose whether he will have any personal conversations with Kim as they prepare for their historic summit in the coming weeks.

But he did admit it was possible that 'one day' he may visit Pyongyang, should peace talks continue to go well.

The three former detainees were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation and medical treatment before being reunited with their families.

Singapore is the likely site for the historic meeting between the U.S. President and North Korea's dictator. The summit could last up to two days.

When asked if the talks will lead to prolonged peace, the president said: 'We'll see how it all works out. Maybe it will, maybe it won't, but it can be a great thing for North Korea, South Korea, Japan and the entire world. We hope it all works out.'

President Donald Trump tweeted after the reception to say: 'On behalf of the American people, WELCOME HOME!' A video showing the welcome was attached

In usual Trumpian fashion, the president also joked with reporters, saying: 'I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 o'clock in the morning.'

The highly public display stood in stark contrast to the low-key private reception the State Department had envisioned, and in keeping with a tradition of trying to protect potentially traumatized victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after their ordeal.

Department officials took great pains on the prisoners' release in North Korea, as well as on their flights to Japan and Alaska, to keep them sequestered not only from the two journalists traveling with Pompeo but also from staffers not immediately involved in their cases.

The trio, along with medical personnel, including a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Pompeo's plane in a small section of 12 business class-size seats that was cordoned off by curtains on both ends.

President Donald Trump greets the freed Americans aboard their plane after they landed in Maryland. The image is from a video posted by Trump on Twitter

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns in keeping with the minimal amount of information they had released since the men were imprisoned.

The Americans had boarded Pompeo's plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to the Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the US.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska - for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon - the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

'We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home,' they said. 'We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.'

The family of Tony Kim also voiced gratitude to 'all of those who have worked toward and contributed to his return home' - and specifically thanked Trump for 'engaging directly with North Korea.'

The release of the three men was only sealed about an hour before the secretary of state left the North Korean capital.

They walked on their own from a van and onto the plane, the culmination of Pompeo's 12-hour visit to the North Korean capital, which included a 90-minute meeting with leader Kim Jong Un.

Returning to his hotel from that meeting, Mr Pompeo had given reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked if there was good news about the detainees.

The president and his wife Melania are waiting at Joint Base Andrews near Washington to meet Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim

President Donald Trump stands with Americans just released from North Korea, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Tony Kim, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stands nearby, at Joint Base Andrews early this morning

President Donald Trump greets the Americans formerly held hostage in North Korea upon their arrival at Joint Base Andrews as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo looks on

America's commander-in-chief salutes as he was met by members of the U.S. Armed Forces in the wee hours of Thursday morning

President Donald Trump arrives to greet the three Americans formerly held hostage in North Korea, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland

The president and the first lady left the White House at 2:00 a.m. to make the short journey to Andrews

Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence (together at center) arrive to greet the three Americans formerly held hostage in North Korea

President Donald Trump talks to the media next to the Americans formerly held hostage in North Korea, upon their arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland

President Trump promised 'quite a show' as North Korea released three American prisoners who have been flown to the US

A North Korean official came to the hotel shortly after to inform Pompeo that Kim had granted amnesties to the three and that they would be released at 7:00 p.m. local time, according to a senior U.S. official present for the exchange.

Carl Risch, the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, and a doctor went to another hotel to pick up the men and bring them to the airport, the official said.

They finally left custody at 7.45 p.m., and by 8.42 p.m. they were flying home.

As soon as the plane cleared North Korean airspace, Mr Pompeo called Mr Trump to inform him of the releases - with the men all apparently in good health.

Even before Mr Pompeo's plane had touched down for a stopover at Yokota Air Base in neighboring Japan, the president announced to the world on Twitter that the '3 wonderful gentlemen' were free.

U.S. citizen Kim Hak-song was detained 'on suspicion of acts against the state'

Kim Dong-chul, pictured above had been detained since 2015. He was arrested for spying and had been sentenced to 10 years' hard labor

In a statement released by the State Department, the former detainees expressed their 'deep appreciation' to the U.S. government, Trump, Pompeo and the American people 'for bringing us home.'

The three were the latest in a series of Americans who have been detained by North Korea in recent years for seemingly small offenses and typically freed when senior U.S. officials or statesmen personally visited to bail them out.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Tony Kim, also known as Kim Sang-Duk, was a Korean-American professor and aid worker before his arrest

Warmbier was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

'We are happy for the hostages and their families,' the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. 'We miss Otto.'

After the release of the detainees, North Korea's state-run media explicitly mentioned plans for the summit for the first time. Pyongyang has been exceptionally cautious about its public framing of Kim's recent diplomatic moves, which are a major shift from the more aggressive focus on missile launches and nuclear development that heated tensions to a boil last year.

The trio's release draws a line under an issue that had weighed on plans for a historic summit between Mr Kim and Mr Trump that will focus on North Korea's nuclear weapons.

'We're granting amnesty to the three detained Americans,' the North Korean emissary told Mr Pompeo at Pyongyang's Koryo Hotel, according to the senior U.S. official.

'We issued the order to grant immediate amnesty to the detainees.'

'That's great,' the secretary of state replied.

The North Korean official then advised that the releases would follow a 'very brief ceremony' - which he described as more like a legal process.

The official closed with a gentle warning for the United States to prevent a repeat: 'You should make care that they do not make the same mistakes again,' the official said. 'This was a hard decision.'

Mr Trump pledged to show the world how happy he was that the three Americans are now free men

Mr Trump has thanks the North Korean leader for releasing the prisoners ahead of their summit

President Donald Trump tweeted late Wednesday that he was 'Looking forward to greeting the Hostages (no longer) at 2:00 A.M.'

President Trump triumphantly announced the release of the trio of Americans in his own style  with a pair of tweets

University founded by Christian Korean-American who was once detained in North on suspicion of being a spy The university where two of the latest three American detainees released by North Korea taught is unique: an institution founded and funded by foreign Christians in an isolated country that decries religion. The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) was set up by James Kim, a wealthy evangelical Korean-American the North once detained on suspicion of being a U.S. spy. Only North Korean citizens can enrol, and it is known to educate many children of the country's elite. Opened in 2010, it now has 560 students and 100 'international volunteers,' according to its website, many of them coming to it through church organisations. PUST says its mission is 'to pursue excellence in education, with an international outlook, so that its students are diligent in studies, innovative in research and upright in character, bringing illumination to the Korean people and the world.' But sources stress that it carries out no Christian proselytising, which is unwelcome by Pyongyang. The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) was set up by James Kim, a wealthy evangelical Korean-American the North once detained on suspicion of being a U.S. spy. Pictured: The snow-covered campus About half of PUST's 80-odd foreign faculty were Americans who have been unable to return for this academic year as a result, and it has filled the gaps with Chinese replacements. Pictured: People walk around the university's campus Although religious freedom is enshrined in the North Korean constitution, it does not exist in practice and religious activity is severely restricted to officially recognized groups linked to the government. Agricultural expert Kim Hak-song and former accounting professor Tony Kim were both lecturers at the institution but were arrested by North Korean authorities as they were leaving the country. The university previously said their detentions were 'not connected in any way with the work of PUST,' and it is understood the duo may have come to the attention of the Pyongyang authorities through previous Christian activities elsewhere. The two, along with fellow detainee Kim Dong-chul, were granted 'amnesty' by Pyongyang following a meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and landed back in the United States on Thursday, to be welcomed by President Donald Trump. 'Our hopes and prayers have been fulfilled by their release,' PUST said in a statement. The university expressed 'sincere hope' that the detainees would be able to 'now enjoy some peace and rest with their families and friends, and begin to rebuild normal life.' The school itself has faced indirect repercussions from their detentions. Tony Kim was arrested in April last year, Kim Hak-song the following month. Weeks later American student Otto Warmbier, who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for trying to steal a propaganda poster, was released in a mysterious coma and died shortly afterwards. The university (pictured) previously said their detentions were 'not connected in any way with the work of PUST,' and it is understood the duo may have come to the attention of the Pyongyang authorities through previous Christian activities elsewhere That prompted Washington to slap a travel ban on American citizens. About half of PUST's 80-odd foreign faculty were Americans who have been unable to return for this academic year as a result, and it has filled the gaps with Chinese replacements. It has also had problems transferring funds and importing materials due to the sanctions imposed on the North over its nuclear programme by the UN Security Council and others. 'We do of course hope that this is a step in a positive process that will lead to the U.S. administration ending the travel ban on U.S. citizens,' a school official told AFP, 'so that many of our regular faculty and leadership can come back to the PUST campus and we can resume operations in a more normal way.' On its website, PUST says it is hiring new faculty members: English and Chinese instructors, and professors for subjects ranging from stem cell culture technology to genetic engineering. It does not mention the detention of its lecturers. Korean-American writer Suki Kim went to PUST undercover as an English teacher in 2011 and later wrote a book about her experiences. 'PUST offers a mutually beneficial arrangement for both North Korea and the evangelicals,' she wrote in an essay published in the Washington Post last year following Tony Kim's detention. 'The regime gets free education for its youth and a modern facility... while the evangelicals get a footing in the remote nation,' she said. Source: AFP Advertisement

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un has been photographed smiling and laughing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just moments before three American detainees boarded a flight home after months in captivityThe creepy moment a woman held a huge wolf spider in her bare hands as it carried hundreds of moving baby spiders has been caught on camera.

Self-confessed 'bug nerd' Lisa Van Kula Donovan was lucky enough to get up close and personal with a mother wolf spider and her babies, posting the video to Instagram on Tuesday.

The incredible video shows the wolf spider standing calmly on Ms Donovan's fingertips with her babies crowding on her back as they moved around, before scurrying off into into the grass below.

The creepy moment a woman held a huge wolf spider in her bare hands (pictured) as it carried hundreds of moving baby spiders was caught on camera

'One of the coolest things I've gotten to see close up,' the spider observer wrote online.

'I put her hide she made (under the egg carton with substrate and silk) in a good spot and surrounded it with protection from anything.

'She's back in her element and I'm sure will move on to greener pastures from there.'

Wolf spiders are known as being doting mothers who are unique in the way they carry their eggs.

The egg sac, a round silken globe, is attached to the spinnerets at the end of the abdomen, allowing the spider to carry her unborn babies with her.

The abdomen must be held in a raised position to keep the egg case from dragging on the ground. However, despite this they are still capable of hunting.

Self-confessed 'bug nerd' Lisa Van Kula Donovan was lucky enough to get up close and personal with a mother wolf spider and her babies (pictured)

Once the eggs are hatched, the wolf spider carries her babies around on her back for several days.

The caring spiders can be found in a variety of habitats both coastal and inland, and are typically harmless unless provoked.

The video, posted in early March, has received thousands of views with many people exclaiming how 'cool' the unique video was.Residents of a picturesque coastal town in Southern California known for its cut flower industry are complaining of an unwanted stench: marijuana.

Residents of Capinteria, California, say their little slice of paradise has been overwhelmed by the smell of cannabis growing in the greenhouses surrounding the community.

Those greenhouses were previously used for growing fresh cut flowers, but those growers were pushed out of business by producers in South America.

The flowery fragrance has now been replaces by a thick, skunk-like stench from the cannabis plants, which many residents in the community of just 14,000 people are desperate to get rid of.

Residents of the coastal town of Carpinteria, California, are complaining that their community has been overwhelmed by the smell of marijuana from nearby producers

Greenhouses that were built to grow fresh cut flowers have been taken over by cannabis growers following the state's legalization of marijuana for recreational use beginning this year

'We don't want a marijuana smell,' Xave Saragosa, a 73-year-old retired sheriff's deputy who lives near a greenhouse that grows marijuana, told AP.

'We want fresh air.'

To keep the strong stench from the cannabis plants out of their houses residents have been forced to close their windows and stuff pillows under their doors, also blocking out the cool ocean breezes they love.

Saragosa has lived in Capinteria his entire life, and says he and his wife are now kept up through the night coughing as a result of the odor.

Capinteria is a tourist enclave known for its beaches, wine and pleasant climate, located about 85 miles from Los Angeles in the southeast corner of Santa Barbara County.

Ever since the state legalized recreational marijuana, the area has also become a haven for cannabis growers.

Xave Saragosa, 73, has lived in Carpinteria his entire life, and says that he and his wife have recently been kept up in the middle of the night coughing because of the stench

Santa Barbara County, where Capinteria is located, has collected the largest number of marijuana cultivation licenses in the state since the drug was legalized on January 1

The county amassed the largest number of marijuana cultivation licenses in California since broad legalization arrived on January 1 - about 800, according to state data compiled by AP.

Two-thirds of those licenses are in Carpinteria and Lompoc, a larger agricultural city about an hour's drive to the northwest.

Virtually all of Carpinteria's licenses are for small, 'mixed-light' facilities, which essentially means greenhouses.

The result is a large number of licenses but small total acreage. Only about 200 acres of the county's farmland is devoted to marijuana, compared with tens of thousands sown with strawberries and vegetables, said Dennis Bozanich, who oversees the county's marijuana planning.

Carpinteria has long been a tourist enclave known for its pleasant climate, which also makes it an ideal area for growing marijuana

The greenhouses are ideal for growing marijuana because they heat and cool easily and inexpensively, allowing plants to thrive and be harvested multiple times per year

The area's greenhouses have their roots in Carpinteria's cut flower industry, which was sapped after the US government granted trade preferences to South American countries in the 1990s to encourage their farmers to grow flowers instead of coca, the plant used to make cocaine.

In an ironic twist, some California flower growers weary of import competition have started trying to grow cannabis, a plant that, like coca, is deemed illicit by the federal government. Others have sold their greenhouses to marijuana investors.

'We have literally no carnation production in the United States any longer because South America grows them so cheaply,' said Kasey Cronquist, chief executive of the California Cut Flower Commission.

'Farmers had to move crops, and that is what we have seen happen over time - they've gone to crops that are more valuable or more difficult for Ecuador and Colombia to ship.'

Domestic cut flower growers saw their share of the US market drop to 27 percent in 2015 from 58 percent in 1991.

Sales of imported cut flowers grew to more than $1billion during the same period, according to data compiled by the commission.

To keep the strong stench from the cannabis plants out of their houses residents have been forced to close their windows, also blocking out the cool ocean breezes they love

State and county officials are now working on ways to minimize the odor from the growers

Greenhouses that once produced flowers are seen as ideal for marijuana, because they heat and cool easily and inexpensively, allowing the plants to thrive,

It takes only about three months to grow cannabis in pots of shredded coconut husks, so farmers can get multiple harvests each year.

In the hills of the so-called Emerald Triangle of Northern California, where most of the state's pot is grown, there is only one harvest each year.

Some farmers see cannabis as a plant that can help preserve the area's farming culture, said Mollie Culver, a consultant for the Cannabis Business Council of Santa Barbara County.

Many growers live locally and welcomed the county's recently crafted regulations requiring odor abatement, she said.

'Santa Barbara isn't like cannabis run amok,' said Jared Ficker, a partner at advocacy group California Strategies who consults with local cannabis growers.

'It is actually the most compliant market we've seen in the state.'

Some residents said the stench has decreased in recent months as some growers installed systems aimed at reducing the smells. Others said the problem persists.

Marijuana producers in the Carpinteria area are able to harvest the plants multiple times per year, unlike in other areas that only have a single harvest annually

The county passed rules in February requiring growers to submit odor abatement plans and designate a representative to handle complaints.

They are expected to take effect in some county areas this year and in Carpinteria following a review by state coastal regulators.

Californians voted to legalize marijuana in 2016, but counties and cities have a say on whether they allow cannabis production, distribution or sales.

Even before the ballot measure, Santa Barbara County recognized a number of farmers were growing marijuana to supply the state's medical market. So officials started looking at establishing odor, security and other rules.

A group of students are pictured playing outside of a school in Carpinteria, a small town of 14,000 people that's been overwhelmed by marijuana production and its accompanying smell

'We have a lot of people who are interested in being compliant and getting into the regulated market,' Bozanich said.

'If we can continue that kind of relationship where they're going to stay in the regulated market,' it will be easier to target and eliminate black market growers, he said.

All of the county's licenses are to grow medical marijuana, Bozanich said, though the state allows some crossover into the adult market.

In Carpinteria, some residents worry property values will fall if the town keeps reeking of pot. They hope the smell will fade as more growers install odor control systems and those who don't are shut down.

Toni Stuart, an 80-year-old retired Episcopal priest, said the odor doesn't creep into the area near the beach where she lives, but she worries about the community changing.

'I would not like Carpinteria to be the 'cannabis capital' of Southern California. I like it the way it is. It's a very quiet, unpretentious beach town,' she said.

'If people want to grow cannabis instead of flowers or avocados or macadamia nuts - I suppose that's their right. But they've got to think about their neighbors.'A Victorian woman is seeking $3000 in damages from Qantas after her luggage was destroyed.

Unhappy passenger Melissa Chung flew from Melbourne to Perth during the Easter break and was greeted on arrival with a nasty shock at the luggage carousel.

She was left with barely anything to use on the short interstate trip after she was greeted with torn open luggage with her clothes ripped to shreds, her laptop smashed and make-up contents spilled.

This is how Melissa Chung's luggage turned up at Perth Airport

The tattered luggage turned up with spilled cosmetics inside

Most of Ms Chung's clothes packed for the short interstate trip were ripped to shreds

With the matter still not resolved, Ms Chung took to social media on Thursday in desperate bid to finally get some answers.

'My bag was returned to me in a giant plastic bag on the carousel because it had been so damaged, the contents were spilling out of it,' Ms Chung posted on Qantas' Facebook page.

'It's been a month and Qantas have yet to confirm that they will compensate me for my damaged bag or any of the things inside of it. In fact, they say that cosmetics are fragile items which are not claimable. Does Qantas suggest that we all take our makeup bags in our carry-on luggage? Anyone who has done that will know that causes issues at security. Surely this isn't a fair position to take.'

The passenger was told by the airline that it was not responsible for damage the tug driver caused to the laptop by running over it

Ms Chung was left with little clothing still in tact for her interstate Easter break

The Melbourne woman was told by airline at the time that a tug ran over the bag on Perth airport.

'The Qantas staff at Perth were not very helpful and continued to say, 'You should claim this on your insurance', but it was a domestic flight so I didn't have insurance,' she told news.com.au.

'I don't think it's reasonable to expect people to have travel insurance for a domestic flight.'

Ms Chung said she was also told by the airline it was not responsible for the laptop as it was not allowed in checked luggage, according to its conditions of carriage.

The luggage was run over by a tug on the tarmac at Perth Airport (pictured) over the Easter long weekend

Qantas says it was 'very sorry' for the damage and the inconvenience caused

'I am just seeking compensation to replace the items that were damaged beyond use and repair,' she posted on Qantas' Facebook page.

'I expected much better from our national airline. What is the point in flying Qantas over a budget airline when the customer service is so appalling?'

Qantas responded to Ms Chung's Facebook post within an hour and vowed to investigate the matter.

Ms Chung said she was also told by the airline that it was not responsible for the laptop because it's a prohibited item

A Qantas spokesman told Daily Mail Australia it was 'very sorry' for the damage to Ms Chung's bag and the inconvenience caused.

'We'll be reaching out to Melissa to ensure any potential compensation for the damage is processed as soon as possible,' he said.

It's been a bad week in the headlines for Qantas after it was revealed earlier this week that it had deleted frequent flyer points from thousands of customers whose accounts had been inatitve for 18 months.Mrs May (pictured in Downing Street yesterday) is scrambling to find a way through the Brexit impasse

Brexiteers are trying to break the Cabinet deadlock on trade plans by suggesting Britain could stay tied to the EU customs union for years longer - but make a clean break afterwards.

The proposal, pushed by allies of Michael Gove, would mean dropping the customs partnership blueprint favoured by Theresa May.

But in return Eurosceptic Cabinet ministers would accept that their 'Maximum Facilitation' option will need much more time to put in place.

The idea has emerged as the PM scrambles to find a way to end the damaging standoff among the government's big beasts.

Mrs May was brutally taunted during PMQs yesterday over Boris Johnson's extraordinary public attack on her 'crazy' partnership proposal.

As Mr Johnson looked on sheepishly from the frontbench, Mrs May was forced to deny she had wasted months on plans that ministers could not agree on.

The spat erupted after a tense meeting of the Brexit War Cabinet last week, in which it became clear that most members did not support Mrs May's blueprint for the UK to collect duties on behalf of the EU - and give businesses a rebate if Britain wanted to impose lower tariffs.

The other option on the table is 'Max Fac', which would rely on technology and mutual recognition schemes to minimise friction on trade.

In a sign of the problems in finding a way through the impasse, the PM has delayed another showdown in the key sub-committee until next Tuesday.

There has been speculation that Mrs May could stage a public intervention on Monday in a bid to bring the issue to a head.

It is not clear whether Downing Street will be receptive to the idea of a delayed 'Max Fac' customs arrangement.

Alongside fears that the 'Max Fac' option would require a hard Irish border, doubts about how long it would take to develop the necessary technology and IT systems have been the main blocks.

Mrs May's former chief of staff Nick Timothy told the Sun last night that "ministers might accept that Max Fac will take longer to be introduced".

Former minister Nick Boles, an ally of Mr Gove and Boris Johnson, also tweeted his support for the idea. But he added: "This must not be rushed and will not be ready by the end of the transition in Dec 2020."

The Open Europe think-tank run by Mr Gove's former aide Henry Newman has endorsed the concept.

Downing Street sources have conceded that the customs partnership blueprint - which would see Britain collect duties on behalf of the EU in an effort to minimise friction on trade and prevent a hard Irish border - will 'not go ahead in its current form'.

Officials are looking at ways of overhauling the idea or coming up with a new option that can win over sceptical ministers.

Mr Corbyn kicked off PMQs by asking: 'Does the Prime Minister agree with her Foreign Secretary that the plan for a customs partnership... is in fact crazy?'

Mrs May dodged the question, insisting the government would 'ensure that we leave the customs union, that we can have an independent free trade policy, that we can maintain no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, and we have as frictionless trade with the EU as possible'.

Mr Corbyn then challenged Mrs May over Business Secretary Greg Clark's warning in an interview at the weekend that 'jobs would be at risk if we don't sort out a comprehensive customs deal'.

But the premier retorted that Labour was 'letting Britain down' by taking the EU's side in the negotiations.

'They want to go into a customs union with the European Union with no say over trade policy, with Brussels negotiating trade deals in their interests, not our own,' she said.

Former minister Nick Boles, an ally of Mr Gove and Boris Johnson, tweeted his support for the idea of a delayed 'Max Fac' trade arrangement

As Mr Johnson looked on sheepishly from the frontbench (pictured), Mrs May was forced to deny she had wasted weeks on plans that ministers could not agree on

The Prime Minister faced catcalls from Labour MPs today as Jeremy Corbyn accused her of overseeing a shambolic negotiation with the EU

Theresa May (pictured at PMQs today) has pushed back another showdown at the Brexit 'War Cabinet' from tomorrow to next week as she struggles to find a compromise

'The Labour manifesto said it wanted to strike trade deals, now they've gone back on that policy. Typical labour, letting Britain down once again.'

Mrs May stormed: 'He talks about the state of the negotiations. Before December he was saying the negotiations were not going to get anywhere.

'What did we get? A joint report agreed by the European Council. He said before March that we weren't going to get what we wanted from negations. What did we get? An implementation and an agreement with the European Union Council.

'We are now in a negotiation for the best deal for the UK for when we leave the EU and we will get the best deal for the UK for when we leave the EU.'

Speaking in the Commons immediately after the clashes, Mr Johnson denied that he had breached Cabinet collective responsibility with his public criticism of the customs partnership option.

'I am completely in conformity with Government policy on the matter, since that policy has yet to be decided,' he said to laughter from the Labour benches.

What are the options on the table for a customs deal with the EU?

With time ticking away on the Brexit negotiations, the Cabinet is still at daggers drawn on the shape for future trade relations with the EU.

The government has set out two potential options for a customs system after the UK leaves the bloc.

But despite a series of tense showdowns at Theresa May's Brexit 'War Cabinet' ministers continue to be deadlocked over what to do.

Meanwhile, Brussels has dismissed both the ideas - and warned that negotiations could stall altogether unless there is progress by a key summit next month.

Despite a series of tense showdowns at Theresa May's 'War Cabinet' (pictured in February) ministers continue to be deadlocked over what to do

OPTION 1 - CUSTOMS PARTNERSHIP

Under the so-called 'hybrid model', the UK would collect EU import tariffs on behalf of Brussels.

Britain would be responsible for tracking the origin and final destination of goods coming into the country from outside the EU. The government would also have to ensure all products meet the bloc's standards.

Firms selling directly into the UK market would pay the tariff levels set by Brussels - but would then get a rebate if Britain's tariffs are lower.

Supporters of the hybrid plan in Cabinet - including Theresa May, Philip Hammond and Greg Clark - say keeping duties aligned up front would avoid the need for physical customs borders between the UK and EU.

As a result it could solve the thorny issue over creating a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Mrs May has been advised by the chief whip that the hybrid option could be the only way of securing a majority in parliament for a Brexit deal.

But Brexiteers regard the proposal as unworkable and cumbersome - and they were joined by Sajid Javid and Gavin Williamson in criticising it at a tense 'War Cabinet' meeting last week.

There are fears the experimental system will either collapse and cause chaos, or prevent the UK from being able to negotiate free trade deals around the world after Brexit.

Mrs May has instructed official to go away and revise the ideas. Eurosceptics are braced for her to bring back the plan with only 'cosmetic' changes, and try to 'peel off' Mr Javid and Mr Williamson from the core group of Brexiteers.

They are also ready for Mrs May to attempt to bypass the 'War Cabinet' altogether and put the issue before the whole Cabinet - where she has more allies.

OPTION 2 - MAXIMUM FACILITATION

Boris Johnson (left) and Liam Fox have been pushing for the 'Max Fac' customs option

The 'Max Fac' option accepts that there will be greater friction at Britain's borders with the EU.

But it would aim to minimise the issues using technology and mutual recognition.

Goods could be electronically tracked and pre-cleared by tax authorities on each side.

Shipping firms could also be given 'trusted trader' status so they can move goods freely, and only pay tariffs when they are delivered to the destination country.

Companies would also be trusted to ensure they were meeting the relevant UK and EU standards on products.

Senior ministers such as Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Liam Fox believe this is the only workable option.

But Remain minded Tories such as Mr Clark insist it will harm trade and cost jobs in the UK.

They also warn that it will require more physical infrastructure on the Irish border - potentially breaching the Good Friday Agreement. It is far from clear whether the government would be able to force anything through parliament that implied a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

The EU has dismissed the idea that 'Max Fac' could prevent checks on the Irish border as 'magical thinking'.Terrifying footage shows a racing car fly off the tracks and somersault twice during an endurance contest - but its Russian driver climbs out of the car unhurt.

Matevos Isaakyan, 20, shot off the track at the famous Spa Francorchamps circuit in the fifth hour of the Six Hours of Spa race in Belgium.

He smashed into the barriers as he attempted to maneuver around Eau Rouge - one of F1's most thrilling and deadly corners.

The Moscow-born racer's car can be seen rounding the corner before taking flight, its front wheels suddenly shooting into the air.

The vehicle then flies metres into the air and can be seen spinning before crash-landing on the other side of the safety barrier, throwing up smoke as it impacts.

Astonishingly, Isaakyan reportedly got out of the battered car without assistance after the horror smash and was not badly injured.

It is not clear what caused Isaakyan's car to suddenly take flight and an investigation is reportedly underway.

Terrifying footage shows the car's front wheels suddenly fly off the track in the final hour of the Six Hours of Spa endurance race in Belgium

Within seconds the car soars metres into the air and flips over twice

This was the second major incident at Eau Rouge in the space of a few days.

On Friday racer Pietro Fittipaldi broke both legs after losing control at the corner and crashing into the barrier during a Six Hours of Spa qualifying session.

The vehicle ends up on the other side of the safety barrier, sending a plume of smoke into the airAward-winning poet Amy K Blakemore says she was assaulted by an editor from Penguin books when they met for drinks in 2015

The publishing industry has become the latest hit by allegations of sexual impropriety after an award-winning poet accused an editor of assaulting her.

Amy K Blakemore, who won the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award in 2007 and 2008, says Donald Futers, a poetry editor at Penguin Random House, assaulted her in 2015. Mr Futers vehemently denies the claims.

Ms Blakemore said she had kept the allegation quiet until now but had come forward 'in light of recent developments', following the #MeToo movements exposure of sexual harassment in Hollywood and subsequent sleaze scandals in politics and the media.

Oxford-educated Ms Blakemore, 26, posted a statement on her Twitter feed on Monday stating she went out for a drink with Mr Futers after meeting at a poetry reading.

She wrote: 'The evening of that meeting he assaulted me. We had both been drinking. I disclosed what had happened at the time to my partner and a few close friends.'

She posted a statement online suggesting she'd come forward after the #MeToo movement

Ms Blakemore said she went to Penguin over the issue but was disappointed at their response

She claimed that when she went to his employer, she was told to prove Mr Futers was 'representing Penguin in an official capacity' at the time of the incident, which she could not.

Mr Futers has released a statement to The Bookseller magazine, insisting he had not assaulted Mr Blakemore.

He said: 'The allegation has been made that I met this person on the pretext of discussing her work and assaulted her. I vehemently deny both claims.'

Donald Futers has strongly denied Ms Blakemore's claims

He added: 'These matters have also been addressed in a separate statement by my employer.

'To be falsely accused and to have these matters aired in public is extremely distressing. Given the circumstances and the sensitivities surrounding these issues, I have nothing further to say at this time.'

His employer Penguin Random House UK sent an email to staff this week, telling them the company 'does not - and will not - tolerate any kind of inappropriate sexual behaviour', The Times reported today.

Penguin's communications director Rebecca Sinclair told the paper the company had conducted a 'thorough investigation' and was 'satisfied that we have acted fairly and swiftly'.

Ms Blakemore was born in Deptford, south London in 1991 and read English Language and Literature at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. Her collection Humbert Summer won the 2014 Melita Hume Poetry Prize.

Mr Futers joined Penguin in 2012 and became full time poetry editor in 2015.Brussels is urging Britain to treat Northern Ireland like Hong Kong and accept the province must accept EU rules and regulations after Brexit.

Officials in the bloc say the UK should adopt a 'one state two systems' approach - keeping the province in the customs union while the rest of the UK quits it.

They said this would copy what happened in Hong Kong - which Margaret Thatcher agreed would be handed back to China on condition it kept its own institutions and laws.

But British officials have reacted with fury to the suggestion, branding it 'unacceptable'.

They pointed out that the UK gave up control of Hong Kong whereas voters backed Brexit to take back control - not relinquish it.

Brussels is urging Britain to treat Northern Ireland like Hong Kong and accept the province must accept EU rules and regulations after Brexit. But Theresa May (pictured having tea with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in February) has ruled out the plan

An EU diplomat told Politico website: 'The one thing you cannot say about Margaret Thatcher is that she was soft on sovereignty.

'The head of state in Hong Kong is President Xi. That's a fact. If Thatcher agreed it for Hong Kong, why not Northern Ireland?

'It would not affect the constitutional integrity of the UK. The head of state would still be the queen.'

Under the proposals, Northern Ireland would stay in the customs union, eliminating the need to carry out border checks between the province and the Republic of Ireland.

Brussels says the plan is the only way to avoid setting up avoiding a hard Irish borer with customs checks and guards, and safeguard the peace process.

But British officials and MPs have slammed the proposal, which would set up a hard border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Tory MP and leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg (pictured in his office in Somerset last week) has slammed the proposals t keep Northern Ireland in the customs union - pointing out this would crate a hard border between Northern Ireland an d the rest of the UK which would be unacceptable

A senior British official told the website: 'The whole point of Hong Kong is that we handed sovereignty back to China. That's why the prime minister has said it is unacceptable  because it is.

Theresa May has ruled out the plan.

And Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Tory MP and head of the influential backbench Brexiteer group the European Research Group, also criticised it.

He told Mail Online: 'It is in no way a comparable situation and would require a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, as there is between Hong Kong and China.'Three US prisoners released from North Korea arrived back on American soil this morning.

Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim were greeted by President Donald Trump and his wife Melania as they stepped off the plane at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

The President and his First Lady were there at 2am to receive the men, who beamed and flashed peace signs, saying it was a 'dream' to be freed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un authorised their release, which Trump believes to be a sign of promise in his goal of denuclearising the totalitarian state.

He thanked him and said 'I really think he wants to do something', suggesting Kim wants to bring Pyongyang 'into the real world'.

Here MailOnline brings you all the latest updates:

If you are reading this in the app, click hereA man who was tasered by police on the Gold Coast last year has fronted Southport Magistrates Court and had four counts of obstructing police and one count of wilful damage dropped.

Kurt Anthony Lane walked onto a movie set during filming at Southport in November 2017.

The Gold Coast Bulletin obtained footage of the incident which shows Lane on the floor of a health food store with police pointing a taser at him.

Kurt Anthony Lane walked onto a movie set during filming at Southport in November 2017

Lane gets to his feet and, after a tense few moments where he and police stare each other down, he then turns to walk away.

At this point police crash tackle Lane and repeatedly taser him.

During the struggle bottles are knocked over and smash with both the police and Lane receiving cuts.

Defence lawyer Campbell MacCallum told Southport Magistrates Court on Wednesday, 'I am not sure how it became necessary for a taser to be deployed when a person is on the ground and subdued.'

'It was an example of a small offence escalating into violence when police dealing tactics where heavy handed and unnecessary,' he said.

Lane was initially charged with a total of six offences, however, all were dropped apart from one count of obstructing police for which he was fined $400.

The footage emerges following another incident in Melbourne where a 16-year-old's ankle was seriously injured following a run-in with police.

The boy's father disputes the police version of events and claims that police used unnecessary force when apprehending the teen.

Footage of the incident which shows Lane on the floor of a health food store with police pointing a taser at himStunning slow motion footage shows a robin munching on worms while perched on a woman's hand.

Jemma Greef, 43, captured the beautiful clip on her mobile phone while visiting a nature reserve in Titchwell, Norfolk.

It shows the red-breasted little bird sail down from its perch, showcasing its striking plumage as it approaches the camera elegantly flapping its wings.

The European robin gobbles up some mealworms in the palm of her hand before flying back to its perch on a nearby branch.

Bird-lover Jemma said: 'I arrived at the reserve, got out of my car and shook the mealworms in the box.

'Moments later a robin flew down and landed on a nearby branch.

'I held my Samsung S8 mobile in one hand and the mealworms in the other and got ready to capture any action.

Stunning footage of a European robin flying down from its perch to eat some mealworms out of the palm of a woman's hand

A still from the clip captured by 43-year-old Jemma Greef at a nature reserve in Titchwell, Norfolk

'A few seconds later the robin flew onto my hand where it happily fed on the worms.'

She added: 'Afterwards, when I watched back the footage, I couldn't believe how detailed the quality was.

'Robins are such beautiful, friendly birds - it was an amazing experience.'Gang violence has spilled out of cities and into rural villages as the number of Albanian cocaine-dealing gangsters rose by almost 60 per cent.

The increase over the last three years in criminals dealing high-purity cuts of the drug is fuelling the spread of violence as the eastern European country's mafia works with Latin American cartels.

The National Crime Agency has revealed that Albanian gangs control wholesale cocaine smuggling into Britain.

Competition between rival gangs to sell cocaine to wealthy clients will result in the drug's purity rising to dangerous levels, the former head of drugs threat at the National Crime Agency has said (file photo)

Kingpin Khalad Uddin had arranged the purchase of two handguns, which were found in a shoebox in a VW people carrier

Data seen by The Times show shootings, stabbings and other violent crimes have surged.

The UK government says the purity of crack cocaine now being brought into the country is one reason behind the rise in violence.

A table lists more than 4,600 of the most dangerous organised crime gangs working in Britain today - complete with their nationalities.

It reveals Albanians topping Romanians for the first time in 2017, but white British syndicates remain the most prevalent.

Major players in the Albanian drugs trade include kingpin Khalad Uddin, 35, who was jailed for 16 years last June, lived in a plush apartment in Oxford

Some of the stashed cash which was seized from Khalad Uddin's Oxfordshire penthouse

Uddin brokered large cocaine deals between European importers and customers. Pictured is recovered ammunition

Human trafficking as well as money laundering have also risen sharply and cocaine is now being delivered in under 15 minutes in England and Scotland.

The Global Drug Survey, based in London, found some respondents claiming the Class A drug arrived quicker than pizza.

Children as young as 12 have been found to be handling cocaine filtering in through the Albanian supply chain.

Merseyside's chief constable Andy Cook said the increase in cocaine and crack cocaine is driving the rise in reported violence, also citing reduced police and improved recording methods.

Olsi Beheluli was jailed after he posted a photograph of himself surrounded by 240,000 in cash on Twitter

Corruption and Balkans authorities that lack co-operation were also cited as reasons the Albanian gangsters are hard to target, according to the National Crime Agency.

The Border Force as well as HM Revenue & Customs worked with police across the country to publish the Agency figures.

Over the last three years, more than 70 per cent of UK gangsters were found to be British. The category of 'white northern European' accounted for 60 per cent and just 13 per cent were black.

Pakistani gangs were found to be the second-most prominent group, with those syndicates tending to focus their efforts on the heroin trade.

Speaking on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, Albania's prime minister Edi Rama said there must be a strong European Union to tackle the drug trade.

'Organised crime is no longer local, it is international,' he said. 'Criminals have their own European union and thats why our European Union should be as strong and as interconnected as possible.'

Ferrari-driving Luan Plakici, serving 23 years for smuggling in 60 women for prostitution, is seen on a sofa holding a bundle of notes

His country holds talks with the EU in Brussels in June and aims to join the bloc by 2025.

Last year, the Daily Mail told how police were facing an Albanian crime wave with 50 thugs arrested each week amid a rise in drug-related gang warfare.

In 2016, police arrested Albanians 2,781 times  up 8 per cent on 2015. It suggests about one in 11 of the 32,000 Albanian-born residents in England and Wales were detained, although some may have been taken into custody more than once.

Major players include Khalad Uddin, 35, who was jailed for 16 years last June. He was described as the kingpin in an elaborate drug dealing network that spread from his homeland to the Midlands, Bristol and London.

Before he was snared by the police, Uddin lived in a plush apartment in Oxford and had a fleet of seven cars including a Range Rover and a BMW 7 Series.

His extravagant lifestyle led police officers to raid his home where they found about 460,000 in cash bundles, 70 pairs of designer jeans valued at up to 700 each and expensive jewellery.

Albanian national Ardi Beshiri, 27, took a series of selfies on his iPhone which showed him holding huge wads of cash

Violent criminal Vital Dapi, who murdered two pensioners, used a stolen identity to claim asylum and live in Britain illegally for nearly two decades.

He was given a life sentence in March last year for the attack on grandparents Peter Stuart, 75, and his wife Sylvia, 69, in Weybread, Suffolk.

Last year, the Mail told how police were facing an Albanian crime wave with 50 thugs arrested each week amid a rise in drug-related gang warfare.

In 2016, police arrested Albanians 2,781 times  up 8 per cent on 2015. It suggests about one in 11 of the 32,000 Albanian-born residents in England and Wales were detained, although some may have been taken into custody more than once.

Vital Dapi (pictured) murdered two pensioners in Suffolk

In one case last year, a gang of 20 Albanian gangsters using fake Greek and Italian passports ran a round-the-clock dial-a-drug racket in Manchester, targeting the city's nightclubs while living in lavishly decorated flats.

The armed Albanian thugs dressed in designer clothes to target revellers looking to buy cocaine at some of Manchester's most exclusive nightspots.

Known in underworld circles simply as 'The Albanians', they also operated a sophisticated 'dial-a-drug' phone line, raking in 250,000 and living in lavishly-decorated apartments in the city centre.

They are believed to have worked with Manchester's more established gangs - but were arming themselves with guns in case of conflict.

One of the main players, Mevlan Gjeta, 33, was jailed eight years after a kilo of cocaine plus 55,000 were found at his flat in the city.

Scores of gang members uploaded photographs to brag to friends and family members on Facebook and Instagram.

Ardi Beshiri, 27, was caught with 28 wraps of cocaine hidden in his socks in London and was jailed for six years and eight months.

Detectives found a series of photographs he had taken of himself while holding huge amounts of cash on his shoulder.

Another picture - discovered on his iPhone - showed the Albanian national smiling next to a giant wad of money which he had placed on his table.

Bes Besiaj, took a selfie which showed him jokingly trying to eat a huge wad of notes, reports The Sun. It is not whether he has been convicted of any offences.

Uddin's extravagant lifestyle led police officers to raid his apartment last autumn, where they found about 460,000 in cash bundles, 70 pairs of designer jeans valued up to 700 each and expensive jewellery

Meanwhile, drug dealing model Olsi Beheluli was jailed after he posted a photograph of himself surrounded by 240,000 in cash on Twitter.

And Luan Plakici, who drove a Ferrari, is currently serving 23 years for smuggling in 60 women to the UK to be used for prostitution, the Sun reported. A photograph showed him lying on a sofa holding a wad of money.

Deaths from cocaine in England and Wales have more than doubled in the past four years according to the Office for National Statistics - with 371 cocaine related deaths in 2016, compared to just 139 in 2012, The Telegraph reported last month.

In 2016-17, 12,000 people were admitted to hospital with cocaine related disorders, but in 2007-08 this number was just 5,148.Harvey Weinstein's lawyer has said he believes the sexual harassment case against the film tycoon is 'largely defective or not factually supported'.

Speaking to 5 live's Clare McDonnell, Benjamin Brafman said that he believes that emails between Weinstein and some of his accusers are 'breathtaking in scope and will substantially undermine the credibility of the claim that twenty years ago Harvey Weinstein raped them'.

Mr Brafman said he thought there were some women who had a right to complain about some of the producer's 'offensive' actions but they did not have a criminal argument against him.

He also added that he thought the criminal evidence against his client was so flawed that he actually hopes no charges would ever be brought against Mr Weinstein.

Scroll down for video

Benjamin Brafman, Mr Weinstein's lawyer, said he believed some of the alleged victims 'simply aren't telling the truth'

Weinstein is being sued in several different states - although criminal charges are yet to be brought against him (pictured with partner Georgina Chapman)

'Most people in my experience, and I was a prosecutor and a defendant of rape cases, most people who have actually been raped, the last thing they want to do is communicate with their rapist in any way that demonstrates affection, friendship or gratitude,' he added.

Weinstein is facing numerous lawsuits after more than 80 women accused him of sexual assault and harassment.

In Manhattan, Weinstein has been accused of forcing actress Lucia Evans, then a college student, to perform oral sex on him inside his Tribeca office in 2004 and of raping Boardwalk Empire actress Paz de la Huerta on two occasions in 2010.

Weinstein has denied that he ever engaged in non-consensual sex.

The former Hollywood producer, 66, is also being investigated by police in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and London but has yet to be criminally charged in any jurisdiction.

But Weinstein's lawyer, Mr Brafman, said that the nature of the evidence attached to some of the allegations against him meant that any trial would be based purely on hearsay.

Brafman said that because some of the evidence was over 20 years old - any resulting trial would have to rely on hearsay

Actresses Lucia Evans (left) and Paz de la Huerta (right) have both come forward and claimed that Weinstein forced them into sex acts in Manhattan

'Many of these allegations are twenty years old,' Brafman added.

'There's no forensic evidence. None of these people reported anything to police at the time. So this is really a case of "he said, she said".'

He also said that messages and collaborations between Weinstein and the alleged victims in the years after the incidents would undermine their testimony.

'You can't just say he raped me in 1995, and then twenty-two years of chit chat and lovey notes exchanged should be ignored. I mean people just don't treat their rapists that way,' Brafman said.

Brafman also argued that some of the women who have come forward against the producer are simply 'opportunists'.

'There are some women who are just opportunists, in my opinion. And I think, at the end of the day, the facts will demonstrate that he did nothing to them,' he added.

'Some of the more vocal critics of Harvey Weinstein  not the ones necessarily who even say he raped them  are just not telling the truth, in my opinion.'Jeremy Corbyn is facing a major backlash after boasting about his close ties to a far-Left party in Germany that wants to disband NATO and backed Russia over the annexation of Crimea.

Labour MPs and activists voiced outrage after the leader tweeted a picture of himself meeting the chief of Die Linke, Katja Kipping.

They pointed out that Die Linke was the new incarnation of the communist party that enforced the brutal Stasi regime in East Germany.

Senior figures have previously demanded the abolition of NATO in favour of a security alliance with Moscow, and insisted that Crimea should be recognised as part of Russia.

Die Linke is also in direct competition with the SPD - which is UK Labour's sister party in Germany.

Jeremy Corbyn's decision to hold talks with Ms Kipping underlines the huge rift in Labour over his stance on foreign policy

Mr Corbyn's decision to hold talks with Ms Kipping will fuel the huge rift in Labour over his stance on foreign policy.

The veteran left-winger praised Die Linke as 'progressive' and said they both wanted to 'end austerity and privatisation, and promote international peace'.

Labour MP Ian Austin told MailOnline: Labour Party members will be very surprised to see their leader saying that hes working with the successors to the old East German Communist Party who kept their own people locked up behind the Berlin Wall in a brutal dictatorship and shot them if they tried to escape to freedom in the West.

'They are in direct competition with our longstanding sister party, the mainstream SPD who have nothing to do with them, and I think the SPD will probably be furious.

Another Labour MP said the SPD and the Party of European Socialists would be 'horrified - just as many of us are horrified'.

Die Linke's views chime with Mr Corbyn's own in many areas.

Mr Corbyn campaigned for the disbandment of NATO for decades, as well as for Britain unilaterally to give up the nuclear deterrent. However, he has never been able to bring in the ideas as formal Labour policy.

In an article in the Morning Star in April 2014, the left-winger blamed '20 years of relentless NATO expansion Eastwards' for Russia's invasion of the Crimea.

'While no-one can endorse any country invading another, and any Russian military occupation of the Ukraine cannot be condoned, it does appear as though the government of the Ukraine and western Europe have virtually accepted Crimea's transfer to Russia,' he wrote.'

In 2010, he bemoaned the fact that 'imperialist' NATO was committed to retaining nuclear weapons until countries such as Russia and North Korea agree to give them up at the same time.

Mr Corbyn (pictured at PMQs yesterday) praised Die Linke as 'progressive' and suggested they both wanted to 'end austerity and privatisation, and promote international peace'A senior police officer has been charged with rape and sexual assault.

The Victorian police officer has been working in the state's eastern region and is currently being investigated by Professional Standards Command.

The senior constable was stood down after being charged on summons for a number of sexual assault offences.

The Victorian senior constable charged with rape has been working in the state's eastern region and is currently being investigated by Professional Standards Command (stock image)

The accused sex offender has been suspended 'with pay', Victoria Police confirmed in a statement Thursday afternoon.

The exact police station where the officer was based is unknown, however the region covers most of east Victoria and north east Melbourne.

The accused is expected to face court later in the month.

Dozens of people took to social media furious the officer was still receiving pay while facing the charges.

'Suspended with pay? Not good enough,' one wrote.

'Are you for real! He still gets paid? While the poor person he raped will pay for the rest of their lives ... well done to them for coming forward and standing up,' another said.

'Can't believe it happened in Melbourne. Cop rape and still get paid and they will offer him a five star accommodation,' one shared.David Davis has warned Brussels it is risking lives by trying to exclude Britain from the Galileo satellite network.

The Brexit Secretary insisted there was no 'legal or operational' reason for the EU to exclude Britain from the system after Brexit.

Currently Britain shares sensitive data with partners through the network as part of an allied defence against Russia.

But the EU is insisting that as a third country, Brexit Britain should be excluded from the secure parts of the navigation system.

The Government has reacted with fury, insisting Britain has played a major role in funding and developing the rival to America's GPS and Russia's GLONASS systems.

Brexit Secretary David Davis has insisted there was no 'legal or operational' reason for the EU to exclude Britain from the Galileo satellite system (file image) after Brexit

David Davis (pictured in Downing Street on Tuesday) has warned Brussels it is risking lives by trying to exclude Britain from the Galileo satellite network

Warning Brussels to change tack, Mr Davis said: 'Our negotiating partners have a choice: they can treat us as a third country according to existing precedents creating something that falls well short of our existing [security] relationship.'

In his statement he said they could otherwise 'take a more adaptable approach in which we jointly deliver the operational capability that we need to tackle the ever-evolving threats to our shared security'.

And he added: 'To protect our citizens' security, we need to look beyond existing precedents and find a solution that allows us to continue to work together.

'There is no legal or operational reason why such an agreement could not be reached.'

To discourage Brussels, the Treasury is considering whether it can change licences held by UK firms to prevent them sending data into the system, it emerged yesterday

A Whitehall source said: 'There is concern about what this means for the future of our security partnership.

'The government said we were not going to make it a bargaining chip but the commission turning round and branding the UK a security threat has left us with concerns about what that means.'

A government spokesman said: 'It is in our mutual interest to remain in [Galileo] as part of a strong security partnership with Europe.'

Downing Street said Theresa May had ordered officials to begin work on a British alternative to ensure that the UK could not be denied access to vital global positioning services

It emerged last week Britain could develop its own 5 billion satellite navigation system if the row is now resolved.

Downing Street said Theresa May had ordered officials to begin work on a British alternative to ensure that the UK could not be denied access to vital global positioning services.

Officials are also drawing up plans to claw back the 1.2 billion the UK has poured in to the project.

A Downing Street source said the PM would never allow Britain's security to be threatened by Brexit.

The source said: 'The PM is clear our collective security is too important to haggle over.

We want full access to Galileo, including the crucial secure elements that will help guide British missiles should they be needed to keep us all safe. But if we don't get access, we will find an alternative.'

Privately, Whitehall officials blame France for galvanising opposition to Britain's continued participation in the scheme.

And they warned that the EU's stance could backfire as the Galileo system relies on ground bases in far flung overseas British territories, which would instead be used to help run a British rival.Advertisement

The salvaged wreck of South Korea's Sewol ferry has been successfully lifted upright at a port in Mokpo, 255 miles southwest of Seoul, more than four years after it sank, killing hundreds of passengers.

The overloaded 6,800-tonne vessel was carrying 476 people when it capsized off the southern coast of South Korea in April, 2014.

More than 300 people died in the sinking and botched rescue effort, most of them high school students on an excursion.

Efforts: Workers prepare to lift the salvaged ferry Sewol currently lying on its side, to an upright position at a port in Mokpo, 410 kilometers southwest of Seoul, South Korea

Disaster: The ferry sunk off the southwestern coast on April 16, 2014, killing 304 people onboard, most of them high school students on an excursion

Upright again: The wreckage has been lying on its side since it was salvaged from the ocean floor last year

Family members of victims were in attendance as the huge ferry was pulled upright, and some were seen breaking down in tears.

Of the 304 victims, 250 were students from Danwon High School in Danwon District, Ansan, some 20 miles south South Korea.

The ship had been entering the Maenggol Channel, southwest of the Korean peninsula, just at 8.30 on April 16th, 2014, when several sharp turns to the right caused the ferry to begin to list.

As cargo on the overloaded vessel began to move, the ship started taking in water and sinking.

A first distress call was made at 8.55, calling for rescue, during which time the children were told to stay in their cabins to await further orders, which for many never came.

Grief: A family member of one of the victims of the Sewol ferry sinking, weeps after the vessel is successfully lifted upright

Rising up: The enormous vessel was slowly winched from lying on its side to an upright position in Mokpo port today

Memories: Of the 304 people who died on April 16, 2014,, 250 were students from Danwon High School in Danwon District, Ansan, some 20 miles south South Korea

At 9.30, the captain gave orders to evacuate the vessel, but this was not relayed to all passengers as the communications system on the ferry had been damaged.

Eight minutes later, as hundreds of teenage passengers stayed in their cabins as instructed, the captain and crew members abandoned the ship, and were among the first to be rescued.

The wreck was salvaged in March 2017, and and towed to the port of Mokpo, where the remains of three of the nine unaccounted for passengers were found.

Two sets of bones found inside the wreck were confirmed to be of two female students from Danwon High School, while a bone fragment found on the sea bed near the wreck site was identified as teacher Ko Chang-Seok.

Questions: While it has been established that the cause of the sinking was mainly human error, a full investigation into the tragedy is still ongoing

Hope: Since the vessel was recovered last year, remains of three of the nine still missing passengers have been recovered

Still missing: It is now known if further efforts to find remains of the six still missing now that the shipwreck is upright

The six others still unaccounted for include another teacher, two boy students from school, and three other passengers.

The Sewol sinking and botched rescue efforts dealt a crushing blow to now-ousted president Park Geun-Hye.

The disaster was mainly due to human error - an illegal redesign of the ship, an overloaded cargo bay, inexperienced crew and a questionable relationship between the ship operators and state regulators.

Captain Lee Jun-Seok, one of the first to be rescued, was sentenced to life in prison for 'murder through wilful negligence' and sentences ranging from two to 12 years were imposed on 14 other crew members.

An investigation into the tragedy is still ongoing.Thomas Patton, 21, threatened to hurt the woman's family and damage their property if she did not agree to meet him

A knife-wielding rapist who kept his victim prisoner in his house for days as a 'sex slave' has been jailed for 13 years.

Thomas Patton, 21, of Deighton, West Yorkshire, who was 'obsessed' with his victim, threatened to hurt her family and damage their property if she did not agree to meet him.

The woman went to his house after a local food and drink festival to talk to him, but once inside he locked the door and snapped her mobile phone in half.

Patton, who had previously told the woman she was 'nothing but a dog', slapped her repeatedly and even brandished a knife before telling her he was going use her as a sex slave.

He was jailed yesterday at Leeds Crown Court after being found guilty last month of five charges of rape, one of false imprisonment and one of assault.

In a victim impact statement, the woman said she was now anxious, struggled to sleep and has been disowned by her father, who had rescued her from the house.

Stephen Wood, prosecuting, described Patton as 'obsessed' and 'infatuated' with his victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons.

Patton locked the door of the house once the woman was inside and snapped her phone in half

During the weekend where he trapped her in the house with the doors and windows locked, Patton raped her repeatedly and assaulted her.

Mr Wood said: 'He told her he would rape her in the a*** and use her as a sex slave.' Patton also shouted at the victim that he wanted her 'to be happy'.

Mr Wood added: 'Effectively she was his property, to do with as he wanted.'

Richard Canning, defending, agreed that his client was obsessed and said that he clearly has issues with the definition of rape.

He said that during cross-examination, Patton said: 'How can it have been rape if there was no violence?'

Mr Canning reminded the judge that the jury found him not guilty of two additional counts of rape in relation to earlier alleged offences against the same woman.

Mr Canning said that when the victim's father came to the house Patton told him they were going out for a picnic and tried to talk to him.

Summing up the case, Judge Mushtaq Khokar said: 'There was a certain amount of threats made against her mother - that he would put through her windows.

'She went to attend the food and drink festival in Huddersfield and he promised her that if she came to see him he would not pester her like he had been doing.

'She was assured she would not be alone with him, there would be others there. She was on the phone and could hear people in the background.

'She arrived at the address and it wasn't long before the others took their leave. She wanted to leave but he locked the door. And so, a nightmare of two days began when that happened.

'Because, having locked the doors, he told her that she was not going anywhere and he threatened her that this was going to be the worst night of her life: 'I'm just going to beat you and rape you'. He just kept repeating that.'

The judge added: 'He was remanded in custody after his conviction and this morning I am told that he had refused to come out of his cell for the purposes of this sentencing hearing and therefore I am proceeding in his absence.'

Judge Khokar said that over the course of the weekend, Patton's mood 'swung from one extreme to the other'.

After being locked in the house the first night, his victim banged on the windows and screamed to attract attention, but Patton ran over and grabbed her by the mouth and nose, put his arm around her neck and told her to shut up.

Having put his arm around her neck, Patton threw her on the floor then picked her up and threw her on the sofa, smothering her and causing her to struggle to breathe.

When she told him that she did not want him, Patton replied: 'Wrong answer.'

Patton grabbed her hands and made her hit herself in the face. She was petrified, crying her eyes out, and he picked up a knife from the mantelpiece.

She was screaming for him to calm down. He was telling her she should slit her throat, but she managed to calm him down and he forced her to kiss him and tell him she loved him.

The next morning, he told her that if she performed a sex act on him that it would calm him down - before having unprotected sex.

When the victim went for a shower, Patton came in and raped her again. The judge said the victim 'must have been full of fear and trepidation'.

On one occasion, Patton ripped her clothing before raping her.

On another occasion in the shower, he forced her to perform a sex act on him again. She had to bend down in order to do so, and suffered injuries on her knees.

Sentencing Patton to 13 years in jail, Judge Khokar said: 'By the end of the weekend, she had been raped (in different ways).

'She has been assaulted and kept inside and unable to communicate with anybody because her phone had been stolen and there was no landline in the house.

'She says she was very upset at that time. Her impression was she was not going to get away from him if this continued. She started to busy herself in the house until she heard her father arrive at the door.

'Given his young age, I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt and not say that he is dangerous.'

The judge said he deemed Patton a high risk to the victim, but not to the general public.

Patton was also made the subject of a restraining order but the Crown Prosecution Service did not ask for a sexual harm prevention order.

Patton, who had earlier pleaded guilty to criminal damage in relation to the mobile phone, claimed that the sex was consensual and that the woman 'enjoys rough sex'.

Patton has previous convictions for criminal damage, theft and battery. The battery occurred in 2014 when he pinned his own mother to the floor by the neck and then punched her once in the face.

Speaking after sentencing, Detective Constable Shaun Lewis, of West Yorkshire Police's Kirklees Safeguarding Unit, said: 'Patton is a dangerous individual who subjected his victim to a sustained and horrendous ordeal.

'Patton's conviction for what can only be described as horrendous crimes has removed a dangerous, obsessed sexual predator from our streets.

'It was evident that he had planned to commit these offences against the victim and if she had not been brave enough to come forward he would have continued to offend.

'I would like to praise the victim, who has showed immense bravery throughout the whole criminal process and hope that today's sentence allows her to get some closure to her ordeal.

'She has been supported by specially trained officers since she came forward to the police to report the offences.

'Fortunately serious sexual offences such as these which Patton committed are very rare within the Kirklees District, but when sexual offences do take place, our officers treat the victims with the utmost care and sensitivity.'North Korea's Air Koryo plans to launch charter flights between Pyongyang and Chengdu in south-west China, two airline officials have revealed.

The news came amid a major improvement in diplomatic relations between the two Communist countries and neighbours.

The flights to Chengdu, one of the biggest cities in China's vast western region, could start as early as late June if approved by China's aviation regulator, the officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Sources disclose that North Korea's Air Koryo is planning new flights to China (file photo)

A poster (left), released by South Korean media, claims the direct flight would be launched on June 28. A flight attendant serves a customer on an Air Koryo flight from Beijing in 2008 (right)

Founded in 1955, Air Koryo is the national flag carrier airline of North Korea and is based at the Pyongyang International Airport.

'At the moment this is still a plan. Whether it can actually take off will be impacted by the policy environment going forward,' said one of the officials, who said an application to the regulator had not yet been submitted.

'Now perhaps it's Chengdu, afterwards could be Dalian, Guangzhou. If there's a market we'll fly, if not we won't,' he said, noting Chinese travel agencies were involved with marketing the flights to potential customers.

The news came amid a major improvement in diplomatic relations between China and North Korea. The two countries leaders have held meetings twice in less than two months this year

Stewardesses of Air Koryo wait for security check in Pyongyang Sunan International Airport

Chengdu is the provincial capital of China's Sichuan Province.

The city of 14 million is most famous for pandas, spicy cuisine and the face-changing stunt from Sichuan opera. It's situated approximately 2,184km (1,357 miles) south-west of the North Korean capital.

South Korean news outlet, Yonhap News, has published a poster which claims the direct flight would be launched on June 28.

The direct flight between Chengdu and South Korean capital Seoul - which is 2,241km (1,392 miles) away - takes about three-and-a-half hours.

The planned new charter flight is set to link Pyongyang (pictured) with Chinese city Chengdu

Chengdu, with around 14 million residents, is famous for its panda breeding centre (pictured)

China has traditionally been politically isolated as North Korea's closest ally but ties have been frayed by Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme and Beijing's backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response.

Relations have, however, improved of late.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have held two meetings in China since March as North Korea prepares for a planned summit meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Air Koryo already offers regular flights from Pyongyang to the north-east cities of Beijing and Shenyang, and the eastern port city of Shanghai. Revenues from Chinese tourists would provide a welcome boost to North Korea's closed economy.

Tourists from China account for about four-fifths of foreign visitors to North Korea, says South Korean think-tank the Korea Maritime Institute, which estimates tourism generates revenue of about 32 million ($44 million) each year for the country.

Air China Ltd indefinitely suspended flights from Beijing to Pyongyang in November, citing a lack of demand. Those were the only flights by a Chinese carrier to North Korea.A Russian oligarch at the centre of Britain's costliest divorce has won his latest battle with his estranged wife over a court order to seize his 300m super yacht.

Bailiffs acting for the High Court in London had taken control of the 115m yacht Luna owned by oil and gas tycoon Farkhad Akhmedov when it docked in Dubai.

But in a blow to the oligarch's former wife Tatiana, appeal court judges in the country overturned the ruling.

The Court of Appeal of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) said that the country's lower court had no power to seize the ship - and agreed with lawyers acting for the family trust which owns the yacht.

Divorce: Billionaire Akhmedov (left) is fighting with his ex-wife Tatiana (right) after he was ordered to pay her 453million by a British court in the UK's most expensive ever divorce

Mr Akhmedov had his 300m super yacht Luna seized after his former wife won a court order to seize his assets - but the order was overturned by appeal court judges in Dubai yesterday

Bailiffs acting for the High Court in London took control of the 115m yacht named Luna (pictured), which is owned by oil and gas tycoon Mr Akhmedov when it docked in Dubai

But in a blow to the oligarch's former wife Tatiana, appeal court judges in Dubai overturned the ruling and said its lower court had no power to seize the super yacht called Luna

The Luna  which boasts the largest swimming pool on any of the world's super yachts  is considered one of the prize assets of 61-year-old Akhmedov's 900million fortune

Following the decision, Mr Akhmedov told MailOnline: 'I am delighted to hear about my family trust's historic victory at the DIFC Court of Appeal.

'The judges unanimously agreed with lawyers acting for the trust that the lower court had no power to interfere with Luna, being one of the trust's assets, and should not have done so.

'Not only was this obviously the right decision, but the fact that the judges gave it so quickly only goes to show how important they felt it was to correct an earlier decision that should never have been given.

'I am sure that a lot of influential local business people and foreign investors in Dubai will be very relieved that the DIFC Court of Appeal has moved so swiftly to undo the reputational damage that has undoubtedly already been caused to the region by the original decision.'

The Luna  which boasts the largest swimming pool on any of the world's super yachts  is considered one of the prize assets of 61-year-old Akhmedov.

Gas and oil tycoon Akhmedov bought the yacht called Luna (pictured) from his close friend Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich in 2014

The tycoon spent more than 50m on a refit for the vessel, which boasts nine decks and has two helipads as well as 10 VIP rooms and sumptuous bedrooms (pictured)

The boat boasts a huge swimming pool, which is the largest on any of the world's super yachts

In December 2016 his ex-wife Tatiana was awarded 453m by a divorce judge making the split the most expensive ever in Britain.

Mr Akhmedov, a practising Muslim, has always refused to accept the English courts decision.

He argues that the couple were Russian citizens when they married in Moscow in 1993 - and continued to be Russian citizens when they divorced in Moscow in 2000.

Since their divorce in Moscow, Mr Akhmedov says he has provided lavishly for Tatiana with a jet-set lifestyle complete with an English country mansion, valuable cars and a retinue of servants.

His 41-year-old wife has already received the contents of the couple's former family home in Surrey  worth almost 2.5 million  his 350,000 Aston Martin and the 90 million art collection.

But despite the Russian divorce, two years ago the English Court awarded Mrs Akhmedova 41 per cent of the fortune made by her ex-husband from the sale of his interest in Northgas more than a dozen years after the dissolution of their marriage.

The yacht was being held in Dubai as part of Mr Akhmedov's ongoing divorce battle with his ex-wife. The oligarch told MailOnline of his delight at the ruling being overturned

During their marriage, the couple enjoyed a glitteringly lavish lifestyle, sailing around the world on Luna, with a 20 million mansion in Surrey, as well as a 27.8 million holiday pad

Lawyers for Tatiana earlier this year complained that Akhmedov has failed to hand over the huge settlement leading to a judge to order his worldwide assets be frozen.

Agents acting for the High Court had been tracking the yacht for several months.

During their marriage, the couple enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, with a 20 million mansion in Surrey, as well as a 27.8 million holiday pad.

The High Court heard that Mrs Akhmedova was just 17 when she met her ex, and 21 and pregnant when they married in 1993 and moved to England.

The billionaire - who started out selling sable furs - made his fortune when he sold shares in Russian company, ZAO Northgas, in 2012 for $1.375 billion.

Since the marriage ended, Tatiana's lawyers claimed Mr Akhmedov had 'embarked on a deliberate campaign of trying to defeat the wife's claims by any means possible.'

He had shifted almost all of his wealth offshore and 'stripped cash' out of Britain to stop his wife getting hold of it, they claim.Iran is likely to launch cyber attacks on Western countries 'within months' in retaliation for the U.S. ripping up the nuclear deal, experts warn.

'All bets are off' with Donald Trump's move to reinstate tough sanctions as the Islamic regime was angry and saw no reason not to use its capabilities in response.

Most at risk were banks and financial services, government departments, critical infrastructure providers, and oil and energy firms.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he's ditching the Iran nuclear deal, calling it 'disastrous' and an 'embarrassment'

'I have ordered Iran's atomic organization that whenever it is needed, we will start enriching uranium more than before,' Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said

Planning for suck attacks was likely already underway, according to intelligence received by researchers at cyber security firm Recorded Future.

They said a former Iranian state-backed hacker revealed more than 50 operatives were competing for government-directed cyber attacks.

'Iran will likely respond quickly by launching destructive attacks on American, European, and rival nation (such as Saudi Arabia and Israel) businesses,' its report said.

Recorded Future Iran expert Levi Gundert said the regime would want not only revenge but to deter other countries from imposing sanctions.

'They've developed this ability over the last years and there's no reason for them not to use it now,' he said.

Iran is likely to launch cyber attacks on Western countries 'within months' in retaliation for the U.S. ripping up the nuclear deal, experts warn

Trump signed a document on Tuesday reinstating sanctions against Iran after announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal

French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday that their countries will remain in the Iran nuclear deal

'They want to try to induce other countries to think about repercussions before levying sanctions, and they have a real capability in the cyber domain.'

Iran has flexed its digital muscles before with devastating denial of service attacks on U.S. financial services in 2012 after Barrack Obama hit it with sanctions.

Then in 2014 it unleashed US$40 million in data destruction on the Sands Casino in Las Vegas after its billionaire Israeli owner Sheldon Adelson advocated testing an atomic bomb in Nevada as a warning to Iran.

Iran also conducts regular cyber espionage against Western targets, but has not made any attacks since the nuclear deal was signed in 2015.Married Uber driver Muhammad Durrani was jailed for 12 years for raping a woman he picked up in July last year

An Uber driver who raped a passenger on the back seat of his car and took selfies of them together has been jailed for 12 years.

Married Muhammad Durrani, 38, attacked the 27 year-old after picking her up outside a live music club in Clapham, south London.

He followed his victim out of the car when they reached her home and carried her back to his Toyota where he performed a sex act before raping her.

Durrani, of Streatham, south London, had claimed the woman hugged and kissed him, then went back to the car and grabbed at him after stripping for sex, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Judge David Tomlinson told Durrani: I have carefully read the victim impact statement and it comes as no surprise that you have ruined her life.

It has affected all aspects both social and professional - the harm that you did that night was incalculable.

My impression of her was of someone who looked as though she had been immeasurably hurt, she looked and sounded really quite struck by what had happened.

I think for her to come here to further think back to that night was for her a tremendously distressing experience.

She fell asleep in the back of your cab and it was a warm enough evening for her to be wearing an all-in-one playsuit.

By then it must have been obvious to you that your customer was almost paralytically drunk.

Under the pretext of offering help you got out of your cab and approached her, that ought to have been the end of it but you had by then lost all sense of self control.'

Durrani picked up his victim outside a live music club in Clapham, south London after she ordered an Uber car to take her home

He said he carried her back to the car and carried out a sex act, then raped her, and took selfies of the two of them 'side by side.'

The victim had been with friends in London Bridge and Clapham before ordering the Uber and had drunk around six medium or large glasses of wine throughout the evening.

She told the court: I remember thinking I was feeling quite drunk, I need to go home because I thought that was the safest option.

The woman said she was confused and bewildered when Durrani picked her up in the early hours of July 24 last year, and didnt shout out.

Judge David Tomlinson at Southwark Crown Court said Durrani of Streatham, south London, had done 'incalculable' damage to his victim

I dont remember anything being said, I just remember being scared, she said.

I was obviously very, very drunk, and he was the sober driver who picked me up and took me to the back of his car without my wanting him to.

He picked me up, he carried me to his car, I ended up in the back of his car.'

She said he gave her 'no formal consent' to carry out a sex act, and said the next thing she remembers is just 'lying there' as he removed her clothes.

Durrani admitted having sex but said it was consensual after he succumbed to her advances.

He said: She went into my car herself. She was right outside her front door. She hugged me with her own free will. I tried to avoid her a few times.

I tried to control myself for some time but how far could I have controlled myself?

He claimed the woman was making noises like she was enjoying it.

The court also heard Durrani took pictures of his victims body and of them lying together.

He told police he deleted the photos because he was a family man and his wife might find them.

Durani will return to Pakistan after his time in jail and family members submitted character references on his behalf.

Durrani claimed the sex was consensual and denied one count of rape and one of assault by penetration, but a jury found him guilty of both.

Duranni was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for the rape and eight years for the assault, to run concurrently.

He hung his head as his wife watched on before he was led to the cells.

The judge also imposed an indefinite restraining order preventing him from contacting the victim and he cannot work for a taxi company in any capacity.

Transport for London announced last year that it would not be renewing Ubers licence to operate in the capital, citing the firms approach to reporting serious criminal offences and background checks on drivers.

Uber is appealing against that decision.

A spokesman for Uber said: 'This was a horrific incident and we welcome this conviction.

'As soon as we heard what happened this licensed private hire driver was immediately stopped from using our app.

'Every trip on the Uber app is tracked by GPS and we worked closely with the Metropolitan Police to ensure this individual was brought to justice.'The Brit arrested after allegedly trying to run over the current girlfriend of her ex was today released on bail by a judge after being hauled to court in handcuffs.

Kemi Coaker was banned from going within 500 metres of her alleged victim, despite the fact both women are thought to be living in Magaluf, while the judicial investigation against her continues.

She was also banned from leaving Majorca and told she had to surrender her passport.

The 29-year-old from Manchester hid her head under a grey hoodie as she was escorted into a court building in the Majorcan capital Palma to face a grilling from a judge.

Two armed Civil Guard officers led her in early this morning so she could be questioned about Tuesday evenings hit-and-run.

Two armed Civil Guard officers led Kemi Coaker in early this morning so she could be questioned

Kemi (pictured), thought to live and work in Magaluf, was arrested by police in the nearby resort of Cala Vinyes half an hour after the incident

Her alleged victim, named locally as 23-year-old Meghan Tattersall, is recovering after being mowed down on a pavement by a woman driver witnesses claim deliberately targeted her.

Kemi, thought to live and work in Magaluf, was arrested by police in the nearby resort of Cala Vinyes half an hour after the incident on suspicion of attempted homicide.

The victim was named locally as 23-year-old Meghan Tattersall (left) with Kemi's ex named as Andrew Coaker (right) from Reading

Today a court official said: 'Palma's Court of Instruction Number 12, acting as a duty court, has agreed the detainee's provisional release on bail.

'The conditions of that release are the confiscation of her passport, a ban on leaving Majorca and a restraining order preventing her from going within 500 metres of her alleged victim.'

It is not known if the Brit, who under Spanish law has not yet been formally charged but remains the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation being conducted as an attempted homicide probe, answered questions put to her by the judge.

The hearing was held behind closed doors as is customary in the early stages of a criminal investigation in Spain, where formal charges are only laid shortly before trial.

Party island: The incident took place near the infamous party street Punta Ballena

Kemi, who is thought to be using her married name still rather than her maiden name Pereira, will not face formal charges until shortly before trial - if the judge recommends trial following a probe expected to last several months - as is customary in Spain.

Her ex has been named locally as Andrew Coaker, 39, from Reading, Berkshire. He was not with Meghan when she was hit.

A second woman in the hire car stopped by police - believed to be a relative of Kemis although it has not been confirmed by officials - has been told she will not face any court action.

Meghan Tattersall (pictured) is reportedly in a relationship with Andrew Coaker, who was not with her when she was hit

Civil Guard officers confirmed yesterday they had arrested a 29-year-old British woman, although they did not name her.

A spokesman for the Civil Guard said in a statement: 'The Civil Guard has arrested a woman aged 29 as the suspected author of a crime of attempted homicide.

'Officers assisted a a group of people on Tuesday in Magaluf who were around a woman they spotted lying on the ground. That woman was an injured British national.

Armed police lead Kemi into court this morning following a hit-and-run in Magaluf, the victim of which is still recovering

'Witnesses said a car had run her over before speeding away from the scene. One of the witnesses said the car had mounted the pavement intent on running over the woman.

'Officers were told the vehicle was a small, white car and police patrols were alerted.

'Thirty minutes later a Civil Guard patrol searching for the vehicle in Cala Vinyes spotted a suspect car with two young women inside whose descriptions matched those of the people they were looking for.

'The two occupants were intercepted and identified. Officers discovered the hit-and-run victim is the current partner of the ex-husband of the driver of the vehicle they stopped and therefore the suspected author of the allegedly intentional hit-and-run.'

Hit and run: The driver is reportedly the current partner of the 23-year-old victim's ex-boyfriend and is said to have deliberately run her over on this street in Magaluf

The exact spot the incident occurred at was not made public, although it is understood to have happened outside flats in Federico Garcia Lorca Street near Magalufs brash Punta Ballena area.

The victims injuries were described initially as serious, although they are not thought to be life-threatening.

It was not immediately clear today if she was still being treated at Son Espases Hospital in Palma.A notorious triple murderer has been bashed in the head by an inmate while behind bars.

Steven Peet is serving 30 years in jail for murdering his partner Adeline Yvette Wilson-Rigney and her two young children - Amber, 6, and Korey, 5 - at an Adelaide home two years ago.

The murderer was rushed to Royal Adelaide Hospital and treated for head injuries after the attack by an inmate at a high security area of Yatala Prison, South Australia, Wednesday afternoon, 9News reported.

Scroll down for video

Notorious triple murderer Steven Peet (right) has been bashed in the head by an inmate while he served time behind bars in South Australia

Peet is serving 30 years in jail for murdering his partner Adeline Yvette Wilson-Rigney (left) and her two children - Amber, 6, (far right) and Korey, 5 (middle) - at an Adelaide home in 2016

The murderer was treated for head injuries at Royal Adelaide Hospital and after being attacked by an inmate at a high security area of Yatala Prison (pictured) Wednesday afternoon

The fellow prisoner was charged with assault and faced court on Thursday as internal investigations are underway.

The child killer, who was sentenced early April, has been brutally 'beaten' and 'threatened' by inmates previously when he was in custody during the trial.

During sentencing, Justice Malcolm Blue told Peet his time was 'going to be extremely uncomfortable' whether he is jailed in 'isolation or with other prisoners'.

The 32-year-old pleaded guilty to the triple murder which Justice Blue described as a 'senseless and incomprehensible act' when he was handed a mandatory life sentence.

The bodies of Ms Wilson-Rigney and the children were all found with cable ties around their necks and hidden under clothes and bedding and, in the case of the boy, under a child's play tent.

The young girl had adhesive tape wrapped around her head and a sock had been stuffed in her mouth.

The 32-year-old pleaded guilty to the triple murder after Ms Wilson-Rigney (pictured) and the children were all found with cable ties around their necks and hidden under clothes

The young girl had adhesive tape wrapped around her head and a sock stuffed in her mouth while the boy (pictured together) had parts of his body wrapped in tape

Justice Malcolm Blue said he would have sentenced the convicted killer to 33 years non-parole had it not been for Peet's (pictured) eventual guilty pleas to all three murders

Her arms had been tied behind her back.

The young boy had parts of his body wrapped in tape and his hands and feet were secured behind his back in a hog-tied fashion.

Justice Blue said he would have sentenced the convicted killer to 33 years non-parole had it not been for Peet's eventual guilty pleas to all three murders.

After the sentence was handed down, Steven Egbert, the children's grandfather, yelled 'we'll be here when you get out you weak little f****' before being removed from the court by security.

Another yelled out 'animal' as Peet was led away.

Peet and Ms Wilson-Rigney had been dating since February 2016, the Supreme Court heard.

After the attack, Peet confessed the crime to a relative.

'I killed my lady and her two kids,' he later told police on the phone, according to ABC.A thug who killed a man in a disgusting coward punch attack has had his jail sentence extended after he assaulted a prison guard.

Armstrong Renata, 24, from New Zealand, was sentenced in October to seven years' jail for killing Cole Miller, 18, during a night out in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley.

Mr Miller was celebrating schoolies in January 2016, when he was hit in the back of the head by Renata, Northern Star reported.

Scroll down for video

Armstrong Renata, 24,(pictured) was sentenced in October to seven years' jail for killing Cole Miller, 18, during a night out in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley

Cole Miller (pictured) died after a coward punch attack which caused his head to hit the pavement

He was knocked out, which caused his head to hit the pavement and later resulted in his death.

Renata was arrested for the attack and has been in custody since January 3, 2016.

Since his sentencing, Renata has been involved in a number of assaults with prison guards.

He pleaded guilty to the charge this week in Maryborough Magistrates Court and was sentenced to an extra three months in jail on top of his seven year sentence, the Northern Star reported.

Despite being sentenced for the killing of Mr Miller, it was Renata's friend, Daniel Maxwell from New Zealand, who hit Mr Miller first.

Daniel Maxwell (pictured) delivered the first blow on Cole after punching him in the chest

Renata (pictured) had his sentence extended for another three months after assaulting prison guards

Maxwell had tried to start fights with others during the night out, before he came up to Mr Miller.

He asked Mr Miller, 'Do you want to see something funny?' before he punched him in the chest.

Maxwell walked free from court in February after being given in 18-month suspended sentence.

When Cole's father saw Maxwell walk free from court, he called Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to tell him how an accomplice in his son's death was walking free.

Mr Dutton called Queensland Police and Border Force, which saw Maxwell taken back into custody and then deported to New Zealand.A thief was seen on CCTV brazenly stealing a portrait of a suit-wearing dog from a London pub - before sending it back in an apparent fit of guilt.

The Grafton Arms in Fitzrovia treasures its paintings of smartly-dressed dogs, which are scattered about the walls of the bar and the pub's guest rooms.

But staff were left shocked and angry after a man was seen shamelessly lifting a portrait of a Tibetan Terrier from the wall on the evening of May 4.

CCTV showed the moment a brazen thief stole the painting of a dog from the wall of a pub

The portrait of the Tibetan Terrier in Victorian dress was returned days later with this note

Bar owners launched an appeal for information from regulars, sharing the CCTV footage of the incident and calling for the art thief to be shamed.

The campaign seems to have worked, with the painting being returned in a taxi with a note attached a few days later.

The tongue-in-cheek note stated: 'I'm home! Sorry I ran off with that strange man the other night.

'I think the heat got to me and I felt adventurous. I hope you take me back with open arms as it was just a fling and meant nothing to me!'

The note was signed off: 'I missed you guys, (a sophisticated) wooof!'

Pub worker Mitch Tillman said of the incident: 'The paintings are part of the pub's branding.

'They are so popular, customers will sometimes ask if they are available for sale, but this was the first time someone simply stole one in front of staff and customers.

'They sent it back in an Addison Lee taxi which cost them 30, but the driver wouldn't tell my manager where it came from. It was all very unusual.'

A campaign to shame the thief seems to have worked and it was returned in a cabTheresa May today condemned Iran's attack on Israel after the first direct clashes between the two countries.

Downing Street said Tel Aviv had 'every right to defend itself' after Tehran's forces fired 20 rockets from Syria into the Golan Heights.

The PM also urged Russia to step in and ensure Syrian territory was not used for any more strikes.

'We condemn Iran's attack on Israel. Israel has every right to defend itself,' the premier's spokesman said.

'We call on Russia to use its influence in Syria to prevent further Iranian attacks.'

Theresa May, pictured in the Commons yesterday, has condemned Iran's attack on Israel after the first direct clashes between the two countries

In a statement, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson urged Iran to 'refrain from further actions which will only lead to increased instability in the region'.

'It is crucial to avoid any further escalations, which would be in no one's interest.'

Israel said the Iranian rockets were either shot down by its Iron Dome air defence system or fell short of the Golan targets, claiming the Quds Force, an external arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, carried out the launch.

In retaliation, Israel launched dozens of missiles on Iranian positions in Syria, which hit a radar station, air defence positions and an ammunition dump, Syrian state media said.

The exchange of fire came less than a day after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 Iran atomic agreement which lifts sanctions on Tehran in exchange for a halt on its nuclear program.

The Israeli response this morning was one of the country's largest military operations in recent years and the biggest such assault on Iranian targets, the military said.

'We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria,' Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a security conference on Thursday morning.A business owner left devastated following the announcement of the government's proposed cash ban believes the introduction of limits will destroy small businesses.

In Tuesday's Budget plans were revealed to ban cash payments to businesses for goods and services over $10,000 from July 1 2019.

Paul Thomas' company offers 'cash in transit' security services to businesses throughout the Sydney Metropolitan Area.

Scroll down for video

Business owner Paul Thomas says the government's cash ban will destroy small businesses

Commander Security Services' main operation is as a cash collection company, but following crackdown on the 'black economy,'businesses will no longer be able to accept large currency which may prompt a move towards not taking cash at all.

This would ultimately eliminate the need for secure collection agents.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia Paul Thomas expressed his deep disappointment, feeling as though the government has let him down.

Mr Thomas says the news has been a 'kick in the teeth' for anyone who has worked tirelessly to create an income off the back of their own enterprise in the industry.

Over the last three years Mr Thomas has worked seven days a week to build a venture worth something, for it to 'overnight be made worthless'.

The plans were revealed to ban cash payments to businesses for goods and services

The managing director said he doesn't know if he will be able to keep the company now and holds grave fears for his future after using $300,000 to get it off the ground.

'To think I am going to walk away with nothing aside from a huge debt is disheartening and frightening to say the least,' he said.

At the very least Mr Thomas is realising he will have to make changes - if not shut down - depending on how forceful the government is with the crackdown.

'I don't think they have due diligence on who would be affected by it, they probably never thought about people in the industry.'

The limit will be set at $10,000 as part of a crackdown on the 'black economy'

He said he could understand the necessity for a threshold but with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre in place he wonders why they have not stepped up to differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate operations.

'Ten thousand is a bit ridiculous, we're turning into a nanny state well and truly,' he said on Thursday night.

'It's a massive kick in the guts for small businesses, my staff are questioning if they will have a job in 12 months which could affect their families too of course.'

Mr Thomas explained one of his staff members needs stability as they try to start a family and he feels 'gutted' that is is unable to provide that support.

Paul Thomas said he his disappointed, feeling as though he has been let down

He started the company in 2014 after purchasing a division of another venture up for sale but officially started business in November of 2015, explaining he hasn't 'had a day off since'.

The overwhelmed business owner has written to his local member, Liberal MP Angus Taylor, as well as Pauline Hanson and Derryn Hinch.

Determined to not be defeated by the announcement, Mr Thomas is trying to stay positive but does believe the specialised taskforce would be more appropriate than a blanket regulatory change.

'Go after the guys that are doing the wrong thing,' he said.

That new multi-agency Black Economy Standing Taskforce will receive an additional $318.5 million in funding, expected to bring in an estimated $3 billion in revenue over the next four years and is backed to continue the work of the existing initiative.

The under-fire boss of Network Rail has hit back at criticisms of tree felling along rail lines.

Days ago it was revealed up to 10 million trees face the axe in a 'secretive' Network Rail felling plan to end the nuisance of leaves falling on rail lines and delaying trains.

But chief executive Mark Carne has now denied the blueprint was leaked and said the government-owned company 'takes its responsibilities very seriously'.

Up to 10 million trees face the axe in a 'secretive' Network Rail felling plan to end the nuisance of leaves falling on rail lines and delaying trains

The plan involves targeting the millions of trees that grow within 60 metres of rail track, even though Network Rail admitted that the majority of the trees at risk are healthy but still defended the 'revolutionised' felling.

Chief executive Mark Carne has denied the blueprint was leaked

Already, the government-owned company has been cutting down trees as well as employing teams of staff to clear vegetation from the tracks.

And drones are being used to identify 'hotspots', where more leaves and branches are likely to fall in the effort to curb the number of train delays caused by the foliage.

Mark Carne told Radio 4s Today programme: This is not a leaked document, this is part of our plan.

'We have a huge responsibility to both manage the railway safely but also to look after the habitats on our land.

'We are the fourth largest land owner in this country and we take our responsibilities very seriously.

We have to chop down trees that are at risk of landing on the railway and causing danger to rail users.

The plan involves targeting the millions of trees that grow within 60 metres of rail track

Very often its the trees itself [not just leaves]. In my first winter in this job I remember it very well, four years ago. We had 900 trains hit fallen trees. Now to me - and I think to any listener on the radio  they would say that this is not acceptable.

We dont count the exact number of trees, what we do is that we manage by the number of hectares of land that we have to manage. But we have about 13m trees on our 20,000 miles of track in total and we have to manage those trees very carefully.

'What we try to do is to enhance the biodiversity of the habitats of the railway. Sometimes these trees grow right up to the edge of the railway. Its a sort of mono-culture and what we are doing by removing the trees that are closest to railway, we put in wildflowers and grasslands, which then create opportunity for different species to grow and wildlife to grow and we can increase biodiversity.

Fallen leaves stick to damp rails and passing trains compress them into a slippery layer - known as leaf mulch - that reduces grip.

Thousands of tonnes of leaves fall onto the tracks across Britain every year and many passengers will be pleased that Network Rail is taking action.

But the plans have angered environmental campaigners, as well as some local residents.

Caroline Lucas, co leader of the Green Party, said: 'Network Rail's slash and burn approach really is an act of environmental vandalism. No one is saying no work is needed but this is just overkill.'A local Australian council is being ridiculed after they attempted to patch a pothole in a peculiar way: by planting a tree in the middle of the road.

Residents of St Kilda, south Melbourne, appealed to Port Phillip Council to mend the giant pothole blighting Somerset St, after nearby construction work left the asphalt damaged.

But many were less-than-impressed with the council's green-thumbed approach, as workers neglected to patch up the crater and decided to plant a small tree in it instead, the Herald Sun reports.

Melbourne's Port Phillip council is being ridiculed it attempted to patch a pothole by planting a tree in it

Residents appealed to Port Phillip Council to mend the giant pothole blighting Somerset St (pictured) after nearby construction work left the asphalt damaged

Residents on the street are particularly outraged at the 'dangerous' new vegetation, dubbing Port Phillip 'the Fawlty Towers of councils.

'We have asked them to remove (the tree) as we believe it would be dangerous to drivers and pedestrians alike,' they said in a statement.

Mayor Bernadene Voss claimed the council was investigating why the tree had been planted in the middle of the road in the first place, 'as it is unlikely to thrive in this location'.

Residents were less-than-impressed with the council's green-thumbed approach, with residents calling Port Phillip 'the Fawlty Towers of councils'

Ms Voss said the plant would be relocated while the council decided on the best greening for the street.

She also declared that the road would be properly resurfaced in the near future.

'We believe the intent was to spruce the street up but the money would have been better spent doing some street cleaning,' a resident said.A Democratic candidate for governor of Maryland has died at 60 years old, reports say.

Baltimore County police issued a statement that Kevin Kamenetz died early Thursday morning at St Joseph Medical Center after suffering from cardiac arrest.

The 60-year-old had woken up feeling ill around 2am at his home in Owings Mills before being taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3.22am.

Democratic candidate for governor of Maryland Kevin Kamenetz, 60, died Thursday morning after suffering a cardiac arrest at his home in Owings Mills, a police report has revealed

Kamenetz is survived by his wife Jill and sons Karson and Dylan, who are pictured above

His running mate, Montgomery County Council member Valerie Ervin, was stunned to learn of his passing.

'I can't even believe this happened,' she told the Baltimore Sun this morning.

The two-term county executive had worked in Maryland politics for nearly 25 years.

He is survived by his wife Jill and the couple's two teenaged sons, Karson and Dylan.

He was one of seven candidates for the Democratic nomination, intending to oppose Republican Governor Larry Hogan this November.

The primary is being held on June 26, 2018.

Hogan offered his condolences and said Maryland flags would be lowered from Wednesday through sunset on the day of Kamenetz's funeral.

The late Baltimore County executive, right, is pictured with his running mate Valerie Ervin, left

Kamenetz was one of seven candidates vying for the Democratic nomination this June

On Monday morning rival candidate Ben Jealous also responded to news of Kamenetz's passing on Twitter.

'I'm incredibly saddened to learn of the passing of Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz,' Jealous wrote.

'He dedicated his life to public service, to making a difference and he helped to move Maryland forward. My sincerest thoughts and prayers are with Jill and their two sons.'A primary school has been blasted by parents after it emerged pupils are sat in 'segregation' and given bread and water if their parents fall into lunch money arrears.

Parents have reacted angrily to the 'outrageous' and 'Dickensian' decision by Mount Pleasant Primary School in Shrewsbury, over any child who falls into more than 6.60 debt  or the cost of three school meals.

A newsletter sent home to parents warned if this is the case they will be offered bread, water and fruit.

'Dinners should be paid in advance either on a daily or weekly basis'.

Mount Pleasant Primary School in Shrewsbury has come under fire over its new lunch arrears policy which involves giving children bread and water

The letter sent home in May states: 'Unfortunately, if dinner arrears exceed 6.60 or more we will be unable to serve a lunch but request sandwiches are brought in, otherwise we will only be able to offer bread and fruit and a drink to pupils.'

Furious parents slammed the decision.

Jamie-Lee Heath, whose daughter Madison attends the school, said the rule showed 'no compassion'.

The Shrewsbury mother received a text message from the school to say her daughter was in lunch arrears one week when she was staying with her father.

He had promised to pay in cash at the end of the day after she accidentally left her lunch in his car, Ms Heath told The Mirror.

But since she already had arrears the school would not order her lunch and Ms Heath had to hurriedly pay online.

The 30-year-old kitchen designer said she was shocked when she was told if she hadn't paid Madison would have been given the new treatment:

A note was sent to parents in the school newsletter which explained children would not be given more than three meals if they fall into arrears and would be given an 'alternative' lunch

'I called up immediately and explained I would pay online straight away as I didn't realise she had arrears or no dinner money but also asked about what she would have been given if I hadn't managed to read the text in time.

'This is when the bread, fruit and water policy was explained to me. It had been mentioned in a previous school newsletter but I must admit I hadn't read it properly.

'I then wrote a status on my personal Facebook page alerting other parents who may have missed the newsletter about what was happening.

'People caught on pretty quickly and it was shared and commented on quite a lot with most people agreeing that this was just a step too far.

'Not only was my child not in the arrears amount threshold, I also pay 50 plus a week in advance for her breakfast clubs, dinners and after school clubs which the school are well aware of.

'To withhold a hot dinner from her over the matter of 2.20 seemed shocking to me and many others.

'Myself and others also agreed that the fact the child would be taken away from their friends and given a different 'lunch' in a separate room seemed like a punishment to a child and could easily create upset or bullying opportunities.

Social media users said they were outraged by the Dickensian move which will see children suffer, according to a parent

'To take such a sharp stance on such a small amount of money just doesn't tie in with how I imagine schools would like to be seen.

'No compassion whatsoever to the children they see every day.'

Others backed her up on social media calling the move 'outrageous'.

One woman wrote: 'Is this for real, totally unbelievable, what the hell is happening in our society when this 'Dickensian' vein of thought is acceptable in our schools, absolutely dispicable (sic) and should be reported and highlighted by the press and media, the divide in our society is accelerating.'

The mum said it is 'appalling' some parents may be struggling and their child will then suffer embarrassment and called for a 're-think'.

She added: 'Surely the first port of call is offering support and help to the parent and a point in the right direction. Not segregation of the innocent child.'

Headteacher, Mr Steve Morris, argued children are offered the replacement meal away from the others to avoid embarrassment.

He called the comments 'unfair' and said the newsletter did not explain children are allowed a selection of chilled fruit or veg from the salad bar, as well as bread and butter and milk or water.A New Jersey woman got angry at a cable TV worker and left him stranded in a bucket lift, police have said.

The unnamed 59-year-old woman reportedly turned off an Optimum employee's truck on Monday in Ridgewood, New Jersey, leaving him stuck in midair.

Police arrived at the scene at the intersection of East Ridgewood Avenue and South Pleasant Avenue after receiving a call about a verbal dispute and found the worker trapped 40 feet above the ground.

An unnamed 59-year-old reportedly turned off an Optimum employee's truck leaving him stuck 40 feet above the ground on Monday in Ridgewood, New Jersey, police have said

The woman then 'removed utility property from the truck and walked away,' Police Capt William Amoruso said in a statement.

She has been charged with harassment, false imprisonment, disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing.

Police said she was released pending a court date.

No names have been released, and police did not say why the woman and the Optimum worker were arguing.A husband and wife team who charged clients 175 an hour for sex at their Ennis home avoided jail yesterday.

Spanish national David Navaro, 50, and his Brazilian-born wife Celia Galan, 41, arrived into Ireland from Barcelona in 2015.

A surveillance operation by the Irish police (Gardai) was mounted outside the couple's home in Ennis, County Clare, in July 2016 as a result of suspicions that there was a brothel being operated from the property.

The court heard the couple later told Gardai that they were making around 1,000 (1,200) a week from the activities at the house.

David Navaro and wife Celia Galan avoided a jail term for running a brothel from their home

Inspector Tom Kennedy told Ennis District Court that on July 23, 2016, gardai entered the home in Ennis and discovered a laptop, phone, notebook with clients' names and an Escort Ireland advert on the laptop, confirming that prostitution was being conducted at the property.

Insp Kennedy said that the two were advertising themselves to customers on the Escort Ireland website as 'Ann & Peter'.

An advert placed by the two on Escort Ireland stated: 'Ann is a woman of 30 years with a pretty face and Peter is a man of 38 years with a slender body and both are eager to please you'.

The advert continued: 'We receive men, women and couples You will enjoy the best experience of your life and [we are] sure you will come back.'

Insp Kennedy said that the two worked as a couple all of the time with their clients and did not work individually.

He said: 'This was a couple situation as opposed to a single situation.'

The inspector said that the two would charge clients 180 (200) an hour for sex; 150 (170) for 45 minutes and 100 (130) for 30 minutes.'

The couple advertised their services online and welcomed 'men, women and couples'

Insp Kennedy said that the couple told gardai that they were making 1,000 (1,200) a week - or around 3,500 (4,000) to 4,400 (5,000) a month - from the activities at the house.

In reply to a question from Judge Patrick Durcan, Insp Kennedy said that the two were both managers and providers of the service at the home and that no other people were engaging in prostitution at the address.

Insp Kennedy said: 'Their response to gardai was that they didn't think there was anything wrong with what they were doing and that it wasn't illegal.'

The inspector added: 'The entire operation was conducted by both of them. It was a joint enterprise.

They were both participating in it willingly and with each other and it was advertised in that format.'

The solicitor for the married couple, Daragh Hassett, said that his clients were conducting a 'cottage industry' at the address.

The couple charged 175 an hour for sex at their home in this street in Ennis, Ireland

He said that 'this is rampant in Spain and regularised there and not something that breaches the law there'.

Mr Hassett said that his clients weren't aware that what they were doing was illegal here.

He said that if anything, the couple overly co-operated with the gardai and 'told the State things the State couldn't have known into how this was operated'.

Mr Hassett said the two 'essentially gave the gardai CPD [continued professional development] in how these things operate'.

He said that when news broke that the two were charged, 'they were effectively ran out of the property and out of Ennis'. He said they had to leave Clare and are both living in the east of Ireland now.

Mr Hassett said the two are now working as general operatives in a factory, each earning 350 (400) a week.

The pair avoided jail when the unusual case came before Ennis District Court this week

The couple pleaded guilty to knowingly living in whole or in part on the earnings of the prostitution of another person and aiding and abetting that prostitution contrary to Section 10 of the Criminal Law Sex Offences Act at Station View, Ennis, on July 23, 2016.

Insp Kennedy said that prison terms up to six months and/or a fine can apply in such cases.

He said neither of the two have previous convictions. Judge Durcan said he would fine each 500 (600).

He said: 'This activity is against the law and the court doesn't approve of this type of activity.'The autistic boy who was bashed by thugs with a spanner metres away from a school was defending his friend.

The brutal bashing of Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins, who was attacked by five armed teenagers outside Northcote High School, shocked the country as the gruesome video went viral.

The 14-year-old, who was attacked in clear view of passing cars in Melbourne's north, thought he was going to die after he was lured to the school by the boys who blackmailed him.

Scroll down for video

The autistic boy (pictured) who was bashed by thugs with a spanner metres away from a school was defending his friend

The brutal bashing (pictured) of Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins, who was attacked by five armed teenagers outside Northcote High School, shocked the country as gruesome video went viral

The 14-year-old (pictured), who was attacked in clear view of passing cars in Melbourne's north, thought he was going to die after he was lured to the school

The boy's mother, Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins (pictured together), explained her son may have physical wounds but it was the mental ones that would take their toll because of his autism

'I like to think I'm a nice person to people and I don't like bullies,' Quinn told The Project Thursday night.

A friend nearby stepped in and tried to help Quinn but became a target himself.

'They (the bullies) would come at me and they would kill me, it was very scary,' he said.

The teenager's mother, Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, told the network the 'imprint of a spanner' was left on Quinn's knee after the attack.

The vile assault left the student not only bruised physically but also mentally.

'I started thinking bad thoughts, it was disgusting, it's very distressing for me,' Quinn said.

Ms Lahiff-Jenkins told 3AW that Quinn did not understand that he could be physically attacked to such extent after the bullies threatened him.

'(The bullies told him) we want to meet you out the front ... if you don't come down, we're going to come to your house and rape your mother,' the heartbroken mother explained.

'It's my husband's and my worst nightmare, and I know it's the worst nightmare of most parents that have an autistic child.'

A friend nearby stepped in and tried to help Quinn (pictured) during the violent brawl but he became a target himself

Ms Lahiff-Jenkins (pictured) said the 'imprint of a spanner' was left on Quinn's knee after attack

The vile act took place metres away from school gates earlier this week and a spokesperson told 7News the 'appropriate disciplinary actions' would be enforced.

A 15-year-old boy was charged by Victoria Police on Thursday with a number of offences including intentionally causing injury.

The video of the horrendous act shocked the country after it was obtained by the Herald Sun, which showed Quinn being thrown off his bike by one of the boys who was carrying a wrench.

The attackers were then seen jumping on the 14-year-old teenager and pushing his head aggressively onto the pavement before proceeding to punch him.

Quinn is seen defenceless, trying to block the punches coming from the attacker.

Quinn was thrown off his bike by one of the boys who was carrying a wrench (pictured in black shirt) before his head was slammed into the hard concrete number of times

The heartbroken mother (pictured together) said it was her 'worst nightmare' to see her son being bullied so horrifically

The wrench appeared to fall out of the boy's pocket only for one of the other boys to starts beating Quinn's legs with it.

Once he regains his footing, a boy grabs him to the head and knees him in the head before taking him to the ground again. He is then cornered between two boys armed with wrenches, who attack him from front and behind before chasing him toward traffic where he is held down and kicked to the head by three boys, the Herald Sun reported.

Ms Lahiff-Jenkins got the heartbreaking call from her son while he was in the ambulance as he was taken to Austin Hospital.

Ms Lahiff-Jenkins first heard the heartbreaking news when Quinn called her while he was in the ambulance being taken to hospital

'They had been bullying him on social and calling his phone threatening to rape his mother if he didn't come to meet them,' Ms Lahiff-Jenkins shared on Twitter.

'Over the phone the ambo (sic) was very mocking and said tell your mother the truth, that you organised a fight - and my son was howling and screaming and so distressed and the medic was very dismissive and was saying 'well you don't organise fights do you'.

'They had been using homophobic language to taunt him and he had been telling them off saying things like 'he's not ashamed to be gay, he's proud' and things like that and the abuse escalated.

'All four to five of them punching kicking and whacking with spanners.

'And the effects on his mental health will be profound. It's so hard to be a teenage boy, let alone grapple with the social weight of autism without being targeted by bullies.

'My husband and I despair for our special boy in the s***** f****** world.'

Quinn is now too afraid to leave his home.

Ms Lahiff-Jenkins said Victoria Police is continuing to investigate the assault.A Libyan dissident kidnapped with his heavily pregnant wife in Thailand after MI6 tipped off the Americans who handed them to Colonel Gaddafi have today received an apology from Theresa May and a 500,000 payout for their 'appalling' treatment.

Abdel Hakim Belhaj, 52, and his wife Fatima Boudchar were grabbed by the CIA in Bangkok in 2004 and delivered to the dictator in Tripoli where he was jailed for six years and tortured.

Mr Belhaj has claimed previously he was 'sacrificed' so Tony Blair could do his 'deal in the desert' with Colonel Gaddafi days later in a tent outside Tripoli.

Today Attorney General Jeremy Wright was forced to say sorry to the couple and revealed that Ms Boudchar was being given 500,000 in compensation as she watched in the Commons today.

Belhaj, who is a Libyan politician who splits his time between Tripoli and Turkey, was unable to come to London because of ongoing peace talks.

He said he would settle the case for 3  1 for him, his wife and their unborn baby - but today it was confirmed he was given no payout at all.

Speaking from Istanbul today he said: 'From the very first moment, I insisted that there must be an apology. I never asked for money because I dont want to impose this on taxpayers'.

He also thanked Theresa May for her 'heartfelt' letter admitting Britain contributed to their detention, rendition and suffering'.

The couple's son Abderrahim, now 14, who was in his mothers womb when they were kidnapped, was in London today with her.

Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhaj holds a letter of apology he received by the British government today for his abduction was aided by MI6

Fatima Boudchar was pregnant with her son Abderrahim Belhaj, 14, (pictured together in Westminster today). She being handed 500,000 by the British Government and a written apology for their treatment

Mr Belhaj (pictured today) and his wife Fatima Boudchar were grabbed in Thailand in 2004 after MI6 tipped off the CIA who took them to Colonel Gaddafi for imprisonment. Mr Belhaj was also tortured

The legal battle began because documents (pictured) discovered in Tripoli, Libya, during the fall of Gaddafi revealed how MI6 were involved in the rendition of Hakim Belhaj and his wife

On 18 March, senior MI6 officer Sir Mark Allen sent a message (pictured) to his Libyan counterpart Moussa Koussa saying he believed the capture was thanks to the British

Mr Belhaj thanked Theresa May for her written apology and said: 'There an admission of the shortcomings, an expression of unreserved apology, lessons learned, admission of failings and an expression of disappointment towards the international partners that I was handed over to'.

Dissident's pregnant wife claims CIA 'hit her in the stomach' before her 4lb baby was born Fatima Boudchar has described the moment she and her husband were kidnapped by the CIA in Thailand and the horrors of ending up in a filthy Libyan cell. Ms Boudchar was pregnant when she was snatched in March 2004 and would give birth in Tripoli around four months. The Libyans let her go on the eve of giving birth to her son Abderrahim, who was in London with her today. She said: 'After what the CIA did to me, my baby weighed four pounds'. The Moroccan-born woman had never even been to Libya in her life. The couple had moved from country to country hiding from Gaddafi's 'killers' because her husband was an outspoken critic of the regime and branded a terrorist by the dictator. Describing her ordeal she told the New York Times on Tuesday: 'I'll never forget the sight of my kidnappers, dressed all in black and wearing ski masks, waiting for me in a white cell in the Bangkok detention site. 'A man grabbed my head and shoved me into a truck. They blindfolded and trussed me.I have no idea how long I was in the Thai secret prison because no one would let me sleep. 'The masked abductors were waiting. I was terrified. They chained me to the hooks. Because I was midway through my pregnancy, I could barely move or sit. 'Some of what they did to me in that prison was so awful I cant talk about it. They hit me in the abdomen just where the baby was. To move me, they bound me to a stretcher from head to toe, like a mummy. I was sure I would shortly be killed'. Advertisement

The couple had moved from country to country hiding from Gaddafi's 'killers' because her husband was an outspoken critic of the regime and branded a terrorist by the dictator.

Britain told the US they were in Malaysia travelling on French passports under assumed names.

When they landed in Thailand the CIA were ready to grab them in Bangkok's airport.

His wife was jailed but released just before she gave birth to him in prison in 2004 and she said the 500,000 and the apology proves 'their torture was not and could never be justified'.

International human rights group Reprieve and the Belhaj family say their abduction was a direct result of a joint MI6-CIA operation following the 'deal in the desert' in which Tony Blair's government re-opened diplomatic links with Gaddafi.

Former foreign secretary Jack Straw and ex-MI6 chief Sir Mark Allen also face questions about their handling of the affair.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright said the agreement meant the Government did not have to admit any legal liability for what happened to Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar in 2004.

But Prime Minister Theresa May has personally written to them both to apologise for their 'appalling' treatment, Mr Wright announced in the Commons.

He said Ms Boudchar was being given 500,000 despite the Government not admitting liability. He said Mr Belhaj had never asked for money and will not receive any.

In statements issued by their lawyers, Mr Belhaj and Ms Boudchar said they accepted the apology from Mrs May and the Government.

Mr Wright told MPs it was important for the security services to learn from 'where we got things wrong', but said they were not admitting liability in a carefully worded statement.

Mr Wright said the UK Government 'believes' the accounts and admitted Britain had 'contributed' to the appalling treatment they received.

He said: 'We are profoundly sorry for the ordeal you suffered and our role in it.'

The rendition came days before Tony Blair's 'deal in the desert' with Muammar Gaddafi outside Tripoli in 2014 (pictured)

Attorney General Jeremy Wright said the agreement meant the Government did not have to admit any legal liability for what happened Hakim Belhaj and his wife while Theresa May also apologised (both pictured today)

The Attorney General said he hoped the acknowledgement of what happened and the apology would ease the suffering Mr Belhaj and his wife.

Mr Belhaj - a long-time opponent of Gaddafi - and his then-pregnant Moroccan wife claim they were kidnapped and tortured under the dictator's regime, when Jack Straw was the UK foreign secretary.

Abdel Hakim Belhaj, was the former leader of an Islamic militant group that sent fighters to Iraq and Afghanistan, who would later help overthrow Gaddafi

Following Mr Wright's statement, Mr Belhaj said via his lawyers: 'I welcome and accept the Prime Minister's apology, and I extend to her and the Attorney General my thanks and sincere goodwill.'

Ms Boudchar, who was in Parliament with her son to hear Mr Wright's statement, said: 'I thank the British Government for its apology and for inviting me and my son to the UK to hear it. I accept the Government's apology.'

Sapna Malik, from law firm Leigh Day, who represented Mr Belhaj and Ms Bouchar, said: 'Today's historic occasion is a tribute to the resilience of our clients in their quest for justice.

'After six long years of litigation, HM Government has rightly acknowledged that, even in the fields of counter-terrorism and international relations, there are lines which must not be crossed and which were crossed here, with devastating consequences for my clients.

'Today's candid apology from the Government helps restore the humanity and dignity so brutally denied to my clients during their ordeal and is warmly welcomed.'

Mr Belhadj spent six years behind bars but is now a politician in Libya.

The government had gone to the Supreme Court to stop Mr Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar suing over claims UK officials 'assisted and arranged' their unlawful rendition in 2004.

Jack Straw (left) could have faced legal action by Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhaj (right) who claims the UK was complicit in his and his wife's abduction and rendition to Tripoli

Mr Belhadj, commander of the Tripoli Military Council, was rendered by the CIA from Bangkok to Libya in 2004 and imprisoned with his wife

The couple's action was against the Home Office and Foreign Office, while Sir Mark Allen - who was MI6's counter-terrorism chief when they were snatched - was also named as a defendant.

In full: Theresa May's apology over rendition of Hakim Belhaj Attorney General Jeremy Wright today read out the letter Theresa May had written to Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudcha. The letter said: 'Your accounts were moving and what happened to you is deeply troubling. 'It is clear that you were both subjected to appalling treatment and that you suffered greatly, not least to the dignity of Mrs Boudchar, who was pregnant at the time. 'The UK government believes your accounts. Neither of you should have been treated this way. 'The UK government's actions contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering. 'The UK government shared information about you with its international partners. 'We should have done more to reduce the risk that you would be mistreated. 'We accept this was a failing on our part.' The letter added: 'On behalf of Her Majesty's government, I apologise unreservedly. 'We are profoundly sorry for the ordeal that you both suffered and our role in it. 'The UK government has learned many lessons from this period.' Advertisement

Jack Straw, who was Foreign Secretary at the time, said in 2017 that the actions taken at the time were 'fully consistent with his legal duties'.

He said: 'I repeat what I said in the House of Commons in December 2013, that as foreign secretary I acted at all times in a manner which was fully consistent with my legal duties, and with national and international law.

'I was never in any way complicit in the unlawful rendition or detention of anyone by other states. '

He added that the judgment raised 'some important points of law' - including whether it is possible to bring the actions of foreign states into a court process in the UK - but that the merits 'had not been tested before any court'.

'That can only happen when the trial of the action itself takes place,' he added.

During the appeal hearing at the Supreme Court last year, the court heard how Mr Belhaj, a Libyan national and opponent of Gaddafi, and his wife had attempted to take a commercial flight from Beijing to London using fake passports.

But they were instead deported by the Chinese authorities to Kuala Lumpur where they were detained.

It is alleged MI6 became aware of their detention and reported their whereabouts to the Libyan intelligence services, a plan which led to them being tortured in Bangkok and held against their will in Libya.

Ms Boudchar was held until June 2004 while Mr Belhaj was incarcerated for six years until March 2010.

Mr Belhaj - a leading member of the Islamist opposition to Colonel Gaddafi - and his wife have offered to settle for a token 1 from each defendant and an apology for what they suffered

The couple claim the UK was involved in 'arranging, assisting and encouraging their unlawful rendition'.

According to Reprieve, part of the deal involved the illegal kidnapping and flying of Libyan dissidents to Tripoli.

They say cases came to light in 2011, when faxes written by Sir Mark, which described the rendition flights, were found in Libya's intelligence headquarters.

Giving his judgment at the Supreme Court, Lord Mance said: 'They allege that they suffered mistreatment amounting to torture at the hands of US agents in Bangkok and in the airplane and at the hands of Libyan officials in Libya.'

The judge said the couple were relying on the letter supposedly written by Sir Mark to Mr Moussa Koussa, head of the Libyan External Security Organisation.

'The letter congratulated Mr Moussa Koussa 'on the safe arrival of (Mr Belhaj)',' said the judge.

'It said that 'This was the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years'.

'It indicated that British intelligence had led to Mr Belhaj's transfer to Libya, although the British services 'did not pay for the air cargo'.'

Government lawyers had argued that the Belhaj claims should be barred under state immunity.

Belhaj was allegedly transported to Libya and was tortured by forces of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi

They said the foreign 'act of state' doctrine prohibits the courts of one country sitting in judgment on the acts of the government of another within its own territory.

The High Court agreed with the Government's stance and ruled that the claims should be struck out.

But Reprieve argued that the Government had already settled a related claim out of court by paying compensation to another family who were rendered to Libya in the same 'deal in the desert' conspiracy.

The Court of Appeal then reversed the High Court ruling.

It said the doctrine relied upon by the government might not apply to alleged breaches of international law or human rights obligations, even in cases involving the conduct of a foreign state.

The appeal judges said there was a 'compelling public interest' in allegations of unlawful rendition and 'particularly grave violations of international law and human rights' being investigated by the English courts.

UK Government lawyers then argued that the compensation claim could not be heard in a British court because it would damage relations with the US.

But the argument was dismissed by the seven justices - court president Lord Neuberger, sitting with Lady Hale and Lords Mance, Clarke, Wilson, Sumption and Hughes.

Lord Mance said that 'state immunity is no bar to the claims', and the defendants had not 'on the assumed facts shown any entitlement to rely on the doctrine of foreign act of state'.

He said: 'The appeals are dismissed and the cases may proceed to trial.'New footage has been released of an undercover police car hitting an Indigenous teenager, before he suffers multiple seizures.

A West Australia Police officer is seen following the 18-year-old on foot on Sunday afternoon, before the unmarked police car crosses the road to cut him off before hitting him, SBS reported.

The teen falls to the ground after being struck by the vehicle before he begins seizing.

A West Australia Police Officer (pictured left) is seen following the 18-year-old on foot on Sunday afternoon

The unmarked police car hits the teenager (pictured) and he is knocked to the ground

Initial footage of the incident was released earlier this week on Facebook, and police claimed the teenager 'collided' with the police car, SBS reported.

The new footage, shot from a different angle, shows the teen being hit by the car.

When he began to seize, police turned him to the side, as he continues to convulse, and is then handcuffed.

He was taken to Fiona Stanley Hospital for treatment.

The teen begins to seize. Police officers turn him to the side as he convulses and he is then handcuffed

CEO of Ngalla Maya Aboriginal Corporation Mervyn Eade, told NITV News that WA police had a long history of incidents involving Indigenous people.

Gerry Georgatos of the National Indigenous Critical Response Service, also told NITV News that the police officers involved should be stood down.

West Australian police claimed the teenager was being sought after for questioning after people in the area complained about 'suspicious activity', SBS reported.

Daily Mail Australia contacted West Australia Police for comment.This is the dramatic moment the relative of a woman who died in police custody threw her ashes into the face of a police chief.

Wakiesha Wilson, 36, was found dead inside her cell at the LAPD Metropolitan Detention Center in 2016 after what investigators ruled was a suicide.

But her family have vehemently rejected the suicide claims and accused police officials of lying about how she died.

At a Los Angeles Police Commission meeting on Tuesday morning the boards president, Steve Soboroff, was forced to call a recess after enraged protests from the dead woman's relatives.

Wilsons aunt, Sheila Hines-Brim (circled), can be seen walking towards the bench and throwing a white powder over Police Chief Charlie Beck

Wilson's furious relatives erupt in a cacophony of shouting after she and several others are led out of the room by officers

About 20 minutes into the meeting Wilsons aunt, Sheila Hines-Brim, walked towards the bench and threw a handful of a white, powdery substance in the direction of Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck.

'That's Wakiesha,' Hines-Brim said as she walked away.

'That's Wakiesha!' she said again, her voice louder. 'She's going to stay with you!'

Beck ordered an officer to arrest Hines-Brim, prompting other attendees to stand up and begin screaming.

The meeting abruptly ended, and the room was cleared.

'I used her ashes so they can be with him, so he can feel her, because he murdered her,' Hines-Brim said after her release from jail, according to KCBS. 'They covered it up.'

Wakiesha Wilson, 36, was found dead inside her cell at the LAPD Metropolitan Detention Center in 2016

Lisa Hines, Wilson's mother, claimed police know more about her death and are in some part responsible

Asked by a reporter how she felt after her arrest, she said: 'I feel satisfied.'

Wilson was arrested March 26, 2016, after she was accused of assaulting a patient at a Los Angeles hospital, police said.

The following morning, she was found unconscious in her jail cell. A coroners report said she had hanged herself.

Her death triggered protests from her family and Black Lives Matter activists, some of whom said Wilson wouldnt have killed herself and believed that an altercation involving officers was to blame, the Los Angeles Times reported.Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been ordered to give evidence in a civil trial relating to his government's disastrous home insulation scheme.

Victoria's Supreme Court issued a subpoena to Mr Rudd who is now based in New York where he has been working for a number of humanitarian organisations and academic institutions since 2014.

Over 140 business owners and tradesmen have filed the civil suit against the Commonwealth asking for more than $150 million they claim they incurred as losses when the Government scrapped the scheme.

Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been ordered to give evidence in a civil trial relating to his government's disastrous home insulation scheme

Over 140 business owners and tradesmen have filed the civil suit against the Commonwealth asking for more than $150 million they claim they incurred as losses

Justice John Dixon has allowed Mr Rudd to give evidence via video link from New York which he is scheduled to do in the coming days.

The insulation scheme, which was put into effect after the Global Financial Crises, was cancelled in 2010 after four tradesmen died.

The original scheme had intended to install insulation in 2.2 million Australian homes, one of a number of measures put in place to give the economy a shot in the arm.

The businesses and tradesmen are claiming the fast implementation of the scheme required them to invest and expand before the scheme was shut down with much of the work incomplete.

In 2014 a royal commission found that there had been significant failings in the design and implementation of the scheme.



A compensation fund for companies that lost money during the scheme was already setup by the Abbott government in 2015.A jubilant President Trump tweeted on Thursday to announce that five of the 'Most Wanted leaders of ISIS' have been captured after they were lured from Syria to Iraq with fake Telegram messages.

Iraqi officials used the cell phone of already captured ISIS lieutenant Ismail al-Eithawi to send instructions via the app for the four other leaders to come to Iraq, where they were seized.

The encrypted app was officially named by ISIS as one of its favored mobile messaging services in 2015 and has been regularly used by the terror group for private communication and to spread propaganda.

Al-Eithawi, who also uses the alias Abu Zaid al-Iraqi, was captured in February by Turkish intelligence and handed over to the Iraqis.

Eithawi was a direct aide to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, responsible for fund transfers to the group's bank accounts in different countries.

Saddam al-Jamal, a Syrian who was accused of taking part of a massacre in the province of Deir Ezzor in 2014 which killed 700 members of a tribe that rose up against ISIS, was the second most senior member to be captured.

President Donald Trump rejoiced on Thursday after Iraqi agents captured a group of high-ranking ISIS leaders. He is pictured upon arrival at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland

Trump tweeted about the capture, which included two of the highest-ranking ISIS commanders ever to be taken alive

Investigators used a phone belonging to Ismail Alwan al-Ethawi (pictured in an Iraqi government release) to send a Telegram message luring the four other commanders to Syria

Saddam Jamal, one of the five captured commanders, is the notorious Syrian who served as ISIS's governor of Syria's eastern Euphrates region

Apart from al-Eithawi and al-Jamal, the operation captured three field commanders: Syrian Mohamed al-Qadeer and two Iraqis, Omar al-Karbouli and Essam al-Zawbai, Hashimi said.

Iraqi intelligence released images of the five men on national television on Wednesday.

Al-Eithawi and al-Jamal are the two most senior Islamic State figures ever to be captured alive.

The former served as ISIS governor in Syria's eastern Euphrates region and as a minister in charge of the group's so-called education department.

Al-Jamal, meanwhile, had previously been a commander in the Free Syrian Army and then leader of a western-allied 'moderate' Islamist group called Ahfab al-Rasoul.

This was effectively destroyed by ISIS following a military campaign, and al-Jamal reappeared in an ISIS video to say he had defected from his former group which he branded 'stooges' of the West, according to The London Times.

As head of ISIS in Deir Ezzor, he is accused of overseeing the murders of 700 members of the Shaitat tribe after it rebelled against ISIS.

Al-Jamal is said to have ordered the execution of children, sometimes in front of their parents.

Field commanders Mohamed al-Qadeer and Omar Shehab El-Karboul are seen on Iraqi television

ISIS field commander Issam Abdel Kader al-Zawba'i pictured in the Iraqi National Intelligence Service news release

The operation to snare the four was carried out in cooperation with U.S. forces, part of an American-led coalition fighting against Islamic State on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border.

Following Eithawi's capture, Iraqi and American intelligence agents were able to uncover bank accounts used by the group and also secret communication codes he used.

Baghdadi declared himself ruler of all Muslims in 2014 after capturing Iraq's main northern city Mosul.

He is now believed to be hiding in the Iraqi-Syrian border region after losing all the cities and towns of his self-proclaimed caliphate.

One of the captured men is a top aide to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (pictured preaching in 2016)

How Telegram became the app of choice for ISIS terrorists Telegram (logo pictured) has become one of ISIS's favorite means of communication Telegram is a free app that lets people exchange messages, photos and videos in groups of up to 5,000 people. It has attracted more than 200 million users since its launch in 2013, promising end-to-end encryption and the ability to store data on the cloud rather than each individual device. Although many of its users are political activists, groups such as ISIS favor the app because it allows them to communicate both in one-to-one chats and large public groups. They use it to recruit members, raise money and coordinate terrorist activity. ISIS also set up large public groups to issue claims of responsibility, such as after the Manchester Arena terror attack, and broadcast news. In 2015, Telegram was named on a list of recommended messaging applications released by the ISIS propaganda office, which lauded it for being 'secure'. Telegram founder Pavel Durov dismissed concerns about ISIS using the app at a TechCrunch conference in September 2015, telling the audience that the 'right to privacy is more important than our fear of bad things happening'. Just two months later, ISIS murdered 130 and wounded a further 350 in Paris during the deadliest attack on French soil since World War Two. Telegram now claims to remove ISIS accounts from public channels but still refuses to intervene in private chats. Source: Counterextremism.com Advertisement

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said last month he would 'take all necessary measures' against militants based in Syria.

The Iraqi air force has carried out several air strikes since last year against Islamic State positions in Syrian territory.

Abadi declared final victory last December over the ultra-hardline group within Iraq. But the militants still pose a threat along the border with Syria and have continued to carry out ambushes, killings and bombings across Iraq.

Islamic State militants last month restated their loyalty to Baghdadi, in what is believed to be their first public pledge of allegiance to him since his self-proclaimed caliphate collapsed last year in both Syria and Iraq.A former Cabinet minister delivered a devastating verdict on the state of Labour today condemning Jeremy Corbyn's flagship policies as 'crazy populism'.

Alan Johnson said the party was in the 'worst position' since the 1980s and predicted that the hard-Left takeover would 'end in tears'.

The ex-home secretary gave the withering assessment during a speech at a conference held at Brighton College in Sussex.

Mr Johnson - who also served as Education Secretary - told the audience the current situation reminded him of attempts by Trotskyists to seize control of Labour three decades ago.

Alan Johnson (file picture) said the party was in the 'worst position' since the 1980s and predicted that the hard-Left takeover would 'end in tears'

Mr Corbyn warned that the leadership of Mr Corbyn (pictured at PMQs yesterday) would 'end in tears'

'We are in a worse position than we were in the early 80s, when Militant tried to take over the party,' he said.

'Ever since we were formed in 1900 by 27 trade unionists in London, ever since then people to our left and people who believed in revolutionary socialism, which the Labour party never has - we believe in democratic socialism - have tried to come into the party.

'That's not saying that everyone who's come in since Jeremy (Corbyn) won is a revolutionary socialist. But all the people who were chucked out when Militant was around are back in.'

Mr Johnson questioned the purpose of pro-Corbyn group Momentum, saying: 'Why do we need a second organisation within an organisation, particularly when it is just a fan club for the leader?'

He said the Labour leader had a 'particular niche' as a backbencher and argued that two factors had fuelled his successful bid for the leadership.

He cited a move by former leader Ed Miliband to allow people to join the party for 3 and vote in contests.

The decision by senior Labour figures such as Margaret Beckett and Sadiq Khan to broaden the field of candidates by nominating Mr Corbyn for the leadership - even though they did not support him - was also critical.

Mr Johnson acknowledged that 'there's something about some hope' that he has given young people, but added: 'I think in the end, it will all end it tears for the party.'

Mr Johnson, who was part of the Labour government that introduced 3,000 tuition fees, said Mr Corbyn's pledge to spend billions of pounds scrapping fees was 'a crazy policy'.

Jeremy Corbyn's decision to hold talks with Die Linke's leader has underlined the huge rift in Labour over his stance on foreign policy

'The tuition fee system is the best way of ensuring there is a contribution from the students to higher education that is fair and equitable and that has helped to close the social gap,' he said.

'We have pledged to abolish it, which will cost 11bn. It's a crazy piece of populism.'

The comments came as Mr Corbyn faced a major backlash after boasting about his close ties to a far-Left party in Germany that wants to disband NATO and backed Russia over the annexation of Crimea.

Labour MPs and activists voiced outrage after the leader tweeted a picture of himself meeting the chief of Die Linke, Katja Kipping.

They pointed out that Die Linke was the new incarnation of the communist party that enforced the brutal Stasi regime in East Germany.

Senior figures have previously demanded the abolition of NATO in favour of a security alliance with Moscow, and insisted that Crimea should be recognised as part of Russia.

Die Linke is also in direct competition with the SPD - which is UK Labour's sister party in Germany.Michelle Schiffer, 23, was charged with an improper relationship with a student for having sex with a 15-year-old boy twice in 2017. On Monday she plead guilty

A Texas teacher has pleaded guilty on Monday to a charge related to her having sex with a teenage boy after meeting him at a local Chick-fil-A.

Michelle Schiffer, 23, was charged with an improper relationship with a student for having sex with a 15-year-old boy twice in 2017. The Chick-fil-A where she met the teen was in Cypress, Texas.

She was also said to have smoked cannabis with the teen in her car before one of the encounters, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Schiffer admitted guilt, accepting the sentence that state District Judge Robert Johnson delivered in August during a pre-sentence investigation.

'Michelle has taken responsibility for her actions and is very remorseful,' her attorney Grant Scheiner said.

'At sentencing Michelle plans to personally apologize to the complainant and his family, as well as everyone affected. It's highly doubtful she will have any trouble with the law again.'

The Chick-fil-A where she met the teen was in Cypress, Texas

Schiffer could face up to 20 years in prison with the plea deal.

Authorities say Schiffer first met up with the then-15-year-old boy in the parking lot of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Cypress back in July.

Schiffer then drove the teen to her friend's apartment in in the 7200 block of Barker Cypress where they had sex, police say she admitted.

Schiffer originally met the boy while teaching him at Cypress-Springs High School

The 23-year-old also allegedly admitted to authorities that she smoked marijuana with the boy while inside her car and that shed had more sexual contact with him.

Schiffer originally met the boy while teaching him at Cypress-Springs High School.

The alleged improper relationship was reported to the principal, Cheryl Henry, by an anonymous student.The notorious hitman who made a career out of violent murders spread across decades in the underworld has died in custody.

Rodney Collins, who was serving a life sentence for murdering Ramon and Dorothy Abbey in 1987 as their children slept nearby, died in hospital from 'natural causes'.

The 72-year-old, an associate of infamous gangster Carl Williams, is thought to have lost his life to cancer, taking his dark secrets to the grave, according to the Herald Sun.

Rodney Collins (pictured), who was serving a life sentence for murdering Ramon and Dorothy Abbey in 1987 as their children slept nearby, died in hospital from 'natural causes'

The 72-year-old (pictured) is thought to have lost his life to cancer, taking his secrets to the grave as he is thought to be behind about nine hits which have gone unsolved

The convicted rapist spent his last years alive in high security cells at Barwon Prison, Victoria, and was associated with some of Australia's worst criminals including Carl Williams (pictured)

The brutal killer, who was arrested over the double murder in 1987 more than two decades later, is believed to have performed about nine hits with many remaining unsolved.

The criminal's life was scattered with shootings and riddled with gruesome murders, making him one of Australia's most infamous killers.

Collins' was slain gangster Carl Williams' number one hitman where it is thought he tied up and sliced open Michael Schievella's throat in 1990 along with the drug dealer's wife - who he almost beheaded with a knife.

The hardened criminal is thought to have been behind one of Victoria's highest profiled unsolved murders of police informers Terence and Christine Hodson in 2004 - as ordered by Williams who reportedly paid him $150,000.

The 72-year-old is also believed to be behind the murders of Brian Kane in 1982, Raymond Bennett in 1979 and underworld lawyer Mario Condello in 2006.

Condello, a member of Carlton Crew, was shot dead in Melbourne's lavish suburb Brighton and was known to be a rival of Williams - who was later beaten to death behind bars in 2010.

The cold blooded murderer, who was not going to be released from prison until 2042 when he was aged in his late 90s, was previously described by police as a 'deadset natural born killer' who was a 'dangerous man'.

The hardened criminal is thought to have been behind one of Victoria's highest profiled unsolved murders of Terence and Christine Hodson (pictured) in 2004 as ordered by Williams

The 72-year-old is also believed to be behind the murders of Brian Kane in 1982 (left) and criminal Ray Abbey and his wife Dorothy (right) whose throat was slit open in 1987

The convicted rapist spent his last years alive in high security cells at Barwon Prison, Victoria, possibly reflecting on a life flooded with bloodied murders starting at a young age.

Collins was raised by his grandparents at the start of his life before he went back to live with his alcoholic parents in the 1960s - throwing him into a life of crime.

At 14, the youngster left home and got involved with the dark underworld of Richmond gangs where he landed his first conviction before turning 20 and ended his life with dozens more.

The cold killer is also thought to have murdered Mario Condello (pictured) in 2006 in Brighton

Condello, a Carlton Crew member, was shot dead at a property in Melbourne's elite suburb (pictured) more than a decade agoA teenager plotted with her mother and sister to launch ISIS-inspired terror attacks at the British Museum or in Westminster after she was prevented from becoming a jihadi bride in Syria, a court has heard.

In Britain's first alleged all-female terror plot, 18-year-old Safaa Boular, from Vauxhall, south London, is accused planning an atrocity in the capital with her mother Mina Dich and older sister Rizlaine Boular, 21.

Her sister, of Clerkenwell, central London, has already admitted planning an attack in Westminster, allegedly involving knives, the Old Bailey was told.

Safaa Boular is accused of plotting terror attacks in London with her mother and sister

Boular (pictured, front left, at a younger age) allegedly plotted with sister Rizlaine (back in left image) and their mother Mina Dich (right in left-hand image). Boular had previously planned but failed to join ISIS fighter fiance Naweed Hussain (right) in Syria, the court heard

Investigators bugged her mother's home and taped conversations revealed Boular's plans, the court heard.

The recorded conversations included some from the day of the Westminster Bridge attack on March 22 last year, when five people were killed using a car and knife.

Boular told her mother: 'And UK were boasting about this will never happen to them. I am sorry but they were boasting. They can't boast about it we're all in danger.'

She asked 'can we go there', adding, 'I wanna go take some flowers down there' before laughing, the court heard.

Boular had initially planned to travel to Syria and become a suicide bomber with her ISIS-fighter fiance Naweed Hussain, and depart the world holding hands, and taking others with them,' the Old Bailey was told.

But when Hussain was killed in Syria, she switched her plans to Britain, the court heard.

It is claimed that she had previously made plans to join Hussain in Syria and booked a flight to Istanbul.

Her support for him 'would extend to each of them donning a suicide belt,' Duncan Atkinson QC told the court.

'Together they would, as Hussain put it, 'depart this world holding hands and taking others with them' in an act of terrorism,' he said.

Rizlaine Boular (left) has already admitted planning an attack in Westminster with the help and support of their mother Mina Dich (right), the jury was told

Boular allegedly struck up a friendship with an ISIS female recruiter, Umm Isa Al-Amriki, based in Aleppo, and would retweet ISIS material posted by her, and they later spoke on Telegram, the court heard.

Al-Amriki, who was married to an ISIS fighter, was killed in a drone strike in May 2016.

Boular had developed a group of contacts within ISIS through her, and received videos of executions and propaganda, jurors were told.

During one chat, Hussain asked Boular how she would kill President Barack Obama 'if u had da choice', the court heard.

She told him 'shake my hand with Mr President' and sent two images of explosions.

During one chat, on 16 August 2016, they discussed marriage, having children and the 3,000 Hussain had sent to fund their travel, the court heard.

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC told the court Boular had communicated with ISIS loyalists

Hussain told her that 'belts are a must', adding: 'Don't eva b hesitant 2 pull da pin... Ur honour is worth more than any kaafirs life.'

When Safaa asked 'Does the pin make me go', he replied: 'Yes straight away.'

In a later message, she said: 'When ur teaching me how to use it in sha Allah Don't actually pull the pin k.'

Hussain then told her 'it is us vs' followed by a photo of former US President Barack Obama.

'This was not a conversation in which Mr Hussain was bullying Safaa or tricking her,' said Mr Atkinson.

'This was a conversation in which she was signing up to what he was suggesting.'

The Old Bailey were told she planned to attack people at random at the British Museum

When Hussain was killed on April 4 last year, she allegedly arranged to receive weapons in order to conduct an attack in the UK, and received instructions on how to train and use weapons, the court heard.

Mr Atkinson, told the Old Bailey: 'Based on her preparation and discussion, it appears she planned to launch an attack against members of the public, selected largely at random, in the environs of that cultural jewel and most popular of tourist attractions, the British Museum, in central London.

'This would have been an attack that would, at the very least have caused widespread panic, but was intended to involve the infliction of serious injury and death.'

She also told a police officer posing as an ISIS fighter that all she needed was a 'car and a knife to get what I want to achieve', the court heard.

After Safaa, 18, was remanded in custody she encouraged her older sister to carry out an attack instead, referring it to as a 'party', it was said.

Boular, 18, sat in the dock at the Old Bailey next to a custody officer. She denies terrrorism

Prosecutor Mr Atkinson said Boular had intended to carry out an attack using a 'Tokarev', a type of Russian pistol, or a grenade, referred to as 'pineapples'.

Mr Atkinson told the Old Bailey: 'This was therefore a plan to unleash violence and terror in the heart of London, and more particularly at a location busy with members of the public and tourists.'

Boular allegedly told an undercover officer Hussain she 'mentioned something about a British Museum and the tokarev and pineapple.'

Boular was remanded into Medway Secure Training Unit in Kent on April 12, but phone calls with her older sister and their mother showed the plan was to be handed over to Rizlaine.

Within a week they were discussing having a 'party', which the prosecution suggested was code for a terrorist attack.

Rizlaine Boular later told her they would be having a 'party' on April 27, the court heard.

Boular joked about putting flowers in Westminster after last year's terror attack, the jury heard

References were made to 'recipes', to what people would wear, as well as to 'mad hatters tea party' and 'Alice in Wonderland', jurors were told.

The prosecutor said: 'Rizlaine Boular admitted she was going to carry out an attack on that day.'

On April 25 Rizlaine and her mother went on a reconnaissance journey around the major landmarks in Westminster and the next day bought a pack of knives, including one with a six inch blade, and a rucksack, jurors heard.

In his opening speech, defence barrister Joel Bennathan QC said: 'Safaa Boular was groomed. She was a child who was sexually groomed.

'Someone who was groomed to be radicalised. That's what happened to this young person.

'She was at the age of 15 in ill health with badly controlled diabetes, from an unhappy, very difficult home background. An unloved 15-year-old when suddenly she found new friends.'

Investigators listened in to calls Boular made from Medway Secure Training Unit in Kent

But the woman she had befriended was actually an ISIS recruiter, jurors heard.

She also found a man, Naweed Hussain, who appeared to 'like her and love her', the QC added.

But he was a married man in his 30s with ISIS in Syria. 'He made it his business to recruit and radicalise women. A number of women over the internet, groomed, sexually groomed we say,' Mr Bennathan said.

He added: 'You might think she suddenly got what she never got before - which was approval, warmth, admiration and love.

'Even with a very normal teenager talking on their phone, it's probably a mix of some truth, some exaggeration, some make belief fantasies about what they think will impress people.

'You really can't take what she is saying literally as the prosecution would have you do.'

He said the evidence of her allegedly plotting a UK attack 'doesn't get close to showing she had that real genuine intention'.

He added: 'Did her family stop this process happening? No, they encouraged it, they celebrated it.'

Safaa Boular denies two charges of preparing acts of terrorism between January 1 2016 and April 13 2017.

Her mother, Mina Dich, 44, and sister Rizlaine Boular, 22, previously pleaded guilty preparing acts of terrorism.Donald Trump's personal attorney says the president was not involved in Michael Cohen's financial dealings, and payments Trump's former attorney received from clients looking for insight into his administration have nothing to do with the president.

Rudy Giuliani told Bloomberg on Wednesday that Trump was 'unaware' of the payments that added up than $2 million from AT&T, Novartis and Columbus Nova, a firm with ties to a Russian oligarch.

'The president is not involved in any respect. Its a dead issue as far as Im concerned,' Giuliani said.

Rudy Giuliani told Bloomberg on Wednesday that Donald Trump was 'unaware' of the payments that added up than $2 million from AT&T, Novartis and Columbus Nova, a firm with ties to a Russian oligarch.

Giuliani also told the Huffington Post on Wednesday afternoon that Cohen's latest legal woes had nothing to do with Trump, who is no longer represented by the lawyer and fixer.

'Theres not involvement of the president in any of that,' he said. 'We cant be responsible for what Michael Cohen is doing.'

A former politician himself, Giuliani said he wouldn't appreciate finding out that his attorney had been accepting large sums of money in exchange for access to his office, but he said, 'I wouldnt be investigated for it.'

He declined to comment on Trump's feelings about the matter to Bloomberg.

Avenatti is focused on $500,000 in payments linked to a Russian oligarch and $400,000 fro a pharmaceutical giant to an LLC controlled by Michael Cohen (pictured)

On Wednesday the Treasury Departments inspector general launched an investigation into the source of leaked documents that revealed Cohen's financial dealings while he was still Trump's lawyer but had branched out beyond his work for the Trump Organization.

The documents made their way into lawyer Michael Avenatti's hands and onto the internet.

Avenatti is the attorney to Stormy Daniels - the porn star alleging she had an affair with Trump before he was president.

Daniel's lawyer revealed millions in payments that were funneled into an LLC set-up by Cohen, who is under federal investigation, weeks before the 2016 election.

Avenatti published documents detailing the payments, then used them to ridicule Cohen on Wednesday.

Cohen had used the same LLC to transmit $130,000 in hush money to Daniels.

'Who knew Mr. Cohen was such a brilliant renaissance man?' quipped Avenatti online, in reference to all the firms lining up for the Trump confidant's guidance on health, telecom, industry, and other policy matters.

While Avenatti put the initial focus on a Russian oligarch connected to a firm that paid Cohen $500,000, major U.S. companies have confirmed they also made six-figure payments to Cohen after the election.

'The president is not involved in any respect. Its a dead issue as far as Im concerned,' Giuliani said Wednesday of Cohen's latest legal woes

'Priceless = Watching all of the companies that sent money to the LLC slush fund come up with different alleged reasons for hiring Mr. Cohen  'accounting advice,' 'real estate consulting,' 'insight,' etc. Who knew Mr. Cohen was such a brilliant renaissance man? #nonsense #basta,' said Avenatti.

He was referencing corporate statements like one from AT&T, which said: 'Essential Consulting was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration.'

A pharmaceutical giant also confirmed big payments to Cohen, but a spokesman said 'any agreements with Essential Consultants were entered before our current CEO taking office in February of this year and have expired,' NBC reported.

Avenatti replied: 'And now Novartis claims they hired Mr. Cohen for "healthcare" matters (they paid him approx $1 Million). Wow - he's a doctor as well!! Very talented guy this Mr. Cohen. #basta.'

'#Basta' is Avenatti's signature hashtag for 'enough.'

The Washington Post said Wednesday afternoon that Treasury Inspector General Eric Thorson had launched an investigation into the document leak in response to media report's on Cohen's banking records.

Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels' lawyer, revealed millions in payments that were funneled into an LLC set-up by Cohen, who is under federal investigation, weeks before the 2016 election.

Avenatti declined to tell the Post how he obtained the documents that he'd been asking the Treasury Department to make public. He's said for weeks the government entity should share copies of all of Cohen's suspicious transactions.

Cohen is currently under investigation by the feds. The FBI raided his dwellings over the payment he made to Daniels that he said at the time he had not been financially compensated for by the president.

The government could find that the payoff amounted to an illegal campaign contribution because it was made with the presidential election in mind.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani revealed last week that the president paid Cohen back for the favor -- and wrote him checks for a whole lot more.

On ABC's 'Good Morning America' Wednesday, Avenatti tried to keep the pressure on President Trump. 'Michael Cohen and the president can clear this up this morning very easily,' he said.

Avenatti mocked Cohen as a 'brilliant renaissance man'

Stormy Daneils lawyer Michael Avenatti did a TV and Twitter tour Wednesday where he mocked longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen

'Each company has given a different reason for retaining Michael Cohen,' Avenatti told host George Stephanopoulos.

'Real estate, business consulting health care consulting  the list goes on and on,' he continued. 'There may in fact be something wrong. For the following reason: Hes not a registered lobbyist. He hasnt made required disclosures relating to lobbing activities.'

Lobbying rules require disclosure when actively lobbying Congress or the administration, but not necessarily for consulting activities.

When Stephanopoulos pointed out that AT&T says Cohen did not lobby for the firm, Avenatti responded: 'Then whatd they hire him for then? Its unclear right? Clearly its unclear. In fact the more you dig, the more stories we hear from this company,' he said.

'If hes taking money from a foreign national that could pose a significant legal problem for him as it relates to taking dollars from overseas companies,' he continued.

Avenatti also alleges that the payout to Daniels could be linked to a large sum of money Cohen received for a Russian oligarch.

He said Tuesday evening that the oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg transferred approximately $500,000 to Cohen in 2017. The funds came in several installments in 2017.

Daniels' lawyer was the first to reveal that payments came through a company called Columbus Nova, a U.S. investment vehicle that he claims is controlled by Vekselberg.

The transfer came months after Cohen wired $130,000 to Daniels.

A lawyer for Columbus Nova said the firm is entirely American  although the statement did not address the prior composition of the firm before sanctions went into effect.

The financial records cited by Avenatti were later confirmed as authentic by The New York Times and NBC News.

Following Avenattis allegations, CNN subsequently reported that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators had questioned the oligarch about the nature and reason for the payments. The network said it also had reviewed documents purporting to show the payments to Cohen.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) and her lawyer Michael Avenatti. Avenatti produced an investigation he says shows suspicious payments to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen. Avenatti alleges that a Russian oligarch reimbursed longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen following his payment to the porn star who claims she had an affair with President Trump

Avenatti said Tuesday evening that the oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg transferred approximately $500,000 to Cohen in 2017. The funds came in several installments in 2017

Columbus Nova released a statement to CNN after it reported the payments that said: 'Columbus Nova is a management company solely owned and controlled by Americans,' the statement said.

'After the inauguration, the firm hired Michael Cohen as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures.

'Reports today that Viktor Vekselberg used Columbus Nova as a conduit for payments to Michael Cohen are false.

'The claim that Viktor Vekselberg was involved or provided any funding for Columbus Nova's engagement of Michael Cohen is patently untrue.

'Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else other than Columbus Nova's owners, were involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement.'

Avenatti had previously said on Twitter, 'After significant investigation, we have discovered that Mr. Trump's atty Mr. Cohen received approximately $500,000 in the mos. after the election from a company controlled by a Russian Oligarc [sic] with close ties to Mr. Putin. These monies may have reimbursed the $130k payment.'

The CEO of Novartis, Vas Narasimhan, is one of several company heads who met with Trump during the president's trip to Davos, Switzerland

According to his seven-page document, Cohen 'inexplicably accepted these payments while he was the personal attorney to the president and holding himself out at times as employed by the Trump Organization.'

Aventti also outlined what he calls 'suspicious financial transactions in the amount of $400,000 from big pharmaceutical company Novartis that went to Essential Consultants, LLC, which was created by Cohen.

Trump met with the CEO of the firm during his trip to Davos, Switzerland.

The then-incoming CEO, Vas Narasimhan, is one of several company heads who met with Trump.

Cohen had established an LLC, Essential Consultants, in October of 2016, just weeks before the presidential election, and used it as a vehicle to pay Daniels.

Cohen negotiated the NDA with Daniels' then-lawyer, using pseudonyms for Trump and Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Avenatti's report noted that Cohen has claimed in the past he got the funds from a home equity loan.

'Mr. Cohen inexplicably accepted these payments while he was the personal attorney to the President and holding himself out at times as employed by the Trump Organization (with few other clients). This was occurring at the same time significant questions were being raised relating to (a) the involvement of Russia and Vladimir Putin in the 2016 Presidential Election and (b) the extent of the relationship between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump.'

Avenatti also stated that AT&T provided $200,000 in four payments to Essential Consutants in 2017 and 2018, while a company called Korea Aerospace Industries provided $150,000.

AT&T confirmed the payments in a statement to Reuters  saying they were made to gain 'understanding' of the new Trump administration.

In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday evening, Avenatti said the payments had the hallmarks of a 'pay-to-play' scheme run by Cohen in order to 'sell access to the president of the United States.'

'From the series of payments made through the US entity of the oligarch, it appears this may be your typical pay-to-play scenario where you have someone close to the president of the United States selling potential access to [him],' Avenatti said.

'[Cohen] had to have been receiving the money for something, and it's unclear what the excuse is as to why he was receiving this money.'

When asked if the payments had any connection to the $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, Avenatti said it is possible.

'We don't know yet [for sure],' Avenatti said when asked if the payment was to 'replenish the coffers' that were emptied by the Daniels transaction.

The payments to Essential Consultants were made months after the payment was arranged for Daniels just before the November 2016 elections.

Soon after Avenatti posted the information on Twitter, Giuliani bashed the attorney.

'I have no idea how he would know that,' Giuliani told Bloomberg News. 'I have no reason to believe that anything he says is true,' Giuliani said.

'I consider [Avenatti] now sort of a guy who books for Saturday Night Live.

'The guy is a pretty unsuccessful lawyer - can't remember a case he's ever had that meant anything - and I think he's desperate for money.'

The Saturday Night Live reference was in response to Daniels' appearance on the most recent episode in which she lampooned Trump and called on him to resign.

Avenatti responded angrily to Giuliani on Twitter.

'Mr. Giuliani - you just called me a 'pretty unsuccessful lawyer' and stated that you 'can't remember a case he's ever had that meant anything',' Avenatti tweeted on Tuesday.

'1st, you obviously can't remember much. 2nd, check my bio and you will find over a BILLION worth of verdicts and settlements. #dumb'A Missouri mother has pleaded guilty to letting her blind, autistic son die in a field - but could spend as little as 120 days in jail.

Kimberly Lightwine, 43, was found in a southwestern Missouri field in August 2016 suffering a broken jaw and a crushed leg. Next to her was her disabled 19-year-old son Austin Anderson, who was dead.

Austin was dehydrated, which had caused his brain to swell, and authorities believe he went into shock because he missed a dose of life-saving medication.

Both mother and son were wearing only their underwear when they were found, Polk County deputies told the Springfield News-Leader.

When she was taken in for questioning, authorities said Lightwine had told them: 'I killed my kid'.

Missouri mother Kimberly Lightwine (left) has pleaded guilty to the involuntary manslaughter of her blind, autistic son Austin (right)

Courtesy of KSPR

Earlier reports on the case say a probable cause statement filed when Lightwine was charged claimed the 43-year-old told police she had driven Austin to a field and let him die.

'It's my fault,' she allegedly said.

'You should charge me with murder right now for my son's death, and I'm not joking.'

Lightwine's sister claimed the mother had substance abuse problems, and she believes there is more to the story.

Stephanie Salgoa claimed Lightwine was abducted, drugged, driven out to the field with her son and the pair were left for dead.

'When she made the comment that she killed her son, she was meaning that she wasn't able to get up off the ground to care for him and attend to his needs,' Saloga said in 2016.

'Anybody who knows my sister knows that she loves that boy more than life itself. She would never, ever hurt him.'

Kimberly (left) and Austin (right) were found wearing nothing but their underwear in a field in August 2016. Kimberly had suffered a crushed leg and a broken jaw, while Austin, 19, was found dead

Lightwine's Facebook profile is a shrine to her son. The social media page is full of photographs of the pair, and her biography centres on the 19-year-old.

'Without my boy I am nothing. With him... I am everything! One proud Momma rite [sic] here,' it reads.

Photographs taken on Tuesday of a memorial set up for Austin show a keyboard, stereo and bunches of colourful flowers surrounding a large plaque.

A string of bells is also seen hanging off a handmade cross.

Lightwine was initially charged with 2nd degree murder, but pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter on Wednesday.

She has been ordered to complete a 120-day rehabilitation program for substance abuse, at which point she will be released on probation.

Her attorney, Jason Coatney, told the News-Leader the mother had no recollection of how she ended up in the field, and said he was happy his client was given a second chance with rehab.

'I was pleased that the state was agreeable to this,' he said. 'Frankly, I think it's the right thing to do.'

If Lightwine does not complete the program, she will spend seven years behind bars. Upon completion of rehabilitation, she will be released on five years probation.

The 19-year-old had suffered a swollen brain from dehydration, and authorities believe he went into shock after missing a dose of important medication

His memorial is covered in musical instruments and flowers, while a stereo sits on a log nearby



Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that he believes its time for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to finish his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and other potential misdeeds by people in President Donald Trump's orbit.

'In the interests of the country, I think its time to wrap it up,' Pence told NBC News in an airplane hangar following the return home of three Americans who had been held prisoner by North Korea.

Pence said the Trump administration has 'fully cooperated' with Muellers probe, including turning over more than 1 million documents. But he wouldn't respond to a question about whether he agrees with the president that the entire case is a 'hoax.'

Trump has called the investigation a 'witch hunt'; his outside counsel, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has called on the Justice Department to put an end to the probe.

'I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion,' Pence added Thursday.

Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that it's time for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to be done with his year-long investigation into Russia's election meddling in 2016

Mueller has reportedly gone far afield from his original mandate, probing business relationships of the Trump family and the work of his personal attorney in a hush-money case involving a pornographic actress

President Donald Trump, shown in the wee hours of Thursday morning greeting three former prisoners back to the U.S. from North Korea, could be facing a subpoena from Mueller  and a lengthy legal struggle to try and quash it

The vice president was pressed on the news about millions of dollars in payments from companies to Trumps personal attorney Michael Cohen. Pence said that was a 'private matter' and 'something I dont have any knowledge about.'

Cohen, Trumps self-described longtime 'fixer' is also under investigation for his role in paying hush money to a porn star in the days leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

The adult film actress, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels, says she had a torrid affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007, just after future first lady Melania Trump gave birth to their son Barron.

Hanging heavy over the Mueller probe is the possibility that Trump himself could face a subpoena if he listens to his his lawyers' advice and refuses a formal interview with the special counsel.

But Trump fears Mueller's operation is biased against him: 'We have 13 people and theyre all Democrats  real Democrats. Angry Democrats'

Pence said: 'I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion'

Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani says the president could plead the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions  if the White House were to lose an inevitable court challenge to the subpoena's legality.

It is longstanding Justice Department policy that a president can't be criminally indicted. That puts Mueller in the position of having to explain the point of forcing Trump to give Grand Jury testimony.

Mueller could grant him immunity from criminal prosecution, a situation that could compel Trump to testify under oath  potentially saying things that could be used against him in an impeachment proceeding.

Such a situation would draw a new round of legal challenges since impeachment is reserved exclusively for Congress  and Mueller, as a Justice Department employee, works for the Executive Branch of the federal government.

Last week on ABC, Giuliani said he can't be 'confident' Trump would not refuse to answer questions on the his absolute Fifth Amendment right to avoid incriminating himself.

Trump told DailyMail.com as he left the White House last Friday that he would only let Mueller interview him if he thought he could get a fair shake

Rudy Giuliani said recently that Trump could plead the Fifth Amendment if Mueller subpoenas him

'How can I ever be confident of that?' Giuliani asked. 'I've got a client who wants to testify... I hope we get a chance to tell him the risk that he's taking.' panel that previously investigated allegations of Russian collusion with Trump's 2016 campaign organization, slapped down Giuliani's claim.

'He is going to need to comply with a subpoena. If they take that case to court, they are going to lose,' Schiff said.

President Trump said Friday that he is still willing to talk directly with Mueller but worries that the deck would be stacked against him.

He said his his legal team is counseling him against giving Mueller the chance to quiz him about his campaign's links to the Kremlin, and about claims that he obstructed justice in 2017 by firing then-FBI Director James Comey.

'I would love to speak, but I have to find that we're going to be treated fairly,' Trump said at the White House. 'I would love to speak because we've done nothing wrong.'Two people named Michael Cohen whose bank transactions ended up in a bombshell report by Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti say they are not President Trump's lawyer.

One of the men, a Canadian international consultant, has written Avenatti demanding he correct the 'scurrilous rumor' that began when a bank transaction relating to him ended up in a report meant to feature influence peddling by the New York Michael Cohen.

The Michael Cohen who represents Trump, owns Trump Tower real estate, negotiated a nondisclosure agreement, and is under criminal investigation in connection with the Stormy Daniels matter, is battling back in court with a filing pointing out the errors.

His lawyer, Stephen Ryan, filed a 24-page motion with U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood seeking that Avenatti not be allowed to appear in court in New York for spreading the information, and for apparently obtaining Michael Cohen's bank records.

Michael Cohen (L), U.S. President Donald Trump's personal attorney, stands with his attorney Stephen M. Ryan after finding out the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing at which they were to appear was canceled, on September 19, 2017 in Washington, DC

He wants to have Avenatti's pro hac vice application denied  which would prevent the California lawyer from being able to argue in a New York court.

One of the wrong Michael Cohens is a Canadian who was identified in Avenatti's report as getting a $4,250 transfer from Actuarial Partners Conusulting SDN to a bank in Toronto.

It is listed under a section in Avenatti's document on 'possible fraudulent and illegal financial transactions,' which also describes a Malaysia connection. But according to the Canadian Michael Cohen's email, the payment 'was for legitimate work performed on their behalf in respect to a project in Tanzania.'

'The Michael Cohen who was actually involved in this transaction has expressed grave concerns about the breach of his privacy by Mr. Avenatti's apparently improper possession and publication of his personal bank records,' wrote Ryan.

Yet another Michael Cohen got a $980 transfer 'from a Kenyan bank from acccountholders Netanel Cohen and Stav Hayun to an account in Israel at Bank Hapoalim,' Israel's largest bank.

Lawyer Michael Avenatti posted information on more than $4 million that made its way through a Michael Cohen-established LLC. But some of the payments were revealed to relate to different Michael Cohens. Avenatti says 99 per cent of the payments are to Trump's lawyer, and firms that made them confirmed they were made

Cohen's lawyer Stephen Ryan wrote a blistering 24-page court filing where he seeks to prevent Avenatti from arguing a case in New York court for revealing his client's financial information and for the errors

The 26-year old Michael Cohen told NBC, 'I am an Avionic technician in El Al airlines. So, no, not a lawyer,' speaking from Israel, where, as in the U.S., the name is common.

'No, I never talk with or meet Trump.' He further explained: 'He owed me some money. My whole family was surprised [at the publicity]. Friends called me, It was a crazy day,' he said.

Avenatti dismissed the errors as being a tiny fraction of what was in his report. It also showed a $500,000 payment from a company tied to a Russian oligarch, $400,000 from a Swiss pharmaceutical company, and $200,000 from AT&T going to Trump's longtime lawyer. The companies confirmed the amount, and the Novartis contract has been revealed to be $1.2 million for work that included just a single meeting.

'Mr. Ryan's submission on behalf of Mr. Cohen is baseless, improper and sanctionable,' wrote Avenatti on Twitter. 'They fail to address, let alone contradict, 99% of the statements in what we released. Among other things, they effectively concede the receipt of the $500,000 from those with Russian ties.'

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) and Michael Avenatti, attorney for Stormy Daniels, speak to the media as they exit the United States District Court Southern District of New York for a hearing related to Michael Cohen, President Trump's longtime personal attorney and confidante, April 16, 2018 in New York City

Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti did a TV and Twitter tour Wednesday where he mocked longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen

"This document is concerning for a number of reasons, including the number of blatantly incorrect statements it contains,' Cohen's lawyer Stephen Ryan wrote.

He also mentions the detailed financial information Avenatti was somehow able to obtain.

'We have no reason to believe that Mr. Avenatti is in lawful possession of these bank records,' Ryan wrote.

The revelations triggered a series of questions about influence-peddling by Cohen, who promised firms access to Trump when negotiating what were described as consulting arrangements.

The Treasury Departments inspector general has launched an investigation into the source of leaked documents, which some observers have remarked could have come from the agency's FinCen unit.Gina Haspel, President Donald Trumps pick for CIA director, faced tough questions at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on her time running a blacksite prison in Thailand where terror suspects were reportedly waterboarded after 9/11.

Now, one of the masterminds behind the New York Twin Towers terror attack in 2001 Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, has asked a military judge at Guantanamo Bay for permission to share information about Gina Haspel with the Committee.

CIA director nominee and acting CIA Director Gina Haspel puts away her pen as she concludes her testimony at her Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing

Due to this mounting scrutiny from Democrats and Republicans alike, including Arizona Senator John McCain, the White House is getting a replacement CIA nominee ready in case Gina Haspel is not confirmed.

Dubbed 'Bloody Gina' by protestors, she has already pledged that she will not restart a similar interrogation program if she was confirmed to lead the CIA.

Haspel tried to withdraw her nomination but the White House begged her to remain, but who is Gina Haspel?

Who is Gina Haspel?

Born Gina Cheri Walker on October 1, 1956 in Ashland, Kentucky, Gina attended school in the UK before studying at the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, graduating in languages and journalism.

After working as a library coordinator at Fort Devens in Massachusetts, she joined the CIA in 1985 as a reports officer and held several undercover positions, including many as station chief.

Ginas first field assignment was in Ethiopia, Central Eurasia and Turkey from 1987 to 1989 and she had several assignments in similar areas from 1990 to 2001.

CIA nominee Gina Haspel seen at her confirmation hearing at the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in May 2018 in Washington

Gina Haspel torture

From 2001 to 2003, she was a Deputy Group Chief, Counterterrorism Center and between the months of October and December 2002, she was a station chief at a secret CIA prison in Thailand.

The prison, which had the codename Cats Eye, housed those suspected of being involved in Al-Qaeda and used interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, considered by many to be torture although a legal method at the time.

After this position, Gina served as the Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service, Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action and Chief of Staff for the Director of the National Clandestine Service.

Jose Rodriguez, Director of the National Clandestine Service, to whom Gina Haspel was Chief of Staff, revealed in his memoir that 92 video tapes made at the Thailand prison had been destroyed because of public scrutiny.

In 2014, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) pressed charges against unidentified CIA operatives and three years later, the organisation called on the Public Prosecutor General of Germany to issue an arrest warrant for Gina Haspel over claims she oversaw torture of terror suspects.

Gina Haspel seen sitting and ready to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on her nomination to be the next CIA director in Washington, DC in May 2018

After taking up the position as Acting Director of the National Clandestine Service, in 2017, Trump appointed Haspel Deputy Director of the CIA, but days later, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee urged the President to change his mind because of the video tape controversy.

In March 2018, Trump announced his nomination for Gina Haspel to become CIA Director with Mike Pompeo taking over as Secretary of State. If confirmed, she would be the first woman to serve in this role.

In May, Spencer Ackerman reported in The Daily Beast that former CIA analyst Gail Helt had revealed that some video tapes had not been destroyed and soon after, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed requested to submit six paragraphs of information for the Senate to review before Haspels confirmation vote.

It is not clear whether or not this information will reveal that Gina Haspel was involved in Mohammeds torture.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged 9/11 mastermind seen here shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan in 2003

Gina Haspel hearing

Amid amounting public scrutiny, Gina Haspel was called to her confirmation hearing at the Senate to answer questions about how she would work under Trump as CIA director and her past as a station chief at the secret prison in Thailand.

'I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if was technically legal. I would absolutely not permit it,' Haspel told the Senate Intelligence Committee.

She continued to say: 'Having served in that tumultuous time, I can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and without reservation, that under my leadership, on my watch, CIA will not restart such a detention and interrogation program,' Haspel testified.

CIA nominee Gina Haspel seen waiting for the Senate subway while she is on Capitol Hill for meetings with senators in May 2018

As a presidential candidate, Trump vowed to bring back techniques such as waterboarding, which is now illegal by US law and promised techniques a hell of a lot worse.

During the questioning, Republican Senator Susan Collins asked Gina Haspel whether she would use waterboarding if Trump gave her an order to do so.

'I do not believe the president would ask me to do that,' Haspel said, but did not say that she would refuse.

Haspel said there are 'other U.S. government entities that conduct interrogations,' adding, 'We're not in the business of interrogating detainees' at the CIA and that she would not restart the interrogation program under any circumstances.

'CIA has learned some tough lessons,' Haspel said, explaining that the agency was not prepared to conduct the detention and interrogation programme after 9/11.

Gina Haspel vote

After Gina Haspels confirmation hearing where she was questioned about her work for the George W. Bush administrations interrogation programme, Republicans and Democrats will vote in the Senate, where the former hold a slim 52 to 49 majority.

Only one Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has come forward to say that he will be supporting Haspel. Heres what the votes look like currently, according to CNN.

DEMOCRATS VOTING YES OR LIKELY VOTING YES

Sen. Joe Manchin (West Virginia)

DEMOCRATS VOTING NO OR LIKELY VOTING NO

Sen. Jon Tester (Montana)

Sen. Martin Heinrich (New Mexico)

Sen. Ed Markey (Massachusetts)

Sen. Brian Schatz (Hawaii)

Sen. Bob Casey (Pennsylvania)

Sen. Kamala Harris (California)

Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine)

REPUBLICANS VOTING YES OR LIKELY VOTING YES

Sen. Tom Cotton (Arkansas)

Sen. Dan Sullivan (Alaska)

Sen. Marco Rubio (Florida)

Sen. John Cornyn (Texas)

Sen. Mitch McConnell (Kentucky)

Sen. Susan Collins (Maine)

REPUBLICANS VOTING NO OR LIKELY VOTING NO

Sen. Rand Paul (Kentucky)

LIKELY NOT VOTING

GOP Sen. John McCain (Arizona)

All others are undecided.

Senator John McCain seen here speaking at a press conference about the National Defense Authorization Act in October 2017

Senator John McCain released a public statement where he encouraged the Senate to reject Haspel for the role because of her involvement in the interrogation program during the Bush years.

'Like many Americans, I understand the urgency that drove the decision to resort to so-called enhanced interrogation methods after our country was attacked.

I know that those who used enhanced interrogation methods and those who approved them wanted to protect Americans from harm.

'I appreciate their dilemma and the strain of their duty. But as I have argued many times, the methods we employ to keep our nation safe must be as right and just as the values we aspire to live up to and promote in the world.

'I believe Gina Haspel is a patriot who loves our country and has devoted her professional life to its service and defense. However, Ms. Haspels role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing.

'Her refusal to acknowledge tortures immorality is disqualifying. I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination.'

After the confirmation hearing, Trump tweeted in praise of Gina Haspel after McCains statement was released.

Contingency plans are being put in place after Gina Haspel has been condemned for her involvement in extreme interrogation techniques and other nominees are being floated, for example, Deputy Director of National Intelligence Susan Gordon has been considered as an option.Cocaine costs an average of 70 a gram - but users in the most expensive countries are paying more than double.

The Global Drug Survey 2018 revealed New Zealand and Australia had by far the priciest powder at 186.60 and 172.02 a gram respectively.

This was far higher than England at 72.84, the U.S. at 48.76. Unsurprisingly the cheapest was in top producer nation Colombia at just 4.76.

Cocaine costs an average of 70 a gram - but users in the most expensive countries are paying more than double

The strict border patrols, and the high cost of importing the drug into Australia, and New Zealand are thought to be the main drivers of the price.

But despite its high price, many users said they could get hold of it via home delivery faster than a pizza, with 30.3 per cent grabbing it within 30 minutes compared half that for pizzas.

Cementing its status as the world's most expensive drug, cocaine required far more disposable income than others the survey recorded prices for.

New Zealand was again the most expensive for MDMA, coming in at 18 a pill, followed by Norway on $16 and Australia at 15.50 - well above the 8.46 average.

American users paid 11 each and Scotland came in at about 10.5, with the cheapest country being the Netherlands for just 4.60.

LSB tabs cost about 7.20 each with Australia the most expensive on 10.33, Finland second at 9.90, Britain at 6.83, the U.S. at 5.84, and Netherlands at about 5.

The Global Drug Survey 2018 revealed New Zealand and Australia had by far the priciest powder at 186.60 and 172.02 a gram respectively

The strict border patrols, and the high cost of importing the drug into Australia, and New Zealand are thought to be the main drivers of the price

Survey respondents tried most drugs for the first time aged about 18 with marijuana by far the most popular drug with 57.6 per cent having tried it.

MDMA was the next most popular at 30.5 per cent, cocaine at 25.4 per cent, LSD on 19.7 and meth at 6.6 per cent.

About 46 per cent of marijuana users smoked it in the past year compared with 21.7 per cent for MDMA, 13.6 for cocaine, 11.1 for LSD and three per cent for meth.

Harder drugs were used on between 7.5 days a year for LSD and 10.5 days for cocaine.

The average time for same day delivery of cocaine for Denmark, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland and the US

The average delivery time for pizza and cocaine shows how a greater proportion of people get the latter within half an hour

Users were most likely to end up in hospital for smoking too much meth, with 2.5 per cent of users saying it had happened, well ahead of alcohol on 1.3 per cent.

Outliers included 8.9 per cent of Brazilians saying cocaine landing them in emergency, with Scotland in fourth with that drug at 2.2 per cent.

Scots were also almost twice as likely to need treatment for alcohol poisoning than any other country with 4.2 per cent admitted in the past year.

The 2018 survey was compiled from 130,000 people from more than 40 countries.Scammers are exploiting mobile phone network providers to steal from Australians  and it can happen in minutes.

The scam involves porting mobile phone numbers to a new sim card, owned by the fraudsters, which they can then use as a form of identification.

Lisa Johnston told 9News of her experience with the scam, saying that she answered a nondescript phone call which immediately hung up.

Lisa Johnston told of her experience with the scam, saying that she answered a nondescript phone call which immediately hung up and later the scammers withdrew $1000

Once your mobile phone number has been allocated to someone else they can then use it as a form of identity verification to confirm things such as bank transfers

Later that night Lisa got a text from Optus saying a request had been placed to port her number, followed 30 seconds later by a confirmation text from Vodafone confirming the request had been completed.

When she tried calling Optus, her service was not active then, 15 minutes later, she received a notification that $1000 had been withdrawn from her bank account.

Porting a number requires only basic details such as a name, address, and date of birth, which the scammers can acquire, along with bank account numbers, either by hacking methods or stealing your mail.

Once your mobile phone number has been allocated to someone else they can then use it as a form of identity verification to confirm things such as bank transfers.

By law network providers are required to fulfil a request to port a mobile phone number to new carrier within three hours.

Detective Chief Inspector Matt Craft told 9News that the scam has costs Australians $10 million in the last year and that the timeframe for number ports to complete should be extended.

'There needs to be time for a customer to respond and respond appropriately,' he said.A pair of lizards look startlingly human-like as they grapple in the Indian wilderness.

The two male Bengal monitors went head-to-head in captivating footage filmed at Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan.

Standing up on their hind legs and squaring up to each other, they twist and tumble their slithering bodies in a dramatic battle of wills.

Bengal monitors, which weigh a hefty 15 pounds, are widely found across southern Asia.

Though they live on land - with young ones often camping out in trees - they can swim underwater for an astonishing 17 minutes.

They often stand on their back legs to get a better view of their surroundings and males stand on their hind legs to fight.

The most impressive species of monitor is the Komodo dragon - the largest living lizard.

The writhing monitor lizards battle furiously in the wilderness in India, standing up on their hind legs in a human-like manner

One of the lizards viciously bites the other during the tense clash as they wrap their arms around each other and grapple

The monitors try to force each other to the ground in the struggle, filmed at Ranthambore National Park

In the clip they can be seen scrambling around and furiously grappling and biting as they try to pull each other to the ground.

During the tense clash, one of the lizards fiercely pins its sparring partner to the floor.

But seconds later the tides turn and the winning monitor is flipped over by the other.Ed Miliband has vowed the 'battle goes on' to secure a second Leveson inquiry in defiance of last night's vote by MPs.

The ex-Labour leader was humiliated by the Commons after he made an emotional plea for the Government to U-turn on its cancellation of a renewed probe.

Mr Miliband was defeated in the lobbies when he tried to re-write the Data Protection Bill to force ministers to commission a new inquiry into newspapers' behaviour.

The House of Lords could return to the issue as MPs deleted a clause in the bill specifying an inquiry should be held - meaning peers could force MPs to think again.

Ex-Labour leader Ed Miliband was humiliated by the Commons after he made an emotional plea for the Government to U-turn on its cancellation of a renewed probe

Miliband has vowed the 'battle goes on' to secure a second Leveson inquiry in defiance of last night's vote by MPs

Labour's attempt to crackdown on the press would make investigative journalism 'near impossible', the Culture Secretary Matt Hancock (pictured in the Commons today) warned

After he was defeated Mr MIiliband said: 'Very disappointed for the victims of phone-hacking and press abuse that we did not win the vote for Leveson 2.

'The battle goes on to keep our promise to them to get the truth they deserve and protection for victims in the future.'

Following the Commons vote last night, Culture Secretary Matt Hancock tweeted: 'A great day for a free and fair press. We will work with closely IPSO [the press regulator] to make sure their important work continues.'

Before the vote, Mr Hancock had earlier warned the Labour attempt to strangle the 'free and fair' press would kill off investigative journalism in Britain.

John Cleese mocked after saying he'd leave Britain if vote failed John Cleese was mocked online today after he insisted he would leave the UK if Labour's bid for a second Leveson inquiry failed. The former Monty Python comedian said the would be 'out of here' if Ed Miliband lost the vote, tweeting: 'I refuse to live in an England like this.' After the move was voted down today, followers asked him where he was planning to live. Richard Faughey wrote: 'Goodbye John. I would like to know just where you will go to live, where you believe there will be no corruption. If you believe Teresa May is corrupt you will struggle.' Another Twitter user joked: 'Try Somalia. Or Russia. They know to deal with pesky journalists.' Tabloid The Sunday Sport wrote simply: 'Missing you already...' Advertisement

And MPs lined up to defend the Press, with Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg hailing newspapers as 'overwhelmingly precious'.

He said: 'The freedom of the Press is so overwhelmingly precious, that we should preserve it, even if sometimes the Press upsets us.

'It is amazing how many people who have had run-ins with the Press have suddenly found that they think it should be more tightly regulated.'

When the vote finally came at 4pm, Mr MIliband's plan to force the second phase of inquiry failed 304 votes to 295, majority 9.

The failure to rally enough votes saw Labour deputy leader Tom Watson pull his own plans to force through punitive damages on newspapers - via the so-called section 40 law passed after Leveson one - after it became clear it would be defeated.

He had drawn up an amendment to try to force newspapers t o join the statebacked regulator Impress.

Those who refused would have to pay the entire legal costs whenever somebody sued them - even if they won the case.

Critics had warned the move would have a chilling effect on the media - undermining investigative journalism and hitting titles with such punitive costs it could force their closure.

Mr Miliband gesticulated wildly in the Commons as he claimed the failure to call the second round of the inquiry was a breach of 'honour'

Mr Miliband's new clause, which would have led to Leveson part two, was rejected

After the vote, the University of Kent's Professor of Journalism, Tim Luckhurst, tweeted: 'I am delighted that @hackinginquiry's appalling amendments were defeated in the Commons today.

'Were they ever to return, Britain's reputation as a bastion of free speech and a champion of democracy would be shattered. A free press serves us all.'

Jacob Rees-Mogg rallies to the defence of the press warning Leveson 2 would go against British justice Jacob Rees-Mogg issued a rallying defence of the press today - warning that Leveson 2 would go 'against British justice'. The Tory MP said launching the costly probe would mean subjecting people who have already been tried by UK courts through a similar ordeal all over again. He told the Commons: 'Hasn't this been decided in the jewel of our legal system, that is to say in front of a jury. 'Some people accused of things that would have been part of Leveson two have been acquitted and some, very few, have been convicted. 'Once somebody has been tried in front of a jury it is fundamentally unfair and unjust, it is a question of double jeopardy, if they are then brought before another tribunal, put once more on oath to repeat evidence that they have given before and then been acquitted. 'So it would be against British justice to proceed in this way.' Advertisement

Mr Hancock, opening the debate , said proposed new clauses would mean newspapers would risk having to pay costs even if a story was accurate and in the public interest.

He warned that the clauses would make it 'near impossible' to uncover stories of abuse as he highlighted the work of The Times' chief investigative reporter Andrew Norfolk, who uncovered the Rotherham child abuse scandal.

Mr Hancock said he wanted a free press that can 'hold the powerful to account' but also one that is fair.

'While I want to see a press that is free to report without fear or favour, and to uncover wrongdoing and to hold the powerful to account, I also want to see a press that is fair and accurate too.

'I am determined that we have a system that is strengthened so people have recourse to justice when things go wrong.'

He said regulator Ipso had recently brought in a system of 'compulsory low cost arbitration' which means 'ordinary people' can take claims to newspapers for a minimum of 50.

Mr Miliband launched a furious attack on the Government for not moving forward with Leveson two.

He told ministers that their actions had been 'contemptible'.

After quoting then Prime Minister David Cameron who had pledged to launch the second part of the inquiry in 2012, Mr Miliband said: 'No ifs, no buts, no maybes, a clear promise and a promise to victims, a promise to victims of the press and here we come along today and we have the Government saying 'let's dump this promise, it's too expensive, it's a distraction'.

'How dare they, how dare they to the McCanns, the Dowlers, all those other victims. How can we be here, I say to members across this House whatever party they are in, this is about our honour.

'This is a matter of honour about the promise we made.'

Sir Brian Leveson published the first phase of his inquiry in November 2012. The Government has cancelled the second partThe Seat Arona, Seat Ibiza and Volkswagen Polo are all at risk of the defect

Thousands of Volkswagens are at risk of a potentially deadly fault which causes seat belts to malfunction during high speed maneuvers - according to the manufacturer.

Finnish automotive magazine Tekniikan Maailma carried out a series of tests which found that the VW-made Seat Arona, Seat Ibiza and Volkswagen Polo were all at risk of the defect.

According to the testers, the middle belt buckle, which is mounted slightly higher than the one to its left can come undone when turning left at high speeds.

They found that a sharp movement, such as changing lanes or swerving sharply can pushes one buckle onto the other - releasing the belt from its holder.

Scroll down for video

The Volkswagen Polo mk. 6 (pictured) is one of the models affected by the rear seat safety belt defects

The Seat Ibiza, which shares a number of parts with its VW equivalent, was also said to be affected

A VW spokesman has confirmed to Autocar that it is aware of the issue and said the brand 'will provide a technical solution shortly and recall the vehicles concerned'.

The Finnish testers said it happened on numerous occasions within each model as they tested several of the same type to make sure it wasn't an isolated fault.

'According to our judgement, the unlatching is caused by a design fault,' Tekniikan Maailma said in a statement.

'The easiest fix for the problem would be either to shorten or lengthen the attaching belt of the middle buckle by a couple of centimetres.'

VW's spokesman said that its recall will be 'carried out in co-operation with the national vehicle registration authorities, who also approve the safety recall measures.

'As an immediate action, we will inform customers and advise not to have passengers use the middle rear seat of current Polo models (Mk6) until the cars have been equipped with the redesigned belt lock fixture.'

Seat has also confirmed that it has found the same issue during new tests of the Arona and Ibiza. A spokesman for the brand said: 'We're working on possible solutions for it and will inform you about the final decision as soon as possible.'Advertisement

The preparations for the Royal wedding have got off to a flying start with the RAF and Army Air Crops practising their duties for the big day.

Military personnel were seen flying helicopters, practising marches and sword drills at the Army Air Corp's Wattisham Airfield and RAF Honington today ahead of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding on May 19.

Harry, 33, served with the 3 Regiment Air Corps while he was in Afghanistan and some of the soldiers who fought alongside him will be 'pride of place' outside St George's Chapel in Windsor as the newlyweds emerge next Saturday.

Military personnel were seen flying helicopters, practising marches and sword drills at the Army Air Corp's Wattisham Airfield (3 Regiment Army Air Corps pictured) and RAF Honington today ahead of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding

Flight Lieutenant Jess Donnelly practices her sword drill for the Royal wedding guard of honour at RAF Honington today

An Apache helicopter is pictured landing at Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk today as it practises for its Royal Wedding duties

He flew inside the same Apache helicopters spotted at the Suffolk airfield today when he served in Helmand in late 2012.

Over 250 members of the Armed Forces will be on various ceremonial duties on the day, with certain regiments with a special relationship to Prince Harry providing support on Kensington Palace's request.

Twenty-three soldiers, one sergeant and one officer from Harry's former Army Air Corps regiment will line the street outside the chapel where the royal couple will say their vows.

During his Army days, Harry was known as Captain Wales, part of the 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, where he worked as an Apache helicopter pilot.

Prince Harry flew the same Apache helicopters pictured at the Suffolk airfield today when he served in Helmand in 2012

3 Regiment Army Air Corps is pictured led by Lieutenant Colonel N English as they practise marching at Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk today

Lieutenant Colonel N English leads his regiment in preparation for the Royal wedding in Windsor next Saturday

3 Regiment Army Air Corps practise marching for when they line the streets outside Windsor Castle next Saturday

Twenty-three soldiers, one sergeant and one officer from Harry's former Army Air Corps regiment (pictured at Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk today) will line the street outside the chapel where the royal couple will say their vows

Over 250 members of the armed forces will be on duty on Royal wedding day including the Army Air Corps (pictured today)

Members of Prince Harry's former Army Air Corps regiment are seen practising for his wedding day at Wattisham in Suffolk

An Apache helicopter is pictured on display at Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk today practising for the Royal wedding on May 19

Captain William Calder, who will be half company commander on the day and lead his soldiers in a royal salute, said he had some nerves ahead of the wedding.

He said: 'We will march through Windsor into the castle in time for the end of the wedding and as the couple and the royal family depart, we will be pride of place presenting them with a royal salute as they emerge from the chapel.

'It makes me a little bit nervous that we will be front and centre  the Queen and the senior members of the royal family will be stepping out the door right beside us and I'll probably be positioned about five metres from them.'

Captain Calder, 32, says his unit has been training hard ahead of May 19 and was 'stunned' when he found out he would be getting such a key role.

Members of the RAF will also be taking part in ceremonial duties for the Royal wedding, they are pictured at RAF Honington

Members of the RAF are pictured standing to attention as they rehearse for their roles on the Royal wedding day next week

A female member of the RAF is pictured standing to attention in preparation for her role in Harry and Meghan's wedding

Flight Sergeant Bromell shouts orders during practice for the Royal wedding guard of honour at RAF Honington today

Flight Sergeant Bromell is pictured practising a sword drill at RAF Honington ahead of the Royal Wedding in Windsor

30mm dummy ammunition on display at Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk as 3 Regiment Army Air Corps prepare for the wedding

He said: 'For us stepping into ceremonial duties is something a little bit outside of our remit but it's a nice, special treat and something different.'

Capt Calder said his only meeting with the prince was a chance encounter at the cafe at Army Aviation Centre at Middle Wallop, in Hampshire, where the royal asked him 'Can I join you?'

'I knew he looked familiar, finally it dawned on me it was Prince Harry and of course he was utterly natural and charming and friendly and just like any other officer in the regiment,' he said.

Another soldier who served with the prince during his time at Wattisham, Staff Sergeant North, said he too harbours a few nerves but he was confident the half company would be ready.

'It's a privilege,' he said. 'Obviously there will be a few thousand people in attendance and millions of people worldwide watching the event but to be one of the roughly 250 military personnel taking part, to be able to see it will be amazing.

Prince Harry is pictured with an Army colleague in Helmand Province, Afghanistan during his time with the Air Corps

He served as an Apache helicopter pilot and is pictured climbing out of one during his time there in 2012

Prince Harry served with the 3 Regiment Army Air Corps during his tour of Afghanistan before he left the forces in 2015

'There's always going a little bit of nerves and trepidation with anything you do to that level but by the time we get there, the training we conduct this week and next, we'll be looking smart and good to go.'

The 35-year-old, whose first wedding anniversary is the following day, will have to miss part of his daughter's fourth birthday to perform his duty.

He said she was 'delighted' her father was involved and she would probably watch a recording of the event later.

'I get to miss the soft play but I will be home in time for bedtime, which is the most important part and in time for the presents,' he said.

Members of the Royal Navy Small Ships and Diving unit, the Royal Marines, the Household Cavalry, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, the Royal Gurkha Rifles, 1st Batallion Irish Guards and RAF Honington regiment will be working in Windsor on the big day.The hero pilot of Southwest Airlines flight 1380 has told how she was not afraid while making an emergency landing on April 17 after a passenger was partially sucked out the window.

In an interview with ABC's 20/20 which will air in full on Friday night, Tammie-Jo Shults spoke alongside co-pilot Darren Ellisor about the incident which cost passenger Jennifer Riordan her life.

They were flying at 32,000ft when one of the Boeing 737-700's engines failed, sending a piece of shrapnel flying into Riordan's window.

Shults, 56, was not meant to be on the plane that day but had traded with her fellow Southwest pilot husband Dean so that she would be able to attend their son's track meet in Texas.

'It was really like any other flying day. I traded for the trip with my husband. Im not trading with him anymore.

Scroll down for video

Tammie-Jo Shults, 56, revealed in an interview which will air on Friday that she was not meant to fly Flight 1380 but switched with her husband so she could get home to Texas for her son's track meet

'Dean, being the amazing husband he is, said, "You go to the track meet, I'll switch and take your trip." And so that's why I was on the trip,' she said.

Describing the harrowing sound the engine explosion made, Ellisor , 44, said: 'We had a large bang and a rapid decompression.

'The aircraft yawed and banked to the left, a little over 40 degrees, and we had a very severe vibration from the number one engine that was shaking everything.

'And that all kind of happened all at once.'

Neither of them was scared. Rather than allow themselves to fret, they said they immediately reverted to what their training had taught them.

'You just realize, obviously, we're at the front end of the aircraft, so we're in charge,.

Shults swapped routes with her husband Dean (pictured) who also flies for Southwest Airlines

Co-pilot Darren Ellisor, 44, is a US Air Force veteran. He initiated the descent as Shults spoke to air traffic control after the engine failed at 32,000ft

'I don't remember anything other than starting to think through what the plan is. And it worked well,' she said.

'Your instincts kick in, you know, stuff that you've prepared for, you know, ever since you started flying  and this training just takes over.

'Was there some of that fear? There probably was deep down, but I, you know, pushed it away,' Ellisor added.

Shults said it thrust her back to her days flying in the Navy.

'My first thoughts were actually, "Oh, here we go." Just because it seems like a flashback to some of the Navy flying that we had done.

'And we had to use hand signals [and some yelling], because it was loud, and it was just hard to communicate for a lot of different reasons,' she said.

She and Ellisor were able to communicate despite the incredible noise in the cockpit.

At first, they thought it was a seizure of the engine's air but when the oxygen masks began to drop, they realized something else was occurring.

'It means the engine just stops rotating and spinning. And it was very disorienting to have all these things happen at once.

'And I actually couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on, you know, looking at the engine instruments, trying to figure things out.

'It's disorienting for a second before you grab everything and start flying again,' Ellisor explained.

Neither of the pilots knew that the window had been blown out. When the oxygen masks fell, they had to communicate with hand gestures and by shouting

Both Ellisor and Shults said they thought there had been an engine seizure which is when the engine stops 'rotating and spinning'. The loud bang triggered their descent but they were unaware of the smashed window and the fact that a passenger was partially sucked out of it until flight attendants told them

Shults and Ellisor said they would always have turned towards Philadelphia to make their landing but that they sped it up when they realized how urgent the situation was when the oxygen masks dropped. They were still unaware of what had happened to Riordan at this stage.

'The seizure of the aircraft would not cause a rapid decompressions, so we knew that something extraordinary had happened pretty quickly.

Jennifer Riordan, 43, was pronounced dead at hospital not long after landing. The upper half of her body was sucked out of the smashed window at 32,000ft

'We would have turned to Philadelphia anyway and started coming down, we just wouldn't have tried to get down so quickly. But getting down to richer oxygen was certainly an important task,' Shults said.

As she spoke with the people on the ground, Ellisor took controls of the plane which she said he handled 'beautifully'.

'He followed the aircraft and let it stay in a nice controlled flight status. And it was a bit of a rough shudder until we slowed it down a little bit,' she said.

They then switched back so that she could land it as is protocol.

'At that point, we really just -- because of the noise and different things -- we had to be flexible and just use things that we had learned in previous training.

'And we kind of just split the cockpit and I did flying and some of the outside talking, and he took care of everything else,' she said.

Ellisor put his oxygen mask on first then Shults fixed hers.

'We had some switchology to do to be able to communicate through the mask. And then it was really just back to flying. Aviate, communicate, navigate,' she added.

It was not until they were almost on the ground in Philadelphia that they realized a passenger had been severely hurt.

'[The flight attendants] let us know that we would need EMS immediately when we landed, Shults said.

'Thats when we decided it was time to go land,' Ellisor said.

After making their emergency landing in Philadelphia, Shults and Ellisor got out of the cockpit to speak to the traumatized passengers. In their interview, they said they wanted to treat them as they would their own family

Friday's interview is the first time the pair have spoken about the incident. They stayed away from the public eye in the days afterwards out of respect for Riordan's family, they said

With the medical emergency in mind, they switched their plan to carry out a long-approach landing to a short-approach landing instead.

Because the window had been blown out, it mean they had to change the way they were flying so that a gush of air did not blow through the aircraft.

The landing was rough but not as rough as it could have been, Ellisor said.

'It was an Air Force landing, not a typical, hard Navy landing.

'But Tammie Jo, she did a fantastic job, considering the condition of the aircraft and the situation it was. She made a great landing,' Ellisor said.

Once on the ground, the pair barely spoke to one another but finished their tasks then got out of the cockpit to speak to passengers, something Shults was widely credited for by all those on board who survived.

'My mother had told me, "If I'm flying, I want to know what's going on." So I thought I would treat them like I would treat my own family,' she said.

Ellisor stood at the front of the plane with EMT Andrew Needum and ranch hand Tim McGinty. He did not know it at the time, but the pair had pulled Riordan's body back into the aircraft then tried to resuscitate her as he and Shults made their descent.

Ellisor (left) and Shults were commended by President Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office on May 1

'I didn't know why they were standing up there -- but as the passengers came back, as we were getting all the passengers off, they hugged all three of us and were thanking all three of us.

'So I knew those two gentlemen had done something extraordinary,' he said.

Neither of the pilots spoke out in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.

Shults said in the interview that she wanted to not be visible out of respect for Riordan's family. The woman's husband has been generous in his praise of the pilot and crew who tried to save her life.

Shults said she and the other Southwest crew sent him a card expressing their condolences in the days after the incident.

'Hearing some of the things that her husband has said subsequently that just makes us think what a sweet and rich family they are.

'We wanted to be respectful and let them have some time to mourn without us being public.'

Shults was one of the first female pilots in the US Navy. She is pictured in 1992

After landing in Philadelphia, Ellisor got in touch with his wife to say that he was unharmed.

The pair had an emotional reunion by the time he made it home.

Shults' son Marshall, who she had changed her plans for, gave her a less emotional response when she text him to tell him what had happened.

'When I told [Marshall] that I'd landed single engine in Philly safe on the ground, his immediate text back was, "That's why Southwest gives you two".

'So I didn't get the sympathy you did,' she joked to Ellisor.

The pair were welcomed to the White House last month along with other passengers and flight attendants from the flight.

They were given warm praise by President Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office. He called their efforts 'incredible'.

Ellisor and Shults had only met a day or two before the incident. Now, they said, they are bonded for life.

'Going through something like this, it certainly galvanizes your personalities together and your friendship. I mean, we'll be in touch the rest of our lives.

'Even though he's going to upgrade and be captain,' Ellisor said.

'It really was life-changing. I mean, because it's not something that we've ever had happen before, and you know, almost certainly won't happen again because the chances are just too astronomical.

'So you have this surreal moment of going through it and working together to solve the problem.

'And then you're left to pick up the pieces once we land and move on. And you know, that's something we'll do together as a team and as a family and I'm happy that she was with me,' he added.

In the days after the incident, as Shults and her husband stayed quiet on what had happened while the world's feasted on information from the flight, her brother-in-law said she was considered by colleagues to be the best pilot they had ever known.

She was one of the first female pilots for the US Navy and is a mother-of-two.Engineers working on the Florida International University pedestrian bridge discovered 'worrisome' cracks in the structure two weeks before it collapsed killing six people, including FIU student Alexa Duran.

According to the Miami Herald, photographs and an email unintentionally released to them by the school detail the troubling cracks found in a key concrete support truss which supports the bridge.

The outlet reports that the cracks were found 10 days before the school's engineers put the bridge in place above US Route 41, known locally as Tamiami Trail.

A new report claims FIU's construction and engineer team found cracks in the bridge two weeks before it collapsed

A February 28 memo by a consulting engineer for the school said one of the cracks in the structure 'merits special attention'

The cracks were found in a key concrete support truss, which supports the bridge

The bridge collapsed on March 15 killing six people, including a student at Florida International University

The 950-ton structure collapsed on March 15 killing Duran; 18, Navaro Brown, 37; Brandon Brownfield; Rolando Fraga Hernandez, 60; Osvaldo Gonzalez, 57; and Alberto Arias, 54.

Minor cracks in concrete structures are common, but according to the outlet several cracks discovered by FIU's construction and engineering team in late February were 'worrisome'.

18-year-old Alexa Duran was one of the victims of the bridge collapse

An email, which the Herald obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, shows that the cracks were found at the base of a diagonal support member at the north end of the span.

Three of the four independent contractors the Herald spoke with said the cracks were 'red flags' and signaled 'potentially critical structural problems'.

They said the cracks should have prompted FIU's engineers to stop work on the bridge and perform an in-depth review which likely would have resulted in the truss connection being re-engineered.

One of the engineers, Linwood Howell, said the cracks were a sign of the structure's 'imminent failure'.

'There's nothing they could have done short of starting over and redesigning the structure,' said Howell, whose firm conducts bridge inspections for the state of Texas.

Ralph Verrastro of Naples, Florida, told the outlet that after examining the photographs and other details, the cracks did not appear significant to him and don't 'clearly provide any clues related to ultimate failure'.

'I would assume these cracks would have been repaired by epoxy injection before the bridge was moved,' he said.

Alberto Arias (right) and Rolando Fraga (left) were both killed while they driving under the FIU pedestrian bridge on March 15

Friends Oswald Gonzalez (left), 57, and Alberto Arias (right) were also killed in the collapse

Bridge worker Navaro Brown is among the six victims of the fatal pedestrian bridge collapse

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the collapse. The $14.2million structure was built to connect FIU to parts of the school's student housing over US Route 41

Because FIU has been advised against releasing records and memos pertaining to the structure, it's not clear if or how the school's construction and engineering team handled the cracks.

The Herald also obtained a February 28 memo by Jose Morales, a consulting engineer for the school, who wrote that one crack in particular 'merits special attention' and urged the bridge engineer to 'provide a response'.

The cracks Morales mentioned in the memo were found before the bridge was put in place, the Herald reports. Again, it's not clear if or how FIU responded to the memo and a clear-cut cause for the collapse most likely won't be established until the National Transportation Safety Board completes its investigation.

According to the Herald, 10 days after Morales sent the memo, the pedestrian bridge was lifted into place. Five days after it was put into place, the bridge collapsed while it was under construction.

The $14.2million structure was built to connect FIU to parts of the school's student housing over US Route 41.The president's longtime attorney and fixer Michael Cohen was hit with an avalanche of criticism on Wednesday for peddling access to the president to the tune of more than $2 million.

Cohen pitched himself as a Trump whisperer to potential clients, the Washington Post reports, showing off pictures of himself and the commander in chief and bragging about their relationship.

'Im crushing it,' he told friends, according to the Post.

The president's longtime attorney and fixer Michael Cohen was hit with an avalanche of criticism on Wednesday for peddling access to the president to the tune of more than $2 million

Cohen pitched himself as a Trump whisperer to potential clients, the Washington Post reports, showing off pictures of himself and the commander in chief and bragging about their relationship

Trump has not yet commented on the alleged pay-for-play scheme that Cohen was running

Cohen received millions from AT&T, Novartis and Columbus Nova, a firm with ties to a Russian oligarch for his 'advice' and 'insights' into the Trump administration.

The companies ultimately dropped their contracts with the New York attorney, Politico reports, when they realized that Cohen couldn't deliver.

AT&T, for instance, had a run-in with the Justice Department as it tried to merge with Time Warner, regardless of the up to $600,000 consulting fee, as described by CNBC, it paid Cohen.

Pharmaceutical company Novartis also said it didn't get the goods it expected from Cohen.

After paying him $100,000 a month to Cohen for advice on how to deal with Trump, spokeswoman Sofina Mirza-Reid said the company severed ties with the consultant.

She said in a statement that the company determined Cohen 'would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated related to US healthcare policy matters and the decision was taken not to engage further.

'As the contract unfortunately could only be terminated for cause, payments continued to be made until the contract expired by its own terms in February 2018.'

'Essential Consulting was one of several firms we engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration.'

Trump met with the CEO of the Swiss drug company during his trip to Davos, Switzerland in January.

The then-incoming CEO, Vas Narasimhan, is one of several company heads who met with the U.S. president.

AT&T says Cohen was one of several consultants it hired 'to help us understand how the President and his administration might approach a wide range of policy issues important to the company, including regulatory reform at the FCC, corporate tax reform and antitrust enforcement.'

The company says that Cohen did not do any lobbying on their behalf.

The former clients of Cohen said this week that they had been approached by special counsel Robert Mueller after attorney Michael Avenatti alleged that Columbus Nova may have funded a $130,000 payoff to his top client.

Avenatti represents Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006. He suggested the company that's linked to a Russia oligarch may have reimbursed Cohen for the payment he made to Daniels just before the 2016 election to buy her silence.

Cohen says he took out a home equity loan to fund the payoff. Rudy Giuliani said last week that Trump reimbursed him for more than $450,000 in expenses, including the non-disclosure agreement with Daniels, beginning last year.

Avenatti suggested this week, though, without evidence that Columbus Nova may have actually been funding Trump's hush-money slush fund.

Columbus Nova issued a statement explaining that the payments it made to Cohen had nothing to with oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who has since been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department.

'After the inauguration, the firm hired Michael Cohen as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures,' it said. 'Reports today that Viktor Vekselberg used Columbus Nova as a conduit for payments to Michael Cohen are false.'

The company said, 'The claim that Viktor Vekselberg was involved or provided any funding for Columbus Nova's engagement of Michael Cohen is patently untrue.

'Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else other than Columbus Nova's owners, were involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement.'

Korea Aerospace Industries also paid Cohen $150,000, although its spokesperson told The Washington Post that the company that is competing for a contract with the U.S. government did not enlist Trump's attorney because of his connection to the president.

The company says it paid Cohen 'to inform reorganization of our internal accounting system.'

Avenatti told Politico that Cohen should face 'serious consequence' for his actions, regardless of the circumstances, if he was lobbying the president without disclosing it.

'If Michael Cohen, the personal attorney to the president, was selling access to the highest office in the land, without complying with the appropriate rules and regulations, serious consequences should result,' Avenatti said.

Giuliani said Wednesday that Trump was not involved in Cohen's financial dealings, either. Payments Trump's former attorney received from clients looking for insight into his administration have nothing to do with the president, he said.

'The president is not involved in any respect. Its a dead issue as far as Im concerned,' Giuliani told Bloomberg.

Giuliani also told the Huffington Post on Wednesday afternoon that Cohen's latest legal woes had nothing to do with Trump, who is no longer represented by the lawyer and fixer.

'Theres not involvement of the president in any of that,' he said. 'We cant be responsible for what Michael Cohen is doing.'

A former politician himself, Giuliani said he wouldn't appreciate finding out that his attorney had been accepting large sums of money in exchange for access to his office, but he said, 'I wouldnt be investigated for it.'

He declined to comment on Trump's feelings about the matter to Bloomberg.The Devil is a 'loser' but is still able to trick people into giving him power, Pope Francis has told worshipers.

During a homily at Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae he said the devil 'seduces us; he knows how to appeal to our vanity and curiosity and we buy it all'.

Pope Francis, who lives in the building adjacent to St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, made the remarks on Thursday, reports The Catholic Sun.

Pope Francis has labeled the Devil a 'loser' during a homily at the Vatican (pictured)

He read from the gospel of St John which ends with Jesus telling his disciples 'the ruler of this world has been condemned.'

That phrase refers to the devil, Pope Francis told the congregation.

Since the resurrection of Jesus, he said, the Devil has been defeated. However, he still pretends to have power and still tried to influence people.

'He has this ability to seduce,' the pope said.

'That makes it hard to understand that he is a loser because he presents himself with great power, promises you many things, brings you gifts - beautiful, all wrapped up,' he said.

'He knows how to seduce us with the package without letting us see what's inside. He knows how to present his proposals to appeal to our vanity, our curiosity.'

However, it is the case that often we like - even enjoy - being seduced.

He also drew with an angry dog, telling his followers the devil is like a chained, rabid hound.

People know when they are playing with fire, Pope Francis proclaimed.

Pope Francis called for people to get baptised to be able to fight the devil and exorcise their demons using prayer and the sacraments

'Please, don't [approach the dog],' he said, before imagining a dialogue in which someone cries after having been bitten until it is revealed they had approached the chained dog provoking injury.

He suggested worshipers worried about being taken in by the 'loser' that is the Devil should turn towards the motherly figure of Mary who can protect them.

'When children are afraid they go to their mother. 'Mom, mom, I'm afraid.' When they have bad dreams, they go to mom. Go to the Blessed Mother; she protects us.'

It comes after the pontiff, in an impassioned speech in St Peter's Square last month, urged Christians to 'drive out evil' and emphasized the importance of baptism in order to exorcise demons.

According to the pope, those who are baptised are given the power to fight against the devil - with exorcism, or self-cleansing through prayer, becoming an essential part of Christian life.

He said the sacrament of baptism 'enables those who receive it to fight against the spirit of evil' - adding that 'all Christian life is a battle' and that believers should take precautions against the deceit of the devil.

Thousands gathered in St Peter's Square in Rome to hear the pontiff's controversial address

'We know from experience that the Christian life is always prone to temptation, especially to the temptation to separate from God, from his will, from communion with him, to fall back into the webs of worldly seductions,' he said.

'And baptism prepares and strengthens us for this daily struggle, including the fight against the devil who, as St. Peter says, like a lion, tries to devour and destroy us.'

'It is hard to fight against evil, to escape from its deceits, to take strength again after an exhausting struggle,' Francis said, 'but we must know that all Christian life is a combat.'

The pontiff advocated prayer and the sacraments as the best way to exorcise evil spirit during Wednesday's weekly address.

He did, however, warn that there was no quick fix to eradicating the devil - and that baptism was just a tool which enables Christians to fight against evil.

He explained that adults preparing for baptism are subject to 'repeated exorcisms pronounced by the priest,' Francis said.

'That is, prayers that call for liberation from all that separates from Christ and prevents intimate union with him.'

Baptism 'is not a magic formula,' the pope said, 'but a gift from the Holy Spirit that empowers those who receive it 'to fight against the spirit of evil.'Advertisement

Donald Trump says he will meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore.

Trump revealed the date and location of their much-anticipated meet-up on Twitter on after witnessing the safe return from North Korea of three American detainees in wee hours of Thursday morning.

'We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!' Trump said of the meeting with Kim where he hopes to negotiate the denulcearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Trump this morning said in remarks at Joint Base Andrews that he will consider a nuclear agreement with North Korea his 'proudest achievement' if he's able to broker an accord with Kim.

'This is what people have been waiting for for a long time. Nobody thought we could be on this track in terms of speed,' Trump said of nuclear summit with Kim that he said would be announced in short order, now that the detainees were home.

'Im very honored to have helped the three folks. Theyre great people,' he said. 'But the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.'

Scroll down for video

Donald Trump says he will meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore

Trump this morning said in remarks at Joint Base Andrews that he will consider a nuclear agreement with North Korea his 'proudest achievement' if he's able to broker an accord with Kim

Trump welcomed the Americans back to the U.S. with words most observers thought no American president would ever utter: 'We want to thank Kim Jong-un.'

The president and his wife Melania arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington at 2:00 a.m. to greet Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, and called them 'incredible people.'

In extraordinary scenes, Trump and the first lady clapped and cheered as the men walked down the steps with their arms in the air and giving triumphant 'V' signs signifying both peace and victory.

Their first steps back on American soil came hours earlier, in Alaska, when the plane carrying them home stopped to refuel.

On the tarmac in suburban Maryland, Trump said: 'These are great people. Frankly, we didn't think this was going to happen, but it did. It was important to get these people out. This is a special night for these three really great people.'

Trump also thanked Kim for freeing 'the folks early' saying it was 'sort of understood' they'd be released during his planned summit with the 33-year-old despot.

The president said it's his sense that Kim 'really wants to do something' and bring the hermit kingdom 'into the real world.'

He said: 'We're starting off on a new footing. I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful, and if anybody would've said that five years ago, 10 years ago, even a year ago, you would've said, "That's not possible." '

Donald Trump and Melania welcomed three Americans imprisoned in North Korea back to America to cheers and applause

Trump shook hands with former detainee Kim Dong-chul (center) upon his return with Kim Hak-song and Tony Kim (both behind) in extraordinary scenes

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, warmly embraced former North Korean detainee Tony Kim upon tthe plane's 2:00 a.m. arrival at a Maryland air base

The president refused to tell reporters whether he'd personally spoken to Kim. But he did admit it was possible that 'one day' he may visit Pyongyang, should peace talks continue to go well.

His first-ever in person meeting with Kim will take place in Singapore, he announced on Thursday on Twitter after promising a date and location 'within three days' during a Cabinet meeting the morning prior.

Singapore or Mongolia had been top locations for the summit amid concern that Kim's outdated aircraft could not travel further than Asia without having to make a refueling stop.

Kim is only known to have traveled outside the Korean Peninsula once since taking command of North Korea in 2011. He made a trip by train to Beijing at the end of March.

Former CIA director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Kim on two separate trips inside North Korea.

Pompeo's visit to Pyongyang this week was said by the White House to be part of routine preparations for the summit. However, The sudden trip, which Trump disclosed only after a news outlet noted that Pompeo was AWOL during the president's announcement on Iran, set off alarms that the American prisoners were likely to be coming home.

Trump confirmed early Wednesday that they'd be coming back to the U.S. with Pompeo. The president said he'd be on the tarmac waiting for them when they landed at Andrews.

'This is a great honor. Hopefully everything is going to work out at the highest level. We want to thank Kim Jong-un, who really was excellent to these three incredible people,' Trump said from the tarmac. 'They are really three incredible people. And the fact that we were able to get them out so soon was really a tribute to a lot of things, including a certain process thats taking place right now. And that process is very important.'

One of the freed Americans said through a translator who relayed his sentiment that being home felt 'like a dream' and that the men were 'very, very happy' to be freed. They later gave President Trump a round of applause.

Kim Dong-chul, speaking about his time in North Korea through the translator, said: 'We were treated in many different ways. For me, I had to do a lot of labor. But when I got sick, I was also treated by them.'

The prisoners walked onto American soil with their arms in the air giving triumphant 'V' signs signifying peace and victory

Trump called the prisoners 'wonderful people' and thanked Kim Jong-un for letting them come home ahead of the Trump-Kim summit

Trump also thanked the North Korean dictator for freeing 'the folks early,' calling it 'a wonderful thing' and adding that he believes Kim finally wants to bring his country 'into the real world'

President Trump, first lady Melania and Vice President Mike Pence walked with the freed Americans after they landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland

While Trump said North Korea's Kim 'was excellent to these three incredible people,' Vice President Mike Pence hinted in an ABC interview they had endured harsh conditions.

Pence said Pompeo told him that at a refueling stop in Anchorage, 'one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadn't seen daylight in a very long time.'

The three former detainees were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation and medical treatment before being reunited with their families.

In usual Trumpian fashion, the president also joked with reporters, saying: 'I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 o'clock in the morning.'

The highly public display stood in stark contrast to the low-key private reception the State Department had envisioned, and in keeping with a tradition of trying to protect potentially traumatized victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after their ordeal.

Officials took great pains on the prisoners' release in North Korea, as well as on their flights to Japan and Alaska, to keep them sequestered not only from the two journalists traveling with Pompeo but also from staffers not immediately involved in their cases.

The trio, along with medical personnel, including a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Pompeo's plane in a small section of 12 business class-size seats that was cordoned off by curtains on both ends.

President Donald Trump greets the Americans formerly held hostage in North Korea upon their arrival at Joint Base Andrews as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo looks on

President Donald Trump arrives to greet the three Americans formerly held hostage in North Korea, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns in keeping with the minimal amount of information they had released since the men were imprisoned.

The Americans had boarded Pompeo's plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to the Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the US.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska - for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon - the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

'We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home,' they said. 'We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.'

The family of Tony Kim also voiced gratitude to 'all of those who have worked toward and contributed to his return home' - and specifically thanked Trump for 'engaging directly with North Korea.'

In a statement released by the State Department, the former detainees expressed their 'deep appreciation' to the U.S. government, Trump, Pompeo and the American people 'for bringing us home.'

The three were the latest in a series of Americans who have been jailed in North Korea for small offenses and freed when senior U.S. officials or their representatives personally visited to bail them out.

The last American to be released prior to Thursday, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

The president and his wife Melania are waiting at Joint Base Andrews near Washington to meet Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim

America's commander-in-chief salutes as he was met by members of the U.S. Armed Forces in the wee hours of Thursday morning

The president and the first lady left the White House at 2:00 a.m. to make the short journey to Andrews

Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence (together at center) arrive to greet the three Americans formerly held hostage in North Korea

President Trump promised 'quite a show' as North Korea released three American prisoners who have been flown to the US

North Korean authorities arrested Warmbier in January 2016, accusing him of stealing a propaganda poster and sentencing him to 15 years in prison with hard labor. His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

'We are happy for the hostages and their families,' the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday of the freed Americans. 'We miss Otto.'

After the release of the detainees, North Korea's state-run media explicitly mentioned plans for the summit for the first time. Pyongyang has been exceptionally cautious about its public framing of Kim's recent diplomatic moves, which are a major shift from the more aggressive focus on missile launches and nuclear development that heated tensions to a boil last year.

'We're granting amnesty to the three detained Americans,' the North Korean emissary told Pompeo at Pyongyang's Koryo Hotel. 'We issued the order to grant immediate amnesty to the detainees.'

'That's great,' the secretary of state replied.

The official closed with a gentle warning for the United States to prevent a repeat: 'You should make care that they do not make the same mistakes again,' the official said. 'This was a hard decision.'

President Trump triumphantly announced the release of the trio of Americans in his own style  with a pair of tweets

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un has been photographed smiling and laughing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just moments before three American detainees boarded a flight home after months in captivity

The plane carrying Pompeo and the three Americans - Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim - touched down on US soil in Anchorage, Alaska on Wednesday for a brief refueling stop before continuing on its journey to Washington, DCAdvertisement

A 'flock' of 3,000 paper doves has arrived in the rafters of Salisbury Cathedral.

The impressive display of white birds has flown all around the world from Jerusalem to Berlin and the US, before arriving in Salisbury.

The paper origami birds by artist Michael Pendry have been suspended from the roof of Salisbury cathedral.

According to the creator of the piece named 'Les Colombes' their presence represents hope and positivity.

Les Colombes artwork is on display in Salisbury Cathedral months after former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with Novichok

The artwork has travelled around the world from Jerusalem to the US and now to Salisbury. The Cathedral is the largest space it has been given so far

The doves by Michael Pendry will be on display until July 22. They come months after two Russians were poisoned in Salisbury sparking international fury

The artwork has grown as it has travelled and the people of Salisbury are being asked to get involved in the huge piece suspended above the Cathedral's interior

The 2,500 white origami doves fly the length of the cathedral. Community groups in Salisbury have been encouraged to write their own messages and fold their own doves

Mr Pendry said: 'I call it an Art for Peace project, it's about creating a more peaceful world and finding a very simple picture and symbol that everybody understands. We're involving people with the folding of the doves and the flock is growing from place to place and country to country.'

Jacqueline Cresswell from the Cathedral told Spire FM she was looking for a First World War commemorative piece when she found the birds.

Salisbury is in need of positivity, she said, since it has made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The artwork's installation comes just over two months since the nerve agent attack in the city and whilst the clean-up continues

Artist Michael Pendry adds a white origami dove to his art installation, Les Colombes, which is being installed at Salisbury Cathedral in Salisbury on May 10

Artist Michael Pendry's exhibition will be up from May 10 until July 22 and is aimed at inspiring resilience, peace and hope

A reflection of the doves in Salisbury Cathedral. Instagram lovers are expected to flock to see the hundreds of paper birds suspended from the rafters

The city has become synonymous with Russian spy drama after Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia, 33, were poisoned on a park bench in March.

The former double agent and his daughter are still recovering after being exposed to military grade nerve agent Novichok.

Prime Minister Theresa May blamed President Putin's Russia and relations between the two nations nosedived.

Doves have been hung across the length of Salisbury Cathedral to look as though they are flying along the huge building

Diplomats were expelled from both countries and the Kremlin issued furious denials of involvement.

Ms Cresswell said: 'When I researched this, it was really to find an exhibition that would commemorate the end of the First World War and so obviously I was looking for something uplifting and peaceful.

'It just so happens that with what's happened in Salisbury over the last few months that this installation has taken on another meaning and we've made it our own.'

The artwork will be on display until July 22.A thief who struggled to stay awake while stealing Red Bull worth nearly $250 has been mocked by police.

The unidentified man was captured on surveillance video rolling boxes of the energy drink out of a grocery store in a trolley

Burlington Police Department in Wisconsin released photos on Monday that indicated the yawning bandit was seen stealing the Red Bull around 1:38 p.m. Saturday.

The unnamed man was caught on surveillance camera wheeling the stolen Red Bull cans out of a store

According to police, the man made off with $250 worth of the energy drink

'Stealing can be exhausting.....Which is probably why this guy can't stop yawning and why he has nearly $250 worth of stolen Red Bull in his cart!' the police department said.

Details about where the crime happened and which direction the suspect fled were not released.

At least he has not suffered the fate of a burglar in Florida, who deputies caught fast asleep on a bed.

The failed felon, Dion Davis, 29, was discovered passed out on the bed of a Sarasota County home by the cleaning lady, who then obviously dialed 911.

There was a plastic bag filled with jewelry from the home lying next to him on the bed.This is the heartwarming moment a heroic passerby jumped into a filthy canal in Bangkok to save a drowning blind dog.

The hapless stray pooch slipped into the polluted water about 2pm on Wednesday before the man on the pavement above dived in after it.

Dozens of passengers and tourists on a ferry watched anxiously as the vehicle came within inches of colliding with the good Samaritan.

This is the heartwarming moment a heroic passerby jumped into a filthy canal in Bangkok to save a drowning blind dog

Onlookers threw him a rubber ring but he instead put the dog inside it to help the animal float until he could reach the ferry.

The man hoisted the dog over his shoulder to passengers, then swam away before clambering out of the water - still wearing his soaking clothes.

'The man in the yellow shirt is a hero with the heart of gold,' passenger Tibet Nimitput said.

'The boat driver and ticket collector also showed their kind hearts. It shows all of the good in the world.'

Mr Nimitput said he saw a crowd gathering by a bridge as he was heading home on the ferry down the canal.

'We arrived and I saw a man and an old dog floating together in the Saensaeb Canal. Seems that this dog fell in the canal because of bad eyesight and this man jumped in to rescue it,' he said.

Onlookers threw him a rubber ring but he instead put the dog inside it to help the animal float until he could reach the ferry and hoist it over the side to safety

He then swam away before clambering out of the water - still wearing his soaking clothes

'They were staying afloat and the pier is still quite far from where they are. In the meantime boat ticket collectors were discussing how to help with boat driver.

'They decided to pick both of them up to bring back onto Srinakarindwiroj Prasarnmitr University pier.

'The dog was safe and on board but the man decided not to get onto the boat and climb back up by himself.'

Students at the university carried the dog to the school's veterinary department where it was checked over.Hillary Clinton has donned yet another massive scarf during an appearance in Australia after earlier photos indicated she might be trying to hide a back brace.

The 70-year-old draped the $1,100 patterned Hermes cashmere blend shawl around her shoulders when she met with Australian former Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Melbourne on Thursday.

Her scarf was tied high around her neck and covered the top of her navy blue jacket.

It comes after social media users pointed out earlier in the week that Clinton was mostly likely opting for the style choice to hide a possible back brace.

Hillary Clinton wore yet another massive scarf during an appearance in Australia on Thursday after earlier photos indicated she might be hiding a back brace

A photo of the former first lady from behind seemed to show a similar bulge at the top of her back

She was photographed coming out of her daughter Chelsea's apartment in New York last week with a strange protrusion coming from underneath her jacket.

Some on social media were also quick to point out her upright posture and bundled up clothing despite the warmer temperatures in New York.

'(Hillary) looks to be wearing some sort of back brace - weird protrusion and scarf (80 degrees in NYC) up to her chin,' one Twitter user wrote.

'Is Hillary wearing a back brace now? Something was not natural about her posture and bundled up clothing. Weird!' another person tweeted.

The 70-year-old draped the patterned scarf around her shoulders when she met with Australian former Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Melbourne

Her scarf was tied high around her neck and covered the top of her navy blue jacket when she walked on stage for the event in Melbourne, Australia

Clinton was joined on stage in Melbourne on Thursday by Australia's first and only female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard

Mrs Clinton appeared to be wearing an $1,100 Hermes cashmere blend shawl

The enormous Hermes scarves, this one with an equestrian theme, are 55 inches square

She accessorized her diaphanous wrap with a blue bead bracelet and gold jewelry

While Hillary flew to other side of the world, her husband Bill dined at the Polo Bar in Manhattan on Tuesday night

Hillary also opted for a long jacket and scarf when she took to a stage in New Zealand on Monday.

She was photographed sitting overly upright in her chair while she was being interviewed in front of the crowd.

During public appearances earlier this year, Clinton was spotted wearing a cast after breaking her wrist when she slipped in a hotel bath.

Clinton also had to wear a surgical boot at various points late last year after she fell down some stairs in her heels and broke her toe.

Social media users are convinced that Hillary Clinton is sporting a back brace after she was spotted out in New York last week with a strange protrusion coming from under her jacket

Clinton was wearing a long jacket and colorful scarf that covered her neck and draped down her back despite it being 80 degrees outside when she was out in New York last week

Meanwhile: Hillary's longtime aide Huma stayed in New York, photographed here on Tuesday

Hillary also opted for a long jacket and scarf during a visit to New Zealand on Monday where she was photographed sitting overly upright in her chair during a speaking event

The former presidential nominee is currently touring Australia and New Zealand as she hosts a series of talks about being a women in politics.

Clinton was joined on stage in Melbourne on Thursday by Australia's first and only female Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.

During her appearance, Clinton said the only way to get sexism out of politics was to get more women into politics.

The 5,000 attendees paid $195-$495 for tickets to hear Clinton speak. She will speak at another function in Sydney on Friday.An imam has died after armed men stormed a Shia mosque near Durban in South Africa, slitting the throats of two worshippers and the holy man before fleeing.

The group arrived with guns and knives, an emergency service official said this afternoon.

The three attackers escaped in a Hyundai car on the outskirts of the eastern port city.

The attack on the Shia centre in Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal occurred at 14.39pm.

Police said the men entered the large mosque after midday prayers and stabbed three people.

'They further set certain rooms alight and fled in their getaway vehicle,' police spokeswoman Nqobile Gwala said in a statement.

'The motive of the attack on the three men is unknown at this stage. Verulam police are investigating three counts of attempted murder and arson.'

Paul Herbst, spokesman for the private IPSS medical rescue service, told AFP that the imam 'who had his throat slit, passed away a few minutes ago due to his injuries.'

'There were three people in the mosque - a caretaker, a worshipper and the imam and they were held up by three armed men,' Herbst said after visiting the scene.

The attack occurred in Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal at 14.39pm and left one dead and two seriously injured

'The priest was tied up and thrown to his knees and his throat was slit. The other two men were also stabbed - one was stabbed in the abdomen and the other in the groin of his left leg.

'Before the assailants left the mosque, a petrol bomb was thrown into the mosque and it was set alight.

'The attackers managed to get out of the mosque. The imam was in a critical condition. He was treated by paramedics on the scene and transferred (to hospital).

'Fire services were on scene and put the blaze under control.'

'One of the three died on his way to hospital. The other two are in critical condition,' said Prem Balram, a spokesman for Reaction Unit SA (RUSA) who was first on the scene.

Private security team Reaction Unit SA were called to the scene and reported seeing bodies lying on the ground in pools of blood

The attack occurred close to the city of Durban in eastern South Africa

RUSA, a private security company, confirmed the Imam Hussain Mosque in Old Main Road in Ottawa was also set alight during the sudden attack, which came just days before the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

South Africa has a history of relative religious tolerance. About 1.5 per cent of the country's population is Muslim.

Balram said that when he arrived on the scene he found two people lying on the ground outside with their throats slit.

'They were in a critical condition and bleeding profusely,' he said.

Ambulances arrived to ferry victims to hospital however one victim reportedly died on the way

RUSA agents are seen attempting to treat victims who had their throats slit in an attack that may have been motivated by religion

A video of the aftermath, showing several bodies on the floor in pools of blood, reveals the extent of the horror.

It has been suggested the three attackers are Egyptian nationals and that one of the victims who had their throat slit was the imam, reportsNews 24.

'The suspects have fled in a white Hyundai Getz. RUSA is requesting the public's assistance in apprehending these suspects. Paramedics or doctors who can assist can report to the scene,' RUSA said in an statement released today.Georgina Chapman is speaking out for the first time since her now-estranged husband Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual assault and harassment by over 100 women.

In the June issue of Vogue, the Marchesa creative director talks about her life in the wake of Weinstein's scandal, and the friends who have supported her over the very difficult past eight months.

Among those friends is Hillary Clinton's top aide Huma Abedin, who spoke with the magazine about Chapman.

Abedin said the two grew close for a number of reasons, including the fact that they were both publicly cuckqueaned by their husbands many, many times.

'We just... bonded,' said Abedin.

'In all kinds of ways.'

Gotta have friends: Huma Abedin (left at the Met Gala on Monday) is opening up about her relationship with Georgina Chapman (right in October) in the June issue of Vogue

Estranger things: The aide to Hillary Clinton said the two bonded in a number of ways, including how they were both very publicly humiliated by their husbands (Chapman and estranged husband Harvey Weinstein above in 2014)

Huma and Harvey: Abedin hung with the Weinstein-Chapman family in 2014 and 2015 when the Clintons rented the house next door to them in the Hamptons (Huma and Harvey above in 2017)

The two had known one another for years due to Chapman's involvement in the Hillary Clinton campaign, and her son Dashiell, 5, would have plays dates with Abedin's son Jordan, who is the same age.

Their sons do not attend the same school, but the women live just a mile apart from one another.

Abedin also spent time in the Hamptons with Chapman back in 2014 and 2015 when her boss Hillary rented the mansion next door to the one that was owned by Weinstein.

The mogul has since sold the mansion, along with all his other properties.

Abedin was not shy to address the most well-known similarity between the women - their predatory husbands.

Weinstein is facing possible criminal charges for the alleged rape and assault of multiple women while Weiner is serving time on charges that stem from his sexual exchanges with an underage minor online.

The FBI learned of Weiner's unlawful actions after DailyMail.com exclusively revealed that the disgraced politician had been exchanging sexually-charged messages with a 15-year-old high school student for close to three months.

'This particular club, ironically, its not such a small one: women who have had to endure it in such a public way, women like Georgina and me,' explained Abedin of their husbands' misconduct.

'People dont feel sorry for us; you dont get that empathy. People think youre beautiful, youre thin, youre rich, youre photographed on the red carpet, and you get stuck in this category.'

She added: 'Theres so much more depth beyond all that with Georgina.'

Casa Chapman: Abedin and Hillary Clinton leave the house Weinstein and Chapman once shared following a fundraisers in 2016

Abedin also noted that while Chapman may look flawless most of the time, she is more concerned with her kids and making a happy home than keeping up her appearance - or apperances.

'You look at her from the outside, if you dont know her, and you think, "Shes perfect. She could be a model for the clothes she designs,"' says Abedin.

'But when you go to the house, she opens the door without any makeup on, and shes stunning, and shes funny and goofy with her childrenwho are clearly the most important people in her life.'

Abedin continued: 'Shes at the stove making chicken fingers and French fries, and shes one of the realest people I know. Theres nothing entitled about her. You believe she is someone who works really hard at being a good and present mom, and doing her job really well.'

The two women are now both single mothers with full-time jobs, although Chapman is thinking about getting out of the spotlight and moving to a farm upstate.

Abedin seems intent on staying in New York City however, where on Monday night she attended the annual Met Gala.

Chapman did not attend as she is still laying low, but she was still the talk of the town later in the evening after Scarlett Johansson became the first star to wear a Marchesa gown since the Weinstein scandal.

The end: Abedin also praised Chapman as an incredible mother while revealing their sons brought them together as well, with their frequent play dates (Abedin in court with estranged husband Anthony Weiner in September)

No empathy: 'People dont feel sorry for us; you dont get empathy. People think youre beautiful, youre thin, youre rich, youre photographed ,' said Abedin (left and Chapman right at a party for Anna Wintour they both attended in June 2017)

Chapman's beauty was also one of the first things that struck Oscar-nominated actor David Oyelowo after the two ran into one another while auditioning for a theater program.

'Well, anyone who has seen Georgina, the first thing that hits you like a ton of bricks is how beautiful she is, and Id be lying if I said I didnt notice that,' said Oyelowo, who shot to fame following the critical praise he received for his work in Selma.

'But as we talked, I found her to be an interesting and deeply friendly person. She had none of that frostiness that could be associated with a model.'

The two kept in touch as Oyelowo pursued acting and Chapman art, and the designer eventually invited the actor to one of her art exhibits.

'A lot of the drawings were of fashion, and her work really stood out,' he said.

'I was blown away.'

He then asked Chapman to design the costumes for his next play.

'And these costumes arrived, made from transparent material into which shed sewn pieces of mirror to reflect the light. They were extraordinary,' he recalled of Chapman's pieces.

'They upstaged everything else.'

Fashion industry icon Karen Elson also spoke to the magazine, and revealed she is quick to defend her friend should people get the wrong idea of Chapman's involvement or responsibility for her husband's actions.

'"She must have known" is what so many people say at dinner parties,' said Elson.

'The thing that pains me is that when anyone finds out that I know George, thats the first thing they say. Like she is somehow responsible for his hideous behavior.'

Elson then revealed things do not get much better when she reveals that her friend did not know about Weinstein's alleged behavior.

'When I say, "Well, actually she didnt know," it becomes this other judgment: "How could she not have known?" Or: "Well, thats on her if she didnt." Its so complicated.'

Disbelief: '"She must have known" is what so many people say at dinner parties,' said model Karen Elson (l to r: Rita Ora, Naomi Campbell, Oprah Winfrey, Chapman and Elson in 2014). 'The thing that pains me is that when anyone finds out that I know George, thats the first thing they say. Like she is somehow responsible for his hideous behavior'

Looker: Chapman's beauty was also one of the first things that struck Oscar-nominated actor David Oyelowo after the two ran into one another while auditioning for a theater program (pair above in 2015)

The designer said that she is still feeling a wide range of emotions after all these months.

'There was a part of me that was terribly naive - clearly, so naive,' said Chapman.

'I have moments of rage, I have moments of confusion, I have moments of disbelief!'

Chapman said that most of all, she worries her two children - India, 7, and Dashiell - and the effect the scandal will have on them.

'I have moments when I just cry for my children. What are their lives going to be? What are people going to say to them?' she said in tears.

'It's like, they love their dad. They love him. I just can't bear it for them!'

The scarlet barretter: Johannson became the first women to wear Marchesa since the scandal when she donned a gown by Chapman and Keren Craig to the Met Gala

When asked if she was ever suspicious about Weinstein's behavior, Chapman said: 'Absolutely not. Never'. She added that he frequently traveled for work and she had never obsessed about where he was.

'That's what makes this so incredibly painful: I had what I thought was a very happy marriage. I loved my life.'

Chapman also revealed that she had not offered up any of her dresses to celebrities for the past awards season, putting to rest rumors that women were boycotting the line she co-founded with good friend Keren Craig.

'We didn't feel it was appropriate given the situation. All the women who have been hurt deserve dignity and respect, so I want to give it the time it deserves. It's a time for mourning, really,' she said.

'A lot of people reached out and said, 'Let me wear something',' she added about her loyal followers. Scarlett Johansson wore a Marchesa gown to this year's Met gala.

Chapman added that she had shut herself off from the world in the five months after the scandal first broke and hadn't been out in public since.

'I was so humiliated and so broken... that... I, I, I... didn't think it was respectful to go out,' she said.

'I thought, Who am I to be parading around with all of this going on? It's still so very, very raw. I was walking up the stairs the other day and I stopped; it was like all the air had been punched out of my lungs.'

When the allegations against Weinstein first became public in a series of exposes in the New York Times and The New Yorker, Chapman said it took about two days for the scandal to sink in.

'I lost ten pounds in five days. I couldn't keep food down,' she said.

'My head was spinning. And it was difficult because the first article was about a time long before I'd ever met him, so there was a minute where I couldn't make an informed decision. And then the stories expanded and I realized that this wasn't an isolated incident. And I knew that I needed to step away and take the kids out of here.'

She fled to Los Angeles and eventually back to London where her parents live.Hillary Clinton has fears over China's growing persuasion in the Asia-Pacific, and on Thursday night issued a warning to Australia to be vigilant to outside influence and to 'protect Australia's interests.'

Speaking at an event in Melbourne, the former US secretary of state stressed that expansionist China's ongoing effort to gain power and manipulate policy poses a clear and present danger.

'This is an urgent problem and one we must confront immediately and together,' she declared.

Hillary Clinton has fears over China's growing persuasion in the Asia-Pacific, issued a warning to Australia to be vigilant to outside influence

Ms Clinton expressed hopes that Australia would stand up against any 'under the radar' attempts from outside powers to influence politics and policy within the country.

'You must not let that happen,' she said. 'It is insidious.'

She cautioned Australia to be wary of corruption, extortion and manipulation from the East Asian superpower, suggesting that a 'hidden hand' could 'really tear at the fabric of a democratic society.'

Ms Clinton expressed hopes that Australia would stand up against any 'under the radar' attempts from China to influence politics and policy within the country

She cautioned Australia to be wary of corruption, extortion and manipulation from the East Asian superpower, suggesting that a 'hidden hand' could 'really tear at the fabric of a democratic society'

The politician further added that she hoped America would be able to assist in curbing China's expansion and preventing it from undermining Australia's national values.

The 2016 US election, which Clinton lost to Donald Trump, was itself subject to significant Russian interference.

But Ms Clinton warns that 'It's not just happening in the United States.

'This is bigger than one candidate, one election or even one country,' she said.

Ms Clinton was speaking in Melbourne on the subject of being a woman in politics - and shortly before being joined on stage by former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, stated that the only way to get sexism out of politics was to get more women into it

Ms Clinton was speaking in Melbourne on the subject of being a woman in politics.

Shortly before being joined on stage by former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, Ms Clinton also stated that the only way to get sexism out of politics was to get more women into it.

Hillary Clinton will address another function organised by business events group The Growth Faculty in Sydney on Friday night.A high school science experiment that went wrong resulted in a flash fire that injured 17 students.

The Merrol Hyde Magnet School in Hendersonville, Tennessee was evacuated at around 9am after what is being described as an accident.

Some 17 students were treated the scene and nine of them along with the teacher were taken to hospitals with non-critical injuries, local Fire Chief Scotty Bush said.

The incident occurred at the Merrol Hyde Magnet School in Hendersonville, Tennessee, pictured

Video courtesy NewsChannel5

The students were gathered around as the teacher did a demonstration that involved mixing chemicals and there was then a sudden flash fire lasting three to five seconds.

Some of the students treated had second degree burns on their arms from a chemical reaction caused by mixing boric acid and ethyl alcohol, which produces a small flame, said Bush

Chief Bush and Dr. Del Phillips, Sumner County Director of School said the incident was an 'accident' that caused an unintentional chemical reaction and a temporary flash fire, WKRN reported.

Bush said there was a 'quick response to te

'We had a quick response. I know that's terrifying to some of the parents at home but ... your kids are safe and we've got the other ones transported.'

The students treated at the TriStar Hendersonville Medical Center went through a decontamination procedure as soon as they arrived

'When they came in we set up decontamination tents and had them wash off,' said Dr Berchaun Nicholls, an Emergency Room physician.

'And brought them into a room where they could be treated for their burns and given breathing treatments if they had any kind of shortness of breath.'

Local fire chief Scotty Bush said the explosion is being treated as an accident

'None of the children were actually doused with the chemicals.

'It didn't stay on the body long. Any time you have any kind of chemical injury you do want to safely get your clothes off and try to wash off and irrigate as quickly as possible.'

All children were treated and released to their parents while the unnamed teacher also treated and released.

Inside the school, the fire department set up fans to clear the air.

A similar experiment at a science museum in Reno, Nevada in 2014, injured 13 students.It's inconvenient to lose your phone contacts  whether through an ordinary mishap or an FBI raid.

When longtime Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen lost his, due to the later, he reached out to Keith Davidson, the former attorney to porn star Stormy Daniels, to get back in touch.

Daniels' current lawyer, Michael Avenatti, says the email directly rebuts the claim by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani that 'of course' Cohen is no longer representing Trump.

Avenatti further claims that the email to reestablish contact with Davidson  who helped negotiate a non-disclosure agreement between Cohen, Daniels, and Donald Trump  could show an effort to obstruct justice, though he doesn't say how.

PLEASE CALL: Longtime Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen emailed former Stormy Daniels lawyer Keith Davidson two days after the FBI raised his home and office and removed his electronic devices

Avenatti posted the email on Twitter Thursday.

'On April 9, the FBI raided Mr. Cohen's home, office and hotel room. Within 48 hours, Mr. Cohen sent the below email to Mr. Davidson. Why? They had no ongoing legal matter at the time. Was it part of an attempt by Mr. Cohen to obstruct justice or worse?' he wrote.

Asked how he obtained it, Avenatti told DailyMail.com: 'I demanded it from Mr. Davidson.'

In the email, Cohen identifies himself as 'Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump.'

Seeking to reestablish contact, Cohen glosses over the FBI raid, which had already made international news anyway.

Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti has obtained a letter Michael Cohen wrote to lawyer Keith Davidson in April

Cohen wrote that he lost his contacts  but neglected to mention the FBI took his phones away

The email signature identifies Cohen as 'personal attorney' to President Trump

'I lost all my contacts as I had to get a new phone,' he wrote Davidson. 'Please send me all your contact info. Also, why did Anthony back out on ABC to do the story? Let me know how you want to communicate,' he concluded.

Avenatti took another shot at Giuliani, who recently joined Trump's legal team, on Twitter.

'Mr. Giuliani claims that Mr. Cohen is no longer Mr. Trump's lawyer. As of when? Because as of April 11, 2018 this year, he was still his lawyer as evidenced by the email I just posted (see also Mr. Trump's comments on AF1 that same month),' he added, in reference to Trump's statement to reporters that Cohen was his lawyer.

Porn star Stormy Daniels with lawyer Michael Avenetti. She previously was represented by Keith Davidson

Giuliani told ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday, when asked if Cohen was still Trump's lawyer: 'Of course not. It would be a conflict right now for him to be the president's attorney,' he said.

A Davidson spokesman didn't immediately return a request for comment.

Davidson is cooperating with law enforcement in the Southern District of New York, his spokesman told the Washington Post last month.

He handed over 'certain limited electronic information' spokesman Dave Wedge told the paper. 'He has done so and will continue to cooperate to the fullest extent possible under the law,' Wedge said.

Avenatti's disclosure comes just days after he released a trove of financial information about Cohen, which he said demonstrated influence peddling as he took funds from major companies as well as $500,000 from a firm linked to a Russian oligarch.A senior EU official has mocked the British Cabinet - saying Theresa May is 'weak' and Boris Johnson 'has the same hairdo as Trump'.

Gunther Oettinger, the EU's budget commissioner, tore into the pair as he voiced concerns that Brexit negotiations are stalling.

Mr Oettinger, who is German and an ally of Angela Merkel, said British voters should push the PM to change path and adopt a 'clever Brexit'.

The scathing put-down comes as Theresa May is struggling to keep her warring Cabinet united on Brexit.

Asked about how the talks are going, Mr Oettinger said: 'Madame May is weak and Boris Johnson has the same hairdo as Trump. That says everything.'

A senior EU official has mocked the British Cabinet - saying Theresa May (pictured, left, outside No10 on Tuesday) is 'weak' and Boris Johnson (pictured, right, in the Commons yesterday)'has the same hairdo as Trump'

He added: 'We can only hope that sensible citizens will put Madame May on the path to a clever Brexit.'

The merciless mockery is a fresh blow to UK and EU relations in the midst of the crunch Brexit negotiations.

And it comes as Cabinet ministers are at war over what kind of Brexit Britain should adopt.

Mr Johnson sparked a bitter feud when he dismissed one of Mrs May's post Brexit customs options as 'crazy'.

The Foreign Secretary slammed the proposal, which would see the UK collect the EU's tariffs at the border and hen hand them over at the end of the year - at the weekend.

Gunther Oettinger, the EU's budget commissioner, tore into the pair as he voiced concerns that Brexit negotiations are stalling (file pic)

But No10 slapped him down insisting that the plan is still on the table and being considered.

Brexiteer and Environment Secretary Michael Gove is reportedly trying to spearhead a plan to bring the two warring factions together.

The proposals would mean dropping the customs partnership blueprint favoured by Mrs May.

But in return Eurosceptic Cabinet ministers would accept that their 'Maximum Facilitation' option of leaving the customs union but streamlining the process via technology, will need much more time to put in place.

The idea has emerged as the PM scrambles to find a way to end the damaging standoff among the Government's big beasts.

Mrs May was brutally taunted during PMQs yesterday over Boris Johnson's extraordinary public attack on her 'crazy' partnership proposal.

As Mr Johnson looked on sheepishly from the frontbench, Mrs May was forced to deny she had wasted months on plans that ministers could not agree on.The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney has been posting advertisements asking supporters of Cardinal George Pell to contribute to his legal fund.

The ABC reports the ads have appeared in the Catholic Weekly, which is a news journal published by the Archdiocese.

An article on the Catholic Weekly website referring to the ads explains that the church is not responsible for Cardinal Pell's legal costs but that an independent fund has been setup for anyone wanting to contribute.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney has been posting advertisements asking supporters of Cardinal George Pell to contribute to his legal fund

'When Cardinal Pell took leave from his role as Prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy to voluntarily return to Australia nearly 12 months ago to fight the charges, many supporters wanted to contribute to his legal costs,' the article states.

The article then includes a bank account number for the donations which are being managed by a Melbourne legal firm.

It has been estimated the Cardinal Pell would be spending up to 10,000 dollars a day on legal fees.

The Cardinal is the highest-ranking Catholic official to be charged with historical sexual assault offences.

A date for the trial is to be set next week.Blue collar workers are flocking to Theresa May and fuelling a Tory polling lead over Labour, new figures revealed today.

Data from YouGov suggest working class voters have surged to the Conservatives and now favour Mrs May's party by 43 per cent to 40 per cent.

The figures are a reversal from January when Jeremy Corbyn's Labour led in the group by 46 per cent to 35 per cent.

The turnaround underlines the surprise results at last week's local elections when the Tories surprisingly held ground while Labour failed to make progress.

Data from YouGov suggest working class voters have surged to the Conservatives and now favour Mrs May's party by 43 per cent to 40 per cent. In January, Labour led 43-40

Across the country, the poll suggests support for Labour is falling in almost half of the 50 most marginal constituencies.

Overall, the YouGov estimate the Conservatives are backed by 43 per cent of voters, up one point, and Labour by 38 per cent.

The figures are another signal Mrs May has stabilised her position and regained the initiative over Mr Corbyn since last year's disastrous general election and despite Tory infighting over Brexit.

She has been boosted by a series of foreign policy challenges, including the nerve agent attack in Salisbury and coalition bombing of the Assad regime in Syria.

At the same time Mr Corbyn has been battered by the scandal over anti-Semitism which engulfed his leadership

A report accompanying the analysis concluded: 'Overall these results are slightly worse than 2014 and nowhere near the level that oppositions have recorded before winning general elections.

'Labour will need to improve significantly in the non-metropolitan marginals to have any realistic chance of a majority in a future election.'

Blue collar workers are flocking to Theresa May and fuelling a Tory polling lead over Labour, new figures revealed today

At last week's elections Labour failed to snatch any of its key target London boroughs from the Conservatives - despite hopes they could take advantage of anger over Brexit.

And their main target council of Barnet fell to the Tories amid widespread anger among voters at the Labour leader's failure to tackle anti-Semitism.

In the biggest test of public opinion since the General Election, Labour's efforts to wrest the strongholds of Westminster, Wandsworth and Barnet from the Tories fell flat.

The Tories managed to comfortably hold on to their London 'crown jewel' boroughs despite fears they may lose them amid opposition to Brexit.

And in Leave voting areas outside London, the Tories managed to make a series of gains as the Ukip vote collapsed and switched to Mrs May.

A series of foreign policy dramas in recent weeks appear to have hurt Jeremy Corbyn to Mrs May's gain, according to the latest polls

The Conservatives took control of Nuneaton and Bedford Council - a bellweather for General Elections - and hung on to Dudley and Swindon.

In Barnet, where Labour needed just one seat to secure control, the Tories entrenched their position - with defeated councillors launching a furious attack on Mr Corbyn for failing to get a grip on the anti-Semitism crisis.Two teenagers in Georgia accused of killing a high school boy had made a suicide pact, but decided to kill someone else first.

A jury on Tuesday heard the disturbing videotaped confession of Dakota White, one of the boys accused of murdering Perry High School graduate Samuel Poss in October 2016.

White, a ninth-grade high school dropout, told detectives that he and his friend Brandon Warren were depressed and wanted to kill themselves, 13WMAZ reports.

Before going through with their suicide pact, the teens decided to kill someone else first because they wanted to know what it felt like.

'We just figured might as well,' White said during his confession. 'It came down to might as well see how it feels to kill someone before we kill ourselves.'

Dakota White (center) was found guilty on Tuesday to several charges including malice murder and felony murder for the death of 18-year-old Sam Poss

White (left) and his friend Brandon Warren (left) strangled and stabbed Poss to death in October 2016 after luring the victim to White's Perry, Georgia home

The courtroom was shown a videotaped confession in which White told police that he and Warren murdered Poss because they wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone

The two teen had made a suicide pact, police said, but decided to first kill someone. White said they chose Poss (pictured center with his parents) because he was an easy target

'We didn't see no reason not to, we were about to die, what did we care for?'

White said he and Warren were going to pick a victim but settled on Poss, an acquaintance, because he was an easy target. The teen said he knew Poss was a computer whiz so he pretended he needed help with a computer glitch.

White said he sent Poss a message asking for help and the 18-year-old responded 'right away'.

The night of the murder White and Warren, then 17 and 18, respectively, picked up Poss and drove him to White's grandparents' house. Before they could even get out the car White said he wrapped a telephone wire around Poss' neck and started choking him.

When the write snapped, White said he used his arms to strangle Poss as Warren stabbed him. The two teens then dumped Poss' body in a nearby wooded area in Perry and spent the next 10 hours cleaning the car, which belonged to White's grandparents.

Police said the grandparents were out of town the night of the murder.

'I knew I was't gonna get away with it,' White told detectives. 'I felt too bad.'

The second teen accused of killing Poss, Brandon Warren, will face trial next week. Poss, pictured above with his mother, had recently graduated from Perry High School when he was killed

Four days after the heinous crime, White turned himself in and confessed to the crime and showed Perry police where the body was.

A jury deliberated for 20 minutes before finding White guilty of all counts, including malice murder, felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault, concealing the death of another and tampering with evidence.

White, now 19, will be sentenced after Warren's trial next week.

A Houston country District Attorney told 13WMAZ that because White was under the age of 18 when the crime was committed, they could not pursue the death penalty.

After speaking with Poss' family, the DA said they won't push for the death penalty with Warren either.

A millionaires' dog trainer sued by the owner of a frisky puppy has been backed by a court ruling blaming the dog's faults on lack of exercise and indiscipline.

When Jenny King's fox terrier pup began wreaking havoc in her St John's Wood flat she called in canine troubleshooter, Tracey Egan, to bring Izzy to heel.

The 'out of control' puppy was running riot in her one-bed flat, biting and leaping up at her mistress, who turned to Ms Egan in desperation.

When Jenny King's (pictured left) fox terrier pup (pictured right) began wreaking havoc in her St John's Wood flat she called in canine troubleshooter, Tracey Egan, to bring Izzy to heel

Ms Egan, who has trained the pets of royals, agreed to put Izzy through a two-week intensive boot camp in a drive to embed some positive new habits in the terrier.

But, soon after Izzy's return home, Miss King said she was 'out of control and back to her old ways' - leaping up at people, yanking at hair, and knocking over her water bowl.

And, in June 2015, a disgruntled Miss King wrote to Ms Egan complaining that she had breached their contract by failing to tame the rowdy terrier.

Miss King claimed the canine guru - who trades at Precious Pooch - had pledged to deliver on 10 points, including resolving Izzy's habits of 'nipping, jumping, chewing and barking'.

Tracey Egan (pictured) who has trained the pets of royals, agreed to put Izzy through a two-week intensive boot camp in a drive to embed some positive new habits in the terrier

The 71-year-old sued Ms Egan for breach of contract, demanding a refund of the 2,800 she spent on schooling Izzy, plus interest.

The case reached court in 2016, but District Judge John Hugman dismissed the damages claim, vindicating Ms Egan.

Miss King would not throw in the towel, however, and appealed that decision to Judge Nigel Gerald, claiming she had not had a fair hearing.

But, snuffing out Miss King's claim, Judge Gerald ruled that she had 'insufficient evidence to prove breach of contract'.

'To suggest that, after 14 days, any previous behavioural issues would be, as it were, permanently gone forever is unreal,' he commented.

'That would ignore the fact that we are not dealing with a machine here, but a puppy.

'Puppies behave in particular ways and training is always intended to achieve certain results, but those results are not guaranteed.

'The evidence implicitly indicated that some, if not all, of the objectives had been achieved.'

He added: 'This was a boisterous puppy, kept in a small one-bedroom flat, who was not properly disciplined and fully exercised.

Miss Egan insists that the reason Izzy returned to her unruly ways after the training was because she was not getting enough exercise

'And that's why it regressed rather than there being any breach of contract.'

Ms Egan, who helps clients 'create the perfect life for your dog in the city of London', was in court to hear the outcome of Miss King's appeal.

But she left Central London County Court swiftly at the end of the hearing to 'collect my children from childcare.'

During the hearing, Judge Gerald asked if a dog may have been smuggled into court as he could detect a 'squeaking sound'.

But a rapid investigation by Miss King's barrister pinpointed the source of the noise as a poorly oiled courtroom door.US and Somali commandos have seized three men thought to be commanders with the al-Shabab extremist group following a deadly raid on a small village.

Five people thought to be banana farmers were killed in the raid in a village in Lower Shabelle region late on Wednesday.

A Somali intelligence official says the forces targeted a key hideout and coordination center for the Somalia-based al-Shabab.

Five people thought to be banana farmers were killed in the raid in a village in Lower Shabelle region in Somalia late on Wednesday

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The US Africa Command has not yet commented on the raid.

Moalim Ahmed Nur, a traditional elder in the village, confirmed that the five banana farmers were killed and then taken to the Madina hospital in Mogadishu on Thursday.

He said several people were captured by authorities.

Locals were pictured standing around and looking at the bloodied bodies of those killed in the village.An eight-year-old girl who was hit and killed by a car on a Michigan bridge on Tuesday evening was holding her mom's hand and carrying fresh fruit to give to the homeless.

Nevaeh Alston was hit by a pedestrian car while crossing Bridge Street NW in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at approximately 9.15pm.

The young girl was found unconscious in the road and was taken to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead, WZZM13 reports.

Nevaeh Alston was hit by a pedestrian car while crossing Bridge Street NW in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at approximately 9.15pm. Sarah Hampton, the girl's mother, had been holding Nevaeh's hand when she was hit

She had been wearing a white tank top with gray leggings when the crash occurred.

'She was holding onto her mother's hand, and went to run across the street, and mom tried to grab her. ...' said Brittany Paas - cousin to mother Sarah Hampton - via a message.

'Nevaeh got scared and thought she could make it across the street, and ran faster, then got hit.'

Nevaeh, along with her mother and uncle, had been on their way to help feed the homeless, according to a cousin. The girl became spooked by the cars and tried to run past them but was ultimately hit

A GoFundMe for Nevaeh's funeral arrangements has been made by family, raising over $7,705 in one day, surpassing its $7,500 goal

Nevaeh, along with her mother and uncle, had been on their way to help feed the homeless, according to Paas.

She was known for her efforts in helping others in the community, fitting since her name is 'heaven' spelled backwards.

The girl was a student at Kent Hills Elementary School. Principal Benjamin Rodgers sent an letter home to parents about the accident.

'I am writing to inform you of the passing of a Kent Hills student, Nevaeh Alston, who passed away yesterday following a pedestrian-car accident,' he said.

The girl was a student at Kent Hills Elementary School and was known for her caring nature

'Nevaeh will be greatly missed. My deepest sympathy and heartfelt condolences go to her family, friends, and the entire Kent Hills family.

'We have assembled our crisis team to help students as they deal with this tragic loss. They are available to any students and staff who need them and will remain at school as long as they are needed. Please contact the school if you believe your child needs assistance.

'Some signs that your child may be struggling include changes in appetite or sleep, inability to focus, constant crying, a desire to talk about death, or behavioral changes, such as aggression, anxiety, or being withdrawn. Our staff will also be watching for these signs and ensuring that students receive assistance, if needed. You can also help your student by letting them know you are available to listen to their feelings and reassuring them that what they are feeling is normal.'

Police report that the crash is under investigation but the driver appeared to not be under the influence of alcohol and was not speeding. The driver is a resident of Grand Rapids.

A GoFundMe for Nevaeh's funeral arrangements has been made by family members.

It raised over $7,705 in one day, surpassing its $7,500 goal.Charles D. Gill died while viewing this waterfall in the Ferne Clyffe State Park

A hiker fell more than 60 feet to his death after apparently losing his footing near a waterfall at a state park.

Williamson County Coroner Mike Burke says 22-year-old Charles D. Gill of Pittsburg, Illinois, died on Sunday after falling at Ferne Clyffe State Park.

He was pronounced dead around 6:30 p.m. Sunday at a hospital in Marion, 120 miles southeast of St. Louis.

The Johnson County Sheriff's Office, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Williamson County coroner are investigating.

Park manager Joe Nelson, said Gill was at the top of the waterfall at the time of the incident.

'The real view of the waterfall is from the bottom - we have a designated trail there,' Nelson said.

'It has an excellent view of the waterfall from the bottom, top to bottom, and it's very safe. We strongly encourage people to stay on the designated trails.'

Department of Natural Resources spokesman Ed Cross also urged hikers to stay on designated trails and wear suitable clothing and shoes to prevent accidents.

He said hikers should carry water and tell someone where and when they're hiking in case something happens.

In late January, 24 year-old Jodie Blandford slipped on ice and fell about 80 feet while hiking in the same state park. Her body was found four days later.

Courtesy of WISLTVThree people have been charged with neglect after an 88-year-old woman died from a rotting leg inside a West Virginia home.

Charleston police were called to a hospital Monday after Norma Dunlap was admitted with 'signs of severe neglect'.

She died on Wednesday.

Lisa J. Dunlap (righ), 50, has been charged with neglect after her mother, Norma Dunlap (left), 88, died from a rotting leg inside their West Virginia home

Charleston police were called to a hospital Monday after Norma Dunlap was admitted with 'signs of severe neglect'. Authorities said the elderly woman had been found living in deplorable conditions inside this home

Authorities told WSAZ the elderly woman had been found living in deplorable conditions.

According to the complaint, Dunlap had numerous bed sores, dried feces on her back and was covered in ants and other insects.

Her left leg was also 'rotting from the knee down to her ankle', police said.

Officers obtained a search warrant of Dunlap's home, where they found Lisa J. Dunlap, 50, John W. Rogers, 28, and 29-year-old Kayla Rogers.

Police also said there were two children living in the home. John and Kayla Rogers are the parents of the children.

A search of the home found feces, broken glass, bugs and trash all over and methamphetamine smoking devices by the children's bed.

Dunlap's daughter, Lisa Dunlap, has been charged with abuse or neglect of an incapacitated adult, which could be upgraded since her mother died.

The elderly woman's granddaughter, Kayla Rogers, and John Rogers have been charged with neglecting their children.

Officers also arrested John W. Rogers (right), 28, and 29-year-old Kayla Rogers (left), whose two children were found in the home. A search of the home found feces, broken glass, bugs and trash all over and methamphetamine smoking devices by the children's bed

If found guilty the Rogers each face a $1,000 to $3,000 fine and or one to five years in prison, according to the Charleston-Gazette Mail.

They are both being held at South Central Regional Jail on a $25,000 bond.

Lisa Dunlap was charged with abuse or neglect of an incapacitated adult.

If found guilty, she faces a $1,000 to $5,000 fine and or three to 15 years in a state prison.

She's also being held at the jail on a $25,000 bond.Advertisement

Israel has today released footage of the moment one of its missiles destroyed an Iranian rocket launcher in Syria in retaliation for Tehran forces shelling the Golan Heights hours earlier.

The video was revealed as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Iran had 'crossed a red line' by firing 20 rockets across the border early on Thursday.

The 20-second clip shows a missile mounted with a camera hurtling towards the SA22 aerial interception system as soldiers stood just yards away - unaware of the impending impact.

A SA22 aerial interception system, also known as Pantsir-S1, is a Russian-made truck-mounted short to medium range surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapons system.

Israel said it had attacked nearly all of Iran's military infrastructure in Syria, destroying dozens of sites, in an operation dubbed 'House of Cards' after Iranian forces fired rockets at Israeli-held territory for the first time.

The targets of the strikes, Israel's largest in Syria since the 1973 war, included weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centers used by elite Iranian forces in Syria.

Netanyahu said his country's strikes on Iranian targets in war-torn Syria were an 'appropriate' response after the Islamic Republic 'crossed a red line' by striking military positions.

'We are in the midst of a protracted battle and our policy is clear: We will not allow Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria,' Netanyahu said.

Later, in a statement issued as Israel's security cabinet was meeting, Netanyahu said the strike on Iran's military installations inside Syria sent a 'clear message' to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad not to attack Israel.

Netanyahu warned 'whoever attacks us - we will attack them sevenfold and whoever prepares to attack us - we will act against them first.'

A video shows Israeli missiles destroying Iranian military targets in Syria after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran that they'd 'crossed a red line' when they fired at the Golan Heights

He said that 'we are in a continuous campaign' and that 'Israel's military had carried out very extensive strike against Iranian targets' in Syria. Netanyahu said Syrian batteries fired at Israeli forces 'and therefore we struck them.'

Alongside the video of the strike, the IDF wrote that they 'struck an SA22 aerial interception system as part of a wide-scale attack against Iranian military sites in Syria.'

It added: 'The IDF strikes were a response to the rockets that were launched by the Iranian Quds Forces against IDF positions on the Golan Heights & the Syrian aerial defense fire at IAF aircraft.'

The military said previously it targeted a number of Syrian air defense systems - the SA22 as well as SA5, SA2, SA17 batteries - which had fired at Israeli planes, according to the Times of Israel.

It comes after Iran and Israel traded blows on the Syrian border overnight, marking the first time Tehran has directly attacked Israel.

Iranian forces fired 20 rockets across the border at Israeli frontline military positions early on Thursday, the Israeli military said.

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome defence system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage.

The 20-second clip shows a missile mounted with a camera hurtling towards the SA22 aerial interception system as soldiers (pictured top left) stood just yards away - unaware of the impending impact

A SA22 aerial interception system (pictured), also known as Pantsir-S1, is a Russian-made combined short to medium range surface-to-air missile and anti-artillery weapon system

Lebanese soldiers inspect the remains of a surface to air missile that landed in the southern Lebanese village of Hebarieh on Thursday

Cows are seen alongside Israeli Soldiers and Merkava tanks deployed near the Israeli-Syrian border on Thursday

Israeli soldiers were deployed near the Syrian border in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights as Israel carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria

Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight. Pictured, cows graze near Merkava tanks in Golan Heights

An Israeli soldier stands next to signs pointing out distances to different cities, on Mount Bental, an observation post in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Thursday

Israeli Merkava tanks are deployed in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights near the Israeli-Syrian border on Thursday

The attack was followed by retaliatory strikes by Israeli jets, which struck 'dozens' of Iranian military installations within Syria. They struck a radar station, air defence positions and an ammunition dump, Syrian state media said.

Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had 'hit almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria'.

HOW SA-22 GREYHOUND ANTI-AIRCRAFT VEHICLE CAN DOWN 12 TARGETS EVERY MINUTE A Pantsir-S1 is a Russian-made anti-aircraft system that is also known by its NATO code name: SA-22 Greyhound. It's a truck-mounted short to medium range surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapons system that has been in active service since 2003. The vehicles, which combine the use of both guns and missiles, are designed to shoot down aircraft, helicopters, precision munitions, cruise missiles and drones. The eight-wheel trucks carry 12 57E6 surface-to-air guided missiles and two automatic guns developed from the two-barreled 30mm GSh-30 gun. A Russian Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft defence system The Pantsir-S1 can fire at two targets at the same time and attack up to 12 targets within a minute. Its missiles have a maximum range of just over 11 miles. Russia has sold the systems to countries including Iran, Iraq and Jordan. Syria is known to have a mixture of Russian-made anti-aircraft systems, including the Pantsir S-1 and the Buk M2 surface-to-air missile system. The Pantsir-S1 has been fired in Syria a number of times to take out drones and missiles. The first known combat use of the Pantsir-S1 was by the Syrian Army when a system tracked and downed a Turkish aircraft in June 2012. Advertisement

But he insisted Israel had 'no interest in escalation' of the situation, adding: 'I hope that we have finished this chapter and that everyone got the message.'

Meanwhile, France and Germany on Thursday urged Israel and Iran to exercise restraint and avoid further escalation of hostilities in the Middle East after the heaviest military exchange ever between the two regional adversaries.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the Iranian rocket attacks and Israel's response in Aachen, western Germany, and called for prudence and de-escalation.

'The escalations of the past few hours show us that it is truly about war and peace. And I can only call on all sides to exercise restraint here,' Merkel said during a ceremony awarding Macron the Charlemagne Prize for strengthening EU integration.

Britain also condemned a rocket attack on the occupied Golan Heights by Iranian forces based in Syria, and said Israel has every right to defend itself.

Downing Street called for calm on both sides and urged Tehran to refrain from further assaults. Number 10 also urged Russia to use its influence in Syria to rein in Iranian aggression.

Prime Minister Theresa May's official spokesman said: 'We condemn Iran's attack on Israel. Israel has every right to defend itself.

'We call on Iran to refrain from any further attacks and for calm on all sides. We call on Russia to use its influence in Syria to prevent further Iranian attacks.'

The White House also condemned Iran's 'provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens' and expressed strong support for 'Israel's right to act in self-defense.'

'The Iranian regime's deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East,' Trump's press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

Syrian air defense missiles are seen in the sky over Damascus, Syria. According to Syrian official media reports, the air defense was responding to a new wave of Israeli missile strikes

Israel said Iranian forces had fired 20 artillery rockets at their military bases in the disputed Golan Heights and that their Iron Dome defence system had intercepted a number of them

An image released by the government-affiliated 'Central War Media' in Syria purportedly shows Syrian air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Damascus' airspace

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured in Moscow on Wednesday) said his country's strikes on Iranian targets in war-torn Syria were an 'appropriate' response after the Islamic Republic 'crossed a red line' by striking military positions

UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli strikes killed at least 23 military personnel, including Syrians and non-Syrians.

Israel said the Iranian rockets were either shot down by its Iron Dome air defence system or fell short of the Golan targets, claiming the Quds Force, an external arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, carried out the launch.

The exchange of fire came less than a day after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which lifts sanctions on Tehran in exchange for a halt on its nuclear program.

Merkel has scrambled to try to preserve the nuclear accord with Iran following Trump's announcement that the United States would be withdrawing from the accord.

In a call with Hassan Rouhani, Merkel called for talks to be held in a broader format on Iran's ballistic missile programme and its regional activities - including in Syria and Yemen, her office said in a statement.

Israeli Merkava tanks are deployed near the Israeli-Syrian border in the Golan Heights today after some 20 rockets were fired at Israeli military bases by Iranian forces from southern Syria just after midnight

Firing back: This photo supplied by Syrian state media allegedly shows Israeli missiles hittin air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus, Syria

The Israeli Iron Dome defense system is seen above on the Golan Heights attempting to intercept suspected Iranian missiles being launched from Syria

The project was given a bigger boost when the Obama administration sought and received hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding

The latest strikes were the heaviest Israeli barrage in Syria since the start in 2011 of its civil war, in which Iranians, allied Shi'ite militias and Russian soldiers have deployed in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

'We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria,' Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a security conference on Thursday morning.

'They need to remember the saying that if it rains on us, it'll storm on them. I hope we've finished this episode and everyone understood.'

An IDF spokesperson said Iran's Quds force fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though would reveal how Israel determined the Iranian involvement.

If Israeli claims are true, it would be the first time Iranian troops have directly attacked Israel rather than using proxies such as Islamist militant group Hezbollah.

Trading blows: Iranian forces reportedly fired 20 rockets on the Golan Heights, to which Israel responded with dozens of strikes on Iranian positions in Syria

This frame grab from video provided on Wednesday by Syria News shows people standing in front of flames rising after an attack on an area known to have numerous Syrian army military bases in Kisweh, south of Damascus

The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, which was captured from Syria in the 1967 war.

People in Metula, a town in northern Israel, were reportedly asked to enter 'secure areas' following an explosion in the area.

While the IDF blames Iran for firing the initial barrage of rockets into the Golan Heights, Syrian media claims Israel fired first.

US LEAVING IRAN DEAL COULD SEE SPIKE IN OIL PRICES The United States' immediate reinstating of sanctions on Iran, could lead to a global spike in the price of oil. Oil prices are already at their highest level since November 2014 and as Iran is the world's fifth biggest oil producer, any new sanctions is likely to affect the market. However, U.S.-ally Saudi Arabia has said to will help meet the oil demands if Trump's withdrawal from the Iran deal would create any shortfalls. Advertisement

Israel's response saw war planes targeting Iranian positions inside Syria, according to an IDF spokesman.

Targets included the Mezzeh airbase in Damascus, according to Israeli media. More than 30 Israeli missiles have reportedly struck targets near the city, with the Russian military claiming 70 were fired - and half of them downed.

Russia's defence ministry said: '28 Israeli F-15 and F-16 aircraft were used in the attack, which released around 60 air-to-ground missiles over various parts of Syria. Israel also fired more than 10 tactical ground-to-ground missiles.'

Russia said Syria's air defence systems shot down more than half of the missiles, while the extent of the damage was still being assessed.

'The locations of Iranian armed groups and also the positions of the Syrian army's air defences in the area around Damascus and in the south of Syria were attacked,' the ministry said.

Syria's state media said Syrian air defenses had intercepted 'hostile Israeli missiles' early Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus.

'Air defenses confronted tens of Israeli rockets and some of them reached their target and destroyed one of the radar sites,' Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing a military source. Another rocket hit an ammunition warehouse, it said.

Syrian state television was broadcasting footage of its air defenses firing at incoming rockets, and playing patriotic songs.

Long-exposure photographs showed Israeli artillery launched to intercept projectiles fired from Syria early today

THE GOLAN HEIGHTS: SYRIAN TERRITORY ANNEXED BY ISRAEL The Golan Heights form a strategic plateau between Israel and Syria of about 460 square miles. Israel captured it in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally. About 18,000 Israeli settlers have moved to the Golan, which also borders Jordan, since 1967. Some 20,000 Druze Muslims also live there. Israel gave the Druze the option of citizenship though most rejected it. Syria tried to regain the Golan Heights in the 1973 Middle East war, but the assault was thwarted. The two signed an armistice in 1974 and the Golan has been relatively quiet until recently. The Golan contains important water sources and has further strategic value because it overlooks northeastern Israel including the Sea of Galilee, a tourist attraction and Israel's biggest reservoir. In 2000, Israel and Syria held their highest-level talks over a possible return of the Golan and a peace agreement. But the negotiations collapsed. Source: Reuters Advertisement

It said Israeli warplanes were firing the rockets from outside Syria's borders and targeting Baath City in Quneitra province.

Earlier, Syrian media said the hostilities began with Israeli fire at Syrian positions in the country's south from across the border. Pro-Syrian media said Syrian missiles then fired at Israeli forces.

One TV station, Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen, said at least 50 missiles were fired from Syria at Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights.

It was the first time in years that Syrians had fired at Israeli forces in Golan, Syrian media reported.

The news that Israel and Iran had exchanged fire saw several world leaders call for de-escalation in the area, amid concern about growing military tensions between the two nations.

This morning, France's President Emmanuel Macron was first to call for de-escalation, and will be meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel later today to discuss the Middle East.

This was echoed by Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who said: 'This is all very alarming, it causes concern. There should be work to de-escalate the tensions,'

An air defense missile is seen over Daraa, Syria on Thursday. Daraa is very near the southwestern border with Jordan and not far from the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights

Anti-aircraft missiles are seen from the Syrian capital of Damascus before dawn on Thursday

The above image shows more Syrian air defense missiles as seen in the sky over the capital Damascus on Thursday

Syria's state media said Syrian air defenses had intercepted 'hostile Israeli missiles' early Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus

Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, anticipating an attack from Iran following the Iranian regime's vows to retaliate to what it says are recent Israeli strikes in Syria targeting Iranian outposts.

Late on Tuesday, Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near the capital of Damascus.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

Last month, an attack on Syria's T4 air base in Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel.

On April 30, Israel was said to have struck government outposts in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen pro-government fighters, many of them Iranians.

SOHR said the attacks killed 23 fighters, including five Syrian soldiers.

The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdurrahman, said five Syrian soldiers, including two officers, and 18 militia fighters were killed. Abdurrahman says it is not immediately clear if he believed Iranians were among those killed.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied most of the airstrikes.

But for months, it has repeatedly said it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov today called for 'restraint on all sides', adding that Moscow was 'concerned' at the development.

The strikes came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has provided massive military and diplomatic backing to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's seven-year civil war.

At the meeting Putin also expressed 'deep concern' over Trump's decision to withdraw from a key 2015 Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, a decision Netanyahu supported.

On Wednesday the Russian leader called the situation in the Middle East 'unfortunately very acute'.

Netanyahu had told Putin that 'it is the right of every state, certainly the right of Israel, to take the necessary steps in order to protect itself from (Iranian) aggression)', his office said in a statement Wednesday, referring to Iran's presence in Syria.

An Israeli Iron dome system is seen deployed near the Israeli-Syrian border in the Golan Heights

An Iron Dome anti-missile system can be seen near the Israeli side of the border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Wednesday

An Israeli tank can be seen near the Israeli side of the border with Syria in Golan Heights

The Israeli-occupied section of the Golan Heights was placed on high alert due to 'irregular activity by Iranian forces' across the demarcation line in Syria

An Israeli artillery unit takes position near the Syrian border in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights

Israeli soldiers stand on top of their Merkava tanks deployed near the Israeli-Syrian border in the Golan Heights

Israel has long objected to an Iranian military presence near the Golan Heights frontier

In February, Israel shot down what it said was an armed Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace.

Israel responded by attacking anti-aircraft positions in Syria, but an Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Iranian forces moved into Syria after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 to back the forces of President Bashar Assad.

As that war winds down, and Assad appears to be headed toward victory, Israel fears that Iran, along with tens of thousands of Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen, will carry out attacks against Israel.

Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, an annual security gathering north of Tel Aviv, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel would response fiercely to any further Iranian actions.

'We will not let Iran turn Syria into a forward base against Israel. This is the policy, a very, very clear policy, and we're acting according to this policy,' he said.

'We, of course, struck almost all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, and they need to remember this arrogance of theirs. If we get rain, they'll get a flood. I hope that we ended this chapter and that everyone understood.'

Iranian protesters burn US flags during an anti-US gathering outside of the former American embassy in central Tehran

Iranians reacted angrily on Wednesday to President Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Protesters are seen above walking on the US flag in Tehran

Rules of the agreement: Behind the historic 2015 Iran nuclear deal

Trump withdraws from Iran deal President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the nuclear deal with Iran, abruptly restoring harsh sanctions in the most consequential foreign policy action of his presidency. He declared he was making the world safer, but he also deepened his isolation on the world stage and revived doubts about American credibility with a rationale that contradicted the analyses of U.S. and foreign intelligence sources. The 2015 agreement, which was negotiated by the Obama administration and included Germany, France and Britain, had lifted most U.S. and international economic sanctions against Iran. In exchange, Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear program, making it impossible to produce a bomb and establishing rigorous inspections. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the nuclear deal with Iran But Trump, a severe critic of the deal dating back to his 2016 presidential campaign, said Tuesday in a televised address from the White House that it was 'defective at its core.' On Wednesday, he warned Iran against resuming its nuclear weapons program. 'I would advise Iran not to start their nuclear program,' Trump told reporters at the start of a Cabinet meeting when asked about the potential consequences. 'I would advise them very strongly. If they do there will be very severe consequence.' He claimed the deal 'was going to lead to nuclear proliferation all over the Middle East' and bragged the sanctions would be among the strongest 'that we've ever put on a country.' U.S. allies in Europe had tried to keep Trump in and lamented his move to abandon it. Iran's leader ominously warned his country might 'start enriching uranium more than before.' The sanctions seek to punish Iran for its nuclear program by limiting its ability to sell oil or do business overseas, affecting a wide range of Iranian economic sectors and individuals. Iran's government must now decide whether to follow the U.S. and withdraw or try to salvage what's left with the Europeans. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he was sending his foreign minister to the remaining countries but warned there was only a short time to negotiate with them. Trump also left open the possibility of a new deal, and told reporters Wednesday: 'We'll make either a really good deal for the world or we're not going to make a deal at all. He predicted Iran would choose to negotiate eventually, or face consequences. The administration said it would re-impose sanctions on Iran immediately but allow grace periods for businesses to wind down activity. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Trump's announcement as a 'historic move.' Trump said Tuesday that documents recently released by Netanyahu showed Iran had attempted to develop a nuclear bomb in the previous decade, especially before 2003. Although Trump gave no explicit evidence that Iran violated the deal, he said Iran had clearly lied in the past and could not be trusted. Iran has denied ever pursuing nuclear arms. In Iran, many are deeply concerned about how Trump's decision could affect the already struggling economy. In Tehran, Rouhani sought to calm nerves, smiling as he appeared at a petroleum expo. He didn't name Trump directly, but emphasized that Iran continued to seek 'engagement with the world.' Advertisement

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) traveled to Moscow on Wednesday to meet with President Vladimir Putin (right) and discuss military coordination in SyriaWhen Scott Hammond was found brutally beaten to death in his home in Tahmoor, no one in the small town seemed to care.

The 48-year-old was so universally hated for setting his pitbulls on people that police had a list of 5,000 suspects after his July 2013 slaying.

Finally, after almost five years, Kenneth Christopher Washbrook, 47, was arrested on Thursday and charged with the alleged drug dealer's murder.

Scott Hammond, 48, was brutally beaten to death in his home in Tahmoor in July 2013 and no one would help police because everyone hated him for terrorising the town

Finally, after almost five years, Kenneth Christopher Washbrook, 47, was arrested on Thursday and charged with the alleged drug dealer's murder

The investigation took so long because although police were convinced people in the town 100km southeast of Sydney knew who did it, no one was talking.

But dozens of people were happy to tell of run-ins they had with Mr Hammond and his dogs, and how much they detested him.

The feeling wasn't so much 'I wonder who killed him' but 'thank god someone did', locals remarked at the time.

'It took longer than what we thought. We thought it would happen a lot sooner because he's not very nice at all,' one said in 2013.

Townsfolk showed reporters scars on their legs from where they claimed to have been viciously attacked by his two pitbulls after he set the animals on them.

Children were too afraid to ride their bikes to school past his house and would get up earlier to take the long way around.

'It's not a person. It's an it. He was an it,' another local summed him up in the months after the murder. Another claimed he fired an arrow at him.

The investigation took so long because although police were convinced people in the town 100km southeast of Sydney knew who did it, no one was talking.

Mr Hammond also had conflicts with other criminals, once having both his legs broken by an intruder.

His solution was to have his dogs pull him around town in a wheelchair and fortify his home with locks, dog cages, and security cameras.

A year before he died, Mr Hammond was finally charged with terrorising the town with his two dogs Chocka and Girlie, who were put down.

He pleaded guilty to using them to wound a teenager and three men in three incidents, given a seven-month suspended sentence and fined $14,336.

Though he was banned from owning animals, a paralysed pitbull was found in the house when police discovered Mr Hammond with his skull caved in.

The only people willing to stick up for him were his family, who mounted numerous appeals that were largely ignored by his neighbours.

Mr Hammond's mother Josophine (left) died just a year before his alleged killer was caught, after spending five years appealing for justice

'Someone knows who has done this. We are devastated by his death. You don't expect to bury your children,' his mother Josophine said at the time.

On Thursday they were relieved someone had finally been caught, however it came just a month after his mother died without seeing justice served.

'Today is a good day for our family - it's been a long four-and-half years. He was a great person, he was caring, he was supportive,' his niece Rachael Taylor said.

'We understand that there will be some different perspectives on it but that is not my concern. I'm just worried about how my family is feeling today.'

For five years everyone assumed he was killed in revenge for his dog attacks, that karma had finally got the better of him.

But police said that wasn't the motive after all.A high school teacher from The Bronx who was arrested earlier this year for allegedly performing oral sex on her student was back in court on Thursday for an emotional hearing.

Dori Myers wore a stern expression - and a belted navy-blue cocktail dress - as she marched into Judge Michael Obus' courtroom at New York Supreme Court for a status conference.

The 29-year-old, who is married to a Rockland County sheriff's deputy and teaches social studies at The New School for Leadership and the Arts in Kingsbridge, was charged in January with criminal sexual act and endangering the welfare of a child.

Dori Myers looked downcast as she and her attorney walked into Judge Michael Obus' courtroom at New York Supreme Court on Thursday for a status conference

The married teacher, seen here wearing her engagement ring and wedding band, was charged in January with criminal sexual act and endangering the welfare of a child

On Thursday, Myers broke down sobbing at the defense table as her attorney, Andrew Stoll, argued that there was inconsistencies in court documents pertaining to the location of his client's alleged encounter with the victim, reported the New York Post.

Myers, sporting black-rimmed glasses and no makeup, was photographed in court scowling and looking downcast. She still wore her diamond engagement ring and wedding band on her left hand.

Myers was freed on her own recognizance after her arrest in January. The woman is due back in court on June 14.

Not a happy camper: Myers broke down sobbing at the defense table as her attorney, Andrew Stoll, spoke about her case

Myers is accused of performing oral sex on her 14-year-old student in November 2017. She is due back in court next month

The 29-year-old, who teaches social studies at The New School for Leadership and the Arts in Kingsbridge, was also seen massaging the victim, according to a witness statement

Police were notified of the alleged sexual encounter after the victim, who is thought to be one of Myers' students, told one of his classmates.

That classmates told a school administrator, who notified the police, according to the Post.

The criminal complaint claims the assault took place somewhere in Upper Manhattan on November 1, 2017.

Myers denied the allegations, according to her lawyer Andrew Stoll.

She lives in Rockland County where her husband is sheriff's deputy.

The Department of Education has called the allegations 'deeply troubling,' but said Myers has no prior disciplinary history. She hasn't been fired, but was reassigned 'away from students'. Pictured: The New School for Leadership and the Arts in Kingsbridge

Myers is pictured with her husband, Rockland County Sheriff's Deputy Matt Myers

Stoll previously told the Post that Myers started a track team at the Bronx high school - where she has worked since 2014.

'It takes just one person's accusation to make an arrest in this town and she's a model citizen who looks forward to clearing her name,' Stoll explained.

The teacher's Facebook page showed a series of smiling photos in which she laughed with friends and drank straight out of champagne bottles before it was deleted.

Myers also wrote about her students and partying in a number of different posts.

In several now-deleted photos she wore shirts with catchy slogans referencing alcohol - such as 'Whisky makes me frisky' and 'Champagne all day.'

In a tweet from 2015, which has now been deleted, Myers bragged that her students often commented on her looks.

'Ms. Youre like, real pretty, but, no offense, you got a big forehead,' she claims one student told her.

The Department of Education has called the allegations 'deeply troubling,' but said Myers has no prior disciplinary history. She hasn't been fired, but was reassigned 'away from students.'A troop of monkeys was captured playing with a temple bell in Himachal Pradesh, India.

The huge group of animals leap through the air one at a time to hit the musical instrument.

The excitement between the monkeys grows with each ring as they run around the Hindu temple's courtyard.

A troop of monkeys enjoyed ringing a temple bell in Himachal Pradesh, India

Local worshippers say the monkeys flock to the temple as it has a statue of the Hanuman god inside. They believe the cheeky animals are ringing the bell for the deity.

Hanuman is the Hindu god for strength and resembles an ape.

It is a regular affair for the animals to travel to the temple and play with the bell.

The monkeys were videotaped by one of the devotees who had gone to the temple to pray.

Hanuman (pictured) is the Hindu god for strength and resembles an ape

The huge group of animals leap through the air one at a time to hit the musical instrument

'I started hearing bells all of a sudden and was stunned as for how an empty temple could have so many devotees just in a matter of minutes.

'I came out and saw the monkeys playing around with the bell,' said the devotee who captured the video.

Another devotee said: 'Monkeys are an avatar of Hanuman, they are here because there is a Hanuman god statue in the temple.

'[The animals] are considered holy and nobody says anything to them because they are here to ring the bells for Lord Hanuman.'Dogs are supposed to be man's best friend, but this Iowa man ended up getting shot by his pet pooch.

Richard Remme, 51, was shot in the leg by his dog Balew at his home in Fort Dodge on Wednesday.

Remme told police he was roughhousing with his pit bull-Labrador mix on the couch when the unfortunate incident unfolded.

He said Balew kept jumping onto his lap and he would then toss the dog off.

Richard Remme, 51, was shot in the leg by his dog Balew at his home in Fort Dodge, Iowa (pictured above) on Wednesday

When the dog bounded back up, Remme said he must have disabled to safety on the gun in his belly band and stepped on the trigger.

The next time he bounded back up, one of his toes went down on the trigger guard.

The Ruger 9 mm fired and struck one of Remme's legs.

'It has a trigger safety as well as a thumb safety, and he managed to hit both of them, and it discharged and went into my leg, did no major damage to anything,' Remme told The Messenger newspaper.

He said he didn't initially feel the bullet go into his leg until his pants started going purple.

'I'm looking around to see where it went to, and I realized it went in my leg. That's when I called 911,' Remme said.

Remme was treated at a hospital and released later that day.

He said his dog Balew is a 'big wuss' and laid down beside him and cried because he thought he had done something wrong.

Police Chief Roger Porter called the shooting a freakish occurrence.Incredible bodycam footage shows New Jersey police smash the window of a burning car before pulling out a man who was sitting behind the wheel.

Roselle Park police were called to a smoking car on Saturday morning, and arrived to see it had burst into flames.

The vehicle's heavily tinted windows made it impossible to see inside the car, so one officer smashed a back window to see if anyone was inside, and saw a 42-year-old man slumped at the front wheel.

A man was pulled from a burning car in New Jersey by brave police officers on Friday

The man attempted to resist the officers, who had to forcefully remove the 42-year-old before the car exploded

Two policemen then flung open the driver's door and pulled out a man, who police say was disoriented and who fought desperately to stay inside the vehicle.

The footage shows the two officers pulling at him before finally getting him out of the car, which appears moments from becoming engulfed in flames, and down the street to safety.

Police say the man became alert once he was out of the car, and did not suffer any visible serious injuries, but was taken to Trinitas Hospital for further evaluation.

His last known address was a home in Everett, Washington.

A statement from police claims the man had been seen napping in his running vehicle before, and the fire may have been because of a wandering foot.

'The driver has been previously observed sleeping inside of the running vehicle for extended hours, and may have pressed on the gas pedal for an extended period of time, causing the engine to overheat and eventually catch fire,' the statement read.

Two officers worked together to get the man, who they say was disoriented, out of the vehicle (pictured)

Police said the man was known to sleep in his running car, and the fire may have been started when his foot hit the gas pedal while he slept

Despite the immense danger, the Washington man managed to escape with no serious visible injuries

Roselle Park Police Chief Paul W. Morrison said the man would have faced a much more dire outcome if a call hadn't been made early on.

'This is a great example of, "If you see something say something". Citizens who take an active role in our communities keep us all safe and can actually save lives,' he said.

He also praised first responders, who risked their own lives to get the man out.

The scene has been turned over to the Union County Arson Squad and the Union County Sheriffs Crime Scene and Identification Unit for investigation.

Police did not release the man's name.Tyrone Burch, a Brooklyn native, explained to a courtroom how he, Michael Crumble and Ramell Markus (pictured) tormented Daniel Nieves for heroin and $100,000

A drug dealer turned government informant shared the harrowing details about the eight hour torture that a New York man suffered while in his pajamas.

Tyrone Burch, a Brooklyn native, explained to a courtroom how he, Michael Crumble and Ramell Markus tormented Daniel Nieves for heroin and $100,000, last December.

'I told him if he didn't give me the drugs and the money I was going to burn him,' Burch shared with the Brooklyn court, according to the New York Post.

Burch, who pleaded guilty to kidnapping, shared that the trio ambushed Nieves on December 18 and used a gun to corner him into a car.

When Nieves asserted that he was emptyhanded, Burch claimed that Markus pistol whipped him three or four times before taking him to a nearby apartment.

There, the 35-year-old shared that they used zip ties to restrain Nieves. But when he broke free, Burch hit him in the face with a glass.

Burch eventually got Nieves to give up by threatening him with a iron and the secured man then called his fiance instructing her to bring the cash and weed.

'What Mr. Nieves endured can be described only as torture,' assistant US attorney Lindsay Gerdes said.

But both Crumble's (pictured) and Markus's lawyer took shots at the victim and the witness, claiming they weren't credible because of their history with crime

'They smashed a glass cup against his mouth, they tied him up and they burned him with a hot iron.'

But both Crumble's and Markus's lawyer took shots at the victim and the witness, claiming they weren't credible because of their history with crime.

'Burch is literally a career criminal,' said attorney Kannan Sundaram.

Attorney Charles Hockbaum added: 'People died from the heroin he produced.'

Nieves will appear in court to testify on Wednesday.

Both Crumble and Markus could face seven years in prison if convicted.A Massachusetts child care center has shut down temporarily after a child was diagnosed with typhoid fever, which is rare in the US.

The state Department of Public Health confirms that one child who attends the Bright Horizons Daycare in Quincy has come down the disease.

A spokeswoman for the daycare said the facility was closed Wednesday and Thursday so staff and students who shared a classroom with the ill student could be tested.

A Massachusetts child care center has shut down temporarily after a child was diagnosed with typhoid fever, which is rare in the US. The daycare is located inside this building

The state Department of Public Health confirms that one child (file image) who attends the Bright Horizons Daycare in Quincy has come down the disease

WHAT IS TYPHOID FEVER? Typhoid fever is a bacterial disease caused by Salmonella typhi. It is transmitted through the ingestion of food or drink contaminated by the feces or urine of infected people. Symptoms usually develop one to three weeks after exposure, and may be mild or severe. They include: high fever

malaise

headache

constipation or diarrhoea

rose-coloured spots on the chest

enlarged spleen and liver Some forms of typhoid fever can be treated with antibiotics. However, resistance to common antimicrobials is widespread. Healthy carriers should be excluded from handling food. Source: WHO Advertisement

'The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is working with Bright Horizons and the Quincy Public Health Department to prevent the spread of the disease,' DPH spokeswoman Ann Scales told NBC.

It's unclear if the daycare will reopen on Friday. Daycare workers do not believe the child contracted the disease at the center since the youngster had recently traveled abroad.

But since it is food and water borne, they are taking precautions.

'It is concerning, but they did send us emails with the details of what to look out for and all that,' Hala Abdel-Bakey, whose daughter attends daycare at Bright Horizons in North Quincy, told NBC.

'She seems fine to me right now, but they did say it shows up a week later or something like that.'

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 5,700 cases of typhoid fever occur in the US per year, and about three-quarters of those are acquired during overseas travel.

Symptoms include a high fever, weakness, stomach pains, headache, rash and appetite loss.

It is treated with antibiotics. If left untreated, it can kill up to 30 per cent of people who get it.Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer turned the First Lady's anti-social media bullying cmapaign against her husband Thursday in response to a derisive tweet from Donald Trump.

The Senate minority leader tweeted simply '#BeBest' Thursday after President Donald Trump raged against him on Twitter.

'BeBest' is the name of Melania Trump's public awareness campaign to help children. She's focusing on childhood well-being, social media use and opioid abuse. She warned that children can turn to bullying, addiction or suicide when she rolled out the plan this week.

The Senate Democratic responded with two words: 'Be Best!' The slam was a reference to Trump's wife's anti-cyber bullying campaign

President Trump made Sen. Chuck Schumer his poster child for Democratic hypocrisy on the Iran nuclear on Thursday, pointing out that the politician was against it when it was signed but now says he supports it

Trump hit the fellow New Yorker in a tweet that referred to him by the derogatory nickname 'Cryin' Chuck' (right) and compared him to fired FBI director James Comey

Anti-social media bullying campaign: Melania Trump launched her Be Best initiative this week, with her husband at her side. It took only three days for it to be turned against him

Trump had made Schumer his poster child for Democratic hypocrisy on the Iran nuclear earlier in the day, pointing out that the politician was against it when it was signed but now says he supports it.

Trump hit the fellow New Yorker in a tweet that referred to him by the derogatory nickname 'Cryin' Chuck' and compared him to fired FBI director James Comey.

'Schumer fought hard against the Bad Iran Deal, even going at it with President Obama, & then Voted AGAINST it!' Trump said. 'Now he says I should not have terminated the deal - but he doesn't really believe that! Same with Comey. Thought he was terrible until I fired him!'

The New York Democrat voted against the deal when it came before the U.S. Senate in 2015 in a move that pitted him against then-President Barack Obama.

The top-ranking Democrat has since said the accord needs time breathe to see if it can work. Schumer said this week the that the Republican president doesn't 'have a real plan' to replace it, in remarks that clearly irked Trump.

'This is a little like replace and repeal  they had these words, they used them in the campaign, and they don't have a real plan here,' Schumer said, according to the Associated Press.

Trump lashed out against Schumer by name in a Cabinet meeting Wednesday.

The president noted that three years ago, when Obama was at the helm of the government, Schumer, who's Jewish, opposed the accord that lifted stiff economic sanctions on Israel's sworn enemy.

'Some of the senators, I watch them now as they say, 'Oh, he shouldn't have done it.' But they don't say it  the Democratic senators  they don't say with their full throat; they don't say it with heart. Because they have one problem: They were totally against it.

'Like Chuck Schumer was totally against the deal. He voted against the deal. He was fighting with Obama. In fact, I remember reading at the time they ended up in a fight together over this deal because he wanted to protect Israel,' Trump said.

'And he knows this deal is very bad for Israel and very bad for the Middle East. But I know that they voted against it, and then you'll see Chuck Schumer say, 'Oh, he shouldn't have ended the deal.' It's like, oh  perhaps he changed his mind. But, by the way, the deal only got worse.'

After he smacked Schumer again on Thursday, this time by tweet, the senior senator from New York attempted to his the president where it would hurt.

He mocked him using the phrase 'Be Best' in an apparent reference to the platform Melania Trump rolled out Monday. She specifically took aim at cyberbullying in the initiative -- something her own husband has repeatedly been accused of.

Schumer, while against Trump's withdraw from the deal, was not among the loudest Democrats complaining about the anticipated announcement.

Former President Barack Obama and ex-Secretary of State John Kerry had led the charge. They were backed up in their criticisms by 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The White House ripped the trio on Wednesday after they publicly derided Trump's decision to ditch the deal as a mistake.

'I think based on each of those individuals' lack of success in this entire process on foreign affairs, they would probably be the last three people that we would look to for advice and counsel, and whether or not we had made the right decisions,' spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Wednesday at her daily briefing.Rudy Giuliani quit his Manhattan law firm to focus solely on his new role on President Donald Trump's legal team, it was announced Thursday - only to be hit by a rebuke from the firm for claiming he used its funds for payments his clients did not know about.

The former New York City mayor originally planned simply to take a leave of absence from the law firm of GreenbergTraurig when he joined Trump's outside team last month.

But the law firm released a statement Thursday announcing that the parting would be permanent.

Giuliani said that he was stepping away 'in light of the pressing demands of the Mueller investigation' into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and said that his 'sole concentration can be on this critically important matter for our country.'

But shortly after the firm issued a public rebuke to Giuliani in a statement to the New York Times.

Giuliani had told Sean Hannity in a bombshell interview last week that Trump knew Cohen had paid off Stormy Daniels - and also said: 'Trump didn't know about the specifics, as far as I know.

Eye on one ball: Rudy Giuliani, who was at Yankee Stadium in new York watching the Yankees play the Boston Red Sox Wednesday, is permanently leaving law firm GreenbergTraurig to work solely on defending Donald Trump

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Tuesday said that Trump indicated two years ago that Giuliani had a drinking problem, and that's why he passed him over for his Cabinet

Outgoing White House attorney Ty Cobb (left), the government lawyer who serves as the liaison to Trump's outside counsel, told DailyMail.com, 'I've never seen him impaired in any form, fashion or otherwise.' Trump's top personal attorney, Jay Sekulow (right), likewise said that Giuliani is 'fully engaged' and 'a valuable member of the president's legal team'

'That was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way I would do, out of his law firm funds.

'Michael would take care of things like this like I take care of this with my clients. I don't burden them with every single thing that comes along.'

GreenbergTraurig slapped back at that in their statement, saying: 'We cant speak for Mr. Giuliani with respect to what was intended by his remarks.

'Speaking for ourselves, we would not condone payments of the nature alleged to have been made or otherwise without the knowledge and direction of a client.'

Giuliani has become a lightning rod during his tenure on Trump's team, drawing the president's ire for a series of scattershot interviews.

The move came after the president's other lawyers rallied behind the 73-year-old personal attorney to Trump who was accused of drinking too heavily to be effective as counsel.

Outgoing White House attorney Ty Cobb, the government lawyer who serves as the liaison to Trump's outside counsel, told DailyMail.com, 'I've never seen him impaired in any form, fashion or otherwise.'

Trump's top personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, likewise said that Giuliani is 'fully engaged' and 'a valuable member of the president's legal team.'

'It is both an honor and a privilege to be working with him,' Sekulow said.

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Tuesday said that Trump indicated two years ago that Giuliani had a drinking problem, and that's why he passed him over for his Cabinet.

The 'Morning Joe' host said that Trump, during the presidential transition, said Giuliani was 'losing it' and was 'falling asleep five minutes into meetings.'

'Everybody around Donald Trump said [Giuliani] was drinking too much. Donald Trump suggested as much. That was two years ago,' Scarborough said.

Scarborough was incredulous that Trump brought Giuliani, a former U.S. attorney, onto his legal team 'despite his own reservations about him' after the presidential election.

'It's not 3-D chess. That's not even checkers,' he said. 'That's a monkey throwing poo against the wall and it doesn't usually turn out well.'

Giuliani told Politico he was insulted by Scarborough's suggestion that he's not up to the job of representing the president.

The former New York City Mayor said 'none of that is true' as he slapped back at the former Florida congressman.

'I'm a lot more aware and intelligent than Joe has ever been and a lot more accomplished. Joe hasn't been knighted by the Queen of England,' Giuliani charged.

'He hasn't run a U.S. attorney's office, much less a city that he turned around or went through 9/11.'

'Rudy is a great guy, but he just started a day ago. But he really has his heart into it,' Trump said of Giuliani last week. The president greeted freed Americans held in North Korea on Thursday morning

Queen Elizabeth bestowed an honorary knighthood on Giuliani a month after the World Trade Center terror attack in 2001.

She named him Giuliani Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. She said that Giuliani, then the mayor of New York, had earned the honorary knighthood for 'outstanding help and support to the bereaved British families in New York.' Because he is not British, he cannot be called 'Sir Rudy'.

As for the allegations about his alcohol consumption, Giuliani told Politico, 'I'm not drinking for lunch.' He added, 'I may have a drink for dinner. I like to drink with cigars.'

In New York, Giuliani is known to frequent Grand Havana Room on Fifth Avenue. Two sources told Politico that he was at the cigar bar prior to the interview last Wednesday evening on Sean Hannity's show during which he revealed the president's Stormy Daniels-linked reimbursement to attorney Michael Cohen.

'I sometimes go before,' he told Politico of his recollection of when he was at the club. 'I sometimes go after.'

Cobb, the White House attorney who is retiring this month and is handing off his duties to Emmet Flood, told DailyMail.com that he's never seen Giuliani operate 'impaired' in any way.

'Rudy's been intensely engaged and getting up to speed on stuff,' he said. 'I've had only a couple of meetings with him, but he's always been very, very determined to understand things, ask tough questions, catch up.'

Sekulow said, 'I have spent long hours on a regular basis with Mayor Giuliani. He is fully engaged, a valuable member of the president's legal team, and it is both an honor and a privilege to be working with him.'

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday afternoon that the president continues to have confidence in Giuliani as his personal attorney.

'Yes, he thinks he's done a fine job,' Sanders said during her daily news conference.

Giuliani joined Trump's team of personal attorneys on April 19 alongside former federal prosecutors Jane and Marty Raskin. The trio of attorneys are representing Trump in the personal aspects of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into meddling in the 2016 election.

Sekulow is overseeing Trump's legal strategy for handling Mueller, whose investigation has evolved to include allegations that Trump obstructed justice when he fired James Comey. Trump is also locked in a legal battle with former adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Giuliani landed himself - and the president - in hot water last week when he said Trump reimbursed his personal attorney the $130,000 that Cohen paid Daniels to keep her quiet about an affair she says she had with Trump in 2006.

After a series of misstatements on what Trump knew about the payment that Cohen made to Daniels weeks before the presidential election, Giuliani said Sunday on 'This Week' that he was extricating himself from the situation and leaving that case to Trump's other representatives.

Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, charged after the ABC News interview that Giuliani's appearances had been an 'absolute unmitigated disaster' for the president.

On the same news program that Giuliani had just appeared on, Avenatti said the interview was an 'absolute train wreck' and one of the 'worst TV appearances' by an attorney acting on behalf of a client that he may have ever seen.

'I mean this guy's all over the map over the last 72 hours on some very simple facts that should be very straightforward,' Avenatti said. 'They don't know what to say because they've lost track of the truth.'

Daniels' attorney asserted, 'It is time for Rudy Giuliani to be put out to pasture.'

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said that Giuliani would 'get his facts straight.'

'Rudy is a great guy, but he just started a day ago. But he really has his heart into it. He's working hard. He's learning the subject matter. And he's going to be issuing a statement too,' Trump said. 'But he is a great guy. He knows it's a witch hunt. That's what he knows. He's seen a lot of them. And he said he's never seen anything so horrible.'Advertisement

One of three Americans who were freed from North Korea on Thursday asked to be let off the US State Department plane which brought them home as it refuelled in Alaska because he had not seen daylight for 'a very long time', it has been revealed.

Kim Dong- chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, arrived at Joint Air Base Andrews in Maryland at 2 am on Thursday. They were greeted by President Trump and the first lady on the tarmac.

At around 6pm, their plane stopped in Anchorage, Alaska, to refuel where one of the men asked to be allowed out to see the light, according to Vice President Mike Pence.

'The Secretary of State told me that when the plane refuelled in Anchorage, one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadn't seen daylight in a very long time,' Pence told GMA on Thursday, describing the situation as 'heartbreaking'.

Shortly before 6pm on Wednesday, the large, blue and white State Department plane carrying the men (pictured) stopped to refuel in Anchorage, Alaska. One of the men asked to get out to see the daylight because he hadn't for so long. It is not clear if he was allowed to. Their aircraft was accompanied by a medivac

He did not say which of the men made the request or if it was granted by government officials. The State Department did not respond to DailyMail.com's questions on the matter on Thursday afternoon.

Dong-chul spent the longest in custody and has told how he endured hard labor as part of his imprisonment. He was arrested in October 2015 and was accused of acting as a spy for South Korea.

All three of the men are South Korean but have American citizenship.

Hak-song was arrested at a train station in May 2017, a month after Sang-duk's arrest.

Their release is the latest indicator of improved relations between the West and Kim Jong-un.

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump went onboard the plane to greet the men before they emerged in Maryland at 2am on Thursday

President Trump is pictured shaking the hand of Kim Hak-song on board the plane. The three men thanked him for securing their release

Kim Dong-chul (right) gives peace signs as he and Kim Hak-song (background) and Tony Kim (left) arrive at Joint Base Andrews at 2am on Thursday after meeting the president and first lady on board their State Department plane

The scenes at Joint Base Andrews were jubilant as the men got off the plane, their hands in the air waving and making peace signs, while the president clapped

President Trump will meet the North Korean leader next month in June. It is a historic meeting which could bring an end to more than two decades of hostile relations.

In his interview on Thursday, Vice President Pence heaped praise on Trump for setting in motion the historic chain of events.

He hopes it will lead to Jong-un agreeing to 'complete denuclearisation' and said that the president is the one to thank if such an extraordinary situation comes about.

'What you are seeing is diplomacy but diplomacy that has followed the US speaking truth. It will no longer tolerate the path that NK has been on with regard to nuclear missiles.

'What's different today is that the US has offered no concessions, nothing in exchange and yet we do so like this remarkable moment of 3 americans coming home, and the commitments being made by Kim Jong-un, we see signs that this may be different and it's all a result of President Trump's leadership.

The three men disembark the State Department plane followed by the Trumps at Joint Air Base Andrews on Thursday at 2am

'We're seeing hopeful signs from Kim Jong-un that he is prepared to embrace complete denuclearisation.

'President Trump found a way to communicate in terms that I believe Kim Jong-un could finally hear.

Vice President Mike Pence said it was one of the 'greatest joys of his life' welcoming the men home

'He could hear that this president was serious about achieving the objective that has eluded the world community for a quarter century, that is the full denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,' Pence said.

He added that it was one of 'the greatest joys of his life' to greet the men on the tarmac on Thursday morning.

'As they came down the stairs, the joy on their faces, their appreciation for the people of the US for their countrymen, for the president and frankly their gratitude to God was deeply moving.

'The first words that they said to us were "thank you' and then "thank you for your prayers."

Sang-duk's family issued a statement on Thursday afternoon thanking the administration for all it had done to secure their release.

'We are very grateful for the release of our husband and father, Tony Kim, and the other two American detainees. We want to thank all of those who have worked toward and contributed to his return home.

'We also want to thank the President for engaging directly with North Korea.

'Mostly, we thank God for Tony's safe return,' they said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shakes hands with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang on May 9. The Americans' release is the latest indicator of improving relations between North Korea and the WestAn Arizona woman has been charged with stalking a man, sending him a total of 65,000 text messages and breaking into his home to take a bath after going out with him just once.

Jacqueline Ades, 31, was arrested in Phoenix on Tuesday on felony charges of threatening and intimidating, stalking and harassment, a misdemeanor.

Ades reportedly met the unnamed Paradise Valley resident through a dating site in 2017.

Not-quite fatal attraction: Jacqueline Ades, 31 (pictured left and right in mugshots) is accused of stalking a man, sending him a total of 65,000 text messages and breaking into his home to take a bath

Cupid's arrow: The victim told police he had gone out with Ades just once after meeting her through a dating site, but she apparently fell in love with him

The two went out together on a single date, but Ades allegedly fell in love and began actively pursuing the man.

The victim said Ades, who described herself on social media as a makeup artist, inundated his phone with text messages, sometimes sending as many as 500 a day, reported ABC15.

Ades' love interest contacted police twice last year after she parked outside his home and continued peppering him with unwanted texts. Police responded to the area and escorted Ades off his property.

Last month, the victim spotted her while remotely checking home surveillance video. Officers went to the home and found the 31-year-old woman taking a bath in the man's tub.

Not playing hard to get: Ades (left and right) )allegedly inundated her love interest with text messages, sometimes sending as many as 500 a day

Dark turn: After Ades was caught by police taking a bath in the man's home while he was away, she allegedly began sending the object of her desire threatening texts

Chilling words: In one missive, Ades allegedly compared herself to Adolf Hitler and called the homicidal Nazi leader a 'genius'

When police searched Ades' car, they found a large butcher knife on the passenger seat.

The victim said after that incident, Ades sent him threatening texts, one of which stated: 'Oh what would I do w ur blood! Id wanna bathe in it.'

Another menacing missive read: 'You do whatever you have to do to get here but dont ever try to leave me... Ill kill you... I dont want to be a murderer.'

In her messages to the object of her desire, Ades allegedly favorably compared herself to Adolf Hitler and praised the Nazi mass murderer as a 'genius,' as Fox 10 reported.

Then last week, Ades showed up at the victims business in Scottsdale and falsely claimed to be his wife, which ultimately led to her arrest in Phoenix, according to police.

After being taken into custody, Ades reassured police that she had no intention of hurting the man, saying that she only sent the threatening texts to him because she loved him and feared that he would leave her.

Ades later acknowledged that her statements were 'crazy.' She was ordered held without bond.Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin says hearing that Sen. John McCain now regrets choosing her as his 2008 running mate is 'like a perpetual gut-punch' every time she hears about it.

And the latest verdict from the ailing 81-year-old Arizona Republican, she said, is perplexing because McCain has told her very different things over and over in person.

'That's not what Sen. McCain has told me all these years, as he's apologized to me repeatedly for the people who ran his campaign  some who now staff MSNBC, the newsroom there, which tells you a lot,' Palin said.

Hearing the opposite on TV, she said, was unnerving.

'It's not a real fun thing that part of my job is the requirement  is having to read the news every day,' Palin lamented.

The onetime Alaska governor spoke to DailyMail.com in Washington before headlining a fundraising event for a Trump-friendly political action committee.

Senator John McCain revealed in his new book that he regrets picking former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Above the two are seen at a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, in August 2008

Palin tells DailyMail.com that McCain (pictured during their defeat on election night) has shown a different attitude towards her since the failed campaign and has even apologized 'repeatedly' for her treatment at the hands of the Republican Party

The New York Times revealed earlier this week that McCain wrote in his new book, The Restless Wave, that he regretted choosing Palin as his running mate and wanted Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman as his VP instead.

Palin said it's possible that McCain himself doesn't believe she was a drag on his White House aspirations a decade ago, but that hangers-on in his inner circle could be presuming to speak for him.

'I attribute a lot of what we're hearing and reading regarding McCain's statements to his ghostwriter or ghostwriters,' she explained.

'I don't know all the details of his condition right now. It happens to me also where people speak for me and a bell is rung, and you can't un-ring the bell.'

'I don't know unless I heard it from Sen. McCain myself,' she said.

McCain's recurring apology for her treatment at the hands of the Republican Party elites who turned their noses up at her 'going rogue' style, she insisted, 'has almost been a running joke between the two of us over these years.'

'I stop him all the time and say, "Please don't apologize."

There's nothing to apologize for anyway, Palin said, since former president Barack Obama's victory over her and McCain was basically written in the stars.

'There were elements of a perfect storm for Barack Obama to have been elected. It worked out the way that it was supposed to work out,' she said.

McCain-Lieberman 2008: The senator admitted that he wished he has picked Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman instead (right) but was advised against it

McCain's documentary and book are due to be released this month as he battles an aggressive form of brain cancer. He is pictured above after voting on a Senate tax bill in November 2017

That's because the Obama years 'opened a lot of people's eyes to the trajectory of our country,' she said, hastening the Trump era into place.

Palin took issue with the way President Trump has treated McCain, a war hero who was tortured for years in North Vietnam after his plane was shot down  and famously refused to accept an early release unless the men he commanded were allowed to come out of the infamous 'Hanoi Hilton' with him.

Trump has hurled a steady stream of disparagement in McCain's direction since early in the 2016 campaign season, once saying in Iowa that the senator shouldn't be considered a war hero 'because he was captured.'

At first Palin said she was 'frustrated' with Trump for not having a lighter touch with McCain.

Then she stopped and said a better word would be 'disappointment' because Trump has been 'disparaging Sen. McCain  his record, his history as a veteran  when we don't know all the details of all those years that Sen. McCain made sacrifices for this country as a POW.'

While she defended McCain's honor, Palin had choice words for one of his more memorable votes on the Senate floor.

McCain's book will be released on May 22, 2018

The famously plainspoken Palin didn't dispute that she disagreed with McCain for enraging the president by casting a 'no' vote last year and killing a bill aimed at repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Obamacare is 'still on the books after all the promises that the GOP would repeal [it],' she vented, ultimately allowing that 'it's not all on Sen. McCain's shoulders' because plenty of Democrats became 'obstructionists' over the high-stakes legislative episode.

Asked if McCain should have voted yes,' Palin didn't blink.

'I wish that he would have,' she said. 'And Sen. McCain and I, at least in the past, had a good enough relationship where if I had the opportunity, I would have told him that.'

McCain, who is battling brain cancer, has already said he won't run for re-election again.

Palin told DailyMail.com that she will 'choose to remember the good times with him' even though he appears to have turned on her.

'In spite of everything that has erupted in these past days with his spokesperson  or perhaps he himself  saying that he regrets that they chose me to run on their ticket,' she said, 'despite all that, he has been my friend.'



A North Carolina dentist issued an apology on Thursday for a magazine ad many people deemed offensive.

The full-page ad in the May edition of Midtown Magazine was taken out by Renaissance Dental in Raleigh and shows three white female dentists showing off their pearly whites while dressed in different cultural attire.

One dentist is seen wearing a kimono while holding a fan. The second dentist has her arms crossed while dressed in Native American garb, and a third is wearing what appears to be a Scottish outfit.

Renaissance Dentist posted the above ad in the May edition of North Carolina magazine Midtown Magazine

Social media were outraged by the culturally insensitive tone of the ad showing three white dentists dressed in Chinese, Native American and Scottish outfits

The ad was to promote a free whitening system but many people found it offensive

Another social media posted about the offensive ad saying it was 'horrifically wrong'

The headline 'Everyone smiles in the same language!' is written across the ad in giant white letters. The ad was to promote a free whitening system, but it struck a nerve with many people.

After receiving backlash for the culturally insensitive image, the office released an apology on Twitter.

'In one of our recent advertisements, we attempted to focus upon something that unites us ... the warmth and joy behind a smile. We now realize it was ignorant and offensive, and we are truly sorry,' the statement read.

'We have learned a valuable lesson in this situation. Again, our since apologies.'

Despite the company's apology, social media users continued to attack the dentist office with many wondering how the ad made it to print without someone realizing it was offensive.

'How many hands did this have to go thru before it made it to the media? Not one person thought about how this wasnt okay? Yall knew exactly what yall were doing with this whitening system. Good play on words,' a Twitter user by the name of g. posted.

'There are length of workshops in your area which focus on countering implicit bias. You may want your entire team to attend,' Twitter user Heidi B tweeted. 'As well as anyone outside of your office who helped produce/publish that dumpster fire.'

The dentist office issued an apology on Thursday saying they have 'learned a valuable lesson

The Raleigh, North Carolina dentist opened in 2009. Other ads included the women dressed in referee's shirts, construction hats and exercise clothes

Renaissance Dental was opened in 2009 by dentists Anna Abernethy, Jill Sonner and Anita Jones Wells

Autumn Rose commented that issuing an apology is good but the company needs to make changes within their company.

'If you took the time to create that ad you OBVIOUSLY dont have diversity, culturally, experience wise or diversity of thought! This is not okay but Im sure there a lot more thats not okay,' she posted.

Previous ads show the doctors posing in referee's shirts, construction hats and exercise clothes.

Renaissance Dental was opened in 2009 by dentists Anna Abernethy, Jill Sonner and Anita Jones Wells.Ronald Williams, 21, is accused of dragging the 52-year-old woman into an apartment building stairwell in Queens, New York just after 8am on April 30 before he raped and beat her

A homeless man allegedly left a woman with a fractured neck after he viciously raped her just moments after she dropped her son off at school.

Ronald Williams, 21, is accused of dragging the 52-year-old woman into an apartment building's outdoor stairwell in Queens, New York just after 8am on April 30.

Police said he then raped her and beat the mother-of-two so violently that she was left unrecognizable.

The woman, who was found unconscious in the basement stairwell without her clothes, also suffered a fractured neck and eye socket.

The victim was taken to a hospital and is still being treated for her injuries.

She needed four staples in her head after suffering blunt force trauma.

NYPD detectives eventually tracked Williams to a motel in Columbia, South Carolina on Tuesday and he was extradited back to New York.

He faced a Queens court on Thursday where he was arraigned on charges of assault, sexual abuse and unlawful imprisonment.

Williams is accused of raping and beating the woman in the stairwell of this apartment building in Queens, New York. She was found naked and unconscious in the stairwell

NYPD detectives eventually tracked Williams to a motel in Columbia, South Carolina on Tuesday and he was extradited back to New York. He is pictured above on surveillance while on the run

Williams, whose last known address was a homeless shelter in Queens, pleaded not guilty but admitted to pushing the woman down the stairs, NBC reports.

'I wasn't going to rape her,' he said in court. 'I punched her in the face a few times... I get angry and blackout sometimes.'

Williams was already on probation at the time for another assault on a 33-year-old woman last year.

'No one should have to worry about fending off a sexual attack on the streets of our county at any time of the day or night,' Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said.

'Despite the defendants efforts to escape justice, he was fortunately apprehended and will now stand accountable for this horrific crime.'

If convicted, Williams faces up to 25 years in prison.

He has been held without bail and ordered to return to court on June 8.A former police poster girl has lost a 144,000 race claim after a tribunal heard she had a tendency to complain of prejudice whenever she was unhappy at work.

Ex-Met officer Carol Howard accused her employer, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) of discrimination and harassment.

But a tribunal concluded the 39-year-old would complain of victimisation if she does not like what is happening or is prevented from doing the work she chooses.

The hearing was told she lost her temporary job with the IPCC after falsifying timesheets and for poor performance.

Former Met Police firearms officer Carol Howard cried racism whenever if she did 'not like what is happening or is prevented from doing the work she choose', the tribunal concluded

Howard, pictured left arrived at a separate hearing in 2014 and right as a poster girl for the Met Police, lost her temporary job with the IPCC after falsifying timesheets and for poor performance

Dismissing all 33 of Miss Howards allegations, Judge Joanna Wade said her claims to be the victim of a witch hunt were unfounded.

In a damning ruling, the judge suggested a 37,000 payout in a previous action against the Metropolitan Police four years ago lay behind her claim against the IPCC.

The former firearms officer suffered from an astonishing lack of perspective and very poor judgment, it was said.

Judge Joanna Wade dismissed all 33 of Miss Howard's allegations and said her claims to be the victim of a witch hunt were unfounded. She is pictured arriving at a separate hearing in 2014

The judge said: We are left with the uncomfortable conclusion that the claimant has an unshakeable but incorrect belief that if she does not like what is happening or is prevented from doing the work she chooses, this is discrimination [or] victimisation.

In a written ruling, the judge added that for an experienced detective her judgment throughout was very poor.

She went on: Her lack of perspective is astonishing. It gives rise to concern that winning a tribunal claim may have a detrimental effect on future judgment.

Miss Howard, of Coulsdon, Surrey, rose to prominence after appearing in an official Scotland Yard poster to promote the 2012 London Olympic security operation holding a firearm.

She served 14 years with the Metropolitan Police but quit in 2015 after she won a discrimination payout.

A tribunal found she was bullied, harassed and victimised while serving as one of only two black women officers in the forces 700-strong Diplomatic Protection Group.

She went on to apply for a temporary post as an investigator at the IPCC, now known as the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

But she resigned after just five months while facing suspension and dismissal for submitting inaccurate timesheets.

Her final month was spent on sick leave for stress and after suffering a laser injury to her neck.

Within months, Miss Howard brought a fresh employment case against the police watchdog, accusing it of racism, victimisation and harassment.

The Central London Employment Tribunal heard she won a post in September 2016 using her married name  after a first application in her maiden name was unsuccessful.

Judge Wade said Miss Howards logic in claiming discrimination over the decision not to shortlist her at her first attempt to get a job was troubling as her application was of poor quality.

She said: It is, chronologically, the first of many [incidents] showing the claimant has a poor ability to judge whether a situation is terrible or entirely understandable once the context is known.

Miss Howard claimed the watchdog was institutionally racist and corrupt and alleged that other ethnic minority staff felt the same.

Miss Howard served 14 years with the Metropolitan Police but quit in 2015 after she won a discrimination payout. She is pictured left at an earlier hearing in 2014

She went on to apply for a temporary post as an investigator at the IPCC, now known as the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC)

She complained she was barred from working on any cases involving her former force, even though the judge said it was perfectly sensible.

And the tribunal dismissed her attempt to claim the work she was given at the watchdog was quite dull. It also criticised her for working on confidential inquiries on the train and in a nearby branch of Starbucks.

Miss Howard is now under investigation by the Information Commissioner for allegedly downloading sensitive data from the IPCCs computers after her employment.

IOPC director general Michael Lockwood said he was pleased with the judgment, adding: We maintained throughout the tribunal that the claimants accusations were without foundation and this judgment vindicates our position.Advertisement

Donald Trump welcomed three Americans imprisoned in North Korea back to the U.S. in the wee hours of Thursday morning, and said words most observers thought no American president would ever utter: 'We want to thank Kim Jong Un.'

Stunning and emotional photos released by the White House showed the president and his wife Melania at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington at 2:00 a.m. greeting Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim aboard the plane that flew them to freedom.

The first couple called them 'incredible people.'

In extraordinary scenes, Trump and the first lady clapped and cheered as the men walked down the steps with their arms in the air and giving triumphant 'V' signs signifying both peace and victory.

Their first steps back on American soil came hours earlier, in Alaska, when the plane carrying them home stopped to refuel.

On the tarmac in suburban Maryland, Trump said: 'These are great people. Frankly, we didn't think this was going to happen, but it did. It was important to get these people out. This is a special night for these three really great people.'

Scroll down for video

President Donald Trump greeted Kim Dong-chul as Tony Kim, center, and Kim Hak-song, right, looked on Thursday morning

Trump and the first lady boarded a plane to welcome the men home after they were freed by North Korea and arrived at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland

Trump also thanked Kim Jong-un for freeing 'the folks early,' calling it 'a wonderful thing'

Kim Dong-chul, speaking about his time in North Korea, said: 'We were treated in many different ways. For me, I had to do a lot of labor. But when I got sick, I was also treated by them'

Trump also thanked Kim Jong-un for freeing 'the folks early,' calling it 'a wonderful thing' and adding he believes the North Korean despot 'really wants to do something' and bring the hermit kingdom 'into the real world.'

He said: 'We're starting off on a new footing. I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful, and if anybody would've said that five years ago, 10 years ago, even a year ago, you would've said, 'That's not possible.'

'My proudest achievement will be when we denuclearize that entire [Korean] peninsula,' he added.

The freed trio were joined by a translator who relayed their sentiment that being home felt 'like a dream' and that the men were 'very, very happy' to be freed. They later gave President Trump a round of applause.

Kim Dong-chul, speaking about his time in North Korea, said: 'We were treated in many different ways. For me, I had to do a lot of labor. But when I got sick, I was also treated by them.'

Donald Trump and Melania welcomed three Americans imprisoned in North Korea back to America to cheers and applause

Trump shook hands with former detainee Kim Dong-chul (center) upon his return with Kim Hak-song and Tony Kim (both behind) in extraordinary scenes

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, warmly embraced former North Korean detainee Tony Kim upon tthe plane's 2:00 a.m. arrival at a Maryland air base

The prisoners walked onto American soil with their arms in the air giving triumphant 'V' signs signifying peace and victory

Trump called the prisoners 'wonderful people' and thanked Kim Jong-un for letting them come home ahead of the Trump-Kim summit

Trump also thanked the North Korean dictator for freeing 'the folks early,' calling it 'a wonderful thing' and adding that he believes Kim finally wants to bring his country 'into the real world'

President Trump, first lady Melania and Vice President Mike Pence walked with the freed Americans after they landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland

A giant American flag flew between two Maryland fire trucks as the plane landed, giving the men a heroes' welcome after the president had promised the world there would be 'quite a scene' when they arrived.

The three men were released Wednesday after up to three years of imprisonment and hard labor when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left Pyongyang following a meeting with Kim to formalize final plans for a Trump-Kim summit in late May or early June.

He added that the talks between his administration and the North Korean government have 'never been taken this far.'

While Trump said North Korea's Kim Jong Un 'was excellent to these three incredible people,' Vice President Mike Pence hinted in an ABC interview they had endured harsh conditions.

Pence said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told him that at a refueling stop in Anchorage, 'one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadn't seen daylight in a very long time.'

Who are the Americans freed by North Korea today? Kim Dong Chul Kim Dong Chul is pictured in tears while he was held by North Korea in 2016 A naturalized U.S. citizen born in South Korea, Kim Dong Chul was seized in North Korea on October 2, 2015 and accused of spying. Though a resident of Virginia  he became an American citizen in 1987  Kim had lived with his wife in Yanji, China since 2001. He worked just across the North Korean border in the Rason-Sonbong special economic zone, where he ran a hotel services company. He was also a pastor. Very little was known about his status until a CNN news crew interviewed him during their visit to Pyongyang in January 2016. He told reporters during a news conference organized by the dictatorship two months later that he was a spy, explaining that he 'apologized for trying to steal military secrets in collusion with South Koreans' and called his own actions 'unpardonable.' The North accused him of receiving a USB drive and various papers containing nuclear secrets during a meeting with a defector from the regime. After a one-day trial in April, he was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for his supposed espionage. But previous victims of the regime have explained that they were forced to make similar public declarations of their guilt after being tortured, despite being innocent. Kim Hak-song Kim, who is in his mid 50s, was born in Jilin, China, and educated at a university in California Kim Hak-song, also known as Jin Xue Song, had been working for the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), undertaking agricultural development work with the school's farm. He was arrested at a Pyongyang railway station in May 2017 on suspicion of committing 'hostile acts' against the government, as he was boarding a train headed for his home in Dandong, China. Kim, who is in his mid 50s, was born in Jilin, China, and educated at a university in California, CNN reported, citing a man who had studied with him. He said Kim returned to China after about 10 years of living in the U.S., where he is a citizen. PUST was founded by evangelical Christians overseas and opened in 2010, and is known to have a number of American faculty members. Pupils are generally children from among the North's elite. It is not known whether Kim was sentenced for his supposed 'hostile acts.' Kim Sang-duk Kim is a former professor at Yanbian University of Science and Technology in China, close to the Korean border Korean-American Kim Sang-duk  known as Tony Kim  was arrested in April 2017 at Pyongyang's main airport as he tried to leave the country after teaching for several weeks as a guest lecturer, also at PUST. Kim is a former professor at Yanbian University of Science and Technology in China, close to the Korean border. Its website lists his speciality as accounting. He graduated from the University of California Riverside in 1990 with a master's degree in business administration. South Korea's Yonhap news agency has reported Kim as being in his late 50s and said he had been involved in relief activities for children in rural parts of North Korea. It cited a source who described him as a 'religiously devoted man.' He was detained with his wife at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang on April 22, 2017 while waiting for a flight. Police later arrested Kim but did not explain why. His wife was allowed to leave the country. PUST said the arrest was not related to his work at the university. In a Facebook post, Kim's son had said that his family has had no contact with him since his arrest. Kim will soon become a grandfather. Advertisement

Trump said he will not disclose whether he will have any personal conversations with Kim as they prepare for their historic summit in the coming weeks.

But he did admit it was possible that 'one day' he may visit Pyongyang, should peace talks continue to go well.

The three former detainees were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation and medical treatment before being reunited with their families.

Singapore is the likely site for the historic meeting between the U.S. President and North Korea's dictator. The summit could last up to two days.

When asked if the talks will lead to prolonged peace, the president said: 'We'll see how it all works out. Maybe it will, maybe it won't, but it can be a great thing for North Korea, South Korea, Japan and the entire world. We hope it all works out.'

President Donald Trump tweeted after the reception to say: 'On behalf of the American people, WELCOME HOME!' A video showing the welcome was attached

In usual Trumpian fashion, the president also joked with reporters, saying: 'I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 o'clock in the morning.'

The highly public display stood in stark contrast to the low-key private reception the State Department had envisioned, and in keeping with a tradition of trying to protect potentially traumatized victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after their ordeal.

Department officials took great pains on the prisoners' release in North Korea, as well as on their flights to Japan and Alaska, to keep them sequestered not only from the two journalists traveling with Pompeo but also from staffers not immediately involved in their cases.

The trio, along with medical personnel, including a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Pompeo's plane in a small section of 12 business class-size seats that was cordoned off by curtains on both ends.

President Donald Trump greets the freed Americans aboard their plane after they landed in Maryland. The image is from a video posted by Trump on Twitter

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns in keeping with the minimal amount of information they had released since the men were imprisoned.

The Americans had boarded Pompeo's plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to the Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the US.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska - for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon - the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

'We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home,' they said. 'We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.'

The family of Tony Kim also voiced gratitude to 'all of those who have worked toward and contributed to his return home' - and specifically thanked Trump for 'engaging directly with North Korea.'

The release of the three men was only sealed about an hour before the secretary of state left the North Korean capital.

They walked on their own from a van and onto the plane, the culmination of Pompeo's 12-hour visit to the North Korean capital, which included a 90-minute meeting with leader Kim Jong Un.

Returning to his hotel from that meeting, Mr Pompeo had given reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked if there was good news about the detainees.

The president and his wife Melania are waiting at Joint Base Andrews near Washington to meet Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim

President Donald Trump stands with Americans just released from North Korea, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Tony Kim, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stands nearby, at Joint Base Andrews early this morning

President Donald Trump greets the Americans formerly held hostage in North Korea upon their arrival at Joint Base Andrews as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo looks on

America's commander-in-chief salutes as he was met by members of the U.S. Armed Forces in the wee hours of Thursday morning

President Donald Trump arrives to greet the three Americans formerly held hostage in North Korea, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland

The president and the first lady left the White House at 2:00 a.m. to make the short journey to Andrews

Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence (together at center) arrive to greet the three Americans formerly held hostage in North Korea

President Donald Trump talks to the media next to the Americans formerly held hostage in North Korea, upon their arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland

President Trump promised 'quite a show' as North Korea released three American prisoners who have been flown to the US

A North Korean official came to the hotel shortly after to inform Pompeo that Kim had granted amnesties to the three and that they would be released at 7:00 p.m. local time, according to a senior U.S. official present for the exchange.

Carl Risch, the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, and a doctor went to another hotel to pick up the men and bring them to the airport, the official said.

They finally left custody at 7.45 p.m., and by 8.42 p.m. they were flying home.

As soon as the plane cleared North Korean airspace, Mr Pompeo called Mr Trump to inform him of the releases - with the men all apparently in good health.

Even before Mr Pompeo's plane had touched down for a stopover at Yokota Air Base in neighboring Japan, the president announced to the world on Twitter that the '3 wonderful gentlemen' were free.

U.S. citizen Kim Hak-song was detained 'on suspicion of acts against the state'

Kim Dong-chul, pictured above had been detained since 2015. He was arrested for spying and had been sentenced to 10 years' hard labor

In a statement released by the State Department, the former detainees expressed their 'deep appreciation' to the U.S. government, Trump, Pompeo and the American people 'for bringing us home.'

The three were the latest in a series of Americans who have been detained by North Korea in recent years for seemingly small offenses and typically freed when senior U.S. officials or statesmen personally visited to bail them out.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Tony Kim, also known as Kim Sang-Duk, was a Korean-American professor and aid worker before his arrest

Warmbier was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

'We are happy for the hostages and their families,' the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. 'We miss Otto.'

After the release of the detainees, North Korea's state-run media explicitly mentioned plans for the summit for the first time. Pyongyang has been exceptionally cautious about its public framing of Kim's recent diplomatic moves, which are a major shift from the more aggressive focus on missile launches and nuclear development that heated tensions to a boil last year.

The trio's release draws a line under an issue that had weighed on plans for a historic summit between Mr Kim and Mr Trump that will focus on North Korea's nuclear weapons.

'We're granting amnesty to the three detained Americans,' the North Korean emissary told Mr Pompeo at Pyongyang's Koryo Hotel, according to the senior U.S. official.

'We issued the order to grant immediate amnesty to the detainees.'

'That's great,' the secretary of state replied.

The North Korean official then advised that the releases would follow a 'very brief ceremony' - which he described as more like a legal process.

The official closed with a gentle warning for the United States to prevent a repeat: 'You should make care that they do not make the same mistakes again,' the official said. 'This was a hard decision.'

Mr Trump pledged to show the world how happy he was that the three Americans are now free men

Mr Trump has thanks the North Korean leader for releasing the prisoners ahead of their summit

President Donald Trump tweeted late Wednesday that he was 'Looking forward to greeting the Hostages (no longer) at 2:00 A.M.'

President Trump triumphantly announced the release of the trio of Americans in his own style  with a pair of tweets

University founded by Christian Korean-American who was once detained in North on suspicion of being a spy The university where two of the latest three American detainees released by North Korea taught is unique: an institution founded and funded by foreign Christians in an isolated country that decries religion. The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) was set up by James Kim, a wealthy evangelical Korean-American the North once detained on suspicion of being a U.S. spy. Only North Korean citizens can enrol, and it is known to educate many children of the country's elite. Opened in 2010, it now has 560 students and 100 'international volunteers,' according to its website, many of them coming to it through church organisations. PUST says its mission is 'to pursue excellence in education, with an international outlook, so that its students are diligent in studies, innovative in research and upright in character, bringing illumination to the Korean people and the world.' But sources stress that it carries out no Christian proselytising, which is unwelcome by Pyongyang. The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) was set up by James Kim, a wealthy evangelical Korean-American the North once detained on suspicion of being a U.S. spy. Pictured: The snow-covered campus About half of PUST's 80-odd foreign faculty were Americans who have been unable to return for this academic year as a result, and it has filled the gaps with Chinese replacements. Pictured: People walk around the university's campus Although religious freedom is enshrined in the North Korean constitution, it does not exist in practice and religious activity is severely restricted to officially recognized groups linked to the government. Agricultural expert Kim Hak-song and former accounting professor Tony Kim were both lecturers at the institution but were arrested by North Korean authorities as they were leaving the country. The university previously said their detentions were 'not connected in any way with the work of PUST,' and it is understood the duo may have come to the attention of the Pyongyang authorities through previous Christian activities elsewhere. The two, along with fellow detainee Kim Dong-chul, were granted 'amnesty' by Pyongyang following a meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and landed back in the United States on Thursday, to be welcomed by President Donald Trump. 'Our hopes and prayers have been fulfilled by their release,' PUST said in a statement. The university expressed 'sincere hope' that the detainees would be able to 'now enjoy some peace and rest with their families and friends, and begin to rebuild normal life.' The school itself has faced indirect repercussions from their detentions. Tony Kim was arrested in April last year, Kim Hak-song the following month. Weeks later American student Otto Warmbier, who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for trying to steal a propaganda poster, was released in a mysterious coma and died shortly afterwards. The university (pictured) previously said their detentions were 'not connected in any way with the work of PUST,' and it is understood the duo may have come to the attention of the Pyongyang authorities through previous Christian activities elsewhere That prompted Washington to slap a travel ban on American citizens. About half of PUST's 80-odd foreign faculty were Americans who have been unable to return for this academic year as a result, and it has filled the gaps with Chinese replacements. It has also had problems transferring funds and importing materials due to the sanctions imposed on the North over its nuclear programme by the UN Security Council and others. 'We do of course hope that this is a step in a positive process that will lead to the U.S. administration ending the travel ban on U.S. citizens,' a school official told AFP, 'so that many of our regular faculty and leadership can come back to the PUST campus and we can resume operations in a more normal way.' On its website, PUST says it is hiring new faculty members: English and Chinese instructors, and professors for subjects ranging from stem cell culture technology to genetic engineering. It does not mention the detention of its lecturers. Korean-American writer Suki Kim went to PUST undercover as an English teacher in 2011 and later wrote a book about her experiences. 'PUST offers a mutually beneficial arrangement for both North Korea and the evangelicals,' she wrote in an essay published in the Washington Post last year following Tony Kim's detention. 'The regime gets free education for its youth and a modern facility... while the evangelicals get a footing in the remote nation,' she said. Source: AFP Advertisement

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un has been photographed smiling and laughing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just moments before three American detainees boarded a flight home after months in captivityCharges have been dropped against a Spanish foreign-exchange student for allegedly helping her former Florida host molest her younger sister.

The younger sister of 21-year-old Marta San Jose would not come to the United States to testify, prompting prosecutors to drop the charges of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child.

Both San Jose and her host turned husband, Dale Leary, had been given the charge, reports the Miami Herald.

The younger sister of 21-year-old Marta San Jose (pictured) would not come to the United States to testify

Prosecutors were forced to drop the charges of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child that they had against San Jose

San Jose's defense lawyer believed that host father turned husband Dale Leary 'brainwashed her and manipulated her [San Jose]'

According to a memo to the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, the girl's mother felt her child 'had already suffered enough.' She also didn't want her younger daughter to be 'subjected to the criminal justice system.'

Prosecutor Jessie Friedman also asserted that the mother 'believed that while Marta's behavior towards her sister was grossly inappropriate, she expressed strong feelings that in her opinion, these crimes only happened because Dale manipulated Marta into committing them.'

San Jose's defense lawyer cosigned the sentiment that Leary 'brainwashed her and manipulated her'.

Leary had divorced his wife Claudia and married Marta San Jose, then aged 18, in 2014

She has been out of jail since August and has been attending therapy sessions along with building a relationship with her mother.

Leary, on the other hand, killed himself soon after his bond was paid last summer.

He killed himself soon after his bond was paid last summer

Two other journals written by former exchange students were found by detectives, and those allowed for the inference that Leary may have also engaged with sexual misconduct with them.

He had had a felony conviction for sexually attacking a woman during a robbery in 1985, so it was peculiar that CCI Greenheart - based in Chicago - decided to place San Jose in his care in 2012.

After San Jose's junior year at Palmetto High, Leary - along with his wife Claudia - flew to Spain and convinced San Jose's family to let her finish school in South Florida.

The couple even offered to cover the cost of an overseas flight and the associated costs of San Jose's living arrangements.

Leary had divorced his wife Claudia and married Marta San Jose, then aged 18, in 2014.

He met his second wife when she had stayed at their home as a 16-year-old Spanish foreign exchange student in 2012.

Prosecutor Jessie Friedman asserted that the mother 'believed that while Marta's behavior towards her sister was grossly inappropriate, she expressed strong feelings that in her opinion, these crimes only happened because Dale manipulated Marta into committing them'

San Jose's parents and younger sister in Spain did not know their pair had married.

Leary and San Jose, now 21, were arrested after they allegedly sexually assaulted her 14-year-old sister when she came to visit them in Florida.

San Jose's parents had sent the 14-year-old girl over to accompany San Jose back home to Spain, according to police.

Police said San Jose manipulated her sister into believing that she may have been molested as a child.

'Marta persuaded her sister to allow Dale to conduct a vaginal examination, claiming that Dale would be able to determine if she had been sexually assaulted,' arrest records state.

'The victim agreed to the examination and Dale digitally penetrated her vagina.'

Leary also allegedly made both sisters perform oral sex on him multiple times.

The victim - identified as R.S. - also told police Leary made her remove her clothes and wear high heels while he took photos of her.

Leary and San Jose both pleaded not guilty in June on charges including lewd and lascivious behavior on a child, sexual performance with a child and contributing to the delinquency of a child.An Oklahoma father has denied shooting dead his 17-year-old daughter's two dogs to punish her for not doing the dishes, police say.

Jeffery Don Edwards, 35, was jailed late Wednesday night in Harrah, Oklahoma, on complaints of animal cruelty.

The father had reportedly gotten mad at his daughter on Tuesday night for not finishing the dishes or cleaning the house.

Edwards then shot the 17-year-old's dogs as punishment, investigators have said.

He has since hit back claiming the accusation is 'a complete lie.' He said he was at work at the time and declined to comment further.

Jeffery Don Edwards, 35, pictured, has been accused of shooting his 17-year-old daughter's dogs at his home in Harrah, Oklahoma, on Tuesday because she hadn't done the dishes

'Her father was mad that the house was dirty and was not being cleaned and began throwing dishes,' an investigator with the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office said in a court affidavit obtained by The Oklahoman.

The unnamed daughter then called her mother, who picked her up from Edwards' home on Tuesday night.

The next morning she returned to the house and found 'blood all over the place' and her two dogs, lovable Golden Retriever, Jessica Dawn, and cute Duck, the Blue Heeler Labrador mix, the investigator reported.

The girl's uncle told her that Edwards had 'shot her dogs to punish her'.

Dried blood was found in the bed of the daughter's pickup truck, and investigators followed tire tracks to a wooded area 100 yards southwest of the house, where the dogs were found shot to death.

The teenager returned to her father's house to find her lovable Golden Retriever, Jessica Dawn, had been killed

Duck, a Blue Heeler Labrador mix, was cruelly shot dead by Edwards, according to police

After the shooting, Edwards is said to have visited a nearby convenience store where he told two employees about killing the dogs.

One employee said Edwards told them 'his house was dirty and he lost his temper then shot the dogs without remorse,' investigators said.

The dogs were sent to veterinarians at Oklahoma State University for forensic evaluation.

Edwards, an independent contractor, pleaded guilty in a drive-by shooting case in 2011 and was sentenced to five years probation.

Investigators said they found at least two rifles, a handgun and various ammunition on the property.

He was released Thursday morning on $10,000 bail.A Mississippi teenager thought to have run off with a teacher accused of having sex with him returned home on Wednesday while she remains nowhere to be seen.

Oscar O'Neal, 16, ran away at around 1am on April 30 accompanied by Nicole Jackson, 30, who handed herself in to authorities on April 10 on a sexual battery charge but left custody after posting a $10,000 bond, police say.

Hattiesburg Police confirmed O'Neal was back safely but Jackson still has a warrant out for her arrest.

Teacher Nicole Jackson, 30, is still on the run while 16-year-old Oscar O'Neal, who she is accused of having an illicit relationship with, has returned home

Hattiesburg Police confirmed O'Neal was back safely but Jackson is still on the run with a warrant out for her arrest

'There has still been no sign of Nicole Jackson, 30, a former school teacher he was believed to be with,' the department posted on Twitter.

After O'Neal ran away on April 30 he left a letter saying he was 'moving in' with his former teacher, his parents told WDAM.com.

'Why would you choose my child? I feel like my child was a target. She robbed him from being a youth and a child,' his father Oscar O'Neal Jr. said in an interview with the station.

Jackson resigned from her position at the Earl Travillion Attendance Center and turned herself in to police on April 10.

Police said they began investigating her in mid-March receiving a tip that she had been conducting an inappropriate relationship with a student.

Jackson had worked with the Forrest County School District for several years, officials said.

Based on her Facebook profile, Jackson is married with at least one child.

Oscar's father, Oscar O'Neal Jr, issued this public plea for his son's safe return home after he disappeared

In Mississippi, the age of sexual consent is 16.

However, state law prohibits a person in a position of authority, including a teacher, from engaging in sexual penetration with a person under the age of 18.

Cops previously said Jackson could be driving a dark blue Chevy Impala with the Mississippi license plate FRA-4454.The CEO of pharmaceutical giant Novartis wrote a groveling letter to staff Thursday admitting it made a grave error hiring Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's attorney, for 'insight' into the president.

Vasant Narasimhan wrote in an email obtained by CNBC that the revelation of the payment to Cohen - which came in bombshell documents published by Michael Avenatti, the attorney for Stormy Daniels - was 'not a good day' for Novartis.

Cohen received $1.2 million in total after signing Novartis up to a contract just after Trump's inauguration.

'I don't know who's been representing you, but you should fire them all. I'm the guy you should hire. I'm closest to the President. I'm his personal lawyer,' was how a GOP strategist described Cohen's sales pitch to CNN.

He was to be paid $200,000 a month for 'insights' but after just one meeting the company's executives deciding he could offer them no benefit - but their hands were tied in paying him for the duration of the deal.

On Thursday Narasimhan, a Harvard-educated doctor said the payment was nothing to do with him, effectively condemning his predecessor Joe Jimien.

Narasimhan, however, had met with Trump at a lunch at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which Novartis said was unrelated to the payment to Cohen.

Blame game: Current Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan (right) wrote to all his staff about the deal with Michael Cohen saying it was nothing to do with him - pinning responsibility in effect on his predecessor Joe Jiminez (left)

'I don't know who's been representing you, but you should fire them all. I'm the guy you should hire. I'm closest to the President. I'm his personal lawyer,' was how a GOP strategist described Michael Cohen's sales pitch to CNN .

Cash for access? Payments from Novartis to Cohen were revealed by Michael Avenatti in a bombshell document, and followed by revelations that Donald Trump's personal attorney made millions after the election offering what one client - AT&T - called 'insights' into the new administration

Bombshell: The document which revealed how Cohen was paid by Novartis , prompting the admission he had in fact received almost $1.2 million

He wrote to staff: 'We made a mistake in entering into this engagement and, as a consequence, are being criticized by a world that expects more from us.

'Personally and for my family, it was also a difficult day, as unfounded stories spread through the US news.

'While I was not involved with any aspect of this situation, the facts did not matter. I went to sleep frustrated and tired.'

The company had said it paid Cohen for advice on 'how the Trump administration might approach certain U.S. healthcare policy matters, including the Affordable Care Act.'

Trump vowed during the campaign to repeal Obamacare, and his first year in office featured a bitter fight over the health law enacted under his predecessor.

'As the contract unfortunately could only be terminated for cause, payments continued to be made until the contract expired by its own terms in February 2018,' according to a statement by the company.

The rapid move by Novartis, however, raises further the pressure on two other companies to provide more detail on who they hired Cohen and what he did for them.

HOW NOVARTIS CEO GROVELED TO ANGRY STAFF AFTER COHEN'S $1.2M WAS REVEALED Dear Colleagues, Yesterday was not a good day for Novartis. Many of you will have seen media reports regarding Novartis' relationship with Essential Consultants in the United States and many of you will feel disappointed and frustrated. You can read our full statement here. We made a mistake in entering into this engagement and, as a consequence, are being criticized by a world that expects more from us. Personally and for my family, it was also a difficult day, as unfounded stories spread through the US news. While I was not involved with any aspect of this situation, the facts did not matter. I went to sleep frustrated and tired. But I woke up this morning full of determination. Determined to fight for the transformative medicines we create and the patients we serve. Determined to fight for this company I deeply love. Determined to fight for all of you so you continue to feel proud, inspired and empowered to transform the health of the world every day. This moment will pass and we will learn. Our medicines however will endure for generations. What defines us now is as how we respond to this difficult situation. I look to you to remain resilient and keep your focus on serving patients. Together we will respond by continuing our work to profoundly impact human health. Please focus on that noble purpose in this difficult moment - bending the curve of life. Vas Advertisement

AT&T was one of the the companies, while the other was Korea Aerospace Industries.

Both Novartis and AT&T said that they had been asked about payments to Cohen by the Robert Mueller special counsel probe last year.

AT&T said that it hired Cohen to gain 'insights' into Trump and his administration, paying him at least $200,000 in 2017, according to sources.

The conglomerate is currently seeking government approval for acquisition of Time Warner - CNN's parent company.

Cohen is also accused of taking $500,000 from a company linked to Viktor Vekselberg, the Russian oligarch with ties to the Kremlin.

'He was shopping himself around,' a source told CNN.

A portion of the Navartis payments were first revealed by Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti as among part of what he said were $4 million in funds flowing through Cohen's LLC bank account in 2017 and 2018.

The firm said the contract was 'focused on U.S. healthcare policy matters.'

But anonymous members of the company claimed the deal was more about access.

'He reached out to us,' a Novartis employee told STAT amid the fallout from the revelations.

The outreach came as Trump's new administration was about to shake up Washington  and as the candidate repeatedly said he would find a way to lower prescription drug costs.

'With a new administration coming in, basically, all the traditional contacts disappeared and they were all new players. We were trying to find an inroad into the administration,' the employee said.

'Cohen promised access to not just Trump, but also the circle around him. It was almost as if we were hiring him as a lobbyist.'

A portion of the Navartis payments were first revealed by Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti as among part of what he said were $4 million in funds flowing through Cohen's LLC bank account in 2017 and 2018.

The firm said the contract was 'focused on U.S. healthcare policy matters.'

But anonymous members of the company now are claiming the deal was more about access.

'He reached out to us,' a Novartis employee told STAT amid the fallout from the revelations.

'With a new administration coming in, basically, all the traditional contacts disappeared and they were all new players. We were trying to find an inroad into the administration,' the employee said. 'Cohen promised access to not just Trump, but also the circle around him. It was almost as if we were hiring him as a lobbyist.'

But a March 2017 meeting with Cohen was a disappointment. 'At first, it all sounded impressive, but toward the end of the meeting, everyone realized this was probably a slippery slope to engage him. So they decided not to really engage Cohen for any activities after that,' the employee said.

Another company official told NBC: 'He contacted us after the new administration was in place. He was promising access to the new administration.'

As Avenatti noted, the payments came in the unusual increments of $98,980 per month.

Novartis already spends millions on lobbying, having reported $8.6 million in lobbying in 2017.

In the first quarter report on $3.2 million in lobbying for this year, the firm mentions such issues as gene therapy, drug importation, Medicare Part D drug benefits, and generic drug labeling among dozens of issues where they sought to influence the government.

'Michael Cohen was selling access to the highest office in the land. Donald Trump knew about it. He knew that Michael Cohen was not a registered lobbyist,' Avenatti told CNN's Jake Tapper.

Cohen told reporters in New York Avenatti's report was inaccurate, but without giving details.Kellyanne Conway's husband has fired off another tweet that appears to challenge President Trump  this time shining a spotlight on a groundswell of support among younger Republicans for Trump to face a contested primary.

It isn't the first time the spouse of one of Trump's closest advisors has taken on an issue that is sensitive for the president, who started his reelection campaign early and has taken numerous measures to try to squelch any potential GOP challenge.

He also has waded into the Stormy Daniels scandal and the FBI raid on longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

On Thursday, Conway tweeted about a stark divide in preferences by age of President Trump.

ON A ROLL: George T. Conway III, husband of White House Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, attends the 139th Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House April 17, 2017 in Washington, DC. He has lobbed a series of critical tweets in the direction of President Trump

ON THE TEAM: President Donald Trump walks past his daughter Ivanka Trump (R) and Kellyanne Conway (L), White House Counselor, during an event in honor of Military Mothers and Spouses in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, May 9, 2018

He retweeted a Weekly Standard article that showed a remarkable 82 per cent of GOP and Republican-leaning voters between 18 and 24 want another Republican to challenge Trump in 2020. Among voters 25 to 34, the number was 57 per cent, and among the next bracket, age 35 to 44, it was a similar 58 per cent.

Only among those age 65 and over did a majority  74 per cent  oppose a primary challenge. The story calls it a 'chasm the size of the grand canyon.'

The article cites a March Pew poll on generational divides.

Conways tweet said simply: 'ages 25-34: 57% yes' and 'ages 35-44: 58% yes.'

Conway tweeted poll information showing overwhelming support among younger Republicans for Trump to face a primary challenge

He retweeted a Weekly Standard reporter who remarked: 'The Trump divide here tells you everything you need to know about the current age dynamics of the Republican Party.'

Last month, when Trump tweeted that '"Attorney-client privilege is dead!" following the FBI raid on Michael Cohen, Conway tweeted out a Justice Department manual governing when such raids were allowable.

After Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Trump had reimbursed lawyer Michael Cohen for his $130,000 payment to Daniels  raising possible finance issues  Conway tweeted a link to the Federal Election Commission's rules covering whether 'personal gifts and loans' to candidates are counted as campaign contributions.

Conway also sent out tweets relating to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with President Trump

In yet another shot Thursday, Conway retweeted a New York Times reporter who had flagged a statement by Greenberg Traurig, a firm that severed relations with partner Giuliani Thursday and responded to his comment that he would 'take care' of things for clients in the way Cohen did on behalf of Trump by paying Daniels.

'Speaking for ourselves, we would not condone payments of the nature alleged to have been made or otherwise without the knowledge and direction of a client,' the firm said in a statement.MPs will this morning debate the private members bill  put forward by Labour MP Peter Kyle (pictured)

Labour will launch a fresh bid to lower the voting age today by trying to pass a law that would put a polling station in every school.

Under the proposals, all 16 and 17-year-olds would be automatically signed up to the electoral roll.

Fears were raised last night that teachers could influence their pupils decisions if ballot boxes were placed in classrooms.

MPs will this morning debate the private members bill  put forward by Labour MP Peter Kyle  to change the voting age from 18 to 16 for parliamentary and local elections and referendums. Ministers oppose the plan, however a growing number of Conservative MPs have said they now support extending the franchise to younger people.

Tory former education minister Nicky Morgan and Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb are amongst the cross-party backers of Mr Kyles bill. According to new figures compiled by the British Youth Council, at least 314 of the 650 MPs in the Commons are now in favour of lowering the voting age.

As well as enfranchising those aged 16 and 17, the bill  which will get its second reading this morning  calls for under-25s to be automatically enrolled on the electoral register and polling stations to be put in schools, colleges and sixth form centres.

Conservatives last night voiced concerns about the proposals and warned that moves to set up special polling stations for youngsters would be unfair.

Andrew Bridgen, Tory MP for North West Leicestershire, said: It is completely inappropriate. There would be more argument for putting polling stations in old peoples homes because they have less mobility.

I am not a supporter of votes at 16 and when I have canvassed the opinions of 16- and 17-year-olds in schools in my constituency around two-thirds have thought they should not have the vote until they are 18, and I think that it is very wise of them. Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, added: The whole principle of elections is that it is fair and equal for everybody and they are treated the same.

You cannot just pick a category of people and say we will just have a polling station for them. It would not only be strange, it would be unacceptable. Why would you just pick on one group of people?

Would you then have the local WI having their own polling station? Lots of schools are already polling stations at election time.

I do not have a problem with a school being a polling station but obviously only on the basis that people go to vote on the same basis as anyone else, not that they have their own special day when they can all be in class and fill in their ballot papers  that would be unacceptable.

I dont support this bill and I trust that it will not get anywhere. Ahead of last Junes general election, Theresa May said the Conservatives would not lower the voting age to 16 if they won. You have to pick a point at which you think it is right for the voting age to be. I continue to think it is right for it to be 18, she said.

However, Tory MP Sir Peter Bottomley earlier this year predicted that the franchise would be extended to 16-year-olds before the next general election because of increasing support among fellow Conservatives.

Under the proposals, all 16 and 17-year-olds would be automatically signed up to the electoral roll (stock picture used)

Its a question of when rather than whether it is going to happen, the former minister said.

Announcing her support for Mr Kyles bill in February, Mrs Morgan said: It is time for us to take the next pragmatic leap forward and get on with votes at 16. She added: Embracing votes at 16 would demonstrate to the next generation that the Conservative Party has something to offer them.

Justine Greening, who left her post as Education Secretary in January, has also said she is open to the idea and urged Mrs May to consider it.

Several Scottish Tory MPs have also publicly supported lowering the voting age. In Scotland, youngsters aged 16 and 17 were allowed to take part in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and vote in Holyrood elections. A separate private members bill to change the voting age to 16 was debated in the Commons last November, but no vote was held.

Last year the Daily Mail revealed how Labour is using its campaign to lower the voting age to harvest the contact details of thousands of youngsters through videos on social media and an online petition.

A pledge to allow teens of 16 and 17 to vote was included in the partys manifesto ahead of the last election.An arctic blast has swept across Australia's south-east, lashing coastal areas with icy winds and dumping a months' worth a rain in Hobart in hours.

Cars were swept aside as torrents of water raged through the streets of Tasmania's capital after near record-breaking falls on Thursday.

Police said the city had been hit hard, forcing the closure of many roads and with more heavy rain expected on Friday, motorists are urged to stay off city roads.

Streets were turned into fast-flowing rivers, with water surging inside homes, businesses and flooding buildings at the University of Tasmania.

Cars were swept aside as raging torrents of water raged through the streets of Tasmania's capital after near-record breaking falls on Thursday

This video of water flooding a building at the University of Tasmania was posted on social media on Friday morning

A flooded car park of Hobart's Macquarie Street is pictured on Thursday night. Witnesses described the scenes as 'crazy'

'When we came down here I didn't even see my car. I thought someone might have stolen it,' one woman told the Seven Network.

'Macquarie Street, which is the main street in Hobart, had probably two dozen cars just lying there on the road, that had been swept down,' another told the ABC.

'It was really crazy to see what used to be a road was literally a river.'

Emergency crews have received hundreds of calls for assistance, including wind damage to roofs and sheds and trees blown over.

Around 13,000 homes were left without power overnight and evacuation centres have been set up across the city.

The intense low pressure system responsible for the wild weather will continue to be felt on Friday morning.

'Macquarie Street, which is the main street in Hobart, had probably two dozen cars just lying there on the road, that had been swept down,' on witness said

More wild weather is expected in Hobart on Friday following the downpour on Thursday night

Streets turned into fast-flowing rivers, with water surging inside homes and businesses

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Debbie Tabor said the 128mm rain which has fallen in Hobart since 9am on Thursday hasn't been seen in nearly 60 years.

'I think the last time [Hobart] reported this much rainfall was in 1960 on the 23rd of April of 132mm, so we're 4mm off that record,' Ms Tabor told The Mercury.

The bitterly cold and wet weather has reached Victoria and southern New South Wales, with the coldest air set to move through the ACT on Friday morning.

The forecast of 9C in Canberra on Friday would make it the coldest day in the first half of May in 48 years.

Cars were swallowed up by the raging floodwaters on the streets of Hobart overnight

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Debbie Tabor said the 128mm rain which has fallen in Hobart since 9am on Thursday hasn't been seen in nearly 60 years

Emergency crews have received hundreds of calls for assistance, including wind damage to roofs and sheds and trees blown over

Residents in parts of New South Wales (pictured is Oberon) woke up to snow on Friday morning

Sydney shivered through its first taste winter on Thursday night and woke to temperatures around 8C.

The mercury is expected to rise to 17C on Friday with an overnight low of 12C. Sydneysiders can expect increasing rain on Saturday and into Sunday.

Residents in parts of New South Wales woke to snow - with light storms falling in Oberon, Orange, Essington, Hampton and Ginking.

Melbourne is set for its wettest May day in six years and is expected to reach a top of 14C with 30mm of rain and gale-force winds from Friday morning.

Snow storms have fallen in Oberon (pictured), Orange, Essington, Hampton and Ginking

Around 13,000 homes were left without power in Tasmania's capital on Thursday night

'I think the last time [Hobart] reported this much rainfall was in 1960 on the 23rd of April of 132mm, so we're 4mm off that record,' Ms Tabor said

Gippsland in the Victoria's east could be drenched in up to 150mm of rain.

Bureau severe weather manager Steven McGibbony said on Thursday there was a risk of flash flooding with a warning issued for Gippsland and the Yarra River catchment.

'We could see, depending on just how much rainfall, some minor riverine flooding develop,' he said.

'With the rainfall and these strong winds, it's going to feel very wintry and very cold.'

State Emergency Service boss Tim Wiebusch warned Victorians to prepare their homes for heavy rain.

Snow-covered ground is seen on Friday morning in Gingkin, about 200 kilometres west of Sydney

The bitterly cold and wet weather has reached Victoria and southern New South Wales (Sydney pictured)

The intense low pressure system responsible for the wild weather will continue to be felt on Friday morning as it moves north

Brisbane temperatures will drop by around seven degrees Celsius this weekend as a cold front affecting the southern states extends north.

The city is set for minimum temperatures of 9C on Saturday and Sunday, the lowest for this time of year since 2015, compared to the mid-teen lows felt earlier in the week, and the 29C maximum forecast for Thursday.

'There's a cold front that's pushing through the southern states at the moment and that's going to push through to southern Queensland by tomorrow and into Saturday,' Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Lachlan Stoney told AAP.

Melbourne is forecast to reach a top of 14C with 30mm of rain and gale-force winds from Friday morning

At least 20mm of rain is predicted for Melbourne on Friday, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing a severe weather warning for parts of Victoria

The first spell of wintery weather will hit Sydney on Friday and another will descend on the city as a low pressure system moves through

Gippsland in the Victoria's east could be drenched in up to 150mm of rain (Pictured: Melbourne)

'By the time the cold front gets to us, it's a dry, westerly wind.

'So it will be slightly cooler than average conditions, especially for the minimum temperatures.'

Maximum temperatures are predicted to reach 22-23C over the weekend, which is one to two degrees below the average.

But warmer weather would quickly return for the working week, Mr Stoney said, with 24C expected for Monday.

'From Monday onwards, temperatures climb to just above average for this time of year,' he said.

'The minimum temperatures will stay just below the average for this time of year early in the week.'

A bureau severe weather manager risk of flash flooding with a warning issued for Gippsland and the Yarra River catchment (Pictured: Melbourne)

State Emergency Service boss Tim Wiebusch warned Victorians to prepare their homes for heavy rain (Pictured: Melbourne)

Melbourne (pictured) is set for its wettest May day in six years as 30mm of rain is expected

WEEKEND WEATHER FORECAST IN YOUR CITY SYDNEY FRIDAY: Min 9, Max 17, windy, partly cloudy SATURDAY: Min 12, Max 22, shower or two, wind easing SUNDAY: Min 13, Max 20, showers CANBERRA FRIDAY: Min 0, Max 9, cold, rain increasing SATURDAY: Min 1, Max 15, showers SUNDAY: Min 5, Max 16, cloudy PERTH FRIDAY: Min 15, Max 30, sunny SATURDAY: Min 16, Max 30, mostly sunny SUNDAY: Min 13, Max 25, mostly sunny BRISBANE FRIDAY: Min 13, Max 23, sunny SATURDAY: Min 9, Max 22, sunny SUNDAY: Min 12, Max 23, sunny Source: Bureau of Meteorology MELBOURNE FRIDAY: Min 7, Max 14, windy with raid SATURDAY: Min 11, Max 15, shower or two SUNDAY: Min 11, Max 16, shower or two ADELAIDE FRIDAY: Min 9, Max 17, possible shower SATURDAY: Min 11, Max 19, cloudy SUNDAY: Min 12, Max 19, mostly sunny HOBART FRIDAY: Min 9, Max 13, rain, possible heavy falls, windy SATURDAY: Min 9, Max 14, showers SUNDAY: Min 9, Max 15, showers easing DARWIN FRIDAY: Min 23, Max 34, mostly suny SATURDAY: Min 21, Max 32, mostly sunny SUNDAY: Min 20, Max 31, sunny Advertisement

Canberra is forecast to have its coldest May day in 18 years, barely reaching double figures. Some residents recorded hail in their backyards last week (pictured)William Tyrrell's mother has been spotted with a mystery man believed to be her new boyfriend.

Karlie Tyrrell, 29, was holding hands with the older man when walking to court last month where her sentencing for spitting on a policeman was adjourned.

A photo on her Facebook profile shows her holding hands with the same man while enjoying a ride on the Ferris wheel at Sydney's Darling Harbour.

New man: Karlie Tyrrell, 29, was holding hands with the older man when walking to court earlier this month where her sentencing for spitting on a policeman was adjourned

A photo on her Facebook profile shows her holding hands with the same man while enjoying a ride on the Ferris wheel at Sydney's Darling Harbour

Tyrrell pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer and using offensive language after becoming enraged at the Top Ryde mall in Sydney's northern suburbs on December 22.

Security guards at the shopping centre reported to police that Tyrrell had been acting aggressively and swearing around other customers, including children.

According to police reports, Tyrrell got abusive when an officer asked her why a child that was with her had marks on their legs to which she replied 'none of your f****** business'.

Tyrrell then spat in the face of a second officer before saying that 'Ryde coppers lost my son you c***'.

She failed to appear for sentencing on March 19. Her sentencing was then due in April but has been delayed after the death of her father.

Court documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph show that Tyrrell has a criminal history which includes assaulting officers and civilians as well as resisting arrest, damaging property and breaching bail.

Karlie Tyrrell, 29, pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer and using offensive language earlier this year

Left: Tyrrell walking into court with her new man this month. Right: The mother laughing outside court in January

Tyrrell penned a letter stating that mental health problems were the cause of her erratic and violent behaviour.

'I recently found out I suffer from panic attacks which played a major part into my behaviour but I'm not making any excuses,' she wrote.

William Tyrrell is believed to have been abducted from his foster grandmother's yard in Kendall, on the mid-north coast of NSW, on September 12, 2014.

A $1 million reward is still on offer for information which leads to his return, and his foster carers are hopeful he will be found.

Both William's foster and biological parents have been ruled out as suspects in the police investigation into his disappearance.

Kylie Tyrrell will be sentenced for assaulting a policeman at Burwood Local Court on 28 May.

Victory: Fatima Boudchar and her son Abderrahim, 13, in London yesterday

When I met Abdul Hakim Belhadj and his wife at their home in Istanbul two years ago, I was greeted with a hospitality which made me a little ashamed.

I was given coffee and sweet cakes in their sitting room as we spoke about his troubled past.

I was there to hear the story of how Mr Belhadj endured six years of torture as a prisoner of the secret police of Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

His wife Fatima Boudchar, meanwhile, had been jailed when she was four months pregnant.

Many thousands of Libyans suffered similar treatment, but what made this couples story so remarkable was that their initial kidnap and rendition had been facilitated by MI6.

Dark secrets about what went on in Libya might have remained hidden, but after Gaddafis 2011 overthrow, files came to light in Libyas foreign ministry which Whitehall would rather had remained buried.

The sacking of government buildings in Tripoli provided stark evidence of British complicity in torture  in return for Gaddafis friendship and co-operation, and a fortune in oil contracts.

The files were just one piece of an international web of torture and espionage which finally culminated in yesterdays extraordinary apology to 52-year-old Mr Belhadj from the British Government.

He had first fled Libya aged 21, under threat of arrest for his membership of an Islamist group opposed to the Gaddafi regime.

Mr Belhadio, left, first fled Libya aged 21, under threat of arrest for his membership of an Islamist group opposed to the Gaddafi regime. Pictured: His wife Mrs Boudchar yesterday

Dominick Chilcott, right, British ambassador in Turkey, hands over a letter of apology from the UK government to Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belha

He admits he travelled to Afghanistan in the late Eighties, where he joined the Western-backed jihad against the Soviet occupation.

Another Arab who spent time in the same Afghan training camps was Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.

Mr Belhadj told me that he met Bin Laden maybe three times.

The Saudi asked him to join his terror group, he said, but he refused. His only aim was to overthrow Gaddafi.

But the association with the terror mastermind would come back to haunt him.

In 1995, Mr Belhadj returned home as head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an underground paramilitary organisation dedicated to Gaddafis downfall.

Mr Belhadj was head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an underground paramilitary organisation dedicated to Gaddafis downfall

In February 2004, Mr Belhadj and his Moroccan-born wife were arrested at Beijing airport when the French passports they were travelling with were spotted as forgeries

But the LIFG was soon infiltrated and broken up. Mr Belhadj fled again and spent much of the next decade as a fugitive, in Iran, Iraq and Pakistan.

Eventually he settled in China. In February 2004, he and his Moroccan-born wife were arrested at Beijing airport when the French passports they were travelling with were spotted as forgeries.

During our interview, he told me his plan was to fly to the UK via Malaysia and claim asylum here like many former members of their Islamic fighting group.

But their arrest put paid to that.

Mr Belhadj said he told the authorities he had arrived in China from Malaysia.

As a result, the couple were deported to Kuala Lumpar, where they were again arrested on arrival.

A Libyan friend in the UK heard of Mr Belhadjs incarceration and travelled to Malaysia to plead his case.

He went to the British embassy and revealed to them who I really was. He... did not realise what was going to happen as a result, he told me. At this point... MI6 became involved. And the trap began to close.

Former British Prime Minister embraces Colonel Moammar Gaddafi after a meeting on May 29 in 2007 in Libya

Mr Belhadj was visited three times by MI6. Before the visits, he was given names of UK-based Libyan dissidents. Pictured: Tony Blair with Muammar Gaddafi

Other intelligence agencies were informed, most probably by MI6. One of them was Libyas.

Given that the Libyan leader had long been a bogeyman for the West, you might wonder why MI6 was co-operating with Gaddafi.

But three months earlier he had signalled a rapprochement with the West by renouncing the use of weapons of mass destruction.

So it was that Britain chose to help Gaddafi in his war against his Islamic enemies.

The Libyan intelligence services in Tripoli matched a photograph of Mr Belhadj taken in custody in Kuala Lumpar with one they held on their files.

As he told me this at his home, he laughed and shook his head ruefully.

When I was told [by the Malaysians] that Libya wanted me back, you can imagine how I felt. I told them, they will kill me.

Mr Belhadj did not know it was our own MI6, and in particular Sir Mark Allen, the services head of counter-terrorism, who were claiming credit for the coup.

He said: There was a letter I later saw from MI6 to Musa Kusa (head of Gaddafis intelligence service) which said I am going to give you a big-game trophy. And that trophy was me!

The Malaysians put the couple on a flight to Bangkok on March 7, 2004.

Mr Belhadj recalled: I said to my wife, Be brave, because something bad is going to happen.

It did.

They were greeted in Bangkok by masked figures who put them in a van and began to beat them.

Mr Belhadj believes they were Americans. They wanted him to tell them the whereabouts of Bin Laden.

Mr Belhadj told me that when his blindfold was removed for the first time since Bangkok, he was confronted with Gaddafis feared intelligence chief Kusa, who interrogated him before he received a savage beating. He is pictured during a news conference in Istanbul yesterday

Mr Belhaj holds a letter of apology he received by the British government, as he talks to members of the media following a news conference in Istanbul

He and his wife were taken to a black site  one of the CIAs secret interrogation centres used for the imprisonment and torture of those who had been abducted.

Speaking to the Mail in London yesterday, Mrs Boudchar, 41, takes up the harrowing story.

They (the US) shackled me to a wall and then strapped me to a stretcher for 17 hours.

'They did not give me any food and they did not give me any water  is that not torture? I still get nightmares.

They strapped me to a stretcher and then they brought me to the plane. I had ear defenders on and my eyes were taped so I could not see what was going on.

She said one of her eyes had been partly open and the tape was applied directly on to it.

I screamed and shouted but they just kept it so it was stuck while my eye was still open.

'It was extremely painful. When they lifted the tape my eyelash and eyebrows came off. It lasted 17 hours.

Mrs Boudchar said she did not know her husband was on the plane until she heard him screaming.

Fatima Boudchar, and her son Abderrahim Belhaj attend speaks to the press on College Green outside the Houses of Parliament yesterday

She gave birth to son Abderrahim, now 13, three weeks after being released. But her husband spent another six years in the prison, during which time he was tortured and interrogated by foreign agents, some who were believed to be British

It was only when we landed and he started screaming that I knew he was with me.

'My husband was screaming really loud and I think I realised he was being tortured.

'She said she heard men speaking Arabic with a Libyan dialect, adding: I realised we were in Libya.

The couple were transported to Tajoura prison outside Tripoli, where Mrs Boudchar spent the next four months.

She gave birth to son Abderrahim, now 13, three weeks after being released. But her husband spent another six years in the prison, during which time he was tortured and interrogated by foreign agents, some who were believed to be British.

The letter of apology from the British Government

Mrs Boudchar  who yesterday thanked law firm Leigh Day and the Reprieve charity, who spent years fighting on the couples behalf  accused former Prime Minister Tony Blair of committing a criminal act.

She said: This is a criminal act as far as Blair is concerned.

'As far as I am concerned he entered into a financial benefit deal because he handed me over. We were the prize for that deal.

Mr Belhadj told me that when his blindfold was removed for the first time since Bangkok, he was confronted with Gaddafis feared intelligence chief Kusa, who interrogated him before he received a savage beating.

His first meal in custody was served in a dogs bowl and laced with pins.

Now let us remind ourselves who arranged this.

On March 18, 2004, a fax was sent by Mark in London for the urgent personal attention of Musa Kusa.

The Mark is understood to be Sir Mark Allen.

Much of the fax concerned arrangements for an impending visit by Prime Minister Tony Blair to Libya.

But it ended: Most importantly I congratulate you on the safe arrival of [Mr Belhadj].

'This was the least we could do for you and for Libya, to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years. I am so glad.

The intelligence [about Mr Belhadjs arrest in Bangkok] was British. I know I did not pay for the air cargo, but I feel I have the right to deal with you direct on this, and am very grateful for the help you are giving on this.

As Mr Belhadj was discovering, his bitter enemies in the Libyan leadership were Britains enemies no longer.

To underscore this point, in a now infamous encounter on March 25 that year, Blair met Gaddafi in a tent outside Tripoli.

Mrs Boudchar  who yesterday thanked law firm Leigh Day and the Reprieve charity, who spent years fighting on the couples behalf  accused former Prime Minister Tony Blair of committing a criminal act

The so-called deal in the desert coincided with the announcement that Anglo-Dutch oil firm Shell had signed a deal worth up to 550 million for gas exploration rights off the Libyan coast.

Such high-level diplomacy meant little to Mr Belhadj, sitting in solitary confinement in his tiny cell.

For him, life brought only torture and interrogation.

Appallingly, he was often suspended by the wrists, which were secured behind his back.

He was beaten on the soles of his feet and elsewhere with cables.

Often, he feared he would be executed  but he was kept alive because he was useful to the regime in its new friendship with the West.

Kusa gave him lists of Libyan dissidents who had escaped to countries around Europe.

He was told to give up the names to visiting foreign intelligence officials from nations such as Spain, Italy and France, and say they were Al Qaeda terrorists.

Crucially, he told me he was visited three times by MI6. Before the visits, he was given names of UK-based Libyan dissidents.

He had never heard of those on the lists, but was told: Just shut up and tell them the names.

He told me: I very well remember the visits of the British. Once there was a woman with two men. One of the men had a beard and was strongly built.

'He looked like he was military.

When the British arrived in the room, the Libyan intelligence officers left. But of course I knew they were listening.

'So I started to talk to the British through sign language. In this way I told them I was being tortured to say these things I was telling them.

'They made signs back to me to say that they understood.

They understood, but did nothing.

She said: This is a criminal act as far as Blair is concerned. 'As far as I am concerned he entered into a financial benefit deal because he handed me over. We were the prize for that deal

It is believed the information and names he gave MI6 while in prison led to the arrest of Gaddafi opponents in the UK.

Mr Belhadj spent four years in his little black-painted cell, and his eyesight was permanently damaged. He was not allowed to shower for 14 months, and saw his wife and newborn son only once in four and a half years.

In 2009, he was tried and sentenced to death for terrorism, but a year later was released on parole as part of a deal designed to lessen the threat from Gaddafis Islamic opponents.

Shortly afterwards the Libyan revolution took place, supported by the RAF. Mr Belhadj joined the fight and  amazingly given what had gone before  when Gaddafi fell, he was placed in charge of security for David Cameron when he visited Tripoli in triumph.

Today, Mr Belhadj is a politician in Libya. As for his torturer, Musa Kusa? He promptly defected and sought refuge. In Britain.Telegram (logo pictured) has become one of ISIS's favorite means of communication

Telegram is a free app that lets people exchange messages, photos and videos in groups of up to 5,000 people.

It has attracted more than 200 million users since its launch in 2013, promising end-to-end encryption and the ability to store data on the cloud rather than each individual device.

Although many of its users are political activists, groups such as ISIS favor the app because it allows them to communicate both in one-to-one chats and large public groups.

They use it to recruit members, raise money and coordinate terrorist activity. ISIS also set up large public groups to issue claims of responsibility, such as after the Manchester Arena terror attack, and broadcast news.

In 2015, Telegram was named on a list of recommended messaging applications released by the ISIS propaganda office, which lauded it for being 'secure'.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov dismissed concerns about ISIS using the app at a TechCrunch conference in September 2015, telling the audience that the 'right to privacy is more important than our fear of bad things happening'.

Just two months later, ISIS murdered 130 and wounded a further 350 in Paris during the deadliest attack on French soil since World War Two.

Telegram now claims to remove ISIS accounts from public channels but still refuses to intervene in private chats.

Source: Counterextremism.comTell-tale signs that someone may fancy you have been revealed by body language experts.

Smiling, eye contact and laughing are all key giveaways that another person is attracted to you, they found.

Researchers also dispelled several myths around attraction, finding that girls rarely flip their hair if they're eyeing you up.

Experts said the subconscious behaviours are signals of all forms of 'liking', including between friends and family - they do not guarantee romantic interest.

Scroll down for video

The tell-tale signs that someone may fancy you have been revealed by body language experts. Smiling, eye contact and laughing are all key giveaways that someone is attracted to you, they found (stock image)

The scientists, from the University of Dayton in Ohio, said that 'attraction' behaviours are those associated with developing trust and rapport between people.

Study lead author Dr Matthew Montoya said: 'When we like someone, we act in ways to get them to trust us.

'From this perspective, we engage in these behaviours to increase the degree of overlap, interdependence, and commitment to an agreement.'

Researchers looked at several studies which have covered the topic of attraction over the last few decades.

They discovered a number of subconscious behaviours that are associated with attraction.

Making eye contact, smiling, initiating conversation, laughing and maintaining physical proximity were related to liking across many cultures.

Mimicking behaviours and head nodding are also related to liking somone in Western cultures.

The study also dispelled common myths that have circulated for years, such as the famed female hair flip. Scientists found that there is little to no substantial evidence that someone flipping their hair is proof of fancying someone (stock image)

Such behaviours are also linked to the development of trust and rapport.

'There is a specific suite of behaviours associated with liking, and this same set of behaviours can be found in cultures from around the world,' Dr Montoya said.

The study also dispelled common myths that have circulated for years, such as the famed female hair flip.

Scientists found that there is little to no substantial evidence that someone flipping their hair is proof of attraction.

Lifting eyebrows, using gestures, tilting their head, primping their clothes, maintaining an open body posture and leaning in are also not indicators of somone liking you, they say.

Dr Montoya added that the findings go beyond the world of dating.

'Whether we engage in these behaviours has little or nothing to do with romantic desires,' he said.

'These behaviours apply when doctors interact with their patients, parents interact with their kids, or when salespeople talk to their customers.'

The results are published in Psychological Bulletin.Animals can remember specific events just like humans, say brain scientists who made the find as part of a ground breaking new study.

The research is the first evidence that animals other than humans can mentally replay past events from memory.

Scientists had rats remember a sequence of smells and rewarded them whenever they picked out the second-to-last odour or fourth-to-last odour.

The rats were able to pick out the right odours almost nine in every ten attempts, even when the researchers switched the number of smells around - evidence the rodents were using memory rather than their noses to complete the task.

Experts then temporarily blocked a region of the rats' brains that is involved with this type of memory and found the rodents were unable to remember the sequence.

Scientists said their findings could help in the development of new drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease.

Scroll down for video

Animals can remember specific events just like humans, say brain scientists who made the find as part of a groundbreaking new study. Researchers had a group of 13 rats remember the order of a set of odours to test whether they showed evidence of 'episodic memory' (pictured)

'The reason we're interested in animal memory isn't only to understand animals, but rather to develop new models of memory that match up with the types of memory impaired in human diseases such as Alzheimer's disease,' said study lead author Professor Jonathon Crystal, a neuroscientist at Indiana University.

The research team studied episodic memory - the ability to remember specific autobiographical events - in a group of 13 rats.

This form of memory allows us to make sense of scenarios by stringing together the order in which they happened.

For example, if a person loses their car keys, they might try to recall every single step or 'episode' in their trip from the car to their current location.

This skill is commonly lost in Alzheimer's sufferers, and scientists are studying it in animals in order to better understand how to treat the disease.

To assess animals' ability to replay past events from memory, Professor Crystal's lab trained 13 rats to memorise a list of up to 12 different odours.

Scientists said their findings could help in the development of new drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease (stock image)

WHAT IS ALZHEIMER'S? Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain, in which build-up of abnormal proteins causes nerve cells to die. This disrupts the transmitters that carry messages, and causes the brain to shrink. More than 5 million people suffer from the disease in the US, where it is the 6th leading cause of death, and more than 1 million Britons have it. WHAT HAPPENS? As brain cells die, the functions they provide are lost. That includes memory, orientation and the ability to think and reason. The progress of the disease is slow and gradual. On average, patients live five to seven years after diagnosis, but some may live for ten to 15 years. EARLY SYMPTOMS: Loss of short-term memory

Disorientation

Behavioral changes

Mood swings

Difficulties dealing with money or making a phone call LATER SYMPTOMS: Severe memory loss, forgetting close family members, familiar objects or places

Becoming anxious and frustrated over inability to make sense of the world, leading to aggressive behavior

Eventually lose ability to walk

May have problems eating

The majority will eventually need 24-hour care Source: Alzheimer's Association Advertisement

The rats were placed inside an 'arena' with each smell and rewarded when they identified the second-to-last odour or fourth-to-last odour in the list.

The team changed the number of smells in the selection before each test to confirm they were identified based on their position rather than scent alone.

This proved the animals were relying on their ability to recall the whole list in order when completing the task.

Arenas with different odour patterns were used to communicate to the rats which of the two options they were supposed to select.

After their training, Professor Crystal said, the animals successfully completed their task with an 87 per cent accuracy rate.

The results are strong evidence the animals were employing episodic memory replay to recall the sequence.

Additional experiments confirmed the rats' memories were long-lasting and resistant to 'interference' from other memories - both hallmarks of episodic memory.

They also ran tests that briefly suppressed brain activity in a region known as the hippocampus - the centre of episodic memory - to confirm the rats were using this part of their brain to perform the tasks.

Professor Crystal said the need to find reliable ways to test episodic memory in rats is urgent since new genetic tools are enabling scientists to create rats with neurological conditions similar to Alzheimer's disease.

Until recently, only mice were available with the genetic modifications needed to study the effect of new drugs on these symptoms.

'We're really trying push the boundaries of animal models of memory to something that's increasingly similar to how these memories work in people,' he said.

'If we want to eliminate Alzheimer's disease, we really need to make sure we're trying to protect the right type of memory.'As Amazon releases an Echo Dot smart-home device aimed at children, it's entering a busy and growing marketplace.

More than one-third of U.S. homes with children have at least one 'internet of things' connected toy  like a cuddly creature who can listen to and respond to a child's inquiries.

The toys are often billed as improving children's quality of play, providing children with new experiences of collaborative play, and developing children's literacy, numeric and social skills.

But consumer advocates have raised alarms about the toys' insecure wireless internet connections  either directly over Wi-Fi or via Bluetooth to a smartphone or tablet with internet access.

Scroll down for video

Consumer advocates have raised alarms about children's smart toys' insecure wireless connections, which could leave them open to attack by hackers or strangers

Online devices raise privacy concerns for all their users, but children are particularly vulnerable and have special legal protections.

These toys wirelessly connect with online databases to recognize voices and images, identifying children's queries, commands and requests and responding to them.

As someone with both academic and practical experience in security, law enforcement and applied technology, I know these fears are not hypothetical.

Here are four examples of when internet of things toys put kids' security and privacy at risk.

1. Unsecured wireless connections

Some 'internet of things' toys can connect to smartphone apps without any form of authentication, so a user can download a free app, find an associated toy nearby, and then communicate directly with the child playing with that toy.

In 2015, security researchers discovered that Hello Barbie, an internet-enabled Barbie doll, automatically connected to unsecured Wi-Fi networks that broadcast the network name 'Barbie'.

It would be very simple for an attacker to set up a Wi-Fi network with that name and communicate directly with an unsuspecting child.

The same thing could happen with unsecured Bluetooth connections to the Toy-Fi Teddy, I-Que Intelligent Robot and Furby Connect toys, a British consumer watchdog group revealed in 2017.

Strangers could easily set up a WiFi connection with the name of a popular smart toy to communicate with children. It could happen with the unsecured internet connections associated with Toy-Fi Teddy, I-Que Intelligent Robot and Furby Connect toys (pictured)

Children's smart toys have been on the rise, with more than one-third of U.S. homes with having at least one smart toy, such as Amazon's Echo Dot Kids Edition (pictured)

The toys' ability to monitor children  even when used as intended and connected to official networks belonging to a toy's manufacturer  violates Germany's anti-surveillance laws.

In 2017, German authorities declared the My Friend Cayla doll was an 'illegal espionage apparatus,' ordering stores to pull it off the shelves and requiring parents to destroy or disable the toys.

Unsecured devices allow attackers to do more than just talk to children: A toy can talk to another internet-connected device, too.

In 2017, security researchers hijacked a CloudPets connected stuffed animal and used it to place an order through an Amazon Echo in the same room.

2. Tracking kids' movements

Some internet-connected toys have GPS like those in fitness trackers and smartphones, which can also reveal users' locations, even if those users are children.

In addition, the Bluetooth communications some toys use can be detected as far away as 30 feet.

If someone within that range looks for a Bluetooth device  even if they're only seeking to pair their own headphones with a smartphone  they'll see the toy's name, and know a child is nearby.

Some toys effectively speak and play with children based on messages transmitted over the airwaves through tiny Bluetooth or Wi-Fi aerials. Consumer group Which? found that the Bluetooth connection on the four toys had not been secured

For instance, the Consumer Council of Norway found that smartwatches marketed to children were storing and transmitting locations without encryption, allowing strangers to track children's movements.

That group issued an alert in its country, but the discovery led authorities in Germany to ban the sale of children's smartwatches.

3. Poor data protections

Internet-connected toys have cameras that watch kids and microphones that listen to them, recording what they see and hear.

Sometimes they send that information to company servers that analyze the inputs and send back directions on how the toy should respond.

But those functions can also be hijacked to listen in on family conversations or take photographs or video of children without the kids or parents ever noticing.

Toy manufacturers don't always ensure the data is stored and transmitted securely, even when laws require it.

In 2018, toymaker VTech was fined US$650,000 for failing to fulfill its promises to encrypt private data and for violating U.S. laws protecting children's privacy.

A child safety warning has been issued over 'smart' toys that can be hacked via their Bluetooth connections. Consumer group Which? said an investigation found 'worrying security failures' with the (left to right) CloudPets, Furby Connect, I-Que Intelligent Robot and Toy-fi Teddy

FOUR BEST-SELLING TOYS WITH SECURITY FAILURES The I-Que Intelligent Robot, has previously featured on Hamleys top toys Christmas list and is available from Argos and Hamleys in the UK. Experts discovered that anyone can download the app, find an i-Que within Bluetooth range and start chatting using the robot's voice by typing into a text field. With the Furby Connect, anyone within a 30 to 100 foot (10 to 30 metre) Bluetooth range can connect to the toy when it's switched on. The connection could be made via a smartphone or laptop, opening up opportunities to control the toy. Which? security experts were able to upload and play a custom audio file on to the Furby, which is available from Argos, Amazon, Smyths and Toys R Us. CloudPets, available from Amazon and other retailers, come as a stuffed animal and enable friends to send messages to a child, played back on a built-in speaker. Which? found someone could hack the toy via its unsecured Bluetooth connection and make it play their own voice messages. Toy-fi Teddy, available from Amazon and other retailers, is a teddy that allows a child to send and receive personal recorded messages over Bluetooth via a smartphone or tablet app. However, Which? found the Bluetooth lacks any authentication protections, meaning hackers could send their voice messages to a child and receive answers back. Advertisement

4. Working with third parties

Toy companies have also shared the information they collect about kids with other companies  much as Facebook shared its users' data with Cambridge Analytica and other firms.

And they can also surreptitiously share information from third parties with kids.

One toy company came under fire, for example, in both Norway and the U.S. for a business relationship with Disney in which the My Friend Cayla doll was programmed to discuss what were described as the doll's favorite Disney movies with kids.

Parents weren't told about this arrangement, which critics said amounted to 'product placement'-style advertising in a toy.

In my view, and according to consumer advice from the FBI, parents should carefully research internet-connected toys before buying them, and evaluate their capabilities, functioning, and security and privacy settings before bringing these devices into their homes.

Without proper safeguards  by parents, if not toy companies  children are at risk, both individually and through collection of aggregate data about kids' activities.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.Gossip and bullying doesn't just exist within high school and the movie Mean Girls.

Research from the University of Florida has found that adult women use the same gossiping techniques as teenage girls to damage another woman's reputation and try to gain an advantage in romantic relationships.

Lead researcher and doctoral student Tara Reynolds led five studies that found women were more likely to spread negative information about a woman perceived as a threat to their romantic prospects.

Women strategically used gossip to target a rival who posed either a direct or indirect threat.

Five studies that found women were more likely to spread negative information about a woman perceived as a threat to their romantic prospects. This is a large plot line in the 2003 film Mean Girls, pictured

'It's consequential because a woman's reputation still predicts her access to romantic partners, friendships or professional collaborations, and this research shows gossip can substantially shift social perceptions,' said Reynolds.

'People tend to give more weight to negative personal information because they consider it a truer indication of a person's character than positive details.'

Direct threats involve situations such as a woman trying to steal another woman's boyfriend. An indirect threat is more subtle, such as a woman who is physically attractive or 'provocatively' dressed.

One study had an attractive woman to wear two very different clothing styles and, in each case, share the same graphic details about her sexual activity to female participants, even though the disclosure could be devastating to her reputation.

Reynolds discovered that women who heard this damaging information were more likely to spread it when the speaker wore a low-cut shirt showing cleavage than when she dressed conservatively.

She published her findings in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and also discovered highly competitive women spread negative information about their same-sex peers indiscriminately.

'This pattern suggests competitive females may be the primary perpetrators of adolescent bullying and then harmful workplace rumors,' Reynolds said.

Five studies from the University of Florida found adult women use the same gossiping techniques as teenage girls to damage another woman's reputation

Social media has made spreading rumors and gossip even easier than in the past. Reynolds hopes that calling attention to the behavior is the first step in preventing it.

'If school counselors know the predictors of female bullying, and they understand it manifests in subtle ways like gossiping, then they'll be better equipped to detect it and deal with it,' Reynolds said.

'This research shows adult women demonstrate similar behaviors of adolescent bullies, and manipulating reputations can have serious consequences.'

DO MEN GOSSIP AS MUCH AS WOMEN? A shocking recent study revealed that men gossip as much as women. And far from behaving like gentlemen, they are more likely than their female counterparts to b**ch about workmates. Researchers quizzed more than 2,200 people about their gossiping habits and found that males and females are equally likely to share tittle-tattle in the office. But while women tend to talk supportively about colleagues, men try to run rivals down. The researchers suggested that gossip gave women a way to compete in a non-physically threatening manner, while for men it helped build their self-confidence. The study, published in March and carried out by Ariel University in Israel, asked participants to imagine describing a person they had just met to a friend and analysed the responses. The authors concluded: 'Our findings suggest women and men engage in the same amount of gossiping activity, undermining invidious common stereotypes. 'The results indicated a statistically significant difference between genders, confirming that women's gossip is encoded with more positivity than that of men.' Advertisement

One unexpected finding of the study, Reynolds said, was that sometimes women shared gossip about an attractive woman, perceived as a threat, whether they liked her or not.

'That makes me think women don't really know they're doing it, or they're not doing it maliciously,' Reynolds said.

'If you can spread gossip without seeming mean, or if you phrase it with concern, such as, 'I am worried about her because she's not making good choices,' then the gossiper is perceived as a better friend, compared to one who gossips maliciously.

'She can preserve her reputation while still harming a rival's. That suggests concerned gossip is an effective tactic, and women may not even consciously know they're doing it.'Advertisement

Uber has teased a look at what its futuristic Skyport flying taxi hubs could be like when UberAir comes to life.

At the firms Elevate Summit in Los Angeles, Uber unveiled elaborate concept images of the Connect system developed by Corgan that could provide infrastructure for the vertical take-off and landing craft.

The modular system can essentially be installed anywhere, be it an open site, atop a parking garage, or even on the roof of a skyscraper, according to Corgan.

Scroll down for video

Uber has teased a look at what its futuristic Skyport flying taxi hubs could be like. At the firms Elevate Summit in Los Angeles, Uber unveiled elaborate concept images of the Connect system developed by Corgan that could provide infrastructure for UberAir

Uber has plans to begin its first flight demonstrations as soon as 2020, and begin taking passengers by 2023.

And when it does, it will need a place for its air taxis to take-off and land in busy cities.

Each connect module Corgans Mega Skyport system is made up of four parts, the company explains: the connection plaza, the bridge, the station, and the flight deck. As its modular, it can be adapted to suit different environments.

The connection plaza is the main entrance and anchors the Skyport to an existing highway network, according to Corgan.

The station is the heart of the module, providing a destination for anyone to enjoy. The flight deck houses the operations where passengers connect with their Uber eVTOL.

The modular system can essentially be installed anywhere, be it an open site, atop a parking garage, or even on the roof of a skyscraper, according to Corgan. Uber says Passengers will be passively weighed to determine the best seating for inside the craft, making for the optimal configuration for balance

Uber has plans to begin its first flight demonstrations as soon as 2020, and begin taking passengers by 2023. And when it does, it will need a place for its air taxis to take-off and land in busy cities. The firm unveiled Corgan's concept for the Mega Skyport at the Elevate summit this week

'For efficiency, eVTOLs join an autonomous queue as passengers load and unload. To maximize throughput, modules can be paired,' the firm says.

Each connect module Corgans Mega Skyport system is made up of four parts, the company explains: the connection plaza, the bridge, the station, and the flight deck (shown)

Theres also a dedicated landing and lift-off pads. As eVTOL flight matures, modules can be stacked for maximum vertical clearance.

'By providing unlimited access to the sky, the Uber Mega Skyport reclaims more than just time.

Uber has been ramping up its bid to get flying taxis off the ground in the near future.

Just yesterday, the firm revealed it has re-opened a contest to select the third city to launch its proposed Uber Air project.

Uber selected Dallas and Los Angeles last year as the first two cities.

And earlier this week, the firm revealed it had signed a second space act agreement with NASA to explore ways to implement a safe and efficient air travel network over congested cities.

Uber unveiled its Uber Air design models for the first time yesterday at the Elevate Summit in Los Angeles , revealing a look at the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) craft that could be ferrying passengers above congested cities in just two years.

'By providing unlimited access to the sky, the Uber Mega Skyport reclaims more than just time,' Corgan says. A concept image of the futuristic system is shown

WHAT IS UBER AIR AND HOW MUCH WILL IT COST? UberAir is a network of small, electric, aircraft that enable four-person ridesharing flights in densely populated areas. Artist's impression shown UberAir is a network of small, electric, aircraft that enable four-person ridesharing flights in densely populated areas. The 'electrical vertical take-off and landing vehicles' (eVTOLs) differ from helicopters in that they are quieter, safer, more affordable, and more environmentally-friendly, Uber claims. Users will order the aircraft through the Uber app much like they would one of the firm's taxis. Once they have selected an UberAIR ride, the craft will fly to the nearest 'Skyport' - a series of launch pads spread across the city. Uber estimates that an all-electric, 200mph (320kph) ride across the skies of Los Angeles will be price-competitive with an UberX trip of the same distance. Uber predicts that trips from LAX to the Staples Centre during rush hour can be reduced from up to 1 hour 20 minutes on the ground to less than 30 minutes using UberAir. Its prediction includes UberX transfers to and from UberAir launch pads - the flight over LA itself will take around four minutes, the firm said. The plan will rely on a network of Skyports, which will allow the VTOL Uber Air craft to take off and land on rooftops across the country Advertisement

A full-size model and miniature design prototype showed off to CBS News show how the electric flying taxis could fit up to four riders per vehicle, at first for piloted flights before ultimately becoming fully autonomous.

During the summit, Uber execs also revealed the firm has plans to take on nearly 10 times the number of daily flights than the FAA for a single city  and, it could cost riders less than $2 per mile.

A video demonstrating the firms vision of the Uber Air network reveals what appears much like its current on the ground model.

A full-size model (shown) and miniature design prototype showed off to CBS News show how the electric flying taxis could fit up to four riders per vehicle, with plans to begin with piloted flights and ultimately become fully autonomous

The firm unveiled its Uber Air design models for the first time at the Elevate Summit in Los Angeles this week, revealing a look at the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) craft that could be ferrying passengers above congested cities in just two years. A look inside the full size model is shown on left, with the miniature prototype on right

Passengers can hail a ride using the mobile app, though these must be booked 60 minutes ahead of time.

Then, they'll head to the terminal to find their craft.

Passengers will be passively weighed to determine the best seating for inside the craft, making for the optimal configuration for balance, Swaintek said.

And, finding your ride is simple; the Uber Air craft will use a color-matching technology similar to the firms Beacon system that helps passengers find their Uber car.Scientists have discovered a new species of shrew living on a single mountain in the Philippines - and it remains a mystery how it got there.

The Palawan moss shrew is one of three species unique to Mount Mantalingahan on Palawan Island.

It was first spotted in 2007 by the late Danilo 'Danny' Balete. Unlike other shrews, its tail is covered in dense fur rather than visible scales.

The Palawan moss shrew is one of three species unique to Mount Mantalingahan on Palawan Island. The shrew particularly unusual is that it likely split evolutionary from its last relative 10 million years ago, but the mountain is only 5 million years old,

With broad forefeet and long claws, the Palawan moss shrew digs through humus (a low-density mountainous soil) in search of its favorite snack: earthworms.

The Philippines have long been a hotbed for mammalian biodiversity: 657 bird species roam and fly throughout the country's 7,641 islands, and over 2,000 fish species swim in the surrounding seas.

'In many ways, finding this species was exactly what we had expected,' said the paper's lead author Larry Heaney, Negaunee Curator of Mammals at the Field Museum in Chicago.

'There are entire countries that don't have three unique mammal species - so for there to be three species on one mountain, on one island, in one country is really something,' Heaney said.

The other species are the Palawan montane squirrel and the Palawan soft-furred mountain rat.

What makes the shrew particularly unusual is that it likely split evolutionary from its last relative 10 million years ago, but the mountain is only 5 million years old, according to Live Science.

The species' closest relative is in Africa - so how did it get there?

The Philippines have long been a hotbed for mammalian biodiversity: 657 bird species roam and fly throughout the country's 7,641 islands, and over 2,000 fish species swim in the surrounding seas. Pictured: an illustration of the newly identified Palawan moss shrew

'Best guess is that they came in from Borneo,' Heaney said. Many of the Philippines animals once came from there, as scientists believe a land bridge may once have linked the two islands.

However, no relative of the shrew has been found on Borneo.

Co-author Jacob Esselstyn from the LSU Museum of Natural Science said, 'It provides some clues about how small mammals have evolved and moved between Asia and Africa.'

WHAT IS A 'SKY ISLAND? A sky island is an isolated mountaintop that is home to distinct habitats separate from the lowlands and neighboring mountains. These sky islands create hubs of biodiversity, allowing for multiple ecosystems and a wider range of species to coexist within a single geographic area. Mount Mantalingahan on Palawan Island in the Philippines is one such biological hotbed. The mountain is home to three unique species that cannot be found anywhere else: the newly discovered Palawan moss shrew, the Palawan montane squirrel and the Palawan soft-furred mountain rat. Advertisement

In other words, the Palawan moss shrew might help us figure out how the Philippines' many mammal species got there in the first place.

Mount Mantalingahan is what is known as a 'sky island' - isolated mountaintops home to distinct habitats separate from the lowlands and neighboring mountains.

These 'sky islands' create hubs of biodiversity, allowing for multiple ecosystems and a wider range of species to coexist within a single geographic area.

'There could be many new species on these high mountainous regions in the Philippines, but because they are so high, and hard to get to, knowledge of their existence is awfully limited,' Heaney said.Elon Musk's SpaceX delayed the maiden voyage of its powerful Block 5 Falcon 9 rocket after it set off a launch abort sequence with just 58 seconds to spare before liftoff.

The craft was set to fly from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida at 4:12p.m. (ET) before it was pushed back to 5:47p.m. (ET).

Now, the Block 5 will takeoff from Launch Pad 39A on Friday with a two-hour launch window beginning at 4:14p.m. (ET).

Atop the reusable rocket is the Bangabandhu 1, Bangladesh's first communications satellite, which weighs in at a whopping 7,700lbs.

Scroll down for video

Elon Musk's SpaceX delayed the maiden voyage of its powerful Block 5 Falcon 9 rocket (pictured) after it set off a launch abort sequence with just 58 seconds to spare before liftoff

In a statement on Twitter, SpaceX said: 'Standing down today due to a standard ground system auto abort at T-1 min.

;Rocket and payload are in good healthteams are working towards tomorrows backup launch opportunity at 4:14 p.m. EDT, or 20:14 UTC'.

With just under 20 minutes left in Thursday's takeoff window, SpaceX announced on a livestream that it would be scrubbing the launch for the day.

Announcers said the Block 5 rocket and its payload 'are in good health' but that it would use the next 24 hours to check what 'threw the abort today'.

'We're much happier to take those aborts beforehand than continue when there's any risks,' the announcer explained.

The mission is expected to serve as a proving ground for the Block 5, which Elon Musk has referred to as the 'finished version' of SpaceX's Falcon 9, as it's been designed to last up to 100 flights in a single lifespan and is

Unlike previous Falcon 9 iterations, the Block 5 is made to last for a long time -- and for good reason, because if all goes well, it could be used to carry astronauts to the International Space Station.

It has stronger landing legs, better landing control and is completely reusable.

In a statement on Twitter, SpaceX said: 'Standing down today due to a standard ground system auto abort at T-1 min. Rocket and payload are in good healthteams are working towards tomorrows backup launch opportunity at 4:14 p.m. EDT, or 20:14 UTC'.

The rocket looks pretty similar to previous Falcon 9 iterations, aside from a new interstage ring, raceway cover and landing legs -- all of which are painted black.

The black paint is part of the rocket's new thermal protection system that makes it highly flame resistant and rapidly reusable.

It's part of SpaceX's wider goal to make launching rockets similar to commercial flights, where 'they can be flown again and again,' the firm explained on the livestream.

There are also some noteworthy changes to the rocket's nine Merlin engines.

They now have a thrust of 190,000 lbf at sea level vs. the prior thrust amount of 176,000 lbf.

Additionally, the rocket's metal support structure, called the Octaweb, is now bolted to the body instead of welded, to allow for greater reliability and it 'shortens the lead time in manufacturing,' the company noted.

The rocket looks pretty similar to previous Falcon 9 iterations, aside from a new interstage ring, raceway cover and landing legs -- all of which are painted black (pictured)

With just under 20 minutes left in Thursday's takeoff window, SpaceX announced on a livestream that it would be scrubbing the launch for the day

It's also been fitted with a new second stage anti-vortex device to prevent fluids from creating a whirlpool inside the rocket.

SpaceX is also using a pair of titanium grid fins, rather than aluminum, which allow for a more controlled entry.

The mission also marks the inaugural launch of Bangladesh's first-ever communications satellite.

Bangabandhu 1 will provide broadcasting and telecommunication services to rural areas, as well as deliver direc-to-home television programming across Bangladesh.

If the launch goes as planned, it will be a promising sign for SpaceX's wider plan of conducting manned missions with rockets that can be reused up to 100 times in a single lifespan.

SpaceX, which conducted a successful static test fire of the Block 5 earlier this month, said the rocket has numerous upgrades from its predecessor, the Block 4.

The plan is to launch the first stage 10 times without needing refurbishment, just some minimal inspection before returning the rocket to the launchpad.

After it completes 10 flights, the Block 5 will be inspected and repaired, then used in 10 more flights.

With any luck, the rocket can be reused up to 100 times.

However, Andy Lambert, vice president of production for SpaceX, pointed out in a Reddit post that an upwards of 10 times is probably more achievable for now.

'Block 5 is being qualified for 10+ flights, but we'll continue to expand for more,' Lambert said.

By comparison, SpaceX's Block 3 and Block 4 rockets have only been able to fly a second time after undergoing refurbishment.

Meanwhile, another important launch tool received a noticeable face lift.

SpaceX's recovery boat, called 'Mr Steven', was installed with a new net to help it better retrieve payload fairings as they return to earth.

The contraption has now been outfitted with a bright yellow net, which Musk has cheekily likened to as being a 'giant catcher's mitt', that appears to be made of stronger material than its predecessor, according to Teslarati, which first spotted the change.

SpaceX's recovery boat, 'Mr Steven', was installed with a new net (top) to help it better retrieve payload fairings as they return to earth. It's believed to be stronger than the old net (bottom)

SpaceX uses a recovery boat, called 'Mr. Steven', that's outfitted with massive metal claws that are rigged to a net, as a means of gently recovering Falcon 9 payload fairings

Rigged to the net are massive metal claws to help retrieve parts from Falcon 9 rockets, some of which can weigh up to 4000kg.

The Block 5 has a slew of upgrades, such as improvements to the rocket's heat shield, additional thermal protection coating to prevent heat damage upon re-entry into the earth's atmosphere and retractable landing legs.

Musk in 2016 described the upgrades as 'significantly improving performance & ease of reusability'.

The ultimate goal is to cut down on the cost of rocket launches without having to build a new rocket for each mission.

Pictured is the Falcon 9 Block 5 on Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center ahead of its maiden static test fire on May 4. The rocket is set to blast off on Thursday afternoon

The SpaceX boss has said that cutting down on labor costs could also reduce the cost of each rocket, perhaps by as much as 30%.

If they cut down on the cost of each rocket, that could enable SpaceX to complete launch missions more often.

And the savings could be applied to SpaceX's development of the BFR, or 'Big F***ing Rocket', according to the Verge.

SpaceX just received approval to build the BFR at the Port of Los Angeles, further setting in motion Musks plan of making humans a multi-planetary species, and one day developing a colony on Mars.

Elon Musk has referred to Block 5 as the 'finished version' of its reusable Falcon 9 rockets. It has even more powerful thrust, landing control and retractable legs

WHY DOES SPACEX RE-USE ROCKETS AND OTHER PARTS? SpaceX tries to re-use rockets, payload fairings, boosters and other parts to try to cut down on the cost of each rocket mission. The total cost of one of its Falcon 9 launches is estimated to reach 44 million ($61m), while each of its larger Falcon Heavy flights costs 65 million ($90m). The space company has previously re-used first-stage and second-stage rocket boosters, in addition to one of its previously flown Dragon capsules. The Dragon spacecraft are used as the final stage of SpaceX missions to resupply the International Space Station. In an incredible accomplishment, the Falcon Heavy's reused side boosters landed smoothly back down to Earth on two separate launchpads about 8 minutes in. SpaceX is currently testing a system to recover the fairings of its Falcon 9 rockets. The payload fairings are clam shell-like nose cone halves that protect the craft's payload. SpaceX recovered a payload fairing for the first time in 2017. During its first Falcon Heavy launch in February 2018, the firm landed two of the firms side boosters simultaneously on separate launchpads. Advertisement

The BFR, consisting of a spaceship and the booster, will stand at a staggering 106 meters tall (347.7 feet).

As expected, Musk has set out an aggressive timeline for when the BFR will be ready for takeoff.

'We are building the first Mars, or interplanetary ship, and I think well be able to do short trips, short up and down flights, by first half of next year,' Musk said at the South by Southwest technology and culture festival in Austin, Texas, last month.

'Although sometimes, my timelines are a little, you know...,' he joked.

The Block 5 also serves as an important milestone in that goal, but SpaceX will need to launch it at least seven times in order to be able to deliver passengers to the International Space Station.Google wowed onlookers earlier this week when it demoed a new technology called 'Duplex' that enables its Google Assistant to make phone calls in real-time with actual humans.

Using a jaw-droppingly believable voice, it can book a hair appointment and reserve a table for you at your favorite restaurant.

The feature demonstrates just how far Silicon Valley has come with artificial intelligence.

But it's also given rise to a larger debate: Should AI robots be required to identify themselves as such when conversing with a human?

Scroll down for video

Google wowed onlookers earlier this week when it demoed a new technology called 'Duplex' that enables its Google Assistant to make phone calls in real-time with actual humans

Critics argue that they should and it appears that Google is taking that point into consideration.

'We understand and value the discussion around Google Duplex -- as we've said from the beginning, transparency in the technology is important,' a Google spokeswoman told CNET.

'We are designing this feature with disclosure built-in and we'll make sure the system is appropriately identified'

'What we showed at I/O was an early technology demo, and we look forward to incorporating feedback as we develop this into a product,' she added.

Duplex, which CEO Sundar Pichai said the firm has been working on 'for many years', is still in the early stages of development.

The firm has yet to decide how it plans to release the technology.

Experts say the feature raises a slew of tough ethical questions around how AI and humans will interact as the technology weaves its way into our everyday lives.

'Google Assistant making calls pretending to be human not only without disclosing that it's a bot, but adding 'ummm' and 'aaah' to deceive the human on the other end with the room cheering it...horrifying,' Zeynep Tufecki, a techno-sociologist and professor, wrote on Twitter.

'Silicon Valley is ethically lost, rudderless and has not learned a thing'.

Google employees told Bloomberg that so far reception around Duplex has been mixed.

'We don't want to pretend to be a human,' designer Ryan Germick said in an interview with Bloomberg.

However, Germick and Scott Huffman, an executive on Google's Assistant team, said part of the goal was to make Duplex as human as possible so that it could hold more nuanced, believable conversations.

Some have suggested that Google should design the software so that it introduces itself at the beginning of each phone call, saying something along the lines of: 'I'm the Google Assistant and I'm calling on behalf of a client'.

Google Assistant is able to work out a time and date for appointments, even when the salon employee says there are no appointments available at the time the Assistant suggested

Pichai showed off the new technology at the I/O conference, which kicked off on Tuesday in Mountain View, California and runs through Thursday.

In a demo, Google Assistant dials up a local hair salon to schedule an appointment.

First, a user asks Google Assistant to make them a hair appointment, which prompts Assistant to make the phone call.

It sounds like any other women talking, but one half of the conversation is being held by Google's AI-infused digital assistant.

Google Assistant is able to work out a time and date for the appointment, even when the salon employee says there are no appointments available at the time the Assistant originally suggested.

The Assistant even replied 'Mhm' in a natural, believable way when the employee asked her to wait a moment.

A second demo showed how Assistant can book a reservation at a restaurant.

Google revealed that it's introducing six new voices to its AI Assistant, including singer John Legend (pictured above), whose voice will respond in 'certain contexts', the firm said

In a live conversation, Assistant is able to field many questions and even knows to ask how long the wait is without being prompted.

Assistant then sends a notification to the user to let them know that an appointment has been scheduled.

The technology is poised to bring big changes to how we interact with our voice-activated devices, which is why Google executives told CNET that the firm will 'proceed with caution' in rolling out the technology to everyone.

Google said it used a combination of natural language processing and machine learning, among other technologies, to develop Duplex.

'The Assistant can actually understand the nuances of conversation,' Pichai explained.

Google is launching six new voices for the Assistant to make it more natural and conversational. The goal is to capture dialects, languages and accents more accurately

'We are still developing this technology and are working hard to get it right'.

Additionally, Google revealed that it's launching six new voices for the Assistant to make it more natural and conversational.

The goal is to capture dialects, languages and accents more accurately and realistically on a global scale, the firm said.

What stole the show, however, was when Google announced that award-winning R&B artist John Legend would be voicing some commands for Google Assistant.

Legend's voice will only appear in 'certain contexts', like singing Happy Birthday, as he was shown demonstrating in a video.

Google revealed a bevy new features for the Assistant that make it capable of understanding the 'social dynamics' of a conversation.More than 100 species of insects engage in same-sex mating behavior, and some biologists claim gay animal behavior has been spotted in 1,500 different species, and reliably recorded in a third of these cases.

Animals that have displayed this behavior include emus, chickens, koalas, salmon, cats, owls and dolphins.

Researchers from the Department of Ecology and Genetics at Uppsala University hypothesized that because males and females share most of their genes, same-sex behavior may occur in one sex because its underlying genes carry benefits when expressed in the other.

They tested their idea using seed beetles when both males and females expressed low levels of SSB.

Using artificial breeding on either of the sexes, they created genetic strains with a tendency to display SSB.

Using these strains, the researchers showed that when a particular sex had been bred for increased SSB, siblings of the opposite sex enjoyed an increase in reproductive performance.

The findings, published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, support the idea that SSB may be prevalent in one sex because the genes regulating the behaviour are preserved by natural selection through their benefits in the opposite sex.

This points to a general mechanism maintaining differing forms of SSB across a wide variety of animals.Jane Austen has become synonymous with the city of Bath, even though she visited for only relatively short periods and was never very enthusiastic about the place.

Part of her dislike can be blamed on the fact that her aunt was arrested in the city on a trumped-up charge of shoplifting; happily, the charge was thrown out, but only after a lengthy stay at Taunton Gaol.

There is a worldwide fascination with Austen and her works, so it is not surprising thousands of visitors  particularly from the US and Japan  visit Bath every year, anxious to commune with the spirit of their heroine.

Get back: Anything to do with The Beatles is still a massive attraction in Liverpool

What is surprising is that until recently there was very little for Austen fans to see when they arrived: a few blue plaques on houses where she stayed, and the grave of her father George at St Swithins Church.

In 1999, however, a former school teacher  aware of the citys lack of a major Austen attraction  filled the void by creating a new place for Austen pilgrims.

The Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street is housed in the sort of elegant Georgian property the author might have lived in and features such hard-to-resist attractions as a regency tea room. There are displays and films that offer accounts of Janes life and work  simple stuff, but then again, nobody is coming here to complete a doctoral thesis. Visitors to Bath wanted something connected to Jane Austen that was worth seeing and, eventually, they got one.

Similar thinking applied when the Sherlock Holmes Museum opened in Londons Baker Street. Tens of thousands visit London each year hoping to see something linked to the famous detective (more than a few visitors believe Holmes was a real person).

John Lennon as a boy at his childhood home, which is now run by the National Trust

With the aim of giving visitors what they want, in 1990 someone bought 239 Baker Street and, with the permission of Westminster Council, gave it the number of Holmes fictional residence: 221B. The place was furnished in the style described by Dr Watson in Arthur Conan Doyles stories.

The museum was a huge success and has remained popular, with queues down the street. Its all a bit of fun, but none the worse for that. Giving people what they want is no bad thing.

You would be surprised at how this simple doctrine seems to be eluding the UKs tourist business. The home of the Brontes  the Haworth Parsonage in Yorkshire  ought to be one of the most visited literary places in the UK. The story of the three Bronte sisters: Charlotte, Emily and Anne (and their brother Branwell) is stranger than fiction. The sisters effectively revolutionised the 19th Century novel and in doing so massively advanced the cause of feminism.

Their place in the world of literature was recognised more than 100 years ago with the formation of the Bronte Society, which in the 1920s acquired the Parsonage so that it could become a museum. So far, so good.

The problems came when the museum eventually had to decide whether its priority was to become a tourist attraction or to tend the sisters literary flame of immortality. The two things are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but the Bronte Society seems to have been rather nervous about catering to the mass-market tourist.

The Brontes' home was in Haworth in Yorkshire. Pictured is one of the town's cobbled streets

So the museum operates more as a place for scholarly research rather than seeking to entertain and amuse the masses.

As a result it, gets probably half the number of visitors it could if it tried harder (the recently revived Burns museum in Scotland gets twice as many visitors, yet doesnt sacrifice any integrity in the process).

Not surprisingly the Bronte Society has been plunged into a long-running civil war: traditionalists have long been at odds with modernisers; both sides are happy to engage in furious spats at their meetings. The latest barney erupted when model Lily Cole was invited to become a creative partner in an exhibition marking Emily Brontes bicentenary this year.

The Bronte Society fiddles, it might be said, while the local tourist industry faces the prospect of self-combusting.

The country needs to maximise its tourist income. One of the ways to do this is to be sure that our attractions are offering what visitors really want. It could be argued that there are insufficient new museums and galleries being created.

Literary legends: An 1834 portrait of the Bronte sisters

Take the example of Londons Tate Modern, which opened on Londons Bankside in May 2000.

Since it opened, it has attracted more than 40 million people. It is one of the UKs top three tourist attractions and generates an estimated 100million in economic benefits to London annually.

It is often difficult for us to imagine what drives the interest of overseas visitors. Who would imagine, for example, that The Beatles would still be such a powerful tourist magnet more than 50 years after the outbreak of Beatlemania?

Yet you only have to spend a couple of hours in Liverpool to be aware of the droves of visitors keen to see the places connected with their story.

From the museum in the Albert Dock to the childhood homes of Lennon and McCartney, which are run by the National Trust, and the Magical Mystery Tour buses, the city offers a textbook example of what can be achieved by combining entrepreneurial ingenuity with astute management.

Surely, a JK Rowling museum is long overdue? What about an attraction linked to The Rolling Stones?

We need entrepreneurs to come up with bright ideas and repeat recent successes.

The message to Britains tourist industry from Bath, Liverpool and Bankside is clear: Build it, and they will come.Sipping on a refreshing Bloody Mary while cruising at 36,000 feet is how many airline passengers like to mark the start of their holidays.

But those travelling on United Airlines have been left up in arms after the carrier stopped serving tomato juice - a key ingredient.

The Chicago-based airline recently revamped the refreshment offering on some of its services saying it was part of 'streamlining'.

Passengers on United Airlines have been up in arms after the carrier stopped service tomato juice on flights under four hours

But passengers found out that it meant no more tomato juice - at least on its short-haul flights that are less than four hours.

For those wanting a Bloody Mary, a pre-mixed can of Mr. And Mrs. T Bloody Mary is offered instead.

Ever since the change, passengers have been taking to Twitter to berate the airline for not carrying their drink of choice and branding the alternative as 'too salty'.

Alex Plante said: 'Why do you do this? I won't fly @united anymore. Tomato juice is a must have on any flight. Bloody Mary Mix which is super salty is no replacement. Please reconsider.'

Many passengers took to Twitter to share their frustration at not being able to order the drink on board

One passenger said he would take his business elsewhere if he couldn't have a tomato juice on board

This passenger didn't hold back and called United 'idiots' for ditching the fruity beverage

One United customer points out how tomato juice is one of the healthiest drinks on offer

Another passenger pleaded with the airline to reinstate tomato juice on its domestic services

Others are missing the pure version of the juice.

Jason Chase said: 'Seriously @united, you are ditching tomato juice on your flights??? Ive always been a united guy and will book based on price, but if your price is equal to your competitor, the airline serving the tomato juice will get my business!'

And another passenger tweeted: 'What kind of idiots remove tomato juice from airline flights? @United does, that's who. #flyerunfriendly'

Debra Sanborn pointed out the drink's health benefits saying: 'Deeply saddened by the @united decision to drop tomato juice from their beverage offerings. It was the healthiest drink on the cart!'

Replying to a tweet, United Airlines said it regretted any inconvenience by not serving the drink

While Tracey Maken pleaded with United to reconsider, tweeting: '@united Have flown you very recently, and booked my next today.

'Totally impressed with all aspects of your customer service, but please keep tomato juice on your flights. It always tastes better in the "friendly skys"!'

United then confirmed to another passenger on Twitter that it had stopped serving the beverage, saying: 'We regret any inconvenience this causes.'

Other drinks that have been ditched from United trollies are Jim Beam, Courvoisier, and Amaretto.

Other drinks that have been ditched from United trollies are Jim Beam, Courvoisier, and Amaretto

A spokesperson for United Airlines told MailOnline Travel: 'With all of our food and beverage offerings, we monitor customer consumption and adjust accordingly.'

In 2014, scientists suggested that vodka and tomato juice cocktails taste even better in the air than on the ground.

The theory came from Barry Smith, founder of the Centre for the Study of the Senses at the University of London.

He explained that the incessant droning noise in the cabin can affect our ability to taste flavours. But tomato juice, he argues, is one of the few that can still be savoured.Brynne Edelsten enjoyed a 'date night' with her boyfriend Leno Cachia in Melbourne last week.

And on Tuesday the brand new couple were spotted packing on the PDA at Miss Ping's Thai Eatery launch in Melbourne.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday the 35-year-old confirmed the burgeoning romance: 'Yes, I am in a relationship with Leno Cachia. We met on New Year's Eve and have been seeing each other romantically since March.'

Scroll down for video

Get a room! Brynne Edelsten packs on the PDA with boyfriend Leno Cachia as they attend Miss Ping's Thai Eatery launch in Melbourne

During the pair's appearance at the VIP event, the busty socialite planted a kiss on the cheek of her male suitor.

Dressed in a thigh-skimming pink lace frock, the bubbly blonde beamed as her boyfriend canoodled her neck.

In true Brynne style, she sported full-coverage makeup and styled her platinum blonde locks into pageant queen curls.

Meanwhile Leno cut a casual figure in a button-up shirt and a pair of whiskered denim jeans.

Racy display: Dressed in a thigh-skimming pink lace frock, the bubbly blonde beamed as her boyfriend canoodled her neck

Casual: Meanwhile Leno cut a casual figure in a button-up shirt and a pair of whiskered denim jeans

He added hard-edged detailing to his outfit by stringing a silver chain between his belt loops.

At one point during the impromptu photo shoot, the smitten pair playfully posed in pink visors provided by the ping-pong themed venue.

Last week, the busty socialite was spotted walking hand in hand with Leno in Melbourne.

High-octane glam: In true Brynne fashion she sported full-coverage makeup and styled her platinum blonde locks into pageant queen curls

Cute: The pair continued to put on an amorous display for onlookers as Leno was pictured placing his hand on the busty blonde's belly

During the evening Byrnne took to Instagram to share a number of photo's of the pair, accompanied by the hashtag: 'date night.'

Earlier this year, Brynne - who was once married to Geoffrey Edelsten - announced her split from Coby Boatman, 25, after just two months of dating.

'I actually broke up with Coby and moved out late last year. I wish her the best but have nothing to do with her,' she told Daily Mail Australia in January.

Pretty in pink! At one point during the impromptu photo shoot, the duo playfully posed in pink visors

It's over! Earlier this year, Brynne announced her split from Coby Boatman, 25, after just two months of datingThey became Broadway stars together in Spring Awakening.

And newly engaged Lea Michele posted a selfie with her old pal Jonathan Groff, captioning the snapshot: 'Maid of honor'.

Lea, 31, announced via Instagram near the end of last month that she was going to marry 35-year-old businessman Zandy Reich.

I Love To Cry At Weddings: Newly engaged Lea Michele posted a selfie with her old pal Jonathan Groff, captioning the snapshot: 'Maid of honor'

Jonathan is not himself married, but has had relationships with fellow Broadway actor Gavin Creel and Star Trek star Zachary Quinto.

He and Lea led the original Broadway cast of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's musical adaptation of Frank Wedekind's 1891 German play Spring Awakening.

Their Broadway production opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre near the end of 2006, when Lea was only 20 and Jonathan 21.

Set in late 19th century Germany, the musical starred the pair as teenagers whose sexual encounter leads to tragedy when Lea's character Wendla gets pregnant and dies as the result of a botched illicit abortion.

Marry Me A Little: Lea, 31, announced via Instagram near the end of last month that she was engaged to 35-year-old businessman Zandy Reich

She and Jonathan both sang on the show's Grammy-winning cast album, and Jonathan earned a Tony nomination for Lead Actor in a Musical.

Lea went on to achieve TV stardom on Glee - a series co-starring Darren Criss, with whom she is currently preparing a concert tour.

Meanwhile, Jonathan headed the cast of a short-lived HBO dramedy called Looking, which was guillotined after two seasons.

Bosom Buddies: Lea and Jonathan became Broadway stars together in Spring Awakening; the pair are pictured in their costumes from the show at a 2007 musical-theater-themed concert

He has since scored another Tony nod, and another Grammy-winning cast album, by playing King George III in Lin-Manuel Miranda's smash Hamilton.

Lea announced she was engaged by posting an Instagram photo in which she stood on the beach and flashed her massive ring at the camera.

Zandy, formerly of Goldman Sachs and now CEO of his own apparel company AYR, collaborated on the design of the four-carat ring, People reported.Neighbours star Matt Wilson has revealed that his character, Aaron Brennan, gets engaged to David Tanaka in the Australian soap's first ever same-sex proposal.

The 29-year-old actor spoke to Radio Times about the historic moment, saying he's thrilled that the engagement storyline - and subsequent wedding - is going ahead.

Matt joked that Aaron becomes the ultimate 'groomzilla' after David (Takaya Honda) pops the question, and also shared details about the romantic gesture.

Scroll down for video

'He actually turns out to be a bit of a groomzilla!' Neighbours star Matt Wilson has revealed his character gets ENGAGED in the soap's first ever same-sex proposal and wedding

Matt explained that Aaron and David get engaged on the beach, with both characters wanting to propose at the same time.

'The writers have done a great job with the scene, it'll be nice for viewers to see,' he said.

Matt added that Aaron believes David is 'The One'.

Romantic! Matt explained that Aaron and David get engaged on the beach, with both characters wanting to propose at the same time

Smitten: He added that Aaron thinks David - who is played by actor Takaya Honda - is 'The One'

'Just prior to this he has some personal revelations that make him realise David is really the one for him,' Matt revealed.

While Matt did not confirm if the characters will actually walk down the aisle, he hinted they would by joking that Aaron is a 'groomzilla'.

Discussing the potential nuptials, he added: 'If Aaron had his way it would be huge with fireworks and a dancefloor!'

Meanwhile, on Neighbours, April Rose Pengilly is the latest actress to join the show.

A hint for fans? Talking about the potential nuptials, Matt said: 'If Aaron had his way it would be huge with fireworks and a dancefloor!'

April plays the new character Chloe Brennan, who is Aaron's sister.

She told The Daily Telegraph in March that her 'goal' for acting was to crack America, but she's thrilled to have landed a role in Neighbours.

'I think it's a goal for most Aussie actors to be on one of these iconic Aussie shows that is beloved worldwide, but I'd kind of given up on it. My goal was America,' she said.She recently went public with her new boyfriend Ben Carrington, following her split from James Middleton.

But Donna Air flew solo on Wednesday as she enjoyed a girls' night out at the Hello! Magazine x Dover Street Market anniversary party.

The 38-year-old cut a chic figure in a bright white trouser suit as she arrived at the Ciroc sponsored bash with friends.

Here she is: Donna Air flew solo on Wednesday as she enjoyed a girls' night out at the Hello! Magazine x Dover Street Market anniversary party

The actress drew attention to her very slim frame in the co-ord, which skimmed her long legs to the floor with its stylish flared trousers.

Proving her chic sense of style, she teamed the strides with a matching tailored jacket, which cinched in at her waist with a ribbon tie and teased at her braless frame with a plunging neckline.

Ensuring all attention remained on her ensemble, Donna accessorised with simple black heeled sandals and a co-ordinating leather clutch.

Suits you: The 38-year-old cut a chic figure in a bright white trouser suit as she arrived at the Ciroc sponsored bash with friends

The former Byker Grove star swept her hair into a loose chignon, and added a sweeping of bronzer and soft pink lip to draw attention to her naturally stunning features.

Donna appeared to be enjoying a girls' night out at the party, after confirming her romance with Ben Carrington.

Donna first stepped out with the property developer two months ago, just a few weeks after confirming she ended her five-year romance with James Middleton last year.

Slender: Donna flew solo at the bash, having recently confirmed her romance with property developer Ben Carrington (pictured in June 2016)

The blonde told The Mail on Sunday: 'James and I are no longer an item. We parted ways in December but remain the very best of friends and always will be.

In January, the Duchess of Cambridges younger brother was seen in the audience of ITV reality show Dancing On Ice cheering Donna, on as she made her debut with partner Mark Hanretty.

Donna also shares daughter Freya with Damian Aspinall - the heir of a casino and wildlife park who she dated for six years.They're coming up to the one year birthday of their daughter, India.

But it was most certainly a mum and dad night out for Binky Felstead and Josh Patterson on Wednesday night, as they attended the Hello! Magazine anniversary party.

Binky, 27, showcased her lithe physique in a tiny semi-sheer strappy top, featuring a plunging V-neck design to the front of it.

Date night: It was most certainly a mum and dad night out for Binky Felstead and Josh Patterson on Wednesday night, as they attended the Hello! Magazine anniversary party

The top teased her bra beneath and was awash with large polka dots on it.

She tucked it into a pair of black high-waisted slacks and completed the look with a pair of black strap heels.

She sported a natural glow from her recent photoshoot abroad, in which she soaked up the sun on a Portuguese beach.

She merely added some bronzer and a sweep of mascara to her look, leaving her chocolate tresses to fall slickly around her lean shoulders.

Looking good: She tucked it into a pair of black high-waisted slacks and completed the look with a pair of black strap heels

Bronzed: She sported a natural glow from her recent photoshoot abroad, in which she soaked up the sun on a Portuguese beach

Hand-in-hand: Binky and JP looked love-up as ever when they headed out for the day

Glamorous: The brunette beauty was elegantly dressed in a plunging black jumpsuit

Boyfriend JP, 28, looked suave in a light beige blazer, which he wore over a baby blue, open-collar shirt.

He wore jeans and tan loafers and added a jaunty pocket square to the look at his breast pocket.

Binky showcased her stunning figure, having recently confirmed she's back to her pre-baby weight, 10 months after welcoming adorable daughter India into the world last June.

The former Made In Chelsea star was sure to flaunt the results of her grueling gym sessions during a bikini shoot in Portugal last Thursday when she gave a sneak peek at her new swimwear line as she posed up a storm in videos posted to her Instagram stories.

Sheer delight: Binky showed off her flat stomach in the sheer garment

Dapper: Boyfriend JP, 28, looked suave in a light beige blazer, which he wore over a baby blue, open-collar shirt. He wore jeans and tan loafers and added a jaunty pocket square to the look at his breast pocket

One hot mama! Binky made sure to flaunt the results of her grueling gym sessions during a bikini shoot in Portugal last Thursday

The TV personality uploaded a clip of herself wearing a dark patterned bikini with a white robe layered over it.

Binky - real name Alexandra - then playfully opened the garment for her followers to reveal her toned abs underneath.

The reality star later added a clip of her fooling around on a beach in a frilly white bikini, which complemented her sun-kissed skin.

Binky flashed a gleaming smile as she flung sand up into the air while kneeling on the ground in the short video.

Beach babe: The former Made In Chelsea star, 27, gave a sneak peek at her new swimwear line as she posed up a storm in a tiny white two-piece in videos posted to her Instagram stories

Fun in the sun: The natural beauty wore her dark locks in beachy waves in the clip which she captioned 'sneaky peek'

The natural beauty wore her dark locks in beachy waves in the clip which she captioned 'sneaky peek'.

Binky recently admitted she had been hard at work over the past ten months to shift her baby weight.

Writing on Instagram, she said: 'As you know Ive been working on getting my pre baby bod back for a while... Ive finally started seeing some results!!'

Binky also spoke in a Q&A with Reebok about her fitness goals in January, where she revealed that working out will help her to become 'an even better mum'

She explained: 'I know that working out doesnt just benefit me physically, but it also has a huge mental impact.'

Gym-honed: The TV personality uploaded a clip of herself wearing a dark patterned bikini with a white robe layered over it

Bundle of joy: The reality star became a mummy for the first time when she welcomed baby daughter, India Elizabeth, into the world 10 months ago

'This year I am more motivated than ever to get into the gym as I know it will only help me in becoming an even better mum to India.

'Training plays an important role in both my mental and physical well being, so no matter how busy I get I always try to do some form of exercise, even if its only 20 minutes at home while India is napping!'

The TV favourite and her former co-star boyfriend JP had an on-off relationship during their time on Made In Chelsea, and weren't officially an item when Binky found out she was pregnant.

After reuniting while the reality star was expecting, they have since moved in together to raise their daughter as a couple.They celebrated their queer, polyamorous relationship with a glamorous wedding in March.

But actor Nico Tortorella admitted that he and wife Bethany Meyers still don't live together two months after their courthouse nuptials in NYC.

'We still don't live together,' the Younger star, 28, told People Wednesday, adding 'We see each other on a weekly basis. We're FaceTiming all day, everyday.'

Independent: Nico Tortorella admitted that her and wife Bethany Meyers (above in March) still don't live together two months after their courthouse nuptials in NYC during a chat with People

The couple have plans to settle down soon, however, recently snagging a home to share together in upstate New York.

Nico explained that although he and Bethany, who are in an open/queer relationship, 'love hearing' fans stories about marriage, they're doing things they're own way.

'People will be so quick to be like, "This is how long we've been married. This is what works and what doesn't."'

'As much as we love hearing your stories, we're on our own path here. But it's sweet,' he continued.

Digital connect: The Younger actor said that the duo, who are in an open relationship, do 'see each other on a weekly basis' and stay in touch be 'FaceTiming all day, everyday'

Doing their own thing: 'People will be so quick to be like, "This is how long we've been married. This is what works and what doesn't" Nico (above May 4) said about the advice he gets

Back on March 9, Nico tied the knot with his on/off polyamorous partner since 2007 - fitness instructor Bethany C. Meyers.

The sexually-fluid and the 31-year-old lifestyle entrepreneur - who mostly dates women - donned white 'neo-Grecian' drape dresses over tuxedo trousers designed by Andrew Morrison.

The androgynous couple - who were engaged for three months - topped their wedding attire off with a classic tiara and Vic Mucio crown.

'Duh, we wore crowns,' Bethany later told Them.us.

Wedding bells! Back on March 9, Nico tied the knot with his on/off polyamorous partner since 2007 - fitness instructor Bethany C. Meyers

'Not for the gag of it all, but because it feels like something we've done in the past, so we had to keep the tradition alive. In this life's iteration, this is, in fact, our royal wedding.'

There were no family, cake, reception, flowers, nor rings exchanged between the gender-bending duo, who first secured their marriage certificate from the City Clerk's Marriage Bureau.

Aside from photographer Victoria Matthews and videographer JK Carrington, there were no guests either to witness the lower Manhattan festivities.

No frills: There were no family, cake, reception, flowers, nor rings exchanged between the gender-bending duo, who first secured their marriage certificate from the City Clerk's Marriage Bureau

After the wedding, the numerology enthusiasts hopped into a pickup truck with their puppies and drove to upstate New York for their honeymoon.

Tortorella will next serve as guest judge on a 10th season episode of RuPaul's Drag Race, which premieres next Thursday on VH1.

And the LGBTQ activist will eventually resume his role as Liza Miller's (Sutton Foster) straight, younger tattoo artist squeeze Josh in the fifth season of Younger on TV Land.Bachelor In Paradise fans have a chance to party with their favourite cast members this month.

Sydney nightclub Flamingo Lounge is hosting a bash to raise money for a cancer charity on May 25.

Tickets for the event are $145.

Scroll down for video

Single and ready to mingle? Nightclub to host bash for fans to mingle with their favourite Bachelor In Paradise stars. The event is being held to raise money for a cancer charity

Taking to her Instagram story, Megan Marx confirmed her boyfriend and former Bachelor In Paradise co-star Jake Ellis will make an appearance.

'This guy will be there,' Megan said, explaining Jake will be an MC on the night.

She also revealed there will also be a 'mystery' guest attending.

'Reminder that paradise tix are on sale (link in bio) - hoping to raise as much as we can for charity, and also to bring the cast together to partayyyy with you! X,' she wrote.

Taking to her Instagram story, Megan Marx confirmed her boyfriend and former Bachelor In Paradise co-star Jake Ellis will make an appearance

Want to meet Keira? The blonde bombshell will no doubt be attending the bash

Included in the price of the ticket are cocktails and sparkling wine from 6-8pm, as well as finger food.

'Dress in whatever you'd wear to a Bachelor In Paradise cocktail party,' the invite reads.

It remains unclear whether Ali Oetjen will be attending after the blonde was recently announced as the new Bachelorette.

Will she go? It remains unclear whether Ali Oetjen will be attending after the blonde was recently announced as the new Bachelorette (pictured with ex Grant Kemp)

This week her Bachelor In Paradise ex Grant Kemp made sensational claims that she 'cheated on him' with his best friend.

The American model and reality TV star told New Idea on Monday that he has been struggling to overcome his heartbreak.

'That is literally one of the most disrespectful things you can do,' Grant, 29, said.Keith Urban was 'devastated' when his wife Nicole Kidman was forced to use pain medication after being left 'really bruised' from shooting harrowing domestic violence scenes with her Big Little Lies co-star Alexander Skarsgard.

And on Wednesday, the country singer, 50, revealed what happened when he came face-to-face with the Swedish actor after he and Nicole had played a married couple in an abusive relationship.

Speaking to KIIS Network's Drive Show Will & Woody, Keith acknowledged that their exchange was 'very awkward'.

'He was very awkward around me': Keith Urban has reveals what happened when he met his wife Nicole Kidman's Big Little Lies co-star Alexander Skarsgard after he portrayed her abuser

'That first season was crazy,' Keith said, referring to Nicole's role as Celeste Wright, a retired lawyer trapped in a violent marriage.

'The first time I met Alex, who plays her husband in Big Little Lies, he came to our house and I hadn't seen a lot of the stuff they'd been shooting and he was very awkward around me,' Keith recalled.

'It wasn't until I saw the scenes that I was like, "Oh, right. Yeah".'

One of the radio presenters said: 'I feel like if I was in your position I would find it really hard to be around the guy who I've watched throw my wife across the set - and I know it's obviously acting.'

Candid: Speaking to KIIS FM's Drive Show Will & Woody on Wednesday, Keith acknowledged that their exchange was 'very awkward'. Pictured: Keith and Nicole in April 2018

Harrowing scenes: Nicole and Alexander portrayed a married couple in an abusive relationship on HBO's Big Little Lies

Keith explained he's excited for a 'phenomenal' second season, saying: 'Nicole's been an actor her whole life and I get it - I'm an artist too - so you have to to clearly separate everything from reality.'

Nicole, who shares two daughters with Keith, told Vogue last year that her husband was 'devastated' when he noticed her body 'covered in deep, massive bruises'.

'He was devastated seeing it but then he would say, "But I have an artist wife!"' she said at the time.

'He was devastated': Nicole, who shares two daughters with Keith, told Vogue last year that her husband was 'devastated' when he noticed her body 'covered in deep, massive bruises'

The Oscar-winner also admitted that Keith was 'disturbed' when he watched season one, but has since made regular visits to the set.

'He says that when he hears me scream or cry from a certain place in my soul it's almost like it goes straight into him and he has a visceral reaction immediately,' she told W Magazine in January.

'Because his brain and his heart doesn't discern between acting and real life. They're the same sounds for him. It throws him.'Erin Molan has been rushed to hospital in an ambulance for the second time in three months after suffering a fall in a Sydney shopping centre.

The heavily pregnant 35-year-old revealed the shock news on Thursday morning during an interview on WSFM's Jonesy and Amanda.

The Footy Show host, who is in the final trimester of her first pregnancy, says she fell on her side during the 'episode' which occurred earlier this week, before assuring fans that she and her unborn baby are both fine.

Another scare for Erin: Heavily pregnant TV star Molan rushed to hospital in an ambulance for the second time in three months after falling in a shopping centre

After being introduced on air to present her footy tips, Erin began her segment by announcing: 'I had another little episode this week, unfortunately.'

The Channel Nine favourite continued: 'I got my whooping cough and flu shot and had a little... faint is a strong word, but a little fall in the Randwick shops.'

She then confirmed she was rushed to hospital via ambulance for further examination.

'I had another little episode this week, unfortunately': Erin revealed the shock news on Thursday morning during an interview on WSFM's Jonesy and Amanda (pictured)

Fall: Thankfully, Erin landed on her side, so her unborn baby didn't bear the impact of the fall

Thankfully, Erin landed on her side, so her unborn baby didn't bear the impact of the fall.

The bubbly blonde managed to stay upbeat in the aftermath of the scare, humorously adding: 'I'm just filthy because I'd ordered a chocolate donut and a milkshake, and I kind of went (to hospital) after I'd paid but before I'd got the donut'.

'I think they thought I might've been drunk!', she laughed in reference to the shop owners.

Back in February, Erin was taken to hospital after collapsing and hitting her head whilst working at Channel Nine's Sydney studios.

Rushed to hospital: Back in February, Erin was taken to hospital after collapsing and hitting her head whilst working at Channel Nine's Sydney studios

Tests at Royal North Shore Hospital revealed she had a low blood sugar count which had caused her to faint.

Erin's police officer fiance Sean Ogilvy rushed to her bedside in hospital.

The star has previously described her pregnancy as 'awful', confirming in February that she had suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum, commonly known as extreme morning sickness.

It's the same condition that affected Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, during her three pregnancies.

Erin's due date is reported to be late next month.Former Coronation Street star Shayne Ward is still suffering the after-effects of playing suicidal Aidan Connor, the actor has revealed.

Having put on an emotional performance on the soap this week - which resulted in the character taking his own life - Shayne has admitted that the part has taken its toll on him emotionally.

'I knew when I took it on that it was more than just a storyline,' the 33-year-old former X Factor winner explained to The Sun. 'This is affecting millions of people around the world every single day, and when I read the stats I couldnt believe it.

A dark place: Former Coronation Street star Shayne Ward is still suffering the after-effects of playing suicidal Aidan Connor, the actor has revealed

'So when Im getting into that place, its a really, really dark place which again breaks my heart. You feel that there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You feel lost, you feel hopeless, powerless, unloved and you feel like you can never make things right.'

Having thrown himself into the part, the scenes were watched by millions of viewers who have since heaped praise upon Shayne for his touching portrayal.

'A lot of people who are considering attempting suicide have got in touch to say, "Im calling somebody now. I was attempting it and youve helped me". The response has been truly overwhelming,' he said.

Shayne also had to seek counselling for the role. He explained: 'I started seeing somebody from the moment I was approached about the story before Christmas. It was important for me to understand why people attempt suicide.'

Corrie fans have been campaigning for Shayne to be recognised at the 2018 British Soap Awards, after the shortlist was announced before his suicide storyline aired.

Taking its toll: Having put on an emotional performance on the soap this week - which resulted in the character taking his own life - Shayne has admitted that the part has taken its toll on him emotionally

Deserving: Coronation Street fans have been campaigning for Shayne to be honoured at the 2018 British Soap Awards, after leaving viewers in tears with his suicide storyline

Led by Shayne's sister Emma Ward, fans have tweeted that Shayne should be honoured for his heartbreaking performance as Aidan Connor, after his final scenes showed the Underworld owner break down in tears before taking his own life.

Shayne missed out on a nomination for Best Actor as the final shortlist for the awards was announced just a week before his final scenes, leading fans to demand the panel reconsider his performance.

Following the broadcast of Aidan's final scenes in Monday's double bill, sister Emma praised him on social media before asking the Soap Awards take note.

She tweeted: '@soapawards I think the rules need too be bent a little here... Shayne missed out on best actor due to timing and the sensitive storyline being withheld... he needs to be recognised! Do the right thing #shaynewardAWARD.'

Fans of the ITV soap seemed to agree, responding that Shayne's performance should be honoured for its raw nature, after he was praised by viewers and co-stars alike for his heartbreaking portrayal of male suicide and mental health.

Honest: Fans were left in tears after Shayne's character Aidan Connor took his own life off-screen, with the aftermath to be shown in a one hour special on Wednesday

Campaigning: Leading the tweets was Shayne's sister Emma, who asked the Soap Awards voters to consider a late nomination for Best Actor

One wrote: 'I think the rules need to be bent a little here... Shayne missed out on best actor due too timing and the sensitive storyline being withheld.. he needs too recognised! Do the right thing.'

Another added: 'Deff needs recognition here.. Well played by @shayneTwardvery well done.. So emotional, he deserves this.'

A third also tweeted: 'You are by far the best and my favourite actor in any of the soaps! gutted you have left corrie but you did a beautiful job with this story. Every award possible should be coming your way! fantastic.'

Shayne's fiancee - ex-Hollyoaks star Sophie Austin - also pledged her support by retweeting Emma's and several other fan's messages.

Backing the cause: Many fans joined Emma in demanding Shayne be honoured, as the shortlist was announced a week before his final scenes aired

Heartbreaking: Aidan's final scenes saw the character break down in tears alone in his flat

Shayne made the longlist of nominations for Best Actor but missed on one of the five shortlist spots, which were awarded to his Corrie co-stars Jack P Shepherd (David Platt) and Connor McIntyre (Pat Phelan) along with Emmerdale's Ryan Hawley (Robert Sugden) and Michael Parr (Ross Barton) and Hollyoaks' Theo Graham (Hunter McQueen).

Heartbreaking scenes aired on Monday saw Aidan break down in tears alone in his flat, taking his own life off-screen.

The storyline was confirmed last week by Corrie bosses to raise awareness of male mental health, working closely with charities Samaritans and CALM.She features in this week's edition of Hello! Magazine, divulging precisely what's made her fifth marriage to Percy Gibson work, following four previously failed unions.

And having spilled the secrets to the publication, Dame Joan Collins and her other half were sure to make an appearance at the magazine's anniversary party at Dover Street Market on Wednesday evening.

The TV and film legend, 84, was seen stepping from a black cab looking characteristically glam, doting Percy, 53, holding the door for her and accompanying her inside the bash, which was sponsored by Ciroc.

Hand-in-hand: Dame Joan Collins and her other half were sure to make an appearance at the magazine's anniversary party at Dover Street Market on Wednesday evening

The pair - who were married during an intimate wedding at Claridge's Hotel, Mayfair, in February 2002 - strolled contentedly into the event as Dame Joan dazzled in a peach cocktail dress with flared sleeves.

The off-the-shoulder number hugged the star's curves and she accessorised it with appropriately blingy jewels.

She wore a chunky necklace, allowing the front of it to trickle down to her bust, sparkling away in the flashing lights of the cameras around them.

Dazzling: Dame Joan turned heads in her glamorous ensemble on her arrival for the bash, which was sponsored by Ciroc

Pretty in peach: Dame Joan dazzled in a cocktail dress with flared sleeves

She teamed this with drop-earrings and a matching bracelet.

Dame Joan carried a cream clutch and wore peach heels with added silvery sparkle detailing to the front of them.

Percy wore an open-collar light blue shirt and a navy suit, never one to upstage his glamorous wife.

Dame Joan revealed her top tip for 'lasting marriage' to Hello! after tying the knot sixteen years ago with husband Percy, saying it works because they 'really support each other'.

She explained that in a lasting marriage, the key is to 'understand that there will be highs and lows'.

She features in this week's edition of Hello! Magazine, divulging precisely what's made her fifth marriage to Percy Gibson work, following four previously failed unions

Legend: Dame Joan has spilled the secrets to the publication of her lasting fifth marriage

Smitten: Talking to the publication, the legendary actress opened up about her fifth marriage and the reason that it works is because they 'really support each other'

She said: 'You won't always agree about everything, but you need to enjoy each other's company. Percy is such an amazing man, he is so kind and so caring.

'People get married on the crest of lust. Once that's gone, they look and think: 'What the hell? Who is this person?'

'There has to be something else to fall back on. If there isn't, they start looking.'

The interview comes after the star recently confirmed that she has been offered a role in gritty TV series American Horror Story.

Joan wrote on Instagram: 'Excited about being offered American horror story such a brilliant show stay tuned!'

Previously: Dame Joan married first husband Maxwell Reed in 1952. They divorced just four years later

Second try: Her next attempt at marriage came in 1963 with the actor Anthony Newley, but this too would end in divorce eight years later (the couple are pictured with daughter Tara in 1964)

Third time lucky: The actress married American businessman Ron Kass in 1972. Their nine-year marriage collapsed in 1983

Here we go again: Two years later Dame Joan married Swedish singer Peter Holm, but the marriage would be over by 1987

The Dynasty star, 84, was previously thought to be appearing in the series when creator Ryan Murphy reportedly said he was 'throwing in Joan Collins', according to US industry magazine The Hollywood Reporter.

Anthology series American Horror Story, created by Murphy and Brad Falchuck, debuted in 2011 and its eighth season is expected to air later this year.

Its regular stars Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates and Evan Peters have been confirmed to be returning to the show.

The eighth season of the horror anthology will reportedly be set in the future, a first for the series.

The full article is in Hello! Magazine, out now.Ali Oetjen was recently hit by claims that she cheated on her ex-boyfriend Grant Kemp with his friend, sparking calls for her to be replaced as the new Bachelorette.

And the 32-year-old is keeping a low profile amid the controversy, looking rather downcast as she stepped out in Adelaide after work on Wednesday.

The former Bachelor In Paradise star opted for an uncharacteristically conservative outfit, donning a grey turtleneck sweater and checked blazer.

Scroll down for video

Something on your mind? Downcast Ali Oetjen, 32, dressed conservatively in Adelaide on Wednesday as she stepped out for the first time since being accused of cheating on her ex

The fitness fanatic completed her outfit with a ribbed black skirt and carried a white leather tote with a polka-dot trim.

Sweeping her golden tresses into a sleek ponytail, the reality TV star went incognito behind a pair of designer sunglasses.

Ali failed to raise a smile and appeared to be in subdued spirits as she walked along with a female friend.

It comes after Ali's ex-boyfriend Grant Kemp sensationally claimed that she 'cheated' on him while staying at his Los Angeles home back in March.

Low-key look: The Bachelor In Paradise star donned a grey turtleneck sweater and blazer

Going under the radar? Sweeping her blonde hair into a sleek ponytail, the newly-announced Bachelorette tried to go incognito behind a pair of designer sunglasses

Following Grant's bombshell KIIS FM interview earlier this wek, fans took to social media to urge Network Ten to replace Ali as Bachelorette.

Responding to Grant's 'cheating' claims, one viewer commented: 'Pretty sure she won't be the Bachelorette if that's legit.

'She's limited the comments on her Instagram - don't think Channel Ten will want her series sabotaged before it starts.'

Will she be replaced? Ali's sighting comes after fans were left divided over her role as the new Bachelorette in the wake of her ex-boyfriend Grant Kemp's cheating allegations

Another wrote: 'Disappointing. The people making decisions need to be reviewed. The choices for Sophie Monk were disappointing and now this. Won't be watching.'

One fan even called for Ali to be replaced by Bachelor In Paradise's Lisa Hyde.

Daily Mail Australia has previously contacted Network Ten for comment.

Allegations: Grant (right) claimed on Sydney radio earlier this week that Ali cheated on him with his friend while staying at his Los Angeles home back in March

Debate: Some viewers have called for Ali to be replaced as Bachelorette after she was accused of being unfaithful

The fan discussion comes after Grant made extraordinary claims about Ali 'cheating' on him during a trip to LA around two months ago.

The American firefighter, 29, told The Kyle and Jackie O Show on Tuesday that Ali had only been staying at his house for four days before she was allegedly unfaithful.

Grant's extraordinary claims followed Network Ten's announcement that Ali would be Australia's fourth Bachelorette, following in the footsteps of Sam Frost, Georgia Love and Sophie Monk.She has been living it up in Bali, Indonesia with her boyfriend Matty Johnson this week.

And Laura Byrne, 31, was a picture of holiday bliss as she posed on the balcony of their lavish seaside villa on Thursday.

Taking to Instagram to share a glimpse at their sun-drenched sojourn, Laura posed in a floral string bikini that perfectly flattered her gym-honed physique.

Scroll down for video

Hello from paradise! Laura Byrne, 31, was a picture of holiday bliss as she posed on the balcony of her lavish seaside villa on Thursday

'I live here now k bye,' the reality TV star captioned the photo of herself standing on her tip toes in front of a sparkling seascape.

It's the latest in a slew of jaw-dropping snaps Laura and Matty have posted from their loved-up island holiday.

Just hours earlier, Laura took took to social media with a romantic photo of herself kissing her man as they floated in their hotel's infinity pool.

Candid: Just hours earlier, Laura took took to Instagram with a romantic photo of herself kissing her man as they floated in their hotel's infinity pool

'Does this qualify as Bachelor in paradise?' the brunette wrote in the caption.

The couple's Bali adventure comes a week after Matty told Daily Mail Australia that Laura will move into his Bondi abode in June.

'She's moving into my house,' the marketing executive revealed, before going on to cheekily add that he 'kind of got' his way.

Picture perfect! Laura has been sharing a slew of jaw-dropping snaps from her Indonesian holiday this week

How's the weather down there? Laura sent fans into meltdown with this awe-inspiring snap of herself lounging at the bottom of the ocean

Matty continued: 'It's a nice little bit to look forward to, we were always umming and ahhing if I would move to Rushcutters Bay or she would move to Bondi and the way it's worked out, we decided Bondi.'

'At the moment it's all looking really exciting, but we haven't got down to the nitty-gritty yet,' he added.

'It's always tricky when you move in together and you've kind of got double the furniture. We're like, "Will I lose my couch in favour of her couch?" That's what we haven't figured out yet.'He recently revealed that he 'broke' his penis while having sex with his girlfriend Megan Marx in a friend's bathroom.

But it would appear that everything is back in working order for Bachelor In Paradise star Jake Ellis.

On Thursday, the 31-year-old made a very suggestive comment to Megan while the pair were holidaying in Thailand.

Scroll down for video

He said what?! Bachelor In Paradise's Jake Ellis made a VERY suggestive comment to girlfriend Megan Marx while on holiday in Thailand on Thursday... after revealing he 'broke' his penis

Megan took to Instagram to share a clip of Jake eating breakfast. Apparently, he was in a bad mood because she had woken him up early.

'This is your second breakfast babe. The first didn't make you happy,' she said.

Jake replied: 'Could of got a b**wjob.'

They're not shy! Megan took to Instagram to share a clip of her boyfriend, who was in a bad mood after being woken up early. He suggested she could have woken him up with a 'b**wjob'

Earlier this week, Jake told NW that he was rushed to hospital at 3am back in March, after he 'broke' his penis while having sex with Megan.

The reality TV lovebirds were getting frisky in the bathroom at their friend's house in Perth when Megan suddenly heard 'a scream, then SNAP'.

Jake revealed it was 'the most excruciating thing I've been through in my life.'

That's gotta hurt! Earlier this week, Jake told NW that he was rushed to hospital at 3am back in March, after he 'broke' his penis while having sex with Megan

He added: 'Immediately I knew I'd dome some damage to myself, and told Megan I needed to go to the hospital straight away. It was very swollen!'

Jake admitted the couple were 'drunk' at the time and claimed he tried to hide what happened from his girlfriend because he feared it would 'turn her off'.

Fortunately, Megan saw the funny side and laughed off Jake's 'broken d**k' incident - however she did acknowledge the sight is 'etched into (her) memory forever'.

Injured: The 31-year-old added: 'Immediately I knew I'd dome some damage to myself, and told Megan I needed to go to the hospital straight away. It was very swollen!'

After travelling to a nearby hospital in the early hours of the morning, the couple faced the embarrassment of being recognised in the emergency room.

A doctor asked Jake, 'Do I know you from somewhere?' and Megan confessed that she was worried the incident would expose their relationship before the Bachelor In Paradise finale.

Six weeks after his 'scary' and 'embarrassing' sexual misadventure, which resulted in him having surgery and stitches, Jake admitted he could laugh at the experience.

Megan, 29, added at the time: 'Jake now has what I like to call a wizard d**k. He has an amazing Harry Potter scar!'It would appear Sam Frost's character on Home and Away is beginning her second on-screen romance, after debuting on the soap less than six months ago.

On Monday, Sam was photographed getting cosy with co-star Jake Ryan for the second time while filming in Sydney's Palm Beach.

The 29-year-old actress flaunted her slender figure in skintight activewear as she cuddled up to the Summer Bay 'bad boy'.

SPOILER ALERT: Summer (Bay) Lovin'! Home And Away's Sam Frost flaunted her slim figure in activewear while cuddling up to rumoured love interest Jake Ryan on set in Palm Beach

Sam's character, Jasmine Delaney, is currently in an on-screen romance with fellow newcomer Tim Franklin, who plays policeman Colby.

However, these latest on-set snaps appear to confirm she moves on with Jake's character, Robbo.

Sam wore a blue crop top with matching three-quarter length leggings, and finished off her sporty look with Puma sneakers.

Fit and fabulous! Sam wore a blue crop top with matching three-quarter length leggings, and finished off her sporty look with Puma sneakers

New romance? The 29-year-old actress flaunted her slender figure in skintight activewear as she cuddled up to the Summer Bay 'bad boy'

Looking good! The former Bachelorette is blossoming in her new TV role as Jasmine Delaney

What happens? Sam's Home and Away character, Jasmine, is currently enjoying an on-screen romance with newcomer Tim Franklin, who plays policeman Colby

Things are heating up! Jasmine and Robbo's relationship was all but confirmed earlier this week when pictures surfaced of Sam passionately kissing Jake on set

In the photos taken on Monday, Jake could be seen pulling Sam in close as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

The pair also shared a special moment on a park bench. They stared lovingly into each other's eyes while enjoying a light-hearted conversation.

Jasmine and Robbo's relationship was all but confirmed earlier this week when pictures surfaced of Sam passionately kissing Jake on set.

How cute! In the photos taken on Monday, the pair shared a special moment on a park bench

Spotted! They stared lovingly into each other's eyes while enjoying a light-hearted conversation

Sam and Jake, 34, are believed to be good friends outside of the show - with the actor reportedly giving Sam tips on how to deal with the pressures of fame.

'Jake has been giving Sam advice on how to deal with the negativity, which comes with starring on such a huge show,' a source told Woman's Day last October.

The insider added: 'They often catch up off screen and really make each other laugh.'

Natural beauty! Sam appeared to go for a neutral makeup palette

'Jake has been giving Sam advice': Sam and Jake, 34, are believed to be good friends outside of the show - with the actor reportedly giving Sam tips on how to deal with the pressures of fame

Sam, who is in a long-term relationship with navy diver Dave Bashford, recently sparked rumours her character, Jasmine, could be pregnant.

While filming scenes in Palm Beach last month, she was seen looking downcast as she placed her hands across her stomach.

Sam stared thoughtfully into the distance and appeared to have a lot on her mind.

Helping hands: While on set, Sam was seen being attended to by stylists in-between takes

Casual: Sam completed her Summer Bay look by slinging a black backpack over her shoulder

All smiles! Sam appeared in her element while filming scenes in Palm Beach on Monday

More to come! Last July, Channel Seven made the announcement that Sam would be joining Home and Away as a permanent cast member

Last July, Channel Seven made the announcement that Sam would be joining Home and Away as a permanent cast member.

Producers insisted the former reality TV star had blown them away with her audition, but the decision was nonetheless controversial.

Some fans even accused the long-running show of stunt casting.She celebrates her 39th birthday today.

And Rosario Dawson found a perfect way to embrace another year around the sun Wednesday.

The Rent actress took off all her clothes to bare all in an Instagram video post captioned: 'Happy birthday suit to me... 39 & feelin fine...'

Scroll down for video

Baring all! Rosario Dawson found a perfect way to love herself on her 39th birthday Wednesday, stripping down to her bare essentials in an Instagram video post captioned: 'Happy birthday suit to me... 39 & feelin fine...'

While the Kids star was positioned to make sure none of her naughty bits were visible in the nude photo, she left little to the imagination.

Keeping her face at a fresh glow, Dawson grabbed her chest and wiggled her legs from side to side while flashing a bright smile at the camera.

Another mirror selfie showed the starlet in the buff, covering her breast with one arm while masking her bottom with a well-placed bouquet of pink roses.

Feeling rosy! Another mirror selfie showed the starlet in the buff, covering her breast with one arm while masking her bottom with a well-placed bouquet of pink roses

Not shy! While the Kids star was positioned to make sure none of her naughty bits were visible in the nude photo, she left little to the imagination

She's a natural! Keeping her face at a fresh glow, Dawson grabbed her chest and wiggled her legs from side to side while flashing a bright smile at the camera

Nothings gonna bring her down! 'Reflections on not letting gravity bring me down...' the native New Yorker captioned another one of her clothing-free pictures

'Reflections on not letting gravity bring me down...' the native New Yorker captioned the clothing-free picture.

The Sin City actress also shared some of the sweet birthday messages that she got from friends and fans.

Last month Rosario Dawson spotted hard at work on the upcoming Netflix romantic comedy Someone Great with co-star and producer Gina Rodriguez in New York.

On the clock! Last month Rosario Dawson spotted hard at work on the upcoming Netflix romantic comedy Someone Great with co-star and producer Gina Rodriguez in New York

According to The Hollywood Reporter, 'Someone Great centers on a woman who, after a heart-wrenching break-up, decides to seek adventure in New York City with her two best friends before she moves across the country for her dream job.'

Also appearing in the upcoming romantic comedy will be DeWanda Wise, 33, and Brittany Snow, 32.

Paul Feig, who previously directed Bridesmaids as well as Ghostbusters, will produce the flick alongside Gina.She became embroiled in a dispute with her ex-partner Jean David Blanc over the custody of their two sons - Raphael, four, and Solal, two - following their split in 2016.

And on Thursday, Australian actress Melissa George, 41, posted an inspirational message to Instagram about 'single mothers'.

She wrote: 'Single mummas... there will always be support and love and father figures where you least expect. Taken today with my sons.'

'There will always be support, love and father figures where you least expect': Melissa George shared a cryptic message for other 'single mothers' on Thursday

Melissa accompanied her post with a black and white photograph of her son's hands pressed against the hands of an unknown male.

Addressing her highly-publicised custody dispute, the 41-year-old told Whimn last year: 'My heart is with my children and that's where I have to be right now.

'I have the personality where I make the most of everywhere I am. I don't want to live being forced to stay somewhere and not really maximising any element of joy in that place.'

Breakup: Melissa became embroiled in a dispute with her ex-partner Jean David Blanc over the custody of their two sons, Raphael, four, and Solal, two, following their split in 2016

Melissa also told Vogue last month: 'It's almost like when life beats you down, you get more humble, more calm, reflective. Theres peace in it. So I'm looking forward to the next chapter. Maybe love.'

In early 2017, Melissa and French entrepreneur Jean David Blanc were convicted of assaulting each other following an alleged domestic dispute in 2016.

Jean David later said in a statement: 'Regarding the supposed violence against Melissa George, I strongly contest it and have thus filed an appeal against the judgment, which is not final.'

STATEMENT FROM JEAN-DAVID BLANC

I wish to answer once and for all to the inaccurate information given by Melissa George. The Paris Court decision consisting of a shared custody of our young children was based on very long and various social workers investigations as well as psychologic examinations. This decision was ruled by the Judge who considered only the best interest of our children. That does not prevent Mrs George from working, as she's free to come and go to sets all over the world as she always did. As regards to our childrens interdiction to leave French territory without my prior authorization, this decision, also ruled by the Judge, is the result of Melissa George's attempt to secretly leave the country with our children without my consent ... Regarding the supposed violence against Melissa George, I strongly contest it and have thus filed an appeal against the judgment, which is not final. I have always maintained that I had been attacked first and was only trying to protect myself. Melissa George was found guilty and charged for these offences. Advertisement

During an interview with Sunday Night in March, Melissa claimed Jean had become emotionally and physically abusive during their five year relationship- allegations he strongly denies.

The AlloCine founder first met Melissa in 2011 at a BAFTA after-party. They began a relationship in 2012.

The former couple welcomed their first child, son Raphael, in February 2014 and a second son, Solal, in November 2015.

Melissa was previously married to Chilean film director Claudio Dabed.It was revealed on Tuesday that she had scored the role of tragic Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino's forthcoming film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

And Margot Robbie returned to reality on Wednesday, spotted at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles.

Wearing a casual get-up, the 27-year-old enjoyed a lunch with friends.

Celebrating? After being confirmed to play Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino's latest film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Margot Robbie was seen enjoying a casual lunch at the Chateau Marmont on Wednesday

Margot was seen in a black sweater for the catch-up.

Showcasing her lean legs, she paired her look with blue skinny jeans.

She completed her outfit with studded boots.

Margot kept her accessories simple with a bag and sunglasses.

The I, Tonya, star had her signature short locks styled out and behind her ears.

The stunner let her natural beauty shine through by wearing minimal makeup.

Next role: On Tuesday, it was revealed that Margot would star in Quentin Tarantino's forthcoming film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

On Tuesday, it was revealed that Margot would star in Quentin Tarantino's forthcoming film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

Speaking to IndiWire, the Australian beauty said it was one of her lifelong dreams to work with the highly acclaimed actor.

'Tarantino is one of my bucket-list directors,' she told the publication.

Taking her job seriously: 'I feel a responsibility with every character I play, whether they're fictional or real life,' said Margot to IndiWire on Tuesday

Margot acknowledged the importance of portraying the wife of infamous Polish director Roman Polanski, who was murdered at the hands of cult leader Charles Manson's followers.

'I feel a responsibility with every character I play, whether they're fictional or real life,' she continued.

'To play her right, play her truthfully, and kind of understand her emotional journey.'

And with the Academy Award nominated actress seemingly taking over Hollywood since bursting onto the scene in the 2013 Leonardo DiCaprio film Wolf Of Wall Street, the past few days has seen her take a well deserved rest.

'The last two weeks vacay have been a dream with these hunnies,' she captioned an Instagram post earlier in the week.She 'quietly' parted ways with David Jones last December after being an ambassador for the department store for years.

And Jesinta Campbell effortlessly avoided a possible awkward encounter with her successor Victoria Lee on Wednesday night, at the InStyle Women of Style Awards.

The blonde was overheard graciously telling the newcomer: 'I just wanted to clear the air and congratulate you on everything,'The Daily Telegraph reported.

That's a bit awkward! Jesinta Campbell bumps into her David Jones successor Victoria Lee at InStyle Awards after parting ways with department store... but graciously congratulates her

'If I can give you any tip of advice at anything please feel free,' she added.

Jesinta, who relinquished her role as ambassador with David Jones last year, explained at the time that she choose not to renew her contract with the high-end department store.

Taking the higher road: The blonde was overheard graciously telling the newcomer: 'I just wanted to clear the air and congratulate you on everything,' The Daily Telegraph reported

'They offered me a contract, we negotiated it, and we just couldn't agree on the terms, so we parted ways,' she told Confidential.

The statuesque beauty, who currently has contracts with Olay and Christian Dior, added: 'I was really honoured they wanted to continue the relationship, but I'm at a point in my life where I know what I want and I'm not afraid to ask for it.'

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald she said there were 'no hard feelings' between herself and the brand.

Runway ready: Victoria took over the role after Jesinta departed last December

'Absolutely not, there are no hard feelings whatsoever. I am extremely grateful for the incredible few years that I had with them,' she explained.

Meanwhile, Victoria has taken on the role with open arms, saying she was looking forward to following in the footsteps of previous David Jones ambassadors like Megan Gale and Miranda Kerr at the time of the takeover.

'They're such inspirational women that I've looked up to,' she gushed during an interview with The Daily Telegraph.Ryan Murphy's created some of TV's most popular shows, as the mind behind Glee, American Horror Story and more.

And now the showrunner is using his new series Pose to do something for the greater good.

The four-time Emmy winner, 52, announced that he would be donating 100% of profits from his new show Pose to LGBTQ charities who are doing 'amazing work and need our support.'

Generous gift: Ryan Murphy (above in April) announced that he would be donating 100% of profits from his new show Pose to LGBTQ charities who are doing 'amazing work and need our support' via Twitter on Wednesday

Murphy took to Twitter to make his announcement.

'I am donating 100 percent of my profits from my new FX show POSE towards trans and LGBTQ charitable organizations,'

'These groups do amazing work and need our support. Every day for the next 14 days I will highlight a group I'm supporting, and encourage you to do the same!'

He shined the spotlight on the Sylivia Rivera Law Project on his first day.

City that never sleeps! Pose tells intertwining tales about life in New York during the 80s, jumping between uptown yuppie decadence, the art and literature glitterati of lower Manhattan and the burgeoning ball scene of the outer boroughs

Historic: The FX show boasts the largest cast of transgender and LGBQ actors in all of television history. Above Indya Moore is pictured

'SRLP works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine gender identity and expression,' tweeted the Eat, Pray, Love director, 'Regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination or violence.'

He also directed followers to a link where they could donate to the non-profit themselves.

As a gay man, Murphy has long used his platform to embrace LGBTQ identity and shed light on issues concerning the queer community.

Doing great work: Murphy was also using his platform to 'highlight' the groups he'll be supporting, using day one to feature the Sylivia Rivera Law Project, which is a legal fund that 'works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine gender identity and expression'

Pose boasts the largest cast of transgender actors in all of TV history, telling a story about New York in the 80s that jumps between yuppie decadence, downtown glitterati and the burgeoning ball scene.

The series will include several Murphy ensemble regulars like Evan Peters and Kate Mara as well as James Van Der Beek and newcomers MJ Rodriguez, Indya Moore, Dominique Jackson, Hailie Sahar, Angelica Ross and more.

Pose is set to debut on Sunday June 3 on FX at 9He has battled to stay in the spotlight after leaving Married At First Sight with a series of bizarre beauty tutorials and public appearances.

And Nasser Sultan certainly took centre-stage on Wednesday night, as he celebrated his 51st birthday with a wild bash at The Crown in Melbourne.

The pint-sized personal trainer seemed to be in great spirits as he enthusiastically sucked his former MAFS co-star Carly Bowyer's finger - who later mounted her boyfriend Troy Delmege in a seriously amorously display.

Tasty treat: Married At First Sight's Nasser Sultan SUCKS Carly Bowyer's finger during his wild 51st birthday celebrations

Carly and Nasser showed off their close bond during the raucous night, with the pair puckering up for a mock-kiss on the lips as they snapped selfies.

Carly then wrapped her arms around Nasser and hooked her leg around his waist as they posed for photos away from the dinner table.

Nasser became more mischievous as the night wore on, and even danced on Carly's lap at one point.

The brunette beauty didn't restrict her affections for the birthday boy however, making sure to lavish her beau Troy with plenty of affection.

Get a room! Carly, 32, later mounted her boyfriend Troy Delmege, 35, in a seriously amorously display

No holding back! Nasser didn't seem to care who saw as he licked Carly's finger - as her boyfriend looked on dubiously

Pucker up: Carly and Nasser showed off their close bond during the raucous night, with the pair puckering up for a mock-kiss on the lips as they snapped selfies

She didn't seem to care who was watching, as she leaped into Troy's arms and wrapped her legs around him.

In their typically PDA-filled way, Troy then carried Carly out of the eatery with her on his back.

Nasser seemed to be anticipating a night of revelry ahead of the bash, as he shared a series of photos of himself getting ready.

Loving life: Carly then wrapped her arms around Nasser and hooked her leg around his waist as they posed for photos away from the dinner table

Just hanging out! The pair seemed closer than ever as they hugged at the venue entrance

Throwing some shapes: Nasser became more mischievous as the night wore on, and even danced on Carly's lap at one point

The reality star ran himself an indulgent bubble bath in preparation, and wrote on Instagram: 'Getting ready to party with the other MAFS family. Melbourne your a bit chilly.'

It has been around a month since Nasser was last pictured with his friend Eyob Geist, a 20-year-old male fashion student.

Images of the men's boozy lunch went viral in April, after an onlooker told NW magazine they appeared to be 'more than friends'.

Come here, you! Budding beauty blogger Nasser couldn't hide his affection as he planted an enthusiastic kiss on Carly's cheek

He's going in for the kill! Nasser leaned in to a smiling Carly for a friendly peck on the lips

Snap-happy stars: The duo seemed pleased with their photos, chuckling as they scrolled through them on Nasser's phone

In February, Nasser responded to gay rumours, after radio presenter Kyle Sandilands asked about his sexuality on the The Kyle and Jackie O Show.

'I am 110 per cent not gay,' he confirmed.

He later defended himself after his former Married at First Sight co-star Ryan Gallagher claimed he was 'not surprised' by rumours he was gay.

Packing on the PDA: The brunette beauty didn't restrict her affections for the birthday boy however, making sure to lavish her beau Troy with plenty of affection

Watch out! She didn't seem to care who was watching, as she leaped into Troy's arms and wrapped her legs around him

Wild night: In their typically PDA-filled way, Troy then carried Carly out of the eatery with her on his back

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, he said: 'Look, my sexuality is no-one's business. I will come out with my sexuality in my own time'.

Ryan also accused Nasser of setting up staged paparazzi photos - a charge which Nasser furiously denied.

'If Ryan thinks we're making money from photos... I thought we were great mates, I'm very disappointed,' Nasser told Daily Mail Australia.

'To bag me on national radio to other bogans saying, "He's setting up pap shots" - go f**k yourself, mate.'

Tonsil tennis: The couple, who have moved in together in Melbourne, shared a passionate smooch

Unlikely coupling: Despite being paired with their respective former flames on Married At First Sight season five, they found themselves falling in love with one another instead

Smitten: Carly and Troy have been inseparable since the show finished, with the lovebirds having no qualms about packing on the PDA and sharing it on social media

Meanwhile, Carly and Troy have been stealing headlines after striking up an unlikely romance - despite being paired with their respective former flames on Married At First Sight.

They have been inseparable since the show finished, with the lovebirds having no qualms about packing on the PDA and sharing it on social media.

The Married At First Sight lovebirds are embracing the early throes of passion with welcome arms and have even moved in together.

Cute couple: Proving they are going from strength to strength, the lovers recently jetted off for a romantic holiday in Bali

Cutting the cake: The couple excitedly took a piece of Nasser's chocolate birthday cake

Proving they are going from strength to strength, the lovers recently jetted off for a romantic holiday in Bali.

But before leaving Melbourne International Airport, the amorous couple shared a departure message for fans.

In the short clip, uploaded to Instagram Stories, the pair exclaimed how excited they were about their getaway, before Troy ended with a VERY inappropriate gaffe about tanning.

Aaaaannnnd... swing! Nasser swung his legs into the air as his former co-stars John McDonald and Mat Lockett carried him

Family shot! He also sandwiched himself between Patrick Miller and Troy for one particularly raucous shot

Loving reunion: Mat couldn't hide his affection for John, wrapping his arms around his side as they left the establishment

The goofy groom stated: 'Couldn't be more excited! Can't wait to get the tan on, get some heat on me after being in Melbourne for a few weeks.'

He then pointed at his ladylove before adding: 'I'm going to be dark, (but) she'll be darker, like an Aborigine!'

Carly quickly cut the clip and the video abruptly ended.

You big softie! Nasser showed love for all the guests at his birthday bash, including PatrickSofia Vergara is always a leading trendsetter in style, and things were no different in Beverly Hills on Wednesday.

Vergara, 45, was snapped in Beverly Hills wearing a white blouse with billowing sleeves and lace patterns along the neck and shoulders.

The Barranquilla, Colombia-born actress wore light ripped blue jeans with large swaths of shreds holes of the knees.

Scroll below for video

Beautiful: Sofia Vergara, 45, stunned in a Boho-chic ensemble in Beverly Hills on Wednesday

She carried a beige Chloe handbag baring the brand's stamped logo on its flap front, with a strap over the shoulder.

She wore her brown locks parted and down, wore dark-rimmed glasses and accessorized with dangling earrings with three white shapes apiece.

The celebrity, who plays Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on ABC's Modern Family, rounded things out with clear heels.

The mother-of-one - to son Manolo, 25 - was wearing the cute outfit when she stopped by the new gallery from photographer Matthias Vriens-McGrath.

Deep in thought: The Colombian beauty looked focused on something as she made her way down the street

Good time: Sofia stopped by the new gallery from photographer Matthias Vriens-McGrath

Glamorous: The couple, snapped in March at the Oscars, co-star in the upcoming drama Stano

Sofia, who's married to actor Joe Manganiello, took to Instagram with a shot posed next to Vriens-McGrath, as the Amsterdam-born artist was giving her a peck on the cheek in the adorable shot.

She wrote, 'Congrats [Matthias Vriens-McGrath] on your gallery store opening!! I love it!!!! Im comming back!!!' and added the hashtag, '#Iwanteverythingthathasshells.'

The Golden Globe-nominated performer has kept things local the past week, as she's been snapped sporadically in Beverly Hills over the past few days, including a sushi lunch with Manganiello on Saturday.

The couple appear onscreen together in the upcoming drama Stano, which is currently in post-production, according to iMDb.

The story is about a longtime convict being released from prison and returning to his hometown of the Bronx. It co-stars The Sopranos alums Michael Rispoli and Vincent Pastore.Troubled actor Matthew Newton has been seen with a greying beard as his history of domestic violence comes back to haunt him in the wake of the Eric Schneiderman scandal.

Matthew, 41, was seen in New York City last week looking unrecognisable as claims of physical abuse involving former New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman - father of Matthew's fiancee Catherine - made headlines.

Matthew and Catherine, 25, were engaged in 2016 and there have since been rumours of a split.

Blue day: Matthew Newton, 41, was seen in New York recently looking greyer as claims of physical abuse involving former New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman - father of Matthew's fiancee Catherine - made headlines

However, a source recently told Yahoo Be: 'The break-up was just gossip. I saw them in early January this year looking happy with wedding rings.

'She lives a short walk from his luxury apartment block.'

Matthew was arrested for the alleged physical assault of his former lover Brooke Satchwell in 2006.

Ring of truth: Matthew is reportedly engaged to Catherine Schneiderman, 25

The actor pleaded guilty to 'common assault' after prosecutors withdrew three more serious charges, including assault occasioning actual bodily harm and stalking and intimidating Brooke.

In 2010, Matthew's then-girlfriend Rachael Taylor filed an AVO against him, alleging physical, verbal and emotional abuse, and he entered Sydneys Northside West Private Clinic for treatment.

Just last month, Newton and Catherine Schneiderman were seen being affectionate despite reports of their split.

Prior engagement: Matthew with former fiancee Rachael Taylor in 2009

They were seen walking through rain together on their way to a veterinarian clinic to pick up one of their cats.

Later, Matthew was captured putting his arm across his partner's back as the duo hopped in a cab.

Matthew's violence past has come back to haunt him after the New Yorker released a damning expose in which four former girlfriends of newly resigned Attorney General Eric Schneiderman alleged the politician choked, hit and threatened them.

Former flame: Matthew with Brooke Satchwell, 37, at the TV Logie Awards in 2003

The 63-year-old responded to the allegations by admitting he 'engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity' but denied claims he ever assaulted another person or had 'nonconsensual sex'.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo appointed Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas to investigate the claims.

The Manhattan district attorney's office also announced it had opened a formal investigation.

Under fire: Four former girlfriends of the newly resigned Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, 63, have alleged the politician choked, hit and threatened them



The Voice 2012 champ Cassadee Pope hung out with All About that Bass hitmaker Meghan Trainor during the 13th Annual ASCAP 'I Create Music' Expo at the Loews Hollywood Hotel on Wednesday.

The Florida-born 28-year-old bared her midriff as she posed with the Massachusetts-born 24-year-old flaunting her cleavage in a pink-lacy bustier at the industry event.

The Grammy winner paired her teddy top with a matching maroon suede bomber and belted, high-waisted pants selected by her stylist Charlie Brianna.

Scroll down for video

Talented twosome: The Voice 2012 champ Cassadee Pope (L) hung out with All About that Bass hitmaker Meghan Trainor (R) during the 13th Annual ASCAP 'I Create Music' Expo at the Loews Hollywood Hotel on Wednesday

Hey girl! The Florida-born 28-year-old bared her midriff as she posed with the Massachusetts-born 24-year-old flaunting her cleavage in a pink-lacy bustier at the industry event

Hairstylist Dimitris Giannetos coiffed Meghan's blonde bob and make-up artist Alison Christian applied her lashes.

Trainor then hit the stage for 'Watch Them Do,' her ASCAP keynote conversation with songwriter J Kash.

The No Excuses songstress was promoting the release of Let You Be Right and Can't Dance, the second and third singles off her forthcoming third studio album this Thursday at 8AM EST.

The Smurfs actress next headlines the Channel 93.3 Summer Kick Off Concert this Friday at the Mattress Firm Amphitheatre in Chula Vista alongside The Chainsmokers, Miguel, and Iggy Azalea.

Boudoir inspired: The Grammy winner paired her teddy top with a matching maroon suede bomber and belted, high-waisted pants selected by her stylist Charlie Brianna

Ready for her close-up! Hairstylist Dimitris Giannetos coiffed Meghan's blonde bob and make-up artist Alison Christian applied her lashes

Q&A: Trainor then hit the stage for 'Watch Them Do,' her ASCAP keynote conversation with songwriter J Kash (L)

Dropping Thursday at 8AM EST! The No Excuses songstress will release Let You Be Right and Can't Dance, the second and third singles off her forthcoming third studio album

Meghan will also continue her role as judge on the 10-episode second season of music competition The Four: Battle for Stardom, which premieres June 7 on Fox.

Missing from Trainor's side Wednesday was her fiance of five months, Ben 10 actor Daryl Sabara, whom she began romancing in July 2016.

Meanwhile, Cassadee flashed her taut tummy in a black nineties T-shirt, stripe-sided black jeans and strappy peep-toe heels selected by her stylist Sophie Lopez.

The Grammy nominee wore her ombre bob in waves and wore full make-up for the songwriter conference.

'Packed house': The Smurfs actress next headlines the Channel 93.3 Summer Kick Off Concert this Friday at the Mattress Firm Amphitheatre in Chula Vista

Premieres June 7! Meghan will also continue her role as judge on the 10-episode second season of Fox music competition The Four: Battle for Stardom

Betrothed: Missing from Trainor's side Wednesday was her fiance of five months, Ben 10 actor Daryl Sabara, whom she began romancing in July 2016 (pictured April 17)

'First @ascap Expo is in the bag!' Pope gushed on Instagram.

'Loved getting to share stories and play some tunes for you guys.'

The Take You Home country crooner - who brought her guitar onstage - is next scheduled to perform June 7 at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville.

Speaking of Nashville, Cassadee recently confirmed her relationship with the actor who played Gunnar Scott in the ABC series - Sam Palladio - after being linked as far back as February.

Incorrect apostrophe: Cassadee flashed her taut tummy in a black nineties T-shirt, stripe-sided black jeans and strappy peep-toe heels selected by her stylist Sophie Lopez

Tattooed sleeve: The Grammy nominee wore her ombre bob in waves and wore full make-up for the songwriter conference

'Loved getting to share stories and play some tunes for you guys!' The Take You Home country crooner is next scheduled to perform June 7 at the Wildhorse Saloon in NashvilleShe ensationally quit her hosting role on Network Ten's daily breakfast show, Studio 10, just two weeks ago.

And Ita Buttrose appeared on Seven's The Morning Show on Wednesday to discuss the upcoming royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

The 76-year-old is believed to have been overlooked for Channel Ten's royal wedding coverage, a role that was instead awarded to Lisa Wilkinson and Angela Bishop.

Scroll down for video

'It's great you've finally made your way back to The Morning Show!' Ita Buttrose was welcomed to Seven by Larry Emdur to talk all things royal wedding this Wednesday... after the veteran journalist sensationally quit her role on rival Studio 10

Ita's decision to quit the show after five years could have been spurred by the fact that she missed out on being sent to London to cover the event despite her wealth of prior experience,The Daily Telegraph has previously speculated.

Meanwhile, Ita had the opportunity to talk all things royal wedding during her segment on Ten's rival program The Morning Show this week.

Ita used her time on the show to reflect upon her days covering the weddings of Prince Charles and Diana, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson and Prince William and Catherine.

'It's lovely to see you. We haven't seen you for a few years, we know you've been too busy to come and see us': Larry and Kylie gave Ita a warm welcome

Ita also discussed the highly-anticipated nuptials of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, telling hosts Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies the wedding would be 'less formal' and 'more people orientated'.

'They've invited about 2500 people, they call them ordinary people, to be in the grounds of the chapel. I think it will be different. A very informal affair,' she said.

Host Larry ended the chat: 'Ita, It's lovely to see you. We haven't seen you for a few years, we know you've been too busy to come and see us, but it's great you've finally made your way back to The Morning Show.'

Gone: The journalist and TV personality quit Network Ten's Studio 10 last month, only a few weeks after the departure of her co-star Jessica Rowe (far right)

'Not at all. Lovely to see you too,' Ita responded with a cheery smile.

Daily Mail Australia have reached out to Channel Ten for comment.

The journalist and TV personality quit Network Ten's Studio 10 last month, only a few weeks after co-star Jessica Rowe left.

Ita spent almost five years as a co-host on the program and said she would be leaving to concentrate on writing and to spend more time with family.

It comes after rumours of tension between the panel members, which flared last November when Denise allegedly threw a Brussels sprout at Ita while filming a Christmas-themed segment.

Ita later acknowledged the incident, telling the Kyle and Jackie O Show in February it was simply 'shenanigans on the set'.Her husband recently returned to his mountain top hideaway/recording studio to finish up his new albums.

And Kim Kardashian might be visiting Kanye West, 40, in Wyoming as she posted photos of an alpine landscape to her Instagram stories.

The 37-year-old socialite seemed to be missing her hubby during her recent trip to New York for the annual Met Gala.

Alpine beauty: Kim Kardashian might be visiting Kanye West, 40, in Wyoming as she posted photos of an alpine landscape to her Instagram stories

Kanye posted a photo of Kim in her Gala outfit on Tuesday, captioning it with with 25 flame emoji.

The television personality retweeted her man with the comment: 'Love you babe wish you were here with meeeeee but youre only finishing up 5 albums [laugh while crying flame laugh while crying, and heart emoji].'

And it seems like she may have hopped on the next available flight as it seems she has already reached the luxurious remote lodge.

See you soon: The 37-year-old socialite seemed to be missing her hubby during her recent trip to New York for the annual Met Gala

Windows to the world: it seems like she may have hopped on the next available flight as it seems she has already reached the luxurious remote lodge

To no one's surprise, it seems like the hundred-million-dollar bombshell is living it up wherever she is, as as she posted one picture looking out a multi-story window.

And added another photo of two creamy-looking, possibly coffee beverages to her Instagram account.

It was a quick change of scenery for Kim as on Tuesday morning she was still in New York detoxing from the Gala.

Coffee for two: To no one's surprise, it seems like the hundred-million-dollar bombshell is living it up wherever she is, as as she posted one picture looking out a multi-story window and another of two cups of coffee

Kanye is currently hard at work in Jackson Hole, Wyoming producing five albums including two of his own.

The Famous hitmaker will be producing five different albums featuring seven tracks released within a month including: Pusha-T's album on May 25, his solo album on June 2, his project with Kid Cudi titled Kids See Ghost on June 8, rap legend Nas' album on June 15, and Teyana Taylor's album on June 22.

Last week Kim joined Kanye in the Western US state after the rapper's controversial comments on slavery and Donald Trump.

Midas touch: Kim looked perfect as she was sewn into a skin-tight Versace dress, embellished with crucifixes as she walked the red carpet alone at Monday's Met Gala

'Kim happily joined Kanye in Jackson Hole. She wants to be supportive so he can finish his album,' a source told People last week. 'The album has caused Kanye a lot of stress. He is a perfectionist and wants the music to be amazing.'

Meanwhile Kim looked perfect as she was sewn into a skin-tight Versace dress, embellished with crucifixes as she walked the red carpet alone at Monday's Met Gala.

She had been sticking to a rigid cleanse in a bid to get her body looking just right for the social calendar's biggest party.Keith Urban has joked that Nicole Kidman fell pregnant with their daughter Sunday Rose after swimming in a 'fertility lake'.

The actress took the dip while filming Baz Luhrmann's epic blockbuster Australia in Kununurra, Western Australia.

He claimed Nicole and one other woman became pregnant after plunging into the waters.

Not just an Urban myth? Keith has claimed his wife Nicole Kidman fell PREGNANT with their daughter Sunday after swimming in a 'fertility' pool

'There was a story about how the water makes you pregnant there like from the lake or something,' Jackie 'O' Henderson said during his appearance on the Kyle and Jackie O show on Friday.

'Did Nicole fall pregnant from that?' she then asked outright.

'She did,' Keith answered. 'And there was another woman who did too. There was two of them. She just swam in it!'

Looking baffled, Kyle Sandilands asked incredulously: 'How much semen is in this lake?!'

Too much information? The actress took the dip while filming Baz Luhrmann's epic blockbuster Australia in Kununurra, Western Australia (pictured with Hugh Jackman)

As Jackie burst out laughing, Keith deadpanned: 'Tons.'

Nicole herself corroborated the story back in 2008, attributing her miracle pregnancy to a dip in a waterfall.

'I never thought that I would get pregnant and give birth to a child but it happened on this movie,' Nicole told The Australian Women's Weekly at the time.

'Seven babies were conceived out of this film and only one was a boy.

'There is something up there in the Kununurra water': Nicole herself corroborated the story back in 2008, attributing her miracle pregnancy to a dip in a waterfall (pictured with Keith in 2017)

Sweet family: She shares Sunday Rose, nine, and Faith, seven, with Keith - who she married in 2006

'There is something up there in the Kununurra water because we all went swimming in the waterfalls, so we can call it the fertility waters now.'

Nicole had problems conceiving with her former husband Tom Cruise and the pair ended up adopting two children - Bella and Connor.

She shares Sunday Rose, nine, and Faith, seven, with Keith - who she married in 2006.Bachelor In Paradise star Elora Murger, 27, has revealed her mother's secret battle with breast cancer.

Taking to Instagram on Thursday, the reality star penned a heartfelt message, revealing her 'whole world changed' when she discovered the horrible news from abroad.

Posting a snap from her mum's recent visit to Australia, the fitness trainer wrote: 'When I moved to Australia from Hawaii, mum was in Nice. She was the most supportive during this transition.'

'My whole world changed': Bachelor In Paradise star Elora Murger reveals her mother's secret battle with breast cancer

'Three months in, she appeared bald on my screen. She had been battling breast cancer for a while now, without telling anyone. My whole world changed.

'Appreciation for the person she is, her strength, and how selfless she is. She wasnt going to let her cancer affect her daughters lives.'

Joyfully confirming that her mother had overcome her battle, she added: 'And she kicked it in the but!!!'

Raw: Taking to Instagram on Thursday, the reality star penned a heartfelt message, revealing her 'whole world changed' when she discovered the horrible news from abroad

Elora went on to say: 'Every person has a different way of handling their battle. Lets make it easier for those fighting cancer.'

She then went on to promote an up and coming Bachelor In Paradise event, which is raising money for a cancer charity.

'Our Bachie family has experienced a lot with cancer. Now were giving back, so check out the link in my bio, and get your ticket to join the army in their battle against cancer. Come meet us, dance with us, ask for gos, and all this, for love,' she added.

The event will be held at Flamingo Lounge in Sydney on May 25, with tickets costing a whopping $145 per head.

Elora's heartfelt message follows the positive news that the star has found love after Paradise.

Debuting her 'exotic hunk, Italian stallion' on Instagram with a beachside snap earlier this week, the reality star gushed about finding 'true love' with boyfriend Salvatore Savarese.

Love is in the air: Debuting her 'exotic hunk' and 'Italian stallion' on Instagram with a beach-side snap earlier this week, the reality star gushed about finding 'true love' with boyfriend Salvatore Savarese

The picture sparked engagement rumours after the star flashed a gold ring at the forefront of the love-up snap.

One fan asked: 'Is that a Toni May engagement ring?'

While there's no confirmation of the ring's meaning, the brunette beauty gushed about finding 'true love' with her bearded beau, admitting: 'When you know, you know'.She rose to fame watching television from the comfort of her own sofa on Gogglebox.

And Scarlett Moffatt could be about to make the transition from the small screen to the silver one, after seemingly landing her first film role thanks to journalist, author and screenwriter Caitlin Moran.

The reality star, 27, was promised a cameo appearance in the big screen adaptation of Caitlin's popular novel How To Build A Girl.

First film role? Scarlett Moffatt could be about to make the transition from the small screen to the silver one, after seemingly landing her first film role thanks to journalist, author and screenwriter Caitlin Moran

It was revealed this week that Lady Bird star Beanie Feldstein has been confirmed for the lead role of Johanna Morrigan, who leaves her hometown to reinvent herself as Dolly Wilde, music critic and wild child.

Scarlett couldn't contain her excitement at the news that the film was being the green light.

The conversation started when Caitlin tweeted: Can FINALLY talk about this  what weve been working on for the last two years. SCREAMINGLY excited.

Scarlett replied: Omg omg OMG.

Popular: How To Build a girl is famed columnist Caitin's second novel, a semi-autobiographical tale of leaving Wolverhampton and escaping to London

Over the moon: Scarlett couldn't contain her excitement at the news that the film was being the green light

I KNOW RIGHT. You still want that cameo? GONNA WRITE YOU IN Caitlin commented.

To which Scarlett retorted: 'Omg yes yes yes!! Cant even contain my excitement xx'.

MailOnline has contacted Scarlett's representatives for comment.

How To Build a girl is famed columnist Caitin's second novel, a semi-autobiographical tale of leaving Wolverhampton and escaping to London in the early 90s to make it as a music journalist.

Rising star: It was revealed this week that Lady Bird star Beanie Feldstein has been confirmed for the lead role of Johanna Morrigan, who leaves her hometown to reinvent herself as Dolly Wilde, music critic and wild child

The film is being produced by Alison Owen and Debra Hayward for Monumental Pictures.

Alison Owen commented: 'We could not be more excited for Johanna Morrigan to burst onto the big screen. We searched high and low for a girl who could match the boundless wit, sparkle and big heart of Caitlins super-heroine and feel incredibly lucky to have found her in the effervescent Beanie Feldstein.'

Debra Hayward added: 'With Coky Giedroyc at the helm of Caitlins swashbuckling script, we are blessed to have a director who can deliver all this in spades.'She was 'discovered' by model Tyra Banks and invited to compete in the 21st cycle of America's Next Top Model.

But Winnie Harlow has said that the show 'didn't do anything' for her career - despite saying success immediately followed the 2014 competition.

The 23-year-old - who has unique skin condition Vitiligo - is now famous for global advertisements including Diesel and Desigual, fronting anti-bullying campaigns, as well as walking for major fashion houses like Julien Macdonald.

Biting the hand that feeds: Speaking on Watch What Happens Live this week, Winnie Harlow has dismissed America's Next Top Model for having nothing to do with her success

'I really started [my career] after the show,' Winnie told Andy Cohen on this week's Watch What Happens Live.

'Because that really didn't do anything for my career It doesn't do anything for any model's career, realistically.'

Winnie - the first and only Canadian ever cast - reached the second week of the ANTM final, against 14 other girls.

She voluntarily returned to the show to compete in the Comeback Series.

Top model: The brunette appeared on the modelling competition in 2014, reaching the second week of the final

Bitter: Winnie previously said that she felt 'stabbed in the back' by her elimination

On Tuesday night, she went on to explain how working with fashion photographer Nick Knight - after the programme aired - catapulted her career to new heights.

'A photographer from London hit me up and he was like, "Hey, I've seen your photos online, and I want to do a shoot with you."'

Knight emailed Winnie after ANTM aired to offer her a shoot in London and she now considers this her first 'big gig' as a model.

Nevertheless, ANTM host Tyra Banks is regularly credited with first 'discovering' the model on social media.

Guests: Winnie was talking about her career when she insisted that her career began after she was contacted by Nick Knight

Letting it out: On Tuesday night, Winnie shared the sofa with Brad Goreski (right)

'The moment I laid eyes on [Winnie], I wanted her on ANTM,' Tyra once said.

'Her beauty is undeniable and her skin breaks down barriers of what is considered beautiful.'

Prior to the reality show, Winnie was featured in a music video for YouTube personality Shannon Boodram, though it's understood that she had no modelling portfolio, aside from her prominence on social media.

The Guardian previously reported that Winnie had been rejected by every modelling agency in her native Toronto before getting the call from Tyra, which prompted her to leave school and board a plane to Los Angeles.

Big career: She has gone on to star in major fashion campaigns and walk on the runway for the likes of Tommy Hilfiger

Fashion industry player: Winnie was one of the guests at this week's Met Gala in NYC

In the past, Winnie has also admitted that she was the one who initiated their first engagement on social media.

Winnie told CNN Style in 2016: 'When ANTM was casting for the new season I asked all my fans online to tag Tyra Banks so she could see my photos -- and they did!

'My little sister started a Facebook page for me and one of the producers from the show sent a message showing interest.

Wanna be on top? Tyra Banks (second left, with the latest ANTM panel in 2018) is widely credited with 'discovering' Winnie

'Initially I didn't believe it but I followed through and ended up being on the show for season 21. After Tyra gave me that opportunity it was my time.'

Despite Winnie's dismissals of the show, Tyra has remained faithful to her former protegee, saying that she felt 'proud' when Winnie covered Elle's February 2017 issue.

Winnie has also said that she wouldn't do ANTM again, because the elimination from ANTM left her feeling 'stabbed in the back.'

and she told the publication: 'People ask me: Would you do it again? No. I want to be a model, not a reality star.'She is currently in the midst of filming the second season of Big Little Lies.

But Reese Witherspoon took a break from filming the hit series to run some errands in Brentwood, California.

The Academy Award winner, 42, cut a casual chic figure as she worked her off-duty style in a gingham print shirt dress and a personalised red bag.

Off-duty style: Reese Witherspoon took a break from filming the hit series to run some errands in Brentwood, California, brandishing a personalised red bag

Gingham glamour: The Academy Award winner, 42, cut a casual chic figure as she worked her off-duty style in a gingham print shirt dress, which was clinched around her waist

The A Wrinkle In Time star flashed her gym-honed legs, which appeared sun-kissed from the California sunshine, as she strode through Brentwood.

Reese's heavily accessorised look was given a bold lift with a pair of cherry red wedged heels, adding a pop of colour to her outfit.

In keeping with the red theme, Reese sported not one, but two handbags while carrying out her tasks.

Chic: The A Wrinkle in Time star flashed her gym-honed legs, which appeared sun-kissed from the California sunshine, as she strode through Brentwood

One of the bags, which Reese held in her manicured hand, was embossed with her name across the front in bold white lettering, and featured a studded edge.

Adding a touch of glitz to her day-time look, Reese wore a delicate gold necklace and a chunky watch and bracelets in the same tone.

It was confirmed that Meryl Street will join the cast of her show as a new character and she was recently spotted on set.

The Oscar-winning actress, 68, will join the star-studded line-up for series two as Mary Louise Wright, the mother of the late Perry (Alexander Skarsgard).

Legally Blonde: Reese's heavily accessorised look was given a bold lift with a pair of cherry red wedged heels, adding a pop of colour to her outfit

The It's Complicated star's character arrives in Monterey, California, looking for answers surrounding the mystery of her son's death.

According to Deadline, the second series will explore Bonnie's guilt as she struggles with murdering Perry after the Audrey Hepburn or Elvis Presley-themed trivia night.

While few details are known about the second series, Big Little Lies promises more lies that threaten to destroy friendships and marriages as well as parenting.

The series followed the seemingly perfect lives of school mums Madeline, Celeste, Jane (Shailene Woodley) and Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz) in the lead up to the murder.

Two for one: In keeping with the red theme, Reese sported not one, but two handbags while carrying out her tasks

The official log reads: 'The subversive, darkly comedic drama Big Little Lies will explore the malignancy of lies, the durability of friendships, the fragility of marriage and, of course, the vicious ferocity of sound parenting.

'Relationships will fray, loyalties will erode...the potential for emotional and bodily injury shall loom.'

Production on season two of Big Little Lies has been underway since March 2018 and the actors got to work on shooting scenes in the spring.She frequently wows fans with her sensational physique on social media.

And it seems Sam and Billie Faiers' 48-year-old mum Sue not only stuns on social media, she also puts on a show-stopping display while hitting the pool as a hilarious clip shared on Instagram showed she had gained some admirers in Portugal.

Taking to social media, Sam shared a Boomerang clip of her mum pushing a double pushchair with her son Paul Tony, two, and Billie's one-year-old son Arthur, while two poolside dwellers checked her out on the sidelines.

After Sam's reality show The Baby Diaries returned for a second season, the programme was remodelled as The Mummy Diaries with a much more prominent role from Billie, her fiance Greg Shepherd and also Sue and their stepdad Dave.

The family have now jetted on holiday with their beloved mum and have been littering their social media accounts with bikini snaps of both themselves and Sue.

The latest in the string of social media activity is the video of Sue and her age-defying physique as she continues on her granny duties.

While her body was certainly show-stopping, fans were particularly tickled by the men in the background of the shot who looked upon her in admiration.

Hot stuff! It seems Sam and Billie Faiers' 48-year-old mum Sue not only stuns on social media, she also puts on a show-stopping display while hitting the pool as a hilarious clip shared on Instagram showed she had gained some admirers in Portugal

Taking to the comments, users penned: 'Look at the guys behind checking her out!!!!... The guys in the background checking out Nanny!!...

'Dying at the guys in the background what a #milf... The two men in the background checking her out is brilliant hot mumma... Love the men in the back ground watching... The 2 men in the background reallyyy guys...

'Look at the men checking her out haha... The beer drinking flamingo in the back ground having a good look... So funny, no wonder those blokes are checking her out!... Look at the guys checking her out shes a babe though hope i look that at her age Go Nanny...

Hello there! Taking to social media, Sam shared a Boomerang clip of her mum pushing a double pushchair with her son Paul Tony, two, and Billie's one-year-old son Arthur, while two poolside dwellers checked her out on the sidelines

'She's so gorgeous and check the guys out behind her checking her out... Look at those guys in the pool leching over her... Ha look at the 2 guys in the background having a good old look lol x... Look at the 2 men behind totally checking her out...

'look at those guys checking her out... The blokes in the back checking her out Hot Nanny .. slaying... Look at the guys watching her aswell whoop whoop go on Suzie still killing it... Those guys checking your mum out haha..

'I hope I look like that when Im at that age. She looks amazing x... Wow such an amazing figure does your mum work out @samanthafaiers... I need your mum she is amazing xx... She does look amazing!... Your mum looks incredable! X'.She's currently giving fans an intimate insight into her life as a single mother with her baby daughter Sunday on her reality show, First Time Mum.

And Ferne McCann made sure she played the part of yummy mummy as she set pulses racing in a sultry throwback snap she shared on her Instagram on Thursday.

The former TOWIE star, 27, took to one of her separate social media accounts, which is used to promote nutrition company Herbalife, as she showed off her incredible figure in a tiny red and diamante embellished bikini.

Wow!: Ferne McCann, 27, made sure she played the part of yummy mummy as she set pulses racing in a sultry throwback snap she shared on her Instagram on Thursday

She revealed in the caption that it was taken during her holiday in Tenerife with former co-star, Danielle Armstrong, last month and that she is 'body confident' thanks to her new clean and healthy lifestyle.

In the photograph, Ferne flaunted her toned abs in a red bikini top with diamond detailing on it, with matching bottoms.

The reality star styled her long blonde locks into a loose tousled hairdo, swept to one side.

Doting mum: She's currently giving fans an intimate insight into her life as a single mum with her baby daughter Sunday on her reality show, First Time Mum

She made sure she was camera ready as she added a slick of make-up to complete her entire sunkissed ensemble.

Ferne knew how to work her best angles as she posed up a storm on the sun lounger and flaunted her sensational figure.

The throwback photo comes after viewers were left gushing over the mother-of-one's friendship with former TOWIE co-star James Argent.

On Wednesday's episode of First Time Mum, he made an appearance and coaxed Ferne to book herself onto a flight to Marbella to come and watch him singing in a bar.

Pal goals: Ferne and pal James Argent had viewers gushing over their bond on Twitter, as they watched the latest edition of her ITVBe show

A nervous Ferne was aware, booking the flights, that it was six-month-old daughter Sunday's first ever holiday - yet doting Arg was sure to reassure her all would be fine.

And the pair had viewers gushing over their bond on Twitter, as they watched the latest edition of First Time Mum.

One fan wrote: 'I really think that @fernemccann and @RealJamesArgent are a dream team! So funny together and Arg loves Sunday so much!'

'Fern and Arg have a beautiful friendship! Sunday is a very lucky girl!' another person posted, gushingly.

Doting friend: The TOWIE star took to his Twitter and Instagram pages as the episode aired to share a snap he took of the three of them when they were on the plane

On Twitter, one fan wrote: 'I really think that @fernemccann and @RealJamesArgent are a dream team! So funny together and Arg loves Sunday so much'

'How surprised I am to see how good Arg is with #fernemccann wee one, very cute!' came a third post.

Another echoed: 'Loving watching James with Sunday on her first holiday. Arg is so good with Sunday!'

When it came to the pair catching their flight to Spain, things were a little more tense for viewers.

'Arg would stress the life out of me I hate leaving things to last minute stresses me right out. What a lovely friendship they have tho!' one person posted.

Laughs: 'Fern and Arg have a beautiful friendship! Sunday is a very lucky girl!' another person posted, gushingly

He's a natural: 'How surprised I am to see how good Arg is with #fernemccann wee one, very cute!' came a third post

'Watching Ferne and Arg nearly missing their flight has my anxiety high!' someone else typed.

The flight fiasco took place when Arg inexplicably didn't answer Ferne's phone calls the night before their trip and turned up to their 5AM taxi by the skin of his teeth.

Arriving late to the airport, the trio were told boarding had closed for the flight, but Arg promised the check-in clerk that he'd get him a signed copy of Gemma Collins' autobiography if he let them on the plane and this seemed to do the trick.

Flight fiasco: The pair nearly missed their plane when Arg inexplicably didn't answer Ferne's phone calls the night before their trip and turned up to their 5AM taxi by the skin of his teeth

Bribes: Arriving late to the airport, the trio were told boarding had closed for the flight. But Arg promised the check-in clerk that he'd get him a signed copy of Gemma Collins' autobiography if he let them on the plane

Ferne was also seen getting teary when she took Sunday on an evening out, once in Spain, to watch Arg sing.

The 27-year-old admitted that her daughter wasn't enjoying their night out, as her pal put on a show downstairs.

Sunday was seen snuggled against Ferne with a pair of sound-cancelling headphones on as the mother/daughter sat isolated from the rest of the group.

Cute: Later in the scene, once Sunday had settled, Arg pulled Ferne up on stage and dedicated a rendition of My Girl to the mum and baby

Reflecting on the moment, Ferne said: 'Sunday is not loving this at all, the noise is all a bit overwhelming.

'I feel so bad - I feel like I might just have to take her home.'

Ferne became visibly frustrated and tearful.

She continued: 'Times like this it helps if Gill's (her mother) here, or, this is where I get angry and wish that I had a partner. I don't know why I'm crying - it's pathetic.'

Frustrated: Ferne, who has previously been praised for her relatability, offered viewers a glimpse at the struggles of being a single mum in this weeks episode of her show

Struggling: Ferne fought back tears as she cradled her daughter Sunday during an evening out, where she confessed she misses having a partner

Later in the scene, once Sunday had settled, Arg pulled Ferne up on stage and dedicated a rendition of My Girl to the mum and baby.

This also had viewers welling up at home, one posted to Twitter: 'Arg has me in tears every time!'

The TOWIE star took to his Twitter and Instagram pages as the episode aired to share a snap he took of the three of them when they were on the plane.

He captioned sweetly them 'Love these 2 girls in my life! So amazing to be part of Sundays 1st holiday!' and 'So much love for these 2 girls in my life It was amazing & so special to be part of Sundays 1st holiday! Im so proud of you!'He became a father for the first time when wife Portia gave birth this January.

And Ore Oduba got emotional as he spoke about fatherhood on Lorraine on Thursday morning, admitting that he initially struggled to bond with his child.

The former Strictly Come Dancing star got teary-eyed as he talked about his first feed with son Roman, before praising his wife for being an 'incredible mother'.

High praise: An emotional Ore Oduba returned to Lorraine to speak about first-time fatherhood on Thursday

'I'm so lucky to have Portia because she is the most incredible mother, almost immediately that [maternal] instinct kicked in. As a dad you're there as a support.

He added: 'We tried for weeks to get him to take the bottle [after breastfeeding]. The first time he took the bottle and looked at me, it was like he looked at me for the first time. I was torn up. I'm going to be tearing up at everything he does.'

Ore's eyes filled with tears during a clip from his Instagram account in which he shares his feelings after feeding his son for the first time.

Precious: He has praised his wife Portia for being 'incredible' at motherhood

Proud: Ore got tearful when he was shown a video of the first moment he fed his own son

Ore and his wife declared it 'the best day in our tiny family's lives' when Roman arrived in January.

The couple announced that they were expecting in August last year and he warned of tears from the off.

'Not sure what I did to deserve this one,' he wrote in an Instagram post. 'My best friend, the most amazing wife and soon to be the most amazing mum.

So happy: Ore admitted that he had initially struggled to bond with his child as a father

'Been a pretty life-changing last 12 months, now [Portia] and I are preparing for our biggest adventure yet! Can't hide our excitement anymore.

'Starting a family has always been our dream. And no prizes for guessing.. THERE. WILL. BE. TEARS!!!!'

Afterwards, the couple captured the moment that Portia had taken the pregnancy test.

Explaining their elation, Ore later told The Mirror: 'We'd just come back from Spain and Portia was feeling a bit weird. I nipped home for half an hour between meetings.

Our tiny family: Ore and Portia welcomed Roman in January, saying it was 'the best day in our tiny family's lives'

'As soon as I opened the door Portia dived in to our bedroom and came out to show me the stick test which said 'pregnant',' he revealed to us.

'I fell about crying. I sobbed and said, "How am I supposed to get on with the rest of my day?" There'll be a river of emotion the moment our baby is born.'

Ore will return to screens to present the live BBC One coverage of the royal wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle next weekend.

Inevitably, he has also predicted that he will be emotional: 'There's a good chance that might happen too [more crying]. There's a moat around Windsor Castle that might need filling!'

Delighted: The dancer has been very emotional throughout the experience



She's no stranger to dazzling on camera and at high-profile events.

And Selma Blair put on a sophisticated display as she attended the AERIN SS18 Collection dinner at West Hollywood's Sunset Tower Hotel on Wednesday evening.

The screen star, 45, exuded elegance in a sparkling golden dress, as she was joined by Nocturnal Animals' Isla Fisher, who also cut a stylish figure at the star-studded event.

All eyes on her: Selma Blair put on a sophisticated display as she attended the AERIN SS18 Collection dinner at West Hollywood's Sunset Tower Hotel on Wednesday evening

The Hellboy actress accentuated her incredibly toned frame into the metallic frock, which featured a plunging neckline and a waterfall hemline.

Showcasing her trendy style, the Purple Violets star toted a flashy clutch handbag, embellished with multi-coloured swirl patterns throughout.

The blonde beauty dressed her ombre locks into a curly updo, while opting for glamorous gold-toned makeup.

Dazzling: The screen star, 45, exuded elegance in a sparkling golden dress, as she was joined by Nocturnal Animals' Isla Fisher, who also cut a stylish figure at the star-studded event (pictured with Sara Foster)

Selma upped the ante in the accessory department as she wore an oversized ring and dainty dangle earrings, while adding to her height in strappy heels.

Isla, 42, maintained her demure fashion sense as she was clad in a stripped blue blouse, designed with elaborate puff sleeves.

The Tag actress tied in her striking outfit with a pair of sleek white skinny jeans, while enhancing her petite frame in cobalt blue stilettos.

Dazzling: The Hellboy actress accentuated her incredibly toned frame into the metallic frock, which featured a plunging neckline and a waterfall hemline

Stunning: Showcasing her trendy style, the Purple Violets star toted a flashy clutch handbag, embellished with multi-coloured swirl patterns throughout

Striking: The blonde beauty dressed her ombre locks into a curly updo, while opting for glamorous gold-toned makeup

Ensuring her naturally radiant features were on full display, the mother-of-three wore minimal make-up, and styled her tresses into loose waves.

Selma balances a busy schedule made up of riding horses and her acting career as well as mummy duties to her son.

The mother-of-one has a stellar acting career ever since she made her screen debut in 1995 on the television series The Adventures of Pete & Pete.

Fashion's finest: Aerin Lauder (left) and Rachel Zoe (right) cut typically trendy figures as they graced the event in fashionable suits

Effortlessly chic: Jewellery designer Jennifer Meyer went casually cool in a red blouse and grey wash jeans

Stunners: Fashion designer Dallas Wand (left) slipped into a silky blue dress, while Tori Praver (right) stunned in a sizzling crop top

The screen star has candidly discussed the difficulties she previously faced while juggling her career duties with being a single mother to her son.

She told US weekly in November last year: 'I did not have a support system. I was an older, tired, single mom. I shut myself off from everyone, and it wasnt until I accepted some help that I could just flourish as a mom.'

Meanwhile, Isla recently lifted the lid on her marriage to funnyman Sacha Baron Cohen, 46, and recalled the hilarious moment she was forced to sneak in his Ali G costume under her ballgown during the 88th Academy Awards in 2016.

The Australian beauty, who has been married to the actor since 2010, revealed how she showcased her stealth after the Oscars banned Sacha from presenting Best Picture Nominees as his renowned character in the midst of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy.

Blonde beauties: Alexandra Von Furstenberg (left) stood out from the crowd in a animal print maxi skirt, while Erin Foster opted for a striped jumper and green straight-leg trousers

Opening up about fearfully carrying the contraband into event, Isla proclaimed to The Times: 'Im not a rule-breaker. Im a people-pleaser.'

'I had to stash them on my person in a ballgown. It was so nerve-wracking. Security at the Oscars is like the airport.'

The flame-haired beauty hilariously recalled Jennifer Garner nearly catching them in the act of putting on his Ali G costume, which took nearly 40 minutes to put together, while in the bathroom.

Adding: 'I had to put on the glue while Jennifer Garner is knocking on the door saying Are you coming out? She was clearly dying to go for a pee.'

Flower power: Allison de Neufville cut an elegant figure in a floral dress with white block heelsShe recently returned from a romantic getaway with her beau Joshua Ritchie.

And it appeared Charlotte Crosby was in still in holiday mode as she stepped out on Wednesday night looking bleary-eyed leaving London hotspot Libertine.

The 27-year-old reality star looked a little worse for wear as she appeared from the venue in thigh-skimming cream skirt and clutching onto her mobile phone.

Bleary-eyed: Charlotte Crosby was in still in holiday mode as she stepped out on Wednesday night looking bleary-eyed leaving London hotspot Libertine

The former Geordie Shore star's tiny mini skirt featured eye-catching ethnic detailing around the waistband which accentuated her taut waist.

While showcasing her pins, Charlotte teamed the look with a khaki-coloured vest top which accentuated her surgically enhanced cleavage, displaying little appetite to keep her revelry going.

The MTV darling, who appeared to overindulge during the fun-filled night, added inches to her height as she shuffled along in her Valentino Rockstud heels.

Worse for wear: The 27-year-old reality star looked a little worse for wear as she appeared from the venue in thigh-skimming cream skirt and clutching onto her mobile phone

Simply the breast: While showcasing her pins, Charlotte teamed the look with a khaki-coloured vest top which accentuated her surgically enhanced cleavage, displaying little appetite to keep her revelry going

Boasting a golden glow from her recent luxurious breaks, Charlotte left her dark tresses in a long sleek style which cascaded down her shoulders while she left the venue with her pals.

Her bleary-eyed appearance comes following her short trip to Barcelona and also her lavish Maldives getaway with her beau Josh, who was noticeably absent from her late night.

The brunette beauty took to social media to post a slew of loved-up snaps from the holiday as well as gushing about how the break away from her hectic celebrity lifestyle did her the world of good.

Stepping out: The former Geordie Shore star's tiny mini skirt featured eye-catching ethnic detailing around the waistband which accentuated her taut waist

Mane attraction: Boasting a golden glow from her recent luxurious breaks, Charlotte left her dark tresses in a long sleek style which cascaded down her shoulders while she left the venue with her pals

Walk this way: The MTV darling, who appeared to overindulge during the fun-filled night, added inches to her height as she shuffled along in her Valentino Rockstud heels

'After a long hard three months of what felt like working every hour of the day, I'm on my way to absolute paradise,' she penned on her Instagram stories ahead of her trip.

During their break, the latest episode of her reality programme The Charlotte Show aired on MTV, with typically shocking scenes in place.

Charlotte, who described her beau as a 'big d**ked beast', was seen getting angry over his on-screen antics, shortly before running around on camera while sporting no underwear and baring her entire derriere.

Charlotte has been dating Josh since late last year, following the demise of her romance with Stephen Bear, and the couple are as enamoured as ever.

Breakaway: Her bleary-eyed appearance comes following her short trip to Barcelona and also her lavish Maldives getaway with her beau Josh, who was noticeably absent from her late night

Document: The brunette beauty took to social media to post a slew of loved-up snaps from the holiday as well as gushing about how the break away from her hectic celebrity lifestyle did her the world of good

Atop soaring to fame in 2015 on Love Island, Josh went on to star on Ex On The Beach the following year - where he naturally got up close with co-stars.

Painstakingly taunting herself, Charlotte made the upsetting decision to look up her beau online, after her best friend Mel Wharton said: 'Charlotte have you ever Googled Josh? I didnt like him on Love Island you know.'

Reality star worlds collided when they made their romance official in February as they shared a cosy Instagram together with the date '9.2.2018.' (sic)She recently slammed Chris Hughes dating claims.

Yet Georgia May Foote was putting the drama behind her as she soaked up the sun on her lavish holiday to Mykonos, during which she slipped into a racy thong bikini and stood for an impromptu shoot with her holiday pal.

While Georgia enjoyed her sunny break with a male pal, just days before jetting off she vehemently denied claims she was dating Love Island hunk Chris.

Hot stuff: Georgia May Foote was putting the drama behind her as she soaked up the sun on her lavish holiday to Mykonos, during which she slipped into a racy thong bikini and stood for an impromptu shoot with her holiday pal

Georgia has been flaunting her figure throughout her trip, both on social media and during stunning breaks by the pool.

She wore her brunette tresses in beachy waves flowing over her shoulders while upping the glam with a pair of silver hoop earrings.

Making the most of the sun-drenched settings, she was seen frolicking on a pink inflatable, during which she tied her hair up in a bun to keep it out of the water.

The high-rise bottoms of her bikini helped truly display her curves to perfection, while she preened and posed to best display her figure.

Peachy! While Georgia enjoyed her sunny break with a male pal, just days before jetting off she vehemently denied claims she was dating Love Island hunk Chris

This is the life! Georgia certainly looked to be living the life of luxury by the pool

Sizzling: The fringe detailing helped draw the eye to her perky posterior and slender hips

Proving she was truly in holiday mode, she had a beer bottle sitting alongside her as she relaxed with her pal in the stunning setting.

When questioned about the rumours on Comedy Central's The Chris Ramsay Show, the Strictly Come Dancing star's discomfort was paramount, telling Chris 'I hate you' before adding that 'nothing' happened between the two.

Following further probing, Georgia coyly confessed that her and Chris 'met up,' adding that the reality TV star was 'a nice guy.'

Woah! The high-rise bottoms of her bikini helped truly display her curves to perfection, while she preened and posed to best display her figure

Be careful: She seemed to fall into the water at one point before mounting the flamenco once more

Getting that perfect shot! Georgia was smouldering into the camera as she posed up a storm

Chilled out! As she lay on the inflatable, she showed off her taut abs to perfection

Legs eleven: As she strutted by, she showed off her endless legs and taut abs

However Chris appeared to have his own side to the story, slamming Georgia's denial during an appearance on BBC Radio 5 Live.

He said: 'She's entitled to say what she wants but I'm an honest person. I don't get it  there's nothing wrong with going on dates with people.

'I don't understand why it's an issue to go on a date with someone then admit you've gone on a date with someone. If you don't want to admit it, don't go on a date with someone.'

Hot stuff: Georgia has been flaunting her figure throughout her trip, both on social media and during stunning breaks by the pool

Peachy! Georgia's pal was on hand to take snaps of the star for her thousands on Instagram followers to see

Floating away: She showed off her eye-popping bust in the sexy black bikiniThe 71st Cannes Film Festival kicked off in style on Wednesday night.

And Kendall Jenner and fellow model Hailey Baldwin were seen making a late arrival to the celebrations, landing at Nice airport in the south of France on Thursday morning.

The reality star, 22, and her 21-year-old pal cut casual figures as they jetted in for the festival, sporting low-key looks.

Late arrivals: Kendall Jenner (pictured) and fellow model Hailey Baldwin were seen making a late arrival to the celebrations, landing at Nice airport in the south of France on Thursday

Check them out: The reality star, 22, and her 21-year-old pal cut casual figures as they jetted in for the festival, sporting low-key looks

Kendall showed off her svelte figure in taupe leisurewear, highlighting her physique in bodycon leggings and a backless top.

She pulled her look together with a pair of snakeskin print boots and stylish shades, wearing her hair in a bun.

Her casual and comfy attire was perfect for her long-haul flight, with the model looking a little tired as she headed off in a taxi.

Hailey kept a low profile upon arrival, attempting to hid her face behind a sweater.

Daring to bare: Kendall showed off her svelte figure in taupe leisurewear, highlighting her physique in bodycon leggings and a backless top

Best foot forward: She pulled her look together with a pair of snakeskin print boots and stylish shades, wearing her hair in a bun

The star embraced a 90s look in a denim jacket and red tweed trousers, complete with chunky sneakers.

Hailey wore her pink-tinted hair up in a high bun, fasted with a blue scrunchie.

This year's line-up includes a number of prominent members of the Time's Up movement, including jury president Cate Blanchett.

Also on the jury that will decide this year's Palme d'Or top prize are Ava DuVernay and Lea Seydoux, who says disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein had made unwelcome advances on her.

Busy: Her casual and comfy attire was perfect for her long-haul flight, with the model looking a little tired as she headed off in a taxi

Shady lady: Kendall set off her look with a pair of small yet stylish sunglasses

Entourage: The star was joined by a number of security guards for her travels

Burundian songwriter Khadja Nin, Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev, Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, French director Robert Guediguian and Chinese actor Chang Chen complete the line-up.

The shadow of Weinstein is looming over this year's Cannes. For two decades, Weinstein had been an omnipresent figure at the festival, where several of his alleged sex crimes took place.

This year, Cannes has established a hotline for sexual harassment victims at the festival.

Thierry Fremaux, the festival's director, has said the Weinstein revelations came as a shock to Cannes, forcing the festival to examine its own practices and do more to improve gender equality.

Casual: Hailey kept a low profile upon arrival, attempting to hid her face behind a sweater

Stylish: The star embraced a 90s look in a denim jacket and red tweed trousers, complete with chunky sneakers

Understated: Hailey wore her pink-tinted hair up in a high bun, fasted with a blue scrunchie

'What emerged in Cannes must be fought in Cannes', Marlene Schiappa, France's secretary of state in charge of gender equality, told French television on Tuesday.

Over the next two weeks, the jury will watch the 21 films competing for the Palme, including new releases from Spike Lee, Pawel Pawlikowski and Jean-Luc Godard. Three of the 21 films are directed by women: Nadine Labaki, Eva Husson and Alice Rohrwacher.

Cannes has come under criticism for years for not selecting more women directors. Only one female filmmaker, Jane Campion, has won the Palme.

Controversy has characterized much of the lead-up to this year's festival.

Popular: The fashionista was mobbed by a crowd of fans at the airport

Feeling shy? Hailey hid her face behind a white hooded sweater upon arrival

The festival is opening with the premiere of Asghar Farhadi's Everybody Knows, starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, but much of the drama at this year's festival is off screen.

After two Netflix films played in competition as last year's Cannes festival - prompting protests from French exhibitors - the Cannes board of directors ruled that a film in competition at Cannes must have French distribution.

French law prevents a film that plays in theaters to appear on streaming services for three years.

Faced with only showing its films out of competition, Netflix withdrew its films from Cannes. Several Netflix titles, including Alfonso Cuaron's Roma and the recently completed Orson Welles film"The Other Side of the Wind, had been expected to premiere this year.

Casual: Sara Sampaio was also spotted arriving at Nice airport alongside the girls wearing a Gymshark hoodie and leggings

Leisurewear: The Victoria's Secret stunner opted for grey co-ords, prioritising comfort

Sporty: Sara set off her look with a pair of white lace-up trainers

Since then, both sides have expressed some regret over their disagreement.

Also likely absent from the festival will be two filmmakers living under house arrest in their home countries.

The festival has asked that exceptions be made so that Russian theatre and film director Kirill Serebrennikov and Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi can attend the premieres of their films, but that appears unlikely.

In the festival's Un Certain Regard section is Rifiki, a lesbian romance from Kenya that has already been banned at home.

But Danish provocateur filmmaker Lars von Trier will return to Cannes seven years after being declared 'persona non grata' for joking about being a Nazi and having sympathy for Hitler.

His film The House That Jack Built stars Matt Dillon and Uma Thurman.

Also making a return to Cannes is Star Wars with The Han Solo spinoff Solo: A Star Wars Story, set for an international premiere on May 15.

Not travelling light! The brunette beauty was carting a towering trolley of suitcases

Mobbed: Sara was surrounded by fans as she left Nice airport

Stepping out: Model Thylane Blondeau was seen trolling along in an edgy, all-black outfit

Putting in appearance: Jean-Bernand Fernandez-Versisni was also spotted in CannesHer ex-boyfriend just wrote a melancholy letter about how he's dealing with their split.

But Fae Williams looked like she was getting over Professor Green in a much more happy fashion, as she took herself off to Ibiza, Spain with a gaggle of gal pals.

Gorgeous Fae is currently enjoying a sunny girls' trip with Made In Chelsea star Jess Woodley and model friend Charlie Barker, days after the separation was confirmed.

Hitting the beach: Professor Green's ex-girlfriend Fae Williams showcased her model figure on the beach on Thursday, as she jetted off to Ibiza with unlikely pal Jess Woodley

She was pictured on a glorious beach day, during which the trio frolicked by the water, taking pictures of one another.

Model Fae showcased her natural beauty during a make-up free afternoon on the sand, looked effortless with her hair swept up into a bun on her head.

She looked lithe in plain black bikini, which featured a minimal triangle design and tied on her hips.

Beach babes: Fae took pictures of Jess and pal Charlie Baker as they enjoyed a girls' trip

Taking her mind off things: Fae went make-up free by the sea, exhibiting her natural beauty

Touch of yoga: The blonde stretched herself out on a towel, fully intending to stay all day

Relax and unwind: Fae looked like she was getting over Professor Green in a much more happy fashion

Unlikely pal Jess was looking typically flamboyant in a festival-style feathered jacket, in a rainbow of neon colours.

She draped the jacket over her shoulders in a criss-cross bikini that showcased her petite, toned figure.

Jess exhibited a golden tan from a few days away with the models.

The former reality star is a surprisingly connection for Fae, whose now ex-boyfriend has been trying to shirk his association with ex-wife and Made In Chelsea alum Millie Mackintosh.

Blonde beauties: The model has been healing her heartache, following her split

Festival-ready: Jess looked typically flamboyant in a festival-ready jacket

Sea dip: The girls hit the beach in skimpy bikinis, hoping to catch some sun

Beach girls: The trio of blondes took pictures of each other while they ran into the sea

Fae was said to be 'in the process of moving out' of her ex's London home last week, and his latest column last week spoke volumes about what he could be experiencing.

In a lengthy diatribe on break-ups, Pro Green spoke about the sex drying up in relationships, and how break ups involve 'stuffing your noses full of cocaine,' drinking yourself stupid and 'shagging your way out' of getting over it.

Giving him food for thought, Fae has been keeping her Instagram up to date with idyllic pictures of Eivissa.

Mucking about: Jess and Charlie were seen mucking about on the beach and piling on top of one another

Bundles: They didn't seem to mind rolling around in the sand

Jokers: The close gal pals have been spending long hot days on the beach

Playing the fool: Jess managed to put a smile back on Fae's face, following the split

'God save Queens': Jess was sporting a criss-cross swimsuit with a slogan across the band

Layering up: Jess covered up in a cropped hoodie later that afternoon

Playtime: Jess and Charlite were practising their gymnastics

Showing off: Jess was pictured doing handstands outside CBbC Chiringo

Glowing: Jess had achieved a stunning, golden glow from the sunShe dazzled on the red carpet on Monday night in a striking gold Versace gown for the annual Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Yet, Kim Kardashian, 37, has been targeted by Beyonce's fans after she sported the same skimpy Versace leather look to the Met Gala's afterparty that Bey donned on a magazine cover seven years previous.

The reality star looked fierce in the bondage-inspired piece which boasted a caged corset and carefully placed leather straps across her body before going into a hip-hugging mini skirt.

Under fire: Kim Kardashian, 37, has been targeted by Beyonce's fans after she sported the same skimpy Versace leather look to the Met Gala's afterparty that Bey donned on a magazine cover seven years previous

However, Kim's copycat ensemble was brought to light by The Shade Room on Instagram when they put together a side-by-side collage of the pair wearing the same outfit, which the Halo hitmaker donned for Complex magazine in 2011.

One loyal Beyonce fan posted under the snap: 'Lets be fair Beyonce would kill it today. She wore like years ago. Kim late as hell.'

'ALL HAIL QUEEN BEY YALL KNOW WHO WON,' another animatedly shared. 'That means Kardashian shopping on the Versace clearance rac'.

While one fan posted: 'Beyonce wore it better as Kim shortened her dress which i dont like..the midi version on Beyonce adds a little more class.'

Same: However, Kim's copycat ensemble was brought to light by The Shade Room on Instagram when they put together a side-by-side collage of the pair wearing the same outfit, which the Halo hitmaker donned for Complex magazine in 2011

Going for gold: She dazzled on the red carpet on Monday night in a striking gold Versace gown for the annual Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Similar: However, Kim's copycat ensemble was brought to light by The Shade Room on Instagram when they put together a side-by-side collage of the pair wearing the same outfit, which Naomi Campbell also wore in 2014 during her show The Face (R)

Despite the Beyhive coming out in force, Kim's loyal following jumped to her defence and claimed she owned the ensemble seven years on, also three years on from when Naomi Campbell also wore it.

'Kim wore it better,' a follower wrote. 'Y'all just basing it on who you like better as a person and who you are a fan of.'

Another posted: 'Kim.. Bey is cute in it but Kim wore it best.. Bey is number 2 in this number

'Yall only saying Beyonce because its Beyonce lol, but Come on to be honest Kim wore it better.' Before one fan shared: 'Sorry but Kim wearing that dress and the dress wearing Beyonce'.

Defence: Beyonce's fans came out in force to comment in her favour

Weighing in: Despite the Beyhive coming out in force, Kim's loyal following jumped to her defence and claimed she owned the ensemble seven years on

However, it's not the first time the pair's ensembles have crossed over after Beyonce, who skipped this year's style soiree, carried an Alexander Wang x Judith Leiber crystal-covered Money Roll clutch to the Tidal x Brooklyn benefit concert in October.

While Kim sported the same accessory days earlier clad in her striking black blazer dress and stockings.

There has been much speculation that the two women have been embroiled in furious feud. Yet, Kim's husband Kanye West recently detailed his fall-out with pal and Bey's hubby Jay-Z began when the rapper failed to attend his wedding.

The Stronger rapper admitted he was 'hurt' when his friend and wife Beyonce failed to join him in Italy in 2014 to see him tie the knot with Kim Kardashian West.

Bag it up: it's not the first time the pair's ensembles have crossed over after Beyonce carried an Alexander Wang x Judith Leiber crystal-covered Money Roll clutch to the Tidal x Brooklyn benefit concert in October. While Kim sported it days earlier (Pictured in October 2017)

Absence: Kanye West has blamed his feud with Jay-Z on the star's absence from his 2014 wedding to Kim (pictured)

Kanye acknowledged that the couple - who he considers 'family' - were 'going through some things' at the time.

Speaking to Charlamagne Tha God on iHeartRadio's The Breakfast Club, he said: 'I was hurt about them not coming to the wedding. I understand they were going through some things, but if it's family, you're not going to miss a wedding.

'I'm not using this interview to put out any negative things, but I gotta state my truth. You just start coming up with all type of crazy things in your head, like "Why?"'

The 40-year-old star insists he is 'past' feeling disappointed now, though he was upset at the time, and though the pair are back on speaking terms, Kanye has never directly asked Jay about the snub.

Friendship unraveled: Beyonce and Jay-Z - pictured on the front row for Kanye's fashion show, beside his wife Kim Kardashian - are considered 'family' to Kanye

He said: 'I don't think I ever asked him that question, directly.'

Afterwards, Beyonce used Instagram to send wedding well-wishings, writing: 'Wishing you a lifetime of unconditional love. God bless your beautiful family.

It is now public knowledge that Jay-Z was unfaithful to Beyonce, and it's believed they were dealing with this at the same time as Kanye was set to wed.

May 2014 - the month in which Kim and Kanye wed - was the same month that Solange viciously attacked her brother-in-law in a now-famous elevator fight.

She is understood to have been defending her sister Beyonce's honour in the bust-up, which followed the Met Gala 2014.

In April, Jay-Z also conceded that the feud was over, and called Kanye his 'little brother'.

'That's my brother. We're beyond friends. Really, like, literally my little brother is Kanye. And like your little brother, things happen sometimes.'

Like a brother: Jay-Z (here with Beyonce and Kanye in 2008) recently confirmed that the feud was over, saying that he thought of Kanye 'like a little brother'



Last month, she announced her split from long-term partner Adam Horsley after seven years, before sharing endless social media posts about her heartache.

Yet Imogen Thomas seems to be bouncing back after her troubles as she was spotted at London's Bluebird Cafe while spending the evening getting close to a hunky businessman Will Corlass - before rounding out the night with an extremely passionate kiss.

The mother-of-two, who shares daughters Ariana Siena and Siera Aleira with her ex, looked worlds away from her heartache as she put on a steamy display following a boozy day of drinking espresso martinis.

Up close and personal: Imogen Thomas seems to be bouncing back after her troubles as she was spotted at London's Bluebird Cafe while spending the evening getting close to hunky businessman Will Corlass - before rounding out the night with an extremely passionate kiss

Two weeks ago, Imogen confirmed her split from Adam, in a statement reading: 'Imogen is completely heartbroken and devastated about the break up, however she has amazing friends and family who are very supportive and will help her...

'Her two beautiful children are her priority moving forward, and she will continue to focus on the positive things in her life such as her business Chasing Summer.'

Her social media accounts have been subject to a host of posts regarding her heartache and how she is coping with the devastating split.

It seems she has managed to pull herself through however, as she was spotted larking around in the celeb hotspot, favoured by Made In Chelsea stars.

Tough times: Last month, she split from her long-term partner Adam Horsley after seven years together, before sharing endless social media posts about her heartache (pictured in 2012)

New love? The mother-of-two, who shares daughters Ariana Siena and Siera Aleira with her ex, looked worlds away from her heartache as she put on a steamy display

Chic: Dressed in a flirty red polka dot dress, the stunner layered up with a denim jacket while giggling and larking around while sipping from an array of drinks

Up close and personal: After confessing on Instagram that she was 'tipsy' the party went into the wee hours before she shared her passionate embrace

Dressed in a flirty red polka dot dress, the stunner layered up with a denim jacket while giggling and larking around while sipping from an array of drinks.

As the night drew in, she was seen getting up close and personal with the hunky businessman Will Corlass, who was clad in a checked shirt with cropped hair, before they kissed.

Looking extremely passionate, he placed his hands beneath the denim jacket to feel her curves as she playfully went on tiptoes to kiss the handsome stranger.

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Imogen for comment. Imogen and Australian Adam, 31, are parents to Ariana Siena, five, and Siera Aleira, two.

They raised suspicion when she posted a cryptic Instagram post about feeling 'hurt' last month. But at the time, her representatives kept quiet about the rumours.

Happy days: Two weeks ago, Imogen confirmed her split from Adam, in a statement reading: 'Imogen is completely heartbroken and devastated about the break up, however she has amazing friends and family who are very supportive and will help her'

Home times? Imogen and Australian city trader Adam, 31, are parents to Ariana Siena, five, and Siera Aleira, two

Cheeky! Imogen was enjoying a tipple at the celebrity hot spot - as she admitted she was drinking espresso martinis and what appeared to be gin and tonic

Home time? It seemed he was bidding farewell from the cab

She recently shared a cryptic post on the photo-sharing platform which read: 'A strong woman doesn't seek revenge. She moves on and lets karma do her dirty work.'

The brunette beauty, who confirmed her split from the Australian city trader on Friday, simple captioned the illustrated picture with 'This' and a hands up emoji.

Last week, again on social media, Imogen emotionally revealed: 'My god have I had a dark day. Sure has been #mondayblues. Tomorrow is a new day.

'No man is worth my tears anymore. Losing my dad and most recently my uncle. I need to count my blessings I am healthy. My dad would be screaming at me now!! I need to be happy. It will take time but I will begin as of tomorrow,' she continued.

Imogen added the motivational hashtag: '#whatdoesntkillyoumakeyoustronger,' along with a heart emoji.

No more pain: Her social media accounts have been subject to a host of posts regarding her heartache and how she is coping with the devastating split

Sweet display: The hunky businessman Will Corlass took the lead while they sweetly held hands and walked into the night

Busty! She displayed her eye-popping bust in a deeply-plunging number

Smiley: She was beaming as she walked down the street in the stylish denim jacket and flirty mini

Hold me close! She was clearly getting along with the brunette hunk handsomely as they got up close and personal

Moving on: A few days earlier, Imogen finally broke her silence about the break-up, taking to her social media account to share some motivational posts about staying strong for the sake of her two children

A few days earlier, Imogen finally broke her silence about the break-up, taking to her social media account to share some motivational posts about staying strong for the sake of her two children.

Alongside a snapshot of herself cuddling her young daughters Ariana and Sierra, the star wrote: '#strongwomen us 3 against the world'.

Another image, shared to her parenting Instagram account, shows the star smoking a shisha pipe.

Offering her fans an insight into her mental state, the star vowed to stay strong, yet admitted she was struggling and heartbroken.

She told her followers: 'Sorry I havent posted in a while. This is me dealing with a break up. Heres to single Mammys out there...

Steamy: A few days earlier, Imogen finally broke her silence about the break-up, taking to her social media account to share some motivational posts about staying strong for the sake of her two children

A moment apart: The star could not stop smiling as she moved on from her heartache

Steamy! The pair could not stop cosying up as they trod the streets of London arm in arm

Moving on: She was moving on from her devastating split from her partner

Taxi for two? The duo were seen flagging down a cab in the rubbish-strewn street

Romance: The couple were practically inseparable following the night out

Stylish: She nailed her flirty display with the summer dress and on-trend Hermes sandals

Natural beauty: She looked pretty and ready for summer in the dress - which highlighted her sensational curves to perfection

'I will take on anything! #singlemom #icandoit #hurt does it get easier?! This Account is about being real...'

Last week, a statement sent to MailOnline read: 'Imogen is completely heartbroken and devastated about the break up, however she has amazing friends and family who are very supportive and will help to get her through this difficult time.

'Her two beautiful children are her priority moving forward, and she will continue to focus on the positive things in her life such as her business Chasing Summer.' Imogen and Australian city trader Adam, 31, are parents to Ariana Siena, five, and Siera Aleira, two.

The mum-of-two raised suspicion when she posted a cryptic Instagram post about feeling 'hurt' on Tuesday morning. But at the time, her representatives kept quiet about the rumours.

Hold me close! Making the most of the sunshine, the duo could not resist one another

Sizzling: The happy duo made no secret of their passionate embraces

Cheeky! Between kisses, the pair were locked in giggly intimate conversations

Gal pal: Despite starting the day with her pretty pal, Imogen ended the evening with the hunk

The whole gang! Imogen, her new friend and her pal all gathered in the streetAfter Ariana Grande stepped out solo at the 2018 Met Gala, it was been confirmed that she and boyfriend Mac Miller have split after a one-and-a-half year relationship.

With rumours that busy work schedules were the reason for the musical artists to go separate ways, Ariana and Mac have said that they will remain close friends.

Arianas new hairstyle in No Tears Left To Cry was the talk of the town after the release of the music video and with her upcoming album Sweetener, Ariana will be busier than ever before. But what is Mac Millers net worth?

After Ariana Grande stepped out solo at the 2018 Met Gala , it was been confirmed that she and boyfriend Mac Miller have split after a one and a half year relationship

Who is Mac Miller?

Born Malcolm James McCormick on January 19, 1992 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, better known by his stage name Mac Miller, he decided to pursue a career in hip hop whilst at school.

Macs first mixtape, But My Mackin Aint Easy was released under the name EZ Mac in 2007 and he was also part of the group, The Ill Spoken.

In 2010, Mac was signed to Rostrum Records, famous for its association with Wiz Khalifa and he went on to release his mixtape K.I.D.S and embark on his first tour in the same year.

Macs fifth release Best Day Ever included the singles Donald Trump, Wear My Hat and All Around The World and in 2011, he announced the name of his first album, Blue Slide Park, on his YouTube channel.

After releasing I Love Life, Macadelic and You mixtapes, his second album Watching Movies with the Sound off was released and he also announced plans of working with DJ Jazzy Jeff in 2013.

Mac Miller and Ariana Grande seen here attending the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards at Madison Square Garden in 2016 in New York City

In the same year, under his alias Larry Fisherman, Mac released a mixtape featuring only instrumentals and went on to come out with new singles regularly.

Mac also founded his own record label REMember Music, named after a friend who had died and went on to work with Vince Staples before touring with Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz.

By 2014, he had stopped working under Rostrum and released his tenth solo mixtape Faces independently before it being revealed that he was signed with Warner Bros. Records for a reported $10 million (7.4m).

A year later, Mac announced that he would releasing his third album GO:OD AM and in 2016, his fourth, The Divine Feminine.

Ariana Grande seen here attending the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala solo at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City

Mac Miller has been open about his addiction to a combination of promethazine and codeine, otherwise known as purple drank, which he started taking to relieve stress during his Macadelic Tour in 2012.

However, he stopped taking this before he started filming his reality show, Max Miller and the Most Dope Family.

Prior to this, in 2011, Mac was also arrested for possession of marijuana and a year later, producer Lord Finesse filed a $10 million (7.4m) lawsuit against him for the use of his song Hip 2 Da Game in Macs Kool-Aid and Frozen Pizza.

Alongside this, in 2015 Aquarian Dream filed a $150,000 lawsuit against Mac for sampling the song Yesterday (Was so Nice Today) in his song Therapy on the Faces mixtape.

Ariana Grande and Mac Miller

Ariana Grande and Mac Miller first met when Mac tweeted Ariana asking if they could collaborate and as a result, they released duets Baby Its Cold Outside and The Way.

Mac then made an appearance on Arianas 2015 tour and joined her on the Tonight Show before releasing a 2016 remix of her song Into You.

Mac Miller and Ariana Grande seen here on stage during the One Love Manchester Benefit Concert at Old Trafford Cricket Ground in 2017 in Manchester, England

In August 2016, Ariana and Mac were caught kissing by the paparazzi and the couple confirmed their relationship a month later.

After regularly sharing pictures of each other on social media, it was clear that their relationship was going well and was shown by Macs support of Ariana after the Manchester terror attack at one of her concerts in 2017.

A few months later, Ariana disappeared from social media and as she buried herself in her work, they did not make as many public appearances.

Ariana Grande and Mac Miller split

After stepping out on her own at the 2018 Met Gala, TMZ confirmed that Ariana Grande had split with boyfriend Mac Miller.

The split is reported to have happened because of their busy work schedules but the pair intend on remaining close friends.

Macs last public appearance with Ariana was at Madonnas Oscar party in March 2018.

Mac Miller height

Mac Miller is 5ft 6  (169cm), according to Celeb Heights.

Mac Miller net worth

Mac Millers net worth has accumulated to approximately $14 million (10m), according to Celebrity Net Worth.

It has also been reported that Mac makes around $1.1 million ($808,300) a year, which is around $3,000 a day in a 365 day year.

Ariana Grandes net worth is $45 million (33m). Find out more here.She has been enjoying a plethora of envy-inducing breakaways in an array of skimpy swimwear.

And Kourtney Kardashian, 39, was sure to set pulses racing as she posed completely nude for her latest social media update on Instagram on Wednesday night.

The Keeping Up With The Kardashian's star turned away from the camera to display her bronzed back and a glimpse of her pert posterior for the raunchy shot on her Insta story.

In the nude: Kourtney Kardashion, 39, was sure to set pulses racing as she posed completely nude for her latest social media update on Instagram on Wednesday night

The E! reality star let her long brunette locks cascade down her back in a wet style while she stood in her pool's crystal clear water.

Highlighting her petite frame and svelte waist, she made sure to grab her followers attention as she promoted the latest article on her app.

She captioned the skin-flashing shot: 'Why the way you shampoo may cause breakouts'.

Her appearance comes after she shared a stream of candid snaps from her romantic vacation in Arizona with her beau Younes Bendjima earlier this week.

Time in the sun: Kourtney showcased her sensational figure in a swimsuit while enjoying time off in Arizona this week

Hard-won curves: The ex of Scott Disick showed off her toned figure in a mint green suit with cut outs on the chest and stomach

First the TV star was seen hiking and climbing rocks in the picturesque Antelope Canyon. Then on Wednesday the mother-of-three posted two images where she was in a swimsuit while on a boat.

The images are older as the cover girl has already returned to Los Angeles.

The ex of Scott Disick had one leg up and one leg down as she showed off her toned figure in a mint green suit with cut outs on the chest and stomach. The beauty added Oakley sunglasses and wore her raven locks down.

Behind her were the striking walls of Lake Powell that have earned their marks from glaciers. Kourtney's caption simply read 'Ethereal.'

Enjoying the wild ride: Days earlier the petite lady shared this shot while the boat was running

On Monday Kourtney was seen in bright orange attire as she walked in Arizona's desert. The beauty added Oakley glasses and workout shoes. The reason for the getaway was Younes' 25th birthday.

Though Kourtney and Younes have 14 years between them, it doesn't seem to have caused them any issues thus far.

The sister of Kim and Khloe Kardashian captioned her hiking shot '2020' for some reason. Perhaps that is the year she plans on tying the knot with Younes.

There were two photos in all, one of her standing and the other of her crouching down while modeling chic sunglasses.

Orange crush: The pinup dressed in orange with Oakley as she posed inside a rock formation while touring Arizonas Antelope Canyon on Monday

Times two: The beauty, 39, has been on vacation with her young beau Younes Bendjima to celebrate his 25th birthday

Postcard from AZ: On Sunday Kardashian and Bendjima gave fans a look at their desert experience with a few Snapchat videos

On Sunday the vegan shared plenty of images from the trip.

She and Younes appeared to be on a daring day trek as they soaked up the scenery in Arizona. They were all kitted out for hiking and rock climbing.

Kourtney was in a green workout outfit with a backpack on and Younes was clad in a T-shirt and shorts. They held hands as they stood in front of a beautiful rock formation.

The 5ft1in siren could also be seen from the backside as she looked out at the natural rocky scenery.

Small one: The 5ft1in siren could also be seen from the backside as she looked out at the natural rocky scenery

Nice view: Kourtney admired the view during their outdoors getaway as she wore a helmet and a harness

The pair were crossing a narrow, rickety bridge that connected two mountains. Kourtney said they were 409ft up.

Kourtney shared several clips to social media that revealed their vacation location on Saturday.

In one video she was in a bikini while on a speedboat. She also shared views of the lake making it look like she was in Lake Powell, which is in Arizona.

Then she posted a photo where they were driving over the Colorado River.

Scary: The pair were crossing a narrow, rickety bridge that connected two mountains. Kourtney said they were 409ft up

Dreamy: Kourtney shared several clips to social media that revealed the location. In one video she was in a bikini while on a speedboat. She also shared views of the lake making it look like she was in Lake Powell, which is in Arizona

There were also a few images from her very modern looking hotel, which is likely the five-star Amangiri Resort in Utah, located about 40 minutess drive from Arizonas Antelope Canyon.

Kendall Jenner visited the area just months ago and raved about it on social media.

The star also wished her handsome beau a happy 25th birthday on social media. private jet.

Digs: There were also a few images from her very modern looking hotel which is likely the five-star Amangiri Resort in Utah, located about 40 minutess drive from Arizonas Antelope Canyon

Incredible beauty: The pool looked fit for royals with it's modern design and fancy umbrellas

A sanctuary: The hotel is known for its modern look and incredible views

Nailed it: Then she posted a photo where they were driving over the Colorado River

The sister of Kim Kardashian and the catwalk king have been dating for just over a year.

In several of the photos, the two look as happy as can be as they enjoy some of their more exotic vacations. In one shot, they are both in the ocean.

She has on a bikini and is smiling as he stands next to her, then later wraps his arms around the ex of Scott Disick.

One word: The reality star wrote 'wow' above one of her landscape shots

Climbing gear: The outdoor activities included some climbing

On Friday the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star revealed some of her secrets to staying youthful and slender.

On her site KourtneyKardashian.com, the sister of Kim and Khloe Kardashian listed the supplements she is taking every day.

Her post began: 'At the moment, I'm all about everything in moderation. 'I try to eat healthy when I'm at home in my everyday routine and have a good balance of fresh, organic vegetables and fruits, healthy fats and protein. I've found the way I eat affects everything from my skin to my mood to my energy levels.'

The mother of three then listed what she puts in her body. 'First thing every morning, I take collagen supplements mixed with a glass of water. I also try to drink a lot of water throughout the dayespecially during my workout.

Backup plan: Kourtney shared that they were going on a hike but went on a climb instead

'Then, I have my morning smoothie with added supplements like bone broth protein powder, MCT oil and E3Live algae.'

Then it was back to food. 'For lunch, I focus on eating organic greens and usually have a salad. Lately, I've been having my signature salad with avocado, hard boiled eggs, cucumber and tomatoes.

'In the afternoon, I usually have hot green tea and a little snack. I recently discovered these BBQ chips made with chickpeas that I really like.

'For dinner, I usually have grilled salmon or chicken, mashed cauliflower with garlic, roasted carrots and broccoli, along with white rice. I have been doing white rice at night because it's easier to digest in the evening (my nutritionist said it's best to have brown rice at lunch, then white rice for dinner).'The terrible aftermath of Aidan Connors suicide meant virtually the entire hour of Coronation Street was punctuated by great wails of pain, bitter recriminations, and everyone sobbing inconsolably. And that was just the viewers

Yes seeing the impact of Aidans suicide was arguably even more harrowing than the death itself and seeing it about to happen when the last episode ended.

If Mondays show made you feel for Aidan and his sudden, savage, descent into helpless darkness, Wednesdays follow-up was about all the people left behind having to deal not just with his death, but the way it came about  or trying to.

Harrowing: Coronation Streets controversial issues collided on Wednesday night's episode when David Platt talked about his rape rather than succumb to suicide like Aidan Connor

Shock! Yes seeing the impact of Aidans suicide was arguably even more harrowing than the death itself and seeing it about to happen when the last episode ended

With an average of 12 men committing suicide every day, 84 every week, and 336 in a year, suicide has become an epidemic in this country - the biggest cause of death for British men under 45.

So a large part of the audience will have experienced a similar tragedy or know someone who has and recognised how accurately and effectively it was portrayed.

Richard Hawley was terrific as Aidans dad Johnny, bowling up at his sons flat with a hangover, calling him a lazy article was not showing up to work, and then reading a note with the words DONT GO IN THE BATHROOM. CALL THE POLICE.

Statistics: With an average of 12 men committing suicide every day, 84 every week, and 336 in a year, suicide has become an epidemic in this country - the biggest cause of death for British men under 45

Oh God no, no! What have you done? Johnny cried after hed rushed to find his sons body.

We never saw what had happened inside and the one long shot of the bathroom door made it even more powerful and palpable when we heard him sobbing and Carla quietly say: come away now.

His final words as the undertakers took Aidans body away were heartbreaking: I dont half love you, you know, he said, placing his hands on him one last time. What am I going to do without my lad, my boy?

The stark reality of suicide kept coming home.

The way Carla broke the news to Roy Cropper when he saw the ambulance and asked if Aidan had had an accident.

Hes killed himself, she said flatly, not breaking it to him gently.

Maria ran down the street wailing, crying: Its Aidan! Hes gone!

Emotional: Coronation Street fans were reduced to tears when Gail Platt delivered a moving speech following the news of Aidan Connor's suicide

Gone where? frowned David Platt holding her.

Hes killed himself!

Jonathan Harveys script covered the gamut of reactions suicide tends to provoke: shock, confusion, horror, blame, anger and denial.

Behave! Eva scoffed when Shona told her Aidan had killed himself. After it had sunk in, she railed: Its my fault isnt it? He came to see me last night. I was just too stupid to realise! I thought we were going to get back together and the whole time he was just trying to tell me goodbye.

Suicides the most selfish thing in the world. It might have ended all his problems but hes going to give the Connors a lot more! tutted Beth.

Broken man: Aidan's father Johnny discovered his body along with a suicide note, with viewers seeing him cry out in horror before breaking down off-screen

Horrified: Carla Connor was devastated to discover the news over the phone as she rushed to Johnny's aid in a further portrayal of how suicide can destroy the people who are left behind

Is he really dead? Youre lying ! insisted Aidans sister as she struggled to believe the words were true

Is he really dead? Youre lying ! insisted Aidans sister.

Why would I do that? pointed out Carla.

I want you to be lying ! Kate cried. Right now I hate him! she raged later on. My dad will never be fine again, none of us will ! Ill never forgive our Aidan for doing this.

The biggest speech of the night, and the message that Coronation Street wanted to put over in the whole storyline, can in a soliloquy by Gail Platt-Tilsley-MacIntyre-Rodwell (the legendary Helen Worth).

Heartbreaking: Overlaying Gail's speech were scenes of Weatherfield residents being told the news of Aidan's death, including Maria and her son Liam (above)

Behave! Eva scoffed when Shona told her Aidan had killed himself. After it had sunk in, she railed: Its my fault isnt it? He came to see me last night. I was just too stupid to realise!

Forty years Ive lived on this street. I practically know every cobble back to front, she said looking out of her front window. I like to think we look out for each other and, without being nosey, know whats going on in each others lives.

But you dont do you? I didnt know him that well but I hope he knew Id have listened if he ever wanted to speak to me. I cant stop thinking about his poor dad Johnny. His sons not coming home tonight. I just hope to God mine is.

This was a reference to Corries other big, equally bleak theme currently: the issue of male rape and the storyline depicting Gails son David in the aftermath of Josh spiking his drink and then raping him.

Tragic: Aidan left a note telling his father not to go in the bathroom, but instead to call the police - but he went straight in and discovered the body (although viewers did not see it)

Hearing about Aidans suicide had inevitably sent David into a tailspin and doing a runner from his solicitor (and his mum).

Are you scared? asked Shona when she found him, thinking he had done it because he was due in court.

I was raped, David answered blankly. Josh raped me.

He rejected her pleas to go to the police.

Im only telling you because I know that with everything thats going on in my head I could have have ended up like Aidan, he said.

Revealed: Gail also increasingly worried for her son David, who had done a vanishing act on the day he was supposed to appear in court for assault but he chose to talk to someone about his woes

Im so glad youve told me, she promised. Because youve told someone and not kept it all bottled up. I couldnt bear to lose you he way the Connors have lost Aidan.

I came so close. But Ive told you and if todays taught me anything its that Thank God I will live.

This is what the soap hopes to achieve by taking on what is clearly an important, terrible, issue blighting not only so many suicidal men in this country but all their friends and families, work colleagues and partners.

Anyone whos experienced someone close to them committing suicide will know its a problem which is being neglected to the point of ignored altogether and certainly commend Coronation Street for trying to raise awareness and propagating something positive to deal with it.

Moving forward: After telling Shona he had been raped, she promised to support David whatever his decision, leaving the emotional episode to end with a glimmer of hope

Whether the mantra of encouraging people (particularly men) who are feeling suicidal to talk to someone is enough, is another matter. (Its the advice doctors etc have been giving for years, but yet it still happens.)

Yet if one person considering suicide might be deterred from such an action by watching the show and seeking help, or talking to someone, then that can only a good thing.

It's possible that by seeing this moving depiction of how horrific the consequences can be for the people left behind, a person might think twice before ending their life.

Coronation Street has at least made a powerful start.

For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123, visit a local Samaritans branch, or see samaritans.org for details.

Coronation Street continues on Friday 11th May at 7:30pm and 8:30pm on ITV.After months of keeping their romance under wraps, they are now openly in love.

And Lucy Mecklenburgh certainly looked enamoured with her beau Ryan Thomas on Thursday as they stepped out in Ibiza to grab some lunch, during which they showed off their toned physiques in complementary black gym gear.

The 26-year-old former TOWIE star displayed her sensational frame in a tight vest which boasted a scoop neckline to flaunt her cleavage while she also made the most of her endless legs with her super short shorts.

Strutting their stuff: Lucy Mecklenburgh certainly looked enamoured with her beau Ryan Thomas on Thursday as they stepped out in Ibiza to grab some lunch, during which they showed off their toned physiques in complementary black gym gear

Lucy has been having a long-distance romance with her boyfriend Ryan, after he relocated to Australia for a part in iconic soap Neighbours.

Lucy and Ryan's long-distance romance has seen the brunette beauty enjoy an extended break Down Under to support her beau, with the couple also jetting off on a sunshine break to Dubai recently.

Discussing their long-distance romance on Twitter, the former TOWIE star penned: 'True love isnt about being inseparable; its about two people being true to each other even when they are separated. #love #relationships #ibiza2018'.

Looking totally at ease having enjoyed their reunion, the duo walked down the street hand in hand while indulging in a gentle chat.

Happy days: The 26-year-old former TOWIE star displayed her sensational frame in a tight vest which boasted a scoop neckline to flaunt her cleavage while she also made the most of her endless legs with her super short shorts

Hold me close: The couple were inseparable as they walked along hand in hand

It was claimed earlier this month, Ryan had reportedly purchased an expensive diamond ring for Lucy, with a source telling The Sun that Ryan spent thousands on the ring to show his commitment to Lucy as their romance heats up.

MailOnline contacted representatives for Ryan and Lucy.

The couple first met on Bear Grylls' Celebrity Island, where they were in the midst of water shortages, extreme hunger and tropical storms.

Happy days: The couple first met on Bear Grylls' Celebrity Island, where they were in the midst of water shortages, extreme hunger and tropical storms

His and hers: The happy couple complemented one another with their looks

Together again! After developing a strong bond on the survival show, the pair continued their romance on home turf

The happy couple: The duo looked happier than ever to be together in the sunny isle

Light lunch: Lucy was sticking to her healthy diet regime as she sipped a healthy juice

Off and out: They first set tongues wagging when they were seen sharing holiday photographs from the same location on Instagram, despite denying claims they were dating

After developing a strong bond on the survival show, the pair continued their romance on home turf.

They first set tongues wagging when they were seen sharing holiday photographs from the same location on Instagram, despite denying claims they were dating.

They were later pictured kissing at London City Airport, and marked their first public outing as a couple at the Wimbledon men's semi-finals earlier in July.

Lucy was even seen spending New Year's Eve with Ryan and his family, and was introduced to his eight-year-old daughter Scarlet, whom he shares with former flame Tina O'Brien, earlier this year.

Where it all began... They were later pictured kissing at London City Airport, and marked their first public outing as a couple at the Wimbledon men's semi-finals earlier in July

Happy days: They looked as loved up as ever as they were reunited in the sunny climes

Checking it out: As an avid social media fan, Lucy was engrossed in her phone as she soaked up the sun

Ryan made his long-awaited Neighbours debut in an hour-long late-night special episode as English tourist Rafael Humphreys, a loner with dark secrets and a score to settle.

Recently fans showered Ryan with praise after his portrayal of a 'raw and heartfelt' gay sex scene on Neighbours.

The actor's character Rafael was seen enjoying an emotional tryst with David, played by Takaya Honda - which fans branded both 'beautiful' and 'refreshing' on Twitter.

Matching! The happy couple both sported matching aviators as they took their leisurely stroll

All black everything: Her tight gym gear flattered her already stunning figure

Stunner: Lucy was looking tanned and toned as she stepped out with her boyfriendTheir romance first came to light over Christmas of last year.

And James Norton and Imogen Poots made their public debut as they attended the Wildlife party presented by Grey Goose and DIRECTV at Nikki Beach at Cannes Film Festival on Thursday.

The Grantchester star, 32, was suited and booted as he cosied up to his stunning new lady love.

James Norton and Imogen Poots made their public debut as they attended the Wildlife party presented by Grey Goose and DIRECTV at Cannes Film Festival on Thursday

James looked undeniably smart and snazzy in his ensemble, which he teamed with a crisp white shirt and black shoes.

Imogen also put on a sartorially savvy display as she dressed her figure in an off-the-shoulder monochrome panelled dress.

Falling at an ankle-grazing length, the beauty boosted her height in a pair of open-toe heels.

She toted her essentials in a stylish across the body bag as she smiled for photographers alongside her beau.

The Grantchester star, 32, was suited and booted as he cosied up to his stunning new lady love, 28

Soon after breaking up with his ex of two years Jessie Buckley, James was seen kissing Imogen as they did some Christmas shopping in December.

Wandering round Spitalfields market, they kept stopping to kiss as they explored the shops.

An onlooker said: They appeared to be very much in love. They are clearly very close and seemed relaxed in each others company.

James is currently filming for BBC series McMafia - a new 1930s real-life thriller about Welsh journalist Gareth Jones.

He is set to play the main character of Gareth Jones in the upcoming biopic film.

The movie, which is set in the 1930s, will look at the true story of the Welsh journalist who travels to Moscow in a bid to interview Joseph Stalin.

Along his travels, he meets several other reporters who clue him in about the Russian government as he decides to take a clandestine trip into the Soviet Union to uncover an international conspiracy.

Talented: James is currently filming for BBC series McMafia - a new 1930s real-life thriller about Welsh journalist Gareth Jones



She's a busy actress, businesswoman and mother-of-two who's always on the go.

And on Wednesday, Gwyneth swapped her large Range Rover for a much more maneuverable Vespa scooter to zip around Los Angeles streets as she ran errands.

The Avengers: Infinity War actress recently supported her fiance Brad Falchuk at his father's funeral in Boston.

Born to be mild: On Wednesday, Gwyneth left her Range Rover at home to hit the road in Los Angeles on a Vespa scooter

The 45-year-old actress opted for comfort over style in billowy clothing including loose fitting white sweatpants and brown leather riding boots.

She also wore a heavy jacket and a white helmet.

The actress remained incognito behind a pair of aviator shades.

White on: The 45-year-old actress opted for comfort over style in billowy clothing a helmet and leather boots

Paltrow supported fiance Brad Falchuk over the weekend after the loss of his father.

The Iron Man star headed to Boston to attend the funeral of Brad's dad, Kenneth, who died Thursday.

The service for the Boston-area physician was held at Temple Emanuel on Sunday, with a burial at Or Emet Cemetery, according to People.

Dressed up: Paltrow supported fiance Brad Falchuk over the weekend after the loss of his father. Seen here last month

The sad news comes just before the couple's wedding.

Last month, Gwyneth and Brad celebrated their upcoming nuptials with a bridal shower, that included the likes of Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon and Demi Moore.

One week after the star-studded evening event, the Se7en star's celebrity pals treated her to an engagement luncheon.

The duo first revealed their plans to wed in January, through the Goop founder's company magazine.

Gwyneth and Brad were first introduced in 2010, when Gwyneth guest starred on Glee.

Brad who was a writer on the show, reconnected - although romantically, with Gwyneth in 2015.They recently returned from their sun-soaked holiday in Bali, where they jetted off in late April for a romantic break away.

And Carly Bowyer and Troy Delmege put on a typically loved-up display as they attended the Rebel Blue VIP launch event on Chapel Street in Melbourne on Thursday evening.

The Married at First Sight star, 32, showcased her slender frame as she donned a glossy nude midi skirt, tied in with a trendy off-shoulder top - embellished with ruffled sleeves.

Smitten: Carly Bowyer and Troy Delmege put on a typically loved-up display as they attended the Rebel Blue VIP launch event on Chapel Street in Melbourne on Thursday evening

The golden-haired beauty tied in her look with a pair of peep-toe heels, which flashed a glimpse of her silver pedicure.

Enhancing her radiant complexion, the reality star wore sultry false lashes, shimmery bronzer and a slash of red lipstick.

The marketing manager styled her glossy tresses into loose curls, and accessorised with gold dangle earrings.

Chic: The Married at First Sight star, 32, showcased her slender frame as she donned a glossy nude midi skirt, tied in with a trendy off-shoulder top - embellished with ruffled sleeves

All eyes on them! The golden-haired beauty tied in her look with a pair of peep-toe heels, which flashed a glimpse of her silver pedicure

Stunner: Enhancing her radiant complexion, the reality star wore sultry false lashes, shimmery bronzer and a slash of red lipstick

Dapper Troy, 35, looked smart in an indigo blue suit, teamed with a sharp white shirt and tan brogues.

The couple were joined by an array of Australia's finest celebrities, including Georgia Love, Lee Elliott and Sarah Roza.

Bachelorette star Georgia appeared in high spirits as she walked arm-in-arm with her handsome partner Lee.

Stylish display: Dapper Troy, 35, looked smart in an indigo blue suit, teamed with a sharp white shirt and tan brogues

Star-studded: The couple were joined by an array of Australia's finest celebrities, including Georgia Love, Lee Elliott (pictured)

Loved-up: Bachelorette star Georgia appeared in high spirits as she walked arm-in-arm with her handsome partner Lee

The blonde beauty stood out from the crowd in a pair of khaki green boots, which she paired with a chic longline coat and a checked scarf.

Reality star Sarah flaunted her curvaceous figure in a monochrome dress, teamed with a leather jacket and suede boots.

The buxom beauty beamed with delight as she attended the bash with her BFF Harry.

Trendy: The blonde beauty stood out from the crowd in a pair of khaki green boots, which she paired with a chic longline coat and a checked scarf

Chef George Calombaris took a break from his strict work schedule at the event, where he donned a black wool coat with rugged ripped jeans.

Carly and Troy's outing follows claims that the couple are expecting their first child together.

NW reported the pair - who unveiled their romance just last month and recently moved in together in Melbourne - announced the news while shopping at a baby boutique earlier this month.

Killer curves! Reality star Sarah Roza flaunted her curvaceous figure in a monochrome dress, teamed with a leather jacket and suede boots

Having fun: The buxom beauty beamed with delight as she attended the bash with her BFF Harry

Vibrant! The pink-haired star added a pop of colour to her ensemble with eccentric emerald green earrings

The publication claims the pair are having a daughter, and picked out pink goods in the store.

Troy was even seen tenderly touching Carly's stomach as he held a pale pink rattle in his hands.

According to fellow shoppers, the pair were far from discreet about hiding their big baby news.

Time off: Chef George Calombaris took a break from his strict work schedule at the event, where he donned a black wool coat with rugged ripped jeans

Beaming: The Masterchef judge was all smiles as the starry line-up at the restaurant

Giddy: The pals appeared to be having the time of their lives as they sipped on some refreshing beverages

Whisper: Carly appeared pensive as she engaged in conversation with Sarah

Stylish: Georgia and Sarah both posed up a storm as they took a cosy snap

'Troy was running around the store shouting about how he can't wait to become a dad,' one onlooker allegedly told NW.

'He kept saying how lucky he feels and couldn't keep his hands off Carly', they added.

However, the goofy groom was far more coy when contacted by the magazine for confirmation about a baby.

He refused to confirm or deny, stating: 'Everything is going great since we moved in together, but we don't want to confirm anything right now. As soon as we have news to share, you'll be the first to know'.

Close: The duo shared a friendly cuddle as they mingled with fellow reality stars at the VIP launchAt the 15th annual G'Day USA gala in held in Los Angeles in January, Delta Goodrem led a group of Hollywood A-listers in a patriotic singalong.

On Thursday, event attendees Human Nature shared never-before-seen footage featuring the likes of Delta, Olivia Newton-John, Margot Robbie and John Travolta singing 'I Still Call Australia Home.'

Clad in predominantly black tie formal-wear, The Voice judge was seen front and centre, joining Olivia and fellow Grease star John in a passionate rendition.

G'Day USA! Delta Goodrem leads an all-star class including Margot Robbie, Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta to sing 'I still call Australia home' in never before seen throwback footage

Delta had her arms wrapped around best friend and Packed To The Rafters star Hugh Sheridan.

To his right, Mary Coustas - famous for her character 'Effie' - belted out the tune, which has long been considered the unofficial Australian anthem.

Margot was huddled into the front row as well, standing out not just for her natural beauty, but due to the fact she was one of the only stars not wearing black.

A-list: Also belting out the tune (from left to right) was Mary Coustas, next to Hugh Sheridan and Delta, The Voice star Isaiah Firebrace, next to John and Olivia. Up the back, Rachel Griffiths is seen holding a microphone next to Jonathan LaPaglia

Floral tie! Margot was huddled into the front row as well, standing out not just for her natural beauty, but due to the fact she was one of the only stars not wearing black

Next to Delta was The Voice season 8 winner Isaiah Firebrace, who rubbed shoulders with reunited Grease leads Olivia and John.

The rest of the front row was filled with members of boy band Human Nature, who shared the footage on Facebook on Thursday.

Honorary Aussies such as John had the benefit of a large teleprompter displaying the song's lyrics, karaoke-style.

Human Nature! The rest of the front row was filled with members of boy band Human Nature, who shared the footage on Facebook on Thursday

15-years young! The 15th annual G'Day USA event was held on January 27 at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, with footage surfacing on Thursday

The annual event was held on January 27 at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, but footage of the rendition has been largely unseen until Human Nature shared it.

Also in attendance at the event - but choosing not to risk on-stage embarrassment - was Rebel Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ruby Rose, Jessica Mauboy and Isla Fischer.Amber Dowding oozed airport chic in a relaxed denim playsuit on Thursday as she went makeup-free while jetting out of Stansted airport with a bevy of girlfriends.

The 24-year-old axed TOWIE star was comfy and cosy in the simple one-piece which she teamed with a wide-brimmed sunhat emblazoned with her name.

Amber was seen checking into the British airport with a group of friends as they headed off for the hen party, which the star lauded on Instagram as her 'first holiday of the year.'

Girl time: Ex-TOWIE star Amber Dowding was effortlessly chic in a relaxed denim dress on Thursday as she joined a group of friends jetting out of Stansted airport for a hen party

Amber looked totally relaxed as she sported the button-up denim play-suit which flaunted her trim pins as she joined a group of friends in checking in for their flight.

The Essex beauty finished her look with a pair of box fresh trainers and the personalised hat, which seemed to be the hen party apparel of choice as the entire group sported matching accessories.

Ever-prepared Amber carried her essentials in both a sturdy silver suitcase and a checked backpack, and despite the journey ahead highlighted her flawless complexion with near-perfect makeup.

Relaxed: The 24-year-old reality TV beauty showed off her curves in a relaxed denim one-piece as she sported a personalised sunhat for the trip

Gorgeous: Flaunting her trim pins the star teamed the playsuit with box fresh trainers, as her wide-brimmed hat sported her name emblazoned in swirled writing

Exciting: Joining a bevy of pals in jetting off for the trip, Amber beamed with excitement as she highlighted her flawless complexion with glowing makeup

Exciting: Amber carried her essentials in both a sturdy silver suitcase and a checked backpack

Pose it out: In typical airport fashion, she leaned against her suitcase while the group waiting to check in

Amber also took to Instagram to share a snap of her gorgeous look, putting her hat on full display with her name embroidered in swirly writing.

She captioned the post: 'First holiday of the year has started! Get ready for the holiday overload.'

The star's getaway came just weeks after she was pictured alongside a suspicious looking paraphernalia before heading on a night out, although a representative for the star told The Sun that nothing in the photograph belonged to her.

'We cannot comment on anything in the photo,' her publicist said. 'As its not Ambers house and nothing in the photo belongs to Amber.'

A representative for Amber Dowding declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline.

Pose it up: Taking to Instagram, Amber shared two snaps of her stylish look, writing in the caption: 'First holiday of the year has started!'

Candid: Amber has been keeping a low profile following her axe from The Only Way Is Essex earlier this year

Moving forward: Just weeks earlier Amber was pictured with a suspicious looking paraphernalia before heading on a night out

Not true: A representative for The Sun said nothing in the photograph belonged to her

New start: Following her axe from TOWIE, Amber said she believed the reason that she was axed was that she was 'too happy' with then-boyfriend Chris Clark and had no drama in her life

TOWIE star Dowding has been laying low since she was dropped from this season's Only Way Is Essex cast.

Amid a huge shake-up, Amber and her then-boyfriend Chris Clark did not return to screens.

At the time, the beauty said she believed the reason that she was axed was that she was 'too happy' with Chris and had no drama in her life.

However, a matter of weeks later, Amber and Chris broke up, saying that they had simply 'grown apart' and ended things amicably.

Free and single: Since the axe Amber and Chris split after two years together, saying that they had 'grown apart' and ended things amicably

Moving on up: Amber confirmed the split weeks later by revealing that looking after her mother Maria following her breast cancer diagnosis took a toll on their relationship

Honest: She told The Sun Online: 'We split up about two weeks ago. My mum has been ill and we decided it wasn't working. We have just grown apart'

Over: A source close to Amber and Chris also The Sun Online: 'Now they're not on [TOWIE] they've spent less and less time with one another and they've drifted apart'

Better days: But despite her split Amber appeared to be in great spirits as she joined her group of pals in jetting off for the hen party

Animated: Putting on an energetic display Amber joined the group in heading into the terminal for the trip

Amber confirmed the split weeks later by revealing that looking after her mother Maria following her breast cancer diagnosis took a toll on their relationship.

She told The Sun Online: 'We split up about two weeks ago. My mum has been ill and we decided it wasn't working. We have just grown apart.

'We just want different things, I am concentrating on my hair and beauty.'

A source close to the couple also The Sun Online: 'They spent a lot of time together while filming TOWIE but now they're not on the show they've spent less and less time with one another and they've drifted apart.'

A friend of Chris' added: 'He's only 23 and has a lot of living to do, he wants to focus on his car business and other suitable TV work.'

New projects: Since her axe from TOWIE Amber has kept fans up to date with her beauty business ventures on social mediaHe's known as the 'Muscles from Brussels.'

But this week, actor Jean-Claude Van Damme has traded in the Belgium capital for Australia.

Reported in The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, the 57-year-old recently touched down in Canberra to scout locations for new films.

Lights, camera, action! Actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, also known as the 'Muscles from Brussels', is in Australia to scout new locations for at least two films

The actor, who is a regular visitor Down Under, is expected to spend time at the Prime Minister's budget lunch as well as with Foreign Affairs Minister, Julie Bishop.

A huge star in the 1980s and 1990, he starred in a film version of Street Fighter with Australian pop sensation Kylie Minogue.

In 2016, it was rumoured the ageing action hero was searching for an international wildlife sanctuary.

Getting political! The actor, who is a regular visitor Down Under, is expected to go to the Prime Minister's budget lunch, and a second meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister, Julie Bishop

The Belgium-born star scouted for a potential location for an international wildlife conservation project - it would have been home to cheetahs and lions.

Having forged a rollicking career in martial arts during the 1970s and 1980s, Jean-Claude became a Hollywood star after leading the 1988 movie Bloodsport.

He enjoyed immense international fame in the 1990s, heading up such successes as Lionheart, Double Impact - in which he played twins - and Hard Target.

Packing a punch! The actor was known for action hits like Bloodsport and Double Impact in the 1980s and 90s. This shot is of the actor in 1988

More recent gigs include roles in The Expendables 2, which he'd accepted after having turned down a part in its prequel, and voice-over work on Kung Fu Panda 3.

He's also gained a reputation for doling out lovably bizarre dicta such as, reportedly: 'If you telephone a psychic and she doesn't pick up before it rings, hang up.'

In 2016, he bizarrely stormed off breakfast show Sunrise during an interview, after a 'boring' question about Kylie Minogue.

After refusing to answer, the Hollywood star complained about 'sweating' and feeling 'rough' before taking off his microphone and going to the bathroom.Advertisement

Irina Shayk commanded attention once again at the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival on Thursday, as she made a show-stopping arrival at the premiere for Sorry Angel.

The Russian supermodel, 32, set pulses racing by going underwear-free in a red lace up gown, as she posed fiercely for cameras at the Palais des Festivals.

She joined a number of big names, including Petra Nemcova, to celebrate the new French drama film - which is nominated for the coveted Palme D'Or prize at the 2018 proceedings.

Red hot: Irina Shayk commanded attention once again at the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival on Thursday, as she made a show-stopping arrival at the premiere for Sorry Angel

The brunette beauty certainly turned heads in the racy look, in which she went lingerie-free to tease at her famously slim and toned figure underneath.

The dress rose to a more demure high neck, but featured raunchy cut-outs at the waist and hips, fastened only by thin silver chains all the way down.

Only making the look saucier, the gown the cut into two daring thigh-high splits on each side, to leave most of her long and slender legs on show as she posed for cameras.

Red hot: The Russian supermodel, 32, set pulses racing by going underwear-free in a red lace up gown, as she posed fiercely for cameras at the Palais des Festivals

Flash of skin: The dress rose to a more demure high neck, but featured raunchy cut-outs at the waist and hips, fastened only by thin silver chains all the way down

Keeping all eyes on her sizzling ensemble, Irina accessorised with barely-there gold sandals and chunky stud earrings, of co-ordinating glittering rubies.

She swept half of her hair back into two clips, to draw attention to her striking natural beauty and glowing complexion - accentuated by a bronzed make-up look and nude lip.

While she was posing on the carpet, the bottom chain securing the skirt accidentally snapped off - but Irina proved completely unfazed as she continued to smoulder for cameras, proving her supermodel status.

The Victoria's Secret beauty appeared more than body confident in the raunchy gown, just one year after the birth of her first child.

Finishing touches: Keeping all eyes on her sizzling ensemble, Irina accessorised with barely-there gold sandals and chunky stud earrings, of co-ordinating glittering rubies

Professional: While she was posing on the carpet, the bottom chain securing the skirt accidentally snapped off - but Irina proved completely unfazed as she continued to smoulder for cameras, proving her supermodel status

The mother-of-one attended the red carpet event without partner Bradley Cooper

In March last year, the beauty welcomed a daughter - Lea de Seine - with Hollywood actor beau Bradley Cooper, who she has been dating since 2015.

Next to arrive at the event was fellow model Stella Maxwell, who slipped her impressively slender frame into a slinky silver sequin gown.

The strapless number plunged dramatically at the chest, to tease at her braless frame to all, before skimming her statuesque frame all the way to its stunning semi-pleated skirt.

Despite her glittering look, Stella still accessorised with a chunky string of gold pearls at her neck, which matched her delicate diamond earrings.

Glamorous: Next to arrive at the event was fellow model Stella Maxwell, who slipped her impressively slender frame into a slinky silver sequin gown

Slender: The strapless number plunged dramatically at the chest, to tease at her braless frame to all, before skimming her statuesque frame all the way to its stunning semi-pleated skirt

All eyes on her:She pulled her hair back into a loose bun, to draw attention to her famously defined features and killer pout as she posed confidently on the carpet

Simply the bust: Despite her glittering look, Stella still accessorised with a chunky string of gold pearls at her neck, to draw further attention to her plunging neckline as she posed

Little too low cut: Stella appeared to grapple with her daring frock at times as she paraded the carpet

She pulled her hair back into a loose bun, to draw attention to her famously defined features and killer pout as she posed confidently on the carpet.

Following suit was Petra Nemcova, who somewhat co-ordinated Stella in a figure-hugging white and metallic gown, with statement train.

The 38-year-old showed off her envy-inducing frame in the dress - featuring a shimmering silver bodice which dipped at the chest to tease at her bust.

The philanthropist accessorised with a vibrant teal necklace and earrings to jazz up the dress' pale hue, but effortlessly tied things together with a co-ordinating silver clutch.

A bit of all-white: Following suit was Petra Nemcova, who somewhat co-ordinated Stella in a figure-hugging white and metallic gown, with statement train

She's the teal deal: The philanthropist accessorised with a vibrant turquoise necklace and earrings to jazz up the dress' pale hue, as she beamed and playfully blew kisses for cameras

While she has recently turned her back on modelling in favour of charity work, Petra proved she's still got it on the red carpet as she beamed and blew kisses for cameras.

Arriving next was Amber Heard, who injected another hit of colour into the carpet in an eye-catching floral number.

The Friday Night Lights set pulses racing with the dress' dramatically plunging neckline - which gave a flash of both her cleavage and sideboob before cutting into a saucy backless style, secured by two straps.

Offsetting the sexy bodice, the frock then expanded into a striking full satin skirt, patterned with vibrant red, yellow and white daisies all over.

Hard to miss: Arriving next was Amber Heard, who injected another hit of colour into the carpet in an eye-catching floral number

Taking the plunge: The Friday Night Lights set pulses racing with the dress' dramatically plunging neckline - which gave a flash of both her cleavage and sideboob before cutting into a saucy backless style, secured by two straps

Flower power: Offsetting the sexy bodice, the frock then expanded into a striking full satin skirt, patterned with vibrant red, yellow and white daisies all over

Strike a pose: Amber was a natural on the carpet as she posed cheekily with her rear to cameras

She pulled her hair into a tall bun and quiff, and added a slick of liquid eyeliner and scarlet lipstick in classically glamorous touches.

Also in attendance was model Josephine Skriver, who turned heads as she paraded the carpet in her ultra-feminine pastel blue gown.

The 25-year-old beamed widely in the statement dress - involving a lengthy train of blue floral embroidery, which billowed behind her as she walked.

Proving her more playful sense of style however, the dress then cut off high at her thigh at the front, to leave her enviably leggy figure on show.

Thursday blues: Also in attendance was model Josephine Skriver, who turned heads as she paraded the carpet in her ultra-feminine pastel blue gown

Fashion icon: The 25-year-old beamed widely in the statement dress - involving a lengthy train of blue floral embroidery, which billowed behind her as she walked

Cutting it short: Proving her more playful sense of style however, the dress then cut off high at her thigh at the front, to leave her enviably leggy figure on show

Stunning: The Danish beauty added a simple diamond choker as accessorises, and opted for a soft hair and make-up look to draw attention to her clear and glowing complexion as she posed

The Danish beauty added a simple diamond choker as accessorises, and opted for a soft hair and make-up look to draw attention to her clear and glowing complexion as she posed.

Lupita Nyong'o next stole the show in a dramatic white gown, featuring a striking sheer bodice and trendy feathered maxi skirt.

The bodice rose into a demure high neck, but was formed of semi-sheer mesh lined with white piping, to tease at her bare frame underneath as she posed.

Cinching in at her slim waist, the gown then billowed out into a striking sheer skirt, adorned with strips of chunky white feathers all over.

Leading lady: Lupita Nyong'o next stole the show in a dramatic white gown, featuring a striking sheer bodice and trendy feathered maxi skirt

Sheer-ly not: The bodice rose into a demure high neck, but was formed of semi-sheer mesh lined with white piping, to tease at her bare frame underneath as she posed

Natural beauty: She coiffed her hair to one side, to let her gorgeous, glowing complexion take centre stage - accentuated by a quirky burgundy eye shadow and berry lip

Chic: Thylane Blondeau also attended the event in a classic black strapless gown, complete with billowing skirt

Effortless: The 17-year-old, who was dubbed 'the most beautiful girl in the world' aged 10, proved to be a natural at modelling as she posed confidently on the carpet

She coiffed her hair to one side, to let her dazzling drop earrings and gorgeous, glowing complexion take centre stage - accentuated by a quirky burgundy eye shadow and berry lip.

Sorry Angel is one of several hotly-anticipated films competing for the coveted Palme D'Or prize at the 2018 festivities.

The French drama follows Arthur, a student from Brittany, who embarks on a passionate love affair with a 39-year-old writer from Paris called Jacques.

Vincent Lacoste stars as the lead role - following his Cesar Award-nominated performance in In Bed With Victoria last year - while Pierre Deladonchamps and Denis Podalydes co-star.

Onto the next: Later that evening, the premiere for Arctic got into full swing at the same iconic venue

Leading lady: Actress Maria Thelma Smaradottir put on a truly stunning display in a powder blue gown, embellished with delicate sequin leaves and vines all overShe became a household name after starring on the reality series 16 And Pregnant and Teen Mom.

And on Tuesday, Farrah Abraham was spotted flaunting her toned form during a solo paddle boarding session during her Fiji vacation.

The 26-year-old reality star flashed major underboob as well as her derriere in a barely there see-through cropped top and pink bikini bottoms.

Focused: Farrah Abraham was spotted flaunting her toned form during a solo paddle boarding session during her Fiji on Tuesday

The mom of one donned hot pink high-waisted bikini bottoms, which revealed her pert backside.

Farrah decided to swap out her matching bikini top - which she was seen holding in one hand while leaving the beach - for a tiny top.

The extremely small number revealed the lower half of her breasts; it had 'upgrade' emblazoned on the front.

The thin material also proved to be completely see-through after it got wet during paddle boarding.

In the moment: The 26-year-old reality star flashed major underboob as well as her derriere in a barely there cropped top and pink bikini bottoms

Tropical fun: Farrah decided to swap out her matching bikini top - which she was seen holding in one hand while leaving the beach - for a tiny top

Farrah styled her long brunette locks up into a topknot, adding a swipe of pink gloss on her lips.

Post paddle boarding session, Farrah donned a large white and pink flower over one ear as well.

She lounged on the board for some time, soaking up the sunshine during her tropical beach holiday.

She made her way back to her hotel in sandals while toting a cream colored bag and a book.

Star power: Farrah styled her long brunette locks up into a topknot, adding a swipe of pink gloss on her lips

Taking it all in: She lounged on the board for some time, soaking up the sunshine during her tropical beach holiday

She enjoyed the Fiji holiday with her daughter, Sophia, nine.

Last month, Farrah visited an 'aesthetic nurse' to her get her derriere enhanced; she got 'butt injections' in an effort to 'smooth out' her shape.

The pretty star explained in the clip, which she shared with her 1.2 million Instagram followers, that: 'This booty cheek's done. We are just smoothing it out, keeping it normal, keeping it natural with our regular collagen.'

Heading home: She enjoyed the Fiji holiday with her daughter, Sophia, nine; pictured on Wednesday after she touched down at LAXJeffrey Tambor has had his name pulled from Emmy consideration.

According to Deadline, the 73-year-old actor will not be put forward by Amazon to contend this year's Emmy awards for his role as Maura Pfefferman, a trangender parent of three, on their hit show Transparent.

Tambor has previously won multiple Emmys for the role.

Scandal: According to Deadline, 73-year-old Jeffrey Tambor will not be put forward by Amazon to contend this year's Emmy awards for his role as Maura Pfefferman. Seen in November 2017

The actor recently opened up for the first time about the claims of sexual misconduct that resulted in his firing from the Amazon hit show, insisting that he never harassed the women who have publicly accused him.

The Emmy Award-winning actor also suggested that the allegations against him were part of a 'coup' to have him removed from the show.

In an in-depth interview with The Hollywood Reporter that was published on Monday, Tambor conceded that he's had difficulty controlling his explosive temper and would sometimes act in a belligerent and tactless manner towards the cast and crew, including show creator Jill Soloway, who he says was afraid of him.

Candid: The actor recently opened up for the first time about the claims of sexual misconduct that resulted in his firing from the Amazon hit show

'Lines got blurred,' Tambor told the publication during the interview at a coffee shop in Katonah, New York, where he lives with his wife and four children. 'I was difficult, I was mean....I was rude to my assistant. I was moody. Sometimes I didnt talk at all.'

Tambor revealed that on one occasion, he yelled at Transparent executive producer Bridget Bedard on set and made her cry, for which he later apologized.

But the veteran actor, who will be reprising his role as George Bluth Sr in the upcoming season of the Netflix show Arrested Development, continued to vehemently deny the allegations made against him by his former personal assistant Van Barnes and his former Transparent co-star Trace Lysette, who are both transgender women.

Accusers: Tambor's former personal assistant Van Barnes (left) and his co-star Trace Lysette (right), who are both transgender women, last year accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior on set, including unwanted touching and lewd comments

In character: Tambor won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of transgender woman Maura Pfefferman on Transparent

Barnes, 42, who worked for Tambor for two years, and whose October 2017 Facebook post in support of the #MeToo movement eventually led to Amazon shutting down production of the series, said during a recent appearance on the Megyn Kelly Show that Tambor had once bragged to her about watching her sleep naked.

'Thats violating, its so creepy,' she said during the March interview.

In her explosive October 16 Facebook status, which never mentioned Tambor by name, Barnes claimed that the actor told her 'that for that kinda money and after all that time of working for him that I should be sleeping with him if I want a Hollywood-industry-appropriate pay grade.

Barnes also claimed that the same person gave her 'butt pats,' made her listen to his porno' and complained that she was not 'taking care of him sexually.'

Transparent creator Jill Soloway fired Tambor in February via text at the conclusion of an internal investigation

Tambor at the time issued a statement calling Barnes 'a former disgruntled assistant' and saying he was 'appalled and distressed' by her 'baseless' allegations.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in his first interview since the scandal broke, Tambor doubled down on his denial of Barnes' claims of sexual misconduct.

'I dispute her account,' he said. 'I did raise my voice at times, I was moody at times, there were times when I was tactless. But as for the other stuff, absolutely not.'

Barnes said that she tried to report Tambor's behavior to his personal management team, but nothing ever came of it, so she quit in January 2017 and has since returned to her native Missouri to Enron in a cosmetology school.

Amazon launched an investigation into Tambor's conduct on set after actress Trace Lysette also came forward and claimed that she, too, had been sexually harassed by the Hollywood A-lister.

Lysette claimed that Tambor got 'physical' with her on set and at red carpet events, including kissing her on the lips, and one time pushed his penis against her.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Lysette, who played a stripper named Shea on the show, said that they were filming the third episode of Season 2 when Tambor looked at her dressed in short pajama bottoms and told her, 'My God, Trace, I want to attack you sexually,' she quoted the married actor as telling her.

Tambor, pictured with his wife Kasia Ostlun in September 2017, has denied allegations of sexual misconduct but admitted that he was mean and rude

Actress Alexandra Billings, who was also in the scene, confirmed Lysettes account.

A few minutes later, she said Tambor 'waddled' over to her, put his feet and hers and began thrusting against her hip, in a way she characterized as 'discreet and insidious and creepy.'

She added: 'I felt his genitals on me. And I pushed him off.'

Amazon launched the internal probe in November 2017, which led to his firing in mid-February. Tambor learned he had been terminated via text message from Soloway

Tambor issued a statement at the time, saying he was profoundly disappointed in the deeply flawed and biased investigations outcome and in Soloway.

It has been suggested that Tambor was pushed out of the cast because he was a Cisgender man  a person who identifies as his birth sex - playing a transgender woman, Maura Pfefferman. Soloway seemingly hinted at that in an email to Tambor that read: They have been after Maura from the beginning.

Soloway's sister, writing producer Faith Soloway, told Tambor in a separate email that they were in a coup' and that he was 'fantastic' on the show.

Back in action: Tambor will be reprising his role as George Bluth Sr in the upcoming season of the Netflix show Arrested Development (pictured)

In a moment of self-reflection, Tambor blamed his aggressive and surly behavior on set on his feelings of fear and insecurity because I was a cisgender male playing Maura Pfefferman.

And my whole thing was, Am I doing it right? Am I doing it right? Am I doing it right? To the point that I worried myself to death.'

In a Facebook post reacting to the Hollywood Reporter interview, Barnes claimed to be in possession of typed notes and names of 'other Tambor victims' who have contacted her privately but have not gone public with their allegations.

Barnes hit out at the author of the article, whom she accused of going along with Tambor's 'story' to help him rehabilitate his public image, and at the producers of the show for 'guilty tripping' her and others into silence.

'I call BS! ...and in my best trans-affirmative voice "B****, Please!"... the truth always prevails and I have no problem letting that truth go public in the right way as soon as I'm cleared to do so,' Barnes concluded.

Transparent is scheduled to return to Amazon for its fifth and final season on May 29, without Tambors Maura Pfefferman.She's been promoting her latest movie, Wildlife, at the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival.

And while Carey Mulligan's list of invitations at the two-week festival also included the Women In Motion event on Wednesday, the actress has now said women should be portrayed more in cinema as 'mistake makers'.

Speaking at the event, the Great Gatsby star, 32, said: 'Men can be celebrated in spite of all of their flaws. Whereas you very rarely see women on screen being unfaithful.

Woman on film: Carey Mulligan's list of invitations at Cannes Film Festival included the Women In Motion event on Wednesday, where the actress said women should be portrayed more in cinema as 'mistake makers'

'But of course it happens all the time in the way men are unfaithful all the time. Thats something that happens all the time but we dont want to see it.'

Talking on the Women In Motion forum, the actress - who starred in 2015's Suffragette, about the revolution of women's rights 100 years ago - added: 'It is so rare to see a woman allowed to fail on screen. Women are censored.

'I have worked on jobs before where my character, originally in the novel or in the original script, has behaved in a way that is morally objectionable or unpleasant and we have played those scenes on set, we have acted them, and then when its come to the edit they have been cut out.

'And I have asked why theyve gone and been told, "The audience really doesnt like it when shes not very nice." And I think thats such a misconception. I dont think thats true. Unless we show someones flaws, we are not showing a full person.

Speaking at the event, the Great Gatsby star, 32, said: 'Men can be celebrated in spite of all of their flaws. Whereas you very rarely see women on screen being unfaithful'

Talking on the Women In Motion forum, she added: 'It is so rare to see a woman allowed to fail on screen. Women are censored'

Theatre: Carey is in the one woman play Girls And Boys at the Royal Court, London

'When women are on screen, often if they make mistakes or they are failing, they are the villain.'

Carey ensured she stood out from the stars at the photocall for Wildlife at L'Espace Miramar on Wednesday evening.



The actress turned heads as she commanded attention in her gorgeous strapless ballgown, teamed with decadent jewellery by Chaumet.

Making a stand: She starred in 2015's Suffragette, about the revolution of women's rights 100 years ago

Sensational looks: Carey Mulligan dazzled in a stunning strapless ballgown as she promoted her latest film Wildlife at L'Espace Miramar on Wednesday

The fitted bodice and decorative pleats worked into the skirt of the garment made for a stunning red carpet ensemble.

The Wildlife star brought a splash of vibrant colour with a deep shade of red lipstick, a direct contrast from her cream dress.

Carey joined director Paul Dano and his producer girlfriend Zoe Kazan which led the glamorous attendance at the photo call for Wildlife.

Vision in white! The Wildlife star brought a splash of vibrant colour to her red carpet look with a deep shade of red lipstick, a direct contrast from her cream dress

Fabulous: The fitted bodice and decorative pleats worked into the skirt of the garment made for a glamorous red carpet ensemble

Standing together: Carey joined director Paul Dano and his producer girlfriend Zoe Kazan which led the glamorous attendance at the photo call for Wildlife

Earlier in the day, Carey was fearless with her fashion choice as she pulled off a completely different number.

The actress looked striking, power dressing in her cherry blazer and matching trousers for the glitzy occasion.

The Never Let Me Go star wore natural make-up and her golden locks bounced off her face with a windswept effect.

Carey was pleased to be promoting her latest movie Wildlife where she slips into the role of housewife and mother Jeanette who embarks on a passionate love affair.

Dapper looks! The director looked sharp in his two-piece suit and patterned tie as he proudly showed his face on the red carpet

Top man! Director Paul looked happy as he mingled with a whole galaxy of stars at Cannes

The story is primarily told through the eyes of housewife's 16-year-old son (Joe Brinson) who is a witness to his mother's burning romance with an older man.

Meanwhile, the husband of Carey's character Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal) is away from home fighting an uncontrolled forest fire.

Wildfire opened Cannes Critics' Week at the 71st year of the annual festival in the French Riviera, on the back of its success at Sundance earlier this year.

At Sundance, Carey admitted she was initially nervous about working with her good friends BAFTA-nominated Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan on the set of her latest movie.

Suits you, Carey! Carey Mulligan caught the eye in her vivid cherry suit as she promoted her latest film Wildlife at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday

She's stunning: The Never Let Me Go star wore natural make-up and her golden locks bounced off her face with a windswept effect

However, the mother-of-two revealed it paid off in the end as it was a 'really amazing' experience to be able to work with close pals.

'There was a kind of triple threat of fear involved in working with people Ive known as friends for a decade,' she said.

'It was really amazing to be able to work with someone who understands acting so well and understands the holes that you get into when you cant understand something or the problems that you have in the room, in the moment with that one line.'

Carey will return to the stage for her one-woman show about marriage breakdown Girls And Boys at an Off-Broadway theater in New York City.Her new television series is set to debut in June.

And Kate Mara appeared to be making the most of her downtime as she enjoyed a stroll through New York on Thursday afternoon.

The 35-year-old actress rocked a dark green coat along with tight black leggings as she walked arm-in-arm with a male pal around the city.

Walk it out: Kate Mara appeared to be making the most of her downtime as she enjoyed a stroll through New York on Thursday afternoon

Carrying a water bottle in one hand, Kate kept a quick pace while on a walk wearing black leggings and matching trainers.

She stayed warm in the brisk spring weather with a buttoned-up green jacket which hit just below her hips.

Keeping her hands free, the Chappaquiddick star carried a black leather purse with a silver chain strapped across her shoulder.

Friends! The 35-year-old actress rocked a dark green coat along with tight black leggings as she walked arm-in-arm with a male pal around the city

The House of Cards stunner rocked a pair of dark sunglasses and tied her chestnut brown hair back into a loose ponytail.

Wearing a solitary gold necklace, she appeared to be relatively makeup-free for the afternoon adventure.

Her male friend rocked a navy blue ensemble complete with sweat pants, a sweater, blue shoes and a matching T-shirt, in addition to a dark blue hat.

Sweet: While Kate has been a mainstay in the movie industry, she's set to return to television with the '80s-inspired FX show Pose; seen in March

While Kate has been a mainstay in the movie industry, she's set to return to television with the '80s-inspired FX show Pose.

'Pose is set in the world of 1986 and 'looks at the juxtaposition of several segments of life and society in New York: the rise of the luxury universe, the downtown social and literary scene and the ball culture world,'' according to IMDb.

She's been married to actor Jamie Bell for nearly one year, and the couple shares co-parenting responsibilities of Bell's four-year-old son with his former wife Evan Rachel Wood.At long last, the new Bond film opened in cinemas yesterday, almost two years late. But the key four-letter word is not late or even Bond - but long. No Time To Die is the longest 007 movie ever.When Blake Lively hits a red carpet, she looks like Hollywood royalty.

Her appearance at the Met Gala in NYC on Monday is a perfect example where the blonde cover girl made the most of a Versace gown.

So it's no wonder the 30-year-old actress dressed like a real-life Disney princess on Thursday when she hosted the Baby2Baby Mother's Day Celebration at The Wing Dumbo in Brooklyn, New York.

Perfect spring look: Blake Lively hosted the Baby2Baby Mother's Day Celebration at The Wing Dumbo in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday

All the right accents: The 30-year-old actress looked almost like a Disney princess

A cartoon version of Blake: The siren's outfit brought to mind Princess Aurora from the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty

The wife of Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds modeled a lovely sleeveless light pink dress that had a A line skirt and came below the knees.

The fabric also had a white feather design all over it.

The Shallows star added some very large spiral earrings that matched well with her yellow toned strapped 1940s-inspired heels.

The beauty, who came to fame with TV's Gossip Girl, wore her golden mane pulled back and had on subtle pink makeup.

Feminine: The wife of Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds modeled a lovely sleeveless light pink dress that had a A line skirt and came below the knees

The event was presented by Shutterfly and plenty of photos were taken.

Blake could be seen meeting children who benefit from Baby2Baby.

She handed them balloons and cake and played with them as they checked out new toys, books and backpacks.

Having fun with the kids: Blake could be seen meeting children who benefit from Baby2Baby

Planting a good seed: Here the leggy wonder helped the kids garden

Food time: Lively laughed as everyone sat down for lunch as the cake had yet to be cut

The charity provides low-income children ages 0-12 years with diapers, clothing and all the basic necessities that every child deserves.

By distributing to non-profit partner organizations including homeless and domestic violence shelters, Head Start programs, foster care programs and childrens hospitals, Baby2Baby will serve more than 180,000 children in Los Angeles this year and tens of thousands more across the country through the Baby2Baby National Network.

Chill time: She handed them balloons and played with them as they checked out new toys, books and backpacks

Another princess: Blake held a child as she met Tiana, who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' 49th animated feature film The Princess and the Frog (2009)

Good cause: The star also posed with the co-presidents of Baby2Baby, Kelly Sawyer Patricof and Norah Weinstein

The star also posed with the co-presidents of Baby2Baby, Kelly Sawyer Patricof and Norah Weinstein.

Blake has two children of her own with Reynolds: Ines, ages one, and James, aged three.

On Monday Blake stole the red carpet at the annual Met Gala as she modeled a beautiful gold and red gown.

The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants star was a guest of Donatella Versace's, who also dressed Kim Kardashian.He may be a successful restaurateur and MasterChef judge, but George Calombaris claims he never cooks at home.

During an interview with The Living Room's Amanda Keller, which airs on Friday, the 39-year-old explained that he finds it too 'domestic'.

The celebrity chef also shared a hilarious tale from when he invited Nigella Lawson over for dinner, in a preview published by Now To Love.

'It's too domestic': George Calombaris, 39, has revealed that he NEVER cooks at home

Preferring the intensity and chaos that comes with a restaurant kitchen, George said he leaves the cooking at home to wife Natalie Tricarico because it is too 'domestic'.

And when George and Natalie invited Nigella Lawson over for dinner years ago, the reality TV star found himself in an awkward situation.

George told Amanda: 'There was this moment when we were standing around the kitchen bench, and I was mixing this salad, and I've gone to Natalie, "What's this bowl? I've never seen this before".

'And Nigella blushed and Nat's giggling, and I went "What's going on?" and then I lifted the bowl and said "Oh gosh! It was a Nigella bowl",' George added, laughing.

At home with George: Preferring the intensity that comes with a restaurant kitchen, George said he leaves the cooking at home to wife Natalie Tricarico (left) because it's too 'domestic'

Awkward! When the couple invited Nigella over for dinner years ago, George found himself in an awkward situation when he discovered they were using Nigella's own range of bowls

MasterChef recently returned for its tenth season. Nigella is expected to make an appearance as a guest judge.

The 58-year-old British chef previously had a cameo on the show back in 2016.

Nigella only had praise for the Australian version of MasterChef in an interview with The Daily Telegraph last December.

'It's a very kind program and it's positive and helps people in the right way,' she said. 'It's not at all about making people feel bad about themselves.'She is following in the footsteps of Kim Kardashian and Millie Mackintosh by getting acupuncture to maintain her youthful appearance.

And Lisa Snowdon showed off the pleasing results when she made a glamorous arrival at the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards, in London on Thursday.

The 46-year-old radio presenter displayed her youthful complexion  defined by outlines of make-up to ensure attention was paid to her features.

Enchanting looks! Lisa Snowdon, 46, displayed her VERY smooth visage at Fortnum & Mason bash in London on Thursday after having acupuncture

Lisa framed her features with her polished straight brunette tresses, with her parting pulled away from her face for maximum impact.

The former Britain's Next Top Model host also showcased her desirable curves in her bodycon velvet dress which clung to every inch of her incredible shape.

Claudia Winkleman and Piers Morgan joined forces with Lisa at the bash, while Candice Brown and Mary Berry enjoyed a Great British Bake Off reunion.

Sensational looks: The former Britain's Next Top Model host also showcased her desirable curves in her bodycon velvet dress which clung to every inch of her incredible shape

It's party time: Lisa rubbed shoulders with the great and the good of the showbiz world, with the star taking the time to catch up with Laura Whitmore inside the venue

Lisa's appearance at the party shortly follows the star sharing her 'needle selfie' from her Cosmetic acupuncture session on social media.

George Clooney's ex, who was at the top of the modelling world for more than two decades thanks to her youthful glow, has turned to the painful-looking therapy.

Cosmetic acupuncture, touted as a natural alternative to Botox, involves having up to 100 needles inserted into the face and ears.

Keep dancing! Claudia Winkleman showcased her svelte figure in a spotty blouse and black trousers when she descended on the food and drink-themed event

It is claimed to improve skin moisture balance, elasticity and cellular turnover, and to reduce inflammation from skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis.

The TV presenter shared a picture of herself on social media which showed 97 needles of various sizes placed around her face.

Miss Snowdon, who is engaged to 37-year-old entrepreneur George Smart, claimed the procedure was most relaxing and helped balance her hormones.

Great (British Bake Off) reunion! Candice Brown and Mary Berry were delighted to be in each other's charming company once again at the bash

The former Strictly Come Dancing contestant is being treated by Sarah Bradden, a holistic therapist based in Mayfair, who specialises in cosmetic acupuncture.

Patients are recommended to have a minimum course of six to 12 weekly sessions costing around 175 a time.

Miss Snowdon had her sixth session, which lasted 25 minutes, earlier this week.

Suited and booted! Piers Morgan cut a sharp figure in his suit when he headed to the occasion to mingle among the stars

Posting the picture to her 180,000 followers on Instagram, she wrote: So Ive progressed to 97 needles in this treatment, which is very much an all-over body, mind balance, as well as helping to lift and tone my face.

I also have needles in my ears, which helps to treat the whole body, boost my kidneys etc. Exciting to see and feel a difference in my body, my mind, my hormones balancing out and my overall health improving. It may look terrifying but I promise you the most relaxing treatment.

As soon as the first needle goes in my whole body seems to breathe a sigh of relief and surrenders.

Thigh's the limit! Fay Ripley put her pins on display in her thigh-split dress, with the split embellished with moon and star embroidery to draw attention to her stems

Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, Madonna and Angelia Jolie are all said to be fans, while Millie Mackintosh and Kim Kardashian have posted needle selfies.

Acupuncture, a Chinese remedy dating back more than 2,000 years, is used to treat everything from backache to migraines and fertility problems. Some acupuncture  though not cosmetic  is even funded by the NHS.

Cosmetic acupuncture claims to work by targeting pressure points with the needles to release energy and endorphins.Lex Wotton will address Palm Island community members about a $30 million class action settlement that has been reached with the Queensland government.

A community meeting will take place on the island on Thursday following a briefing in Townsville on Wednesday.

It comes after the state government revealed it had reached the settlement with 447 claimants in the 2016 class action.

Mr Wotton's Federal Court class action resulted from the police response to riots that followed Palm Island man Cameron Doomadgee's 2004 death in custody being deemed racist.

Speaking after the meeting in Townsville, Mr Wotton said the struggle he had endured in his fight for justice on behalf of the community had not been recognised by its leadership.

Mr Wotton said few had stood up for him or the community despite an endless stream of negative publicity.

"I know there's a lot of bad things on social media but no matter what you say or do it's not going to change what the court of law announced," he told AAP.

"You have to move on and don't look behind because that's not where you're going.

The settlement needs to be approved by the Federal Court.Three Labor MPs caught up in the citizenship crisis will quit parliament on Friday vowing to recontest their seats, after the High Court disqualified senator Katy Gallagher.

Labor's Susan Lamb, Josh Wilson and Justine Keay signalled on Wednesday they would quit, along with Centre Alliance's Rebekha Sharkie, sparking fresh elections in their seats.

All five MPs were British citizens when the writs for the 2016 election were issued, which the High Court ruled made Ms Gallagher ineligible.

Attorney-General Christian Porter demanded the four lower house MPs resign after the ruling, and one-by-one they announced their decisions to quit and run again.

Five by-elections are now due, with Labor's Tim Hammond also set to quit his Perth seat on Friday for family reasons.

They are likely to be held on the same day, with June 16 the earliest possible date for a by-election Super Saturday.

It will be an expensive exercise for the major parties which no doubt would rather be saving their pennies for the federal poll due next year.

The Liberal Party emailed its supporters on Wednesday night seeking contributions for a "by-election fighting fund".

Meanwhile, Ms Lamb plans to run again in the Queensland seat of Longman, but she is still technically a British citizen.

"She's going to renounce her citizenship (before nominations close)," Opposition Leader Bill Shorten told reporters.

Longman could be a tough by-election for Labor which holds the seat by the razor-thin margin of 0.8 per cent.

Ms Keay will run again in Braddon, but it won't be against former senator Jacqui Lambie, who ruled out a tilt at the Tasmanian seat.

The government accused Labor of failing to act on their in-doubt MPs earlier and falsely saying the party's checks of candidate backgrounds were thorough.

Mr Shorten, who last year said "We have a strict vetting process. There is no cloud over any of our people", said he always acted in good faith, relying on Labor's legal advice, but the court had set a new precedent in the Gallagher case.

Mr Porter said the court had not set a precedent, but rather gave a "crisp and crystal-clear clarification of the law" as it stated in the case of government minister Matt Canavan last year.

Ms Gallagher, who represents the ACT, argued she took every possible step to renounce her British ties before the 2016 election.

But the High Court found that despite Ms Gallagher's efforts to renounce her citizenship, she was not eligible under section 44 of the constitution to sit in parliament.Households are expected to be slugged substantial cost of living increases in the West Australian government's second budget.

Water Minister Dave Kelly has already revealed water charges for the representative household will increase by 5.5 per cent in 2018/19.

Shadow treasurer Dean Nalder told reporters ahead of Thursday's budget the Water Corporation was making tidy profits and was "over-recovering".

Other already-revealed cost of living increases include Emergency Services Levy rises to create a rural fire service.

Metropolitan landowners will pay an additional $28 from July 1 while landowners in the regions will pay between $8 and $17 extra.

Mr Nalder said households were already doing it tough with stagnant wage growth, and pointed to a big rise in applications for the Hardship Utility Grants Scheme last year.

"We think it's inappropriate that the state government at this point in time is putting pressure on the households of Western Australia," he said.

Treasurer Ben Wyatt has already revealed the 2018/19 deficit has narrowed to about $900 million, down from the $915 million forecast in the mid-year budget review.

He also says the state remains on track for a surplus by 2020/21 but it will take a long time to pay off debt, which was forecast in December to peak in 2019/20 at $42.8 billion.The NRL is looking to further strengthen head injury rules by introducing a second doctor during matches, as well as exploring the possibility of using spotters in the crowd.

However, it won't make public any breaches made by clubs taking advantage of the concussion rule unless it's deemed in the public interest.

NRL's chief medical officer, Dr Paul Bloomfield, says clubs next season will be required to have two doctors at the ground.

"The clubs next year will have an assistant doctor, so two doctors per club," he said.

The second doctor will be valuable assessing head knocks, which can be complex, he said

It will also ensure a physician remains on the sideline if the other doctor is treating a player in the clubrooms.

The rule changes are designed to further protect players following last season's round three crackdowns on head injury rule breaches, which resulted in fines for Gold Coast, Newcastle and St George Illwarra.

The NRL last month asked the Sydney Roosters to explain their use of a free interchange after Boyd Cordner returned to the field following a head injury assessment, according to the ABC.

The NRL has also quizzed Cronulla about its lack of action when Josh Dugan appeared to receive a bad head knock during their round two clash with St George Illawarra.

Despite the increased number of medical staff at games, Dr Bloomfield said head injury management had progressed across the code.

"Attitudes towards that are definitely improving and I think clubs as a whole are being more conservative with their management in game of concussions and it's reflected in our reviews of concussions and discussions with club doctors," he said.

However, the NRL won't make all breaches of its head injury rules public.

"We will always treat concussion-related matters on a case-by-case basis, as we would any other issues arising out of the NRL rules," an NRL spokesperson said.

"Some will be in the public interest to disclose, while others will be dealt with privately with clubs."Constitutional law expert George Williams says Labor is right to say the High Court decision in the case of former senator Katy Gallagher sets a precedent.

However, he says the coalition also has a point in saying the court reached its conclusion - that Ms Gallagher is disqualified - by "developing and applying its prior decisions" such as the Sykes and Canavan cases.

"Labor is correct in that every High Court decision sets a precedent of some kind," Professor Williams told AAP on Thursday.

"That's the nature of the court deciding on each particular case.

"Here they have done so by establishing how the law operates in the context of someone in Katy Gallagher's position. The court had not previously decided how the law applies in this fact situation."Malcolm Turnbull doesn't believe a referendum is needed to amend a part of the constitution banning people with dual-citizenship running for federal parliament.

The crisis over Section 44 has already claimed more than a dozen scalps, with three Labor MPs and Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie announcing on Wednesday they would quit following a High Court verdict over ACT senator Katy Gallagher.

Asked whether the latest drama warrants a referendum change, the prime minister told reporters in Queanbeyan on Thursday: "It's time for people to ensure that they're not dual citizens before they nominate for parliament".

Mr Turnbull said it is not hard to renounce UK citizenship and candidates from all parties should get their act together before they nominate "full stop".A zoo under construction in western Sydney has won the right to be named Sydney Zoo after a legal battle with the city's famous Taronga Zoo.

An agreement was reached by the two organisations after Taronga Zoo launched legal action against Sydney Zoo Pty Ltd in the Federal Court earlier this year arguing the title could cause the public to confuse the new zoo with its own facility on Sydney harbour.

"It's obviously a massive relief for us now that we have clarity regarding our brand," Sydney Zoo chief executive Jake Burgess told AAP on Thursday.An evaluation of SafeWork SA will be conducted by South Australia's commissioner against corruption after a number of complaints about the regulatory body were reported.

Commissioner Bruce Lander, who last week announced a separate investigation into SafeWork SA over the failed prosecution of a 2014 death on a Royal Adelaide Show ride, will hold public hearings as part of the process.

"The purpose of the evaluation will be to consider what, if any, improvements can be made to minimise the potential for corruption, misconduct or maladministration to occur within the agency," he said.A dangerous sex offender who remains on the run would not have been released from jail in November if the WA Liberals hadn't held up legislation, Attorney-General John Quigley says.

Patrick Lennard Narrier, 45, was released subject to 50 conditions despite being considered a serious danger to the community and was last seen on Tuesday.

He is being sought by police in relation to a current investigation and it's understood he removed his tracking device

Mr Quigley said the legislation would have prevented Narrier from being released and blamed the opposition for holding it up in the upper house until December.A man jailed for the killing of another man over a drug debt has been given time to respond to the Queensland parole board's concerns about releasing him under the state's new no body, no parole laws.

Zane Tray Lincoln, who was convicted of manslaughter over the 2012 death of Timothy Pullen in north Queensland, will prepare to give a statement to the board at a later date, the board heard on Thursday.

Under the laws, killers and accessories are to be kept behind bars longer unless they disclose the locations of their victims, with concerns Mr Pullen's burnt body may never be found after possibly being washed away.The Western Force have added a pinch of All Blacks power to their list, signing lock Jeremy Thrush for World Series Rugby.

Thrush made 12 appearances for the All Blacks between 2013-15, earning man-of-the-match honours in a 24-16 win over Scotland in 2014.

The 33-year-old made 110 appearances for the Hurricanes in Super Rugby and has spent the past three years playing for Gloucester in the English Premiership.

The 198cm powerhouse won't feature for the Force in Sunday's clash with Tonga at nib Stadium.

But he could be available for the June 9 grudge match against the Melbourne Rebels.

The Rebels and Force were locked in a bitter fight for survival when Rugby Australian announced they would axe one of their five Super Rugby sides last year.

The Force ended up getting the chop but they have since been revived by mining magnate Andrew Forrest.

World Series Rugby kicked off with a bang last week, with a sellout crowd of 19,466 watching the Force beat the Fiji Warriors 24-14.A critically-endangered shorebird once seen regularly along NSW's coastline is facing extinction, wildlife conservationists have warned.

The NSW government has been urged to strengthen its environmental protection laws as habitat destruction threatens the Eastern Curlew and several other shorebirds along the state's coastline, BirdLife Australia says.

"The Eastern Curlew is the largest migratory shorebird in the world, and, like many of our shorebirds, it's being pushed to the edge of extinction," BirdLife Australia project officer Mick Roderick said in a statement on Thursday.A two-year-old Northern Territory girl allegedly raped in Tennant Creek was clearly at risk of harm, and that risk could have been managed or mitigated, a report scathing of child welfare services has found.

A 24-year-old man was charged with sexual assault over the February attack which shocked Australia.

The toddler suffered significant and painful injuries, tested positive for a sexually transmitted disease and was provided with post exposure HIV medication.

She was transferred from Tennant Creek Hospital, to Alice Springs and then onto the Adelaide Women's and Children's Hospital for surgery and a blood transfusion, Children's Commissioner Colleen Gwynne said in a report tabled in the NT Parliament.

"This was not the only violence that C1 had been exposed to, and experienced, in her short life," Ms Gwynne said, in a heavily redacted report.

"It was foreseeable that C1 was at risk of harm and that risk could have been managed or mitigated."

The report is damning for the Territory Families department, which said it had had no specific concerns about the girl.

"Significant contact with police had also occurred with her siblings and both parents, culminating in over 150 recorded interactions," Ms Gwynne said.

Those notifications with various government authorities included concerns regarding experience of, and exposure to, domestic violence and parental substance abuse, lack of education (attendance), neglect, emotional harm, physical harm and sexual abuse of the children.

"Prior to the most recent alleged sexual assault upon C1, police had also conducted investigations in relation to sexual and physical abuse upon her siblings, some of these investigations resulted in prosecutions, with the perpetrator incarcerated," Ms Gwynne said.

A key problem was balancing privacy rights and protecting children, with government employees criticised for not sharing information that would protect young people or ensuring they went to school, she said.

Tennant Creek, the NT's fifth largest town, was described as in a dire state with high unemployment, substance abuse and endemic crime.

Territory Families has rejected the report, saying there was not sufficient evidence for such a finding.

However, Territory Families Minister Dale Wakefield said she accepted the commissioner's 14 recommendations, including that the Care and Protection of Children Act is complied with.

"Many of the recommendations are consistent with recommendations from the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children," she said in parliament.Two Labor candidates are expected to battle it out for the nomination as their party's candidate in the federal seat of Perth, following the shock resignation of federal MP Tim Hammond.

Lawyer John Hammond - no relation - confirmed he is preparing the paperwork for his nomination which could pit him against Labor's state secretary Patrick Gormann, who is reportedly the party's preferred candidate.

He is also yet to nominate.

Mr Hammond told 6PR radio Mr Gormann was the favourite to run by party factions but not "senior figures" in the trade union movement.The search for platypus thought to be extinct on mainland South Australia for nearly fifty years is being aided by cutting-edge DNA technology.

New DNA equipment is being used by scientists at the Australian Water Quality Centre (AWQC) at SA Water to examine waterholes in the Adelaide hills.

"With a simple one-litre sample they can determine exactly what organisms, including vertebrates, native fish, and bacteria have been in contact with that water sample," AWWQC's general manager Dr Thorsten Mosisch said.

The team took samples from 22 different locations, where the animals were possibly sighted last year, and found a range of animal DNA types including koala, rabbit and deer.

"Platypus are thought to have been extinct on mainland South Australia since the 1970s, but last year there were several sightings in the Sturt Gorge Recreation Park in the Adelaide Hills," he said.

Sadly no platypuses have been found yet, but Dr Mosisch said the impact of this technology was far reaching for many fields.

"This molecular-based analytical technique has significant implications for public health, research, conservation efforts, and optimising processes and conditions within water and wastewater treatment plants," he said.A warning has been issued for Western Australia's capital after prescribed burns continued to blanket parts of the Perth metropolitan with a smoky haze.

A smoke alert has been issued for the area between Two Rocks in Manudrah, south of Perth extending across the metropolitan to the Perth Hills from two large controlled fires in Mundaring and Dwellingup.

The Parks and Wildlife Service said the burns would continue over the next few days as part of reducing fuel loads to help protect the towns of Mundaring, Sawyer Valley, Chidlow and Dwellingup in the summer fire season.An elderly woman suffered horrific injuries when she was mauled by a large black dog in northern NSW with the 81-year-old falling backwards during the attack and splitting her head.

The woman was walking in a Lismore park on Wednesday afternoon when the dog broke free from its owner and lunged at her face.

NSW Police said the victim tried to protect herself but the animal latched on to her right arm and "savagely" mauled it.

"This has caused the victim to fall to the ground and split the back of her head open," police said in a Facebook post.

The man who was with the dog attempted to help the woman but then apologised and left.

Police said much of the skin on the 81-year-old's arm had been torn off and she was likely to require surgery and skin grafts.

She also suffered a 15-centimetre laceration to the back of her head as a result of the fall. She was taken to a Queensland hospital for treatment.

"The victim is in a stable condition and will be OK," police said on Thursday afternoon.

Detectives are speaking with someone "who is assisting with inquiries".A $158 million cruise ship mega-terminal slated for Brisbane has been given the go-ahead by the competition regulator but must meet strict conditions.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on Thursday announced it would allow the development to go ahead, but attached two conditions to an agreement between the Port of Brisbane and cruise operator Carnival.

The ACCC says Carnival will be limited in the number of weekend days it can berth and that it cannot be given the first option on which days to berth if the terminal is expanded.Sleeping on the floor of a disabled toilet at a NSW train station when he was 13, Owen became addicted to drugs and found "paradise" every time he was sent to jail.

He had fled the housing commission home he lived in with his mother after a huge fight and soon stopped going to school because he was bullied for not showering and having clean clothes.

His life became a vicious cycle of drugs, crime and imprisonment in detention centres - where he savoured the free food, bed and shelter.

But this ended when he was sent to the Oasis Youth Support Network in Sydney's Surry Hills and met Salvation Army workers Paul and Robbin Moulds.

"They are my family, they literally loved me back to life," Owen said.

The musician and Sydney Film School graduate stood before more than 600 business leaders at a ballroom in The Westin on Thursday to share his story and encourage them to dig deep for the 2018 Red Shield Appeal.

This year's target is $73 million nationwide, with a goal of $26.2 million across NSW and the ACT.

"You have never felt fear until you feel that feeling of nothingness," Owen told the audience.

"The feeling of being so lost, even though you know where you are."

The young man was a teenager when he featured in the 2008 confronting and award-winning documentary on youth homelessness, The Oasis.

A decade on, the issue still frustrates director Ian Darling, a fellow guest speaker at the Sydney appeal launch.

"Homelessness should not exist in Australia. The community should be outraged by this human rights tragedy," Mr Darling, who was last year named the country's leading philanthropist, said.

"I didn't hear the word homeless mentioned once during the last federal election campaign nor in Tuesday's budget."

He voiced his concern over the frequent rotation of prime ministers, the three-year electoral cycle and the government's failure to halve homelessness by 2020 - as Kevin Rudd targeted in his 2008 White Paper on top of Labor's $6.1 billion affordable housing program.

"We need to lock in a substantial 25-year funding commitment to end homelessness regardless of who is in government - state or federal," Mr Darling said.

"Homelessness is not about sleeping in a cardboard box for one night. It is about years of poverty, trauma, abuse and neglect."

The NSW government has donated $200,000 to the Red Shield Appeal, with a doorknock to be held May 26-27.

The Oasis: Ten Years Later, about the transformation of the first film's participants, will be released in late-2018.Comedians could end up in court as the government seeks to crack down on Labor Mediscare-style political campaigning, parliament has heard.

Greens senator Nick McKim gave the warning as he railed against a push to make impersonating a commonwealth agency or service a criminal offence.

The bill is set to sail through the upper house with support of the major parties, despite Senator McKim's concerns it will damage free speech.

The Tasmanian senator questioned whether satirists like Shaun Micallef and The Chaser team would have to think twice about their jokes or risk up to five years' jail.

He used the example of a young comedian performing a skit impersonating a government department only to be dragged through the courts by a humourless public servant.

"If you were in her position and this law were in place, would you think twice about telling your jokes or performing your skit?" he asked parliament on Thursday.

"If I were a comedian, I'd probably write a different skit. This is what I mean by a chilling effect."

While the bill has an exemption for satire, how "genuine" it is could be determined by a court.

"Australian common law has never previously had to deal with defining genuine satire, meaning that satirists will be in the dark as to the potential limits of their jokes until a body of common law has been established," Senator McKim said.

The measure is part of a suite of changes to electoral laws aimed at stamping out campaigns like Labor's so-called 'Mediscare' during the 2016 election, which used a text message which appeared to come from Medicare.

The government insists the changes will ensure Australians have trust in communications from Commonwealth bodies.

New laws forcing political parties to disclose who is sending them campaign material came into effect earlier in the year.They were sent to jungles dark, shunned on their return and now 50 years later, Australian soldiers who fought in the longest and most costly battle in the Vietnam War find themselves in the nation's spotlight.

Sunday marks half a century since the Battle of Coral-Balmoral, an almost continuous series of fierce attacks fought over 26 days from May 13 to June 6, 1968.

Twenty-six Australians died and a hundred were wounded.

It's estimated that 300 North Vietnamese were killed in these actions, but exact figures will never be known.

Bill McLellan and Harry Northwood, were among the 3000 Australian soldiers involved and watched on from the public gallery of the lower house on Thursday as the nation's leaders paid tribute after question time.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull acknowledged the battle was not widely known in Australia but was among the heaviest fighting endured.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said it was hard to imagine the conflict but also hard to fathom the frosty homecoming.

"For too long Australia closed its eyes and its heart to our Vietnam veterans," Mr Shorten said.

"It is the hard truth that too many Australians were sent into jungles dark and were shunned on their return."

Among the Australian wounded was Second Lieutenant Tim Fischer, later deputy prime minister.

A national service will be held this Sunday at the Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial in Canberra.Powers allowing Australia's intelligence agency to detain people for questioning for up to seven days should be scrapped, a high-powered security committee has recommended.

The parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security recommended the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation retain its compulsory questioning powers, but forfeit powers of compulsory detention.

"The committee accepts that there may be limited and exceptional circumstances where the power is required in order to ensure a person attends questioning, and consequently there is the need to provide a 'power of attendance'," it wrote in a report published on Thursday.

"However, noting the seriousness of ongoing detention, the constitutional and human rights concerns with the current framework and the non-use of the powers, the committee is of the view that the current provisions are no longer the appropriate response to the threat of terrorism."

Law Council of Australia president Morry Bailes said the council had long argued the ASIO questioning and detention powers "failed to strike the right balance between protecting the community and upholding the rule of law".

"Today the committee has recognised this imbalance and we welcome these recommendations," he said.Drug testing welfare recipients could make things worse for vulnerable people, a federal opposition MP has told parliament.

Opposition social services spokeswoman Jenny Macklin says Labor opposed proposed drug testing trials of welfare recipients the first time they were introduced into parliament and will do so again now they've made their return.

"There is a clear consensus this trial will not work - it is not based on evidence and in fact this trial could make the situation worse for some very vulnerable people," she said on Thursday.- WA Liberal Opposition: Budget relies on large amount of Commonwealth funds, hits households hard and guts Royalties for Regions

- Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA: Everyone should feel more confident about the economy, but debt remains a big problem. Welcomes reviewing sale of Landgate and TAB, but Western Power is the "silver bullet"

- Association of Mining and Exploration Companies: Pleased there is no royalty rate increase. Disappointed with mining lease hikes and changes to the building and construction industry training fund (BCITF), echoed by the Chamber of Minerals and Energy

- Housing Industry Association: Disappointed the foreign investor tax has been increased. Property Council agrees, but pleased with infrastructure commitments such as housing projects around Metronet lines

- WA Council of Social Service: No relief for low income families. Support increase in social housing stock around Metronet and Target 120 program to reduce crime

- Australian Medical Association WA: Infrastructure spending lacking. King Edward Memorial Hospital still on an "ancient" site with no CT scanner or ICU, and women are getting second-rate health care. Health in the state in a 'holding pattern' as government waits for Sustainable Health Review

- Unions WA: Backs the BCITF levy and ongoing freeze on TAFE fees. Concerned about utilities fee hike

- Community and Public Sector Union: Half of public servants surveyed said work quality had dropped and response times were slower, meaning poorer services to the WA community

- State School Teachers Unions: Only a 1.1 per cent increase in the education budget, the lowest increase in five years

- WA Police Union: Regional officers slugged an additional $30 per week for rent, which will put policing services at risk because it is already difficult to attract police to some areas. Also disappointed there are no provisions for more officers.A crossbench senator has launched a stinging attack on "transnational parasites" jumping on Australia's welfare gravy train before targeting unemployed Muslims.

Former One Nation candidate turned independent Fraser Anning praised the Turnbull government's budget measure which increases the wait time for migrants to access welfare to four years.

But the Queensland senator wants it extended to ban refugees and migrants from accessing welfare.

"Free welfare and public housing attracts the very type of migrants - transnational parasites who travel not in search of opportunity, but in search of a free ride at everyone else's expense," Senator Anning told parliament on Thursday.

"It's no coincidence 56 per cent of Australia's working-age Muslims are not in the labour force."

He is also vehemently opposed to David Gonski's education reforms, dismissing the plan as "pure socialism".

However, overall he described the budget as "pretty good".

Senator Anning was especially pleased with personal income tax cuts, a funding boost for the schools chaplaincy program and money for the Bruce Highway.

His former party One Nation will back the first two rounds of the government's income tax cuts, despite leader Pauline Hanson's concerns the wider program is unaffordable.

She found rare common ground with the Greens in calling for a royalty on Australian resources, targeting multinational energy giants she says are "ripping the guts out" of the country.

"Politicians have allowed foreign-owned petroleum companies to design the tax system," Senator Hanson said.

"We get nothing on the profits made from the gas by foreign multinationals."

Greens leader Richard Di Natale vowed to fight against tax cuts, which he says will come at the cost of health and education.

"We know that people prefer services over tax cuts," he said.

He said the government's plan would turbocharge inequality, calling out the government's "shameful" decision not to increase Newstart.

"The champagne corks will have been popping in boardrooms right across the country on budget night," Senator Di Natale said.

Senator Di Natale said the big business-friendly budget had motivated his party to fight the government's plans and clean up politics.

"If you want to fix the tax system, you fix the tax avoidance system," he said.A partly Australian-funded liquefied natural gas project in Papua New Guinea's southern highlands has the hallmarks of another Bougainville civil war, a new report warns.

The ExxonMobil-led project, which attracted a half billion dollar Australian government loan in 2009, supplies eight million tonnes of gas a year to Japan, South Korea and China.

Despite gas flowing since 2014, landowners in Hela province are yet to receive royalty payments, resulting in escalating tensions, tribal violence, incidents of hostage-taking, blockades and sabotage.

A new report from Australian think tank Jubilee Australia warns there are risks landowner discontent could "spiral out of control" and might force the PNG government into a military crackdown.

"The build-up of arms has accelerated to a pointed where it is often speculated that the landowners are in possession of more firepower than the entire PNG defence force," the report says.

Between 1987-1997, 20,000 people died in a civil war between PNG and its Bougainville province. Panguna, one of the world's largest copper and gold mines, sparked the conflict.

"The PNG state lost its war with Bougainville against a population that began the war armed only with bows and arrows," the report says.

"In Hela, the population is far more numerous and heavily armed with weaponry that is increasing in sophistication and firepower by the day."

The report is scathing of undelivered infrastructure projects resource companies promised landowners including roads, airports, hospitals, housing and sewerage projects.

Report author Michael Main, who spent seven months on the ground in Hela province, said the vast majority had not been built. A few were incomplete or not maintained properly or were white elephants.

He pointed to the Komo hospital, which has no equipment, staff, fuel for its generator, or beds.

"Tari airport does not even have a security fence, and on one occasion the author was required to chase away a cow that had wandered on to the airstrip, away from the Air Niugini plane that was coming in to land," the report said.

The gas project was partially funded by Australia after the export credit agency Efic made its largest-ever loan of $500 million to ExxonMobil, OilSearch, Santos and the PNG government in 2009.

The report is critical of the due diligence undertaken by consultants paid for by ExxonMobil.

It calls for a full Senate inquiry.

Last month, Jubilee Australia released another report which concluded the touted economic boom from the project had not eventuated and the PNG people would have been better off if it hadn't gone ahead.

PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill dismissed the report as fake news, despite admitting he hadn't read it, while some of his ministers acknowledged the government had some lessons to learn.

Comment has been sought from ExxonMobil and the PNG government.A driver has been jailed for causing a head-on crash in which a holiday-maker died and four of her relatives were injured on the NSW north coast.

Steven Mark Farquhar was driving on the wrong side of the road in July 2015 when he crashed into a car containing five family members from Sydney travelling to the Gold Coast.

A blood test revealed the now 34-year-old had traces of methylamphetamine and cannabis in his system but Judge Dina Yehia said she was unable to conclude Farquhar was under the influence of drugs at the time.

A doctor who treated him at the scene said his symptoms of drowsiness, slurred speech, droopy eyelids and lethargy could have been caused by a medical response to his testicles being pushed up into his body during the crash.

In the District Court in Sydney on Thursday, Judge Yehia jailed Farquhar for four years and six months with a non-parole period of two years and three months.

Farquhar pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Saroja Basavaraj, 64, and causing serious injury to her niece Lakshmi Bangalore, 41, her husband, Suresh Bangalore, 46, and a girl. A boy also suffered a minor injury.

Farquhar had been driving from Brisbane to Canberra to visit relatives.

"I am unable to find beyond a reasonable doubt that his driving was impaired as a result of drug or drugs in his blood," the judge said.

She noted there had only been one blood sample.

The prosecution conceded it could not exclude as a reasonable possibility that Farquhar's symptoms described by people at the scene were part of a "vagal response" to his injuries.

The judge said his crossing over to the wrong side of the road was not a case of momentary inattention.

"His driving was erratic, although only for a relatively brief period. The consequences were catastrophic."

When he learnt of the death at the crash scene Farquhar said: "Why couldn't I have died - it should have been me."

The judge concluded he had good prospects of rehabilitation.Former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is focusing on America's mid-term elections, hoping the Democrats can win back at least one chamber of congress.

Ms Clinton is on a brief, two-stop speaking tour in Australia, her first visit since losing the 2016 US presidential election to Donald Trump.

She shared a stage in Melbourne on Thursday night with former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard and will do so again in Sydney on Friday night.

The former US secretary of state, who has ruled out another bid for the presidency, said her primary focus as a citizen is on the November elections.

She noted the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate were up for election.

"I think it's imperative that the Democrats take at least one of those houses back, preferably both, and begin to act as a check and balance on the White House.

"Right now the Republican majority is cowed, intimidated or actually approves of everything that's going on.

"It's quite concerning to me because unchecked power, whether you agree with how it's being used or not, should be avoided and prevented in a democracy."

Ms Clinton said she had devoted her time after the election defeat to writing a book, adding "it was something that I had to do".

Unsurprisingly, the treatment of women in politics came up during Thursday's event.

"The only way we'll get sexism out of politics is to get more women into politics," Ms Clinton said.

The 5000 attendees paid between $195 and $495 for tickets to hear Ms Clinton speak at the function organised by Australian business events group The Growth Faculty.South Australia's status as one of only two Australian states without shield laws could be about to change after a bill protecting the rights of journalists and whistleblowers was introduced to parliament.

The proposed legislation would protect journalists from being compelled to answer a question or produce a document that may disclose the identity of an informant when the source relates a public interest.

It was one of three bills introduced to the new parliament by Attorney-General Vickie Chapman on Thursday.

Legislation enabling the state's independent Commissioner Against Corruption to hold public hearings was also tabled.

While in opposition, the Liberals criticised the then Labor government over their refusal to allow the commissioner to conduct public hearings as part of the investigation into Adelaide's Oakden nursing home.

"We went to the people of South Australia promising to introduce this legislation within our first 100 days in office and we have delivered that pledge," Ms Chapman said.

Parliament also moved to make it easier to prosecute online predators with the introduction of Carly's Law.

Under the legislation mirrored on federal laws, predators who lie about their age in an attempt to groom children online face up to ten years in prison.

"It's important that the law moves with changing technology and criminals' modus operandi as information technology reaches further and further into people's lives," Ms Chapman said.

The law was sparked by the murder of 15-year-old South Australian Carly Ryan by a 50-year-old paedophile who posed as a 20-year-old to lure Carly to a meeting.Victorians will need to batten down the hatches with damaging winds and rain set to lash the state.

Winds averaging about 60-70km/h with peak gusts of up to 100km/h are forecast to hit the central and north central districts, then moving to Gippsland, in the state's east, before easing late on Friday.

The alpine region could clock gusts up to 120km/h with more snowfall expected on the slopes.

Melbourne is forecast to reach a top of 14C with 30mm of rain and gale-force winds from late morning while Gippsland could be drenched in up to 150mm of rain.

Bureau severe weather manager Steven McGibbony told reporters on Thursday there was a risk of flash flooding with a warning issued for Gippsland and the Yarra River catchment.

"We could see, depending on just how much rainfall, some minor riverine flooding develop," he said.

"With the rainfall and these strong winds, it's going to feel very wintry and very cold."

State Emergency Service boss Tim Wiebusch warned Victorians to prepare their homes for heavy rain, while motorists were reminded not to drive through floodwaters.

The cold front first hit the state on Wednesday with temperatures plunging and snow falling to 800m.The coalition is aiming to increase its wafer-thin majority as it sets up to win back the South Australian seat of Mayo.

Georgina Downer is being tipped to run in the seat her father, former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, held from 1984 to 2008.

She told the Nine Network she would have more to say on Friday about her candidacy for the by-election, which is being run after Centre Alliance's Rebekha Sharkie had to quit due to her dual citizenship.

The coalition has a one-seat majority in the lower house, but has a chance to increase that lead in five upcoming by-elections.

They could be called as early as Friday after the majority of MPs caught up in the dual-citizenship crisis announced their resignations.

Labor's Susan Lamb, Josh Wilson and Justine Keay all quit their lower house seats on Thursday following Wednesday's High Court decision to disqualify their caucus colleague Katy Gallagher.

The trio are now facing by-elections to be held in a "Super Saturday" poll as early as June 16.

Labor's Tim Hammond also quit for family reasons - but Ms Sharkie has still not officially resigned.

The opposition is on the back foot after insisting none of its MPs would be caught out by the constitution's requirements for dual citizens.

Ms Gallagher was deemed a citizen of the United Kingdom when the writs for the 2016 federal election were issued.

Her three Labor colleagues, along with Ms Sharkie, were in the same position.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull dropped the boot into the banished MPs for dragging their feet out the door.

"They have said they are ineligible, they have acknowledged they are ineligible and they still have not resigned, so they are drawing salaries and using MPs entitlements," he complained on Thursday morning.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten last year guaranteed his MPs would be fine but this week said he had relied on the advice of party lawyers, who turned out to be wrong.

The coalition is also a chance in Ms Lamb's Queensland seat of Longman and Ms Keay's Tasmanian seat of Braddon.

Ms Gallagher's vacant ACT senate seat is to be filled by a recount of ballot papers from the last election, which is expected to hand the seat to union boss David Smith.West Australian Treasurer Ben Wyatt will face the public for the first time since handing down his second budget but is not expected to receive the same backlash as last year.

His eventually-abandoned $332 million gold royalty hike in last year's budget drew criticism from the industry and was blocked by the Liberal opposition, but Mr Wyatt promised - and delivered - a no-frills and workmanlike budget for 2018/19.

Mr Wyatt has set an ambitious target to constrain spending growth at 0.9 per cent for the next financial year.

The public sector remains a major target, with two-thirds of 3000 voluntary redundancies to be complete in June, yielding estimated gross savings of $1.1 billion over the next four years.

Households are also being slugged an average of almost $300 a year in extra fees and charges.

Meanwhile, miners have lost an exemption for a building and construction industry training fund levy that they have not had to pay since 1995, which will provide $25 million over the next four years.

Net debt is expected to peak at $40.8 billion in 2019/20, which is an improvement on $42.8 billion estimated in December's mid-year review.

Next financial year's deficit is tipped to be $906 million, down $9 million on December's estimate, while a $1.29 billion surplus is forecast for 2020/21.

Mr Wyatt will speak at a post-budget breakfast in Perth on Friday.Australia's oldest scientist David Goodall is expected to be cremated in Switzerland where he died from assisted suicide aged 104.

Professor Goodall took his own life on Thursday at a clinic near Basel, to the strains of Beethoven's final symphony and surrounded by family.

He did not have a terminal illness but his quality of life had deteriorated in recent years.

He could not end his life in Australia, where assisted suicide is not legal, so took a one-way ticket from Perth to France last week to see relatives before arriving in Switzerland, where it is permitted.

Philip Nitschke, founder of right-to-die group Exit International, said Prof Goodall showed humour and a twinge of impatience in his final moments as formalities were tended to, uttering the last words: "This is taking a long time".

"During the paperwork, he said 'what are we waiting for?' Dr Nitschke told AAP.

"His final words were 'this is taking a long time'.

"He'd been told that everything would be very quick and in some ways, there had been a few delays."

Dr Nitschke said Prof Goodall's death was peaceful.

He said it was very likely the esteemed ecologist would be cremated in Switzerland, with his ashes to remain in the country, while his family in Perth are expected to hold a memorial in coming months.

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467.As the sun set over south Vietnam, Australian soldiers settled into their hastily dug, muddy fighting positions, unaware that an overwhelming attack by North Vietnamese Army soldiers was imminent.

Some felt uneasy. Their commanders had been briefed about a strong enemy presence. Official historian Ashley Ekins says afterwards they reported feeling a sense of foreboding.

"You won't need to find Charlie. They'll come looking for you," warned one American officer.

And they did, opening their attack about 3.30am with an intense barrage of rocket and mortar fire and following with waves of infantry, over-running some artillery and mortar positions.

"It was vicious. It was the worst kind of night time assault, in the dark, tracer from automatic weapons streaming in, together with rocket-propelled grenades. It would have been terrifying," Ekins said.

Eleven Australian soldiers died, most from the overwhelmed mortar platoon, while 28 were wounded before the attack was beaten back.

So opened the Battle of Coral-Balmoral, an almost continuous series of fierce attacks fought over 26 days from May 13 to June 6, 1968, 50 years ago.

These were by far the largest battles Australian forces participated in during their decade-long involvement in Vietnam, although they have mostly been over-shadowed by the better known Battle of Long Tan almost two years earlier.

Long Tan involved 108 Australians, with more in support, in a fight for their lives against a combined force of up to 2500 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. Eighteen Australians died and 24 were wounded.

Coral-Balmoral involved many more on both sides - 3000 or more Australians, with 26 killed, and hundreds of enemy dead. Among the Australian wounded was Second Lieutenant Tim Fischer, later deputy prime minister.

That year, 1968, was a watershed in the Vietnam War. On January 30-31, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launched the Tet offensive, attacking throughout South Vietnam.

Phase 2 of that offensive, later called mini-Tet, ran from April 29 to May 30. The US asked Australia to establish a fire support base on a likely North Vietnamese withdrawal route about 40km north of Saigon.

A fire support base (FSB) was a temporary artillery position set up to support operations beyond artillery range of established bases. Using the great tactical innovation of the Vietnam War, the helicopter, these could be established in hours.

For the First Australian Task Force (1ATF), this was to be a different kind of war, well away from their familiar operational area in Phuoc Tuy province. Up until then, Australia's war had been one of counter-insurgency, involving patrols, ambushes and some deliberate attacks on enemy positions.

Ekins said they were now heading into the big league. Coral was placed right on the North Vietnamese Army exit routes from Saigon and they were certain to respond.

FSB Coral was set up on May 12 with the insertion of two infantry battalions, 1RAR and 3RAR, plus 102 Field Battery and 161 New Zealand Field Battery and other support units.

Their arrival was protracted and confused. There weren't enough helicopters for a speedy lift. The artillery arrived before their defending infantry. Soldiers dug shallow scrapes, which filled with mud in the evening downpour. There was no wire for perimeter defences.

Ekins said the enemy was watching and concluded the Australian position was vulnerable.

Their initial attack might easily have overrun the base but was eventually beaten off by a combination of stolid defence, air support by US gunships and aircraft and Australian artillery.

As the sun rose, 52 enemy dead lay strewn inside and outside the perimeter.

A second attack followed on May 15-16, again beaten off by massed infantry and artillery fire from stronger defensive positions, plus some American gunners.

It was decided to redeploy 3RAR to set up another position, called FSB Balmoral, about 4.5km north of Coral.

North Vietnamese forces attacked Balmoral in the early hours of May 26.

This time defences were more formidable, reinforced by Australian Centurion tanks, which had made the long road trip from the main Australian base at Nui Dat.

The Centurions arrived two days before the attack and helped to repel the enemy assault. The same occurred in a second attack on Balmoral on May 27-28.

Far from content to sit in their bases waiting to be attacked, Australian units launched offensive patrols against enemy forces and their nearby bunker positions.

With enemy contacts diminishing, the Australian units returned to Nui Dat on June 6, closing down base defences and handing over the area of operations to the US Army's 1st Division.

Fifty years on, many veterans of what were the largest and most sustained action of Australia's war in Vietnam will be in Canberra to remember.

A national service will be held on Sunday, May 13 at the Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial in Canberra.

The Australian War Memorial's Last Post Ceremony at dusk on May 13 will commemorate the life of Corporal Robert Hickey of 1RAR and all those killed at and around FSB Coral.

The Last Post Ceremony on May 26 commemorates Private Lindsay Brown of 3RAR and those killed around FSB Balmoral.Sometimes, you don't truly appreciate things until they're gone.

What we once took for granted now looms far larger in the rear-view mirror of history. Things that were a bit daggy at the time but now, in hindsight, weren't so bad after all.

Sunday roast dinners. Caravan holidays. John Howard. Cars made in Australia.

It was this wave of nostalgia that kept sweeping over us this week as we tested the first-ever European-built Holden Commodore - an impressive, high-tech, sharp looking machine if ever there was one. And yet we spent much of the week fondly thinking about the Aussie-made model it has replaced.

Not because it was better than this swish-looking import. Just that it was ours, it was quintessentially Aussie, and it was clearly much better than we ever gave it credit for.

There was a time not so long ago that Holden would have jumped for joy if one of its models was favourably compared to a European import. Now it has no choice. They're all imports - and any sense of patriotism has pretty much disappeared from our automotive landscape.

What remains is a Commodore that will live or die strictly on its merits - and at first blush this one is well equipped to do so. It's really the first completely new, completely different Commodore since the one that replaced the iconic Kingswood in the Holden range, half a lifetime ago.

And like that very first Commodore, this one brings a long list of firsts.

It's the first Commodore ever with a diesel engine - and a decent one at that. Also the first to offer a turbocharged four-cylinder petrol variant. And it's the first without the option of a rumbling V8 under the bonnet.

It's the first with a market-leading nine-speed automatic gearbox. Also good.

The first with front-wheel-drive or, if you're willing to pay for it, with the added grip and safety of all-wheel-drive.

And yes, it's the first without an "Australian Made" label somewhere on it.

Is it better than the Aussie-built version? Probably. But it's unlikely to make us forget the VF Commodore - and all of its predecessors - any time soon.

This Opel-designed, German-built version, codenamed the ZB, certainly doesn't look like a Commodore - well, not the ones we've become used to. And despite substantial fine-tuning by Holden's suspension engineers, it doesn't particularly drive like one, either. Or sound like one.

We tested the Calais, the only surviving model designation from the superseded range. Once the flagship model, these days it sits about midway down the Commodore pecking order.

With an asking price of $40,990, only the entry-level LT model ($33,690) and RS Turbo ($37,290) cost less or carry less standard equipment than the Calais. Above it sits a V6-powered, higher-spec Calais V that just tips through the $50k barrier, while the top end of the range is filled out by V6-powered RS and RS-V models, plus the flagship VXR at $55,990 plus onroads.

Our test Calais was equipped with an efficient, smooth four-cylinder turbo-diesel, (125kW, 400Nm) mated to a very impressive nine-speed automatic transmission. The diesel represents a $3000 price premium over the standard petrol turbo four, but pays that back via a miserly 5.6L/100km thirst.

It delivers sturdy but uninspiring performance, with a bit of lag when you ask the drivetrain for urgent action. But the engine is quiet, particularly in highway mode where the big Holden feels like it could happily lope along at the speed limit - or well beyond - for most of the day. Built for the autobahns, perhaps.

Without the option of paddle-shifters, it can be a little fond of holding a taller gear (no doubt to improve fuel efficiency) - blunting its responsiveness.

Apart from its place of origin (Russelsheim, Germany), there are a few other departures from the Commodore recipe.

The ride is comfortable but softer and more "floaty" than any Commodore - or any Holden, for that matter - I can recall driving.

It doesn't look like a Commodore - it's way more lithe and finely-designed than the always robust, always macho appearance of the big Aussie sedan.

And while it's an elegant, pretty looking thing, it also tends towards a cookie-cutter European design that doesn't particularly stand out from rivals like VW's Passat or Ford's Mondeo.

The new Commodore's technology stack is impressive - headlined by the Holden Eye front-facing camera that drives the car's autonomous emergency braking system, as well as lane departure, front distance control and lane keeping assist features - an impressive piece of technology that's fitted to all models in the range.

Also standard is remote start, park assist, rain sensing wipers and Holden's MyLink infotainment system featuring Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

On top of that standard fare, our Calais enjoyed leather trim, 18-inch alloys, wireless phone charging and heated seats.

But despite its welter of electronics, you'll probably need the more expensive Calais V if you want to enjoy the comfort and features we've come to expect from this model.

Inside the decor is minimalist, dark and also a bit generic. Most cabin functions are run through the multimedia touch-screen - or via the multi-function steering wheel, both of which offer logical and tactile operation.

Instrumentation is a mixed bag. The speedometer and tachometer - presented in the turret-style that's supposed to deliver a modern look, did anything but. To me they looked like they belonged in a 1965 Valiant - two rather small dials that were difficult to read.

In between them, though, sits a very comprehensive trip computer that beams out almost any kind of information the driver could need to know - and much that he does not.

Despite its muted performance, the diesel-powered Calais felt refined and relaxed to drive - and coupled with the nine-speed auto perhaps the most technologically advanced drivetrain ever to grace a Commodore.

Another area of massive improvement is with the Commodore's hatchback configuration that brings with it superior flexibility to the "old" Commodore. We were amazed by how it managed to accommodate a massive load by laying flat the rear seats to reveal a total 1450L of cargo capacity. That almost renders the Sportwagon version of the Commodore redundant. There will be a Sportwagon variant - five of them in all including two high-riding Tourer models. But there will be no more Commodore utes - killing another great Aussie tradition. Its place in the market has been taken, ironically, by a Mercedes-Benz.

With more technology, more engine options and more versatility than its much-loved predecessor, the new Commodore has plenty in its favour. But I'm not sure it's altogether better than the last Aussie-built Commodore to roll off the production line late last year.

That car was pretty good, too. Actually, forget the modesty. It was bloody terrific. And it's a pity we no longer make them.

The new one? Well, it's pleasant, efficient and stylish - but also a touch bland.

All in all a pretty good car.

Just don't expect it to feel like a Commodore.

HOLDEN COMMODORE CALAIS

HOW BIG? Its European-designed dimensions don't quite match those of the Aussie-built Commodores, but its thoughtful layout and cavernous rear hatchback give it ample space to still fit the family bill.

HOW FAST? Not particularly quick in the turbo-diesel model we tested, but Holden has added some fire further up the model range, despite the demise of the Aussie favourite V8 SS model.

HOW THIRSTY? The two-litre turbodiesel engine, coupled to a super-smooth and efficient nine-speed transmission, ensures a modest thirst of 5.6L/100km.

HOW MUCH? Entry-level models start from $33,690 plus onroads, or $35,990 drive away. Our Calais, with the $3000 premium for the diesel engine, costs $43,990.Tougher rules will be implemented across NSW mental health units to overhaul the system in the aftermath of appalling footage exposing a patient's final days.

CCTV footage aired a year ago showed 46-year-old mother of two Miriam Merten stumbling around a hospital hallway, eventually collapsing in a corner before an emergency crash cart is rushed in by staff.

Ms Merten spent almost six hours in a seclusion cell at the hospital on the night of June 1, 2014.

Stark naked and with no access to water or a bathroom, she was then left for more than 30 minutes covered in her own faeces.

Ms Merten died that month from traumatic and hypoxic brain injury after falling at least 25 times in seven hours while on psychotropic drugs, a coronial inquest into her death found.

Two nurses had also failed to take appropriate action, the coroner said.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard launched a review into the system following the footage, with a panel of six mental health experts making 19 recommendations to prevent the inappropriate use of seclusion and restraints.

On Friday he announced changes to improve the system, including round-the-clock supervision and measures to reduce the high rates of psychiatric patients kept in seclusion or being physically restrained.

"The tragic death of Lismore woman Miriam Merten was the catalyst for change and now we have a plan that will greatly improve the safety of mental health patients and better support staff," Minister for Mental Health Tanya Davies said in a statement on Friday.The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, is requesting UN help in arresting three Libyan fugitives

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor requested help from the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday to arrest three fugitives in Libya, including a military commander serving under strongman Khalifa Haftar and a son of the late leader Moamer Kadhafi.

During a UN Security Council meeting, Fatou Bensouda noted that ICC investigators had traveled to Libya in March for the first time since June 2012 to help advance investigations on alleged war crimes.

"I repeat my call to this council to engage with my office and lend your support in assisting with strategies for the arrest and surrender of ICC fugitives in Libya," she said about the fugitives.

"Greater deterrence can only be assured through the arrest and surrender of suspects to the ICC so that they may answer the charges against them."

The prosecutor warned she "will not hesitate" to request new arrest warrants to hold the suspects responsible.

Among those targeted is Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, whose whereabouts have been unknown since June 2014. Bensouda said she was unsure whether he was being held.

Warrants are also out for the arrests of former security chief Al-Tuhamy Mohamed Khaled, accused of war crimes committed in 2011, and Busayf Al-Werfalli, a commander of the Al-Saiqa brigade wanted for the cold-blooded execution of 33 people and other war crimes.

Werfalli has been accused of more crimes since an August 2017 arrest warrant against him, according to Bensouda.

Bensouda has appealed directly to Haftar to ensure Werfalli's arrest.

Libya has been wracked by chaos since a 2011 uprising that toppled and killed its longtime dictator Kadhafi, with two rival authorities vying for control.

Haftar supports an administration based in the east of the country. A UN-backed unity government based in the capital has struggled to assert its authority outside the west.

Werfalli's "immediate arrest and surrender is now more important than ever," Bensouda said.

In addition to accountability, his arrest would "send a clear message to would-be perpetrators that such reprehensible crimes will not be tolerated and that there will be real consequences for the commission of such crimes," the prosecutor added.John McCain, who was tortured while being held prisoner in North Vietnam, is battling brain cancer and is unlikely to vote on Haspel's nomination, but is a widely-respected elder statesman in US politics whose views carry significant weight

US Senator John McCain called Wednesday for lawmakers to reject Gina Haspel's nomination to head the CIA due to the role she played overseeing the torture of detainees.

Senate Armed Services Committee chair McCain, who was tortured while being held prisoner in North Vietnam, is battling brain cancer and is unlikely to vote on Haspel's nomination, but is a widely-respected elder statesman in US politics whose views carry significant weight.

"Ms Haspel's role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge torture's immorality is disqualifying. I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination," McCain said in a statement.

From 2001-2004, Haspel was a deputy group chief of the Counterterrorism Center, which ran the so-called "enhanced interrogation" program, and then chief of staff to Jose Rodriguez, who directed the program.

During part of that period, she oversaw the CIA's secret prison in Bangkok, where Al-Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were repeatedly waterboarded during lengthy interrogations.

McCain, a navy pilot, was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967.

Taken prisoner, his severe injuries weren't treated and he was repeatedly bound and beaten. He was not released until 1973.Bangladesh Border Guards search a fishing boat on the Naf River in Teknaf, a key trade route for the meth tablets that are flooding into Bangladesh through the Rohingya refugee camps

Huge quantities of meth are seeding unrest inside Bangladesh's refugee camps, as jobless Rohingya turn drug runners for a criminal chain that stretches back to Myanmar -- and the soldiers who drove them out.

The little red methamphetamine pills, better known as 'yaba', that have got Southeast Asia high for decades are pouring westwards from Myanmar.

Rohingya refugees are moving them across Bangladeshs Cox's Bazar district, which hosts around one million of their stateless Muslim minority.

And drug money is bringing new problems to an already traumatised refugee community.

Bangladesh authorities warn shootings, extortion and kidnappings linked to drug disputes are on the rise, adding another layer of complexity and danger to life in the seething camps.

"Many young men are falling into the drug lords' trap," says Abdus Salam, a Rohingya community leader in the Shamlapur refugee camp. "It's very easy to exploit refugees."

Over 100 Rohingya have been arrested on drug charges since last August, when a vicious crackdown by Myanmar's army expelled the Muslim minority into Bangladesh in huge numbers.

Drug seizures in Cox's Bazar are skyrocketing, as organised crime gangs recruit from the vast pool of cheap and expendable labour.

Drug seizures in Rakhine

On March 15, 1.8 million tablets were dumped along the Cox's shore by spooked traffickers. Days later, a further 900,000 were found abandoned in boats.

But a lot more are getting into Bangladesh undetected, according to the country's Department of Narcotics Control, which estimates 250-300 million pills will be popped this year.

Drug money is also blurring dividing lines in unexpected ways, as ethnic Rakhine Buddhists -- who loathe the Rohingya and helped force them out -- elbow their way into the trafficking racket into Bangladesh.

With the price of a yaba pill tripling to $3-$3.5 in Bangladesh "no one cares who is Buddhist or Rohingya", explains Bangladesh Border Guard commander Lieutenant Colonel Asadud Zaman Chowdhury.

- Meth town -

Nearly all of Bangladesh's yaba arrives from Myanmar across the Naf river, which last year was packed with boatloads of fleeing Rohingya, their exit framed by dark billows of smoke from torched villages.

Now, the boats also ferry pills, made in the meth labs of eastern Myanmar.

They arrive around Teknaf, where locals say the trickle-down of narco profits can be seen in the souped-up motorbikes and lavish homes that stand out in an otherwise scruffy district.

A single main road runs from Teknaf north to Cox's Bazar City.

Seizures of yaba -- caffeine-laced meth pills -- have rocketed as the refugee camps in Bangladesh have swollen

It is peppered with checkpoints, but still the poorest locals and increasing numbers of Rohingya take the daily risk of muling drugs.

On a recent Friday AFP witnessed two seizures within an hour along the road.

The first was of 12,000 of the vanilla-scented pills, found stuffed under a seat on an abandoned bus, which was aptly named the 'Nil Enterprise.'

Shortly afterwards, a woman travelling with her young daughter was arrested with drugs stashed inside pouches of tamarind. She could be jailed for up to two years.

- Soldiers -

On the other side of the border, the identities of those at the pinnacle of the Rakhine drug pyramid remain elusive, but lower down the chain, officials, local businessmen and soldiers have all been caught.

On Monday an army private was arrested at a checkpoint in Myanmar's Maungdaw district with 200,000 tablets -- a subsequent search led to a stash house with 1.6 million pills packed in bags ready for transit.

Desperate conditions inside the refugee camps and the unavailability of legal work have forced some Rohingya into ferrying drugs

On October 1, 2017, while Rakhine was still white-hot with violence, a pair of soldiers were detained in Maungdaw town -- a few kilometres from the Naf river -- with nearly two million yaba pills worth around $2.8 million locally.

Big pay days are also stirring unlikely alliances.

Speculation is mounting that Rakhine and Rohingya militant groups, both fighting Myanmar's state for different reasons, are collaborating over drugs.

"They are involved in trafficking together to buy weapons," a Myanmar drug police source told AFP, requesting anonymity.

- Guns and gangsters -

Trapped in poverty and unlikely to return to Myanmar any time soon, Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar are using drug money to claw their way from penury.

"I got involved in this business five years ago after meeting a powerful local man," a Rohingya mule-turned-dealer told AFP, requesting anonymity as he feared reprisals.

The money got his family out of the refugee camp to an apartment in Cox's Bazar city.

"If I don't do it, someone else will," he added.

But where the drugs flow, violence follows.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled violence in Rakhine state as army-backed mobs torched settlements

Anwara Begum pushes her finger through a hole in a t-shirt made by the bullet that killed her son, Hossein Ali, in a squalid lane of the Nayapara camp near Teknaf.

Police linked the killing to drugs and a notorious thug in the camp with alleged ties to a Rohingya militant group.

The victim's family deny the drug link, saying Hossein was killed over a festering dispute between families.

Regardless of the motive, his murder -- and a spate of kidnappings -- has electrified the Rohingya camp grapevine with fear and rumour.

"Thirty or forty guys in each camp are gangsters," says his older brother Hassan Ali, 32, who says he was the intended target.

"I don't feel safe anymore, but we have nowhere to go."Around 35 babies have been born on migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean in recent years

Mercy, Francesca, Newman, Diabam and Sophia were the names their mothers chose. What they had no control over was where their babies were born.

As hundreds of thousands of migrants risk their lives on the perilous sea crossing from North Africa to Europe, dozens of newborns have taken their first breath aboard rescue ships in recent years.

"There were a lot of people in the rubber boat, we were all packed together... the pain was awful," said Stephanie, a Nigerian woman who gave birth to Francesca aboard an aid boat.

There are many elements of a tortuous sea crossing that can push pregnant women travelling aboard crammed vessels into labour -- stress, the vibration of boat engines, even the relief of being rescued from danger.

But the chance of a woman having to give birth on the perilous voyage is ultimately a question of numbers.

Since 2014, almost 80,000 women have landed on Italian shores, not including adolescents.

The majority of them are young and many are pregnant.

"I've met many women who were raped," said Marina Kojima, a Japanese midwife who spent several months aboard the Aquarius, a rescue ship jointly run by NGOs SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

"Often they have to sell their bodies in order to get a place on the boat."

For these women, pregnancy makes the perilous journey through the desert into hellish Libya even more difficult, and giving birth at sea can be a scarring experience.

- Births, deaths -

Giulia Marinig, a recently qualified doctor, remembers a hectic 48 hours in October 2016 when three women went into labour aboard the Dattilo migrant rescue ship.

"We barely had time to realise what was happening and after just 45 minutes a little boy was born," said the 26-year-old.

"I was working on autopilot. Just trying to do my best for the patients, we didn't sleep for two days."

Marinig reckons there were around 30 other heavily pregnant mothers on board the Dattilo, and a number of women carried babies in their arms they had recently given birth to in Libyan detention centres.

Even if their birthing suites amounted to the ship's hard floors with plastic crates as cots, the successful deliveries that night brought a shimmer of light to dark two days -- 10,500 migrants had been picked up in the Mediterranean and a total of 50 corpses discovered.

Francesca Marina, born on May 3, 2015 during a rescue operation of the Italian Navy off the coast of Sicily, and her mother Stephanie are now safe in Italy

For relief workers, delivering newborns alive and healthy is such a powerful experience that the European Union re-baptised its anti-trafficking operation in the Mediterranean Sophia in tribute to a Somali girl born in August 2015 on a German ship.

A baby born aboard the Aquarius in 2017 became the inspiration behind this year's French Eurovision entry, simply called "Mercy".

And the tributes go both ways.

Stephanie chose to name her girl Francesca after Pope Francis while little Desire Alex, born on the NGO boat Aquarius in 2016, was named after the ship's captain.

- Citizenship dead-end -

But even if the 35 babies born aboard Mediterranean rescue vessels in recent years defy the odds to make it safely to Europe, their ordeal is just getting started.

According to maritime law, children born at sea are considered nationals of the ship's flag carrier: Italy for Francesca, Germany for Sophia, the United Kingdom for Mercy.

But in these countries, restrictive citizenship laws mean the babies are not entitled to a European passport.

Upon arrival in Italy, their unusual birth affords them no special treatment and they often get lost among the masses.

Mercy and her mother were taken to Mineo reception centre in Sicily, the largest in Europe and long dogged by scandals of embezzlement and trafficking.

It still houses nearly 3,000 people who sometimes wait years for an answer to their asylum applications.

Little Francesca, and two others, Newman and Favor, born on the Aquarius in 2016, were luckier: their parents were taken in by smaller centres which offered legal support, Italian courses and independent accommodation.

On the advice of German sailors, Sophia's mother continued her journey and was granted asylum in Germany.

They all share the same hope: that their children can go to school and grow up to live a life less precarious than their birth.Official Syrian Arab News Agency photos from May 10, 2018 purportedly show Syrian air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles

Israel's army said Thursday it hit dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies.

The incident came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, a move Israel had long advocated.

It was one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and its biggest such raid against Iranian targets.

Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets were fired at its forces at around midnight in the occupied Golan Heights from Syria.

It blamed the rocket fire on Iran's Al-Quds force, adding that Israel's anti-missile system intercepted four of them while the rest did not land in its territory.

No Israelis were wounded.

"We know that comes from the al-Quds force," Conricus said, referring to the special forces unit affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

"The Israeli army takes very seriously this Iranian attack against Israel."

Map locating reported air strikes in Syria May 10

Later in the early morning hours, explosions could be heard in Damascus while live images were broadcast on television showing projectiles above the Syrian capital and several missiles destroyed by Syrian anti-aircraft systems.

Syrian state media reported that Israeli missile strikes hit military bases, as well as an arms depot and military radar, without specifying the location.

- 'Not looking to escalate' -

The official SANA news agency added that "dozens of missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft systems in Syrian airspace," saying a number of missiles had reached their targets.

Israel's military later confirmed it had carried out the raids, saying dozens of Iranian military targets had been struck and all its aircraft had returned safely.

Conricus said intelligence, logistics, storage and vehicles as well as the origin of the rockets were targeted.

An Israeli army tank takes part in a military drill in the Golan Heights on May 2, 2018

Syrian air defences that fired on Israeli forces were also targeted, he said.

There had been no comment from Iranian officials.

"We are not looking to escalate the situation," Conricus said, but warned Israel would respond forcefully if attacked.

Israel has been warning for weeks that it will not accept Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria, where Tehran is supporting President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the civil war.

Israel has been blamed for a series of recent strikes inside Syria that have killed Iranians, though it did not acknowledged those raids.

Israel had been preparing itself for weeks for possible Iranian retaliation.

Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal has added to tensions and led to a new level of uncertainty over how Iran will respond.

burs-mjs/aphAn expert restores a mural by Diego Rivera, whose painting 'The Rivals' now holds the record for the highest price paid at auction for a Latin American artwork

A Diego Rivera painting set a record Wednesday night for the highest price paid at auction for a Latin American artwork, fetching $9.76 million and taking the honor away from his partner Frida Kahlo.

The colorful painting entitled "Los Rivales" (The Rivals) and sold by Christie's depicts two men at a traditional Mexican celebration.

Until now the record was held by a Kahlo work auctioned in 2016 for $8 million. The 1939 painting is called "Dos desnudos en el bosque (La tierra misma)," which translates as "Two Nudes in the Forest (The Earth Itself)."

A Rivera work also holds the record for most paid ever for a Latin American piece of art, not just at auction.

That work, which the Mexican artist completed in 1928, went to a private Argentine collector, Eduardo Constantini, for $15.7 million in 2016. It was entitled "Baile en Tehuantepec." Baile means dance.

The website ARTnews said "The Rivals" went to an unnamed collector bidding by phone.Many of Bui Hieu Vo's Facebook posts blamed Vietnam's government for failing to compensate fishermen after a massive 2016 fish kill caused by a toxic dump

A Vietnamese activist has been jailed for four-and-a-half years over a slew of anti-government Facebook posts in the one-party state where online expression is closely watched for flickers of dissent.

Bui Hieu Vo was sentenced Wednesday after a one-day trial in southern Ho Chi Minh City for "anti-state propaganda", a court clerk confirmed to AFP, over more than 50 posts on his Facebook page that authorities deemed defamatory.

Vo's articles tarnished "the policies of the party and state and leaders with false information," according to Phap Luat Online newspaper, the mouthpiece of Ho Chi Minh City's justice department.

"Vo admitted in court that he wrote and posted online articles that were overly critical," it added.

Many of the posts blamed the government for failing to compensate fishermen after a massive fish kill in 2016 caused by a toxic dump by the Taiwanese steel firm Formosa.

Vo is the latest to be jailed by a conservative administration which took power in 2016, which critics say is aggressively targeting activists.

At least 97 prisoners of conscience are behind bars in the communist state, according to Amnesty International.

Another activist was arrested Wednesday for "abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to infringe upon the interests of the state and the people", also over a series of controversial Facebook posts.

Nguyen Duy Son, an employee at a post-secondary school in Thanh Hoa province was accused of using his account to post anti-government commentary, according to Thanh Nien newspaper.

Vietnam ranks among Facebook's top 10 users by numbers and is the platform of choice for activists in the country where all independent media is banned and blog sites are routinely taken down.

But dissidents have complained of censorship on the social media platform.

Earlier this year, a group of 50 activists and rights groups accused Facebook of colluding with the government to remove profiles and comments deemed critical of the state.

Others have also reported online harassment by a 10,000-strong cybersecurity task force announced by the government this year.

Dubbed "Force 47", the online soldiers are tasked with monitoring content and dissidents say their pages are routinely flooded with pro-government commentary from the brigade.

Reporters Without Borders ranks Vietnam 175 out of 180 countries on the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, trailed by Eritrea, North Korea and Syria.Former strongman Mahathir Mohamad's opposition alliance broke the grip on power of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which had governed Malaysia uninterrupted since its birth as an independent country in 1957.

Ninety-two-year-old Mahathir Mohamad was Thursday sworn in as the world's oldest elected leader after a stunning election win that swept Malaysia's establishment from power after more than six decades.

In a huge political upset, former strongman Mahathir's opposition alliance broke the grip on power of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which had governed Malaysia uninterrupted since its birth as an independent country in 1957.

It capped a dramatic comeback for Mahathir, who previously ruled the country at the head of BN for 22 years and came out of retirement to take on his ex-protege, Prime Minister Najib Razak, after the leader became embroiled in a massive corruption scandal.

In a ceremony at the national palace steeped in centuries-old Muslim Malay tradition, Mahathir was officially sworn in as prime minister by King Sultan Muhammad V.

Mahathir Mohamad

Mahathir, wearing traditional Malay dress, took the oath of office in an elaborately decorated room, with political allies and senior government officials in attendance.

As he was inaugurated, hundreds of revellers outside the palace cheered and sang the national anthem, with some breaking down in tears. Fireworks lit up the night sky across Kuala Lumpur.

"We feel so united tonight," 24-year-old student Abdul Aziz Hamzah, who was among the crowd, told AFP. "Mahathir is so insightful and experienced because he's been here before."

One of the most remarkable aspects of Mahathir's comeback has been his reconciliation with jailed opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim, his former nemesis. Their relationship has loomed large over the Malaysian political landscape for decades.

Anwar was Mahathir's heir-apparent until the premier sacked him in 1998 over political differences, and he was subsequently jailed on charges of sodomy and abuse of power.

Anwar was jailed again during Najib's rule but is due out in June -- and Mahathir has pledged to help him get a royal pardon, allowing him to run for political office again and potentially become prime minister.

- 'Heads must fall' -

The opposition faced an uphill battle at the election due to what critics said were no-holds-barred attempts by Najib to hang on to power.

Supporters of Mahathir Mohamad took to the streets to celebrate in Kuala Lumpur as the results came in

His government was accused of gerrymandering while activists said he hurled cash and gifts at voters and there was a litany of problems with the electoral roll, including dead people appearing on the list.

Najib called the vote mid-week, in what critics said was an effort to keep turnout down -- elections are normally held at a weekend in Malaysia. But in the end voters flocked to the polls in droves in a determined bid to push him out.

Najib had initially refused to offer a clear concession. But after Mahathir was sworn in, he congratulated him on Twitter and said he was "willing to assist a smooth transfer of power".

At a press conference after being sworn in, Mahathir said the government's main focus would be on the economy. A major concern for Malaysians in recent times has been the soaring cost of living.

He said his administration would abolish laws that are "oppressive", and that widely-condemned legislation outlawing "fake news" would be examined.

The new government would look into clawing back money allegedly looted from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, he said. Billions of dollars were allegedly stolen from the investment vehicle that was set up and overseen by Najib, in a massive scandal that battered Malaysia's international image.

Both Najib and 1MDB deny any wrongdoing.

Mahathir has previously vowed that Najib will face justice over the controversy.

He also said that "certain heads must fall" in government departments.

"We found that some people were aiding and abetting a prime minister which the world condemns as a kleptocrat," he said.

Initial delight felt by many at the opposition victory will likely give way to some apprehension. Mahathir was also accused of being an authoritarian leader, and political opponents were thrown in jail during his time in office.

But for the opposition, he proved to be the perfect standard-bearer to take on Najib.

He is a staunch supporter of the country's Muslim Malays who could appeal to the country's biggest ethnic group, and whose years in power were remembered as a prosperous period in the country's history.The South Korean subsidiary of General Motors has seen production fall by almost half in the last decade

US auto giant General Motors and Seoul have agreed on a multi-billion-dollar bailout for the firm's troubled South Korean unit, a government minister said Thursday.

GM is the largest US automaker and one of the biggest players in the global industry but its South Korean subsidiary is loss-making and has seen production fall by almost half in the last decade.

Earlier this year GM Korea announced a plan to shut down Gunsan, one of its four plants in the country, and lay off some 2,000 personnel, sparking a prolonged strike and negotiations with the authorities.

Workers and management reached a deal last month on job and welfare payment cuts and a wage freeze across the firm, paving the way for Thursday's announcement.

The US parent will inject $6.4 billion into GM Korea and the state-owned Korea Development Bank (KDB) will plough in another $750 million, finance minister Kim Dong-yeon told journalists.

GM will invest $2 billion in facilities over 10 years and spend $1.6 billion on corporate restructuring and operational costs.

An existing $2.8 billion loan to GM Korea will be converted into preference shares, saving the unit 150 billion won ($110 million) in interest every year.

GM currently owns 77 percent of GM Korea and KDB has a 17 percent stake, with the remaining shares held by China's SAIC Motor.

The firm was rebuilt from the wreckage of local automaker Daewoo, which went bankrupt in 2000.

But production has fallen from 940,000 cars in 2007 to 520,000 last year, when GM Korea lost some $139 million in South Korea.

"We hope that GM Korea carries out this bailout package faithfully so that it may become a success story," Kim said.

"If GM Korea fails to turn around, 150,000 jobs will be threatened and some 3,000 suppliers will be in difficulties," he added.

Under the deal, GM will remain in South Korea for at least 10 years, with KDB regaining veto power over GM's rights to sell assets in the country.

GM also pledged to allocate two new models to its Korean plants.

In its first-quarter results last month GM took a $942 million hit for the cost of closing the Gunsan facility.Kim Hak-song (R) and Tony Kim (2nd L) taught at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology before they were detained

The foreign-funded university in North Korea that two of the three released American detainees taught at has welcomed the trio's release.

The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) was founded by evangelical Christians from overseas and opened in 2010.

It has 560 students and 100 "international volunteers", according to its website.

Agricultural expert Kim Hak-song and former accounting professor Tony Kim were both lecturers at the institution but were arrested by North Korean authorities as they were leaving the country.

The university previously said their detentions were "not connected in any way with the work of PUST", and sources stress that it carries out no Christian proselytisation, which is unwelcome in the North.

But it is understood the duo may have come to the attention of the Pyongyang authorities through previous Christian activities elsewhere.

The three detainees were granted "amnesty" by Pyongyang following a meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and landed back in the United States on Thursday, to be welcomed by President Donald Trump.

"Our hopes and prayers have been fulfilled by their release," PUST said in a statement.

The university expressed "sincere hope" that the detainees would be able to "now enjoy some peace and rest with their families and friends, and begin to rebuild normal life".

The captivity of the US citizens has brought renewed attention to the school, known to provide foreign education to many children of the country's elite.

On its website, PUST says its mission is "to pursue excellence in education, with an international outlook, so that its students are diligent in studies, innovative in research and upright in character, bringing illumination to the Korean people and the world".

Korean American writer Suki Kim went to PUST undercover as an English teacher in 2011 and later wrote a book about her experiences.

"PUST offers a mutually beneficial arrangement for both North Korea and the evangelicals," she wrote in an essay published in the Washington Post last year following Tony Kim's detention.

"The regime gets free education for its youth and a modern facility... while the evangelicals get a footing in the remote nation," she said.

Although religious freedom is enshrined in the North Korean constitution, it does not exist in practice and religious activity is severely restricted to officially-recognised groups linked to the government.The reported exchange of fire between Israel and Iranian forces in Syria is a major escalation in tensions

Unprecedented clashes between Israel and Iran over Syria have sparked calls for restraint from world leaders worried about the risk of all-out war, even as both sides say they want to avoid a regional conflict.

All eyes will be on any fresh military activity Friday after Israel carried out widespread deadly raids against what it said were Iranian targets in Syria on Thursday in response to rocket fire towards its forces that it blamed on Iran.

The reported exchange of fire came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trump's decision Tuesday to withdraw from the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a move Israel had long sought.

The bombardment led to calls for calm from Russia, France, Germany and Britain and the European Union, while the United States put the blame squarely on Iran and stressed Israel's right to "self-defence".

Germany and Britain joined the United States in denouncing the rocket fire towards the Israel-occupied Golan Heights they also said was carried out by Iran, while France reiterated its "unwavering support for Israel's security".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had "crossed a red line" and that the resulting bombardment against targets in Syria "was a consequence".

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani told German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a telephone call that he did not want "new tensions" in the Middle East.

Rouhani did not mention Israel's strikes in Syria, or those against the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

No caption

But the chairman of his country's parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, Allaeddine Boroujerdi, condemned the strikes, warning that "Israel has entered a dangerous game".

The Israeli raids in Syria, which a monitor said killed 23 fighters, were one of its largest military operations in recent years and the biggest such assault on Iranian targets, the Israeli military said.

"We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.

"I hope we've finished this episode and everyone understood."

Israel carried out the raids after it said 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the Golan Heights at around midnight.

It blamed Iran's Quds force, adding that Israel's anti-missile system intercepted four while the rest did not land in its territory.

There were no Israeli casualties.

If confirmed, it would be the first time Iran has sought to directly attack Israeli-controlled territory aside from an alleged attempted drone assault in February.

- 'New phase' -

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported that dozens of rockets were fired from Syria towards the Israeli-occupied Golan, without saying who fired them.

A senior pro-regime military source in Syria confirmed the salvo of rockets, insisting Israel had fired first.

Later, in the early hours of the morning, explosions were heard in Damascus, while live images were broadcast on television showing projectiles above the capital and several missiles destroyed by anti-aircraft systems.

An image released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) early on May 10, 2018 purportedly shows what the official news agency said was air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace, without specifying the location

Syrian state media said Israeli missile strikes had hit military bases as well as an arms depot and a military radar installation, without specifying where.

The official SANA news agency said "dozens of missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft systems in Syrian airspace", acknowledging a number had reached their targets.

Israel's military later confirmed it had carried out the raids, saying some 70 military and intelligence targets had been struck and all of its aircraft had returned safely.

Syrian air defences, which fired dozens of times on Israeli jets, were also targeted, he said.

Syria said it was the Israeli strikes that marked a "new phase" of direct involvement in the country's seven-year conflict.

Its army said three people had been killed.

In a rare if not unprecedented move for an Arab country, Bahrain backed Israel's right to "defend itself" after the strikes.

- Russia hotline -

Bahrain is a close ally of Saudi Arabia and the two countries, whose foreign policies are often in lockstep, view Iran as the chief threat to the region.

Israel has long warned it will not accept Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria, where the Islamic republic is supporting President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the civil war.

It has been blamed for a series of recent strikes inside Syria that have killed Iranians, though it has not acknowledged those raids.

The Jewish state says it has conducted dozens of raids in Syria to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to Iran-backed Hezbollah, another key foe of Israel.

Israel had been preparing itself for weeks for possible Iranian retaliation.

Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal has added to tensions and led to a new level of uncertainty over how Iran will respond.

At a rally in Indiana on Thursday Trump said he still wanted intrusive inspections of Iran's nuclear sites to continue despite his decision to withdraw from the pact.

European allies are scrambling to save the hard-fought deal but have found themselves increasingly critical of Washington's stance.

In an interview with the French daily Le Parisien, France's foreign minister condemned Washington's decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran as "unacceptable" move that unilaterally punished European companies for trade with Iran.

burs-mjs/dwo/dv/jta/slsThe massacre at a Peshawar school was the deadliest terror attack in Pakistan

Pakistan's top judge has ordered the first official investigation into the country's deadliest terror attack, a massacre at a school that killed more than 150 people in 2014, authorities said Thursday.

Relatives of the victims -- mainly children -- have long called for an accounting of the security and intelligence failures that allowed Pakistani Taliban gunmen to storm the school, run by the powerful military, in the northwestern city of Peshawar on December 16 that year.

No government or military official has ever been held to account for the security failings. Criticism of Pakistan's powerful armed forces, especially their counter-insurgency operations, is largely seen as a red line in the country.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar ordered the formation of a judicial commission to examine the attack during a court hearing in Peshawar Wednesday, Abdul Latif Yousafzai, advocate general of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told AFP.

The inquiry was set to be completed in two months, he added.

No official explanation of the timing was given. But the announcement comes after the newly formed Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) civil rights group has made the issue a central demand in recent months, putting renewed pressure on the government.

PTM is set to hold a massive rally in the sprawling port city of Karachi on Sunday, which is home to millions of ethnic Pashtuns and expected to draw thousands of supporters.

Following the announcement, families of the victims cheered the decision, with some moved to tears.

Ajun Khan, who lost his only son in the attack, told AFP he hopes the commission can uncover who was responsible for the negligence that allowed the militants to execute the hours-long bloodbath.

"We want the commission to probe the incident and place a responsibility for the negligence and failure of the state to protect our children," Khan said.

The investigation comes after a dramatic improvement in security across the country following several successful military offensives targeting extremist strongholds.

The alleged mastermind behind the school attack was killed in a drone strike in 2017, according to the Pakistani Taliban, who have claimed responsibility for it.

The Pakistani state has also said it has hanged at least four men involved in the attack, though the nature of their role has not been made public.Members of the Iraqi security forces cast their votes in parliamentary elections at a polling station in the holy city of Najaf on May 10, 2018

Around one million soldiers, police and other security personnel voted across Iraq on Thursday in the first national elections since the country declared victory over the Islamic State group.

Servicemen in uniform queued up to cast their ballots two days before the rest of the country heads to the polls for a parliamentary election Saturday, just five months after the battle against the jihadists drew to a close.

Polling stations closed at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT).

Iraqis are hoping that the vote can lock in a fragile peace, 15 blood-soaked years after the US-led ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein.

But they face the mammoth task of reconstruction, while IS continues to pose a major security threat.

Iraq in key dates

In the war-ravaged former IS stronghold of Mosul, retaken in July after months of street-to-street combat, policeman Renan Khaled said he wanted reconstruction to be a main priority.

"I am voting for the future of my family, so that good people occupy the right positions," said Khaled, 25, wearing a blue police uniform.

At a school in central Baghdad that had been turned into a polling station, police and presidential guard members waited to make their choice.

Security was tight after IS threats, and voters were frisked several times as they entered to cast their ballots.

Police special forces officer Ahmed Qassem told AFP that he voted for the candidate who "will help the poor and fight corruption".

A member of the Iraqi security forces shows his ink-stained index finger at a polling station after casting his vote in parliamentary elections in the southern city of Basra on May 10, 2018

"The most important thing is that it is the people who are choosing their representatives and who will become prime minister," the 38-year-old said.

In the southern city of Basra, police and soldiers filed out of polling stations with indelible ink on their fingers to show they had voted.

Traffic policeman Hassan Mohammed said he wanted "change" and hoped for a "new government that will bring us a better future".

To the north in the autonomous Kurdish enclave, fighters in the region's peshmerga security forces -- which played a key role in fighting IS -- also lined up to vote.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is angling for a new term as he takes credit for the fightback against IS and for seeing off a Kurdish push for independence.

Members of the Iraqi security forces queue up in Baghdad to vote in parliamentary elections on May 10, 2018

But stiff competition from within his Shiite community, the majority group which dominates Iraqi politics, is likely to fragment the vote and spell lengthy horse-trading before any government is formed.

Overall, 24.5 million voters are registered for the elections, with some of the roughly one million Iraqi voters living abroad also set to cast ballots Thursday.

Polling stations have been set up in 21 countries, according to the electoral commission.Li Ka-shing started his first business in 1950 manufacturing plastic flowers

Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, 89, who officially retired Thursday, started his career selling plastic flowers and spent seven decades building a vast business empire spanning from container ports to telecommunications.

The billionaire earned the nickname "Superman" for his business acumen and was so influential in Hong Kong that residents joked he could prevent typhoons from hitting on working days.

Li's companies are part of the fabric of Hong Kong life, providing everything from internet services to supermarket chains, while his decisions had the potential to affect property and utility prices for the city's seven million residents as investors hung on his every word.

Li was born in 1928 in the mainland Chinese city of Chaozhou.

His family fled to neighbouring Hong Kong during the Sino-Japanese War -- Li recalled bombs being dropped on his hometown when he was in primary school in an interview with Forbes Magazine in 2012.

He first started his own business in 1950 manufacturing plastic flowers, calling the company Cheung Kong after China's Yangtze River.

Li's company sold its stake in the Center skyscraper (centre L) in Hong Kong for a record US$5.2 billion

But after diversifying into property he saw large profits in the 1960s and in the following decades his businesses expanded into a diverse range of sectors.

As the business grew, so did its global reach, with the 1980s seeing the firm make investments in the Canadian property and energy sectors.

According to Forbes his family's companies now employ 310,000 people in more than 50 countries.

The magazine listed Li as the world's 23rd richest person in a 2018 ranking of leading billionaires -- three places behind Alibaba founder Jack Ma and six behind Tencent's Pony Ma -- with a net worth of $34.9 billion.

"Looking back all these years, it's my honour to have founded Cheung Kong and to have served society," Li told a packed room of journalists in Hong Kong as he announced his retirement in March.

"It's been my greatest honour," he said.

- 'Everyone has a goal' -

Li invested heavily in China in the 1990s, the dedicated capitalist courting Beijing's Communist leaders as the Asian nation began to emerge as an economic superpower.

But recent years have seen him offload major Chinese property investments, in a move seen as part of a quest for stability for his business and a sign of diminishing confidence, as the mainland's formerly stratospheric growth rates cool.

The moved irked Chinese critics.

"He is worthy of the nickname 'Superman,' but he may not be suitable as a bellwether for the future," The Global Times, a newspaper close to China's ruling Communist Party, said in 2015.

Li (pictured meeting President Xi Jinping in Hong Kong) invested heavily in China in the 1990s

"Li's investment is a drop in the ocean compared to the huge size of the Chinese economy," it said.

He has also sought to trim his Hong Kong assets. CK Asset Holdings sold its stake in the Center skyscraper -- one of the jewels in the crown of his property portfolio in the city -- in November for a record HK$40.2 billion ($5.2 billion).

Analysts said the deal showed CK Asset's move to diversify out of real estate as it expands into infrastructure and energy.

Three years ago Li announced a sweeping re-arrangement of his vast business empire, which was expected to pave the way for him to hand over the reins to his eldest son Victor.

The re-structure combined assets from multiple sectors under two new listed companies.

After the announcement of the revamp, when asked if he was preparing to pass the baton to his son, a lively Li said he would have to retire some day.

"The tracks have been laid down, everyone has a goal, it's a good thing for the company's foundation," he said.Vincent Bollore was charged in France last month in connection with the awarding of lucrative port concessions in Togo and Guinea

Togo's opposition says its wants answers from the government about its dealings with French tycoon Vincent Bollore, who has been charged in France over his business dealings in Africa.

The main opposition grouping the National Alliance for Change (ANC) called on Prime Minister Selom Komi Klassou to provide details about Bollore's involvement in the main port in Lome.

ANC president Isabelle Manavi Ameganvi on Wednesday said a previous letter requesting information, sent two years ago, "remained unanswered".

Bollore, 66, was charged last month in connection with the awarding of two lucrative port concessions in Lome and the Guinean capital Conakry.

It was alleged his group's communications arm undercharged the presidents of Togo and Guinea for work on their election campaigns as sweeteners for contracts to operate both ports.

The industrialist has denied any wrongdoing.

Ameganvi called on Klassou to answer questions in parliament, in particular over exact details of the tendering process for the Lome port concession.

She also wanted to know how much the Bollore group paid to Togo's treasury since 2010 from contracts linked to state projects.

Togo's civil service minister Gilbert Bawara said last week that the government was "unconcerned" by the French case against Bollore.

He called it "ridiculous, scandalous and even a bit condescending to imagine that... a communications firm could have any influence whatsoever over a presidential election in an African state".Kim Hak-song (R) and Tony Kim (2nd L) taught at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology before they were detained

The university where two of the latest three American detainees released by North Korea taught is unique: an institution founded and funded by foreign Christians in an isolated country that decries religion.

The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) was set up by James Kim, a wealthy evangelical Korean-American the North once detained on suspicion of being a US spy.

Only North Korean citizens can enrol, and it is known to educate many children of the country's elite.

Opened in 2010, it now has 560 students and 100 "international volunteers", according to its website, many of them coming to it through church organisations.

PUST says its mission is "to pursue excellence in education, with an international outlook, so that its students are diligent in studies, innovative in research and upright in character, bringing illumination to the Korean people and the world".

But sources stress that it carries out no Christian proselytising, which is unwelcome by Pyongyang.

Although religious freedom is enshrined in the North Korean constitution, it does not exist in practice and religious activity is severely restricted to officially-recognised groups linked to the government.

Agricultural expert Kim Hak-song and former accounting professor Tony Kim were both lecturers at the institution but were arrested by North Korean authorities as they were leaving the country.

The university previously said their detentions were "not connected in any way with the work of PUST", and it is understood the duo may have come to the attention of the Pyongyang authorities through previous Christian activities elsewhere.

The two, along with fellow detainee Kim Dong-chul, were granted "amnesty" by Pyongyang following a meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and landed back in the United States on Thursday, to be welcomed by President Donald Trump.

- 'Hopes and prayers' -

"Our hopes and prayers have been fulfilled by their release," PUST said in a statement.

The university expressed "sincere hope" that the detainees would be able to "now enjoy some peace and rest with their families and friends, and begin to rebuild normal life".

The school itself has faced indirect repercussions from their detentions.

Tony Kim was arrested in April last year, Kim Hak-song the following month. Weeks later American student Otto Warmbier, who had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for trying to steal a propaganda poster, was released in a mysterious coma and died shortly afterwards.

That prompted Washington to slap a travel ban on US citizens.

About half of PUST's 80-odd foreign faculty were Americans who have been unable to return for this academic year as a result, and it has filled the gaps with Chinese replacements.

It has also had problems transferring funds and importing materials due to the sanctions imposed on the North over its nuclear programme by the UN Security Council and others.

"We do of course hope that this is a step in a positive process that will lead to the US administration ending the travel ban on US citizens," a school official told AFP, "so that many of our regular faculty and leadership can come back to the PUST campus and we can resume operations in a more normal way".

On its website, PUST says it is hiring new faculty members: English and Chinese instructors, and professors for subjects ranging from stem cell culture technology to genetic engineering.

It does not mention the detention of its lecturers.

Korean-American writer Suki Kim went to PUST undercover as an English teacher in 2011 and later wrote a book about her experiences.

"PUST offers a mutually beneficial arrangement for both North Korea and the evangelicals," she wrote in an essay published in the Washington Post last year following Tony Kim's detention.

"The regime gets free education for its youth and a modern facility... while the evangelicals get a footing in the remote nation," she said.Afghan security personnel block the road near the site of the blast in Kabul's Shahr-e-Naw area, one of multiple attacks that killed 10 people Wednesday

The death toll from apparent coordinated attacks on two Kabul police stations has risen to 10, the health ministry said Thursday, as the Afghan capital remains on edge in expectation of more violence.

At least 23 people were also wounded in Wednesday's hours-long assaults in the city, the ministry said. The Taliban and Islamic State group each claimed responsibility for one of the attacks.

But Afghanistan's intelligence agency blamed the Taliban's Haqqani Network and Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for both incidents.

The Taliban said the attack in front of a police station in Shar-e-Naw neighbourhood in downtown Kabul was revenge for an Afghan airstrike on a religious ceremony in a Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan on April 2.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said Monday that children made up most of the 107 casualties in the airstrike that Afghan authorities said had targeted senior Taliban commanders planning attacks.

Coordinated attacks against police stations in Kabul

"It was revenge for the perpetrators and organisers of that attack who used this centre (in Kabul) to plan and organise the attack (in Kunduz province)," the Taliban said in a statement.

During a weeks-long investigation, UNAMA verified that 36 people were killed -- 30 of them children -- in the attack in Dasht-e-Archi district.

Seventy-one people were wounded, including 51 children, it said.

A senior Taliban commander told AFP recently the Kunduz attack had given the militant group a propaganda boost.

"People in general are very angry with the attack on a seminary in Kunduz and it has positively changed the atmosphere for the Taliban," he told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

"All doors for peace talks are currently closed. I can see more war in the future."

Suicide bombers and gunmen carried out Wednesday's attacks in Kabul, with loud explosions and volleys of gunfire jangling already frayed nerves in the city.

Smoke rises from a building during the attack in the Shahr-e-Naw area in Kabul on May 9

IS claimed responsibility for the raid on a police station in a heavily Shiite-populated neighbourhood in the city's west.

After an easing of attacks in Kabul in February, Taliban and IS militants have stepped up assaults in the city in recent months.

The latest attacks happened just over a week after twin blasts in Kabul killed 25 people, including AFP chief photographer Shah Marai and eight other journalists.

Those attacks were claimed by IS.

The Taliban recently launched their annual spring offensive, in an apparent rejection of a peace talks overture by the Afghan government.

Their Operation Al Khandaq will target US forces and "their intelligence agents" as well as their "internal supporters", a Taliban statement said on April 25.A road sign indicating the way to the new US embassy in Jerusalem is set up on May 7, 2018

The United States moves its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem next week in defiance of the Palestinians and most of the world, likely further heightening tensions at a time of tumult in the region.

US President Donald Trump is set to make good on his pledge in December when he broke with decades of precedent and recognised the disputed city as Israel's capital to global outcry.

The embassy inauguration due to take place Monday caps his decision but comes at a particularly fevered time, after weeks of deadly protests and clashes along the Gaza Strip's border with Israel.

It also follows Trump's announcement on Tuesday that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, creating a new level of uncertainty in the turbulent Middle East, and Israeli strikes on dozens of Iranian targets in Syria.

Thursday's deadly air strikes followed rocket fire toward Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights that Israel blamed on Iran.

Monday's ceremony will include some 800 guests and a White House delegation -- though not Trump himself -- at what until now had been a US consulate building in Jerusalem.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan will lead the delegation that will include Trump's daughter Ivanka, her husband and senior White House aide Jared Kushner, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Less than 100 kilometres (60 miles) away, more protests are planned along the Gaza border, with some Palestinians vowing to rush the fence and try to break through despite Israeli snipers deployed on the other side.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to portray the "historic" US embassy move as encouraging other countries to do the same, though that has not played out on a significant level.

"I must tell you that the bold decision by President Trump has prompted other countries, quite a few now, who are planning to move their embassy to Jerusalem as well," Netanyahu told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo when he visited Tel Aviv last month.

Senior Palestinian official Nabil Shaath told journalists Wednesday that Trump is supporting "Israeli cleansing of our people from Jerusalem, and is giving Israel a chance to violate all the international law that guarded this situation".

- 'Cut the siege' -

Beyond the disputed nature of the city, the embassy move will take on added signficance due to the date when it will occur.

May 14 marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel.

The following day is when the Palestinians mark the "Nakba," or catastrophe, commemorating the more than 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation.

Palestinian protests are planned on both days.

On the Gaza border, 52 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in protests and clashes since March 30. No Israelis have been wounded and the military has faced criticism over the use of live fire.

Israel says it only opens fire when necessary to stop infiltrations, attacks and damage to the border fence, while accusing Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the blockaded Gaza Strip, of seeking to use the protests as cover to carry out violence.

Some young protesters gathered near the fence last Friday pledged a rush towards the fence on May 14, though much will likely depend on whether Hamas encourages such actions.

"We will cut the siege, then enter inside," a 22-year-old who only gave his name as Hani said, adding he was not afraid to die.

"Our lives are cheaper than Palestine."

- Disputed status -

The embassy move is controversial due to Jerusalem's disputed status. It is perhaps the thorniest issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War. It later annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.

Israel considers the entire city its capital, while the Palestinians see east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

In the decades since, international consensus has been that the city's status must be negotiated between the two sides.

But support for Israel is a key domestic political issue in Washington for Republicans, and Trump decided to move the embassy despite warnings it would further jeopardise remaining chances for a two-state solution to the conflict.

He has argued that it helps make peace possible by taking Jerusalem "off the table", but many have pointed out that he has not announced any concessions in return from Israel.

The Palestinians have been so angered by Trump's decision that they froze ties with the White House.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has castigated Trump's administration and called his ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who has been a supporter of West Bank settlements, a "son of a dog".

In the days after Trump's announcement, protests against it were held in various cities in the Middle East and Muslim countries.

The new embassy is only a temporary arrangement, located at a consular compound partly situated in west Jerusalem and a former no man's land under armistice lines drawn up after the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war.

Eventually, a purpose-designed American embassy will be planned and built, a long-term project according to the State Department.A worker puts up a road sign indicating the way to the new US embassy in Jerusalem on May 7, 2018

Washington's contentious new embassy in Jerusalem is high-profile, but it's no gleaming new building changing the ancient city's skyline.

Instead, Ambassador David Friedman will set up shop in existing consular offices in the leafy middle-class Arnona neighbourhood on the city's southern edge for the near to mid-term.

Eventually, a purpose-designed embassy will be planned and built, according to the US State Department.

"Initially, the interim embassy in Arnona will contain office space for the ambassador and a small staff," a US official told AFP, declining to give further details.

"The ambassador will continue to divide his time between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during the initial phases of the embassy move, as this is a multi-year process."

So far around $400,000 has been spent on upgrades to the building, a US embassy spokeswoman said.

US President Donald Trump will not attend the inaugural event, but Washington will be represented by Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband, senior White House aide Jared Kushner.

The foreign diplomatic corps has not been invited as the event is considered a bilateral one, the embassy spokeswoman said.

Trump's unilateral decision delighted Israelis and enraged Palestinians, who want to make the eastern, mainly Palestinian, part of the city the capital of their future state and say that Trump's decision ignores their demands.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Tuesday said the city would name a small roundabout adjacent to the embassy as "Trump Square".

"Naming this square in honour of the president is our way of showing our love and respect for the president and the American people," he said in a statement.

The question of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat has called for diplomats, "civil society organisations, and religious authorities to boycott the inauguration."

"Those who attend the ceremony will be sending an ominous message, a message that they encourage flagrant violations of international law and (of) the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people," he said.

The building, which opened to the public in 2010, houses consular operations including American citizen and visa services.

Those functions "will continue at the Arnona facility without interruption, as part of the embassy," the US official said.

The building is about a mile from the east Jerusalem Palestinian neighbourhood of Jabel Mukaber, home to several perpetrators of militant attacks -- including one in 2015 that killed two Israelis and a US-Israeli dual national.

Security at the US facility has been visibly beefed up of late, with security guards permanently on guard on the street outside and several Israeli border police jeeps parked nearby.

On Monday street signs in the neighbourhood were switched to read "US Embassy" in Hebrew, Arabic and English, replacing signs saying "US Consulate."

On social media, the US embassy updated its Twitter handle to @usembassyjlm.A worker installs Israeli and US flags on May 7, 2018 in front of what will become Washington's embassy in Jerusalem

When the United States opens its embassy in Jerusalem on Monday it will be the most high-profile diplomatic inauguration in the holy city, but not the first nor the last.

Several countries, mainly African and Latin American, have previously had their ambassadors based in Jerusalem and some are expected to return.

After the 1973 Yom Kippur war, Ivory Coast, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Kenya severed relations with Israel in protest and closed the doors of their embassies in Jerusalem.

They later renewed relations but moved their missions to Tel Aviv.

In 1980 Israel enacted a law declaring Jerusalem, including the mainly Palestinian eastern zone, its "complete and united" capital.

The United Nations Security Council declared the move illegal and adopted a resolution calling on "those states that have established diplomatic missions at Jerusalem to withdraw such missions".

The Netherlands, Haiti and several Latin American countries complied.

Costa Rica and El Salvador returned to Jerusalem in 1984, but left again in 2006.

In the wake of Trump's announcement on December 6, some at least are heading back -- and Israel is hoping for more.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has said his country's embassy will move to Jerusalem on May 16, and Paraguay's foreign ministry said on Wednesday it would follow suit.

The Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement that Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes would attend the opening ceremony, which would take place "by the end of the month".

Romania's government, supported by the speaker of its parliament, has adopted a draft proposal to move its embassy, which would make it the first EU member to do so.

But Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who has frequently clashed with the government, opposes the move in the absence of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, and has called for Prime Minister Viorica Dancila's resignation.

On a visit to Jerusalem last month, Dancila acknowledged that at this stage she did not have "support of all parties as we would wish" to carry out the embassy move.

Czech President Milos Zeman has said he too would like to see his country's embassy transferred to Jerusalem.

He did not reveal any firm plan, however, and the government has only announced the reopening of its honorary consulate in Jerusalem and the establishment of a Czech cultural centre in the city.

On the other side of coin, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas his country would not move its Tel Aviv embassy to Jerusalem, official Palestinian media reported.

The European Union is sticking firmly to the international community's decades-long position that sovereignty in Jerusalem can only be decided by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Shortly after the Trump announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to Brussels for talks with EU foreign ministers.

"I believe that all or most of the European countries will move their embassies to Jerusalem," he told them, earning a chilly response from the bloc's foreign policy head Federica Mogherini.

"He can keep his expectations for others, because from the European Union member states' side this move will not come," she said.Sri Lanka has struggled to cut losses at the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, the country's biggest oil company

Sri Lanka hiked fuel prices Thursday by up to 130 percent following pressure from the International Monetary Fund and its central bank to reduce the burden of heavy subsidies on its struggling economy.

This is the first fuel price increase in Sri Lanka since the ruling coalition came to power in 2015. Past fuel subsidy cuts sparked protests in the South Asian nation, but it is unclear how the public will react to the latest hike.

Sri Lanka had to secure a $1.5-billion IMF bailout two years ago after a balance of payments crisis, and has struggled to limit huge losses at the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, the country's biggest oil company.

The price of kerosene oil, widely used in rural Sri Lanka for cooking and in lamps, will be more than doubled -- from 44 rupees to 101 rupees (65 cents) per litre starting midnight Thursday, the government said.

The hike is meant to discourage motorists who were mixing subsidised kerosene with diesel to lower costs, said government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne.

The price of diesel, commonly used in public transport vehicles, will also rise, from 95 rupees to 109 rupees per litre, while gasoline will now cost 137 rupees per litre, up from 117 rupees.

The IMF has said it will only release the next tranche of its bailout loan if Sri Lanka implements a controversial formula to adjust fuel prices based on the cost of production.

There was an urgent appeal by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka too, which warned that the government must ensure economic reforms -- including a proposal to recover the cost of fuel and electricity.

The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation lost $63 million in the first two months of this year alone, Senaratne said, and was unable to recover the cost of production.

"Even with the new increases, we will only reduce our losses... not make a profit," he told reporters in the capital Colombo.

Sri Lanka's economy has been on the mend since the IMF bailout was approved in 2016, but the 3.1 percent growth in 2017 was slower than expected.Members of the women's branch of Renamo attend a memorial service for Dhlakama

Accompanied by a military gun salute, Mozambique laid to rest rebel supremo and opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama in his remote birth village Thursday after his unexpected death threw the country's peace process into uncertainty.

Thousands of mourners attended the funeral in the country's central Sofala province, a heartland of support for the Renamo group that he led for nearly 40 years.

Dhlakama, who died of a suspected heart attack last week aged 65, was buried in a private family cemetery in the village of Magunde.

During his decades as leader, Renamo evolved from rebels fighting in the bloody 1977-1992 civil war to an opposition party with lawmakers in parliament while also maintaining an armed guerilla force.

After a renewed bout of unrest, Dhlakama declared a truce in 2016 and had recently pursued peace talks with President Filipe Nyusi, leader of the ruling Frelimo party.

"We are burying the body, but we are not burying the ideas," his brother Elias Dhlakama said after the casket was lowered into the ground.

Some people perched on trees to watch the burial in the place Dhlakama was born on New Year's Day 1953.

"We're here not only to honour our father but also to thank him," said Dhlakama's niece Teresa Marceta.

Dhlakama speaking during a 2014 interview in Maputo

Hundreds of vehicles took mourners to the family homestead where mud and reed huts have no electricity and water supplies.

Backed by apartheid South Africa, Renamo launched a bitter war against the Soviet-backed Frelimo government and fought for control of its strongholds in the north and centre of the country.

Dhlakama later then transformed Renamo into a political party which has participated in elections since the first multi-party democratic vote in October 1994.

He later retreated to his wartime bush camp in central Mozambique's Gorongosa mountains, claiming the government had reneged on a 1992 peace agreement.

Renamo appointed former party deputy Ossufo Momade as its interim leader until the party's next congress.The Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed to pay US regulators $4.9 billion in fines to settle litigation over subprime mortgage products it sold before the 2008 financial meltown

The Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed to pay US regulators $4.9 billion in fines to settle litigation over subprime mortgage products it sold before the 2008 financial meltown, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

The US attorney's Office in Massachusetts, which oversaw talks with the bank, would not confirm the amount.

But it said in a tweet that it had reached an agreement in principle with RBS and some of its affiliates "to settle potential civil claims to RBS's structuring and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities issued b/w 2005 & 2008."

Other details were still being worked out before a final settlement could be announced, according to the prosecutors

This was the last in a series of lawsuits brought against RBS by the US Justice Department.

RBS, once the world's largest bank, had to be rescued by British government during the global financial crisis.

Like other banks, RBS packaged toxic subprime mortgages into risky financial derivatives and sold them to customers, a practice that helped trigger the 2008 housing meltdown.

RBS had already set aside a huge pot of money for fines linked to its behavior leading up to the crisis.

The British government, which ended up owning 71 percent of RBS, will now more easily proceed with the bank's privatization.

RBS had already been fined several times by other US government agencies because of its sales of subprime-based financial products.Supporters of Mahathir Mohamad celebrate after the opposition's stunning election victory

Delight, disbelief and a degree of apprehension about a former strongman taking the reins of power again -- Malaysians were stunned Thursday after the scandal-ridden coalition was finally unseated by a challenge from Mahathir Mohamad, 92.

Mahathir's opposition alliance stormed to a historic win at the elections, toppling the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition that had ruled Malaysia for more than six decades.

It was a stunning -- and totally unexpected -- win for the nonagenarian, who had ruled Malaysia with an iron fist and came out of retirement due to an explosive corruption scandal that ensnared Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Most Malaysians, who turned out in droves to vote out Najib, were delighted but huge crowds did not hit the streets to celebrate -- many were simply exhausted after a bitter election campaign and the gargantuan effort of pushing out a deeply entrenched government.

Many remember Mahathir as a key figure in the transformation of Malaysia from sleepy Southeast Asian backwater into an economic success story

There was a sense of catharsis after the opposition alliance, boosted by the presence of political titan Mahathir, finally ousted a coalition that has for years been accused of massive corruption, fanning racial tensions in the multi-ethnic country and economic mismanagement.

"Honestly, I feel like we have just gained independence," Nor Hisham Rahmat, 45, told AFP, expressing a common sentiment among voters.

Nor Hisham is from Johor in southern Malaysia, one of several states where the local legislature fell to the opposition for the first time since Malaysia became independent in 1957.

He said people's livelihoods had been affected under Najib's rule due to the rising cost of living, a major issue in the election campaign.

"People are suffering. That is why BN was toppled," he said.

Toh Gian Ming, a 53-year-old businessmen, said he hoped the corruption that plagued public life under Najib would end with a change in government.

"I expect all the abuses under Najib will end. I long for a clean and just government," he said.

The opposition victory toppled the Barisan Nasional coalition that had ruled Malaysia since independence

Ganesan Karuppannan, a 54-year-old lawyer, said the country had descended into a "dictatorial situation" in recent years.

"People's feelings were not respected, the rule of law was disappearing by the day and every institution in this country has been

messed with," he said.

Mahathir undoubtedly helped to carry the opposition to victory by appealing to voters sick of Najib's corruption-plagued rule, but his comeback has also been controversial.

Many remember him fondly as a key figure in the transformation of Malaysia from sleepy Southeast Asian backwater into a relatively affluent, economic success story.

But he was also known as an authoritarian leader, who threw political opponents in jail and hollowed out the country's democratic institutions.

"Mahathir ruled the country with an iron fist -- a tiger never changes his stripes -- and Mahathir's style of rule will continue to be authoritarian," said 33-year-old businessman P. Punithan.

"Democracy and human rights were never part of his DNA."Activists have in recent years successfully campaigned to stop mass cullings of street dogs in Dhaka and other cities

A Bangladeshi security guard was handed a jail sentence on Thursday for burying alive two dogs and their 14 puppies, in what activists hailed as the country's first ever animal cruelty conviction.

Mohammad Siddique, who buried the dogs in polythene sacks, "was sentenced to six months in jail and fined 200 taka ($2.50)," prosecutor Forkan Mia told AFP after the trial in Dhaka.

Animal rights campaigners, who have long lobbied for replacing the South Asian country's colonial-era laws on animal maltreatment, said they hoped the sentence would act as a deterrent.

"The fact that this case was heard by the magistrate is a major achievement," said Rakibul Haq Emil from animal rights group the PAW Foundation, who brought the case.

"I am sure it will send a warning message that it won't be easy to get away with cruel treatment to animals in Bangladesh," he said.

The bodies of the dogs were discovered in October in a Dhaka neighbourhood. But despite outrage from campaigners, police were initially reluctant to take up the case.

Cruelty towards animals is commonplace in Bangladesh but activists have in recent years successfully campaigned to stop mass cullings of street dogs in the capital and other major cities.Abdelhakim Belhaj claimed Britain was complicit in the rendition of him and his wife that led to his torture in Libya

Britain on Thursday apologised for contributing to the ill treatment of former Islamist fighter turned politician Abdel Hakim Belhaj, who was kidnapped in Thailand in 2004, handed over to Libya and tortured.

"The UK government's actions contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering," Prime Minister Theresa May said in a letter to Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar, which was read out in parliament by Attorney General Jeremy Wright.

"On behalf of Her Majesty's government, I apologise to you unreservedly," the letter read.

Belhaj, who became Tripoli's military commander after Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi was ousted in the 2011 revolution, claimed British complicity in their capture by the CIA and subsequent torture by his regime.

The British government accepted the couple "were subjected to a harrowing ordeal which caused them significant distress", and said that it had reached "a full and final settlement" with them both.

Boudchar will receive 500,000 (570,000 euros, $670,000) compensation, but Belhaj did not seek any financial settlement, only an apology.

Boudchar was four-and-a-half months pregnant when she was kidnapped, telling the Guardian that she had been taped to a stretcher for the 17-hour flight to Tripoli.

She was released shortly before giving birth.

- 'Unacceptable practices' -

Belhaj was held for more than six years and said he was subjected to torture.

"Your accounts were moving and what happened to you is deeply troubling," wrote May.

"The UK government believes your account, neither of you should have been treated in this way".

The prime minister added that "we should have understood sooner the unacceptable practices of some of our international partners. We sincerely regret our failures."

Belhaj initially said he was taking action against MI6's former counter-terrorism chief Mark Allen.

Papers found after Kadhafi's ouster showed the British official had told the Libyan government that it was "the least the UK could do" to help capture Belhaj.

He also sued ex-foreign secretary Jack Straw, but dropped both of the cases as he mediated a "full and final settlement" with the government.

Belhaj fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan and became the leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which sought to overthrow Kadhafi and replace his regime with an Islamic one.

Following his release from prison in Libya, Belhaj founded the conservative Islamist party Al-Watan.

He also founded a pro-Islamist television channel, which was also opposed to Khalifa Haftar, the head of the Libyan National Army.

He had an office in Tripoli where he regularly received US, British, French and other Western envoys.

Belhaj and his men were part of the Fajr Libya faction which seized Tripoli in 2014.

As a party leader, he participated in the talks held in Morocco which brought about Libya's interim Government of National Accord (GNA) in December 2015.

However, he has vanished from Libyan public life since then and is now based in Istanbul.

In May 2017, pro-GNA armed groups took control of the prison where former leaders of the Kadhafi regime, including Abdallah Senoussi and Saadi Kadhafi, were being held under the control of Belhaj's men.

The same day, the headquarters of his television channel was torched.

It was later transferred to Istanbul from where it continues to lead an anti-Haftar campaign.Palestinian protesters use slings to hurl stones towards Israeli forces during clashes along the border with the Gaza Strip east of Khan Yunis on May 4, 2018

A senior Hamas official signalled support Thursday for thousands of Palestinians to breach the border fence from Gaza into Israel at protests to coincide with next week's US embassy move to Jerusalem.

In his first major briefing to international media since becoming Gaza head of the Islamist group in 2017, Yahya Sinwar implied he would like to see thousands of Palestinians crossing into Israel as part of more than a month of protests.

Asked what he wanted to see from protests on Monday and Tuesday, Sinwar pointed out Israel has never specifically defined its borders.

"What's the problem with hundreds of thousands breaking through a fence that is not a border?"

Sinwar said he hoped Israel would not shoot at what he called "peaceful" protests.

Fifty-two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since protests and clashes began on March 30 calling for Palestinian refugees to be able to return to their former homes in what is now Israel.

The majority of those killed were shot during protests and clashes near the border.

No Israelis have been hurt, though protesters have thrown stones and rolled burning tyres towards soldiers along the border.

Israel says there have also been infiltration attempts.

Sinwar said the lack of Israelis hurt was evidence the protests were peaceful.

But he warned the protests risked spiralling out of control, blaming Israel for imposing a blockade on the strip and its two million residents since Hamas took control in 2007.

Israel says the restrictions are necessary to restrict Hamas, with whom it has fought three wars since 2008.

- 'The tiger is loose' -

It accuses the Islamist movement of spending money that could go towards easing the humanitarian crisis on weapons and building tunnels to be used for attacks.

A file picture shows Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, at the opening of a new mosque in Rafah town in the southern Gaza Strip on February 24, 2017

"The Gaza Strip is like a hungry tiger that has been starved and left in a cage for 11 years," Sinwar said.

"Now the tiger is loose, and nobody knows what it will do."

Gaza suffers from high levels of unemployment, while more than 95 percent of the water is not fit for consumption due to pollution.

Israel says it only opens fire when necessary to stop infiltrations, attacks and damage to the border fence, while accusing Hamas of seeking to use the protests as cover to carry out violence.

Palestinians say protesters are being shot while posing no threat to soldiers and there have been international calls for an independent investigation.

Thousands are expected to gather along the border on Monday, which coincides with the controversial opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem.

There are fears protesters could try and breach the fence, leading to more bloodshed.

Palestinians, who also consider Jerusalem their capital, reacted furiously to President Donald Trump's December 6 announcement that he would move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the divided holy city, with widespread street protests.

Hamas has controlled Gaza since forcing out the internationally recognised Palestinian government in 2007.

Despite technically being second in control to Ismail Haniya, Sinwar, who came from the groups military wing, is seen as the dominant force in the Islamist movement.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by the Jewish state, the United States and the European Union.Women are allowed to attend the annual Osun-Osogbo festival to celebrate the river goddess Osun and pray for fertility and good fortune

An order from a Nigerian traditional ruler forbidding women from being in public during a festival this week has sparked a lively debate over gender in the economic capital Lagos.

Oba Kabiru Adewale Shotobi gave notice of the Magbo festival in Ikorodu, warning that on Oro day "all female(s) are forbidden to be seen outside their homes or move around the town".

Ikorodu was once a small Yoruba kingdom but rapid urbanisation in recent decades has seen it become swallowed by Lagos, which prides itself as Nigeria's most progressive city.

Now the bustling suburb finds itself at the crossroads between powerful ancient customs and modern sensibilities.

The announcement went viral online and was criticised in some quarters as sexist.

One political pundit wrote on Twitter: "This is Lagos, Nigeria's most 'liberal state'. Nigeria is a very backward society."

Reflecting the sensitivity of the issue, the Lagos state police met the Oba -- king in Yoruba -- following outrage over the ban.

Ikorodu was once a small Yoruba kingdom but rapid urbanisation in recent decades has seen it become swallowed by Lagos

During the meeting, he expressed shock that a man of his "exposure" would be seen as doing anything sexist, according to a police statement on Monday.

The monarch said the festival was an "age-old tradition" yet ultimately decreed that "the festival would hold without denying the female folks their right of freedom of movement".

But while his words placated some, in reality the festival went on as it has for many years: women and children stayed indoors, according to local media reports.

According to Yoruba custom, women and children should never see the oro, a male deity who is considered "sublimely sacred", priestess Adedoyin Talabi Faniyi told AFP.

On Oro day in 1999, a woman from the Hausa ethnic group ventured out into the street, triggering a brawl between Yorubas and Hausas that left over 50 people dead.

- 'Sublimely sacred' -

Oro is feared in Nigeria's southwest, which is home to some 40 million people, most of them Yoruba, and where traditional beliefs are practised alongside Christianity and Islam.

"Women are not allowed to move around during the Oro festival because that is how it has been since the beginning," Faniyi said.

"This festival goes around Yoruba towns from one place to another."

A priestess carries a ritual sword during the Osun-Osogbo Festival

Women are supposed to honour the goddess Majowu, who is married to Oro and ensures marital bliss in the sometimes polygamous society by frowning on women "misbehaving" out of jealousy, said Tempolife, a Nigerian weekly magazine.

But Oro is particularly scary because he is known to demand human sacrifice, a practice at odds with Lagos's desire to market itself as an African megacity of the future.

"The media also know what is involved in the Oro festival. The churches and mosques and their leaders know," wrote Azuka Onwuka, a columnist for The Punch, a daily newspaper.

"They know that human sacrifice is sometimes involved in it," Onwuka wrote on Tuesday. "But everybody keeps quiet and pretends there is nothing wrong with it.

"How can it be explained that in the Lagos of 2018, which prides itself as Nigeria's only megacity, that there is a cultural practice that not only prohibits the movement of women and strangers but also is touted to involve human sacrifice?"

Tradition and modernity often clash in Lagos, a city home to 20 million people from Nigeria and beyond.

When President Muhammadu Buhari shut down the city for his first official visit in March, as he does in other cities around the country without incident, both male -- and female -- Lagosians were incensed.Rome decided this week to allow 105 people to land in Italy following a back-and-forth with British authorities over who should take them

More than 100 migrants who were stranded in the central Mediterranean for three days during a diplomatic standoff between Rome and London after their rescue off the coast of Libya arrived in Italy on Thursday.

Rome decided this week to allow 105 people to land in Italy following a back-and-forth with British authorities over who should take them. Nearly 700,000 people have landed on Italian shores since 2013.

One of the group to arrive at Sicilian city Catania on Thursday, which included six women, 32 teenagers and six children, was Vitoria, a 21-year-old Nigerian who told AFP that she had been in Libya for just over a year before setting off over the weekend.

She said that she had spent nearly six months in dreadful conditions in a Libyan prison after a failed first crossing last year. The country's notorious detention centres have been blasted by human rights groups and the United Nations as "inhuman."

"I was not afraid of the water, because God created the water. I'm not afraid of death. We all die one day. I'm more afraid if the Libyan police were to catch me again, because they are so wicked," she said.

Vitoria was one of those who had been on the Aquarius rescue ship, chartered by SOS Mediterranee and Medecins Sans Frontieres, since Monday night, after being saved on Sunday by a smaller boat -- the Astral -- run by a Spanish NGO following a call from the Italian coastguard.

The crew on the first boat had been told that Libya was coordinating the rescue operation, meaning that the migrants were to be taken back to the North African country.

However when the Astral met the migrants on Sunday the Libyan coast guard were nowhere to be found and didn't respond to radio calls. At that point they decided to take them on board, and that's where the standoff began.

As it was not officially coordinating the rescue, Rome asked London to deal with the migrants as the Astral bears the Union flag. On Sunday night London asked the Astral to transfer them to the Aquarius, which flies the flag of Gibraltar.

The two ships met Monday morning about 30 nautical miles off the coast of Tripoli, but waited all day for written confirmation of the transfer from either London or Rome.

In absence of a response from London -- the British coast guard told AFP that the incident wasn't their responsibility -- Rome authorised the transfer on Monday night, but waited until Tuesday night to give the go ahead for them to travel to Catania.Senior officials including General Thomas Waldhauser, (C) head of AFRICOM, brief the media on the findings of a report on a deadly attack on US and Nigerien forces

A comprehensive probe into last year's deadly attack on US and local forces in Niger uncovered a series of avoidable blunders leading up to the assault, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Four American soldiers and four members of Nigerien partner forces were killed in the October 4 ambush, when scores of jihadists overran their convoy in southwestern Niger, near the Mali border.

While the Pentagon said all four US soldiers fought bravely and "died with honor," investigators found they had not been properly trained ahead of the mission and pointed to problems with how it was approved in the first place.

The US soldiers, who belonged to a special operations team, had deployed to the western African nation in the autumn to conduct counter-terrorism assistance and training with the Nigerien military. Currently about 800 US troops are in Niger.

Enemy fire was initially light when jihadists attacked US and Nigerien forces in October 2017, but quickly intensified as militants surged through a wooded area alongside the convoy

But at the time of their deployment, only half of the US team had conducted any collective training together, according to an eight-page summary of findings of the investigation, which itself remains classified.

Their mission on October 3 was to "find/fix and, if possible, capture" a key member of a group calling itself the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, the summary states.

Though the summary did not name the target, officials later said it was Doundoun Cheffou, suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of US aid worker Jeffery Woodke, who was seized at gunpoint from his home in October 2016 in the Tahoua region.

However, the US team commander had "inaccurately characterized" the nature of the mission in order to get it approved at a low level instead of requesting permission from battalion-level commanders based in Chad.

The language used for the initial mission had been cut and pasted from previous operations and "a lack of attention to detail in quality control and quality assurance," together with inadequate approvals, "all contributed to a general lack of situational awareness and command oversight at every echelon," the report summary states.

And prior to setting out on the operation, the US team failed to conduct pre-mission rehearsals or battle drills with their Nigerien counterparts, the report found.

Eleven US personnel and more than 30 Nigeriens went out on the mission.

Investigators found "individual, organizational and institutional failures and deficiencies that contributed to the tragic events," but did not identify one single failure or deficiency as the sole reason.

General Thomas Waldhauser, head of Africa Command, told Pentagon reporters that US forces are now "far more prudent" in their missions and have beefed up firepower and drone support.

"It provides adequate and more resourceful force protection measures in order to still keep up with the enemy forces on the ground," he said.

- French 'show of force' -

Pentagon officials also published a detailed, 10-minute reconstruction of the ambush itself, which started as the US-Nigerien eight-vehicle convoy headed out of the remote village of Tongo Tongo, having stopped there for water.

The troops were not even wearing body armor when the assault first began, and had to stop their convoy to don it.

Enemy fire was initially light, but quickly intensified as jihadists surged through a wooded area alongside the convoy.

The video describes how the convoy was forced to split up and how it was outflanked by over 100 enemy fighters.

Officials praised the actions of the French air force, which flew Mirage jets in a low-altitude "show of force" over the jihadists, screaming overhead at the same level as treetops.

Because the French could not tell where the US troops were on the ground, they did not engage the enemy, but the overflights caused them to retreat for cover, "likely saving the lives of the surviving members of the" US team, the summary states.

Sergeant La David T Johnson, 25, of Miami Gardens, Florida, was among the American soldiers killed in an ambush in Niger in 2017

Major General Roger Cloutier, who led the probe, said three of the US soldiers' bodies had been placed in or by a jihadist vehicle, and had been stripped of all their gear.

The jihadists "were driven off by French aircraft," he said.

The fourth American to die was Sergeant La David Johnson, and the video shows he became separated from his comrades. His body was not found until 48 hours after the attack -- he had taken cover under a the branches of a large thorny tree.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has issued a series of recommendations in light of the report, including better pre-deployment training.

Waldhauser said Special Operations Command will eventually award medals for valor to the troops on the mission.Map locating Verulam in South Africa, where a mosque was the target of an attack

Armed attackers struck a mosque outside the South African city of Durban on Thursday, stabbing to death an imam and injuring two others in a country known for its peaceful religious relations.

Three men entered the large mosque after midday prayers, carrying guns and attacking the victims with knives and then releasing a petrol bomb that set fire to the building.

Police said the attackers remained at large after escaping in a Hyundai car from the Imam Hussain mosque in Verulam town, on the outskirts of the eastern port city.

"The motive of the attack is unknown at this stage. Verulam police are investigating three counts of attempted murder and arson," police spokeswoman Nqobile Gwala said in a statement.

The incident appeared to be unprecedented in South Africa, where about 1.5 percent of the country's 55 million population is Muslim.

Paul Herbst, spokesman for the private IPSS medical rescue service, told AFP that the imam had his throat slit and passed away a few hours after the attack.

"There were three people in the mosque -- a caretaker, a worshipper and the imam and they were held up by three armed men," Herbst said.

"The (imam) was tied up and thrown to his knees and his throat was slit. The other two men were also stabbed -- one was stabbed in the abdomen and the other in the groin of his left leg.

"Before the assailants left the mosque, a petrol bomb was thrown into the mosque and it was set alight."

The imam was treated by paramedics on the scene and transferred to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

- 'Sudden attack' -

Prem Balram, spokesman for the Reaction Unit South Africa security company, said he had arrived at the mosque to find two victims covered in blood lying in the forecourt of the mosque.

He said a third victim had been attacked inside the building and had jumped out of a window when it was set alight.

"Eyewitnesses said three attackers with guns had used knives. One knife was left behind," Balram told AFP.

"There have been theft and robbery incidents at mosques before, but not like this, when nothing appears to have been taken."

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan is due to start next week.

"It is the first time anything like this has happened in South Africa, let alone in KwaZulu-Natal province," Faizel Suliman, chairman of the SA Muslim Network, told AFP.

"It was a sudden attack and at this point we don't have enough information. Speculation about the motive is quite dangerous at this point."

The South African parliament's police committee condemned the attack.

"A mosque is a religious institution, and South Africa's constitution guarantees and protects the right to religious practices," its chairman Francois Beukman said.

"This kind of attack on three innocent people is totally unjustified. We want our communities to live in harmony, practising their religions without fear."Opposition fighters and their family members evacuated from the towns of Yalda, Babila, and Beit Saham, south of Syria's capital, under a negotiated withdrawal to secure the last opposition holdouts of Damascus in May 2018

Hundreds of Syrian rebels left an area south of Damascus on Thursday, a monitor and state media said, leaving the capital threatened only by the Islamic State group.

Fifteen buses carrying hundreds of fighters and their relatives left the towns of Yalda, Babila, and Beit Saham on the southern edge of Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

"The convoy is on its way to opposition territory in northern Syria," the Observatory told AFP.

In all, the Observatory said, 8,400 people had been evacuated from the three towns since a deal was reached one week ago for the negotiated withdrawals.

"For the first time since 2011, there are no opposition fighters in or around Damascus except the Islamic State group," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based monitor.

IS still controls a pocket of territory inside the Yarmuk Palestinian camp and the adjacent Hajar al-Aswad district, both inside Damascus.

Government forces have been pressing a ferocious weeks-long assault against them there and continued to carry out air strikes there on Thursday.

The agreement for Yalda, Babila, and Beit Saham was reached on May 3 and follows a pattern of similar deals through which Syria's government has recaptured swathes of territory around Damascus.

"Yalda, Babila, and Beit Saham south of Damascus have been cleared of terrorism, after the final wave of terrorists who did not want to reconcile (with the government) left to northern Syria with their families," said state news agency SANA.

It said government security forces were preparing to enter the three towns, which had for several years fallen under a "reconciliation" agreement with the Syrian state.

That meant they remained in rebel hands but a local ceasefire was enforced.

This year, however, President Bashar al-Assad has appeared more determined than ever to secure the entirety of the capital and its surroundings with a blend of military pressure and negotiated withdrawals.

It used the same strategy on the Eastern Ghouta rebel stronghold, which it recaptured last month, and on an area northeast of the capital.Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's personal attorney, is under criminal investigation

As Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen earned a reputation as the "fixer" for the Manhattan real estate tycoon and a pit bull defender of his larger-than-life boss.

The brash 51-year-old New Yorker -- who once boasted of his office in Trump Tower -- is now in a fix of his own, under criminal investigation and accused of seeking to cash in on his access to the president.

His home and office have been raided by the FBI, and Cohen is being lampooned by comedians as a real-life version of the sleazy ambulance-chasing lawyer Saul Goodman on the hit show "Breaking Bad."

Before becoming Trump's right-hand man, Cohen -- a burly guy with thick salt-and-pepper hair -- was, in fact, a personal injury lawyer representing clients injured in auto accidents.

Cohen grew up on Long Island and earned his law degree from Western Michigan University's Cooley Law School, one of the lowest-ranked law schools in the country.

In 1994, Cohen married Laura Shusterman, the daughter of a Soviet emigre who was in the notoriously rough-and-tumble taxi business in the Big Apple.

Cohen also went into the taxi business, buying and selling the medallions which allow a driver to operate a yellow cab.

Lawyer Michael Avenatti, seen here with the porn star Stormy Daniels, has emerged as the nemesis of Trump attorney Michael Cohen

The coveted medallions were once valued at more than $1 million each, but their value has plummeted with the arrival of ride-hailing services such as Uber.

Cohen's relations with Trump began with his dabbling in real estate and purchases of apartments in Trump buildings in New York.

Cohen became Trump's personal lawyer and an executive vice president in the Trump Organization in 2007.

He drew attention during the 2016 presidential election campaign with his pugnacious appearances -- punctuated with his heavy New York accent -- on television on behalf of Trump.

In one clip which went viral, he repeatedly snapped "Says who?" at a CNN anchor who claimed that opinion polls had Trump losing the election.

- 'I'm crushing it' -

Cohen's more recent notoriety stems from his role in paying $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006.

Michael Cohen served for a decade as Donald Trump's personal lawyer

Since then, it has been revealed that the company Cohen set up for the Stormy Daniels payment, Essential Consultants, also received money -- more than $2 million in all -- from a Russian oligarch, telecom giant AT&T and drug company Novartis, among others.

The payments were revealed by the man who has become Cohen's nemesis, Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who is seeking to release Daniels from the "hush agreement" she signed with Essential Consultants.

According to The Washington Post, Cohen touted his close ties to Trump to potential clients looking for insight into the new administration and access.

"I'm crushing it," Cohen reportedly told an associate last year.

According to The New York Times, Cohen went into the lucrative business of peddling influence after being denied a job in the Trump administration.

"He imagined himself as chief of staff," the Times said.

Instead of a White House job, Cohen now finds himself under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors.

FBI agents seized reams of evidence in last month's raid on his home and office but the authorities have not yet revealed what crimes he is accused of.

The raid was conducted on a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller, who is looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow.

True to the TV drama nature of the affair, speculation is rife as to whether Cohen has any incriminating material on Trump and whether he will "flip" on his former boss.

In a tweet last month, Trump described Cohen as "a fine person with a wonderful family."

"Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories," Trump said. "Sorry, I don't see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media."Dozens of high-flying executives and former officials have been punished in the corruption crackdown waged by a hardline administration in charge since 2016

Vietnam arrested the chairman and chief accountant of a leading state-run oil refining firm Thursday for alleged abuse of power and property appropriation, as the government forges ahead with its massive anti-graft sweep.

Dozens of high-flying executives and former officials have been punished in the corruption crackdown waged by a hardline administration in charge since 2016.

Some of the biggest names swept up in the crackdown are linked to the country's largest oil firm, state-run PetroVietnam (PVN).

That now includes Nguyen Hoai Giang, the chairman of PVN subsidiary Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Company, and head accountant Pham Xuan Quang.

They were arrested Thursday for "abusing power to appropriate property," the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement Thursday, without providing details.

The ministry said it would further investigate the allegations that it was also linked to Ocean Bank, another major target of the recent anti-corruption campaign.

Binh Son Refinery and Petrochemical reported authorised capital worth $1.5 billion in 2015, according to the latest figures on the company's website.

The firm raised $245 million in January from the sale of a 7.79 percent stake in an initial public offering.

Vietnam has long vowed to quash rampant corruption, but observers say the current crackdown is unprecedented in its scope and scale -- and could be fuelled by political infighting.

PVN's ex-chairman and former Politburo member Dinh La Thang was sentenced to 13 years and 18 years in separate trials for economic mismanagement earlier this year.

He is currently appealing the 13-year sentence for overseeing an investment into a thermal plant that caused $5.2 million in losses for the state.

He told the court this week that he did not break the law during his time as PVN head, his lawyer Nguyen Huy Thiep told AFP.US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross warned of a "wide" gap with China on trade, but hopes for improvement

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Thursday he hopes to reduce large differences with China in trade talks where hundreds of billions of dollars in commerce are at stake.

"The gap is wide," Ross said in congressional testimony, a week after he led a delegation to Beijing to try to resolve the thorny dispute.

A high-level Chinese delegation will be coming to Washington next week, and "I'm hopeful we will make further progress with them," he said.

The US has threatened tariffs targeting $150 billion in Chinese imports, while Beijing has warned that $50 billion in US goods are in the firing line.

Vice Premier Liu He -- considered Xi's right-hand man on economic issues -- led talks in Beijing last week and will head the Chinese delegation to Washington next week.

Ross said the US officials presented a detailed list of requests for changes in China's trade policy -- "product by product and quantity by quantity." Agricultural goods, which have been targeted for retaliation by Beijing, figured prominently.

China "responded in kind" with a counterproposal, so the sides are now working on "a very specific set of bids and asks," he said.

In response to a question, Ross said President Donald Trump has ordered the Agriculture Department to do all it can to minimize the impact of any tariffs.

"We're all well aware that it's horribly unfair for one industry to bear the brunt of retaliation in our efforts to help other parts of economy," Ross said.

"We'll do our level best to resolve the problem."

The US reportedly has demanded Beijing reduce the bilateral trade deficit by $200 billion a year.

The dispute erupted when Trump imposed steep tariffs in March of 25 percent on all steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum, citing national security reasons amid a global glut of the metals.

The sanctions hit friend and rival alike, prompting threats of retaliation from the European Union.

However, Ross indicated the EU could accept a quota system limiting imports of steel and aluminum into the United States in order to win an exemption from the tariffs.

He said he will speak to EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem again early next week and "there is a reasonable chance we'll work something out."

Argentina, Brazil and South Korea all agreed to quotas to cap shipments from their countries in order to be exempt from the metals tariffs.Guinea opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo (R) who met President Alpha Conde in on April 2, 2018, accused the authorities of dragging their feet

Guinean opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo on Thursday said protests would resume next week over disputed local elections in February as he called off negotiations with the government.

Demonstrations over the results of that vote have claimed at least 15 lives.

The opposition was in talks with the government but Diallo, who met President Alpha Conde in on April 2, accused the authorities of dragging their feet.

He announced a new strike on Monday in the capital Conakry, adding: "We are suspending dialogue... because we have noticed a lack of will on the part of our adversaries to find consensus on the electoral differences."

He said the government was "sticking to its position by saying it cannot change the results announced by the independent national election commission", or CENI.

"The results do not remotely reflect the real outcome," he said, adding that the "choice of the citizens in voting stations supercedes all other considerations."

The February election was the first of its kind since a military dictatorship ended a decade ago. It followed eight years of delays blamed on lack of funds, political infighting and the 2013-16 Ebola crisis.US Senator John McCain is battling brain cancer, and his colleagues have quietly begun considering that the six-term lawmaker and former Republican presidential nominee might not return to Washington

John McCain has been home in Arizona fighting brain cancer for months, and while the US Senate awaits his possible comeback, many colleagues have begun facing the prospect that the political titan might never return to Washington.

In quiet conversations in the Capitol, more than a dozen senators - several of them McCain's friends for a quarter-century or more - acknowledged they are struggling to adjust to a Senate without the larger-than-life lawmaker in their midst.

Each is eager for McCain to come back, but privately some concede it may not happen.

The occasionally irascible national security hawk and 2008 Republican presidential nominee has not appeared in Congress this year.

"I miss him all the time," Senate Democrat Michael Bennet told AFP, noting that McCain has routinely gone "out of his way" to work with Democrats.

McCain, a 81-year-old six-term senator, was diagnosed last year with glioblastoma, the same aggressive form of brain cancer that took the life of another Senate giant, Ted Kennedy, in 2009.

McCain's future may have a pronounced impact on Republican efforts to maintain their narrow Senate majority. Should he retire or die this month, it would likely trigger a special election for his replacement in November, during a year of sweeping Democratic enthusiasm.

Lawmakers have avoided directly broaching such taboo subjects.

"He ain't gone," Republican Senator Roger Wicker said in an interview, adding that McCain remains "very much still a presence" in the chamber, conducting conference calls with staff and maintaining his Armed Services Committee chairmanship.

But his absence was palpable Wednesday when the Senate Intelligence Committee grilled CIA nominee Gina Haspel over her role in the post-9/11 enhanced interrogation program set up under George W. Bush.

"It's hard to have a meaningful debate about a big issue like torture without John McCain," said Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, noting McCain's brutal treatment during his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

"He was somebody that guided us through some of these life-and-death issues because he was one of the few that had faced those stakes personally."

McCain released a statement opposing Haspel.

"Her refusal to acknowledge torture's immorality is disqualifying," he said.

- 'Incredible deference' -

McCain's extensive challenges and exploits have earned his colleagues' admiration and respect. Now they are there for him as he contends with his toughest challenge.

Former vice president Joe Biden, a cherished friend who served in the Senate for decades, visited McCain and wife Cindy recently at their ranch outside Sonoma.

In his new book, "The Restless Wave," McCain has the last word on his astounding career

"I wanted to let him know how much I love him and how much he matters to me and how much I admire his integrity and his courage," Biden told The New York Times.

Senator Lindsey Graham, McCain's close friend, has also made the trip. Arizona's retiring junior Senator Jeff Flake has visited twice in recent weeks.

"We had a good conversation," Flake said of their latest meeting, which included an hour-long lunch. But he declined to discuss McCain's health.

In early 2018, explicit talk of McCain retiring early or dying was rare, and even today, senators allow privately that little has been done to prepare for an official farewell.

"People are showing incredible deference," one senator said.

During his treatment, McCain penned and voiced a new memoir, "The Restless Wave," in which he gets the last word on his astounding career, addressing his leading roles in immigration reform and health care policy, and his adventures on the world stage.

In the book, which comes out later this month, he calls on Americans to "recover our sense that we are more alike than different."

But he also addresses his possible end, writing, "Maybe I'll be gone before you read this."

- Country over party -

Lawmakers have begun gingerly addressing the issue.

Senator Orrin Hatch recently apologized after saying he thought it was "ridiculous" that McCain did not want President Donald Trump, who once mocked McCain's capture, to attend his funeral.

One longtime senator declined to explicitly call his visit with McCain earlier this year a final farewell. But his voice cracked as he described to AFP how they parted: "We put our arms around each other and said goodbye."

As much as McCain is an outsized personality with a volatile temper, he has had a generally calming influence on the chamber, one of the few senators who brings both sides together.

"There's just no question that country matters more to John than party," said Murphy.

Senator Dick Durbin, first elected to Congress in 1982, the same year as McCain, paused when asked what he missed about his friend.

"Half the time he infuriated me, and the other half he inspired me," the Democrat said, expressing hope McCain could one day return to the Senate.

"I hope in the meantime we can still hear his voice."Navdeep Bains (L), Canada's Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister, seen here Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was made to take off his turban while undergoing airport security screening in Detroit, treament that led to a diplomatic protest

The zealous airport security screening of a Canadian government minister wearing a turban last year led Ottawa to file a diplomatic protest with Washington, his office said Thursday.

Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Navdeep Bains is a devout Sikh.

He was heading home to Canada from Detroit in April 2017 after meeting with Michigan state Governor Rick Snyder and other officials, when security agents insisted he remove his turban for inspection, after he had already cleared the metal detector and secondary screening tests and was about to board his flight.

He told the Canada's French-language newspaper La Presse that "the experience made me uncomfortable," describing the agents as "very insistent and very difficult."

Being asked to remove his turban is akin to "being asked to take off my clothes," he was quoted as saying.

Bains's spokesman Karl Sasseville explained to AFP that the minister did not immediately reveal his government position in order to see how things play out for ordinary people in such circumstances.

But when a security guard caught up to him at the gate and asked him to return for yet more screening, he pulled out his diplomatic passport and was allowed to board his flight.

Ottawa verbally protested to Washington over the incident, and received an apology. US authorities also ordered Detroit airport security staff to undergo further training.

The US Transportation Security Administration passed new regulations in 2007 allowing Sikhs to keep their turban when passing security checks at airports.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said she felt it was important to voice Ottawa's concerns about the way Bains was treated in order to "support all Canadians travelling across the border."

Bains also noted a similar incident in Antigua after a family vacation last Christmas to the Caribbean island.Before agreeing to their historic summit, US President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un spent months trading taunts and insults

Donald Trump's face-to-face with Kim Jong Un will mark a historic milestone in relations between Washington and Pyongyang -- and cap a stunning about-face for the mercurial leaders who months ago were trading threats and insults.

Here is a look back at the 18-month diplomatic roller-coaster that took Trump and Kim from rhetorical warfare to the verge of the first summit between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader, set for June 12 in Singapore.

- Trump sets the tone -

On January 2, 2017, weeks before taking office, then president-elect Trump vows that North Korea will never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon capable of reaching US territory.

Early in his presidency, however, Trump sends out conflicting signals -- in separate statements in April 2017, he described Kim as both a "madman with nuclear weapons" and a "pretty smart cookie" for managing to hold onto power at his young age.

On May 1, he stuns observers by declaring he would be willing -- and "honored" -- to meet the North Korean leader "under the right circumstances."

- Stand-off escalates -

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspecting the assembly work of an ICBM which was launched in 2017

Six months into Trump's presidency, in July 2017, Kim conducts two intercontinental ballistic missile tests, and declares the entire United States to be within North Korea's range.

The following month, Trump threatens "fire and fury" if Pyongyang continues to threaten America, kicking off months of saber-rattling that set the world on edge.

Undeterred, Pyongyang weeks later test-fires a ballistic missile over Japan, and on September 3 carries out its sixth, "perfect" nuclear test, of a hydrogen bomb it claims can be mounted on a missile.

The US leader warns "talking is not the answer" to the stand-off with Pyongyang -- although his administration still does not rule out a diplomatic solution.

- Whose button is bigger? -

In his maiden speech to the UN General Assembly, Donald Trump nicknames Kim Jong Un a "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission"

On September 21, 2017, Washington unveils a raft of tough sanctions to curb North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile program.

The announcement comes two days after Trump's maiden speech to the UN General Assembly, in which he nicknames Kim a "Rocket Man" on a "suicide mission" and warns that if threatened, the United States will have "no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."

In response, Kim brands Trump "mentally deranged" and a "dotard," warning he will pay dearly for his threats.

On September 21, 2017 Kim Jong Un lashed out following Donald Trump's belligerent address to the UN General Assembly, calling him "mentally deranged"

After a new ICBM test from Pyongyang in November, Trump derides Kim as a "sick puppy," while fears mount that the bellicose rhetoric could trigger a nuclear conflict.

As 2017 draws to a close, Kim boasts his missile arsenal can hit any city on the US mainland, warning in a New Year address that he has a "nuclear button" on his desk.

Three days into the New Year, on January 3, Trump retorts that his own nuclear button is "much bigger & more powerful."

Pyongyang brands his outburst the "bark of a rabid dog."

- 'Peace Olympics' -

Following years of tensions, South Korea's hosting of the Winter Olympics in February 2018 gives the neighbors a window to reopen communications, ushering in a spectacular Korean detente.

Ivanka Trump and the wife of South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Kim Jung-sook, snap a selfie during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics

As the two Koreas march together for the opening ceremony, the South's President Moon Jae-in shares historic handshakes with Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong, and Trump's daughter Ivanka attended events with top officials from both sides.

Washington makes clear it will keep up the pressure despite signs of a regional thaw -- slapping Pyongyang on February 23, 2018, with its largest ever set of sanctions, a move the regime calls an "act of war."

But in a remarkable announcement at the White House, on March 8, a top South Korean official announces that Kim will "refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests" and has invited Trump to meet him -- and that Trump has agreed.

The Olympics also pave the way for a historic inter-Korean summit, on April 27, which sees Pyongyang and Seoul promise to pursue the denuclearization of the peninsula and a permanent peace.

- The final hurdles -

President Donald Trump shakes hands with former detainee Kim Dong-chul, after he was freed by North Korea along with fellow captives Kim Hak-song (R) and Tony Kim (front L)

Over Easter weekend, Trump's CIA chief and nominee for secretary of state Mike Pompeo travels secretly to Pyongyang where he meets Kim and begins to lay the groundwork for the landmark summit.

A month later, Pompeo makes a second unannounced trip aimed at finalizing the summit details -- and pressing for the release of three US citizens detained by Pyongyang.

On May 9, Trump announces the three men are headed to the United States, personally welcoming them to Washington, offering effusive thanks to Kim and heralding a diplomatic victory.

The next morning, on May 10, after weeks of teasing the announcement, Trump reveals the date and location of his "highly-anticipated meeting" with North's Korea's leader, vowing to "make it a very special moment for World Peace!"Virunga National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

The threatened Virunga National Park in DR Congo announced on Thursday it has banned the felling of trees throughout the nature reserve.

"The management of the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature wishes to bring to the attention of the resident of Beni and its surroundings that it is forbidden to fell trees in the park," a statement read.

"The incentives to destroy the park are contrary to the rule of law and destroy the common heritage for the benefit of individual and illicit enrichment."

Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is threatened by numerous armed groups in the region, including Ugandan rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

It is Africa's oldest national park and is Africa's most biologically diverse protected area of some 7,800 square kilometres (3,000 square miles), according to its website.

Joel Wengamulay, a communication officer for the park, told AFP that "unknown people sell spaces inside the park for $250 (210 euro) and take advantage of the situation to cut down trees and make more money" in the Beni area, especially near the Ugandan border.

Authorities and the United Nations accuse the ADF of being responsible for the massacres of some 1,000 civilians in the Beni region since 2014, as well as 15 peacekeepers at the end of 2017.

Five park guards and a driver were killed in an ambush in early April.

Global Witness, an international NGO, has recently accused the Congolese government of planning to reclassify "swathes" of the park to allow oil exploration to take place.Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and his designer wife Georgina Chapman -- shown here at the 2015 Oscars -- are now divorcing in the wake of sexual assault allegations against him

The estranged British fashion designer wife of Harvey Weinstein claims she "never" suspected him of wrongdoing and was "so naive," in her first interview since the Hollywood mogul's downfall over sexual misconduct revelations.

"There was a part of me that was terribly naive -- clearly, so naive," Georgina Chapman, 42, told Vogue in an extensive interview published Thursday, seven months after the rape and sexual harassment allegations snowballed.

"I had what I thought was a very happy marriage. I loved my life," she said. Asked if she had ever been suspicious, she replied: "Absolutely not. Never."

Chapman, the co-founder of fashion label Marchesa, married Weinstein in 2007 and the couple share two children. She left her husband soon after the scandal broke and the couple are divorcing.

"I lost 10 pounds in five days. I couldn't keep food down," she said. New York Times and New Yorker reports on Weinstein last October led to his career annihilation, bankruptcy, police investigations and the #MeToo movement that has ousted a host of powerful men from jobs across politics and industry.

Chapman fled New York, to Los Angeles and then London, saying she didn't go out for five months.

"I was so humiliated and so broken," she said. "I thought, 'Who am I to be parading around with all of this going on?' It's still so very, very raw."

Marchesa cancelled its planned February runway show at New York Fashion Week and there has been sniping that the label, which shot to prominence dressing starlets who appeared in Weinstein's movies, may not survive.

But on Monday, A-lister Scarlett Johansson purposely choose a Marchesa gown to wear to the Met Gala, the most high-profile celebrity fashion event of the year.

Chapman told Vogue she has loyal supporters.

"A lot of people reached out and said, 'Let me wear something'," she said.

While Chapman told Vogue she doesn't consider herself a victim, she broke down in tears when talking about her son and daughter.

"What are their lives going to be?" she cried. "It's like, they love their dad. They love him," she told Vogue. "I just can't bear it for them!"

As her marital homes are sold, she now plans to move to a farm in upstate New York with her children.

The interview also revealed that Chapman had bonded with Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's long-time aide whose husband Anthony Weiner is a convicted sex offender, and now in prison for sexting a 15-year-old girl.

"People don't feel sorry for us, you don't get that empathy. People think you're beautiful, you're thin, you're rich," Abedin told Vogue."Cobra Kai" creators Josh Heald, Jonathan Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg helped convince a hesitant Ralph Macchio, seen here at the show's world premiere, to get on board

YouTube on Thursday announced it had green lighted a second season of "Cobra Kai," a sequel of sorts to 1980s classic film franchise "The Karate Kid" -- just a week after the first episode debuted on the video-sharing platform.

Tapping into a wave of nostalgia, the series premiere episode -- released on May 2 -- has more than 20 million views so far, the Google-owned company said.

"Cobra Kai" is a major victory for YouTube, which hoped to use the series both to draw new customers to its $10-a-month streaming service, YouTube Red, which was launched in 2015, and to position itself in the competitive original content market.

The first two episodes of the show were made available for free, to lure viewers.

Filming of season two, which again will feature the star of the original film, Ralph Macchio, will begin later this year. The episodes will go online in 2019.

The series -- still set in the Los Angeles suburbs -- is a comedy, and it's told not from the perspective of Daniel LaRusso (Macchio), the bullied teen hero who learns karate from a martial arts master, but that of his nemesis Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka).

Of course, both Daniel and Johnny are well into middle age, and Johnny reopens the Cobra Kai karate dojo.

YouTube Red is now available in five countries -- the US, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South Korea -- but YouTube says it will reach dozens more by year's end.

In countries where YouTube Red is not available, episodes of "Cobra Kai" can be purchased directly on YouTube, or via Google Play.MEXICO CITY (AP) - Some of the migrants who peeled off from a caravan and decided to stay in northern Mexico are protesting delays in granting residency visas and are threatening to go to the U.S. border to seek asylum.

Mexican Sen. Maria del Carmen Ojesto said Wednesday that 15 of the Central Americans are on a hunger strike in the northern state of Sonora to demand visas they say they were promised.

The migrants have said that "if the promises are not kept, about 100 people will reconsider (staying in Mexico) and go to Tijuana to request asylum" in the U.S., she said.

Mexico's National Immigration Institute said about 120 people had staged a demonstration outside immigration services offices in Hermosillo, the capital of Sonora state, demanding all applications be approved.

The institute said the requests for humanitarian visas or asylum would only be approved in accordance with existing laws. The institute says 76 migrants are working legally in Mexico, out of a total of 182 visa requests made. An additional 106 are still being reviewed because they lack necessary information.

Mexico already granted many migrants on the caravan transit visas to reach the U.S. border.

Earlier this month nearly 200 caravan members went to Tijuana and started to make their cases to U.S. officials that they be allowed to live in the United States. Many said they were fleeing gang violence in Honduras and El Salvador.

More than half of the Central Americans and others who filed asylum requests in Mexico in 2017 had not received an answer by early this year. Mexico says its application procedure was slowed down by damage to its offices caused by a Sept. 19 earthquake.COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina's state owned utility paid $9 million in performance bonuses to executives of a private utility for two nuclear reactors that were never finished, according to the public utility and emails turned over to state and federal investigators.

SCANA Corp. even billed taxpayer-supported Santee Cooper $3.2 million for bonuses in August, a month after the utilities abandoned 10 years of construction and planning for the reactors, according to the emails released by Gov. Henry McMaster's office on Wednesday.

Santee Cooper refused to pay, utility spokeswoman Mollie Gore said.

"I will not approve this invoice," Senior Vice President for Nuclear Energy Michael Crosby wrote in one email. "I may get over-ridden ... but if SCANA cares to push this ... CFOs & CEOs will need to get involved."

Crosby also suggested letting SCANA CEO Jimmy Addison know his company was still seeking performance bonuses after the reactors were abandoned, and suggested that other executives "man-up and ask if he wants to push this," according to the emails.

Some Santee Cooper executives did not want to pay any of the bonuses, but former CEO Lonnie Cooper decided the public utility should pay 45 percent of the bonuses because it owned 45 percent of the reactors, Gore said.

McMaster obtained the emails and invoices from Santee Cooper after asking the public utility to send his office any documents they were sharing with state and federal investigators, McMaster spokesman Brian Symmes said.

The invoices indicated at least $5 million of bonuses paid to SCANA executives, but Gore said Santee Cooper's records showed the public utility paid $8.9 million to the executives at the private firm.

The governor also sent the emails to legislative leaders, asking senators to confirm his nominee to run the Santee Cooper board as soon as possible.

"Santee Cooper's customers, including individuals and the electric cooperatives of our state, deserve to know how their hard earned money is being spent by the utility, and now, we know that much of it was going to pay SCANA executives' bonuses related to the failed reactors," Symmes said in a statement.

Santee Cooper is $8 billion in debt after the abandoning of the reactors.

SCANA didn't respond to an email seeking comment.

Also on Wednesday, South Carolina lawmakers made a last-minute push to pass several bills to give ratepayers temporary relief and pass regulations to prevent anything like this from happening again.

A committee of House members and senators could not reach a compromise on how much to cut a charge that customers of South Carolina Electric & Gas - a SCANA subsidiary - pay for the abandoned reactors.

The House wants to cut the entire 18 percent charge until the Public Service Commission can reset rates at the end of the year. The Senate wants a 13 percent cut. They said they would continue talks later.

The Senate tentatively approved repealing the Base Load Review Act which allowed utilities to charge ratepayers for the nuclear plants before they ever generated a watt of power. Nine different rate increases were passed during the 10 years of planning and construction on the reactors.

"This is an important reform to give public assurance we're not going to have to deal with this again," said Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey of Edgefield.

The bill will face a final key vote Thursday on the last official day of the 2018 session, but the House and Senate may take up other bills about the failed reactors in special sessions in May and June.

One of those bills could be a proposal that passed a Senate subcommittee Wednesday requiring SCANA and Santee Cooper to preserve equipment for the failed reactors still at the V.C. Summer site in Fairfield County. Supporters said that equipment can be sold and the proceeds given back to customers.

The utilities will never get back the $1.6 billion value of the equipment, but at least ratepayers would be responsible for less debt, said Democratic Sen. Mike Fanning, whose district includes the failed reactors.

"If we've got $9.5 billion (in debt) out there and some senators saying we're going to get that rate reduction relief and the only way to do it is get those assets back," Fanning said.

Also on Wednesday, the Senate passed a bill allowing the consumer advocate at the state Department of Consumer Affairs to work on behalf of ratepayers before regulators.LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Fred Rogers drama "You Are My Friend" starring Tom Hanks as the beloved television host is coming to theaters in late 2019.

Sony Pictures says Wednesday that the film will be released on October 18, 2019.

The story is inspired by the real-life friendship between Rogers and journalist Tom Junod.

This combination photo shows Fred Rogers as he rehearses the opening of his PBS show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" in Pittsburgh on June 28, 1989, left, and Tom Hanks at the London premiere of the film 'The Post ' on Jan. 10, 2018. Sony Pictures says the Rogers drama "You Are My Friend" starring Hanks as the beloved children's show host is coming to theaters on Oct. 18, 2019. (AP Photo)

Marielle Heller, who made the well-reviewed coming-of-age drama "Diary of a Teenage Girl," is directing the film.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," inspiring a PBS special, a postage stamp and a feature-length documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor," which hits theaters on June 8.COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) - Officials with the University of Maryland, College Park, have recommended revoking Bill Cosby's honorary degree after the comedian's sexual assault conviction.

University spokeswoman Katie Lawson tells The Baltimore Sun the decision by the school's committee on honorary degrees will be sent to the University System of Maryland office for Board of Regents approval.

The newspaper reported Wednesday that Johns Hopkins University revoked Cosby's honorary degree after jurors convicted him of drugging and molesting a Temple University employee in 2004.

Mike Lurie with the University System of Maryland says two other schools from the system are discussing requests to rescind honorary degrees awarded to Cosby.

Lurie says the Board of Regents may consider such a request as early as June 22, once it's submitted to the system.SHANGHAI (AP) - A court in Shanghai sentenced the founder of the Chinese insurance company that owns New York City's Waldorf Hotel to 18 years in prison on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to fraudulently raising billions of dollars from investors, state media reported.

Shanghai's No. 1 Intermediate People's Court also ordered the confiscation of 10.5 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in assets from Wu Xiaohui, the former chairman of Anbang Insurance Group, which had gained a reputation for ambitiously expanding into hotels, real estate and insurance from Canada to South Korea.

Wu, who founded privately owned Anbang in 2004, has been accused of misleading investors and diverting money for his own use. He was detained last year and regulators seized control of Anbang in February. He was shown on state TV in March admitting guilt.

A woman walks past the offices of the Anbang Insurance Group in Beijing, Thursday, May 10, 2018. A court in Shanghai sentenced the founder of the Chinese insurance company that owns New York City's Waldorf Hotel to 18 years in prison on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to fraudulently raising billions of dollars from investors, state media reported. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Wu initially had denied his guilt at his one-day trial, according to an earlier court statement.

According to Xinhua, Wu concealed his ownership of shares in companies controlled by Anbang, filed false statements with financial authorities and lured investors by offering rates of return above that offered elsewhere. Much of the business relied on selling insurance products to raise investment capital.

It said he used more than 100 companies under his control to manage funds and authorities later recovered bank savings, real estate and other assets. Wu used his position to misappropriate 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in Anbang's deposits, according to Xinhua's lengthy report.

Xinhua said the court determined the length of the sentence according to the facts of the case, the severity of the crime, and its "degree of social harm." It said more than 50 people were present at the sentencing, including Wu's relatives and journalists.

Anbang last month said it was receiving a $9.6 billion bailout from a government-run fund. That would mean the government fund owns 98 percent of the company, wiping out most of the equity stake once held by Wu and other shareholders.

The company had engaged in a global asset-buying spree in recent years, raising questions about its stability. Anbang discussed possibly investing in a Manhattan skyscraper owned by the family of U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner. Those talks ended last year with no deal.

The negotiations with Kushner Cos. about 666 Fifth Ave. prompted members of the U.S. Congress to raise ethics concerns.

The Anbang case is one of a string of scandals in what had been a stodgy Chinese insurance industry long-dominated by state-owned insurers. The industry's former top regulator was charged in September with taking bribes and other insurers have been accused of reckless speculation in stocks and real estate.

The Communist Party has made reducing financial risk a priority this year after a surge in debt prompted rating agencies last year to cut Beijing's credit rating for government borrowing.

Anbang is being run by a committee of officials from China's insurance regulator, central bank and other agencies. They have said its obligations to policyholders and creditors are unaffected.

Over the years, Anbang grew to more than 30,000 employees with 35 million clients. It diversified into life insurance, banking, asset management, leasing and brokerage services.

Speculation is rife over possible sales of Anbang's assets, which, in addition to the iconic Waldorf - purchased for almost $2 billion - include Dutch insurer Vivat NV, the San Francisco Westin St. Francis and hotels, real estate and insurance holdings in Canada, Belgium and South Korea.

The logo of the Anbang Insurance Group is seen on the company's offices in Beijing, Thursday, May 10, 2018. A court in Shanghai sentenced the founder of the Chinese insurance company that owns New York City's Waldorf Hotel to 18 years in prison on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to fraudulently raising billions of dollars from investors, state media reported. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A man talks on his cellphone outside the offices of the Anbang Insurance Group in Beijing, Thursday, May 10, 2018. A court in Shanghai sentenced the founder of the Chinese insurance company that owns New York City's Waldorf Hotel to 18 years in prison on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to fraudulently raising billions of dollars from investors, state media reported. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Malaysia's former authoritarian leader Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as prime minister on Thursday, cementing a stunning political comeback and a historic change in government after leading opposition parties to their first election victory in six decades.

The ceremony before Malaysia's king at the official state palace in Kuala Lumpur ended a day of uncertainty during which rumors swirled that the National Front, Malaysia's perennial ruling party, would try to stay in power. People waiting outside the palace cheered, waved opposition flags and sounded car horns.

The election result is a political earthquake for the Muslim-majority country, sweeping aside the 60-year rule of the National Front and its leader Najib Razak, whose reputation was tarnished by a monumental corruption scandal, a crackdown on dissent and a new sales tax that hurt his coalition's poor rural supporters.

Mahathir Mohamad, left, receives official documentation from Malaysia's King Muhammad V, right, as he was sworn in as Malaysia's new prime minister at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Malaysia's former authoritarian leader Mohamad, who in a stunning political comeback led opposition parties to their first election victory in six decades, was sworn in as prime minister on Thursday, cementing a historic change of government. (Rosli Awang/Bernama via AP)

It was also a surprising exception to backsliding on democratic values in Southeast Asia, a region of more than 600 million people where governments of countries including Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines have swung toward harsh authoritarian rule. Amnesty International said Malaysia's first-ever change in government is an opportunity to "eradicate repressive policies" and put human rights first.

"We need to have this government today without delay," Mahathir, 92, said before the ceremony. "There is a lot of work to be done. You know the mess the country is in and we need to attend to this mess as soon as possible and that means today."

Many analysts had thought the National Front might lose the popular vote but cling to a parliamentary majority due to an electoral system that increases the ballot power of rural Malays, the coalition's core supporters. After the result of the election became clear, supporters of the incoming government took to the streets to celebrate.

People stood on roadsides waving the white, blue and red flag of the triumphant opposition alliance. Cars honked their horns as they sped past.

"I'm so happy," said Zarini Najibuddin while waving the opposition flag. "I hope we'll have a better Malaysia now. Malaysia reborn!"

Ibrahim Suffian, co-founder of the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research, said the new government will have to contend with "enormous forces of inertia and resistance from within the government elites."

"The bureaucracy and the rest of the government apparatus has never been used to this idea, having been, you know, more than 60 years under the same political party," he said.

Mahathir, prime minister for 22 years until stepping down in 2003, was credited with modernizing Malaysia but was also known as a heavy-handed leader who imprisoned opponents and subjugated the courts.

Angered by the graft scandal at state investment fund 1MDB, Mahathir emerged from political retirement and joined the opposition in an attempt to oust Najib, his former protege.

The U.S. Justice Department says $4.5 billion was looted from 1MBD by associates of Najib between 2009 and 2014, including $700 million that landed in Najib's bank account and a $23 million pink diamond necklace bought for Najib's wife. He has denied wrongdoing.

Mahathir said the new government will not conduct a witch hunt, but Najib will have to face the consequences if he has broken the law.

Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asia expert at John Cabot University in Rome, said it was hugely ironic that Mahathir, who damaged Malaysia's democratic institutions with his strong-arm rule, has returned as its political savior.

"It is not just a comeback," she said. "It is about making amends about his mistakes and moving Malaysia forward."

Mahathir has said the new government would seek the release and full pardon of Anwar Ibrahim, an opposition icon imprisoned on sodomy charges that Anwar and his supporters said were fabricated by the National Front to crush the opposition. Anwar, whose sentence ends on June 8, should be free to participate in politics, he said. Anwar, a former deputy prime minister in the ruling party, was also imprisoned under Mahathir following a power struggle.

On the economic front, Mahathir vowed to cancel a goods and service tax imposed since 2015 and said the government could also renegotiate the terms of Chinese loans for infrastructure projects.

He criticized a "fake news" law pushed through parliament by the National Front during the lead-up to the election. Mahathir is being investigated under that law for claiming a plane he was to travel on was sabotaged during the campaign.

Najib, 64, said he accepted the "verdict of the people."

The National Front "will honor the principle of democracy in the parliament," he said.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad talks during press conference in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Malaysia's former authoritarian leader Mahathir Mohamad, who in a stunning political comeback led opposition parties to their first election victory in six decades, was sworn in as prime minister on Thursday, cementing a historic change of government. (AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf)

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, center, talks during a press conference in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Malaysia's former authoritarian leader Mahathir Mohamad, who in a stunning political comeback led opposition parties to their first election victory in six decades, was sworn in as prime minister on Thursday, cementing a historic change of government. (AP Photo/Sadiq Asyraf)

Malaysians at a restaurant react as they watch TV showing former strongman Mahathir Mohamad being sworn in as the new Malaysian Prime Minister in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday, May 10, 2018. Official results from Malaysia's national election show the opposition alliance led by the country's former authoritarian ruler Mahathir Mohamad has won a majority in parliament, ending the 60-year rule of the National Front.(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

People applaud at a restaurant as they watch a TV showing former strongman Mahathir Mohamad being sworn in as the new Malaysian Prime Minister in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday, May 10, 2018. Official results from Malaysia's national election show the opposition alliance led by the country's former authoritarian ruler Mahathir Mohamad has won a majority in parliament, ending the 60-year rule of the National Front.(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

People at a restaurant watch as the former strongman Mahathir Mohamad is sworn in as the new Malaysian Prime Minister in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday, May 10, 2018. Official results from Malaysia's national election show the opposition alliance led by the country's former authoritarian ruler Mahathir Mohamad has won a majority in parliament, ending the 60-year rule of the National Front.(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

People at a restaurant applaud as they watch TV showing former strongman Mahathir Mohamad sworn in as the new Malaysian Prime Minister in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday, May 10, 2018. Official results from Malaysia's national election show the opposition alliance led by the country's former authoritarian ruler Mahathir Mohamad has won a majority in parliament, ending the 60-year rule of the National Front.(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Locals newspapers with the headlines of the opposition coalition party winning the general election at a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Former leader Mahathir Mohamad says the opposition parties who won a shock victory in Malaysia's elections have a clear mandate to form a new government and he expects to be sworn in as prime minister on Thursday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

President of Justice Party Wan Azizah, left, speaks with Mahathir Mohamad after a press conference at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Mahathir says the opposition parties who won a shock victory in Malaysia's elections have a clear mandate to form a new government and he expects to be sworn in as prime minister on Thursday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Mahathir Mohamad reacts as he speaks during a press conference at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Mahathir says the opposition parties who won a shock victory in Malaysia's elections have a clear mandate to form a new government and he expects to be sworn in as prime minister on Thursday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Mahathir Mohamad reacts as he speaks during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Mahathir says the opposition parties who won a shock victory in Malaysia's elections have a clear mandate to form a new government and he expects to be sworn in as prime minister on Thursday. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Mahathir Mohamad smiles during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday, May 10, 2018. Mahathir says he expects to be sworn in as prime minister today. (AP Photo/Adrian Hoe)

Defeated Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, left, speaks during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday, May 10, 2018. Official results from Malaysia's national election show the opposition alliance led by the country's former authoritarian ruler Mahathir Mohamad has won a majority in parliament, ending the 60-year rule of the National Front. (AP Photo/Adrian Hoe)

Defeated Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak speaks during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday, May 10, 2018. Official results from Malaysia's national election show the opposition alliance led by the country's former authoritarian ruler Mahathir Mohamad has won a majority in parliament, ending the 60-year rule of the National Front. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Dozens of Islamic militant prisoners who took over a police detention center near Indonesia's capital and killed five officers surrendered to police Thursday, the country's top security minister said.

The riot erupted late Tuesday at the headquarters of the elite Mobile Brigade police in Depok, on Jakarta's southern outskirts, where four days earlier authorities arrested three militants they accuse of planning to attack police.

Most of the prisoners surrendered before dawn Thursday following an ultimatum from security personnel, said Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security Wiranto, who goes by one name. About 10 inmates refused to give up but shortly were subdued when police fired smoke bombs and tear gas.

Officers rest outside the detention center at the headquarters of elite police unit Mobile Brigade in Depok, West Java, Indonesia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Indonesia's top security minister said dozens of Islamic militants who took over the detention center near Indonesia's capital, killing a number of officers, have surrendered to police. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

He said those involved were "detained terrorists."

"They committed cruelty by seizing weapons, holding hostages, torturing and even killing the officers in cruel and vile manners, beyond the limits of humanity," Wiranto said at a news conference.

He said inmates had controlled about 30 guns and weapons they took from officers and a store room.

Earlier, Deputy National Police Chief Muhammad Syafruddin said all 155 inmates were involved in the riot. He said they took nine officers hostage and killed five of them, while another four were tortured. The last hostage, a chief sergeant, was released just after midnight in exchange with food.

One inmate was killed, police said.

Syafruddin said the inmates would be moved to other penitentiaries including the prison island of Nusa Kambangan off the southern coast of Java.

The Islamic State group's Amaq News Agency published a report after the riot broke out saying the melee was between its fighters and the counterterrorism squad.

Those provoking the riot were about 30 to 40 inmates from Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, a network of Indonesian extremist groups that pledges allegiance to Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, National Police spokesman Setyo Wasisto said in an interview with local MetroTV.

Police have said the incident was triggered by a trivial disagreement about a delay in an inmate getting food from his family.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo expresses gratitude to all security forces involved in the efforts to control the situation and restore security in the Mobil Brigade's headquaters.

"I need to emphasize, the state and the whole nation are never afraid and will never give any room to terrorism and efforts that disturb the security of the country," Jokowi said.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has carried out a sustained crackdown on Islamic militants since the 2002 Bali bombings by the Jemaah Islamiyah network that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.

The network was neutralized following the arrests of hundreds of its militants and leaders. But new threats have emerged recently from Islamic State group-inspired radicals who have targeted security forces and local "infidels" instead of Westerners.

It was the second riot in the detention center since November, when detained militants attacked prison guards who were searching for contraband and cellphones.

Officers set up police line around the detention center inside the compound of the headquarters of the elite police unit Mobile Brigade in Depok, West Java, Indonesia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Indonesia's top security minister said dozens of Islamic militants who took over the detention center near Indonesia's capital, killing a number of officers, have surrendered to police. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Officers stand guard outside the headquarters of Mobile Brigade, an elite Indonesian police force, in Depok, West Java, Indonesia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Indonesia's top security minister says dozens of Islamic militants who took over the detention center near Indonesia's capital, killing a number of officers, have surrendered to police. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Officers rest on an armored vehicle parked outside the detention center inside the compound of the headquarters of the elite police unit Mobile Brigade in Depok, West Java, Indonesia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Indonesia's top security minister said dozens of Islamic militants who took over the detention center near Indonesia's capital, killing a number of officers, have surrendered to police. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

An officer stands guard near razor wire barricade set up outside the headquarters of elite police unit Mobile Brigade in Depok, West Java, Indonesia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Indonesia's top security minister said dozens of Islamic militants who took over the detention center inside the compound near Indonesia's capital, killing a number of officers, have surrendered to police. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Officers stand guard outside the detention center inside the compound of the headquarters of the elite police unit Mobile Brigade where a riot occurred in Depok, West Java, Indonesia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Indonesia's top security minister says dozens of Islamic militants who took over the detention center near Indonesia's capital, killing a number of officers, have surrendered to police. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Officers cheer after a briefing at the headquarters of elite police unit Mobile Brigade in Depok, West Java, Indonesia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Indonesia's top security minister said dozens of Islamic militants who took over the detention center inside the compound near Indonesia's capital, killing a number of officers, have surrendered to police. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Albany Law School will display a hand-signed letter from Alexander Hamilton giving legal advice to a client.

The school says it will exhibit rare documents related to the Founding Father for a week starting on Monday. The exhibit will help celebrate Hamilton's honorary degree from Albany Law School, which will be bestowed on May 18.

The 1784 letter from Hamilton was written when Hamilton was involved in organizing the Bank of New York. The letter and several other documents related to Hamilton being displayed in Albany are now part of the collection of the bank's successor, BNY Mellon.MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Prominent horse trainer Robert Smerdon has been banned for life along with two of his stable employees for their parts in the systematic doping of more than 100 races over a seven-year period in one of the biggest scandals in the Australian thoroughbred industry.

Judge John Bowman on Thursday said there was hierarchal ladder in the scheme in which five others were found guilty and that Smerdon was at the top of it.

Victoria state's Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board (RAD) found the eight were guilty of dishonest, corrupt, fraudulent, improper or dishonorable practice for their involvement in giving horses a banned mixture of sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, before big races. That was supposed to help reduce the build-up of lactic acid and allow the horses to run longer.

Stable hand and horse trailer driver Greg Nelligan and his wife, Denise, who was also employed by Smerdon's stable, were also given life bans.

Trainers Stuart Webb, Tony Vasil, Trent Pennuto and Liam Birchley, and stable hand Daniel Garland received bans of between one and four years.

The eight were found guilty of 271 charges, the bulk of which were levelled at Smerdon and Greg Nelligan.

Racing Victoria described the scheme as the darkest chapter in Australian racing and asked RAD to also fine Smerdon 100,000 Australian dollars ($75,000).

The board reserved its decision on the fine for 10 days to take financial submissions.

Appearing earlier at the hearing, Racing Victoria lawyer Jeff Gleeson said the group engaged in "systematic cheating" from 2010 to 2017.

"It has cast a shadow over thoroughbred racing," Gleeson said.

Racing Victoria chief executive Giles Thompson said the sport's governing bodies needed to uphold the highest levels of integrity.

"It is imperative that we send the strongest possible message to the small minority who think they can undermine the integrity of our sport," Thompson said. "If people choose to try and brazenly cheat the system to gain an unfair advantage . then we don't want them to have a place in our sport."

All eight have the right to appeal their bans within 28 days.ELKHART, Ind. (AP) - Embracing his role as party leader, President Donald Trump issued a stern warning at a rally Thursday that Democrats would disrupt the economic progress of his administration, imploring Republicans to mobilize during the 2018 midterm elections.

Trump used one of his signature rallies in northern Indiana to paint a rosy picture of his presidency, pointing to low unemployment, "booming" job growth and optimism under his watch. Two days after Indiana wrapped up a divisive Republican Senate primary, the president praised a lengthy ticket of House and Senate candidates by name and predicted Democrats would dismantle his agenda if they regained control of Congress.

"You have to work every day between now and November to elect more Republicans so that we can continue to make America great again," Trump said, referencing his 2016 campaign slogan.

President Donald Trump speaks at the North Side Gymnasium in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, May 10, 2018, during a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The president, who was joined at the Elkhart rally by home-state Vice President Mike Pence, said Democrats would raise taxes, "destroy your jobs" and "knock the hell out of your border."

Chief among his targets: Indiana's Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly, who faces Republican businessman Mike Braun in what is expected to be one of the nation's most competitive Senate races.

Trump branded Donnelly as "Sleepin' Joe." He assailed him for opposing the president's signature tax cuts and his attempt to end the Affordable Care Act. And he criticized Donnelly for supporting the Iran nuclear deal forged by President Barack Obama and withdrawn from by Trump this week.

Trump said Donnelly would "do whatever Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi tell him to do" and claimed the senator would "say one thing in Elkhart," and then support the "radical, liberal agenda."

After the rally, Donnelly said in a statement it was "okay" that Trump and Pence were "here today for politics, but problems only get solved when you roll up your sleeves and put in the hard work."

"I'm Indiana's hired help in the Senate because I don't work for any president or any political party - I work for Hoosiers, and that will never change," he said. Donnelly's campaign said he had voted with Trump 62 percent of the time.

Basking in the cheers of thousands of supporters wearing his red campaign hats, Trump hailed his decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and his tough stance on trade deals, appealing to the region's manufacturing base. He reissued his campaign pledge to build a border wall with Mexico, telling the crowd the work had started despite opposition from Democrats.

And he celebrated the return of three Americans who had been held captive in North Korea, saying: "We welcomed them back home the proper way."

But for a onetime political novice who ran as an outsider, Trump played the role of party champion ahead of midterm elections that typically haunt the party that holds the White House.

Trump is expected to ramp up his political travel in the coming months, and his advisers viewed the event as a way to project party unity following a rough primary that pitted Braun, a former state legislator, against two Republican congressmen.

Imploring Braun to join him on stage, Trump turned the podium over to the Senate nominee, who credited the president for providing an inspiration to his candidacy. "I'm a businessman and an outsider, just like our president," Braun said to cheers.

The president, who helped raise $132 million for the Republican National Committee in 2016, won 10 states where Democratic senators are on the ballot this year. He's expected to campaign heavily to help Republicans maintain Senate and House majorities and elect GOP governors.

In his remarks, Trump painted a glowing picture of his presidency.

"We are all making America proud. We are rockin,'" he said. "The great news keeps rolling in."

Missing was any reference to the clouds cast by the special counsel's ongoing investigation into Russian election meddling and near-daily revelations about Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen's payments to a porn actress who alleges an affair with Trump.

Cohen appears to have used his relationship with Trump to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars - a practice at odds with Trump's "Drain the swamp" campaign message.

But Trump instead lobbed the "swamp person" charge at Donnelly, prompting the audience to break into a "Drain the swamp" chant.

The Indiana rally was Trump's fourth political-style event in the past two weeks. Trump skipped the White House Correspondents' Dinner late last month to rally supporters in Macomb County, Michigan.

He spoke last week to the National Rifle Association in Dallas. And last Saturday, Trump was in Ohio, long the key electoral piece for any GOP presidential hopeful.

As he travels the country, Trump will face the question of whether his appeal is transferable to down-ballot candidates, much in the way that Obama struggled to rally core Democrats when he wasn't running himself.

Obama suffered broad losses in Congress and in statehouses during the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections, an outcome Trump hopes to avoid.

___

Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

___

On Twitter follow Ken Thomas at https://twitter.com/KThomasDC

President Donald Trump speaks at the North Side Gymnasium in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, May 10, 2018, during a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the North Side Gymnasium in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, May 10, 2018, during a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the North Side Gymnasium in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, May 10, 2018, during a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the North Side Gymnasium in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, May 10, 2018, during a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the North Side Gymnasium in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, May 10, 2018, during a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Donald Trump takes in the cheering crowd as he speaks at the North Side Gymnasium in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, May 10, 2018, during a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Donald Trump pauses as he speaks at the North Side Gymnasium in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, May 10, 2018, during a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The crowd cheers as Vice President Mike Pence introduces President Donald Trump at the North Side Gymnasium in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, May 10, 2018, during a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Donald Trump speaks at the North Side Gymnasium in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, May 10, 2018, during a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence wave to the cheering crowd during a campaign event before President Donald Trump speaks at the North Side Gymnasium in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, May 10, 2018, during a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Donald Trump addresses the crowd during a Republican campaign rally Thursday, May 10, 2018, in Elkhart, Ind. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Indiana Republican senatorial candidate Mike Braun, right, acknowledges President Donald Trump during a GOP campaign rally Thursday, May 10, 2018, in Elkhart, Ind. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Vice President Mike Pence introduced President Donald Trump during a Republican campaign rally Thursday, May 10, 2018, in Elkhart, Ind. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Vice President Mike Pence, left, greets President Donald Trump onstage during a Republican campaign rally Thursday, May 10, 2018, in Elkhart, Ind. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Indiana Republican senatorial candidate Mike Braun, right, acknowledges the crowd and President Donald Trump during a GOP campaign rally Thursday, May 10, 2018, in Elkhart, Ind. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

President Donald Trump, left, and Indiana Republican senatorial candidate Mike Braun embrace during a GOP campaign rally Thursday, May 10, 2018, in Elkhart, Ind. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the North Side Gymnasium in Elkhart, Ind., Thursday, May 10, 2018, during a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Donald Trump acknowledges the crowd's applause during a Republican campaign rally Thursday, May 10, 2018, in Elkhart, Ind. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)WASHINGTON (AP) - Envisioning "a very special moment for world peace," President Donald Trump announced Thursday he will meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un for highly anticipated summit talks in Singapore on June 12. He set the stage for his announcement by hosting a 3 a.m., made-for-TV welcome home for three Americans held by Kim's government.

"We welcomed them back home the proper way," Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Indiana Thursday evening.

Final details in place, Trump and Kim agreed to the first face-to-face North Korea-U.S. summit since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. It's the most consequential and perhaps riskiest foreign policy effort so far in Trump's presidency as North Korea's nuclear program approaches a treacherous milestone - the capacity to strike the continental U.S. with a thermonuclear warhead.

President Donald Trump, accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, back, shakes hands with former North Korean detainees Kim Dong Chul, with Kim Hak Song, upon their arrival, Thursday, May 10, 2018, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump says the U.S. is aiming for "denuclearization" of the entire Korean peninsula, but he has yet to fill in just what steps that might include and what the timing would be.

"We're starting off on a new footing," Trump said of himself and Kim as he welcomed the detainees in a floodlit ceremony at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington. He hailed their release as a potential breakthrough in relations between the longtime adversary nations.

He and Kim "will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" he said of the summit later on Twitter. He told his rally crowd, "I think it's going to be a very big success."

Kim has suspended nuclear and missile tests and put his nuclear program up for negotiation, but questions remain about how serious his offer is and what disarmament steps he would be willing to take. The White House has said withdrawal of thousands of U.S. troops from South Korea is "not on the table."

Long before dawn Thursday, with the former detainees by his side on the air base tarmac, Trump said it was a "great honor" to welcome them back to the U.S. but "the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons."

The ceremony, which also featured a giant American flag suspended between the ladders of two firetrucks, emphasized Trump's penchant for the dramatic as he raised expectations for the summit. And it underscored how closely the fate of his foreign policy agenda is being tied to the North Korean negotiations.

He had wanted to hold the summit in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas but yielded to the concerns of officials who thought a DMZ meeting would focus attention on relations between the North and South rather than the nuclear question.

Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, other top officials and first lady Melania joined the president for the air base celebration. The former detainees - Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim - had been released Wednesday at the end of Pompeo's visit to North Korea.

They appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft. One said through a translator, "It's like a dream; we are very, very happy." They later gave the president a round of applause.

Pence said Pompeo had told him that at a refueling stop in Anchorage, "one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadn't seen daylight in a very long time." The men were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation before being reunited with their families.

Trump thanked North Korean leader Kim for releasing the Americans and said, "I really think he wants to do something" on denuclearization.

Pence said on NBC News, "In this moment the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith."

Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who was among several Republican lawmakers who dined with Trump and National Security Adviser John Bolton Wednesday evening before the detainees returned, said their release was a positive development, but he remained cautious about North Korea's intentions.

"We are in uncharted waters," he said. "This is the highest level diplomacy that the United States has to offer. Failure would be a significant setback to diplomatic efforts."

As for the venue, why Singapore?

White House spokesman Raj Shah said the country has relationships with both the U.S. and North Korea, meaning both presidents' security - and a sense of neutrality - can be assured.

Located at the southern tip of Malaysia, the prosperous city state is a regional Southeast Asia hub whose free enterprise philosophy welcomes trading partners from everywhere. It has close diplomatic and military ties with the U.S. and yet is also familiar ground for North Korea, with which it established diplomatic relations in 1975.

"Since their independence, they've very deliberately developed a reputation as an honest broker between East and West," said David Adelman, the former U.S. ambassador.

The White House choreographed the arrival event at the air base, the image-conscious president telling reporters, "I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 o'clock in the morning."

The public display stood in stark contrast to the low-key, private reception that the State Department had envisioned, in keeping with a practice of trying to protect potentially traumatized victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after an ordeal.

Shortly after they touched down in Alaska, the department released a statement from the freed men. They expressed their appreciation to Trump, Pompeo and the people of the United States and added: "We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

North Korea had accused the three of anti-state activities. But their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.

The three are:

- Kim Dong Chul, 64, a South Korea-born U.S. citizen and the longest-serving detainee. He received a 10-year prison term with hard labor in April 2016 for allegedly "perpetrating state subversive plots and espionage against" North Korea. Before his sentencing, the former Virginia resident publicly apologized for slandering North Korea's leadership, collecting and passing confidential information to South Korea and joining a smear campaign on the North's human rights situation. Other foreigners have publicly admitted crimes but have said later their confessions were given involuntarily.

- Tony Kim, who also goes by the Korean name Kim Sang-duk, had a master's degree in business administration from the University of California, Riverside, and taught accounting at a private university in Pyongyang. He was detained at the Pyongyang airport for "criminal acts of hostility aimed to overturn" North Korea, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency, which didn't detail those acts.

- Kim Hak Song, who worked in agricultural development at an experimental farm run by the same school, the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. He was accused of engaging in unspecified "hostile acts" against North Korea.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage. Warmbier was arrested in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor.

"We are happy for the hostages and their families," the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. "We miss Otto."

___

Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey and Ken Thomas in Washington, Grant Peck in Bangkok, and Eric Talmadge in Pyongyang contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump, accompanied by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, back, waves at the media and others upon arrival of former North Korean detainees Tony Kim, left, Kim Dong Chul and Kim Hak Song, unseen, Thursday, May 10, 2018, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

In this Monday, Sept. 11, 2006, file photo, a Gurkha police officer stands guard outside the venue of the IMF-World Bank meetings in Singapore. U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on upcoming June 12, Trump announced in a Tweet Thursday May 10, 2018. "We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" Trump said in a tweet.(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)

President Donald Trump boards Air Force One, Thursday, May 10, 2018, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to Elkhart, Ind., for a campaign rally. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

In this Friday, June 3, 2011, file photo, Gurkha police stand guard at the venue of a security summit held in Singapore. Singapore has a secure venue for high level talks. U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on upcoming June 12, Trump announced in a Tweet Thursday May 10, 2018. "We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" Trump said in a tweet. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)

In this Wednesday, May 9, 2018, photo provided on Thursday, May 10, 2018, by the North Korean government, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, poses with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a photo during a meeting at the Workers' Party of Korea headquarters in Pyongyang, North Korea. 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)

FILE - This combination of two file photos shows U.S. President Donald Trump, left, speaking during a roundtable discussion on tax cuts in Cleveland, Ohio, May 5, 2018 and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, talking with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Panmunjom, South Korea, April 27, 2018. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in North Korea on Wednesday, May 9, 2018, to finalize details of a planned summit between President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong Un. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, Korea Summit Press Pool via AP, File)BEIRUT (AP) - Israeli forces unleashed a heavy bombardment against Iranian military installations in Syria on Thursday in what Israel called retaliation for an Iranian rocket barrage on its positions in the occupied Golan Heights, the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

The two rivals have long fought each other through proxies, and with the new exchange each seemed to be sending a warning that a direct clash between them could swiftly escalate.

"If we get rain, they'll get a flood," Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned.

This photo provided early Thursday, May 10, 2018, by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, shows missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus, Syria. The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, in the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date. (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP)

The scope of the attacks - which Israel called its largest in Syria since the 1973 Mideast war - raised the specter of a full-fledged war between Iran and Israel in Syria, a conflict that could potentially drag the militant Hezbollah and Lebanon into the mix with devastating effects, although both sides appeared to signal they wanted the confrontation to remain contained, at least for now.

Israel, however, has been emboldened by President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this week, and the latest escalation seemed to signal a potentially coordinated surge in military activity targeting Iran.

The Israeli military said Thursday it hit nearly all of Iran's military installations in Syria in response to the overnight Iranian rocket barrage that targeted Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It was the first time Israel has directly accused Iran of firing toward Israeli territory.

Iranian media described the Israeli attack as "unprecedented," but there was no official Iranian comment on Israel's claims.

Iran has vowed to retaliate for repeated Israeli airstrikes targeting its forces in Syria. But it seemed to carefully calibrate its response by targeting the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed in 1981 in a move that is not internationally recognized, instead of striking Israel proper.

Tehran is wary of a wider military conflagration with Israel that could jeopardize its military achievements in Syria at a time when it is trying to salvage the international nuclear deal and may be limited in its ability to strike back.

The recent clashes reveal the difficulty both sides face in dealing with an unprecedented situation, said Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East studies at Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs.

The clashes will eventually likely lead not to further escalation, but to the "consolidation of new 'red lines' tacitly endorsed by Israel and Iran," he said in an analysis written for the Carnegie Middle East Center.

The extent of the damage inflicted by the Israeli airstrikes was not immediately clear.

Israel said among the targets were weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centers used by elite Iranian forces in Syria. It also said it destroyed several Syrian air-defense systems after coming under heavy fire and that none of its warplanes were hit.

The Syrian military acknowledged that the strikes destroyed a radar station and an ammunition warehouse, and damaged a number of air defense units. It said three people were killed and two were wounded.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the civil war through sources inside Syria, said 23 fighters, including five Syrian soldiers, were killed. It was not immediately clear if any Iranians were among the dead.

The White House swiftly condemned Iran's "provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens" and expressed strong support for "Israel's right to act in self-defense," while Russia said the Israeli strikes marked a dangerous escalation and urged both Israel and Iran to avoid provoking each other.

In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said "the Iranian regime's deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East."

Israel has carried out over 100 airstrikes in neighboring Syria since the civil war erupted in 2011, most believed to be aimed at suspected Iranian weapons shipments bound for the Hezbollah militant group.

But in the past few weeks, Israel has shifted to a more direct and public confrontation with Iran, striking at Iranian bases, weapons depots and rocket launchers across Syria, and killing Iranian troops. Israel accuses Tehran of seeking to establish a foothold on its doorstep, something it has vowed never to allow.

Reflecting the scope of the pre-dawn attack, Russia's military said 28 Israeli jets were involved, striking Iranian and government sites in Syria with 70 missiles. It said half the missiles were shot down.

Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, an annual security gathering north of Tel Aviv, Lieberman said Israel would respond fiercely to any further Iranian actions.

"We will not let Iran turn Syria into a forward base against Israel," the Israeli defense minister said. "If we get rain, they'll get a flood. I hope that we ended this chapter and that everyone understood."

In a statement issued as Israel's security cabinet met, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strike sent a "clear message" that "whoever attacks us - we will attack them sevenfold and whoever prepares to attack us - we will act against them first."

Iranian state television announced the Israeli strikes, sourcing the information to Syria's state-run SANA news agency, and described the Israeli attack as "unprecedented."

Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 war and annexed it in 1981. In 1974, Israel and Syria reached a cease-fire and a disengagement deal that froze the conflict lines with the plateau in Israeli hands.

Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defenses over the city was heard for more than five hours.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow sees Thursday's strikes as a "very alarming development."

He noted that in contacts with the leadership of both countries, including a meeting Wednesday between Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, "we underlined the necessity of avoiding any actions that might be mutually provocative."

Russia sent forces to Syria to back President Bashar Assad in 2015. But Israel and Russia have maintained close communications to prevent their air forces from coming into conflict. The pan-Arab Al Hayat newspaper reported Thursday that Russia and Israel were developing an agreement to keep Iran out of southern Syria and allow Syrian government forces to retake the region.

Israel said early Thursday that Iran's Quds Force fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said four of the rockets were intercepted, while the others fell short of their targets. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Golan.

Conricus said Israel was not looking to escalate the situation but that troops will continue to be on "very high alert."

"Should there be another Iranian attack, we will be prepared for it," he said.

The two sides have been on a collision course for months.

In February, Israel shot down what it said was an armed Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace. Israel responded by attacking anti-aircraft positions in Syria, and an Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Earlier this week, Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near Damascus. The Observatory said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, killing at least 15 people, including eight Iranians.

Last month, an attack on Syria's T4 air base in the central Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel.

___

Heller reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Albert Aji in Damascus, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

This photo provided early Thursday, May 10, 2018, by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, shows missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus, Syria. The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, in the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date. (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP)

This photo provided early Thursday, May 10, 2018, by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, shows missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus, Syria. The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, in the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date. (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP)

This photo provided early Thursday, May 10, 2018, by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, shows missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus, Syria. The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, in the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date. (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP)

In this photo released Thursday, May 10, 2018, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview with Alexis Papachelas, the the executive editor of the Greek Kathimerini newspaper, in Damascus, Syria. In the interview published Thursday, Assad said the current U.S. administration is inconsistent and nothing can be achieved with it in terms of ending the raging conflict in his country and that he hoped there is no direct confrontation between the U.S and Russia in Syria. (SANA via AP)

In this photo released Thursday, May 10, 2018, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview with the Greek Kathimerini newspaper, in Damascus, Syria. In the interview published Thursday, Assad said the current U.S. administration is inconsistent and nothing can be achieved with it in terms of ending the raging conflict in his country and that he hoped there is no direct confrontation between the U.S and Russia in Syria. (SANA via AP)HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania's governor said Thursday the state will use a $118 million settlement with Volkswagen over the company's cheating on emissions tests to cut air pollution in the state.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf told The Associated Press that he is setting up Driving PA Forward , a program to distribute grants and rebates that aim to boost air quality.

The goal is to replace older diesel engines with new technologies, and cut nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 27,700 tons.

"Clean air is the cornerstone of a clean, healthy environment," Wolf said in a statement ahead of a formal announcement in western Pennsylvania. "When Volkswagen cheated on its emissions equipment, it undermined that cornerstone."

Volkswagen Group of America Inc. is making the payment to settle complaints it sold nearly 600,000 diesel-engine autos in the U.S. with computer software that rigged the results of federal emissions tests.

Wolf said eight grant and rebate programs will operate over the next five years, with up to $39 million available in the first year.

The state will be targeting areas with the worst air quality.

"This isn't just school buses and tractor-trailers," said Wolf's environmental protection secretary, Patrick McDonnell. "Projects to replace and upgrade tugboats, forklifts, delivery trucks and many more vehicles and equipment will be eligible for funding."

The money will be used to help reduce diesel emissions, including exhaust controls, upgraded engines and new engines and vehicles. There will be grants for electric vehicle fast-charging equipment and hydrogen fuel cell vehicle supply equipment.

Volkswagen sold cars that turned on emissions controls during testing but reduced them during normal driving.

The company has pleaded guilty to criminal charges and doling out billions of dollars in fines and settlements.

After the vehicles with the emissions "defeat devices" had been sold for seven years, the International Council on Clean Transportation funded on-road testing that found a VW put out as much as 35 times the allowable amount of toxic nitrogen oxide, which can cause respiratory problems. The council alerted government regulators.JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Since the revelation in January that Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens had an extramarital affair with his former hairdresser, the first-term Republican has faced a series of investigations and charges. Here's a look at some of the significant moments in the saga:

Jan. 10 - Hours after Greitens delivers his State of the State speech, St. Louis television station KMOV broadcasts a story featuring a conversation secretly recorded between the governor's former hairdresser and her then-husband in 2015 in which she is heard saying she had a sexual encounter with Greitens. She says he took a photo of her while she was partially nude and threatened to release it if she exposed their relationship. Greitens issues a statement admitting to having an affair but calling it consensual and denying blackmail.

Feb. 22 - A grand jury in St. Louis indicts the governor on a felony invasion of privacy charge for taking and transmitting the alleged photo. Greitens' attorney says the charge is "baseless and unfounded."

FILE - In this April 11, 2018, file photo, Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens speaks at a news conference in Jefferson City, Mo., about allegations related to an extramarital affair with his hairdresser. A judge on Monday, May 7, will consider whether the pivotal witness in Greitens' criminal trial - a woman involved in an affair with him - should be prohibited from testifying. (Julie Smith/The Jefferson City News-Tribune via AP, File)

March 1 - The Republican-led Missouri House forms a bipartisan committee to investigate Greitens. On the same day, Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley opens an inquiry into The Mission Continues, a veterans' charity Greitens founded. A key issue is Greitens' use of a charity donor list for his political campaign.

March 14 - A Democratic consultant files an ethics complaint alleging that Greitens falsely reported how his campaign obtained The Mission Continues' donor list and failed to disclose that it also got the charity's email list.

April 11 - The House investigatory committee releases a graphic report that details instances in which the governor's former hairdresser says Greitens slapped, spanked, shoved, grabbed and called her derogatory names during a series of sexual encounters in 2015. The committee finds her testimony credible. Greitens says the report is part of a "witch hunt." The woman's name never has been officially released; it is redacted from the legislative documents and she is identified only by her initials in court filings.

April 17 - Hawley announces that Greitens may have committed a felony by taking The Mission Continues' donor list and using it for political fundraising without the charity's permission. Hawley turned his evidence over to St. Louis prosecutors.

April 20 - St. Louis prosecutors charge Greitens with a felony of tampering with computer data for allegedly disclosing The Mission Continues' donor list to his political fundraiser in 2015 without the permission of the St. Louis-based charity. Greitens says the allegations are "ridiculous" and resists calls to resign.

May 2 - The House investigatory committee releases a second report that indicates that Greitens originally received The Mission Continues' donor list so he could call key supporters of the charity and explain that he was stepping down as CEO in 2014. However, the report says Greitens directed political aides to work off the list to raise money for his campaign - even though he had signed an agreement to not disclose the charity's confidential donor information. The report also indicates that Greitens' campaign later lied in campaign finance reports about how it got the list.

May 3 - Republican leaders in the House and Senate announce they have enough signatures to call a special legislative session to consider disciplinary actions against Greitens that could include impeachment. The session is set to begin May 18.

May 10 - Jury selection begins in Greitens' trial on the felony invasion of privacy charge.BEIRUT (AP) - There may not be much Iran can do about President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but across the Middle East, it has a variety of ways it can hit back at the United States and America's regional allies.

Iran has expanded its influence far beyond its borders in recent years, sponsoring an army of tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen spread across Iraq and Syria, all the way to Lebanon. A rocket attack overnight on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights may have been a first salvo, underscoring Tehran's reach. Israel responded with a blistering wave of missile strikes early Thursday.

Iran also holds enormous political sway in neighboring Iraq and in Lebanon, where its main Shiite ally, the militant Hezbollah group, scored significant gains in weekend elections. In Iraq, two powerful political alliances expected to win seats in parliamentary elections on Sunday also maintain strong ties to Iran.

FILE - In this June 23, 2017 file photo, supporters of Iraqi Hezbollah brigades march on a representation of an Israeli flag with a portrait of late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Baghdad, Iraq. There may not be much Iran can do about President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but across the Middle East, the Islamic Republic has a variety of ways it can hit back at the United States and America's regional allies. Iran sponsors a range of Shiite militias in Iraq and enjoys deep ties to the country's economy and political system. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)

In his speech announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, Trump called Iran the "world's leading state sponsor of terror," citing its support for "terrorist" proxies and militias such as Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as its activities in Yemen.

The rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia has torn the region apart, playing out on regional battlefields and fanning sectarian flames in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen. Trump's decision will likely intensify those confrontations, and could also embolden Israel to step up its own proxy battles against Tehran.

Here is a look at proxy battlefields in Iran's looming confrontation with the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel:

___

SYRIA AND THE GOLAN HEIGHTS

Any confrontation between Iran and Israel is likely to play out first and foremost on the battlefields of Syria, where Iran has built an extensive network of militias during Syria's civil war. Advisers from Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, as well as trainers, commanders and experts, are stationed in military bases across the country.

It also has spy drones that it can use to attack from the sky. In February, Israel shot down what it said was a drone that contained explosives sent by Iran from an air base in Syria, prompting Israeli airstrikes that killed at least seven Iranians. An Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Israel's main concern is southern Syria, near the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, where Tehran has been boosting its presence for years and where it could launch rocket attacks into Israeli territory.

Israel has said it will do what it takes to fend off Iran's military entrenchment. A series of strikes over the last few months - all blamed on Israel - have struck Iranian assets in Syria and killed Iranian forces there.

The strikes have prompted threats of retaliation from Tehran, and Israel has girded for a response, ordering bomb shelters open in the Golan.

Israel will no doubt strike back following any attack on its territory, a scenario that could spiral into a wider conflict that experts say no side is currently interested in.

With Trump's backing, Israel may even feel emboldened to take further pre-emptive action against Iranian targets in Syria. Iran's presence in Syria is no match for Israel's powerful military, and Iran's hopes of salvaging the deal and appearing moderate on the world stage may further hinder its ability to strike back.

___

LEBANON AND ISRAEL

Southern Lebanon's rolling hills bordering Israel are another arena of influence for Tehran through its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah.

The frontier has been largely quiet since the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006, and Hezbollah is averse to starting a new confrontation in light of its costly intervention in Syria, where it has lost hundreds of fighters.

Launching a new war could endanger Hezbollah's political support base, including its Shiite constituency, which is wary of another ruinous war with Israel.

Hezbollah has said, however, that it stands ready to defend Lebanon in case of any Israeli attack, and its leader has hinted it may retaliate for repeated Israeli airstrikes in Syria.

Israel has repeatedly targeted weapons shipments destined for Hezbollah, taking advantage of the group's thinly-spread fighters preoccupied by the war in Syria.

With the war winding down and the group able to refocus on its longtime foe, Israel, the border between the two countries may again heat up. Embroiled in scandals at home, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may also seek a provocation to divert attention from his domestic crises.

____

YEMEN AND SAUDI ARABIA

The war in Yemen, widely seen as a proxy battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, is another theater Tehran could exploit to inflict pain on its enemies.

Yemen's Shiite rebels, the Houthis, have fired a series of missiles into neighboring Saudi Arabia during the three-year-old conflict, most recently on Wednesday, a day after Trump's announcement.

The United Nations, Western nations and Saudi Arabia say Iran supplies the Houthis with long-range missiles capable of reaching Riyadh. Iran denies arming them.

___

GAZA AND JERUSALEM

Confronted by Iranian-allied Hezbollah on its northern border, Israel also faces another enemy to the south with Hamas in Gaza.

Tehran's relationship with the Islamic militant group has known highs and lows. Hamas developed close ties with Iran after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, with support - both military and financial - peaking following Hamas' victory in the 2006 parliamentary elections.

Ties ebbed with the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011, when the Hamas leadership-in-exile left Syria amid President Bashar Assad's crackdown on Sunni Muslim rebels, many with ideologies similar to those of the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent movement of Hamas. Ties with Iran have since somewhat recovered, and Hamas is believed to again get funding from Iran.

Since late March, Hamas has been staging weekly mass protests meant to break a stifling, decade-long Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the impoverished territory. Thousands of Palestinians have demonstrated along Israel's border fence with Gaza, with some briefly crossing into Israeli territory, hurling burning tires and damaging the fence. Dozens have been killed by Israeli fire and hundreds have been wounded.

The protests are set to intensify Monday when the U.S. Embassy opens in Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of Palestinians are set to descend on the border area and mass breaches of the border fence may be inevitable.

___

IRAQ

Iran sponsors a range of Shiite militias in Iraq and has deep ties to the country's economy and political system. Many Iraqis fear escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran will destabilize Iraq just as the country is starting to recover.

Riad Hadi, an Iraqi army veteran, said Iraq will end up paying the price for Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

"If they blockade Iran, the pressure release will be Iraq," said the 48-year-old, who was wounded in both legs in a bomb blast in his Baghdad neighborhood.

On Wednesday, a powerful Iraqi paramilitary group with links to Iran said Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal would "ignite the region."

"We are resistance factions and we are ready to target Americans in the region in case America hits Iran. It will be a violent response," said Jafar Husseini of Iraq's Hezbollah brigades.

There are some 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq training Iraq's military after the country declared victory over the Islamic State group last year.

___

ASSASSINATIONS AND ATTACKS

Amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran, a return to assassinations and overseas attacks cannot be ruled out.

Iran blamed Israel for the assassination of at least four Iranian nuclear scientists between 2010 and 2012 and arrested a number of Iranians alleged to have carried out the killings on behalf of Israel's Mossad spy agency.

In 2011, U.S. officials said they foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, the current Saudi foreign minister.

___

Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Philip Issa and Qassem Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.

FILE - This April 20, 2017 file photo, shows a Hezbollah fighter holding an Iranian-made anti-aircraft missile on the border with Israel, in Naqoura, south Lebanon. There may not be much Iran can do about President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran, but across the Middle East, the Islamic Republic has a variety of ways it can hit back at the United States and America's regional allies. Southern Lebanon's rolling hills bordering Israel are considered a playground for Tehran through its Lebanese proxy militia Hezbollah. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

FILE - This file photo provided Oct. 20, 2017 by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, shows Iran's Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, left, and other senior officers on the front line in the northern province of Aleppo, Syria. There may not be much Iran can do about President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but across the Middle East, the Islamic Republic has a variety of ways it can hit back at the United States and America's regional allies. Israel's main concern is southern Syria, near the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP, File)

FILE - In this March 3, 2016 photo, Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, hold a poster of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah during a rally in support of Hezbollah, in Sanaa, Yemen. There may not be much Iran can do about President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but across the Middle East, the Islamic Republic has a variety of ways it can hit back at the United States and America's regional allies. The United Nations, Western nations and Saudi Arabia say Iran supplies the Houthis with long-range missiles capable of reaching Riyadh. Iran denies arming them. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File)

FILE - In this July 27, 2015 file photo, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, right, shakes hands with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif after their press conference in Baghdad, Iraq. There may not be much Iran can do about President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but across the Middle East, the Islamic Republic has a variety of ways it can hit back at the United States and America's regional allies. Iran sponsors a range of Shiite militias in Iraq and enjoys deep ties to the country's economy and political system. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim, File)

FILE - In this July 24, 2011 file photo, mourners attend the funeral of Darioush Rezaeinejad, shown in photographs, a scientist suspected of being involved in Iranian attempts to make nuclear weapons, who was shot dead in an attack similar to other assassinations of nuclear scientists that Iran blames on the United States and Israel, in Tehran, Iran. There may not be much Iran can do about President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but across the Middle East, the Islamic Republic has a variety of ways it can hit back at the United States and America's regional allies. Amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran, a return to assassinations and overseas attacks cannot be ruled out. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this May 21, 2015 file photo, Palestinian Hamas security forces display their military skills during a police academy graduation ceremony in Gaza City. There may not be much Iran can do about President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but across the Middle East, the Islamic Republic has a variety of ways it can hit back at the United States and America's regional allies. Tehran's relationship with the Islamic militant group has known highs and lows. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)LONDON (AP) - Britain acknowledged Thursday that its intelligence agents played a role in the kidnapping and torture of an opponent of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and the man's wife - a rare admission of wrongdoing by British spies.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright told lawmakers that Prime Minister Theresa May had apologized "unreservedly" to Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar, acknowledging that Britain's actions "contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering."

Belhaj, a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group that had opposed Gadhafi, and Boudchar were kidnapped by the CIA in Thailand in 2004 and sent to Libya. Boudchar, who was pregnant at the time, says she was tortured and released before giving birth to a son. Belhaj spent six years in custody and says he was tortured repeatedly.

Dominick Chilcott, right, British ambassador in Turkey, hands over a letter of apology from the UK government to Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhaj, at the British Consulate in Istanbul, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife, Fatima Boudchar, allege they were detained in southeast Asia in 2004 and sent to Libya to be interrogated by the regime of late dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Britain acknowledged Thursday that its intelligence agents played a role in the kidnapping and torture of an opponent of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, a rare admission of wrongdoing by British spies. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Belhaj and Boudchar say a tip-off from British intelligence helped the CIA abduct them. They have spent years pursuing British officials through U.K. courts seeking compensation and an apology.

Wright told lawmakers that the pair had now withdrawn their claims against the British government, former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Mark Allen, a former senior officer in the MI6 intelligence agency.

He said as part of an out-of-court settlement, Boudchar would receive 500,000 pounds ($677,000). Belhaj did not seek financial compensation, saying he only wanted an apology.

Wright said the settlement contained no admission of liability. But he read from May's letter to the couple, which said Britain was "profoundly sorry for the ordeal that you both suffered and our role in it."

"The U.K. government's actions contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering," the letter said.

"The U.K. government shared information about you with its international partners. We should have done more to reduce the risk that you would be mistreated. We accept this was a failing on our part."

Boudchar was in the public gallery of the House of Commons with her son, now 14, to hear the apology. Belhaj was given a copy of May's letter by Britain's ambassador to Turkey in Istanbul, where the family now lives.

In a statement issued by his lawyers, Belhaj said: "I welcome and accept the prime minister's apology, and I extend to her and the attorney general my thanks and sincere goodwill."

Boudchar said the case "has forced me to relive the lowest moments in my life for many years, and at times it has been a real struggle to keep going. But by today's settlement I look forward to rebuilding my life with dignity and honor."

In an opinion piece in the New York Times, Boudchar said she was chained to a wall and tortured by the CIA when she was pregnant while being detained at a secret site in Thailand. She said she wanted to know what Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump's nominee to head the CIA, knew about her mistreatment.

Haspel, a 33-year CIA veteran, is believed to have run a CIA "black site" in Thailand in the early 2000s.

The renditions happened at the height of the U.S.-led "war on terror," and at a time when Britain was trying to improve relations with Gadhafi, a former international pariah who had recently renounced weapons of mass destruction.

In 2004, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair met Gadhafi in Libya, beginning a thaw in relations dubbed the "deal in the desert."

After Gadhafi was overthrown and killed in 2011, documents were discovered that disclosed the cozy working ties between Gadhafi's spies and Western intelligence officials.

They included a faxed letter from MI6 congratulating Gadhafi's intelligence chief Moussa Koussa on the "safe arrival" of Belhaj, saying that it was "the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years."

Wright told lawmakers that in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Britain and its international partners "were suddenly adapting to a completely new type and scale of threat."

He said British agencies "were in some respects not prepared for the extreme demands suddenly placed on them" and were too slow to understand "the unacceptable practices of some of our international partners."

"The government has enacted reforms to ensure that the problems of the past will not be repeated," Wright said.

Fatima Boudchar and her 14-year old son Abderrahim Belhaj, stand outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Thursday May 10, 2018. Britain's Attorney General Jeremy Wright told lawmakers that Prime Minister Theresa May had apologized "unreservedly" to Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar, acknowledging that Britain's actions "contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering."(Kirsty O'Connor/PA via AP)

Dominick Chilcott, right, British ambassador in Turkey, poses for photographs with Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhaj, left, during a photo-op at the British Consulate after handing him an apology letter from the UK government, in Istanbul, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife, Fatima Boudchar, allege they were detained in southeast Asia in 2004 and sent to Libya to be interrogated by the regime of late dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Britain acknowledged Thursday that its intelligence agents played a role in the kidnapping and torture of an opponent of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, a rare admission of wrongdoing by British spies. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Fatima Boudchar and her son Abderrahim Belhaj, 14, arrive at the Houses of Parliament in London, Thursday May 10, 2018. A senior U.K. lawmaker says he expects the government to apologize for its role in the capture of a Libyan dissident after Abdel Hakim Belhaj, 52, and his wife Fatima Boudchar say they were turned over to Gadhafi's government in 2004 after British intelligence helped the CIA kidnap them in Thailand. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)

Fatima Boudchar and her son Abderrahim Belhaj arrive at the Houses of Parliament in London, Thursday May 10, 2018. A senior U.K. lawmaker says he expects the government to apologize for its role in the capture of a Libyan dissident after Abdel Hakim Belhaj, 52, and his wife Fatima Boudchar say they were turned over to Gadhafi's government in 2004 after British intelligence helped the CIA kidnap them in Thailand. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)

Fatima Boudchar talks to the media outside the Houses of Parliament in London, Thursday May 10, 2018. Britain's Attorney General Jeremy Wright told lawmakers that Prime Minister Theresa May had apologized "unreservedly" to Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar, acknowledging that Britain's actions "contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering."(Kirsty O'Connor/PA via AP)The Israeli military says it has attacked dozens of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the long-contested Golan Heights.

Here are some facts about the area and why it matters today:

-The Golan Heights is a plateau at the southwestern corner of Syria overlooking the Sea of Galilee and northern Israel, roughly 40 miles (65 kilometers) long and 15 miles (25 kilometers) wide. Militarily, it is strategic high ground, with broad views of both Israel and Syria below.

This photo provided early Thursday, May 10, 2018, by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, shows missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus, Syria. The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, in the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date. (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP)

- Syria shelled northern Israel from the Golan Heights between 1948 and 1967. Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed it in 1981, but the world still considers it occupied.

- In 1974, Israel and Syria agreed to a cease-fire and a disengagement and U.N. peacekeepers deployed to the area. After the Syrian civil war, the peacekeepers left the area for several months after dozens of them were taken hostages by Syrian rebels. In 2016, the peacekeeping force returned with 1,100 troops currently deployed in the area.

- Israel and Syria held peace talks starting in 1991 and even appeared close to a deal in 2000. Disagreement over the fate of the Golan Heights foiled the talks.

- Syria fought in three wars against Israel in 1948, 1967 and 1973, and battled Israel when it invaded Lebanon in 1982. Israel also acknowledged this year it carried out a 2007 airstrike in eastern Syria targeting an unfinished nuclear reactor built by North Korea. Syria and Israel have never made peace.

- During Syria's civil war, Israel has carried out more than 100 airstrikes in Syria, targeting suspected weapons shipments by Iran to the Lebanese Hezbollah group. As the war now looks to be winding down, Israel has stepped up its tempo of strikes against Iran, viewing any permanent Iranian military presence in Syria as a threat.KISELJAK, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - The 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, which led to the death of about 100,000 people, also destroyed the way of life of a highly intertwined multi-ethnic and multi-confessional society, in which Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Jews would celebrate each other's main religious holidays throughout the year.

Nowadays these practices, along with the inter-confessional marriages that were very common before the war, are virtually non-existent.

With one exception: St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to.

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, 7 year-old Bosnian Roma girl Daniela Bobaric wears willow branches in her hair, a St. George's Day tradition, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

St. George's Day is celebrated in the countries of the former Yugoslavia on April 23 by Catholics according to the Gregorian calendar and on May 6 by the Orthodox believers following the Julian calendar.

Djurgevdan celebrations, which featured prominently in Bosnian-born Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica's Cannes award-winning movie "The Time of the Gypsies," include traditional rituals such as taking baths and washing hands with water from church wells and cracking painted eggs, as the holiday also marks the arrival of spring.

In the northern Bosnian village of Kiseljak, St. George rituals are carried on by the Ahmetovic family, members of Roma community of about 3,000 with Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox members that has inhabited the area for the past 50 years.

Every year, Munevera Ahmetovic, 54, takes her nieces to the only water source for the household, 50 meters (180 feet) from the family house, to wash their faces, crack eggs and weave willow branches into their hair, before returning for a festive family meal.

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, 5 year-old Bosnian Roma girl Dzenica Bobaric performs a ritual washing of her hands and face, a St. George's Day morning tradition, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, Munevera Ahmetovic, 54, holds painted eggs, a St. George's Day tradition, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, Munevera Ahmetovic, 54, hands a painted egg, a St. George's Day tradition, to her niece Daniela Bobaric, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, Munevera Ahmetovic, 54, displays painted eggs, a St. George's Day tradition, as she poses next to her niece Daniela Bobaric, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, Munevera Ahmetovic, 54, sits next to her husband Serif, 89, right, before the St. George's Day traditional meal, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, Bosnian Roma Serif Ahmetovic, 89, smokes a pipe before the St. George's Day traditional meal, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, Serif Ahmetovic, 33, works on a bicycle wheel before joining his family for the St. George's Day traditional meal, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, Bosnian Roma Johan Ahmetovic, 18, cooks for the St. George's Day traditional meal, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, Bosnian Roma Serif Ahmetovic, 89, eats a piece of bread before the St. George's Day traditional meal, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, Munevera Ahmetovic, 54, prepares pastry for the St. George's Day traditional meal, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, Bosnian Roma man Serif Ahmetovic, 33, observes the roasting of a piglet along with 7 year-old Daniela Bobaric, before the St. George's Day traditional meal, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, Munevera Ahmetovic, 54, places willow tree branches in the hair of 5 year-old niece Dzenita Bobaric, before the St. George's Day traditional meal, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

In this photo taken on Sunday, May 6, 2018, 7 year-old Bosnian Roma girl Daniela Bobaric plays with willow branches, a St. George's Day tradition, in the village of Kiseljak, northern Bosnia. St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to. (AP Photo/Amel Emric)KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - The election victory of opposition parties led by Malaysia's former authoritarian leader Mahathir Mohamad has raised uncertainty for the economy and for big projects linked to China's regional infrastructure initiative.

However, analysts said Thursday that Mahathir's strong track record in handling the Asian financial crisis of two decades ago could put the economy on a more stable path in the long run if he delivers on pledges to clean up a legacy of corruption fostered during an earlier, authoritarian stint as prime minister.

Malaysia's currency, the ringgit, dipped soon after the election results were known. By late Thursday a dollar could buy 3.95 ringgit, down about 2.4 percent from before the vote. The impact of the election results on local share markets won't be seen until they reopen on Monday.

Mahathir Mohamad smiles during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday, May 10, 2018. Mahathir says he expects to be sworn in as prime minister today. (AP Photo/Adrian Hoe)

The end to the National Front's 60-year hold on power brings on a new era of uncertainty, the credit ratings agency Moody's said in a statement.

"Little is known about the opposition's full range of economic policies, and its electoral pledges have lacked details that would allow for a full assessment of their budgetary and macroeconomic impact," it said.

The opposition coalition triumphed by tapping into public anger in Muslim-majority Malaysia over a corruption scandal and over a tax imposed in 2015 that fell especially heavily on the rural poor.

On the eve of Wednesday's polling, perhaps to stave off any panic in the markets, Mahathir's Alliance of Hope issued a statement saying it was committed to "responsible and progressive fiscal reforms" in an orderly, transparent and systematic manner.

Mahathir told a news conference on Thursday that his administration would keep its campaign promise to cancel the 6 percent goods and services tax. Defeated Prime Minister Najib Razak left the country in a "mess," he said.

Mahathir said major public projects will be reviewed, government procurement done by open tender and state-owned enterprises made more publicly accountable. He promised to draw up a comprehensive reform plan by the end of his first 100 days in office.

The new government also intends to review Chinese projects in the country, reserving the right to renegotiate the terms of loans used to finance them - a sticking point with a growing number of countries contending with rising debt from Beijing's "Belt and Road" initiative aimed at expanding Beijing's influence and linking China more closely to regional markets.

Chinese investment is welcome, Mahathir has said, but only if it creates jobs and brings technology and capital into Malaysia.

After six decades of rule by the National Front, which he once led himself during 22 years in office before stepping down in 2003, Mahathir faces a challenge in rooting out corruption. The lack of strong checks and balances to ensure a "rule of law" are largely a legacy of his own strong-arm tactics decades earlier, risk assessment consultancy Verisk Maplecroft said in a research note.

Mahathir's credibility as a corruption fighter may hinge on how he handles the 1MDB investment fund scandal that helped bring down Najib and was a major factor behind 92-year-old Mahathir's emergence from retirement to challenge him in alliance with opposition groups.

The United States and several other countries are investigating allegations of cross-border embezzlement and money laundering at 1MDB, which Najib set up to promote economic development.

It accumulated billions in debt. The U.S. Justice Department says $4.5 billion was looted from state investment fund 1MBD by associates of Najib between 2009 and 2014, including $700 million that landed in Najib's bank account and a $23 million pink diamond necklace bought for Najib's wife. He has denied wrongdoing.

As for his track record, Mahathir has been credited with transforming Malaysia from a Southeast Asian backwater into a modern economy.

Though he later admitted that he had unfairly blamed U.S. financier George Soros for the currency speculation that helped bring on a regional financial crisis in 1997, his insistence on controlling the value of the ringgit and refusing to seek funding from the International Monetary Fund was vindicated as Malaysia's economy recovered.

"Malaysia's economic policies during the East Asian crisis later won widespread acclaim from many other developing countries," Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit, said in a commentary.

The reforms that followed "considerably strengthened the Malaysian financial sector," he said.

Malaysia remains heavily dependent on exports of both commodities and manufactured goods and is one of the most open economies in the world, with about 40 percent of jobs linked to exports, according to the World Bank.

___

Asia business editor Elaine Kurtenbach contributed from Bangkok.15:40 | Cajamarca (Cajamarca region), May. 10.

"In our country, there are regions hosting plenty of wealth but, contradictorily, housing plenty of poverty ," Villanueva affirmed.





Within this context, he recalled Italian geographer Antonio Raimondi's famous phrase: "Peru is a beggar sitting on a bench of gold."









"It is not possible that there is much wealth underground but poverty on the surface," the Cabinet chief noted.





"We must be smart and creative enough to leverage this wealth and put it at the service of our peoples," he added.





Remarks were made during his visit to North-Andean Cajamarca region's High-Performance School (COAR).





At this educational institution, Villanueva and several ministers held meetings with mayors in order to identify their problems and discuss new projects





(END) FHG/CCR/JAA/MVBSANAA, Yemen (AP) - Yemeni officials say a suspected Saudi-led coalition airstrike has killed six people, including children, near the rebel-held capital, Sanaa.

The medical officials say Thursday's airstrike hit a house and a nearby shop, wounding six others. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

The coalition has been at war with Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis, since March 2015. The Houthis, who are allied with Iran, control much of northern Yemen, including the capital, and have fired dozens of missiles across the border at Saudi Arabia.

The war in Yemen has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than 3 million.WASHINGTON (AP) - Police say an off-duty police officer shot and killed a man in the nation's capital.

Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham told reporters the person shot was taken to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Police didn't immediately identify him, but Newsham says he was in his 20s.

Newsham says officers heard gunshots about 7 p.m. Wednesday and found the man. Newsham says a gun was found near where the man was picked up by medical personnel. However, he says they're still trying to piece together what happened.

Police say the off-duty officer was not in uniform. They say it's unclear if there was an exchange of gunfire.PARIS (AP) - Over the next two years, terrorism convicts will walk free from European prisons by the dozens - more than 200 inmates who largely formed the first wave of jihadis streaming to Syria and Iraq, dreaming of an Islamic caliphate not yet established.

In all, about 12,000 Europeans left to fight with the Islamic State group and al-Qaida; about a third of those are now believed to be home, mostly living freely. Some are awaiting trial, but most never faced serious charges due to insufficient evidence.

And many more saw their travel plans thwarted, left behind to stew.

In this photo taken on March 29, 2018, Farid Benyettou, an ex-jihadi who served four years in prison and has now publicly renounced extremist violence, attends an interview with The Associated Press in Paris. Over the next two years, terrorism convicts will walk free from European prisons by the dozens _ more than 200 inmates who largely formed the first wave of jihadis streaming to Syria and Iraq. So far, the response has been improvised at best and many fear for the future _ theirs and Europe's. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

How much of a threat do these avowed extremists living throughout Europe pose, and how equipped are authorities to handle them? The response has been, at best, improvised.

The impending releases of jihadi veterans could be considered "a fourth wave of returnees," according to Rik Coolsaet, a scholar at Belgium's Egmont Institute.

"There are a number of personal frustrations and motivations that have pushed the kids in their journey to ISIS that we now have to address," Coolsaet said. "If we don't address it now, the environment will remain as conducive for this kind of jihadi violence."

Farid Benyettou, an ex-jihadi who served four years in prison and has now publicly renounced extremist violence, fears Europe is not ready.

Once nicknamed the "imam Voltaire" after the school he left to become a backroom preacher to young Muslims, Benyettou has written a book detailing his descent into Islamic extremism.

Among the members of the group he once led were Cherif and Said Kouachi, who gunned down 12 people at the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in 2015.

The cell epitomizes Europe's urgent question: Are the terrorism convicts verging on freedom like Benyettou, the Kouachis or somewhere between?

"These guys who are convicted today or who are awaiting trial will get out one day," Benyettou told The Associated Press. "And that's the issue, in fact: What kind of preparations will there be for their release?"

Terrorism prison sentences in Europe until very recently averaged about six years, compared to 13 years in the United States, according to Europol data. Since 2015, sentences have risen, but remain well below U.S. levels.

"The danger is the risk of recidivism. We should not be too quick to believe certain terrorists who say they are repentant," Catherine Champrenault, the Paris prosecutor general, recently told Le Monde newspaper.

France, which has been struck repeatedly by Islamic State fighters and sympathizers, will free 57 inmates - about half its current population of terrorism convicts. In Britain, where nearly half of terrorism sentences are four years or less, 25 inmates are due for release - fully three-quarters of those convicted under one of the country's main terrorism statute as of mid-2017. In Belgium, 80 acknowledged foreign fighters already are free and as many as 44 others will be joining them. In Spain, 21 of 34 returning extremists already were free as of late last year. And in Bosnia and Kosovo, every jailed foreign fighter will go free.

In just those countries alone, the total runs to more than 200, according to the AP's count.

And the actual number is undoubtedly higher because not every country releases data - notably Germany, which had nearly 1,000 residents leave for the war zone but releases no comprehensive figures on convictions or releases.

The most recent attack blamed on returning foreign fighters was in March 2016, when an Islamic State cell of jihadis set off suicide bombs at the Brussels airport and in the metro. The network already had attacked a Paris-to-Brussels high-speed train in August 2015 and orchestrated a brutal assault on Paris in November 2015. In all, the cell killed 162 people.

Still, the overwhelming majority of returning jihadis have not been arrested and have caused no harm.

Many of the homegrown extremists are young and poor with limited education, and feel cut off from society.

Once free from prison, no programs or policies govern them.

France applies a range of post-release constraints, ranging from requiring those freed to periodically check in with authorities - as is the case for Benyettou - to home detention.

In Bosnia, where all 23 terrorism convicts are leaving prison, the Justice Ministry said local housing, social workers and employment agencies are notified, but that there's little capacity to do much more.

Britain has limited counseling and monitoring, and offers a voluntary re-integration program.

And Spain began "re-education and reinsertion" in 2016 in which terrorism inmates are evaluated for risk and undergo counseling. But the government said only 10 out 146 extremist inmates have undergone the much-hyped program.

For Benyettou, getting support as he planned a future was crucial to abandoning extremism. He studied first to be a nurse only to see that dream evaporate because of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. He is now training as a trucker.

"Everyone has setbacks in life, plans that don't happen. For me, it's my past," he said. "You bounce back and try to do something besides to fall back on this logic of victimhood."

And that's where many fear Europe will fail the next wave of terrorism convicts

"Sending them back to exactly the same circumstances that caused them to take up violent extremism," said Richard Barrett of the Soufan Group, an expert on violent extremism. "Well, unfortunately, you're probably going to get the same result."

___

Aritz Parra in Madrid; Jill Lawless in London, and Sabina Niksic in Sarajevo contributed.

In this photo taken on March 29, 2018, Farid Benyettou, an ex-jihadi who served four years in prison and has now publicly renounced extremist violence, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Paris. Over the next two years, terrorism convicts will walk free from European prisons by the dozens _ more than 200 inmates who largely formed the first wave of jihadis streaming to Syria and Iraq. So far, the response has been improvised at best and many fear for the future _ theirs and Europe's. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

In this photo taken on March 29, 2018, Farid Benyettou, an ex-jihadi who served four years in prison and has now publicly renounced extremist violence, answers The Associated Press in Paris. Over the next two years, terrorism convicts will walk free from European prisons by the dozens _ more than 200 inmates who largely formed the first wave of jihadis streaming to Syria and Iraq. So far, the response has been improvised at best and many fear for the future _ theirs and Europe's. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

In this photo taken on March 29, 2018, Farid Benyettou, an ex-jihadi who served four years in prison and has now publicly renounced extremist violence, answers The Associated Press in Paris. Over the next two years, terrorism convicts will walk free from European prisons by the dozens _ more than 200 inmates who largely formed the first wave of jihadis streaming to Syria and Iraq. So far, the response has been improvised at best and many fear for the future _ theirs and Europe's. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)MILAN (AP) - Telecom Italia has announced a content-sharing agreement with Mediaset, Italy's largest private broadcaster, as the former telecom monopoly pushes ahead with its plan to improve digital content after a boardroom shakeup.

Telecom Italia said Thursday the deal will allow subscribers to watch Mediaset's free-to-air channels and have access to the previous week's programing posted on-line.

The deal is part of Telecom Italia CEO Amos Genish's plan to expand digital content. Genish was confirmed as CEO this week after the biggest shareholder, Vivendi, lost control of the board to activist hedge fund Elliott last week.

Vivendi acquired a 24 percent stake in Telecom Italia and 30 percent of Mediaset with the aim of creating a major Italian media holding, but a deal to take over Mediaset has fallen in dispute.AACHEN, Germany (AP) - French President Emmanuel Macron urged Europe on Thursday to unite and exert a self-confident "European sovereignty" in the face of an increasingly complex world and unilateral American moves on issues such as the Iran nuclear deal and climate change.

Macron spoke after receiving the International Charlemagne Prize, an annual award for contributions to European unity given by the German city of Aachen. German Chancellor Angela Merkel honored him in a speech praising Macron's efforts to reform France and his ambitions to reform the European Union.

Addressing an audience that also included leaders from Lithuania, Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Ukraine, Macron urged Europe to defend the global multilateral order, for the sake of the continent's sovereignty. He said that Europe must make its own choices, rather than go along with those made by others.

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks on occasion of the Charlemagne Prize awarding to French President Emmanuel Macron in Aachen, Germany, Thursday, May 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

"We made the choice to build peace and stability in the Middle East," he said in an allusion to the involvement of France, Germany and Britain in the Iran deal, from which President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. on Tuesday.

"Other powers, just as sovereign as us, have decided not to respect their own word," Macron added. "Should we renounce our own choice? ... We must choose, speak with everybody to succeed in building our own sovereignty which, in this region, will be a guarantee of stability."

Merkel acknowledged that Europe "is still in its infancy" when it comes to having a common foreign policy, which will be "existentially necessary."

"It is no longer the case that the United States of America will simply protect us - Europe must take its fate in its own hands," she said.

France and Germany aim to agree on proposals for reforms of the EU by next month. Macron's ideas for deeper integration of the 19-nation eurozone have met with some suspicion in Germany, where many are wary of large-scale financial transfers to weaker members.

Some in Germany say of France, "those people aren't serious, they haven't carried out their reforms," acknowledged Macron, who was elected a year ago. "But wake up: France has changed, it is no longer the same, and that is the choice of the French people."

He said he wasn't afraid of saying that it's right to change EU treaties and carry out reforms to reduce public spending, but "in Germany, there cannot be a perpetual fetish for budget and trade surpluses, because they are always achieved at the expense of others."

"Let us not be afraid now of getting over our own taboos, our own habits," he said.

Previous winners of the Charlemagne prize include former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Popes Francis and John Paul II, and Merkel herself. The Holy Roman emperor Charlemagne once ruled a swath of western Europe from Aachen.

___

Moulson reported from Berlin.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron hug each other on occasion of the Charlemagne Prize awarding in Aachen, Germany, Thursday, May 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, from left, walk to a church service on occasion of the Charlemagne Prize awarding in Aachen, Germany, Thursday, May 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte walk to a church service on occasion of the Charlemagne Prize awarding in Aachen, Germany, Thursday, May 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, from left, walk to a church service on occasion of the Charlemagne Prize awarding in Aachen, Germany, Thursday, May 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, stands next to ache's mayor Andreas Herrman on occasion of the Charlemagne Prize awarding to French President Emmanuel Macron in Aachen, Germany, Thursday, May 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)BERLIN (AP) - The United Nations' refugee agency says it has airlifted 132 vulnerable migrants from Libya to Niger, the first group to be flown out after a two-month halt in such evacuations.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says the group of refugees and asylum-seekers was flown from Tripoli to Niger's capital, Niamey, on Thursday. UNHCR's humanitarian evacuation program had been halted in early March amid concerns from Niger's government that migrants were arriving there faster than previous arrivals could be resettled elsewhere.

UNHCR tried to fly out the migrants on Tuesday but the flight had to turn back to Tripoli because of technical problems.

The U.N. has been trying to empty government-controlled detention centers in Libya as part of a stepped-up effort to tackle the smuggling and slavery of migrants.WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday he believes it's time for special counsel Robert Mueller to conclude his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and other potential misdeeds by those in the president's orbit.

"In the interests of the country, I think it's time to wrap it up." Pence told NBC News following the release of three Americans held by North Korea.

Pence said the Trump administration has "fully cooperated" with Mueller's probe, including turning over more than one million documents. President Donald Trump has called the investigation a "witch hunt," and his outside counsel, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, has called on the Justice Department to put an end to the probe.

Pence added: "I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion."

The vice president was pressed on the news about millions of dollars in payments from companies to Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen. Pence said that was a "private matter" and "something I don't have any knowledge about."

Cohen, Trump's self-described longtime "fixer," is also under investigation for his role in paying hush money to a porn actress in the days leading up to the 2016 presidential election.WARSAW, Poland (AP) - The presidents of Poland and the Czech Republic have called for closer cooperation among central European nations to defend their decision-making powers against pressure from European Union leaders, particularly over migration policies.

Czech President Milos Zeman began his visit to Poland Thursday with a meeting with his Polish host Andrzej Duda.

The neighboring states have been critical of some EU policies - particularly a 2016 plan to redistribute thousands of migrants among member states by quota. They are also opposed to a new proposed system for granting asylum and relocation.

Czech Republic President Milos Zeman watches a military band parade during the welcoming ceremony, in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, May 10, 2018, at the start of his official visit to Poland. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Zeman said Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary - members of the so-called Visegrad Group - are under pressure to accept the views of the EU governing body, and should strengthen their unity to defend their own interests.

"That doesn't mean a negation of the European Union," Zeman told reporters. He said the four countries should "build within the EU framework an indivisible unity that will be able to push through (their) joint interests."

Czech Republic President Milos Zeman, fourth left, his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda , second right, with First Ladies Ivana Zemanova, left, and Agata Kornhauser-Duda,attend the welcoming ceremony, in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, May 10, 2018, at the start of Zeman's official visit to Poland. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Czech Republic President Milos Zeman, left, and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda watch a military band parade during the welcoming ceremony, in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, May 10, 2018, at the start of his official visit to Poland. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Czech Republic President Milos Zeman, third left, his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda , second right, with First Ladies Ivana Zemanova, left, and Agata Kornhauser-Duda,attend the welcoming ceremony, in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, May 10, 2018, at the start of Zeman's official visit to Poland. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

Czech Republic President Milos Zeman, left, and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda attend the welcoming ceremony, in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, May 10, 2018, at the start of his official visit to Poland. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippine navy will deploy its first-ever missile-firing assault vessels in about three months, likely for territorial defense, anti-insurgency strikes and deterrence, but it remains "centuries" behind the naval might of Asian countries such as China, the navy chief said Thursday.

Vice Admiral Robert Empedrad told a news conference that the navy also plans to acquire torpedoes, submarines and other major defense equipment under a modernization program to bolster the security of an archipelago with one of the world's longest coastlines and to combat piracy and other cross-border crimes.

The Israeli-made missiles, which have a range of 8 kilometers (5 miles), are being installed in three multipurpose attack vessels which were acquired earlier and will be ready for deployment in two to three months, he said.

He declined to say how many of the surface-to-surface missiles, called Spike ER, the navy has acquired from Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

"It's a new capability of the navy and since this is our very first missile capability, we really have to study how to operate and where to deploy our ships," Empedrad told reporters after a maritime security forum in Manila.

"Naval warfare has become missile-based and we cannot afford to be left behind ... we cannot afford to just use a capability installed in our old ships," he said. "We have to grow as a navy."

The possible hotspots where the missile-armed vessels could be deployed include western Palawan province and the Zamboanga Peninsula in the country's south, he said. Zamboanga is in a volatile region which faces threats from Muslim militants.

Palawan island faces the South China Sea, where the Philippines has been disputing ownership of a chain of islands, reefs and atolls with China, Vietnam and three other governments. Last week, CNBC reported that China has installed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems in three areas - Fiery Cross Reef, Subi Reef and Mischief Reef - which Beijing has turned into islands with runways.

Vietnam has requested that China withdraw its military weaponry from the three man-made islands, saying its deployment y violates Hanoi's sovereignty, increases tension and destabilizes the region. The Philippine government has expressed concern but has not voiced strong criticism of China's increasingly assertive actions in the disputed waters.

Empedrad declined to comment when asked if the Philippine military has taken steps to verify the reported Chinese missile installation and if it plans to secure Philippine-occupied areas with anti-missile systems.

"We are centuries away or maybe years, decades away ... compared to the naval capability of China," he said when asked how prepared the Philippines was amid the reported Chinese threats in the hotly contested region.

The Philippine military, among the most ill-equipped in Asia, has struggled in recent years to modernize its navy, air force and army as it faces an array of national security and territorial threats.NEW YORK (AP) - A New York City man pleaded guilty to promoting three teenage girls as prostitutes on Backpage.com, a website later seized by the federal government.

Prosecutors say 46-year-old Whetsel Wade posted photos of the girls, ages 13, 15 and 17 on the website, and would set up meetings in apartments or hotels for the girls to have sex with men for money.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said Wade exploited and abused vulnerable young girls and is finally being held responsible for his acts.

He will face five to 10 years in prison. He pleaded guilty Wednesday.

Last month, federal authorities took down Backpage.com, a classified ad website whose listings include sexual services. The site founders face federal charges of facilitating prostitution and money laundering, according to an indictment.PITTSBURGH (AP) - Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh will offer the nation's first undergraduate degree program in artificial intelligence.

Officials with the school announced Thursday the new major will be available to students enrolled in the School of Computer Science starting in the fall.

Many American universities offer an artificial intelligence track within degree programs like Computer Science and Computer Engineering.

But Carnegie Mellon is the first school to offer a distinct undergraduate major in artificial intelligence.

The university was a pioneer in artificial intelligence research, writing some of the first AI programs in the 1950s, and has remained among the top schools to study the field.MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - U.S. and Somali commandos seized three men thought to be commanders with the al-Shabab extremist group during a deadly raid in a village in Lower Shabelle region, Somali intelligence officials said Thursday.

Five people thought to be banana farmers were killed in the raid late Wednesday and several others were captured, Moalim Ahmed Nur, a traditional elder in the village, told The Associated Press.

A Somali intelligence official said the forces targeted a key hideout and coordination center for the Somalia-based al-Shabab. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT: Somalis look at the bodies of five people killed during a raid in the Lower Shabelle region and then brought to the Madina hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia Thursday, May 10, 2018. Somali intelligence officials say U.S. and Somali commandos seized three men thought to be commanders with the al-Shabab extremist group during the deadly raid, while a local elder said five people thought to be banana farmers were killed in the raid late Wednesday. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

The U.S. Africa Command did not immediately comment on the raid. The U.S. has stepped up military efforts against al-Shabab, the deadliest Islamic extremist group in sub-Saharan Africa, under the Trump administration.

That stepped-up military involvement, however, has come with some allegations by Somalis that civilians have been killed.

People who described themselves as relatives of the people killed in Wednesday's raid expressed bewilderment.

"They were not armed nor were they al-Shabab members," said Ibrahim Ahmed, who said he was a family member of one man killed.

"I don't understand why a farm would make a target for a raid," he added, pointing at one of the bloodied bodies that had been laid out on the ground outside a hospital in the capital, Mogadishu.

Bodies of civilians, especially those killed in misdirected attacks, often are taken from remote areas to Mogadishu to draw media attention.

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_AfricaWASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is considering an Army veteran who is a Republican member of Congress for the position of Veterans Affairs secretary, part of a lengthening search for a nominee following the abrupt firing of David Shulkin in March.

A White House official on Thursday said Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, who was elected to the House in 2016, was among the list of candidates for the job heading an agency of 360,000 employees serving 9 million veterans.

The White House official would not say if Mast is the leading candidate for the VA position. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

FILE - In this Nov. 15, 2016 file photo, then Rep.-elect Brian Mast, R-Fla. departs after newly-elected House members gathered for a freshman class photo on the Capitol steps, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016, in Washington. President Donald Trump is considering an Army veteran who is a Republican member of Congress for the position of Veterans Affairs secretary. It's part of a lengthening White House search for a nominee following the abrupt firing of David Shulkin in March. A White House official said Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, who was elected to the House in 2016, was among the list of candidates for the job heading an agency of 360,000 employees serving 9 million veterans. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Mast is the first member of Congress to open a lawmaker satellite office in a VA facility, setting up shop in the West Palm Beach VA to meet with veterans. He was wounded when serving in Afghanistan in 2010, which resulted in the amputation of both of his legs.

Mast, 37, has often voted along with Trump on key issues in Congress, more recently announcing he supported an assault-weapons ban following the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

Trump is seeking a nominee to lead the VA after White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson withdrew his nomination for the post last month.

White House officials have met with former Florida Rep. Jeff Miller, a Republican who once led the House Veterans' Affairs Committee and Ron Nichol, a senior adviser to The Boston Consulting Group, who helped organize the president's transition.

Acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, a former Pentagon undersecretary for personnel and readiness, and Samuel Spagnolo, the president of the National Association of Veterans Affairs Physicians and Dentists, are also under consideration for the post.

VA officials have told some veterans groups they are preparing for the possibility that the agency won't have a permanent VA secretary in place for another three months, as Trump mulls over replacement candidates. The VA faces problems demanding immediate attention, including a multi-billion dollar revamp of electronic medical records now in limbo that members of Congress fear will prove too costly and wasteful, and a budget shortfall in the coming weeks in its private-sector Veterans Choice program. The House is slated to vote on a wide-ranging bill next week that would give veterans more freedom to see doctors outside the VA health system and fill the budget shortfall, a major step toward fulfilling Trump's promise to expand private care for veterans.

Mast, a freshman member of Congress, is expected to have a competitive re-election this year in his South Florida district. With Republicans already facing a struggle to keep House control in November's elections, any incumbent's departure would make it harder for the GOP to protect its majority.

Presidential voting in Mast's district has become increasingly Republican in recent elections, with Trump winning by 9 percentage points in 2016. Barack Obama won the district by 4 percentage points in 2008.

Mast has raised nearly $3 million for his campaign so far, nearly triple the amount banked by his leading Democratic rival.

Trump originally chose Jackson, a career military doctor who lacked significant management experience, to replace Shulkin, a decision that surprised veterans groups who had not been previously told that his name was under consideration. While Jackson was well-liked in Washington and drew praise from Obama administration officials he'd treated, even many Republicans were skeptical of his ability to lead the VA.OCALA, Fla. (AP) - A high school senior in Florida is being recognized for having never missed a day of school.

News outlets report Nicole Perrone has had perfect attendance for her 13 years in the Marion County Public Schools system.

Perrone attends Forrest High School in Ocala. Officials say she started kindergarten in 2006 at Greenway Elementary before moving on to Fort King Middle School.

The school district recognized Perrone for her "outstanding emphasis on a complete education."

The 2,340 days she has spent in school has already paid off. She received an Associate of Arts degree from the College of Central Florida before even graduating from high school thanks to the dual enrollment program.

Perrone plans to begin classes at the University of South Florida in June.NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A prosecuting attorney's office says three Arkansas police officers have been cleared of criminal wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old earlier this year.

The fatal shooting of Charles Smith Jr. occurred Jan. 7 during a traffic stop in North Little Rock, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. Smith was a rear-seat passenger in the car that was pulled over for speeding and a headlight violation.

North Little Rock Police Chief Mike Davis said officers expressed concern about the driver's uneasiness. They later found a gun and a small marijuana bag on Smith during a pat-down search.

A dashcam video released by the department shows Smith firing the handgun at officers before he was shot. Smith was pronounced dead at the scene.

Days after the shooting, Davis said he hoped that releasing the video would dispel "misinformation" that Smith was unarmed during the confrontation.

"Since the incident, a great deal of erroneous information has appeared on social media outlets. ... I want to make sure we clear that up today," Davis said at a news conference.

Police said officers Cody Stroud, Samantha Thompson and John Blankenship all fired their weapons at Smith.

John Johnson is the chief deputy prosecuting attorney at the Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. He said the office found the officers' use of deadly force to be justified.

"It certainly corroborated the statements of the police officers," Johnson said of the dashcam video.

A police spokeswoman said the officers have returned to work.LONDON (AP) - A London teenager went on trial Thursday for allegedly plotting a grenade attack on the British Museum after failing in her ambition of becoming a jihadi bride in Syria.

Prosecutors say Safaa Boular plotted the attack in messages exchanged with an older Islamic State group fighter in Syria. She hoped to marry him, but he was killed in 2017.

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson told jurors at London's Central Criminal Court that Boular planned to "unleash violence and terror in the heart of London" by attacking the world-famous museum.

The 18-year-old denies planning acts of terrorism.

Atkinson said after Boular was arrested in April 2017 for trying to travel to Syria, she tried to enlist her 21-year-old sister Rizlaine to carry out an attack. In phone calls from prison, she used code words that referred to an attack as an "Alice In Wonderland"-themed tea party, the prosecutor said.

He said Rizlaine and the siblings' mother, Mina Dich, carried out reconnaissance around major London landmarks and bought a pack of knives and a knapsack. The pair were arrested later the same month.

Rizlaine Boular has admitted planning an attack and has pleaded guilty to the charges. Dich is accused of assisting her.MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - The Latest on police excavations in Detroit area as part of cold case investigation (all times local):

1:15 p.m.

A former prosecutor who won a conviction against a suspected serial killer in the cold-case slaying of a suburban Detroit girl says he would be surprised if the man is involved in other unsolved cases.

Steven Kaplan says that Arthur Ream's desire for attention would probably have led him to tell investigators about other victims. He also says the 13-year-old girl Ream was convicted of killing may have been killed because she fought back.

Kaplan is a former Macomb County assistant prosecutor. He's now the elected supervisor in Oakland County's West Bloomfield Township.

Cindy Zarzycki disappeared in 1986, and the investigation was reopened years later. Two of Cindy's friends said she was to meet with Ream at a Dairy Queen.

After his 2008 murder conviction, Ream led police to Cindy's buried remains in a wooded area. Authorities are now digging at the site for other remains.

__

11:45 a.m.

A Michigan inmate named as the suspect in a series of cold-case slayings told police a decade ago about his fondness for teenage girls.

Detroit television station WXYZ reports that Arthur Ream made that and other statements during a videotaped 2008 interview with police investigating the 1986 disappearance of 13-year-old Cindy Zarzycki.

Ream told officers he was "into" teenage girls. He later said Cindy's death had been driving him "crazy for 22 years."

After his conviction in her slaying, Ream led police to Cindy's remains in a wooded area in Macomb Township, northeast of Detroit.

Still, Ream denied killing the girl, saying she fell from an open elevator at his carpet warehouse.

The FBI is digging in a wooded area for up to seven other girls reported missing decades ago.BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The Idaho Fish and Game Commission on Thursday approved a limited hunting season for grizzly bears in eastern Idaho just a year after the animals were removed from the Endangered Species List.

Under the plan, the Department of Fish and Game will hold a random drawing to award one Idaho hunter a grizzly tag for a hunting season running from Sept. 1 to Nov. 15.

If successful, the hunter won't be allowed to reapply for future tags. Baiting or hound-hunting will not be allowed.

FILE--In this Sept. 25, 2013 photo, a grizzly bear cub rests near a cabin a few miles from the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Gardiner, Mont. The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has approved a limited hunting season for grizzly bears in eastern Idaho. Under the plan approved Thursday, May 10, 2018, the Department of Fish and Game will hold a random drawing to award one Idaho hunter a grizzly tag for a hunting season running from Sept. 1 to Nov. 15. (Alan Rogers/Casper Star-Tribune via AP, file)

Grizzlies in the Yellowstone National Park region were on the Endangered Species Act list until 2017, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed federal protections.

That cleared the way for Idaho, Montana and Wyoming to allow limited hunting when the population has more than 600 bears. Last year's population estimate for the region was 718 bears.

Wyoming is also planning a limited trophy hunt this fall.

Wyoming's proposed hunt, which will be considered on May 23 by the state's Game and Fish Commission, would allow for 11 bears to be hunted - 10 males and one female - between Sept. 15 and Nov. 15.

However, under the proposal rules, the Wyoming hunt would be stopped when one female bear is taken even if no male bears have been killed.

Montana officials have decided not to hold a grizzly bear hunt this year.

Idaho officials are warning would-be hunters that the grizzly hunt could still be canceled because of a pending federal lawsuit.

The U.S. Department of the Interior is locked in a court battle with conservationists and American Indian tribes over the lifting of protections for a group of grizzlies in and around Yellowstone National Park.

Attorney Andrea Santarsiere, with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said Idaho bowed to the wishes of trophy hunters in approving a hunt.

"This is a sad day for the many state residents who value our native wildlife and the critical role it plays in keeping wild lands in balance," Santarsiere said in a prepared statement.

Santarsiere said her organization oppose any hunting of grizzly bears, saying it would threaten continued recovery of the bears.

___

This story has been corrected to say that no baiting or hound-hunting will be allowed.WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney Michael Cohen's simultaneous relationship with Donald Trump and several blue chip companies that paid him for insight into the new president strikes legal experts as unusual and has triggered questions about client confidentiality.

Cohen's arrangement stands out, even in Washington where corporations, trade associations and other organizations spend upward of $3 billion annually to influence legislation and get access to the highest levels of government. He appears to have worked as Trump's personal lawyer while at the same time accepting tens of thousands of dollars from third parties to disclose information about his client.

"If Cohen was representing the president as an attorney, which he has certainly argued was the case, then Cohen's obligations as a member of the bar would seemingly make this arrangement troubling," said Josh Rosenstein, a partner with the Washington firm Sandler Reiff and a specialist in lobbying compliance.

FILE - This Wednesday, April 11, 2018 file photo shows attorney Michael Cohen in New York. The Treasury Department's internal watchdog says it's investigating how detailed allegations about the banking records of President Donald Trump's personal lawyer became public. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Rosenstein said that if Cohen had Trump's permission to reveal confidential information about him, then the implications may be significant. For example, it may be possible evidence that Trump knew what Cohen was doing and was involved, he said.

"So the devil is in the details," Rosenstein said. "What did the president believe these payments would be used for? What did the president believe he was giving to the companies in exchange for the payments?"

Here are questions and answers about legal and ethical scrutiny Cohen is facing:

___

ARE THERE ANY RECENT PARALLELS TO COHEN'S ARRANGEMENT?

Not really, said Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a nonprofit watchdog group. "It strikes me as exceedingly brazen," said Holman.

But self-described "fixers" like Cohen who make bad stories go away or help presidents with other thorny matters are not uncommon.

Vernon Jordan served in a fixer role for former President Bill Clinton. A close friend of Clinton's, Jordan chaired his presidential transition team in 1992 while also working for the powerhouse lobbying firm Akin Gump. Jordan, occasionally called the "First Friend," helped White House intern Monica Lewinsky find a job after Clinton ended his intimate relationship with her in May 1997.

___

WAS COHEN A LOBBYIST?

Cohen wasn't registered as one. Paul S. Ryan of Common Cause said Cohen had plenty of wiggle room to help his corporate clients, which included AT&T and pharmaceutical giant Novartis, without running afoul of lobbying rules. Those rules, for instance, require that lobbyists register as such only if they've spent at least 20 percent of their time with a client over a three-month period doing lobbying work.

"There is a whole lot of influence peddling that Michael Cohen could do without falling into the scope of federal lobby legislation," said Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at the good government group. He added, though: "It's slimy. It looks like an effort to personally profit from his relationship with the president, and hide it all from the public through a shell company."

AT&T said Cohen's company, Essential Consultants, did no legal or lobbying work for the company. Novartis said Cohen was hired to advise the company as to how the Trump administration may approach health care policy.

But Holman of Public Citizen said Cohen's actions appeared to be well beyond the gathering of "political intelligence" and dispensing advice.

"Cohen's corporate clients had business pending before the Trump administration," he said. "Novartis needs FDA clearance for the sale of its drugs and supports rolling back (the Affordable Care Act). AT&T has a lucrative business merger being blocked by Trump's Department of Justice."

___

WAS COHEN OBLIGATED TO INFORM TRUMP OF HIS CORPORATE CLIENTS?

Cohen's payments from companies while acting as a personal lawyer to the president may raise legal issues besides whether the consulting work constituted lobbying.

Government ethics lawyer Kathleen Clark said Cohen had an obligation under New York state law to inform Trump of the consulting work if it potentially conflicted with Cohen's work as a personal lawyer to the president. She said failure to inform the president, and get his consent, could expose Cohen to the loss of his law license or other disciplinary measures.

"Trump has a right to know that AT&T is paying Cohen," said Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis. "These financial relationships may affect the degree to which he trusts what Cohen tells him."

___

WAS COHEN BOUND BY THE ETHICS PLEDGE REQUIRED FOR TRUMP'S APPOINTEES?

No. Cohen isn't an employee of the U.S. government and therefore not bound by the pledge, which restricts influence peddling to those coming into or leaving the Trump administration. The pledge, which Trump instituted shortly after his inauguration, prohibits former lobbyists, lawyers and others from participating in any matter that they worked on for private clients within two years of going to work for the government.

Even though the pledge didn't apply, Brendan Fischer of the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center said Cohen's arrangement shows that Trump has failed to "drain the swamp" in Washington as he promised he would do.

"This is a snapshot into a dark form of influence peddling," Fischer said.

___

Condon reported from New York.

___

Follow Richard Lardner on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rplardnerRepublican lawmaker Mike Ritze of Oklahoma is being accused of faking his military record and wearing a Purple Heart he never earned

A Republican Oklahoma lawmaker has been accused of embellishing his military service record and has been removed from the rolls of the Disabled American Veterans.

Rep Mike Ritze of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, was told this week by the organization to 'remove any reference to being a member' from his bio.

'I ask that you remove any reference to being a member, honorary or otherwise, from your bio or any other document which suggests that you are a member of DAV,' the letter issued to Ritze reads.

The republican known for his conservative views is being slammed by two of his his colleagues who are both combat veterans.

Reps Kevin McDugle and Josh West claim that Ritze wears a Purple Heart he never earned.

The Purple Heart is awarded to veterans wounded or killed while serving in the US military.

They also claim that Ritze says he was an Eagle Scout, 'but according to National Headquarters, they have no record of Ritze being an Eagle Scout.'

'If someone misrepresents their military record, it's an insult to every veteran in America,' West told NonDoc on Tuesday. 'I hope Rep Ritze can provide an explanation.'

Ritze told the organization in response to an inquiry from them that he was given an honorary life membership in the group.

The lawmaker was notified this week in a letter from Disabled American Veterans that he had not documented his eligibility for membership.

Group National Adjutant J Marc Burgess asked Ritze in the May 7 letter to remove any reference to membership from his biography.Russia has delivered the first regimental set of S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) air defense missile systems to China as the third vessel with missing equipment arrived in the country, a military and diplomatic source said.



Russian army 5P85SM2-01 TEL Transporter Erector Launcher for S-400 surface-to-air defense missile system. (Picture source Vitaly Kuzmin)

China will start to accept the air defense missile systems in late May, the source added.

"The final batch of equipment making part of the first regimental set of S-400 air defense missile systems has been delivered by a carrying ship from the port of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad Region [in northwest Russia] to China," the source said.

Earlier, the regimental set of S-400 systems was dispatched to China onboard three ships.

In January, Russias Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation said that one vessel had been caught in a strong storm in the English Channel and had returned to the port of departure to examine the support equipment and assess the damage.

It was reported in early April that the first two ships with the majority of the equipment had arrived in China.

Now, China has fully received the regimental set of S-400 systems, including a command and control post, radars, launchers, surface-to-air missiles, power supply and some other equipment, the source said.

Russian experts will start to hand over the military hardware to China in late May. The procedure will last about two months, the source added.

It was announced in November 2014 that Russia and China had signed a contract for the delivery of S-400 systems. In November 2015, Russian presidential aide for military and technical cooperation Vladimir Kozhin confirmed that the contract had been inked.China is the first foreign buyer of S-400 air defense missile systems. China is expected to receive two regimental sets of S-400 systems.

The S-400 Triumf is a Russian-made long- and medium-range air defense missile system. The system is designed to eliminate all advanced and perspective air-launched weapons.

The system can hit aerodynamic targets at a range of up to 400 kilometers (249 miles) and tactical ballistic targets flying at a speed of 4.8 km/s (3 mi/s) at a distance of up to 60 kilometers (37 miles). Such targets include cruise missiles, tactical and strategic aircraft and ballistic missile warheads.

The systems radars detect aerial targets at a distance of up to 600 kilometers (373 miles). The systems 48N6E3 surface-to-air missiles can hit aerodynamic targets at altitudes of 10,000-27,000 meters and ballistic threats at altitudes of 2,000-25,000 meters.Performances by a former Metropolitan Opera music director have been removed from the company's radio channels following allegations of years of sexual abuse and harassment.

James Levine, 74, was fired as music director in March after an investigation found evidence of 'sexually abusive and harassing conduct towards vulnerable artists' dating back to the 60s.

He had served as the Met Opera's leading force as music or artistic director for 30 years from 1976 to 2016, conducting 2,551 performances between 1971 and December 2, the day the abuse allegations first appeared in the press.

Former Metropolitan Opera director James Levine was fired in March after an investigation revealed accounts of sexual abuse and harassment dating back to the 60s. This week the company revealed it had removed the 74-year-old's performances from its radio channels

More than 175 of Levine's performances from 1972-2017 remain available for streaming on Met Opera on Demand, ending with a performance of The Great Gatsby on December 10.

The company said Levine's performances 'will be reintroduced to the programming at an appropriate time'.

Levine has sued the Met, claiming defamation and breach of contract, which the company denies.

A conference with Justice Andrea Masley in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan is scheduled for Tuesday.

The Met launched an investigation in December after the New York Times reported accusations of Levine's sexual abuse, which occurred while some victims were his students.

The investigation included interviews with more than 70 people, revealing abuse accounts from 'both before and after the period' of his 46-year music career at the Met.

Some accounts of his abuse include forcing mutual masturbation among his students, although the investigations complete findings have not been published.

Levine has sued the Met Opera, claiming defamation and breach of contract, reports say

The 74-year-old worked with the company for 46 years, conducting 2,551 performances between 1971 and December 2, the day the abuse allegations first appeared in the press

'The investigation also uncovered credible evidence that Mr Levine engaged in sexually abusive and harassing conduct towards vulnerable artists in the early stages of their careers, over whom Mr Levine had authority. In light of these findings, the Met concludes that it would be inappropriate and impossible for Mr. Levine to continue to work at the Met,' the organization said in a statement back in March.

Levine responded to those accusations calling them 'unfounded' and that 'I have not lived my life as an oppressor or an aggressor'.

The article revealed the account of Ashok Pai who reported to Lake Forest, Illinois police that he was 16 when he was abused by Levine after a Ravinia music festival.

The man said Levine held his hand in an 'incredibly sensual way' and the following summer lay naked with him in bed and touched his penis.

Levine was in his early 40s at the time.

Levine's alleged sexual misconduct began before he joined the met, according to investigators

The Met Opera has said Levine's performances 'will be reintroduced at an appropriate time'

Pai told Lake Forest Police of the incident in fall 2016 but law enforcement said they would not bring criminal charges against Levine saying that although the age of consent in Illinois is 17, it was 16 back in 1986 when the incident took place.

The New York Times also reported the accounts of three other students who were abused by Levine.

One alleged victim Chris Brown said that he was abused by Levine in the summer of 1968 when he was 17.

He was a student at the Meadow Brook School of Music in Michigan at the time where Levine led the schools orchestral program.

The alleged abuse occurred in a dorm during night when Levine allegedly masturbated on him and asked him to reciprocate.

When he declined to do so again Levine allegedly punished Brown by ignoring him for the rest of the summer program even while conducting him.

Albin Ifsich, another former student at Meadow Brook claimed he too suffered years of abuse at the hands of Levine, as he joined the clique that followed Levin to Cleveland then New York.

The Metropolitan Opera in Lincoln Center (above) announced Levine's removal in March

Another alleged victim James Lestock was a cellist who claims he was abused one summer when he was a student and that the abuse continued in Cleveland where he followed Levin along with other musicians.

He said that at one point Levine had the group wear blindfolds then masturbate partners they could not see.

Responding to Levine's firing from the Met, Lestock said he was 'moved' to see acknowledgement of Levines reign of abuse.

'The truth can be very useful. The truth creates good,' he said to The Times.

Rumors of his sexual abuse echoed through the Met for years.

Former Met Press representative documented that such rumors dated back to 1979 in her book Molto Agitato: The Mayhem Behind the Music at the Metropolitan Opera, published in 2001.

The accounts against Levine include the claims of four men, some of whom were teenagers or the conductor's students at the time of the abuse which involved masturbation

Despite the accusations against him, Levines career at the Met was slowly reeling to an end.

He stepped down as music director two season ago due to Parkinson's disease.

He joined the met in 1971 and conducted 2,552 performances as music and artistic director.

After he stepped down he was still music director emeritus and the head of the young artists program.

He was suspended on December 3 however in wake of The Times' first article of his sexual abuse.

Last month it was announced that Yannick Nezet-Seguin his successor would take over his role next season  two years before he was scheduled to.

In 1983 he covered Time magazine with the headline 'America's Top Maestro'. Some considered Levine to be the greatest American conductor since Leonard Bernstein.

Levine has not commented on his firing.A federal judge did not rule that special counsel Robert Mueller overstepped his authority by bringing charges against a former Trump campaign chairman, contrary to an article circulating the internet.

U.S. Senior Judge T.S. Ellis III did ask pointed questions about Mueller's authority at a pretrial hearing Friday in Alexandria and suggested that prosecutors' true motive was to get Paul Manafort to "sing" against the president. But he issued no ruling.

The online site Republic Information published a story that mischaracterized the judge's actions, headlined: "Federal Judge Slaps Mueller Down, Rules He Overstepped His Prosecutorial Power."

Paul Manafort, left, leaves the Alexandria Federal Courthouse with his attorney Kevin Downing, center, on Friday, May 4, 2018, in Alexandria, Va. A federal judge has asked skeptical questions about special counsel Robert Mueller's authority to bring charges against former Manafort and suggested prosecutors' true motive is getting Manafort to "sing" against the president. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

In reality, the judge withheld a ruling on a motion by Manafort's defense lawyers to dismiss tax and bank fraud charges.

Ellis plans to issue a written ruling at a later date.

Manafort's lawyers had argued that the charges against him are far afield from Mueller's mandate to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether any coordination with associates of President Donald Trump occurred.

The judge said another remedy would be to simply hand the case back to regular federal prosecutors.

"I don't see what relationship this indictment has with what the special counsel is investigating," Ellis told government lawyers.

Although Ellis suggested Mueller is pursuing Manafort to pressure him to turn against Trump, he also noted that such a strategy is a "time-honored practice" for prosecutors and not necessarily illegal.

The Virginia indictment alleges Manafort hid tens of millions of dollars he earned advising pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine from the Internal Revenue Service, money earned from 2006 through 2015. The indictment accuses Manafort of fraudulently obtaining millions in loans from financial institutions later, after his Ukrainian work dwindled. Prosecutors say that part of the conspiracy stretched from 2015 through January 2017, including the months while he was working on the Trump campaign.

___

This is part of The Associated Press' ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.

___

Find all AP Fact Checks here: https://www.apnews.com/tag/APFactCheck

Follow @APFactCheck on Twitter: https://twitter.com/APFactCheckCLEMSON, S.C. (AP) - UN Ambassador Nikki Haley says today's college graduates should be grateful to live in America.

"As a country we are experiencing something of a gratitude crisis today," Haley said in her commencement address Thursday at Clemson University.

Haley, who was South Carolina's governor before President Donald Trump appointed her UN Ambassador, offered two tips for living a life of what she called "active gratitude."

United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, a 1994 Clemson graduate, gives the 2018 Commencement speech Thursday, May. 10, 2018, in Clemson, S.C. Haley told students graduating from her alma mater in South Carolina that they should be thankful to live in America. Haley said in her Clemson University commencement speech Thursday that she had two "tips" to offer. One is to be wary of social media, which she says creates envy and destroys being gracious. The other: "Be thankful to live in America in 2018." (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)

First: Beware of social media. She said it makes people obsess with what they don't have as others post their fake lives.

Second: "Be thankful to be alive in America in 2018. Every day at the United Nations, I deal with nations where people are not free," Haley said.

"It is not that the United States is perfect. We're not. But we have been given a great set of tools -- freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights -- with which we can create a more perfect union."

Haley, who graduated as an accounting major in 1994, expressed pride that her daughter, Rena, will be studying nursing at Clemson.

And she joked that her parents, who immigrated from India, would be proud to call her "doctor," now that she's received an honorary doctorate of humanities degree.

"This one is fancier," she said, "but I have to say I worked a lot harder for the first one."

United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, a 1994 Clemson graduate, gives the 2018 commencement speech Thursday, May. 10, 2018, in Clemson, S.C. Haley told students graduating from her alma mater in South Carolina that they should be thankful to live in America. Haley said in her Clemson University commencement speech Thursday that she had two "tips" to offer. One is to be wary of social media, which she says creates envy and destroys being gracious. The other: "Be thankful to live in America in 2018." (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)

United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley with Clemson board trustee E. Smith McKissick lll, left and Clemson President James Clements say the Pledge of Allegiance during the 2018 Commencement ceremony Thursday, May 10, 2018, in Clemson, S.C. Haley told students graduating from her alma mater in South Carolina that they should be thankful to live in America. Haley said in her Clemson University commencement speech Thursday that she had two "tips" to offer. One is to be wary of social media, which she says creates envy and destroys being gracious. The other: "Be thankful to live in America in 2018." (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)

United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, a 1994 Clemson graduate, is awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities by Clemson president James Clements, right, and Clemson Trustee David H. Wilkins before giving the 2018 Commencement speech Thursday, May. 10, 2018, in Clemson, S.C. Haley told students graduating from her alma mater in South Carolina that they should be thankful to live in America. Haley said in her Clemson University commencement speech Thursday that she had two "tips" to offer. One is to be wary of social media, which she says creates envy and destroys being gracious. The other: "Be thankful to live in America in 2018." (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)

United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, a 1994 Clemson graduate, is awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities by Clemson president James Clements, right, and Clemson Trustee David H. Wilkins before giving the 2018 Commencement speech Thursday, May. 10, 2018, in Clemson, S.C. Haley told students graduating from her alma mater in South Carolina that they should be thankful to live in America. Haley said in her Clemson University commencement speech Thursday that she had two "tips" to offer. One is to be wary of social media, which she says creates envy and destroys being gracious. The other: "Be thankful to live in America in 2018." (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)CHICAGO (AP) - The Latest on the sentencing of former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds (all times local):

___

4 p.m.

FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2017, file photo, former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds leaves the federal building in Chicago after he was convicted on charges he failed to file tax returns for income he made while in Africa consulting for Chicago businessmen. Reynolds is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, May 10, 2018. (James Foster/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, File)

A federal judge has handed former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds a six month prison sentence for failing to file tax returns, telling the Harvard graduate he'd "squandered" opportunities to become something better.

At Thursday's sentencing in Chicago, Judge Robert Gettleman alluded to how the 66-year-old had brought himself up from poverty in Mississippi to win a seat in Congress. Gettleman recalled thinking himself in the early 1990s about Reynolds' promise.

Earlier, Reynolds asked the judge for a year of probation. Reynolds asked Gettleman: "To put me in jail serves what purpose?"

The judge cited Reynolds' conviction in the mid-'90s for statutory rape and later convictions, including for concealing debts. He said it was a "tragedy" he'd "squandered the opportunities" he had.

For failing to file tax returns for income made while consulting for Chicago businessmen in Africa, prosecutors had asked for a two-year sentence.

___

7:30 a.m.

Former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds is up for sentencing on convictions that he failed to file tax returns for income he made while consulting for Chicago businessmen in Africa.

Thursday's sentencing comes some seven months after U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman found Reynolds guilty in a bench trial on four misdemeanor counts.

Reynolds has been representing himself. In a Wednesday filing, he argued that one year of probation would be an appropriate sentence. Prosecutors argued earlier that he deserves at least two years behind bars because he had flouted the law for so long. The maximum sentence is four years in prison.

The Harvard graduate and Rhodes Scholar resigned from Congress in 1995 after being convicted of statutory rape. He was later convicted on charges that included concealing debts.MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (AP) - The federal Tennessee Valley Authority will charge its utilities a fixed fee that will likely be passed on to customers, no matter how much energy they use.

The decision by the TVA's board on Thursday is upsetting advocates for ratepayers and green energy, who say it will penalize people who turn off their lights or use renewable energy to save on bills.

The TVA says it is offsetting the fixed fee it needs to maintain the power grid with an equal reduction of about a half-cent per kilowatt-hour in the variable wholesale rate for electricity.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy says the rates in October will harm vulnerable residents and diminish green energy progress. Also opposed are Nashville Mayor David Briley, the Tennessee Small Business Alliance and the NAACP.CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Some former New Hampshire law enforcement members appealed to Republican Gov. Chris Sununu on Thursday to respect the Legislature's decision to repeal the death penalty and not veto the bill.

With the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police supporting the death penalty, some retired officers said they felt more comfortable speaking out after leaving the force.

"I think that a lot of officers, knowing the official stance is what it is, don't want to ruffle any feathers because they worry it could affect their career," said Paul Lutz, former lieutenant of the Derry Police Department.

The work partner of an officer gunned down by a man who is now the state's only death-row inmate was among those asking the governor to let the Legislature's decision stand.

Officer John Breckinridge was in an alley with Officer Michael Briggs when his partner was killed in 2006. Breckinridge used to support the death penalty and testified in favor of it before a commission in 2010, the year he left the force. But four years later, he had a change of heart after a spiritual journey renewed his Roman Catholic faith.

"It's time to end the cycle of violence and vengeance in our society, and end the death penalty once and for all," Breckinridge said in a statement read at a news conference.

New Hampshire's death penalty law covers the murders of police officers, judges, or killings during kidnappings, robberies or rape. This narrowly drawn statute has been a reason why the state hasn't carried out an execution since 1939.

The House and Senate passed a bill last month repealing capital punishment. The bill now goes to Sununu, who has said he would veto it. A two-thirds majority in both chambers is needed to override vetoes; it's not yet clear if there are enough votes.

The repeal bill technically would not apply to Michael Addison, who was convicted of killing Officer Briggs, but supporters of capital punishment argue that courts may see it differently.

Some of the former officers argue that there's no evidence to support the theory that the death penalty deters crime, while others stress that capital punishment does not align with their morals and ethics.

"It is my belief that state-authorized killing of one who kills is fundamentally wrong," said Bill McGonagle, former assistant commissioner for the New Hampshire Department of Corrections.

Democratic Rep. Richard O'Leary, a former deputy police chief in Manchester, said he agrees with Breckinridge that the sentence of life in prison without parole is a sufficiently harsh punishment but also one which "allows for the possibility of rehabilitation and redemption."WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina's Medical Board has suspended the license of a doctor who they say reused syringes and dermatology products on multiple patients and stored human fat in plastic bags in a closet.

The Winston-Salem Journal reports the board suspended the license of Dr. Anne Litton White of Winston-Salem effective last Monday following complaints from six former employees.

Among the accusations were that White did not allow staff to dispose of syringes and unused botulinum toxin or filler product, but had the unused portions stored in baggies in her office. At least four former workers said some of that product was later injected into another patient.

The newspaper could not reach White's lawyer for comment.

White will have an opportunity to respond to the charges at a June 21 hearing.

___

Information from: Winston-Salem Journal, http://www.journalnow.comJoseph James DeAngelo was previously charged with eight other counts of murder

Prosecutors have filed four additional murder charges against a former police officer who authorities suspect was the Golden State Killer.

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley announced the charges Thursday against Joseph James DeAngelo.

The 72-year-old suspect was previously charged with eight other counts of murder in Sacramento, Ventura and Orange counties.

Dudley says the latest charges relate to the 1981 killings of Cheri Domingo and Greg Sanchez, and the 1979 slayings of Robert Offerman and Debra Manning.

Scroll down for video

Suspected Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelo (pictured in court on April 27), 72, is fighting prosecutors' efforts to take photos of his genitalia and collect more DNA

On December 30, 1979, Dr Robert Offerman, 44, and Alexandria Manning, 35, were killed at a home in Goleta near Santa Barbara.

Offerman, was an osteopathic surgeon, and Manning, a clinical psychologist.

The couple had their hands bound with twine when their bodies were discovered.

On July 27, 1981, Cheri Domingo, 35, and Gregory Sanchez, 27, were house sitting in Goleta when they were murdered in bed.

Domingo was found with her hands tied and suffering massive head injuries. Sanchez was shot and bludgeoned.

Cheri Domingo and Gregory Sanchez were house sitting in Goleta when they were murdered in bed

Dr Robert Offerman and Alexandria Manning were killed on December 30, 1979

Joseph James DeAngelo is believed to be responsible for at least 12 murders and more than 50 rapes in California between 1975 and 1986 (victims are seen above)

DeAngelo is suspected of committing at least a dozen murders and more than 50 rapes across California in the 1970s and '80s.

He was a former police officer in Auburn, California, but was terminated in 1979 for shoplifting a hammer and dog repellent from a drug store.

DeAgnelo got the nickname the Golden State Killer after beginning his reign of terror in the summer of 1976 with a series of rapes and burglaries in the cities of Carmichael and Rancho Cordova, California.

According to investigators, the masked serial killer would break into homes at night and tie up the victims  raping the female one if present  and subsequently pillage the homes of money, jewelry, identification cards and other valuables.

Some victims even told authorities that the Golden State Killer would call them up in the aftermath of the crime.

The serial killers crime spree took a deadly turn in early 1978 when he is thought to have shifted his attention from burglarizing homes to murder.

The first victims of the Golden State Killer are believed to be Brian and Katie Maggiore of Rancho Cordova, who were murdered while out walking their dog on February 2, 1978.

The initial murders were followed by a series of additional murders and rapes in Modesto, Davis, Stockton and other San Francisco Bay area communities.

His final crime, believed to be the murder of an 18-year old woman in the Southern California city of Irvine, was committed in May 1986.

This case had gone cold for decades until DeAngelo became a focus of the investigation since he lived in the areas where the crimes happened and was the right age.

After he was identified as a possible suspect, cops conducted surveillance on DeAngelo and obtained a discarded DNA sample which they compared to the old crime scene samples.

The got the first results back on Friday, which showed 'overwhelming evidence' he was the serial rapist and murderer who terrorized the state in the 1970s and 80s.

To be sure, they conducted a second test, and the results came back positive again on Monday.

DeAngelo was arrested the following morning at his home in the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights.

His attorney, Diane Howard, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

He is being in the Sacramento County Main Jail without bail.HARRAH, Okla. (AP) - The ex-wife of an Oklahoma man facing animal cruelty charges after allegedly killing his teenage daughter's two dogs to punish her for not doing the dishes said Thursday both of the couple's children were stunned by the incident.

"They are devastated and in shock that their dad would hurt them that way," said Danielle Depee. "Both my kids never thought he would do what he did."

Her former husband, Jeffrey Don Edwards, was charged on Wednesday.

In this photo provided by the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office, Jeffrey Don Edwards is pictured in a booking photo dated May 9, 2018. Edwards faces animal cruelty charges after his teenage daughter accused him of killing her two dogs to punish her for not doing the dishes. (Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Depee, who said she has been divorced from Edwards since 2007, said the couple's 17-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son lived off-and-on with their father at his home in Harrah, about 22 miles (35.4 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City, and that the dogs lived there, too.

"My kids believe he deserves the punishment he gets," Depee said. "They want nothing to do with their father."

Edwards, 35, disputed the allegations when reached by The Associated Press.

"Pretty much everything you've heard is a complete lie," Edwards said Thursday. He said he was at work at the time and declined to comment further.

Edwards' daughter told investigators her father got mad at her on Tuesday night because the house was messy and the dishes were dirty.

"It set him off. He went to screaming and yelling at the kids," Depee said. "At one point he told them to get out of his house."

DePee said her daughter called her late that night to pick her up and that when they returned Wednesday morning, the dogs were missing. She said a co-worker of Edwards' who witnessed the incident told his daughter that Edwards had shot the dogs as discipline.

Court documents indicated the girl's uncle was the person who told her about the incident.

Investigators said the dogs' bodies were found about 100 yards from the residence.President Donald Trump has warned Iran against resuming its nuclear weapons programme, a day after announcing that he was withdrawing the US from the landmark Iran nuclear deal.

I would advise Iran not to start their nuclear programme, President Trump told reporters at the start of a Cabinet meeting when asked about the potential consequences.

I would advise them very strongly. If they do there will be very severe consequence.

The comments came a day after President Trump announced he was withdrawing the US from the accord with Iran, restoring harsh sanctions in the most consequential foreign policy action of his presidency.

The 2015 agreement, which was negotiated by the Obama administration and included Germany, France and Britain, had lifted most US and international economic sanctions against Iran.

In exchange, Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear programme, making it impossible to produce a bomb and establishing rigorous inspections.

But President Trump, a severe critic of the deal dating back to his 2016 presidential campaign, said on Tuesday in a televised address from the White House that it was defective at its core.

On Wednesday, he claimed the deal was going to lead to nuclear proliferation all over the Middle East and bragged the sanctions would be among the strongest that weve ever put on a country.

President Trump also pointed to Irans actions in countries including Syria and Yemen.

With all of the places theyre involved, its bedlam and death and we cant allow that to happen, he said, adding: Theyve gotta understand life. Cause I dont think they do understand life.

The sanctions seek to punish Iran for its nuclear programme by limiting its ability to sell oil or do business overseas, affecting a wide range of Iranian economic sectors and individuals.

Major companies in the US and Europe could be hurt, too. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that licenses held by Boeing and its European competitor Airbus to sell billions of dollars in commercial jetls to Iran will be revoked.

Certain exemptions are to be negotiated, but Mr Mnuchin refused to discuss what products might qualify.

Iranian demonstrators burn representations of the US flag during a protest in front of the former US Embassy (AP)

He said the sanctions will sharply curtail sales of oil by Iran, which is currently the worlds fifth largest oil producer.

Mr Mnuchin said he did not expect oil prices to rise sharply, forecasting that other producers will step up production.

President Trump also left open the possibility of a new deal, and told reporters: Well make either a really good deal for the world or were not going to make a deal at all.

He predicted Iran would choose to negotiate eventually, or face consequences.

The administration said it would re-impose sanctions on Iran immediately but allow grace periods for businesses to wind down activity.The Embassy of Latvia in Russia was attacked on Wednesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, Edgars Rinkevics said.

May 10, 2018, 09:51 Embassy of Latvia in Russia attacked

STEPANAKERT, MAY 10, ARTSAKHPRESS:"Embassy of Latvia in Russia was attacked this evening, two persons have been detained, Latvia strongly condemns such provocations and demands Russia to fully ensure security of Latvias diplomatic missions in accordance with international law," he tweeted.A 26-year-old man who sprayed ammonia in the eyes of his ex-partner and then drove her around for hours prolonging her agony has been given a 14-year sentence.

Matthew Johnson, a roofer from Worthing, West Sussex, was sentenced at Brighton Crown Court on Tuesday for using a noxious substance to cause grievous bodily harm and sexual assault.

He was also convicted of actual bodily harm and criminal damage for a previous incident in which he attacked the same woman in March 2016.

He was given an extended sentence of 14 years of which the first 10 years will be in custody with the other four years to be spent on prison supervision licence.

Detective Constable Duncan Chalmers, of Sussex Police, said: This was a vicious assault by Johnson on

his then 30-year-old ex-partner on August 3 2016.

Matthew Johnson sparyed `s victim (Sussex Police/PA)

He met her in Worthing, told her that he had a knife and ammonia and forced her to drive them both to a remote car park at Steyning Bowl, near Steyning, where he squirted ammonia in her eyes from a plastic sun tan bottle which we later found at the scene, before beating her black and blue and then sexually assaulting her.

After this ordeal he prolonged her agony by driving her around for several hours before he dropped her off at Worthing Hospital later the same day.

The victims eyes have still not fully recovered from the attack even now. She has to wear glasses and

cannot drive at night.

Sentencing Johnson, Judge Shani Barnes said that her own experience of seeing the photos of the injuries would stay with her for some time, and that in the relationship Johnson was the knight in shining armour who became dark and dangerous.

A Sussex Police spokesman said: Johnson fled Lewes Crown Court on May 9 last year when he

was initially due to stand trial for the offences.

He was arrested at an address in Broadwater Road, Worthing, on September 5, in a police search shortly after he had been spotted in the same street by someone who recognised him.

During the arrest Johnson broke his ankle when he fell from a flat roof when attempting to evade officers.Three members of the Bandidos motorcycle club will face murder charges stemming from a 2015 shooting that involved police and members of another biker club outside a restaurant in Waco, Texas.

The indictments mark the first murder charges in the case, while more than 20 other bikers were re-indicted on new charges ranging from rioting to tampering with evidence.

Police arrested nearly 200 bikers following the shooting at a Twin Peaks restaurant that left nine people dead and 20 injured.

Investigators say the incident was sparked by rivalries between the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs.

Waco police officers monitoring the gathering also fired on the bikers.

Jeff Battey is among those facing charges (McLennan County Sheriffs Office/AP)

The murder charges were filed against Jeff Battey, a local sergeant-at-arms with the Bandidos, and two other club members: Ray Allen and Glenn Walker.

Battey, a former Marine, and Allen were seen triangulated over Matthew Smith, a Cossacks member who later died at the scene from gunshot wounds, according to Waco police incident reports.

Ballistics evidence also suggests Walker fired his weapon.

Law enforcement evidence also showed that police officers killed at least two bikers.

A grand jury cleared the officers of wrongdoing.

Surveillance footage showed numerous bikers running from the scene and ducking for cover after gunshots rang out.

Law enforcement officers recovered dozens of firearms, knives and other weapons from the restaurant and adjacent parking area.

All of the bikers arrested following the shooting were charged with engaging in organised criminal activity, with the underlying offences of homicide and aggravated assault.

But prosecutors have dropped 154 of those cases in the last four months, saying they wanted to focus on those who were more culpable.

Only one biker  Jake Carrizal, a train driver and the president of the Dallas chapter of the Bandidos  has been tried.

His trial ended in a hung jury and a mistrial last autumn, though he was among the bikers re-indicted on Wednesday.

Carrizal is now facing a new charge of rioting.Prince Harry might not be allowed to wear his old Army uniform to his wedding unless he shaves his beard, a historian has warned.

The Prince, 33, served as part of the Army's Household Cavalry's Blues and Royals, formerly known as the Royal Horse Guards and the Royal Dragoons until 2015.

Training at Sandhurst before being deployed to Afghanistan, he was made a captain and regularly sports his old uniform on royal visits.

Harry never grew a beard as a soldier in line with the Army's ban on facial hair, but grew one again a few months after he left the forces.

Historian Hugo Vickers claims his beard could cause problem when he marries Meghan Markle, 36, this month.

Prince Harry is pictured with facial hair left in November 2016 and without 10 years earlier at the same Armistice Day event right

Prince Harry and his brother Prince William, Duke of Cambridge at the Cenotaph in 2017

Clean-shaven Prince Harry on William and Kate's wedding day 29 April 2011

He said: 'He's not able to wear his Royal Horse Guards uniform with a beard.

'He does it sometimes but they don't like it. That's why when he took the parade at Sandhurst, he wore a suit.'

Despite the military's beard ban, Harry is no longer a serving officer and is therefore not subject to their rules.

But in line with convention, there is a chance he might shave it off.

However Harry has been seen in military garb with a beard, much like his great-great-grandfather King George V, who was often seen with facial hair.

The bookies have 10/1 odds that Harry will shave off his beard for the big day.

Alex Apati of Ladbrokes said: 'It looks as though Harry's beard will go and the groom will be well groomed ahead of the biggest day of his life.'

Prince Harry inspects the graduating officer cadets at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst in December 2017

Ministry of Defence rules do not allow beards, except in rare circumstances, such as because of skin complaints, or for religious reasons.

Sikhs are not allowed to cut their own hair, and can thus retain their beards while in uniform.

Special Forces or others on covert operations are also permitted to grow beards when behind enemy lines, but they would not wear them on parade.

Harry's great-great-grandfather King George V (pictured) was often seen with a beard despite his role in the Army

Pioneer Sergeants are the only rank allowed to have a beard, although members of the Special Forces can when behind enemy lines.

In 2011 Prince Harry he wore a Blues and Royals uniform to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's wedding when he was clean shaven.

He had a beard when he wore a military dress coat at the Cenotaph last November, which prompted criticism from some quarters.

One serving member said at the time: 'Prince Harry is letting us all down. There's no place for beards in the Queen's cavalry. He should have shaved it off for such an important day.'

As Captain General of the Royal Marines, it is thought Harry will wear that uniform to his wedding on May 19.

He recently took over the role from the Duke of Edinburgh after Prince Philip's retirement.

The Duke of Edinburgh as Captain General of the Royal Marines, pictured without a beard

Royal Marines are allowed to sport beards, as long as senior officials give the green light.

Christopher Gale, senior curator of The National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, explained what Harry's dark blue Royal Marines uniform would look like on his wedding day should he select it.

His trousers would feature a red stripe down the side and he would wear a crimson and gold sash around his waist, and his hat would be a peaked cap with a white crown and red band.

Prince Harry is pictured at Camp Baston in Afghanistan without a beard

Mr Gale said: 'For formal occasions, the Captain General would normally wear the uniform of a Royal Marines General Officer.

'This would predominantly follow the Army pattern uniform including the dark blue tunic, dark blue trousers with a wide red stripe down the leg and a crimson and gold waist sash.'

'Particular differences for the Royal Marines General Officer include the tunic buttons and the Royal Marines pattern peaked cap with a white crown and red band.

'However, the cap badge would be of the Army General Officer's type, rather than a Globe and Laurel.

'The rank badges on the shoulders of the uniform would be the rank of a Field Marshal.'

The rank of Captain General, the ceremonial head of the Royal Marines, stems from 1882 when Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, was made Honorary Colonel of the Royal Marines.

The title was changed to Colonel-in-Chief when the Duke of Cornwall and York, later King George V, was appointed in 1901.

George VI then changed the title to Captain General in 1948, and the Duke of Edinburgh was appointed to the role after Elizabeth II's coronation.Three Americans have been released from North Korean detention ahead of an upcoming summit between leader Kim Jong Un and US president Donald Trump.

Here are profiles of the three freed men:

Kim Dong Chul

Kim Dong Chul was detained in North Korea (Kim Kwang Hyon/AP)

Kim, a South Korean-born US citizen, was the longest-serving detainee among the three.

According to North Koreas state media, Kim, 64, ran a company in the Norths northeastern Rason special economic zone before his arrest on October 2, 2015.

He received a 10-year prison term with hard labour in April 2016 for allegedly perpetrating state subversive plots and espionage against North Korea.

Before his sentencing, the former Virginia resident publicly apologised for slandering North Koreas leadership, collecting and passing confidential information to South Korea, and joining a smear campaign against the Norths human rights situation.

Other foreigners have been presented at news conferences in North Korea and admitted crimes against the North, but many said after they were released that their confessions were given involuntarily and under duress.

Tony Kim

Tony Kim - pictured in the centre - was freed along with two other American citizens (Ahn Young-joon/AP)

Tony Kim, who also goes by the Korean name Kim Sang-duk, was detained on April 22, 2017, at the Pyongyang airport for committing criminal acts of hostility aimed to overturn North Korea, according to the Norths Korean Central News Agency.

It did not say what specific criminal acts Kim was alleged to have committed.

Kim taught accounting at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, which has been the only privately funded college in North Korea since its founding in 2010 with donations from Christian groups.

The school said Kims detention had nothing to do with his work at the university.

He previously taught Korean at Yanbian University of Science and Technology in Yanji, China, not far from the North Korea border.

Kim graduated from the University of California, Riverside, with a masters degree in business administration in 1990.

He made at least seven trips to North Korea to teach. His wife accompanied him on the visit when he was arrested. She was allowed to leave the country.

Kim Hak Song

Kim Hak Song (right) was also on board the plane with secretary of state Mike Pompeo (Ahn Young-joon/AP)

Kim worked in agricultural development at an experimental farm run by the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

He was detained on May 6, 2017, for engaging in unspecified hostile acts against North Korea, KCNA reported.

It did not say whether his case was related to Tony Kims.

The university also said his detention was not related to his work at the school.

It was not known whether Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song were formally convicted and sentenced.Iranian forces based in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights early on Thursday, the Israeli military said.

The attack triggered an Israeli reprisal and escalating already heightened tensions in the area.

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome rocket defence system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage.

Israel has accused Iran of striking the Golan Heights (Jim Hollander/AP)

Syrias capital of Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defences over the city was heard throughout the night.

An Israeli official said Israel was targeting Iranian positions inside Syria, while Syrias state news agency SANA quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israeli missiles hit air defence positions, radar stations and a weapons warehouse, but claiming most incoming rockets were intercepted.

About an hour ago, IDF defense systems identified approximately 20 rockets that the Iranian Quds forces launched at IDF forward posts on the Golan Heights  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 9, 2018

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted an unidentified security official as saying Israels attacks inside Syria were the most extensive since the two nations signed a disengagement agreement after the October war of 1973.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said earlier that Irans Al Quds force fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though he would not say how Israel determined the Iranian involvement.

The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan, which was captured from Syria in the 1967 war.

Israel views this Iranian attack very severely, he told reporters.

A number of rockets were intercepted by the IDF's Iron Dome aerial defense system. No injuries were reported. The IDF views this event with great severity and remains prepared for a wide variety of scenarios  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 9, 2018

Syrias state media said Syrian air defences intercepted hostile Israeli missiles early on Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus.

Hours later, state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast a live feed of Syrian air defences firing into the sky above the capital, and loud explosions and air defence firing were heard through the night.

An Israeli army spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on Twitter that Israel was acting against Iranian targets inside Syria, a rare admission by an Israeli official.

Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, anticipating an Iranian attack following Iranian vows to retaliate to what it says are recent Israeli strikes in Syria targeting Iranian outposts.

Late on Tuesday, Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near the capital of Damascus.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Irans elite Revolutionary Guard, killing at least 15 people, eight of them Iranians.

Last month, an attack on Syrias T4 air base in Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel. On April 30, Israel was said to have struck government outposts in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen pro-government fighters, many of them Iranians.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied most of the airstrikes. But for months, it has repeatedly said it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

Iranian forces moved into Syria after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 to back the forces of President Bashar Assad.

As that war winds down, and Assad appears to be headed toward victory, Israel fears that Iran, along with tens of thousands of Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen, will carry out attacks against Israel.

US president Donald Trumps announcement on Tuesday that the US was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran has triggered uncertainty and threatened to spark more unrest in the Middle East.The Israeli military said it attacked dozens of Iranian targets in neighbouring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights.

The exchanges are the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

Israel said the targets included weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centres used by elite Iranian forces in Syria.

Israel said it has struck Iranian targets in Syria (Jim Hollander/AP)

Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck dozens of military targets belonging to the Iranian Quds forces in Syrian territory pic.twitter.com/LwBJTMkxYR  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 10, 2018

It also said it destroyed several Syrian air-defence systems after coming under heavy fire.

The blistering Israeli assault was by far the most intensive Israeli action in neighbouring Syria since the civil war broke out there in 2011.

Israel has largely tried to stay on the sidelines, but has previously acknowledged carrying out over 100 airstrikes over the past seven years, most believed to be aimed at Iranian weapons shipments bound for the Hezbollah militant group.

The IDF will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 10, 2018

There was no immediate word on Iranian casualties.

Syrias capital of Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defences over the city was heard throughout the night.

Syrias state news agency SANA quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israeli missiles hit air defence positions, radar stations and a weapons warehouse, but claiming most incoming rockets were intercepted.

In recent months, Israel has warned that it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

Iran has accused Israel of carrying out a series of deadly strikes on Iranian military positions in Syria in recent weeks, and had vowed retaliation.

Iran has sent thousands of troops to back Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Israel fears that as the fighting nears an end, Iran and tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen will turn their focus to Israel.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Israel was not looking to escalate the situation. But he said troops will continue to be on very high alert.

Should there be another Iranian attack, we will be prepared for it, he said.

Irans ability to hit back could be limited. Its resources in Syria pale in comparison to the high-tech Israeli military. Iran also could be wary of military entanglement at a time when it is trying to salvage the international nuclear deal.

Israel considers Iran to be its most bitter enemy, citing Irans hostile rhetoric, support for anti-Israel militant groups and development of long-range missiles.

US president Donald Trumps withdrawal from the international nuclear agreement with Iran, with strong support from Israel, has further raised tensions.Donald Trump has arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington to greet three Korean-Americans as they return to the US after more than a year imprisoned in North Korea.

The president is accompanied by first lady Melania Trump. Vice president Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, are also awaiting the arrival of the former detainees.

The men were released on Wednesday as US secretary of state Mike Pompeo left Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un amid final plans for a Trump-Kim summit.

Mr Pompeos plane is expected to arrive at Andrews first, followed by a military medical plane carrying the three men who had been imprisoned. They will then be transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre for further evaluation and medical treatment.

Mr Trump has promised quite a scene when Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim return, amid warming relations between the US and North Korea.

Vice President Mike Pence, fourth from left, accompanied by his wife Karen Pence, third from left, and others arrive to greet the former North Korean detainees (AP)

Despite a middle-of-the-night landing at the base in the Washington area, red-carpeted aeroplane stairs have been prepared for their arrival, beneath a large American flag suspended between a pair of fire trucks.

The three men had boarded Mr Pompeos plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to a Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the US.

Their families are not on hand for the ceremony.

In a statement released by the US state department, the three men said: We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home.

We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

A US government plane departs from Yokota US Airbase on the outskirts of Tokyo (AP)

Mr Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Koreas leader for the prisoners release  I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this  and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Mr Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the official suggestion of the US president, according to North Koreas official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nations nuclear weapons.

Singapore emerged as the likely summit site, late this month or in early June, as Mr Trump seeks to negotiate the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula in his highest-stakes foreign policy effort yet. Mr Trump announced that the demilitarised zone between the Koreas would not host the summit. Mr Pompeo said the meeting would last one day and possibly a second.US president Donald Trump has thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for releasing three Americans from captivity, and said he believes Mr Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearising the Korean peninsula.

Welcoming the three Americans at a military base outside Washington, Mr Trump said of Mr Kim: I really think he wants to do something.

He adds of the talks between his administration and the North Korean government: Its never been taken this far.

Mr Trump said he will not disclose whether he will have any personal conversations with Mr Kim as they prepare for their historic summit in the coming weeks.

Mr Trump, center left, shakes hands with Kim Hak Song, alongside Tony Kim, far left, Kim Dong Chul, centre (AP)

The US president was on hand to personally greet Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim at Joint Base Andrews, in the Washington area, along with many senior administration officials.

The men returned after US secretary of state Mike Pompeo was in Pyongyang to discuss Mr Trumps plans to meet Mr Kim.

Donald Trump, his wife Melania, US vice president Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence are on hand to greet the men (AP)

The three former captives are being transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre for further evaluation and medical treatment.

Despite a middle-of-the-night landing (2.42am local time, 7.42am BST), first lady Melania Trump, US vice president Mike Pence and a host of senior administration officials joined Mr Trump to celebrate the occasion.

The president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men travelled to take a private moment with them, then appeared at the top of the aeroplane stairway with the three and applauded as the men gestured in triumph.

Mr Trump said: This is a special night for these three really great people.

On the US relationship with North Korea, Mr Trump said: Were starting off on a new footing.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo embraces former North Korean prisoner Tony Kim (AP)

The released mens families were not on hand for the ceremony.

In a statement released through the US state department, the men said: We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home.

We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

Singapore has emerged as the likely site for the Trump-Kim summit, late this month or in early June, as Mr Trump seeks to negotiate denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula in his highest-stakes foreign policy effort yet.

Mr Trump arrives at the air base with his wife Melania (AP)

Mr Trump announced that the demilitarised zone between the Koreas would not host the summit. Mr Pompeo said the meeting would last one day and possibly a second.

The president had made a point of publicly thanking North Koreas leader for the prisoners release  I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this  and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula.

Mr Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the official suggestion of the US president, said North Koreas official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nations nuclear weapons.Meghan Markle is expected to become the Duchess of Sussex when she weds Prince Harry.

The American actress will become a fully fledged member of the royal family  with an HRH title to match.

Tradition dictates that royal men receive a title on the morning of their wedding  with Harry looking set to become the Duke of Sussex.

Meghan Markle is expected to become the Duchess of Sussex when she weds Prince Harry

The prince is expected to be given a dukedom by his grandmother, the Queen.

Genealogist Charles Kidd said he believed the Duke of Sussex would be chosen for Harry, meaning Meghan would become Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex.

'They're quite limited in the titles that are available. The Duke of Sussex is the front-runner without any doubt,' he said.

'I think the others are highly unlikely. Clarence hasn't been used for a long time and it's been sort of tainted by bad luck.

'One Duke of Clarence was the eldest son of Edward VII and there have been a lot of fairly salacious stories surrounding him.

'Another Duke of Clarence was executed for treason and allegedly drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine.

'Connaught, with its links to the Republic of Ireland, might not be suitable at the moment.

Tradition dictates that royal men receive a title on the morning of their wedding  with Harry looking set to become the Duke of Sussex

'The dukedoms of Cumberland, Albany and Teviotdale are all suspended, meaning there could be claims to those titles.'

Windsor  last used by the abdicated Edward VIII  is likely to be off the table.

Although it would reclaim the title for a new generation, Wallis Simpson  the last Duchess of Windsor, who sparked the abdication crisis of 1936  was, like Meghan, an American divorcee.

Other options could include Avondale and Kendal.

Previously used titles that are available to Prince Harry are Connaught, Albany, Cumberland, Ross, Kintyre, Kendal, Sussex and Clarence. Connaught is now a province of the Republic of Ireland ans would be very unlikely to be used.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsors marriage caused difficulties for the royal family with Edward VIII abdicating

The previous holders of the titles Albany and Cumberland lost their titles after they fought for Germany during World War I. Their heirs are also alive and hence could disrupt any claims to the title.

Ross and Kintyre have not been used in more than 500 years, and Kendal was only used once used for a baby son of King James II, who died during infancy.

However, the previous Duke of Sussex, Prince Augustus Frederick, holds a lot of parallels with Prince Harry.

He was born on the January 27 1773 at Buckingham Palace, the ninth child of King George III and Queen Charlotte. He was given freedom to develop his own interests, like Prince Harry, and supported many liberal causes.

Prince Augustus Frederick, who died in 1843, was the last person to hold the 'Duke of Sussex' title

He was a strong supporter of anti-slavery legislation among other causes such as electoral reform, Jewish rights and Catholic emancipation.

He died aged 70 on April 21, 1843 at Kensington Palace, where Harry and Meghan now reside.

Harry  whose full name is Prince Henry of Wales  could turn down a title, but would be a surprise move.

In this case, Meghan would be known as HRH Princess Henry of Wales.

She is not entitled to be Princess Meghan because she is not a princess in her own right, only through marriage.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were also given titles linking them to Scotland and Northern Ireland, becoming the Earl and Countess of Strathearn and Baron and Baroness Carrickfergus, meaning Harry and Meghan might also be given multiple ones as well.Britain is expected to issue a formal apology to a Libyan dissident who was kidnapped and tortured by Muammar Gaddafis forces after an alleged tip-off from UK intelligence.

Abdel Hakim Belhaj, 52, and his wife Fatima Boudchar allege they were returned to Gaddafis brutal regime in 2004 through a joint M16-CIA operation linked to Tony Blairs infamous deal in the desert with the Libyan dictator.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright is expected to announce the settlement of Mr Belhajs long-running claim for compensation when he delivers the apology in a statement to MPs in the House of Commons.

Tony Blair meets Muammar Gaddafi in Libya in 2004 (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Ms Boudchar, who was five months pregnant when she and her husband were taken to Libya, will attend Parliament with her son Abderrahim for the announcement.

Her husband, now a politician in Libya, is scheduled to hold a press conference in Istanbul shortly afterwards.

Mr Belhaj was leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, part of the Islamist opposition to Gaddafi who were branded terrorists by the dictator. He fled the country in 2001 and evaded Gaddafis agents until his arrest three years later in Thailand.

He spent six years in jail in his native country before Gaddafi fell from power in the Arab Spring of 2011 and claims he was tortured throughout his incarceration. He claims he was questioned by British intelligence officers while in detention.

Ms Boudchar was released just before she gave birth.

Their kidnap in Thailand and rendition to Libya occurred two weeks before then Prime Minister Tony Blair visited the north African state to meet Gaddafi.

The meeting, in Gaddafis desert tent, marked a dramatic restoration of ties with the former pariah state following Tripolis announcement that it was giving up its weapons of mass destruction programmes and joining the fight against al-Qaida. Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell simultaneously announced a deal for gas exploration rights off the Libyan coast.

Mr Belhaj and his wife have been suing the British government, former foreign secretary Jack Straw, and former head of counter-terrorism at M16 Sir Mark Allen.

They claim MI6 provide key intelligence on their movements which led to their capture and rendition by the US to Libya.

Documents found in the abandoned British embassy and regime offices following the violent overthrow of Gaddafi in 2011 revealed details of UK intelligence links with Libya.

Mr Belhaj is suing former foreign secretary Jack Straw (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

They included a faxed letter from Sir Mark in which he congratulated Gaddafis intelligence chief Moussa Koussa on the safe arrival of Mr Belhaj, saying that it was the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years.

Another Libyan dissident, Sami al-Saadi, who was returned to Tripoli from Hong Kong in a joint British-Libyan operation and jailed for six years, accepted a settlement of 2.2 million in 2012 from the UK government.

But Mr Belhaj has always said that he will drop their case for an apology and an admission of liability by the British government and a nominal sum of 3  amounting to 1 from each of the defendants in the civil action.iStock/Thinkstock(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) -- The state of Maryland has stumbled across a novel way to satisfy gun-control opponents: create a licensing process that cannot be put into practice.



Maryland lawmakers had sought to ban bump stocks, the controversial rifle accessory used in last years Las Vegas massacre. But in writing the law, a clause allowing some gun owners to keep them may have backfired. The new law allows bump stocks and other "rapid-fire trigger activators" to be owned by people who get special dispensation from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).



But the federal agency has no process or authority to offer that dispensation and, indeed, was never even told of the Maryland law, the ATF told ABC News.



The law allows Maryland residents who apply for authorization by Oct. 1, 2019, when the law takes effect, to keep their bump stocks. After that date, bump stock owners who have not received ATF authorization would be in violation of the law.



But the ATF asked Maryland residents in a public advisory to refrain from filing applications or other requests for authorization from the agency.



The new Maryland law, signed by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, prohibits possessing, selling, offering to sell, transferring, purchasing or receiving rapid-fire trigger activators in the state of Maryland. Residents who own the devices after the law takes effect Oct. 1, 2019, could face a maximum penalty of three years in prison, a $5,000 fine or both.



A bump stock attaches to a gun to simulate an automatic weapon, capable of significantly increasing the number of rounds it can fire. A gunman using bump stocks opened fire last October on a concert crowd in Las Vegas, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more in the span of 10 minutes, resulting in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.



The laws original draft banned bump stocks outright and offered no ATF loophole, Maryland Delegate Lewis Moon, who proposed the measure, said. Instead, he told ABC News, the ATF application was added to appease Republican opposition to the bill.



The original draft never had a grandfather clause -- that was added down the line by the Republicans, Moon said. We decided to compromise, to allow residents who currently own these devices to authorize them with the ATF.



Moon was not in contact with the ATF while drafting the measure and was unaware of the ATFs statement until contacted by ABC News, he said. He did not know the ATF is unable to accommodate the Maryland law, Moon said.



Still, Moon added, he sees no reason to change the legislation. Our timeline stands, he said. The ATF has until Oct. 1, 2019, to create an application process for current owners of rapid-fire trigger activators.



Moon reiterated that if the ATF does not create an authorization process, bump stocks and other rapid-fire trigger activators will be banned in the state of Maryland after the law has taken effect, regardless of current ownership.



In a statement, the agency said it regrets any confusion and inconvenience caused by the provisions of the Maryland statute that mistakenly indicate ATF has the authority to approve possession of devices covered by the statute.



The agency has no plan to create an authorization process to fit the laws description, ATF spokesman Frank Kelsey told ABC News.



The ATF is in the process of deciding whether to classify bump stocks as machine guns, he said.



After the February massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, President Donald Trump called for a nationwide ban on bump stocks. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in March that both the Department of Justice and the ATF were in process of reviewing the classification of bump stocks.



If bump stocks are classified as machine guns, it would be illegal under federal Law for people to buy or own such devices, even if they are not attached to a firearm.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.The French foreign ministry has released a statement on the election of Nikol Pashinyan as Prime Minister of Armenia.

May 10, 2018, 09:56 France offers best wishes for success to PM Pashinyan, Armenian people

STEPANAKERT, MAY 10, ARTSAKHPRESS:France welcomes the dialogue between political forces that allowed the Armenian Parliament to elect a new prime minister on May 8, in respect of the Constitution and the fundamental rights of Armenias citizens.

It [France] offers him [Pashinyan], and the Armenian people, its best wishes for success.

France will continue to provide its support for Armenia, the French foreign ministry said.

Nikol Pashinyan was elected Prime Minister by the Armenian parliament on May 8 in the second round of voting.

59 MPs voted in favor, 42 voted against the candidacy of Nikol Pashinyan. He needed at least 53 votes to be named Prime Minister.

As required by the Constitution, a new government must be formed within 15 days after electing a Prime Minister.Britain has condemned a rocket attack on the occupied Golan Heights by Iranian forces based in Syria, and said that Israel has every right to defend itself.

Downing Street called for calm on both sides and urged Tehran to refrain from further assaults.

Number 10 also urged Russia to use its influence in Syria to rein in Iranian aggression.

Israeli missiles hit air defence position and other military bases, in Damascus (AP)

Iranian forces fired 20 rockets across the border at Israeli frontline military positions early on Thursday, the Israeli military said.

The attack was followed by retaliatory strikes by Israeli jets, which struck dozens of Iranian military installations within Syria.

The IDF has struck dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria in response to the Iranian rocket attack against Israel. Quds force is behind attack and has played the initial price. IDF remains ready for various scenarios but does not seek to escalate the situation. pic.twitter.com/4rC8gHK2LG  Amnon Shefler (@LTCShefler) May 10, 2018

Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had hit almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria.

But he insisted Israel had no interest in escalation of the situation, adding: I hope that we have finished this chapter and that everyone got the message.

Prime Minister Theresa Mays official spokesman said: We condemn Irans attack on Israel. Israel has every right to defend itself.

We call on Iran to refrain from any further attacks and for calm on all sides.

We call on Russia to use its influence in Syria to prevent further Iranian attacks.

Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck dozens of military targets belonging to the Iranian Quds forces in Syrian territory pic.twitter.com/LwBJTMkxYR  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 10, 2018

There are no reports of Israeli casualties in the rocket strikes.

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome defence system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage.

Mrs May reiterated her condemnation of the Iranian attacks and the UKs support for Israels right to defend itself in a telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

At the same time, she stressed Britains continued support for the Iran nuclear deal  which Israel has long opposed  despite US President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from the agreement.

The Prime Minister noted our statement calling on Iran to refrain from any further attacks, and for calm on all sides, a No 10 spokesman said.

They agreed it was vital for the international community to continue working together to counter Irans destabilising regional activity, and for Russia to use its influence in Syria to prevent further Iranian attacks.

The Prime Minister reiterated our position on the Iran nuclear deal, noting that we and our European partners remain firmly committed to ensuring the deal is upheld, as the best way of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.Brexit Secretary David Davis has turned down an invitation to answer questions from the House of Commons Northern Ireland Committee.

The committee described his decision as disappointing at a time when the future status of the Irish border has emerged as one of the major stumbling blocks to agreement on Britains EU withdrawal.

Brexit Secretary David Davis pictured during a visit to Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA)

The cross-party group had invited Mr Davis to update them on the Governments proposals to deliver a frictionless border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, currently the subject of fraught negotiations within Theresa Mays Brexit war cabinet.

Mr Davis told chairman Andrew Murrison in a letter that he had already answered questions on Northern Ireland during appearances before other committees in the Commons and Lords.

He offered to send junior ministers from his Department for Exiting the EU and the Northern Ireland Office in his place, and to answer any outstanding questions to him in writing.

Dr Murrison said: My committee is most disappointed that David Davis has turned down our invitation to give evidence on what all agree is an absolutely pivotal element of the Brexit process.

Michel Barnier has given us oral evidence as EU negotiator and the committee felt it would be reasonable to ask his UK counterpart Mr Davis to do the same.

This is more urgent now as a technical solution to the border is one of two options cited by ministers.

Given the committees caution over the prospects for a technical solution in its original report on the Irish land border post Brexit, we wanted to give the minister an opportunity to say what progress had been made.

We would then be happy to update our report if warranted by evidence received.

Otherwise, clearly, we cannot and the opinion expressed in the original report will have to stand.The Israeli military has said it attacked nearly all of Irans military installations in neighbouring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the occupied Golan Heights.

It is the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

Israel said the targets of the strikes, its largest in Syria since the 1973 war, included weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centres used by elite Iranian forces in Syria.

It also said it destroyed several Syrian air defence systems after coming under heavy fire and that none of its warplanes were hit.

Iranian media described the attacks as unprecedented, but there was no official Iranian comment on Israels claims.

Syrias military said the air strikes killed three people, wounded two and destroyed a radar station, an ammunition warehouse, and damaged a number of air defence units.

Brigadier General Ali Mayhoub, who read the statement on television, said Syrian air defence systems had intercepted the large part of the incoming Israeli strikes.

Israel has acknowledged carrying out more than 100 air strikes in neighbouring Syria since the civil war erupted in 2011, most believed to be aimed at suspected Iranian weapons shipments bound for the Hezbollah militant group.

Missiles rise into the sky (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP)

But in the past few weeks, Israel has shifted to a more direct and public confrontation with Iran, striking at Iranian bases, weapons depots and rocket launchers across Syria, and killing Iranian troops.

Israel accuses Tehran of seeking to establish a foothold on its doorstep. Iran has vowed to retaliate.

Reflecting the scope of the overnight attacks, Russias military said 28 Israeli jets were involved, striking at several Iranian and government sites in Syria with 70 missiles. It said half of the missiles were shot down.

Defence minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel would respond fiercely to any further Iranian actions.

We will not let Iran turn Syria into a forward base against Israel, he said.

We, of course, struck almost all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, and they need to remember this arrogance of theirs. If we get rain, theyll get a flood. I hope that we ended this chapter and that everyone understood.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the civil war through sources inside Syria, said the overnight Israeli attacks struck several military posts for Syrian troops and Iranian-backed militias near the capital, Damascus, in central Syria and in southern Syria.

The observatory said the attacks killed 23 fighters, including five Syrian soldiers. It said it was not immediately clear if Iranians were among those killed.

Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defences over the city was heard for more than five hours.

Israel said early on Thursday that Irans Quds Force fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights.

An Israeli soldier at an old military outpost used for visitors to view the Israeli- controlled Golan Heights, near the border with Syria (Ariel Schalit/AP)

Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 war, annexing it in 1981 in a move not recognised internationally.

In 1974, Israel and Syria reached a ceasefire and a disengagement deal that froze the conflict lines with the plateau in Israeli hands.

Lt Col Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said four of the rockets were intercepted, while the others fell short of their targets. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Golan.

He said Israel was not looking to escalate the situation but that troops will continue to be on very high alert.

Should there be another Iranian attack, we will be prepared for it, he said.

It is believed to be the first time in decades that such firepower from Syria has been directed at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights.

Irans ability to hit back further could be limited. Its resources in Syria pale in comparison to the high-tech Israeli military and it could also be wary of military entanglement at a time when it is trying to salvage the international nuclear deal.

Iran has sent thousands of troops to back Assad, and Israel fears that as the fighting nears an end, Iran and tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen will turn their focus to Israel.A 104-year-old British-born scientist has ended his life in Switzerland, a right-to-die group said.

Australian biologist David Goodall was declared dead at 12.30pm on Thursday, Exit International director Philipp Nitschke said.

Mr Goodall had travelled to Switzerland to take advantage of the countrys assisted suicide laws.

The scientist, described by Exit International as its first member, said this week that he had been contemplating the idea of suicide for about 20 years, but only started thinking about it for himself after his quality of life deteriorated over the last year.

He cited a lack of mobility, doctors restrictions and an Australian law prohibiting him from taking his own life among his complaints, but he was not ill.

David Goodall and others at a press conference (Georgios Kefalas/Keystone via AP)

Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland but frowned upon by many doctors and some others who say it should be reserved for the terminally ill.

Mr Goodalls supporters want the practice to be more accepted as a legitimate choice for elderly people of sound mind.

Hundreds of people  some far more frail than Mr Goodall, who used a wheelchair  travel to Switzerland every year to take their lives.

The best-known group to help foreigners end their lives in the Alpine country is Dignitas, but others include Life Circle in Basel, Mr Goodalls choice.

Speaking on Thursday in the room where he later died, Mr Goodall said: My life has been rather poor for the last year or so. And Im very happy to end it.

Mr Nitschke said that before he died, Mr Goodall had to answer several questions so he knew who he was, where he was and what he was about to do.

He answered those questions with great clarity, activated the process while music played in the background, he added.Three men have been arrested on suspicion of smuggling a haul of guns into the UK, including an assault rifle with devastating firepower used in mass shootings in the United States.

The weapons included two AR-15 assault rifles  of the same type used in mass shootings at a school in Parkland, Florida in February and at a music festival in Las Vegas last October  as well as four handguns and ammunition.

The guns were found by Border Force officials at Dover. The weapons were hidden in a special compartment in the floor of a Peugeot van being brought into the country on the back of a flat-bed truck.

Three men have been arrested over the haul (National Crime Agency/PA)

The driver, a 66-year-old man from Grays, Essex, was arrested on suspicion of firearms importation and was released under investigation.

A further two men, both aged 31 and from the Basildon area, were arrested on Thursday in a series of raids by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers at five locations in Essex.

A number of house searches took place during which several thousand pounds in cash was recovered.

NCA senior investigating officer Darren Herbert said: In recent weeks we have seen a number of significant firearms seizures at Dover and I would say that is testament to the hard work of the NCA, Border Force and other law enforcement partners who strive to protect the public.

Weapons, ammunition and cash were seized (National Crime Agency/PA)

We know that one of the types of weapon detected in this particular seizure has devastating firepower, having been used in a number of mass shootings in the United States.

This makes it all the more important that these weapons are kept out of the hands of violent criminals and off our streets.

Our investigations continue.

Paul Morgan, director of Border Force South East and Europe, said: The weapons had been hidden in a specially adapted concealment within the floor of a Peugeot van which could only be opened electronically.

The vehicle had been altered with the sole purpose of smuggling in mind.The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall paid their respects to fallen soldiers as they visited the Commonwealth War Graves in Athens.

The couple were greeted by Captain Tim Ferns, the UK Defence Attache, veterans, guests and even vegan demonstrators.

Those gathered at the short ceremony observed a minutes silence after the sound of a trumpet before the prince laid a wreath on a tomb which read: Their name liveth for evermore.

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall during a visit to the Commonwealth War Graves (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Charles spoke to a 101-year-old war veteran, Themistocles Marinos MBE, who had received eight Greek medals, including a Gold Gallantry Cross, Military Cross and Distinguished Services Medal.

Mr Marinos spoke of his illustrious career in the armed forces, including his time with submarines, which led the prince to describe him as a remarkable man and to tell him he was very proud.

Charles and Camilla try traditional Greek coffee (Chris Jackson/PA)

Speaking of his age, Charles asked is he really 101? and added: It must be the Greek sunshine.

But before his departure, Charles encountered a vegan group who displayed a banner which read: Charles, go vegan. Compassion looks great on you, before chanting please, Charles, please go vegan.

Camilla reads to schoolchildren (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Prior to the ceremony, the couple stopped for refreshment during a walkabout in the Kapnikarea area of central Athens.

Despite drinking coffee like the locals, Charles refused a plastic straw due to his campaign to reduce plastic usage.

On Thursday morning, the prince was greeted by Archbishop Ieronymos II at the entrance of his palace.

Charles was urged to go vegan (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Charles received a gift of an icon of the Virgin Mary and he presented the archbishop with a family photograph of himself and the Duchess of Cornwall.

The prince said: Im afraid my gift is very inadequate in return.

Charles receives a gift of an Icon of the Virgin Mary from His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece (Andrew Matthews/PA)

In the afternoon, Camilla visited the Kaisariani Monastery where she read a passage from Harry Potter And The Philosophers Stone to a group of schoolchildren.

When asked what her favourite book was, the duchess responded: When I was very young, which was 100 years ago, I used to love the books of Rudyard Kipling.

Camilla during a visit to the Kaisariani Monastery (Andrew Matthews/PA)

The children then surprised the duchess by acting out the scene she had just read to them before handing her a painting they had done of the Hogwarts Express.US President Donald Trump has said he will meet with North Koreas Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12.

The president tweeted: We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!

Mr Trump provided details for the first time about the history-making meeting between a sitting American president and the leader of North Korea over denuclearisation.

He had said he favoured holding the meeting at the Demilitarised Zone, the heavily fortified border separating the Koreas.

But the island nation was favoured by most of his advisers.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has travelled to Pyongyang twice to meet with Mr Kim in recent months, in a precursor to the Trump-Kim meeting.

Mr Pompeo returned overnight with three captive Americans during his most recent trip.

With the final details in place, Mr Trump and Mr Kim will meet in the first North Korea-US summit talks since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Mr Kim has suspended nuclear and missile tests and put his nuclear programme up for negotiation, but questions remain about how serious his offer is and what disarmament steps he would be willing to take.

Earlier on Thursday, with the American former prisoners by his side at a dark air base, Mr Trump said during a made-for-TV ceremony that it was a great honour to welcome the men back to the US, but he added that the true honour is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.

Vice president Mike Pence, Mr Pompeo, other top officials and first lady Melania Trump joined the president in the celebration in the early hours of Thursday morning at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.

The men  Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim  had been released on Wednesday amid the warming of relations between longtime adversaries.

Mr Trump thanked Mr Kim for releasing the Americans and said he believes the North Korean leader wants to reach an agreement on denuclearisation at their upcoming summit.

I really think he wants to do something, the president said.

Mr Pence said on NBC News: In this moment the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith.

Singapore had emerged as the likely host of the summit after Mr Trump yielded to the concerns of his aides and backed off his desire to hold the meeting at the inter-Korean Demilitarised Zone.

Located at the southern tip of Malaysia, Singapore is a regional hub in South East Asia whose free enterprise philosophy welcomes trading partners from everywhere.

It has close diplomatic and defence ties with the US and yet is also familiar ground for North Korea, with which it established diplomatic relations in 1975.

Shortly before 3am, the president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men had travelled and spent several minutes meeting with them privately.

The group then emerged at the top of the planes steps, where the men held up their arms in an exuberant display.

US service members burst into applause and cheers.

This is a special night for these three really great people, Mr Trump told reporters.

On the US relationship with North Korea, Mr Trump declared: Were starting off on a new footing.

The freed prisoners appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft.

When asked by reporters how it felt to be home, one of the men answered through a translator: Its like a dream; we are very, very happy.

They later gave the president a round of applause.

Suggesting that recovery from their ordeals would take time, Mr Pence recounted that Mr Pompeo told him that at the refuelling stop in Anchorage one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadnt seen daylight in a very long time.

Donald Trump greets Tony Kim, Kim Hak Song and Kim Dong Chul (Susan Walsh/AP)

The White House choreographed the arrival event, suspending a giant American flag between two fire engines on the ground and inviting reporters to witness the return.

The image-conscious president told reporters: I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 oclock in the morning.

The men were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre, where they were to be evaluated and receive medical treatment before being reunited with their families.

The public display stood in stark contrast to the low-key, private reception that the State Department had envisioned, in keeping with a practice of trying to protect potentially traumatised victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after their ordeal.

Mr Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental US.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Mr Trump has pointed to Mr Kims willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating US moves to tighten sanctions  branded maximum pressure by the president.

Donald and Melania Trump with the freed men (Alex Brandon/AP)

Mr Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the official suggestion of the US president, said North Koreas official news agency KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nations nuclear weapons.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the US with severe brain damage.

Mr Warmbier was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labour.

His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

We are happy for the hostages and their families, the Warmbiers said in a statement. We miss Otto.The family of a woman whose boyfriend claimed she was alive and well in South Africa months after murdering her have been put through a living hell, police said.

Dean Lowe, 33, denied harming Kirby Noden, 32, and claimed she had set him up by spraying her own blood around their basement flat before leaving him for another man.

He had actually used a rock and metal pole to kill her in the bedroom of their home in Marazion, Cornwall, before dismembering her body and disposing of it in dustbins and down a toilet.

Truro Crown Court heard the murder was committed some time in January 2017 but did not come to light until May that year, when Lowe sent messages confessing what he had done to his family in Cheshire.

Police went to the flat, which had barely been altered since the murder, and Lowe admitted that he had killed Ms Noden and disposed of her body.

He later denied this and pleaded not guilty to murder but a jury of six men and six women convicted him of the charge following nine hours and 35 minutes of deliberations.

Speaking after the case, Detective Inspector Ian Ringrose of Devon and Cornwall Police said the case had been extensive and complex.

This has required extensive nationwide and international enquiries, he said.

Miss Nodens family have been put through a living hell with Lowe not disclosing where he disposed of Kirbys body and denying all knowledge in court. Lowe added to their upset by insisting that Kirby was still alive.

We hope todays sentence gives them some comfort in the conclusion of the case and our thoughts and sympathies are with them.

In a statement issued through the force, Ms Nodens family said Lowe, who went on trial on April 24, had taken away something totally precious.

Kirby Noden was murdered by boyfriend Dean Lowe with a rock and a metal pole at their basement flat in Marazion, Cornwall (Devon and Cornwall Police/PA)

The defendant, who was not in court to hear the verdict, earlier told how he and Ms Noden spent the Christmas before her death taking drugs and self harming.

He claimed he last saw her around January 10-15, stating that she had left him for another man and was living in South Africa.

But prosecuting, Paul Dunkels QC said Ms Noden must have been dead by January 14, when Lowe attempted to use her bank card to withdraw money from an ATM.

Having killed her, the defendant moved her body, probably in pieces, and cleaned up the worst of the blood and cutting away the worst of the carpet, Mr Dunkels told the jury.

For four months, from mid-January to mid-May, he lived on in the flat in the state it was in. Living in the midst of what he had done must have been gruesome.

The court heard Ms Nodens blood was around the bedroom, soaked into the mattress where her body had been lying and on the weapons used by Lowe to murder her.

In one message, Lowe told a cousin: Shes dead and has been chopped up and put down the toilet and in the bins down the road.

Either Im getting set up or Ive murdered Kirby. I had a blackout, hazy memory and woke up with a body on the floor. I am scared so I just got rid.

I put the body in the bins down the road. I remember the binmen finding all the meat and didnt know what it was. The carpet was lifted because of the body matter.

It took a week to get rid of the body, it was horrible.

Lowe, of Beacon Road, Marazion, told the jury he had known Ms Noden since they were children because his father and her mother had been friends.

The couple, originally from Winsford in Cheshire, started a relationship aged around 25 and moved into the flat in Marazion after a period of being homeless.

Mrs Justice May will sentence Lowe at Exeter Crown Court on Tuesday.A teenage jihadi bride plotted a terror attack on London under the guise of an Alice In Wonderland themed tea party, a court has heard.

Safaa Boular was aged 17 when she allegedly decided to be a martyr and launch a grenade and gun attack on the British Museum.

Her resolve was strengthened after her Islamic State fiance Naweed Hussain was killed in Syria before she could join him.

While in custody for allegedly attempting to travel to IS territory, she passed on the baton to her older sister Rizlaine Boular, the Old Bailey heard.

Rizlaine Boular (Met Police/PA)

In calls from jail, she talked about a party with her 21-year-old sibling, which was said to be a code word for a terror attack.

The pair also made reference to a Mad Hatter and having an Alice In Wonderland themed tea party, jurors heard.

Over the next three days, Rizlaine and her mother Mina Dich, 43, carried out reconnaissance around major landmarks in Westminster and bought a pack of knives and a rucksack, the court heard.

But on April 27 last year  the day of the proposed knife attack around the Palace of Westminster  police swooped to arrest Rizlaine Boular, jurors were told.

Rizlaine Boular, of Clerkenwell, central London, has already admitted planning an attack and with the help and support of Dich, the jury was told.

But Safaa Boular, now 18, who lived at home with her mother in Vauxhall, south west London, has denied two counts of preparing acts of terrorism.

Court artist sketch of Safaa Boular (left) appearing at the Old Bailey in London where she denies two charges of preparing acts of terrorism (Elizabeth Cook/PA)

Opening the Old Bailey trial, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC told jurors Safaa Boular planned to unleash violence and terror in the heart of London.

He said she was inspired following a failed bid to marry IS fighter Hussain, who was in his 30s.

After just three months chatting on social media, the couple had declared their love for each other, the court heard.

Safaa Boular wanted to marry Hussain and don a suicide belt each, jurors were told.

Mr Atkinson said: Their plan then was that together they would, as Hussain put it, depart the world holding hands and taking others with them in an act of terrorism.

But Boulars aim to travel to Syria accompanied by her sister was scuppered when she was stopped by police at Stansted en route home from a holiday in Morocco in August 2016.

Boular allegedly switched her attention to Britain, keeping contact with Hussain on a secret phone through encrypted Telegram chat.

But British Security Services had deployed specially trained role play officers to engage with the pair online to keep track of their activities.

Both Hussain and Boular talked about an ambush involving Russian-style guns and pineapples  code for grenades, jurors heard.

The defendant sobbed when she found out about Hussains death in April last year, and was comforted by her sister and mother, who told her hes in paradise.

Mina Dich (Met Police/PA)

She told an officer posing as an IS fighter that all she needed was a car and a knife to get what I want to achieve, the court heard.

She allegedly confided that she had no time to lounge around, adding: My heart yearns to be reunited with my dear husband for the very first time.

In encrypted chat, she said Hussain had told her something about a British Museum and the tokarev and pineapple, Mr Atkinson said.

Tokarev was said to be a type of Russian gun and pineapple, a code word for grenades.

In a conversation on April 8 last year, Rizlaine Boular allegedly told her: The bus goes past the British Museum and I thought of you, in apparent reference to the target.

But on April 12, Safaa Boular was charged with planning to go to Syria so was unable to carry out her chilling intentions, Mr Atkinson said.

Instead, she encouraged Rizlaine to carry the torch forward in her stead in telephone calls from prison, he said.

Joel Bennathan QC told jurors that Safaa was groomed by Hussain, who was twice her age.

In an opening speech, he said: She was a child who was sexually groomed, someone who was groomed to be radicalised. Thats what happened to this young person.

He added that her family had encouraged and celebrated it.Theresa May has been branded weak by a European Commissioner, amid continuing deadlock over Britains proposals for customs arrangements after Brexit.

Gunther Oettinger, a member of Angela Merkels CDU party and ally of the German chancellor, also took a swipe at Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, telling an audience of students: (He) has the same haircut as (Donald) Trump. That tells you everything.

The Government was accused by Labour of subverting democracy by delaying debate on key pieces of Brexit legislation in a bid to avoid rebellions, following a string of 14 defeats in the House of Lords.

The legislative timetable for the coming period set out by Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom made no mention of Brexit bills, and Downing Street declined to say when MPs would be asked to consider the Lords amendments or bills on trade and customs.

Labours Valerie Vaz suggested the Government was being cynical and parking the trade (bill), customs bill and the EU (Withdrawal) Bill  so as to avoid rebellions.

She told MPs: This is unprecedented and the Government is effectively subverting democracy.

Labours shadow leader of the Commons Valerie Vaz accused ministers of `subverting democracy over Brexit legislation (parliamentlive.tv/PA)

But Ms Leadsom insisted there was no hold-up, saying the bills would come forward in due course.

Labour MP Wes Streeting, a supporter of the Peoples Vote campaign for a second referendum, said: The Government is sinking into the quicksand of Brexit, and the more they struggle, the deeper they sink.

The country is waiting for a plan, but all we are seeing is chaos.

Addressing students from schools across the EU in the German city of Karlsruhe on Wednesday, Mr Oettinger said: Mrs May is weak and Boris Johnson has the same haircut as Trump. That tells you everything.

According to German news agency DPA, he continued: One can only hope that sensible compatriots will put Mrs May on the path to a clever Brexit.

Addressing British students in his audience, he said: Id like to ask you to start a movement in 15 years time to come back into the EU again.

Mrs Mays official spokesman brushed off suggestions that the comments might reflect a cooling in Berlins attitude towards her administration, telling reporters: The Prime Minister has a very strong relationship with the chancellor in relation to Brexit and a series of other matters.

We look forward to that constructive relationship continuing.

The spokesman played down reports that Britain could seek an extension beyond December 2020 of the Brexit transition period to allow time for the introduction of new technology avoiding a hard customs border in Ireland.

We reached an agreement with the European Union on the implementation period and that agreement is clear that the implementation period will end in December 2020, he said.

The maximum facilitation technological solution is one of two options currently under review ahead of a meeting of Mrs Mays Brexit war cabinet expected next Tuesday, alongside her own preferred customs partnership.

Mrs May was unable to secure the backing of senior ministers last week for the partnership option, which would see the UK collect tariffs on behalf of the EU.

Officials are working on a revised version of the scheme.

"Will you accept a compromise over the customs union" @Jo_Coburn



"The customs union means we are effectively staying in the EU. So no. Of course not" @Jacob_Rees_Mogg adding gov't was "elected on a manifesto saying we would leave customs union"



"It did not win @Alison_McGovern pic.twitter.com/Z9mIGWJc4Q  BBC Daily Politics and Sunday Politics (@daily_politics) May 10, 2018

Prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the European Research Group of eurosceptic Tory backbenchers, said that Mrs Mays customs partnership proposal seems to be running into the sand because it practically doesnt work.

He rejected any extension to the transition period, currently due to stretch for 21 months following the official date of Brexit in March 2019.

Mr Rees-Mogg told BBC2s Daily Politics that remaining in the European customs union after 2020 would be a dramatic failure of Government policy.

The Prime Minister wrote an article for The Sun On Sunday just last weekend saying she was going to leave the single market and customs union, said Mr Rees-Mogg.

I trust the Prime Minister to do what she says she will do.A group of demonstrators have been rallying outside the building of Yerevan Municipality since Thursday morning demanding the resignation of Mayor Taron Margaryan and the dissolution of the Yerevan City Council.

May 10, 2018, 13:25 Armenians protest outside Yerevan Municipality, demand mayors resignation

STEPANAKERT, MAY 10, ARTSAKHPRESS:The participants of the initiative dubbed Reject Taron state the mayor of Armenias capital and his team have for years neglected the issues, including the evidences on illegalities, voiced by the residents, meantime pointing to the ineffective activity and misuse of state funds by the mayor, Panorama.am reports.

According to one of the participants, Yerevan lacks architectural policy, instead irregular constructions pursuing business and clan interests are being carried out in the city, with consistent efforts taken towards destroying and privatizing the green areas in Yerevan for years.

A group of women rights defenders called attention to the insults, violence, blasphemy and threats targeting female members of the Yerevan City Council.

Members of the Yelk faction in the City Council  Ani Samsonyan and David Khazhakyan  are among the participants of the protest campaign.

Back on Wednesday, some social media users made posts demanding elections of Yerevan mayor by the residents of the capital.Leprosy had its beginnings in Europe rather than Asia and was brought to Britain more than 1,000 years ago - thanks to the trade in red squirrels.

That's the finding of research which looked at DNA to reveal the strains of the disease circulating in Medieval Europe, in the largest study of its kind.

It revealed more strains of the devastating disease than expected in medieval Europe, calling into question the historical assumption that it began if the East.

Genetic material taken from a fifth-century victim of the disease in Essex also contained the same strain of leprosy bacteria still carried by red squirrels today.

Experts say this suggests the rodents, then prized for their fur and meat, played a crucial role in the spread of the infection.

Scroll down for video

Leprosy had its beginnings in Europe rather than Asia and was brought to Britain more than 1,000 years ago. That's the finding of research which looked at DNA from human remains (pictured) to reveal the strains of the disease circulating in Medieval Europe

An international team of team, including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (MPISHH), took samples of leprosy DNA.

These were taken from the remains of 90 European people, who lived between 400 and 1,400 AD, that were selected due to skeletal deformations characteristic of the disease.

Among the selected remains was a skeleton from Great Chesterford, Essex, dated to between 415 and 545 AD.

It was this leprosy genome, the oldest yet constructed, that contained the red squirrel clue.

Researchers used the data they collected to reconstruct 10 new genomes, or complete genetic codes, of the bug that causes leprosy - known as Mycobacterium leprae.

Previous research on the bacterium suggested that it clusters into several strains, only two of which were present in Medieval Europe.

The diversity of the newly uncovered strains suggests the disease may be at least a few thousand years old, experts say.

'We found much more genetic diversity in ancient Europe than expected,' said Professor Johannes Krause, senior author of the study and a director at MPISHH.

'Additionally, we found that all known strains of leprosy are present in Medieval Europe, suggesting that leprosy may already have been widespread throughout Asia and Europe in antiquity or that it might have originated in western Eurasia.'

From the bone fragments, experts reconstructed 10 new genomes of medieval Mycobacterium leprae, the bug that causes leprosy. The 90 individuals that were lepers (pictured) were found to have the same strand of the bacteria as found in red squirrels

The new research suggests that leprosy may have originated in western Europe or Asia. The medieval genomes included strains now found in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Pictured bones found in Essex that once belonged to a leper were used as part of the research

Leprosy causes severe bone deformities (pictured) and was prevalent in Europe until the 16th century and is still endemic in many countries, with more than 200,000 cases reported each year

WHAT IS LEPROSY? Leprosy is a long-term infectious disease which can result in the inflammation of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. The disease is initially symptom-less and can remain undetected for five to 20 years. Typically found among those living in poverty, leprosy was common during the Middle Ages and then again in nineteenth century but it can still be found in developed and developing countries today. In 2012, the number of chronic cases of leprosy was 189,000, down from some 5.2 million in the 1980s, with India accounting for more than half of all cases. Advertisement

Leprosy was prevalent in Europe until the 16th century and is still endemic in many countries, with more than 200,000 cases reported each year.

The medieval genomes included strains now found in Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Lead researcher Dr Verena Schuenemann, from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, added: 'The dynamics of M. leprae transmission throughout human history are not fully resolved.

'Characterisation and geographic association of the most ancestral strains are crucial for deciphering leprosys exact origin.

'While we have some written records of leprosy cases that predate the Common Era, none of these have yet been confirmed on a molecular level.'

The full findings of the study were published in the journal PLOS Pathogens.An independent inquiry has been launched into the recall of thousands of neurology patients in Northern Ireland.

Last week, Belfast Trust ordered the recall of 2,500 patients following a probe into the work of a consultant neurologist.

The move followed the year-long examination by the Royal College of Physicians of patient notes relating to the work of Dr Michael Watt.

Patients treated by Dr Watt in two private sector clinics in Northern Ireland are also to be reviewed.

The Department of Health commissioned inquiry into the Belfast Trusts handling of the controversy will be chaired by Brett Lockhart QC.

A panel led by Mr Lockhart will review the process initiated by the trust in December 2016 in relation to the concerns raised about the clinical practice of Dr Watt.

It will assess whether any complaints or concerns relating to Dr Watt prior to that date should have provided grounds for earlier intervention.

The patients recalled by the trust were being treated for a wide range of neurological conditions, including epilepsy and MS, and are aged 14 and up.

The inquiry centres around the work of a neurologist (Geoff Pilkington/PA)

Restrictions were placed on aspects of Dr Watts practice after the issues were flagged to the trust.

He has not been seeing patients since June 2017.

Announcing the inquiry, Department of Health Permanent Secretary Richard Pengelly said: The focus since last week has rightly been on establishing a robust patient recall process.

That remains the first priority.

However, it is clear that a rigorous review is also required, given the seriousness of the situation and the impact on patients.

The public needs to be assured that this issue has been properly and appropriately handled by the Trust, and that any lessons for the future are learned.

The department has also asked the Regulation Quality and Improvement Authority (RQIA) to examine the records of all patients seen by Dr Watt over the last decade.

The RQIA is also undertaking a review of governance of outpatient services in the Belfast Trust with a particular focus on neurology services.

The review will be rolled out across all five health and social care trusts in Northern Ireland.The director of Irelands health service has stepped down amid a deepening controversy over wrongly interpreted cervical smear test results

Health Service Executive (HSE) chief Tony OBrien, who had been due to retire in the summer, had been facing calls to quit over a furore about the treatment of cancer patients who were wrongly informed their smear results were all clear.

Health minister Simon Harris said Mr OBrien informed him of his decision to step down in a meeting on Thursday night.

Tony OBrien has quit his post (Niall Carson/PA)

Statement from the Minister for Health @SimonHarrisTD pic.twitter.com/6hSlytQiFO  Department of Health (@roinnslainte) May 10, 2018

I would like to express my thanks to Tony OBrien for his many years of dedicated public service, he said.

I know that he is standing down from his role today because he believes it is in the best interest of rebuilding public confidence in the wake of the issues which have arisen in CervicalCheck (Irelands national screening programme).

Tomorrow, the Cabinet meeting will again discuss this matter and the further measures which can be put in place to care for and support the women and families affected.

Last week, it was revealed that an audit by CervicalCheck of 1,482 women diagnosed with the cancer since 2008 had found potential errors in 208 cases, as tests showed no abnormality when they should have been given a cancer warning.

The majority of the 208 women  162  were not initially told of the outcome of the audit. Of the 208, 17 have since died.

Mr OBrien resigned hours after it emerged that an internal HSE briefing note that flagged potential errors in screening tests in 2016 stressed the need for a media strategy to respond to stories of women whose cancer diagnosis was missed.

The memo to HSE bosses from Irelands National Screening Service (NSS) also advised a pause in the process of communicating to clinicians the findings of the audit of smear test results belonging to women who were subsequently diagnosed with cancer.

A further note, circulated four months later, acknowledged that while the majority of cancers were detected as early as possible through cervical screening, not all cancers were prevented.

The HSE forwarded three 2016 memos to the Oireachtass Public Accounts Committee on Thursday as members probed the growing controversy around misinterpreted smear tests.

Acting chair of the PAC, Labours Alan Kelly, branded the documents devastating.

Mr OBrien told the PAC the 2016 notes had not raised alarm bells with him, because they stated that women were being informed of the audit results.

Statement from the Department of Health in relation to CervicalCheck pic.twitter.com/pORpH9HjPI  Department of Health (@roinnslainte) May 10, 2018

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was health minister when the first memo was sent to HSE chiefs.

The Department of Health confirmed on Thursday night that the memos were shared with the department.

However, a spokesman said they were only relayed to certain officials and none were brought to the attention of any serving health minister.

The first note, dated March of that year, outlined details of the audit process undertaken by CervicalCheck and that results were to be communicated to patients.

The subsequent two, circulated in July, provided updates on the situation.

In a section titled next steps, the first memo stated:

 Pause all letters

 Await advice of solicitors

 Decide on the order and volume of dispatch to mitigate any potential risks

 Continue to prepare reactive communications response for a media headline that screening did not diagnose my cancer.

It earlier said: There is always the risk that in communicating individual case reports to clinicians of an individual patient reacting by contacting the media if they feel that screening did not diagnose my cancer.

This is a risk that is inherent in having a clinical audit process as part of the national programme.

Mr Kelly said the HSE appeared more interested in protecting its reputation than communicating with patients.

This was a strategy to ensure the HSE, the corporate brand, is being protected, he said.

This is a devastating document because of the tone and manner in which it is written and also where it focuses on from a communications point of view.

The controversy was triggered by the case of Vicky Phelan, the terminally ill mother whose legal battle cast light on the issue.

Last month, Ms Phelan, a 43-year-old mother of two from Co Limerick, settled a High Court action for 2.5 million euro after being incorrectly told in 2011 that her smear test had given a negative result for cancer.

In 2014, she was diagnosed with cancer but only told of the false negative last September.

On Thursday, another woman impacted by the false negatives issue  37-year-old Emma Mhic Mhathuna from Co Kerry  revealed that she had now been diagnosed with terminal cancer  five years after being told her smear tests were normal.

UK health expert Dr Gabriel Scally has been commissioned by the Irish government to lead an inquiry into the misinterpretation of the cancer tests.

A planned away day Cabinet meeting that had been scheduled for Friday has been postponed.

The Cabinet will instead meet in Dublin as Mr Varadkar and Mr Harris continue to deal with the controversy.BEIRUT, May 9 (Reuters) - Europe has a "limited opportunity" to preserve the nuclear deal with Tehran, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani told French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call on Wednesday, the Iranian Students' News Agency reported.

"Under the current conditions, Europe has a very limited opportunity to preserve the nuclear deal, and must, as quickly as possible, clarify its position and specify and announce its intentions with regard to its obligations," ISNA quoted Rouhani as telling Macron in the phone call. (Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh Editing by Peter Graff)SOFIA, May 10 (Reuters) - The se are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

24 CHASA - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will visit Bulgaria on May 15, but it is yet uncertain whether Rajoy will attend the EU-Western Balkans summit on May 17, as Spain does not recongnise the independence of Kosovo.

-- A Bulgarian court launched the trial against the main shareholder of bankrupt Corporate Commercial Bank, two former deputy central bank governors and 15 other people over the 2014 demise of the country's fourth largest lender. (24 Chasa, Sega, Standart, Trud)

- Incomes in Bulgaria are expected to reach about 90 percent of EU average levels by 2035 if the economic growth keeps the same pace, report by Open Society think-tank showed. At present, Bulgarian gross domestic product per capita, calculated as power purchasing parity is 49 percent of the EU average. (24 Chasa, Capital, Sega)

24 CHASA - Bulgaria's government named Balkan gas hub a project of national importance. There are five non-binding offers in the process for studying the market interest for the hub, Bulgartransgaz executive director Vladimir Malinov said, adding that binding offers are expected on Dec 17.The Cabinet yesterday endorsed the implementation of a new pricing formula for fuel in the local market reflecting international price fluctuations and others costs, it is learnt.

The government worked out the new pricing formula for implementation as the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation is cash strapped to issue fuel at subsidized rates. With the implementation of the formula, petroleum prices are slated to rise in the country.

Following the Cabinet go-ahead for the move to introduce a pricing formula, a committee was to meet last evening to discuss the methodology.

A Cabinet source the new pricing formula would reflect the costs involved in pumping, storage and maintenance, and the taxes levied on crude and refined fuel imports.

The world market prices dropped to US $ 45 a barrel in the recent past. However, the prices have increased once again. (Kelum Bandara)Who robbed celebritys home

The police had then examined CCTV footage near the residence of Dr. Peries and identified a suspicious three wheeler

With the arrest of the five suspects over the theft of the Ranamayura lifetime achievement medal of filmmaker the late Dr. Lester James Peries, a more expansive and a rooted organised crime of ransacking funerals of popular personnel was revealed by the Police.



This suggests that the medal of Dr. Peries that went missing was one of many such stolen valuables from funerals by a gang. The group consists of men aged between 46 to 64 that pick and chose well-attended funerals of popular personalities such as artistes or other public figures and then systematically rob valuable items such as phones. Their victims could be the sympathizing visitors, family members of the deceased or even the deceased itself.



These facts came to light when the Ranamayura medal went missing on May 2 (Wednesday) morning while Dr. Peries funeral service was still in progress. After much publicity was given by the media to this theft, the missing medal was found on an overhead rack of a private bus plying on the Kollupitiya-Kaduwela route on Saturday.



Police Spokesman SP Ruwan Gunasekara said at a press briefing that the arrested suspect is a member of a group of thieves who had been engaging in thefts at crowded events and VIPs funeral in Colombo and its suburb.



He said five suspects were arrested over the theft of the medal while another suspect who was an owner of a mobile phone shop was arrested on charges of possessing stolen mobile phones.



The Bambalapitiya police launched the investigation into the incident after a relative of the late filmmaker had complained to the police over the phone stating that the lifetime achievement medal had been stolen.



The police had then visited the residence of the late Dr. Periess on Wednesday evening. The law enforcement officers had also received a complaint from another relative stating that her apple i-phone worth Rs. 100,000, which was kept on the cabinet, was also stolen along with the medal.

The police had then visited the residence of the late Dr. Periess on Wednesday evening. The law enforcement officers had also received a complaint from another relative stating that her apple i-phone worth Rs. 100,000, which was kept on the cabinet, was also stolen along with the medal



Video footage

Police examined the video footage obtained from electronic media institutions and they were able to learn that the mobile phone was being stolen by someone at around 11.00 am on the day of the funeral but could not trace the identity of the suspect because the face was not recorded.



The police had then examined CCTV footage near the residence of Dr. Peries and identified a suspicious three wheeler with three persons aboard who had later attended the funeral.



When the investigation into the three wheeler was conducted, the Bambalapitiya and Kollupitiya Police stations received an anonymous telephone call on Saturday morning stating that the medal was on the NC- 2752 private bus on the Kaduwela-Kollupitiya route.



Two police teams were deployed in Kollupitiya and Green Path areas to intercept the bus following the information that was received. The driver and the conductor of the bus had handed over the medal to the police personnel who boarded the bus from Green Path.



The driver and conductor said in their statements to the police that they were on their way to the police to handover the medal after they found it inside the bus on Saturday evening.



Anonymous call



They told the police that they had recovered a parcel after a passenger informed them. According to one of the statements, the driver had also received an anonymous call where the caller had requested that the recovered parcel be handed over to the police.



The Bambalapitiya Police had then commenced an investigation to apprehend the suspects in connection with the theft. They were unable to trace the mobile phone number because all the mobile service providers had closed shop for the long weekend.



On Saturday evening, the police commenced an investigation to find details of the suspicious three wheeler. They were able to identify that its registered owner was a woman and resided in Kiriwaththuduwa.



The woman informed the police that her father was using the three wheeler and he was residing at Kothalawala in Kaduwela. The Police then visited her fathers residence and identified him as one of the men who appear on the CCTV footage obtained from one of the houses near Dr. Peries residence. The police arrested the 61-year-old suspect, Percy Chandrasiri Alwis along with the three wheeler.

Police arrested the owner of the shop on charges of possessing stolen mobile phones. The police recovered eight other similar mobile phones from the shop



The Police arrested another three suspects after questioning the first suspect. The three suspects were arrested near Kaduwela area when they were travelling in a three wheeler from Gampola and heading towards Colombo.



The three arrested suspects, 64-year-old Nawaratna Banda alias Ralahami, 60-year-old Ananda Rohana and 46-year-old Nawasiyam were identified as residents of Gampola and Navalapitiya.



The fifth suspect, 47-year-old Suduhakuru Sisira Kumara, was arrested on Sunday near the Sugathadasa Stadium where a UNP May Day rally was in progress.

Police said that three of the five suspects had travelled in the seized three wheeler while the other two had travelled in a bus to steal the medal and the mobile phone from the filmmaker Dr. Lesters residence.



Police recovered the apple mobile phone from a mobile phone shop at Nawalapitiya after it had been sold at a price of Rs.4,000.



Police arrested the owner of the shop on charges of possessing stolen mobile phones. The police recovered eight other similar mobile phones from the shop.

SP Gunasekara said the gang of thieves had been selling stolen mobile phones to the shop owner.



The police spokesman said that they would inform the Attorney General about the suspects and request them to be charged in High Court. He said strict legal actions would be taken against the suspects.



They were produced in Hulftsdorp Magistratess Court for an identification parade and were remanded till May 21.



IP Ekanayake, Police Sargent Ekanayaka (8594), Gamage (11524), Constables Sanath (36070), Sudeera (74424) and Jayasinghe (88848) of Kollupitiya Police Crime Division, SI Ajith Metthananda, Constables Jayasinghe (49857), Athula (55354), Piyadasa (56374), Ruwan (68896), Kumara (67314), Vasala (71146), Nadeera (76430), Silva (81778), Weerawansa (89081) and Gunawardane (80641) of the Bambalapitiya Police Station conducted the investigation under the instructions of Bambalapitiya OIC Chief Inspector Ashoka Mahinda Weerakkody, Colombo South 1 ASP Dayaratna, Colombo Crimes Division ASP Prasanna de Alwis, CCD Director SP Nishantha de Zoysa, Colombo South SSP Saman Yatawara, Colombo Division DIG Lalith Pathinayake and Western Province DIG Nandana Munasinghe.Prof. Ven. Medagoda Abhayatissa Thera

Q All the leaders have pledged to abolish the executive presidency since 1994. The JVP has taken an initiative to abolish it this time. What are your views?

It is a popular political topic and slogan. There is no constructive benefit for the country from it, though. This is, in fact, a rotten political topic. Under the pretext of abolishing the executive presidential system, the country is now driven down the path of separatism. May be, the JVP is unaware of its repercussions. It is obvious from the court ruling on the 19th Amendment that it is not easy to abolish the system merely with parliamentary approval.

I listened to JVP MP Vijitha Herath saying that the President would be elected by the MPs instead of the people, at a public vote, in terms of the new provision. It will amount to an infringement of the universal franchise of people. The peoples franchise is proposed to be entrusted with Parliament in this manner. We noticed how the MPs voted for certain legislations and motions despite harms that entailed for the country. They never looked at those matters from the peoples point of view. They were merely induced by cash offerings, probably in terms of US dollars, and others perks such as luxury vehicles. Nevertheless, peoples minds are pure in this instance. Though politicians get carried away by inducements, people act with mental purity.

In case the power of electing the President is vested with Parliament, the MPs will get their bargaining power increased for inducements. As the Prime Minister survived the no faith motion, the President will also get elected in the same fashion of offering cash inducements to the MPs. The parties representing the minority communities will flex their muscles increasingly, creating an anarchical situation in the country further. So, we stress that the abolition of executive presidency should not be taken up, even for discussion.

In the enactment of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, many clauses were incorporated during the committee stage of the debate. Parliamentary power was usurped in a fraudulent way to enact what they wanted in the recent past.



Q What are the instances you can cite to support your argument?

I can cite the manner in which they enacted the Office of Missing Persons Act, the Act on the enforced disappearances. They were withheld for months and months. Finally, they were enacted. When the countrys attention was directed towards the violent incidents in Kandy, the government, with the participation of only 53 MPs in Parliament, enacted the bill on the enforced disappearances. Maybe, the violent incidents have been well-orchestrated for this purpose. The credibility of Parliament has suffered as a result.

We know the 13th Amendment to the Constitution that provided for the establishment of provincial councils was a dangerous piece of legislation. Despite intense pressure from India, there were safeguards included in it to prevent the partition

of the country.

Then President the late J.R. Jayewardene introduced provincial governors as a result. A Governor is a nominee by the President. Any statute passed by a provincial council can be turned down by the Governor concerned. This power will be taken away in the case of executive presidency being abolished.

If there is a clause included in the new amendment that the Governor should be appointed with the concurrence of the Chief Minister, that is it. In such an eventuality, a governor loyal to the Chief Minister but inimical to the country, can be appointed. Then, the country will become a Federal state virtually.

We have the concurrent list in the current Constitution envisaging the powers vested both with the centre and the provincial councils. In case this list is abolished, the power will be clearly demarcated between the centre and the provincial councils. The provincial councils may even have powers for taxation. It will make the way for them to have a separate state later on.

Only the Security Council should decide on the land use when it comes to national security. Today, we see the President and the Prime Minister deciding on lands and distributing them among Tamil people. There is nothing wrong with Tamil people being given back their lands. In the construction of highways and expressways, the Sinhala people compromised with their lands, making way for such development projects. As for national security, people should be ready to make compromises on their lands. People can be given alternative lands, instead.

"I listened to JVP MP Vijitha Herath saying that the President would be elected by the MPs instead of the people, at a public vote, in terms of the new provision. It will amount to an infringement of the universal franchise of people"



Q How do you talk with certainty when even the final draft of the amendment is not ready yet?

There is a demand for the change of the character of the constitution from unitary to united country. We are aware of the Singapore resolution adopted by the parties clamouring for constitutional changes here. This is a part of this Singapore resolution being adopted here, now.

The JVP says the 20th Amendment, if incorporated, will apply only to future Presidents but not to President Maithripala Sirisena. President Sirisena is not the protector of this country. Also, the incoming President will not be someone inimical to the country.

The President is appointed by the votes from people throughout the country. But, someone elected by the votes of people from one particular district is chosen as the Prime Minister. The President is someone who polls more than 51% or more votes from people in the entire country. That is the difference between the two. The peoples sovereign right has to be protected.

The Prime Minister does not account for the country today. The President is also the same. Whenever a serious issue is raised in Parliament, the Prime Minister mockingly laughs at it and dodges the problem. The entire country has become a mockery as a result. The President should be held answerable to the whole country. Today, the President has submitted himself to the Prime Minister.



Q Why do you say so?

Today, two key officials assigned to the Presidents Office have been arrested. It is not something that happened by chance. It is a well-orchestrated plan. Otherwise, action should have been taken to arrest those responsible for the Central Bank bond frauds. The government remained silent till the biggest fraudster of the bond scam fled the country.

The presidential post lost its shine today. There is a perception now built that anybody can become a President. If there was any measure of dignity left, that was also taken away when his Chief-of-Staff was arrested by bribery sleuths.

In some countries, people do not care for their Presidents. These countries have fallen into anarchical situation. The same is happening here now. No President ever compromised the dignity of his post. Now, the current President has compromised the dignity of his profession. By arresting the Chief-of-Staff, there is a message sent to the world that the key officials of the President who vowed to root out corruption, are also indulgent in frauds.

"In case the power of electing the President is vested with Parliament, the MPs will get their bargaining power increased for inducements. As the Prime Minister survived the no faith motion, the President will also get elected in the same fashion of offering cash inducements to the MPs"



Q The present President keeps contacts with you. Have you discussed this matter with him personally?

I normally discuss the matters relevant to the country with him. I asked him not to alienate the national assets of the country. When the government tried to lease out the Hambantota Port to a Chinese company, I asked the President not to allow that to happen.

Then, he asked how the government could settle the debt burden. It is not a question to be directed at us. He, as the President, should have an action plan for it.

We discussed about the war heroes. Today, our intelligence chief is incarcerated. The government has launched a witch-hunt on war heroes. It is as if all wrongdoings have been committed by war heroes. No one from the LTTE has been arrested. Politicians are involved in so many frauds. But, none of them are arrested. The government is doing all these things to please the pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora.

"If anybody tries to abolish the executive presidency to make Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa the executive Prime Minister, we do not agree. Mr. Rajapaksa is not an immortal. Who is there to look after this country after him?"



Q There is a perception that some are opposed to the abolition of the executive presidency because they plan for making Gotabhaya Rajapaksa the next President. What is your view?

We are opposed to the abolition of executive presidency because it is needed to protect the country. Otherwise, it is not because we wanted to make someone the President. There is no heir to the executive presidency.

Nobody thought Mr. Sirisena would become the President. Actually, consequent to Mr. Sirisenas presidency, a lot of unworthy people also harbour presidential ambitions today.

The executive presidency is part and parcel of the current Constitution. The country cannot be governed without the executive presidency.

Now the government has breathed life into the tiger by enacting the 13th Amendment. Yet, the tiger is caged. In fact, the tiger is caged to the post called executive presidency. If you abolish the executive presidency, the live tiger is untethered. It will run amok and cause havoc. The tiger is the allegory for separatism here.

In the run-up to the presidential election in 2015, there were those who vowed that they would be in the forefront to protect the country in the event of any attempt to divide the country. They are not to be seen even today. They talked about a new country within 100 days. Today, we have a police that charge at women in temples with wooden poles.

This is in stark contrast to what they promised to people ahead of the presidential elections. I respect Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa the most, not because of anything but because of the fact that he resurrected the country from terrorism. If anybody tries to abolish the executive presidency to make Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa the executive Prime Minister, we do not agree. Mr. Rajapaksa is not an immortal. Who is there to look after this country after him?

"Today, we see the President and the Prime Minister deciding on lands and distributing them among Tamil people. There is nothing wrong with Tamil people being given back their lands. In the construction of highways and expressways, the Sinhala people compromised with their lands, making way for such development projects"



Q You keep contact with the joint opposition. That is also divided on the abolition of executive presidency. How do you see it?

Already, Indias RAW is in operation, cultivating both sides. They are asking the Joint Opposition to be neutral. They are asking the other side to implement the promises made to people in this regard.

If Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is assigned the task of abolishing the executive presidency, there will be a major public uproar. Therefore, they are using a cats paw for it. That is, JVP Anura Kumara Dissanayake and others in the party. The JVP is a set of soul-less creatures in the political sense. They also face bribery charges by Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe. They have politically drifted towards the right of centre from left of centre. Anura Kumara Dissanayake is virtually the spokesman for UNPs Sirikotha.While claiming that the Yahapalana Government is a failure, the joint opposition today said the increase of fuel prices and other basic services were results of unsuccessful practices carried out by the government.

MP Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena told a news conference that the government was continuing against the will of the people and added that the country had now plunged into an anarchical state.

As a result of this unsuccessful procedure, the prices of fuel and rates of electricity and water bills will be increased in near future by adding more burden on the people. Another result of this condition is the rising malnutrition ranking of Sri Lanka. The agriculture sector of the government is mostly devastated leaving innocent farmers helpless, he said.

While referring to the advertisement thanking people for paying taxes, MP Abeywardena said the government was in an attempt to loot peoples money and they would continue it even in future.

Meanwhile, joint opposition member MP C. B. Rathnayake told the media that the supplementary estimate valued over Rs. 18 billion which was recently approved by the House was mostly for buying vehicles and added that the people had to pay taxes for them also. (Kalathma Jayawardhane)As the nation waits with bated breath for news about Johann Peries as he attempts to scale Mount Everest, there are some exciting updates! In the latest update on his adventurous journey, Johann is approximately halfway through the expedition to scale Mt Everest! He commenced his journey by flying from Kathmandu to Lukla, from where he hiked for ten days to reach Everest Base Camp (EBC). The base camp will be his adopted home for approximate five weeks. Keeping him warm amidst the freezing weather in the Himalayas, is the wonderful 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.

Using the camp as his base, Johann will perform a series of climbing rotations. A rotation is a climbing exercise in which the climber climbs to a higher altitude, rests and then returns back to the base. With each successive rotation, the climber climbs to a higher altitude and so far Johann has completed the rotation to Lobuche Peak which is 6,119m high. This is a particularly difficult climb after which he required rest and then a series of ladder training exercises to prepare him for the next rotation through the famous Khumbu Icefall- a treacherous series of glaciers which have to be crossed with ladders.

Currently, Johann is on a rotation through the Khumbu Icefall up to Camp 1 from where he will proceed to Camp 2 and then back down again. The complete rotation will take five days and he is expected to return to the Everest base Camp at the end of this week.



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. Johann managed to reach a height of 8,400m, a mere 448m short of reaching the summit, before technical difficulties forced him to descend.The only mission the United States is accomplishing in Syria is supporting terrorists, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini published by the presidents office on Thursday, TASS reports.

May 10, 2018, 13:52 Assad lambasts Washington, says US only mission in Syria is supporting terrorists

STEPANAKERT, MAY 10, ARTSAKHPRESS:"We all know very clearly that the only mission the United States has been carrying out in Syria is supporting the terrorists, regardless of their names, or the names of their factions," Assad said when asked to comment on US President Donald Trumps remarks that the US mission in Syria has been accomplished.

Trump said in late March that with the completion of the military operation against the Islamic State, the US military presence in Syria is pointless, and Washington will soon withdraw its troops from that country. In April, US Permanent Representative to the UN Nikki Haley said the US will not leave Syria until it fulfills its tasks.

According to General Joseph Votel, Commander of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), the presence of US troops in Syria will be required to stabilize the situation in the areas liberated from terrorists, secure the return of civilians to their homes and the countrys long-term reconstruction during the stabilization period. There are about 2,000 US military servicemen in Syria.REUTERS, 09th MAY, 2018- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that three Americans detained by North Korea have been released and are on their way home with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.



Trump said he will greet Pompeo and the Americans when they land at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington at 2 a.m. EDT Thursday morning.



I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health, Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.



South Korea heralded the move as positive for upcoming talks between Trump and Kim and called on Pyongyang to also release six South Korean detainees. Pompeo had arrived in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, earlier on Wednesday from Japan and headed to its Koryo Hotel for meetings.



The three U.S. detainees being released are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST.President Maithripala Sirisena had declared that he would not retire from politics in 2020

He said he had to complete his mission to serve the people and the country

He had sought a determination from the Supreme Court this year as to when his term of office would expire

President Maithripala Sirisena had declared that he would not retire from politics in 2020 as he had to complete his mission to serve the people and the country beyond 2020. He was speaking at the Sri Lanka Freedom Partys May Day rally at Chenkaladi which was held on May 7 as the generally accepted May Day, May 1 fell within the Vesak week.



Citing the reason for this statement he said that the media and many others kept asking him whether he would quit politics in 2020. However, we do not remember anybody asking him that question in the recent past. It is he who seems to have wanted to tell the country that he was not going to retire from politics in 2010 as he had vowed during the last Presidential election campaign.



Also it is because of his earlier assertion that he would become President of the country only once that President Sirisenas May Day declaration gained high significance and almost all Sinhala and English newspapers had it as their lead story on the next day. However, this was not the first time the President gave this message to the country. It must be recalled that he had sought a determination from the Supreme Court in January this year as to when his term of office would expire and this was viewed by many as an indication of his aspiration to stay in power beyond 2020. Again on January 18, while addressing a meeting in Kosgama the President had vowed that he would leave office only after sending the corrupt politicians to hell.

With the SLPP unofficially led by former President sweeping the electorate at the February 10 local government elections, the Presidents fear of facing the wrath of Rajapaksas would have multiplied



One may argue that Presidents declaration that he would not retire in 2020 did not necessarily mean that he would contest the Presidential election in 2020. Yet, when he said that he would not retire because he had to complete his mission to serve the people it clearly meant that he wanted to continue what he does now. There are no alternatives to the presidency for him to complete his mission to serve the people.

When he came forward to challenge his former boss, Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2014 there were no reasons for him to declare that he would become the President only once. Nobody wanted him to do so or nobody asked him whether he would contest the Presidential election for a second time. Therefore, he might have really meant it.

But now, not only after shattering Mahinda Rajapaksas hopes for a lifelong presidency but also after threatening the entire Rajapaksa family with imprisonment, he seems to feel insecure. He as a former member of the Rajapaksa administration knows very well how Rajapaksas punished their adversaries such as former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka and former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake for challenging them.



Even before Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Namal Rajapaksa, Yoshitha Rajapaksa, Basil Rajapaksa and Shiranthi Rajapaksa were hauled before courts of law, the President had told he would have been six feet under the ground had he been defeated at the last Presidential election. In last November while accusing the UNP at a Cabinet meeting for delaying and stalling legal action against corruption committed by the leaders of the former regime, the President had also expressed his fear of Rajapaksas making a comeback by reportedly saying that in such an eventuality it is not the UNP that is going to face the consequences.

With the government hauling the members of the Rajapaksa family before the courts, the small parties of the UPFA starting the Rise with Mahinda campaign, Rajapaksas successfully bounced back for their survival and security



With the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) unofficially led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa sweeping the electorate at the February 10 local government elections, President Sirisenas fear of facing the wrath of Rajapaksas would have multiplied. Nonetheless, he is deprived of options other than fighting back politically as the former President did or fleeing the country. He seems to have opted to face the situation politically and hence has declared that he would not retire in 2020.

Former President Rajapaksa also chose to fight back under a similar situation. He and his loyalists were also in a quandary and seemed to have been frightened when Maithripala Sirisena assumed office as the Executive President. They seemed to have feared that the new President would use his executive powers against them as Mahinda Rajapaksa did against his adversaries.



Hence, Basil Rajapaksa left the country and stayed in the US for several months. Mahinda Rajapaksa voluntarily offered to hand over the Chairmanship of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to President Sirisena. The 142 United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MPs who backed Rajapaksa did not dare to challenge President Sirisena when he appointed Ranil Wickremesinghe who commanded the confidence of only 47 MPs in the Parliament to the post of Prime Minister on January 9, 2015. They who voted for the 18th Amendment to the Constitution that removed the two term limit for the President and scrapped the independent commissions supported the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which re-introduced that term limit and the independent commissions.



However, with the government hauling the members of the Rajapaksa family one by one before the courts of law and the small parties of the UPFA starting the Rise with Mahinda campaign Rajapaksas successfully bounced back for their survival and security. Now they have turned the political trend in favour of themselves which was clearly evident at the recent local government elections.

The Presidents desire to complete his mission to serve the people and the country beyond 2020 would literally be an uphill struggle



Nevertheless, there is a major difference between Rajapaksas and Maithripala Sirisena fighting back. The former had the popular support which is the main ingredient of any political struggle to bounce back. Majority of the SLFP and the UPFA was with them in spite of Mahinda Rajapaksa being defeated at the last Presidential election. On the other hand, despite President Sirisena holding the leadership of the SLFP and the UPFA he does not have such a support base. The 1.5 million voters who voted for the SLFP and the UPFA at the local government elections cannot be deemed to be a permanent vote bank, in the light of the turn of political trend after the recent local polls.



Another handicap with President Sirisena is the hostile attitude held by the government towards him. In spite of certain democratic reforms having been brought in after the regime change in 2015, the President himself accused the UNP of scuttling his anti-corruption drive which he was to use as a cudgel against the leaders of the former regime and he too now seems to toe the same line, for fear of revenge by the same leaders. Neither he nor his government has any plan to economically support the masses and win over their support before 2020. Hence, the Presidents desire to complete his mission to serve the people and the country beyond 2020 would literally be an uphill struggle.Joining in the community spirit of the Vesak festival, Serendib Flour Mills (SFML) held a Banis Dansala near the Narahenpita Police Hospital for the local community for the third consecutive year. The Banis Dansala was organized in partnership with Miyurasa Bakery in Narahenpita where 15,000 buns were distributed to an eager throng of people. The buns were prepared hygienically and packed in environmental-friendly paper bags. The Dansala commenced with a Buddhist priest chanting the gatha while blessing the event which drew a large crowed. This event also coincides with Serendib Flour Mills 10th Anniversary of successful operations. To mark the occasion, SFML has embarked on an annual campaign on the theme of Nourishing The Nation. As part of this initiative, 2,500 loaves of bread were distributed at the Piliyandala Dansal and 1,750 loaves of bread were distributed at the Mahiyangana Dansal by the company. SFML plans to conduct a similar Dansal for the upcoming Poson Poya as well.

Commenting on the occasion, Mohamed Riyal - Chief Executive officer, Serendib Flour Mills says, As a company, SFML is committed to nourishing the nation with our nutritious and high quality products because we believe in offering our customers nothing but the best for their well-being. Occasions such as this Vesak festival are an opportune time for the company to reward its customers for their loyalty and support. SFMLengages closely with local communities and organizing Dansals is an ideal way to connect with our stakeholders. We are especially proud to host the Dansals this year as we are also celebrating the companys 10th anniversary of sustainable operations!

The companys hygienic and nourishing products have gained popularity amongst loyal customers who have placed their faith in the companys high quality standards.KABUL AFP May9, 2018- Suicide bombers and gunmen launched apparently coordinated attacks on two Kabul police stations Wednesday, killing at least five people, with security forces still searching for several assailants as the city braces for more violence.



A series of loud explosions rocked the Afghan capital in the late morning and were quickly followed by volleys of gunfire as police engaged in fierce battles with militants.



The Taliban and Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks. But Afghanistans intelligence agency blamed the Talibans Haqqani Network and Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for both incidents.



At least five people were killed and 16 wounded in the attacks, health ministry spokesman Waheed Majroh told reporters.



Two police officers were also killed, the interior ministry said, but it was not immediately clear if they were included in the health ministrys toll.



After an easing of attacks in Kabul in February, Taliban and IS militants have stepped up raids in the city in recent months.



IS claimed the first attack on a police station in a heavily Shiite-populated neighbourhood in the citys west, which police spokesman Hashmatullah Estanakzai told AFP had ended.The fare for the first kilometre in a three-wheeler would be increased by Rs.10 by midnight today, All-Island Three-Wheeler Drivers' Union President Lalith Dharmasekera announced.

He said the decision was taken after the government took a decision to increase fuel prices from tonight.

Three-wheeler fares have not been increased for the last six years and I, as a union leader, was against increasing three-wheeler fares. We charged Rs.50 for the first kilometre which now becomes Rs.60. The cost for the second kilometre is Rs. 40, he said.

The government first let Lankan Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC) increase fuel prices and then let Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) follow suit, he said.

We have nothing left to do except increase the minimum fare. We do not have any support from the government. We earn our living by what we get from our customers. We are sorry for inconveniencing them in this manner, he said. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)President Donald Trump on Tuesday pulled the United States out of an international nuclear deal with Iran, raising the risk of conflict in the Middle East, upsetting European allies and casting uncertainty over global oil supplies.



Trump said in a televised address from the White House that he would reimpose U.S. economic sanctions on Iran to undermine

a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made.



The 2015 agreement, worked out by the United States, five other world powers and Iran, lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program. The pact was designed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.



But Trump complained that the accord, the signature foreign policy achievement of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, did not address Irans ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 or its role in conflicts in Yemen and Syria.



Trumps decision intensifies the strain on the trans-Atlantic alliance since he took office 16 months ago. One by one, European leaders came to Washington and tried to meet his demands, while pleading with him to preserve the deal. By the middle of last week, however, it was becoming increasingly clear to some diplomats that Trump would not be moved.



We felt like we were going through the motions, said a person close to the negotiations.



Even Trumps top aides had not been seeking aggressively to talk Trump out of withdrawing because his mind had been made up, a White House official said.

REUTERS, 09th

MAY, 2018US President Donald Trump will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12, the US President announced Thursday on Twitter.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!, Trump tweeted.

The summit, which has been in the works since Trump accepted Kim's invitation to meet in March, will be the first ever meeting between a sitting US president and North Korean leader.

US officials had also considered holding the summit at the Korean demilitarized zone or in Mongolia, but ultimately settled on the city-state of Singapore as the location.

The announcement came a day after North Korea released three imprisoned Americans during US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's most recent visit to Pyongyang.

Beyond securing the release of the three Americans, Pompeo also finalized details for the upcoming summit between Trump and Kim.

Trump has struck a cautiously optimistic tone in discussing the prospects of reaching a deal during his upcoming summit with Kim, saying he is hopeful a historic agreement can be brokered while also warning the talks could prove unfruitful.The United States President Donald Trumps much-anticipated withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal -- also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)  has exposed his insensitivity to world peace and nuclear nonproliferation and contributed to an escalation in the multiple conflicts ripping the Middle East apart. No sooner the US pulled out of the Iran accord than clashes erupted between Israel and Iran.



By undermining the Iran nuclear accord, Trump is obviously sending a wrong signal to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, whom he will be meeting at the end of this month or early next month for talks aimed at North Koreas nuclear disarmament.



North Korea, which blames the US for torpedoing the six-party agreement, must now be having serious issues about trusting a US administration. Dishonoring treaties is a feature of uncivilized conduct befitting the Nazis. Adolf Hitler signed the Munich agreement in 1938 with the European powers and the MolotovRibbentrop Pact a year later with the Soviet Union, but he observed the treaties in the breach and launched surprise attacks on Soviet positions in Poland and invaded Czechoslovakia, thus starting the Second World War. Ironically, in a statement in support of Trumps decision to pull out of the Iran deal, Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman equated the Iran accord to the 1938 Munich Pact, though it is Trump who has committed a Hitler-like act.



We wonder whether Trump had ever heard the Latin phrase pacta sunt servanda -- meaning that agreements must be kept. To expect that a witless president known for his regular gaffes will observe international law principles may be too much to ask from him.



May be his Tuesdays statement was made by his neocon speechwriters, but if he had been smart enough, he would surely have noted the blunders in it; he would have desisted from praising the tyrannical era that preceded the 1979 Iranian revolution; and he would not have accused Iran of supporting terror groups Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Trump is an embarrassment to Americans because he does not know that the Taliban and al-Qaeda are against Iran. The two Wahhabi groups have killed Iranian diplomats in Afghanistan and are waging a worldwide war against Shiite Muslims. What a shame, a man who does not know such basic facts is heading the so-called greatest nation on earth. Or is he deliberately lying in preparation for a major war against Iran, just as George W Bush did when he deliberately misled the American people into believing that Iraqs Saddam Hussein had links with al-Qaeda, the group which is said to have carried out the 9/11 attacks?

We wonder whether Trump had ever heard the Latin phrase pacta sunt servanda -- meaning that agreements must be kept. To expect that a witless president known for his regular gaffes will observe international law principles may be too much to ask from him



By pulling out of the Iran deal despite warnings from the United States closest European allies and the deals co-signatories, Britain, France and Germany, that such action risks plunging the Middle East into further chaos, the Trump administration is only making Israel, Saudi Arabia and sectarian terrorists happy. But the US has indeed violated international law, because the Iran accord carries the United Nations Security Councils endorsement.



Now that the US has withdrawn from the JCPOA, Iran will certainly do what it takes to further its national interest. But Trumps reckless act does spell disaster to the rest of the world. Certainly, it has pushed the world towards war, halted the momentum towards nuclear nonproliferation and brought upon economic hardships on developing countries like Sri Lanka. Often, US sanctions have made poor countries poorer. In the 1990s, the US sanctions dealt a severe blow to Sri Lankas economy because they prevented Sri Lanka from exporting tea and other items to Iraq. Similarly, the US sanctions on Iran prevented Sri Lanka from buying Irans oil at concessionary prices or on a buy-now-and-pay-later basis. In addition, every time, sanctions were in force, oil prices went up. This is no good news for a developing country struggling to cope with a balance of payment crisis. Well, there is no altruism in the US foreign policy. The Trump administration is least concerned about the impact of sanctions on developing nations, which he only recently described as shit hole countries.



In about six months, the US sanctions will come into force, preventing once again countries from buying Irans oil and maintaining trade ties with it. In terms of the US sanctions aimed at crippling Irans economy, companies and banks which transact with Iran will be prevented from doing business with the US and US companies. It is indeed an affront to a countrys sovereignty when its companies or entities are threatened with punishment by another country.



The Trump administration, together with Israel and Saudi Arabia, hopes the re-imposition of tough sanctions will plunge Irans crisis-ridden economy into deeper stagnation, prompting the people to rise against the Government. They hope that with the support of regime haters within Iran, a concerted military action by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia could lead to the toppling of the government -- a formula that worked in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. But Iran wont be an easy target for the US-led regime changers. Iran has gone through nearly four decades of Western sanctions, only to emerge stronger. Thanks to these sanctions, Iran is self-sufficient in agriculture, and has made great strides in industries and weapons technology. Iranians often unite behind the Government in the face of an external threat.

They hope that with the support of regime haters within Iran, a concerted military action by the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia could lead to the toppling of the government -- a formula that worked in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya

How will Iran respond to the Trump blow? Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned that Iran would light the agreement on fire if the US withdrew from it, while President Hasan Rouhani said he had given orders to Irans nuclear scientists to be prepared to resume the nuclear programme. Despite such strong rhetoric, Iran has exercised restraint and said it would stick by the agreement in deference to the accords other signatories  Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.



But the biggest question is the US sanctions. The European powers may find it difficult to help Iran circumvent the US sanctions. This is because no European company would like to be blacklisted by the US for transacting with Iran. Already, Chinas mobile giant Huawei is being probed by the US Justice Department for its alleged dealings with Iran in contravention of the US sanctions law.



If Iran fails to receive the economic benefits for being in the nuclear deal, it may be forced to nullify it and follow the North Korean example. It may resume its nuclear programme, test a nuclear device as soon as it can and then, like Kim Jong-un has done, could negotiate with the US from a position of strength.



Irans resolve to meet fire with fire was seen on Wednesday when it fired rockets at the Israeli occupied Golan Height in response to Israeli missile attacks on Iranian military installations in Syria. The clashes indicate that Israel, may be on behalf of Saudi Arabia, may be going for a full scale war with Iran, with a view to ousting the Bashar al-Assad regime and handing Syria over to pro-West terrorists and raw liver eaters. But it is easier said than done.Oops....! We couldn't find that...

404 error

Unfortunately the page you were looking for could not be found. It may be temporarily unavailable, moved or no longer exist.

Check the URL you entered for any mistakes and try again. Alternatively, search for whatever is missing or take a look around the rest of our site.The formation of an agreed government by Armenias Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is a necessity, political scientist Alexander Iskandaryan told a press conference , adding that Pashinyan needs support in the Parliament.

May 10, 2018, 16:02 PM Pashinyans major resource is his huge popularity, says political scientist

STEPANAKERT, MAY 10, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS:Nikol Pashinyans main resource is his huge popularity. It is understandable that if the parliamentary minority forms a government, it will not last long. It is also understandable there is an issue of cadres, and the cadres around Pashinyan are not so many. In addition, people surrounding him were leaders of rallies, but how they will demonstrate themselves in the governance field is another issue. It is understandable that those who supported Pashinyan in the Parliament, did it not for his beautiful eyes. And in order to solve the existing issues, to satisfy the existing demands, support is needed in the Parliament. As Nikol Pashinyan wants to move on the legislative path, at this stage the formation of an agreed government is a necessity, the political scientist said, stating that at this stage one thing is obvious  intensive discussions are being held between the political forces.

As for the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the political scientist said now fight is underway whether RPAs role will be maintained in the future political reality. When Serzh Sargsyan resigned, an attempt was made to step back a little by keeping the RPA with its role. According to Iskandaryan, this attempt failed and in such circumstances the RPA members had to yield which they did on May 8. And now they do everything to maintain the party united and to have any position in the parliament in the future situations.

Commenting on the possibility to hold snap parliamentary elections, the political scientist said a little difficult situation has been created.

There are talks to make changes in the Electoral Code. Its obvious that parliament is needed for that, and in order for that changes to be adopted in the parliament, support is needed. In order to reach this either they need to agree with them or to continue the pressure in the street, or both, the political scientist said, adding that this will require time. He says the RPA will probably oppose any change, but they will not succeed greatly since the pressure will continue. Alexander Iskandaryan, taking into account the current situation, doesnt expect holding elections in a very short period of time.by J.B. An Dang

The World Mission Society Church of God is a Christian-inspired religious movement with 600 followers in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government has accused its leaders of brainwashing its members and micromanaging their lives. The crackdown has set off alarm bells about possible actions by the authorities against other religions and their assets.

Hanoi (AsiaNews)  The standing Committee of the Politburo of the Vietnamese Communist Party has launched a campaign against the World Mission Society Church of God (pictures 1-2), a Korean-based Church.

Moving swiftly, the authorities seized the Churchs properties in Ha Noi, Saigon and in other provinces. The police arrested and interrogated hundreds of its members (picture 3).

State-run media, the Committee for Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Education, and many organisations affiliated with the Communist Party have poured out stories about victims of the cult who say they believed that the end of the world was imminent.

Students were allegedly told to quit school and workers were urged to quit their jobs in order to recruit more followers. The sect has also been accused of cutting people off from their families and friends, using brainwashing techniques.

In a report published yesterday state-owned newspaper Phap Luat, the Committee for Religious Affairs is cited as saying that the cult was first introduced in Vietnam in 2001 and that it had formed its first chapter Saigon in 2005. Presently, it is said to have some 600 followers.

In the north of the country, the group began organising in 2013, flourishing in the provinces of Thai Nguyen, Bac Kan and Ha Noi as of 2016.

According to the Committee, Church leaders demand extreme behaviours and try to micromanage members' lives, requiring members to spend hours studying the Bible or engaged in services. This includes showing disrespect to their parents, becoming estranged from their family, destroying the latters ancestral altar and defaming the beliefs or religions of relatives.

On 7 May 2018, oi Song Phap Luat, another state newspaper, went so far as to declare that the police found that worship including drinking a "sacred liquid" that is harmful to mental abilities, leading people to believe whatever they are told.

Such allegations are seen by many as false, used by Vietnamese security forces to discredit certain groups.

Fr Le Ngoc Thanh, a Redemptorist priest in Saigon, said he was afraid that the propaganda campaign against the World Mission Society Church of God was designed to create tensions between religious and non-religious people.

It may also represent a way for the government to prepare public opinion for more grabs of Church assets in the "golden lands".

The World Mission Society Church of God is a religious movement vaguely inspired by Christianity founded in 1964 by Ahn Sahng-hong.

Its followers believe that he is the reincarnation of Christ and that there is a paternal and maternal God. The latter is embodied in the cults co-founder, Zang Gil-ja.

In a statement released on 8 July 2005, the National Council of Churches in Korea condemned the deification of Ahn Sahng-hong and Zahng Gil-jah and called the World Mission Society Church of God a blasphemous, heretical cult.

Currently, it is reported to have 450 churches in South Korea, and 6,000 churches abroad.New York's U.S. senators support a request from Cayuga and Seneca counties for the Bureau of Indian Affairs to extend the comment period to 120 days for the Cayuga Nation's land-into-trust application.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs recently notified local governments that there is a 30-day comment period for the Cayuga Nation's request to place six parcels of land into trust.

The Cayugas' application has been pending for eight years, U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer explained in a letter to Bruce Maytubby, regional director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. A final environment impact statement, which was approved by the bureau, was issued in October 2010.

However, the senators noted that the bureau's approval came before Seneca Falls residents voted to dissolve the village in 2012 and personnel changes in other municipalities.

Gillibrand and Schumer also requested more time to allow local government officials to review a 2014 opinion issued by the Department of the Interior, which oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The opinion was in response to a 2009 Supreme Court decision that dealt with the bureau's authority to place land into trust.When part of our calf barn caught fire on the night of Monday, April 30, a staggering number of neighbors and emergency responders dropped everything and rushed in the darkness to our aidknocking down the fire, guiding loose calves to secure housing, ministering to our farm crew who risked everything to save the youngest animals in our herd, praying for the best possible outcome. Three veterinarians evaluated and treated calves by the light of cell phones and flashlights. It was an adrenaline-stoked, chaotic situation that stretched into the early morning hours. Without your selfless assistance, it could have been so much worse.

As fast as the fire accelerated, so did the alarming news fly to an even broader community via scanners, cell phones, social media and word of mouth. This initiated a second phase of support. As the sun rose on Tuesday morning, a dozen or more people showed up to move, sort, and settle the displaced calves into different pens. Our barn builder ordered replacement trusses. Delicious food started arriving. Farm suppliers trucked in new calf hutches. Fellow dairy producers volunteered to move some of our calves to their farms for temporary care. Emails, texts, and calls trickled, then flooded in. Strangersthose friends we just hadnt met yetpulled into the farmstead and got to work.

+5 Some calves killed but many others rescued as Ledyard barn goes up in flames LEDYARD  One person was injured and animals died in a massive barn fire in southern Cayuga The price of shell-on lobsters soared to as much as $15 a pound in April, but the industry expects prices to come down as the Canadian catch creeps up and America's summer haul gets going.Businesses of all sizes within these target areas may be able to access ESD grant funds. What matters more than the size is the level of investment and projected job growth associated with the project. A number of locally owned businesses have received ESD grant funds in recent years, including Aurora Shoe Co., CIDEC, Currier Plastics and Cayuga Milk Ingredients. These businesses are owned and operated by our neighbors and employ hundreds of people locally. Total project costs for these examples have ranged from $450,000 of investment up to $104 million, and all are committed to creating new jobs.

This is not to say that accessing ESD grant funds is easy. Businesses must go through a substantial application process (due at the end of July), and then applicants are required to wait a number of months to find out if the funding is awarded (announcements are usually in December). During this period, businesses cannot start their project. Any expenses incurred between the application deadline and the award announcement will not be eligible costs in the grant budget. As such, incurring costs early could reduce the amount of the grant. Furthermore, once awarded, a business must very carefully track expenses and make sure to hit all of the goals outlined in their grant contract. It requires a lot of time and paperwork, which is why this particular incentive makes the most sense for larger investments. Despite some of the challenges and extra legwork required to get this funding, ESD grants are often the incentive that fills the financing gap that would normally keep a local business from growing at a pace they need to stay competitive and successful. Ultimately, this award leads to additional employment and a larger tax base in Cayuga County.AUBURN  An Auburn man was sentenced to prison Thursday for burglarizing a home in Cayuga County.

In February, Brent Tanner Sr., 30, of 7 Grover St. Apt. B2, pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree burglary, a class D felony. At the time, he admitted to stealing several items from a home on Wall Street last fall, including a flat-screen TV.

At sentencing Thursday, Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann said he was "saddened" to see Tanner back in court. Tanner was convicted of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance in 2008.

"This is an example of hereditary addiction," Budelmann said, noting that Tanner's father and brother also struggle with substance abuse. "I hope he takes advantage of treatment in prison."

Tanner apologized to the community and the victim and thanked the court for the opportunity to seek treatment. However, Judge Thomas Leone said this was Tanner's "last chance" and pointed out that Tanner was in control of his fate.

Tanner was sentenced to 2 1/2 to five years in prison with a Willard order. That order would allow him to serve the majority of his sentence as parole supervision while participating in special substance abuse treatment.

Also in courtThis item is available in full to subscribers.

Attention subscribers

We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.

If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you've not yet logged in to your account on this new site.

If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account by clicking here.

Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing."You read in the news about how many people in industry are looking for students to come to them with hands-on experience," Pola said. "So with that in mind, I think it's really important to be able to give kids a real sense of what this job is about."

And that means simulating car accidents and traffic stops.

At first, Pola said he had to use chairs to demonstrate traffic stops in the classroom, something the students often found unrealistic and boring. Then, he said the program tried using two personal vehicles, but even the common car had its limits.

"The kids acting as police officers really didn't get the full experience as they were in a regular car," Pola said. "There was no light bar to turn on, no radio traffic, no spotlight. There's still things they have to do with the car other than just drive it."

But now, thanks to the newly outfitted Jeep Cherokee, that's changed.

Earlier this year, Pola said, the program obtained the Jeep as a surplus vehicle from BOCES. Then, with a donation from the Cayuga County Deputy Sheriff's Benevolent Association, the school was able to purchase a radio, push bar and a series of lights to make it look like an unmarked patrol car.Skip to main navigation

First-time Camper Weekend Program

Due to concerns over COVID-19, the program has been cancelled for the 2020 season. We look forward to an even bigger and better 2021 program though! Stay tuned!

NYS will provide FREE First -Time Camper weekends throughout the summer. New York families that have never camped before will have the opportunity to see if they enjoy the great outdoors before investing in their own gear by registering for a fully stocked campsite at a select NYS campground for a designated weekend this summer.

New campers will be provided with a family tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, camp chairs, camp stove, lantern, and even firewood. A Camping Ambassador will meet families at the campsite and help them get camp set up with a camping 101 lesson. To make the weekend getaway even more fun, campers will have an opportunity to learn from experts how to fish, hike, bird watch, paddle and more, all while having fun and making memories that last forever.

This program is available to NY residents only. Space is limited. Reservations are required and the application window will be announced later this spring.

Participants will be randomly selected to fill first-time camper slots. Watch a clip about the First-time Camper Program and check out other clips on DEC's YouTube Channel.

2019 First Time Campers Program, Participating Locations were

June 21-23, 2019

Luzerne Campground (Adirondacks Region) - Take the Virtual Tour!

892 Lake Avenue

Lake Luzerne, NY 12846

518-696-2031

July 12-14, 2019

Moreau Lake State Park (Saratoga Region) - Take the Virtual Tour!

605 Old Saratoga Road

Gansevoort, NY 12831

518-793-0511

July 19-21, 2019

Nicks Lake Campground (Adirondacks Region) - Take the Virtual Tour!

278 Bisby Road

Old Forge, NY 13420

315-369-3314

July 26-28, 2019

Taconic State Park, Copake Falls (Taconic Region) - Take the Virtual Tour!

Route 344

Copake Falls, NY 12517

518-329-3993

August 2-4, 2019

Ausable Point Campground (Adirondacks Region) - Take the Virtual Tour!

3346 Lake Shore Road

Peru, NY 12972

518-561-7080

August 9-11, 2019

Golden Hill State Park (Niagara Region) - Take the Virtual Tour!

9691 Lower Lake Road

Barker, NY 14012

716-795-3885

Evangola State Park (Niagara Region) - Take the Virtual Tour!

10191 Old Lake Shore Road

Irving, NY 14081

716-549-1802

August 16-18, 2019

North South Lake Campground (Catskills Region) - Take the Virtual Tour!

County Route 18

Haines Falls, NY 12436

518-589-5058

Kenneth L. Wilson Campground (Catskills Region) - Take the Virtual Tour!

859 Wittenberg Road

Mt. Tremper, NY 12457

845-679-7020

August 23-25, 2019

Four Mile Creek State Park (Niagara Region) - Take the Virtual Tour!

1055 Lake Road

Youngstown, NY 14174

716-745-3802

September 6-8, 2019

Frontier Town Campground (Adirondacks Region) - Check out our Flickr album!

41 Adventure Pass

North Hudson, NY 12855

518-532-9051The Emita II, one of the few tour boats on the Erie Canal in central New York, is cruising to new waters in Michigan.

Tour boat company Mid-Lakes Navigation, of Skaneateles, sold its 65-foot 100-passenger vessel to Harbor Country Adventures of New Buffalo, Michigan, on Lake Michigan, according to a press release from the company.

Dan Wiles, the co-owner of Mid-Lakes Navigation, said the boat "had a great run" in Syracuse and will be missed.

"It has always been challenging, though, to market these trips without a high-visibility location like Skaneateles," Wiles said. "And the new development on Onondaga Lake would be better served by a more flexible vessel.

Mid-Lakes purchased the Emita II in 1974 from Casco Bay Lines in Portland, Maine. The boat ran overnight trips all across New York state until 2005, when it took over the daily sightseeing and dinner cruises from sister vessel City of Syracuse, according to the press release.

Victor Tieri, owner of Harbor Country Adventures, has decided to keep the Emita II name, according to the press release.

Selling the Emita II was a difficult decision for us, but shes going to a great new home and we know Victor and his team will love her too, Wiles said.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0Save my User ID and Password

Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site.

Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site.Lennar homes to add Amazon hubs

Amazon says it will add high-tech hubs called Amazon Experience Centers in single-family homes built by Lennar. The two companies joined forces last year with Alexa-enabled home features. Amazon said in a press release that people who buy the Alexa-enabled homes can control TVs, lights, thermostats, shades and more through the device, and reorder household products with Amazon Dash Buttons. Amazon will roll out the technology in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Learn more at Lennar's North Creek Ridge in Bothell, or visit amazon.com/experience.



Land Advisors promotes Jessen

Jessen

Phoenix-based Land Advisors Organization has promoted Mathis Jessen to a full-time broker in its Bellevue office. Land Advisors was founded in Phoenix in 1987, and now has offices in nine states. The company's website says it is looking at new markets to create a coast-to-coast network.



Please log in to keep reading.

Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever.The world is in midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, an era characterised by an avalanche of digital innovations changing what customers expect from businesses.

In the realm of small business, operators are having to embrace technologies like the cloud, social, mobile, and artificial intelligence (AI) to find, win and retain todays consumers more connected than ever before, they want superior experiences on demand.

Despite the bottom line benefits of customer-centric technologies, most small businesses havent embraced arguably the most important one: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. According to Digital Opportunities for Todays Small Businesses, a recent Deloitte Access Economics report, companies with CRM systems have on average 44% higher revenue than those with no system or basic paper or spreadsheet systems.

Simply put, CRM software liberates small businesses from administrative burdens such as manual data entry, enabling them to concentrate on selling to customers, responding to customer enquiries and bigger picture activities such as pursuing new growth opportunities.

With small business owners generally kept busy wearing multiple hats, its disconcerting that Deloitte Access Economics found that just 30% of Australias small businesses have adopted a CRM system. Why is this the case? The number one reason given by non-adopters was the belief that their existing system is good enough, followed by the perceived expense. Similarly, the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that barriers to businesses embracing innovations such as CRM commonly include a lack of access to necessary funds and skilled persons.

Of course, the cost of technology is no longer a major barrier to small businesses adopting a CRM system. The emergence of the software as a service model (SaaS) model has largely eliminated the need for businesses to spend large sums of money upfront on one-size-fits-all, on-premise software that has a use-by-date. Modern, cloud-based CRM systems are constantly updated by the service provider and are consumed on a subscription basis, enabling users to reduce upfront costs. Further, invaluable customer data and insights are available to users anywhere, anytime and on any device, and they have the ability to scale up and down the service depending on where they are in their business lifecycle.

Similarly, small businesses are no longer hamstrung by a lack of suitably skilled staff. For instance, Salesforces technology comes with Trailhead  a suite of free online training modules that can be consumed within 20 minutes in some cases, enabling users to rapidly (and at their own convenience) learn about the features relevant to their business.

Just as small businesses cannot afford to buy into the myths surrounding CRM systems, they mustnt overlook the opportunity costs associated with NOT adopting one.

For instance, having no system or a basic system threatens business continuity. How so? Lets take the case of a sales rep who resigns in circumstances where they were the chief point of contact with a major customer with insights into their requirements and persona. In the absence of a CRM system, there is a risk the reps customer knowledge will be lost, potentially setting back the businesss relationship with the customer. Had that rep been working within a CRM system, they could have created a detailed profile on the customer, enabling other team members to continue providing a personalised customer service.

Further, the AI leveraged by modern CRM systems enables users to not only better forecast sales and create an accurate sales pipeline but to make robust, data-driven decision either to capital on opportunities for business growth or manage difficult situations such as economic downturns.

One Australian company that has successfully used Salesforce is specialist seafood marketing and sales agency Blue Harvest. Founded 12 years ago to offer seafood producers a new way to sell their product and maximise returns while enhancing the traceability and consistency of supply. Blue Harvest uses Salesforces technology to track products all the way through the supply chain and identify trends related to supply and demand. Sharing these insights with producers and customers helps build trust and ensure consistency of supply and sales.

Blue Harvests small team of eight manages the sale of 3,000 tonnes of prawns, fish and shellfish annually. Its expansion into the rock oyster industry two years has led to it now managing 30% of the industrys production.

Earlier this year, Salesforce launched Essentials, a version of its cloud-based CRM system tailored for small businesses. Easy to set up and intuitive to use, Essentialsequips small businesses with an expanding suite of sales and service apps accessible from a customisable interface as well as a single view of every customer. Critically, users can add new capabilities as their business scales.

According to Adrian Towsey, Salesforces Area Vice President  Small & Medium Business (APAC): With Salesforces Essentials, we have the set-up for every small business to take advantage of the full power of the Salesforce platform to fuel their innovation and growth, he said. They can work smarter and faster than ever before, while future-proofing their business with a platform that grows as they do.

To learn how to put customers at the heart of your small business, download the free ebook Getting to know Salesforce Essentials.Ecommerce is growing rapidly in Australia  with a 14 per cent growth in online purchases in the 2017 financial year[1]. Forrester predicts that a quarter of total retail sales in Asia Pacific will be completed online by 2022[2]. The arrival of Amazon in Australia will most likely accelerate this growth trajectory. How do Australian e-tailers meet customer needs, increase market share and fully capitalise on their investment? Here are eight must-haves for your ecommerce site.

1. On-point User Experience

Generally speaking, if people dont find what theyre looking for within 10 seconds of landing on your site, theyll leave[3]. Thats why User Experience (UX) design has the ability to make or break your ecommerce operation.

When applying UX to an ecommerce sites design, its about ensuring visitors have the best possible experience. In order to understand a customers exact needs, you need to uncover as much information about them as possible. What sources are they coming from? Where are they located? What do they need or hope to find once they land on your site? Once you gather this matrix of insights, you are well on your way to understanding your online visitors goals, their information needs and expectations. You can then design or enhance your sites navigation structure and content to align.

2. Consistency from mobile to desktop

Its also critical that your site, whether accessed on a desktop, tablet or mobile, loads fast and without lag. Today, a page that takes six seconds to load is predicted to experience a 50 per cent loss in conversion.[4]

Retail customers are increasingly using mobile devices for online purchases and so you need to create an experience where shopping using a smartphone or tablet is just as fast, seamless and intuitive as the desktop web experience. Forrester predicts that 80 per cent of online retail sales in Asia Pacific will be made from a mobile device by 2022[5], so its important for retailers to get this right.

3. Imagery that draws you in

We live in a visual world. So when a customer lands on your site, their attention first gravitates to your imagery. If they like what they see, theyll stick around and hopefully make a purchase.

Invest in beautiful and high quality product photography on your site. These can also be utilised across all of your marketing channels, from social media to email campaigns. These are all important touch points that help nurture buyers along their decision-making journey, so naturally theyll be more effective if they look consistently great.

4. Integrated online catalogue and site

Many retailers are realising the benefits of digital catalogue campaigns, as they are further reaching and more cost effective than printed catalogues.

To help convert browsers into buyers, its critical digital catalogues allow customers to flip through and then continue onto the ecommerce site to browse further and make a purchase. Go an extra step and integrate digital catalogues with your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and inventory management, to ensure that products featured are available. Eliminating the possibility of friction points is the surest way to drive sales and brand loyalty.

5. A never ending flow of customer reviews

Comments and reviews left by your customers are a valuable third party endorsement of your products and service. It helps buyers learn more about why your brand and products are right for them. If youre delivering a 100 per cent customer focused experience, fulfilling orders and getting them delivered on time, your customers will want to tell the world.

Thats why it makes sense to have an ecommerce site that can handle customer comments, and links back into your CRM system. You can also promote great customer testimonials across other channels. Endorsements and reviews can be solicited from your loyal customers. If you have a new product youd like to market, why not send samples to your best reviewers for them to try and then write about?

6. Wish lists to boost engagement

Allowing your shoppers to create wish lists gives them the ability to file products away for future reference, and also gives friends and family great gift ideas.

Showing customers related items to the ones theyre browsing also boosts the likelihood of a purchase, or an addition to their wish list. Sometimes people dont know they want something until theyre shown it, so a related items tag is a great way to get your products in front of more customers.

7. Delivery tracking to empower customers

By integrating your ecommerce and delivery solution, your customers can go online to track where their package is and when it will be delivered. This means customers dont have to pick up the phone to find out when their goods are going to arrive and it also helps to build their anticipation and excitement.

People are becoming more accustomed to immediacy so if youre not offering same day delivery to customers, its time to up your game.

8. Tap into the muscle of Amazon

Some Australian businesses are struggling to reach customers across the country quickly and with ease. An Amazon Australia store could be your answer. Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) allows retailers to have their products stored in an Amazon warehouse and have the giant do all the heavy lifting when it comes to pick, pack and dispatch. Amazon will even look after returns on your behalf.

By tapping into these tips, retailers of any size can compete online on an even footing with bigger competitors and increase their revenue.

About the author

Chris Stolke is the Manager and Head Digital Strategist at Pronto Woven, a one stop digital marketing solution provider for everything including integrated ecommerce solutions. He is passionate about guiding businesses of all sizes towards a sensible and innovative approach in terms of managing their Digital Strategy.

[1] StarTrack eCommerce Market Update 2017, Australia Post Data, July 2017

[2] Forrester Data: Online Retail Forecast, 2017 To 2022 (Asia Pacific), Forrester, March 2018

[3] Website Optimisation Statistics, Tyton Media, October 2016

[4] Internet Stats & Facts for 2017; E-Commerce and Conversion Statistics 2017, Hosting Facts, August 2017

[5] Forrester Data: Online Retail Forecast, 2017 To 2022 (Asia Pacific), Forrester, March 2018As the federal government works toward a decision over a land trust application by the Cayuga Indian Nation, the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs has given government officials from Cayuga and Seneca counties a small window of opportunity to submit comments. State Sen. Pamela Helming and Assemblyman Gary Finch have voiced their opposition, but a united response to this unreasonable acceleration in the review process needs to include our representatives in Washington.

The application, that's been on and off for years, covers 130 acres, mostly in the village of Union Springs, where any land taken off the tax rolls can translate to an enormous burden on taxpayers and the town's ability to provide needed services.

There is too little communication between the federal government and local municipalities over the years, with the public being left largely uninformed about the process. At this point, any decision needs to be delayed to give the municipalities involved more time to gather data and formulate their responses.

It would also be a great improvement for the BIA to be more responsive and transparent about the process, and it would be great if they would send a representative here to answer questions at a public forum.Blog Archive June 2021 (1) May 2021 (77) April 2021 (77) March 2021 (82) February 2021 (68) January 2021 (64) December 2020 (67) November 2020 (66) October 2020 (66) September 2020 (67) August 2020 (74) July 2020 (83) June 2020 (92) May 2020 (86) April 2020 (104) March 2020 (105) February 2020 (74) January 2020 (75) December 2019 (75) November 2019 (70) October 2019 (89) September 2019 (69) August 2019 (81) July 2019 (77) June 2019 (73) May 2019 (110) April 2019 (110) March 2019 (102) February 2019 (85) January 2019 (123) December 2018 (116) November 2018 (112) October 2018 (121) September 2018 (107) August 2018 (150) July 2018 (163) June 2018 (190) May 2018 (145) April 2018 (112) March 2018 (124) February 2018 (113) January 2018 (164) December 2017 (150) November 2017 (144) October 2017 (169) September 2017 (171) August 2017 (135) July 2017 (131) June 2017 (147) May 2017 (160) April 2017 (138) March 2017 (156) February 2017 (143) January 2017 (203) December 2016 (208) November 2016 (185) October 2016 (173) September 2016 (194) August 2016 (232) July 2016 (225) June 2016 (238) May 2016 (231) April 2016 (215) March 2016 (246) February 2016 (226) January 2016 (252) December 2015 (230) November 2015 (250) October 2015 (234) September 2015 (222) August 2015 (253) July 2015 (275) June 2015 (279) May 2015 (223) April 2015 (226) March 2015 (243) February 2015 (258) January 2015 (281) December 2014 (292) November 2014 (296) October 2014 (413) September 2014 (472) August 2014 (506) July 2014 (483) June 2014 (488) May 2014 (512) April 2014 (497) March 2014 (531) February 2014 (482) January 2014 (535) December 2013 (482) November 2013 (441) October 2013 (416) September 2013 (491) August 2013 (521) July 2013 (491) June 2013 (470) May 2013 (457) April 2013 (426) March 2013 (420) February 2013 (414) January 2013 (489) December 2012 (433) November 2012 (504) October 2012 (469) September 2012 (430) August 2012 (427) July 2012 (360) June 2012 (336) May 2012 (362) April 2012 (322) March 2012 (263) February 2012 (224) January 2012 (291) December 2011 (295) November 2011 (325) October 2011 (330) September 2011 (319) August 2011 (333) July 2011 (318) June 2011 (387) May 2011 (373) April 2011 (389) March 2011 (375) February 2011 (335) January 2011 (400) December 2010 (445) November 2010 (395) October 2010 (312) September 2010 (262) August 2010 (277) July 2010 (323) June 2010 (386) May 2010 (360) April 2010 (333) March 2010 (351) February 2010 (336) January 2010 (384) December 2009 (353) November 2009 (300) October 2009 (308) September 2009 (350) August 2009 (298) July 2009 (255) June 2009 (203) May 2009 (193) April 2009 (186) March 2009 (197) February 2009 (173) January 2009 (148) December 2008 (181) November 2008 (197) October 2008 (236) September 2008 (304) August 2008 (314) July 2008 (273) June 2008 (27) May 2008 (1) April 2008 (6) October 2007 (1) May 2007 (1) April 2007 (6) March 2007 (2) February 2007 (1) October 2006 (1) September 2006 (1) August 2006 (4) July 2006 (4) June 2006 (1) July 2005 (1) May 2005 (2) March 2005 (1) June 2004 (2) May 2004 (1) April 2004 (4) March 2004 (2) February 2004 (2) July 2003 (2) June 2003 (5)Shanghai (Gasgoo)-According Nielsen global automotive consumer brands research, consumers in Mexico, America, Chile and Egypt, Africa have comparatively higher purchase intention on Chinese branded cars and over 1/4 of them are considering to purchase Chinese branded cars. Central and South America or Africa may become the most potential market for Chines car brands.

According to data from China Customs, Chinese whole vehicle export volume in year 2017 hit a new record, reaching 1,060,000 units, up 31% YoY. Vehicles exported to the Belt and Road (B&R) countries were 641,000 units, increasing 23.8% YoY, and accounting for 60.2% of the gross vehicle export. Asia was still the main market for the vehicle export while the South America and North America were the main force for the sales growth. From the view of the export structure, the passenger vehicle accounted for over 70% of the exported Chinese branded vehicle.

Besides, Chinese new energy vehicle sale is increasing, with its sales volume reaching over 1/2 of the global sales in recent two years. Dominated by the low-price electric vehicles, Chinese new energy vehicles were exported 105,000 units in year 2017, accounting for 14% of the total export volume.

However, the Chinese new energy vehicle has an unbalanced export destinations and sale distribution. The export to Bangladesh ranked first and took up 77.2% of the total export sales. India came second with 13.4%. In fact, the consumer demands for the vehicle models and their eye-catching performance are variously different due to the difference in the geographical and social environment.



Vietnam shrimp exporters bullish on EU market

Prospects of Vietnamese shrimp exports this year are looking good, with the EU, the country's biggest buyer, expected to ramp up its orders amid a possible ban on Indian shrimp imports.

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the EU was the "most dynamic" importing market of Vietnamese shrimp in 2017 and that in 2018, exports to this market has maintained the upward trend.

As the largest importer of Vietnamese shrimp, the EU accounts for 18.6% of Vietnam's total shrimp exports. Shrimp exports to this market in the first two months hit US$81.9 million, up 11% over the same period last year, the VASEP said.

Exports to the three main markets in the block (the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium) recorded double-digit growths at 62.6%, 42.5% and 31.8%, respectively.

It said that Vietnam's shrimp exports to the EU are quite favorable as Indian shrimp (the main competitor of Vietnam in the EU) has difficulties in the EU market and faces the risk of being banned in the EU.

GSP and EVFTA advantages

Another advantage of Vietnamese shrimp exports to the EU is the accordance in 2017 of GSP (generalised system of preferences) rights by the EU, while Thailand and China do not have this advantage.

Still another is the upcoming EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which will give the Southeast Asian country more opportunities to boost shrimp exports to the 28-nation bloc. Under the agreement, Vietnamese goods, including shrimp products, will enjoy special preferential tariffs.

At present, the GSP tariff for Vietnamese frozen raw shrimp (HS code 030617) is 4.2%, while that for processed frozen shrimp (HS code 160521) is 7%.

Vietnam's total shrimp exports to all markets in the first two months totalled US$440.5 million, up 16.5% over the same period in 2017.

The top 10 main importing markets of Vietnam shrimp were the EU, the US, Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, Canada, ASEAN, Taiwan and Switzerland, all accounting for 88.6% of total shrimp export value of Vietnam.Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Honda delivered a total of 101,027 vehicles in April, dropping 8.8% year on year. Both GAC Honda and Dongfeng Honda saw year-on-year decrease of 5.6% and 12.2% last month, with 53,142 units and 47,885 units delivered respectively.

For the first four months this year, two joint ventures delivered 401,853 vehicles in total, edging down 4% from a year ago. GAC Honda saw a slight year-on-year growth of 1.1% in year-to-date sales to 225,187 units, while Dongfeng Honda cumulative deliveries shrank by 9.8% over the previous year to 176,666 units.

According to the data, both Honda and Acura under GAC Honda experienced year-on-year decline last month. Honda brand delivered 52,541 units in April, falling 4.4% year on year. The deliveries of the Accord slumped 38.2% over a year ago to 7,760. Even so, the orders of the all-new Accord still exceeded 7,500 units within two weeks since it went on sale in the middle of April. Besides, the April deliveries of the AVANCIER showed a year-on-year jump of 21.8% to 6,263 units. Its year-to-date deliveries also leap 47.2% to 25,483 units so far this year.

With respect to Acura, the deliveries of the MDX, the RDX and the CDX all suffered year-on-year plunge over 50%.

Affected by the engine issue, the deliveries of the CR-V still faced a year-on-year sales plummet of 89.8% in April to 1,683 units from 16,504 units in 2017. The automaker achieved booming performances over the ELYSION and the UR-V, whose deliveries skyrocketed 112.8% and 126.4% year on year respectively. It is worth mentioning that the year-to-date deliveries of the UR-V splendidly increased by 455.2% to 15,745 units from 2,836 units in year-ago period.

By The Hill , May 08 , 2018





Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will return from North Korea with three U.S. citizens currently imprisoned in the country, according to a South Korean official.





The official told South Korea's Yonhap News Agency that Pompeo was expected to secure the release of three prisoners being held by the country: Kim Dong Chul, Kim Sang Duk and Kim Hak Song. In addition, Pompeo is expected to return with the time and date of the proposed meeting between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Read More:



Join us - become an Elderado today at: LarryElder.com

Follow Larry Elder on Follow Larry Elder on Twitter

"Like" Larry Elder on Facebook





By McClatchy DC , May 08 , 2018





WASHINGTON - When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released what he said was new information about Iran's nuclear-weapons development, his dramatic unveiling was beamed across the globe. But it was really designed for an audience of one: President Trump.





The president and Netanyahu have had a close friendship since the beginning of the Trump administration, with the U.S. siding with Israel on a host of policy issues that had long been on the back burner. But Trumps announcement Tuesday that the U.S. was withdrawing from the landmark Iran nuclear deal cemented that relationship like nothing else in the past 16 months.

Read More:



Join us - become an Elderado today at: LarryElder.com

Follow Larry Elder on Follow Larry Elder on Twitter

"Like" Larry Elder on Facebook



Miranda Kerr is now a proud mother of two as she has given birth to her second child, and her first with husband, Evan Thomas Spiegel.

Hart Kerr Spiegel

There were speculations that Kerr was pregnant with a girl. However, she welcomed another son on Monday. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at 8700 Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles at around 11.50 p.m.

This is the first child for Kerr and Spiegel, who got married in May 2017. The Victoria's Secret model and her Snapchat cofounder husband simply named their new bundle of joy Hart. The name comes from Spiegel's grandfather, who was a prominent attorney in San Francisco. The couple registered their son's birth with the State of California on Wednesday, May 9.

This is the second child for the 35-year-old Kerr. She is already a mother to 7-year-old Flynn, her son with actor and ex-husband Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Caribbean). They were married from 2010 to 2013.

Pregnancy Announcement

Kerr and her 27-year-old husband announced that they were expecting their first child in November. A representative for the model released a statement to confirm the pregnancy. Kerr also expressed her excitement to expand her family and revealed that Flynn is looking forward to becoming a big brother.

"He's very excited. It's so sweet," Kerr told US Weekly.

The Australian-native also appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live and revealed just how psych Flynn is for the baby. Kerr said that Flynn was so excited to have a baby brother or sister even while she and Spiegel were still dating.

"And we were like, 'Look, we've got to get married first.' So the day after the wedding, he comes running in and he's like, 'Mommy, is it in there?' I was like, 'Honey, give it a minute,'" Kerr recalled.

Kerr has also been updating fans about the state of her pregnancy. In December, she revealed that she has been getting hormonal headaches, which she did not get when she was pregnant with Flynn.

Spiegel and Kerr first made headlines as a couple when they stepped out together in June 2015. Soon after, they surprised the public with news about their engagement in July 2016. The couple wed in an intimate ceremony attended with only 45 guests, including close friends and family. They got married in the backyard of their home in the Brentwood neighborhood in Los Angeles.Woody Harrelson reminisced about his college days and revealed that he was friends with the current U.S. Vice President, Mike Pence, during a guest appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Theology Days

Harrelson stopped by the show on Tuesday and reminisced about the good old days with friend Willie Nelson, when Kimmel asked him about another pal of his from college. The talk show host wondered if the actor ever crossed paths with Pence when they attended the same school.

The Solo actor went to Hanover College in Indiana, which during his time, was still a Presbyterian College. Pence attended the same college the same time as the actor and Kimmel asked about his relationship with the vice president then. Harrelson admitted that he knew Pence because they both studied theology in the early 1980s.

"We were both very religious...I was there on a Presbyterian scholarship and [Pence] was involved with the church activities," Harrelson tells Kimmel in the video below.

'Religious' Pence

Harrelson tells Kimmel that he initially considered being a minister before he "went a different way." As for his opinion on Pence, the Hunger Games actor said that Pence was a "pretty good guy."

"I actually quite liked him. You know, he's very," the 56-year old continues, searching for the right words, "religious. Very committed."

However, Harrelson admits that he does not know how his relationship with Pence stands now.

"Seeing as I'm not quite in that ballpark now, I don't know how we'd get along, because I think he's still quite... religious," The Zombieland star adds.

Pence and Harrelson do not really see eye-to-eye when it comes to their opinions on the use and possession of illegal drugs. The actor has been vocal about his penchant for smoking marijuana. He even opened up on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that he smoked pot again after quitting for several years.

Meanwhile, the 58-year-old Pence has been a long-time advocate against the possession and use of illegal drugs. He has described himself as a Christian and a conservative Republican who is a long-time crusader in the war on drugs. Pence even argued on the reduction of penalties for marijuana possession.

"That kind of fervor that you really don't want - that I don't want," Harrelson says about Pence being a "whole different brand of religious," to the amusement of the audience.

Harrelson appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to talk about his upcoming film, Solo: A Star Wars Story which tells the origin of the iconic character Han Solo.The Los Angeles Police Department arrested Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal's troubled son Redmond on Tuesday after he allegedly robbed a 7-Eleven store in Santa Monica.

Armed Robbery

Redmond reportedly threatened the clerk with a knife and demanded money from the cash register. The employee obliged, and the suspect fled the store.

However, the authorities apprehended him nearby soon after in response to a Good Samaritan's call about a robbery. Apparently, the police were already notified about the robbery early on when the anonymous caller became suspicious of Redmond's behavior.

According to the 7-Eleven employees, Redmond had been scouring the store for hours before he made the robbery. He even bought a Slurpee.

The cops heard everything that happened in the store on the other end of the line. They were on the phone with the bystander when Redmond pulled the knife at the clerk. He fled with $60 from the cash register. Thankfully, no one was harmed, including the Good Samaritan and the employees.

The police found Redmond in possession of a knife that matches the description the clerk gave of the weapon used in the robbery.

Redmond is being held in custody under probation hold and without bail at the Los Angeles Police Department. According to his arresting documents, his bail would have been $50,000. The LAPD said his case will be turned over to the District Attorney's office. Redmond will appear before a judge on Thursday, where it will be determined if he will be released or granted bail.

Troubles With The Law

This is not Redmond's first run-in with the law. The son of the late Charlie's Angels star and actor O'Neal had struggled with drug addiction for most of his adult life. He was sentenced to three years in jail in the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation in July 2015 after the judge revoked his probation in May 2015. It was discovered that he had violated the agreements in the violation when he used drugs and did not follow up with doctor appointments.

Redmond was also arrested for heroin possession in 2008 and, in September 2011, had another probation revoked after he admitted to using narcotics in court-ordered rehab. He also pleaded no contest to felony gun possession and heroin possession in August 2011.

According to O'Neal, his son's troubles stemmed from the loss of his mother. Redmond never recovered from the death of Fawcett in 2009.Annette Bening has boarded upcoming Marvel standalone movie, Captain Marvel. Speculation is rife about which classic comic book character she might play.

Who Will She Play?

The four-time Oscar nominee will star opposite Brie Larson in the superhero movie. She will most likely play her character's mother, Marie Danvers, who has a small role in the comics, but discovers her daughter's secret identity after she dramatically saves her father's life.

Although the two women initially enjoyed a good relationship, it all falls apart following Captain Marvel's run-in with Rogue, who strips her of all memories and emotions. As a result, the Danvers women eventually end up having an epic mother-daughter fight.

Another possibility is that she could feature as a scientist, working alongside Gemma Chan's Minn-Erva, also a scientist, which would tie Marie into her daughter's supernatural world a bit more.

Bening could also play pilot Helen Cobb, a pilot Carol Danvers was inspired by in the comics. Danvers fought alongside the pilot, and if this is the case, she will take the role of mentor.

Likewise, the actress could play journalist Tracy Burke, who works for Danvers during her tenure as a magazine editor. The two have a sweetly close relationship, but Burke dies later on in the comics, so it's unlikely she'll pop up in Captain Marvel.

An Exciting Proposition

Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn, and Chan are already confirmed to appear along with Bening. Half Nelson duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck directed the flick. Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige is producing.

Geneva Robertson-Dworet penned the most recent iteration of the script, with Inside Out's Meg LeFauve and Nicole Perlman submitting previous drafts.

Captain Marvel, which is currently in production ahead of a March 2019 release date, follows the story of Larson's Carol Danvers. An Air Force pilot, whose DNA fused with that of an alien thanks to an accident, Danvers becomes the titular hero after being imbued with the superpowers of strength, energy projection, and flight.

Feige confirmed at last year's San Diego Comic-Con that the movie would be set in the nineties, with Larson spotted on set sporting a classic "Rachel" hairstyle, from iconic show Friends. The story takes place before the Avengers, with Samuel L. Jackson reprising his role as Nick Fury.

This marks Bening's first foray into superhero movies. Her next appearance will be in the drama The Seagull.The Nurburgring 24 Hours as we know it first appeared on the motorsport calendar in 1970, organised by the ADAC, or the Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club, if you want to be specific. Before 1970, endurance racing events on the Nurburgring were far more sporadic, made up of 12, 24, 36, 84 and even 96 hour events that were not overseen by a single governing body.

The race is officially called the ADAC 24h Rennen Nurburgring and weve been lucky enough to not only attend but also compete in it over the years. This year were there in force once again, so keep reading below for a brief overview of the Nurburgring 24 Hours race, as well as a live twitter feed with all the latest over the racing weekend.

In 2019, the Nurburgring 24 Hours will run as it has for nearly 50 years on the Nordschleife, or north loop, with over 200 cars and 700 drivers all vying for Green Hell glory.

The Le Mans 24h has only just concluded, but one of the most gruelling, most difficult and most entertaining 24 hour races of 2019 is still to come. Every year, the Nurburgring Nordschleife hosts its round of the ADAC Nurburgring 24h, on a racing circuit that makes Le Sarthe look like a o-kart track.

Today, the race is held on the Nordschleife, or north loop, integrating the GP circuit on its southern edge. The Nurburgring itself might have a sinister reputation, but part of its difficulty is the varied weather conditions that tend to douse the track in rain, fog and sunshine in unequal measure, and often all at the same time on different parts of the track.

Nurburgring 24 Hours cars

The cars that enter the race are just as varied as the weather conditions, ranging from factory supported GT3 entrants like the Audi R8 LMX and Mercedes-AMG GT3, right through to privateer cup-series hot hatches like Renaultsport Clio Cups.

Manufacturers have also been known to enter prototype versions of their new performance cars into the race, a notable example of which is the Hyundai i30 N, which raced last year, months before its introduction into the market.

The increasingly popular customer touring car, or TCR racing car is also becoming more common at the Nurburgring 24 Hours, with Hyundai, Volkswagen, Peugeot and Audi just a few of the car manufacturers producing race-ready touring cars for sale, which pass various racing series regulations and therefore are able to easily be entered into the N24.

Its this variety, as well as the sheer number of cars on track, over 200 in fact, that makes up some of the magic of the Nurburgring 24 Hours.

The Nurburgring 24 Hours show

There is a tangible excitement when it comes to 24-hour endurance races, and the Nurburgring 24 Hours is no different. Aside from the racing, the journey to the track, party-like atmosphere and trackside camping (if thats your thing) all contribute to the experience. Typically, there are hotels around the track for those who prefer Egyptian cotton and bathroom suites to quick-dry microfibre towels and a short walk in the woods, but whatever your preference or budget, the N24 is one of the truly great weekend experiences in motorsport.

Live from the Nurburgring 24 Hours

Check out our live trackside Twitter feed below, where well try to bring you closer to the action...This Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon!

Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page?Hello,



I and my wife arrived in Australia on Jun 27, 2014 as PRs. We complete our 4 years on Jun 27, 2018 and would like to get our applications in before 1st Jul which is when the current mob is intending to introduce new rules (in an obvious effort to win over One Nation voters). I was intending to prefill the application and have it ready for the short window we'll have to submit it in. I have a couple of questions related to this:



1) I started filling out the application a couple of weeks ago but got stuck on page 6 of 34 as the system recognized that we were not yet eligible to apply for citizenship. Can someone that has gone through the process of filling out the online application advise if those remaining 28 pages are fairly straightforward to fill out in the 3-day window we'll have? I have already got our 1195's completed by our regular GP and the other ID documents are also in-place.



2) Since being granted our PR at the end of Feb 2014, we did spend more than 90 days in India before making our first move to Australia. It means we will more than likely need (yet another) PCC for India. I want to do it only if they ask for it. Can the application be submitted (as in submitted and locked in to be considered under current legislation) without this and if they ask for it, then we can get our PCC done at the time and submit later on? Considering this is common when applying for a PR, I assume this shouldn't be an issue for citizenship too but I thought of confirming.



Our biggest concern is being considered under the current legislation. If the requirement for PCC is brought up after submission of our application and adds a few additional weeks to the processing, that is fine.



Thanks!!Hi All,I will be moving from the UK to Dubai in a few weeks as I have recently accepted an offer with a company based near Dubai airport. I have 2 children aged 3 and 8 months. We would like to get a spacious 3 bedroom villa in a nice community (with good amenities) with access to good private schools. I have been to visit Arabian Ranches and really liked it but it doesn't seem I will get much space for my budget which is approx. 145000 AED per year. I have seen some big villas in Dubai style, North Village - can anyone advise on that location and if the schools are of a high standard in that area?I would also really appreciate recommendations for other family friendly areas that are within my budget.Thanks in advanceDear all,



I am considering applying for a legal counsel position with a bank in Dubai. They are looking out for a 3+ year experience legal counsel and certain language / relevant legal training in a certain jurisdiction.



I am preparing for the usual interview questions and I am unsure how much to ask in the event they request for my proposed salary.



Cooperfitch puts it at 30,000 AED to 65,000 AED per month (for Counsel)



Roberthalf suggests $88,000 to $155,300 (which I assume to be a years worth of wage) and can be averaged to 26,000 AED to 47,000 AED.



Would such packages already include accommodations?



My current salary in my home country is already around 24,000 AED (equivalent) per month excluding bonus.



Any advice?Congratulations! Actually, at the OFII meeting they should explain to you about renewing your titre de sejour and what documents you will need.



In general, your TDS runs until the one year anniversary date of your original visa - and at that time, you'll need to present the completion certificates for the various OFII classes and other obligations, as well as i.d. documents and whatever else. However the exact process varies a bit by prefecture and is evolving to where in some prefectures you may be able to mail everything in. Safest thing is to check the website of your prefecture on a regular basis.



Oh, and you no longer need a visa. A visa is a document that allows you to enter the country (for some particular purpose). It's the TDS/CDS (also known as a "residence permit") that allows you to stay here. The first couple of renewals of your TDS will be for one year at a time, but after 3 or 4 years you should become eligible for a 10-year residence permit (also known as a "carte de resident") - and then potentially a "permanent resident" card (though that may change in the next 10 or 20 years - you never know). After 4 years you should be eligible to take French citizenship, which will simplify your life in many ways, but again you'll have to wait and see what the exact requirements are for that when the time comes.

Cheers,

BevA note to those looking to go to France or those here in their first year. Last May, we went through the Consulate in Houston and had all our paperwork for the one-year visitor visa. There seemed to be no snags and we received our visas in 4 days by overnight delivery. All is well you say - NOT. At the discretion of the Consulate - they may give you a Visitor Visa (Long Sejour) or Visitor Visa Temporary (Long Sejour Temporaire). If you don't notice that last word on your visa, you could think you were good. They are both good for one year. They give the OFII papers and tell you to mail them within 3 months of arrival. BUT - the first visa you can renew in France after one year, and the second you have to RETURN TO THE US to renew! They didn't tell us at the time and I have never heard of such a thing. On the official website, it mentions a temporary visa that is usually given to people staying 4-6 months - the only mention.

So now we have to go back to Houston to renew, costing us around $3000. We don't live in Texas anymore obviously, and have no address, no driver's licenses (exchanged for French ones), need the non-criminal report, etc. We are going in June and leaving all our things here, and hoping we will be able to return. I am not sure I will make it mentally through this snafu.

We have appointments for June 5. (Another nightmare - the US is now having a third party collect the paperwork and interview and they only were not ready for appointments until mid-May. The one good thing is they answer the phone and I called 3 times about getting an appointment.

Anyway - wish us luck - I will be so nervous. If we get the same thing again, and who knows why, and have to renew in the states again next year, we won't be able to because of the cost. We want so much to stay for a few years minimum. :fingerscrossed:



Karen & Geneezhejiang.gov.cn

Qi Xiaohu (middle), director of Hangzhou's publicity department, and Rudy Salles (fourth from right), deputy mayor of Nice, with colleagues at the opening of a photography exhibition in Hangzhou on May 6. [Photo/ifeng.com]

A photo exhibition held in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the relationship between the French city of Nice and Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, opened at Hangzhou Civic Center on May 6.

Deputy Mayor of Nice, Rudy Salles, attended the opening ceremony with Hangzhou government officials, with whom he discussed future cooperation and exchanges.

Serving to link the two cities and their histories, the exhibition features more than 100 photographs depicting the great achievements both Hangzhou and Nice have made in the past two decades. The exhibition also provides an opportunity for Hangzhou residents to gain a better understanding their city's ties to Nice.

"Hangzhou is a beautiful city known as an 'earthly paradise'," Salles said. "I hope the two cities can foster a bright future with continued cooperation and exchanges."

Salles said he was impressed by Hangzhou's recent economic development.

Qi Xiaohu, director of Hangzhou's publicity department, said that Hangzhou, as a popular tourist destination, shares many similarities with Nice, which sits on the popular French Riviera. Qi expressed his hope that the two cities will continue friendly relations and work together for the well-being of their people.

Hangzhou and Nice became sister cities in 1998. Over the past 20 years, they have enjoyed cooperation in such fields as economy and trade, culture, tourism and education.

Rudy Salles and Qi Xiaohu exchange gifts at the photo exhibition in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, May 6. [Photo/ifeng.com]Lack of precipitation in the province poses a challenge for farmers

By Kate Ayers

Staff Writer

Farms.com

With little rain in the forecast for Manitoba, farmers are concerned about the start to the 2018 growing season.

It has been an exceptionally dry start to the year. In fact, the Winnipeg area has not experienced these conditions in the 140 years since Environment and Climate Change Canada began record keeping, a CTV article said last week.

Compared to other years, the region has received only 25 per cent of the normal precipitation since January.

It is drier this spring and this all started with a drier fall season , Kurt Ginter, a certified crop advisor and president of KR Crop Check Ltd. in Winkler, Man., said to Farms.com yesterday.

Indeed, the province received less snow than in other years, too. As a result, soil moisture levels are lower than normal, a Global News article said last week.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada photo

Some producers are staying positive despite the lack of precipitation.

Sam Connery, a strawberry farmer in Portage la Prairie, said that the lack of rain has created perfect seeding conditions on her farm.

I think farmers are eternal optimists, Connery said to Global News.

We are always hoping for the best from Mother Nature  we learn to deal with what we get.

Indeed, #Plant18 operations are moving full steam ahead in the province.

In our service area, which is predominantly on sandy loam soils, we have also seen more direct seeding this spring, Ginter said.

So far we have seeded everything as per normal this spring.

However, farmers faced the tough decision as to whether to plant into dry soil or wait for rainfall.

Talking to the older generation farmers often proves to be quite valuable, as their long running experience can provide valuable insights into what to expect and not expect, Ginter said.

We were suggesting a couple weeks ago to still find moisture when seeding and to keep in mind that seeds should be in a similar moisture condition. So that, if in dry ground, emergence will at least be similar when rainfall comes.

Farmers can access the Canadian Drought Monitor here .

i-Stockr/iStock/Getty Images Plus photo

Updated May 18, 2018While Australias agricultural trade with China generally hogs the headlines, the real export money in Asia is actually with our 10 trading partners in the ASEAN group.

Already worth more than $8.7 billion in 2016, compared with our $5.4b of agricultural exports to China, the Association of South East Asian Nations is also a more diverse consumer, particularly when it comes to horticultural and seafood imports.

ASEAN  Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam  has almost 10 per cent of the worlds population, or about 647 million people.

Australian farm product exports to our ASEAN neighbours have soared 60pc in the past seven years, and a whopping 216pc since 2000, according to research by the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group.

ASEAN is not just bigger than China as a total market, it is also closer, particularly the big population states of Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam (with 72pc of the regions consumers).

ANZ expects ASEANs consumption of soft commodities will rise to 285m tonnes by 2024-25.

Thats more than 60m tonnes above current levels.

Rising consumption will be largely fuelled by an estimated 7pc annual lift in per capita income across the region from about $5600 a year to almost $9000 by 2025.

ANZs latest Insights report noted in addition to rising consumption and populations, Australian agribusiness export prospects to the region would be aided by greater urbanisation which was reducing the land available for agricultural production.

Urbanisation rates had been well above the world average in the past two decades.

With less than a third of ASEANs total land area dedicated to agricultural farmland, its farming space was already about 10pc less than the rest of the world.

In terms of agricultural production land, the acreage for the region is likely to have already peaked and production area is likely to decrease as urbanisation continues, the report stated.

Much of the incremental increase in agricultural production in ASEAN is likely to come from technological investment.

ANZ noted Australias grain sector had been a significant beneficiary of our rising trade with ASEAN.

Our grain export values jumped from just $27m in 2000 to almost $2.3 billion in 2016.

Theres more to Asia than China when considering ASEAN is home to around 9pc of the worlds population and emerging economic powerhouses Indonesia and Vietnam, said ANZs agribusiness head, Mark Bennett.

Given the scarcity of agricultural land and rising meat consumption in ASEAN, we expect continued and growing demand for Australian grains and protein, assisted further by rising incomes.

However, while steady growth of Australian agricultural commodities to ASEAN was likely, Mr Bennett cautioned that, similar to all export markets, challenges remained.

Australias proximity to Asia and strong trade relationships provide an advantage, but its important to recognise were one of many countries looking to capitalise on the growing demand for safe, quality foods, he said.

Food safety and regulation in particular are important considerations for producers looking to export to ASEAN.

Although the Australian and NZ Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN in 2010 had helped open up access for our exporters, the importing countries had now turned up the heat with non-tariff measures.

These restrictive strategies focused on issues including quality and disease control.

Tariffs on agri products to ASEAN have continued to decline but non-tariff measures have increased, mostly based around sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers the ANZ Insights report noted.

Increasing income levels in the region would drive increasing food variety and quality expectations from consumers and the non-tariff measures by Asian governments partly reflected this active concern about food quality.

Arguably the measures can also be used for protecting domestic agricultural sectors, the report said.

With an increasing importance for goods to move quickly across borders, it remains more important than ever that Australia and ASEAN countries continue developing protocols to reduce non-tariff barriers.

While rice is currently the most popular grain consumed in the region, wheat and corn continue to gain market share at about 6.5pc annually and are expected to be the main focus of future grain imports.

Meat consumption is dominated by poultry (55pc), pork (38pc) and beef (7pc) and is growing strongly according to ANZs research.

Beef has crept up at 3pc a year since 2000, while pork had shot ahead at 60pc a year.

Surprisingly, however, dairy product consumption only grew at a modest 0.4pc over the same period.

However, with growing consumer incomes and increasing health awareness, it is anticipated dairy will grow at a much higher rate in the near future, the report predicted.TWO and a half years ago Borden farmer Jamie Spence didnt know he would end up taking over the family farm.

The 29-year-old studied marine science and conservation biology at university, stemming from his love for being outdoors.

I was living the student life, trying to make something of myself, Mr Spence said.

With unemployment rates in WA affecting Mr Spences career choice in marine science, he completed his diploma of education in a bid to secure work.

The only thing I could find was full-time volunteer work in the science field, which isnt sustainable, he said.

Mr Spence started teaching maths and science at Quairading District High School, which he said wasnt for him.

I just did manual labour jobs for a while when I was in Perth and then ended up coming home, he said.

I have three younger brothers and one of them had an interest in the farm so I thought I would keep pursuing my own thing and see what he wants to do.

It wasnt until his younger brother decided farming wasnt for him that Mr Spence returned to Borden at the end of 2015 to run the 4812 hectare property.

Coming into farming with only the knowledge he had gained part-time over the years, Mr Spence said he had a lot to learn.

As much as his dad Alan wanted him to return, he was never pushed into it.

Alan is now semi-retired and the farm also has employee Gary Jansen van Vuuren, who has been working for the family for the past 11 years.

Mr Spence said people always ask him if he enjoys farming.

I think maybe thats not the right question to ask, he said.

I enjoy the lifestyle, but farming itself is a package deal.

When I said I was coming back to the farm, a few older guys said I must be joking, but I love the country and I like doing manual work.

Mr Spences great grandfather Horatio started the farm in 1951 before handing it to his grandfather who in turn handed it to his dad Alan, who will retire to Albany next year.

Mr Spence said he was still getting his head around the business side of things and having his dad involved was good for the transition.

We have all our consultants, but its still nice to be on the same page as they are and I have been doing more and more of the paperwork lately, he said.

One of Mr Spences challenges is gaining the experience so he knows when to put the crops in or when to sell what.

The decisions are based on historical farm data, with Mr Spence saying he was still lacking a bit of time and experience.

He has no plans to go anywhere and is happy to stay on the property.

At all these farm talks they have during the year there are always these succession talks and I keep trying to get dad to come along and get him up to speed with things, he said.

At the moment I have no plans to go anywhere else and I have been settling into the community, along with committees and organisations.

Im back after a few years away and I have finally settled back down at home.

Farming at Borden has its challenges, with only 80 per cent of the property arable.

About 900 hectares is unarable and includes 180ha of bush.

To combat this the property normally runs 5000 sheep but that number has increased to nearly 6200 at the moment.

Mr Spence said they would soon cull 300 new yearlings, 450 of their oldest ewes and about 900 of their oldest wethers, cutting the number back to 4500.

Split lambing was the answer to Mr Spences management issue, with lambs either born in March or June.

Its just less work, he said.

It rations out the feed as well, which is good because we run sheep at a low maintenance here as they are a bit of an insurance on the rest of the farm.

This years cropping program will cover 2000ha, including 658ha of canola, 217ha of lupins, 651ha of noodle wheat Zen and 857ha of Scepter wheat.

Seeding is only just getting underway after only receiving 12 millimetres of rain in April.

If it didnt rain in the middle of April, we would have started dry seeding the canola, Mr Spence said.

But since we got 12mm, its enough to get the weeds to germinate.

So we will get one more knockdown, then start after that.

Mr Spence said good rain in the past three years meant weeds kept growing and five knockdown sprays were needed, resulting in built-up resistance.

This year has been good with the dryer weather because whatever normally grows, the sheep have just mowed down straight down, he said.

Without any interruptions, Mr Spence said it would take about two to three weeks or so to finish their seeding program.

He said he would switch roles with Mr Jansen van Vuuren to help them broaden their experience.

Normally I am doing the spraying and driving the trucks and our worker does all the heavy work like the header and the seeder bar, Mr Spence said.

But we will switch it around so I know what is going on and how it all works.Belmont Park Poll sells to $11,000 top

"The sale was well supported by long-standing clients and also a couple of new ones throughout and it was also pleasing to see that there was again stud interest in the sale as that means the stud is making progress."CERTAIN people can thrive when being thrown into the deep end and when Steele Hathway started his job at Elders, combined with being a make things happen sort of person, he soon found he was one of those people.

About seven months ago he stepped out of his comfort zone by accepting a position with Elders as territory sales manager at Corrigin.

As well as learning the new role, the 25-year-old had to move to a new town, make new contacts and form new friendships.

For most people this would be quite daunting but for Mr Hathway, as a young man new to the corporate world of agriculture, it was one of the biggest yet exciting challenges he has had to face.

Mr Hathway was always an agriculture kid at heart, growing up on his familys property, Overpark, Kalannie.

The Hathways had a 6000 hectare mixed-farming enterprise of cropping and sheep with a Prime SAMM stud and later a feedlot.

Prior to 2016 they also owned Hathway Farm Equipment, Kalannie and Cadoux Traders, Cadoux which both had alliances with Elders for about 10 years.

Following the completion of his electrical apprenticeship in 2014, Mr Hathway worked between the farm and as an electrician for three years, which he said gave him a great skill base and helped when applying for the Elders job.

I really liked the hands-on work as an electrician and it also taught me how to talk with people and interact with the big wide world, Mr Hathway said.

He moved back to the farm full-time in the early part of 2017 to work with his dad Stan and to take on a leading role with the livestock side of the farm which he said re-kindled his passion for agriculture.

In 2009 the family decided to sell the farm, with the last portion of the property selling earlier this year.

Although letting go of the family farm and businesses was tough, it meant Mr Hathway could pursue his new and exciting options.

During his time working on the farm in its final years, he became close mates with the familys livestock agent, Rhys Fleay.

Mr Fleay suggested he keep an eye out for job openings with Elders as he had had a great experience with the company which had a strong reputation in the industry.

Mr Hathway applied for a traineeship with Elders and although he was unsuccessful, he kept in contact with the Elders WA livestock manager Geoff Shipp and eventually he secured his current position.

This young gun said although his role had been a challenge, it has given him a good platform to build his career on.

Going out to Corrigin, I was the only territory sales manager at the time so I had the opportunity to have my own patch of dirt to work with and build my name, he said.

Im definitely happy with how much I have been able to achieve in such a short time.

It is a challenge but that drives me and I look forward to the challenges ahead.

I do have to give credit to the agents who have helped me in my first six months  Elders has some fantastic people who have a wealth of knowledge and if you turn the tap on the right amount, the information and support comes on like a flood.

By choosing a different path Mr Hathway said he has had to learn new skills, particularly to do with communication and marketing.

I enjoy the day-to-day work of interacting with farmers, they are all so welcoming and it makes my work really pleasant, he said.

Mr Hathway said that while the job and the responsibility could be daunting at times, it is early days and I find it satisfying seeing the industry do well for farmers.

Like many children who grew up on a farm, Mr Hathway said he loved the freedom of the outdoors and always being around nature.

It was a fantastic environment to grow up in and when I have kids one day, I would certainly like to raise them in the country to have the same great experiences as I did, he said.

I loved helping my parents on the farm and in the rural shops as many country kids do, I think having that experience growing up has given me a good backgrounding in my new career  they taught me a lot.

Goals to aspire too and new opportunities on the horizon make Mr Hathways future promising.

In the short-term, at Elders he hopes to build his rapport with farmers, expand his client base and try his hand at some new challenges such as auctioneering and working with stud stock.

He said working for a major company such as Elders had been a great start for his career and there could be many opportunities for him in the future.

Seeing that Elders is a nationwide company, I could potentially go anywhere in Australia, it would be great to see different farming situations around the country, Mr Hathway said

With the general age of people in the industry being much older he expected there to be a lot of prospects for young people in the near future, particularly with some of the latest advancements in technology.

I think there is going to be huge opportunities for young people, especially with technology having a huge influence in the way we make decisions, he said.

EID (electronic identification) tagging and new apps for livestock are going to become more popular and are fundamental to improving efficiency and productivity across the industry.

As a territory sales manager for livestock, I think the incorporation of technology will make a big difference in the way we market our livestock in the future and see the on-going support for farmers.The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike.

We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve.Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced a new policy Wednesday that encourages coordination among DOJ departments and other enforcement agencies to avoid multiple penalties for the same conduct.

The aim is to avoid unfair duplicative penalties while keeping good relationships with law enforcement partners in the United States and abroad, Rosenstein said.

He was talking to the New York City White Collar Crime Institute.

He said the DOJ should discourage disproportionate enforcement of laws by multiple authorities.

Piling on by enforcement agencies has become more common because modern business operations regularly span jurisdictions and borders, Rosenstein said.

Whistleblowers routinely report allegations to multiple enforcement authorities, which may investigate the claims jointly or through their own separate and independent proceedings.

Piling on hurts companies by creating uncertainty. Its harder for them to make full and final settlements.

We need to consider the impact on innocent employees, customers, and investors who seek to resolve problems and move on, Rosenstein said.

The new policy against piling on will be incorporated into the U.S. Attorneys Manual.

Rosenstein said its another step towards greater transparency and consistency in corporate enforcement.

To reduce white collar crime, we need to encourage companies to report suspected wrongdoing to law enforcement and to resolve liability expeditiously, he said.

The new policy has four key features.

First, the feds criminal enforcement authority shouldnt be used against a company for purposes unrelated to the investigation and prosecution of a possible crime. We should not employ the threat of criminal prosecution solely to persuade a company to pay a larger settlement in a civil case, Rosenstein said.

Second, the new policy directs DOJ lawyers and groups in different departments or offices to coordinate with one another, and achieve an overall equitable result. That might mean crediting and apportioning financial penalties, fines, and forfeitures to avoid disproportionate punishment.

Third, DOJ lawyers, when possible, should coordinate with other federal, state, local, and foreign enforcement authorities that are working to resolve a case with a company for the same misconduct.

Finally, the new policy sets out factors DOJ lawyers can evaluate to determine if or when multiple penalties serve the interests of justice in a particular case.

Sometimes, penalties that may appear duplicative really are essential to achieve justice and protect the public, Rosenstein said.

Factors to consider when evaluating possible multiple penalties include:

The egregiousness of the wrongdoing

Statutory mandates regarding penalties

The risk of delay in finalizing a resolution, and

The adequacy and timeliness of a companys disclosures and cooperation with the DOJ.

* * *

Cooperating with a different agency or a foreign government is not a substitute for cooperating with the Department of Justice, Rosenstein said.

And we will not look kindly on companies that come to the Department of Justice only after making inadequate disclosures to secure lenient penalties with other agencies or foreign governments.

He said its not always possible for the DOJ to coordinate with other agencies, particularly those outside the United States.

The timing of other agency actions, limits on information sharing across borders, and diplomatic relations between countries are some of the challenges we confront that do not always lend themselves to easy solutions, he said.

As a positive first-time example, he mentioned the DOJs coordination with Singapore on the FCPA enforcement action against Keppel in December.

____

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosensteins full remarks to the New York City Bar White Collar Crime Institute on May 9, 2018 are here.

_____

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog.In preparing for three days of in-house workshops, Angelique Parisot-Potter, the general counsel of the Massy Group, said to me, We like stories here in the Caribbean, so be sure to share some.

Stories provide context, they are a call to feel, think and act, she said.

She also reminded me that every day, more and more rules are being created, so storytelling provides personal and powerful insight into why we should move towards values-based action.

Storytelling, as some readers of the FCPA Blog might know, is what I do.

My stories are sometimes about being blackmailed in Jordan, about an agent in Tierra Del Feugo talking about tolls, or how a headline about me on the front-page of the local Florida Times Union, where I was living at the time, impacted my family.

After my talks, people most often approach me to talk not about the technicalities of compliance, but about one of those stories. Thats no surprise. Its human nature to connect ones own emotions to a story.

And in my case, my stories tend to illuminate the dark side, as Bronwyn Fryer said some time ago in the Harvard Business Review.

Science supports the impact of stories. When a story moves us, our brains release oxytocin. That helps us trust the storyteller, especially where the storyteller has shared his or her own vulnerability. (For more about the impact of stories on the brain, see the research of Paul Zak).

In our compliance world, we hope listeners will react in their own work in a way that safeguards the welfare and integrity of everyone  people and companies alike. When I tell my stories, I talk about a crucible where subjective expectations crash into an uncooperative objective reality, Fryer said in the HBR.

But scary stories dont inspire, according to the research, and fear is not how we want to drive behaviors. Worst-case scenarios might keep an audience tense and captive. But more important is how we can inspire people to forge different outcomes.

From my experience, we can use inciting incidents that Fryer described to trigger positive but realistic energy in the people who hear it. At the same time, we can talk about and teach the inevitable business realities of corruption risk that can come to the front door of a globally disbursed workforce. The goal? To sensitize teams to the risks they face before theyre in the middle of them, and to pre-emptively think through scenarios and desired outcomes in a safe-zone.

Ive called that operationalizing ethics and integrity through difficult discussions.

If a story can transport your audience to where its re-creating the tension the storyteller went through, where listeners can share those emotions, then theyre highly likely to embrace the positive outcomes and avoid the negative ones, realizing that the darkside isnt something they ever want to see on a first-hand basis.

Leaders and trainers have multiple options and methods of communicating, and no one path or platform is a compliance panacea. But real-world lessons from actual experiences stick in the mind and memory. From that moment on, that story becomes part of the listeners experience, and is merged with their work.

As Paul Zak writes his HBR article, Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling, When you want to motivate, persuade, or be remembered, start with a story of human struggle and eventual triumph. It will capture peoples hearts  by first attracting their brains.

_____

Richard Bistrong, pictured above, is a contributing editor of the FCPA Blog and CEO of Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC. In 2010 he pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate the FCPA and served fourteen and a half months at a U.S. federal prison camp. He was named to Compliance Weeks list of Top Minds in 2017 and was one of Ethispheres 100 Most Influential in Business Ethics in 2015.

His popular real-life compliance training video, Behind the Bribe, produced in cooperation with Mastercard, was released in 2017.

To request a demo of the full eleven-minute video or a licensing fee schedule, please click here.With the release of the new movie, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, based on the bestselling book, weve decided to check out ten additional novels set on the beautiful island of Guernsey.

Guernsey

The Guernsey Novels is a riveting book series by Anne Allen. So far, there are six standalone books, each with fresh new lead characters with their own links to the German Occupation during World War 2, having an impact on the present. The Guernsey Novels are a mix of mystery, family drama, and love story and influenced by the authors love of the island where she spent many happy years. Titles in the series include: Dangerous Waters, Finding Mother, The Guernsey Retreat, The Family Divided, Echoes of Time, and The Betrayal.

The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by G.B. Edwards is classified as one of the most compelling literary creations of the late twentieth century. The novel tells the life-story of eighty-years old Guernsey man Ebenezer. He writes of family secrets and feuds, unforgettable friendships and friendships betrayed, love glimpsed and lost. It spans seventy years and recalls the Great War and the German Occupation of Guernsey during World War II.

Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge is a haunting 19th century love story set in Guernsey and also New Zealand. Two sisters who have very different personalities, both fall in love with the same man, William. They had both loved him for years. Now they were waiting for him to return from his journeys and claim his bride.

The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy is a historic romance novel set during WWII. Whilst Vivienne de la Mares husband is away fighting, she falls in love with an enigmatic German soldier who is part of the occupying forces in Guernsey. As their relationship intensifies, so do the pressures on Vivienne.

The Devils Claw is a debut novel by Lara Dearman and is the first of her atmospheric new crime series set in Guernsey. The protagonist, Jennifer Dorey, returns to the island as a reporter and she uncovers a pattern of deaths that have taken place over the past fifty years. Together with DCI Michael Gilbert, an officer on the verge of retirement, they follow a dark trail of island myths and folklore to 'Fritz', the illegitimate son of a Nazi soldier. His work, painstakingly executed, has so far gone undetected.

Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O Porter, is set in the mid-1990s and tells the story of two Guernsey school girls. The two fifteen year old girls are united by loneliness and their dysfunctional families. They develop an intense bond even though many obstacles stand in the way of their friendship. Paper Aeroplanes is a gritty an unforgettable snapshot of small-town adolescence and the heart-stopping power of female friendship.

The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock is told through the voices of fifteen-year-old Cat Rozier and her long-dead Uncle Charlieknown to Cat only by the audio recordings he left behind. Cats teenage girls Mean Girls-like experience pushes her to murder her best friend in a scandal, she will discover, that mirrors her uncles previously unknown story from the days of the islands Nazi occupation during WWII.

A Place of Hiding (Inspector Lynley #12) by Elizabeth George is a murder mystery novel which explores the darker landscapes of human relationships. In the story, one of Guernsey's wealthiest inhabitants and its main benefactor is found murdered on the beach. There are many people with reasons who want him dead and Inspector Lynley delves into Guernseys dark history to find someone who may have exacted retribution for the most unspeakable crime of all.

A Guernsey Exile by Ann Carter tells the story of the friendship and romance that develops between two children, Elizabeth and Thomas, during a period of poverty, slavery, smuggling and war in the mid-eighteenth century. The story was inspired by the true but little known incident of Guernsey children being exiled from the poorhouse and sold into indentured servitude in the American colonies.

Lizzie and the Guernsey Gang by April W. Gardner is a YA novel about a young girl living on her beloved island-home of Guernsey, but when German bombs drop on her crystal beach, her peaceful world explodes. The story follows the lives of Lizzie, her brother, and cousins under German Occupation.Lisa Hammond has landed her first post-'EastEnders' role.

Lisa Hammond

The 34-year-old actress will star alongside Rachael Spence in theatre production 'Still No Idea' - a follow up to their previous show 'No Idea' - when she departs her role as Donna Yates in the BBC One soap.

Lisa wrote on Twitter: "Gonna be treading them boards again with @rachaelmspence :-). Can't wait. Xx (sic)"

The pair's production, which they have written alongside Lee Simpson, will be on in autumn this year at Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, at the Royal Court Theatre, as well as tour in Ipswich, Stockton, Hull, Exeter, and Birmingham.

A post on the Royal Court Theatre reads: "Best mates Lisa and Rachael are making a new show almost a decade after they created their first piece together.

"Back then they had no idea where to start so they went onto the streets and asked the public. What story should they tell? What characters should they play? When they saw Lisa in a wheelchair and Rachael not, what the public said was funny, jaw-dropping and ultimately heart-breaking. They made a show about it. It was called No Idea.

"Now people say the world has changed and things are looking up. There are more disabled people in the mainstream media, Lisa landed a big part on TV and disabled mates are getting regular auditions - happy days. So what kind of exciting stories are the TV professionals dreaming up for them?

"Still No Idea is the whole story (so far): the British public, the professional writers, the TV execs. Part verbatim theatre, part improv, part comedy sketch show, this is a raucous and mischievous expose of good intentions gone bad and how sometimes no matter how hard we try, we still have absolutely no idea."

Production on the show will start in June, and the news comes just a month after Lisa announced she is leaving the soap.

Confirming the news, she wrote on Twitter: "Happy/sad :-) (sic)"If someone tells you theyre a belly dancer, youd be forgiven for picturing a slinky, dusky maiden in a scanty costume, a jewel in her navel and a provocative gleam in her eye as she wiggles her hips in tantalising fashion.

This, however, is belly dancing as portrayed in Hollywood movies  and it has nothing to do with its origins.

I would describe true belly dance as a dance by women, for other women, says Kate Topcu, who teaches a weekly class in Cals, on the outskirts of Fethiye.

It should be seductive, yes, but not overtly sexual. Its about feeling comfortable with what makes us women  we have curves and tummies and we should embrace them.

How did it begin?

There are several theories about the evolution of belly dancing. Some say it started as a fertility ritual, with a dance that focused on rotation of the hips and stomach. Theres also the belief that the name stems from the mis-hearing of the word beledi, an Arabic word meaning of the people. As Oriental and Middle Eastern dance has long been a family tradition at weddings, births and festivals, this is entirely possible.

The Hollywood stereotype evolved at a time when everyday dress was modest, and the exposure of bare flesh considered risque. The belly button itself was seen as an erogenous zone, and film censors in the 1920s insisted it be covered  hence the introduction of a jewel.

From London to Fethiye

Kate herself began dancing in the UK in 1988, becoming qualified to run her own classes in 1990. She moved to Turkey with her husband in 2007 and decided to revive her classes as part of the Fethiye Creative Womens Group, which she co-founded with Sharon Baltac towards the end of 2014.

Shes keen to stress that anyone who comes her classes will find real women happy to celebrate their femininity.

You dont have to be a size 8 to enjoy dancing. We come in all shapes and sizes and every woman should feel able to get up on a dance floor and do her thing. To any woman thinking of joining us, Id say do! Come and have a go. Were a friendly, supportive group who just enjoy dancing and spending that time together  not to mention that its great exercise and really tones your muscles.

Fethiyes Dancing Divas

The group has performed at several public events as the Fethiye Dancing Divas, including Fethiyes World Environment Day celebrations at the Kultur Merkezi and the Kayakoy Festival, as well as their own haflas  get-togethers where they enjoy food, music and dancing.

Dont worry, though  you can join the classes without taking part in any performances.

Its great to perform as a group but its certainly not compulsory and I wouldnt want anyone to feel under pressure. The main purpose is to have fun and enjoy spending time with other women in a non-threatening, empowering environment where we simply celebrate being who we are, says Kate.

Interested in joining?

Classes are held every Friday from 11.30am  1pm at Guvens Restaurant, Kocek Mustafa Caddesi, 1103 Sokak, Cals. You can catch a regular dolmus service from Fethiye centre and alight shortly before the terminus, or walk along the seafront.

Kate Topcu is happy to run an introductory taster session for women who would like to know a bit more about belly dancing before joining the regular class. To express an interest, or for more details, contact her on 0090 (0)534 666 9750 or email katetopcu@hotmail.co.uk.

Dont miss the Dancing Divas at Kayakoy Senligi

The Fethiye Dancing Divas will be part of the Kayakoy Festival this weekend, on Saturday, May 12, performing at Dukhas Snack Bar/Utopia Lodge Hotel between 1pm and 2pm, and again at Muzzys after 3pm. Check venues on the day for more precise times.

This article was written for Fethiye Times by Rebecca Parsley. Photographs by Steve Parsley.

Rebecca & Steve Parsley are both former journalists with experience in newspapers, magazines and on radio. Since 2006 they have run their own communications agency, specialising in social media and online content writing. They moved to Turkey just over four years ago and live in Kayakoy with their German Shepherd dog, Dillon  formerly a street dog  and two cats. When not slaving over their keyboards or walking in the local countryside, they enjoy watching motorsport  especially Formula 1  and are also salsa dance addicts.Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

SubCategory Select Sub-CategoryEntree Capital, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based international venture capital firm, closed its second Israeli focused early stage fund, at $80m.

Entrees previous Israeli fund invested at the early-stage in Israeli startups such as monday.com, Riskified, DragonPlay (exited to Bally/Scientific Games), HouseParty, Breezometer and KitLocate (exited to Yandex).

Led by Aviad Eyal, founder and Managing Partner, the new fund will target early-stage companies with Israeli founders both in Israel and abroad, in the fields of deep technology, AI, AR/VR, SaaS, Fintech and loss of friction opportunities.

The firm also announced the addition of two new partners to the new fund:

 Ran Achituv joined as a Managing Partner, and

 Eran Bielski, who worked at Entree Capital for over three years, was promoted to General Partner.

Entree Capital has offices in Israel, UK, and the US and manages over $300m across a number of funds and its portfolio includes SnapChat, Stripe, Deliveroo, Prospa, monday.com, Riskified, HouseParty, Stash, PillPack, SeatGeek, Coupang and over 50 other investments.

FinSMEs

10/05/2018Thrive Global, a NYC-based behavior change media and technology company, closed a $13m extension of its Series B funding round with a group of new strategic partners.

This brings the total raised to date to $43m at a $121.5m valuation.

New backers included:

 Kevin Durant and his business partner Rich Kleiman;

 49ers Enterprises, an investment affiliate of the San Francisco 49ers;

 Jeffrey Katzenbergs Wndrco;

 Eric Roza, founder of Datalogix and SVP/GM of Oracle Data Cloud;

 Adrian Aoun, founder and CEO of Forward;

 Yash Sandesara, founder and managing director of 205 Capital; and

 Adam Miller, Cornerstone OnDemand founder and CEO.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate technology and product growth.

Founded by Arianna Huffington in November 2016, Thrive Global is a behavior change media and technology company helping individuals, companies and communities improve their well-being and performance.

FinSMEs

10/05/2018On May 8, President Trump announced that the US will pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA, the nuclear agreement with Iran signed by the P5+1, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (France, People's Republic of China, the United Kingdom and the United States) plus Germany.

President Trump lambasted Iran, The leading state sponsor of terror will be at the cusp of acquiring the worlds most dangerous weapon. He lashed further, At the heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction; that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear energy program," Trump said.

"Today, we have definitive proof that this Iranian promise was a lie. The definitive proof President Trump is relying on is in the intelligence documents published a week earlier by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. In the documents Netanyahu alleged that even after the nuclear accord, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons knowledge for future use. Although according to Reuters, most of the evidence Netanyahu unveiled dated to the period before the 2015 accord was signed.

President Trump also announced that the sanctions against Iran will be reimposed. "We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanctions. He threatened that any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons, could also be strongly sanctioned by the United States.

With a simple stroke of a pen, President Trump caused mayhem in the US and amidst allies, for this is an alarming threat to those who plan to continue to work with the Iranian regime. In fact the whole global economy is about to unhinge as business deals worth billions of dollars are at stake.

In 2015, Airlines, carmakers, hotel groups and oil companies all jumped to sign deals in Iran, a CNN report says. Boeing and Airbus stand to lose billions and years of hard work as planes were to arrive in Iran; those deals are now curtailed.

Oil hit a 3.5 year high after the US declared it will withdraw from JCPOA and reimpose sanctions, and prices are predicted to rise even further than the $70 a barrel where it is now.

The repercussions to the return to the pre 2015 status are endless. Iran will escalate the rhetoric; thats for sure. Already Irans Supreme Leader hopes President Trumps body becomes food for snakes and ants.

Disregarding the rhetoric, Iran will resume uranium enrichment when, according to the 2015 deal, it had promised to cut its stockpile of enriched uranium by 98 percent.

Supporters of the agreement, France, Britain, and Germany, in particular, are left in a lurch and have voiced their regret with regard to the USs decision to leave the JCPOA. China opposes the USs move but is unlikely to stop doing business with Iran; in fact, it is plausible that China moves in to fill the gap. That while Russia will continue to do what it pleases.

And as a definite consequence to the withdrawal, Israel and Iran are on the verge of escalating their skirmishes into a full-blown war in Syria. Israel launched its most extensive strike in Syria on a base near Damascus used by the Iranian troops, killing 16 including 8 Iranians. A few hours ago, Iran fired 20 rockets at the Israeli army in the occupied Golan Heights. This is the first time Iran targets Israel directly.

Now lets look at this matter through the eyes of North Korea. As far as North Korea is concerned, Trump couldnt have chosen a worse time.

For as Trump was admonishing Iran, his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on his way to North Korea to meet with President Kim Jong Un. And yet, re North Korea, Trump said, Plans are being made; relationships are building. Hopefully, a deal will happen.

The credibility of the US is at stake here. It cannot go in and out of agreements whenever it suits its presidents. It cannot withdraw from one agreement and expect to sign other agreements without casting a shade of doubt over its resoluteness.

President Trump has backed out of several accords before: the Paris Climate Accord, the Asia Trade Deal, and now the Iran Nuclear Accord. He has threatened to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement to lift tariffs, Nafta, with Mexico and Canada.

President Obama came out to disagree with his successor saying that, The consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding Americas credibility, and puts us at odds with the worlds major powers. Obama also said that the JCPOA agreement remains a model for what diplomacy can accomplish, including when it comes to North Korea.

North Korea has already shown some flexibility by promising not to conduct more tests, suspend missile launches, and to close a nuclear test site. Indeed Kim Jung Jo has exhibited goodwill, for Pompeo returned to the US with three Americans who were imprisoned for espionage in North Korea.

As North Korea watches the Iranian dilemma unfold, it must be wondering if the US can be trusted and if it will ever keep an agreement intact. Withdrawing from the Iranian landmark agreement throws into doubt any confidence North Korea could have in the U.S., its foreign policy, and its wheelings and dealings.

Besides, North Korea is not Iran, for it already owns the nuclear arsenal while Iran doesnt. It has fired dozens of missiles and conducted four nuclear weapon tests.

The withdrawal of the US from yet another agreement it had signed will leave its mark on any country that is about to go into negotiations with the US. How ironclad is any agreement with the US? Will it change its mind with the incoming of another US president? And can the US give itself the right to weasel out of any deal at any time?

The reality is North Korea must go into negotiations doubting the USs ability to keep its word..                       14  2021 .,               .    .      8  2021   10.00   ...During Google I/O 2018 event, Google released Wear OS developer preview 2 which is a continuation of the DP 1 which it released back in March. While the developer preview 1 introduced dark mode, SDK restrictions and now with Developer preview 2, Google is bringing Action on Google and enhanced battery improvements.

Google has revamped the Assistant on Wear OS to support features like visual cards, follow-on suggestion chips, and text-to-speech. And now for developer, Google has added support for Actions on Google to Wear OS and existing Actions will work on Wear OS out of the box. However, interestingly, this feature is not dependent on Android P and is being rolled out to all Wear 2.0 users.

Furthermore, with Android P developer preview 2, Google is introducing a new battery saver mode. When the watch is in the battery saver mode, watch shows a power efficient watch face and turns off services including radios, the touch screen, and tilt to wake. It is also bringing the ability to display the time by pressing the side button.

By long pressing, users can switch back to a fully-operational mode and perform set off actions like paying with NFC, replying to a message. In previous developer preview Wi-Fi would not connect when disconnected from Bluetooth. However, after listening to the feedback, Google decided to roll back this change with the latest DP2.

Google included Smart Reply for bridged notifications from the users smartphone for some time. With the latest developer preview, Google is introducing simplified Chinese support for Wear OS users in China. This feature is powered by an on-device model using TensorFlow Lite and the model is optimised for low-memory, low-power devices.

The Wear OS developer preview 2 also includes updated Android Emulator images and downloadable system images for Huawei Watch 2 Bluetooth or Huawei Watch 2 Classic Bluetooth are available on Android Developer website.

SourceAfter rumors HMD Global recently announced that the Nokia X (TA-1099) with a notch and an 19:9 aspect ratio display will be announced on May 16th in China and also showcased the phone at the Sanlitun experience store. However, it did not reveal the specifications of the phone at that time. Now the phone has been certified by TENAA in China that confirms all the specifications.

This reveals a 5.8-inch display with a notch and an 19:9 aspect ratio, 1.8GHz Octa-Core SoC, which should be Snapdragon 636 as rumored earlier, with up to 6GB RAM, Android 8.1 (Oreo), 16-megapixel rear camera along with a secondary rear camera, 16-megapixel front camera and a 3000mAh battery.

Nokia X rumored specifications

5.8-inch (2280  1080 pixels) Full HD+ display with 19:9 aspect ratio

1.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 636 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 509 GPU

3GB LPDDR4 RAM with 32GB internal storage / 4GB / 6GB LPDDR4 RAM with 64GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD

Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD)

Android 8.1 (Oreo)

16MP rear camera with LED flash, secondary rear camera

16MP front-facing camera

Fingerprint sensor

3.5 mm headphone jack

Dimensions: 147.270.987.99; Weight: 151g

4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS + GLONASS

3000mAh battery with fast charging

The Nokia X is expected to come in Blue, Black and Silver colors and will go on sale from online retailer Suning in China. We should know the price when the phone goes official next Wednesday.

Source 1, 2By continuing to browse our site you agree to our Privacy & Cookie Policy. > Privacy & Cookie Policy I AgreeAlthough Kim Kardashian West is known as a reality TV star, shes in the midst of a major push for criminal justice reform with regards to a 62-year-old great-grandmother who is serving a life sentence thats brought her in close contact with the White House.

In an exclusive interview with Mic, which initially profiled Alice Johnson, a woman serving a sentence for drug conspiracy and money laundering, Kardashian West explained why she got involved with the case and what the status of her work is right now.

Ive been in communication with the White House and trying to bring her case to the presidents desk and figure out how we can get her out, Kardashian West tells Mic in the video below. Thats such a huge step from where we started with that not even being on their radar.

Kardashian West even said that shes been working with Jared Kushner and the Trump administration for months to try and make headway on getting Johnson freed. She says that she felt moved by a video profile the site did on Johnson in 2017 and immediately took action, hiring her personal legal team to represent the incarcerated woman.

As previously reported, Johnson became involved with cocaine dealers after she lost her job, her son was killed, she and her husband divorced and her home was foreclosed on, Mic reported in 2013.

According to Mic, Johnson said she did not sell drugs or make deals but did admit to acting as an intermediary for those involved, passing along messages. She was given life in prison  without parole, something Kardashian West takes issue with.

If you think about a decision that youve made in your life and you get life without the possibility of parole for your first-time nonviolent offense, theres just something so wrong with that, she said.

The star went on to explain that she has had a shift in her priorities and the way she looks at her wealth as of late.

Where Im at in my life right now, just like, to go and spend my money buying material things just doesnt satisfy me the way that it used to, she said. To save someones life and do that once a year, then that would make [my] heart fuller.

Kardashian West has no easy tasks in front of her. At the moment, the only thing that will free Johnson is a pardon on behalf of President Donald Trump. You can watch her explain her decision, as well as comment on any detractors of Trump, below.An Alabama physician was scheduled to go on trial Friday in the 2016 overdose death of 3 Doors Down guitarist Matthew Roberts.

Dr. Richard Snellgrove, of Fairhope, faces a 13-count federal indictment in Mobile, Ala., alleging the improper prescribing of the opioid fentanyl and other drugs to the musician. Snellgrove also faces health care fraud charges.

Roberts, 38, was found dead Aug. 20, 2016, in the hallway of a hotel near Milwaukee, where he was to perform a charity concert.

The Mississippi-born musician had a guitar case beside him and was wearing a patch that delivered fentanyl to his body, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration wrote in an affidavit.

A medical examiner later ruled the cause of death to be an overdose involving fentanyl, hydrocodone and alprazolam, the affidavit stated.

Court papers state Snellgrove began prescribing drugs to Roberts as early as 2005 and knew the guitarist had addiction problems.

The indictment specifically cites prescriptions of oxycodone, lorazepam and fentanyl that Snellgrove wrote for Roberts and someone else referred to as "J.R."

A DEA agent has testified that Snellgrove wrote prescriptions to "J.R." because Roberts' insurance wouldn't pay for fentanyl.

Snellgrove has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces up to 240 years in prison and up to $2.8 million in fines.

Roberts' family is also suing Snellgrove and Rite Aid Corp. and others in a civil lawsuit in state court in Alabama. Court records show that case is stayed pending the outcome of Snellgrove's criminal case.

Roberts was a founding member of 3 Doors Down when the rock group began in 1996 in south Mississippi.

He co-authored the band's hit song "Kryptonite," which was nominated for a Grammy award in 2001 for best rock song.

Roberts left the band after its 2012 European tour, but continued to play guitar. He had gone to Wisconsin to perform with another band in a benefit concert involving the military when he died.

The band 3 Doors Down has a turbulent history. In 2013, bassist Robert Todd Harrell was accused of driving under the influence and causing a fatal crash in a Nashville suburb.

Police said Harrell, 41 at the time, admitted to drinking and taking prescription drugs before the car wreck. At the time, he also checked himself into a drug treatment facility after bonding out of jail.

In 2007, the husband of country star Sara Evans sought to find out through a court filing if his wife had any affairs with 3 Doors Down members Roberts, Harrell, Brad Arnold or Chris Henderson.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The son of Ryan O'Neal and the late Farrah Fawcett, Redmond O'Neal, was arrested for allegedly robbing a Los Angeles convenience store and holding up the store clerk with a knife in the wee hours Tuesday morning.

The Los Angeles Police Departement told Fox News that O'Neal walked into a Santa Monica 7-Eleven where he allegedly threatened the store clerk with a knife and demanded that he hand him the money from the convenience store's register.

A call was then placed to the cops around 2:30 a.m. that Tuesday morning about the incident.

O'Neal allegedly fled the scene but the 33-year-old didn't get too far. The cops quickly arrived and arrested him. The LAPD told Fox News that when they stopped O'Neal they found a knife on his person. O'Neal's case will now be turned over to the district attorney. He is currently being held on a $50,000 bail.

The Hollywood superstars' son's arrest is not his first (or second or third) run-in with the law.

O'Neal has a history of drug addiction through most of his adult life.

In 2015, O'Neal was sentenced to three years in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for violating his probation related to an earlier drug-possession conviction.

O'Neal's half-sister Tatum O'Neal told People at the time, I love him, but I have never seen a more scary side of addiction. Hes got addiction problems so bad that it breaks my heart. Nobody knows what to do with Redmond. From what Ive seen, there is no way hes going to survive.

And back in 2011, O'Neal's probation was revoked after he admitted to using narcotics while in court-ordered rehab. He was sentenced to a year in rehab after he pled no contest to felony gun and heroin possession a month before.

According to People, that same year, O'Neal's father, Ryan, said that his son never recovered from the loss of his mother."

Fawcett passed away in 2009. She died after battling cancer at the age of 62.Birthday wishes

Call 281-422-8302 or email david.bloom@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun.

Happy Birthday WishesLife on the set of Golden Girls wasnt always a laughing matter.

The beloved sitcom, which introduced audiences to Southern belle Blanche Deveraux (Rue McClanahan) and her roommates Rose Nylund (Betty White), Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur) and Dorothys mother Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty) first premiered in 1985.

RYAN REYNOLDS CELEBRATES BETTY WHITE'S BIRTHDAY

And director Lex Passaris can still recall how the show provided its stars much-needed humor to help them cope with private tragedies.

Passaris told Closer Weekly that during Season 1, both Arthur and White lost their mothers. The grief both women shared was so rough, many wondered if the series needed to be put on hiatus.

We were ready to shut down the show for as long as they needed, Passaris told Closer Weekly Wednesday. But both ladies said, No. We need to work.

And it wouldnt be the only heartbreak White, in particular, would have to face. Passaris recalled filming the episode The Heart Attack, where the actress got candid about the real-life loss of her husband in character.

Everyone thinks Estelles character Sophia is dying, so it was particularly poignant, said Passaris. Rose tells a story about her husband Charlies death, and Bettys basically talking about Allen [Ludden]. Bettys voice kind of cracked and she took a breath and said to me, Id give anything to have that year of my life back again.'"

Ludden, host of the G.E. College Bowl and Password television game shows, died in 1981 at age 62 from cancer. White, who was married to Ludden for 17 years, was at his bedside during his final moments.

White, now 96 and the last living Golden Girl, never remarried after Luddens death.

Arthurs son, Matthew Saks, dismissed rumors that Whites sunny personality rubbed the fellow actress the wrong way, just like their characters Dorothy and Rose. In fact, Saks told the magazine the pair became close friends.

Betty would pick my mom up in the driveway, or my mom would pick her up, he insisted.

One source close to the cast told Closer Weekly that the two women werent the only ones to endure heartache while filming. McClanahan was also facing the end of her fifth marriage to high school boyfriend Tom Keel. Their relationship ended after one year in 1985.

They confided in each other, said the source about the women. Rue was a great listener and a sympathetic shoulder. She had a sounding board in Betty as well.

And Getty suffered her own private woes. Before McClanahan passed away in 2010, she claimed the actress battled crippling anxiety attacks while filming.

She had an awful time remembering her lines because she would freeze and panic, said McClanahan. The day before tape day, you could see a big difference in her. Shed be walking around like Pig-Pen under a black cloud. By tape day, she was unreachable.

Despite all the personal tragedies, Golden Girls easily managed to give its cast and audience plenty of laughter during its run between 1985 and 1992.

It racked up 68 Emmy nominations and 11 wins throughout its run. Its listed as #69 on Deadlines ranking of the 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time.

In 2010, White told the Associated Press everyone knew the show was going to be something special when they first read the pilot.

You get a lot of scripts mailed to you and not too many of them are good, but when this one came along it just hit the spot and they sent it to each of us, she said at the time. They sent it to me with the idea of me doing Blanche.

"Jay Sandrich, who was our director for most of the Mary Tyler Moore shows, said if Betty plays another nymphomaniac they are going to think it is Sue Ann Nivens all over again. He said, why don't we switch them?

White even revealed the women shared an immediate connection that lasted over the years.

The first table read was an experience, she said. I had worked with Bea, I had done a couple of guest shots on Maude. I had worked with Rue on Mama's Family. Estelle was a new one to all of us. She came from New York after her hit. We all sat down for the first table read and somebody read a line and then somebody else read a line.

"... It was the most exciting ... We all began to look at each other because there wasn't any first reading feeling about it. It was like we had been working together forever. I still get goose bumps thinking about it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Harvey Weinstein's estranged wife, Georgina Chapman, is speaking out for the first time since the disgraced movie mogul was accused of sexually assaulting and harassing dozens of women.

Chapman told Vogue she was "humiliated" and "broken" after two bombshell reports from the New York Times and the New Yorker revealed in October that Weinstein was a sexual predator.

"I was so humiliated and so broken . . . that . . . I, I, I . . . didnt think it was respectful to go out, she told the magazine. "Its still so very, very raw. I was walking up the stairs the other day and I stopped; it was like all the air had been punched out of my lungs."

Chapman, 42, said after the stories kept rolling out about her husband she realized "this wasnt an isolated incident."

"I lost ten pounds in five days. I couldnt keep food down."

The then-budding fashion designer met Weinstein in 2004 after the British-born Chapman had recently gotten out of a relationship and Weinstein's marriage to his first wife Eve Chilton ended.

Initially, Chapman said she was drawn to Weinstein's personality.

"He's charismatic. Hes an incredibly bright, very learned man. And very charitable. He paid for a friend of mines mother, who had breast cancer, to go to a top doctor. He was amazing like that. He is amazing like that," she said. "That is the tough part of this . . . this black-and-white thing . . . life isnt like that."

The couple married in 2007 and went out to have two children together, a daughter, India, 7, and a son, Dashiell, 5. She called him a "wonderful father" adding that their children "love" him.

Chapman described her marriage to Weinstein, 66, as "happy."

"That's what makes this so incredibly painful: I had what I thought was a very happy marriage. I loved my life," she admitted.

When asked if she had any suspicions about her estranged husband's behavior she said, "Absolutely not. Never."

The Marchesa designer found solace in friend Huma Abedin who is the estranged wife of New York politician Anthony Weiner who was sentenced to 21 months in prison in 2017 on federal charges of sending sexually explicit messages to a teenage girl.

"We just bonded," Abedin told Vogue. "In allll kinds of ways. This particular club, ironically, its not such a small one: women who have had to endure it in such a public way, women like Georgina and me. People dont feel sorry for us; you dont get that empathy. People think youre beautiful, youre thin, youre rich, youre photographed on the red carpet, and you get stuck in this category. Theres so much more depth beyond all that with Georgina."

As for Chapman's next move? She filed for divorce shortly after the scandal broke and is purchasing a farm in upstate New York to live in privacy with her two children.Meghan Markle may be a Hollywood actress who captivated the younger Prince of Wales, but palace insiders are warning the American newcomer to not let her star power outshine the royal family.

The Suits screen siren, 36, and Britains Prince Harry, 33, are set to marry on May 19 in an hour-long ceremony at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Palace.

Leading up to the big day, Fox is airing a two-hour documentary on Friday from British production company Spun Gold, which specializes in royal documentaries.

The film, titled Meghan Markle: An American Princess, features interviews with journalist Piers Morgan, Princess Dianas former butler Paul Burrell, Harrys biographer Katie Nicholl, and Queen Elizabeth IIs former press spokesman Dickie Arbiter, among others.

Spun Gold founder, Nick Bullen, told Fox News those who came forward stressed that only blood royals are the true stars of the household.

Kate Middleton has worked this act, said Bullen. [Her husband] Prince William is the star and she is the supporting star. Prince Philip has brilliantly walked two paces behind the queen. The queen mother knew you supported the king.

"Meghan, even though she is a famous actress, [her fiance] is Prince Henry of Wales. She will be Princess Henry of Wales. Shes the support. Thats one of the things people in this documentary have warned. Be wary of becoming the star.

Bullen pointed out the doomed marriage of Harrys own parents, Diana and Prince Charles. As the Princess of Wales' popularity grew over the years, it reportedly caused a strain between the couple.

Diana and Charles divorced in 1996 after four years of separation. Diana died a year later in 1997 in a tragic car crash in Paris at age 36.

One of the problems from the whole Charles and Diana years is that when Diana became the star, it became a problem for the Prince of Wales, said Bullen.  Crowds would shout, We want Diana! That didnt play well. That was one of the warnings that came out of the film to Meghan.

"And what Ive noticed is that [Markle and Harry] are very much a double act. Theyre always together. And I think it will be interesting to see how that plays out over the years.

Bullen revealed that while Markle, a biracial American divorcee, is changing the look of a seemingly dated monarchy, she will need to play by their rules while settling into her new life as a royal.

When the royal family was writing these blueprints for royal brides, Meghan couldnt have been further from their original idea, he said. It was blonde, English roses from aristocratic families. [Harrys older brother] William bent that rule by marrying a girl from a much more middle-class family.

"And Harry is taking it a stage further History proves with the most recent royal wives of Windsor that if you dont stay in your lane, you can fall down. Diana became the star and that marriage didnt work. Fergie was fun, free loving and a breath of fresh air. But that didnt work.

But unlike Diana or Fergie, Markle is getting hands-on help from Harry, who has always been by her side for every royal outing since their November 2017 engagement.

Bullen said Burrell, who started off his career as the queens footman before working for Diana and her sons as the family butler, isnt surprised by Harry's determination to protect his fiancee from media scrutiny.

Harry was born into a marriage that was falling apart, said Bullen. And its a marriage that played out on the world stage The dirty laundry is right out there Then at age 12, he has to walk behind his mothers coffin in front of 2 billion people watching from around the world. He has to shake the hands of people who are weeping, who havent even met his mother. And yet he has to hold it together.

"That plays forward to today in terms of why Harry wants to be so protective of Meghan. When the British press were frankly being racist about her arrival to the U.K. and into the royal family, Harry issues a statement essentially saying 'back off.' And they did back off. He couldnt protect his mother as a 12-year-old boy, but he is determined to protect Meghan. And it comes as no surprise that he and his brother have a big distrust of the media.

But if Markle really wants to fit in with the royal family, the California girl will need to do more than giving up her thriving acting career and popular lifestyle blog, which she has already done.

Markle must also learn how to saddle up like a pro.

Arbiter, who closely worked with the queen in Buckingham Palace for 12 years, stressed Markle must love horses to fit in.

This is a very horse-driven family, said Bullen. Diana didnt go well with horses. That was the beginning of that fairy tale not ending terribly well. Sophie, Countess of Wessex who is married to the queens youngest son, had to learn how to ride.

"You have to like horses to ride with the queen. And so much of the royal diary is built around the equestrian world One of the most important events from the queens diary for the whole year is the Royal Windsor Horse Show. And that will be happening on the weekend before the royal wedding The queen has never, ever missed it. Its really important to her.

Despite the many lessons Markle must learn to become a successful American royal in the House of Windsor, Bullen said insiders are hopeful the marriage will last.

I think everyone wants it to work because Prince Harry is adored around the world, said Bullen. Hes the little boy who lost his mother at 12. He was a slightly off the rails teenager who became a war hero fighting on the frontlines We want the fairy tale, which has had some tragic lows across the last 30-40 years. The overriding message of the documentary is 'fingers crossed.'

"But those in the documentary warned that this world is not without its pitfalls," Bullen said. "You marry into a world thats diamonds and furs and castles and servants and literally knights in shining armor. But it all comes with a price. Are you ready to pay that price?

"Meghan Markle: An American Princess" airs Friday, May 11 on Fox.Faced with cratering ratings and serious questions about whether he can hang on to his job, NBC anchor Lester Holt has embarked on what one NBC insider called a desperation tour, hosting his broadcast from different cities where NBCs audience research experts believe he can score some new viewers.

NBC has billed the promotional venture as NBC Nightly News: Across America, and Holt is scheduled to broadcast from five cities in five days. He kicked things off on Monday in Portland, followed up with Tuesdays episode in Denver and anchored Wednesday night from Chicago. Holt is in Pittsburgh for Thursdays broadcast, then in Raleigh, N.C. for Friday. The NBC anchor also has stopped at a variety of local affiliates along the way to promote his suffering program.

On the surface, it's a smart move to visit cities outside of Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington. But their ongoing ratings fight with ABC and this fraud of a report about their conduct concerning Matt Lauer has really made this big PR push fall off the ledge and lose any significance that such a move might normally have, NewsBuster managing editor Curtis Houck told Fox News.

ABCs World News Tonight topped Nightly News among total viewers last week and was the only evening newscast to grow compared to the same week last year, according to TVNewser. The ABC newscast tops Nightly News among total viewers on a regular basis these days as Holt barely maintains NBCs lead among the key demo of adults age 25-54. NBC often touts the strong demo performance of Nightly News, but Holts lead in that category has shrunk from +15 percent a year ago to +5 percent last week.

NBC Nightly News has been struggling badly, even when compared to its competitor at embattled ABC News. ABCs World News Tonight with relatively unknown anchor David Muir topped Nightly News as the most-watched newscast in the first quarter of 2018, marking the first time ABC won a Q1 in 19 years. ABC averaged over 500,000 more viewers than NBC on a nightly basis, the largest viewer advantage over Nightly News in 22 years, according to TVNewser.

Even more embarrassingly, the perennially last place CBS Evening News, with an unknown anchor named Jeff Glor, is nipping at the heels of Nightly News.

Holts troubles may loom largest, but Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor told Fox News that ABC, NBC and CBS are all suffering because none of their anchors has the name, the reputation and the gravitas of previous anchors, and feels Holt is a good example of that problem.

I bet if you did man-on-the-street interviews, not one person in 10 could name any of the evening news anchors, Gainor said. Personality and pizzazz are viewed as important.

Some point to Holts widely panned performance moderating a presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in Sept. 2016 for the decline in Nightly News viewers. During the debate, Holt questioned Trump aggressively about the racially charged issue of police stop and frisk policies while, critics say, he lobbed softballs at Clinton.

The Hill media reporter Joe Concha wrote the morning after the event that Holt came into the debate as a news anchor with a sterling reputation for being a non-partisan newsman, but woke up the next morning with at least 40 percent of the country questioning that distinction.

NBCs Lester Holt emerges from debate bruised and partisan was the headline of Conchas article.



Concha pointed out that Holt was quick to fact-check Trump but often gave Clinton a pass.

He exists as the toast of left-leaning media, Concha declared.

Gainor said network newscasts aren't just wrestling with their standard left-wing biases these days because they are also finding it difficult to cope in a complex media environment with significant competition from cable and digital outlets.

That means traditional network anchors will continue to battle it out for a decreasing audience over time, Gainor said.

President Trump often calls NBC fake news and just as bad as his bete noir, CNN, but Mediaite columnist Joseph Wulfsohn doesnt think Trumps insults are the reason for Holt's decline, as The New York Times is regularly mocked by the president and its subscription numbers are up.

Wulfsohn told Fox News that its difficult to pinpoint one reason for Holts ratings deficit but thinks a series of hits to the credibility of NBC News could be part of the problem.

If I had to make an educated guess, its the bad press NBC has been getting lately that has a bigger role than Trumps attacks, Wulfsohn said.

Holt has to be looking over his shoulder, several NBC insiders told Fox News.

Holts predecessor, Brian Williams, expects to be reappointed to the anchor chair he lost in 2015 due to embellishing war stories, the insiders say.

Williams reportedly has assurances from embattled NBC News Chairman Andy Lack that he can return to his Nightly News role as soon as Lester implodes, according to one NBC News producer who spoke to Fox News.

Williams is presently hosting an 11 p.m. show on MSNBC as punishment for his lies and exaggerations.

An NBC correspondent, who spoke to Fox News on condition of anonymity, says Holts problems may actually be very simple.

Hes not a good anchor. Hes boring and self-important. Its time for a change, the correspondent said.

When reached for comment, an NBC News spokeswoman provided the following statement: Not a single story youve written about the internal workings of NBC News has been accurate, and neither is this one."As Pamela Anderson continues to be one of Julian Assanges greatest advocates while he sits in legal exile at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Now, shes hoping to enlist the help of Kanye West to drum up public support for Assanges cause.

According to a letter obtained by TMZ, the former Baywatch beauty penned a note to West in the hopes of convincing him to use his celebrity and social media platform, which has been getting a lot of attention of late, to drum up support for Assange in the United States. Anderson hopes to get him freed from the embassy. Anderson claims the situation is urgent as Assange is being tortured.

I was wondering about your thoughts on Julian Assange. I support him and I know you value Free Speech, Anderson wrote in the letter. Visibility is good for him especially in America.Where they are trying to put him away for life or worse for exposing corruption in governments. I think they are trying to kill him. It is Torture.

As previously reported, U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Wikileaks coordinated with Russian intelligence to release hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election campaign. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said in the past that the Justice Department considers arresting Assange a priority.

Anderson claims that Assange has been locked in a small room for almost 6 years since and has been cut off from any visitors, phone calls or internet access.

He is genius. A real world leader that young people love, she writes. So, I want to seek more voices and share more about his fight. Public support could set him free. Media is monopolized So some brave voices are the only Hope to break through.

The star appealed to Wests ego, telling him that she respects his no filter, approach to public life. Recently, though, his propensity for speaking his unfiltered mind got him in some hot water. After expressing public support for Donald Trump on Twitter, West appeared on TMZ where he admitted to an opiod addiction and offhandedly mentioned that he believes slavery was a choice for those in captivity.With Ray Bradbury's novel about a society where books are outlawed coming alive in HBO's new film "Fahrenheit 451," attention has returned to one of the most difficult books to come by in the United States.

Stephen King is one of Americas most prolific authors  countless of his stories and books can be found in almost any retailer in the country. However, theres one novel he has decided to let fall out of publication due to the real-life crimes it purportedly spawned.

The average King fan may not be familiar with the 1977 book Rage. Originally published under his pen name, Richard Bachman, King wrote the novel in 1966 while he was still in high school.

In it, a young man named Charlie Decker is called into the principals office of his high school after assaulting a teacher. He goes on an expletive-filled tirade for reasons he doesnt understand, prompting his expulsion. Decker then goes to his locker to retrieve a semi-automatic pistol, burns the remaining contents and kills two other faculty members before taking his algebra class hostage.

What ensues is a standoff in which the students who had begun as hostages become unwitting accomplices as a sort of Stockholm Syndrome sets in and they begin to identify more with their captor than wuth those trying to end the conflict.

King let the book fall out of publication in 1998 after real-life tragedies allegedly inspired by Rage and made him feel morally obligated to write it. The book existed for a time in a 1985 collection of novels called The Bachman Books, which also included The Long Walk, Roadwork and The Running Man. Eventually, prints of The Bachman Books dwindled from four stories to three as the author allowed Rage to die a quiet death in the publishing world.

Today, curious readers can still get their hands on a copy, but they have to be willing to pay between $500 - $700 on Amazon to do so.

As Business Insider notes, the novel was number two on BookFinders 2013 list of out-of-print books that are still in high demand. To this day, the novel is still considered one of the most controversial books in the U.S.

Why then did King, the mind behind twisted and horrific stories like Misery, It and Pet Cemetery, decide to let this book fall out of print? The answer can be traced back to Dec. 1, 1997, at Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky. Fourteen-year-old Michael Carneal brought three guns to school and opened fire on a group of students standing in a prayer circle. Three were killed and five were injured, with one unable to walk again. According to a local report, Carneal then dropped his weapon and surrendered to the school principal.

Police would later discover a copy of Rage in Carneals locker. It was the fourth school gun violence incident in which the authorities found the gunman had been exposed to, and possibly influenced by, the now out-of-print King novel.

In 1996, 14-year-old Barry Dale Loukaitis killed his algebra teacher and two students before being disarmed by a faculty member he tried to take hostage at Frontier Middle School in Moses Lake, Wash. He allegedly claimed that he was inspired by Rage and modeled his life after Charlie Decker.

In 1989, 17-year-old Dustin Pierce took a classroom of 11 students hostage at gunpoint in Jackson County High School in McKee, Kentucky while reportedly trying to recreate the plot of Rage. After a nine-hour standoff, he surrendered to police.

In 1987, Jeffrey Lyne Cox held 60 classmates at gunpoint at San Gabriel High School in California before being disarmed by some of the students. He was known to have read Rage multiple times The Los Angeles Times reported.

Shortly after the 1998 incident, King is said to have called his publisher to demand the book be taken out of print. The publisher reportedly agreed.

King did not immediately respond to Fox News request to discuss the book. However, shortly after the deadly school shooting in Newtown, Conn., in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School, King published a 25-page nonfiction essay titled Guns in which he explained his reasoning for pulling the novel.

It took more than one slim novel to cause (the shooters) to do what they did. These were unhappy boys with deep psychological problems, boys who were bullied at school and bruised at home by parental neglect or outright abuse, he wrote in Guns, (via USA Today). My book did not break (them) or turn them into killers; they found something in my book that spoke to them because they were already broken. Yet I did see Rage as a possible accelerant which is why I pulled it from sale. You dont leave a can of gasoline where a boy with firebug tendencies can lay hands on it.

The author, now 70 years old, went on to explain that he felt no legal pressure to pull the book, only a moral obligation that he extended to his fellow gun owners.

I was protected under the First Amendment, and the law couldn't demand it. I pulled it because in my judgment it might be hurting people, and that made it the responsible thing to do, he wrote. Assault weapons will remain readily available to crazy people until the powerful pro-gun forces in this country decide to do a similar turnaround. They must accept responsibility, recognizing that responsibility is not the same as culpability."

Today, Rage is only available to those with deep pockets and an even deeper curiosity  something King continues to support. Despite a library of stories based on fictitious murder and macabre plots, King is willing to let Rage, which happens to be one of his earliest works, rest in peace for fear that it will cause real-life murder and violence if made available again.Maybe he was just excited about the return of Taco Bells Naked Chicken Chalupa?

Police in Asheville, N.C., have arrested 38-year-old Jeremy Justice in connection with a rash of flashings at Taco Bell, McDonalds, Buffalo Wild Wings and Waffle House, the Citizen-Times reports.

WENDY'S HAS PERFECT RESPONSE TO BURGER KING'S PROMPOSAL

Officers caught up to Justice early on Wednesday morning, after an employee at a local Buffalo Wild Wings reported a man lying naked on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. The suspect had already fled by the time police responded, but the employee was able to provide police with footage of Justice streaking through the parking lot.

Justice was soon found hiding out behind construction equipment at another nearby business. Asheville Police Department spokeswoman Christina Hallingse further confirmed to the Citizen-Times that Justice had gotten himself dressed by the time he was located.

Justices arrest followed earlier reports of a flasher at nearby locations of Taco Bell, McDonalds and Waffle House.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Justice was charged with two misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure. He was being held at the Buncombe County Detention Center on $1,000 bond.When one New York paramedic followed her craving for a cherry Slurpee, she didnt anticipate shed save a mans life along the way.

On May 3, Christiana Corrado of Carmel stopped by a local 7-Eleven in Yorktown Heights for the sweet treat. She admitted the craving was unusual  she hasnt wanted the slushy fruit drink since her pregnancy three years ago, News 12 Westchester reports. But as it turns out, that craving put her in the right place at the right time to save a heart attack victim.

Its pretty strange to me that all of a sudden, on this day at that moment, I would decide to go to that particular 7-Eleven to obtain one, Corrado told CBS New York. Corrado further confirmed to Fox News that she used to be a paramedic in Yorktown, before becoming an adjunct professor in prehospital emergency medicine at Westchester Community College.

DUKE UNIVERSITY BARISTAS FIRED AFTER VP HEARS 'OFFENSIVE' YOUNG DOLPH SONG PLAYING IN COFFEE SHOP

Enjoying the warm weather around lunchtime, she soon saw a car "speeding down Route 202" at a busy intersection. The driver soon slammed into a utility pole which erupted in flames before the vehicle rolled down a grassy patch of land and into a CVS store.

The car goes right by my passenger window and Im following it and I said "Oh no, thats not good,'" Corrado told CBS. Making a U-turn and rushing to the scene, she found the male driver unconscious and slumped over toward the passenger side."

When I checked for a pulse, I couldnt feel any. And he was cyanotic  really, really blue, she later told News 12.

WENDY'S RESPONDS TO BURGER KING'S PROMPOSAL

Fortunately, the EMS professional with 20 years of experience knew exactly what to do. Corrado began CPR chest compressions on the victim, as civilian witnesses called 911.

Hard, fast, and he went from blue to pale to pink, his eyes started to move, then his eyes opened and he actually started to talk and asked what is going on, Cornado said.

After two minutes of CPR, the 62-year-old man was revived.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Empress EMS parademic Tina Harbach helped transport the man to Westchester Medical Center, and confirmed to News 12 that it was believed the man suffered a heart attack. Corrado confirmed to Fox News on May 10 that the man has since received open heart surgery in the wake of the incident.

No one else was hurt in the crash, and the CVS reopened for business on May 4. CVS customers who witnessed the scene voiced their amazement at Corrados intervention, given her craving for a Slurpee.

Its Gods hand in our lives, shopper Nan Gollogy told CBS.

Oddly, May 3 also marked the two-year anniversary of an SUVs crash into the same CVS, an accident that left two injured, News 12 reports.A shark wrangler caught social media users attention this week when a photo emerged of him with a 12-foot hammerhead shark on a Florida beach  but the fish wasnt the only star of the image.

Elliot Sudal was in Sanibel over the weekend and caught two hammerhead sharks, one measuring up to 12 feet. Sanibel-Captiva Islander posted photos of Sudal with his massive catch on Monday, and said the sharks were quickly tagged with research data and safely released back into the ocean.

Its the biggest thing you could possibly catch off the beach, Sudal told WINK News. I mean, these things are strong. They are good fighters, youve got big reels, big hooks  its exciting.

WATCH: FISHERMAN GIVES C-SECTION TO DEAD SHARK, FREES 98 PUPS

The post received more than 570 reactions and nearly 200 comments, with many users saying they didnt even notice the shark because of Sudals physique, which was on full display in the pictures.

Whos looking at the shark here? one woman questioned, referencing to Sudal as the main attraction in the pictures.

Another woman followed up with the comment, I didnt even notice the shark in the picanyone else??

Im not sure whats more impressive, the shark or that guys abs?!? one woman wrote.

ABSolutely the best looking shark Ive ever seen at the beach, another person said.

Turns out, this isnt the only impressive catch Sudal has made.

The wrangler, who works with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has been a shark hunter for the last four years. He has caught and released more than 500 sharks, according to WINK News. The 12-foot hammerhead Sudal caught over the weekend was named after his Instagram account, AckSharks, which itself is filled with videos and photos of his impressive catches.

SEE IT: NEW ZEALAND FISHERMAN REELS IN 321-POUND MARLIN TOO BIG FOR HIS BOAT

Sudal also caught Vice President Pences attention last April, while he was shark hunting on Sanibel Island. He was attempting to reel in a 500-pound mystery creature when Secret Service agents swarmed the catch site. Pence and his family later showed up for a relaxing day on the beach, he wrote in a Facebook post. Pence joined Sudal and watched him catch a 13-foot smalltooth sawfish.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Though many shy away from sharks, Sudal told the news site he wants to bring more awareness to the fish.

Finding out how they are moving and why, depending on water quality, temperature, climate change, things like that," he said, referring to his love for the job.

Sudal will be working with the New England Aquarium in the summer to run the Nantucket shark research division studying the migration of sand bar sharks, according to the Sanibel-Captiva Islander.Physicians at an Army medical facility in Texas were able to surgically give a soldier a brand new ear that was "grown" in her arm after she lost the use of her own following a car accident, according to a report Monday.

Surgeons at William Beaumont Army Medical Center (WBAMC) were able to craft the new ear for Pvt. Shamika Burrage, 21, by using cartilage from her rib cage, which was inserted beneath the skin on her arm in order to develop new blood vessels in a process called neovascularization, according to an article by the U.S. Army detailing the total ear reconstruction.

"(The ear) will have fresh arteries fresh veins and even a fresh nerve so she'll be able to feel it," Lt. Col. Owen Johnson III, chief, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at WBAMC said.

Burrage said in the report that she didnt lose any hearing and (Johnson) opened the canal back up, which had closed following the car accident.

TEXAS KIDNEY RECIPIENT TO GET LIFE-SAVING ORGAN FROM STRANGER ANSWERING DIVINE CALL TO DONATE

The surgery was reportedly a first for the military branch and Johnson said the team is hopeful that by the time the entire process is completed, itll look and act like an ear that Burrage was born with. She is reportedly slated to undergo two more surgeries.

"As a young active-duty Soldier, they deserve the best reconstruction they can get," Johnson said.

The crash that affected Burrages ear occurred in 2016 while she was returning from leave and en route to Fort Bliss, Texas, the report said. A blown-out tire reportedly caused the car to veer off the road and tumble a number of times before she was thrown from the vehicle. Her pregnant cousin was also in the car, however she was reportedly not significantly injured.

But the then-19-year-old soldier injured her head and spine, got road rash and lost all use of her left ear, according to the report.

CALIFORNIA MAN OFFERS TRUCK, KIDNEY TO ANYONE WHO CAN HELP SAVE DYING WIFE

"I was on the ground, I just looked up and (her cousin) was right there, Burrage said. Then I remember people walking up to us, asking if we were okay and then I blacked out." The next thing she said she remembered was regaining consciousness in the hospital.

After the accident, Burrage started going to a counselor, the report said.

"I didn't feel comfortable with the way I looked so the provider referred me to plastic surgery," Burrage said.

While the soldier wasnt keen on the surgery at first, she ultimately changed her mind, the report said.

"I didn't want to do (the reconstruction) but gave it some thought and came to the conclusion that it could be a good thing, Burrage said. I was going to go with the prosthetic, to avoid more scarring but I wanted a real ear. I was just scared at first but wanted to see what he could do."

But since her surgery, Burrage said that shes looking forward to whats to come.

"It's been a long process for everything, but I'm back," Burrage said.A California man offered up his prized possessions, including a kidney, in the hopes that someone would be able to save his wifes life.

In a plea to Facebook users last week, Verlon Robinson initially offered to give up his 2004 Dodge pickup truck and a tent trailer to anyone who would be willing to donate a piece of their liver to his sick wife. However, hes since been contacted by the hospital and said he isnt allowed to offer material goods in exchange for an organ donation.

In the post, he added a postscript that said he has good kidneys and would also be willing to throw in one. For anyone who can help his wife, that offer still stands, he said.

Robinson, 55, has been married to Marie for 25 years, he told Fox News on Tuesday. About three years ago, Maries doctor noticed some spots on her chest. After some tests, she was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver.

Cirrhosis can occur when a liver is damaged, forming scar tissue, according to the Mayo Clinic. But the more scar tissue that forms, the less functional a liver becomes.

Marie and Robinson often travel from their home in Sanger, California, to San Francisco -- more than three hours away -- for doctors' appointments and tests. Marie, who is also diabetic and has recently lost about 70 pounds, is on a transplant list, but she isnt high enough to receive a liver from on organ donor who has died yet, her husband said.

And by the time she is high enough on that list, Robinson worries that shell be out of time to wait.

So Robinson is taking matters into his own hands. He has asked that anyone who has O-positive or O-negative blood type to apply to the UCSF Medical Center to see if they could qualify to donate a piece of their liver to his wife. His insurance would cover the procedure, he said.

I just love my wife. If I could take her place, I would, Robinson told Fox News. I believe God put her in my life and changed me and gave me a new heart for life.

Robinson said hes been fielding messages left and right ever since his Facebook post began to go viral. Some people have applied to see if they can donate; others share messages of encouragement or advice. Many said they would not have taken his truck if they are a match.

I just love my wife. If I could take her place, I would.

For now, Marie, 61, sleeps in a hospital bed in their home with her husband right beside her in a recliner. And despite her health battles, shes still smiling, Robinson said.

She wants to live, and I see her going through all this, and it breaks my heart, he said.

According to the UCSF Medical Center, a recipient can get a piece of a liver from a living donor because that organ is able to regenerate and grow. It said livers can regenerate within eight weeks.

Acceptable donors must be between 18 and 55 years old and in good health, meaning not overweight, no psychiatric illnesses and no smoking habits, according to the medical center. The liver must also be a gift and not coerced.

The process to become a donor can take from four to six months, according to UCSF.

In April, the Robinsons celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. But if Marie can get a new liver, Robinson plans to take his wife out to really celebrate.

Those who wish to do so can apply to become a living liver donor through the UCSF Medical Center. Maries date of birth is January 12, 1957.

This story has been updated.A 7-week-old baby who suffered a traumatic brain injury when she was hit by a softball last week is being treated at the Mayo Clinic and has shown signs of modest improvements, reports said.

McKenna Hovenga was at a ballfield in Shell Rock, Iowa, on May 2 with her parents, Lee and Kassy Hovenga.

While another team was on the field, Lee was helping his wife get situated to breastfeed when a ball flew over the fence, family member Laura Heise wrote on a public Facebook page on Sunday.

Lee had his back to the field and never saw the ball coming. The ball came over the fence -- and either hit McKenna first or hit Kassy first, Heise wrote. We're really not sure as it happened so fast and Kassy was looking down at McKenna as she was feeding. Neither of them saw the ball as it came over the fence.

Authorities said the ball was overthrown.

McKenna was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was being treated for a skull fracture, two brain bleeds and seizures, Heise said on a fundraising page for the baby.

Doctors have since started to wean Mckenna off her seizure medication and a neurologist told the family that infants brain activity is calming down.

A YouCaring.com page for McKenna has been set up to raise funds for medical expenses. As of Wednesday evening, the page has reached $49,337 of its $50,000 goal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A renowned 104-year-old Australian scientist died Thursday, ending his life in a medically assisted suicide at a Swiss clinic.

David Goodall, who was not terminally ill, happily sang a few bars of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at a news conference Wednesday on the eve of his assisted suicide in Basel. He told reporters that he was happy to have the chance tomorrow to end it."

"At my age, and even at rather less than my age, one wants to be free to choose the death and when the death is the appropriate time, Goodall said. My abilities have been declining over the past year or two, and my eyesight for the past five or six years, and I no longer want to continue life."

Goodall, who wore a shirt that read Ageing Disgracefully, said he has considered using lethal injection, but that hell defer to doctors on the method.

Euthanasia is currently banned in Australia where the scientist lived, which prompted the scientists trek to Switzerland last week.

Swiss law currently allows assisted suicide for anyone who acknowledges in writing that they are taking their lives willingly  without being forced. The decades-old legislation that authorized the practice states that people who help others to die cannot do so for "selfish" reasons.

The state of Victoria in Australia recently passed an euthanasia bill, the Washington Post reported. In 2019, it will be legal for terminally ill patients to undergo the procedure. Six states in the U.S., including California, Vermont and Oregon have passed death-with dignity laws for terminally ill people.

Goodall said Wednesday that he hopes to be remembered as an instrument of freeing the elderly so others could choose death with dignity without traveling to Switzerland.

The centenarian has already bid goodbye to family members in Australia and France. Four family members and a close friend traveled with Goodall to be at his side when he died.

"I am glad to have the chance [to die] but would have preferred to have had it in Australia," he said.

The botanist ruled out a return to his beloved Australian countryside, though he wished to return to the Northwestern Kimberley region, his favorite area, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

There are many things I would like to do, I suppose, but its too late. I am content to leave them undone.

Fox News Kathleen Joyce and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Burberry has accused Target of repeated misuse of its iconic check-plaid print in a lawsuit filed against the superstore earlier this month.

The luxury fashion house filed suit against Target Corporation and Target Brands, Inc. in New York court, Fashionista reports. The May 2 suit claims that Target has recently sold various products including eyewear, luggage, stainless-steel bottles and scarves that infringe on Burberrys trademarked print.

Making matters worse, the British fashion house says that this isnt the first time theyve tried cracking down on Targets use of the print  in early 2017, they sent the Minneapolis-headquartered chain a cease and desist letter.

HOW MEGHAN MARKLES WEDDING DRESS WILL IMPACT THE GOWN INDUSTRY

"Targets misuse of the Burberry Check Trademark on counterfeit and infringing merchandise has significantly injured Burberrys hard-earned reputation and goodwill, and has diluted the distinctiveness of the famous Burberry Check Trademark," the complaint states, according to Fashionista.

Furthermore, the label claims that Target shoppers are likely to believe the products are indeed connected to the Burberry brand given Target's "well-publicized history of collaborating with popular brands and fashion designers.

In recent years, Target has collaborated with upscale labels including Altuzarra, Phillip Lim, Prabal Gurung and Jason Wu, as well as covetable consumer favorites like Lily Pulitzer and Hunter, according to a Target news release.

IDAHO POSTAL WORKERS ARE DYEING THEIR HAIR BLUE FOR A GOOD CAUSE

As Racked points out, though fashion brands constantly imitate and inspire one another, Targets use of the Burberry pattern is pretty outrageous given the companys ownership of the trademark for the plaid and history of lawsuits against retailers like J.C. Penney and Body Glove for misusing it.

Burberry seeks an injunction barring Target from selling any infringing items, as well as destroying existing products, and monetary damages of up to $2 million and court costs.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWSNEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

The New York Post recently reported that Rosie ODonnell made illegally over-sized campaign donations to at least five Democratic federal candidates, according to a Post analysis of campaign filings.

The Post story goes on to state: The liberal comedian has regularly broken Federal Election Commission rules limiting the total any one person can give to an individual candidate at $2,700 per election. The limit applies separately to primaries, runoffs and general elections.

If the Post story is accurate, federal prosecutors have an obligation to charge ODonnell with violating campaign finance law and to put her on trial. And if shes found guilty, my advice to the sentencing judge would be to give her a sentence including confinement and a sizable fine  just as I received for violating campaign finance law.

If I  a prominent conservative  can be labeled a criminal for donating too much to a campaign, then far-left, Trump-bashing ODonnell should get the same treatment.

If I must endure being a lifelong felon while ODonnell gets off scot-free, can we say that Lady Justice is truly blind?

Lots of people in every election give more than theyre supposed to. In other words, campaign finance violations are extremely common. And they are almost never seriously prosecuted.

The New York Post article quoted prominent campaign finance lawyer Jan Witold Baran as saying: Donors are rarely fined for excess contributions and then only if they are hiding the donations from the recipients.

I was an exception to the rule and that has made me particularly interested in how campaign finance violations are handled. In the 2012 case, I gave $20,000 over the limit to a single candidate  Wendy Long, a college friend of mine running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in New York.

For that I was sentenced in U.S. District Court in New York City to eight months of overnight confinement, a $30,000 fine, five years of probation and one day of community service per week for five years. Im still on probation and still doing the community service, which doesnt expire until October 2019.

Now Rosie ODonnell has been caught exceeding the campaign finance limit by giving more than the maximum permitted donation of $2,700 to victorious Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Doug Jones in Alabama, victorious Democratic congressional candidate Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania, and to three other candidates, the Post reported.

ODonnells defense, as she wrote in an email to the Post, is that she didnt know she was exceeding the limits. She wrote that candidates should refund the money if she donated too much, and added that I just donate assuming they do not accept what is over the limit.

I find this defense implausible because ODonnell used four different  though similar variations of her name and five different addresses.

The way ODonnell choreographed her contributions clearly suggests that she was trying to conceal the fact that they were all coming from the same person. I suspect she knew she was breaking the law.

But even if ODonnell was telling the truth, the law doesnt work like that. Her defense is about as logical as the guy who thinks he can go just as fast as he wants on the highway, and believes that if hes going too fast the cops can stop him and tell him to slow down. Try that the next time you get stopped and youll see its a futile defense.

Now in the old days, say the 1980s, if you had told me about ODonnells offense and asked me whether I thought she should go to jail for it, I would have said she should not. Why?

First, because these campaign finance limits dont make a whole lot of sense. Why set an arbitrary $2,700 limit when millionaires and billionaires can easily get around them and give huge amounts through political action committees?

Second, justice demands that the penalty fit the crime. Campaign finance prosecutions make the most sense when there is corruption involved: when someone is trying to get a quid pro quo, which is to say, get appointed to a position, or obtain favors from candidates upon their election. This was obviously not the case with ODonnell.

Normally, ODonnells type of offense is punished with community service and a fine. But we are not living in normal types, as my own campaign finance case illustrates.

Mine was a clear instance of politically motivated prosecution. Two indications of that are contained right in my FBI file, which is now in the hands of a congressional oversight committee.

In the FBI file, Im red-flagged as a political conservative who made a movie critical of President Obama. Why mention this? The FBI did it to signal to the Obama Justice Department and its stooges that I was a political enemy they might want to prosecute.

The FBI also made an initial outlay of $100,000 to investigate my $20,000 case. Again, this is odd. But it is also consistent with a political hit. Clearly the FBI was working in cahoots with Obama-appointed U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and his prosecutorial team in New York City to make sure that they nailed their target.

Finally, the injustice of the case can be seen in the verdict. No American has been even charged, let alone received such a severe penalty, for doing what I did. And no prominent person on the other side of the aisle had a similar case, until ODonnells situation was recently brought to light.

ODonnell seems by all accounts to have broken the law, and broken it five times. This makes her offense five times worse than mine, in my view.

Im not saying she deserves five times the penalty I received, but I am saying that assuming the facts are true as reported by the Post  as ODonnell herself seems to admit  she should receive at least a severe a penalty as mine. She is, after all, a serial or repeat offender and repeat offenses are always taken more seriously than a first and one-time offense.

Yet the same people who are jubilant over my conviction have gone dead silent on ODonnell. They know my prosecution was political, and they approve. But now they want ODonnell to get off with the normal treatment that usually goes with offenses uncontaminated by corrupt motives.

Yet justice isnt just a matter of whether someone broke the law, but also about whether other similarly situated people are treated the same way. If I must endure being a lifelong felon while ODonnell gets off scot-free, can we say that Lady Justice is truly blind? Of course not.

In an earlier time, President Jimmy Carter would no more dream of locking me up for exceeding a campaign limit than Ronald Reagan would consider locking up left-wing activist Michael Moore for the same offense. It was a kinder, gentler America.

But we dont live in that America. The Democratic Party has been gangsterized by the likes of President Obama and Hillary Clinton, who were not above using the instruments of the state to put their political adversaries behind bars. And this course of action is generally approved by the progressive left in the media and groups like Media Matters.

There is only one solution to this: Do the same to them! And maybe this will show them that two can play at this game, and that if they dont want their team being locked up for minor offenses, stop doing this to the other side. Paradoxically, the best hope for a return to civility and normalcy is to prosecute Rosie ODonnell to the full extent of the law.

The Trump Justice Department should work with the U.S. attorneys in every district that ODonnell may have broken the law. Id like to see her face multiple indictments. And I wont be especially sorry if she suffers the same fate I did, or worse, because I expect that she was one of those who cheered the loudest when I had my sentence read out to me.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

When I worked as a CIA officer, playing politics wasnt part of the job  not for me, not for any of my colleagues. But after watching Democratic senators play to the cameras at the confirmation hearing Tuesday on Gina Haspels nomination to become CIA director, I was disappointed to see politics was their major focus.

Haspel is a brilliant intelligence officer with 33 years at the CIA. She has devoted most of her adult life to protecting our nation and won awards for her outstanding performance. Like all of us at the CIA, shes never carried out her responsibilities as a Democrat or a Republican  but as an American patriot.

But if viewers were hoping for an adult discussion at Haspels televised confirmation hearing about how to best protect our nation from terrorists and hostile foreign nations, they got something quite different.

Americans watching the hearing were treated to over two hours of bumbling, partisan attacks that left listeners with one clear takeaway: Democrats were focused on the sins of the past, not of the threats of the future. Moreover, they showed no interest in helping fix what is clearly a broken CIA.

Americans watching the Haspel hearing were treated to over two hours of bumbling, partisan attacks that left listeners with one clear takeaway: Democrats were focused on the sins of the past, not of the threats of the future.

In other words, the Democratic senators on the Intelligence Committee who fancy themselves as progressive thinkers ended up looking like a bunch of circus clowns who missed the train ride home. Their inane questions and partisan motivations ended up embarrassing not just themselves but the party and the nation.

Ironically, if Haspel had been nominated by President Obama to head the CIA a few years earlier, Democratic senators would have most likely strongly supported her nomination  hailing her as the first woman to head the CIA.

But because she was instead nominated by President Trump  the Republican who Democratic lawmakers love to hate  Haspel became the target of unceasing Democratic attacks.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., led the fateful charge, focusing his questions on Haspels connection to the CIAs now discredited counter-terrorism programs involving what the CIA called enhanced interrogation and what critics have called torture.

Haspel made it crystal clear that she would refuse to engage in similar operations if ever requested by President Trump.

Were not getting back into that business, Haspel said. Translation: we made a mistake, we learned our lesson, and it will never happen again.

But that wasnt good enough for Warner and his Democratic colleagues, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California. She cited a book by former CIA lawyer John Rizzo that claimed Haspel was one of the biggest cheerleaders of what has been called the torture program  and was in charge of interrogating Al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah herself.

Unfortunately for Feinstein, Rizzo and his book have been proven to be wrong about Haspels role. In fact, Rizzo has since backtracked on his assertions. So too have multiple news organizations. When Haspel shared this news, Feinstein looked like a deer frozen in headlights.

Nevertheless, Feinstein quickly pivoted to the concern of Haspels role in destroying videotapes that depicted CIA officers interrogating Al Qaeda suspects. The senator claimed that there were countless videos of 92 detainees being tortured, as I understand it.

No, Haspel shot back. The tapes involved only one detainee, not 92.

Feinstein paused. Oh, alright. Well, thank you for that.

Indeed.

Haspel went on to remind the bumbling senators that independent auditors had reviewed the destroyed videotapes and compared them to the cables drafted by the officers who conducted the interrogations. Their findings? The cables were detailed, accurate, and complete in their representations of the videos, thus making the videos redundant.

And so it went for two hours, with Democratic Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Kamala Harris of California, and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico continuing the barrage of questions and angry rhetoric aimed at Haspel.

The most absurd moment belonged to Sen. Heinrich, who peppered Haspel on her moral compass. Heinrich explained that he was not interested in whether the interrogation programs were legal, but rather (if) they were the right thing to do.

As Haspel attempted to answer the question, a dissatisfied Heinrich interrupted, complaining she was being too legalistic.

I want to feel that you have (a) moral compass, Heinrich said, sounding more like a New Age guru leading a meditation session than a senator inquiring about whether the law was followed.

At that point, the hearing firmly became what Democrats had long intended it to be: a therapy session about their feelings. About torture. About President Trump. About their childhoods. Who knows?

In other words, to hell with facts or the law. Neither need apply during the Haspel debate. Lets instead turn the United States Senate into a padded safe room where we can talk about feelings.

The only reprieve during the two-hour debacle was a series of questions asked by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on the threats to the U.S. posed by China. Another colleague asked about how the CIA might help stop the flow of opioids and meth streaming into American communities from abroad.

You know, the stuff that actually affects the safety and security of the nation.

Meanwhile, for those Americans who know a bit about the problems facing the intelligence community, there was no mention of how to fix the troubled CIA itself. For instance, consider the massive reorganization launched by now-disgraced former Director John Brennan, a man who once claimed that the CIA doesnt steal secrets.

Brennans widely panned effort has led to considerable upheaval at the CIA, with a clear impact on its ability to protect the nation.

Additionally, there was no conversation about how Haspel might tackle the CIAs culture of discrimination against women or how to stop pervasive sexual harassment.

Finally, there was zero debate about the little-known crisis involving abusive senior spies pushing out the best and brightest officers from the clandestine service. In other words, there was no discussing Haspels strategy for ejecting the operational deadbeats in order to strengthen the CIAs fighting force.

Apparently, none of this mattered to Senate Democrats. They were much too consumed with other issues from a decade ago. Like 92 detainees who never existed. Or faux outrage over destroyed videotapes. Never mind Iran, North Korea, or Syria. Never mind ISIS, Al Qaeda or the scourge of illegal drugs.

After two hours, I can only imagine the impression these senators left on Haspel. But, if I know how spies think, I suspect she mused, Oh, alright. Well, thank you for that and now its time to get back to work.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Israel responded forcefully early Thursday to about 20 Iranian missiles launched from Syria just after midnight local time against the Jewish state  and handed Iran a painful lesson in strategic deterrence.

Israeli warplanes and missiles hit about 70 Iranian military targets in Syria and killed an undetermined number of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps fighters and Syrian soldiers, according to early reports.

Iranian boasts about the invincibility and power of their forces were exposed as one more lie in the long series of lies by the Islamic Republic.

Targets of the Israeli counterattack against the unprovoked Iranian aggression included the main Iranian Revolutionary Guards base near Damascus, military positions of Hezbollah terrorist fighters, Syrian air bases used by Iran to launch drone and missile attacks against Israel, and much more.

As far as we know so far, no Israeli aircraft were hit, nor did Syria launch its Russian-supplied S-300 air defense missiles against Israeli jets. That may have been the result of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus trip to Moscow on Wednesday, where he spent 10 hours with Russian President Vladimir Putin, ostensibly to commemorate the allied victory over the Nazis in World War II.

When the smoke clears, Israels coordinated strike will be compared to its June 1982 pre-emptive strike against Syrias air force and air defense systems in Lebanons Bekaa Valley.

That earlier battle was the first time Israel used the F-4 Wild Weasel and was the first modern air battle using electronic warfare. The result: Israel destroyed Syrias air defenses and shot down 85 Syrian aircraft, while losing none.

For weeks, Iran has been threatening military strikes on Israel. In mid-April, the commander of Irans regular army, Brig. Gen. Kioumars Heydari, proclaimed that the date has already been set by the Iranian leadership for the destruction of Israel.

Many Iran experts typically dismiss such warmongering bombast, since Irans leaders have been making empty boasts about their military might for years.

But given the enormous military buildup over the past two years by Iran in Syria, Lebanon, and in Gaza  resulting in Iranian-backed forces and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards now bracketing Israel on all three sides  Israels leaders have been taking such warnings seriously.

Over the past few days, Israel picked up indications of unusual Iranian and Hezbollah military activity in Syria, and rushed additional missile interception systems to the Galilee and the Golan Heights.

The Iranians were warning that they intended to strike back against Israel in retaliation for isolated Israeli strikes against Iranian positions in Syria over the past two weeks.

On Tuesday Israel issued a partial call-up of reservists, a move it rarely takes unless it believes hostilities are imminent.

When the Iranian missiles struck Thursday morning, Israel was well-prepared. According to the Israel Defense Force, Israels Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted several of the Iranian missiles, while others fell harmlessly to the ground inside Syria.

So far, the reaction in Tehran to the new outbreak of fighting has been strangely muted.

There is always the possibility that Iran could strike out massively against Israel  unleashing the 150,000 rockets it has supplied to Hezbollah in Lebanon and ordering its proxies in Gaza to launch waves of children to assault Israel border posts in the hopes of provoking a massacre. However, I suspect that fear of a massive Israeli attack on Iran itself will keep the Iranians in check.

Why? Because Israel has been laying the groundwork through strategic deterrence well before this latest skirmish.

The astonishing intelligence coup of Israels Mossad foreign intelligence service in spiriting away Irans Atomic Archive from highly secure vaults in downtown Tehran spooked Irans leaders. That Mossad could strike in Tehran itself, at the most carefully guarded secrets of the regime, has shaken Irans leaders to the core.

The intelligence triumph also made Iranian leaders appear weak in front of their own people. Israels new strikes inside Syria have accentuated that impression of weakness.

Iranian Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleymani is trying to spin the attacks on Israel as a great Iranian victory. This is absurd.

An artistic rendering on his Instagram page, which is very popular in Iran, shows Suleymani punching Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the face while carrying an Iranian flag.

I believe the fantasy cartoon is a tell. And what it shows is that the Iranian regime is desperately looking for ways to declare victory, cover up its weakness and go home.

Iranian government leaders understand that they remain in power for one reason only: the Iranian people believe they are powerless to overthrow them.

Israel has struck Iran where it is most vulnerable. The Mossad coup, coupled to the Thursday morning Israeli strikes in Syria, have sent an unmistakable message to Irans leaders and to the Iranian people: the Iranian regime is weak. It is vulnerable. It can be toppled.

So how will the Iranian regime respond? Will it lash out in a desperate attempt to show that it retains its power, that it remains invincible? Or, fearing Israels military might, will Irans leaders cower in fear?

If I were a betting man, Id put my money on them cowering. After all, no Iranian leader has yet to die from committing suicide, even though they have urged others to do so. They are survivors.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Its safe to say that no U.S. Supreme Court decision in the last generation was as unpopular as Kelo v. City of New London, decided on a 5-4 vote in 2005.

The high courts ruling seemed to turn an explicit guarantee in the Bill of Rights  nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation  into a virtual inkblot. It stamped a seal of approval on the right of state and local governments to take land that benefited private development rather than satisfied public need.

But that wasnt the end of the story. The uproar over what came to be known as the Kelo Decision  93 percent of people in one poll were opposed to it  united groups as disparate as the NAACP and the tea party.

Within months, public pressure had prompted legislatures in more than 40 states to initiate changes in law that made it more difficult to take private property to transfer ownership to other private parties.

Court decisions since then have been far more skeptical of eminent domain abuses. And to this day, Kelo still resonates. Donald Trump, a real estate developer, took a lot of flak for his support of Kelo during the 2016 presidential primaries. One of his aides even admitted to me it hurt Trumps image as a tribune of the little guy.

The raw issues tied up in the Kelo decision  ranging from where the right of a homeowner to hold out against planners ends to how much the definition of blight can be stretched to justify a government taking  have now been taken up in a new movie that tells the real-life story behind Kelo.

If you want to see a stirring, modern-day updating of a Frank Capra film that roots for the underdog, Little Pink House is just your ticket. As an added bonus, rock legend David Crosby contributed a song for the movies closing credits.

Susette Kelo, a single mom and paramedic, thought she had found the perfect home in her working-class town of New London, Connecticut. She bought the modest frame house with the ocean front view, remodeled it and painted it a shade of pink called Odessa rose.

But it wasnt long before state and local officials began scheming with the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to turn her dream into a nightmare. Flush with cash from sales of its new drug Viagra, Pfizer proposed to build a new plant near Kelos neighborhood.

Connecticuts governor, Republican John Rowland, saw the chance to take credit for creating jobs. He recruited a local college president to lead the effort to expand the plan to transform the 100 residences in the adjacent neighborhood of Fort Trumbull into a development with condos and a luxury hotel.

It wasnt long before Susette Kelo came home one night to find a note on her door from the New London Development Association offering to buy her house. But Kelo wasnt interested, and as the association became more menacing and threatened to seize the property under eminent domain, she became the leader of the resistance.

Kelo organized protests at local government meetings, stood down the police when they came to forcibly remove her, and teamed up with six of her neighbors to stay despite the threat that their streets would be demolished.

Her efforts attracted the notice of the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm in Washington, which specializes in fighting for individual rights. Institute lawyers took up her case and argued it all the way to the Connecticut Supreme Court. Kelo lost there in a 4-3 decision, but after a five-year struggle found her case going all the way to the Supreme Court.

Many observers couldnt imagine the court justifying the bullying of Fort Trumbulls residents. But in reality the Supreme Court had been chipping away at the distinction between taking land for public use versus private benefit ever since the New Deal.

As law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds points out, in 1954 the high court decided in the case of Berman v. Parker that when the legislature has spoken, the public interest has been declared in terms well nigh conclusive. In other words, if policymakers want to simply decree something is in the public interest the courts are highly unlikely to stop them.

The courts Kelo decision followed post-New Deal precedents, but it was still a close call. Then-Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OConnor joined three other justices in a vigorous dissent, warning that the majority opinion would mean the specter of condemnation hands over all property. Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory.

The public outcry against the Kelo decision and subsequent strengthening of private property rights as a result make such warnings less likely.

But the lessons of Kelo must be remembered. Among them is that government is often far more likely to break its promises of jobs and development than it is to keep them.

After plowing through $90 million in public subsidies, in 2009 Pfizer decided to abandon plans for building its new plant, and visions of the neighboring luxury development vanished at the same time. But the Fort Trumbull neighborhood had already been demolished  save for Susette Kelos little pink house, which was taken down, moved nearby and reassembled.

The place where Kelos house and over 100 other homes and businesses once stood is now a series of vacant lots, occupied by feral animals and the sound of silence.

But Fort Trumbull lives on in the movie Little Pink House, which is now in limited national release. You can watch the trailer here, and the Institute for Justice will help any group of 70 or more people to book a theater for a local showing.

The film is a rousing celebration of underdogs fighting against the Goliaths of big government and big business. The portrayal of the heroes avoids portraying them as saints, while at the same time the villains are properly skewered for their hypocrisy.

In one scene, the manipulative head of the New London Development Association reassures Fort Trumbull residents that social justice and economic development, they go hand in hand.

Later, a wrecking crew crushes the home of an aging married couple after the police have carted them away by force. A spectator watching the scene turns to the development head with the devastating line: Interesting way to champion the cause of social justice, Charlotte.

A good way to champion the individual rights that make America exceptional would be to go see Little Pink House and encourage your local schools and civic associations to show the film. The movie isnt up to the level of Frank Capras Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but it will have you cheering Kelo as she fights City Hall and teaches us all valuable lessons about our freedoms.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Late last week, a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, questioned the authority of special counsel Robert Mueller to seek an indictment and pursue the prosecution of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort for alleged financial crimes that, according to the indictment, began and ended well before Donald Trump ran for president. Mueller was appointed special counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein because of allegations that Rosenstein accepted of a conspiracy by members of the Trump campaign to accept assistance from a foreign person, entity or government, which is a felony.

The application by Manafort's lawyers before Judge T.S. Ellis III was actually a motion to dismiss the indictment against Manafort for want of jurisdiction. Stated differently, Manafort argued that Mueller exceeded the authority granted to him by the Department of Justice and thus he has no legal ability -- jurisdiction -- to prosecute Manafort. During the course of the oral argument on this motion, the judge opined that in his view, Mueller is only prosecuting Manafort for bank and tax fraud to squeeze him to testify against President Trump on matters that might be impeachable.

The judge's comments as to Mueller's motivation are dicta. Dicta are the unsolicited, unnecessary and often personal opinions of the court on matters not strictly before the court and not integral to the court's ruling. Stated differently, there is an abundance of speculation in the media but zero evidence in the record before Judge Ellis -- zero -- on which he could base his opinion; and his opinion of the prosecutor's motivation is irrelevant. It made national headlines because Trump supporters agree with it, and it is probably accurate -- but it is legally meaningless.

Even if Judge Ellis were to dismiss the indictment against Manafort for want of Mueller's jurisdiction, the dismissal would mean only that Mueller cannot prosecute Manafort, not that Manafort cannot be prosecuted on these charges.

If the present indictment were to be dismissed, the local federal prosecutors in Alexandria would present the Mueller-gathered evidence against Manafort to another grand jury and ask it to issue a new indictment that makes the identical charges as those now pending. Then they would prosecute Manafort on the same charges that Mueller originally brought. The financial crimes charged, though unrelated to Mueller's initial duty of looking for a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and foreigners, are real, and no federal prosecutors with jurisdiction could ethically overlook them.

Judge Ellis' actual ruling -- clouded by the fog of his dicta -- gave Mueller two weeks to demonstrate his lawful jurisdiction. He can easily do that with a letter from Rosenstein. The letter can even be retroactive. Thus, all this focus on Judge Ellis' personal opinion of Mueller's motivation is much ado about national politics and has little to do with the rule of law. Who cares what a judge thinks about the motivations of the prosecutors?

The practice of indicting a person for a matter utterly unrelated to the core of the government's investigation in order to turn the indicted person into a government witness, though often repellant, is commonplace and has received approval by numerous Supreme Court opinions. Clearly, obtaining a guilty plea from retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the president's former national security adviser, for lying to FBI agents about the existence of a lawful telephone conversation and obtaining a guilty plea from Rick Gates, Manafort's former business partner and deputy Trump campaign manager, for lying about who said what at a lawful meeting are parts of a plan to get these folks to give evidence or testimony about the president that prosecutors want to hear.

I have characterized this prosecutorial behavior as extortion or bribery, but I am in a small minority in the legal and judicial communities. The courts have made clear that prosecutors can nullify prison exposure by reducing charges to induce the testimony they want from a witness. Yet if defense counsel gave the same witness so much as a lollipop to shade his testimony, both would be indicted for bribery.

All this leads to the question: How independent are these prosecutors? The modern, post-Nixon Department of Justice has a little bit of unaccountability intentionally built into it based on natural law principles of right and wrong and on fear of an imperial presidency. President Richard Nixon believed he could do as he pleased with his DOJ -- and even boasted that if he did something, by definition it was not unlawful.

But prosecutors have ethical and moral obligations to prosecute crimes, and those duties transcend politics. Suppose President Trump told prosecutors not to prosecute his former friend Harvey Weinstein or his former lawyer Michael Cohen? I expect they would rightly ignore him.

I know this argument offends the belief of many of my colleagues that the Constitution gives the president sole and total command over all behavior in the executive branch of the federal government. But the natural law is superior to the Constitution and superior to the government.

The natural law teaches that through the exercise of reason, we know in our hearts what is right and what is wrong. Some things are right no matter what the government says, and some things are wrong no matter what the government says. The limited quasi-independence of the modern Department of Justice, born in the ashes of a presidency that publicly proclaimed that it could do no wrong, is a hallmark to these principles.

I offer these arguments because it now appears that the feared clash between President Trump and special counsel Mueller will soon come to a head, and one can only hope that the rule of law will prevail. But the rule of law is only a safeguard of our liberties when the people in whose hands we repose it for safekeeping are faithful to it though, in the motto of the DOJ, the heavens fall.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

President Trumps announcement Thursday that he will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore June 12 sets the stage for a summit that will only succeed if it advances American interests by making North Korea less of a threat to its neighbors and the U.S.

Ideally, the summit will end with Kim agreeing to get rid of all his nuclear weapons. More realistically, the summit will begin discussions that will find a way to limit the North Korean nuclear threat, deter the North from ever using nuclear weapons, and require the U.S. to grudgingly accept the reality of North Korea as a nuclear power.

Either way, in order for a Trump-Kim summit to succeed, the U.S. needs clear-eyed realism regarding the unlikelihood of full North Korean denuclearization, clarity on the costs of disarmament, and a recognition of the superiority of peace maintained by deterrence over choosing war.

America has long declared the Complete, Verifiable, and Irreversible Denuclearization (CVID) of North Korea to be its goal. Yet nuclear weapons are Kims best insurance against being targeted for regime change. Therefore, he is unlikely to give them up. Kim saw what happened when Libya, Iraq and Ukraine gave up their nuclear deterrence and doesn't want to share their fate.

There may be reason to hope, but we should temper our expectations. North Korea has a long history of false promises and contrived gestures designed to wring concessions from the international community. This is done through alternating threats and talks to stall or avoid sanctions aimed at thwarting its nuclear program.

In 1985, North Korea agreed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but refused to work with inspectors until the U.S. removed its nuclear weapons from South Korea.

America removed those weapons in 1991 and both Koreas signed the 1992 Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. North Korea admitted inspectors  only to later kick them out.

The second attempt at CVID was the 1994 Agreed Framework in which North Korea would suspend nuclear testing and allow inspectors in exchange for light water reactors. North Korea violated the Agreed Framework and the U.S. declined to revise it, causing the Agreed Framework to collapse in 2002.

Shortly afterward, North Korea successfully tested its first nuclear bombs in 2006 and 2009.

Finally, the most recent CVID efforts, the Six Party Talks, were held from 2003 until their failure in 2009. Since then, North Korea tested nuclear bombs in 2013, 2016 and 2017. Kim has achieved advances quicker than his predecessors. Now U.S. intelligence claims that the North either has or will soon have miniaturized nuclear warheads and missiles capable of reaching America.

This history lesson means any celebration over the Trump-Kim talks is premature. North Korea has promised denuclearization previously and leaders of both Koreas met before in 2000 and 2007.

Even the possibility of formally ending the Korean War was offered before in 2016. The only thing new was that Kim crossed briefly into South Korea when he met last month with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Although a big breakthrough in denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula could be possible when President Trump and Kim meet, theres no point in going into a meeting with wild optimism. President Trump should look at these talks through a sober lens and realize that the most likely outcome is continued North Korean nuclear power status, which the U.S. will have to counter through continued deterrence.

There are many questions leading up to President Trumps meeting with Kim. For instance, would Kim accept CVID or just a freeze on the nuclear weapons he already has? Is a U.S. promise not to attack sufficient (a promise broken in the cases of Libya and Iraq), or does Kim want a reduction or withdrawal of American troops from South Korea?

What about a reduction of sanctions? Does Kim still aim to weaken South Korea or is he actually a reformer like Deng Xiaoping, the former leader of China, who would want an opening to the world similar to President Nixons dramatic visit to China?

President Trump will have to keep in mind that any deal will take time, will likely not include full CVID, and will require concessions on both sides. The U.S. president will have to offer Kim a security and economic deal he cant refuse, and then turn around and sell that deal to the American people and Congress.

This will be even harder since Congress passed a law that prohibits economic sanctions relief for North Korea without progress on CVID. Most of the establishment hawks in Congress, the media and think tanks will not like any kind of grand bargain in which North Korea keeps some of its own nuclear deterrence or that results in the rehabilitation of Kims brutal regime.

Selling Kim on a deal may be hard, but so will be selling it to the American political class. Yet a solution that appeals to everyone's interests is possible. Kim could agree to a freeze and partial rollback of North Korean nuclear capabilities, which may be the most the U.S. can hope to get.

It is worth noting that Kim has already enacted economic liberalization reforms. Already there are competing products and prices in some stores and private market activity accounts for 30 to 50 percent of North Koreas gross domestic product.

Kim has also spoken of his desire for normal relations with America so that he can follow in Chinas footsteps from isolation to acceptance in the community of nations. Such a transformation would be historic and greatly enhance peace and stability.

However, whether CVID is accomplished or not, the present power balance remains better than war. America could destroy North Korea anytime it wants  but Kim could inflict grave harm to Americans and our allies.

A North Korean nuclear attack against Seoul in South Korea and Tokyo in Japan would kill an estimated 2.1 million people and injure an estimated 7.7 million more, according to one estimate.

Furthermore, North Korean collapse is not in Chinas national interests and so the threat of that might cause China to join the fight too. The fact that no conflict has occurred so far, and that China has at times wavered in its commitment to defending North Korea, is itself a testament to American nuclear deterrence as a peace-keeping force.

When President Trump and Kim meet, they will know the extent to which they would have to pay in blood if tensions flared past the point of no return. Therefore, it is better for President Trump to try and make a deal that meets the security needs of both countries rather than to resume a cycle of escalation.

Even if Kim's overtures are a ruse, the peace can still be maintained by American deterrence. A negative peace upheld by nuclear weapons is still better than a nuclear war.

The solution is not preventive war. The U.S. can deter North Korea indefinitely, which makes force unnecessary. Why sacrifice millions of lives to prevent a North Korean attack thats unlikely to happen anyway? The United States coexists with the Russia and China, and it can learn to do so with North Korea if the summit fails.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Before the Senate debates a bill to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller from being fired by President Trump, it should consider this: Muellers use of a subpoena to require testimony by the president would violate the separation of powers in the Constitution and is an abuse of the grand jury process.

In addition, Muellers proposed questions for President Trump in the special counsels wide-ranging investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election would violate Article II of the Constitution and executive privilege.

Heres a simple fact that Mueller chooses to ignore: A sitting president cannot be indicted. This fact cuts the legs out from under Muellers efforts to require testimony by President Trump.

In the wake of Watergate, a Republican Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in 1973 thoroughly discussed whether a president could be subject to criminal prosecution. Because the president is selected in a highly complex nationwide effort, the OLC found it would be incongruous to bring him down  by a jury of twelve, selected by chance off the street.

Action by the House and Senate, via impeachment, is the appropriate process for such a crucial task, made unavoidably political by the nature of the defendant, the OLC said.

The OLC observed that the modern Presidency has had to assume a leadership role undreamed of in earlier years. It added: The spectacle of an indicted President still trying to serve as Chief Executive boggles the imagination.

In 2000, because of three U.S. Supreme Court cases, a Democratic Justice Department OLC revisited the issue of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution.

Two cases concerned President Richard Nixon, the most well-known involving the Nixon tapes. After indicting Nixon aides, the special prosecutor in the case subpoenaed the Nixon tapes (recordings of the presidents conversations with his aides) for evidence at trial. The Supreme Court upheld the subpoena with specific limitations requiring in camera review (a legal term meaning privately, not in open court) and said only relevant and material information needed to be produced.

The other Nixon case held that the president was immune from civil liability for official acts.

In the third case, involving Paula Jones (who claimed Bill Clinton sexually harassed her), the Supreme Court held that Clinton was not immune from civil liability involving matters occurring before he took office, since such matters were not official presidential acts. (Independent Counsel Ken Starr withdrew his subpoena when President Clinton agreed to testify, so that case was not discussed.)

The OLC determined that none of the Supreme Courts rulings altered the 1973 opinion finding the president uniquely immune from criminal process.

In dealing with the Nixon tapes, the high court balanced the presidents generalized interest in confidentiality with the requirement of the fair administration of a criminal trial. Thus, the ruling had no bearing on whether a president could be indicted. The other two cases were civil.

The OLC noted that criminal prosecutions are different from civil litigation, requiring personal attention and imposing physical disabilities. Therefore, criminal proceedings against a President in office should not go beyond a point where they could result in so serious a physical interference with the Presidents performance of his official duties that it would amount to an incapacitation.

If Mueller cannot indict President Trump, what possible use can he make of any presidential testimony? The only option is that he will provide it to Congress for consideration of articles of impeachment.

But referring President Trumps testimony to Congress would abuse the grand jury process, which is only to be used for a criminal proceeding. According to the U.S. Attorneys Manual, which Special Counsel Mueller is obligated to follow: A grand jury has but two functions  to indict or, in the alternative, to return a no bill.

Providing the legislature with testimony obtained from an executive branch grand jury subpoena also violates the Constitutions separation of powers.

Mueller reports to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, an executive branch official. Impeachment is purely a legislative function. The executive cannot utilize its awesome power to compel grand jury testimony for the purpose of providing it to another governmental branch.

If Congress finds the presidents refusal to testify an impeachable offense, it can allege so in articles of impeachment.

The substance of the recently leaked list of questions that Special Counsel Mueller outlined for President Trumps counsel is also in violation of the Constitution and executive privilege. Not one of the questions passes requirements mandated by the Constitution and case law defining executive privilege.

Any question about firing FBI Director James Comey or obtaining National Security Adviser Michael Flynns resignation violates the presidents Article II authority to have vested in him all executive power.

The president had unfettered authority to fire both officials for any reason, for multiple reasons, or for no reason. Incidentally, if the firing of Comey can be construed as obstruction of justice, then Rosenstein  who discussed such a firing with the president and wrote a scathing memo recommending that Comey be fired  is a co-conspirator. Yet, he is supervising the Mueller investigation.

Numerous questions deal with the deliberative process, such as how were the decisions made to request the resignation of Flynn and to fire Comey. Some request information about the presidents discussions with White House Counsel Don McGahn.

The answers to these questions all involve the decision-making process and, as such, are clearly covered by executive privilege.

The president is not readily available to be interviewed under established case law. There must be a demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial, which courts have defined as evidence that is material to the matter at issue and not available elsewhere with due diligence.

Ignoring the obvious  that there is no criminal trial pending as in the Nixon tapes case  not one Mueller question can meet the standard that would require executive privilege to be waived.

Unless, of course, you count the numerous questions asking what the president thought in response to various situations. These include Comeys Jan. 6, 2017 briefing to President-elect Trump; Comeys March 20, 2017 testimony before the House Intelligence Committee; the appointment of a special counsel and other issues.

It is correct that only the president can state what he thought of the listed occasions. Yet, I recall the Catholic confessional as the only place where I have been penalized three Hail Marys after admitting to sinful thoughts. A presidents thoughts are not  and cannot be  the basis for any governmental inquiry.

Mueller has over a dozen experienced lawyers on his team. They are all veterans of the federal criminal justice system. They know very well that as executive branch personnel they must follow OLCs opinions that a president cannot be indicted.

And these lawyers know very well that no court has ever ruled that a president may be subpoenaed to testify in a criminal proceeding involving his own conduct.

The lawyers on Muellers team also know that the grand jury cannot be used to obtain evidence except for the criminal process. And yet, Special Counsel Mueller has threatened the president with a grand jury subpoena.

The Senate needs to pass a bill to protect the constitutional authority of the presidency, not the bad faith conduct of the special counsel.The Treasury Departments inspector general is investigating whether confidential banking information related to President Trumps personal lawyer Michael Cohen was leaked, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Rich Delmar, a counsel to the IG, said that in response to media reports, the office was inquiring into allegations that Suspicious Activity Reports on Cohens banking transactions were improperly disseminated.

Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for porn star Stormy Daniels, released a summary of the information Tuesday, showing that a number of companies, including one connected to a Kremlin-linked Russian billionaire, paid Cohens firm more than $1 million, supposedly for assorted services.

Avenatti declined to reveal the source of his information during an interview with the DC paper.

The source or sources of our information is our work product, and nobodys business, Avenatti said.

Click for more from the New York Post.President Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, accused the lawyer for adult film star Stormy Daniels Wednesday of making false accusations of "likely" bank fraud against him -- claiming that some of the supposed evidence involved the wrong Michael Cohen.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, who is overseeing proceedings in a federal criminal investigation of Cohen, attorneys Stephen Ryan and Todd Harrison accused Avenatti of publishing "numerous incorrect statements to the public in an apparent attempt to prejudice and discredit Mr. Cohen."

On Tuesday, Avenatti alleged that Cohen used a company he established weeks before the 2016 election to receive the payments from a variety of businesses  including $500,000 from one associated with a Russian billionaire.

In the letter to Wood on Wednesday, Cohen's attorneys claimed that Avenetti had incorrectly linked at least five wire transfers to their client. In two cases, they said the money was received by different Michael Cohens -- one residing in Canada and another in Israel.

"Mr. Avenattis conduct in somehow obtaining random bank records and publishing them without proper concern for their accuracy is extremely troubling for the parties in this case, the Court, and the public," Ryan and Harrison wrote.

Avenatti responded on Twitter late Wednesday saying the letter by Cohen's attorneys was "baseless, improper and sanctionable.

"They fail to address, let alone contradict, 99 [percent] of the statements in what we released," Avenatti tweeted. "Among other things, they effectively concede the receipt of the $500,000 from those with Russian ties."

Ryan and Harrison wrote that some of the information Avenatti published Tuesday did appear to come from Cohen's actual bank records and claimed that their client "has no reason to believe that Mr. Avenatti is in lawful possession of these records."

[Avenatti] should be required to explain ... how he came to possess and release this information," they added.

The Treasury Department's Office of the Inspector General said Wednesday it was investigating how allegations about Cohen's banking records became public, a response to the memo released by Avenatti.

Inspector general counsel Rich Delmar said the agency's actions stemmed from its authority as the federal agency that analyzes banking records for potential illegal activity. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, financial institutions must monitor their customers' activities and report suspicious transactions to the government. But that information is supposed to remain confidential.

When asked how he obtained the documents he published Tuesday, Avenatti told Fox News: "Thats my work product and will not be disclosed."

He then asked: "Why is Michael Cohen refusing to provide the bank statements to the public if what we have asserted is not true?"

Also Wednesday, three companies -- including AT&T and pharmaceutical giant Novartis -- acknowledged hiring Cohen's Essential Consultants to help them understand the new president during the early days of the Trump administration.

Novartis said in a statement that it paid Cohen $1.2 million for services, though they ended after a single meeting. A spokesman for Novartis said the company was contacted in November by Robert Mueller's office regarding its agreement with Essential Consultants, which expired this year.

AT&T said in a statement that Essential Consultants was one of several firms it "engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration." Avenatti alleged that the company made four $50,000 payments to Cohen totaling $200,000 in late 2017 and early 2018. AT&T said Cohen's company "did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017."

AT&T also said it was contacted last year by Mueller's office "regarding Michael Cohen." The company said it "cooperated fully, providing all information requested in November and December of 2017." AT&T added that its consulting contract with Cohen expired at the end of the year and it has received no questions since.

Fox News' Kristin Brown and The Associated Press contributed to this report.White House budget director Mick Mulvaney irked some members of the House Appropriations Committee on Monday after proposing that Congress slash $327 million from its $3.8 billion Legislative Branch funding bill.

The White House telling Congress how to spend money on its operations is an unusual practice, Politico reported.

In a letter to panel Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., and ranking member Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., Mulvaney identified numerous areas where Congress could reduce spending on itself. Those areas included House salaries and expenses, funding to the Architect of the Capitol, earmarks for public exhibits and visitor services, and the Library of Congress, the Politico report said.

The Administration appreciates the opportunity to highlight several accounts in the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill that are not in line with its view that spending for the Legislative Branch should be restrained, Mulvaney wrote.

The Administration appreciates the opportunity to highlight several accounts in the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill that are not in line with its view that spending for the Legislative Branch should be restrained.  Mick Mulvaney, White House budget director

Mulvaneys critics included U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., who were both CC'd on the letter.

Director Mulvaney should turn his calls for spending restraint toward the Trump Administrations mounting spending scandals involving the obscene waste of taxpayer money, Ryan told Politico. I didnt hear any calls for restraint from Director Mulvaney when the Administration used taxpayer dollars to buy a $43,000 phone booth or a $31,000 dining room table. Where is Director Mulvaney while the Administration is piling-up private jet costs and taking $120,000 Italian vacations  all on the government dime?

Ryan said the funding would help the legislative branch carry out its mission of writing our nations laws and exercising needed oversight over the Executive Branch.



Frelinghuysen has reportedly not yet responded to Mulvaneys letter. But the retiring lawmaker is waging a separate funding battle with another member of the Trump administration.

Having obtained funding in Congress' recent spending bill for the New York-New Jersey area's massive Gateway rail-tunnel project, Frelinghuysen is pushing back against Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who has confirmed that President Donald Trump threatened to shut down the government rather than finance the project, reported.

Chao, according the NJ.com, said the president was only being cordial when he appeared to signal support for the plan during a meeting last year with top New Jersey and New York officials.

But Frelinghuysen reminded Chao that New York and New Jersey bore the brunt of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and were also hard hit by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the report said.

"The benefits - no, the necessity - of this project is clear and I remain angered by this administration's opposition and very calculated indifference," Frelinghuysen said. "And this posture from an administration which claims to be 'infrastructure-centric!'"

The new Hudson River tube is necessary so that damage to the existing tunnel, inflicted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, can be repaired, the report said.

"Some have suggested that partisan considerations - by the White House and some in my own party - are at work here. I should hope not," Frelinghuysen said.

Chao responded that Gateway has to wait its turn and needs to fulfill the requirements.

"No political pressure is going to take one of those projects, put it at the head of the line ahead of all other projects, which is what is happening in this particular case," she said.

Despite opposition, Trump signed the $1.3 trillion spending bill that included $540 million for Gateway.

"I repeat: Gateway will be built," Frelinghuysen said.It's mildly amusing to watch cable pundits say that Michael Avenatti hijacked the prime-time coverage on Tuesday night from what was unquestionably a story of global importance, President Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

What happened is that journalists made the decision that the latest bit of information about Michael Cohen was more important at that moment than a landmark foreign policy decision that has U.S. allies and others concerned that the Iran regime can resume its nuclear program. Perhaps ratings were a factor. But you cant blame it on Stormy Daniels' camera-coveting lawyer.

I'm not saying the Cohen revelation is't newsworthy. But given that most of the coverage of the president's Iran move has been negative, making Cohen the lead underscores how invested the mainstream press is in the Russia investigation.

While Avenatti released some of the information, The New York Times had its own account:

"A shell company that Michael D. Cohen used to pay hush money to a pornographic film actress received payments totaling more than $1 million from an American company linked to a Russian oligarch and several corporations with business before the Trump administration."

This refers to "Columbus Nova, an investment firm in New York whose biggest client is a company controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, the Russian oligarch. A lawyer for Columbus Nova, in a statement on Tuesday, described the money as a consulting fee that had nothing to do with Mr. Vekselberg."

If that denial is bull, it could mark a convergence of what had been two separate investigations: Robert Mueller's probe of possible Russia collusion and obstruction, and the fix-it activities of Trump's personal lawyer on the hush money paid to Stormy and other matters. Mueller's investigators have interviewed Vekselberg, who has ties to Vladimir Putin and has been banned from entering the U.S.

The Russian billionaire's potential involvement smells fishy. After all, Trump was already paying Cohen a monthly $35,000 retainer.

But the other part of the story that has excited the press involves hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to Cohen from major corporationsincluding AT&T, Novartis and Korea Aerospace Industries. (The Washington Post says Mueller has sought information from Novartis.)

These appear to be just what they look likean attempt to buy influence by hiring a friend of the president, under the guise of "insights" or "strategic advice." But can we just take all the pearl-clutching down a notch? This goes on in every administration, Democratic and Republican. Isn't this in part what every K Street consultant shop stocked with former administration insiders is selling? Isn't this in part how Tony Podesta, brother of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman and Bill Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, built a lobbying empire? It is swampy, to be sure, but it's hardly novel.

Now if Cohen was using these barrels full of cash for questionable purposes, that's another question. But no one knows that at the moment.

Avenatti, who is constantly on CNN and MSNBC and has mused about getting his own show in the future, has played the media like a proverbial fiddle.

After releasing what he said were documents about Cohen's financial transactions around 5 p.m. Tuesday, Avenatti appearedperhaps arranged in advance?on "AC360" and then with Lawrence O'Donnell and Don Lemon. On Anderson Cooper, he gave a shout-out to the just-published Times story, and when a Times reporter tweeted that the paper had confirmed much of Avenatti's information, the lawyer tweeted back: "Always good to be confirmed and verified by The New York Times."

By Wednesday morning, Avenatti was on "Good Morning America," "Morning Joe," and CNN's "New Day."

Aware that he's looking like a publicity hound, Avenatti told Cooper there has been "some criticism about our media strategy, and how often I'm on CNN, and how often I've been on your show, and other networks. It's all a bunch of nonsense, because here's the bottom line, Anderson: it's working, OK? It is working in spades." He said people see him on the tube and call him with information.

Avenatti is doing his job. But the pundits should stop saying that his news-management skills are single-handedly driving the Stormy/Cohen story and pushing the Iran deal down a couple of commercial breaks. Those are decisions made by journalists themselves.It is said that if someone is to be unpopular, they must look the part. House Republicans appear to have seized that visage for now.

In Tuesday nights Senate primaries, things didnt go well in West Virginia for Republican Rep. Evan Jenkins, who lost the GOP nomination to square off with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., in November. Patrick Morrisey earned that honor, vanquishing Jenkins and former coal mine executive and convict Don Blankenship.

It was a double-whammy in the Hoosier State for House Republicans Tuesday.

Not long ago, political handicappers believed that Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., would face either Rep. Luke Messer, R-Ind., or Todd Rokita, R-Ind., in the general election. Nope. Messer and Rokita excoriated each other for months. In commercials, Republican Mike Braun exploited the internecine fighting between Messer and Rokita. Braun portrayed the Republican congressmen as bickering, grade-school rivals who each thought they were hot stuff. Another Braun ad asserted there was really no difference between Messer and Rokita. That spot portrayed both congressmen as life-size, cardboard cutouts.

Braun won  now he, not Messer or Rokita, will face incumbent Donnelly in the general election.

And then there was Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C. Pittenger defeated challenger Mark Harris by a mere 134 votes in the 2016 GOP primary. Pittenger wasnt as lucky this week, becoming the first House incumbent to lose in the 2018 cycle.

The exception to poor House Republican performance on Tuesday may have been Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Ohio, who defeated Mike Gibbons to secure the GOP nomination to face Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, this fall. But House Republicans see trouble.

A primary loss always sends shockwaves through a party on Capitol Hill. Whos next? Members of Congress are paranoid. They freak out when a greenhorn decapitates one of their own in a primary. Even the House chaplain isnt safe. And dont forget the lesson of Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., who flipped a historically Republican district in a special election to Democratic control recently. Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., just won a special election to succeed former Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., who resigned. But Leskos margin of victory was less than what it should have been in that Republican stronghold.

House Republicans are fretting about losing the House. Theres chatter about a blue wave. Retirements and departures are off the charts. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will soon be gone. An eye-popping nine House committee chairmen are exiting.

Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., is retiring. Then Dent announced he was quitting early. Dent is out the door at the end of the week. GOPers are nervous about how they message tax reform. Mike Braun was more than happy to aim the roll-call votes of Messer and Rokita back at them. Braun criticized Messer and Rokita for raising the debt ceiling and approving frameworks for Obama trade deals.

The issue may be how House Republicans decouple themselves from The Swamp.

Yes, it was only the House that managed to approve a bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare. That made good on a Republican promise dating back to 2009. But the measure died in the Senate. Sure. Theres tax reform. But its unclear how that message plays among poor or swing voters. Do House Republicans embrace President Trump? Or are they better suited to go it alone and build distance between themselves and the president?

Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the national organization charged with electing GOPers to the House. A surprise awaited Stivers outside the Capitol late Wednesday. Former Rep. Steve Driehaus, D-Ohio, materialized near the House steps. Driehaus served one term in Congress, defeating Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, in 2008. But Chabot rallied to topple Driehaus in 2010. Chabots 2008 loss is the only time Democrats have been able to unseat the Ohio Republican in a district they regularly try to flip. But on Wednesday, Driehaus had with him Aftab Pureval, the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts. Pureval just secured the Democratic nomination to face Chabot this fall. Many regard Pureval as the best chance Democrats have to unseat Chabot since Driehaus. Its the type of district which could fall in a blue wave.

Driehaus wanted to introduce Pureval to Stivers  both graduates of Ohio State. The men shook hands and Stivers congratulated Pureval for winning his primary  even though he was unopposed. Of course, as NRCC chair, Stivers is confident Chabot will prevail in November. But its not every day that the NRCC chair encounters one of the Democrats hes trying to beat at the base of the House steps. A not-so-subtle reminder that Democrats intend to make things rough for the GOP this fall  and how challenging it is right now to be a House Republican.

Some of this is just not endemic to congressional Republicans. It may just be that Congress is unpopular. It usually is. Republicans have run the House since January 2011. The GOP has controlled the House for all but four years since January 1995. So, its natural that voters may have contempt for the party that has run the institution for so long. That enmity may translate to things like a primary loss in North Carolina or the failure of several House Republicans to win Senate primaries. Congress is toxic. And the moniker Republican Congressman doesnt help much. It means youre part of the establishment. Part of the swamp. You may have voted for the $1.3 trillion omnibus package to fund the government in March  which Trump briefly threatened to veto. Perhaps youre in favor of the farm bill which is slated to come to the House floor next week. But Trump just suggested he may veto the measure unless Congress tightens work requirement standards for people to receive food assistance.

So Jim Renacci won the contest he wanted to win: the Republican nomination for Senate. But fellow House GOPers like Jenkins, Messer, Rokita and Pittenger didnt. Renacci lost a kind of universal unpopularity contest.

The question is how House Republicans will fare in other unpopularity contests these days.

Capitol Attitude is a weekly column written by members of the Fox News Capitol Hill team. Their articles take you inside the halls of Congress, and cover the spectrum of policy issues being introduced, debated and voted on there.The housing market at a North Korea-China border city is so hot that it could give San Francisco a run for its money.

Home sales in Dandong, which sits across the Yalu River from North Korea, have surged to an eight-year high. There were 320,000 square meters sold in March, Bloomberg reported.

Two Koreas shake hand, and Dandong rises! the slogan at Zhao Ziyes real estate agency in the border town reportedly says. Zhaos real estate company is reportedly hiring five more employees to keep up with the demand.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns visit to Beijing late March spurred optimism in the relations between the two countries. The meeting was followed by the historic inter-Korean summit late April, drawing the attention of opportunistic investors, Reuters reported.

"The price hike took place after Kim Jong Un visited China," Xu Min, a Dandong real-estate agent, told the state-run Global Times, according to Business Insider.

Buyers in the frontier city of 2.4 million are hoping that sanctions will lift soon, potentially making Dandong wealthy like the Shenzhen economic zone near Hong Kong, the Insider report said.

Some new residential complexes have seen prices rise by more than 50 percent, Bloomberg reported. Some areas are seeing increases at a rate of $47 a day, Business Insider reported.

With prices and sale rates booming, local housing applications are exceeding processing limits, Business Insider reported.

There has also been increased interest in North Koreas housing market from Chinese buyers, Reuters reported. Jason Cheung, general manager at Cushman & Wakefield, told Reuters that most buyers in Dandong New District are speculators.

This is the root cause of the rocketing rise of home prices there, Cheung said.Calling it "decaying and rotten," President Trump announced he is withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal and will be imposing more sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation.

Trump signed a presidential memorandum on May 8 withdrawing the U.S. from the controversial agreement signed by his predecessor in 2015. He said he will be re-instituting the highest level of sanctions and warned other countries against helping the Iranian government.

Trump said the U.S. would "not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail" and will not allow "a regime that chants 'death to America'" to get nuclear weapons.

The nuclear deal with Iran has long been a point of contention, especially among Republicans who opposed it.

The administration extended waivers on Irans nuclear sanctions earlier this year, keeping alive the landmark deal for an additional few months.

Read on for a look at the agreement and why its so controversial.

What is the Iran nuclear deal?

The Iran nuclear deal framework  officially the "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action"  was a historic agreement reached by Iran and several world powers, including the U.S., in 2015, under Barack Obamas presidency.

In part, the deal was made to reduce Irans ability to produce two components used in making nuclear weapons: plutonium and uranium. In return, crippling economic sanctions on Iran were to be abated.

"Every pathway to a nuclear weapon is cut off," Obama said at the time. "This deal is not built on trust. It is built on verification."

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL AFTER TRUMP DITCHES ACCORD

A point of contention for many opponents is the deal's so-called sunset clause which would ease some of the restrictions on Irans nuclear program over time.

The deal was reached after two years of negotiations.

Certification that Iran is complying with the deal must be sent to Congress every 90 days. The first under the Trump administration noted that Tehran was in compliance.

In October 2017, Trump decertified the nuclear deal under U.S. law, saying the sanctions relief was disproportionate to Iran's nuclear concessions. He contended the arrangement was contrary to America's national security interests.

What has Trump said about it?

During the presidential campaign, Trump accused Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then his opponent, for making Iran a world power under the nuclear deal, which he called the highest level of incompetence.

If you take a look at Iran from four, five years ago, they were dying, Trump said during an event in September 2016. They had sanctions, they were being choked to death and they were dying. They werent even going to be much of a threat.

On Twitter, Trump has referred to the agreement as a direct national security threat, a catastrophe that must be stopped, the dumbest & most dangerous misjudgments ever entered into in history of our country and the best deal of any kind in history for Iran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned the U.S. would pay a high cost if it backs out of the agreement.

What happens next?

Trump is expected to reimpose all sanctions on Iran that were lifted as part of the 2015 deal, according to the Treasury Department. These sanctions include precious metals, banknotes, shipping, the automotive sector and petroleum.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the agreement could survive without the participation of the U.S., but has warned that his country would restart enriching uranium "in the next weeks." If that happens, and the deal collapses completely, businesses and banks doing business with Iran would have to scramble to extricate themselves or run afoul of the U.S.

Oil markets are also on the alert following Trump's decision. However, analysts told CNBC the impact of the reimposed sanctions might not have the same impact it once did. And while some countries may limit their oil purchases from Iran out of respect to the U.S., there are other countries that might refuse to do so, according to CNBC.

Fox News' John Roberts, Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Kevin Kamenetz, considered to be one of the leading Democratic contenders for governor in Maryland, died early Thursday morning of cardiac arrest, police have said.

Kamenetz, the Baltimore County executive, woke at about 2 a.m. and said he was not feeling well, Baltimore County police said. He was taken to St. Joseph hospital and died soon after, police said. Kamenetz was 60 years old.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and his wife expressed their sympathies to Kamenetzs loved ones in a statement. He ordered the states flags to be lowered in his honor.

He was a dedicated public servant in Baltimore County for more than two decades, and we join with the citizens of Baltimore County and all Marylanders in mourning, Hogan, a Republican, said. In the difficult days to come, we will provide any support we possibly can to the Kamenetz family and the citizens of Baltimore County.

Valerie Ervin, a Montgomery County councilmember, was Kamenetzs running mate. She told The Baltimore Sun that she couldnt believe the news.

Don Mohler, his longtime aide, told the newspaper that he was just sitting in my office numb, after he learned.

After beginning his public service career as a prosecutor in the Baltimore City States Attorneys Office, he was elected in 1994 to the Baltimore County Council, where he served four terms. He was also a former president of the Maryland Association of Counties and the Baltimore Metropolitan Council.

During the gubernatorial campaign, Kamenetz emphasized his fiscal policies, which resulted in no tax increases or government furloughs or layoffs during the Great Recession -- while he was in office. According to The Sun, Kamenetz was able to renovate schools and downtown Towson during his time in office without a tax increase.

One of his campaign pledges, according to the newspaper, was to look you in the eye and tell you the truth.

As one of seven candidates vying for the Democratic nomination to oppose Hogan in the fall, Kamenetz positioned himself as a foil to President Trump, whom he criticized for his attacks on immigrant communities. The Democratic primary is scheduled for June 26.

On Twitter, Ben Jealous, another Democratic candidate, said he would be seated next to Kamenetz during most forums because it was arranged alphabetically.

Ill always remember him for the grace and good humor he showed each of his fellow candidates as we lined up backstage waiting  for the event to begin, Jealous said. He also noted that Kamenetz dedicated his life to public service, to making a difference and helping the state move forward.

Kamenetz was consistently in the top three of the field of Democratic candidates in polling and raised more money than anyone else so far, The Baltimore Sun reported. He also recently blocked more than $1 million worth of airtime in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., areas.

His absence will shake up the race because he was an important political figure in the state, Mileah Kromer, a Goucher College political science professor, told the newspaper. He had a serious record for any candidate to run on. That, of course, is a loss. That is a loss to the Democratic Party and a loss to the voters of Maryland.

According to his campaign website, Kamenetz attended Johns Hopkins University and the University of Baltimore School of Law. He grew up with five older siblings. As The Sun reported, Kamenetz often talked about his upbringing as the son of a pharmacist in Lochearn, Maryland, just outside of Baltimore, and the lessons he learned from his father when he ran the cash register at the store.

Kamenetz leaves behind his wife, Jill, and two teenage sons.

For now, administrative officer Fred Homan will serve as acting county executive until the council can vote on a replacement to serve until the fall, which would have been the remainder of Kamenetzs term.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Following a confirmation hearing Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., voiced his opposition to Gina Haspel, President Donald Trumps nominee to lead the CIA.

McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, criticized Haspels role in the George W. Bush administrations "enhanced interrogation program."

Haspel had overseen a detention facility for suspected terrorists in Thailand during the early years of the War on Terror, the Arizona Republic reported.

McCain has frequently spoken out against waterboarding and other interrogation practices. He said Wednesday that Haspels refusal to regard the so-called torture program as immoral, disqualifies her.

The senator said the decision to use enhanced interrogation techniques was understandable, given the atmosphere of the post-9/11 world, but argued the methods we employ to keep our nation safe must be as right and just as the values we aspire to live up to and promote in the world.

He called Haspels role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans disturbing, and urged his Senate colleagues to reject her nomination, the Hill reported.

McCain has been absent from the Senate while battling brain cancer, but has continued to stay engaged with Washington.

During Wednesday's hearing, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., pressed Haspel regarding her views on torture being immoral. Haspel refused to condemn the agencys practices, but pledged to not revive the program.

Im not going to sit here, with the benefit of hindsight, and judge the very good people who made hard decisions, who were running the agency in very extraordinary circumstances, Haspel told the committee.

With McCain and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the lone Republicans openly opposed to Haspels nomination, she will need at least one Democratic vote to secure the job.

On Wednesday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., threw in his support for Haspel.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted favorably of Haspel, I had the chance to watch Acting CIA Director Gina Haspel testify. Im looking forward to receiving the intelligence as Secretary of State from this amazing leader. Win Gina!House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy met Thursday with top officials at the Justice Department amid a standoff over requests for classified information related to the Russia investigation.

Fox News has learned Nunes and Gowdy met with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and his deputy Ed O'Callahan, as well as representatives from the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Things have been tense in recent weeks between Nunes and the Justice Department, with Nunes at one point threatening to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt.

The meeting appeared to be an effort on the part of the Justice Department to come to a resolution.

We had a productive discussion today with officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Department of Justice, and FBI in which we raised questions related to information requested from the Intelligence Community," Nunes and Gowdy said in a statement. "The officials committed to holding further discussions of these matters, and we look forward to continuing our dialogue next week to satisfy the committees request.

Nunes' committee has been looking into allegations that the Justice Department and the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in their scrutiny of the Trump campaign. Some of this relates to how heavily the bureau relied on the unverified anti-Trump dossier to obtain a surveillance warrant on Trump adviser Carter Page.

Nunes April 30 subpoena for documents  obtained by Fox News  asks for all documents referring or related to a specific individual. The Washington Post has reported the individual is a sensitive, longtime intelligence source for the CIA and FBI who has helped in Robert Muellers special counsel investigation, and says officials worry disclosure of the documents could jeopardize the source.

Ahead of the meeting, DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgar Flores said they welcome the opportunity to discuss whether there are other ways to accommodate his inquiry regarding a specific individual.

The Justice Department, though, had previously told Nunes in a letter that it "is not in a position to provide information responsive to your request regarding a specific individual."

"The Department and its intelligence community partners would welcome the opportunity to discuss whether there are other ways to accommodate the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's oversight inquiry," Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd wrote in a recent letter to Nunes.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, is also expected to go to the Justice Department on Thursday for the same briefing given to Nunes and Gowdy.

Fox News Catherine Herridge and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday called for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to finish his probe into Russian interference during the 2016 election, saying he should do so in the interest of the country.

Its been about a year since this investigation began, Pence told NBCs Andrea Mitchell. Our administration has provided more than a million documents, weve fully cooperated in it, and in the interest of the country, I think its time to wrap it up.

Mueller is probing whether any Trump associates colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign, among other issues involving the presidents aides.

President Trump has repeatedly said no collusion took place. But the sprawling investigation has ensnared a number of former Trump advisers, including former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

I would very respectfully encourage the Special Counsel and his team to bring their work to completion, Pence said Thursday.

Pences comments comes amid speculation over whether President Trump will sit for an interview with Mueller.

RUSSIAN COMPANY, ACCUSED IN MUELLER PROBE OF BEING TROLL FARM, PLEADS NOT GUILTY

Rudy Giuliani, a member of Trumps legal team, has signaled the presidents lawyers are still open to doing an interview  but he acknowledged he is concerned about whether Muellers team can be objective.

Namely, do they have an open mind to the fact he could be telling the truth and Comey may be lying? Giuliani said last week. If they have an open mind to that, this is something we'd consider. If they don't, then given all the irregularities of this investigation, we would be foolish to have him be interviewed.

Giuliani has also said things are also made more difficult by the presidents schedule. Trump announced Thursday that his high-profile summit will take place next month in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

How can we take three, four hours, three, four days out of that schedule? Giuliani asked. To prepare him for a deposition when he should be preparing to go to North Korea.For years, senators have been able to effectively block judicial nominees from their home states through whats known as the blue slip process.

But on Thursday -- amid Republican frustration over many of President Trumps nominees being blocked -- Senate Republicans decided to override one such objection from a Democratic senator and confirm the nominee anyway.

Milwaukee attorney Michael Brennan was confirmed to fill an opening on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin had stalled Brennans nomination.

The seat has been open for more than eight years, the longest for the nation's appellate courts.

Until this year, it had been nearly three decades since the Senate confirmed a judge without two positive blue slips. Brennan's confirmation marked the second time it has happened this year.

STALLED JUDICIAL NOMINEES WILL BE CONFIRMED 'NO MATTER WHAT TACTICS' EMPLOYED, MCCONNELL SAYS

The maneuver comes as Senate Republicans are racing to confirm as many federal judges as they can before November's midterm elections when control of the Senate could flip to Democrats.

The Senate gives lawmakers a chance to weigh in on a judicial nominee from their home state by submitting a blue-colored form called the "blue slip." A positive blue slip signals the Senate to move forward with the nomination process. A negative blue slip, or withholding it altogether, signals a senator's objection and almost always stalls the nomination.

The move to go ahead with a hearing for Brennan and a vote on the floor had Democrats complaining that Republicans were eroding one of the few remaining customs in the Senate that forced consultation on judicial nominations. They also noted that Republicans used the blue slip to block one of President Barack Obama's nominees for the very same judgeship.

"I'd admonish my friends on the other side of the aisle, this is a very dangerous road you're treading," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "As everyone knows, the winds of political change blow swiftly in America. The minority one day is the majority the next."

But Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Democrats' complaints were based on an incorrect understanding of the blue slip's history.

"The blue slip courtesy is just that -- a courtesy," Grassley said.

He said past chairmen of the committee had rarely used negative or unreturned blue slips as unilateral vetoes. The most recent exception was Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who was chairman during the first six years of Obama's presidency.

"That was his prerogative," Grassley said.

Still, the blue slip has been in use for more than a century and only a handful of judges have won confirmation during that time without two blue slips.

Grassley said that under his tenure, the blue slip will be used to ensure the president consults with home-state senators, but not as a veto for appellate court nominees. He said he was satisfied in Brennan's case that the White House consulted with both of Wisconsin's senators before the president nominated him.

Republicans have made it a priority to confirm the president's nominees, particularly those who will serve on federal appeals courts. It's a top issue with social conservatives leading into this year's midterm elections. With Democrats slow-walking many of Trump's nominees, McConnell said last October that the blue slip process should not be used to "blackball" nominees.

"We're going to confirm these judges. I don't care what tactics they employ," McConnell recently told Fox News's Martha MacCallum.

Fox News Doug McKelway and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Catherine Templeton, a Republican candidate for governor in South Carolina, said in a recent campaign ad that she was given a gun to shoot snakes around a fishing trailer -- and now she has her sights set on snakes slithering around the state capital.

Templeton holds up a .38-caliber revolver in ad, saying she was given the firearm by her grandfather to fend off snakes around their fishing trailer. The ad, called "Fair Play," shows a snake coiled in the grass, and Templeton firing two shots.

We cant shoot the snakes slithering around Columbia, but we will end their poisonous big government ways, Templeton, an attorney, said in the video.

According to the Charleston Post & Courier, Templeton did not actually shoot a snake.

Jared Leopold, a spokesperson for the Democratic Governors Association, said the ad "comes very close to threatening to shoot politicians," on Twitter.

In a previous ad, Templeton said she made so many people angry when she worked for former Gov. Nikki Haley, who is now ambassador to the United Nations, that the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) instructed her to get a concealed weapons permit.

Templeton led the states Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation in 2011 until she took over as director of South Carolinas Department of Health and Environmental Control in 2012.

GEORGIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE VOWS TO 'ROUND UP CRIMINAL ILLEGALS' WITH OWN TRUCK

The State Law Enforcement Division actually called and said, 'Catherine, we need you to get a concealed weapons permit; we need you to start carrying and we need you to protect yourself because youve made a lot of people mad,' she said in the spot.

However, SLED spokesman Thom Berry told the Greenville News that he could not find proof the agency gave Templeton such a directive.

It is not our practice to tell, instruct or order a person to obtain a concealed-weapons permit, he told the newspaper.

SOUTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR SAYS SUPER BOWL FANS SHOULD STAND FOR ANTHEM -- WHEREVER THEY ARE

On her campaign website, Templeton said she wants to challenge the Concealed Weapons Permit so that we dont have to pay a fee to the government to exercise our constitutional right to carry and our God given right to protect ourselves and our families.

In another ad, Templeton called people who do not stand for the national anthem spoiled and entitled.

Templeton faces a crowded field of Republican contenders in the June 12 primary, including current Gov. Henry McMaster, who President Trump has endorsed. Businessman John Warren, Lt. Gov. Kevin Bryant and former Lt. Gov. Yancey McGill are also running.Senate Republicans are racing to confirm as many federal judges as they can before November's midterm elections when control of the Senate could flip to Democrats.

It's a process that was made easier by then Majority Leader Harry Reid's 2013 decision to exercise the so-called "nuclear option," ending the minority party's ability to use the filibuster to block nominees. It now requires only a simple majority to move a nominee through the Senate.

Democrats are left with only a couple of procedural weapons to stall President Trump's court picks. One of them is forcing 30 hours of debate on each nominee. Considering the sheer number of federal court vacancies  148 in all  that's no small impediment, one that has frustrated Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. "We're going to confirm these judges. I don't care what tactics they employ," he recently told Fox News's Martha MacCallum.

TRUMP POISED FOR MAJOR MAKEOVER OF LIBERAL 9TH CIRCUIT COURT

One technique Republicans are using to meet McConnell's mandate to free up the backlog is a change in the Senate's "blue slip" process. Senators from a nominee's home state have traditionally had the power to withhold a blue slip on a nominee's qualifications to the Judiciary Committee Chairman. Such a thumbs down effectively blocked the President's pick.

"That's no longer the case when it comes to appellate nominees," said Leonard Leo, formerly of the conservative Federalist Society now serving as President Trump's closest advisor on judicial picks. "As long as theres been adequate consultation with the White House and those home state senators," the power of a negative blue slip is effectively rendered impotent. That exception does not apply to district court judges or trial judges.

The effectiveness of the blue slip change was demonstrated Wednesday in the confirmation hearing of President Trump's nominee for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Ryan Bounds. Home state Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley opposed his nomination, but the blue slip change means they can't block him.

Democrats attacked Rounds anyway, honing in an article he wrote while at Stanford University. The article criticized the university's policy that forced students to attend sensitivity training after a homophobic incident on campus.

Delaware Democrat Chris Coons quoted from Bounds' article. "You claimed that LGBTQ people, students, people of color, and other communities like to "fancy themselves oppressed," and therefore see instances of discrimination that don't reflect reality."

Bounds apologized for his "overheated rhetoric" as a student, and then recounted how some gay friends of his were once assaulted after an evening out.

"How did that make you feel?" asked Coons. Bounds took a deep breathe, paused for several seconds, and appeared to choke back tears, before replying.

"It was very upsetting," he said.

Bounds is one of several nominees that Republicans hope to place in the 9th Circuit. It encompasses nine western states. It's the largest and most liberal circuit in the land and is ripe for change, with seven appellate vacancies and 19 others in the circuit courts.President Trump is expected to tell senior lawmakers that he'll veto the farm bill working its way through Congress if it doesn't include tighter work requirements for people on food stamps, a source familiar with the discussions told Fox News.

Legislation that passed the House Agriculture Committee last month would already tighten existing work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), while expanding funding for state training programs.

The House bill would require all work-capable adults between 18 and 59 to work or participate in work training for 20 hours per week, meaning a greater number of people would have to work or enroll in work training.

According to a committee fact sheet, seniors, disabled people, those caring for children under 6 and pregnant women would be exempt.



The Wall Street Journal reported that Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said the changes in the Senate bill would not be as far-reaching as those in the House bill.



If you dont get 60 votes, this whole conversation is moot, he said. The Senate version of the bill has not yet been released.

A Senate committee aide said ahead of the meeting that reports of a veto threat were just rumors. The aide told Fox News that the Senate version of the bill would not contain "revolutionary reforms" to programs, but that it was premature to say what exactly would be included.

House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, told Fox News that he accepted that the bill in the House may change.

Im not arrogant or naive enough to believe that what passes the House is what will go to the presidents desk, but I am hopeful to have that conversation with the Senate in the context of the conference committee, he said.

Trump was scheduled to meet with Conaway and Roberts Thursday afternoon at the White House.

White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short downplayed the possibility of a veto.

Work requirements are "a priority and it is something hell be encouraging, but veto threats  way too early, Short said Wednesday, according to The Journal.



Democrats had objected furiously to the SNAP reforms in the House bill, claiming it could throw as many as two million people off the program and create bulky bureaucracies to keep up with extensive rule keeping, while not providing enough money for job training.

"This legislation would create giant, untested bureaucracies at the state level. It cuts more than $9 billion in benefits and rolls those savings into state slush funds where they can use the money to operate other aspects of SNAP," said Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., the top Democrat on the House committee. "Let me be clear: this bill, as currently written, kicks people off the SNAP program."

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said that Democrats would not support what she called a radical, harmful bill.

The House bill would also renew farm safety-net programs such as subsidies for crop insurance, farm credit and land conservation. Those subsidies for farm country traditionally form the backbone of support for the measure among Republicans, while urban Democrats support food aid for the poor.

Trump has long been an advocate of tightening work requirements, and called for it during his 2016 campaign. Last month he signed an executive order aiming to harden work requirements for welfare and public assistance programs.

The order, which aims to reduce poverty  by promoting opportunity and economic mobility, called for agencies to strengthen work requirements and look for new ones.

Unfortunately, many of the programs designed to help families have instead delayed economic independence, perpetuated poverty, and weakened family bonds, the order said.

Fox News' John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump on Thursday acknowledged the grieving parents of Otto Warmbier during an early morning ceremony to welcome home three Americans freed from North Korea.

"It's a very important thing to all of us to be able to get these three great people out. I must tell you, I want to pay my warmest respects to the parents of Otto Warmbier, who is a great young man who really suffered," Trump said.

He praised the "incredible" family and said both he and Vice President Mike Pence spoke with them earlier.

TRUMP GREETS AMERICAN DETAINEES FREED FROM NORTH KOREA

Warmbier was an American college student captured in 2016 by North Korean authorities after being accused of stealing a propaganda poster. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. He was the last American to be freed from the communist country.

He died days after he was repatriated back to the U.S. in June 2017 after suffering from brain damage induced by torture.

In an interview with "Fox & Friends" last year, his parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, opened up about their son's condition when released. They said Otto was blind and deaf, with mangled teeth. He jerked violently on a stretcher and moaned.

OTTO WARMBIER'S PARENTS OPEN UP ABOUT SON'S TORTURE BY NORTH KOREA: 'THEY ARE TERRORISTS'

The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the North Korean government last month accusing it of forcing "him to falsely 'confess' to an act of subversion on behalf of the United States government."

The suit states the regime "tortured him, kept him in detention for a year and a half without allowing him to communicate with his family, and returned him to them in a non-responsive state and brain dead."

The Warmbiers released a statement on Wednesday in the wake of the arrival of the three newly freed Americans, saying "We are happy for the hostages and their families."

We miss Otto," the family added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are in Singapore where they will meet one-on-one for a historic summit Tuesday.

After some back-and-forth on whether the meeting would actually happen, the two leaders arrived in Singapore on Sunday. They are scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. local time (9 p.m. ET Monday) with only translators present, according to the White House.

The meeting will later expand to include other officials, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, chief of staff John Kelly and national security adviser John Bolton.

SEE KIM JONG UN'S BIZARRE NORTH KOREA PROPAGANDA PHOTOS

The summit will be the first-ever meeting between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader.

Its important because of the potential opening it has; there is potential diplomatic progress, former Vice Adm. Robert B. Murrett, a professor of practice, public administration and international affairs at Syracuse University, told Fox News.

This is something we havent been able to do for many years, said Murrett, who also serves as deputy director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism at the college, specializes in national security, international relations, military and defense strategy.

Why is this meeting significant?

Aside from the potential diplomatic benefits between the U.S. and North Korea, the summit could benefit other countries.

It not just about the United States, he said, explaining that the meeting could have also been a win for our partners in the east, such as South Korea and Japan, but also areas in the South Pacific region such as Australia.

He added, "These talks have the ability to reduce security tensions in East Asia and present an opportunity for the U.S. to reinforce the strong links with South Korea, Japan and even China."

TRUMP CANCELING NORTH KOREA SUMMIT DECRIED BY SOME LAWMAKERS, PRAISED AS 'RIGHT CALL' BY OTHERS

What topics are Kim and Trump expected to discuss?

Denuclearization will be at the fore, Murrett said.

North Koreas nuclear weapons and ability to deliver them at long distances should be central, said Murrett, who added that recent talks between North and South Korea would suggest that it would remain a core issue.

But Murrett also expected discussion of the Hermit Kingdom's role in the global economy.

Despite various sanctions placed on the country, North Koreas economy grew by 3.9 percent in 2016. But Murrett said diplomatic talks represent the prospect of North Korea rejoining the family of the Asians if only from an economic standpoint, potentially opening the door for the country to trade with more than just China.

It would be in the interest of the people of North Korea, Murrett added.

Does Trump deserve credit for the summit?

In short: Yes, in part.

While Trump deserves credit for agreeing to meet with Kim, his decision to do so was likely sparked by the window of opportunity that has existed because of ongoing pressure on North Korea to better its relations with surrounding countries and beyond, Murrett said.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in also deserves a fair amount of credit, he said, citing the recent summit between the two Koreas and the display of unity at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang as one of several steps toward unification in some fashion or another.

Trump is one of many important players, said Murrett, noting that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were also key players.

Abe met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in April, where the two affirmed their strong determination to strengthen our shared resolve on North Korea, and increase the capability of the U.S.-Japan Alliance to confront all emerging threats to peace, stability, and an international order based on the rule of law, the White House said at the time.

And President Xi and Kim secretly met in May in China, Chinese state television announced after the North Korean leader had already left the country.

"[The leaders] had an all-around and in-depth exchange of views on China-[North Korea] relations and major issues of common concern," the Chinese news agency reported, while Kim was quoted saying that he hopes to build mutual trust with the U.S. through dialogue.

Fox News' Serafin Gomez, Kathleen Joyce, Katherine Lam, Kaitlyn Schallhorn, Zoe Szathmary, Elizabeth Zwirz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Throughout the first year of his presidency  and even as he campaigned for the office  President Trumps rhetoric regarding North Korea has been harsh.

He warned earlier this year that Americas nuclear capabilities were much bigger [and] more powerful than that of the Asian nation. And at the end of 2017, Trump designated North Korea a state sponsor of terror again  a classification that came with additional sanctions.

On the heels of a planned, historic summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trumps tone softened, saying great progress has been made. But Trump ultimately cancelled that meeting, citing "open hostility" from North Korea.

From agreeing to meet with Kim to dubbing him Little Rocket Man, heres a look at what Trump has said about North Korea and its leader over time.

Back together again

After meeting with a North Korean official in the White House for more than an hour, Trump announced the June summit with North Korea is back on.

We'll be meeting on June 12 in Singapore," the president told reporters after the meeting.

Let's call the whole thing off

Trump announced on May 24 that he has decided to pull out of the June summit with North Korea.

"We were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea, but that to us is totally irrelevant," Trump said in a letter to Kim. "I was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting."

"You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used," Trump said.

"I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately, it is only that dialogue that matters. Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you," he added. "In the meantime, I want to thank you for the release of the hostages who are now home with their families. That was a beautiful gesture and was very much appreciated."

Deal or no deal?

After speaking with the South Korean president amid threats from the rogue regime to cancel talks, Trump suggested the historic summit between him and Kim might not happen after all.

If it doesnt happen, maybe it will happen later. You never know about deals. Ive made a lot of deals, Trump said on May 22. You never really know. It may not work out for June 12.

Trump said he wants the Korean peninsula to be denuclearized in an all in one manner.

I can guarantee Kims safety. He will be safe. He will be happy, Trump said. His country will be rich.

Trump also said hes noticed a change in Kims attitude recently.

I cant say that Im happy about it, he added.

Save the date

Trump officially announced that he would meet with Kim in Singapore on June 12.

We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace! Trump said in a tweet.

The announcement came hours after Trump and the first lady welcomed the three Americans freed from detention in North Korea at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland early on May 10.

After Trump met with the three men, he publicly thanked Kim for releasing the prisoners.

Were starting off on a new footing, Trump said.

Positive gesture of goodwill

In announcing that a date and place has been set for his much-anticipated meeting with Kim, Trump also confirmed three American prisoners have been released.

The three Americans  Kim Dong Chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song  are returning to the U.S. with newly-confirmed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump said in a tweet. The president confirmed the three men are also in good health.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE HISTORIC SUMMIT BETWEEN TRUMP, KIM JONG UN

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement that Trump appreciates Kim Jong Uns action to release these American citizens, and views this as a positive gesture of goodwill.

Another American detainee, Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017 after he was released back to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Good relationship formed

Trump has confirmed that CIA Director Mike Pompeo  his pick to lead the State Department  secretly met with Kim in April and a good relationship was formed. He said the meeting went very smoothly.

The president also disclosed that the U.S. and North Korea have held direct talks at extremely high levels in preparation for the summit.

Kim will do what is right

After Kims first reported visit to China, Trump said there is a good chance that Kim Jong Un will do what is right for his people and for humanity.

For years and through many administrations, everyone said that peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was not even a small possibility, Trump said in a March tweet, adding that he is looking forward to his upcoming meeting with the North Korean leader.

He also gave North Korea the benefit of the doubt earlier that month, saying he believes the country will abide by its pledge to suspend missile tests.

When Trump delivered a speech in Pennsylvania, the crowd booed the mention of Kim, but the president stopped them.

No, it's very positive ... no, after the meeting you may do that, but now we have to be very nice because let's see what happens, let's see what happens, Trump said.

Invitation accepted

Trump accepted an invitation from Kim to meet, the White House said. While a time and place has yet to be determined, the two leaders are expected to meet by June.

The invitation to convene was extended by Kim.

Kim Jong Un talked about denuclearization with the South Korean Representatives, not just a freeze. Also, no missile testing by North Korea during this period of time. Great progress being made but sanctions will remain until an agreement is reached, Trump said on social media. Meeting being planned!

The deal with North Korea is very much in the making and will be, if completed, a very good one for the World. Time and place to be determined, he later said.

Possible progress

As North Korea is reportedly willing to negotiate its nuclear weapons, Trump cautiously acknowledged possible progress.

For the first time in many years, a serious effort is being made by all parties concerned, Trump said on Twitter. The World is watching and waiting! May be false hope, but the U.S. is ready to go hard in either direction!

At a later White House news conference, Trump said he believed North Korea, which has a long history of deception and threats to target U.S. cities with nuclear missiles, is sincere.

We have come certainly a long way, at least rhetorically, with North Korea, Trump said. Of the possibility for peacefully resolving the nations deep differences, he said: Itd be a great thing for the world, would be great for North Korea, it would be a great thing for the peninsula.

But well see what happens, Trump said.

Spirit of the Olympics

At the conclusion of the 2018 Winter Olympics, North Korea sent the U.S. a message through South Korea, saying it has ample intentions of holding talks with America.

During a meeting with the nations governors at the White House in February, Trump said those talks will only occur under the right conditions.

The administrations position has been that North Korea must get rid of its nuclear and missile programs first before any talks can take place.

Relationship status: Its complicated

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump reportedly said he probably has a very good relationship with North Korea.

Trump also suggested that he is open to diplomacy with the country hes spent years criticizing, the newspaper reported.

I have relationships with people. I think you people are surprised, Trump said.

The Wall Street Journal released the audio and transcript of the interview after Trump denied making the comments.

'Success for the world'

Trump told South Korea that he would be open to talks with its northern neighbor under the right circumstances, the White House said.

Trump also took credit for the talks between North and South Korea ahead of next months Winter Olympics. At a January Cabinet meeting, Trump said it was his administrations pressure on North Korea that caused the rogue nation to negotiate with the South.

"Without our attitude that would have never happened," Trump said of the inter-Korean dialogue. "Who knows where it leads. Hopefully it will lead to success for the world  not just for our country but for the world, and we'll be seeing over the next number of weeks and months what happens."

Whose button is bigger?

After Kim warned Trump about North Koreas nuclear capabilities, Trump hit back on social media, arguing that his Nuclear Button is bigger [and] more powerful.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times,' the president tweeted. Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!

Kim previously warned the U.S. should know that the button for nuclear war is on my table.

The entire area of the U.S. mainland is within our nuclear strike range, he said. The United States can never start a war against me and our country.

Good news or bad news?

Trump insinuated at the start of the new year that sanctions and additional pressures are having a big impact on North Korea.

Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea, Trump said. Kim now wants to talk to South Korea for the first time. Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not  we will see!

In his tweet, Trump was seemingly referring to the recent, dramatic escape of at least two North Korean soldiers across the heavily militarized border into the southern country He also alluded to Kims recent comments indicating he would send a delegation to the Winter Olympics to be hosted in South Korea.

Trump also took credit for the talks between North and South Korean leaders.

With all of the failed experts weighing in, does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasnt firm, strong and willing to commit our total might against the North, Trump said in a Jan. 4 tweet. Fools, but talks are a good thing!

'Sick puppy'

While giving a speech on tax reform at a Missouri event in November, 2017, Trump digressed from the topic to call the North Korean leader a "sick puppy."

His comments drew hoots from the crowd.

State sponsor of terror

Trump re-designated North Korea a state sponsor of terror on Nov. 20, 2017, citing its support of international terrorism, including assassinations on foreign soil.

During a Cabinet meeting, Trump announced the designation came along with new sanctions on the murderous regime as part of the administrations maximum pressure campaign in dealing with North Korea. He said these sanctions will be the highest level of sanctions on the North.

North Korea was on the list but was taken off by the Bush administration in 2008.

Why can't we be friends?

In a series of tweets while in Vietnam, Trump said he doesn't know why the North Korean dictator would "insult" him.

Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me old, when I would NEVER call him short and fat? Trump said. Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!

The comment came after Kim referred to Trump's speech in South Korea as reckless remarks by an old lunatic.

'Dont try us'

In Asia, Trump issued a stern warning to North Korea, saying it would be a fatal miscalculation for the country to attack the U.S. or an ally.

This is a very different administration than the United States has had in the past. Do not underestimate us. And do not try us, Trump said during an address at South Koreas National Assembly.

North Korea has interpreted Americas past restraint as weakness, Trump said.

'Lets make a deal'

While on his Asia trip, Trump implored North Korea to come to the table for talks on its nuclear weapons program. Trumps request for North Korea to make a deal was in stark contrast to his previous hardline rhetoric when it comes to the rogue nation.

"It makes sense for North Korea to come to the table and make a deal that is good for the people of North Korea and for the world," Trump said during a news conference alongside South Korean president Moon Jae-in in November 2017.

Trump also said hes seen a lot of progress in dealing with North Korea but still called the country a worldwide threat.

In a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo the day before, Trump repeated his assertion that the era of strategic patience with North Korea was finished.

Some people say my rhetoric is very strong but look what has happened with very weak rhetoric in the last 25 years, Trump said then.

'Rocket Man' is on a 'suicide mission'

After dubbing him Rocket Man in a tweet, Trump eventually tried out the new nickname for Kim during his inaugural address to the U.N. General Assembly.

During his speech, Trump vowed to totally destroy North Korea if the country so provokes him. He also said Kim was on a suicide mission.

No more talking

After North Korea said it successfully launched a missile over Japan, a U.S. ally, and into the Pacific Ocean, Trump initially had a subdued response.

"Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime's isolation in the region and among all nations of the world," Trump said in a written statement after North Koreas missile soared almost 1,700 miles into the Pacific Ocean, triggering alert warnings in northern Japan and shudders throughout Northeast Asia. "All options are on the table."

The missile launch was said to be a precursor to North Koreas containment of the U.S. territory of Guam by Kim, according to state-run media.

But in a tweet, the president suggested the U.S. is finished talking to North Korea.

The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer, Trump tweeted.

The U.S. is 'locked and loaded'

Trump took to social media in August 2017 to proclaim that the U.S. military is locked and loaded in case North Korea act[s] unwisely.

'Fire [and] fury' isn't 'tough enough'

With the threat of nuclear violence growing, Trump warned North Korea on Aug. 8, 2017 that he would unleash fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.

But when tensions continued to rise and North Korea threatened to attack Guam, Trump said maybe that comment wasnt "tough enough."

"Lets see what [Kim] does with Guam. He does something in Guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody has seen before  what will happen in North Korea," Trump said.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Trump was "sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un can understand, because he doesnt seem to understand diplomatic language."

Kim Jong Un is 'not getting away with it'

Trump said Kim has disrespected our country greatly.

He has said things that are horrific. And with me, hes not getting away with it, Trump said. He got away with it for a long time, between him and his family. Hes not getting away with it. Its a whole new ball game.

'Strategic patience  is over'

After meeting with the South Korean president in Washington, D.C., in June 2017, Trump said that the era of strategic patience with the North Korean regime has failed.

Frankly, that patience is over, he said.

As Trump made these comments, the U.S. was rocked with the death of Otto Warmbier, the 22-year-old American college student who suffered extensive brain damage while being held captive in North Korea for more than a year.

There are 'worse things' than assassinating Kim Jong Un

In an interview with CBS News during the presidential campaign, Trump said he could get China to make [Kim Jong Un] disappear in one form or another very quickly.

When asked if he was talking about assassinating the North Korean dictator, Trump shrugged.

Well, you know, Ive heard of worse things, frankly. I mean, this guys a bad dude  and dont underestimate him, Trump said. Any young guy that can take over from his father with all those generals and everybody else that probably wants the position, this is not somebody to be underestimated.

'What the hell is wrong with speaking?'

Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Atlanta that should Kim want to come to the U.S., he would be accept[ed].

I wouldnt go there, that I can tell you. If he came here, Id accept him, but I wouldnt give him a state dinner like we do for China and all these other people that rip us off when we give them these big state dinners, Trump said in June 2016.

What the hell is wrong with speaking? Trump said, referencing the criticism he received for being willing to talk with North Korea. Its called opening a dialogue.

'Maniac'

During a GOP presidential debate in September 2015, Trump railed on the maniac in North Korea while answering a question about Planned Parenthood and womens health issues.

Nobody ever mentions North Korea, where you have this maniac sitting there, and he actually has nuclear weapons and somebody better start thinking about North Korea and perhaps a couple of other places. But certainly North Korea, Trump said.

You have somebody right now in North Korea who has got nuclear weapons and who is saying almost every other week, Im ready to use them, and we dont even mention it, he continued.

China needs to solve the problem

Even before he was president, Trump urged China to step in and help alleviate problems with North Korea.

North Korea is reliant on China. China could solve this problem easily if they wanted to but they have no respect for our leaders, Trump tweeted in March 2013.

In April 2013, Trump continued that line of thinking, adding that North Korea cant survive, or even eat, without the help of China. He then accused China of taunting the U.S.

As president, Trump has said he is very disappointed in actions China has taken regarding North Korea, particularly allowing oil to go into the nation. He also said a Chinese envoy to North Korea had no impact on Kim.

Additionally, Trump has said hes spoken to Chinas President Xi Jinping regarding the provocative actions of North Korea as well as the planned meeting between Trump and Kim.

President Xi told me he appreciates that the U.S. is working to solve the problem diplomatically rather than going with the ominous alternative, Trump said in March 2018. China continues to be helpful!

'Wack job'

In April 2013, Trump urged then-President Barack Obama to be very careful with the 28-year-old wack job in North Korea.

At some point we may have to get very tough, he tweeted.

'Negotiate like crazy'

Trump warned that the U.S. needed to do something to stop North Korea in 1999 during an interview with the late Tim Russert on Meet the Press.

"Do you want to do it in five years when they have warheads all over the place, every one of them pointing to New York City, to Washington and every one of us, is that when you want to do it, or do you want to do something now? Trump said. You'd better do it now. And if they think you're serious  they'll negotiate and it'll never come to that.

He said then that if he ever became president, the first step he would take would be to negotiate like crazy to make sure that the country would get the best deal possible. Trump also predicted then that in three or four years, North Korea would have weapons aimed all over the world, including at the U.S.

Fox News' Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.President Trump on Thursday blasted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for criticizing the withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal -- noting that Schumer opposed the deal when then-President Barack Obama negotiated it.

Senator Cryin Chuck Schumer fought hard against the Bad Iran Deal, even going at it with President Obama, & then Voted AGAINST it! Trump tweeted Thursday. "Now he says I should not have terminated the deal - but he doesnt really believe that!"



Trump went on to suggest he had done a similar about-face on the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.



Trump announced Tuesday that he was pulling the U.S. out of the Iran deal, which he had long opposed. Trump said the deal had been so poorly negotiated that even if Iran fully complies, the regime can still be on the verge of a nuclear breakout in just a short period of time.



In 2015, Schumer praised Obama and then-Secretary of State John Kerry for their work on the agreement, but issued a lengthy statement detailing why he could not support it.



It is because I believe Iran will not change, and under this agreement it will be able to achieve its dual goals of eliminating sanctions while ultimately retaining its nuclear and non-nuclear power, he said.



Better to keep U.S. sanctions in place, strengthen them, enforce secondary sanctions on other nations, and pursue the hard-trodden path of diplomacy once more, difficult as it may be, he said at the time.



On Wednesday, Schumer said that Iran has not violated the agreement and that Trump's move could damage international cooperation.



By dividing our allies ... youre making it harder to go after Hezbollah, youre making it harder to go after Iranian activities that are really dangerous and youre probably making it harder to come to a North Korea deal, he told reporters.



On Thursday, he responded to Trumps tweet by using first lady Melania Trumps anti-bullying hashtag: #BeBest.The summit is set.

President Trump tweeted Thursday that his "highly anticipated meeting" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place in Singapore on June 12.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" Trump tweeted.

Fox News had reported Wednesday that Singapore likely would be the location for the planned historic meeting.

It would be the first-ever summit between a U.S. president and a North Korean leader.

The details were announced after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned overnight from Pyongyang with three freed American prisoners who had been held captive in North Korea.

Pompeo helped secure their release, while ironing out details of the summit.

Singapores Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying they were pleased to host the summit, and, We hope this meeting will advance prospects for peace in the Korean Peninsula.

A Trump-Kim meeting seemed a remote possibility just a few months ago, when the two leaders were trading threats and insults over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and a string of ballistic missile tests. But momentum for diplomacy has built this year; North and South Korea have moved to ease tensions, including with their own leaders holding a summit late last month.

In March, Trump unexpectedly accepted an offer of talks from Kim after the North Korean dictator agreed to suspend nuclear and missile tests and discuss "denuclearization." According to South Korea, Kim says he's willing to give up his nukes if the United States commits to a formal end to the Korean War and pledges not to attack the North.

On Monday, China's official news agency, Xinhua, quoted Kim as saying, "I hope to build mutual trust with the U.S. through dialogue."

But his exact demands for relinquishing the weapons his nation has spent decades building remain unclear. Previous U.S. efforts to negotiate an end to the North's nuclear weapons program failed under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Trump personally greeted the freed Americans overnight when they arrived at Andrews Air Force Base. A motorcade was waiting to take the three Korean-American detainees -- Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim -- to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for physical examinations.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson, John Roberts and Alex Pappas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.A White House communications official mocked Sen. John McCain's brain cancer diagnosis in a meeting after the Arizona Republican announced his opposition to President Trump's pick to lead the CIA, sources told Fox News Thursday.

According to two White House sources, the staffer, Kelly Sadler, said of McCain, "It doesn't matter, he's dying anyway."

MCCAIN URGES SENATE COLLEAGUES TO REJECT TRUMP CIA PICK HASPEL

White House sources said the joke at first elicited some nervous snickers. Afterward, though, the sources said many spoke to each other about being surprised by the "tasteless" remark.

Sadler's comments were first reported by The Hill, which said she made them during a closed-door meeting of about two dozen White House communications staffers on Thursday morning.

Late Wednesday, McCain urged his Senate colleagues to oppose Gina Haspel's nomination as CIA director over her role in the "enhanced interrogation program" enacted by the George W. Bush administration after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"I believe Gina Haspel is a patriot who loves our country and has devoted her professional life to its service and defense," McCain said in a statement. "However, Ms. Haspel's role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge tortures immorality is disqualifying."

There was no immediate response from Sadler, the White House or McCain's office.

Following the comment, McCain's wife, Cindy, tweeted a direct comment at Sadler.

"May I remind you my husband has a family, 7 children and 5 grandchildren," the tweet said.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Sadler has worked for the White House communications office since May of last year. Before her hiring, she was a reporter and editor for The Washington Times newspaper.

Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., apparently has no regrets about his role in the release of the so-called Steele dossier, which is said to contain salacious allegations about then-candidate Donald Trump.

In excerpts of his forthcoming book, The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations, the 81-year-old senator  who is recuperating at home following recent cancer treatment and surgery  acknowledges that he delivered the information to then-FBI Director James Comey.

(A)nd I would do it again, McCain writes, according to excerpts published by the Guardian.

Anyone who doesnt like it can go to hell, McCain adds, saying he did what duty demanded I do.

The disturbing nature of the allegations against Trump prompted his action, McCain writes.

I had no idea which if any were true, the senator writes. I could not independently verify any of it, and so I did what any American who cares about our nations security should have done.

I could not independently verify any of it, and so I did what any American who cares about our nations security should have done.  U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., writing in "The Restless Wave"

In December, Fox News reported that former British spy Christopher Steele instructed Sir Andrew Wood  a former British ambassador to Russia  to approach McCain about the existence of the dossier while Wood and McCain were both attending a security conference in Canada.

McCain later received hard copies of the dossier from Fusion GPS, and relayed a copy to the FBI, Fox News reported.

Also in the excerpts that appear in the Guardian:

McCain claims Republicans are on the wrong side of the immigration debate, arguing that it has been driven by zealots who fail to understand immigrations key role in America exceptionalism.

The anti-immigration zealots need to be confronted before their noxious views spread further and damage for generations the reputation of the Republican Party, McCain writes, according to the Guardian.

McCain also expresses regret for choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008, instead of his friend, former U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.

"The Restless Wave" is set to be published May 22.

Fox News Catherine Herridge, Pamela K. Browne and Cyd Upson contributed to this report.A climate denier may be the reason the S-word is back in vogue in Congress. Oh yeah, not that S-word, the other one: SETI.

That's right, Congress is talking about spending a bunch of money on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (or SETI) for the first time in 25 years.

In 1992, a huge NASA SETI initiative was launched with the construction of two radio telescopes (one in Puerto Rico and the other in California) to comb the cosmos for signals from alien civilizations. Just a year later, however, Nevada Sen. Richard Bryan shut it down, and "SETI" became an unmentionable. [Greetings, Earthlings! 8 Ways Aliens Could Contact Us]

"[Bryan] made it clear to the administration that if they came back with SETI in their budget again, it wouldn't be good for the NASA budget," renowned astronomer Jill Tarter told Marina Koren of The Atlantic. "So, we instantly became the four-letter S-word that you couldn't say at headquarters anymore, and that has stuck for quite a while."

(Tarter was the director of the SETI Institute for 35 years before stepping down in 2012.)

Now, the U.S. House of Representatives has proposed a bill that includes $10 million in NASA funding for the next two years "to search for technosignatures, such as radio transmissions, in order to meet the NASA objective to search for life's origin, evolution, distribution, and future in the universe." Such technosignatures would come in the form of radio waves that have the telltale features of being produced by TV- or radio-type technologies. An intelligent civilization could also produce those signals intentionally to communicate with other civilizations like ours.

"If it passes, it would definitely be a sea-change in Congressional attitude since Sen. Bryan terminated NASA's SETI program, the High Resolution Microwave Survey, in 1993," Tarter told Live Science in an email.

She added that the funding seems to be an extension of the efforts of Rep. Lamar Smith, RTexas, to bring attention to the search for life beyond Earth when he was the chairman of the House Science Committee. (Smith, who announced that he will retire at the end of his term this year, is a known denier of human-caused climate change.)

If the legislation clears the House and passes the Senate, the result would be huge. "It allows for new instrumentation to be built, and data collected and analyzed at scale, by a global community," Tarter said of the $10 million.

Of course, the hunt for intelligence beyond Earth has not stopped, as private companies and other organizations have funded it, but a buy-in from the federal government is a big deal. [7 Huge Misconceptions about Aliens]

"You need to remember that this is an authorization bill, not an appropriations bill. Even if it passes, the appropriators may not provide any SETI funding in their bill. But if they do, that would be a very big deal," said Tarter, who was the basis for the heroine Ellie Arroway in Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" and in the adapted movie by the same name.

Tarter is admittedly ecstatic about the possibility of such a federal focus on SETI. But you don't become the director of the SETI Institute by keeping your feet on the ground.

"Bring it on! But don't stop there," Tarter said about the potential funding. "Earthlings everywhere are fascinated with this search and care about the answer. So, we should create an international endowment for searching for intelligent life beyond Earth. The backers should be private individuals, enlightened corporations, U.S. federal agencies and agencies from other governments around the world."

She added, "By smoothing out the funding roller coaster that has characterized this research field from the beginning, it will be possible to attract the best and brightest minds with the best ideas from everywhere, and commit to the long-term search efforts that might be required for success."

Are alien greetings just around the corner? Tarter said we have the technology now to search for more distant and fainter signals in ways we haven't tried before. "But that doesn't guarantee success in the 'near future.' The cosmos is vast, and we may not yet be looking in the right way, although we are doing the best job possible with what we now know."

The "correct perspective on timing," Tarter said, is summed up in a line from a paper published in 1959 in the journal Nature by Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison: "'The probability of success is difficult to estimate; but if we never search, the chance of success is zero,'" Tarter said.

Original article on Live Science.In his first major address as NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine defended the new agency directive to go to the moon first before voyaging to Mars. But his webcast speech at the Humans to Mars summit in Washington, D.C., May 9 did not disclose any new initiatives by NASA to send humans to the Red Planet.

Bridenstine, the former Republican congressman from Oklahoma's 1st District, was sworn in as administrator three weeks ago after NASA went 15 months without a permanent leader. While the agency was under interim leadership, the Trump administration tasked NASA with taking humans back to the moon before going to Mars. [Presidential Visions for Space Exploration: From Ike to Trump]

Bridenstine told delegates that Mars and the moon will be complementary initiatives. In March, he said, the agency sent a request for information to U.S. industry asking for ideas to improve lunar payload transportation to orbit and to the moon, culminating with human landers. "If some of you are concerned that the coming focus is the moon, don't be," Bridenstine said.

"We're doing both the moon and Mars in tandem, and the missions are supportive of each other," he added. "Our return to the surface of the moon will allow us to prove and advance technologies that will feed forward to Mars." Examples of such technologies will include systems for surface mobility, surface habitation, long-duration life support and precision landing, he said.

Building a railroad

The key to success in space will be to encourage commercial players to move beyond low Earth orbit and deeper into space, Bridenstine said. He likened today's situation in space to the 1800s, when America's West was a frontier and it was difficult for the country to take advantage of it economically.

In 1803, Thomas Jefferson asked U.S. Army Capt. Meriwether Lewis and 2nd Lt. William Clark to lead Army volunteers westward. The land had just been acquired under the Louisiana Purchase, and Jefferson wanted to know what was there  including "descriptions of animals, vegetables, minerals and other strange things," Bridenstine said. Their expedition ran from 1804 to 1806.

But it wasn't until the 1860s that the government could take full advantage of the western frontier, Bridenstine said. Twice, in 1860 and 1861, the U.S. House of Representatives passed bills to build a transcontinental railroad, which the Senate twice refused. (While Bridenstine didn't mention why, one major obstacle was the ongoing American Civil War.) The first Pacific Railroad Act was finally established in 1862, allowing for commercial expansion, Bridenstine said.

Bridenstine then recalled July 20, 1969, when the first Apollo mission landed on the lunar surface. He called Apollo 11's surface crew, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, a modern Lewis and Clark. "I know Buzz Aldrin is here, and he would tell you that Buzz Aldrin is Buzz Aldrin," Bridenstine joked. But he said that 49 years after that landing, it's time for the U.S. to build its own railroad in space. And he said NASA is already starting with two robotic Mars missions. [Missions to Mars: A Robot Red Planet Invasion History (Infographic)]

InSight and Mars 2020

NASA's InSight Mars lander launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Saturday (May 5) on a mission to probe deep into the Red Planet's interior. Bridenstine pointed out it was a government mission, built by American industry, inclusive of international partners, sent to a U.S. Air Force base launchpad and launched on a commercial rocket. This diverse partnership, he said, is "evidence that we are building the railroad, tie by tie, stake by stake."

InSight's main goal is to better understand the evolution of rocky planets, but Bridenstine said its findings will also help humans assess the exploration risks of Mars. Since Mars is closer to the asteroid belt, it has its own meteor showers. It also has a thinner atmosphere, meaning that more meteorites might strike the surface. The risk of meteorite strikes is poorly known, he said, along with our understanding of marsquakes and volcanic activity. "We'll be better informed and better prepared," he said.

The forthcoming Mars 2020 rover mission is focused on searching for potentially habitable environments, including caching samples for a possible sample return to Earth. But it will also carry an experiment called MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Experiment) to test a method for processing oxygen from Mars' atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide. This could be useful for future missions, Bridenstine said.

Bridenstine added that NASA's forthcoming powerful Space Launch System rocket, and the Orion deep-space spacecraft, will also be important pieces of the plan, allowing astronauts to "explore where an economy does not exist."

The Humans to Mars summit continues until May 10, and you can watch the proceedings live here at Space.com, or directly via the conference website: https://livestream.com/viewnow/HumanstoMars2018

Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook and Google+ . Original article on Space.com .SpaceX is set to launch the first Bangladeshi satellite into orbit on an upgraded version of its Falcon 9 rocket Thursday.

Bangabandhu Satellite-1 is scheduled to blast off from launch pad 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center. The launch window opens at 4:12 p.m. EDT and closes at 6:21 p.m. EDT. The satellite will be transferred into a geostationary orbit approximately 33 minutes after launch, according to SpaceX.

If SpaceX is unable to launch the satellite on Thursday, a backup window is scheduled for Friday.

SPACEX LAUNCHES 14TH SPACE STATION RESUPPLY MISSION

The mission is also the first to use Falcon 9 Block 5, which SpaceX describes as the final substantial upgrade to the rocket. Block 5 is designed to be capable of 10 or more flights with very limited refurbishment, the company explains, on its website.

SPACEX SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES NASA'S TESS EXOPLANET HUNTER

Similar to previous launches, SpaceX will attempt to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 booster on its Of Course I Still Love You droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. The Elon Musk-led company is committed to a strategy of returning its boosters to Earth in an attempt to reduce the costs of spaceflight.

Space.com reports that, while SpaceX has landed and a re-launched a number of Falcon 9 first stages, none has been launched more than twice.

SPACEX FALCON HEAVY LAUNCH WOWS SPACE EXPERTS, HERALDS NEW ERA OF EXPLORATION

This is a busy time for SpaceX, which recently launched its 14th resupply mission to the International Space Station, sent 10 next-generation satellites into orbit for Iridium Communications and launched NASAs TESS exoplanet hunter.

SpaceX also launched its first Falcon Heavy rocket earlier this year, with the test flight laying the foundations for ambitious future missions. The new, larger rocket is designed to hoist supersize satellites as well as equipment to the moon, Mars or other far-flung points.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogersIt's official: The repeal of net neutrality took effect on June 11.

The Federal Communications Commission narrowly voted to dismantle the Obama-era Internet regulations in December. The rules imposed utility-style regulations on Internet service providers (ISPs) and prevented them from favoring their own services or certain customers over that of competitors.

On Monday, the FCC touted the implementation of what it calls the "Restoring Internet Freedom Order," saying the order "replaces unnecessary, heavy-handed regulations dating back to 1934 with strong consumer protections, increased transparency and common-sense regulations that will promote investment and broadband deployment."

"The 2015 decision to impose these heavy-handed utility-style regulations on the Internet was a mistake," FCC chairman Ajit Pai said in a video, adding that the rules were a "solution in search of a problem."

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel called the rollback "misguided" and "bad news" in a statement.

ISPs "will have the right to discriminate and favor the Internet traffic of those companies with whom they have pay-for-play arrangements and the right to consign all others to a slow and bumpy road," she said in a statement.

"Plain and simple, thanks to the FCCs rollback of net neutrality, Internet providers have the legal green light, the technical ability and business incentive to discriminate and manipulate what we see, read, and learn online."

Prior to the rollback, nationwide protests were held as consumers worried cable and phone companies would suddenly have greater control over what they see and do online. But the broadband industry has promised users the Internet experience will not change.

In May, senators voted to restore net neutrality, but President Trump's signature would be needed to bring back the regulations, and the House didn't advance the legislation.

Heres a look at what net neutrality is and how the FCC's move could impact consumers nationwide.

What is net neutrality?

Net neutrality is the idea that ISPs must treat all legal Internet data the same  regardless of where it comes from or who it is going to.

Harold Feld, senior vice president with the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Public Knowledge, compared net neutrality to an on-ramp to the internet, meaning ISPs are not allowed to interfere with what the subscriber wants to do or where the subscriber wants to go.

Under net neutrality regulations, ISPs are not allowed to block or throttle  meaning slow down  websites or applications.

What did the FCC do?

Trump-appointed FCC chairman Ajit Pai led the charge to repeal net neutrality regulations.

Pai, 45, said he believes net neutrality rules adopted during the Obama administration discourage ISPs from making investments in their network that would provide even better and faster online access.

"Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the internet," Pai said in a statement.

How could a full repeal impact consumers?

Repealing net neutrality regulations means consumers could start paying more for their Internet services, critics have said. Consumers could also see ISPs start to bundle services  such as certain websites or applications  and charge more depending on what a person wants access to, experts said.

Right now, the FCC has designated [the Internet] as a telecommunications service  like a phone service, which includes all of the rules that apply to prevent [a company] from blocking or throttling or favoring one company over another, Feld told Fox News ahead of the vote. The real question, to some degree, is, Is the Internet going to work like the old telephone where you get to decide who you called and what you do or is it going to become more like cable?

If its one thing that cable companies have proven to be good at over the years, its more ways to get money out of consumers and into their own pockets, he continued. Primary broadband providers will take advantage of this to find new ways to charge customers if they want to get high quality service.

Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, said broadband providers would presumably  try some things consumers dont like and others that prove to be popular. But he dismissed the notion of predicting just what exactly providers would do should the regulations be scaled back.

"The truth is we wont know until providers start experimenting: Presumably theyll try some things consumers dont like, and others that prove popular."  Julian Sanchez, Cato Institute

Theres plenty of scaremongering around steps broadband providers could take in the absence of neutrality regulation  blocking off certain sites, or charging extra fees to access certain services  but not a ton of reason to think they would do these things, which would antagonize customers, be technically tricky to enforce against sophisticated users, and invite the re-imposition of regulations, Sanchez told Fox News.

Whats more realistic is the introduction of plans that provide higher speeds for specific bandwidth-intensive services, he said, pointing to streaming high-definition Netflix videos as an example of such a service. Or, similarly, content providers might end up subsidizing higher-speed access to their services for subscribers whove only paid for slower all-purpose Internet access.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources on Wednesday asked its social media followers to identify a fish with humanlike incisors.

The department posted a riddle to its Facebook page, which reads: Youll need a saltwater fishing license to catch me! I like to hang out near rocks, jetties, reefs, and even bridges ... The coolest thing about me? I have human-like incisors and molars to help crush my food. I like shrimp and oysters just like you do!

Many people commented that the toothy fish appears to be a sheepshead, which is also known as a convict fish because its black and white stripes resemble a convicts jail attire.

My favorite fish to eat .. but they kinda give me the creeps with their people teeth, one Facebook user wrote.

Didn't know sheepshead had teeth like a horse, wrote another.

Sheepshead! It always cracks me up, a third commented.

A sheepshead is also a type of saltwater fish famed for having a crushing, painful bite when humans grab it the wrong way, the Charlottesville Observer reported. It allegedly got its name because its teeth look like a sheeps.

The fish are typically found along the east coast of the U.S., but also in the Gulf of Mexico.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources has yet to confirm the fishs species, however.Even in the fast-paced world of tech, where companies are constantly one-upping each other to be on the bleeding edge, youre bound to hit a lull now and then. And by all indications, it appears thats exactly where smartphones are at this very moment.



The industry is in something of a holding pattern right now. There are two major releases on the docket for this month  the OnePlus 6 on May 16, and HTCs next flagship (believed to be the HTC U12 but technically unconfirmed) on May 23. There have also been rumblings of a long-overdue successor to the iPhone SE dropping at some point in the next few weeks, with the spotlight shining on Apples WWDC 2018 on June 4 as a possible venue for the announcement.

Then there are the phones weve already seen. Motorolas new Moto G6 and E5 look to be solid budget buys, but were still waiting for those to hit store shelves. Meanwhile, the LG G7 ThinQ  the device the South Korean tech giant was counting on to claw back some ground against Samsungs Galaxy S9  emerged not with a bang, but a whimper.

MORE: Galaxy S9 Killer? The LG G7 ThinQ Cant Even Beat Last Years Phones

Its just not a good time to buy a smartphone, and things look to remain that way for at least another few weeks. If your once-trusty handset is burning a hole in your pocket, we suggest enduring the heat for just a little bit longer  at least until we see what OnePlus and HTC have been working on in the flesh.

OnePlus in particular produces its handsets in very limited production runs (the OnePlus 5T notoriously sold out after just four months), so that may pose an exception to the rule. If youre eyeing a OnePlus 6, thats probably a device you should jump on as quickly as it goes on sale, likely during the last week of May.

Of course, the most highly-anticipated phones are usually saved for the end of the year, where Apple and Google introduce their newest premium hardware and set the course for imitators in the process. Samsung typically unveils a new Galaxy Note product around that time as well, which you can expect to raise the bar established by the companys more mainstream Galaxy S line.

As 2018 rolls on, were beginning to get a clearer picture of how those devices will look, too. All of Apples upcoming iPhones (save for that rumored iPhone SE successor) are expected to sport notches as customers continue to snap up iPhone Xs . The Pixel 3 , which comparatively remains shrouded in secrecy, may even get a cheaper variant which could emulate the kinds of Android One phones weve been seeing more of lately. Meanwhile, a flurry of reports suggests Samsung will finally bring under-screen fingerprint sensing to the Galaxy Note 9 .

None of this is to say the devices that will arrive over the summer months arent worth your attention  quite the opposite, in fact. The OnePlus 5T was one of our favorite handsets of 2017 because of the way it blended quality hardware and software with an extraordinarily low price compared to its flagship peers. We were also really impressed with HTCs eye-catching U11 , which dazzled us with its design, camera and power. Were looking forward to the successors to both, and you should too.

Then again, buying a new phone isnt always a matter of choice. Sometimes, fate forces our hand. If you find yourself in one of those emergency situations, you may as well try to get the best deal possible. The Galaxy S9, which only went on sale in March, has already seen some aggressive promotions from carriers , and those only figure to continue with Mothers Day just around the corner.

But if you arent in a rush to pick up a new phone, or havent got a reason to be, hang on  your choices are about to get a lot more interesting very, very soon.This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," May 8, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: When I make promises, I keep them. I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

The fact is this was a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made. It didn't bring calm, it didn't bring peace, and it never will.

In the meantime, powerful sanctions will go into full effect. If the regime continues its nuclear aspirations, it will have bigger problems than it has ever had before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: President Trump pulling the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal. Swift reaction. European allies releasing a statement together. "It is with regret and concern that we, the leaders of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, take note of President Trump's decision to withdraw the United States of America from the JCPOA. Together we emphasize our continuing commitment to that agreement. This agreement remains important for our shared security. We urge the U.S. to ensure that the structures that the JCPOA can remain intact, and to taking action which obstructs it full implementation by all other parties to the deal," saying essentially they are negotiating further.

Not all countries sharing that. Saudi Arabia tweeting out, "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia fully supports the measures taken by the president of the United States with regards to the JCPOA. We always had reservations with regards to sunset clauses, ballistic missiles program, and Iran's support for terrorism in the region." Similar statements coming from the UAE, Bahrain, the Gulf allies, and of course Israel.

Let's bring in our panel: Matt Schlapp, contributor with The Hill; A.B. Stoddard, associate editor at Real Clear Politics and host of "No Labels Radio" on Sirius XM, and Eli Lake, columnist for Bloomberg View.

Eli, looking at looking at across the board the world reaction, your take on this and the hopes that, perhaps, you heard the secretary of treasury say there may be a renegotiation in the offing?

ELI LAKE, BLOOMBERG VIEW: There is also the period of 90 and180 days for the re-imposition of the sanctions. There are now negotiations that I guess have been announced between Iran and the European allies. And so far there has not been any kind of clear statements from the Iranians as to saying that they are going to begin enriching beyond the limits on uranium or building up their program, or kicking out inspectors.

All of that is pretty good. And I think in some ways it could be a continuation of the strategy that Trump has pursued really since the beginning of his presidency, which is to try to renegotiate a better deal.

But there is a paradox also in what he said today which is that he really made a very clear statement of solidarity with the Iranian people. And the question is, if Trump negotiates a bargain with the Iranian regime, where does that leave the Iranian people? I think now is a perfect opportunity for Trump to begin thinking about ways to support the democracy movement which has been gaining momentum really since late December in Iran.

BAIER: Right, exactly, those protests in December and January essentially about the weakening economy in Iran. Here is the president of Iran reacting to this announcement after President Trump spoke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HASSAN ROUHANI, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Tonight we witness an important historic experience. The same thing that we have said and repeated for 40 years has happened. Iran is a country that is loyal to its commitments, and the U.S. is a country that never sticks to its commitments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Matt, your thought on that? And you hear it not only obviously from the Iranians but other opponents of this action, saying if the U.S. can't keep its international deals, how does any country believe that the U.S. can keep agreements?

MATT SCHLAPP, THE HILL: Right. And of course there is no future between an American bilateral relationship with the Mullahs in Iran. We have to look past the Mullahs in Iran to the future. And I agree with Eli completely. It's about the Iranian people who in many ways are aligned like no other country in the region to actually be in a position where they could be allied with us on several key issues. So it's about looking past the Mullahs. It's about weakening the Mullahs. Unfortunately we will never get the billions of dollars back that they got at the beginning of this arrangement with President Obama, but this does knock the second big pillar out of the Obama legacy. The Iran nuclear agreement is dead.

Now it can be negotiated, there are ways in which it transitions, but the fundamental premise of it is dead. And I'd have to say one other thing. When you have John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in there staffing the president to fulfill his promises, great things can happen.

BAIER: A.B., you hear some Democrats out there saying this was the wrong move because the next step is not set in stone yet. We don't know the way frankly. And they are comparing it to Obamacare and repeal and replace where there wasn't that next step. But here are some Democrats about this deal as it came to pass.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

SENATE MINORITY LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y.: We should not go forward with this agreement.

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ, D-N.J.: The whole purpose of our negotiation was to ensure that there would be no pathway for Iran to achieve nuclear weapons capability. And this deal doesn't achieve that.

REP. ELIOT ENGEL, D-N.Y.: I've said more times than I can count that I opposed the deal when it was announced. I voted against it on the House floor.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BAIER: Obviously, A.B., they are all saying different things now. What about this move today?

A.B. STODDARD, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: Bret, this was a flawed agreement from day one, and there were critics on both sides. That's perfectly clear. Right now there are senior members on Capitol Hill, House Armed Services Committee chairman, Republican senior members of the -- sorry, of the Foreign Affairs Committee, senior members of the House Armed Services Committee who are Republicans, very worried about the fact that you get out of this deal and you are left in a perilous place. Very difficult. It makes the challenge with North Korea much more difficult, and it creates a whole host of problems and consequences in the years to come.

It might have allowed for time for the kind of democracy-building and fighting for freedom that Eli Lake wrote so eloquently about today. It might have helped us keep our word with our allies, an area where we are really struggling because we actually don't have a new NAFTA deal. President Macron of France said getting out of this would be insane because there's really nothing left in its place.

I think that these next critical days and weeks are going to tell us whether or not he can actually keep Iran at the table, and whether our European allies can keep them from some kind of proliferation activity and keep them at the table. And if President Trump can end up renegotiating something, that will be a masterstroke. As of now we're just going to have to wait and see what they are willing to give.

BAIER: Part of this speech was to say, here's your opportunity, Iran. This deal was not working. You could still negotiation it. But Eli, very quickly, at the same time you have Secretary of State Pompeo on the ground in North Korea. Who knows, he could come home with three Americans as part of laying the groundwork for this, what is supposed to be a locked in meeting. Put the juxtaposition of those two things.

LAKE: I actually think what Trump did today could help in North Korea because it shows that he is willing to defy establishment, foreign policy Washington, and impose crippling sanctions over the objection of his closest allies and everything else.

I argued in columns that he should wait it out, and in some ways if the North Koreans are looking at that, I think they might say to themselves, we don't necessarily want to cross the sky. We are in good graces now. Imagine what happens if these negotiations don't work out. It could be perilous for us. That's one calculus. I think it's really hard to predict what Kim Jong-un will do. I don't think any intelligence agency really can get inside of his head. But I do think there could be this benefit of it which is that Trump is a disruptor, and he is willing to do things which other adversaries did not think was possible, and that could be a benefit in the context of North Korean negotiations.

BAIER: That's 100 percent true. Panel, thank you.

Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," May 9, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: All right. Welcome to 'Hannity.'

A lot of breaking news. Good news for the United States and the world. All eyes are on Joint Base Andrews as we await the arrival of three American hostages just released from North Korea. President Trump is expected to greet these brave individuals on the tarmac when they land enrollments, we will break down the diplomatic developments on the Korean peninsula and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's incredibly successful trip to the region.

Plus, we'll show how the president's achievements on the world stage are driving Democrats and the media insane.

And also tonight, the leaders of Iran, the mullahs, are throwing a temper tantrum after President Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the destructive Iranian nuclear deal. We'll bring you the crazy rhetoric coming out of Iran.

Plus, the equally ridiculous and melodramatic rhetoric coming from your mainstream media, as corrupt as they are.

And we have all the highlights and low lights from today's confirmation hearing for the presidents pick to head the CIA, Gina Haspel. She was forced to defend her stellar track record from Democrats who think she is too tough on terrorists.

Now, finally tonight, we mark an important anniversary for the deep state. One year ago today, James Comey, under recommendation of Rod Rosenstein, was fired from his role as the FBI director.

And finally, some positive developments to report from the DOJ's ongoing obstruction.

All of that, plus just breaking now moments ago, Israeli defense forces are reporting that Iranian forces launched missiles at Israel from Syria. Multiple rockets were fired. Israel has responded tonight, and we'll give you all the details.

And that and more and are very important breaking news opening monologue.

(MUSIC)

HANNITY: As we speak, the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air with three released American hostages were on their way back thankfully to the United States after spending months inside hard labor prison camps across North Korea.

This was a major diplomatic win for the president and the Trump administration and a very important step forward for North Korea. And most importantly, three American lives thankfully were saved. President Trump's historic summit with Kim Jong Un is now moving forward, as planned.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this and allowing them to go. We picked a time. We picked a place for the meeting, or summit, as you like to call it.

I think it will be very successful, but as I always say, who knows? Who knows what's going to happen? But it's going to be a very important event. Again, I think this is something that nobody thought was going to happen for years or more.

REPORTER: Where is the summit going to take place?

TRUMP: We're going to announce that in three days -- within three days.

REPORTER: Within three days?

TRUMP: We're just working arrangements.

(CROSSTALK)

REPORTER: -- not in the DMZ?

TRUMP: It will be not be there.

REPORTER: Do you deserve the Nobel Prize, do you think?

TRUMP: Everyone thinks so but I won't say it. Do you know what I want to do? I want to get it finished. The prize I want is victory for the world, not for even here. I want victory for the world because that's what we're talking about. So, that's the only prize I want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: A date has now been set for the upcoming meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un and we'll let you know the details as we get them.

Let me be clear: this diplomatic progress, it's no accident. When President Trump took the reins from Barack Obama, little rocket man was launching his ballistic missiles over Japan. He was threatening Guam, threatening the rest of the world, and, of course, testing nuclear weapons left and right and of course ballistic missiles.

All of these aggressive tactics have ended, at least for the moment. This, thanks to the hard work, negotiating skills of the president and his brand-new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. And after tightening sanctions, developing a strong relationship with the president of China and threatening to introduce new tariffs, sending multiple carrier strike groups to the region, and berating Kim Jong Un on the world stage, the North Korean dictator is now limping to the negotiating table. And it's on the terms the United States set.

But wait, hang on. Remember, just a few months ago, your media, your corrupt, destroy Trump media was telling you that Donald Trump was leading us to a nuclear war with North Korea. Oh, how could they ever get something like that wrong?

Typical. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN: If the idea of a nuclear showdown with North Korea keeps you up at night, I would recommend deleting your Twitter app.

JOHN HEILEMANN, MSNBC: He's not merely being cavalier with the threat about nuclear war. He's been cavalier in a way that makes him seem demented.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN: These are the messages from a person who is not well, from a leader who is not fit for office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump is goading Kim Jong Un to test a nuclear missile again, to prove its reliability, to show him wrong. And fundamentally, I think it comes across as two kindergartners who are jostling each other, except that each has nuclear weapons.

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC: Too late after 100,000 Americans die.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After a nuclear holocaust.

SCARBOROUGH: Or after a million die in Seattle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that's where we are. This is not an exaggeration.

CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC: Trump's comments about nuclear weapons have experts worried he could literally inadvertently trigger a catastrophe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Yes, the typical media barrage didn't end well or age well. So, I wonder if the mainstream media, are they going to apologize for the hysterical coverage, just like their phony Russian coverage, just like everything else I get wrong?

It's unlikely because just yesterday, yes, "The New York Times," the paper of record, they actually slammed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo because he was absent during President Trump's Iran nuclear deal announcement. Well, then they found out he was actually in North Korea rescuing and saving American hostages. Something Barack Obama could never get done.

Trump responded two hours ago on Twitter, he wrote: The failing "New York Times" criticize the Secretary of State Pompeo for being AWOL, missing, when, in fact, he was flying to North Korea. Fake news, so bad.

We're going to get back to the abusively biased media in just a moment, but first, we are also following very closely a developing situation inside of Iran. The IDF is reporting that Israel's Iron Dome was able to intercept multiple rockets that were fired by Iranian sources from a Syrian base. No injuries have been reported.

I just got off the phone with a high-ranking Israeli official who has now confirmed to me this was in response to Israel's military actions, and in fact I have confirmation Israel tonight not long ago has retaliated. We are going to have more of that in the moment with Colonel Oliver North.

But, first, yesterday, President Trump made the important decision to pull America out of the incredibly flawed Iranian nuclear deal. In a few weeks, U.S. sanctions against Iran will be reinstated, likely squeezing this rogue nation economically and essentially Iran will now have less money to fund, let's see, their proxy wars in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. They are funding of terrorism around the world? Their weapon systems that are aimed at Israel and other allies in the region.

And, of course, the corrupt Islamist political leaders in Iran and the mullahs, oh they are not taking this so well. Yet petulant Iranian lawmakers yelling once again "death to America" from the parliament floor, and even burning an American flag, as you can see. In other words, a pretty normal Tuesday from the parliament in Tehran.

Meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader went on a totally unhinged Twitter rant, saying the U.S. president's shallow, ludicrous behavior wasn't unexpected. The same behavior existed in previous U.S. presidents, yet Iranian nation is persisting while former U.S. presidents passed away and the Islamic Republic of Iran is still standing. This man's corpse will also be worm food while the Islamic Republic stands strong.

This coming from a man President Obama, think about this, trusted and handed over $150 billion to. And a promise he got back -- well, we're not going to build nukes but we got he got to continue to spin those centrifuges.

Naturally, the mullahs of Iran are also threatening to ramp up their uranium enrichment program. President Trump is not bowing down to these empty threats. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: What are you going to do if Iran starts up their nuclear program?

TRUMP: Iran will find out. They're going to find out. I don't think they should do that.

I would advise Iran not to start their nuclear program. I would advise them very strongly. If they do, there will be very severe consequence. OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Sadly, Iran's morally corrupt political leaders aren't the only ones melting down over the president's decision. Yes, your very own mainstream media, they are also in freak out mode yet again. I guess they didn't learn from their North Korean coverage.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC: Decision by the president that some say marks the United States' biggest self-inflicted foreign policy wound since the Iraq War.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we heard was not foreign policy. It was vandalism.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Doesn't this give Iran a propaganda win?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course.

RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC: I guess the good news here is that John Bolton is finally getting the war he has always wanted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It reinforces the notion that we are something of a rogue country, that we don't honor or live up to our international commitments.

WHOOPI GOLDBER, ABC: Is he just keeping a campaign promise here? Do we know what he pulled out of? Does he know what he pulled out of?

MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC: The totality of this president's behavior and decisions leads me to question why he does anything and whether or not it is to deflect from something else. I don't think he has the moral compass to make a decision based on our own national security.

JOY BEHAR, ABC: It's almost like I can't believe anything he does because it seems to be based on a personal antagonism to Obama and a jealousy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Every night now, we get more and more evidence journalism in this country is dead and buried. I told you in 2007 and '08. Now, this brand- new Iran hysteria is only the latest example, proving our point.

Let's turn to some important news. The president's pick to head the CIA, Gina Haspel, she testified powerfully today before the Senate Intelligence Committee as her confirmation process is now underway.

As I have said many times on this program, that woman, Ms. Haspel, is an American patriot and hero. Her work in the CIA after 9/11 saved countless of Americans. It brought terrorists to justice.

Still, you have some Democrats attacking Haspel for supporting legal programs that they claim now were too tough on jihadists, on terrorists, forcing Haspel to defend her incredible track record.

Take a look at this outrage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON WYDEN, ROREGON: I would really like to have on the record whether you ever called for the program to be continued, which it sure sounds to me like your answer suggested. You said, well, we were doing our job. It ought to be continued. That troubles me very much.

GINA HASPEL, CIA DIRECTOR NOMINEE: Let me say this about myself. After 9/11, I didn't look to go sit on the swish desk. I stepped up. I was done on the sidelines. I was on the front lines in the Cold War and I was on the front lines in the fight against al Qaeda.

SEN. JACK REED, DR.I.: Very simple. You have an operations officer who is captured, he's being waterboarded. I've asked you very simply, would you determine that to be immoral and something that should never be done, condoned in any way, shape, or form? Your response seems to be that civilized nations don't do it but uncivilized nations do it or uncivilized groups do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The United States.

REED: A civilized nation was doing it until it was outlawed by this Congress.

HASPEL: Senator, I would never obviously support any inhumane treatment of any CIA officers. We have lost CIA officers over the years to terrorists.

I just gave an example. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed personally killed a "Wall Street Journal" correspondent and filmed it. I don't think there's any comparison between CIA officers serving their country, adhering to U.S. law, and terrorists who, by their very definition, are not following anybody's law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: And people need to look at that beheading.

And, by the way, only three people including that man were actually waterboarded under intense medical supervision.

"The New York Times" reported last night that that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed asked a military judge to share information with the Intel Committee prior to Haspel's confirmation hearings. Really? We are going to let that guy give information?

It is unbelievable, despicable. It's disgusting. 9/11/2001, we lost 3,000 Americans.

Today's Senate Democrats slammed the CIA's interrogation tactics against KSM. But Haspel provided important context about this terrorist. I hope people will remember. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HASPEL: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was the architect and mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. His nephew Ramzi Yousef, was behind the '93 attack on the World Trade Center. And Khalid Sheikh Mohammed financed that operation.

He also was behind the infamous Bojinka plot in the Philippines.

Tragically, he was the individual who personally killed a "Wall Street Journal" American correspondent and filmed that heinous act.

He also, after 9/11, carried out an attack on a synagogue in Tunisia, and he had other attacks planned.

We were able to warn allies about a planned attack for example on Heathrow Airport.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: You want to see the most evil, despicable act besides 9/11? Go video the beheading of that reporter of which she is referring to.

Former top CIA official Jose Rodriguez has been on this program many times. And back in 2014, he reminded us that the interrogation program against KSM, one of three people waterboarded, it actually led our intelligence officials to the courier of Usama bin Laden which led us to Usama bin Laden.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: So in other words, you are saying that the accusation that these enhanced interrogation techniques were used beyond what we had already, what had already been disclosed, you are saying it's false, number one. And that in spite of their suggestion that they were not successful, you're saying that, in fact, that's not true. You were there. It was successful.

JOSE RODRIGUEZ, FORMER TOP CIA OFFICIAL: It was very successful. And for those of us who were there, it is just amazing that they could have come to this conclusion. Those of us who read the intelligence coming out of our black sites every morning and who acted on that intelligence know the value and basically it led to the destruction of the organization.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: It was successful. They were there. Jose Rodriguez, Gina Haspel, thank you for your service to your country. And America now needs you more than ever.

It is high time for the U.S. Senate and these guys on their high horse after the fact to confirm your nomination.

Finally tonight, more evidence that the deep state is crumbling. It has been one year since President Trump fired James Comey, oh, on the recommendation in part of Rod Rosenstein. And it looks like he is longing for his days as America's top deep state arbiter. Comey tweeted out a picture of himself naturally along with the caption, missing the people of the FBI today. Many that I talk to aren't missing him. Thank you for your commitment to the truth in all you do for the good of the country, et cetera.

Of course, Comey was fired was less than truthful handling of the Clinton investigation like when he lied about not writing the exoneration in May before interviewing Hillary Clinton in July and 17 other key people or when he turned the other way as Clinton destroyed evidence, you know, BleachBit, acid washed, deleting subpoenaed emails.

Let's not forget, by the way, about Comey's FISA abuse using Hillary's bought and paid for dirty dossier full of lies put together by a foreign national to lie to a FISA court judge to spy on a Trump campaign associate. And we could go on. But you've heard of before. We don't have all night.

Instead, we do have some good news to bring you tonight from the ongoing obstruction in the Department of Justice. Fox News is reporting that the House chairmen, the House Intel Committee Chairman Nunes and Chairman Gowdy, they have now been invited by the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to the DOJ for a briefing about the latest request from Chairman Nunes regarding the Russia investigation.

This, of course, came after a call between the White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and the Justice Department and their officials. Unfortunately, this briefing will be of course classified but maybe, maybe finally after subpoena, after subpoena, after reduction, after redaction, after slow walking, maybe the sign that the DOJ cooperation could be improving. I guess the threat of contempt of Congress -- well, maybe that had an impact too.

They have been slow walking thousands of subpoenaed documents to Congress. They have been putting in heavily redacted comments. They've been claiming national security is at risk when in fact it's been proven at times not to be at risk.

We asked the question on this program. Rod Rosenstein, what does the Department of Justice have to hide?

Another developing story. The media has been running wall-to- wall with a report that some Russian oligarchs may potentially elicit payments to Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen and the media is, of course, featuring salacious details from Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti who claims to have inside information. He's the guy that's on fake news CNN and MSNBC conspiracy TV seemingly 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

However, tonight, we are learning that the information, at least some of it, might be seriously flawed. Michael Cohen's attorneys, they are pushing back tonight, saying that Avenatti and at least two instances apparently accuse the wrong Michael Cohen. Cohen's lawyers say that Michael Cohen Avenatti is talking about in one instance is a Canadian citizen with the same name. In another instance, an Israeli man with the same name.

You can't make this stuff up. We'll continue to follow the story.

All right. Joining us now with reaction to all this breaking news, we have Colonel Oliver North.

Colonel, you alerted me before we came on the air. I made some phone calls. Top sources in Israel have confirmed that multiple rockets were fired at Israel within the last couple of hours. And Israel has, in fact, they were fired from Syria, Israel has responded.

No Israelis were injured, though, in the attack against them. This having to do with Israel's previous military attacks against Syria in recent weeks. Nothing to do with the Iranian deal, I was told, at a very high level.

OLIVER NORTH, NRA PRESIDENT-ELECT: Look, never believe an Iranian because if their lips are moving, they are lying.

But let me a little bit more about the story and we can about some other stuff. Twenty missiles fired from a Syrian base. They are Iranian missiles. These are the kinds they are trying to transship into Lebanon to get to Hezbollah. The Israeli air force is responding when they -- when you and I first talked about this 20 minutes ago, they were responding to it.

It's interestingly enough, Sean, the same base from which I went into Syria with the IDF back in January. I think we've got footage of that.

I was on the air with Fox News. We were allowed, in fact encouraged, by an Israeli defense official to go into Syria where the Israelis have built a military hospital inside Syria to help --

HANNITY: I want to make sure the video we are showing our audience, that's the exact location it was fired at today. Nobody in Israel was hurt but Israel has responded.

NORTH: Correct.

HANNITY: It was fired -- we believe Iranian missiles from Syria.

NORTH: Yes, that's exactly the report I received from a very senior Israeli defense official. He is the man who went with me, not this guy on the screen. I want to be very clear about that.

But the colonel who called me as a dear friend, and he knows what he's talking about. He knows all about the Iranian threats to Israel coming out of Syria. He was forecasting it. The base that we went in from is the one that was attacked today.

HANNITY: Colonel, I also confirmed from a high-ranking government source within Israel. So, everything that you had told me about half an hour ago. You know a thing or two about the release of hostages.

What is amazing here is the rapid turnaround. America sends a strike force. The president demeans little rocket man all over the place. Sanctions are put in place, an alliance with China takes place.

This had happened, the North Korean dictator crossing the DMZ, now talking about denuclearization of the entire peninsula by accident. This happened, peace through strength.

NORTH: Absolutely. What is happened here, Sean, is being rejected by the far left because, one, you are absolutely right, the deep state cannot stand the prospect of this president being reelected. They are going to do everything they can to undermine it.

And these are the kinds of propaganda. This is what this is. It's propaganda. It's lies about the president that are being used to dissuade the American people from supporting him. And, of course, a lot depends on this upcoming election in November.

HANNITY: Real quickly.

NORTH: We're also seeing the same thing happen with the NRA. There's no doubt about it. That's why -- that's why as painful as it's been, because you and I've been doing war broadcasts since I joined --

HANNITY: Long time.

NORTH: -- this network 17 years ago. And here we are talking about another attack on an ally by the Iranians from a foreign country called Syria.

I look at what I am doing, joining the NRA as their president, is a sad thing for me because I can't -- I can't come on every day with you like we used to do. But the fact is, the same thing is happening to this president is happening to the NRA right now. It's a massive left-wing attack on a great institution for civil liberties.

HANNITY: Colonel, they are lying about me every day. The media is vetting the more than they vetted Obama. I understand. I get it.

(LAUGHTER)

NORTH: God bless you, buddy. Semper fi.

HANNITY: God -- semper fi. Safe home, my friend.

And I will tell you this, we are praying for those three hostages coming home. We are watching the Israeli situation heating up with Syria and Iran, and we have much more. Ed Henry with the latest on the arrival of these hostages who have been. Dr. Gorka, Daniel Hoffman, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. You're looking at live Joint Base Andrews where we are awaiting the arrival of the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the three American hostages released by North Korea. Huge news today.

Joining us with more on what to expect as this plane begins to land tonight, Fox News chief national correspondent Ed Henry.

So, we have the hostages freed, Israel is now retaliated. Iranian rockets fired at Israel and, of course, the president's withdrawal from the horrific Iranian deal.

My words, not yours, sir.

ED HENRY, FOX NEWS CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Sean. Major breaking news night once again.

And this is really a coup for President Trump as his new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is coming home from his second secret trip in recent weeks to North Korea with a major foreign policy victory in tow. This caps a dramatic day of diplomacy.

A short time ago, the three previously imprisoned Americans landed with Pompeo in Anchorage, Alaska, for a refueling stop, then quickly got back in the air. They are now on their way to Joint Base Andrews, as you just showed. Right here in the Washington area. They will land in the middle of the night after a day of ups and downs.

There was some uncertainty about whether this was really happening after the secretary of state spent 90 minutes meeting with Kim Jong Un and then returned to his hotel. Reporters traveling with the secretary asked Pompeo if the Americans were coming home, and he crossed his fingers because he was still not sure it was a done deal.

But then a North Korean officials soon arrived to say these Americans were freed, Tony Kim, Kim Hak-song, and Kim Dong Chul. They appeared to be in good health, which is a big deal. Remember the heartbreak we all felt after Otto Warmbier was released from North Korea only to die shortly thereafter because of the horrific treatment he received from the communist nation.

So, the focus tonight is on the three Americans. The president is already looking ahead at how this sets that table for his summit with Kim that is likely coming in early June, saying today this will be a great moment for the whole world.

A short ago, you'd see he tweeted: Looking forward to greeting the hostages, no longer hostages, at 2:00 a.m.

FOX News will be there. I'm hosting live coverage in the middle of the night. The president as well as we believe Vice President Mike Pence are going to greet these Americans as they return to U.S. soil, Sean.

HANNITY: Ed, I will be watching. I never go to bed before 4:00 a.m. anyway. So, I'll be watching, Ed Henry.

That was sad with Otto Warmbier and his family. And the horrific conditions he came back in, and obviously the tragedy.

But good news tonight. Thanks, Ed. Appreciate it.

HENRY: Absolutely. Thank you.

HANNITY: According to a release from the State Department, that would be Mike Pompeo State Department, the three freed hostages have issued a statement writing, quote: We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, to President Trump, to Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home. We thank God and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

I can't wait for them to land.

Joining us now with reaction on all the big developments today, former deputy assistant to the president, Fox News national security strategist, Dr. Sebastian Gorka. Retired CIA intelligence officer, we welcome him to the Fox family. Of course, he's been in a lot, our friend Daniel Hoffman.

Dr. Gorka, let me start with you. These hostages are freed. It took a military presence. It took the president taunting Kim Jong Un. It took sanctions, but it worked. And I don't believe the president brought in $150 billion in cash and other currencies and cargo planes to make this happen.

SEBASTIAN GORKA, NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGIST, FOX NEWS: Isn't it a great night to be an American, Sean? This is stunning. The president and Secretary Pompeo with this one act have done more for America than Obama and his whole cabinet did in eight years.

No more appeasement. No more middle of the night pallets of currency being shipped to our enemies. What did we pay for these three Americans to come home, Sean? Nothing. We dealt with the dictator as you should deal with all dictators. No appeasement. Walk softly and carry a very big stick or an aircraft carrier battle group. That's how you get things done.

It is, you know, a new day for America, and this is a message for all dictatorships. And this is the model for how we deal with Iran. We've shown Iran no more appeasement and I'm telling the president and everybody in his circle. We use the Pyongyang model that Pompeo has effectively deployed to deal with regimes like Iran, Sean.

HANNITY: You know, I've known Mike Pompeo a long time. I'm very proud of what he did. I'm very proud of what the president did here. Daniel Hoffman, I think you rightly have been telling people, manager expectations. We, I know we're talking about something that is massive. And that would be the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. So important.

But also we never thought a year ago that Kim Jong Un would cross the DMZ into the arms of the president of South Korea. We never thought he would agree to have such talks. We know longer see missiles flying over Japan, Guam threatened, or talks about firing missiles that could reach New York and Boston.

Yes, we should manage our expectations, trust and verify. Peace through strength. But it's certainly far more hope than we have had in a long time.

DANIEL HOFFMAN, CONTRIBUTOR, FOX NEWS: Right, and this was a very tangible and positive result of this administration's foreign policy, Sean. And while we celebrate this diplomatic and humanitarian success, we need to remember as well that there are reportedly about 150 to 200,000 political prisoners in North Korea.

This is like akin to the Soviet gulags. And while our three former, soon- to-be former or former hostages, you know, after they received the medical care I'm sure they will need, I think they'll be very, very valuable sources of information on these North Korean prison labor camps and the awful, horrendous conditions to which innocent people are subjected.

And it's important for us to call out North Korea on their horrific behavior towards their own population and towards our citizens as well.

HANNITY: You know, I want to go -- Israel earlier today, a couple hours ago, multiple missiles fired by Iran from Syria. No Israeli has been hurt. I talked to high-level government sources. Colonel North has his sources in the IDF, thank God, but Israel has struck back tonight.

From my intelligent sources, they went directly to where those missiles were fired. This of course was in retaliation to Israel effectively taking out a lot of the sites that they've been using in Syria. Dr. Gorka.

GORKA: Yes, so the wonderful thing about the nation of Israel is that they have capabilities in the region that are unmatched, and when they feel a threat and when they have the requisite intelligence, they take action.

The massive change for Israel now is that now they have us to stand with them shoulder to shoulder. As the vice president said on the anniversary of the 69th year of the founding of the State of Israel, I was in the room with the vice president.

CHURCH: Yes.

GORKA: He says we stand with Israel.

(CROSSTALK)

CHURCH: Let me--

GORKA: Israel's enemies are our enemies.

HANNITY: And in a week, look what's -- this week and look what's going to happen, Daniel Hoffman. Jerusalem now the capital. So many people promised. It happened. President Trump another promise kept.

HOFFMAN: Extraordinary sea change, Sean. Absolutely. But I think this is a precursor for more kinetic action in Syria. Iran is using that territory against Israel, and I think I fear that it may only get worse.

HANNITY: It may. And I don't know if I would take on the Israeli defense forces, nor do I think you take on Israel's best ally, the United States.

Thank you both. When we come back, the media continues to do Robert Mueller's bidding. Gregg Jarrett, former Trump campaign aide Michael Cavuto. They are up next. A lot more breaking news, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right. Despite President Trump's huge foreign policy gains this week, as we await the release now, we know these hostages are on their way home. Thank God.

The media is still continues to do Robert Mueller's bidding, they can't stop talking about Russia, Russia. Stormy, Stormy. This is unbelievable.

Here with reaction, former Trump campaign aide, Mike Caputo. And the author of the upcoming book. This will be a number one bestseller, "The Russian Hoax. The Elicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump," Fox News legal analyst, Gregg Jarrett.

All right, let's go right to where we are. So, every single time subpoenaed documents, they slow walk.

GREGG JARRETT, LEGAL ANALYST, FOX NEWS: Right.

HANNITY: Every single time they say redacted for national security, we are finding instance after instance where it wasn't about national security. For example, Comey, who lied.

JARRETT: Right.

HANNITY: And said the FBI didn't think Michael Flynn was lying. Or they go to the next step which is they just say no. And Congress has oversight. So now there is a threat that they will be held in contempt. Rod Rosenstein and Jeff Sessions.

JARRETT: You even have members of Congress who have now drawn up articles of impeachment against Rosenstein. Because that's how far you have to go to get him to capitulate and follow the law. If you ask the Department of Justice and the FBI for documents that you are entitled to as members of Congress in your oversight capacity, if you ask them for their grocery list, they will say that's classified. Sorry, national security secrets. Intelligence information. Lives will be jeopardized.

When push comes to shove and I have to hand over the grocery list, you find out its meat and potatoes and cookies. And there is nothing whatsoever to do with national security or privileged classified information. Which means the Department of Justice and FBI cannot be trusted to be honest because they are trying to cover up their own misjudgments and corrupt conduct.

HANNITY: All right, let me go. Michael Caputo. I have watched you in interviews. You were on with us last week. You were recently before the special counsel for how many hours?

MICHAEL CAPUTO, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN AIDE: For three hours. I think it was a little shorter than they had hoped.

HANNITY: Yes, and they said to you we'll be watching you on TV.

CAPUTO: They did, and it was very clear they had been watching me on TV all along. And initially I was pretty scared about it because it's pretty expensive to go out there but I'm not very scared about it anymore.

I've got to tell you, you know, these slow walked FOIAS, and these other requests for documents, this isn't new to the Trump administration. This is the same reaction we got from the DOJ, the IRS, and I think they are the same people. This is a problem that goes back for another presidency, may be even two, and it's got to fast because the American people deserve to have these documents and certainly the congressional oversight.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Did you take it as a threat, we'll be watching?

CAPUTO: Absolutely. I think that, you know--

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Who said it? Do you remember the name of the attorney that said it?

CAPUTO: They know that many others are as well. I think the cost of these investigations, the Senate, House, Mueller, are keeping a lot of people quiet. But I'm not going to be quiet anymore.

HANNITY: Do you know who said it, which attorney?

CAPUTO: I do. I'm not revealing the names of the attorney or the two FBI agents that were in there with me. I think that they were mostly pretty professional. I don't think they'd discuss these issues with somebody who appears on TV a lot. It's mostly people who are, you know, behind the scenes, quite people like you know, J.D. Gordon and others who have been doing their jobs for many, many years.

HANNITY: Let me ask you, Gregg. I hear that and I hear like, we are watching you on TV.

JARRETT: Yes.

HANNITY: You'll be going on that idiot Hannity show. That's how interpreted. You know, we'll be watching.

JARRETT: The government is possessed of immense unfettered power. They can destroy your life. They can leave you penniless, as they did with Michael Flynn, and for what? It turns out he was telling the truth.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Michael Flynn had to sell his house.

JARRETT: That's right.

HANNITY: Michael Caputo had to sell his house.

JARRETT: They can ruin your life. That's how powerful.

HANNITY: Ray Donovan in the Reagan years.

JARRETT: Right.

HANNITY: Where do I go to get my good name back? By the time that is all said and done, there will be many of those people. Newt is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: We are awaiting the arrival of three Americans that are now freed from prison in North Korea. Now, they are due to arrive back right here in the United States within hours. They will be greeted by President Trump.

Also another big story we are following tonight, President Trump's nominee for the CIA director Gina Haspel was grilled by Democrats during her confirmation hearing earlier today. Haspel in fact defended her record and the record of the CIA. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINA HASPEL, CIA NOMINEE: First of all, CIA follows the law. We follow the law then. We follow the law today. I support the law. I wouldn't support a change in the law, but I will tell you this. I would not put CIA officers at risk by asking them to undertake risky controversial activity again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Joining us now, the author of the brand-new book. It is out June 5th, "Trump's America." And of course you can get it on Barnesandnoble.com. We have a link on Hannity.com. Former Speaker of the House, Fox News contributor, Newt Gingrich is with us.

She followed the law. We know that only three people were water boarded, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. And because he was water boarded, Mr. Speaker, he gave up the courier which led to Bin Laden. These are people, after 9/11, 3,000 Americans slaughtered. I find lot of the questioning today was beyond insulting for Ms. Haspel.

NEWT GINGRICH, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it was beyond insulting. And I actually thought that Marco Rubio had a perfectly at one point when he said to the committee, if we can't approve her, who are we going to confirm?

As you know, virtually every senior intelligence person has come out and said she's the right choice. She's a great professional. She has served the country as a patriot. And frankly, there is something a little disgusting about partisans who put their party above patriotism and who are willing to attack and smear those who literally have given their lives for the purpose of defending America.

And I think you can go back and pick out Democrat by Democrat, people who I think really should be ashamed of the way in which they dealt with somebody who has spent her entire lifetime trying to keep us safe, including people who frankly behave in such a partisan way that, no wonder she is disgusted with them.

HANNITY: Frankly, I think she's an American hero. Along with Jose Rodriguez and those other people that were able to get information to save American lives. It seems like many people have forgotten.

I want to move on to North Korea. We are awaiting these hostages now that are coming back with Secretary of State Pompeo. Chuck Schumer literally said today, he goes, he is warning that Kim Jong Un is trying to con Donald Trump into letting his guard down during nuclear negotiations. And he doesn't want the American people to fall prey to this.

And I'm like, the only person that got conned was Bill Clinton who paid, you know, billions in energy subsidies to Kim Jong Un's father. The only other person that got conned was Barack Obama and John Kerry when they gave 150 billion to the mullahs in Iran that are chanting and threatening again today.

GINGRICH: Well, my point would be the same, as I said a while ago, Senator Schumer, as he has with blocking appointees, keeping the U.S. government undermanned, in many ways crippling our ability to do things, Senator Schumer once again would rather be a a partisan than a patriot. He would rather try to score points which are pretty stupid points.

We have no evidence at all that Mike Pompeo, who graduated first in his class at West Point and who was a remarkable student at Harvard Law School, I don't think Pompeo was going to be conned by anybody.

But more importantly, why can't, why can't the Democratic leader of the Senate be happy for a minute? That three Americans who have been locked up for a year under a dictatorship are coming home? Why couldn't this be an evening of being happy for their families? And I just think the partisanship is so bitter that they just can't bring themselves, forgetting President Trump.

HANNITY: It really is this, though. That if Donald Trump is successful and we have 14 states with record low on appointment, lowest level of unemployment for African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, women in the workplace, the tax cuts are working. Revenues are an all-time high.

And now the president is having huge success in North Korea when the media and the Democrats are warning you are starting a nuclear war because he dared to warn Kim Jong Un and show a military president and call him little rocket man, and they were scared to death.

No, he is starting nuclear war. And it's the same with the Iranian mullahs. If, in fact, the world would join us, the Iranians would have no choice but to stop their nuclear program.

GINGRICH: Well, that's exactly right. By the way, the Congressional Budget Office report that says that this April was the highest revenue in American history, thick about this.

The tax cuts, such dramatic economic growth. It's the highest revenue, the largest surplus. Exactly the opposite of what the liberals said would happen. And as you just pointed out, you know, if they could bring themselves to put America first rather than partisanship first, we could get a lot done in the world.

HANNITY: Mr. Speaker, good to see you. All right. When we come back, Ed Henry is with us with a live report on these three American hostages released from North Korea. We are awaiting their arrival back on U.S. soil. Good news. Straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: All right, Fox News alert. According to the Israeli military, air raids were sounding in Israel as Iran fired multiple rockets into the country. They fire those rockets from Syria. Israel tonight has retaliated. Now, Fox will continue to monitor the situation throughout the night.

Also a big night. We can't wait for the arrival of three American prisoners held hostages in North Korea.

Ed Henry, you got the hostages free, Israelis retaliating. And of course, America took out, withdrew from the horrific Iranian deal. Again, my words, not yours. Sorry, I don't mean to drag you into my commentary.

ED HENRY, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, FOX NEWS: That's right, and that's why we're doing the news, Sean. And what's interesting is what a difference a year makes. Think about last summer when the president's critics were saying his hot rhetoric might lead to a nuclear war.

Instead, we may now be on the brink of a peace summit, and yes, three American hostages. New this hour, we've learned the president spoke today by phone with the president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, to discuss Secretary of State Mike Pompeo second secret trip to North Korea.

Officials telling us the president told his counterpart he's looking forward to welcoming them back to the White House May 22nd to get on the same page about the president summit with Kim Jong Un.

That call follows Pompeo meeting today with Kim in Pyongyang for 90 minutes to lay the groundwork for the president's meeting with Kim that I mentioned about. We are expecting that to happen in early June.

Today the president ruled out the Korean Demilitarized Zone for the meeting with the dictator. The president saying today the release of these three hostages sets the table nicely for that summit.

Now, what's also interesting is that since the DMZ has been ruled out for the summer, the focus now is on the possibility of this happening in Singapore. For now, the president is getting ready to head to Joint Base Andrews here in Washington before to get those hostages, Sean.

HANNITY: We're so glad to have them home. Also, our thoughts and prayers for the family of Otto Warmbier.

We'll always be fair and balanced. We're not the destroy-Trump media. Let not your heart be troubled. We have a lot tomorrow. Laura is next. See you tomorrow night.

Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 ASC Services II Media, LLC. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of ASC Services II Media, LLC. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.A Florida woman who was indicted on a first-degree murder charge in the death of her husband  who supposedly went missing on a duck-hunting trip 17 years ago  plotted his death for months, according to an indictment released Wednesday.

Denise Williams, 48, was arrested Tuesday on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and accessory after the fact in her husband Mike Williams December 2000 killing.

FLORIDA WIDOW ARRESTED IN 2000 COLD-CASE MURDER OF HUSBAND

The grand jury indictment accused Denise of conspiring with Brian Winchester, her husbands best friend and her eventual husband, for more than nine months before Winchester shot him. Winchester allegedly helped Mike write a $1 million insurance policy six months before he disappeared, and later married his widow.

The case had long been considered suspicious. Mike disappeared after he supposedly went duck hunting alone on a lake near Tallahassee.

His body wasnt initially found after an extensive search in and around Lake Seminole and a theory spread that he was eaten by an alligator  a theory Denise used when she petitioned for her husbands death to be declared accidental.

The theory was debunked when the body was discovered in December 2017, buried under muck near a boat landing in Tallahassee, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

Denise married Winchester in December 2005, but they divorced in 2016.

Last year, Winchester pleaded no contest to kidnapping Denise at gunpoint, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The very next day, authorities announced that Mike's remains were found at the end of a dead-end road after they received "new information." The body had been discovered two months earlier, but the state's Department of Law Enforcement needed to confirm through DNA tests that it was actually Mike.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said Wednesday that he has directed the state's Division of Investigative and Forensic Services to investigate Denise and Winchester for alleged life insurance fraud in the case.

Fox News Ryan Gaydos and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Authorities in New York said Monday that they arrested a couple who allegedly falsely claimed their child had cancer and swindled thousands of dollars in donations from a GoFundMe account created for the child.

Martin and Jolene LaFrance, both 35 years old and of Port Byron, New York, were arrested Friday after a months-long investigation and charged with one count each of first degree scheme to defraud and endangering the welfare of a child, the Cayuga County Sheriffs Office said in a press release on Facebook.

HAWAII-BORN KOLTEN WONG, ST. LOUIS CARDINALS STAR, MAKES PLEA FOR HELP FOR VOLCANO VICTIMS

Authorities said the probe into the LaFrances stemmed from an online solicitation for money to assist with a family members serious medical condition.

The sheriffs office said the pair was involved in the launch of a GoFundMe page that "indicated that their child had cancer." From the donation page, authorities said the couple raked in several thousands of dollars.

The investigation revealed conclusively that the child was never diagnosed with cancer or any other medical condition that was alleged in the GoFundMe solicitation, the sheriffs office said.

SUSPECT ARRESTED IN BRUTAL NEW YORK SEX ASSAULT

In a statement to Fox News, a GoFundMe spokesperson said that the LaFrances broke the companys terms of service and thus were banned from the site. All of those who donated to the campaign will get their money back, the company said, and GoFundMe is cooperating with the investigation.

They added that misuse is extremely rare on our platform however there are unfortunate and rare instances where people create campaigns with the intention to take advantage of others generosity.

Authorities said the investigation is ongoing and that the couple is set to appear in court on May 16.An 88-year-old West Virginia woman died Wednesday after she was found in "deplorable conditions" with a rotting leg earlier in the week, authorities said.

Charleston police were dispatched to a local hospital Monday night after an elderly woman identified as Norma Dunlap, was admitted with signs of severe neglect.

According to police, Dunlap had numerous bed sores, dried feces on her back and was covered in insects. Her left leg was rotting from the knee down to her ankle, police said, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Police searched the womans home, finding deplorable conditions with feces and broken glass on the floors. Bugs covered the elderly womans bed and the floor.

She lived with her daughter Lisa Dunlap, 50, as well as her granddaughter Kayla L. Rogers, 29, John W. Rogers, 28, and their two children, authorities said.

Police said they found methamphetamine smoking devices beside the bed the two children were sleeping in.

Lisa Dunlap, who police said was Norma's primary caregiver, was arrested and charged with abuse or neglect of an incapacitated adult. This charge can be upgraded now that Norma has died.

Kayla and John Rogers were each charged with child neglect creating risk of injury.President Donald Trump is considering an Army veteran who is a Republican member of Congress for the position of Veterans Affairs secretary. It's part of a lengthening search for a nominee following the abrupt firing of David Shulkin in March.

A White House official says Rep. Brian Mast of Florida is among the list of candidates for the job serving 9 million veterans.

Mast is the first member of Congress to open a lawmaker office in a VA facility, setting up shop in the West Palm Beach VA to meet with veterans. He was wounded when serving in Afghanistan in 2010, which resulted in the amputation of both of his legs.

Trump is seeking a nominee to lead the VA after White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson withdrew his nomination.After one date, an Arizona woman reportedly decided her best chance to gain a man's affection was through texts. Lots of texts. Sometimes 500 per day. A total of 65,000.

Jacqueline Ades, 31, of Phoenix, was arrested on charges of threatening, stalking and harassment after allegedly sending thousands of messages -- including one stating she wanted to bathe in his blood.

Ades met the victim, a Paradise Valley man who was not identified, through a dating site, FOX10 Phoenix reported. The two went on one date, but Ades allegedly became infatuated and continued to pursue the man. He said Ades sent him about 65,000 texts and there were times he received 500 messages a day from her, according to FOX10.

STORMS FIRING UP ACROSS THE MIDWEST AND GREAT LAKES, SIZZLING TEMPERATURES ACROSS AMERICA

The man reported Ades to police twice last year after she parked outside his residence and kept texting him, FOX10 Phoenix reported. Police escorted the woman off the victims property, but the incident allegedly set Ades off.

Ades allegedly started to send threatening messages to the man, including one when she said she wanted to bathe in his blood, according to the station.

Oh what would I do with your blood! Id wanna bathe in it, one text read, according to court documents.

You do whatever you have to do to get herebut dont ever try to leave me .. Ill kill you .. I dont want to be a murderer, another message stated, according to officials.

MEXICO, 2 US STATES COULD SEE COLORADO RIVER CUTBACK IN 2020

Ades allegedly compared herself to Adolf Hitler, who she called a genius.

Last month, the man called police after surveillance footage from his home showed Ades taking a bath in his tub while he was away on a trip. Paradise Valley police arrested Ades and also discovered a large butcher knife in her vehicle.

Ades was released from custody but failed to appear in court, AZ Central reported. She reportedly showed up at the mans place of employment in Scottsdale on Tuesday, but was escorted from the building by officers.

Ades told officers she was the victims wife, police said. When Paradise Valley officers heard of the incident they arrested Ades in Phoenix.

Authorities said Ades told officers she had no intention of hurting the man and sent him the messages because she did not want him to leave her and she loved him.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.An adorable blind pug is making some noise on social media after his apology for his separation anxiety-induced howling went viral.

Charleston Chew is an 11-year-old dog who recently moved into a new Pittsburgh apartment with his owner, Sharla Wilson.

Charleston is nearly blind and because he is still getting used to his new surroundings, his separation anxiety has ramped up. Since the move, hes been bumping into walls and will meander into a corner and start howling until he is rescued, Wilson told KDKA-TV.

His owner posted an apology to her new neighbors, which has gone viral.

Im am an old man now, with cataracts, and sometimes I get real scared because I cant see where I am and cant find my mom, the note said. As I get used to my new place, I will start to settle down. Thanks for being patient with me. I dont mean to be such a pain.

Wilson said the note was an apology for the pups loud wails.

The sign basically explains hes an old man now and he has cataracts, Wilson said. And hes very sorry for howling.

Megan Jones, who lives in the building, snapped a photo of the note and shared in on Twitter.

You howl all you want Charleston, honey, she wrote in her post.

The post blew up with more 449,000 likes and more than 121,000 retweets, so far.

Since the post went viral, Charleston now has his own Twitter account.

The first post: You mean you accept my howls?The body found Thursday morning in an alligator-infested retention pond in Florida was that of a dark-skinned female who had no marks from alligators or other wildlife, officials said.

The Orange County Sheriffs Office spokesman Jeff Williamson said on Twitter that the body was found around 6:30 a.m. soon after rescue crews resumed a search for a reported teenager who was seen a day earlier flailing his arms and screaming it bit me before disappearing under the water.

No ID yet. No signs of any marks from alligators or other wildlife, the sheriffs office wrote, quoting Williamson. We dont know how the female got into [the] fenced retention pond. It is possible the victim was homeless. Investigation continues.

Female victim is late teens, early 20s. Witness made a good call when they saw someone go down," Williamson told Fox News.

Earlier Thursday Williamson told Fox News it could not immediately be determined if the body died from drowning or from a suspected alligator attack. He said the medical examiners office would me the determination for cause of death within the next few days.

Rescue crews began searching the pond after deputies received a call around noon Wednesday from a man who claimed to have seen a teenage boy struggling to stay afloat while yelling it bit me multiple times.

Eric Wolfe, who called 911, said he ran inside to grab binoculars to see what was going on before calling authorities.

[I] had eyes on him the whole time and relayed his position to dispatch, and he went underwater and didnt come up, he told News 6.

Williamson said there are not reports of a teenager missing in the area and that the report was generated from a witness standing about 100 yards from shore.

He said the retention pond is known to be home to several alligators and crews spotted at least one during their search on Wednesday.

There are many alligators in there. There are probably four alligators that Ive seen. There's a big bull gator, probably about seven to nine feet, Wolfe said, according to WFTV.

No Trespassing signs are posted around the fence pond; however residents told WFTV that people still swim and fish there despite the alligators.

I used to fish in there. I stopped doing that about a year ago, once that gator got way too big and aggressive, said resident Luis Cadiz.

Authorities told local media that the alligator was six feet long  too small to inflict serious damage on a human, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Orange County Fire Rescue and the Orange County Sheriff's Office led the search.

Fox News' Kathleen Reuschle contributed to this report.A Boston University track and cross-country runner is looking to etch his name in the record books for running the fastest mile while joggling.

Zach Prescott, of Weymouth, took on the challenge Tuesday of juggling while jogging in hopes of beating the record set more than 30 years ago by American runner Kurt Swinson.

Juggling three lacrosse balls, Prescott ran the mile in four minutes and 43.2 seconds  beating the record by a half a second.

All my friends were there, they were being really supportive and it was really fun, Prescott told Boston 25. I was like, 'Alright, I gotta do it if everyone's gonna be here,' you know?

It took him three tries before he completed the record  he made it two and a half laps and three and a half laps, respectively, before dropping the balls and having to start all over again during his first two attempts.

Getting the hang of it is hard, but once you get used to the speed when youre running, youre pretty much just juggling in place  Its so much more about focus. You have to get into a rhythm, Prescott told the Boston Globe.

Prescott, a rising senior studying business and accounting, told the newspaper that he got interested in joggling last year after his running season ended.

Theres a random cool community of joggling. Its a nice little niche, he told the newspaper.

He said he is going to an international juggling festival in Springfield this summer that will include joggling.

Guinness World Records will now determine if Prescotts time can officially become the new record.President Donald Trump's CIA nominee says she doesn't believe torture works as an interrogation technique and that her "strong moral compass" would prevent her from carrying out any presidential order she found objectionable.

The acting director of the CIA, Gina Haspel, was responding to questions Wednesday from members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Haspel said she would not permit the spy agency to restart the kind of harsh detention and interrogation program it ran at black sites after Sept. 11.

Asked how she would respond if Trump ordered her to do something she found morally objectionable, Haspel said she wouldn't allow the CIA to undertake such activity even if it was technically legal.

She added that she doesn't think Trump would ask the CIA to resume waterboarding, which simulates drowning.A man convicted of first-degree murder was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for his role in a horrific attack during a child's Spider-Man-themed birthday party in Florida in 2006.

The attack left a 7-year-old boy and his mother dead, and left two other adults and two other children all critically injured with gunshot wounds to their heads. It also sparked a massive police hunt for five suspects.

Defendant Sean Condell was handed six consecutive life terms because jurors weren't convinced he possessed a weapon during the attack, so prosecutors ended their pursuit of the death penalty, the Miami Herald reported.

"I hope you ponder your senseless crimes as you wait for death to take you out of prison," Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer told Condell.

"I hope you ponder your senseless crimes as you wait for death to take you out of prison."  Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer

According to prosectors, Condell and four other men entered the North Miami-Dade home when the party was starting, mistakenly thinking there was a safe full of drug money inside.

Authorities said Chaquone Watson, 7, and his mother, Carla Queeley, were fatally shot, and Shantara and Ann Maynard -- relatives of Queely -- and Shantara's two children were critically injured.

Condells alleged partner Jose Estache, 37, will be tried separately, charged with wounding the Maynard sisters and two children, the Herald reported.

Three other defendants -- Rayon Samuels, Bjon Lee and Damian Lewis  each pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and were each sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Samuels and Lee testified against Condell, the Herald reported.

Click here for more from the Miami Herald.A high school senior in Florida is being recognized for having never missed a day of school.

News outlets report Nicole Perrone has had perfect attendance for her 13 years in the Marion County Public Schools system.

Perrone attends Forrest High School in Ocala. Officials say she started kindergarten in 2006 at Greenway Elementary before moving on to Fort King Middle School.

The school district recognized Perrone for her "outstanding emphasis on a complete education."

The 2,340 days she has spent in school has already paid off. She received an Associate of Arts degree from the College of Central Florida before even graduating from high school thanks to the dual enrollment program.

Perrone plans to begin classes at the University of South Florida in June.A 95-year-old grandmother called police for help getting her granddaughter out of bed, but wound up in handcuffs after she slapped the 46-year-old woman in the face with a slipper during an argument, officials said.

Hattie Reynolds was arrested on Saturday after calling the cops to say she was sick of her granddaughter, Janeen Williams, lounging around in her bed in an air-conditioned Daytona Beach home Reynolds pays for. The 5-foot grandmother had called the non-emergency number.

I got a gran in my bed and I cant...get her out from my bed, Reynolds told the dispatcher, according to Daytona News-Journal. I aint got nothing to pay bill on air condition all the time for her to go into the room.

Reynolds added: She wont get out of my bed. I want her out of the bed, I dont want to get myself in trouble...'cause she dont listen after me.

The grandmother said her granddaughter was screaming and swearing at her. The argument escalated when Reynolds yelled back, then took the slipper she had on and smacked Williams in the face, the report stated.

Reynolds told cops she had slapped her granddaughter, who refused to give a statement to police and said she didnt want to press charges. The 95-year-old was taken into custody because of the states strict domestic violence law that require police to arrest the individual.

Under the law domestic violence is a very serious offense and officers hands are tied, Daytona Beach Police Chief Craig Capri told Daytona News-Journal. Discretion is taken away from them by the law.

Reynolds was released on her own recognizance a day later.A Georgia man who allegedly attacked an 11-year-old girl in a mall bathroom was subsequently tackled by the girls father and other shoppers, local authorities said.

The 11-year-old girl, whose identity has not been released, was at the Town Center Mall in Cobb County with her father on Tuesday evening.

She was inside the womens restroom located in the malls food court when a man, later identified as Danzell Mitchell, 26, allegedly attacked the girl and held her at knifepoint, Deputy Chief VanHoozer with the Cobb County Police Department said during a press conference on Wednesday.

As she was exiting a bathroom stall, the man left a stall across the way at the same time. Thats when Mitchell grabbed the girl and held her at knifepoint. The 11-year-old screamed and broke free, running to her father who was waiting outside of the restroom for her, VanHoozer said.

The girl pointed out her suspected attacker to her dad, who then ran and physically confronted Mitchell, VanHoozer said, as other shoppers assisted him.

Mitchell was eventually tackled and restrained by the girls dad and other mall-goers as they waited for authorities to arrive.

As they were waiting, however, the girls father noticed Mitchell seemed distracted, VanHoozer said, adding that he allegedly saw an unidentified woman mouthing words and making hand gestures to the suspected attacker. Police do not yet know the womans identity or relation to Mitchell.

Following the incident, Mitchell, who has a criminal history, according to Vanhoozer, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault, attempted kidnapping and first-degree cruelty to children, according to his inmate record.A group of Kansas kids are sprinkling around kindness and gratitude and making life a bit sweeter for first responders.

The youths, who participate in Girls on the Run, an after-school program at Clear Creek Elementary in Shawnee, Kan., baked, frosted and decorated 500 cupcakes for their local heroes.



Ainsley Gale, a fourth-grader involved in the program, told FOX 4 Kansas City that the first responders deserved a treat for all of their hard work.

CHILD DEATHS IN KANSAS PROMPT MURDER CHARGES, AGENCY CHANGES

They help a lot of people because theyre the first ones to get the call, Ainsley said.

Girls on the Run is a non-profit organization that helps teach life skills through dynamic, interactive lessons and running games, the organization's website states. The program is nationwide and inspires girls to make the impossible, possible.

Kendall Herman heads the organization at Clear Creek Elementary, which consists of 34 members.

Some really love the lessons that we discuss, and some are here for the running -- and some are here for both, Herman said.

2 CYCLISTS STRUCK AND KILLED IN SOUTHEAST KANSAS

The girls presented their homemade goods to first responders in Johnson County.

Lt. Lisa Hemphill of Johnson County said she received a cupcake on Tuesday.

It makes me feel like I could be a good role model for girls, Hemphill said. Hopefully, one day they can do something like what Im doing, whether its in EMS or being teachers or whatever work they want to do.

Ainsley said despite having a large amount of respect for first responders, she sees herself working in a different building when she grows up -- the White House.

I want to be president, she said.A California judge declined to drop felony charges against a middle school teacher-turned-Antifa leader and two other activists despite lawyers claiming the charges were part of a witch hunt against the educator.

Yvette Felarca, 47, the leader and spokesperson for the anti-fascist group By Any Means Necessary and a middle school teacher in Berkeley, was accused of inciting and participating in a riot in 2016 between white nationalist groups and counter-protesters.

The skirmish broke out at the state Capitol in June 2016 when more than 300 counter-protesters confronted about 30 members of the Traditionalist Worker Party, which has been called a white nationalist group.

The assault charge was filed after a video captured her hitting Nigel Walker, a member of the Traditionalist Worker Party, and calling a man a Nazi before repeatedly punching him in the stomach while shouting get the f--- off our streets, the Daily Californian reported.

CALIFORNIA BECOMES FIRST STATE TO MANDATE SOLAR PANELS ON NEW HOMES

Felarca, whose name in public records appears as Yvonne Capistrano Felarca, was taken into custody in July 2017 on the charges stemming from the violent brawl. Felarca was also injured in the melee after being stabbed and requiring stitches.

Felarcas lawyers argued the California Highway Patrol allowed the Traditionalist Worker Party to hold the rally and the Sacramento County District Attorneys office covered-up for and colluded with the fascists and that the charges amount to a witch-hunt against Felarca, a motion asking the judge to dismiss the case stated.

In the aftermath, the California Highway Patrol and Sacramento District Attorney have done nothing to prosecute the fascists who attempted to murder people in Sacramento, the motion to dismiss stated.

The motion to dismiss also charged the California Highway Patrol and the attorneys office were involved in a cover-up by interrogating and harassing the counter-protesters while they were being treated in the hospital.

CALIFORNIAS ENACTED AND POTENTIAL BANS, FROM INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES TO PLASTIC BAGS

The prosecutor argued that "there was no basis to dismiss these charges and pointed out the fact that opposition individuals were not charged with crimes did not relieve Felarca from prosecution.

Even if the extraordinary allegations of bias and collusion posited by the defense in their motion to dismiss were true, and they are not, they would have no bearing on the guilt or innocence of the defendants currently before the court, the District Attorneys office reply to the motion stated.

I think the judges decision was politically motivated; I dont think it was valid, Shanta Driver, Felarcas lawyer, said. I think that this decision is regarded by all as being really outrageous.

We completely disagree with the judges decision, Felarca said. Were committed to continuing to fight this out.

A preliminary hearing is slated for May 18.

Fox News Lucia I. Suarez Sang contributed to this report.A suburban Chicago woman who was once a judge and parliamentarian in Lithuania is requesting that her extradition be stayed while she applies for political asylum in the United States.

Nergina Venckiene (vehn-KEY'-ehn-nayz) is charged in Lithuania with slander and disobeying court orders to relinquish custody of her 4-year-old niece.

The 47-year-old Venckiene says the charges are politically motivated and arise from her exposure of an influential pedophile ring whose victims include her niece.

Venckiene fled to the U.S. in 2013. She says if she is extradited she fears she will be killed for exposing the pedophiles. Her lawyers will request a yearlong stay on Thursday.

Prosecutors say she can't avoid extradition because it was approved by the State Department in April, and that decision overrides any court ruling.U.S. marshals have arrested a man in Pennsylvania they say set fire to a house in Massachusetts in 2011 and then fatally shot two people when they came outside.

The Northampton County Sheriff's department says 30-year-old Waldos Rojas was arrested without incident in Easton on Wednesday.

Police say Rojas set fire to a home in Lawrence and fatally shot 29-year-old Daniel Diaz and 25-year-old Leyda Elizabeth Hernandez when they came outside.

The Eagle Tribune reports Hernandez's brother was inside the house at the time, and he reported hearing up to 20 gunshots. He survived the fire.

Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett says he expects Rojas to be extradited to Massachusetts to face charges of murder and arson. It was unclear if he had legal representation.

___

Information from: The Eagle-Tribune, http://www.eagletribune.comA Mississippi teen believed to have run off with a teacher accused of sexual misconduct has returned home to his parents, police say, while the teacher remains nowhere to be found.

Hattiesburg Police said Wednesday that Oscar ONeal, who was reported missing by his mother on April 30, has returned home.

There has still been no sign of Nicole Jackson, 30, a former school teacher he was believed to be with, the department posted on Twitter.

There is an active arrest warrant out for Jackson, who previously was arrested and charged with sexual battery by a person in a position of trust or authority.

Hattiesburg police had been investigating Jackson since mid-March after they received a tip alleging she was having an inappropriate relationship with a student, according to WDAM. She was taken to the Forrest County Jail on April 10 and later released on $10,000 bond.

ONeals mother, in an interview with the station, had said her son feels like he's in love and I know he's not in love.

His father, Oscar ONeal Jr., blasted Jackson for allegedly getting involved with his son.

"Why would you choose my child? I feel like my child was a target. She robbed him from being a youth and a child," he told WDAM.

The father also said his son left a letter on the bed saying he was leaving and pretty much moving on with her.

"When I opened the door I found it on his bed surrounded with his pictures, he put all these pictures of him and his daddy," Lisa ONeal told WDAM. "He wrote a good letter telling he loved us, we raised him right and it was nothing we did. It was his decision."

Jacksons husband of four years, meanwhile, said the Nicole I know would never do this.

"When the truth comes out, and it will come out one way or the other, I believe justice will be served," Isaiah Jackson, who has had two children with Nicole, told WDAM.

Police previously have said Jackson could be driving a dark blue Chevy Impala with the Mississippi license plate FRA-4454.A Minnesota woman who said she was a mother of two was unmasked recently as the CEO of one of the biggest meth trafficking rings the state has ever seen, prosecutors said.

Macrina Perez was arrested in April at the U.S.-Mexico border on charges brought forth nearly two years ago in a sealed indictment that relied on several informants, whose identities remain hidden still, the Star Tribune reported. The 25-year-old with ties to Minnesota and Mexico was arrested following a May 2016 meth bust at the Brooklyn Center stash house.

She wasnt the courier, Assistant US Attorney David Steinkamp said in court earlier this month. Shes the CEO of this organization. Shes running it.

Before authorities tied Perez to the massive drug operation, local drug dealer Nicholas Nelson was linked to the Brooklyn Center stash house between late 2015 and early 2016. Drug agents busted the stash house and seized 140 pounds of meth that was already packed for distribution. Liquid meth that was cooling was located in the freezer and residuals on roasting pans were found in the kitchen.

Nelson and a couple  Dolores Ludmilla Castillo and Francisco Silvestre-Martinez  who helped run the stash house were charged and are serving federal prison terms.

Perezs alleged involvement started at least as early as 2013, when her friendship began with Castillo. He then cultivated the Minnesota mom and before long she was mailing meth parcels that weighed 5 to 10 pounds each, officials said.

Perez also attempted to thwart authorities in 2014, when she left the U.S. after police questioned her and a 16-year-old girl, who allegedly tried to pick up a meth shipment from a hotel. The duo and Perezs fiance allegedly fled to Mexico, Thomas Maloney, the task force officer, testified.

In 2016, Perezs travel documents were found inside the stash house, court records stated. A DEA agent also testified last week that authorities found $130,000 in cash in a safe and a revolver. Perez allegedly gave the gun to Castillo to protect himself while running the stash house, confidential sources said.

Perezs attorney argued Wednesday for his client, who is awaiting trial, to be released with GPS monitoring. Steinkamp fired back saying Perezs youth, her appearance belie the fact that she was extraordinarily involved in this large-scale drug trafficking organization. Officials also argued that Perez can likely slip through their grips because of a connection to the higher levels here.

I submit to you that we will never see her again if you release her, even to a halfway house, Steinkamp said.National Guard troops deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border following President Donald Trump's April directive have freed U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel to apprehend an additional 1,600 people illegally crossing into the U.S., CBP officials said.

The approximately 775 National Guard troops have also helped capture 1,000 pounds of marijuana and turn back 451 people who attempted to illegally cross the border, the Washington Examiner reported.

The extra personnel have allowed the CBP to focus on monitoring surveillance systems and being better equipped to make arrests, the report said.

Defense Secretary James Mattis stipulated Tuesday that National Guard officers do not perform arrests.

Right now we are not having any contact with migrants, he said.

CBP officials are prohibited from monitoring the Mexican side of the border. A National Guard official distinguished monitoring the Mexican side as a more of an intelligence-collecting capacity.

National Guard troops operate under a different legal authority and are not prohibited from monitoring the Mexican side of the border with binoculars, the official said.

CBP has reportedly sought additional assistance from the Department of Defense. The request is pending.The remains of a Washington girl who went missing in 2009 were discovered by hunters in September 2017, police revealed Thursday.

Human remains that were discovered in a remote location in eastern Washington last fall were those of Lindsey Baum, a 10-year-old girl who went missing in McCleary on June 26, 2009, the Grays Harbor Sheriff's Office wrote in a Facebook post.

Sheriff Rick Scott said at a news conference that DNA was used to make a positive identification.

A homicide investigation is ongoing, the sheriff said, and further details of where the remains were found will not be disclosed "until a later date."

Baum disappeared nearly nine years ago after she left a friend's house, just four blocks away from her own. Authorities searched for days after she vanished, but no sign of Baum was found at the time.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Grays Harbor County Sheriff's Office at 1-360-964-1799 or baumtips@co.grays-harbor.wa.us.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A controversial proposal before Seattle's City Council to impose a head tax on businesses to pay the city's exploding homeless population may not be enough to solve the problem, according to the city's leader.

In her first comments on the proposed tax, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan told Q13 FOX the city needs more resources, but she has major concerns with the current proposal.

"We cannot tax our way out of this problem, we wont have a big enough population to do it, she said.

The proposal would raise $75 million from more than 500 companies by imposing a head tax of 26 cents on every hour employees worked in the city. It will hit companies that have gross revenues topping $20 million a year, but the biggest impact would be felt by Amazon. With a $540 tax on each of its 40,000 Seattle employees, the online retailer will pay $21.6 million by way of the head tax.

The company has halted construction of a new building as it awaits the City Councils vote on the employee tax, which goes before a committee on Friday. If the proposal passes the committee with 5 out of 9 votes, it will go before a full council vote on Monday.

Right now the reality is if Amazon's building stays paused, we could lose hundreds of jobs just with carpenters and almost $90 million in salaries Durkan said Wednesday. We dont want to be a city where working people cant have jobs.

When asked if she would veto the measure if it passes the council, the mayor said she was working with people "in good faith" to work toward a solution

I know you want a Twitter response  yes or no  digital response, the president operates that way, I dont," she said. "I am working with people in good faith, in council chambers and across the spectrum to see if we can find a way forward together."

BUSINESSES IN SEATTLE COULD PAY MILLIONS TO HELP CITY DEAL WITH HOMELESS PROBLEM

A public hearing before the council on Wednesday drew a crowd so large that many could not get in, with those on both sides of the proposed tax giving passionate statements to members.

Seferina Hernandez, who is homeless, told the council that the only way for her to get her children and her life back is to pass the head tax to build more affordable housing.

Seattle City Council member Teresa Mosqueda told Fox News in a previous interview the proposal would create almost 2,000 "deeply affordable" homes.

Being separate and displaced from our children has been traumatic for all of us, Hernandez said.

Those opposed to the tax said they care about helping to solve the city's homeless crisis, but placing a large tax on businesses is not the answer.

We will lose about 1.8 million unique construction hours, of which 360,000 would be worked by apprentices, a construction worker said.

Several of those also addressed the biggest supporter of the head tax, socialist city council member Kshama Sawant, with one woman who said she previously voted for her calling her a "fraud."

TENSIONS MOUNT AS SEATTLE DEBATES BUSINESS TAX FOR HOMELESS

This legislation does zero for fixing a thoroughly broken system. Kshama, Im a small business owner in your district, Ive been homeless and I voted for you, Sara Brereton told the council member.

Another council member said there are more negotiations underway before the scheduled vote before the full council. Despite spending in Seattle and King County that has ballooned to $200 million a year, the number of people living in tents, on Seattle streets and in vehicles has grown 20 percent since 2016, to nearly 4,000 individuals

I also dont think weve convinced the public that we are spending the money wisely, as far as homelessness, Council Man Bruce Harrell told Q13 FOX.

Seattle used to have a $25 a year per head tax, but scrapped it in 2009 because leaders at the time said it sent the wrong message to businesses during the recession.

Fox News' Dan Springer in Seattle contributed to this report.Envisioning "a very special moment for world peace," President Donald Trump announced Thursday he will meet North Korea's Kim Jong Un for highly anticipated summit talks in Singapore on June 12. He set the stage for his announcement by hosting a 3 a.m., made-for-TV welcome home for three Americans held by Kim's government.

Final details in place, Trump and Kim agreed to the first face-to-face North Korea-U.S. summit since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. It's the most consequential and perhaps riskiest foreign policy effort so far in Trump's presidency as North Korea's nuclear program approaches a treacherous milestone  the capacity to strike the continental U.S. with a thermonuclear warhead.

Trump says the U.S. is aiming for "denuclearization" of the entire Korean peninsula, but he has yet to fill in just what steps that might include and what the timing would be.

"We're starting off on a new footing," Trump said of himself and Kim as he welcomed the detainees in a floodlit ceremony at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington. He hailed their release as a potential breakthrough in relations between the longtime adversary nations.

He and Kim "will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" he said later on Twitter.

Kim has suspended nuclear and missile tests and put his nuclear program up for negotiation, but questions remain about how serious his offer is and what disarmament steps he would be willing to take. The White House has said withdrawal of thousands of U.S. troops from South Korea is "not on the table."

Long before dawn Thursday, with the former detainees by his side on the air base tarmac, Trump said it was a "great honor" to welcome them back to the U.S. but "the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons."

The ceremony, which also featured a giant American flag suspended between the ladders of two firetrucks, emphasized Trump's penchant for the dramatic as he raised expectations for the summit. And it underscored how closely the fate of his foreign policy agenda is being tied to the North Korean negotiations.

He had wanted to hold the summit in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas but yielded to the concerns of officials who thought a DMZ meeting would focus attention on relations between the North and South rather than the nuclear question.

Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, other top officials and first lady Melania joined the president for the air base celebration. The former detainees  Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim  had been released Wednesday at the end of Pompeo's visit to North Korea.

They appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft. One said through a translator, "It's like a dream; we are very, very happy." They later gave the president a round of applause.

Pence said Pompeo had told him that at a refueling stop in Anchorage, "one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadn't seen daylight in a very long time." The men were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation before being reunited with their families.

Trump thanked North Korean leader Kim for releasing the Americans and said "I really think he wants to do something" on denuclearization.

Pence said on NBC News, "In this moment the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith."

Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who was among several Republican lawmakers who dined with Trump and National Security Adviser John Bolton Wednesday evening before the detainees returned, said their release was a positive development, but he remained cautious about North Korea's intentions.

"We are in uncharted waters," he said. "This is the highest level diplomacy that the United States has to offer. Failure would be a significant setback to diplomatic efforts."

As for the venue, why Singapore?

Located at the southern tip of Malaysia, the prosperous city state is a regional Southeast Asia hub whose free enterprise philosophy welcomes trading partners from everywhere. It has close diplomatic and military ties with the U.S. and yet is also familiar ground for North Korea, with which it established diplomatic relations in 1975.

"Since their independence, they've very deliberately developed a reputation as an honest broker between East and West," said David Adelman, the former U.S. ambassador.

The White House choreographed the arrival event at the air base, the image-conscious president telling reporters, "I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 o'clock in the morning."

The public display stood in stark contrast to the low-key, private reception that the State Department had envisioned, in keeping with a practice of trying to protect potentially traumatized victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after an ordeal.

Shortly after they touched down in Alaska, the department released a statement from the freed men. They expressed their appreciation to Trump, Pompeo and the people of the United States and added: "We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

North Korea had accused the three of anti-state activities. But their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.

The three are:

 Kim Dong Chul, 64, a South Korea-born U.S. citizen and the longest-serving detainee. He received a 10-year prison term with hard labor in April 2016 for allegedly "perpetrating state subversive plots and espionage against" North Korea. Before his sentencing, the former Virginia resident publicly apologized for slandering North Korea's leadership, collecting and passing confidential information to South Korea and joining a smear campaign on the North's human rights situation. Other foreigners have publicly admitted crimes but have said later their confessions were given involuntarily.

 Tony Kim, who also goes by the Korean name Kim Sang-duk, had a master's degree in business administration from the University of California, Riverside, and taught accounting at a private university in Pyongyang. He was detained at the Pyongyang airport for "criminal acts of hostility aimed to overturn" North Korea, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency, which didn't detail those acts.

 Kim Hak Song, who worked in agricultural development at an experimental farm run by the same school, the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. He was accused of engaging in unspecified "hostile acts" against North Korea.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage. Warmbier was arrested in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor.

"We are happy for the hostages and their families," the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. "We miss Otto."

___

Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey and Ken Thomas in Washington, Grant Peck in Bangkok, and Eric Talmadge in Pyongyang contributed to this report.A Texas elementary school decided to end birthday spankings after receiving several complaints, officials said Wednesday.

Alvord Elementary School Principal Bridget Williams started the tradition eight years ago, KTVT reported. Williams said students birthdays will now be celebrated with hugs or high-fives.

Alvord Independent School District Superintendent Randy Brown, and several other parents, said they didnt have a problem with their children receiving a swat on the back side, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Regardless, Brown said the spanking has ended.

"To my knowledge Alvord ISD has received three complaints about the tradition of birthday spankings at our elementary school," Brown said in a statement. I have talked to many other parents who don't have any concern with the practice. I myself have a child attending school at Alvord Elementary and I personally don't have any issue with it. The birthday spankings are of course not actual spankings; they are a traditional celebrations of a child's birthday. The campus principal decided on her own accord to discontinue the tradition of birthday spankings.

Browns statement came about two weeks after Williams sent a letter to parents giving them the option to have their child opt out of the birthday spankings, the Star-Telegram reported. Williams said in the note that shes only had five or less students request something other than the birthday swat.

People couldve been turned off by the idea of the birthday spanking because of the rural vs. urban dynamic, Heather Redder, one parent, told KTVT in defense of the tradition.

"They're not used to a small town community," she said. "And that's what we are ... People that move here from the big city, they don't realize, and they're not used to this."

Alvord, located 50 miles northwest of Fort Worth, is home to 1,434 people.

Lana Simmons, another parent, told KTVT they thought it was a fun tradition.

My kids love it. They always look forward to it, she said.The way President Donald Trump sees it, why go for a solid single when you can swing for a home run?

Trump's upcoming summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un is only the latest example of the president's go-big strategy. From tax reform to international trade to foreign policy, Trump has pursued a high-risk, high-reward approach that advisers say can help produce results on longstanding problems  and that critics warn could trigger dangerous repercussions all the way from a trade war to global conflict.

Drawn to big moments and bigger headlines, Trump views the North Korea summit as a legacy-maker for him, believing that the combustible combination of his bombast and charm already has led to warmer relations between North and South. As he welcomed home three Americans who had been detained in North Korea, Trump early Thursday used a televised, middle-of-the-night ceremony to play up both his statecraft and stagecraft.

"I think you probably broke the all-time, in history, television rating for three o'clock in the morning," Trump told reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews.

Trump has also played the disruptor's role in recent weeks and months by withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal, imposing sweeping tariffs on allies and announcing he's moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, which is claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians.

It's all a sharp contrast to his play-it-safe predecessor.

"You hit singles, you hit doubles; every once in a while we may be able to hit a home run," President Barack Obama said of his own foreign policy. "But we steadily advance the interests of the American people and our partnership with folks around the world."

Not all of Trump's attention-grabbing gambits have worked  and the potential risks going forward are daunting.

His push to overturn Obama's landmark health care law ended in a humiliating defeat for the Republicans. His decision to impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports has left global markets in a state of flux and unnerved some of America's closest allies about the potential for a trade war. And his withdrawal from the international nuclear agreement with Iran, with strong support from Israel, has escalated tensions in the already volatile region.

Critics say Trump sometimes focuses on bold gestures first  and fallout later.

For now, scoring a diplomatic win with Pyongyang has become Trump's top focus.

His outside-the-box approach to North Korea  complete with ominous taunts of raining "fire and fury" on the North while belittling its leader as "Little Rocket Man"  alarmed many global capitals and much of Washington's national security establishment, increasing worries about nuclear war.

But Trump believes it brought Kim to the negotiating table, with a summit between the two men now set for June 12 in Singapore.

Trump told one confidant that he now believes a deal with North Korea, rather than in the Middle East, could be his historic victory. White House officials also believe that a triumph on the Korean Peninsula  something that has eluded the United States for generations  could bolster Trump's approval ratings, help inoculate him against the investigations swirling around him and maybe even trickle down to help Republicans in this fall's midterm elections.

While some White House aides characterized Trump's moves as evidence of bold thinking, there is also concern that he has little sense of the potential repercussions from some of his big moves, believing that if things don't work out, that he can always just reverse course.

In the early months of his administration, Trump latched on to the belief that he could be the president to bring peace to the Middle East. Fond of the idea of making history, the president told advisers he was driven to accomplish something that his predecessors could not and believed that his negotiating skills and strong relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could lead to the unprecedented achievement, according to four White House officials and outside advisers.

At one moment last spring, Trump mused in the Oval Office that he wouldn't even require a second term to settle things in the region, according to two people familiar with the exchange but not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

Though he did break with tradition to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, the White House plan bogged down and the divide between Israelis and Palestinians seems as intractable as ever, prompting Trump's attention shift to North Korea. Warned by Obama days after his election that the threat posed by Pyongyang could define his presidency, Trump answered Kim's threats with bellicose warnings of his own and rallied an international pressure campaign against North Korea.

Some Republicans have suggested his efforts should bring him the Nobel Peace Prize, an idea Trump clearly savored at a recent rally in Michigan when the crowd chanted "Nobel." Asked about the chatter in the Oval Office this week, Trump said: "I want to get peace. It's the main thing. We want to get peace. That was a big problem, and I think it's going to work out well."

Then he added his catchall caveat: "We'll see."

Long before he was president, the onetime New York real estate developer and reality television star often spoke about the benefits of acting boldly. In "The Art of the Deal," he put it this way: "I like thinking big. I always have. To me it's very simple: if you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big."

Trump appears to have embraced the "Great Man" theory of history, believing that individuals more than circumstances or trends alter the course of events. In his 2016 GOP convention speech, he famously declared "I alone can fix it," in referencing the nation's problems.

Trump and his team also believe that his bold tactics have the added benefit for Trump of overshadowing the threats his administration faces from the ongoing Russia probe and the legal web surrounding his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and porn actress Stormy Daniels.

Rice University presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said Trump's diplomacy with North Korea is a "high-risk game."

"But if he pulls off the denuclearization of the North Korean Peninsula, it will be the landmark achievement," said Brinkley. "It's Trump's big going-to-China moment."

___

Follow Lucey on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@catherine_lucey , Lemire at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire and Thomas at http://twitter.com/@KThomasDCYale University police officers were called to campus Monday after a white graduate student called to complain about a black grad student who had fallen asleep in the common area of their residence.

Sarah Braasch contacted police after finding the snoozing schoolmate, Lolade Siyonbola, asleep on a in the common room at Yale's Hall of Graduate Studies on the New Haven campus.

She came in and turned the lights on. I was sleeping on the couch and she said youre not supposed to be here, why are you sleeping here? Siyonbola told police.

Siyonbola uploaded two Facebook live videos showing her interactions with four police officers who were attempting to verify her student status, which according to them was protocol.

Siyonbola offered to open her room door as proof of her residency but hesitated to present officers with her student ID.

Im going to think about whether I want to show that to you or not because I really dont know if theres a justification for you even actually being in the building. She eventually provided them with her ID.

She spent over 15 minutes with police, who said that the process was prolonged because her name as it appeared on her ID did not match the spelling of her name in the database of student information.

The University told ABC News in a statement that students are allowed to have their preferred named on their ID cards, which can differ from the name listed on official records.

Siyonbola repeatedly told police that Braasch that suffered from mental illness and that she was known to call the police and complain.

I think you probably need to commit her to an institution, she said. Thats the only use you have to be here.

Siyonbola told police about a different occasion several months ago where that same student called police on a friend who became lost in the building and ended up in the stairwell.

The Yale Daily News further reported that in February police were called by Braasch, who had physically blocked another student from entering the common room after she claimed he did not appear to be a Yale student.

The student had been invited by Siyonbola to participate in a meeting held in the common room.

As with Monday's incident, four police officers responded to the call and left shortly after confirming that he was in fact a Yale student.

The officers who responded to Mondays call interviewed Braasch as well and informed her that Siyonbola had every right to be in the common room, Yale Vice President for Student Life Kimberly Goff-Crews said on Thursday.

Lynn Cooley, the dean of Yale's graduate school of arts and sciences, sent an email to graduate students Tuesday telling them that Siyonbola had every right to be in the building.

"Incidents like that of last night remind us of the continued work needed to make Yale a truly inclusive place," she wrote.

"I am committed to redoubling our efforts to build a supportive community in which all graduate students are empowered in their intellectual pursuits and professional goals within a welcoming environment."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Iranian forces based in Syria fired approximately 20 rockets toward Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, triggering a retaliatory bombardment that rocked Syria's capital late into the night Wednesday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its Iron Dome missile defense system had intercepted "some" of the incoming rockets. No injuries were reported.

Damascus shook with the sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defenses over the city was heard throughout the night. Syria's state news agency SANA quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israeli missiles hit air defense positions, radar stations and a weapons warehouse, but claiming most incoming rockets were intercepted.



Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said earlier that Iran's Al Quds force fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though he would not say how Israel determined the Iranian involvement. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Golan Heights, which were captured from Syria in the 1967 war.

Israel "views this Iranian attack very severely," Conricus told reporters. He said Israel had responded, but did not provide details.

"This event is not over," he added.

In a statement to Fox News, the IDF asked residents of the Golan Heights to remain in special "safety zones" for the time being.

Syria's state media said Syrian air defenses had intercepted "hostile Israeli missiles" early Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus. Hours later, state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast a live feed of Syrian air defenses firing into the sky above the capital, and loud explosions and air defense firing were heard through the night.

Syrian activists reported Israeli airstrikes hitting targets near Damascus. One video posted online showed a large explosion and shrapnel flying in the air. Residents reported loud sounds that rocked their buildings. It was not immediately clear what was hit.

An Israeli army spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on Twitter that Israel was "acting against Iranian targets inside Syria," a rare admission by an Israeli official.

"Any Syrian involvement against this move will be faced with extreme seriousness," Adraee added.

Al-Ikhbariya TV said Israel also targeted military posts in southern Suweida province, including an air base, and struck near Homs in central Syria. The state TV station said the attacks were foiled.

Syrian media earlier said the hostilities began with Israeli fire at Syrian positions in southern Syria from across the border. Pro-Syrian media said Syrian missiles then fired at Israeli forces. One TV station, Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen, said at least 50 missiles were fired from Syria at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights. Al-Ikhbariya TV said missiles targeted 10 Israeli positions.

Syrian media said it was the first time in years that Syrians had fired at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights.

Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, anticipating a possible Iranian retaliation for a series of deadly strikes on its military positions in Syria.

Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost on Tuesday near the capital of Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard in Kisweh, killing at least 15 people, eight of them Iranians.

Just before midnight Wednesday, Syria state news agency reported that rockets suspected to be coming from Israel hit southern Syria's Quneitra province. Activists said it was artillery fire from Israeli positions in the Golan Heights. There were no reports of any deaths.

Tensions between Israel and Iran are high over Iran's efforts to expand its military presence in Syria, where it is a key ally of President Bashar Assad. Repeated airstrikes attributed to Israel have killed Iranian fighters and prompted threats of reprisal from Tehran. Meantime, President Donald Trump's announcement Tuesday that the U.S. would withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran has triggered uncertainty and threatened to spark more unrest in the Middle East.

"This just further shows that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News' "The Story." "Israel absolutely has a sovereign right to defend itself and we support them in whatever efforts they have in order to defend themselves. But again, I think this activity and this action is just further demonstration that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted and another good reminder that the president made the right decision to get out of the Iran deal."

Fox News' Martha MacCallum and The Associated Press contributed to this report.A court in Vietnam has sentenced a Facebook user to 4  years in jail for posts that the court said distorted the political situation in the country and opposed the ruling Communist Party and the state.

A state-run newspaper said Bui Hieu Vo, 56, was convicted of conducting anti-state propaganda at the one-day trial Wednesday in the People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City.

Tuoi Tre newspaper said authorities found 57 posts on Vo's Facebook page opposed the Communist Party and instigated people to engage terrorist activities. He was arrested in March last year.

The newspaper also reported that police in the northern province of Thanh Hoa on Tuesday had detained Nguyen Duy Son for Facebook posts that defamed the country's leaders.Aid workers say a group of migrants who were left at sea for over a day during a bureaucratic standoff were so afraid of being turned over to the Libyan coast guard that they were about to jump into the water because they "prefer to die."

SOS Mediterranee's Aquarius rescue ship docked in Catania, Sicily, on Thursday with 105 migrants. They had been rescued by a British-flagged sailboat Sunday, but were kept at sea after Italy insisted Britain approve their transfer to the bigger, sturdier Aquarius. Britain argued it wasn't coordinating the rescue, and eventually Italy approved the transfer.

Matthew Carter, SOS Mediterranee communications officer, said the rescue was evidence of "a growing trend of delays and confusion between the authorities and who is coordinating rescues and transfer operations."next Image 1 of 2

prev Image 2 of 2

The 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, which led to the death of about 100,000 people, also destroyed the way of life of a highly intertwined multi-ethnic and multi-confessional society, in which Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Jews would celebrate each other's main religious holidays throughout the year.

Nowadays these practices, along with the inter-confessional marriages that were very common before the war, are virtually non-existent.

With one exception: St. George's Day, or Djurdjevdan, the main holiday for Bosnia's Roma community, continues to be jointly celebrated by its members on May 6, irrespective of the religious group they belong to.

St. George's Day is celebrated in the countries of the former Yugoslavia on April 23 by Catholics according to the Gregorian calendar and on May 6 by the Orthodox believers following the Julian calendar.

Djurgevdan celebrations, which featured prominently in Bosnian-born Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica's Cannes award-winning movie "The Time of the Gypsies," include traditional rituals such as taking baths and washing hands with water from church wells and cracking painted eggs, as the holiday also marks the arrival of spring.

In the northern Bosnian village of Kiseljak, St. George rituals are carried on by the Ahmetovic family, members of Roma community of about 3,000 with Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox members that has inhabited the area for the past 50 years.

Every year, Munevera Ahmetovic, 54, takes her nieces to the only water source for the household, 50 meters (180 feet) from the family house, to wash their faces, crack eggs and weave willow branches into their hair, before returning for a festive family meal.next Image 1 of 2

prev Image 2 of 2

Over the next two years, terrorism convicts will walk free from European prisons by the dozens  more than 200 inmates who largely formed the first wave of jihadis streaming to Syria and Iraq, dreaming of an Islamic caliphate not yet established.

In all, about 12,000 Europeans left to fight with the Islamic State group and al-Qaida; about a third of those are now believed to be home, mostly living freely. Some are awaiting trial, but most never faced serious charges due to insufficient evidence.

And many more saw their travel plans thwarted, left behind to stew.

How much of a threat do these avowed extremists living throughout Europe pose, and how equipped are authorities to handle them? The response has been, at best, improvised.

The impending releases of jihadi veterans could be considered "a fourth wave of returnees," according to Rik Coolsaet, a scholar at Belgium's Egmont Institute.

"There are a number of personal frustrations and motivations that have pushed the kids in their journey to ISIS that we now have to address," Coolsaet said. "If we don't address it now, the environment will remain as conducive for this kind of jihadi violence."

Farid Benyettou, an ex-jihadi who served four years in prison and has now publicly renounced extremist violence, fears Europe is not ready.

Once nicknamed the "imam Voltaire" after the school he left to become a backroom preacher to young Muslims, Benyettou has written a book detailing his descent into Islamic extremism.

Among the members of the group he once led were Cherif and Said Kouachi, who gunned down 12 people at the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in 2015.

The cell epitomizes Europe's urgent question: Are the terrorism convicts verging on freedom like Benyettou, the Kouachis or somewhere between?

"These guys who are convicted today or who are awaiting trial will get out one day," Benyettou told The Associated Press. "And that's the issue, in fact: What kind of preparations will there be for their release?"

Terrorism prison sentences in Europe until very recently averaged about six years, compared to 13 years in the United States, according to Europol data. Since 2015, sentences have risen, but remain well below U.S. levels.

"The danger is the risk of recidivism. We should not be too quick to believe certain terrorists who say they are repentant," Catherine Champrenault, the Paris prosecutor general, recently told Le Monde newspaper.

France, which has been struck repeatedly by Islamic State fighters and sympathizers, will free 57 inmates  about half its current population of terrorism convicts. In Britain, 25 inmates are due for release  fully three-quarters of its terrorism convicts. In Belgium, 80 acknowledged foreign fighters already are free and as many as 44 others will be joining them. In Spain, 21 of 34 returning extremists already were free as of late last year. And in Bosnia and Kosovo, every jailed foreign fighter will go free.

In just those countries alone, the total runs to more than 200, according to the AP's count.

And the actual number is undoubtedly higher because not every country releases data  notably Germany, which had nearly 1,000 residents leave for the war zone but releases no comprehensive figures on convictions or releases.

The most recent attack blamed on returning foreign fighters was in March 2016, when an Islamic State cell of jihadis set off suicide bombs at the Brussels airport and in the metro. The network already had attacked a Paris-to-Brussels high-speed train in August 2015 and orchestrated a brutal assault on Paris in November 2015. In all, the cell killed 162 people.

Still, the overwhelming majority of returning jihadis have not been arrested and have caused no harm.

Many of the homegrown extremists are young and poor with limited education, and feel cut off from society.

Once free from prison, no programs or policies govern them.

France applies a range of post-release constraints, ranging from requiring those freed to periodically check in with authorities  as is the case for Benyettou  to home detention.

In Bosnia, where all 23 terrorism convicts are leaving prison, the Justice Ministry said local housing, social workers and employment agencies are notified, but that there's little capacity to do much more.

Britain has limited counseling and monitoring, and offers a voluntary re-integration program.

And Spain began "re-education and reinsertion" in 2016 in which terrorism inmates are evaluated for risk and undergo counseling. But the government said only 10 out 146 extremist inmates have undergone the much-hyped program.

For Benyettou, getting support as he planned a future was crucial to abandoning extremism. He studied first to be a nurse only to see that dream evaporate because of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. He is now training as a trucker.

"Everyone has setbacks in life, plans that don't happen. For me, it's my past," he said. "You bounce back and try to do something besides to fall back on this logic of victimhood."

And that's where many fear Europe will fail the next wave of terrorism convicts

"Sending them back to exactly the same circumstances that caused them to take up violent extremism," said Richard Barrett of the Soufan Group, an expert on violent extremism. "Well, unfortunately, you're probably going to get the same result."

___

Aritz Parra in Madrid and Sabina Niksic in Sarajevo contributed.Just before Israel launched its Thursday bombardment of Syria, hitting nearly all of Iran's military installations in the war-torn country, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a high-stakes face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that reportedly helped clear the way for the successful Israeli strike.

Putin, one of Iran's few backers and someone with his own stake in the Syrian conflict, has been mum about the meeting. But Netanyahu has signaled Putin -- at the very least -- didn't stand in Israel's way as it planned the major strike in Syria.

Netanyahu said he traveled to Russia to meet with Putin on Wednesday to stress continued military coordination between the two countries, Reuters reported.

Given what is happening in Syria at this very moment, there is a need to ensure the continuation of military coordination between the Russian military and the Israel Defense Forces, Netanyahu told reporters before his plane departed for Moscow.

ISRAEL STRIKES NEARLY ALL IRANIAN INFRASTRUCTURE IN SYRIA AFTER IRAN ROCKET ATTACK, MINISTER SAYS

After the nearly 10-hour meeting, the Israeli prime minister reportedly appeared more upbeat, indicating talks with Putin favored Israels side. Netanyahu said he told Putin Israel had the right to defend itself from Iranian aggression in Syria.

I think that matters were presented in a direct and forthright manner, and this is important, Netanyahu said after the meeting. These matters are very important to Israel's security at all times and especially at this time.

He added: In previous meetings, given statements that were putatively attributed to -- or were made by -- the Russian side, it was meant to have limited our freedom of action or harm other interests and that didnt happen, and I have no basis to think that this time will be different."

Netanyahu, while attending the ceremony marking Russias World War II victory over Germany, noted Russias sacrifice to beat the Nazi monster during the war  and alluded to another monster in the Middle East waiting to slaughter Jews.

"Neither do we forget the great lesson of the need to stand against a murderous ideology in time," Netanyahu said during his meeting with Putin. "It is unbelievable, but 73 years after the Holocaust, there is a country in the Middle East, Iran, that is calling for the destruction of another six million Jews."

Just hours later, the Israel Defense Force announced the strike on Iran's military assets in Syria. IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the attack  which was the largest in Syria since the 1973 Yom Kippur War  was in retaliation for Irans Quds Force firing 20 rockets at Israel's front-line military positions in the Golan Heights.

Conricus said Israel notified Russia about the strikes before the attack began, but did not go into further detail.

A senior Israeli Air force official also told Israeli media that the strike was "coordinated with Russia."

"We made sure there weren't any Russian troops in the targets," he said.

Netanyahu said on Thursday Israel responded "accordingly" with Iran's actions.

"Iran has crossed a red line. Our response was accordingly," Netanyahu said. "We are in a long campaign and our policy is clear: we will not let Iran have military bases in Syria."

Russia has stayed largely out of Israels way and remained in contact with Israel through a hot line since the Russian military waged a campaign backing forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2015. Putin has viewed Iran as a strategic ally over the years.

The Russian leader is reportedly willing to turn a blind eye to Israeli actions as long as they do not cause Syria to collapse, Reuters reported. Russia has issued threats directed at Israel, however. In April, Russia condemned and blamed Israel for carrying out missile strikes on an air base in Syria.

Fox News' Yonat Friling in Jerusalem and The Associated Press contributed to this report.The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, in the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

Israel said the targets included weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centers used by elite Iranian forces in Syria. It also said it destroyed several Syrian air-defense systems after coming under heavy fire. It said none of its warplanes was hit.

The blistering Israeli assault was by far the most intensive Israeli action in neighboring Syria since the civil war broke out there in 2011. Israel has largely tried to stay on the sidelines, but has previously acknowledged carrying out over 100 airstrikes over the past seven years, most believed to be aimed at Iranian weapons shipments bound for the Hezbollah militant group.

There was no immediate word on Iranian casualties. Syria's capital of Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defenses over the city was heard throughout the night.

Syria's state news agency SANA quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israeli missiles hit air defense positions, radar stations and a weapons warehouse, but claiming most incoming rockets were intercepted.

In recent months, Israel has warned that it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria. Iran has accused Israel of carrying out a series of deadly strikes on Iranian military positions in Syria in recent weeks, and had vowed retaliation. Iran has sent thousands of troops to back Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Israel fears that as the fighting nears an end, Iran and tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen will turn their focus to Israel.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Israel was not looking to escalate the situation. But he said troops will continue to be on "very high alert."

"Should there be another Iranian attack, we will be prepared for it," he said.

Iran's ability to hit back could be limited. Its resources in Syria pale in comparison to the high-tech Israeli military. Iran also could be wary of military entanglement at a time when it is trying to salvage the international nuclear deal.

Earlier Thursday, Israel said Iran's Al Quds force fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights. Conricus said four of the rockets were intercepted, while the others fell short of their targets. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan, which was captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war.

Syria's state media said Syrian air defenses intercepted "hostile Israeli missiles" early Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus. Hours later, state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast a live feed of Syrian air defenses firing into the sky above the capital, and loud explosions and air defense firing were heard through the night.

Syrian activists reported Israeli airstrikes hitting targets near Damascus. One video posted online showed a large explosion and shrapnel flying in the air. Residents reported loud sounds that rocked their buildings. It was not immediately clear what was hit.

Al-Ikhbariya TV said Israel also targeted military posts in southern Suweida province, including an air base, and struck near Homs in central Syria. The state TV station said the attacks were foiled.

Iranian officials offered no immediate comment on Israel's claim about the missile fire. Iranian state media reported on the attack and the subsequent Israeli strikes in Syria, relying on foreign news reports.

Syrian media earlier said the hostilities began with Israeli fire at Syrian positions in southern Syria from across the border. Pro-Syrian media said Syrian missiles then fired at Israeli forces. One TV station, Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen, said at least 50 missiles were fired from Syria at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights. Al-Ikhbariya TV said missiles targeted 10 Israeli positions.

Syrian media said it was the first time in years that Syrians had fired at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights.

Late Tuesday, Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near the capital of Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, killing at least 15 people, eight of them Iranians.

Last month, an attack on Syria's T4 air base in Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel. On April 30, Israel was said to have struck government outposts in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen pro-government fighters, many of them Iranians.

Israel considers Iran to be its most bitter enemy, citing Iran's hostile rhetoric, support for anti-Israel militant groups and development of long-range missiles. President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the international nuclear agreement with Iran, with strong support from Israel, has further raised tensions.

Israel and Iran have appeared to be on a collision course for months.

In February, Israel shot down what it said was an armed Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace. Israel responded by attacking anti-aircraft positions in Syria, but an Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Moscow on Wednesday to meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss military coordination in Syria.

Russia has also sent forces to Syria to back Assad. But Israel and Russia have maintained close communications to prevent their air forces from coming into conflict.

Together with Putin, Netanyahu toured a parade celebrating the anniversary of the World War II victory over the Nazis and then met the Russian president at the Kremlin for consultations.

After 10 hours together, Netanyahu said he conveyed Israel's obligation to defend itself against Iranian aggression.

"I think that matters were presented in a direct and forthright manner, and this is important. These matters are very important to Israel's security at all times and especially at this time," he said.

Israel's military went on high alert Tuesday and bomb shelters were ordered open in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights following reports of "irregular activity of Iranian forces in Syria." After an uneventful night, the military on Wednesday called on residents to return to "full civilian routine," meaning studies and excursions would continue as usual, although the shelters would remain open.

___

Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.Israel and Iran reached the brink of full-scale war Thursday as the Islamic Republic's unprovoked rocket attack on soldiers in the Golan Heights gave way to an unprecedented Israeli counter-strike that targeted nearly all Iranian infrastructure inside Syria.

The Israeli Defense Force said it deployed fighter jets and used missiles to strike a range of targets, including military compounds, intelligence operations and munitions warehouses, a statement read. The strikes were Israel's largest air operation in Syria since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

The IDF will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory, the press release read. The IDF is prepared for a wide variety of scenarios.

The missile launcher responsible for the Iranian rocket strikes was also destroyed, according to the release.

The strikes came in response to Syria-based Iranian forces firing roughly 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an IDF spokesman, called the attack "the most severe attempt" by Iran's Al Quds force to attack the country. It was the first time Iranian forces have attacked Israel from Syria, according to Reuters.

Conricus said four rockets were intercepted and the others fell short of their targets. No injuries or damage was reported.

The White House on Thursday condemned the Iranian assault, two days after President Trump announced he was pulling the U.S. out of the Iran nuke deal.

"The United States condemns the Iranian regime's provocative rocket attack from Syria against Israeli citizens, and we strongly support Israel's right to act in self-defense," Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement. "The Iranian regime's deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East."

Israel's rockets shook Damascus with the sounds of explosions just before dawn. Syria's state media said Syrian air defenses intercepted "hostile Israeli missiles" early Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus. Hours later, state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast a live feed of Syrian air defenses firing into the sky above the capital, and loud explosions and air defense firing were heard through the night. The footage could not be independently verified.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli strikes killed 23 fighters, including five Syrian soldiers. Syrias military, however, said early Thursday the Israeli strikes killed three people, wounded two and destroyed a radar station and an ammunition warehouse and damaged a number of air defense units. Syrian Brig. Gen. Ali Mayhoub said Syrian air defense systems had intercepted the large part of the incoming Israeli strikes.

There was no immediate information about Iranian casualties, but Conricus said the main intent was to target hardware rather than personnel.

Tensions between Israel and Syria have been on the rise as Iran has sent thousands of troops to back Syrian President Bashar Assad from an insurgency in his country. Israel has warned it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

Though Israel does not intend to further escalate the situation, Conricus said troops will remain on "very high alert."

"Should there be another Iranian attack, we will be prepared for it," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Israel's unprecedented Thursday counter-strike on Iranian infrastructure in Syria, following the Islamic Republic's own brazen rocket attack on Israeli military positions, brought the war-making capabilities of both Middle Eastern countries into stark relief as already simmering tensions begin to reach a boil.

The pre-dawn barrage flattened Iranian military compounds, intelligence facilities and munition warehouses in Syrian territory, Israel said, describing the assault as the nation's largest air operation in years. It came after Iran fired around 20 missiles toward the Israeli military stationed in the volatile Golan Heights region, in what reportedly is the first time Iran has attacked Israel from Syria.

"We don't want an escalation, but won't let anyone attack us or build an infrastructure to attack us in the future," Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday, calling it a new phase in their longtime rivalry.

If the tensions between Jerusalem and Tehran lead to even greater armed conflict, however, Israel is ready to go toe-to-toe with Iran.

Statistics from GlobalFirepower.com, which uses data to compare the military strength of the worlds armies, show that Irans active duty personnel significantly outnumber Israels, but Israel  with a larger annual military budget  has more than enough weaponry to protect itself from Iran.

Israel currently has 170,000 active duty personnel compared to Irans 534,000, while the number of their reserve components are nearly even  around 400,000 each  the site says.

But Israels military budget for 2018 is $20 billion  more than three times what Iran is reported to be spending, $6.3 billion. That figure, the site says, ranks Iran 33rd overall in the world in terms of military spending for 2018, lagging behind some of its neighbors  Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan  and significantly behind the leader in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, which is reported to be devoting upwards of $56 billion toward its army.

On land and in the air, Israels military appears to pack a greater punch than Irans. Israel boasts 2,760 tanks compared to Irans 1,650, and 596 aircraft to Irans 505, according to the website.

Iran, during the Syrian conflict, has been trying to secure a steady land corridor from its border to the Mediterranean to help Hezbollah  a terror group it backs in Lebanon  and Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. Iran has also stationed increasing numbers of its Revolutionary Guard unit in Syria to bolster its aims.

But as of February, the movement of Irans weaponry eastward continues to be done primarily by air, according to an analysis by Tel Aviv Universitys Institute for National Security Studies.

The use of the corridor is probably intended above all for the movement of troops to Syria to further assist in stabilizing the Assad regime, it said. However, at a later stage, or in parallel, the corridor can strengthen Hezbollahs capabilities against Israel  and perhaps those of other Shiite militias currently stationed in Syria  and thereby intensify Iranian deterrence and the threat to Israel.

It added: The delay in operating the corridor is likely due not only to the continued fighting in some of the areas, but also to the Iranians' fear of attacks on convoys by the United States and/or Israel, as well as by Sunni elements, the Islamic State, and organizations opposed to Assad.

In the sea, where Iran has been active in recent years, particularly in the Persian Gulf, the Islamic Republic is listed as having 398 naval assets compared to Israels 65, although many of them are patrol craft. Tehran is reported to have 33 subs (Israel, 6), and five frigates (Israel is said to have none).

Irans missile foray into the Golan Heights is not the first time this year that the Islamic Republic has gone after Israel in the skies. Iran, in February, launched a drone from Syria that was shot down in Israel. The drone was based off an American model that infamously was captured during the Obama administration, officials said.

Israel, in response to that incident, went after Syrian anti-aircraft batteries, but lost one of its own fighter jets in the process.

The Golan Heights plateau, a 40-mile long and 15-mile wide strip of land in southwestern Syria, according to estimates from the Associated Press, overlooks northern Israel and offers strategic value to Israels military.

"I say again -- whoever hurts us we will hurt him 7 times more, and whoever is getting ready to hurt us -- we will hurt them first," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday in a video statement. "That is what we did and we will continue to do."

Iran, so far, has not commented on the latest Israeli strikes.

Fox News' Yonat Friling contributed to this report.A dam burst in Kenyas Rift Valley after weeks of heavy rain, killing at least 38 people and causing huge destruction, officials said Thursday.

A search-and-rescue mission was ongoing.

The Patel Dam ruptured late Wednesday in Solai, in Nakuru County, about 120 miles northwest of Nairobi.

The water has caused huge destruction of both life and property. The extent of the damage has yet to be ascertained, Lee Kinyanjui, the governor of Nakuru, said in a statement.

The Kenya Red Cross said it had saved 39 people so far as it continued rescue efforts.

Local leaders were concerened that the death toll could rise as many people remained unaccounted for, Kenyas Daily Nation reported. People were feared to be trapped in thick mud stretching over a mile.

Citizens reported hearing an explosion before the water burst from Patel Dam and swept away hundreds of homes, according to the Nation.

East Africa has experienced heavy rain over the past two months, killing 132 people and displacing 222,456 in 32 counties since March, Reuters reported.

Kinyanjui assured residents that "we will do our best to take affected families to safety and help them get medical attention."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.There were multiple things to blame for the October ambush in Niger that left multiple U.S. service members dead, including insufficient training and preparation as well as the teams deliberate decision to go after a high-level Islamic State group insurgent without proper command approval, the Pentagon has said.

Four U.S. soldiers were killed in October 2017 by Islamic militants who attacked their convoy in Africa with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns. The body of one soldier was not found for two days.

The Pentagons report, released on May 10, took three months to complete, spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement. Defense Secretary James Mattis found institutional and organizational issues, not isolated to this event that must be addressed immediately by the Department of Defense, she said.

However, no amount of investigation or corrective action will ease the agonizing grief that the families of our fallen must feel, White said. The Department hopes that the families will take pride and comfort in knowing  as this investigation makes clear  that their loved ones fought and died bravely in defense of our Nation, its people and the values we hold dear.

From President Donald Trumps calls to the families of the deceased to the White Houses delayed response to the ambush, details about the attack have drawn intense scrutiny and criticism. Read on for a look at what happened in Niger.

Who were the Americans killed?

Sgt. La David Johnson, 25; Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, 35; Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson 39; and Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, 29, were killed in the attack.

The bodies of some of the Americans killed were recovered by a U.S.-contracted helicopter, a U.S. official previously told Fox News. Sgt. Johnson's body wasn't found until two days after the attack as he and some Nigerien soldiers were separated from the others during the battle, the Pentagon said.

According to the report, the four killed gave their last full measure of devotion to our country and died with honor while actively engaging the enemy. It said none were captured alive by the enemy and all died immediately or quickly from their wounds.

What did the Pentagon say happened?

The Pentagons summary lays out a confusing chain of events that unfolded on Oct. 3-4, ending in a lengthy, brutal firefight as 46 U.S. and Nigerien forces battled for their lives against more than 100 enemy fighters. Amid the chaos, the report identified repeated acts of bravery as the outnumbered and outgunned soldiers risked their lives to protect and rescue each other during the more than hour-long assault.

Military officials found that the U.S. forces didnt have time to train together before they deployed and did not do pre-mission battle drills with their Nigerien partners. And the report found that there was a lack of attention to detail and lax communication about missions that led to a general lack of situational awareness and command oversight at every echelon.

According to the report, the Army Special Forces team left their camp on Oct. 3 to go after an Islamic State leader who was suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of an American aid worker. But the team leader and his immediate supervisor submitted a different mission to the higher command, saying they were going out just to meet tribal leaders. That less-risky mission was approved, and when the team got to the location, the insurgent wasnt there.

Senior commanders, unaware of the teams earlier actions, then ordered the troops to serve as backup for a second teams raid, also targeting the leader. That mission was aborted, however, when weather grounded the second team. The original group was then ordered to another location to collect intelligence on the insurgent, which they did without problems.

It was on their way back to the home base when they stopped for water at the village of Tongo Tongo, about 120 miles north of Nigers capital. There, the group was ambushed by Islamic State-linked militants armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and small firearms.

The Pentagon said it could not conclude that the village willingly (and without duress) aided and supported the militants in the attack.

What else should you know?

The report included multiple recommendations to improve mission planning and approval procedures, re-evaluate equipment and weapons requirements and review training that U.S. commandos conduct with partner forces.

Mattis has directed Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, head of U.S. Africa Command, to take immediate steps to address shortfalls and has given senior leaders four months to complete a review and lay out a plan for additional changes.

Why were troops in Niger?

U.S. forces have been in Niger for more than 20 years and a joint special operations task force was created by the U.S. in 2008.

In 2011, U.S. and French forces set up a counterterrorism force in the country, led by the French, with 4,000 troops and 35,000 Nigerien troops. There were 800 U.S. troops in Niger and 6,000 U.S. troops within 53 countries in Africa, Gen. Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last year.

But the presence of American soldiers in Niger reignited a debate about the Authorization for Use of Military Force  a public law enacted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. At issue is whether the law gives the president the authority to take action against all terrorist organizations, not just Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

What was the White House's response?

The White House has been widely criticized for its response to the attack  especially in the delay in acknowledging the ambush.

President Trump, too, was criticized for his public feud with a Democratic congresswoman and Sgt. La David Johnsons widow. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., accused Trump of making insensitive remarks to Myeshia Johnson.

Trump has denied Wilsons allegations, but the mother of the deceased soldier has backed up Wilsons claims.

White House chief of staff John Kelly said he was "heartbroken" that Wilson used the conversation she overheard to attack Trump. Kelly, whose Marine son died in Afghanistan, added that the president did the best he could in the situation.

Because of the White Houses response to the attack, its been called the presidents Benghazi by some Democrats, referencing the controversial attack in 2012 that left four American service members dead.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.When three Americans newly freed from detention in North Korea arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland early Thursday, President Donald Trump was there to greet them.

The president was joined by first lady Melania Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

A motorcade was waiting to take the three Korean-American detainees -- Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim -- to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for physical examinations.

The White House said earlier they would be evaluated and receive medical treatment at the Washington-area facility. Their families were not on hand for the ceremony.

When the plane arrived from Alaska, where it stopped Wednesday after leaving North Korea, Trump and the first lady climbed aboard to greet the men and stayed there for several minutes.

After the president emerged with the three Americans, he addressed the media, saying, "I really think he [Kim Jong Un] wants to do something."

Trump publicly thanked North Korean ruler for releasing the prisoners, and regarded it as a sign of easing tensions as the two leaders hope to strike a deal toward peace on the Korean Peninsula in the forthcoming summit.

North Koreas official news agency, KCNA, said Kims move to grant the three Americans amnesty came at the official suggestion of the U.S. president.

The former "hostages," as Trump has called them, left North Korea early Wednesday, accompanied by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

"This is a special night for these three really great people," Trump told reporters as he stood on the tarmac. On the U.S. relationship with North Korea, Trump said, "We're starting off on a new footing."

The freed prisoners appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs as they emerged from the aircraft. They were joined by a translator who said "it's like a dream" and that the men were "very, very happy" to be freed.

North Korea had accused the detainees of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and compounded the dire state of U.S.-North Korea relations over the isolated nations nuclear weapons.

The three had been held for periods ranging between one and two years. They were the latest in a series of Americans who have been detained in North Korea in recent years for seemingly minor offenses.

We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home, the three said in an earlier statement released by the State Department.

The three Americans and Pompeo flew on separate government planes because they received checkups during the flight from Japan and the larger plane was better equipped to accommodate the medical equipment.

Trump called it a great honor to welcome home the three North Korean detainees, but said "the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons."

Although few details have been revealed regarding the high-stakes foreign policy effort between Trump and Kim, Singapore has emerged as the likely host of the summit that will take place later this month or early June as the president sets his sights on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.

Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Korea's leader for the prisoners' release  "We want to thank Kim Jong Un"  and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the "official suggestion" of the U.S. president, said North Korea's official news agency, KCNA.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.There may not be much Iran can do about President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but across the Middle East, it has a variety of ways it can hit back at the United States and America's regional allies.

Iran has expanded its influence far beyond its borders in recent years, sponsoring an army of tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen spread across Iraq and Syria, all the way to Lebanon.

A rocket attack overnight Wednesday on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights may have been a first salvo, underscoring Tehran's reach. Israel responded with a blistering wave of missile strikes.Free Freightnet Membership

List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours.An initiative to make the nations school dinners 100% traceable from farm to fork is being launched by BBC Countryfile star Adam Henson on Friday (11 May).

The project, called Please Sir! Feed Me Truth aims to address how the nation values food provenance and to reconnect the next generation of consumers with where their food comes from.

See also: How a group of beef farmers took over their supply chain

Using traceability technology, Mr Henson hopes every school in the country will take up the scheme and commit to making their supply chains transparent.

Mr Henson said: The appreciation and understanding of food starts with children simply knowing how and where the ingredients on their plate were produced. But they dont.

They have no idea. Every school dinner has a story to tell  a journey. It leaves a footprint. We need every child to explore it and be inspired and learn from it.

Retail chain Midcounties Cooperative are funding an educational resource that will arrange field trips and school visits to give children first-hand experience of the journey food makes to arrive on their plates.

Food industry least transparent

The project is being run by Happerley, a farmer-founded not-for-profit which goal is to enhance food supply chain transparency in the UK.

The food industry remains one of the least transparent and we are not told the origins of most of the ingredients in our food, said farmer and Happerley founder, Matthew Rymer.

Children are particularly susceptible to buying into brands and clever marketing because they do not know or understand better.

Mr Rymer added, By working through the food chain to deliver the full story of the ingredients that make their school dinners, our hope is we can create a seismic change in understanding for the future that impacts positively on their health and nutrition, the environment and sustainable food production.News

Dirt bike, ATV restrictions fail in League City

STUART VILLANUEVA/The Daily News Hank Dugie Greg Gripon Larry Millican

LEAGUE CITY

Dirt bike drama hit the League City council meeting Tuesday as an ordinance to restrict riders failed.

City staff members had drafted an ordinance that would outlaw dirt bike and all-terrain vehicles from operating off-road unless riders were carrying written permission from the landowner.

Councilman Hank Dugie called the proposed ordinance an overreach that didnt take into account young families who enjoyed the recreation, and he also noted that not all dirt bikes are noisy.

I think this is overly broad, Dugie said.

Dugie voted against it, as did councilmen Greg Gripon, Keith Gross and Nick Long. Mayor Pat Hallisey and councilmen Dan Becker, Todd Kinsey and Larry Millican voted for it. With eight members on the city council, a split vote of 4-4 means a motion fails.

League City Police get an average of 200 calls for service a year from residents complaining about people riding dirt bikes and ATVs in subdivision common areas, green belts and pipeline rights of way, Chief Gary Ratliff said.

Officers would warn riders and if complaints continued, officers would issue citations for violating the citys noise ordinance, Ratliff said.

City Attorney Nghiem Doan suggested the city should amend the traffic and vehicles ordinance to address off-road operation of motor vehicles.

The proposed ordinance would have made it unlawful for any person to operate a motor-driven or motor-propelled vehicle on anothers property within the city unless it was on a surface constructed for that purpose.

The rider would have to have the land owners written permission and it would have to be notarized, according to the proposal.

If you want to go out and have recreation in the green space around the city, I for one think you should be encouraged, Dugie said.

But if the riding is disturbing or causing harm to people, then maybe citations are necessary, he said.

I just dont think this is the way to do it, Dugie said.

Councilman Greg Gripon grew up in League City riding bicycles and horses along Interurban Canal, he said. He also rode motorized vehicles on the same shortcut, he said.

Now we are going to start policing that, Gripon said. Im not sure Im on board with that.

But the subdivisions have multiplied and the population has gone up along with the liabilities and risks, Councilman Larry Millican said.

This isnt the town you grew up in, Greg, Millican said.

It is possible a revised proposal could go back to the council in the future, but instead of postponing it Tuesday, the council members voted on it, splitting their votes.

For me, as a property owner, to have to write up a permission slip for somebody I invited on my property is a little much, Dugie said.

Quote If you want to go out and have recreation in the green space around the city, I for one think you should be encouraged. Councilman Hank DugieReporter

Before coming to work for The Daily News as a staff reporter, Connor worked for us as a freelance correspondent throughout 2017. He has written for other publications such as the Washington Post.Topping out ceremony : 99 new rental apartments in Bad Godesberg

LANNESDORF A topping out ceremony was held in Bad Godesberg for the first 99 apartments on Deutschherrenstrae. When the project is completed, there will be 258 apartments altogether. The first renters are to take occupancy in January.

Teilen

Teilen Weiterleiten

Weiterleiten Tweeten

Tweeten Weiterleiten

Weiterleiten Drucken

On January 1, tenants are to move into the first 99 apartments to be completed on Deutschherrenstrae in Lannesdorf. A new kindergarten there should also be finished by then. At the topping-out ceremony for the first construction phase of the "Siebengebirgsterrassen" (Seven Mountains Terraces), board member Gregor Asshoff of the builders, Soka-Bau, thanked all those who allowed the "new residential district in a prime location" to be built. So far, 8,000 cubic meters of concrete and 1,000 tons of steel have already been used in the construction. In addition, 80,000 cubic meters of earth were moved from the former site of the Armed Forces department.

Soka-Bau (a joint institution of the social partners of the German building industry) had already purchased the 27,000 square meter plot in 2011. It had been vacant since the Federal Office for Civil Defense and Armed Forces moved out in 2006. It took five years until groundbreaking for the new construction took place. They insisted on including it in local politics, said district mayor Simone Stein-Lucke, who is particularly pleased about the mix of different sizes of housing. It can accommodate the influx of immigration of young families as well as seniors who need a barrier-free apartment.

Mayor Reinhard Limbach sees the construction project as an "important building block for the urban development of Bonn". It is not only built with a reasonable density, but the city particularly welcomes the fact that the apartments will be rentals.

Soka-Bau has already announced that it will keep the apartments for the long term. Erecting the shell for the second construction phase has already begun. In total, 258 apartments in eight buildings will be built, with 291 parking spaces on the site at Deutschherrenstrae. Included in the construction is a kindergarten facility big enough for four groups of children. Soka-Bau is investing around 70 million euros in the project. The total living space of around 22,000 square meters accounts for 75 percent of the two- and three-room apartments. There are also rental units with four or five rooms that are up to 140 square meters in size.

Much to do before tenants come in January

Two medium-sized construction companies, Schumacher from Wolfenbuttel and Frauenrath from Heinsberg, are acting as general contractors. Because there is no wooden roof, the carpenters could not pound in the traditional nail at the topping-out ceremony.

Ulf Muller from Schumacher thanked all the builders who had worked with motivation. It is also the money of many construction workers invested in the project. Naturally, great importance is attached to occupational safety during the project, which is so important for the industry. "We have had no major accidents so far," Muller reported.

There is still a lot to do until the renters come in January. After eating some roast and dumplings, it was straight back to work.Orig. text: Bettina KohlTranslation: ckFoto: Guests looking at the topping-out wreath, raised between the two new buildings with a crane.In more news of subtle political beef, Paula Bennett has released a tweet to the interweb that we think she might soon regret.

Bennett tried to call out Jacinda Ardern, for her recent collaboration with Sniffers to create her very own Kiwi music Spotify playlist in light of May being New Zealand Music Month.VIDEO: Man Tries To Use "Biblical Powers" To Command His Boss In Nigeria

kejguv at 10-05-2018 02:08 PM (3 years ago) (m)

The viral video shows a Nigerian man commanding his boss to sign a document that will be in his favor In the Name of Jesus. The man was exercising his heavenly authority. His boss called in the security to take him away. Lol



Watch the clip below

A post shared by Lanre 'eLDee' Dabiri (@eldeethedon) on May 10, 2018 at 3:20am PDT The viral video shows a Nigerian man commanding his boss to sign a document that will be in his favor In the Name of Jesus. The man was exercising his heavenly authority. His boss called in the security to take him away. LolWatch the clip below

Post Reply Writing is my passion and facts-proofing is my hobby, I have been writing at Gistmania for close to a decade now and It is one of the most exciting things I do. Outside writing, I love enjoying time with my loved ones - if you have any tip for me, please do get in touch Posted: at 10-05-2018 02:08 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac

Mykie010 at 10-05-2018 02:26 PM (3 years ago)

(m) People misunderstand Christianity, he should have said that prayer at home and go to d boys by faith to sign d documents. Better luck next time. Posted: at 10-05-2018 02:26 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac People misunderstand Christianity, he should have said that prayer at home and go to d boys by faith to sign d documents. Better luck next time. Reply

Haso112 at 10-05-2018 02:33 PM (3 years ago)

(m) TRAMADOL & CODEINE AT WORK... SEE THE WAY THE BOSS WAS LOOKING AT HIM SEF... LIKE, KILON SE WEREY YI SHA.. Posted: at 10-05-2018 02:33 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac TRAMADOL & CODEINE AT WORK... SEE THE WAY THE BOSS WAS LOOKING AT HIM SEF... LIKE, KILON SE WEREY YI SHA.. Reply

victorstic1 at 10-05-2018 02:36 PM (3 years ago)

(m)

AM SURE HE PRACTISED THIS AT HOME AND DECIDED TO BRING TO THE BOSS FACE TO FACE Posted: at 10-05-2018 02:36 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac AM SURE HE PRACTISED THIS AT HOME AND DECIDED TO BRING TO THE BOSS FACE TO FACE Reply

victorstic1 at 10-05-2018 02:38 PM (3 years ago)

(m) MAYBE A PASTOR COLLECTED MONEY FROM HIM GAVE FAKE WATER AND OIL CALLING IT ANNOITED OIL TO USE IT ON HIS BOSS Posted: at 10-05-2018 02:38 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac MAYBE A PASTOR COLLECTED MONEY FROM HIM GAVE FAKE WATER AND OIL CALLING IT ANNOITED OIL TO USE IT ON HIS BOSS Reply

nature7888 at 10-05-2018 02:57 PM (3 years ago)

(m) Lols. Symptoms of early madness Posted: at 10-05-2018 02:57 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac Lols. Symptoms of early madness Reply

crocatum at 10-05-2018 03:49 PM (3 years ago)

(m) MAD MAD ha MAD Posted: at 10-05-2018 03:49 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac MAD MAD ha MAD Reply

crocatum at 10-05-2018 04:05 PM (3 years ago)

(m) that prayer is useless, he is full of hate or contempt for his boss, it could have resulted in a fight, as I saw he was ready to punch. Posted: at 10-05-2018 04:05 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac that prayer is useless, he is full of hate or contempt for his boss, it could have resulted in a fight, as I saw he was ready to punch. Reply

Wazubia at 10-05-2018 04:15 PM (3 years ago)

(m) LOL,,, NA SO CRAZINESS DEY START. Posted: at 10-05-2018 04:15 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac LOL,,, NA SO CRAZINESS DEY START. Reply

luckingto50 at 10-05-2018 04:56 PM (3 years ago)

(m) Your Oga worked hard before he became successful, looking for Appian way with the help your fake Pastor is total failure and back to labour market. Posted: at 10-05-2018 04:56 PM (3 years ago) | Upcoming Your Oga worked hard before he became successful, looking for Appian way with the help your fake Pastor is total failure and back to labour market. Reply

slimber at 10-05-2018 09:01 PM (3 years ago)

(f) Evil Posted: at 10-05-2018 09:01 PM (3 years ago) | Hero Evil Reply

Zaki68 at 11-05-2018 07:28 AM (3 years ago)

(m) NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS!!!!!!!!!!! Posted: at 11-05-2018 07:28 AM (3 years ago) | Upcoming NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS!!!!!!!!!!! Reply

ruthie at 11-05-2018 04:35 PM (3 years ago)

(f)

Quote from: Haso112 on 10-05-2018 02:33 PM TRAMADOL & CODEINE AT WORK... SEE THE WAY THE BOSS WAS LOOKING AT HIM SEF... LIKE, KILON SE WEREY YI SHA..

Posted: at 11-05-2018 04:35 PM (3 years ago) | Hero ReplyOn the morning of April 27, a farmer surveying cattle from the air discovered an oil spill approximately five miles west of the Frazer/Richland Road and East Grains Road Junction. The farmer reported the spill to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who notified Valley County Dispatch and the Fort Peck Tribes Office of Environmental Protection.

Both entities sent personnel to the scene to investigate. The contract operator of the well, Adaranko Minerals Inc, had started the cleanup by the afternoon of the next day, and initial reports estimated that 600 barrels of crude oil and 90,000 barrels of brine had been spilled. Those estimates were based on the past productivity of and the normal ratio of oil to brine from that particular well.

On May 3, the Federal On-Scene Coordinator Joyel Dhieux, with the Environmental Protection Agency's Emergency Response Unit, briefed the Valley County Commissioners and local government officials on the spill. Dhieux reported that the well in question was operated by Adaranko Minerals, owned by the Fort Peck Tribes and permitted by the Bureau of Land Management. She also explained the extent of the spill suggesting the initial estimate could be revised once clean up is complete.

According to the EPA report to the Commissioners, the well had been shut down on Dec. 29, 2017, due to snow levels. Sometime between Dec. 29 and April 27, the well cracked open and began leaking oil onto the ground. The oil then flowed downhill roughly 1,500 feet into a stock pond owned by a private grazing association, and not by tribal entities as reported in a press release to The Glasgow Courier on May 2. The EPA reported, "so the good news is the oil appears to largely be contained in that stock dam and along the drainage into the stock dam."

Dhieux stated that she had issued a Clean Water Act Order that established the company would be responsible for cleanup of the contaminants at the site. It was also reported that Adaranko had retained the services of a specialized oil cleanup company based in Canada known as SWAT Inc., and as of May 3, they had taken over cleanup of the spill.

It appeared at the time of the report that the oil had not affected any downstream areas of the drainage into Porcupine Creek or further down into the Missouri River. The final plan for clean up includes skimming the crude from the pond and surface scraping the soil of the initial drainage area affected by the spill. Clean soil would then be brought in to fill the excavated wash and it would be revegetated to avoid the establishment of invasive species.

A.J. Etherington / The Courier A front loader sits parked next to the oil filled drainage leading from the ruptured oil well into a local stock pond on May 2.

According to Dhieux, a large portion of the brine water spilled had collected in a 10 to 13 foot layer on the bottom of the pond. A plan was being worked on for the removal of the brine following the removal of the crude oil from the surface. It was unclear at press time what the lasting impacts to the stock pond may be. Brine is nothing more than extremely salty ground water, and is a normal part of oil extraction. The brine is not toxic, but does pose an environmental threat as a contaminant affecting soil and water health.

Dhieux also told The Glasgow Courier that there seemed to be no known impacts to wildlife, including migratory birds. Presently, crews were using flagging and foghorns to ward off migratory birds from landing in the crude oil remaining on the service of the pond. Dhieux also believed the level of human activity at the site would keep most wildlife away from the area.

For perspective, a barrel is 42 gallons of liquid. Meaning 24,200 gallons of oil was spilled and over 3.78 million gallons of brine spilled. That equals just under six Olympic-sized swimming pools. The Exxon Mobil Pipeline spill in 2011 spilled nearly 1,500 barrels of crude into the Yellowstone River.Sean Heavey poses with his flagship work of art "The Mothership" at his Gallery in downtown Glasgow.

When Sean R. Heavey watched an episode of Netflix's Stranger Things some months back, he couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity about the storm in the scene he was watching. To hear Heavey tell it, he had to go back multiple times to freeze the scene and verify it was not his image in the special effects of the cut.

Heavey had moved on, when a friend happened to be watching the Netflix documentary Beyond Stranger Things, and noticed a striking similarity between a concept art depiction of the very scene described above and his real world hallmark work of art "The Mothership."

Heavey told the Courier that, "Netflix did not get my permission to use the photo, and I do not list the photo with any stock agencies."

After looking for feedback from friends, other photographers and the online community, Heavey took the company to task by sending a letter informing them of the photos copyright. Heavey's thinking at the time was that he would get a response, a photo credit and a licensing fee. Instead, he received a letter from Netflix's in-house counsel denying any infringement.

According to the letter, which the Courier has read, Netflix claimed that Heavey had no right to a copyright claim for multiple reasons. Mainly, the company did not feel that cloud formations could be protected by a copyright saying, "No artist can claim a monopoly over depicting a real-world public domain object such as a cloud formation."

This seemed to suggest to Heavey that Netflix believed the picture was merely of a similar cloud formation and not a duplicate of his image. So, again he sought the opinion of other photographers, friends and even meteorologists, who, according to Heavey's account, mostly all agreed the image was unique in formation and beyond a reasonable doubt belonged to him.

Heavey has copyrighted the image with the United States Copyright Office and it has been licensed for print by National Geographic, USA Today and other international media outlets. Even former Vice President Al Gore paid a licensing fee to use the photograph as a backdrop for his TED Talk and speaking campaign on climate change.

The other argument Netflix made against Heavey's claim was that the original image had been altered so dramatically that it was virtually a different image. Again, Heavey countered with the sentiment of himself and his supporters that it is a fallacy to say the photo is not recognizable as his own since so many people noted the similarities.

Heavey points out that all the details of the cloud from his original image are present even though it has been placed in a new concept art, and the coloring has been digitally altered.

"To me it's pretty obvious that it's my image and I'm surprised they didn't just go, 'yep,' and offer a licensing fee," said Heavey.

Heavey, for his part, gives Netflix the benefit of the doubt saying, "I think they took it off a web search, and added it to the concept art never thinking it would be public." Nonetheless, he certainly feels he should have been asked permission to use the piece of art, and he feels that is especially the case when the artwork appeared publicly in the Netflix documentary.

Heavey has retained a lawyer and feels he has a strong claim against the company. According to a CNN Money article published in January, Netflix is worth more than $100 billion. A side-by-side comparison of the original photo and the Stranger Things concept art can be viewed at Sean R. Heavey's personal Facebook page.

The Courier contacted Netflix in-house counsel, Jarin Jackson, but he did not want to provide comment. An email has also been sent to Netflix media relations department, but as of press time no response has been received.

Disclosure: Sean R. Heavey is a personal friend of the publisher/editor of The Glasgow Courier A.J. Etherington.I was very disturbed by the interview editor Etherington had with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) District Manager Mark Albers as reported in the April 25, 2018 Glasgow Courier. Mr. Albers, clarified that nothing in the scoping period would determine if the agency would conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS)... He then went on to clarify, that the EA would have one of two outcomes: Either the agency would certify a finding of no significant impact (FONSI) and move ahead with allowing American Prairies request or they would initiate the environmental impact statement. In other words, we have been asked to be involved in the process but in reality we have no input in the decision. Typical bureaucratic smoke and mirrors!

I was also disturbed when Albers stated, that he would be the decision-maker for whether the process warranted a FONSI or an EIS and then went on to state, this is basically a grazing action and we do hundreds of grazing actions a year. Its different, its odd, and it involves people who are not normally a part of this process, but at the crux of that it is still a grazing proposal and grazing proposals require an EA. So, I think it would be doing everyone a disservice to jump to an EIS. It sounds to me like he has already made his decision!

If that werent enough, Albers tried to address one of the main concerns of ranchers and range professionals. They maintain that switching from rotational grazing to season long, continuous grazing is a step in the wrong direction. Albers counters this concern by stating, but there is a lot of new science coming out that says thats not the only way [rotational grazing] to manage these prairies. Apparently, he has very limited access to range management literature. In fact, much of the new range science is advocating more fencing! From a practical point of view, how often have you heard of a season long, continuous grazing rancher receiving a good stewardship award?

The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 is the basic statute governing grazing on lands administered by the BLM. The BLM claims subsequent environmentally-oriented laws changed or modified much of the Taylor Grazing Act. Individuals that actually read the laws and subsequent court cases argue the details. I do know the Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA) grandfathered in all existing rights when it stated, all actions by the Secretary concerned under this Act shall be subject to valid existing rights.

The Taylor Grazing Act does not list bison when it defines the term livestock. Albers side-steps this issue when he changes jurisdictions and states, Under current Montana law, APRs bison are livestock and not wildlife and as such APR can maintain BLM grazing permits by running their bison on those properties irrespective of whether they are engaged in the livestock industry or not. He is certainly stretching things in APRs favor on that one.

Historically, the allocation of allotments and permits under the Taylor Grazing Act was for the purpose of establishing economic (i.e. for profit) livestock operations. Albers maintains that, under current language of the Taylor Grazing Act an applicant is no longer required to be engaged in the livestock industry.... If this is true (the courts may have to decide this one) then changing all these for profit livestock operations to not-for-profit playgrounds will have huge impacts on the local economies. Therefore, this is much more than, basically a grazing action and meets all the requirements for a full-blown EIS.

Unfortunately, Mr. Albers blatantly biased comments favoring the APR proposals compromised the decision making BLM process. If anything less than a full EIS is recommended, the general public (particularly those in the livestock industry) will conclude the fix was on and the whole process was a total waste of time.A Muslim family in Pakistan strangled to death a teenage Christian girl who failed to carry out the household chores to their satisfaction, a horrific new report has revealed.



Christians in Pakistan reported that the murder of Kainat Salamat, the 17-year-old daughter of Salamat Masih, occurred in Kamonki, Gujranwala district earlier this month. The teen's father filed a First Information Report to report the crime on May 6, explaining to police that he arrived to visit his daughter at the home of Muhammad Asif, where she had worked as a domestic helper since age 11.



When he arrived, the father said that he and another relative saw that the Muslim family, Asif, Muhammad Kashif, Muhammad Tariq Pasran, Muhammad Ismael, along with Asif's wife and another woman, were holding down Kainat's legs and arms.



The Muslim family had tied a rope around the Christian girl's neck and were strangling her, Masih said. Despite her father's pleas, the teen was eventually strangled to death because she'd failed to carry out the household chores to the Muslim family's satisfaction.



According to the British Pakistani Christian Association, the teen's corpse was take to Civil Hospital Gujranwala for a post-mortem study, where doctors found evidence that the teenager had suffered rape.



The BPCA is urging people to sign a petition against domestic servitude of Christian girls, which it says results in widespread abuse and in some cases death.



"Girls are commonly raped and beaten in such situations and forced to live a debilitating lifestyle," notes the petition. "Moreover in many cases young girls can be killed to protect perpetrators from being caught, through excessive-brutality or psychotic behaviour of the masters."



Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of the BPCA, said that many Christian girls are placed in domestic servitude contracts from ages as young as ten.



Many of these girls suffer cruel beatings and rape from depraved men and jealous wives," he said. "Powerful Muslim families often settle out of court by paying Qisas and Diyat bribes a legal 'get out of jail' payment that is enshrined in Sharia law and adopted in Pakistan."



As earlier reported by The Gospel Herald, in 2016, a 17-year-old Pakistani Christian girl was killed by a group of Muslim men because she rejected their sexual advances.



At the time, Chowdhry said the world is ignoring the treatment of Christian women in Pakistan, where an average of two women a day disappear and are raped, sold into sexual slavery, or forced to marry Muslim men.



"Evidence exists that some rogue imams declare that such acts of conversion through violence are rewarded in heaven, what a terrifying thought," Chowdhry said.



Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War in Christians echoed such warnings, writing, "Even in Western nations, Muslims from Pakistan believe it is their right to rape and sexually abuse 'infidel' women - or even Muslim women if they are out at night unaccompanied or not wearing a veil. Of course a veiled woman might also be attacked, but then the rape would be the same as for a non-Muslim rapist -- he wants what he wants and that's that."



He added, "But if she is a Muslim out on her own, he can rationalize away or justify the rape as 'his right' since she is acting like an infidel, so supposedly deserves what she gets. This author knows of no instance where a Muslim man targeted a Muslim woman because he thinks it is his 'right'."

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Governments around the nation are working to design the best vaccine policies that keep both their employees and their residents safe. Although the latest data shows a variety of polarizing perspectives, there are clear emerging best practices that leading governments are following to put trust first: creating policies that are flexible and provide a range of options, and being in tune with the needs and sentiments of their employees so that they are able to be dynamic and accommodate the rapidly changing situation.Many people acclaim Adam Smith as the father of economics. Others trace the origins of economics to the eighteenth century Physiocrats, while others look back far as Aristotle. The real founders of economic science actually wrote hundreds of years before Smith, wrote Lew Rockwell at Mises.org. They were not economists as such, but moral theologians, trained in the tradition of St. Thomas Aquinas, and they came to be known collectively as the Late Scholastics.

These thinkers, who were associated with Spains School of Salamanca, brought Catholic standards of justice to bear on numerous economic questions. Rockwell then profiles four of its most influential writers, beginning with:

Francisco de Vitoria The University of Salamanca was the center of Scholastic learning in sixteenth-century Spain. The first of the moral theologians to research, write, and teach there was Francisco de Vitoria (1485-1546). Under his guidance, the university offered an extraordinary 70 professorial chairs. As with other great mentors in history, most of Vitorias published work comes to us in the form of notes taken by his students. In Vitorias work on economics, he argued that the just price is the price that has been arrived at by common agreement among producers and consumers. That is, when a price is set by the interplay of supply and demand, it is a just price. So it is with international trade. Governments should not interfere with the prices and relations established between traders across borders. Vitorias lectures on Spanish-Indian tradeoriginally published in 1542 and again in 1917 by the Carnegie Endowmentargued that government intervention with trade violates the Golden Rule. Yet Vitorias greatest contribution was producing gifted and prolific students. They went on to explore almost all aspects, moral and theoretical, of economic science. For a century, these thinkers formed a mighty force for free enterprise and economic logic.

For the rest of his profile, as well as an overview of Martin de Azpilcueta Navarrus, Diego de Covarrubias y Leiva, and Juan de Mariana, continue reading here.

Last November 29, the Acton Institute held a conference in Rome titled Globalization, Justice, and the Economy to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the Universidad de Salamanca. You may watch a rebroadcast of the conference via LiveStream or read Michael Severances thorough review of the schools work here.

For more comprehensive information about the School of Salamanca, see Faith and Liberty: The Economic Thought of the Late Scholastics by Alejandro Chafuen, or a collection of texts by the Late Scholastics on monetary theory edited by Stephen J. Grabill. You may prefer smaller original texts by the authors mentioned in this article: Martin de Azpilcuetas On Exchange or Juan de Marianas A Treatise on the Alternation of Money.

(Photo credit:  . This photo has been cropped. CC BY-SA 4.0.)North Carolina's budget writers have a lot on their hands in 2018. Teachers are protesting for higher raises, environmental threats are gaining visibility, and prisons continue to be dangerous and understaffed.And those are just some of the pressures on state government. So state agencies, lobbyists and special interest groups are already fighting for more taxpayer funding in next year's budget. Debate over that new budget will begin next week, when state legislators return to Raleigh on May 16 for a new session. Ahead of that session, the state's top two lawmakers said Monday they had good news: North Carolina has more than $600 million extra to divvy out.That includes more than a $350 million surplus for this year's budget, which ends on June 30, plus more than $275 million extra that can be budgeted for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1."We plan on a pay raise for state employees," N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore, a Republican from Cleveland County, said in a conference call about the budget. "We plan on a pay raise for teachers. We are looking at something for retirees."But some of those raises were already in a tentative version of next year's budget, so it's unclear whether these surpluses will mean the raises could become even larger.Even before the surpluses were announced, the average teacher was set to get more than a 6 percent raise next year. Some other positions in state government have also already been targeted for raises, starting this month.Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, a Republican from Rockingham County, said that for teachers in particular, the extra funds are more likely to go toward targeted bonuses rather than an even higher across-the-board raise."They're more likely, if we have any of them, to be of the bonus variety for teachers who have specialized situations," Berger said.But on the other side of the aisle, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, Wake County's Darren Jackson, said that veteran teachers in particular won't have much to celebrate."When is a raise not a raise? When you are a teacher with 26 or more years of experience (usually around 50 years old)," Jackson said in a tweet responding to Moore and Berger's announcement. "Under the agreed upon budget, you get no raise this year and are at your max pay forever."Both top lawmakers also said the Department of Public Safety could see some extra funding, specifically the Highway Patrol and the state prison system. Last year was abnormally deadly for prison workers, with five employees killed in attacks at Bertie and Pasquotank correctional facilities.If extra money does get budgeted for prisons, it could be in the form of pay raises, improved security measures or both."These folks are in a very dangerous position, and we want to make their jobs as safe as possible," Moore said.Berger and Moore also told reporters they think the budget surpluses for this year and next year are the result of tax cuts the legislature has passed since Republicans took control in 2011."The numbers simply bear out that we were right in cutting those taxes," Moore said, adding that if Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper asks the legislature to undo those cuts or raise taxes in other ways, he won't find much support in the GOP-dominated legislature.However, Cooper's spokesman, Ford Porter, said Cooper has no plans to call for higher taxes."The Governor's budget will invest in strong public schools, closing the health care coverage gap and workforce training for higher-paying jobs, all without raising taxes," Porter said. "We hope legislative Republicans will adopt it instead of continuing massive income tax breaks for corporations and wealthy people."Over the past days, the governor's office has been making public various budget requests he plans to make, and none has called for higher taxes. Cooper has also been more specific than legislators, at least in terms of spending levels, about what he hopes to see in the new budget.He has called for an extra $14 million to study and combat the pollution threats posed by GenX and other so-called "emerging contaminants" as well as $60 million for workforce training programs.Berger said legislative budget writers are paying attention to Cooper's requests and might consider them but that he couldn't promise Cooper will get as much money as he asked for."It's one thing to throw numbers out there, but it's another thing to come up with a budget that's actually balanced and will take North Carolina forward," Berger said.Berger said he and Moore hope budget talks move quickly starting next week. House and Senate budget writers have already agreed on a spending goal of $23.9 billion; now they have to iron out the details.The number of jail inmates in California taking psychotropic drugs has jumped about 25 percent in five years, and they now account for about a fifth of the county jail population across the state, according to a new analysis of state data.The increase could reflect the growing number of inmates with mental illness, though it also might stem from better identification of people in need of treatment, say researchers from California Health Policy Strategies (CHPS), a Sacramento-based consulting firm.Amid a severe shortage of psychiatric beds and community-based treatment throughout the state and nation, jails have become repositories for people in the throes of acute mental health crises.The number of people with mental illness in jails and prisons around the nation is astronomical, said Michael Romano, director of Three Strikes & Justice Advocacy Project at Stanford Law School, who was not involved in the research. In many ways, the whole justice system is overwhelmed with mental illness.Contributing to the problem in California is that county jails received a large influx of inmates from state prisons to jails as a result of a federal court order to ease prison crowding. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered California to reduce the prison population because of overcrowding linked to poor medical and mental health care that it said constituted cruel and unusual punishment.Three years later, a state proposition reclassified some felony crimes as misdemeanors, meaning offenders went to county jails instead of state prisons.[khn_slabs syndicated="241884" view="inline"]The new analysis, based on survey data from 45 of Californias 58 counties, opens a window into how the state is coping with the influx. We think this is the first part of a more systematic discussion about what is going on in the jails and in the broader community with respect to mental health, said David Panush, a co-author of the report by CHPS, funded in part by the California Health Care Foundation. (California Healthline is an editorially independent publication of the California Health Care Foundation.)Across California and the U.S., far more people with mental illness are housed in jails and prisons than in psychiatric hospitals. That poses well-documented challenges: Insufficient staff training and patient treatment have contributed to inmate suicides, self-mutilation, violence and other problems.One complaint among advocates for the mentally ill has been poor access to psychiatric prescriptions to treat such conditions as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The medications include antipsychotics, antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs and others.Jail officials in California say they are trying to better identify inmates who can benefit from such drugs. The numbers suggest that may be working. According to the analysis, an average of 13,776 inmates in the 45 California counties were on psychotropic medications in 2016-2017, up from 10,999 five years ago. But the portion of inmates on psychotropic medications varies widely by county, from 8 percent in Glenn to 32 percent in Sonoma and Napa, according to the analysis. The report is based on data from the Board of State and Community Corrections, an independent state agency.(Story continues below.)In Los Angeles County, whose jails have been described as the largest mental institution in the country, about 30 percent of the 18,000 inmates are mentally ill and most of those diagnosed are on medication, said Joseph Ortego, chief psychiatrist for correctional health services in L.A. County. Although some still are missed in the screening process, he said, the county jails have improved identification and treatment of inmates and expanded staffing as part of a 2015 settlement with the U.S. Justice Department. The department had alleged inadequate mental health care and suicide prevention in the jails.Overall in jails, some experts say, medications are likely underprescribed. You need enough mental health professionals to treat the very large numbers of mentally ill people in jails, said H. Richard Lamb, professor emeritus of psychiatry at the USC School of Medicine. These medications are among the most critical parts of psychiatric treatment, he added: There probably arent enough.Some advocates for the mentally ill worry, however, that the drugs are at times prescribed inappropriately. Ron Honberg, senior policy adviser at the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said that because jails have limited resources for treatment, officials may in some instances administer psychiatric medications to keep people calm and sedate.Zima Creason, president and chief executive officer of Mental Health America of California, said medications, while sometimes necessary, are no substitute for comprehensive care for jail inmates.Sadly, they just throw a bunch of pills at them because there is nothing else, she said. Jails still need to provide individual and group therapy, more time outside of cells and sufficient recreation time, she said. Jail is not conducive for real recovery, she said. We are never going to put a dent in the numbers unless we provide a therapeutic environment.Like people on the outside, inmates can be subject to involuntary drug treatment but only if a court deems it appropriate, officials said.Medications are important but are not the answer to everything, L.A. Countys Ortego said. We still need to be ethical and appropriate and do whats right for the patient and not just medicate them. He said the county also offers individualized hospital and outpatient care, as well as treatment groups and education. But he said the jails do not have enough exercise yards or spaces for therapy.Other county jail officials, including Alfred Joshua, chief medical officer for the Sheriffs Department in San Diego County, said the influx of mentally ill inmates and the rising need for psychotropic drugs stems from a lack of resources for patients in the community. When they have exacerbations of mental illness, they do many times come into contact with law enforcement, he said.Rebecca Cervenak, staff attorney for Disability Rights California, which has repeatedly investigated jail conditions, said more investment is needed in programs to divert offenders to treatment rather than jail.Some of the most common charges that bring people with mental illness to jail are drug offenses and parole violations. Those who are homeless frequently get charged with panhandling, public urination and related crimes. Inmates with mental illness also typically stay incarcerated longer than others, in part because of difficulty following rules and coping with the crowded or chaotic environment.Edward Vega, 47, was taking medications for his bipolar disorder and schizophrenia but had just run out when he was arrested in August 2017 on suspicion of drug possession. He was convicted and spent five months in the San Diego County jail. When he arrived, he couldnt quiet voices in his head and felt himself losing control, he said. I knew if I didnt get my medication, I was going to hurt someone, Vega said.A week after being arrested, he said, Vega assaulted a fellow inmate and ended up in isolation, which only made him feel worse. Finally, Vega said, a doctor prescribed medications that helped. Now, three months after his release, he is feeling almost back to normal. The medication hasnt totally taken away the voices, but I am able to differentiate reality from fiction, Vega said.In addition to trying to improve treatment inside the jails, Los Angeles and San Diego county officials say they are working more closely with community organizations to ensure inmates with mental illness get the services they need after their release.Vega said a local community group, the Neighborhood House Association, was able to help in his case, ensuring he got meds and other treatment. Without the medication, I would probably be right back in jail, he said.Ohioans overwhelmingly voted to revamp the process for drawing congressional districts, holding the promise that the next map will feature less gerrymandering by politicians and more fairness for voters.With the easy passage of state Issue 1 on Tuesday, no longer will the majority party at the Statehouse be allowed to hide in a secret room to gerrymander congressional districts with few rules on how lines are drawn."Ohio voters have made their voices heard and sent a clear message that they want a fair, transparent government that works for them," said Ann Henkener of the Ohio League of Women Voters, which was part of a coalition that pushed for a ballot issue that provided valuable leverage in the weeks of closed-door debate of the issue.Passage of Issue 1 comes nearly three years after Ohio voters approved a new process to draw legislative districts. Both legislative and congressional maps will be drawn again in 2021 after the next census, when Ohio is expected to lose another congressional seat.Majority Republicans gerrymandered the current congressional map to allow them to hold 12 of 16 districts, including two of three in increasingly blue Franklin County.The passage of Issue 1 does not guarantee that all gerrymandering will end. If the legislature, and/or a seven-member commission consisting of three statewide officeholders and four lawmakers, cannot reach a bipartisan agreement on a map, then the majority party can draw a map on its own.However, that map would last only four years, instead of the normal 10, and it would be subject to tighter restrictions.Supporters of Issue 1 say a key to the proposal is that it puts in place new restrictions on how maps can be drawn, such as limiting how many counties can be split, and how often.Advocates for changing the process believe that, if both sides negotiate in good faith and take into account suggestions from outside groups (at least one map was already drawn with sensible districts and multiple competitive seats), Ohio's next map could feature four or more truly competitive districts, and neither side would be expected to win 75 percent of seats despite getting 55 percent of the vote.With 98 percent of the vote counted, Issue 1 was winning with 75 percent of the vote. Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, called it the "conclusion of an historic bipartisan compromise."The issue was backed by both the Republican and Democratic parties, in addition to a wide variety of statewide organizations.Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, now chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said passage "gives me hope that we can restore fairness to our elections in states around the country."Roanoke, Va., was a city built by the locomotive. Crisscrossed by rail lines, Roanoke served as a regional freight hub as well as a manufacturing center for steam engines for the Norfolk and Western Railway.By the time the railroad shuttered its Roanoke headquarters in 2015, however, the city had already worked to wean itself off the rail industry. Like many other successful former factory towns, Roanoke had developed a solid "eds and meds" economy focused on health care and higher education centers, such as the Virginia Tech medical school. The city has also begun to capitalize on the nearby Appalachian Mountains to attract visitors and residents who enjoy biking, hiking and other outdoor activities.But there's something else that's helping Roanoke's economy thrive: beer."For most of our history we thought of ourselves as an old railroad town," says Beth Doughty, executive director for the Roanoke Regional Partnership, which works to attract business to the area. "In 10 years we've changed the narrative. Today, she says, "we use the term 'beer, bikes and brains.'"At least 15 breweries have opened in and around Roanoke in the past six years. It's an investment that's expected to pump more than $500 million into the local economy over the next several years.What's notable about Roanoke's beer boom, though, is that it's not just fueled by the sorts of microbreweries and tasting rooms that have popped up in towns across America in recent years. Roanoke has also landed full-scale production facilities from beer companies with breweries in other cities. San Diego-based Ballast Point, for example, opened a new brewery just outside Roanoke last summer with 100 employees and the current capacity to produce 200,000 barrels of beer a year -- a number that's expected to grow. Deschutes Brewery, an Oregon-based beer maker, is also expanding its operations to Roanoke (although the company may be downscaling its original plans for a $95 million facility initially employing 108 people).Like beer-making itself, Roanoke's beer transformation began with water.Fifteen years ago, the area was a myriad of small water utilities, with separate operations being run by the city of Roanoke and Roanoke County, as well as standalone utilities in adjacent Botetourt and Franklin counties. Starting in 2004, those wastewater operations began to merge into a new regional system, the Western Virginia Water Authority. Indeed, the authority was the first in the state of Virginia ever to merge two existing water operations.All the utility systems developed along those municipal lines," says Michael McEVoy, executive director of wastewater services at the Western Virginia Water Authority. "We had these duplicated systems where the county would have infrastructure on one side of street and the city would have infrastructure on the other side of the street.With the merger of the city and county utilities, and later with the two systems in Botetourt and Franklin counties, the new authority doubled Roanoke's capacity to supply water and to treat wastewater. Combining the small water authorities and infusing a $210 million capital investment was intended to attract large food and beverage producers. Besides beer companies, Roanoke is home to one of the nations largest Coca-Cola bottling plants.Brewers need high-quality water, of course. But they also require a good wastewater system. Producing 31.5 gallons of beer creates more than 100 gallons of wastewater. And beer waste is heavy in organic materials like yeast and sugar. The water authority invested $60 million to upgrade its treatment facility. What brewers need is a really strong wastewater system. Brewers are releasing strong effluent with a lot of organics, McEvoy says.You get some waste alcohol and some sugars, and all those organics need to be treated before it gets released.But good water isn't enough. Even with its new water capacity in place, Roanoke initially struggled to attract big beer brands. In 2012, the city tried to lure Sierra Nevada, which was looking to build a production brewery on the East Coast. But Roanoke didnt have enough beer makers at the time to create a robust local beer culture. Sierra Nevada picked Mills River, N.C., just outside of Asheville, instead.Roanoke needed to have a community culture that matched the beer culture, says Doughty, the Roanoke Regional Partnership director. The large craft brewers want to be somewhere that people speak their language and people understand the characteristics of craft beer culture.By the time Ballast and Deschutes began their search, Roanokes beer culture had matured. What started with a few local brewers, Doughty says, had grown to more than two dozen within a 50-mile radius of the city. Brewers began to see the area as a place where beer companies felt a sense of community, where they could trade tips, collaborate and engage in industry talk.We wanted there to be other breweries in the city where craft beer was being developed," says Deschutes Brewery CEO Michael LaLonde. "Craft brewers have historically helped each other, whether its on brewing or how to run a production line. It's about having a community to enter into."And that -- along with plenty of good water -- is exactly what Roanoke now has, he says.The Governors Official Program is comprised of a wide range of constitutional and legal duties and ceremonial and community engagements. Each year, the Governor hosts thousands of visitors to Government House to take part in investiture and award ceremonies, Open Days, receptions and meetings, and travels widely throughout Queensland to support the activities of Patron groups. View a chronological record of the Governors daily program below.

On Wednesday, in the morning, at Government House, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC hosted at breakfast the Premier of Queensland, the Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk MP.

In the afternoon, the Governor received the Clerk of the Parliament, Mr Neil Laurie, for the presentation of one Bill for Assent.Description

GIS - 10 May, 2018:  E-Licensing Project and transformational initiatives to enhance business environment was the focus of a one-day conference organised by the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the European Union (EU) in the context of the Europe Week in Mauritius. The opening of the conference was made in the presence of several eminent personalities as well as public and private counterparts today at the Intercontinental Resort in Balaclava.

The E-Licensing Project has been initiated by the Government so as to address key constraints to business facilitation owing to heavy regulatory frameworks and institutional bureaucracy. The EU is currently co-financing the project under the 11th European Development Fund, Eastern and Southern Africa and Indian Ocean Regional Indicative Programme with a view to creating a favourable climate for doing business and urging investment as well as enhancing the capacities of enforcement agencies to reduce trade barriers.

The Chairman of the EDB, Mr Charles Cartier, underlined that the project will play a pivotal role in realising the overall objective of an enhanced integration for Mauritius into a regional and international investment system. It will also be instrumental in fostering economic development, inclusive growth and poverty reduction, he added.

He underscored that the project will trigger a paradigm shift in the way of processing business licenses and provide start-ups with a better access to business related services. The four key components of the project are namely: E-licencing Platform; Business Process Re-Engineering exercise; Regulatory Review; and Change Management Programme.

Speaking on the EDB, Mr Cartier highlighted that it has a key role in positioning Mauritius as an attractive investment and business centre as well as ensuring a conducive business environment. He recalled that following the proclamation of the EDB Act 2017, the Board of Investment, Enterprise Mauritius and the Financial Services Promotion Agency have merged into a single institution to support overall economic development of the country.

He further pointed out that Mauritius has been ranked 25 out of 190 countries according to the World Bank's Doing Business Report 2018 thereby demonstrating Governments commitment towards restoring a position for Mauritius among the leading economies for doing business.

E-Licensing Platform

It will be the single point of entry for application of all business licenses, permits, clearances, certificates or any other type of authorisation required to start and operate a business while enabling cross-agency integration and customer-centric services powered by cutting-edge technology. The project will be completed within three years.

Economic Development Board

The EDB operates as an apex body under aegis of the Prime Ministers Office and helps synergise efforts between ministries and private stakeholders to engage in economic planning, investment, trade promotion and facilitation. It is also the main business licensing agency in Mauritius which comprises three directorates namely: National and Sectoral Economic Development Planning; Investment and Export Promotion and Business Licensing Agency (Implementation of e-Licensing business platform).Description

GIS 10 May, 2018: Government is committed to encourage the practice of organic farming among other methods of agricultural production with modern and intelligent techniques hence reducing the use of pesticides and other chemical inputs for a healthier nation. Government is committed to encourage the practice of organic farming among other methods of agricultural production with modern and intelligent techniques hence reducing the use of pesticides and other chemical inputs for a healthier nation. The Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Mahen Kumar Seeruttun, made this statement yesterday during the opening of a workshop on Organic Farming based on the Songhai Model organised by the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security in collaboration with the Songhai Center at the Holiday Inn Hotel, Plaine Magnien.

Minister Seeruttun dwelt on the importance of the workshop which is being held at an opportune time when Government is working towards finalising the Pesticides Use Bill, before its presentation into the National Assembly. He recalled the set objectives of his Ministry to ensure healthier and safer agricultural products to the population in addition to making the agricultural sector more resilient to the effects of climate change.

He also spoke of the various incentives to encourage youth to seize opportunities in the agricultural sector which he said will help address the shortcomings in this sector which in turn will contribute towards ensuring food security to all. On this score, he recalled the inauguration of the Young Entrepreneurs Sheltered Farming Park project for young graduates which he said will be replicated in other parts of the country.

The Agro Industry Minister also called for a concerted effort of the private sector to make of the agricultural sector more modern, productive, profitable, respectful of nature and above all, healthier to the population. He concluded by expressing confidence that with the collaboration of the Songhai Center, Mauritius will become a model in the Indian Ocean region with regards to organic farming.

The workshop was being held in presence of Father Godfrey Nzamujo as resource person. Father Godfrey Nzamujo is the founder and director of the Songhai Centre, a pioneering farm, training and research centre in Porto Novo, Benin. The latter is in Mauritius to share his know-how and his experience in the field of organic agriculture and entrepreneurship and also help Mauritius pave the way to be competitive and profitable in today's world, while respecting the environment and adapting to climate change.Description

GIS 10 May, 2018: The prevention of early use of drugs is not only one of the top national priorities of Mauritius but is also one of the worlds most pressing challenges, said the Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, this morning at Le Sirius, Le Labourdonnais Waterfront Hotel, in Port Louis.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the opening of a workshop on the Development of a Drug Use Prevention Curriculum organised by the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the CIM Group.

The Minister of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research, Mrs Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, and the Minister of Social Integration and Economic Empowerment, Mr Marie Roland Alain Wong Yen Cheong, as well as other personalities were present.

If we want to effectively address drug-related challenges, we need to strengthen international cooperation and information-sharing to close the gaps and ensure that joint action is targeted, effective and timely, said the Prime Minister. He announced that a National Drug Control Master Plan for the period 2018-2022 is currently being finalised. The Master Plan aims at having a safer, healthier population with effective policies for drug control and will empower institutions, communities and individuals in their response to drug trafficking and use, he added.

With regard to the prevalence of substance abuse among the youth, especially in schools and colleges, an upward trend is noted, said Mr Jugnauth adding that teenagers are vulnerable to addictive substances due to peer pressure. On that score Information and education remains an important tool to shield our younger generation from being afflicted by this scourge given that synthetic cannabinoids have now penetrated our schools and colleges and are threatening the well-being of our children, he cautioned.

According to Mr Jugnauth, the development of an education curriculum by the UNODC is one of the tools which will contribute to prevent substance abuse among young people thus reducing the risk of drug abuse. The curriculum will help build students knowledge and understanding of the consequences of drug abuse and improve their problem solving skills.

The Prime Minister outlined that drug use, supply, trafficking groups and the substances themselves continue to shift and diversify at an alarming speed with the new psychoactive substances market. Drugs continue to remain a major network but business models are changing and criminals exploiting new technologies are altering the nature of the illicit drug trade and the types of players involved, he highlighted.

New ways of delivering drugs point to the need of involving other sectors such as postal services in the fight against drug trafficking, thus there remains an enormous need for capacity-building and technical assistance, said Mr Jugnauth.

According to the Prime Minister close collaboration is required between Ministries, the private sector and the civil society to march towards a safer, healthier and more prosperous Mauritius. He conveyed his thanks to the UNODC for continually providing support in the fight against the drug scourge and extended gratitude to CIM Group for its contribution in the development of a Drug Use Prevention curriculum.

For her part Minister Dookun-Luchoomun, said that the prevention of drug use is a high priority on Governments agenda and a zero tolerance policy has been adopted at the levels of her Ministry with regard to all cases of indiscipline, including drugs. She reiterated her commitment to maintain a safe and supportive environment for the youth community of Mauritius. All necessary efforts are being deployed to educate and empower our students on drug resistance and resilience skills to counter the drug scourge and thus maintain them safe and healthy, she added.

Ms Giovanna Campello, officer responsible for the Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation section at UNODCs Headquarters, , indicated that Mauritiuss initiative to implement solid evidence-based drug use prevention is in itself not common and the country has reached out to the UNODC in this exciting endeavour. We have a great task before us and we need to develop a prevention programme that works and build the resilience of our children and make sure they grow healthy and safe, she said.

Work Agenda

The objective of the two-day event is to revisit and update the materials on drug prevention available in the curriculum so that the contents are aligned with the recent developments in the combat against substance abuse.

The workshop will empower participants to deal with the drug issue at school level including the prevention aspect, as well as strengthen the collaboration with stakeholders. Resource persons are Ms Giovanna Campello, UNODC, and Dr Reshad Abdul, Consultant UNODC. Some 60 participants, comprising representatives of NGOs, ministries and parastatal bodies are attending.

Under this initiative, CIM Group will sponsor three NGOs to conduct prevention sessions in six private schools in Port Louis as well as provide all supporting materials to the tune of Rs 2.4 million.Description

GIS  10 May 2018: The Religious and Socio-Cultural Organisations (RESO)-Impact Programme, which addresses issues that are weakening family ties and seriously affecting Mauritian families by favouring an inter-faith dialogue, was launched today during a consultative workshop at the Gold Crest Hotel in Quatre Bornes.

The Minister of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare, Mrs Roubina Jadoo-Jaunbocus, proceeded with the launching ceremony in the presence of representatives of RESO and several personalities. The consultative workshop, with the objective to come up with strategies to support families in difficulties, was organised in the context of International Day of Families 2018. Representatives from 28 RESO participated.

In her keynote address, the Minister indicated that the lack of inter-faith dialogue has led to an erosion of values in society. The population, she underlined, should be sensitised on the important role of the family as a social institution which inculcates values and morals. She called for the concerted efforts of each and every one to contribute in this endeavour which will help in enhancing the quality of lives of citizens.

Speaking about the workshop, Mrs Jadoo-Jaunbocus emphasised that the contribution of religious and socio-cultural groups is being enlisted in helping to address societal issues such as domestic violence, alcoholism, lack of communication in family circles, rise in divorce, and extramarital affairs. The Family Welfare Minister also made an appeal for a change in mindsets and attitudes to achieve an all-inclusive society where there is mutual respect between men and women.

International Day of Families 2018

The International Day of Families is observed on the 15 of May every year. The theme for this year is Families and inclusive societies. It will explore the role of families and family policies in advancing Sustainable Development Goal 16 in terms of promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development.

It will also provide awareness of issues relating to families and increase the knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families.Building Partnerships that Benefit Citizens

Collaborating to Innovate

CHICAGO  State, county and local governments are working to modernize their information technology systems, but officials in Illinois say they must also update how they communicate with one another.Agency leaders at all levels discussed the paradigm during the inaugural Chicago Digital Government Summit May 9.The need for open communication is something Chicago CIO Danielle DuMerer s team understands all too well. The Department of Information Technology (DoIT) supports 30 other city departments, handling everything from roads to information access, she said during opening remarks.While managing external needs, her organization is working on other large projects like prototypes for a 311 system modernization slated to go live later this year, DuMerer toldfollowing her morning remarks.But collaboration, too, can help drive services from departments and agencies down to residents, DuMerer said.Find some opportunity to collaborate with someone who is not in your organization. I think thats the challenge for today that I would like to set out, she said in her remarks.While she acknowledged a healthy competition between cities, she also recognized the need for cooperation.Talk of partnering infused morning break-out sessions including a discussion about improving the citizen experience by moving away from a siloed, paper-based culture. Aurora CIO Michael R. Pegues and James Morrison, with Hyland Software, led the conversation.Cook County is working with Hyland to transform finding lost dogs, Morrison told the room  geotagging animals found closest to where an electronic form is filed. Gartner estimates that responding to telephone calls from residents costs agencies between $4 and $12 each, depending upon the issue and process involved, he said.Paper should be out the window now. The reality is, IT has a whole lot theyre managing on the back end, he said. Pegues agreed, but said it can be difficult to convince officials accustomed to handling paper to change their mindsets.So, the real challenge, its improving service for your constituents while reducing expenses internally. You do that with automation, said Pegues, who has been buoyed by his mayors support to centralize IT and its procurement process, consolidate shadow IT, and drive for a truly smart city.Theres a lot of stuff to be done, and were kind of focusing on the service delivery there. I look at the customers as my stakeholders. Were trying to shift our focus in terms of enhancing that customer service, he added.After lunch, DuMerer joined CIOs Simona Rollinson from Cook County and Luke Stowe in Evanston; and moderator Teri Takai, executive director at the Center for Digital Government*, for a discussion of how to work collaboratively toward innovation.The importance of working together cant be overstated, the group agreed, with Rollinson going so far as to say that nothing is possible without it.But Cook Countys CIO of four years reminded the room that while their business may center on technology, its about other concepts and humans as well.Were not in the technology business, were in the people business. Million-dollar relationships are based on problem-solving and critical thinking but also on listening and negotiation, said Rollinson.She and others emphasized the role of soft skills like listening in forging good relationships.For me, first, its listening but also putting yourself in the position of the person who has to do that work, or that department head who has to speak to service levels for the work theyre trying to accomplish. In that way, I think you can build a commission together thats going to be more successful, DuMerer said.Innovation may come incrementally, the CIOs said, and they suggested stimulating staffers innate creativity to enable it  holding Friday afternoon innovation meetings but being mindful that some discussions may not yield breakthroughs. At the city of Chicago, DuMerer said, she and another staffer enjoyed crafting and brought in their materials to convene others over felt, glitter and glue.Stowe said his organization lets team members work remotely once a week, which enables both work-life balance and personal creativity and works hard to get to know staff at fellow Evanston agencies so that staffers on both sides are more than just names. Building those relationships, he said, will instill a spirit of teamwork while empowering more timely collaboration and problem-solving.I dont want them to come to IT because they have to, I want them to come to IT because they want to. If you have that relationship  theyre more likely to come to you, Stowe said.He added that, to remain friendly and avoid issues like shadow IT, When they come to you, you have to move with a sense of urgency. You have to help them as quickly as you can. Hamas Telegram Channel Celebrates Bin Laden on the Anniversary of His Death | Main | Hamas: We Are Leading the Great Return March 

May 09, 2018

Journalist: Hezbollah Shows More Maturity Than Israel



A Los Angeles Times special correspondent, Nabih Bulos, declared on Twitter on May 7, 2018, that Hezbollah (Party of God?) shows more maturity? than Israel. Hezbollah is a Lebanese-based, Iranian-backed, U.S.-designated terrorist group that calls for Israels destruction and has murdered hundreds of Americans.

The reporters comments were made after the May 7, 2018 elections in Lebanon. Hezbollah has exercised de facto control over the Levantine state. The elections witnessed a strong showing by Hezbollah and its allies in Lebanon. However, as Tony Badran, analyst for the Washington D.C.-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted in November 2017: Hezbollahs domination of the country is already complete.?

The organizationonce described by then-U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage as the A Team of terrorists?is larger and more powerful than the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). After the election, Jonathan Schanzer, a former U.S. Treasury Department terror analyst, noted as much, tweeting: Hezbollah has an arsenal larger than most armies in the Middle East, it controls chunks of Lebanese territory and key assets, it can launch a war whenever it pleases without Lebanese buy-in, and now has increased control over Lebanese politics.?

Schanzers point about Hezbollah domination is correct. Lebanons president and commander-in-chief, Michel Aoun said in a Feb. 12, 2016 interview with Egypts CBC, that Hezbollahs arms are not contrary to the state project; otherwise we could have not tolerated it. It is an essential part of Lebanons defense.? Aoun has even described Hezbollah as a complement? to the LAF. And as CAMERA has highlighted, the countrys armed forces have been caught aiding and working with the terror group.

Bulos, however, took exception to the interpretation that Hezbollah exerts strong control over Lebanon. The reporter, whose work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Al-Jazeera, among elsewhere, even made an astonishing statement about the terror group, tweeting to Schanzer that:

How about you actually visit Lebanon, talk to Hezbollah, and see what they are firsthand? Its a powerful armed group, yes, but it also has a strong social and political element that often shows more maturity than many other players in the region, including your allies.?

Bulos did not respond when asked if your allies? was referring to the principal U.S. ally in the region: Israel. However, it seems to be a fair assumption that this was at least one of the countries that he was referring to.

Of course, many powerful armed groups? have included strong social and political elements,? including Nazis, neo-Nazis, the KKK, Hamas, and others. This does not make them moderate? or mature.?

For its part, Hezbollah has confirmed that all of its financial support comes from the Islamic Republic of Iran, which the U.S. State Department has listed as the chief state sponsor of terrorism. As CAMERAs 2016 Backgrounder on the group has detailed, Hezbollah has an international reach, with operatives throughout Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.

In the years after its 1982 creation, the group organized terror-training camps in Lebanons Bakaa Valley, in which other terrorists, including al-Qaeda members, received tutelage. Hezbollah was an early proponent of suicide bombings, and the group has kidnapped and murdered journalists, and perpetrated numerous terrorist attacks, including plane hijackings and blowing up both an Israeli embassy and a Jewish community center in Argentina, in 1992 and 1994, respectively. As CAMERA has recently noted ("Iran Has Sleeper Cells in the U.S.," April 20, 2018), the terror group has sleeper cells in the U.S., where it has also sought to perpetrate terrorist attacks.

Since the organizations beginning, Hezbollah has instituted Islamist rule under many areas directly under its control. In 1987, the CIA reported that the sale or transport of liquor were prohibited in the Bekaa Valley, women were also forbidden from interacting with men in public, civil crimes are punished according to the Koran and Western education and influences are prohibited. In one example of the groups vehement antisemitism, Hezbollahs head, Hassan Nasrallah, stated on April 9, 2000 The Jews invented the legend of the Nazi atrocities.?

Its hard to see how a journalist can assert that Hezbollah has more maturity? than a democratic U.S. ally like Israel and still maintain a modicum of credibility when reporting about the Middle East. But perhaps that is not a concern for Bulos, who was one of several American journalists to attend a conference in 2016 that was organized by a society run by Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assads father-in-law (Assad Regimes Grotesque PR Conference in Damascus Uses Western Reporters to Whitewash War Crimes,? Tablet Magazine, Oct. 31, 2016). The purpose of that conference, according to Middle East analyst Lee Smith, was to raise money for the [Assad] regime and its war effort, in part by relieving sanctions against major regime figures.? Assad has committed a number of war crimes against his own people; murdering thousands of civilians with chemical munitions and barrel bombs. He is also a state sponsor of terrorism.

Several U.S.-sanctioned Assad regime officials participated in the conference alongside Bulos and several other journalists.

Posted by SD at May 9, 2018 11:11 AM

y dont u point out that hezbola has helped in the kilins in syria?

Posted by: em at May 23, 2018 06:18 AM

Guidelines for posting

This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material.

Post a commentRonald Reagan Parkway from Pleasant Hill Road to State Route 124 (Lilburn to Snellville): A contract for $1,355,502.92 was approved for American Lighting and Signalization LLC. The Georgia DOT will fund 78 percent of the project.

Old Peachtree Road from Sugarloaf Parkway to Dean Road (Duluth to Lawrenceville): A contract for $465,687.82 was approved for American Lighting and Signalization LLC. The Georgia DOT will fund 80 percent of the project.

Ga. 316/University Parkway from Ga. 20 to the Barrow County Line (Lawrenceville to Barrow County): A contract for $1,564,040.90 was approved for Brooks Berry Haynie & Associates Inc. The Georgia DOT will fund 80 percent of the project.

Five Forks Trickum Road from Rockbridge Road to Sugarloaf Parkway (Mountain Park to Lawrenceville): A contract for $1,038,570.38 was approved for American Lighting and Signalization LLC. The Georgia DOT will fund 80 percent of the project.

(TNS)  Gwinnett County, Ga., commissioners approved the installation of smart technology along four busy roads, a county release said.The new technology includes fiber optic cables and wireless radio communications that interact with cameras and traffic signals. It will allow the Gwinnett Traffic Control Center to monitor traffic and better control traffic signals, the release said.The projects will cost more than $4.4 million combined, with the Georgia Department of Transportation providing nearly 80 percent of the funding. The remainder will be paid with county SPLOST funds.The approved projects are:BY THE NUMBERS

(TNS)  A lack of broadband availability is causing problems for the southern part of Indiana. Those are the findings of a study by Purdue University in a five-county area of southern Indiana. The study was done for the Southern Indiana Development Commission at the request of the Martin County Business Alliance. It assessed the availability and need of broadband in Martin, Daviess, Lawrence, Knox and Greene counties."It is a lot bigger problem than we thought," said Greg Jones, executive director for SIDC. "We have 9,000 households that lack access to broadband and there are a lot of kids in them. They can't get online and efficiently do their homework. It really puts them at a disadvantage.""Broadband is critical to business, individual and student development," added Martin County Business Alliance Director Tim Kinder. "We wanted to identify what we have available in the region and work on what needs to be done to improve it. Broadband is a 21st Century infrastructure that is just as important as water and sewer. The availability of broadband needs to be the standard not the exception."The study found that although there are 26 providers in the region less than one-third were able to offer a full service. The majority of homes only had access to one provider. About 21 percent, or 33,440 people, have no access to broadband, and 44 percent had access to a single provider. Almost half of the households with children had limited or no access to broadband potentially widening the homework gap in the region."It is so much worse than we thought," said Kinder. "Martin County has the highest share of residences without access. That results in gross deficiencies when it comes to being able to compete with the rest of the state.""Most of the cities and towns in our five-county region are OK," added Jones. "The issue is out in the country. We have a lot of businesses out in the rural areas. Their lack of broadband puts them at a competitive disadvantage. It makes it tough for them to expand."In addition with the ties to Crane, many businesses in the area need broadband connectivity to compete."That is not just in Martin County, but the entire region," said Kinder. "It's not just defense either. It's all industries. There is more and more connectivity through technology and it is only going to increase. It's unbelievable the changes that are coming. We need to be a part of that."The study shows that there is a long way to go and a potential for economic growth. Right now, with almost half of the businesses lacking broadband access, officials estimate the region lost about 10 percent of digital economy jobs. The SIDC region could see a potential economic benefit of $218 million over 15 years if all of the unserved households had broadband."Now that we know our situation, we need to start working toward solutions," said Kinder."We need to look at the options and see if we can come up with a fix," added Jones. "The problem is that most of the easy options don't seem to fit here."Since broadband is critical to so many areas, officials say they feel they need to take a broad approach to try and find the solution to expanding the availability. "We are working with our local economic development organizations, schools, local government, REMCs and municipal utilities. Some of those organizations are adverse to risk. We need to find options and begin working toward the next steps," he said.Broadband availability in the rural areas of southern Indiana is something that will most likely require a big answer that will not come easily. "We are just at the beginning of where we go to resolve the broadband issue," said Kinder. "All of us are in the same boat.""It's remarkable how it can impact businesses," said Jones. "In Knox County, a lot of the melon farmers who are trying to do business online have to go into Vincennes," said Jones. "They wind up losing time they could spend in the fields. It has turned into a recruiting issue for businesses trying to fill vacant jobs. It's bigger than anyone thought and no one was working on it."Officials are hoping to convene a summit of government and business leaders in the region to try and find the answer. "It's going to take some time and work," said Jones. "I hope there is a simple solution, but I just don't see it yet."Five-county region  Martin, Daviess, Lawrence, Knox and Greene26 Internet providers21 percent have no access, or 33,440 people44 percent can only access one providerPotential for future economic benefit = $218 million over 15 years, if all unserved had access to broadband(TNS)  Dozens of information technology employees face layoffs at the Kansas Department of Revenue in conjunction with a $50 million, 10-year contract to outsource development and operation of a new tax management computer system.The technical services deal with CGI, which has not previously been reported, would require a portion of the 56 agency employees targeted for layoffs to work side-by-side with CGI consultants prior to dismissal in August. Some were expected to apply for positions at CGI, but there would be no guarantee of placement.Revenue department IT staff were informed Tuesday of impending layoffs by middle managers at the agency rather than Secretary Sam Williams.Privatization of executive branch operations, including Medicaid, corrections, child support collections and services at the revenue department, became a fixture of Sam Brownback's tenure as governor. Brownback also moved to close down Docking State Office Building and transfer hundreds of state employees to leased space in Topeka.The decision to target IT operations in the revenue department's tax division under the administration of Gov. Jeff Colyer had been speculated by members of the 2018 Legislature, but a spokeswoman for the revenue department declined two weeks ago to comment.Revenue department spokeswoman Rachel Whitten said IT staff affected by the transition to CGI would have an opportunity to apply for jobs with the company so they could continue to lend their expertise to the state's tax collection operation. In addition, she said, the revenue department would work with individuals interested in job vacancies in state government."Tax and revenue agencies responsible for recovering debts owed to government are constantly striving to find ways to maximize revenue and efficiency and improve constituent services," she said.The registered Kansas lobbyist for CGI, John Stephan, of Columbus, Ohio, didn't return a telephone call.House Minority Leader Jim Ward, a Democrat running for Kansas governor, said the Department of Revenue apparently waited to inform state employees until after the legislature adjourned last Friday."They absolutely wanted to wait until we were out of town so there was no oversight and vetting of the contract," Ward said. "What they're outsourcing is the most confidential information the state has on people."Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said the contract with CGI was of sufficient importance to request the Legislature's auditing division monitor the project as it has done for other IT outsourcing contracts involving the revenue department.Parent company CGI Group, of Montreal, Canada, and its subsidiaries are prominent players in the information consulting business and are no stranger to complaints about performance on state and federal government contracts.CGI was the company responsible for defective software code and basic infrastructure problems that plagued roll out of the Affordable Care Act in 2013. The original website of HealthCare.gov frustrated people attempting to sign up online for coverage under the ACA.A copy of a Department of Revenue contract dated December 2017 indicated the agreement with CGI would be unbreakable during the initial 24 months of what was calculated to be a 10-year commitment.The base cost to Kansas taxpayers would be $48.9 million, according to the lengthy document. It would be approximately $4 million in the first year, $5.4 million in the second year and $5.2 million in the third year before settling at about $4.9 million in the remaining years.Actual totals would rise above that given a 2.5 percent annual cost-of-living adjustment and the potential of additional costs due to modification of the contract's scope.In recent years, the revenue department's track record on computer system overhauls has raised concerns of legislators and auditors. Last month, a new platform at the Department of Revenue for self-serve vehicle registrations inadvertently exposed information from other people's license plate numbers, fees and insurance providers.The system was the work of PayIt, a Kansas City, Mo.-based software firm that previously led Colyer to praise the system as a vehicle for making government more effective, efficient and accessible.In January, the Department of Revenue was to take a big step in replacing a 30-year-old system used to issue driver's licenses, identification cards and process motor vehicle registrations and titles. The project should have been completed in two phases in 2011 and 2012, but half of it remains offline.The first portion of that project, involving replacing the title and registration system, launched 10 months late in 2012. The system resulted in long lines at county treasurers' offices that raised questions about Brownback's ability to deliver core government services to Kansans.Initiation of the second phase of the system, regarding the new driver licenses, is now overdue by six years. Delays grew to the point the Department of Revenue took action against contractor 3M. A state audit revealed significant "flaws in Kansas' motor vehicle driver's license overhaul."In December, the Department of Revenue said he wouldn't unleash the KanLicense computer system "until it is ready, and our testing indicated it needs a little more work to get it there." State revenue officials said the corrections could take days or weeks, but it's still not operational.Jeannette Belliveau lives with her dog and two cats in a 19th century house in the Upper Fells Point section of Baltimore, not far from Johns Hopkins Hospital, and rents out a couple of rooms for short-term stays to make a living. In other parts of the city, Al Hallivis, a real estate investor and single dad, owns a half-dozen houses that he also rents by the night.A few miles toward the citys picturesque harbor, a variety of hotels offer traditional overnight stays.All three models cater to Baltimore visitors, but thats where the similarity ends.Belliveau, Hallivis, and hotels have different business models, different perspectives and different agendas. These competing constituencies help account for the difficulty states have had in regulating and taxing the short-term rental industry, even as some cities have taken action to regulate short-term rentals.One-size-fits-all state regulation may not always be the most appropriate policy response, and states may therefore choose to allow local governments to regulate, said Kellen Zale, a law professor at the University of Houston who has done research on the short-term rental market.Some big cities, such as New York, saw the short-term rentals as a threat to the rental market based on long-term leases, as well as to traditional hotels. New York last year allocated extra funding to enforce a state law restricting rentals for fewer than 30 days unless the host is present and there are no more than two guests.Other cities saw the short-term rentals as a potential source of income and sought to expand tourist or hotel taxes to the new schemes, with varying success.San Francisco this year began limiting the number of nights a year absentee owners can rent their properties through Airbnb or similar platforms. Owners who live in their residence can rent it out without limit. Owners also must pay a $250 registration fee to the city.Short-term rentals in San Francisco dropped by 55 percent after the limitations took effect, according to theand Host Compliance, a company that helps cities keep track of short-term rentals.In Montgomery County, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., regulations go into effect in July that will limit the short-term rentals to the homeowners primary residence. Rentals where the homeowner is not present will be limited to 120 nights in a calendar year.Were Baltimore County to adopt that type of rule, Hallivis said it would kill his business model.Montgomery County also is collecting hotel taxes on the short-term rental properties. That model, Belliveau said, would make her profit margin, already slim, even tighter.Im opposed to taxing rooms in my house. Im just Mrs. Murphy, Belliveau said, referring to the hypothetical elderly widow who has converted a portion of her home into a rental apartment. Under federal housing law, the Mrs. Murphys exemption provides that if a dwelling has four or fewer units and the owner lives in one of them, that home is exempt from the Fair Housing Act.Troy Flanagan, vice president of government affairs and industry relations for the American Hotel and Lodging Association, said his group doesnt oppose true home sharing like Belliveaus  it objects to people who have rental property that they use exclusively for short stays. The industry group has mounted a coordinated attack against those multi-dwelling short-term rental owners.Increasingly whats taking place on those platforms is hosts that have dozens of units that are available every day of the year, and thats a hotel, Flanagan said. Home sharing is sharing your home, not sharing your second, third or fourth home.Hallivis insists that his houses are not hotels, and that he helps neighborhoods by fixing up vacant houses and turning them into nice-looking properties. By bringing in people with money to spend, he said, he also gives a boost to neighborhood restaurants, mom-and-pop stores and taverns.Private residences generally are not held to the same safety standards, such as requirements for sprinkler systems or handicapped access, as commercial rentals. Hotels in general must have those, as well as emergency exit directions, emergency lighting and fire doors. Hallivis said his homes have fire extinguishers and smoke detectors.He noted that in fiscal 2017, about $17 billion was spent in Maryland on hotels and the rest of the tourism industry, and $42 million was spent on short-term rentals from Airbnb. We dont hurt the hotel industry at all, he said. They want a monopoly.In addition to Maryland, about 15 states debated bills to regulate the short-term rental industry this year. Only one, Indianas, was signed into law. Nebraskas governor vetoed a bill approved by that states Legislature. A bill to regulate the industry also died in Hawaii.The Indiana bill protects the ability of homeowners to offer short-term rentals, and prohibits cities from banning rentals of a primary residence, while allowing them to impose fees or taxes. The bill vetoed in Nebraska was similar.In New Albany, Indiana, just across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ruth Ann Floyd rents out one room in her 1880s-era house. Reached just days before the Kentucky Derby, she said shes booked solid for Derby week. A 69-year-old retiree from General Electrics refrigerator manufacturing plant, Floyd is pleased that the state protected her little rental business but concerned about the fees that the city might impose.Every bit of money I take in I put back into the house, she said as grandchildren shrieked in the background. If the city comes up with a big fee, Im not going to keep doing it.New Albanys city council president, Al Knable, said he is not in favor of large fees, but collecting the current 4 percent tourist tax  now just assessed on a couple of hotels in the county  might be appropriate. Hed like to see Airbnb and the other platforms collect and remit the tax, not the local homeowners.The proposal that passed the Indiana Legislature and was signed by Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb in March would not restrict owner-occupied rentals. But it would limit how many days absentee owners can rent their properties and allow for rules on which amenities, such as parking, they must provide. The law also allows for local permitting and taxing.Maryland state Sen. John Astle, who authored the bill to regulate and tax short-term rentals in his state, said there was stiff resistance to a statewide bill, particularly the part about collecting hotel taxes. Astle is ready to concede that regulations should be left to local jurisdictions. But the tax issue is dependent on the state Legislature.The Anne Arundel County Democrat said he plans to meet with city officials in his hometown of Annapolis to press his case for local regulation. He said short-term rentals have detracted from his citys neighborhood feel, and that if you are going to rent something, you ought to have the health and safety issues that are required in any kind of commercial rental.But Matt Kiessling, a vice president at the Travel Technology Association, which represents online platforms, says the travel industry is big enough for a variety of accommodations.Hotels are ripping and roaring from a business standpoint, with the highest occupancy rate ever, he said. Short-term rentals are exploding.  One isnt taking away from the other; the pie is just getting bigger. All the internet has done is make that market more efficient by allowing travelers to find a home and homeowners to rent a home.(TNS)  A group of hackers who claim to have penetrated the city of Augusta's website and some local businesses and a university said it will disband now that Gov. Nathan Deal has vetoed the legislation that upset them.The group called itself SB315 after Senate Bill 315, which would have created the crime of unauthorized access of a computer, making it a "misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature" punishable by up to a year in jail."SB315 is disbanded," said an email Tuesday night from a hacker who identified himself only by his first name, Dave, and uses an email address of augustadave. "The bill brought us into existence; the governor's veto makes us disappear. There will be no more attacks. We thank everyone who voiced their opposition to the bill, and we thank Governor Deal for listening to them."In his veto statement on the bill, Deal said he recognized the intent of the legislation was to strengthen cybersecurity laws and protect sensitive data."However, certain components of the legislation have led to concerns regarding national security implications and other potential ramifications," Deal wrote. "Consequently, while intending to protect against online breaches and hacks, SB 315 may inadvertently hinder the ability of government and private industries to do so. After careful review and consideration of this legislation, including feedback from other stakeholders, I have concluded more discussion is required before enacting this cyber security legislation."Deal thanked the sponsors and said their work "provides a solid foundation for continued collaboration on this issue," according to his statement. "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 Georgia's position as a leader in the technology industry."In protest of the legislation, the hackers apparently broke into the websites for a church and two Augusta restaurants, posting music files on some sites as well as a link to an article denouncing the legislation, and claimed to have stolen passwords for city of Augusta emails that they mailed to The Augusta Chronicle. The city said none of the passwords were valid and some of the email addresses were for people who had not worked for the city for years.Augusta IT Director Tameka Allen said there was no evidence the city's network was ever compromised. The hackers also claimed to have broken into the web site of Georgia Southern University, sending emails and passwords again to The Chronicle as well as a screenshot of what appeared to be a student's secure personal page. A university spokeswoman said no information was stolen from the website.In unrelated legislation, Deal signed a Senate resolution co-sponsored by Sen. Harold Jones II that designates Augusta and surrounding counties as the Fort Gordon Cyber Security and Information Technology Innovation Corridor. Deal pushed for the Hull McKnight Georgia Cyber Center for Innovation and Training in Augusta, whose first building will open July 10, a $100 million-plus investment by the state and city of Augusta that seeks to collaborate with cyber efforts at Fort Gordon, including the new headquarters for the U.S. Army Cyber Command.The team from Charity Navigator, the nation's largest independent charity evaluator and leading donor advocate, shares their thoughts on emerging nonprofit-sector issues and offers tips to better inform your intelligent giving decisions.

Return to Main Site | Find a Charity | Receive Email Updates | Support Charity NavigatoreMotorWerks, part of the Enel Groups new advanced energy services division Enel X, has launched the JuiceNet Enterprise solution to simplify the management of large numbers of electric vehicle charging stations across multiple sites. By deploying both smart-charging EV supply equipment (EVSE) and cloud software solutions on a commercial scale, electric car and truck fleet owners as well as workplace and commercial real estate facility managers can:

Remotely manage fleets of chargers at various locations from a single cloud dashboard;

Maximize EV charging capabilities on their properties, helping to keep costs to electrical building upgrades low; and

Enjoy new revenues as well as offset costs from participating in energy service programs such as demand response.





Consumers spurred the EV revolution, but today charging at fleet depots and commercial buildings is becoming more critical as the electrification movement gains momentum. We know people are more likely to purchase EVs if their workplaces offer charging options. Now, commercial operators can offer EV charging as an integral component of their business operations, while also allowing them to keep their capital and operating costs lower than what they can achieve through traditional offerings. It is a winning combination that may help expand the proliferation of EVs even faster. Val Miftakhov, Head of eMotorWerks

Through the dynamic load balancing control of the JuiceNet Enterprise solution, EV owners can install more stations on their property without costly electrical upgrades to their building infrastructure, balancing the charging load in real-time to match site electrical capacity.

In addition, JuiceNet Enterprise enables EV drivers and building managers to optimize renewable energy use by aligning their charging when solar and wind generation are most abundant on the grid.

The solution also allows customers to reduce onsite peak electricity demand charges by sharing loads between chargers throughout the day, all while still ensuring drivers have their vehicles at the desired charge level when needed. The new system also empowers drivers to locate available stations within their private network by using the JuiceNet mobile app.

JuiceNet Enterprise also allows deployed stations automatically to shift power use to nighttime hours, when prices are low, or curtail charging during peak afternoon times. Through JuiceNet Enterprise fleet operators also gain flexible configuration, reporting and notifications, such as the ability to configure charger settings across the network, by customer account, location or individual station.

The benefits of JuiceNet Enterprise also extend to a regional utility level, allowing fleets of JuiceNet-enabled EV chargers to aggregate charging loads and respond to demand response programs, helping to bring greater stability to the grid during peak load times.

As part of a nationwide rollout, Chanje Energy has already deployed 65 of eMotorWerks JuiceBox Pro 40 charging to facilities in California, Illinois and New York, along with its customer Ryder System, Inc. Chanje is the first company in North America to be able to deliver large-scale fleets of commercial electric trucks. Ryder is the exclusive distribution and service provider for Chanjes medium-duty EV fleet for which the company is offering truck leasing and preventive maintenance solutions as part of Ryders ChoiceLease and SelectCare fleet maintenance portfolio.

Using JuiceNet Enterprise, Chanje and its fleet manager customers have easy access to tracking and reporting features that provide visibility into the activity of the chargers in their operations, regardless of location. Administrators can view charging activities of each customer account, site or charger level, as well as build reports on the total energy charged during a given time. Such reporting features allow companies, such as Chanje, a streamlined method for complying with requirements to participate in Californias Low-Carbon Fuel Standards (LCFS) program or utility demand response programs.

JuiceNet Enterprise is a new addition to eMotorWerks JuiceNet cloud software suite JuiceNet.

Founded in 2010, and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, eMotorWerks is an Enel Group company.Jim Zimmerman has his sights set on becoming a member of the Green River City Council.

Zimmerman, who works as a code enforcement specialist with the Sweetwater County planning and Zoning Department, seeks election for Ward 1.

"Since this is my first campaign for any office, I will be running on the basis of my beliefs in family values and my work experience," Zimmerman said in a campaign announcement. "I believe that this will qualify me to make important and sometimes tough decisions for the good and betterment of the community that I love."

ZImmerman described living in Green River as bo...A relative newcomer to Green River seeks the Ward 1 seat on the Green River City Council.

Sherry Bushman announced her intent to run for election on a Facebook page she created, Friends of Sherry Bushman, Green River Ward 1. According to an announcement posted on the page, Bushman wants to serve the city by applying her leadership skills and education. She believes fiscal responsibility and ethical decision making will secure the city's economic vitality and wants to foster partnerships amongst community organizations.

"I am proud of being part of a community that genuinely cares for one a...Some officers from the Green River Police Department will participate in the annual Law Enforcement Torch Run.

Law Enforcement agencies from across Sweetwater County will participate in the annual Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run Friday. The 2-mile run begins at Walnut Elementary in Rock Springs at 10 a.m., a press release stated.

Luke Benson, GRPD detective and public relations officer, said he didnt know how many officers would be participating, but it a great tradition and their opportunity to past the torch through this section of Wyoming.

The Flame of Hope is passed...Rose Zupence, 95, passed away May 3, 2018, at Sage View Care Center in Rock Springs. She had been a resident of Rock Springs since 1962 and former resident of Superior and Pantana, Italy. Zupence died following a lengthy illness.

She was born Aug. 9, 1922, in Pantana, Italy, the daughter of Gaetano Temperini and Elisa Santi Temperini.

Zupence attended schools in Superior and was a graduate of Superior High School with the class of 1940. She attended Hennigers Business College for one year.

She married Antone Zupence in Rock Springs in 1948.

Zupence was employed by Farm Credit Administration...Violet Louise Smith, 84, passed away at her home May 5, 2018, surrounded by her loving family after a diagnosis of cancer.

Violet was born Jan. 30, 1934, in Emporia, Kan., to Fred and Viola Smith.

She spent her life in Wyoming, much of it in Eden, where her father was a teacher and principal in the Eden school before it was combined with Farson. She graduated from the University High School in Laramie. She married Carl Tomich in Eden and had Debra Jo in Laramie, Karl Fred in Seattle and Andrew Scot in Laramie. She graduated with an associate of arts degree in music.

After divorcing Carl, she stayed in Sweetwater County. She taught music, both guitar and piano, worked as a CNA, then as a Forest Service Clerk for the Flaming Gorge Area.

She was a faithful member of the Catholic Church, with a sincere love for the saints and prayers. She stayed busy with her grandchildren, raising some of them as needed, especially her beloved granddaughters Miranda Gooden Kennedy and Chelsea Gooden Egbert.

Survivors include her daughter, Debra Jo; two sons, Karl Fred and Andrew (Roxanne); 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, three brothers and two sisters.

A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m., Saturday, at Saint Christopher Catholic Church, 3625 US Highway 191, in Eden. Inurnment will be at the Eden Valley Cemetery. A vigil service with rosary will be recited at 9:30 a.m., Saturday at the church. Friends may call at the church on Saturday at the church one hour prior to services.

The family invites all neighbors and friends to a memorial lunch and farewell at the Eden Valley Community Center at noon.

Condolences may be left at http://www.vasefuneralhomes.com.Dear Editor,

All Wilderness Study Areas in Sweetwater County have been managed by the BLM as de facto Wilderness for 40 years. Real Wilderness Area designations can only be done by an act of Congress, so our local WSAs clearly are not real Wilderness.

Sweetwater Countys WSA were created by the BLM between 1976 and 1980 when their roadless areas were inventoried for potential wilderness characteristics. In 1908, the BLM delineated 42 WSAs statewide -- 13 of which are in Sweetwater County.

The Wyoming Wilderness Act was enacted by Congress in 1984 and set aside se...Every year brings new attacks on the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered in Wyoming. Im sick and tired of it.

Wyoming claims its the Equality State, a place where people value individualism and respect the rights of others to live their lives as they please, unencumbered by the state or by their neighbors.

Id love to live in that Wyoming, but it doesnt exist. I live in a state where voters keep re-electing legislators who try to pass bills that curtail the rights of the LGBTQ population. Its a state where lawmakers feel comfortable allowing people...100 year old celebrates birthday

Sue Cordova gives Lillian Sanders a big hug for her birthday. Cordova was just one of many guests to visit with Sanders on Saturday at her 100th birthday party.

Over the last 100 years, Lillian Sanders has seen a lot of changes.

On May 3, Sanders turned 100 and she celebrated it on Saturday with a small party at Mission at Castle Rock Rehabilitation Center.

Sanders was excited as family members and friends came in to give her a hug and visit with her. She didn't even have time for cupcakes, punch or to try any light snacks while she was busy shaking hands and hugging people.

She was wearing a crown, sash and a fur-lined robe as she greeted her guests with a queen-like wave.

"You're only 100 once," she said.

Even though Sadners was asked numerous ti...Met him. instinct told me that's a nasty guy. Now, he is! alleges now.Billy Graham policy: Never be alone with a female in a closed door setting. For** http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/famed-cancer-biologist-allegedly-sexually-harassed-women-decades

For decades, women at Salk have warned female colleagues not to be alone with Inder Verma. It was on everybodys mouth that he was a harasser, says Monica Zoppe, now a molecular and cell biologist at the Institute of Clinical Physiology in Pisa, Italy. As a brand-new postdoc in Vermas lab in 1992, she had not yet heard the warnings when Verma forcibly grabbed and kissed her, a few weeks after she had arrived from Italy, she alleges.

When you touch in the way that has been described in these examples, under the law, these are called assault. Ann Olivarius, senior partner at McAllister Olivarius in Saratoga Springs, New York

Salk administrators have received at least two formal complaints and three additional reports about Vermas behavior since the late 1970s, and they have hired an outside investigator to probe a complaint about him at least once before last week. They also have repeatedly protected him, say women who formally complained and other people with knowledge of the institutes actions. Zoppe, for example, alleges that after she formally complained about Vermas behavior, Salk administrators told her not to speak to anyone about the incident.

The allegations reported to Science are not as egregious as some examples of harassment in the scientific world . And many women who worked with Verma at Salk say he treated them with respect. I found him to be an honorable and very supportive supervisor, says Jane Visvader, a leading breast cancer researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Parkville, Australia, who was a postdoc in Vermas lab in the late 1980s. Visvader was one of 15 women Science contacted who said they experienced no harassment when working with or for Verma; another 12 women ignored or declined repeated interview requests. Among Vermas backers, several praised his mentoring and described his kindness.

Yet some women who allege harassment say that after the incidents, they made career choices that would allow them to dodge Vermas influence, or at least his presence. I have been avoiding him for 30 years, says Pamela Mellon, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She was an assistant professor at Salk in the mid-1980s when, she says, Verma grabbed her breasts during a party at his home.



Verma declined to answer a list of questions from Science, but he issued a general denial in a statement released after Salk suspended him last week: I have never used my position at the Salk Institute to take advantage of others. I have also never engaged in any sort of intimate relationship with anyone affiliated with the Salk Institute. I have never inappropriately touched, nor have I made any sexually charged comments, to anyone affiliated with the Salk Institute. I have never allowed any offensive or sexually charged conversations, jokes, material, etc., to occur at the Salk Institute.http://uk.businessinsider.com/china-isnt-killing-the-us-in-trade-by-as-much-as-we-think-2018-3

A trade war is brewing between the US and China.

The US-China trade balance misses hundreds of billions of sales made through offshore subsidiaries.

Tariffs could hurt both sides more than the record-high US trade deficit with China suggests.

President Donald Trump loves to hate the trade deficit the US runs with China  even using it to promote a trade war between the two countries  but he could be missing a huge point.

On the campaign trail, Trump called trade policies with Beijing the "greatest theft in the history of the world." And earlier this month, he used the deficit as supposed evidence that trade wars are "easy to win" in a tweet widely seen as referencing China.

"When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with, trade wars are good, and easy to win," Trump tweeted on March 2. "Example, when we are down $100 billion with a certain country and they get cute, dont trade anymore-we win big. Its easy!"

But the trade deficit doesn't account for hundreds of billions of dollars in sales made by subsidiaries, US companies run abroad.

"The trade balance approach is clearly misleading," Deutsche Bank economists Zhiwei Zhang and Yi Xi ong wrote in a note to clients Monday. "Each side has a lot to lose from a trade war."

US subsidiaries sold $223 billion goods and services in China in 2017, according to a Bureau of Economic Analysis survey. Those weren't counted toward the US trade deficit with China, which recently hit a record-high deficit at $566 billion.

A lapse in data can also be seen at the company level. Apple generated $48 billion in revenue from China in 2016, mostly from iPhone sales. But, according to trade data, China imported only $1 million of cell phones from the US that year.

"From an international trade perspective, iPhone sold by Apple's Chinese subsidiaries are not counted as imports," Zhang and Xiong wrote. "But from an economic and financial perspective, iPhone is a US product, and the US benefits the most from it."

Likewise, General Motors sold 4 million cars in China last year  about 400,000 more than in the US. But because most of those were manufactured and distributed through a Shanghai subsidiary, they also don't count toward trade data.

China has already started hitting back on the $60 billion in tariffs Trump announced last week. Beijing announced Friday that it would impose its own tariffs of about $3 billion on more than 100 American goods, including seamless steel pipes, pork, wine and fruit.

Apple is among companies that are a potential target for Chinese tariffs down the road. General Motors could hurt sooner, as tariffs on aluminum and steel imports threaten the company's bottom line. And things would only get worse for US companies in the event of a trade war, according to Zhang and Xiong.

"The most damaging retaliation from China is to punish the US business interests in China," they wrote.

bCORRECTED

New standards for teaching American Sign Language in kindergarten through 12th grade have been released by Gallaudet Universitys Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center.

The standards act as a guide to ensure that deaf and hard-of-hearing children study signing as a first language in the same way that hearing children in the United States study English throughout their schooling.

Debbie Trapani, the director of bilingual education at the Clerc Center, underlined the need for realistic benchmarks and grade-level indicators of student progress in sign language. This is important because without the standards, each educator has a different evaluation tool, she told Education Week.

The Clerc Center developed the standards over 10 years, from 2014 to 2017, with input from the California School for the Deaf at Fremont and ASL researchers and educators from across the country. For two weeks in September 2017, the center opened up the standards to public review before releasing the final version this year.

Setting High Expectations

According to the National Institutes of Health, 3 out of every 1,000 children in the United States are born with a detectable level of hearing loss in one or both ears, making it the most common congenital sensory problem in the country.

The ASL standards are in place to make sure these kids are tackling increasingly complex competencies in school in the same way the Common Core State Standards are designed to keep students on track in reading, speaking, and writing in standard English. The goal is for all deaf and hard-of-hearing students to become fluent in sign language and use it for critical thinking and problem solving.

The standards address five areas: viewing, published signing, discourse and presentation, language, fingerspelling and fingerreading. Much like students learning according to the common core standards, deaf and hard-of-hearing students learn to draw inferences from fingerreading, identify central ideas, and cite claims and evidence. The common core requires students to write opinion, informational, and narrative pieces; deaf and hard-of-hearing students are required to be taught to sign each type of essay.

While the ASL standards define what students should know at each grade level, they do not tell teachers how to teach. Karlin Hummel, the principal at the Texas School for the Deaf, said ASL teachers at his school work with a curriculum specialist and administrators to figure out how best to incorporate the standards into their program. For us, these standards function much like a beacon lighting the way forward to ensure that we move in the right direction in concert with other deaf schools or programs which should help with the exchange of ideas and resources, Hummel said.

Visual vs. Spoken Languages

New studies suggest that visual and spoken languages are biologically equal in the brain , and that they support one another when students, whether deaf or hearing, are exposed to them early on.

To this end, Gallaudet researchers are developing ways to help students see the relation between visual and spoken language. The universitys Motion Light Lab has created a series of storybook apps that enable children to click on individual words to learn sign, written, and spoken vocabulary.

ASLs Importance for Early Literacy

Some children who are born deaf face a disadvantage in language acquisition. More than 90 percent of them are born to hearing parents who could take months or even years to learn to sign to their toddler, if they learn at all. It has been shown that deaf children of parents who signed to them from birth were significantly better at reading and paying attention than deaf children whose parents did not sign.

A few states have started to take visual languages into account when measuring early literacy. California in 2015 and Kansas in 2016 passed laws to require districts to include visual language ability when assessing their deaf students literacy.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this post stated that it took the Clerc Center three years to develop the standards. It took 10 years. The post has been corrected.

Image: daveynin . Licensed under Flickr/Creative Commons

Related stories:Chef Flynn McGarry knows what he likes and what he does not like. He likes very small drinking glasses (it feels like youre accomplishing something). He likes good tailoring. He likes JFK (the president, not the airport), and the city of Copenhagen, and Sara Delano Roosevelt Park (Ive never seen a park that literally has barbed wire in it!). What he does not like, I have just learned, is the word casual. We are at the Four Horsemen, James Murphys Brooklyn wine bar, eating melty little rounds of hanger steak with grilled asparagus in orange romesco pools. Its the kind of relaxed, drop-in-when-you-feel-like-it, blond-wood-tabled restaurant that most people would call  casual. But when you describe a restaurant as casual, McGarry tries to tell me, what you are really doing is describing something else.

To me, a casual place, you dont get incredible service but thats fine, because its casual, he says, carefully, giving the impression that this is something he thinks about a lot. The food comes out a little late, but its fine, because its casual. The chairs are uncomfortable and the space is too loud, but thats fine, because the restaurant is casual. What really offends him is the idea of using casual as an excuse for mediocrity: I think its this weird situation where things that are nice are being degraded because theyre too formal.

McGarry has been unusually obsessed with this idea lately because, just over two months ago, he opened his first restaurant. Gem, which serves just 32 people per night across two seatings (6 p.m. and 9), offers a tasting menu of 12-to-15 tiny, beautiful courses that are cooked, plated, and served with excruciating care. The vibe is Scandinavian, the furniture is heavily mid-century, topped with architectural arrangements of fresh flowers in thick vases, and the net effect is that you are eating dinner amid the worlds hippest production of Hedda Gabler. Its not casual. But also its not too fancy? In the seven weeks that weve been open, weve been three different restaurants, McGarry says, and he knows with near-religious certainty that it is both necessary and correct. Everyones like, youre a month old, its fine, he says. To me, fine is like, the worst thing someone could say.

The problem with knowing so clearly what you like is that it makes it impossible to tolerate anything you dont. I couldnt live with the fact that the tables were a little bit uncomfortable and not the right size, he laughs, very seriously. That kept me up at night. So, he changed some tables, and adjusted the dining rooms traffic patterns. He tweaked the lighting and the playlist. In the kitchen, which is open to the dining room, his trio of cooks used to wear white button-up shirts with white aprons, he explains. Certainly, I could not have told you this. During my meal at Gem, I was focused on other things, like the beet-on-beet with beet bordelaise, a dish featuring beets that have been through an odyssey of preparations to expose the wine-dark depths of their fundamental beet-ness. But the cooks outfits, let McGarry tell you, were all wrong. So now they wear olive aprons and heavy white T-shirts from Uniqlo. They are nice T-shirts. Substantial. Good weight. These T-shirts werent even McGarrys first choice, but you have to make compromises, thats the thing about entrepreneurship. To hear him detail all of the anxiety that went into choosing them is to know that the decision to dress his cooks in T-shirts was most definitely not made casually.

Now would be a good time to note that McGarry is 19 years old. He has spent his entire career (seven years, give or take) known to the world as the Teen Chef. Vogue once called him the Justin Bieber of food, and the label stuck. Being compared to Justin Bieber may feel like a dubious honor, even for Justin Bieber, but McGarry has already achieved a level of recognition that many, much older chefs will simply never realize. And now he is in New York, with his first real restaurant and a built-in expiration date for his entire Teen Chef identity (he turns 20 on November 25), which means McGarry is at a point where people expect him to either make good on his promise as a brightly burning culinary star, or to suffer a Bieber-like meltdown, when he was peeing in mop buckets and surrendering his pet monkey to Germany.

McGarry doesnt want a monkey. What he wants, all hes ever wanted, is to run an elite restaurant, and hes built an entire life in pursuit of that goal.

A lot of people talk but dont walk the walk, says Esben Holmboe Bang, the chef and owner of Restaurant Maaemo in Oslo, the three-Michelinstarred restaurant where McGarry staged when he was 16. If you want to have success, you have to dig in and sacrifice for it, at the end of the day; stay true, do good things and good things will come. Flynn has talent and determination. He will have success.

Photo: Jonas Barden Photo: Jonas Barden Photo: Jonas Barden Photo: Jonas Barden Photo: Jonas Barden Photo: Jonas Barden Photo: Jonas Barden Photo: Jonas Barden Photo: Jonas Barden Photo: Jonas Barden Photo: Jonas Barden



















/ 11

McGarry is wispily boyish, with orange hair so artfully tousled its sculptural, as though it has been inspired equally by James Dean and a crested penguin. By his own calculations, he is 31 in working years because hes been singularly focused on cooking since he was 12, and, Say someone figures out what they want to do in their mid-twenties, maybe 24, he explains. Ive had a seven-year career of figuring that stuff out and so he is now at a point in his career where that hypothetical 24-year-old will be when he becomes 31. Its a complicated calculation that borders on philosophy  what is age?  but look, the point is, McGarry doesnt feel 19: Im not led by my age; Im led by what I do.

If McGarrys talent is his own, his success has been a family project. McGarrys mother, Meg  Gem, forwards  is a writer and filmmaker, and his father, Will, is a photographer, and so his childhood was both artistic and extraordinarily well-documented. When he was 4 and his sister Paris was 8, the family moved to a Boho-chic trailer park, where all these artists and surfers live by the beach in Malibu, because they thought it was a really nice place to grow up. For a while, in elementary school, he wanted to be a rock star, and for a while after that he wanted to be a painter. If he was good at both, he wasnt freakishly talented at either, and that pained him. I was like, I dont see this going anywhere. Whats the point? he says, recalling a time when he was 8, which, if you think about it, was not all that long ago. But he was not wrong, exactly. Its not like Bobby Fischer had a casual interest in chess.

When McGarry was 10, the family moved from the beach to Studio City. His dad went to rehab. His parents got divorced. His father had been the cook in the family, but his father wasnt there, and his mother wasnt into it, and McGarry was tired of the Whole Foods hot bar, so he took over dinners and found an escape. I was so, so, incredibly obsessive about it, he says. Everything else just sort of melted away. I stopped caring about school, I just stopped caring about anything other than this one little thing.

His mom had so much to deal with, she was just like, Sure, keep going. It made me happy. She didnt have to deal with me being really depressed. By 11, he had fallen in love with The French Laundry Cookbook, which he picked out from the bookstore because it was on the top of the shelf and was kind of expensive. Eventually, that led him to Grant Achatzs Alinea cookbook, which McGarry discovered because hes really good at Googling.

Here are some recipes from the Alinea cookbook that a person could, theoretically, make: surf clam with nasturtium leaf and flower and shallot marmalade; transparency of Manchego cheese; and venison encased in savory granola. It is not exactly a cookbook for beginners.

McGarry liked the Alinea book even more than The French Laundry. He liked it so much that he burrowed inside of it: He and his father built a kitchen in his childhood bedroom, based on YouTube videos of the kitchen at Alinea. Critics have jumped on this: the Austin Chronicle summed up McGarrys life as a rich kid who played restaurant with real ingredients, and turned out to be really, really good at this cooking thing. Slate once declared, Want Your Kid to Be a Celebrity Chef? You Better Have a Lot of Money. But the bedroom kitchen is not, McGarry wants me to understand, evidence of some sort of vast wealth: The basic setup in the bedroom probably cost $200. We bought a bunch of wood and built some tables. The equipment dribbled in on Christmases and birthdays. The most expensive thing I had in that kitchen was a $300 sous-vide thing. And that was like, my grandma and my dad and my mom and friends all pitching in.

They started charging for the dinners, mostly because they couldnt afford not to charge for the dinners: My mom just couldnt afford to keep fronting the bill for me to want to make some new dish every day.And it still rankles him, that people assume he was born with a hand-forged egg spoon in his mouth. Its been absurdly misconstrued, he concludes. And okay, yes, some money was involved. He had a private bedroom kitchen (even if it was a thrifty bedroom kitchen); his creative-class parents had a cadre of friends willing to spend serious money and help spread the word about dinners cooked by a talented kid; he flew across the country to stage with Daniel Humm at Eleven Madison Park. But whatever got spent was an investment in encouragement, a mothers sacrifice for her family. At the same time, Meg was taking care of her parents, and had taken out a loan to send Paris to college. My dad was in rehab, he wasnt working, and my mom wasnt really getting work, McGarry says of that time. She cant ever get another AmEx card again. She had to go bankrupt, literally, because of this. And that instability made all of this possible.

People expect me not to be as good as everyone else, because Im young or whatever. So we need to now work five times harder than everyone else.

With Meg as de facto front-of-house, he started cooking his elaborate, eight- or ten-course tasting menus, first for friends and family and then for strangers. In 2012, The New Yorker ran a Talk of the Town piece under the headline Prodigy about the then-13-year-old; by then, McGarry, whod been bullied at school, was homeschooling online and the pop-up charged $50 a head for dinner. Christopher Noxon, who wrote the piece, first heard about McGarry from his sister, who had heard about him from a Los Angeles pastry chef. There was something just fascinating about the conditions of genius, about this kind of dysfunction that allowed for him to develop as an artist, Noxon says. It was a little creepy, in that his family all called him chef, and clearly he was running the show. And they were all committed to helping him create this reality. Plus the food. The food, truly, was special. There were a couple of dishes where you have that sense of, Holy shit, this is the best thing Ive had in my mouth.

If Meg had said no, then it would have stopped there, one article, the end. But she didnt. I always make that joke, she says, that in the kitchen, you say, Oui, chef when they call out an order, and somehow, thats what I was doing during that period of time. So the Teen Chef kept at it. Two years later, he was in chefs whites on the cover of The New York Times Magazines Food Issue.

When he was 16, he opened his first pop-up in New York, inspiring a new wave of attention, not all of it positive. Chef David Santos, whose restaurant at the time had just closed, took to Instagram: The fact the media even calls him a chef offends me to no end, he wrote. Chef is something you earn through years of being beaten and shit on and taught by some of the greats. Had McGarry been shit on enough? It was a valid question, but the Teen Chef just kept at it. This winter, documentary filmmaker Cameron Yatess Chef Flynn premiered at Sundance: I dont think any of this would have happened if I had a very motherly mom, McGarry says in the film, because theres a huge part of it thats just letting me go and do my own thing.

When McGarry was still a 15-year-old culinary wunderkind in Los Angeles, he announced to The New York Times Magazine that he planned to open his own restaurant in New York by 19. Last November, four days after his birthday, he signed the lease for Gem. (Technically, he co-signed the lease on Gem with his sister, Paris, who is the legal owner of the restaurant, because he needed someone over 21 to get a liquor license, and Paris is 23.) Gem has around 15 investors, some of whom were fans of the pop-ups, some of whom are business people, and some of whom didnt know McGarry at all but had friends that did. Most of them have never invested in a restaurant before: Investing in a restaurant like this is a bet, and the odds are low  its not an easy investment, and thats why I got a bunch of people that are really trusted for smaller amounts of money, McGarry says, so theyd be less mad if they lost something in the ballpark of 20 grand.

McGarry still has that original copy of the Alinea cookbook. Its in his apartment, which is on the Lower East Side, four blocks from Gem. The apartment also contains: a bed. He used to have a palm tree, but it was sacrificed for the restaurant  he needed the pot  and now all that remains is a single browning frond to remember it by. He built a dining-room table, but ditched it when he realized he doesnt actually have any dinner parties. Besides, the idea behind Gem is that a meal there is supposed to feel like a dinner party, which it kind of does, although its hard to shake the feeling  watching McGarry intently tweeze a 12-course tasting menu  that the chef is also being presented for the dining room to coolly ogle, like a rare panda on display at a very exclusive zoo.

For nearly half his life and all of his career, McGarry has been singular, the only one of his kind, an endangered species. If he wasnt learning in someone elses kitchen, he was working alone. And so it was the Teen Chef against the world, and he liked it that way. It was romantic. And now it is  less so.

At Gem, McGarry manages a team of 11, most of whom are almost as young as he is. Theyre all great, but I have those feelings every once in a while of, like, this would be better if I just did everything. But he cant do everything, so he has to communicate his vision to someone else, and live with the outcome. If a painter was like, Heres the painting, you guys do it, and then were going to sell your painting for the same price as mine, and it will get reviewed the same way, but under my name  its fucking stressful. You try telling somehow how to slice and fry a baby artichoke so it blossoms like a highbrow Bloomin Onion, and then, on top of it, arrange a small menagerie of herbs and not one but two different butter-smooth purees.

This is also not, you may have noticed, the golden age of $155 tasting menus  which is the type of dinner that Gem offers exclusively. Tasting menus are not particularly cool. At first I had wanted him to do small plates, a la carte, Paris tells me, but I realized why the tasting menu makes so much sense. Part of it, she suggests, is that tasting menus are fun. You can experiment with so many flavor combinations and techniques, all in the same meal, and get immediate feedback on all of it, because everyones eating the same thing. But also, tasting menus afford McGarry a kind of control. You know exactly how many people are coming, and what theyre going to eat, and how much its going to cost. There is no night when everyone suddenly orders the lobster and you run out, because there is no night when anyone orders anything other than a dinner cooked by Chef Flynn. You can be incredibly prepared, Paris says. Everything is meticulous.

The other thing about opening a restaurant when you are 19 and kind of famous, and maybe have not, lets say, endured certain life experiences, such as working for a decade in other peoples kitchens or turning 20, is that the public does not necessarily approach your venture with great generosity. Everyones expecting us to fail, McGarry lays out, frankly. People expect me not to be as good as everyone else, because Im young or whatever. So we need to now work five times harder than everyone else. We dont have the opportunity to just be good.

The night I went to the restaurant  its second week in business  the women on one side of me took selfies with McGarry, while the women on the other tapped at their Parker House rolls with spoons to see if they were Parker House-y enough. An ideal Parker House roll, according to the apparent roll expert next to me, should make no noise when tapped. I didnt tap mine, but I liked it.

McGarry could have waited to open his restaurant, obviously. Maybe it would have been better if hed waited  even hes not ruling that out. He could have held off, and gone to work in a kitchen like literally everyone told me to go do. But if hed done that, he says he wouldve felt weird, like he wasnt living up to his full potential. None of McGarrys personal galaxy of Michelin-caliber colleagues actively discouraged him from opening now, but even if they had (which they didnt), advice only tells you so much: Im the one that has to deal with this. I should have a say in it. And yeah, if thats completely wrong, its completely wrong, but at least I feel like Im doing what I want to be doing.

A few days before our (not casual) lunch at the Four Horsemen, Gem received its first proper review, from The New Yorker. It read, in part, Gem is decidedly mature, the kind of place where most young people would go only if their parents were paying. McGarry was thrilled. It wasnt about, This is a kid whos doing this great thing, he says. It was, This is a really good restaurant. Its the first time, in his mind, that his food has been written about like that, which is to say, like food cooked by an adult, not food cooked by a teenager.

All Flynn McGarry has ever wanted was a restaurant, and now he has a restaurant, and its strange, isnt it, to live through the last moment you ever imagined. If Gem is wildly successful, with all the stars  critics stars and Michelin stars and how about five Yelp stars for good measure  then what happens? Or what if this whole thing is a disaster? That would validate every bad thing anyones ever said about me, and it would make everyone else right, McGarry says. For six years, everyones been writing the prodigy, these very lofty words about me. Then it would be the prodigy failed. But he understands! Hes not mad! He has a much more mature outlook on all of this than most people who are seven months shy of their 20th birthdays: Ill do everything in my ability to make it not fail, but if it does fail  Ill figure it out. I dont think Ive ever been that comfortable with not really knowing whats next, and Im kind of fine with that.

*A version of this article appears in the May 14, 2018, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!Germans signature cow-heel soup. Photo: Louise Palmberg

Apparently, the first thing any right-thinking Guyanese expat does upon returning home for the holidays is head straight to Germans for a bowl of cow-heel soup, just like a New Yorker whod been away from the city too long might beeline it over to Katzs for a pastrami sandwich. That, anyway, is one of the reasons Clinton Urling will be unveiling the first U.S. location, in Brooklyn, of this 58-year-old Georgetown, Guyana, restaurant next week: Why not save all these homesick transplants living in New York a trip?

The soups are based on the original recipes of Urlings father and company founder Hubert German Urling, and in addition to the signature cow heel (a hearty mix of all that delicious, gelatinous meat from a cows lower extremities and vegetables in a split-pea-based broth), there are oxtail and chicken variations. Also on the menu: pepperpot (the West Indian stew made with the bittersweet condiment, cassareep) and specials like barbecued chicken and cookup rice. If hot soup, cow heel or otherwise, is not what you have in mind for the sultry days of summer yet to come, know that Germans is particularly proud of its housemade mauby, the fermented and spiced tree-bark-based beverage, served over ice.

The pepperpot is made with beef and a key flavor enhancer called cassareep, a bittersweet reduction of yuca juice. Photo: Louise Palmberg

A vegetarian option of stewed okra, spinach, and pumpkin with rice. Photo: Louise Palmberg

The BBQ chicken. Photo: Louise Palmberg

Stewed pumpkin. Photo: Louise Palmberg

A side of spinach. Photo: Louise Palmberg

A pre-opening trial run. Photo: Louise Palmberg

Counter service. Photo: Louise Palmberg

The East Flatbush shop is the first U.S. outpost of the restaurant. Photo: Louise Palmberg

793 Utica Ave., at Linden Blvd., East Flatbush; 718-513-0376

*A version of this article appears in the May 14, 2018, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!Photo: OGara/Bissell/Getty Images/StockFood

If the 2018 James Beard Awards are any indication, we may have made a serious turn in representation in the food world. The majority of awards given to chefs and restaurants, as well as awards given to food media, went to women and people of color. Among them, Michael W. Twitty, who became the first African-American to win the esteemed Book of the Year award, as well as the award for Writing; and Eduardo Jordan, who operates the restaurants Salare and JuneBaby in Seattle, took home the honors for Best New Restaurant and Best Chef: Northwest.

For some, the wins feel like the food-journalism version of Obamas 2008 election  long-overdue recognition that offers something like hope. Eater called Jordans awards unprecedented, and a historic moment for the American food world, while The New Yorker highlighted the ceremonys remarkable elevation of women and people of color. The Chicago Tribune deemed diversity the biggest winner of the night. Grub, too, made a point to call attention to the wins, and even the Beard Foundation itself hailed the awards celebration of the collective spirit of the culinary community  all of which highlighted just how rare an occurrence this kind of acclaim is for black chefs, writers, and journalists, and how performative it can feel when white-led institutions make a point to champion certain African-Americans while ignoring others.

Black points of view are common in film, music, fashion, literature, and politics, yet the slice of the journalism world that covers food, chefs, and restaurants as pop culture remains deeply un-integrated. The fact is, the handful of people who are in charge of deciding which chefs and writers are elevated from hometown heroes to national celebrities  prominent editors-in-chief, deputy editors, restaurant critics, and on down the mastheads  are white. There is gatekeeping that happens in food media that has a real impact on the type of stories and recipes and cultural understanding that we could have, says Shakirah Simley, a writer and food activist based in San Francisco. Theres a real systematic oppression in place that limits black voices, black stories, and black experiences and that has filtered, I think, throughout the entire media and publishing world, but its especially problematic in food media.

Look, for example, at the escalation in recognition for Jordans JuneBaby: The restaurant opened in April, 2017. In June, Providence Cicero at the Seattle Times gave JuneBaby a three-star review. Esquires Jeff Gordinier ranked the restaurant third on his list of the 18 best new restaurants of 2017. In December, Eaters Bill Addison called JuneBaby the years best new restaurant. In March of this year, New York Times critic Pete Wells also awarded JuneBaby three stars. That review was followed by Jordana Rothman of Food & Wine and GQs Brett Martin, who both put JuneBaby on their own best new restaurants lists. And earlier this week, Jordan took home two James Beard awards. When all of these assessments are taken as a whole, its impossible not to notice that the critics and editors responsible for putting the national spotlight on JuneBaby  a restaurant that takes black cooking as its foundation  were white.

At present, its impossible to read about high-end restaurants through the eyes of a prominent black diner or critic. Korsha Wilson, a freelance writer and the host of A Hungry Society on the Heritage Radio Network puts it this way: When we talk about restaurant reviews, the way that people of color experience fine dining restaurants in particular is different than how food critics experience restaurants. And lets keep it real: people know what Pete Wells looks like.

As Wilson points out, it can be a completely different experience if youre a person of color going into these spaces and there should be a critic, somewhere, who can speak to that reality. Restaurants are just as susceptible to all the different systems of oppression that work in every other part of our country, and so when we talk about restaurant criticism, we need to look at the fact that, dining is impacted by those same systems.

A more diverse pool of critics also means a more diverse stable of restaurants that will get covered. And theres more at stake than celebrity and ego: The right press results in very real business. When Josh Ozersky wrote about me in Harlem at the Cecil, our sales went up 80 percent, says J.J. Johnson, a chef who has similarly seen his public profile raised in the four years since that happened. When you run a restaurant you want these people to write about you because they do have the power of putting butts in seats.

In his six years of cooking in fine-dining kitchens, Johnson says hes only been written about by two black journalists, Nikita Stewart at the Times, and freelance writer and cookbook author Nicole A. Taylor. He also keeps an impressively close eye on the habits of food media and says hes noticed that there only seems to be room in the national restaurant conversation for one great black chef at a time, a problem that doesnt affect chefs of other races. Johnson points to the Times three-star review of JuneBaby, an honor that feels unique, since The last black chef to get three stars was Marcus Samuelsson in 1995. Its been 20 fucking years.

Its impossible to believe that there wasnt another black chef of note and considerable talent in those two decades, and a black person has still never won the James Beard Awards Outstanding Chef honor  but it is easy to believe that chefs like, say, D.C.area chef Morou Ouattara or Atlantas Darryl Evans might have received more national recognition if a major media outlet had been run by a black editor. Even though black writers are doing well for themselves, Johnson points out, they still dont hold a seat at the table at a major publication.

Perhaps no one is more acutely aware of that fact than Taylor, who is also the author of The Up South Cookbook. In her ten years as a food writer in New York City, the Georgia-born Taylor has never once held a staff position, despite applying for three at high-profile publications that have gone on to hire her as a freelance contributor. Shes become something of an authority on the movements of black food writers and how the discussion about black people in mainstream food has changed.

The conversations that I was having years ago were about cultural appropriation, she says. Over time, my conversation has shifted, and it wasnt just about who was appropriating our food, but who has power and control? Who has agency? Youve got tons of articles about Where is the Black chef? or Whos appropriating black food? or Who owns Southern food? But there are no conversations about, Where are the black people at such-and-such publication?

Taylor and Simley are both members of the advisory board at Equity at the Table, an organization founded by Julia Turshen that aims to combat gender and racial discrimination in food with a database that connects people who identify as minorities and highlights the work they do. The goal is to get to a point where black achievement in cooking doesnt have to be viewed exclusively through a white lens. If you dont have black people who are editors and staff writers in decision-making roles, says food writer and pastry chef Klancy Miller, another board member of EATT, youre not going to have an awareness of all of the multitudes that black people contain and youre just going to fall on tropes. I love soul food, but we do everything. So show us doing everything.

I dont really care about diversity, says Simley, the Bay Area food activist. I care about equity and I care about justice. Those are two very, very different things. The idea of diversity, she says, lets people off the hook  it relies upon tokenization, and it relies upon appearances by having the presence of folks of color. True equity doesnt happen unless theres a power shift, not just having folks of color at the table, but putting them at the head of the table and having their voices be the ones that are leading.Bastianich and Batali. Photo: Eugene Gologursky/WireImage

Restaurateur Joe Bastianich and disgraced chef Mario Batali have settled another labor lawsuit. The restaurateurs, Lidia Bastianich, and five of their restaurants have agreed to shell out $2.2 million in response to a former Felidia bussers class-action lawsuit, Eater reports. In the suit, filed in December 2017, Hector Jara says he was not paid properly from October 2015 to January 2017. Allegedly, he worked 55-hour weeks while only getting paid for 45-hour weeks.

As a result of the settlement, 1,300 dining-room employees at Babbo, Becco, Del Posto, Esca, and Felidia are eligible for compensation. The judge, however, hasnt given the settlement final approval yet. The attorney for Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group and its fellow defendants, Carolyn Richmond, told Eater in a statement that the settlement was made to avoid litigation costs, and that it involves a deeply flawed statue that imposes $5,000-per-employees fines for paperwork violations that dont actually harm any employee.

Batali and the Bastianichs have a history of getting hit with labor lawsuits. In 2012, they settled a tip-skimming suit for $5.25 million. Lidia was also once accused of keeping an indentured servant in a $5 million lawsuit filed in 2011. Last year alone, B&B Hospitality Group was hit with two other lawsuits: One by a former Babbo pastry chef who alleged discrimination and harassment because of his sexuality, and another for wage violations. The latter was filed by Babbo busser Octavio Quinones and the attorney behind the 2012 tip-skimming suit, Maimon Kirschenbaum. Quinones does not qualify for a payout in this suit, which Kirschenbaum tells Eater they believe was intended to shortchange the Babbo group. In her statement, Richmond argued that the attorney is in no position to object to a settlement his client was involved in.

Batali stepped down from his restaurants in December, after multiple allegations of sexual harassment became public in a detailed report. He was also named in another report that dealt with sexual harassment by restaurateur Ken Friedman. But last month, the New York Times published a story about Batali making moves toward a comeback. Bastianich told the paper then that he and Batali are negotiating a buyout, and that its about creating a post-Mario world. In another report, a former Del Posto manager said that hostesses would ask to be given different work when Bastianich showed up, and others described his behavior as sleazy. Bastianich was also filmed making racist comments about Chinese people for a MasterChef! Italia segment, footage Grub Street resurfaced earlier this year.Dont worry; your dinner will be fine. Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Companies have arranged loads of stunt food deliveries by drone (Dominos pizza, Chipotle burritos, Slurpees that in theory arrive frozen, etc.), but meals via air are still a widely available option at exactly zero restaurant chains. Now, UberEats  now the worlds largest food-delivery platform  has begun a new trial program in San Diego. The services selling point has always been that its a speedy way to get lunch or dinner, but orders in this new test service will arrive insanely fast. Anywhere from five minutes from now to 30 minutes from now, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told attendees at a conference yesterday in Los Angeles.

Its part of a new wide-reaching commercial test program the federal government just approved for a whole phalanx of tech and delivery giants (Uber, Alphabet, Intel, FedEx, and Qualcomm, too) to conduct in several states. The mind-boggling five minutes wait time is what Khosrowshahi specifically estimates it being for food delivered via drone (30 minutes applies to orders brought via human courier, which will still need to occur during this test), and he describes the format as essentially [p]ush a button, and get food on your doorstep.

Khosrowshahi adds that UberEats growth has been explosive in its two-and-a-half-year history, but itd be foolish to expect this part of the company to slow down soon. Uber cant just be about cars, he explains. It has to be about mobility, before adding, with almost no context: Its my personal belief that a key to solving urban mobility is flying burgers, in any city. We need flying burgers.

You can listen to the full interview about the San Diego program and Khosrowshahis flying-burger fantasy here:Nvidia posted a bit of a teaser about the GTC (conference). CEO Jensen Huang will again, in Taiwan on May 30, hold a press-conference slash keynote speech. The new conference is listed on few NVIDIA websites, but only written in a Taiwanese version

That image reads in Chinese and can be interpreted in many many ways. You'd think it could be GeForce 11 related, really though we doubt it very much, as it's likely covering anything AI and perhaps big screen gaming. Here's that teaser:

So when you translate, that reads like this:

"Utilizing GPU computing to explore the worlds infinite possibilities."

"Witness the ultimate gaming experience and the power of Artificial intelligence at Computex 2018"

Yeah, so like that could be anything, pretty much I would not expect new GPUs at Computex, other than perhaps a few respin of existing models.

Source: NVIDIA via ITHome





The U.S. Justice Department has proposed changing an ongoing federal crime study to bar questions about sexuality for minors.

The Justice Department asked the Office of Management and Budget to revise the National Crime Victimization Survey to raise the minimum age at which participants would be asked questions about their gender identity and sexual orientation to 18, due to concerns about the potential sensitivity of these questions for adolescents, according to an April Federal Register notice on the change.

The survey has asked 16- and 17-year-olds about their sexuality and gender identity since 2016, so there is little more than a baseline in the data. The survey does not ask specifically about school-based crimes. By contrast, in 2015-16 the U.S. Department of Educations civil rights data collection began to specifically track school-based harassment based on a students real or perceived sexual orientation; these accounted for 16 percent of all reported bullying incidents.

Some advocates have voiced concern about the change. We know that [lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgendered] youth are more likely to be victimized, sometimes by their own families, and we need data from the NCVS to learn whether crimes are reported and how the criminal justice system is responding to young LGBT victims, said Kerith Conron, the research director of the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law, in a statement. Instead of dropping these items from the NCVS, which were cognitively tested and performed well, the Department of Justice should focus on making it easier for youth to answer questions by investigating strategies to improve the data collection process.

Comments on the change are being accepted through May 11.



Haiti - CARICOM : 21st meeting of the Council of Ministers of External Affairs





Foreign Minister Antonio Rodrigue chaired the Haitian delegation that participated in the 21st meeting of the CARICOM Council of Foreign Ministers (COFCOR) held in Nassau, Bahama (7-8 May).



The 21st meeting focused, inter alia, on migration issues, hemispheric political, economic and trade developments, relations between CARICOM and its bilateral and multilateral partners, banking correspondence, of post-Cotonou ACP-EU relations, which is of great interest for the region in general and for Haiti in particular, which holds CARICOM's rotating presidency until 1 July 2018.



In his speech, Chancellor Rodrigue reaffirmed the strong commitment of the Moise-Lafontant administration to make every effort to enable Haiti to complete its integration into CARICOM and to participate actively in all its activities, but also and above all to contribute to the achievement of all the objectives set by the regional organization has been set for the coming years.



Antonio Rodrigue also expressed the wish that CARICOM strengthen and deepen its relations with all its partners at regional, hemispheric and international level among others : the United States, Canada, the European Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), to help overcome the main challenges facing CARICOM in disaster prevention and management, the fight against the effects of climate change, wealth and job creation, poverty reduction, the fight against transnational organized crime and the implementation of programs and projects aimed at achieving development objectives United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.



On the sidelines of the Meeting, Minister Rodrigue signed, on behalf of the Government of Haiti, the Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE), an approach that is in line with one of President Moise's flagship programs aimed at providing the entire national territory with energy in about 14 months ...



He also held bilateral meetings with representatives of Norway and Romania, of Canada and the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for International Migration.



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - Mexique : Clinique Mobile pour les haitiens de Tijuana





Following a series of meetings, the Mexican and Haitian branches of the NGO AIDS Healthcare Foundatio (AHF) and the Embassy of Haiti in Mexico City have decided to provide medical assistance to Haitians living since the end of 2016 in Tijuana, (low California, Mexico) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21654-haiti-mexico-in-tijuana-and-mexicali-nearly-77-of-haitians-regularized.html



The past weekend, a delegation of 13 doctors, psychologists and administrators of the two branches of the AHF, conducted two days of medical care together with two Haitian doctors living in Mexico City Dr. Jackencesse Paul and Dr. Dickens Duclair.



This Mobile Clinic, under the supervision of the Ambassador of Haiti to Mexico, Guy Lamothe and his team, offered several hundred Haitians basic care through a general consultation, and screenings HIV, tuberculosis, cholesterol... and provided them with free medication.



The first day (Saturday) was held on the tourist passage of Tijuana, the second day (Sunday) was held on the ground floor of a Protestant church in Tijuana led by two pastors (Mexican and Haitian).



For ambassador Lamothe this mobile clinic, which is in its first edition, is the result of a strategic reflection that after having found that the migratory status of compatriots did not allow them to fully benefit from the benefits of Mexican social security ( IMSS) has negotiated with this international NGO to allow Haitian migrants to benefit from health care.



The mobile clinic should soon go to Mexicali where also many Haitians live.



Mikson Antoine, head of public relations, said that this activity, which is a first in the AHF-Haiti operations, will serve as a model to serve other countries where there is a large Haitian community like in Brazil, Chile, Peru and the Dominican Republic. So far, Digicel is the only company in Haiti that supports this program.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23911-haiti-economy-the-ambassador-of-haiti-in-mexico-values-the-haitian-workforce.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21654-haiti-mexico-in-tijuana-and-mexicali-nearly-77-of-haitians-regularized.html



S/ HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - News : Zapping...





19 Haitian marriages in Tijuana

On Sunday, May 6, in Tijuana (Lower California, Mexico), Nesly Numa, the consular charge d'affaires of the Embassy of Haiti in Mexico celebrated the marriage of 19 couples of compatriots. This is the 2nd edition of wedding celebration in the city of Tijuana (9 the first time) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23045-haiti-diaspora-9-marriages-and-39-births-of-haitians-in-baja-california.html . According to information from the Mexican migration from November 2016 to the present day more than 55 small Haitian-Mexicans were born in Mexico and allowed their parents to benefit from permanent residence.



21 billion customs taxes

Tuesday in press conference, Jean Jorel Janvier the Director General of the General Administration of Customs (AGD), confirmed that the AGD had collected since the beginning of the fiscal year (October 1, 2017) until April 30, 2018 a little over 21 billion gourdes over 7 months (excluding fuel). Remember that the target in the government budget is 51.9 billion gourdes over 12 months (including fuel 1.3 billion Gdes per month on oil, goal not achieved).



Transport unions denounce

Transport unions denounce the government's decision to soon increase fuel prices at the pump considering the moment inappropriated https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24319-haiti-economy-announcement-of-unpopular-measures-in-the-coming-days.html . However, Paul Loulou Chery of the Haitian workers' coordination believes that it is a necessity.



The more it changes, the more it's the same

Wednesday during his visit to the national penitentiary to inquire about the conditions of detention at the largest prison center in the country. Jean Roudy Aly the new Minister of Justice announced the multiplication of hearings at the level of the courts in order to reduce the rate of prolonged preventive detention of more than 2,000 detainees in this situation. An announcement that reflects the commitments of former Justice Minister Casimir with his "Operation Punch" launched in March 2015 (and those of his successors) https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-14401-icihaiti-justice-fighting-against-prolonged-preventive-detention.html and the recent initiative of Minujusth https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23862-icihaiti-justice-pre-trial-detention-cases-piority-to-women.html among others, which have not changed the situation today where 75% of the detainees have never been tried https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23647-haiti-justice-more-than-75-of-prisoners-in-haitian-prisons-have-never-been-tried.html



The Validation of professional experience again ratified

Deputy Bodeau informs of the vote, on Tuesday, May 8, 2018, of vote of bill on the recognition and validation of the professional experience including the modifications of President Moise https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24225-haiti-news-zapping.html



Senate : Investigation of the incidents of Cap-Haitien and of Thiotte

The General Secretariat of the Senate of the Republic informs that the Conference of the Presidents of May 7th has taken the decision to instruct the Public Justice and Public Security Commission of the Senate to carry out, for information purposes, an investigation into the incidents that occurred in Cap-Haitien https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24235-haiti-flash-attack-with-tear-gas-during-a-conference-1-death-and-several-wounded.html and to Thiotte / Marmirande https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24241-haiti-flash-land-conflict-in-thiotte-agents-of-the-bricif-flee.html . As part of this investigation, the Superior Council of the National Police (CSPN) is invited to the plenary session of the Senate on Tuesday, May 15, 2018.



HL/ HaitiLibre

















East London Liquor Company raises 1m in four days

By Lisa Riley

The East London Liquor Company has raised over 1 million from over 600 investors during its crowdfunding campaign in just four days of the public funding opening.

The campaign, which set out to raise 750,000 with Crowdcube, exceeded its initial target within 24 hours. Founder of the company Alex Wolpert has said that the campaign will remain open with a new target of 1.5 million.

The distillery produces and imports a range of spirits at its site in Bow, east London. It already exports to 20 markets, including Japan, Germany, Australia and Sweden.

The funds raised will be used to increase English whisky production and grow domestic sales channels, in addition to expanding global sales opportunities in emerging markets such as China.

The company, brainchild of entrepreneur and ex-bartender, Alex Wolpert, who was frustrated by the lack of honestly-priced spirits in the market place, said it also has plans to launch in New York and Toronto before the end of 2018.

Since the company was set up in 2014, East London Liquor Company has sold 327,764 bottles of spirits in the UK, delivering 4.25 million in sales revenue.

The response to our campaign has been overwhelming, were truly humbled by the support that we have received, with investments ranging from 10 right up to 175,000, said Wolpert.

With such fantastic support, we have taken the decision to continue the campaign to honour ongoing conversations with potential investors, and give more people the opportunity to join in. We will be closing our campaign at 1.5 million, so this is your last chance to invest.

East London Liquor Company is currently valued at 15 million and will with funds raised build annual bottle sales to 46,000 9L cases (592,000 bottles) in 2022, delivering sales revenue of 9.8m.

The companys five-year plan forecasts a total of 1.8 million bottle sales over that period driven by 30% year-on-year growth. Total sales revenues for the five-year period is estimated be 28.7 million.

Sales in 2017 totalled 2.95 million (net loss 300k).Bibendum bolsters English wine portfolio with two new producers

By Lisa Riley

Bibendum has bolstered its English wine portfolio with two new producers - Greyfriars and Litmus.

Joining the portfolio ahead of London Wine Week (26th May to 3rd June), the duo joins Bibendums existing portfolio of English producers, including Ridgeview and Coates & Seely, to create an eight-strong selection.

The latest addition would build on soaring sales of English wine at Bibendum, which said sales leaped 139% in volume the past year (internal data - 1st April 2017 to 31st March 2018), and would help customers make the most of the significant sales opportunity in time for English Wine Week.

There are clear signs of organic growth. After years of hard work from producers at cellar door and in the trade, we now have customers asking for English wine, where previously it was all about getting the word out to them  this is a very significant change, said Joseph Arthur, fine wine business development executive, Bibendum.

The business was very much looking forward to support its customers with the introduction of new UK producers as the category continued to grow, he added.Education and immigration advocates are pushing back against a Trump administration plan that would consolidate the federal office that helps guide education for millions of English-language-learner and immigrant students.

Under the proposal, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos would fold her departments office of English-language acquisition into the broader office for elementary and secondary education, according to advocacy groups briefed this week on the departments potential plan.

The proposal also calls for eliminating the directors position for the English-language acquisition office, a job currently held by Jose Viana.

Education Department officials told advocacy groups that the latest plan to restructure would allow the department to merge English-learner support with services provided to other disadvantaged student groupsa decision that ELL advocates say would actually work against the best interests of the students. The move is part of a broader effort by DeVos and her deputies to revamp the agency , which Education Week first reported about in February.

In a statement, Education Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Hill said: The department is in the early stages of considering how best to break down silos, improve policy and program coordination and ensure all students have the support, attention and resources they deserve from the department.

The office of English-language acquisition, created during the George W. Bush administration, has had its clout diminished over the past decade. Near the end of his presidency, authority over most of the $800 million in federal Title III funds that go to states and districts to support instruction for English-learners was shifted to the office for elementary and secondary educationwhich could now totally absorb the English-language office.

There are an estimated 5 million English-learners in public K-12 schools in the United Statesand their academic proficiency and high school graduation rates lag behind those of their native English-speaking peers.

Citing the prevalence of English-learners in public schools and their struggles, an 18-group coalitionincluding the American Federation of Teachers, Californians Together, League of United Latin American Citizens, Migration Policy Institute, National Association for Bilingual Education, TESOL International Association, and UnidosUSwrote to DeVos this week, asking her to pour more resources into the office of English-language acquisition.

The reorganization would necessarily and inevitably diminish the time, attention, and supporting expertise and analysis applied to EL issues, their letter to DeVos reads. Rather than diminishing the role of OELA by subsuming it in a much larger organization, where it would be forced to compete for resources and attention, we believe that the present time affords an opportunity to strengthen OELA.

The groups also questioned whether DeVos has the right to reorganize the office because federal law requires that the office have a director who reports directly to the education secretary.

The coalition worries that lumping in English-learner issues with those of other students under Title I would undermine an office that has already taken its fair share of lumps. Advocates and researchers contend that policy decisions made during the Obama administration also weakened the clout and capacity of the office , leaving schools across the country without clear direction and coherent policy and practices on English-learner education.

The lack of commitment to the office has also prevented the nation from adequately addressing the national shortage of qualified bilingual teachers and meeting the growing national demand for language-immersion programs , the advocates argue.

Heres a look at the advocacy groups letter to DeVos:

DeVos OELA Reorganization Coalition Letter by corey_c_mitchell on Scribd

Related Stories and Videos

Ed. Department Focus on English-Learners Seen Waning

Ed. Department Project to Focus on Newly Arrived English-Language Learners

Feds Offer Guide to Providing Quality Education for English-Language Learners

Ed. Dept. Falling Short in Support of English-Learners, Report Says

Photo: Teaching assistant Richard Nolasco listens to Joshua Flores and Kemari Barnes during their prekindergarten class at Tulsas Dual Language Academy. The population of Oklahomas second-largest school district has shifted dramatically in recent years, with nearly 1 in every 3 students coming from homes where Spanish is the primary language. --Shane Bevel for Education WeekConCon 101

From ThinkTech Hawaii, May 8, 2018

In this episode of Community Matters, J.H. Snider joins Jay Fidell to discuss the upcoming referendum to call for state constitutional convention. While other programs may focus on specific issues in this program we will focus on more basic questions that will elucidate the nature of the institution.

The host for this episode is Jay Fidell.

The guest for this episode is J.H. Snider.Government fanned flames of volcano disaster

by Joe Kent, Grassroot Institute, May 9, 2018

As lava engulfs the homes of many unfortunate Hawaii Island residents, its important to remember that the state originally encouraged the building of homes in this dangerous area by offering lava insurance where no private company would.

In the 1990s, the town of Kalapana was destroyed by lava, and soon afterward, private insurance companies, after suffering millions of dollars in losses, stopped insuring land in Lava Zones 1 and 2.

Lava Zones on Hawaii Island

In response to the absence of private insurance, the state Legislature created the Hawaii Property Insurance Association (HPIA), whose job is to provide coverage for homes in areas that private insurance wont touch.

The law requires private insurance companies to pool their money to subsidize the expense of offering insurance in high-risk lava zones.

HPIA describes itself as a nonprofit association, created to provide basic property insurance for persons unable to purchase homeowners coverage in the private market due to the ongoing volcanic eruption in Lava Zones 1 and 2 on the Island of Hawaii.

Its members are all licensed insurers that write property and casualty insurance in Hawaii, each required to be a member of the HPIA as a condition of their authority to transact business in the state. Together they participate in the writings, expenses, profits and losses of the HPIA, in proportion to their market share of property and casualty insurance written in Hawaii, according to the association.

It adds, There is no public funding or taxpayers monies involved, but certainly any losses incurred by the HPIA members are passed along to their broader base of Hawaii customers, resulting in an indirect tax.

In any case, ignoring the obvious risks of building homes in active lava zones, the law stated that any person who has been unable to obtain basic property insurance from a licensed insurer may apply to the association for coverage.

This resulted in a boom in the housing market below the active Kilauea volcano.

By 2008, there were more than 2,400 HPIA policies in the area, providing more than $700 million worth of insurance statewide to the highest-risk lava zones on Hawaii Island. At the time, the Honolulu-Advertiser said Leilani Estates resident Douglas Pase could not find any private company willing to insure the building of his house in the area:

Pase called various insurance companies to price coverage and said HPIA was the only willing insurer he could find. That was critical because without some way of insuring the house that we would build, building in Leilani would not be an option for us, he said. Since no one else would cover it, that becomes really, really important.

In economic terms, this created a moral hazard, a term which economist Paul Krugman described as any situation in which one person makes the decision about how much risk to take, while someone else bears the cost if things go badly.

The moral hazard of this new insurance program gave a false sense of security to homebuilders in Leilani Estates, some of whom were disappointed to find a gap in their coverage when HPIA issued a moratorium on new insurance following another lava flow in 2014.



A Pahoa home burns down in a lava flow in 2014.

At the time, Pahoa homeowner Corinne Traylor in testimony to the Legislature said that she and her husband could no longer refinance their house, and she couldnt sell it either, due to the sudden lack of insurance.

Others said the moratorium was a market failure and urged the government to step in to help. Soon afterward, Gov. David Ige signed Act 32 in 2015, which mandated that the HPIA lift its moratorium and provide lava insurance, further fanning the flames of the moral hazard.

Today, that hazard is very real for families watching their homes be engulfed by magma. What was seen as a market failure was really a warning sign to those building in Lava Zones 1 and 2.

If the state had stayed out of the situation, probably fewer families would have built in the area, and today there might be less housing destruction.

After this disaster is over, Hawaii leaders should get out of the way and let the insurance markets natural price mechanisms work to provide the valuable, even humanitarian, information needed regarding the areas in Hawaii that are simply too dangerous to build in.

---30---(Bloomberg) Bridgewater Associates, the hedge fund firm led by billionaire Ray Dalio, is outperforming peers this year even after losing money in April, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

To read this article:In the 11th hour of the legislative session, Colorado lawmakers passed a compromise deal to reform the states underfunded pension system for teachers and other public employees.

The final version of the bill, which is now headed to the governors desk, increases employees contributions to the retirement fund, raises the minimum retirement age for new teachers from 58 to 64, calculates retired employees earnings from five years of their highest average pay, and reduces the cost-of-living adjustment from 2 percent to 1.5 percent. Retirees will also lose cost-of-living raises for two years.

Teachers had protested at the state capitol weeks earlier against proposed changes to their retirement benefits. Some of the changes that teachers most disliked didnt make it to the final version of the bill. For example, legislators originally proposed calculating retirement earnings from seven years of employees highest average paycurrently, its calculated from the top three years. And Republican lawmakers originally didnt want to increase the contributions made by the state or school districts to the retirement fund, but the final version of the bill shares the increased contributions between employers and employees. Colorado will contribute $225 million annually to help pay off the unfunded debt.

This is nobodys idea of a perfect solution, said Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, according to the Denver Business Journal , in an appearance at the legislative caucus meeting. But youve got to look at the long term. This is much better than what we had.

Colorados pension system has some of the largest debts of any pension in the country, according to the Associated Pressit owes retirees $32 billion to $50 billion in unfunded benefits. Colorado teachers are among the 40 percent of teachers nationally who are not eligible for Social Security.

See also: Teacher Pay: How Salaries, Pensions, and Benefits Work in Schools

According to the AP, the state teachers union criticized legislators for rushing a compromise without giving the public enough time to review the deal.

This is bad policy done in haste, said Kerrie Dallman, president of the Colorado Education Association.

Across the country, states pension obligations for public employees are accelerating teachers pension debt tops out nationally at more than $516 billion. Teachers in Kentucky have also walked out of their classrooms and protested their states pension reforms this spring. Legislators there passed a bill that says teachers who are hired after the start of 2019 will be put into a cash-balance plan, which is a hybrid of a traditional defined-benefit pension and the kind of 401(K) retirement savings plan common in the private sector.

Colorado legislators had considered enacting a similar plan for new teachers hired after 2020 , but the final version did not include that provision, which had been adamently opposed by the teachers union.It does feel like an intentional witch hunt when your 15-year-old masters thesis is scrutinised for already the third time. Im certainly thinking about my legal protection at this stage, she commented in an interview with Satakunnan Kansa on Wednesday.

Laura Huhtasaari, a deputy chairperson of the Finns Party, has brushed off the plagiarism accusations surrounding her masters thesis as a witch hunt.

YLE reported earlier yesterday that as much as 30 per cent of her masters thesis appears to have been copied, without giving credit, from a single source: the masters thesis of Tiina Simpanen.

Huhtasaari, whose thesis was accepted by the University of Jyvaskyla in 2003, was accused of plagiarism also during her presidential campaign earlier this year. The accusations prompted a preliminary review by the University of Jyvaskyla, which concluded that while she had violated academic rules by copying portions  roughly 10 per cent  of her thesis, her violation was not serious enough to warrant a more thorough inquiry.

The idea of a literature review is to demonstrate that youve familiarised yourself with the subject field and previous studies. I personally conducted all the semi-structured interviews. I remember how it took a long time to transcribe them, Huhtasaari told Satakunnan Kansa.

The idea is to use information that already exists, not to create something of your own. I tried to follow the instructions I was given at the time, she added.

Professors Marita Makinen and Veli-Matti Varri of the University of Tampere examined the similarities between the theses of Huhtasaari and Simpanen at the request of YLE.

Theres no denying the plagiarism in the thesis of Huhtasaari. Anyone who has dabbled in academic writing can see that, they stated in their written reply to the public broadcasting company.

They considered it particularly condemning that signs of plagiarism were found also in the chapter where the research results were presented.

The results therefore include conclusions that were drawn based on work by someone else, even though it seems that the researcher had personally interviewed all the informants for her research. This kind of activity seems almost like stealing results, said Makinen and Varri.

They also underlined that they do not want to dispute the work of their colleagues at the University of Jyvaskyla: It is extremely difficult to substantiate this kind of plagiarism of second-hand sources, especially at the time [of publication]  in the early 2000s  when universities had yet to adopt systems for detecting plagiarism.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Vesa Moilanen  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi SuomiThis blog is looking for wisdom, to have and to share. it is also looking for other rare character traits like good humor, courage, and honor. It is not an easy road, because all of us fall short. But God is love, forgiveness and grace. Those who believe in Him and repent of their sins have the promise of His Holy Spirit to guide us and show us the Way.Posted Wednesday, May 9, 2018 7:45 pm

In our minds, farmers are strong and resilient, the personification of the can-do American spirit, working long, hard, solitary days, ready to overcome any obstacle and persevere the most trying of times. There is great truth in this image, yet it also directly identifies the roots of a silent crisis. The struggle and solitude are factors contributing to farming having the highest suicide rate of any occupation in America.

The suicide rate for farmers is more than double that of veterans and over 10 times higher than office workers, according to the CDC. Victims are also almost exclusively male. The causes are numerous and poorly understood, but experts believe the unpredictability of farming, potential for major financial losses, unwillingness to seek help and social isolation are major factors. Making the problem even more critical, 74 percent of farmers and farmworkers say they have been directly impacted by the current opioid epidemic, which has been directly linked to increased risk of depression and suicide.

We cant make farming more predictable, and crop and livestock prices have been in the basement for going on five years with few signs of a turnaround on the horizon. Net farm income is predicted to hit a 12-year low this year. For those struggling with addiction, only 2 in 5 farmers are confident they could seek care for opioid addictions that is effective, covered by insurance, convenient or affordable. These realities make it that much more important to take action where we can. If struggling farmers are unwilling to seek help and are socially isolated, we can all do something to help.

In rural Missouri, we pride ourselves on our sense of community. Each of us can decide to make a friend. Find a farmer who may not be well-connected to others and invite them over for dinner. Ask them what they grow or raise. Find out what the hardest parts of their job are. Simply having an ear to bend can make a huge difference in the life of someone who is struggling.

My uncle raised hogs and row crops for 60-plus years in east-central Missouri. About 20 years ago he and my aunt joined a group of three other couples who would rotate homes for a monthly dinner. Their Dinner for Eight club only required each couple to cook three meals a year, but it gave them a sense of belonging. It doesnt solve everything, but simple friendly interactions like this can help a farmer no longer feel alone in the world. All it takes is about five minutes of brainstorming for names and a couple of phone calls to neighbors.

If you know of someone struggling, reach out and talk to them. Make a friend. Invite them over. If they need more immediate help, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Unfortunately, this is not a battle that will ever be completely won, but we have to fight it every day. Dont miss your chance to help your neighbors. You could be exactly what they need.

Eric Bohl of Columbia is director of public affairs for Missouri Farm Bureau, the state's largest farm organization.Posted Thursday, May 10, 2018 12:49 pm

Memorial Day is right around the corner, and area churches and cemeteries are setting dates for decoration services and business meetings.

Enon Missionary Baptist

Enon Cemetery will hold decoration services at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 13, at Enon Missionary Baptist Church with Bro. Jeremy Horn preaching the sermon.

A basket lunch will be served around noon followed by a brief business meeting. Bro. Kip Baker will share the sermon during the afternoon service.

Everyone is welcome.

For more information, call Dan at 838-4599.

Pleasant Hill

Decoration day services will begin with Sunday school at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 20, at Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church.

Bro. Mike Bruce will bring the morning message with lunch served at noon. The Viles family will sing during the afternoon service.

Everyone is welcome to attend.

Dunnegan Cemetery

The Dunnegan Cemetery Board will hold its annual meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 26, at the Dunnegan Cemetery shelter.

Barren Creek

The annual meeting for Barren Creek Cemetery is set for 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 27.

Goff Cemetery

The annual meeting of Goff Cemetery in Polk County will be at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 27, at the cemetery gazebo.

Anyone interested is encouraged to attend or make a contribution.

For more information, call Kevin Holt at 777-1870 or Giana Andrews 327-2777.

Schofield Cemetery

Decoration day service for Schofield Cemetery Association, Halfway, will be at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, May 27. Bro. Eric Ingram will bring the Memorial message.

A cemetery association meeting will be followed by a basket lunch on the grounds.

Antioch Cemetery

Antioch Cemetery of Pittsburg is seeking donations to help with the maintenance and upkeep of cemetery grounds.

The cemetery relies on community support, and all donations are greatly appreciated.

Donations may be sent to Antioch Cemetery Association, 27749 State Highway 64, Polk MO 65727.

Reynolds Cemetery

The annual work and cleanup day for Reynolds Cemetery was Saturday, May 5.

Donations to help with the maintenance and mowing expenses of the cemetery are greatly appreciated. Donations can be made out to Reynolds Cemetery Fund and mailed to Kristy Sharp, secretary and treasurer, at 1828 U.S. Hwy. 65, Buffalo MO 65622. Donations also may be taken to or mailed to OBannon Bank, PO Box 890, Buffalo MO 65622.

The cemetery relies on donations to maintain its upkeep.

For more information, contact a board member  Kelly Brazil at (660) 525-9225, Jeff Ortner at 733-1033 or Bill Sharp at 399-3350  or K. Sharp at 328-9403.

To have a decoration service added to this list, call 326-7636 or email news@bolivarmonews.com.Could not establish database connection.

DB: bostonimc and SQL: -->

The administrator has been notified and will resolve the problem ASAP.Glasgow's Emirates Arena will host Great Britain's first Davis Cup by BNP Paribas tie on home soil in two years when Leon Smith's men take on Uzbekistan in the World Group play-offs on 14-16 September.The 8,000-capacity venue has hosted three of Britain's last five home ties in Davis Cup, including their last tie on home soil back in September 2016 - when they fell 3-2 to Argentina in the World Group semifinals in a thrilling contest decided in a live fifth rubber. The Brits enjoyed better fortune in Glasgow en route to their title-winning run in 2015 - securing 3-2 victories over both USA, in the first round, and Australia in the semifinals.September's clash, which will take place on a hard court, will be the first meeting between Great Britain and Uzbekistan in Davis Cup history. At stake for the host nation is its place in the World Group, with Britain's five-year stay in the top tier under threat following their first round defeat to Spain in Marbella in February.Uzbekistan, meanwhile, will be eyeing a landmark upset in September. The Uzbeks, led by 31-year-old Denis Istomin, are through to the World Group play-offs for a tenth time in history - but have yet to break through to the top tier of the competition.Mining entrepreneur Richard Gird reaped a fortune in silver with the Schieffelin brothers but denied under oath that Thomas J. Bidwell was ever his partner in the Tombstone strikes.

In the spring of 1882, Ed Schieffelin, his brother Effingham and several partners left San Francisco on the schooner H.L. Tiernan, northbound, as Ed put it, on a prospecting trip with a little stern-wheel river steamer on deck, to run up the rivers when we got there. Schieffelin, who with brother Albert and partner Richard Gird had struck it rich a few years earlier around Tombstone, Arizona Territory, could afford to finance this prospecting venture in style.

Gird, a mining entrepreneur and assayer who had thrown in with the Schieffelin brothers in 1878, began 1882 at the California ranch he had purchased with his share of their silver bonanza. On January 1, in a sporadically kept journal, he recorded: At the ranch all at home and happy, if it were not fora sort of undignified attempt of certain unprincipled blackmailers to try and make some of my good actions (in befriending an unfortunate man into whose company my business called) cause me trouble by trying to prove that my friendship for the man amounted to a partnership. And the man being now dead, his heirs were entitled to a share of the property.

The unfortunate man was longtime Gird associate Thomas J. Bidwell, who had died in San Francisco on July 8, 1880. The lawsuit, mounted by representatives of Bidwells children, would strain Girds substantial resources, along with his patience, and in the process provide much more detail about the founding of Tombstone than did the later accounts of Ed Schieffelin and Gird himself.

Gird and Bidwell had long histories in Arizona Territory by the time of Bidwells death. Born in Missouri on March 29, 1833, Bidwell was listed on the 1880 U.S. census for Tombstone, just prior to his final trip to San Francisco. His age is listed as 47; his occupation, unaccountably, as minister. (Probably it should have read miner, though he was certainly no hard rock miner.)

One newspaperman called Bidwell a perpetual legislator, for his multiple terms in Arizonas territorial legislature. He served as probate judge of Yuma County, by appointment of Governor Anson P.K. Safford, and as justice of the peace in Signal and later in Tombstone. Many people addressed Bidwell as Judge, while friends like Gird called him Tom or Old Tom. He had two minor children, daughter Nancy and son Rolfe, by his wife, Frances Bishop, who died in 1876, a few days after Rolfes birth.

The June 19, 1880, Tombstone Epitaph reported: Judge T.J. Bidwell bid a farewell to Tombstone on Monday last [June 14, 1880], and turned his face toward the sea breezes of the Pacific. The judge came to Tombstone about two years ago and has watched its developments with mental satisfaction and financial benefit. Recently, his health has been very bad, and he found a change necessary. He will spend the summer in Nevada and California and hopes to visit Arizona again in the fall. In fact, Bidwell had traveled to San Francisco for surgery and would die there on July 8, 1880, during what one account referred to as a delicate surgical operation.

Born on March 29, 1836, at Cedar Lake, N.Y., Richard Gird joined the California Gold Rush in 1852. He met Bidwell in Healdsburg, Sonoma County, and they were on-again, off-again partners in a number of ventures, including an unprofitable trip to Chile in 1858. After that, they took up ranching, prospecting and, in Bidwells case, politicking in the new territory of Arizona. Bidwell used his influence to have Gird, who possessed surveying and assaying skills, officially commissioned by the new territorial government to create a colored topographical map of Arizona. By 1877 Gird was working for the Signal Mining and Milling Company as an engineer and assayer, and Bidwell was selling lots for the Signal town site company, a sideline he would resume in Tombstone. Gird joined Ed and Al Schieffelin early in 1878 and shared in their fabulous silver discoveries in the district Ed christened Tombstone. At Girds urging, Bidwell soon followed his friend to the new camp.

Gird, on hearing of Bidwells death in July 1880, traveled to San Francisco and sent a telegram to Bidwells sister-in-law and her husband, Mrs. and Mr. O.D. Rolfe of Gold Hill, Nev., informing them of the sad news. Gird also purchased a ranch at Temescal, Calif., for Nancy and Rolfe Bidwell and their guardians, taking title to the property in his name and that of the Rolfes. As Gird bitterly recalled in his journal, the Bidwell childrens attorneys construed the real estate purchase as sordid, suggesting that Gird only helped the children to buy off Bidwells relations and deter them from staking a claim against Gird for a share of proceeds from the Tombstone mines.

Relations between Gird and the Rolfes rapidly deteriorated. Gird summarized the allegations of Mrs. Rolfewhom he demonized as the arch fiend of malignant venomas the propositionthat Bidwell was my universal partner and that consequently his children were entitled to half my estate. The excuse was that we were partners in a small stock ranch in Thompson Valley, Yavapai County, Arizona [before Tombstone], and the proposition was to extend the partnership to the Tombstone mines. Indeed, the complaint filed in San Bernardino County, Calif., on May 1, 1882, alleged that Gird had closed out his interest in the Schieffelin-Gird Tombstone discoveries for more than $600,000, and that by virtue of what Gird termed the universal partnership theory, $300,000 was the property of, and belonged to the estate of, said Bidwell, deceased.

The Rolfe claim attracted an array of notable attorneys, chief among them William M. Stewart, mining lawyer and ex-senator from Nevada. Big Bill Stewarts reputation waxed and waned, depending on circumstances and the parties making the assessment. To one modern biographer, he stood as a magnificent Gold and Silver Colossus; another dubbed him an opportunistic Servant of Power. The flamboyant Stewart was already embroiled in several important Tombstone mining cases and transactions when he signed on to represent the Bidwell children and their guardians, the Rolfes. Significantly, from the standpoint of disclosure, Big Bill Stewart was also a long-standing friend of former Arizona Governor Safford, who had worked with Gird and the Schieffelin brothers to develop the Tombstone mines.

Joining the prosecution team of Stewart and his San Francisco partner, William Herrin, was Converse Willard Chamberlin Rowell, an Arizona veteran who had prospered in California as San Bernardinos city attorney and later as county attorney. (In 1871 Rowell had served as hapless prosecutor of the Camp Grant Indian massacre defendants, who were found not guilty after only a few minutes jury deliberations in a widely publicized trial.)

On May 22, 1882, San Bernardino attorneys Byron Waters and M.A. Wheaton filed Girds answer to the complaint, which denied that Gird and Bidwell were ever engaged together, either as partners or otherwise, in anymines or mining stocks or mining property or mining corporations. Eventually, Gird hired experienced San Francisco litigators Harry I. Thornton and Richard Mesickveterans of mining cases throughout the West to question witnesses at depositions and the trial.

The Bidwell lawsuit attracted considerable newspaper attention, with the Tucson, Prescott and Yuma papers all reporting the claim for the snug little sum of $300,000. The parties attorneys fanned out across the country, gathering testimony by deposition, a process necessitated by the transient character of mining camp populations. The witness list included many former associates of Gird or Bidwell or Tombstone itself, including Safford and the Corbin brothers of Philadelphia, New York and New Britain, Conn., money men who had invested heavily in the Gird-Schieffelin claims.

[The] first thing, Gird later complained, the Stewart team did was to put me on the stand and put me through a three days examination. I was not well, but I got through it some way, and it was finally read and copied and signed, and I went about my business, but not for long. At his deposition, Gird admitted that while in Tombstone he had hired Bidwell to perform several discrete tasks, such as arbitration of a water-rights dispute and a business trip east to market Tombstone Mill and Mining Company stock. But according to Gird, his only partnership had been with Ed and Al Schieffelin; he and Bidwell had had no joint business interests in Tombstone in no shape or in any amount whatever.

At the deposition and afterward at trial, Stewart pressed Gird for disclosure of letters and other papers Gird had scooped up immediately after Bidwells death from Bidwells rooms at Tombstone and from his last stop in San Francisco. In his journal, Gird recorded the request as merely another imposition: An attempt was made to get hold of all my papers, which my lawyers thought advisable to keep.

In fact, the plaintiffs lawyers sought to recover as much correspondence of Gird, Bidwell, Safford, the Schieffelin brothers, the Corbins and related parties as they possibly could, since no document signed by the parties explicitly established a Gird-Bidwell mining partnership. The letters they obtained might be used to imply such a partnership. Some of the correspondence Stewart and Herrin received from Saffordaddressed by both Gird and Bidwell as Dear Govseemed to show Bidwell operating on behalf of the Tombstone Mill and Mining Company in a fashion more suggestive of a partnership role than that of an occasional company employee. On February 20, 1880, for example, Bidwell wrote Safford (Plaintiffs Exhibit 44): It is necessary to get the mine developed sufficiently to enable us to run both mines for three or four months. Dick [Gird] is of the opinion that it is now, and Al and Ed [Schieffelin] think not; and I have very grave doubts of it. Such passages seemed to put Bidwell on an equal footing with the three acknowledged partners.

Aside from such inconclusive documentary evidence, plaintiffs did obtain statements from Tombstoners such as founding Mayor William Harwood and mill superintendent S.W. Wood and investors like the Corbin brothers that pointed to multiple times when Gird had stated, [Bidwell] is as much interested in this thing [Tombstone mines] as I am, and I want him to know what is going on.

Prominent Tombstone citizens also lined up on Girds side. Pioneer merchant John A. Allen testified in Tucson on August 18, 1882, that Bidwell never directly or indirectly led me to understand that he was a partner in any sense with Mr. Gird. And Tombstone discoverer Ed Schieffelin emphatically stated: I do not know that Bidwell ever owned any mines in Arizona. He never invested any money in, or did any work in or prospected for any mines to my knowledge.

In what Gird termed a masterly argument by attorney Richard Mesick, the defense succeeded in blocking wholesale disclosure of the correspondence and papers Gird had recovered after Bidwells death. Still, when trial began in San Bernardino in January 1883, the evidence much of it in deposition transcripts or letter exhibits seemed mountainous. The parties, their attorneys and witnesses packed the opposing wings of Starkeys Hotel in San Bernardino. Said the San Diego Sun: A half million dollars is the stake being played forand as far as the lawyers are concerned, the goose is certainly very high.

After reading the lengthy deposition testimony into the record and hearing from present witnesses, the attorneys presented the jury with a single question: Was Thomas J. Bidwell, deceased, an equal partner with the defendant, Richard Gird, in the mines, and the proceeds thereof, located by said Gird, and Ed. and Al. E. Schieffelin, in the Tombstone mining district, in the year 1878? On March 3, 1883, the jury returned with a simple answer: No.

Gird exulted in his victory, at least until Stewart and company appealed the case to the California Supreme Court. Girds attorneys assured him that the appellants success was unlikely, but having already paid out $53,000 in legal fees toward what he termed the Bidwell blackmail case, Gird chose to cut his losses and settle with the Rolfes. In August 1886, the Los Angeles Herald reported that the case had finally settled in the neighborhood of $100,000, with Stewart and Herrin being allowed a fee of $25,000. Gird, in his journal, set his total expenses in the case, including legal fees, at a flat $200,000.

Richard Gird refrained from writing his own account of the Tombstone strikes until 1907, declining, he said, for obvious personal reasons. When he did publish the article, he hailed the Schieffelin brothers, describing Al as a fine character, while painting Ed as given to personal displays but honorable and true. Privately, he had written that the lawsuit had revealed who were my enemies.Harwoodthe Corbins, whom I had saved from bankruptcy, Governor Safford, whom I had made what little money he had. And a long list I do not care to mention or burden my memory with. Of Judge Thomas J. Bidwell, Old Tom, Richard Gird wrote not a word.

Arizona author Robert F. Palmquist writes often about Tombstone subjects. Suggested for further reading: History of the Discovery of Tombstone, Arizonaas Told by the Discoverer, by Edward Lawrence Schieffelin (Ben T. Traywick, editor).

Originally published in the October 2008 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.In 1879 Englishman Harry Pye hid in a gulch from Apaches while transporting freight via an Army mule train to Camp Ojo Caliente in the Black Range of southwestern New Mexico Territory. The site contained a rich vein of silver chloride. The Pye Lode soon attracted hundreds of prospectors, but Apaches killed Pye himself south of town a few months after the discovery.

On January 18, 1881, Chief Nana and his band of Apache warriors raided the Pioneer Store at Chloride, killing two miners and making off with horses and cattle.

A June 1881 Silver City newspaper reported Chloride growing up as rapidly as possible under the circumstances, considering the difficulty of having adobes made, cutting stone andhaving to haul sawed lumber from 50 to 100 miles.

To attract women, the Chloride town council offered a free lot of land to the first female resident. It also offered a seat on the council to the father of the first child born in Chloride If it is known who he is.

By the mid-1880s the town had 3,000 residents who patronized nine saloons, three general stores, three restaurants, two butcher shops, an assay office, lumberyard, Chinese laundry, boarding house, livery stable, post office and the Pioneer Stage Line. The Black Range, a newsweekly operating from the second floor of the Pioneer Store, published from 1882 to1897.

Chlorides minesincluding the Grey Eagle, U.S. Treasury, Colossal, Ivanhoe, New Era and Silver Monument yielded $500,000 before the demonetization of silver in 1893. The Silver Monument, 10 miles west of town, was the richest, its total take exceeding $100,000.

Chloride lacked a rail line, so stages and freight wagons had to carry ore through Cuchillo to smelters at Socorro and even Denver. In later years, the railroad at Engle, 50 miles to the east, transported ore to El Paso, Texas, for processing.

German immigrant Henry Schmidt came to Chloride in 1880. He built his own camera and took 3,000 photographs of the Southwest, now housed at New Mexicos Palace of the Governors Museum. He also built what may have been the first X-ray machine west of the Mississippi River. His son Raymond lived in Chloride until his death in 1996 at age 99.

In 1893 silver prices dropped 90 percent, and most miners left town. The mines continued producing copper, lead and zinc until 1931, but the last store closed in 1923, and the post office in 1956. Chloride now has 11 full-time residents, all retired.

Chloride is one of New Mexicos best-preserved ghost towns. Longtime resident Don Edmund operates the Pioneer Store Museum, built in 1880 and time-sealed in 1923 with its period merchandise. The store is on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties. Nearby is the Monte Cristo Saloon and Dance Hall, now an artist-run co-op.

Facts courtesy of Don Edmund. For more on Chloride, visit www.pioneerstoremuseum .com or call 575-743-2736.

Originally published in the October 2008 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.In 1870 Swiss immigrant Peter Wys, prospecting for gold in the Elkhorn Mountains, northeast of Boulder, Montana Territory, discovered silver galena ore. Development didnt begin until after Wys died in 1872 and Anton M. Holter acquired the mining property.

Holter started mining silver ore in 1875, erecting a simple five-stamp mill and organizing the Elkhorn Mining Company. Soon after the Elkhorn Mine was operating, the C & D, Dolcoath, Golden Curry, Hard Cash, Heggen and Sourdough mines followed suit.

A camp emerged, but its growth faltered in 1882 when the composition of ore at the 300-foot level changed, forcing the Elkhorn to close for a year. The mine reopened after the owners installed a new chloridizing mill, capable of recovering 90 percent of the ore.

The government granted Elkhorn a post office in 1884, and the population soared to almost 2,000 in the late 1880s. Unlike most mining towns, Elkhorn had a high proportion of married miners with families, giving rise to a twolane bowling alley, candy stores and the two-story Fraternity Hall, which hosted dances, box socials, committee meetings, wakes, weddings and Cornish Glee Club concerts. Still, the town did have its harsh frontier sideonce, during a dance at Fraternity Hall, two men got into a fight over the bands choice of music, and the square dancer shot the waltzer dead.

A diphtheria outbreak in the winter of 188990 took the lives of many children and tempered Elkhorns rising population. In one instance, a mother and all five of her children died within a week. Even Dr. William Dudleywho had arrived in Elkhorn two years prior with his new bridelost his 1-year-old son, Earl.

As the Elkhorn Mine reached the 800-foot level in 1888, its owners gambled that it was played out, and sold the company to an English syndicate for half a million dollars. The new owners increased the battery of stamps to 25 and by 1899 had recovered a further 6,500,000 ounces of silver and 5,000 ounces of gold.

In 1889 the Northern Pacific Railroad built a spur line to Elkhorn, providing a rapid means of getting ore to market. This saved the district when silver was devalued in 1893.

Spruille Braden, an influential diplomat to Latin America, was born in Elkhorn on March 13, 1894. In the mid-1940s, Braden organized a failed opposition movement against Argentine President Juan Peron, making the cover of Time magazine on November 5, 1945. He went on to organize the successful 1954 overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Guzman.

As the new century dawned, flooding and lower-grade ore caused production to slow and then stop. Miners and their families drifted away. The post office closed in 1924, and in 1931 the railroad tracks, unused for more than a decade, were dismantled for scrap. Despite infrequent attempts to rework the mill tailings, the town was basically left to die.

Today, summer cottage residents watch over the Jefferson County town, and the Montana Ghost Town Preservation Society has stabilized the deterioration of Fraternity Hall and the adjacent Gillian Hall.

In December 2006, Elkhorn Goldfields Inc., owner of mines on the north side of town (including the Elkhorn Mine), was granted an exploration license. Early in 2008, the company applied to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality for a license to resume mining at what the owners now call the Golden Dream.

Originally published in the December 2008 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.Since 1965 the landmark has been a Western history museum.

Is St. Joseph, Missouri, better known as the jumping-off point for the captivating if short-lived Pony Express or as the community where Robert Ford pulled a gun behind Jesse James back and fatally shot the infamous outlaw? Theres no need to choose. An interest in either monumental Western historic moment (well, Jesse did die in a flash, while the Pony had 18 months worth of moments) warrants a visit to the Patee House Museum. The Jesse James Home now rests on museum grounds.

The museum management favors the Pony, but thats understandable. The nonprofit Pony Express Historical Association owns and operates both the old hotel and the old house. The official line reads: Our primary objective is to put across the message that Patee House Museum served as the Pony Express headquarters from 1860 to 1861. That is the most important role in history the building has played.

The Pony Express, sponsored by the freighting firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell and inaugurated on April 3, 1860, operated between St. Joseph and Sacramento, Calif. The nearly 2,000-mile trip usually took 10 or 12 days, and riders traveled both ways, so St. Joseph was sometimes the end of the trail. It was an exciting run while it lasted, but financial troubles and completion of the transcontinental telegraph brought the operation to its knees in October 1861.

These days riders stage an annual Pony Express rerun in late June. The Patee House Museum serves as either the starting or stopping point for the 10-day, round-the-clock commemoration of the horseback letter carriers. Last June more than 550 riders of the National Pony Express Association helped carry commemorative letters in a traditional mochila. They started in Sacramento on the 18th and, 1,966 miles later, reached the Patee House on the 28th.

In 1858 entrepreneur John Patee (pronounced Pay-tee) spent $180,000 to build the 140-room, four-story luxury hotel. He operated it as such until 1865, when it served a three-year stint as a womens college. Hotel Patee House was back in business from 1869 to 1872. After that, the brick building housed a number of ventures, including a womens college again, a hotel for the third time (with an epileptic sanitarium on the top floor) and a shirt factory for 80 years. Since St. Joseph was also a last chance supply stop for many westbound pioneers, some of the better-off emigrants enjoyed the Patee House beds before pushing onward.

On April 3, 1882, when Bob Ford shot Jesse in his home on a hill about two blocks away (at 1318 Lafayette), Patee House was called the Worlds Hotel. Zee James and her two children, Jesse Edwards and Mary Susan, stayed there briefly after the assassination. Meanwhile, the house on the hill where Ford made his kill became an instant tourist attraction. In 1939 the house was moved to the Belt Highway in St. Joseph to draw more tourists. In 1977 Mr. and Mrs. Robert Keatley bought the James Home and donated it to the Pony Express Historical Association. The house returned home, so to speak, or at least to the old neighborhood.

Today the Jesse James Home presents information on the outlaw and the 1995 exhumation of his body. The Patee House Museum features the restored Pony Express headquarters, the 1854 Buffalo Saloon (dont count on anything stronger than sarsaparilla), a re-created St. Jo street, the last Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad steam locomotive at rest beside the 1878 railroad depot from Union Star, Mo., and Western art. For a moving experience, kids of all ages can ride the Pony Express horse on the Wild Thing Carousel.

The Patee House Museum, at 12th and Penn streets, is open April through October from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. It also opens on weekends November through March. For more info, call 816-232-8206, e-mail patee@ponyexpress.net or check out www.stjoseph .net/ponyexpress.Visitors seeking even more interaction can also visit the Pony Express Museum, 914 Penn St. (see www.ponyexpress.com or call 816-232-8206). The 150th anniversary of the Pony Express arrives in April 2010.

Originally published in the October 2008 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.Showcases troopers uniforms, gear, saddles and arms.

On the outskirts of Tucsons Trail Dust Town, the Museum of the Horse Soldier captures the heart of the American West. It was the U.S. Cavalry that strove to keep up with the hard-riding Plains Indians in the 19th century, then won renewed glory in director John Fords 20th-century cavalry trilogy Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande. The two-level museum houses one of the nations finest collections of U.S. Cavalry equipment and artifacts. A tour through its four themed rooms provides a history lesson in the life of the horse soldier.

The collection covers cavalry history from the antebellum era through the last ride of the mounted horse in World War II. The extensive displays hold uniforms, firearms and equine gear, as well as a comprehensive visual montage of the cavalry era. Among the more interesting exhibits is a Rough Rider uniform that belonged to trooper Wallace Batchelder with Troop K of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry. According to museum director Dan Bates, it is the only complete head-to-toe Rough Rider uniform in existence. Colonel Leonard Woods 1st U.S. Volunteers were a regiment of mounted cowboys turned riflemen from Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Indian territories. The Rough Riders are most often associated with Colonel Theodore Roosevelts legendary charge up Kettle Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. But the Cavalry faced even greater challenges during World War I in the trenches of Europe, where, as one display shows, even the horses wore gas masks.

In all, the Arizona museum contains more than 10,000 cavalry-related items, including a fantastic collection of military saddles and tack. Particularly eye-catching are an 1859 McClellan officers saddle and an 1847 Grimsley saddle with pommel holsters for single-shot horse pistols. Also on display is an 1840 Johnson flintlock pistol, the last of its kind issued to U.S. troops.

Several exhibits relate to Fort Buchanan (185661), which sat on the bank of Sonoita Creek, just north of the Mexican border. Named for President James Buchanan, the fort was built to protect southern travel routes from Apaches.

The Indian wars period is well represented with artifacts from the Steve Szabo Collection. Amassed over 30 years, the relics originate from more than 30 military camps and forts across Arizona and New Mexico territories. These bullets, belt buckles, buttons and other personal effects are displayed in the museums Forts of the Southwest wing, which opened in July 2002.

Admission to the Museum of the Horse Soldier [www.horse soldiermuseum.com], at 6541 E. Tanque Verde Road in Tucson, Ariz., is $2 per person (free for infants). Museum hours are 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday and at other times by request. School and group tours can be arranged by calling 520- 296-4551. All proceeds benefit historical preservation.

Originally published in the December 2008 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.Witnesses and participants in the defining moments of 19th-century American expansionism, John and Jessie Fremont maintained a marriage and an ideological vision ahead of its time.

The 27-year-old blue-eyed explorer, fresh from an expedition to the American West, was the illegitimate son of a French Royalist emigre and a runaway Southern belle. The 15-year-old raven-haired girl, now drawn to the handsome uniformed officer, was the daughter of Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, one of the countrys most powerful antebellum senators.

It was February 1840, in the drawing room of an upper-crust female seminary in Georgetown, District of Columbia, and the young lady welcomed her fathers introduction. May I present Lieutenant John Charles Fremont, Benton said.

Jessie Ann Benton extended her hand to the gentleman, whose slight stature was oddly imposing, his tanned face and flashing white teeth rarities for the time and place. John brushed Jessies hand with his lips and was equally smitten, struck by what he called her girlish beauty and perfect health. From that moment, the couple was passionately, fatefully, historically enmeshedJohn her very perfect gentle knight, Jessie his rose of rare color.

The romance and alliance, passion and principle initiated that day in Washington would impact the very nation, from the founding of a new political party to the countrys torment of Civil War and slavery. Never before had a political couple so fascinated and baffled the American public. Essence and symbol of the defining moments of 19th-century expansionism, John and Jessie Fremont were the quintessential American power couple.

Benton, the man who unwittingly bound John and Jessie together, had been courting Fremont to realize his own vision of the nations bounded expansion. A towering frontiersman, Benton would become the champion of Manifest Destiny. Jessie was her fathers consort and collaborator, his apprentice and creation. Known for her magnetism and beauty, she had already received two marriage proposals, including one from President Martin Van Buren, prompting Benton to cloister her in the then-rural seminary run by Miss Lydia English.

Benton took Jessie quail hunting, introduced her to birdwatching with his friend John Audubon, taught her five languages and impressed upon her the importance of disciplining her mind and exercising her body. She spent long hours at the congressional library, poring over Thomas Jeffersons 6,000-volume collection of books. From her earliest years, Jessie accompanied Benton to Senate debates. And she was as comfortable in the White House as in her own home, where Andrew Jackson would tangle the childs locks with his fingers while discussing politics with her father one of Jacksons strongest supporters in building the Democratic Party. By her mid-teens Jessie was as trained and astute a politician as any young man her age. A later president, James Buchanan, would call her the square root of Tom Benton. But suddenly there was a competing element in the father-daughter dynamic, and the senator was noticeably alarmed by the instant attraction between Jessie and John.

Benton himself had become enamored with the engaging Fremont, who had just explored the plateau country between the Mississippi and Missouri and was in Washington to report his findings to Van Buren. The young surveyor was ensconced at a Capitol Hill town house where his mentor, the distinguished astronomer Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, had built an observatory. Fremont was creating an enormous map of his recent findings, and Benton, intoxicated by a desire to probe the Western frontier and open trade routes to the Far East, saw the young man as a means to that end.

Still, Benton never imagined his daughter would fall in love with Fremont, who had courage and a spirit of adventure but was a poor man of dubious breeding and background. We all admire Lieutenant Fremont, Benton told his daughter, but with no family, no money and the prospect of slow promotion in the Army, we think him no proper match for you. And besides, you are too young to think of marriage in any case.

But the powerful senator was powerless to keep the couple apart. Jessie and John began a surreptitious correspondence and discovered like minds who shared a passion for books, exploration and, not least, Thomas Hart Benton, who inspired them both. Still, the senators objections only heightened the couples ardor and sense of injustice.

Jessie and John were secretly married on October 19, 1841. When Benton learned of their elopement, he sat stonily in his chair, refusing to meet Jessies eyes while staring, enraged, at John. She watched as her new husband, usually brave and articulate, fumbled and sweated. Neither was fully prepared for Bentons reaction. Get out of my house and never cross my door again! he railed at John. Jessie shall stay here. With that, Jessie defied her father, locked arms with her husband and quoted the biblical words of Ruth: Whither thou goest, I will go.

Benton could not stay angry at his favorite daughter for long, especially as Fremonts cachet rose in Washington circles with news of his recent successful survey. Benton soon invited them to return to the familys C Street mansion. In addition to a furnished bedroom, Benton provided the couple with a studyhis eye toward their future collaboration as surrogates for his own aspirations. We three understood each other and acted togetherthen and later without question or delay, Jessie remembered.

Bentons interest in the West was political, not scientific. But Fremont, while steeped in the discourse of expansionism, was first and foremost a scientist. Much would be made later of his opportune marriage to the daughter of one of Americas most powerful political figures, many scholars dismissing the surveyors achievements and crediting Benton for his rise. But the reality was far more complicated. Yes, the senator was a fortunate connection, but when Benton entered his sphere, Fremont was hardly the swashbuckling neophyte many historians have caricatured. When John married Jessie, he was already an expert topographer, a skilled astronomer, a student of botany and geology, an accomplished surveyor and a proven leader of men. To his list of important benefactors he had merely added another powerful patron. The favorable match with Bentons daughter accelerated a career already destined for success, if not greatness.

John Fremont, who in 1838 had been commissioned a second lieutenant in the newly formed Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, was well trained to meld celestial and terrestrial observations, fix his position and map a route, thanks to singular access to the worlds foremost scientists. In early 1842 he and Jessie threw themselves into preparations for a Benton-supported expedition that would open migration to Oregon. Jessie naturally assumed the role of Johns assistant, secretary and adviser, just as she so ably had done for her father. In that position she also served as a diplomatic barrier between him and the ubiquitous inventors, emigrants, job seekers, politicians and adventurers seeking an audience.

Finally, on a May morning John dressed for that first major expedition in his new blue-and-gold uniform; Jessie, now pregnant, adjusted the braid and buttons and straightened his collar. Both were thrilled yet dreading the impending separation, as their first months of marriage had been supremely happy. Jessie wept at the crowded Washington railway station while friends and colleagues bid farewell to explorer John. Thus began her lifelong role as a patient but anxious wife, awaiting the return of a peripatetic but devoted husband.

John returned to Washington six months later, elated by the success of the expedition. He had raised a modified American flag on a high peak in the Rockies, staking it as a gateway to the West. John was also desperate to see Jessie, who just days after his return gave birth to the first of their five children.

The new father had an eagerly awaited report to write, so Jessie provided him with pens, ink and sheaves of foolscap and left him sequestered, his notes carefully laid out on a table. For three days he agonized, starting and stopping, throwing pages into the fireplace. On the fourth day he admitted to writers block. I write more easily by dictation, he explained to Jessie. Writing myself, I have too much time to think and dwell upon words as well as ideas. In dictation there is not time for this, and then, too, I see the face of my second mind and get there at times the slight dissent confirming my own doubt, or the pleased expression which represents the popular impression of a mind new to the subject. Jessie readily accepted the role of second mind for John. The horseback life, the sleep in the open air had unfitted him for the indoor work of writing, Jessie told her father and others as she became what John called his amanuensis.

The duo was inseparable and synergetic, and their teamwork transformed the expedition into a wonderful adventure and best-selling book. They gave drama to the landscape John had charted and breathed life into the charactersKit Carson, Arapaho Indians, mountain men, fur traders and scouts. On the written page, the unshaven, rough-hewn explorers became heroes on a visionary quest. For the first time in U.S. history, an explorers report related a gripping narrative. It also served as an eminently practical guide for thousands of westbound emigrants, describing the rich soil of the Platte River valley and identifying prime locations where new settlements could be built and crops raised.

John submitted the 215-page document to the War Department, and within days the Senate issued a print order for 1,000 copies. Newspapers nationwide ran excerpts, and literary critics compared the tale to Robinson Crusoe. John and Jessie became the toast of Washington, the Fremont name synonymous with the lure of the West romanticized in George Catlins paintings, James Fenimore Coopers Leatherstocking Tales and Washington Irvings Adventures of Captain Bonneville. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, fascinated by Fremonts achievement, drew inspiration from the report for his epic poem Evangeline.

There followed several more expeditionsa series of partings and reunions for John (the Pathfinder) and Jessieand service in the Mexican-American War, which culminated in Fremonts 1847 court-martial, the result of a power struggle between Army General Stephen Watts Kearny and Navy Commodore Robert Field Stockton. Following the Mexican surrender in California, Stockton had named Fremont military governor over Kearnys objections. Fremont believed his military orders for the California incursion had come from President James K. Polk and the secretary of the Navy and, therefore, determined that his chain of command rested with Stockton. Kearny responded by having Fremont brought up on mutiny charges.

Jessie implored Polk to intervene, initiating a lifelong habit of pleading her husbands case with various parties. Certain an acquittal would vindicate John and restore his reputation, Jessie nailed down witnesses, gathered documentation, conducted research and developed a strategy for his defense. She took seriously her role as supportive wife, knowing too that insecurities stemming from Johns illegitimacy always surfaced in times of stress, making him turn inward. Jessies mission, as she saw it, was to guide his comportment to one of balance, fortitude, stability and sanguinity.

In January 1848, a jury found John guilty. Though Polk quickly pardoned Fremont and ordered him to report for duty, John and Jessie never forgave the government for what they saw as a betrayal, and Fremont resigned his Army commission. Now a private citizen, John turned his attention to California, the golden land of opportunity where he and Jessie could raise a family and pursue his dream of a transcontinental railroad linking the two oceans. To observers, they seemed the classic emigrant familyJohn in a civilian broadcloth suit, hand in hand with their 6-year-old daughter, his young wife carrying a dark-haired infant. Relying entirely on Fremonts paltry savings from his Army salary, the family faced severely reduced circumstances. We were pretty much in the conditions of shipwrecked people, Jessie later wrote.

They were soon ensconced in an adobe hacienda in Monterey. Jessie saw slavery as the pivotal issue in California statehood and became actively involved in the issue. Whether John was as passionately antislavery as Jessie is debatable. Though a confessed Free-Soil Democrat, John was not overtly political and was widely seen as a creature of Jessies own ambitions objectives she could fulfill only through her husband, constrained as she was by societal and cultural limitations on women. Their Monterey home became the headquarters of the antislavery delegates, with Jessie the unmistakable leader. Forty-eight delegates attended a constitutional convention at the Fremont hacienda in 1849. The following year John became one of Californias first U.S. senators. After a perilous passage across Panama, the Fremonts arrived in Washington in March 1850the dashing senator and his glamorous wife.

John Fremont distinguished himself as an uncompromising abolitionist, forging coalitions with Northern antislavery men, severing ties with the South and opening a rift with Jessies father. John had drawn the short term in the Senate and in late 1850 returned to California to run for reelection. Defeated, he turned his attention from politics to business concernsa gold mine near Yosemite.

It would be five years before Fremont reentered political life. Seated on a rocky, moonlit beach in the summer of 1855, John reached for his wifes hand. Jessie, Ive been offered the nomination for the presidency, he murmured. She couldnt help but recall her childhood visits to the White House, perching on President Jacksons lap, dining with Van Burens sons, candlelight dancing off the walls of the stately rooms as she fantasized about becoming first ladythe highest position available to an American woman. Her euphoria subsided when John outlined two conditions set forth by the Democrats: Fremont must endorse the Fugitive Slave Law, which would return runaway slaves to their owners, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which would extend slavery into Western territories. Both were untenable to Jessie.

Also courting Fremont was the nascent Republican Party, founded by dissident Whigs and Democrats opposed to the extension of slavery. The Fremonts choice was clear: They would stand by their principles. Nevertheless, Jessie was terribly apprehensive. On a visceral level she recognized that John would be the Republican candidate and that ties with her Democratic father would be further shattered. It would mean excommunication by the South, she recalled, the absolute ending of all that had made my deep-rooted pleasant life. Indeed, the 1856 presidential campaign signaled the death knell to the relationship between the Fremonts and Benton. Jessies father actively supported Johns rival, Buchanan, and the family breach would never be repaired.

The campaign also marked the first time in American history that women were drawn into the political process. The Fremont and Jessie campaign, as it became known, inspired thousands to take to the streets, and their zeal for Jessie was palpable. Seen as a full-fledged partner in her husbands pursuits, she became an overnight heroine to women who had been disenfranchised since the nations inception. Jessie straddled the boundaries of Victorian societyoutspoken but polite, irreverent but tactful, opinionated but respectfula woman so far ahead of her time that other women flocked to her. A devoted wife, dutiful daughter, engaged mother and clear-minded intellectual, the 31-year-old was the embodiment of womanly virtue and feminine power. More than anyone, she recognized her abilities and the limitations imposed upon her by society and culture. I can say as Portia did to Brutus, she wrote, Should I not be stronger than my sex/ Being so Fathered and so Husbanded? Still, she remained self-deprecating and deferential to both her father and her husband, whom she regarded as heroes of mythic proportions.

The adulation of Jessie began within a week of Johns nomination, when a massive crowd gathered at the New York Tabernacle. A speaker introduced the candidate, extolling his qualifications as conqueror of California and explorer of Americas frontier. He also won the heart and hand of Thomas Hart Bentons daughter! the speaker continued. With that, someone from the crowd yelled, Three cheers for Jessie, Mrs. Fremont! There followed the requisite speeches and applause, and when the grandstanding was over, the throng marched half a mile up Broadway in a torchlight procession to the Fremonts New York apartment. Once there they yelled for the candidate, and when Fremont appeared on the balcony, they cheered riotously. Soon came a call for Jessie. Give us Mrs. Fremont, and well go! someone in the crowd yelled. Jessie finally came to the balcony, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Whether disconcerted or emboldened, she never revealed her reaction to that evening. Disdainful of speech-giving women and having been reared in the shadow of a powerful man, Jessie had no female role models to emulate. Still, the historic precedent and foray into feminist activism must have struck her deeply.

The Fremont candidacy exuded celebrity status. Throughout the nation in the summer of 1856, miles-long processions cheered for Jessie and John. In Indianapolis, where 60,000 people marched and marshals were needed to maintain order, a parade float carried 31 young women in whiteone for each stateand one girl dressed in black, symbolizing Bleeding Kansas. Fremont demonstrations in Ohio and Michigan drew 25,000 and 30,000, respectively. Women poured into the streets in unprecedented numbers, wearing violet-colored muslins in honor of Jessies favorite flower and color. One prominent New York minister reported that women in his congregation were copying her hairstyle and mannerisms and naming their babies after her.

Jessie was the behind-the-scenes campaign manager every step of the way. Buchanan exploited that fact and pointed with alarm to the mass participation of women. In one of the dirtiest elections in U.S. history, the Democrats slandered the couple for their progressive beliefs and broadminded lifestyle. The campaign was inseparable from the abolition movement, which was tearing apart the nation. The Fremonts radical view that America should be a true social and economic democracy in which blacks also merit civil rights generated powerful forces against them. None other than Thomas Hart Benton, Jessies father, led the smear campaign. In the end, the Republican Party had neither the money nor the political machine in place to fight back. The final tally was 1.8 million for Buchanan to 1.3 million for Fremont.

Historiography often depicts John as a glory- seeking fraud and Jessie as a manipulative and overly ambitious shrew. In fact, both were complicated figures far ahead of their time.

John, a Renaissance man with European mannerssoft-spoken, laconic and contemplativehas been portrayed alternately by critics as a self-absorbed dilettante, an incompetent, a philanderer, a scoundrel and a glory-seeking egomaniac. Instead, the evidence suggests a painfully shy scientist, romantic by nature, introverted to the point of reclusive, sensitive to the point of melancholic and trusting to the point of naive.

Fremonts worst crime, Benton once said, was daring to distinguish himself without graduating from West Point. By 1833 he had reached the top of his class at the select College of Charleston and had received a coveted assignment to teach navigational mathematics to Navy midshipmen. At 24 Fremont was personally selected by the secretary of war to participate in an Army reconnaissance survey, and at 25 he earned appointment to the elite topographical corps of 36 officers. One of the brightest stars in Americas highbrow field of exploration, he was the first to apply scientific methodology to a region dismissed by earlier explorers as uninhabitable, doing so with admirable conscientiousness and precision.

Jessie was, unquestionably, a political animal. Yet as shrewd and ambitious, brilliant and idealistic as she was, her life and fortune were dictated by the era in which she lived. Viewed historically as the wife of a gifted adventurer and daughter of a shrewd politician, Jessie was in fact an indomitable political force in her own right, boasting mental acuity, emotional toughness and political confidence more commonly associated with the stronger sex. Whats more, during the Civil War, she earned the nickname General Jessie for her advisory role when John became Union commander of the Western Department. Evolving from the role of privileged senators daughter to wife and mother, she eventually rose to the position of military and political strategist and national best-selling author. She attained these accomplishments not through John as her surrogate, but with John as her equal.

The Fremonts had a true peer marriageunthinkable for the 19th century. Allegations of philandering arose during the vicious 1856 presidential campaign, but no convincing substantiation exists that either Jessie or John was unfaithful to the other. What the evidence indicates is that regardless of the nuances of their marriage, they were devoted to each other for 50 years (John died in 1890, Jessie in 1902), and that devotion was based on mutual love and admiration a connection jealous contemporaries found threatening.

For decades the Fremonts struggled to operate within the bounds of convention and conformity while wrestling with the major events of their timethe exploration of the West, Mexican War, Gold Rush, birth of the Republican Party and, ultimately, the Civil War. At a moment when the nation was defining itself for the next century and a half, John and Jessie shared a quixotic political and ideological vision of what America should be. Through all the disappointment and failuresome of their own making, some at the hands of fatethey remained steadfast in their commitment to one another and to their country.

Sally Denton is the author of Faith and Betrayal; American Massacre; The Bluegrass Conspiracy; and The Money and the Power, with Roger Morris. Her 2007 book Passion and Principle: John and Jessie Fremont, the Couple Whose Power, Politics and Love Shaped Nineteenth-Century America is recommended for further reading. Denton is interviewed in this issue.

Originally published in the December 2008 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.Posted 5/9/18

We all had fun at the Buffalo garage sale. We had a good time. We went all over the place and had a wonderful time.Doug was a kind man yesterday. He does a lot for us, too.We go to Springfield this Posted 5/9/18

Reba Turner has donated a small-sized bandstand built by her father, Clyde Yandell, to the Fair Grove Historical & Preservation Society. Carl Buckner and Leon Beaty, representatives of the Ballyfermot College Of Further Education (BCFE) are celebrating, one of their Rock School graduates co-wrote Irelands Eurovision entry, Together.

Mark Caplice, more widely known as Cappy, helped pen the track for Eurovision Song Contest finalist Ryan OShaughnessy.

Caplic completed the HND in Contemporary Music Performance at BCFEs Rock School some years ago.

Together was chosen from over 300 entries by a panel of music industry professionals. It is the first time Ireland has made it to a final since 2013.

Advertisement

Rock School students Claire-Ann Varley (Piano) and Janet Grogan (Vocals) also joined Ryan OShaughnessy on stage in Lisbon.

The grand final takes place on Saturday, May 12.Hot Press has long campaigned for an end to the anachronistic and dangerous clause in the Irish Constitution known as the 8th Amendment. Forced into the Constitution in 1983, entirely on spurious religious grounds, and without any consideration for the impact on lives of vulnerable people and on the health of women, the Amendment has been one of the most cruel facets of Irish society for the last 35 years.

Now, after years of brave protests and fierce activism, Ireland has a chance to end this cruelty, with a referendum on May 25.

But, as everyone who has fought passionately for Repeal over the years knows, it's going to take Every. Single. Voice. for the country to understand how important this vote is.Pop newcomer Tim Chadwick is set play a headline gig at the Unitarian Church in Dublin this Summer.

The Dublin native made the announcement following the release of his newest single Weakness earlier this week.

Chadwicks new single, a sparkling upbeat contemporary pop song, is his first release since the recording of his debut EP Early Days back in 2017 which has racked up nearly 4 million streams on Spotify. Tim spent the rest of 2017 writing and playing shows including opening for Rufus Wainwright at a UK gig.

With influences ranging from Fleetwood Mac to Elton John, Chadwick headed back into the studio in early 2018 to record his latest track with the help of producer, John Foyle, who has previously worked with the likes of FKA Twigs and Baio.

Fans will get a chance to catch his headline show on August 24th. Tickets go on sale Friday 11th May at 9am. See below for more details.

AdvertisementSubscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print.

Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition.

If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create.Posted 5/10/18

Megan Bennett, a 2006 Buffalo High School graduate, encouraged Leadership award recipient students to create goals and a plan to reach them. Bennett was the guest speaker at the Buffalo Area Chamber As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content.

When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to.

After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS!

OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK

The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those.



iciHaiti - Security : The ball is over for the bandits dixit Minister Aly





Wednesday on the sidelines of a visit on the prison conditions in the national penitentiary and prolonged pre-trial detention, Jean Roudy Aly, the new Minister of Justice, speaking on the insecurity prevailing in several popular neighborhoods in the Metropolitan area, declared "The ball is over for the bandits of Grand Ravine and those of the other popular neighborhoods which terrorize and sow panic in the population."



He assures that formal instructions were passed to the National Police of Haiti (PNH) to permanently pacify the so-called zone of "non-rights". He believes the population should live without fear adding, "We are taking formal steps to control these areas."



To be continued...



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24263-haiti-flash-new-clash-between-the-gangs-of-gran-ravin-and-tibwa.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-24138-haiti-flash-police-operation-failed-against-armed-gangs.html



S/ IH/ iciHaiti

















Posted 5/3/18

Genelle Spoering and Donna Ashworth will be inducted into the Dallas County R-1 School District Hall of Fame during Buffalo High School graduation ceremonies on Friday, May 11 at 8 p.m. at the If It Rains in Israel, It Will Pour in Iran

The Fellowship | May 10, 2018 "If It Rains in Israel"

Last night, after Iranian forces in Syria launched 20 missiles at Israel, Israel carried out a full-scale assault on Iranian military targets in Syria. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman made it clear that Israel will use all measures to protect herself, while the US voiced its support for Israels strikes:

On Thursday, hours after the strikes, Lieberman told an annual security gathering that if it rains on Israel, it will pour in Iran.

The blistering Israeli assault was by far the most involved Israeli action in neighboring Syria since the civil war broke out there in 2011. Israel has tried to stay on the sidelines but has acknowledged over 100 airstrikes over the past seven years.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered Israel the administrations support, saying, This just further shows that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted. Israel absolutely has a sovereign right to defend itself and we support them in whatever efforts they have in order to defend themselves.Iran Deal Withdrawal: The View from Israel

The Fellowship | May 10, 2018 Iran Deal Withdrawal: The View from Israel

The Fellowships Ami Farkas offers an Israelis perspective on the US withdrawal from the Iran deal:

President Trumps announcement that the US will be pulling out of the Iranian nuclear deal was well received both in Israel and in Sunni Arab countries who are also under threat from the tyrannical Iranian regime.

The one-sided deal, as President Trump put it, had no mechanism to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power  it just delayed the inevitable for a number of years.

The deal never addressed Irans ballistic missile program, which is in full swing developing long-range missiles which could carry nuclear warheads. And it made no mention of Irans menacing behavior in the Middle East. It put no limitations on Irans support for terrorism, and awarded the regime with a windfall of cash and business opportunities without demanding that Iran cease funding terrorist activities around the world.

Israel is well aware of the short-term dangers involved in the US pulling out of the Iran deal. Yet we also know that, in the long run, this deal would have placed Israel and the Western World in extreme peril.

And so we applaud President Trumps courageous decision, and we hope and pray that his actions will lead to the downfall of the very dangerous and volatile Iranian regime.

 Ami FarkasGrief in open waters Im sitting by an open window, watching how the morning light filters in, feeling the brisk accent in the wind....

Remember When  Last week I was talking about grocery stores and box stores we all used to go to, so I thought...

Not all who wander are lost If youre a fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (like I am), then youre probably familiar with one...

Remember When  How America was settled is a passion of mine, since part of my family got here in the 1600s from...Iran Missile Attack into Israel Prompts Full-Scale Assault

The Fellowship | May 10, 2018 Iran Missile Attack into Israel Prompts Full-Scale Assault

Early Thursday morning, Iran launched 20 rockets into Israel from its military bases in Syria. Israel responded with its greatest show of force in Syria since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Israeli fighter jets destroyed what they described as a significant amount of Irans military infrastructure.

The White House responded to the Israeli airstrikes, with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders saying, Israel absolutely has a sovereign right to defend itself.

Two days prior to Iran launching missiles into Israel, President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal, saying, its a decayed deal that gave too much to Iran.

After a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had no reason to believe that Russia will attempt to limit Israels military operations in the region.

In Jerusalem, the first signs directing people to the U.S. Embassy are being installed in anticipation of the embassy move from Tel Aviv on May 14.

This weeks Israel in the News Perspective features The Fellowships Global Executive Vice President Yael Eckstein on the Iran Nuclear Deal.This week, Rhode Island Superior Court judge Jeffrey A. Lanphear heard arguments from attorneys representing over 30 parents in a lawsuit attempting to overturn Gov. Dan McKee's executive order requiring students in Rhode Island schools to wear masks while in the classroom. In the lawsuit, the parents argue mask-wearing poses harm to students and negatively impacts their physical and mental health. They are attempting to overturn McKee's executive order on the grounds that it unconstitutional. Do you agree that the mask mandate should be overturned by the courts? Why or why not? Let us know in this week's poll question below.

You voted:For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browserBollywood actress Huma Qureshi touched upon several issues including sexual advancements she had to deal wih, the democratization of cinema and about the spate of attacks on films and filmmakers in India, during her speech at the inauguration of the India Pavilion in Cannes. (IANS photo)ConferenceSeries Ltd launches its Materials Science conference in Asia Pacific region.

Theme of the conference, Quarrying Novelties of Material Science and Engineering is designed in such a way to uncover the basic principles that lead to the drastic emergence and technologies in the field of Materials Science and Nanotechnology.

As this conference deals with the basics concepts, students, delegates, academicians and business people can attend the conference to root up the knowledge and excel in this field.Israel Launched Another Attack On Syrian Military Positions

By Moon Of Alabama

May 10, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - When Trump killed the nuclear deal with Iran he gave Israel the chance to start a wider war with Syria. An earlier Israeli simulation of the situation had concluded :

The crisis created by the administration regarding the flaws of the nuclear agreement could be exploited to promote issues more urgent for Israel (mainly Irans missile program and presence in Syria).

The Israeli government claims that Iranian support for Syria is a threat to its country. That is a bogus claim. The Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahoo uses the "Iran threat" as boogeyman to divert attention from other issues like the various corruption cases against himself.

Over the last years Israel attacked Syrian army positions more than 100 times, often in support of al-Qaeda aligned "Syrian rebels". Syria did not respond as it was busy fighting against the Takfiri invasion within the country. In April Israel upped the ante when it attacked the T4 base in the middle of Syria from where Russian and Iranian forces support Syria's fight against ISIS. Iranian soldiers were killed in the attack. The Syrian air defense shot down at least one of the attacking Israeli F-16 jets. This shooting down of the Israeli jets was thought to have established a new balance, but Israel continued to provoke.

On Tuesday, just as Trump announced his breaking of the nuclear deal, Israel launched another strike on what it claimed were Iranian missiles in Syria targeted at Israel. The strike hit a Syrian army depot. Fifteen soldiers, some of them allegedly Iranians, were killed. Even the Israeli media had trouble to find an excuse for the illegal 'preemptive' attack:

Even if Iran had no intention of launching missiles at Israel on Tuesday, the alleged Israeli strike came along and conveyed the following message to the Iranians: You raised the likelihood of an attack on Israel, so were raising the threat level, despite the tensions.

It is not Iran's job to respond to Israeli strikes on Syria. The Syrian government wanted to retaliate immediately to Tuesday's strike but was held back by Russian concerns. Russia saw these provocations as an Israeli trap. Yesterday Netanyahoo visited Moscow. The Russian president warned him to stop the provocations. Netanyahoo did not listen.

Last night Israel again attacked Syrian military positions in al-Quneitra in south-west Syria. This time the Syrian missile forces responded with a barrage of more than 20 missiles against Israeli positions in the occupied Golan Heights. Israel escalated further with 70 strikes against Syrian positions.

The Syrian opposition outlet SOHR confirms this chain of events:

The Israeli shelling came just before the dawn of Sunday after the fall of missiles after midnight, launched from al-Quneitra area and southwest Rif Dimashq adjacent to the occupied territories of Golan, following the Israeli shelling which took place last night and targeted locations near al-Baath city in the central countryside of Quneitra.

Pictures and video from Damascus show that the Syrian air defense intercepted many of the Israeli missiles.

Israel now claims that it eliminated the "Iranian threat" in Syria:

Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Israel's forces struck "nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria" and said that no objects were hit on the territories of Israel.

The claim of success is a signal that it does not want to go any further:

"I hope we've finished this episode and everyone understood," Lieberman added, stressing that Israel doesn't want an escalation, but "won't let anyone attack us or build an infrastructure to attack us in the future."

The propagandist praise of an Israeli success reminds one of previous similar claims.

On the second day of the 2006 war on Lebanon Israel loudly boosted that it had destroyed "all long-range Hizbullah missiles" in a 34 minutes long air campaign. But more than 100 missiles per day continued to hit Israel, including targets in Tel Aviv far away from the Lebanese border. Thirty one days later Israel sued for peace. Its invasion of Lebanon had been defeated. Its "successful" strike against Hizbullah's long range missiles had hit mostly empty positions.

The Israeli targeting in Syria is not much better than its targeting in Lebanon twelve years ago.

Syria will now continue to respond to Israeli attacks. This time it limited its strikes to military positions in the occupied Golan heights. The next strikes will go further. This time Israel sent its population in the occupied Golan heights into bunkers. The next time half of Israel may have to go underground. How long could Israel sustain that?

Iran will also retaliate for attacks on its forces in Syria. But it does not need to do so from Syria. There are also other ways and means than sending missiles.

That Syria, after much suffering, now retaliated for the Israeli strikes draws a new line in the sand. If Israel wants a wider war it will get one . The destruction in the involved countries in the Middle East, including Israel, might thrown them back 100 years. Syria, Lebanon, and Iran could live with that. A 100 years ago Israel did not exist.

This article was originally published by " Moon Of Alabama "-

=====

Israeli strikes on Syria overnight killed at least 23, including five Syrian government troops and 18 other allied forces,

28 Israeli jets fired about 60 rockets in overnight strikes on Syria  Russian MoD

A Blow to Assad: Israeli Strike Destroyed Five Syrian Anti-aircraft Batteries

Join the DiscussionIsrael Distorts Timeline of Events to Play Victim in Dangerous Escalation With Iran And Syria

By Mondoweiss

May 10, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Distorting the timeline of events is a longtime Israeli strategy to make its enemies look like the aggressors and pass itself off as the victim. Israels massive aerial attacks earlier today on Iranians and Syrians  its most extensive cross-border strikes in decades  are carrying out this propaganda strategy to perfection, and even normally skeptical news outlets are being fooled.

Heres the actual order of events:

* Just one hour after Donald Trump violated the Iran nuclear deal on May 8, Israel launched missiles against targets south of Damascus, Syria, reportedly killing 15 people, at least 8 of them Iranians.

* In response, Iran early this morning apparently struck back with 20 rockets aimed at the Golan Heights, (which is occupied by Israel since 1967 but is still legally part of Syria).

* Hours later, Israeli warplanes attacked dozens of allegedly Iranian targets in Syria.

The mainstream Western media is falling into Israels propaganda trap. Most reports are treating the Iranian rockets as the original provocation, and framing Israels massive air strikes as the (understandable) response. Unusually, the New York Times coverage was actually moderately less biased than other outlets, such as the Washington Post and the BBC. The Times at least noted  down in paragraph 12  that Israel had first attacked Syria right after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran deal.

Nor, so far, are the major media connecting Benjamin Netanyahus belligerence to his desperate need to distract from the multiple domestic corruption investigations against him and his wife  an angle some of the Israeli press is not too squeamish to note. In the excellent online publication, +972, Dahlia Scheindlin notes today that Netanyahus strategy is working; he appears to have inoculated himself against looming corruption charges due to the dramatic developments on the security front. She adds that the latest Israeli opinion polls show Netanyahus Likud party with its best showing in a decade.

Larry Derfner, the American-turned-Israeli who is one of that countrys most experienced reporters, is hammering away at the truth on his Facebook page :President Muhammadu Buhari is on a 4 day trip to the UK to his doctors and Nigerians had criticised the move as soon as the presidency mad the announcement some days ago. Some people even went ahead to dig out a 2015 statement which Buhari made in Chatham House condemning medical tourism.

See statement here

In a swift response, the presidency took to its Twitter handle to debunk th statement saying The Chatham House quote below, attributed to Pres Buhari, & currently circulating on social media, is FICTIONAL. Kindly disregard it. 1. The Presidents Chatham House event was on Feb 26, not Feb 21, 2015. See tweet below;

The Chatham House quote below, attributed to Pres @MBuhari, & currently circulating on social media, is FICTIONAL. Kindly disregard it. 1. The Presidents Chatham House event was on Feb 26, not Feb 21, 2015

2. This is the FULL Transcript of the event: https://t.co/c6ymveuwud pic.twitter.com/om6FdCIT3a  Presidency Nigeria (@NGRPresident) May 9, 2018

Some Nigerians immediately responded to the statement of the presidency, saying Buhari did violate his campaign promise to end medical tourism, regardless of where and when the statement was made.

See reactions here

Nigeria's Buhari 'broke promise to end medical tourism'- BBC. https://t.co/Xq54uT961G

Is this also a lie?  ENIOLA (@ENIBOY) May 9, 2018

We believe that most of the content of the speech has been removed or edited. Thats why it took you nearly three years to reply. You cannot fool Nigerians. The truth is that Buhari made that statement, whether it was made at Chatham House or not is irrelevant. He made It, Period  Kendo (@Kendo81326098) May 9, 2018

You guys are always very fast and proactive to react to things like this, but will play dead when its important matters affecting the common Nigerian on the street's .

Plz spare me the crappie stories we are not interest in tales by moonlight ..  Obong Ekpe says #EndSarsNow (@Ody_johnson) May 9, 2018

Why are you always swift to respond when the cover of your deceits have been blown. Respond quickly to the yawning of Nigerians by delivering good governance, security of lives and property, instead of trying to save face.  shodeinde adeolu (@adeh_21) May 9, 2018

1.Does this justify the president seeking medicals outside the countries.

2.What has he done to the medical facilities?

3.Why must he continue if he is not medically okay, is it an abomination for him to step down, talk less of going for second term..

All of you are not alright..  Olabode (@Hollybiz) May 9, 2018

Dele Momodu hoe off his Beautiful historic room inside a cave in turkey.

He wrote on his instagram:









Good Day Africa I slept for the first time ever in a cave in Turkey and, believe me, never felt such tranquility in a very long time I pray that back home, a visionary leadership would be able to transform our rural villages and towns into such masterpieces in near future!

Chief Dele Momodu (born Ayobamidele Abayomi Ojutelegan Ajani Momodu; 16 May 1960) is a Nigerian journalist/publisher, businessman, philanthropist and motivational speaker. He is the CEO and publisher of Ovation International, a magazine that has given publicity to people from all over the world, mainly in Africa.

In 2015, he officially launched Ovation TV and subsequently launched an online newspaper called The Boss. Momodu has received hundreds of awards and honours for his work in the world of business, politics, literature, the music industry and the fashion industry.

He writes a weekly column called PENdulum, published every Saturday on the back page of Thisday newspaper. The articles are praised for highlighting issues in Nigeria, as well as discussing popular topics, current events and notable people, often in a polemic/critical style. Through PENdulum, Momodu became a prominent voice for the APC presidential candidate at the 2015 general election in Nigeria  the current

SEE MORE PICTURES:



Trending Now:

In a rather surprising version of events, a Kenyan doctor has become a trending topic on social media after she was captured on camera licking a piece of candy while attending to a patient in an emergency room.

Online reports say that the patient the doctor was attending to, was taken to Kitale District Hospital, Kenya after he was involved in a car accident and she was supposed to rapidly attend to the victim was seen licking lollipop.

See photo below and tell us what you think:

Leave a Comment

comments

The management of Forte Oil has announced the signing of an agreement with Chevron to become the sole distributor of Texaco lubricant brands in Nigeria, Tribune reports.

According to Forte oil the collaboration between Chevron lubricants, owner of Texaco brand and Forte Oil, a leading player in the retail distribution of petroleum products in Nigeria, would open new opportunities for motorists to purchase high-quality engine oil.









Trending Now:



The Head Marketing, Forte Oil, Mr Kenneth Otaru who said that the collaboration would allow Nigerian motorists to enjoy a wider selection of engine oil and lubricants, also assured of the quality guaranteed by both parties.

Source: energymixreport.comA Nigerian young man currently observing his National Youth Service Corp Programme in the Niger Delta part of Nigeria has opened up on how he found love in the hands of a 55 year old woman.





This 23 year old fresh graduate is currently engaged in a romance with a 55-year-old woman in Port Harcourt, Rivers State where he is observing his NYSC programme.

He appears to have fallen in love with the woman and is ready to marry her if he will get the needed support from his family members.

READ ALSO: See What I caught my babe during NYSC Doing With A Cucumber

He has written a note to a relationship blogger and adviser, Joro Olumofin as he seeks advice.

Trending Now:

Read his story below:A man identified as Mr. Arhamerene has been forced to narrate the ordeal of his broken marriage through social media after accusing his wife (now his ex) of having an affair with a colleague who is the operational manager of Zenith Bank at the Delta state university, Abraka.

The heartbroken man shared his story with journalist Sapele Oghenek with the permission to post online.

According to the man, he legally married his wife when he was in second semester 100 level at Delta State University. Then, the wife just graduated and was about to go for her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

They got married on the 16th of November 2016 in Warri, according to Jehovah witness laws and accordance in marriage.

He said he was working as a staff for Fidelity Bank with his Diploma in Computer Science, before he resigned and decided to further his education.

According to him, because he was a student struggling with schooling and family together, he decided to look for job for his wife in Zenith Bank, because he knows the Manager of Zenith Bank Abraka branch. He submitted her CV and she was called for interview in Lagos State. He said he spent close to N80,000 during two weeks she left for the exams and interview. She later got the job and was posted Zenith Bank Delta State University Abraka because of her marital status.

He said his wifes character changed suddenly towards him in all ramifications not knowing that his wife was dating the operational manager of the bank, one Mr. Kingsley Okudide whom she allegedly sent her nude pictures to.

This was said to have led to a quarrel which made him beat her up in the process. The wife called her father, a welder identified as Robert Alerubo who stormed his house with some Warri boys and dealt with him as he took away his daughter and her son [his grandson] for six months now.

He said just recently the ex-wife posted on her Facebook wall, that  he is the looser than she as gotten a job and a son she has nothing to lose.

He said he approached the Zenith bank manager to see reasons with him, but he called his father in-law who got him arrested and was detained at Abraka Police Division for two days.

He disclosed that Mr Kingsley Okudide, the head of operations is the cause of his failed marriage and transferred his ex-wife to Warri branch when he noticed people were visiting him in the office over the issue.

He said the news of his failed marriage is everywhere in Abraka community because he is a very popular student among staff of the university.

Leave a Comment

commentsPunch

The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has responded to the Senate resolution on his non-appearance before the upper chamber, saying he owed them no apologies.

Thisday

The police have said the April 18 invasion of the Senate and theft of the mace by hoodlums was made possible by internal conspiracy between some security agencies and some lawmakers.

The Sun

Oyo State Government, has alleged a sinister plot by the self-styled Unity Forum, a dissident group within the All Progressives Congress (APC), to burn down the party state secretariat, in its desperate bid to scuttle Saturdays local government election and party congresses.

Daily Times

Kaduna state Governor, Gov. Nasir El-Rufai has warned employers in the state against rejecting corps members posted to their organizations for the one year national service.

Guardian

Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, is an enemy of democracy and is unfit to hold public office anywhere in the world, the Senate declared yesterday.

Daily Trust

Successful applicants undergoing screening exercise for the Nigeria Police Force have been warned against giving bribes to anybody in order to facilitate their screening.

The Nation

Members of the New Peoples Democratic Party wing of the coalition that formed the All Progressives Congress (APC) have alleged that the alliance has not favoured them since 2015.

Tribune

The gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti state, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, has declared himself ready for the challenge of governance, confident that the party will emerge victorious in the July 14 election in the state.Pastor Jamiu Ishola Kolawole, a top pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for stealing the sum of N9m from his tenant, Dr. Emeka Ugwunze, in Lagos

The 60-year-old Kolawole was sentenced on Tuesday by Magistrate O.A. Adedayo of the Ogba Magistrates court.

The convict was the resident pastor of the RCCG, Ikosi Paris, Ketu District, before he committed the fraud. .

His journey to prison started in 2016, after he approached the victim, Dr. Ugwunze and defrauded him of the said amount of money under false pretence.

The fraud took place at his two-storey building in Gbagada, where the victim was his tenant.

The parties negotiated for the house for N20m and the victim paid him N9m to effect the balance at an agreed period.

He convinced the victim that he wanted to sell the house to him because he had assisted him in the past.

And to prove to Ugwunze how serious he was, he handed him all the house documents except for the deed of agreement which he promised to process upon receipt of the full payment.

However, Kolawole disappeared after he obtained the initial payment.

The matter was reported to the police and he was arrested, then dragged to court.

The court found him guilty and sentenced him to 18 months imprisonment.

Leave a Comment

commentsA former banker at Stanbic Bank in Choma, Uganda has been sentenced to four years imprisonment for allegedly stealing the sum of K33, 928.20 belonging to a customer.

Ugandan, Ms. Sandra Thindwa was found guilty at the Choma Magistrates Court in Choma, Zambia by Principle Resident Magistrate Exnobert Zulu, on a two-count charge of theft by servant, and money laundering.

Byta FM in Choma reports that on dates unknown but between 31st December, 2015 and 29th January, 2016, Sandra Nthindwa of Choma in count one jointly and whilst acting together with persons unknown stole Thirty three thousand Nine Hundred and twenty eight Kwacha Twenty ngwee (K33, 928.20).

The money came into her possession by virtue of being employed by Stanbic Bank, Choma Branch.

In Count two, she was accused of Money laundering of the same amount by means of false accounting transactions.

The State called 11 witnesses who testified on oath, with the first being Munalula Kusowa from Stanbic Head Office who testified to receiving a complaint from Zambeef Choma through the Stanbic Choma Branch Manager that the amount in question was not credited in the account after a deposit was made by Euclife Chaaba, an Amarguard officer but now deceased.

And in the course of the investigation, Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) Senior Investigations Officer Mwansa Sibongile testified that the banks CCTV footage was deleted as the system is on auto delete after 90 days.

She also discovered that the accused even engaged herself in a boutique business.

But in defense, Nthindwa testified that at close of business on the material day, everything balanced and the Bank Custodian signed.

However, in the courts findings, it was established that the transaction was not indicating on the Teller log and Account statement but only on two hand written deposit slips given to the Depositor.

The Court said if the money was swallowed by the suspense account, a shortage would have arisen but it balanced because the paper work was done fraudulently and the cash was not presented to the Bank Custodian.

In mitigation Counsel W.F Cheelo from KBF and Partners asked the Court to exercise lenience stating that the convict is a mother who has lost her job and will bear the tag of being a convicted person forever.

In passing sentence, Principle Resident Magistrate Exnobert Zulu considered the fact that Nthindwa is a first offender but the offence committed has become so rampant countrywide.

He said her actions portrayed greed which may affect the trust between the two organisations.

He therefore sentenced her to four years simple imprisonment in count one and acquitted her for money laundering.

Leave a Comment

commentsThis content is from: Corner Office

Exchange-traded funds have changed primary markets and how active managers run bond funds. Executives from some of the biggest names in ETFs are launching a start-up to target the next leg of the market evolution.San Diego, CA - May 10, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Gopher Protocol Inc. (OTCQB: GOPH) ("Gopher"), a technology company which specializes in the creation of Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled mobile technologies, announced that its licensed patent, which it holds as an exclusive licensee from Dr. Danny Rittman ("The patent"), was "allowed" by the US Patent and Trademark Office on May 2, 2018 covers tracking devices, systems and methods using patches with embedded electronic circuits.

This patent describes an electronic tracking device system that is contained entirely on a "sticky patch" package, called The Guardian Patch. The "allowed" status indicates that the IP is now protected and it will be assigned a patent within approximately three to six months.

The Guardian Patch is a communications device that is self-adhesive and can be affixed to any object in order to track it anywhere on the planet. The Guardian Patch, when incorporated into a network, can track an object's movements, in real time, at any location in the world, indoors, outdoors and underground.

The electronic system includes a network connection for communicating with other, similar systems in a mesh network using radio spectrum, computers, and mobile devices, including the Internet. The electronic circuit within the patch transmits signals to enable tracking anywhere on Earth  with or without GPS services. The system can store the affixed object's details for identification purposes on mobile tracking apps. The system includes its own power source that is expected to last one year.

Gopher is concurrently deploying the technology into the Guardian Orb Product as a "proof of concept" that the proprietary technology can be commercialized. The Company intends to integrate improvements and lessons learned through the deployment of the Orb into the Patch and will then seek commercial deployment.

About Gopher Protocol Inc.

Gopher Protocol Inc. (OTCQB: GOPH) ("Gopher" and the "Company") (http://gopherprotocol.com/) is a development-stage company which consider itself Native IoT creator, developing Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence enabled mobile technology. The Company has a portfolio of Intellectual Property that when commercialized will include smart microchips, mobile application software and supporting cloud software. The system contemplates the creation of a global network. The core of the system will be its advanced microchip technology that can be installed in any mobile device worldwide. Gopher envisions this system as an internal, private network between all enabled mobile devices providing shared processing, advanced mobile database management/sharing and enhanced mobile features.

Corporate Site: http://gopherprotocol.com

Press page/ press kit - http://gopherprotocol.com/?page_id=228

Consumer and product website for Guardian Patch: http://www.guardianpatch.com/.

About Guardian Pet Tracker http://www.guardianpettracker.com/

The Guardian Pet Tracker (Sphere Internal name - the "Sphere") system is a derivative technology of Gopher's Guardian Patch technology. The Sphere is designed to provide its users with local tracking capability using a re-chargeable/replaceable battery source. Gopher intends to release pre-production units in limited test in the near future.

GOPH disclosure: More info: SEC link /technology abstract:

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission located at their website (http://www.sec.gov). In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release.

Contact:

Dr. Danny Rittman, CTO

Gopher Protocol Inc.

VM Only 888-685-7336

Media: press@gopherprotocol.com

SOURCE: Gopher Protocol Inc.

Disclaimer/Disclosure:

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. Disclosure: GOPH is a PR, social media and publishing client and compensates Investorideas.com: three months effective April 4, 2016 - three thousand five hundred per month Amended February 2018 five thousand per month. More disclaimer info: http://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.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.May 10, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The Critical Investor discusses a maiden resource estimate for a lithium deposit in Nevada.

Drilling at Dean claystone project; Clayton Valley, Nevada

1. Introduction

Some juniors can be agonizingly slow on following up to their self-imposed timelines and ability to deliver results, however there are exceptions. Cypress Development Corp. (CYP:TSX.V; CYDVF:OTCQB; C1Z1:Frankfurt) is proceeding at breathtaking pace, going from its first drill hole at the Dean claystone lithium project in Nevada, U.S. to the very recent announcement of a maiden resource estimate on both Dean and Glory projects in just over a year. Not only this, the company also managed to beat various estimates in the field, including my own, with some margin, as it released a 6.54 Mt lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) resource estimate. By doing this, Cypress established itself instantly as the holder of a 100%-owned world class sized lithium deposit, which is quite something for a junior with a tiny market cap.

The next step will consist out of two parts: developing and completing metallurgical testing for viable recovery methods (also known as met work in the industry) and doing a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) to provide economics. The met work is ongoing and guided by very experienced CEO Bill Willoughby who holds a PhD in engineering and metallurgy, and the PEA is scheduled for the end of August or September. As the resource of Dean/Glory is quite large, the potential for a project with very impressive economics could be realistic. After talking to management and various industry experts, I will provide a hypothetical outlook on this potential, and together with this my view on valuation potential.

All presented tables are my own material, unless stated otherwise.

All pictures are company material, unless stated otherwise.

All currencies are in US Dollars, unless stated otherwise.

2. Maiden Resource Estimate

Cypress Development released its maiden resource estimate on its fully owned Clayton Valley lithium project on May 1, 2018, and it sure was impressive. The total resource for the Dean and Glory properties came in at 6.54 Mt LCE, which consisted of an Indicated mineral resource of 597 Mt at an average grade of 899 ppm (0.09%) Li, which equates to a contained 2.857 Mt of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), and an Inferred mineral resource of 779 Mt at an average grade of 888 ppm (0.089%) Li, which equates to a contained 3.683 Mt of LCE. The total number of 6.54 Mt beat my estimate by about 20%, according to my estimated target of 5.45 Mt LCE, and also my top margin target of 6Mt.

Again, as a continuous reminder, examples of world class sized LCE deposits in each category are brine projects like Cauchari/Olaroz (Orocobre: 6.4Mt LCE, SQM/Lithium Americas 11.7Mt LCE), clay projects like Sonora (Bacanora: 7.2Mt LCE) or hard rock projects like Whabouchi (Nemaska: 4.06 Mt LCE).

The average grade of about 893ppm Li is somewhat lower than my estimated average of about 950ppm Li, but this isn't out of line and a normal deviation to my numbers as I am estimating without advanced software used by engineering firms. The cut-off grade was also set somewhat low at 300ppm Li, which probably helped to increase the resource but also lowered the average grade.

The deposit is outlined by 23 core holes for 1,891m drilled during 2017 and 2018. As the deposit is lying at surface and is pretty superficial (no deeper than 150m, usually starting at surface) and mineralization appears to be very continuous, drilling it off is relatively very cheap to build tonnage. The deposit remains open at depth, with 21 of the 23 holes ending in lithium mineralization. As this mineralization at the endings of drill cores averaged 300 ppm Li, my view is that the company will not find much more economic mineralization (assuming 800900ppm Li) at depth, and will focus on infill drilling and advancing the current mineralized body, which is already world class.

Management estimates that an additional 30 drill holes are required to upgrade the Inferred portion of the mineral resource to the Indicated category. The large tonnage of the deposit lends potential to target higher grade lithium mineralization for the PEA, as is seen within the intercepts between GCH-06 and DCH-13:

After discussing this with management, it seems that enough of the deposit is eligible to mine at a higher grade compared to the average grade of the maiden resource. All in all, an average grade of 1,000ppm Li seems to be realistic, and I will use this as a base for my hypothetical PEA estimates later on.

Preliminary test work conducted at SGS Canada Inc. (Lakefield) and Continental Metallurgical Services LLC has shown the material exhibits high lithium extractions with short leach times. Lithium extractions greater than 80% can be achieved in 4 to 8 hours using conventional dilute sulfuric acid leaching. Currently, Hazen Research Inc is conducting additional leach tests and preliminary results confirm high lithium extractions for new mineral zones.

The presence of acid leachable lithium presents significant cost savings by avoiding calcine and regrind of material during processing. Preliminary results also show the consumption of sulfuric acid and other reagents are relatively low, to the tune of 100kg/t LCE.

It was also stated in the news release that the production of high-purity lithium carbonate (a typical salable product) was demonstrated in the laboratory using conventional recovery methods, but the big question always remains costs on a commercial scale with these kinds of bench scale tests, and the potential for economic removal of impurities. This is the next big step Cypress is facing through continuing with its ongoing met work, and as mentioned in earlier updates, if the company succeeds in this department the resource all of a sudden becomes commercially viable and minable, implying vast upside for valuation.

At the same time, Cypress also plans to proceed immediately with a PEA based on the current resource and is also evaluating ways to accelerate the project through additional drilling and related studies.

The treasury currently contains about C$600k, and management estimates it needs about C$100k for met work, and C$250k for the PEA, so there is no need for a financing soon. This PEA is scheduled for completion in August or September of this year, which is earlier than I expected.

The road show recently completed in the U.S. could have had something to do with the recent run-up of the share price, and maybe the brand new (April 20, 2018) OTCQB listing helped as well in this regard. It seemed that the release of the maiden resource estimate also served some investors as a liquidity event, as the share price didn't appreciate as expected by many but hovered around the same levels on huge volume, which was kind of disappointing as the resource estimate was impressive:



Share price 1-year time frame; source tmxmoney.com

Hopefully the selling will stop soon, and the stock can appreciate further, as I do feel Cypress deserves quite a bit better valuation soon. My feelings are based on discussions I had with management and industry experts on potential economics. It is still early days with a lot of forward-looking assumptions and statements, but if Cypress manages to come close to those guesses, the potential upside is definitely very significant.

3. Hypothetical Economics

The news release on the maiden resource estimate contained an interesting passage on current estimates by management on potential economics:

"The mineral resources reported use a cut-off grade of 300 ppm Li (0.03%), reflecting a $1/tonne mining cost, $0.50 G&A cost, and a $3,800/tonne LCE processing cost (~$13/tonne processed). These costs reflect a 10,00015,000 tonne per day mining operation in soft sedimentary material that does not require blasting. The resource estimate used a process recovery of 80%."

The processing cost here is a combined figure of processing the ore to concentrate and converting this concentrate to LCE. In order to calculate the amounts, I would like to refer to this handy table that I found at the website of Rocktech Lithium, another lithium junior. The conversion ratio from Lithium (Li) to LCE stands at 1 to 5.323, meaning that 1t of Li converts to 5.323t of LCE.

Following this, the assumed conservative average grade of 1,000ppm Li (as estimated earlier on by me) for the hypothetical PEA or 0.1% Li converts to 0.532% LCE. So, 1 tonne of material/ore contains 1000 grams of lithium at 100% recovery and 800 grams at 80% recovery, or the equivalent amount of lithium to produce 4.25kg LCE. This is currently worth US$55.25 taking into account average contract prices of US$13,000/t LCE, or US$103.9, according to the current spot price of US$24,450/t LCE, according to this sheet taken from the presentation of Lithium Americas:

For 1t of LCE could be needed 235.3t of material/ore at 80% recovery. Dividing the processing costs of US$3,800 over this number generates US$16.15/t material/ore, adding to this the already stated US$1/t mining costs and US$0.5/t G&A could result into US$17.55/t operating costs. On the other hand, total opex for 1t LCE could be US$4129.5/t as mining is extremely cheap. Comparing this to the contract price of US13,000/t LCE, or hypothetical revenues of US$55.25/t ore (assuming producer contracts as the amounts possible at this project would destroy the spot market pricing completely), it can be seen that Cypress has a significant margin for error. In order to be conservative and in line with other recent economic studies, I would like to use an estimated average contract price of US$12,000/t.

For the record, I would like to emphasize that all estimates and assumptions are my numbers only, so any mentioned hypothetical PEA outcome is very preliminary in nature and cannot be relied upon.

Total production can be calculated by using the stated throughput capacity. When using midpoint capacity of 12,500tpd, annual throughput would be 350d * 12,500 = 4,375,000tpa, resulting into 18,594tpa LCE, resulting into US223.1M revenues per annum. Considering there is a resource of 6.54Mt LCE, this would hypothetically result in a life of mine (LOM) of 312 years at 80% recovery. As this isn't realistic, I will use an already long life of mine of 25 years.

A very important item is capex. As mining doesn't require blasting or first processing of the sedimentary claystone doesn't require heavy crushing or milling, capex on these items can be relatively modest. Infrastructure is hardly needed, as the project is located next to Albemarle's Silver Peak lithium mine. When talking to management, it is anticipated that large volumes of water have to be transported to site by a pipeline coming from nearby sources. When taking everything into account, a US$400M capex seems realistic as a first guess.

According to management, there will also be cost savings through cheaper soda ash coming in from Wyoming. This is a big cost for brine producers down in South America as they have to import the soda ash from Wyoming. Given proximity to Wyoming and in the U.S., there could be significant cost savings, although it is too early to say to what extent.

An interesting item is the new corporate tax rate of 21%, lowered from 35% by the Trump administration. Usually a state levies their own taxes on top of this, but Nevada, together only with Ohio, South Dakota and Texas, has a state corporate tax of 0%, so the total corporate tax rate is 21% for Cypress, which is of course beneficial to economics.

This all results into the following basic discounted cash flow analysis:

As can be seen, the hypothetical NPV7.5 would come in at US$966M, and the hypothetical IRR at 33.8%, which is pretty impressive for a large-scale lithium project:

Keep in mind that I am using a conservative average contract pricing of US$12,000, in line with competitors. In order to see what happens at different LCE prices, have a look at my hypothetical sensitivity table right here:

These hypothetical numbers all look very good, especially at the 15,000tpd scenario, and the IRR improved somewhat on larger scenarios as I anticipated on some economies of scale which is industry standard.

A PEA is early stage, so it usually gets discounted quite a bit, depending on the various parameters and economics of the project. With Cypress, the recovery method needs proof so I can imagine the markets are willing to give an increased discount for this as long as the method hasn't been proven on a commercial scale.

For this, Cypress could probably need to go the route of a pilot plant first before it can get rid of this additional discount. Management is looking into this and is contemplating the possibility of standard leach and precipitation steps as the recovery process seems relatively straightforward. As a consequence, it is anticipated that any pilot plant should not be complicated, expensive or time consuming. A pilot plant might be something Cypress has to do for the Feasibility Study (FS) and/or financing of capex, but this is still uncertain. This issue will likely see more clarity after the PEA comes out.

If a potential pilot plant is needed and succeeds in proving up a commercial method, it is certainly not far-fetched to see a future potential market cap of 2530% of NPV7.5. If we would take a (very) conservative but still hypothetical US$500M, this translates into a C$658M NPV, which would result into a C$164197M market cap, which would almost be a ten-bagger from today's levels. I can certainly imagine the share price starting to appreciate towards this point when ongoing met work points towards the right direction, the PEA economics and costs seem convincing and the following test work proves up the coveted method as being commercially viable.

4. Conclusion

The maiden resource estimate on the Clayton Valley lithium project provided the markets with impressive tonnage, coming in at 6.54Mt LCE, which ranks among the world's largest deposits across various types of deposits. According to management, met work is progressing well, and this will hopefully generate a commercially viable recovery method to render the project economic. Several assumptions point towards the direction of a hypothetical NPV7.5 of over CS$1B, which is colossal compared to the current market cap of C$21.2M, even discounted for the PEA stage and recovery methods. It will probably come as no surprise that I am tracking this company in my portfolio with above average interest.



Lithium bearing claystones at Glory project; Clayton Valley, Nevada

The Critical Investor is a newsletter and comprehensive junior mining platform, providing analysis, blog and newsfeed and all sorts of information about junior mining. The editor is an avid and critical junior mining stock investor from The Netherlands, with an MSc background in construction/project management. Number cruncher at project economics, looking for high quality companies, mostly growth/turnaround/catalyst-driven to avoid too much dependence/influence of long-term commodity pricing/market sentiments, and often looking for long-term deep value. Getting burned in the past himself at junior mining investments by following overly positive sources that more often than not avoided to mention (hidden) risks or critical flaws, The Critical Investor learned his lesson well, and goes a few steps further ever since, providing a fresh, more in-depth, and critical vision on things, hence the name.

I hope you will find this article interesting and useful, and will have further interest in my upcoming articles on mining. To never miss a thing, please subscribe to my free newsletter at http://www.criticalinvestor.eu/, in order to get an email notice of my new articles soon after they are published.

Disclaimer:

The author is not a registered investment advisor, and has a long position in this stock. Cypress Development is a sponsoring company. All facts are to be checked by the reader. For more information go to Cypress Development Corp. and read the company's profile and official documents on Sedar, also for important risk disclosures. This article is provided for information purposes only, and is not intended to be investment advice of any kind, and all readers are encouraged to do their own due diligence, and talk to their own licensed investment advisors prior to making any investment decisions.

Read what other experts are saying about:

Streetwise Reports Disclosure:

1) The Critical Investor's disclosures are listed above.

2) The following companies mentioned in the article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Cypress Development. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.

4) 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.

Charts and graphics provided by the author.

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.

More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com

Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspZug, Switzerland - May 10, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Streamr, the blockchain-backed data platform today announced an ongoing partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, one of the world's leading technology solutions and innovation companies. The partnership has been formed to integrate the technology of a chosen vehicle, HPE's interfacing, and Streamr's Engine, resulting in vehicle data being delivered in real-time to the Streamr Marketplace.

Commenting on the partnership, Henri Pihkala, CEO of Streamr said, "As one of the first demonstrations in the world where a car's data will be monetized onto a publicly available platform not only makes this a truly important milestone on our journey, but a pivotal moment in the race to innovate. As we welcome the future of cities and towns, real-time data is required to drive smart cities forward."

HPE is collecting information in real-time from the communications "bus" in the car, where hundreds of data points arrive from sensors within the car. That data, from fuel consumption and location, to acceleration and gearing can then be sent straight to the Streamr platform.

"This partnership with HPE not only solves some of the challenges associated with smart cities, it also proposes a solution to the question of data ownership. We want to ensure that when drivers get in their car and produce valuable data, no one is reaping the rewards but them and with Streamr, we will always keep our users in the driving seat," added Pihkala.

Streamr provides a single interface for real-time data delivery and payment, bringing together buyers and sellers. By using Streamr's cryptographic token, DATA, it is possible to make data streams around the globe freely tradeable. The Streamr Engine is the high-performance analytics engine that aggregates, filters, and combines raw data with additional data to extract value.

"Our main objective at HPE is accelerating time-to-value for our Enterprise Blockchain customers," said Raphael Davison, Worldwide Director for Blockchain at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. "We see Blockchain use cases evolving into what we call Blockchain 3.0: the intersection of Blockchain, IoT, big data, AI and the Intelligent Edge. Our partnership with companies like Streamr helps us bring this future closer to a reality."

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is a global technology leader focused on developing intelligent solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze and act upon data seamlessly from edge to core to cloud. HPE enables customers to accelerate business outcomes by driving new business models, creating new customer and employee experiences, and increasing operational efficiency today and into the future.

"Our current focus is the rollout of our data marketplace, but this is just the beginning for Streamr. Presenting individuals with an opportunity to monetize their data is one thing but encouraging vehicles to trade information between themselves in an economy where machines can "talk" to other machines in real-time is a vital part of any smart economy. This is the future, and we are thrilled to be a part of it," concluded Pihkala.

Streamr CEO Henri Pihkala and Raphael Davison, Worldwide Director for Blockchain at Hewlett Packard Enterprise are available for interview

About Streamr:

Streamr is a blockchain-backed data platform based in Zug, Switzerland. Scheduled for launch in Q2 2018, Streamr's real-time data Marketplace will allow users to trade information over their P2P data network using the DATA token as a means of payment. Streamr's October crowdfund campaign raised $30 million USD in just over 24 hours.

Streamr and Hewlett Packard Enterprise will demonstrate the true power of their partnership at the Streamr pavilion at Consensus 2018 in New York, May 14-16 where individuals will have the opportunity to see data "flowing" through a 3D Audi Q2 chassis.

For more information visit www.streamr.com.

Media Contact:

Alex Sheehan

Account Supervisor// Wachsman

alex@wachsman.com // +353 87 097 9702

TechSectorStocks.com - investing ideas in tech stocks - mobile payments, social media, AI and Robotics, Drone Stocks, GPS, Internet of Things (IoT) Like Tech Stocks? View our Tech Stocks Directory Get News Alerts on Tech Stocks

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.

More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/ and tickertagstocknews.com

Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspBack in 2015, Apple had announced that it would be opening a data center in Ireland by investing almost 850 million euro. However, more than three years later, construction work on the data center is yet to begin due to opposition from locals due to environmental issues. Frustrated with the delays, Apple has now ditched its plan of opening a data center in Ireland.

The data center was to be built in Athenry that would have allowed Apple to take advantage of the greenery nearby to generate renewable energy. However, locals and environmentalists kept opposing this decision despite the Ireland High Court ruling in October that Apple could proceed with the data center. However, the residents then moved to the Supreme Court appealing against the decision.

Despite our best efforts, delays in the approval process have forced us to make other plans and we will not be able to move forward with the data centre, Apple said in a statement ahead of the Supreme Court heading on Thursday.

Apple will continue to consider Ireland for its future projects primarily for the tax advantages it offers. The Cupertino company will now expand its European headquarters in Country Cork where it currently employs over 6,000 people. Apple still has not confirmed where it would be opening its new data center to make up for this loss. The Ireland data center was to be used for iCloud and App Store services.

Due to this setback, the Ireland government is looking to amend its planning laws to include data centers as strategic infrastructure which would greatly speed up the planning process.

[Via Reuters- 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."Its been said it takes a village to raise a child. I have mixed feelings about that declaration, but over my years of following Jesus Christ, its become clear that it does take a village to raise a believer to spiritual maturity and fruitfulness.

So many people over the years have had a positive impact in my life spiritually, Ive lost count. If I were to paraphrase the famous poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Id write, How do they inspire (or challenge, or encourage) me? Let me count the ways.



Some have helped me in reading and studying the Bible. Others have taught me how to apply what Ive read, embracing the reality that its as much for the now-and-now as it is for the sweet by and by. At a time when I was struggling to do Christianity, God sent individuals into my life that showed who the Bible teaches we truly are in Christ, and that its about the Lord working in and through us. The pressure isnt on me to do, because its already done, they taught me.



Pastors, speakers and writers have given me many deep and invaluable insights into principles from the Scriptures. But more than anything, its been lay people serving as models of what true followers of Jesus look like that have made the most profound impressions on my life.



This isnt unique for me. Many times in both the Old and New testaments we find proof that a living, growing faith in the Lord cant be achieved in isolation. Virtually all of the great people in the Scriptures had others come alongside to support them and, when necessary, prod them along.



The Bible affirms we desperately need others to become all God intends for us to be. For instance, Proverbs 27:17 states, As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Sometimes this amounts to constructive conflict, similar to the friction of one knife blade being used to sharpen another.



We tend to select friends who affirm us, who think similarly to the way we do. But good friends  true friends  also are those who care enough, and have the courage, to tell us what we need to hear, not just what we want to hear. Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of ones friend springs from his earnest counsel, were told in Proverbs 27:9. Thats the value of accountability groups, as well as peer advisory groups that many business and professional people find helpful. We need that for our journey of faith as well.



In the Bible, the human body serves as a metaphor for the Church, the body of Christ. It points to the roles and functions of different body parts, and how they work together. The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body. If the foot should say, Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. But in fact God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a part of it (1 Corinthians 12:12-27).



As followers of Christ grow in maturity and fruitfulness, we learn of our importance  and how much we need others  for effectively fulfilling Gods purposes. As Ephesians 4:12-13 states, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.



Just as Jesus first disciples learned invaluable lessons by being with Him (Mark 3:14), the so-called Christian life isnt a solo act. We need each other to grow, receive support, and complement one anothers gifts and talents in our quest to be used by God to advance His kingdom.



- - - -The 2018 Mel Bedwell Small Business Person of the Year reflects the commitment to customer service and community that earned Pam Nelson recognition as winner of this years small business award, presented at an award luncheon on Wednesday.

The Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce recognized Ms. Nelson, owner of Ocoee Insurance Services, because she lives the definition every single day, said nominator Amanda Nelson-Troyer. Under the toughest of pressure and tightest of deadlines, she handles herself with grace and poise. For more than 20 years, Pam Nelson has proved that kindness, respect and positive attitude can transform your life and those around you as well.

Ms. Nelson is the 20th individual to receive the Bedwell Small Business Person of the Year award since its renaming to honor the contributions of the late Mel Bedwell and 25th to receive the award since this recognition program began. Bedwell was one of the most loyal and supportive members of the Small Business Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, which coordinates Business Development Month.

Forming the basis for the Bedwell Award are staying power, growth in number of employees, increase in sales or unit volume, innovativeness of product or services offered, response to adversity, and evidence of contribution by the nominee to aid community-oriented projects.

Ms. Nelson started Ocoee Insurance Services in 1993. She was in a one-room office on the third floor of the Craigmiles Hall on Ocoee Street. She was secretary, office manager, human resources, public relations, saleswoman, bookkeeper, and owner. By 2003, Pam had a beautiful office built on Harle Avenue by her husband Ben, owner of Tennessee Craftsman. From a manual typewriter to multiple computers with wifi, her business has stood the test of time.

Currently Ms. Nelson has five full-time employees in the office and one outside sales person. She is extremely good to her employees, offering them comfortable workspaces and generous salary packages, said Ms. Nelson-Troyer. Growth is continuing and she plans to hire more employees.

As proof of continued growth, Ms. Nelson is now employing three more employees than she did just five years ago. From pencil and pad, she now requires a computer based Customer Management System to maintain all records. Ocoee Insurance Services is continually looking at and talking with peers, to find better ways of doing business. Additional phone lines have been installed to support the increased call volumes.

Many changes have occurred in the insurance business over the years, especially the last five of them, said Ms. Nelson-Troyer. When President Obama announced the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, Pam immediately started doing her homework. She worked closely with staff to ensure that we had the manpower and information necessary to take this monumental task on. Ocoee Insurance Services provides solutions and options for individuals and small businesses needing affordable healthcare under the new law.

Pam has built a very reputable and knowledgeable insurance company that is founded on innovative products, dynamic sales, and customer service, Kimberly Casteel, client, friend and president of USA Mortgage, Inc. said. Pam is very proactive, confident, and helpful with her expert knowledge of the insurance business. She has also built a great team at Ocoee Insurance Services who follow her lead through a display of excellent communication and knowledge to their customers.

Bradly County Mayor Gary Davis added, Pam Nelson and her company truly excel in this niche insurance market. Their ability to work alongside our Human Resources staff to secure coverage, provide and help answer the barrage of related insurance questions, quickly and correctly, for over 700 employees have truly proven what their web page marketing extols. They know how to help solve your insurance puzzle.

Ms. Nelson does not just stay behind her desk or knock on business doors in the community. She has been a member of the Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce for over 20 years; which have included assisting in numerous membership drives and an alum of Leadership Cleveland, class of 1996. She serves on the Junior Achievement Board where she actively assists with fundraising. She is a past president of Cleveland Business and Professional Womens Organization. Ms. Nelson was named top producing agent for multiple years by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and recipient of the distinguished Cariten Best New Broker in 2000. She is long standing member of Rotary International where she has served as a president for the Rotary of Cleveland Chapter along with additional volunteer leadership roles. Her agency has been the recipient of Bradley County Best Insurance Agency for 2014 and 2017. Ms. Nelson was also awarded the distinction of Bradley Countys Best Boss for three consecutive years - 2015, 2016 and 2017.

As our company was also a customer and friend of Mel Bedwell, we can see many parallels of business conduct in Ocoee Insurance to those of Mr. Bedwell. Among those would be the customer is most important every day, always a pleasant smile, a kind word softly spoken, complete honestly and a desire to make our community a better place to live and work. Ms. Nelson has built her business on the foundation of these important attributes, said Stephen Robinson, president of Cleveland Plywood Company.

Ms. Nelson and husband Ben share three children. A daughter, Venecia OBannon, and a grandson Jacob Anderson; a daughter and son-in-law, Amanda Nelson-Troyer and David Troyer; and a grandson, Dylan; and a son Reid, a senior at Walker Valley High School.

Ms. Nelson joins a list of previous winners of the Small Business Person of the Year: Bob McIntire, McIntire & Associates Insurance, Inc.; Jeff Cocks, Corporate Networking Solutions; Greg Hicks, Impressions Catering; Roger Pickett, MurMaid Mattress Inc.; Debbie Melton, Don Ledford Automotive Center; Shannon Ritzhaupt, Cafe Roma; Ed Jacobs, Ed Jacobs & Associates Inc. and Northwestern Mutual Financial Network; Hal Roe, Bradley Rentals; Jim Workman, Bender Realty LLC; Don Geren, Cleveland/Bradley Business Incubator; Steve Robinson, Cleveland Plywood; Lynn Jones, Lynn Jones Enterprises; Ross Tarver, Tarver Distributing Co. Inc.; Loye Hamilton, Coldwell Banker, Hamilton & Associates; Kenneth Higgins, Santek Environmental Inc.; Kay Jenkins Cowan, Jenkins Restaurant & Deli, Dan Cooke, Cookes Food Store and Panera Bread; Catherine Boettner, Cleveland Tubing; Jim Duggan, Robinson Building Center; Reba Garrison, State Farm Insurance; Ron Braam, Manufacturers Chemicals LLC; Susan Shelton, Bradley News Weekly; Larry McDaniel, Town Squire; and Mel Bedwell, Cleveland Business Machines.



HEAD OF THE (IC37) CLASS A family-oriented crew from Jamestown has been crowned the North American champion for the IC37 class after finishing atop the fleet during the New York Yacht Clubs final regatta of...

Council endorses offer to buy 12 acres The town council has endorsed a grant application that will plow the way for the final two lots of vulnerable farmland to become protected in perpetuity. Bob Sutton, manager of...

Coyote expert says improved human behavior is evident The coyote population in Jamestown, as well as encounters with the wild canines, seem to be decreasing, according to a local biologist who monitors the packs. Numi Mitchell, the founder...The Jewish Press of Tampa Bay/ Tampa Edition and the Jewish Press of Tampa Bay/Pinellas Edition are independently-owned biweekly Jewish community newspapers published in cooperation with and supported by the Tampa JCCs & Federation and the Jewish Federation of Floridas Gulf Coast.

Copyright  2009-2021 The Jewish Press Group of Tampa Bay, Inc., All Rights ReservedMorning Pointe Scholar Veronica Bush was recognized among 101 nurses graduating with the Class of 2018 at Chattanooga State Community College. Officially a registered nurse, the future is clear for Ms. Bush, who now joins the next generation of caregivers, thanks to the Morning Pointe Scholarship.

Morning Pointe Senior Living began contributing nursing scholarship funds in 2008 to Chattanooga State Community College. The scholarship was established to engage exceptional nursing students and develop a workforce that is equipped to address a growing aging population with changing healthcare needs.

The scholarship program has helped put students like Ms. Bush on track to a future in healthcare. Diagnosed with a tumor on her left kidney at the age of three, Ms. Bush says her first memories of childhood involved encounters with doctors and nurses who inspired her to pursue a nursing career.

I want to be a nurse who helps, who has a sincere desire to care for others," said Ms. Bush. "I am in the business of comforting others, and no job is better suited than this. I am eternally grateful to the help of the Morning Pointe Scholarship for enabling me to pursue my educational and career goals. Because of this scholarship, I completed my final semester at ease.

Our scholars are the future of senior care, said Lori Hoeger, director of the Morning Pointe Foundation. Through this program we equip nursing students with the resources they need to succeed and meet the demands of a growing +65 population.

The Morning Pointe Scholarship program empowers and encourages our future nurses by helping lift the financial burdens on them, said Tammy Sawyers, director of College Advancement at Chattanooga State. We are grateful for this partnership, as it has helped nursing students achieve their career goals.

Founded in 2014 by Morning Pointe Senior Living healthcare entrepreneurs Greg A. Vital and Franklin Farrow, the Morning Pointe Foundation is a 501(c)3 public non-profit organization that connects philanthropic, educational and wellness initiatives, creates community partnerships and supports caregivers in its mission to advance the care of seniors.

In addition to its partnership with Chattanooga State, the Foundation distributed $37,000 to more than 20 nursing students in Columbia, Athens, Jacksboro and Greeneville, as well as colleges in Ashland and Lexington, Ky.

Erlanger Health Systems Spiritual Care program has expanded with the addition of Nancy Osborne as director of Erlangers Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy Services and Keith Munford as program director of Clinical Pastoral Education.

Prior to taking her role at Erlanger, Ms. Osborne served as clinical chaplain and Certified Educator at W.G. Hefner Veterans Administration Medical Center in Salisbury, NC. There she helped in establish a clinical pastoral education center, as well as the Clinical Pastoral Education professional Advisory Committee. Previously, she was director of chaplaincy and clinical pastoral education at Good Samaritan Society, University Specialty Center in Minneapolis, Mn. Ms. Osborne attended Wake Forest University for her undergraduate degree and received her Masters of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.



The diverse offerings and people in Erlangers Spiritual Care program allow them to connect with a variety of patients, Ms. Osborne said. I hope to continue to help patients and provide a needed resource to this community. Our education program plays an integral part which impacts communities beyond ours, and I want to offer guidance and mentorship to anyone who is interested in this path.



Keith Munford is also a certified educator and previously served as a Chaplain and Clinical Pastoral Education Supervisor at Hospice of Chattanooga, as well as director of clinical services at Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation. He received his undergraduate degree from Lee University, a Master of Arts from Church of God School of Theology and a Master of Divinity from Emory University.



I am looking forward to working closely with the Clinical Pastoral Education students, Nancy Osborne, and others in the Erlanger Health System Department of Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy Services, said Mr. Munford. My goal is to provide an outstanding educational program for students and ensuring the patients, family members and staff of Erlanger receives the best possible spiritual care.



Erlanger has the only Clinical Pastoral Care education program in Chattanooga, Erlanger Spiritual Care services offer meditation, cancer support services, bereavement services and many other opportunities for care. For more information, call 423 778-7177.

Chattanooga Christian School had the opportunity to host representatives from Google and participate in the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program. Google Expeditions brings immersive computing to school, which brings abstract concepts to life and gives students a deeper understanding of the world beyond the classroom.

Twenty different groups of CCS students from kindergarten to 12th grade were able to use augmented reality tools to enhance the concepts they are currently learning in their classrooms through engagement, visualization, and manipulation. Augmented reality is best described as the process of layering a computer-generated image over a real-world view (think of SnapChat filters). CCS students used a Google phone attached to a selfie stick to see 3D manipulative visuals ranging from objects associated with a coral reef, to a tornado, to Da Vinci's inventions.

Expeditions AR became available to schools this past fall through the Pioneer Program. This software is not available to the public as Google is perfecting its product, and CCS was selected to experience it and give feedback.

Google created a safe, non-threatening, fully-supported culture for CCS teachers to be trained to use this technology. Then the teachers were able to introduce this new way to enhance the teaching and learning in their classroom with continued support from Google while they piloted the product, said officials.

Julie Davis, CCS director of Instructional Technology and Innovation, contacted Google in the fall and nominated CCS for the Expeditions Pioneer Program. After the success event on campus in early May, Mrs. Davis reflected, The beauty of the Google Expeditions AR Pioneer Program is that not only was it introduced to the teachers, but they were immediately implementing it. I now have 20+ teachers that have experience with augmented reality in the classroom and have that concept in a tool belt for their future.

CCS teachers and students alike said they were thrilled to broaden their horizons and increase their knowledge through the lessons introduced with Google Expeditions.As spring fades into summer, the number of snake-related calls and emails to John Jensen go up. But most center on two questions: What species is this and what do I do with it?

Only every once in a while is it a venomous snake, said Mr. Jensen, a senior wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and co-author of Amphibians and Reptiles of Georgia.



Whether its a venomous snake is, of course, the concern or fear underlying most of the questions. Chances are its not, Jensen said. Only six of the 46 species native to Georgia are venomous and only one of those  the copperhead  usually thrives in suburban areas, where the majority of Georgians live.



So what to do if you spot a snake?



Try to identify it from a distance. Resources such as www.georgiawildlife.com/georgi asnakes , which includes DNRs Venomous Snakes of Georgia brochure, can help.

Do not try to handle the snake. Give it the space it needs.

Remember that snakes are predators that feed on rodents, insects and even other snakes. There is no need to fear non-venomous snakes. Native non-venomous species are protected by state law, and the eastern indigo is federally protected as an imperiled species.

If a clearly identified venomous snake is in an area where it represents a danger to people or pets, contact DNRs Wildlife Resources Division for a list of private wildlife removal specialists. Most snake bites occur when a snake is cornered or captured, prompting it to defend itself.

Non-venomous snakes such as scarlet kingsnake, eastern hognose and watersnake species can be confused with their venomous counterparts. Pit vipers, which include native venomous snake species in Georgia except for the coral snake, are often identified by their broad, triangular-shaped heads. Yet many nonvenomous snakes flatten their heads when threatened and may have color patterns similar to venomous species. Use caution around any unidentified snake.



For more on Georgias snakes, visit www.georgiawildlife.org/georgi asnakes . Also, Amphibians and Reptiles of Georgia (University of Georgia Press) is a thorough reference.



From eastern indigo snakes to bald eagles, The Nongame Conservation Section works to conserve rare and other Georgia wildlife not legally fished for or hunted, as well as rare plants and natural habitats. The agency depends primarily on fundraisers, grants and contributions. That makes public support key.



Georgians can help by contributing to the states Nongame Wildlife Conservation Fund. Heres how:



- Buy or renew a DNR eagle or hummingbird license plate. Most of the fees are dedicated to wildlife. Upgrade to a wild tag for only $25! Details atwww.georgiawildlife.com/licens eplates .

- Donate at www.gooutdoorsgeorgia.com. Click Licenses and Permits and log in to give. (New customers can create an account.) Theres even an option to round-up for wildlife.

- Contribute to the Wildlife Conservation Fund when filing state income taxes  line 30 on form 500 or line 10 on form 500EZ. Giving is easy and every donation helps.

- Donate directly to the agency. Learn more at www.georgiawildlife.com/donati ons .

Visit www.georgiawildlife.com/conser vation/annualreport to see how support is put to work for wildlife.



SNAKE NOTES

Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.Chattanooga FC today announces another step forward in the creation of the Chattanooga FC Womens team slated to kick off in 2022. This group will take a leadership role in the teams creation, and will be responsible for ensuring that the Womens team is established in a way that is in accordance with Chattanooga FCs Mission. I could not be more excited to have this group ... (click for more)The California Energy Commission [official website] adopted new standards [text, PDF] Wednesday that will require all newly constructed residential buildings to be built with solar photovoltaic systems installed.

The requirement for the solar photovoltaic systems is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 115,000 fossil fuel cars. The changes would take effect January 1, 2020. In addition to the solar installation, the regulations would also require changes to thermal envelope standards, ventilation requirements, and nonresidential lighting requirements. The standards still need to be approved by the California Building Standards Commission [official website] before they can be enacted.

The costs of the changes are estimated to be $40 per month on a 30-year mortgage for residential homeowners. However, all of the changes are also estimated to result in a savings of $80 per month on heating, cooling and lighting bills, according to a California Energy Commission <a href="statement [press release].

The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions has been a growing concern in the US. President Donald Trump announced [JURIST report] in June 2017 that the US would be withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord. However, in September 2017, the US Senate Appropriations Committee approved [JURIST report] a $10 million payment to the UN agency that oversees the Paris Climate Accord.International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told [text] the UN Security Council Wednesday that Libyan National Army Major Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf Al-Werfalli has not yet been arrested by Libyan national authorities, despite [press release] an ICC warrant issued in August 2017.

The warrant for Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf Al-Werfalli was issued after he was accused of executing 33 Libyans. It is also believed that he executed an additional 10 people in January. Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, son of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, and Al-Tuhamy Mohamed Khaled, the former head of the Libyan Internal Security Agency, also remain free despite warrants for their arrest.

Bensouda called upon the Libyan national authorities to act upon the warrants. She stated that [w]ithout arrests, both the cause of international criminal justice in Libya and the very raison detre of UN Security Council Resolution 1970 (2011) will be undermined.

There have been ongoing accusations of war crimes in Libya since the Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011. Amnesty International accused [JURIST report] militias in Libya of committing human rights abuses and war crimes in October 2014. The ICC announced [JURIST report] it would significantly expand investigations in Libya in November 2016. Human Rights Watch accused [JURIST report] members of the Libyan National Army of committing war crimes in March 217.Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park will commemorate the 150th Anniversary of Memorial Day with a series of special programs at Chickamauga Battlefield and at Lookout Mountain Battlefield, Saturday, May 26, through Monday, May 28.

Saturday, May 26

At Chickamauga Battlefield, artillery programs will be conducted at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. and will take place at the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center. There will also be ranger-guided car caravan tours of the battlefield at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. At Point Park, on Lookout Mountain, ranger-guided walking tours are scheduled for 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m., and living history presentations will take place at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. At Cravens House, also on Lookout Mountain, a ranger will be available to lead guided tours of the historic home from 1-5 p.m.

Sunday, May 27

There will be a ranger-guided car caravan tour at 10 a.m., and at 2 p.m., there will be a ranger-guided car caravan tour entitled Above and Beyond the Call of Duty, highlighting Medal of Honor Recipients at Chickamauga. These tours begin at the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center. There will also be living history programs provided at Chickamauga Battlefield at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. At Point Park, on Lookout Mountain, ranger-guided walking tours are scheduled for 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m., and living history presentations will take place at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m.

Monday, May 28

At Chickamauga Battlefield, there will be ranger-guided car caravan tours at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. At Point Park, on Lookout Mountain, ranger-guided walking tours are scheduled for 11 a.m., 2 p.m., and 4 p.m., and living history presentations will take place at 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m.

All programs at Chickamauga Battlefield are free of charge. Admission to Point Park is $7 per adult, ages 16 and over. Ages 15 and under are free. There are no admission fees at Cravens House.

In May 1868, Union General John A. Logan, commander the Grand Army of the Republic, the largest organization of Union veterans, issued orders to the GAR to decorate the graves of their fallen comrades throughout the nation. This formalized a tradition that had begun earlier in communities throughout the nation. The holiday was known as Decoration Day, as served as a day to commemorate the Union soldiers who had given the last full measure of devotion during our nations Civil War. Over time, the holiday expanded to recognize all those who gave their lives in service to the nation throughout its history.

For more information about Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, please contact the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center at (706) 866-9241, the Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center at 821-7786, or visit the parks website at www.nps.gov/chch.





Lee University held its centennial graduation ceremonies Saturday with veteran Lee faculty and administrator Dr. Carolyn Dirksen delivering the commencement address. Appearing before a record number of graduates, their friends and families, and many others from the Lee community, Dr. Dirksen made her speech to the crowd at a new outdoor venue on the South Campus Quad.

In introducing Dr. Dirksen, Lee President Paul Conn said, "On our Centennial, there can be no more appropriate speaker than Carolyn Dirksen, who has spent 50 years of those 100 working at Lee. In addition to the many roles she has served in over these years, she has created and perfectly expresses the Lee University mindset. She is a treasured colleague, and she loves you students dearly. She IS Lee University."

In her address, reflecting on the milestone for each graduate, along with Lee's centennial and her own professional milestone, Dr. Dirksen said that standing at the nexus of these three things, she was honored to be the one to encourage them. "For all of us who work here at Lee, you graduates are our final exam, and knowing so many of you who are finishing today, we deserve an A," she said.

Dr. Dirksen completes her 50-year career at the university this month. She has served as an English professor, Department of Language & Literature chair, College of Arts & Sciences dean, vice president for academic affairs, and most recently as the director of faculty development.

She was the first recipient of Lees Excellence in Teaching Award and later received the Excellence in Scholarship Award. Most recently, she was awarded the 2018 Dr. Charles W. Conn Servant Leadership Award, recognizing her contribution to Lees service learning and Global Perspectives program.

More than 540 degrees were conferred at Saturdays graduation, 69 of which were for graduate studies. Saturday's ceremony was preceded by a hooding for students earning master's degrees and a commissioning service on Friday night, which featured six student speakers sharing their Lee experience.

To view the graduation events in full, visit https://livestream.com/leeu.Wu Xiaohui, former chairman and general manager of Anbang Insurance Group, the Chinese conglomerate that owns the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for fundraising fraud and embezzlement of corporate funds.

Wu Xiaohui, former chairman and general manager of Anbang Group, stands trial on March 28, 2018 for fundraising fraud and embezzlement at the No 1 Intermediate People's Court in Shanghai. [File photo: a-court.gov.cn]

The Shanghai Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court announced the sentence Thursday.

Wu was also deprived of his political rights for four years, and had 10.5 billion yuan (1.6 billion U.S. dollars) of his property confiscated, according to the court sentence.

His illegal gains and yields generated will be retrieved, the sentence said.

The court found that Wu, having concealed his shareholder status, had controlled the Anbang Property and Casualty Insurance Co. and the Anbang Insurance Group through several companies under his control.

Since January 2011, Wu used Anbang and other companies as a financing platform and directed others to cheat the insurance regulator to gain approval and extension of insurance products with fake documents.

Between July 2011 and January 2017, Wu illegally absorbed a huge amount of funds by directing people to defraud the regulators and the public via misrepresentation to sell the public investment-purpose insurance products that exceeded approved amounts, the court said.

During this period, Wu used false excuses to transfer part of the illegally-raised insurance premium to over 100 companies he personally controlled for payment of personal debts, business operations and investment in Anbang Group.

By the time his violations came to light, he had defrauded over 65.2 billion yuan.

Also, the court found that Wu had taken advantage of his position to illegally embezzle 10 billion yuan from Anbang.

The police sealed and freezed the assets of Wu and the companies he controlled, during the investigation.

The court said the ruling was made with consideration of the facts, nature, circumstances and harm to society of the crimes.

Over 50 people, including Wu's family, journalists and members of the public attended Thursday's public sentencing.

The court heard the case on March 28 and information about the trial was made public on the court's Weibo account.

The trial came after China decided to take over Anbang for a year to maintain normal operations at the company and protect consumer rights, in February.

China's insurance law stipulates that an insurance firm can be taken over by regulators if it is insolvent, or illegal activities hurt the public interest and threaten its solvency.

Established in 2004, Anbang has total assets of nearly 2 trillion yuan, with more than 30,000 employees and over 35 million clients globally, according to the company's website.UPDATE: Arrested in the drug bust Thursday morning were four individuals59-year-old Daniel Leroy Jones, 53-year-old Mark Scott Stanton, 48-year-old Cariann Hall, and 40-year-old Timothy David Allen.

We will update with more information on the bust and the charges of those arrested shortly.

(Updated asof 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 10)

MEDFORD, Ore.  Thursday morning saw Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement (MADGE) agents descend on a suspected drug den in Medford. The home is located in the 2400-block of Finley Lane on the west outskirts of town.

According to a NewsWatch 12 reporter on the scene, MADGE agents broke a window at the house in order to get in and execute a search warrant. There were several people in the house with warrants out for their arrest, but the exact number and how many may have been arrested is still unknown at this time.

MADGE agents say that neighbors have been complaining about the house for some time, suspecting that the residents were dealing drugs due to the high amount of traffic to and from the house.

The house lies just inside the Jackson County Sheriff's Office jurisdictionthe City of Medford ends one house up the street.

This is a developing story, and the article will be updated as more details emerge.MEDFORD, Ore.  The Medford Police Department (MPD) is searching for a man they say committed sex crimes against a minor, among other charges.

The suspect is 45-year-old Jeffrey Standley. He is described as being 5'11" and 250 pounds, with gray eyes and brown hair. MPD says that Standley is a "long-time Medford resident," although he is currently unaccounted for.

Authorities believe that Standley may have recently been in Montana working as a wildland firefighter, but they think he has since returned to Southern Oregon. MPD also says that Standley has worked as a landscaper in the past.

Call the Medford Police Department with any information you may have on the suspect or his location. MPD is offering a reward for a tip that leads to Standley's capture.MEDFORD, Ore. -- Nurses at Providence Medford Medical Center will be asking for their breaks, predictable schedules and a higher pay check Thursday. For the first time since they picketed in April, the Oregon Nurses Association will work to nail down a contract with the hospital with a federal mediator.

Dan Richmond, Volunteer with the Oregon Nurses Association Executive Council, said he has high hopes for Thursday's negotiation.

"We're seeking mutually beneficial, practical solutions that are in place at Rogue and at most of the other Providence hospitals already. These are already things they're doing at other hospitals within their organization," Richmond said.

He said the hospital is having a hard time recruiting and retaining nurses, losing about 100 nurses during a less than two-year period.

"That's really expensive to the hospital and those turnover costs and having to recruit and retain, that also means we rely heavily on travelers, which is unfortunate because they tend to do 12-week assignments and we want to keep our nurses local and that benefits our community," Richmond said.

He said an agreement could be reached Thursday, or it could not, in which case the nurses will continue to negotiate in good faith.

Once an agreement is reached, nurses have to vote to approve it.

"It's always going to be up to the nurses to vote on whether or not to ratify a contract and there may be a time where we bring a contract that we don't necessarily feel is a fair deal and ask the nurses for direction," Richmond said.

He also said Thursday's negotiation is timely with the national week to celebrate nurses. The hospital put out free tacos for all caregivers Wednesday and awarded two awards to nurses voted on by other nurses.

"We appreciate the gestures and the appreciation that's really important, but what would be great a great benefit for everyone this week and a great way to end nurses week would be a fair contract that would benefit our community and our nurses and everyone here," Richmond said.

NewsWatch 12 reached out to the hospital about Thursday's negotiation meeting. We received this statement from Communications Director Gary Walker:

Providence is committed to ensuring that caregivers rights related to labor organizing are respected, honored and upheld. Providence has a long history of working together with unions that caregivers have chosen to represent them.

Providence supports open communication. Caregivers can always talk with each other, any core leader or an HR representative about questions or concerns. We are committed to open and honest communication and will answer questions so people can make their own informed decisions. Providence does not question caregivers about their position related to the union, and we are always mindful of our core value of respect.

Providence does not negotiate in the media. We negotiate with the union that represents our nurses  Oregon Nurses Association. The two sides have met for negotiations more than 10 times - four times with a federal mediator - and will meet again tomorrow (Thursday).

We care deeply about our caregivers and believe we will come to an agreement with the union that represents them.The corporate logo of Kinross Gold Corp. (TSX:K) is shown. Shares of Kinross Gold Corp. fell more than 10 per cent in trading Wednesday as the gold miner said the government in Mauritania has requested talks regarding its activities in the country. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HOThe Humans from Romania perform the song 'Goodbye' in Lisbon, Portugal, Thursday, May 10, 2018 during the second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest. The Eurovision Song Contest grand final takes place in Lisbon on Saturday May 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)A Sentaler coat is shown in a handout photo. Fashion designer Bojana Sentaler says Canada's current hot streak in outerwear is no flash in the pan.The visionary behind a line favoured by Meghan Markle, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau and Kate Middleton says she's honoured to have attracted such high-profile fans. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Lelania Little MANDATORY CREDITJudicial Watch: Emails Show FBI Advised Comey to Consult with Mueller's Office Prior to June 2017 Testimony Contact: Jill Farrell, Judicial Watch , 202-646-5188



According to numerous



At the hearing, Comey revealed that he had intentionally leaked material from a memo allegedly documenting a meeting with President Trump in order to help assure the appointment of a special counsel. WASHINGTON, May 10, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- Judicial Watch today released new emails from the Department of Justice (DOJ) showing that former FBI Director James Comey was advised by FBI officials in May 2017 to consult with Special Counsel Robert Mueller prior to testifying before any congressional committees regarding Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and his firing as FBI director.According to numerous news reports , Comey met directly with Mueller previous to his June 8, 2017, testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Sources said that Comey's opening statement and subsequent testimony were coordinated with Mueller.At the hearing, Comey revealed that he had intentionally leaked material from a memo allegedly documenting a meeting with President Trump in order to help assure the appointment of a special counsel.



Read more...

I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. Didn't do it myself...

Share TweetFILE - In this April 13, 2018 file photo, bridal fashion from the Amsale collection is modeled during Bridal Fashion Week in New York. Buying a wedding dress online is a much different experience than doing so in a store. Shopping online can help brides make more clear-headed and less emotion-driven purchases. But it also requires brides to be their own consultants, who are familiar with fabrics, cuts and more. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)Main Street in Lake County is one of two areas where pot shops should be allowed, town staff suggest. The other location is the Turtle Bay strip mall.In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!Amalgamating the city's water system with the South East Kelowna Irrigation District will cost $22 million more than expected. Mayor Colin Basran, shown above, and other councillors will be asked to approve the extra expense on Monday.A customer walks out of a Tim Hortons restaurant in Newcastle, Ont., on February 11, 2018. After months of warring with franchisees over everything from Ontario's minimum wage hike to cash register outages and delays in supply deliveries, Tim Hortons is ready to make amends. In an exclusive interview with The Canadian Press, its president Alex Macedo said he has been crisscrossing the country over the last few days, meeting with thousands of franchisees in a bid to regain their trust and convince them that Tim Hortons has a plan to turn around. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Doug IvesA Canadian Tire store is seen in North Vancouver on May 10, 2012. Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. has signed a deal to buy Helly Hansen, a maker of sportswear and workwear based in Norway, for $985 million. Under the deal for the company controlled by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Canadian Tire also assume $50 million in debt. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan HaywardHalifax Regional Police Supt. Jim Perrin fields questions at a news conference in Halifax on April 18, 2018. Search warrants say a Nova Scotia goverment employee told police somebody had "hacked" into the province's freedom-of-information website in a case investigators eventually dropped because there were no grounds to lay criminal charges. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew VaughanAn unidentified woman engages in an argument with a group of patrons at a restaurant in Lethbridge, Alta., in this screengrab from an undated video posted on Facebook by Monir Omerzai. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Facebook, Monir Omerzai MANDATORY CREDITAlberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman answers questions during a federal, provincial and territorial health ministers' meeting in Toronto on Tuesday, October 18, 2016. The Alberta government is changing its bill on abortion clinics to triple the potential size of the the no-protest zones around those buildings. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher KatsarovRev. Dr. Andrew Bennett who is Program Director for Cardus Law is pictured in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 8, 2018. Canada's former religious freedom ambassador says the Trudeau government is displaying "totalitarian" tendencies with its controversial changes to the student summer jobs program. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickMetro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 9)  Boracay workers whose jobs have been affected by the island's closure may soon claim monetary assistance from the government.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on May 4 issued guidelines on the government's adjustment measures program (AMP), which falls under the Boracay Emergency Employment Program (BEEP) through Department Order no. 191-18. This order will take effect on May 19.

Regular employees can receive 4,200 per month, or 50% of the monthly minimum wage for Region VI, for a period of six months.

However, employees who do not get a regular salary can only receive 2,100 per month, or 25% of the minimum wage for Region VI, for a period of three months.

BEEP AMP beneficiaries can also receive training from government agencies like the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Tourism or Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

Displaced and suspended workers should submit to DOLE an accomplished BEEP AMP application form, a photocopy of their certificate of employment, a photocopy of any government-issued ID, and their Land Bank of the Philippines account details.

The DOLE Regional Director has the right to deny applications if the applicant is ineligible for the benefits, misrepresented facts, or submitted false documents.Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer responds to a question during a news conference in Montreal on April 19, 2018. Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer's proposed tax credit for parents would cost the federal government over $600 million dollars in lost revenues in the first year - and this number could go even higher, according to a new report by the federal budget watchdog. The parliamentary budget office released a report this morning saying Bill C-394, which would bring in a tax credit for those on parental leave, would result in foregone revenues of $607.6 million in 2018-19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul ChiassonFILE - This April 9, 2015, file photo shows the south portal of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump near Mercury, Nev. The House is moving to approve an election-year bill to revive the mothballed nuclear waste dump at Nevada's Yucca Mountain despite opposition from home-state lawmakers. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talk to each other during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, May 9, 2018. (Sergei Ilnitsky/Pool Photo via AP)Officers cheer after a briefing at the headquarters of elite police unit Mobile Brigade in Depok, West Java, Indonesia, Thursday, May 10, 2018. Indonesia's top security minister said dozens of Islamic militants who took over the detention center inside the compound near Indonesia's capital, killing a number of officers, have surrendered to police. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)EDS NOTE GRAPHIC CONTENT : A nun reacts as she stands near the dead body of a child covered in mud, while a local resident looks on, at the scene of deadly floods near Solai, in Kenya's Rift Valley, Thursday, May 10, 2018. The Patel Dam burst its banks late Wednesday night after heavy rains, sweeping away hundreds of homes and killing some dozens, many of them children. (AP Photo)Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10)  Former President Benigno Aquino III is facing another plunder complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the nationwide immunization program his administration carried out in 2016.

Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio and Citizens Crime Watch President Diego Magpantay filed the complaint on Thursday against Aquino, former Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, former Budget Chief Butch Florencio "Butch" Abad, former Health Secretary Janette Garin, and other former and current health officials.

It is the third complaint against Aquino before the Office of the Ombudsman over the vaccine controversy and the second one for for plunder. The first plunder case was filed by former TESDA Chief Augusto Syjuco. Gabriela Partylist has filed a separate graft complaint against Aquino. The former President is also facing seperate Dengvaxia-related complaints at the Commission on Elections and Justice Department.

The latest case accuses Aquino and his co-respondents of pocketing part of the 3.5 billion-peso budget for the procurement of dengue vaccine Dengvaxia from Sanofi Pasteur.

The complainants claimed only P3 billion of the budget was released to the Philippine Children's Medical Center, which conducted pre-procurement activities, while the remaining P500 million remains unaccounted for.

They also charged Aquino and his co-respondents with graft and malversation for the alleged hastened procurement of the vaccine.

"The P3.5 billion SARO (special allotment release order) was approved in record time. 10 days! Holidays pa ah, kapaskuhan. Can you imagine how efficient they were in trying to plunder the national treasury.....Itong Dengvaxia program ay ginamit bilang cover sa pagnanakaw sa pamahalaan," Topacio said.

Aquino's spokesperson Abigail Valte said the allegations of Topacio - a lawyer for Volunteers against Crime and Corruption (VACC) - are unfounded, but added the former President is ready to respond when required to do so.

"The latest VACC complaint has less to do with a true desire to seek accountability, but more of a ploy to get more government posts for themselves. Even the severely inebriated can see the pattern: anyone who files a complaint against the former president is magically given an appointment," Valte said in a text message.

Abad also denied irregularities in the procurement of the vaccines.

"I am certain and confident that no fraud nor any irregularity accompanied the procurement of the vaccines. So the complaint is baseless," he said.

This is the third complaint against Aquino before the Office of the Ombudsman over the vaccine controversy. The first plunder case was filed by former TESDA Chief Augusto Syjuco. Gabriela Partylist has filed a separate graft complaint against Aquino. The former President is also facing seperate Dengvaxia-related complaints at the Commission on Elections and Justice Department.

Dengvaxia was administered to over 800,000 students in a school-based government immunization program in April 2016.

Pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur in November 2017 announced the vaccine posed potentially severe dengue risks among those with no dengue history.

The resulting panic prompted the Health Department to suspend its program and the Senate to investigate the 3.5 billion spent on it.

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the creation of an independent experts panel to look into the controversy following conflicting official reports on deaths allegedly caused by Dengvaxia.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10)  Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno's camp is appealing to eight Supreme Court associate justices to oppose an ouster petition against her.

"We would rather focus our attention in making a plea, an urgent one, to the eight  for them to please do the right thing," Sereno's spokesperson Carlo Cruz told CNN Philippines' The Source.

Sereno's camp previously filed petitions for six associate justices to inhibit from the case. These are Lucas Bersamin, Teresita de Castro, Francis Jardeleza, Samuel Martires, Diosdado Peralta, and Noel Tijam.

This leaves eight justices to whom she is making the appeal  Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, Antonio Carpio, Mariano Del Castillo, Alexander Gesmundo, Marvic Leonen, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Andres Reyes, and Presbitero Velasco.

Sereno needs eight out of 14 votes to remain in office.

The appeal comes a day before the Supreme Court's scheduled en banc session on Friday. The court is expected to discuss and possibly vote on the pending quo warranto case against Sereno, which seeks to invalidate her appointment as Chief Justice.

The possible court action may further interpet Rule 66, Section 11 of the Rules of Court. It provides that quo warranto petitions can only be effective within a year "after the cause of such ouster, or the right of the petitioner to hold such office or position, arose."

Solicitor General Jose Calida filed the quo warranto in March this year. He questioned Sereno's appointment in 2012, citing missing statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALNs) from her years teaching as a law professor at the University of the Philippines.

Sereno has maintained that an impeachment trial at the Senate is the only way to unseat her. The House of Representatives is poised to act the impeachment complaint against her, but this may be preempted by a quo warranto decision.

If that happens, Cruz says Sereno would accept the decision even as she disagrees with it.

"If there were a final decision ousting her via this mode, then we would have to respect it," said Cruz. "But if we leave that office, it would be with our heads held high and our hearts whole-because even if we would have lost, we would have won."

House Justice Committee Chair Rey Umali maintains that despite Rule 66, the House would respect the Supreme Court's interpretation of the law.

"We in Congress, while we have the power to impeach, are not removing that power (from) the Supreme Court to act on and take jurisdiction on the quo warranto case," he told The Source.

Umali's opinion differs from his colleagues in the Senate, who prefer that an impeachment case be brought to them.

En banc session will be 'awkward'

Umali said Sereno's return to the Supreme Court on Wednesday was a "publicity stunt" and a "wrong move." He maintained that the justices' 13-0 resolution to have her go on indefinite leave still stood, and she should have filed an appeal.

"I think this will probably add to the votes that will be had come Friday," said Umali.

However, Cruz pointed out there was no formal restrictions that prevented Sereno from returning to work.

"If that consensus were to be construed as a directive, decision, or an order, she would have been placed as preventive suspension, or she would have been effectively ousted," said Cruz.

"What I consider would be unprecedented would be for a person to first ask for permission to go on indefinite leave and then ask permission again to return. It is a matter of personal choice," he added.

Sereno has since said she would inhibit from discussing her case. However, Umali believes it would be "awkward for the Chief Justice" if she did not step out during this discussion.

"You're there languishing on whatever they will talk about," said Umali.

Cruz said Sereno need not be present throughout the discussion, but "if she chooses to stay, she is entitled."

"Let us say there are 50 items on the agenda," he said. "Are you telling me for every matter that there is a recusal, the one who inhibits will have to step out?"

Sereno has voted against some of President Rodrigo Duterte's decisions, including extended martial law in Mindanao and the burial of late President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Duterte's critics believe the move to oust her is clampdown on the judiciary.

Watch the full interview with Cruz and Umali here.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10)  Two appears to be an unlucky number for Maria Lourdes Sereno, the second Chief Justice to be ousted from office in Philippine history.

Voting eight to six, the Supreme Court on May 11 granted the quo warranto petition to unseat Sereno. In the ruling, the justices said Sereno was "unlawfully holding and exercising the office of the Chief Justice."

This is one of two ouster proceedings against her, preempting what could have been an impeachment trial at the Senate.

The landmark ruling stopped her from becoming the country's longest-serving Chief Justice with a two-decade term that would end in 2030. She was appointed by former President Benigno Aquino III in 2012.

Her exit happens two years into the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, who had declared himself an enemy of the Chief Justice

Where did it all begin?

Spat with the President, colleagues

A month into the presidency, Duterte warned Sereno of a constitutional crisis after she expressed concern over his drug war.

In August 2016, Sereno wrote to Duterte, calling "premature" his public announcement of alleged drug personalities, including seven judges. She said one of the judges implicated by Duterte was already dead, another dismissed for incompetence, a third one was retired, and only one had jurisdiction over drug cases in court.

She also told him she will caution the judges "very strongly against surrendering" to the police in the absence of an arrest warrant.

Her letter did not sit well with the President, who lashed out at her.

"Do not create a crisis because I will order everybody in the executive department not to honor you. Gusto mo ng prangkahan (If you want me to be frank)," he warned the Chief Justice.

Sereno continued to voice her disagreements with Duterte's controversial policies. In November 2016, Sereno said Duterte "acted (with) grave abuse of discretion" in allowing the controversial burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Sereno, the first woman chief justice and the youngest to be appointed this century at age 52, was also not well-liked by some of her colleagues.

In July 2017, Sereno made headlines after one of her harshest critics, Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, questioned some of her administrative orders, including the frequent travels of her staff members.

De Castro, who lost to Sereno for the chief magistrate post, later testified against Sereno during the impeachment proceedings at the House Committee on Justice. She was joined by four other justices: Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Francis Jardeleza, and Noel Tijam.

Sereno went on an indefinite leave on March 1 at the request of 13 justices present in a February 27 en banc session.

An unfazed Sereno returned to work on May 9, and her camp said she is ready to face both the quo warranto and impeachment case.

First ouster move: Impeachment

Two impeachment complaints were filed against Sereno in August 2017. The first was filed by Dante Jimenez of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption and Eligio Mallari of the Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution. The second was filed by lawyer Larry Gadon.

Only Gadon's complaint was found sufficient in form and substance by the House Committee on Justice in September 2017.

The panel later ruled there were sufficient bases in the complaint, launching probable cause hearings that went on for over four months. Resource persons, including justices and court personnel, were called to testify.

In a February 2018 hearing, Justices de Castro and Peralta told lawmakers Sereno should have been disqualified from the chief justice post after failing to submit the statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALNs) required by the Judicial and Bar Council  the body tasked to screen applicants for the judiciary.

SALN issues topped the articles of impeachment in the report of the House Committee on Justice when it found probable cause to impeach Sereno during its deliberations in March. The House plenary is expected to vote on the complaint after it resumes session on May 14.

If approved, the report would then be brought to the Senate, which would convene as an impeachment court. A two-thirds vote of the upper chamber on at least one of the grounds for impeachment would have been enough to convict Sereno.

Sereno's predecessor, the late Renato Corona was impeached for omissions in his SALNs.

Duterte said in October 2017 that he wanted another impeachment case filed against Sereno for alleged violations in her SALN and her supposed lavish lifestyle.

No other impeachment rap was lodged, but the government's top lawyer, Solicitor General Jose Calida in March 2018 slapped Sereno with a quo warranto petition, a legal proceeding where an individual's right to hold office is challenged.

Second ouster move: Quo warranto

Calida asked the Supreme Court to void Sereno's appointment on the basis of her alleged failure to file ten years' worth of SALNs before applying for Chief Justice.

"The blatant disregard by respondent Sereno to comply with the requirements of the law and Constitution proves her lack of integrity, hence she is unlawfully holding the position as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court," Calida said.

Sereno asked the high court to junk the petition, stressing that impeachment is the only way to remove a chief justice. "Give me my day in the Senate impeachment court," Sereno had repeatedly said.

On April 9, Duterte declared himself an enemy of Sereno, apparently irked by her insistence about his possible involvement in her ouster petition.

"I am putting you on notice that I am now your enemy, and you have to be out of the Supreme Court," Duterte said.KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. -- Klamath Falls Major Crimes detectives arrested a married couple wanted by the state of Texas for parole violations and failing to register as sex offenders.

At about 8 a.m. Monday, the detectives received information regarding the couple, Shawn Monroe Cowan, 43, and Rachel Ann Guttry, 46, from Beaumont, Texas. They were living in a rural wooded area outside of Bonanza and using false identities, according to a news release from the Oregon State Police.

Cowan was listed as one of the top 10 wanted sex offenders in Texas.

The two were taken into custody without incident Tuesday. During the arrest, an OSP aircraft assisted with surveillance on the wooded area. The U.S. Marshal Service and the Klamath County Sheriffs Office assisted OSP.WFTV(ORLANDO, Fla.) -- Crews are searching a Florida retention pond after a man reported witnessing a teenager flailing in the water and go under.



Orlando Fire and Rescue crews with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) have been performing an active search and rescue mission in the pond in efforts to find the teen, Orange County Sheriffs Office spokesman Jeff Williamson said in a press conference.



The water rescue efforts will continue until they find the missing individual, which could take days, according to Williamson.



A man was in his backyard when he spotted a male teenager flailing in the water, roughly 20 to 30 yards from the shoreline, Williamson said.



The man ran back into his house to grab binoculars and better see the person in the water. The man reported hearing the person yell, it bit me, it bit me, before going underwater and never resurfacing.



Trappers from the FWC spotted a 6-foot-long alligator in the pond, Chad Weber, an FWC officer, said in the press conference.



Authorities are canvassing the area around the pond in an attempt to learn if anyone has been reported missing, Williamson said.



The pond is roughly 8-feet deep, and the water rescue search includes using boats with sonar that are highly likely to detect a person, according to Williamson. If there is a hit on sonar, a rescue dive team will be called in.



Until then, the search continues.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10)  Money from the illegal drugs trade is funding vote buying by candidates in barangay elections, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said on Thursday.

"Hanggang ngayon, hindi nawawala. Kaya nga ang sumbong sa'min all over the Philippines. Hindi lang Metro Manila [Until now, it is still there. That is why the complaints are coming from all over the Philippines. It's not just in Metro Manila.]," said DILG Undersecretary Martin Dino.

He shared one report he received from Siquijor, accompanied by a video.

"'Yung isa pinadalhan ako ng video na 'yung barangay captain nag-sha-shabu, kandidato pa ngayon. Sa Siquijor 'to [One sent me a video showing a barangay captain running for re-election taking shabu. This is from Siquijor]," said DILG Undersecretary Martin Dino.

Dino said the DILG is working with the police in preparing cases against candidates involved in illegal drugs.

He added that many barangay officials identified in the narco list the Philippine Drug Enforcemnet Agency released are still running this elections.

The barangay and Sangguniang polls are set on May 14. It has been postponed twice due to the government's war on drugs.COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) -- An Oregon school district is accused of forcing students to read Bible passages as a form of punishment, among other accusations.

The Coos Bay World reported Tuesday that the North Bend School District initially denied the claim, but the building administrator later acknowledged in an interview with state education officials that he demanded Bible reading for punishment.

The allegations include an LGBTQ student being forced to read the Bible, and extend to whether LGBTQ students were discriminated against after reporting sexual harassment.

The allegations are detailed in a March 6 letter from the Oregon Department of Education to District Superintendent Bill Yester.

The district wrote in a statement that the allegations occurred over the course of several years, "most of which had not been brought to the district's attention."Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10)  President Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order (EO) No. 54, increasing the disability compensation benefits of private employees' across the board.

According to the EO signed May 8, a 1,150 increase in monthly disability benefits has been approved. This would apply to all permanent disability pensioners and qualified beneficiaries in the public sector, effective January 2017.

The allowance of carers of permanent disability pensioners from both the private and public sectors have also been raised from 575 to 1,000 per month.

The following were also included in the EO:

The Social Security System (SSS) shall continue to implement the minimum Employees' Compensation (EC) monthly disability and survivorship pension in the private sector, which should not be less than 2,000.

The SSS shall continue to grant the entitlement of primary beneficiaries of deceased permanent total disability (PTD) pensioners in the private sector from 80 percent to 100 percent of the PTD pensioner's monthly pension.

The EO said there was a need to "continually improve benefits under the Employees Compensation Program to make them more responsive to the welfare and development needs of occupationally disabled workers."

EO 54 shall take effect immediately upon publication in a newspaper of general circulation.CLARION, Iowa - A Wright County man is going to prison for sexual abuse.

Steven Wayne Nelson, 62 of Clarion, was sentenced Wednesday to up to five years behind bars and must pay over $2,000 in fines, penalties, and surcharges. He must also serve 10 years of post-release supervision.

Nelson pleaded guilty to two counts of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. Authorities say he forced two teenage girls to drink alcohol and then had unwanted sexual contact with them at a property in rural Goldfield.AUSTIN, Minn.  A man in is jail on multiple charges after a Wednesday afternoon police chase.

Mark Allen Carpenter, 45 of Albert Lea, is facing two counts of fleeing a peace officer, giving a peace officer a false name, and 5th degree drug possession.

Austin police say they were called to the Kwik Trip on West Oakland Avenue around 2:30 pm to investigate some suspicious activity. They were told a man had left the store and driven the wrong way down a one way street. An officer says he soon spotted that vehicle and tried to stop it in the 2200 block of West Oakland Avenue.

Austin Police Chief Brian Krueger says the driver, Carpenter, identified himself as a Jeremy Johnson. The officer on the scene says the photo of Carpenters drivers license did not match and he told Carpenter to get out of the vehicle several times. The officer says he shot Carpenter with a taser when he put the vehicle in gear but only one of the barbs hit him.

Krueger says that started a chase toward Interstate 90 where Carpenter crashed while trying to take the exit. Police say he tried to run away under the bridge and up the hill of the eastbound ramp before he was tackled.

Police say a search of Carpenter and his vehicle turned up 2.92 grams of methamphetamine, 3.93 grams of marijuana, and drug paraphernalia. Officers say Carpenter explained his attempt to escape by saying he knew there was a warrant out for his arrest for a gun possession crime.WORTH COUNTY, Iowa  The name of a man killed in Tuesdays tractor vs. train crash in Worth County has been released by the Iowa State Patrol.

Brian Gene Nack, 59, of Grafton, was killed during the crash.

The accident between the tractor and the Canadian Pacific train was reported around 8 a.m. Tuesday. According to Iowa State Patrol, Nack was heading southbound on Ulmus when the train collided with the tractor, with an attached sprayer taking the brunt of the hit, spinning the tractor around.

Authorities said Wednesday that the tractor failed to yield at the crossing.

The accident happened at Ulmus Ave. and 350th St. northeast of Plymouth.ROCHESTER, Minn.  A biotechnology company is moving into the Rochester Technology Campus.

Vyriad says it has signed a contract to occupy 25,000 square feet of the former IBM location in Rochester. The company says its facility will include offices, research laboratories, and a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for virus therapies developed to treat various cancers.

Vyriad says the project is being made possible by support from Mayo Clinic, Rochester Area Economic Development, and the Southeast Minnesota Capital Fund. State government and the City of Rochester have also committed $370,000 in equipment funding.

With the custom buildout of this facility, Vyriad is taking a giant leap forward in delivering our novel oncolytic virus therapies to patients, said Stephen Russell, MD, PhD, President and CEO of Vyriad and a physician-researcher at Mayo Clinic. With two clinical-stage oncolytic virotherapy platforms and an expanding pre-IND pipeline, this Rochester facility will enable us to more rapidly advance our multi-pronged assault on cancer. We greatly appreciate the strong support we have received from Mayo Clinic and at the local and state levels, and we look forward to continuing to work with Mayo Clinic in our mission to deliver important new therapies to patients as well as drive local bioinnovation and economic development in Rochester and Minnesota for years to come.

The company says this move will allow them to consolidate all their employees at one location to work more effectively together.

For more information on the Rochester Technology Campus, click here.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10)  In the mountainous area of Sitio Greenhills in Rizal, Kalinga under the scorching heat of the sun, researchers, archaeologists, and local field workers search for pieces and remnants of history.

It was an ordinary day in February 2014 when the group led by Thomas Inggico found a tooth that would later reveal an astonishing discovery.

"People were arguing whether it was a rock or a tooth, it was bluish and then it came to a point that my colleague picked it and showed it to me and she said ipin ito, it was a tooth." Mylene Lising recalled during the press briering held at the National Museum of Natural History on May 10.

Lising was one of the archaeologists in the team searching for ancient fossils.

Kathryn Manalo, another archaeologist also said that it took a while before the team realized how big their discovery was.

"It was just an ordinary day. Before that, it was nothing remarkable and special and we were around a meter deep, and we were not expecting something," she said.

But when the team saw the rhinoceros tooth, everything changed.

"The local people who were working for us said, 'Bato lang 'yan' [that is only a rock] but then I said let's wait for it and when we finally got the confirmation it was an amazing moment because that was the first part of rhino that we found," Manalo explained.

Motivation to look for

Researchers went back to the area and looked for more until the team unearthed a whole Rhinoceros Phlilipinensis fossil. The team said at least 75 percent of the fossil's remains are intact.

Thirteen of the bones recovered displayed cut marks that indicate the animal was butchered, and that there was human presence during that time.

But while the research team was overwhelmed with the disovery, they found more  at least 57 stone tools used during the same period.

"Rhinoceros remains and stone tools within the same layer points to the same association and coexistence in the past," said Jeremy Barns, director of the National Museum. "Butchery marks on the rhino bones lead to conclusions that the carcass was butchered to the side and the marks were made was from a stone on the nearby river."

He added, "the addition is simple rhinoros remains plus stone tools plus butchery marks equals indirect evidence was presence of ancient humans when this particular ancient rhino was walking around the earth."

Barns was also thankful for the cooperation of the community during the excavation process.

The municipal mayor of Rizal, Kalinga admits there was an initial resistance from the locals about the excavation process, thinking that the group was only for 'treasure hunting' on the site.

"Noong 2013 na surprise ako na may nag excavate sa area ko 'yun pala mga archaeologists sila. 'Nung una galit sila (locals) ayaw nila so maraming consultation ginawa namin sa locals until such time pumayag na sila [ Back in 2013 I was surprised that they excavated in my city. We learned later they were archeaologists. The locals initially were angry. So we did a lot of consultation sessions with the locals until they finally agreed]," Mayor Marcelo Dela Cruz explained.

No changing of history books for now

Despite the astonishing discovery of the rhino's of fossils from 709,000 years ago, the team has yet to find an actual human fossil that co-existed with the animal.

When asked if teachers should now teach it to theit students, Barns said that it's still a very long process and researchers will go back to the area in June to continue the excavation.

What they have so far are bones and stone tools that indicate early human occupation.

Reseachers say that while there is a great possibility that the so-called 'Kalinga man' had existed hundreds of thousands of years ago, they hope to find more evidence through the help of Kalinga locals.

Unit the recent discovery, scientists said the oldest known human fossil in the Philippines was a foot bone found in Callao Cave, in northern Cagayan province, which was dated to 67,000 years ago.

Before the Callao Cave discovery, there was the "Tabon Man" of Palawan, which was the oldest known skeletal remains in the country dating back to 16,500 years ago. The oldest human fossil recovered from Tabon cave is a lower leg bone that dates back to 47,000 years, according to the National Museum.

Other early humans in Asia include Indonesia's Java Man and China's Peking Man.CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - It's not unusual to tell people about where you've visited and nowadays, people are encouraged to "blog" about their trips.

This week, being on your phone is encouraged as more than 100 people visit Clear Lake for their Building Community event. Bloggers and others who market communities are meeting up to find out how they can help each other out. Clear Lake is expected to bring in around $27,000 to their economy having this conference there.

Bloggers, to me, are the way of community can communicate. At the heart of a community is communication. Well, what's today's communication look like? Well, we can put out what we think about ourselves, somebody can come in and share their experience that's real, Maureen Seamonds, from Webster City, said.ROCHESTER, Minn.  The search Iowa teenager Jake Wilson continues after hes been missing for over three weeks. Wilson, who has autism, went missing after telling his parents he was going to the creek.

The situation is raising questions as to what couldve helped prevent it, like possibly more awareness that Wilson was autistic.

Michelle Branch, of Rochester, has an 11-year-old daughter with Autism. She said her daughter used to wander, and still often goes running without looking both ways when crossing the street.

Shell just walk out, literally, I the middle of the street, Branch said. Its a busy road, she could potentially get hit.

So, Michelle took action. For $50 per sign, Michelle bought two Autistic Child traffic signs through the city of Rochester. They are displayed on a street light in front of her house. Michelle said she was concerned about bringing unwanted or isolating attention to her daughter, but ultimately feels the signs are worth the safety.

You dont want to make it that theyre differentbut it was more for the help, so that people were more aware, she said. I feel safer with it.

She said if people are aware a child with autism is in the neighborhood, they can redirect how they interact with someone wandering on the street, or if they interact at all.

Maybe more people would be apt to stop and make sure that individual is safe. But I would really like more people to be aware of those signs, because they're up there for a reason, she said.

People in Rochester can purchase a sign by submitting an Impaired Child Signing Permit form at City Hall. Sign options include autistic child, deaf child, and blind child, for $50 per sign. If financial cost of the sign is a factor, people can apply to have the fee waived by the Rochester City Council.

Michelles advice to people considering a sign like this?

Yes, do it. It doesnt hurt to have that sign. I think its going to be helpful, she said.FOREST CITY, Iowa  A Forest City man is facing a felony sexual abuse charge after allegedly assaulting a minor female.

Stephen Aguirre was arrested in Winnebago County in connection to an alleged incident Oct. 27 of 2017.

According to court documents, the defendant was residing at 906 West J. St. in Forest City when the alleged assault occurred in the basement.

A no-contact order was issued and a warrant was served on May 1.ROCHESTER, Minn. - Gov. Mark Dayton visited a classroom of 1st graders at Franklin Elementary School and let them ask any questions they wanted. Some of the questions asked were if he likes to read and if he has any pets. The answer to both questions was yes.

The reason Dayton was at the school is because he is urging legislature to support emergency school aid for Minnesota schools.

"I don't think the question is how little can we do for our schools. I think the question is how much can we do for our schools to meet the needs," said Governor Dayton.

According to the Minnesota Rural Education Association, at least 33 Greater Minnesota school districts are cutting staff due to budget deficits, including 85 teachers.

The Rochester Public School District is facing a $1.6 million budget deficit for the 2018-2019 school year. If Dayton's plan is approved by legislature, it won't come in time to prevent Rochester from making those budget cuts. However, Superintendent Munoz explains the district could put that money into their savings to help prevent future budget cuts, or consider buying back resources.ROCHESTER, Minn.  A bomb threat that prompted an evacuation at John Marshall High School on Wednesday began when someone called the school and said they were going to blow up the school, authorities said Thursday morning.

The investigation as to who made the threats has been turned over to the FBI, Rochester police said.

The school district called police at 9:10 a.m. Wednesday reporting that two phone calls that came into the school within minutes of one another and that there was a bomb inside.

Officers responded and the building was evacuated before students were let back in at 11:32 a.m.

Rochester Police, the Rochester Fire Department, the administration of the school district and two K9s trained for explosives searched the school and nothing unusual was located.AUSTIN, Minn. - Dallas Ball's house caught fire back in March.

"I didn't know all that happened until I got the police report and the guy openly said, 'I set the fire, it was all from the inside,'" Dallas said.

The fire got so bad, two people who were inside of the house at the time had to be saved from the collapsing roof. For the first time since the fire, Dallas came back to look at the damage.

"I'm looking at it and it makes me sick to my stomach that someone could do that," he said. "It hurts, actually being back here and seeing it and knowing it has my daughter's stuff in there, her toys and all the stuff I bought her for Christmas."

Darrell Wigham pleaded not guilty to first-degree arson and six charges of attempted murder. This Arson Awareness Week, Dallas wants people to know what happened to him can happen to anyone.

"I didn't think this was going to happen and it happened to me. I feel sorry for anyone who has to go through this, I really do," he said.

To learn about some preventative tips for arson, click here.MASON CITY, Iowa  A Cerro Gordo County woman is pleading guilty to a drug felony.

Jennifer Lee Fredrickson, 31 of Mason City, was arrested on November 10, 2017. Law enforcement said she had a tool box that contained marijuana, small baggies, and a digital scale. Officers say they also found a small baggie of methamphetamine on Fredrickson when she was booked into the Cerro Gordo County Jail.

She has now entered a guilty plea to possession with intent to deliver marijuana. Fredricksons sentencing has been scheduled for June 20.OSAGE, Iowa  A man is pleading not guilty to burglarizing a rural Mitchell County home.

Dustin William Hall, 37 of Osage, is charged with 3rd degree burglary. He was arrested on April 19 after the Mitchell County Sheriffs Office was called to the 3000 block of Hickory Avenue on a report of suspicious activity. A deputy says he saw Hall on the roof of a house with an open window on the second floor and a window screen on the ground.

The deputy says cash and gift cards were found in Halls pockets. The deputy also says Hall was covered with mud and gravel and muddy, gravel footprints were found throughout the home.

Halls trial is set to begin on June 6.MASON CITY, Iowa  A Plymouth man charged with drug possession gets probation.

Scott Allan Shafer, 46, pleaded guilty to possession of contraband in a correctional institution. He was arrested after a traffic stop on November 24, 2017, and was booked into the Cerro Gordo County Jail for possession of meth and other charges.

Shafer has now been sentenced to between three to five years of supervised probation.CHARLES CITY, Iowa  A Floyd County man has been sentenced for illegally using his employers credit card.

Danny Jay Brown, 43 of Charles City, pleaded guilty to 3rd degree theft and received two years of probation. Authorities say Brown used his employers credit card between April and June of 2017 to make personal purchases of $7,200. Police say Brown bought things like gas, auto parts, and video games.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10)  Philippine and Kuwaiti officials will sign on Friday the proposed labor deal protecting the welfare of Filipino workers.

In a media briefing Thursday, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque confirmed the agreement will be signed in Kuwait at around 1:45 p.m. (6:45 p.m. Philippine time).

"I think they really wanted to resolve the situation. I had a pull aside meeting with the member of Assad family-sila yung ruling Emir-at meron namang pinadala sa aking personal message to the President which I have relayed to the President," Roque said.

"It's very clear that they want to normalize ties as soon as possible. Medyo nasaktan but they realized that it is to the mutual interest of the Philippines and Kuwait to resolve this as soon as possible," he added.

Malacanang cited Presidential Adviser for Overseas Filipino Workers Affairs Abdullah Mama-o, who was appointed special envoy to Kuwait on Tuesday, for the development in the labor deal.

The proposed labor deal would include provisions such as no confiscation of passport - depositing instead with the Philippine embassy, seven hours of sleep, a day off, permission to cook food, and no physical abuse.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said he will first meet his Kuwaiti counterpart before the signing.

"It looks like naman that everything na hiningi, tapos may dinagdag lang kami two days ago," Cayetano said.

[Translation: It looks like everything we asked for, and those we added two days ago (will be approved).]

Cayetano said they added a provision creating a special unit within the Kuwaiti police that the Philippine Embassy can liaison with regarding complaints of Filipino workers. There would also be a 24-hour hotline dedicated to distressed workers who may need immediate assistance.

Government officials have interchangeably used memorandum of understanding and memorandum of agreement to refer to the labor deal.

The labor deal comes amid a diplomatic row between the two nations, after a video showing Philippine embassy officials on a rescue mission in Kuwait went viral.

The video had prompted Kuwait to declare Philippine Ambassador Renato Villa persona non grata and expel him. Warrants of arrest were also issued against Filipino diplomats who participated in the rescue effort.

President Rodrigo Duterte had also issued a deployment ban to Kuwait in February, after authorities found the body of Filipina maid Joanna Demafelis stuffed inside a freezer. Thousands of Filipino workers in Kuwait have been repatriated since.

With the labor deal set to be signed, Roque said the lifting of the deployment ban to Kuwait could happen soon.

"I would say that I am confident that with the signing of the MOA, mayroong partial lifting na mangyayari pero hindi pa siguro full lifting until we arrange the other details," Roque said.

The Philippine officials in Kuwait will return home on Saturday, along with an initial batch of 80 undocumented Filipino workers, with the Kuwaiti government shouldering the airfare expenses.

READ: Malacanang: 4 Filipino drivers released after meeting between PH, Kuwait officials

Malacanang earlier said the four Filipino drivers hired by the Philippine embassy to rescue distressed Filipino workers in Kuwait have been freed, and all charges against them have been dropped.

Kuwait is a top destination for overseas Filipino workers, with some 260,000 Filipinos working there as of 2018.

As of February 2018, remittances from Kuwait amounted to P5.5 billion, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. In 2017, a total of P42 billion were remitted from the Gulf state.

CNN Philippines' Senior Correspondent Ina Andolong contributed to this report.ROCHESTER, Minn. - After protesters took over busy intersections blocking traffic, the Minnesota House passed a bill toughing penalties for protesterers who block traffic, transit lines and airport access.

It passed Tuesday could cost protesters up to a year in jail.

I sort of agree, said Mackenzie Wilson When Im late to work my boss is not going to care that there was a protest...it falls on my shoulders.

There was a different view.

This is not free speech, said Jessica Demczyk.

You can still get your message across on the sidewalk or something, Brittany Smolder told us.

But other students think differently.

Shirhan Vegas thinks that this is an infringement on free speech.

I think we should be able to protest without consequences, said Vegas.

Vegas adds that in order for change to happen you have to be willing to fight and possibly go to jail, but if officers can arrest protesters for protesting and blocking traffic, Vegas fears people wont be inclined to protest.

Not everyone is willing to protest and go to jail.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton calls the bill a non-issue.

For Vegas, she thinks the bill needs to have more details.ROCHESTER, Minn. - The growth of Rochester means new buildings going up, and only some old buildings getting completely torn down.

The chance for more empty buildings in the area has Rochester Fire Department focusing on abandoned buildings this Arson Awarness Week.

While the act may seem unlikely in your neighborhood, there are about 1,100 intentionally set fires in Minnesota each year, which includes arson.

Chad Kuhlman with RFD said fires in abandoned buildings could be especially dangerous since you never really know if people are inside. It also poses a greater threat to the women and men responding to the fire.

"The floors and ceilings of these structures of abandoned buildings can be weaker and can put firefighters at risk, greater risk, than otherwise when responding to a fire that isn't intentional or isn't in an abandon building," he said.

Here are a few preventative tips for arson:

Remove flammable material from property, like trash and overgrown brush. Be aware of abandon buildings in your neighborhood. Get to know neighbors so everyone can keep an eye on the neighborhood.

People with any information on suspicious fires are encouraged to call the arson hotline at 1-800-723-2020.

Click here to watch how one man is rebuilding his life after losing his house to arson.WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trump will meet with North Korea's Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12, Trump announced Thursday, hours after suggesting that the release of three Americans held in the North heralded a potential breakthrough toward denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

"We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" Trump said in a tweet.

With the final details in place, Trump and Kim will meet in the first North Korea-U.S. summit talks since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Kim has suspended nuclear and missile tests and put his nuclear program up for negotiation, but questions remain about how serious his offer is and what disarmament steps he would willing to take.

Earlier Thursday, with the American former detainees by his side on a dark air base tarmac, Trump said during a made-for-TV ceremony that it was a "great honor" to welcome the men back to the U.S., but he added that "the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons."

Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, other top officials and first lady Melania joined the president in the celebration in the wee hours of Thursday morning at Joint Base Andrews near Washington. The former detainees  Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim  had been released Wednesday amid the warming of relations between longtime adversaries.

They appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft. When asked by reporters how it felt to be home, one of the men answered through a translator, "It's like a dream; we are very, very happy." They later gave the president a round of applause.

Suggesting that recovery from their ordeals would take time, Pence recounted Thursday morning that Pompeo told him that at the refueling stop in Anchorage, "one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadn't seen daylight in a very long time."

Trump thanked North Korean leader Kim for releasing the Americans and said he believes Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearization at their upcoming summit. "I really think he wants to do something," the president said.

Pence said Thursday on NBC News, "In this moment the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith."

Singapore had emerged as the likely host of the summit after Trump yielded to the concerns of his aides and backed off his desire to hold the meeting at the inter-Korean demilitarized zone.

Located at the southern tip of Malaysia, Singapore is a regional hub in Southeast Asia whose free enterprise philosophy welcomes trading partners from everywhere. It has close diplomatic and defense ties with the U.S. and yet is also familiar ground for North Korea, with which it established diplomatic relations in 1975.

A prosperous city state, Singapore has already hosted a historic meeting between two leaders burdened with a legacy of bad blood and mutual distrust. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwan's then-President Ma Ying-jeou came in 2015 to discuss cross-strait issues, the first such meeting since Mao Zedong founded the People's Republic of China in 1949.

In the U.S., shortly before 3 a.m. on Thursday, Trump and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the detainees had traveled and spent several minutes meeting with them privately. The group then emerged at top of the airplane stairway, where the men held up their arms in an exuberant display.

U.S. service members on the tarmac burst into applause and cheers.

"This is a special night for these three really great people," Trump told reporters. On the U.S. relationship with North Korea, Trump declared, "We're starting off on a new footing."

The White House choreographed the arrival event, suspending a giant American flag between two firetrucks on the tarmac and inviting reporters to witness the return. The image-conscious president told reporters, "I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 o'clock in the morning."

The men were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where they were to be evaluated and receive medical treatment before being reunited with their families.

The public display stood in stark contrast to the low-key, private reception that the State Department had envisioned, in keeping with a practice of trying to protect potentially traumatized victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after their ordeal.

Department officials took great pains on the prisoners' release in North Korea, as well as on their flights to Japan and Alaska, to keep them sequestered not only from the two journalists traveling with Pompeo but also from staffers not immediately involved in their cases. The trio, along with medical personnel that included a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Pompeo's plane in a small section of 12 business class-size seats cordoned off by curtains on both ends.

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns in keeping with the minimal amount of information they had released since the men were imprisoned.

Shortly after they touched down in Alaska, the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," they said. "We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental U.S.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kim's willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating U.S. moves to tighten sanctions  branded "maximum pressure" by the president.

Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the "official suggestion" of the U.S. president, said North Korea's official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Warmbier was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

"We are happy for the hostages and their families," the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. "We miss Otto."

___

Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey and Ken Thomas in Washington, Grant Peck in Bangkok, and Eric Talmadge in Pyongyang contributed to this report.FOREST CITY, Iowa  A North Iowa teen is getting probation for a police chase that ended with him crashing into a building.

Andrew Maurice Youngers, 18 of Forest City, pleaded guilty to eluding, operating a motor vehicle without the owners consent, and six counts of 3rd degree burglary. Hes been sentenced to two years of probation and must pay restitution to his victims.

Youngers was charged with 18 crimes after a series of vehicle break-ins in Forest City and Fertile in April and May of 2017. He was arrested after a police chase on May 7, 2017, where Youngers crashed into the Manufacturing Bank and Trust building in Forest City.WASHINGTON/ZURICH (Reuters) - An attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels said he has additional evidence linking a Russian businessman to U.S. President Donald Trumps personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, as international and U.S. companies on Wednesday acknowledged large payments to Cohens consulting firm.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG and U.S. telecommunications company AT&T Inc said they made payments to Cohens firm, Essential Consultants, in efforts to gain intelligence into the Trump administrations thinking on issues affecting them. South Koreas Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd (KAI) said it hired the consultancy for services on accounting matters.

Novartis and AT&T said they were contacted by the office of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller about the situation in late 2017, and provided all the information requested. Both companies said they now consider the matter closed.

A senior official at Novartis told NBC News that Cohen reached out shortly after Trumps November 2016 election win promising access to the new administration. Boston-based Stat News also reported that then Novartis Chief Executive Officer Joe Jimenez instructed his team to strike a deal with Cohen.

A Democratic U.S. senator called for hearings about the company payments to the firm run by Cohen, a longtime attorney and self-described fixer for Trump.

Payments to the companies may well have been used to influence the president of the United States, using Michael Cohen and his shell company as a conduit, Senator Richard Blumenthal said at a news conference.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, at a regular press briefing, referred questions about the reported payments to Trumps outside counsel. Asked whether Trump had taken any action to benefit Novartis, AT&T or KAI, Sanders said: Not that Im aware of.

The payments were first mentioned on Tuesday by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Daniels, who says she had a one-time sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 and was paid $130,000 by Cohen in October 2016 shortly before the elections in November to stay quiet about it. Trump denies having sex with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. She has sued both Trump and Cohen.

In television interviews with ABC News and MSNBC, Avenatti declined to say how he obtained information about the payments.

Cohen said a report published on Tuesday by Avenattis law firm detailing the payments was inaccurate. In a court filing, Cohens lawyer Stephen Ryan said Avenatti appears to have Cohens actual bank records and questioned how he could have obtained them lawfully.

Bank records of the company payments to Cohens firm and payments from Columbus Nova LLC, a New York-based investment firm linked to Russian businessman Viktor Vekselberg should be released, Avenatti said in the interviews.

Vekselberg, who has ties to the Kremlin, and his Renova Group conglomerate were sanctioned by the United States in April, freezing assets of up to $2 billion.

A lawyer for Columbus Nova has said Vekselberg had nothing to do with the transaction Avenatti said amounted to $500,000.

Novartis admitted it made a costly mistake in making payments totaling nearly $1.2 million to Cohens firm. Trump took office in January 2017 and Novartis signed a one-year contract a month later. After meeting with Cohen in March 2017, Novartis determined the firm was not going to be able to provide the type of U.S. healthcare policy information it was seeking.

In hindsight, this must be seen as a mistake, Novartis spokesman Michael Willi told Reuters, making sure to note that the arrangement was struck under former CEO Jimenez and in no way connected to new CEO Vas Narasimhan.

GAINING INSIGHTS

AT&T confirmed payments of $200,000 to Essential Consultants, although a source familiar with the matter told Reuters it likely paid more than that and could total as much as $600,000. South Koreas KAI said on Wednesday it paid $150,000 to Cohens firm.

AT&T said it hoped to gain insights into the new administration at a time when it sought approval from antitrust regulators for an $85 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc.

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island, the top Democrats on antitrust subcommittees, wrote to the Department of Justice on Wednesday urging investigation of the payments, including whether there were efforts to influence the department.

This is not the first time that questions have arisen regarding potential interference by this administration in antitrust law enforcement, the lawmakers said.

Washingtons influence industry is jammed with consultants hired by corporations and trade associations to provide government intelligence about elected officials. Often, they provide information about the inner-workings of an important government office, such as the White House and leadership in Congress.

By choosing not to communicate directly with elected officials on behalf of corporate clients, consultants are not required to register with the government and report lobbying. This form of consulting grew dramatically under former President Barack Obama, who imposed regulations barring lobbyists from taking government jobs or entering the White House.

The U.S. Treasury Departments inspector generals office said on Wednesday it opened an investigation into whether confidential banking records involving Cohen may have been leaked. The Washington Post first reported the investigation.

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion by people associated with Trump, who denies any coordination between Moscow and his campaign. The Kremlin denies meddling in the election.

Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to once again decry news coverage about him. One post said that despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake).

(Report published by Aventatti and Associates - tmsnrt.rs/2ru3Gih)Dan Williams, Angus McDowall

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israel said it attacked nearly all of Irans military infrastructure in Syria on Thursday after Iranian forces fired rockets at Israeli-held territory for the first time in the most extensive military exchange ever between the two adversaries.

It was the heaviest Israeli barrage in Syria since the 2011 start of the civil war in which Iranians, allied Shiite Muslim militias and Russian troops have deployed in support of President Bashar al-Assad. The confrontation came two days after the United States announced its withdrawal, with Israels urging, from a nuclear accord with Iran.

Israel destroyed dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria, as well as Syrian anti-aircraft units that tried unsuccessfully to shoot down Israeli planes, Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said.

Syrian state media said Israel launched dozens of missiles and hit a radar station, Syrian air defense positions and an ammunition dump, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies.

The Syrian Army Command said Israels attack killed three people and injured two others. A Britain-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the strikes killed at least 23 military personnel, including Syrians and non-Syrians.

The White House, in a statement, condemned Irans provocative rocket attacks from Syria and said it supported Israels right to defend itself.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israels air strikes were appropriate because Iran had crossed a red line.

We are in the midst of a protracted battle and our policy is clear: We will not allow Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria, Netanyahu said in a brief video address.

Expectations of a regional flare-up, amid warnings from Israel that it was determined to prevent any Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, were stoked by U.S. President Donald Trumps announcement on Tuesday about the withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

The United States portrayed its rejection of that agreement as a response, in part, to Irans military interventions in the Middle East, underpinning Netanyahus tough line towards Tehran.

Israel said 20 Iranian Grad and Fajr rockets were shot down by its Iron Dome air defense system or did not reach targets in the occupied Golan Heights, territory captured from Syria in a 1967 war. The Quds Force, an external arm of Irans Revolutionary Guards, carried out the rocket salvo, Israel said.

There was no immediate comment from Iran.

Iran and Israel were already drawing deeper into confrontation before Trump pulled the United States out of the deal, but his move has shaken up the region. Within Iran, it could empower hardliners while weakening the moderate camp that has sought better relations with the West.

EVERYONE GOT THE MESSAGE

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Iranian rockets either fell short of their targets - military bases in the Golan - or were intercepted.

We hit ... almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, Lieberman said at the annual Herzliya security conference near Tel Aviv. I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message.

The White House said, The Iranian regimes deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East.

The Syrian foreign ministry said the Israeli attack indicated the start of a new phase of aggression against Syria.

Thursdays exchange followed a suspected Israeli rocket strike in Syria on Tuesday on a military base in Kisweh, hours after Trumps announcement on the nuclear deal.

The Syrian Observatory for Human rights said 15 people, including eight Iranians, were killed in that attack. A commander in the pro-Syrian government regional alliance said there were no casualties. Israel, as it has typically done in similar incidents, neither confirmed nor denied a role.

France urged Iran on Thursday to refrain from all military provocation and cautioned it against all temptations for regional hegemony.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the overnight attacks by Iranian forces and called on Iran to contribute to de-escalation of tensions in the region.

Russia, generally friendly to Israel but fighting in Syrias civil war on the same side as Iran, called on both to show restraint and resolve differences through diplomatic means.

Russias defense ministry said Syria had shot down more than half of the missiles fired by Israel, RIA news agency reported.

Conricus, the Israeli military spokesman, said the military focused on inflicting long-term damage on the Iranian military establishment in Syria and assessed it will take a substantial time to replenish.

The Israelis fear that Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah are turning Syria into a new front against them. Israel says its occasional strikes in Syria aim to prevent such an outcome. Israel regards Iran as its biggest threat and has repeatedly targeted Iranian forces and allied militia in Syria.

Additional reporting by Jeffrey Heller and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Dahlia Nehme and Tom Perry and Ellen Francis in Beirut; Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Angus McDowall; Editing by Will Dunham, Tom Perry, Mark Heinrich and Peter GraffWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mexicos Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo on Thursday said he expected to find out within the next two days if a new NAFTA deal with the United States and Canada was possible in the short term.

As time runs out to secure some kind of agreement, major differences remain between the three members of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

I think we will be finding out through the day and tomorrow ... if we really have what it takes to be able to land these things in the short run. We are finding out that possibility, Guajardo told Reuters.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury imposed fresh sanctions on Thursday against six people it linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards elite Qods Force and three Iranian entities, just days after President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. The six individuals and three entities were sanctioned under U.S. regulations targeting specially designated global terrorist suspects and Iranian financial activity, the Treasury Department said in a statement on its website. Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Tim Ahmann

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 10)  Are the Tulfos going to return the P60 million paid by the Tourism Department or not?

Broadcaster and columnist Mon Tulfo denied the claim of Ferdinand Topacio  legal counsel of outgoing Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo  that the production house owned by his brother Ben agreed to return the millions of pesos paid to them for a tourism ad placement.

"When Topacio said the Tulfo brothers, in a family meeting, had decided to return the P60 million, the guy was talking for himself. I was never consulted. Nor were Ben, Erwin or Raffy," he wrote in his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Thursday.

Topacio said on CNN Philippines on Monday that Ben personally called to inform him that his production house Bitag Media Unlimited, Inc. agreed to return the Tourism Department's advertising budget to end the controversy. Topacio also said that the money would be returned even if Teo resigns.

Ramon said his brothers, Raffy and "Kilos Pronto" co-host Erwin, are asking why they should return the money to the government.

"Why would I return the money that I never got in the first place? That's what Erwin and Raffy are also asking," he said in his ]entitled "Setting The Record Straight."

Topacio brushed off Tulfo's piece, insisting he has talked to Ben.

"Si Mon lang ang may sabi nun, huwag niyo nang intindihin si Mon, kawawa naman ulyanin na yun eh. Ben and Raffy should speak for themselves. I never consulted him... Ang kliyente ko si Wanda Teo, not even Ben, but Ben talked to me twice," he said.

[Translation: Don't listen to Mon, he's old. Ben and Raffy should speak for themselves. I never consulted him. Wanda Teo is my client, not Ben, but Ben talked to me twice.]

Teo got caught in the controversy after the Commission on Audit (COA) questioned her department's P60-million ad placement on the Tulfo brothers' show "Kilos Pronto" through a deal with government network PTV-4.

COA said the transaction between PTV and Bitag Media lacked supporting documents. It said the Tourism Department paid P60.009 million in three tranches to Bitag Media to place commercials on "Kilos Pronto," the show on PTV-4 which features Ben and Erwin Tulfo and Alex Santos. "Kilos Pronto" is a blocktimer, meaning it is paying PTV-4 to air their show on the state-run TV network.

Blame on Ben, not Wanda

Mon Tulfo pinned the blame on his brother Ben, saying he should have refused the ad placement on his show "Kilos Pronto" as it could put Teo in a tight spot.

"Ben ... should have known better than to touch the multi-million peso advertising contract with PTV-4 since that would constitute conflict of interest on his sister's part," he said.

Mon said Teo wanted to protect her younger brother, Ben, which resulted in her eventually losing her job.

He added President Rodrigo Duterte sacked Teo, contrary to Topacio's statement she resigned voluntarily out of delicadeza and to protect the President.Do you support President Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Iran nuclear treaty?Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.Long Island bar owner declares Act of War on East Tennessee town



Freeport, Li challenges Kingsport, Tn. for naming rights to famed Long Island Iced Tea

FREEPORT, NEW YORK  Long Island bartenders and bar owners have declared an act of war against the Kingsport, Tennessee Tourism Board, after they recently issued a statement on May 9, 2018 claiming that the Long Island Iced Tea was actually created in the small southern town. The collective group of Long Islanders, who call this the Battle of Long Island, have issued a formal letter to the Kingsport Tourism Board declaring the challenge.



Bartenders from the famed Nautical Mile in Freeport, New York have challenged Tennessee bartenders to a Iced Tea Contest, with the winner securing naming rights once-and-for-all, and the loser tasked with cleaning their opponents bars and bathrooms after a evening of debauchery.



According to Long Islanders, the cocktails origins date back to 1972, where Rosebud Butt, a bartender at the Oak Beach Inn in the Hamptons, invented the concoction and called it the Long Island Iced Tea. Former-bartender and restauranteur Butch Yamali, a personal friend of Rosebud, will be on hand to discuss the pride of Long Islanders in the drink and the importance of preserving the honor of Rosebud, who died in 2014.



The Nautical Mile serves over a million Long Island Iced Teas a summer, as it remains one of the most popular drinks and a point of pride for millions of Long Islanders.



A team of bartenders from New York is expected to visit Tennessee for a Long Island Iced Tea Contest and have formally submitted a challenge in the letter below to Kingsport mayor John Clark and the Kingsport Tourism Bureau. Read original article by Kingsport Tourism Bureau

Published May 10, 2018













A federal grand jury in Virginia has indicted former CIA operations officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee for conspiracy to spy for China , in a case that has been under investigation for more than six years.

Federal officials say the case represents one of the most damaging spy cases in the CIA s checkered history of losing recruited agents to foreign spy services.

Mr. Lee is believed by American intelligence and law enforcement officials to be the cause of the agency losing a large number of its recruited agents in China around 2010. The agency and FBI spent the next eight years trying to find out the source of the losses.

The rolling up of the CIA s informant network in China follows similar losses of most recruited CIA agents in the Soviet Union and Russia as the result of spying by CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames and the FBI spy for the Russians, former Special Agent Robert Hanssen, during the 1980s and 1990s.

In addition to the compromise of Soviet and Russian agents, the CIA also lost agents in Eastern Europe during the Cold War and later in Cuba as the result of foreign spy penetrations.

In the Lee case, the indictment revealed that FBI agents traced two notebooks to Mr. Lee that contained handwritten notes with classified information including, but not limited to, true names and phone numbers of assets and covert CIA employees, operational notes from asset meetings, operational meeting locations and locations of covert facilities.

Mr. Lee was charged with conspiracy to commit espionage and illegally retaining classified documents. If convicted, he faces life in prison.

According to the indictment, Mr. Lee lived in Hong Kong after retiring from CIA in 2007. In 2010, he was recruited by two Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) intelligence officers, who offered him cash in exchange for providing CIA secrets.

The indictment states the ex- CIA officer had access to the identities of covert CIA officers; the identities of clandestine human sources; details of sensitive intelligence collection operations and methods; details of CIA clandestine training; and details of clandestine tradecraft the agency employs to avoid detection by hostile foreign intelligence services.

The Chinese intelligence officers gave Mr. Lee $100,000 during their first meeting and then sent numerous taskings  intelligence collection orders  to him during the spy operation.

After the first meeting with the Chinese, Mr. Lee reported the spy pitch from the MSS, but kept secret the $100,000 cash payment.

Through 2013, Mr. Lee made hundreds of thousands of dollars in deposits in a Hong Kong bank the indictment suggests were payments for spying.

In addition to information on recruited agents, Mr. Lee provided the Chinese with details about CIA operations and facilities, according to the indictment.

Mr. Lee also tried to rejoin the CIA in 2012 and hid his travel to China in the prior two years from CIA interviewers. He also falsified his bank records to hide the MSS payments, according to the indictment.

U.S. counterintelligence agents conducted a search of Mr. Lees hotel room in Honolulu in August 2012 and discovered a notebook containing top-secret CIA information, including the names of operational assets  recruited CIA agents.

During an interview with FBI agents in January, the 53-year-old Mr. Lee denied keeping the notebook and other secret information found in the hotel room. The Justice Department announced the indictment Tuesday.

Espionage is a serious crime that can expose our country to grave danger, said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Nancy McNamara. The FBI will continue to aggressively pursue all allegations of espionage.

Said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers: Lees alleged actions betrayed the American people and his former colleagues at the CIA . We will not tolerate such threats to our country or its national security.

Haspel on killing Americans

Gina Haspel, President Trumps nominee to be the next CIA director, stated in written Senate testimony that American citizens remain targets of CIA drone strikes and other lethal operations.

Asked her views on the subject, the career operations officer made clear that all lethal strikes against Americans are coordinated with the attorney general.

Although being a U.S. citizen does not immunize members of an enemy force from attack, a decision to use lethal force against a U.S. citizen is one of the most serious the U.S. government could face, Ms. Haspel wrote ahead of her Senate Select Committee on Intelligence confirmation hearing.

When deciding whether to use lethal force against a U.S. citizen, the U.S. government would need to take that persons constitutional rights into account. The Department of Justice has set forth a detailed and authoritative framework for the constitutional analysis in public documents and speeches, she added.

The first known American killed in a CIA drone strike was Anwar al-Awlaki, an English-speaking Islamic terrorist who was the inspiration for several high-profile terror attacks in the United States.

Al-Awlaki was killed in a CIA drone strike in Yemen on Sept. 30, 2011, when two Predator drones fired Hellfire missiles at a vehicle convoy the New Mexico-born cleric was riding in. He left behind English-language videotapes urging radical Islamists to carry out terrorist attacks.

His videos have been linked to Army Maj. Nidal Hasan who killed 13 people and injured more than 30 others in a 2009 shooting attack at Fort Hood, Texas. Al-Awlaki also was said to inspire terrorist Omar Mateen who carried out the Orlando nightclub shooting in June 2016 that killed 49 people.

And al-Awlaki also inspired Syed Rizwan Farook, one of two terrorists who killed 14 people during a shooting attack in San Bernardino, California, in December 2014.

Asked about Mr. Trumps statement in 2015 that the United States should kill the families of terrorists in addition to terrorists themselves, Ms. Haspel said she was unaware in 30 years at CIA that a U.S. official had proposed or actually targeted terrorists family members.

I can assure you that, if confirmed as director of the CIA , I would not condone any such activity by the U.S. government regardless of its legality under domestic and international law, she said.

Mattis on Iran

Defense Secretary James N. Mattis told a Senate hearing Wednesday that Iran has continued destabilizing activities throughout the Middle East.

They continue their malign activities across the region, Mr. Mattis told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.

Syrian President Bashar Assad is still in power today, still murdering his own people and still creating refugee flows that weve not seen before based on the support out of Iran, he said.

Without Tehrans backing, the Assad regime would have been overthrown by the Syrian people, he added.

At the same time, we see Irans activities from Yemen to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, obviously, up into Lebanon and it continues apace, Mr. Mattis said.

We have not seen any drawdown or reduction in Irans malicious activities and malign activities across the region.

Mr. Mattis said the United States jettisoned the Iran nuclear deal because we found it was inadequate for the long-term effort. The United States is working with allied to try and force Iran into more responsible international and regional behavior, he said.

The defense secretary noted that Iran presents five different threats, of which the most serious is its nuclear weapons program.

The others include support for terrorism, Irans ballistic missile development, cyber attacks and threats posed to international commerce in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.

Mr. Mattis was testifying on the Pentagons $654.6 billion budget request for fiscal 2019.

The Pentagon under Mr. Mattis is seeking to restore military readiness that has slumped based on years of operations against terrorists and funding uncertainty.

New defense priorities including countering nation-states threat led by China Russia , North Korea and Iran and downgrading the war on terrorism.

Our military remains capable, but our competitive edge has eroded in every domain of warfare  air, land, sea, space and cyber, Mr. Mattis testified.

 Contact Bill Gertz on Twitter @BillGertz.



Misillan CEO Lee Dong-hyeon



By Yoon Ja-young



A farmer who has been hosting music concerts in his town was designated as a leader of convergence in agriculture.



The agriculture ministry announced Wednesday that Lee Dong-hyeon, CEO of the agricultural corporation Misillan, was named the leader for May. The ministry has been lauding those who create new value by converging agriculture with other industries such as retail, experience programs and tourism.



Lee is a farmer with a Ph.D. After majoring in microbiology at Seoul National University, he proceeded to earn a Ph.D. at Kyushu University in Japan. He has been dedicating himself to the research and production of organic rice since he founded Misillan in 2005.



"I have been studying over 900 species of rice to produce high quality organic rice. I wanted to protect our rice which is the foundation of agriculture," he said.



He developed a rice paddy at a school in Gokseong, South Jeolla Province, which had closed due to a lack of students. He has been producing rice in an environmentally friendly way _ organic and without pesticide. He sought mutual growth with neighboring farms, giving them the chance to grow the rice.



He also focused on processing the organic grains into convenient and healthy food products. Misillan thus developed diverse rice-based products such as mixed grain powder which has become a best-selling item. The company shipped 1.5 tons as exports to the United States last year. "We focused on differentiating it with other products in the market, to satisfy customers with both taste, nutrition and digestion.



He also opened a restaurant where customers can enjoy farm food. It has been recording an annual 900 million won in sales.



He has been hosting small concerts in the field since 2006. Diverse people, ranging from amateur music lovers of the neighborhood to professional musicians who studied overseas have been participating in the concerts. Diverse events have been drawing tourists to Misillan, with nearly 10,000 people visiting each year. Its total sales stood at 970 million won last year.



"Lee added value to rice through research and the technology Misillan has developed, and is spreading the value of agriculture by operating the farm restaurant and farm stay programs," the agriculture ministry noted.



Lee said he will continue sharing the value of agriculture and rice with people.

A subcontract worker of Kia Motors, front, shouts his demand for immediate chaebol restructuring during a meeting between the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) head and CEOs of Korea's top ten conglomerates at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry headquarters in central Seoul, Thursday. FTC head Kim Sang-jo, second from left, is seen with the CEOs during the event. / Yonhap

By Jhoo Dong-chan



Fair Trade Commission (FTC) chief Kim Sang-jo said the agency aims to complete the reform of the nation's conglomerates, or chaebol, within five years.



Kim met CEOs of the nation's top ten conglomerates along with Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Vice Chairman Kim Jun-dong at the KCCI headquarters in central Seoul, Thursday.



Participants included Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Yoon Boo-keun, Hyundai Motor Vice President Chung Jin-haeng, LG Group Vice Chairman Ha Hyun-hwoi and Hyundai Heavy Industries Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-gap.



"The FTC will steadily and consistently do its best to help reform the nation's conglomerates based on the agency's three- or five-year roadmap," Kim said during the meeting. "The conglomerates are an important asset in Korea's economy. It's essential to improve them into a better structure."



Kim also praised the conglomerates' recent efforts in reshaping their managerial structure.



"They have done their utmost to cut ties from their long practice of circular cross-shareholding. It is very encouraging," he said.



"Such efforts should expand into the nation's industries in general. I hope the trend will continue."



In March, a number of large conglomerates, including Hyundai Motor Group, unveiled plans to streamline their circular cross-shareholding structure through business spinoffs and mergers among affiliates amid growing pressure to make changes.



Kim said there is also criticism about the pace.



"Some say the pace of the restructuring is too slow. Others claim it is too fast," said Kim.



"The FTC equally respects the perspective of both sides. It is important to carry out our balanced plan."



The FTC head also requested the conglomerates' cooperation in promoting fair trade practices between them and small- and medium-sized enterprises.



"Promoting a fair business environment between large and small enterprises is the agency's main goal," Kim said. "Those firms who take their efforts on innovation will prevail, and the FTC will do its best to support such companies."



The nation's largest conglomerate Samsung Group is coming under increasing pressure to overhaul its web-like corporate structure, with the country's top financial regulator officially pushing the corporation to simplify its cross-holdings system.



Kim said last week the agency expects "many changes" in Samsung's governance structure as happened with No 2. Hyundai Motor Group.



Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier

Two new restaurants and a record store are on the way, and a cheese shop, and a clothing retailer are already calling the downtown street home.By Jhoo Dong-chan



The nation's major banks are looking for possible opportunities in North Korea as relations between the two Koreas are thawing following their April 27 summit.



According to financial industry analysts, the Korea Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) has started refurbishing the insurance system for firms that want to enter the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) in a bid to prepare for a possible resumption of inter-Korean economic cooperation there.



The insurance system was introduced in 2004 to compensate for possible damage South Korean firms may have to sustain from any sudden shutdown. When the complex was shut down in 2016, the system covered 90 percent of the damage South Koreans firms endured after leaving production assets there.



"It could still be dangerous for firms to enter the complex without understanding all possible risks," an Eximbank official said. "The insurance is a contingency measure for such unexpectedness."



The Eximbank also said it is concentrating its efforts on operating a cooperation fund for inter-Korean cultural exchanges, including sporting events and separated family reunions as well as the June 15 Declaration joint event. The state-run bank is also hiring two experts on North Korea.



The R&D center of the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) also recently started studying the North Korean economy and possible costs for the two Koreas' unification.



The Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) is also reviewing its plans to expand and reinforce related divisions to prepare for its entry into the country while pushing ahead with the potential opening of its branch in the GIC.



"We submitted our plan to open a branch in the complex in 2004, but failed," an IBK official said.



"If the summit between the U.S. and North Korea concludes successfully and the complex is reopened to South Korea, we will once again seek to open a branch there."



Major private banks have reportedly shown interest in possible infrastructure and economic development projects in North Korea.



Shinhan Bank, which has invested in various infrastructure projects here, is looking into similar opportunities in North Korea. It participated in building the Goseong coal-fired power plant in 2016 and the Songsan-Bongdam Highway project last year.



KB Kookmin and Woori Bank are also reviewing plans to invest in North Korea's infrastructure.



Woori Bank had a branch in the GIC in 2004 and had been providing services to 123 companies in the inter-Korean industrial zone with seven staffers staying there.



The bank said it will prepare for the branch's reopening.



NH Nonghyup, which had operated a branch at Mount Geumgang, will also reopen its branch there if the tour program restarts.





The inside of the Millennium Seoul Hilton / Courtesy of the Millennium Seoul Hilton



By Kang Seung-woo



As the Korean hotel industry is becoming a closely contested battlefield with more and more hotels popping up, each hotel is doing all it can to come up with eye-catching strategies to attract more guests.





Tom Wang, director of sales and marketing at the Millennium Seoul HiltonWebsite of Womad / Captured from its website



By Oh Young-jin



People can dismiss Womad as the website of an extreme bunch of man-haters  misandrists or feminazi.



It shouldn't be, or can't be.



Womad is in the spotlight after photos of a nude male model were uploaded to the group's site and went viral.



The case is very much like a mirror to misogyny.



Police are investigating, questioning students from the drawing class at Hongik University and professors, and collecting their mobile phones for a forensic probe.



The model has remained in seclusion, telling friends that he can't go back to normal life.



He also filed a complaint against two Womad members who posted disparaging remarks. Tens of thousands of people have joined a petition to close the site.



The law provides a penalty of up to five years behind bars or a 10 million won fine for taking photos of a person against their will and uploading them.



The photos of the model went viral on May 1. They were removed from the site on May 3. But a look at Womad's text board shows it overflowing with disparaging remarks, drawings and photos.



A contest calling on Womad members to submit drawings of the model began. Comments criticized him for physical defects, arguing that he had only himself to blame.



There was no sense of fear among those making the postings because of the protection given to them by online anonymity. Remorse was even harder to find thanks to members controlled by "groupthink."



From the comments on the model case and others, a couple of elements stand out.



One is an obsession with the physicality of manhood. Terms frequently used are about size  the bigger the better.



It reminds one of a mundane criteria applied by men  behind women's backs  to judge women's beauty.



Then, there is the animosity  not against all men, but against Korean men, taking pleasure from bashing them.



This characteristic may be attributed to male dominance in Korean society and, on the other side of the same token, an expression of women's superiority that threatens to manifest with the weakening of male control.



Then there is the peculiar language used with many postings that makes them read as if that they are the work of one person.



The website name  Womad  is a portmanteau of women and nomad.



According to Wikipedia, the site was formed in 2016 by a group splintered from Magalia, also a feminist site.



Womad shows extreme hatred toward not just men but also sexual minorities. In 2016, some postings appeared claiming the group killed a man after having him drink coffee laced with antifreeze and tossing him into a reservoir.



Police investigated without finding those responsible and Daum Kakao rejected calls for a shutdown of the website.



In 2017, an anonymous writer posted on the Womad site that she raped an Australian boy, and its members supported her. A Korean woman was then arrested in Australia.



Womad members also have mocked the late actor Kim Joo-hyuk, among others.



There is no question that the current case involving the model should be resolved and the responsible party held to account.



But equally urgent is an ardent search for the reasons that make this hate website flourish and to address them before man-hating turns as serious as misogyny in terms of damage to our society and lives.

In this May 3, 2018 photo, people watch a TV news report screen showing portraits of three Americans, Kim Dong-chul, left, Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song, right, detained in the North Korea, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul. U.S. President Donald Trump says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on his way back from North Korea with three American detainees, saying they "seem to be in good health." / AP

Freed after more than a year in prison, three Americans flew homeward from North Korea late Tuesday toward a big middle-of-the-night celebration featuring President Donald Trump  the latest sign of improving relations between longtime adversaries in the buildup to a historic summit between Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un.

Trump promised ''quite a scene'' at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington for the detainees, who were released as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited North Korea on Wednesday to finalize plans for the summit. Singapore was the likely site, late this month or in early June, for Trump's most ambitious foreign policy effort yet.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska  for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon  the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

''We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home,'' they said. ''We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.''

The men had boarded Pompeo's plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to a separate aircraft with more extensive medical facilities. They are expected to arrive at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington in the wee hours of Thursday morning.

Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Korea's leader for the prisoners' release  ''I appreciate Kim Jong-un doing this''  and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the ''official suggestion'' of the U.S. president, said North Korea's official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused Kim Dong-chul, Kim Hak-song and Tony Kim, all Korean-Americans, of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.

Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental U.S. Those advances were the subject of President Barack Obama's starkest warning shortly before Trump took office, and this is a crisis he's convinced his negotiating skills can resolve.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kim's willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating U.S. moves to tighten sanctions  branded ''maximum pressure'' by the president. The wee-hours ceremony Thursday was to be an early celebration for an issue that has already put the prospect of a Nobel Peace Prize on Trump's mind.

''Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it,'' he said Wednesday when asked if the award was deserved.

The release capped a dramatic day of diplomacy in Pyongyang. After Pompeo's 90-minute meeting with Kim Jong-un, he gave reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked about the prisoners as he returned to his hotel. It was only after a North Korean emissary arrived a bit later to inform him that the release was confirmed.

The three had been held for periods ranging from one and two years. They were the latest in a series of Americans who have been detained by North Korea in recent years for seemingly small offenses and typically freed when senior U.S. officials or statesmen personally visited to bail them out.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Warmbier was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

''We are happy for the hostages and their families,'' the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. ''We miss Otto.''

Of the newly released detainees, Kim Dong-chul, a South Korean-born U.S. citizen, had been held the longest. The former Virginia resident was sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison with hard labor after being convicted of espionage. He reportedly ran a trade and hotel service company in Rason, a special economic zone on North Korea's border with Russia.

The other two detainees hadn't been tried.

Kim Hak-song worked in agricultural development at an experimental farm run by the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, or PUST. The university is the only privately funded college in North Korea and was founded in 2010 with donations from Christian groups. He was detained last May for alleged anti-state activities.

Tony Kim, who also uses the name Kim Sang-duk, was detained in April 2017 at the Pyongyang airport. He taught accounting at PUST. He was accused of committing unspecified criminal acts intended to overthrow the government.

The family of Tony Kim thanked all those who worked for his return and also credited Trump for engaging directly with North Korea. ''Mostly we thank God for Tony's safe return,'' the family said in a statement.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer celebrated the detainees' return but warned that ''we'll see many more hostages'' if the administration provides an incentive for imprisoning Americans.

''We are happy they've returned, but North Korea shouldn't gain by taking Americans and then releasing them,'' he said.

During his visit, Pompeo discussed the agenda for a potential Trump-Kim Jong Un summit. Pompeo said the summit is scheduled to last one day but could be extended by a day depending on how talks progress.

North Korea's state-run media explicitly mentioned plans for the summit for the first time. Pyongyang has been exceptionally cautious about its public framing of Kim's recent diplomatic moves, which are a major shift from the more aggressive focus on missile launches and nuclear development that drove tensions to a boil last year.

Pompeo's trip, his second to North Korea this year, had not been publicly disclosed when he flew out of Washington late Monday aboard an Air Force jetliner. Trump announced the mission Tuesday afternoon as he laid out his case for withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal with Iran, another bitter U.S. adversary.

Accompanying Pompeo were a few senior aides, a security detail and two journalists  one from The Associated Press and one from The Washington Post.

Pompeo, who first traveled to North Korea as CIA chief in early April, was only the second sitting secretary of state to visit the nation with which the U.S. is still technically at war. The first was Madeleine Albright, who went in 2000 as part of an unsuccessful bid to arrange a meeting between then-President Bill Clinton and Kim Jong-un's father, Kim Jong-il.

A Trump-Kim meeting seemed a remote possibility just a few months ago when the two leaders were trading threats and insults over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests. In March, Trump unexpectedly accepted an offer of talks after the North Korean dictator agreed to suspend nuclear and missile tests and discuss ''denuclearization.'' (AP)North Korea and China are improving their ties. / Yonhap



North Korea and China are moving to expand direct flight routes between Pyongyang and major Chinese cities on the back of growing improvements in their bilateral relationship, tourism officials said Thursday.

Following North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's visit to Beijing in late March, the two countries began preparations for the launch of a direct air route linking Pyongyang with China's southwestern city of Chengdu, they said.

According to local tourism officials, a group of 10 travel agencies in Chengdu plan to send the first chartered direct flight to Pyongyang via the North's flag carrier airline Air Koryo on June 28.

The officials said the Chinese travel agencies are scheduled to gradually expand the Pyongyang-bound direct air routes to other major Chinese cities.

"Travel companies across China are known to be preparing to launch direct chartered flight service to Pyongyang," an industry executive said. "The number of passengers traveling from inland areas like Chengdu to Pyongyang is unlikely to be large. Thus, new air routes planned with Pyongyang appear to be symbolic and aimed at strengthening private sector exchanges, rather than making profits, after bilateral summit meetings," the executive speculated.

Air Koryo's TU204-100 jet bought from Russia in 2010 is capable of accommodating 176 passengers and flying a maximum of 6,000 kilometers, which can cover almost all Chinese areas.

Diplomatic watchers say the two countries' efforts to expand direct air routes are intended to strengthen bilateral relations without violating international sanctions.

"Air Koryo was excluded from the United Nations sanctions implemented after North Korea's sixth nuclear weapons test in September last year. Thus the planned expansion of direct flight routes between the North and China won't be problematic," a diplomat said.

"As preparations for the opening of new direct air routes take about one month, the two sides appeared to agree to intensify aviation cooperation during Kim Jong-un's Beijing visit in March." (Yonhap)By Kim Rahn



United States President Donald Trump has ruled out the truce village of Panmunjeom on the border of North and South Korea as the venue for his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.



Instead, Singapore is emerging as the possible site.



In a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump said about the location of the Washington-Pyongyang summit: "We're going to announce that in three days within three days. We're just working on arrangements."



When asked whether it would be Panmunjeom, he said, "It will not be there."



Following these remarks, many now predict Singapore will be the summit location.



Citing U.S. administration sources, multiple foreign media reported the Southeast Asian country has emerged as the candidate.



CNN said administration officials were instructed to prepare plans to hold the summit there, although the final decision is up to Trump.



Trump earlier showed interest in holding the summit at the truce village in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), posting on his Twitter: "Numerous countries are being considered for the meeting, but would Peace House/Freedom House, on the border of North and South Korea, be a more representative, important and lasting site than a third party country? Just asking!"



It is said Trump preferred Panmunjeom for more dramatics of the historic summit because of the truce village's symbolic image, while his aides did not because of a possible backlash if the nuclear negotiations do not progress as expected.



They prefer Singapore, which is more neutral and has good infrastructure for security, transportation and media coverage. Singapore also has both U.S. and North Korean embassies.



Some still speculate that the location can be Pyongyang, like when former U.S. President Richard Nixon visited China, then an adversary, in 1972 and laid the groundwork for diplomatic ties between the two nations.

US President Donald Trump applauds as U.S. detainee Kim Dong-chul, second from right, gestures upon his return with Kim Hak-song (behind) and Tony Kim, center, after they were freed by North Korea, at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Thursday (local time). / AFP

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Tony Kim as fellow detainee Kim Dong-chul and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence look on. / AFP



Staging a flag-waving, still-of-the-night arrival ceremony, President Donald Trump early Thursday welcomed home three Americans freed by North Korea and declared their release a sign of promise toward his goal of de-nuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

Trump called it a ''great honor'' to welcome the detainees to the U.S. and added, ''The true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.''

Joined by the former detainees, Trump thanked North Korea's Kim Jong-un for releasing the Americans, and said he believes Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. ''I really think he wants to do something,'' the president said.

First lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and a host of senior administration officials joined Trump to celebrate the occasion at Joint Base Andrews near Washington. The men, Kim Dong-chul, Kim Hak-song and Tony Kim, had been released Wednesday amid a warming of relations between the longtime adversaries.

The president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men traveled to take a private moment with them, then appeared at the top of the airplane stairway with the three and applauded as the men held up their arms in what appeared to be gestures of triumph.

''This is a special night for these three really great people,'' Trump told reporters as he stood on the tarmac with the former detainees. On the U.S. relationship with North Korea, Trump declared, ''We're starting off on a new footing.''

The freed prisoners appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs as they emerged from the aircraft. They were joined by a translator who said ''it's like a dream'' and that the men were ''very, very happy'' to be freed.

As the men entered into view, U.S. service members on the tarmac burst into applause and cheers.

After Trump's remarks, the three men boarded a bus for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The White House said earlier they would be evaluated and receive medical treatment at the Washington-area facility before being reunited with their families.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had secured their release in Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on final plans for the Trump-Kim summit. The Americans had boarded Pompeo's plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to the Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the U.S.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska  for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon  the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

''We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home,'' they said. ''We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.''

Singapore has emerged as the likely host of the summit, late this month or in early June, as Trump seeks to negotiate denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in his highest-stakes foreign policy effort yet. Trump announced Wednesday that the demilitarized zone between the Koreas would not host the summit. Pompeo said the meeting would last one day and possibly a second.

Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Korea's leader for the prisoners' release  ''We want to thank Kim Jong-un'' _ and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the ''official suggestion'' of the U.S. president, said North Korea's official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.Actress Blake Lively appears in a L'Oreal ad. The French cosmetics company's Korean branch is under media scrutiny for a manager who allegedly abused employees. / Screen capture from YouTube



By Ko Dong-hwan



Employees at a Seoul branch of global cosmetics and personal care company L'Oreal say a manager working there verbally abused them and treated them unfairly for years.



They claim to possess audio recordings of the person insulting employees. The manager of L'Oreal Professional under L'Oreal Korea, is allegedly infamous for a foul mouth - according to the workers' union LOK - and told a direct subordinate who returned from a long vacation that they "should be given a stipend for three months and sacked for good." The comments were littered with slang terms and insults.



An employee disclosed the recordings to the company in January, including phone conversations between employees and the manager, whose name has been withheld. The employee also submitted a petition demanding justice for the manager and quit.



In the conversations, the manager urged an employee "to quit by the end of this month" while referring to the person as a "crazy idiot." In another conversation, the manager called an employee "more pathetic than dirt stuck under a toenail."



Other employees told TV broadcaster KBS the manager consistently caused problems for subordinates, telling them to work weekends, calling or sending text messages at night, tearing up papers and throwing them in their faces, and hitting their necks with a notepad. One of the complainants, who ended up suffering from insomnia, said most of the people targeted quit within a year.





L'Oreal Korea's promotional image from its Facebook page highlights the company's strong ties with its employees. / Courtesy of L'Oreal Korea's Facebook siteA bereaved family member of a victim of the Sewol disaster watches the vessel being lifted upright at Mokpo New Port, 410 kilometers southwest of Seoul, Thursday. The ferry sank off the southwestern coast on April 16, 2014, leaving 304 people, mostly high school students, dead. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul









By Jung Da-min



The wreck of the ferry Sewol was lifted upright Thursday, clearing the ground for a further search for the remains of still missing victims and an investigation into the root cause of the maritime disaster.



The 6,825-ton vessel carrying 476 passengers capsized off the southwestern coast on April 16, 2014, leaving 304 people  most of them high school students on a field trip to Jeju Island  dead. The remains of five victims are still unaccounted for.



The three-hour operation to right the ferry began at 9 a.m. at Mokpo New Port, 410 kilometers southwest of Seoul, using a 10,000-ton-capacity maritime crane from Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries manned by salvage workers. Bereaved families watched the rusted hull of the ship placed in an upright position gradually in six steps by raising it by 10 degrees through 94.5 degrees.



The Sewol was hoisted from the seabed last year and transferred to the port facility. Since then, the bodies of four out of the then nine missing have been recovered in three searches.



"The righting process has now been completed, as the angle between the Sewol and the ground reached 94.5 degrees," said Yoo Young-ho, managing director of Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries.



According to the company, 94.5 degrees, not 90, was the right angle to balance the ship.



For the operation, Hyundai installed 33 vertical and 33 horizontal beams that were connected by wires to the crane.



With the ship being righted, the search for the missing remains will gain momentum.





The salvaged ship is being placed in an upright position. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chulBy Kim Rahn





President Moon Jae-in pledges continued efforts for a better country, in an online message released Thursday, one year anniversary of his inauguration. / Yonhap



By Choi Ha-young







Almost seven out of 10 South Koreans back President Moon Jae-in's plan to seek National Assembly ratification of the latest inter-Korean agreement, dubbed the Panmunjeom Declaration, to ensure sustainability of concerned projects.







According to Realmeter's opinion survey released Thursday, 66 percent of respondents answered they are in favor of ratification. Only 22.33 percent oppose it, the poll showed.







Support for the ratification was dominant across all generations and regions, except for supporters of the largest conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP). The outcome showed 53.7 percent of LKP supporters oppose ratification. The result is notable, considering 60.6 percent of those who identified themselves as conservatives were favorable to the process.







The main opposition party has boycotted the ratification of the latest inter-Korean agreement, belittling it as a "deceptive peace show."







National Assembly ratification of the agreement has been a divisive issue between parties. Technically, the ruling camp can ratify the declaration without participation of the LKP.







According to law, the ratification vote requires over half of favorable votes among at least half of those in attendance. In the 293-member National Assembly, the 121-seat DPK can ratify it, along with cooperation of minor parties. However, attempts at excluding the LKP could undermine President Moon's efforts to form a multi-partisan consensus over the Panmunjeom Declaration.







Past inter-Korean agreements, signed by liberal presidents, failed to last under conservative administrations in the face of political disputes and fluctuations of inter-Korean ties. Not to repeat such mishaps, President Moon has repeatedly called for legislative ratification, in tandem with frequent meetings with opposition leaders.



Both Kim, Trump show satisfaction at progress made



By Lee Min-hyung



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he reached a "satisfactory" agreement in a meeting with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Wednesday, boosting the prospects for a grand nuclear bargain at his upcoming summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.



The agreement came during Pompeo's surprise Pyongyang visit. The meeting was arranged to narrow bilateral differences regarding the agenda of the regime's pledge for denuclearization before the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit slated for next month.



According to the North's state-controlled media, Thursday, Kim exchanged his views of current political affairs on the peninsula with Pompeo who delivered a recorded message from U.S. President Donald Trump.



"The upcoming Pyongyang-Washington summit will become a historic meeting to build a better future on the peninsula," the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted Kim as saying. It added he reached a satisfactory agreement in the meeting with Pompeo.



Both sides engaged in in-depth discussions on preparatory measures for the upcoming summit, according to the regime's mouthpiece.



The KCNA reported Kim expressed gratitude to Trump, speaking highly of his dialogue-driven peace efforts.



Trump also hinted at his excitement for the meeting and the North's decision to release three U.S. citizens detained in the reclusive country.









Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, right, reviews the honor guard with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a welcoming ceremony before their bilateral talks at the Akasaka Palace state guest house in Tokyo, Wednesday. / AP-YonhapRep. Woo Won-shik, left, floor leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), consoles Rep. Kim Sung-tae, floor leader of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP), who has been hospitalized after an eight-day hunger strike, at Yeouido St. Mary's Hospital near the National Assembly, Thursday. Kim has been demanding a special counsel investigation of the ongoing opinion-rigging scandal involving a DPK member. Woo asked Kim to end his hunger strike, but Kim said he will continue. / YonhapEmployees of Korean Air stage a mass street rally demanding the firm's controlling family to step down in central Seoul on May 4. / Yonhap

/ Yonhap



Hundreds of Korean Air Lines Co. employees plan to stage another rally this weekend against the founding family members accused of abuses and assaults on company staff, the organizing group announced Thursday.

The rally will begin at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the square in front of Seoul Station, the group said on its mobile group chat used by some 1,000 former and current employees at the top South Korean airline.

Other workers from its affiliated companies and citizens may also join the protest.

It is the second rally by the company staff and a rare movement by employees of a family-controlled conglomerate in Korea standing up against their own boss and his family.

The protest comes after video footage of Lee Myung-hee, wife of Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho, cursing and rebuking hotel construction workers went viral, sparking a huge public uproar.

The release of the video came in parallel with an incident involving her younger daughter, Hyun-min, who allegedly went into a tantrum in a business meeting in March and threw a drink at an advertising agency official. Lee and Cho are both under investigation and have been banned from overseas travel.

Police are also investigating the Cho family's suspected smuggling of luxury goods and tax evasion.

Last Friday, people wearing Guy Fawkes masks and Korean Air pilot uniforms, to hide their identities, filled the main stairway of the Sejong Center for Performing Arts in central Gwanghwamun, condemning the two women's alleged constant abusing of staff and demanding they withdraw from management. It will be the same dress code for the Saturday rally, the organizing group said.

The second rally will also come with a performance, in which participants will get a chance to tear open bunches of bags filled with nuts, mocking the infamous "nut rage" incident involving Cho's eldest daughter, Hyun-ah.

She made global headlines in 2014 for forcing a Korea-bound flight back to the boarding gate in a New York airport and ejecting the cabin crew chief because she was angry about the way her nuts were served.

She received a jail term for violating the aviation safety law but was later released after a court suspended her sentence. (Yonhap)By Kim Jae-heun





Swiss luxury watchmaker Breitling is looking to expand its presence in the Asian market through hallyu, or the Korean wave.







"We signed an exclusive contract with actor Song Joong-ki to wear our watch in the popular TV series Descendants of the Sun. We worked with actor Ji Sung last year and we are continuing to look for Korean models with masculine appeal," Breitling CEO Georges Kern said Wednesday during a press conference at The Westin Chosun in Seoul.







The CEO made his very first exclusive visit to Korea to present its new products. Previously, Kern would only stop by Seoul when visiting China or Japan.





"We know how much influence hallyu has in the Asian market. We are positive about sponsoring our products in Korean TV series," Kern said.





Korea has become one of Breitling's most important markets in Asia along with Japan and China in the last few years.





The company's sales in the first quarter increased by 87 percent year-on-year.





"Korea and Japan are the countries with the most developed luxury market in Asia. Korea, in particular, owns both a lucrative domestic market as well as duty free business, which are important for us too," Kern said.





Korea is one of Breitling's fastest-growing markets in the world.





"We only introduced the Navitimer 8 at the watch and jewelry show Baselworld in Switzerland in March. This is the first time we are unveiling it in a particular country and we chose Korea," Kern said.





Kern is considered a "living legend" in the industry.





He has worked for global luxury watchmakers such as IWC and Richemont, before he took the CEO position at Breitling last year.

By Heo Mane





Harold Nicolson, a former British diplomat and author of "Diplomacy," once said that honesty is the first asset in negotiations. But in a globalized world, honesty is not sufficient. Trust must work, and persuasive power has to prevail over talks from the beginning to the end.



In principle, three assets must be applied to the historical declaration made at the truce village of Panmunjeom on April 27 by President Moon Jae-in and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un.



The two leaders displayed a mood conducive to peace, cooperation, exchanges and prosperity for both Koreas before dignitaries and about 3,000 journalists gathered at the site. Everyone present appeared to closely watch how the destiny of the two Koreas would play out afterwards.



The historical declaration seems to provide both southerners and northerners with a new hope in an "epoch-making" declaration stating they can live together without the concern of a nuclear threat. So it could be a solemn promise for our times that may determine the destiny of the divided nation and be a move forward to create longstanding peace through national reconciliation.



As a sign of honesty, the two leaders' willingness and passion were clearly reflected in the historical declaration. Kim said later that as additional honesty and trust, he now plans to destroy nuclear test tunnels including new ones, which have not been made public, this month before invited journalists.



The declaration will, among other things, contribute to easing the 65-year-long military tension and end the danger of war, definitively ceasing all hostile acts against each other. It also targets to transform the Demilitarized Zone into a peace zone, which will require steady and cautious negotiations with the United Nations Command, including the U.S.



Moreover, it is meaningful that Moon and Kim agreed to hold a trilateral meeting of the two Koreas and the U.S., or a quadrilateral meeting involving the two Koreas, the U.S., and China aimed at declaring a formal end to the Korean War. These processes indeed require honesty, truth and the persuasive power of all the parties involved.



Both leaders confirmed in the last lines of the declaration the shared goal of denuclearization of the peninsula, which aims at completely dismantling all nuclear and missile development programs. This issue should have been put in the first lines, emphasizing its importance without any ambiguity.



Realizing denuclearization must be done first and then a permanent peace can be settled later. To this end, the present Armistice Agreement should be replaced with a peace treaty.



However, Moon and Kim fell short of mentioning how they will withdraw the heavily armed forces of both parties on the border and mitigate the deeply accumulated tension, which will, of course, take a long time. This is connected with confidence-building measures that require four-party talks _ South Korea, North Korea, the U.S., and China _ regarding the Korean War. Moon, Kim, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping must demonstrate to the maximum degree their negotiating skill over the problem.



More importantly, the denuclearization of North Korea was not expressly worded in the document. It was worded by both leaders as the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. This could cause a strategic misconception in pursuit of this goal.



It is skeptical in the sense that the misconception could become a hurdle in serving as a good message to Trump. This lacks honesty and a trustful expression. In addition, Kim said that if his regime were to be protected, there would be no need to live "difficult lives."



And Kim mentioned two more tunnels that are bigger than existing ones and were in good condition. It is mysterious, in reality, why at their very first meeting, Moon and Kim lacked honesty and truth in this regard. Moons' persuasive power seems to have been less influential on this essential issue.



As a writer, I wonder whether these dubious words will perhaps give the wrong signal to Trump. It is strongly hoped that details for the denuclearization of North Korea will be further elaborated in the talks between Kim and Trump. This will then guarantee a lasting peace on the peninsula and all of Northeast Asia.



Moon induced Kim in a gentle manner in a 31-minute face-to-face talk on a bridge in the DMZ. It is my own speculation that Moon used his peculiar persuasive power toward his counterpart, with deep concern over North Korea's future economic development and for fruitful preparations for the North Korea-U.S. summit.



He seems to have advised Kim to brace for the upcoming summit in the spirit of honesty, truth and persuasion in his talks with Trump. This, despite the two had exchanged words of war last year. Longstanding peace does not come by itself.





Heo Mane (mane398@naver.com) is a professor emeritus and adviser of the Korea-EU Forum.

By Trudy Rubin



Nothing could better illustrate the dangerous incoherence of President Donald Trump's foreign policy than his announcement Tuesday that he is withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and reimposing "powerful" sanctions on Tehran.



Contrary to his woeful effort at explanation, this move will not make America safer. On the contrary, it means that Iran will restart a frozen nuclear program and reach bomb-making capacity sooner rather than later. Nor will Trump's move constrain Iran's regional misbehavior; more likely, it will spur further Iranian aggression.



Most dangerous is that there is no sign the president has any Plan B for what to do when his decision worsens the Iran problem. Judging from his words  and those of national security adviser John Bolton  the new White House goal is to facilitate regime change in Tehran.



Shades of George W. Bush's 2003 pipe dreams about regime change in Iraq led by exiles. Such willful ignorance led to the misbegotten Iraq War, and now could drag the United States into a war with Tehran.



Here are five reasons why Trump's blindness in junking the Iran deal is an awful mistake:



1. Rather than making it less likely Iran will get a bomb, the president's move hastens that outcome. Under the deal, Tehran shipped 97 percent of its low-enriched uranium out of the country and dismantled two-thirds of its centrifuges. This increased the time needed for Iran to produce enough fuel for a single bomb from two to three months to at least one year.



Recent Israeli revelations that Iran lied about a pre-2003 nuclear weapons program don't tell us anything new; U.S. intelligence revealed the same thing in 2007. Those lies make it more, not less, necessary to keep intrusive inspections. (The Israeli documents can be used to pressure Iran for additional access.) However, all inspections will end if the deal is junked.



True, the deal had flaws, including sunset clauses that permit Iran to restart the program  under continued inspection  after 10 to 15 years. Nor did it cover missile development or Iran's expansionist behavior in the Mideast  or firmly specify the need to inspect Iranian military sites.

But as America's European allies have argued, those flaws should be addressed by additional talks and/or sanctions.



"Why would we want to relieve Iran of its commitments and restraints now rather than 10 to 15 years in the future?" rightly asks the Brookings Institution's Robert Einhorn, a former State Department special adviser on arms control. Especially when U.S. intelligence officials, including ex-CIA chief, now secretary of state, Mike Pompeo say Iran is in compliance.



2. Quitting the deal will make any Iranian threat to the United States worse, not better. Although Trump railed against Iranian expansionism, he has proposed pulling 2,000 U.S. special forces out of Syria, which has already emboldened Tehran. Now, Iran will likely up the pressure on those U.S. troops and on U.S. soldiers in Iraq. How does it help curb Iranian militias in Syria or Iraq if Trump frees Tehran to restart making nuclear fuel?



3. Contrary to the claims of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli military brass say abandoning the deal now will make Israel less secure. According to Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, "Right now, the agreement, with all its faults, is working and is putting off realization of the Iranian nuclear vision by 10 to 15 years."



Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, former research chief at Military Intelligence, told the newspaper Haaretz that the deal gave Israel a vital window to focus "on more urgent threats" in Syria, where Iran is trying to build military installations that threaten Israel.



The deal's collapse will mean the Iranian nuclear threat once again becomes imminent  with Israel urging Washington to join in airstrikes against Iran.



4. Withdrawing from the deal puts Washington at sharp odds with its European allies. Will Trump impose secondary sanctions on Paris, Berlin and London? Such a fierce split among Western allies ends the united front that kept pressure on Tehran, which can now play the victim. That will please Moscow and Beijing.



5. The president has clearly bought the line from Bolton (and Pompeo) that America should push for regime change in Tehran. Bolton admires the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK) opposition group in exile that until 2012 was on the U.S. terrorism list for having killed Americans and Iranian civilians. The group has little support within Iran because it allied with Saddam Hussein against its own countrymen in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s.



In July 2017, Bolton told an enthusiastic crowd at an MEK conference: "The only solution is to change the regime itself, and that's why before 2019 we here will celebrate in Tehran."



Before 2019? Really? The deal may take a while to unravel, but if the White House continues down this senseless path, Tehran will restart its nuclear program sooner or later. What then, President Trump?





Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer. The above article was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.





Prospects for US-N. Korea summit looking up



Three U.S. nationals who were detained in North Korea were released in advance of a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.



Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who visited Pyongyang again Wednesday to discuss summit plans, brought three Korean-Americans, Kim Dong-chul, Kim Hak-song and Tony Kim, back to the U.S. to be greeted by President Trump and first lady Melania at Andrews Air Force Base. The three prisoners had been jailed for committing "anti-state activities."



President Trump thanked the North Korean leader before a Cabinet meeting, saying "I appreciate Kim Jong-un for doing this and allowing them to go." The release is seen as a gesture by North Korea for creating a positive mood ahead of the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit. Trump has tweeted that Pompeo had a good meeting with Kim and the time and place for the summit have been set.



The release clears some of the concerns that had surrounded the summit owing to mounting pressure from the U.S. on North Korea's disarmament, in addition to other sensitive topics such as the country's human rights issues. Amid reports of last-minute tension in preparations, Kim was seen visiting Xi Jinping for a second summit following their last meeting in late March to coordinate their positions on key issues such as denuclearization.



The entire world is relieved to see the three detainees released in good health after the death of American student Otto Warmbier who died soon after returning home in June 2017 from imprisonment in North Korea.



Through diplomacy, Kim has been trying to normalize his country to the world. The release of prisoners is a good step for North Korea in gaining the trust of the international community. Denuclearization is without a doubt the key issue for the Trump-Kim summit, but Pyongyang should continue to do its part to enhance its human rights situation in line with international standards as well. In this regard, we urge Pyongyang to also release six South Koreans detained in the North. President Moon Jae-in brought up the issue during his April 27 Panmunjeom meeting with Kim. This will certainly increase the reconciliatory mood created by the Panmunjeom Declaration aimed at officially ending the Korean War and establishing permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.



Following the positive mood created by the release of the detainees, Trump and Kim should prepare to meet halfway in their negotiations for denuclearization and other issues on the table.

By Donald Kirk





There is nothing like a meeting with a dictator to get out of problems at home. The visit of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang, just as President Donald Trump was jettisoning the Iran deal, shows Trump's eagerness to sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and come up with a statesman-like solution to the confrontation on the Korean Peninsula.



Assuming Trump really does see Kim, could there be any better way to distract attention from all the problems besetting him in Washington? For a few blessed days, maybe more, he would be free of the threat of interrogation by special counsel Robert Mueller and all the questions about his lawyer Michael Cohen.



He might not even have to worry about the next headlines, and salacious jokes, about the porn star Stormy Daniels and seances with Russian women while getting to know President Vladimir Putin. All that happened before he ran for president, but his past is catching up with him just as he would like to be "making America great again."



With Trump in the same room with Kim, all they need is to escape with a joint declaration that saves face for both. Kim can say, OK, we'll begin to get rid of our nuclear program while you withdraw your troops. Never mind if neither really happens. Trump is looking for headlines, maybe a few quotes and columns about what a great choice he'd make for the Nobel Peace Prize.



The American president lusts after this kind of distraction not just to get the Mueller investigation off his back. He's worried about elections coming up in November for all 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, elected to two-year terms, and 34 of the 100 members of the upper house, or Senate, elected for six years each. Right now he faces the real threat of his Republican Party losing control of both houses of the Congress, leaving the Democratic majority in a position to press for his impeachment.



Think of the wave of popular support he might create if he came home with a real deal with the North Koreans after his predecessors in the White House had failed. How could all those columnists and academics who hate him carry on with such impunity against his claim to have put out a fire that threatened only half a year ago to explode into a regional conflagration?



Would not the mere mention of his name as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize seriously undermine any movement for his impeachment? Whoever heard of a peace prize candidate driven out of office by the jackals of the opposition?



There's no guarantee, of course, that Kim will cooperate. What if Kim stonewalls Trump's demands for dumping his nukes and missiles? Or what if he says, I'll begin doing it after the United Nations removes sanctions and you begin withdrawing your troops? One reason Trump sent Pompeo to Pyongyang again, on his second trip, is to try to reach a deal well in advance, to avoid any surprises.



By getting tough with Iran, undercutting the deal so carefully wrought in concert with major European powers, Trump is sending a warning to North Korea. Having denounced the Iran deal as really terrible, he's tossing the whole thing just as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long demanded. He's telling the North Koreans, so close to Iranians in wheeling and dealing on nuclear technology and missiles, he won't compromise with them either.



The future, though, may not work out so simply. What if the Iranians now go back to developing the means to fabricate nuclear warheads on which they stopped work under the terms of the deal? Would Trump consider a pre-emptive strike on their nuclear facilities, as he once threatened North Korea? And do the Israelis really want conflict in the Middle East to escalate to an entirely new level?



In doing away with the waiver on sanctions against Iran, Trump risks alienating all the European powers that went for the deal in the first place. He also can probably forget the talk about a Nobel Peace Prize for bringing an end to conflict on the Korean Peninsula.



Always, however, Trump is playing to the crowd in Washington. On Korea, he may still choose to mingle firmness with flexibility. Having made good on his promises to walk out of the agreement with Iran, he may opt for an appearance of reaching a deal for lasting peace in Korea.



For Trump, his future in office depends on his ability to have it both ways, proving his statesman-like qualities to enough of his loyal voter base to insure his safety against impeachment and the survival of his presidency. He's counting on Kim to help him weather the storm.





Donald Kirk (www.donaldkirk.com) has been covering crises and conflict in the region for decades



Seen above is a rendered image of Canakkale 1915 Bridge under construction in Turkey. Projected to be completed in 2023, the 3,869 meter bridge will be the longest suspension bridge in the world by the length of its main span of 2,023 meters. POSCO said Thursday it signed an MOU with Turkish engineering firm Cimtas Steel about supplying 35,000 tons of thick plate for the main tower of the bridge. / Courtesy of POSCO

By Baek Byung-yeul







Samsung SDS has acquired a stake in Bitfusion, a U.S.-based graphics processing unit (GPU) virtualization software firm, the company said Thursday.







A Samsung SDS spokesman declined to provide the amount of the deal citing business issues. But the spokesman said the deal will help the company strengthen its cloud business as the U.S. firm's technology will improve GPU performance.







With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technologies, the GPU industry has seen rapid growth recently.







GPU is a co-processor that takes on graphical calculations and transformations. The use of a GPU could greatly increase performance, especially when used for data-intensive tasks. It is now used widely in self-driving vehicles and AI projects, including Google's AI AlphaGo.







Established in 2015, Bitfusion is comprised of researchers from Intel and Dell. The company offers software that delivers remote and virtual access to any GPU accelerator in users' networks. The virtualization startup said its software will optimize deep learning workflows throughout the AI application lifecycle, including development, training and inference.







Samsung SDS, Korea's leading information technology provider, has been joining forces with major tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle to strengthen and enhance its cloud computing operations.

The 2018 Renault Clio hatchback / Courtesy of Renault Samsung

By Jhoo Dong-chan



Renault Samsung is moving to remove "Samsung" from its brand name, which will save the company about 30 billion won ($28 million) in annual royalties paid to Samsung Group, as more Korean motorists are aware of the French automaker Renault.



Analysts say the move will improve its financial status if it gets rid of the name of the nation's largest conglomerate.



The French carmaker's local unit in Korea had tried to take a similar measure when it started importing and selling the QM3 crossover from Spain in 2013, but decided to keep the name "Samsung" in the brand based on its belief that the Renault brand itself was still too foreign to Korean customers at that time.



However, Renault Samsung decided to use Renault's diamond-shape emblem for its Tweazy electric minicar for the first time when the model was introduced in Korea in the second half of 2017.



A Renault Samsung official said it will continue its emblem trend with the 2018 Clio hatchback instead of using its previous "eye-of-typhoon" emblem.



"We decided to keep the Renault Samsung's emblem for our domestically produced models while using the new emblem for the imported models," said the official.



"Korean customers, especially in their 20s and 30s, are becoming familiar with the Renault brand. The Clio hatchback is a monumental model in the European market, which has spearheaded Renault's most important commercial success. We believe the model's French emotions will attract the nation's young motorists as well."



However, the official declined to comment about whether to renew its royalty contract with Samsung Group.



"The contract with Samsung is scheduled to expire in July 2020. It still has two years. It is hard to comment about it at this point."



The carmaker's move to separate itself from Samsung is evident as Renault Samsung completed the design renovation in its dealerships across the country last year removing the Samsung name from its identity.



"To youngsters, Samsung is another outdated brand with an image of a typical arrogant chaebol family. Renault sounds much better than Renault Samsung to them," said an amateur racer surnamed Park.



"I don't understand the reason why it has kept the Samsung brand with having to pay them tens of billions of won."



Renault Samsung has paid Samsung a 0.8 percent royalty from its total domestic earnings before interest and tax (EBIT). Its domestic EBIT marked about 400 billion won last year, so was subject to pay about 30 billion won in royalties.





By Lee Suh-yoon







BMW Korea opened its largest showroom and auto body shop in Songdo, Incheon, Thursday, further bolstering its presence amid an escalating rivalry with Mercedes-Benz Korea.







Boasting five floors of 6,400 square meters each, the Bavarian Motors Songdo Complex stands as one of BMW's biggest showroom complexes in the world.







The BMW Group headquarters in Germany funded around 20 percent of the construction for the $46 million complex, according to BMW Korea.







This is the first time the Munich headquarters invested directly in a BMW dealership in Korea.







"The opening of the Songdo Complex is an extension of BMW Group's continued investment and interest in the Korean market," BMW Korea CEO Kim Hyo-joon said at the opening ceremony of the complex, Thursday. "We hope the complex will provide a base for promoting the premium brand value of BMW and MINI beyond Incheon to the rest of Korea."







BMW Korea said it chose Songdo International Business District as the construction site due to its eco-friendly image and proximity to Incheon International Airport.







While the main showroom on the first floor displays BMW's latest car models, two smaller showrooms on the third floor offer MINIs  a smaller range of cars belonging to BMW's daughter brand  and certified secondhand cars. The complex also includes an after-service center, a customer lounge and a concert hall, which will host cultural events for local residents.







Despite the continued dominance of domestic automakers like Hyundai and Kia Motors, the German carmaker is gaining ground among local consumers.







BMW saw a 23 percent increase in sales here from 2016 to 2017, when it sold a record 59,624 cars. In March it surpassed its U.S. competitor General Motors in local sales for the first time.

Asiana Airlines A350



By Nam Hyun-woo



Asiana Airlines is moving toward a rebound after logging healthy earnings in the first quarter and improvements in its financial structure. Keen attention is on whether a fiasco involving its rival Korean Air's owner family could further boost Asiana's rebound.



According to airline industry officials Thursday, Asiana Airlines is showing systematic progress in its bid to recover from a liquidity crunch.



The most recent move was a completed deal on selling its Kumho Asiana Main Tower in Jongno-gu, Seoul. According to Kumho Asiana Main Tower Company, an Asiana Airlines unit, it signed a deal on Wednesday to sell the building to Germany's Deutsche Asset Management for 418 billion won ($390 million). The building is the headquarters for Kumho Asiana Group.



The carrier said the sale will inject a 250 billion cash inflow as well as bringing other financial improvements worth 150 billion won, which is a timely liquidity for the debt-riddled airline.



According to its financial statement, its outstanding borrowings amounted to 4.05 trillion won at the end of last year. Of that, 2.02 trillion won is scheduled to expire this year, with up to 600 billion won scheduled to expire in June.



So far this year, Asiana Airlines has reportedly secured 454 billion won in liquidity through various means such as selling its stake in CJ Logistics and receiving new loans. Added to the fund from the headquarters building sale, the airline is expected to have at least 700 billion won up for use.



"We believe the uncertainties over Asiana Airlines liquidity have been cleared," KB Securities analyst Kang Seong-jin said.



"This year, the carrier has to secure 1.4 trillion won outside of the company through selling assets, issuing corporate bonds, borrowing new loans and other measures. Those processes are underway or have already been done. Its main creditor allowed the company to extend some loans through an MOU last month, which is a sign that Asiana Airlines has a plan to cope with its liquidity issue."



Asiana Airlines has also made a surprise with its first-quarter earnings of 1.59 trillion won in revenue, up 9 percent from a year earlier, and 64.3 billion won in operating profit, up a whopping 144 percent during the same period.



Drawing keen attention is whether it can benefit from Korean Air's fall due to the owner family's multiple scandals.



Analysts say the outcome of Korean Air allegations is yet to be noticed in numbers, but it remains to be seen whether the public outrage at Korea's largest airliner can have an actual impact on its performance and benefit not only Asiana Airlines but also low-cost carriers (LCC).



According to data from Incheon International Airport, the number of Korean Air passengers through the airport in April increased 10.6 percent from a year earlier, while that of Asiana Airlines grew 9.1 percent during the same period.



"So far, we have not found any noticeable changes in the performance of the two carriers, but we have to wait for a while to confirm whether Korean Air's issues actually affected the carriers' performances," Hana Financial Investment analyst Park Seong-bong said.



He expects the allegations won't affect Korean Air's business class demand because most business class tickets are booked for "business purposes," which involves company-to-company deals or other economic reasons.



"In terms of long flights, I don't expect a major change in demand this month because most customers book their tickets weeks or a months before their trips and they will not likely cancel the tickets because of this issue. Also, the membership reward program and Korean Air's exclusive routes account for a lot," he said.



"However, the likelihood seems to be higher for short flights, given their relatively low ticket price and the presence of other alternative carriers including Asiana Airlines."



Lee Heung-sil, third from left, head of the Korea Ginseng Corp.'s (KGC) new business team, introduces the company's products to foreign buyers at the 2018 Tax Free World Association World Exhibition & Conference in Singapore, Tuesday. / Courtesy of the KGC



By Park Jae-hyuk



SINGAPORE  Global duty free operators were showing keen interest in CheongKwanJang's booth at a trade fair held in this Asian city, Wednesday, seeking partnerships with the Korea Ginseng Corp. (KGC), producer of the world's No. 1 ginseng brand.



KGC employees were busy talking with foreign buyers who were asking about the company's products on display.



Apparently, Korean red ginseng is no longer strange exotic ingredient to the buyers participating in the 2018 Tax Free World Association (TFWA) World Exhibition & Conference held at the Marina Bay Expo and Convention Center from Sunday to Thursday.



The KGC has participated in this exhibition for two consecutive years to promote its signature CheongKwanJang brand, which is more than a century old.



"We signed deals with three major global duty free operators last year," said Lee Heung-sil, head of the company's new business team. "This year, we are scheduled to contact operators in the Asia-Pacific region."



The TFWA has hosted the world's largest exhibition for travel retailers twice a year in Singapore and Cannes.



This week's event displayed 3,000 premium brands from 300 companies around the world.





The Korea Ginseng Corp.'s (KGC) booth at the 2018 Tax Free World Association World Exhibition & Conference in Singapore. / Courtesy of the KGCBy Nam Hyun-woo





Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) President Kwon Pyung-oh speaks during a press conference at the agency's headquarters in Seocho-gu, Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of KOTRAGregory Counts throws his arms up joyfully as he walks from the New York State Supreme Court, freed from prison for a 1991 rape after the accuser recanted her story, Monday (local time). / AP



By Jung Min-ho



Two men have been exonerated of a gang rape that the victim now admits never happened  26 years after they were imprisoned.



According to U.S. media, the 1992 convictions of VanDyke Perry and Gregory Counts for rape, sodomy and kidnapping were vacated in a New York court Monday (local time).



Counts, then 19, who spent 26 years in prison, reportedly shed tears in the Manhattan court as he listened to the district attorney say the crime never happened. Perry, then 21, who spent 11 years behind bars, also became emotional as he was finally exonerated.



"It is every prosecutor's nightmare to convict an innocent person," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. said. "This case is a tragedy for all involved  two New Yorkers were wrongfully deprived of their liberty during the prime of their lives for a crime they did not commit. This time can never be returned to them, but with today's exoneration, we hope we can begin the process of unburdening them and giving them a chance at a brighter, successful future."



In 1991, the woman told police that she had been kidnapped at knife point near her home in Queens and raped by three black men. Police later arrested the two men she had identified  Counts and Perry. The third man was never caught.



The woman and the convicted men knew each other.



"The plaintiff now admits that her boyfriend forced her to lie and falsely claim that these men sexually assaulted her," Vance was quoted as saying by CBS New York. "Her boyfriend was trying to avoid paying a debt to these two men."



According to the New York Times, the woman said they punched her so hard her eye swelled, but a doctor who examined her found no evidence to support her claims.



The exonerations were the result of a collaborative investigation by the Manhattan district attorney's Conviction Integrity Program and the Innocence Project, which had DNA evidence retested. It matched a man who is now dead. The woman said she was working as a prostitute around the time.



Despite the exoneration, Perry says this will haunt him for the rest of his life.



"It's never going to be over," CBS New York quoted him as saying. "The reason why, because it tormented my life and it's my past, you understand?"



"I thank God at the highest level. I give thanks to my lord and savior Jesus Christ that I have my family and my family stood by me all this time through the whole process."

Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Rain showers in the morning will evolve into a more steady rain in the afternoon. Thunder possible. High 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Mostly cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 58F. Winds light and variable.Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Showers early, becoming a steady rain later in the day. Thunder possible. High 73F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Mainly cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 59F. Winds light and variable.Next week, the world will celebrate the first ever International Day of Light. A global initiative established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, (UNESCO), the Day of Light is meant to turn our attention toward light and its role in our lives, from science and education to art, medicine, communications, and more. The inaugural celebration will take place in Paris and the opening ceremony will feature something special: a performance by soprano Katerina Mina, singing two pieces written by Linda Lamon to mark the event  and our place in the universe celebrating it.

I had the opportunity to preview one of the songs, Look to the Universe, which is based on the traditional tune "Romance," arranged and with lyrics by Lamon. Look to the Universe presents a beautiful, uplifting, and positive view of humanity and our place within the cosmos. It tells us that we are not alone, that we are able to persevere in the hardest of times, and we need only look to the universe to see that we are made of stars."

The music and the lyrics blend together to create a haunting, flowing, and unforgettable piece that underscores the message of the International Day of Light: Light is all around us, playing a vital role in our lives today, showing us where we came from and, perhaps, where were going.

It may be no surprise, then, that the song was inspired by the late Professor Stephen Hawking, whose work unraveling the cosmos has brought us all closer to the stars, in many ways.

Minas performance will immediately precede the Director General of UNESCOs address during the International Day of Light opening ceremony. May 16 also marks the release of Minas highly anticipated first EP, Natures Universe. You can pre-order a priority digital download of the album, which features five songs written by Lamon and performed by Mina, here:

https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/katerina-mina-ep

The site offers a video preview of Look to the Universe, which marries the beautiful tune to deep space imagery to truly evoke a feeling of wonder. You can also play a sample of the Rainbow of Light Anthem, also written by Lamon and used as the official song for the International Year of Light, the larger platform serving as a foundation for this first-ever International Day of Light. (I gave that one a try, too, and its simply gorgeous!)

Next week, consider taking a moment to celebrate this Day of Light with the rest of the world  and perhaps give "Look to the Universe" a listen to feel truly at one with the stars.Auburn, IN (46706)

Today

Showers early, becoming a steady rain later in the day. Thunder possible. High 73F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Mainly cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 58F. Winds light and variable.Videos

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.Lord Mayor Albert Sandy Daniel (third from right) with his councillors and the Vanuatu Beverage Ltd outside the modernised Vate Beverage this week.A medical exercise is carried out by the surgeon (left) and scrub nurse (right) in HMNZS Canterburys role 2 hospital.Rome, May 10 - Italian State and finance police said Thursday that they had broken up two alleged jihadist cells with a big anti-terrorism operation featuring the arrest of 14 people. The operation also involved the search of around 20 properties in Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Sardinia. The two cells were alleged linked to Jabhat al-Nusra, a Syrian al-Qaeda group and were based in Lombardy and Sardinia. Investigators believe they were autonomous from each other, although one individual is thought to had had relations with both.Vatican City, May 10 - Pope Francis on Thursday visited the tomb of Father Zeno Santini, founder of a religious community reflecting the egalitarian principles of the early Christians, Nomadelfia in southern Tuscany. He went on visit the citadel of the international inter-religious activist Focolare Movement at Loppiano near Florence. Francis issued two tweets on his visits. The first said "inspired by Father Zeno, we are all working to make sure the Law of fraternity is at the centre of our lives!" The second said "in Loppiano every feels at home! Inspired by the charisma of the unity of Chiara Lubich, let us seek new ways of dialogue and communion." The Focolare Movement is an international organization that promotes the ideals of unity and universal brotherhood. Founded in Trento, northern Italy, in 1943 by Chiara Lubich as a Catholic movement, it remains largely Roman Catholic but has strong links to the major Christian denominations and other religions, or in some cases with the non-religious. The Focolare Movement operates in 180 nations and has over 140,440 members. The word "Focolare" is Italian for "hearth" or "family fireside".Rome, May 10 - Italian State and finance police said Thursday that they had broken up two alleged jihadist cells with a big anti-terrorism operation featuring the arrest of 14 people. The two operations also involved the search of around 20 properties in Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Sardinia. The two cells were alleged linked to Jabhat al-Nusra, a Syrian al-Qaeda group and were based in Lombardy and Sardinia. Investigators believe they were autonomous from each other, although one individual is thought to had had relations with both. In one operation, 10 Syrians are accused of money laundering and illegal payment services in Italy, Sweden, Hungary and Turkey. Two of them are also accused of funding terrorism. In the other operation four Syrian and Moroccan militants are accused of being part of the other Jabhat al Nusra-supporting cell. They are accused of conspiracy to commit terrorism, funding terrorism and illegal financial intermediation. Interior Minister Marco Minniti hailed the operations, saying "two hostile structures have been neutralized". National Anti-Mafia and Antio-Terror Prosecutor Federico Cafiero de Raho said the cells got the money they sent to Syria "largely from clandestine immigration".Rome, May 10 - A fresh piece of street art in Rome Thursday showed a headstone declaring "the end" of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which is licking its wounds after a March general election debacle. The mural in Via del Babbuccio near the Trevi Fountain also said "we are the revolution" and claimed to testify to all-time low PD membership in 2018. It is the fifth piece of election-related art found in Rome since March 4. The first showed a kiss between prospective government partners, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio and anti-migrant Euroskeptic League leader Matteo Salvini. The second showed far-right 'sovereignist' Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni holding an African baby. The first and second murals were both discovered on March 23. The third piece was a version of Caravaggio's Cardsharps showing Di Maio, Salvini and centre-right Forza Italia (FI) leader Silvio Berlusconi, near the presidential palace on April 13. The fourth mural was discovered on May 3. Inspired by Raphael's Fire in the Borgo, it showed PD ex-leader Matteo Renzi carrying Berlusconi to safety while the PD headquarters burns down It was painted near the PD's HQ in Via del Nazareno.Milan, May 10 - Italian police on Thursday arrested one Albanian and issued a warrant for another in connection with a November operation that snared major drugs trafficker Gennaro Bonifacio. Cocaine was found hidden in the Albanians' car.Rome, May 10 - The national association of Telefono Rosa volunteers, which provides a hotline service for women victims of violence, launched its 2018 institutional campaign on Thursday under the slogan 'I'm free'. The campaign features former Olympic track cyclist Antonella Bellutti and Paralympics sprinter Martina Caironi, as well as actress Paola Minaccioni. It has the support of the Italian Olympics Committee CONI and the presidency of the council of ministers equal opportunities division. "Female representation at major (sporting) events is equal to that of men, the gold medals in the recent Winter Olympics were all taken by women and above all it can no longer be said that on a sporting level women have fewer opportunities than men," CONI chief Giovanni Malago said. "Today we present a truly exceptional campaign to say 'No' to violence against women: together we can break this cycle, a social plague that here in Italy is difficult to heal," said Telefono Rosa President Maria Gabriella Carnieri Moscatelli.Florence, May 10 - A 21-year-old Somali drug pusher was convicted Thursday of drugging and raping one of his clients on the night of November 24-25 last year. Hanad Ibrahim Ali got four years and four months in jail for the crime against the 20-year-old Florentine woman.Jonas Cullwick, a former General Manager of VBTC is now a Senior Journalist with the Daily Post. Contact: [email protected]. Cell # 678 5460922LAHAINA  At this point I am doing better than expected, but I want to make the most of the time with my family while I can. Many of the aspects of my formerly active life (playing guitar, running and camping) are now difficult or impossible for me, which makes it hard to enjoy my time, said Robb, a 36-year-old father from Oregon battling a terminal brain tumor.

He has been living with his diagnosis for the last year, past the original life expectancy provided by his care team.

While we dont know what the future holds, or if well reach that anniversary in relatively good health, Robb said, it is my dream to bring my immediate family to Hawaii with me before that time, ideally to Maui, an island weve always wanted to visit.

When Megan Turley of Dream Foundation reached out to Coconut Condos to see if they could accommodate Robb; his wife, Abby; sons Eli and Ezekiel, ages three years old and five months, respectively; and their caregiver, Coconut Condos gladly reserved a condo for them.

Dawn Davis and Monty McGill, owners of a two-bedroom, two-bath condo at Aina Nalu, donated six nights in their lovely vacation rental. The developer of Aina Nalu offered free parking to Robbs family during their stay.

Thanks to Monica Chihara of the Hyatt Regency Maui, the family attended the resorts Drums of the Pacific Luau.

Drums of the Pacific Luau is truly honored to provide a few hours of reprieve from the daily trials these Dreamers face. We hope the evening is a lasting memory for all members of the family, and that the loving and healing effects Maui has on anyone lifts their spirits not only while they are here, but that they take some of that warmth back with them to carry them through, Chihara told Coconut Condos.

Abby enjoyed a 75-minute facial and a 45-minute shampoo blow dry donated by Wendy Pogni, owner of Soleil Luna salon and spa in Lahaina.

As a mom myself, I am happy to be able to use my gifts to help create special memories for this family and give this fellow mama a brief reprieve from the demands of caring for a sick husband and two young children, she said.

Robb and Abby were also able to enjoy a date night at Warren & Annabelles thanks to Lisa and Warren Gibsons generous donation of a royal flush package to see their magic show, which included appetizers, dessert and cocktails.

A date night  just the two of them  was something that the couple had really hoped for, and this night was made a reality thanks to Lisa and Warren.

Robb also took his family on a tour of the beautiful Maui Tropical Plantation in Wailuku, arranged by Patty Okuda. On the tram ride, they learned how sugarcane and pineapples grow at this farm.

Frances Anakalea from the Maui Ocean Center also donated tickets for the whole family to explore their aquarium and oceanography center, which includes a 750,000-gallon exhibit with 240-degree view acrylic tunnel.

Angela Leone of Coconut Condos noted, Mahalo to our community for helping Coconut Condos make these dreams as memorable and fulfilling as possible! It is encouraging and inspiring to see the generosity of so many small business owners on the West Side of Maui come together for total strangers  that is truly aloha spirit. Coconut Condos looks forward to providing more dreams for Dreamers like Robb in the future. If you or someone you know would like to make a donation to one of our future Dreamers, please send an e-mail to info@coconutcondos.com or call us at (808) 419-1000.Coastal properties cant hold back Mother Nature

What if you had 30 years to prepare for a tsunami that you knew for certain was going to devastate your oceanfront home? Would you plan for it? When would you start planning? How would you plan? Would you hold the line or would you get out of the way? If you lose your house, who should be responsible?

These are some of the many questions facing Hawaiis shoreline property owners, including those at the Hololani Resort in West Maui. They have decided to hold the line and are requesting to build a seawall on state submerged lands to protect their infrastructure. The problem is seawalls are bad  so bad they have been banned in many states, including Hawaii. Why? Because seawalls destroy the natural coastline and accelerate erosion to neighboring properties.

Some at Hololani argue that managed retreat to preserve the beach is a wasted effort because no more sands exist landward, despite USDA and USGS data showing substantial sand and dunes below and mauka of the property. Some argue that a seawall will protect the marine life from an eroding clay layer, despite the five substrate cores drilled down to 20 feet in front of the Hololani by their hired engineers that show almost all sand and almost no clay. Some argue the seawall will provide public access, but access already exists to a beach. Why would the public benefit from access to a seawall? Some argue the property taxes that the Hololani owners have paid over three decades should account for something. I would ask how much of those taxes has gone towards protecting and preserving the natural resources (beach, coral reef) in front of the Hololani that has provided three decades of investment property revenue and rises in home equity?

For the past 30 years, we have watched this tsunami approaching. Scientists have warned, and decision makers have ignored. As recently as a few weeks ago, the Hawaii State Office of Planning rejected the recommendation by DLNR to incorporate sea level rise science into planning decisions. This is not the type of leadership that is going to help us plan for a better future.

If managed retreat can provide beaches and living marine resources for another three, five or ten generations, I believe it is the right of our keiki to inherit a healthy, living shoreline. It doesnt seem right to that they should be the ones paying the price for bad decisions and poor planning, especially if it can still be rectified. And managed retreat doesnt have to be without compassion for property owners in distress, but it is important that they also be part of the long-term solution, and many will certainly choose to be. Hololani neighbors that are watching their own tsunami coming should be planning now, in coordination with county, state and federal agencies, to implement compassionate, managed retreat strategies that dont leave them in complete despair.

We only need to look at New York, New Jersey, North and South Carolina, Florida, California or many island nations around the world to see that trying to fight back Mother Nature is a fools errand, whether it be seawalls, T-groins or artificial beaches. Managed retreat is inevitable, and the sooner we start adapting to sea levels rising, the less crises we will face into the future.

Much like our great ancestors did, with every decision or action, we must apply the 7th Generation Principle  Is this decision going to benefit seven generations into the future?

MARK DEAKOS, West Maui



Hawaii doesnt need euthanasia and assisted suicide

It is a bad idea for Hawaii to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide. Once you legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, safeguards go out the window.

Once you legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, the door gets opened more and more. It starts with terminal illnesses, then to disabilities with children, then mental illnesses  it never ends.

Terminal illnesses are not always terminal. I know this lady who had terminal cancer; it went into remission and she is living today.

We have strong medication to kill pain  not the patient. We dont need euthanasia and assisted suicide.

DEAN CLARK, Kihei



Thanks for helping in Honokohau cleanup

On the Sunday flood a month or so ago, Honokohau got inundated, and plenny trash washed down the valley.

Thanks to Dianna for funding the dumpsters, the Honokohau Ohana for doing legwork, Bill Throckmorton for manning his machine, and Kimo Clark of Truth Excavation for bringing his equipment out to the valley to load em up.

This guy really gives back to the community. Too bad more companies dont follow his lead. Mahalo!

Now, if the county will just pick up the cars they already marked, well be good for now.

LES POTTS, Napili



Beyond None of the Above

Some candidates recently asked me: What are you looking for in a candidate?

Mahalo for asking, especially as too many critical elections nowadays have too many blank votes for None of the Above (if eligible voters even vote).

I look for:

Real-world experience. The decisions we ask of our elected officials are complicated with real-world impacts across a diverse society. Broad experience in that world allows a decision maker to see the best path forward for all.

Hard work. As the saying goes, there is truly no substitute. Elective office takes dedication, commitment and time driven by passion. We cant afford to entrust it to anyone on cruise control.

Effectiveness. Much of elective office is basic problem solving but with high complexity and stakes. What really is the problem, what are the options to solve it, how do we identify and choose the best solution, how do we get it done?

Empathy. Weve all lived in our own shoes, but can we put ourselves in others? The ability to do so is essential to wise decision making and especially to achieving the universal values of equality, opportunity, compassion and tolerance.

Independence. Too many only want government to do their bidding for their own interests; for them, dependence and control to get what they want are the goal. But government only works for the common good when it resists that pull and represents all.

Moderation. Extremism on the far right or left of the political spectrum or on any issue adds to the debate but is not where we forge the best solutions. Nobody has a lock on the best ideas, and a moderate, inclusive approach usually has the best chance at acceptance and success.

Passion. This doesnt mean just yelling and screaming. It means waking up every day with a burning desire to better our state, country and world, whether one is loud or quiet about it.

Future focus. Too often our candidates and elected officials hang on to the past while ignoring the future. Yes, we must respect and learn from our past, but dwelling there just holds us back. What we can do something about is our future.

Long-term view. Todays cluttered and noisy debate and right-now media cycle traps us in the short-term. But can one rise above all that and look to the long term? Where do we want to be in a year, decade or generation? How do we get there? Is this the best way, even at the expense of now?

Straight talk. Just give it to me straight. I can handle the truth, even if I dont like it; even if I disagree with your solution.

Courage. The best leaders in history, science, art, culture, government, you name it, led from the front, often alone and targeted by most. Every elected official is called upon for courage, though too few can and do answer that call.

Decision making. In our representative democracy, the ultimate job of our elected officials is to make decisions for all. Anyone who has trouble doing that shouldnt apply for the job.

Power handler. Another saying goes that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is certainly seductive. Some handle it well; it doesnt go to their heads and they stay focused on the common good. But others dont; they descend into arrogance, cronyism, special interest focus and questionable personal behavior. Often the warning signs can be seen in past actions or along the campaign trail.

Moral center. An elected official faces constant choices between doing the right thing and yielding to other paths. If she or he doesnt have a strong moral compass as a guide, there is great risk given the power entrusted.

Are there such people out there? Certainly! Ive seen and worked with many throughout Hawaii and beyond in all parts of my career and life, to include politics and government.

I hope I see them on my ballot. I dont want to vote for None of the Above.

ED CASE, HawaiiHONOLULU  The Hawaii Chapter of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) recently donated $2,500 to the Boys & Girls Club of Maui, which serves more than 2,400 members and an additional 7,000 youth each year through outreach.

Mitchell A. Imanaka, ARDA-Hawaii chairman and managing principal of Imanaka Asato LLLC, said, ARDA-Hawaii is proud to support the Boys & Girls Club of Maui for their continued efforts to provide opportunities for academic success, good character and leadership, and healthy lifestyles for Mauis youth.

ARDA-Hawaii is the local chapter of the national timeshare trade association. Hawaiis timeshare units account for 13 percent of the states visitor lodging inventory and thousands of jobs. The organization is committed to supporting the communities in which its resorts are located through organized events, monetary and in-kind donations, and volunteerism.BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT:

From the pre-ballet babies to the popular adult ballet classes on weekday mornings, the new Pacific Arts Dance Center has been a hit.

After eight and 13 years respectively in their previous locations, Del Mar Ballet and Royal Academy of Performing Arts joined forces in August 2017 and moved into their brand new studio in Carmel Valley in early November. They have created one dance community, looking to inspire and make a positive difference in the life of dancers of all ages.

We have accomplished so much, I cant even believe it, said Artistic Director Marie Arts, who owns the studio with Francine Garton.

Located on the second floor of the new Merge building at the corner of Carmel Mountain Road and Carmel Country Road, dancers take classes in studios with big picture windows with vista views. The largest dance studio doubles as an indoor/outdoor performance space, complete with state-of-the-art lighting and sound.

Being in the neighborhood setting, were getting a lot of new young kids, Arts said. A second story studio is very unique so its catching peoples eyes as they drive by. We get walk-ins every day.

The last few months have been a whirl of activity, Arts said.

In December, they put on The Nutcracker with a cast of 120 dancers and the competition teams have been successful in making their mark on the competitive stage with the trophies to prove it on display in the bright studio lobby.

On April 28, their large studio transformed into a theater for an Imaginarium, the first performance in the new space featuring the ballet academy and competition team dancers.

It worked out exactly how we envisioned, said Arts of the performance in which about 100 guests sat in the studio and out on the balcony looking onto the stage. It was a hit. It was gorgeous choreography, the dancers were beautiful, it was a tight show and everything worked.

Imaginarium was also live-streamed, allowing family members from out of town and internationally to catch the show online.

The studio is also buzzing as Pacific Arts is gearing up for its first big end-of-the-year recital gala on June 16 at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. Every genre of dance and all ages and levels of dancers at the studio will perform in a matinee and evening show.

Arts is looking forward to a packed schedule this summer.

Pacific Arts Summer Spectacular includes summer dance camps, advance ballet intensives, workshops, movie nights and guest artists like Christopher Howard, a Broadway dancer, choreographer and dance captain in the first national tour of An American in Paris.

Howard already paid a visit to the studio in May and collaborated with Arts to help put together the opening number for the upcoming recital.

Arts said one of the big undertakings for the new studio has been working to formalize its curriculum so dancers will know the pathways in which they can go  whether they want to be on a fun ballet, jazz or hip hop track or if they are looking to go the route of the more serious ballet academy or competition team which require auditions. The studio will hold auditions for the ballet academy on May 19 and for the competition teams on June 9.

Anyone interested in checking out what Pacific Arts is always welcome to drop in for a trial class. Pacific Arts Dance Center is located at 5550 Carmel Mountain Road, Suite 210, San Diego (Carmel Valley area). For more information, visit pacificartsdance.com or call (858) 264-ARTS (2787).

 Business Spotlight features commercial enterprises that support La Jolla Light.Whats the deal with UC San Diego once being called UC La Jolla?

In May 1959, the Board of Regents for the University of California approved the current site for what it intended to call the University of California, La Jolla. Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), which was to form the nucleus of the university, temporarily housed the UCLJ School of Science and Engineering while that school awaited completion of its own building in 1962.

But the name didnt sit right with Clark Kerr, president of the University of California system from 1958 to 1967. In the second volume of his book series, The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 19491967, published shortly before his death in 2003, Kerr explained that he suggested the name change to UC San Diego partly because of the association of La Jollas name with attitudes antagonistic to minority racial and religious groups, and, too, because the City of San Diego was the donor of the land for the campus.

The Regents accepted this change with no resistance.

Is there a trivia question, or any other question about La Jolla, that youve always wanted answered? Send your Whats the Deal With ? question to clevitan@lajollalight.comAgainst the recommendation of lifeguards and City engineers, the La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA) during its May 3 meeting, voted to send a letter asking the City to lower the height of a fence at the edge of the Blacks Overlook.

The chain-link fence currently stands at just under six feet tall at the end of a viewing area over Blacks Beach. The viewing area is landscaped with a walking path leading to the bluffs edge and its fence.

It was originally permitted to be approximately four feet with safety and regulatory signage.

All we want to do is bring this fence into compliance, said beach-access advocate Melinda Merryweather. Its a very special place for surfers to look at the ocean and in the La Jolla Community Plan, it says view areas should have fences that are four feet.

However, City spokesperson Bill Harris said he has communicated with various departments on this issue  including Code Compliance, Lifeguards, San Diego Fire & Rescue, San Diego Department Park & Recreation, and his own staff  and they unanimously agree the fence should remain at nearly six feet for safety reasons.

The rationale for the lifeguards is that they have a continuing issue with people trying to access the canyon and the unstable bluffs, Harris told the planning board. They do not support bringing the fence down any lower. Same thing goes for the Fire & Rescue Department and the Department of Park & Rec. Their experience is, even a six-foot fence is a scant deterrent to someone determined to climb over, but it adds benefit above a four-foot fence. Lifeguards confirmed today they wanted it at six feet.

Trustee John Shannon asked if there are issues in areas of the nearby Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where the fences are lower but there is a bluff on the other side.

Harris responded: This is a manufactured viewpoint. The determination has been this is the type of fence that is the best deterrent to prevent accidents. Ive been told this is the most unstable portion of bluff that runs along Blacks Beach.

Compared to areas like the Bandera Street overlook in Bird Rock, which recently had a six-foot tall chain link fence taken down in favor of a post-and-chair barrier, Harris added that the bluffs there are not of the height nor instability of the bluffs at Blacks Overlook.

Those are the factors that were weighed on this, Harris said. This site is special, but on the same token, it is dangerous.

Trustee Mike Costello noted: One of the really important things about a coastal community like ours is a view of the coast, and access to the coast.  We have a lot of places, like Calumet Park, that have slippery steep bluffs and there is no fence. As a coastal community, we should treasure and protect our coastal view and access.

When asked if a vote in favor of lowering the fence would mean a City Council presentation or any other future presentations or action, Harris said it was doubtful, adding, Well respond to the letter  but it would be a summary of what Ive just said.

Alternative solution?

Some trustees posed whether an alternative fence design beyond the chain-link fence that is already there would make the view more accessible but still provide safety.

That type of solution and those proposals are welcome, but what needs to be considered is the maintenance (whether there is peculiar or unique maintenance) and whether the footing or foundation would be inconsistent with the bluff top, Harris said. I dont think there is a lot of resistance to an alternative, but at the moment, this is what the City departments have assessed as necessary.

Nevertheless, a motion to ask the City to lower the fence passed 13-1-1.

 La Jolla Community Planning Association next meets 6 p.m. Thursday, June 7 at the Rec Center, 615 Prospect St. lajollacpa.orgOn Perspective Audio Article LISTEN Hau Midakuepi (Greetings My Relatives), One of my favorite Native thinkers was the late, great Will Rogers who once...

On Serving the People Audio Article LISTEN Hau Midakuepi (Greetings My Relatives), Growing up in Indian Country, I never heard much about such things as the...A court in Shanghai sentenced the founder of the Chinese insurance company that owns New York Citys Waldorf Hotel to 18 years in prison on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to fraudulently raising billions of dollars from investors, state media reported.

Shanghais No. 1 Intermediate Peoples Court also ordered the confiscation of 10.5 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in assets from Wu Xiaohui, the former chairman of Anbang Insurance Group, which had gained a reputation for ambitiously expanding into hotels, real estate and insurance from Canada to South Korea.

Wu, who founded privately owned Anbang in 2004, has been accused of misleading investors and diverting money for his own use. He was detained last year and regulators seized control of Anbang in February. He was shown on state TV in March admitting guilt.

Wu initially had denied his guilt at his one-day trial, according to an earlier court statement.

Advertisement

According to Xinhua, Wu concealed his ownership of shares in companies controlled by Anbang, filed false statements with financial authorities and lured investors by offering rates of return above that offered elsewhere. Much of the business relied on selling insurance products to raise investment capital.

It said he used more than 100 companies under his control to manage funds and authorities later recovered bank savings, real estate and other assets. Wu used his position to misappropriate 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in Anbangs deposits, according to Xinhuas lengthy report.

The company made a big splash in the U.S. when it paid nearly $2 billion in 2014 to acquire the iconic Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York from Hilton. It later spent more than $6 billion to acquire a hotel portfolio from Blackstone Group. Among the properties were the Westin St. Francis hotel in San Francisco and Loews Santa Monica hotel.

Anbang also discussed possibly investing in a Manhattan skyscraper owned by the family of President Trumps son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner. Those talks ended last year with no deal.

The negotiations with Kushner Cos. about 666 Fifth Ave. prompted members of the U.S. Congress to raise ethics concerns.

Xinhua said the court determined the length of the sentence according to the facts of the case, the severity of the crime, and its degree of social harm. It said more than 50 people were present at the sentencing, including Wus relatives and journalists.

Anbang last month said it was receiving a $9.6 billion bailout from a government-run fund. That would mean the government fund owns 98% of the company, wiping out most of the equity stake once held by Wu and other shareholders.

The Anbang case is one of a string of scandals in what had been a stodgy Chinese insurance industry long-dominated by state-owned insurers. The industrys former top regulator was charged in September with taking bribes and other insurers have been accused of reckless speculation in stocks and real estate.

The Communist Party has made reducing financial risk a priority this year after a surge in debt prompted rating agencies last year to cut Beijings credit rating for government borrowing.

Anbang is being run by a committee of officials from Chinas insurance regulator, central bank and other agencies. They have said its obligations to policyholders and creditors are unaffected.

Over the years, Anbang grew to more than 30,000 employees with 35 million clients. It diversified into life insurance, banking, asset management, leasing and brokerage services.Californias teachers retirement system will pressure retail companies it is invested in to stop selling firearms and parts that are outlawed by the state  and would consider divestment from firms that refuse to make changes, a key panel decided Wednesday.

The vote by the Investment Committee for the California State Teachers Retirement System was supported by panel member and state Treasurer John Chiang even though he had asked in October that the system take more immediate action to stop investing in the gun retailers.

If Congress and state houses are either unwilling or unable to pass sensible policies to stop our schoolyards, work sites and places of worship from becoming killing fields then lets take the battle to where the money is, Chiang, a candidate for governor, told the Investment Committee before the unanimous vote to adopt the engagement policy.

California bans the sale of assault weapons, which are any semiautomatic, centerfire rifle or semiautomatic pistol that lacks a fixed ammunition magazine and has any of a number of parts that include a telescoping stock. The ban includes AK-47s and other military-style rifles.

Advertisement

The new policy was drafted in the wake of mass shootings in San Bernardino and Orlando, Fla., and more recently at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a gunman killed 17 students and faculty in February.

CalSTRS move follows recent actions by several Wall Street firms, including the nations largest money manager, to employ their financial heft to push for stricter gun laws.

BlackRock Inc., with $6.3 trillion of assets under management, plans to remove the stocks of retailers that sell firearms from some of its existing and planned investment funds.

And Citigroup Inc. said it would place restrictions on firearms sales for its new retail business clients, including a requirement that they dont sell guns to someone who hasnt passed a background check or is under 21.

Chiang said he and legislators also will pursue a bill to force the larger California Public Employees Retirement System to adopt a faster action plan that would eliminate investment in gun sellers that fail to change by July 1, 2021.

The policy adopted Wednesday by CalSTRS does not include deadlines for engagement to result in changes.

The teachers board voted to hire two full-time employees to try to persuade companies it is invested in to stop selling assault rifles. If that doesnt work, the retirement system officials will use their proxy voting authority to vote against all members of the companys governing board.

If those two steps fail, CalSTRS would initiate a review process under the new policy to determine whether it should divest from a company and whether that would hurt its ability to pay pension benefits.

CalSTRS $225-billion investment portfolio includes more than $400 million in holdings in Walmart Inc., Kroger Co. and other firms that it contends sell firearms outside California that are banned in the state, according to a staff report.

However, the staff report submitted to the board said the two main companies are already making changes.

Kroger has indicated it is going to responsibly phase out sales of firearms and ammunition, and both it and Walmart have raised the age limit for gun purchases to 21, the report said.

In 2015, Walmart stopped selling guns it considered assault rifles, including weapons that accept high-capacity ammunition magazines.

On Wednesday, Walmart spokesman Casey Staheli said that decision satisfied CalSTRS latest demands. We stopped selling modern sporting rifles in 2015, he said.

Walmart and Kroger took their latest actions after Dicks Sporting Goods banned gun sales to customers under 21 at its 800 Dicks stores and 35 Field & Stream outlets  and stopped selling assault-style weapons at Field & Stream  following the Florida high school shooting.

The decision by Dicks, one of the nations largest sporting goods retailers, drew praise at the time from Harry M. Keiley, chairman of the Investment Committee and a high school teacher with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

Classrooms are meant to be sacred spaces for our children to learn and grow, where fear and violence have absolutely no place and will not be tolerated, he said.

There isnt uniform agreement, though, at CalSTRS that divestment works.

Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer of CalSTRS, said at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills this month that divesting ends any influence an investor might have.

Divestment hasnt made the world a better place, he said.

Also attending the conference was Vicki Fuller, chief investment officer of the New York State Common Retirement Fund  the third largest public pension plan in the nation  who had the same take.

If we divest, we dont have a place at the table and we dont change behavior, Fuller said. We do need our companies to be thinking long term about how they are going to be able to continue to generate their earnings.

But on Wednesday, the CalSTRS panel heard emotional testimony from current and former teachers who said they have been shaken by the spread of campus gun violence.

CalSTRS has an obligation to engage corporate executives to try to make changes in business practices that reduce gun violence, Keiley said.

Im under no illusion that actions that we take today or into the future will end these horrific acts of murder at the hands of people who are mentally ill using assault weapons, whose only purpose is to kill other human beings, Keiley said during the board hearing.

But to sit back and say that we have done enough, that theres nothing else we can do, I believe would be a breach of our fiduciary duty, he added.

CalSTRS has taken action before in response to gun violence. After the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, the teachers retirement system adopted a divestment policy for companies that manufacture firearms that are banned in the state.

Bloomberg and Times staff writer James F. Peltz contributed to this report.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Twitter: @mcgreevy99Little noticed amid the trade war discussion, tariffs levied by the Trump administration on the Canadian paper used to make newsprint are starting to take a toll on U.S. newspapers and printers.

In the last few months, the Commerce Department has put in place two sets of duties on producers and exporters of uncoated groundwood paper from Canada. The first, in January, ranged from 4.42% to 9.93% of the wholesale price after a preliminary determination that suppliers had received financial assistance from the Canadian government.

Then in March, a separate preliminary finding by the Commerce Department resulted in anti-dumping duties of 22.16% for some Canadian paper producers and exporters.

Together, the two sets of duties have raised the price of newsprint by about 30%. Final results for both investigations are expected in August.

Advertisement

Some U.S. newspapers and third-party printers say theyve already seen the effect of the tariffs in industries that are already facing declining revenues. The Tampa Bay Times said it will eliminate about 50 jobs by June to try to manage the estimated $3.5-million additional cost the paper will pay per year as a result of the tariffs.

Its really going to have a devastating effect on the newspaper industry, and it will ripple through the rest of the printing industry, said Frank Romano, professor emeritus at Rochester Institute of Technology and an expert in printing. Youre almost taxing some newspapers out of business.

The petitions that led to the tariffs were filed in August by North Pacific Paper Co., a Longview, Wash., producer of uncoated groundwood paper  the material on which most newspapers are printed.

Two decades ago, there were about 15 newsprint mills in the U.S., said Paul Boyle, senior vice president of public policy at the News Media Alliance, a trade group representing almost 2,000 news organizations. But as the newspaper industry fell on difficult times and demand for newsprint steadily decreased, the mills began to disappear.

Today, there are only a handful left in the nation, Boyle said.

The U.S. demand for newsprint is 2.4 million tons, he said; Canadian paper mills provide about 60% of that. At the Tampa Bay Times, about 80% of its newsprint supply was Canadian, said Paul Tash, chairman and chief executive of the Tampa Bay Times/Times Publishing Co.

America does not produce enough newsprint to meet the needs of American customers, he said. Theres not a lot of spare capacity in the market.

Tronc Inc., parent company of the Los Angeles Times, declined to comment on how the tariffs would affect the paper. But during an earnings call Wednesday, Tronc Chief Financial Officer Terry Jimenez said newsprint was at historically extraordinarily high prices, mostly due to the tariffs.

A government-supported policy that makes the production of newspapers costlier at an inflection point in the industry is unwise and unwarranted, Tronc Chairman and Chief Executive Justin Dearborn said on the call. We strongly oppose the tariffs and believe they are counterproductive to public policy and to free markets broadly.

North Pacific Paper, which is owned by private equity firm One Rock Capital Partners, said it understands the concerns voiced by newspaper publishers. But company spokesman David Richey said the firm strongly disagreed with the notion that their industry requires low-priced, subsidized newsprint from Canada to sustain their own business model.

The company closed one of its three paper machines last fall, a move a company spokesman attributed to the prior trade environment.

We are not asking for anything but a level playing field with the Canadian producers, Richey said.

Boyle of the News Media Alliance said the new tariffs would be unlikely to spur a paper mill rebirth. His organization is part of a coalition of dozens of newspaper publisher groups, printers and paper producers that are protesting the tariffs and plan to make their case to the U.S. International Trade Commission this summer.

I think its foolish to believe someones going to start a newsprint mill and spend $200 million to $300 million to build a mill  when you see a decline in newsprint, Boyle said.

Other representatives of printing companies that produce items such as magazines, catalogs and retail advertising inserts say theyre also preparing for a major financial hit. Canadian newsprint makes up about 20% of the volume moving through the presses at printer Quad/Graphics, a Sussex, Wis., company that has 20,000 employees in 25 states, including about 750 in California.

Quad buys about 300,000 tons of Canadian uncoated groundwood paper each year and expects to see an annual cost increase of about $15 million, said Pat Henderson, director of government affairs.

This comes as Quads top-line revenues have been falling about 5% a year. The company has made 15 acquisitions since 2010, but print volume is still on the decline, Henderson said.

The supply will not meet the demand, he said.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

Twitter: @smasunaga

UPDATES:

11:15 a.m.: This article has been updated with details from a Tronc call with analysts.

This article was originally published at 3 a.m.Everyone eligible should be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of long-distance travel or employment.

Vaccination should be voluntary but those who don't get vaccinated should be frequently tested for COVID-19 as a condition of long-distance travel and employment.

Both vaccination and testing should be voluntary and not required as a condition of long-distance travel or employment.

I defer to the judgment of lawmakers as long as they base their decisions on a consensus of medical professionals.

Vote

View ResultsWith its history of clashing with regulators and its autonomous car fleet grounded over a pedestrian death, Uber might seem the least likely candidate to launch a flying taxi service.

But Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi said Wednesday that he is reasonably confident demonstration flights will start in Dallas and Los Angeles in two years, with commercial service set to start in 2023.

When asked how Uber would inspire passenger confidence in a network of flying cars, Khosrowshahi  in an onstage conversation with Bloomberg journalist Brad Stone during the Uber Elevate conference in Los Angeles  said the company would have to show it had moved beyond the scandals that rocked Uber last year.

Those included charges of sexism and revelations that the company used software to evade local regulators. The controversies eventually led to the ouster of Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick.

Advertisement

If we keep demonstrating from the inside that we are a changed company, that while we want to be profitable and we want to go public, we have a group of people at our company that want to change the world for better, that want to make mobility affordable with the masses  that we will build trust, said Khosrowshahi, who was hired last summer.

Rather than manufacturing flying vehicles itself, Uber has chosen to partner with five vehicle makers. The company  notorious for launching its ride-hailing operations without always complying with local regulations  is also working with NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Aviation is a different ballgame, Khosrowshahi said. Weve got to play by the rules.

Although the companys autonomous vehicles group has partnered with some carmakers, Khosrowshahi said developing hardware and software kits together in-house for the robot cars is the right approach, at least initially. But the autonomous vehicles group ultimately could become like the flying cars group, he said.

Khosrowshahi said the National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the March fatal accident, in which an Uber robot car hit and killed a woman who was walking her bike across an Arizona highway. He said the autonomous fleet has been grounded as the company and outside experts conduct a top to bottom safety review.

For us, it really brought home this idea that safety has to come first, Khosrowshahi said.

samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

Twitter: @smasunagaWells Fargo & Co.s stiff penalty from the Federal Reserve over its unauthorized accounts scandal and other consumer abuses will continue into next year, the banks chief executive told investors Thursday.

The Federal Reserve in February ordered the bank to stop growing its assets beyond $1.95 trillion  where they stood at the end of last year  until the San Francisco banking giant can show that it has improved its risk management operations and will not endanger customers.

The sanction was levied in response to a bevy of consumer abuses that have come to light over the past year and a half, including the banks creation of perhaps millions of bank, credit card and other accounts without customer approval, and its practice of forcing some auto-loan customers to pay for unnecessary insurance policies.

The bank earlier had suggested that the Fed could lift the asset cap later this year, potentially after a September 2018 review. But Chief Executive Timothy Sloan told investors gathered for a day-long presentation in Charlotte, N.C., that the cap will probably remain in place into early 2019.

Advertisement

Last month, the bank submitted compliance plans to the Fed for review. Sloan said the agency responded with feedback on those plans. To have enough time to incorporate that feedback, he said, were making plans to operate under the asset cap through the first part of 2019.

Sloan said he could not comment further on the matter because it involves confidential supervisory information.

Ken Leon, an equity analyst at research firm CFRA, said the longer the cap remains in place, the tougher it will be for Wells Fargo to manage it.

They thought theyd be done by the end of the year, he said. There is a disappointment that this will go into 2019, and we dont know for how long.

Sloan and other executives have said that the asset cap will not affect most of the banks day-to-day operations or prevent it from making loans. Rather, theyve said it would mean readjusting the banks balance sheet.

Now that the asset cap is expected to last into next year, Leon said he expects the bank may have to make more changes, perhaps shrinking some businesses where it is not a major player  stock trading, for instance  so it can continue to compete in its core business areas, such as consumer and business banking.

I think theyre going to really press hard where theyre not a top-three or top-five player, Leon said.

The bank also revised its estimate for how much the asset cap would ultimately cost the bank in lost profit, saying that, despite the caps likely longer length, the financial hit will be smaller than first expected.

In February, executives projected 2018 profit to be as much as $400 million short of where it might otherwise have been. On Thursday, Wells Fargo Treasurer Neal Blinde told investors he expects the hit will be more like $100 million.

The difference, he said, is that the banks loan and deposit growth has been slower than earlier estimates. Since those initial estimates were made, the bank has faced a new round of bad headlines, in particular a $1-billion penalty handed down by federal regulators last month over the same consumer abuses underlying the Feds enforcement action.

Leon of CFRA said the banks continued reputation problems could be behind the slower loan and deposit growth at the bank. Blinde said that slower growth, paradoxically, has made the Feds asset cap less costly in terms of lost profits.

In addition to the $1-billion penalty from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the bank last week reached a $480-million settlement with shareholders who said they were shortchanged when the banks stock plunged after the accounts scandal mushroomed in September 2016.

Wells Fargo this week launched a new advertising campaign aimed at repairing its image and highlighting steps it has taken to repay customers and change its practices.

james.koren@latimes.com

Follow me: @jrkorenWells Fargo & Co. must pay $97 million to home mortgage consultants and private mortgage bankers in California who didnt get the breaks they were entitled to under the states stringent labor laws.

A federal judge in Los Angeles on Tuesday agreed with the bankers and consultants that the money they were entitled to should be based not just on their hourly pay but also on their commissions. That bumped the damages for Wells Fargo well above the $25 million it had argued it owed the employees.

The lawsuit alleging various California wage and hour labor violations was brought last year by a Wells Fargo mortgage broker in Los Angeles. U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson threw out her claims other than those alleging the bank failed to provide rest breaks and one on unfair competition.

In January, the judge agreed with the broker that the bank was liable for the labor-law violation. The judgment covers mortgage bankers and consultants in California who worked for Wells Fargo from March 17, 2013, to Aug. 1, 2017.

Advertisement

The San Francisco bank said it intends to appeal the ruling.

Wells Fargos compensation structure for its home mortgage consultants complies with Californias wage and hour laws, including pay for all break periods, and allows our HMCs to earn competitive, performance-based compensation, spokesman Tom Goyda said. We plan to appeal on the basis that the courts decision reflects both a misunderstanding of our HMC compensation plan and a misapplication of the relevant state law.Psychology professor Michelle Drouin wanted to know how people would react if a chatbot could emulate a human.

So she and her fellow researchers split 350 undergraduate students into three groups. One group was told they would be interacting with a bot. Another was told it was a real person. And the last was informed only after the interaction that it had been communicating with an algorithm.

The first two groups were nearly equally happy with the experience. But the last group was not.

They felt an eeriness about it, said Drouin of Purdue University Fort Wayne. They thought they were being deceived.

Advertisement

Its a reaction Silicon Valley companies may want to pay close attention to as they continue to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence to create ever more realistic virtual assistants.

On Tuesday, Google unveiled an assistant thats able to make calls to schedule appointments while speaking in a nearly flawless human voice replete with ums and ahs. At no point during the presentation did Googles software reveal it isnt human  sparking a debate about ethics and consent.

On Thursday, Google reversed course by saying explicitly that the service, known as Google Duplex, would include a disclosure that its not a person.

We understand and value the discussion around Google Duplex  as weve said from the beginning, transparency in the technology is important, a company spokesperson said. We are designing this feature with disclosure built-in, and well make sure the system is appropriately identified.

The concern that people would be duped by Googles new feature underscores the urgency for society to determine what kind of relationship it wants with its artificial aids as technology companies get closer to traversing the so-called uncanny valley. Thats a term used to describe the gulf between a robot or software that has just enough imperfections to raise skepticism and another thats indistinguishable from a human.

Will we demand to know when were speaking with a bot? Or will we accept that well wind up unwittingly conversing with algorithms? Will we bestow them with the same kindness and empathy we demand of each other? Or do we see them merely as tools, unworthy of the values that bind civil society together? These are questions ethicists, developers and designers are puzzling over. How we respond could have far-reaching implications for how humans ultimately treat each other.

It will change us, said Pamela Pavliscak, a professor at Pratt Institute and founder of Change Sciences, a consulting firm specializing in the emotional connection people have with technology. We design tech and tech, in turn, designs us. It would be pretty naive to think well stay the same.

Using a pair of recorded phone calls, Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai demonstrated this week to attendees at the companys developers conference how its virtual assistant could call and book a hair appointment and try to reserve a table at a restaurant.

Mm-hmm, the ersatz assistant says in a natural female voice when asked to wait a moment by the salon employee.

The assistant then negotiates alternative times for the appointment, throwing in an um for good measure. Theres no indication that the salon worker has any idea the voice on the other end is computer-generated.

The same goes for a restaurant worker speaking to a male virtual assistant, who uses colloquialisms such as Oh, I gotcha to express understanding.

Googles willingness to disclose that Duplex isnt a real person might pressure other companies to do the same. But Americans  who are already accustomed to robocalls and automated call menus  might someday nonetheless find themselves asking if the voice on the other end is real.

Pichai said the service could be a boon for businesses by erasing one more barrier for customers, who may not have time to make such calls. It all fits neatly into the companys new tagline, Make Google do it, which urges consumers to leverage the assistant from their phones, smart speakers, cars, TVs and laptops.

Lest anyone forget, the more menial tasks people outsource to Google, the more the company knows about their habits. That serves two purposes: It allows Google to provide consumers with better search results, and it allows advertisers to target audiences more precisely. And by making a virtual assistant sound real, users lower their guards, giving Google even more valuable data.

That in itself troubles privacy advocates. Will an authentic sounding assistant lull users into revealing their most private details to a company that amassed $95 billion in advertising revenue last year? What if the assistant is calling a doctor? Does Google now know about someones health history?

Its something Google will need to address given todays heightened concerns about privacy after Facebooks Cambridge Analytica scandal. But ethicists say the bigger concerns are the unintended consequences of a world increasingly flooded with bots and automated services in place of genuine human interaction.

The reason this can go sideways is because human communication and relationships are based on reciprocity, said David Ryan Polgar, a technology ethicist. What if Im spending time thinking about someone and writing to them but the other person isnt? Theyre not putting in the same effort but they still want the benefit of a deepened relationship.

As a result, he said, communication becomes cheapened.

It becomes transactional, solely about the words and not the meaning, said Polgar, who thinks Google and other AI developers have an ethical responsibility to disclose that their assistants arent human.

Dennis Mortensen, chief executive and founder of AI virtual assistant company x.ai, said he fears people will eventually determine its a waste of time being kind to one another if an increasing amount of interaction is automated. But he has hope that wont come to pass.

You can engineer good behavior, Mortensen said. He cited Googles announcement this week that it will add a feature to its virtual assistant that encourages children to say please and thank you. Amazon has a similar program for its assistant.

Mortensen, whose company solely helps users schedule meetings, said hes also seen polite responses to his virtual assistants, Amy and Andrew. Of the hundreds of thousands of meetings x.ai schedules each month, about 11% of users reply to the assistants just to express gratitude  even though Mortensen discloses that the service is AI.

Drouin, the psychology professor at Purdue University Fort Wayne, believes people are willing to accept algorithmic relationships if they are upfront. She says AI has unfairly gotten a bad rap from popular culture. She thinks the technology can eventually succeed in places humans cant, like delivering comfort to people suffering from alienation and loneliness.

Theres a lot of people who dont have rich and plentiful human relationships, she said. What options do they have? If we can advance AI we can fill a need for these people. The movement toward more human-like forms is allowing people to feel more connected.

david.pierson@latimes.com

Follow me @dhpierson on TwitterComposer Ellen Reid and writer Sarah LaBrie are sitting down for coffee at Cafe Tropical in Silver Lake. The topic of discussion: hope.

Its all about balance, the two say. Hope for the future is a necessary and essential ingredient of American life, but too much pie-in-the-sky optimism can lead to blind spots, to ignoring the challenges and realities of the past and present.



For the record: An earlier version of this article misstated the university where Sayd Randle is a PhD candidate. Its Yale, not Columbia.

For the last two years, Reid, LaBrie and sociocultural anthropologist Sayd Randle have embarked on a sustained conversation about hope and the history and future of the American dream. That exploration was integral to dreams of the new world, a 40-minute choral work that will receive its world premiere Sunday at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The Los Angeles Master Chorale commissioned this work from Reid, a 35-year-old composer and sound artist from Tennessee who splits her time between L.A. and New York. Under the baton of artistic director Grant Gershon, the Master Chorale will premiere the work alongside musicians from contemporary music ensemble Wild Up.

Advertisement

Since she contributed to the Industrys groundbreaking opera Hopscotch in 2015, Reids music has been in high demand in contemporary classical circles. The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra premiered her Petrichor in February. This fall L.A. Opera and Beth Morrison Projects will co-present her new work Prism.

Gershon first approached Reid about writing a piece for the Master Chorale in summer 2015. The commission came with the twin gifts of time and freedom: Reid would have two years to write the piece, and she could do anything she wanted within 40 minutes.

It was the perfect opportunity for Reid to explore some of the bigger philosophical questions she tends to ponder as she composes, like the nature and sustainability of the American dream, the American frontier spirit and westward expansion. What is behind this quintessential brand of American optimism? And what gets left in its wake?

Ellen Reid, photographed in Silver Lake. Her latest work premieres Sunday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times )

As a woman, I do feel that people are listening to me differently this year than they were last year. Composer Ellen Reid

To tackle this complex topic, the composer focused on three American cities and three distinct moments in history: the growth of black prosperity in Memphis in the 1890s, the oil boom in Houston in the 1970s and the future of space exploration as viewed from contemporary Los Angeles. By studying these specific places and times, she hoped, larger truths would emerge.

Reid asked Randle to participate as lead researcher on the project. She knew the Yale PhD candidate had the skill set to examine philosophical questions about America through a theoretical and critical lens.

To distill that research into a libretto, she turned to L.A.-based novelist LaBrie, who also contributed to Hopscotch. Reid was impressed by the way LaBrie connected seemingly unrelated elements to reveal universal themes in Hopscotch, and she liked that LaBrie is from Houston, one of the cities that dreams of the new world explores.

Reid, LaBrie and Randle conducted their research during the summer and fall of 2016. They traveled to Memphis, where they studied the life and work of one of Americas first black millionaires, Robert Church. They learned about Churchs contributions to his community and how his legacy had been systematically erased during the Jim Crow era, most notably at the hands of Tennessee politician E.H. Crump.

In Houston they interviewed leaders in the energy sector about the oil boom of the 1970s. In Los Angeles they spoke with scientists and tech entrepreneurs about asteroid mining and the potential colonization of Mars.

The piece is about boom and bust cycles, about these periods of great hope and optimism where everyone is sort of on the edge of the future, on the brink of something new, LaBrie says. And then, of course, what happens after that?

The novelist Sarah LaBrie wrote the libretto for dreams of the new world. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times )

As she set LaBries text to music, Reid says she tried to use texture and harmony to evoke a sense of time and place.

In the first movement, which relays Churchs story, the composer says the lush harmonies of the Master Chorale evoke a slower, less frenetic time and the ease and beauty of the South, the golden haze, the pollen in the air.

In the second movement, samples of the clanging, industrial sounds of an oil rig are transformed into gritty rhythms and merged with Houston diva funk.

In the final movement, the music expands with echoes of reverb until you eventually blast off into oblivion.

The process of researching and writing dreams of the new world took Reid and LaBrie away from the coastal cities where they make their lives today and back to the southern states in which they were raised.

Its exciting for me to be able to foreground black voices in the story of the evolution of the American dream, LaBrie says. In Houston, she was fascinated by the way an interview subject described oil as the black blood that runs the city.

That black blood was there, underground, fueling the American dream in my hometown, she says. My grandmother owned her own business in Houston and was a thriving part of that black community of entrepreneurs. Robert Church was not an anomaly. Black people were able to build lives for themselves, but too often those legacies were eradicated.

For Reid, it was painful to discover that one of her own ancestors had worked for a company that was founded by the villain in Churchs story, Crump.

It was shocking and confusing, she says, but also a strong reminder of how easy it is to be complicit in something. My initial response was to distance myself from that past. But I think that sort of distancing is one thing that keeps us from looking at painful realities and working through them.

That black blood was there, underground, fueling the American dream in my hometown. Librettist Sarah LaBrie

Reid and LaBries trips to Texas and Tennessee coincided with the 2016 presidential election.

Here we were writing about these moments of profound change in America, and at the same time living through a moment like that, LaBrie says. In so many ways this piece has shaped the way that I look at Americas future. There is incredible possibility available in this country, but if we dont also look at what happened in our past we wont be able to change our future.

Reid agrees, adding that working on dreams of the new world gave her a constructive outlet through which to view current politics.

This moment right now makes me both incredibly devastated and incredibly hopeful, she says. As a woman, I do feel that people are listening to me differently this year than they were last year. Overall, I think our piece allows a conversation. Were putting voices that are not necessarily agreeing with each other into a tapestry that can be heard through the beauty of music.

That music is key, LaBrie says.

The Master Chorales voices are transcendent. This story needed to exist now, it needed this large group of voices to sing it, and it needed Ellens music.

         

dreams of the new world

Who: Los Angeles Master Chorale with Wild Up (program also includes Terry Rileys In C)

Where: Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., L.A.

When: 7 p.m. Sunday (pre-concert talk at 6 p.m.)

Tickets: $29 and up

Info: (213) 972-7282, lamasterchorale.org

See all of our latest arts news and reviews at latimes.com/arts.

ALSO

Becoming John Luther Adams: The evolution of an American composer

A guide to the best L.A. dance companies and where to see them

Why an Asian cast remains a radical idea for American theater

Tony Award nominations 2018: The complete listWhen the director David Lean and his editor Anne V. Coates were first processing the footage from Lawrence of Arabia, they had already envisioned a key visual transition early in the film: a stately, dreamlike dissolve from one shot to the next. But when they screened the dailies, they saw the two images in sequence, one right after the other: first Peter OToole blowing out a match, then a direct cut to a staggering desert horizon.

The cut was so striking in its immediacy and impact, they knew it had to stay.

We decided to nibble at it, taking a few frames off here and there, Coates told me in a 2010 interview. David looked at it and said, Its nearly perfect. Take it away, Annie, just make it perfect. So I took two frames off, and he said, Thats it. Visually it was so effective and dramatically so right.

Thus was born the most literal match cut in film history, and one of the greatest cuts in film history, period.

Advertisement

Had the British-born Coates done nothing more than Lawrence of Arabia, which earned her an Academy Award, her place in the annals of great film editors would be secure. But when she died Tuesday at 92, she left behind a body of work that, in its sheer versatility, emotional coherence and visual dynamism, simply takes the breath away.

Coates, who in 2016 received an honorary Oscar and a Career Achievement award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn., was equally adept at editing comedies (Out to Sea), historical dramas (Becket), political thrillers (In the Line of Fire) and, last but not least, sex scenes (take your pick: Striptease, Out of Sight, Unfaithful and, yes, Fifty Shades of Grey). Her personal favorite titles among her more than 50 feature-film credits included a few lesser-known 60s British dramas such as Young Cassidy and The Bofors Gun.

A scene from Lawrence of Arabia with Peter OToole. (Sony Pictures )

But it was Lawrence that towered over her resume, the one that she invariably wound up talking about the most. During our 2010 sitdown for an installment of the FilmCraft book series, she acknowledged a frightening moment early in the production, when Lean asked her to show him and the crew a scene she had just finished cutting. She was too nervous to watch it, but when it was finished, Lean  who had been an editor himself before he turned to directing  paid her a compliment she never forgot: I think thats the first time in my life that Ive seen a piece of film cut exactly the way I would have done it.

Coates didnt always get along so swimmingly with her directors. A wickedly funny and filter-free raconteur, she happily recounted her arguments with David Lynch over some of the more unusual sound effects he used in The Elephant Man, or the times she urged Steven Soderbergh to restore a key scene that the producers had wanted excised from Out of Sight. At one point, too, she told Soderbergh she felt they had overworked the movies intricate, time-shuffling structure.

I like to have a few little arguments with the director, she said. Its nice to have one or two areas where were not on exactly the same wavelength.

She loved working with Adrian Lyne on his adultery drama Unfaithful, mainly because he encouraged her to experiment. When Coates found that Diane Lane and Olivier Martinezs crucial first love-making scene simply wasnt working, she decided to intercut it with a later one in which Lane takes the train home after her liaison, trembling with guilt and ecstasy. The result was a cutting-room coup, an electrifying memory sequence that became the emotional centerpiece of the movie.

The particular deftness with which Coates navigated sex scenes, and the delight with which she talked about them (I tried to make Fifty Shades a little more sexy, she admitted to The Times in 2016), is especially delicious in light of how she got her start in the film industry. When she expressed an interest in a film career, her father, the famed film entrepreneur J. Arthur Rank, assumed she had been seduced by the industrys glamour and celebrity, and eventually found her a job at a production company specializing in religious films.

If he was trying to curb or contain her passions, it didnt work. Coates quickly learned the tricks of the trade, including projection and sound recording, and landed a job at Londons Pinewood Studios.

Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney in Steven Soderberghs Out of Sight. (Merrick Morton / Universal )

She swiftly joined a long line of women who have, over the past century, distinguished themselves in film editing  a field that, while historically dominated by men, has proved significantly more receptive to women than careers in directing and cinematography. Over the years the ranks of noteworthy editors have included Margaret Booth, Barbara McLean, Verna Fields, Dede Allen, Thelma Schoonmaker, Sally Menke, Margaret Sixel and countless others, including Coates and her daughter, Emma E. Hickox.

Coates took a highly instinctual, improvisatory approach to her art. Unlike her contemporary Walter Murch, whose books lay out his film-editing methodology in rigorous detail, she said she could never fully articulate why she decided when and where to make her cuts.

Generally speaking, I just cut the way I feel, she said, adding, Im also known as an emotional cutter.

It may seem odd to talk about emotion in film editing, at least for those who assume the art of assembling motion pictures comes down to threading a bunch of scenes together and making sure the whole thing doesnt run too long. But talk to most editors and they will tell you the most challenging part of the job isnt technical but emotional. It isnt cutting together a hyperkinetic action sequence or jumping around in time; its ensuring that the performances feel coherent from shot to shot.

Coates considered herself very much an actors editor, and her work is studded with marvelous performances to prove it: OToole in Lawrence of Arabia and Becket, John Hurt in The Elephant Man, Robert Downey Jr. in Chaplin, Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich, Diane Lane in Unfaithful and pretty much everyone in Murder on the Orient Express. That consistency of performance and emotion comes as close as anything to defining her modus operandi.

People often ask me if I have a style of editing. I usually say I dont, Coates told me, with the sort of needless humility that her remarkable career belied year after year. But one day my daughter said, Oh, yes, you do. We were studying it in class. So perhaps I do.

justin.chang@latimes.comThe first 26 years of life havent gone so swimmingly for Moll Huntford (Jessie Buckley), a ginger-haired resident of the British island of Jersey, and the 27th doesnt look much better. Her mother, Hilary (Geraldine James), has thrown her a birthday party, though whether its really for her is up for some debate.

After a quick toast to the birthday girl, Molls sister, Polly (Shannon Tarbet), announces to all the guests that she and her fiance are expecting twins, at which point Hilary orders Moll to go fetch a bottle of champagne from the garage.

Moll, played by Buckley with an astonishing mix of fragility and ferocity, does not go fetch a bottle of champagne from the garage. Instead she storms into the kitchen, breaks a glass and squeezes the shards until her hand bleeds. Then she runs off, fleeing into the night, away from a family that has never understood her and a home that can feel as stifling as a prison.

Being slighted at ones own party may seem a rather flimsy reason for self-mutilation and abandonment. But one of the virtues of Beast, a tense and atmospheric thriller written and directed by Michael Pearce, is its acute sensitivity to the painfully exposed nerve endings that no one but the sufferer notices.

Advertisement

Moll, who works as a local bus-tour guide and still lives at home with her mother and ailing father (Tim Woodward), has a troubled psychological history that shapes her every waking moment. No one will let her forget shes damaged goods  not her mother or her brother, Clifford (Trystan Gravelle), who sneers at her in part to compensate for his own thoroughgoing mediocrity.

All this makes Moll uniquely susceptible to the roguish charms of Pascal Renouf (Johnny Flynn), a scruffy bloke who first greets Moll with a rifle in hand and a few freshly slaughtered rabbits in his truck. Pascal is a poacher, a handyman and, for Moll, a madly attractive potential lover. Of course, Pascal could also be the serial killer whos been strangling young women on the island and leaving their corpses out in the open, but why let that remote possibility spoil a good thing?

Pascal doesnt need to be a murderer, however, to utterly horrify Molls mother and siblings; its bad enough that he tracks mud on the carpet and wears jeans to a fancy country-club function. Flynn gives Pascal a reckless impudence, all but reveling in his status as the neer-do-well boyfriend. He doesnt suit the Huntfords ideal of upper-middle-class propriety, and worse, he makes it all too clear that Moll doesnt either.

If Beast were nothing more than a superbly acted misfit romance, it would be enough. Buckley, an Irish actress who recently appeared in the BBC miniseries adaptation of War & Peace, is a startling talent, with the kind of face that can beam with uplift one minute and disintegrate into anguish the next. She and Flynn achieve such an instinctive, dangerous chemistry that you could imagine the movie working just as well  perhaps even slightly better  without a serial killer plugging away in the background.

When the police target Pascal as a suspect, the intrigue kicks up a notch, introducing a familiar but effective conundrum in which Moll is both repulsed and aroused by the possibility of her lovers guilt. (One development thats too belabored to pay off: The investigating officer is a man whos previously shown a romantic interest in her.) Making matters worse, Moll seems to be experiencing her own form of psychic rupture, as seen in a few under-the-skin dream sequences that are good for a few schlocky jolts. Before long her own dubious traumas begin to surface, in ways that begin to make even Hilarys domineering behavior seem justified.

Pearce, in his feature directing debut, proves himself a solid craftsman, with a gift for giving even derivative story elements a nerve-jangling tweak. He also has a shivery way with ambiguity, a knack for toying with our expectations and turning the power of suggestion to his advantage.

The degree to which he succeeds in keeping the killers identity a secret is impressive, even if he has trouble sustaining believability through the storys harrowing, over-plotted final stretch. In surrendering too readily to procedural cliches, this Beast ultimately loosens its grip and cant help but lose some of its beauty.

------------

Beast

Rating: R, for disturbing violent content, language and some sexuality

Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes

Playing: Arclight Cinemas, Hollywood; the Landmark, West Los Angeles

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 

Movie Trailers

justin.chang@latimes.com

@JustinCChangTake a little Royal Tenenbaums, some Little Miss Sunshine and a bit of TVs Transparent and that gives some idea of what writer-director Pat Kielys aiming for with his domestic dramedy Another Kind of Wedding. The outcomes more sloppy than scintillating, though the movie does show more depth and personality than most indies.

Jessica Pare heads up an accomplished cast as Carrie, the practical daughter of two strong-willed, now-separated mothers (Kathleen Turner and Frances Fisher), and sister to two estranged brothers, Kurt and Matthew (Kevin Zegers and Jacob Tierney). This colorful bohemian family has a habit of picking up fellow travelers, including a randy professor (played by Wallace Shawn) and a pansexual guru (David La Haye).

Another Kind of Wedding takes place the weekend of Matthews marriage to Kurts ex-girlfriend at a luxury Montreal hotel where everybody feels emboldened to revisit old grievances.

Kiely has a good ear for dialogue and a decent sense of humor but undercuts his movies premise, which involves characters sniping at each other repeatedly. The films tough to watch at times, as these folks edge their way to inevitable moments of public embarrassment.

Advertisement

But while theyre irritating en masse, this crews often quite charming when theres just one or two of them on-screen. At its best, Another Kind of Wedding understands how hard it can be for families to look past their own burdensome self-mythology, to see each other again as just people.

-------------

Another Kind of Wedding

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 26 minutes

Playing: Galaxy Mission Grove, Riverside; also on VOD

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 

Movie Trailers

calendar@latimes.comMasaaki Yuasas Lu Over the Wall blends elements of Hans Christian Andersens The Little Mermaid, Hayao Miyazakis Ponyo and alienated teen stories into a quirky, highly personal film unlike conventional Japanese or American animated features.

After his parents divorce, sulky junior high student Kai (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas, who manages to keep his moody character likable in the English-language version) moves to his grandfathers home in Hinashi Town, a flyspeck coastal village where the only possible careers are fishing and making umbrellas. Although Kai is a talented musician, he has to be dragooned into joining the band formed by two of his classmates: spoiled, pretty Yuho (Stephanie Sheh), the daughter of a wealthy developer; and exuberant Kunio (Brandon Engman), whose family maintains the local Shinto shrine.

The trio practices in a ruined amusement park on nearby Merfolk Island, where Kais melodies attract Lu (Christine Marie Cabanos), an excitable young mermaid. Whenever she hears music, Lus tail splits into legs and feet, enabling her to dance. When Lu dances, everyone within earshot joins in  whether they want to or not. Her uninhibited good cheer delights Kai, who emerges from his shell and begins paying attention to the people around him. Lu proves more powerful than her childish appearance suggests: She manipulates huge blocks of seawater to capsize the thuggish abalone poachers who menace the teenagers, and helps Kai  who cant swim  win a long-distance race.

But the citizens of Hinashi Town hate the merpeople, whom they believe raid their nets and devour luckless fishermen who fall overboard. Centuries ago, the townspeople cruelly murdered a captured merman by exposing him to sunlight that burned him to cinders. The merpeople flooded the town in revenge, and the inhabitants live in fear of another flood. No human wants anything to do with the sea-spirits  except Yuhos blowhard of a grandfather (Michael Sorich), who built the failed amusement park. He sees a chance to create a major tourist attraction and rebuild his fortune.

Advertisement

Numerous complications, misunderstandings and threats arise, climaxing with the arrival of Lus father (Michael Alston Baley), who looks like a gigantic shark dressed for a stroll through Belle Epoque Paris. After trying to win over the townspeople through kindness, he unleashes his terrible wrath when they imprison Lu. Kai and his friends defuse the situation and forge a new bond of friendship between humans and merfolk.

As the film uses Flash animation, the character designs are stripped down and minimal. When the humans join Lus joyful dance, their feet and bodies flail about cartoonishly, with no sense of weight or believable motion. And Yuasa is still finding his footing as a storyteller: Lu has a few too many subplots and secondary characters.

However, Yuasa is a leading figure in Japans alternative anime scene. His brightly colored, eclectic style references not only Japanese animation but Yellow Submarine and the films of Tex Avery, Ladislas Starevich and Nick Park. Lu Over the Wall won the Cristal Award for animated feature at the 2017 Annecy International Animation Festival  the first Japanese film to win since Isao Takahatas Pom Poko in 1995.

Yuasas bold imagery and sometimes convoluted storytelling defy the conventions of traditional animated filmmaking, but he is clearly an artist with an individual vision whose work offers something genuinely new and eye-catching.

-------------

Lu Over the Wall

In both Japanese with English subtitles, and English-lanuage versions

Rating: PG, for some peril and thematic elements

Running time: 1 hours, 52 minutes

Playing: Laemmle Noho 7, North Hollywood

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 

Movie Trailers

calendar@latimes.comArmed with a dryly curious delivery and a keen sense of the absurd, comic Wyatt Cenac was one of the breakout stars among the correspondents of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart alongside future late-night hosts John Oliver and Samantha Bee.

Cenac left the show in 2012, and after starring in FXs sci-fi comedy People of Earth as well as stand-up projects and his own web series aka Wyatt Cenac, hes back on the political beat with Wyatt Cenacs Problem Areas, a new HBO comedy series that includes Oliver and Ezra Edelman (the Oscar-winning documentary O.J.: Made in America) among its executive producers.



For the record: For the Record: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of production designer Maggie Ruder.

I had wanted to do another topical show, and a topical show that was from my brain, Cenac said, speaking by phone from his shows Brooklyn offices, I had been looking for a way to do it that felt interesting and different and spoke to my voice.

Problem Areas has roots in The Daily Show but doesnt behave like any other late-night series. Cenac begins the show approaching topics from a cozy, wood-paneled set that appears recovered from PBS circa 1978. Rather than mining the days news for material, Problem Areas dives into social issues with a mix of documentary-style expert voices and field reports. Cenac approaches multiple community residents and leaders with an inquisitive approach that often yields as much a sense of humanity as humor.

Advertisement

With each episode carrying a central exploration of the role of police in America, Problem Areas recently turned its attention to Los Angeles; the second of two episodes set in the city will air May 11.

We talked with Cenac about his new show and life after The Daily Show.

Problem Areas seems to have a broader approach to political issues than other comedy shows. Was that your goal?

It was. I think with any topical show its very easy to find yourself caught up in the news cycle, and working at The Daily Show I definitely found myself in that, where we would be talking about the last 24 hours. With something like this, it felt like: Could I do a show that didnt get so caught up in having to react in those ways?

Youre not as much tied to whatever our president did the other day, which must feel freeing.

Theres so many shows, whether its Last Week Tonight or The Daily Show or Full Frontal or Late Night With Seth Meyers, that are really doing great stuff talking about whats going on in the world and whats going on with the president, and those stories that everyone winds up talking about, whether on social media or in their jobs.

A lot of the issues that we wind up talking about in the show are things that are part of the national conversation, but the national conversation doesnt always include the fact that with some of these things  like something like policing  a federal law may not be able to do something for every city or state in the country. Sometimes theres change that can happen within a city with residents coming together, talking to and working with the legislators in their community to try to make something better or make something different. That became fascinating.

Do you come away from these episodes feeling more hopeful or less? Because they dont seem to have really a clean answer.

Its true. I think for me I find ... that I walk away with a little more clarity. I dont know if clarity and hope go together, but I do think that having clarity, having a little more understanding on things, it does on some level make me feel like, OK, these things maybe arent as intractable as sometimes the rhetoric can make them seem.

What made you want to bring the show over to L.A. and tackle the homelessness issue?

Having lived in L.A., I watched a little bit of what was going on as downtown L.A. was starting to get redeveloped and what that meant for people who were living in that area who werent getting resources. I remember stories of homeless people or even people who had been found dumped by hospitals in skid row. If youre going to talk about homelessness and youre going to talk about it in this country, L.A. and skid row feels like a place that made the most sense for us to talk about some of those issues.

With all your episodes, theres a documentary-like structure with voices like activists and former police officers onscreen as well. How did those come together?

When we started talking about the show, one of the things that I had thought about was always having these talking heads, because I felt like what Id like to do is create some sort of a dialogue between experts who can speak to these subjects more than I can. I could run off a bunch of stats, but theres something thats very different about actually hearing from individuals who have both a vested interest in these stories and in the subject matter, but also want to do it in a rational discourse. What I didnt want was pundits, and I didnt want to create some sort of pundit puppet show.

Where Ezra became very helpful was he was a big proponent of Talk to some of these people before you go out and shoot things, and see what they say that may inform a possible story that we want to tell. There were some elements of that where in doing some of those interviews it shaped what we thought about.

For what is a comedy show, youre addressing issues that often are not looked at with this amount of depth by news networks. Has that realization struck you as well?

Its interesting, because in building a show like this we have a research department. We have journalists who have chosen to work with us on this show and in this endeavor. I think for us in building this, while were making a comedy show, we know that were talking about real things. Being able to have that journalistic eye in what were doing, its necessary and its needed.

Political comedy shows seem to be evolving that way as well, of being able to own the fact that youre dealing with very serious issues, so it requires a couple extra levels of detail.

I think with these shows, with Last Week Tonight, with Full Frontal, I think as these shows have evolved we all have research departments now. On The Daily Show we had an amazing researcher, Adam Chodikoff. Chods was this guy who was this well of knowledge. As we all moved on to our own shows, I would bet if you asked each of us, we would say, OK, we all need a Chods. We all then went out and tried to get our own research departments and have multiple people from multiple backgrounds helping to make sure that we are telling these stories with the respect that they deserve.

After The Daily Show, so many shows have since started as well to further what that show has done. Are you all still close?

I cant speak to and for everybody, but Jason Jones and I will, when we have free time, grab a lunch and catch up. Sams usually a little busier with her schedule. Then Michelle Wolf, who has a show getting ready to come out, she and I have known each other for years through stand-up, but then when she went to The Daily Show, even though it was with Trevor [Noah], a lot of the same people that she was working with were people that I had worked with. Trevor and I have exchanged emails and knew each other before he came to The Daily Show. There is a bit of a network as far as staying in contact and communication with one another.

One thing I wanted to touch on about your show that I love is it looks like a 70s PBS set. How did that come together?

A lot of that goes to the set designer Maggie Ruder, who did an amazing job. But I think the thought even going in was I want to make a show that gives a nod to curiosity. For me, when I think of curiosity on television, a lot of times my childhood was shaped by shows on PBS that encouraged and embraced curiosity.

Yeah, even the amorphous people in the animated segments remind me of that. Theyre comforting somehow.

Yeah. I think if youre going to start asking questions and be curious, you want to feel safe doing it.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour 

Wyatt Cenacs Problem Areas

Where: HBO

When: 11:30 p.m. Friday

Rating: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17)

chris.barton@latimes.com

Follow me over here @chrisbarton.

ALSO:

The second season of FXs otherworldly Legion finds an unlikely home in Los Angeles

Roseanne Barr leaves her Trump-tweeting behind  somewhat  in a stand-up stop in Vegas

White House Correspondents Dinner and the Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump: What a difference seven years makeEastern European fashion brands dont have too many pop-up events in Los Angeles. And thats why the Nanushka pop-up at Platform in Culver City is noteworthy, L.A. fashionistas. The Budapest-based brand, which was started by designer Sandra Sandor, has had some recent milestones. It had a New York Fashion Week debut earlier this year and opened a flagship store recently in its home city. And its pieces have been seen on high-wattage celebs including Gigi Hadid.

The Los Angeles pop-up has the feel and concept of our Budapest store, Sandor said. Los Angeles is currently one of the most exciting fashion destinations with a very strong aesthetic. Its where we have a big following and where we think the future of retail is.

The Melon dress from Nanushka is available at the label's Platform pop-up in Culver City. Nanushka

The Platform pop-up carries perennial top-sellers such as the labels Melon dress, a slender knit style, and the Riley, a button-front, non-crease linen dress.

In-store prices are $180 and more, and the pop-up will pop down at the end of June.

Nanushka pop-up at Platform, 8830 Washington Blvd., Culver City, www.nanushka.com.

Luxury Garage Sale

Curated vintage and newer finds will be part of Luxury Garage Sale's pop-up event in West Hollywood. Luxury Garage Sale

The vintage market appears to be thriving, as evidenced by an upcoming Los Angeles pop-up organized by Chicago-based Luxury Garage Sale, which was founded by Brielle Buchberg and Lindsay Segal. On offer at the pop-up will be vintage items from as far back as the 1970s as well as newer selections from last season.

We tailor our items to the clientele in the area, Buchberg said. At the pop-up, expect to find clothing and accessories from European brands such as Chanel, Gucci, Fendi, Dior and Hermes as well as an offering of costume jewelry.

We focus on curating and editing so our customers dont need to spend a lot of time looking through things, Segal said. Everything is based on current trends.

Contemporary pieces from as recently as last season will be up to 80% off retail. Sizes go up to a European 48  basically a size 16 in the U.S. Prices range from $100 for jewelry to $13,000 for a Hermes Birkin bag.

Luxury Garage Sale pop-up, 611 N. La Cienega Blvd., West Hollywood, Friday through June 18; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Procell X Depop

This Def Jam leather varsity jacket is one of the pieces on offer at the Procell Depop collaborative pop-up in Silver Lake. Depop

Bicoastal vintage fans might want to welcome this new fashion partnership. Procell, a boutique in New Yorks Lower East Side that specializing in 1990s clothes, is bringing a sample of its inventory to Depop Space, the hybrid studio, gallery and boutique in Los Angeles.

So if youre looking for a Public Enemy T-shirt, a Def Jam varsity jacket or a delightfully retro Gucci cigar ashtray, consider stopping by Depops Silver Lake location through Sunday, after which the merchandise will be available on the Depop app. Depop is a London-based retailer of vintage fashion and accessories, which opened a bricks-and-mortar location in Los Angeles in March.

Procell at Depop, 3515 W. Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake, through Sunday, www.depop.com.

Echo Park Craft Fair

Cannabis-imbued beauty and wellness products will have their own showcase at the Echo Park Craft Fair this weekend. Kana Skincare

For the canna-curious, there will be a selection of artisanal beauty and wellness products infused with cannabis available to learn about and sample at this weekends annual Echo Park Craft Fair. The surge in interest in cannabis products has led to the unveiling of a special lounge for those age 21 and older at one end of the shopping and craft fairs location, Mack Sennett Studios.

Representatives from brands such as DankGals (CBD and floral bath soaks), Kana Skincare (lavender and CBD sleep masks) and Khus & Khus (botanical CBD face and body serums) will be on hand to answer questions about how to use the products and what to expect from them.

Also in the mix will be THC Design, which will offer its new line of CBD cookie and brownie mix; Kikoko, which will have a showcase of its boutique cannabis teas and apothecary; and Ambika Herbals with its handmade serums made from flowers and herbs from the Rocky Mountains.

Visitors to the lounge can sample the brands. However, there will be no sales on-site, according to lounge organizers HiFi Exchange. Customers will be directed to the brands individual websites to place orders.

HiFi Exchange CBD Lounge at the Echo Park Craft Fair, Mack Sennett Studios, 1215 Bates Ave., Los Angeles, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, echoparkcraftfair.com. (There will be a VIP preview event on Friday.)

Support our journalism Please consider subscribing today to support stories like this one. Get full access to our signature journalism for just 99 cents for the first four weeks. Already a subscriber? Your support makes our work possible. Thank you.

image@latimes.com

For fashion news, follow us at @latimesimage on Twitter.

UPDATES:

May 15, 6 p.m.: The original version of this article reported that Luxury Garage Sale would have pop-up locations at L.A.-area Westfield properties in Century City and Topanga. Those locations changed after publication. The article was updated to reflect the new location, dates and times.

May 11, 12:30 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details about the Luxury Garage Sale and the HiFi Exchange CBD Lounge at the Echo Park Craft Fair.

The article was originally published May 10 at 11:30 a.m.Hawaiis Kilauea volcano has entered a new destructive period of eruptions, which has happened several times since it resumed producing lava in 1983. Heres some context behind one of the worlds most active volcanoes, and Hawaii Islands youngest:

Kilauea is mass building

Kilauea is currently in the second phase of growth, the shield building stage, where it is the most active and the most voluminous.

1. Pre-shield

Small eruptions below sea level.

2. Shield building

Volcanic mass grows above sea.

3. Post-shield

Magma cap flows, covers volcano.

In this stage, occurrences of lava flows and eruptions alternate. This can continue up to 2 million years.

Lava flows in past 1,000 years. Kilauea is covered with 90% young flows.

Beneath Kilauea

Lava eruptions have occurred at the volcanos summit since 2008 and since 1983 on its eastern shoulder at a crater called Pu'u O'o, which collapsed on April 30, and sent lava searching for a new path downhill.

The cycle of volcanic eruptions and hazards

Scientists are concerned that if the lava column drops to the level of groundwater beneath Kilauea summit, it will cause more eruptions.

1. Magma column drops to water level.

Normally, when the lava lake level is high, temperatures are so hot that the groundwater in surrounding rocks is kept away from the magma.

2. Groundwater interacts with hot rock.

When lava meets the water, steam is created. Rocks can fall from walls as the lava lake lowers, and form a dam holding back steam.

3. Steam pressure builds, then explodes.

Rocks of up to 12 tons can shoot out of the volcano to a distance of half a mile. Marble-size rocks can fall for several miles, while falling ash is a concern 10 to 20 miles downwind.

Hawaii Islands five volcanoes

Hawaii Island is made up of five volcanoes, four of which are considered active. Kohala is the oldest volcano on the island and inactive.

Sources: USGS, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, Nextzen, OpenStreetMap

Updated at 10:45 a.m., May 10, 2018: An earlier version of the magma flow underneath the Kilauea summet, showed a lava tube branching out just below the surface from Pu u Oo crater. Path of magma continues further down.

Updated at 12 p.m., May 10, 2018: Included Kohala as the oldest and inactive volcano.

Updated at 10 a.m., May 17, 2018: Kohala volcano erupts.

Rong-Gong Lin II contributed reporting to this story.

ALSO

Risk of explosions in coming weeks from Kilauea volcano's summit, scientists warn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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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 Accused serial killer Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. was charged in four more killings Thursday when prosecutors in Santa Barbara County charged him with a pair of double-slayings in 1979 and 1981.

DeAngelo, 72, the suspected Golden State Killer, allegedly killed orthopedic surgeon Robert Offerman and psychologist Alexandria Manning at the end of 1979.

After a short foray into Ventura and Orange counties after those two slayings, prosecutors say, DeAngelo returned to the Goleta area in 1981 and bludgeoned Cheri Domingo and Gregory Sanchez to death.

In all, DeAngelo is accused in a dozen slayings up and down the state and suspected of at least one other. Authorities say he also raped dozens of women and burglarized more than 100 homes in a series of crimes that took investigators decades to piece together and connect to him.

Advertisement

DeAngelo is in custody in Sacramento County and could face the death penalty if convicted, officials said.

Violent cold cases never grow cold for the victims or their loved ones, said Santa Barbara County Dist. Atty. Joyce Dudley when she announced the latest charges Thursday.

His first local victims were Offerman and Manning, whom prosecutors say he killed the night of Dec. 30, 1979.

Investigators say the Golden State Killer found the couple in bed, tied them up and eventually shot them both.

In what now-retired investigator Paul Holes suggested was possibly a transformative event for the suspect during a recent TV interview, the Golden State Killer encountered the younger, bigger Sanchez on July 27, 1981.

Sanchez, who was 27, met DeAngelo in the hallway of Domingos home and was abruptly shot in the face.

But he didnt die, Holes said.

As the killer attacked Domingo, Sanchez regained consciousness and put up a fight.

The killer won and bludgeoned both Domingo and Sanchez to death, but Holes said that the struggle may have forced the killer to reassess his tactics. DeAngelo would have been approaching 40 years old at the time and is shorter than Sanchez. The fight may have scared the suspect into avoiding such risky attacks in the future, Holes said.

Authorities say DeAngelo committed only one more slaying after that fight  five years later in Irvine. Prosecutors say he raped and killed 18-year-old Janelle Cruz in Irvine in 1986. She was home alone.

With the four murder charges filed against DeAngelo on Thursday, the 72-year-old has now been formally accused in all 12 known slayings connected to the Golden State Killer.

Dudley said her office began piecing together a case against DeAngelo shortly after receiving word from Sacramento authorities that theyd taken him into custody April 24.

We never stopped hoping or believing an arrest would be made, Dudley said.

Dudley said she alerted Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown, who sent investigators to Sacramento to begin searching for potential ties between DeAngelo and the killings in Southern California. Thus far, investigators and prosecutors have been tight-lipped about their progress, though they say theyve had success.

DeAngelos work and residential history places him in Central and Northern California at the times of a wave of violent crimes in those areas, but ties to him farther south have been more difficult to trace.

For more than 40 years, the man who was once known as the Cordova Cat Burglar, the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist and then the Original Night Stalker had eluded identification.

It took an innovative  and some say controversial  approach of comparing crime scene DNA to publicly available genealogy databases to home in on a handful of suspects.

Once DeAngelos name came up, investigators watched him until they surreptitiously obtained two samples of his DNA to compare with their evidence.

The results came back a match, authorities said, and DeAngelo was arrested at his home in a Sacramento suburb. The other suspects were dead ends, officials said.

On Friday, Dudley will host the district attorneys of Sacramento, Orange and Ventura counties to consider if it is feasible, and best, to try DeAngelo in one location for all 12 killings. Dudley declined to say which method she would prefer and said she does not expect to reach a decision at the meeting.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

UPDATES:

4:30 p.m.: This article was updated with background and additional comments from the Santa Barbara County district attorney.

This article was originally published at 3:20 p.m.At night, after residents in the Rancho Cordova neighborhood of Sacramento had gone to bed, he would open the kitchen or sliding glass door and quietly strike.

As he entered, he made sure to first plot out his escape and then often headed for the bedroom  where he would linger and watch unsuspecting homeowners sleep. Along the way, hed grab purses and wallets and sometimes seek out special trinkets like coin collections, car magnets and photos of female residents.

In 1972 and 1973, in this eastern part of Sacramento, this prolific cat burglar struck more than 30 times.

Now decades later, investigators are increasingly convinced Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., who has been charged with 12 murders across the state, was this cat burglar. They believe this is where the man they now accuse of being the prolific Golden State Killer got his start, graduating over the next 14 years to increasingly violent and ultimately deadly crimes.

Advertisement

Was this the beginning?

If true, this would place the beginning of the string of crimes earlier than detectives previously believed. Though DeAngelo has not been charged with any of the Cordova cat burglaries, authorities said they are part of the investigation. Authorities say DeAngelo is responsible for a series of crimes that went under various names including the East Area Rapist, Visalia Ransacker, Original Night Stalker and Golden State Killer.

Cordova crime newspaper article (Sacramento Bee )

Sacramento detectives and experts in profiling these types of criminals say that not every peeping Tom becomes a serial killer, but that a progression from seemingly less violent crimes to, say, murder or sexual assault is not uncommon.

Lots of serial killers develop gradually. A lot of them start with lesser offenses, develop to sex offenses and eventually murder, said James Alan Fox, professor of criminology at Northeastern University and author of Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder.

In addition, investigators have long believed that given DeAngelos age, the crimes he is accused of committing in Visalia were not his first series of alleged burglaries. While they are focused heavily on proving the more horrific crimes  including homicide and rape  the investigators are now reconstructing DeAngelos entire life, according to a person familiar with investigation details but not authorized to discuss them.

A New York native, DeAngelo graduated from Folsom Senior High School near Sacramento in 1964 and joined the Navy that September. He did his training in San Diego before serving in combat on the cruiser Canberra off the coast of North Vietnam. After the Navy, DeAngelo attended Sierra College and Cal State Sacramento, where he received a bachelors degree in criminal justice in 1972. That was the same year the Cordova burglaries began a few miles away.

DeAngelo made his way down from Northern California and began working at the Exeter Police Department in 1973. Exeter is miles away from the tiny town of Visalia, where he allegedly committed what is believed to be his first killing.

There is a strong possibility he is the Cordova cat burglar, said Paul Holes, a forensic criminologist who spent years on the Golden State Killer investigation and is credited with using genealogy websites to pinpoint DeAngelo.

He is going and doing the crimes in Cordova as the cat burglar before he goes down to Visalia. Whether we will be able to prove he is the cat burglar depends. We are talking about hundreds of crimes here over decades attributed to one man.

In one particularly chilling episode in Rancho Cordova, which was incorporated as its own city in 2003, a sleeping woman was awakened to find a man standing by the door to her bedroom, according to the Sacramento County Sheriffs Department website.

Sketches of Golden State Killer over the years (Los Angeles Times )

After she sat up in bed, the man said, I just took a dollar off your dresser.

The unidentified victim asked him to leave and not take the money. The man complied and left two dollars on the dresser before leaving. He walked down the hallway and stared at the victims 17-year-old daughter, and before he walked out of the house, he grabbed a quarter and a nickel off a table near the door, according to the Sheriffs Department.

After one of these burglaries, a witness told investigators that they saw a suspect departing from one home in a green Opel sedan.

The descriptions of these burglaries, which dont always include the date and exact address of the crime, come from a website put together by the Sacramento County Sheriffs Department this year in an attempt to develop new leads about the murders of Brian and Katie Maggiore in 1978.

A similar pattern

Sacramento County Sheriffs Sgt. Shaun Hampton said in an email that physical evidence and the suspects modus operandi were used to tie the Cordova cat burglaries to the East Area Rapist. He declined to answer follow-up questions on exactly when and where these crimes occurred.

During his string of burglaries the suspect was known to kill small dogs by blunt force as well, according to the Sheriffs Department.

When you have a cat burglar, theres likely a different motive, Sacramento County Sheriffs Det. Ken Clark told a true-crime podcast about the investigation in February.

Its going to more likely be a sexual motivation, a desire to be in and among people that are not awake. Theres a thrill to operating in an environment where people are sleeping around you. These burglars have tended to be those who sometimes went on to commit much more serious crimes.

Fox, the criminology professor, describes it as a kind of graduation theory, adding it is likely that the suspect initially got a thrill crawling through the neighborhoods as a cat burglar and watching, and that evolved to touching, confrontation, controls and sexual violence before finally moving to murder.

Develop over time

It is a matter of comfort, Fox said. Raping and killing people isnt an easy task. But these killers over time develop systems and become less adverse.

In the case of the Cordova cat burglaries, the suspect would hit several homes in a given night, according to the Sheriffs Department. In several instances, the cat burglar would take only money and then leave the purses or wallets nearby.

Occasionally they were left elsewhere in groups with other victims property from the same night, according to the Sheriffs Department website.

In another instance, the suspect fondled the breasts of an unidentified woman while she slept, but when she woke up and told him to leave, he complied.

These burglaries began in earnest in 1972, and at the end of that year there was a momentary drop-off. Then, by the spring of 1973, the suspect began again, according to the Sheriffs Department.

But the next year, more than 200 miles away in Visalia, a serial criminal began working. From April 1974 to December 1975, the Visalia Ransacker prowled this small towns streets and burglarized about 100 homes, local police said.

Like in Rancho Cordova, the ransacker would stick around for an hour or maybe two in some cases. He would also ignore most valuable items and instead go after trinkets and photos.

The burglaries escalated in September 1975, when Claude Snelling, a journalism professor at the College of the Sequoias, was fatally shot outside his home on South Whitney Lane. Snelling had awoken to a sound coming from outside the house and found a masked man kidnapping his teenage daughter.

The suspect in that case pulled a stolen handgun and escaped after opening fire, leaving the girl behind. After last months arrest of DeAngelo, the Visalia Police Department said it believes the ransacker and the Golden State Killer are the same man.

Unfortunately that progression is something Ive seen a lot of times, said former FBI profiler Clinton Van Zandt.

benjamin.oreskes@latimes.com

Twitter: @boreskes

richard.winton@latimes.com

Twitter: @lacrimes

UPDATES:

May 11, 12:00 p.m.: This article was updated to clarify when DeAngelo began working in the Exeter Police Department

May 10, 3:30 p.m.: This article was updated with the number of killings DeAngelo has been charged with.

This article was originally published May 10 at 8:20 a.m.A jury found two Los Angeles police officers liable in the fatal shooting of a homeless man in 2015 that set off days of protests and prompted fierce criticism of how police deal with skid rows mentally unstable population.

After the verdict was announced, attorneys for both sides reached a settlement in which the city agreed to pay $1.95 million to Charly Africa Keunangs family, said Joshua Piovia-Scott, an attorney representing the family.

This situation should never have gotten this far, Piovia-Scott said. This was really a situation that the police officers escalated to a point where an unarmed mentally ill homeless man was shot and killed in broad daylight in the middle of a busy street.

A representative of the city attorneys office could not be reached for comment.

Advertisement

In a statement released late Thursday, the LAPD said its disappointed by the verdict and stands by its conclusion that the use of force was appropriate.

In this situation, force was necessary because of the violent behavior of the suspect who attempted to physically harm and evade the responding officers dedicated to protecting the safety of the public, the statement said.

Jurors in the federal civil trial found that Officer Francisco Martinez  one of the three who opened fire  used an unreasonable amount of force against Keunang, according to court records. They also found that Sgt. Chand Syed breached his duty to intervene. The third officer, Daniel Torres, was cleared of any liability.

The jury verdict sends a strong message that this kind of conduct, this excessive force, this failure to resolve issues without using deadly force, is not something that should be tolerated in Los Angeles, Piovia-Scott said.

In 2016, the Los Angeles Police Commission, the civilian panel that oversees the department, ruled that the shooting was justified and the Los Angeles County district attorneys office declined to file charges against the officers involved. Prosecutors determined that Keunang wrapped his fingers around an officers gun as the officer yelled, Hes going for my gun!

While a cellphone recording that captured the shooting was viewed millions of times around the world, videos captured by the officers body cameras were kept secret for years, until they were obtained and published by The Times earlier this year.

The officers approached Keunang after responding to a report of an attempted robbery on South San Pedro Street. When the officers arrived, police have said, they were told that Keunang had also threatened the caller with a baseball bat.

In the videos, Martinez questions Keunang outside his tent and then asks another officer for a Taser, warning Keunang he will be tased. Syed tells Keunang the Taser will hurt if he doesnt comply, and asks him to relax.

Martinez repeatedly orders Keunang to stand against a nearby wall, but Keunang instead climbs inside his tent. As Martinez orders him outside, Syed and another officer pull the tent open.

Keunang stands, and Martinez appears to fire the Taser. Keunang then spins his arms wildly as he circles toward police. The officers take Keunang to the ground, and a struggle occurs before the three officers open fire.

The officers basically did every single thing that their training says they are not to do, Piovia-Scott said. It was the officers actions that escalated this situation and caused it to spiral out of control.

The shooting became a flash point in the debate over the use of deadly force in policing and sparked calls for better training on how police interact with people who are homeless and might be mentally ill.

It also raised questions about whether officers do enough to deescalate situations, and what to do with body camera recordings. In March, the Police Commission approved a policy that requires the release of recordings in the future.

Times staff writer Marisa Gerber contributed to this report.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com | Twitter: @AleneTchek

UPDATES:

8:45 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement from the LAPD.

8:10 p.m.: This article was updated with background and statements from the familys attorney.

This article was originally published at 2:10 p.m.Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging think tanker, aspiring novelist, hanger on of academia, parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, Speedboat, proudly banned from Twitter so officially more dangerous than the Taliban, eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.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.



For the record: An earlier version of this story made reference to a Victorville anti-immigration activist. In fact, the activist opposes illegal immigration.

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.

Judge Timothy J. Stafford, who approved the temporary order March 26, called the school board members petition weak, adding that Clayton-Tarvin knew the consequences of elected office.

Advertisement

He had criticism for Johnson as well.

Im not impressed with (his) explanation on why things were written the way they were, Stafford said, adding he didnt want to see either party return to court.

Johnsons attorney, Chad Morgan, said he was pleased Stafford recognized the importance of the 1st Amendment.

On Wednesday evening Johnson issued what he said would be his only statement on the matter.

I am thankful to have prevailed today, he said. This entire episode is incredibly difficult for my family. The idea that an elected official would go to these lengths to silence a private citizen should frighten everyone. But as we have seen for several years, Gina Clayton Tarvin has a history of retaliating against critics with threats, intimidation and now these baseless lawsuits.

Clayton-Tarvin and Shields denied requests for comment.

Additional information on the lawsuits referenced in Johnsons statement was not immediately available.

During the hearing, Clayton-Tarvin said Johnson repeatedly disrupted an Ocean View school board meeting March 6, where he was removed by armed security and kept outside until he was again allowed to speak during a second public comment period.

Johnson apologized but later became agitated and told Clayton-Tarvin, They want your head on a stick and Im going to give it to them, Clayton-Tarvin said in her court filing.

Jim Choate, the districts director of facilities, testified that at the March 6 meeting he asked Johnson to leave the room after becoming what he described as aggressive. Johnson, Choate said, got into a cock fight position, hunching his shoulders forward, and leading him to believe he was prepared to take a swing at him.

Clayton-Tarvin said Johnson had threatened to harm the entire Tarvin family, which caused her to fear for her well-being because she lives with her two sons.

Johnson explained that he had a dark sense of humor but was referring to her supporters, not her actual family.

In one instance, where he wrote he would drop a cluster bomb, Johnson explained he didnt have aircraft. What he meant, Johnson said, was that he had a gift coming her way in the form of a blog post, exposing what he argued were Clayton-Tarvins distortions about her firsthand experiences with school violence and lockdowns, which she described during the March 6 meeting.

Johnson acknowledged a comment he made about an anonymous bomb threat was stupid and deleted it within seconds but some of Clayton-Tarvins supporters took a screenshot.

Asked how the issue between the two began, Johnson told Stafford he took offense to and became vocal about Clayton-Tarvins left-leaning ideology.

Ocean View School District trustee Norm Westwell testified that Clayton-Tarvin doesnt have thick skin.

How do you know that? Do you observe it yourself? Stafford asked.

Westwell said she becomes defensive and takes criticism personally during board meetings.

Westwell painted a different picture of the March 6 meeting, saying Johnson was not escorted out by security but walked out on his own.

Clayton-Tarvin, who was elected in 2012, has been involved in longstanding feuds on social media. She has an ample number of both supporters and critics.

This is the second time in recent years she has unsuccessfully requested a restraining order against a vocal critic. In 2017, the district petitioned for a temporary restraining order on her behalf against an activist who opposes illegal immigration.

For his part, Johnson vowed to continue battling Clayton-Tarvin in civil court, if necessary.

I believe the 1st Amendment is our most sacred right as Americans, and so my fight now continues in the next phase of her lawsuit against me, he said. That said I would like everyone to remember, I believe shes doing this not just to silence me, but to send a message to any and all future critics. But today has proven she can be defeated.

He also thanked supporters and vowed that this is far from over.

Vega is a Times Community News reporter.Three Americans who were detained in North Korea for more than a year were greeted by President Trump beneath a giant American flag after they returned to the mainland U.S. early Thursday.

Despite a middle-of-the-night landing, First Lady Melania Trump and a host of senior administration officials joined Trump to celebrate the occasion. The president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men traveled to have a private moment with them.

The men, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, were released Wednesday amid a warming of relations between the longtime adversaries. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo secured their release in Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on final plans for a Trump-Kim summit. The Americans had boarded Pompeos plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to a Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the U.S.

According to the White House, the three men would be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation and medical treatment. Their families were not on hand for the arrival.

Advertisement

Shortly after they touched down on U.S. soil in Alaska  for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon  the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home, they said. We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

Singapore has emerged as the likely summit site, late this month or in early June, as Trump seeks to negotiate denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in his highest-stakes foreign policy effort yet. Trump announced Wednesday that the demilitarized zone between the Koreas would not host the summit. Pompeo said the meeting would last one day, possibly two.

Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Koreas leader for the prisoners release  I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this  and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the official suggestion of the U.S. president, said North Koreas official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nations nuclear weapons.

Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental U.S. Those advances were the subject of President Obamas starkest warning shortly before Trump took office, and this is a crisis hes convinced his negotiating skills can resolve.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kims willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating U.S. moves to tighten sanctions  branded maximum pressure by the president. The wee-hours ceremony Thursday was an early celebration for an issue that has already put the prospect of a Nobel Peace Prize on Trumps mind.

Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it, he said Wednesday when asked if the award was deserved.

The release capped a dramatic day of diplomacy in Pyongyang. After Pompeos 90-minute meeting with Kim Jong Un, he gave reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked about the prisoners as he returned to his hotel. It was only after a North Korean emissary arrived a bit later to inform him that the release was confirmed.

The three had been held for periods ranging from one to two years. They were the latest in a series of Americans who have been detained by North Korea in recent years for seemingly small offenses and typically freed when senior U.S. officials or statesmen personally visited to bail them out.This week New York Atty. Gen. Eric Schneiderman joined a list of prominent Empire State politicians who in recent years have resigned amid allegations of inappropriate and possibly criminal conduct toward women.

Like former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner and former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Schneiderman was seen as a rising star and leading voice in the Democratic Party  in New York and nationally  with a promising political future.

To Schneidermans admirers, his downfall was particularly awkward  even painful  because he had a reputation as a defender of womens rights. He filed suit against Harvey Weinstein and had been looking into why earlier sexual assault complaints against the media mogul did not lead to charges.

Some of Weinsteins accusers now say they felt let down.

Advertisement

Many Weinstein victims were in touch with Eric Schneiderman. He promised he would protect them and help them get justice. Who can we trust? Nobody, actress Asia Argento wrote on Twitter.

On Monday, just a few hours after the New Yorker magazine published a report detailing the accounts of four women who said Schneiderman physically abused them, he announced he would step down despite contesting the allegations.

Schneidermans speedy and spectacular fall prompted some supporters of President Trump to take to Twitter gleefully, while the issue of who will succeed him raises questions of whether his anti-Trump agenda will continue apace.

Bad day for the resistance! one user tweeted.

Gotcha, Kellyanne Conway wrote Monday night, quoting a tweet from Schneiderman in October that said, No one is above the law, and Ill continue to remind President Trump and his administration of that every day. (Schneidermans Twitter page has since been taken down.)

New York politicians were quick to denounce Schneiderman.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a fellow Democrat, called on him to resign Monday.

Given the damning pattern of facts and corroboration laid out in the article, I do not believe it is possible for Eric Schneiderman to continue to serve as Attorney General, Cuomo said in a statement.

At a previously scheduled news conference on crime on Tuesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he had been horrified, page after page while reading the New Yorker article.

Its a moment of reckoning and now the reckoning has come to him, the Democratic mayor said of Schneiderman.

Some women whom the attorney general had previously championed expressed disappointment at the allegations against their onetime ally.

In an interview, Sonia Ossorio, president of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women, called the revelations shocking given Schneidermans past work.

Schneiderman had worked with NOW to unseat a state senator accused of domestic violence in 2009, Ossorio said, and he had recently collaborated with the group on an ongoing lawsuit over harassment by protesters outside a womens health clinic.

Its so hard now to see him in those lights, but ... his public mantle did prioritize womens issues. Its a striking disconnect with his personal life, Ossorio said.

Last fall Schneiderman launched a civil rights investigation into the Weinstein Co. over allegations chronicled in the New York Times and the New Yorker. In February he filed suit against the company and against Harvey and Robert Weinstein.

Gov. Cuomo also directed the attorney general to conduct a review of how Manhattan Dist. Atty. Cyrus Vance Jr.s office handled sexual assault allegations against Weinstein in 2015. That review is ongoing.

Then this week, hours after the New Yorker published its article, Vance announced his office would investigate Schneiderman, raising the possibility of criminal charges. But some raised questions of whether Vance was the right person for the job given the apparent conflict.

By Tuesday night Cuomo had appointed a special prosecutor instead, saying, There can be no suggestion ... of any conflict or anything less than a full, complete and unbiased investigation.

Beyond his stance on womens rights, Schneiderman had also been a loud and frequent critic of Trumps, leading and joining multi-state lawsuits against the administration over immigration, environmental regulations and healthcare. Just last week he added new plaintiffs to a suit against the administration over its plan to add a question about citizenship status to the 2020 census.

On Monday, hours before the scandal broke, he and seven other attorneys general sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt asking him to withdraw a proposed rule that would limit the use of scientific evidence when adopting regulations.

Recently Schneiderman had sought to change New York State law so that its double-jeopardy provision, which prevents people from being charged for the same crimes twice, would not apply in cases of presidential pardons. Many saw the effort as a way to get around pardons Trump might issue in the course of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The New York attorney generals office, one of the largest in the country, announced Tuesday that Solicitor Gen. Barbara Underwood had been appointed acting attorney general. Underwood will serve in that role until the Legislature selects an interim head, and an election for Schneidermans permanent replacement will be held in November.

Lizzie Ulmer, communications director for the Democratic Attorneys General Assn., said in an interview that the allegations against Schneiderman came as a surprise and were troubling, but that his resignation would not stop those committed to challenging Trump.

Most of the work of the Democratic attorneys general over the past 18 months has not been about one office or one AG, she said. These AGs arent going to miss a beat.

Before the scandal broke, Schneiderman was headed toward an unopposed primary race for a third term.

Following his resignation, speculation swirled over who might succeed him, with many calling for a woman. Possible names included former U.S. Atty. for the Southern District Preet Bharara, who was fired from his post by Trump, as well as Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.), Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Public Advocate Letitia James.

As for the future, Ossorio of NOW said she hopes some public good could come from Schneidermans fall. Perhaps, she said, the incident would bring greater awareness to issues of domestic violence and encourage more people to speak out.

nina.agrawal@latimes.comU.S. special operations troops in Africa have been restricted from undertaking missions that might involve direct combat, one of several steps announced Thursday to prevent future casualties after an October ambush in Niger killed four American soldiers.

U.S. forces have not conducted any operations to kill or capture militants since the deadly confrontation and are focused almost exclusively on training Nigerien troops and other U.S. allies in the region and expanding an airfield outside Nigers capital for drone operations, commanders told reporters at a Pentagon news conference on the results of the military investigation into the Niger attack.

We are now far more prudent in our missions, said Marine Gen.Thomas Waldhauser, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, which oversees military operations on the continent. U.S. forces are not to be involved in direct combat.

The new restrictions are perhaps the most far-reaching consequence of the seven-month investigation into the ferocious Oct. 4 ambush of the dozen American soldiers and more than 30 Nigeriens who battled for their lives during a gunfight lasting more than an hour against about 100 militants 20 miles south of the Mali border.

Advertisement

The attack caused a public relations furor for the White House last October after President Trump took several days to reach out to the soldiers families and then was accused of making insensitive remarks to Sgt. La David Johnsons widow, which a Democratic congresswoman from Florida said she overheard. The White House denied that the presidents effort to console the widow was inappropriate.

Johnson was initially unaccounted for and his body wasnt found until after a two-day search, and then by Nigerien villagers. The search was delayed, the report noted, after the U.S. received inaccurate reports that Johnson was being held prisoner in a village north of the ambush site.

The Pentagon released an eight-page summary of the investigation Thursday, but withheld the entire 6,300-page report containing witness statements, photographs and other evidence, saying it was still seeking to have the material declassified.

It also made public portions of a 21-minute video that seeks to reconstruct the more than hourlong attack. The full video was shown to Congress, but the Pentagon had decided against releasing it publicly in its entirety to avoid making public too much information, Waldhauser said.

The investigation blamed individual, organizational, and institutional failures and deficiencies that contributed to the tragic events of 4 October 2017, according to the summary. But it said that no single failure or deficiency was the sole reason.

Maj. Gen. Roger Cloutier Jr., the investigating officer, noted that American and Nigerien soldiers fought courageously  despite being significantly outnumbered by the enemy, according to the report.

The investigation criticizes two Army captains  one in charge of the 12-man unit targeted in the ambush and another at the units Niger headquarters  for not disclosing to superiors before they headed out that they were conducting a potentially dangerous kill-or-capture mission against Doundou Cheffou, the leader of an Islamic State affiliate who is believed to be involved in the kidnapping of a U.S. aid worker.

The officers said they would be meeting with tribal chiefs, which inaccurately characterized the nature of the mission, the report said, adding that more senior commanders were unaware of the true goal of the mission.

Since the attacks, the Pentagon has provided armored vehicles, more drones and other equipment to better protect U.S. troops, Waldhauser said. But the U.S. will only conduct combat missions when critical for protecting the U.S., he said.

The report did not recommend taking disciplinary action against the officers, Waldhauser said, saying it would be up to U.S. Special Operations Command to decide whether to do so.

U.S. soldiers didnt train adequately before they deployed and did not conduct battle drills with their Nigerien partners before the mission, the report said.

After the mission to capture Cheffou was unsuccessful, the convoy of eight vehicles carrying the U.S. and Nigerien soldiers was returning to home base and stopped at the village of Tongo Tongo to get water. As they drove away, Islamic State-linked militants attacked with small arms, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and machine guns mounted on trucks.

Initially, the soldiers exited the vehicles and began returning fire, according to the report.

Realizing that the team was significantly outnumbered by a well-trained force, the U.S. commander ordered a withdrawal, the report says. But Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright and Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson along with several Nigerien soldiers were pinned down, unable to withdraw with the rest of the team, the report said.

Black took cover behind one vehicle but was hit by gunfire, killing him instantly.

As enemy fighters came closer, Wright and Jeremiah Johnson were forced to evade on foot, until they too were killed, the report said.

The rest of the Americans and Nigerien soldiers formed a defensive position 600 yards away. Four U.S. soldiers moved on foot back to the original ambush position, seeking unsuccessfully to find the pinned-down members of the team.

But they came under increasingly intense fire from militants, who were slowly surrounding their position. La David Johnson was lying on the ground, firing back, when the U.S. commander ordered another withdrawal.

The gunfire was so intense that La David Johnson and two Nigerien soldiers were unable to get into a vehicle. With enemy forces rapidly closing on their position, they were forced to evade on foot.

After the two Nigerien soldiers were killed, La David Johnson ran 400 yards, eventually taking cover under a thorny tree, the only cover available in the arid landscape. He was killed by small-arms fire.

The attackers were eventually driven off, after the U.S. team radioed that they were under attack. Two French Mirage warplanes rushed to the scene and conducted several low-level passes, scaring off the militants. The pilots were not in radio contact with the ground troops and so could not fire weapons, another deficiency noted by the report.

Because of the remoteness of the ambush site and the lack of planning for possible casualties, it took nearly six hours for helicopters carrying French soldiers to arrive at the ambush site to evacuate the wounded.

None of the four Americans killed was captured alive by the enemy, and all died immediately or quickly from their wounds.

Contrary to some media reports, the investigation found that La David Johnsons hands were not bound when his body was found two days later and he was not executed.

david.cloud@latimes.com

Twitter: @davidcloudLATA nurse was charged Thursday in the death of the father of President Trumps former national security advisor after authorities said she failed to give him a series of neurological exams after his fall at a Philadelphia senior care facility.

Christann Shyvin Gainey, 30, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, neglect and records tampering in the death of H.R. McMaster Sr.

The 84-year-old retired U.S. Army officer died April 13, about eight hours after falling and hitting his head at the Cathedral Village retirement community.

Surveillance video showed that Gainey, who worked as a contract nurse at Cathedral Village, failed to conduct a series of eight neurological evaluations of McMaster as required, prosecutors said. Gainey then allegedly falsified documents to make it seem she had.

Advertisement

Gaineys attorney, Sharon Piper, said her client intends to plead not guilty. She declined further comment, as did Gaineys employer, General Healthcare Resources of Plymouth Meeting.

McMasters son, H.R. McMaster Jr., served as Trumps national security advisor from February 2017 until he resigned in March.

Pennsylvania Atty. Gen. Josh Shapiro, left, addresses a reporters question Thursday. Next to him is Chief Deputy Atty. Gen. Laurie Malone. (Jacqueline Larma / Associated Press )

Our father ... was a tough and compassionate soldier and public servant, McMasters daughter, Letitia McMaster, said in a statement. The best way to honor his memory is for all of us to do all we can to prevent others from suffering at the hands of those who lack compassion and abandon even the most basic standards of human decency. Todays charges are an important step forward in that connection.

McMaster was admitted to Cathedral Village on April 9 for rehabilitation after a stroke. Three days later, according to court documents, he was found on the floor of his room by a nursing assistant, who alerted Gainey, the charge nurse.

Cathedral Village policy mandates close neurological monitoring of patients who hit their heads, including assessments every 15 minutes for the first hour and every hour for the next three.

An assistant nursing director told police that after McMasters death, she asked Gainey whether she had conducted the required evaluations of McMaster. Gainey replied she had and said, They were fine, according to a police affidavit.

When the supervisor noted the last entry on McMasters neurological chart indicated that an evaluation had been performed 20 minutes after his death, Gainey told her, Well, I falsified that one, the affidavit said.

Police reviewed about eight hours of surveillance video and concluded Gainey had failed to perform a single neurological exam.

A medical examiner ruled McMaster died of blunt impact head trauma.

Gainey could have saved Mr. McMasters life had she simply done her job. Instead, she intentionally ignored her job responsibilities, falsified paperwork, and lied to her supervisors to cover up this inexcusable conduct, Pennsylvania Atty. Gen. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference Thursday.

Cathedral Village said in a statement last week that it had removed outside agency staff involved in the incident, re-educated staff on neurological checks and protocols for responding to suspected abuse and neglect, and began a new initiative to prevent falls.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health inspected Cathedral Village after McMasters death, but the results arent yet available.The killing last year of Whittier Police Officer Keith Boyer added some punch to what had become a sagging campaign to blame Californias historic criminal justice reforms for an uptick in crime rates.

It was AB 109 realignment, some argued, or perhaps Propositions 47 and 57, that led directly to the shooting of Boyer and another officer at the scene of a traffic accident on Feb. 20, 2017, allegedly at the hands of Michael Christopher Mejia.

A repeat violent offender, Mejia had cycled in and out of prison before being released in April 2016  only to be arrested four times after that, allegedly over violating the terms of his release. The last of these came a few weeks before Boyers slaying.

Now, reporting by The Times and the Marshall Project reveals what Los Angeles County officials apparently have known all along: Slip-ups by prosecutors and perhaps other county agencies  not the criminal justice reforms that have received so much of the blame  left Mejia at liberty on the day of the killing. County officials had plenty of evidence before them that Mejia ought to have been kept behind bars and then sent to drug treatment, and they had the tools at their disposal to make that happen. They didnt use them.

Advertisement

Under criminal justice reform laws that have been the target of pointed criticism, probation officers could have sent Mejia to jail for 90 days after he violated the terms of his release. Thats close to the average amount of time for which an offender accused of a similar violation would have been sent to prison after violating his parole under the old system, before AB 109 and Propositions 47 and 57.

In fact, the Probation Department did recommend the full three months in jail, followed by another three months in a drug program. The deputy district attorney, however, agreed to jail time of just a few days.

Slip-ups by prosecutors and perhaps other county agencies  not the criminal justice reforms that have received so much of the blame  left Mejia at liberty.

Meanwhile, in between short flash incarcerations, Mejia added new facial tattoos displaying his gang affiliation. He resumed drug use. He offered law enforcement officials plenty of evidence that he was a risky bet. The law gave them the power and the discretion to keep him locked up.

But they made a mistake.

Perhaps the most shocking part of the revelations, contained in secret county reports ordered by the Board of Supervisors in the wake of the shooting, is that county leaders have long had the evidence before them that it was their employees performance rather than a legal mandate that set the stage for the killing of Officer Boyer.

Yet that did not stop the supervisors from using the killing to create a Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Safety to study the effect of the reform laws. It did not stop Sheriff Jim McDonnell from blaming the Boyer killing, the killing of L.A. County Sheriffs Sgt. Steve Owen and increases in crime generally on the reform laws. Nor has it stopped a host of police chiefs, prosecutors and politicians from trying to discredit, modify or roll back the reforms.

Nor has it stopped many commentators and news reporters from completely misstating what the laws do.

The situation is reminiscent of the aftermath of a horrific quadruple killing in Northridge in 2012, committed a year after the realignment law took effect. Officials blamed the new law for leaving the killer, Ka Pasasouk, at large when he should have been locked up. But it turned out that Pasasouk was free not because of anything to do with the new law, but because a deputy district attorney mistakenly recommended him for a drug treatment program for which he was not eligible instead of jail.

The realignment law, AB 109, adopted by the Legislature in 2011, assigns to counties some of the offenders once handled by the state. People convicted of nonviolent, nonserious and nonsexual crimes go to county jail instead of state prison. In addition, some offenders on parole for violent crimes are supervised by county probation officers instead of state parole agents and are sent to jail instead of prison if they violate the terms of their release, as was the case with Mejia.

Proposition 47 made simple drug possession and several property crimes misdemeanors instead of wobblers  crimes that prosecutors could choose to charge as either misdemeanors or felonies. And Proposition 57 gives inmates an incentive to participate in rehabilitation programs by offering those eligible a chance to apply for earlier parole.

None of these laws mandate early prison release. Nevertheless, that false assertion has been made at city council meetings and police roll calls, on talk radio programs and in news stories, and in front of big-box stores where petitioners are currently gathering signatures for a ballot measure to undermine the steps forward that California voters have taken on criminal justice over the last five years.

Thats a shame  but not because the reforms are flawless and need no improvement. In fact, they pose some serious challenges, especially in Los Angeles County. For example, McDonnell is correct when he notes that his jail now includes a tougher brand of inmate than it once did; and for the first time, earlier this year, he began releasing convicted felons early  not because any reform law requires it, but because the county gave up jail beds to comply with an unrelated federal consent decree concerning the care of mentally ill inmates. Thats a vexing problem that must be fixed.

For the most part, though, public safety remains in the hands of the officials who we expect to deal with it: prosecutors, probation officers, police. We expect them to handle their tasks responsibly, with complete knowledge of the law and open lines of communication (we should be able to expect prosecutors, for example, to consult probation reports for warning signs of the type Mejia exhibited). We do not expect  and we must not accept  their blaming the law, rather than their own performance, for tragic mistakes.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookThe next governor of California will inherit a crippling housing crisis, crumbling roads, an ongoing drought that could last forever, a looming pension crisis, failing schools, rampant homelessness and regular ravages by megafires, mudslides and floods. The state is running a budget surplus for the moment, but economists say Californias economy is overdue for a downturn.

Even in the best of times, the job of running the nations most populous state requires a particular set of talents that few possess. Successful governors must be visionary leaders but also adroit politicians who can wield the bully pulpit and the power of persuasion to wrangle an often-recalcitrant Legislature. They need the skills and charisma to build coalitions  but also the strength of character to make decisions that may be unpopular with longtime allies or powerful interests. The best governors are savvy, compassionate, resilient and resourceful.

None of the 27 candidates in this years crowded race for governor has demonstrated all of those qualities. But Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles and speaker of the state Assembly, comes closest. His skills and experience governing a city facing hard times make him our choice in the June primary election.

Villaraigosa served two terms as mayor, from 2005 to 2013. He stumbled at times  especially early on when he approved overly generous raises of between 14% and 25% over five years for 22,000 city employees, a decision he now correctly refers to as a mistake. He made brash promises  1,000 new cops, a mayoral takeover of L.A. schools and 1 million new trees, to name the most prominent ones; none of those promises was quite fulfilled.

Advertisement

But when the worst economic recession of modern times hit, Villaraigosa stepped up. In 2009, as Los Angeles grappled with a projected budget shortfall that was expected to reach $1 billion by 2013 (thanks in part to the imprudent pay raises), he pushed through deep and unpopular  but necessary  cuts to programs and city services. Two years later, he slashed paychecks, furloughed employees and rolled back pension benefits. This made the former labor organizer the enemy of the most powerful force in City Hall, public employee unions. We give him credit for this not because we are hostile to labor unions or pleased to see services or salaries cut, but because in the city, as in the state, budgets have to be balanced, leaders have to learn to say no and fiscal responsibility cant be tossed aside.

When the worst economic recession of modern times hit, Villaraigosa stepped up.

By the end of his tenure, Villaraigosa had increased the LAPD to nearly 10,000 officers, seen crime drop to historic lows and persuaded voters to adopt Measure R, a bold and transformative sales tax to fund long-term transportation projects like the subway to the sea  in 2008, no less, when the national economy was melting down. His bid for mayoral control of the Los Angeles Unified School District  which he hoped would help him turn around the citys underperforming schools  was not successful, but he didnt give up the fight; the Partnership for L.A. Schools that he created took over some 18 low-performing schools and has done a creditable job leading them.

Villaraigosa also has substantive experience in state government. As speaker of the California Assembly in the late 1990s, his coalition-building skills were heralded, evident in legislation such as the deal to regulate polluting diesel trucks and passage of a bill limiting handgun purchases to one a month.

Villaraigosa is a complicated character with a big ego and a thin skin. We have our qualms about him. It has not been reassuring that in his post-mayoral years he has served as a consultant to Herbalife, a multilevel marketing company of nutritional supplements that has been the target of investigation for allegedly exploiting its heavily Latino workforce. Villaraigosa also worked for Cadiz, a water speculation company owned by a good friend of his that has been scheming to suck up groundwater from the Mojave Desert to sell to thirsty cities. Everyone is entitled to make a living, but we question some of Villaraigosas career judgments.

Still, he is the best choice in the field. The political courage he demonstrated as mayor bringing fiscal discipline to a city in crisis will serve him well in Sacramento if he is elected.

The only other candidate in the race who comes close is Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is articulate and deeply knowledgeable about state politics and policy. He has shown leadership on several big issues, including gun control, marijuana legalization and, most famously, on gay marriage. The world was mesmerized in 2004 when Newsom, then the mayor of San Francisco, ordered the city clerk to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Critics, however, describe Newsom as a whirlwind of ambition, lacking in core values and meaningful accomplishments, with little demonstrated ability to build alliances and coalitions. He has flip-flopped on key issues, such as high-speed rail and immigration, and offered unsatisfactory explanations for changing positions. San Francisco is a small city with overwhelmingly progressive politics; even his boldest steps didnt require big political risks, nor were his successes as difficult to accomplish as they would have been in a bigger and more heterogeneous city like Los Angeles.

Though Villaraigosa and Newsom have shared experiences as mayors (both, for instance, went through bruising and embarrassing sex scandals during their City Hall years), it is Villaraigosa who is the more seasoned and tested politician.

A few words about the other prominent candidates in the race: Wealthy Republican businessman John Cox has no experience in government other than failed bids for office in Illinois and unsuccessful ballot initiatives in California. Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) is running as a Trump Mini-Me, pandering to the right with irresponsible positions contrary to those held by most Californians. The other two well-known Democrats in the race, state Treasurer John Chiang and former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin, just dont have the experience or the chops to serve as chief executive of this massive government. Chiang  for whom we initially had high hopes  has been surprisingly unwilling to take strong stances or unpopular positions. None of the other 21 people on the ballot are prepared to be governor.

Villaraigosa would be the first Latino governor of California since Romualdo Pacheco, a Californio who served briefly in 1875. Surely that would be something to celebrate in a state where Latinos are the largest ethnic group. That, however, is not the reason to vote for him. The reason to vote for him is that having served successfully as a legislative leader in Sacramento and as mayor during tough times in Los Angeles, he is more prepared for the job than his rivals. We urge voters to choose Antonio Villaraigosa in the June 5 primary.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookWhat is it about the red Sonoran dust that produces Arizona senators who punch so far above their national weight?

Barry Goldwater, an Arizonan from before there was a state, thrilled a generation of conservatives with his libertarian-inflected ideas, yanked the Republican Party westward from its Northeast base, read the riot act to Richard Nixon as impeachment loomed and paved the way for Ronald Reagan. So compelling a figure was he that some of the same Democrats who vilified Goldwater as a half-mad nuclear warmonger during his disastrous 1964 presidential run, bathed him in respect at the end of his long public career.

Goldwaters successor, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, has lived a rich enough life that hes cycled a few times through periods of public affection, derision and rapprochement. And while people dont use the moniker McCain conservative the way they do Goldwaterite, that doesnt mean his conception of what a Republican and even a centrist should be hasnt been profoundly influential, particularly over the past quarter-century.

McCain has been a constant fixture in the headlines, from when he was shot down over Hanoi in 1967 to today, as he prepares for his own funeral. He is arguably Washingtons most pivotal nonpresident since the end of the Cold War. His vision of a robustly U.S.-led international order of free trade, human rights and patriotic idealism is familiar enough. The question is, will that type of conservatism live on?

Advertisement

Interventionism has been central to the McCain project. Both the senator and the nation graduated from a hesitant peace dividend posture (albeit with the occasional missile strike) early in the 1990s to preemptive war-machine status by the decades end, aiming to liberate captive peoples with the worlds most potent military. McCain went from criticizing President Clintons first-term interventions in Somalia, Haiti and Yugoslavia to shouting down his own partys isolationist flank in support of Clintons second-term bombing of Kosovo.

Critical to this transformation was his own  and, again, the nations  healing of Vietnam wounds. McCain overcame 5 years of often brutal captivity, which left his body permanently damaged. He went on to team with his fellow senator and Vietnam vet, Democrat John F. Kerry, to hold POW hearings on Capitol Hill and normalize relations with still-communist Vietnam.

If McCain conservatism is going to last longer than its namesake, it will have to confront the errors that made Trump possible.

In his 1998 memoir Faith of My Fathers, McCain shook off what we used to call the Vietnam Syndrome at the books conclusion. Surely, for a time, our loss in Vietnam afflicted America with a kind of identity crisis, he wrote. [But] we should never have let this one mistake, terrible though it was, color our perceptions forever of our countrys purpose.

Ironically, McCains emerging celebrity as he wrote those words distracted observers from just how interventionist his foreign policy views had become. While he rode the Straight Talk Express, charming the national press corps during his first joyous maverick run for the Republican presidential nomination, the candidates ideology went largely unexamined. In fact, he championed a doctrine of rogue state rollback, offering aid to those who would overthrow the odious regimes in countries such as Iraq and North Korea, and vowing never to abandon them to the mercies of tyrants whenever they meet with reversals.

His aggressive vision lost in the 2000 nomination battle to George W. Bush, who promised a more humble foreign policy. But McCain won the longer-term war of ideas once Bush was faced with the horrors of 9/11. The senators credibility with Democrats and journalists initially helped convince fence-sitters to back Bushs eventually disastrous Iraq war.

Domestically, McCain has mostly been the opposite of the libertarian Goldwater (which helps explain the frosty relationship that persisted between the two), championing intrusive federal interventions in everything from political advertising to athletes use of performance-enhancing drugs. When the financial crisis hit during the last weeks of the his second presidential race, in 2008, he was long on gestures  showily suspending his campaign  but short on coherent ideas.

McCains conservatism was rarely populist. His father and grandfather were celebrated Navy admirals, his mother and second wife were heiresses, and his private sector career lasted all of 18 months. He kept the conservative grass roots at arms length, except when he felt threatened enough to pander to them. (See his 2010 campaign ad, Complete the danged fence.)

Sill, in most pursuits, and through his waning days, the senator has imbued his actions and words with a haughty yet self-effacing sense of patriotism and honor, most clearly on display these days with his repudiation of the half-baked, spurious nationalism of President Trumps politics.

All the same, its hard to escape the conclusion that McCain and his Republican cohort  Sen. Bob Corker, former Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. John Kasich, Sen. Lindsay Graham  helped midwife the conservative politics they now so clearly loathe. The twin follies of promiscuous war and unbridled GOP growth of government, lashed to sporadic and transparently insincere nods toward populism, has turned a generation of voters against the Republican establishment. It remains to be seen if the rejection will be permanent.

Goldwater conservatism has mostly been chased off  fellow Arizonan Jeff Flake, arguably the most Goldwaterite member of the Senate, is quitting rather than fighting the Trump wave. If McCain conservatism is going to last longer than its namesake, it will have to confront the errors that made Trump possible.

Matt Welch is a contributing writer to Opinion, the editor of Reason magazine and the author of McCain: The Myth of a Maverick.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand FacebookNewsoms budget proposes $3 million for Alzheimers research, brain task force By Melody Gutierrez Amyloid plaques, shown here in human brains, are a hallmark of Alzheimers disease. (UCLA School of Medicine) Gov. Gavin Newsom will call for the creation of a brain health task force and dedicate $3 million annually from the states general fund to Alzheimers disease research in the budget proposal he will release Thursday, a source close to the administration said. The money for Alzheimers research would target the new grants at understanding why the disease is more prevalent in women and people of color. Former California first lady and Alzheimers activist Maria Shriver pushed for the funding to be included in the state budget. Shriver said in a statement Wednesday that the funding would make California the first state to make understanding our brains a priority. The states former first lady, whose late father Sargent Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimers, founded the Womens Alzheimers Movement, an advocacy group raising awareness about womens increased risk for developing the disease. In 2011, she wrote a comprehensive assessment on the disease, to which Newsom  then mayor of San Francisco  contributed a portion called What one city is doing. This is personal to me, just like it is to millions of California families, Shriver said. Alzheimers is one of the largest medical, social and economic crises in our state, and of our time. I am so proud that, once again, California is leading the way. Wiping out Alzheimers is going to require bold thinking, and there is no doubt in my mind that California is home to bold thinkers who can make this happen. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Gov. Gavin Newsom orders reinvention of troubled California DMV By Patrick McGreevy A line of people stretches around the South L.A. location of a California Department of Motor Vehicles Office on Aug. 7. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday ordered an overhaul of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which has been plagued by hours-long wait times at field offices, computer crashes and voter registration errors involving tens of thousands of customers. Just a few days after taking office, Newsom appointed a top advisor to a new DMV Reinvention Strike Team to revamp the beleaguered agency over the next six months. By any metric, California DMV has been chronically mismanaged and failed in its fundamental mission to the state customers it serves and the state workers it employs, Newsom said in a statement, adding Its time for a reinvention. The governor appointed state Government Operations Agency Secretary Marybel Batjer to lead the strike team with a goal of modernizing the agency and enacting changes that improve customer satisfaction, employee performance and transparency. Newsom also ordered an accelerated review of initial findings of an ongoing audit ordered last year by Gov. Jerry Brown. The action was welcomed by lawmakers who have been critical of the DMV, including Assemblyman Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield). The egregious management failures of the DMV have been self-evident, which is why I have been calling for new leadership and a comprehensive independent audit of this troubled state agency over and over again as the problems grew significantly worse, Fong said. Last summer, Californians seeking new driver licenses complained of wait times of four to six hours at DMV offices, which the agency blamed partly on snafus caused by a rush of people trying to get Real IDs, a new identification card design required for airline passengers starting in late 2020. Delays were also blamed on computer crashes at DMV offices as the agency struggled to update its aging automation systems. The DMV also admitted that there were an estimated 23,000 errors as people either were unknowingly registered to vote or mistakes were made in their registration status as part of the states new motor voter program. The agency registered to vote as many as 1,500 people with legal U.S. residency but no citizenship. Last month, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto retired from the agency. Legislators were angered earlier this week when the DMV said it needed an additional $40 million to prevent the return of long lines at its field offices. In addition, the agency has been under fire for issuing driver licenses in the last year that do not comply with the federal Real ID standards requiring two forms of identification by applicants. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

California police unions are preparing to battle new transparency law in the courtroom By Maya Lau Just as a landmark police transparency law is going into effect, some California police agencies are shredding internal affairs documents and law enforcement unions are rushing to block the information from being released. The new law, which begins to unwind Californias strictest-in-the-nation protections over the secrecy of law enforcement records, opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. But the lawsuits and records destruction, which began even before the law took effect Jan. 1, could tie up the release of information for months or years, and in some instances, prevent it from ever being disclosed. The fact that police unions are challenging this law is on some level not surprising, said Peter Bibring, director of police practices at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, one of the principal supporters of the new law. They have a long history of fighting tooth and nail against transparency. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Secretary of State Alex Padilla begins second term with challenge to ensure every Californian is counted By Jazmine Ulloa Secretary of State Alex Padilla takes the oath of office as his family stands by his side on Monday in Sacramento. (Jazmine Ulloa / Los Angeles Times) Secretary of State Alex Padilla was sworn in for a second term on Monday, saying he would continue the battle to protect the right to vote at a time when voter suppression efforts, online disinformation campaigns and interference from foreign adversaries have polarized the public and threatened to undermine trust in U.S. elections. I am doubling down on our fight here in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C., to defend our democracy, he said. Working on the front lines with so many of you, I know that our collective resolve has never been stronger. But the loudest applause came when Padilla promised to fight back against the Trump administrations changes to the U.S. census, saying he will ensure every Californian gets counted. Padilla, a former state senator and Los Angeles City Council member from the San Fernando Valley, led the cause for a new motor voter registration law in 2015, and a new system for online business registrations. But the programs have had experienced problems: More than 23,000 Californians were registered to vote incorrectly by the state DMV, the agency reported last year. On Monday, Padilla said he would continue to push back against false claims of voter fraud in California and pointed to the states voter turnout as proof that his office was involving more people in the democratic process, a promise he made when he was first sworn in four years ago. More than 12.7 million voters cast ballots in the Nov. 6 midterm election, representing roughly 65% of the states registered voters, the highest number of any midterm election since 1982, according to state certified results. I made that promise based on a shared belief that we are a stronger democracy and a better California when we hear all voices from all corners of California, and when those voices are not just heard but counted, Padilla said. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Ricardo Lara, Californias first statewide officeholder to come out as gay, sworn in as insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara on the floor of the state Senate in 2016. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Ricardo Lara took the oath of office as California insurance commissioner on Monday, pledging action to boost healthcare coverage and combat climate change. Lara, a Democrat from Bell Gardens, is the first elected statewide officeholder in California who has come out as gay. He began his speech in downtown Sacramento by thanking LGBTQ leaders who came before him and celebrated the occasion. Today, because of you, weve shattered the pink ceiling, Lara said. In his inaugural speech, Lara announced the creation of an executive position in his office to address climate change. There is no other industry that has the necessary expertise to ensure that California is prepared to mitigate and reduce risk to our communities and our environment, Lara said. Our planet cant wait. Im ready, and I hope you are too. Lara served as a state legislator and in 2017 introduced a bill to create a single-payer healthcare system in the state. He promised to work with new Gov. Gavin Newsom to expand coverage across California. Lara was sworn in by retired U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared unconstitutional Californias Proposition 8 gay marriage ban. State Sen. President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) was on hand for the ceremony along with multiple other state lawmakers. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

New California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis says she will help expand access to universities in the state New Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, center, is shown in June talking with attendees at the Power to the Polls rally in Sacramento. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) More Californians should be given access to public universities, Eleni Kounalakis said as she took the oath of office Monday to become the states first woman elected lieutenant governor. Kounalakis was given the oath of office by Gov. Gavin Newsom, her predecessor in the job, who pledged they would work together. As lieutenant governor, Kounalakis serves on the University of California Board of Regents and the California State University Board of Trustees, she noted in a speech at her swearing-in ceremony at the main Sacramento Library. In that role, she said, she will be committed to expanding access to affordable public higher education here in our state. Its wise, its smart and it is the best way to address our rapidly changing digital economy. Kounalakis is former president of a development company founded by her father, Angelo Tsakopoulos, and served during the Obama administration as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary. In November, she won her first run for statewide office. Also attending the ceremony were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

California meets Dutch Newsom, who steals the show at his fathers inauguration By Taryn Luna Gov. Gavin Newsom gives his inaugural address while holding his youngest son, Dutch. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) In the California political world, all eyes were on Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday until his 2-year-old son stole the show. Dutch, the youngest of four children in the Newsom brood, climbed onstage in the middle of his fathers inaugural address in a tent outside the Capitol on Monday. The unplanned moment saw the 51-year-old governors big day interrupted by the toddler, bringing levity to the ceremony. Newsom was recounting Gov. Jerry Browns last inaugural speech and reference to the Sermon on the Mount, a biblical story about two men who built separate homes on sand and rock, when Dutch approached his father, a pacifier in his mouth and blanket in hand. Now more than ever we Californians know how much a house matters and children matter, Newsom said, improvising as he scooped the boy into his arms. The governor kissed Dutch on the cheek and held him for several minutes as he continued with the speech. This is exactly how it was scripted, Newsom joked. Newsom eventually put his child down and Dutch walked to the edge of the stage before retreating behind the podium to hide from his mother, First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The crowd roared. Siebel Newsom was able to briefly divert her son only for him to return to the stage minutes later. She grabbed him again and this time, the crying toddler did not reemerge. When fires strikes, when kids cry and the earth shakes, well be there for each other, Newsom said. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said the moment humanized Newsom, threw cold water on any theories that Dutchs cameo was planned. No, I know it was not, Garcetti said with a laugh after Newsoms speech concluded. I could see that look of absolute abject terror [on Newsoms face]. Weve all been there. Kids always think its about themselves and theyve proved it. California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) agreed. I worked in early childhood education for 20 years and theres no way you can ever get a child to do anything when you want them to do it, Rendon said. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Fiona Ma takes oath as Californias new treasurer By Liam Dillon State Treasurer Fiona Ma. Fiona Ma took the oath of office in Sacramento on Monday as the states 34th treasurer, promising to boost Californias economy. Ma previously served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in the state Assembly and on the California Board of Equalization. I want to thank everyone for entrusting me with this important job. I understand my role here as your state treasurer is to build that financial wall around California so that we will remain the fifth-largest economy, Ma said in brief remarks. That is my promise to you. California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye administered the oath to Ma. Following the ceremony, Ma held an ice cream social for guests. On Wednesday, she will host a public event in San Francisco to celebrate her swearing-in. State Treasurer Fiona Ma takes the oath of office. (Liam Dillon / Los Angeles Times) Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Expectations are high for newly sworn-in state schools chief Tony Thurmond Tony Thurmond shakes hands with retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco after taking the oath of office. (Melody Gutierrez / Los Angeles Times) Tony Thurmond took the oath of office as Californias state superintendent of public schools on Monday, promising a labor-friendly agenda before the teachers, students and Democratic officials who filled an auditorium at McClatchy High School in Sacramento to watch him being sworn in. We cant close the achievement gap without a great teacher at the head of every class, Thurmond said Monday to applause. We have to make sure we provide quality compensation and support to our teachers and our classified staff and all the educators who support our kids. Thurmond, a Bay Area Democrat who served in the state Assembly, won a hotly contested and expensive race with the help of labor leaders against charter school executive Marshall Tuck. The race took several days to sort out after Tuck held an initial lead in early returns on election night before falling behind thereafter. Thurmond was sworn in Monday by retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco. He was joined on stage by labor rights leader Dolores Huerta and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount). Thurmonds former colleagues in the state Assembly took turns praising him and promising to be an ally in improving schools. Many said they expected Thurmond would be a strong leader focused on improving student outcomes. We know we are going to work hard to give you the money you need and the budget you need to fully fund education and our schools so we can put our money where our mouth is and make sure our children have everything they need, Assemblywoman Connie Leyva (D-Chino Hills) said. As state superintendent, Thurmond will oversee the education of 6.2 million students at 10,000 schools. Thurmond was a member of the West Contra Costa County School Board and a Richmond city councilman before he was elected to the state Assembly. Tony is the right man at the right time to fight the federal, Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos anti-child, anti-education, anti-civil and -human rights agenda, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said. Tony is going to do that for us. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

State Controller Betty Yee takes oath of office with call for more affordable housing and healthcare State Controller Betty Yee California Controller Betty Yee took the oath of office Monday for a second term, saying she still has work to do addressing problems that include a lack of affordability in housing, healthcare and higher education. A San Francisco native, Yee is the chief financial officer of California  the fifth-largest economy in the world  having first won election to the post in 2014 before winning reelection in November. No region is spared from the widening inequality and increased poverty that plague our state, fueled by the lack of affordable, stable housing, the cost of healthcare and transportation, limited educational opportunities, student loan debt, displacement caused by disasters and more, she said. Yee was administered the oath of office by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento before an overflow crowd that included state Senate leader Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and San Francisco Mayor London Breed. As a public official it is about governance that delivers results and stays accountable while upholding the underlying value of dignity for all, Yee said. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra begins new term promising to fight Trump policies California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra ( (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra on Monday took the oath of office for a new term, saying he would continue his role as a leading challenger to Trump administration actions that he believes are counter to the states interests. Becerra, a former 12-term congressman, has become a national opposition figure to Trump, having sued the federal government 45 times since he was appointed as the states first Latino attorney general in 2017. Weve been a little busy stopping the dysfunction and insanity in Washington, D.C., from infecting California, Becerra told an audience during a swearing-in ceremony at the California Museum in Sacramento. Whether its the criminals on our streets or the conman in the boardrooms or highest office of the land, Becerra said, the California Department of Justice, well, weve got your back. Becerra won his first statewide election as the states top cop in November, two years after he filled the post vacated when predecessor Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate. He has peppered the Trump administration with lawsuits challenging federal policies on healthcare, the U.S. census, the environment and immigration. Our state builds dreams, not walls, he said in a direct criticism of Trumps proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. Just last week, Becerra led a coalition of 17 Democratic attorneys general in announcing an appeal of a federal judge in Texas that ruled the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ACA has been the law for nearly a decade and is the backbone of our healthcare system, Becerra said last week. This case impacts nearly every American  workers covered by employers, families, women, children, young adults and seniors  so we will lead the ACAs defense as long and far as it takes. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

California Democratic Party Vice Chairman Daraka Larimore-Hall announces bid to lead group By Christine Mai-Duc Daraka Larimore-Hall. (Dominic Parisi / Courtesy of Daraka Larimore-Hall) Daraka Larimore-Hall, a top official at the California Democratic Party, said Monday hes running to replace former chairman Eric Bauman, who resigned abruptly in November after being confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct. Larimore-Hall, a longtime state party activist and former chairman of the Democratic Party of Santa Barbara County, was one of the party leaders who urged Bauman to resign following the allegations. In an email to supporters announcing his bid, he urged both structural and cultural change at every level of our Party. He also repeated his call for a top-to-bottom investigation of the allegations, the party and its culture. In a Times investigation, 10 party activists and staff members said Bauman made crude sexual comments and engaged in unwanted touching and physical intimidation in professional settings. In order to be where we need to be for 2020, we have to confront the culture of abuse and fear that allowed someone to behave in such a vile way for so long, Larimore-Hall said in an interview. We cant brush it aside or think that our activists or our candidates or our donors are going to forget about this overnight. Larimore-Hall said his first priority would be to fully investigate the allegations and restore rank-and-file confidence in the partys leadership. The second would be to refocus the party on political priorities as the 2020 presidential election nears. The Bauman episode, Larimore-Hall said, threatens to derail the Democrats plans to help defeat President Trump and keep the seven congressional seats gained in the midterm elections. Its definitely a crisis, Larimore-Hall said. But the component parts  the energy, the enthusiasm, the volunteers, the infrastructure  its still there. We just need to direct it toward something. Larimore-Hall was elected vice chairman of the state party in February following Baumans razor-thin victory over Bay Area activist Kimberly Ellis. Ellis has announced another bid for the chairmanship and former state Senate leader Kevin de Leon is also mulling a run. The vote will take place at the partys May convention in San Francisco. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Newsom will vow to seize this moment, and swipe at Trump in Monday inaugural address By Melanie Mason Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family attend an Inauguration Family Event at the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Building on the theme of California exceptionalism that defined his campaign, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will depict the state as a guardian of progressive values and a counterweight to President Trump in his inaugural address Monday, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks. What we do today is even more consequential, because of whats happening in our country, read the excerpts obtained by The Times. Peoples lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe  they all hang in the balance. The country is watching us. The world is waiting on us. The future depends on us. And we will seize this moment. The speech casts Californias political stakes in a decidedly national scope, promising an agenda that will unify and be an example to the rest of the country. It contrasts the governing goals of Newsom, a Democrat, with that of Trump, the incoming governors perennial foil. We will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House, the excerpts say. Our government will be progressive, principled, and always on the side of the people. Newsom campaigned on an ambitious and wide-ranging platform, promising sweeping solutions on housing, healthcare, education and other issues that rank among Californians top concerns. In the weeks after his election, he struck a more muted tone, taking pains to emphasize his fiscal caution and need for patience in achieving those goals. The inaugural excerpts indicate a return to lofty pledges. While Newsom will vow to prepare for uncertain times ahead by building budgetary reserves and paying down debt, the prepared remarks quickly turn to a vow to be bold. Newsom has already floated several proposals for his first budget that carry significant price tags, including a nearly $2-billion plan to boost early childhood development for low-income families and a dramatic expansion of paid family leave from six weeks to six months. When asked for a preview of his inauguration speech during a news conference Sunday evening, Newsom predicted pundits would criticize his address as short on specifics. Well, of course, Im at an inaugural, Newsom said. But Ill be very detailed in the budget, a few days later. And then we will architect, in much more nuance and detail, in state of the state. I really see this as three opportunities  to communicate over the next few weeks our agenda, our vision for the state. Times staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Newsom-hosted benefit concert raises nearly $5 million for wildfire victims By Taryn Luna Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom speaks at a concert to benefit wildfire victims at the Golden 1 Arena in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) On the eve of the gubernatorial inauguration, Californias political class rubbed elbows in Sacramento for a benefit concert hosted by Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and headlined by the rapper Pitbull. Newsom told the crowd gathered at the Golden 1 Center on Sunday evening that the fundraiser brought in nearly $5 million for the California Wildfire Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that supports the families of fallen firefighters and communities affected by wildfires. You know, a lot of folks feel anxious about not just politics, but government, Newsom said on stage before introducing the rapper and activist Common. But those firefighters, they are the antidote to the fear and cynicism; they are the manifestation of why government matters and why you should care. Top sponsors, including Salesforce, Kaiser Permanente and other interest groups, paid up to $1 million each to support the cause and curry favor with the new administration. Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom, said organizers sold more than 7,000 tickets. Several state lawmakers attended the concert alongside Capitol staff, lobbyists and business types, who mingled on the floor of the arena and offstage in private VIP areas. The rock band X Ambassadors and a duo called the Cold Weather Sons from the town of Paradise, which was destroyed by fire in November, were among several performers who entertained the crowd during the four-hour event. The California Rises concert is the final in a series of festivities held Sunday to celebrate the inauguration of Californias 40th governor. Earlier in the day, Newsom attended a private brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum and his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront. Newsoms inauguration is set to begin at 11 a.m. Monday on the steps of the Capitol. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Inauguration fever hits Sacramento as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom prepares to take office By Phil Willon Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom holds his son, Dutch, as he and his family attend an inaugural event at the at the state Railroad Museum Sunday. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Incoming Gov. Gavin Newsom doesnt officially take the oath of office until Monday, but the parties celebrating his inauguration were in full swing all day Sunday. Newsom and his family were mobbed by well-wishers at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront in the afternoon, where his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families. He just has charisma. Hes able to really connect with people, said Rosielyn Pulmano, an attorney from Elk Grove who came to see Newsom with her husband, two sons and her niece. I think he cares about working Californians and a lot of their issues. Newsom arrived with his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and their four young children, and the governor-elect spent a good deal of his time wading through crowds, taking selfies with supporters and signing autographs as music boomed in the background. As the family toured the inside of the museums locomotives and the bevy of exhibits, Newsoms two-year-old son, Dutch, was wide-eyed, impressed by all the train cars and seemingly a little overwhelmed by the crowd. Newsom said that for his son, all that was missing from the museum was Thomas the Train, popular fictional locomotive in childrens books and cartoons . If theres one thing I can contribute to Sacramento maybe its getting a Thomas the Train exhibit for the two years olds, Newsom joked when talking with reporters afterward. Newsom said he wanted to include such an event in his inaugural festivities to highlight families and children, whose wellbeing will be among the top priorities of his administration. Youll see that not only as a preamble to the inaugural and the budget that well be submitting next week, but I think itll be a big part of the administration, Newsom said. The museum event followed a private, high-dollar brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum. A steady rain failed to dissuade as many as 200 guests who sipped wine and dined on chicken and salmon while waiting for a photo with Californias new first couple. Seen at the event were representatives of some of the states most powerful political interests, among them organized labor, healthcare companies and tribal gaming interests. A few other high-profile guests attended, too, including Larry Baer, CEO of the San Francisco Giants, and Erika Jayne, a singer and cast member of the reality TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Im excited to see someone like Gavin  young, vibrant  taking over the state and leading us into the future, Jayne said after attending the brunch with her husband, attorney Tom Girardi. Hes got a lot of great plans. Attendees said the event, which was closed to reporters and held under a tent in the museums outdoor atrium, did not include prepared remarks by Newsom. Among those seen leaving the event were representatives of AT&T, the California Medical Assn., Uber, Kaiser Permanente and the State Building and Construction Trades Council. A fundraising invitation obtained by The Times offered bundled tickets to all of the inauguration events, including those on Sunday and the Monday ceremony, ranging in price from $25,000 to $200,000. The money will be collected by a committee specifically organized to pay for Newsoms inaugural weekend. Sundays festivities are scheduled to end with a benefit concert headlined by Pitbull at the Golden 1 Center, home of the NBAs Sacramento Kings, to raise money for the victims of Californias recent deadly wildfires. Among the attendees at @GavinNewsoms pre-inaugural leadership brunch: Real Housewife of

Bev Hills @erikajayne. Im excited to see someone like Gavinyoung, vibranttaking over the state and leading us into the future. Hes got a lot of great plans. pic.twitter.com/561NHiy2XQ  Melanie Mason (@melmason) January 6, 2019 Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

As Newsom inaugural events begin, he unveils more state budget promises on education and paid family leave Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, seen here last April, will propose new state budget efforts on paid family leave and education subsidies. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Californias incoming governor, who must send his first state budget plan to the Legislature this week, has already signaled a significant new focus on programs to help families and children from infancy to college. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom campaigned on a platform that included a number of child-focused efforts specifically aimed at helping lower-income families. The price tag for the initial efforts is expected to approach $2 billion  a cost paid out of an unrestricted tax revenue windfall that could be one of the largest in state history. Newsom may also seek help for families through new subsidies paid by California employers. The governor-elect is expected to propose a dramatic expansion of paid parental leave  from six weeks to six months  according to an internal document provided by a source close to the Newsom transition team, first reported on Sunday by the New York Times. The document doesnt offer a full explanation for how the program will be funded, saying instead that the budget will set a goal of ensuring that all newborns and newly adopted babies can be cared for by a parent or a close family member for the first six months. Employers across the state are currently assessed a payroll tax that helps offer a subsidy to parents who temporarily leave their job to care for a newborn. Newsoms plan, according to the document, would pay for some of the new costs by shrinking the mandated cash reserve of the state fund that administers the program, allowing more of the money to be paid in benefits. The increase in paid leave would not all happen at once but instead be phased in over a multi-year period. A task force to help implement the expanded care plan is also envisioned, according to the document. It would determine whether two parents could split the six months of paid leave and whether an extended family member could be enlisted to help care for the child of a single parent over the six-month period. The incoming administrations focus on young children will also include $1.8 billion in new spending on early childhood education programs, with a particular focus on training childcare workers and pushing for more California schools to offer full-day kindergarten. Those costs, according to an overview memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times, are considered to be a one-time expense while leaving the long-term costs of the effort to be determined later. More community college students would get free tuition under a third initiative expected in the new governors budget plan. Newsom will propose spending $40 million to offer a second year of tuition-free college to California students, according to an outline provided by a transition official, first reported by Politico. Students are already eligible for a single year of paid tuition under a plan agreed to by Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers in 2017. The incoming governor embraced the idea of free community college during the 2018 campaign as part of a broader focus on additional investments in higher education. Education is an economic development strategy, Newsom said at a higher education forum last spring. We need to significantly increase the investment from the general fund of this state on higher education. Theres no greater higher return on investment. Whether the proposal would be targeted to students based on a familys financial need is unclear. Many low-income students are already eligible for fee waivers at community colleges. The new governor must submit his full state budget plan to lawmakers no later than Thursday. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Gavin Newsom and his family decide Sacramento is the place to be The Old Governors Mansion State Historic Park in Sacramento. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will move his family into the mansion. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family will give up the Marin County life and move to the Victorian-style governors mansion in Sacramento after he takes the oath of office Monday. Newsom and his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, had debated whether or when to relocate to the state capital since his election in November. The couple have four young children and expressed reservations about moving in the middle of a school year. To best serve the people of California while also maximizing family time together, the Newsoms have therefore decided to move to Sacramento, said Newsoms spokesman, Nathan Click. On Monday, they will move into the Governors Mansion  along with their four children, their two family dogs, and their family bunny rabbit  and reside there for the immediate future. The Newsoms currently live in Marin County. Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Ann Gust Brown, moved into the grand house in 2015 after it underwent $4.1 million in renovations to update electrical and plumbing systems, as well as to remove lead-based paint and install a fire sprinkler system and other security features. The mansion was built in 1877 and has been home to 14 governors, but before Brown it had not housed a California governor for nearly half a century. The state bought the mansion from a wealthy Sacramento hardware merchant, Albert Gallatin, in 1903 for $32,500. It was one of the few California homes at that time to have indoor plumbing. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Newsom announces top labor, business liaisons as he prepares to take office Julie Su will be secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency for Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday named two advisors on issues related to the California economy, each recognized for their expertise on business and labor. The incoming governor will appoint Julie Su as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency and Lenny Mendonca as chief economic and business advisor and director of the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development. Su, 49, has served as state labor commissioner under Gov. Jerry Brown since 2011 and has led an office tasked with the enforcement of Californias labor laws. She won a MacArthur Foundation genius grant in 2001 and previously worked as a civil rights attorney representing low-wage workers. In her new position, Su will be tasked with coordinating the work of several workforce departments in state government, including those that administer unemployment benefits and oversee the relationship between agriculture workers and employers. Mendonca, 57, has been a longtime advocate for rethinking government operations as co-chairman of the nonprofit organization California Forward. Previously, he was partner at McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm. While he will be a key advisor to Newsom on the states economy, Mendonca will also lead the office often referred to as Go-Biz, designated as a high-level way to encourage job growth and economic development. In his new role, Mendonca will help ensure that California is rolling out the welcome mat to current and future California businesses and growing a sustainable economy for every Californian, said a statement from the Newsom transition team. Newsom will take the oath of office as governor Monday. He has previously selected key advisors on the state budget, legislative affairs and the executive branchs wide array of agencies and departments. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Joshua Groban, aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, sworn in to California Supreme Court By Taryn Luna California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban gives remarks after he is sworn into the court by Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday. (Taryn Luna) California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban, a lawyer and longtime aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, was sworn into the states highest court Thursday in Sacramento. The ceremony marked Browns fourth appointment to the state Supreme Court and gave the seven-member bench a Democratic majority. We live in a highly chaotic, ever-changing and ever-confusing world, Groban said in prepared remarks at the Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building. But Im happy to report that Im joining an institution whose fundamental purpose, at core, is to provide stability and consistency amidst this chaotic place we live. I look forward to doing that with a sense of reflection, respect, fidelity to the law and compassion. None of Browns appointees, Groban included, have judicial experience. Groban served as legal counsel to Browns 2010 gubernatorial campaign and joined the administration as a senior advisor to the governor, overseeing the appointments of some 600 judges over the last eight years. Prior to working with Brown, Groban, 45, practiced law for more than a decade. In perhaps his final public appearance before his successor, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, takes office next week, Brown pushed back on notions that he stacked the court. I dont want this to be known as a Brown court, the governor said before administering the judicial oath of office. First of all, the so-called Brown appointments do not agree with themselves and nor should they. They are individuals. They will differ. Its not anybodys court. The governor called the court a high calling and said Groban possesses the values for the job. Probably, next to my wife, Ive talked to no person as much as Ive talked to Josh Groban, Brown said. I think youve talked to him more, Californias First Lady Anne Gust Brown interjected. I cant tell you what the hell hes going to do, Brown later quipped. I warned him, dont screw up, at least not at first. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

California campaign watchdog agency seeks law barring use of campaign funds to fight harassment claims Former state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia). ( (Steve Yeater / Associated Press)) Elected officials accused of harassment or discrimination would be barred from using political contributions to cover their legal defense costs under legislation proposed by Californias campaign watchdog agency. The state Fair Political Practices Commission has agreed to pursue a law change to clear up confusion after an attorney for one former state lawmaker argued political funds could be used in such legal defenses. Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said putting a prohibition into the law would provide some much needed clarity. As chair, I would like to show the public their lawmakers are held to a standard that is above reproach, Germond said in a statement. People dont give money to campaigns for lawmakers to use it to defend their own bad behavior, so lawmakers shouldnt be able to use it in that manner. The issue came up a year ago when an attorney for former Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) sought a formal opinion from the FPPC after the Senate launched an investigation that later concluded Mendoza likely engaged in a pattern of harassment against female aides. Mendoza resigned in February under threat of expulsion by the Senate. In a Jan. 10, 2018, letter, Cassandra Ferrannini, an attorney for Mendoza, wrote to the FPPC that she believed Mendoza should be allowed to establish a legal defense fund able to defray his legal expenses in defending himself against the allegations. The use of campaign funds for attorneys fees under these circumstances would fall squarely within the scope of legislative matters, since it involves the alleged conduct of a legislator with regard to legislative staff that he supervised, Ferrannini wrote. The commission staff originally issued an advice letter that said Mendoza may use campaign and legal defense funds to defend himself from claims of sexual harassment that arose directly out of his activities or status as a candidate or elected officer. But the panel later rescinded the letter after some members questioned using campaign funds to fight sexual harassment claims. That left uncertainty about what was allowed, which Germond said could be cleared up by a new law. The FPPC is still looking for a legislator to carry the bill, a spokesman said. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Californias landmark police transparency law takes effect after court denies police union effort to block it California Supreme Court building (Eric Risberg / Associated Press) A new state law allowing the public disclosure of internal police shooting investigations has gone into effect after the California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a bid by a police union to block it. The law opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. challenged the law last month, asking state Supreme Court justices to decide that the law only apply to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. The court rejected that request Wednesday, allowing members of the public to seek all applicable records held by police departments. Union president Grant Ward said in a statement that his organization was disappointed with the decision and is now seeking other legal options. We feel this is a statewide issue and should be considered accordingly, Ward said. Last month, the city of Inglewood authorized the destruction of more than 100 police shooting investigations and other records in advance of Jan. 1, when the disclosure law was scheduled to take effect. California law requires police departments to keep such records for five years, and Inglewood City Council voted to destroy records older than that. Mayor James T. Butts has said the decision had nothing to do with the new law. In Los Angeles, Police Chief Michel Moore has said that complying with the new disclosure rules could take hundreds of thousands of hours of work. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of the transparency law, has said she has no immediate plans to propose changes to it. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Few complaints of racial profiling are sustained by police agencies in California, state panel finds CHP Officer J. Nelson stands outside the office of Gov. Jerry Brown as activists in 2015 support requiring the tracking of police stops. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Law enforcement agencies in California sustain few citizen complaints of racial or identity profiling, according to a report Wednesday by a state panel set up to help reduce bias in policing. The states Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board recommended in its annual report that law enforcement agencies improve training and adopt clear guidelines for tracking and reporting data on who is stopped by officers. The panel said that 453 law enforcement agencies in the state received 9,459 civilian complaints in 2017, including 865 complaints alleging racial or identity profiling. Of the racial and identity complaints that reached a disposition that year, 1.5% were sustained, 14.6% resulted in officers being exonerated and 83.9% of complaints were not sustained or were determined to be unfounded, the report said. A clearer picture of the issue is expected from a 2015 law that requires police agencies to report demographic data on all detentions and searches. The first reports by the eight largest agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, are due to be submitted in April. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, whose office oversees the board, said tracking of all detentions and searches will be helpful to understand the scope of the issue. The Boards recommendations will help make our law enforcement agencies more transparent and promote critical steps to enhance, and in some cases, repair the public trust, Becerra said in a statement Wednesday. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

California housing crisis podcast: What Minneapolis decision to end single-family zoning might mean for California A view of downtown Minneapolis in 2014 (Stephen Maturen / Getty Images) Theres a national movement brewing to roll back zoning rules in cities that only allow one house on a plot of land. The epicenter of that movement is Minneapolis, which passed a plan last month to eliminate single-family zoning citywide and let landowners build duplexes and triplexes on residential property. On this episode of Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast, we talk about the reasons why Minneapolis leaders took this action, including their desire to combat a history of racial exclusion and spur more housing density to fight climate change. We also debate how Minneapolis decision might affect housing politics in California. Our guest is Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender, who helped shepherd the new zoning rules to passage and a former San Francisco city planner. The episode also crowns 2018s Avocado of the Year  the most ridiculous story exemplifying Californias housing woes  and includes our predictions for the most under-the-radar important themes in housing politics in 2019. Gimme Shelter, a biweekly podcast that looks at why its so expensive to live in California and what the state can do about it, features Liam Dillon, who covers housing affordability issues for the Los Angeles Times Sacramento bureau, and Matt Levin, data and housing reporter for CALmatters. You can subscribe to Gimme Shelter on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Google Play and Overcast. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

How young immigrant Dreamers made flipping control of the House a personal quest By Jazmine Ulloa Gabriela Cruz, who was brought to the U.S. illegally when she was 1, couldnt vote, but in the final hours before the Nov. 6 election, she was making one last run to get people to the polls. The sun was setting in Modesto when she found Ronald Silva, 41, smoking a cigarette on a tattered old couch behind a group home. He politely tried to wave her off until she reminded him he had a right that she as an immigrant without citizenship didnt have. It could really make a change for us, said Cruz, 29. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose almost $2 billion for early childhood programs (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Seeking to frame his new administration as one with a firm focus on closing the gap between children from affluent and poor families, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose spending some $1.8 billion on an array of programs designed to boost Californias enrollment in early education and child-care programs. Newsoms plan, which he hinted at in a Fresno event last month, will be a key element in the state budget proposal he will submit to the Legislature shortly after taking office Monday, a source close to the governor-elects transition team said. The spending would boost programs designed to ensure children enter kindergarten prepared to learn, closing what some researchers have called the readiness gap that exists based on a familys income. It would also phase in an expansion of prekindergarten and offer money to help school districts that dont have facilities for full-day kindergarten. The fact that hes making significant investments with his opening budget is really exciting, Ted Lempert, president of the Bay Area-based nonprofit Children Now, said Tuesday. Whats exciting is the comprehensiveness of it, because its saying were going to focus on prenatal through age 5. A broad overview document reviewed by The Times on Tuesday shows that most of the outlay under the plan  $1.5 billion  would be a one-time expense in the budget year that begins July 1. Those dollars would be a single infusion of cash, an approach favored by Gov. Jerry Brown in recent years. Most of the money would be spent on efforts to expand child-care services and kindergarten classes. By law, a governor must submit a full budget to the Legislature no later than Jan. 10. Lawmakers will spend the winter and spring reviewing the proposal and must send a final budget plan to Newsom by June 15. Though legislative Democrats have pushed for additional early childhood funding in recent years  a key demand of the Legislative Womens Caucus  those actions have typically come late in the budget-writing season in Sacramento. Quite frankly, to start out with a January proposal that includes that investment in Californias children reflects a new day, state Sen. Holly J. Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) said. The governor-elect will propose a $750-million boost to kindergarten funding, aimed at expanding facilities to allow full-day programs. A number of school districts offer only partial-day programs, leaving many low-income families to skip enrolling their children because kindergarten classes end in the middle of the workday. Because the money would not count toward meeting Californias three-decades-old education spending guarantee under Proposition 98, which sets a minimum annual funding level for K-12 schools and community colleges, it will not reduce planned spending on other education services. Close behind in total cost is a budget proposal by Newsom to help train child-care workers and expand local facilities already subsidized by the state, as well as those serving parents who attend state colleges and universities. Together, those efforts could cost $747 million, according to the budget overview document. An expansion of prekindergarten programs would be phased in over three years at a cost of $125 million in the first year. The multiyear rollout would, according to the budget overview, ensure the system can plan for the increase in capacity. Lempert said the Newsom proposal is notable for trying to avoid the kinds of battles that in recent years pitted prekindergarten and expanded child care against each other for additional taxpayer dollars. The reality is we need to expand both simultaneously, he said. Another $200 million of the proposal would be earmarked for programs that provide home visits to expectant parents from limited-income families and programs that provide healthcare screenings for young children. Some of the money would come from the states Medi-Cal program, and other money from federal matching dollars. Funding for the home visits program was provided in the budget Brown signed last summer; the Newsom effort would build on that. Emphasizing a policy area with broad appeal in his first state budget could reflect Newsoms political sensibility about the challenges ahead. Democratic lawmakers and interest groups will be especially eager to see how Newsom addresses the demand for an overhaul of healthcare coverage in California  especially after a 2017 effort to create a single-payer, universal system fizzled. The path forward on healthcare is complex and costly, making early childhood education a more achievable goal in the governor-elects early tenure. Newsom is likely to face considerable demands for other additional spending. In November, the Legislatures independent analysts projected that continued strength in tax revenues could produce a cash reserve of some $29 billion over the next 18 months. Almost $15 billion of that could be in unrestricted reserves, the kind that can be spent on any number of government programs. Kim Belshe, executive director of the child advocacy organization First 5 LA and a former state health and human services secretary, said the initial Newsom budget proposal suggests the next governor will focus on a comprehensive approach to improving outcomes for children from low-income families. School-ready kids deserve quality early learning, strong and well-supported families, and access to early screening services, Belshe said. Newsom understands the whole child, multifaceted needs of our kids and is clearly ready to lead. Mitchell, the chair of the Senate budget committee, said shes eager to see the details of the governor-elects proposal to determine whether it might signal the beginning of an even broader expansion of early education efforts. Similar efforts have been hindered by a lack of money and ongoing debate over which services to help children 5 and younger need state funding the most. Universal preschool, in particular, has been debated for more than a decade. California voters rejected a ballot measure to fund a full prekindergarten system in 2006. Its clear theres a new movement afoot trying to engage on investment for universal preschool, Mitchell said. How we invest, and how we prioritize that investment, is going to be a great conversation for the coming months. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

California Politics Podcast: A final conversation with Gov. Jerry Brown No Californian has served longer as governor, signed more laws, granted clemency to more felons or waged more high-profile campaigns than Gov. Jerry Brown. Brown will leave behind a unique legacy when he packs his last belongings for the trip from the governors mansion in Sacramento to his Northern California ranch. His final two terms in office could be his most consequential. The governor reviewed some of the more notable moments from the past eight years in a far-reaching interview with The Times on Dec. 22. This weeks podcast episode includes extended portions of that conversation. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

A sagging economy could doom a 2020 ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes, Gov. Jerry Brown says Gov. Jerry Brown, at his Colusa County home on Saturday, said a ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes could struggle in 2020. (Randall Benton/For The Times) An effort to remove commercial property in California from the tax limits imposed by the landmark Proposition 13 could be felled by an economic slowdown, Gov. Jerry Brown said. In a Saturday interview with The Times at his Northern California ranch, Brown said liberal activist groups that have successfully placed the proposal on the November 2020 statewide ballot shouldnt read too much into early poll numbers showing support for the plan. That isnt as easy as you think, Brown said. Because youre going to be in a downturn of the business cycle. And youre talking many kinds of business. And the cost of doing business in California is already high. The ballot measure would allow counties to more frequently assess the market value of commercial property in California than allowed under Proposition 13, a 1978 ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to place strict limits on assessing property values and taxation for both homeowners and businesses. An analysis of the new measure, which qualified in October for the 2020 ballot, estimates it could bring in some $10.5 billion a year in new tax revenue. The business community will fight it, Brown said. And the minimum wage, the family leave, the environmental rules  business[es] have left California, thats going to be the big argument. And I think thats something you really have to think a lot about. The governor, who leaves office early next month due to term limits, declined to either endorse or oppose the ballot measure. He said Californias economic health in two years time could be a key factor in how voters weigh the proposal. Well be in a recession by then, Brown said. So its anybodys guess. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Inglewood to destroy more than 100 police shooting records that could otherwise become public under new California law By Jack Dolan Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times) The city of Inglewood has authorized the shredding of more than 100 police shooting and other internal investigation records weeks before a new state law could allow the public to access them for the first time. The decision, made at a City Council meeting earlier this month, has troubled civil liberties advocates who were behind the state legislation, Senate Bill 1421, which takes effect Jan. 1. The law opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The legislature passed SB 1421 because communities demanded an end to the secrecy cloaking police misconduct and use of force, Marcus Benigno, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said in a statement. Inglewood PDs decision to purge records undermines police accountability and transparency against the will of Californians. California law says police departments must retain records of officer shootings and internal misconduct investigations for five years. The city of Inglewood, however, had kept records longer than that, including case files of police shootings dating to 1991. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of SB 1421, intended for her bill to allow public access to all qualifying records held by a department, no matter the date of the incident. Inglewood City Council approved the destruction of records that have been in the police departments possession  more than 100 cases  longer than required by law. The city staff report and council resolution describing the action makes no mention of the new police transparency law. Instead it says the affected records are obsolete, occupy valuable space, and are of no further use to the police department. It added the traditional method of destroying such records is to shred them. It is unclear whether the records have since been destroyed. A spokesman for the Inglewood Police Department along with Inglewoods city manager, attorney, clerk, four council members and Mayor James T. Butts, a former Santa Monica police chief, did not respond to requests for comment. Inglewoods City Hall is closed the last two weeks of December. The Inglewood Police Department has a reputation for secrecy and using excessive force. In 2008, the departments officers fatally shot four men in as many months, three of whom turned out to be unarmed. The U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights probe and found significant flaws in the way the department oversaw use-of-force cases and investigated complaints against officers. Civil rights advocates still question why Inglewood police opened fire on a couple found sleeping in a car in 2016, killing them both. California police have a long history of shredding records to avoid scrutiny of their actions. In the 1970s, the LAPD famously destroyed more than four tons of personnel records after defense attorneys began requesting them as part of criminal cases against their clients. The move resulted in the dismissal of more than a hundred criminal complaints. In response, the Legislature demanded that records be preserved but then took other measures, supported by police unions, to ensure the public had very little access to them, making California the most secretive state in the nation when it comes to police misconduct. Skinners legislation begins to unwind those laws, which have been on the books since 1978. No video or audio of the Dec. 11 council action is available on the citys website and neither are meeting minutes or any record of the decision. A city spokeswoman, Courtney Torres, confirmed that the council had voted in favor of the police records purge, and said all the relevant reasons for the decision were included in the city staff report. The Jan. 1 implementation for SB 1421 has prompted other police officials to act. A police union in San Bernardino is asking the state Supreme Court to determine that Skinners bill only applies to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner earlier this month warning that complying with the law in regard to older records in the departments possession could take hundreds of thousands of work hours. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Federal officials question California DMVs process for issuing Real IDs (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has notified the California Department of Motor Vehicles that its process for providing residents with federally recognized identification cards is not adequate. DMV spokesman Armando Botello said Friday that 2.3 million residents who received Real IDs under the current process will have to submit additional documentation when their cards are renewed in five years but will be able to use them in the meantime. The DMV is developing a way for residents to submit more documentation online or via email to comply with the stricter federal requirement, he said. But some state legislators are upset about delays in notifying them of the problem and say Homeland Security could eventually require additional documentation provided by current holders. The DMV has known for a month that millions of Real IDs theyve been dolling out are potentially invalid, Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) said. The DMVs only hope is that the Department of Homeland Security takes pity on California and gives the DMV more time to fix this mess. Real IDs are a new kind of driver license and identification card that federal law will require legal residents to present when boarding domestic flights or visiting military bases and other federal facilities starting Oct. 1, 2020. The DMV has only been requiring one form of documentation, including a current lease or utility bill, to verify the residence of a card applicant. But the federal government said in a Nov. 21 letter to the agency that two such documents are needed. On Friday, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto released a letter defending the current process but said her agency will start requiring a second document to prove residency in April. In order to minimize confusion among our customers, the CADMV will work to inform individuals who have been issued a Real ID under the current process that their card will be accepted for official federal purposes, even if their renewal occurs after the October 1, 2020, final enforcement date for Real ID, Shiomoto wrote to the federal agency. Legislative officials worry there is still a possibility that those issued Real IDs in the past might be required to present a second document to have their cards designated as compliant. The more complex process for obtaining Real IDs has led to hours-long waits for customers at DMV field offices this year, although wait times have been reduced recently by an increase in staffing. Shiomoto last month announced that she is retiring amid problems with the motor voter registration system and after the governor ordered an audit of her agency in response to the long wait times. On Friday, Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron of Escondido blasted the DMV for waiting a month to tell legislators of the problem. This is unacceptable and flies in the face of security for our citizens, which is what Real ID was created for in the first place, she said in a statement. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom taps Keely Bosler to be his finance director Keely Bosler, the director of the California Department of Finance, will continue in that role under Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (California Department of Finance) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday appointed Keely Martin Bosler as director of the California Department of Finance, continuing the role she has served under Gov. Jerry Brown since August. Bosler will become Newsoms chief fiscal advisor, and will play a pivotal role in shaping Newsoms spending plan for the state that will lay the foundation for his top policy priorities. Newsom must roll out his first budget plan within days of taking office on Jan. 7. Californias brighter future depends on a strong, stable fiscal foundation, Newsom said in a statement released Friday afternoon. Keely is an accomplished public servant of sound fiscal judgment. She understands that state budgets are more than numbers on a page  they are value statements affecting the fate and future of millions of families reaching for the California Dream. We are fortunate to have her on our team. Prior to being appointed finance director, Bosler served as Browns cabinet secretary for two years and, before that, as the chief deputy director for budget in the Finance Department for three years. Earlier this year, Brown picked Bosler to lead an audit of the Department of Motor Vehicles, which had come under fire for long wait times at DMV field offices and numerous computer problems, including errors in the new motor voter program that registered Californians to vote. As we have discussed, long wait times at the Department of Motor Vehicles do not reflect the high standards of service that Californians expect from their state government, Bosler wrote in a letter in September to DMV Director Jean Shiomoto. The audit is still ongoing, but Shiomoto has since announced she will retire at the end of the year. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Californias legislative analyst, after decades of nonpartisan research for lawmakers, calls it a career Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, who has led the state research unit since 2008, will retire on Dec. 31. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Only five people have led the independent research office of the California Legislature since its creation in 1941. And each of them has had a pretty simple mantra to live by in reviewing public policy proposals and government programs: Call it like you see it. The job of any analyst, to me, is you maintain that nonpartisanship, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said. Taylor, 65, will retire from the post at the end of December after a four-decade career with the research team that began, as he likes to tell it, just after the passage of the landmark property tax rollback, Proposition 13, in 1978. He became the leader of the office, with the title of legislative analyst, in October 2008. Two months later, state government found itself in arguably the worst fiscal crisis in its history  a projected shortfall that ultimately grew to $42 billion by the following winter. There were forces beyond our control, Taylor said of that time. But dont underestimate the policy changes that were made afterward. Those changes, most notably a boost in taxes paid by high-income earners and a robust state budget cash reserve fund, have helped lead to successive years of fully funded government services. The state is projected to have some $24 billion in reserves by the end of the current fiscal year. Taylor announced his intention earlier to step down this year. Leaders from both houses of the Legislature select the analyst, who leads a staff of almost five dozen researchers. The office provides in-depth reports on pending legislation, as well as on broader policy topics like education and healthcare, and produces an independent analysis for every proposed ballot measure. A succession of lawmakers and governors alike have praised or panned the work of the Legislative Analysts Office based on their own political worldview. Taylor said his staff is mindful that they work for legislators, but try to ignore the rhetoric that follows the release of a major report. People are going to do what theyre going to do with our information, he said. They dont always like it, but they appreciate that we give them our best advice. Taylor oversaw a transformation in the way the Legislative Analysts Office distributes its information, embracing the release of research reports through social media instead of relying on traditional printed copies and journalist roundtable events. But he said the work of the researchers has remained largely unchanged through the decades. Having an independent take on things, I think, is good for the Legislature, he said. No replacement for Taylor has been announced, which means a short transition for his eventual successor before Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom sends his first budget proposal to lawmakers in early January. Taylor, who lives in the Sacramento suburbs, said he will honor the tradition of his predecessors in stepping away from public policy debates in order to give the new analyst space to lead the team as he or she sees fit. He said he hopes to travel in the coming years and spend time with his children who have moved to the East Coast. Forty years in state government, Taylor said in why he was stepping aside now. Isnt that enough? Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Gov. Jerry Brown sues to save California sentencing laws By Don Thompson, Associated Press (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown sued Thursday to protect one of his signature actions in office, a voter-approved measure that allows most prison inmates to seek earlier release and participate in rehabilitation programs. His administration filed a lawsuit challenging a pending 2020 initiative that seeks to toughen criminal penalties as part of an effort to roll back reforms adopted by voters within the last decade. Browns lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court contends the measure lacked enough valid signatures to overturn a previously approved constitutional amendment. County officials and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla certified the signatures in July but said they were submitted too late to qualify for last months election. The lawsuit names Padilla and the ballot measures official proponent, Nina Salarno Besselman, president of the advocacy group Crime Victims United. Padilla said the measure exceeded the required roughly 366,000 valid signatures, equal to 5% of votes cast for governor in 2014. Browns lawsuit says he used the wrong threshold. It says changing the state Constitution requires 8%, or more than 585,400 signatures. That makes the pending initiative more than 150,000 signatures short, the lawsuit says. Hes wrong, said Jeff Flint, a spokesman for the campaign backing the measure. He predicted a judge will be reluctant to reject a measure that already has qualified for the ballot. The secretary of state told us how many signatures are required, and thats how many we collected, Flint said. Padillas office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The measure would reverse reforms adopted by voters through Proposition 47 in 2014 and Proposition 57 in 2016. Proposition 57 allows most inmates to seek earlier paroles, and Proposition 47 reduced some drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. The combination has helped keep Californias inmate population below a population cap set by federal judges. Corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters said the measure gives corrections and parole officials broad discretion to protect our communities and fashion a rational system of rehabilitation and punishment. This new initiative unlawfully seeks to supplant the departments constitutional authority to implement these critical reforms to our criminal justice system. The pending initiative would shorten the list of crimes that qualify for earlier parole and change some theft crimes from misdemeanors back to felonies. It would also increase the number of crimes for which DNA is collected, a list that was limited when some crimes went from felonies to misdemeanors. Those supporting the tougher penalties say easing criminal penalties has increased the number of dangerous criminals on the streets, but those backing the changes say they have helped reduce mass incarceration and rehabilitate convicted criminals. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

California Supreme Court orders records unsealed in pardon of ex-state Sen. Roderick Wright Former state Sen. Roderick Wright (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) The California Supreme Court has granted a request to unseal court records involving Gov. Jerry Browns decision last month to pardon former state Sen. Roderick Wright for felony convictions involving lying about living in his legislative district, officials said Thursday. The court order was in response to a request by the nonpartisan First Amendment Coalition, which argued that the public has a right to know what information went into the governors decision to grant clemency to Wright. This is an important victory for public access to court files involving the exercise of executive clemency, said coalition spokesman Glen A. Smith. We are gratified the court has recognized that these decisions should be subject to the same public access rules that apply to other judicial records under California law. The court gave Browns office until Jan. 2 to redact confidential material before giving the court documents that can be released to the public. The court files submitted by the governors office include letters of support for a pardon and an internal review of Wrights case. The court denied a motion to unseal the records of all clemency cases but left open consideration of requests on other individual cases. Browns office is currently evaluating the courts decision, said spokesman Brian Ferguson. The governor argued against unsealing records in a recent court filing that said confidentiality is consistent with historical practice and is supported by state law. In pardoning Wright on Nov. 22, the governor wrote: He has shown that since his release from custody, he has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character, and conducted himself as a law abiding citizen. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

California political watchdog agency fines BART, urges prosecution over using public funds for campaign A Bay Area Rapid Transit train leaves the station in Oakland in this 2013 file photo. (Ben Margot / AP) Californias state political watchdog agency on Thursday imposed a $7,500 fine against the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and called for a possible criminal or civil prosecution over allegations the district used public resources to campaign for a 2016 bond measure. The state Fair Political Practices Commission levied an administrative fine against BART for its failure to disclose spending on YouTube videos, social media posts and text messages to promote Measure RR, which authorized $3.5 billion in general obligation bonds. Though the panel lacks authority to seek criminal charges over the misuse of public funds, it also urged county district attorneys in the BART service area and the state attorney general to pursue possible criminal or civil charges over the spending of taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes, Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said. It is the concept of misusing public funds that I think we all here are very disturbed about, and we want to send a warning and not create a precedent that is a minor, little slap on the wrist, Germond said, adding that the referral to criminal prosecutors would further send a message that this is wrong. Commissioner Brian Hatch also called for the state Legislature to consider granting the FPPC power to go after public agencies that spend taxpayer money on campaigns. Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) called on the agency to increase the fine to the maximum level of $33,375. The proposed $7,500 fine represents a slap on the wrist for a very serious violation of the law and the publics trust, Glazer said in a letter to the panel. In supporting the fine recommended by the staff, Germond said BART has agreed to pay the penalty. Somebody did something wrong and they have admitted it, she said. A staff report said there were factors in favor of a fine below the maximum. Although the Commission considers BARTs violations to be serious, the absence of any evidence of an intention to conceal, deceive, or mislead; the voluntary filing of the delinquent campaign statement; and the absence of a prior record are mitigating, the report said. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

California police union seeks state Supreme Court review of new law disclosing internal investigation records Los Angeles Police Department officers. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) A police union is asking the California Supreme Court to block the release of internal officer investigations before a new state law takes effect next year. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. filed a petition Tuesday asking justices to rule that only investigations of incidents that occur after Jan. 1 would be available under the law  and not those the department has on file from years prior. The litigation comes after this years passage of Senate Bill 1421, which opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The law goes into effect Jan. 1, and the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department has told the union it intends to make available in response to public records requests all the information it has. The union is very concerned about any plans to retroactively apply Senate Bill 1421, Grant Ward, the unions president, said in a statement. We believe retroactive application violates our members rights and we hope the California Supreme Court will consider the serious issues raised by our legal challenge. The bills author, Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), does not agree with the unions interpretation. She has said her legislation should apply to all the records in a police departments possession because the law simply declared that affected records were no longer confidential. If the record exists, its disclosable, Skinner said. A decision on what records will be available under the law is key to how far-reaching it will be. If the court restricts access to incidents that occurred prior to 2019, those cases will not be subject to public scrutiny. The police union in San Bernardino County is not the only one raising concerns about the law. Earlier this month, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner expressing concern that his agency would be overwhelmed if the law required the department to disclose older incidents. Even if the law only applied to the previous five years, Moore wrote, it could take nearly 300,000 hours of work to comply with its provisions. The LAPD operates with a guiding principle of Reverence for the Law; as such, we will diligently comply with SB 1421, Moore wrote. We maintain, however, that a retroactive implementation of SB 1421 will be exceptionally burdensome and would require significant reallocation of front-line investigative personnel. Skinner said if complying with the law becomes untenable for law enforcement agencies that maintain records for a long time, she would consider modifications. But she said agencies did not raise this concern during discussion over the bill. SB 1421 went through multiple committee hearings, multiple floor debates, extensive opportunity for all parties to weigh in on concerns with its structure, she said. That was not an issue that was raised by law enforcement at the time. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Gov. Brown warns of backlash for Republicans in 2020 if Obamacare repeal is upheld Gov. Jerry Brown at the National Press Club in April. (Alex Wong / Getty Images) Gov. Jerry Brown warned Republicans on Tuesday that repeal of the Affordable Care Act would devastate the partys political chances in the 2020 election. Brown, speaking at a Sacramento Press Club event moderated by Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton and Brown family historian Miriam Pawel, said a federal judges ruling last week to strike down the 2010 law  if upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court  will build such a backlash that the Democrats will not only take over the Senate, theyll win the presidency and will win with the kind of momentum, particularly on the issue of healthcare, that [the law] will be replaced probably with something even better. The governor, who leaves office in less than three weeks, said he did not believe the ruling by a Texas judge would ultimately prevail. I think the decision will probably be overturned, Brown said. Few states have embraced the law championed by former President Obama more than California, both through its healthcare exchange, Covered California, and by expanding access to government-funded services under Medi-Cal. Some 12 million Californians now receive healthcare through Medi-Cal, and Brown said a final ruling affecting the federal dollars that subsidize that care would be a serious blow. California would not be able to afford it without the subsidy, the governor said. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Bars in Los Angeles, San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks (acuna-hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses, and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors, and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Bars in Los Angeles and San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks. (Acuna-Hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Californias DMV director announces retirement amid problems with motor voter program (Kent Nishamura/Los Angeles Times) The director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles will retire at years end with a number of questions unanswered about the implementation of a major voter registration system and long wait times experienced by customers for much of the past summer. Jean Shiomoto will not continue in her current role as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom takes office, and announced to staff several weeks ago her intent to retire at the end of the year after 38 years in state service, spokesman Armando Botello said in an email to The Times on Friday. Newsoms transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on who might lead the department in 2019. Shiomoto was appointed DMV director by Gov. Jerry Brown in the fall of 2013, having served in prior leadership roles with the department. DMV officials have been sharply criticized by lawmakers in recent months for delays in serving customers at its field offices across the state. Last week, DMV officials revealed errors in registering California voters for the November election  mistakes that followed a series of problems in the rollout of the states new motor voter registration system. Secretary of State Alex Padilla last week said he had lost confidence in Shiomotos leadership as a result of the voting registration problems. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

New law could break the stalemate over housing on the site of a near-vacant Cupertino mall By Liam Dillon For more than a decade, developers have tried to build new housing on the site of an all-but-empty mall in Cupertino, a city in the heart of Silicon Valley and home to Apple headquarters. A well-organized group of neighbors, upset about traffic, building heights and the potential loss of the communitys suburban lifestyle, turned away every plan. Now, for the first time, the stalemate might be broken  thanks to a decision made in the state Capitol. In an effort to address Californias housing affordability problem, legislators passed a law last year that requires cities and counties to approve housing projects if they comply with local zoning rules and other standards, forcing some resistant communities to agree to new homebuilding. In September, the city of Cupertino, citing the state law, approved developer Sand Hill Property Co.s proposal to build an office park and more than 2,400 homes where the Vallco Shopping Mall sits. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Local government was a last bastion for struggling California Republicans. Not anymore By Mark Z. Barabak Theres no shortage of watery metaphors to describe the disaster that befell California Republicans this midterm election. A blue wave. A Democratic tsunami. But the most apt may be a flood, with the casualties steadily rising as the vote count climbed in the days and weeks following Nov. 6. Eventually half the GOP congressional delegation was washed away, along with the entire slate of statewide Republican candidates. In Sacramento, Democrats claimed 29 of 40 state Senate seats and seized three-quarters of the 80-member Assembly  the largest number since 1883, when Chester A. Arthur was serving in the White House. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

For the Republicans left in Californias Legislature, fewer lawmakers will have to do more work By John Myers From January to late summer every year, the California Legislature is a perpetual motion machine. And in the new year, the people most likely to struggle in keeping up will be Republicans, vastly outnumbered but still responsible for representing millions of the states residents. There are 22 standing committees in the state Senate, plus at least a dozen more subcommittees or special committees. And after Novembers election, only 11 Republican senators will be left to divvy up the work. To the victors go the spoils. To the vanquished go the extra assignments. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Californias DMV failed to finish registering 329 new voters before November election (Los Angeles Times) Officials at the California Department of Motor Vehicles said Friday that the agency failed to send information for 329 new voters to state elections officers in time for the November election, the latest revelation in a string of mishaps regarding voter registration. Secretary of State Alex Padilla responded with a blistering letter, calling on Gov. Jerry Brown or Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom to replace Jean Shiomoto, the DMV director. The Director of DMV has lost my confidence and trust, Padilla wrote. In all, the agency revealed that 589 mailed voter registration records that should have been processed under election deadlines werent sent to Californias secretary of state until late November, including forms from 260 drivers who had intended to update their address on existing voter registration records. The DMV had been instructed to not send registration forms that came in after Oct. 22, but the voters in question had forms that were postmarked before the deadline. In some cases, when the postmark wasnt legible, the agency said, documents inside indicated the voter had intended to finish their registration in time for the Nov. 6 election. The DMV recognizes the pause in transmittals was an error and affected the timing of the registration of the 589 individuals referenced above relative to the November election, Shiomoto wrote in a letter to Padilla on Friday. The pause was due to a misunderstanding on the part of the department, for which we take responsibility. Those who were trying to update their address for voter registration would not have been blocked from casting ballots. But officials said its unclear whether any of the 329 new voters were able to participate in the election. Shiomoto said in her letter that DMV will work with elections officials. The errors were not related to previous DMV mistakes about registering voters, problems associated with the rollout of the states new motor voter law. In those cases, multiple registration forms were sent to local elections offices for some voters, some people were assigned the wrong political party preference and others who are noncitizens were incorrectly placed on the list of registered voters. DMV officials have yet to respond to questions posed by The Times over the last several weeks about who knew of those mistakes and when. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Newsom appoints a labor advocate and a former staffer as his chief deputy Cabinet secretaries By Taryn Luna A labor advocate and a San Francisco political operative have accepted positions in Gov.-elect Gavin Newsoms new administration. Angie Wei, a Capitol insider with deep ties to organized labor in California, will serve as a chief deputy Cabinet secretary with a focus on policy development. As a legislative director and chief of staff at the California Labor Federation, Wei has represented more than 1,200 unions and 2.1 million workers in Capitol fights over a host of policy issues, including drug-pricing transparency and paid family leave. The governor-elect also tapped Jason Elliott, a policy advisor to Newsom during his time as mayor of San Francisco and a chief of staff to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, as another chief deputy Cabinet secretary overseeing executive branch operations. Elliott and Wei will serve under Ana Matosantos, Newsoms previouslyPresident Trumps personal lawyer Michael Cohen accused Stormy Daniels attorney Wednesday of improperly acquiring Cohens bank records and releasing false information about his finances in an attempt to discredit him.

Lawyers for Cohen asked a federal judge to order Michael Avenatti to explain how he got the records that were the subject of his seven-page report accusing Cohen of bank fraud. Avenatti released the report on Tuesday.

We have no reason to believe that Mr. Avenatti is in lawful possession of these bank records, Cohen lawyers Stephen Ryan and Todd Harrison told Judge Kimba Wood in a letter.

They did not dispute the most striking disclosures in Avenattis report: that the shell company Cohen used to pay off Daniels received about $500,000 last year from a business linked to a Russian billionaire who is close to President Vladimir Putin, and it also received large sums from companies with business before the Trump administration.

Advertisement

Avenatti deliberately distorted information from the records which appear to be in his possession for the purpose of creating a toxic misinformation, the Cohen lawyers wrote.

They said the report stated incorrectly that Russian oligarch and Putin ally Viktor Vekselberg was involved in routing payments to Essential Consultants, Cohens company, through Columbus Nova, a New York investment firm run by the billionaires American cousin, Andrew Intrater.

Vekselbergs conglomerate, Renova Group, is the firms biggest client, but he played no role in hiring Cohen for real estate and investment advice, according to Columbus Nova.

The Cohen teams letter also cited blatantly incorrect statements by Avenatti about Cohens company receiving payments from Canada, Singapore, Hungary and a Bank of America account in Taiwan.

Mr. Cohen has never had a Taiwanese bank account, has never been to Taiwan, and has never even had a Bank of America bank account, they said.

Avenatti called the letter baseless, improper and sanctionable.Among other things, they effectively concede the receipt of the $500,000 from those with Russian ties, Avenatti said on Twitter.

The FBI and federal prosecutors in New York are investigating Cohen for potential bank fraud and other crimes involving, among other things, his companys $130,000 payment to Daniels less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election. In return, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, agreed to keep quiet about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.

The FBI raided Cohens home, office and hotel room last month and seized records and phones under court-approved search warrants. Trump and Cohen contend that some of them are confidential attorney-client communications that prosecutors have no right to see.

A special master appointed by Wood is reviewing the records to determine which should be withheld from the government.

Avenatti has sought to become part of the case. In their letter to Wood, Cohens lawyers urged the judge to reject Avenattis request.

Mr. Avenattis conduct in somehow obtaining random bank records and publishing them without proper concern for their accuracy is extremely troubling for the parties in this case, the court, and the public, they wrote.

The Treasury Departments inspector general has opened an investigation into whether the confidential bank records were leaked, the Washington Post reported.

The release of Avenattis report led AT&T and the pharmaceutical giant Novartis to acknowledge that their payments to Cohens Essential Consultants were under investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in 2013. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press )

AT&T, which is fighting a Justice Department lawsuit to block its proposed merger with Time Warner, hired Cohen in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration. The telecommunications company paid Essential Consultants $200,000, according to Avenattis report.

When we were contacted by the special counsels office regarding Michael Cohen, we cooperated fully, providing all information requested in November and December of 2017, AT&T said in a statement.

A few weeks later, our consulting contract with Cohen expired at the end of the year. Since then, we have received no additional questions from the special counsels office and consider the matter closed.

Novartis, which often seeks drug approvals from federal regulators, said it hired Cohen in February 2017 for advice on Trump healthcare policy, but determined after one meeting that he could not provide what Novartis expected.

Novartis nonetheless paid Essential Consultants $100,000 per month for the duration of its one-year contract, company spokeswoman Sofina Mirza-Reid said. In November 2017, investigators from Muellers office asked about the deal with Cohens company, and Novartis provided all the information requested, she said.

Before the election, Cohen was Trumps personal lawyer and fixer, with large personal investments in the taxi business. When he opened an account for Essential Consultants at First Republic Bank, he filed paperwork saying his companys business was real estate and investment consulting, according to Avenattis report.

The roughly $500,000 that Cohens company received from the Russia-linked Columbus Nova remained largely a mystery on Wednesday. Andrew Intrater, its chief executive, is an American cousin of Vekselberg, one of the Russian oligarchs under U.S. sanctions because of his close ties with Putin. Intrater donated $250,000 to Trumps inauguration and $29,600 to the Republican National Committee in June 2017.

Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, right, with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Alexei Druzhinin / Associated Press )

Investigators for Mueller have questioned Vekselberg about the payments.

Columbus Novas website consists of just three sentences describing the New York firm despite its involvement in billions of dollars in investments.

Renova Group is a giant Russian conglomerate with business in energy, metals and telecommunications. Its website listed Columbus Nova as a subsidiary as recently as last year, but visitors were steered away on Wednesday.

Site under construction, the site says. Please try again later.

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

Twitter: @finneganLAT

UPDATES:

7:05 p.m.: The article was updated with details on AT&T, Novartis and Columbus Nova.

The article was originally published at 5:20 p.m.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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Watch Live: White House holds surprise news briefing amid government shutdown Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Watch live: Vice President Pence and lawmakers honor George H.W. Bush at the U.S. Capitol before he lies in state Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Watch live: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds a media briefing amid tensions at the border By Los Angeles Times Staff Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

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

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

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Californias gubernatorial hopefuls have a similar answer to the states housing crisis: Build a lot more homes.

Five of the six major candidates argue that the only way for California to become a more affordable place to live is for developers to build at rates not seen in at least three decades. And the sixth wants the state to subsidize an unprecedented number of new homes for low-income residents.

While all the candidates agree on increasing Californias housing supply, they have varying ideas for how to do it. Heres a rundown of their plans to address housing and homelessness as well as some of the challenges they might face.

Travis Allen, Republican, state assemblyman

Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press

Whats his housing plan? Allen has a goal for developers to build at least 1 million new homes in his first four years as governor. The Orange County Republican believes the state needs to strip away many of the regulations around home building, which he contends would then allow developers to increase the housing supply. He also doesnt support subsidizing low-income housing, arguing developers will build for people of all incomes if taxes and fees are lower.

Whats his homelessness plan? Allen wants to bring back state-run mental health institutions for homeless residents who need psychiatric assistance. He also wants to encourage local governments to aggressively enforce laws preventing people from sleeping on sidewalks or under bridges.

What might hold him back? Allens home-building goals include promoting suburban sprawl development  including new construction in desert lands  instead of incentivizing projects near transit and job centers. That kind of construction would run counter to Californias climate change goals. Homeless advocates also worry that Allens measures could lead to the warehousing and criminalization of vulnerable populations.

Will Allen vote for or against the potential November ballot measure to allow for the expansion of rent control? Against. He believes rent control leads to housing shortages and says hed work to eliminate all existing rent control policies across the state.

Where can I learn more? Allen gave a critique of Californias Democratic leadership, including his argument for how Democrats have contributed to the states housing problems, in a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed last fall.

John Chiang, Democrat, California state treasurer

Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Whats his housing plan? Of all the candidates, Chiang is calling for the most government spending on housing. He has a goal of the state helping to finance 1.6 million homes for low- and moderate-income Californians from 2019 to 2030. Among the big-ticket items hes pitching: a future $9-billion bond measure to subsidize new low-income construction, property tax breaks for developers who agree to set aside part of their projects for low-income families and additional tax revenue to cities that approve more housing.

Whats his homelessness plan? Chiang argues that the best way to address homelessness is to provide a stronger safety net for those already experiencing homelessness and those at risk. He wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars funding a statewide program to offer temporary cash for rental and utility bills, provide emergency vouchers for motels or hotels and assistance with moving costs.

What might hold him back? Despite proposing lots of new public spending, Chiangs efforts could, according to the states nonpartisan legislative analysts office, fall far short of what it would cost to house the neediest Californians. And, of course, increased spending on housing would probably mean higher taxes or less government spending somewhere else.

Will Chiang vote for or against the potential November ballot measure to allow for the expansion of rent control? Against. Chiang believes that the state could change Costa-Hawkins, the law prohibiting the expansion of rent control, to allow for its broader use in certain circumstances. He does not support the initiative, which would repeal it entirely.

Where can I learn more? Chiang has laid out his housing plan on his campaign website.

John Cox, Republican, businessman

Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times

Whats his housing plan? Cox, who owns a real estate investment and property management company, has a goal for developers to build 3 million new homes over the next decade. He said that the state needs to reduce regulations on builders, including replacing its primary environmental law governing development, the California Environmental Quality Act, with a less comprehensive measure. Its now being used by lawyers to restrict housing, he said in Tuesdays debate. Cox also wants to allow Californians to be able to take the property tax benefits they receive under Proposition 13 with them when they move.

Whats his homelessness plan? Cox believes the state should rely more heavily on nonprofits and other private providers for assistance.

What might hold him back? Like Allen, his Republican opponent, Cox takes a dim view toward state government funding for new low-income housing. Research contends that it could take a decade or more for even substantial new home building to lower costs for those toward the bottom of the economic ladder. That could leave Californias poorest residents at risk without subsidized alternatives.

Will Cox vote for or against the potential November ballot measure to allow for the expansion of rent control? Against. Cox believes that rent control would chill investment in home building.

Delaine Eastin, Democrat, former state superintendent of public instruction

Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Whats her housing plan? Like Allen, Eastin has a goal of developers building 1 million new homes in her first four years in office. Unlike Allen, she plans to prioritize construction around transit hubs. To do so, Eastin wants to rezone a lot more land for housing, including current commercial properties, increasing land available for duplexes and townhomes and making it easier to build homes on smaller lots.

Whats her homelessness plan? Eastin would declare a state of emergency on homelessness, which she believes would allow her to waive zoning rules for building shelters on public property. She also wants to subsidize housing vouchers and expand the use of hotels and motels as temporary housing.

What might hold her back? Eastin has criticized the housing production goals of rivals Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa as unrealistic. While her aim of 250,000 homes annually is lower, California developers havent reached even that number in any year since 1988. Eastin wants developers to build 250,000 homes for four years in a row.

Will Eastin vote for or against the potential November ballot measure to allow for the expansion of rent control? For. Eastin has been the most vocal candidate supportive of expanding rent control as well as advocating for the repeal of the Ellis Act, which allows for the eviction of rent-controlled tenants if landlords convert their buildings to for-sale condominiums. These positions might conflict with her housing production goals: Many economists worry that more rent control policies stymie the building of new apartments.

Where can I learn more? Eastin has laid out her housing plan on her campaign website.

Gavin Newsom, Democrat, California lieutenant governor

Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom in his California Highway Patrol driven transport vehicle between speaking engagements in Silicon Valley on 28 Feb 2013 Peter DaSilva / For The Times

Whats his housing plan? Newsom wants developers to build 3.5 million homes from when he takes office through 2025, which would be an unprecedented building boom compared with modern California history. He wants a fivefold increase in a state tax credit to finance low-income housing, bringing the state budget cost to $500 million a year. And Newsom supports eliminating regulations that he contends make it difficult for developers to produce middle-income homes.

Whats his homelessness plan? Newsom believes a key problem in the states approach to homelessness is that varying agencies dont share their resources well. He has said he would appoint a Cabinet-level homelessness czar who would be responsible for ensuring the states housing, criminal justice, healthcare and welfare departments work together on the issue.

What might hold him back? Many California housing academics and economists believe Newsoms home-building goals are out of reach: The state hasnt permitted more than 323,000 new homes in any year since at least 1954, when the building industry began keeping statistics. Newsom wants 500,000 produced for seven years in a row.

Will Newsom vote for or against the potential November ballot measure to allow for the expansion of rent control? Against. Like Chiang, Newsom believes that the Costa-Hawkins law should be changed to add more renter protections, but he doesnt support repealing it.

Where can I learn more? Newsom has laid out his housing plan on his campaign website. He also responded to a list of questions from The Times about his goal to build 3.5 million homes.

Antonio Villaraigosa, Democrat, former Los Angeles mayor

Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times

Whats his homelessness plan? He wants the state to match spending on local programs to address homelessness as well as increase mental health and substance abuse treatment.

What might hold him back? The 3.5-million-home goal shared by Newsom and Villaraigosa comes from a 2016 study by private think tank McKinsey Global Institute. Unlike Newsom, Villaraigosa now says he would consider himself responsible for the home-building number that is specifically outlined in the report, which includes four years of building prior to his taking office. This translates to roughly 439,000 new homes a year through 2025, assuming construction this year mirrors that of 2017. That amount of production is still high, and experts cite the same challenges with Villaraigosas home-building goals as Newsoms even higher number.

Will Villaraigosa vote for or against the potential November ballot measure to allow for the expansion of rent control? Against. Villaraigosa says that he would use potential changes to Costa-Hawkins as a bargaining chip in a larger package of policies to address housing affordability, but that the initiative is a ballot-box solution that he opposes.

Where can I learn more? Villaraigosa has laid out his housing plan on his campaign website. He also responded to a list of questions from The Times about his goal of building 3.5 million new homes.

Support our journalism Please consider subscribing today to support stories like this one. Get full access to our signature journalism for just 99 cents for the first four weeks. Already a subscriber? Your support makes our work possible. Thank you.

liam.dillon@latimes.com

@dillonliam

ALSO

California lawmakers have tried for 50 years to fix the states housing crisis. Heres why theyve failedGeorge Deukmejian was a role model for the type of officeholder we desperately need in todays hyperventilated, polarized politics.

He was a quiet leader who didnt continually need to hear his own voice.

He was committed to his conservative causes but flexible enough when circumstances changed to tell his political base to take a hike.

He was highly ethical, never touched even by the whiff of scandal.

Advertisement

And very important, given todays ill manners from top to bottom in politics, Deukmejian was gracious and civil. He respected others and their views.

OK, no one is perfect. He could be a tad thin-skinned, particularly when Los Angeles Times editorials opposed his positions.

Whatever, Deukmejian never took it out on Times reporters. And my relationship with him couldnt have been better.

He was a model of transparency, holding a regular news conference every two weeks. He considered it his duty to answer reporters questions. The governor also used it as a management tool by requiring department directors to give him a heads-up about any potential embarrassments that might surface.

Deukmejian died Tuesday of natural causes in his modest Long Beach home at age 89.

The son of Armenian immigrants who fled to America to escape genocide by Ottoman Turks, Deukmejian was infused at an early age with a commitment to law and order. That became his No. 1 passion in public office. He wrote legislation restoring the death penalty and mandating use a gun, go to prison. He also built eight prisons.

The Republican was first elected to the state Assembly in 1962 and moved to the Senate in 1966, where he became party leader.

Two examples of how California Republicans half a century ago were a different breed than todays species: New Gov. Ronald Reagan proposed a then-record tax increase to balance the budget, and Deukmejian shepherded the bill through the Legislature. Deukmejian also cast a key Senate vote for the nations most liberal abortion rights act, which Reagan signed.

Those were the days when Republican candidates regularly won high offices in California.

More from George Skelton 

Deukmejian was elected state attorney general in 1978 and narrowly defeated L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley in 1982 to become governor. He trounced Bradley in a 1986 rematch.

He was never a bar-hopping reveler like many legislators of both parties in the 60s and 70s. Hed retire to his simple motel room, maybe open a can of soup and read up on legislation.

Dull Duke he was called. He became Iron Duke when, as governor, he steadfastly held the lid on Democratic spending.

Apparently he never cursed.

George never used those words, ever, says Steve Merksamer, his chief of staff both as governor and attorney general. And nobody around him used them in his presence. The most he ever would say if he was really, really angry, was maybe damn.

Deukmejians detest of cursing, Merksamer says, is what led to creation of the Big 5  the Capitols premier negotiating team consisting of the governor and legislative leaders from both parties.

Coverage of California politics 

Soon after becoming governor, Deukmejian called in the chairmen of both legislative fiscal committees to discuss how to erase a $1.5-billion budget deficit without raising taxes. The governor received a barrage of F-words, Merksamer recalls, and was loudly told he had no choice but to raise taxes.

The committee chairmen were dismissed. Merksamer was instructed to never bring them back. Instead, invite the top leaders. This inaugurated the Big 5 concept that lasted about 30 years until Republicans no longer were relevant.

Deukmejian agreed to a trigger tax. If the economy remained bad, a half-cent sales tax increase would be triggered. But the economy recovered, erasing the deficit.

The governor occasionally surprised folks by acting against party dogma.

He signed the nations first assault weapons ban after a racist with an AK-47 shot up a Stockton schoolyard in 1989, killing five Southeast Asian immigrant children and wounding 30 other kids.

He persuaded the University of California Board of Regents in 1986 to divest pension funds from firms that did business with racist South Africa. The move helped pressure that white-minority country into ending apartheid rule against blacks.

In 1990, he championed a 9-cents-per-gallon gas tax increase that raised $18.5 billion for highway repairs.

Deukmejian also spent a lot more money on public higher education than did his predecessor, Democrat Jerry Brown.

His avoidance of bombast made few headlines, says Ken Khachigian, a 1982 campaign advisor and longtime friend. He did a lot of things people didnt notice. Because he wasnt flashy, people tend to forget.

Heres one, recalled by Merksamer: In 1983, Deukmejian provided more money for AIDS treatment than 10 states combined. And this was a time when AIDS was particularly controversial.

Two things I particularly remember:

 On a trip to Tokyo, he tried to peddle California rice to Japanese leaders. He was ridiculed by trade experts and journalists, including me. Buying foreign rice conflicted with Japanese culture. But, of course, Deukmejian made the sell. California became a huge supplier of rice to Japan.

 Deukmejian was closely questioned by German business leaders in Bonn about Californias influx of immigrants. Did it affect work force quality? Were they reliable?

These newcomers provide renewed energy in our state, the governor replied. We believe there is strength from ethnic diversity. They are enthusiastic, willing to work hard, get an education for their children  and were very encouraged.

You might disagree with some of Deukmejians policies, but his character and governing style represented the best of American politics.

george.skelton@latimes.com

Follow @LATimesSkelton on TwitterMichael Cohens orchestration of an Essential Consultants payoff to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels was the first in a series of transactions that entangled him in a criminal investigation that threatens to yield fraud charges against President Trumps longtime personal lawyer.

Photo credits: TNS, Getty Images and Associated Press

Fatal falls are on the rise in the United States, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2016, a total of 29,668 Americans ages 65 and older died as a result of a fall. In other words, falls ended the lives of 61.6 out of every 100,000 senior citizens that year.

Back in 2007, there were 47 fall-related deaths for every 100,000 senior citizens.

That means the mortality rate due to falls increased by 31% over the course of a decade, researchers reported in this weeks edition of the CDCs Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Advertisement

Accidents and unintentional injuries are the fourth-leading cause of death for Americans of all ages (behind heart disease, cancer and chronic lower respiratory infection). Falls are the most common type of accident or accidental injury.

About one in four senior citizens has a serious fall each year, experts estimate, and these falls prompt nearly 3 million visits to hospital emergency departments. Twenty percent of falls result in broken bones, traumatic brain injury or other significant problems. Once every 19 minutes, a senior citizen in America dies as a result of injuries sustained during a fall.

Fatal falls have become more common for older Americans almost everywhere, according to the new study, which is based on data from death certificates from across the country.

Between 2007 and 2016, the fall-related mortality rate for Americans 65 and older increased significantly in 30 states (including California) as well as in the District of Columbia. It held steady in some states and went up and down in others, but none of the states saw a decline in fatal falls over the entire study period.

The state with the highest mortality rate from falls was Wisconsin, where there were 142.7 such deaths for every 100,000 senior citizens. At the other end of the spectrum was Alabama, with 24.4 fatal falls per 100,000 residents.

The total number of fall-related deaths in 2016 was higher for older women (15,947) than for older men (13,721). However, the mortality rate due to falls was higher for these men (72.3 deaths per 100,000) than for these women (54 deaths per 100,000).

The older Americans became, the greater their risk of dying from a fall. In 2016, there were 15.6 fatal falls for every 100,000 Americans between the ages of 65 and 74. Among adults ages 75 to 84, there were 61.4 such deaths per 100,000 people. And for those ages 85 and up, there were 247.9 fatal falls per 100,000 people.

Since Americans are getting older, they should brace themselves for more fatal falls, the report authors warned.

If the fall-related mortality rate continues to rise by 3% per year, about 59,000 senior citizens will die as a result of a fall in the year 2030. Even if the mortality rate were to suddenly hold steady, the number of fatal falls in 2030 would still climb to 43,000.

For advice on reducing the risk of a fatal fall, check out these tips from the CDCs STEADI  short for Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths, and Injuries  program.

karen.kaplan@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @LATkarenkaplan and like Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.

MORE IN SCIENCE

This room was off-limits to smokers, but its air contained surprising amounts of thirdhand smoke Scientists make a maze-running artificial intelligence program that learns to take shortcuts

Experts have new advice on prostate cancer screening. Heres why they put it back on the table

Its not just you, were all living in the United States of AnxietyAll around, the message is the same, writes senior writer David French for the National Review. Parties are part of the college experience, and parties include sex. Indeed, sex is often the entire point of the party.

In a Sept. 15 column about campus sexual assaults, French blames universities for fomenting a permissive culture of lies about the nature and morality of sexual relationships and suggests a combination of alcohol and open attitudes is fueling a sexual crisis.

The root of the problem is an ideology that deliberately attempts to strip sex of its inherent spiritual meaning and transform it into little more than transactional, physical, pleasure-seeking behavior, French says, further stating the rightful, sacred place of sex is in the union of man and wife.

In another column in July, where the same columnist reports Bureau of Justice statistics that show women are safer on campus than off, he argues a fake crisis drew moves from the Obama administration to eliminate due process in prosecutions of college rape cases, prompting campus officials to step into a miasma of drunken hookups and broken hearts.

Q. Are accusations of sexual assault on campus  regardless of statistics  a symptom of moral decline and misplaced attitudes toward sex? Are messages of marriage and monogamy the answer?

I believe a number of factors converge to form a perfect storm for both sexual irresponsibility and sexual assault on college campuses. First, there is a general antireligious bias among most university faculty members. Professing to be wise, they became fools, says Romans 1:22. The atmosphere is charged with the rejection of God, and as a natural result, a rejection of the moral sexual standards he sets. Second, the university student population is away from the restraints of home, charged at a physical and hormonal peak and placed together in close proximity. Add a little alcohol or drugs, a third factor, to loosen the restraints and the carnal desires are off and running, which include immorality, impurity, sensuality  drunkenness [and] carousing (Galatians 5:19-21). They also include violence, selfishness, lack of consideration for others and placing ones desires over the welfare or rights of others.

The monogamous marriage of a man and a woman is the only proper context for sexuality as established by God our creator. But to run around telling college students just to wait until you get married would be like trying to convince a pack of wolves to become vegan. I mean no disrespect by that, its just that the lusts of the flesh arent tamed by the law. The message proclaimed must be Jesus statement: You must be born again (John 3:7). Our hearts must be changed. Only the regenerate heart desires Gods ways over the ways of fallen man, and Gods ways include sexual morality and putting the welfare of others above our own.

Pastor Jon Barta

Burbank

..

Recently I had a grown man extol for me the virtues of his success, and his especially proud achievement was that his celebrity had won him sexual access to an endless supply of willing women. Whats life, after all, except having serial intercourse with strangers until you die? Ask Hugh Hefner (who I am certain is regretting his earthly lechery right about now). But I dont see how we should expect college kids to behave, if adults behave just as childishly and recklessly and without any wiser moral constraint. How do you tell teenagers, barely out of high school, most still under drinking age, that they shouldnt be promiscuous and drunken, when everything their culture teaches is that these are the measures of success? Maybe you dont score as high as an A in Chemistry, but you can readily get high and score at the nights frat party where everyone whos anyone will be doing it with abandon!

So, yes, we are in serious moral decline and our misplaced attitudes toward sex are part and parcel. It is because of this that 3,000 innocent babies are murdered in utero on a daily basis in America. Why so many dead babies? Because we have so many dead souls using sex as a sport, as a social badge, as a measure of virility, as a buzz, as validation, and not as it was intended: to bind a man and woman together as family, as one. Sex is the joy of commitment, the pleasure of blessedness, and there is no regret, no trip to Planned Parenthood, no guilt, no STDs. We must recover chastity, and then model it.

Marriage is to be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers (Hebrews 13:4 CSB).

Rev. Bryan A. Griem

Tujunga

..

The media and popular culture portray sex as a casual encounter that does not require love or any other emotional commitment. I believe that French is right that this perspective has erased social and cultural boundaries that would help prevent both predatory behaviors as well as unfounded allegations of assault.

When the commitment comes first, sexual intimacy becomes a bond that strengthens the relationship between a man and a woman. Sex should be an outcome of love and commitment, not a precursor to them. My view, and that of the Mormon Church, is that this commitment should be expressed through marriage.

If more young men and women accepted the idea that sex is something more than the mere fulfillment of a physical urge then, yes, there would be fewer sexual assaults on campus.

It is baffling that university administrators embrace policies that put young students in situations for which they are unprepared. The argument that students must be treated as adults is unconvincing because most of them simply arent.

This isnt just a parents assessment. Research has demonstrated that the prefrontal cortex  the part of the brain that assesses risk and regulates emotional impulses  isnt fully developed until around the age of 25, after a majority of students have graduated. As the University of Rochester website explains, this is why teens and younger adults who make mistakes often, cant explain later what they were thinking. They werent thinking as much as they were feeling.

The attitudes that French describes are a consequence of the neglected virtues described by the late LDS church President Gordon B. Hinckley in his book Standing for Something. He warned of a serious unsteadiness in our countrys stance in terms of morality, ethics, principles and behavior. The truth is, casual sex is a selfish act that ignores the emotional and spiritual dimensions of a loving relationship. A culture that dismisses those things in favor of easy gratification leaves young people poorly prepared for life.

Michael White

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

La CrescentaThis year marks the 75th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when from April 19 to May 16, 1943, residents of the Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Poland, staged an armed revolt against Nazi deportations to extermination camps.

This was the most significant act of resistance to the Nazis and the Holocaust, and it inspired other revolts in extermination camps and ghettos throughout Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe.

The uprising remains symbolic of collective Jewish resistance where heroic men and women sacrificed their lives to defend their people.

The Burbank Human Relations Council invites the public to the 2018 Days of Remembrance program in commemoration of the Holocaust and the 75th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, 3801 Scott Road, Burbank, on Tuesday, May 15 at 7:15 pm.

Over 16 Burbank churches, synagogues and the Burbank Islamic Center will participate in this unique event. During the program, we will light six candles for the six million Jews killed by the Nazis, the seventh candle for others murdered by the Nazis as well as all the other genocides in the world, and the eighth candle for Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Martyrs. The two keynote speakers are survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto, Dorothy Greenstein and Sidonia Lax. Laxs husband smuggled arms into the Ghetto before the uprising.

For more information, call (818) 860-2472 or email theBHRC@gmail.com.

David Meyerhof

Chairperson

BHRC Days of Remembrance Committee

BurbankA proposed three-story, 12-suite boutique hotel along Pacific Coast Highway won approval Tuesday night from the Huntington Beach Planning Commission.

The Sunset Beach Hotel project by applicant Cliff Neiman was initially granted approval by the city zoning administrator March 7 but was appealed by commission Vice Chairman Pat Garcia, who cited concerns related to its retail parking and setback requirements.

For the record: The original version of this article stated incorrectly that the Planning Commissions decision forwards the project to the City Council. It will go to the council only if the commissions decision is appealed.

The commissions 6-0 decision Tuesday, with member Connie Mandic absent, is final unless appealed to the City Council within 10 business days. The project will need a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission.

The hotel, planned for 17145 Pacific Coast Hwy., would require demolition of an onsite car wash that stopped operating in 2015.

The proposal includes 1,800 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, with the hotel units on the second and third floors. The luxury units would have three or four bedrooms and private kitchens and balconies. They would be available for rent on a weekly basis, though daily rentals could be accommodated.

The second floor also would contain guest amenities such as a pool and fitness center.

The project also proposes 32 parking spaces, 12 of them compact, on the ground level, accessible from Pacific Coast Highway and Pacific Avenue. Two vehicles would be allowed per unit.

Instead of having full-time hotel staff onsite only from Memorial Day through Labor Day, as proposed, commissioners amended the plan to require that staff be available daily between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. Security staff would monitor the area in the evenings and provide security video to police officers when requested.

Some speakers at Tuesdays hearing said the hotel would be a positive addition to the community. Others said it sounds more like a vacation rental property that could cause more congestion in an already traffic-heavy area.

Im all for redevelopment and bringing new businesses in our community, but Im concerned that this is called a hotel, Sandy Hyman said. A hotel, to me, is amenities for the community. ... I dont see that. I have a concern its being disguised as a hotel, but it looks like an Airbnb.

Laurie Hamblin said the original proposal to have staff onsite for only a few months wasnt acceptable for a hotel.

It looks like an apartment complex in disguise, Hamblin said. I believe hotel visitors expect 24-hour onsite management to cater to their needs.

Commissioners heeded such concerns and asked pointed questions to Neiman and the projects architect and traffic analyst, who said it would be a hotel for families and would have enough parking.

Commissioner Alan Ray expressed concerns about the project turning into high-density housing, but city staff explained the applicant would have to go through extra steps to get approval for that.

Ray said he felt comfortable knowing there would be staff onsite all year.

Commission Chairman John Scandura said the hotels concept surprised me but felt it could help reduce short-term rentals provided by residents.

Commissioners review four-story mixed-use project along PCH

A rendering shows a proposed four-story mixed-use project along Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach. The project would include commercial space on the ground floor and condominiums on the three floors above. (Photo courtesy of city of Huntington Beach )

In a study session Tuesday, commissioners reviewed a proposal to create a four-story mixed-use project along Pacific Coast Highway.

The project, proposed between Sixth and Seventh streets, requires a conditional use permit for its 10,495 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor and residential use on the three floors above.

The residential area would include 29 condominiums ranging from 1,424 to 2,062 square feet, with two or three bedrooms. Public open space would be provided on the ground floor next to restaurants and shops.

The plan would provide 117 parking spaces on the ground floor and two levels of subterranean parking.

Because the proposed building height is 53.5 feet, a variance is needed to accommodate mezzanines and decks for two residential units.

The project, proposed by Houshang Moghimi of Los Angeles-based Euro26 Inc., would need a special permit because its central courtyard/paseo is required to be open to the sky. The proposed 2,558-square-foot paseo is only partially open.

Commissioners requested a breakdown of how many parking spaces would be for residents and guests. They also wanted more information about the paseo and reasons for a possible special permit.

A public hearing on the project is scheduled for May 22.

Priscella.Vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscellaA woman charged with murder and driving under the influence in a March 29 crash that killed three Las Vegas teenagers in Huntington Beach had been arrested two years earlier on suspicion of DUI, but because of a processing error the case never got to prosecutors, authorities say.

Bani Duarte, 27, was arrested in San Clemente on June 22, 2016, on suspicion of misdemeanor driving under the influence. A deputy alleged he found her behind the wheel of an SUV illegally parked across multiple spaces at a Circle K convenience store, according to an Orange County Sheriffs Department investigation report.

However, the Sheriffs Department inadvertently did not send its report detailing the incident to the Orange County district attorneys office for possible charges, department spokesman Ray Grangoff said Wednesday.

Typically, the district attorneys office reviews police investigation reports to determine whether and what type of charges should be filed in a case.

A misdemeanor DUI conviction can result in a maximum sentence of six months in jail, along with fines, according to prosecutors.

The deputy who arrested Duarte alleged in his report, released Tuesday, that she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.17% and showed signs of intoxication during a field sobriety test.

He also reported that an empty beer bottle and a glass water bottle that had been filled with vodka were found in the car. Duarte told the deputy that the alcohol belonged to her passenger, according to the report.

She was booked at the Sheriffs Department jail, received a citation and was released, Grangoff said.

Grangoff said the agency discovered the processing misstep early last month and launched an internal audit to determine how the case was forgotten. The review of documents from 2016 to this year found no other cases that were missed, he said.

One of the results of the audit is now were immediately sending reports over to the court system, Grangoff said. The importance of sending that over immediately has been emphasized with staff.

Duartes drivers license, which was suspended after her 2016 arrest, was reinstated in June 2017, according to the Sheriffs Department report.

Duarte, a San Clemente resident, faces three counts of murder and one count of driving under the influence causing injury, as well as a possible sentencing enhancement on allegations of inflicting great bodily injury, in connection with the March 29 crash in Huntington Beach. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges, according to Orange County Superior Court records.

If convicted, she could be sentenced to 51 years to life in state prison, according to prosecutors.

Duartes defense attorney, Debra White, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Huntington Beach police allege in a document attached to an arrest warrant that Duartes blood-alcohol level an hour after the crash was 0.28%  more than three times the legal limit.

Officers found a partially empty 1-ounce bottle of vodka in Duartes purse, authorities wrote, and her Hyundai Sonata contained an empty 24-ounce can of a malt beverage that its manufacturer says has 8% alcohol content.

Duarte, a single mother of four children, told officers she had gone out for sushi with a friend and then stopped at the Stag Bar + Kitchen and Baja Sharkeez on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, where she had a total of two vodka sodas and one gelatin shot, according to law enforcement reports.

After leaving Sharkeez, Duarte believed  she was driving southbound on Pacific Coast Highway toward her home in San Clemente, Huntington Beach police Investigator Josh Page wrote. Duarte did not have any recollection of striking any curbs, stopping on PCH, being talked to by witnesses or colliding with the victims in this incident.

A witness who was driving with friends near the Hyundai in Newport Beach told authorities that he watched the car swerve and strike a curb after making a left turn onto West Coast Highway, Page wrote.

The witness, who was not identified, said the Hyundai driver parked just past Prospect Street and got out. The men offered her a ride because they believed she was impaired, but she turned them down, got back in her car and drove toward Huntington Beach, Page wrote.

The men called police and followed the Hyundai until it crashed into a Toyota shortly after 1 a.m. at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Magnolia Street. The Hyundai was traveling at 79 mph when it slammed into the back of the Toyota, which was stopped at a red light, Page wrote.

The impact pushed the Toyota through the intersection and into a pole, and it burst into flames. Three teenagers inside were killed. They were identified as Brooke Hawley, 17, Dylan Mack, 18, and A.J. Rossi, 17, all of whom were visiting Southern California from Las Vegas for spring break.

Alexis Vargas, a fourth teenager in the Toyota, survived the crash and was taken to a hospital for treatment, authorities said.

Duarte, who is listed in jail records as a receptionist, was initially arrested after the crash on suspicion of driving under the influence and gross vehicular manslaughter and posted $100,000 bail three days later.

Investigators said they arrested Duarte again April 29 in Downey on a warrant after they received information that she may have intended to flee the country to avoid prosecution. It isnt clear what information led to that conclusion.

She is being held in Orange County Jail in Santa Ana with bail set at $4 million.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN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.

For the record: An earlier version of this story made reference to a Victorville anti-immigration activist. In fact, the activist opposes illegal immigration.

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.

Judge Timothy J. Stafford, who approved the temporary order March 26, called the school board members petition weak, adding that Clayton-Tarvin knew the consequences of elected office.

He had criticism for Johnson as well.

Im not impressed with (his) explanation on why things were written the way they were, Stafford said, adding he didnt want to see either party return to court.

Johnsons attorney, Chad Morgan, said he was pleased Stafford recognized the importance of the 1st Amendment.

On Wednesday evening Johnson issued what he said would be his only statement on the matter.

I am thankful to have prevailed today, he said. This entire episode is incredibly difficult for my family. The idea that an elected official would go to these lengths to silence a private citizen should frighten everyone. But as we have seen for several years, Gina Clayton Tarvin has a history of retaliating against critics with threats, intimidation and now these baseless lawsuits.

Clayton-Tarvin and Shields denied requests for comment.

Additional information on the lawsuits referenced in Johnsons statement was not immediately available.

During the hearing, Clayton-Tarvin said Johnson repeatedly disrupted an Ocean View school board meeting March 6, where he was removed by armed security and kept outside until he was again allowed to speak during a second public comment period.

Johnson apologized but later became agitated and told Clayton-Tarvin, They want your head on a stick and Im going to give it to them, Clayton-Tarvin said in her court filing.

Jim Choate, the districts director of facilities, testified that at the March 6 meeting he asked Johnson to leave the room after becoming what he described as aggressive. Johnson, Choate said, got into a cock fight position, hunching his shoulders forward, and leading him to believe he was prepared to take a swing at him.

Clayton-Tarvin said Johnson had threatened to harm the entire Tarvin family, which caused her to fear for her well-being because she lives with her two sons.

Johnson explained that he had a dark sense of humor but was referring to her supporters, not her actual family.

In one instance, where he wrote he would drop a cluster bomb, Johnson explained he didnt have aircraft. What he meant, Johnson said, was that he had a gift coming her way in the form of a blog post, exposing what he argued were Clayton-Tarvins distortions about her firsthand experiences with school violence and lockdowns, which she described during the March 6 meeting.

Johnson acknowledged a comment he made about an anonymous bomb threat was stupid and deleted it within seconds but some of Clayton-Tarvins supporters took a screenshot.

Asked how the issue between the two began, Johnson told Stafford he took offense to and became vocal about Clayton-Tarvins left-leaning ideology.

Ocean View School trustee Norm Westwell testified that Clayton-Tarvin doesnt have thick skin.

How do you know that? Do you observe it yourself? Stafford asked.

Westwell said she becomes defensive and takes criticism personally during board meetings.

Westwell painted a different picture of the March 6 meeting, saying Johnson was not escorted out by security but walked out on his own.

Clayton-Tarvin, who was elected in 2012, has been involved in longstanding feuds on social media. She has an ample number of both supporters and critics.

This is the second time in recent years she has unsuccessfully requested a restraining order against a vocal critic. In 2017, the district petitioned for a temporary restraining order on her behalf against an activist opposed to illegal immigration.

For his part, Johnson vowed to continue battling Clayton-Tarvin in civil court, if necessary.

I believe the 1st Amendment is our most sacred right as Americans, and so my fight now continues in the next phase of her lawsuit against me, he said. That said I would like everyone to remember, I believe shes doing this not just to silence me, but to send a message to any and all future critics. But today has proven she can be defeated.

He also thanked supporters and vowed that this is far from over.

Priscella.Vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscellaOcean View School District trustee Gina Clayton-Tarvin issued a statement late Wednesday calling a court decision denying her request for a permament restraining order against a Huntington Beach blogger reckless.

It is a tragic day in Orange County when the civil court will not extend an already-existing restraining order to protect against threats to kill me, take an axe to my family and to bomb a public meeting, Clayton-Tarvin said in a text message to the Daily Pilot.

Clayton-Tarvin, 46, alleged in court documents that Charles Keeler Johnson, 56, had threatened her on his blog, on social media and at school board meetings, causing her to fear for my own safety and for that of my immediate family members.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Timothy J. Stafford initally approved a temporary restraining order March 26 against Johnson, who goes by Chuck and publishes HBSledgehammer.com, but denied Clayton-Tarvins request to make it permanent.

Stafford called the school board members petition weak, adding that she knew the consequences of elected office.

Clayton-Tarvin, who is also a teacher, criticized Staffords ruling, saying she feels physically threatened.

I reject in the strongest manner the notion that these violent threats are free speech  and believe that the decisions of both the California Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court support my position, Clayton-Tarvin said. Likewise, the Huntington Beach Police Department thought these were credible threats and turned the matter over to the Orange County district attorney for charges, and the matter remains an open case.

During the court hearing, Johnson said the trustee tried to stifle his freedom of speech. He contended that Clayton-Tarvin took his blog and Facebook posts too literally and out of context, saying anyone who is afraid of metaphors has serious issues.

Stafford also criticized Johnson, saying he wasnt impressed with (his) explanation on why things were written the way they were.

In a statement, Johnson said he was thankful to have prevailed and vowed to continue battling Clayton-Tarvin in civil court, if necessary.

The idea that an elected official would go to these lengths to silence a private citizen should frighten everyone, Johnson said. But as we have seen for several years, Gina Clayton Tarvin has a history of retaliating against critics with threats, intimidation and now these baseless lawsuits.

Priscella.Vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscellaNewport Beach City Councilman Jeff Herdman shared two emails between himself and the city attorney about a lawsuit against the city with a local lawyer who filed the suit, the city says.

Now the city is trying to get that lawyer, Phil Greer, kicked off the case.

Both emails relate to a complaint Greer filed last month in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of Newport resident Martha Peyton, who claimed that Councilman Scott Peotter broke several state and local campaign finance rules by accepting noncash donations from Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield and others that either pushed the donors over the contribution limit or were misreported, if they were reported at all.

According to the emails released by the city Tuesday, Herdman  using his city email account  blind-copied Greer on one message to City Attorney Aaron Harp in which Herdman argued  as Greer did in the complaint  that Harp shouldnt give an opinion on the merits of the suit because he has a conflict of interest in serving the council.

In another thread of messages, Herdman asked Harp about the timing of potential closed meetings to discuss a response to the case. Harp replied that he has retained outside counsel and we will be in position to respond. Herdman forwarded that to Greer, with the following message:

Phil,

Heres Aarons response to the email I sent him tonight in front of you. Is this good?

Jeff.

Harp said the emails were confidential conversations protected by attorney-client privilege.

The city found out about the exchanges after an anonymous public records request to the city clerks office April 20.

In an unusual procedural move, Harp had to seek approval from the council to release the emails, using purposefully vague language from the dais until the council members gave their unanimous yes vote. Because the council as a whole is Harps client, a majority vote was needed to approve sharing the information with the public  in other words, to waive the attorney-client privilege  even though one member already had shared information with an outside person.

On Wednesday, the citys outside attorney, Patrick Bobko, filed a court motion to have Greer disqualified from the case.

Greer said Wednesday that the motion isnt worth taking seriously.

I think its frivolous. I think its irrelevant. I think its meaningless. I think it shows how desperate they are, he said.

He argued that the emails in question were not protected by attorney-client privilege because nothing of substance was divulged.

It was basically a question that Jeff had for Aaron based upon the statutory reality, and the response from Aaron was, Weve got counsel,  Greer said. Theres no breach. Theres no inside information disclosed.  They got counsel. Thats all.

But the motion to disqualify states that Mr. Greer has improperly inserted himself at the DNA level between the city attorney and his client. Mr. Greer has interfered with the City Councils ability to access confidential legal advice from its lawyer.  This is an unfixable problem, and it is inescapable that Mr. Greers continued involvement in this case undermines the city attorneys ability to represent his client and the city of Newport Beach.

At Tuesday nights council meeting, Herdman apologized for his part in the flap and thanked the council for its vote to disclose the emails.

I made a mistake, he said. It was me that everybody is talking about here. There was a conversation between myself and our city attorney that should have taken place, but theres one little piece of it that shouldnt have taken place. All I can do is assure my colleagues up here that this will not happen again, and I will be a great deal more [cautious] in terms of using my city email account vs. my personal email account.

I goofed all right, and I admit it and I apologize, he said.

Herdman declined further comment Wednesday.

In a separate incident, Herdman used his city email account to explicitly advocate for the election defeat of council colleagues who he and others believe secretly forced City Manager Dave Kiff out of his job.

Phil Greer, left, and current Mayor Pro Tem Will ONeill attend a City Council candidates forum in 2016. ONeill defeated Greer in the election. (File Photo )

Mayor Pro Tem Will ONeill, who also is a lawyer, said Tuesday that privileged emails cant be shared from any kind of account.

In my decade-plus of litigating civil disputes, I have never, ever heard of a breach of the attorney-client privilege like this, ONeill said. I have also never heard of a City Council member actively undermining the finances of a city by working with and colluding with an attorney suing the city to ensure that attorney can someday collect attorneys fees. Its just remarkably disappointing, and its more than a goof. 

Greer said the complaint seeks cost of suit, which can include attorneys fees along with court fees. He said he does not intend to ask for attorneys fees.

Greer ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2016  he lost to ONeill  and was involved in last years unsuccessful recall movement against Peotter as a lawyer for the recall committee, the petition circulator and a campaign reporting compliance group.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHDWhat if Newport Beach held a feedback session for residents to say what theyd like to see in the next city manager, and almost nobody came?

Thats what happened Tuesday afternoon.

Locals have taken a keen interest in the circumstances surrounding the impending departure of Dave Kiff, with commentators at every council meeting since late March providing warm praise for Kiff  while also offering often pointed, occasionally withering criticism toward a majority of the City Council, who many people, including some of the council minority, believe secretly forced Kiff out. He plans to leave in August after 20 years with the city and nine as its top administrative official. His previous employment contract expired in April 2019.

But Tuesday, only Newport government meeting fixture Jim Mosher stepped up to the podium to offer input on the experience, values and related qualifications of whoever will succeed Kiff.

Mosher said that aside from excellent management skills, he wants somebody who is straightforward and honest with unquestioned integrity; somebody who will follow the city charter, policies and laws, and who can acknowledge that the city can make mistakes.

By integrity I mean that we would look for somebody who is candidly honest, and [by] candidly honest I mean somebody you can always trust that theyre telling you the truth, Mosher said. And being candid, meaning that theyre not shading the truth by leaving out something that might be important.

An online survey asking residents to rank potential candidates personal styles and attributes, along with community issues, is at newportbeachca.gov/communitysurvey through May 18.

Brown Act letter

In a tangentially related item, the council affirmed a staff recommendation to send a commitment letter to say it will not violate the state open meetings law during the transition to a new city manager  even though the city flatly denies that such secret meetings ever took place.

In a complaint to the council April 10, resident Lauri Preedge leveled accusations of violations of the open meetings law, the Ralph M. Brown Act. Rather than issue an outright rejection of the allegations, which could leave room for Preedge or anyone else to file a lawsuit, Kiff and City Atty. Aaron Harp recommend the council issue the commitment letter, which does not admit fault and argues that the matter was properly included on the April 10 agenda under the title City Manager Employment Agreement and Recruitment of New City Manager.

The council voted 6-1, with Jeff Herdman dissenting, to send the letter.

Kiffs supporters have accused council members Kevin Muldoon and Scott Peotter, Mayor Pro Tem Will ONeill and Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield of conspiring to force Kiff out. The four have denied the allegations.

Harbor speed limit

Racing sailors are closer to being able to officially go above 5 knots in Newport Harbor.

The council, with Duffield recusing himself because of his eponymous boat-building business along the harbor-facing Coast Highway, voted to pass along proposed exceptions to the 5-knot harbor speed limit for races and practices to the California State Parks Division of Boating and Waterways for review.

The city must consult the state before it can change the speed limit.

The Harbor Commission gave a thumbs-up to the speed exception, a longtime off-and-on issue, in April.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHDAt 11 years old, Chloe Mei Espinosa of Newport Beach has already seen some of the worlds most beautiful coral reefs, including those in Hawaii, Bonaire and the Cayman Islands.

So when the Newport Coast Elementary School sixth-grader recently watched a disturbing video of a sea turtle with a plastic straw lodged in its nostril, she was compelled to try to eliminate the use of plastic straws.

She designed and launched the website skiptheplasticstraw.com and secured pledges from nearly 390 people around the world to avoid single-use plastic straws.

Its important because of the fish and all the animals we have in the ocean now, and it would be nice for kids in the future to be able to see them and all the colors and unique features, she said.

In 2014, Chloe Mei did her first scuba dive at Kids Sea Camp in Bonaire, an island north of Venezuela. Generally, the Professional Assn. of Diving Instructors recommends children be at least 10 so they have the physical and mental ability to stay calm underwater.

Wherever Chloe Mei dives, she loves finding eels and stingrays, she said, since their camouflage makes them challenging to see.

Newport Coast Elementary requires sixth-graders to identify a passion project they can research and act on. Chloe Mei showed the sea turtle video to her class during her presentation, teacher Megan Vick said.

You could hear a pin drop, Vick said. They were engaged and shocked by what came out of that turtles nose.

Chloe Meis father, David, a former editor at Sport Diver magazine, instilled a love of the ocean in his daughter at a young age but said he was blown away when she showed him the website she created for her Skip the Plastic Straw campaign.

Chloe Mei got some of her friends to hop on the campaign, and PADI donated stainless-steel straws to distribute to people who take her pledge.

Chloe Meis mother, Liyen Yap, said some Newport Coast Elementary students used the new metal straws to drink their milk at lunch.

They said it was cool that Im trying to reduce the use of plastic straws, Chloe Mei said. I feel really happy because thats a lot of straws that arent being used and entering the ocean.

Chloe Mei Espinosa scuba dives for the first time in 2014 at a reef in Bonaire, an island off the coast of Venezuela. (Courtesy of David Espinosa )

Daniel Langhorne is a contributor to Times Community News.

Twitter: @DanielLanghorneAs a property owner in Huntington Beach, I applaud the efforts of a fellow resident to address the issue of automatic and semi-automatic gun sales in our city by using procedural due-process to get an initiative on the ballot (Huntington Beach sues to stop residents petition proposing local ban on semiautomatic and automatic weapons).

What I dont applaud is the vindictive and overreactive measure taken by City Attorney Michael Gates in suing Dan Horgan. These bullying tactics, obviously copied from the bully-in-chief, are an attempt by Mr. Gates to get his name in front of the public prior to the election.

A simple call to see that there were not nearly enough signatures secured to make it to the ballot would have been sufficient.

Victoria Ahumada

Oceanside

Celebrate the life of Mark Chamberlain

In the past year weve lost in succession three longtime community members  digital publisher Stu Staffer (May 20), poet John Abbott Gardiner (October 24), and now photographer and gallery owner Mark Chamberlain (April 23)  who each contributed mightily to Lagunas legacy in their own significant ways.

Their lives are reminders of how great communities are built on visionary leaders. Gardiner, Staffer and Chamberlain, as well as their predecessors, will be cheering on Lagunas next torchbearers.

A celebration of Chamberlains life is scheduled for 2 p.m. June 3 at the Neighborhood Congregational Church, 340 St Anns Drive, Laguna Beach.

Ellen and Roger Kempler

Laguna Beach

Look at Uptown before approving Koll

Uptown Newport, the Shopoff Groups residential and affordable housing project on Jamboree Road, is under construction. When complete, this enormous development will include over 1,200 residential units ranging in height from 30 to 150 feet. As part of the development agreement with the city, the Shopoff Group promised pedestrian-friendly design and a mixed use, including retail and food services.

The project anticipates over 8,000 vehicle trips a day and this delay will certainly increase traffic on our local streets, which negatively alters the estimated impact of the project. Many of us wrote letters to the city and attended public hearings to express just such concerns, and now they are a reality.

The Shopoff Group is now pushing a second massive residential project in very close proximity to Uptown. In comparison, the newly proposed Koll Residences project would exceed heights in Uptown, with three massive monolithic buildings, 160 feet in height. Though the citys vision was for mixed use and pedestrian-friendly design, Koll Residences will put 580 residents in the middle of a functioning business park with few services and likely nothing more than a coffee shop for its mixed use component.

It is imprudent for the city to allow the Koll Center Residences to move forward based upon an outdated General Plan and without a coordinated vision of the airport area and without first assessing the impact of Uptown Newport project on the community.

Jim Hasty

Newport Beach

How to get published: Email us at dailypilot@latimes.com. All correspondence must include full name, hometown and phone number (for verification purposes). The Pilot reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity and length.Encouraged by keynote speaker Chris Erskine to discover what makes them sing inside during their college years, 13 La Canada students were feted Sunday as Thursday Club scholarship winners during a tea held at the organizations Woodleigh Lane clubhouse.

Twelve of the days honorees were given the clubs Scholarship Foundation awards: Patrick Gibbons, Bryan Guan, Justin Hogan, Conrad Jensen, Jonathan Le, Camille Lorenz, Leonard (Lenny) Pieroni, Naomi Stephen, Holly Stoner, Ryan Van Slooten, Daniel Wang and Tyler Yang.

The club also awards each year the Greenawalt Foundation Scholarship, named for the late Denise Greenawalt, to someone who exhibits spirit, energy and tenacity in overcoming obstacles. This years Greenawalt Scholarship went to Sahar Shirbacheh.

Gibbons, Jensen and Pieroni attend St. Francis High School; Lorenz, Stoner, Van Slooten, Stephen, Guan, Yang and Shirbacheh are graduating from La Canada High School; Hogan is a senior at Polytechnic School, while Wang goes to Flintridge Preparatory School.

Keynote speaker Erskine, a La Canada resident, Los Angeles Times columnist and author whose most recent book, Daditude was published this spring, told humorous stories and gave heartfelt advice to the teens.

Each of the scholarship winners briefly spoke of their high school experiences and aspirations. All have made their college selections and, for a photo opportunity, held banners depicting the name of those schools.

According to Becky Lankey, chairman of the scholarship program, her committee received a record number of applications this year. Not only are the winners academically high-achieving, with a combined GPA of over 4.0, but they have been involved in community service and show a potential for future successes.

Serving with Lankey on the scholarship committee were Sharon Combs, Jean Chubb, Mary Ann Hesseman, Patrice Fontes and Vita Avanesian.

carol.cormaci@latimes.com

Twitter: @CarolCormaciNwolfe35 said: Its a shame when a man abdicates his responsibility to his child.



Fortunately the woman has a choice in case that happens. Click to expand...

Yet, if a women goes whoring around and gets knocked up she can have that thing scraped out. W/ no imput from the man whatsoever. No harm. No foul. If a guy goes whoring around then 10 years later some stranger can take him to court for back child support even if she never even told him she was pregnant much less gave him the opportunity to be a part of the childs life. That is completely fucked.Now if two people decide to have children together and one fucks off and decides that life wasn't for them...they should have to ante up for the expenses. But this entire one sided perspective if for the birds, man and has got to go.Debra Cradduck, principal of Paradise Canyon Elementary School, has been appointed as the executive director of personnel services for the school district, Supt. Wendy Sinnette announced Tuesday night. The school board unanimously approved the administrative reorganization and job description.

Cradduck has served in the district since 2010. Her appointment becomes effective after the close of this school year to allow for a smooth transition over the summer for the PCY school community, according to a press release issued by Sinnette after Tuesday nights meeting.

We are most fortunate to be able to retain her within the district with this promotion to the district-level as the lead administrator in charge of personnel, Sinnette said. She will bring great strengths to the human resources department, which will benefit all of the school sites within the district.

According to Sinnette, Cradduck will lead the districts human resources department, but as an executive director, she will not serve on the superintendents cabinet.

Her salary will be on the certified management salary schedule, Sinnette said in an email, later clarifying the amount would be $140,377.

A reorganization of the LCUSD administrative department was prompted due to the assistant superintendent of human resources position being unfilled for the 2017-18 school year after last Junes retirement of Jeff Davis, whose salary was $153,704.

In other action, the board agreed Tuesday to continue the late school start time of 8:30 a.m. into the next school year. The districtwide implementation of the Challenge Success program in 2017 is widely seen as an improvement, according to the boards Late Start Oversight Committee, overseen by Jim Cartnal, executive director of pupil and personnel programs and services.

With late start, the trend is increasing sleep, Cartnal said. The students say that late start doesnt necessarily bring a ton more sleep, but its a slower roll in the morning instead of the hustle and bustle. Parents say breakfast has returned as a family meal.

However, the softball team, wrestling team, girls water polo and students with early drop off are experiencing issues with the late start schedule, Cartnal added.

We have a plan to make it better for them in the future, Cartnal said about the athletes.

Also on Tuesday, Sinnette announced the district has collected applications to form a task force on safety, security and student well-being. On March 20, the board launched the applications for the task force, and applications from parents, staff and students were due April 10. Seventy people applied, she reported, and 25 will comprise the committee.

Were trying to have a representative sample of schools represented, as well as staff, students and parents, Sinnette said. Were excited for this work to begin.

The committees first meeting will be May 24.

Mark Evans, the school districts chief business and operations officer, announced the school districts credit rating was upgraded again by Moodys to Aa1.

Were putting our best foot forward, Evans said about the school district budget and future spending heading into the summer. Moodys maintained our rating. Well maintain our work to get the [Measure LCF] bond rolling. Theres lots of tasks of getting this in place.

In other LCUSD-related news, on the morning following the school board meeting U.S. News & World Report ranked La Canada High School No. 39 in California and No. 249 in the nation.

Matt Sanderson is a contributing writer to Times Community News.Jeanne Wallace, a former travel agent and well-known volunteer ambassador for the La Canada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce, died Friday afternoon after a stroke. She was 87.

Daughter Karen Young said Tuesday her mother suffered a stroke in January of last year but had recovered and was doing well until she experienced a second stroke on April 29.

Just one week earlier, Wallace and husband Jim had celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary and the baptism of great-grandson Rory at La Canada Presbyterian Church before attending a family celebration at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale.

The couple met as teenagers attending the same high school in Tennessee in 1950, Young said. In 1968, they relocated to La Canada Flintridge from Los Altos in Santa Clara County to accommodate Jims position as associate general counsel for Times Mirror Company.

Wallace worked part-time for the Berkshire Travel Centre in La Crescenta, continuing to serve a handful of clients for years afterward, her daughter said. On Monday, Young remembered her mother as always helpful and supportive to those she knew.

She was always interested in others, Young said. She put everybodys needs above herself, her family especially.

Wallace was involved, often alongside her husband, in La Canada Presbyterians efforts to build houses in Tutwiler, Miss., through Habitat for Humanity as well as the La Canada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce. The couple also supported the La Canada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Assn. and the Salvation Army of Los Angeles Countys red kettle luncheons. Jeanne Wallace was also a member of the local Professional Womens Networking Group (PWNG).

Pat Anderson, president and chief executive of the La Canada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce and fellow PWNG member, called Wallaces passing a personal loss. In 2013, Wallace became a charter member of the groups ambassador program, which keeps area businesses in touch on events and information relevant to the business community.

In her role as chamber ambassador she achieved the distinction of Ambassador of the Year eight times, Anderson said Monday in an email interview. She personally recruited several businesses and attended many city council meetings to keep up on what was going on in town  she was amazing and will be deeply missed.

Wallace is survived by husband Jim, daughter Karen Young (Scott) and son Mike Wallace (Laura), grandchildren Vanessa Burnett (Ryan), Monica Skeehan (Mark), Matt Wallace, Eric Wallace and Andy Wallace, and four great-grandchildren.

A service at La Canada Presbyterian Church is being planned for sometime in June.

sara.cardine@latimes.com

Twitter: @SaraCardineForget stars homes. These tours visit pot growers and bong makers By Hugo Martin In Napa and Sonoma, tour bus operators ferry oenophiles between tasting rooms and vineyards. In Hollywood and environs, they shepherd the starstruck past the homes of the rich and famous. Now theyre giving customers a mind-expanding look at one of Los Angeles burgeoning industries: pot. Since recreational use of marijuana became legal a year ago, a pot tourism business has emerged, taking visitors behind the scenes of Californias estimated $7-billion cannabis industry. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Plans for a state-backed pot bank arent feasible, a study says By Sam Dean Hopes that California might create a public bank to serve the states legal marijuana industry are nothing but a pipe dream, the authors of a new feasibility study told state officials Thursday. In the end we were not able to find any approach to doing this that makes any sense whatsoever, said William Roetzheim, founder and chief executive of Level 4 Ventures, the consulting firm hired to carry out the study for the State Treasurers Cannabis Banking Working Group. California voters approved Proposition 64 in 2016 to legalize growing, possessing and selling marijuana for recreational use. But since cannabis remains illegal under federal law, most banks which are federally chartered and insured by the FDIC  refuse to hold weed money. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Santa Cruz marijuana company fined $50,000 for explosion that badly burned employee By Hannah Fry A Santa Cruz-based marijuana manufacturing company is being fined more than $50,000 by state regulators for safety violations after an employee was severely burned in a propane explosion, officials have announced. An employee at Future2 Labs Health Services was working alone inside a 128-square-foot portable storage container in Watsonville on June 19, extracting oil from cannabis leaves with propane, when a spark ignited the tank and it exploded. The worker was hospitalized with severe burns, according to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. The process of using a highly flammable gas to extract oil from cannabis leaves is dangerous, Cal/OSHA Chief Juliann Sum said Thursday in a prepared statement. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

FDA casts shadow on hemp win, calling CBD products illegal By Associated Press The hemp industry still has work ahead to win legal status for hemp-derived cannabidiol, or CBD oil, as an ingredient in food or dietary supplements despite the big farm bill President Trump signed this week designating hemp as an agricultural crop. CBD oils have become increasingly popular in lotions, tinctures and foods, but their legal status has been murky and the Food and Drug Administration has sent warning letters to some companies making health claims for CBD. In a statement following Thursdays bill signing in Washington, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb restated his agencys stance that CBD is a drug ingredient and therefore illegal to add to food or health products without approval from his agency. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

One year of legal pot sales and California doesnt have the bustling industry it expected. Heres why By Patrick McGreevy When Californians voted in 2016 to allow the sale of recreational marijuana, advocates of the move envisioned thousands of pot shops and cannabis farms obtaining state licenses, making the drug easily available to all adults within a short drive. But as the first year of licensed sales comes to a close, Californias legal market hasnt performed as state officials and the cannabis industry had hoped. Retailers and growers say theyve been stunted by complex regulations, high taxes and decisions by most cities to ban cannabis shops. At the same time, many residents are going to city halls and courts to fight pot businesses they see as nuisances, and police chiefs are raising concerns about crime triggered by the marijuana trade. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, who played a large role in the legalization of cannabis, will inherit the numerous challenges when he takes office in January as legislators hope to send him a raft of bills next year to provide banking for the pot industry, ease the tax burden on retailers and crack down on sales to minors. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Hemp is about to be legal under the 2018 farm bill. You cant get high from it  but you can wear it By Kurtis Lee Hemp  a close relative of marijuana that can be used to make textiles and other products  has long been classified as a Schedule I drug by the federal government. Thats set to change. President Trump is soon expected to sign a farm bill that includes a section that legalizes the commercial cultivation of hemp nationwide. The bill, years in the making, comes as public support for cannabis legalization has increased over the years, offering a cover of sorts to politicians who see the potential for boosting state tax revenue. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Students sent home after Marysville middle schooler brings pot brownies for class to eat By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde Several students at a middle school in Marysville, Calif., were sent home this week after eating marijuana-laced brownies, officials said. Staff at Anna McKenney Intermediate School called police Wednesday morning after learning that a 13-year-old girl had passed out the brownies to her classmates, said Marysville Police Sgt. Jason Garringer. Nine students were sent home, Garringer said, but no one who ate the brownies showed obvious signs of being under the influence. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Mistletoke, luxe vape cases and other gift suggestions for the cannabis enthusiast on your nice list By Adam Tschorn Now that some form of cannabis use is legal in 33 U.S. states and the District of Columbia and Californias era of legal adult-use weed is almost a year old (though it remains illegal under federal law), its easier than ever to find a little something special for the cannabis consumer on your nice list. Below are a few items that  with the exception of the first item which is available in L.A. only  are legal, widely available and, if ordered soon, can still be under the tree in the U.S. by Christmas Day. For those who want to do good while feeling good  and score a little holiday decor at the same time  L.A.-based Zoma Cannabis is prepared to send some lucky L.A. residents a limited-edition floral-meets-cannabis Mistletoke arrangement that intertwines sprigs of mistletoe with three trimmed buds (roughly five grams total) of its Santa Cruz-grown True OG and/or Gelato strain cannabis flower all tied up in a big red Santa-worthy bow. No purchase is necessary, but recipients are highly encouraged to make a donation to the charity reforestation group One Tree Planted to aid in the recovery efforts from the 2017 and 2018 California fires. Zoma will match donations dollar for dollar. Each dollar donated means one tree gets planted, and that means the green you donate for its green means a greener Golden State moving forward. Zoma is set to deliver the decor right to your door if you live in L.A., are over the age of 21 and are one of the first 50 folks to fire off an email to info@zomacannabis.com with the word Mistletoke in the subject line. Supplies willing, orders placed as late as Dec. 20 will arrive in time to make your Christmas very merry indeed. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

3 marijuana businesses win OK in Costa Mesa as another is put on hold By Bradley Zint The Costa Mesa Planning Commission this week approved three new marijuana facilities but postponed a decision on a fourth due to the absence of one commissioner, whose vote likely will decide the fate of the business. After two commissioners expressed support and two expressed opposition for Triiads proposal for a marijuana distribution facility, the panel voted 3-1 on Monday night, with Commissioner Jeffrey Harlan absent, to hold a special meeting Monday to reexamine the matter. Commissioner Carla Navarro Woods dissented. The proposed location at 3525 Hyland Ave., Suite 265, is in Hyland Plaza, north of South Coast Collection in an area identified under city law as permissible for marijuana uses. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Marlboro cigarette maker places a $2.4-billion bet on marijuana By Associated Press Altria Group Inc., one of the worlds biggest tobacco companies, is diving into the cannabis market with a $2.4 billion buy-in. The Marlboro cigarette maker is taking a 45% stake in Cronos Group Inc., the Canadian medical and recreational marijuana provider said Friday. Altria will pay an additional $1.4 billion for warrants that, if exercised, would give Altria a 55% ownership stake in the Toronto company. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Utah voters approved medical marijuana in November. State lawmakers just passed big changes to the ballot measure By Associated Press Lawmakers in Utah passed sweeping changes Monday to a voter-approved medical marijuana ballot measure under a planned compromise that secured the support of the influential Mormon Church but sparked a backlash from pot advocates. Supporters of the compromise cheered the vote, saying it would help suffering patients while creating safeguards against broader recreational use. I believe this agreement was a landmark day for our state, and we are helping people, said outgoing Republican House Speaker Greg Hughes, who sponsored the legislation and helped bring together the players for talks. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Los Angeles County sheriffs deputy, two others arrested on drug charges after heist at pot warehouse By Maya Lau The Los Angeles sheriffs deputy pulled up to the pot-filled warehouse just after three in the morning. He held up an official-looking document to a guard, who promptly unlocked a gate. The deputy and two other men, each of them armed and dressed in sheriffs jackets, got out. After locking the guard and two other employees in the back of the deputys SUV, the men went to work lugging bags of marijuana from the warehouse. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Cannary West dispensary to host Higher Standards pop-up shop Saturday through Feb. 28 By Adam Tschorn The Higher Standards X Cannary West pop-up is slated to run from Saturday through Feb. 28. (Higher Standards) Following its successful (and still running) pop-up space inside the Pottery dispensary in L.A.s Mid-City, purveyor of luxury-level cannabis accoutrements Higher Standards has announced plans to take up temporary residence inside the Cannary West dispensary in the Rancho Park neighborhood just in time for the holidays. On track to pop-up on Saturday (with a 20% opening day discount) and run through the end of February, itll serve up a similar curated mix of high-end smoking tools and accessories from brands like Marley Naturals, Grav Labs, Dr. Dabber and Puffco (makers of the futuristic-looking Peak dab rig) as well as home goods for the discerning head by Jonathan Adler, Malin+Goetz and Forestry Wool. Higher Standards X Cannary West Where: 2435 Military Ave., Los Angeles. Entry is restricted to those 21 and older. Hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays from Saturday through Feb. 28. Info: cannarywest.com, higherstandards.com Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

I fell off the way. A charismatic pastor-turned-marijuana smuggler heads to prison By Kristina Davis On Easter Sunday 2007, Pastor John Lee Bishop drew about 15,000 worshipers to a sports arena in Portland, Ore. With a flair for showmanship, Bishop  a jeans-clad minister sporting a youthful, moppish haircut  relished building buzz around his Living Hope Church, based in Vancouver, Wash., on the north bank of the Columbia River. One time, it was bringing a Bengal tiger onstage. Another, according to an account in the Columbian newspaper, it was advertising a sermon series with the word sex prominently facing a busy street. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

For all your weed needs, theres now a pot superstore in Las Vegas By David Montero The employee in the red shirt counseled the two men on what  or what not  to buy. Now, if you start thinking dolphins are talking to you, that might be too much, she explained. The two young men nodded slowly. One stroked his beard. Neither had ever talked to dolphins before. Or even yelled at them on Sundays when they play against the New England Patriots. Above them, the continuous light show on the ceiling was like an electric lava lamp  orbs expanding and dividing in an endless trip. Then it was gone and replaced by flowers and a Saturn-like planet floating in the sky. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

4 more marijuana permit applications await Costa Mesa Planning Commission review By Luke Money The recent parade of permit applications from marijuana manufacturing and distribution businesses looking to open in Costa Mesa will continue next week, when the city Planning Commission is scheduled to review four more. All the requests on Mondays agenda are for conditional use permits, which are among several approvals required to open a cannabis company in the city. Here is the latest lineup of applicants: Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

With Jeff Sessions out at the Justice Dept., the marijuana movement exhales By Kurtis Lee He described marijuana as a very real danger and has said its effects are only slightly less awful than those of heroin. Once, during a drug hearing when he was a Senator, he said he wanted to send a clear message: Good people dont smoke marijuana. So when Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions was ousted recently, a collective sigh of relief rose up from proponents of legalized pot  activists, politicians, investors  who felt targeted by the nations top law enforcement officer. Sessionss departure has translated into spiking stocks for cannabis companies and a reset of sorts for the legalization movement which, since 2012, has seen nearly a dozen states pass recreational pot measures. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

This is what a cannabis executives party pad looks like By Kavita Daswani Dont expect to find bongs, water pipes and empty packets of Funyuns at the Los Angeles-area home of Will Htun. When we asked to look inside the home of the CEO of cannabis brand Sherbinskis, we found a sleek and minimal space where he could host chef-catered, cannabis-paired dinners on the rooftop and take meetings in a high-ceilinged front room. Htun, 34, moved into the 2,700-square-foot townhouse in July 2016, after he and brand founder Mario Sherbinski, who is based in San Francisco, decided it would make an ideal live/work space. With its three en-suite bedrooms, Htun opens up the home to associates in town for business instead of housing them in a serviced apartment. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

First recreational pot shops in Eastern U.S. to open in Massachusetts By Associated Press Two marijuana stores in Massachusetts have been given the green light to begin selling to recreational customers, making them the first commercial pot shops in the eastern United States. Both stores, one located in Northampton and the other in Leicester, said they would open Tuesday morning after the Cannabis Control Commission, the states marijuana regulatory agency, on Friday authorized them to begin operations. The announcement ended a long wait for commercial sales to begin in Massachusetts. The states voters legalized the use of recreational marijuana by adults 21 and older in 2016, but its taken more than two years for state legislators and regulators to reach the point where the first stores can finally open. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Heres whats behind Mexicos radical move toward legalizing marijuana during its war on drugs By Kate Linthicum Mexico may soon legalize marijuana, a radical shift for a country whose prohibition on narcotics has been at the heart of its long and violent war against drug traffickers. Legislation submitted to Congress last week by the party of leftist President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador would regulate cannabis, allowing it to be grown, sold and consumed for recreational use. Proponents of legalization say it would reduce bloodshed in Mexico by weakening drug cartels and freeing up police officers and prosecutors to focus on more serious crimes. But the proposal has critics, including the Catholic Church, which holds significant sway in Mexican politics. A poll in Mexico last year showed a majority of respondents opposed legalizing marijuana. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Curious about all the CBD-infused products you see? By Kavita Daswani Some chew it, or place a few drops under the tongue or let it soak in through the skin. There are numerous ways to consume cannabidiol  better known as CBD. Its touted for its therapeutic effects, but, unlike its better-known cousin THC, does not get you high. Hemp-derived CBD is increasingly in the limelight these days, at natural products stores and even fashion boutiques, catering to widening demand from consumers who find it helps them with pain, anxiety and insomnia. Despite Californias marijuana-friendly laws, however, the state announced earlier this year it is waiting for the federal government to rule on the use of CBD oils and products before giving the green light to sales. Critics, meanwhile, have been asking for clarity, to help consumers who want options. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

6 cannabis cookbooks with recipes from basic to gourmet By Amy Scattergood As cannabis is legalized  although it remains illegal under federal law and goes mainstream in California and other states, the cookbook industry has churned into high gear with books on what ways to use jazz cabbage beyond the bong. What to look for? A lot depends on your level of expertise  not just in the kitchen but with cannabis itself. If youve been making batches of pot brownies and want to expand your repertoire to, say, French macarons, there are cookbooks to help you out. Many books have lengthy introductions that outline the specifics of cooking with cannabis, so find one that fits with what you know  or dont know. Bong Appetit: Mastering the Art of Cooking With Weed by the editors of Munchies (Ten Speed Press, $30) This book, based on the Munchies and Viceland television series Bong Appetit, was published in October by Ten Speed Press. (This is in itself notable, as Ten Speed is one of the best cookbook publishers around, and continues the legitimate trajectory of the cannabis cooking genre.) The book has a comprehensive introduction that includes topics such as dosing, techniques, methods of decarboxylation and infusion, cannabis pairing tips, questions to ask your dispensary, tips on equipment and more. The recipes are sourced from the Munchies test kitchen and from many well-known chefs, whose recipes are recalibrated to add cannabis. Thus: Korean fried chicken from Deuki Hong of San Franciscos Sunday Bird; fried soft-shell crab with shishito pepper mole from Daniela Soto-Innes of Cosme and Atla; and (my favorite) Joan Nathans preserved lemons. The Munchies test kitchen also has some fun ones, including herb focaccia with, well, herb; and confit octopus, in which a whole octopus is poached in cannabis-infused olive oil. If that sounds too aspirational, there are instructions for making an apple bong  a hollowed-out apple filled with weed-infused mezcal  at the end of the drinks chapter. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Sativa or indica? CBD or THC? What to know before cooking with cannabis By Brette Warshaw Dont know the difference between MSG and THC? Heres a guide to the terminology youll encounter. Cannabis sativa and cannabis indica are two of the three species of cannabis. (The third species, cannabis ruderalis, is less attractive due to its smaller stature and low concentration of THC.) Sativa is a warm-weather species characterized by tall plants and thin leaves. The plant takes 10 to 15 weeks to mature and is known for a cerebral, energetic and invigorating high thats particularly suited for daytime use. Medically, it can be used to help people with depression and chronic pain. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

California pot tax revenue improves but is still short of projections (Mathew Sumner / Associated Press) The amount of money collected by the state from taxes on cannabis grown and sold legally in California continues to increase but is still falling short of budget estimates, according to figures released Wednesday. Tax revenue reported from the cannabis industry totaled $93.1 million for the three months ending Sept. 30, according to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. That is an increase from the $80.2 million collected during the second quarter of the year. If revenue continues to grow by the same 16% per quarter, pot taxes will bring in $471 million during the fiscal year that began July 1, while the budget approved by the governor and Legislature estimates the taxes would bring in $630 million during the fiscal year. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Eaze launches (nearly) nationwide delivery of hemp-derived CBD products By Adam Tschorn Eaze Wellness offers non-psychoactive CBD products derived from hemp. (Eaze) Eaze, the San Francisco-based technology platform thats been coordinating dispensary-to-consumer home deliveries of cannabis in Los Angeles since April, has expanded its reach  for CBD-containing products, that is  to most of the United States. (CBD, a.k.a cannabidiol, is a cannabis compound said to have anti-inflammatory and anti-anxiety properties but none of the high associated with THC. These claims have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.) Through the just-launched Eaze Wellness website, consumers over the age of 21 in 41 states and the District of Columbia can order a range of hemp-derived CBD tinctures, tablets, balms, bath bombs, patches, vape pens and pet products for delivery within four to six days. (Shipping is free for orders $50 and up; otherwise, itll cost you $5.) Much like its in-state marijuana-delivery service, which coordinates deliveries with local dispensaries, Eaze isnt doing the shipping itself, but rather working with a third-party partner to get goods from brands such as Plant People, Cannuka, BeTru Wellness and Vital Leaf from point A to point B. Although the laws surrounding the legality of CBD are murky at best (a loophole in federal law has been widely interpreted as making CBD derived from hemp grown for research purposes legal), one point B that Eaze Wellness wont be coordinating shipping to is its home state of California. (The company cites state regulations as the reason.) Yes, California, where cannabis  even the kind that gets you high  has been legal under state law since the beginning of the year. Additional information is available at www.eazewellness.com. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

What THC-infused edibles are most popular? Fruit-flavored gummies and chocolate-covered coffee beans for starters By Adam Tschorn Nearly a year in to the state-legal cannabis scene, theres no shortage of THC-infused items on the market for 21-and-older consumers, from sachets of herbal tea and cans of citrus-flavored soda to honey mustard pretzels, with analysts and dispensary owners seeing it as a growing side of the business. Since recreational use was legalized in January, edibles have seen a 20%-30% hike in sales, said Nick Danias, managing partner of the Pottery and Cannary West dispensaries in Los Angeles, who added that edibles have proved particularly popular with new cannabis users who might be reluctant to start experimenting by smoking cannabis flower. Edibles companies have been able to offer consumers micro dosing that allows for a controlled amount of THC to be ingested, he said. (State law requires that edibles be portioned or scored into servings that contain no more than 10 milligrams of THC per piece and no more than 100 milligrams of THC per package.) Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

5 more marijuana permit applications await Costa Mesa Planning Commission By Luke Money The torrent of applications from marijuana manufacturing and distribution facilities looking to open in Costa Mesa continues Thursday, when city planning commissioners will review five more during a special meeting. Should the commission grant all the requested conditional use permits, it would bring the total number of marijuana facilities with such approvals to 22  including nine in the past month. The applications up for review this time are: Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Two shot and killed in Koreatown marijuana dispensary By James Queally Two people were shot and killed early Monday morning after gunfire erupted inside a Koreatown marijuana dispensary, authorities said. Officers responded to reports of a shooting in the 400 block of Western Avenue in Koreatown around 4:20 a.m. Monday, according to a statement issued by the Los Angeles Police Department. There, they found a locked and sealed marijuana dispensary, according to the statement. A female employee told police she and several customers were inside the dispensary when they heard gunshots in the waiting room. They fled through the back of the building, and when officers gained entry, they found two people who were pronounced dead at the scene. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Party of Mexicos president-elect wants to legalize marijuana By Associated Press The party of Mexicos president-elect submitted legislation Thursday that would legalize marijuana possession, public use, growing and sales. Sen. Olga Sanchez Cordero presented the measure, saying that everyone should have the right to carry up to 30 grams [1 ounce] of cannabis. People could carry more than an ounce if they obtained a permit to do so under the proposal. From the point of view of negative effects, there is no reason why marijuana should not be legal, if alcohol and tobacco are, according to the bill. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Want to grow your own marijuana? This class will show you how By Jeanette Marantos California law lets anyone over 21 grow up to six marijuana plants in their yard or home, as long as the plants are not accessible to the public. (Check your City Hall for any additional local rules.) Unsure how to start? Check out Fig Earth Supplys two-hour workshops, Cannabis Cultivation for the Home Grower, on Nov. 10 or Nov. 17, taught by professional cannabis growers. Attendees must be at least 21. No plants or seeds will be sold. Workshops cost $95 and start at 5 p.m. at 3577 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles. More info: figearthsupply.com Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Whats that smell? Survey asks Venice Beach denizens if theyre vexed by odor of marijuana By Joseph Serna They descended on free-wheeling Venice Beach with clipboards and questions in hand. Their goal: to gauge humanitys tolerance for the smell and sight of public pot smoking. Akbar Karriem considered them ridiculous. Everybody be smoking, Karriem said as he sat on the boardwalk and lit a marijuana pipe. Its part of the culture here. Its like a religion. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Las Vegas newest and biggest pot shop aims to entertain By Jay Jones Prepare to be entertained at Las Vegas newest and biggest cannabis store a mile west of the Strip. Planet 13 combines light shows and fog-making fountains to wow visitors at the shop, which sells recreational pot, cannabis extracts and cannabis-infused products. The idea is to meld a cannabis shop with an entertainment complex. Visitors, who must be at least 21, can change the colors of 13 giant LED-lighted lotus flowers blooming on the roof of the building. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

CBD-infused products are being sold everywhere in California  but are they legal? By Laura Newberry Greg and Gary Avetisyan make no secret of it: They proudly sell all manner of products infused with CBD, from essential oils to bath bombs to fruity tea-like beverages that promise calming relief in a frantic world. CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a molecule derived from cannabis. But unlike its chemical cousin THC, it wont get you high. What it might do, according to some research, is alleviate anxiety, seizures, chronic pain and dozens of other ailments. The Avetisyan brothers belief in the alleged benefits of the extract is so steadfast that they opened Californias first CBD-only store, Topikal, in Tarzana last year and opened a second along the Venice Beach boardwalk in April. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Review: Documentary Weed the People looks at cannabis and pediatric cancer By Kimber Myers An urgent cry for help, Weed the People explores the effects of cannabis on pediatric cancer, as well as the establishments disinterest in researching its efficacy. With the lack of scientific studies available, Abby Epsteins moving documentary primarily devotes its time to five children and their families who are trying to survive using the alternative treatment. Weed the People doesnt ease into its multi-story narrative, wasting no time in sharing the stories of these kids with cancer. With parents desperate for their children to feel better, they turn to medical marijuana to ease the pain, as well as directly addressing the cancer cells. Without studies and lack of nationwide legalization, there is little regulation in the industry. Enter Mara Gordon, a former process engineer who brings precision and rigor to her medical cannabis company, offering the families hope for healing. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Denver verdict on pot odor and property values could discourage homeowners from filing RICO lawsuits By Associated Press A Colorado jury likely threw cold water on future legal challenges against cannabis companies by homeowners who consider filing racketeering lawsuits alleging that proximity to pot operations hurts their property values, analysts and industry lawyers said Thursday. A federal jury in Denver on Wednesday rejected claims involving the odor from a pot farm made in a case that was closely watched by the marijuana industry. It was the first such lawsuit to reach a jury. Three others are pending in California, Massachusetts and Oregon. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Office makes its largest seizure of illegal marijuana plants By Joseph Serna An estimated 400,000 marijuana plants were destroyed by Santa Barbara County sheriffs investigators this week in what authorities are calling the countys largest seizure of pot plants at one site. The plants were hidden among farmland in Santa Maria and discovered by sheriffs investigators on Monday, the sheriffs office said in a statement. The crop belonged to a resident who, authorities said, had applied for a temporary state cannabis license using false information and did not have a valid cannabis license. Investigators found the 400,000 plants in various levels of maturity and tapped state Department of Fish and Wildlife personnel to help in the case. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Is Rohrabacher trying to lose Republican voters by caving on marijuana policy? To the editor: I was disappointed to read in a column on voters trying to flip an Orange County congressional district that Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) wants to weaken federal laws against marijuana. Recently-approved state laws legalizing marijuana have not been beneficial. In Colorado, following the legalization of recreational marijuana, the number of traffic fatalities involving marijuana-impaired drivers more than doubled. Surveys have found a majority of marijuana users in Colorado do not believe driving high is dangerous, leading some to get behind the wheel impaired. As a retired law enforcement officer who has had the opportunity to work with people impacted by drug addiction, and as a lifelong Republican, I feel Rohrabacher is making a mistake. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Berners Melrose birthday bash celebrates a new dispensary  and a collaboration with the G Pen Gio By Adam Tschorn The Cookies dispensary at 8360 Melrose Ave. celebrated its grand opening on Saturday. (Grenco Science) On Saturday morning, the lines were stretching around the corner and down the block outside the bright blue Beverly Grove storefront with the word Cookies above the door. The enthusiastic members of the crowd werent queued up for baked goods, though. They were waiting to get into a new cannabis dispensary  and to help celebrate the birthday of its founding partner, Bay Area rapper and entrepreneur Berner (born Gilbert Millam Jr.). Minimalist, awash in natural light and appointed in the brands blue and white color scheme and emblazoned with the cookie-with-a-bite-missing logo, it marks the second Cookies dispensary in Los Angeles County; the first, Cookies Los Angeles, is located in Maywood. Like that one, its stocked with a wide variety of cannabis flower, oils, edibles and the like, with a particular emphasis on the proprietary strains from the Cookie Family collective (the growers who originated the strain formerly known as Girl Scout Cookies as well as other dessert-named strains such as Gelato and Sunset Sherbet). It also stocks three different Cookies-logoed colors (blue, white and black) of the new G Pen Gio ($29.95), a vaporizer pen that uses cannabis concentrate cartridges for a super-simple, draw-activated plug-and-puff experience. The Cookies G Pen Gio from Grenco Science x Berner collaboration officially launched at the Saturday Berner bash, and includes Gio cannabis-oil cartridges filled with Gelato, London Poundcake, Sunset Sherbet or Snowman strains ($60 for 500 mg, which Tim Patenaude, Grencos vice president of marketing, says marks the first time those Cookie strains have been commercially available as concentrates. (Gio pod cartridges are now available at 500 dispensaries across 12 states, according to Patenaude, including MedMen, BARC and the Pottery locally, as well as through the Eaze delivery service.) Shown are Berners blue-and-white birthday cake, left, and vape pens and cartridges from his Cookies G Pen Gio collaboration. (Grenco Science) Patenaude says the partnership with Berner has its roots in Grencos 2014 partnership with another rapper  Wiz Khalifa (Wiz Khalifas weed guy was Berner, Patenaude said, and thats how we first met him.). He calls Berner the most important person in cannabis today, citing not only Berner and his partners wildly successful strains, but the rapper/entrepreneurs brand-building abilities outside of the cannabis space. His Cookies clothing label is sold in every Zumiez in every mall in America, Patenaude said. In a chat with the Los Angeles Times Rolling Paper, Berner said that the Cookies SF streetwear label he launched out of his garage less than a decade ago saw $12.8 million in revenue in 2017 and that hes aiming to open a store next door to the dispensary  hopefully in time for the Black Friday shopping season. (Theres currently a single flagship store in San Francisco.) He also said the dispensary opening bash was a good way to usher in his 35th year on the planet. Man, I couldnt be happier, he said. Were turning [over] customers left and right, theres no holdup anywhere, everyone is super-juiced and there was a line down the block and wrapped around [the corner] at 6 a.m. You cant ask for anything else. Cookies Melrose, 8360 Melrose Ave. (at North Kings Road), Los Angeles. Additional information on the G Pen Gio (including local availability) is at gpen.com. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

2 Chainz wants to put a THC tiger in your tank with his new cannabis brand Gas By Adam Tschorn Rapper 2 Chainz attends the launch party for Gas, his fuel-themed cannabis line now available in flower and pre-rolled joints. (Adam Tschorn / Los Angeles Times) Rolling into the Friday launch party for his new cannabis brand Gas, the first thing Grammy-winning rapper 2 Chainz did was brandish a joint in one hand and a smartphone in the other to record the rows of boldly packaged cannabis flower and pre-rolled joints in a video to share with his 5.7 million Instagram followers. The second thing he did was stand back and take in the moment. I cant believe it, thats why I was over here just trying to take it all in, 2 Chainz said about seeing all the green, yellow and black plastic pouches filled with marijuana, and a jerrycan converted into a display tray overflowing with green buds. Ive been told for over a year that we were doing this line, so now Im just trying to live in the moment. I dont do that a lot. The launch party took place at the Mid-Wilshire offices of Green Street Agency, a cannabis-focused branding and licensing company that is one of the rappers two Southern California partners in the venture. The other is L.A.-based Mazel Management Group (owners of the Westside Station dispensary in Van Nuys). Before joining the throng of well-wishers, industry friends and employees dressed in logo-emblazoned overalls, 2 Chainz (born Tauheed Epps), chatted with the Los Angeles Times Rolling Paper about his new project, how cannabis branding is like music and what took so long for the project to come to fruition. (Hint: There was lots of taste-testing). The Rolling Paper: Where does the name of your line  Gas  come from and what does it mean? 2 Chainz: Its Atlanta lingo that we use that basically signifies that this is a stronger type of flower  a stronger cannabis. Ive been saying it since I came into the rap game and Ive used it in a few verses of a few songs. At first people were like: What do you mean by [the line] gas in the ashtray? After it caught on and basically went mainstream, I figured why veer off from what got me here? So we started a legal line of cannabis called Gas. TRP: Ive heard that you were pretty picky in the development process. 2C: It took months and months and about 30 different kinds of [cannabis] flower. I think I was looking for that first impression  that first pull  how it made me feel. Were there fireworks or no fireworks? What kind of memory did it create? Thats what I was looking for. TRP: The three different types of flower youre launching with dont have names but numbers  87, 89 and 93  are those supposed to be kind of like octane ratings but for marijuana? 2C: Thats a great way of describing it. The 87, for example [a Petrol OG hybrid, with a THC content of 14%] is for functioning throughout the day, [and for] people who are on the go [or] at work and cant get that whole indica sleepy feeling during the middle of the day. I think 87 will be sufficient. The 89 [a Sour Gas hybrid, 17% THC] is for when people go out for cocktails after work, when they want to get ready for the wind-down  it signifies the medium [strength]. And the 93 [an indica called Gods Fuel No. 2 with a THC level of 20%] Id definitely say is the strongest. Thats for night-night. TRP: How did the fuel theme and octane ratings and all that evolve from the name? 2C: I approached this the way I do in my music  which was come up with the concept and follow all the way through with it. So, when you have Gas, you have to have the gas cans and the imagery that actually represents the gas pumps and things that tie in to the brand itself. I think that gives it legs  gives it a little more substance and sustainability. And I used these colors because I knew they would be very catching and appealing to the eye and I know that I will kind of have to muscle my way in as far as getting where I need to be on [dispensary] shelves these days. I figure I could be on the back of the shelf and you could still see this green, this yellow and this black packaging. Gas prices range from $12 to $14 (for 1-gram pre-rolled joints) and $36 to $48 for 3.5 gram packages of flower. Currently available at Westside Station, 7022 Valjean Ave., Van Nuys. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

A chemical found in liverwort has surprising similarities to the THC in marijuana By Noga Tarnopolsky Its an amazing plant that produces hypnotic effects, according to online testimonials. Some people who have ingested it or inhaled its smoke say it gave them a mild, marijuana-like high. Now scientists have weighed in. In experiments with more than 100 mice, they found that chemicals in the liverwort plant produced four of the same key effects as THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. An hour after being injected with the experimental chemicals, the mice entered a trance-like state, lost some of their ability to move, became less responsive to pain and experienced a drop in body temperature, according to a study published this week in the journal Science Advances. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Hours-long standoff at Tarzana weed dispensary ends after police learn building is empty By Hailey Branson-Potts The police standoff lasted more than six hours, shutting down a busy six-lane stretch of Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana for most of the evening. An armed robbery suspect, authorities said, had barricaded himself inside an illegal marijuana dispensary in a strip mall in the 18300 block of Ventura Boulevard. He was believed to be one of four suspects and was thought to have a female hostage. But when officers searched the building after 8:20 p.m., there was no one inside, said Officer Mike Lopez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

State officials decline to drop plan to allow home deliveries of pot in California cities that ban marijuana stores Cities and law enforcement leaders say a state proposal to allow pot delivery to homes would increase crime. (Mathew Sumner / Associated Press) Despite objections from cities and police chiefs, state officials on Friday declined to drop a proposal allowing marijuana firms to deliver to homes everywhere in California, including in areas that have banned pot shops. The proposed rule, which was made public in July, was opposed by the League of California Cities, which represents the states 482 municipalities, and the California Police Chiefs Assn., which said it would jeopardize public safety. But the state Bureau of Cannabis Control announced Friday that it is moving forward with the proposed rule after a series of public hearings and after weighing hundreds of comments from residents and interested parties. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

San Diego plans to crack down on marijuana ads, especially billboards By David Garrick San Diego officials say they plan to crack down on marijuana advertising, particularly the billboard ads that have become increasingly common with recreational use of the drug now legal in California. Legislation proposed by City Councilman Chris Cate aims to keep marijuana billboard ads out of areas where young people congregate and to prevent illegal marijuana businesses from advertising anywhere. The proposal, which would go beyond relatively new state laws that govern marijuana advertising, will be included in a series of city code updates that Mayor Kevin Faulconers staff plans to present to the City Council next year. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Drinking before a flight is common. Now some fliers are turning to pot before takeoff By Hugo Martin Commercial flights can be so stressful  cramped seats, delays, turbulence, loud seatmates  that more than 60% of travelers in a recent survey said they down a drink or two before heading to the airport. But the survey by a drug treatment organization found that nearly as many fliers are now turning to marijuana to relax before getting on a plane. The online survey of 1,137 people who have flown in the past year was taken by Florida-based Delphi Behavioral Health Group. It found that nearly 30% of respondents said they had smoked marijuana and another 25% had consumed pot-infused snacks before arriving at an airport. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Marijuana issues dominate Costa Mesa Planning Commission agenda By Luke Money Cannabis-related companies will be front and center in Costa Mesa again Monday, when city planning commissioners will consider four applications for proposed marijuana manufacturing and distribution facilities. Should the Planning Commission OK all the requests, it would bring the number of marijuana businesses with city-approved conditional use permits to 17. First up will be Aureus LLC, which is looking to open in a 5,556-square-foot industrial space at 3505 Cadillac Ave., Building A. The company proposes to manufacture cannabis concentrates, particularly oils intended for use in vaporizer cartridges, according to city planning documents. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Canada is now the worlds largest legal marijuana marketplace By Associated Press Ian Power was among the first to buy legal recreational marijuana in Canada but he has no plans to smoke it. He plans to frame it. Canada became the largest country with a legal national marijuana marketplace as sales began early Wednesday in Newfoundland. Power was first in line at a store in St. Johns, Newfoundland. I am going to frame it and hang it on my wall. Im not even going to smoke it. Im just going to save it forever, Power said. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Bloom Farms doubles its meal donations on Oct. 16 in observance of World Food Day By Adam Tschorn Bloom Farms Pineapple Single Origin vape cartridge is a World Food Day exclusive that will be available only in October. (Bloom Farms) In recognition of the United Nations designation of Oct. 16 as World Food Day 2018, Oakland-based cannabis company Bloom Farms is doubling its usual meal-donation-per-sale for purchase made through the Eaze delivery service (which is doing its part by offering a day-long 20% discount on all Bloom Farms products) as well as participating dispensaries statewide (including Buds & Roses, Urban Treez and Green Dot locally). The company says that since 2014 it has donated about 1.4 million meals to food banks statewide through its one-for-one program, with a goal of donating 5 million meals. World Harvest Food Bank in Los Angeles and the San Diego Food Bank are among the SoCal beneficiaries of the Bloom Farm donations. Although the double-down on meal donations lasts only one day, Bloom Farms has a couple of slightly less time-sensitive promotions to raise awareness and drive donations in furtherance of the U.N.s mission of a zero-hunger world by 2030. One is a partnership with vaporizer maker Pax  which has pledged $10,000 to fund meal donations  that includes a free Pax Era vape pen (custom-engraved on-site) with the purchase of two Bloom Farms Pax pods at special dispensary events throughout the month, the second is an exclusive, October-only Pineapple Single Origin vape cartridge that, after the purchase of any two Bloom Farms products  can be purchased for just a penny. Additional information  and a calendar of dispensary events and demonstrations  can be found at getbloomfarms.com/events. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Screened at U.S. border, Canadians who are honest about using marijuana could be banned from the U.S. By Kurtis Lee Bill Powers flipped through the sworn statement he gave to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the printed pages taking him back to that August afternoon  back to the border checkpoint into Washington state where agents asked if he had ever smoked marijuana. Yes, he answered, not initially thinking much of the question. The 57-year-old Canadian has a license for medical marijuana, and pot had been legal in Washington for six years. Like that, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents turned him away with an extreme decree: He had been banned from the United States. Its absolutely out of control. Here I am being honest with the United States and I get the boot, Powers said on a recent afternoon as he stood in his driveway in this farming town an hour east of Vancouver. I have a license  yet theyre turning people away for pot? It makes not a single bit of sense. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Newport mayor says he wants to sell his boat factory site, not grow marijuana on it By Hillary Davis Despite having local and state approvals to cultivate or distribute medical marijuana on the site of his boat factory in San Bernardino County, Newport Beach Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield says he isnt a pot farmer. Rather, he says, he sought the entitlements to make the property more attractive to buyers so he can move his factory to Utah. Duffield said in a statement emailed to the Daily Pilot on Sunday that he split his 4.7-acre property in Adelanto into thirds and sought a cannabis distribution permit from the California Bureau of Cannabis Control to take advantage of increased property values that followed Adelantos passage of a medicinal cultivation ordinance in 2015 and creation of a cultivation zone in 2016 that later expanded to include the factory site. As a property owner, I am trying to maximize the value to sell the land, not grow pot, Duffield said. I am actively manufacturing electric boats at the plant and there is no room to be growing pot. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

NHL: Legal pot in Canada wont affect league policy By Associated Press Now a handful of years into retirement from more than a decade of junior and pro hockey, former enforcer Riley Cote is a proponent of cannabis and its oils as an alternative to more addictive drugs commonly used by athletes to play through pain. Marijuana can be detected in a persons system for more than 30 days, is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency without a specific therapeutic use exemption and is illegal in much of the United States. Canada on Wednesday will become the largest country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana. That means it will be available under the law in seven more NHL cities (its been legal to adults in Denver since 2012). The move is a step forward for those who, like Cote, believe marijuana has been stigmatized and should be accepted as a form of treatment. It was so tainted for a long time, Ottawa Senators forward Matt Duchene said. And now people are starting to learn a little bit more about it and there is definitely some positive uses to different elements of it. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Costa Mesa council to review marijuana permit decision By Luke Money Costa Mesas review process for marijuana-related businesses will enter uncharted territory Tuesday when the City Council takes a second look at an earlier decision to award a required permit. So far, whats separated this particular application by Pivot Naturals LLC from the dozen other marijuana manufacturing and distribution facilities that previously sailed through City Hall isnt so much the question of whether the business should be allowed to open, but when. City planning commissioners decided last month to grant the business a conditional use permit to operate within a 5,283-square-foot industrial space in Suite 101 at 3595 Cadillac Ave. However, they added a new wrinkle by restricting hours to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Business linked to Newport mayor paid councilman to help create marijuana facility in Inland Empire, records show By Hillary Davis A business linked to Newport Beach Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield paid his City Council colleague Scott Peotter to help convert part of Duffields boat manufacturing facility in San Bernardino County to a medical marijuana cultivation or distribution hub, records show. Peotter made at least $10,000 from DC Developments, a Duffield-associated company, according to Peotters state-required statement of economic interest forms. A string of corporations that financially tie the two together appears to answer a question  has Peotter ever worked for Duffield?  that has dogged them for weeks as they seek reelection in November. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Following California, pot legalization campaigns across the U.S. aim to throw out old convictions By Kurtis Lee Rob Jenkins tried for four years to find a job, scouring the internet for anything that seemed at all appealing  a maintenance position at a Chevron refinery, a counselor for foster kids, a clerk at Hertz. Some employers seemed interested, until they found out about his 2008 misdemeanor conviction for growing marijuana. I was stuck, recalled the 37-year-old college graduate. No job opportunities were coming in. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Canada is about to legalize marijuana. How did that happen? Justin Trudeau, for starters By Kurtis Lee Politicians herald it as transformative. Residents offer resounding support in the polls. Investors see billions of dollars on the horizon. When Canada legalizes marijuana on Oct. 17, it will join Uruguay as the only countries to allow recreational cannabis nationwide. The South American country became the first in 2013. The effort, years in the making, is unlike the piecemeal approaches to marijuana legalization that have been passed in the United States and the Netherlands. For pot proponents around the world, Canadas implementation of legal marijuana is being closely watched. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Can you carry marijuana in LAX? Yes, but its more complicated than that By Chris Erskine LAX wants you to know this about the marijuana you may be taking with you on your trip: Whats legal on the street is also legal in the terminals. Up to a point. Travelers can carry the legal amount of marijuana in California  up to 28.5 grams through the airport areas that are under city supervision, that is up to pre-security checkpoints. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Dont you dare light up at Las Vegas new cannabis museum By Jay Jones Inhale  we mean through your nose  in the new marijuana museum in Las Vegas. You wont smell a thing, even though recreational pot is legal in Nevada. Signs in the elevators at Neonopolis, the downtown entertainment, dining and retail center thats home to the immersive Cannabition museum, make it clear that consumption in public is still against the law. Just steps away, a colorful mural covering the museums exterior depicts the changing attitudes toward marijuana, from the scare tactics of the 1930s to strict law enforcement in the 80s to growing tolerance today. That history is depicted in greater detail once youre inside. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Costa Mesa Planning Commission awards permit to 13th marijuana business By Luke Money A 13th marijuana manufacturing and distribution facility took a step closer to opening in Costa Mesa after the city Planning Commission decided Monday to grant it a required permit. The 3-2 vote, with Chairman Stephan Andranian and Vice Chairman Byron de Arakal opposed, awards a conditional use permit to Pivot Naturals LLC to operate in an existing 5,283-square-foot industrial space in Suite 101 at 3595 Cadillac Ave. Pivot Naturals intends to process cannabis oils into a powder for use in a variety of products, including tablets, food and beverages. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Kindergartner can take cannabis drug to school, judge says By Associated Press A kindergartner can keep bringing a cannabis-based drug used for emergency treatment of a rare form of epilepsy to her public school, a judge ruled Friday. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported that a judge sided with the family of 5-year-old Brooke Adams. The Rincon Valley Union School District in Santa Rosa sought to ban the ointment from school grounds because it contains the active ingredient in marijuana. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Glendale police seize hundreds of marijuana plants after reportedly discovering elaborate grow operation By Andy Nguyen What started as a routine wellness check by Glendale police officers on Monday led to the alleged discovery of an illegal marijuana grow operation and the seizure of more than 600 plants. Officers with the Glendale Police Department were in the 100 block of Wonderview Drive at around 12:40 a.m. after receiving a call about a person yelling for help from one of the homes in the neighborhood. After speaking with the homes occupant, 38-year-old Rui Yun Guan, officers entered the residence and discovered it had been converted into an elaborate marijuana grow operation, according to Tahnee Lightfoot, a spokeswoman for the department. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Tilrays wild ride shows how hyped pot stocks are catching up to the crypto craze By Craig Giammona Tilray Inc. investors could probably use a bit of the companys products right now. The Canadian maker of medicinal cannabis extracts finished a whipsaw session Wednesday with its share price 38% higher. But Tilray was up as much as 94% earlier in the day, peaking at $300. Fifty-three minutes and four trading halts later, it was in negative territory. The closing flourish that added $63 to the share price  it finished up $59.08 to $214.06  took just six minutes. It left a sea of bodies, both longs and shorts, behind in its wake, said Dave Lutz, managing director at JonesTrading. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Marijuana industry fights stoner, pot and other words that stigmatizes people By Gary Robbins Theres a badge on her uniform, possibly a gun on her hip, and her arms are spread a little, suggesting shes ready for anything. You might think that youre looking at a police officer walking a beat. But what youve seen on billboards and, more recently, the internet is an effort by MedMen Enterprises of Culver City to remind you that marijuana users come from all walks of life. They can be cops, nurses, teachers, scientists, construction foremen and grandmothers. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Police arrest eight people after searching illegal cannabis store in San Fernando Valley By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde Los Angeles police arrested eight people at an illegal cannabis store in the San Fernando Valley after serving a search warrant, officials said Wednesday. About 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Los Angeles Police Departments Mission Area Narcotics Unit searched a cannabis retail shop in the 15400 block of Devonshire Street and confiscated several items of evidence and contraband, police said in a news release. The store was operating without proper permits and was considered a nuisance location, authorities said. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

More than 2 million U.S. middle and high school students have vaped marijuana, study finds By Karen Kaplan Electronic cigarettes are the most popular tobacco product among U.S. teens, but tobacco isnt the only thing theyre vaping. A new report from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that more than 2 million middle and high school students have used an e-cigarette to vape marijuana. That figure is based on survey results from the 2016 National Youth Tobacco Survey, which polls a representative sample of American students in grades 6 through 12. Among the questions the 20,675 participants were asked in 2016 was, Have you ever used an e-cigarette device with a substance besides nicotine? One of the possible answers was this: Yes, I have used an e-cigarette device with marijuana, THC or hash oil, or THC wax. (THC, short for tetrahydrocannabinol, is the mind-altering chemical that produces marijuanas high.) Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Police chiefs warn of increased crime if California allows pot deliveries statewide By Patrick McGreevy The prospect of vans loaded with pot delivering to homes in quiet Morgan Hill makes Police Chief David Swing uneasy. Like most cities in the state, the upscale San Jose suburb has banned pot shops. But now, as California considers a proposal to allow marijuana businesses to send home-delivery vans into communities where retail stores are prohibited, Swing and others in law enforcement say they are preparing for the worst. This will make it easier and more lucrative to rob a delivery person than a liquor store, said Swing, who is president of the California Police Chiefs Assn. He notes drivers would be allowed to carry up to $10,000 in cash. Robberies are the tip of the iceberg. They can lead to other crimes, including aggravated assaults and homicides. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Tesla erupts in chaos after senior executives leave and Elon Musk tokes up By Dana Hull The turmoil at Tesla Inc. reached a fever pitch Friday, as news emerged that two senior executives will leave Elon Musks electric-car maker a matter of hours after he smoked marijuana during an hours-long interview with a comedian. Chief Accounting Officer Dave Morton gave notice Tuesday that he was resigning less than a month into the job, according to a filing. Teslas stock plunged, then extended declines after Gabrielle Toledano, the head of human resources whos been on a leave of absence, told Bloomberg News that she wont rejoin the company. Morton, a former chief financial officer for computer-drive maker Seagate Technology Plc, joined Tesla the day before Chief Executive Musk tweeted that he was considering buying out some investors at $420 a share and taking the company private. Musk abandoned that take-private effort 17 days later, and in the process drew a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission and a series of lawsuits alleging market manipulation. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Elon Musk smokes a blunt live on YouTube with podcaster Joe Rogan By Russ Mitchell Elon Musk apparently smoked dope with comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan live on YouTube late Thursday night, then giggled about turning Mars into a big Jamaica. I mean, its legal, right? Musk said, accepting a lit blunt from Rogan in the Los Angeles studio, where The Joe Rogan Experience is webcast live. Rogan told Musk hed rolled marijuana in tobacco leaves. Musk took a single deep toke. If the pair were joking about what they were smoking, they didnt say so. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

L.A. launches crackdown on unlicensed marijuana businesses; more than 500 people are charged By Joseph Serna A police crackdown on local unlicensed marijuana businesses has ended with misdemeanor charges against more than 500 people in Los Angeles, the city attorneys office said. In 120 criminal cases filed since May, City Atty. Mike Feuer has charged 515 people in connection with 105 illegal marijuana businesses, grow sites, extraction labs and delivery companies located throughout the city, his office announced Friday. All of the defendants were charged with unlicensed commercial cannabis activity within the city, which carries a potential sentence of six months in jail and $1,000 in fines. Local judges have been hearing the cases since May with arraignments scheduled through the end of October, Feuers office said. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

12th marijuana business wins permit approval in Costa Mesa By Luke Money Costa Mesa planning commissioners Monday evening gave their blessing to another local marijuana manufacturing and distribution facility, bringing the total number of approvals to 12. On a 4-0 vote  with Chairman Stephan Andranian absent  the commission awarded a conditional use permit to Pure Labs Inc., which is looking to open in a 2,025-square-foot space in Unit M-103 at 3505 Cadillac Ave. The decision is final unless appealed to the City Council within seven days. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Former L.A. mayor Villaraigosa joins board of local cannabis firm MedMen By James Rufus Koren Former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is joining the board of publicly traded cannabis company MedMen, marking his return to the business world following a resounding defeat in Junes Democratic gubernatorial primary. MedMen, a Culver City company that operates high-end cannabis shops in California, Nevada and New York and has aggressive expansion plans, announced Villaraigosas appointment Wednesday morning. Villaraigosa adds political and governmental experience to a board made up of branding, entertainment and accounting executives. Other recent additions to the companys board include Stacey Hallerman, a former executive at the conglomerate that owns luxury brands Montblanc and Cartier, and Jay Brown, the chief executive of of RocNation, the entertainment company co-founded by Shawn Jay Z Carter. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Newport man accused of operating illegal marijuana dispensary in Costa Mesa By Luke Money A Newport Beach man is accused of operating an illegal marijuana dispensary in Costa Mesa, according to authorities. Omid Delkash, 47, was charged Monday with four misdemeanor counts of unlawful transportation, sale and furnishing of marijuana. He pleaded not guilty and is in custody at Orange County Jail, records show. He is scheduled to appear in court Friday for a pretrial hearing. Costa Mesa law prohibits the retail sale of marijuana or marijuana products anywhere in the city. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

California lawmakers want the state to collect data on drivers under the influence of pot By Patrick McGreevy After she was injured in a car accident allegedly caused by a driver impaired by pot, state Controller Betty Yee is backing a bill approved Monday by the Legislature that aims to begin addressing the problem of drugged driving on California roads. The measure sent to Gov. Jerry Brown would require the California Highway Patrol to report on how many motorists stopped for impaired driving are allegedly under the influence of marijuana. Its what other states have done  like Colorado and Washington  to at least start collecting state-level data, Yee said. They just want to understand the extent of cannabis-impaired driving. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Marijuana use is rising among pregnant patients. Not so fast, doctors warn By Jenny Gold Marijuana may be losing its image as a dangerous drug, but mounting research suggests women should steer clear of it if they are pregnant or breastfeeding, according to new recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The advice comes as more than half of the states, including California, have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use. Growing acceptance of the drug has made it seem harmless, or even beneficial. As a result, doctors fret that more and more babies are being exposed to the drug. The march toward legalization has outpaced scientific research about marijuanas health effects. Because it is a Schedule 1 drug  one with potential for abuse and no approved medical use  studies have been limited by federal law. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Mormon Church ramps up opposition to medical marijuana effort in Utah, speaking out publicly By Kurtis Lee The Mormon Church has played a quiet role in the fight against an effort to legalize medical marijuana in Utah, releasing measured statements and helping to bankroll lawsuits. But on Thursday, leaders of the powerful Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came out from behind the scenes. We are deeply concerned by the history of other states that have allowed medical and recreational use of this drug  and have experienced serious consequences to the health of its citizens, Elder Jack N. Gerard, flanked by politicians, medical professionals and other church leaders, said at a news conference at the state Capitol. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

California lawmakers move to help expunge pot-related convictions California lawmakers voted Wednesday to ease the process for clearing the records of those convicted in the past of marijuana offenses. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) With recreational marijuana legalized by the states voters, Californians with past convictions for cannabis-related offenses would get state help in expunging their records under a bill sent by lawmakers to the governor on Wednesday. Proposition 64, which state voters approved in 2016, legalized the sale and use of marijuana for recreational use and permitted those with past convictions for the activity to petition the courts to clear their records. But state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) told his colleagues Wednesday that the process is complicated, and many with pot convictions do not know about the opportunity. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

By next year, you can buy medical marijuana in Hawaii, but youll still have to jump through some hoops By Jay Jones Out-of-state medical marijuana users next year will be able to buy cannabis products at dispensaries in Hawaii. The only hitches: Visitors will need to apply online and pay $45 (plus a $4.50 processing fee) for a temporary Hawaii medical marijuana card thats valid for 60 days. Weve been fielding a lot of calls daily about reciprocity, said George Bullock, director of the Cure Oahu marijuana dispensary in Waikiki. We really look forward to being able to serve them in the future. The Hawaii Department of Health plans to allow medical marijuana cardholders from other states to make purchases at dispensaries on Oahu, Maui and Kauai. But state officials are not using the word reciprocity because those out-of-state cards wont work. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Teen sold weed from her bedroom, with her parents as suppliers, Merced County officials say By Joseph Serna A teenage girl who sold marijuana out of her bedroom was using her gun-toting parents as her suppliers, the Merced County Sheriffs Office said. On Friday, deputies served a search warrant on the home of Jose Reyes Martinez, 44, and his wife in Delhi, Calif., where they found 80 pounds of packaged marijuana and a dozen large plants along with two firearms, officials said on Facebook. The packaged weed was found in the master bedroom closet alongside a loaded AK-47, deputies said. A makeshift greenhouse in the backyard held a dozen large plants, authorities said. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Newport Beach sues to halt what city calls a marijuana dispensary at Church of the Holy Grail By Hannah Fry Newport Beach officials are asking an Orange County Superior Court judge to block an operation that identifies itself as a church but the city says is a marijuana dispensary violating local law. Brick-and-mortar marijuana dispensaries are prohibited in Newport Beach under municipal code. Cultivation, processing, distribution and delivery of cannabis have been banned in the city since 2016. A civil lawsuit Newport filed June 25 seeks an injunction to forbid the organization known as Church of the Holy Grail from operating at 2072 Bristol St. It isnt clear how long it has been operating, though the lawsuit states the location has been running without a business license since at least Jan. 24. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Proposal to create state-chartered banks for California marijuana industry fails to advance Virgil Grant arranges containers of various strains of medical marijuana in a display case at a dispensary he runs in Los Angeles. (Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Getty Images) California lawmakers on Thursday shelved a proposal to allow the state to license private banks to handle the billions of dollars expected to be generated by the states legal marijuana industry amid questions about the plans feasibility. Voters approved Proposition 64 in 2016 to legalize growing, possessing and selling marijuana for recreational use, but newly licensed pot shops and farms say they cannot put their money in federally chartered banks because cannabis remains illegal under federal law. Sen. Bob Hertzberg (D-Los Angeles) proposed that the state could license special privately financed banks that would issue checks to the businesses to pay rent and state and local taxes and fees, and to compensate vendors for goods and services provided to their businesses. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Parent of Corona beer bets $3.8 billion on U.S. love of marijuana By Bloomberg Constellation Brands Inc., which for seven decades has made its money off beer, wine and whiskey, sees its future in a marijuana leaf. In the biggest (legal) marijuana deal, the Victor, N.Y., beverage company will spend about $3.8 billion to boost its stake in Canadian grower Canopy Growth Corp., betting legalization will gain traction around the world and especially in the United States. This is rocket fuel, Canopy Chief Executive Bruce Linton said on the companys earnings call Wednesday. Were going to be way more global. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Marijuana is not really legal in California if residents dont have a reasonable way to buy it By The Times Editorial Board California law allows adults to buy marijuana. It allows licensed businesses to deliver marijuana to customers, and it says specifically that cities and counties cannot prevent delivery services from traveling on public roads. Yet even though cities cant stop deliveries traveling through their jurisdiction, many cities currently ban deliveries to their jurisdiction. That means that unlike deliveries of virtually every other legal, adult-use product  including alcohol and cigarettes, which can be ordered over the internet in California  marijuana deliveries are barred. The practical effect is that residents in some places have little to no access to legal medical or recreational cannabis products because of local regulations  which seems contrary to the intent of Proposition 64. Roughly half of Californians live in cities or counties that prohibit marijuana stores and delivery services form opening in their jurisdictions. An analysis by the Sacramento Bee earlier this year found residents in 40% of the state had to drive 60 miles or more to find a licensed dispensary to buy legal marijuana  medical or recreational. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

California cities oppose plan to allow pot delivery in areas where sales are banned California cities are objecting to changes in the states rules on marijuana that they say undermine local control. (Mathew Sumner / Associated Press) California cities on Monday objected to a state proposal that would allow marijuana delivery to homes in areas where storefront pot sales have been banned locally. The changes, which are being considered by the state Bureau of Cannabis Control, will undermine a citys ability to effectively regulate cannabis at the local level, Charles Harvey, a legislative representative for the League of California Cities, said in a letter to the bureau. The cities group, which represents the states 482 municipalities, supports other changes to clarify the rules of Proposition 64, which was approved by voters in 2016 and allows the growing and sale of marijuana for recreational use. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Cypress Hills B-Real set to open a Sylmar dispensary, as Cannary West takes flight Saturday By Adam Tschorn B-Real, from left, Kenji Fujishima and Rojo Desantis in front of the soon-to-open Dr. Greenthumbs dispensary in Sylmar. (Dr. Greenthumbs) Rapper and marijuana entrepreneur Louis Freese, better known as Cypress Hill frontman B-Real, plans to celebrate the grand opening of his flagship dispensary in Sylmar with a day-long bash next Wednesday. Called Dr. Greenthumbs  a name music fans will recognize as the title of a 1998 Cypress Hill song  the Foothill Boulevard dispensary will be heavy on strains from B-Reals Insane brand of cannabis as well his Phuncky Feel Tips product line (glass tips designed to fit the business end of a hand-rolled joint). It will also serve as the home base for the rappers online BReal.TV network. According to todays announcement, the Wednesday event will be open to the public (though youll need to be at least 21  or 18 with a medical marijuana card) and feature a line-up of BRealTVs DJs as well as a slew of surprise guests [making] appearances throughout the day. A second Dr. Greenthumbs is expected to open in Cathedral City later this year. Dr. Greenthumbs grand-opening party, Aug. 15 from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., 12751 Foothill Blvd., Sylmar (just west of the 210 freeway between Arroyo and Vaughn streets). Cannary West In other dispensary-opening news, a rebooted and relocated Cannary West (this version by the folks behind the stylish, upscale Venice Blvd. dispensary the Pottery), officially opens its doors Saturday. Although parts of the space in the Rancho Park neighborhood are still under construction, its only because plans include adding sustainable on-site cultivation (a process also underway at the Pottery), it does already have one of Los Angeles real estates most enviable features  a dedicated off-street parking lot for customers around back. To mark the grand opening, the first 200 customers who spend $30 or more after the dispensary opens for business at 10 a.m. will receive a little something special for their efforts. Cannary West, grand opening, Aug. 11 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., 2435 Military Avenue, Los Angeles (just south of Pico and two blocks east of Sepulveda). Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

As budget remedies, Huntington Beach may explore marijuana-related revenue and boosting fines for illegal short-term rentals By Priscella Vega With general-fund revenue increases projected to taper off in coming years, the Huntington Beach Finance Commission this week recommended several potential budget-tightening and revenue-generating solutions. Among them are increasing fines for illegal short-term rentals, reducing city staff and exploring opportunities for marijuana-related revenue. Some recommendations will be unpopular with employees, but at the same time we hope they realize implementing some recommendations may make funding available for salary increases, Finance Commission Chairman Nouha Hreish told the City Council during a study session Monday. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

High Times rolls out new online video network By Adam Tschorn High Times, which launched as a print magazine in 1974, has added a streaming video service to its offerings. (High Times TV) Los Angeles-based cannabis media brand High Times, which launched as a print magazine in 1974, has added a streaming video service to its offerings. Announced Thursday, the ad-supported web channel High Times TV is both a showcase for the brands own content (behind-the-scenes videos from its Cannabis Cup events, for example, and how-to videos for ganja guacamole) as well as a platform for an assortment of independent cannabis-content creators like the Stoner Mom (a Colorado mother with a family of six who focuses on living a responsible cannabis lifestyle), StrainCentral (a strain review site founded by Joshua Young) and That High Couple (Hollywood-based couple Alice and Clark who chronicle their THC-infused life via social media). While High Times newest venture is hardly a unique move- there isnt a legacy media brand out there that isnt trying to capitalize on streaming video  it could end up being a lifeline for the independents in the stoner space who have seen their traditional social media channels (particularly YouTube) threatened, restricted or suspended in a cannabis-content crackdown that began earlier this year. High Times TV is now available as an app on Android, Roku and Apple TV as well as online at tv.hightimes.com. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Newport Beach lawsuit seeks to ban marijuana business that operated in residential neighborhoods By Hannah Fry Newport Beach officials are asking an Orange County Superior Court judge to block a marijuana business from operating in two homes in violation of city law. A civil lawsuit filed May 4 seeks an injunction to forbid the business  known as OC Healing House, Bud Man OC and Bud Man Newport Beach  from operating at a home on Drakes Bay Drive in Corona del Mar and a home on Promontory Drive in Newports Promontory Point community. The city attorneys office says the business was using the homes for marijuana delivery and distribution. The lawsuit calls the business a public nuisance. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Marijuana is a gift from God. A battle over pot pits the Mormon Church against an unlikely group: other Mormons By Kurtis Lee Brian Stoll faced a dilemma as his wedding day approached. For more than a year, he had been smoking marijuana to treat severe back pain, but to remain in good standing with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and get married in the temple, he had to stop using pot. Since marijuana was illegal under Utah law, church leaders told him, it was forbidden. Stoll turned to an opioid painkiller and has continued using it since his marriage three years ago, despite unpleasant side effects and its inability to match the soothing qualities of marijuana. This was devastating ... I had to choose between my health and my fiancee, Stoll said recently. It seemed asinine that if I lived in another state, I wouldnt have to make such a difficult decision. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Roommates were unaware of drug lab operation in Glendale home, police say By Andy Nguyen Authorities arrested a man on Friday suspected of operating an illegal butane honey-oil lab out of a Glendale home. John Kelly, 52, was taken into custody after the Glendale Police Department received a tip about the suspected manufacturing operation in the 1400 block of Randall Street. The information was derived from an ongoing narcotics investigation, according to Sgt. Dan Suttles, a spokesman for the department. Butane honey oil is a type of concentrated cannabis product made when marijuana is soaked in butane in order to extract the plants essential oils. The process can lead to explosions if the butane gas builds up in an enclosed area and ignites from a spark. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Rams guard Jamon Brown says marijuana is reason for suspension By Gary Klein Rams starting right guard Jamon Brown, suspended for the first two games of the season for violating the NFLs substance-abuse policy, said Thursday that the suspension stemmed from a 2017 incident in Kentucky that involved marijuana. Brown still worked with the first-team offense Thursday as the Rams held their first training camp practice at UC Irvine. Brown, a fourth-year pro from Louisville, said that before last season he was pulled over for speeding and that police found marijuana in the car. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Democrats still havent figured out that legal weed is a winning issue By Tom Angell Every Democratic U.S. senator rumored to be considering a 2020 presidential run supports marijuana legalization. So do 77% of Democratic voters. The partys 2016 national platform backs states rights on cannabis and calls for a reasoned pathway for future legalization. So why is the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee  the entity charged with winning back control of the U.S. House  attacking a Republican congressman over his support for marijuana reform? And why is it citing a right-wing magazine to make the case? Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) has a cult-like fixation on marijuana, said a National Review article excerpt the Democratic committee highlighted in a tweet posted Monday. The party organ said the GOP congressmans cannabis advocacy is one reason why [Democratic nominee] @HarleyRouda needs your help flipping this seat...from #RedToBlue. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

They worked at Apple, Amazon and Lyft. Now theyre working to get you stoned By Tracey Lien For much of her career, Natasha Pecor followed a path well-worn by tech workers. She built her reputation with her first employer in the industry, earning the title head of platform at Yelp. Then she jumped to one of the giants, Amazon, where she worked as a product manager. Most recently she parlayed that experience into a leadership role at a smaller start-up  a common move among techies willing to take a risk for a new challenge and perhaps a big payday. But this start-up wasnt exactly a tech company. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Fountain Valley man sentenced to life in prison in kidnapping and torture of marijuana dispensary owner By Hannah Fry A Fountain Valley man was sentenced Friday to spend the rest of his life behind bars for kidnapping a medical marijuana dispensary owner and his roommate in 2012 and torturing the dispensary owner as part of a plot to extort money. Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregg Prickett gave Kyle Shirakawa Handley, 39, the maximum sentence of life in state prison. A Superior Court jury in January swiftly found Handley guilty of of kidnapping, aggravated mayhem and torture, all felonies. Prosecutors contended that Handley, a marijuana grower who supplied the victims dispensary, and three other defendants kidnapped the man and his female roommate from their 25th Street home on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach on Oct. 2, 2012. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

More California kids are having pot-related health scares, poison control officials warn By Patrick McGreevy State and local officials say they are alarmed by a spike in calls they have received to report children and teenagers ingesting marijuana products since California legalized cannabis for recreational use by adults in 2016. The number of calls to poison control centers involving people 19 and younger who were exposed to marijuana has steadily risen from 347 three years ago to 588 last year. In the first six months of this year, there have been 386 calls to poison control centers involving marijuana exposure by underage people. If that trend continues, there could be more than double the reports in 2018 as there were 2015. Nearly half of the calls received last year  256  involved children 5 and younger, including 38 children under 12 months old, and 64 toddlers who were a year old, according to Stuart E. Heard, executive director of the California Poison Control System. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

With marijuana legal, California flooded with dubious health claims about the drug By Gary Robbins Spend a few minutes surfing Twitter and youre likely to encounter a startling claim that comes without proof: Cannabis cures cancer. The online world is awash with such posts, startling scientists and physicians who are urging weeds proselytizers to tap the brakes. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Gov. Jerry Brown appoints members to new cannabis permit appeals panel Marijuana on display at the Harborside dispensary in Oakland. (Mathew Sumner / Associated Press) Six months after California began licensing growing and selling marijuana, Gov. Jerry Brown on July 3 appointed the first members of a new Cannabis Control Appeals Panel to consider objections from those denied permits or those facing penalties for violating regulations. The governor gets to name three of the five members of the panel and appointed county prosecutor Sabrina D. Ashjian of Fresno, college lecturer Diandra Bremond of Los Angeles, and a staff attorney for the governor, Adrian Carpenter of Plumas Lake. The other two appointments will be made by the Senate Rules Committee and the speaker of the Assembly. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Federal law? State law? Which takes precedence when you want to travel with cannabis? By Catharine Hamm You cant take it with you. Actually, you can. But its not a good idea when youre traveling, especially for the risk-averse. We speak, of course, of cannabis; its use was approved by 57% of California voters in November 2016. Proposition 64, known as the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, allows the recreational use of marijuana in the Golden State; medical marijuana had been legal for about a decade before that. Legal, it should be noted, in California. Not legal according to federal law, although President Trump has signaled his willingness to support legislation that, according to an L.A. Times article, would end the federal ban on marijuana. Read More Facebook

TwitDuring the winter of 1989-90, anti-immigration protesters started parking their vehicles near the United States-Mexico border and shining headlights into Mexico. Following one large so-called Light Up the Border protest, writer Patrick McDonnell reported in the May 26, 1990, Los Angeles Times:

SAN DIEGO  As dusk fell on the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday, hundreds of motorists gathered along a roadway and shined their headlights toward groups of uninterested migrants waiting patiently for nightfall at the boundary line.

Facing directly into the harsh beams of light, counter-protesters chanting, No mas racismo! (No more racism!) held up mirrors and sheets of dark plastic in an attempt to reflect the lights back to the north.

With the chill of night closing in, the face-off disintegrated into alternating volleys of epithets, as shouts of Nazis! and Wetback lovers! were exchanged.

Advertisement

The dissonant scene was from the latest gathering of the Light Up the Border campaign, a burgeoning movement of mostly Anglo citizens that has galvanized public attention on the continuing stream of undocumented immigrants from the south. The lighting movement, which began with small gatherings last winter, has expanded rapidly and grown into huge, highly publicized protests involving 1,000 or more people, energizing supporters and opponents on both sides of the frontier.

Despite their many disagreements, the participants and counter-protesters agree on one thing: U.S. laws, specifically the much-ballyhooed Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, have failed abysmally in a primary goal  turning back the daily tide of undocumented humanity from Mexico and elsewhere. Visual testament is provided by the hundreds of migrants  men and women, the old and the young  who stage each day along the international line in San Diego, waiting to slip into California and its promise of jobs.

The emotions evident during Thursdays border protests underline what appears to be an ever-greater polarization about unauthorized immigration."I feel hatred is brewing on both sides, said Elizabeth Sisco, a photographer and professor at Southwestern College in Chula Vista who has been involved in border issues for more than a decade. When people start hurling negative statements back and forth at each other, they just get madder and madder. And mad people dont act rationally.

How to deal with the immigration problem remains a fiercely contested challenge. The so-called Alliance for Border Control, organizer of the lighting protests, hopes the movement will prompt U.S. authorities to bolster enforcement by posting additional border guards, building more barriers, deploying National Guard troops, and implementing similar stratagems. Opponents say such steps will never work without efforts to improve the economies of Third World sending nations, especially Mexico, and parallel moves to allay civil strife in Central America and elsewhere. 

McDonnells full report is online: Tactic of Lighting Up Border Raises Tensions.

The Light Up the Border movement was started in 1989 by Muriel Watson, a former public information officer for the Border Patrol Union. According to her 2012obituary in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Mrs Watson attended the 1994 ceremony when the Border Patrol flipped the switch on 62 stadium-style lights strung along a two-mile stretch of the previously unlit border fence.

Nov. 12, 1993: Opposite sides of the immigration issue confront each other during a Light Up the Border rally in San Ysidro. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times )

See more from the Los Angeles Times archives hereMongolia flagged its neutrality. Sweden offered its expertise. South Korea knew a spot. In the end, President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un settled on the tiny, orderly island of Singapore to hold a historic summit on June 12 that could peel open the worlds most reclusive and threatening country.

Yes, a city-state. In Southeast Asia. With palm trees.

This tropical locale of 5.5 million people has always been an anomaly, one of the globes most open economies and one of its strictest societies. Its leaders built a backwater into a shiny financial capital through meritocracy  and curbs on political freedoms. A former British colony, Singapore presents itself as the even-handed center.

The island has a North Korean embassy, and until 2016, that countrys citizens could enter without a visa. Singapore boasts a strong security relationship with the U.S.; Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was among the first Southeast Asian leaders to visit President Trump last fall. It has longstanding ties with China.

Advertisement

Singapore doesnt give Trump or Kim the dramatic photo op they would otherwise enjoy or home-court advantage, said Duyeon Kim, visiting senior research fellow at the Korean Peninsula Future Forum, a nonpartisan think tank in Seoul. But its a nominally neutral country  [this could] help in reducing some distractions and keeping the focus of the summit on substance, especially when the stakes are so high.

Then there are the decidedly less sexy, practical aspects, like how far Kims plane can travel.

When Kim jetted to the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian this week, he became the first North Korean leader to fly abroad in three decades. Some analysts doubt the country owns planes with the capacity to go much farther. Kim might make the 3,000-mile journey to Singapore, but its unlikely hed get to Switzerland.

Singapore is a destination that Kims airplane is believed to be able to reach without refueling, said Yanmei Xie, a policy analyst for Beijing-based Gavekal Dragonomics who tracks developments on the Korean Peninsula. And it has the infrastructure to accommodate the security and publicity needs of the U.S. president.

Singaporean officials are adept at piecing together high-stakes, high-level meetings at the last minute, including the 2015 summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwans president at the time, Ma Ying-jeou. This eerily efficient city  try finding a piece of litter  can ensure security in ways many bigger, less obedient places cant. (Chewing gum was once famously outlawed and caning is permitted as punishment for minor crimes.)

Singapore has a really long track record of being able to hold these sorts of things with nothing going wrong, said Malcolm Cook, senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. No other country in Southeast Asia fits that bill.

It also will host an annual defense conference in early June, which draws some of the same U.S. and North Korean officials expected to attend the leaders meeting. That makes it oddly convenient.

The other contender, the truce village of Panmunjom, was the flavor of last month. Kim met South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the demilitarized zone only two weeks ago. A repeat visit could make Trump look like the encore and emphasize Moons role in peace talks over Kims.

Obviously, North Korea has an interest in not being seen in South Koreas shadow, and maybe for the U.S. too, said Euan Graham, director of the international security program at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

The whole inter-Korean rapprochement has kicked this off and it would be a bit uncomfortable for the U.S. to have to deal with the difficult issue of when you bring Moon into the room.

China likely would have preferred the summit to be held in Beijing, where officials could keep tabs on discussions. Singapores not a bad fallback. Chinese leaders revered its founder, Lee Kuan Yew, and have sought to keep close ties with the island, where Mandarin Chinese is one of four official languages. The relationship has strained in recent years over contested waters in the South China Sea, but tensions are starting to ease.

Korea is ultimately a sideshow for Singapore, Graham said. What really matters is the U.S.-China relationship  anything that will buy credit for both main powers theyll be trying to do.

The summit could still unravel, enhancing the threat of a nuclear war. But Singapore has repeatedly called for direct talks between the U.S. and North Korea. Now it gets the chance to help make that possible  a reminder to the world of this small islands outsized significance.

Sorry, Ulan Bator  Mongolias hidden capital. Maybe next time.

Meyers is a special correspondent.

Twitter: @jessicameyers

ALSO

Ulan Bator? A ship at sea? The logistical nightmare of picking a venue for Trump to meet with Kim Jong Un

3 American prisoners held in North Korea are freed and on their way home

Singapore is orderly, civil -- and aghast over a family feud

UPDATES:

9:40 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details on the selection of Singapore and other potential locations for the summit.

This article was originally published at 7:45 a.m.In the decades since Francisco Francos death, the Spanish dictators colossal Valley of the Fallen mausoleum has stood untouched in the rolling countryside outside Madrid, guarded by a towering cross.

Run as an abbey by Benedictine monks on a site owned by the state, Francos monument has survived Spains transition to democracy, socialist governments and a host of experts pressing to remove the generalissimos body and turn the mausoleum into a modern museum for a democratic era.

Above all, the site has remained beyond the reach of families hoping to retrieve the remains of relatives they never wanted buried there alongside the dictator and the bodies of more than 33,000 victims of the brutal civil war he started.

Until now.

Advertisement

Late last month, the first beams of light illuminated the vaults that hold the dead as a team of structural engineering experts entered an ossuary in search of the bodies of two men  Manuel Lapena, a leftist union leader and father of four, and his brother Antonio. Both were executed by Francos forces in Aragon during the first days of the civil war in the summer of 1936.

It is a place beyond the bounds of democracy, said Eduardo Ranz, the lawyer who represents the Lapena family and others attempting to claim the remains of eight other men buried in the crypt of the Valley of the Fallens basilica.

Tourists walk outside the Valley of the Fallen near Madrid. (Francisco Seco / Associated Press )

There is no other monument in the world like it, celebrating the victory of one group from the same nationality over another, Ranz said. The victors stole the very identity of the defeated.

The mausoleum was built in part by political prisoners in the decades after the 1939 civil war victory of the generals Nationalist faction. Over the years, thousands of war dead  Nationalists and Republicans alike  were unearthed from graves across Spain and interred, often anonymously, in the basilica, an apparent attempt to bring the nation together.

Only a third of the 33,847 dead who rest with Franco in his mausoleum are named on their tombs. The rest are stacked in ossuaries inside vaults that have deteriorated over the decades. Identifying the remains is a daunting task, and the relatives best hope now rests on a report being prepared by the state institution National Heritage after last months exploration, in which the viability of identifying and safely removing remains will be assessed.

Whatever the answer, relatives such as Purificacion Lapena, the granddaughter of the executed unionist, are determined to keep fighting, spurred on by a 2016 civil court ruling that ordered the Lapena brothers to be exhumed.

Like others, Purificacion Lapena is driven by the fear that time is running out for people such as her 94-year-old father, Manuel Lapena, who wants to bury his father alongside his mother in Zaragoza, their hometown in Spains northeast. As it stands, Manuel Lapena said his father is interred alongside his killer, Franco, the greatest criminal.

It is a place beyond the bounds of democracy. Eduardo Ranz, lawyer

In 2011, a commission of experts recommended to Spains parliament that Francos remains be removed and the Valley of the Fallen be transformed into a depoliticized memorial site. But the conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy ignored the recommendations and derailed the previous, socialist administrations efforts to allow relatives to dig up more than 100,000 Republican victims of Spains civil war-era repression from mass graves dotted around the country. The church too has shown resistance to freeing the dead. The Benedictine abbot in charge of the basilica opposed the court ruling ordering the search for the Lapena brothers remains.

Its not about politics. People can say all they like, but for me, its my grandfather, said Rosa Gil, who hopes someday to recover the body of Pedro Gil Calonge, killed by a stray bullet while fighting for  not against  Franco in 1937.

There are no sides, no desires for revenge or frontiers anymore, Gil said. Its about honoring our loved ones and having them near.

Her father, Silvino, an 82-year-old retiree who once was a pro-Franco politician, was stunned when the family discovered his father was not in the grave in Zaragoza where they thought he was buried. Though he was a loyalist, Silvino Gil said he now is irate that the dictator meddled with something as deeply personal as a family members final resting place.

Who the hell was Franco to take my father away? Silvino Gil said.

Gen. Francisco Franco, second from left, and Adolf Hitler meet in 1940 at the Spanish-German border. (Getty Images )

Im doing it as a family duty, to give dignified burial to Granddad and heal the pain, Rosa Gil said. It was a taboo, and now we talk about it. My father wants to have his father with him. He was only 1 year old when he died, so he has missed him all his life. He wants to take flowers to his grave.

First, the families must await the result of the engineers report as to the viability of even accessing the part of the crypt where the Lapena brothers remains were placed.

Francisco Etxeberria, an internationally renowned forensic anthropologist who has led more civil war exhumation operations than anyone else in Spain, admitted that the task of identifying individual bodies in the Valley of the Fallen could be daunting.

Every village sent its dead in wooden boxes, each one named and numbered and placed in one of the eight vaults, he said.

But if the wooden caskets have been damaged or even destroyed by the elements and the bones possibly commingled, identifying the brothers would become nearly impossible.

DNA testing on thousands of bodies could take years, Etxeberria said.

Etxeberria, whose request to join the team that carried out last months inspection was rejected, is skeptical about the willingness of National Heritage to attempt a task so difficult.

The bodies of those killed in the war were intentionally buried in places that made them difficult to find, and yet in Spain, we have recovered 8,000 from 500 civil war graves since 2000. Where there is a will, theres usually a way. What we cannot do is not try, he said.

But the Francisco Franco Foundation, an organization that defends the legacy and reputation of the former military ruler, has criticized the judicial ruling clearing the way for opening the vault and recovering bodies as arbitrary and unjust.

According to the foundations chief spokesman, Jaime Alonso, it is part of a deliberate campaign to delegitimize Francos regime with the aim of dividing Spaniards once again.

Badcock is a special correspondent.

UPDATES:

May 11, 10:45 a.m.: This article was updated with comments from forensic anthropologist Francisco Etxeberria.

This article was originally published at 3 a.m. May 10.One week before the planned May 14 inauguration of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, the citys mayor, climbed up a ladder and grandly installed a sign reading U.S. Embassy in English, Arabic and Hebrew.

This is not a dream  its reality! he posted on his Facebook page beneath a picture of himself, attired in a black suit, affixing the sign to a pole.

I thank President Trump for making this historic moment come to fruition, he wrote. Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people  and the world is beginning to recognize this fact.

There is little reason to think that is the case, though Paraguay, Guatemala, the Czech Republic and a handful of other countries will follow the American move in the coming weeks.

Advertisement

And for most Jerusalem Arabs, May 14 is a day to lament.

The Palestinian Authority claims East Jerusalem for the capital of a future state, but because of historic peculiarities, five of the nine nations that maintain representative missions to the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem, including the United States, have their diplomatic facilities in West Jerusalem  the section that is generally considered Israeli.

The Palestinian Authority government vigorously protests Trumps decision to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv, saying it is an infringement of its sovereignty  while not asserting any claim to sovereignty over West Jerusalem.

Gold-embossed invitations sent out by U.S. Ambassador David Friedman and his wife, Tammy, exuberantly summon guests to the Opening of the United States Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel, on May 14, commemorating the date on which Israel declared its independence in 1948.

Among those joining Friedman will be the presidents daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, as well as Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin and Jason Greenblatt, Trumps special representative for international negotiations.

About 800 guests, including a large congressional delegation, members of the Republican Jewish Coalition and leaders of American Orthodox Jews, will be crammed into what has until now been a consulate serving U.S. citizens and visa applicants in Arnona, a leafy, quiet neighborhood in Jerusalems south.

During the ceremony, signs declaring the site as an embassy will be unveiled and the 80 to 100 consular employees will become employees of the United States.

But not a single employee, for now, is leaving the fortress-like U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, where 800 people work. That building will be renamed the new embassys Tel Aviv Branch Office.

It will take several years before a new site is scouted and a new embassy is designed, approved and built, so for now, the move is symbolic  but still substantial.

This week, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman hailed Trumps historic, important and dramatic decision, but added a cautionary note.

Nothing is free, and the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem will come at a price, and it is worth paying it. We should be prepared to pay a price.

May 15, one day after the ceremony, is the date Palestinians mark the Nakba, or catastrophe, that befell them when they were displaced by the war that broke out after Israels establishment.

The Israeli army anticipates that the confluence of both dates, plus a massive rally planned for Nakba Day on its southern border with the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Islamist militia Hamas, could provoke new violence in Jerusalem and in the West Bank, the semiautonomous territory where the Palestinian Authority is based.

Trumps decision in December to move the embassy to Jerusalem overturned decades of U.S. policy and was met with elation in Israel and consternation in most of the world. Behind the controversy, however, lies a strange history that dates to Israels founding.

The official reason embassies accredited to Israel are not located in Jerusalem is an esoteric construct called corpus separatum, a Latin term meaning separated body, devised by United Nations officials in late 1947 as they scrambled to find an internationally acceptable status for the Holy City when the British mandate in Palestine came to an end and it was divided into an Arab state and a Jewish state.

The officials came up with a concept that detached Jerusalem from any state, turning it into an enclave to be administered by a U.N. committee. In real life, Jerusalem was divided between Jordan and Israel during the armistice of 1949, never coming into existence as a stateless entity.

Israel declared West Jerusalem, which it held, as its capital in 1948, and its parliament, ministries and Supreme Court are located here. The international community held to the notion of a corpus separatum and installed embassies in coastal Tel Aviv.

The result of this disconnect is diplomats commuting an hour from Tel Aviv every time they present credentials to the Israeli president at his official residence, meet with Israeli ministers or attend state dinners.

Trumps decision to relocate the embassy prompted a rebuke from the U.N., which in December voted 128 to 9, with 35 abstentions, to condemn the move. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the time slammed what he called the destruction of all the efforts to achieve peace.

Yossi Beilin, an architect of the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and a former Israeli minister of justice and deputy minister of foreign affairs, this week expressed bewilderment over the hullabaloo surrounding the embassy move.

The Palestinian claim that opening an American Embassy in West Jerusalem  in unarguably western Jerusalem  somehow abrogates Oslo is just not true, he said. I dont understand why they are staking so much on this claim.

Tarnopolsky is a special correspondent.The Israeli military said it attacked nearly all of Irans military installations in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the occupied Golan Heights, in the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies in decades.

The attack early Thursday came after Iranian forces launched 20 rockets in the direction of Israeli army units in Golan Heights and marked the largest Israeli air force strike since the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel had hit almost the entire Iranian infrastructure in Syria, though there were reports that many of the missiles were intercepted by Syrian forces. Lieberman said Israel informed Russia and the United States ahead of the operation.

The United Nations quickly urged both sides to bring an immediate halt to all hostile acts.

Advertisement

In a statement Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that 28 Israeli fighter jets took part in the operation, firing more than 70 missiles. Russia, which has been the dominant military force in Syria for several years, said roughly half the missiles were knocked down by Syrian antiaircraft systems.

The Syrian armys general command said in a statement that its aerial defense systems had destroyed a large portion of the Israeli aggressions missiles.

Iranian media described the attacks as unprecedented.

Referring to Israel as the Zionist entity, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency cited a foreign ministry source who claimed Israel posed a serious threat to international peace and security.

This aggressive behavior by the Zionist entity, the source told the news agency, will only lead to an increase in tensions in the area.

The Israeli army said debris from only four of the 20 rockets actually landed in Israeli territory and that the rest had fallen short.

There were no Israeli casualties, but civilian residents of communities in the entire region were awakened by air raid sirens and forced to remain in shelters for two hours.

In a briefing, the Israeli army said dozens of targets belonging to the Iranian Quds forces in Syrian territory were demolished in the raid, including intelligence centers, munitions storehouses and logistics sites. Israeli fighter jets, the army said, encountered stiff opposition from Syrian aerial defense systems.

A spokesman for the Syria army reported that three fighters were killed and two wounded in the Israeli strikes.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a widely respected source, claimed 23 fighters were killed.

Israeli soldiers next to Merkava tanks deployed near the Israeli-Syrian border in the Golan Heights. (Lior Mizrahi / Getty Images )

In a statement from Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House condemned Irans provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens and expressed strong support for Israels right to act in self-defense.

The Iranian regimes deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East, Sanders said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, through his spokesman, expressed concern and urged maximum restraint. U.N. peacekeepers in the Golan Heights have remained in contact with both Israel and Syria military leaders.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, though, seemed unbowed.

Whoever attacks us  we will attack them sevenfold and whoever prepares to attack us  we will act against them first, the prime minister said.

The nighttime skirmish exposed regional realignments that have been quietly underway for several years.

Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, the foreign minister of Bahrain, a Persian Gulf state that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel but is engaged in a power struggle with Iran, tweeted, As long as Iran violates the regional status and uses its forces and missiles to transform states into wastelands, every country in the area including Israel has the right to defend itself and destroy the sources of danger.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to have received a first-person account of Israels position during a lightning-quick visit by Netanyahu, who returned to Israel from Moscow only hours before the Iranian barrage was launched.

In a statement, Netanyahus office said the summit  the eighth meeting between the Russian and Israeli leaders in two years  would help preserve continued coordination.

Russia took a cautious approach Thursday. The official state news agency TASS quoted Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov saying in our contacts with the Iranian leadership and the leadership of Israel, including yesterdays meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we emphasized the need for avoiding any mutually provoking moves.

Both Iran and Israel have assured us that there are no such intentions, he said.

Israeli army spokesman Lt. Jonathan Conricus said he did not yet know if Irans initial act was a retaliation or if it had been provoked by President Trumps announcement that the U.S. would withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal.

Only Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries have spoken in favor of Trumps decision.

European co-signers to the nuclear pact have said they will try to salvage the deal, which freed Irans economy from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for a 10-year freeze on Iranian uranium enrichment.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday expressed deep misgivings, saying, I do not trust these countries either.

Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, appeared to reject the offer to salvage the nuclear deal and threatened future operations against Irans enemies, in a statement made to the official news agency Fars.

In a statement, Salami said Europe cannot act independently over the nuclear deal, and that resistance is the only way to confront these enemies, not diplomacy.

Special correspondent Tarnopolsky reported from Jerusalem. Special correspondent Nabih Boulos contributed to this report from Baghdad.

UPDATES:

12:57 p.m.: This article was updated with additional reaction.

10:47 a.m.: This article was updated with staff reports from Jerusalem and Baghdad.

6:50 a.m.: This article has been updated with White House comment.

This article was originally published at 5:15 a.m.Sabcat said: Funny you mention cigars...B)



Was that a segue to clinton?

Seamless B) Click to expand...

sorry, Clara, I love you - but you have to admit, that was funnyA Starbucks will anchor the new apartment and retail building by Peron Development on East Third Street in South Bethlehem.

The coffee shop is slated to open in mid-July at the corner of East Third and Fillmore streets. It will mark the first tenant of Five10Flats, a 95-unit luxury apartment building anchored by restaurants once dubbed Greenway Commons, now named for its address of 510 E. Third St., said John Callahan, of Peron Development.

The five-story building next door to Social Still is rising on former Bethlehem Steel Corp. parking lots and is a major player in the ongoing resurgence of East Third Street. Across the road, Northampton Community College is investing $5 million in a new entrepreneurial center.

"We just can't be more excited about the location," Callahan, a former city mayor, said during a tour of the site Wednesday afternoon.

The majority of the $20 million five-story building's first floor is dedicated to 15,000-square-feet of retail space that fronts on East Third with space for outdoor dining. An outdoor courtyard will link the building to Social Still next door, another Peron project.

Starbucks is occupying a roughly 2,100-square foot corner space that will feature a community meeting room as well as outdoor lounge seating along Fillmore Street. It marks the first Lehigh Valley Starbucks with reservable meeting space or outdoor seating, Callahan said.

Residents will be able to grab a cup of coffee in their pajamas through their own dedicated access to the Starbucks, which will offer mobile ordering.

The building may start its own restaurant row on the far end of Third Street. Peron is far along in negotiations with three restaurants interested in occupying the majority of the first floor, Callahan said. About 3,000-square feet remains available for lease.

The 95 one-and-two bedroom apartments on the top four floors are available for lease with move-in slated for August, Callahan said. Fifteen have already been rented making Peron "bullish" on the project, he said.

The units feature high-end finishes -- think smart thermostats, granite counters and stainless steel appliances -- and the building is flush with amenities like a sweeping roof deck.

"We want this really to be the new standard for apartment living...in Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley," Callahan said.

Tenants will be able to enter the building from a rear parking lot where the second floor is ground level or from a side entrance on the first floor. Residents can choose to pay for a spot in the premium parking lot behind the building or park for free in the lots next to Social Still or Cutters Bike Shop.

Eventually, Peron plans to build a second mixed-use building of roughly 80 apartments with ground floor retail and pave the adjacent gravel lot.

The final phase of the project will be an office building with ground floor retail on the surface lot tucked between Five10Flats and Cutters Bike Shop. But that is contingent on the construction of a planned Bethlehem Parking Authority garage across the street on a lot owned by Las Vegas Sands Corp., Callahan said.

City planners backed the project back in 2014, but Peron's plans have evolved over time. This will require going back to the city to tweak the makeup of the second and third buildings, Callahan said.

At Five10Flats, the first floor will feature a large fitness center, an electronic package concierge and a community room with a full kitchen available for residents to reserve for special events, like a party or a bridal shower. There is also a dog washing area, free bike storage and additional storage available for a fee.

The upper floors are a mix of one- and two-bedroom, high-end apartments with soaring ceilings, granite countertops, massive bathrooms and large closets. All of the units are smart-enabled with Nest thermostats and Lutron lighting and they're equipped with side-by-side washer and dryer. All of the entrances are unlocked via key fobs.

One of the highlights of the building is its rooftop deck, which offers sweeping views of South Bethlehem, including the iconic blast furnaces, and some of the best seats for firework viewing in all the city. The rooftop will feature a pergola, grill and seating area.

Residents will be offered a 20 percent discount on an ArtsQuest membership in hopes that it will become a frequent spot they visit, Callahan said.

"We want our residents to be able to experience all South Bethlehem has to offer," Callahan said.

Five10Flats is the city's third CRIZ project.

THE NUMBERS

95 units

One-bedroom apartments: 700-square-feet to 940-square-feet

Rent: $1,350 to $1,500 a month

Two-bedroom apartments: 1,050-square-feet to 1,170-square-feet

Rent: $1,550 to $1,800 a month

View the website here.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.A 30-year-old man charged with two counts of murder and one count of arson in a 2011 case out of Massachusetts was arrested Wednesday in Easton, according to the Northampton County Sheriff's Department.

Waldos Rojas, 30, was jailed May 9, 2018, in Easton. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

The department's Criminal Warrant Unit, working as part of the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force, helped take Waldos Rojas into custody at 2:15 p.m. without incident in a home in the 200 block of West Madison Street, Sgt. George Volpe reported in a news release.

Rojas, who has family in Easton, was wanted by the Massachusetts State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section on a warrant issued by Essex County Superior Court, Volpe said.

The warrant came out of a "lengthy investigation" involving the Essex County District Attorney's Office, the Essex State Police Detective Unit and the Lawrence Police Department, a news release from the DA's office said.

Rojas is charged with setting a home on fire in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in order to chase out two people who were inside, Volpe said.

When Daniel Diaz, 22, and Leyda Elizabeth "Eli" Hernandez, 24, fled the flames at 12:55 a.m. Oct. 17, 2011, at 5 Bailey St., Rojas shot them several times execution style in the head, according to The Eagle-Tribune newspaper and Volpe.

A witness reported hearing 15 to 20 shots, the newspaper said.

Their vehicles were burned as well, Volpe said.

Rojas, who is also charged with a firearms violation, was arraigned as a fugitive from justice before Northampton County Judge Jennifer Sletvold and ordered held without bail in Northampton County Prison, Volpe said, while awaiting extradition to Massachusetts.

Waldos Rojas, 30. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

"The family and friends of Mr. Diaz and Ms. Hernandez hopefully can find some peace knowing that the man responsible for their murder will be finally brought to justice," Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said in a news release.

The task force also includes Pennsylvania State Police and Pennsylvania parole agents.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Two days before he is resigning, Lehigh Valley Congressman Charlie Dent on Thursday painted the world order of the past 70 years as endangered by political fringe elements and called for America to uphold its international agreements.

The Republican lawmaker stepping down after 28 years in state and federal office offered farewell remarks at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. He called for a return to bipartisan cooperation on fiscal reform, better access to affordable health care, more educational opportunities for youth and needed infrastructure improvements.

Dent's resignation, announced April 17, is effective at midnight Saturday. He previously said he would not not seek an eighth two-year term in this year's election. He represents Pennsylvania's 15th Congressional District that covers Lehigh and part of Northampton counties, and meanders west into Dauphin County.

Under a redistricting map drawn by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Lehigh, Northampton and southern Monroe counties will make up a new 7th Congressional District, effective with the start of the next session of Congress in January. A special election is set for Nov. 6, Election Day, to select Dent's successor for the rest of 2018.

In addition, Lehigh Valley voters on Nov. 6 will elect a new member of the U.S. House of Representatives for the 7th District. There are six Democrats and two Republicans in Tuesday's primary election seeking their party's nomination.

Dent spoke for nearly 10 of the 60 minutes afforded him on the House floor by the majority leader, U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California. C-SPAN carried the remarks live.

As co-chairman of the House's Tuesday Group Caucus, Dent is recognized as one of Congress' most moderate and centrist voices.

He returned to themes of a partisan divide and lack of decorum in Washington. Problems began during President Barack Obama's administration, manifested most starkly in the 2013 government shutdown.

"As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, I've fought to fulfill the basic functions of government like keeping the government funded and preventing default on our nation's obligations," Dent said. "At times that's not been easy.

"Unfortunately due to disruptive political influences, increased polarization has led to Congress becoming more paralyzed, unable to perform even our most basic and fundamental tasks."

TY  to the people of #PA15 for the trust you've shown in me, time & again. After my family, representing you & carrying your voice to Washington has been the joy & honor of a lifetime. #PA15Proud https://t.co/RgLGq2QkbT  Charlie Dent (@RepCharlieDent) May 10, 2018

Both major political parties share the blame, Dent said, asserting that the dysfunction has continued to grow under President Donald Trump.

"Too many Republicans request unquestioning, blind unquestioning loyalty and obedience to President Trump no matter how absurd or destructive the comment or behavior," Dent said. "On the other side, far too many Democrats offer unflinching resistance and opposition to President Trump, even if they agree with him on a given policy or position."

With fringe elements on the far right and far left emboldened, a "separation of political parties has replaced separation of powers," Dent said, giving rise to the "three-headed monster of isolationism, protectionism and nativism."

"These are not qualities of a great nation. In fact they dishonor the sacrifices and service of the Greatest Generation who delivered both victory during World War II and the far-sighted, outward-looking, rules-based order that has brought unprecedented freedom and prosperity to America, its friends and allies and partners," Dent said, continuing:

"Furthermore traditional democratic values -- the rule of law, freedom of the press, an independent judiciary -- are under unprecedented attack throughout much of the world. It is incumbent on all of us to stand up and defend our way of life and our institutions."

Dent singled out threats posed by Russia, Iran and China. And he called on America to honor its international commitments, two days after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the landmark nuclear accord with Iran.

"The administration must realize that America has to honor its agreements if we ever hope to enter into new ones," Dent said. "We simply cannot walk away from American commitments, even ones we may have voted against or disagreed with, if we expect to continue to build new coalitions and enter into new agreements."

Dent served for eight years in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and six years in the state Senate before his election to the U.S. House in 2004. He is "not leaving the battlefield," he said.

"I hope to provide an even larger voice in favor of responsible governance and hope to foster a strong, center-right movement that embraces traditional conservative virtues of order, stability and incremental change -- not the incendiary rhetoric, chaos and dysfunction that we have, unfortunately, grown accustomed to in recent years," Dent said.

Dent closed by thanking his staff and his 15th District constituents.

U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., served with Dent on the House Ethics Committee and said Thursday on the floor her colleague had given "tremendous service to the House," taking his job and responsibilities seriously.

"He is a man of integrity, a man who kept his word, a man who worked hard to get through the business at hand, somebody I could trust and somebody with a really great sense of humor, which in this body is becoming a rarer and rarer thing," Sanchez said.

U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., who is also stepping down after this year, called Dent a "dedicated public servant, with great honor and integrity."

"He's smart, he's tough, he's hard-working," Shuster said. "He has a great sense of humor. But most importantly he's been a voice of reason here in the House of Representatives.

"Chuck, we're going to miss you. God speed."

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.The finalists have been revealed. This weekend, we'll make our last visits to the Lehigh Valley's top five bars before crowning the champion.

The judging panel for the final round features Nick Falsone, managing producer of lehighvalleylive.com; Rebecca Heid, assistant professor of hospitality Northampton Community College; and me, lehighvalleylive.com's features reporter. Photographer Matt Smith will continue to capture the scene and serve as designated driver.

Below, find the schedule for the finalists visits. We'll stop in to each place between the hours of 7 and 11 p.m., eager to learn why each contender deserves the title of the best bar in the Lehigh Valley.

Friday, May 11

Joey B's, Palmerton

McCarthy's Red Stag Pub, Bethlehem

Saturday, May 12

Two Rivers Brewing Co., Easton

Porters' Pub, Easton

The Funhouse, Bethlehem

(One programming note: The schedule above is when Smith and I will visit, usually joined by the other judges. Because of other obligations, in some cases Falsone and Heid will visit the bars solo on other days.)

After our visits, the three judges will confer, compare notes and hash out a decision. The winner will be revealed next week.

If your favorite of the 15 semifinalists didn't make it to the judging finals, it still has a chance to win the Readers' Choice title. Support your pick by casting a ballot here. The poll stays open until May 12 at 11:59 p.m. -- you can vote once per day until then.

Andrew Doerfler may be reached at adoerfler@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @adoerfler or on Facebook.On May 4, a federal judge accused Robert Mueller of lying about his phony investigation against President Trump's supposed Russian collusion.

This is what Judge T.S. Ellis III said at a hearing Friday: "You don't care about Mr. Manafort's bank fraud, what you really care about is information Mr. Manafort gives you that would reflect on Mr. Trump, leading to his prosecution or impeachment."

In a series of memorandums, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that indicting a sitting president would violate the Constitution by undermining his ability to do his job. Those memos said the answer was a matter of structure and inference. The latest memo read, summarizing an earlier one: "It therefore based its analysis on more general considerations of constitutional structure."

The Justice Department's regulations require Mueller, the special counsel, to follow the department's "rules, regulations, procedures, practices and policies." If the memos bind Mueller, it would seem he could not indict Trump, no matter what he uncovered. These are the memos a Congressional investigating team begged the Justice Department to release for 12 months, now with subpoenas.

Mueller has gone far beyond the scope of his failed search for Trump's collusion. Mueller, with his hand-picked Democrat team, will soon be under investigation when the conspiracy against Trump unfolds. This will reveal leadership scandal within all government branches.

The Apostle Paul taught a valuable lesson: "If one obeys the law, one need not fear the law!"

Philip H. Beach Sr.

Bethlehem Township, Pa.The self-directed suicide of a renowned Australian scientist in Switzerland -- where assisted suicide is legal -- has triggered a new round of discussion on the issue.

David Goodall, 104, was not terminally ill, but made a decision to end his life because of declining health. On Thursday, in a Basel clinic, he released a lethal dose of barbiturate into a vein. He wasn't legally permitted to end his life in Australia, where euthanasia is prohibited. In traveling to Switzerland, he said he hoped his example would lead to debate and give more people the option of physician-assisted suicide.

"My life has been rather poor for the past year or so, and I am very happy to end it," he told reporters before his death. "All the publicity that this has been receiving can only, I think, help the cause of euthanasia for the elderly, which I want."

In the U.S., Oregon led the way in legalizing assisted suicide. Currently seven states (and Washington, D.C.) have laws allowing assisted suicide for terminally ill, mentally competent adults -- Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, Montana, Washington, Colorado and California.

Should other states take that step? Have a say in our unscientific poll, and feel free to elaborate in the comments section.Stock Market News

Bonds: Gilts jump, Italian bonds slump 10-05-2018 21:16



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

Europe midday: Stocks mixed as euro bounces on weak US CPI 10-05-2018 15:59



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

Italy's hard-right, anti-establishment parties close to forming new govt 10-05-2018 11:12



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

RBS agrees to pay $4.9bn to settle US mortgage securities case 10-05-2018 07:05



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

Thursday newspaper round-up: FOBTs, Sky, trade plans, BP 10-05-2018 07:11



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Properties / Hotels

The increasing market appeal of suite rooms curated by designers such as Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Dior, Diane von Furstenberg and more.

May 10, 2018 | By Shirley Wang

Audemars Piguet makes the latest move amongst luxury brands, teaming up with Bjarke Ingels Group, a Copenhagen and New York-based architecture firm, and Lausanne-based CCHE Architecture. The 50-room hotel in Switzerland will be another addition to string of upscale resorts opened by fashion brands, hoping to leverage on their global prestige.

Composed of five sloping, crossing slabs, with varying room sizes, the hotel is situated next to the Audemars Piguet museum, in Le Brassus, Vallee de Joux.

Fashion-Focused Trend ramps up, as more luxury brands set their sight in hospitality space in the worlds glitziest destinations.

Since the opening of the worlds first fashion-branded hotel  Palazzo Versace Queensland  almost a decade ago, more leading names in the fashion industry soon saw opportunity in the hotel industry.

Designers including Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Dior, and Diane von Furstenberg created suites for other hotel brands. Now, numerous leading fashion companies boast hotels under their brands. Armani Milan hotel, Ferragamos Lungarno Collection Portrait Firenze, a 34-suite hotel in Florence, and the list goes on with Versace, Baccarat, and Missoni.

More prolific ventures include Tommy Hilfigers purchase of the Raleigh Hotel in Miami Beach and LVMHs properties that spread from Europe to Maldives and West Indies.

Deciphering the popularity and appeal of these hotel to luxury travelers, Liv Gussing Burgess, owner of Luxury Hotel Consulting based in London explains that these hotels are located in either key strategic locationsin terms of their key customer markets such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo for Bulgari, or key gateway cities such as Londonand in exotic locations that help elevate the brand.

One of the most aggressive names in the boutique hotel space will be Italian jeweler and luxury-goods brand, Bvlgari. With a resort in Bali and hotels in London, Beijing, and Milan, the brand has announced projects in Moscow, Paris, and downtown Tokyo. Their latest property is a hotel in Shanghai, spanning across eight top floors in a mixed-use tower, featuring a 400-square meter suite, a rooftop restaurant and bar.

Hotels are a great way to showcase the design philosophy of a brand, to entertain its customers, and to project a lifestyle that goes beyond products, a Bvlgari spokesperson said in a statement.

Fueling the trend, popular lifestyle brands in the U.S. are also moving into the hospitality space; West Elm, Equinox, and Detroit-based watchmaker Shinola have all announced their hotel projects. With ample in-store retail experience and a helpful leverage of data, these brands are better able to grasp and fulfil the interests of their existing customers.

Jet set for Dubai

While places such as Maldives and Paris has no lack of new luxury hotels popping up, Dubai is becoming a hot destination for fashion branded hotels, with several stunning projects receiving global recognition and accolades. The Armani Hotel Dubai in Burj Khalifa, stands as the worlds tallest building, and Bvlgaris Dubai property, designed by Italian architectural firm Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, was named best new luxury hotel of 2017 by Luxury Travel Intelligence.

One of the main draws of venturing into hospitality is the new space it offers to these luxury brands  to promote and market their own brand of products.

Gussing Burgess, the Managing Director of Luxury Hotel Consulting, reflects upon her stay in Bvlgari Resort Bali as modern, sleek, and elegant, with interior designs that reflect the Bvlgari brand and a wide range of Bulgari retail products.

Marketing of luxury products will continue to be aspirational, but is also moving toward creating and providing lifestyle experiences to help build their stories and ultimately increase loyalty and sales, Gussing Burgess says, expecting the strong trend to continue as more luxury brands venture into hospitality businesses.Nam Do at the Lycoming College Art Gallery with some of his work chosen by Doreen Bolger, retired director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, who served as juror for the 2018 Senior Show Download Image: Web

Lycoming College commercial design major, Nam Do 18, won the 2018 Young Globals Student Competition, an international student advertising competition sponsored by New York Festivals International. Do will be honored at the annual Global Awards Ceremony in New York City in November 2018.

The Global Awards invites students from the world's top portfolio, design and technology schools to build a career in the advertising industry and help agencies transform healthcare advertising. In conjunction with The Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, "Pushing Back on Opioids was chosen as the theme for this years challenge. The prize is a Global Award and a summer internship at one of the sponsoring agencies, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, and CALCIUM advertising agencies.

Dos winning design, The Opioid Gang, caught the attention of the judges for its originality and appeal to the target audience. He also impressed judges with demonstrated nuances in his approach and an open mind for potentials.

Fran Pollaro of The New York Festivals said this was the toughest competition in our four-year existence, pointing out that Do is the first single-person team win, giving him a choice of internships. Do has opted for a summer internship as a creative intern at Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness in New York City.

Lycoming College commercial design students all complete a professional internship to gain real world experience, and design students are encouraged to enter local, national and international design contests. In addition to the Global Awards, Do recently won first place in a national contest to design the 2018 logo and poster for the annual film festival Tech Doc Fest, based in Seattle.

A Vietnamese international student, Do came to the United States in 2014 to pursue an education that would allow him to explore passions and broaden his horizon. His love for arts and culture has brought him places, from a semester abroad in Berlin to an upcoming art history course in Barcelona. This passion, together with inspirations from his family, friends and the community at Lycoming College, has motivated him to pursue visual communications and declare a second major in art in his senior year. Nam hopes to work in advertising and use his creativity to support meaningful causes in the future.

I was already at a loss for words when finding out I was a finalist, let alone the winner of this prestigious competition. It was astonishing. [And it was] Hard to believe that only one year ago, I was telling myself, Nam, hoc ve i may, khong thi lam giam oc sang tao bang niem ay! (Nam, you really need to start learning graphic design!), said Do. It has been an eventful year, and now I feel so much more confident in my abilities.

I have been working hard, but all of this would not have been possible were it not for the inspirations, feedback and unconditional support that I have received from others. A big part of this is thanks to Lynn (Estomin), who has been there for me since the first day I learned to use Photoshop, through the countless journeys, and who introduced me to this competition; to the faculty, staff and students of the art department at Lycoming, who welcomed me like a lost child having just found his way home and who constantly inspire me to pursue excellence; to my roommates, friends, and to the staff at ITS who root for me wherever I go. This win is not mine. This win is ours.200 years ago the founder of scientific socialism and arguably the greatest thinker of modern times, Karl Marx, was born. To celebrate, on Saturday 5 May in London, Socialist Appeal (the International Marxist Tendency in Britain) held Marx in a Day: a series of talks and discussions exploring Marxs revolutionary ideas and political activity. The event was a great success, with around 80 workers, activists, students, and young people from across the country  and even as far away as Paris  coming along and taking part.

Alan Woods opened the morning session with a talk on Marxist philosophy. As Alan explained, Marx started out as a follower of the great German philosopher, Hegel. Hegels main merit was in rescuing and developing the concept of dialectics: that the world is in a constant process of change - an idea that originated from the ancient Greeks.

Alan explained how, by putting this philosophy on a materialist basis, Marx created the philosophical tools for the genuine scientific investigation of the laws governing human history, society, and thought. For Marxists, the key to understanding society and its ideas, morality, culture, politics, etc. lies in the development of our material economic relations of production and distribution. It is changes in the mode of production, ultimately, that are at the root of broader social processes.

Following Alans introduction to Marxist philosophy, the day featured further sessions on the Marxist view of history and Marxist economics. These discussions looked in detail at the labour theory of value, the class struggle throughout history, the role that individuals play in history, and the current crisis-ridden state of the capitalist system in Britain and internationally.

In the final two sessions, comrades had the chance to learn about the life and work of Karl Marx - not just as a great thinker, but as a revolutionary.

From the 1860s, Marx skillfully and patiently brought together initially disparate working class and socialist groups from across Europe and America, eventually winning their political leadership. The organisation created came to be known as the First International - the first genuinely internationally working class organisation.

Marx, together with his lifelong collaborator and comrade, Frederick Engels, demonstrated throughout his life the need for unity between theory and practice in revolutionary socialist politics. After all, in the words of Marx from his Theses on Feuerbach: The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.

The day ended with a premiere screening of Marx in London, a Socialist Appeal produced documentary on the life of Marx in Britains capital.

The film underlined the huge sacrifice Marx made to the cause of the working class. For the greater part of his time in London, Marx lived in utter poverty. As such, the ideas that the working class needs to liberate itself were developed at a tremendous personal cost by one man and his family.

200 years after Marxs birth  and 170 years after the publication of the Communist Manifesto  the importance of studying Marxist theory and of defending the legacy of Marx and Engels has never been clearer than it is today.

The only future capitalism has to offer workers and youth is one of cuts, declining living standards, and increasing uncertainty. As the bosses continue to line their pockets with ever-increasing profits, the utter rottenness and bankruptcy of the capitalist system becomes ever-clearer.

As all the speakers at Marx in a Day emphasised, the only way forward for humanity is a reorganisation of society along socialist lines. This will allow us to use the immense wealth currently being hoarded by a tiny minority to instead satisfy the needs of everyone.

In this way alone will humanity be able to make what Engels termed the leap from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom and begin the real history of humankind, freed from the barbarism of oppression and class exploitation.HOLYOKE- In honor of the men and women who make up the backbone of the health care system in the United States, Baystate Health on Wednesday honored some of the best among them at the annual celebration and awards reception.

Held at the Baystate Health Education Center in Holyoke, the awards presentation and social event featured a buffet dinner, nd the presentation of several awards.

Norberto Duarte, RN, CCRN, a critical care nurse in Baystate Medical Center's Medical-Surgical Intensive Care Unit, was honored with the Sharon A. Smith Compassionate Caregiver Award which recognizes an exceptional nurse who practices compassion, respect for person and integrity in the delivery of care to patients and families.

Baystate Health described Norberto as follows:

"Norberto has the ability to see the 'whole patient' and he brings himself fully into each interaction and connects with each patient with intent. He demonstrates Compassionate Connections (a new nursing model at Baystate) further by being aware of himself and his surroundings and not only the impact that he has on patients, but the impact that patient care has on him," the hospital said in a statement. "An important part of nursing practice, something learned in school, is to be a 'reflective practitioner' and consider how each interaction could inform a future interaction. He demonstrates a high degree of emotional intelligence and learns from each interaction to inform the next. Sitting with a dying patient, when no one is around to notice, is a great example of what makes nursing special, and Norberto, too. It couldn't have been easy for him to do, but somehow he was able to make that a priority in a busy ICU and sit with a young man, so that he wouldn't die alone. Doing so made it possible for him to hear the man's last words and relay them to the patient's mother. These are moments that can't be recreated and the fact that he knew that speaks so clearly to his bedside manner and connection to the work on a human level."

The Grace O'Neil Ambulatory Excellence Award went to Virginia Forbes, RN, C-EFM, who works at the Women's Evaluation & Treatment Unit.

Today's nearly 3.6 million registered nurses in the United States constitute the nation's largest health care profession. According to Baystate, nursing offers a wide range of opportunity to those considering a career in the profession, including practicing as clinicians, administrators, researchers, educators and policymakers.

"During National Nurses Week, I want to thank our entire nursing team for its commitment to the delivery of exemplary patient care. These nurses have a strong moral compass and an unbelievable work ethic to care for our patients. Each day they come to work to give their all, providing not only clinical excellence, but compassionate excellence," said Christine Klucznik, DNP, RN, chief nursing officer and vice president of Patient Care Services, Baystate Medical Center.

One retention and recruitment tool Baystate Noble uses in Westfield is the Student Nurse Apprenticeship Program, which started in 2016. There are typically five-to-six students per year at Baystate Noble in the program, which Baystate described as one aspect of the mutually beneficial collaboration between Baystate Noble and Westfield State University.

A few highlights of the program include:

Long standing relationship dating back to WSU's nursing program inception

WSU's initial nursing student instruction including classroom and simulation took place at Baystate Noble

Several student groups placed at Baystate Noble for clinical experience

Baystate Noble nurses also working as WSU instructors

Many WSU students have transitioned to nursing positions at Baystate Noble

Despite the high number of nurses in the field, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has identified the need to attract 1.1 million new registered nurses to the profession, as upwards to 700,000 seasoned professionals are preparing to retire by 2022.



To keep up with the demand, Baystate is holding a series of daylong nurse recruiting sessions on Thursdays. The hospital also recently developed a concept called "Open Hours," where experienced nurses can come to Baystate Medical Center every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. without an appointment and speak face-to-face with a nurse recruiter and a hiring manager with the real possibility of leaving with a job offer.

As part of National Nurses Week, Baystate is also holding a special daylong "Open Hours" from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 10 in the satellite office of Talent Acquisition located in the hospital's Daly Lobby. Current job listings for the hospital are online here.A convicted bank thief was arrested Tuesday after he robbed a Market Basket in Lawrence and tossed $3,000 in cash in the air as he escaped into a waiting car, police said.

Ricardo Flores, 45 of Boston, entered the Market Basket on Essex Street at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and threatened to shoot anyone who called the police. He demanded cash, police told The Eagle-Tribune.

Customers and a bagger chased Flores and tried to block him from leaving the supermarket. One man tried to tackle him but fell, Methuen Police Sgt. Mike Simard told The Eagle-Tribune.

Flores ran from the store and threw $3,280 cash into the air as he escaped into a white car waiting in the parking lot.

When Methuen police spotted the car 10 minutes later on Riverside Drive Flores jumped out of the backseat and tried to run. Police from Lawrence and Methuen stopped him.

Flores pulled a knife on the officers and still had more than $1,000 on him during the arrest, police told The Eagle-Tribune. He is charged with armed robbery while masked, resisting arrest and assault with a dangerous weapon.

A couple was also arrested and charged with armed robbery. Derek Rodriguez, 38, of Lowell and a woman were in the car. Police suspect the woman provided a fake name - Selena Aleandara - and officers are working to identify her, according to the newspaper.

Flores was recently released from federal prison where he served 10 years after robbing a string of banks in Boston, according to court records. At the end of 2004 and in January 2005 Flores stole more than $6,000 from three different banks.A 46-year-old Boston-area man was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted of several charges related to his raping and prostituting a young female relative, The Boston Globe reported.

Delacy Morris was sentenced Wednesday after his conviction on charges of trafficking a person under 18 for sexual servitude and three counts each of rape, incest and indecent assault and battery.

According to prosecutors, Morris knew that the girl had been prostituted 2016. He began sexually abusing the girl and encouraging her to turn tricks for money. He tried to sell her services on Backpage.com, and eventually turned her over to other pimps and took a percentage of her earnings from them.

In requesting the life sentence, prosecutors pointed out Morris had served a 15-year term in state prison after he was convicted of aggravated rape in 2000.The difference between being sentenced for a crime and being detained is simple, Lucimar de Souza explained at a press conference at the ACLU Massachusetts office Thursday.

"They put you in there and you have no idea when you are going to leave," she said. "Each day it's one more day, one more day, but you never know. You hope it's soon...but when?"

De Souza, 49, was released from the Suffolk County House of Corrections in Boston on Tuesday nearly four months after she was arrested by five U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The officers waited for her outside the ICE office where she was completing a confirmation of marriage interview in January - of the remaining steps to secure her legal status.

She sat in prison - separated from her husband and 10-year-old son Anthony - without understanding why she was being held or when she would be released. De Souza is one of eight plaintiffs in the ACLU of Massachusetts' case against the Trump administration.

In April, the ACLU of Massachusetts along with law firm WilmerHale, filed a class action suit on behalf of Lilian Calderon and other immigrants and their U.S.-citizen spouses affected by the Trump administration's actions.

She was released on Tuesday after lawyers for the Justice Department admitted ICE did not follow proper protocol in her case.

"We are delighted the court agreed with us that ICE is responsible for significant violations of the constitution," said Jonathan Cox, one of de Souza's lawyers. "...[they] denied Ms. de Souza and another detainee their rights under due process clause by not following their own regulations."

Immigration officials are required to update detainees at least 30 days in advance of their custody review. De Souza was given only a few days notice and held beyond the 90-day mark set for people detained by ICE.

"I don't think it's fair to keep me too long. I was trying to do something right," de Souza said to reporters. "They said I was a risk to flight but I was there trying to fix my situation."

De Souza wore a colorful maxi dress and pink lipstick to the press conference. This in stark contrast to her oversized sweatpants and ponytail she donned as she walked into court, hands cuffed behind her back, on Tuesday morning. The tension had disappeared from her face and so too had her gray roots, now freshly colored.

"She's glowing," an ACLU staffer noted when she entered the room.

De Souza spoke of her reunion with her son, a surprise that was captured in a heartwarming video. The 10-year-old visited her in jail often, but they missed each other. Happy tears were shed and not the gut-wrenching sobs she heard as he was forced to leave during their visits.

"When he went to the jail to see me he always asked me 'Can I stay here with you? Because my house is not the same,'" she said. "He never wanted to go back home...it's really hard for me to see this."

De Souza moved to the United States from Brazil when she was 19 with "American dreams," she said.

"Here we know we can fight for our rights. We know you have security. I know if I dream, if we dream, to have something you can try to do it," she said.

Asked if given what she's been through she would've made the same choices she said: "Yes."

"I decided to stay forever," she said.

Lawyers are now focused on a preliminary injunction motion in District Court that would allow them to "look beyond detention issues," Cox said.

They hope to show that ICE's policy of removing people seeking waivers is unconstitutional.HOLYOKE -- Jesus M. Pereira said that what happened at City Hall Tuesday can help in changing a reality Latinos face growing up here, that they aren't always expected to succeed.

Pereira, the city's Veterans Services Department director, was among those who discussed why it was significant that Mayor Alex B. Morse announced Capt. Manuel Febo will be the city's first Latino chief of police.

"Being the first Latino chief, in my opinion, makes Capt. Manuel Febo a wonderful role model for the Latino youth in Holyoke and marks a milestone in our city's history," Pereira said.

"As a Latino who grew up in Holyoke, I understand that at times the expectations for success aren't always what they should be and Capt. Febo just proved you can do anything you set your mind to," he said.

"In general, I think it's important that residents see themselves reflected in city leadership, and his appointment adds to that in a city that's half Latino," said Marcos A. Marrero, director of the city Department of Planning and Economic Development.

"When you also consider Capt. Febo's life experience as a Puerto Rican youth growing up in the Center City, an area where most policing takes place, that can only inform his department leadership style and approach for the better, in a way that is most productive to the community and public safety outcomes," he said.

Febo, 47, a veteran of over 22 years, will take over as chief when Police Chief James M. Neiswanger retires July 20, Morse said.

"Holyoke's about 50 percent Latino and most of that of of Puerto Rican descent, so I think it's very significant that today in 2018 we have the first Latino police chief to lead our city's Police Department," Morse said. "We're a diverse community."

Febo's life experience, years of work and rise from patrol officer to sergeant to lieutenant to captain make him deserving of the promotion, Morse said.

"I remember him, a lot of us remember him, growing up and being our school resource officer, and I think it's inspiring for many young people who aspire to enter policing and who now see policing as a means to help people and help the community and make the city a safer place," he said.

When half the population sees that someone who shares their background has earned a promotion to a position of importance in the community like police chief, that is "most definitely a significant" step, Ward 4 Councilor Jossie M. Valentin said.

"There is a need to continue to improve relationships between our local police departments and the community in general. Capt. Febo has a proven track record with the community of Holyoke, particularly with efforts around community policing," Valentin said.

"Being the first Latino chief of police is important to the community to see the diversity and to see themselves reflected in the leadership of our city," said state Rep. Aaron M. Vega, D-Holyoke. "Additionally Chief Febo brings a shared experience of many in our city and may be able to inspire others to get involved in public safety."

The prospect of the city's first Latino police chief comes with cautions, others said. Febo grew up at at 298 Elm St. and played at Chestnut Park. Such familiarity will present its own pressures, said Maria Ferrer, who has been in business here nearly two decades as owner of the MD Beauty Salon, 74 Cabot St.

"Being a Latino and serving in the community where the population is about, you can say, half and half, I think it should be a challenge. But I'm happy to see a Latino get that promotion," said Ferrer, agreeing Febo is a good role model for children.

Ward 2 Councilor Nelson R. Roman said Morse's selection of Febo to be police chief was a milestone that was as inspired as it was necessary. "Genuine community engagement/partnership" is needed to improve relations between police and the Latino community, he said.

"I have since the beginning believed Capt. Febo is our best bet for real systemic change in the city of Holyoke's Police Department. What I respect about the captain is his transparency and accountability," Roman said.

He was hopeful Febo would be receptive to ideas such as ending the presence of police officers in some schools, supporting establishment of a civilian data statistician in the Police Department and having a civilian police commission, he said.

"There is still so much work that needs to be done to connect to the most marginalized and oppressed, however, this hiring decision by the mayor is to be applauded and is a step in the right direction," Roman said.EASTHAMPTON -- Proprietors of a family-owned cannabis business described plans to open an Easthampton shop to sell marijuana grown and processed at a 60,000 square-foot facility in Monson.

Holistic Industries, Inc. plans a Rt. 10 dispensary called "Liberty." The retail shop at 155 Northampton St. would sell both recreational and medicinal marijuana, said CEO Josh Genderson.

Genderson and his team fielded questions Wednesday during a community outreach meeting in the Boylston Room at the Keystone Mill. Around a dozen people attended, including City Planner Jeffrey Bagg and former mayor Michael Tautznik.

Rachel Genderson, the CEO's niece and director of marketing, described the planned patient experience. She said a "wellness guide" will offer consultations. She said different products support mindsets such as "serenity" or "vitality."

Vincent Canales, director of security, said he is a former homicide detective and police officer in Maryland. He described a "man trap" doorway system that won't let a customer in until they show their credentials. The building will be monitored by cameras and have round-the-clock security, he said.

Canales said he wants to hire people for the security detail, and encouraged "retired police officers, former military" and those with related experience to apply.

The proposed dispensary is at the former site of Hairy's Pet Supply, and the building still houses the Fur's-a-Flyin' dog day care and grooming business.

Local resident Marcia Morrison, who attended the meeting with her dog "Wyatt," asked Genderson if he plans to displace Fur's-a-Flyin' to build his marijuana shop.

"You will find that we are a city of highly loyal people," she said. "If they are forced out, we won't take it lightly." She said the dog grooming business has been left in the dark about the dispensary's plans.

Genderson said he wasn't aware of the problem, and would be happy to meet with the dog groomer. "We're not here to kick any tenant out," said Gendron.

Holistic Industries on May 1 received a provisional certificate of registration from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to build a medical marijuana shop in Easthampton.

In April, the company won final state certification for its soon-to-open medical dispensary in Somerville, and also gained a final certificate for its Monson grow facility at 96 Palmer Rd.

In Easthampton, Holistic Industries will need a special permit from the Planning Board. But first, it must submit its recreational marijuana application to the state. The "community outreach meeting" was the first step in the state process, and required by the Cannabis Control Commission.

Holistic Industries has executed a purchase-and-sale agreement for the property, which is owned by Easthampton resident Peter Boruchowsky. The $900,000 sale will go through if the cannabis entrepreneurs line up their state and local permits.

The chief officers of Holistic Industries are Josh Genderson, Richard Genderson, and Jonathan Genderson of Washington, D.C., according to Massachusetts corporate records. Other directors of the corporation are listed as Michael Don and Beni Golan of Maryland.

Genderson said that seven years ago, when the District of Columbia approved medical marijuana, his family prevailed over hundreds of applicants to gain one of seven available licenses. The company "made its mark" developing non-psychoactive products to help patients, including children with epilepsy, he said.

Genderson is also president of Schneider's Capitol Hill Wine and Spirits -- a business started by his grandfather. He said the experience working in a heavily-regulated industry was helpful in moving into the cannabis business.

Holistic Industries hopes to gain its Easthampton Planning Board approval by September.

Easthampton is also home to INSA, a medical dispensary that plans to enter the recreational market. Green Life Dispensary on Wemelco Way has gained local approval, but has not yet opened. A fourth marijuana entity has signaled interest in opening at the former Cook's Building Supply.EASTHAMPTON -- Local property owners David and Marilyn Cernak must restore and replace damaged wetlands after they wrongly cut trees near the Manhan Rail Trail to accommodate a proposed solar farm.

The Conservation Commission on April 6 ordered the Cernaks to hire a wetlands scientist to fully construct, plant, and stabilize damaged resource areas on their land, a former Christmas tree farm. The "replacement and replication" zones must be monitored for two additional growing seasons.

The consultant must delineate riverfront, wetland, and buffer zones that existed before the trees were cut. By May 21, a "restoration and replication plan" is due. By June 28, the damaged areas must be "fully constructed, planted, and stabilized," according to the enforcement order.

The work must comply with state wetland restoration guidelines - including treatment of soils, replacement plantings, and monitoring - that were established by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection in 2002.

Among many requirements, "at least 75 percent of the surface of the replacement area must be reestablished with indigenous wetland plant species within two growing seasons."

The resource areas must be "returned to their original condition." In reality, it could take years for that to happen.

Reached by telephone Wednesday, David Cernak declined comment.

The Conservation Commission order concerns a 79-acre parcel where the New Jersey-based Soltage, LLC, plans a 2-megawatt, 7.4-acre ground-mounted solar array. The property is located off Westview Terrace and South Street, next to the bike path.

The Cernaks in March cut trees and cleared brush in wet, forested areas without gaining a local permit. "Unauthorized forest cutting" took place in areas protected under wetlands law, according to the commission's findings.

Until compliance with the order is shown, MassDEP won't issue a file number for the project, dashing any hope that Soltage will quickly gain a special permit from Easthampton's Planning Board.

The New Jersey developers also plan a solar project off Park Street on land owned by developer Bernie Gawle. But because Gawle has outstanding wetlands compliance issues on other properties he owns, MassDEP won't issue a file number for that project, either.

Soltage is scheduled to appear before the Planning Board at 6 p.m. on May 15 for a continued public hearing on the two projects, organized under "Easthampton Park Solar I, LLC" and "Easthampton South Solar I, LLC."

The Cernak property is complicated in that the acreage is under Chapter 61A, a state tax relief program for landowners who maintain agricultural or forest land. Forest cutting plans under 61A can not be used to clear land for development.

On May 2, a lawyer for the Cernaks, Timothy P. O'Leary, petitioned city officials to remove 18.5 acres of his clients' 79-acre parcel from Chapter 61 status and convert the property to solar farm use. That matter will go before the City Council on May 16.

City Conservation agent Mallory Larcom said the Conservation Commission only has jurisdiction over resource areas outside of the forest cutting plan boundary approved by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. A MassDCR spokesman said Wednesday he would gather information regarding any logging on the Cernak property that's under state jurisdiction.

The commission on Monday found fault with an initial submission from the Cernak's wetlands consultant, and scheduled a May 14 site visit, according to a local resident who attended the meeting.

The Republican | MassLive has asked the Conservation Commission for its documents concerning the Cernak property, and for copies of the commission's unpublished meeting minutes.

While the potential financial arrangement between the Cernaks and Soltage is not known, solar developers often offer long-term leases to property owners, contingent upon project approval.

This story will be updatedA lawyer and another woman accused of smuggling Suboxone strips into the Plymouth County House of Correction pleaded not guilty in court Thursday.

Elana Gordon, 30, an attorney from Bridgewater was arraigned in Plymouth District Court on charges of possession with intent to distribute Suboxone, conspiracy to violate drug laws and delivering drugs to a prison, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office.

Minoska Bello, 20, of Roslindale, reportedly turned herself in at Plymouth District Court and was arraigned on conspiracy to violate drug laws and accessory before the fact of delivering drugs to a prisoner.

Bail was set for Gordon at $1,000 and she was ordered not to have contact with any inmates of correctional facilities in Massachusetts. Bello was released on personal recognizance.

State Police detectives and Inner Perimeter Security investigators at the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department conducted a months-long investigation into the smuggling of drugs at courthouses and at the Plymouth County House of Correction.

Authorities determined Bello, who has a relative housed at the Plymouth County House of Correction, conspired with Gordon to smuggle drugs into the jail, the district attorney's office said.

"Through audio and video surveillance efforts, investigators determined that Bello had conspired with Gordon to make arrangements for the delivery of those substances into the House of Correction," the district attorney's office said.

On May 4, Gordon used her attorney privileges to get inside the jail and meet with an inmate, who isn't her client, authorities said.

"Gordon brought 61 Suboxone strips in two manila envelopes and allegedly passed them to an inmate," according to the district attorney's office. "The inmate returned to his cell with the envelopes before they were seized by investigators."

The Patriot Ledger reports authorities learned about the activity after they found a letter at the Plymouth County House of Correction last year. They learned about possible drug transactions at Brockton Superior Court.

Records show Gordon was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in June 2012. She has a pending disciplinary proceeding, according to a notation on the state Board of Bar Overseers website.The Massachusetts State Police troopers union is challenging the use of GPS tracking in police cruisers.

Tracking technology was activated in more than a thousand marked patrol vehicles by the morning of May 3. The following day, a complaint was filed with the Massachusetts Department of Labor Relations.

The union alleged in its complaint that state officials "failed to bargain in good faith." Union president Dana Pullman told the Boston Globe in a statement, "The deployment of [GPS] needs to follow the required steps to ensure complete and proper development of these reform initiatives."

GPS technology was activated amid a series of reforms pushed by Gov. Charlie Baker and Col. Kerry Gilpin, the superintendent of the troubled law enforcement agency.

"Our administration has been working closely with Colonel Gilpin to implement reforms at the State Police to improve public safety and restore the public's trust in the Department," Baker said in a statement.

"While progress has been made to install new technology, eliminate excess overtime shifts and determine the appropriate staffing levels for the Turnpike and Logan Airport, there is much work to be done to improve efficiencies and policies at the State Police," Baker added.

Additional reforms include the dissolution of Troop E - which patrolled the Massachusetts Turnpike - and a plan to reduce overtime hours by troopers patrolling Boston Logan International Airport by 40,000 hours each year.

Troop F came under fire this year after salaries of the troopers were not publicly disclosed.

The average member received $183,935 in 2017 and more than 50 employees received more than $200,000 in pay.

The reforms followed several scandals within state police, including alleged overtime abuse and editing the arrest report of a judge's daughter.A father of two has accused Worcester police of "destroying, manipulating, or ignoring evidence," during an investigation that led him to spend 16 years in jail for a crime he did not commit.

Natale Cosenza, 44, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Worcester and eight former and current police officers Thursday saying police withheld and destroyed evidence in a case that led to his wrongful conviction of assault and battery and armed burglary in August 2002.

The suit names former and current Worcester police officers Kerry Hazelhurst, John Doherty, T.J. Coakley, Mark Richardson, Allan Burnes, Daniel Benedict, Brian Donahue, and Robert Turgeon.

On Aug. 14, 2000, when Cosenza was 26 and raising two young daughters, a woman who lived in his building was attacked in her bedroom.

The victim, a 37-year-old woman who lived alone, woke to find a man crouching by her bed wearing a t-shirt and underwear. She repeatedly told the dispatcher she had never seen the man that he had something - either a t-shirt or a bandana - covering his face during the attack, according to the suit.

She could not describe the attacker other than to say he was bald during an initial interview with the police.

Meanwhile, police learned that Cosenza lived in the building. He was struggling with addiction at the time, and police had been searching for him for an alleged probation violation. Lawyers for Cosenza say he was not aware of this because he was in a drug treatment center.

A neighbor told police that Cosenza had stolen a motorbike from him, which was not true. Cosenza helped find that neighbor's motorbike after learning it had been stolen and then asked for reward money in returning it, which caused a spat between the men.

Police used this information to anchor their investigation into Cosenza as the primary suspect in the assault case.

The next day Hazelhurst and Doherty met the victim at her niece's house with the "sole purpose" of getting her to identify Cosenza as the attacker, lawyers said in the suit.

"Instead of putting together a photo array with pictures of men who fit the description...Defendants showed her a grossly suggestive photo array that contained 9 photos of people who looked like the Plaintiff, including the Plaintiff's photograph," lawyers wrote in the suit.

Police told the victim she "needed to identify someone" and that the suspect's photo was in the array they would show her.

The Detectives also mentioned Cosenza's name to the woman and told her that he lived in her building. The woman picked Cosenza's picture and detectives told her "she had correctly identified her attacker," though this was not true.

Police then took a statement from the victim again, where she described in detail Cosenza's appearance and tied him to the attack, after being unable to do so earlier.

Lawyers say police did not test fingerprints found at the scene, authorizing them to be destroyed. A pair of shorts found in the victim's bedroom with the semen of her true attacker also went untested.

The state Superior Judicial Court vacated Cosenza's conviction in 2016 and ordered a new trial. The high court said, following an evidentiary hearing in August, that the police procedure used was "unduly suggestive."

He was released in November 2017.

"There is no short explanation that justifies the dramatic impact on my life during the time my father was taken away from me. Sixteen years of my father being in prison had negative effects on my emotions, school, friendships, and more," Alisia Cosenza, his now adult daughter wrote. "My father is a victim of injustice and as left behind children, my sister and I are too."

Cosenza is being represented by lawyers Chauncey Wood from Wood & Nathanson, LLP in Boston and five lawyers from Loevy & Loevy Attorneys at Law, a Chicago based civil rights law firm.

Worcester Police referred any questions to the city manager's office. Mike Vigneux

Media Relations Specialist for the City Manager did not immediately respond to a call requesting comment.NORTHAMPTON -- As both a police investigation and a grand jury investigation have progressed into the death of a city man whose body was found burning in Hatfield two months ago, "at least three people" considered to be witnesses in the case have left Massachusetts, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Daniel Cruz, 44, whose smoldering body was discovered by police on March 10, was shot to death before being set on fire. His death was ruled a homicide by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Two Northampton women, Alondra Gil and Mercedes Diaz-Wright, both 22, were charged in Hampshire Superior Court Wednesday with lying to authorities connected to both investigations, and investigators have expressed fears that both women might -- like the others -- attempt to leave town.

Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Suhl said at Gil's arraignment that at least one of the witnesses who left Massachusetts shortly after Cruz's death are "affiliated" with Gil.

The identities of the witnesses and their connections to the case were not made clear.

Gil allegedly lied to investigators about where she was on the night Cruz died, as well as about the whereabouts of other people "considered to be suspects in the homicide of Mr. Cruz," court documents state.

Suhl did make it evident that Gil in particular might make an attempt to leave the state -- a factor that subsequently contributed to bail negotiations between Suhl and Gil's defense attorney, Rachel Weber, of Northampton.

Gil and Diaz-Wright are charged with lying to investigators about their whereabouts and the whereabouts of others who are believed to be connected to the case on the night that Cruz died.

Gil is facing a charge of perjury for allegedly lying to a grand jury on April 2.

Diaz-Wright, meanwhile, faces a charge of lying to a police officer. Court documents allege she lied to two Massachusetts State Police detectives during an interview at the courthouse on the same day that Gil allegedly lied to the grand jury.

Diaz-Wright is being represented by Northampton attorney Alfred Chamberland.

Both women were arrested by Massachusetts State Police and Northampton police Wednesday.

One of the witnesses who left the state is "significantly affiliated with Ms. Gil," and is alleged to have been with Gil on the night of the homicide, Suhl said. That person, who was not identified, relocated to North Carolina after Cruz's death, Suhl said.

"We certainly have that concern -- that Ms. Gil has that connection to someone also involved in this case," Suhl said.

Suhl also expressed concerns about Gil supposedly having family connections in Florida, and said she might attempt to relocate there.

Suhl said that Gil's boyfriend, who is also considered to be "connected to the investigation," was recently arrested for drug distribution and firearms trafficking in Holyoke.

"I don't think it's fair to say that other witnesses in this case have left the state," Weber said. "Ms. Gil is responsible for Ms. Gil, and what other witnesses have taken it upon themselves to do cannot be attributed to Ms. Gil."

Gil's bail was ultimately set at $3,500 cash, and a pretrial hearing was set for June 23.

The bail for Diaz-Wright was set at $10,000 without prejudice. She will be back in court next Wednesday for a bail hearing.

Both women were being held at the Western Massachusetts Regional Women's Correctional Center in Chicopee.Vice President Mike Pence is revealing new details about the conditions of the three Americans freed by North Korea, saying one was evidently kept from the daylight.

Pence tells ABC News that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told him that, during a refueling stop in Anchorage, "one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadn't seen daylight in a very long time."

Pence also told CBS he spoke Wednesday with the family of Otto Warmbier, an American detainee who died last year shortly after his release from North Korean captivity.

Pence said: "I simply let them know that while we received this news with joy, that Otto was in all our hearts and the family was in our prayers."

He adds: "We got Otto home the last year, but it wasn't soon enough."

Pence says North Korea has been dealing with the U.S. "in good faith" as President Donald Trump prepares for a historic sit-down with Kim Jong Un.

Speaking to NBC News, Pence says: "In this moment, the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith."

Pence says that despite Trump's recent praise for Kim, the administration is not ignoring the North's abysmal human rights record.

He says, "We have no illusions about that."

But Pence says the U.S. believes "North Korea has taken steps that indicate this may be an opportunity for a breakthrough" on the Korean Peninsula.The State Police Association of Massachusetts is pushing back on Gov. Charlie Baker's implementation of GPS tracking in cruisers, part of a reform package announced following a series of scandals in the department.

The state "failed to bargain in good faith" and the unilateral activation of the tracking system violated the union's collective bargaining rights, the organization alleged in a May 4 labor complaint first reported by the Boston Globe.

And the controversy over the redaction of a judge's daughter's arrest report, which led to the resignation of former Col. Richard McKeon, disrupted discussions about existing plans to reorganize the agency and activate cruiser tracking, the union claims.

Union president Dana Pullman said in a statement that the complaint is not an objection to reforms in general, but to a process the union claims violated labor law.

"The State Police Association of Massachusetts has strongly advocated for a series of reforms at the Massachusetts State Police for nearly 10 years. We continue to support implementation of reforms done through a process that ensures officer safety and the uniform treatment of all members of the Massachusetts State Police," Pullman said in a statement. "The deployment of AVL [GPS tracking] needs to follow the required steps to insure complete and proper development of these reform initiatives."

In a statement, State Police spokesman David Procopio defended the implementation of the reforms.

"Colonel Gilpin and the Baker-Polito Administration developed comprehensive reforms to restore public trust in the Department, and the Colonel will continue to implement those proposals regardless of this attempt to slow down the process, including the continued use of the AVL system to prioritize officer safety and improve efficiencies," Procopio said. "Colonel Gilpin and the Administration are working with the union to implement the rest of the proposals and look forward to the union's cooperation toward restoring public trust in the Department."

On April 3, Gov. Charlie Baker and Col. Kerry Gilpin announced a series of reforms designed to restore public confidence in an agency battered by misconduct allegations. Dozens of troopers in Troop E had allegedly been paid for no-show overtime shifts, and in response Baker and Gilpin said the agency would eliminate that troop -- and activate GPS tracking in State Police cruisers.

The announcement caught the union by surprise, according to the complaint, which said they learned of the changes from the governor's press conference.

But the debate over the GPS system was not new, the complaint said. Nearly a year earlier, McKeon had informed the union that he intended to reorganize the agency and implement the tracking technology.

In a letter sent to the union, McKeon invited SPAM to discuss the changes, but said that they were not subject to formal negotiations.

"I desire SPAM's assistance and cooperation in implementing these core governmental decisions, which are not, as I am sure you are aware, mandatory subjects of bargaining under Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 150B," McKeon wrote, according to a copy of the letter released by the union.

The union's lawyers disagreed, and told the agency's labor counsel that any tracking would have to be subject to labor negotiations.

The union and State Police counsel met four times that year to discuss the reorganization, according to the complaint. The tracking was not formally discussed, the union said.

But a fifth meeting, scheduled for Nov. 17, was cancelled -- after reports that McKeon and other state police brass ordered troopers Ryan Sceviour and Alli Rei to remove embarrassing statements from the arrest report of Alli Bibaud, the daughter of Dudley District Court Judge Timothy Bibaud.

McKeon, Major Susan Anderson and Lt. Col. Dan Risteen all resigned in the wake of the scandal. Baker appointed Gilpin, a major and 23-year veteran of the force, to head the agency and lead reform efforts.

"There was no further discussion of the reorganization nor any mention of ARL until April 3, 2018 when the Governor and the new Colonel held a press conference and the new Colonel announced that GPS technology is available for immediate implementation in marked cruisers, and the technology will be activated in additional State Police vehicles in the coming months," the union's complaint said.

The union and agency counsel continued to communicate about the changes and agreed broadly on how to handle the dissolution of Troop E at an April 24 meeting. But the implementation of tracking was never agreed on before Baker announced its activation on May 2, the union claims.The third and only remaining suspect wanted in connection with the break-in of New England Patriot's player Rob Gronkowski's Foxborough home has been caught, officials said.

Shayne Denn, 26, of Tewksbury, has been arrested in Maine, authorities said. He has been on the run since the alleged break-in.

Authorities from Franklin County Maine responded to a report of suspicious activity on Chesterville Hill Road in Chesterville, Maine, at 7 a.m. Thursday.

A man and woman in a gray sedan registered out of Massachusetts were trying to break into a home, according to the Franklin County Sheriff's department.

Officials saw a white Ford Fusion leaving Chesterville Hill Road and the stopped the car.

Denn was in the car and gave officers a false name and date of birth, according to the sheriff's department.

Several stolen items were discovered in the Ford Fusion, officials said.

Denn was arrested for operating without a license and gave officers his real name. He was also charged with being a fugitive from justice as well as giving a false name and address.

Gronkowski called Foxborough police after the Super Bowl in February to report that his house was broken into.

Three people allegedly broke into the home and left with several items.

Eric Tyrrell, 28, of Foxborough has pleaded not guilty to charges in connection with the incident.

Anthony Almeida of Randolph has also been charged.

Almeida reportedly admitted to being the driver for Denn during the break-in.

Denn is accused of stealing valuable 19th-century coins.

Gronkowski's bedroom was locked and secured, but both of his housemates found items missing from their rooms, police said.The man wanted for allegedly stabbing a waitress at a Chelsea restaurant Monday was caught by authorities in Maryland Thursday morning, Chelsea police said.

Gerardo Reyes Menjivar, 36, of Lynn was captured in Beltsville, Maryland, by the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Chelsea police detectives put out a nationwide "Be On the Lookout" for Menjivar and his vehicle after the attack.

Detectives were able to track his movements over the past 24 hours, which led to his arrest, authorities said.

"Today after a successful nationwide law enforcement effort we placed a violent individual into custody and our community is safer," Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes said. "I thank the many agencies involved that worked in unison with our department to apprehend Menjivar."

Menjivar will be held in Maryland as a fugitive from justice as the Suffolk Court District Attorney's Office work on his rendition back to Massachusetts, police said. He will face assault to murder and other charges in Massachusetts.

Authorities say Menjivar ate at the Las Pupusas Del Chino restaurant Monday night and left the restaurant around 11 p.m. He left without paying his bill.

His waitress followed him outside to the parking lot where he allegedly stabbed her in the neck and ran away.

The woman was taken to an area hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening.Jose Lora has been found guilty in the killing of 22-year-old David Luyando, who was gunned down in Worcester's Hope Cemetery while visiting his cousin's grave.

Luyando was shot to death in June 2015 while he was at the cemetery checking on his cousin's stolen gravestone with several other family members when he was fatally shot.

The grave belonged to Javier Santiago, who was shot and killed outside Worcester City Hall in 2011 in an incident that was reportedly gang-related.

As the family was at Santiago's grave, a car drove up and a man opened fire on Luyando and his family. A bullet struck Luyando in the head and he was taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center - University Campus by his family, where he died.

Lora, 24, was found guilty of first-degree murder by a Worcester Superior Court jury on Thursday. He was charged with the killing in 2016 after being brought back to the country from the Dominican Republic.

Luyando was not a gang member, but was with Kevin Parker and Kevin Mulready, two members of the Providence Street Posse gang, when he was shot, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

Lora was a member of the Kilby Street Posse, which prosecutor Brett Dillon said had an "ongoing feud" with the Providence Street Posse, the newspaper reported.

Dillon said Parker shot Lora in the arm in the area of Water Street a week before Luyando's killing, according to the newspaper. The prosecutor told the jury that Parker was the intended target of the shooting that day in Hope Cemetery.

Members of the Worcester Police Department Gang Unit were outside the courtroom Thursday morning as closing arguments began.

In the months after the killing, two other people faced charges. Frederick Taylor, of Worcester, was charged as an accessory and Ashley Forget, of Leicester, was charged with giving police false information.

Taylor was accused of pulling up in the cemetery and opening fire. He allegedly stashed the gun in a tree before fleeing the area with Lora, according to court documents.

Forget's charges were dropped in exchange for testimony against Lora.The 69-year-old Holden man who stabbed and cut off the head of his estranged brother was sentenced to life in prison in Worcester Superior Court Thursday.

Michael Dowjat, 68, was found guilty of second degree murder after a jury trial in Worcester Superior Court.

Authorities said Dowjat stabbed his brother, 59-year-old David J. Alan, 70 times inside Alan's East County Road home in Rutland around June 7 or June 8, 2014. Dowjat testified the killing was on June 7, 2014.

Prosecutors say Dowjat cut off his brother's head and limbs. DNA evidence matching Dowjat linked him to the killing. Investigators found Dowjat's DNA in two areas inside Alan's home and GPS mapping placed Dowjat within two miles of Alan's home from June 8 to June 12, 2014.

Dowjat hadn't seen his brother in 20 years before the killing. He had been cut out of their father's will. Evidence indicated Dowjat had financial problems and was filing for bankruptcy.

Dowjat's wife called him a good husband after sentencing but did not comment further. Dowjat is eligible for parole in 15 years.

Former Rutland Police Chief Ralph Anderson, a good friend of Alan, was the only person to deliver an impact statement in court. He said he was good friends with Alan's father, Anthony, as well and watched as Alan cared for his father who suffered from dementia toward the end of his life.

Alan was a loner, but a good man, Anderson said. He kept his lawn in pristine condition, but kept the doors and windows closed because he didn't want anyone to look inside.

Anderson said he would miss his friend.Bianca Josef was just 3 years old when her father was arrested and sent to prison for a crime he did not commit.

On Thursday she stood beside her father Natale Cosenza as he spoke to reporters about the 16 years he spent away from his two children. Cosenza was surrounded by family and friends when he spoke in Boston's Post Office Square, describing the federal civil rights lawsuit he filed against the Worcester police.

Josef, now 20, moved from South Carolina back to Massachusetts with her two children and husband to live with her father. She arrived on Thursday, just in time for her father's interview with the press.

While she may not have enjoyed a childhood with her father, her two little girls will, she said. It was hard growing up without her dad, she said, but he was always only a phone call away.

"Even being in prison he was there," said Josef. "He called every day. We saw him every week. He was a father even though he wasn't there."

Josef and her sister Alisia Cosenza, 22, were raised by their grandparents. Cathy Cosenza, her grandmother, also stood by her son Thursday, saying: "I just hope justice was served."

Cosenza's father was diagnosed with cancer and died shortly after he was released from prison. He was close with his father, making his death particularly painful because of time lost, he told reporters.

Theresa Trotto, Cosenza's sister, said she remembers the day her brother was arrested vividly.

"It was like we were in a movie," she said. "For years we suffered together in silence. Now we are here."Anti-globalists are just isolationists by another name. And it's much the same with members of the America-first set.

It's important to keep this in mind when considering President Donald Trump's decision to pull our nation out of the Iran nuclear pact. Though no one could have been even the slightest bit surprised when Trump yanked the plug on the accord on Tuesday -- he's been telegraphing that move since forever ago, after all -- many had been hoping that he'd perhaps stay the course for a bit longer.

But he didn't.

As such, questions about how Trump should view the pact are no longer salient. The die has been cast. All that matters now is what comes next.

Sadly, there's no reason to believe that the administration has a Plan B.

We argued from the first in this space that the agreement -- officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action -- was no one's notion of perfection. But it was so much better than nothing.

And it was an international accord, with Germany and the European Union joining the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council in working with Iran.

What will happen now that the United States has bolted remains an open question.

The immediate impacts coming from Trump's move won't be seen, or felt -- at least not by most people. But it likely won't be long before Iran once again ramps up its cyberwar operations, seeking to cause havoc far afield by messing around with power plants or large-scale factories. With that threat clearly in mind, both public and private concerns must step up their efforts to thwart attempts to disrupt their operations.

But that's just a part of the story.

The question going forward: Will Iran now be able to work toward building nuclear weapons with which it could threaten not only its neighbors, but also the greater world?

One would like to imagine that the Trump administration has something up its sleeve that might counter such efforts. But all it's offered so far? Reinstatement of sanctions.

With our president gearing up to sit down with the leader of North Korea, it's actually possible to have hope -- amazingly -- that the rogue nation's despotic leader, Kim Jong Un, may be considering a fully denuclearized Korean peninsula. What a shame it would be to see us backsliding on Iran even as we make progress in North Korea. (Those two nations, one may recall, were, with Iraq, part of what President George W. Bush had labeled an "axis of evil."

A joint statement issued by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May expressed "regret and concern" about Trump's decision to pull out of the accord even as they vowed to stand by the terms of the pact.

Really, what they'll be doing is taking a wait-and-see attitude, because no one knows -- not even the White House, probably -- what will come next.

In today's globally interconnected world, isolationism is an anachronism. It didn't make a whole lot of sense 100 years ago, and it makes even less today. But making decisions that make sense doesn't seem high on this president's list of priorities.

Couple Trump's go-it-alone attitude with his propensity to lead with his gut, and this is the kind of thing that can happen.

America first can too easily turn into America alone.WASHINGTON -- Freed after more than a year in prison, three Americans flew homeward from North Korea late Wednesday toward a big middle-of-the-night celebration featuring President Donald Trump -- the latest sign of improving relations between longtime adversaries in the buildup to a historic summit between Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

Trump promised "quite a scene" at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington for the detainees, who were released as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited North Korea on Wednesday to finalize plans for the summit. Singapore was the likely site, late this month or in early June, for Trump's most ambitious foreign policy effort yet.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska -- for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon-- the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," they said. "We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

The men had boarded Pompeo's plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to a separate aircraft with more extensive medical facilities. They are expected to arrive at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington in the wee hours of Thursday morning.

Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Korea's leader for the prisoners' release -- "I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this" -- and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the "official suggestion" of the U.S. president, said North Korea's official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, all Korean-Americans, of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.

Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental U.S. Those advances were the subject of President Barack Obama's starkest warning shortly before Trump took office, and this is a crisis he's convinced his negotiating skills can resolve.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kim's willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating U.S. moves to tighten sanctions -- branded "maximum pressure" by the president. The wee-hours ceremony Thursday was to be an early celebration for an issue that has already put the prospect of a Nobel Peace Prize on Trump's mind.

"Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it," he said Wednesday when asked if the award was deserved.

The release capped a dramatic day of diplomacy in Pyongyang. After Pompeo's 90-minute meeting with Kim Jong Un, he gave reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked about the prisoners as he returned to his hotel. It was only after a North Korean emissary arrived a bit later to inform him that the release was confirmed.

The three had been held for periods ranging from one and two years. They were the latest in a series of Americans who have been detained by North Korea in recent years for seemingly small offenses and typically freed when senior U.S. officials or statesmen personally visited to bail them out.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Warmbier was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

"We are happy for the hostages and their families," the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. "We miss Otto."

Of the newly released detainees, Kim Dong Chul, a South Korean-born U.S. citizen, had been held the longest. The former Virginia resident was sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison with hard labor after being convicted of espionage. He reportedly ran a trade and hotel service company in Rason, a special economic zone on North Korea's border with Russia.

The other two detainees hadn't been tried.

Kim Hak Song worked in agricultural development at an experimental farm run by the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, or PUST. The university is the only privately funded college in North Korea and was founded in 2010 with donations from Christian groups. He was detained last May for alleged anti-state activities.

Tony Kim, who also uses the name Kim Sang-duk, was detained in April 2017 at the Pyongyang airport. He taught accounting at PUST. He was accused of committing unspecified criminal acts intended to overthrow the government.

The family of Tony Kim thanked all those who worked for his return and also credited Trump for engaging directly with North Korea. "Mostly we thank God for Tony's safe return," the family said in a statement.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer celebrated the detainees' return but warned that "we'll see many more hostages" if the administration provides an incentive for imprisoning Americans.

"We are happy they've returned, but North Korea shouldn't gain by taking Americans and then releasing them," he said.

During his visit, Pompeo discussed the agenda for a potential Trump-Kim Jong Un summit. Pompeo said the summit is scheduled to last one day but could be extended by a day depending on how talks progress.

North Korea's state-run media explicitly mentioned plans for the summit for the first time. Pyongyang has been exceptionally cautious about its public framing of Kim's recent diplomatic moves, which are a major shift from the more aggressive focus on missile launches and nuclear development that drove tensions to a boil last year.

Pompeo's trip, his second to North Korea this year, had not been publicly disclosed when he flew out of Washington late Monday aboard an Air Force jetliner. Trump announced the mission Tuesday afternoon as he laid out his case for withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal with Iran, another bitter U.S. adversary.

Accompanying Pompeo were a few senior aides, a security detail and two journalists -- one from The Associated Press and one from The Washington Post.

Pompeo, who first traveled to North Korea as CIA chief in early April, was only the second sitting secretary of state to visit the nation with which the U.S. is still technically at war. The first was Madeleine Albright, who went in 2000 as part of an unsuccessful bid to arrange a meeting between then-President Bill Clinton and Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il.

A Trump-Kim meeting seemed a remote possibility just a few months ago when the two leaders were trading threats and insults over North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests. In March, Trump unexpectedly accepted an offer of talks after the North Korean dictator agreed to suspend nuclear and missile tests and discuss "denuclearization."

--By Matthew Lee and Zeke MillerBeth Lindstrom, a Republican running for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, stopped by Fox News Thursday to make her pitch for why she's the best candidate to square-off against incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Warren this fall.

The Groton business owner and longtime political operative, in an appearance on "Fox & Friends," argued that she not only offers a "big contrast to (Warren's) left-wing, progressive politics," but is the Republican Party's best hope to unseat the Democrat.

Lindstrom took issue with what she called Warren's "tone and temperament" in office, contending that the senator "demonizes anybody who disagrees with her" -- something the GOP senate hopeful offered she would not do if sent to Congress.

"(Warren) had said that she wanted to teach, write books and throw rocks," she said. "When you want to pass legislation, you cannot be a rock thrower. I haven't been a rock thrower: I've built bridges with people through my whole career. And so there's a big difference there."

The GOP Senate hopeful added that unlike Warren, she's a conservative who believes in free markets and the idea that money is better spent in the hands of those who earn it.

"That's a very different take on where she is," she said.

Lindstrom, who's expected to face fellow GOP Senate hopefuls Geoff Diehl -- the state party's endorsed candidate -- and John Kingston in Massachusetts' Sept. 4 primary, argued that while she and her opponents "agree on a lot of those Republican, conservative issues," she's the party's best hope at defeating Warren.

"I am the best chance to win in November, end of story," she said.

The Republican hopeful noted that Warren won the women's vote by almost 20 percent in 2012. But, Lindstrom said she doesn't want voters to support her just because she's a woman.

"Vote for me because I'm qualified, because of my background, because of where I stand on issues ... If we give the voters in Massachusetts a real choice, we might give (Warren) a real surprisel," she said.

Lindstrom's remarks echoed those the GOP hopeful made at the Massachusetts Republican Party's late-April convention at the DCU Center in Worcester.

There, she told delegates that she will contrast Warren's "empty failures with (her) own record of success as a mom and wife, as the first female director of the Massachusetts Republican Party, as the state's Secretary of Consumer Affairs and as an entrepreneur and a small business owner."

Despite Lindstrom's speech, MassGOP delegates voted to endorse Diehl, a state representative from Whitman, in the U.S. Senate race after a contentious second round of balloting.WALTHAM -- Maine Gov. Paul LePage will campaign for U.S. Senate candidate Geoff Diehl, who is among three Republicans looking to unseat incumbent Democrat Elizabeth Warren this fall, officials announced this week.

LePage, a controversial Republican figure, will deliver remarks at a May 21 Diehl for U.S. Senate reception at Waltham's Chateau Restaurant, according to campaign officials.

The evening campaign event will include a photo reception and general reception in addition to the Maine governor's remarks.

LePage, who has garnered headlines in recent years for his comments on an array of issues, is the latest high-profile Republican to campaign for Diehl, the state party's endorsed candidate.

Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer headlined an April Diehl for U.S. Senate fundraiser at the Union Oyster House in Boston.

Spicer praised Diehl, a Whitman state representative, as an "early supporter" of President Donald Trump, adding that he would be a key backer of the president's agenda if sent to the U.S. Senate.

The former press secretary further criticized Warren, as he urged Massachusetts Republicans to support Diehl over other GOP hopefuls.

Diehl is expected to square off against fellow Republicans Beth Lindstrom and John Kingston in the state's Sept. 4 primary.

Although all three candidates qualified for the ballot at the state party's late-April convention at the DCU Center in Worcester, delegates voted to endorse Diehl.BOSTON -- The Massachusetts Senate on Thursday passed a bill updating the funding formula used to calculate public education costs.

If fully implemented, the updated formula would cost more than $1 billion above the state's current education spending each year. The Senate bill would not set aside any money, but, if signed into law, would set the policy and leave it up to the Legislature each year to decide how much to appropriate.

"So many people tell us our system is groaning under the weight of being old and lack of investment, we're about to lose our edge as a state, as a producer of a talented workforce," Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Sonia Chang-Diaz, D-Boston, said in an interview. "With so many people living in a state of real death by 1,000 paper cuts for so long, it's important we act with urgency before the end of the session."

The bill, S.2506, passed 38-0.

The bill is based on a 2015 report by the Foundation Budget Review Commission, a commission established to look at the state's education funding formula.

The report makes five recommendations, all of which are incorporated in the bill:

Updating the formula used to calculate employee health benefits. Today, the formula significantly underestimates how much it costs districts to pay for employee health insurance.

Updating the formula's calculations of special education costs, which are also based on outdated estimates regarding how many students have special education needs.

Increasing the amount of money schools are paid to teach English language learners.

Providing more money to districts that have high concentrations of students in poverty.

Collecting better data on school funding.

The bill would require the Ways and Means committee chairmen and the Secretary of Administration and Finance to jointly calculate each year how much it would cost to fully implement the recommendations, then decide how much money they will put toward that cost.

This is the fourth time the Senate has passed these recommendations -- twice as part of the state budget and once as part of a bill focused on charter schools. The House has never taken them up.

This is the first time the Senate has passed the recommendations as a standalone bill.

Every senator is a co-sponsor, other than one senator who was not yet sworn in when the bill was introduced. There are 79 House co-sponsors, although 88 representatives signed onto a similar amendment to the House budget.

It will be up to House Speaker Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop, whether to bring the bill up for a vote in the House.

The bill comes as Brockton and potentially other cities are considering filing a lawsuit against the state, arguing that state officials have not kept their obligation under the state constitution to provide all students with an adequate education. A similar lawsuit was the catalyst for the landmark 1993 legislation that created the foundation budget funding formula.

During debate on the Senate floor, advocates for the bill said schools are struggling because of the inadequacy of the funding formula. Chang-Diaz recited a list of items and staff that schools have cut in recent years due to funding difficulties, ranging from music programs to books to librarians.

Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, said the formula must be updated. "It has to be updated periodically because if it's not, it just gets outdated," Spilka said. "Look at education now, how dramatically different it is from 1993."

On the floor, lawmakers adopted an amendment sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, that would set up a commission to review the foundation budget every five years and recommend updates.

"For far too long school districts and students in our state have lived with the daily consequences of a foundation budget formula that woefully underfunds the actual costs of a kindergarten through high school education," Tarr said in a statement.BOSTON -- The Massachusetts Senate Ways and Means Committee on Thursday released a $41.42 billion state budget proposal for fiscal 2019 that would represent a 3 percent increase in spending over the current year.

That is higher than the $40.9 billion budget proposed by Gov. Charlie Baker and slightly less than the $41.5 billion budget passed by the House. But senators will likely add more money into the budget during debate on the Senate floor, which is scheduled to begin May 22.

"This budget that we are voting on today invests in our strengths, and it confronts obstacles and barriers to continued growth and success," said Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Karen Spilka, D-Ashland.

Noah Berger, president of the liberal-leaning Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, said both the House and Senate budget proposals are "very similar" and are "working within the same tight revenue box." For example, while the Senate puts more money into K-12 public schools, the House puts more money into early education.

"Doing a little bit more on one thing means doing a little bit less on the other," Berger said.

Education

One major focus of the Senate budget is investments in education.

The budget would set aside $4.91 billion for local education aid, compared to $4.87 billion in the House budget. This would result in communities getting at least an extra $30 per student compared to the current school year.

The Senate would add more money than the House to other education accounts that reimburse school districts for charter school tuition and special education. Senators also want to add more money to address problems with the education aid formula, which underestimates the costs of teaching English and paying for employee health insurance.

"The fundamental building block of individual and shared success is education," Spilka said.

The Senate budget would add $4.7 million into the school breakfast program and require schools to offer free and reduced-price breakfasts after the start of the school day.

In addition to matching the level of House funding for child care for low-income families, the Senate budget adds $5 million to expand access to preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds and $8.7 million for child care resource and referral centers that help parents and employers navigate early education.

The University of Massachusetts would get $518.7 million, the same level of funding proposed by the House.

Health care

One new initiative in the budget is a program to reduce drug costs in MassHealth by setting an annual target for prescription drug spending and letting the state pursue rebates from drug manufacturers. This is expected to save MassHealth $40 million out of a $16.1 billion budget.

The budget would set aside $633 million to offset costs incurred by hospitals serving large numbers of MassHealth patients. It includes $35.5 million for salary increases for nursing home workers. Nursing home workers say they are underpaid, which results in significant turnover.

Other health care initiatives include money for increased staffing at rape crisis centers; $3.8 million to eliminate the wait list for pediatric palliative care for terminally ill children; and $500,000 for a new "mobile integrated health unit," which can offer care in someone's home, limiting emergency room visits.

The Senate rejected Baker's proposal to move 140,000 non-disabled adults off MassHealth onto Health Connector plans.

Like the House, the Senate wants to open five new drug addiction recovery centers.

A significant amount of money would be spent on mental health services, including $2 million to divert people with mental illness out of the criminal justice system and $4 million to increase reimbursement rates for mental health providers.

The budget includes $1 billion for the Department of Children and Services. That includes $15.5 million for family resource centers to expand to new communities and help families displaced by the hurricanes in Puerto Rico.

Welfare

The Senate budget, like the House budget, lifts a cap on welfare benefits for children conceived while a family is receiving benefits. The change would be effective Jan. 1, 2019. The budget would provide $5.5 million to pay for it.

"We get rid of an outdated, unjust policy that impacts nearly 9,000 of our commonwealth's kids," Spilka said.

It invests $1.5 million in a program that offers money to families on food stamps to cover transportation to job training programs. Other line items would expand access to healthy foods for food stamp recipients and provide job training and job placement services to welfare recipients. The budget would increase a children's clothing allowance from $300 to $350 per child.

The Senate budget is relatively similar to the House budget on housing, providing slightly more or less for various shelter and rental assistance programs. The Senate creates a new grant program for developers to create accessible affordable housing.

Transportation

In response to plans by some regional transit agencies to cut services or raise fares, the budget funds RTAs at $88 million, compared to $82 million in the House budget and $80 million in Baker's budget. Of this, $4 million would be earmarked for RTAs that have specific plans to improve services.

The bill would also create a task force to look at RTA performance and funding.

Criminal justice

The Legislature this year passed a major overhaul of the criminal justice system, which focused on diverting more people out of jail and into rehabilitation, making prisons more humane and offering more resources to ex-prisoners.

The Senate budget includes $5 million to $8 million to implement the new law. The budget includes money to expand Housing Courts, pay for re-entry programs and pay the probation department for software and staff required by the new law.

The budget would increase the starting salaries of assistant district attorneys and public defenders, which have traditionally been very low, to $55,000 a year.

The bill also creates a commission to assess spending at each county sheriff's office and the state Department of Correction. Historically, there have been massive regional disparities in the funding of sheriffs. The commission will attempt to create a standardized funding formula.

"Budgets have been going up tremendously," Spilka said. "We understand the reasons, but we're trying to get a better idea of what's going on and where efficiencies and more effective use of resources may be possible."

The House proposed creating a new audit unit within the state police and a new commission to review state police hiring and promotion practices, after several scandals. The Senate left that out.

Spilka said she decided to leave it up to individual members to file budget amendments.

Taxes and revenue

The budget includes no new taxes and fees, other than $20 million in new taxes on short-term rentals. A bill taxing and regulating room-sharing services like Airbnb has passed both houses and is currently being debated by a House-Senate negotiating committee.

Like the House and governor's budgets, the Senate proposes increasing the earned income tax credit, which primarily benefits low and middle-income working families with children.

The Senate, like the House and governor, counts on $63 million in revenue from the new recreational marijuana industry.

The budget does not count on any changes in revenue based on 2018 ballot questions.President Donald Trump announced Thursday that, after weeks of negotiations, he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have agreed to meet in Singapore next month.

Trump, who revealed the date and location of the historic summit on Twitter, said he and Kim will sit down on June 12 -- an event that will mark the first ever meeting between a sitting U.S. president and North Korean leader.

"We will both try to make it a very special moment for world peace," Trump tweeted.

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

The president's announcement came just hours after he and other administration officials welcomed three Americans -- Tony Kim, Kim Hak-Song and Kim Dong Chul -- who had been detained in North Korea for several months back to the United States.

North Korea reportedly released the Americans Wednesday as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the country's leaders to negotiate details surrounding the upcoming summit.

Trump told reporters last week that the date and location for the meeting had been set and would be announced soon.

The White House had reportedly been looking at Singapore and a facility inside the Korean peninsula's demilitarized zone as possible sites for the summit.

Trump, however, said Wednesday that he ruled out the demilitarized zone as a potential meeting site.

"It will not be there," he said before a Cabinet meeting at the White House, according to various news outlets.

South Korean and U.S. officials announced in March that Trump, despite previously trading barbs with his North Korean counterpart, had agreed to meet with Kim by May to negotiate an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more information becomes available.BOSTON -- A newspaper delivery woman injured on the job was an independent contractor who is not eligible for workers' compensation, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled Thursday.

But several of the justices urged the Legislature to update the state's independent contractor law to alleviate confusion.

Chief Justice Ralph Gants, joined by two other justices in a concurring opinion, said the state laws today about who is an independent contractor and who is an employee result in "confusion and uncertainty."

"With so many different standards, it is difficult for employers to classify their workers properly, even where they intend to comply with the law," Gants wrote.

Ives Comargo worked for Publishers Circulation Fulfillment, a company that has contracts with numerous newspapers to deliver papers. In 2010 and 2011, Camargo fell twice while on the job. She had several periods of disability related to injuries from the falls, and she was fired in August 2012.

That led to a fight between Camargo and the delivery service's insurer over whether Camargo was an employee or an independent contractor and whether she was entitled to workers' compensation benefits.

The case had potential ramifications for other newspapers that use deliverers who are independent contractors. The Republican uses numerous independent local distributors who then contract with adult carriers. The company does not use PCF.

In a decision written by Justice Scott Kafker, the SJC ruled that Comargo was an independent contractor.

"In working for PCF, (Comargo) was allowed to expand her business to deliver newspapers and other items for other companies; supplied all necessary instruments to complete her job at PCF, including using her own vehicle to make deliveries; hired substitutes to complete the job; purchased her own independent contractor work insurance; and filed taxes as an independent contractor," Kafker wrote.

The court found that, under state law, independent contractors are not eligible for workers' compensation.

But Gants noted the confusion around the independent contractor law, which can result in workers being misclassified. There are at least four legal standards for determining whether someone is an independent contractor or an employee, depending on the context.

Gants wrote that this is confusing for businesses and also for workers, who "must struggle to understand and assert their rights." For example, a worker might be eligible to receive minimum wage and overtime pay, but not workers' compensation.

Several states have taken steps to harmonize their laws. "Whether such reforms would be appropriate in Massachusetts is, of course, a question for the Legislature and, as this case illustrates, a pressing one -- which I invite the Legislature to address," Gants wrote.U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, urged Congress Thursday to immediately act to protect "net neutrality" provisions, as the FCC announced it will officially roll back the Obama-era internet regulations next month.

Markey, who is leading the Senate effort to override the Federal Communications Commission's December ruling to undo net neutrality protections, issued a "red alert" after officials revealed the controversial "Restoring Internet Freedom Order" will take effect on June 11.

"The Senate must act now ... to save the internet as we know it," he tweeted, followed by a "Red alert" hashtag.

BREAKING: The Trump FCC has announced that #NetNeutrality protections will officially end on June 11th. The Senate must act NOW and pass my resolution to save the internet as we know it. #RedAlerthttps://t.co/RMjJPU88ee  Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) May 10, 2018

Markey added that "if the FCC is going to end net neutrality on June 11, it puts the urgency to pass (his Congressional Review Act resolution) to reinstate the rules at Defcon 1."

"Next week, the Senate will take the most important vote on the internet in its history," he said in a statement. 'It will be an historic day of reckoning for senators, and we must win."

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced Thursday that the commission-approved "Restoring Internet Freedom Order" will go into effect in June -- six months after it narrowly cleared the panel on a contentious 3 to 2 vote.

Pai, who supported the order, said it will bring back "the bipartisan, light-touch approach that served the online world well for nearly 20 years," as well as allow the Federal Trade Commission to again target internet service providers for any unfair or deceptive business practices and protect broadband privacy.

"On June 11, we will have a framework in place that encourages innovation and investment in our nation's networks so that all Americans, no matter where they live, can have access to better, cheaper and faster internet access and the jobs, opportunities and platform for free expression that it provides," he said in a statement.

Pai further chided lawmakers and and others, whom he argued "have tried to mislead the American people about the Restoring Internet Freedom Order."

"Now everyone will be able to see the truth for themselves," he said.

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, however, called the June 11 implementation date "profoundly disappointing."

"The FCC is on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law and the wrong side of the American people," she said in a statement. "It deserves to have its handiwork revisited, reexamined and ultimately reversed."

Rosenworcel pledged to "keep raising a ruckus to support net neutrality."

The FCC's announcement came one day after Senate Democrats officially filed a petition to force a floor vote by June 12 on Markey's Congressional Review Act resolution, which seeks to undo the commission's ruling and restore net neutrality rules.

Markey, in urging support for his resolution, argued that net neutrality protections are needed to "ensure Americans aren't subject to higher prices, slower internet traffic and even blocked websites because the big internet service providers want to bloat their profits."

Today, the petition that allows U.S. Senate Democrats to force a vote on my resolution to save #NetNeutrality is being officially filed. We are approaching the most important vote for the internet in the history of the Senate, and we are just #OneMoreVote away from securing victory. Join me and my colleagues in this historic moment and help us kick off a week of action to #SaveTheInternet: Posted by Senator Edward J. Markey on Wednesday, May 9, 2018

"This upcoming Senate vote will be our opportunity to save net neutrality and deliver the digital future that Americans deserve," he said in a Wednesday statement.

The senator formally offered his resolution to restore net neutrality rules in late February. Upon its introduction, the measure had garnered support from all 47 chamber Democrats, as well as independent U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, and Angus King, of Maine, and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

The introduction triggered a 60-day period for lawmakers to seek a vote on the CRA resolution.

Although support from only 30 senators is needed to force a vote on a resolution of disapproval, it must receive a simple majority, or 51 votes, to pass.NEW YORK -- The Red Sox squandered a perfect chance to add to their 6-5 lead in the top of the eighth inning. They then paid in the bottom of the eighth.

Matt Barnes allowed a leadoff double and walk while retiring just one batter before manager Alex Cora asked Craig Kimbrel for a five-out save.

Kimbrel wasn't his typical dominant self. Brett Gardner ripped a go-ahead two-run triple against the Red Sox closer.

Aaron Judge then crushed a 429-foot homer with a 117 mph exit velocity to straightaway center field. The Yankees won 9-6 and took over sole possession of first place in the AL East.

The Red Sox had been tied for first place or in sole possession of first since March 31. But the Yankees have won 17 of their past 18 games.

Mitch Moreland walked and Eduardo Nunez doubled to put two runners in scoring position for the Red Sox with no outs in the top of the eighth.

But Rafael Devers and Christian Vazquez struck out swinging. Andrew Benintendi then grounded out after an intentional walk to Mookie Betts.

Hanley's homer gives Boston lead in seventh

Hanley Ramirez hadn't homered in his previous 19 games.

But the Red Sox DH ended his power drought with two outs in the seventh inning. He crushed a 113 mph home run 431 feet into the second deck in left field to give Boston a 6-5 lead.

Porcello gives up season-high 5 runs

Rick Porcello entered with a 2.14 ERA and didn't allow more than three runs in any of his first seven starts.

But he gave up a season-high five runs in 5 1/3 innings. He allowed eight hits and a rare three walks while striking out three. He had allowed only five walks in his first seven starts (46 1/3 innings).

The key inning for Porcello was the fifth. He loaded the bases with no outs but escaped after allowing just one run.

Aaron Judge singled and advanced to second on an error. Porcello then walked Didi Gregorius and hit Giancarlo Stanton with a pitch.

Gary Sanchez's sacrifice fly plated Judge to make it 5-3 New York. Porcello escaped any further damage when he got Aaron Hicks to ground into a force out and Neil Walker to line out.

Tanaka with almost an identical line to Porcello's

Tanaka pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing four runs, all earned, eight hits (two homers) and two walks while striking out three.

Red Sox bash 3 homers

Andrew Benintendi and Mitch Moreland also homered in addition to Ramirez.

Moreland bashed a 90.9 mph sinker from Masahiro Tanaka for a two-run homer to right-center to make it 2-1 Red Sox in the second inning.

Moreland hit it 407 feet with a 103.6 mph exit velocity and 28 launch angle.

The Lead



By: Mitch Moreland pic.twitter.com/Yb66lFAofe  Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) May 9, 2018

After belting 20 homers last year, Andrew Benintendi stroked only one in the Red Sox's first 35 games of 2018.

But be bashed his second during the fifth inning to cut the deficit to 4-3.

His 99.5 mph blast to right-center field traveled 391 feet and with a 29 launch angle.Recently passed legislation calls for the Wyoming Business Council to work with the agriculture industry, and in consultation with the ENDOW Executive Council, on a strategy to build USDA-inspected beef processing plants of all sizes throughout the state and market Wyoming beef locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Gov. Matt Mead and his staff, state legislators, ranchers, trade and foreign market experts, and economic developers sat down last month for an initial meeting to take the large task ahead and turn it into manageable actions.

By Tom Dixon, Content Marketing Manager

http://wyomingbusiness.org/news/business-council-ag-industry-look-to-/10943Here is our Top 11 for this week, celebrating work and successes to grow and strengthen our Great Falls regional economy. More progress on projects as we finish out 2017.

Thank you to the GFDA Investors who are working hard and putting resources into growing Great Falls! We need your help and support. If you havent renewed your investment pledge, please consider doing so. Give me a call to discuss 406.750.2119. With continued national economic growth, were making major commitments to efforts in 2018 to attract projects to the Great Falls region, and that means we need your financial support!

WE ARE Hungry to Grow the Great Falls regional economy!

Brett

Top 11: http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1101450799075&ca=ee504627-9954-45e2-9673-ee06f2d8ec71The University of Montanas Blackstone LaunchPad Pursue Your Passion program celebrated the conclusion of the 2017-18 school year by awarding certificates to six outstanding women and two inaugural fellowships on May 2.

The women have spent the past year considering careers that harness their passions, diving into the unique entrepreneurial ecosystem in Montana and learning business fundamentals from dynamic community members. Five of the women applied for the two UM startup competitions  EPIC Pitch and the John Ruffatto Business Startup Challenge  and three were selected as finalists out of more than 40 other applicants.

http://news.umt.edu/2018/05/051018entr.phpI am a retired newspaperman. I live in Poca, WV, with my wife of 44 years, Lou Ann. I grew up in Cleveland. Three kids. Grandfather.



Report all errors to DonSurber@GMail.comI bet Senor Trumpanzee is sorry he ever hired Stormy Daniels to go to bed with him. Funny the porn star has a lawyer better than Trump's whole legal team! Unlike Trumpanzee, Michael Avenatti actually did go to and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. Avenatti also graduated first in his class from George Washington University Law School where he worked with Jonathan Turley and got every award available. Michael Cohen, for example got his law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School , one of America's schlockiest law schools, fighting to hold onto its accreditation, one of ten American law schools found to be out of compliance with the American Bar Association's requirement that schools only admit students who appear capable of earning a J.D. degree and passing the bar examination. As you know, Senor Trumpanzee only hires the best people. And... everyone know there was no collusion, no collusion... NO COLLUSION. Except there was. Putin put Trump into the White House. Trump is an illegitimate "president." He should be impeached immediately. This is one of the most shameful episodes in American history.

CNN made it into an exclusive yesterday. The exclusive-- which is news everywhere-- was that Mueller's investigators have questioned Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oligarch, a sanctioned Putin puppet and multibillionaire who is one of the half dozen richest men in Russia, about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments his company's U.S. affiliate made to Michael Cohen, immediately after the election. "The purpose of the payments," CNN naively reported, "which predate the sanctions, and the nature of the business relationship between Vekselberg and Cohen is unclear."

The scrutiny of the payments could add to the legal troubles for Cohen, whose home and office were raided last month as part of a criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. In court documents, the prosecutors said at least part of their inquiry stemmed from a referral from Mueller's office.





The questions asked of Vekselberg suggest that Mueller investigators have been examining some of Cohen's business relationships as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Vekselberg is one of two Russian oligarchs the FBI stopped earlier this year after their private jets landed in New York-area airports as part of Mueller's investigation.

Investigators also asked Vekselberg about donations the head of his US affiliate made to Trump's inaugural fund and campaign funds, sources said.





The attorney for Stormy Daniels-- the porn star who received $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged affair she had with Trump a decade ago-- produced information Tuesday evening that appears to add further details to CNN's reporting. Michael Avenatti alleged that Cohen received half a million dollars from a company affiliated with Vekselberg in the months after the presidential election.





Avenatti alleged the $500,000 went into the bank account for Essential Consultants, a shell company that Cohen set up before the election that was used to pay Daniels. Avenatti added that the payments occurred from January to August 2017.





...Vekselberg's cousin Intrater gave generously to support Trump.





He donated $250,000 to the Trump inauguration fund, $35,000 to the Trump Victory Fund, and $29,600 to the Republican National Committee in June 2017, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.





While it is illegal for foreigners to donate to US politics, Intrater is American.





However, the donations were a sharp increase from previous cycles and may raise questions for investigators. Intrater's only previous political donations included $1,200 to Democrat Bill Richardson's presidential run in 2008 and $2,600 in 2014 for Republican Chris Day's congressional race in New York. Renova Group donated between $50,000 and $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation, but it's not clear when the contribution occurred, according to the foundation's public list of donors.





Vekselberg may also be of interest to investigators because of his close ties to the Kremlin. He built his fortune following the collapse of the Soviet Union through a series of deals in the oil and gas sector. In 2004, he paid over $100 million to buy nine Faberge eggs from the American Forbes family, returning the second-largest collection of imperial eggs to Russia. Six years later, he was appointed by then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to lead the Skolkovo Innovation Center project, the Kremlin's answer to Silicon Valley.





From 2007 until March 2012, Vekselberg was a shareholder and chairman of the board of Rusal, the aluminum company controlled by Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska has business ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has been indicted on fraud and tax related charges as part of Mueller's investigation. Manafort has pleaded not guilty. Deripaska, who also was added to the US sanctions list last month, has sued Manafort over a soured investment deal.





Lamesa Investments Ltd, an affiliate of Renova, acquired a large stake in the Bank of Cyprus at the same time Wilbur Ross, then a private equity investor, made a capital infusion into the then-struggling bank. Lamesa now holds a 9.2% stake in the Bank of Cyprus. Ross resigned from his position as vice chairman of the bank after he was confirmed as Trump's commerce secretary.





Vekselberg also attended the December 2015 dinner in Moscow for RT, the state-controlled television channel, where Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, sat beside Putin, according to NBC News. Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying about a call he had with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition and is cooperating with the Mueller investigation.





Vekselberg attended Trump's inauguration ceremony as a guest of "one of his closest American business partners," Renova spokesman Andrey Shtorkh told the Washington Post. The New York Times reported that Intrater gave Vekselberg the ticket.Jared Golden was endorsed by Maine's AFL-CIO today, not by rich friends of mommy

Today, Maine's AFL-CIO announced ttheir endorsement of Jared Golden in the Democratic primary. Speakers included Cynthia Phinney, Maine AFL-CIO President, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Ron Green of the Professional Fire Fighters of Maine, Patrick Carleton, a Chesterville papermaker and member of the United Steelworkers, and Julie Eaton, a Stonington lobsterman and member of the Machinists union-- and, of course Jared Golden, a veteran and member of working class who isn't cowed by rich snobs who inherit their parents' money.

Golden's opponent, Wall Street puppet Bruce Poliquin, a rubber stamp for Trump and Ryan, is one of the GOP's most vulnerable incumbents but before Golden can take him on, he has to get through a primary that includes a multimillionaire who's the heir to the Burt's Bees fortune , Lucas St. Clair. St. Clair's most recent e-mail starts by saying "You deserve a member of Congress who listens to you, not corporate special interests and the wealthy elite, not mentioning that special interests and the wealthy elite is precisely who is financing his campaign. In fact, Maine Public Radio had pointed out that he's not even in Congress yet and he's already cheating and breaking campaign finance laws in the same way rich Republicans do. "A new, secretive group appears to be attempting to tilt the three-way Democratic contest in favor of one of the candidates-- Lucas St. Clair," Public Radio explained this week.

St. Clair's campaign has said it has nothing to do with the TV spots blanketing the airwaves. But there are signs that the group behind the ads has close ties to St. Clair and his mother, Burts Bees Inc. co-founder Roxanne Quimby.





Campaign ads that make a case for a candidate are paid for by the their campaigns, and if you want to see who's funding those campaigns, you can.





But that's not the case with a new group called the Maine Outdoor Alliance, a nonprofit organization that sprung up in late March. The group is now running ads about saving the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument from the Trump administration-- an issue that has been largely settled since December, when Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said the monument is likely safe from changes by the federal government.





Nonetheless, the ads provide a number to call Zinke, so viewers can tell him to leave the monument alone. The number goes to the general number for the Department of Interior-- a bureaucracy of over 70,000 employees.





But contacting Zinke probably is not the main purpose of the ads. They focus heavily on the congressional candidate who is often credited with making the national monument a reality.





Testimonials like that are pretty standard in candidate ads, and they would make perfect sense in a campaign spot for St. Clair, one of three Democrats in the primary for the 2nd Congressional District seat.





But the Maine Outdoor Alliance does not explicitly say in the ad that it supports St. Clair's candidacy. It is incorporated as a nonprofit and its ads are classified by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as issue based-- a pair of designations increasingly used by so-called dark money groups that attempt to influence voters, but whose donors can remain secret.





Dan Corcoran, a forester who appears in one of the ads, said he cannot remember the names of the people from Maine Outdoor Alliance who contacted him.





"It was not my understanding that it was a campaign ad, Corcoran said. It was to identify and build support for the national monument.





Corcoran also said that he is not entirely sure who Maine Outdoor Alliance is, which puts him in the same position as the rest of the public.





So far, the Maine Outdoor Alliance isn't responding to requests for comment.





But publicly available information offers some clues about who is running the organization. According to articles of incorporation papers filed with the Secretary of State, Nathan Deyesso is the incorporator for Maine Outdoor Alliance.





Deyesso runs a business in Scarborough and, according to a 2008 copy of Gould Academy's alumni magazine, he was St. Clair's best man at his wedding.





Deyesso did not respond to requests for comment.





Nor did Barrett Kaiser, a Montana-based political consultant linked to the agency that FCC documents show purchased the Maine Outdoor Alliance ads. Kaiser was hired by Burts Bees Inc. co-founder Roxanne Quimby to lead the monument campaign.





Quimby is St. Clair's mother. She did not respond to requests for comment.





"You know, I don't think there's any question that the people who are doing this are supporters of Lucas and the effort he put it in to creating the national monument," said David Farmer, a spokesperson for St. Clairs campaign.





"We don't know who's doing this," he said.





Farmer said the campaign is not affiliated with the Maine Outdoor Alliance.





"We have not talked with them, we have not coordinated with them in any way. And we were unaware of the ads until we saw it like everyone else," Farmer said.





Farmer also said that these kinds of ads are the reality of the campaign finance laws that many Democratic candidates say are broken. Among them is St. Clair, who addressed the explosion of spending and dark money groups during a candidate forum held in January.





"You know I think that Citizens United and money in politics has been the ultimate corruption of our democracy in our lifetime," he said.





Farmer was asked if St. Clair planned to denounce the dark money ads running on his behalf.





"Yeah, we would prefer that it be a straight contest," Farmer said.





It does not look like Maine Outdoor Alliance will let that happen, though. The group just increased its television ad buy to over $300,000 for the first half of May.Analyst, Sexual Reproductive Health





Country: Democratic Republic of Congo

City: La Gombe, Kinshasa

Type: Full Time

Program (Division): Country Programs - Country Teams

Overview

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries, while strengthening the capabilities of governments and the private sector in those countries to create and sustain high-quality health systems that can succeed without our assistance. For more information, please visit: https://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

Program Overview

Over 200 million women around the world have an unmet need for family planning (FP), indicating they would like to stop or limit childbearing, but do not have access to methods to do so. Increasing access to family planning has the potential to reduce maternal and infant mortality, reduce the number of deaths due to unsafe abortion, and improve the health outcomes of women and families overall. In DRC, 28% of women have an unmet need for family planning and it is estimated that only 8%of all women are currently using modern methods of family planning.

Since 2012, CHAI has worked with governments, partners and manufacturers to reduce the price of contraceptives and increase access to family planning supplies and services. In sub-Saharan Africa, CHAIs helps Ministries to plan, coordinate, and implement family planning scale up, by providing a strong foundation of rigorous analysis and management support to more effectively target interventions, allocate resources, and fill gaps to align contraceptive supplies with human resource capacity and client demand. One particular focus of CHAIs work is to improve the availability and use of human resource, logistics, and service delivery data to ensure that commodities are appropriately distributed as well as to identify facilities that need additionally supervision to ensure that quality services are offered.

In DRC, CHAI provides support to the National Program for the Supply of Essential Medicines (PNAM) and the National Program for Reproductive Health (PNSR) to improve forecasting and supply chain management and build government capacity for supply chain and family planning program performance management. CHAI aims to support the PNAM and PNSR to improve the availability and use of health systems data, to strengthen coordination across partners implicated in health and drug data systems rollout and use, and to support the government to develop and lead a vision for an electronic logistics management information system (eLMIS) compatible with the current national health information system (DHIS2). Additionally, CHAI will work with the Ministry of Health and key partners to map healthcare worker locations and trainings in order to develop and rollout with the PNSR a national Family Planning Dashboard, integrating data from DHIS2, healthcare training data, and information on partner support.

Position Overview

CHAI DRC is looking for a highly-motivated and flexible analyst to support development and roll-out of a web-based FP dashboard in Kinshasa and Kongo Central provinces. The Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Analyst will work with the DRC SRH team, FP stakeholders, and CHAI global and country teams to support all phases of FP dashboard development and roll out, including coordination of human resources and partner mapping activities, system design and end user trainings. He/she will be based in Kinshasa, DRC with regular travel to Kongo Central province (as required).

Responsibilities

The SRH Analyst will support the development of the FP dashboard by:

Providing on-the-ground coordination of human resource mapping in Kinshasa and Kongo Central provinces, including support in deployment of iHRIS Train and end-user trainings;

Working with the DRC SRH team and partners to collect (and regularly update) nationwide information on partner-supported interventions in Family Planning for integration into the FP web-based dashboard;

Supporting the DRC SRH team and other FP stakeholders to define system design and technical requirements in accordance with DRC FP program needs;

Working with selected software developer and CHAI Tech team to develop and roll-out FP web-based dashboard as defined by the DRC SRH team and other FP stakeholders;

Developing user guides and training materials;

Conducting FP dashboard trainings in Kinshasa and Kongo Central provinces;

Performing other tasks as assigned.

Qualifications

Essential

Bachelors degree with a minimum of three years of experience or a Masters degree in public health, data systems management, or another relevant field with a minimum of two year of experience in a demanding and fast-paced environment;

Experience in data systems management and data use and motived and enthusiastic about conducting data analysis and using it to improve access to life-saving services

Highly motivated, entrepreneurial, with outstanding problem-solving and analytical capabilities;

Strong diplomatic and interpersonal skills, and ability to build strong professional relationships with a range of stakeholders in a challenging environment;

Exceptional organizational and communication skills, including the ability to prepare compelling presentations and to communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively;

Ability to set priorities and work well under pressure with minimal supervision;

High-level of proficiency in the Microsoft Office Suite, particularly Excel, Power Point and Word;

Previous work experience in resource-limited settings;

Fluency in French and English required.

Advantages

Experience in family planning, sexual and reproductive health, and/or maternal and newborn health;

Familiarity with different national health system tools such as DHIS2 and/or IHRIS.

Connect With Us

Apply? https://careers-chai.icims.com/jobs/7977/analyst%2c-sexual-reproductive-health/job?mode=view&mobile=false&width=1520&height=500&bga=true&needsRedirect=false&jan1offset=60&jun1offset=60New York Wines set to parachute over to UK

A range of wines from New York State is heading over to the UK as a result of a new partnership between New York Wines SaRL and distributor Inverarity Morton.

Wines will be available from several producers including Riesling specialist Red Newt Cellars, Brotherhood; Americas oldest winery, Anthony Road; and Thirsty Owl Wine Company. Wines hail from three of New Yorks six AVA regions: The Finger Lakes, the Hudson River Valley and Long Island, with grape varieties being predominantly vinifera, including Riesling and Cabernet Franc, with a small number of hybrids such as Diamond and Traminette.

Fox Run Winery owner, Scott Osborn, said: The timing is right. We have had such a strong response from international shows and our Finger Lakes appellation is unique. Everyone knows the New York name, and the excitement is there to learn more about our cool climate estate wines.

On June 7 there will be a masterclass in London hosted by Red Newt Cellars winemaker Kelby Russell and Stuart Pigott, exploring the effect of terroir on Riesling and hybrids across the State, as well as an open pour tasting of select New York State wines. For more information register at www.tastenewyorkwines.co.uk. The masterclass is supported by the New York Wine & Grape Foundation.

Related articles:David Sanasaryan: Nikol is not a king who orders to open the doors of prisons (video)

David Sanasaryan made a note: Dear all, I see tension in the issue of political prisoners, so I would like to refer to it. Throughout my political and civilian struggle, I have been struggling for having no political prisoners in Armenia, and today I am sure that we will close the doors of New Armenia to Serzh's and Rob's Armenia, when no political prisoner remains in prisons. However, I want to make sure that Nikol is not a king who orders to open the doors of prisons; there is no such point in his lyricism that he could say to open the doors of the prisons. I am confident that we should not fall into other extremes for solid legal basis for the state. So I ask you to show some patience and I'm sure we will find the ways that will soon release the political prisoners from that anti-legal practices and heritage. PS. The most important thing for me is that both revolutionary and already Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has an adequate picture of the issue and nothing has changed over the few days. PS. Those lawyers and advocates who see solutions for this issue, please write or call us.At UCOM only: Tv sets at 10% discount + 1 month free UMIX package + 4k tv channel

Ameriabanks Special Offer for New Clients of Hrazdan Branch

"Fall forward": Gurgen Khachatryan, the Co-Founder of the Galaxy Group of Companies, addressed a message to young people in Armenia

UCOM hosted interns of Russian CBOSS corporation for a month

Google Ad

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

Google Ad

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

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At UCOM only: Tv sets at 10% discount + 1 month free UMIX package + 4k tv channel

Ameriabanks Special Offer for New Clients of Hrazdan Branch

"Fall forward": Gurgen Khachatryan, the Co-Founder of the Galaxy Group of Companies, addressed a message to young people in Armenia

UCOM hosted interns of Russian CBOSS corporation for a month

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

Google Ad

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

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When Rolls-Royce announced it would release its first-ever SUV, the luxury automaker didn't pull any punches in naming the model after the largest diamond ever discovered.

The $325,000 2019 Rolls-Royce Cullinan SUV comes equipped with a 6.75-liter twin-turbo V12 engine capable of 563 brake horsepower and 627-pounds of torque. Rolls-Royce says its SUV has a governed top speed of 155 mph, and estimated fuel economy rating of 18.8 mpg.

"At this point in the history of automotive design, SUVs have become homogenous and ubiquitous," Giles Taylor, design director for the automaker, said in a news release.

"The label SUV is now applied to anything with a two-box silhouette and the least suggestion of going off tarmac. We envisioned an authentic, three-box all-terrain high-bodied car with a convention-challenging design and absolute capability that would satisfy the adventurous urges of our clients."

In a news release, the automaker refers to the Cullinan has an all-terrain "high-bodied car that makes the idea of authentic, luxury off-road travel a reality for the first time."

"Tested to destruction all over the planet, Cullinan is an incredibly capable off-roader that sees the development of the 'Magic Carpet Ride' for off-road enjoyment, without sacrificing any Rolls-Royce on-road behaviour," the automaker says in a news release.

"The most practical of Rolls-Royces. Cullinan is the most versatile, family oriented, fun-to-drive super-luxury SUV available today."

--

The automaker announced it would jump into the SUV market about three years ago, and says the Cullinan is the second vehicle to sit on its aluminum-based "Architecture of Luxury."

The four-door, five-seat SUV comes in at 5,864 pounds, and 210-inches long, 85-inches high and sits six-feet off of the ground. Bloomberg reports that this is four-inches taller than the next comparable competitor, and that it has the ability to wade in water as high as 21 inches.

Rolls-Royce says the SUV's suspension continuously "makes millions of calculations" within the shock absorber adjustment system. This system is said to react to the SUV's body and its wheel acceleration, steering inputs and information from its multiple cameras.

Some features of the Cullinan include a touch-sensitive digital dashboard, which allows the driver to select functions, different map views, vehicle-set-up while off-roading, and adjust the air suspension and hill descent controls.

This high-end SUV will also come with night vision and vision assist, wildlife and pedestrian warning, alertness assistant, four-cameras with a panoramic view including all-around visibility and a "helicopter view." Adaptive cruise, pre-collision warning, cross-traffic alert, lane departure and a 7x3 head-up display screen highlight the $325,000 rolodex of features.

"A host of other cutting-edge technology makes Rolls-Royce Cullinan the most technologically advanced car of its type in the world," the automaker says.

"All information is clearly communicated by the latest generation of digital instruments, with the displays themselves designed with clear and beautiful virtual needles, Rolls-Royce jewellery-like chaplets and clear lettering."SALINE, MI - Don Smith knew his family had some money on the way when he went to a local gas station to return his wife's winning lottery tickets.

He didn't know he was about to win $1 million.

After turning in the tickets, Smith purchased two Casino Millions tickets with an extra $20 as a surprise for his wife. And what a surprise it was.

"When my husband got home, he handed me a few tickets and I noticed there was a couple extra," said Christina Faussett, of Saline. "I was going to wait a day to scratch the Casino Millions tickets, but I decided I'd go ahead and scratch them since I was already sitting there."

"When I saw the '1MIL' symbol, I started scratching much slower. I handed the ticket to my husband and told him: 'I think I won $1 million!' When I saw that his hands were shaking and he couldn't hold the ticket still, I knew it was real."

The winning ticket was bought at the Sunoco gas station, located at 6999 E. Michigan Ave. in Saline.

"I don't think either of us slept at all last night," Faussett added. "The Lottery couldn't open early enough for us."

Faussett, 43, visited Lottery headquarters Wednesday, May 9 to claim the big prize. She chose to receive her prize as a one-time lump sum payment of about $634,000 rather than 30 annuity payments for the full amount.

"Winning comes at a great time. We'll be able to look into upgrading our home and set up a college fund for our son," Faussett said.

Players have won more than $10 million playing Casino Millions, which launched in March. Each $10 ticket offers players a chance to win prizes ranging from $20 up to $1 million.

More than $37 million in prizes remain, including two $1 million top prizes and 17 $1,000 prizes.

Lottery instant games may be purchased at 11,000 retailers across the state. In 2017, Lottery players won more than $960 million playing instant games.Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the owner of the property at 725 Oxford. The Xi Alumni Association is the owner of the property.

ANN ARBOR, MI - The Ann Arbor City Council voted to table its decision regarding new regulations for fraternity and sorority houses in the city, with the hope of gaining a better understanding of how those regulations would be applied.

Proposed changes to the city's zoning code would require fraternities and sororities to maintain an affiliation with the University of Michigan or another college or university in order for their houses to be specially permitted by the city on a case-by-case basis.

The City Council voted 10-1 in favor of tabling the vote until June to gather more information on what constitutes a fraternity or sorority's "affiliation" with a university and how the new zoning regulations would be applied. Council member Jack Eaton voted against the motion, stating that he would prefer to vote the regulations down.

Brett Lenart, the city's planning manager, said that affiliation rule would not retroactively apply to existing fraternities and sororities.

Rather, he said, it would take effect only with future permits granted by the city - either permits for newly established fraternities and sororities or for existing fraternities and sororities if they seek city approval to expand.

A number of community members, representatives from national fraternity organizations and their legal representation spoke against the ordinance, including Stephen Bernstein, general counsel for the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, whose UM chapter has been a property owner in Ann Arbor since 1947.

Bernstein previously addressed the proposed changes in a letter to City Planning Manager Brett Lenart, stating that the proposed amendment is discriminatory, unconstitutionally vague, and constitutes an unlawful delegation of municipal authority to UM.

"What you're going to do is interject yourself into student disciplinary proceedings, and I can tell you if you want to stop by my office, there is a ton of litigation on that subject," Bernstein said during a public hearing on the ordinance changes Monday, May 7. "The city is going to become a party to it.

"All you're doing is buying into a lot of litigation and not solving the problem that is ostensibly the basis for this amendment," he added.

Xi Alumni Association President Kevin Ziegler said UM's Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association's judicial process is not based in state or federal law and has no formal appeal process. The Xi Alumni Association owns the property at 725 Oxford.

Because of this, he said, the only avenue to address any grievances in this process will be to file a lawsuit against the city, council or association and the university.

"By passing this ordinance, the city is creating a situation that results in lawsuits and a waste of taxpayer resources," Ziegler said. "It is unfair to delegate a decision of granting or revoking recognition relating to zoning compliance to a student organization, especially when that decision can have a significant negative financial impact on the property owner."

Council Member Zachary Ackerman, D-3rd Ward, previously noted only one zoning district in the city, the R2B district, allows fraternities, sororities and cooperative housing, and only with case-by-case approval from the Planning Commission.

He said the result of the proposed changes would be that no property in the R2B district would be allowed to be converted into a fraternity or sorority without university recognition.

Gaining clarity on the specifics of what university "affiliation" constitutes is essential in moving the ordinance forward, he said.

"I want to better understand 'affiliated' and I would continue to advocate that the university figure out some formal mechanism of recognition," Ackerman said. "I think one of the points of this conversation is that the University of Michigan doesn't take a terrible amount of ownership for these organizations - I believe to the detriment of the community."

In his letter, Bernstein also argued that the proposed changes appear to leave complete authority to the university to establish rules and standards for "affiliation."

UM Director of Community Relations Jim Kosteva said conversations between the university and the city have taken place to provide clarity to how a fraternity or sorority is formally recognized by the university.

"We have had conversations with City Planning staff and have offered to be of assistance in hopefully providing some clarity on what 'affiliation' might mean," Kosteva said. "It can range from a simple registration of any group of students to formal recognition by the Greek councils."

Under the zoning code, Ackerman said should a fraternity or sorority lose its recognition from UM - usually due to extreme cases like hazing or sexual assault - and remain in that house, the special exemption use would disappear after two years and the zoning would revert back to single-family or two-family home."

Lenart clarified that would apply only for fraternity and sorority houses operating under new permits approved after the new rules take effect, so it wouldn't automatically be the case that fraternities and sororities already in existence right now would lose their houses within two years if they lose university recognition.

"We have a long history of fraternities and sororities in the city with the university here," Lenart said. "Some of them pre-date any special exception requirement. Some have been established or expanded since the provision of that language. Adding this definition is not going to retroactively apply to either category."

Eaton argued that the behavioral issues the council is ultimately trying to curb through the ordinance would not be addressed by making changes to its zoning laws.

"I just don't see how zoning is the appropriate way to respond to concerns that are about nuisances and crimes," he said. "There's no evidence that this approach - using a zoning law to regulate behavior - has worked in any other jurisdiction that I'm aware of. I'm really concerned we're passing an ordinance that impairs property rights of the owners of these buildings with a complete lack of standards and the lack of a real appeal process."

City Manager Howard Lazarus said the university cannot distance itself from the behavior of their students in the same way property owners distance themselves from the behavior of their occupants.

"The city is put in an untenable position of trying to enforce through police action, community standards or other actions, things that affect the quality of life in the neighborhoods," he said.

"One of the speakers talked about poking the bear," he added. "Hopefully the bear has been sufficiently poked. All of these people who are generally absent when we're trying to address student misbehavior, now that they have a dog in the hunt - those who have strong financial interest - there's no doubt that off-campus housing is important to the university, will come to the table."ANN ARBOR, MI - Authorities are searching for witnesses of a motorcycle crash in Ann Arbor last weekend that left one person hospitalized.

A 30-year-old motorcyclist from Oak Park collided with an SUV driven by a 75-year-old Ann Arbor woman about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 5 in the area of Washtenaw Avenue and Platt Road, police said.

The motorcyclist was transported to the University of Michigan Hospital in critical condition.

Details of the crash were unclear as police continued to investigate.

Ann Arbor police Sgt. Bill Clock is asking for any witnesses of the crash to contact him by phone at 734-794-6940 or email at wclock@a2gov.org.ANN ARBOR, MI - A Washtenaw County man accused of threatening to kill his ex-wife and children to influence court testimony was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison Thursday, May 10.

Kevin Beverly, 44, was sentenced Thursday in Wayne County Circuit Court, according to the Michigan Attorney General's office.

A jury on Tuesday, April 3 found Beverly guilty of one felony count of extortion and one felony count of witness intimidation, according to court records.

Beverly was accused of contacting his former wife Nicole Beverly in 2012 at her Washtenaw County home several times, instructing her on what to say at a child support proceeding.

When she reported the interaction, he allegedly contacted her at her Wayne County workplace and threatened to kill her and their two children for filing a police report, according to investigators.

Prosecutors said Beverly also threatened his ex-wife after she made a victim impact statement on April 16, 2013 during his sentencing hearing in an aggravated stalking case.

Schuette charged Beverly in Washtenaw, Wayne and Jackson counties in July 2017. His trial in Jackson County is scheduled for May 21.

"No woman deserves to be treated the way Nicole Beverly was treated by her ex-husband, and I'm proud to be her voice in court, and I thank her for her strength in this difficult time," Schuette said. "Today's sentence ensures that she can continue to live her life here in Michigan, feel safe in her home and raise her boys."

Correction: An earlier version of this article has been updated to show Beverly was charged Thursday, May 10 in Wayne County Circuit Court.GLADWIN COUNTY, MI -- The state is suing a Mid-Michigan county drain commissioner for nearly $11 billion on allegations he repeatedly flouted environmental regulations over the past six years.

In a civil suit filed last month, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality accuses Gladwin County Drain Commissioner Robert Evans of not obtaining proper permits and oversight for work on six drains and one creek and failing to prevent soil erosion and sedimentation.

Evans has served as drain commisioner since 2010 and all of the accusations stem from his actions while in office.

Since January 2012, the DEQ has cited Evans at least 29 times for violations but never once received a response from him, according to the lawsuit filed April 13 in Ingham County Circuit Court.

Not including attorney and surveillance costs, the state is seeking an estimated $10.71 billion from Evans and a court order for him to remedy the violations.

The DEQ and Michigan Attorney General's Office declined to comment on the lawsuit. Evans did not respond to calls left at his office.

All of the allegations against Evans pertain to "construction activity" and "earth changes" in the past six years at Nestor Drain, Venison Creek Drain, Bear Creek Drain, Longstreth Drain, Burleson Drain, Davidson Creek and Quillet Drain in Gladwin County.

The DEQ alleges Evans:

Didn't obtain stormwater discharge permits;

Didn't obtain soil erosion and sedimentation control permits;

Didn't renew soil erosion and sedimentation control permits;

Didn't submit complete plans for soil erosion and sedimentation control;

Didn't enlist a certified stormwater operator to inspect and correct construction work;

Didn't install adequate soil erosion and sedimentation control; and

Didn't complete earth changes in a manner that reduced accelerated soil erosion and sedimentation.

Increased sedimentation has negative impacts on water quality and ecological health, according to Steven C. Kohl, chair of law firm Warner Norcross + Judd's Resources, Energy and Environment group.

"The drains go places, into streams and ultimately the Great Lakes," Kohl said. "Excess sedimentation doesn't necessarily create public health risk, but imagine it silting over spawning beds for trout."

"We are a state with a lot of natural resources," he continued. "Excessive sediment is an impairment of the ecosystem."

At this time, it's not clear if Gladwin County is on the hook for whatever amount of money a judge decides is appropriate, according to Tara Hovey, the county's attorney.

On April 24, the Gladwin County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution asking Gov. Rick Snyder to remove Evans from his elected position, citing dereliction of duty and increasing costs associated with his failures.

"The cost and expense of rectifying the damage done to drain system of Gladwin County by the action or non-action of County Drain Commissioner continue to accrue," the affidavit for the resolution stated.

The board found out the extent of DEQ violations when Evans' only employee retired in December 2017.

"The violation notices never formally presented to the board," Hovey said. "They were aware of issues. They were not aware of how bad the issues were."

Since the employee's retirement, bills haven't been turned in, work has gone unpaid for and the office has been vacant with stacks of mail piling up, according to the resolution affidavit.

The affidavit states bills for electricity and maintenance staff at county dams have neither been turned in nor paid for since December 2017.

"There was nobody there to keep it together," Hovey said. "The office has been basically empty since December."

Adding it up

The potential wallop of a billion-dollar-plus bill to either Evans, the county or both comes from two separate and repeated alleged violations of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act.

The DEQ alleges Evans violated the act's water resources protection and soil erosion and sedimentation control subsections.

Transgressions of the water resources protection subsection incur fines up to "$25,000 per day of violation." Offenses under the soil erosion and sedimentation control subsection incur fines up to "$10,000 per day per knowing violation."

The DEQ issued 14 water violations and 15 soil violations against Evans, according to the lawsuit. The first of the 29 was issued in January 2012.

In theory, Kohl said, the per-day monetary penalty could continue to compile as additional violations are issued until the violation is remedied.

Such an amount would likely not be ordered, as neither the county nor the commissioner could afford that upper-limit penalty amount, he said.

In federal and state environmental violation cases, getting the offender to comply with regulations is usually the priority of the suit, not scoring gargantuan monetary sums, Kohl said.

It's not clear why the Michigan Attorney General's Office and the DEQ decided to file a civil lawsuit against Evans after six years of continued, alleged violations.

Kohl speculated it's because some interpret the statute of limitations on the violations to be six years.

In his 35 years of practicing environmental law, Kohl said he can only recall one other case where the state of Michigan sued a county drain commissioner.

"Based on the allegations, it would appear the drain commissioner has ignored for six years the DEQ and requirements that might apply to the activities that were being undertaken with regard to maintenance and construction of drains," he said.

"From the standpoint of maintaining regulations, you can't tolerate that."

Court dates for the civil suit against Evans have not yet been set. Evans is up for reelection in 2020.BUTMAN TWP, MI -- Police have recovered the body of a 65-year-old fisherman from Lake Lancer in Gladwin County.

About 3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 9, a person called 911 after spotting a 14-foot aluminum boat adrift in the middle of the lake in Butman Township. The caller secured the boat before sheriff's deputies arrived.

Deputies soon found a pickup truck at the boat ramp off Dutcher Road. The truck was idling and had been backed down the ramp with a boat trailer attached to it, though there was no sign of its owner, Roy D. Bruner.

Firefighters, an area dive team, and civilians responded to the scene to assist deputies in a search for Bruner. About 6 p.m., the dive team recovered Bruner's body in the water near Dunbar Court.

Evidence at the scene indicated Bruner had been fishing and was preparing to leave when he fell into the lake. It's unknown if he died from an accident or had a medical event, then fell into the water.

An autopsy is planned to determine the cause of Bruner's death.A third German automaker is driving away from the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in 2019.

Audi AG is joining BMW and Mercedes-Benz in their departure from the massive annual Detroit auto industry exhibition.

"NAIAS has been informed by Audi that after review of its upcoming product launch cycle, it will not be exhibiting at the upcoming 2019 NAIAS in January," NAIAS spokesperson Max Muncey said. "Plans are well-underway to revolutionize our show and provide participating companies a global stage that delivers cost-effective opportunities to audiences that only Detroit can offer.

"In meetings that have occurred around the world with participating brands, the show has been privy to some insights on significant product and industry news that has been earmarked for Detroit for the 2019 show."

"Audi has had a long and successful history at NAIAS, debuting countless models that Audi customers enjoy today," Audi announced in a statement.

"For 2019, we have decided that we will not participate in NAIAS. We will continue to evaluate Auto Shows on a case by case basis relative to the timing of our product introductions and the value the show brings from a media and consumer perspective."

Volkswagen, Audi's parent company, still planning to attend the show, Muncey said.Arthur Ream MDOC photo

The elder sister of a 12-year-old girl who vanished in September of 1979 was always suspicious that Arthur Ream, who is now a suspected serial killer, might have been involved.

But it would have been impossible, Konnie Beyma says -- at least based on the timeline as she understood it for the last 38 years -- because he was in prison, she thought.

A couple days ago, that changed. It now appears Ream wasn't in prison after all, but instead free on parole.

Warren police believe, based on statements from multiple jailhouse informants who claim to have overheard Ream bragging about killing up to six other girls, that Beyma's sister, Kimberly A. King, is one of Ream's victims.

Ream was arrested in 2008 for the 1986 abduction, rape and killing of 13-year-old Cindy Zarzycki. At the time, he led investigators to Cindy's decomposed body, buried about 18 inches deep near a field and woods along the Clinton River in rural Macomb Township.

More than 30 FBI agents and other law enforcement returned to the burial location Monday, May 7. Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer said there is "probable cause to believe this is a grave site, no question about it, that Kimberly King and other young female victims were murdered and are buried here."

Ream is serving a life sentence for the killing of Cindy, and he'd been arrested once before for the rape of a 15-year-old hitchhiker in 1975.

According to dates listed on the Michigan Department of Corrections website, in August of 1975, Ream was sentenced to between five and 10 years in prison for that conviction. His discharge date is listed as February of 1980, nearly half a year after Kimberly vanished.

"What always made me believe he wasn't involved was because his release date from prison was listed as 1980, so I ruled him out," Beyma said Wednesday, May 9. "But I was always suspicious, because (along Gratiot Avenue) is where we believe Kim was that night ... and that is where he picked up Cindy, that's where I believe he owned a carpet store, so he was very familiar with the area ...

"I was always suspicious and wondered if he has something to do with it, but I always had to come back around to he was in prison at the time Kim came up missing. I didn't know until yesterday ... that he was out on parole."

Warren police say Ream was released from his 1975 conviction on parole in February of 1978.

Kim Larrow, Kimberly King and Kellie Brownlee

Other possible victims named by police include Kim Larrow, who was 15 when she disappeared from Canton Township in 1981; 17-year-old Kellie Brownlee who vanished from Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi in 1982; 16-year-old Nadine J. O'Dell, who was walking to her boyfriend's home in Taylor to babysit and never made it on Aug. 16, 1974; and Cynthia Coon, who vanished on April 1, 1970 while walking to school in Ann Arbor.

Investigators haven't said how long they plan to search for other bodies at the suspected "grave site" near the intersection of 23 Mile and North Avenue in Macomb Township.

"The police seem very confident that they'll find something ... so I'm trying to hold on to that," Beyma said. " ... They have found something that indicates to them that they are in the right area."

Beyma also had a message for Ream.

"Please just tell us where she is," the sister said, "so we can move on."

May 9 press conference:After 20 years in Southfield and two years in the planning stages, Microsoft officially opened its new regional headquarters in Downtown Detroit with a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday.

About 450 employees relocated to the 50,000-square-foot office in 1 Campus Martius.

"The spirit, the vibe, the innovation, the creative and the culture down here has been a completely different experience just in three weeks," said Microsoft Regional Vice President Tracy Galloway after the ribbon cutting ceremony.

"We want to be a part of that technology revitalization that's happening here," said Galloway.

Fifty different companies have already explored Microsoft's new technology center, which features "community and collaboration spaces" to help solve business problems.

"There's all these startups and fun companies here. We're able to come together and we look at how we solve problems together using technology," said Galloway, who imagines more collaborations with Downtown tech startups.

The center features eight different collaboration rooms and design spaces with smart boards that transcribe content onto computers.

The office also includes three kitchens, a Shinola clock and a life-sized version of Halo's Master Chief overlooking over phone booth-style cubbies.

"It's huge to have Microsoft down here," said Bedrock CEO Jim Ketai, whose real estate team helped convince the company to make the move.

"It's really a strong statement to lure other technology companies to come down and the more and more announcements we have the more people are starting to say, wow that's really the place to be."

Microsoft celebrated the opening with a $2 million software grant to Detroit nonprofit Southwest Solutions. The group serves 20,000 people across Southeast Michigan with education, human services and community development.

Microsoft executives also said they plan to focus on helping Detroit youth look at technology differently way by partnering in more STEM education.FLINT, MI -- In the pockets of nearly 200 students from Northwestern High School, Southwestern Classical Academy and Accelerated Learning Academy is a clear, plastic key with the words "you are the key" located on one side.

Each student was given a key along with a message from key speaker Jeff Wheeler, owner and karate master at Double Dragon Tang Soo Do, during the annual Flint Community Schools Decision Day at Kettering University on Thursday, May 10.

The event honors Flint seniors for their hard work in the classroom and recognizes those who are going to college or entering the workforce and military as young professionals.

"This is your beginning, not your ending," Wheeler said. "We need you to go to the next level, know your value because you are the key."

Southwestern senior, Teyonna Womack, 18, nodded her head slowly as she listened to the speech.

Womack, who will be attending Eastern Michigan University in the fall, is planning to study exercise science to become a physical therapist.

She became interested in how the human body works when she was diagnosed with scoliosis in 2016. The condition has affected her ribs, causing one to poke out further than the others. It affects her sleeping patterns and causes discomfort if she stands longer than an hour.

Her time in physical therapy made the difference between giving up or going forward. It's that experience that motivates her to help others.

When Womack thinks about the key to her future, it begins with belief.

"Without believing in yourself, who's going to do it if you aren't?" Womack said. "I really value myself. I have high confidence and I know I have to do my absolutely best if I want to be successful."

The event included a buffet-style lunch and a raffle where some students won microwaves, a mini refrigerator, laptop and other supplies to prepare for dormitory life.UPDATE: The defendant's request for two dinners a month with parents was granted.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The son of a state Court of Appeals judge has asked to be allowed to go out for dinner with his parents while on in-house detention awaiting sentencing for child-pornography convictions.

The therapist for Sameer Gadola - son of appellate Judge Mike Gadola, and Preeti Gadola, who is on the Michigan Tax Tribunal - said that leaving his home for dinner would be "fitting and deeply helpful for Sameer's mental health."

If Gadola is allowed to leave for a meal twice a month, his parents would accompany him at all times, including any trips to the restroom.

Under terms of his release on unsecured bond, Gadola, 23, is restricted to his East Lansing residence except for religious services, medical or mental-health treatment, attorney visits or court-ordered obligations.

A federal prosecutor opposed the motion, which is expected to be heard Thursday, May 10, by U.S. Magistrate Judge Ray Kent.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexis Sanford said there is no reason to treat Gadola differently than any other defendant who is confined to home. The Pretrial Services Office, which oversees Gadola, also opposed what Sanford called a request for "a special exemption."

"Although the government agrees that allowing Gadola to go out to eat might help with stress and isolation that he feels, the government surmises that all pretrial supervisees experience stress and isolation as a consequence of home detention," Sanford wrote.

"Other pretrial supervisees are not allowed to dine out to ameliorate these feelings."

Gadola earlier pleaded guilty three charges of possession of child pornography, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The terms can be ordered to served consecutively.

In his plea agreement, Gadola acknowledged online communication with three teen boys - from Michigan, Tennessee and Texas - and sharing nude photos. He also carried on sexually charged conversations with the boys, ages 13, 14 and 16, court records said.

Gadola's attorney, Brian Patrick Lennon, said his client is developmentally challenged and will likely need his parents' care for the rest of his life.GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Forest Hills Northern won this week's three-school battle for the fourth Grand Rapids 2018 Prom of the Week.

As the winner, Forest Hills Northern has guaranteed MLive's The Grand Rapids Press will be present to create a photo gallery of students celebrating their prom Saturday, May 12, at the Grand Rapids Art Museum.

The theme is "Under the Stars.''

In a poll on MLive.com that closed at noon, Forest Hills Northern received 72 percent of the vote, beating out East Kentwood and East Grand Rapids.

Last week, City High won the the prom poll over four other schools.

Prom season is coming to a close in West Michigan. MLive has covered as many proms as possible to highlight the high school milestone.

Log into MLive this weekend for pictures of Forest Hills Northern and other schools.GRAND RAPIDS, MI - A memorial service was held Thursday evening to honor and remember police officers killed in the line of duty.

Police officers, prosecutors, judges and families gathered at Gerald R. Ford Museum on Thursday, May 10, to honor 32 officers with ties to West Michigan communities.

Those officers include:

Grand Rapids Detective George Powers

Grand Rapids Patrolman Henry Slater

Grand Rapids Patrolman Millard Davis

Grand Rapids Patrolman Charles DeYoung

Grand Rapids Patrolman George Geng

Kent County Sheriff's Deputy Charles Forward

Grand Rapids Patrolman George Brandsma

Grand Rapids Detective Samuel Slater

Michigan State Police Trooper John P. Clinton

Grand Rapids Patrolman John Meiboom

Kent County Sheriff's Deputy Charles Knapp

Grand Rapids Patrolman Francis Gallup

Grand Rapids Sergeant Stanley VanTuinen

Grand Rapids Patrolman Wayne Vonk

Grand Rapids Patrolman Herman Gloe

Kentwood Police Officer Lester Barden

Montcalm County Sheriff Deputy D/Lt. William McCarthy

Grand Rapids Police Officer Joseph Taylor

Michigan State Police Trooper Steven Niewiek

Grand Rapids Police Officer Daniel Duyst

East Grand Rapids Public Safety Officer Bruce VanPopering

Grand Haven Public Safety Officer Scott Flahive

Howard City Police Officer Eric Johnson

Long Beach California Detective Daryle Black

Cass County Sheriff's Deputy Shane Britton

Michigan State Police Trooper Kevin Marshall

Atlanta (GA) Police Officer Mark Cross

Grand Rapids Police Officer Robert Kozminski

Monroe County (IN) Deputy Sarah Haylett-Jones

Kalamazoo Public Safety Officer Eric Zapata

Walker Police Officer Trevor Slot

Michigan State Police Trooper Timothy O'Neill

Circuit Judge Joseph Rossi was the guest speaker and a reception was held at the museum following the ceremony.In a telephone conversation on Tuesday, Bahrains jailed opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman revealed that the authorities at the kingdoms Jaw Prison are continuing to harass political detainees.



(AhlulBayt News Agency) - In a telephone conversation on Tuesday, Bahrains jailed opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman revealed that the authorities at the kingdoms Jaw Prison are continuing to harass political detainees.



According to Sheikh Salman, 12 new inmates were brought to the already overcrowded cellblock that houses leading opposition figures, rights activists, and Shiite clerics jailed by Manama over their role in the countrys popular uprising. The entire block consists of only three cells.



Earlier, the Jaw administration banned a list of books at the facility, which include widely circulated Shiite religious texts and other educational materials.



Other restrictions include denying political prisoners access to desperately needed medical care, confiscating their belongings, and even depriving them of drinking water.







/257GRAND RAPIDS, MI - This week, the Grand Rapids School Board approved extending Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal's contract through June 30, 2021.

Hired in 2012, Neal's contract was set to expire June 30, 2019. In March, she was given a rating of highly effective by the school board.

The contract amendment did not include a raise. Neal currently earns a base salary of $199,980. Last year, she received the same 1 percent increase given to all non-teacher's union staff.

The new contract does call for her to receive an increase of five vacation days from 32 to 37. She also gets an increase of $55 in sick leave payout upon termination from $45 to $100 for the first 125 days of leave. For anytime above 125 days, the increase is $40 from $60 to $100.

Previous contract provisions have not changed. The school board still contributes $50,000 annually to a tax deferred annuity. She also receives $15,000 in annual longevity payments for the remainder of the contract term.

The vote to amend the contact was 8 to 1 at the Monday, May 7, meeting. Board member Jose Flores voted in opposition.

"I felt that the process was hurried for political purposes,'' said Flores.

He said he was 'deeply concerned'' about a number of things, citing specifically low third-grade reading proficiency, the 49 administrators earning over $90,000, and the mishandling of concerns raised by special education parents and teachers about about the leadership and quality of the program.

"The special education testimony has been believable,'' said Flores, who said the board has not handled the issue in a professional manner.

But school board president Wendy Falb said the board has been respectful and professional in the handling of complaints. She said those who have spoken during public comment were contacted and offered an opportunity to meet individually with administrator to learn more about their issues and concerns.

She also said Neal's contract amendment was not hurried but the next step after her highly effective evaluation.

"She is leading really substantial change,'' Falb said.

Prior to the meeting, the teacher's union issued a press release making it clear it was not involved in any efforts to remove Neal or any potential recall of school board members over the special education issues.

Union leaders say they are focused on resolving alleged problems in the program.

An online petition sought unsuccessfully to oust Neal over her refusal to remove Laura LaMore, executive director of the special education program since 2014.

"The Grand Rapids Education Association (GREA), the Michigan Education Association (MEA) nor the National Education Association has any involvement in efforts to remove the superintendent or recall board members,'' said Mary Bouwense, president of the GREA.

"Our energy is directed toward fixing the problems in the special education program and we do not feel that removal of the superintendent or board members will help us reach that goal.''

In a February news conference Bouwense, an MEA representative, and parents of special education students accused the district of multiple legal, health code and school code violations in the special education program.

The district has denied these allegations and asked for evidence of wrong doing.

The Kent Intermediate School District announced May 2 that it will hire an independent, third-party evaluator to review the special education center-based programs operated by Grand Rapids schools.

Approximately 1,200 of the 4,000 special education students attend those programs from all 20 districts.

The Kent Intermediate Superintendents Association called for the review "to verify the programming meets student needs and reflects the highest quality of the services and programs offered elsewhere in the state.''

After Kent ISD's independent review is complete, the district will revisit LaMore's contract. The school board Monday approved a two-year contract extension for all other members of Neal's administrative cabinet through June 2020. There was no raise.

"We are still pursuing substantive changes and reforms that will correct the problems in the program,'' said Bouwense in her Monday statement, about the alleged legal and code violations.

"We believe the action of the KISD superintendents to hire an independent, third-party evaluator to review the program and the issues we brought to light will benefit both the students and staff working in the special education program.''

Bouwense expressed pride in union members who have spoken out on behalf of their students to ensure that they receive the highest quality education.

Teachers and support staff signed a petition to remove Lamore and have shared their concerns during board meetings.

"I cannot say enough about the courageous staff members who felt a moral and ethical obligation to advocate for their students,'' said Bouwense on Monday.

Last week, she said she hopes their staff will be able to support the independent evaluation with open and honest responses without fear of retaliation and intimidation.GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A 24-year-old man accused of brutally beating his 85-year-old grandmother, leading to her death, is heading to prison.

Matthew Malleaux was sentenced Wednesday, May 9, to 225-360 months in prison -- or at least 18 years -- for second-degree murder in the Aug. 7 death of Anne Parker.

"I don't understand why this happened or how it happened," Malleaux said in a brief statement to the court. "I understand I blacked out. My grandma knows it was an accident and that's what truly matters. And I understand it was an accident."

The 24-year-old was facing up to life in prison, but Circuit Judge J. Joseph Rossi said he took the family's requests and prosecutor's recommendation into consideration when sentencing him on the lower end of the guidelines.

During Wednesday's hearing, Mark Malleaux read a statement honoring his mother, Parker, forgiving his son, Matthew, and asking the judge to give his son a fair punishment.

"My mother was way more than a mom to us all," Mark Malleaux said. "She was one of my best friends and over the course of my lifetime she was there for me more than any other person.

"And Matthew, you are still loved."

Matthew Malleaux lived with his grandmother, Parker, in a duplex in the 100 block of Clark Street NW in Sparta. Police said he became upset over Parker's CareLink alarm going off, before he shook her and headbutted her in the face on Aug. 7, 2017.

Stephen Cohle, the Kent County medical examiner, testified in court that the woman suffered a skull fracture, spinal fracture, broken eye socket and a dislocated shoulder among head-to-toe injuries likely inflicted by punches and kicks.

Cohle said Parker's cause of death was multiple blunt injuries. She died about 36 hours after the attack.

Matthew Malleaux fought with police responding to a medical emergency at the duplex, and was shot twice by a Taser. He later told police he had been drinking heavily prior to the confrontation.

On Wednesday, he told Rossi that he believes he had an allergic reaction to some of the ingredients in the gin, and that, coupled with stress from the previous work day, led him to "lose his mind."

Matthew Malleaux's defense attorney, Mark Hunting, and his father acknowledged his struggles with drugs, alcohol and mental illness.

"All of the things she worried about ... were the very reasons she wanted him with her to try to make a difference in his life," Mark Malleaux said. "In the end I couldn't even protect my mother from my own son's issues.

"Drugs and alcohol were stronger than he was and he let his guard down and let the devil inside his mind and body."

Part of Rossi's order was that Matthew Malleaux receive an immediate psychological evaluation and appropriate treatment through a facility chosen by the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Matthew Malleaux has been in custody at the Kent County Jail since Aug. 7, and he is credited for the 275 days already served in jail.GRAND RAPIDS TOWNSHIP, MI -- A man who allegedly admitted to police that he "lost it" and punched a 2-year-old in the face is now charged with murder for her death.

Kent County prosecutors on Wednesday, May 9 authorized the charge against Rickey Whiteside Jr., 29.

He is accused of causing the death of his girlfriend's daughter, Londyn Florine Marie Amir, 2.

Whiteside was arraigned Wednesday in 63rd District Court on charges of felony murder and first-degree child abuse. A judge denied bond.

Londyn died May 2 at DeVos Children's Hospital after being critically injured April 29 at the Lazy T Motel, 3370 Plainfield Avenue NE.

Whiteside initially was charged with first-degree child abuse but prosecutors authorized the murder count after an autopsy report came back this week.

Whiteside was watching the child while his girlfriend went to a store.

Whitside allegedly confessed to punching the child in the face and knocking her to the ground and unconscious, court records show. Her injuries were consistent with the assault.

According to a probable cause affidavit, the child also showed "traumatic injuries consistent with abuse for an undetermined amount of time."GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- The apartment complex being constructed on the future site of Meijer's first neighborhood store on Grand Rapids' West Side will be named to honor Meijer's founder.

Rockford Construction Co. announced Thursday, May 10, that the 116-unit residential property will be named "The Hendrik," as a homage to Hendrik Meijer, founder of the namesake Michigan-based supercenter and grocery store retailer.

The housing complex is expected to open in January 2019. It'll feature market-rate studio, 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom units, as well as an expansive fitness center, rooftop patio, connected on-site parking and club room.

It'll sit atop Meijer's first small-scale urban store -- Bridge Street Market -- which will be devoted to fresh foods, locally sources products and a staple of Meijer-brand products.

"We have tremendous respect for Meijer and the quality the company provides to its customers and the community as a whole," said Mike Mraz, managing partner of real estate development at Rockford Construction in a statement.

"We're proud to honor Hendrik's legacy with a residential community that will live up to his namesake."

The Hendrik is part of the $60 million "super block" project to be constructed at Bridge Street and Stocking Avenue on the city's west side. It will include three office, retail and residential buildings on the two-block area, including some low-income apartments.

Rockford Construction anticipates an opening date this fall for the 40,000-square-foot Bridge Street Market, 300-car parking deck in the center of the project and West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology corporate offices.

The parts of large project set for fall openings are in the final phases of construction, while workers are installing drywall and cabinetry inside The Hendrik, and laying brick on the exterior, according to a company spokesperson.

Hendrik Meijer was the founder of the namesake retailer that pioneered the supercenter concept and now operates 235 stores across Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and Wisconsin.

He died in 1964.

Meijer plans to open another five small format stores in urban settings like Bridge Street Market by 2021, including one east of downtown Detroit.

Mike Kinstle, the retailer's vice president of real estate, previously said the small scale stores will complement the supercenter format.The Michigan Department of Natural Resources will soon begin baiting bears with treats that would make any human's mouth water.

Piles of doughnuts and 900 pounds of bacon are being utilized as part of a bear hair snare survey the DNR is conducting across Northern Michigan later this month. It is one of two planned wildlife surveys, with the other involving the American Woodcock and its singing-ground.

"Cops & Doughnuts and Ebel's Market, two local businesses, have helped us with our supplies for this survey," said Dan Moran, DNR wildlife technician in Houghton Lake. "Ebel's in Falmouth gave us a great price on 900 pounds of bacon, and Cops & Doughnuts was a perfect partner for the large supply of donuts we needed for this project."

About 257 baited locations will be visited as part of the bear hair snare survey. Each location will be visited six times beginning on May 27 with the goal of finding bear hair snagged on safely-implemented barbed wire.

Survey locations across the northern Lower Peninsula are baited with bacon and doughnuts and surrounded by barbed wire.

"Wildlife surveys are one of the most enjoyable parts of our jobs," said Dale Rabe, DNR wildlife field operations manager in Traverse City. "Being able to hear or see the wildlife we manage or, in the case of the bear survey, being able to find evidence of their presence is a pretty good time in the woods."

To reach the bait, a bear will cross the barbed wire and snag hairs, leaving a DNA sample behind. Hair will be collected and sent to the DNR Wildlife Disease Lab in East Lansing for DNA analysis, assisting with bear population estimates in the future.

Results from both surveys will be available once all data has been reviewed, and the results will help to determine harvest regulations for future hunting seasons.EAST LANSING, MI - Democratic and Republican candidates for governor gathered onstage all together for the first time at the Michigan Press Association convention on Thursday, sharing their views on the media, transparency and sharia law.

On the Republican side, candidates are Brian Calley, Patrick Colbeck, Jim Hines and Bill Schuette. Democratic candidates are Abdul El-Sayed, Shri Thanedar and Gretchen Whitmer. All seven attended the MPA forum, the first such bipartisan event of the cycle.

On other questions, the responses were a bit more nuanced.

Representing Michigan's Muslims

An audience question posed to candidates asked whether they thought Sharia Law was a real issue in Michigan or a made-up one.

Colbeck, who has been in the media for comments about the Muslim Brotherhood lately, said the media had conflated his objections to a political organization with a general objection to Muslims in general, which he does not have.

But he is concerned with El-Sayed's affiliation with the Muslim Student Association, which Colbeck has said is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

"I have very deep concerns around that," Colbeck said.

Thanedar, relying on his own immigrant story, said he was devoted to the country and our country was great because it was such a melting pot. He said candidates with low poll number sometimes create issues like this to "get some love" from the media.

El-Sayed, the only Muslim candidate for governor, said the constitution guarantees everyone to pray the way they want to. What frustrates him isn't blatant racism "on the part of certain people," but how other Republican candidates have reacted.

"What I have not heard is the Republicans on this panel decisively and swiftly call out this kind of islamophobia, this kind of racism, in the context that they are running to represent the state that has the highest per-capita number of Muslim-Americans in the country. Now you might not hate Muslims, but I'll tell you Muslims definitely hate you," El-Sayed said.

Financial disclosures

Asked if state-level candidates should have to submit financial disclosures like federal candidates do, there was strong support among the group.

Whitmer said it was important to know a candidate's financial interests so you knew who they were working for.

"I think that our priorities are something that the public needs to know," Whitmer said.

The only candidate to not express immediate support was Schuette, who said he would support it after everybody on stage released their income taxes.

Calley took a shot at Schuette for not filling out the federal disclosure form, saying he was hiding behind a blind trust and it "appears as though he's been directing the purchase and transfer of millions of dollars in offshore assets while Attorney General." Schuette used a rebuttal to say he was abiding by the rules of a blind trust and Calley went around the state making accusations that were not true.

"You're so desperate, you're so behind, there's nothing you won't do to try to make false accusations and attacks," he said in a comment directed at Calley.

El-Sayed pointed to the Republicans as being hypocritical by talking about tax reforms when they both supported the first president in history to not release his tax return. He supports disclosure and thinks in politics you've got to be able to follow the money.

"I've got nothing to hide. I live with my inlaws for god's sakes, if I had any money it would be a different story," El-Sayed joked.

Partisan divides on some issues

On some questions, there was a clear divide between Republican and Democratic candidates. All Democratic candidates supported a proposal for no-reason absentee voting and early voting, while all Republicans were against it. All Republicans supported making English Michigan's official language, while all Democrats opposed it. And all Democrats supported the ballot proposal on redistricting, while all Republicans were against it.

The partisan divide was also evident in a question about whether the media was treating President Donald Trump fairly. Republicans largely said no, though Schuette read the crowd of local press people.

"No, I don't think the national media has been fair to President Trump. All the local media here in Michigan I love you all," he said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Hines, too, said he'd had a positive experience with local media but doesn't think Trump has been treated fairly.

Calley said Trump coverage was not fair, but "gotcha"-style journalism.

"I don't see how any objective person could come to the conclusion that it has been fair," Calley said.

Democrats largely thought the media was fair to Trump, though El-Sayed said the real question was if Trump was fair to the media, since he went around calling them "fake news."

The forum lasted for an hour.

The primary election takes place on Aug. 7. The winners of the party primaries will compete in the general election on Nov. 6, 2018.Michigan State University's contract with Truscott Rossman, a Lansing-based public relations firm hired to provide crisis communication services amid the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal, has ended.

The firm was brought on board around the time former Gov. John Engler accepted the job of interim president in late January following resignation of President Lou Anna Simon.

John Truscott, the firm's president and Engler's former press secretary, said the firm's three-month contract with the university expired, but he will continue in an informal, advisory role free of charge.

"I'm still involved, but it's on a voluntary basis," he said. "I'm still consulting and helping and acting as a sounding board, but they're getting me for free."

MSU had the paid the firm $84,358 as of April 30, according to the university.

The firm's work included developing a strategic plan, responding to media inquiries and helping put "people in place that could take the university forward," Truscott said. One of those hires was Emily Guerrant, who was brought on to serve as a vice president and university spokesperson overseeing media relations.

"I think our phase of the work was done," he said. "We knew going in that it would only be three-months. It ran its course."

Guerrant said Truscott Rossman's contract "was never meant to be long term," and that the firm's workload had decreased significantly since February when Engler transitioned into his new role as interim president.

"Their workload in the first moth was immense," she said. "That was a lot to jump right into."

Truscott praised the work being done by Engler and said the university "is on a really good path" moving forward.

"He's making the changes that need to be made," he said. "And what will happen is the tone of the stories and things like that begin to evolve and change as these changes take effect."GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Republican gubernatorial candidates Brian Calley, Patrick Colbeck, Jim Hines and Bill Schuette took the stage at their first televised debate Wednesday, taking swipes at each other's records.

Calley came out of the gate strong, accusing Schuette of politicizing the Flint Water Crisis. He pointed to the slow-moving preliminary hearings as an example.

"The Flint water crisis has been politicized. The AG has used it as though it is some sort of launching pad" for his gubernatorial campaign, Calley charged.

"Bill Schuette will literally say or do anything to get elected," he said.

Schuette said the prosecutions in the Flint water case -- which have driven a wedge between the governor's office, including Calley at lieutentant governor, and the Attorney General's office - were necessary. People died, he said.

"If I didn't have this investigation I would not have been doing my job," Schuette said.

Colbeck touted his experience as a methodical problem-solver, while Hines cited his credentials as an outsider who could shake things up.

On some issues, the candidates found common ground. Asked if they supported marijuana legalization, for instance, all said they did not.

And on auto insurance, all agreed on one thing: it's too high. But they had different ideas on how to solve the problem.

Calley said the latest attempts have folded too much in, and what ends up happening is, "The bill dies under its own weight. Everybody can find a reason to vote no." He wants to instead do some of the ideas piecemeal in an effort to lower rates.

Colbeck, meanwhile, said much of the cost was driven by state regulations. Changing the state's approach to the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association could save 40 percent, he said.

Schuette said he wanted to lower rates though cracking down on fraud and on frivolous lawsuits.

Hines said as an outsider with business experience, he's well-poised to bring a new approach. He wants to attack fraud and institute a fee schedule, limiting the amount health care providers can charge auto insurers for certain services.

One audience-submitted question asked the candidates if they supported President Donald Trump.

Schuette, who has been endorsed by Trump, reminded viewers of that endorsement throughout the debate.

"The president is supporting me and it wasn't even a close contest," said Schuette, who also pointed out that Calley had un-endorsed Trump. Calley used a rebuttal to point out that Schuette was not initially with Trump and had supported Jeb Bush in the early stages of the 2016 nomination.

Colbeck said many of Trump's supporters were showing up at his rallies and supporting his candidacy. He speculated Trump got bad information before making his endorsement of Schuette.

"I think he had some bad advice from folks inside the D.C. swamp," Colbeck said after the debate.

One day Trump is going to wake up and see the people that helped him win in Michigan are all supporting Colbeck's campaign, Colbeck said.

Hines encouraged Michiganders to pray for Trump, who he said he's always liked and is facing an immense amount of scrutiny as president.

Hines said after the debate it felt good to be in a live debate setting for the first time. He was striving to connect with everybody in the state, everybody watching TV at home. He wanted them to know "there's an outsider that's never run for political office before that loves people," he said.

After the debate, Calley said Schuette's was falling back on talking about Trump's endorsement because he didn't have many accomplishments to talk about. Instead, Schuette had politicized the Flint Water Crisis and proven he'd do anything to get elected, Calley said.

"I don't think that the people of our state really appreciate that type of an approach. They want somebody who's focused on making their lives better," Calley said.

Schuette, however, said Calley was only taking those swipes because he was "desperately behind."

Asked about the other candidates' jabs at him, Schuette wasn't fazed.

"I figure three against one's pretty even, it's ok," he said.

The primary election takes place Aug. 7. On the Democratic side, the candidates are Abdul El-Sayed, Shri Thanedar and Gretchen Whitmer.

The general election, where winning candidates from each party run against one another, takes place Nov. 6.The group Voters Not Politicians has asked the Board of State Canvassers for a speedy certification of the more than 425,000 signatures submitted for its ballot proposal to set up an independent redistricting campaign in Michigan.

At the board's Thursday meeting, Voters Not Politicians founder Katie Fahey and campaign counsel Jim Lancaster said the group's signatures were collected in 110 days, and that it's been more than 140 days since the signatures were submitted in December 2017. The group contends at least 92 percent of the signatures are valid.

"We have the signatures. They have been verified. They are not challenged," Lancaster said in a statement. "We expect the board to put the measure on the ballot at its next meeting."

When asked about the speed of the petition certification process compared to other initiatives that have come before the board, including the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, Elections Director Sally Williams said because the Voters Not Politicians proposal is a constitutional amendment, the timeline is a little more complicated.

"It's not an apples to apples comparison when you have different thresholds," she said.

Secretary of State spokesperson Fred Woodhams said he anticipates the Bureau of Elections will have a report on the Voters Not Politicians proposal to present to the Board of State Canvassers later this month.

He added that elections staff are currently working to review the petitions of gubernatorial, Congressional and judicial candidates, which are due to be canvassed by June 5. The deadline to file petitions for constitutional amendments is July 9.

Fahey said "people have worked hard" to see the independent redistricting plan head to the ballot, and she said she remains optimistic that the state board will move to certify the signatures soon.

The ask for quicker consideration comes as Voters Not Politicians faces a challenge from the group Citizens Protecting Michigan's Constitution over the initiative's contents.

The group said in a lawsuit filed in April that Voters Not Politicians didn't list all of the sections of the state constitution that would be abrogated by the plan, and therefore shouldn't be placed on the ballot.

Citizens Protecting Michigan's Constitution also argues Voters Not Politicans' initiative is a "massive revision" of the constitution, not an amendment.

"Michigan citizens have the authority to initiate amendments to the State Constitution but they are not allowed to make massive revisions to the Constitution in a single proposal," the group said in a recent press release.

In an internal memo, Lancaster refuted those legal claims, noting that although Voters Not Politicians' initiative is complex, it only deals with the issue of redistricting and does not attempt to change other facets of the constitution.

"The complexity of our proposal the CPMC complains of should not keep it off the ballot," he wrote.

Lancaster also expressed confidence Voters Not Politicians adequately addressed the issue of abrogation when reviewing the plan and would prevail in court.JACKSON, MI - Starting his career in 1974 as a Jackson police officer, Kent Maurer posed for his media mug shot with his natural smile.

"Rape, pillage and mayhem, and there's my smiling face," Maurer said, shaking his head and smiling. "I like to smile, but when I looked at how the file photo was used in years after that, I thought 'You know, smiling probably wasn't the best choice."

Fittingly, Maurer was smiling again on April 30, posing for more photos on his final day as the Jackson County Airport manager.

"We laughed every day," Maurer said. "It's serious business, it's serious work, but we had fun doing it."

Maurer retired from the department and spent 16 years in the airport's top position. Juan Zapata, a former Michigan Department of Transportation airport inspector, has been hired as the county's next airport manager.

Maurer, 66, took over the airport with zero aviation experience, besides "just the fascination that every little boy has." He tells people, "I couldn't get my job, today." But with the airport in political turmoil, his experience as a deputy chief was desired to refocus the organization.

"The reason why he was hired was for his mediation skills as a law enforcement officer," Jackson County Board of Commissioners Chairman James "Steve" Shotwell Jr. said. "He's very good at working through problems and being the mediator."

Maurer brought a "calming influence," Shotwell added.

In the wake of 9/11, Maurer said his years in law enforcement was also helpful in getting the position. MDOT told county officials it could train Maurer on the aviation side of the role, Shotwell said.

"I don't think anybody really knew what the immediate future was going to hold," Maurer said. "So I think my law enforcement background, in terms of security, was attractive."

Maurer's chief project as airport manager was the construction of a new runway - Runway 7/25. The $50 million project took 17 years to pull off, and the final markings on the new runway just happened to be put down on Maurer's final day.

"I had 4,680 contacts in my phone when I turned it in," Maurer said. "All of those folks and agencies had to come together to create this project."

The project was necessary, as the airport's previous runway was not compliant with Federal Aviation Administration regulations for length of runoff space. The FAA paid for roughly $40 million on the project.

Without the new runway, numerous corporate aircraft would have needed to find a different airport to use, Maurer said previously. The airport had 44,000 takeoffs and landings in 2016, he said, the last full year it had two functioning runways.

"It's tough to leave," Maurer said. "It's tough to leave these folks and this work. But just like when I left law enforcement, it's time."

Maurer's already had a taste of retirement from the 11 months he took off after working as a deputy chief. While he may seek some part-time employment or volunteer work, Maurer is looking forward to checking a few things off his bucket list - including a trip to Alaska this summer with his wife and friends.

"When we had the year off before, I found that if you don't have a social environment outside of your home - be it church, volunteer work or work - it's not good for me," Maurer said. "I'll still have my toe in the water, but not my foot."

Hanging around his four grandchildren is also on Maurer's list. Maurer and his wife will spend time in the next two years watching the youngest of the grandchildren, who is 3.

"I'm thinking it'll be kind of neat to hang out with her every day for the next couple years, and take her fishing," Maurer said. "(She can) be papa's helper."

Maurer also admits he has an "underused fishing boat."

"I've been through this before, and it takes about 30 days before you just don't think you're on vacation," Maurer said. "When you start to realize after about 30 days that you're not coming back, it'll sink in. And then you'll develop a new norm."MENDON, MI -- A 7-year-old boy was rescued from drowning in the St. Joseph River in Mendon Wednesday.

Emergency responders were called to the area of Mill Street and Fremont Street in Mendon around 4:50 p.m. Wednesday, May 9.

Mendon police arrived on the scene first to find the 7-year-old boy had been removed from the river by his father. His father was performing life-saving efforts.

Mendon police helped with CPR until firefighters arrived minutes later. Michigan State Police also assisted with rescue breaths at the scene for about 20 minutes until Kalamazoo South County Fire and Rescue EMTs arrived.

The child regained normal color and was breathing mostly on his own at the scene, but he was taken to Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo for further treatment.

Police continue to investigate the incident. They will not be releasing the identity of the boy.MASON COUNTY, MI - Two women from Mason County have been arrested in connection with the armed robbery of a cash advance store on Wednesday in Pere Marquette Township, according to the Mason County Sheriff's Office.

Taya Ilene Wrightsman, 21, from Scottville, and Koreana Lynn Reid, 18, from Fountain, are each facing one count of armed robbery, said Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole.

Both women have been arraigned and the robbery remains under investigation, Cole said.

Deputies received reports of armed robbery attempt at an Advance America cash advance store in Pere Marquette Township at around 1 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, Cole said.

An off-duty deputy - who was a mile away from the store at 4928 W. US-10 - arrived on-scene and established a perimeter with additional law enforcement, Cole added. It is unknown if the suspects were still in the area when deputies arrived.

Deputies and detectives later viewed surveillance footage from the store and surrounding businesses, which helped identify a possible get-away vehicle.

The footage led to the arrest of Wrightsman and Reid, Cole said, and investigators believe they have recovered the stolen cash. Investigators also recovered evidence linking both women to the crime, the sheriff added.

Ludington police and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources law enforcement division assisted deputies on scene.MUSKEGON, MI - As the Muskegon Public Schools Board of Education works to "hit the reset button" and earn back the community's trust, its members may have again violated the Michigan Open Meetings Act.

Discussion related the 2018-19 budget that may have needed to take place in an open meeting was part of a closed session on "personnel matters" on Thursday, May 3. That became evident when the board discussed the 2018-19 budget in open session on Tuesday, May 8, and continually referenced the closed session conversation.

After the May 8 meeting, board President Cindy Larson admitted that the board had discussed "personnel matters" related the budget in closed session. The conversation seems to have included cutting positions and reducing some salaries.

"Here's the problem, honest to God - and maybe I'm just not smart enough to figure this out - when we talk personnel, it directly impacts the budget, so it's really hard to separate the two, and that's what happened in closed session," Larson said. "We had absolutely every intention, which we did, to discuss personnel, but personnel also impacts the budget. That's all I can say."

When asked after the May 3 meeting if the 2018-19 budget had been discussed in closed session, Larson said, "No, we talked about personnel issues."

Under the Michigan Open Meetings Act (OMA), personnel-related topics that can be discussed in closed session are complaints, suspension or discipline and evaluations, but only if a closed meeting is requested by the individual.

"That does not sound like it fits within the reasons for going into closed session," said Ashley Glime, an attorney for the Michigan Press Association Media Hotline, of the board's consideration of budget-related personnel cuts in closed session. "It definitely sounds like they're trying to get around the rule. ... If there's ambiguity, it should be decided in favor of an open meeting."

An attorney was not present for the May 3 meeting and closed session.

"We will never have another closed session without an attorney," Larson said on May 8.

This is not the first time the board has been caught in what appears to be a violation of the OMA. An MLive investigation published in April revealed that a quorum of trustees had texted to deliberate on official business.

As the budget discussion began in open session on May 8, it was immediately mentioned that proposals had been given to the board the prior week in closed session.

"There are a number of things between the two proposals that you discussed in closed session, and out of that came the proposal that's in the back tonight for you to discuss," said Tina Wright, accounting supervisor with the district's finance department, as she addressed the board on May 8.

Wright was not in closed session on May 3, but her supervisor, Chief Financial Officer Catherine Kloska, was there.

In her short presentation, Wright referenced the May 3 closed session multiple times as it related to the proposed personnel cuts in front of the board.

"What I'm confused with is that we had what I call A and B from last week and we had some parameters or guidelines that we gave, and I was expecting to see an A and a B this week," said board Secretary Lynnette Marks on May 8, referencing a discussion that did not take place during an open portion of any meeting.

The closed session discussion had led the finance department to make a blended proposal with the board's suggestions, Wright said.

"I'm being tentative because I don't want to talk personnel," Marks said. "We don't have our lawyer here, so I'm not sure how much is personnel versus how much is budget ... I never want to talk about somebody."

The proposal included $1.14 million in personnel-related cuts, such as elimination of positions and salary reductions. In total, the document lists $1.51 million in cuts and $939,000 in additional expenses for a net savings of about $575,000.

"We have cut substantially," Larson said during the May 8 meeting. "We've cut people, we've cut salaries. I mean, that has to be recognized. ... We've got to go into closed session at a later date, so we can do our personnel issues, which is what this came to tonight, which I didn't expect it to. ... Hiding has nothing to do with it, it has to do with going into closed session to discuss personnel matters."

The board did not vote on the proposal during the May 8 meeting. It must approve a budget by June 30.BAD AXE, MI -- Nearly 20 years ago, a former priest of the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw was investigated by police after a young man accused him of grabbing his penis.

Though the allegation didn't result in criminal charges, the priest ended up stripped of his holy title.

Now 72 and living in Indiana, the former Rev. Jack J. "Father Jack" Leipert is one of five former clerics the diocese has permanently removed from ministry due to credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors. The diocese announced the names in April in the wake of the arrest of the Rev. Robert J. "Father Bob" DeLand Jr. on sexual assault charges.

In November 2000, Leipert, then 54, was serving as the pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Bad Axe. According to reports obtained by MLive from the Bad Axe Police Department via a Freedom of Information Act request, a 21-year-old man visited the police department on Nov. 9 to file a complaint against Leipert.

The man said that on Oct. 29, 2000, Leipert had approached him at a Bad Axe gas station and asked if he'd like to perform some handyman work for $10 or $11 per hour. The man agreed to this and gave his phone number to Leipert.

Leipert called the man a few days later and the man visited the church at 311 Whitelam St. on the evening of Nov. 7. After they looked at the work that needed to be done, the two men went to Liepert's nearby home, where the younger man inspected some hanging wallpaper the priest had asked him about fixing.

Meanwhile, Leipert made conversation by asking the man about his background, family, girlfriends and work, the man told police. As this occurred, Leipert's hand brushed against the younger man's rear, the man told police. He said it wasn't anything serious, but it caught his attention.

They moved to another room where the priest showed the man some paint peeling off a wall.

"Father Jack started to rub (the man's) arm, then reached down and grabbed" his crotch, police reports state. The man "said he was completely shocked and did not know what to say."

Leipert called the man's house to ask him to dinner and offer him money for having stopped by on Nov. 7. The man declined the priest's offers and hung up on him, he told police.

Detectives later conferred with Huron County Prosecutor Mark J. Gaertner regarding the complaint. Gaertner is currently a Saginaw County assistant prosecutor and is one of those handling the DeLand matter.

In the Huron County case, investigators decided the complainant would meet with Leipert while equipped with recording equipment and discuss the Nov. 7 incident with him.

The complainant agreed, and met with Leipert. During their conversation, the priest said he "was sorry for what happened" and that the young man's mentions of past girlfriends had "turned him on," the police report states.

Needing something more concrete, investigators later used a young-looking Huron County Sheriff's deputy to go undercover and meet with Leipert. This conversation also failed to generate anything incriminating against the priest.

Investigators and prosecutors decided to talk to the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw to "ask that something be done by the church to handle this matter."

Police closed the case and prosecutors did not issue charges against Leipert. In December 2000, Gaertner wrote a letter to the 21-year-old complainant, stating that while there may be sufficient factual evidence to sustain an initial criminal charge, he did not feel the prosecution would be able to meet its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Attorney David J. Masud, representing the diocese, wrote a letter to Gaertner in January 2001.

"On behalf of the Diocese," the letter states, "I would ... like to thank you for the discretion that you have exercised in dealing with this matter. I remain confident that all involved, including the community, will have benefited from your efforts."

In June 2001, the diocese barred Leipert from acting as a priest. In 2006, Leipert was laicized, or defrocked.

Election matters

Via a Freedom of Information Act request submitted to the Huron County Prosecutor's Office, MLive/The Saginaw News obtained correspondence from years ago between Gaertner and Masud.

Gaertner in 2008 lost a reelection campaign to Timothy J. Rutkowski. Gaertner is currently an assistant prosecutor in the Saginaw County Prosecutor's Office and is one of those handling the DeLand criminal matter, while Rutkowski remains Huron County's prosecutor.

Rutkowski had run against Gaertner in 2000 and 2004, losing both times. Rutkowski's brother is the Rev. William J. Rutkowski, who at the time was the pastor of St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Bay City, a member church of the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw.

In late August 2000 -- two months before the Leipert investigation began and after Gaertner won the Huron County prosecutor election against Timothy Rutkowski -- the Rev. Rutkowski wrote an op-ed published by The Bay City Times and The Huron Tribune entitled "Embarrassed by election."

In the letter, the Rev. Rutkowski voiced strong criticism of Gaertner.

Speaking to The Saginaw News-MLive on Wednesday, May 9, Gaertner said the letter was not viewed favorably by many in Huron County.

"People would come up to me -- businessmen, the school superintendent, pastors of other denominations, police officers -- and the general consensus was, 'What in the heck is Father Bill doing? He's a priest. He shouldn't be writing that letter.'"

Timothy Rutkowski in early 2004 announced he was again running against Gaertner. This led to some of the same citizens again approaching Gaertner about the Rev. Rutkowski's 2000 op-ed and concern he would try to influence the election, Gaertner said.

In February 2004, Gaertner wrote a letter to Masud recounting the Leipert investigation and stating Timothy Rutkowski's intention to run against him had "resurrected the prior issue in the minds of some of the individuals involved in the (Leipert) investigation and others that gained knowledge of the investigation."

Gaertner added the catalyst for the renewed interest was the Rev. Rutkowski's 2000 letter.

"Even though I encourage community members to get involved in government," Gaertner wrote in 2004, "I find it disturbing Rev. Rutkowski would use his position within the Catholic Church to legitimize his personal opinion about a political matter. The general feeling is that the Diocese should not allow a priest to engage in, and influence, political matters especially in light of the fact the way Huron County law enforcement handled the Leipert matter in a discreet and professional manner. Some individuals have remarked, and I paraphrase, 'Is this the way the Diocese thanks us?'"

Gaertner went on to say he considers Sacred Heart a necessary pillar in Bad Axe and that he did not want the church to receive negative publicity regarding the resolved Leipert matter. His stated desire was "to have Rev. Rutkowski not to be engaged in public comment during this election cycle, as it will resurrect the prior matter involving Rev. Leipert."

Masud in March 2004 wrote a response to Gaertner, stating he appreciated that the prosecutor brought the matter to the diocese's attention "in the professional manner that it has been presented."

Gaertner said his letter to Masud was in no way a threat, nor did he decline to charge Leipert in 2000 for anything other than legitimate reasons.

"I knew if we were investigating and charging a priest, we would have to have very good, solid evidence," Gaertner said. "That's why we were so meticulous with the DeLand case and we insisted on having good, quality recordings."

Once the police investigation into Leipert was complete, Gaertner said he and then-Bad Axe Police Chief John Bodis met with Bishop Kenneth E. Untener, head of the diocese.

"We let him know that if we had had the evidence, (Leipert) would have been charged," Gaertner said. "It would have been a he-said, he-said (case) without recordings. The bishop thanked us and said the matter would be addressed.

"I thought we did the right thing and I still think we did the right thing," Gaertner said.

In addition to Leipert, the other four clerics the diocese in April named as having been defrocked are:

Stanislaus A. Bur

John E. Hammer

Richard L. Howard

Leonard F. Wilkuski

In March the Rev. Ronald J. Dombrowski, 72, was suspended as a "precautionary measure" after a person told the diocese on March 15 that Dombrowski allegedly sexually abused them when they were a minor.

The diocese forwarded the complaint to law enforcement. No criminal charges have been filed against Dombrowski.

The diocese has also suspended DeLand after his late February arrest.

DeLand is charged in Saginaw County with two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct involving injury and single counts of attempted second-degree criminal sexual conduct, assault with intent to commit second-degree criminal sexual conduct, gross indecency between males, selling alcohol to a minor, and distributing an imitation controlled substance. The charges involve three separate males, one of whom is the plaintiff in a lawsuit against DeLand, Bishop Joseph R. Cistone, and the diocese.

DeLand's trial dates are pending.WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were all on hand to welcome home a trio of Americans who were released by North Korea as relations between the U.S. and North Korea improve.

The the men -- Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim -- were released Wednesday and accompanied home by Pompeo on a flight that landed at Joint Base Andrews near Washington at 3 a.m. Thursday.

"This is a special night for these three really great people," Trump told reporters, before commenting on the relationship with North Korea. "We're starting off on a new footing."

Trump thanked North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and said the country "was excellent to these three incredible people." However, Pence said the men were not always treated in spectacular fashion and relayed a story Pompeo told him about the flight home.

During a refueling stop in Anchorage, "one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadn't seen daylight in a very long time," Pence said Pompeo told him.

And while Pence says the treatment was not as glowing as the president believes, the vice president went on to say it appears things are improving with North Korea.

"(North Korea) has taken steps that indicate this may be an opportunity for a breakthrough," Pence said.

"In this moment the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith," he told NBC News.

The men were taken to Walter Reed Medical Center for treatment and to be checked out before they are released to their families. A statement from the men released by the State Department was issued shortly after they landed in Alaska.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," they said. "We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

A North Korean news organization said Kim decided to release the men following "official suggestion" from Trump.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.May 10, 2018

Syria Sets New Rules For Israeli Strikes

When Trump killed the nuclear deal with Iran he gave Israel the chance to start a wider war with Syria. An earlier Israeli simulation of the situation had concluded:

The crisis created by the administration regarding the flaws of the nuclear agreement could be exploited to promote issues more urgent for Israel (mainly Irans missile program and presence in Syria).

The Israeli government claims that Iranian support for Syria is a threat to its country. That is a bogus claim. The Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahoo uses the "Iran threat" as boogeyman to divert attention from other issues like the various corruption cases against himself.

Over the last years Israel attacked Syrian army positions more than 100 times, often in support of al-Qaeda aligned "Syrian rebels". Syria did not respond as it was busy fighting against the Takfiri invasion within the country. In April Israel upped the ante when it attacked the T4 base in the middle of Syria from where Russian and Iranian forces support Syria's fight against ISIS. Iranian soldiers were killed in the attack. The Syrian air defense shot down at least one of the attacking Israeli F-16 jets. This shooting down of the Israeli jets was thought to have established a new balance, but Israel continued to provoke.

On Tuesday, just as Trump announced his breaking of the nuclear deal, Israel launched another strike on what it claimed were Iranian missiles in Syria targeted at Israel. The strike hit a Syrian army depot. Fifteen soldiers, some of them allegedly Iranians, were killed. Even the Israeli media had trouble to find an excuse for the illegal 'preemptive' attack:

Even if Iran had no intention of launching missiles at Israel on Tuesday, the alleged Israeli strike came along and conveyed the following message to the Iranians: You raised the likelihood of an attack on Israel, so were raising the threat level, despite the tensions.

It is not Iran's job to respond to Israeli strikes on Syria. The Syrian government wanted to retaliate immediately to Tuesday's strike but was held back by Russian concerns. Russia saw these provocations as an Israeli trap. Yesterday Netanyahoo visited Moscow. The Russian president warned him to stop the provocations. Netanyahoo did not listen.

Last night Israel again attacked Syrian military positions in al-Quneitra in south-west Syria. This time the Syrian missile forces responded with a barrage of more than 20 missiles against Israeli positions in the occupied Golan Heights. Israel escalated further with 70 strikes against Syrian positions.

The Syrian opposition outlet SOHR confirms this chain of events:

The Israeli shelling came just before the dawn of Sunday after the fall of missiles after midnight, launched from al-Quneitra area and southwest Rif Dimashq adjacent to the occupied territories of Golan, following the Israeli shelling which took place last night and targeted locations near al-Baath city in the central countryside of Quneitra.

Pictures and video from Damascus show that the Syrian air defense intercepted many of the Israeli missiles.

Israel now claims that it eliminated the "Iranian threat" in Syria:

Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Israel's forces struck "nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria" and said that no objects were hit on the territories of Israel.

The claim of success is a signal that it does not want to go any further:

"I hope we've finished this episode and everyone understood," Lieberman added, stressing that Israel doesn't want an escalation, but "won't let anyone attack us or build an infrastructure to attack us in the future."

The propagandist praise of an Israeli success reminds one of previous similar claims.

On the second day of the 2006 war on Lebanon Israel loudly boosted that it had destroyed "all long-range Hizbullah missiles" in a 34 minutes long air campaign. But more than 100 missiles per day continued to hit Israel, including targets in Tel Aviv far away from the Lebanese border. Thirty one days later Israel sued for peace. Its invasion of Lebanon had been defeated. Its "successful" strike against Hizbullah's long range missiles had hit mostly empty positions.

The Israeli targeting in Syria is not much better than its targeting in Lebanon twelve years ago.

Syria will now continue to respond to Israeli attacks. This time it limited its strikes to military positions in the occupied Golan heights. The next strikes will go further. This time Israel sent its population in the occupied Golan heights into bunkers. The next time half of Israel may have to go underground. How long could Israel sustain that?

Iran will also retaliate for attacks on its forces in Syria. But it does not need to do so from Syria. There are also other ways and means than sending missiles.

That Syria, after much suffering, now retaliated for the Israeli strikes draws a new line in the sand. If Israel wants a wider war it will get one. The destruction in the involved countries in the Middle East, including Israel, might thrown them back 100 years. Syria, Lebanon, and Iran could live with that. A 100 years ago Israel did not exist.

Posted by b on May 10, 2018 at 11:41 UTC | Permalink

Comments

next page On the June 5 ballot, Santa Clara County voters will be asked whether or not to recall Judge Aaron Persky, the judge who sentenced former Stanford student Brock Turner for sexual assault. I urge all voters to vote NO to the recall and here is why.

Let me be clear, rape, sexual assault, domestic violence and similar offenses are wrong, illegal, and those who commit these offenses should be held accountable. The issue is whether Judge Persky acted in a way that deserves a recall.

While many believe the sentence in the Turner case was too lenient, the sentence was lawful and followed the recommendation of the probation officer.

The recall campaign claims that Judge Persky is an outlier in his sentencing and that his cases show a pattern of bias toward white, privileged athletes. These assertions are false.

Jeff Rosen, the Santa Clara County District Attorney and Molly ONeal, Santa Clara County Public Defender, both oppose the recall. They each confirm they never received one report, phone call or email complaining about the conduct of Judge Persky or heard any suggestion that Judge Persky ever acted with bias in any case. Had they received such a complaint, they would have taken action.

The California Commission on Judicial Performance thoroughly investigated Judge Perskys prior sentences and found no bias or misconduct.

While Judge Persky presided over more than 2,000 cases, the recall campaign identified five cases they felt support a pattern of bias; thats .25 percent or one-quarter of one percent of Judge Perskys cases.That is not a pattern!

Four out of five of those cases were the result of a plea bargain between the DA and the defense. In only one case was the defendant an athlete (and he was African-American), and in only one case was the defendant white (and he was not an athlete).

Finally, this recall threatens judicial Independence. Judges take an oath to follow the law and not to follow popular opinion. We do not want to politicize our judges. They are not politicians and should not give in to popular sentiment.

This case has created a lot of emotion, but also a lot of misleading and inaccurate information. Get the facts at norecall2018.org and vote no on June 5.

Swanee Edwards

Morgan HillWelcome to Morningstar.co.uk!

You have been redirected here from Hemscott.com as we are merging our websites to provide you with a one-stop shop for all your investment research needs.To search for a security, type the name or ticker in the search box at the top of the page and select from the dropdown results.Registered Hemscott users can log in to Morningstar using the same login details. Similarly, if you are a Hemscott Premium user, you now have a Morningstar Premium account which you can access using the same login details.JOHANNESBURG (AP)  Attackers entered a South African mosque after midday prayers, stabbed three people and set the place on fire before fleeing, police said Thursday, as people expressed shock at the kind of attack rarely seen in this country. One victim later died, police said.

"The motive of the attack on the three men is unknown at this stage," Capt. Nqobile Gwala with police in KwaZulu-Natal province told The Associated Press in an email.

The three attackers slit people's throats, said an emergency responder, Reaction Unit South Africa. Police said they found a knife at the scene. Images from outside the mosque showed bloodied men on the ground receiving medical care.

The other victims were in critical condition after the attack in the eastern town of Verulam, just north of the city of Durban, South Africa's state broadcaster SABC reported.

The attack came shortly ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins around May 16.

"We are not gonna be intimidated by what has happened to us," a representative of the Imam Hussein mosque, Azad Seedat, told broadcaster eNCA. Friday prayers will go on as usual, he said.

South Africa has not been a target for militant attacks of the kind that occur in some other African countries.

It was too early to comment on the circumstances of the attack, said Nick Piper, a director at Signal Risk, an Africa-focused risk management firm. "Given the low baseline terrorism risk in South Africa, incidents of this nature are, on average and without further evidence, more likely to be linked to personal or communal grievances than acts of terror as we understand them," he told the AP in an email.

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.WARSAW, Poland (AP)  U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an act that Jewish groups praise as helpful in their efforts to reclaim lost property in Poland but which the Polish government says is discriminatory.

The White House says Trump signed the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today  or JUST  Act. It requires the State Department to report to Congress on what steps dozens of countries in Europe have taken to compensate Holocaust survivors or their heirs for assets seized under Nazi German and Communist rule.

The law does not give the U.S. any powers to act against any country and does not single out Poland. But Poland is the only country in Europe that has not passed legislation to compensate former owners for assets seized in the upheavals of 20th-century European history, and Warsaw sees itself as the target of the law.

A spokesman for Polish President Andrzej Duda reacted by saying that Poland should not be expected to pay compensation for losses and damages caused by Nazi Germany, which initiated World War II and brutally occupied Poland.

Krzysztof Lapinski said the U.S. act "can be dangerous in the sense that claims can be formulated" and that diplomatic talks should address the issue.

The Nazis' seizure of Jewish-owned property in Poland during the war and the murder of most of Poland's Jewish population was followed after the war by the Communist state's seizure of large amounts of property that was nationalized. Most of the original owners of that property were not Jewish.

Since the fall of communism, some claimants have regained lost property on a case-by-case basis through courts, but so far Poland has not passed comprehensive legislation regulating the process. That has created a situation that has been riddled by fraud.

Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz says he believes the U.S. pressure through the JUST Act unfairly sets Jewish claimants above non-Jewish ones, creating tensions in Poland. He argued that Polish law treats all Polish citizens equally.

"This position of the (U.S.) Congress is not good because it wants some privileges for the Jews, for the Jewish community, but not for the Poles. I think that the Poles who live in the U.S. may feel hurt by that," Czaputowicz told The Associated Press.

He said some non-Jewish Poles fought against Nazi Germany and then settled in the United States, leaving behind property that was seized by the Communist regime.

"Their property here remains without any settlement and nobody speaks on their behalf, only on the behalf of the Jews. That is not good because that divides our society," Czaputowicz added.

The World Jewish Restitution Organization said Thursday that Czaputowicz was wrong in describing the JUST Act as discriminatory, saying that it covers "both Holocaust victims and other victims of Nazi persecution."

Gideon Taylor, WJRO Chair of Operations, also argued that legislation Poland's ruling party presented last year promising some compensation to some victims would have "excluded the vast majority of Holocaust survivors and their families."

The legislation is being re-written.

"(We) have long advocated for the passage of legislation that would provide restitution to all property owners whose property was wrongfully taken  both Jewish and non-Jewish owners," Taylor said.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.BEIRUT (AP)  There may not be much Iran can do about President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but across the Middle East, it has a variety of ways it can hit back at the United States and America's regional allies.

Iran has expanded its influence far beyond its borders in recent years, sponsoring an army of tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen spread across Iraq and Syria, all the way to Lebanon. A rocket attack overnight on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights may have been a first salvo, underscoring Tehran's reach. Israel responded with a blistering wave of missile strikes early Thursday.

Iran also holds enormous political sway in neighboring Iraq and in Lebanon, where its main Shiite ally, the militant Hezbollah group, scored significant gains in weekend elections. In Iraq, two powerful political alliances expected to win seats in parliamentary elections on Sunday also maintain strong ties to Iran.

In his speech announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, Trump called Iran the "world's leading state sponsor of terror," citing its support for "terrorist" proxies and militias such as Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as its activities in Yemen.

The rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia has torn the region apart, playing out on regional battlefields and fanning sectarian flames in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen. Trump's decision will likely intensify those confrontations, and could also embolden Israel to step up its own proxy battles against Tehran.

Here is a look at proxy battlefields in Iran's looming confrontation with the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel:

___

SYRIA AND THE GOLAN HEIGHTS

Any confrontation between Iran and Israel is likely to play out first and foremost on the battlefields of Syria, where Iran has built an extensive network of militias during Syria's civil war. Advisers from Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, as well as trainers, commanders and experts, are stationed in military bases across the country.

It also has spy drones that it can use to attack from the sky. In February, Israel shot down what it said was a drone that contained explosives sent by Iran from an air base in Syria, prompting Israeli airstrikes that killed at least seven Iranians. An Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Israel's main concern is southern Syria, near the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, where Tehran has been boosting its presence for years and where it could launch rocket attacks into Israeli territory.

Israel has said it will do what it takes to fend off Iran's military entrenchment. A series of strikes over the last few months  all blamed on Israel  have struck Iranian assets in Syria and killed Iranian forces there.

The strikes have prompted threats of retaliation from Tehran, and Israel has girded for a response, ordering bomb shelters open in the Golan.

Israel will no doubt strike back following any attack on its territory, a scenario that could spiral into a wider conflict that experts say no side is currently interested in.

With Trump's backing, Israel may even feel emboldened to take further pre-emptive action against Iranian targets in Syria. Iran's presence in Syria is no match for Israel's powerful military, and Iran's hopes of salvaging the deal and appearing moderate on the world stage may further hinder its ability to strike back.

___

LEBANON AND ISRAEL

Southern Lebanon's rolling hills bordering Israel are another arena of influence for Tehran through its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah.

The frontier has been largely quiet since the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006, and Hezbollah is averse to starting a new confrontation in light of its costly intervention in Syria, where it has lost hundreds of fighters.

Launching a new war could endanger Hezbollah's political support base, including its Shiite constituency, which is wary of another ruinous war with Israel.

Hezbollah has said, however, that it stands ready to defend Lebanon in case of any Israeli attack, and its leader has hinted it may retaliate for repeated Israeli airstrikes in Syria.

Israel has repeatedly targeted weapons shipments destined for Hezbollah, taking advantage of the group's thinly-spread fighters preoccupied by the war in Syria.

With the war winding down and the group able to refocus on its longtime foe, Israel, the border between the two countries may again heat up. Embroiled in scandals at home, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may also seek a provocation to divert attention from his domestic crises.

____

YEMEN AND SAUDI ARABIA

The war in Yemen, widely seen as a proxy battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, is another theater Tehran could exploit to inflict pain on its enemies.

Yemen's Shiite rebels, the Houthis, have fired a series of missiles into neighboring Saudi Arabia during the three-year-old conflict, most recently on Wednesday, a day after Trump's announcement.

The United Nations, Western nations and Saudi Arabia say Iran supplies the Houthis with long-range missiles capable of reaching Riyadh. Iran denies arming them.

___

GAZA AND JERUSALEM

Confronted by Iranian-allied Hezbollah on its northern border, Israel also faces another enemy to the south with Hamas in Gaza.

Tehran's relationship with the Islamic militant group has known highs and lows. Hamas developed close ties with Iran after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, with support  both military and financial  peaking following Hamas' victory in the 2006 parliamentary elections.

Ties ebbed with the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011, when the Hamas leadership-in-exile left Syria amid President Bashar Assad's crackdown on Sunni Muslim rebels, many with ideologies similar to those of the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent movement of Hamas. Ties with Iran have since somewhat recovered, and Hamas is believed to again get funding from Iran.

Since late March, Hamas has been staging weekly mass protests meant to break a stifling, decade-long Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the impoverished territory. Thousands of Palestinians have demonstrated along Israel's border fence with Gaza, with some briefly crossing into Israeli territory, hurling burning tires and damaging the fence. Dozens have been killed by Israeli fire and hundreds have been wounded.

The protests are set to intensify Monday when the U.S. Embassy opens in Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of Palestinians are set to descend on the border area and mass breaches of the border fence may be inevitable.

___

IRAQ

Iran sponsors a range of Shiite militias in Iraq and has deep ties to the country's economy and political system. Many Iraqis fear escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran will destabilize Iraq just as the country is starting to recover.

Riad Hadi, an Iraqi army veteran, said Iraq will end up paying the price for Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

"If they blockade Iran, the pressure release will be Iraq," said the 48-year-old, who was wounded in both legs in a bomb blast in his Baghdad neighborhood.

On Wednesday, a powerful Iraqi paramilitary group with links to Iran said Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal would "ignite the region."

"We are resistance factions and we are ready to target Americans in the region in case America hits Iran. It will be a violent response," said Jafar Husseini of Iraq's Hezbollah brigades.

There are some 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq training Iraq's military after the country declared victory over the Islamic State group last year.

___

ASSASSINATIONS AND ATTACKS

Amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran, a return to assassinations and overseas attacks cannot be ruled out.

Iran blamed Israel for the assassination of at least four Iranian nuclear scientists between 2010 and 2012 and arrested a number of Iranians alleged to have carried out the killings on behalf of Israel's Mossad spy agency.

In 2011, U.S. officials said they foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, the current Saudi foreign minister.

___

Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Philip Issa and Qassem Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.ROCKLEDGE, Fla. -- It was a series of bad decisions made by a 16-year-old that landed him in jail.

16-year-old charged for bringing gun to school

He will tried as adult, says State Attorney's Office

Grandmother alleges they're trying to make 'example' out of teen

According to Rockledge Police, a 5 shot revolver disappeared in April after Bradley Bell brought it to school and it was allegedly stolen.

Tuesday, state prosecutors decided that even though Bell is only 16 years old, with no priors, he will be tried as an adult in this case, which is why Spectrum News 13 is now identifying the teen.

Bell is now facing three felonies and one misdemeanor. His charges range from discharge of a weapon on school property to grand theft.

Officials say it wasnt the first time Bell brought the gun to school. PD explains they have reason to believe he brought it to school multiple times, even firing a shot into the ground behind the school.

The legally owned gun reportedly belongs to Bells grandmother, and she kept it locked.

Earlier Wednesday, Bells grandmother said off-camera that Bell will be doing online school to keep up with classes.

And she feels that the charges are excessive considering he didnt shoot anybody. She says the court system is trying to make an example out of him.

Todd Brown, spokesman for the State Attorney's Office, said in a news release: While Bell has no prior history in the juvenile justice system, the troubling and serious nature of the offenses identified by the Rockledge Police Department, warrant this decision.

According to court records, Bell posted bond earlier Wednesday. His grandmother tells us they hired an attorney.

The police have not been able to find the missing gun.ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A St. Petersburg woman was arrested on May 4 and charged with misuse of the 911 wireless system after she reportedly called 911 declaring a medical emergency, then told first responders upon their arrival that she needed beer.

Jennifer Sue Sunday, 57, arrested May 4

Sunday called 911 line 28 times since Feb. 6, 2018

None of previous calls were for actual medical emergency

Officials said on May 4 Jennifer Sue Sunday made two 911 calls, one at 12:06 p.m. and one at 3:41 p.m., each time telling operators she was experiencing a medical emergency. When paramedics arrived at her home, she told them she needed beer, according to a county affidavit.

The same affidavit states that Sunday has made 28 calls to 911 since Feb. 6, 2018 saying she was experiencing a medical emergency, but none of the calls were genuine.

Sunday was arrested and charged with misuse of the 911 wireless system. She was booked at the Pinellas County Jail on $150.00 bond.ORLANDO, Fla. -- Even in the best relationships, you're not always going to agree, and for new business owner April Williams' case, that meant food.

So food trucks were a good option for Williams and her family.

New Orlando program expedites small business permits

'Permitting Express' was launched 6 months ago

Orlando couple to open A La Carte Street Food and Craft Beer

"He (my husband) can get what he wants, I can get what I want, our son can get what he wants. So we can all meet right in the middle," Williams said.

The former teacher and her husband decided to quit and put everything in to open up "A La Carte Street Food and Craft Beer" in Orlando's Milk District. The project, which she hopes will open in July, will consist of an Astroturf lawn, courtyard, fun lights and outdoor games.

The Central Florida couple's dream came true much faster than it would have about a year ago, thanks to a new Orlando program called Permitting Express. It's designed to get small businesses up and running faster. The program started six months ago, when small and big business permit requests were lumped together.

"You went through kind of the same processes, so we wanted to make it easier for the less complicated projects to get through permitting," Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said.

Now, a specialized team of people help a hopeful small business owner through the permitting process and expedite things.

"Projects that are less than 5,000 square feet are automatically in Permitting Express, and we've had great success with it," Dyer said.

Williams and her husband are examples of that success.

"I believe it. We're close. We'll be there very soon thanks to that," she said.

With Williams' business, food trucks will be able to rent spaces, others will be switched out more frequently. They're also going to hire people over the coming weeks, giving the local economy a bit of a boost.OCHOPEE, Fla. -- A wild adventure awaits in southern Florida, where youll get to experience the Everglades while zipping across the water.

Ride through the Everglades at Wooten's Airboat Rides

On the ride, you'll see gators, native birds

For more information, visit Wooten's website

Every ride is different," says 21-year-veteran guide Carl Nicholson. "You never know what youre gonna see; that never gets old."

With thousands of tours under his belt, Carl, a self-proclaimed "swamp boy," is no stranger to showing guests a good time. He's often gliding through the waters of the South Florida Everglades at Wooten's Airboat Rides.

Mr. Raymond Wooten, the founder, back in 1953... he was basically getting frogs out here on the airboat when some people saw him from the road and wanted to take a ride. That's how it all started," Carl said.

Now, decades later, Wooten's is one of the oldest airboat attractions in South Florida, giving guests a thrilling adventure.

While you're out there, it can get pretty fast, getting up to speeds between 30 to 40 mph. If you really want a thrill, sit in the front row, where you'll get plenty of splash action.

Theyll slow down, though, to help you explore all the nature the Everglades has to offer.

Youll get to meet everything from native birds to some pretty curious alligators, which might come right up to your boat. In this part of the Everglades, you may even see a crocodile.

It makes for a thrilling afternoon, to say the least.

"If you got a tank of gas and free day, come on down and see us. I dont think anyone will be disappointed," Carl said.

Wooten's is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. In addition to their airboats, they also offer animal demonstrations, feedings and swamp buggy rides.

For more information, head to Wootens Airboat Rides website .The state Department of Transportation has started a safety campaign alerting motorists about the increased number of trains passing through crossings along the CTrail Hartford Line, which is scheduled to launch June 16.

Electronic signs alerting motorists were placed at four street-level rail crossings in Windsor Tuesday and will remain for a week. Every Tuesday, the electronic signs will be moved to different street-level rail crossings along the Hartford Line.

Hartford Line service will run for free during the weekend of June 16 and 17. The trains can travel at speeds as high as 110 mph through crossings in North Haven, Wallingford, Meriden, and Berlin. The entire trip on the 62-mile ride from Springfield to New Haven is expected to take 81 minutes.

There will be a steady increase in rail traffic on the Hartford Line corridor throughout early June as the number of daily test trains will surge in preparation for the launch. The electronic signs will display messages that alert drivers to the increase in daily trains and remind them to obey traffic laws when navigating street-level rail crossings.

Weekday roundtrip rail service on the Hartford Line will increase significantly, from six to 17 trips per day between New Haven and Hartford, and from six to 12 trips per day between Hartford and Springfield.

The speeds, which are unlikely to reach 110 mph, will improve sharply from the days before the tracks were double-tracked and raised in some flood-prone areas.

With the increase in rail traffic, the Connecticut Department of Transportation wants to remind the public to obey the law at rail crossings, DOT COmmissioner James Redeker said. People may not always remember that trains cannot stop quickly. In fact, it can take a mile for a train to come to a complete stop. Drivers should never attempt to drive under or around a closing or closed gate at a street-level rail crossing.

This initiative is part of Operation Lifesaver, a national educational and awareness campaign around safety at railroad crossings.

Part of the $700 million Hartford Line upgrade, includes new signaling, crossing bars, and advanced horns that alert motorists and pedestrians to an oncoming train with less neighborhood disruption.

mgodin@record-journal.com

203-317-2255

Twitter: @CconnbizNational Geographic WILD is home to a big family of animal caretakers and rescuers. In these special episodes, check out how the Men of WILD are helping all kinds of creatures one case at a time.

Fridays from 8:30pm AEDT.Sign up to receive the First Reading newsletter, your guide to the world of Canadian politics.

First Reading is your guide to the world of Canadian politics.

Sign up now>Thanks to Mr Jacob Bauer for providing these photos and description of a Pontifical Requiem celebrated last month at the Univ. Nebraska-Lincoln Newman Center.



The catafalque was built by two UNL students; the stain and trim were specifically manufactured to match the interior of the chapel.

At the absolution.

On April 17 in Lincoln, Nebraska, His Excellency Bishop Robert Finn celebrated a Pontifical Requiem Mass at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Newman Center, for the universitys Venerable Sheen Society, a group of young adult followers of the traditional Latin Mass. Fr. Josef Bisig, founder and first superior general of the Fraternity of St Peter, served as the Assistant Priest. Eight students from UNL learned how to serve Pontifical Mass, while the Knights of the Holy Eucharist, founded by Mother Angelica and originally from Alabama, served as torch-bearers.For the liturgical music, the schola from the FSSPs Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary teamed up with a small group of UNL students for the Mass chants and polyphony. Speaking on behalf of many that were present, the Requiem chants were sung in a particularly beautiful way by the FSSP seminarians; no surprise, given their recent Requiem album, which was released in May 2017 , and rode the top of the classical charts for 13 straight weeks.Fr Justin Wylie, originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, preached at the Mass; his sermon can be found here. Indeed, what more efficacious thing can one do for ones loved onesand indeed, even for ones enemiesthan to than to lay down ones life; in this case, the same life-offering of our Savior, Jesus Christ? For that is was is offered to the Father at such a Massthe irresistible offering, perfect atonement, sufficient satisfaction for any and all the worlds sins. You can do no greater thing for anyone, anywhere, ever, than this.Copy Editor/Entertainment Editor

Frank Pieper is a copy editor and entertainment editor at The News-Gazette, and the author of Frank's Faves and Frank's Weekend Faves. His email is fpieper@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@frp308).Reporter

Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Mostly cloudy skies early will become partly cloudy later in the day. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 76F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 57F. Winds light and variable.Reporter/Columnist

Julie Wurth is a reporter covering the University of Illinois at The News-Gazette. Her email is jwurth@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@jawurth).Hope O'Neill showed The News-Gazette the location of the bombs that were found on her family's property, allegedly set there by Michael Hari, who has been accused of bombing a mosque in Minnesota.Reporter

Tim Mitchell is a reporter at The News-Gazette. His email is tmitchel@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@mitchell6).Reporter

Debra Pressey is a reporter covering health care at The News-Gazette. Her email is dpressey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@DLPressey).Secretary for Home Affairs Lau Kong-wah will visit Shenzhen on May 11 to attend a culture forum.

The event will promote ties between the cultural industries in Hong Kong, the Mainland and Macau, and cultural co-operation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area.

Mr Lau will speak at the opening ceremony of the event, which is part of the 14th China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair.

Mainland venue operators and arts groups from Hong Kong can use the forum as a platform to explore co-operation opportunities.

About 100 representatives from Hong Kong arts groups have registered for the forum's activities.

This year's Budget has allocated $140 million to the Leisure & Cultural Services Department to help Hong Kong arts groups and artists hold exchanges in bay area cities and around the world.

The Government will also progressively increase the recurrent provision to $50 million to support Hong Kong arts groups for outbound cultural exchanges.Portland's popular Ex Novo Brewing will be the latest in the new school of craft breweries to open a second location in the suburbs with a Beaverton restaurant and taproom scheduled for late 2018. With the help of City of Beaverton officials, Ex Novo will remodel the over 100 year old Historic Cady Building at 4505 SW Watson Avenue. This is the second big announcement from Ex Novo Brewing, the other being that the company will open a location in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with its own brewery, and founder Joel Gregory plans to relocate there.Ex Novo is not the first Portland brewery to announce a new suburban location, as Migration Brewing is gearing up to open a second location in Gresham this summer. For Gregory, he wanted another location a ways away from the original N. Portland spot."I've done tastings and events in Beaverton and Hillsboro before and met lots of people who have not heard of us. So, the thinking there would be to reach a new community, as well as give our fans on the westside something great that keeps them from having to make the trip to Portland." The City of Beaverton making efforts to revitalize the Old Town area as a food and drink destination was also a big draw. "We really like the idea of being a part of that exciting revitalization at the ground level." Ex Novo has been working with Scott|Edwards Architecture (SEA) to remodel the Beaverton space, which was once a bank, pharmacy, and market and is a location on the Historic Beaverton Walking Map. The remodel has a tentatively scheduled finish for this fall after exterior updates that Ex Novo received a grant for from the City of Beaverton. The company also hopes for an additional grant for interior improvements.

The new Beaverton pub will be much like the Portland location, only a much different space. The only other major change is a focus on Detroit-style pizza, a lesser-known style that's been gaining a larger audience and cult following since Ex Novo has been offering one on the menu. Pizza will be the focus, says Gregory."We'll have some special creations there on the menu as opposed to the strictly "build your own" that we currently offer, and we'll do different sizes, including pizza by the slice and hopefully a solid pizza-to-go business." Gregory adds that current chef Chris Greer will continue to oversee the Beaverton kitchen to some extent, "as he's the mastermind behind the Detroit style pizza. Having this team in place, I'm super confident in our ability to keep the Ex Novo experience on point, and I'll obviously be in close contact with the team and making monthly trips to Oregon." The food menu will be filled out by house sandwiches, salads, and a casual counter-service setting.

The Beaverton pub calls for 14 taps of Ex Novo beer, bottles/cans to-go, and a family-friendly atmosphere open to kids until 9ish with hopes that the current brewery can supply both pubs and local distribution. The logistics of running all three soon-to-be locations will fall to Gregory making frequent trips back and forth and his management team that features bartender turned manager Brandon Sharp stepping into a key role. Sharp has "been with us from the beginning" says Gregory, and will now "act as GM for both Oregon pubs and we'll have separate management under him. Our head brewer Ryan Buxton will be overseeing brewing operations for our two breweries, but will remain in Portland."Get the news faster.

Tap to install our app. Access Newser even faster.

Click here to install our app on your desktop.

X(Newser)  Three well-meaning people suffered bites when the kittens they rescued after hearing them mewling in a San Antonio alley turned out to be ravenous bobcat cubs. The caretakers found the blue-eyed, stub-tailed pair of young bobcats on Saturday and, thinking they were Bengal kittens, took them in. They fed the bobcats milk from pet-feeding bottles, but realized something was amiss when the aggressive animals tore the bottles apart and bit them, the AP reports. They called animal control officers and a wildlife rescue group took the wild cats away.

story continues below

Workers initially planned wait in the alley, hoping to find the mother and reunite her with the cubs. The animals were later quarantined and taken to a wildlife rescue center, KSAT reports. "Wildlife really should remain IN THE WILD and it's up to us to help make that happen!" San Antonio Animal Care Services said in a Facebook post. "These bobcat kittens are now orphaned and under quarantine with our partners at Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation because someone thought they looked like house cats." (A motorist in Arizona was trapped by an owl she tried to rescue.)(Newser)  A white graduate student at Yale called police on a black graduate student who'd fallen asleep in a common area of their campus residencean episode that a dean said shows the need for efforts to make the Ivy League university a more inclusive place, Per the AP, Lolade Siyonbola posted two videos of Monday's encounter on her Facebook page, including part of a conversation with the white student who told her she was calling police after finding her on a couch in the room at Yale's Hall of Graduate Studies on the New Haven campus. After questioning Siyonbola for more than 15 minutes, police confirmed she was a Yale student who lived in the building and then left.

story continues below

Police told Siyonbola the encounter was prolonged because her name wasn't spelled correctly in a database of student information. The videos show Siyonbola telling police the woman who called them suffered from mental illness and had called police several months ago on a friend who'd gotten lost in a stairwell of the building. Siyonbola didn't immediately respond to emails and messages on social media requesting comment, though she expressed gratitude Tuesday on her Facebook page for "the love, kind words, and prayers" she has received. "Black Yale community is beyond incredible and is taking good care of me," she wrote. "I know this incident is a drop in the bucket of trauma Black folk have endured since Day 1 America, and you all have stories."

(Read more Yale University stories.)(Newser)  Residents in the Golan Heights are taking shelter after a report from Israel's Defense Forces that Iran on Thursday fired about 20 "projectiles" from Syria directly at the Israeli military in the occupied territorythe first time Israel has accused Iran itself (not one of its proxies) of such actions. "At approximately  10 minutes past midnight, forces [belonging] to the Iranian Quds Force fired approximately 20 projectiles, most of them  probably rockets (but that is yet to be determined) toward the forward line of IDF positions in the Golan Heights," says IDP spokesman Jonathan Conricus, per the Guardian. The Independent reports that an initial appraisal found the attack caused minimal damage, with the IDF able to intercept some of the projectiles; there are also said to be no Israeli casualties.

story continues below

Israel has been on high alert after a report out of Syria Tuesday that said Israeli forces had attacked an Iranian-occupied military base south of Damascus, Haaretz reports. Per the New York Times, analysts had said Iran was holding back from retaliating until it saw whether President Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal this week, which he did on Tuesday. Israeli forces aren't taking the newest incident lightly. The IDF "views this event with great severity and remains prepared for a wide variety of scenarios," an Israeli military statement noted, per the New York Times. Conricus added that Israel had "responded," though he didn't elaborate. (Read more Iran stories.)(Newser)  A proud moment for President Trump: Trump, accompanied by Melania Trump, Mike Pence, and Karen Pence, was on hand to welcome three former prisoners back from North Korea at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington early Thursday, the AP reports. Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song, and Kim Sang Duk were released Wednesday after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with North Korean officials. The three men arrived at the base at 2:42am on a Boeing C-40 equipped with medical facilities and were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation. "This is a special night for these three really great people," Trump said as he stood on the tarmac with them. He thanked Kim Jong Un and said the North Korean leader "really wants to do something" about denuclearization.

story continues below

The men "appear to be in good condition and were all able to walk on the plane without assistance," the State Department said in a statement after the release. When the plane stopped to refuel in Alaska, the three men released a statement thanking the US government, Trump, Pompeo, "and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return," adding: "God bless America, the greatest nation in the world." All three men had been serving sentences of at least a decade in labor camps, Newsweek reports. Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim, and Kim Hak Song are university professors who were arrested a year ago and accused of trying to subvert the regime. Kim Dong Chul, a pastor, had been detained since October 2015. In 2016, he was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for espionage. (Read more North Korea stories.)(Newser)  A hiking boot stuck in a logjam on the shores of British Columbia's Gabriola Island yielded a grim findyet another severed foot. This is at least the 14th time since 2007 that a foot has washed up on the coastline of the Canadian province, the Guardian reports. There were only two pairs among the found feet, meaning they came from a dozen individuals.

story continues below

The Mounties say the latest find was made by a man walking his dog along a beach on Sunday, the Province reports. No other human remains were found in the area. Authorities have identified six of the people the feet came from and foul play is not suspected in any of the deaths: they died either in accidents or by suicide and the feet apparently separated from the bodies after a long period in the water. (A foot found in December still had part of a leg attached.)(Newser)  The video was a hit with some, but Canada's Discovery Wildlife Park is taking a hit for it. The private zoo has been charged with two offenses under Alberta's Wildlife Act after caretakers allowed a captive Kodiak bear to be hand-fed ice cream in a Dairy Queen drive-thru in Innisfail. After a video of the incident was posted to Facebook in January (it has since been removed), critics deemed it irresponsible, though one of the zoos owners, Doug Bos, said it was educational, per the CBC.

story continues below

"The message was: Don't feed the bears. Don't stop on the side of the road. If everybody would listen to the video, that's what the message wasdon't do this," Bos told the CBC in January. The zoo also emphasized that it took care to eliminate risk: The bear was on a chain, and the scene was shot before Dairy Queen opened (the shop's owner was the one doing the feeding). The zoo is charged with taking the 1-year-old bear from its facility without notifying provincial officials, and Bos says he plans to plead guilty. "We were busy. We made a mistake and we didn't email them," he tells the Canadian Press. The second offense relates to instances in 2017 where similar notification wasn't provided. (Read more bears stories.)(Newser)  A militant group in Somalia on Wednesday enacted a brutal sentence on a woman accused of having multiple husbands. Militants with al-Shabab buried the woman up to her neck, then pelted her to death with stones, while residents in the town of Sablale looked on. The death sentence came after 30-year-old Shukri Abdullahi Warsame was brought to court alongside nine men who claimed her as their wife, reports Reuters. A 10th husband died, while another is said to have divorced her, reports Somalia's Garowe Online.

story continues below

Under Islamic law, men can have up to four wives, but women are banned from having more than one husband, and a divorce is only granted with permission from the husband or a religious court, reports the BBC. Al-Shabab, which practices a strict version of Sharia law, is known to sentence to death women accused of adultery and other crimes. Reuters notes that courts set up by al-Shabab block legal representation, as well as appeals. Garowe Online reports Abdullahi had eight children. (Read more al-Shabab stories.)(Newser)  David Goodall, the 104-year-old Australian scientist who campaigned for the legalization of assisted suicide, died Thursday in Switzerland, Fox News reports. Goodall, who spoke at length on the eve of his death about why he wanted to end his own life, administered a lethal drug under the guidance of doctors at the Life Circle clinic in Basel, CNN reports. He had traveled there to die, with four family members and a close friend by his side, because euthanasia is illegal in his homeland of Australia. Goodall, a renowned botanist and ecologist, died while listening to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." (Read more assisted suicide stories.)(Newser)  First, Iranian forces in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israel. Then Israel retaliated with a much larger show of force, with fighter jets striking dozens of Iranian targets in Syria. Iran and Israel have been fighting what the New York Times calls a "shadow war" in Syria, but the direct strikes on each other suggest that the conflict is in the shadows no more. Whether it grows into a larger conflict is now the big concern, and France, Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom each separately called for restraint from both sides, reports i24 News. Details, developments, and background:

The danger: "These are the first skirmishes in a potential war between Israel and Iran that promises a fearful level of destructioneven by the standards of the modern Middle East," writes Jonathan Marcus at the BBC. Unless it's averted, the conflict would pit Israeli airpower against the missiles of Iran and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"These are the first skirmishes in a potential war between Israel and Iran that promises a fearful level of destructioneven by the standards of the modern Middle East," writes Jonathan Marcus at the BBC. Unless it's averted, the conflict would pit Israeli airpower against the missiles of Iran and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon. The roots: Israel accuses Iran of taking advantage of the chaos in Syria to try to create what Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman calls a "forward base against Israel" along Israel's northern border, per the AP. In a speech to soldiers ahead of the latest strikes, he said, We are facing a new realitythe Lebanese army, in cooperation with Hezbollah, the Syrian army, the [Shia] militias in Syria and above them Iranare all becoming a single front against the state of Israel.

story continues below

US context: The hostilities come in the immediate aftermath of President Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran. European nations viewed the accord "as a crucial element holding Iran and Israel, implacable foes, from all-out conflict," writes Isabel Kershner in the New York Times.

The hostilities come in the immediate aftermath of President Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran. European nations viewed the accord "as a crucial element holding Iran and Israel, implacable foes, from all-out conflict," writes Isabel Kershner in the New York Times. Role for Putin: Russia's Vladimir Putin is "increasingly central to what happens next," writes Seth Frantzman at the Jerusalem Post. He has good relations with Israel (Putin met with Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday) as well as with Iran. And Moscow has increasingly ramped up its role in the Syrian conflict with its support of Iranian ally Bashar al-Assad.

Russia's Vladimir Putin is "increasingly central to what happens next," writes Seth Frantzman at the Jerusalem Post. He has good relations with Israel (Putin met with Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday) as well as with Iran. And Moscow has increasingly ramped up its role in the Syrian conflict with its support of Iranian ally Bashar al-Assad. US response: A statement from White House press chief Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned Irans provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens and backed Israels right to act in self-defense.

A statement from White House press chief Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned Irans provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens and backed Israels right to act in self-defense. Getting aggressive: In recent weeks, Israel has more directly gone after Iranian military sites in Syria, reports the AP. At the Guardian, Peter Beaumont goes further and suggests that Israel has been "pursuing a deliberate policy of provoking Iran." As for Tehran, he thinks its strategy on Israel's northern border smacks of "dangerous and hubristic overreach."

In recent weeks, Israel has more directly gone after Iranian military sites in Syria, reports the AP. At the Guardian, Peter Beaumont goes further and suggests that Israel has been "pursuing a deliberate policy of provoking Iran." As for Tehran, he thinks its strategy on Israel's northern border smacks of "dangerous and hubristic overreach." Divide in Iran? The Iranian strike on Israel could be a sign of a rift in Iran, writes Patti Domm at CNBC. President Hassan Rouhani, for example, has said that he wants Iran to remain in the nuclear accord despite the US withdrawal; but "the attack on Israel was carried by the IRGC, or revolutionary guards, who take orders from the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei."

(Read more Israel stories.)(Newser)  Mike Pence has a message for Robert Mueller: "It's time to wrap it up." In an interview with Andrea Mitchell on NBCs Today, the vice president urged Mueller to finish his investigation into the Trump campaign's possible collusion with Russia. Pence said the White House has been cooperating with investigators for the last year. I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion, he told Mitchell, per CNN. The investigation will reach its one-year anniversary next week. Pences comments were his most direct to date in regard to an investigation that has resulted in the indictment of 13 Russian operatives, former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, and others, reports Politico, .

story continues below

Pence declined to comment on the widening federal investigation into Michael Cohen, the presidents lawyer and self-described fixer. Most recently, a New York Times investigation found that Cohens shell company, Essential Consultants, was used far more extensively than previously known. Pence said that the Cohen investigation is a private matter and that he does not have any knowledge of it. Perhaps signaling the growing legal demands of the case, Rudy Giuliani, the presidents new personal lawyer, announced that he is officially leaving his job at the law firm Greenberg Traurig, citing the "pressing demands" of the probe, reports the Hill. Giuliani had been on temporary leave. (Read more Mike Pence stories.)(Newser)  The Defense Department found no single cause, but rather individual, organizational and institutional errors, including insufficient training and preparation, caused the death of four US soldiers and at least five Nigerien soldiers in a bloody Special Forces mission in Niger, according to an eight-page summary report. The Oct. 4 ambush took the lives of Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Johnson, Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright, and Sgt. La David Johnson. In all, the investigative team interviewed 143 witnesses, reports the Washington Post. It examined documentary, photographic, audio, video and testimonial evidence," per CNN. One survivor even returned to the battlefield with the team. The patrol was submitted and approved as a low-risk recon assignment, but the team was actually on a high-risk mission searching for Islamic State leader Doundoun Cheffou; their true mission was never approved by the proper chain of command, though the team notes this was a result of "sloppiness" rather than an intent to deceive.

story continues below

The patrol, which did not rehearse the mission before setting out and was missing key equipment and training, encountered light fire at first but then was engaged by a larger group of militants on motorcycles and in trucks mounted with machine guns. The report found that the arrival of French Mirage planes disrupted the fight and may have saved lives, reports the New York Times. The remains of three of the US soldiers who were killed were retrieved quickly, but the body of La David Johnson was not retrieved until the evening of Oct. 6. The delay in recovering Johnsons body had led to speculation that he had been taken captive. That speculation was bolstered by locals who said that they saw the body and that Johnsons hands appeared to be tied behind his back. The report, nevertheless, concluded that his hands were not bound and he was killed in action while actively engaging the enemy. The full report remains classified. (Read more Niger stories.)Sorry!

This content is not available in your regionNew Delhi:

The extensive campaigning for the 224-member Karnataka AssemblyA elections would come to an end on Thursday evening with the model code of conduct being applicable in the southern state.

On the last day of the poll campaign, both the rival partiesathe Congress and The BJPawould go with full force to attack each other and woo their voters.

The political blamegame and mudslinging that started onA TuesdayA after thousands of voter ID cards were found in a flat that allegedly belonged to a former BJP Corporator, were also expected to intensify onA Thursday.

For the Congress, party president Rahul Gandhi will hold a press conference in Bengaluru, where he is expected to hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of voter ID cards recovered from the house of a former BJP Corporator.

For the BJP, PM Modi, party president Amit Shah, and chief ministers of several states will hold rallies and road shows in a bid to swing voters mood in their favour.

While Modi will address the SC/ST/OBC and Slum Morcha workers of BJP via Narendra Modi app, Shah will hold a roadshow to challenge Siddaramaiah in his constituency Badami.

LIVE Updates

# 04:20 PM: Voter ID scandal showsA Congress' desperation:A The voter id scandal shows how desperate Congress is to win the elections. They are resorting to undemocratic ways to win elections. I would like to appeal to those who have fake voter ID cards to not come under the trap laid by the Congress party and should stay away from filthy election tactics adopted by them.

# 04:10 PM: Siddaramaiah did nothing in last 5 years: While addressing a press conference in poll-bound Karnataka's Bengaluru, Shah said, "In the last 5 years, Siddaramaiah government has proved to be the most unsuccessful govt after the independence. They did nothing for the farmers and are not even ready to give answers for their failure."

# 04: 05 PM:A WatchA LIVE: BJP president Amit Shah is addressing a press conference in Bengaluru.

# 11:10 AM:A BJP doesn't understand the term 'Hindua:A aThe BJP doesn't understand the term 'Hindu.' When BJP uses the term 'Election Hindu' it defines their own perspective of the religion,a the Gandhi scion said.

# 11:05 AM: BJP copied Congress' manifesto:A The Congress drew from the essence of the aspirations of the people of Karnataka to create its manifesto. The BJP's manifesto, however, was crafted behind closed doors and half of it was copied from the Congress manifesto.

# 10:55 AM:A Union ministers in Karnataka shows BJP in apanica:A I can tell you why BJP Union Ministers are campaigning in Karnataka -. I'm happy they're here, it helps us!A

# 10:45 AM: Rahul Gandhi confident of Congress's victory:A I have been traveling around K'taka for a few months now, we all stood together&fought campaign on fundamental issues. We've prepared manifesto which is truly voice of the people. Opposition has restricted itself to making personal remarks. We are confident of winning the elections.

# 10:40 AM: Watch: Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah address press conference in Bengaluru.

# 09:35 AM: As election campaign ends today, BJP goes full throttle:A On the last day of campaigning for Karnataka Election 2018, 23 party leaders, including Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Ananth Kumar, Piyush Goyal & Dharmendra Pradhan, to hold mega road shows in different parts of Karnataka today.

# 09:20 AM: BJP govt madeA Atrocities Act more stringent:A Our govt has made SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act more stringent in increasing the offences listed in the Act from 22 to 47.

# 09:16 AM: Need to work forA deprived and women:A I appreciate the work you do for the party. Morchas play a vital role in bringing new generation in our fold . We need to work tirelessly for the welfare of deprived and women.

# 09:15 AM:A BJP for the welfare ofA Dalits, minorities:A BJP has the most number of MPs in parliament that belong to SC/ST, OBC and minority. I appeal you to visit homes of SC/ST, OBC and minorities and assure them that BJP will work for their welfare: PM Modi

# 09:13 AM: PM Modi has started addressing BJP workers through 'Narendra Modi' mobile app.

# 08:50 AM: PM Shri Narendra Modi will shortly address the SC/ST/OBC and Slum Morcha Karyakartas of BJP Karnataka through 'Narendra Modi App' at 9 am today.A

PM Shri @narendramodi will address SC/ST/OBC and Slum Morcha Karyakartas of @BJP4Karnataka through 'Narendra Modi App' at 9 am on 10th May 2018. pic.twitter.com/61vjFvDpLJ a BJP (@BJP4India) May 9, 2018

#08: 45 AM:A Karnatakaas Pride and Shame:A CM Siddaramaiah initiated Anna Bhagya, Mathru Poorna, Vidyasiri, Ksheera Bhagya etc. to uplift young & old alike, he isA Karnatakaas pride. BS Yeddyurappa initiated scam after scam to line his own pockets, he isA Karnatakaas shame, says Congress.

#08:40 AM: Shah will also hold a roadshow today in Siddaramaiah's constituency Badami.

#08:35 AM:A BJP National President Shri @AmitShah will address a press conference at 4 pm today in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

BJP National President Shri @AmitShah will address a press conference at 4 pm today in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Watch LIVE at https://t.co/vpP0MInUi4 pic.twitter.com/8GDj0ZTEk8 a BJP (@BJP4India) May 10, 2018

#08:30 AM: Hello and Welcome to News Nation Live updates. Campaigning for theA Karnataka Assembly polls will come to an end Today and both the BJP and Congress will go full throttle on the last day of their election campaign for the high-stakes election in the southern state. From PM Modi to Amit Shah to Rahul Gandhi, star campaigners of both parties will hold rallies, roadshows and press conferences to attack each other and woo their voters. We will bring you all the latest updates and happenings from their rallies in Karnataka.New Delhi:

The Airports Authority of India(AAI) on signed a Rs 945-crore pact with the US-based Harris Corporation for development of its futuristic telecommunications infrastructure (FTI) programme.

The contract of 15 years was inked at the US-India Aviation Summit in Mumbai. The summit, the sixth edition, began on .



The FTI network, when implemented, would enhance air traffic safety, increase in airspace capacity and accommodate the aircraft to more economical and environment-friendly flight levels, the AAI said in a release.



"India's exponential air traffic growth is creating demand for new aircraft, air navigation technologies, airport security equipment and infrastructure, AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra said.



The programme will be implemented over a period of two years.



The futuristic telecommunications infrastructure provides a dedicated nationwide telecommunication network to support air traffic management operations, with an emphasis on safety and high reliability and the ability to expand for growth," Mohapatra said.



Under the programme, all telecommunication links and each network equipment across the AAI airports will be centrally monitored 24/7 for immediate response to fix any outages.



As a part of the deal, Harris Corporation will serve as the prime contractor and systems integrator for the programme. It will upgrade network operations, enhance security and improve the performance, reliability and quality of the air traffic management communications network, while reducing tele-communications costs, the AAI said.



The FTI project will provide high availability of SLA-based telecommunication links using the latest technology and communications infrastructure at each AAI location.



"The new secure, purpose-built network will meet the demands of India's rapid aviation growth and lay the foundation for future ATM opportunities for Harris in other geographies with high air traffic growth," Harris Electronic Systems' vice-president and general manager for mission networks, Rick Simonian said.



Performance of all telecommunication links will be continuously monitored at network operation control centres (NOCCs) at Delhi and Bangalore for various performance parameters to meet the global ATM application performance requirement, while security operation control centres (SOCCs) will protect the network from cyber threats, the release said.



"All service connections and each equipment will be security hardened, monitored, and safeguarded against intrusion 24/7 with constant system updates against latest security threats," the AAI said.



The new system will also play a key role in deployment of remote towers for managing air traffic services at RCS airports, according to the airports operator.



Remote and virtual tower (RVT) is a new concept where air traffic service at an airport is performed somewhere else, thereby, dispensing with the need for a tower on its premises.



A large number of airports are set to be connected under the government's ambitious UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme, and AAI has plans to deploy RVTs at some of these airports.



(With PTI inputs)

For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Alia Bhatt's much-awaited movie Raazi is gearing up for its worldwide release on May 11. However, the Indian spy drama will not be able to see the daylight in Pakistan as the movie has been banned across the country.

Reportedly, Raazi has been boycotted by the censor board and distributors in Pakistan owing to the controversial content of the movie and the negative portrayal of Pakistan.

Talking about the same a senior distribution company official was quoted as saying, It is disappointing to see that films on controversial subjects are being produced in India time and again. All our distributors are well aware of Alias role in Raazi and so; no one is willing to purchase the film. Patriotism is another reason for distributors not being pushed about buying the film. Indian producers should know that all our distributors have unanimously decided to boycott such controversial films.

Notably, Raazi is based on Harinder Sikka's novel 'Calling Sehmat', wherein Alia Bhatt plays the role of a Kashmiri girl who turns a spy for Indian army during the 1971 war and gets married to a Pakistani officer.

Helmed by Meghna Gulzar, Raazi also stars Vicky Kaushal, Soni Razdan, Rajit Kapoor, Jaideep Ahlawat in key roles.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat has given a clear message to the youth of Kashmir that they will never get the so-called azadi they are seeking.

I want to tell Kashmiri youth that Azadi isnt possible. It wont happen. Dont get carried away unnecessarily. Why are you picking up weapons? We will always fight those who seek Azadi, those who want to secede. (Azadi) is not going to happen, never, Rawat said in an interview to the Indian Express.

On the increasing number of people picking up arms and joining militancy, Rawat said that the people will have to understand that they cant fight the Army.

These numbers dont matter to me because I know this cycle will continue. There are fresh recruitments happening. I only want to stress that all this is futile, nothing is going to be achieved by them. You cant fight the Army, he said.

Acknowledging the anger of Kashmiri youth, the Army chief said that the security forces were trying to avoid civilian casualties despite provocation.

I know that the youth are angry. But attacking security forces, throwing stones at us isnt the way. If you want to fight us, then we will fight you with all our force. We dont enjoy it. Our troops have been trying their level best to avoid any civilian casualty despite huge provocation, he said.

Rawat said that the people of the Valley should understand that Indian security forces were not as brutal as the forces of Pakistan and Syria.

Kashmiris have to understand that the SFs (security forces) havent been so brutal  look at Syria and Pakistan. They use tanks and air power in similar situations, he added.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

In a shocking development, a terror plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been unearthed by Gujarats ATS (Anti-Terrorism Squad) which has filed a chargesheet in Ankleshwar court, according to reports.

The chargesheet mentions that the intention to assassinate PM Modi was expressed in a conversation on a messaging application by one Ubaid Mirza, an alleged member of ISIS. Yeah, lets take out Modi with a sniper rifle.  the chargesheet mentions the statement admitted by the alleged operatives, sources said. Mirza has been arrested and files were extracted from his phone and pen drive, as per reports.

Mirza, a lawyer by profession, and Kasim Stimberwala is a technician in Sardar Patel Hospital and Heart Institute in Ankleshwar from March 2017. No are residents of Surat and ATS arrested them from Ankleshwar on October 25, 2017.

ATS added that Kasim Stimberwala had resigned three weeks before he was arrested. Stimberwala was planning to flee to Jamaica to join the jihadi activites under Shaikh Abdullah Al Faisal.

ATS officials have discovered a work permit in his name from September 22, 2017 to September 2019. According to reports, ATS has collected these information from suspected IS agents who have now turned informants.

Both were arrested in October 2017 on reports of a suspected attack during the Gujarat assembly elections.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Three senior-most judges of the Supreme Court  Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Kurian Joseph and Madan Lokur  on Wednesday met Chief Justice Dipak Misra to discuss the reiteration of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice K M Josephs name for elevation to the apex court.

This was the first informal meeting after the formal collegium meeting on May 2, where the judges could not reach consensus on whether to re-recommend Justice Josephs name for the elevation.

Another senior judge and member of the Supreme Court collegium, Justice Jasti Chelameswar, who was on leave and didnt attend the meeting, wrote to the CJI.

In the letter, Justice Chelameswar has extended his support to the reiteration of Justice Josephs name for the elevation to the apex court.

On April 26, the Narendra Modi government had asked the Supreme Court collegium to be objective and fair and reconsider its recommendation for elevating Justice KM Joseph to the apex court.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote a letter to Chief Justice Dipak Misra and said that Justice Josephs elevation was not appropriate as there were 11 Chief Justices of various High Courts, who were senior to him, according to the sources.

Centres move to block Justice Josephs elevation was being linked to his 2016 judgment in which he struck down Modi governments order to impose presidential rule in Uttarakhand and allowed Harish Rawat to return to power.

However, with four of the five collegium members in favour Josephs name to be reiterated for elevation, CJI Misra would be under pressure to re-recommend Josephs name for the promotion to an apex court judge.

If the collegium decided to reiterate Josephs name for the elevation, it would become incumbent for the Modi government to issue a Presidential warrant and approve his appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

As electioneering comes to a close for the no-holds-barred battle in Karnataka between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) aspiring to be a kingmaker in a possible hung assembly, all eyes are on what the ballot boxes would unravel on May 15.

True to expectations, Prime Minister Narendra Modis blitzkrieg of public rallies in the final week of the campaign has apparently turned the campaign to BJPs advantage which is reminiscent of Gujarat.

The demoralised cadres of the Congress got a brief boost when party chief Sonia Gandhi descended on the scene but that was short-lived.

The JD-S seems increasingly to be batting for the BJP, especially after Modi played a masterstroke and called on former prime minister Deve Gowda and deftly weaned him towards his party with a profusion of compliments. Until the previous day, the octogenarian was firing salvoes at the BJP but today he is a transformed man.

Barring some irresistible Congress baits like chief ministership on a platter to JD-S chief Kumaraswamy after the polls, the JD-S will make good any shortfall in majority support among legislators that the BJP may have. He will ofcourse extract his price which he is prone to do, but the ouster of the Siddaramaiah government is well on the cards.

Modis blitzkrieg of rallies has been BJPs trump card but Siddaramaiah also has been a relentless campaigner, fighting anti-incumbency with rare gusto. With Congress president Rahul Gandhi woefully lacking Modis charisma, guile and earthiness and hardly any Congress bigwigs pressed into campaigning perhaps on fear that Rahul would look dwarfed, Siddaramaiah indeed lacked solid support from his party.

Money has by and large not been a constraint on both sides and there has been no dearth of chicanery because of the hugely prestigious nature of the contest.

While the BJP is determined to win to make its ride to power in next years Lok Sabha elections smoother, the Congress is fighting a last-ditch battle to remain relevant in national politics. With Punjab being the only other major state under its control, apart from Karnataka, in the Congress kitty, the party is desperate to notch up a morale-boosting win.

One fallout of the electoral battle has been the intense revival of caste politics. It is not as though caste was not a strong factor in the past but this time around the wooing of caste votebanks has touched endemic proportions.

By contrast, religion politics has been less pervasive and vicious than it has been in many other states. Muslims in the South are generally well-adjusted.

The North-South divide was fuelled by Siddaramaiah in the early stages of the campaign in the garb of identity politics but, mercifully, it did not take a virulent form as the campaign progressed.

On corruption being an electoral issue, it was a Hobsons choice for the voter with Siddaramaiahs corrupt regime on one side and BJP chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappas past record of nepotism and graft on the other. JD-S Kumaraswamy has also been no paragon of uprightness when he was chief minister earlier. If anything, his record was worse.

If the BJP is to make substantial inroads in the South, it needs a good showing in Karnataka. In Tamil Nadu it is tied to the AIADMK but seeing little future in that party it is hoping that cine idol Rajnikant would form a party tilted towards the BJP.

In Andhra, it is untested without an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party, but a tie-up with Jagan Mohan Reddy could still bring it some dividends. In Kerala, it is burgeoning as a party but may still have some way to go. A BJP victory in Karnataka could well boost its chances in the rest of the South.

All in all, Karnataka is too crucial a battle to be left to local leaders so the Prime Minister has staked his reputation to trounce the Congress in its bastion. Whether he succeeds or fails will determine the future course of politics.Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (L) meets with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Tokyo, Japan, May 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

TOKYO, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Tokyo on Wednesday, vowing to enhance political mutual trust and win-win cooperation.

Calling the two countries close neighbors and important cooperation partners, Li said China hopes to enhance strategic communication and political trust with South Korea, expand win-win cooperation and promote further easing of regional situation.

He called on South Korea to properly handle the issue regarding the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system.

The two countries should synergize their development strategies and enhance cooperation in various areas, Li said.

The 7th China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting, held earlier on Wednesday in Tokyo, had reached many new consensuses on boosting cooperation, maintaining regional stability and facilitating regional development, Li said.

China will take over the presidency of the trilateral cooperation, he said, vowing to work closely with Japan and South Korea to cement trust and meet each other halfway to boost trilateral cooperation as well as regional integration.H Li congratulated the success of the recent inter-Korean summit between Moon and top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Un.

He welcomed the return of the nuclear issue on Korean Peninsula to the track of dialogue and spoke highly of the efforts made by South Korea.

Such a situation has not come by easily, he said, urging all parties concerned to seize the opportunity, stick to the right direction of maintaining dialogue and improving relations, and make efforts for a political settlement of the peninsula issue and a lasting peace on the peninsula.

"China will continue to play a constructive role in this regard," he said.

Moon extended congratulations on the positive results scored by the trilateral meeting.

He appreciated China's strong support and cooperation for the inter-Korea summit and hoped for continued full support from China for the planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un and for the process of realizing peace in the peninsula.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the China-South Korea strategic cooperative partnership and the relations between the two countries have been restored and normalized, said Moon.

He hoped that the two sides could maintain high-level exchanges, consolidate political mutual trust, and advance pragmatic cooperation, so as to promote new progress in bilateral relations.

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]New Delhi:

Ahead of the landmark summit between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, North Korea on Wednesday freed three Americans from imprisonment.

A plane carrying the three Americans freed landed at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington early on Thursday morning.

On hand to greet them in the middle of the night at Joint Base Andrews was President Trump, who was preparing for a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim.

Trump, in a tweet, made the announcement and said, The secretary is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting.

North Korea handed the three Americans prisoners into the custody of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his visit to the North Korean capital Pyongyang.

During the visit, Pompeo met with several top North Korean officials, including Kim to discuss his summit with Trump and finalised the time and venue for the meeting.

According to the sources, Trump and Kim will not meet in the demilitarised zone between North Korea and South Korea and Singapore was being considered as the venue for the historic summit.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.In this undated file photo, China's Y-20 heavy transport aircraft takes part in an airborne and air delivery training. China's Y-20 heavy transport aircraft has undergone its first airborne and air delivery training, said the Chinese air force on Tuesday. According to Shen Jinke, spokesperson of the air force, it marked a leap in the air force's strategic delivery and long-distance airborne combat abilities. (Xinhua)

BEIJING, May 8 (Xinhua) -- China's Y-20 heavy transport aircraft has undergone its first airborne and air delivery training, said the Chinese air force on Tuesday.

According to Shen Jinke, spokesperson of the air force, it marked a leap in the air force's strategic delivery and long-distance airborne combat abilities.

The air force is a strategic service, and its strategic capability should be in line with the constantly expanding national interests so it can carry out diverse military missions, said Shen.

The strategic capability of the air force should be able to extend wherever China's national interests reach to provide reliable air security assurance for the country's development, he added.

The Y-20, which joined the People's Liberation Army Air Force in July 2016 and has a maximum takeoff weight of around 200 tonnes, is ideal for transporting cargo and people over long distances in diverse weather conditions.

2

1

[ Editor: WPY ]Manama : The Deputy King yesterday welcomed more than 500 international investors and business leaders to Bahrain to explore as to how to unlock opportunities across the GCC.

Speaking to senior investors, business executives and government leaders at the Gateway Gulf, His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa emphasised that the spirit of the forum is to establish new ways to join together to drive regional and global growth.

The Deputy King highlighted the regional opportunities available to investors, including the plethora of projects being showcased at the forum, noting that these opportunities reflect Bahrains wider strategy to increase the role of the private sector in driving economic development.

Over the course of the two days, investment opportunities worth $26 billion will be showcased, with the first day focusing on new developments in the oil and gas, power and energy, and real estate and tourism sectors. Meanwhile plenary sessions explored the economic transformation taking place across the GCC. The forum attracted a significant delegation from China to explore opportunities being created in line with the regions strategic position on the Belt and Road initiative. Since 2014, Arab countries are estimated to have signed more than $50 billion in contracts with China. As an established gateway to the region, Bahrain is home to the regional bases of leading Chinese corporations including Huawei, Chinamex, CIMC and Bank of China.

Khalid Al Rumaihi, Chief Executive of the EDB, said the government and the private sector need to work together to create solutions and unlock opportunities in the region. That means that government needs to change its approach, it needs to collaborate and be agile in order to respond to the changing opportunities being created. This is what we call our Team Bahrain approach.Manama : Making her country proud, a 13-year-old girl has become the youngest Bahraini to reach the Everest Base Camp. Juwan Abdulkhaleq, an eighth-grade student, held her countrys flag high carrying the message I raise you above the clouds as she made history by reaching the South Base Camp in Nepal at an altitude of 5,364 metres.

Juwan was a member of an expedition that included 20 other women, aged between 23 and 47, coming from Bahrain (13), Saudi Arabia, (3), Kuwait(4) and the UAE (1). The expedition, organised by the Journey Adventures, lasted 12 days and participants said they were impressed with Juwans strength, courage and fortitude. Rasha Yousif, the Bahraini adventurer who celebrated the New Year on top of the Kilimanjaro, Africas highest mountain, said that everybody paid rich tribute to Juwans character. She is a very special person and inspired us in many ways, she said.

Juwan is fortunate to have such supportive parents and family members, receiving tremendous encouragement from her school and classmates. During her preparations, her mother was with at her every step of the training process filled with a series of formidable challenges to strengthen her mental and physical endurance, said Rasha Yousif.Bahrain : The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland  Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI Bahrain) recently celebrated the outgoing medical class of 2018 during the annual School of Medicine Dinner. University faculty, staff and alumni joined almost 100 senior students, as they took a look back at their journey through medical school, following their final exams last week.

During the event, RCSI Bahrains Head of School of Medicine and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Professor Joe McMenamin spoke warmly of the departing students, congratulated them on their achievements and wished them the very best of luck in their future careers. A number of academic and extracurricular awards were presented on the night, including the annual RCSI Bahrain Intern Award, presented to 2017 graduate, Dr Abrar Alnasheet from Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC).

RCSI Bahrains ninth Conferring Ceremony will take place on June 27th, under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prime Minister, Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, with more than 200 students set to graduate in medicine and nursing.Manama : Commander-in-Chief of the Bahrain Defence (BDF), Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, paid a visit to the Royal Command, Staff and National Defence College (RCSC). Upon arrival, the commander-in-chief was welcomed by the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Dhiyab bin Saqr Al-Nuaimi, Inspector-General.

Major-General, Abdulla Hassan Al-Nuaimi, RCSC Commandant, Rear Admiral Abdulla Said Al-Mansoori, Commandant of the Royal Defence Forces Training Centre, Major-General Jaber bin Abdulla bin Huwail and a number of senior BDF officers.

Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed was briefed on the implementation progress of RCSCs development plans and programmes. Topics related to ways to develop specialised training programmes and enhance the quality of education and training at RCSC were also discussed. While chairing RCSCs Supreme Council, the BDF commander-in-chief lauded the key role played by RCSC in the field of military education, noting that the college aims to prepare officers who are equipped with all requirements of modern military fields.Manama : The Chief Executive Officer of the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA), Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa, headed the Kingdoms delegation to the 44th Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for the Middle East held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

Discussions focused on several topics on the agenda including the Secretary-Generals report on global and regional tourism trends, management vision and priorities, implementation of the work program and main activities for the year 2017-2018 in addition to administrative and financial matters.

The meeting also reviewed the reports of the World Tourism Organization committees, which included the Committee on Tourism and Sustainability, the Committee on Tourism and Competitiveness, the Committee on Statistics and the Tourism Satellite Account.

Our participation in this meeting comes as a part of our commitment and role as active members of the UNWTO Commission for the Middle East. Also the Kingdom of Bahrain is a member of the UNWTO Executive Council for two terms of the General Assembly, the 22nd and 23rd sessions, which runs until 2021, said the CEO of BTEA, Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa. In addition, Shaikh Khaled held several meetings with the official delegations participating in the event to discuss the current challenges and the future outlook of the tourism industry in the region.Manama : Alcohol lovers these days have an easy option to get their favourite drink. They neither need a drive to liquor outlets nor chairs in bars, for there are members of various gangs in town who would deliver bottles for lower prices.

What all needed is a simple phone call! Though illegal sale of liquor has always been a lucrative business in the Kingdom, it has in recent times flourished by leaps and bounds. Since Islam doesnt permit alcohol, the consumption of pleasure drink is discouraged or banned in some GCC countries.

In Bahrain, there are authorised outlets to obtain alcohol, while bars are a much expensive alternative. According to sources, all authorised outlets bring down shutters by 9pm and this remains the root cause behind this flourishing illegal activity. Cheaper bills are an added attraction, they said. A bottle costing BD1.5 can be obtained for BD1 from the black market.

Sources revealed that these gang members are contacted by both citizens and expats alike to sip their booze of choice. Although expat gangs are dominating this illegal trade, there are also a few citizens who sell illegal liquor. But expats form the larger customer base and they are afraid of buying liquor from Bahraini sellers, worrying that they could later turn out to be undercover CID officers.

Citizens also carry the same fear since there are expats working with the CID department. So its very simple. Arabs generally buy from Bahraini sellers while expats would opt for expat sellers.

Tribune contacted one illegal liquor seller in guise of a customer. I am basically a cabbie and do this trade to earn extra bucks. I have been in this business for about five years now and sell alcohol in areas around Umm Al Hassam and Manama, he said.

When enquired about the origin, the sources said most of these illegal drinks are homemade, while the gang members also manage to smuggle bottles from South Asian countries, mainly from India.My life flashed before my eyes. After the 11th hour in the middle of nowhere, I truly believed this was the end for me and I would never see my children again.

These were the words of Yehya Al Khaja, who was rescued from the middle of the sea on Tuesday. He recalled the horrifying moments he witnessed surrounded by dark waters. The 45-year-old Bahraini diver was rescued in a heroic operation led by the Bahraini Coastguards in co-operation with scores of Bahraini seafarers and divers on the dawn of Tuesday.

The long-time sailor, also an amateur scuba diver, was saved more than 12 hours after being lost in the sea and swimming an approximate distance of 32km. Al Khaja explained in an interview with Tribune yesterday that he was dragged away by strong waves while he and two fellow divers were on an ordinary diving trip.

He drifted into the horizon away from his boat anchored at Hair Shtaya Marine Reserve. The reserve located around 25km off the northern coast of Bahrain is one of the most favourite diving destinations in the Arabian Gulf due to its captivating underwater scenes and the various sea creatures.

Longest 12 hours

While recalling the frightening night he spent lost in the sea with all of his heavy diving gear on him, Mr Al Khaja said, We were casually diving near Hair Shtaya, after sailing for 51km from Al Bandar resort. After my third dive, I was trying to swim 100 metres towards the boat. But the strong current suddenly pulled me to the east, away from the boat. My partner who was in the boat was busy assisting the other guy out of water. I kept on yelling and shouting for help but both of them couldnt hear me and the boat kept shrinking into the horizon.

These were the longest 12 hours of my life. I couldnt see any land for more than ten hours. I wasnt aware of my location. I was frightened, hungry and exhausted. I kept on praying with my three children. For a moment, I felt its the end for me, Mr Al Khaja said.

Rescue operation

The brave diver paused for a few seconds, wiped off his tears and continued, I restored hope and energy when I saw a boat coming towards me from a distance. I kept on yelling and waving until they reached my location. The man in the boat asked my name, and when I replied he said all of Bahrain was searching for you for hours and were here to save you.

They pulled me out of the water and took me to the Coastguard base in Muharraq, where my family was waiting for me. They were in a terrible shape. I was speechless because of hunger and exhaustion. I was immediately given Intravenous Therapy. When asked if he would dive again, Al Khajas eldest daughter Wasan, 16, sternly interrupted him before answering the question, saying, Baba (dad), youre not going to dive again and we will sell your boat.

The tenth-grader said she, her mom, her 13-year-old sister Waad and seven-year-old brother Ibrahim were still completely not out of shock. We thought we would never see him again and we lost him forever. God has answered our prayers.

Al Khaja is a recently retired anti-narcotics cop who was awarded for his contribution in busting several offshore trafficking attempts in a span of 25 years of service. He was decorated with the Bravery Medal of the second degree by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.SHANGHAI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Wu Xiaohui, former chairman and general manager of Anbang Insurance Group, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for fundraising fraud and embezzlement of corporate funds.

The Shanghai Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court announced the sentence Thursday.

Wu was also deprived of his political rights for four years, and had 10.5 billion yuan (1.6 billion U.S. dollars) of his property confiscated, according to the court sentence.

His illegal gains and yields generated will be retrieved, the sentence said.

The court found that Wu, having concealed his shareholder status, had controlled the Anbang Property and Casualty Insurance Co. and the Anbang Insurance Group through several companies under his control.

Since January 2011, Wu used Anbang and other companies as a financing platform and directed others to cheat the insurance regulator to gain approval and extension of insurance products with fake documents.

Between July 2011 and January 2017, Wu illegally absorbed a huge amount of funds by directing people to defraud the regulators and the public via misrepresentation to sell the public investment-purpose insurance products that exceeded approved amounts, the court said.

During this period, Wu used false excuses to transfer part of the illegally-raised insurance premium to over 100 companies he personally controlled for payment of personal debts, business operations and investment in Anbang Group.

By the time his violations came to light, he had defrauded over 65.2 billion yuan.

Also, the court found that Wu had taken advantage of his position to illegally embezzle 10 billion yuan from Anbang.

The police sealed and freezed the assets of Wu and the companies he controlled, during the investigation.

The court said the ruling was made with consideration of the facts, nature, circumstances and harm to society of the crimes.

Over 50 people, including Wu's family, journalists and members of the public attended Thursday's public sentencing.

The court heard the case on March 28 and information about the trial was made public on the court's Weibo account.

The trial came after China decided to take over Anbang for a year to maintain normal operations at the company and protect consumer rights, in February.

China's insurance law stipulates that an insurance firm can be taken over by regulators if it is insolvent, or illegal activities hurt the public interest and threaten its solvency.

Established in 2004, Anbang has total assets of nearly 2 trillion yuan, with more than 30,000 employees and over 35 million clients globally, according to the company's website.

[ Editor: WPY ]Japanese manufacturers are vying to develop "edge computing" technologies in order to improve production efficiency by utilizing Internet of things, or IoT, devices.

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. <6503> and machine tool maker Fanuc Corp. <6954> have formed consortiums respectively to unify standards and develop products for edge computing, a concept designed to make up for shortcomings of cloud computing.

In edge computing, artificial intelligence systems on local computers constantly analyze in real time data from industrial robots, monitoring cameras and other connected IoT devices in factories.

Edge computing makes it easier to build more efficient work processes that fit the realities at factories than cloud computing, which processes vast amounts of data from various sources stored on the Internet.

With edge computing, glitches and other problems at factories can be promptly handled. Communication costs and data leakage risks can be also curbed as only selected data are sent to the cloud.The popularity of "amazake," a sweet Japanese drink made from fermented rice, keeps growing, thanks chiefly to brisk demand from beauty- and health-conscious women.

A nonalcoholic type of amazake that children can drink is also popular.

A series of new amazake products have been launched in recent years. With miso and sake makers starting the production of such drinks, competition is intensifying.

Last year, Nagoya-based miso and soy sauce maker Ichibiki Co. launched small packaged amazake products. It added amazake with salty lemon flavor to its product lineup in February this year, aiming for summer demand.

Medicated liquor maker Yomeishu Seizo Co. started selling amazake that contains a beauty component derived from pineapples.A memorial service has been held for old dolls in a Buddhist temple in Chiba Prefecture outside Tokyo. The dolls were no longer used by their owners.

The "Doll thanksgiving festival" is held annually at this time of year for dolls and stuffed toys that are too old or worn, or no longer used because their owners have grown up.

About 3,500 dolls were put on a temporary altar at Fukujuji temple in the city of Kisarazu on Wednesday. They included dolls for the girls' festival in March and boys' festival in May as well as stuffed dolls.

The dolls were burned while sutras were recited by the chief priest. Their owners paid farewell to them, burning incense for their souls or putting their palms together.

A 57-year-old local woman said she brought her doll that had been bought for her when she was small. She said her mother had taken good care of it after she grew up. She said she appreciates the memorial service for her doll.

The event is sponsored by a group of local doll shops in the city.

Tadao Katsu, the group's leader, says some families just throw away old dolls. He said he will keep holding the event and asking people to care for their dolls.East Japan Railway Co. said Wednesday it will launch a luxurious sightseeing train between Tokyo and the Izu resort area in the spring of 2020, shortly before the capital hosts the Summer Olympic Games.

The eight-car train will feature premium seats and private rooms, with one or two round trips planned each day from Tokyo and Shinjuku stations to Izukyu-Shimoda in Shizuoka Prefecture, according to JR East, which hopes to attract more foreign tourists with the service.

The railway vehicles will be designed to be slightly rounded in shape and painted deep blue to represent the sky and ocean in the Izu area, as well as white and grey to show the colors of the local sand and coastline.Fukuoka Prefectural Police are hunting for a 72-year-old salesman for the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper after a woman was found murdered in his residence in Fukuoka City, reports TV Asahi

At around 10 p.m. on Monday, the body of Miki Otaku, 40, was found by her common-law husband with about 10 stab wounds to the chest and abdomen in Kazuhiro Tsumuraas second-floor residence, located in the Susenji area of Nishi Ward.

The results of an autopsy revealed that she died due to shock as a result of loss of blood, according to police.

Otaku did not return home after departing on Sunday night. The following day, the husband used a GPS app on her smartphone to determine her location as being in the Susenji area, police said.

When he found the door of Tsumuraas residence was open, he went inside and made the grisly discovery in the kitchen, police said.

Officers arriving at the scene seized a knife that is believed to have been used in the crime.

Previously acquainted

Tsumura and Otaku are acquaintances. In security camera footage taken near the residence, the suspect is seen walking with the victim on Sunday night, police said.

Police have placed Tsumura on a nationwide wanted list on suspicion of murder. In an image released publicly, the suspect is shown with a scar on his face. He stands 153 centimeters tall. Persons with information on the case are advised to telephone the Nishi Police Station at 092-805-6110.

Tsumura joined the sales office for the Yomiuri Shimbun in August of last year. aIt is truly regrettable that a part-time employee at a sales office of our company is wanted for questioning,a a representative of the public relations division of the western branch of the Yomiuri Shimbun is quoted.Okinawa Prefectural Police are searching for a man who slashed an American woman at her residence in the town of Chatan on Sunday, reports the Okinawa Times

At around 2:00 a.m., the intruder entered the residence and used a knife to slash the woman, aged in her 40s, on the left forearm and a finger before fleeing the scene.

The victim suffered a 6-centimeter-long gash to her arm, an injury not considered serious. A son of the woman who was in another room at the time of the incident was not hurt, according to police.

Standing up to 165 centimeters in height, the man was shirtless, and wearing shorts. He also was not wearing shoes. His nationality is not known, police said.

The incident emerged after an office of the U.S. military contacted Okinawa Prefectural Police. The incident is being treated as inflicting injury.Tourists are shocked to see usually ravenous deer turn down their favourite treats.

The city of Nara, located in Kyotoas bordering Nara Prefecture, is a well-known tourist destination, most famous for the iconic Todai-ji temple and its giant buddha, and a large population of wild-roaming deer.

Considered to be messengers of the Shinto gods, the deer in Nara are a protected species within the city, and visiting tourists delight in feeding the animals special senbei crackers sold specifically for their consumption.

The deer are so accustomed to receiving food from visitors that theyave learnt to greet people with a bow during the interaction, and theyare usually so keen on the crackers that theyave been known to crowd around and pursue their feeders, who can be so intimidated by the horned creatures that many have thrown their crackers in the air in an attempt to escape the hungry herd.

With their ravenous reputation being so well-known, visitors to the park were surprised to see the deer actually turning their noses up at the crackers on the weekend. The rare sight was captured by Japanese illustrator Hitoshi Yoneda, who goes by the Twitter handle @Brise_Marine, in a series of surprising photos that show the deer looking full and sleepy, and totally disinterested in eating their favourite treats.

If youave been to Nara, youall know how holding out one solitary senbei can cause the deer to come running, and theyare usually so keen to be the one to get the prized senbei, theyall often compete with each other to get it. So to see whole piles of uneaten crackers around the animals is a rare and surprising sight.Police in Tokyo have arrested two Tokyo Metro employees for allegedly getting a woman drunk and then assaulting her last summer.

According to police, the suspects, Ken Nemoto, 27, and Takuya Habu, 33, are enrolled as students in aNanpa Juku,a a cram school where men are taught how to pick up women, Fuji TV reported.

The two allegedly brought their female victim to a classroom managed by the so-called school last July 31. Police said the suspects forced the woman to drink a lot of alcohol, including vodka, in the room room in a condominium located in Shinjuku Ward. The victim became so intoxicated that she was unable to resist the two men.

Police said Nemoto has admitted to the allegations while Habu reportedly stated that the woman aconsenteda to what went on.

The crime was carried out in a special room known as athe housea by Nanpa Jyuku. Students would use the facility after paying a set fee.

According to police, Nemoto has confessed to bringing aover 100 womena to the room.

aaaaaeaeaaYaaasaaYaaaaaaaaacaaca2aaeaaaaaYa2aaaSaaaSeaaaaaaaaYaSaacYaSaaaYaaaaaaaaWith service for two train lines and one subway line, Tokyoas Kinshicho Station has a lot of people buying tickets every day. But for the past few weeks, theyave been joined by a crow, who, lacking any money of his own, has taken to stealing human commutersa prepaid cards and attempting to purchase a ticket of his own.

Following the most highly publicized incident, which was captured on video, the crow once again stole a personas card, and this time, instead of sticking it in the ticket machine, dropped it on the roof of a nearby taxi. But despite its apparent interest in vehicular transportation, the crow almost ended up going for a very long, unintentional ride.

Earlier this week, aTicket Crow,a as heas become known, was captured, as shown in the photo tweeted by Japanese Twitter user @yuruhuwa_kdenpa.

It wasnat animal control officers who caught the bird, either, but a woman who lives in the area. Seeing the crow hanging around Kinshicho Station, the woman felt it would be happier in a more natural environment than downtown Tokyo, and took it upon herself to capture it. After looking after it for a month or so to make sure it was in good health, she planned to atake it into the mountains, where the air is clean, and release it,a citing Nagano Prefecture as a possible candidate for the birdas new home.

However, while Ticket Crow ended up in a cage, the woman has ended up in trouble with the law. The woman didnat catch the crow because her methods were more effective the station staffas, but because the rail workers werenat actually trying to catch it. Capturing crows without legal authorization is a violation of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Law, and carries a penalty of up to one year in prison or a fine of one million yen. Since no permission to capture the crow had been handed down from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the station workers had simply been chasing it off whenever it appeared.Aichi Prefectural Police have arrested a suspected serial rapist who targeted women in Inazawa City and other municipalities in the prefecture and nearby, reports Nagoya Broadcasting Network

In April, 2015, Masaya Banno, a 33-year-old laborer living in Nagoyaas Nishi Ward, pushed a school girl, then 16, off her bicycle as she commuted home in Inazawa. He then allegedly raped her.

On Wednesday, Banno, who has been accused of rape resulting in injury, was sent to prosecutors. aI cannot agree with my arrest,a the suspect was quoted in denying the allegations.

Police first arrested Banno over a separate case in Gifu Prefecture. In March, the suspect allegedly molested a high school girl in a forest in Tajimi City.

Bannoas involvement in the Inazawa case emerged after police released a photograph of him. Police suspect he was behind several other rape incidents in Aichi.The agreements comprise a Letter of Intent on a strategy for agricultural research in 2017-2027 and a Memorandum of Understanding on the prevention of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU).

Under the co-chair of Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh and Australian Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and Water Resources Malcolm Thompson, the two sides reviewed their bilateral cooperation in agriculture and discussed various issues to boost trade in farm produce such as approaching and opening markets for animal and plant products and devising policies for technical assistance.

They mentioned cooperation in fisheries and forestry in the coming time and shared policy priorities and challenges in agricultural research and development, water resources management, and organic food.

Additionally, the two sides studied coordination mechanisms among working groups in specific fields along with the provision of official development assistance (ODA), and the enhancement of scientific research.

Deputy Secretary Thompson reiterated the commitment of the Australian government to promoting agricultural ties with Vietnam, as can be seen in the assignment of a counsellor of agriculture at the Australian Embassy in Vietnam from 2016.

Thompson added that Australia will closely work with Vietnam in multilateral organisations of which they are members.

He hoped the two sides will step up technical support in agricultural cooperation and seek measures to boost bilateral trade to raise trade turnover in farm produce soon.

Deputy Minister Doanh asked Australia to re-open its market for Vietnamese fresh shrimp and reiterated the commitment of Vietnams competent agencies to working with Australia to address this issue, he said.

Australia affirmed its plan to soon send a delegation to Vietnam to inspect the countrys safe and disease-free shrimp production chains and assess Vietnams testing capacity, towards allowing Vietnam to export fresh shrimp to its market.

Thompson added that Australia will actively consider the import of Vietnams fresh longans.

Additionally, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) said it will continuously work with Vietnam to implement its strategy for agricultural research in 2017-2027 in the Southeast Asian country.

The centre will send a working delegation to Vietnam to develop a master plan relating to six priority fields including food safety and hygiene, climate change, land fertility, efficiency of cultivation and livestock systems, market connectivity, and forestry and aquaculture, which will be carried out in the northwest and Mekong Delta regions of Vietnam.

The second high-level policy dialogue on agriculture between Vietnam and Australia took place as part of the working visit to Australia from May 7-11 by a delegation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development which was led by Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh.

During their stay in Australia, the delegation attended a working session with Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources David Littleproud and made a fact-finding tour to Wagga Wagga  a leading agricultural centre in the Australian state of New South Wales.MONTOUR FALLS, N.Y. -- The Schuyler County Sheriff's Office is investigating a report of a missing infant who is believed to be with her mother.

Gionna K. Harter is 15 days old and deputies believe she was removed from her home in the village of Montour Falls by her mother, Katrina M. Harter, according to deputies.

The state's Amber Alert system was activated.

It is believed that Katrina Harter, 31, took the child to avoid service of a family court order that transfers custody to another party, deputies said.

Katrina Harter is believed to be in the Geneva area and has family ties to Wayne County.

Deputies ask anyone with information about the location of Gionna Harter or Katrina Harter to call the Schuyler County Sheriff's Office at (607) 535-8222 or the confidential tip line at (607) 535-8224.

The Wayne and Ontario County sheriff's offices, Geneva Police Department and New York State Police are assisting in the investigation.Dr Helmut Marko says the affair surrounding the Red Bull drivers crash in Baku is now "closed".

Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen crashed during the Azerbaijan grand prix, earning a hefty rebuke from their bosses.

But Marko told Sport Bild: "There is no bad blood. The chapter is closed."

However, it is believed Marko has empowered the drivers engineers to close down a battle in the future if another crash appears likely.

Marko added: "They have to have enough brains that they dont get into a situation like that.

"We let them race, but they have to show respect, which they didnt do."

Much of the blame has been put at Max Verstappens feet, and Marko agreed that the Dutchman is under pressure.

"Max wants too much and puts himself under too much pressure," he said.

"He has to learn to be able to give in sometimes  especially now, because of the frequency of the incidents," Marko added.

"Its hard for him, but he knows. It was also the same with Sebastian in the past. I see the parallels.

"Max knows that he will be automatically blamed for the next incident, whether he can do anything about it or not.

"We also need the points," he said. "So next time he has to think even more than he did before."Son spoke highly of the Ecuadorian governments decision to open an embassy in Hanoi and believed that bilateral ties will further grow in the coming time.

Vicuna, for her part, expressed her wish that the Vietnamese government will actively consider the opening of an embassy in Quito.

The host conveyed regards of President Lenin Moreno and Ecuadorian people to President Tran Dai Quang and Vietnamese people.

Earlier on May 7, the Vietnamese ambassador also had a meeting with acting Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Jose Luis Jacome, during which Ecuador affirmed that its Foreign Ministry will work closely with Vietnamese embassy in the South American country to realise measures to develop bilateral and multilateral ties.

Both sides spoke highly of the efficiency of the political consultation mechanism between the two foreign ministries and agreed to facilitate the exchange of all-level delegations. They vowed to offer mutual support at international organisations and multilateral forums on the basis of sharing common values of development, peace, stability and social equality.

On the occasion, Son held a working session with Ecuadorian Deputy Foreign Minister in charge of Africa, Asia and the Pacific Lourdes Puma to discuss specific plans in the near future.

The Federal Government will soon come up with five tax amendment bills and two executive orders in a move aimed at simplifying tax payment process and reducing tax burdens on Small and Micro Enterprises, SMEs.Vice President Yemi Osinbajo disclosed this, in Abuja, yesterday, at the opening of the 2018 Annual Conference of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, CITN.According to him, We are ready to restore the social contract between the government and the citizens.We are also aware that our tax systems require review to make it easier for citizens to fulfil their own end of the social contract. That is why in February 2016, Federal Executive Council, FEC adopted the National Tax Policy and the establishment of an Implementation Committee of the policy with the mandate of reviewing obsolete and ambiguous provisions in our tax laws, the simplification of the tax payment process and reduction of the tax burden on SMEs.It is pleasing to note that the committee has prepared five Amendment Bills and two Executive Orders all of which will soon be presented to the FEC for approval.When citizens pay tax, they will take more than a passive interest in how their government is run and insist on seeing that the revenue is account for. But over the years, our nation has relied more and more on oil revenue than taxation.That period also coincided with the military rule which took away from the people, the choice of their leaders. There was a decline in the willingness to pay tax and with it a decline in accountability.For too long, Nigeria had carried on as an oil-rich country where less of the citizens pay whatever tax they liked because they felt it is no big deal. In exchange, people in government feel they can do whatever they liked with public resources.This arrangement has fuelled massive corruption and inefficiencies that have come to be associated with public revenue management.The point here is this, the taxpayer is less tolerant of corruption than a citizen who does not pay tax because most of what the government spends is from oil and the taxes of a few.Often many people see government money as money belonging to no one. Sometimes you see people even openly supporting persons of their ethnic groups or same faith who steals government funds whereas they will not tolerate the same person it steals from their town union funds or any society to which they belong.The simple reason is that they are active contributors to whatever society they belong and they will not tolerate anyone stealing their money.Vice president Osinbajo said that the extraordinary performance of the Western Region under Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was made possible by the income tax of the citizens.His words, The six-year period of the Awolowo government is often cited as the most progressive of any government in the developing world.The 26-storey Cocoa House, Ibadan, an architectural wonder at the time; the University of Ife, (now OAU); the Ikeja Industrial Estate; first tv station in Africa, several Farm Settlements; Odua textile Mills; Odua Oil Palm Mills; Odua Glass were all established within this period.Perhaps the most significant of these achievements was the Free Universal Primary Education of the Awolowo administration. In 1952 when the scheme was proposed, there were 381, 000, children. By 1955 when the scheme commenced, 811, 000 children about 30 per cent of the children were enrolled. And the number continued to grow.Earlier, President of CITN, Chief Cyril Ede said that all Nigerians should pay tax , describing taxation as a veritable tool for income re-distribution and closing the gap between the rich and the poor.Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau ChiefThe Federal Government will soon come up with five Tax Amendment Bills and two Executive Orders in a move aimed at simplifying tax payments process and reducing tax burdens of Small and Micro Enterprises, SMEs.Vice President Yemi Osinbajo disclosed this, in Abuja, yesterday, at the opening of the 2018 Annual Conference of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, CITN.According to him, We are ready to restore the social contract between the government and the citizens.We are also aware that our tax systems require review to make it easier for citizens to fulfil their own end of the social contract. That is why in February 2016, FEC adopted the National Tax Policy and the establishment of an Implementation Committee of the policy with the specific mandate of reviewing obsolete and ambiguous provisions in our tax laws, the simplification of the tax payment process and reduction of the tax burden of SMEs.It is pleasing to note that the committee has prepared five Amendment Bills and two Executive Orders all of which will soon be presented to the FEC for approval.Tax payers wont tolerate corruptionHis words, When citizens pay tax, they take more than a passive interest in how their government is run and insist on seeing that the revenue is account for. But over the years, our nation has relied more and more on oil revenue than taxation.This period also coincide with the military rule which took away from the people, the choice of their leaders. There has then been a decline in the willingness to pay tax and with it a decline in accountability.For too long, Nigeria had carried on as an oil-rich country where less of the citizens pay whatever tax they like because they feel it is no big deal. In exchange, people in government feel they can do whatever they like with public resources.This arrangement has fuelled massive corruption and inefficiencies that have come to be associated with public revenue management. The point here is this, the taxpayer is less tolerant of corruption than a citizen who does not pay tax because most of what the government spends is from oil and the taxes of a few.Often many people see government money as money belonging to no one. Sometimes you see people even openly supporting persons of their ethnic groups or same faith who steals government funds whereas they will not tolerant the same person to steal from their town union funds or any society to which they belong.The simple reason is that they are active contributors to whatever society they belong and they will not tolerate anyone stealing their money. How Awolowo offered free education from tax revenueVice president Osinbajo said that the extra-ordinary performance of the Western Region under Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was made possible by the income tax of the citizens.His words, The six-year period of the Awolowo government is often cited as the most progressive of any government in the developing world.The 26-storey Cocoa House, Ibadan- an architectural wonder at the time; the University of Ife, (now OAU); the Ikeja Industrial Estate; first tv station in Africa, several Farm Settlements; Odua textile Mills; Odua Oil Palm Mills; Odua Glass were all established within this period.Perhaps the most significant of these achievements was the Free Universal Primary Education of the Awolowo administration. In 1952 when the scheme was proposed, there were 381, 000, children. By 1955 when the scheme commenced, 811, 000 children about 30 per cent of the children were enrolled. And the number continued to grow.Earlier, President of CITN, Chief Cyril Ede said that all Nigerians should pay tax , describing taxation as a veritable tool for income re-distribution and closing the gap between the rich and the poor.A former governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, on Wednesday asked a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja to enforce his ...

A former governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, on Wednesday asked a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja to enforce his release by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission because he is diabetic.Jang approached the court barely 72 hours after his arrest by the EFCC over an alleged N6.3bn fraud.Jang, in a motion on notice filed by his team of lawyers led by Christopher Eichie, Yakubu Philemon, and Kola Oseni, said his continued detention by the EFCC had made it difficult for him to receive medical attention, which has made his blood sugar control to be in a bad state.A copy of the court processes was given to journalists during a press conference jointly addressed by his media consultant, Clinton Garuba, and another member of his legal team, David Dusu.While Dusu said he had filed an action at the Plateau State High Court in Jos to press for Jangs bail, Garuba condemned the manner he was picked, describing his predicament as politically motivated.Dusu said, Jang was told by the EFCC operatives that he would see the EFCC chairman (Ibrahim Magu); but as soon as he got to the Tunde Idiagbon Block in the commission, he was told he couldnt go home and that has been the case. He has been kept in the EFCC custody since Monday and has not been charged to court.Ironically, both the EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other-related offences Commission are charging him with the same issue. We are seeing some political intimidation. We are not in a banana republic where anything can happen. They have kept him for 72 hours, the EFCC is holding him unconstitutionally. We are appealing to Nigerians to mount pressure on the EFCC to release Jang.The lawyers, in an affidavit in support of the application for the enforcement of the fundamental human rights of Jang deposed to by Gloria Ntekim, said he had since January been honouring invitations by the EFCC and was granted administrative bail on his first invitation.The Peoples Democratic Party in its reaction asked the EFCC to grant Jang bail because of his health condition and the fact that he is denied access to his lawyers, family and medication.Speaking with journalists in Jos, the Chairman of the PDP in Plateau State and a former Minister of Sports, Damishi Sango, said, As a sitting senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Jonah David Jang who is presently in the custody of the EFCC has been denied bail. This, we consider as a gross violation of his fundamental human rights as provided under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.In making the appeal for the release of Senator Jang, we are mindful of his health condition and the fact that he is being denied access to his lawyers, family and medication.Jang is under threat because of his presidential ambition. If anybody wants to be President, the present government will hold and twist the persons neck. They think that Jang has large supporters in Plateau State and that if allowed, his popularity might jeopardise their chances in the 2019 election. But the people of Plateau State have taken a decision to sack the APC in 2019.The Oyo State Government has claimed that it has uncovered a plot by a group within the All Progressives Congress (APC), under the auspice...

The Oyo State Government has claimed that it has uncovered a plot by a group within the All Progressives Congress (APC), under the auspices of Unity Forum to burn down the state secretariat of the party.

The state claimed the move was part of their desperate bid to scuttle Saturdays local government election and party congresses.





According to the state government, it received intelligence that members of the group had been holding clandestine meetings at different locations in Ibadan to perfect the plot by recruiting thugs to carry out this hatchet job.





A statement on Wednesday by the Executive Assistant, Political to the Governor, Morounkola Thomas, said that the group included some members of the House of Representatives, a minister, as well as former and serving political office holders





The statement alleged that the group has been meeting in the homes of two of their members in Bodija and Samonda areas ofIbadan, with a view to causing mayhem and panic among the good people of Oyo State.





The government, however, warned the group to be prepared to bear the consequences of their planned action having taken precautionary measures to scuttle their plans, while it urged law-abiding citizens to go about their businesses without fear.









Oyo State is peaceful and will remain peaceful with the support of every law-abiding citizen. The governor has been a peace-loving leader and chief promoter of peace in the last seven years of his administration.





He will, therefore, not fold his arms and allow any group or individual, irrespective of status, to take the state back to the dark era of political brigandage and violence.





The protesting members of the House of Representatives and their leaders are all beneficiaries of Governor Ajimobis generosity and should be grateful to him, instead of biting the fingers that fed them.





We are aware that they are looking for relevance and the only way they can get this is by linking Governor Ajimobi to the imaginary threat to their lives and well-being. Would anyone planning to injure you inform you before the act? They should have come up with a more believable tale.





These are the governors political sons and I dont know what will profit a father to kill his own son. The Almighty has been sufficiently good to him with every sense of modesty and he will not take issues further with them.





All their tantrums are mere distractions and a plot to derail the governor from his focused cardinal objectives of transformation, reformation and repositioning agenda, which have indubitably transformed the face and fortunes of the state.





It sounds unbelievable that the said Reps members and their ilk could claim that the same governor who single-handedly propelled them from political irrelevance to the limelight will now be plotting to take their lives.





The ward congresses have come and gone. The congress committee and the so-called Unity Forum adjudged the congress to be free and fair. An appeal committee has been put in place and I will only advise those aggrieved with the outcome of the congress to explore the opportunity.



The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday directed the Ministry of Health to step up surveillance at all the nations entry points to prevent the spread of Ebola to the country following the outbreak of the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo.The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the councils meeting presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.Osinbajo stood in for President Muhammadu Buhari who left the country on Tuesday for London, United Kingdom where he is scheduled to meet his doctors.Adewole said, Of great concern to the FEC is the outbreak of Ebola in DR Congo. As you might be aware, over the last one month, DRC recorded 19 suspected cases of viral haemorrhagic fever and lost 16 of the cases.What is also particularly important was that on Monday, blood samples from five patients in the DRC, particularly in a particular district in the DRC, were taken. In two of the five cases, Ebola was actually confirmed.FEC has now directed the Ministry of Health to step up emergency surveillance activities at all land and air borders so that we can keep Nigerians safe.He also disclosed that an emergency operation centre would be set up.Not only that, we will be screening incoming passengers, particularly passengers from the DRC and neigbouring countries. We will also ensure we step up all activities screening people coming in so that we will not be caught unawares.The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control will also consider sending a team to the DRC as part of building capacity for managing the outbreak. We want to assure Nigerians that the Federal Government is concerned about the outbreak and will do everything possible to keep the country safe, he added.Adewole also said he presented an update on the state of public health in the country to the council.We reported on the situation with Lassa fever and declared that we are declaring the emergency phase of Lassa fever outbreak over.Essentially, that implies that the emergency operating centre would be stood down. Instead of meeting every day throughout the country, they will now meet once a week. They will still continue surveillance so that if there are cases anywhere in the country, we can quickly detect it and then treat it appropriately, he said.The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said the council approved N1.4bn for the procurement of equipment for the completion of control towers for six airports located in Maiduguri, Akure, Benin, Ilorin, Kaduna and Ibadan.The procurement, he explained, would enhance communications and security of the nations airspace.The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, spoke on the significance of Buharis recent meeting with the United States President Donald Trump.He said, One of the strongest brands that this country has is Mr. President. By the level of invitations he has been receiving, all the major heads of states want to meet with him.I think this is recognition of the weight of his person, his integrity and his leadership qualities. This is something we, as a country, have to be extremely proud of. We saw that when he went to the United States and the respect Mr. Trump has for him.He was extremely focused on Nigerias interest during that visit. He wanted the US to help him and this country to achieve those priority areas  security, corruption and revamping the economy.The Independent National Electoral Commission has given all the political parties for the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State Ma...

The Independent National Electoral Commission has given all the political parties for the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State May 15 deadline to submit the names of their candidates and their running mates.The National Organising Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Col. Austin Akobundu (retd.), stated this while handing over the nomination form to the partys governorship candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, in Abuja on Wednesday.He said the candidate must also give the same form to his running mate, warning that both candidates must submit their forms to the national secretariat of the party latest by Monday.He said, The Independent National Electoral Commission has given us May 15 deadline within which all the political parties must submit the names of their governorship candidates.Therefore, you (Olusola) must submit your form and that of your running mate to us latest by Monday.If you dont have a running mate, Im available, please. But let the forms get to us on time as stated.Speaking at the event, Olusola noted that he was ready and prepared for the election.He also said heaven had sanctioned that the PDP would continue to rule in Ekiti State after the expiration of the tenure of Governor Ayodele Fayose.He said, I am ready and prepared to take up this challenge as the incoming governor of Ekiti State on the platform of the PDP.The PDP Deputy National Chairman (South), Mr. Yemi Akinwonmi, while presenting the certificate to the partys governorship candidate on behalf of the National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, described the primary that produced Olusola as credible, transparent and unchallenged.Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress has reaffirmed Friday as the date for the party primary to elect its candidate for the Ekiti State governorship election.The National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, in Abuja, on Wednesday, said the party no longer had the luxury of time.He said, We (the party) have up till next week to submit the name of our candidate. We have fixed Friday for the primary and that has not changed.Abdullahi said this while reacting to a question on whether the party was considering a request for a shift in date for the exercise.The party leadership met for over three hours with the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee of the party at the partys national secretariat, in Abuja.After the meeting, one of the aspirants, Ajayi Olowo told reporters that he and his colleagues appealed to the NWC to shift the date of the primary to Sunday because they needed time to get back to their constituencies.Olowo further explained that the leadership of the party had assured them that some members of the panel would be replaced because they voiced their lack of confidence in the current panel.In a response to a question as to whether aspirants were working towards having a consensus candidate, he said, There is no consensus. We are all going for election.Most of the 33 aspirants contesting the primary were present at the meeting.At the working session with the Brazilian Ambassador, Hue said that Vietnam attaches importance to the role of Brazil  one of the most important trade partners of Vietnam in Latin America. The two countries must work hard to realise their goal of US$10 billion in two-way trade.

The Deputy PM said Vietnam and Brazil could cooperate in such areas as production and processing, trade of coffee and seafood, renewable energy, bio-technology and the defence industry. They should create conditions for their businesses to access each others markets.

He expressed his wish that the two governments would set up important links in education, defence, aviation, agriculture, and business development.

Brazilian Ambassador Marco Antonio Diniz Brandao said Vietnam and Brazil are witnessing numerous opportunities for investment cooperation as the two governments pay attention to developing the private sector. The embassy and the Foreign Ministry of Brazil will try their best to make Hues upcoming working visit to Brazil a success, which will foster their bilateral political and economic ties.

While receiving US Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink, Deputy PM Hue affirmed that Vietnam always considers the US as one of its leading partners and applauded the USs continued active role in Asia-Pacific, thus contributing to maintaining peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region.

Daniel Kritenbrink said the US wishes to step up its practical investment and trade cooperation with Vietnam, adding that US businesses hope to fully access the anticipatable economic policy system of Vietnam.

Both host and guest agreed that the upcoming visit of the Vietnamese Government delegation will offer a chance for the two sides to clear current obstacles to the bilateral trade relations.Members of the New PDP who moved to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and helped the party win the 2015 Presidential elections, have...

Members of the New PDP who moved to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and helped the party win the 2015 Presidential elections, have lamented the lack of appreciation of their efforts by President Muhammadu Buhari and the party.The group, which defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC in 2013 comprised of former governors of Sokoto, Aliyu Wamakko; Kano, Rabiu Kwankwaso; Kwara, Abdulfatah Ahmed; Adamawa, Murtala Nyako and Rivers, Rotmimi Amaechi.There were also former governors of Kebbi, Adamu Aliero; Gombe, Danjuma Goje; Osun, Olagunsoye Oyinlola; former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; former acting National Chairman of PDP, Abubakar Baraje and a ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal.The self styled nPDP on Wednesday wrote a letter to the National Chairman of the APC, John Odigie-Oyegun asking him to facilitate a meeting for them with President Buhari within seven days.They reminded Mr Odigie-Oyegun in the letter published by TheCable, and signed by Messrs Baraje and Oyinlola, of how their movement to the APC, not only swelled the ranks of the party but ensured success at the polls.They said most of them delivered their states to the APC at the elections.They also said some of the governors were assigned specific responsibilities to ensure that other states were also delivered to the APC in the 2015 elections.They said Mr Wamakko, apart from his state, Sokoto, also took charge of Kebbi, while Mr Kwankwaso, the then governor of Kano State, took responsibility for Kano, Kaduna and Jigawa states.There were also unprecedented efforts by many stakeholders such as Senator Bukola Saraki, in concert with others, to deliver the entire North-central to the APC, they said.The nPDP described their efforts in the APC as a watershed moment in Nigerias political history.They said their contributions and sacrifice were made to the APC in spite of the fact that the presidential ticket was taken by the erstwhile Congress for Progressive Change, (CPC) and the Action Congress of Nigeria, (ACN) blocs of the party.It is a matter for grave concern that His Excellency, Mr President, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has never publicly acknowledged our efforts in the face of clear evidence that the total number of votes scored by the APC in states where leaders and members of the then NEW PDP bloc held sway made the difference, they said.The letter also provided statistics, which they referred to as stubborn facts of their contribution to the success of APC.They said in Kano State, APC scored 1,903,999 in 2015, and in Kwara 302,146. In Sokoto State, it scored 671,926, and 374,701 in Adamawa. They said APC also scored 567,883 votes in Kebbi and 885,988 in Jigawa.It was the same story in Gombe (459,898), Kogi (264,851), and Benue (373,961) votes. These represented significant additions to the APC victory column. Indeed, the influence, activities, momentum and ripple effect generated by the former New PDP block was significant in the victory of APC in the entire elections in the whole country, they said.Our GrievancesThe group also chronicled their grievances which they said, if addressed will lead to a harmonious APC where justice, equity, fairness and peace will reign and enable APC avoid rancour, reinvigorate the pace of national development and face the 2019 General Elections as one united party.They said in the constitution of the Federal Executive Council, (FEC) by Mr Buhari, the nPDP block was generally sidelined as virtually no position was conceded to it.They said the only member of FEC that belongs to their group comes from a state that contributed virtually no vote to the APC in the 2015 presidential elections.Although that member was not named, the aggrieved politicians are believed to be making reference to Rotimi Amaechi, the transport minister and former Rivers governor. The PDP overwhelmingly won the 2015 presidential election in Rivers.They also argued that there has been no significant patronage and appointments to executive positions in various government agencies such as chief executives and executive directors of government agencies and parastatals.They said the group continues to helplessly watch as positions are shared by the erstwhile CPC, ACN, ANPP and even APGA blocs of the party and those who have no party at all.The ruling APC was formed by the merger of four parties: the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).In appointments into boards of various government agencies, very few former New PDP members were patronised. These are however not commensurate with our contributions to the growth and victory of the party, the group said.Apart from that, they said when members of the former New PDP bloc showed interest in running for the offices of President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, they were subjected to a vicious and relentless political opposition as if they were not legitimate members of the APC family.The group added that during the party primaries preparatory to the 2015 general elections, most of the promises made to sitting members of the National Assembly, who belonged to the former new PDP, in terms of a level playing field were reneged upon or observed more in breach.The Ogun State command of the Federal Road Safety Corps says it will henceforth impound vehicles bearing unauthorised number plates in th...

The Ogun State command of the Federal Road Safety Corps says it will henceforth impound vehicles bearing unauthorised number plates in the state.The state Sector Commander, Clement Oladele, who said this in a statement on Wednesday, added that owners of such vehicles impounded would face prosecution.Oladele stated that there were some vehicles which plied the roads in the state without number plates, lamenting that such was inimical to national security.The FRSC boss in the state warned leaders of political parties in Ogun to get their campaign vehicles registered and properly licensed by the relevant authorities.Oladele further stated that the command would not watch the drivers of those vehicles drive them in a reckless manner.He said the command frowned on overloading vehicles with passengers or party supporters, noting that he had directed patrol teams across the state to impound any vehicle that failed to meet up with the requirements.The statement read, The Federal Road Safety Corps, Ogun State command, has noticed the indiscriminate use of unauthorised number plates by some vehicles operating in the state.They include vehicles driven without number plates, which violates traffic regulations and impedes national security.In a similar vein, the leadership of political parties is urged to prevail on their supporters to get their campaign vehicles properly licensed. The drivers must abide with extant traffic regulations, including disallowing overloading them with passengers or driving in a dangerous manner.I have directed patrol teams to apprehend any vehicle observed using unauthorised number plates and the owner prosecuted in pursuant to sections 10 (2) (d) and 10 (4) (F) of FRSC Establishment Act, 2007.Oladele advised motorists to always be with their original driving licences, saying the command would no longer accept photocopies.Reno Omokri, former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has reacted to the decision of the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Ibrahim I...

Reno Omokri, former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has reacted to the decision of the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Ibrahim Idris to shun the Senate for the third time.





Idris, who refused to honour an invite by the Senate over several killings across the country, had said he owed the Upper Legislative chamber no apology for his decision.





Reacting to the face-off between Idris and the Senate, Omokri said the police boss who defied President Muhammadu Buharis orders will do same to other institutions of government.





In a tweet, the former Presidential aide wrote: If the IG of Police can defy President Buharis orders to relocate to Benue is it the Senate that he cannot defy?





His tenure as Nigerias police boss has witnessed unprecedented killings nationwide. Yet this man continues to act as a law unto himself. Only in Buharis Nigeria!





Whats the difference between a dictatorship and Nigerias democracy if the Nigerian Senate cannot summon the Inspector General of Police especially where there have been unprecedented deaths in every part of Nigeria?







There is tension at Nando in Anambra East Local Government of Anambra State, following the alleged killing of an 82-year-old widow by he...

There is tension at Nando in Anambra East Local Government of Anambra State, following the alleged killing of an 82-year-old widow by her son.Police have tightened security to forestall a breakdown of law and order.The deceased, Roseline Okadigbo, was allegedly killed by her 52-year-old son, Christopher Okadigbo, for alleged ritual.Two suspects, Christopher and his friend, Ameke Udolu, were arrested by the police.A senior police officer, who spoke in confidence, confirmed the murder.An officer, who was at Nando yesterday, referred newsmen to the command headquarters in Awka.He said he was not in a position to speak on the matter.It was gathered the deceaseds left eye and heart were allegedly removed.Chief Innocent Okadigbo, the deceaseds eldest son, alleged that he suspected his younger brother wanted to use the body parts for ritual.He alleged his mother told him on May 1 about the suspicious movement by Christopher and Udolu around her homeHowever, Police Commissioner Garba Umar and spokesperson Nkeiruka Nwode did not confirm the incident yesterday.Adams Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo state, on Wednesday announced that he would declare his bid for the national chairmanship of All ...

Adams Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo state, on Wednesday announced that he would declare his bid for the national chairmanship of All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday.





He told journalists in Benin city, Edo state capital, that Rochas Okorocha, governor of Imo, would lead governors elected on the partys platform to the declaration which would hold at TRANSCORP Hilton, Abuja.





Oshiomhole added that top party leaders, including Senate President Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house of representatives, would be at the occasion.





John Odigie-Oyegun, outgoing chairman of the party. He has received the endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari. The former governor is favoured to replaceJohn Odigie-Oyegun, outgoing chairman of the party. He has received the endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari.





Oshiomhole said he was joining the chairmanship race to contribute to the growth of the party.





It is true that I intend to make my ambition known to our party members and Nigerians. I strongly believe that with the experience I have gathered in my public life, having served as president of NLC, governor of Edo, I have what it takes to take our dear party, the ruling party, to the next level, he said.



The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, on Wednesday, promised that the F...

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, on Wednesday, promised that the Federal Government would look into the cases of 27 Nigerians languishing in Tanzania prisons without trial.Dabiri-Erewa made the promise when a former Chairman of the Law Society Charity Organisation, Nigel Doddy, brought the matter to her attention during a meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.Doddy, who is from the United Kingdom and had visited Tanzanian prisons, had urged the Nigerian government to step in and ensure that the Nigerians got justice.The presidential aide promised that the government would ensure that justice was done.We will look at these matters and ensure that justice is done quickly, she promised.She assured her guest that the new Nigeria High Commissioner in Tanzania would be on top of the issues.She also appealed to Nigerians wherever they go to continue to remain good ambassadors of the country.In bringing the case to Dabiri-Erewas attention, Doddy said, I am here to follow up on some reports I gathered in Tanzania two years ago, concerning Nigerians being detained without trial.I was able to identify 27 Nigerians who were detained at the time without trial.Importantly, at least four of them remain detained today. The problem is detention without trial. I am not concerned about whether they are guilty or innocent, what I am concerned about is that they should be taken to courts for trial.The delays provide opportunities for evidence to get lost or stolen.He alleged that Tanzanian lawyers had been extorting the Nigerian prisoners without doing anything for them.Doddy added that the other issue that concerned him was the humanitarian matter concerning Nigerians in Tanzania.According to him, he was able to identify three humanitarian cases.He said, The first was a pastor being detained for immigration reasons, awaiting deportation back to Nigeria. For six to eight months, this has not been done.Most seriously, a youth who also has immigration issues and in a mental hospital was sent to prison. He has been there for several months, and I think the Nigerian High Commissioner should take action to secure his return to NigeriaThe third humanitarian issue is a Nigerian woman who has been sentenced to life imprisonment, clearly guilty. She should be repatriated to Nigeria to serve her sentence here.He also alleged of rampant stereotype issues against any Nigerian entering Tanzania.While noting that diplomatic missions couldnt interfere with judicial processes of other countries, he said that they could mount pressure on officials of the country to respect their own rules.For the woman sentenced to life imprisonment in Tanzania, however, Dabiri-Erewa said nothing could be done in her case since there is no transfer treaty between Nigeria and Tanzania.The Divisional Police Officer in the National Assembly, CSP Sulu-Gambari Abdul, has blamed the April 18 invasion of the Senate and removal o...

The Divisional Police Officer in the National Assembly, CSP Sulu-Gambari Abdul, has blamed the April 18 invasion of the Senate and removal of its mace by hoodlums on internal conspiracy.

Abdul made this claim during an investigative hearing into the incident by joint ad hoc committee investigating the incident.





According to him, what happened at the National Assembly was an act of internal conspiracy among some security agencies and some lawmakers.





There should be cooperation between security agencies and the lawmakers but, in this case, the attack came from the roof as the senators are not helping security matters.





On April 16, there was hint that a group planned to invade the National Assembly and disrupt activities, which called for a build-up of security with two units of mobile police mobilised to the complex.





However, on April 18, at about 11am, my attention was drawn to a group protesting at the gate, and, while I moved to address the group, I was informed that some people were running away with the mace.





I signalled all the entry points that nobody drives in or out but three men approached me identifying themselves as security operatives and requested to be allowed to go.





The strain of blood on their clothes made me suspicious and I ordered their arrest.





In all, six people were arrested same day and handed over to the Force Headquarters alongside charms recovered from them.





In addition, an unmarked Prado jeep and a Toyota Hilux were impounded and they are with the police.





It was later that I observed that the protest was a diversionary attention to move me out and that the protesters were same group with those who attacked, Abdul said.





He said there was no communication from the National Assemblys Sergeant-At-Arms during the invasion by the thugs.





Earlier, the Sergeant-At-Arms, Mr Brighton Danwalex, had said that reports from investigation after the incident revealed that Senator Ali Ndume instructed men assigned to protect the mace not to touch it during the invasion.





According to him, it was wrong for them to take orders from Ndume.





Security men are having challenges with some legislators because they dont want to follow checks, he added.





Danwalex said security men were overpowered due to lack of security gadgets to enhance operational capacity.





There is no functional walkie-talkie; we would have alerted all the exit points.



The Nigeria Police Force on Wednesday said that the Senate resolution declaring the Inspector-General of Police ( I-G), Mr Ibrahim Idris ...

The Nigeria Police Force on Wednesday said that the Senate resolution declaring the Inspector-General of Police ( I-G), Mr Ibrahim Idris as enemy of democracy was a deliberate attempt to blackmail him.The senate at plenary on Wednesday, declared the I-G as enemy of democracy and unfit to hold any public office within and outside the country for failing to honour its invitation thrice.The senate had refused the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in-charge of operations and other senior police officers to represent the I-G when he was invited on April 26.The Force spokesman, ACP Jimoh Moshood, in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday , described it as deliberate blackmail, witch-hunting, unfortunate and mischievous.Moshood said that under the provisions of the Police Act and Regulations, the I-G could delegate a Deputy or Assistant Inspector-General of Police to represent him in an official capacity at any function.He explained that Idris sent representatives because he was on an official assignment with the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria to Bauchi on same date. The delegated Officers went with a brief of the Inspector-General of Police on the matter to the senate but the Senate refused to listen to the Officers.He said that again on May 2, the senate refused to accord some senior officers delegated to represent the I-G when he was on an official duty to Birnin-Gwari area of Kaduna state.The spokesman said that the I-G on May 8, sent a letter to the President of the Senate explaining why he would not be appearing before the Senate on May 9.This he said was due to legal restraint as a result of pending cases before the courts filed by Sen. Dino Melaye against the I-G and the Nigeria Police Force.It is pertinent that the Force informs the members of the Public that other reasons for which the Senate has summoned the Inspector-General of Police is official and not personal.The action of the Senate in its resolution against the I-G today is a deliberate blackmail, witch-hunting with mischievous motives to hand-twist the I- G to pervert the end of Justice.The Nigeria Police Force is the first defender of democracy and all democratic institutions in Nigeria and will continue to do so. It is factual and verifiable that Sen. Dino Melaye was discharged and certified fit to stand trial by the National Hospital, Abuja before he was arraigned in Chief Magistrate Courts in Wuse, Abuja and Lokoja,he said.He said that the I-G and the Nigeria Police Force would not be deterred by blackmail from any individual or group no matter how highly placed from the enforcement of Law and Order.The Nigeria Police Force, therefore, owes no apology to any individual or groups in its effort to ensure preservation of law and order and supremacy of the law of the land, he said.Moshood implored the public to disregard and discountenance the resolution of the Senate on the I-G.The Nigeria Police Force as a law abiding organization will continue to hold the Senate of Federal Republic of Nigeria in high esteem but wishes to impress on the Senate not to harbour criminal elements among its fold or condone criminality.The Force will not be intimidated by any individual, groups or institution, constituent or otherwise to abdicate from its constitutional responsibilities of protection of lives and property,he said.(NAN)The final year students of Zabzugu Senior High School in the Zabzugu District, Ghana, have attacked their teachers with stones and other ...

The final year students of Zabzugu Senior High School in the Zabzugu District, Ghana, have attacked their teachers with stones and other dangerous weapons for not allowing them to cheat in their final year examination.According to Adomonline, the angry students vandalised school properties, smatched doors, television sets, and windows. They said it was their right to copy or send texts books into the examination hall.A student who did not want his name mentioned said, Even though they did not have any pact with their teachers to allow them to cheat, they were reliably informed that teachers from other schools aid their students by allowing them to copy.A terrified teacher of the school while confirming the attack said the only crime they (teachers) committed was not allowing the students to copy during the West Africa Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination. He added that he was only alive because he didnt take refuge in his house because the students went to his house with stones.He said, The students felt they had a right to send their notebooks and textbooks to the examination hall, a right they the teachers are yet to come across in any of the examination regulations.As a result, the students mobilized themselves and stormed the school, vandalizing properties and threatening to kill any teacher they came across.The teachers have therefore vowed not to supervise or invigilate the rest of the exams unless heavy security was provided.But the District Chief Executive of Zabzugu Hon. Iddi Ahmed is has called on authorities to ensure that the problem between the students and the teachers is resolved.Residents on Wednesday foiled a suicide attack on a mosque in a community in Borno State.

Residents on Wednesday foiled a suicide attack on a mosque in a community in Borno State.It was gathered that two female suicide bombers attempted to infiltrate a mosque at the Polo Jiddari area of the town during early morning prayer.Confirming the development, the spokesman for the police in Borno, Edet Okon, in a statement said, Today being 09/05/18 at about 0500 hours, two female suicide bombers attempted to infiltrate one Alhaji Bunus mosque.They were sighted by worshippers who promptly raised the alarm. As a result, the bombers hurriedly detonated the IEDs strapped to their bodies, killing themselves only.A team of EOD and other combat police personnel were promptly deployed to sanitise the scene and render the area safe. The Commissioner of Police, Borno State, CP Damian Chukwu, advises members of the public to go about their lawful activities without fear and to remain alert at all times.Anaya made the statement on May 9 while visiting the Vietnamese Embassy in Mexico on the occasion of the 43th anniversary of the two countries diplomatic ties (May 19).

He stressed the two countries great potential for pushing their trade and economic cooperation.

The PT Secretary General praised achievements made by the Vietnamese people during the Doi moi (reform) process under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, while highlighting the impressive economic growth and increasing role of the country in the region and the world.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Mexico Nguyen Hoai Duong, for his part, affirmed that, based on the good relationship between the two countries, especially after a meeting between the two countries leaders on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Da Nang last year and the two countries signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, their all-around relations will be deepened in a practical manner.

He took the occasion to update Mexican delegates on Vietnams socio-economic development and advantages for their bilateral cooperation in the future.

Representatives of Mexican enterprises who accompanied the PT Secretary General said they want to seek Vietnamese partners in the fields of tourism, textiles and garment, solar electricity and agriculture.

A delegation of Mexican entrepreneurs is scheduled to visit Vietnam in this September to explore the Southeast Asian market.

Statistics show that two-way trade between Vietnam and Mexico reached over US$5 billion in 2017, with an average growth reaching 10% per year. Vietnams main exports to Mexico are textiles, footwear, computers, telephones and aquatic products.The Senate today stated that the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Kpotum Idris should stop holding on to the straw on why he refused t...

The Senate today stated that the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Kpotum Idris should stop holding on to the straw on why he refused to comply with the invitation of the Senate for him to come and explain what the Police are doing on the spate of killings across the country.





In a statement by its spokesman, Sen. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the Senate said the crux of the matter that informed the invitation is the ceaseless spate of killings across the country and that matters concerning the arrest of Senator Melaye has in fact been overtaken by events.





We noted the response issued by one Jimoh Moshood on behalf of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris following yesterdays resolution of the legislative chamber on the continued refusal of the IGP to honour the invitation for him to come and explain what the police are doing to halt the spate of killings across the country.





Let it be known that the IGP by trying to reduce the reason for his invitation by the Senate to the arrest of Sen. Dino Melaye is simply holding on to straw. The issue of Sen. Melayes arrest has been overtaken by events. The courts are already handling the related cases.





Our main concern is the security crisis across the country where people are being killed in scores on daily basis. The primary responsibility of the Police is maintenance of law and order as well as protection of lives and property. If there is a breach along the line of this responsibility, we do not see why the IGP should feel he cannot be invited to offer explanation to the arm of government which is constitutionally empowered to ask questions and investigate the breach.





No responsible body of representives of the people will ignore sad reports given by members on the floor of the Senate. For instance, on April 24, 2 Catholic priests and and 17 members of their congregation were murdered as reported by Senator George Akume.









Also, Senators Kabir Marafa and Tijani Kaura had earlier intimated the Senate of the killing of 35 people in Maradun LGA, over 100 people killed in Anka and 36 people killed in Birani Village in Zurmi LGA, all in Zamfara State.





Even as at now, reports reaching us showed that recent killings have occurred in Kaduna, Taraba and Benue States. These were just few instances of daily occurrences of gruesome murder of our constituents as raised by Senators. The IGP definitely should not have any problem with an invitation for him to tell the Senate what he and his men are doing to stop the killings as well as their challenges and needs in doing this.





Mr. Idris should not seek to confuse issues or play on the intelligence of members of the public with his diversionary statement or claims. The resolution of the Senate leading to his invitation is clear and we invite our people to check. It is for the purpose of having a transparent and open hearing that we fixed his appearance for Wednesday when our plenary sitting enjoys live coverage on national television.





In one instance in the past, Mr. Idris had gone to court in order to evade honouring the invitation of the Senate and the court headed by Justice Abba Bello Mohammed of the FCT High Court on April 10, 2018, told him in clear terms that his suit lacked merit as Sections 88 and 89 of the constitution empower the lawmakers to carry out investigations on issues of public interest.



A man accused of beating his girlfriend in the parking garage for Bally's Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City and then sexually assaulting a housekeeper at the hotel hours later has been indicted on multiple charges.

Jamel Carlton, 32.

Jamel Carlton, 32, of Saugerties, New York, faces charges of aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, burglary, criminal restraint, obstruction and aggravated assault, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office said.

Carlton, 32, was arrested twice on Feb. 15 in separate incidents at Bally's Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, authorities said.

His initial encounter with police came when officers responded to a domestic dispute in the casino's parking garage early on a Saturday morning. There, they found Carlton had assaulted his 41-year-old girlfriend from Freehold, authorities said.

Carlton was charged with simple assault and released to await a detention hearing.

Six hours later, a 51-year-old woman, who worked as a housekeeper at the hotel, told officers she was pushed into a hotel room by a man who physically and sexually assaulted her.

Investigating officers identified the alleged attacker as Carlton, and found him walking along Atlantic Avenue just a few hours later. He was arrested and has remained held at the Atlantic County jail.

Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.



Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsIn a scene that resembled a matador with a (very slow) bull, an Atlantic County cop used a police shield to rescue a large snapping turtle that meandered onto a local road.

The Hamilton Township police shared several minutes of dashcam video as the Sgt. Christopher Robell tried, and eventually succeeded, to guide the wayward turtle to safety.

"On occasion, it is necessary for a police officer to utilize a shield while on duty, but we're not sure a snapping turtle was ever thought to be one of those occassions!" Hamilton Township police said in its Facebook post sharing the video. "Watch as Sgt. Robell safely guides this big fella across the street."

The snapping turtle took a couple swipes at the officer during the video, but he remained safely behind the shield.

The common snapping turtle is the largest turtle frequently found in New Jersey (excluding sea turtles that come ashore), according to the state Department of Environmental Protection. They usually grow to 8 to 14 inches in length, though they can weigh up to 35 pounds.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Troy Oglesby ended an overnight vigil in front of Camden City Hall on Tuesday evening after a council meeting and promises from local officials that the hire of an affirmative action officer was eminent.

"I can go home," Oglesby said at the end of the Council meeting in which Council President Curtis Jenkins said he expected a hire to fill the long-vacant position soon.

Oglesby, 55, a Cherry Hill resident who said he owns a bail bond business in Camden, had promised to keep a 24-hour vigil on a plaza in front of an entrance to City Hall to raise concerns about what he said were unmet minority-hiring goals.

Local officials have estimated that up to $2 billion of development is currently flowing through downtown Camden, a city that has frequently been cited as one of the poorest cities in America.

Cooper University Hospital, Rowan and Rutgers universities and private companies such as Campbell Soup, Holtec International, Subaru and the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers are among the businesses building, practically within eyesight of City Hall.

Oglesby, a former Cherry Hill police officer who grew up in Camden, said he wasn't protesting for himself.

"The people that aren't getting opportunities are people I've grown up with, people I know," he said. "They have come to not have a voice. It's not always a person's ability to be able to come up before city Council for what they want."

Troy Oglesby held an overnight protest in a tent in front of Camden City Hall over affirmative action.

Oglesby said he arrived for his vigil at 8 a.m. Monday morning. A supporter brought him the tent. He said he had intended to stay overnight in a reclining chair and blankets and use a portable toilet at a nearby construction site if needed, until City Hall opened back up on Tuesday.

After spending the night outside, Oglesby changed from a sweatsuit into a shirt, tie and jacket during the day on Tuesday before the Council meeting.

Council President Curtis Jenkins said during his dozen years in office, the position of an affirmative action officer has rarely been filled. He said Mayor Frank Moran, who was not at the council meeting, had selected a qualified current city employee several weeks ago to assume the responsibilities of affirmative action officer. The mayor delayed the announcement to allow a 20-day state oversight period to pass and to reestablish a seven-member affirmative action council, Jenkins said.

Four appointees were approved during Tuesday's Council meeting to join three existing members. The review council is composed of community volunteers.

"Anybody that sheds any light on any issue adds to it. It's cumulative," Thomas Rapacki Jr., one of two members reappointed to the board said Tuesday referring to Oglesby's protest. "All the little parts add up into a big part. It has to be addressed."

The council and officer are responsible for compliance for goals for minority inclusion on city contracts, such as road improvements, publicly-financed housing and procurement.

"Most of what's going up is private investment," Council President Curtis Jenkins said Wednesday. "It's only certain projects covered by the affirmative action ordinance, not every project in the city."

Jenkins said he told Oglesby "weeks ago" what was going on.

"I guess he didn't believe me," Jenkins said. "But he has a right to protest. He has a right to his opinion."

Frances Casteing wandered up to Oglesby's tent before the Council meeting. She said she saw it passing by and came to see what was going on.

"This is a bold, bold move," said Casteing, 32, a legal secretary. "I've never seen a tent on City Hall. It takes a lot of guts to do something like this. It's very admirable."

Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsGov. Phil Murphy fulfilled one of his campaign promises when he signed legislation on Wednesday making New Jersey the 10th state in the nation to offer to help pay college tuition for immigrants living in the country illegally.

The law makes unauthorized immigrants eligible for the same state-funded college financial aid programs available to other New Jersey college students -- including the Tuition Aid Grant program considered one of the most generous in the nation.

How much will this cost New Jersey taxpayers?

Early estimates say the program will cost the state about $5 million in its first year.

But, even supporters of the new law say the potential final bill of new financial aid program for unauthorized immigrants is unclear. State officials are unsure exactly how many New Jersey college students are living in the country illegally or how many might apply for state financial aid.

"We don't really have an estimate," said Jennifer Azzarano, a spokeswoman for the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, the state agency that administers college financial aid programs.

Students have until September to apply for financial aid for the fall semester and it remains to be seen how many of "New Jersey's Dreamers" will be eligible for state grants and scholarships, Azzarano said.

Unauthorized immigrants are still barred from applying for federal financial aid, including Pell Grants and federal student loan programs.

Some lawmakers at Wednesday's celebratory bill signing at Rutgers-Newark estimated the cost of opening up state financial aid programs to unauthorized immigrants will be relatively small.

Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic), one of the sponsors of the legislation, estimated about 600 unauthorized immigrants will join the more than 66,000 students currently receiving financial aid through the state's TAG program for low-income students.

"The total cost to the state of New Jersey for these Dreamers as part of the TAG program -- about $5 million. Ladies and Gentlemen, for each taxpayer in this state that will cost 17 cents," Schaer said.

However, those estimates are based on an analysis using 2015 data gathered by the state's Office of Legislative Services. Their researchers said it would be impossible to determine exactly how many unauthorized immigrants would apply for and qualify for state financial aid under the new law.

The office estimated it would cost about $4.47 million in additional taxpayer money to cover financial aid awards for unauthorized immigrant students for one year. That is about a 1 percent increase in the current state budget for TAG awards.

Researchers reached the estimate by taking the average TAG award for a student at a four-year college -- currently $7,451 per recipient this year-- and multiplying it by 600 students.

"While the OLS does not have sufficient information to determine the amount of financial assistance for which students would become eligible, existing data suggest that the fiscal impact would be small relative to current appropriations," their report said.

An NJ Advance Media analysis published earlier this week showed the number of unauthorized immigrants enrolled at New Jersey's 11 four-year public colleges is rising. There were at least 758 unauthorized immigrants enrolled this year, though the count did not include Rowan and William Paterson universities, which did not release the data.

It is unclear how many students at New Jersey's two-year county colleges are unauthorized immigrants who could now be eligible for financial aid.

It also remains to be seen if being eligible for state financial aid will prompt a surge in unauthorized immigrants applying to attend New Jersey colleges.

"College has always felt out of reach. Today, that changes," said Maria Del Cielo Mendez, a high school senior from Plainfield who spoke at the bill signing. She plans to take advantage of the new law to apply for the financial aid to attend one of the six local colleges where she was accepted.

Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation in 2013 that allowed immigrants living in the country illegally to pay in-state tuition at New Jersey's public colleges. The Republican governor rejected a plan to open financial aid programs to unauthorized immigrants.

Murphy's election helped revive the Democrat-backed legislation. However, Republican lawmakers continue to blast the new law, saying it is unfair to give financial aid to those living in the country illegally when many legal residents struggle to pay college tuition.

Unauthorized immigrant students have until Sept. 15 to apply for financial aid for the fall semester, state officials said.

Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook.The $22,650 she just won will take Jenny Rodriguez far from her New Jersey home. But the high school senior says she doesn't see the hefty scholarship -- which she won from a pool of more than 15,000 applicants nationwide -- as a ticket out. Instead, it's chance for her to do more good for her hometown of Orange, she says.

Rodriguez, whose family is from Ecuador, has grown up in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood where people are fearful of immigration policies and feel like they don't belong in this country, she said.

"Seeing that first hand, how people feel like they don't have a voice"," Rodriguez said. "I have the privilege of having this voice and having this support system that tells me I can make a difference ... I can be that person for them."

Rodriguez was selected as the winner of a $22,650 scholarship from the National Honor Society. The award was presented last month in a surprise gathering at Orange High School that drew leaders from the Virginia headquarters of the National Honor Society and National Association of Secondary School Principals, which formed the NHS in 1921.

The NHS awards scholarship for $2,850 to 475 national semi-finalists; $5,150 scholarships to 24 national finalists and just one $22,650 scholarship to a national winner.

The judges chose Rodriguez after deliberating for four hours among the finalists, in part, because of her commitment to her hometown.

Jenny Rodriguez proudly holds the Orange High School flag. (Allison Pries | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

"Her vision is not to be a lone voice for change, but to learn all she can about politics and law and then empower her neighbors to be their own voices for change," said JoAnn Bartoletti, executive director of the NASSP, at the award presentation.

The scholarship came after a hard night of weighing her top two college choices -- her dream school, American University, and a less expensive runner up. The scholarship has allowed her to choose American, where she plans to study political science.

"Jenny is a tenacious, goal-oriented, driven leader," said Jada Gore, Rodriguez's school counselor. "She's amazing."

Rodriguez's ultimate goal is to work in Washington D.C. as a chief of staff or to manage a political campaign. And at just 18-years-old, she already has a document where she jots down things she wants to accomplish when she enters the world of politics.

"Those jobs hold so much power to do so much good," Rodriguez said.

She, herself, is a first-generation American whose mother always encouraged her to study hard so she could get "becas" -- the Spanish word for scholarships.

"She was always this voice in my ear," said Rodriguez, the middle child of three in her family.

Her parents, who own a laundromat, struggle with English. So it was up to Rodriguez to navigate her way through her studies.

Now, among a long list of activities she's involved in, Rodriguez tutors other students whose parents don't speak English, and helps families enroll their children in school or navigate through paperwork.

"Jenny has a very humble spirit and it comes across very clearly in all the times when she's asked to do something or not even asked to do something," said Marcey Thomas, the Orange High School National Honors Society advisor and Rodriguez's AP English teacher. "She steps up to the plate ... whether she's in the spot light or she is behind the scenes."

For fun, Rodriguez reads the news and researches topics that she wants to learn more about -- homelessness and affirmative action are two examples.

"Seeing what works, what doesn't, how it affects people and what's best for the country," Rodriguez said.

Moving away from Orange is going to be hard, she said, but she won't ever desert her hometown.

"Orange has developed me into who I am, so I can't just reap the benefits and then use the skills that I've learned ... somewhere else without coming back home," she said. "Maybe not coming back to live here, but putting in place policies and solutions that can be implemented back in Orange."

"I'll always have Orange on my mind," she said.

Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AllisonPries. Find NJ.com on Facebook.JERSEY CITY  Plans for a new 35-story tower at Metro Plaza are in limbo after the City Council voted Wednesday to postpone a vote on a measure that would release the proposed developer from a requirement to build affordable housing in the high-rise.

The measure up for consideration would have rescinded a 25-year tax abatement awarded in 2015 to the developer, a subsidiary of Forest City. Forest City has asked to be let out of the agreement because it says it can no longer afford to set aside 20 percent of the tower's 432 units as affordable housing. The affordable housing component is required by the abatement.

After administration officials initially expressed support for rescinding the 2015 deal  Forest City now wants to build all market-rate units and pay conventional taxes  it met resistance from council members and others who say they want to hold Forest City to its affordable housing commitment. The council on Wednesday voted unanimously to table a final vote on the ordinance.

"If I'm giving up 87 affordable units, I want to know exactly what's happening," said Councilwoman-at-large Joyce Watterman.

Watterman met with Abe Naparstek, of Forest City, in her office before Wednesday's council meeting. Naparstek declined to comment to The Jersey Journal following the council vote, but on Monday he explained why Forest City changed plans on the tower, which is slated for a lot at the Metro Plaza site in Downtown Jersey City.

In 2015, the state Economic Development Authority gave a $40 million tax break to Forest City to build its first Metro Plaza tower, which is called VYV (pronounced to rhyme with five). That tower, which also received a 25-year tax abatement from the city, includes 20 percent affordable housing.

But that state tax credit program has expired for residential projects and Naparstek said the financing for the second VYV tower does not work with the city tax break alone.

The controversy over the Forest City abatement comes amid a broader discussion about affordable housing citywide. Mayor Steve Fulop, while campaigning last year for a second term, pledged to make the city more affordable to residents of modest means and said specifically he wanted to build more mixed-income housing in the city's upscale Downtown neighborhoods. Annual rents in some of the newest Downtown towers exceed median income in Jersey City.

Fair Share Housing Center and the New Jersey NAACP have asked council members not to rescind the abatement. Kevin Walsh, executive director of Fair Share Housing Center, said in a statement that doing so would be tantamount to "voting for unrestrained gentrification."

"Losing 87 affordable homes in a 432-unit development is a catastrophe," Walsh said. "All efforts, including finding other subsidies if needed, should be explored before Jersey City gives in here."

Forest City has built mixed-income residential projects elsewhere in the nation. Asked why the economics make it more difficult here in Jersey City, Naparstek said the tax situation here is different. Tax abatements in New York City, he said, are more generous. New York gives full property tax breaks for 35 years to developers who build affordable housing, which indicates New York would sacrifice tax revenue for cheaper housing, he said.

"I think there's a path where you can get affordable housing in these projects," Naparstek said. "It's really a question of economics. How much affordable housing do you want and how does that relate to the property taxes?"

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.JERSEY CITY  Removing the Exchange Place monument commemorating the victims of a World War II massacre would "undermine the friendship and alliance between Poland and America," according to another lawsuit filed to stop the plan.

The Katyn Forest Massacre Memorial Committee, which oversees the 34-foot monument, filed the lawsuit in Superior Court on Tuesday seeking to halt plans to relocate the statue so a developer can build a park in its place.

A judge issued an injunction after that lawsuit was filed, preventing the city from taking any action until at least the next hearing in the case, scheduled for June 8, so formal arguments could be heard.

Under the construction plan for the new park, the statue isn't scheduled to be moved before July.

City officials said the statue would be placed in storage during the renovation of Exchange Place, but it was unclear if it would be returned to its current location. Mayor Steve Fulop has since announced the monument was going to be moved to the original intended location, two blocks west up Montgomery Street.

Late this afternoon, Mayor Fulop tweeted out a rendering of plans for the new park.

The lawsuit, which names Jersey City and the Exchange Place Special Improvement District as defendants, argues the committee was responsible for the installation and maintenance of the monument and should remain in place.

"Relocating the monument from its highly visible and historic location will unnecessarily diminish the standing of Polish-American immigrants and diminish the stature of an important monument to a horrible tragedy," according to the lawsuit.

The developer, Michael DeMarco, called the statue "gruesome" when speaking about why he wanted the monument moved, sparking an international controversy and exchange of social media attacks by local officials and those abroad.

Robert Margulies, the attorney representing the committee, said the group believes the statue should remain in place based on the city ordinance approving the monument. The Polish community is "very hurt" by the plans to gentrify the location and remove the piece that honors the 22,000 people killed in 1940.

"Its important to keep this never forget reminder there," Margulies said of the monument.

A second lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in federal court arguing the monument should not be moved because it was not approved by the city council and the artists' rights were being violated. That case is expected to be heard later this month.

Fulop, when addressing the lawsuits earlier this week, said he did not know what the legal grounds were and remained committed to finding a new location for the statue for the park's construction.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.The family of a police lieutenant who was fatally struck on the New Jersey Turnpike earlier this year was honored during a ceremony yesterday attended by hundreds of cyclists as they began a four-day ride to Washington, D.C.

Police officers and family members riding in the nearly 300-mile Police Unity Tour began their journey in New York City and stopped in Jersey City, where the city's 40 police officers who died in the line of duty were commemorated.

Lt. Christopher Robateau's wife, Rose, and three sons were presented with a plaque with the names of those officers engraved on it. Robateau, a decorated veteran of the city's police force, was struck by a vehicle on Jan. 5 after being involved in a minor crash on his way to work. Officials considered his death to be in the line of duty because he was checking on the other driver involved in the collision.

Police Lt. Scott Schnee, who presented the plaque, said the call he received when Robateau died was the worst call he's every gotten. The two lived in neighboring towns and talked often about their families.

"I want you to know that I, and we, the whole Police Unity Tour, certainly know you and we're here for you now and forever because you're part of the Jersey City police family," Schnee said to Robateau's family.

Det. Marc Anthony DiNardo's 12-year-old daughter, Gwendolyn, and Det. Melvin Vincent Santiago's mother, Cathy McBride, also spoke during the event. DiNardo was killed in the line of duty in 2009, while Santiago was fatally shot during a July 2014 ambush at a local Walgreens.

The Police Unity Tour has raised more than $23 million for the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial and Museum since it began 22 years ago.

Representatives of several Hudson County agencies, including 30 Jersey City police officers, are participating this year.Funeral arrangements have been announced for the Jersey City police officer found dead in her home Sunday.

A wake for Det. Amy Hulings will be held today from 3 to 8 p.m. at McLaughlin Funeral Home in Jersey City. Friends and family will gather for a funeral Mass tomorrow at 11 a.m. at St. Patrick's Church.

City officials have not released any information about Hulings' death at College Towers, though sources say foul play is not suspected. A spokesman for the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office has said the Jersey City Police Department is handling the investigation.

Hulings was described as a "true Jersey City native" in an obituary. She was born at the Margaret Hague hospital, graduated from St. Dominic Academy, and then Saint Peter's University.

She joined the police force in 1999 and was promoted to detective in 2006. She was named Irish police officer of the year in 2012 as part of the city's St. Patrick's Day Parade.

"She had a tremendous outgoing spirit and infectious personality which people gravitated toward," her obituary reads. "She loved the beach, particularly Lavallette and Fort Pierce, Florida but most of all she loved her family, particularly her nieces and nephews whom she doted on."

In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to be made to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Huling is the third member of the Jersey City Police Department to die this year.

In January, Lt. Christopher Robateau died after he was struck by a vehicle on the New Jersey Turnpike. Police said he was getting out of his vehicle to check on a driver after Robateau was involved in a minor crash. In March, Police found officer Ramon Torres was found inside his home with a gunshot wound to his chest and died at the hospital a short time later.At the event, delegates stressed the historical significance of Giron Victory 57 years ago, when more than 1,500 US-trained mercenary troops landed at Giron beach as part of a scheme to overthrow the fledgling Cuban government. Under the direct command of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, the invasion was defeated on April 19, 1961 after less than 72 hours.

The Giron Victory marked a decisive turning point that advanced Cuba to a path of socialism building, they said.

Cuban Consul General to Ho Chi Minh City Indira Lopez Arguelles said that the victory was not only significant for the struggle for national independence of the Cuban people but also a great encouragement for national liberation movements throughout the world, including in Vietnam.

Despite far geographic distance, the Vietnamese and Cuban people have always stood side by side and supported each other in the past national liberation as well as the current national construction, she noted.

The time-tested friendship between Vietnam and Cuba, founded by late Presidents Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro and fostered by generations of both sides leaders and people, is thriving and has become a model relationship in the world, she added.Long Branch Mayor-elect John Pallone was recovering from heart bypass surgery Tuesday when he won by a big margin over the city's 28-year incumbent, said his brother, constituent and congressman, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone.

"He basically had bypass surgery," last Friday, the Democratic congressman told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday. "He's fine."

"He may be coming out of the hospital today," added Pallone, a resident of Long Branch, in New Jersey's 6th Congressional District, who laughed at the suggestion that the landslide victory may have sped his 62-year-old brother's recovery. "He was just thrilled, obviously. He's been a councilman for a number of years, and he loves the city and feels like he can make a difference in the city."

In one of a handful of non-partisan municipal elections around the state on Tuesday, John Pallone ousted Long Branch's nine-term incumbent, Mayor Adam Schneider. With 4,719 votes cast, Pallone pulled 2,908 votes, or 61.2 percent of the turnout, to Schneider's 1,549 votes, or 32.8%, according to the Monmouth County clerk's office.

Pallone's council slate, including one incumbent, Councilwoman Mary Jane Celli, also won by decisive margins, the clerk's office reported.

"I think the people wanted a change," said Celli, who made up half of a 2-3 minority faction on the council with Pallone.

Celli and Pallone first ran together in 1994, when she won her initial bid for council but Pallone lost a challenge to Schneider for mayor.

Celli and her council running mates Bill Dangler, Rose Widdis, Mario Vieira and Anita Voogt swept a Schneider-backed slate composed of incumbents Joy Bastelli, Kate Billings and Michael Sirianni, plus Diana Dos Santos and Adam Ponsi.

The new mayor and council are scheduled to be sworn in July 1.

Schneider blamed his loss in part on "money," asserting he was outspent 4-1 by the Pallone camp, which he said spent $400,000, largely on ads attacking him. But he also agreed with Celli, that after nearly three decades of his tenure, "I think the people wanted a change."

Schenider, 63, was not New Jersey's only long-serving mayor to be turned out of office on Tuesday. Belleville Mayor Raymond Kimble lost his bid for a fourth straight four-year term to challenger Michael Melham, who won by just 110 votes among more than 4,000 votes cast, the Essex County Clerk's office reported.

Bypass surgery repairs damage to arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle, essentially making sure the heart keeps beating.

The congressman said his brother scheduled the surgery in a hurry after learning the results of what he had assumed would be a routine cardiac stress test. He said the doctors advised having the operation as quickly as possible, leaving little time to consider announcing his condition to voters.

"He didn't think that he was going to have to have the operation initially," the congressman said of his brother.

The mayor-elect's campaign manager, Mitch Seim, said Pallone was looking forward to finishing out his second four-year term on the council and then taking over as mayor.

"He's ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work," Seim said.

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., seen here in August, said his brother was "thrilled" by his victory.

Seim said that work will include trying to fulfill Pallone's campaign pledge to extend the benefits of Long Branch's post-recession, post-Hurricane Sandy recovery to areas of the city beyond "a few square blocks along the waterfront," where developers have received tax breaks or other benefits not available to residents.

"Developers in general are getting special treatment and the people who live there aren't getting the attention and the resources they deserve," Seim said.

Seim was referring to the Pier Village redevelopment zone, where Extell Development is a partner of the Kushner Company, owned by the family of President Donald Trump's son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner.

The redevelopment of Pier Village, along Ocean Avenue between Melrose Terrace and Morris Avenue, will create 269 luxury condominiums, priced from $510,000 to $2 million, along with a 72-room hotel, retail space and a parking garage.

Celli acknowledged that she and Pallone had voted to designate Extell and Kushner as the site's developer and had approved a tax abatement for the project.

Reflecting on Tuesday's landslide loss, Schneider said the one thing that surprised him about it was "the sense of relief" he felt afterward. Schneider said he had no regrets, and that after years of working at what he said were "two full-time jobs" -- as a lawyer and a mayor -- the sexagenarian triathlete and boogie boarder said he looked forward to spending more time on his bike and in the ocean.

"It's time for me to sit back and relax," Schneider said, "to go to the beach and enjoy myself."

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.In the wake of allegations of misconduct against Junot Diaz, the author has resigned his leadership position on the board of the Pulitzer Prizes as the board announces an independent review of the allegations.

Diaz, 49, an acclaimed author who was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to Parlin when he was 6, won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2007 novel "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao."

On May 4, author Zinzi Clemmons ("What We Lose") accused Diaz of cornering her and forcibly kissing her at a college workshop where she had invited him to speak when she was a 26-year-old graduate student.

"I'm far from the only one he's done this 2, I refuse to be silent anymore," she tweeted. Other women -- National Book Award finalist Carmen Maria Machado and author Monica Byrne -- followed her lead, accusing Diaz of abusive behavior and misogynistic comments. Byrne claims Diaz shouted the word "rape" in her face.

"Junot Diaz is a widely lauded, utterly beloved misogynist," Machado tweeted. "His books are regressive and sexist. He has treated women horrifically in every way possible. And the #MeToo stories are just starting."

As a grad student, I invited Junot Diaz to speak to a workshop on issues of representation in literature. I was an unknown wide-eyed 26 yo, and he used it as an opportunity to corner and forcibly kiss me. I'm far from the only one he's done this 2, I refuse to be silent anymore. -- zinziclemmons (@zinziclemmons) May 4, 2018

"The Pulitzer Prize Board has authorized an independent review of allegations of misconduct against one of its members, Junot Diaz," Dana Canedy, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, said in a statement on Thursday.

"Mr. Diaz said he welcomed the review and would cooperate fully with it," she continued.

In April, Diaz, the senior member of the board, had been elected the incoming chairman of the board.

"He has asked to relinquish this role, and the board has accepted his request," Canedy said, adding that Diaz would remain on the board. She said Eugene Robinson, the board's former chairman, will serve as interim chairman.

On April 9, the New Yorker published an essay from Diaz titled "The Silence: The Legacy of Childhood Trauma," in which he revealed he was raped as a child.

"I was raped when I was eight years old," Diaz wrote. "By a grownup that I truly trusted."

Diaz said that the trauma and his inability to talk about it made him suicidal as a teenager and later put a wedge between him and women he had relationships with over the years, contributing to breakups.

After the allegations surfaced, some charged that the timing of the New Yorker essay had been suspect, that the author had intended to provide cover for his alleged misconduct.

Diaz dropped out of the Sydney Writers' Festival in Australia after Clemmons confronted him on May 4 about the alleged misconduct in a Q&A session while asking about his New Yorker essay.

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.By Catherine Weiss

After being tortured in their home country, two men fled to the United States and were detained when they arrived, seeking refuge. An immigration official denied them release on the ground that Somalian detainees "present a paradigm of deceit."

This would be a highly suspect, not to mention inscrutable, basis on which to deny release to anyone. In these cases, however, it was simply ludicrous as the men were Ethiopian - not Somalian. No judicial review was available.

And for now, it's staying that way.

The two Ethiopians were part of the plaintiff class in Jennings v. Rodriguez, a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court recently read the immigration statutes to authorize such arbitrary detention of thousands of immigrants - without hearings on whether they pose a risk of flight or a danger to the community - while the courts decide whether they will be deported, a process that can take years.

Our country should not be a place where we lock people up for no particular reason, indeed without even asking whether there are particular reasons. After holding that our statutes permit this sort of thing, the Supreme Court punted on whether the Constitution prohibits prolonged, untested detention and sent the issue back to the lower courts.

Three weeks before the Jennings decision, I joined Human Rights First on a tour of the Elizabeth Immigration Detention Center in New Jersey. The tour began, as these things do, with a meeting with an ICE representative and the warden, who works for CoreCivic, formerly Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison contractor in the country. "We are all focused on treating people like detainees, not prisoners," they told us. "These people aren't criminals."

Given what was on display at the detention center, one could be forgiven for finding it difficult to tell the difference.

There are no detainees with serious criminal histories at the facility, but those with low-level criminal histories wear bright orange scrubs. Detainees without criminal records wear dark blue scrubs. They all sleep and eat in dormitories, with bunks, showers, and toilets separated by hip-high cinder block dividers. Pretty much everything is made of cinderblock, including the "outside" recreation yard, a small cement rectangle surrounded entirely by cinder block walls with roof grates to the outside. This is the only "outside" there is, and detainees are escorted by guards wherever they go.

When the tour ended, we gathered in a large visiting room to interview detainees who had agreed to talk to us. I met an older man who is married to an American and has lived in the United States as a green card holder for more than 20 years. A little over a year ago, he was hit by a drunk driver on the New Jersey Turnpike and sustained serious injuries to his back and leg. He had no health insurance in the U.S., so he flew back to his native country, in a wheelchair, and checked into a hospital and rehabilitation center there.

Over several months, he progressed from a wheelchair to a walker to a cane. Then he flew home - and was detained when he landed at JFK on the ground that he had "abandoned" his green card by staying out of the country for more than six months. He's been in detention ever since.

The center won't let him have his back brace, presumably because it has metal parts. Instead, the clinic put him on muscle relaxers three times a day. The drugs make him tired and loopy and he's still in pain. "Why don't they let me go home to my wife?" he asked.

I also met a young woman who could not tell me what made her leave her country because she could not talk about it without crying, and she did not want to cry in front of so many others. She had passed a "credible fear" interview, meaning that an asylum officer had found a "significant possibility" that she could prove that she had been persecuted or tortured in her home country on account of her race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. She has been in detention for six months. "If they let me out," she said, "I will show up for my asylum hearing. Of course, I will. I cannot go back. I have nowhere safe to be but here."

On a tour of another facility, a colleague of mine met a woman who was picked up at JFK when she returned from a funeral in her country of origin. Her green card was flagged because of a misdemeanor shoplifting conviction from when she was a teenager - nearly two decades ago. She's been in detention for five months, and she has not seen her three young daughters, who are all U.S. citizens. The guards told her that only the legal guardian can bring the girls to visit, and she is the legal guardian, so no visits. "I have to see my children," she said. "Please get them to let me out."

ICE detains between 31,000 and 41,000 immigrants each day. It is looking for contractors to open five additional facilities so that it can increase that number to 51,000. Because the immense expenditure must appear to be justified ($2.7 billion in the 2018 budget), every additional bed will be filled.

If the detainees we met are any example, the people caught in the dragnet will include many for whom detention is wholly unnecessary - and therefore nothing but cruel. They come, or come back, believing that America means home, safety, freedom. Even after months of meaningless lockup, many hold onto that view. Eventually, however, they begin to lose hope. "I am not really alive in here," the older, injured man said. "Maybe if I agree to give up my wife and my children and my life here, they will let me out. Maybe it is better to lose everything than to stay in here."

It violates our international treaty obligations to detain immigrants for the purpose of wearing them down until they agree to leave. It is unconstitutional to lock people up awaiting even a criminal trial (which a deportation hearing is not) unless there is a good reason. Most of all, it is a betrayal of our values to do what we're doing to immigrants.

A collective, noisy rejection of arbitrary detention may be the only way to resist a vindictive president, unseat a paralyzed Congress, awaken the conscience of the courts, and hold to account the private corporations and county jails that contract with ICE to incarcerate immigrants. The message is simple and should be uncontroversial: stop locking people up for no reason.

Catherine Weiss, a partner with New Jersey-based law firm Lowenstein Sandler, is chairwoman of the Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest. Previously, Weiss served as director of the Division of Public Interest Advocacy in the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.(ABOVE: Donald Trump was pushing an America-first foreign policy at his inauguration but he seems to have abandoned that for the same "regime change" policies he skewered during the campaign. Check David Stockman's piece on how the Deep State triumphed over "America first.")

It's a good thing that President Trump's decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal was not really about nukes.

Otherwise it could have been disastrous.

Fortunately the decision was largely symbolic. It is unlikely to have any impact on Iran's nuclear-weapons program.

That's because Iran doesn't have a nuclear-weapons program. It doesn't need one.

Thanks to the bungling of so-called "neo" conservatives like National Security Advisor John Bolton, Iran has been extending its influence throughout the region without nukes.

They are of little value anyway. If you doubt that, ask another architect of the failed strategy that empowered Iran to extend its influence in the region.

That would be Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister had a bit of an awkward moment when he recently appeared on CNN with Chris Cuomo.

After Netanyahu argued Iran is lying about nukes, Cuomo asked Netanyahu for the truth about whether Israel has nukes. He gave a vague answer and then, when pressed, said, "That's as good an answer as you're going to get."

I'd like a better answer. If Netanyahu has any idea how nukes could be of any use to his country, I'd like to hear it. Nukes are of no value in wars that are fought out on a house-to-house basis, as happens in the Mideast.

The threat of nukes can work wonders, though. In 2002 Netanyahu told Congress that Iraq was building nukes and that "If you take out Saddam, Saddam's regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region."

It certainly was positive - for Iran. After Trump's speech Tuesday, I talked with former CIA agent Bob Baer, who has been to Iran and wrote a book about it titled "The Devil We Know."

"We got rid of their main enemy, Saddam, destroyed his military, got him killed, and put in a Shia government which might as well be run by Iran," he said.

After moving Iraq into the Iranian sphere of influence, the Netanyahu/neocon crowd then decided to back rebels trying to take out the secular dictator of Syria.

That gave Bashar Assad an excuse to invite the Iranians to move right up to Israel's doorstep in the Golan Heights.

Curiously enough, it was Trump himself who brayed most loudly against such efforts at "regime change" during the 2016 presidential campaign.

"Hillary Clinton's support for a violent regime change in Syria has thrown the country into one of the bloodiest civil wars anyone has ever seen, while giving ISIS a launching pad for terrorism against the West," he said.

True. Yet there he was on Tuesday making the argument in favor of regime change in Iran. In fact, there's no evidence the Iranian people are all that upset with their government, said Baer.

"Look at their success," Baer said. "They went from this little country under attack by the United States and the Arabs and they turned it around and own the Levant."

"Levant" is the traditional name for the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. It's a nice chunk of real estate, and thanks to the combined efforts of bunglers like Bolton and Netanyahu, much of it is now under Iranian influence.

Trump made that point during the campaign. So why did he switch sides?

I suspect it was for the same reason Bob Menendez did. Back in 2015, when the Iran deal was being put together, our Democratic senior senator went before the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee and accused a president of his own party, Barack Obama, of parroting "talking points out of Tehran."

That earned him the support of big-bucks casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who set up a defense fund to help him fight the federal charges against him stemming from the favors he did for a wealthy Florida eye doctor.

Now that he's beat the rap, Menendez has decided the deal wasn't so bad after all.

"With this decision President Trump is risking U.S. national security, recklessly upending foundational partnerships with key U.S. allies in Europe and gambling with Israel's security," he said in a release.

As for Trump, he got $20 million in campaign contributions from Adelson.

Money talks, but not so eloquently. When Trump said Iran "supports terrorist proxies and militias such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban and Al Qaeda," this was absolute nonsense.

Iran does support Shia Hezbollah. But it cut funding to Sunni Hamas years ago. Meanwhile its forces are fighting Al Qaeda rebels in Syria right now. Similarly the Shia in Iran are opposed to the Sunni Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

As for the nuke deal, the question is what happens next. And the answer is likely nothing.

The ayatollahs quickly announced they have no intention of building the nuclear weapons that they don't need.

Thanks to the neocons, they're doing just fine as it is.

PLUS - PAT GIVES THE CONSERVATIVE ARGUMENT FOR THE DEAL: A lot of wannabe conservatives got duped by the neocons into thinking that ditching this deal was in America's interest. Nonsense, says the dean of American conservatism, Pat Buchanan:

"The Israelis, Saudis and Beltway War Party want the deal trashed, because they want a U.S. clash with Iran. They are not afraid of war. Instead, they fear Trump will extricate us from the Middle East before we do our historic duty and effect regime change in Iran."

ALSO: BOLTON SUPPORTED IRAN TERROR GROUP: Anyone under the mistaken impression that John Bolton is a conservative needs to read up on how he supported the Mojahedin e Khalq, a shady Iranian cult that that murdered Americans.

Then ask yourself why liberal Democrat Senator Bob Menendez also supports the MEK.President Donald Trump recently approved the deportation of up to 50,000 Honduran immigrants by revoking their temporary protected status -- for absolutely no good reason. Most came here following a 1999 hurricane.

The United States has always been a beacon of liberty and freedom for immigrants. All of my grandparents came here from Italy in search of a better life for their children and grandchildren, even if their own lives did not improve. They worked, paid their fair share of taxes, and became engaged citizens of their community and church. They learned the English language, yet kept their old-world traditions and work ethic. Our nation is richer for different cultural influences and better because of my grandparents and immigrants like them.

Most Honduran immigrants also risked their lives so their children might live. More recent immigrants from Honduras fled because they know that once a family turns away from the influences of local drug cartels, that family is marked for death. We should honor these parents who sacrificed everything so that their children were not murdered, sold as sex slaves, or forced to become cartel soldiers. If the United States makes them return to Honduras, many will surely die.

Are the we example of freedom? Are we the "Shinning City on the Hill?" Or, are we not?

Janice Rastelli-Minor, Mullica Hill

Rep. Norcross stands with addiction victims

I thank U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, D-1st Dist., for shining a light on the disease of substance addiction.

Norcross, who is running for re-election, rightfully refers to addiction as a disease. He attends community events such as vigils and meetings, and sits on panels, all to raise awareness about the disease of addiction.

The congressman also focuses on getting resources for treatment and access to naloxone (Narcan), which can reverse the effects of opioid overdoses. He is leading in Congress as the vice-chair of the Bipartisan Addiction Task Force, and by calling out President Donald Trump for not doing more and treating these disease sufferers like criminals.

We cannot solve this epidemic by arresting those suffering with addiction. What we need is more knowledge and more compassion. Norcross gets that.

Blake Zetusky, Somerdale

Editor's note: Norcross faces two challengers, Robert Lee Carlson and Scot John Tomaszewski for the Democrats' nomination in the June 5 primary election. Paul E. Dilks is unchallenged on Republican ballots for their 1st Dist. nomination.

Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com

Prosecutors are moving to dismiss at least 1,169 drug cases undermined by a State Police lab scandal because the evidence was destroyed before it could be retested.

The disclosure comes as a special judge appointed to deal with the legal fallout of accusations against a drug lab chemist has ordered the Attorney General's Office to finish retesting thousands of affected cases. Judge Edward Jerejian was appointed in April 2016 to oversee the case, which began when a technician at the state Office of Forensic Sciences laboratory in Little Falls was accused of falsifying records in a single drug case.

The technician, Kamalkant Shah, was allegedly caught in December 2015 "dry-labbing" evidence in the marijuana case -- essentially recording a positive identification without properly analyzing the sample. Shah was the subject of a criminal investigation but ultimately was not criminally charged.

That left local, county and state authorities open to challenges to the convictions of any case Shah touched during his time at the lab.

More than two years later, Jerejian on Wednesday issued an order laying out a three-step process for vetting the cases, which could total anywhere from 7,827 to 14,800.

The order states that the New Jersey Attorney General's Office has already retested 1,326 samples from cases Shah handled, all of them "affirming the original positive test results" for drugs.

So far, the state has received 485 motions to toss drug charges as a result of the scandal, more than 400 of which have been "resolved." A spokesman for the Attorney General's Office said just four of those cases were thrown out by the judge.

But another 1,169 cases have been identified in which the drug evidence was destroyed, meaning authorities cannot retest the samples to confirm they contained drugs.

In a statement, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said his office was "committed to ensuring that no conviction is upheld unless we are satisfied that any drug testing conducted was in fact reliable."

The judge ordered the office to develop a plan for dealing with defendants in cases involving destroyed evidence.

"Those cases will be dismissed," a spokesman for Grewal, Peter Aseltine, told NJ Advance Media. "We are working with Judge Jerejian, the Public Defender and the Administrative Office of the Courts to establish a process to dismiss those cases."

According to the judge's order, the remaining cases in which evidence is still available will be subjected to a more rigorous form of drug testing than was in place at the time of the scandal. First Assistant Public Defender Kevin Walker said the move toward newer methods had been a positive result of the scandal.

"Hopefully with its adoption, we will avoid future allegations of laboratory fraud," he said.

S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Gov. Phil Murphy formally announced Thursday that he's keeping the man former Gov. Chris Christie put in place to run the New Jersey State Police.

Murphy said he's nominating Col. Patrick Callahan, who has been acting superintendent for six months, to become the full-time head of the force.

Callahan, 48, must still be confirmed by the state Senate for the $140,000-a-year position.

NJ Advance Media reported in February that Murphy was planning to make the move.

"Colonel Callahan has led the New Jersey State Police with honor and integrity," Murphy said in a statement. "He is an established law enforcement professional with a history of strong leadership. New Jersey is lucky to have him continue in this role and help keep our residents and state safer."

Said Callahan: "I am honored that Governor Murphy has given me this opportunity to continue serving the people of New Jersey and to lead the New Jersey State Police."

Callahan, a Warren County resident, is the son of a former major in the State Police and has served in the state's top law enforcement agency since 1995.

He was deputy superintendent of operations when he was sworn in as acting superintendent by Christie, a Republican, in October -- days before Murphy, a Democrat was elected governor. Callahan replaced longtime Col. Rick Fuentes, who retired after 13 years in the post.

The Senate did not confirm Callahan to be full-time because Murphy was set to succeed Christie and would be allowed to select his own superintendent. The Senate will consider the nomination now.

The State Police oversees patrolling New Jersey's highways, responding to natural disasters, conducting high-level drug and gang investigations, and preventing terror attacks.

Callahan, who is white, spent his first few months trying to quell tension between the State Police and black community leaders who have been concerned about diversity and the handling of internal investigations involving black troopers.

Callahan has said he hopes to improve relationships between police and the communities they serve by "humanizing the badge."

"Sometimes it's that one-on-one relationship between law enforcement and the public that is going to be the ultimate thing that instills public trust," Callahan said.

Murphy's office on Thursday also released a number of quotes from black pastors and other religious leaders praising Callahan.

Rev. Steffie Bartley, the state coordinate of the National Action Network, said Callahan will "ensure that the State Police has the diversity and inclusion policies related to promotion, recruiting, and engagement with the community, which he has already proven."

Rev. Jean Maurice, the president of the New Jersey Haitian Pastors Association, said his group spoke with Callahan and believe he is "the best person to continue to bridge the communication between the State Police and the community."

NJ Advance Media staff writer S.P. Sullivan contributed to this report.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Gov. Phil Murphy said Thursday he's ready to hand over control of police and firefighters' pensions -- but only if state lawmakers agree to some minor changes to the controversial spinoff.

The governor conditionally vetoed the bill (S5) on Thursday, calling for "technical changes" to protect the pension fund and New Jersey taxpayers.

Police and fire unions in the state have long desired to divorce their more healthy pension fund from the much weaker funds for teachers and other state and local public workers.

The unions have feared lawmakers might someday pool assets to shore up those ailing funds and have disagreed with the state's investment strategy, namely its push into high-cost hedge funds, and watched as insufficient state contributions lifted unfunded liabilities.

In a message accompanying the conditional veto, Murphy said the unions are "rightly frustrated."

"I certainly sympathize with the motivations underlying the bill, which comes in response to years of partial and deferred state pension payments and mounting unfunded liabilities," the Democratic governor wrote.

Patrick Colligan, president of the Policemen's Benevolent Association, said the union has negotiated with Murphy over and agreed to the recommendations.

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney told NJ Advance Media the Legislature will adopt Murphy's suggestions formally on June 7.

It's taken two years for the union to wrest control of the Police and Firemen's Retirement System from the state, and it will be another year before the transfer is complete.

Currently, the fund is managed by the state Division of Pensions and Benefits while the State Investment Council and Division of Investment direct the investments of its billions of dollars in assets.

A 12-member board of active and retired police and firefighters as well as representatives of state and local government will take over those functions.

"We have a lot of work to do, setting up an executive director and a board and getting this off the ground," Colligan said Thursday. "I'm excited to finally have no one to blame but ourselves. I'm tired of sitting back and watching."

The police and firefighters' pension system is funded through contributions from the state, local governments and employees.

The portion funded by counties and municipalities, which are required to make full contributions annually, is 73.1 percent funded, according to the state's statutory funding data. The smaller portion funded by the state, which has skipped or shorted contributions for more than two decades, is 41.8 percent funded.

While the bill gives the board authority to increase or cut retirement benefits and raise or lower employee contributions, it could only do so in consultation with actuaries and with support from eight board members.

Among Murphy's recommendations are one that would keep the fund's $26 billion in assets with the state Department of Treasury, rather than requiring the state to immediately divest and deposit those funds with the board of trustees.

Under another proposed change, Murphy wants the fund to use the same assumed rate of return for investments as the rest of the pension system. The bill would have allowed the board to set its own rate.

The state uses the assumed rate of return to calculate how much money state and local governments will need to pay our benefits to active and retired workers.

Former Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, vetoed similar legislation last spring, saying it lacked adequate safeguards for taxpayers. While the state would be relinquishing management of the fund, state and local taxpayers would still have to pick up the tab if it goes south.

And while the bill had broad support in the Legislature, it also had a vocal opposition.

The state's League of Municipalities feared local government officials wouldn't have enough say on a board that has the power to force higher employer contributions.

And like Christie, Sen. Declan O'Scanlon, R-Monmouth, warned the bill was flawed and dangerous. But he praised Murphy for making the same adjustments he'd suggested, saying the conditional veto shows "a genuine concern for taxpayers."

"I am glad that the governor heard our voices and did not capitulate to irresponsible union demands," O'Scanlon said.

Michael Darcy, executive director of the league, also thanked Murphy for boosting protections for employers, but it had hoped for even stronger safeguards.

"We are reviewing the conditional veto for its full impact but it is apparent that, at the very least, the governor's recommendations move the bill in the right direction," Darcy said in a statement.

Colligan has said the unions' goal is not to pad their pensions but to see the system to full funding.

"Today's changes establish a solid future funding of our pensions and an eventual pathway for the return of (cost-of-living adjustments) and the return of a single tier of employees," he said.

"No longer will PFRS members be forced to suffer from the poor decision making and political expediency that marked the State's stewardship of our pensions over the years."

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Gov. Phil Murphy's administration Wednesday delayed a new payment system for some private mental health providers who've warned the change could disrupt services to thousands of people discharged from New Jersey psychiatric hospitals.

The proposed system of paying for community support services -- the one-on-one casework that helps 5,500 seriously mentally ill people maintain their independence -- will go live in July 1, 2019 instead of July 1 this year, department spokeswoman Ellen Lovejoy confirmed.

"We made the decision because it's a new service for the state of New Jersey, and we wanted to give providers more time to acclimate," Lovejoy said.

The decision means mental health providers who provide these support services will continue to get paid the same amount for the next 13 months, rather than absorbing the costs and getting reimbursed after services are rendered.

Under Gov. Chris Christie's administration, the state chose to do away with its old contract system for community mental health services because the federal Medicaid program pays more of the bill under the "fee-for-service" model. More money means more people can be served, Christie administration officials said.

But as these mental health professionals who provide these supportive housing services began estimating their monthly expenses, they realized the federal Medicaid program would not reimburse for time-consuming duties, such driving clients to medical appointments, making calls to arrange for their clients' care, or just tracking down their clients.

Many people also refuse treatment because of the nature of their illness, yet the agencies which supervise these mentally fragile clients need a steady amount of money to cover payroll, rent and utilities. They've led a campaign since 2016 to convince the state to delay implementing the new payment structure until they could negotiate fairer reimbursement rates.

The private agencies affected by the delay expressed their appreciation.

"We are gratified that our relentless advocacy efforts have been effective in buying both our providers and the state additional time to devise a business model that will enable services to be delivered to those in supportive housing," said Debra Wentz, president and CEO of the New Jersey Association of Mental Health and Addiction Agencies.

"Providers would not have been able to continue to offer services had the originally proposed rates and plans been implemented July 1. We are relieved that individuals in need will not have their services disrupted," Wentz said.

The decision leaves intact the services to nearly 300 people served by the Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris, Inc., said CEO Robert Davison.

"The Murphy administration has demonstrated its commitment to New Jersey's most vulnerable citizens by agreeing to appropriately fund this essential service," Davison said. "They are putting the consumers and their families first. Now, it is time for the providers to step up and work with the Department of Health to ensure that this program is sustainable for years to come. People's lives depend on it."

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Public workers and elected officials convicted of certain sexual offenses in connection with their public employment could be stripped of their pensions under a bill lawmakers approved Thursday.

The bill (S3766) adds harassment, sexual assault and lewdness to the list of existing offenses that can cost employees their retirement benefits.

Sponsors say that's crucial in the #MeToo era.

"New Jersey citizens should feel comfortable that the people they choose to represent them are honest and decent," Assemblyman John Armato, D-Atlantic, said in a statement. "Those who have betrayed the taxpayers' trust should not continue to benefit."

Some crimes that could already result in a worker forfeiting their pension include money laundering, extortion, bribery, perjury, official misconduct and tampering with public records. These offenses must also in some way be tied to an individual's public employment.

The Assembly State and Local Government Committee approved the bill 3-1 with one abstention.

Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, R-Morris, the sole vote against it, said he was concerned with attaching such a severe penalty to an offense like harassment, which is typically classified as a petty disorderly persons offense -- and not a crime -- in New Jersey.

In seems unfair that the fine for harassment might amount to a few hundred dollars, but that person could lost a pension worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, Carroll said.

"That just strikes me as a hugely disproportionate penalty for the offense," he said.

The bill would need to be passed by the full Assembly and Senate and signed by Gov. Phil Murphy to become law.

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Vice Chairman of the HCM Citys People Committee Le Thanh Liem made the statement on May 10 while receiving Kim Seung-su, Vice Mayor of Daegu city, who is paying a working visit to HCM City to mark three years of friendship and cooperative relations between the two cities.

HCM City and Daegu have increased the exchange of high-ranking delegations and jointly organised various activities such as Daegu festivals, business forums and most recently a concert celebrating the third founding anniversary of bilateral relations, Liem said.

He also affirmed that HCM City will create optimal conditions for Daegu businesses to invest in the fields where they have advantages and HCM City has demand, particularly infrastructure development, metro system, flood prevention programme and environmental pollution reduction, among others.

For his part, Kim said he was happy to see that HCM City and Daegu city have enjoyed stronger cooperation after the establishment of friendship and cooperative ties. Daegu citys representative office in HCM City has become an important bridge linking businesses and people of the two cities, he added.

The Vice Mayor briefed his host on Daegus potential, noting that it has bolstered the development of the processing, automobile, water equipment, health and mining industries. The city also wants to enhance investment and trade links with HCM Citys enterprises in the coming time, he said.

Daegu is one of the largest cities in the RoK, only behind the capital city of Seoul, Busan and Incheon.The bright smile and vibrant spirit of 45-year-old Jean Dorval are a stark contradiction to the life he has lived.

Dorval served 24 years of a 70-year prison sentence for a murder he didn't commit. On April 30, the Union County prosecutors dismissed all charges against him.

The next day, he walked free.

"I always believed one day the truth would come out and I'd be home. I never lost hope," Dorval said, smiling.

His first steps of freedom also served as a reunion with his buddy and co-defendant Duquene Pierre, 46, who was released from prison two years before Dorval.

Dorval and Pierre were convicted in 1996 for the murder of 19-year-old Richard Jerry Myers in Elizabeth. On that day, at that time, however, both men were in Georgia, on their way to Florida.

Although they had a speeding ticket in South Carolina issued just hours before the crime and plenty of other evidence from their trip to Florida, a prosecutor and a jury still believed they committed the murder in New Jersey. The two men were convicted and sentenced to 70 and 60-year sentences.

'I feel free now'

That same evidence played a key factor during Pierre's retrial in 2016. In addition, witnesses at the murder scene who originally identified Dorval and Pierre recanted their story.

Though Pierre's new lawyers, Don DiGioia, Linda Mehling and Frank Krack were able to get Pierre's case acquitted in 2016, DiGioia said prosecutors still would not consider Dorval's appeal even though they were co-defendants.

Pierre said he still felt like he was incarcerated. "That's my brother." Last week, he felt much better, saying, "I feel free now."

Union County's new prosecutor, Michael A. Monaha, was sworn in at the beginning of the year, and DiGioia's law group asked him and first assistant prosecutor Albert Cernadas Jr. to review Dorval's case again.

Union County prosecutors then agreed to review Dorval's case and release him.

How it happened

In March, 1994, Dorval and Pierre, 22 and 23-years-old, were making their way down south to visit Pierre's family in Florida when they were pulled over by South Carolina police.

Pierre, driving his black Legend, was stopped for speeding. He was driving 81 mph in a 65 mph in South Carolina, which got him a speeding ticket at approximately 11:34 p.m. on March 19 putting him about 749 miles south of Elizabeth.

Jean Dorval looks at a blown up speeding ticket that helped make him a free man after serving 24 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

Hours later, at 1:41 a.m., the duo was filling out motel registration in Savanah, Georgia, and had checked out later that morning at 9:41 a.m. on March 20.

The shooting in Elizabeth took place March 20, 1994 at 3:19 a.m. while Dorval and Pierre were asleep in their Georgia motel, but little did they know their lives would change forever when they got back to New Jersey.

When the duo returned to Elizabeth, police were looking for two Haitian men who drove a Black Acura Legend. Dorval and Pierre were Haitian and Pierre drove a Legend. There was no DNA evidence involved in the case, authorities said.

Authorities offered the pair deals before and during the trial, but Dorval said he wasn't going for it.

"A deal for what? I didn't do anything. I wasn't even here. No way I was going to take that," he said.

Two other men, James Louis and Maguan Romerus, who were not associated with Dorval and Pierre, were also charged in the murder. They remain in prison.

Prosecutors in what DiGioia called a "horrendous investigation" argued that Pierre's brother was the one in Florida with Pierre's license and car.

"A prosecutor's office is to do justice not convict the innocent," he said of former prosecutors.

Nonetheless, Dorval kept his optimistic spirit after his conviction.

While in prison, both Dorval and Pierre spent hours studying the law with whatever books they could find.

They filed multiple appeals over 20 years, and each time they got the same answer in bold letters: DENIED

Happy to be home

"I knew I had to stay strong, but after every time I saw my brother in there, I cried," said Dorval's baby sister, Madine Lorvanis, Florida, who consistently kept in contact with her brother via visits, phone calls and letters.

"But when Duquene got out, that was our sign of relief."

Lorvanis, 38, was front and center when her brother walked out of prison in Rahway.

Justice is still being sought out for both Pierre and Dorval.

In January, DiGioia went to court to file a civil suit in Union County Superior Court on behalf of Pierre, which will have Dorval's name amended to it.

The lawsuit names Pierre's original lawyers for negligence and legal malpractice.

The suit also lists New Jersey's Mistake Imprisonment Act, which if granted gives both Dorval and Pierre a minimum of $50,000 a year for every year they were in jail, which could make both men millionaires.

At the moment, Pierre lives a very frugal life. He's been living with family members and works at a warehouse making a few dollars above minimum wage.

Just getting a job was hard enough for Pierre because his record has not been expunged, a strain Dorval will soon face himself.

"I've struggled since I've been out," Pierre said. "Unfortunately, those struggles are some of the things I've been trying to talk to him about. It's hard."

For now, Dorval said he is interested in taking classes in computer science and simply just learning how to use a cell phone. Ultimately, though, he said he's just happy to be home.

"There are no words to describe this. I waited 24 years for justice," Dorval said.

Taylor Tiamoyo Harris may be reached at tharris@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ladytiamoyo.

Find NJ.com on FacebookThe Times-Picayune is marking the tricentennial of New Orleans with its ongoing 300 for 300 project, running through 2018 and highlighting 300 people who have made New Orleans New Orleans, featuring original artwork commissioned by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune with Where Y'Art gallery. Today: education leader Leslie Jacobs.

The icon: Leslie Jacobs.

The legacy: When Hurricane Katrina devasted New Orleans in 2005, Leslie Jacobs rolled up her sleeves and got to work. Having served on the Orleans Parish School Board and the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, she became an architect of what would be known as the Recovery School District, working to get most of New Orleans' historically poor-performing schools put into the district and persuading charter school operators to be part of the process of rebuilding and improving them. It paid off. Test results improved, the dropout rate fell and the charter system, which enrolls more than 70 percent of the city's public school students, has been hailed as a model for the rest of the country.

The artist: Saegan Swanson.

The quote: "The conversation about education in Louisiana is no longer about who to blame for our failures, but about making sure each child learns and each school succeeds and recognizing their improvement. Leslie Jacobs changed that conversation; Leslie Jacobs changed the way public education in Louisiana works." -- Gov. Mike Foster

Explore more of Saegan Swanson's work online at WhereYart.net and in person at the Where Y'Art gallery, 1901 Royal St.

Leslie Rosenthal Jacobs graduated from Cornell University.

By John Pope, contributing writer

Source: The Times-Picayune archives

More on 300 for 300:Lawyers for the Orleans Parish District Attorney's office say the lawsuit filed against Leon Cannizzaro and a dozen of his assistants over the use of fake subpoenas and arrest of certain witnesses should be dismissed because their alleged actions occurred while they were acting as "advocates for the state" and therefore they are immune from litigation.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs, the men and women who were served fraudulent subpoenas and arrested on material witness warrants, say immunity doesn't apply in this case.

The attorneys argued at a hearing Wednesday (May 8) before U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo.

Eight plaintiffs - seven individuals and a non-profit group called Silence is Violence - sued Cannizzaro and his prosecutors last October. They alleged his office used fraudulent subpoenas to coerce victims into meeting privately with prosecutors, and that they misled judges to get them to sign off on material witness warrants for crime victims and witnesses.

The district attorney's office last year said it was ending the practice of sending notices labeled "subpoena" to witnesses, and instead would label the documents "notice to appear."

In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, the district attorney's office said prosecutors sought those warrants only after witnesses failed to show up to court the day of trial. They did not seek warrants for witnesses who failed to talk privately to prosecutors, according to the court filing.

No trial date has been set in the case.

W. Raley Alford III, a lawyer representing the district attorney's office, said Wednesday that prosecutors were acting as "advocates for the state" when they issued material witness warrants. They were attempting to discuss the trial and testimony with a potential witness, something he said is part of the judicial process.

For those reasons, Alford said the defendants are immune.

In their motion to dismiss, the district attorney's office also claimed "qualified immunity," because the alleged conduct "would not violate clearly established law."

Katie Chamblee-Ryan, a plaintiff's lawyer with the nonprofit Civil Rights Corps, argued prosecutors weren't acting as advocates for the state, but rather, their roles were investigative and administrative. Therefore, she said, immunity doesn't apply in this case.

In a written argument, Chamblee-Ryan cited a 1991 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the court found prosecutors only are absolutely immune for actions taken in their roles as advocates for the state, not for actions performed as an administrator or investigative officer.

Because the lawsuit names Cannizzaro in his official capacity as the district attorney, Chamblee-Ryan said his office and its policies are not immune from litigation.

Milazzo said it's been difficult to find a "bright line" that differentiates investigative and administrative processes from prosecutorial processes. She made that point several times during the hearing.

Chamblee-Ryan said that's because the line doesn't exist. Richard Stanley, another lawyer for the district attorney's office, also said he didn't know of any precedent.

Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

Four of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit - Renata Singleton, Marc Mitchell, Lazonia Baham and Jane Doe - said they were arrested on material witness warrants and in some cases held in jail for several days before they were brought before a judge.

According to the lawsuit, Singleton, a victim in a domestic violence case, was in jail for five days before seeing a judge. She was sent two fake subpoenas, the lawsuit said, and a prosecutor applied for a material witness warrant after Singleton declined to attend a private meeting.

The district attorney's office said Wednesday that Singleton was arrested because she failed to honor multiple court-issued subpoenas and was "actively avoiding service."

Baham, whose daughter's boyfriend was murdered, was incarcerated for eight days before she saw a judge, the lawsuit states. A prosecutor asked for a material witness warrant in her case after she declined to attend a private meeting, according to the lawsuit.

Louisiana law says a person must see a judge within 72 hours of his or her arrest.

Milazzo said it was "particularly troubling" that people were incarcerated for long periods of time without appearing before a judge.

"It appears to me that people picked up on material witness warrants are being treated differently than people picked up on arrest warrants," she said. "They appear to have fewer rights."

Stanley said it's the obligation of the sheriff's office to transport people from jail to see a judge. The district attorney's office can put the name of a person they want to appear in court on a list, he said, but ultimately it is not their responsibility to bring a person over from jail.

He said in some of the cases involving material witness warrants, the arrests happened over the holidays. That might partially explain the delay in getting before a judge he said, though that does not excuse it.

Alford argued that because Singleton, Mitchell, Baham and Doe were arrested more than a year before the lawsuit was filed, their claims don't fall within the statute of limitations.

Chamblee-Ryan said the plaintiffs were not aware of all of the facts needed to file a claim at the time of their arrest. The statute of limitations period begins "when the plaintiff has a complete and present cause of action," she said.

Ken Daley, spokesman for the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office, called the lawsuit "a calculated attack on the criminal justice system."

"It seeks to establish a right that does not exist under Louisiana or American law: That essential witnesses cannot be compelled to speak with police, prosecutors, judges or juries," he said. "Its goal is to impair prosecutors' ability to bring into a case witnesses who already have made important statements to authorities, and to undermine our ability to prepare them for trial."

Milazzo did not rule on the motion Wednesday, and said she needed additional time. She did not give a timeline for when she might issue a decision.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the district attorney's office issues material witness warrants to compel witness to testify or speak to prosecutors. The district attorney's office can request a material witness warrant be issued by a judge, but the warrant only ensures a subpoenaed witnesses appearance in court.The Army Corps of Engineers has paid an additional $33.2 million for the now completed permanent canal closures and pump stations at the ends of three New Orleans outfall canals -- the final increase in a project now more than $110 million over budget and 16 months late.

This increases to $726 million the total payments to PCCP Constructors JV for the pump stations at the 17th Street, Orleans Avenue and London Avenue drainage canals. Floodwalls along all three canals failed during Hurricane Katrina, flooding large parts of the city.

The final cost is well over the $614.8 million that PCCP Constructors bid to win the contract in 2013. Corps officials have not identified the reasons for the latest cost increases. Earlier cost additions were linked to changes in electrical switches used to start pumps and the installation of variable frequency drives used to operate the pumps.

Partners in the joint venture that built the stations are Kiewit Louisiana Co., Traylor Bros. Inc., and the M. R. Pittman Group LLC.

The estimated $4 million a year cost of operating and maintaining the three stations was officially transferred to the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East on Monday (May 7), after being transferred by the corps to the state on May 1. Both state and corps officials say some work remains to be completed at the stations, including removal of temporary gates and pumps that have been used since a year after Hurricane Katrina.

The corps has estimated the total cost of the three-station project could grow even more and reach $854 million, according to a briefing given to the Mississippi River Commission last month by Col. Michael Clancy, commander of the corps' New Orleans District office.

That's because the corps must still remove temporary gates and pumps at some of the canals, and make changes in the 17th Street Canal to improve the flow of water once the temporary structures are removed there.

"Additionally, we are looking at the option of more cosmetic/mitigating features, such as capping the floodwalls where they join the PCCP along Lakeshore Drive," said corps spokesman Ricky Boyett. He said the corps also has agreed to state requests to install some additional features in that station, including a dry fire suppression system.

None of those additional features impede the ability of the new pumps to perform as designed, he said.

The PCCP contract cost also does not include the cost of removing hazardous materials from several of the canals during construction, which was paid for with state money.

The 2013 contract award by the corps followed two years of delays caused by challenges to the agency's initial bidding process. The corps originally awarded the contract to CBY Design Builders in April 2011, after that company bid $675 million. That award was successfully challenged by PCCP and the Bechtel Infrastructure Corp.

On the second bidding effort, PCCP was awarded the contract for $629.5 million, but that decision was overturned by the Congressional Government Accountability Office in response to a challenge by CBY and Bechtel in 2012.

The 2013 contract required the stations to be completed by January 2017. Delays resulting in design changes, and additional weather delays resulted in the official turnover not occurring until April 2018.

Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

The new structures are designed to seal the mouth of the canals at Lake Pontchartrain from storm surges are caused by a hurricane with a 1 percent chance of occurring every year, the so-called 100-year storm. To do that, the surge barrier portion of the structures were required to be at least 16 feet above sea level. The contractor actually built them to 18 feet above sea level, which could help in staving off the effects of future sea level rise on surge heights at the end of the projects' 50-year lifetime.

The stations also are able to pump rainwater from the canals into Lake Pontchartrain during a storm at a rate designed to keep the water levels in the canal at levels that guarantee the stability of internal floodwalls.

When surge requires the station's gates to close, the pumps will be able to move 12,500 cubic feet per second of water from the 17th Street Canal into the lake; 2,700 cubic feet per second from the Orleans Avenue Canal; and 9,000 cubic feet per second from the London Avenue Canal.

All three stations also have bee built to allow them to be reconfigured if the city decides to decommission pumps that move water from the southern ends of the canals to the new stations, turning the internal drainage system into one driven by gravity, rather than pumps. Each of the canals would have to be deepened for the gravity-fed alternative to be implemented.

The corps considered that alternative in determining how the stations would be built, but concluded that it would cost as much as $3 billion, and rejected it.

The state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is the official "local sponsor" of the pump stations, but they will be operated by the Orleans Levee District and its parent Southeast Louisiana Flood Control Authority-East, as part of the post-Katrina levee system.

On May 1, the corps officially turned over the stations to the state by sending a "Notice of Contract Completion" letter to the CPRA. On May 7, the day the letter was received, CPRA sent a letter turning the stations over to the levee authority and asking it to take over operation and maintenance responsibilities.

In that letter, CPRA board chairman Johnny Bradberry pointed out that the corps had not actually met its obligation under a project partnership agreement it signed with the state in 2008. State officials have included a clause in every partnership agreement involving the New Orleans hurricane levee system that required all parts of the entire system to be completed before the state would accept individual projects as complete.

But, Bradberry said in the letter to the levee authority, the CPRA "is of the opinion that since the corps has no capability to fulfill O&M on its own, the project needs to be maintained while the remaining turn-over issues are resolved."

The levee district has budgeted about $4 million to operate and maintain the pumps during their first year of operation, with the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board paying for $2 million of that cost. Jefferson Parish also has agreed to pay part of those costs, as water from that parish drains into the 17th Street Canal.

The corps does not have money in its annual budget for that level of operation and maintenance expenses.

Correction: The CPRA transferred control of the three pump stations and gate structures to the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority on Monday, May 7, not the Orleans Levee District.An air quality alert has been issued for the New Orleans area for Thursday (May 10), marking the third day in a row that ozone is forecast to rise to levels that could make the air unhealthy for "sensitive groups," including children and adults who are active outdoors.

The air quality alert will be in effect from 6 a.m. to midnight Thursday, according to the New Orleans Health Department, for the following:

New Orleans

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality issued the alert after raising the Air Quality Index to orange, indicating that the air quality is potentially harmful. You can check the Air Quality Index here.

The city of New Orleans, through its NOLA Ready Twitter account, is advising active children and adults, the elderly and people with respiratory diseases to "avoid prolonged outdoor activities and exertion."

Low-level ozone is an atmospheric pollutant that forms when gases released by vehicles or industry react with sunlight. Ozone usually forms on hot summer days and is worse in the afternoon and early evening.

An ozone action day is declared when weather conditions -- like heat and humidity -- may pose the risk of health problems.

State officials also issued air quality alerts for Tuesday, from noon to 7 p.m., and Wednesday, from 6 a.m. to midnight.

Along with limiting outdoor activity, officials are asking New Orleans area residents to take steps to reduce ozone levels.

Environmental news in your inbox Stay up-to-date on the latest on Louisiana's coast and the environment. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

These include:

* Drive less and make sure your gas cap is tight.

* Wait until after 6 p.m. to refuel your vehicle, mow grass, and use gas-powered lawn equipment after 6 p.m.

* Postpone work that uses oil-based paint, varnishes, and solvents that produce fumes.

* Use an electric starter instead of starter fluid to barbecue.

* Conserve energy in your home.

For more on how to respond to an air quality alert, see our earlier story.

NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune's Carlie Kollath Wells and Jennifer Larino contributed to this report.Plaquemines Parish President Amos Cormier is concerned about how one of the state's largest coastal restoration projects will effect his constituents. Because of his concerns, Cormier has refused to bring permits necessary for the project to move forward before the Plaquemines Parish Council.

As it's currently designed, the Mid-Barataria sediment diversion would allow 75,000 cubic feet per second of Mississippi River sediment and water to flow through a controlled opening in the West Bank levee near Myrtle Grove, in Plaquemines Parish. The goal of the project is to send sediment from the river into the marshes of Barataria Bay in an attempt to reduce land loss rates and sustain wetlands damaged by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report.

The state is in the process of getting federal permits to move forward with the $1.4 billion project. In January, the Trump administration committed to speed up the permitting timeline. And, in April, the Army Corps of Engineers announced that it was aiming to finish the permitting process by 2020.

The parish government was not included in the conversation about speeding up the federal permitting process for the diversion project, Cormier said. Parish residents are concerned that the project will degrade local bays. "Plaquemines Parish is in no obligation to help fast track this," he said. "All we're looking for is for the laws to be followed and that the process adequately takes in the concerns of our citizens."

The state has requested permits from the parish to take soil samples near the site of the planned diversion. But Cormier has not brought the permits before the parish council to be approved.

A 2014 parish ordinance prevents the council from granting any permits regarding the construction, development or implementation of sediment diversion projects. The ordinance was passed before Cormier was in office. Still, Cormier is sticking to its guidelines. "I'm just doing my job," he said.

But state officials say that Plaquemines Parish government has been given ample opportunities to participate in the scoping process for the proposed Mid-Barataria sediment diversion. The state has held 27 public meetings in the parish seeking input on the diversion, said Chip Kline, the Deputy Director of the Governor's Office of Coastal Activities.

Plaquemines Parish residents will have additional opportunities to voice their concerns during the drafting of the environmental impact statement, which will address the project's effects, he said. At the moment, the parish government and the state are in a standstill. Still, the project is not yet considered delayed, Kline said. "But if this drags out longer, it could effect the permitting schedule," he said.The annual event is being jointly held by the Health Ministry, the Vietnam Medical Products Import-Export JSC (Vimedimex), and the Vietnam Advertisement & Fair Exhibition (Vietfair).

Addressing the opening ceremony, Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien hailed Vietnam Medi-Pharm as a prestigious and effective exhibition, which offers a platform for companies to exchange information on health-related fields, while strengthening their investment in developing medical services aimed at meeting the peoples needs for medical check-ups and treatment.

Major products on display during the four-day exhibition include pharmaceuticals, functional food, medical, dentistry, and ophthalmological equipment, as well as health care products, chemicals and experiment equipment.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien (centre) visits a pavilion at the exhibition.

Especially, this is the first time that Vietnam Medi-Pharm has welcomed Polish enterprises to attend the exhibition and showcase their software solutions on medical costs, electronic spare parts, and automation.

With the theme of Strengthening grassroots-level medical services, towards covering everyones health, the Health Ministrys display area disseminates the Party and States policies and laws on medical work, as well as the achievements and major tasks of Vietnams medical sector this year.

A number of other events will also be held on the fringes of the Vietnam Medi-Pharm 2018, including the Vietnam International Hospital Exhibition, the International Rehabilitation & Healthcare Technology Exhibition & Conference, the International Dental Exhibition, and seminars and forums on heart health, blood pressure, and vaccinations.

As part of the exhibitions there will be consultancies on medical law, the pharmaceutical market, public health care and epidemics prevention, among others."The Big Bang Theory" actor Kunal Nayyar is among five newly announced cast members of the family comedy "Think Like a Dog," currently in production in New Orleans. The others: Janet Montgomery ("Black Swan"), Julia Jones ("Wind River"), Bryan Callen ("Ride Along") and Gabriel Bateman ("Benji").

They join previously announced cast members Josh Duhamel and Megan Fox, who will play the parents of a 12-year-old tech prodigy (Bateman) who creates a telepathic creation with the family dog in a science-fair mishap. "The connection brings them even closer as the duo join forces to comically overcome complications of family and school," reads a news release issued by the production.

Details on the roles of the rest of the cast have yet to be announced. "10 Things I Hate About You" filmmaker Gil Junger is writing and directing.

"We've assembled an extraordinary group of actors that have the elusive combination of captivating an audience with emotional depth and making that same audience laugh at will," Junger said in a news release issued Thursday morning (May 10) by the production. "Finding the delicate balance between heart and humor is what inspires me to tell stories. Our script uses humor to engage the audience and emotion to keep them there."

"Think Like a Dog" is produced by Andrew Lazar ("Jonah Hex," "I Love You Phillip Morris") through his Mad Chance banner, alongside Cory Chen of M-Star International. Executive-producing are Jason Moring and Stanley Preschutti of Double Dutch International, which is shopping the film at the Cannes film market, currently underway.Gary Oldman and Dylan O'Brien are coming to New Orleans for "The Bayou," a locally set crime thriller scheduled to begin production in the Crescent City in June, according to Deadline. Filmmaker Gary Fleder, who shot 2003's "Runaway Jury" and 2013's "Homefront" in town, is in talks to direct.

Fresh off an Oscar win for "Darkest Hour," Oldman will reportedly play Tickie Bordeaux, a colorful New Orleans hitman who works for a crime boss operating out of a French Quarter strip club. O'Brien ("The Maze Runner") will play Ceto, Ticki's brooding young protege who lost his sister to the underworld and -- in Deadline's words -- "now expresses himself on his blues harmonica."

When Ceto rescues a 16-year-old runaway (Joey King) from a human-trafficking ring, he finds himself in the crosshairs of his ruthless bosses.

Fleder's not the only member of the Millennium-backed production for whom "The Bayou" will mark a return to town. Oldman co-starred in 2014's locally shot "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," and O'Brien appeared in 2016's "Deepwater Horizon" as well as 2014's Baton Rouge-shot "The Mazerunner."

Producers of "The Bayou" include Rob Van Norden, who shot 2013's "Olympus Has Fallen" in Shreveport, along with Natalie Burn ("Expendables 3"), working under her Born to Burn Films shingle. The script is from the pen of "Point Break" screenwriter W Peter Iliff.

Budget figures on "The Bayou" were unavailable. A release date has yet to be announced.With Gina Haspel's nomination for CIA director up in the air, Republican President Donald Trump's GOP supporters in the Senate are trying to persuade Democrats to join them in confirming her for the job. They'll need it because she already has lost the vote of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has urged colleagues to reject her nomination.

That leaves, at most, 49 Republican senators backing Haspel. Among them are Louisiana's Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy.

"She's incredibly qualified, serving ... under [presidents] Obama and Bush. I think she should be our next CIA director," Cassidy told Fox News.

"I think she will be and she should be," Kennedy said.

Haspel has 33 years' experience in intelligence and is now deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency and its acting chief. McCain, however, cited what her detractors have highlighted as her Achilles heel: In 2002, she briefly ran a CIA "black site" prison in Thailand, where staffers waterboarded and body slammed terrorism suspects, and deprived them of sleep.

McCain, 81, has been at home recovering from brain surgery. The former Navy pilot speaks with authority on torture, having been on the receiving end of it while a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for 5 1/2 years.

"I believe Gina Haspel is a patriot who loves our country and has devoted her professional life to its service and defense," McCain said Wednesday night (May 9). "However, Ms. Haspel's role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge torture's immorality is disqualifying. I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination."

Kennedy acknowledged the advice, telling Independent Journal Review: "Look, God bless Sen. McCain. Like every other senator, his vote belongs to him. And he's certainly entitled to cast it how he wishes. When John McCain talks, I listen. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't, but I always listen."

But he's sticking with Haspel, whom he considers tough and intelligent. "You don't want a weenie in that job. You don't want a feckless wimp," he said. "You want somebody who will be tough but fair and follow the law. And for me, she fits that bill."

In her confirmation hearing Wednesday, Haspel told the Senate Intelligence Committee that she does not think torture works and that she would not carry out any presidential order she thought was immoral.

Cassidy said Haspel is a political "victim of the resistance, which tells the left [to] oppose no matter Trump puts up."

. . . . . . .

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.A panel discussion on mental health awareness in St. Tammany Parish touched on numerous topics Thursday (May 10), but often circled back to a common point: The stigma attached to mental health and substance abuse problems must be erased if people are to get the help they need.

The lunchtime event at Tchefuncta Country Club was presented by the St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce and is an outgrowth of the chamber's recently-formed Health and Wellness Committee. May is Mental Health Awareness month.

"We need to erase the stigma (of reporting and seeking help for mental health and behavioral problems),'' panelist Richard Kramer, executive director of the Florida Parishes Human Services Authority, said. "It stops people from seeking treatment.''

Few families, he and other panelists noted, have not been impacted by friends or a loved one dealing with mental illness and substance abuse.

Other panelists included St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith, who discussed his department's newly-created crisis intervention team; St. Tammany government executive counsel Kelly Rabalais, who discussed the parish's Save Haven center project at the site of the Northlake Behavioral Health Campus near Mandeville; and Rosalie Richard, an adult psychiatric nurse practitioner.

Nick Richard, executive director of NAMI St. Tammany, moderated.

St. Tammany top stories in your inbox A weekly guide to the biggest news in St. Tammany. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

Smith said the Crisis Intervention Team responds to an average of 10 calls each week. The team consists of four deputies trained in crisis intervention and de-escalation methods who work closely with NAMI, the Coroner's Office and other mental health responders.

The goal, Smith said, is to get people help instead of merely taking them to jail. He said his department recently received a $1.2 million Department of Justice grant to help finance the team.

"It's working,'' he said. "We're getting people help. We're keeping them out of jail.''

The Save Haven site, meanwhile, is envisioned as a one-stop shop of sorts for people seeking help dealing with behavioral health issues.

Rabalais, who has worked extensively on the project in her parish government role, said big spikes in the parish's suicide rate, coupled with the closure of the Southeast Louisiana Hospital near Mandeville, spurred parish government to get involved.

Save Haven, which will include a crisis intervention center, is expected to be operational by 2019.Citing what she euphemistically called a community "uptick," LaToya Cantrell, a week before she was inaugurated as mayor of New Orleans, said she was putting on pause her consideration of former New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley as the city's homeland security director. Lance Madison, who saw his brother, Ronald, chased down and killed by the NOPD on the Danziger Bridge and who was himself framed with the attempted murder of officers, wants a more definitive no from Cantrell. He wants to hear her say, clearly and unambiguously, that she's not hiring Warren Riley for anything.

As the 61-year-old Madison sees it, he's still suffering from what happened on Danziger Bridge. Why shouldn't Riley?

"I'm still having nightmares and bad dreams about what happened," Madison said as he sat outside an Algiers coffee shop Thursday morning (May 10). And as for Riley, "He never took full responsibility for what happened after Katrina. This was one of the biggest police crimes in the nation."

Yes, it was, arguably the biggest. Even though Riley was not superintendent on Sept. 4, 2005, when Ronald Madison and J.J. Brisette were killed and Jose Holmes, Susan Bartholomew, Leonard Bartholomew III and Lesha Bartholomew were injured, he became superintendent shortly thereafter. It was Riley who should have led an investigation into what happened on Danziger Bridge, and it was Riley who should have taken a hard line against the officers who shot and killed innocent people and the officers who made a sloppy and amateurish attempt to cover up the crimes.

But when the dominoes began to fall, when the first New Orleans officer involved in the cover-up pleaded guilty in federal court, Riley claimed to be unaware of either the crime or its cover-up. He claimed - and I use that verb because who knows if he was telling the truth - that he hadn't read NOPD's Danziger Bridge report. He says that there was nothing in the briefing he received that made him suspect any wrongdoing.

On April 25, when Cantrell was asked to confirm the rumor that she was going to make Riley the city's homeland security director, she said, "I think it's a great choice. He's on the short list." But after public outrage - including this column questioning Cantrell's thinking - Riley was not present May 2 when Cantrell introduced her public-safety team.

"I had the real opportunity to sit down with some of our community leaders in regard to this, in addition to the Madison family," Cantrell said at that press conference. She said that "based on the uptick in the community as it relates to Mr. Warren Riley, I'm determined I'm pressing pause at this time."

Since they were thrust into the center of this most extreme example of police corruption, the Madisons have been made to endure a number of pauses. In December 2006, seven New Orleans police officers were charged in state court on either first-degree murder or attempted murder charges. But in August 2008, then-Criminal District Judge Raymond Bigelow threw out all the charges, accusing a prosecutor of having violated grand jury secrecy rules.

In 2010, the first of five New Orleans police officers pleaded guilty in federal court to crimes related to the Danziger Bridge massacre, and in 2011, a federal jury convicted another five. But then, another pause. In September 2013, U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt threw out those convictions, citing prosecutorial misconduct. That scandal eventually led to the downfall of U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. Which meant that the Madisons had to wait until Letten's successor, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite, took up the case. Polite oversaw guilty pleas of all the officers whose guilty verdicts had been dismissed. It meant much shorter prison sentences for the killers and conspirators Madison wanted imprisoned forever.

Lance Madison did not attend the meeting that Cantrell mentioned May 2. "I just felt real depressed," he said, explaining his absence. He thought having to explain to Cantrell why she shouldn't choose Riley "might have made me more depressed."

Madison mentioned the attempts some community mediators have made to bring him and Riley together at the same table. He bristles at the idea. "Riley doesn't have anything to say to me," he said. He's had 13 years to say sorry and hasn't, Madison said. So any apology offered now would be meaningless.

He said his brother, Dr. Romell Madison, and his sisters, Lorna Madison and Jacqueline Brown, left their meeting with Cantrell believing they'd gotten through to her and that she wouldn't hire Riley.

But at that May 2 press conference she didn't say she wouldn't. She said, "I'm determined I'm pressing pause at this time."

That language worries Madison. "First of all," he said, "his name should never have been considered." And now that Cantrell's heard from his family and the community, shouldn't she be able to give a clear no?

"I try to think positive," he said, "but it's hard to think positive after going through 10 years of stuff like a roller coaster."

***

UPDATE: After this column was originally published, Cantrell's communications director, Beau Tidwell, responded to an email asking if Cantrell was still considering hiring Riley: "The Mayor has not yet made a determination regarding how she will move forward. Secondary to any hiring decision, she's taking time to listen to a range of voices in the community before making her decision."

Jarvis DeBerry is deputy opinions editor for NOLA.COM | The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at jdeberry@nola.com or at twitter.com/jarvisdeberry.The trucks came from as far as Wisconsin and Florida, driven by people who are normally loggers but descended upon Louisiana after Hurricane Ida produced untold amounts of wreckage that needed to be hauled somewhere.TOKYO, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday called on China and Japan to stick to the principles of the four bilateral political documents and consensus, and bring bilateral ties back to normal.

Li made the remarks during his talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.

China and Japan are each other's important neighbor and major economies of the world, said Li, noting that long-term, healthy and stable development of bilateral ties conforms to the interests of the two countries and is good for peace, stability and prosperity of the region and the world.

He said China-Japan ties are at a crucial stage for improvement, as this year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the bilateral treaty of peace and friendship.

He called on the two sides to seize the opportunity to review the spirit of the treaty, cement the political foundation, expand friendly cooperation and implement the political consensus that China and Japan are cooperation partners, not threat to each other.

Li urged joint efforts from both sides to promote bilateral relations back to the right track, and achieve long-term, healthy and stable development.

Invited by Abe, Li arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday for an official visit to Japan, the first by a Chinese premier in eight years.China, Japan and South Korea on Wednesday reaffirmed their commitment to building an open world economy and vowed to further promote free trade.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (L), Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (C) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in meet the press after a trilateral meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday, May 9, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua]

The three sides made the pledge in a joint declaration issued after a meeting between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Tokyo. The last meeting of this kind was held two and a half years ago in Seoul.

The three sides, whose combined gross domestic production accounts for more than 20 percent of the world's total, said in the declaration that they are aware of the important role they play in promoting world prosperity.

They said they also recognize the importance of free and open trade and investment to achieving growth, and remain committed to liberalizing their economies, fighting all forms of protectionism, and improving business environment.

They pledged to work together to strengthen the rules-based, free and open, transparent, non-discriminatory and inclusive multilateral trading system underpinned by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The trio said they welcome discussions in the WTO on today's challenges facing international trade, including those in the fields of e-commerce, investment facilitation, as well as micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises.

They also emphasized the importance of bilateral, regional and multilateral trade agreements that complement and strengthen the global trading system.

"We reaffirm that the Trilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is an important way to deepen our economic and trade cooperation and promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation in East Asia, and will serve the common interests of the three countries," said the statement.

The three nations, it added, will make greater efforts to realize a comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial FTA, and will speed up negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

Also, they agreed on the necessity to build an intellectual property (IP) system that values creative ideas and allows fair competition, adding that they look forward to further development of trilateral IP cooperation.

Meanwhile, they vowed to make maximum use of science and information technology to promote economic growth and social welfare and address global issues.

In addition, they stressed the importance of collaboration in the field of communications, including 5G mobile services and global roaming, to promoting mutual exchanges and cooperation.

The trio also agreed to explore "3+1" cooperation to promote sustainable development in the region and beyond by sharing their development experiences and deepening practical cooperation in various areas.

The three countries reached consensus on the significance of holding the trilateral leaders' meeting on a regular basis, and said they are looking forward to the next meeting, which will be hosted by China.China regrets the U.S. decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) signed in 2015, according to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang Wednesday.

The multilateral deal was struck between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany and the EU, and was adopted by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2,231. Geng said that all parties should seriously implement it and maintain the integrity and seriousness of the deal.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang [Photo: fmprc.gov.cn]

Geng said implementing the deal was conducive to maintaining the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, promoting peace and stability in the Middle East and demonstrating the significance of solving hot issues through political means.

Geng said that under the current situation, China urged all parties to proceed "in the long-term and overall situation in a responsible manner, persist in solving and managing differences through political and diplomatic means, and return as soon as possible to the correct track of continuing to implement the comprehensive agreement."

"China will take an objective, fair and responsible attitude, maintain dialogues and consultations with all parties, and continue to work to maintain and implement the comprehensive agreement," he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday his country's withdrawal from the nuclear deal.BEIJING, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will hold a summit in June as leaders are expected to exchange ideas on dealing with global issues and roll out cooperation measures for the bloc's future when they gather in east China's coastal city of Qingdao.

Russian student Zakir (R) and his sister Zaira, both studying in China University of Petroleum, display boards with Chinese and Russian handwritings of "Hello Qingdao" and "Hello SCO", in Qingdao, the host city of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, in east China's Shandong Province, May 3, 2018. (Xinhua/Guo Xulei)

The SCO, after 17 years, has grown into the world's most populous comprehensive regional organization. Its full members are China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.

The SCO now accounts for over 60 percent of the Eurasian landmass, nearly half of the world's population and over 20 percent of global GDP.

Experts say the upcoming summit is widely expected to inject new drive into the development of regional organization toward a closer "community of shared future" for member countries.

BEDROCK SPIRIT

With a focus on carrying on the "Shanghai Spirit", the bedrock of the SCO, the Qingdao summit will enhance trust and solidarity between the member states and build a closer SCO community.

The "Shanghai Spirit," which features mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity and pursuit of common development, has become the spiritual bond of member states on building a community of shared future.

Member countries have been promoting win-win cooperation and shared development in various areas and played constructive roles in regional and international issues.

The SCO has never been simply a security group. The organization has also been devoting itself to the region's development by facilitating trade and investment, enhancing industrial cooperation and promoting people-to-people exchanges.

Meanwhile, the China-proposed cooperation framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which features many flagship projects on infrastructure, finance and people-to-people exchanges, heralds greater opportunities for development.

"The SCO and BRI offer mutual support and opportunities to each other, and the BRI concept has already been embedded into the SCO and are making positive progress," said Li Jianmin, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"From theory and planning to practical implementations, cooperation in the alignments of development strategies between China and other SCO member states has also come to a new stage, with a series of projects under steady progress," Li said.

SCO Secretary General Rashid Alimov described the bloc as "a paradigm of the peaceful co-existence of nations with different powers and various political systems and cultures."

"Within the group, no one dominates, wins or loses, and agreements are reached through negotiation and consultation," Alimov said.

"The 'Shanghai Spirit' bears similar elements embodied in the vision of a community of a shared future for humanity and the global governance principle of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration, and will continue to deliver strong vitality," said Li Yongquan, head of the China Society for Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies.

START OF NEW JOURNEY

About a year ago, China took over the rotating presidency of the SCO.

During China's SCO presidency, more than 120 activities have been held as of the end of last month, covering a wide spectrum including politics, economy, security, people-to-people exchanges and external exchanges.

"Seventeen years on, both China and the SCO have undergone profound changes, and both have seen a rise in their international influence," said Zhang Lili, a professor with China Foreign Affairs University.

"While moving closer to center stage, China will make a greater contribution to the SCO development at the summit," the professor said.

The summit is expected to 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.

Also, by touching on major international and regional issues, the summit will be an important chapter for the improvement of global governance and the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.

At a meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers last month, the ministers noted that the world was rapidly developing and undergoing unprecedented change with the emergence of a multipolar world order, an increasingly globalised world economy and enhanced connectivity and interdependence between states.

They stressed the need to follow multilateral approaches for resolving the issues the world is facing, and respond to various threats and challenges by improving global governance based on a collective approach.

Li Yongquan said he believes that by offering constructive solutions to regional cooperation and global governance, the "SCO strength" will add vigor to humanity's progress.

Aerial photo taken on April 16, 2018 shows the cityscape of Qingdao, the host city of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit, in east China's Shandong Province. (Xinhua/Guo Xulei)Undated file photo shows China's J-20 stealth fighter jets taking part in their first-ever combat training over the ocean. China's J-20 stealth fighter jets have begun their first-ever combat training over the ocean, a spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. The J-20 is China's fourth-generation medium and long-range fighter aircraft and was commissioned into air force combat service earlier this year. (Xinhua)

BEIJING, May 9 (Xinhua) -- China's J-20 stealth fighter jets have begun their first-ever combat training over the ocean, a spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.

"It will help the air force better fulfill its sacred duty of safeguarding China's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity," said Shen Jinke, spokesman for the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force.

The J-20 is China's fourth-generation medium and long-range fighter aircraft and was commissioned into air force combat service earlier this year.

Shen said that since its commissioning the J-20 had taken part in air warfare training with J-16, J-10c and other fighter jets, boosting the air force's combat strength.

In recent years, the air force has been developing a series of new hi-tech military hardware under a strategy to emphasize both aerial and celestial warfare, attack and defense.A "date and place" for his meeting with Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) top leader Kim Jong Un has been set and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is bringing three freed Americans back from the DPRK, President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday.

"I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen," Trump tweeted.

A screenshot of US President Donald Trump's tweet [Photo: China Plus]

Saying that the three freed detainees "seem to be in good health", Trump added they would land at Andrews Air Force Base at 2:00 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT), and he would be there to greet them.

The three Korean-Americans, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, had been detained in the DPRK for one to two years.

The U.S. president also tweeted "Date & Place set" on Pompeo's second visit to the DPRK, referring to his anticipated summit with Kim Jong Un.

He also said Pompeo had a "good meeting with Kim Jong Un."

Trump said earlier on Tuesday that Pompeo was on the way to the DPRK to prepare for his meeting with Kim, adding that he was hopeful the three U.S. detainees would be released soon.

The three US nationals previously detained in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) are are currently on their way back home with the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on May 9, 2018. [Photo: CGTN]

Pompeo also said on the same day while on the plane to the DPRK that his visit was aimed to nail down a framework for the possible Trump-Kim meeting.

Pompeo said he would also talk about the release of the three men.

"We have been asking for the release of these detainees for 17 months. We'll talk about it again today," he said.

Their release would be a "great gesture" he said, adding that he hoped North Korea would "do the right thing."

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported earlier that the three men had been relocated in a hotel near Pyongyang in April.

Trump had said repeatedly that their release was his priority, and he would discuss the issue with Kim in their meeting, which could happen in May or early June.US exit deepens divide with European allies

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang [Photo: fmprc.gov.cn]

China on Wednesday urged the signatories to the Iran nuclear deal to safeguard the integrity of the agreement after President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the pact, raising the risk of confrontation in the Middle East and casting a shadow on the upcoming US-North Korea nuclear negotiations.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said on Wednesday that China regrets the US decision to leave the deal.

"The Iran nuclear deal was a multilateral agreement reached after negotiations among six countries, the EU and Iran, and approved by UN Security Council Resolution 2231. All relevant parties should faithfully implement and safeguard the integrity and seriousness of the deal," Geng said.

Trump said in a televised address from the White House that he would re-impose US economic sanctions on Iran to undermine "a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made."

The 2015 agreement lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program. But Trump complained that the accord, the signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor Barack Obama, did not address Iran's ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 or its role in conflicts in Yemen and Syria.

Analysts said the withdrawal will increase the risk of war in the Middle East, drive a potential arms race and aggravate conflicts between Iran and Israel and Saudi Arabia.

"The Iran nuclear deal is not abolished. Only the US has decided to withdraw from a deal already approved by the UN Security Council. Its efficacy remains with or without the US. Trump's decision has only left the US isolated from the international community. Even its allies disapproved of the move," Hua Liming, a former Chinese ambassador to Iran, told the Global Times.

Trump's withdrawal tests Iran's resolve to continue fulfilling its obligations under the accord, and that China, Russia and the EU should promptly find common ground to defend the deal to inject confidence in Tehran, said Niu Xinchun, a research fellow at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

With other signatories remaining in the deal, US sanctions can only inflict limited pain on Iran, analysts said.

"The move damages US credibility in the international community. Trump's decision is politically driven to destroy Obama's legacy. He has given little consideration to what it might do to the rest of the world," Hua noted.

Empty promise

Leaders of Britain, Germany and France, which were signatories to the deal, along with China and Russia, said in a joint statement that Trump's decision was a cause for "regret and concern."

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that Iran would remain in the deal without Washington. Nevertheless, Trump's decision to abandon the deal could tip Iran's balance of power in favor of hardliners.

Ding Chun, director of the Center for European Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, said the US withdrawal further deepens the divide between the US and its European allies. The latter are already mired in a migration crisis partially triggered by conflicts in the Middle East.

Trump's decision also puts pressure on forthcoming negotiations with North Korea on its nuclear program.

"Trump's decision shows Pyongyang how empty Washington's promises can be  The message is that Pyongyang must meet all US demands, otherwise the Iran deal is what Pyongyang will end up with. This is not the right atmosphere before an important summit," said Song Zhongping, a Beijing-based military expert.Santo Domingo - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemns the violence that led to the deaths of at least seven people and left 25 injured in a prison in Guatemalas Escuintla province. The IACHR urges the Guatemalan State to adopt any measures necessary to prevent such events from happening again, and to investigate these acts of violence and punish anyone responsible for them.

On April 26, 2018, a prison riot took place inside Canada Prison Farm, in the province of Escuintla. The director general of Guatemalas prison system told reporters that the violence started with a fight between groups of inmates for control of illegal business, which ended in a clash that involved the use of firearms. Of the seven people who died, six died from gunshot wounds, while a further inmate was electrocuted as he tried to jump over a fence to escape from the facility. Various security forces deployed personnel and retook control of the prison within a few hours of these events. A search was carried out among inmates in which 106 rounds of various caliber ammunition and four firearms were seized, along with cell phones and cash.

The public prosecutors office has reportedly launched an investigation into these events. In this respect, the Commission urges the Guatemalan State to carry out such investigations with due diligence and to seek to establish not only the criminal liability of those who perpetrated the violence, but also to hold accountable any masterminds and any authorities who might be to blame based on their actions or omissions.

In recent years, the IACHR has received reports on persistently high levels of violence in Guatemalas detention centers, stemming from conflicts between rival groups of inmates and from a lack of effective control by the authorities inside such facilities. Specifically, in a press release issued in December 2015, the IACHR expressed its concern over acts of violence that had happened in that same penitentiary center and reportedly claimed the lives of at least 16 people.

In this context, the Commission stresses that States, as guarantors of the fundamental rights of persons deprived of their freedom, have an inescapable legal obligation to take concrete actions to protect the rights of inmates to life and to humane treatment. With this end in mind, the IACHR urges the Guatemalan State to take concrete measures, such as disarming inmates and enforcing effective control to keep weapons and other illegal objects out of the facility, increasing security and surveillance personnel inside prisons, and preventing the actions of criminal organizations present inside prisons.

These events happened inside a prison that is known for being overcrowded and holds more than 3,000 people, that is, more than four times its intended capacity, said Commissioner Joel Hernandez, Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons Deprived of Liberty. Overcrowding leads to human rights violations among the prison population, and it is also a factor that tends to increase the level of violence. The Guatemalan State must therefore urgently take measures to reduce the high incarceration rates, such as seeking alternatives to the deprivation of liberty or releasing eligible inmates, Hernandez added.

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.

No. 101/18MPs have approved the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee recommendation to scrap pre-entry examinations for admission into the Law Development Centre (LDC).

MPs argue that the scraping of the pre-entry examinations would give chance to more students to train in the legal practice and enable Ugandans easy access to legal services.

Law Development Centre (LDC) graduates. MPs want to scrap off pre-entry exams for students to join the institute

We debated these issues and found that the policy is neither serving the purpose nor helping the already graduate lawyers who want to access the bar course. Pre-entry examinations are not a guarantee of quality assurance, committee chairperson Jacob Oboth Oboth (West Budama south) said.

The quality of lawyers is not determined at pre-entry but at the centre. We discussed with Law Development Centre (LDC) and they didnt have any problem with its scrapping, Oboth added as he presented Legal committee's report on different issues of the ministerial policy statements.

Oboth told the House that the committee held several meetings and its interactions with LDC authorities and they indicated no rejection to the proposal to stop pre-entry examinations.

According to Defense minister Adolf Mwesige, there were sufficient checks and balances in the system before the introduction of the pre-entry examinations, which helped the legal system, produce good lawyers.

We seem to be punishing our children so much subjecting them to so much. In my view the examinations should be removed, Mwesige said.

Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Kahinda Otafiire argued that the introduction of pre entry examinations was to try to decongest LDC since classes had huge numbers of students going up to 1000.

This question of pre-entry to LDC was a bit tricky. We came to a conclusion that a class of 1000 is a rally, Otaffire said.

He added: government has chosen to solve the problem of congestion by creating regional centres.

Although some MPs including Bududa Woman MP Justine Khainza, Bukooli North MP Gaster Mugoya and Aruu MP Odonga Otto among others were against the scrapping of the examinations, speaker Rebecca Kadaga put a question and members adopted the committee report.

It has always been prerequisite that for anyone to get admitted into LDC they ought to sit and pass pre-entry exams.

namuloki16@gmail.comIranian actors dressed as Islamic State fighters recently stormed a shopping mall in Teheran, in an attempt to promote a new film about a father and son who travel to Syria to deliver humanitarian supplies but end up kidnapped by ISIS. Unfortunately, their performance was a bit too good, and caused some shoppers to run for their lives.

It was supposed to be a harmless publicity stunt for Iranian director Ebrahim Hatamikias new film, Damascus Time, with actors dressed as ISIS militants peacefully visiting the Kourosh Complex shopping mall and cinema, in Teheran, and posing for pictures. However, the actors decided to show off their acting skills, and really got into their characters, storming the shopping complex and shouting Allahu akbar while waving their fake firearms and machetes around. One of them actually rode through the mall on a horse, while another pretended to connect the wires on a fake bomb.

Photo: video screengrab

While some shoppers recognized the actors from Damascus Time and realized it was only a stunt, others freaked out and ran for their lives, thinking it was a real ISIS attack. And who can blame them, really? Just last June, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for two simultaneous attacks in Teheran that killed 17 people and injured 43 others, so it wasnt like an actual attack was that improbable.

As you can imagine, the controversial publicity stunt caused quite a backlash on Iranian social media, and director Ebrahim Hatamikia even put out an apology:

I was under impression that someone is going to be in red beard standing outside Kourosh complex so that people can take pictures, he said. I didnt imagine there would be a horse, crowd and shouting inside the complex, I wasnt aware. The show was definitely beneath the dignity of my film

Photo: Iran Front Page/Twitter

The stunt was labeled a big mistake and an insulting joke by Iranian producer Seyed Mahmoud Razavi, and several journalists wrote that it was normalizing violence.

Despite some voices trying to put a positive spin on the whole thing by claiming that those terrified by the stunt should be grateful to the brave Iranian soldiers fighting real ISIS militants abroad, the general consensus was that this promotion backfired miserably.

The ISNA news agency reported that the people who orchestrated the event have been summoned by Tehrans Law Enforcement Force, and Tehran police chief Brigadier General Hossein Rahimi suggested that they could face criminal charges:

A post shared by pedram (@pedram_firuzi) on May 7, 2018 at 7:53am PDT

What happened in the Kourosh mall was against the law and it had not been coordinated with the police, Rahimi told ISNA.

Lou Capozzi

In accepting PRSA Foundations 2018 Paladin Award last night, former MSL Group chairman Lou Capozzi challenged the audience to touch one more life, mentor one more kid.

The long-time champion of diversity spoke of the positive impact that the 200 people attending the event could make if they just reached out to help just one young person further his or her career.

He noted that while at MSL the input of a person next door was equal to that of a person in an office across the ocean.

Capozzi has been taken aback by the resurgence of racism in the US, which he blamed in part on the toxic rhetoric of the president.

He faulted the president for lacking the moral authority to lead the US.

Capozzi noted that America is a country of immigrants, who trace their roots to places that were once impoverished and looked down upon. His own family came from Naples and Sicily.

He made an exception for African-Americans, whose ancestors were torn from their civilizations and sold into slavery.

The past president of PRSA Foundation and current adjunct professor at the University of Oregon, received applause when he took a swipe at rapper Kanye West, who told TMZ on April 30 that 400 years of slavery was a choice.

Calling PR the voice of the people, Capozzi said PRSA Foundations mission to foster diversity and inclusion is as vital as ever.

Judith Harrison, PRSA Foundation president and Weber Shandwicks senior VP for diversity and inclusion, introduced Capozzi as a friend and mentor.

She rallied the audience, saying, times up for words about diversity, its time for action.

Barby Siegel, Zeno Group CEO, and Lisa Ryan, Heyman Group senior VP, co-chaired the awards ceremony that was held at New Yorks Helen Mills Event Space on West 26thSt.

Weber Shandwick, McCann WorldGroup, Zeno, Kekst, MSL, Edelman, Prudential, Best Buy, Axis, Bayer and the Neptune Family Foundation were among sponsors of the event.Hearst Newspapers is entering the pay-per-article world by launching a system that allows advertisers to tie their messages to hand-selected stories, rather than just placing them on a specific landing page.

Hearst says the service will focus on breaking news.

Under the service, advertisers could pick key words, as well as set the type of breaking news stories with which they want their ads to appear. When an article meeting their criteria goes up in the specified section of the online publication, their ad will appear with that article.

A story from Hearst's chron.com, with a promoted headline above the regular one.

Developed by engagement company SolidOpinion, the system is currently testing at websites affiliated with several Hearst papers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Connecticut Post.

The ads take the form of what SolidOpinion calls promoted headlines, a line of copy that runs immediately above a storys headline. That promoted headline, which could also be linked to the advertisers website, would be a running part of the sites editorial content, rather than existing in separate advertising space.

Stories that are not currently sponsored by an advertiser will have a line of type running above them promoting the option of running an ad.

The system would eliminate one major hurdle that faces banner ads on web pages: ad-blocking software. Were not banner code, were part of the page, so we cant get blocked, a promotional video from SolidOpinion says.Li Lijuan takes care of several adopted children in Wu'an, Hebei Province in January. Photo: IC

When the doors of the Love Village orphanage were closed on May 6, only a few clothes and quilts scattered on the floor of a white temporary house indicated that children had once lived there.

The 71 children who had lived there have been relocated to 21 local hospitals for health checks, and will come under "united management," the government of Wu'an in North China's Hebei Province said in a statement.

The Love Village was ordered to shut down after its owner, a high-profile millionaire, was detained on May 5 for alleged gang-related blackmail.

This is just the latest in a series of scandals involving private orphanages. In 2013, seven children died in a fire that broke out in a private orphanage in Lankao county, Central China's Henan Province.

Such cases have highlighted China's inadequate children's welfare system as well as insufficient government and public supervision over private orphanages.

Independent kingdom

In an article published by the Wu'an government on its WeChat account, the Love Orphanage, run by Li Lijuan, a 48-year-old woman, was referred to as an "independent kingdom," after Li repeatedly refused to cooperate with local civil affairs departments to move the children to public institutions or to allow police to collect blood samples and fingerprints from them.

Li extorted 300,000 yuan in one month from a hospital, a hotel and an enterprise, and threatened to organize the children in her orphanage to create trouble for them and even organized a gang to obstruct construction work, according to the Wu'an government.

Li has reportedly accumulated a fortune through the orphanage.

Li bought several apartments in Wu'an and other cities in Hebei, and her bank account was found to have over 20 million yuan. In 2017 alone, she received 1.27 million yuan in government subsidies.

"Li's case had a significant negative influence on society, as her misconduct greatly undermined public confidence in charities," Wang Hongwei, a professor at the School of Public Administration and Policy at the Renmin University, told the Global Times.

The case reflected the loopholes that exist in government supervision over non-governmental organizations, Wang said.

"The civil affairs department in the case was only responsible for approving and registering the social organizations, but failed to take further actions in follow-up supervision over their operation," Wang said.

China's charity sector has been plagued by frauds and scams in recent years.

"The fundamental solution to charity fraud is information disclosure. All the parties involved including the donors, charity organizations and recipients have the right to know the details of such donations," Wang Ming, a leading expert on NGOs and civil society in China and dean of Tsinghua University's NGO Research Center, told the Global Times.

Annual donations to registered charities in China soared from 10 billion yuan to 100 billion yuan over the past decade, the Xinhua News Agency reported in 2016.

China adopted its first Charity Law in March 2016, which provides for regulation over the responsibility of charity groups to disclose information including reasons for raising money.

Wang Hongwei also pointed out that corruption may also be involved in such charity fraud cases.

Gang-related crimes are often related to protection offered by local governments.

In Li's case, the local government should also be put under investigation, Wang Hongwei said.

Inadequate welfare

"What will happen to those children who previously lived in the Love Orphanage? Hospitals can only provide a temporary shelter for them, but in the long term, they need a proper place to live and schools to attend," Wan Daqiang, a Beijing-based lawyer specializing in child protection, told the Global Times.

According to the China Child Welfare Policy Report issued by UNICEF in 2016, China had a total of 511,000 orphans by the end of 2015, and only 89,000 of them were under institutional care.

"Civil affairs departments should send their staff to inspect private orphanages regularly or even allocate some to work in such orphanages," Wan said.

He added that to ensure children of school age receive an education, the government should also help private orphanages introduce qualified teachers.Around 100 museums in Beijing will be open for free on May 18, International Museum Day, including 17 museums that charge visitors usually.

According to the municipal administration of cultural heritage, among the museums that will stop charging on that day are the Geological Museum of China, the Beijing Planetarium and the Zhoukoudian Site Museum.

Over 90 activities, such as exhibitions and lectures, will be launched in the city's museums to celebrate the day. Currently there are 179 museums in Beijing.

The administration will open a webpage on May 18, offering chances for people to have a virtual museum experience, through texts, pictures and video.

Yu Ping, deputy head of the administration, said the activities were aimed at inviting more people to museums, and making museums more popular among citizens.Chinese telecom equipment supplier ZTE Corp said on Wednesday that it has been unable to conduct its major business due to the US government's ban on the sales of key components and chips.

"The company and relevant parties are actively communicating with the US government to push an adjustment or even a cancellation of the sales ban. We [are trying to] promote things in a positive way," the company said in a filing sent to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

In the filing, ZTE also stressed that its capital is "abundant" and the company maintains its credit lines on the basis of "operating legally."

The Global Times found that consumers have been unable to make a purchase on either ZTE's official website or its flagship store on e-commerce platform T-mall as of Wednesday.

All the company's electronic devices had been removed, and the home page of ZTE's website reads "website under revision, coming soon."

ZTE halted trading of its shares in Hong Kong and Shenzhen on April 17, after the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) imposed a denial of export privileges against ZTE on April 16.

The BIS claimed that ZTE has made "additional false statements" about having taken action against the employees responsible for illegal sales of goods to Iran and North Korea.

China's Ministry of Commerce said on Friday that the nation had lodged solemn representations with the US concerning the ZTE case during Chinese Vice Premier Liu He's meeting with a US delegation led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin from May 3 to May 4.

Taiwan-based chip designer Mediatek on Monday received a permit to sell components to ZTE, the Wall Street Journal reported. This led to market expectations that the telecommunications producer could get a lifeline after finding a substitute for US chips.Technology experts check the condition of the Tianhe-1 supercomputer at the National SuperComputer Center in Tianjin. [Photo/Xinhua]

The National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen plans to build a next-generation supercomputer that will be 10 times faster than the world's current speed champion, a senior executive said.

"The investment is likely to hit 3 billion yuan ($470.6 million), and key technologies for the supercomputer are expected to be developed independently," Wang Zhenglu, director of the project management department of the center told China Daily.

The supercomputer will be "exascale", meaning that it will be capable of making a quintillion (1 followed by 18 zeros) calculations per second, much faster than the current No 1 supercomputer, Sunway TaihuLight, Wang said. The new supercomputer is expected to be developed by 2020.

The exascale supercomputer will play an important role in promoting the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, especially in cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence, he said.

Supercomputers are a new driving force in China's computer innovation and are important for the nation's information security. China has established six supercomputing centers, in Tianjin, Guangzhou, Wuxi, Changsha, Jinan and Shenzhen.

China is now at the vanguard of supercomputer development, having raced ahead of the United States and Japan. The latest biannual ranking of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers showed China's Sunway TaihuLight and Tianhe-2 are the world's fastest and second-fastest machines, with Titan from the US in fifth place.

The Shenzhen center, founded in 2009, has focused on high performance computing and cloud computing. It maintains leading positions in a variety of areas like weather forecasting and disaster prevention.

The center's work in detailed exploration and large-scale data processing has helped a domestic petroleum company reduce petroleum exploration costs.

The growing shortage of cloud computing resources led the center to recently purchase 420 more rack-mounted servers, 10 graphics processing servers and a group of storage systems to expand its computing resources.

China has an edge in hardware, but more efforts are needed to develop tailor-made software for supercomputers to widen their application, Wang Gang, an associate professor at the College of Computer Science and Technology at Jilin University, said in an earlier interview.

Zhang Zhihao contributed to this story.Oregon needs experience, decisive leadership to improve

The state of Oregon is raking in cash these days. Tax revenues are at record highs and the booming economy has helped push unemployment to record lows. A rare bipartisan agreement in 2017 also brought a much-needed investment in our highways, bridges and public transportation.

The problem, however, is the shaky ground underneath all that good news. Oregon's record revenue growth can't match the breakneck speed at which state government is spending tax dollars. Small businesses, celebrated by politicians as the backbone of the state's economy, are struggling to navigate new regulations and taxes passed in recent months. Meanwhile, persistent problems in education, foster care, housing affordability and other areas only ratchet up the pressure for elected officials to show leadership.

The May 15 primary gives Oregonians the ability to decide who best delivers that leadership in two statewide seats -- governor and labor commissioner. In the governor's race, The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board endorses Gov. Kate Brown for the Democratic primary, Rep. Knute Buehler for the Republican primary, and Patrick Starnes for Independents.

Don't Edit

Brown not facing much competition

Gov. Kate Brown keeps getting a pass. Re-elected as secretary of state in 2012, the 57-year-old Portland Democrat succeeded former Gov. John Kitzhaber after his resignation amid corruption allegations in 2015. She faced no real threat in her 2016 race -- even from Republicans -- to fill out the remaining two years of Kitzhaber's term. And the May 2018 primary appears to be no different.

The lack of competition isn't a reflection of great leadership. Oregon remains a basement dweller in K-12 education rankings, the divide between urban and rural interests has grown into a canyon, and she has dilly-dallied on undertaking either revenue reform or public-pension fixes despite an escalating budget crisis that threatens to choke off funding for public services.

Democrats would have been wise to put forward a strong challenger for the primary to at least force Brown to articulate a vision. Instead, once again, Brown faces only token opposition and will skate ahead to the general election. While Brown is the best of the candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, she needs to show she can deliver far more than she has in her current term to deserve a win in November.

Don't Edit

Buehler's the best choice for Republicans

Republicans fielded 10 candidates from across the state who are seeking the chance to oust Gov. Brown in November. Yet only one has the smarts, savvy and experience to actually get that done.

Rep. Knute Buehler, an orthopedic surgeon, has twice convinced voters in Bend - where Democrats hold an 11 percentage-point edge -- that he can represent their interests in Salem.

Buehler, a Roseburg native who attended Oregon State University and later became its first Oxford Scholar, has been a reasonable and respected Republican lawmaker known for championing a groundbreaking bill that gave women access to birth control without a prescription.

His independent streak continued with his support of the coal-to-clean energy bill in 2016 and last session's move to close the "boyfriend loophole" by banning gun sales to partners convicted of domestic abuse. Buehler also was the first Republican to call for Sen. Jeff Kruse to resign after the Roseburg lawmaker admitted he'd ignored warnings that his hugs and touching made female lawmakers uncomfortable in Salem.

Not surprisingly, those stances have earned criticism from his more conservative opponents, including Sam Carpenter, also of Bend, and Greg Wooldridge, a former Navy captain from Southwest Portland.

But Buehler has an array of credible plans to address Oregon's struggles. He promises he wouldn't sign any new spending proposals without a viable PERS reform bill. He says he'd support a $150,000 cap on annual payouts for future retirees, a retirement age increase from 58 to 65, a transition from pensions to defined-contribution plans and a requirement that employees contribute to their retirement plans.

Addressing PERS could help staunch the flow of money out of classrooms, he said, though he'd also like to see more savings by pushing for a statewide contract with teachers instead of the current system of forging hundreds of deals across the state. He would aim to increase state support of career and technology options in school that voters passed in 2016, and to make more changes than Brown has to address Oregon's failed foster care system.

Among the other candidates, Brett Hyland presented one of the more interesting concepts to pay down Oregon's unfunded pension liability with a dedicated tax that would go away once the task was complete. Though vague, the idea was more creative than anything we heard from the conservative front-runner Wooldridge. The 71-year-old Southwest Portland resident won the Republican gubernatorial straw poll at the Dorchester Conference earlier this year yet appeared to drop the ball when it came to seriously studying Oregon's most pressing issues.

Wooldridge, who has never held a public office, said that he supports moving public employees from a defined benefit, or pension, plan to a defined contribution set-up, such as a 401k. That's not a bad idea, but it's also not particularly new. He also said he'd fill empty seats on the PERS board, which sounds more like crossing off to-do list items than crafting a real strategy to address the pension crisis.

While he has capably served his country for decades and can fly a fighter jet upside-down, he seems to lack the creative collaboration and political savvy that a Republican governor would need to get work done with a House and Senate controlled by Democrats.

Don't Edit

Denis C. Theriault/Staff

Hoyle or state labor commissioner

It's too bad that "runoff" isn't one of the options voters can choose in the race for state labor commissioner. A little additional time - and pressure - could force the two leading candidates, Val Hoyle and Lou Ogden to be more forthcoming about their stands on a few key issues.

Voters don't have that option, however. While they should hope that none of the three candidates for the nonpartisan seat win enough to avoid a November runoff, Oregonians should still cast their votes based on the best available information. And the best available information means choosing Hoyle as commissioner and leader of the state's Bureau of Labor and Industries.

Hoyle, a Democrat, served as the House Majority Leader in the Oregon Legislature before launching an unsuccessful run for secretary of state in 2016. Her experience on state issues, detailed understanding of BOLI's responsibilities as an enforcer of labor laws and regulations and willingness, at times, to show independence from her party makes her the stronger candidate.

Hoyle, 54, likes to point to her list of backers, which include employers amid her largely labor-union supporters, as evidence of her ability to work fairly with both business and workers. She rightly identifies the need to streamline and hasten BOLI investigations which can take months or even years for final resolution. And she talks convincingly of the need to rebuild businesses' trust in BOLI, a welcome shift after current Commissioner Brad Avakian's reign of partisan grandstanding.

Yet, we have our concerns. Hoyle played dumb on the question of how she would have handled the controversial Sweet Cakes by Melissa discrimination case that defined Avakian's tenure and turned Oregon into ground zero for the culture wars. In that case, Avakian levied a $135,000 penalty against a Christian bakery in Gresham whose owners refused to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple. But Hoyle said she didn't know enough about the case, hadn't read the Court of Appeals opinion laying out the background and legal conclusions and was waiting for the Oregon Supreme Court to weigh in. Yet that won't be for at least another year considering that the matter has not even been scheduled.

Her ignorance reflects either a shocking lack of curiosity or an intentional political calculation. It's unfortunate that she would not be up front with voters on such a prominent case, unlike Ogden, who said he did not believe that the state should seek to penalize a business out of existence for its first transgression.

Ogden, the longtime mayor of Tualatin, is a tempting choice because his philosophy toward business is so diametrically opposed to that of Avakian. He made no bones about his intention to make BOLI far more business friendly, with more of a focus on building a pipeline of trained Oregonians for marketable jobs than on aggressive enforcement of wage-and-hour laws.

But Ogden, 63, would be an overcorrection. His breezy answers to The Oregonian/OregonLive EditorialBoard came across as someone whose approach was both unformed and uninformed. The third candidate, Jack Howard, has not run an active campaign and did not respond to The Oregonian/OregonLive EditorialBoard's invitation to discuss his candidacy.

Hoyle's silence on Sweet Cakes should cost her, except for the fact that Ogden doesn't bring a compelling platform to endorse. Voters should go with Hoyle and press her to be the measured, nonpartisan leader that the bureau has lacked.

Don't Edit

Gordon R. Friedman | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Monroe for Senate District 24 in East Portland

Democrats Shemia Fagan and Kayse Jama would seem to be the face of the future for the East Portland district they are running to represent in the Oregon Senate. Younger than incumbent Rod Monroe by decades, they both champion policies aggressively to the left of the more moderate Monroe while offering a gender and racial diversity that largely eludes the senate.

But while Fagan, a former legislator in the Oregon House, and Jama, the Somalia-born executive director of Unite Oregon, would bring a new energy to the senate, they also exhibit a my-way-or-the-highway attitude for a position that demands consensus building. Monroe, who has delivered for his constituents with new public transit investment, strong advocacy for education and his rational stand on housing market policies, is Senate District 24's best pick.

In 2017, Monroe served as one of the legislators on the bipartisan transportation committee, which passed a $5.3 billion package of taxes and fees that, remarkably, was not referred to the ballot. The package included a big investment in public transit which in itself is a remarkable feat for a statewide funding plan. With that increased money, TriMet has already expanded bus routes, including lines that directly serve Monroe's constituents.

Monroe has been pilloried for his opposition to lifting the statewide ban on rent control. But his position is backed by the opinions of economists across the political spectrum. While rent control may seem to alleviate some pain for existing renters, it ultimately discourages new investors and landlords, exacerbating the fundamental factor driving rent up - a shortage of housing.

Yet Fagan and Jama both support lifting the statewide ban on rent control in the belief that this will help local leaders force developers, landlords and the market as a whole to behave exactly the way they want it to. It doesn't take an economics degree to recognize how flawed that basic premise is.

While Monroe has not been a dynamic advocate for spending reform, he has taken reasonable positions on dealing with Oregon's budget crisis, including the burgeoning public pension burden that is increasingly claiming money needed for public services.

Neither Fagan nor Jama expressed much interest in curbing Oregon's spending. Instead, they focused their attention and ire almost entirely on the business community, pointing to increased taxation as the solution to Oregon's budget woes. Yet, their clear disdain for the business community reflects a lack of the political diplomacy needed to negotiate with those same players to secure such revenue increases. If Oregonians want new revenue, they should look to leaders who don't mistake intransigence as a sign of commitment. Voters should look to a legislator who has long demonstrated that wisdom and vote for Monroe.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

AP Photo/Jonathan J. Cooper

Drazan for Houe District 39 in Clackamas County

Voters in House District 39 must decide among three candidates who seek to replace Rep. Bill Kennemer in the Republican primary after the longtime Oregon City lawmaker who announced earlier this year that he wouldn't run for re-election.

They should choose Christine Drazan, a 45-year-old mother of three with legislative chops who acutely feels the state's education crisis. She points to the inequity in her district alone, where one high school graduates 88 percent of its seniors and another has struggled to improve its graduation rate from 38 percent to 44 percent.

Drazan brings expertise from years in the State Capitol trenches serving as a chief of staff to a Republican House Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House. She also worked as legislative counsel in 1999 on the Quality Education Model. That once-hopeful transparency plan aimed to hold the state accountable by showing taxpayers what they were getting for their education dollars. Now, she says, it's just a report every two years illustrating Oregon's educational nosedive.

With children in elementary, middle and high schools, Drazan should get back to that work.

She envisions the state providing more help for districts to share best practices and training for leaders. She also supports providing families the freedom to choose viable alternatives to their public schools, especially as young people veer off more traditional paths to graduation.

While Drazan admits it's not her area of expertise, she said she'd support more seasoned lawmakers' work to address the state's pension problems, possibly by moving away from pensions to a defined contribution, 401K style plan.

Fellow candidate and business consultant John Lee, 62, has been the engine fueling the Clackamas County Republican machine for decades. It's clear that he deeply understands the district's issues and those faced across the state. He's also worked for years with the key Republican players, but it's unclear how his deep ties to the party will lead to necessary work across the aisle. Another candidate, Seth Rydmark, is mental healthcare provider who was elected as a Republican Precinct Committee Person in 2016.

A fourth-generation Oregonian, Drazan has deep ties here and to her community but also brings a fresh perspective. She says she knows the right moment to engage in Salem to get her voice heard and should get the chance to show it.

Don't Edit

Randy L Rasmussen

Peterson for Metro Council President

Just check the box for Lynn Peterson and know Metro Council will be in good hands.

Peterson, an approachable and whip-smart transportation planner, will take the helm at the right time as the Portland-based regional government aims to take on a bigger role in solving the metropolitan area's housing crisis and transportation crunch.

Peterson captures the essence of the region's growing pains saying, "we don't do bold things. We do things incrementally, like building MAX light rail in five-mile increments." That may have worked when the city was growing slowly, but those days are gone. And, Peterson acknowledges, those practices left the region with glaring disparities that must be addressed.

Until recently, Peterson served as secretary of the Washington Department of Transportation, instituting a system to set clear goals and measure progress - down to the level of individual employees. That's good for this agency that's collected an odd portfolio of programs and has a history of veering out of its lane to add more. Some recent audits have shown a need for more focus, especially when it comes to how park levy dollars have been spent.

Peterson also brings valuable political experience to the job, having served a term as chairwoman of the Clackamas County Commission. That position helped her see firsthand the effect of that incremental planning and understand the perspective of those who are used to having "solutions" hoisted upon them.

She's running virtually unopposed as Michael Langley hasn't attended any political events and didn't respond to a request for an endorsement interview.

Don't Edit

The Oregonian/OregonLive file

City of Portland

The City of Portland is at a pivotal moment. We are struggling to balance the city we've had with the big city that Portland is quickly becoming.

The departure of longtime Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman leaves a hole on the council at a time when we need leaders who will stay focused on addressing the critical issues that are making it difficult for the city to deliver on core services.

With two council seats up for election in the May 15 primary, Portland voters should mark their ballots for candidates with the experience, pragmatism and knowledge of the city and its people to steer Portland through these changes.

Don't Edit

Randy L. Rasmussen

Fish for City Council, Position 2

Fish, 59, has distinguished himself in his two-and-a-half terms on the City Council for his deft management of city bureaus and the rare ability to forge collaborative solutions among city commissioners, a reflection of the negotiation skills he relied on as a lawyer. While his opponents bring a variety of experience and interests to the table, none make a compelling case for unseating an incumbent who has been a steady and effective member of the council.

Fish proved his management chops with his turnaround of the Portland Water Bureau. Assigned by former Mayor Charlie Hales to head the troubled utility, Fish installed new management, refocused its mission - and spending - on more disciplined objectives and moved the once drama-filled bureau out of the headlines. But he has also maintained a high profile on housing issues despite not heading the bureau. He has relentlessly pushed for prioritizing permanent supportive housing which pairs affordable housing developments with health, drug-and-alcohol treatment or other services to bring about life-changing improvements - not temporary fixes - for those chronically homeless. At his urging, the council unanimously adopted a resolution to create 2,000 units of such affordable housing over the next 10 years.

Fish has his blind spots. His enthusiasm for arts funding, for example, led to the city council's decision to do away with a cap on administrative fees for collecting the arts tax, a provision that had been promised to voters. Early in his career, he short-circuited public scrutiny of a controversial deal with developers that saddled the city with millions in clean-up costs for a South Waterfront greenway, a mistake that he admitted in 2016 after The Oregonian/OregonLive's Brad Schmidt exposed the deal.

But he has also championed accountability and transparency in many other ways. He worked with the Portland City Auditor to pass a charter amendment granting her office greater independence, supported new lobbyist disclosure requirements and created a new Portland citizens board to oversee the city's water and sewer operations. His opponents all raise issues that deserve attention. DeGraw targeted Portland's commission form of government, which, despite its inequitable and archaic nature, has survived multiple efforts to abolish it. Sutton emphasized the need to address the economic pressures squeezing those relying on minimum-wage jobs as living costs escalate. And Wolfe, who is deaf, highlighted how the city fails to provide accessibility - not only to those with disabilities but those in need of mental health treatment, housing and other services. But none bring the diplomatic leadership, negotiation savvy or sheer breadth of expertise that have made Fish such a valuable member of the City Council. Those qualities will serve both the city and the city council well with the departure of longtime commissioner Dan Saltzman, who opted not to run for re-election for a sixth term.

Don't Edit

Mark Graves

Hardesty for City Council, Position 3

Portland needs a new council member who is a collaborator and will seek to do what's right for the whole city instead of pushing pet projects or legacy policies. The new commissioner needs lawmaking experience and to understand that Portland needs policies that support new construction and creative ways to add more affordable housing to our inventory. That leader must also balance those needs with the mission to, as much as possible, maintain the value for existing homeowners across the city.

The best candidate must understand what work has - and hasn't - been done to improve public safety in Portland, especially as we seen an increasing number of Oregonians on the street in varying stages of mental health crisis.

Jo Ann Hardesty, 60, is the right person for the job. She is a longtime Portlander who now lives in outer Southeast, bringing a needed perspective to the council from a woman of color and a representative from those neighborhoods outside the city's core.

While her positions on how to alleviate the housing crisis concern us, such as her support of lifting the state ban on rent control, Hardesty has proven time and again that she is an independent thinker who will push for data to draft policy, to set goals for outcomes and to measure success.

While two other candidates, Felicia Williams and Andrea Valderrama, brought good ideas and show leadership promise, Hardesty has the experience of years as a state legislator that will help her to get this needed work done. From Hardesty's time working in Multnomah County, she brings the understanding of the jurisdictions' separate missions, while also seeing how they must increasingly team up to better address our shared problems of homelessness and a shortage mental health and addiction services.

Hardesty's work on various public safety fronts also will be valuable, from her experience helping train officers through the state certification agency to participating in the ongoing oversight of the agreement between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice. We agree with Hardesty's stance that instead of Mayor Ted Wheeler's idea to hire 93 new officers, Portland may be better served by more selective hiring and increased training to help officers who, unfortunately, are increasingly on the front lines in the work to serve our mentally ill in crisis.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Mary Hull Caballero for City Auditor

City Auditor Mary Hull Caballero is running unopposed in her bid for re-election. That's not surprising. Hull Caballero, 55, and her staff have been a consistent,measured and trusted voice for the public with their insistence on making city government answer for its actions, from police traffic stops to City Hall lobbying. Voters already showed their faith in her leadership with their overwhelming approval last year of city charter changes designed to vest her office with more independence. While Hull Caballero's win isn't in doubt, Portlanders should still make a point of casting their votes for her. A big showing sends a message of support for government accountability not only to her, but the rest of city government as well.

Don't Edit

Stephanie Yao

Support Portland's Children's Levy

In a perfect world, the city's 16-year-old levy wouldn't be necessary. The $15 million that Measure 26-197 distributes annually to early childhood education, after-school, child abuse prevention and foster care programs should come from the state and local school districts.

But that hasn't been the case in recent years and isn't likely to improve as the state pension continues to drain social service and education budgets.

The levy, which costs about $60 a year for Portlanders with homes assessed at $150,000, assures a variety of providers deliver these programs to as many as 20,000 children across the city. And that continues to be a good investment.

Don't Edit

Don Ryan

Multnomah County

Kafoury should return

In four years as Multnomah County Chair, Deborah Kafoury accomplished several

long overdue projects that had stymied those who'd previously held the office. She pushed forward construction of the new courthouse in downtown Portland, replaced the Sellwood Bridge and spearheaded collaboration between county and city officials to address the homeless crisis. After many years of drama on the five-seat commission, Kafoury, 50, brought focus and know-how from her years as a state lawmaker that have delivered results for county residents.

Don't Edit

Kristyna Wentz-Graff/2016

Yet her tenure hasn't been without struggles. Kafoury lost her temper during a board meeting late last year and addressed Commissioner Loretta Smith with an expletive after repeatedly interrupting and talking over her. Kafoury earned criticism from her fellow commissioners and calls for resignation from dozens of community members. While her behavior was abhorrent, Kafoury owned it, apologized publicly and personally and has taken several steps to improve. She says she now meets with other commissioners individually, calls them directly when critical issues arise and has pushed for all of the board's chiefs of staff to raise any potential conflicts or issues among the commissioners at their weekly meeting.

And while Kafoury has begun to address the systemic racism reported by county employees for years, she hasn't yet delivered a fix. It's true that changing a culture can take time, but that important work should remain a top priority and action should come soon. Still, Kafoury deserves another four years to see that through and to continue her work the county's need for improved mental health and addiction services. She could also do well to require more rigorous data reporting and analysis from county programs, in particular the Joint Office of Homeless Services.

Don't Edit

Jayapal for District 2

Susheela Jayapal says she decided to run for the commission seat being vacated by Loretta Smith because she felt a sense of urgency around the issues of homelessness and economic disparities that are coming to a head across the county. It's an urgency, she worries other local leaders don't share. The county could use such a mindset and, in particular, Jayapal's commitment to -- and specialized skill set for -- increasing the rigor and oversight of the agency's contracting. The Northeast Portland resident, who has lived in the county for 23 years, served as a grant evaluator for the Oregon Community Foundation, measuring whether grant recipients had lived up to expectations. That's a particular area where the county has struggled in the past.

Jayapal says she would push for more clarity in describing what outcomes the county expects from partners, better evaluations on whether partners are actually capable of delivering the promised services and finally, an improved system to effectively measure whether the outcomes were achieved. She also supports finding ways to provide renter assistance to keep people in their homes and seeking funding for such programs through private health systems that understand the link between health and housing.

Jayapal's opponent Sharon Maxwell is a compelling choice as she has spent her entire life in the county and operating several businesses there. She is passionate, knows the issues and already has dedicated herself to improving the lives of county residents on several fronts. Another candidate, Maria Garcia, who once worked for the Mexican Consulate and owns a coffee shop in downtown Portland, is also concerned about transparency within county government and how the agency delivers services to its most vulnerable residents.

But Jayapal shines for her ability to quickly break down complex issues, evaluate systems and chart a logical path forward. Her intelligence, negotiation skills and grant expertise will help round out the board of commissioners, which has much important work to do.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Learn for County Auditor

Elected officials like to say they're all about accountability. At times, they may even demonstrate it. But few deliver on their promise with the consistency of an elected auditor, whose role as a watchdog guarding taxpayers' interests makes him or her the public's best friend.

In the county's most competitive race, three candidates are vying for the position in Multnomah County being vacated by auditor Steve March, who cannot run for re-election due to term limits. While voters are lucky to have three strong contenders, they should pick Scott Learn, a performance auditor for the Secretary of State's office and former journalist, to fill the role.

First, an important disclosure: Learn worked at The Oregonian for 17 years and is a former colleague of members of The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board. While some may discount the endorsement for that reason, they should look at Learn's auditing record, consider his on-the-mark priorities for the office and recognize the independence he brings to an office whose credibility depends on it. As both a government insider and outsider, Learn has approached his work as an advocate of the public - unsentimental about bringing to light agency failings but with the goal of prodding government to correct course and deliver what the public expects.

Learn, 54, began his professional career as a financial auditor before switching to journalism. While at The Oregonian, he wrote numerous stories exposing and questioning failures by government programs, from schools to Portland City Hall. He returned to auditing in 2013, joining the Oregon Secretary of State's office where he served on award-winning audit teams that diagnosed failures in a range of government programs, such as the state's management of its food-stamps program and its poor collection of delinquent debt. He also served as senior auditor on the recent foster-care audit that deconstructed the lapses jeopardizing child safety.

If elected, Learn said he plans to prioritize audits that focus on the effectiveness of county or joint-jurisdiction programs such as mental health services in schools, affordable housing spending and justice system operations. He also aims to more exhaustively dig into the perennial problems in the county's management of contracts - agreements that amount to hundreds of millions a year - to better identify how county policies line up against model practices.

But there's also the intangibles that make Learn the best choice. In talking with the editorial board, Learn acknowledged feeling exasperated at times during audits when he and others uncovered failures that meant people weren't getting the services they needed. Taxpayers, clients and the public at large need someone in the auditor's office who gets impatient when government fails the public and feels that imperative to help fix what's broken.

Learn's competitors, Mark Ulanowicz and Jennifer McGuirk, have both spent years on staff in March's office. They understand the culture in the office and the county and share similar interests as Learn in using audits to probe programs for racial inequities or performance failures. Ulanowicz, in particular, boasts a career with international and federal experience and a fluency with health policy that lines up well with Multnomah County's health-service focus.

But neither candidate projects the sense of urgency or the dynamism that Learn does. While both said they would seek to increase interaction with the public, their outreach to date seems to fall more in line with the low-key profile set by March. While his office has produced many worthy audits, they have generally failed to spark the public buzz necessary to turn recommendations into mandates that elected officials ignore at their own peril.

Learn's passion for improving government, his dynamic nature and his long record of holding government accountable will mean he can keep up the pressure.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board

Oregonian editorials

Editorials reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom. Members of the editorial board are Laura Gunderson, Helen Jung, Mark Katches and John Maher.

To respond to this editorial, post your comment below, submit an OpEd or a letter to the editor.

If you have questions about the opinion section, email Laura Gunderson, editorial pages editor, at lgunderson@oregonian.com or call 503-221-8378.A rural Oregon school district is in hot water after administrators reportedly admitted they force students to read Bible passages as punishment, The Coos Bay World reports.

The allegations came in a letter from the Oregon Department of Education to North Bend School District Superintendent Bill Yester issued March 6. The department says a North Bend High School LGBTQ student was forced to read the Bible passages as punishment for an undisclosed infraction by a school administrator.

The education department is also investigating claims another LGBTQ student was discriminated against for reporting sexual harassment.

The district initially denied the administrator had used Bible readings as a punishment, The World reports. But the administrator contradicted that claim in an interview with ODE and the punishment was later confirmed by his supervisor.

An ODE spokesperson said the March 6 letter triggered a 30-day reconciliation period where the student and district could come to a settlement. That didn't happen, even when ODE granted an extension.

Now, the education department will dispatch a hearings officer to discuss the allegations with North Bend officials on May 24 to determine if the district complied with state anti-discrimination laws.

At issue is the question of whether the Bible readings violated the students' First Amendment rights, violating the Establishment Clause of the Constitution and crossing the line separating church and state.

The North Bend School District in a release said the Bible reading was a one-time thing. Officials plan to appeal the allegations during the May 24 meeting and say the district "has taken corrective action."

But if the hearings officer determines the administrator violated state law and discriminated against the student, consequences could include daily fines levied against the school district, a loss of funding or the barring of North Bend teams participating in "interschool activities."

The American Civil Liberties Union on Twitter said its Oregon office is involved in the case.

--Eder Campuzano | 503.221.4344

ecampuzano@oregonian.comThe Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a nearly 112-year prison sentence for Thurston High School shooter Kip Kinkel isn't cruel and unusual punishment given the breadth and severity of his crimes.

Kip Kinkel, at age 15

Kinkel was 15 when he killed his parents in their Springfield home on May 20, 1998, then showed up the next day at Thurston High with three guns hidden in his trench coat. He killed two classmates and wounded 24 others.

Kinkel, now 35, appealed his sentence, arguing that it amounts to a life sentence without parole and violates the Eighth Amendment because he committed his crimes when he was a juvenile.

Kinkel contends his long sentence falls under a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Miller v. Alabama. The ruling found that mandatory life sentences for two 14-year-old murder defendants were cruel and unusual punishment because of their age.

The 2012 decision has spurred a re-evaluation of juvenile murder sentences across the nation.

The Oregon Supreme Court, however, was unpersuaded by Kinkel's arguments.

The court found that Kinkel's crimes reflected "irreparable corruption" rather than youthful immaturity that could change over time. It noted that Kinkel's sentencing judge found that he had an incurable illness, either paranoid schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

The court found that it couldn't say Kinkel's sentence was "constitutionally disproportionate," given the number of people he killed and injured.

One of seven Supreme Court judges -- Justice Pro Tem James Egan -- dissented.

Egan wrote that "it is difficult to comprehend how petitioners youth at the time of his crimes, in combination with his mental disorder, did not affect the nature and gravity of his crimes."

The Oregon Justice Resource Center, which advocates for change in the juvenile justice system, praised Egan's dissent.

"In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized fundamental differences between children and adults based on brain science and development," said Bobbin Singh, the center's executive director. "The scientific evidence is clear: all young people have inherent potential to grow and change including those who have committed the most serious crimes."

The majority's ruling affirms prior decisions by Lane County Circuit Judge Jack Mattison and by the Oregon Court of Appeals, which also found Kinkel's sentence constitutional.

Kinkel's attorney, Andy Simrin, said Kinkel still has paths for appeal. A federal habeas corpus case, which had been put on hold, will be reactivated. Kinkel also could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case, Simrin said.

Read Thursday's ruling here.

-- Aimee Green"The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey" is so uplifting, the morning after you see it you'll want to slip on a sweater with kittens, hug your crabby neighbor and buy a round of Cupcake Frappuccinos for everyone at Starbucks.

Which shouldn't make sense, considering the one-man mystery from Triangle Productions tracks the increasingly grim investigation of a missing gay teen in a small New Jersey town. Hate and torment, we learn, shape the circumstances of Leonard Pelkey's disappearance.

But playwright James Lecesne has a gift for ferreting out hope from anguish. In his 1994 short film "Trevor," a flamboyant 13-year-old Diana Ross superfan survives a suicide attempt. After that work won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film, Lecesne co-founded the Trevor Project, a 24-hour crisis hotline for LGBTQ youth (call 866-488-7386 or text "Trevor" to 202-304-1200).

For this lean, 75-minute monologue adapted from his 2008 novel, Lecesne keeps the eponymous star offstage. Instead, nine characters connected with Leonard provide information for a full portrait of the gregarious go-getter as the town's makeup consultant, eager theater actor and footwear designer. A pair of rainbow-heeled Converse high tops that he fashioned from flip-flops sits on a table throughout the show.

Actor Todd Van Voris, who has apparently worked with every Portland theater company except Triangle, breezes into the roles of a weary police detective and eight chatty locals. His quick character contortions are practically a Cirque du Soleil act, with fewer props. Especially admirable: Van Voris' various takes on a coastal New Jersey accent, none of which sound like Snooki, Pauly D or The Situation.

Given the time constraints, each character averages about eight minutes of dialogue. So we're rolling with types here, not depth. In the case of Otto, a Jewish clock repairman, and Buddy, a prissy British drama teacher, perhaps stereotypes.

In structure, the author was aiming, likely, for an iteration of "The Laramie Project." That 2000 documentary theater piece by Moises Kaufman recounts the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, from the perspective of the residents of Laramie, Wyoming.

While Lecesne's mosaic of mini-monologues isn't the best choice for a cohesive mystery story, the endearing voices introducing us to Leonard Pelkey become a life-affirming chorus.

Line of the night: "He claimed he was just being himself. All right, fine, but do you have to be so much yourself?" says Marion, who'd asked Leonard to tone down his personality.

Strengths: We don't get much face time with each character, but the folks speaking on Leonard's behalf make the most of it with great quips. Take Phoebe, Leonard's cousin:

"When I tell you he could make a silk purse from a sow's ear, I mean that literally. It was my birthday present. It was gross."

Would trimming the number of voices create a more suspenseful narrative? Probably. Still, Leonard's friends are all people we're glad we've met, however briefly.

Weaknesses: The breadcrumbs in this mystery taper off quickly and don't stack up to a big, surprising solve. And with a crusty investigating cop essentially plucked from the station house of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," you expect more twists.

The script treads a fine line between warm appreciation for Leonard and sentimental hyperbole. Leonard's friends do what good friends do: Elevate him to near-sainthood. Only Phoebe provides a sort of reality check when she tells us that hanging out with her "weird" cousin sinks her popularity at school and she has to constantly defend him from bullies.

Memorable moment: When we meet Marion, Van Voris drops his voice to a startling, deep and raspy growl -- somewhere between Elaine Stritch and Will Arnett with allergies. It's a perfect aural depiction of the straight-shooting, chain-smoking matron.

Takeaway: The best one-person show from Triangle Productions in recent years, "The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey" radiates charm and optimism while assigning homework we can handle: Be yourself. Be the light.

***

"The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey"

Where: The Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza, 1785 N.E. Sandy Blvd.

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through May 26

Tickets: $15-$35, trianglepro.org or 503-239-5919A Chinese craftsman is explaining the technique of restoration of Chinese paintings. (Photo: Qiang Wei)

A Chinese craftsman explains the methods behiind facsimilie reprints to a visitor at the 4th annual London Craft Week on May 9, 2018. (Photo: Qiang Wei)

Shakespeare images created by traditional techniques used in Chinese facsimile reprinting. (Photo: Qiang Wei)

A pair of fine China tea cups on display at London Craft Week, May 9, 2018. (Photo: Qiang Wei)

London (People's Daily) - Londons fourth annual Craft Week is underway. This time, the four-day festival will offer works from some 200 established and emerging craft artists, designers and brands, along with some of the biggest galleries from around the world.

Amazing China---Exhibition of Chinese Arts & Crafts could be the hottest event of the week that has already experienced high attendance on its first day.

As Guy Salter, chairman of London Craft Week, explained to Peoples Daily, Weve always wanted to add amazing Chinese content in London Craft Week, from the very beginning when we first started. In previous years, there were individual artists but this year we finally have a proper exhibition.

The handcrafted items on display this year are from the National Base for International Cultural Trade (Shanghai) and the National Base for Copyright Trade (Shanghai). The event showcases traditional Chinese craftsmanship in porcelain making, facsimile reprints, clothing, and ancient painting restoration.

On opening day, visitors were thrilled as they were given the opportunity to try making different craft items while gaining a deeper understanding of Chinese culture.

The efforts in protecting Chinas Intangible Cultural Heritage always emphasizes how heritage should be included in our everyday life so it can remain vivid. This idea naturally coincides with London Craft Week, said Xiaowei Xiang, Minister Counselor of Cultural Affairs with the Chinese embassy in London.

Salter sees the event as a way of boosting cooperation between China and the UK under the Belt and Road Initiative.

Culture helps connect people, said Salter, its very important that two things go together: the hard, important business matters, and the soft, creative cultural things. Even though the UK is far away from China, we can still feel strong cultural links through the Belt and Road.

London Craft Week was proposed by Prince Charles and launched in 2015. The annual event showcases the very best in creativity and craftsmanship in a beyond luxury journey-of-discovery setting from around the world.The outlook for Gov. Kate Brown's tax plan has become increasingly unclear, less than two weeks before lawmakers take it up in a special session.

Senate President Peter Courtney, who's spoken with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, said he doesn't know whether Brown's plan has the votes needed to pass. "I've told (the governor) that and she gets it," Courtney said Wednesday.

In spite of the uncertainty, Brown is forging ahead. On Wednesday, she issued a proclamation calling lawmakers to convene May 21 in Salem. A legislative joint committee is expected to begin hearings on the plan next Wednesday, the day after the state's primary election.

Brown wants to expand an existing business tax break that Oregon House Democrats tried to scale back last year. She wants to broaden it to include certain sole proprietorships, which could save those business owners $11 million a year in taxes.

Brown has not publicly made a case that the tax cut would help the state's economy. Instead, she's cast it as an issue of fairness, saying it would end unfair tax treatment of "our moms and pops." Her measure would give owners of certain sole proprietorships access to an Oregon tax break passed in the 2013 special session that allows people who draw income from partnerships and S corporations with at least one part-time employee to pay lower taxes than wage earners.

According to a recent analysis by state economists, more than 75 percent of the benefit from Brown's tax plan would go to people who earn at least $200,000 a year.

In the past two weeks, Courtney, D-Salem, and Republican Sen. Herman Baertschiger of Grants Pass both said Brown's plan doesn't rise to the level of emergency business necessary to call a special session. They made those comments as Brown's administration continues to negotiate details of her plan behind the scenes with leaders from both parties.

Chris Pair, the governor's communications director, said that waiting until next year to pass the bill would mean the roughly 12,000 qualified sole proprietors would have to refile their 2018 taxes to get the benefit.

Brown's ability to get her tax plan passed depends on two things: the willingness of Democrats to hold their noses and vote to expand a tax break many want to trim, and Republican sign-off. But they want a bigger tax cut and are criticizing Brown's plan as an election year ploy to burnish her credentials with the business community.

In the House, Brown can afford to lose four Democratic votes and still have her measure pass without GOP backing. The path is narrower in the Senate unless the governor gets support from Republicans.

Democratic Sen. Sara Gelser of Corvallis plans to be in Salem on May 21 only, upping the pressure on Brown to line up enough votes for quick passage. If the governor cannot secure Senate Republican votes, she would need the support of all 16 remaining Democrats.

Gelser said in an email that the governor's office and Senate Democratic leaders were aware of her plans before Brown settled on May 21 for a special session. Courtney said he didn't know whether Senate Republicans would agree to waive procedural rules, a necessity if lawmakers are to wrap up in a single day.

Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick was more optimistic Wednesday about the prospects for Brown's plan. "My sense is when it gets to the floor, it will have the support it needs," Burdick said. "I don't think it will have all the Democrats, and I don't think it will have all the Republicans."

Burdick said Republicans are pressing for a more generous business tax cut and Democrats want Brown's plan to be "revenue neutral," which would require increasing taxes on other taxpayers to offset the cut for sole proprietors. For example, the existing tax break for S corporations and partnerships tops out at $5 million and the governor could lower that ceiling.

House Republican spokesman Preston Mann hinted that Republicans might not cooperate with Brown's goal of a one-day session if legislative Democrats stray outside Brown's narrow plan. "Division within their own party is fueling some concern that the special session will not be limited to one day, as Governor Brown previously advertised," Mann wrote in an email.

Brown told journalist Dick Hughes last week that she was confident her core proposal had "the votes to move forward." She was unavailable to comment on Wednesday afternoon. Pair said Brown has found "broad agreement" on her plan on both sides of the aisle.

Burdick said it's late in the process to make such changes to the governor's proposal anyway. "We've run out of time," Burdick said. "The governor's proposal is about as simple as you can possibly get."

-- Hillary Borrud

503-294-4034; @hborrudOregon lawmakers should prepare for a five-day special session later this month, not the one-day session Gov. Kate Brown requested, according to a schedule issued Thursday top Democrats.

The schedule released by Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek, both Democrats, assumes that Republicans will not agree to suspend procedural rules. That would be necessary in order for the lawmakers to move Brown's tax proposal through more quickly.

Brown called for the special session starting May 21 so the Legislature could vote on her plan to expand an existing tax break to owners of sole proprietorships with at least one part-time employee.

The change would make 12,000 tax filers eligible to save a combined $11 million a year on their taxes, legislative economists found.

Lawmakers also will hold routine interim committee hearings during the week, but they will be allowed to introduce and consider only one policy bill: the governor's tax plan. Legislative lawyers also wrote a draft of the legislation in such a way that lawmakers cannot tack on any other tax proposals, something lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want to do.

A joint legislative committee is scheduled to meet at 1 p.m. Wednesday to consider the governor's bill.

The existing tax break that Brown wants to expand was passed by the Legislature in 2013 during a special session aimed at reining in pension costs and raising taxes. It allows people with pass-through businesses such as partnerships and S corporations that have at least one employee to pay lower tax rates. Under that law, people with earnings from those businesses pay just 7 percent tax on income under $250,000, a rate otherwise reserved for joint filers with income up to $17,400.

-- Hillary Borrud

503-294-4034; @hborrudA Multnomah County grand jury found no criminal wrongdoing by the officers who shot and killed a man with a knife inside a Southeast Portland homeless shelter last month, the District Attorney's Office announced late Wednesday.

John A. Elifritz , 48, died April 7 from gunshot wounds at the Cityteam Ministries shelter on Grand Avenue.

Seven Portland police officers and one county sheriff's deputy were involved in the shooting that night, police said. The officers acted in self-defense, Portland police said.

The grand jury met over four days. The prosecutor's office now will ask a judge to release the transcript of the proceeding. Police expect their investigative records to be available the week of May 25.

Police confronted Elifritz, a suspect in a carjacking, after he burst into the shelter. Witnesses said officers shouted commands at Elifritz to drop a knife. Two Portland police officers first fired 40mm rubber rounds at him. Elifritz lunged at officers before five other Portland officers and one sheriff's deputy fired lethal shots, killing Elifritz, police said.

Chicago-based civil rights lawyer Andrew M. Stroth, who represents the Elifritz family including Elifritz's wife and daughter, said his firm is conducting a comprehensive, independent investigation into the shooting.

"The district attorney has failed the citizens of Portland,'' Stroth said. "The Elifritz family is not surprised by the decision and will continue their fight for justice. A 12-year-old girl lost her father because of the excessive actions of the Portland police.''

Stroth was in the nation's capital preparing for a "Day of Action'' on Thursday involving hundreds of mothers who have lost their children in police shootings.

Earlier on April 7, Elifritz had called 911 to report that his wife and children were murdered, but police checked and learned that his family was OK.

Officers later saw Elifritz holding a knife to his throat and he ran from them. Officers chose to let him go. They planned to refer him to officers in the bureau's Behavioral Health Unit for a follow-up.

But soon after, Elifritz was suspected in an attempted carjacking and then a successful carjacking, a road-rage encounter and the crash of a stolen car before he entered the shelter. By the time he entered the shelter, emergency dispatchers and police had identified the man with the knife as Elifritz.

A video taken by a man inside the shelter showed a group of Portland officers standing with guns drawn at an open door of the shelter as others inside scrambled to get away from Elifritz, who had a knife in his hand.

An Alcoholics Anonymous meeting was about to start at the shelter, and several startled men instead tried to corral Elifritz into a corner with chairs, then hustled to get out of the range of the officers' guns.

Elifritz struggled with methamphetamine abuse and had a criminal history that included multiple convictions for stealing cars.

His family members, as well as members of the Albina Ministerial Alliance's Coalition for Justice and Police Reform, have questioned the police tactics, concerned that officers didn't try to de-escalate the encounter.

Two officers fired the rubber bullets at Elifritz: Richard Bailey and Justin Damerville. The others shot lethal rounds: Officers Kameron Fender, Alexandru Martiniuc, Bradley Nutting, Chad Phifer and Andrew Polas, and Deputy Aaron Sieczkowski.

There were four cameras on the main floor of the shelter that caught the shooting and provide a more comprehensive picture of what occurred, said Mike Giering, the shelter's executive director. He turned the videos over to police and has declined comment on what the footage showed.

Since the shooting, an outside agency, the Police Executive Research Forum, has provided bureau instructors with training on de-escalation techniques, particularly for encounters when a suspect may be emotionally disturbed and armed with a knife. The bureau trainers are expected to share the training with patrol officers this month.

Officers who slow down, collect as much information as possible, use distance and cover and spend time patiently communicating are likely to have a better outcome, said Tom Wilson, a retired patrol bureau chief from a Maryland police agency.

An internal administrative investigation is continuing into the shooting.

"What I'm hoping to get from this incident is what can we learn here from it, and everything that led up to it,'' Police Chief Danielle Outlaw told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Don Rees and Deputy District Attorney Todd Jackson presented the case to the grand jury.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonianUPDATE MAY 10: A probable cause affidavit released Thursday states that all five of defendant Lewis Aaron Ellis' alleged victims were women, and that he allegedly smacked or punched most of them on the back of the neck or head.

Judge Pro Tem Monica Herranz told Portland police that Ellis took a "violent, full swing" at the back of her head and that she was knocked forward to the ground, skinning her knees.

Another woman, Nicole Veluscek, told police that pain from the punch to her head was a "7" on a scale of "1 to 10."

Prosecutor Stacy Heyworth told investigators that the force of the blow to her head knocked off her glasses, and that she suffered injuries including tenderness and possible bumps on her head.



Charges against Ellis have been upgraded. He was arraigned Thursday on five counts of fourth-degree assault and two counts of harassment.

...

A routine morning outside the Multnomah County Courthouse turned to chaos Wednesday when a man suddenly struck a prosecutor and a judge on the sidewalk.

Lewis Aaron Ellis, 46, hit prosecutor Stacy Heyworth and Pro Tem Judge Monica Herranz about 8:45 a.m., investigators said.

Ellis allegedly punched or hit five people in all, leaving a trail of confused and injured pedestrians as he walked for a few blocks between the Multnomah County Justice Center and the courthouse downtown, investigators said.

Ellis was sentenced in 2015 to more than three years in prison for similar crimes -- punching a stranger in her left eye as she walked along Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and cracking her glasses, according to court papers.

Ellis then got on a MAX train and punched a man in the face. When his wife tried to help, he punched her in the arm, according to a probable cause affidavit. Witnesses to the train assaults said Ellis was shouting, and police who arrived to arrest him said he was twitching and sticking his tongue out of his mouth over and over.

Ellis was released from prison three months ago.

On Wednesday, bystanders ran into the courthouse to get help, and sheriffs deputies and security officers ran outside and stopped him, authorities said. It's unclear how badly people were injured, but an ambulance responded to the area.

Portland police booked Ellis into jail. He's scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on one count of fourth-degree assault and four counts of harassment.

Its unclear if hed ever come into contact with either Heyworth or Herranz in the court system. He has a criminal history stretching back to his teen years, including car theft, assault and burglary.

Heyworth has been a prosecutor with the Multnomah County District Attorneys Office for more than 25 years. Herranz has been a licensed lawyer in Oregon for more than 30 years and in recent years has presided over low-level criminal cases and traffic violations.

-- Aimee GreenTriMet said daily ridership on its Westside Express Service, the metro area's only commuter rail line, is significantly down from 2017 levels.

Nine years ago, the transit agency officially got into the heavy-rail business with the 14.7-mile suburban route between Wilsonville and Beaverton. And ever since, ridership has consistently failed to live up to TriMet's original projections.

At its board meeting last month, TriMet General Manager Doug Kelsey said the commuter line saw the average number of March daily boardings - the measurement TriMet uses to calculate ridership - land at 1,540, a 13.2 percent drop from a year earlier.

The tepid ridership comes despite record-low unemployment levels in the Portland area and amid ever-growing grumbling about stifling congestion on Interstates 5 and 205, Oregon 217 and U.S. 26.

"This is a concern for us," Kelsey told the governing board.

Kelsey, who took over the tri-county public transportation agency this year, said TriMet would explore ways to attract more riders, including by boosting marketing. TriMet plans to spend $20,000 to target new subdivisions along the route, Portland Community College-Sylvania employees and students, and nearby Providence and Legacy Health systems hospitals.

TriMet's not alone. Public transit agencies nationwide are seeing ridership drop. Some blame economic displacement, where traditionally loyal public transit riders are pushed out from the urban core due to cost of living increases, as one factor in ridership declines. Alternative transportation options, like ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft, could also play a role in transit ridership declines. People have more options than ever.

Overall March ridership dipped 4 percent across TriMet's five light rail lines and expansive bus system.

While systemwide ridership is down, WES is struggling for its own set of reasons, according to Bernie Bottomly, TriMet's executive director of public affairs.

"To some degree, it's a little bit of an experiment," Bottomly said.

Paul Baca sits alone a few minutes before his WES train leaves for Beaverton in May. Baca said ridership is more packed during the evening commute, but he, and other commuters, say they haven't noticed a significant decline despite double digit declines reported by the agency.

WES, which operates only during the roughly four-and-a-half hour morning and evening commutes, relies on the surrounding environment more than other transit lines, which are seeing steeper ridership declines in off-peak hours than in morning and evening rush.

The commuter line is in its own orbit - while it connects to some 15 bus lines and two MAX lines in Beaverton, it is more reliant on the immediate employment areas surround the stations.

"We've had some bad luck with employers leaving or shutting down or downsizing in those area," Bottomly said.

Convergys, an Ohio-based company, said in January it would close its Wilsonville call center, less than half a mile from the transit station, and lay off more than 200 workers. Last summer, Microsoft said it would close an office there too, laying off more than 60 workers.

But underperforming ridership numbers aren't anything new for WES. Before its 2009 debut, then-TriMet general manager Fred Hansen said he expected the line to carry 2,500 riders a day during its first year. "Actually, I think it will be more once people realize the attractiveness of this," he said at the time. WES instead drew 1,175 boardings, less than half that figure.

In the 2003 application to the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts program, TriMet officials estimated the line would draw 3,037 daily riders by 2020. To match that projection, the line would need to more than double its ridership in less than two years.

That didn't happen.

A view from the WES train shows a commercial and residential building in downtown Tualatin.

WES SIDE STORY

The commuter rail runs along an active Portland & Western Railroad freight line through a mix of rolling farmland, industrial areas and tech companies. It parallels I-5 and Oregon 217 in Clackamas and Washington counties.

The north-south route was once home to a couple of passenger services in the early 1900s. The idea to create a modern iteration began in 1996 when TriMet, Tigard, Tualatin, Beaverton, Sherwood and Metro regional governments started studying the line's feasibility.

A little more than a decade later, the $161.2 million project rolled forward.

On a recent day toward the end of morning service, riders leaving the Wilsonville transit station could nearly be counted on two hands, and the park and ride lot was more than half empty.

But the commuters who do ride WES tend to love it for the same reasons - it's a quick 27 or so minute trip from Wilsonville to Beaverton, it's clean, there is free and fast Wi-Fi, and it's a reliable escape from congestion. More riders boarded the train as it moved closer to Beaverton.

Paul Baca, a Portland State University student, has been riding for a year to his classes. He transfers to a bus at the Beaverton Transit Center. He's planning on buying a car but doesn't envision ditching the train. "I'll still take the WES to skip traffic," he said.

Houda Mesnaoui, another newish WES rider, connects to an Oregon Health & Science University shuttle van in Beaverton. When asked why she doesn't drive, Mesnaoui laughed and shook her head. "I don't want to deal with the traffic," she said.

Lucky Mincer (seated) chats with a conductor performing fare inspections on the WES train in May, 2018. Mincer said he loves the sense of community on the commuter rail line.

Lucky Mincer, an old-time WES hand who's been riding the train for eight years, greeted a conductor like an old friend last week.

He raved about WES, saying despite spending much of his life in New Jersey where there's a robust rail system, TriMet is "one of the best transit systems I've seen."

Mincer does have some suggestions to boost ridership: add at least one late-night train or weekend service. "Sometimes Friday night you just want to have a couple, and your options are limited," he said. "You have to take Lyft."

None of the riders noticed fewer people onboard their train these day.

NO PLAN FOR MORE TRAINS

A decade ago, WES's pending arrival was met with talk of eventually extending the trip south to Salem and other commuter rail spurs spreading to Vancouver or west into Washington County.

"The choice will be: Do we do some of these spurs as the next part," said Hansen, then the general manager, "or will it be a major line? That will be among the choices facing us as a community."

Today, Bottomly said, those discussions may still be happening, but TriMet isn't driving the conversation. Metro is expected to bring forward a regional transportation package in 2020 that will likely number in the billions of dollars, but commuter rail expansion is not anticipated to be a part of that.

Bottomly said TriMet is boxed in a bit from adding night or weekend service because it must coordinate with the railroad, which allows the commuter line to use the freight network. "Given the ridership, we haven't pushed for additional time on the line," Bottomly said.

TriMet may consider adding service if ridership increases.

The agency must operate WES for at least 20 years as part of the arrangement to receive federal funds. Bottomly said the agency is not at the point where it would consider closing WES in 2020, saying that ridership "supports a healthy operation there."

He added that ridership would likely be higher if commuter rail ran from Wilsonville to Downtown Portland.

"But that's not where the rail goes."



-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheenThe Chinese Ambassador to Sierra Leone, His Excellence Ambassador WU Peng and the Egyptian Ambassador to Sierra Leone, His Excellence Ambassador Maher Elmhdy and a host of the Chinese community in Sierra Leone have joined the National Tourist Board to clean the Lumley Beach on the first National Cleaning Saturday.

Egyptian Ambassador to Sierra Leone, His Excellence Ambassador Maher Elmhdy with the Chinese Ambassador His Excellency Ambassador WU Peng making a cash donation

The cleaning operation which was code name Beautify Lumley Program attracted highly motivated local people within the Lumley Beach area, who joined force in cleaning the entire vicinity of the beach. The two ambassadors jointly donated fifteen million Leones (Le 15,000,000) to the National Tourist Board to further support the beautification of the Lumley Beach.

In his statement at the cleaning event, Ambassador WU Peng said that, the Beautify Lumley project was mainly focused on President Bios recently re-instituted compulsory National Cleaning Saturday, which he noted would enhance the sanitation and beautification of the communities around Freetown and across the country. He went on to say that Lumley Beach was one of the adorable beaches in the country in term of its natural makeup and recreational facilities like bars, hotels, which when coupled with other beaches across the country would serve as a huge economic and investment potential that would attract tourist to the country.

Chinese and Egyptians cleaning Sierra Leones Lumley Beach

While speaking on the China-Sierra Leone relations, Ambassador WU Peng said that the two countries have enjoyed traditional friendship and fruitful outcomes of cooperation in various areas over the past decades and that the Chinese community in Sierra Leone would always do their best to fulfil the social corporate responsibility of their various companies. He pointed out that China-Sierra Leone relationship remains unpromising and that China would always continue to support and implement projects that are in the best interest of every Sierra Leoneans thereby creating a win-win situation for the two nations.

The Egyptian Ambassador also reiterated the Friendly tie between Sierra Leone and his country and pointed out that China is a great friend of Africa.

It is a beautiful day today and we are glad to be here, The Chinese Ambassador and I, we think we belong to Sierra Leone, that is why we are here. We are proud to be part of the campaign to clean Lumley Beach, we want it always clean and attractive so lets make it a great day, Ambassador Maher Elmhdy said at the cleaning event.

An Chinese Embassy official joining the cleaning exercise

On his side, the General Manager of the National Tourist Board, Mr. Yassin Kargbo said that they were very happy to have two representatives of great nations of China and Egypt in tourism in joining them to clean the Lumley Beach area and that the two ambassadors have shown great interest in tourism in the industry and that they always wanted to see the beach clean and free of crimes. He emphasized that they were ready to work both embassies and the Chinese and Egyptian enterprises across the country, noting that the donated money would be used to buy more tools and support other activities of the National Tourist Board.

The two ambassadors were seen among jubilant community people and the representatives of the various Chinese companies collecting trash on the Lumley Beach area, and some of the local people said that they were very appreciative of the effort of the two ambassadors in cleaning their environment.(Photo: Guancha.cn

Guangdong authorities announced Tuesday they have apprehended the man who made off with a whale calf carcass from a beach in Yangjiang. Local authorities said the thief shall be punished according to the law, Guangdong Daily reported.

Officials from the Academy of Fishery Sciences issued a report last week confirming carcass was that of a newborn false killer whale, a protected marine species in China.

A video clip went viral on Chinese social media depicting a male tourist taking what appeared to be a dying dolphin-like mammal from Wanda beach during the Labor Day holiday.

An investigation was launched after Yangjiang authorities became aware of the alleged incident and soon apprehended the suspect.

The man confessed to wrongful possession of a marine carcass and is now prepared to accept the legal consequences.

Fishery authorities reminded locals and visitors if they discover any kind of wild species, they must notify authorities.

It is against the law to hunt or sell wild animals, dead or alive. Whomever makes such a discovery is obligated to report it to relevant authorities for processing and should not keep it for themselves under any circumstances, fishery authorities said.Former Anbang chairman sentenced to 18 years in prison

Wu Xiaohui, former chairman and general manager of Anbang Insurance Group, the Chinese conglomerate that owns the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for fundraising fraud and embezzlement of corporate funds.

Wu Xiaohui, former chairman and general manager of Anbang Group, stands trial on March 28, 2018 for fundraising fraud and embezzlement at the No 1 Intermediate People's Court in Shanghai. [File photo: a-court.gov.cn]

The Shanghai Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court announced the sentence Thursday.

Wu was also deprived of his political rights for four years, and had 10.5 billion yuan (1.6 billion U.S. dollars) of his property confiscated, according to the court sentence.

His illegal gains and relevant yields they generated will be retrieved, the sentence said.A smart bus called the Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit, or ART, started a three-month trial run in central China on May 8. It is the world's first driverless rapid bus, National Business Daily.com.cn reported.

ART was developed by CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co, a subsidiary of China Railway Rolling Stock Corp. The phase-one buses have three carriages, and can carry up to 100 people per carriage.

The vehicle runs without the need for rail and carries as heavy a load as a train, providing a new transportation model in large and medium-sized cities.

Furthermore, the cost to build one kilometer of standard ART is only one-fifth of that for traditional tram systems, which cost 150 million yuan ($22.6 million) to 200 million yuan per km.

ART has an advantage over traditional tram systems in small-and medium-sized cities because its cheaper and takes less time to build.

Yibin City in southwest Chinas Sichuan province signed an agreement to introduce the smart vehicle in the city on May 8, according to the city mayor.Poland's President Andrzej Duda on Thursday hosted Czech counterpart Milos Zeman and said that they agreed that Warsaw, Prague and the whole Visegrad Group (V4) must work together to have influence in other international assemblies, such as the European Union.

Speaking at a joint press conference, the Polish head of state said he had congratulated Zeman on his re-election and thanked him for choosing Poland for his second visit after his mandate was prolonged.

"This is a signal for us about how important the relations with our country are for Mr President," Duda added, "and how important Poland, and working with Poland, is for the Czech Republic and Czech politics."

The Polish president also noted that "the Czech Republic is Poland's second biggest export destination after Germany," and bilateral trade "has exceeded EUR 20 billion for the first time."

In addition, both heads of state emphasised the importance of V4 (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary).

"We are in agreement that we must work as closely together as possible within the Visegrad community," Duda said, as only then, by presenting a united front, "will we be truly influential also in other assemblies, such as, for example, the European Union." (PAP)



pm/mf/Cascades Announces Strong First Quarter 2018 Results "Year-over-year, first quarter results were supported by a strong performance from our European boxboard subsidiary Reno de Medici, driven by strong market conditions, selling price improvement and lower raw material costs."  Mario Plourde, President and CEO, Cascades. May 10, 2018 - Cascades Inc. (TSX: CAS) reports its unaudited financial results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2018. Mario Plourde, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: Our consolidated first quarter performance improved both year-over-year and sequentially in terms of sales levels, shipments and operating income. Changes in raw material prices were positive on a consolidated basis both sequentially and year-over-year, while higher transportation costs negatively impacted profitability in our North American operations. Year-over-year, first quarter results were supported by a strong performance from our European boxboard subsidiary Reno de Medici, driven by strong market conditions, selling price improvement and lower raw material costs. The containerboard packaging division similarly generated stronger results, reflecting the April 2017 consolidation of the Greenpac Mill, strong industry fundamentals and higher average realized selling prices. As disclosed in early March, first quarter production levels in this segment were impacted by unplanned downtime at several mills at the beginning of the year, which resulted in a production shortfall of 15,000 short tons during the period. These production and mechanical issues were resolved before the end of the quarter. Results in the specialty products segment were below last year due to the lower recycled material prices, most notably OCC, which reduced sales in the recovery sub-segment. Finally, the tissue papers division increased shipments by 7% year-over-year within the ongoing context of challenging market conditions and market related downtime taken at the beginning of the year. Results in this segment, however, were impacted by lower average selling prices driven by increased competitiveness in several markets, higher raw material prices, and negative operating margin related to the Oregon converting facility that was started in the second quarter of 2017. On a sequential basis, consolidated first quarter results reflected improvements in capacity utilization, sales, and operating income. This was largely driven by a strong performance from the European boxboard division and was supported by a slight progress in tissue. Although production levels in containerboard reflected seasonally softer volumes and the downtime as described above, this division generated improvements in operating income and adjusted OIBD, reflecting higher realized average selling prices and lower raw material costs. Conversely, results from the specialty products segment decreased, due primarily to the impact of lower recycled paper pricing on the performance of its recovery activities. On the strategic front, the construction of our new containerboard converting facility in NJ progressed on time and on budget, with start-up scheduled for the end of May. The containerboard division finalized the sale of the NY converting facility for US$72 million in January, and the acquisition of the 66.67% interest in the Italian boxboard processing company PAC Service S.p.A, was concluded by the European boxboard division at the beginning of the year. At the end of the first quarter, the leverage ratio stood at 3.6x1, unchanged from the end of 2017." 1 Pro-forma basis to include 2017 and 2018 business combinations on a LTM basis. Analysis of results for the three-month period ended March 31, 2018 (compared to the same period last year) Sales of $1,098 million increased by $92 million or 9% compared to the same period last year. This was driven by a 22% increase in the containerboard division, reflecting the Greenpac consolidation and higher average realized sales prices during the period, and a 17% sales increase in the European boxboard segment following implemented price increases and the January 2018 acquisition of PAC Service. These benefits were partially offset by lower sales in recovery activities attributable to the significant year-over-year decrease in raw material prices. Sales generated by the tissue segment were essentially unchanged compared to prior year levels, as the beneficial impact of higher volumes was offset by a less favourable product mix and weaker Canadian dollar - US dollar exchange rate. First quarter operating income stood at $112 million, a notable improvement from the $31 million generated last year. This increase was largely driven by improvements in the containerboard segment, where results benefited from the consolidation of Greenpac, a higher average selling price and lower raw material costs. First quarter performance similarly reflected a higher contribution from the European boxboard segment, driven by strong industry fundamentals and lower raw material costs. Partially offsetting these benefits was a lower contribution from the specialty products division attributable to the impact of lower raw material prices on the performance of the recovery sub-segment, and a weaker tissue performance reflecting the more challenging marketplace and rising virgin pulp price. Higher amortization and depreciation expense as a result of business combinations and the Scappoose facility start-up also negatively impacted operating income compared to the prior year period. On an adjusted basis1, first quarter operating income stood at $50 million, versus $28 million in the prior year. The specific items, before income taxes, that impacted our first quarter 2018 operating income and/or net earnings were: a $4 million unrealized loss on financial instruments (operating income and net earnings).

a $66 million gain related to the sale of the Maspeth, NY containerboard converting facility (operating income and net earnings).

a $5 million gain on fair-value revaluation of investment related to the European boxboard acquisition of PAC Service (net earnings).

a $1 million foreign exchange gain on long-term debt and financial instruments (net earnings). The Corporation generated net earnings of $61 million, or $0.65 per common share in the first quarter of 2018, versus net earnings of $161 million, or $1.70 per common share in the comparable period of 2017. On an adjusted basis1, net earnings were $12 million, or $0.13 per common share, during the first three months of 2018, compared to net earnings of $12 million or $0.13 per common share in the same period of 2017. 1For further details, please refer to the "Supplemental Information on non-IFRS Measures" section. Near-Term and Strategic Outlook Discussing the outlook for Cascades, Mr. Plourde commented: "Our near term outlook is positive. The second quarter is seasonally favourable for all of our business segments, and we would expect sales levels to reflect as much. In the case of our containerboard segment, strong industry demand, lower raw material costs, and the gradual implementation of the announced price increases should provide significant support for performance in the coming months. "Conversely, we expect profitability levels in our tissue paper division to remain under pressure as a result of the heightened competitive marketplace and rising raw material costs. While external factors remain challenging in this segment, we remain focused on managing inventory, growing sales levels in our targeted markets, incorporating lower cost materials in our production processes when possible, and increasing sales levels in our Oregon tissue converting facility where we continue to make positive and measurable progress. "In Europe, underlying industry fundamentals suggest continued strength, raw material prices continue to be favourable, and both order backlog and order intake levels remain healthy. Operationally, we will concentrate on managing raw material costs and countering the trend of increasing transportation costs through optimization of our transport strategies. Looking to the remainder of 2018, we are focused internally on the optimization of our new business platform, and monetizing the efficiency, productivity and cost-saving initiatives that have been implemented through the centralization of our administrative processes. At the corporate level, attention will be centered on the smooth and successful execution of the company's planned 2018 investment program focused on improving our tissue platform, reinforcing our operational efficiency and productivity with a view to enhancing profitability and maximizing cash flow generation, and maintaining our strategic capital allocation commitment to reduce leverage." Dividend on common shares and normal course issuer bid The Board of Directors of Cascades declared a quarterly dividend of $0.04 per common share to be paid on June 6, 2018, to shareholders of record at the close of business on May 23, 2018. This dividend is an "eligible dividend" as per the Income Tax Act (R.C.S. (1985), Canada). During the first quarter of 2018, Cascades purchased 435,580 common shares for cancellation at a weighted average price of $14.20. Cascades' full first quarter 2018 report can be found on the company's website: www.cascades.com . Founded in 1964, Cascades produces, converts and markets packaging and tissue products that are composed mainly of recycled fibres. To learn more, please visit: www.cascades.com . SOURCE: Cascades, Inc.Rottneros Names Kristin Israelsson as Mill Manager of Rottneros Mill

Kristin Israelsson

May 10, 2018 - Rottneros has named Kristin Israelsson as Mill Manager of Rottneros Mill. She will also become a member of Rottneros' Group Management Team. Israelsson will begin her new role no later than September 1, 2018.

Rottneros Mill is located in Sunne, Sweden. The mill produces CTMP (chemi-thermo mechanical pulp) and groundwood pulp and has a production capacity of about 170,000 tonnes per year.

Israelsson joins Rottneros from BillerudKorsnas, where she has been employed for 16 years. She most recently held the position of section head in the pulp mill of Gruvon.

"As part of strengthening our organization, I am very pleased to welcome Kristin Israelsson to Rottneros Mill and the Group Management Team, said Lennart Eberleh, President and CEO of Rottneros. "With her solid experience in the pulp and paper industry, Kristin will contribute with her competence, leadership and energy in developing Rottneros to the next level.

Rottneros AB is an independent producer of market pulp and fiber-based food packaging. The Group operates two pulp mills: Rottneros Mill and Vallviks Mill, along with Rottneros Packaging and a wood supply company in Latvia. To learn more, please visit: www.rottneros.com

SOURCE: Rottneros ABRyan Murphy, prolific TV producer and creator of shows like American Horror Story, American Crime Story and Glee announced on Twitter today that he would donate 100% of profits from his new series on the rise of voguing and ballroom culture, Pose, to organizations supporting LGBTQ and trans people. Pose premieres June 3 on FX and is being co-produced by Janet Mock and Our Lady J.

Related | Janet Mock On Telling Her Trans Story

The news comes a day after Murphy revealed in a New Yorker profile that he was planning a series on the #MeToo movement called Consent. It was met with mixed feelings from the internet, with people taking issue both with the idea of anyone other than a woman creating a #MeToo series and the fact that we are very much still in this reality. While it's not certain that the show will be made, under Murphy's five-year, $300 million Netflix contract, he's going to need some material.



Image via BFA

A report by Norwegian newspaper claims that streaming numbers of Beyonce and Kanye West's respective albums on Jay-Z's Tidal have been manipulated to the point of giving the stars excessive payouts.

The financial daily Dagens Naeringsliv (DN) claimed the streaming numbers for Lemonade and The Life of Pablo were inflated by Tidal falsifying user play counts. Tidal had a six-week exclusive on TLOP and Lemonade continues to be available for streaming exclusively on the platform. Jay purchased the platform, which has its roots in Oslo, in 2015.

The paper claims its investigation comes from data contained on a hard drive it obtained that includes 'billions of rows of [internal TIDAL data]: times and song titles, user IDs and country codes." How the paper got a hold of said data is unclear. Tidal has disputed both the information on the hard drive and the entire report, calling it a "smear campaign" and referencing the paper's past attempts at discrediting the company.

In a statement to Variety, Tidal said:

"This is a smear campaign from a publication that once referred to our employee [Lior Tibon] as an 'Israeli Intelligence officer' and our owner as a 'crack dealer.' We expect nothing less from them than this ridiculous story, lies and falsehoods. The information was stolen and manipulated and we will fight these claims vigorously."

Tidal's lawyer Jordan Siev told DN that it denies the accusations and that the data was stolen.



Image via Getty

A bionic robo-fish is demonstrated during the summit. The robot can imitate the moves of fish, in an effort to conduct underwater missions.

The 5th China Robotop and Intelligent Economic Talents Summit kicks off on May 9 in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province. The summit has been held successfully since 2014, this year attracting 69 leading scholars and over 1500 entrepreneurs from 18 countries. China has listed intelligent manufacturing as a key development industry in its 13th Five Year Plan, with a focus on bridging the gaps in robot industry, education and research.

A Chinese-made neuro-control device gives order to a mouse, guiding it to pass obstacles and walk through pre-set routes.

Two educator robots sing lullabies and dance for their young audience.

A pair of robotic dogs roll on the ground. Such robots are equipped with delicate sensors, which allow them to detect the movements of their owners, providing better emotional companionship.

A 3D color printer produces toy transformers during the summit.

A delicate robot designed by Chinese students showcases its calligraphy artwork.News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism.Six Microbes Living in You

Published May 9, 2018

Onscreen: These six microbes may be living in you.

1. Dermatobia hominis

This parasite, also known as a botfly, grows on animals in the rainforests of central and south America. The female botfly glues her eggs to a mosquito. When the eggs detect the hosts body heat, they hatch and the larvae crawl into the host.

They grow for about 3 monthsuntil theyre the size of large peanuts. They then drop to the ground and pupate. After a month, the adults emerge to mate and repeat the cycle.

2. Demodex brevis and Demodex folliculorum

These parasites live on your faceand all over your body. At night, they come out of your pores and have sex on your face. Then they retreat into your pores to lay eggs. You cant get rid of them. Not even showering or washing your face helps.

3. Helicobacter pylori

For years, doctors believed ulcers were caused by stress and unhealthy life choices. But in the 1980s, two Australian doctors examined biopsies of gastric ulcers. They discovered a new bacterium, H. pylori .

To prove the cause of ulcers was the bacteria, one of the doctors used himself as a test subject. It worked. Before long, his stomach was teeming with H. pylori and he developed ulcers. Antibiotics killed off the bacteria, curing him.

And in 2005, they won the Nobel Prize for this medical breakthrough. But today some researchers think that killing off all our H. pylori might contribute to other diseases

4. Escherichia coli

There are dozens of E. coli strains and theyre mostly harmless. Some help break down your last meal and produce vitamins your body needs. But some strains can cause illness, putting thousands of Americans in hospitals and killing about 30 people every year.

5. Clostridium difficile

This bacterium can cause colon inflammation and diarrhea. It lives in your gut naturally and its usually kept at bay by good bacteria. But C. diff can run rampant if youre taking antibiotics that kill off these good bacteria.

Every year, thousands of people can die from C. diff infections. In some cases, doctors may suggest a fecal transplant to restore your G.I. tracts healthy gut bacteria. And it works ~90% of the time!

6. Toxoplasma gondii

This parasite infects the brains of mice. Healthy mice are scared of the smell of cat urine. But infected mice dont run away, so they have a greater risk of being eaten. Which is what the parasite wants since it can only breed if it reaches the stomach of a cat.

But you dont have to eat mouse to get toxoplasmosis. You can get it from raw meat, unwashed vegetables, or from kitty litter. Which is why pregnant woman are advised to not handle kitty litter. The infection can cause miscarriage and premature birth.

Viruses, fungi, and bacteria are all around us.They colonize our skin, guts, and bodies. Were outnumbered. But without them, we wouldnt be ourselves.President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo reportedly held a closed door meeting with the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi on Monday to mediate in the friction between the king and some functionaries of his administration.



The president was said to have dashed to Kumasi in connection with allegations that two leading members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government were surreptitiously scheming to tarnish the image of the monarch.



President Akufo-Addo, former lawyer of the Asantehene, who respects tradition, was said not to be comfortable when Otumfuo disclosed the matter during a traditional sitting at Manhyia.



The first gentleman of the land, according to people close to the government, therefore decided to personally go and plead with the Asantehene to let sleeping dogs lie.



Even though the meeting was not open to the public, sources at the palace claimed the president and the Asantehene held fruitful talks, which lasted for more than one hour.



President Akufo-Addo, they said, also used his visit to personally wish Otumfuo a happy 68th birthday and also congratulated him on being on the Golden Stool of Asanteman for 19 years.



Otumfuos Concern



During the celebration of the Awukudae festival at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi last Wednesday, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II openly expressed concern about how some leading figures in the NPP were working against him.



NPP officials, who were at the palace at the time  Acting General Secretary, John Boadu; Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah and the Kumasi Mayor, Osei Assibey  knelt to beg Otumfuo.



Party gurus in the region such as Bernard Antwi Boasiako, aka Wontumi and Kwabena Nsenkyire, the Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman and first Vice Chairman, respectively, also joined to beg the Ashanti king.

Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoPresident Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Wednesday, May 9, 2018, left Ghana for the United Kingdom on a week-long vacation, his first since being sworn in as President on 7 January 2017.



He was accompanied by First Lady Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, his children and grandchildren. This was contained in a statement signed by Eugene Arhin, Director of Communications.



While away, the President will honour two public engagements.



On Friday, 11 May 2018, he will speak at the University of Oxford, as part of its 2018 Africa Conference, on the theme: Enough Rhetoric! Catalysing an Era of Concrete Action.



He will, on Saturday, 12 May 2018, deliver the keynote address at the London Business Schools Africa Business Summit.



On 13 May 2018, the President will also take the opportunity of his vacation to attend the Anglican confirmation ceremony of his grandson, Louis, at his old school, Lancing College, in Sussex.



President Akufo-Addo will return to Ghana on Wednesday, 16th May, 2018, and in his absence, the Vice President, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, shall, in accordance with Article 60(8) of the Constitution, act in his stead.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoMinistry of Trade and Industry yesterday signed contracts with the China National Building Materials Corporation in Accra for the construction of 22 factories under the One District, One Factory (1D1F) initiative.



The 22 Engineering Procurement and Construction contracts were signed between some Ghanaian business executives, selected district assemblies represented by the ministry of trade and industry and the Chinese contractors.



The projects, valued at $400 million, are located in 22 districts across the 10 regions.



Speaking at the signing ceremony, Minister of Trade and Industry Alan Kyerematen, indicated that plans are far advanced to roll out many similar projects in other districts in the coming months.



The 22 projects, he said, have been selected as a result of their significant export potential, particularly in the Chinese market.



The investment value, which is estimated at about $400 million, is expected to generate significant economic benefits, including employment generation and tax revenue.



The minister further stated that the 1D1F initiative is designed as a comprehensive programme for rural industrialization, involving the setting up of at least one medium to a large-scale factory or industrial enterprise in each of the administrative districts of Ghana based on the natural resource endowment or comparative advantage of each district.



Mr Kyerematen indicated that a total of 707 business plans had been received from business promoters  out of which 602 had been reviewed by the Technical Support Group (TSG) of the ministry, with 313 of the plans considered to be feasible for implementation.



The trade minister praised the Chinese counterpart  CNBM Corporation  for honouring a pledge made in 2017 in support of the governments industrial transformation agenda.



As part of this turnkey agreement, CNBM, which is known for high quality modern facility and factory construction, will support businesses to market and sell their products in the Chinese market through strategic partnerships and alliances.



The selected products, which include edible vegetable oil, starch, alcohol and garment, will also be sold in the ECOWAS sub-region and the local Ghanaian market.

Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoGhana placed 5th in Africa and 95th in the world among 168 countries for its general quality of nationality, according to the latest Kochenov Quality of Nationality Index (QNI) by Henley & Partners.



The general quality of nationality includes travel freedom, settlement freedom and external value of its nationality. This summarizes the quality of life and opportunities for personal growth within a country of origin.



With a value of 32.1, Ghana did far better than majority of African countries. Seychelles was first in Africa and 49th in the world, followed by Mauritius, South Africa and Cape Verde who placed 2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively in Africa but 53rd, 92nd and 93rd accordingly in the world.



The other top five African countries were Botswana (6th in Africa and 96th in the world), The Gambia (7th in Africa and 103rd in the world), Sierra Leone (8th in Africa and 104th in the world), Senegal (9th in Africa and 106th in the world) and Togo (10th in Africa and 108th in the world.



France was first in the world for its quality of nationality, according to the QNI. The French nationality earned a score of 81.7% out of a possible 100%, fractionally ahead of Germany.



Germany was knocked off the top spot for the first time in seven years, with a score of 81.6%.

According to the report, Frances comparative advantage lies in its greater "settlement freedom", which it says is "attributable mainly to the countrys former colonial empire".



Iceland and Denmark came 3rd and 4th respectively on this years QNI. The UK dropped down a position to 13th place, again failing to secure a spot in the top 10, while the US increased its position by two ranks, claiming 27th place.

The top 10 is completed by the Netherlands (5th), Norway (6th), Sweden (7th), Finland (8th), Ireland and Switzerland (both 9th) and Austria (10th).



The relatively poor standing on the index of the US is primarily due to its low "settlement freedom" compared to European Union member states.



China climbed two places to rank 59th and Russia maintained its position in 63rd place.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has for the first time overtaken Israel on the QNI, now ranking 46th, with Israel in 48th position.



The Emirati nationality has climbed 13 positions over the past five years, making a significant leap when its holders received visa-free travel access to the Schengen area in 2016, according to the index report.



Using a combination of quantifiable data, the QNI measures the internal value of a nationality. This refers to the quality of life and opportunities for personal growth within a country of origin.



It also measures the external value of a nationality, which identifies the diversity and quality of opportunities a nationality allows its citizens to pursue outside their country of origin.

Source: The Finder









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoThe woman who seems untouchable in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) says she has no regret for her attack on a journalist at her partys headquarters last Friday.



Hajia Fati who has been nicknamed the 'Iron lady' in the NPP told NEAT FMs morning show host, Mc-Jerry Osei Agyemang that, her action is justifiable but out of respect for the media fraternity I am sorry.



Hajia Fati reportedly punched a journalist from Accra based Adom FM, Ohemaa Sakyiwaa Ahwenepa at the NPP headquarters on Friday, but said she only took that action because the reporter had not sought her permission before taking pictures of her, neither did she introduce herself as a journalist.



The victim had been assigned to the NPP headquarters last Friday to report on events as suspended Second Vice Chairman of the party; Sammy Crabbe had gone to the office to pick forms to contest the partys chairmanship position at the upcoming National Delegates Conference.



The incident occurred on Friday, 4 April 2018, as Mr Sammy Crabbe, who was suspended in the lead-up to the 2016 general elections, along with then-NPP National Chairman Paul Afoko and then-General Secretary Kwabena Agyepong, entered the headquarters to pay for his nomination forms with a bankers draft.



However, a frenzied Madam Fati descended downstairs and threatened never to allow the party to sell the forms to Mr Crabbe or to allow the suspended party official back into the office.



The incident was recorded just a day after the celebration of World Press Freedom Day here in Ghana.



The NPP has condemned the attack after some section of the media threatened to blacklist the party and boycott its upcoming National Conference, should the governing NPP fail to condemn the attack.



The party in a statement signed by the Acting General Secreatry, John Boadu said: The NPP has noted with concern an alleged attack on a journalist by one of its supporters, Hajia Fati. We distance ourselves from the act and condemn it unreservedly.



However, Ohemaa Sakyiwaas employers, Multimedia Group have threatened legal actions against the staunch NPP member.



But, controversial Hajia Fati has stated emphatically that - she is not perturbed by any legal action against her from the Multimedia Group where the battered journalist works.



I am sorry for the attack. Journalists are my children. I am not pleading because I am afraid of any legal action. I am ever ready with my sponge and towel to meet her and multimedia in court. They should jail me if they can, she said in an interview with NEAT FMs morning show dubbed Ghana Montie.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Ambrose_wash









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoJustin Sullivan/Getty Images(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- The "Golden State Killer" suspect has been charged with four more counts of murder in Santa Barbara County, California.



Joseph James DeAngelo, a 72-year-old former police officer, was taken into custody in late April at his home in Citrus Heights in Sacramento County, the same county where his alleged crime spree began in 1976. The crimes continued across the state until 1986.



DeAngelo faces eight other murder charges in Orange, Ventura and Sacramento counties as well.



The latest charges in Santa Barbara County are in the deaths of Cheri Domingo and Greg Sanchez (Oct. 27, 1981) and Drs. Barbara Manning and Robert Offerman (Dec. 30, 1979).



Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley said she "teared up" when she heard of DeAngelo's arrest.



"[We were] always in search of truth and justice, Dudley said.



Officials are looking at evidence to determine whether DeAngelo can be connected to any other crimes as well.



DeAngelo, who has adult children, was a police officer in Exeter in central California from 1973 to 1976, officials said. He was then a police officer in Auburn in Northern California from 1976 to 1979 until he was fired, officials said.



The "Golden State Killer" is believed to have killed at least 12 people and raped more than 50 people.



DeAngelo has not yet entered a plea to any of the charges against him.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.The Israeli Ministry of Tourism held a promotional fair in Fuzhou, south Chinas Fujian province on May 9. It is one of the countrys many promotional events held in China in May.

Fuzhou is a potential source of outbound tourism, and people under the age of 25 are the main contributors of outbound tourism and overseas consumption, said Bora Shnitman, chief repre-sentative of Israeli Government Tourist Office in China.

Fujian is at the core of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and Israel is on the route. I believe the two sides could conduct closer cooperation in tourism and share the benefits of the Belt and Road Initiative, he pointed out.

In 2017, about 114,000 Chinese tourists visited Israel, an increase of 41 percent from the previ-ous year, sources from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism said.

To meet the demands of a growing Chinese tourist market, the Israeli Tourism Ministry has ele-vated tourism infrastructure and services, such as increasing the training of tour guides and chefs who specialise in Chinese food, according to Shnitman."His offenses showed planning and intent. He was only concerned with satisfying his sexual deviancy."

Such were the damning words about a former coroner in northeastern Pennsylvania.

As the Citizens Voice reports, those words came as Edward C. Smith, 60, a former deputy coroner in Carbon and Schuylkill counties, was about to be sentenced for setting up a sexual encounter with what he thought was a teenage boy in Luzerne County.

Ex-deputy coroner Edward C. Smith, 60

As the newspaper reports, Paula Brust, a member of the Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board, gave a damning description of a "sexually violent predator" who cannot be cured during the sentencing hearing Tuesday:

She said Smith suffers from a paraphilic disorder that creates an "intense" urge for him to have non-consensual sex with boys in what she described as a "predatory pattern."

Background from the Citizens Voice:

Smith's crime in Luzerne County stemmed from an undercover sting operation conducted by the state Attorney General's Office in which Smith met an undercover agent posing as a 14-year-old boy on a social networking site. Smith was arrested after he arrived at the meeting location in Wilkes-Barre Twp. on Sept. 20 with plans to have sex with the teen if they "clicked" when they met, according to prosecutors.

In Schuylkill County, Smith is still awaiting trial on charges of unlawful contact with a minor, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, indecent assault, photographing child sex acts and corruption of minors. Prosecutors there allege Smith paid a teenage boy for sexual favors and to pose for photographs that were found on the defendant's cellphone.

The sentence:

Despite pleas for leniency from the defense, the judge sentenced Smith of Tamaqua, Pa., to six to 20 years in prison.

Smith now awaits trial in Schuylkill County on charges he alleged molested a teenage boy.

As Deputy Attorney General Angela Lynn Raver was quoted as saying at the hearing: "This had been going on for a long time. I think there was an underlying deviancy."A love triangle turned deadly for a former Wilkes-Barre resident in Florida.

As the Citizens Voice reports, Kenneth Walter Krause Jr., 30, was shot dead last weekend in a Florida hotel room, where he was staying with the estranged wife of a man who shot them both, then turned the gun on himself.

Also killed was Amanda Stokes, 28, of Enterprise, Alabama.

Police say her husband, Mark Stokes, 37, shot them both, before shooting himself, in Panama City Beach, where they planned to attend the Thunder Beach Motorcycle Rally last weekend.

The Stokeses were active duty Army National Guard soldiers who had split up a few weeks earlier, police said.

Police discovered all three of them dead shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday.

From the Citizens Voice:

Krause's obituary says he was born in Kingston and that his father lived in Wilkes-Barre. He is described as a "true gentleman."

The Stokeses were active duty Army National Guard soldiers stationed at Fort Rucker in Enterprise, Alabama. Amanda Stokes was a sergeant and Mark Stokes was a major.

They had split up a few weeks earlier, and Amanda Stokes rented a room at a Hampton Inn and Suites and was sharing it with Krause, who police described as her "new acquaintance."WASHINGTON -- Already under investigation for a payment to a porn star, President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney is facing intensifying legal and ethical scrutiny for selling his Trump World experience and views at a hefty price to companies that sought "insight" into the new president.

One company, pharmaceutical giant Novartis, acknowledged Wednesday it paid Michael Cohen $1.2 million for services, though they ended after a single meeting. Others, including some with major regulatory matters before the new administration, acknowledged payments totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars over at least several months.

The corporate ties could suggest Cohen was peddling his influence and profiting from his relationship with the president. They also raise questions about whether Trump knew about the arrangement.

Cohen's corporate ties were first revealed in a detailed report released by an attorney for pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels. The report alleged that Cohen used a company he established weeks before the 2016 election to receive the payments from a variety of businesses -- including $500,000 from one associated with a Russian billionaire. Financial documents reviewed by the Associated Press appear to back up much of attorney Michael Avenatti's report.

Cohen's lawyers said late Wednesday that much of the information released by Avenatti was "completely inaccurate." They told a New York judge that Avenatti made statements "in an apparent attempt to prejudice and discredit Mr. Cohen" as he seeks to intervene in a civil case Cohen brought stemming from April 9 raids on his home and office. The raids were carried out by federal agents looking for evidence in a criminal probe.

The lawyers wrote that some of the information Avenatti published Tuesday did appear to come from Cohen's actual bank records.

Aventti responded on Twitter, saying the attorneys "fail to address, let alone contradict, 99% of the statements in what we released. Among other things, they effectively concede the receipt of the $500,000 from those with Russian ties."

Three companies confirmed the payments, including Novartis and AT&T, both saying Cohen's Essential Consultants was hired to help them understand the new president during the early days of the Trump administration. Novartis said in a statement that it paid Cohen $100,000 a month for a year-long contract, thinking the longtime New York legal "fixer" with few Washington ties could advise on health care matters. After a single meeting they decided "not to engage further."

Some of the companies that engaged Cohen also had contact with Trump personally. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson met with him during the transition and has visited the White House as the company has sought approval to absorb Time Warner. The current CEO of Novartis attended a dinner with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this year, though the company stressed that the agreement with Cohen's company predated his time as CEO and he was not involved with the deal.

Just what Cohen was selling was a key question Wednesday, particularly given that public records show he is not a registered lobbyist. Cohen could enter these relationships without violating federal lobbying laws if he did not seek to influence Trump on the companies' behalf. But hiring Trump's personal attorney for advice on how to understand the president would be highly unusual.

Public Citizen President Robert Weissman said Cohen's consulting work sounds more like pay-to-play lobbying.

"It stretches the imagination that the work was just for advice. There is no reason that he would have any blinding insights," Weissman said. "Sending money to a shell company, instead of his business, that sets off some alarm bell. Nothing of this seems right."

Some of the dealings have caught the attention of the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. A spokesman for Novartis said the company was contacted in November by Robert Mueller's office regarding its agreement with Essential Consultants, which expired this year.

AT&T also said it was contacted last year by Mueller's office "regarding Michael Cohen." The company said it "cooperated fully, providing all information requested in November and December of 2017." AT&T added that its consulting contract with Cohen expired at the end of the year and it has received no questions since.

Cohen also used the company to pay a $130,000 payment to Daniels just before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with the president. Cohen is under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York, but has not been charged.

Getting into a taxi in New York City Wednesday, Cohen said of Avenatti, "His document is inaccurate," according to NBC News.

Cohen has told associates that Avenatti's claims are overheated, and he has maintained that he has not done anything wrong, according to a person familiar with the attorney's views but not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

Cohen, who until January 2017 worked for the Trump Organization, was a fixture in the company's headquarters in Trump Tower in the weeks before the president took office. Ex-campaign officials did not recall Cohen or Trump ever discussing Cohen's plans to launch consulting firm, according to three ex-campaign officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Some who used to work for Trump defended Cohen's actions, assuming he did not break any regulations about lobbying.

"Corporations want to pay for insight, advocacy and expertise on a White House," said former Trump campaign aide Sam Nunberg. "Michael offered that. He didn't do anything wrong, he did what lots of people have done over the years."

The Treasury Department's Office of the Inspector General said Wednesday it was investigating how allegations about Cohen's banking records became public, a response to the memo released by Avenatti.

Inspector general counsel Rich Delmar said the agency's actions stem from its authority as the federal agency that analyzes banking records for potential illegal activity. Under the Bank Secrecy Act, financial institutions must monitor their customers' activities and report suspicious transactions to the government. But that information is supposed to remain confidential.

Avenatti, who has not disclosed where he got his information or released any documents, declined to comment on the probe. But he has called on Cohen and Trump to release their banking records and has urged the Treasury Department to release a so-called suspicious activities report on Essential Consultants.

According to Avenatti's memo, Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire, and his cousin, Andrew Intrater, "routed" eight payments totaling about $500,000 to Cohen's company between January and August 2017. The payments were made by Columbus Nova, an American investment company, Avenatti alleges.

Andrey Shtorkh, a spokesman for Vekselberg said in a statement that Vekselberg did not have a "contractual relationship" with Cohen or his firm.

Columbus Nova's lawyer, Richard Owens, said the company hired Cohen after Trump's inauguration in January 2017 as a business consultant "regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures," but that it had nothing to do with Vekselberg.

At the time of the payments, there was an FBI counterintelligence investigation, which special counsel Mueller took over last May, into Russian election interference and any possible coordination with Trump associates.

Vekselberg was targeted for U.S. sanctions by the Trump administration last month. He built his fortune, currently estimated by Forbes at $14.6 billion, by investing in the aluminum and oil industries. More recently, he has expanded his assets to include industrial equipment and high technology.

AT&T said in a statement that Essential Consultants was one of several firms it "engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration." Avenatti alleged that the company made four $50,000 payments to Cohen totaling $200,000 in late 2017 and early 2018. AT&T said Cohen's company "did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017."

--By Jeff Horwitz, Catherine Lucey and Jonathan LemireAn officer of the York City Police Department died Wednesday evening after suffering a medical emergency during a training exercise in Baltimore County, Maryland, over the weekend.

The officer has been identified by a city spokesperson as Alex Sable, 37.

Sable was with Baltimore County Police Department's Tactical team on Sunday conducting a water exercise. The exercise was part of a SWAT school class at the Community College of Baltimore County-Dundalk Campus pool.

Sable was training in preparation to become a member of the York County Quick Response Team, according to York spokesman Philip Given.

As Sable got out of the pool, he suffered the medical emergency and was treated by on-site medics who were at the scene. Sable was then transported to a Baltimore area hospital and remained in critical care until he died Wednesday night.

Sable served as a police officer in York for four years. He was a resident of Lancaster County, and is survived by his wife and three children.

"Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of Officer Alex Sable," a statement from the city read. "The City of York is deeply saddened by this loss, as Officer Sable was a respected member of the York City Police Department and a friend to all. He will be sincerely missed."

Sable's death comes not long after two York firefighters were killed when a structure collapsed in March.A Northern Lebanon school board member resigned Tuesday night in protest over a controversy about three administrators and a "sex toy," according to reports.

Board member Beth Heckman said she was resigning because she can't continue to serve on a board "that does not hold themselves or the administration accountable," reports the Lebanon Daily News.

On May 1, the school board decided not to demote three principals accused of engaging in jokes about a sex toy that a buildings and grounds worker found last year in a boys locker room at one of the schools, said the report.

The principals will be disciplined, but details will not be discussed publicly, board member Staci Murray said in the report.

Superintendent Erick Bentzel and Glen Gray, school board president, have said they can't comment on the issue because it is a personnel matter.

Teachers said the toy was given as a gag gift to a principal during a Christmas party, and that it was thrown across the room at a cabinet meeting, reports the Daily News.

Board member Nate Erdman said at Tuesday's board meeting that the school board on May 1 voted against having a hearing on possible demotion to be conducted by a third party.

Erdman said the district solicitor had described the principals' actions as "serious, egregious and fireable offenses."WILLIAMSPORT - A federal judge Thursday sentenced a computer whiz to 18 months in prison for his part in an international ring that distributed million of dollars worth of synthetic marijuana.

"You had something going for yourself but you messed up," U.S. Middle District Judge Mathew W. Brann told Lindsay Lee-Lampshire after sentencing him to 21 months in prison. Instead, the judge said, those computer skills were used for the wrong purpose.

The judge rejected a defense argument for probation for Lampshire who, since indicted in 2013 along seven other individuals and four businesses, has gotten married and has a 9-month-old son. Both accompanied him into the courtroom Thursday.

Lampshire, 35, was an associate of Paul Chomiak who operated two "head shops" stores in Bloomsburg plus several Internet sites through which he sold synthetic marijuana and bath salts.

Chomiak has pleaded guilty but has yet to be sentenced.

Lampshire, who had pleaded guilty in 2015 to a charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, became a full-time employee of Chomiak in 2009 and created additional websites including one with an attorney called "Head Shop Law."

Brann pointed out Lampshire, who at the time operated Extelligence Internet Services in Kalamazoo, Mich., was paid $282,928 by Chomiak.

Extelligence is one of the four businesses listed as defendants in the indictment.

Chomiak began selling designer drugs commonly known as bath salts and spice in 2009 in his "head shops" and through Internet websites.

READ MORE: Lawyer gets 18 months in multi-million dollar synthetic pot, bath salts case

Besides sentencing Lampshire to prison, Brann fined him $500 and ordered him to serve two years of supervised release after his jail term. He is to report to prison on June 11.

The only member of the conspiracy yet to appear in federal court is Dwain Colin Dunwell of London. Brann said he is in prison in Hungry and is unlikely to ever to be brought back to the United States.

Charges against all the others have been resolved except for Chomiak's sentencing.

Forfeiture of $7,008,965 worth of assets the defendants obtained with funds from the illegal activity has been approved.

Those assets include bank accounts, property, vehicles, firearms and coin and sword and knife collections.Flora Posteraro has no idea what the next chapter of her life looks like - not that she's blase about it.

But after 34 years in broadcast news, the long-time news anchor is still trying to wrap her head around her new reality.

"I had a difficult time trying to make sense of what happened and try to process it. It was very difficult," Posteraro told PennLive this week, less than two months after she abruptly announced on social media that she no longer worked for abc27.

"I thought that I would retire doing the job that I loved doing. I've had to regroup. I'm looking for work. Looking for another job trying to figure out what's the next chapter in my professional life."

Normally, Posteraro is the one asking questions and getting people to open up, but the role-reversal comes with ground rules: Questions about the discrimination case she has filed against her former employer are off the table.

Still, she strikes an evocative tone in talking about themes central to the national conversation on sexual harassment in the workplace.

"I think that just about every woman out there has a story to tell. I think just about every woman has had something happen to them and they have a story to tell and I think they have been reluctant to speak up for a number of reasons," Posteraro said.

"I think they were probably reluctant to speak up because they felt nobody would believe them and then it would perhaps tarnish their reputation or someone would try to discredit them. I think that women were afraid to speak up because they feared retaliation. They felt that maybe if I say something, I'll be demoted or potentially even fired."

"I thought that I would retire doing the job that I loved doing," said former abc27 anchor Flora Posteraro. "I've had to regroup. I'm looking for work."

On March 13, Posteraro engendered the support of thousands of viewers and Facebook users after she broke the news of her abrupt departure from the ABC affiliate on the social media platform. She noted then that it was a "powerful moment for women to demand equality, fairness, and professionalism in the workplace."

Thousands of supporters have rallied behind her, many joining the several Facebook groups that spawned in the wake of her departure from the station.

Arguably one of the most prominent women in broadcasting in the region, Posteraro in March was fired from abc27 amid reports that the station tolerated a culture of inappropriateness. That is Posteraro's account of what happened. Nexstar Media Group, which last year acquired WHTM in a $4.6 billion buyout from former corporate parent, Media General, declined to comment for this story.

Posteraro last year added her name to an internal complaint made by several station employees against Robert Bee, abc27's general manager. The employees accused Bee of discriminatory and sexist behavior.

A few months after the complaint was lodged, Posteraro, whose contract with the station had expired, was reassigned to an evening and weekend shift. The reassignment did not come with a pay cut, but was considered a demotion.

In April, Nexstar regional manager Theresa Underwood told the Central Pennsylvania Business Journal that the "company had found no merit in the claims made by employees nor any violation of company policy."

On March 22, just 10 days after her departure, Posteraro filed a sexual discrimination and retaliation complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission against Nexstar and abc27.

Finding a new job is a tall order for someone who has only ever wanted to be a news broadcaster. Posteraro said she knew as a child that she wanted to be a news broadcaster.

"That's all I ever wanted to do. I didn't have a plan B," she said.

Posteraro is off camera as she is on camera: A consummate professional, meticulously groomed, posture and diction honed to perfection.

The latter took a little work.

A Pittsburgh native, Posteraro attended California University of Pennsylvania as a speech major knowing that before she could ever have a career in broadcasting, she had to do something about the thick Pittsburgh accent.

"I knew I had to get rid of it," she quips.

She did, and fast, graduating in three years - with summa cum laude honors, no less. She hit the ground running after graduation.

Over the years, she worked at TV stations including WPVI in Philadelphia, WBRE in Wilkes-Barre and WJAC in Johnstown before beginning a 20-year career at acb27, WHTM in Harrisburg.

If she has become a role model of sorts it has been unwillingly. Posteraro, long a single parent, says she has had a singular goal.

"My most important mission is to be a role model for my son," she said. "I need to be a role model for him and that is the most important thing to me. If others view me as a role model, that's humbling. It's very kind but I've always wanted to be a role model for my son."

She continues to be overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from the public. On Sunday, Posteraro was eating at a diner when several customers stopped by her table to tell her how much they missed seeing her on TV.

"It hasn't stopped. It's very kind, very humbling. It's nice to hear that," she said.

She's keeping busy with the chores of life - lawn work, grocery shopping, exercising. (But you won't find her binge-watching TV.)

Posteraro, who says she wants to stay in the broadcast news industry, continues to speak to prospective employers. She has interviewed with PA Media Group, the parent company of PennLive and The Patriot-News, among others.

And she's still in contact with her former abc27 colleagues. They reach out to her often. "I still refer to them as my co-workers," Posteraro said. "We were a family. I think we'll always be a family."

Ever the steely professional, Posteraro betrays little vulnerability. That all changes when she speaks about her late father - her one true role model.

An Italian immigrant who at 18 went in search of a new life in Pittsburgh in 1947, Abraham Posteraro, she recalls, taught her a lifelong lesson: "Work hard. Work hard. Be honest. Be kind and treat everyone with respect."

The eyes that have delivered the news for 34 years fill with tears.

This story was corrected to indicate Posteraro was fired.The bishop who was at the helm in the Diocese of Erie during the years in which state investigators say a priest was abusing two boys, even as the diocese knew about it, is saying there was no cover-up of sexual abuse.

Bishop Emeritus Donald Trautman on Wednesday said in a written statement that in 2010, he had received a fourth-hand allegation about Father David Poulson's contact with a young adult man.

Bishop Emeritus Donald Trautman

"There was no allegation of physical abuse or of contact with a minor," Trautman said. "I contacted diocesan counsel. I then immediately tried to contact the young man. There was no response after many attempts of sending letters and telephoning. From the time of the complaint, until I retired, the diocese received no other complaints about David Poulson."

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Tuesday announced the arrest of Poulson, 64, of Oil City, on charges he sexually assaulted two boys over the course of many years.

One of the victims was 8 years old when Poulson began abusing him. The second victim was 15 when the abuse started. Poulson assaulted one of his victims repeatedly in church rectories and made that victim go to confession and confess the abuse to him, Shapiro said.

Shapiro said grand jury investigators determined that the Diocese of Erie knew since at least May 2010 of the abuse. Bishop Lawrence Persico (the current Erie bishop) said that the diocese first learned of the alleged abuse in January. Persico said he immediately notified law enforcement.

Persico, who was installed as bishop in 2012, on Wednesday released another statement stating he "unequivocally" was not aware of any concerns regarding Poulson until he received the allegations in January of this year.

It was then, he said, that he learned of the memo that had been written in 2010.

"I came to the Diocese of Erie in late 2012," Persico said. "Among many initial responsibilities and priorities, I asked to be updated on any clergy abuse cases. Father Poulson's name was not mentioned."

He added that he contacted the district attorney to review clergy files, "so that I could be assured there were no cases that needed to be revisited." The process, he noted, was interrupted when the grand jury investigation began in September 2016.

Trautman, who served 22 years as bishop before Persico was installed, said he had dismissed 22 priests from ministry due to sexual abuse during his tenure.

Poulson, who had been a priest in the Erie diocese for four decades until earlier this year, has been charged with indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors. Three of the counts against Poulson are felonies.

The charges against Poulson were recommended by a statewide grand jury that has been investigating allegations of child sex crimes across six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania: including Harrisburg, Allentown, Pittsburgh, Greensburg, Erie and Scranton.

With regards to the charges against Poulson, Trautman said he had "prayerful support" for all victims of sexual abuse. "I abhor the evil of sexual abuse," he said.A Carlisle woman who spent 42 years in prison after being convicted of setting a fire that killed two people can finally consider herself to be free.

In fact, Letitia Smallwood, now 64, isn't even on supervised probation anymore.

The state Supreme Court put the final period on Smallwood's case Thursday, dismissing her last appeal after noting a plea agreement has made that challenge moot.

Smallwood struck that deal last month, pleading no contest to two murder charges and a burglary count. In return, Cumberland County President Judge Edward E. Guido sentenced her to 19 to 40 years in prison on the murder counts, making her eligible for immediate parole. Guido tagged on a 9-year probation term for the burglary.

Last week, Guido modified his sentence to take Smallwood off supervised probation.

"This is what Ms. Smallwood wanted to do," Marissa Bluestine, executive director of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, said when asked about the resolution of the case. Bluestine's organization represented Smallwood in her appeals.

"She has been suffering under this for more than 40 years," Bluestine added. "She wanted to have it come to an end."

A long and winding road led to that ending.

It began in 1972, when Smallwood was charged with setting fire to an apartment building on North Pitt Street. Steven Johnson, 26, and Paula Wagner, 23, died as a result of that blaze. Smallwood was arrested after police received a report she had threatened Wagner's boyfriend the afternoon before the fire.

A county jury convicted her after a two-day trial in 1973 and Smallwood was sentenced to life behind bars.

Fast forward to April 2015. Innocence Project attorneys convinced Guido to vacate Smallwood's sentence and grant her a new trial. Their argument on appeal was the police investigation of the cause of the fire was flawed because it relied on scientific methods that have since been discredited.

Guido's ruling let Smallwood out of prison to live with family in Carlisle while prosecutors decided on their next move. That move was an appeal to the state Superior Court.

In February 2017, after Smallwood had been out of prison for 20 months, a Superior Court panel ruled that Guido had been wrong to grant the new trial.

Judge Anne E. Lazarus found Smallwood had waited as much as 15 years too long to appeal based on the supposedly newly-discovered evidence that the fire probe was faulty.

Even so, Lazarus wrote, "This case is deeply troubling on several levels. It seems axiomatic that a jury hearing Smallwood's statements and evidence in light of the uncertainty of the origin of the fire might well reach a different conclusion as to Smallwood's guilt than that determined by the original jury."

Smallwood remained free as her attorneys appealed the Superior Court decision to the Supreme Court, but her fate remained iffy at best until the plea deal closed the case for good.

Bluestine praised the Cumberland County District Attorney's Office for being willing to work with her group on that agreement. "We feel it really does serve justice," she said.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Charles Volkert Jr., who handled the plea and sentencing hearing, wasn't immediately available for comment.

Bluestine said Smallwood has remained in Carlisle, where she is active in food pantry and other community programs to help the poor. "She's even teaching Braille to people because she learned it in prison," Bluestine said.

"It's her home. It's where she grew up," Bluestine added. "The community has welcomed her back."A Maryland man was charged today with robbing an Adams County bank recently.

Jacob Charles Lafrance, 28, of Thurmont, Md., was charged with robbery and theft in the April 25 robbery at PNC Bank on Waynesboro Pike, said Brian Sinnett, Adams County district attorney.

Lafrance was arrested in Maryland and is awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania.

Lafrance, wearing a black hoodie and big sunglasses, is accused of pointing what looked like a semi-automatic handgun at a bank clerk around 2 p.m. April 25 at the PNC Bank. He left with $4,266.

Investigators matched items of clothing he was seen wearing in surveillance video with photos on his Facebook page. In a search of his home and vehicle, police said they found clothing, a backpack and a pellet gun that matched those seen in the video.The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has engaged almost 70 countries and multilateral international organizations, creating a huge opportunity that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should also participate in, experts noted at a seminar in Beijing on Wednesday.

BRI is the largest-ever opening up and cross-border exchange and integration scheme. Therefore, it is essential for SMEs to seize the opportunity, said Sun Haizhao, former Chinese ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Central African Republic at the seminar held by the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) on May 9.

However, investment in the initiative is largely from central and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and to certain extent, SMEs are not involved, observed Zhou Xiaojing, former director of the Asia-Africa Development Research Institute under the Development Research Center of the State Council.

Zhou also called on the importance of policy support, guidelines for investment, and construction of industrial parks and specialized rural financial institutions, as well as the promotion of coordination between SOEs and SMEs, through which SMEs could avoid non-economic risks and reinforce investment.

Besides policy support, SMEs should constantly improve themselves during the engagement with the initiative. Specifically, they should establish brand awareness and advance product quality and services. They could also integrate Chinas internet thinking into their strategic development, according to Tang Haoxuan, chairmen of Fueta International Co., Ltd.

In addition, it is important for SMEs to increase expenditures in security and safeguard their safety and interests, said Ren Yuanzhe, director of the Consular Teaching and Research Office at China Foreign Affairs University, adding that SMEs should also respect religions and customs of host countries, and fulfill social responsibilities.

Scholars from Nepal and Australia also expressed their welcome for BRI. North Australia has huge potential, said Shahar Hameiri, an associate professor at the University of Queensland, adding that he hopes the Australian government would engage into the initiative and promote cooperation with China.

Similarly, enormous opportunities exist in Nepal, including infrastructure construction, agricultural and minerals exchange, and services. It is believed that Nepal and China could reach win-win results through BRI, said Sushil Lamsal, deputy chief of mission at the embassy of Nepal in China.WILLIAMSPORT -- One of the inmates who brutally attacked another prisoner at the maximum security Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in 2014 has been sentenced to nearly eight years in prison.

The sentence of 7 years, 8 months imposed Wednesday by U.S. Middle District Judge Matthew W. Brann on Troi Venable, 38, will run consecutive to the term that expires in 2019 on a charge illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Venable and three others were charged with the beating of a fellow inmate identified as R.G. in a recreation pen on Nov. 14, 2014. All have pleaded guilty to a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon.

The assault began when Ashley Dixon grabbed victim's head from behind and held it back while Venable stabbed him in the neck and head.

Those two and Perlie Johnson and Christopher Goins took turns exchanging three homemade weapons and assaulting R.G., Brann said as he reviewed the facts of the two-minute attack.

Venable's role also included slashing the victim on the back with a razor blade-type device.

The "violent crime" that also included punching and kicking left the R.G.'s vocal cord partially paralyzed, Brann said.

He also suffered 20 cuts to the head and neck, five puncture wounds to the back, broken collar bone and multiple lacerations to the face that required stitches.

Two melted 5-inch plastic spikes with sharpened points and a piece of folded metal the size of razor blade with a jagged edge were recovered after the assault.

The motive for the beating has not been determined and the victim has been uncooperative, Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey W. MacArthur said.

Venable, a New Jersey resident who is considered a career offender, has never been employed and was expelled from eighth grade for fighting, it was stated in court.

He had pleaded guilty in December to a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon while in prison.

Johnson and Goins have yet to be sentenced. Dixon is serving a term of 9 years, 2 months.

Their sentences have or will include the requirement to share in restitution of $94,905 to the Bureau of Prisons for R.G's medical costs.A 67-year-old nurse from Annville has been ordered to spend 6 years in federal prison for what investigators called a "brazen" $152,000 health care fraud.

Joan Cicchiello operated Twilight Beginnings of Mount Carmel, which provided mental health services.

U.S. Attorney David Freed said Thursday that Cicchiello recruited workers who were either unlicensed or not licensed properly to provide psychiatric services. Those included a retired chiropractor with a criminal record, Freed said.

He said Cicchiello's staffers met with elderly clients at nursing homes throughout central and northeastern Pennsylvania and with adolescents who came to the Mount Carmel facility.

To get Medicaid payments, Cicchiello lied and stated that her counselors were properly licensed, Freed said. She also presented falsified licensing documents to the feds, he said.

Freed said Cicchiello even billed Medicare for counseling services she claimed she was providing when she was on vacation in Las Vegas, Russia, Denmark, London, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Scotland and Ireland.

Cicchiello was indicted in October 2016 on dozens of charges, including health care fraud, making false statements related to health care matters and obstruction of a federal audit. Cicchiello pleaded guilty in the case this past October.

In addition to the prison term, U.S. Middle District Judge John E. Jones III ordered Cicchiello to pay more than $152,000 in restitution, plus a $150,000 fine. She must serve 3 years on probation after her release from prison.

Defense attorney Christian A. Lovecchio focused on his client's age in asking Jones to be lenient. She isn't likely to commit more crimes because she will be over 70 when she is released and "the likelihood of recidivism by a 70 year old is very low," he wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

The case against Cicchiello stemmed from an investigation by the FBI and the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.PHILADELPHIA -- A nurse was charged Thursday in the death of the father of President Donald Trump's former national security adviser after authorities said she failed to give him a series of neurological exams following his fall at a Philadelphia senior care facility.

Christann Shyvin Gainey, 30, was charged with involuntary manslaughter, neglect and records tampering in the death of H.R. McMaster Sr.

The 84-year-old retired U.S. Army officer died April 13, about eight hours after suffering a fall and hitting his head at the Cathedral Village retirement community.

Surveillance video showed that Gainey, who worked as a contract nurse at Cathedral Village, failed to conduct a series of eight neurological evaluations of McMaster as required, prosecutors said. Gainey then allegedly falsified documents to make it seem she had.

It wasn't immediately clear if Gainey has an attorney who could comment on her behalf. Phone numbers listed for her rang unanswered Thursday afternoon. Gainey's employer, General Healthcare Resources of Plymouth Meeting, declined comment.

McMaster's son, H.R. McMaster Jr., served as Trump's national security adviser from February 2017 until he resigned in March.

"Our father ... was a tough and compassionate soldier and public servant," McMaster's daughter, Letitia McMaster, said in a statement. "The best way to honor his memory is for all of us to do all we can to prevent others from suffering at the hands of those who lack compassion and abandon even the most basic standards of human decency. Today's charges are an important step forward in that connection."

McMaster was admitted to Cathedral Village on April 9 for rehabilitation following a stroke. Three days later, according to court documents, he was found on the floor of his room by a nursing assistant, who alerted Gainey, the charge nurse.

Cathedral Village policy mandates close neurological monitoring of patients who hit their heads, including assessments every 15 minutes for the first hour and every hour for the next three.

An assistant nursing director told police that after McMaster's death, she asked Gainey whether the nurse had conducted the required evaluations of McMaster. Gainey replied she had and said, "They were fine," according to a police affidavit.

When the supervisor noted the last entry on McMaster's neurological chart indicated that an evaluation had been performed 20 minutes after his death, Gainey told her, "Well, I falsified that one," the affidavit said.

Police reviewed about eight hours of surveillance video and concluded Gainey had failed to perform a single neurological exam.

A medical examiner ruled McMaster died of "blunt impact head trauma."

"When a family selects a senior living facility, they do not expect their loved one to be found dead in the lobby of a place that was supposed to be caring for him,"

Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference Thursday. "This nurse ignored her job responsibilities, falsified paperwork, lied to her supervisors and neglected Mr. McMaster, who died."

Cathedral Village officials said last month they were cooperating with investigators. They also said they contacted the state Health Department and launched an internal investigation.

___

Alexandra Villarreal and Michael Rubikam of the Associated Press wrote the story. Rubinkam reported from northeastern Pennsylvania.State police have identified a Lebanon man who was killed and a Harrisburg man who was injured when a van exploded at a business Wednesday morning.

The van driver. Stephen Miller, 65, was pronounced dead at the scene of the blast at JP Donmoyer Inc. in Lebanon County's East Hanover Township, police said.

They said Michael Floyd, 69, the driver of a truck that was next to the van when it exploded at 9:34 a.m., was taken to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center for treatment of shrapnel injuries.

A fire marshal is investigating the blast.

State Trooper David Beohm said earlier that the van contained gas, an air compressor, oxygen tanks and welding equipment. There was a fire in the van, and the truck next to it caught fire after the explosion, he said.

Floyd and Miller both are Donmoyer employees.WILLIAMSPORT -- A third member of a white nationalist organization has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Henry Lambert Baird, 50, of the Allentown area, entered his plea Wednesday in U.S. Middle District Court.

He admitted taking part in planning meetings in the Harrisburg area with undercover FBI employees and on two occasions in 2017 participating in the transportation of imitation crystal methamphetamine and machine gun parts from Pennsylvania to Maryland.

Baird pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine.

It is the same charge to which Joshua Michael Steever of Manville, N.J., and Connor Drew Dikes, of Silver Spring, Md., pleaded last month. It carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney and defense attorney E. J. Rymsza estimated Baird's sentence will be in the range of 17 to 22 years.

Steever was the founder of the Aryan Strikeforce and Dikes was the sergeant of arms of the white nationalist organization, which advocates violence as a necessary tool to achieve its political goals.

Rocktashel, in reciting the prosecution's evidence, said Baird told the undercover employees he had tried to kill a man hanging around strikeforce members but the individual pushed his arm just as he fired.

The prosecutor said evidence also would show Baird was present for a 2016 discussion about having a terminally ill individual conceal a bomb and detonate it among protestors at a planned white nationalist rally in Harrisburg.

Rymsza would not let his client admit to the attempted killing or bomb discussion, saying they were beyond the scope of the conspiracy charge.

Baird is one of six men indicted as the result of an investigation involving undercover FBI employees who hired strikeforce members to be the "muscle" for the transportation of methamphetamine from the Pennsylvania to Maryland on four occasions in 2016 and 2017.

Strikeforce members were encouraged to use some of their "pay" to buy gift cards that later could be used to purchase weapons, Rocktashel said.

Among the weapons members expressed interest in buying were an Uzi, AK-47 and handguns, he said.

Another defendant, Justin Daniel Lough of Waynesboro, Va., is trying to have his federal indictment dismissed on the basis of outrageous government conduct.

He accuses the government with conceiving, planning and directing the operation in violation of basic principles of due process law.

Rocktashel rejects the allegations, saying well before the undercover investigation the FBI received information about strikeforce activity involving firearms and drugs in Potter County.

He also has stated at each of the three guilty pleas those involved were warned they were participating in criminal activity and were free to walk away.

Baird remains detained pending sentencing.The National Weather Service in State College has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Dauphin County and northwestern Lebanon County until 6 p.m.

At 4:54 p.m., severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from near Meiserville to near New Buffalo to Newport to near Ickesburg, moving east at 40 mph. This includes the following Interstate 78 from mile markers 0 to 4, and Interstate 81 from mile markers 71 to 96.

Locations impacted include Palmyra, Linglestown, Colonial Park, Hershey, Harrisburg, Harper Tavern, Skyline View, Lykens, Millersburg and New Buffalo.

The National Weather Service says that 70 mph wind gusts and nickel size hail are possible.

The National Weather Services says that this is a dangerous situation and warns of considerable tree damage, and that damage is likely to mobile homes, roofs, and outbuildings.Wednesday marked 174 days since he suffered a widowmaker heart attack, but former Gov. Tom Ridge reported on Wednesday, "I'm doing great."

Ridge, looking tanned and in good humor, said he is almost back to work full-time from what he refers to as "the incident" that occurred on Nov. 16 while attending a Republican Governors Association meeting in Austin, Texas.

The 72-year former Homeland Security secretary considers himself fortunate to have had "tremendous EMS professionals" respond to his hotel room and keep him alive until he got to the hospital. At the hospital, the cardiologist went to work to save him, which left him pretty banged up.

"They broke my sternum, broke a couple ribs, punctured both lungs but I'm glad they did it," Ridge said. "It all turned out very well. I'm happy to be here."

His cardiologist told him that only 5 percent of the people who experience a heart attack like the one he did even make to the hospital.

"So I was very fortunate for a lot of reasons," said Ridge, who served as governor from 1995 through October 2001, when he joined then President George W. Bush's administration in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

He was in Harrisburg on Wednesday to participate in the Wednesday evening opening ceremony of The Wall That Heals exhibit on the South Lawn of the state Capitol complex, where he is to deliver the keynote address. The exhibit, along with a mobile education center, is open round-the-clock until mid-day Sunday.

Thinking back to his heart attack, Ridge said he has always been a big supporter of emergency responders but now is even more so. He also is appreciative of the quality of health care this country has to offer.

"You can argue about cost," he said during an interview in the Ridge Policy Group office in Harrisburg. "But I don't want to get sick any place else."

He also learned a life lesson that he shares with his buddies and anybody who will listen to be self-aware of their bodies and how they are feeling.

Ridge said he woke up that morning not feeling well, but different. He began to think "could you perhaps, maybe, be having a heart attack?"

He looked up the symptoms on his iPhone and decided "probably not." He laid back down. The symptoms got worse. That's when he decided it was time to call for help. He managed with some difficulty to get to the desk phone to make the call. He woke up six days later on life support.

So his advice to people when it comes to their health: "If you don't feel quite right, you feel different. You better check it out, Your body is telling you something. Occasionally we ignore it but sometimes you have to listen."Four-year-old Rory Nichols, shown in this undated handout image, had a genetic test that determined she was at risk for hearing loss from a chemotherapy drug so her mother decided to switch her to another medication after discussions with a doctor at BC Children's Hospital. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HOChina's reform and opening-up policy, launched in 1978, has since then transformed the nation. 40 years after the policy was initiated, we talked to Thomas B. Gold, professor of UC Berkeley, who first went to China in 1975, spent a year living in Shanghai in 1979 and revisits the nation from time to time.Defence lawyer Boris Bytensky, left to right, Justice Ruby Wong, Alek Minassian and Crown prosecutor Joe Callaghan are shown in court as Minassian appears by video in Toronto on Thursday, May 10, 2018 in this courtroom sketch. Three new charges of attempted murder were laid Thursday against the man accused in a deadly van attack that took place in north Toronto last month. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Alexandra NewbouldDuff Conacher, co-founder of the group Democracy Watch, speaks with reporters during a break from proceedings in Federal Court in Ottawa, Tuesday Sept. 8, 2009. Federal agencies expect to refuse to process an estimated 275 Access to Information requests from Canadians annually ??? less than one per cent of the total received ??? under proposed new powers to reject overly broad or vexatious applications, internal number-crunching suggests. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian WyldSupreme Court of Canada is shown in Ottawa on January 19, 2018. The Supreme Court of Canada will settle the controversy of whether the Toronto-born sons of Russian spies are actually Canadian citizens. A high court decision today grants the federal government a chance to fight a Federal Court of Appeal ruling that effectively affirmed the citizenship of Alexander and Timothy Vavilov. The Vavilov brothers were born in the 1990s to parents using the aliases Donald Heathfield and Tracey Ann Foley. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickTOKYO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said here Thursday that new progress and lasting stable development should be made in China-Japan relationship as it returns to the normal track.

This is the best way to commemorate the signing of China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Li told a reception marking the 40th anniversary of the treaty in Tokyo.

The treaty is an important milestone in bilateral ties, and the direction of peace and friendship between China and Japan has been clarified in the treaty, Li said at the reception, which was also attended by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Over the past 40 years, China-Japan relations have achieved remarkable progress under the guidance of the spirit and principles of the treaty, he noted.

It is based on the principles of the four cornerstone political documents, including the treaty, that the development of bilateral ties can be led back onto the right track in spite of twists and turns in the past, said Li.

Now, as Prime Minister Abe said, bilateral relations are standing at a new starting point, noted the Chinese premier.

Li is in Japan for an official visit, the first by a Chinese premier in eight years.Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu rises in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Friday, October 27, 2017. Gladu says that while she supports Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision to apologize for Canada turning away Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust in 1939, the number of apologies he's delivered makes people question his sincerity.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian WyldIn this photo released Thursday, May 10, 2018, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview with Alexis Papachelas, the the executive editor of the Greek Kathimerini newspaper, in Damascus, Syria. In the interview published Thursday, Assad said the current U.S. administration is inconsistent and nothing can be achieved with it in terms of ending the raging conflict in his country and that he hoped there is no direct confrontation between the U.S and Russia in Syria. (SANA via AP)In this April 18, 2018 photo, Michael Bever arrives at the Tulsa County Courthouse for his murder trial in Tulsa, Okla. An investigator testified that Bever, the younger of two brothers accused of fatally stabbing their parents and three siblings in their Oklahoma home, denied killing anyone. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)Pirate offense sputters in loss The downpour of rain that drenched Pirate Field in the fourth quarter was probably an accurate representation of just how Perryville football coach Brent Roth and his team felt following the game.The 

Indians have fun in shutout victory over Bayless St. Vincent football coach Tim Schumer said that his team had a lot of fun on Friday night. The Indians scored early and often, then dominated on defense as they shutout Bayless 59-0 JUNEAU, Alaska (AP)  The Alaska Legislature on Tuesday approved a key piece of a plan to address the states persistent budget deficit  and one of the last unresolved pieces of the extended legislative session.

The bill, which advanced from a conference committee earlier in the day, calls for limited withdrawals from Alaska Permanent Fund earnings. Money taken out would help pay for state government costs and be used to pay the annual checks residents receive from the oil-wealth fund.

The bill does not say how the money would be divided among the two needs in future years.

The measu...Oil prices hit highest in years on Thursday as markets adjust to looming sanctions on Iran

By Henning Gloystein



SINGAPORE

Petroleumworld 05 10 2018

Oil prices clocked up more multi-year highs on Thursday as traders adjusted to the prospects of renewed U.S. sanctions against major crude exporter Iran amid an already tightening market.

The United States plans to impose new sanctions against Iran, which produces around 4 percent of global oil supplies, after abandoning an agreement reached in late 2015 which limited Tehran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for removing U.S.-Europe sanctions.

Oil prices rose sharply in response to the announced measures.

Brent crude futures LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, hit their strongest since November 2014, at $77.89 per barrel shortly before 0700 GMT on Thursday, up 0.9 percent from their last close.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures also marked a November-2014 high, at $71.84 a barrel, before edging back to $71.78 per barrel. That was-still 0.9 percent above their last settlement.

In China, which is Iran's single biggest buyer of oil, Shanghai crude futures ISCc1 posted their biggest intra-day rally since their launch in March, rising more than 4.5 percent to a dollar-denominated record above $75 per barrel.

Analysts had little hope that opposition to the U.S. action would prevent sanctions from going ahead.

Europe and China will not fight against the U.S. sanctions. They will grumble and accept it. There is no one who will realistically choose Iran over the U.S., said energy consultancy FGE.

We believe the previous 1 million bpd limit for exports (imposed during previous sanctions) will be reimposed. As before, it may take several rounds of reductions to reach target levels, FGE's founder and chairman Fereidun Fesharaki wrote in a note.

Oil prices will certainly move up, and $90-100 per barrel prices may again be on the cards, Fesharaki said.

U.S. bank Goldman Sachs said renewed sanctions and risks to supplies elsewhere, especially in Venezuela, meant there was a strong possibility of higher prices than the bank's summer Brent forecast of $82.50 per barrel.

The threat of new sanctions comes amid an oil market that has already been tightening due to strong demand, especially in Asia, and as top exporter Saudi Arabia and No.1 producer Russia have led efforts since 2017 to withhold oil supplies to prop up prices.

U.S. crude inventories C-STK-T-EIA fell by 2.2 million barrels in the week to May 4, to 433.76 million barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), slightly above the 420 million barrels five-year average level.

One factor that could prevent markets from tightening further is soaring U.S. oil output.

Higher prices are more than likely to be capped as ... U.S. shale producers turn the taps back on the longer prices remain above break-even, said Kerry Craig, global market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

Weekly U.S. crude oil production C-OUT-T-EIA hit another record last week, climbing to 10.7 million barrels per day (bpd).

That's up 27 percent since mid-2016 and means U.S. output is creeping ever closer to that of top producer Russia, which pumps around 11 million bpd.



Petroleumworld.com



Hit your target - Advertise with UsWASHINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that his meeting with top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong Un, will be in Singapore on June 12.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th," Trump wrote. "We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!"

The remarks came on the heels of the DPRK's release of three detained U.S. citizens, who came back with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo early Thursday after his visit to Pyongyang in preparation for the Trump-Kim summit.

On April 30, Trump said that Singapore and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the DPRK and South Korea could be possible sites for his meeting with Kim.

The president on Wednesday ruled out the DMZ, a place he clearly preferred in his earlier tweets considering its symbolic implications.

U.S. analysts said Singapore won out for its neutrality.

While meeting with the three U.S. detainees at Joint Base Andrews, the U.S. state of Maryland, Trump said that his "proudest achievement will be ...when we denuclearize that entire peninsula. This is what people have been waiting for for a long time. Nobody thought we could be on this track in terms of the speed."

"Hopefully everything is going to work out at the highest level," he said, referring to his meeting with Kim. "We will see if we can do something that people did not think was going to happen for many, many years...we're starting off on a new footing."

When asked if he wanted to visit the DPRK one day, Trump said "it could happen."

Related:

Trump-Kim summit in Singapore favors US, say Chinese observers

The location and time of the summit has been agreed, but with more details to come in the next few days, The Guardian reported.Lack of framework for Guyana's oil and gas sector is cause for concern -People's Progressive Party



By Kaieter News



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 05 10 2018 The continued absence of a framework for the oil and gas sector is cause for concern, according to the People's Progressive Party (PPP).



The opposition concerns follow reports published in the Wednesday edition of the Kaieteur News that U.S oil giant ExxonMobil had bypassed several local companies by hiring Trinidadian firm, Ramps Logistics to provide logistical and customs brokerage services.



Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo pointed out that there has been no movement on the generic issues such as the framework for the predictable oil sector that would include an independent Petroleum Commission, a Sovereign Wealth Fund, auctioning of future oil blocks and also Local Content Legislation.



So that all the issues like we saw today [KN article] about the brokerage service given to a Trinidad company; those issues would have been resolved in the context of strong Local Content Legislation and also what package of incentives that anyone who invests in the oil sector will get and what they will not get. We need clarity on this, Jagdeo stated.



He highlighted that if the framework was in place one could have highlighted that the company was operating outside of the framework established.



Establishing the framework itself would have given great confidence, Jagdeo stated.



Several persons from the local shipping industry, who spoke with Kaieteur News, all agreed that a Trinidadian firm being given the hog of the logistical work needed in the oil and gas industry is a national insult and a slap in the face of local content.



Jagdeo maintained that the PPP remains unhappy with Government's approach to the signing of the Petroleum Sharing Agreement (PSA) with the company, highlighting that they are provisions in the agreement that they are very unhappy with because they were departures from the 1999 agreement signed by former President Janet Jagan.



As a political party we have made it clear that we are unhappy with the process. We are unhappy with the contract itself that was signed. Very unhappy, but I also have to make sure that as Leader of the Opposition and head of a political party that I don't get accused of contributing to a climate where we repudiate contracts once a legitimate Government has signed them, Jagdeo noted.



He also stated that the Government has two approaches to the contract. It can repudiate the contract and enter into a contentious fight with ExxonMobil or agree at the level of Cabinet to approach ExxonMobil for renegotiations.



According to Jagdeo, the PPP favours the latter option.



We have made it clear that ExxonMobil came out of these negotiations way ahead of Guyana by billions of dollars. We have to put pressure on Government to approach the company, Jagdeo stated.



He expressed the view that the Government has made it clear that they don't want to renegotiate the contract although they have made excuses for the contract. Jagdeo stated that the Government should answer what changes they plan to make to the contract.



If they could even answer to the Kaieteur News or anyone else because Kaieteur News has been at this for a while; if they could answer to you what they will change from ExxonMobil in future contracts, Jagdeo stated. Petroleumworld.com



Hit your target - Advertise with Us

Story from Kaieter News



Kaieteurnewsonline.com 05 10 2018

Copyright 1999-2018 Petroleumworld or respective author or news agency. All rights reserved.



We welcome the use of Petroleumworld (PW) stories by anyone provided it mentions Petroleumworld.com as the source.



Other stories you have to get authorization by its authors. Internet web links to http://www.petroleumworld.com are appreciated.



Petroleumworld welcomes your feedback and comments, share your thoughts on this article, your feedback is important to us! We invite all our readers to share with us

their views and comments about this article.

Write to editor@petroleumworld.com



By using this link, you agree to allow PW

to publish your comments on our letters page.



Any question or suggestions,

please write to: editor@petroleumworld.com Best Viewed with IE 5.01+ Windows NT 4.0, '95,

'98,ME,XP, Vista, Windows 7,8,10 +/ 800x600 pixels November 13 - 15, 2018.



Gubkin University, Moscow

SPE Student ChapterTrinidad & Tobago to shelve property tax as energy revenue rises



By Gail Alexander



PORT SPAIN

Petroleumworld 05 10 2018

Opposition chief whip on mid-term projection: The Government should not institute the property tax since Finance Minister Colm Imbert recently said T&T has turned the corner and also projected good news in today's mid-year Budget review, says Opposition Chief Whip David Lee.

He has painted a more positive outlook for T&T in recent weeks. Also, energy prices are better than before. If the situation is really good, Government should have no need to pursue the property tax and inflict further hardship on the public, Lee said yesterday.

Imbert will deliver his review at 10 am today in Parliament, detailing the economic and financial outlook in the seven months since the 2018 Budget was presented last October. The $50 billion Budget carried a projected $4.76 billion deficit, with measures aimed at reducing this.

Imbert is expected to give the status of Budget plans - including property tax implementation - revenue streams and energy projects and give possible adjustments.

This might extend to amendments to property tax proposals. Debate on the tax continues in the Senate tomorrow with amendments from Government which - in last week's debate - noted Opposition and Independent senators' concerns on various aspects of the planned tax.

In preparation to handle activities over the rest of the fiscal year, Parliament's Standing Finance Committee on Tuesday approved the shift of $796.2 million from the Finance Ministry to 18 divisions. This was to supplement funding for specific projects and in some cases increase their 2018 Budget appropriations.

At that meeting, Imbert indicated he would answer questions on aspects of Tobago infrastructural preparations for the Tobago Sandals plan as well as other issues concerning Tobago which received $120m in supplemental/increased funding on Tuesday.

Imbert recently told media to wait and see if the review would have any gasoline price hike. But at Tuesday's meeting he hinted there might be none while replying to Lee's question whether a gasoline price hike was expected.

Imbert said while Budget plans were to introduce a formula via which gasoline prices would fluctuate according to international oil prices the formula has not been started. Imbert said the oil price is now higher than Budget projections and Government would have to return to the drawing board on formula plans.

Lee said yesterday, We expect his review will try to counter the recent Standard and Poors downgrade and talk about turning the corner'. We hope he fully details how we have turned the corner'. If we have, Government shouldn't pursue the property tax.

We are also concerned about Tuesday's exercise, shifting that $796.2m from Finance's funds to recurrent expenditure in the 18 divisions. If the oil price is good, why is there need to use Finance's funds which are normally for infrastructure? We also hope to hear the status of Budget plans for oil royalties and negotiations with the energy companies, Lee said.

We at least know there will be no old age pension increases coming. On Tuesday when we asked why Social Development needed $28m - which they said was for old age pensions - we asked if there would be a pension increase. But Imbert said no.

Normal speaking time for MPs is 45 minutes. However, Imbert can seek to suspend procedural regulations - the Standing Orders- and extend his review speaking time.

After Imbert, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar will give the Opposition's reply. Lee said all 18 Opposition MPs intend to debate Imbert's review.

A request will be made to the House Speaker for this.

Petroleumworld.com



Hit your target - Advertise with Us

Oil company Total to sell Haiti retail business to Bandari Corp

By Reuters



PARIS

Petroleumworld 05 10 2018

French oil company Total has agreed to sell its retail business in Haiti to Bandari Corporation Ltd, a consortium formed by local and regional players.

Total said the business comprised a network of 92 service stations and general trade fuel sales operations. The French company did not disclose the financial terms of the sale.

This transaction with local operators is aligned with our strategy of streamlining our asset portfolio in the Caribbean, Isabelle Gaildraud, senior vice president for the Americas region at Total Marketing & Services, said in a statement.

Petroleumworld.com



Hit your target - Advertise with Us

US -Iran sanctions spell the end of OPEC output deal: Kemp

By John Kemp



LONDON

Petroleumworld 05 10 2018

President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear agreement with Iran marks the end of the current output agreement between OPEC and its allies.

OPEC is likely to insist the current agreement remains in effect, at least for now, but the prospective removal of several hundred thousand barrels per day of Iranian exports from the market will require a major adjustment.

Saudi Arabia has already promised to mitigate the impact of any potential supply shortages, in conjunction with other suppliers and consumer countries, in a statement released immediately after the sanctions decision.

The kingdom is customarily coy about how it might respond but the prospective removal of Iranian crude from the market will send oil prices sharply higher unless other producers step up to fill the gap.

As a practical matter, only Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Russia and the United States have the ability to raise production and exports in the short term.

Saudi Arabia and its close allies Abu Dhabi and Kuwait hold almost all the spare capacity that could respond quickly to a reduction in Iranian exports.

U.S. shale producers could also increase their output but it would take time and their light crude is not a good substitute for heavier Iranian oil.

Russian firms may also hold spare capacity and could certainly increase output over a 12-month horizon. Their crude is a close equivalent to Iranian grades.

The United States and Saudi Arabia appear to have reached a high-level political understanding in which the United States will intensify pressure on Iran in exchange for Saudi Arabia agreeing to help avoid a spike in oil prices.

The existence of an understanding was confirmed by the U.S. Treasury Secretary who told reporters on Tuesday that we have had conversations with various parties ... that would be willing to increase oil supply.

In retrospect, the president's tweet on April 20 blaming OPEC for high oil prices can be seen as part of the negotiating process to reach an understanding with Saudi Arabia.

In effect, the United States agreed to implement tough sanctions, and Saudi Arabia agreed to limit the impact on oil prices.

The outlines of that agreement remain unclear, and may not be entirely clear to Washington and Riyadh, but the understanding is vital to the successful implementation of sanctions.

U.S. gasoline prices are already averaging just under $3 per gallon, the highest level since late 2014, up from $2.50 a year ago.

U.S. politicians will want to avoid being blamed for a further escalation in the run up to congressional elections in November.

Assuming the U.S. sanctions are effective in curbing Iran's crude exports, Saudi Arabia and its OPEC allies will have to raise their production to make up the shortfall, or risk being blamed for a further rise in motoring costs.

UPDATED DEAL

The original agreement between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by Saudi Arabia, and other oil exporters, led by Russia, set output levels in December 2016.

The output agreement has already been extended twice, in May and December 2017, and is now scheduled to run until at least December 2018.

Even before the United States decided to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement, OPEC's output agreement was in danger of being overtaken by events.

The collapse in Venezuelan output has reduced production much more than intended and caused global oil inventories to draw down much faster than OPEC predicted at the end of last year.

The result has been a sharp increase in prices, which has been broadly welcomed by OPEC members, especially Saudi Arabia, which needs the revenues to pay for its ambitious transformation programme.

Losing significant volumes of Iranian exports as a result of sanctions will worsen the existing under-supply in the market and cause inventories to decline even faster and prices to rise even higher.

But further significant price increases threaten to complicate OPEC's strategy by accelerating the upturn in shale drilling, as well as denting the growth in oil consumption.

They also pose a political problem since neither the Trump administration nor Saudi Arabia will want to be blamed for pushing up prices for motorists in the United States and elsewhere.

For all these reasons, Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members will come under intense pressure to raise their output to make up for any loss of Iranian barrels.

In theory, U.S. sanctions on Iran's oil industry will not be re-imposed for six months to give customers, traders and banks time to wind down their relationships in an orderly fashion.

In theory, too, the United States is open to granting waivers to importers of Iranian crude, provided they show some willingness to reduce their purchases.

But the U.S. Treasury has already made clear it expects importers to start cutting purchases of Iranian crude immediately if they want to obtain a waiver later, according to a briefing note issued by the Treasury on Tuesday.

The result is that sanctions will start to phase in quickly and could start to progressively cut Iranian exports within the next few months, assuming the sanctions are effective.

OPEC members need to start reacting now if they intend to avert an escalation of prices, rather than leaving the decision to December, by which time the market will be exceptionally tight and it will be too late.

Current OPEC and non-OPEC production levels were specified for a world over-supplied with crude. That world no longer exists.

Negotiating a new deal on output levels is likely to prove tricky since OPEC operates by consensus and sanctions pit two of its most important producers directly against one another.

So the existing deal may technically remain in force while members ignore its output levels in practice.

But the U.S. sanctions on Iran, assuming they are effective, mark the end of the current output agreement.

Petroleumworld.com



Hit your target - Advertise with Us

PDVSA sued by SNC-Lavalin for $25 mln in U.S. court over non-payment

By Reuters



HOUSTON

Petroleumworld 05 10 2018

Venezuela's state-run oil firm PDVSA is being sued for more than $25 million in the United States over nonpayment of notes issued for work performed by Canadian energy contractor SNC-Lavalin, according to a court filing.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, is the latest in a series of legal filings seeking to press the cash-strapped oil company and its refining subsidiary for payment, with actions in recent days by U.S. oil producer ConocoPhillips and Canadian mining company Rusoro.

PDVSA's deteriorating infrastructure and declining oil export revenues have thrown Venezuela into a severe recession. The recent court actions have cut its ability to run oil storage, processing and blending facilities that feed its exports.

The lawsuit was filed by White Beech SNC LLC, identified in the complaint as a Delaware corporation that this month received the PDVSA notes from SNC-Lavalin. White Beech's attorney was not available for comment.

White Beach SNC is not an affiliate of SNC-Lavalin, said Nicolas Ryan, spokesman for the Canadian engineering and construction company, declining to comment further.

PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The company is facing rising pressures from an inability to finance exploration and refining operations, contributing to a lack of spare parts for its oil and gas and refining operations.

The OPEC member country's crude exports in the first quarter fell 29 percent year-on-year to 1.19 million barrels per day, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Oil service firms, including Schlumberger NV, Baker Hughes, a GE company, and Weatherford International PLC , have reduced operations in the country due to a lack of payments.

It's pretty hard getting paid in Venezuela, Christian Brown, president of SNC-Lavalin's oil and gas business, said in an interview at a Houston energy conference. We've done no work recently in Venezuela.

Conoco this month sought to attach PDVSA oil inventories and other assets to collect on a $2 billion arbitration award, crimping the South American company's oil storage and export operations in the Caribbean. Rusoro also filed in a New York court seeking to attach assets of PDVSA's Citgo Petroleum as payment for a $1.2 billion arbitration award.

Citgo declined to comment.

The case is White Beech SNC vs Petroleos de Venezuela, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 1:18-cv-4148.

Petroleumworld.com



Hit your target - Advertise with Us

What will the next James Bond watch be? What will the next James...

After a delay of almost 18 months, 007 is back on the big screen (at least in Switzerland). But what watch will we see on James Bonds... After a delay of almost 18 months, 007...Khanefah Boozer (right) sits with his attorney Robert J. Levant on May 10, 2018, in the Center City offices of Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig LLP. Read more

In the largest-ever civil verdict against a city police officer, Philadelphia jurors Thursday awarded $10 million to an Oxford Circle man who was wrongly imprisoned for more than three years based on the officer's false testimony.

The money was awarded to Khanefah Boozer, 33, who was held in jail on $500,000 bail while he awaited trial for allegedly firing a gun at Officer Ryan Waltman. When Boozer finally had his trial in 2014, another man testified that he, not Boozer, had fired the gun  in the air and not at the officer.

Boozer's attorney, Robert J. Levant, said at a news conference that the verdict was "a message that should be heard loud and clear throughout the city of Philadelphia, that this will not be tolerated."

Levant said the case was not properly investigated, that Boozer was "obviously innocent," and that while he was behind bars on the false testimony of police, his mother and sister died. Boozer, who worked at a Home Depot at the time of his arrest and aspires to be a barber, sat alongside Levant at the news conference but declined to comment.

Lawyers for the city contended that Waltman made an honest mistake in accusing Boozer of firing a gun. Mike Dunn, a spokesman for Mayor Kenney, said the city was "examining all of our options at this time" and planned to appeal.

Waltman, a 10-year veteran of the force, remains employed with a salary of about $75,000, according to payroll records.

The verdict represents a massive payout for an individual case in a police-related matter  more than twice the previous highest award, made to deliveryman Philippe Holland after he was mistakenly shot by city police officers in 2014.

Between 2013 and 2016, the city averaged $9.7 million per year to resolve dozens of police-related civil rights cases filed in civil court, according to city figures. And in fiscal year 2017-18, which ends June 30, the city budgeted $44.9 million for indemnity to cover payouts in lawsuits against all agencies  meaning Boozer's payout alone would account for 22 percent of that total.

Still, civil rights lawyers said it remained unlikely that Boozer will collect the full $10 million. Attorney Alan L. Yatvin said the city probably will not be held liable for $5 million in punitive damages included in the verdict. A decade ago, in what had been one of the biggest jury verdicts in a police case, jurors awarded $5 million but the plaintiff eventually settled for $500,000.

In his suit, Boozer said he spent the evening of Jan. 22, 2011, with friends, at one point driving through Germantown. According to the suit, one of Boozer's friends traveling in a separate car had a gun and fired into the air for "amusement."

Alerted to the gunshots, Waltman pulled over the car driven by Boozer, and accused him of firing the gun, not in the air but at the officer. The suit said Boozer told police the gun actually had been fired by Bruno Rosales, but they never investigated.

Boozer was arrested, charged, and held on $500,000 bail. He couldn't pay enough to secure his release. In September 2014, when the criminal case finally came to trial, Rosales testified that he fired the gun. Boozer was acquitted of all charges, then filed suit against Waltman and other officers less directly involved in the case. Rosales was never charged in the shooting.

The jury's award  $5 million for punitive damages and $5 million in compensatory damages  was against Waltman because the city was not named as a defendant. Waltman was represented by a city attorney in the case.

Two other police officers had been named as defendants, but Common Pleas Court Judge Sean F. Kennedy dismissed them from the case.

Civil rights lawyers said Boozer's case highlighted flaws in Philadelphia's criminal justice system.

"The system failed him at a number of levels," said Levant.

Yatvin, who was not involved in Boozer's case, said even accepting the city's position that Waltman had mistakenly identified Boozer as the shooter, Boozer should not have been being held in jail more than three years just because he couldn't post the $500,000 bail.

"This raises the question of why was bail so exorbitant," Yatvin said. "There should be some introspection here."

Similarly, he said, when a jury finds that a police officer was not credible, both the police and the District Attorney's Office should investigate to determine if false testimony by police had been deliberate.

Ben Waxman, a spokesman for District Attorney Larry Krasner  who was not in office when Boozer was charged  said the office planned to review Boozer's civil and criminal cases in determining how to handle cases involving Waltman moving forward.

Krasner's office made headlines earlier this year when it disclosed that previous administrations had kept a list of officers deemed too untrustworthy to testify without a supervisor's approval. Krasner has said his office is working to develop a fuller policy for how to handle such officers moving forward.

Levant said Boozer was "still processing" the verdict, but that Boozer does not harbor ill will against the city or Waltman.

Boozer "certainly hopes that this doesn't happen to another citizen of Philadelphia," Levant said.When Kim Shamsiddin was a new Muslimah in the early aughts, she had a tough time finding stylish pieces that adhered to her religion's strict fashion rules. The hemlines were always too short, and separates that grazed her curves in any way, shape, or form, were off-limits.

So three years ago, Shamsiddin, a Wall Street lawyer, launched a collection of Islamic garb she named Al Shams Apparel. From noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Shamsiddin will have the solid and ombre-hued Islamic women's wear available for sale at the Roxborough event space Petite Fete II at a one-day-only pop-up shop. The collection features abayas, traditional loose-fitting overgarments; hijabs, the classic headscarves; and sleeveless dresses. Prices range from $80 to $150m and the collection includes plus-size or curvy offerings for women over size 16.

"We have quite the customer base in Philly," said Shamsiddin, 53, who has hosted similar pop-ups in Baltimore, Chicago, New York, and New Jersey. Sunday's $15-to-enter event will be her first in Philadelphia. Along with Gulf-style abayas with nida fabric, a polyesterlike cloth with characteristics of silk, Shamsiddin said she's bringing along the classic black collection, which is a big hit in Philly because, fashionably speaking, it's a conservative Muslim town.

Although practicing Muslims do not celebrate Mother's Day, in recent years the weekend has become synonymous with Islamic style in Philly. That's because South Philadelphia's United Muslim Masjid holds its annual luncheon and fashion show to celebrate the accomplishments of Philadelphia's Islamic women.

For the last five years or so, Ramadan, a month of fasting and prayer, has started shortly after the holiday weekend. Many Islamic women in Philadelphia and elsewhere have been attending the all-women soirees to catch up with girlfriends and get a jump-start on shopping for Eid al-Fitr, the annual celebration that marks the end of Ramadan.

Hence the timing of Shamsiddin's pop-up shop.

"We thought this would be a great opportunity to let our customers interact with us, touch and feel the clothing, and experience first-hand," Shamsiddin said.

Last year, the Global Islamic Economy Report said Muslims will spend $373 billion on clothing by 2022, and the industry has responded.

Islamic fashion has been hot on the runways and in retail in recent years, bubbling over into the mainstream in 2016, when Dolce & Gabbana released a line of hijabs and abayas. In December, Nike began offering hijabs for Muslimah athletes. And in February, Macy's introduced the Verona Collection, a selection of separates, tops, cardigans, pants, and hijabs by designer Lisa Vogl. On the February runways, modest  read: Islamic-inspired  fashions exploded as Dior, Balenciaga, Marc Jacobs, Versace, and several other brands created hooded looks, some with scarves, that they paired with generously cut pieces. Last week, H&M released a modest collection of caftan- and kimono-style dresses, ruffled blouses, and long statement skirts.

But although the fashion world has been lauded for its attempts at inclusion, there has been plenty of criticism as the big fashion houses often use fair-skinned models on runways and in advertisements.

Enter the appeal of smaller labels like Al Shams Apparel, which offer more intimate, authentic, one-on-one  thank you, Instagram  experiences. For example, Shamsiddin said, her collection is sourced and manufactured in the United Arab Emirates. And though she uses muted colors in the 15-style grouping, Islamic women can be comfortable knowing that each piece will keep her appropriately covered.

"A lot of my clients are women who are non-Muslim women who are traveling to Muslim countries for business or vacation and want to make sure they dress in a way that's respectful of the culture," Shamsiddin said. "I appreciate that they are mindful of that and I'm happy to help them find something that they feel comfortable in."

For tickets, log on to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/al-shams-abayas-first-annual-philly-pop-up-tickets-44394621508.As SEPTA prepares to expand its Key card to Regional Rail, the five biggest stations are being retrofitted with new fare gates. But it will be a tight squeeze in many places, including the SEPTA concourse in 30th Street Station. Read more

It's now been two years since SEPTA rolled out its electronic Key card, almost long enough to forget the payment system's lengthy and problem-plagued gestation. Who cares that the fare card's debut was four years late or that the accompanying website was a clunker (and remains less than optimal)? Those little, turquoise-colored pieces of plastic have become an indispensable part of our lives, as close to a badge of Philadelphia citizenship as anything we have.

SEPTA always expected the Key card to be more than just a city tool, however. The fare cards were envisioned as an E-ZPass for public transit, uniting all the region's modes under one fare system. But because of the daunting technical issues, SEPTA's Regional Rail, PATCO's High-Speed Line, NJ Transit, and Amtrak had to be left out of the original Key network. The card could be used only on SEPTA buses, subways, and trolleys.

Now SEPTA's Regional Rail passengers are about to be brought into the fold. If you've wandered into any of its big five stations lately  30th Street, Suburban, Jefferson, Temple, and University City  you've probably noticed that SEPTA has been installing turnstiles and fences at the entrances to the train platforms. The $283 million project, which includes $124 million for physical infrastructure, is the first step in expanding the Key's reach.

Sometime this summer, the validator screens will go live, and anyone with a turquoise card will be able to tap their way onto the trains. This means the days of standing in line at a SEPTA counter to purchase a paper ticket and then submitting the little card to a train conductor to be hand-punched will soon be over. The cost of the trip will simply be deducted from your Key card balance when you step through the turnstile. As a bonus, improvements to PATCO's ticketing system should soon make it possible for its riders to use their passes on SEPTA.

As exciting as the fare-card expansion is in concept, the reality on the ground is another matter.

The issue is the design of the new fare enclosures.

Because the vast majority of Regional Rail passengers pass through one of the five big stations, SEPTA decided those stations would have to be outfitted with barricades and turnstiles to deter fare evaders. (Outlying stations will be equipped with validators, but no turnstiles.) The barricades are intended to delineate the "paid zones" and control access to the platforms. But the result of all that fencing is a maze of walkways, in various colors, materials, and configurations.

Ideally, the railings should have been sleek glass constructions that helped SEPTA rebrand itself as a modern transit system. Instead, the designs, by Sowinski Sullivan Architects, are fussy and over-scaled, and clumsily hark back to the past with nostalgic details. The problems are not merely aesthetic. In some stations, passengers will feel they are being herded like cattle through a chute because the walkways are so narrow.

It's the designs that you notice first. Rather than go with a standard railing for the paid zones, SEPTA decided to create custom fences that played off the distinctive architecture in each of the five stations.

Almost as soon as you step into Suburban Station, you sense that something is amiss. The new railings are meant to mimic the station's lustrous art deco brass work. But, to save money, they were made from bronze-colored steel, which lacks the heft of the real thing.

The railings at Jefferson were intended to celebrate the colors and rhythms of the station's wall mural, but in the end, the mix of glass and steel just adds to the visual chaos. Perhaps the design would have worked better if SEPTA had installed the neutral gray floor tiles shown in the rendering. But SEPTA retained the red quarry tiles that were installed when the station opened in 1984. How much cleaner a simple glass railing would have been in this location.

Although the turnstiles are not yet operational in any of the stations, several commuters told me that passing through them is a tight fit.

One reason may be that SEPTA opted for old-fashion turnstiles, rather a European-style, retractable gate system, which allows for a smoother flow. SEPTA believes turnstiles are more robust and require less maintenance. Only one turnstile per entrance will be equipped with a gate to serve people with strollers, suitcases, and disabilities.

Even though SEPTA has sound reasons for preferring turnstiles over gates, it might have made an exception for the South Street entrance to the University City station. The station is used heavily by residents of Southwest Center City traveling to the airport, yet SEPTA decided to install ceiling-high rotor gates. It's nearly impossible to get a suitcase or stroller through the narrow cages. The alternative is to walk another block to the station headhouse.

In SEPTA's defense, retrofitting the five stations with turnstiles was an enormously complex task. Architect Richard Sullivan said the project required elaborate computer models to figure out how to fit the turnstiles and fences into the cramped concourses.

Because the stations were built for a more gracious age of rail travel, they are equipped with an abundance of staircases and elevators. In Suburban Station alone, there are 23 staircases. That multi-block retail concourse is also a popular public space that serves as the unofficial cafeteria for thousands of Center City office workers. SEPTA had to figure out how to maintain access to the shops, restrooms, and ticket counter while securing the platform entrances.

Similar conditions exist at 30th Street and Jefferson. Instead of gating off the entire station, as SEPTA does with its subway stops, it had to build free-standing corrals around individual staircases or groups of staircases.

The placement of the turnstiles was also complicated. Because of the way trains are scheduled, people flow into stations in surges, rather than in a steady stream. The designers had to make sure the paid zones were big enough to handle the crowds, without people backing up on the stairs. SEPTA acknowledges that the conditions aren't perfect. Most of the time, the level of service will be rated C or D, which is considered acceptable. But it could deteriorate during a heavy rush hour, said Kevin J. O'Brien, SEPTA's senior program manager for new payment technologies.

Given the space constraints in the five stations and the project's complexity, is there anything SEPTA could have done to make the paid zones feel like less of a squeeze? That's where clean, well-designed railings and turnstiles would have helped. The Key card has vaulted SEPTA into the modern world. Unfortunately, its design sensibility hasn't kept up.By Cloe Mugny and Michele Brunner

A persons appearance often tells you a lot about their character. Watches are not chosen at random, and they bring a personal touch to any outfit. For Mothers Day, we have selected a few different models that bring out the best in a variety of different personality traits.

Sporty  Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph Automatic

A steel chronograph is a classic choice for a woman who loves sport. Paired with a silk blouse, the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak automatic chronograph brings a definite touch of character. In the summer, with its white rubber strap, bezel set with 32 brilliant-cut diamonds and silvered Lady Tapisserie dial, it will look stunning on a tanned wrist. In addition to the chronograph functions, It comes with an automatic manufacture calibre, 40-hour power reserve and a date. The horological credentials of this watch make it a stand-out choice.

Royal Oak Offshore Chronograph Automatic  Audemars Piguet

Rock  Chanel Premiere Rock Gold

This quartz watch in different shades of gold wraps three times around wrist providing complete freedom of movement to women looking to stand out from the crowd. It brings a playful touch of bling to an otherwise conservative outfit. The octagonal dial, in the signature shape of the stopper of a bottle of Chanel no. 5 and the Place Vendome, is in a matching golden beige. Its the perfect accessory for the spotlight.

Premiere Rock Gold wraping three times around wrist  Chanel

Classic  Maurice Lacroix Eliros Moonphase 35 mm

Classic doesnt always mean old, and this Eliros Moonphase will please mothers of all ages who appreciate timeless design, the glamorous touch of diamond markers and the modern elegance of steel. The moon phase, another traditional feature, stands out against the white lacquered dial framed by the 35 mm steel case. But the watch is also bang on-trend, with its system of interchangeable straps. We rather like this one in blue leather.

Eliros Moonphase 35 mm  Maurice Lacroix

Feisty  Hermes Arceau Cavales

This timepiece is for all those women who are ruled by their emotions and prefer to follow their heart. A horse  that most feisty and headstrong of beasts  dominates the centre of the dial in mother-of-pearl marquetry and black lacquer champleve. Diamonds blaze around the chapter ring in the light-coloured version, and on the bezel in the darker variant. This Arceau watch, designed in 1978 by Henri dOrigny, is driven by a quartz movement and is available in medium (36 mm) and small (28 mm) sizes, to go on any wrist.

Arceau Cavales  Hermes

Geeky  Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon Monogram White

If your mum likes to stay connected as she goes about her business, she will be touched that you found her the perfect smartwatch. Its multifunctional high-resolution touch screen will bring all the functions and notifications of a smartwatch to her fingertips. No need to take her phone out of her bag to read that text message! The new Tambour Horizon in white is Android and iOS compatible, signed by the prestigious luxury brand, and makes an elegant accessory for your favourite female geek.

Tambour Horizon Monogram White  Louis Vuitton

Mother hen  Piaget Possession

Is your mother perhaps a little... (over) protective? Do you appreciate her constant clucking, or is it maybe just a little bit annoying? It doesnt matter either way. Whether its an ironic hint or a token of affection, just give her a Possession watch by Piaget. The pivoting bezel provides distraction for restless hands, and the elegant round case offset by a slender strap ensures the Possession watch is master of any occasion. It comes in gold or steel, with diamonds or without, matched with straps in different colours, but its style is as enduring as a mothers love.

Possession  Piaget

Hyperactive  Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous Night & Day Medium

When there arent enough hours in the day to accommodate all her activities, why not give her a mischievous reminder to take each day as it comes. This Rendez-Vous watch will do that in its own sophisticated way, thanks to the sun and moon that take turns appearing in the window at 6 oclock. The watch has a sunbrushed dial and midnight blue alligator strap, Arabic numerals and floral hands inside a 34 mm steel case. Dont forget the rendez-vous, every 40 hours, to wind the automatic movement!

Rendez-Vous Night & Day Medium  Jaeger-LeCoultre

Rebellious chic  Bulgari Lvcea Skeleton

With its naked workings and the undisciplined design of the letters BVLGARI in pink gold scattered across the dial, this timepiece definitely has a rebellious spirit that will appeal to more daring mums. But its fun side should not detract from the complexity and virtuosity of its haute horlogerie skeletonised automatic movement, hand-made in Switzerland at the Bulgari manufacture. The touches of red on the lacquered hands and the crown cabochon jazz up this stunningly sophisticated timepiece.

Lvcea Skeleton  Bulgari

Discreet  Carl F. Bucherer Adamavi

With its silvered dial and tone-on-tone hands and markers, this watch is the ideal accessory for mums who want to look elegant without drawing attention. A quick glance is all it takes to read the date, thanks to the window at 3 oclock. The 31 mm steel case is easy to read, and suits a variety of wrist sizes. A black alligator strap, which is both elegant and discreet, completes this stunning automatic timepiece with its CFB 1963 calibre, guaranteeing a power reserve of 38 hours.

Adamavi  Carl F. Bucherer

Nature  Schwarz Etienne Ode au Printemps La Chaux-de-Fonds Flying Tourbillon

In the never-ending whirl of daily life, there is often little time left for a country walk. Thats when you need a natural microcosm on your wrist. The honeycomb motif of the dial resembles a bees nest, and the bee sipping nectar from a blue agate cornflower could almost be alive. This model beats to the rhythm of the calibre TSE 121.00, and comes in a bright white gold 44 mm case with a flying tourbillon. Its a breath of fresh air for nature lovers.

Ode au Printemps - La Chaux-de-Fonds Flying Tourbillon  Schwarz Etienne

Cuddly  Cartier Panthere Lovee

The panther curled sensuously around the dial will bring a touch of feline grace to its lucky owner, thanks to its emerald eyes and a coat sparkling with diamonds and black lacquer. Nestled in the ultra-feminine case of the Baignoire de Cartier case, the elegant silvered dial with its satin-brushed and sunray finishes reflects the light of the precious stones. This two-handed automatic watch driven by the 530 MC calibre comes with either a leather strap or a diamond-set white gold bracelet.

Panthere Lovee  Cartier

Dreamer  Van Cleef & Arpels Midnight Zodiac Lumineux

Is your mum a bit of a dreamer? Make her eyes shine by giving her a constellation. Van Cleef & Arpels has expanded its Astronomie Poetique collection with 12 new pieces corresponding to the 12 signs of the zodiac. An exclusive light module harnesses the electricity generated by the mechanical movement to illuminates the translucent enamel beads scattered across the sky of the spangled blue enamel dial. Its a miniature starscape that can be viewed all day long, even when its cloudy.John Legend arrives at the Billboard Music Awards at the T-Mobile Arena on Sunday, May 21, 2017, in Las Vegas. Read more

University of Pennsylvania grad John Legend will soon be appearing on your local smart speaker sans music, thanks to a recently announced deal with Google to add the R&B crooner's voice to Google Assistant.

Legend's voice will be one of six new voices coming to the virtual assistant app this year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at the company's I/O developer conference on Tuesday. The voices were developed using Wavenet, a technology that comes from Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence research unit, which the company acquired in 2014.

"Wavenet models underlying raw audio to create a more natural voice. It's closer to how humans speak," Pichai said Tuesday. "The pitch, the pace, even all the pauses that convey meaning  you want to get all that right."

The new voices will be available on phone and home speaker editions of Google Assistant this year, Pichai added.

A video played during the announcement showed Legend recording some audio for the project, including phrases like "i want a puppy with sweet eyes, and a fluffy tail" and "happy birthday to the person whose birthday it is." As Pichai explained, Wavenet will extrapolate Legend's voice for specific questions and requests for use in Google Assistant.

"Clearly he didn't spend all the time in the studio answering every possible question that you could ask," Pichai said. "But Wavenet allowed us to shorten the studio time, and the model can actually capture the richness of his voice."

Following Google's announcement, Legend's wife, Chrissy Teigen, joked on Twitter that "I don't even need human John anymore."

"Well," Legend replied online, "the Google Assistant doesn't do everything."

As it turns out, he also makes good burgers:

Held annually, Google's multi-day I/O event serves a place for the company to tease advancements in artificial intelligence, as well as provide previews of upcoming products.

Legend is a 1999 Penn grad, having majored in English with a concentration in African-American literature and culture. During his time at Penn, Legend was known for his performances as part of Counterparts, an a cappella group at the school, as well as his piano playing, the Daily Pennsylvanian reports.

In 2014, Legend returned to the school to give a commencement speech in which he encouraged graduates to "go all in" on their futures.

"Cool detachment only gets you so far. Passion gets you a lot further," Legend said. "It makes you a better entrepreneur, a better leader, a better philanthropist, a better friend, a better lover. I want you to live the best life you can."Diagnosed cases of depression have skyrocketed, especially among adolescents and millennials, according to a new study by one of the nation's largest commercial insurers.

Nationally, depression diagnoses surged by 33 percent from 2013 to 2016, says a report on medical claims released Thursday by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, a federation of 36 Blues that provide insurance for one in three Americans.

During that period, depression among the network's adolescents rose 63 percent; among millennials (ages 18 to 34), 47 percent.

At all ages, women were twice as likely to be diagnosed as men, and depression was second only to high blood pressure in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Index, an analysis of claims information for more than 41 million Americans.

Some diagnoses may be a reflection of greater awareness and better detection. "The fact that the number of diagnoses has gone up is important because now we are looking for it, we are screening for it, and people are getting treatment to help them," said Ginny Calega, vice president for medical management and policy at Independence Blue Cross, Southeastern Pennsylvania's largest health insurance organization.

At the same time, the trend is cause for concern. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second-highest cause of death for Americans ages 10 to 34.

"The increase in depression among adolescents and millennials is particularly concerning, as this could have a significant health effect on this population in the years to come," said Richard Snyder, chief medical officer for Independence Blue Cross.

Shelley Leaphart-Williams, a board member for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and founder of Lifesaver U, a local training organization, says many factors are contributing to youthful despair.

"Mental health is like an onion; there are layers upon layers," Leaphart-Williams said. "Our children are suffering from neglect, bullying, abuse, low self-esteem  but the root cause [of depression] is a lack of identity. When we build their confidence and self-esteem, the layers of the onion are thin and don't bother them as much."

The Blues study's findings can be a cue for schools and youth organizations to encourage discussion groups or invite mental health experts to reach out to young people before depression becomes a serious problem, suggested Thea Gallagher, clinic director of the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania.

"A lot of people suffer, and they suffer in silence," Gallagher said.

In the Philadelphia area, the depression diagnosis rate for IBC members of all ages and both genders was 4.2 percent, somewhat lower than the 4.4 percent average among all Blue Cross Blue Shield members.

Locally, the rates for major depression, which affects about nine million nationwide, were 5.3 percent for women and 2.9 percent for men of all ages. The rate was 2.5 percent for adolescents ages 12 to 17 and 4.3 percent for millennials ages 18 to 34.

The study also linked depression to other health disorders. Eighty-five percent of people diagnosed with major depression suffered from one or more additional health concerns, and almost 30 percent had four or more other conditions. People diagnosed with depression were twice as likely to suffer from one or more other chronic illnesses and seven times as likely to have alcohol or substance use disorder compared with those without the diagnosis, according to the report.

Consequently, those with depression average more than $10,000 per person in health-care spending a year, as opposed to about $4,300 for those without major depression, the study found.

The report does not identify whether depression usually precedes other health conditions or is a consequence of them. However, other health problems may be a signal to health-care providers to inquire about depression as well.

"People going through life-changing illness can find it changes their self-image," Calega said. "They're no longer as invulnerable as they thought they were, and it's important they work with their primary care provider  to get screened and get the appropriate help."

On June 16, Philadelphia will host an Out of the Darkness Overnight Walk, a decade-old event organized by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to raise funds and awareness. For details: afsp.org.Editor's Note: Melissa's son Colin was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia in 2014. He was treated at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for four years. On April 19, he died at the age of 18. Below, Melissa shares a tribute to the nurses who cared for her son in honor of National Nurse's Week, May 6-12.

I want to talk a bit about the night Colin passed away. It is by no means easy, it hurts a lot. But this week is National Nurse's Week and I don't think people think enough about what this group of men and woman do for us, for our children on our worst days.

I did not wake up thinking Colin was going to die that day. We had begun to talk about the fact that his lungs were failing and not going to be able to come off the vent. The conversations were now not about healing Colin, that was no longer possible. But what had happened to his body, why it wasn't able to be healed, and most importantly how to talk to Colin about what had happened to his body.

It was to a nurse that I jokingly said, I wish we could bring the dogs to see Colin. And in less than 15 minutes she came back into the room and said, "The dogs are cleared to come, I just need the vet's number." I gave her the number and less than five minutes later, she had called and secured their vaccination information.

It was a nurse that was standing with me when Colin asked for the iPad to communicate with me (a person can't talk when they are intubated). He typed out the words, "I am done." It was a nurse that shared my immediate panic that shot though my body, losing all feeling everywhere, as I realized what he was telling me. It was a nurse who I turned to after Colin typed, "Get the meds," and helped me process that he was asking to die and die with dignity.

It was a nurse from his advance cared team that had given me her cell number, who I texted simply, "Come back right now." And even though it was the end of a long day for her, she came back. She and I questioned Colin multiple times and each time, he clearly expressed that it was time, he was ready and wanted the vent out. So, it was a nurse that started the process with the doctors after she had listened with every fiber of her being to hear and support Colin. It was that nurse that looked at me and asked if I was ok with this, could she go ahead and start? And while shaking and trying to think past the buzzing in my ears, I said get what he needs. She then didn't leave the room, stayed with us the whole time and didn't leave my side for hours and hours, until I was ready for her to do so.

The goal was to have him sleep deeply enough that his body wouldn't panic when the vent was turned down and then off to allow his lungs to fail naturally and end his intense suffering. It was this nurse that spent hours with me, leading up to this moment, answering countless questions as I sought ways to help Colin get more time, to avoid him having to die. It was this nurse that then helped me come to terms with that fact that his strong will to live wasn't aligned anymore with what his body could do. So, it was a nurse that helped me come to terms with being able to support Colin in letting go when he was ready.

It was a bedside nurse that ran back and forth to get the meds Colin needed for over three hours. Tirelessly working at a fast and furious pace. It was this same nurse, that once Colin had passed, showed us compassion and caring and guided us what to do, second by second, keeping me from drowning in the shock I was feeling.

It was a nurse, even after Colin had passed, that kept a hand on Colin every moment she was talking to me, helping me, guiding me as she brushed his hair to the side, kept a gentle hand on his knee and helped me get a clipping of his hair.

And to be able to leave that room, to leave my son behind, it was the nurse that reassured me that she was going to transport Colin to the morgue, not some stranger. And that is what made it possible for me to walk out the door leaving my first-born son behind.

And this was only 24 hours, a snapshot of the past four years of hospital stays. My son and my family have been helped, cared for and saved by nurses time and time again. It was a nurse I ran to, literally in a panic, almost hyperventilating, when Colin was moved to the pediatric intensive care unit who pulled me back from panic, set me back on my feet and gave me the strength to go back and fight for Colin.

A bedside pediatric oncology nurse works 13 hours a day  sometimes more. They may or may not get a 30-minute lunch break. They rarely sit, they are always running to do something, get something, stop a pump from beeping, solve a problem, communicate with a doctor, arrange for a test, get supplies, trouble shoot, clean up all messes (blood, bile, feces, urine, mucus, vomit) with a kind hand and smile. And in between those tasks make the mom that is worried to death feel better, safer. It is emotionally and physically exhausting but they do it day after day. It's a private world that so few get to glimpse.

Please say a silent word of thanks that these nurses have what it takes to do what they do, just in case you need them for your child. And if you do, they will be there for you, by your side every, single second. That, I can guarantee.

Melissa Delaney-Doliner lives in Oreland, Pa.Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., carries her baby Maile Pearl Bowlsbey after they went to the Senate floor to vote, on Capitol Hill, Thursday, April 19, 2018 in Washington. Read more

As a mom, I was overjoyed when the U.S. Senate allowed senators to bring their babies onto the floor, a move spurred by the April birth of Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth's daughter. While we applaud Duckworth and her colleagues for this action, we must be realistic that working families like mine have challenges that require more significant action by Congress. My wife and I have a son, Graeson, and a daughter arriving any day now. A challenge we face is finding affordable, high-quality infant care.

As a developmental psychologist, I am well-versed in what to look for when researching child care, but there is a dearth of care, especially for infants and toddlers, in greater Chicago, where I live.

We felt this acutely when the care arrangement we depended on had to close suddenly. With only one week's notice, we researched a dozen places to find an opening that was licensed, physically safe, and affordable. Unfortunately, it was not emotionally supportive enough, and for seven months, Graeson cried each morning we left him. I knew that the caregivers' social-emotional practices were developmentally inappropriate, expecting him to manage his feelings and behaviors like a much older child.

>> READ MORE: Tammy Duckworth is uniquely privileged, but she is paving the way for working parents | Perspective

My wife and I constantly doubted ourselves, wondered if she should work part-time. But the financial and professional ramifications were too high  we had just bought our first home. Ultimately, we waited out the lower-quality care arrangement until he turned 2 and could enter an amazing program nearby.

With a new baby coming, we are back in this turmoil, and have been looking for infant care since we got pregnant. We are lucky to have supportive employers and, if need be, we can keep her home for several months, but it will be logistically and financially difficult. For many families the strain would be untenable. Paid family leave would offer young families a real solution for these precious first few months; it's the law in some states right now, but not in Illinois nor across the entire country.

Our story is just one example of why we must make investing in babies and toddlers our national priority. A national paid family leave program would mean that all parents have time to bond with their babies without sacrificing financial security. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have committed to this issue, but it needs more support.

Our country can do more to increase access to quality, affordable child care for working families. Congress recently passed a historic increase in child care funding for low-income working families. But this is only a down payment on what is needed to ensure that all babies and families who need it have access to high-quality care.

The science is clear  babies' brains grow faster between birth and age 3 than at any later point in life. In fact, their brains form more than 1 million new neural connections every second, laying the foundation for all future learning and development.

Sadly, if we don't focus on childhood development, there are consequences, such as lifelong developmental, educational, social and health challenges.

On Tuesday, Graeson and I head to Washington. We're hoping to meet with Sen. Duckworth. We will join families with babies like us from across the country to raise our voices for what working families need to nurture our children and America's future.

We call our effort Strolling Thunder and are ready for Congress to see us for who we are  proud Americans and proud parents who want Congress to know that the future begins with babies.

Kate Zinsser is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and lives in Oak Park with her family. She originally wrote this for the Chicago Tribune.Celebrating the 1978 Pulitizer Prize for Public Service (l to r) Inquirer Associate Editor E. Michael Pakenham, Executive Editor Eugene L Roberts Jr., and reporters William K. Marimow and Jonathan Neumann. Read more

E. Michael Pakenham, 85, whose powerful editorials graced the pages of the Inquirer for nearly two decades, died Wednesday, May 9, of cardiac arrest at Homewood at Plum Creek in Hanover, Pa.

He had lived in Wellsville, York County, for 17 years.

Mr. Pakenham was a major force on the paper's Editorial Board and in the newsroom from 1966 until 1984, when he left to become editorial page editor of the New York Daily News.

While in Philadelphia, he was known not only for his strong editorial voice, but also for his wine column, which ran in the Sunday Inquirer.

His editorials on violence by Philadelphia police in 1977 were cited by the Pulitzer Prize board as an important part of the package that won the newspaper a 1978 Pulitzer for public service.

"During the 12 years I worked with Michael at the Inquirer, he wrote some of the most powerful and persuasive editorials I've ever read," said William K. Marimow, former Inquirer editor and now vice president of strategic development for Philadelphia Media Network, which publishes the newspaper.

"He was an expert on a wide array of subjects, ranging from Philadelphia city politics and criminal violence by Philadelphia police to Irish history, American literature, fly fishing in the West, and vintage wines," Marimow said.

An urbane presence in the newsroom, the bespectacled Mr. Pakenham was "bigger than life," Marimow said. "The key point was the passion and ardor with which he wrote his editorials. It was unbelievable."

In an April 24, 1977, editorial, he lashed out at corruption in the homicide division of the Philadelphia Police Department and the District Attorney's Office.

"It is a system which is setting murderers free and putting innocent people in jail and leaving criminals unprosecuted because of violations of constitutionally guaranteed liberties, and because of failures to follow effective police practices," he wrote.

Mr. Pakenham called for a federal investigation. Later, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission authorized hearings into police misconduct starting in Philadelphia in 1978.

Maxwell E.P. King, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Foundation, recalled working with Mr. Pakenham in the mid-1970s when King was the Inquirer's city editor.

"Michael would be down to the city desk almost every day to find out what was going on," King said in an email. "Although he was on the Editorial Board, he always wanted to be on top of everything. We would have great debates about what was in the news, how we were handling it, and what Michael might do with it.

"What he added to the newsroom, in addition to his fabulous inquiring mind, was great wit and humor and a deep sense of the irony of life," King wrote. "He loved the vast, roiling waters of news itself, and always gave us great benefit of his thinking, in addition to crafting savvy, cutting editorials."

In 1975, Mr. Pakenham received a public-service award from the Philadelphia chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, a journalists' association, for 23 editorials on corruption in city government and the Philadelphia Police Department. The articles resulted in the appointment of Special Prosecutor Walter M. Phillips Jr., who brought 59 corruption cases in two years.

But Mr. Pakenham did more than write thunderously for the editorial page. His wine column, which he crafted in a breezy style, called on his wide knowledge of history and agriculture.

In November 1976, he wrote: "Holidays are coming, the celebratory kind we drench with bubbly wine and goodwill. You must pick your own brand of goodwill. I can offer some help with the wine." He recommended a California wine "with a full, fruity aroma and a very pleasant yeasty overtone."

Born in New York, Mr. Pakenham graduated from Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J. He studied economics for two years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1957, and he did further study in liberal arts at Columbia University, without earning a degree.

He earned his chops in the late 1950s as a reporter at the City News Bureau in Chicago and as an assistant city editor in the early 1960s at the Chicago Tribune. He spent two years as Washington correspondent for the Tribune, ending in 1965. From there, he moved to a job as assistant foreign editor at the New York Herald Tribune.

At the Inquirer, he was assistant managing editor and then associate editor, as well as columnist.

In 1984, he became the editorial page editor at the New York Daily News. He spent two years in the early 1990s as executive editor for the fledgling Sunday Correspondent in London before becoming executive editor of Spin Magazine.

From 1994 to 2004, he was books editor and literary columnist at the Baltimore Sun. Since 2004, he had partnered with his wife, Rosalie Muller Wright Pakenham, in a home editing business. He retired in 2012.

"His greatest joy was in finding and encouraging talented writers," his wife said.

Terry Teachout, who was recruited by Mr. Pakenham in 1987 to write editorials for the Daily News, said he ended up staying six years.

"He believed devoutly that newspaper editorials make a difference, instructing everyone who worked for him to try to write pieces that housewives from Queens would clip out of the paper and post on the doors of their refrigerators," Teachout wrote online.

Mr. Pakenham was married to Mary Connelly Graff, then Jane Ashley Pakenham, and, finally, Rosalie Pakenham. He had a daughter, Catherine Dempsey Pakenham, known as Katie. All survive.

Plans for a memorial celebration are pending.Mark Fiorino is photographed with an open-carry handgun during a walk with his dog " Barrett " in Allentown, Pa. Wednesday, May 9, 2018. Read more

For Mark Fiorino, strapping his gun to his hip is as regular a habit as grabbing his wallet or cellphone. On a recent day, he openly carried while walking his dog, Barrett, near his Allentown home.

And when he headed off to a local yard sale, the handgun rested on his hip, too. Three other shoppers were carrying, showing Fiorino their sidearms in solidarity, he said.

Fiorino is among a small but passionate group of open-carry advocates (you may remember the then-Lansdale resident from his 2011 clash with police during a stop in Northeast Philadelphia). They connect through online forums, post their views on Facebook, and often upload cellphone videos of themselves being stopped by police officers in towns across the country.

Last week, their passion was at the crux of heated debate in the Philadelphia suburbs after a young man walked the streets of Abington Township, Montgomery County, with a loaded AR-15 rifle strapped to his back.

"It was just someone who was carrying openly," Fiorino said. "My first thought was, it shouldn't even be in the news."

In 45 states, open carry is legal in some capacity (California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and South Carolina ban the practice). In some states, including New Jersey, a permit is required. New Jersey also generally bans the open carrying of long guns. Pennsylvania does not require a permit  except in Philadelphia, where people must have a license to carry.

"The roots of the American gun culture are very deep in our history. It is not a new thing," said Daniel Feldman, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "You have a country that was founded on the basis of distrust of central authority."

At first, the Abington man  whom authorities have not publicly identified  told police he was trying to educate the public about open carry and "gauge the political climate." Authorities confirmed that the man was doing nothing illegal by simply carrying the gun.

But, after his friends told police he had joked of "shooting up" schools and talked of suicide, officers took a closer look. Internet searches found on the man's iPhone via a search warrant included "what weapons were used in Columbine" and "how many times were AR-15s used in mass shootings." Police last week took his gun and ordered his involuntary commitment for mental health treatment, due to the threat he posed to himself and others.

Abington police said this week that a hearing would be held to determine whether additional mental health treatment, of up to 20 days, was needed. The man has not been charged.

As for those searches, Fiorino said he has Googled similar things to ensure he is educated when he is faced with counter-arguments. But he doesn't necessarily agree with the message this Abington man was sending.

"Rifles are much more appropriate to carry openly at rallies and organized events," Fiorino said. "When one individual [alone] exercises his rights like this, he sends a louder-than-needed message."

Perhaps, Fiorino said, the man is new to open carry, and unaware of the possible interpretations of walking alone with that weapon, which has been used in many mass shootings.

The Abington man, who was in high school last year, did appear to record his encounters with officers, authorities said. According to a search warrant, he texted a friend before his first of two walks with the semiautomatic weapon, writing, ""I'm gonna record the whole thing in case I get shot."

"To actively pursue the police, to try and get them into an altercation, is wrong," Fiorino said. But as soon as an officer approaches Fiorino, he starts recording. "It's just as much an element of self-defense as carrying the gun in the first place."

Stuart Kinckner, 35, who grew up in Abington and now lives in nearby Oreland, plans to buy a handgun soon for self-defense. But, even as future gun owner, Kinckner was concerned upon seeing reports of the man with the AR-15, especially because his young child was at an area preschool program at the time. Kinckner posted his thoughts on Facebook.

"This is completely what I'd consider irresponsible gun ownership," Kinckner said in an interview.

The reason Kinckner does not own a gun yet, despite getting his license two years ago, is because he and his wife wanted to agree on exactly how to safely store it. They settled on a fingerprint-lock safe, with the ammunition to be kept separately.

Kinckner plans to own only one gun, he said, and does not plan to carry the weapon outside his home.

"Do I want to protect my house? Do I want to be safe? Yes," Kinckner said. But "I see [guns] as weapons. They're dedicated for one purpose  to kill or maim."

In rural Marlborough Township in upper Montgomery County, Elaine Ehrlich Hannock  a real estate broker, grandmother, and local Democratic leader  owns two handguns and a rifle for protection. She has a concealed carry permit and enjoys target shooting, an activity she calls "stress relieving." Hannock, however, is not a fan of open carry, or of AR-15s being in the hands of everyday people.

While growing up "a rowhouse girl from North Philly," Hannock said, the world was much different than the one she now inhabits.

"We did not have guns," said Hannock, who also posted on Facebook about the Abington man. "I had no idea of this culture."

She saw her first gun at a neighbor's home shortly after moving to Marlborough more than a decade ago. She was startled, she said, when she walked onto that porch and saw a rifle casually propped up.

But when Hannock began to feel unsafe showing homes to potential buyers by herself, she got a concealed carry permit. She does not understand why folks in Pennsylvania do not need such a permit in order to openly carry.

"I think it's insane any time someone walks around openly carrying," Hannock said. "What is the purpose of walking into a restaurant with a gun on your hip?"

In Hannock's mind, the answer is "intimidation," she said, and she finds it offensive.

In Allentown, Fiorino said he is pleased that in recent years he has logged fewer negative encounters with police officers and fellow citizens while openly carrying.

"I feel a lot less heat from people attacking our rights as Americans," he said.

And those who do have something to say about the gun on his hip?

"I'm concerned with the people I love," Fiorino said. "Their safety comes before the opinions of others."



There are 100,000 customers annually that will see the acquisition of solar as a normal part of their home transaction.

May 09, 2018

It's an historic moment for clean energy.





Starting in 2020, virtually all new homes in California will be required to incorporate advanced efficiency measures and rooftop solar  in a historic development for clean energy in the state.



The California Energy Commission (CEC) voted to adopt the policy today as part of the states Building Energy Efficiency Standards, following more than two years of work with a wide range of stakeholders to develop the technical requirements.



Updates to the Title 24 standards are projected to reduce home energy use by 53 percent compared to the current code, saving Californians $1.7 billion in energy costs over the next 30 years. This calculation, conducted by the CEC, does not take into account increased energy demands or a reductions in technology costs, which could result in even greater savings over time.



The new rules apply specifically to all new residences and major home renovations on buildings under three stories, starting on January 1, 2020. In the event a building isnt suitable for a rooftop array, the standards require homes have access to community solar or offset energy usage through additional efficiency gains.



Around 15,000 new homes are built each year that include solar panels, according to the CEC. When the new standards take effect, that number is expected to jump to around 100,000 new solar homes per year.



This is an undeniably historic decision for the state, said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association.



According to SEIA, the change will amount to an additional 200 megawatts of solar deployed in the state annually, which is a conservative estimate given some homes will be able to comply with solar systems under 3 kilowatts. For comparison, California added 858 megawatts of residential solar last year from 127,000 new residential solar systems, with an average size of 7 kilowatts.Ross Hopper noted in an interview that deploying solar as part of the home building process will normalize the technology for tens of thousands of families, in a positive way.Its a weird word, but the normalization of solar is important, she said. There are 100,000 customers annually that will see the acquisition of solar as a normal part of their home transaction. You have a front door, you have an HVAC system and you get solar panels.I cant overstate how strongly I feel about normalizing the solar experience so it feels less risky to the consumer, said Ross Hopper.While the Title 24 rules apply only to new homes, they could help support solar sales to existing homes through greater public awareness.In addition to the solar requirement, the new building standards will offer a credit for solar capacity combined with on-site energy storage. The current standards offer a solar-only credit, allowing for a tradeoff between solar power and energy efficiency. The new 2019 code ensures more homeowners benefit from efficiency while incentivizing solar-plus-storage.The combination of rooftop solar and the option to add energy storage systems as an efficiency compliance credit provides builders with an attractive, cost-effective option to fully electrify homes, said Ross Hopper.Homebuilding firms, which are responsible for complying with the new codes, will have optionality in how they comply with the new solar mandate, she added in an interview. They can roll development costs into a mortgage, offer the customer a lease, or present another type of financing product. The decision will ultimately come down to what the customer wants.A key element in crafting the new standards was to ensure that the efficiency upgrade and solar systems would be affordable to all Californians. Adding solar is expected to add $8,000 to $12,000 to the cost of a home. However, after weighing the data, the CEC determined homeowners would ultimately save money on their energy bills to the tune of $40 per month.Low mortgage payments alone dont make for affordable housing, said George Koertzen, construction superintendent at Habitat for Humanity in San Joaquin County, in a statement. Its also important to make sure families can afford to pay the energy bills that keep the lights on, the temperature comfortable, and the hot water flowing.Thats why Title 24 is so important, he continued. Strong energy-efficiency codes for housing help keep utility bills down, and help families stay in their homes.Lynn Jurich, CEO of leading home solar installer Sunrun, noted that solar leasing is particularly well suited for compliance with the new codes because it offers immediate bill savings without any upfront costs. "I think this is a real opportunity for the solar-as-a-service business model," she said. California has a mandate for new homes to be net-zero energy  meaning they produce more energy than they consume  by 2020, and for all homes to be net zero by 2030. The policy approved by the CEC today helps to achieve that goal, but doesnt get all the way there, said Rachel Golden, senior campaign representative at the Sierra Club.While were very pleased and supportive of the building codeit really is zero net electricity, not net zero energy, because it doesnt take into account gas use in homes and buildings, and gas use makes up about 40 percent of a homes greenhouse gas emissions, she said.The Sierra Club submitted a letter to the CEC this week, including 5,858 digital signatures from members and supporters, calling for the Commission to reduce the reliance on gas in the next building standards update, which takes place every three years.California now burns as much gas in our buildings as we do in our power plants, the letter states. While we have programs to increase the use of renewable energy and reduce our reliance on gas plants, we do not have policies in place to replace gas use in buildings with available high-efficiency electric technologies that can be powered by clean energy.In its latest Form 10-K filed with the SEC, Southern California Gas Company identified electrification as a major risk to its bottom line. As GTM reported , the companys efforts to block more stringent efficiency standards are now subject to an inquiry by the Office of Ratepayer Advocates at the California Public Utilities Commission.This story has been updated to include additional comments from Sunrun and SEIA.NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue, center, and Emily's List president Stephanie Schriock, make their only appearance to date in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary races with a stop in Allentown in support of Susan Wild, the lone woman candidate running for the congressional seat being vacated by Republican Charlie Dent, on May 8, 2018. Read more

Any thought that Pennsylvania is just one of a bunch of big-political-muscle states with a tantalizing batch of congressional seats up for grabs this year went out the window on Tuesday in Allentown.

That's where EMILY's List, the influential national group that raises money for women seeking public office, made clear just how huge this state's congressional midterm primaries are to it.

The big-money-for-Democratic-women group is heading into Tuesday's election heavily invested in the Keystone State and key races near Philadelphia in which women are vying for seats in the state's all-male 18-member House delegation.

EMILY's List is so juiced about Pennsylvania that its president made a rare in-the-flesh stop Tuesday in Allentown to personally stump for the only woman  Susan Wild  running in a field of six Democrats for the Seventh Congressional District seat long held by departing Republican Rep. Charlie Dent.

EMILY's List president Stephanie Schriock told me at an event for Wild that her group has spent in the "upper six figures" on races across the state with a week still to go. The Lehigh Valley contest, in my words, is the juiciest of them all in terms of Trumpian drama, with a subplot that even our reality-TV-king/president would eat up like a greasy Big Mac.

The front-runner is a guy who turned Twitter into his own Help Wanted ad by asking Trump to add him to the Donald's new administration in late 2016  Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli.

But wait. There's more.

Morganelli also mostly opposes abortion and thinks Trump is the bee's knees when it comes to clamping down on immigration. (This, too, was the subject of Morganelli tweet love to Trump.)

Just for clarity: He is a Democrat. And a front-runner in a so-called blue wave fueled by hatred of Trump from the left.

No wonder EMILY's List is throwing money through an affiliated super PAC to run TV attacks in the Lehigh Valley. One ad frames Morganelli as a guy who won't "stand up to Trump."

No wonder Schriock also visited the district Tuesday alongside national abortion rights activist Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America to motivate volunteers looking to help Wild win next week. This was Schriock's only visit for a female candidate in the state so far this year.

What does all this mean?

For starters, EMILY's List is no fairy dust. You don't just win after getting the group's happy nod or even helpful attack ad assist. But it's a sign of how much action there is with women candidates this year. And that means something.

EMILY's List was formed in the 1980s at a time when not a single woman was serving in the U.S. Senate as a result of independently campaigning for a seat. It's helped elect dozens to the House and Senate since, only to suffer some terrible and high-profile electoral losses in 2016.

Still, as municipal and county elections last November stunned even party leaders with record Democratic turnout in the Philly suburbs and long-held GOP seats were flipped by liberals, it seems there is an unmeasurable amount of momentum by and for women. Women were largely credited with that turnout surge last year.

"EMILY's List in the 2015-2016 election cycle, we talked to 925 women across the country about running for office," Schriock said. "Since the 2016 election, over 36,000 have contacted us."

This is the kind of energy that is the very definition of wild card. No one should write off any candidate yet. Polls and scuttlebutt be damned.

"We are part of something very big here," she added.

EMILY's List has formally endorsed five women in five of the state's congressional districts: Montgomery County's Fourth District Democrat Madeleine Dean, Bucks County newcomer Rachel Reddick in the First, newcomer Chrissy Houlahan in Chester County's Sixth, Shavonnia Corbin-Johnson in Harrisburg's 10th, and Wild.

Reddick is being significantly outspent by self-financing Democrat Scott Wallace. Dean's greatest challenge may be overcoming the name recognition of Joe Hoeffel, the long-ago congressman who jumped into the race after having left politics. Also in that race is another woman, gun-reform advocate Shira Goodman.

EMILY's List picked no one in the crowded Fifth District race in Delaware County and parts of Lower Merion and Philadelphia, because it felt at least three of the six women in that 10-candidate field  Mary Gay Scanlon, Ashley Lunkenheimer and Molly Sheehan  were all strong contenders, Schriock told me.

"I believe all of our women  and even the women we're not with in Pa. 5  have the momentum," she said.

National Democrats are hoping to flip from three to six of Pennsylvania's seats while taking control of the House from Republicans. And while many women will be left for dead on Tuesday night, many will not. Of that Schriock is certain.

"Most of the women who are running are first-time candidates who are building from scratch," she said. "It is extraordinary that they are competitive already."

"We're going to push all the way until the last vote is cast."Candidates seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Tom Wolfs 2018 bid for re-election, Pennsylvania Sen. Scott Wagner, left, R-York County, Laura Ellsworth, center, and Paul Mango, right, take part in the Montgomery County Republican Committees gubernatorial forum in Blue Bell in October. Read more

Two of the Republicans running for Pennsylvania governor would like to eliminate school property taxes, while a third says it's a bad idea.

The winner of Tuesday's primary will run against Gov. Wolf, a Democrat who has said he is open to ending the reliance on property taxes as a source of revenue and supported the idea in his 2014 campaign. But in office, Wolf has opposed bills to eliminate school property taxes, citing concerns with the details and proposed revenue replacements.

Paul Mango, an Allegheny County health-care consultant, and Scott Wagner, a business owner and state senator from York County, have made property-tax elimination part of their gubernatorial platforms. But the third GOP candidate, Pittsburgh attorney Laura Ellsworth, warns that their support for replacing it with increased sales and income taxes is a risky way to fund education.

All three candidates say various taxes in the state are too high and have offered proposals to reduce them and rein in spending  a topic likely to get more traction in the general election this fall. The property-tax issue is one key point on which the Republicans differ. But if history is an indicator, the tax will still be here after the November election.

Candidates' vows are simply campaign promises at this point, said Gerry Cross, executive director of the Pennsylvania Economy League.

"The executive can promise, but until the legislative and the executive can deliver, it's still a promise," Cross said.

A recent push on the issue in Pennsylvania  including a constitutional amendment approved by voters last year and a tied Senate vote in 2015 on a bill that Mango and Wagner now both support  has drawn attention to the issue of property taxes ahead of this year's race for governor.

"Taxes have always been sort of a central part of campaigns," said G. Terry Madonna, poll director and a professor of public affairs at Franklin and Marshall College. "There has been a much heavier emphasis by two of the three Republican candidates on it."

Polls of voters find that property taxes are "by far  the most unpopular tax," Madonna said. But if voters learned that eliminating such taxes would cause their income and sales taxes to increase substantially, he said, "you might get a different response."

In a debate last week televised on WGAL, an NBC affiliate in Lancaster, Mango said he supports a bill that would replace school property taxes with increases in the state income and sales taxes. The bill, which would still keep some school property taxes in place for districts to pay off their existing debt, failed to pass the Senate in 2015 when Lt. Gov. Mike Stack III broke a tie vote.

"If the local school district [now] wants to increase spending  they have to go the people and ask them in a referendum," Mango said of the bill, known as the Property Tax Independence Act. "Some have said, 'Oh my gosh, this will take power out of the school district and move it to Harrisburg.' It's the opposite  it's going to move power out of the school district and give it back to the people."

Wagner is a co-sponsor of the bill, and has cast himself as the candidate who can end property taxes."My goal as governor would be to eliminate school taxes on real estate," he said in the debate.

Wagner and Mango have criticized each other's campaigns for slight differences or shifts in their stances on real estate taxes or other tax issues.

Ellsworth, meanwhile, disagrees with both of them. She said she would provide relief to seniors by freezing property taxes for residents who have paid them for more than 35 years, but she does not believe the state should end its property tax dependence.

"When you have market-based taxes like income or sales tax, when we have a crash, as we have had in our recent past, when people aren't buying things and they aren't making things, you can't have the entire funding system of our schools crash as the same time," she said. "Property taxes provide stability and predictability for our educational system, and that is important."

Wolf, who has no primary opposition, has voiced concerns with the bill that Wagner and Mango support because it would expand the state sales tax to include food and clothing; the governor's office has also said that education funding remains a priority and that Wolf does not want to hurt school districts.

Because real estate taxes are levied by school districts, counties, and municipalities, Cross said it is interesting that candidates for governor are spending time talking about it. State action to transform the way schools are funded, he said, is a debate with broad implications.

"I don't know if the argument is so much 'eliminate property taxes,'" Cross said. "Maybe the argument is: What's the state's role in paying for public education?"More than one-third of Philadelphians don't bother to respond to calls for jury service, taxing a system already struggling to process hundreds of cases a year, a new study finds.

"Depending upon the year, between 36 percent and 42 percent of Philadelphia residents who are mailed a summons fail to respond," says the report released Wednesday by the First Judicial District, the Philadelphia court system. "This high nonresponse rate raises a potential threat to the court's ability to provide sufficient panels of would-be jurors for civil and criminal trials and results in the court's excessive reliance on those who do fulfill their civic duty by responding to the summons for jury service."

The percentage who do not respond equates to about 200,000 people, the report found.

To be eligible for jury duty, a person must be a Philadelphia resident, a U.S. citizen, and an adult who can read, write, and speak English, and cannot have been convicted of a misdemeanor or felony that could carry a punishment of more than a year behind bars.

"We had the report done because we were really concerned about the number of people who were not responding," Philadelphia Common Pleas Court President Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper said Wednesday.

The report resulted from an 18-month review process conducted by the First Judicial District's Juror Participation Initiative Committee, a blue-ribbon panel of legal professionals and community leaders chaired by Lynn Marks, former executive director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts.

The committee proposed various ways to increase juror participation, including research on possibly relaxing state laws that restrict eligibility based on criminal history. It also suggested ways to reduce hardships to serving, such as increasing compensation to jurors for missing work and providing parking vouchers or transportation discounts.

The panel also recommended increasing educational outreach, in particular to Philadelphia neighborhoods with the lowest jury-duty response rates, including parts of North Philadelphia (zip codes 19121 and 19132), University City and West Philadelphia (zip codes 19104 and 19139), and Southwest Philadelphia (zip codes 19142 and 19143).

"Misinformation of jury service and skepticism and distrust of government can undermine an accurate and positive view of jury service," Marks said Wednesday. "Education is key, both for adults and for youths. The most effective way to educate school students is through the School District."

One misconception, she said, is that "people often think that a trial is going to last a month or weeks." But one-day trials or those that last just a few days are common, she said.

"Sometimes people think they're not smart enough," Marks added, but it's important that "people believe regardless of their education, background, or race, or ethnicity" that they can serve on a jury.

Another misconception, she said, is that jury duty can't be rescheduled. "When you get your summons and you really can't make that date, rather than throw it in the trash can, ask for a different date," she said.

Marks said she thinks people who have been convicted of crimes punishable by more than a year should be able to serve on juries after they have served their time. Some people  disproportionately African American men  who have served prison time after being convicted of crimes decades ago "could make excellent jurors," she said.

"The problem isn't that we don't have enough people to sit on juries, but that we have the same people sitting on juries," said Marks.

Woods-Skipper said she serves on a standing committee of Philadelphia judges that "will be going through the report and prioritizing" what can be carried out under budgetary constraints.

She stressed that some suggestions in the report  including whether convicts who served their time should be allowed to serve on juries  would not be a decision implemented by judges, but would have to be taken up by the state legislature.

Statewide, jurors are compensated $9 a day for jury duty; that amount increases to $25 a day after the third day of service.

Based on court data, 548,900 jury summonses were mailed to Philadelphians in 2016. Of those, 190,024 people  or 35 percent  did not respond or report for jury service. In the surrounding Pennsylvania counties, only Delaware County had a higher nonresponse rate, 44.9 percent that year, the report found. Other counties in the state's Southeast region showed significantly higher response rates.

"The problem of poor juror response rates is not limited to Philadelphia," the report says. Other major cities, including Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Denver have tried to combat the problem by operating a "show cause" hearing or "Scofflaw Court." Although such hearings may provide a short-lived uptick in the number of people who respond to jury summonses, they "are generally a temporary solution to a persistent problem," the report says.

According to state law, failure to appear for jury duty is punishable by a fine not exceeding $500 or imprisonment of no more than 10 days. Periodic attempts in Philadelphia to punish people who failed to appear for jury duty through a Scofflaw Court had "mixed" effectiveness, and in the long run the compliance rate did not increase, the report found.

Dan Rendine, who has served as Philadelphia jury commissioner since 2011, said an effort to restart Scofflaw Court about five years ago led to "an initial bump" in the numbers of people who responded to their jury summonses, "but it didn't last long."

"Considering the costs, it wasn't worth doing Scofflaw Court and the judges were not keen on punishing individuals to come to jury duty. It's not a very pleasant process," Rendine said.

If a prospective juror ignores a summons, a reminder postcard is sent after two weeks, he said.

"If they don't report, they stay on our rolls and will be summoned randomly sometime in the future," he said.

Residents, asked in an informal survey last year why they failed to respond to jury duty, gave the following reasons: issues with their jobs, scheduling conflicts, low juror pay, forgetting or misplacing their summonses, a lack of trust in the criminal justice system, and financial or familial hardship.

Jurors are selected from voter registration and Bureau of Motor Vehicles lists.

After serving for one or two days, a juror is exempt from further service for a year; after three days or more, the exemption is for three years, Rendine said.Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro during a press conference announcing election code violations charges against four democrats from the controversial special election in March for the 197th District state House seat on Monday, October 30, 2017 at the PA Attorney Generals Center City office. Read more

A Democratic election-board member was sentenced Wednesday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court to five years' probation for committing fraud during a special election last year in the city's Kensington section for a state House seat.

Thurman George, 59, of the 3900 block of North 10th Street, pleaded guilty Wednesday to fraud by an election officer, a third-degree felony, before Judge Scott DiClaudio.

George, a machine inspector, also was disqualified from voting for four years. He originally had been charged with five felonies and three misdemeanors.

George was one of four election-board members charged in October by state prosecutors with intimidating voters, casting bogus ballots, and falsely certifying results during a March 21 special election in the 197th House District. The four workers oversaw ballot machines at the Esperanza Health Center at Kensington and Allegheny Avenues.

Cases against two of the defendants already have been resolved.

Calvin Mattox, a minority inspector at the health center, known officially as Poll 43-7, pleaded guilty last month to not meeting the qualifications officers for living outside the legislative district. He was sentenced to one year of probation and cannot vote until April 2020.

Delores Shaw, the judge of election at Poll 43-7, received accelerated rehabilitative disposition for compromising the local election board.

Charges remained pending against Wallace Hill, a bilingual translator.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a statement: "My job is to uphold Pennsylvania law to ensure free and fair elections. We are drawing a clear line  during a time when the integrity of our country's elections are being questioned  the sanctity of 'one person, one vote' must and will be upheld here in Pennsylvania."

Shapiro said in October that there was no evidence that the outcome of the election was affected. The seat was won by Emilio Vazquez, a Democratic ward leader.

The Attorney General's Office created a voter's rights guide ahead of next week's primary and a guide for campaign staff and poll watchers on how to follow Pennsylvania law.

The voter's guide is available in English and Spanish and can be downloaded at https://bit.ly/2jIU66O.Be a lady.

Celebrate America as "the only country in the world" where you, child of a first-generation immigrant, could rise up on hard work and talent to a position of power and influence.

And celebrate marriage as the rock on which you built your successful career.

These are all hallmarks of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as we learn in the documentary RBG  one that may surprise viewers with the way it shows how these "conservative" attributes contributed to the liberal icon's success. Not that it's won her wide support on the right. The movie opens with hysterical salvos from talk-show hosts describing her as a threat to the nation's well-being.

You have to laugh, when you see them contrasted with images of the diminutive, amiable Ginsburg, now 85, on view in RBG. The brisk and informative Betsy West and Julie Cohen documentary shows the life and career of a woman who grew up as a free-range kid in Brooklyn, jumping roof to roof, landing eventually on the United States Supreme Court, on the strength of a keen legal mind that applied itself to successful arguments that have advanced equal rights for women.

And talk-show hosts notwithstanding, her prodigious legal talent has won her the admiration of leading conservatives (Sen. Orrin Hatch is featured), particularly the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, with whom Ginsburg had a close friendship.

Watching them on screen together, in moments alive with respect and affection, is to get a rare and happy glimpse of a potential future for a political discourse that might yet evolve if we all follow the advice of Ginsburg's mother.

The advice was "be a lady," but it might easily be rephrased as "be a gentleman." It meant, Ginsburg says, do not let yourself be guided by "useless emotions" like anger. And she followed it assiduously  as one of nine women in a class of 500 at Harvard, she was denied access to the library on the basis of gender. She didn't get angry  she made the Law Review.

That fact that she remained composed is astonishing given her personal biography. While at Harvard Law, she tended to her newborn, and to her husband Marty, stricken with cancer that required frequent radiation therapy.

Their mutual devotion became a half-century love affair ("By far the most important thing that ever happened to me," she says) that forms the emotional core of the film, which includes ample footage of the outgoing Mr. Ginsburg, a charming, joke-telling toastmaster and perfect counterpoint to his phlegmatic wife. (It actually suggests why she became close with the wisecracking, outgoing Scalia after her husband died).

Marty was a successful tax attorney in New York who interrupted his career to follow his wife to Washington, after it became clear she was a rising legal star, probably ticketed for the high court, where she was nominated by Bill Clinton and confirmed in 1993.

Her stature in legal circles derived from the groundbreaking arguments she made on behalf of women  decrying wage and benefit discrimination in the corporate world and the military, or cleverly advocating for widowers denied spousal benefits by Social Security administrators.

The courts responded to the core of her argument. As she says here, "gender-based discrimination harms everyone."

Her arguments as an ACLU Women's Rights Project attorney before the Supreme Court (where she went five-for-six) form the film's most legally substantial passages. Later, it detours into Ginsburg's adoption as a pop-culture fixture, and the film displays some of the wide-eyed adoration of RBG's ardent fans.

At one point, for instance, a journalist notes that when she interviewed with Clinton, "he fell for her."

First of all, ooh.

Second of all, judging by the movie's breathless final section, he's not the only one.

MOVIES

RBGMulbah Mazue-Acquoi, 18, and Alex Oliveira, 19, were arrested in May 2018 and charged with killing Ronald Rusin, 48, on April 25. Read more

Two teens were arrested this week and accused of robbing and fatally shooting a Kensington man last month in a drug-related robbery, according to police.

Homicide Capt. John Ryan said that the victim, Ronald Rusin  who had been a Philadelphia police officer in the 1990s  dealt marijuana and pills, and that Mulbah Mazue-Acquoi, 18, and Alex Oliveira, 19, had "set him up for a robbery." Mazue-Acquoi was arrested Monday, and Oliveira was arrested Wednesday, police said.

Rusin, 48, of the 2400 block of Almond Street, was found with a gunshot wound to the neck in the basement of a home on the 2000 block of Vista Street in Rhawnhurst on April 25, according to police. Ryan said that Rusin's wallet was missing and that police did not find drugs with him.

"Clearly they knew him well enough to essentially lure him to his death," Ryan said of the two men charged. He said that police were still investigating and that others also could be arrested.

Ryan said he did not know how long Rusin was on the force before resigning, or why he stepped down. He did say investigators did not believe his former career played a role in his slaying.

Oliveira, of the 5800 block of Walker Street in Wissinoming, is accused of pulling the trigger and faces counts including murder, robbery, conspiracy, and gun-related charges. Mazue-Acquoi, of the 2100 block of Glendale Avenue in Rhawnhurst, faces counts including murder, robbery, and conspiracy, police said.

Staff writer Vinny Vella contributed to this article.To share with friends and brethren The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (the Everlasting Gospel), and to prepare a people to stand when He returns to redeem His remnant. Also, to share relevant information of current events, and to show how they relate to prophecy; By means of articles, editorials, opinions, scripture readings, and poetry.

Disclaimer

Endrtimes does not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article/video posted on this site. The information provided here is done so for personal edification; It's up to the reader to separate truth from error, and to examine everything (like the Bereans) from a Biblical perspective. Let the Holy Scriptures be you guide! - - - FAIR USE NOTICE: These pages/videos may contain copyrighted () material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, economic, DEMOCRACY, scientific, MORAL, ETHICAL, and SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes.A 31-year-old man was fatally shot inside a Chinese takeout restaurant in the city's Tacony section Wednesday night, police said.

About 9:40 p.m., police were called to the 6900 block of Torresdale Avenue, where they found the victim collapsed on the sidewalk, said Chief Inspector Scott Small. Police transported the victim to Aria-Jefferson Health's Torresdale hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:05 p.m.

>> READ MORE: Philadelphia shootings leave 5 dead, 4 wounded

The victim was inside the takeout restaurant when the shooter entered the doorway and fired at least four shots, and then fled. The victim, who was shot in the chest, ran north about 80 feet before he fell to the ground.

There was no early indication of a motive for the shooting, Small said.The sidewalk outside BIs Restaurant on Elmwood Avenue was still stained Thursday with the blood from the previous nights shooting in which police said a customer used a registered gun to fatally shoot two men. Read more

Karamo Kaba, grief etched on his face, stood Thursday on the sidewalk outside BI's Restaurant in Elmwood and stared at the blood of his nephew Cherno Kabba, 24, one of two men shot to death Wednesday night after what police said was a dispute with two other men.

They were among nine shooting victims in 18 hours in Philadelphia, five of whom died, police said.

The gunfire outside the restaurant at 6515 Elmwood Ave. erupted about 7:15 p.m. Police said the two victims and the gunman and his father had started arguing inside the restaurant before moving outside and getting physical. Kabba was shot in the face and torso, and an unidentified 22-year-old friend was shot in the back, police said. Both were pronounced dead at the scene at 7:35 p.m.

Kaba  a native of Guinea who spells his last name differently from his nephew  said a witness told him that his nephew had gone to the restaurant to buy a carryout meal, and that as he was leaving two men attacked him for reasons he did not know. Kabba dropped his food and ran to 65th Street and Elmwood to alert a friend that he had been attacked. When the two returned to the front of the restaurant, the gunman opened fire, Kaba said he was told.

"As soon as they get there, the guy lifted up his shirt and took the gun out and shot his friend first," Kaba said. "He lay in the middle of the street and died there. My nephew got shot in the head while he was running, and they keep following him and shooting at him while my nephew was trying to get into the restaurant."

The gunman had a permit to carry the firearm and surrendered to arriving officers, police said. No charges had been filed as of Thursday evening, and police said they were looking into the possibility that the shots had been fired in self-defense.

But Kaba was adamant that the gunman could not have acted in self-defense. "If it's self-defense, how will you shoot somebody in the head three times while they are running from you?" he asked. "And my nephew didn't have no gun, and neither did his partner. It was a fistfight."

Kaba said he and a carload of relatives had come to the restaurant Thursday after identifying the body of Kabba, who was born in the United States. He was unmarried, unemployed, lived with his mother, and had a 3-year-old daughter, the uncle said.

"I feel so depressed and very upset about it, but life is life," said Kaba. "I'm not happy about what happened to my nephew, but I will let justice take its course."

Nana Bintu Cisse, owner of BI's Restaurant, said she was not there at the time, but was told that the gunman had been dining with his father when they went outside to fight the two victims. Her manager called her at home, and she arrived before the bodies were removed, she said.

"That was so scary," said Cisse, a native of Mali who has owned the restaurant for 15 years. "We were so scared last night. We pray every day to God. Every day."

The gunfire Wednesday and early Thursday was not confined to Elmwood. In addition to the five men killed, four others were wounded in shootings during a particularly violent 18 hours, police said. The fatal shootings brought to 98 the number of slayings in the city this year, compared with 108 during the same time in 2017, according to police statistics.

Police gave these accounts of the other shootings:

Wednesday

10:05 a.m.: Todd Washington, 28, of the 5700 block of Wheeler Street in Southwest Philadelphia, was found shot in the head on the 800 block of North 42nd Street in Belmont. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

1:30 p.m.: Tracey McKinney, 45, of the 3300 block of Goodman Street in Franklinville, was found on the 1300 block of West Erie Avenue in Franklinville with gunshot wounds to his back, an arm, and a leg. He was taken to Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead at 3:31 p.m.

9:40 p.m.: Julius Luke, 31, of the unit block of West Garfield Street in Germantown, was found shot in the chest on the 6900 block of Torresdale Avenue in Tacony. Luke was inside a nearby Chinese takeout restaurant when a shooter entered and fired at least four times before fleeing. Luke was taken to Jefferson-Aria Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:05 p.m.

10 p.m.: Bicycle officers in South Philadelphia heard gunshots and found a 61-year-old man shot in the groin and sitting on a stoop on the 2200 block of South Eighth Street. He was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he was in critical but stable condition.

11 p.m.: A 29-year-old man was shot in the shoulder while walking on the 2500 block of Federal Street, Grays Ferry. He was in stable condition at Penn-Presbyterian Medical Center. Police found ballistics evidence in front of a rowhouse that has been used in the filming of Creed II.

11:15 p.m.: A 28-year-old man was shot in the face on the 4200 block of Lancaster Avenue in Powelton. He was taken to Penn-Presbyterian, where he was in stable condition.

ThursdayTwo men were shot to death Wednesday evening during an altercation at a West African restaurant in Southwest Philadelphia, police said.

Around 7:25 p.m., police responded to a report of a fight at BI's Restaurant at 6515 Elmwood Ave., said Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives. The arriving officers heard gunshots and saw a 23-year-old man fall to the ground outside the restaurant. An 18-year-old man also was shot outside the restaurant and ran inside where he collapsed. Both men were pronounced dead at the scene with gunshot wounds to the head.

>> READ MORE: Philadelphia shootings leave 5 dead, 4 wounded

Another 23-year-old man outside the restaurant was holding a gun and dropped his weapon for the police. He told the officers he had a valid permit to carry a concealed firearm, which the police later verified.

According to witness accounts, the shooter and his father, the owner of the restaurant, were eating dinner inside when the two victims entered and began arguing with the father, Walker said. The son and a restaurant employee separated the two men from the owner and got the men to leave the restaurant. The men later reentered the restaurant and an altercation ensued that spilled outside. The son said he was struck in the head with an unknown object and that's when he opened fire.

Whether the son faces charges was still under investigation, Walker said.Ashley Bernard quit her job without anything lined up because she says she wasnt in the right mindset to find her next job. Read more

Amelia Longo spent four years helping to build a web design firm with values she believed in.

She launched a fellowship to train underrepresented people in tech and developed ways to make the company's hiring process more inclusive.

For a while, Longo, who had bounced around the arts nonprofit and tech worlds since graduating from college, thought maybe she had finally found her "forever" job.

But then she realized something had changed. No matter how committed she was to the team and the company, she was unhappy working there. She wanted to do something else, something, she'd half-joke, that would more directly help "dismantle the racist capitalist ableist heteropatriarchy."

So she quit. She gave her boss three months' notice, is working on finding her replacement, and did it all without a job lined up, without much more than a plan to just, you know, figure it out. And this was the second time in her 10-year career that she had left a job without anything in place.

Declaring this quitting-sans-new-job a bona fide trend is hard to prove  there aren't the numbers to back that up  but at a time when employee burnout is at a high, more people are freelancing and working in nontraditional work environments, and companies are now built around the idea that everyone is always looking for the next job, it's become common to see "Looking for my next opportunity!" on LinkedIn, and certain corners of the professional world are changing their perspective on the once-taboo resume gap.

You are probably rolling your eyes right now (What an exercise in privilege!). Or, you might be nodding your head (Girl, I feel you). You might be a tad envious (If only I could do that ). Or, maybe you feel a mix of all three. This is, after all, not a thing everyone has the safety net to pull off. But before you hate-read the rest of this article, here is what the trend is not about: quitting on a whim.

Although there will always be those who make impulse decisions, the people who are quitting without jobs are doing it in calculated, strategic moves due to emotionally and mentally exhausted states that they say prevent them from searching for other jobs. In a lot of ways, it's an act of desperation. But it's also a way to take back control. And it reflects a now widely acceptable belief among young professionals that work shouldn't kill you, that it must be meaningful and fulfilling.

Abby Mosconi, 34, started suffering from regular panic attacks at her ad agency office and eventually quit. Having been socialized to "get on the conveyor belt"  go to school, get a "real" job, retire  it had taken almost 10 years to realize that wasn't the right path for her. Quitting, she says, was necessary to figuring out how to build a career that made her happy.

Umm, can you really do that and not kill your career? ask parents everywhere. It depends.

Tessa Dill, a recruiter with Uber, says taking time between jobs is so common in the tech world, especially for those working at Silicon Valley companies who often quit once their stock vests, that from a hiring perspective, a resume gap is no big deal. Jeanne Meister, a partner at HR advisory firm Future Workplace, says she's noticed less of a stigma around being between jobs  as long as you can explain the gap. It's often a marker of ambition, Meister said.

That ambition  and the impatience to see results  is a quality of the millennial workforce, according to Northeastern University professor Alicia Modestino, who studies the youth labor market.

"Other generations played by the rules," Modestino said. Not millennials. "That's in part shaped by the fact that all those rules went away."

Ah, the dreaded m-word. It's a loaded term that many associate with other words like irresponsible and entitled. And that's exactly how quitting without a job lined up could be perceived by other companies, said Mikal C. Harden, cofounder of Philly recruiting firm Juno Search Partners. Not to mention, Harden added, that it would put you in a weaker negotiating position when you get that next job. (In the tech sector, Dill pointed out, established companies generally follow salary ranges for specific positions.)

You also might not survive the break, Meister cautioned. Brand-name companies are stretching out the recruiting process, so "if you're going to go down this route, you have to be aware that if you want your next dream job, it could easily take six months," she said.

Ashley Bernard, 27, who in March quit her marketing job at a digital agency because she didn't see a future for herself there, wasn't worried about her negotiating power for her next gig. In fact, it hadn't crossed her mind. She'd take a pay cut if she had to. What was more important was giving herself the time and space to find a job she was passionate about. Meanwhile, she's living off her savings.

Although by definition millennial means you were born between 1981 and 1996, the term tends to conjure up white, college-educated, young professionals. And, for the most part, it is early-career people with degrees who are more likely to quit without anything lined up, Meister said.

But other kinds of privileges allow people to take these leaps of faith: savings, freedom from financial responsibilities like taking care of a family, social capital, and confidence in your skills and hireability.

Longo talked about how, after the first time she quit without anything lined up, she went to an event at a local theater and got offered two jobs. It made her realize: "I have a deep network. I'm a talented person. I'm going to land." It also helped that she had gotten a settlement from a bike accident and that her parents live nearby, so if she ever really needed to, she could move in with them.

Dave Labold, 31, a former teacher who twice quit without a job because he was so burned out it was affecting his work, survived with odd jobs offered by friends. His housemate, who owned their South Philly home, gave him a pass on rent when things were particularly hard.

Then there's the matter of what your parents think, or rather, how honest they'll be about what they think.

Bernard, whose mother is an immigrant from Haiti and longtime nurse, burst out laughing when asked about her parents' reaction.

"She was like, 'But you don't have any money.' I was like, 'I have my feelings and intuition!'" Bernard said.

Her mother eventually came around, but Bernard says she still feels a lot of "first-generation American guilt," knowing that she's in a position to do this because of the sacrifices her parents made.

Bernard is still early in her quitting process  "Ask me in a few weeks and my answers might be totally different," she acknowledges  but so far, she's felt good about her decision. Longo says, because she is someone who is always working at 100 percent, she has realized this kind of break is what she needs to figure out her next steps. Mosconi has built a hybrid career for herself doing two things she always wanted to do but never thought she could make a living from: writing and singing.

And Labold  well, he's still not sure what he wants to do. The career he thought he'd have by the time he hit his 30s  being a social studies teacher  never panned out. He's working at a Trader Joe's right now. But he's happy. Happier than he was.

He says this whole process has forced him to rethink some of his assumptions.

"Life isn't really defined by your work," he said. "I'm trying to find the other things."US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out from the international nuclear deal with Iran is "hasty and rash", Iraq's foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The ministry said it was following with "deep concern the dangerous developments" resulting from Trump's decision.

It said the nuclear agreement "had contributed to Middle East peace" and Washington's withdrawal "goes in the direction of escalation which would bring nothing but destruction and war desolation" in the Middle East.

Shi'ite-led Iraq lies on the faultline between Shia Iran and the mostly Sunni Muslim Arab world. Iran became the main foreign power broker in Iraq after the withdrawal of US forces in 2011, with its local allies controlling the security services.

The ministry statement welcomed the decision of the other signatories of the agreement, including Iran and European nations, to stick with the 2015 deal despite the US pullout.

Trump said on Tuesday that the 2015 deal, which lifted sanctions on Iran in return for measures restricting its nuclear programme, did not go far enough in removing the threat posed by Iran to the United States and its allies in the Middle East.

During his four-year term in office, Iraqi Prime Minister Haier al-Abadi has cautiously trodden a diplomatic middle course between Tehran and Washington, ensuring the cooperation of both in the war against Islamic State group hardline Sunni militants.

Abadi is seeking a second term in elections due on Saturday. He is facing two allies of Iran, ex-prime minister Nuri al-Maliki and Shia militia leader Hadi al-Amiri.

Iraqi President Fuad Masum earlier in the day expressed concern at the American decision.

"The (nuclear) agreement marked a major achievement in bolstering the chances of peace and progress for all the states of the region and the international community," said Masum, an ethnic Kurd whose position as president of the republic is largely ceremonial.

The executive powers in the country are concentrated in the hands of Abadi, who belongs to the Shia Arab majority.

Search Keywords:

Short link:

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt testifies during a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Capitol Hill, Thursday, April 26, 2018 in Washington. Read more

WASHINGTON  The Environmental Protection Agency signaled on Thursday it will follow through on an Obama-era proposal to ban paint strippers containing a toxic chemical  leaving lawmakers, environmental groups and the families of victims cautiously optimistic.

Since taking office, Pruitt has been laser-focused on undoing environmental and safety rules proposed by former President Barack Obama's administration. But the EPA's announcement that it "intends to finalize" a proposed ban on methylene chloride would be the exception.

"Today's announcement demonstrates EPA's commitment to finalize the methylene chloride rule-making," the EPA said in a statement.

The chemical, used by professional contractors and do-it-yourselfers to remove paint, has been linked to dozens of deaths  including 12 people who specialize in refinishing bathtubs between 2000 and 2011 , according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

But advocates of the ban reserved full-throated cheers until the rule's language is made public and submitted to the White House's Office of Management and Budget, which the EPA said will happen "shortly."

Sarah Vogel, vice president for health at The Environmental Defense Fund, said the nonprofit advocacy group was "encouraged" by the EPA's decision but urged the agency to move quickly to formally block the access to the chemical.

"We and families across this country will be watching closely to make sure this administration actually delivers on today's promise from Administrator Pruitt," Vogel said. "We will delay any celebration until paint strippers containing this deadly chemical are actually off the market."

The EPA first proposed banning the use of methylene chloride in paint and coating removal products in the waning days of former president Barack Obama's second term. A year earlier, Congress had granted the EPA new powers to restrict the use of that and other chemicals in an amendment to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, the nation's main chemical safety law.

But in December, the Pruitt's EPA indefinitely postponed bans on certain uses of methylene chloride and two other deadly chemicals often found in consumer products. For a time, it seemed like the ban headed to the trash bin, along with many other Obama-era rules after President Donald Trump's election.

That delay in December kicked off an effort to salvage it.

Several Democratic lawmakers asked Pruitt about the chemical and urged him to ban it in a pair of hearings on Capitol Hill last month. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.Y., invoked the deaths of Drew Wynne and Joshua Atkins, who both died from methylene chloride exposure. Pallone asked Pruitt if he had anything to say to those families given the lack of EPA action.

Pruitt didn't directly address that question, but he made clear that the agency hadn't abandoned its evaluation of the chemical's safety. "There has been no decision at this time," he said at the April 26 hearing.

That did little to satisfy Pallone. "Look, you say you're going to do something, but these chemicals are still on the shelves, and they make a mockery of [chemical reform] legislation that this committee works so hard on," Pallone said. "And it makes a mockery of EPA. You have the power immediately to get this chemical off the shelves. And you're not doing it. And you should do it."

Later that day, another Democrat from New York, Rep. Nita Lowey, accused Pruitt of "strategically starving programs that identify chemicals that could be harmful to children, while rolling back and delaying regulations for deadly chemicals."

Pruitt replied that the agency was reviewing the comments of the proposal to ban the chemical. "I take this issue very seriously," he said.

The lobbying effort also continued behind the scenes.

After the hearings, the Environmental Defense Fund contacted Pruitt's office on behalf of the families of Wynne and Kevin Hartley, another man who died from methylene chloride exposure. The group asked for a meeting with the administrator.

"I wanted to use Kevin's story to try to save more lives," Wendy Hartley, Kevin's mother, told The Post in an interview. "We do not need anymore lives lost due to this. And if I could tell Kevin's story and get someone to listen to it and do something about, then I was willing to tell his story."

Pruitt has met with few environmental groups throughout his tenure, more often conferring with industry representatives. But he agreed to meet with the mothers.

So this past Tuesday morning, Wendy Hartley, along with Cindy Wynne and her other son Brian Wynne, met Pruitt and several of his aides at his office in EPA headquarters.

The families brought with them photographs and the death certificates of the two men, and explained to Pruitt what happened to them.

Wynne, 31, was running a cold brew coffee business in Charleston, S.outh Carolina, when he died last year while stripping paint from the floor of a walk-in refrigerator using a product called Goof Off. Hartley, 21, was a trained contractor who died last year while refinishing a bathtub with White Lightning Low Odor Stripper near Nashville. Both men both were wearing respirators when they died.

Pruitt "was very attentive to us," Cindy Wynne told The Post in an interview earlier this week before the EPA's announcement. "He was somewhat surprised when we showed him the cans from Lowe's," where her son had purchased the paint stripper.

Her son, Brian, asked Pruitt if he agreed that methylene chloride was a problem. Pruitt responded, "I do."

But when pressed on whether he would finalize the ban, the administrator did not make a commitment, the family members said.

"We all have the same sense that for a moment there, we felt like there was positive momentum," Brian Wynne said. "And then that went out of the room pretty quickly when he was steadfast against the word 'ban.' "

In an interview after the announcement Thursday, the brother said he was now "cautiously optimistic" that Pruitt would follow through.

"This is a positive development," Brian Wynne said. "It was a surprising one. We certainly didn't see this coming in our meeting with Administrator Pruitt. But we're certainly encouraged by this sign that he seems ready to take action."

The EPA said the "meeting with the families was constructive."

"It provided the families the opportunity to share with Administrator Pruitt the circumstances in each of their cases and the Administrator the opportunity to hear directly from them," the agency said in a statement. "There was an exchange of ideas, and we appreciate EDF reaching out to request the meeting."

Public health and environmental groups also pleased but cautioned that more work needs to be done. Vogel urged the EPA to "move quickly to implement a ban, and that includes ensuring necessary administrative procedures are followed to guarantee a permanent ban and that these products are promptly removed from store shelves."

The EPA said it will not redo a 2014 risk assessments that determined inhaling the paint-stripping fumes is dangerous. "The agency is not re-evaluating the paint stripping uses of methylene chloride, but relying on its previous risk assessments and working diligently to ensure the safety of chemicals in the marketplace," it said.

On Thursday, Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, called the EPA's announcement "welcome news, especially after the agency previously delayed finalization of this proposed ban indefinitely."

"I am also encouraged that the agency is relying on previous risk assessments that clearly and scientifically showed just how threatening products containing methylene chloride could be to people's health and safety," Carper added in a statement. "However, just like a law doesn't mean much if it is not enforced, intentions to finalize a ban on a deadly chemical don't mean much if that chemical stays on the shelves."

The American Chemistry Council, the main trade association for U.S. chemical companies, greeted the move with muted acceptance.

"EPA has authority to move ahead on specific conditions of use," spokesman Jon Corley said in a statement. "ACC supports EPA's completion of the risk management rule-making on methylene chloride and publication of a final rule."

Methylene chloride can kill either through direct narcosis or through metabolization into carbon monoxide, which binds to hemoglobin in the blood and inhibits oxygen from moving around the body. Exposure to as little as six ounces can kill, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The heavier-than-air chemical can pool in places with poor ventilation, like bathrooms. "But now we're seeing more and more case in other types of confined spaces," said Lindsay McCormick, a project manager for EDF's health program.

In 1997, OSHA issued its own restriction on the chemical's use in workplaces. But those standards did not cover regular consumers, who can buy methylene chloride products at most hardware stores.Seeking the Republican Partys nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, left to right, Paul Mango, State Sen. Scott Wagner and Laura Ellsworth, participated in a January debate in Pittsburgh. Read more

One plans to put an armed police officer in every school statewide. Another wants to eliminate the state background check system. A third is the only one to say she would turn down money from the NRA.

Since the Parkland, Fla., school shooting in February, gun control has been hotly debated around the nation  including in the Pennsylvania legislature, where House members spent six days discussing proposals for tackling the issue.

But in the contested Republican race for governor, the debate has only reached lukewarm temperatures. While gun control hasn't been a defining issue leading up to Tuesday's primary election, it's likely to have a greater role in November's general election, when the Republican will look to unseat Gov. Wolf, a Democratic incumbent who has argued that tougher laws are the best way to end a wave of gun violence.

On the campaign trail, each of the candidates  Laura Ellsworth, a Pittsburgh lawyer; Paul Mango, a former health-care consultant from Allegheny County; and Scott Wagner, a state senator from York County who won the state GOP's endorsement  has described a personal connection to firearms and pledged to protect the right to bear arms. But the specifics of their plans vary.

Wagner, who has an A rating from the National Rifle Association and a 100 percent pro-gun voting record in the state legislature, according to the Firearm Owners Against Crime PAC, says that current gun laws need to be better enforced and that more mental-health funding is needed to reduce gun violence.

He supports state funding to prevent gun violence, has a school-safety plan that includes putting an armed officer in every school, and has proposed a bill mandating the death penalty for anyone convicted of killing people at a Pennsylvania school.

"Our schools have to be safe, and our children have to be safe in those schools, and our teachers have to be safe, but the answer is not more rules and regulations regarding firearms," Wagner said during a candidates' forum in Venango County in March.

Summing up his remarks there, he added, to laughter and cheers: "I have a concealed weapons permit. If you break in my house tonight and you're uninvited, you're going to have a bad evening."

When it comes to the gun-control measures proposed in the Statehouse, Ellsworth and Mango oppose measures to ban semiautomatic weapons or large-capacity magazines. But they differ in other ways. Ellsworth supports banning bump stocks and conversion devices, and requiring background checks for the private sale of long guns; Mango does not.

Wagner did not answer questions from the Inquirer and Daily News about those measures. Instead, his spokesman said: "Scott wants to make sure all current background checks are being conducted appropriately and that we keep guns out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them. He wants to focus on that task before looking at further gun restrictions."

Ellsworth, who would be Pennsylvania's first female governor, said during one debate that she would refuse donations from the NRA. (Mango and Wagner both said they would accept money from the gun-rights group.) However, Ellsworth has also described herself as "a rule-of-law person" who supports the state and federal right to bear arms.

She says schools can be made safer immediately by adding security measures common in many office buildings. Arming teachers, she said, should not be required, but teachers who are trained should be allowed to carry weapons if they choose. She also supports state funding for "evidence-based community initiatives" to reduce handgun violence.

"We need to focus on educational and job opportunities that would put a diploma or paycheck in someone's hand instead of a gun," she told the newspapers.

Mango, a veteran of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, has promised to veto any gun-control legislation that comes to his desk, eliminate the state background-check system so only the national system is used, and enhance the Castle Doctrine, which protects property owners who use deadly force against intruders.

He has also pledged to increase funding for school security  though he believes schools should determine their own safety plans  and said he would "support tailored funding based on specific threats (like in schools) for strategies that work." He told the Inquirer and Daily News he supports gun education offered through the private sector and nonprofits, and wants to keep the mentally ill from obtaining guns.

In a recorded live chat with the Rev. Hyung Jin "Sean" Moon, the pastor whose Poconos church has drawn national attention for blessing couples who carried AR-15s, Mango said said all citizens should know how to use firearms.

"People say, 'Why do you need a semiautomatic weapon to kill a deer? It's not to kill a deer. It's to defend ourselves," Mango told Moon in their January talk. "And, by the way, defending ourselves from potentially an overreaching government, right? That's what Second Amendment rights are all about."Though Remlinger pleaded with correctional, and then medical, officials to let her carry her baby to term, they took her to Hershey Medical Center, shackled her to a rocking chair, and gave her Pitocin, a drug that induces labor, she claims in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Pennsylvania's Middle District.

"I felt like I was a caged animal," Remlinger, 29, of Palmyra, Pa., said in an interview. "I had no family with me, my husband didn't even know I was being induced. I had two guards with me, and I knew damn well they didn't care. I was alone."

Shackling women before, during, or after childbirth has been prohibited since 2010 by Pennsylvania law, according to the claim, filed by Angus Love of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project.

Love recalled holding a news conference to celebrate the passage of that bill.

"That was eight years ago," he said. "Apparently Lebanon County didn't get the message."

Lebanon County Warden Robert Karnes said he couldn't comment on the case because of the litigation, but added, "Her statements of fact are not accurate."

"We don't shackle pregnant females," he said. "We put the policy out in 2010 when the legislation came out." He also said the jail does not make decisions about induction  that would be up to medical professionals. Karnes added that, when possible, he tries to arrange medical furloughs for pregnant women.

Despite the law, there have been reports that pregnant women continue to be shackled in jails around the state. In response, State Reps. Mary Jo Daley and Thomas Murt have introduced legislation to study how the law has been implemented.

Daley, a Montgomery County Democrat, said many jails have not been reporting on their use of shackling, but that her resolution to study the issue had not advanced in nearly a year. "Is it because people actually don't think this is happening? I don't know. But this case would give me a good reason to go to them and say, 'This is an issue,'" she said. "It's a human rights issue."

Remlinger's case came to light due to the advocacy of Carolyn Robinson, an official visitor with the Pennsylvania Prison Society. "I was very concerned," she said, "because from what I understand, this is not even legal."

The lawsuit also alleges the jail violated the Eighth Amendment by subjecting Remlinger to cruel and unusual conditions. That includes shackling her throughout labor and for five days while she was in the hospital after delivery.

Remlinger learned she was pregnant while she was incarcerated on charges that she joined her husband in robbing a man in his home, searching his pockets, and hitting him in the head.

"I was pretty nervous," she said. She'd been using heroin, and was detoxing in jail on $260,000 bail. She knew it wouldn't be an easy pregnancy.

>> READ MORE: Love in the time of opioids: Adoption connects drug-exposed kids with new families

To make matters worse, she spent much of it in solitary confinement. She was put in segregated housing for her first 30 days. Later, she'd spend a month and a half in medical isolation, which she described as a small cell with a metal door where she stayed 23 hours a day.

"You only get to shower and use the phone, and then you go back into your cell," she said. "You have more freedom in the hole."

Both the Department of Justice and the American Correctional Association say pregnant women should not be held in long-term solitary. In November, Allegheny County agreed to stop holding pregnant women in solitary as part of a settlement with the five women who'd been subjected to the practice and were represented by the ACLU and other legal advocates.

Remlinger's was a high-risk pregnancy for other reasons: She was on methadone, and had other health issues.

By inducing her pregnancy early, she said, "I felt like they were putting my child at risk."

Her fears were warranted: After hours in labor, her doctor decided to break her water, and demanded the guard finally unshackle her leg from the rail of the hospital bed. When he did, he discovered she was hemorrhaging, and had to perform an emergency C-section. Her son was initially unresponsive, but was revived. "He was pretty much drowning in my blood," Remlinger said.

When she woke from surgery, her leg was shackled to the bed once again. As her ankle swelled, medical staff advised guards to remove the restraint; some guards did so, but other shifts didn't.

Today, she's home and recovering. Her son, Xavier, is 7 months old and, given everything that happened, she said, they're both doing fine.Nina Ahmad, a former deputy mayor in Philadelphia, is one of the Democrats challenging Lt. Gov. Mike Stack in the May 15th primary. She said the Pennsylvania needs new voices. Stacks campaign said she is a fraud. Read more

Nina Ahmad, a Bangladeshi immigrant running for lieutenant governor against the grandson of a congressman, says Pennsylvania needs "new voices." Elizabeth Fiedler, a 37-year-old journalist vying for the state House, promises to "fight for us  not political interests." State Rep. Chris Rabb, an insurgent facing a rematch from one of the most powerful electoral coalitions in the city, decries "machine politics."

In Democratic primaries across the city, millennials, women, and new Philadelphians are taking on incumbents and what at least one called the "old boys' club."

Their opponents are highlighting their government experience and playing up their Philly roots.

"I'm a lifelong Philadelphian," said Jonathan "J.R." Rowan, a ward leader running in Tuesday's primary against Fiedler and two other Democrats in South Philly. "I've worked and served my neighbors for over 20 years for two different senators."

Soon after millennials and immigrants began pouring into Philadelphia more than 10 years ago in numbers so large that the city's population rose for the first time in decades, observers began asking whether they would change the local political system. With the election of President Trump inspiring Democrats across the country to run for office, and District Attorney Larry Krasner's 2017 victory energizing progressives locally, many young people are taking a leap into the city's rough-and-tumble electoral politics.

At the same time, a handful of longtime Philly lawmakers in the state House are retiring. All are men.

"You're seeing a bit of the changing of the guard," said Larry Ceisler, a longtime political observer working in public relations. "You're seeing people who are more engaged. Philadelphia is a Democratic city, a liberal city, and I think that Trump is a motivator."

One of the most closely watched primaries between newcomers and longtime residents is the contest to replace State Rep. Bill Keller, who is retiring after more than 25 years in the House. Keller's preferred successor is Rowan, a 45-year-old aide to State Sen. Larry Farnese, who previously worked for Vincent J. Fumo, the former state senator found guilty of corruption.

In the Rowan campaign's TV ad, a narrator says he is "building on Bill Keller's work to expand the port." Rowan has received more than $112,000 from the powerful Electricians union, led by John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty.

Fiedler, who is originally from Bloomsburg, Pa., has lived in the city for 15 years. She said she supports Medicare for all and a moratorium on new charter schools, and has won the support of groups such as the teachers' union; Our Revolution, a liberal advocacy group spun off Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign; and the Democratic Socialists of America's local chapter.

Also running are attorney Tom Wyatt, a 17-year city resident who vows "to fight for fair funding for our schools; and former police Detective Nicholas DiDonato, who rails against "politics as usual" and was born in South Philly.

In that primary, most candidates are either downplaying the divide between old and new residents or referencing them subtly. Rowan said "new residents working alongside old residents has been good for our community." Fiedler said her campaign "is very much not about old vs. new" and such differences "have been used to divide us for a really long time but are not useful for us in demanding a better health-care system."

Only DiDonato went negative in a recent interview, saying that the city's political system is "bought and sold by Johnny Doc" and that Fiedler "doesn't have enough tenure to represent the district."

The city is vastly different  more diverse, younger and independent than ever

In the lieutenant governor's race, Ahmad and incumbent Mike Stack III are tossing much bigger bombs at each other.

"Stack's world view is stuck in a time when his ancestors dominated Northeast Philly's political machine, but the city is vastly different  more diverse, younger, and independent than ever before in history," said Ken Snyder, a political strategist for Ahmad.

Stack is a former state senator and Democratic ward leader; his father was a ward leader; and his grandfather was a U.S. House member. Ahmad previously worked as the president of the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women and was a deputy mayor under Mayor Kenney.

Marty Marks, a spokesman for Stack, called Ahmad a "fraud" who "sells herself as a progressive while in reality she is a big-city millionaire real estate developer like Donald Trump." Ahmad resigned as an officer of her husband's real estate development company in 2016, her team said.

To win the statewide race, political consultants believe both Stack and Ahmad need significant support from city voters. The other Democratic candidates are Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, Chester County accountant Kathi Cozzone, and Montgomery County banker Ray Sosa.

Meantime, two candidates challenging the city's incumbent congressmen, Kevin Johnson and Michele Lawrence, also originally hail from outside Philadelphia.

Other primaries for the state House feature a mix of old and new.

In Northwest Philly, Rabb is defending his state House seat after pulling off a surprising victory in 2016. The former adjunct professor defeated a candidate supported by members of the Northwest Coalition, a powerful alliance of politicians who helped elect Kenney. He also won control of the progressive Ninth Ward. Former Councilwoman Marian Tasco, a leading figure in the alliance, is supporting Rabb's primary opponent, IT professional Melissa Scott.

"He wasn't supposed to win," said Ceisler, adding that the Northwest Coalition "thought they had ownership of that seat."

In the 175th District, located in Fishtown and Old City, Debby Derricks is trying to unseat 11-year State Rep. Mike O'Brien. She is a 33-year-old veterans' advocate raised in Kensington.

In the nearby race to replace retiring State Rep. John Taylor, one of few elected Republicans in the city, four Democrats are facing off for the right to face the uncontested GOP nominee, Patty-Pat Kozlowski.

Among the Democrats, Sean Kilkenny, a 36-year-old construction worker, has received financial support from the Electricians union. His opponent Maggie Borski, the 25-year-old daughter of a former congressman, recently began airing a TV ad.

"The old boys' club have made things a mess," she says, looking sternly into the camera. "From Harrisburg to Washington, I can't stand by and watch them bicker as special interests run the show.  It's time for a new generation to get to work."HARRISBURG  Although tipping the balance of power in Pennsylvania's legislature this year is a heavy lift, Democrats are gearing up for a fierce fight to chip away at the commanding majorities Republicans hold in the House and Senate.

Tuesday's primary will be the opening act for that effort, although the general election in the fall will be the real test of whether the political controversies engulfing the Trump White House trickle down to shape local races.

Senate President Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson) put it this way: "All the angst is going to rest in November and not so much here in May."

Half the seats in the 50-member Senate, as well as all 203 in the House, are up for grabs this year. And with an unusually high number of retirements in both legislative chambers, particularly of lawmakers in the Philadelphia area, both parties believe this year's election could shift the political dynamic in the Capitol.

"I don't want to throw the 'M' word around  'majority'  but with every news cycle where that guy in the White House does something even crazier than before  a monumental pickup seems more and more a possibility," Nathan Davidson, executive director of the House Democratic Campaign Committee, said of capturing a significant number of Republican seats.

For Democrats, the ultimate hope is to pick up enough seats in the next two election cycles  this year and 2020  to have a more prominent voice, if not the upper hand, in shaping maps for congressional and state legislative seats come 2021.

It will be a difficult task. In the House, Republicans have a 119-81 edge over Democrats (there are three vacancies). In the Senate, the GOP now commands a veto-proof majority: 34 of the 50 seats are held by Republicans.

And though the House has flip-flopped over the last decade between Democratic and Republican control, the Senate has been firmly in the hands of the GOP for decades.

In the House, 28 lawmakers are either retiring  including longtime Philadelphia State Reps. Curtis Thomas, John Taylor, and Bill Keller  or have already left the chamber, such as Republican Rep. Scott Petri of Bucks County, now the head of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. Three-quarters of those seats are or were held by Republicans.

Come November, many of the battleground races will be in the Philadelphia suburbs (also home to several districts now held by GOP members) that Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 presidential election  evidence to Democrats that they are ripe for the taking.

In Philadelphia, there are several crowded Democratic primaries, including a four-way contest for Keller's 184th District seat among retired Philadelphia Police Detective Nicholas DiDonato Jr., former WHYY reporter Elizabeth Fiedler, legislative aide Jonathan Rowan, and lawyer Tom Wyatt.

Another city-based primary where Democrats are elbowing each other to snag a win is the race for Taylor's 177th District seat in the Northeast. In that contest, four Democrats  law student Maggie Borski, daughter of former U.S. Rep. Bob Borski; immigration lawyer Joseph Hohenstein; union plasterer Sean Kilkenny; and community activist and organizer Dan Martino  are vying to take on Republican Patty-Pat Kozlowski, a onetime City Council aide, in November. Kozlowski is running unopposed.

In the Senate, 25 seats are up for re-election. Of those, seven are currently held by Democrats who are running for re-election without primary challengers, said David Marshall, executive director of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee.

The remaining 18 seats are held by Republicans  four of whom are not running for re-election: Sens. Chuck McIlhinney of Bucks County and Stewart Greenleaf of Montgomery County, who are retiring; Sen. Scott Wagner of York County, who is running for governor, and Sen. John Eichelberger of Blair County, who is running for Congress.

Democrats say they are mounting a challenge in every Senate district on the ballot this year except one  the seat held by Sen. Lisa Baker (R., Luzerne).

Both parties expect Senate races in the Philadelphia suburbs to be among the most competitive. And, as they are in House races, Democrats are targeting several districts in counties ringing Philadelphia that supported Clinton in 2016.

In Bucks County, Democratic State Rep. Tina Davis is challenging longtime State Sen. Robert "Tommy" Tomlinson. And in Delaware County, two Democrats  Swarthmore Mayor Tim Kearney and former Philadelphia prosecutor Tanner Rouse  are vying for the chance to challenge incumbent State Sen. Thomas McGarrigle in the fall.The Ambassadors of Singapore, Serbia, Norway, and a representative from the Swiss Embassy in Cairo participated on Tuesday in a session held by the Egyptian-European Business Council (EEBC) to discuss Egypt's latest steps in economic reform in light of its 2030 development strategy.

The session was headed by Egyptian Ambassador Ehab Srour, and administered by Mona Zaki with the attendance of several members of the EEBC's board of directors and other public figures.

During the meeting, the attendees stressed the importance of cooperating with foreign partners and drawing upon their experience to help Egypt's reforms suceed.

Egypt began an economic reform plan in 2014 in hopes of boosting an economy battered by years of political upheaval.

The foreign ambassadors highlighted their countries' economic cooperation with the Egyptian government in several fields, foremost among them being education reform, vocational training, and sporting exchange.

The EEBC, which is chaired by prominent businessman Mohamed Abou El-Enein, often meets European business partners to discuss attracting foreign investment to Egypt.

Egypt Vision 2030, launched in 2016, aims to implement a programme of sustainable development policies involving the country's youth, to be implemented regardless of any changes in government or leadership.



Search Keywords:

Short link:

Marijuana plants grow at the Desert Grown Farms cultivation facility in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File) Read more

On Tuesday, Allentown City Council in a 4-3 vote advanced a bill that would decriminalize marijuana.

Under the bill, possession of a small amount of marijuana  30 grams or less  would be a summary offense rather than a misdemeanor.

All three of the Lehigh Valley's cities are considering or have recently considered marijuana decriminalization measures. Easton City Council voted down a similar bill in March. Bethlehem City Council is slated to discuss a decriminalization ordinance later this month.

Ordinances to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana don't make the drug legal, but essentially turn most possession offenses into fines.

Typically, decriminalization also means no arrest, prison time or criminal record for the first-time possession of a small amount of marijuana for personal consumption, according to NORML, an organization working to legalize marijuana in the United States.

People don't realize how serious misdemeanor possession can be, Josh Fulmer, an attorney and chair of criminal rules for the Northampton County Bar Association, has said.

Consequences could range from a student losing their student loans, to a six month suspension of your driver's license, fines and jail time.

Six places in Pennsylvania already have similar laws on the book. They are:

Erie

York

Harrisburg

Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

State College

In Philadelphia, those possessing 30 grams or less are cited and fined $25. Those smoking in public are cited and fined $100, or made to perform community service.Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross testified on Thursday in the Sanctuary City trial playing out in federal court. The city has sued the Trump administration over its attempt to withhold federal grant money. Read more

U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson tried to push the Trump and Kenney administrations toward compromise in their bitter "sanctuary city" trial, calling it "a paperwork dispute" that could "be solved with the stroke of a pen."

Despite the judge's admonition on Thursday, the sides did not leap into each other's arms.

The Trump administration wants to withhold about $1.5 million in law-enforcement grant money unless the city agrees to actively assist federal authorities in identifying and turning over undocumented immigrants. The city sued in the summer of 2017, saying the Police Department is not an arm of immigration enforcement, and making it one would badly damage community relations.

There the matter had seemed stuck for months, through court filings and a preliminary injunction and now a trial.

But on Thursday, Baylson said he thought the parties could take a third path, one that would demand minimal concessions and would benefit public safety by keeping undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of crimes off the street.

If the city and federal governments can't agree on a plan on their own, he said, he might do it for them.

"I really believe this is a paperwork dispute," the judge said from the bench after testimony concluded. "I would like to see a modification on both sides."

The money involved is relatively small, compared with the city's $4.4 billion budget. But the principle is big, for Philadelphia and potentially for other sanctuary cities across the United States, which see themselves resisting a Trump administration that aims to hurt immigrants.

At trial, a top supervisor of the Philadelphia office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) testified that Mayor Kenney's decision to limit cooperation has made it harder for agents to locate and detain people who should be deported.

A key issue is the city's refusal to honor ICE detainers. The city says that those are administrative requests, not binding, and that it will respond only if that paperwork is accompanied by a signed warrant from a judge.

City officials say they enforce policies that provide equal treatment regardless of immigration status. People who commit crimes are arrested, period. But the city has no legal power to hold people beyond their scheduled release, officials say. And they say law-abiding, undocumented victims and witnesses of crimes won't come forward if they fear they could be detained and deported.

"At our very foundation, we have to have the trust of our communities," First Deputy Managing Director Brian Abernathy testified as the trial opened on April 30. "People are scared. We believe crimes are going underreported."

However, the Trump administration argues that city policies allow dangerous criminals to be released to prey on the community when they should be deported to their homelands.

Under questioning from Justice Department lawyer Daniel Schwei, Abernathy confirmed that in 2015 the city had in custody an undocumented Honduran man, Ramon Aguirre-Ochoa, also known as Juan Ramon Vasquez.

He had been arrested in 2014 and charged with aggravated assault, but was released the following year when the charges were dropped  even though ICE had issued a detainer requesting that he be held. He was rearrested in 2016, and now is serving eight to 20 years in prison for raping a child, testimony showed.

City officials said at the time they would have turned over the man if the federal government had obtained an arrest warrant.

Speaking from the bench Thursday, the judge did not mention that specific case, but said all citizens share a desire and need for safety.

The city is correct, he said, that it does not need to respond to an administrative ICE detainer for an undocumented immigrant who has never been convicted of a crime and who is being released on bail or his own recognizance.

Such a person is entitled to all due process granted by the law, he said, adding that the Constitution protects people, not just citizens.

But, he said, an undocumented immigrant who has been convicted of a crime, and is being released from prison or being released on bail after being charged with a new crime, is a different matter.

A "criminal alien" has no rights under the law, the judge said, and "something needs to change from them just being released out into the street."

But ICE detainers don't distinguish between someone who is a criminal and someone who overstayed a visa, he said.

What if, the judge suggested, ICE undertook to research the criminal history of people it is seeking to detain? And if the city agreed to turn over undocumented immigrants for whom ICE provided a detainer and proof of criminal conviction?

"I think the city ought to consider that," the judge said. "And I think ICE should think about agreeing to attach evidence that the person is a criminal alien. I think this would be in the public interest."

Though trial testimony concluded Thursday, both sides still must file briefs on assorted legal questions. It is unclear when the judge might rule.Rosaria Iola Esposito, of Holland, Bucks County, a retired tailor whose family emigrated from Sicily and who lived to be 111 years old, died Wednesday, May 2, of dementia at Pickering Manor Home in Newtown.

Mrs. Esposito said the secret of her long life was faith, family, friends, and doing everything in moderation. She lived alone in Connecticut until age 100, when she moved in with her daughter, Dolores Uphoff, in Bucks County.

Known as "Rosalie," Mrs. Esposito was one of Pennsylvania's oldest residents. Her death certificate listed her date of birth as Feb. 11, 1907. The state's oldest resident, Delphine Gibson, is 114, said Robert D. Young, director of the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) in California.

The group keeps records of Americans who lived at least 110 years, known as supercentenarians. Mrs. Esposito was not yet on the list, but soon could be once her vital statistics are confirmed, Young said.

Mrs. Esposito was born in Ansonia, 12 miles northwest of New Haven, Conn. As a teenager, she moved with her family to New Haven.

Mrs. Esposito attended public school through the eighth grade. The teachers changed her name from Rosaria to Rosalie to make it sound more American, Uphoff remembers her mother saying.

In 1933, she married Joseph P. Esposito, a tool and die maker. The couple had two children. He died in 1979.

Mrs. Esposito worked as a tailor in two men's apparel stores near Yale University in New Haven, Enson's and Fenn-Feinstein.

"Many of her clients were Yale professors," said her daughter, who is 81. "She was in demand."

Mrs. Esposito worked with many whose families had recently come to the United States from Europe. She spoke Italian, Polish, Yiddish and English, her daughter said.

"She made a lot of friends that she kept in touch with for many years," her daughter said. "They are all gone now."

Apart from work, her primary interest was family. Mrs. Esposito was a Brownie and Girl Scout leader. She enjoyed attending New York's operas and Broadway shows, and loved to sing and dance.

In East Haven, where the couple lived, Mrs. Esposito and her husband became members of St. Vincent de Paul Church, where she joined the Columbiettes, a Catholic women's organization, and the church's Women's Guild.

Mrs. Esposito was known for being upbeat. "She accepted at all times whatever situation came along," her daughter said.

At age 100, Mrs. Esposito moved in with her daughter, who took care of her for eight years. In 2015, when Uphoff was facing surgery, Mrs. Esposito moved to Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart D'Youville Manor in Yardley, and later to Pickering Manor Home, where Uphoff visited daily.

In her final decade, Mrs. Esposito attended Mass at St. Bede the Venerable Church in Holland. The church's pastor, Msgr. John C. Marine, said her deep faith and broad smile made parishioners want to know her. She was a steady, inspiring presence at Mass.

"Here she was, 100 years old. She would have had any excuse in the world not to come to church," Marine said. "She came out in the worst weather. I'd say, 'Rosie, what are you doing here?'

"I'm here for God," the pastor said she replied.

In addition to her daughter, she is survived by a son, Paul J.; two grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

Services were Monday, May 7. Burial will be in Connecticut.

Donations may be made to St. Bede the Venerable Church, 1071 Holland Rd., Holland, Pa. 18966, or to Pickering Manor Home, 226 N. Lincoln Ave., Newtown, Pa. 18940.(Left to Right) Four-year-old Eliana, David Pagan, eleven-year-old Johan, Cristine Gonzalez, and six-year-old Dean, shown here at one of the entrances of Deans school, Comly Elementary School. Dean suffers from severe lead poisoning. Read more

Our schools are crumbling.

Before the Inquirer reported on the deplorable conditions in Philadelphia schools, I heard that message from parents and students and even viewed it with my own eyes while visiting city schools. Seeing the conditions in which some of our students learn broke my heart but challenged me to act. And my proposal, the "Public School Building Renovation and Rehabilitation Program," aims to help K-12 public schools fight this infrastructure crisis.

Last year, I received a letter from a student at Cassidy Elementary, a school in my district.

This young girl, Chelsea Mungo, a fourth grader, wrote that the school feels like "a prison or a junkyard," and "it is always dirty everywhere."

>> READ MORE: Toxic City: Philly kids face dangerous, 'frightening' conditions in schools

Images from the school last year show broken and missing ceiling tiles throughout the hallways, leaking, exposed pipes, buckets in the middle of the hallway to collect the falling water and debris, and rotting wood floors in the cafeteria.

These are health and safety hazards that no child  or adult  should face in a school.

School districts throughout the state are struggling with aging infrastructure  these often-grand buildings look impressive from the exterior but have seriously antiquated interiors. Ancient wiring, outdated plumbing, fossilized heating and cooling systems have come to be the norm in many of these buildings.

I have asked students to take pictures of their schools to serve as proof of the terrible conditions where they learn. I admire our learners' resilience and dedication to education, and hope their extra efforts show people how important it is to do something quickly and effectively to ensure children learning in these conditions get the same educational opportunities as students in well-funded school districts. My support is also with our educators, who persevere through these conditions to mold our children into productive citizens.

>> READ MORE: How safe is my school? A searchable database

A recent national study found that Pennsylvania had a $419 million gap in annual maintenance and operations funding for its school buildings. That leaves low-wealth school districts at a disadvantage and forces these districts to prioritize emergency repairs from limited operating budgets that fund teacher salaries and pay for instructional equipment. Those same struggling communities also have a more difficult time borrowing to invest in the long-term stability of school facilities, meaning the status quo essentially rigs the system against low-wealth school districts.

My legislation, Senate Bill 777, would give the Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA) the authority to issue up to $5 billion in bonds paid for by revenue from an extraction tax on Marcellus Shale drilling. The bond proceeds would provide grants over several years to school districts to repair or renovate existing school buildings.

I agree with Superintendent William Hite that the community must come together to address this issue. In fact, communities all across this commonwealth need to come together to tackle this problem. I have witnessed firsthand that Philadelphia is not the only school district in Pennsylvania dealing with these issues.

>> READ MORE: Toxic City: Cleaning up Philly's contaminated schools has a huge price tag | Editorial

How can we stand by and let children endure crumbling, out-of-date buildings that pose health and safety hazards? Research shows high-quality public school facilities help improve student achievement, reduce truancy and suspensions, and improve staff satisfaction and retention  all things that benefit a strong community that supports itself and its children.

We see the problem and know the dangers. Let's take the steps to change things for the better.

Vincent Hughes is a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania Senate, representing the Seventh District since 1994.On Thursday, a three-day celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of the apparition of the immaculate mother of Jesus Christ will begin at the Virgin Mary Church in the eastern Cairo district of Zaytoun.

Among the special masses scheduled, two will be led by the head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church Pope Tawadros II  the first on Saturday evening and the second on Sunday morning.

The church, which was originally built in the 1920s, was the site of a miraculous apparition of the Virgin Mary in the spring of 1968.

"It was an amazing night, according to those who lived it. An attendant at a parking lot opposite the church woke up late in the evening to see the silhouette of a woman atop of the dome of the church. [She was] all bright and serene," said Bishop Bassilios, who serves at the church.

"At first, he thought it was a woman who was trying to commit suicide because the poor man had just seen a woman jump off the roof of a nearby school a few days earlier. But in a short while he realized it was not, because the silhouette was very stable on top of the curve of the dome. If it was a human being, she would have certainly slipped," the bishop explained.

According to the accounts of Bishop Bassilios and residents of the neighborhood who remember that evening, it was a matter of hours before people realized what was really going on, and that it was the apparition of the divine mother of Jesus Christ."

"We heard that she had appeared and remained there throughout the night, so the following day we came hoping to see her and get her blessings. When we arrived, there were so many people, really so many people coming for hope and blessings, said Wedad Mikhail, a parishioner at the church, after emerging from mass on Wednesday morning.

Mikhail is not a resident of Zaytoun, but has come to pray at the Virgin Mary Church every spring for fifty years.

Since I saw her [the Virgin Mary] and I asked her to heal my son, I have been coming from where I live every year all through April and May, for four consecutive weeks, to pray here and ask for her blessings, she said.

According to Bishop Bassilios, the church has recorded on video for the first time the testimonies of elderly men and women with direct memories of the day of the apparition.

He said that the church would screen the video prior to the mass to be held by Pope Tawdros II on Saturday evening.

"It has been fifty years and this is not a short period of time, but we managed to capture a few testimonies of neighborhood residents, Christians and Muslims alike, not just by those who attend the church, the bishop explained, adding, I know that some people question the apparition and say that it is only people's imaginations, but this was not a one-off. It continued happening for over two years and all attempts to inspect the nature of the apparition were made."

He recalled that the then-head of the Coptic Church, Pope Cyril VI, made an official announcement on the apparition that was featured on the front pages of Cairo's daily newspapers and also made several international papers.

The association of the Virgin Mary with this part of Cairo is as old as the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. The Immaculate Virgin is believed to have passed through this part of the city.

"The story we heard is that the man who volunteered to build the church back in the early 20th century had had a dream in which the Virgin Mary told him that she wanted a church carrying her name in this part of the city, Bishop Bassilios said.

According to the clergyman, in 1924, Ibrahim Khalil Pasha, a resident of Heliopolis who was known for his wealth, faith and charity, received a visit from a group of Coptic residents of nearby Zaytoun who had been trying for ten years to collect enough money to buy a piece of land in order to build a small church.

"The story goes that when they went to see him, they found him as if he were waiting for them to come. He then promised to build the church, but passed away before he managed to live up to his commitment," Bassilios explained.

"His son, Tewfik Bey, carried on the mission and built the church according to the will and wish of his father, he said.

The church was designed by an Italian architect and was constructed and inaugurated in October 1925. Today, the white domes of the Virgin Mary Church stand over the entrance of Zaytoun.

On the opposite end of the street there stands a much bigger church that was built in the 1980s as an extension to the original.

"Things changed so much after the apparition. Many people began coming to pray and there were too many people for the old church to accommodate. The state allowed us to construct a new building on the same land, where the parking lot attendant first to saw the divine apparition, said Bassilios.

The new church was opened in the late 1980s.

"But I love to come and pray here at the old church," said Nadia Kyrolos, an elderly resident of Zaytoun.

"This is where my heart is; this is the place of the apparition of Our Lady. I have been coming here to ask for her blessings for the last 50 years, and she never turned me down. I got married here and I baptized my children here and it is here that I want to have my funeral," she concluded.

Like others who attended the Wednesday morning mass ahead of the 50th anniversary celebrations, Kyrolos said she was hoping for more blessings from the Virgin Mary to come our way to bring light and joy."

For Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Christians, the anniversary celebration of the apparition follows Tuesday evening's 50th anniversary of the return of St. Mark's relics, or remains, to Egypt.

The disciple is credited with bringing Christianity to Egypt in the first century CE, and his relics are now housed in Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo's Abbassiya district.

In early June, Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Christians will commemorate the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt, and later that month, the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of St. Mark's Cathedral.

The anniversary of the apparition would have been celebrated on its proper date in April, Bishop Bassilios explained, but this would have overlapped with Holy Week, during which churches do not hold jubilees.

Search Keywords:

Short link:

Getting an education while seeing the world was the dream of high school graduate Beverly Jean Webb.

Webb had experienced moving and traveling at a young age. She was born in Los Angeles, California on January 8, 1943. As a infant she would move numerous times before settling in Wyoming with her family.

Webb would move from her home in the Saratoga, Wyoming area to Ranchester, Wyoming and again in the end of her junior year of high school. This move would put her in the Sheridan area for her senior year. She would graduate May 1961 and enlisted in the United States Women's Army Corps in June.

Her family shares her love for the military, and her father served in the United States Navy during WWII. Her brother, Thomas served in the United States Air Force. "I chose the WAC to see the world and get an education." stated Webb. "Getting the education was an important part of enlisting. Not only did I get to serve my country, but my country gave me an education in accounting as well?"

Webb went to basic training at Fort McClellan, Alabama. Fort McClellan was originally named Camp McClellan. Along with rich history, basic training at Fort McClellan was rich in it's teaching. "Our basic training was nothing like what it is today. Ours was eight weeks long, and not only did you learn the military way, but you were taught manners, etiquette, proper make-up and hair for uniform, as well as how to properly sit in uniform...legs NOT crossed at the knees, but at the ankles, with knees together and hands in our laps!" Webb went on to say, "Basic training with the WACs did not have us becoming marksmen, or using weapons! My weapon was my adding machine and spreadsheets!"

After doing her eight weeks at basic, Webb headed for Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, Indiana. Webb would complete her finance and accounting school in twelve weeks at MOS school. Upon graduation, she would receive her first duty assignment at Fort Ord, California. From there she would head across the seas to Frankfurt, Germany.

Webb would serve as the general's accountant, and would stay in WAC barracks in downtown Frankfurt. "My office was in the building behind the Northern Area Command right downtown." Webb said. "I was there when President John F. Kennedy visited. He helicopter landed right between our two building. I were not allowed out of my buildings, but we were all lined up at the windows to see him!" she said with a smile. Her smile turned sadness, when she stated, "I was still in Frankfurt, when he was shot. It was a terrible sad and frightening time for us!"

During her tour in Germany, Webb experience German hospitality by touring up the Rhine river to Berlin.

She also was part of the 20th Anniversary of the WAC. "We had a great dinner and were relieved of any barracks inspection for a week. It was an honor to be a member during this part of history of women in the military." she said.

After serving her three years, Webb returned home to the civilian world. Once home, she returned to the Casper, Wyoming area and went to work as an accountant. "I discovered life, got married, moved to California and had four sons.

In 1977, Webb returned home to Wyoming to work and to raise her sons. "Wyoming is the best place to raise your sons!" Webb said. During this time, she enlisted in the Army National Guard.

Courtesy Beverly Webb Above: Beverly Webb in cover for the American Legion, Post 6 Cheyenne

Webb would continue serving in the Army National Guard stationed with the 3rd Battalion 49th Field Artillery. She would do more traveling, seeing places such as Korea, Japan, Hawaii, just to add to her adventures in Europe. During her time in service, Wyoming celebrated it's 100th anniversary of statehood. During the research for the anniversary program, the Wyoming Library found in it's archives the history of the Wyoming Girl Guard which was activated in 1890 for one day that year, from sun up to sun down. They turned to the Wyoming National Guard women for help on this and the women reactivated. They also participated in the celebration of Women in the Military while the memorial was being dedicated, Wyoming Girl Guard was asked to lead the parade from the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington Cemetery. "There were women from WWII, Korea, Vietnam era, and other periods of service." Webb said. The Women's Army Corps ended in 1974. "Now women are just part of the regular Army." she added.

After retiring from the 115th Field Artillery Brigade, Webb would find herself serving again, but this time as a United Methodist minister.

"It was a great life, a great experience, and an education. I would do it all over again, but this time I would stay in for 25! and retire. This is what I would tell anyone thinking of enlisting in the military- go for it, it is no different than just leaving home for college!" she said.

Thank you for serving Ms. Webb.By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Robert Zahn, Navy Office of Community Outreach

SASEBO, Japan  A Cheyenne, Wyoming, native and 2012 Central High School graduate is serving in Japan in the U.S. Navy aboard USS Germantown.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Steven Connell is a hull maintenance technician aboard the ship operating out of Sasebo, Japan.

A Navy hull maintenance technician is responsible for installing, maintaining, and repairing valves, piping, plumbing systems, and marine sanitation systems and repair decks, structures, and hulls, examine welds, and fabricate metal.

Connell is proud to serve in the Pacific and fondly recalls memories of Cheyenne.

Connell is also proud of earning the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal award while in dry dock for his dedication shown to the ship's mission.

Moments like that makes it worth serving around the world ready at all times to defend America's interests. With more than 50 percent of the world's shipping tonnage and a third of the world's crude oil passing through the region, the United States has historic and enduring interests in this part of the world. The Navy's presence in Sasebo is part of that long-standing commitment, explained Navy officials.

Commissioned in 1986, Germantown is the second Navy ship named after the Revolutionary War Battle of Germantown. With a crew of more than 900 sailors and Marines, Germantown is 609 feet long and weighs approximately 16,000 tons. Designed specifically to operate landing craft air cushion small craft vessels, Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships have the largest capacity for these landing craft out of any U.S. Navy amphibious ship.

Connell has military ties with family members who have previously served and is honored to carry on the family tradition.

"I grew up in an Air Force town so I was used that lifestyle," said Connell. "I carry the same values which I use today in the Navy."

As a member of one of the U.S. Navy's most relied-upon assets, Connell and other sailors know they are part of a legacy that will last beyond their lifetimes providing the Navy the nation needs.

"Serving in the Navy has given me an opportunity to make better life choices," said Connell. "It's also given me an opportunity to travel and experience other countries and cultures."

Seventh Fleet, which is celebrating its 75th year in 2018, spans more than 124 million square kilometers, stretching from the International Date Line to the India/Pakistan border; and from the Kuril Islands in the North to the Antarctic in the South. Seventh Fleet's area of operation encompasses 36 maritime countries and 50 percent of the world's population with between 50-70 U.S. ships and submarines, 140 aircraft, and approximately 20,000 sailors in the 7th Fleet.The railroad crossing on Main may be moving.

Pine Bluffs Mayor Alan Curtis recently met with officials from Union Pacific Railroad and the Wyoming Department of Transportation and discussed moving the crossing located on Main Street in Pine Bluffs to Butler Street.

Butler Street is located one block east of Beech Street on the east side of Pine Bluffs.

This is a safety thing as you well know, Curtis told town council members Monday night.

Curtis said the potential project would cost around $1 million. Union Pacific will provide about $650,000 in safety funds to help pay for the crossing.

Wed have to give up the one on Main Street to get the new one on Butler, Curtis said.

The mayor added that the project will not happen overnight. WyDOT is conducting an overlay project in 2023 from Parsons Street to the state line. WyDot would cover the cost of paving from the railroad tracks to U.S. 30. The town would be on the hook for paving from the crossing to the north.

We need to start putting some money aside for it. We need the community buy-in, Curtis said.

I think its been a long time coming. We have canvased the area to the north and the businesses there are in support of it.

Curtis said the project has been on his radar for a number of years now.For the past few years, Pine Bluffs resident Larry Silvey has toiled away on a memorial honoring veterans in Pine Bluffs.

That will culminate next week when workers install a 90-foot mural at the Pine Bluffs Veterans Memorial and Community Plaza.

Ive spent quite a while on this one. I went to 10 different artists from Tennessee to Washington, Silvey said. Finally I found a fellow from Salt Lake.

Silvey explained that the mural will wrap around the walls at the park, which currently features a statue of a service member from each branch of the military.

The mural will depict landmarks from across the United States and should take no longer than three days to complete.

It will probably last 20 years, Silvey said.

He added that hes scheduling dignitaries to speak at the murals dedication at a later date. Governor Matt Mead has committed to speaking at the event, Silvey said.

Silvey noted that Pine Bluffs is the gateway to Wyoming and the mural and memorial could serve as one of the first sights visitors to the state could experience.

The mural is titled America the Beautiful Silvey said.

He said the dedication will not be a political rally.

Silvey has also obtained a billboard to advertise the memorial and direct visitors to its location.Hans Zlobl, Thomas Bubendorfer and Max Sparber on the summit of Groglockner on 14/04/2018 after having made the first ascent of making the first ascent of Das dritte Leben Photo by archive Bubendorfer, Zlobl, Sparber

Thomas Bubendorfer climbs new route up Groglockner after Dolomites accident

10.05.2018 by by Planetmountain

13 months after his life-threatening accident at Sottoguda in the Dolomites, Austrian mountaineer Thomas Bubendorfer has established a new mixed climb up on the South Face of Grossglockner (3798 m) in Austria. The new route is called Das dritte Leben, The Third life, and Bubendorfer established the line with Max Sparber and Hans Zlobl.

The life story of Thomas Bubendorfer is somewhat particular. Just over a year ago the Austrian mountain guide, one of the best and most famous alpinists of the '80s, had a terrible, life-threatening accident while ice climbing the Dolomites, yet he now celebrates a return to his "third life" by climbing a new alpine route up Grossglockner in Austria.

In the '80s Bubendorfer became famous for his daring and spectacular free solos. He began his "career" aged a mere 18, when he shot onto the scene in the summer of 1980 by soloing the famous Philipp - Flamm route up the NW Face of Mount Civetta in the Dolomites in a mere 4 hours. Aged 20 he soloed the North Face of Les Droites, then doubled his takings by soloing the Walker Spur on Grandes Jorasses. He achieved his masterstroke on 27 July 1983 when he soloed the classic Heckmair route up the North Face of the Eiger in just 4 hours 50 minutes; an astonishing time that stood for 20 years before it was bettered by Christoph Hainz. In 1986 Patagonia granted him only four days of good weather but all he needed was a 23-hour weather window to ascend and descend from Fitz Roy on his own. These ground-breaking ascents were followed by numerous other spectacular climbs often in front of rolling cameras, as for example his 1988 Dolomites five big faces enchainment project. In a single day he made free solo ascents of Via Cassin up Cima Ovest di Lavaredo, Via Comici - Dimai up Cima Grande, the Innerkofler route up Cima Piccola, Schwalbenschwanz plus its Don Quixote variation up the South Face of Marmolada and Via Niagara up Sasso Pordoi. The helicopter used to travel from one mountain to the next and the film crews undoubtedly did their part in fuelling the purists criticisms, but there could be no doubt as to Bubendorfer's outstanding ability as a climber and alpinist.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly for Bubendorfer, but a few months later all this suddenly ground to a halt when, while filming for a TV commercial at his local Liechtenstein Klamm crag, he took a 20 meter ground-fall. Bubendorfer, however, was indescribably lucky, he broke only his wrist, 9 vertebrae and the back of an ankle. And although doctors declared him 35% disabled and told him he would never climb a mountain again, he proved the exact opposite in 1991 with his amazing first solo ascent of the South Face of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America, via the Messner Direttissima in just 16 hours ...

What followed therefore was a phase that Bubendorfer defined as his "second life" which, unsurprisingly, revolved around mountain climbing but above all around a new awareness of the value of life itself. Then, on 1 March 2017, out of the blue came another tremendous stop: at Serrai di Sottoguda in the Dolomites he climbed an icefall, the famous Cattedrale, but during the rappel something went wrong and he fell 10 meters to the ground. His climbing partner rushed down to him, pulled him out of the river and when the rescuers arrived he was still conscious, but it was immediately clear that his condition was very serious indeed. Before being rescued Bubendorfer had inhaled water and due to the pulmonary complications he was transferred from Belluno hospital to Padua, for 6 long days he was placed in medically-induced coma. His life was at risk, his relatives even asked for a media blackout. But miraculously the 54-year-old survived, a short while later he was transferred from Italy to a hospital in Salzburg, from where he was eventually discharged.

Now, 13 months after that terrible day below the Marmolada, theres the news of this hitherto unclimbed line up the South Face of Austria's highest mountain. Bubendorfer teamed up with Max Sparber on 14 April, as well as his habitual climbing partner Hans Zlobl. The route offers "good mixed climbing via a logical line" and the trio breached difficulties up to M8, but this is nothing more than a minor detail. The new route is called, for obvious reasons, Das dritte Leben, The Third Life.



Link: www.mountainrevolution.at, www.bubendorfer.com, GrivelLegalizing marijuana in Illinois could lead to possible euthanasia or early retirement for law enforcement K-9s in the state already trained to sniff out the drug, according to Macon County officials.

Chad Larner, training director of the K-9 Training Academy in Macon County, went on to say in a Bloomington Pantagraph report that "a number of dogs would likely have to be euthanized" in the event that marijuana is legalized, reports the Belleville News-Democrat.

Police dogs are trained to alert to the presence of marijuana, heroin, cocaine and other drugs, and retraining them is usually impossible or impractical, according to the Pantagraph report.

Macon County Sheriff Howard Buffett said law enforcement would probably have to replace all its dogs if marijuana was legalized.

Larner told the newspaper that retraining the dogs would lead to "extreme abuse."Officer Alex Sable, 37, of the York (PA) Police Department died Sunday of a cardiac arrest during tactical training. (Photo: York PD)

A York, PA, Police officer died Wednesday after suffering a cardiac arrest while participating in a SWAT training exercise in Baltimore County on Sunday, according to a news release from the City of York.

Officer Alex Sable, 37, was training to become a member of York County's Quick Response Team when he went into cardiac arrest. He received immediate treatment from on-site medics and was transported to a Baltimore-area hospital, where he died Wednesday evening.

According to a Baltimore County Police news release, the training session in which Sable took part was being run by the Baltimore County police SWAT unit.

Sable was among 12 people training in a swimming pool Sunday at Community College of Baltimore County-Dundalk Campus. At the end of the session, participants were required to get out of the water.

Sable suffered a medical emergency as he was preparing to exit the pool, was pulled from the side of the pool and received immediate treatment from two Baltimore County SWAT medics and two Baltimore County Fire Department medics, who were on the scene, according to the release.

The York County Quick Response Team is the county's elite SWAT-style response group, made up of officers from many of the county's police departments, the York Daily Record reports,The Egyptian army and police have killed 21 takfiris and arrested five others over the past few days in north and central Sinai, the Armed Forces said in a statement.

The Arabic word "takfiri" refers to extremist Sunni Muslims who accuse others of being infidels, often as a justification for using violence against them.

Three of the takfiris were killed in airstrikes, according to the statement, which added that one of the suspects arrested is extremely dangerous.

The statement added that 232 criminal suspects were arrested.

Security forces also confiscated and destroyed over 30 vehicles and 49 motorcycles.

The statement said that 391 hideouts filled with weaponry, ammunition and military uniforms were destroyed.

Over the past few days, army engineers safely detonated 21 improvised explosive devices that had been planted in the area of operations.

Security raids also led to the discovery and destruction of 63 marijuana and poppy farms in central Sinai, as well as a number of underground border tunnels and trenches in North Sinai.

The statement issued Thursday by the Egyptian Armed Forces is the 21st communique since the launch of Operation Sinai 2018 in early February.

Operation Sinai 2018 was launched to implement the plan of comprehensive confrontation of terrorist and criminal elements and organisations in north and central Sinai, and in other areas in the Nile Delta and desert areas west of the Nile Valley, according to the Egyptian Armed Forces.

Search Keywords:

Short link:

TAMA, Iowa  The Iowa Premium beef processing plant near Tama has helped Iowa beef producers by expanding the market for sales, allowing some producers to upgrade barns and expand herds, producers and plant officials said.

But because the plant focuses on Black Angus beef, red-hided angus  substantially the same  has less value, producers said.

"Its raised the price of black cattle," Matt Jackson, who has a cow/calf operation said about Iowa Premium. "But I sure wish we could find a better market for Red Angus."

Iowa Premium opened in November 2014, taking over a facility that had processed beef intermittently since 1971.

A $40 million renovation included a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment system and an animal handling facility designed by Temple Grandin, an animal science professor and livestock industry consultant, CEO Jeffrey Johnson said May 2 during a news conference with Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig.

"Were not trying to feed the world," Johnson said of the plant that processes 1,100 head of cattle a day and employs more than 800 people. "Our consumers want something different. They can be comfortable these animals are cared for from birth to slaughter."

Iowa Premium works with about 1,400 beef producers in the Midwest, focusing on small producers who are mindful of food safety and the environment, Johnson said.

The company processes upper two-thirds choice beef, which is the grade below premium, said Steve Armstrong, vice president for operations. Boxes are stamped with "certified angus beef," leveraging the reputation Black Angus has for high quality.

"Theres a perception Black Angus cattle is higher quality," said Patrick Hall, a beef specialist for the Iowa State University Extension. "Its predominantly marketing."

Red Angus cattle are a separate breed, Hall said, but they were developed from Black Angus and are substantially the same. Black Angus can be carriers for Red Angus genes, so two black cows could have a red calf, but two reds could not have a black calf, he said.

Johnson is planning a trip to Europe soon to find markets in the European Union for Iowa Premium products. The company also was certified last summer to sell beef to China.REDWOOD FALLS, Minn.  Sara Hewitt grew up as part of a diverse farming operation near Fairmont, Minn.

"Farming has always been part of my life," said Hewitt, who talked about the operation she and her husband, Mark, have near Kilkenny during a presentation at the Redwood Falls Public Library.

The presentation was part of a series of ag-related topics being offered to the community to help create a better connection between the public and those who produce their food.

The Hewitts own and operate Sweet Cheeks Honey, which was established in 2014.

The plan for the operation from the beginning was simple  connecting the community to agriculture and offering a delicious product to consumers.

Hewitt, who works for the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association and serves on the Minnesota Farm Bureau young farmers and ranchers committee, has dedicated her life to promoting agriculture and making sure others like her and her husband have opportunities to stay connected to the land.

"We bought a farm site two years ago," said Hewitt, adding prior to that they were living in town while farming.

While the operation is primarily focused on corn and soybeans, it is in the niche market of honeybees in which the Hewitts are gaining a reputation.

"We started with two hives," said Hewitt, and now have 12 housing an Italian breed of bees and producing about 500 pounds of honey annually.

Hewitt said the bees are underproducing, but that is intentional.

"Bees are like livestock," she said. "They need the right kind of care to prevent diseases and to ensure they are able to produce."

Improving the overall health of their bees and ensuring they are well cared for will help production increase more naturally.

The operators of Sweet Cheeks Honey are much more interested in getting the best out of the bees they have rather than seeing a lot of expansion.Minnesotans who want clean, renewable energy have another option with a new network of community solar farms online.

CleanChoice Energys power generated by a network of eight solar farms is now available to residents in 34 counties.

For people living in those counties, the project offers a simple, new way to get solar energy for their homes and, CleanChoice hopes, eventually a smaller electric bill for those enrolled.

Six of the farms are already on Xcel Energys grid, with the final two expected to join in the next couple months.

Collectively, the eight farms will produce 42.5 megawatts of solar energy. Thats enough to power almost 7,000 homes, according to industry estimates.

At the end of 2017, Minnesota had 715 megawatts in total solar capacity. About 295 megawatts of that amount were considered community solar.

"Not only will this portfolio expand the overall available capacity of the community solar market by over 10 percent, but it allows for residential subscribers to access community solar," said Laura Pagliarulo, a managing director for CleanChoice. "So were expanding the availability of residential subscriptions by over 50 percent, which is really exciting."

Community solar projects are driving solars overall growth in Minnesota. Xcel Energy controls most of the community solar grid, although 30 utilities dipped into the industry last year.

The goal of community solar projects is to facilitate solar power options for interested people without requiring them to install panels on their roof. It spreads the work and cost.

Part of CleanChoices intent for the project is to make it easier for residents, rather than just businesses, to access solar power.

CleanChoice won a $2.5 million grant from the Department of Energy to develop an easy online experience for joining community solar projects, said Kate Colarulli, a vice-president for the company.

The new Minnesota solar network is one of the first projects to use this technology, she said, which has been in the works for more than a year.

"Were really proud that this is like a 10-minute signup experience as opposed to something that would require multiple sit-down meetings, loans, etc.," Colarulli said. Theres no initial investment required to sign up, either.

Its difficult to predict how many homes will be able to get power from the eight new solar farms, given the range of power different residences draw. But CleanChoice says the network will displace 20,000 tons of carbon pollution each year by switching from energy sources that pollute the air.

The eight farms serve residents living in Anoka, Benton, Blue Earth, Carver, Chicago, Dakota, Dodge, Douglas, Faribault, Freeborn, Grant, Hennepin, Isanti, Kandiyohi, Le Sueur, McLeod, Martin, Meeker, Mille Lacs, Mower, Nicollet, Pope, Ramsey, Rice, Scott, Sherburne, Sibley, Stearns, Steele, Stevens, Swift, Waseca, Washington and Wright counties.Soybean growers scored a momentum-changing victory on May 1 when B20  a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel  was introduced at fuel pumps across Minnesota.

The North Star States production and consumption of biodiesel has led the nation in alternative energy since the turn of the 21st century. In 2002, it was the first state to mandate that diesel sold in Minnesota include a minimum of 2 percent biodiesel.

Soybean-based biodiesel has faced serious obstacles in the state and across the nation. Some diesel-engine owners balked because biodiesel caused clogged fuel filters and, in their view, reduced fuel performance. The fossil fuel industry opposed it because it would reduce their fuel monopoly.

But biofuels benefits built sufficient momentum to withstand the opposition.

The American Lung Association of Minnesota says that B20 will prevent 163 tons of particulate pollution and 1,820 tons of carbon monoxide from polluting the air annually.

"When it comes to air quality, this is a significant achievement that will provide benefits for generations to come, said Tom Slunecka, CEO of the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council via a news release.

The production of biodiesel, estimated at 74 million gallons annually, is a huge economic benefit that extends far beyond the farm gate. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture estimates that the industry contributes $1.7 billion annually to the states economy and directly and indirectly supports 5,397 jobs. An additional 63 cents are added to each bean bushel, the MDA says.

Iowas biodiesel production is expanding rapidly. In 2016, refineries in the state produced 297 million gallons, which was due in no small part to the federal Renewable Fuels Standard and state-level policies that encouraged higher biodiesel blends.

"Iowa is home to some of the most efficient biofuel plants in the world, said Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.

The Iowa Biodiesel Board estimates that without biodiesel production, soybean prices in the state would be 8 cents lower and corn prices, 5.4 percent lower. The board adds that 3,800 jobs in the state can be linked to biodiesel production and the industry contributes $480 million to Iowas gross national product.

Plants within in the state produce 325 million gallons of biodiesel annually at facilities in Sergeant Bluff, Algona, Iowa Falls, Clinton, Washington, Newton, Ralston, Mason City, Milford, Crawfordsville, Keokuk, Farley and Wall Lake.

Doubling of the states biodiesel blend to 20 percent  over the strong objections of the Minnesota trucking interests  is a watershed event for soybean producers.

"It benefits many economic sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, wholesale and retail trade services, finance, insurance, real estate and public utilities, said Mike Youngerberg, senior director of product development and commercialization for the research and promotion council.

Soybean growers who have watched as trade policy uncertainties build in the last year can take heart knowing that biodiesel allows them to better control their own destiny.Wings are an infamous bar snack. But this staple is only here because of an ordering accident. It was 1864 at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. The wings arrived at the bar by mistake, and the owner had no option but to create something with them, so she threw them in hot sauce and fried them up. In a time where people typically threw away the wings from their chickens, a national staple was born thanks to one crafty bar owner.

Today, you can find wings covered in a crazy number of different sauces such as BBQ, Asian, and "Hotter than Hot." While wings are offered at many different spots in town, here are some of the more interesting flavors you can find.

Rotisserie Chicken Wings

Chesters Kitchen and Bar

These wings dont play around. Marinated in buttermilk and herbs, rubbed in the top-secret rotisserie rub, then baked in the oven, the wings at Chesters differ from others because they are flame-grilled to order rather than deep fried. Manager Henry Clarin says their house-made BBQ sauce is his favorite for the wings. Each order is served with two sauces. Henry says the Bang Bang sauce is a good choice, too. "It is spicier, but not an overwhelming spice, it kind of fades away as you eat them," he says. As for what beverage pairs well with them, he is a bit of a traditionalist and recommends a dark porter or stout to go with BBQ sauce.

Traditional or Boneless Wings

Wild Bills Sports Saloon

It cant get better than this: traditional bone-in wings or breaded and fried boneless wings tossed in your choice of one of 14 (!) different sauces. For the traditional wings, you can also choose one of their four different dry rubs. With that many choices, there is a flavor for even the most timid of wing-eaters. If you are looking to make this a full meal, try the wings Wild Bills-style: served over fries, tossed in extra sauce, and topped with bacon. If you are looking for a challenge, try the Wild Bills Showdown: if you chow down on six wings tossed in the Reaper sauce in six minutes or less, you earn yourself a shot of milk and a t-shirt.

Jack Murphy Wings

Dooleys Pub

They dont skimp on the wings at Dooleys. Each order is a full pound of jumbo bone-in chicken wings tossed in their New Jack sauce. This sauce is unlike any other; its a mixture of BBQ and buffalo sauces. The wings are fried, tossed in the sauce, then thrown back on the grill to sear in the flavor. Theyre served with your choice of ranch or blue cheese sauce. I spoke with Liz Abbott, who recommended the classic combination of beer and wings, saying the best choice would be a nice refreshing Coors Light or Summer Shandy.

WTF Chicken Wings

Cellar

These wings are not your typical hot and spicy wings. They are a riff on Vietnamese street wings. The bone-in wings are breaded, fried, and tossed in a special sauce. According to Head Chef Justin Schoville, the sauce is made with wine, turbinado sugar, and fish sauce. It is reduced down to a caramel-like sauce. The wings are then topped with sesame seeds and finely chopped mint and served with an herb yogurt. What pairs well with these? Schoville recommends the cream ale on tap.Egypt's Irrigation Minister Mohamed Abdel-Ati headed on Thursday to South Sudan for an official visit to discuss enhancing cooperation on water resources and irrigation.

"The visit comes in light of the unique relationship between Egypt and South Sudan on all levels, as well as wider regional cooperation on water resources," the minister said in a press statement.

Egypt has been supporting a number of hydrological projects in South Sudan in recent years. Among them are the cleanup of the Bahr Al-Ghazal River, the main western tributary of the Nile, and the construction of a number of river anchorages to facilitate waterway shipping and transport between the country's cities and villages.

Search Keywords:

Short link:

An Egyptian criminal court has placed 169 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group on the country's terror list.

The defendants are facing charges of conspiring to infiltrate state institutions with the aim of overthrowing the regime by force and spreading chaos in the country.

The courts decision is based on state security investigations, which revealed that the defendants attempted to revive the group's activities by recruiting new members to its armed wings, spread rumors and provided financial and logistical assistance to the Brotherhood, which was designated a terrorist group in 2013.

Under the countrys anti-terrorism law, any person placed on the terror list is subject to a travel ban and having their assets frozen.

Egypt's terror list contains over 1,500 names, including top Brotherhood leaders.

The list includes Egypts former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, the groups supreme guide Mohamed Badie, and the Brotherhood's deputy supreme guide Mahmoud Ezzat, who fled Egypt in 2013.

The list also includes Ibrahim Mounir, the Brotherhood's secretary-general in London, who has been convicted of planning attacks in Egypt from abroad.

Search Keywords:

Short link:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned in the early morning hours from North Korea with an understanding on arrangements for the Kim Jong-Uns forthcoming meeting with President Trump. He also secured the release of the three American hostages held by the North Korean regime. President and Mrs. Trump welcomed them home at Andrews together with Vice President and Mrs. Pence.

In Pompeos absence, Trump announced our withdrawal from the worst deal ever (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran). Pompeo had a hand in that development as well, by advice rendered in his current capacity and, until two weeks ago, as Trumps former Director of the CIA.

After Trump announced that Pompeo was in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the three American hostages, Pompeo responded. In the tweet below, a Pompeo impersonator puts the disgraceful work of the Obama regime with the mullahs in the context of his return from North Korea with the hostages. I somehow doubt that the mainstream media will provide such context.

Thank you, Secretary Pompeo.Israel Defense Forces conducted predawn retaliatory airstrikes targeting dozens of Iranian bases, command centers and weapons caches in Syria. Targets included sites throughout Syria. On Twitter, retired IDF spokesman Peter Lerner reports that targeted Quds Force positions include intelligence observation posts, logistics command positions, military command posts and bases, and a weapons depot at Syria International Airport, and the vehicle on which the rocket launch that provoked the strikes. Israeli jets also targeted Assads already weakened air defenses. No jets were lost in the retaliatory strikes.

The Israeli airstrikes responded to 20 Grad and Fair-5 rockets launched from southern Syria by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corpss al-Quds Force at Israeli military positions on the Golan Heights. The strikes also took out the vehicle that launched the 20 rockets. Looking around quickly online this morning, I find that Judah Ari Grosss Times of Israel story and the related AP/TOI roundup provide the essential information.

Iran wants to set up bases to wage war on Israel from Syria. This Israel will not abide. I wonder how long it will be before Israel exhausts its list of known targets in Syria and moves on to Iran. Taking a look at this mornings IDF targets in Syria, Roger Simon wonders the same thing (tweet below).Is there any shot at the Trump administration too lame for the New York Times to eschew? After reading this report from Brian Flood at Fox News, Im starting to doubt there is.

On Tuesday, the Times breathlessly reported that Secretary of State Pompeo was absent from Washington when Trump announced he was pulling the U.S. out of the nuclear deal with Iran. At a Key Moment, Trumps Top Diplomat Is Again Thousands of Miles Away, the headline harumphed.

The Times reported that senior State Department officials were momentarily speechless on Tuesday when asked why Mr. Pompeo did not delay his trip by a day to be in Washington during Mr. Trumps Iran deal announcement. According to the Times, European diplomats complained privately that they were having trouble getting answers from Washington.

But the Times knew that Pompeo was heading to North Korea make sure that three Americans who had been jailed by the dictatorship would be coming home. It reported as much in this same story. And ultimately, Pompeo not only returned with the three prisoners, but also worked on arranging a date and location for Trumps meeting with Kim Jong Un.

Trumps decision to pull out of the Iran deal, a move much discussed with foreign leaders in advance, pretty much speaks for itself. European leaders must figure out the extent to which they will join the U.S. in tightening the economic noose around Irans neck, and this will be the subject of discussions with the administration.

But these discussions didnt need to to occur immediately. And even if they did, Pompeo could be reached while on his trip to North Korea.

The Times says calls are sometimes dropped on Pompeos plane. This minor problem may irritate European diplomats, but should not deter Pompeo from leaving Washington on important diplomatic business He serves the U.S., not Europe.

Trumps decision to pull out of the Iran deal is not the end of the world. Life goes on and there are pressing matters that require attention. Pompeo was right to make it his priority to bring home the three prisoners and advance negotiations with North Korea, rather than sitting around in Washington just in case some European called.

We all understand that the New York Times is a cog in the anti-Trump resistance. But surely this hit piece is a case of resistio ad absurdum.As in NeWwhich is short for Network of Enlightened Women. Check them out. But more to the point, if you have a daughter in college or just starting out in the world after graduation, NeW has a terrific summer Young Womens Leadership Retreat being held this year from July 26  29 in Philadelphia. Although there are a lot of good summer programs for students that we often note here, such as the Claremont Institutes Publius Fellows Program, the Hertog Fellows program, and others, NeW is one of the very few programs designed for women, and that gets intensively into the various shibboleths of contemporary feminism. As such it is much needed.

At the Retreat, students will have the chance to hear from and meet and mingle with an elected official, authors, writers, a professor, and more! Confirmed speakers include:

Kate Klunk, Pennsylvania State Representative

Sheila Tate, Former Press Secretary for Nancy Reagan and author of Lady in Red

Emily Jashinsky, Washington Examiner Commentary Writer

Karin Agness Lips, President of NeW

Beth Anne Mumford, State Director for Americans for Prosperity

Professor David Hogsette, Program Director of the English and Writing Department at Grove City College

Jonathan Wolfson, Attorney at McGuireWoods

Kendall Wolfson, Director of Operations of NeW and author of Sweet Dreams, UVA

Katie Yoder, Associate Culture Editor at Media Research Center.

Check out the full details at the link, and encourage young women students you may know to apply. The application deadline of May 15 is coming up fast.( Read 6792 Times)

Source :

 Vodafone SuperNetTM4G customers to experience VoLTE (Voice over LTE) services in Kerala Enjoy HD quality voice calls with faster call set up time Invested over Rs 6000 crore till date, including Rs 200+ crore last year Launched and Rolled out over 4000+ sites in last 1 year  11 sites per dayKochi : Vodafone, one of Indias largest telecommunication services providers, today announced the roll-out of its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services across Kerala. With this launch, Vodafone is enabling customers to make calls using VoLTE and enjoy HD quality crystal clear voice with super call connect. Vodafone SuperNetTM4G customers can access Vodafone VoLTE for no additional charges and all calls will be billed as per existing plan or pack benefits, thus experiencing the best from Vodafones Data Strong Network.Announcing the launch of the Vodafone VoLTE service, Ajit Chaturvedi, Business Head - Kerala, Vodafone India, said, As a leading telecom services provider in Kerala, we have been making significant investments to expand, upgrade our network and to deploy new technologies, so as to ensure that we provide the finest service experience to our valued customers. Vodafone VoLTE is a big step towards further enhancing our customer experience and enabling our customers in Kerala to explore newer possibilities with their smart devices.Vodafone VoLTE service were recently launched in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra & Goa, Haryana, Chennai, UP East, UP West, Karnataka, Punjaband will be extended across the country in a phased manner over the next few months.How to enjoy Vodafone VoLTE1. Customers can access Vodafone VoLTE services on all VoLTE enabled devices. Several popular handsets are already compatible with the Vodafone VoLTE network, and the numbers of such handsets is growing rapidly. To check if you can enjoy Vodafone VoLTE on your handset, please click on the link www.vodafone.in/volte2. Upgrade the mobile devices OS to the latest version3. Ensure the device has a Vodafone 4G SIM: Customers with Dual-SIM handsets have to ensure that the Vodafone 4G SIM has been inserted in the data SIM slot/slot 1 and network mode has been set as 4G/3G/2G (Auto).Vodafone VoLTE will be available on all VoLTE devices. Currently, the following popular VoLTE handsets are compatible with Vodafone VoLTE and this handset universe is increasing rapidly to include all popular models. To know if you can enjoy Vodafone VoLTE on your handset, please click on the link  www.vodafone.in/volteBrandMarket NameOnePlus3, 3T, 5, 5TXiaomiMi Mix 2, Redmi 4, Redmi Note 4NokiaNokia1, 5, 6,7, 7 Plus, 8 Sirocco, New Nokia 6HuaweiHonor View 10, 9i, 7X, 8 Pro, 6X & 9 LiteSamsungC9 Pro, J7 Nxt, J7 ProGioneeM7PoweriPhone6, 6+, 6S, 6S+, 7, 7+, 8, 8+, SE, iphone XitelS42, A44KarbonnFrames S9MicromaxCanvas 2, Canvas 2 PlusLavaZ91InfinixHot S3TecnoCAMON ISkyAbout Vodafone India:Vodafone India is a 100% fully owned subsidiary of the Vodafone Group Plc. with operations across the country serving over 210 million customers (over 114 million in rural areas). Commencing operations in 2007, Vodafone is today Indias largest foreign direct investor, with a robust, award winning business and committed for the long term. Vodafone Business Services serves the needs of enterprises and government by providing total telecommunications (Voice and Data) solutions across mobility and wireline platforms. Our mobile wallet, M-Pesa is a unique and innovative money transfer service from Vodafone that fosters financial inclusion.Committed to optimizing the near ubiquitous reach of mobile telephony to address national developmental priorities, the Vodafone Foundation partners is actively engaged in community development initiatives especially in the domains of m-Women, m-Agriculture, m-Education and Disaster Relief. Building on its global experience and expertise, an outreach across India and offering a comprehensive portfolio of technologies- 2G, 3G & 4G, Vodafone is uniquely positioned to actualize the vision of Digital IndiaGlobally, 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A senior Hamas official signalled support Thursday for thousands of Palestinians to breach the border fence from Gaza into Israel at protests to coincide with next week's US embassy move to Jerusalem.

In his first major briefing to international media since becoming Gaza head of the Islamist group in 2017, Yahya Sinwar implied he would like to see thousands of Palestinians crossing into Israel as part of more than a month of protests.

Asked what he wanted to see from protests on Monday and Tuesday, Sinwar pointed out Israel has never specifically defined its borders.

"What's the problem with hundreds of thousands breaking through a fence that is not a border?"

Sinwar said he hoped Israel would not shoot at what he called "peaceful" protests.

Fifty-two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since protests and clashes began on March 30 calling for Palestinian refugees to be able to return to their former homes in what is now Israel.

The majority of those killed were shot during protests and clashes near the border.

No Israelis have been hurt, though protesters have thrown stones and rolled burning tyres towards soldiers along the border.

Israel says there have also been infiltration attempts.

Sinwar said the lack of Israelis hurt was evidence the protests were peaceful.

But he warned the protests risked spiralling out of control, blaming Israel for imposing a blockade on the strip and its two million residents since Hamas took control in 2007.

Israel says the restrictions are necessary to restrict Hamas, with whom it has fought three wars since 2008.

It accuses the Islamist movement of spending money that could go towards easing the humanitarian crisis on weapons and building tunnels to be used for attacks.

"The Gaza Strip is like a hungry tiger that has been starved and left in a cage for 11 years," Sinwar said.

"Now the tiger is loose, and nobody knows what it will do."

Gaza suffers from high levels of unemployment, while more than 95 percent of the water is not fit for consumption due to pollution.

Israel says it only opens fire when necessary to stop infiltrations, attacks and damage to the border fence, while accusing Hamas of seeking to use the protests as cover to carry out violence.

Palestinians say protesters are being shot while posing no threat to soldiers and there have been international calls for an independent investigation.

Thousands are expected to gather along the border on Monday, which coincides with the controversial opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem.

There are fears protesters could try and breach the fence, leading to more bloodshed.

Palestinians, who also consider Jerusalem their capital, reacted furiously to President Donald Trump's December 6 announcement that he would move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the divided holy city, with widespread street protests.

Hamas has controlled Gaza since forcing out the internationally recognised Palestinian government in 2007.

Despite technically being second in control to Ismail Haniya, Sinwar, who came from the group's military wing, is seen as the dominant force in the Islamist movement.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by the Jewish state, the United States and the European Union.

Search Keywords:

Short link:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had crossed a "red line" by firing rockets at Israeli forces from Syria, leading to major Israeli air strikes on Thursday in the neighbouring country.

"Iran has crossed a red line. Our reaction was a consequence," the Israeli leader said in a video posted on social media.

"The Israeli army carried out an extensive attack against Iranian targets in Syria."

Iran has not claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.

Israel carried out widespread deadly raids against what it said were Iranian targets in Syria after rocket fire towards its forces which it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies.

Israel said 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight.

It blamed the rocket fire on Iran's Quds force, adding that Israel's anti-missile system intercepted four while the rest did not land in its territory.

No Israelis were wounded.

"We are in a prolonged campaign and our policy is clear: We will not allow Iran to establish itself militarily in Syria," Netanyahu said.

Search Keywords:

Short link:

"The Company has been very active this year adjusting our business for revenue generation and growth, including developing our potential spinoff plan for Alternate Health's non-cannabis assets," says Dr. Michael Murphy, Chairman and CEO of Alternate Health. "We are excited about this plan, but we want to assure our shareholders that we will only act on this plan when the right conditions are met across the business."

Management has received Board approval to explore a spinoff plan for the Company's non-cannabis assets, it is estimated to take at least three to four months to complete this due diligence process. In the meantime, there are at least four key milestones Alternate Heath plans to meet before acting, including:

Laboratory referrals back above 10,000 samples per month and growing. Our payment engine for non-cannabis transactions has at least 2 contracts with testing and implementation underway. Cannabis payment engine fully integrated to the CanaPass/StatePass system and revenue has started. Recreational cannabis sales have started with a good business plan and prospects for future growth.

Should the above criteria be met, and final decision made, the Board expects to seek shareholder approval and that all shareholders would receive their pro rata share of ownership in both companies, on a 1:1 ratio. Tax implications must also be considered prior to a final decision being taken.

Alternate Health's focus continues to be on maintaining shareholder value, therefore:

Only equity dilution to be based on any capital raise associated with the Newco offering.

Part of any newly raised capital would be used to hire management to oversee and expand each new primary division in the company.

No decision has been made on the final division of company assets between the NewCo and Alternate Health. In particular, Alternate Health is exploring different options for the Company's laboratory business. The Lab could move to the non-cannabis NewCo or stay in Alternate Health. Another option could see the Lab move to the NewCo and pay a long-term royalty to Alternate Health.

"We believe the proposed spinoff of the Company's non-cannabis assets is the best plan to maximize the value and revenue potential of the Company's assets," says Dr. Murphy. "The Board will be busy performing our due diligence and will update shareholders in time."

Independent Director Resigns

The Company also announces a change to Alternate Health's Board of Directors. Kristin Taylor has tendered her resignation as an independent director to focus on her full-time career obligations. On behalf of the Board of Directors, Alternate Health's Chairman and CEO, Dr. Michael Murphy, would like to thank Kristin Taylor for her support and service to the Company. The Company is actively looking for an independent director to fill Ms. Taylor's seat on the Board, and will do so in the near future.

About Alternate Health

Alternate Health Corp. (CSE: AHG, OTCQB: AHGIF) Alternate Health has established multiple arms-length operations within the medical cannabis industry, each of which drives consumers, data and strategic opportunities to the company's other verticals. This sophisticated cross-integration of the company's enterprises has positioned Alternate Health as one of the only cannabis companies that delivers consistent revenue and intellectual property without growing, manufacturing or distributing the cannabis plant. Through its software solutions, data analytics, and patented delivery systems, Alternate Health's goal is to be the global authority on scientific and clinical support for cannabis in regulated markets. Alternate Health is well positioned to reinvest internal operating cash flow in its platform over the long term, creating an attractive investment profile for its shareholders.

Alternate Health resides in the cannabis sector along with companies like GW Pharmaceuticals, AXIM Biotechnologies Inc., Canopy Growth Corporation, and Aphria Inc. Alternate Health is differentiated from other cannabis companies by its focus on ancillary services for patients, healthcare professionals and regulatory providers rather than selling a commodity. For more information about Alternate Health Corp., visit www.alternatehealth.com.

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. Statements included in this announcement, including statements concerning our plans, intentions and expectations, which are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements may be identified by words including "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "expects" and similar expressions. The Company cautions readers that forward-looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the Company's future operations, business prospects, financing plans and spin off plans, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.

Investor Relations Contact: Nancy Goertzen, CPIR, 1.604.512.7122 | [email protected]; Jim Griffiths, Director, 1.416.607.5757 | [email protected]

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/689587/Alternate_Health_Corp__Alternate_Health_CEO_Updates_Shareholders.jpg

SOURCE Alternate Health Corp.Leaders of the United States and North Korea will meet for the first time when President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un hold a summit on June 12 in Singapore where the US side will try to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.

The two men - whose countries are still technically at war - exchanged fiery rhetoric last year over North Korea's attempts to build a nuclear weapon that could reach the United States.

But tensions have since eased greatly, starting around the time of the North's participation in the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" Trump wrote on Twitter.

His announcement came just hours after three Americans who had been held prisoner in North Korea arrived at a US military base outside Washington, having been released by Kim as a gesture ahead of the summit.

Trump said on their arrival that he believed Kim, who has led North Korea for seven years and is believed to be in his mid-30s, wanted to bring North Korea "into the real world."

"I think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful," Trump said. "My proudest achievement will be - this is part of it - when we denuclearize that entire peninsula."

New US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has visited Pyongyang twice in recent weeks - once as head of the CIA - but there has been no sign that he cleared up the central question of whether North Korea will be willing to bargain away nuclear weapons that its rulers have long seen as crucial to their survival.

"Photo Of" Worry

In a speech on the floor of the US Senate, Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer warned Trump against going too far too fast in Singapore. The Republican president, Schumer said, should insist upon strong, verifiable commitments from North Korea on disarmament.

"I worry that this president, in his eagerness to strike a deal and get the acclaim and a photo op, will strike a quick one and a bad one, not a strong one, not a lasting one," Schumer said.

During Trump's presidency, Kim has overseen weapons tests that rattled the United States, South Korea and Japan as the North Korean leader attempted to showcase his military's progress on medium- and long-range missiles and atomic weapons.

Trump has credited a US "maximum pressure" campaign for drawing North Korea to the negotiating table and vowed to keep economic sanctions in place until Pyongyang takes concrete steps to denuclearize.

But former spy chief Kim Yong Chul, director of North Korea's United Front Department, said in a toast to Pompeo over lunch in Pyongyang this week:

"We have perfected our nuclear capability. It is our policy to concentrate all efforts into economic progress...This is not the result of sanctions that have been imposed from outside."

Kim recently promised to suspend missile tests and shut a nuclear bomb test site.

North Korea is still technically at war with the United States and its ally South Korea because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a treaty.

Smiling and holding hands, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a rare round of talks at the heavily fortified demilitarized zone between the countries at the end of April, pledging to pursue peace after decades of conflict.

South Korea said on Thursday it had high hopes for the summit.

We welcome the North Korea-US summit to be held in Singapore on June 12. We hope the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula as well as permanent peace on the peninsula will successfully come about through this summit.

The choice of Singapore will put the summit on friendly turf for Trump, as the island nation is a strong US ally and the US Navy frequently visits its port.

US officials had looked at several sites other than Singapore for the historic meeting but each was seen as problematic.

Trumps own preference was for the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, but aides argued that this would look too much like Trump going to Kims turf.

A quick trip to Pyongyang was also seen as bad optics for Trump, US officials said. Mongolia was considered but was seen as too close to China, they said.

Search Keywords:

Short link:

Two years ago, Sequoia Capital India marked its first-ever investment in a local alcoholic beverage brand by adding Bira 91 to its portfolio of tech investments, signifying a new era in the craft beer market. This new round of investment also sees a follow on participation from Sequoia Capital India.

With the global craft beer market projected to reach over $502B by 2025, and the market expected to witness substantial growth over the forecast period due to the rising demand for craft beers- Bira 91's growth comes at an opportune time to corner a rising market and reach emerging consumers.

Speaking of the new investment, Founder and CEO, Ankur Jain said, "Bira 91 aspires to drive the global shift in beer towards more flavor and color. The new capital allows us to think long term and establish a leadership position in premium beer in India. We also expect to create a meaningful international business in South East Asia and the United States. We truly believe that Bira 91 is at the ground floor of a massive global opportunity. We are excited to bring on board a fund like Sofina, with origins in Belgian family capital and with a truly long term horizon as we passionately execute towards our dream of creating a global leader in the space. The consistent and rock solid support by Sequoia India and Abhay Pandey, over the last two years has been exemplary and we draw a lot of confidence from their belief in our team a third time too!"

Bira 91 grew five times in the last fiscal year (ending March 31, 2018) and has scaled to be comparable to the top 10 craft breweries in the US in terms of volume in only three years. The company expects to use the new funds to expand its production footprint by more than five-fold to 2,000,000 barrels from the current capacity of 350,000 barrels per annum.

Maxence Tombeur, Head of Asia at Sofina, speaks of the investment, "Sofina accumulated a long experience investing in consumer goods and brands over the last decades, with investments including Danone, Richemont, Bowers & Wilkins and M. Chapoutier. Sofina is now looking forward to partnering with Bira 91 on a journey to scale their footprint in India and beyond. With our Belgian roots, we believe there is a great chemistry between our organizations and are proud to back Bira 91 as they are building a leading brand in the underserved premium beer segment. We have been impressed by Ankur and the passion driving Bira 91's management team. This investment is part of our strategy of being a long-term supporter of talented entrepreneurs and like-minded investors in growth markets."

ABOUT BIRA 91

A refreshingly modern beer brand, imagined in India, Bira 91 aspires to bring flavorful beers to the new world. As one of the fastest growing beers in the world, Bira 91 has built a strong portfolio of essential beers and aims to drive the global shift in beer towards more color and flavor. Established in the summer of 2015 by B9 Beverages and headquartered in New Delhi, Bira 91 has quickly become the rage amongst urban millennials owing to its delicious beers, bold identity and a strong draft network.

Driven by a dynamic and energetic team of over 350 passionate beer lovers, the company now operates two breweries in India, and has offices in nine cities including New York City. Bira 91 is backed by Sequoia Capital India.

Crafted with the creative urban drinker in mind  someone who likes to have fun and doesn't take life (or beer) too seriously, the brand aims to disrupt the global beer world with 21st century technology and its playful monkey mascot.

ABOUT SOFINA

Sofina is a European, family-controlled, investment company listed on Euronext Brussels. Sofina is a global growth investor, both directly and through private equity funds. The company has offices in Brussels, Luxembourg and Singapore.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/689881/Bira_91_Funding.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/689880/Bira_Logo.jpg

Related Links

http://www.bira91.com



SOURCE Bira 91PUNE, India, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report "Drilling and Completion Fluids Market by Application (Onshore and Offshore), Fluid System (Water-Based System, Oil-Based System, Synthetic-Based System), Well Type (Conventional and HPHT), and Region - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global market is expected to grow from an estimated USD 9.62 Billion in 2018 to USD 12.76 Billion by 2023, registering a CAGR of 5.82% during the forecast period. This growth can be attributed to the increased drilling activities for oil and gas production and rise in the exploration of shale gas.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg )



Browse 79 Tables and 36 Figures spread through 135 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Drilling and Completion Fluids Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/drilling-completion-fluids-market-1241.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

The onshore segment is expected to hold the largest share of the Drilling & Completion Fluids Market, by application, during the forecast period

The onshore application segment led the Drilling & Completion Fluids Market in 2017 and is projected to dominate the market during the forecast period. As the majority of global oil and gas reserves are present onshore, it accounts for larger share of the total market. Drilling activities are on the rise in more challenging onshore regions, owing to an increase in the demand for oil & gas globally. The number of wells drilled onshore is drastically large than wells drilled offshore in 2017.

Ask for PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=1241

Water-based fluid system is expected to be the fastest-growing segment of the Drilling & Completion Fluids Market

The water-based fluid system is the largest segment of Drilling and Completion Fluids Market and is suitable for all applications including onshore and offshore. Water-based fluids are cost-effective and eco-friendly as compared to non-aqueous based fluids. Technological advancements have resulted in the use of water-based fluids in challenging high-pressure high-temperature conditions in deep and ultra-deepwater drilling activities. The discharge policies for water-based fluids are also not very stringent across the world due to the presence of less toxic chemicals. Thus, water-based fluid is the fastest growing segment due to cost effectiveness, less toxicity, and easy availability.

North America: The leading market for drilling & completion fluids

The North America Drilling and Completion Fluids Market is driven by the increase in oilfield discoveries and drilling activities across the region. The rise in the exploration of shale gas, tight oil, and other unconventional resources has increased the demand for drilling and completion fluids. The presence of vast shale gas reserves in the North American region has resulted in improved offshore activities in this region. The offshore exploration activities in the Gulf of Mexico are on the rise, which has led the companies to expand within the region. North America is also at the forefront of forming policies and regulations for the prevention of the degradation of the environment.

To enable an in-depth understanding of the competitive landscape, the report includes the profiles of some of the top players in the Drilling & Completion Fluids Market. These players include BHGE (US), Halliburton (US), Schlumberger (US), Canada Energy Services (Canada), and Newpark Resources (US). The leading players are trying to make inroads in the market in the developed economies and are adopting various strategies to increase their market shares.

Know more about Drilling and Completion Fluids Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/drilling-completion-fluids-market-1241.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.

Contact:

Mr. Salgarkar

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]



Visit Our Blog: http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/energy-and-power

Connect with us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets



SOURCE MarketsandMarketsIndependent Equity Research is published in the framework of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) Analysis Program

TEL AVIV, Israel, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TASE analysis project was launched in 2016 in order to raise the investors' level of knowledge of TASE listed technology and life-science companies and the markets in which the companies operate, thus creating appropriate pricing and increasing the exposure of investors from Israel and abroad. Its goal is to encourage investments in these companies by removing the barrier of lacking understanding in the market.

In order to maintain professional, independent and unbiased analysis, the companies signed an agreement with the TASE to receive the analysis services for an obligatory period of two years. The companies cannot withdraw from the project during this period. The analysis is funded by the companies surveyed with funding from the Chief Scientist and the TASE.

Summary of Highlights

Safe-T released its annual report on 25 March, 2018 detailing the following:

The company developed and is now promoting, in partnership with its distributors, a dedicated certification program.

The company believes that further measures taken during 2017, such as replacing distributors, recruiting a team in the US, appointing a CMO and so on, have laid strong foundations that will soon materialize into more contracts and increased revenues.

Going forward, Safe-T's growth strategy comprises;

Monetization on its extensive distribution and partner network

Boosting marketing and sales activities, focusing on enhancing their brand and reputation

Continued investment in R&D, improving existing products and developing new ones

Safe-T's patented technology is recognized by experts and has been the recipient of prestigious awards such as the Fortress Cyber Security Award for Compliance and Authentication & Identity (April 2018) and a 2018 InfoSec Award (March 2018).

We view the company as an attractive one, but believe that it entails the typical risks for a small-cap company in the rapidly growing cybersecurity space.

Major clients in each of the company's target industrial verticals, indicate market confidence.

If the company successfully penetrates the North American and European markets, it may be acquired in the coming years, as the consolidation trend surges.

We maintain Safe-T's equity value at $53M / NIS 188M corresponding to a target price ranging between NIS 8.91 and NIS 9.88; a mean of NIS 9.38.

Net Revenues (Gross Profit) in 2017 increased to $513K from $331K in 2016, an increase of 55%. The growth can be attributed to an expanded customer base.

from in 2016, an increase of 55%. The growth can be attributed to an expanded customer base. Safe-T's Software Define Access platform addresses real needs and a large and growing market totaling over $6 billion in 2018, according to Frost & Sullivan estimates

About the company - Safe-T Group Ltd. ("Safe-T"), listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange since 2016, is a cybersecurity company that was founded in 2013 in Israel. The company develops and markets its Software Defined Access Solution, which is designed to mitigate attacks on business-critical services, applications and data for a wide range of industries, including financial, healthcare, government and manufacturing organizations. Deployed globally, its product protects thousands of employees in enterprises and governments entities, securing their data, services, applications and networks from internal and external data threats. The software mitigates data threats such as un-authorized access to data, services, and networks, as well as data-related threats that include data exfiltration, leakage, malware, ransomware, and fraud. Headquartered in Israel, Safe-T is active in North America, APAC, Africa, and Europe.

For the full report 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

Contact:

Kristi Cekani

Corporate Communications - Frost & Sullivan, Europe

P: +39.02.4851.6133

E: [email protected]

http://www.frost.com

Related Links

http://www.frost.com



SOURCE Frost & SullivanThe Diana Davis Spencer Foundation has been a visionary supporter of higher education for many years, promoting social entrepreneurship to achieve greater peace and prosperity in local communities. The gift establishes a leadership position in the field, creating an endowed Professorship in Social Entrepreneurship and funding for entrepreneur-centered programs on campus. The unique Prac-ademic program is practitioner oriented and supported by academic rigor, making Wheaton College one of only a few liberal arts colleges nationwide to have a program headed by an endowed Professorship in Social Entrepreneurship.

Wheaton College President Dennis M. Hanno said, "GCSEN has been with us every step of the way. It's been an incredible partnership to grow together in this innovative arena. Social Entrepreneurship is about the power of linking shared visions and shared missions, making exponential social impacts. GCSEN, led by Mike Caslin, has been an important partner for Wheaton College and for me, and I thank him for that." Hanno added, "I am extremely grateful to Diana Davis Spencer, to the Foundation and her family, for their commitment to the idea that social entrepreneurship has the power to transform lives and shape communities. We share that belief, and the Foundation's gift will enable Wheaton to more fully develop our capacity to support students in pursuing interests that address society's most pressing issues."

Since 2015, GCSEN Foundation has been a leading force in growing the field of social entrepreneurship at the higher education level, offering its partner college campuses adaptable, ready-to-use blended learning curricula, merging classroom, on-line and personal life changing learning experiences for students. GCSEN trains future business owners and executives to "make meaning, make money, and move the world to a better place" by melding best business practices with sustainable local economy ventures. Through its SES Institute's on-line courses, campus-based Meaning Maker Boot Camps, faculty and administrator certifications, and at international academic forums, GCSEN has been spreading the word about the importance of growing the Social Entrepreneurship movement. GCSEN Foundation's goal is to transform the lives of 1 million millennials, while assisting in the formulation and launch of 10,000 new social ventures by 2027.

For Wheaton College, the gift is one of the largest in their 183-year history, and a "game-changer", according to President Hanno. His commitment to social entrepreneurship builds upon the college's pioneering work in combining rigorous liberal arts study with active and experiential learning opportunities. Hanno said, "The work that's been going on with GCSEN, and at the Boot Camp is really transformational for the students involved, while also helping them to have an impact on our community and society in general. It's heartening to see their ideas actually flourishing and coming to reality. My goal is to have the opportunity to have a hundred more student ideas become business and social project realities."

Mike Caslin, GCSEN Foundation Founder & President said, "We have a great and enduring relationship with Wheaton and with President Hanno, an innovative leader of social entrepreneurship college programming. We've been able to work with him and his staff to adapt our curricula platform into their existing program base, to create unique offerings for students who are hungry to implement '4 P' Social Entrepreneur Impacts by creating businesses for People, Profit, Planet & Place. We are happy to join Wheaton in celebrating Diana Davis Spencer Foundation's incredibly thoughtful and generous gift. I'm certain that the combined effort between her Foundation and Wheaton College will accelerate the movement."

The Wheaton Institute for Social Entrepreneurship is designed to help students develop an idea into a sustainable business or organization addressing a social issue. The Institute is a year-round program that includes the intensive Social Entrepreneur Meaning Maker Boot Camp, offered in partnership with the GCSEN Foundation and includes GCSEN's lifelong support network through GCSEN's THEOS alumni service.

GCSEN offers its innovative, life-changing blended-learning SES (Social Entrepreneurship System) Institute program to partnering college campuses, benefiting colleges with enhanced recruitment, and retention rates, and increased student intellectual and practical engagement.

GCSEN also offers its unique programs directly to individual students and adult learners through its on-line Social Venture Internship program. The Social Venture Internship (SVI) results in a badged Certification for course completion and LinkedIn use. SVI facilitates learners' developing their own businesses and social ventures, and allows lifelong access to GCSEN's THEOS alumni network, offering resume building, a GCSEN professional reference, and access to business networking opportunities. Contact GCSEN for details on their SES and SVI Programs.

Mike Caslin is an MBA graduate of Babson College and a Manhattanville College undergraduate. The Founder and President of GCSEN Foundation, he is currently Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at SUNY New Paltz Business School. A past faculty member of Babson College, CUNY-Baruch, Marist College School of Business and Manhattanville College, Prof. Caslin has been a featured lecturer and speaker at the Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Dartmouth Tuck School of Business, and Columbia Univ. Business School Eugene Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, among others. A published author on social entrepreneurship, he's been called in as an expert for the United Nations, the U.S. Congress and The White House.

For more information about GCSEN, or for an interview with Founder & President

Mike Caslin, call 212-444-2071; e-mail [email protected] or visit www.gcsen.com

Related Links

http://www.gcsen.com



SOURCE Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship Network FoundationPUNE, India, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market research report "Hybrid Vehicle Market by Electric Powertrain (Parallel, Series), Degree of Hybridization (Full, Micro, and Mild), Propulsion (HEV, PHEV, and NGV), Vehicle Type (PC, CV), Component (Battery, Electric Motor, and Transmission), and Region - Global Forecast to 2025", published MarketsandMarkets, the market is estimated to be 4,169 Thousand Units in 2018 and is projected to reach a market size of 7,593 Thousand Units by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 8.94% during the forecast period. The market is driven by factors such as better fuel efficiency, longer driving range than other electric vehicles, less emissions, and government initiatives pertaining to hybrid vehicles and electric infrastructure.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg )



Browse 54 market data Tables and 71 Figures spread through 154 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Hybrid Vehicle Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/hybrid-vehicle-market-159441728.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

The parallel hybrid segment is estimated to be the fastest growing and the largest market in the Hybrid Vehicle Market during the forecast period

Parallel hybrid is one of the fastest growing markets by electric powertrain in the Hybrid Vehicle Market due to its less complex system and high performance. It is also suitable for long distance travel. Also, the energy conversion losses are minimized in a parallel hybrid as the engine and battery are connected to the motor directly. The regenerative braking system is the most commonly used technology in hybrid vehicles. The use of the regenerative braking system and the lesser cost of micro and mild hybrids compared to PHEVs will boost the demand for parallel hybrids. Hence, the parallel hybrid segment is expected to dominate the Hybrid Vehicle Market during the forecast period.

Ask for PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=159441728

Passenger car segment to be the largest segment of the Hybrid Vehicle Market, by vehicle type

The passenger car segment is projected to lead the Hybrid Vehicle Market. The growth can be attributed to the high demand for personal mobility, increasing per capita income, and improved lifestyle, which are the driving factors of the sales of passenger cars. The high sales of passenger cars, stringent emission laws, and increasing demand for mid- and large-sized cars are propelling the growth of passenger cars in the Hybrid Vehicle Market. Also, the governments in many countries are providing purchase grants and tax rebates on the purchase or lease of hybrid vehicles.

Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest growing regional market for a hybrid vehicle

Asia Pacific represents the biggest market for green technologies in the world. The growth of hybrid vehicles in the region is mainly attributed to the huge sales volume in Japan and China. To combat rising emissions, countries in the region are focusing on deploying a large fleet of low-emission vehicles in the next few years. Also, Asia Pacific region is the home for major players in the Hybrid Vehicle Market such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Kia, BYD, Hyundai, and others. Toyota has the highest share in the hybrid vehicle sales worldwide. Moreover, governments of Asian countries are supporting the growth by providing subsidies which are fuelling the Hybrid Vehicle Market in the region.

The Hybrid Vehicle Market is dominated by a few global players and comprises several regional players. Some of the key manufacturers operating in the market are Toyota (Japan), Ford (US), Volvo (Sweden), Continental (Germany), Daimler (Germany), Delphi (UK), and others.

Know more about the Hybrid Vehicle Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/hybrid-vehicle-market-159441728.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.

Contact:

Mr. Salgarkar

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]



Visit Our Blog: http://mnmblog.org/market-research/automotive-transportation

Connect with us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets

SOURCE MarketsandMarketsBENGALURU, India and LONDON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

UK-based water company taps this solution based on ServiceNow to improve its core business and employee service experiences

Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology and next-generation services, has released new enhancements to its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered plug-and-play solution, Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe. The new capabilities further advance the adoption of ServiceNow with more than 40 solutions ready to be deployed across IT service management, user experience and mobility, as well as business process automation across human resources (HR), facilities, travel logistics and finance.

For IT teams, Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe accelerates the deployment of ServiceNow with pre-configured process templates in a managed services environment. For end-users, the Cafe provides a streamlined, intelligent and intuitive user experience.

Key Highlights of the Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe:

Chatbots deliver faster, smarter service desk solutions with ServiceNow

The solution offers an option to leverage chatbots with the power of AI and automation that work in tandem with ServiceNow to get queries addressed. Customers receive a seamlessly integrated bot that empowers users to take advantage of self-service, helping reduce direct tickets to the service desk and significantly improving user satisfaction.

Leverage the solution beyond IT to support other business functions

Extends ServiceNow beyond IT to support other business functions including customer service management (CSM), HR, facilities management, project portfolio management (PPM), security operations, cloud management platform and governance, risk and compliance (GRC). Customers are able to establish a single integrated enterprise platform with world-class solutions for enhanced user experience, better control, transparency and maintenance.

Vertical solutions and business domains include persona-based self-service portal

The user friendly service catalog caters to vertical industry solutions, including retail, financial services and manufacturing. This improves user satisfaction significantly through a persona based self-service portal, featuring a simple two-click service-catalog solution. The offering includes vertical specific solutions like Restaurant-in-a-Box, Enterprise Software library for manufacturing domain, Meet the Expert, Travel Management and more to address customers' real-time challenges. Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe enables companies to leverage plug-and-play solutions that address pain areas specific to industry verticals and automate them on the ServiceNow platform.

CXO/Service Management dashboards help executives get actionable insights

Provides intuitive preconfigured reports and dashboards that help CXOs have a real-time view of service health. It offers self-service, license management, AI and orchestration dashboards based on industry standard and best practices.

Cafe Mobility solution delivers work where employees need it

Delivers enhanced experiences for users on the go, with iOS and Android apps enabling users to create, update, track and approve tickets on the move.

Customers such as UK-based water company, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water (DCWW), are tapping the solution today, transforming their enterprise service experience.

Peter Jones, Head of Service, DCWW, said, "Our main goal at DCWW was to transform the way colleagues access IT services through an intuitive portal supported with automated workflow. We found Infosys' unique 'transformation first' approach a valuable proposition to help us design and deliver the solution in a collaborative manner which enabled us to focus on improving our core business and service experiences."

Tom Reuner, Managing Partner, Business Operations Strategy and M&A Advisory at HfS Research, said, "With its single code and data model, as well as its focus on automation, collaboration and workflows, the ServiceNow platform has evolved into a critical enabler for an organization's digital journey. By leveraging AI and broader automation capabilities, the Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe offering is transforming the user experience beyond traditional areas of service management to streamline and drive innovation across business functions such as HR and Finance. Infosys stands out by supporting clients with a vision that is refreshingly devoid of the ITSM jargon. Its vision of service experience transformation is guiding clients to overcome the traditional organizational stovepipes that all too often scupper innovation."

Tony Beller, Vice President worldwide alliances and channels, ServiceNow, said, "ServiceNow transforms work by automating workflows across the enterprise. The Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe's newer offerings simplify service management, helping clients think beyond IT and applies AI to accelerate customer success."

Narsimha Rao Mannepalli, Executive Vice President, Head of Cloud & Infrastructure Solutions and Infosys Validation Solutions, Infosys, said, "The new capabilities added to our Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe offering will help to further drive innovation for our clients, not just across IT, but into other business functions as well. At a time where organizations are undertaking a digital transformation, our Infosys Enterprise Service Management Cafe solution enables faster implementation and improvement of ServiceNow projects, allowing clients to make significant savings which the whole business will benefit from."

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting. We enable clients in 45 countries to create and execute strategies for their digital transformation. From engineering to application development, knowledge management and business process management, we help our clients find the right problems to solve, and to solve these effectively. Our team of 200,000+ innovators, across the globe, is differentiated by the imagination, knowledge and experience, across industries and technologies that we bring to every project we undertake.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise thrive in the digital age.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements concerning our future business opportunities and growth prospects. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.

For further information, please contact:

Asia Pacific

Sarah Gideon

Infosys, India

+91-80-4156-3998

[email protected]



EMEA

Margherita Di Cerbo

Infosys, Europe

+44-2075162748

[email protected]



Americas

Chiku Somaiya

Infosys, USA

+1-408-375-2722

[email protected]

This is a disclosure announcement from PR Newswire.

SOURCE Infosys LimitedAHMEDABAD, India, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

MAS Financial Services Limited PAT zooms up by 100.63% in FY2018

MAS Financial Services Limited reports Assets under Management (AUM) of Rs. 4,114.45 crore and profit after tax of Rs. 103.37 crore for the year ended 31 March 2018 - A Growth of 30.36% and 53.44% over corresponding period of previous year respectively.

The profit after tax for Q4 is Rs. 29.91 crore - A growth of 100.63% over corresponding period of the previous year.

The Board of Directors of MAS Financial Services Limited, in their meeting held today, took on record the Audited Financial Results of the company for the year ended 31 March 2018.

Performance Highlights:

Disbursement (Net) made during year ended 31 March 2018 - 24.75 % to Rs. 3,891.40 crore from Rs. 3,119.24 crore in year ended 31 March 2017 .

- 24.75 % to Rs. from Rs. in year ended . Disbursement (Net) made during Q4 FY 18 - 18.43% to Rs. 1,260.29 crore from Rs. 1,064.17 crore in Q4 FY 17.

from Rs. in Q4 FY 17. Assets under Management (AUM) as of 31 Mar 2018 - 30.36% to Rs. 4,114.45 crore from Rs. 3,156.14 crore as on 31 March 2017 with Gross NPA and Net NPA as of 31 Mar 2018 at 1.15 % and 0.91% respectively. The Gross and Net NPA on 4 months overdue stood at 1.09 % and 0.95% as of 31 March 2017 .

As required by RBI Guidelines, the Company has moved its NPA recognition policy from 4 months overdue to 3 months overdue in this financial year. The Company continues to provide for loan losses in excess of RBI requirements.

Total Income for year ended 31 March 2018 - 25.29 % to Rs. 427.87 crore from Rs. 341.52 crore in year ended 31 March 2017 .

- 25.29 % to Rs. from Rs. in year ended . Total Income for Q4 FY 18 - 35.12% to Rs 113.53 crore from Rs. 84.03 crore in Q4 FY 17.

from Rs. in Q4 FY 17. Profit After Tax for year ended 31 March 2018 - 53.44 % to Rs. 103.37 crore from Rs. 67.37 crore in year ended 31 March 2017 .

- 53.44 % to Rs. from Rs. in year ended . Profit After Tax for Q4 FY 18 - 100.63 % to Rs. 29.91 crore from Rs. 14.91 crore in Q4 FY 17.

from Rs. in Q4 FY 17. Capital Adequacy Ratio (including Tier II capital) as of 31 March 2018 stood at 31.29%. The Tier-I capital stood at 29.06%.

stood at 31.29%. The Tier-I capital stood at 29.06%. Dividend : In consonance to their policy of rewarding the share holders, the Board of Directors of the Company has recommended final dividend of Rs. 2.16 per equity share of face value of Rs. 10 each, which is subject to approval by shareholders of the Company.

Note on MAS Rural Housing and Mortgage Finance Limited (Subsidiary):

The Board of Directors of MAS Rural Housing and Mortgage Finance Limited in their meeting held on 2nd May 2018 took on record the Audited Financial Results of the company for the year ended 31 March 2018.

MAS Rural Housing and Mortgage Finance Limited reports Assets under Management (AUM) of Rs. 203.95 crore and profit after tax of Rs. 2.50 crore for year ended 31 March 2018 - A Growth of 15.60% and 28.34% over corresponding period of previous year respectively.

The profit after tax for Q4 is Rs. 0.69 crore - A growth of 8.12% over corresponding period of the previous year.

Gross NPA and Net NPA as of 31 March 2018 stood at 0.36 % and 0.27% respectively. The Gross and Net NPA stood at 0.41% and 0.34% as of 31 March 2017 .

stood at 0.36 % and 0.27% respectively. The Gross and Net NPA stood at 0.41% and 0.34% as of . Capital Adequacy Ratio (including Tier II capital) as of 31 March 2018 stood at 31.82%. The Tier-I capital stood at 26.81%.

About MAS Financial Servies Limited

MAS Financial Services Limited ("MAS") is a Gujarat-headquartered NBFC with more than two decades of business operations and as of June 30, 2017. MAS operate across six states and the NCT of Delhi. Their business and financing products are primarily focused on middle and low income customer segments, and include five principal categories: (i) micro-enterprise loans; (ii) SME loans; (iii) two-wheeler loans; (iv) Commercial Vehicle loans (which include new and used commercial vehicle loans, used car loans and tractor loans); and (v) housing loans. The Promoters of MAS have significant operational experience in the financial services sector in India.

Media Contact:

Deepali Rawat

[email protected]

+91-22-40558900

Concept Public Relations India Limited



SOURCE MAS Financial Services LimitedMUMBAI, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

THIS IS A PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND NOT A PROSPECTUS ANNOUNCEMENT. THIS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN INVITATION OR OFFER TO ACQUIRE, PURCHASE OR SUBSCRIBE FOR SECURITIES. NOT FOR PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, OUTSIDE INDIA.

~ A summer shopping festival @ Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) Mumbai ~

With summer in the city, travellers, visitors and shopaholics alike will delight in exciting offers at Mumbai Duty Free . From May-June 2018, the duty free stores would be bustling with various summer sale activities, making shopping at Mumbai Duty-free technically free.

Taking inspiration from its celebrated campaign, MDF launches its 'Mumbai Duty Free Is Now Free Shopping Festival' for the summer period.

The festival will offer deals on duty-free products, pre-order discounts, cash-backs, assured discount vouchers from partner brands and shopping money through gift cards. The entire gamut of promotions and deals are applicable across the store at both departure and arrival terminal. Spirits, fragrances, cosmetics, wellness products, confectionary, gourmets, accessories, & fashion brands, there is something to suite all taste and pockets.

What makes this festival special is the unrestricted gift voucher of INR 300 to all travellers, passing through Mumbai International departure terminal. The no conditional Rs. 300 gift voucher is simply to remind the customer that their holiday trip starts with shopping at MDF with no strings attached. Travellers can collect this gift voucher from MDF summer festival booths setup before immigration counters and utilize at the Departure store for their take-away purchase.

The unconditional gift card, coupled with special product promotions makes for a perfect start for a customer. Further more, subsequent to shopping above the required amount; customers will get a 'Mumbai Duty-Free Is Now Free' envelope containing discount vouchers, redeemable coupons and complementary experiences from partner brands. The list of partner brands include MakeMyTrip, Vodafone, Myntra, Urban Ladder and Mumbai's luxury mall, Palladium. Each one giving an exclusive offer, makes the envelope value much higher than what an average customer would spend in store.

Mumbai Duty Free gives summer shoppers an additional reason to celebrate with the mega-successful cash back offer from Citibank. Customers at the Mumbai Duty Free departure and arrival stores will get 15% cash back on using their Citibank cards. This year, the maximum cashback amount has also increased from INR 1,500 to 2,000 per transaction for the departure and arrival stores. Moreover, travellers shopping at our fashion and luxury stores will enjoy a 15% cashback from Citibank without any capping on the cashback.

"We understand that our customers seek the best value for their money spent in stores and so we ensure to get the best deals and promotions from our vendor brands and external partners. Coupled with our exclusive gift cards, we are sure that the customer shopping at Mumbai Duty Free would be delightful and memorable. We greatly value the opinion of all of our passengers, and we will continue to push the boundaries and to set new standards for the industry to continue to ensure that Mumbai Duty Free is an experience worth travelling for," says Manishi Sanwal, CEO, Mumbai Duty Free (Flemingo Travel Retail Ltd.).

While the list of offers has no bounds, with no second thoughts, start to plan a trip and be a traveller from CSAI.

Steal deal offers at Mumbai Duty Free Is Now Free Shopping Festival.

Upto 33% off on duty free products

Up to 20% discount on pre-order discount

15% cash back

Vodafone Rs. 1,000 off to International roaming customers

Mumbai Duty Free gift card of Rs. 2,000 to all business class passengers for Fashion & Luxury stores

Mumbai Duty Free gift card of Rs. 300 to all departing customers

Assured Mumbai Duty Free gift card on spend of Rs. 6,000 to all arrival customers

Mumbai Duty Free Is Now Free envelope with partner brand vouchers from MakeMyTrip, Urban Ladder, Myntra and more

About Mumbai Duty Free:

Mumbai Duty Free operated by Flemingo Travel Retail Ltd. has its flagship store located at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Terminal 2. The Company has 17 stores at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai, including four core duty-free stores, one Indian gourmet store and 12 speciality stores with an aggregate retail area of 6,627 square meters, These stores offer categories such as liquor, tobacco products, toiletries & cosmetics, food & candies, apparel & accessories, watches and jewellery, electronics and technology and other products, including souvenirs.

Disclaimer:

Flemingo Travel Retail Limited is proposing, subject to applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, receipt of requisite approvals, market conditions and other considerations, an initial public offering of its Equity Shares and has filed a draft red herring prospectus ("DRHP") dated February 15, 2018, with the Securities and Exchange Board of India ("SEBI"). Investors should note that investment in Equity Shares involves a high degree of risk and for details refer to the DRHP, including the section titled "Risk Factors" on page 16 of the DRHP. The DRHP is available on the website of the SEBI at http://www.sebi.gov.in, BSE at http://www.bseindia.com , NSE at http://www.nseindia.com, and on the websites of the BRLMs at http://www.icicisecurities.com, http://www.axiscapital.co.in , https://www.credit-suisse.com/in/en/investment-banking/regionalpresence/asia-pacific/india/ipo.html, http://www.hsbc.co.in/1/2/corporate/Equitiesgloablinvestment banking and http://www.yesinvest.in . Potential investors should not rely on the DRHP for any investment decision.

This press release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in any jurisdiction, including the United States.

The Equity Shares have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws in the United States, and unless so registered may not be offered or sold within the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. Accordingly, the Equity Shares are being offered and sold within the United States only to "qualified institutional buyers" (as such term is defined in Rule 144A under the U.S. Securities Act) in reliance on an available exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and outside the United States in offshore transactions in reliance on Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act and the applicable laws of the jurisdictions where those offers and sales are made.

Media Contact:

Shaheena Khan

[email protected]

+91-9769752270

Concept Public Relations India Limited



SOURCE Mumbai Duty FreeDespite uncertainties, FinTech will register growth across multiple sub-segments as pace of innovation increases, finds Frost & Sullivan

LONDON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan's European FinTech Market Outlook, 2018 outlines the trends in the rapidly evolving European FinTech industry for 2017 and 2018. Growth can be attributed to an ecosystem comprising of innovative start-ups, traditional financial institutions willing to digitalise, investors identifying growth opportunities and proactive regulators. Incorporation of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Big Data and analytics, and Internet of Things (IoT) to transform solutions enables companies to meet demands of digital consumers, including ease of use, on-the-go access and customisation. The financial services vertical is subjected to stringent regulatory and compliance measures; market participants are particularly focused on security of data and data privacy, and are also making use of these advanced technologies. Frost & Sullivan's study covers technology trends in Europe and their impact on the industry. It also examines trends in BankTech, InsurTech, RegTech, PayTech, and WealthTech, and forecasts growth opportunities in each segment.

For further information on this analysis, please visit: http://frost.ly/2gd

"Going forward we can expect FinTech companies to increase focus on, and participate in, research and proof-of-concept research in technologies such as blockchain and quantum computing," said Deepali Sathe, Senior Industry Analyst, ICT, Frost & Sullivan. "Meanwhile, developments around platforms, AI and ML will deliver exciting new opportunities."

As the influx of start-ups and innovative solutions transform the value chain across segments such as PayTech and InsurTech, traditional market participants are acknowledging the need to be agile. Frequent changes and updates in regulations and compliance requirements, and events such as Brexit, highlight the need for flexibility.

As companies struggle to meet the deadlines and requirements of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and revised Payments Services Directive (PSD2) in 2018, it underpins the growing demand for RegTech, which is expected to grow to more than $500 million in 2018.

"New business models and the growth of customer-centric solutions will create opportunities to offer new services or X-as-a-Service (XaaS)," noted Sathe. "These models automate processes and integrate with existing IT infrastructure to drive overall growth. Furthermore, multiple market segments such as small and medium enterprises (SMEs), expats, and people with short credit history that are either underserved or unserved have begun to offer additional business opportunities."

Companies are increasingly exploring options for partnerships and strategic investments to ensure faster time to market to meet consumer demands of 24/7 access and enable an omni-channel approach. APIs and shared economy will have an industry-wide impact, as the new ecosystem encourages a collaborative approach.

European Fintech Market Outlook, 2018 is part of Frost & Sullivan's global ICT Growth Partnership Service program.

About Frost & Sullivan

For over five decades, Frost & Sullivan has become world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion.

European Fintech Market Outlook, 2018

MDC3-33

Contact:

Kristi Cekani

Corporate Communications - Frost & Sullivan, Europe

P: +39.02.4851.6133

E: [email protected]

http://www.frost.com

Related Links

http://www.frost.com



SOURCE Frost & SullivanMUMBAI, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

32 inches in-built sound bar android smart TV launched at Rs. 12,999

India and UK-based electronics brand, OBU, on Wednesday launched new Smart TVs in India. OBU made its entry into the market with its 24-inch, 32-inch, 40-inch, and 50-inch models. 11 models are available with in-built soundbar, full HD, 4k, smart, non-smart features. All products are available on Amazon starting today.

OBU Smart TV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qgjwYOoxoh74L-OzMHu7DETU2o21X-od

OBU'S LED range start from Rs. 8,700/ to Rs. 29,999/. OBU's television sets will be manufactured in India. The Smart TVs run on Android 4.4 and above, with pre-installed apps like Gmail, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Netflix. It also features Aptoide, which allows users to download any app. The company claims that the flagship model - 50-inch, 32-inch - comes with unique design and features a golden slim frame that looks attractive.

The main unique selling proposition of OBU technology Inc.'s own brand is the jumbo extended warranty services, which has the largest service network pan India, with 350+ pin code service network. OBU claim that their onsite service will cater to the semi-urban rural area also through its network. All OBU's products come with 3-year full onsite manufacturer warranty.

"The company has already planned its manufacturing line of LED TV for the next two quarters at Sanand, Ahmedabad. We aim to capture 1 to 2 % of total TV market share. We will mainly focus on the offline and rural market," said OBU technology CEO Aadil Arodiya.

"We are offering Indian consumers the best smart Android TV experience at affordable price to suit every pocket," added Arodiya.

About OBU

OBU makes Smart, Internet Enabled, UHD, Full HD and HD Ready LED TV in 32 (80cm), 40 (102cm), 48 (122cm), 55 (140cm), 65 (165cm), among others.

OBU uses components sourced from the world's top suppliers to make a wide range of LED televisions at its comprehensive facilities.

By investing a lot of time, knowledge and expertise on the manufacture and production of high quality LED TVs, OBU is frequently at the forefront of new, ground-breaking concepts.

The Company strives to ensure that its customers receive high-quality, technically sophisticated products. We have been accepting challenges and delivering phenomenal results in regards of cost, quality and service within the time frame required by our valuable customers.

Two things however haven't changed despite the massive change in scale-of-operation - our commitment to quality in each and every unit that bears our name, and the pride of being thoroughly an Indian manufacturing company.

Media Contact:

Adil Arodiya

[email protected]

+91-9601334315

Director

OBU Technology

SOURCE OBURARITAN, New Jersey and MUMBAI, India, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ortho Clinical Diagnostics India has been certified as a Great Place to Work by the Great Place to Work Institute, India.

The rigorous assessment required to become a Great Place to Work-Certified  included an employee survey on culture and practices, interviews with employees, and essays on Ortho India policies, best practices, programs and day-to-day management behaviors.

"India is a key growth market for Ortho," said Alex Socarras, Ortho's chief commercial officer. "We're committed to delivering solutions that help hospitals, hospital networks and blood banks in India keep pace with increasing test volumes without sacrificing accuracy or precision. We do that by keeping our workforce excited, inspired and driven to support our customers  in short, by providing a 'great place to work.'"

The Great Place to Work-Certified  designation continues Ortho's momentum in India. Just this past year, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) honored Ortho with a Services Excellence Award recognizing our reputation for premium customer service and support. More recently, the India-based Economic Times recognized Ortho as one of the Best Asian Healthcare Brands for 2017.

"This latest recognition is yet another testament to Ortho's positive workplace culture and our commitment to service, which we demonstrate as a trusted adviser to our customers, partners and teams every day," said Anand Pande, vice president for Ortho's Asia-Pacific region. "In addition, access to actionable insights and recommendations from Great Place to Work - plus feedback obtained during our assessment - will help Ortho sustain its great workplace culture for years to come."

About Ortho Clinical Diagnostics

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics is a global leader of in vitro diagnostics serving the clinical laboratory and immunohematology communities. Across hospitals, hospital networks, blood banks and labs in more than 125 countries and territories, Ortho's high-quality products and services enable health care professionals to make better-informed treatment decisions. For the immunohematology community, Ortho's blood typing products help ensure every patient receives blood that is safe, the right type and the right unit. Ortho brings sophisticated testing technologies, automation, information management, and interpretation tools to clinical laboratories around the world to help them run more efficiently and effectively and improve patient care. Ortho's purpose is to improve and save lives with diagnostics, and it does that by reimagining what's possible. This is what has defined Ortho for more than 75 years, and it's what drives Ortho forward. For more information, visit www.orthoclinicaldiagnostics.com.

 Ortho Clinical Diagnostics 2018

PR-03824

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/376902/ocd_only_black_Logo.jpg

Related Links

http://www.orthoclinicaldiagnostics.com



SOURCE Ortho Clinical DiagnosticsPUNE, India, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Slaughtering Equipment Market by Type (Stunning, Killing, Cut-up, Deboning & Skinning, Evisceration), Livestock (Poultry, Swine, Bovine, Seafood), Automation (Fully Automated, Semi-automated), Process Type, and Region - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global market is estimated at USD 6.62 Billion in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 8.28 Billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 4.56% during the forecast period. The market is driven by factors such as the growth of fast food and restaurant chains; increase in demand for processed food; lenient trade policies & increase in meat exports; and technological advancements in the slaughtering equipment industry. The mechanization and automation of processes have become a necessity in order to maintain standard cut-up size and identical fillet size, which are a pre-requisite in the fast food and restaurant businesses. Moreover, slaughtering equipment manufacturers and meat processing companies are collaborating for enhanced technological advancements, thereby driving the growth of the Slaughtering Equipment Market.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg )



Browse 73 market data Tables and 34 Figures spread through 146 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Slaughtering Equipment Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/slaughtering-equipment-market-176187219.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

The killing segment, by type, estimated to account for the largest market share in 2018.

The killing segment is estimated to dominate the global Slaughtering Equipment Market in 2018. The killing method is followed by the stunning segment. A killing machine is a pre-requisite in every automated poultry, swine, bovine, and fish processing plant, which drives the growth of this segment.

The semi-automated segment, by automation, is estimated to be the larger segment in 2018.

The semi-automated segment, by automation, is estimated to account for the larger share in 2018. Medium- and small-scale manufacturers use semi-automatic slaughtering lines, which consist of equipment such as semi-automatic deboning equipment, killing equipment, and evisceration equipment. It is widely used in slaughterhouses as it has a lower initial investment and requires low maintenance costs, which drive the demand for semi-automated slaughtering equipment among the meat producers.

Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=176187219

The poultry segment, by livestock, is estimated to be the largest segment in 2018.

The poultry segment is estimated to account for the largest market share in 2018. Over the last five years, the demand for poultry has been growing significantly worldwide as poultry meat is universally consumed, and unlike beef and swine, is devoid of any religious constraints, which leads to an increase in demand for poultry slaughtering equipment such as killing, cut-up, deboning & skinning, and evisceration equipment.

The Asia Pacific market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2018 to 2023.

The Asia Pacific region witnesses a high consumption of meat in urban areas; the increase in demand for processed meat products drives the growth of the market for slaughtering equipment in the region. The market for slaughtering equipment in the Asia Pacific region is projected to be the fastest-growing globally, as economic growth and rapid urbanization increased the demand for slaughtering equipment among meat producers to meet the increasing demand of meat products in the region.

This report includes a study of various slaughtering equipment, along with the product portfolios of leading companies. It includes the profiles of leading companies such as Marel (Iceland), BADDER Group (Denmark), BAYLE SA (France), Prime Equipment Group (US), and CTB (US).

Know more about the Slaughtering Equipment Market:

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/slaughtering-equipment-market-176187219.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.

Contact:

Mr. Salgarkar

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]



Visit Our Blog: http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/food-and-beverage

Connect with us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets

SOURCE MarketsandMarketsMUMBAI, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Writer Information, a leading information management company, announced today that they are compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS v 3.2) for their services as certified by 'Global Technology and Information Security' which is the highest level of validation for safety and security of customer's payment card data.

Today, PCI DSS Compliance is the top-level standard by which companies' data security is measured. PCI DSS was launched to support the ongoing evolution of the Payment Card industry and is governed by the PCI SSC, an independent body that was created by major payment card companies like MasterCard, Visa, and American Express among others.

Commenting on this achievement, Mr. Veer Sappadla, Chief Operation Officer (COO) - Writer Information said, "In today's business scenario and technology era, companies have become increasingly vulnerable to external threats with comprised security. Writer Information has always maintained high standards in service quality and this recognition is a step towards benchmarking ourselves with global standards to ensure the security and protection of our customers' data."

On this occasion, Mr. Satya Mohan Yanambaka, CEO - Writer Information said, "The PCI DSS v 3.2 certification is a testimony of our rigorous focus not only on service quality, but also ensuring our client's information is secured using the most stringent level of data protection standards marked to global best practices. We are certain this milestone will strengthen our service delivery model for providing best possible data security by delivering solutions with a competitive edge."

PCI DSS has been a worldwide benchmark for security standards designed to ensure that companies that accept, process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment for the protection of cardholder identity and transaction data.

About Writer Information

Writer Information is a top-tier information management and solutions company in existence since 1987 and trusted by the best of enterprises. Writer Information services include Business Process Services, Secured Storage Services, Cloud and Data Center Services and a portfolio of Digital Solutions in Enterprise Content Management and Healthcare. Writer Information has grown into one of the largest and most comprehensive information management company, globally.

For more information, visit https://www.writerinformation.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/writer-information1987/

Media Contact:

Gaurav Chandidas

[email protected]

+91-22-6617-0100

Writer Corporation



SOURCE Writer InformationImproved Global Food Segment, Steady Fuel Segment Performance and Substantial Progress on Diamond Green Diesel JV Phase Three Expansion Review

IRVING, Texas, May 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Darling Ingredients Inc. (NYSE: DAR), a global developer and producer of sustainable natural ingredients from edible and inedible bio-nutrients, creating a wide range of ingredients and customized specialty solutions for customers in the pharmaceutical, food, pet food, feed, industrial, fuel, bioenergy, and fertilizer industries, today announced financial results for the 2018 first quarter ended March 31, 2018.

Revenue of $875.4 million , includes $12.6 million BTC from 2017 and $46.2 million reduction from ASC 606 adoption

Net income $97.3 million , or $0.58 per GAAP diluted share

Adjusted EBITDA $110.4 million

Strong global raw material volumes, up 2.7 percent

Lower feed segment EBITDA from lower fat pricing partially offset by robust protein values

Diamond Green Diesel debt free following $53.7 million debt payment

Euro Bonds refinanced late April, extending maturity from 2022 to 2026, more favorable terms

First quarter 2018 net sales of $875.4 million, compared to $878.5 million for 1Q 2017. Net income was $97.3 million, or $0.58 per diluted share, compared to $5.8 million, or $0.04 per diluted share in 1Q 2017. The increase is primarily due to the inclusion of the 2017 retroactive BTC passed in February 2018 and not reported in 1Q 2017. First quarter results also reflect a $46.2 million revenue reduction due to adoption of ASC 606 in Q1 2018 whereby freight revenue is now presented net in cost of sales.

"Operating results for the quarter were mixed, with lower Feed segment earnings offset by modestly improved Food and Fuel earnings. Harsh winter weather impacted many of our North American operations while global slaughter remained robust. Excess supply ultimately pressured prices in the Feed segment as raw material price adjustments lagged and inventories built. Steady and improving earnings in our Food and Fuel segments reflect the stability of those markets," said Randall C. Stuewe, Chairman and CEO of Darling Ingredients Inc. "Our DGD JV benefited from lower fat prices and provides a hedge to core Feed segment earnings. DGD operated at capacity post the 12-day turnaround at the predicted EBITDA per gallon run rate, and we remain optimistic we will achieve the predicted $1.25 per gallon EBITDA for the full year. We've made substantial progress on our cost analysis of the facility's Phase III expansion to 550 million gallons per year and expect to finalize our plans later this summer."

Stuewe continued, "Recently, we executed a private offering of 515 million of unsecured senior notes due 2026 at 3.625%. We concurrently conducted a cash tender offer of our outstanding 4.75% senior notes due 2022."

Feed Ingredients  EBITDA $68.5 million (down 9 percent); Revenue $485.8 million (down 12.1 percent); Margin $116.7 million (down 2.6 percent). Raw material processed up 3.4 percent.

 EBITDA (down 9 percent); Revenue (down 12.1 percent); Margin (down 2.6 percent). Raw material processed up 3.4 percent. Food Ingredients  EBITDA $32.4 million (up 1.9 percent); Revenue $305.5 million (up 14.8 percent); Margin $56.3 million (down 0.9 percent). Raw material processed up 3.7 percent.

 EBITDA (up 1.9 percent); Revenue (up 14.8 percent); Margin (down 0.9 percent). Raw material processed up 3.7 percent. Fuel Ingredients  EBITDA $25.6 million (up 146.4 percent); Revenue $84.1 million (up 40.9 percent); Margin $24.2 million (up 76.6 percent). Raw material processed up 3.2 percent.

 EBITDA (up 146.4 percent); Revenue (up 40.9 percent); Margin (up 76.6 percent). Raw material processed up 3.2 percent. Diamond Green Diesel JV  EBITDA $1.19 per gallon on 33.4 million gallons of sales. Retroactive BTC added $0.48 per share; Q1 2018 EBITDA, excluding the 2017 BTC, was $39.8 million , or $19.9 million entity level. Expected 45-day downtime mid-June for 275-million-gallon expansion; operations to commence around August 1 .

For More Information, contact: Melissa A. Gaither, VP IR and Global Communications Email : mgaither@darlingii.com 251 O'Connor Ridge Blvd., Suite 300, Irving, Texas 75038 Phone : 972-281-4478

Related Links

http://www.darlingii.com



SOURCE Darling Ingredients Inc.The Diana Davis Spencer Foundation has been a visionary supporter of higher education for many years, promoting social entrepreneurship to achieve greater peace and prosperity in local communities. The gift establishes a leadership position in the field, creating an endowed Professorship in Social Entrepreneurship and funding for entrepreneur-centered programs on campus. The unique Prac-ademic program is practitioner oriented and supported by academic rigor, making Wheaton College one of only a few liberal arts colleges nationwide to have a program headed by an endowed Professorship in Social Entrepreneurship.

Wheaton College President Dennis M. Hanno said, "GCSEN has been with us every step of the way. It's been an incredible partnership to grow together in this innovative arena. Social Entrepreneurship is about the power of linking shared visions and shared missions, making exponential social impacts. GCSEN, led by Mike Caslin, has been an important partner for Wheaton College and for me, and I thank him for that." Hanno added, "I am extremely grateful to Diana Davis Spencer, to the Foundation and her family, for their commitment to the idea that social entrepreneurship has the power to transform lives and shape communities. We share that belief, and the Foundation's gift will enable Wheaton to more fully develop our capacity to support students in pursuing interests that address society's most pressing issues."

Since 2015, GCSEN Foundation has been a leading force in growing the field of social entrepreneurship at the higher education level, offering its partner college campuses adaptable, ready-to-use blended learning curricula, merging classroom, on-line and personal life changing learning experiences for students. GCSEN trains future business owners and executives to "make meaning, make money, and move the world to a better place" by melding best business practices with sustainable local economy ventures. Through its SES Institute's on-line courses, campus-based Meaning Maker Boot Camps, faculty and administrator certifications, and at international academic forums, GCSEN has been spreading the word about the importance of growing the Social Entrepreneurship movement. GCSEN Foundation's goal is to transform the lives of 1 million millennials, while assisting in the formulation and launch of 10,000 new social ventures by 2027.

For Wheaton College, the gift is one of the largest in their 183-year history, and a "game-changer", according to President Hanno. His commitment to social entrepreneurship builds upon the college's pioneering work in combining rigorous liberal arts study with active and experiential learning opportunities. Hanno said, "The work that's been going on with GCSEN, and at the Boot Camp is really transformational for the students involved, while also helping them to have an impact on our community and society in general. It's heartening to see their ideas actually flourishing and coming to reality. My goal is to have the opportunity to have a hundred more student ideas become business and social project realities."

Mike Caslin, GCSEN Foundation Founder & President said, "We have a great and enduring relationship with Wheaton and with President Hanno, an innovative leader of social entrepreneurship college programming. We've been able to work with him and his staff to adapt our curricula platform into their existing program base, to create unique offerings for students who are hungry to implement '4 P' Social Entrepreneur Impacts by creating businesses for People, Profit, Planet & Place. We are happy to join Wheaton in celebrating Diana Davis Spencer Foundation's incredibly thoughtful and generous gift. I'm certain that the combined effort between her Foundation and Wheaton College will accelerate the movement."

The Wheaton Institute for Social Entrepreneurship is designed to help students develop an idea into a sustainable business or organization addressing a social issue. The Institute is a year-round program that includes the intensive Social Entrepreneur Meaning Maker Boot Camp, offered in partnership with the GCSEN Foundation and includes GCSEN's lifelong support network through GCSEN's THEOS alumni service.

GCSEN offers its innovative, life-changing blended-learning SES (Social Entrepreneurship System) Institute program to partnering college campuses, benefiting colleges with enhanced recruitment, and retention rates, and increased student intellectual and practical engagement.

GCSEN also offers its unique programs directly to individual students and adult learners through its on-line Social Venture Internship program. The Social Venture Internship (SVI) results in a badged Certification for course completion and LinkedIn use. SVI facilitates learners' developing their own businesses and social ventures, and allows lifelong access to GCSEN's THEOS alumni network, offering resume building, a GCSEN professional reference, and access to business networking opportunities. Contact GCSEN for details on their SES and SVI Programs.

Mike Caslin is an MBA graduate of Babson College and a Manhattanville College undergraduate. The Founder and President of GCSEN Foundation, he is currently Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at SUNY New Paltz Business School. A past faculty member of Babson College, CUNY-Baruch, Marist College School of Business and Manhattanville College, Prof. Caslin has been a featured lecturer and speaker at the Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Dartmouth Tuck School of Business, and Columbia Univ. Business School Eugene Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, among others. A published author on social entrepreneurship, he's been called in as an expert for the United Nations, the U.S. Congress and The White House.

For more information about GCSEN, or for an interview with Founder & President

Mike Caslin, call 212-444-2071; e-mail mike@gcsen.com or visit www.gcsen.com

Related Links

http://www.gcsen.com



SOURCE Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship Network FoundationTORONTO and LIMA, Peru, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Scotiabank today announced its Peruvian subsidiary, Scotiabank Peru, has reached an agreement with Cencosud Peru to acquire a 51% controlling interest in Banco Cencosud, which offers credit cards and consumer loans in Peru, for approximately CAD $130MM. Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will also enter into a 15-year partnership to manage the credit card business and provide additional products and services to customers. Scotiabank and Cencosud already have similar partnership arrangements in Chile and Colombia.

Scotiabank will become the second-largest credit card issuer in Peru following the closing of the transaction. The terms of the transaction are not financially material to Scotiabank. This agreement is subject to regulatory approval.

Cencosud is the second largest supermarket and fourth largest department store chain in Peru. Cencosud has operated in the country since 2007 under the Supermercados Wong, Supermercados Metro and Tiendas Paris brands, as well as shopping centres. Today, Banco Cencosud has more than 315,000 active clients and approximately CAD $240MM in outstanding loans in Peru.

"Building on our existing partnership with Cencosud enables us to increase Scotiabank's market share and presence in Peru and provides us with a larger base of customers to offer our leading financial products and services," said Ignacio (Nacho) Deschamps, Group Head, International Banking at Scotiabank. "This transaction also aligns to Scotiabank's broader international strategy to increase scale in the Pacific Alliance economies of Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia."

"Working together with Cencosud, Scotiabank will look to strengthen and build our credit card and consumer loan portfolio," said Miguel Uccelli, Country Head and Chief Executive Officer of Scotiabank in Peru. "Scotiabank Peru will leverage this increased partnership to build new customer relationships and drive organic growth in the Bank's retail portfolio."

Scotiabank in Peru and Latin America

Scotiabank established a presence in Peru in 1997.

in 1997. Scotiabank increased its presence with the acquisition of Banco Wiese Sudameris and Banco Sudamericano in 2006, Banco del Trabajo in 2008 and Citibank's Commercial and Retail portfolio in 2015.

In 2008, Scotiabank entered the Pension Funds business with the acquisition of Profuturo. Scotiabank increased its client base to 1.8 million with a 50% acquisition of AFP Horizonte.

Today, Scotiabank's banking division in Peru has close to 10,500 employees, 310 branches, 975 ABMs across the country and 3.5 million retail, corporate, commercial and institutional customers.

has close to 10,500 employees, 310 branches, 975 ABMs across the country and 3.5 million retail, corporate, commercial and institutional customers. Scotiabank operates in 11 countries across Latin American, with a primary focus on Mexico , Peru , Chile , and Colombia .

About Scotiabank

Scotiabank is Canada's international bank and a leading financial services provider in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Central America, and Asia-Pacific. We are dedicated to helping our 24 million customers become better off through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets. With a team of more than 89,000 employees and assets of over $923 billion (as at January 31, 2018), Scotiabank trades on the Toronto (TSX: BNS) and New York Exchanges (NYSE: BNS). For more information, please visit http://www.scotiabank.com and follow us on Twitter @Scotiabank.

Media enquiries - Scotiabank

Juan Iramain

416-866-4362

juan.iramain@scotiabank.com



Investor Relations - Scotiabank

Adam Borgatti

416-866-5042

adam.borgatti@scotiabank.com



SOURCE ScotiabankIf you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found hereCome enjoy your home away from home. Not only is First Cast Cabin cozy and beautiful inside - it has the most perfect view.

Come enjoy your home away from home. The cabin was built in the early 1900s and later relocated to Taylor Island. A charming cabin with updated electric and new furniture, mattresses and decor throughout the cabin. If you love the cozy feel of a modern farmhouse with shiplap and neutral colors - then you will enjoy The First Cast cabin for your next fishing trip on Caddo Lake.

Not only is First Cast Cabin cozy and beautiful inside - it has the most perfect view. As well as a dock to fish and catch the big one - see it to believe it in the photos on Airbnb. You have a large screened in porch for relaxing with some comfy patio chairs as well as a fire pit for wrapping up the night with s'mores by the fire. Firewood is available on site.

First Cast Cabin is a two bedroom and one bath home with a full size washer and dryer for your convenience in the laundry room. The kitchen has everything you need, as well as Keurig Coffee Maker. K-Cups are provided. Covered parking and a fenced in yard gives you the privacy for your stay.

Caddo Lake (French: Lac Caddo) is a 25,400-acre (10,300 ha) lake and bayou (wetland) on the border between Texas and Louisiana, in northern Harrison County and southern Marion County in Texas and western Caddo Parish in Louisiana. The lake is named after the Southeastern culture of Native Americans called Caddoans or Caddo, who lived in the area until their expulsion in the 19th century. It is an internationally protected wetland under the Ramsar Convention and includes one of the largest flooded cypress forests in the United States. Caddo is one of Texas's few non-oxbow natural lakes and is the 2nd largest in the South; however, it was artificially altered by the addition of a dam in the 1900s.

Caddo Lake has 71 species of fish, making it have the most diverse fish population in the state of Texas. The lake is, also, the home to 225 species of birds, ranging from the smallest of warblers to birds with six feet wing spans like the Great Blue Heron. Caddo Lake is a large maze of interconnected waterways, with over a hundred miles of clearly marked boat roads and more primitive boat roads that are not so easy to navigate.

About The Owners

We enjoy the outdoors, fishing, and pets. My wife is an active military member with the United States Airforce and Husband has been in automotive retail sales for 18yrs.

About Airbnb

Founded in 2008, Airbnb's mission is to create a world where people can belong when they travel by being connected to local cultures and having unique travel experiences. Its community marketplace provides access to millions of unique accommodations from apartments and villas to castles and treehouses in more than 34,000 cities and 191 countries. With Experiences, Airbnb offers unprecedented access to local communities and interests, while Places lets people discover the hidden gems of a city as recommended by the people that live there. Airbnb is people powered and the easiest way to earn a little extra income from extra space in a home or from sharing passions, interests and cities.Origins Roastery Interior We want our customers to know exactly what goes into their beverage. So much of what is out there is high-glycemic, calorie-laden drinks designed to mask the flavor of over-roasted and low quality coffee. -- Sean Miller, Owner of Origins Coffee Roasters

Origins Coffee Roasters, located in the heart of downtown Redmond and adjacent to the Eastsides premier cannabis store, Origins Cannabis, will open its doors on May 11th.

Origins Coffee Roasters (http://originsroastery.com/) will brew a selection of hand-picked beans from the best coffee regions of the world, including Ethiopia, Ecuador, and the Hawaiian Islands. Origins will prepare lattes and other specialty drinks using only natural alternatives not found in many cafes. Instead of calorie-dense sugar, Origins will use infused organic honey simple syrup. Milk options will include organic dairy and alternatives made from hemp, soy, and almond, as well as Origins flagship macadamia.

We want our customers to know exactly what goes into their beverage. So much of what is out there is high-glycemic, calorie-laden drinks designed to mask the flavor of over-roasted and low quality coffee, said Sean Miller, owner of Origins Coffee Roasters. We believe our customers deserve quality, natural ingredients. Coffee is a wonderfully complex and tasty product. Why mask it with inferior ingredients?

Origins Coffee Roasters is partnering with local bakeries and confectionary companies to pair each drink with a tasty treat. The goal is to introduce our customers to a new way of thinking about coffee. For us, its not just an on-the-go beverage. Its something meant to sip, experience and enjoy.

Miller is excited to offer patrons at Origins a one-of-a-kind coffee delicacy: Organic and wild Kopi Luwak coffee, a bucket list item everyone needs to try. These rare coffee beans are selected and eaten by Indonesian palm civet cats who have a special sense to select only the best beans. The whole beans are not digested, but instead, are enhanced by the digestive enzymes in the animal and then collected by local farmers. Because of the unusual harvesting process, kopi luwak is the rarest  and priciest  coffee in the world. Its certainly not an everyday beverage, but we strive to offer the best-tasting coffee drinks coupled with unique experiences, added Miller. We are also offering a free Kopi Luwak tasting for the first 100 customers on May 11th from 2 PM to 6 PM, now is your chance to try coffee that sells for $40 a cup for free.

Origins Coffee Roasters will offer three different beverage mediums: espresso, pour-over and French press. The espresso machines are made in Seattle by Mavam, makers of top-of-the-line devices, including the first espresso system to consistently serve shots at a precise 200 degrees. The temperature-controlled, patent-pending functionality ensures consistency and perfectly pulls the flavor from the beans.

Why Open a Cafe in the Same Building as a Cannabis Retail Store?

Coffee and cannabis are similar in that they both are meant to bring people together, Miller says. We want our store to be a hub for the community and a place for people to meet. Our approach with all Origins companies is to focus on education and experiences. We will carry that mission of education and discovery to our cafe.

Store Location and Contact:

Located just a few blocks away from the citys only outdoor mall  the Redmond Town Center  Origins Coffee Roasters is on the main bus route that runs through the town.

The address is:

16390 Cleveland Street

Redmond, WA 98052

Hours of Operation:

Monday - Thursday: 8:00 am  10:30 pm

Friday & Saturday: 8:00 am  11:30 pm

Sunday: 9:00 am - 9:00 pm

Phone #: 425.298.0170

Website: http://originsroastery.com/

About Origins Coffee Roasters:

Origins Coffee Roasters is a brand that exudes passion for brewing only the finest fair-trade, organic, hand-picked beans from the worlds best coffee regions, including Ethiopia, Ecuador, and the Hawaiian Islands. Origins Coffee Roasters takes pride in creating memorable and welcoming environments for its customers. At its core, we believe in quality and transparency. Quality has to be experienced to be appreciated. Our goal is to introduce our customers to a new way of thinking about coffee. For us, its not just an on-the-go beverage. Its something thats meant to sip, experience and enjoy.The Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys (AAAA) Launches New Resources to Help Streamline the Family Building Process When unifying under one organization, AAAA's goal was to ensure the protection and security of children through equality in adoption, foster care, and assisted reproductive technology while providing guidance and access to both adoption and assisted reproductive legal resources, Eric Stovall, Esq

The Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys (AAAA) announced today that it launched a refreshed brand identity including new, single online presence during its 2018 Annual Conference, Forging New Directions in Family Formation, held in Kansas City, Missouri. This is a significant next step in the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys evolution and the unification of two organizations, The American Academy of Adoption Attorneys (AAAA) and The American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys (AAARTA). The new name represents one Academy of attorneys guiding, advocating, and protecting all parties in adoption and assisted reproduction matters.

Retaining the acronym AAAA, the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys provides a credentialed presence in the law of family formation and is the largest professional organization of its type dedicated to advancing the security of children through permanent adoption, the protection of children through safe and secure foster care with appropriate permanency planning, and the recognition of intended parents as legal parents for those using modern medical technology to build families through assisted reproductive technology.

AAAA includes 470 attorneys, law professors and judges who are recognized as Fellows and practice adoption law, assisted reproductive technology (ART) law or both. Located around the globe  including the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Israel and the United Kingdom  Fellows of AAAA are considered legal thought leaders and are a highly-vetted, experienced group. AAAA Fellows use best legal practices and have helped thousands of clients through their family building journey. Admission to AAAA is a selective process that requires no less than five years of legal practice, at least 50 adoption or assisted reproductive technology proceedings, a referral for admission by a current AAAA member, and rigorous review for high ethical standards and competency by the board of directors.

Embarking on this latest chapter, AAAA created a new logo and a single domain and website adoptionART.org to reflect and support its mission throughout the United States and abroad. In addition to offering an easy-to-use and comprehensive Find an Attorney Directory, the website features expanded content designed to help guide families, donors, surrogates, birth and adoptive parents in adoption and assisted reproduction law while serving as a resource for Adoption, ART and partnering professionals.

When unifying under one organization, our continued goal was to ensure the protection and security of children through equality in adoption, foster care, and assisted reproductive technology while providing guidance and access to both adoption and assisted reproductive legal resources, said Eric Stovall, Esq., President of AAAA. Now with our new, just launched identity and single online presence via adoptionART.org, we are able to provide an even more user-friendly and accessible experience to streamline the family building process so all options are available to families from the start.

The Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys (AAAA) is a credentialed, non-profit organization dedicated to the competent and ethical practice of adoption and assisted reproduction law. It advocates for laws and policies to protect the best interests of children, the legal status of families formed through adoption and assisted reproduction, and the rights of all interested parties. It is represented by 470 attorneys or Fellows from the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Israel and the United Kingdom who specialize in adoption law, assisted reproductive technology law (ART) or both. AAAA is headquartered in Greenwood, Indiana. For more information, visit us at adoptionART.orgIn addition to providing opportunities to improve efficiency, our goal is to set North Texas Food Bank up for continued future success as they grow. We look forward to continuing to work with the organization in the future.

NFI, a leading supply chain solutions provider, donated supply chain engineering services for North Texas Food Banks (NTFB) new distribution center, The Perot Family Campus, in Plano, Texas. With deep expertise in logistics within the food and beverage vertical, NFI evaluated plans for NTFBs new operation and developed solutions to identify efficiencies and optimize the distribution centers design, layout, and processes.

The new distribution center, in addition to NTFBs current Dallas location, will enable a broader support base to meet the growing need for food assistance in the North Texas region. The distribution center will be approximately 250,000 sq. ft., with 30 percent of the building being freezer and temperature-controlled.

The North Texas Food Bank is non-profit relief organization, providing access to more than 190,000 meals each day for hungry children, seniors, and families across a 13-county service area. With a 10-year goal of providing access to 92 million nutritious meals annually by 2025, NTFB broke ground for the new location in February with a grand opening scheduled for Fall 2018.

Giving back to our local communities is a huge part of NFI, said Ike Brown, Vice Chairman of NFI. In addition to providing opportunities to improve efficiency, our goal is to set North Texas Food Bank up for continued future success as they grow. We look forward to continuing to work with the organization in the future.

As the Food Bank evolves and grows, we are glad to turn to our dedicated partners for innovative support, said Trisha Cunningham, President and CEO for the North Texas Food Bank. Talented team members from NFI provided the Food Bank with engineering solutions that will make our new distribution center a cornerstone for hunger relief in North Texas. We are so thankful for their support. NFIs expertise in the areas of design, layout, and logistics processes will allow for the Food Bank to meet the hunger needs for our area.

Learn more about North Texas Food Bank by visiting http://www.ntfb.org.

About NFI -- NFI is a fully integrated North American supply chain solutions provider headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. Privately held by the Brown family since its inception in 1932, NFI generates nearly $2 billion in annual revenue and employs more than 10,000 associates. NFI owns facilities globally and operates 41.5 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space. Its dedicated and drayage fleet consists of over 4,000 tractors and 8,900 trailers. Its business lines include dedicated transportation, distribution, transportation management, port drayage, intermodal, brokerage, global logistics, and commercial real estate. For more information about NFI, visit http://www.nfiindustries.com or call 1-877-NFI-3777.

About the North Texas Food Bank -- The North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) is a top-ranked nonprofit hunger-relief organization with its primary distribution center in Southwest Dallas, and administrative headquarters located in the Dallas Farmers Market. Each day, NTFB provides access to more than 190,000 meals for hungry children, seniors, and families through a network of more than 1,000 programs and more than 200 Partner Agencies. In fiscal year 2016, NTFB provided access to some 70 million nutritious meals. While the NTFB is making steady progress toward closing the hunger gap, much work remains to be done to reach the organization's 10- year goal of providing 92 million nutritious meals annually by 2025. http://www.ntfb.org.Moreno Ranches looks forward to the Miami Brahman cattle events each year.

Moreno Ranches, a top producer of Gray Brahman and Red Brahman cattle for sale, is proud to announce that they have successfully participated in this year's Magic City Sale in Miami. Now in its ninth year, the sale is an annual forum for Brahman cattle enthusiasts to purchase carefully selected livestock and genetics. Moreno Ranches has become a staple at the event, showcasing genetically superior Brahman females and semen for sale.

Moreno Ranches looks forward to the Miami Brahman cattle events each year, explained Kelvin Moreno, head of Moreno Ranches. We are very proud of our performance at the Miami show, and really enjoyed the Brahman cattle community from not just Florida but from all over the world that comes to the Miami event.Brahman Cattle for Sale

The sale offering from Moreno Ranches were widely accepted by the breeders in attendance and commanded top prices. Highlights from the 2018 Magic City Sale include the sale of MORENO MS. LADY ROSALINE 662/1 to the Maheu Family of Okeechobee, Florida.

Moreno Ranches has become one of the leaders of Brahman females for sale. It is because of its genetically superior seed stock that it has obtained recognition as a strong contender in the show ring and an exceptional value in the sales market. Moreno Ranches Brahman cattle for sale are backed by the M-check brand and are guaranteed to change the future of any ranch with any purpose in mind.

To learn more about Moreno Ranches and their top-rated Brahman cattle for sale, visit http://www.morenoranches.com/. Those who are interested in seeing Moreno Ranches "in person" at upcoming Brahman cattle shows are encouraged to visit the home page, scroll to the bottom and see a list of upcoming cattle shows. Alternatively, one can visit http://www.morenoranches.com/for-sale/, where past sales are listed. In some cases, photos and videos are posted so that one can see "online" Moreno Ranches in action. It should be noted that Moreno Ranches now has a Ranch in Texas. To learn more, visit http://www.morenoranches.com/contact-us-texas/.

ABOUT MORENO RANCHES

Moreno Ranches is a top producer of Brahman females for sale. Customers come to the company for genetically superior Brahman bulls for sale and Brahman semen (seed stock) as well as Brahman embryos. The company produces both Brahman cattle for sale including heifers and calves, including for use as show cattle or to produce Brahman F1 hybrids. Visit the company's website to browse stock. The company is a trusted source of Brahman cattle for sale whether a buyer is in Florida, Texas, or Louisiana - Latin America, or anywhere in the world.

Web. http://www.morenoranches.com/

Tel. 863 444 8745Harlingen Accident Attorneys Living in Texas, we know when to ramble on and when to get to the point.

The Villarreal Law Firm, a team of lawyers for accident and personal injury cases in Brownsville, Harlingen, and San Benito, Texas, is proud to announce a new informational page for Harlingen-related issues. Residents of the San Benito, Harlingen and South Padre Texas environs can review details regarding personal injury issues. Topics such as motorcycle accidents, construction injuries and slip and fall situations can be perused, with a focus on Harlingen.

Living in Texas, we know when to ramble on and when to get to the point, explained attorney Javier Villarreal, managing partner at the law firm. "Thats what our new informational page does. It provides clear details and support for the Harlingen community, or people who are victims of accidents in Harlingen and are looking for an attorney.

To review the new page for Harlingen accident attorneys, please go to https://www.jvlawfirm.net/harlingen/. Details about personal injury cases including slip and fall, car accidents, construction accidents can be found. Persons interested in legal information regarding auto and motorcycle injuries can read more on the car accident lawyer page at https://www.jvlawfirm.net/practice-items/auto-accidents/. In all cases, persons should not rely on the written information as it is not legal advice. Instead, they are urged to reach out to an attorney for a private consultation.

HARLINGEN ACCIDENT ATTORNEYS GET TO THE POINT

Here is background to this release. Texas residents may enjoy slow moments and rambling discussions depending on the topic. If Harlingen neighbors choose to talk about the weather or plans for a family vacation, the conversation could last hours. If a topic is more urgent, such as finding help after a car accident, it may be important to get information asap. A resident searching for a Harlingen accident attorney might want to find the right information quickly. Suffering from the pain due to an accident may cause undue stress. Speaking to a top Harlingen accident attorney about an injury case can help clear up confusion quickly. The first place a person will turn is the Internet, and the new informational page on Harlingen accident attorney information serves this need.

For these reasons, Villarreal Law Firm has announced a new web page for the residents of Harlingen, Texas. Clear and straight information concerning personal injury cases can be found. If a resident has been sideswiped by an 18 wheeler, a trucking accident lawyer can offer support. If a local has experienced a slip and fall injury at a business, details can be reviewed. Texas residents could enjoy long conversations regarding enjoyable topics. If a local needs to talk about an accident, however, Harlingen accident attorneys can get right to the point starting with this new online informational page.

ABOUT THE VILLARREAL LAW FIRM

The law firm of Javier Villarreal offers a team of attorneys, considered among the best personal injury attorneys in Brownsville, Texas, and surrounding cities in Cameron County. Whether a person is looking for an auto or car accident attorney, a lawyer with deep experience in trucking accidents and litigation (including 18 wheelers), or a lawyer for injuries that resulted from motorcycles, boating, or other forms of accidents (including slip and fall), the Villarreal team of attorneys can help. The attorneys fight for client rights throughout Cameron County - and are known as the top personal injury lawyers in Brownsville and Harlingen, from Los Fresnos to San Benito, and in all of South Padre Island.

Web. https://www.jvlawfirm.net/

Tel. 956-544-4444.BECK Digital, the Southeasts leading digital and development agency, is pleased to announce the formation of new community giving back initiatives to benefit South Carolinas Upstate area, specifically, web development and digital marketing internships, a web design and development scholarship, and expansion of their community service web projects and donations.

To promote further education and career preparation in the field, BECK recently announced the establishment of a web design and development scholarship for college students for the fall 2018 semester. This $500 scholarship is open to any highly-motivated student studying web design and/or development and enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree program by August 1, 2018, at any accredited U.S. College, university or technical college. Applications are due July 31, 2018. A BECK panel of experts in web design, programming and development will review applications and make an award decision by August 10, 2018. More information can be found by visiting http://www.beckdigital.com/web-design-scholarship or emailing careers@beckdigital.com.

Earlier this spring, BECK also announced two summer internship positions: one internship for web development and another for digital marketing and content. Both intern positions have been filled by students from regional universities. Blake Finn joined BECK as the web development intern. Finn is studying computer science at the University of South Carolina, graduating in the spring of 2019. Finn will focus on front-end development work and back-end software engineering projects for key clients. Alexandra Herbert has joined the agency as their digital marketing and content intern.

Herbert is a recent graduate of Clemson University with a bachelors degree in international business, and a focus on writing and marketing. She will be instrumental in the development and dissemination of original agency content, such as blog posts, case studies, and social media posts.

At BECK, we thrive on redefining the digital space and recognize the importance of nurturing emerging talents in our field. We believe that investing in young scholars betters the entire industry and community at large, said Ryan Beck, president and managing partner at BECK Digital. Our commitment goes beyond supporting college students; we are passionate about finding ways to support local and regional organizations, as well. It is part of our corporate DNA. Giving back strengthens business and life for everyone in the Upstate area.

BECK Digital has a long-standing tradition of giving back to the community. In 2017, BECK Digital wrote checks for over $30,000 in donations to organizations that serve the Greenville, SC and Asheville, NC communities. In years past, BECK donated to dozens of community service projects to benefit regional businesses and nonprofits.

In 2017, BECK donated $25k to Mission Philanthropy, the fundraising arm of Mission Health, for their Virtual Care project, which seeks to improve the health of those in western North Carolina by providing accessible, world-class healthcare via virtual care offerings and technology innovations.

Over the past ten years, BECK donated website, logo and print design services to the American Cancer Society to support one of their largest fundraiser in the Southeast, the Moonlight and Magnolias Gala. Beck also served on their Societys board for over ten years.

Similarly, a variety of website, logo and philanthropy services were donated to Greenville Health System over the past decade, where Beck also served on the development council for the GHS Childrens Hospital. BECK also custom developed and donated software for the Systems Virtual Toy Drive and for the Dragon Boat Upstate Festival.

Over the years, BECKs community service donations have spanned a number of businesses, from the United Way of Greenville County, YMCA of Greenville County, Spartanburg County and Anderson County, Safe Kids Upstate, Dogs for Autism, and Operation We Care  Support Our Soldiers. Additionally, Beck currently serves for Aid Joy and their Benjamin Franklin Experience as an educational mentor.

We want to help organizations make a difference in the communities that they serve, said Beck. When donating services, we dedicate our time and talent to delivering projects that will be treasured. We are committed to growing our investments and community outreach, as we are so proud to be a part of this growing region.

BECK is currently accepting community service project ideas. If you have a non-profit in Greenville, SC, or Asheville, NC, and are committed to transforming your community, please email give@beckdigital.com to submit ideas.

About BECK Digital

BECK Digital is a digital and development agency dedicated to building custom, data-driven technology solutions to enhance client operations, profitability, and online presence and performance. BECK specializes in the development of interactive websites and applications, custom software and enterprise-level business systems, interface design (UI), user experience (UX), and digital marketing. BECK Media, Inc., is a privately held company headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. All product and company names listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of BECK Media, Inc. For more information, visit http://www.beckdigital.com.Anthony R. Davidson, dean, Fordham PCS and Robert Morgenstern, director, Fordham Real Estate Institute, with moderator MaryAnne Gilmartin and panelists We look forward to continuing these conversations that we hope will inspire current and future real estate professionals to reach for the top, no matter what their challenges are.

Hundreds of real estate professionals and students gathered at Fordham University on Wednesday, April 25 to hear valuable insights from a handful of women who are making a lasting impact on commercial and residential real estate in New York City and beyond.

The Dealmakers: Lessons Learned on the Front Line from Iconic Women in Real Estate, was the inaugural event of The Fordham Real Estate Institutes new She Builds series. The panel was moderated by industry powerhouse MaryAnne Gilmartin, CEO at L&L MAG and former CEO of Forest City Ratner, who kicked off the event discussing her journey from the Urban Fellows Program during her undergrad years at Fordham to the industry C-suite.

My hope for the future, is that one day we will be able to have a meaningful discussion about business without mentioning were women, she said, eliciting applause from the captivated crowd.

Gilmartin led an inspiring discussion between some of the top female minds in the industry including:

Kathleen Donovan, Managing Director, Real Estate Finance Group, UBS; Nikki Field, Senior Global Advisor, The Field Team, Sothebys International Realty; Joan Sapinsley, former Head of Capital Markets and Portfolio Manager, CMBS, Resource Real Estate Funding; Christina A. Smyth, Esq., Owner, Smyth Law P.C. and President of RESA.

We are grateful to MaryAnne and all of the esteemed panelists for sharing their stories, deep insights and pearls of wisdom, which were so meaningful to all in attendance, said Anthony R. Davidson, PhD, MBA, dean of Fordhams School of Professional and Continuing Studies. We look forward to continuing these conversations that we hope will inspire current and future real estate professionals to reach for the top, no matter what their challenges are.

After sharing their own journeys, the panelists delved into some hot topics posed by both Gilmartin and audience members. Donovan and Field discussed their work on a global scale, attracting foreign buyers to New York City post-9/11 and during the recession, and how perseverance, especially when faced with adversity, is critical to success.

Speaking about the challenge of being sent to London in 2001 to set up her companys European practice just months after September 11, Donovan said, I should have failed; I had no infrastructure and no real business being there. But after two years I came back to the States with a lot of confidence in myself and my abilities.

I had a local business until 2008, and then suddenly there was no local business, said Field. I traveled for three years to places like Asia, Europe, Russia and South America in an effort to find foreign buyers for real estate in New York and beyond. I became an expert in what they were looking for and what attracted them to New York; that specialization was the key to my success.

Smyth and Sapinsley discussed their entrepreneurial journeys and second act careers in real estate. Smyth opened her own real estate law firm in 2010, about which she joked, It was the worst time we had ever seen in our industry and I started a business. Eight years later, she has no regrets about branching out on her own and forging her own path.

Sapinsley, who has spent 35 years on the financial/investment side of real estate after starting her career as a teacher, stressed the importance of paying it forward and the ability to adapt to challenges such as layoffs. She said, I have four big pieces of advice that I give everyone: Dont beat yourself up if you do get laid off. Network, network, network. Find something you love to reduce stress. Always take calls from people who have been laid off; you never know what it could lead to.

The audience posed questions seeking advice about post-graduate education, the importance of mentorship, being your own advocate, and what can be done to enable women to rise to the top in commercial real estate.

Let me make this clear: we dont want an advantage, we want an opportunity, said Gilmartin. In addition to advocating for ourselves, we need men to help champion our mission. We need women in these positions where they can set the precedent for other women to follow them.

The Real Estate Institute is a part of Fordhams School of Professional and Continuing Studies. The program will partner with The Business Council of Westchester for its next event, which will take place on Wednesday, May 30 at the Universitys West Harrison campus. For more information, visit https://www.fordham.edu/info/26670/real_estate_institute_events.

ABOUT THE FORDHAM REAL ESTATE INSTITUTE

The Fordham Real Estate Institute currently offers a Master of Science in Real Estate, a graduate certificate, and a comprehensive array of professional real estate certificates at its campuses in Manhattan and West Harrison, New York. Serving professionals and owners/investors of all stripes, the MSRE curriculum presents the essential elements of real estate finance, investment, development and management. Both programs developed and taught by leading industry practitioners are centered on imparting real-world professional skill sets. Flexibility and convenience are program hallmarks: classes can be taken in-person, online, and at various paces. The Real Estate Institute is a part of Fordhams School of Professional and Continuing Studies. For more information, visit http://www.fordham.edu/realestate.Dana Brevini Motions Systems Valves Catalogue in Automation Studio Famic Technologies Automation Studio is a valuable tool used by many of Danas OEM customers to fully and precisely simulate and understand the performance of Brevini products within a complete system [...]

Famic Technologies has released the first Dana Catalogue in Automation Studio, its design and simulation software solution. This version contains all screw-in, logic and CETOP valves developed under Danas industry-leading Brevini brand.

With this new catalogue, Automation Studio users will be able to design system circuits using Brevini-brand products. The catalogue provides both the symbol of a component and relevant technical/commercial data, as well as the modelling of its behaviour. With advanced simulation capabilities, various system functions can be validated including performance calculations, heat-load requirements and other engineering considerations such as pressure drop, horsepower and volumetric efficiency. The catalogue also includes a Product Configurator, allowing users to select any specific options available to a product. Once selected the part number, symbol and simulation model adapt accordingly.

Powerful system design and simulation software solutions help accelerate the delivery of complex products to market by condensing the development, integration, and testing cycles, said Giulio Ornella, director of innovation and advanced engineering for Dana. Famic Technologies Automation Studio is a valuable tool used by many of Danas OEM customers to fully and precisely simulate and understand the performance of Brevini products within a complete system, which helps them accelerate their development schedules and achieve a competitive advantage in their markets.

Charbel Nasr, President of Famic Technologies adds, For over 20 years now, we have been bringing manufacturers closer to OEMs and system integrators, by including manufacturers virtual catalogues in Automation Studio. We have been responding to users requests from various industries including the industrial, agriculture, marine, heavy machinery sectors, by developing on-demand components. This interest has been shared with Dana, who already has a worldwide presence in these industries, and it was mutually agreed to create their Brevini products catalogue with its content being validated by Dana. Making available the entire Brevini hydraulics product lines will offer a better support to the Automation Studio user community.4th Source supports Baltimore charities

4th Source will attend the annual charity fundraiser, Bourbon and Bowties, on May 10, 2018, at the Baltimore Museum of Industry.

Bourbon & Bowties is QG Community Charities' fundraiser, whose proceeds will benefit local chapters of the Semper Fi Fund and the Oyster Recovery Partnership.

We are extremely excited to work with the QG Community Charities, who have supported Baltimores homeless and other local charities for many years, says Chris Desautelle, President and CFO of 4th Source.

Bourbon & Bowties, which is held the Thursday following the Kentucky Derby, has raised more than $200,000 in the past two years. This year, the event will feature live and silent auctions to raise additional funds.

Attendees will wear bowties during the day of the event to create awareness for these charities.

ABOUT THE OYSTER RECOVERY PARTNERSHIP

The Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that plans, promotes and implements science-based and sustainable shellfish restoration, aquaculture, and wild fishery activities to protect the environment, support the economy and preserve cultural heritage. https://oysterrecovery.org/

ABOUT THE INJURED MARINE SEMPER FI FUND

The Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit set up to provide immediate financial support for injured and critically ill members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families. The organization directs urgently needed resources to post 9-11 service members within 24-72 hours of request. https://semperfifund.org/

ABOUT 4TH SOURCE

4th Source provides powerful, cost-effective IT services as an alternative to offshore outsourcing. Headquartered in Tampa, FL, 4th Source employs over 500 people in the US and Mexico and helps performance-driven businesses become digital strong with IT services, business process services, data services, and application development.

The hybrid nearshore-onshore model offers convenient proximity, similar time zones, efficiency gains, and significant cost savings. Inc. Magazine has recognized 4th Source as one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. six times. http://www.4thsource.comRe-Digging the Wells of Our Fathers: a wise and compassionate book about the biblical truths the modern world needs to rediscover. Re-Digging the Wells of Our Fathers is the creation of published author Colin Deibert, a theological autodidact and retired builder based in Virginia, who during his lifetime as a believer attended many different denominational and nondenominational churches.

Colin shares, The church has the problem of failure of transition. Israel of the Old Testament was a prototype for the Israel of the New Testament. It was the spiritual seed of Abraham that carried the spiritual sperm of God. Ishmael, Esau, and Manasseh were all sons of Abraham, but not the sons of God. Only their brothers Isaac, Jacob, and Ephraim were the sons to carry the spiritual seed. These are the sons that carried the double blessing. The first half of the blessing was to be a son of Abraham, which is akin to being born into the Christian family. The second half of the blessing was the anointing of the Spirit. This is akin to being filled with the Holy Spirit. This is where the Jew got lost. He insisted that his physical Jewishness carried the earmark of being a child of God. Much of the church today fails to see the impetus of transition from physical Israel to spiritual Israel. Jesus tells us in John 18:36, My kingdom is not of this world, if My kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence. This is teaching that goes beyond milk.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Colin Deiberts new book draws heavily and wisely from scripture to address many of the modern cultures frustrations and waywardness.

The author, firm in his conviction of Gods truth, bravely and solemnly speaks out against the churchs obsessions, false doctrines, malpractices, and fear of science, as well as societys myopic practices in everything from faithfulness in marriage and overall attitude toward the Christian faith.

View a synopsis of Re-Digging the Wells of Our Fathers on YouTube.

Consumers can purchaseRe-Digging the Wells of Our Fathers at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Re-Digging the Wells of Our Fathers, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.Mr. Loftus joins MPL from Ernst & Young where he was a business development leader in the energy sector in Houston. During the prior eleven years, Mr. Loftus held several senior roles with the General Electric Company, including as Global Sales Leader for GE Oil & Gas where he focused on LNG, CNG and Gas Processing solutions. Mr. Loftus received a B.A. in economics and business administration from the University of Missouri and an M.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.

MPL Chairman Robert Kelly said, As we continue to ramp up our activity to commercialize phase 1 of the MPL LNG project, I am excited to bring an executive of Joshs caliber and experience to join the leadership team of MPL. Joshs diverse skill set and breadth of knowledge in the LNG sector, particularly his expertise with the commercialization of modular LNG technology, will significantly bolster MPLs capabilities as we continue to advance the project.

About Mexico Pacific Limited LLC

MPL is a Pacific Coast North American liquefaction facility that has substantial cost and logistical advantages versus other US facilities serving the Pacific Basin. Based at Puerto Libertad in the state of Sonora, Mexico, MPL has a deep-water port and is interconnected with the US shale gas grid by multiple natural gas pipelines, which are already in service, to bring natural gas to the site. The Company is permitted for up to 12 MTPA of LNG and targets the initial construction of 2 to 4 MTPA using modular LNG technology. MPL is a joint venture of DKRW Energy Sonora Holdings, LLC and AECOM Capital Private Infrastructure. For more information on MPL please visit http://www.mexicopacificlimited.com.

About AECOM Capital

AECOM Capital, a subsidiary of AECOM, is an investor and developer of infrastructure, real estate, and public-private partnerships across North America and select international markets. AECOM Capital Private Infrastructure invests in value added infrastructure opportunities. The vehicle makes equity commitments to the development, redevelopment, and construction of core infrastructure assets throughout North America with a focus on opportunities in the energy, transportation, water and technology sectors. The investment vehicle focuses on mid- and late-stage developments, where AECOM Capital can bring early institutional capital to a project. For more information, visit http://www.aecom.com/aecom-capital/private-infrastructure/.

AECOM, a premier, fully integrated global infrastructure firm, designs, builds, finances and operates infrastructure assets for governments, businesses and organizations in more than 150 countries. A Fortune 500 firm, AECOM had revenue of approximately $18.2 billion during fiscal year 2017. See how AECOM delivers what others can only imagine at aecom.com and @AECOM.

Contact

Robert Kelly

Chairman

rkelly(at)mexicopacificlimited.com

Josh Loftus

President

jloftus(at)mexicopacificlimited.comFour Leaf Properties, pioneer in the manufactured home (MH) revolution, announces the sale of its community portfolio. Four Leaf is selling all 24 of its communities -- with 7,000 sites -- in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Texas -- to Colorado-based YES! Communities. YES! is the U.S.s fourth largest MH community owner/operator.

We care deeply about the affordable housing problem, says Mike Callaghan, co-founder of Four Leaf Properties. Were excited to transition our revitalized properties to YES!, an esteemed operator that shares our commitment to industry quality. Even post sale, our mission remains the same -- to provide home ownership and unmatched manufactured housing community experiences. Four Leaf is acquiring more properties to replenish our portfolio and stewarding our unique line of MH property management services.

For the past decade, Four Leaf Properties acquired manufactured home communities and bolstered their value by bringing in new homes, financing the homes, and massively improving community amenities and lifestyle experience.

This sale positions Four Leaf to purchase and enhance more MH properties and communities across the U.S. Leveraging its secret sauce -- the FLOhome digital platform -- Four Leaf provides financing, digital marketing and sales support, to all MH communities owned and managed. Four Leafs Third-Party management and New Homes program services also continue to thrive.

The need for affordable housing is across all demographics, says Kevin Shaughnessy, co-founder of Four Leaf Properties. Millennials seek homes for their new families and Baby Boomers want to downsize. Manufactured homes and the community lifestyle experience is an outstanding choice at an attainable price.

ABOUT FOUR LEAF PROPERTIES: In 2011, business partners Kevin Shaughnessy and Mike Callaghan -- after selling their $12M data analytics/tech company -- moved into the burgeoning manufactured home (MH) industry. Founding Four Leaf Properties, the team facilitates MH ownership, property management, home retailing, insurance, mortgage loans, community growth, and resident satisfaction.

# # #

For more information, please contact Lisa Lane at llane(at)fourleafprop(dot)com or 630-664-3806Daniel Viassolo We humbly support that mission and intend our modest donation will go toward helping underprivileged parishioners and bringing the light of Christ into this world

Daniel Viassolo, along with his wife and family, recently announced a $1,000 donation to benefit St. Jerome Catholic Church in Houston, Texas.

The purpose of the donation is to support the community engagement mission of the church and help those in need. For over 50 years, St. Jerome Catholic Church has been welcoming Houston-area residents and parishioners.

On July 4, 1960, Bishop Wendelin J. Nold purchased a remote 14 acre tract which became the home of St. Jerome Parish. In appointing Rev. Msgr. Alfred W. Raye as the founding pastor, he told him, "I'm giving you 14 acres of Johnson grass and good luck." The original tract included Kempwood. The parish later sold this land for the street and townhouses and began buying lots to the south of property, one by one.

Among the first orders of business, Fr. Raye established a parochial school, a parish religious education program, a woman's club, a CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) chapter, a Holy Name Society and a Parish Council. Fr. Raye was known for his strict policy, "Mass isn't over until the last blessing," and heaven help those who tried to leave early. His favorite saying was, "What we do for each other must be secondary to what we do for God."

The mission of St. Jerome Catholic Church is [t]o use the talents, time and treasure God has given us, in a spirit of generosity and compassion, for the good of those less fortunate than ourselves, to spread the word of God through evangelization and Catholic education, and to live our faith so that others may say, We can tell they are Christians by their love.

We humbly support that mission and intend our modest donation will go toward helping underprivileged parishioners and bringing the light of Christ into this world, said Daniel Viassolo.

About Daniel Viassolo

Daniel Viassolo moved to the United States from Argentina in 1994 to pursue his graduate education at Purdue University, where he was sponsored by an international scholarship first, and later by a Graduate Research Assistantship. Daniel obtained his PhD in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue in 2000.

Over the last 18 years, Daniel Viassolo has made impactful contributions to the field of Industrial Asset Health Management and Controls, covering diverse applications domains  oil and gas, renewables, jet engines  and co-authoring 19 US patents, 30+ technical publications, and one book.

To connect with Daniel Viassolo, visit:

Researchgate

Google Scholar

LinkedIn

Facebook

TwitterOlivia Segalman, Communications Coordinator

Tampa Preparatory School

727 W. Cass Street, Tampa, FL 33606

osegalman(at)tampaprep.org | 813-251-8481 | tampaprep.org

This month, students across the globe are taking AP exams. As many of them probably wonder, who creates these exams? Who grades them? This summer, the answer is right in their hometown. Two members of Tampa Preparatory Schools History and the Social Sciences department hold major roles in the national AP exam creation and grading process. The positions that these women hold with the College Board are elite, to say the least, but to have two people from the same department at the same school hold such positions? Unheard of.

AP World History teacher Enaye Englenton will be serving as a Question Leader (QL) for the short answer portion of the AP World History exam, and AP European History teacher Kim Jago will also serve as a QL for the document-based questions of the AP European History exam.

Englenton has been an AP Reader--which means she graded AP World History exams from students across the country--since 2011. On average, an AP Reader reads 1,000 essays during the week theyre grading. It is no small feat. In 2015, she was asked to become a Table Leader (TL), which meant she was responsible for training eight AP Readers on how to score the material or, as they say, be on standard. She then oversaw and supervised that table of eight readers throughout the scoring process. She was a TL for two years before being asked to serve as QL in 2017.

People think were crazy because we love going to the AP Read, says Englenton. The first year I did it, I didnt know anyone other than one teacher from an area school. It is probably--for an AP teacher--the best form of professional development you can get, and youre paid to do it!

This year as QLs, Englenton and Jago will work with the Exam Leader and Chief Reader of those exams to create the standards for scoring the question to which they have been assigned. What would qualify as standard historical evidence? What constitutes a good response? After some collaboration, the established standards become the basis for training the TLs of the teachers and professors who grade that question. The standards that Englenton and Jago help create are published by the College Board on their website and used to train new teachers.

Englenton is certain that being a QL benefits her students directly. She says, Having to think like the 280,000 students who take this exam each year, getting myself in the mindset of the average student whos never seen this question before and thinking, How would I respond?. This helps me as a teacher to be more thoughtful about how I create materials for my own students.

Like Englenton, in 2012, Kim Jago was invited to be on the European History Curriculum Development and Assessment Committee for the AP European History exam, which later transitioned into the Test Development Committee. Her initial job on this committee was literally to be the final set of eyes on the AP exam before it went to press, a duty she did not take lightly. I deliberately dont remember any of it, of course, but thats how much they trust us.

AP Development Committees are made up of an equal number of college faculty and experienced secondary AP teachers from across the country who develop course curriculum, determine general content and ability level of each exam, determine requirements for course syllabi and write and review exam questions.

After four years on that committee, Jago became the Co-Chair aligning proposed test questions (submitted by the Educational Testing Service or outside writers) with the AP curriculum. Its an amazing ride working with people who are experts in the field, she says. Every word counts. As a high school teacher, Im a generalist. The PhDs bring something else completely different to the table. They are experts in their specific field. To sit at the table with them, and then stay in touch with them, is a privilege.

And just what do they do at that table? The committee meets about three or four times a year, and at each meeting they spend time--a lot of time--playing with those questions until everyone agrees that theyre fair. On a recent conference call, she said they spent an hour working on one multiple choice question and three long essay questions. When youre working with many PhDs it will take you 20 minutes per line of text at least to go over [each question]. Theyll go word-by-word to determine how the question will be interpreted.

She mentions the importance of charts and graphs and how careful they need to be to make sure that everyone with any form of learning disability can read the chart or graph. Its amazing how hard it is to do that, she says. You cant use color. Its expensive, yes, but also unfair to the color-blind. You have to be fair. Currently, her committee is working on the 2020 AP European History exam.

At the end of the day, its all about the students. Englenton says it best, Were all in this to help students. It doesnt matter is if its our students or someone elses; we just want to help students succeed.Melissa Weinberg Her company continues to expand at an exponential rate earning her spot as a leader in the Sunless beauty industry.

Melissa Weinberg is the founder of Perfect Glow Sunless by Melissa Weinberg a luxury sunless cosmetic beauty brand. She is also a South Florida spray tan expert & educator since 2009 and her company has become a top leader in the Sunless industry receiving 5 star reviews from retail consumers, salons and spas worldwide.

Since facing skin cancer Melissa wanted a safer way to tan and was not happy with the ingredients or unnatural color results that she found in many self-tanning products on the market. So in 2004 she worked with a top cosmetic chemist to curate her own sunless beauty line. Since then Perfect Glow Sunless has grown at a exponential rate making it's mark in the sunless beauty industry.

Weinberg just had the exciting opportunity to audition for Shark Tank season 10 in Las Vegas! So stay tuned to see what might happen! You can read her blog about that great experience http:// https://perfectglowsunless.com/my-shark-tank-open-casting-call-experience/

Her entrepreneurial journey is truly an American dream success story and something that is rarely achieved by most in the beauty industry. She was recently featured in Voyage MIA as a Palm Beach most inspiring story and over the years her entrepreneurial journey was highlighted in Learnvest.com and featured in Forbes.com, Huffington Post and Money magazine. (Turning a side gig into a 9-5 business) as well as other outlets.

Weinberg started her company out of her house as a 1 woman show in her late 30s. She packed orders in her guest bedroom and to save money had to learn how to do her own marketing, sales and even web design to grow her brand. For the first few years she also worked a full time 9-5 job in the corporate industry & spray tanned clients on nights and weekends.

Since then she has successfully beat the odds and has grown her company into a prominent worldwide brand, all without the help of investors. Perfect Glow Sunless has earned Weinberg a spot as a well respected leader in the Sunless beauty industry. She hopes to have the chance to pitch to the sharks and get the opportunity to expand the reach of her products even further within the beauty industry. One of her business goals is to partner up with retail outlets such as Sephora or QVC to showcase her luxury self tanning line.

About Perfect Glow Sunless by Melissa Weinberg

Melissa is a strong believer in well-being and an advocate for health. She is passionate about offering the world a luxurious beauty product that is safe to use and a product that will offer that perfect glow without the perils of natural sun bathing or the hassles of mainstream tanning products.

This luxury line of self-tanning and body care products last longer and are superior color compared to others on the market. Formulated with top shelf ingredients such as Moroccan Argan Oil, Coconut Oil, Hemp Seed oil & Marine extracts to name a few & without the nasty chemicals used in other products in the market, such as parabens, formaldehyde, sulfates, mineral oils, glycols, glutens or petrochemicals. They are also certified vegan & Cruelty free by PETA as part of their Beauty Without Bunnies Program. Now consumers can get a healthier, top quality salon grade tan in the comfort of their own home.

Her beauty brand has provided salon owners & retail consumers worldwide with the highest quality of sunless tanning products, earning rave reviews in the process and used on celebrities to give them their red carpet glow. The company's mission is to provide top quality products, consumer education and excellent customer service. Ms. Weinberg also provides sunless education, training and mentoring to industry professionals worldwide with her Perfect Glow Spray Tan Academy.

Retail consumers wishing to find out more about Perfect Glow Sunless by Melissa Weinberg and its products can discover more at the company website, located at [https://Perfectglowsunless.com.

For more information on the Spray Tan Academy please visit https://learntoairbrushtan.com

The Facebook and Instagram page can be viewed via these links

https://www.facebook.com/Perfectglowsunless/

https://www.instagram.com/perfectglowtanning/Already thousands of minors have undergone conversion therapy, many at the sole discretion of a parent or guardian. Help ensure that the youth of New Hampshire are no longer subject to this injustice by contacting Governor Chris Sununu in support of this bill. - State Rep. Eric Schleien

New Hampshire House Bill 587 (HB 587), banning the practice of conversion therapy on minors, was recently amended and passed in the state Senate. The bill, which originated in the New Hampshire House of Representatives under State Rep. Eric Schleiens (R-Hillsborough) sponsorship is now on the path to making it to the desk of New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu for signature.

Conversion therapy, also sometimes referred to as sexual orientation change efforts or reparative therapy, includes a range of practices that attempt to change an individuals sexual orientation or gender identity. Talk therapy is most commonly used by licensed healthcare professionals practicing conversion therapy, although some use aversion treatments that can include inducing nausea, vomiting, paralysis or applying electric shocks.

Leading professional medical and social science organizations have denounced conversion therapy for not only its ineffectiveness, but the associated dangers. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry warns, Clinicians should be aware that there is no evidence that sexual orientation can be altered through therapy, and that attempts to do so may be harmful. The potential risks of reparative therapy are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior, elaborates the American Psychiatric Association.

Conversion therapy has already been deemed unethical by the foremost professional organizations, explains Schleien. Writing this bill into legislation enables the New Hampshire professional licensing boards to enact the disciplinary actions necessary to stop this dangerous and discredited practice.

Under Schleiens bill, any licensed health care professional practicing conversion therapy on a minor would be engaging in unprofessional conduct and subject to discipline by their licensing authority. In addition, HB 587 makes it easier for authorities to charge entities practicing conversion therapy with fraud.

In a study released in January of this year, the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law estimated 20,000 LGBT minors will undergo conversion therapy by a licensed health care professional in states without laws banning the practice. The number is much higher when it includes LGBT youth that will receive the treatment from a religious or spiritual advisor.

National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) Born Perfect Strategist and conversion therapy survivor, Mathew Shurka, emphasizes the prevalence of the practice: I am one of 700,000 people in the United States who have been through conversion therapy. After surviving five years of conversion therapy, I am fortunate enough to share my story, have my family by my side, and prevent other youth from ever being subjected to the cruel procedures of conversion therapy. 78,000 teenagers will go through conversion therapy in the next five years. My intention is to get that number to zero. New Hampshire being the next state to pass this bill will save lives, families, and protect our youth.

Similar legislation in other states has received bipartisan support, with Republican governors in Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, and New Mexico signing bills banning conversion therapy into law. HB 587 was first voted down in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. It passed in January after a representative requested a re-vote when he realized he had mistakenly voted it down.

Schleien hopes LGBT youth undergoing the practice of conversion therapy will be quickly outlawed in New Hampshire. We are very close to seeing HB 587 signed into law. This legislation is an important protection of our citizens and our childrens civil liberties. Already thousands of minors have undergone conversion therapy, many at the sole discretion of a parent or guardian. Help ensure that the youth of New Hampshire are no longer subject to this injustice by contacting Governor Chris Sununu in support of this bill.

To contact Governor Chris Sununu in support of signing HB 587 into law:

Write:

Office of the Governor

State House

107 North Main Street

Concord NH 03301

Call:

(603) 271-2121

Fax:

(603) 271-7680Community Bank & Trust of Florida, a $725 million bank with branches in North Central Florida, has selected Infinex Financial Group (Infinex) as its new broker/dealer. Florida Community Financial Services has completed the conversion from Invest Financial to Infinex. Both organizations look forward to a successful, long-term partnership.

As our program grows, it was important that we partner with a broker/dealer that really understands the community banking model. As their shareholders are made-up of community banks, Infinex has a real commitment to banks like ours. Also, the stability of the firm, having had the same leadership team and ownership structure in place for many years, is very attractive. By leveraging their resources and support, we will be able to take our investment program to the next level by offering quality wealth management products to the communities we serve, said Hugh Dailey, CEO and President of Community Bank & Trust.

We reviewed just about every investment firm during our due diligence process, stated David Johnson, senior Financial Advisor of Florida Community Financial Services. We selected Infinex because they seemed like the best fit for our customers, our bank and our program. They are committed to the financial institution space and all of their resources are geared towards helping advisors in banks gather more assets and provide better service to their clients.

The Infinex team is very excited that Community Bank & Trust of Florida has chosen to partner with us, said Stephen Amarante, Infinexs President and CEO. Our ability to help them implement best practices, our personalized relationship support model and our lead generation process, will all help them grow their program.

Financial institutions or advisors interested in learning more about Infinex can contact the Business Development Team at 1-800-218-2827 or visit http://www.infinexgroup.com.

About Infinex Financial Group

Infinex is a leading provider of investment, insurance, and wealth management products and services to financial institutions and their customers. The firm, headquartered in Meriden, CT, has a unique history of being formed by banks, owned by banks, and focused on providing service to financial institutions.

For more information, please visit Infinex at http://www.infinexgroup.com.

About Community Bank and Trust of Florida

Community Bank & Trust of Florida was established in 1998. The bank is a member of the FDIC and currently has 11 full-service banking offices with locations in Belleview, Gainesville, Ocala, Summerfield and The Villages. Its primary businesses are comprised of deposit, credit, trust, residential and commercial loans and investment services. The company has over $720 million in assets and employs 135 people.I am very excited about this new opportunity to join forces with an industry leader like Reliance. In addition to supplying our customers with GHS chemical labels, Reliance can now support our customers dangerous goods transportation marking needs as well, said Thompson.

Reliance Label Solutions announces they are entering the compliance and safety market with Justin Thompson as General Manager of Reliance Safety Signs, a division of Reliance Label Solutions. Reliance Safety Signs focuses on DOT IATA, IMO and EPA labels, placards, signage, and markings.

Justin Thompson joins Reliance with 30 years of experience focused on hazmat shipping labels, placards and signs for the safe transportation, handling and storage of dangerous goods. Thompson will serve as General Manager for Reliance Safety Signs.

I am very excited about this new opportunity to join forces with an industry leader like Reliance. In addition to supplying our customers with GHS chemical labels, Reliance can now support our customers dangerous goods transportation marking needs as well, said, Thompson.

Reliance Label Solutions is a leading provider of GHS harsh environment labeling solutions for the petroleum and chemical industries. Reliance Safety Signs, a division of Reliance is a leading provider of DOT labels, placards and signage. Reliance is headquartered in Paola, KS, 45 miles south of Kansas City.

You can reach Justin direct by email at: jthompson(at)reliancesafetysigns(dot)com or call 1-800-997-6120

For more information on Reliance Label Solutions visit http://www.reliancelabel.com or call 1-800-656-9476.Substance Use Withdrawal Monitoring Checklist We want to show that technology can improve quality of life and the lives of people in our community who need assistance, without stigma. We can help tackle the Opioid Epidemic with technology and a new approach" Says Joseph Puopolo CEO, Co-Founder Preemptive

Over the past year, local start-up Preemptive has engaged with local healthcare provider Stonehenge Therapeutic Community. The idea was simple; create a better way to manage community withdrawal management across a wide patient population in Waterloo Wellington through technology.

The first step to bring together technology and healthcare to improve the patient experience and reduce risk has been launched with a partnership between local business, Preemptive Inc. and Stonehenge Therapeutic Community, a Guelph-based not-for-profit.

"We want to show that technology can improve quality of life and the lives of people in our community who need assistance, without stigma. We can help tackle the opioid epidemic with technology and a new approach" Says Joseph Puopolo CEO, Co-Founder Preemptive

Before meeting Preemptive, the challenge for Stonehenge was using a small investment of funds to provide a broad range of withdrawal support services across all of Waterloo Wellington. During this opioid crisis, it is key that those suffering with chronic and acute substance use issues get the support and treatment they need.

What Stonehenge Therapeutic Community has been able to do through working with Preemptive Inc. is:



Engage clients with an interactive app related to their recovery

Receive instant client feedback to reduce the risk of withdrawal in the community

Increase worker efficiency and communication

Deliver an easy to use, collaborative environment for staff and clients to communicate to improve everyone's experience

This collaboration between a technology entrepreneur and a health service provider resulted in more direct, streamlined communication channels. This innovation has allowed staff to gain immediate feedback from clients and improve the quality of care in the Community Withdrawal Support Service in Cambridge, Guelph and Kitchener/Waterloo. The experience for both staff and clients will be significantly improved.

"It was a very lucky day for Stonehenge Therapeutic Community when we collided with Preemptive last year at the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network sponsored Collision Day at Communitech," Says Heather Kerr, Executive Director at Stonehenge. "Our new app for the Community Withdrawal Support Services improves client engagement, lowers risk and increases worker efficiency."

Stonehenge Therapeutic Community is the first Care Facility to pilot this innovative technology with Preemptive. The app is now spreading to other healthcare facilities like House of Friendship.

In the next 18 months Preemptive and Stonehenge are aiming to work closely together to take their partnership to new levels.

"Solving the current opioid crisis can't be done by one organization or sector alone. We need to work together to implement more innovative, person-centred approaches. This is why we were proud to bring together the local tech community with our local health service providers and Communitech to work on solutions together. Because of this, residents will benefit from a partnership between Preemptive and Stonehenge that will better support those dealing with opioid withdrawal. This innovation has the potential to spread across Waterloo Wellington, benefiting thousands." Elliot Fung, Executive Lead, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at Waterloo Wellington LHIN (Local Health Integration Network)

Preemptive was founded in Waterloo Region and Incubated at the Accelerator Centre.Workplace Performance Experts Archbright has helped Washington State employers with their HR and legal advice for over 80 years. What weve learned is that a healthy workforce is a happy workforce. We are thrilled to support these organizations."

Archbright, a go-to resource for HR advice and legal counsel for employers in Washington State, Idaho, and Oregon, today announced $200,000 in funding to be distributed to 6 non-profit organizations that provide health and wellness services to the Puget Sound community.

In 2014, Archbright endowed $1.8 million to be awarded over 10 years via the Seattle Foundation in the amount of $200,000 each year. The mission of Archbrights Health and Wellness Fund is to encourage healthy lifestyle outcomes of Pacific Northwest residents through promotion of health and wellness education, research, and services.

Archbright has helped Washington State employers with their HR and legal advice for over 80 years. Our members currently represent over 150,000 employees in the Pacific Northwest, said Archbright president and CEO Shannon Kavanaugh. What weve learned is that a healthy workforce is a happy workforce. We are thrilled to support these organizations where health and wellness is at the heart of their mission.

Grants were awarded this year to support the general operating expenses of these organizations:



Bloodworks Northwest saves lives through research, innovation, education and excellence in blood, medical and laboratory services in partnership with our community.

CHOICES Education Group empowers teens to make positive choices to increase their life opportunities and support their health and wellbeing.

FareStart helps people overcome the barriers to employment by developing the work and life skills they need to have lifelong careers through social enterprise restaurants, cafes, catering, and community meals programs.

Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center improves the bodies, minds, and spirits of children and adults with disabilities through equine-assisted therapies and activities.

Neighborcare Health is the largest provider of primary medical, dental, and behavioral health care services in the Seattle area for low income and uninsured families and individuals, seniors on fixed incomes, immigrants, and the homeless.

Northwest Kidney Center is the worlds first dialysis organization, promoting the optimal health, quality of life, and independence of people with kidney disease through patient care, education, and research.

About Archbright

Archbright is the go-to resource for employers in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. At our core, we offer HR Advice and Legal Counsel through annual membership. Our focus is helping companies elevate workplace performance. With three membership levels to choose from, benefits may include access to the HR Hotline, On-Call Safety Advice, the online HR Toolkit, Employment Law and Labor Law advice, Compensation Survey Data, and more. Learn more at: http://www.archbright.com.

About Seattle Foundation

Seattle Foundation ignites powerful, rewarding philanthropy to make Greater Seattle a stronger, more vibrant community for all. Focused on creating equity and opportunity, our goal as a community foundation is to simplify giving and strengthen the impact of philanthropy for the more than 1,200 individuals, families, businesses and nonprofits we serve. We provide deep community insights, powerful civic leadership, effective philanthropic advising and judicious stewardship of assets in support of our mission. In addition, Seattle Foundation annually presents GiveBIG, a 24-hour online giving event to raise funds for area nonprofit organizations. Learn more at: http://www.seattlefoundation.org.Panaceas Hospital Zero-Base Pricing system, used by hospitals and health systems, allows for the development of rational and defensible prices.

Panacea announced today that their Hospital Zero-Base Pricing system will align with the proposed IPPS rules for FY 2019 released by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The proposed rules issued by CMS on April 24 require healthcare organizations to publish their standard charges online by January 1, 2019 and update these charges on an annual or more frequent basis where needed.

Consequently, hospitals will have seven months to assess and align their prices to ensure they are rational and defensible from a consumer and competitive standpoint. In addition, CMS intends to seek public comment on mechanisms to enforce the pricing transparency requirements, making it even more critical for hospitals to implement a strategic approach to pricing.

Panaceas Hospital Zero-Base Pricing program, used by hospitals and health systems, allows for the development of rational and defensible prices, said Mark Spehar, Senior Vice President at Panacea. This software allows organizations to use unit cost, provider market data, payor contract terms and financial objectives to establish hospital pricing.

Panacea developed and pioneered Hospital Zero-Base Pricing. This software, used by hospitals and health systems nationwide, has received the coveted Peer Reviewed by HFMA designation for six consecutive years. To learn more about Hospital Zero-Base Pricing, visit our website http://www.panaceainc.com/zero-base-pricing.html or call 1-866-926-5933.

About Panacea

Panacea, a Career Step company, helps healthcare organizations improve their bottom lines and strategic market positions with front-line expertise in revenue-cycle management, smart software and enterprise-level educational solutions. Designed for the healthcare professionals responsible for financial performance or compliance, Panacea helps identify opportunities and overcome todays challenges, providing the clear answers needed to swiftly and cost-effectively achieve quality results. More information is available at panaceainc.com.All of us have been fighting for decades for people with disabilities to be welcomed, celebrated and included in the workforce, said SourceAmerica President and CEO Steve Soroka. And that is what our shared purpose is all about.

SourceAmerica honored its annual National Achievement Award winners as the high point of its annual conference at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis May 9.

All of us have been fighting for decades for people with disabilities to be welcomed, celebrated and included in the workforce, said SourceAmerica President and CEO Steve Soroka. And that is what our shared purpose is all about.

Awards include:

Honor Roll for Veterans with Disabilities Award:

Neil Colomac medically retired from the Army after surviving two IED attacks in Afghanistan that left him with a severe seizure disorder. After sending out more than 200 resumes, he found work with Skookum Contract Services in Bremerton, Washington. In his role overseeing vehicle maintenance on a Department of Energy contract, Colomac was promoted to oversee quality systems for a contract to maintain vehicles in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for the Department of Energy. He brought the vehicle failure rate down from 17 percent to 2 percent.

Presidents Award:

Randy Russell has been a familiar face at The Centers for Habilitation in Tempe, Arizona, for 28 years. Through his job, he brings attention to the barriers people with disabilities face and is a leader on his organizations Self-Advocacy Council, spearheading local disability awareness outreach.

Evelyne Villines Award:

Kelly Hahn won the Evelyne Villines Award, named for a groundbreaking activist for disability employment. Both were dismissed from job interviews for their disabilities early in their careers. Like Villines, who had polio, Hahn refused to accept her rejection. Rather, she has excelled as a bilingual customer service representative through Job Options Inc., earning a significant promotion.

Tom Miller Advocacy Award:

Anthony Green fell on hard times following his diagnosis with bipolar disorder. At one point, the Navy veteran was homeless and struggled to find work. After finding an entry-level food service job through Palmetto Goodwill at Joint Base Charleston, hes risen to the role of assistant project manager on the agencys largest custodial contract and is an active self-advocate for disability employment issues.

William M. Usdane Award:

A self-taught seamstress who is legally blind, Barbara Moore takes pride sewing military uniform trousers at Vocational Guidance Services, Inc. in Cleveland. Moore is a dedicated self-advocate urging the support of legislators on disability employment issues. She was honored as an AbilityOne Program employee with a significant disability who has exhibited outstanding achievement and exceptional character.

Milton Cohen Leadership Award:

Paul Atkinson, president and CEO of Eggleston in Norfolk, Virginia, has devoted his career to creating opportunities for people with disabilities. During his 30-year tenure at Eggleston, the nonprofit has grown from serving 125 people to more than 1,000 people on a budget of $27 million.

Business Partnership Award:

Hawker Pacific Aerospace, a maintenance, repair and overhaul provider based in Sun Valley, Calif., began a pilot program four years ago with Exceptional Childrens Foundation, a SourceAmerica network member. Hawker Pacific Aerospaces goal was to give people with disabilities skills and pathways to local employment.

Small Business Partnership Award:

Los Angeles-based Stone Candle, an artisanal candle maker, also partnered with ECF to employ people with disabilities. More than 65 percent of Stone Candles workforce is composed of people with disabilities. Taking the partnership a step further, Stone Candle launched a product line that includes messaging about their employees unique abilities.

Customer Award:

Pitt County Government won the Customer Award for its 20 years of work with Eastern Carolina Vocational Center. The local government employs 52 people with significant disabilities at two material recovery facilities and 25 in custodial roles at various county buildings.

Customer Federal, Civilian Award:

SourceAmerica member nonprofit Didlake nominated the Department of Energy. A small administrative services contract with the organization that began in 1998 now employs 117 people. Didlake also provides custodial services at the agencys headquarters, which added another 55 positions.

Customer Federal Award, Military:

The NAVFAC Northwest Acquisition Team was recognized for creating about 40 jobs for people with disabilities employed by Skookum Contract Services in Bremerton, Washington. The team placed a $20 million base operating services contract serving Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington, and Naval Station Everett, Washington, into the AbilityOne Program.

For more information, visit sourceamerica.org/awards.

About SourceAmerica

Established in 1974, SourceAmerica creates job opportunities for a skilled and dedicated workforce of people with significant disabilities. SourceAmerica is the vital link between the federal government and private sector organizations that procure the products and services provided by this exceptional workforce via a network of more than 800 community-based nonprofits. Headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, SourceAmerica provides its nonprofit agency network with business development, contract management, legislative and regulatory assistance, communications and public relations materials, information technology support, engineering and technical assistance, and extensive professional training needed for successful nonprofit management.Omaha Steaks new gourmet, grill-ready toppers are designed to complement any cookout favorite from burgers and franks to steaks and chops. Omaha Steaks offers 14 different premium-quality burger varieties ranging from Filet Mignon to Brisket, Bison, Grass-fed and even Salmon.

Americas Original Butcher Omaha Steaks today announced that in recognition of Americas love for burgers, all Omaha Steaks stores nationwide will offer six varieties of mouth-watering, big, juicy, burgers for just $5 a box on Wednesday, May 16. This one-day only event also marks the introduction of the companys all-new line of gourmet, grill-ready toppers. Designed to complement any cookout favorite from burgers and franks to steaks and chops, these new Toppers will be sold on May 16 for just $3 per box.

According to National Provisioners 2016 Burger Report, about 75 percent of Americans eat a burger every week. Thats why Omaha Steaks offers 14 different premium-quality burger varieties ranging from Filet Mignon to Brisket, Bison, Grass-fed and even Salmon. The companys new chef-crafted Toppers provide even more gourmet burger options. Topper flavors include:



Smoky Bacon Jam  sugar-cured bacon and caramelized onions in a sweet and sour sauce

Mushroom and Blue Cheese  combined with a splash of sherry wine

Dijon Mustard Aioli  two mustards with Greek yogurt and seasoning

Tomato Jam  crushed tomatoes with sweet gherkins, garlic and onion

Sweet Bourbon Onions  red onions, honey, sherry wine, bourbon whiskey and balsamic vinegar

Crispy Onion and Jalapenos  lightly fired for a crispy texture with a spicy kick

Each Topper flavor is frozen fresh in two no-fuss metal trays that can be heated right on the grill. Some Toppers are just thaw and serve and each one serves four to seven guests.

At Omaha Steaks, we love a big, juicy burger, said Senior Vice President and Family Owner, Todd Simon. Our new Toppers elevate our burgers to an even higher gourmet experience and the convenience and ease of preparation can help any backyard grill master to serve a five-star burger right at home.

Celebrate the official start of summer grilling season by visiting an Omaha Steaks store on Wednesday, May 16 for your box of eight burgers for just $5 and try a new Topper for only $3. Thats a complete cookout for eight guests for just $1 per person.

For more information, visit http://www.OmahaSteaks.com.

About Omaha Steaks

Omaha Steaks, founded in 1917, is an Omaha, Nebraska-based, fifth-generation, family-owned company that markets and distributes a wide variety of the finest quality USDA-approved, grain-fed beef and other gourmet foods including seafood, pork, poultry, slow cooker and skillet meals, side dishes, appetizers and desserts. Today, Omaha Steaks is recognized as the nations largest direct response marketer of premium beef and gourmet foods, available to customers by calling 1-800-228-9055, online at http://www.OmahaSteaks.com or at retail stores nationwide.Ron Norman, CEO of Team Decades (http://www.teamdecades.com), speaks to a gathering of job candidates today on the importance of individual branding for executive-level job-seekers.

"Whether we consider it to be one's reputation or history, we are all branded in one way or another," Norman says. "It is as simple as the impression that comes to mind when a name is mentioned--that is the definition of the brand."

"In an age when branding has become highly sophisticated and nuanced as it is used ubiquitously across marketing platforms and social media, it still remains a subject that is largely neglected by executive-level job candidates for reasons that defy logic," Norman muses. "The executive-level job-seeker who understands the concept and importance of branding as it applies to his or her next move in the business world will be able to navigate more adeptly into the next phase of advancement."

When asked the best approach to branding, Norman answers, "Get it right the first time!"

Every client receives two-year continuous marketing from Team Decades.Wealth-X, the global leader in wealth information and insight, and DonorSearch, the leading philanthropic giving data and prospect research firm, announced today that the two companies have entered into a strategic knowledge partnership designed to provide their clients with elevated intelligence on the worlds wealthiest individuals. The new partnership will combine the detailed information of Wealth-Xs extensive database of ultra high net worth (UHNW) and high net worth (HNW) individuals, and DonorSearchs industry-leading data on the philanthropic giving patterns of the wealthy and donors of all capacities.

Through our new partnership with DonorSearch we will significantly enhance our dataset to support the development strategies of our clients, said Wealth-X Co-Presidents Richard Green and Marc Cohen in a joint statement. DonorSearch has carved out a significant niche that helps fundraisers secure major gifts, and their intelligence in this sector is the perfect complement to our global database of wealthy individuals.

Wealth-X and DonorSearch each maintain extensive data and insights on global wealth that enable organizations to identify and understand HNW and UHNW individuals in an effort to engage them as new clients, customers, and donors. DonorSearch specializes in working with non-profit organizations, and Wealth-X works with clients across the non-profit, financial services, luxury, and education sectors.

Wealth-X maintains the worlds largest database of highly-detailed information on ultra-wealthy individuals, especially the US. The addition of Wealth-Xs premium net worth data set enhances the prospect identification potential for nearly every DonorSearch fundraising client, said DonorSearch CEO Bill Tedesco. We are thrilled that this partnership provides the vast majority of our 2,700+ nonprofit clients with unparalleled capacity information  colleges, universities, healthcare, arts and cultural organizations, and a myriad of other nonprofits accessing DonorSearch directly or through their CRM, software, or fundraising council.

In the coming weeks, Wealth-X and DonorSearch will convey information outlining the added benefits available to their clients as a result of this knowledge partnership. For more information in the interim, please contact Wealth-X: contact@wealthx.com or visit http://www.wealthx.com/contact-us/

About Wealth-X

The global leader in wealth information and insight, Wealth-X partners with leading prestige brands across the financial services, luxury, not-for-profit, and higher-education industries to fuel strategic decision-making in sales, marketing, and compliance. Wealth-X boasts the worlds most extensive collection of hand curated dossiers on the ultra-wealthy and produces unparalleled high net worth market research. Founded in 2010, with more than 150 staff across North America, Europe, and Asia, Wealth-X works with over 500 clients to provide unique data, analysis, and counsel to drive business success. Visit http://www.wealthx.com for more information.

About DonorSearch

DonorSearch, headquartered in Marriottsville, Maryland, is a leading prospect research and screening firm. Founded in 2007, DonorSearch supports non-profits of all types, including charities, healthcare organizations, fraternities/sororities, religious organizations and educators. Using information from 25 databases and proprietary algorithms, DonorSearch helps nonprofits identify and engage more philanthropic prospects. For more information on DonorSearch prospect research and screening tools and services, please visit http://www.donorsearch.net.Over the last 10 years, I have helped investors build a $5 million dollar real estate portfolio in condos and single family homes.

Realtor Jaryd Takushi, broker associate of Kentwood City Properties, specializes in helping clients find profitable rentals in the Colorado market. I do this by locating investment properties, assist in financing options, rental market analysis and property management referrals, said Takushi, an award-winning Realtor who has been an investor since 1998. Over the last 10 years, I have helped investors build a $5 million dollar real estate portfolio in condos and single family homes.

For those looking to invest in Colorado real estate for the first time, Takushi suggests buying the least expensive home in a great location and allow the neighborhood to lead the way in appreciation. Fix it up and build some sweat equity, added Takushi.

Investing in property is an ideal tool to build wealth, provide housing and leverage cash. It is also a great tax incentive and an asset for the future generations, noted Takushi.

As for Takushi himself, his first real estate investment in 1998 doubled in value in nine years. He was able to do a cash-out refinance through his preferred lender and pull some equity out to purchase a second home. That first purchase was transformed into a rental which has cash flowed from the beginning.

Demand was so high that my best success story is receiving the keys from the old tenant at 9 a.m. and allowing the new tenant to move into a polished unit at 3 p.m. the same day, concluded Takushi. YouTube videos have been a huge addition to my properties, they help qualify and weed out only serious inquiries. Tenants know exactly what theyre getting before even physically stepping on to the property.

About Jaryd Takushi, Kentwood City Properties

Jaryd Takushi serves the diverse real estate needs of home buyers, sellers and investors in Downtown, Stapleton, Aurora, Arvada and many other metro Denver communities. His emphasis is on the Denver northeast corridor. For more information, please call (303) 378-2730, or visit http://www.AlohaRTD.com.

About the NALA

The NALA offers small and medium-sized businesses effective ways to reach customers through new media. As a single-agency source, the NALA helps businesses flourish in their local community. The NALAs mission is to promote a business relevant and newsworthy events and achievements, both online and through traditional media. The information and content in this article are not in conjunction with the views of the NALA. For media inquiries, please call 805.650.6121, ext. 361.Customer feedback on the Solar-Breeze NX2 is telling us that we've exceeded expectations with this robot.

Tempe-based Solar Pool Technologies Inc. (SPT) announced that unprecedented customer demand for its newly released solar-powered floating pool skimmer, the Solar-Breeze NX2 has exceeded supply. While the product is currently sold out, the company is taking pre-orders for the shipment due in Arizona around Memorial Day.

Weve been blown away by the positive response to our newest automatic pool skimmer, said Paul Sim, CEO. We wanted to offer pool owners an outstanding product that makes pool ownership easier and more affordable. Customer feedback on the Solar-Breeze NX2 is telling us that weve exceeded expectations with this robot.

The company released the updated model of their robotic pool skimmer in early April and sold out of in-stock robots in just thirty days. Sim expects pre-orders taken in May to be fulfilled by June 1, 2018, for the beginning of swim season.

Some Solar-Breeze owners report savings on overall pool operating costs of up to $1600 annually. By using solar energy to operate, the Solar-Breeze NX2 can help reduce a sunbelt pools energy bill by up to two-thirds. Removing debris from the surface of the pool before it decays and sinks to the bottom results in less bacteria growth in the pool, meaning less sanitation and filtration is required. The robotic pool cleaner also has a chlorine dispenser that releases chlorine evenly across the pool. Customers save on energy, chemicals and pool maintenance services.

Sim added, Our customers love the savings they experience, but what really excites them is the fact that they never have to hand-skim their pool again, and their pool is always swim-ready.

We are committed to listening to our customers and providing advanced technology that simplifies pool ownership. Were excited that people appreciate the improvements weve made to our product and that so many more pool owners are discovering the benefits of having a Solar-Breeze NX2 in their pool, said Sim.

The Solar-Breeze NX2 is available for pre-order at http://www.solar-breeze.com. Join the conversation on Facebook at http://facebook.com/SolarBreeze.

About Solar Pool Technologies, Inc.

Solar Pool Technologies, Inc. integrates solar power and robotics to create energy-saving pool cleaning systems that reduce the cost and hassle of keeping a swimming pool clean. Since the introduction of the original Solar-Breeze, the company has sold over 12,000 pool cleaning robots in 44 US states and 18 countries. The company has received numerous awards and recognitions for innovation and sustainability, and its patented technology is creating a whole new category of pool cleaning product.Founding attorney Joe Donnini states, Law practice is definitely changing, and the timing is perfect to redefine access and delivery of legal services. With our new shopping center concept, we have positioned our brand to be a solution of the future for many consumers/small businesses and attorney

Imagine a world where taking care of your legal needs is as easy as getting groceries. Instead of dealing with tall office buildings, barriers and gate-keepers of traditional law practice, you could park, walk in, and speak to an attorney within seconds, without the fear of the billable hour. Legal Value Firm has made this scenario a reality since opening in January of 2014.

Legal Value Firm is a full-service law firm with attorneys practicing in a wide variety of legal matters, on mostly flat fees, in professional retail space. This paradigm has offered clients a whole new alternative: easy access and affordable legal services in a branded, neighborhood Legal Value Firm.

Now in its fifth year, Legal Value Firm is launching its franchise program through Legal Value Franchise, Inc. This franchisor will offer education, training and support on client development, marketing, operations and overall business management. Attorney franchisees will be able to use their independent judgment in their practice of law, and still be in business for themselves but not by themselves. Prospective licensed attorney franchisees (see disclaimer) may be newly licensed attorneys, seasoned attorneys that want to convert their practice or operate it in addition to Legal Value Firm, or larger firms that want to capture more market share (analogous to hotels that have various brands under their portfolio).

Founding attorney Joe Donnini states, Law practice is definitely changing, and the timing is perfect to redefine access and delivery of legal services. With our new shopping center concept, we have positioned our brand to be a solution of the future for many consumers/small businesses and attorneys, too.

Currently, Legal Value Firms franchises are initially being offered in Arizona, with other states pending.

Disclaimer:

No communication made through this email or legalvaluefirm.com or legalvaluefranchise.com should be construed as an offer to sell any franchise to, nor is any such communication directed to, the residents of any jurisdiction requiring the registration of the franchise before it is offered or sold in the jurisdiction. No franchises will be sold to any resident of any such jurisdiction until the offer has been exempted from the requirements of, or duly registered in and made effective by, such jurisdiction, and the required Franchise Disclosure Document (if any) has been delivered to the prospective franchisee before the sale, in compliance with applicable law.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

legalvaluefranchise.com

Visit us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Legal-Value-Franchise-385310871946490/?modal=admin_todo_tourLaunching the operation in early May, the Chicago office of V3 is now staffed by transportation professionals with expertise in customer service, fleet operations management and sales as the company continues to expand its strong presence in the Midwest.

V3 Transportation, a leading innovator in expedited transportation solutions, is pleased to announce that the company recently opened an office in the Chicago metropolitan area this spring. Launching the operation in early May, the Chicago office of V3 is now staffed by transportation professionals with expertise in customer service, fleet operations management and sales as the company continues to expand its strong presence in the Midwest.

Over the past two years, V3 has experienced significant growth in demand from customers with inbound and outbound Chicago logistics requirements. Chicago is one of the most important freight hubs in the Midwest and in the nation, said Bob Poulos, CEO of V3 Transportation. The addition of this new office will allow us to best provide the services customers have come to expect from V3. By establishing an office in Chicago, we will be perfectly positioned to quickly respond to our customers and support our fleet operations.

The V3 Chicago operation is located in the suburb of Itasca, which has a close proximity to OHare International Airport, the areas major expressways and key rail lines. V3 has selected Pat Walsh to lead the companys Chicago office. Walsh, who has more than 25 years of experience in ground expedited transportation, is V3s Vice President of Sales for the Central States. V3 has named Tim Cashman to serve as the Operations Manager for the Chicago location. Cashman brings over 20 years of premium transportation experience to his new position.

Pat and Tim will provide the kind of comprehensive expertise the Chicago expedited market demands, said John Sliter, President of V3. We are confident that our customers will benefit from working with our team on the ground in Chicago. Most importantly, we are looking forward to bringing job opportunities to Chicago and we are looking forward to being part of a great city as we continue to grow our business.

We have assembled a great team that will allow us to closely interact with our Chicago customer base. We will also be able to more effectively offer V3s range of services to new customers within one of the nations leading expedited markets, said Walsh.

Named in 2017 to the Inc. 5,000 Fastest Growing Company List, V3 has identified a number of key service markets and locations as areas for potential expansion. V3s Chicago office, according to company officials, is part of an overall long-term growth plan.

Chicago is a key market for expedited transportation for a variety of reasons, and Im thrilled to see V3 announce the type of operation that the company will be establishing in Chicago, said expedited transportation pioneer Craig Amato, who serves V3 as a senior advisor and investor. We believe that our Chicago operation will serve as a potential blueprint for our strategic growth plans in additional markets going forward.

For more information about V3 Transportations Chicago office, call 888-255-5955.

About V3 Transportation:

Founded in 2013, V3 Transportation has rapidly established a reputation for quality and reliability as an expedited transportation service provider for automotive, high-tech and numerous other industries. V3 has been recognized for excellence by national transportation publications in the areas of customer service and fleet operations. To learn more, visit v3transportation.com.Galantis performing at Breakaway Music Festival Columbus in 2017. Photo by Tyler Church. We are extremely excited to announce our massive lineup today. We continue to push and expand the Breakaway brand to represent the type of music festival that Columbus and the entire state of Ohio deserve, Managing Partner Zach Ruben said.

Prime Social Group announces the highly anticipated lineup for the return of Breakaway Music Festival in Columbus, Ohio. The three-day festival is set to take place August 24-26 at MAPFRE Stadium.

Breakaway Columbus carefully explores the intersection of hip-hop and electronic music resulting in a supremely curated lineup that includes some of the most impressive names in the industry with festival headliners Halsey, Odesza, Migos, and special guests Kaskade and Khalid. The lineup also features Chris Lake, Ekali , Flatbush Zombies, Flosstradamus, Gryffin, Jaden Smith, Jai Wolf, Kayz, Quinn XCII, Rich the Kid , Smokepurpp, Blaise Moore, Cal Charlotte Lawrence, Dombresky, Drezo , Elohim, GASHI, GG Magree, Grey, Jack Harlow, Livvia, London Richards, London On Da Track, Loud Luxury, Nessly, Phantoms, Shallou, Shoreline Mafia, Yung Pinch, and more.

We are extremely excited to announce our massive lineup today. We continue to push and expand the Breakaway brand to represent the type of music festival that Columbus and the entire state of Ohio deserve, Managing Partner Zach Ruben said.

Breakaway Columbus will continue its mission to bring top-notch lineups and next level production to Columbus with its well-thought-out-roster of chart-topping artists. Electropop artist and iHeartRadios 2018 Female Artist of the Year Halsey will close out the first night of the festival. After being nominated at the 2017 Grammys for her collab "Closer with The Chainsmokers, the multi-platinum pop maverick has seen huge success as a standalone artist this year with her first album Hopeless Fountain Kingdom already topping the US Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot 100.

Electric music titans and synth-pop wizards Odesza will headline the electronic portion of the bill on Saturday night. With an impressive 2017, Odesza was nominated for not one but two Grammys for the Best Dance Recording with "Line Of Sight" and for Best Dance/Electronic Album with A Moment Apart . Odesza is arguably the most sought out electronic festival headliner for 2018.

Also bringing world-class talent to Columbus is hip-hops breakout trio Migos who will close out the festival on Sunday. Ending 2017 as BETs Best Group and Best Collaboration for "Bad and Boujee" ft. Lil Uzi Vert, Migos has already taken 2018 by storm with the drop of their studio album  Culture II  and three Billboard Music Award nominations including Best Duo, Top Rap Artist, and Top Rap Album.

Rounding out the top of the bill are special guests Kaskade and Khalid. Electronic music veteran Kaskade has been one of the biggest names in EDM for the last decade, voted Americas Best DJ twice by "DJ Times" and six separate Grammy nominations with tracks like "Runaway (U&I) (Kaskade Remix)" and "Only". At just 19 years old, Khalid received five different Grammy nominations including Best New Artist, Song of the Year and Best Music Video for his feature on 1-800-273-8255 , Best R&B Song for Location, and Best Urban Contemporary Album for his debut studio album "American Teen".

We will continue to pioneer and curate a music festival whose lineup boasts some of the biggest names in pop, hip-hop, and EDM but also highlights groundbreaking and cutting-edge musicians and producers nationally and locally. That mixed with renown production and other festival attractions guarantee to make the perfect weekend experience, Ruben said.

Coming in 2018, Breakaway Music Festival will not only return to Columbus but will also touch down in Grand Rapids Belknap Park Aug. 24-25, Charlottes AvidXchange Music Factory Oct. 12-13, will expand to Nashvilles Bicentennial Capitol Mall Oct. 5-6, and just took place in Dallas Toyota Music Factory in April.

Tickets are on sale now at BreakawayOhio.com. Tickets start at $55. Both single day and 3-day passes are available. Stay tuned for single day lineups to be released. This event is all ages and outdoors, rain or shine. Click here for the official recap video from 2016.

For updates, follow @breakaway on Instagram, @BreakawayFest on Twitter, and @BreakawayFestival on Facebook. Additional information is listed on the website.

About Prime Social Group

Prime Social Group is based in Columbus, OH. The Breakaway brand is one of over 16 festivals produced annually by the fast-growing full-scale production and promotions company. Headed by Adam Lynn and Zach Ruben, the PSG team has produced more than 800 events around the world from the Midwest, to Barcelona, to Puerto Vallarta and more. To learn more about the company, please visit http://www.primesocial.com and follow @primesocial on social media.Mitchell S. Cairo, M.D.

Scientists might be close to a breakthrough in finding a treatment for a severe and devastating skin blistering disease. In a study recently published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM), the team details how they used a certain type of stem cells to significantly relieve the symptoms of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) in mice.

RDEB is an inherited disease caused by mutations in the COL7A1 gene, essential to producing type VII collagen. Signs and symptoms vary widely, according to the National Institutes of Health. In mild cases, blistering may primarily affect the hands, feet, knees and elbows. Severe cases, though, often involve widespread external and internal blistering, which can result in vision loss, scarring, disfigurement and, often, squamous cell carcinoma and death during the patients third or fourth decade of life.

There is no cure and treatment is limited to preventing blisters from forming and to managing symptoms. A therapy that is safe for patients and alleviates both the outside and inside manifestations of the disease is in great demand.

In the study published in SCTM, a multi-institutional team demonstrated significant therapeutic benefits of human placental derived stem cells in a mouse model with RDEB. The investigation was led by Mitchell Cairo, M.D., chief of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation and professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology and Cell Biology & Anatomy, at New York Medical College, Valhalla, N.Y.

We had recently shown how human cord blood-derived stem cells promote wound healing and ameliorate the blistering in a RDEB mouse model, Dr. Cairo said. In this latest study, we found that the therapeutic effects of a different type of stem cell  human placental derived stem cells (HPDSCs)  were even more remarkable. HPDSCs contain a much higher level of both hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells than cord blood and are low in T cell content. HPDSCs are currently being used to safely treat humans with malignant and non-malignant diseases [NCT 01586455].

A single dose of these HPDSCs investigated in combination with unrelated cord blood given to one group of mice extended their median life from two to seven days; an additional administration given to a second group significantly extended the median life span to 18 days.

"We further demonstrated that the HPDSCs effectively migrated to the organs affected by RDEB (i.e., skin and GI tract), deposited the missing protein (C7) and significantly improved the adherence of epidermis to the dermis of the skin without inducing anti-C7 antibodies, Dr. Cairo added. "Based on these results, we believe this study warrants future clinical investigation to determine the safety and efficacy of HPDSCs in patients with severe RDEB.

This research into using human placental derived stem cells as HLA-independent donor cells in patients with RDEB suggests potential for a much-needed therapy, said Anthony Atala, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. We look forward to seeing the progression of this work toward clinical trials.

The full article, Efficacy of Human Placental Derived Stem Cells in Collagen VII Knockout (Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa) Animal Model, can be accessed at http://www.stemcellstm.com.

About STEM CELLS Translational Medicine: STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM), published by AlphaMed Press, is a monthly peer-reviewed publication dedicated to significantly advancing the clinical utilization of stem cell molecular and cellular biology. By bridging stem cell research and clinical trials, SCTM will help move applications of these critical investigations closer to accepted best practices. SCTM is the the official journal partner of Regenerative Medicine Foundation.

About AlphaMed Press: Established in 1983, AlphaMed Press with offices in Durham, NC, San Francisco, CA, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, publishes two other internationally renowned peer-reviewed journals: STEM CELLS (http://www.StemCells.com), celebrating its 36th year, is the world's first journal devoted to this fast paced field of research. The Oncologist (http://www.TheOncologist.com), also a monthly peer-reviewed publication, entering its 23rd year, is devoted to community and hospital-based oncologists and physicians entrusted with cancer patient care. All three journals are premier periodicals with globally recognized editorial boards dedicated to advancing knowledge and education in their focused disciplines.

About Wiley: Wiley, a global company, helps people and organizations develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. Our online scientific, technical, medical and scholarly journals, combined with our digital learning, assessment and certification solutions, help universities, learned societies, businesses, governments and individuals increase the academic and professional impact of their work. For more than 200 years, we have delivered consistent performance to our stakeholders. The company's website can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com.Through this partnership with APS, USAIG is helping to provide its policyholders with critical life-saving skills to mitigate the risk of Loss of Control In-flight (LOC-I), aviations most lethal safety threat.

Aviation Performance Solutions (APS), the global leader in Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT), announced today at the 63rd Business Aviation Safety Summit (BASS) the renewal of its partnership with USAIG to provide UPRT as part of their Performance Vector safety initiative. The Performance Vector program allows eligible policyholders to choose annually from a range of valuable safety enhancing programs and services delivered by the industrys leading providers. Through this partnership with APS, USAIG is helping to provide its policyholders with critical life-saving skills to mitigate the risk of Loss of Control In-flight (LOC-I), aviations most lethal safety threat.

APS has been at the forefront of a decades-long effort, working with regulatory agencies and safety-minded aviation organizations to develop the worlds most proven and effective strategies and techniques to effectively recognize, prevent or overcome LOC-I. The APS UPRT curriculum is in strict compliance with the latest ICAO, IATA, and FAA guidance, best practices, and standards and has been proven effective in training thousands of pilots across all aviation sectors. Corporate flight departments, government agencies, the military, owner-operators, airlines and other air carriers around the globe rely on APS to arm their pilots with the necessary skills and strategies to overcome these life-threatening events. More than 30,000 pilots will participate in APS UPRT programs this year alone, including comprehensive UPRT training provided to the pilots of two of the largest major legacy US airlines. Learn more about the APS USAIG program: - - apstraining.com/usaig-upset-recovery-training-by-aps/

We carefully select Performance Vector partners to ensure we are providing safety enhancing programs that add significant value and long-term safety improvements, said John Brogan, USAIG President and CEO. APS UPRT is a powerful Performance Vector offering with measurable safety results, and the program has been invaluable to policyholders who have taken advantage of the unique opportunity to gain critical piloting skills and solidify the safety of their flight departments.

As a forward-thinking and safety-oriented company, USAIG is providing their policyholders with powerful tools to enhance safety and make marked improvements to their organizations, said APS President, Paul BJ Ransbury. APS UPRT effectively teaches pilots the skills they need to recognize, prevent and, if necessary, recovery from an unexpected airplane upset. We are honored to continue working with USAIG to bring these services to their policyholders and aid in improving global air safety. 

ABOUT AVIATION PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS

Aviation Performance Solutions LLC (APS), headquartered at the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Arizona, trains thousands of professional pilots and instructors in comprehensive Upset Prevention and Recovery Training skill development. APS provides integrated LOC-I solutions via industry-leading computer-based, on-aircraft (jet and piston), and full-flight simulator Upset Prevention & Recovery Training (UPRT). All training is in full compliance with the Airplane Upset Recovery Training Aid, FAA Advisory Circular 120-109A on Stall Training, ICAO Manual on Aeroplane Upset Prevention and Recovery Training, IATA Guidance Material and Best Practices for the Implementation of Upset Prevention and Recovery Training, and the FAA Advisory Circular 120-111 on Upset Prevention and Recovery Training. APS is the only Part 141 Flight School certified in the delivery of complete upset prevention & recovery, stall/spin and instrument upset recovery training courses worldwide. With additional training locations in Texas (USA), The Netherlands (Europe), and military division in Alabama (USA), APS provides global access to the highest quality Upset Prevention and Recovery Training available. Please visit our website at: apstraining.com

ABOUT USAIG

United States Aircraft Insurance Group (USAIG) provides a full spectrum of coverage options for owners, operators, manufacturers and maintainers of corporate, private and commercial aircraft. In 1928, our founders World War I pilots and businessmen David Beebe and Reed Chambers  saw the need for an insurance company that truly understood aviation. We remain a world aviation insurance leader delivering innovative, custom-tailored insurance products and services, including Performance Vector safety programs and Performance Vector PLUS good experience returns. United States Aviation Underwriters, Inc. manages USAIG, maintaining the industrys largest network of underwriting and field claims offices. USAUs wholly owned subsidiary, Toronto-based Canadian Aviation Insurance Managers manages the Canadian Aircraft Insurance Group insurance pool. USAIG is a subsidiary of General Re Corporation, a Berkshire Hathaway company. Follow us on Twitter @USAIG_CAIG, Facebook & LinkedIn. Please visit our website at usaig.comThe generosity of our member donors in providing these patents to LOT Network for this program reflects the spirit of the LOT Network community, said Ken Seddon, CEO of LOT Network.

LOT Network, the non-profit organization that immunizes members from the risks and costs of litigation brought by Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs), today announces two new programs designed to enrich and protect the global startup community. First, LOT Network is launching the Patent Transfer Program, under which qualifying startups that are, or become, LOT Network members, may receive three free patents from LOT Network. Second, the organization is expanding LOT Networks free membership tier to make LOT Network membership available at no cost to any operating company having up to $25 million in annual revenue.

LOT Network members such as Canon, Dropbox, Google, Lenovo, Red Hat, SAP and others have spent billions on R&D and created highly valuable patent portfolios. LOT Network believes that startups fuel innovation and has committed to share patents provided by its members with startups to promote and fuel further innovation, and to encourage these startups to join the LOT Network community.

The first 200 operating companies in LOT Network with $500K-$25M in annual revenue or $500K-$25M in financing in the past 18-months are eligible to receive these patent assets at no cost to them. Going forward, LOT Network expects additional asset contributions from both members and non-members, which may include universities, individuals and operating companies.

We understand startups have tight budgets and limited resources that they must allocate strategically, said Michael Cunningham, executive vice president & general counsel, Red Hat. They have to focus on investing in areas that will grow their businesses, such as hiring, product development, and sales, and often do not have the capacity for other uses of capital. LOT Network is seeking to lend assistance. And once the patents are transferred to startups under the program, they have full ownership of the patents, free of charge.

The generosity of our member donors in providing these patents to LOT Network for this program reflects the spirit of the LOT Network community, said Ken Seddon, CEO of LOT Network. It is humbling to see some of the most IP savvy companies in the world make such a sincere effort to share in their successes with the startup community. We are a non-profit, and thus, work for our members. Our 70+ startup members have been asking for access to patents, and I am really proud that as a community we are able to fill that need.

Additionally, due to its rapid growth over the past year, LOT Network is now able to broaden the scope of free participation in its community. Previously, LOT Network offered free membership to companies with up to $5M in annual revenue. Effective immediately, any operating company with up to $25M in annual revenue can receive free membership in LOT Network.

The LOT Network community has experienced tremendous growth from well-known brands including Facebook, Volkswagen, Cisco, Target, Ford, Amazon and more. As a result, LOT Network members are now immunized against one million patent assets falling into the hands of a PAE. Every LOT Network member signs the same agreement that gives fellow members a free license (immunity) to any patent asset that is transferred to a PAE. At the same time, LOT Network members are free to use their patents for all the traditional uses, such as asserting their patents against other members, cross-licensing and selling their patents.

LOT Network was created to protect innovation, and has grown quickly. The network now covers over one million patent assets that cant be asserted against the membership by PAEs, said Mike Lee, head of patents, Google. We think the protections afforded by LOT Network should be available to established and startup companies alike, and do not want cost to be a barrier to participation. Were confident that LOT Networks move to extend free membership and gift patents to startups will have a positive impact on their continued innovation.

About LOT Network:

LOT Network Inc. is a non-profit community of companies protecting its members from costly Patent Assertion Entity (PAE) litigation. LOT Network members can be permanently immunized to over one million worldwide patents and counting. LOT Network members include market leaders such as JP Morgan Chase, Ford, Tesla, Alibaba, GM, etc. as well as smaller companies across industries. Please visit http://www.lotnet.com to learn more.Bill Baldwin, Kepner-Tregoe CEO I am proud to have provided two decades of leadership to Kepner-Tregoe and honored to step into this critical and visible role, particularly as we commemorate 60 years of client service.

Kepner-Tregoe, a global management consulting firm focused on operational excellence, IT service management and training, has promoted veteran Chief Operating Officer Bill Baldwin to the Chief Executive Officer position effective immediately. With more than two decades of experience at Kepner-Tregoe, Baldwin will draw upon his deep knowledge of the consulting industry and experience running a global organization to lead the team into its next era of growth.

As the COO, Baldwin was responsible for the day-to-day leadership of the worldwide operations of the firm, offering direction and insight to the regional and corporate leadership teams located in North America, EMEA, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Japan. Baldwin has a rich operational history in all aspects of a multi-national company and deep experience working with clients across a wide range of industries.

In the CEO role, Baldwin will continue his leadership of the team and worldwide operations, and focus on developing a vision for the future that aligns with the corporate strategy, and continues to increase profitable revenue growth through the value that KT creates for its client organizations.

We promoted Bill to COO in 2016 after his superior track record in various roles across our organization, said Andy Cook, Chairman of the Board. He assumed this position at a critical time, and was charged with improving our financial stability and concurrently driving strategic initiatives. Bill exceeded our expectations, accomplishing that and more. I am confident that Bills steady leadership and his ability to guide the organization will continue to propel us into the future with strong momentum.

Baldwin joined Kepner-Tregoe in 1997 and was named to the Board of Directors in 2002 upon becoming Chief Financial Officer. He has served as board secretary for the last decade. Baldwin continued to execute on the responsibilities of the CFO position while attending to his operational management responsibilities. He led Kepner-Tregoes strategic plan implementation and has oversight of the legal, information technology, facilities and human resources teams.

I am proud to have provided two decades of leadership to Kepner-Tregoe and honored to step into this critical and visible role, particularly as we commemorate 60 years of client service, said Baldwin. We have accomplished many milestones as an organization and on behalf of our clients in the last several decades. Like any consulting team, we are only as good as our ability to serve clients with fresh insights and knowledge, and infuse their organizations with new ways of working. As CEO, I will play an important role in encouraging, cultivating and enhancing that mindset in our company.

Kepner-Tregoes history includes a succession of milestones and achievements. Kepner-Tregoe was the first to focus on the critical need for training in problem solving and decision making. The company pioneered the "train-the-trainer" conceptdeveloped as a methodology for transferring its approaches to clients, which revolutionized organizational improvement. The Rational Manager (McGraw Hill), authored by founders Dr. Benjamin Tregoe and Dr. Charles Kepner, was first published in 1965, becoming a best-seller and a business classic that has been translated into many languages and continues to be read throughout the world. During the Apollo XIII crisis, NASA used the Kepner-Tregoe methodologies to identify critical issues, thus contributing to the astronauts safe return.

About Kepner-Tregoe

Kepner-Tregoe is a global management consulting firm. For 60 years, we have provided consulting and training services to many of the worlds leading companies across multiple industries. Our team of consultants delivers data-driven and scalable results that help our clients improve operations and profitability. For more information, please visit: http://www.kepner-tregoe.com.A common impetus for digital disruption across the capital markets value chainimpacting buy-side, sell-side and intermediaries alikeis the shift to a customer-centric focus

Global capital markets firms are facing unprecedented challenges that collectively are forcing a digital technology-driven reimagination of the capital markets industry, according to Everest Group.

Key trends in the capital markets industry include:



Evolving customer demands. Customers expect more transparency, ease of access to data and services, and better multi-channel experiences.

The rise of non-traditional competitors. Non-traditional players, such as financial technology (FinTech) firms, are targeting the profitable segments of the capital markets business.

Regulatory and security complexities. With end-to-end trading activities becoming digitized, cybersecurity is at the top of the agenda for capital markets firms to ensure data security and integrity.

Technology disruption. Disruption is especially being driven by the scalable and affordable ABCDE technologies: Artificial intelligence, Blockchain, Cloud, (Big) Data Analytics, and Ecosystem Partnerships.

According to Everest Group, these challenges have forced capital markets enterprises to revisit their business models, launch innovative products, invest in emerging technology, and redefine the way they interact with customers and other ecosystem players, including service providers.

A common impetus for digital disruption across the capital markets value chainimpacting buy-side, sell-side and intermediaries alikeis the shift to a customer-centric focus, said Ronak Doshi, practice director at Everest Group. Digital technologies ranging from machine learning to blockchain and from cloud to deep learning are being used to deliver an enhanced customer experience. This can take the form of data-driven insights that enable personalized offerings, the provision of seamless services across channels, and even humanizing the design process so that product and service offerings are more empathetic to the unique needs of individual customers.

Everest Group has released a set of research reports which address the unique challenges, priorities and trends in the digital adoption journey of each segment of the capital markets industrybuy-side, sell-side and market intermediaries. Each report also details the implications these findings have for enterprise buyers and IT service providers.

Capital Markets IT Annual Report Part 1  Platformification Wave Disrupting Buy-side Part 1 focuses on buy-side firms such as private equity, hedge funds, and asset management firms. These firms are serving a new breed of investors who find digital services essential. Buy-side firms are being challenged in the marketplace by alternative lending and automated trading platforms and face increased reporting and market surveillance requirements due to regulations such as EU Benchmarks Regulation and Market Abuse Regulation.

As a result, buy-side firms are making digital technology investments to target customers, meet compliance standards, and generate patterns from historical data to optimize the system. Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation of core functions is a key focus of investment, as it will enable firms to free up resources to work on core business activities. Buy-side firms are also investing in digital technology to provide the seamless digital experience that their customers demand.

***Download a complimentary abstract of Part 1.***

Capital Markets IT Annual Report Part 2  Data and Intelligence Transforming Customer Experiences for Sell-Side Part 2 focuses on sell-side firms such as investment banks and brokerage houses, which are struggling to meet a diverse range of client needs while maintaining profitability amidst a proliferation of specialized products.

Partnerships within the ecosystemwith FinTechs, for exampleare critical for the sell-side segment, because they are key to enabling new distribution channels, competitive product offerings and value-added non-traditional services.

Complexities in regulatory reporting are forcing sell-side firms to make digital investments in data management initiatives. Emerging technologies will require investments as well; these advancements are disrupting the sell-side of the value chain with new trading models, better cost structures and analytics-based advisory models, and keeping pace will be key to market survival.

***Download a complimentary abstract of Part 2.***

Capital Markets IT Annual Report Part 3  Building Digital Market Infrastructures focuses on market intermediaries such as stock exchanges, custodians and clearing houses. To address changing investment behaviors and the demand for data visualization and insights platforms, market intermediaries are adopting next-generation digital technologies to facilitate real-time systems that process a very high volume of data with minimal delay.

Intermediaries also are looking to leverage analytics and automation to reduce the costs of regulatory reporting. Blockchain and AI likely will play a role in changing the way intermediaries operate, which may prove essential as the proliferation of blockchain-based startups diminish the role of traditional intermediaries as a trusted party.

***Download a complimentary abstract of Part 3.***

About Everest Group

Everest Group is a consulting and research firm focused on strategic IT, business services, and sourcing. We are trusted advisors to senior executives of leading enterprises, providers, and investors. Our firm helps clients improve operational and financial performance through a hands-on process that supports them in making well-informed decisions that deliver high-impact results and achieve sustained value. Our insight and guidance empower clients to improve organizational efficiency, effectiveness, agility and responsiveness. What sets Everest Group apart is the integration of deep sourcing knowledge, problem-solving skills and original research. Details and in-depth content are available at http://www.everestgrp.com.

Contact:

Andrea M. Riffle, Everest Group

andrea.riffle(at)everestgrp.com

Jennifer Fowler, Cathey Communications

+1 865-405-6380

jennifer(at)cathey.coHoover Dam with Lake Mead's elevation at 1088.14 feet above sea level. We allstates, tribes, water districts, non-governmental organizationshave an obligation and responsibility to work together to meet the needs of over 40 million people who depend on reliable water and power from the Colorado River.

2018 has brought record-low snowpack levels to many locations in the Colorado River Basin, making this the driest 19-year period on record. With the depressed snowpack and warming conditions, experts indicate that runoff from the Rocky Mountains into Lake Powell this spring will yield only 42 percent of the long-term average.

With drought and low runoff conditions dating back to 2000, this current period is one of the worst drought cycles over the past 1,200 plus years.

While many water users in the Colorado River Basin have already experienced significant hardships, three factors have avoided a crisis  so far  in the Basin:



Water stored in Colorado River reservoirs during prior years of plentiful snowpack and runoff has helped ensure continued and reliable water and power from Reclamation infrastructure.

Reclamation reservoirs were nearly full when drought conditions began in 2000 providing ample water supplies that have carried the Basin through this period of historic drought.

Voluntary water conservation efforts taken by Reclamation, the seven Colorado River Basin states, water districts and Mexico have stabilized the decline of Lake Mead  delaying the onset of reductions to water users in Arizona, Nevada, Mexico, and ultimately California. But these efforts by themselves would not protect Lake Mead and Lake Powell if drought conditions persist.

The infrastructure built by prior generations is working, but the best information available shows a high likelihood of significant water reductions in the Colorado River Basin in the years ahead. Concerns are increasing as forecast models predict a 52 percent chance of shortage conditions at Lake Mead beginning in 2020, with a greater than 60 percent likelihood of shortage thereafter. Over the past decade, the risk of declining to critical reservoir levels has approximately tripled.

Following strong calls for action in 2017, Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman is focused on the increased risk from another dry year in the Colorado River Basin. She noted that there is no indication that the current low runoff and drought conditions will end anytime soon. She emphasized that the extended drought and increased risk of crisis in the Colorado River Basin requires prompt action.

"We need action and we need it now. We cant afford to wait for a crisis before we implement drought contingency plans," said Reclamation Commissioner Burman. "We allstates, tribes, water districts, non-governmental organizationshave an obligation and responsibility to work together to meet the needs of over 40 million people who depend on reliable water and power from the Colorado River. Im calling on the Colorado River basin states to put real  and effective  drought contingency plans in place before the end of this year."

In 2017, the United States and Mexico agreed to a new strategy that would lead to increased savings of water by Mexico, but that agreement will only go into effect if the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada finalize their drought contingency plan.

"Adoption of additional water conservation measures now is the best approach to protect Lake Mead as we continue to work on long-term solutions," said Lower Colorado Regional Director Terry Fulp.

Upper Colorado Regional Director Brent Rhees added, "Weve weathered the past two decades of drought thanks to our water storage infrastructure. Completing drought contingency plans will provide better certainty for continued reliable water and power."

The following individual statements were provided by the Governors' Representatives of the Colorado River Basin States:

Pat Tyrrell, Wyomings State Engineer stated: "This is a critical juncture and we must complete drought contingency plans in both the Upper Basin and the Lower Basin prior to crisis. Further delay is not an option, and I have to believe we can get to 'yes.' Full implementation of Minute 323 with Mexico is only possible when the drought contingency plans are complete, and with Lower Basin shortages likely by 2020, we have no other palatable solution."

"Colorado is heartened by Commissioner Burman's call to action, stands at the ready to move drought contingency planning forward, and agrees that the situation is urgent. Paraphrasing Ben Franklin, the states must hang together or we'll hang separately," said Colorado's James Eklund.

"With the threat of this unprecedented drought continuing, the Colorado River Basin States and Mexico need to complete drought contingency planning efforts in the near future. We need the participation of all these parties in order to ensure this goals accomplishment. It has never been more important to work together," said Eric Millis, Director of the Utah Division of Water Resources.

"New Mexico believes that drought contingency plans are a key step to surviving this exceptional drought. Now is the time for us to come together and establish a path for the future of the Colorado River Basin," said Tom Blaine, New Mexico State Engineer.

"This ongoing drought is a serious situation and Mother Nature does not care about our politics or our schedules," said John Entsminger, Southern Nevada Water Authority general manager. "We have a duty to get back to the table and finish the Drought Contingency Plan to protect the people and the environment that rely upon the Colorado River."

Californias Colorado River Commissioner, Bart Fisher, stated that, "Californias Colorado River agencies recognize the continuing poor hydrologic conditions within both California and the Colorado River Basin, and remain fully committed to collaborate with our partner states in completing the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan and ensuring activation of the Mexican Binational Water Scarcity Contingency Plan contained within Minute No. 323."

"The completion of the lower basin states Drought Contingency Plan is vitally important to Arizonans. The plan reduces the likelihood of Lake Mead declining to critically low levels and incentivizes the use of tools to conserve water in the Lake so that reductions in delivery of Arizonas Colorado River supplies are avoided or lessened," said Thomas Buschatzke, Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

In addition to Reclamation's ongoing work with the Colorado River Basin states, it also coordinates with the Upper Colorado River Commission. Felicity Hannay, Chair of the Upper Colorado River Commission, said that "The Commission takes the position that implementation of drought contingency plans in both basins is critical to get us through this dry spell."

Projections of Lake Powell and Lake Mead operations for the next five years can be found at https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/g4000/riverops/crss-5year-projections-APR2018.html.The Security Industry Association (SIA) has announced the agenda for its annual public policy and government security technology conference, SIA GovSummit. This event  held June 27 and 28 at the National Association of Home Builders in Washington, D.C.  will bring together government security leaders and private industry technologists for top-quality information sharing and education on security topics affecting federal, state and even local agencies.

Day 1 of SIA GovSummit 2018 will highlight discussions on a variety of topics, including:

OMBs New Cybersecurity and Identity Policy: Impact on Federal Physical Access Control Systems

Movement to the Cloud for Video and Other Security Applications

Procurement Strategies for Effective Security Solutions

The Role of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Video and Other Applications

Biometrics in Border Security

Speakers include Matthew Goodrich, FedRAMP director at the General Services Administration; Daryle J. Hernandez of the U.S. Department of Homeland Securitys (DHS) Interagency Security Committee; Dr. Kathleen Kiernan, founder and CEO of Kiernan Group Holdings; David Sousa, division director at the Federal Protective Service; and consultant Tim Williams.

Following the days discussions, attendees will be invited to join a networking reception and the Policy Leadership Awards Dinner. Paul Begala, commentator at the Washington Speaker Bureau, will provide remarks at the dinner.

The second day will kick off with a SIAThere! and Northern Capital Region Security Forum breakfast at the Capitol Hill Club, featuring remarks from Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.). Following the breakfast  in addition to its member visits to Capitol Hill offices  SIA is expanding the popular Secure Schools Roundtable into a half-day event presented in cooperation with the Congressional School Safety Caucus. This gathering  held at the U.S. Capitol Visit Center  will feature discussion with key stakeholders from government, industry, education and law enforcement and highlight topics such as the need for school security guidelines and standards, the role of the federal and state governments in funding school security and the need for coordination among educators, school facility personnel and first responders in protecting our schools.

SIA GovSummit gives government and industry the opportunity to come together, share information and collaborate on security, including assessment of security investment priorities, said Jake Parker, SIAs director of government relations. In light of the recent tragedy in Parkland, Florida, SIA is also looking forward to hosting a half-day, expanded version of its Secure Schools Roundtable as part of the summit to address safety and security in our schools.

SIA GovSummit is free for all government employees, including federal, state, county and municipal-level staff (both domestic and international), plus all military, law enforcement and public safety representatives. Early bird registration rates for non-government attendees are available through June 1. To learn more and register, visit govsummit.securityindustry.org.

This event is made possible thanks to the following sponsors and partners: Washington Sponsors Lenel and Interlogix; Lincoln Sponsor HID Global; dinner and reception sponsor Allegion; event sponsors AMAG Technology, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, Ameristar Security, ASIS International, Axis Communications, BCDVideo, Calpipe Industries, Gallagher, GSA Schedules Inc., DHS Science & Technology, Louroe Electronics, Marshalls, Milestone, Nasatka Security and Renova Technology; and industry partner ISC Expos and Conferences. Follow SIA GovSummit 2018 on social media using the hashtag #GovSummit18.

About SIA

SIA (securityindustry.org) is the leading trade association for global security solution providers, with more than 800 innovative member companies representing thousands of security leaders and experts who shape the future of the security industry. SIA protects and advances its members interests by advocating pro-industry policies and legislation at the federal and state levels, creating open industry standards that enable integration, advancing industry professionalism through education and training, opening global market opportunities and collaborating with other like-minded organizations. As a proud sponsor of ISC Events expos and conferences, SIA ensures its members have access to top-level buyers and influencers, as well as unparalleled learning and network opportunities. SIA also enhances the position of its members in the security marketplace through SIA Government Summit, which brings together private industry with government decision makers, and Securing New Ground, the security industrys top executive conference for peer-to-peer networking.As a former consultant, I would have been thrilled to have access to the Wand Mobile app to manage my staff and my billable time and expenses. Bravo!

PRO Unlimited, a global innovator of contingent workforce management software and services, has been named a winner of Stevie Awards in the categories of New Product or Service of the Year - Software - Human Capital Management Solution, New Product or Service of the Year - Software - Mobile On-Demand Application, and Productivity  Mobile Websites & Apps in The 16th Annual American Business Awards.

More than 3,700 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration in a wide range of categories.

Judges recognized PROs Wand Vendor Management System (VMS) and Wand VMS Mobile offerings for their innovative features, user-friendly interfaces, and ability to help organizations increase productivity and effectiveness related to contingent workforce management. Chief features and benefits of Wand include, but are not limited to:



Seamless Omnichannel Access: Boasting true native apps on the iPhone and Android devices, Apple iPad and even the Apple Watch, Wand allows users to manage the full contingent workforce lifecycle from anywhere.

Faster Decision-Making: In a global, 24/7 world, business needs change quickly and highly sought-after candidates disappear fast. Using Wand Mobile to act faster can be a difference maker and help organizations stay ahead of the competition.

Ease of Use: Built by PROs Silicon Valley-based development team, Wand went through exhaustive end-user research and use case study to deliver a product thats intuitive and increases business agility.

Actionable Business Intelligence: Managers, workers, suppliers and other VMS users produce a lot of data. Wand captures all this data and brings it to life through interactive executive dashboards that yield new insights related to both contingent AND full-time resources.

The Wand Mobile app built completely for mobile devices is an innovative tool to manage contingent workers across a number of industries, commented one Stevie Awards judge. As a former consultant, I would have been thrilled to have access to the Wand Mobile app to manage my staff and my billable time and expenses. Bravo!

The American Business Awards are the U.S.A.s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations  public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small.

The nominations submitted for The 2018 American Business Awards were outstanding. The competition was intense, and those recognized as Stevie Award winners should be immensely proud of this accomplishment, said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards.

About PRO Unlimited

PRO Unlimited, through its purely vendor-neutral Managed Services Program (MSP) and Vendor Management Software (VMS) solutions, helps organizations around the world address the costs, risks, and quality issues associated with managing a contingent workforce. A pioneer and innovator in the VMS and MSP space, PRO offers solutions for e-procurement and management of contingent labor, 1099/co-employment risk management, and third-party payroll for client-sourced contract talent.

About the Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in seven programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 10,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 60 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.

Follow PRO Unlimited:

https://twitter.com/PROUnlimited

https://twitter.com/WandVMS

https://www.linkedin.com/company/pro-unlimitedJeffrey E. Sterling, MD Whether or not you believe the notion that we only use five percent of our brainpower, perhaps that consideration should apply to our level of efficiency. Each of us intuitively knows that we could achieve greater productivity than we do--Jeffrey Sterling, MD

Dr. Jeffrey Sterling often finds himself with more extra time each day than the rest of usforty-eight hours more. His newest release, There are 72 Hours in a Day: Using Efficiency to Better Enjoy Every Part of Your Life, offers innovative, yet simple steps to increase efficiency and productivity.

Whether or not you believe the notion that we only use five percent of our brainpower, perhaps that consideration should apply to our level of efficiency. Each of us intuitively knows that we could achieve greater productivity than we do, says Dr. Sterling.

Dr. Sterlings efficiency skills were honed as an emergency room physician, where caring for ten to fifteen patients simultaneously is a job requirement. He uses his wisdom, experience, and productivity tools to consult for healthcare systems, hospitals, management groups, service providers, and government programs across multiple states and countries.

In his course, 72 Hours in a Day, Dr. Sterling shares his concept of five-minute efficiency, the breaking down of daily responsibilities into more manageable tasks. This formula provides a sense of accomplishment and propels one into greater productivity. The program also includes easy-to-follow steps to become better organized, be more creative and effective, and master time-management skills.

Dr. Sterling will appear at the Achieve Momentum Now Conference on Thursday, May 17, 2018. Incorporating the concepts of 72 Hours in a Day, he will speak on transforming ones philosophy on life, and how to live each day to the fullest. The conference will be held at the historic Majestic Theatre in Dallas, beginning at 9:00am. To purchase tickets, please visit: http://wcdspeakers.com/conference/.

For more information or to book Dr. Jeffrey Sterling, please visit: https://jeffreysterlingmd.com; http://www.sterlinginitiatives.com; or http://www.72hourslife.com.Paint the Town Cabernet Open House Blitz As a real estate company, we are focused on helping our clients achieve their real estate goals. We hope everyone enjoys the event and finds the home of their dreams.

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group has announced that on Saturday, May 19 and Sunday, May 20, 2018, the company will hold a Paint the Town Cabernet Open House Blitz to showcase properties for sale throughout Chicagoland. The name of the event, inspired by the companys cabernet color, is a reference to the cabernet-colored open house tent signs that will be outside Chicagoland homes that weekend en masse. We expect to have around 500 open houses during this weekend. A comprehensive list of the open houses can be found at PaintTheTownCabernet.com or KoenigRubloff.com. Open houses are also promoted through social media and advertising.

Nancy Nagy, CEO of KoenigRubloff, said, This is one my favorite events because Paint the Town Cabernet showcases our listings across Chicagoland like no other event does. She continued, Buyers have the opportunity to visit a wide range of homes in a short period of time so that they can easily compare and contrast their unique attributes and select the homes that best meet their needs. She continued, As a real estate company, we are focused on helping our clients achieve their real estate goals. We hope everyone enjoys the event and finds the home of their dreams.

About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group is a full-service real estate firm with nearly 1,500 real estate professionals and staff in 23 offices serving customers throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, the North Shore, Western Suburban communities and Harbor Country, Michigan. Deep local roots are complemented by the extensive global reach of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, the top real estate brand in the nation. Affiliated and ancillary services in the form of HomeServices Lending, Fort Dearborn Title, and HomeServices Insurance complete the comprehensive services offered to clients. Visit KoenigRubloff.com.Dr. Allan Klapper This beautiful new facility will enable people in the North Hills to access high-quality, state-of-the-art health services closer to where they live and work, and I am extremely honored and proud to play such a prominent role in its development and success.

Allegheny Health Network (AHN) announced today that one of its top clinical leaders will take the helm at a new full-service hospital it plans to open in Pine Township in 2021. Allan Klapper, MD, an obstetrician and gynecologist who currently serves as chair of AHNs Womens & Childrens Institute, has been appointed as president of the new 160-bed facility that will be integrated with AHNs existing Wexford Health + Wellness Pavilion. AHN received approval on its plans this week from the Pine Township Board of Supervisors and expects to break ground on the hospital this summer.

Like the Health + Wellness Pavilion, AHNs Wexford Hospital will serve an area with a population of more than 215,000 people. The hospital will offer a wide array of clinical services, including many that community residents are currently traveling into Pittsburgh to receive. The facility will complement the networks many outpatient services in the market, including those at the Pavilion, AHNs nearby Pediatric Orthopaedic Institute, and other facilities and physician offices.

The appointment of Dr. Klapper to this important role is another example of AHNs commitment to cultivating and empowering strong physician leaders to drive our patient-centered mission and vision, said Cynthia Hundorfean, AHN President and CEO.

Dr. Klapper is an exceptional clinician and a physician leader whose dedication to service excellence and high quality care reflects the values of AHN and Highmark Health, Hundorfean said. He has been instrumental in helping to design our new Wexford hospital and we look forward to the outstanding leadership he will provide at this unique facility as we move forward with our efforts to best serve the people of northern Allegheny County and the surrounding area.

Since joining AHN in 2011, Dr. Klapper has overseen a nationally recognized womens health program that has grown significantly; it now has more than 125 affiliated physicians and more than 50 care sites throughout the western Pennsylvania region. Under his direction, the AHN Womens & Childrens Institute has developed innovative, multidisciplinary programs to care for the complete spectrum of womens health issues, including for some of the most at-risk and underserved communities.

Among many such accomplishments, Dr. Klapper and his team opened the states first new obstetrics program in more than 30 years at AHNs Jefferson Hospital in 2014. The Network now delivers babies at four hospitals, with more than 7,400 delivered in 2017. They also launched a medical home care model called Perinatal Hope to better treat mothers-to-be who are addicted to drugs, and their babies, and have developed an innovative program to better identify and treat women with perinatal depression.

The growth and success of our womens health program has been driven largely by a focus on providing women with an unsurpassed healthcare experience at every step in the care continuum, said Dr. Klapper. That is the same philosophy behind our vision for the new AHN Wexford hospital. This beautiful new facility will enable people in the North Hills to access high-quality, state-of-the-art health services closer to where they live and work, and I am extremely honored and proud to play such a prominent role in its development and success.

Dr. Klapper received his medical degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed his residency at New York University Medical Center. He joined AHN from New York Downtown Hospital, and prior to that, was director of Gynecology, Urogynecology & Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery, and director of the Center for Female Continence and Pelvic Health at Beth Israel Medical Center.

Dr. Klappers published work has focused on research exploring the most effective therapies for interstitial cystitis, urinary incontinence, pelvic pain, and pelvic organ prolapse. He is also a clinical professor at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University.

###

About the Allegheny Health Network

Allegheny Health Network (AHN.org), a Highmark Health company, is an integrated healthcare delivery system serving the greater Western Pennsylvania region. The Network is composed of eight hospitals, including Allegheny General Hospital, its flagship academic medical center in Pittsburgh, Allegheny Valley Hospital in Natrona Heights, Canonsburg Hospital in Canonsburg, Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, Jefferson Hospital in Jefferson Hills, Saint Vincent Hospital in Erie, West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh and Westfield Memorial Hospital in Westfield, NY. The Network provides patients with access to a complete spectrum of advanced medical services, including nationally recognized programs for primary and emergency care, cardiovascular disease, cancer care, orthopedic surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, womens health, diabetes and more. It also is home to a comprehensive research institute; Health + Wellness Pavilions; an employed physician organization, home and community based health services and a group purchasing organization. The Network employs approximately 19,000 people, has more than 2,800 physicians on its medical staff and serves as a clinical campus for Drexel University College of Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, and the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.The Security Industry Association (SIA) commends the signing of companion bills impacting alarm systems companies in Maryland  House Bills (HB) 645 and 1117 and their corresponding companion Senate Bills (SB) 662 and 927. In early 2018, SIA testified in support of these bills before the Maryland General Assembly, and they have since been signed into law by Gov. Larry Hogan.

Marylands HB 645; SB 662 updates long-outdated local regulations by providing a statewide exemption for wireless, low-voltage alarm systems from electrical permitting requirements established before the advent of wireless systems. This bill helps reduce burdens on alarm installers, who are licensed professionals, and companies.

Technology innovations over the past few years have made home security and fire alarm systems more affordable, effective and reliable. The growing use of these is positive for our communities because the role they play in fire safety as well as reducing burglaries and other crimes is documented and well understood, said Joseph Hoellerer, manager of government relations at SIA. As state and local leaders are looking for cost-effective ways to reduce crime, we believe removing these unnecessary and burdensome permitting requirements not only brings Maryland in line with other states in adjusting alarm regulations to todays technology, it also supports the goal of making our communities safer.

Maryland HB 1117; SB 927 places sensible limitations on the circumstances under which alarm companies can be fined for violations of alarm system registration requirements in jurisdictions that have false alarm reduction programs. Additionally, these bills limit fines associated with failure to initially register alarm systems to cases in which it was an alarm company responsibility and simply require local municipalities to notify alarm companies when alarm users registrations have expired.

[HB 1117; SB 927] will give alarm companies the chance to work with alarm users to ensure the fullest possible compliance with local requirements, said Jake Parker, SIAs director of government relations. We should all be able to agree that achieving 100 percent compliance with registration requirements  and therefore zero associated fines  would be the best possible outcome consistent with false alarm reduction program objectives.

Learn more about SIAs testimony here and its overall advocacy efforts here.

About SIA

SIA (securityindustry.org) is the leading trade association for global security solution providers, with more than 800 innovative member companies representing thousands of security leaders and experts who shape the future of the security industry. SIA protects and advances its members interests by advocating pro-industry policies and legislation at the federal and state levels, creating open industry standards that enable integration, advancing industry professionalism through education and training, opening global market opportunities and collaborating with other like-minded organizations. As a proud sponsor of ISC Events expos and conferences, SIA ensures its members have access to top-level buyers and influencers, as well as unparalleled learning and network opportunities. SIA also enhances the position of its members in the security marketplace through SIA Government Summit, which brings together private industry with government decision makers, and Securing New Ground, the security industrys top executive conference for peer-to-peer networking.Vaughn College will celebrate its 86th Commencement on Saturday, May 19, 2018 at 10 a.m. in the William R. DeCota Hangar. Rick Cotton, Executive Director of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), will deliver the commencement address to more than 180 graduates. He will also be awarded an honorary degree by President Dr. Sharon B. DeVivo at the ceremony.

As executive director, Cotton is responsible for the entire agency that builds, operates, and maintains many of the most important transportation and trade infrastructure assets in the country, including a comprehensive $8 billion redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport that will result in an entirely new airport, and will be the first new airport constructed in the United States in more than 20 years.

Vaughn College is proud to have Executive Director Cotton deliver the commencement address to our graduating students. said DeVivo. The role of The Port Authority in driving economic development for our region is critical and we will honor his role in leading that investment, most importantly, in our area airports. We look forward to his remarks about the future needs of the transportation industry and how Vaughn graduates can play a role in that development.

Serving as Governor Cuomo's special counsellor for interagency initiatives, he was the point person within the Governor's office for most of the Governor's major downstate infrastructure priorities including LaGuardia Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, the Moynihan Train Hall and Penn-Farley Complex, the new Tappan Zee Bridge, the expansion of the Javits Center, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authoritys Second Avenue subway project. Cotton joined the administration following 25 years at NBC Universal, where he held a number of positions including 20 years as executive vice president and general counsel, and four years in London as president and managing director of CNBC Europe.

He also served as executive secretary to the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare under Secretary Joseph A. Califano, Jr. and special assistant for renewable energy to Deputy Secretary of Energy John Sawhill at the United States Department of Energy.

Cotton holds a bachelor of arts degree from Harvard College and a juris doctor degree in law from Yale Law School. He also served as a law clerk to Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. of the United States Supreme Court.

About Vaughn

Founded in 1932, Vaughn College is a private, nonprofit, four-year college that enrolls more than 1,500 students in masters, bachelors and associate degree programs in engineering, technology, management and aviation on its main campus in New York City and online. The student-faculty ratio of 14 to 1 ensures a highly personalized learning environment. Ninety-two percent of Vaughn College graduates are placed in professional positions or choose to continue their education within one year of graduation. They work in 20 countries and all 50 states. The institution serves many first-generation college students and is recognized by the US Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution. For more information, visit http://www.vaughn.edu.With the new website and investor deck Prime Harvest is rolling out an entirely new aesthetic for the brand, reflecting the companys commitment to providing consumers with products that can support overall wellbeing.

Prime Harvest, LLC, a science-driven, vertically integrated cannabis company with operations throughout California, is pleased to announce that they have launched an updated website and investor deck designed to provide consumers information regarding the companys core operations and understanding of their vertically integrated business model.

In January, Prime Harvest signed a letter of intent with ME Resource Corp. (CSE: MEC) as their first step towards bringing the company public. Now with the new website and investor deck Prime Harvest is rolling out an entirely new aesthetic for the brand, reflecting the companys commitment to providing consumers with products that can support overall wellbeing.

We are excited about this new step in bringing Prime Harvests mission to a wider audience, said E. Duane Alexander, CEO and Founder of Prime Harvest, LLC. It is our vision to become a leading provider of cannabis products targeting two of the largest cannabis markets in the world: California and Canada, as well as align with companies and organizations that share our commitment to provide products that are based on the research, constant analysis and refinement of those products to improve the wellbeing of the consumers we serve.

Visit the updated website here. To receive a copy of the updated investor deck contact Chand Jagpal at chand@primeharvestinc.com.

About Prime Harvest, LLC

Prime Harvest, LLC is a San Diego-based cannabis company with operations throughout California. Prime Harvest has been on the frontlines of the North American medical movement with over 30 years of sophisticated operating combined experience in legal cannabis markets. Prime Harvest manages the entire cannabis development pipeline, from tissue culture science, cultivation, extraction and formulation to production, manufacturing and retail sales. Prime Harvest brings the rigor of biotechnology to the emerging cannabis industry, focusing on science-based research and development, value-added products and vertical integration.

Prime Harvest operates through its wholly owned business pillars:

HICHI

HICHI is a universal natural experience to nourish the mind, body and soul that supports balance with ones surroundings. Manifested through pure cannabinoid and terpene oils, HICHI seeks to offer an elevated lifestyle of wellness and enlightenment. HICHI comes in various delivery methods and formulations including vaporizers, topicals, tinctures, transdermal delivery systems, sublingual sprays, RSO, premium pre-rolls and cannabidiol (CBD) pet treats. HICHI is Prime Harvests flagship luxury brand. Visit http://www.gethichi.com to learn more.

Prime Harvest Retail

State-of-the-art licensed establishments and other retail sources offer high quality products in Southern California, including the companys flagship luxury brand HICHI. Retail establishments are founded on the commitment to providing wellness-related care and innovative services in a professional setting for the purpose of achieving outcomes that improve the consumers quality of life. Prime Harvest sources the highest quality, lab tested cannabis products to ensure safety and efficacy. The companys team of experts is comprised of industry leaders, staff, and partners devoted to the research and advancement of cannabinoid science.

Prime Harvest Wholesale

Prime Harvest optimizes the entire life cycle and supply chain of cannabis, tissue culture science, cultivation, extraction, formulation to production, manufacturing and retail sales. The companys cultivation operations focus on blending the art and science of exposing the fullest expression of the plants genetic potential. Prime Harvests proprietary technology is designed to preserve the compounds of the whole plant. Prime Harvest offers a wide range of tissue culture and extraction services coupled with unparalleled processing transparency. The company has licensed nursery and outdoor cultivation space for the development of proprietary cannabidiol (CBD)-dominant strains. Additionally, Prime Harvest has a 10,000 square-foot manufacturing facility for scalable extraction, distillation and formulation. Prime Harvest tissue culture technology is used to mass propagate plants on sterile culture media generating desirable variants, eliminating systemic diseases in starting materials, dramatically reducing greenhouse space required for maintaining stock plants, and providing growers with healthy and uniform plants year-round. The company has the scientific equipment and expertise to successfully propagate cannabis plant varieties in all phases of the tissue culture process. Manufacturing, product development, administration and distribution of products will be performed at the companys state-of-the-art facility in Santa Rosa, California, a suburb of the Northern CA metro area.

National Growers Alliance

The National Growers Alliance (NGA) offers an opportunity for growers to come together as a coalition that can share opportunities, seek out markets and entities, while enjoying the benefits of a partnership with Prime Harvest. Prime Harvest supplies NGA members with high-quality starter plants, or plantlets, for the cannabis industry that utilize Prime Harvests proprietary micropropagation process that ensures vigorous, uniform, pathogen-free cannabis plantlets. The company also provides NGA members with services including, licensing application and acquisition, facility design, nutrient formulations, staff training, plant extraction/processing, and branding/manufacturing services. Visit http://www.nationalgrowersalliance.org to learn more.

Community Alliance Program

Community Alliance Program (CAP) is dedicated to improving lives by meeting communities' most critical needs and investing in cannabinoid research and educational programs. Sponsored by Prime Harvest, CAP forges alliances locally, nationally and internationally in an effort to embrace innovative approaches and partnerships to mobilize resources, foster resilient and sustainable support systems for our communities, and encourage access to natural medicine. Visit http://www.communityallianceprogram.com to learn more.

Public Relations Contact:

Cassandra Dowell

PR Account Manager

CMW Media

P. 888-829- 0070

Cassandra@cmwmedia.com

http://www.cmwmedia.comVina San Pedro, one of the largest wineries in Chile and one of the countrys most significant exporters, is pleased to announce the U.S. launch of their newest brand: 9 Lives Reserve (SRP: $9.99) a new multi-origin brand that offers the most renowned varietals of Chile and Argentina, through Premium quality wines steeped in elegance and freshness. Vina San Pedro has exclusively partnered with Shaw-Ross to import 9 Lives.

The name 9 Lives is an ode to an intriguing black cat that shadows Vina San Pedros vineyards. As a tribute to this mystical creature, 9 Lives Reserve is crafted using the best grapes from Chile and Argentina.

Vina San Pedros 9 Lives Reserve became the first wine brand introduced through Vivino, the worlds most renowned mobile wine app, inviting U.S. consumers to rate the three varietals Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc from Chile, and Malbec from Argentina. Considering millennial preference and the growing bond between wine and the digital world, the brand aimed to get the wines into the glasses of customers first and create consumer-driven reviews. All three varietals earned a 4 star average rating, ranking them among the top 15% in the world according to Vivino's database of more than million wines.

We went against the grain when we introduced 9 Lives Reserve in the USit was exciting and unheard of. Over the last several years, a cultural shift has occurred in the world and we looked at how millennials consume and share information, commented Paulo Ramires, Marketing Manager. This is a great brand and we wanted to explore how we could make the opinion of our wine drinker our first priority as we work to serve them.

For more information, please contact Zach Groth or Andrew Quinzi of Colangelo & Partners. You can also visit http://www.9liveswine.com.

About Vina San Pedro:

Vina San Pedro (http://www.sanpedro.cl) was founded in 1865, over 150 years ago, and is one of the most important Chilean wineries, present in over 70 markets worldwide. Today, Vina San Pedro is a part of VSPT Wine Group (http://www.vsptwinegroup.com), leader in sales of bottled wine in Chile and second-largest wine export group of the country. With a presence across all of Chiles main viticulture valleys from Elqui to Itata VSPT owns more than 4,200 hectares planted and produced more of 15 million cases in 2017. Furthermore, VSPT Wine Group is the most sustainable winery in the world and was awarded as such in 2016 by Drinks Business, receiving the Green Company of the Year award.

About Shaw-Ross International:

Shaw-Ross International Importers was founded in 1968 as a boutique wine and spirits importer representing a handful of brands in the United States. Since then, Shaw-Ross has grown into one of the nations leading importers representing twenty-eight suppliers from around the world. For more information, visit http://www.shaw-ross.com.Villa Garden View The Cernobbio Villa is a true gem  I am thrilled to offer local clientele the chance to call it their own.

Engel & Volkers Beverly Hills brings Lake Como luxury to market. In a rare opportunity to acquire an exquisite piece of Italian landscape, the international real estate brand proudly represents the exclusive Cernobbio Villa.

Nestled in the hillside just above Lago di Como, the turn of the century Italian Villa exudes an air of old-world romance. Meticulously renovated in 2004, the property includes five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a double living room, a gourmet kitchen, swimming pool, guest-house and pool house, in addition to an enclosed conservatory, with windows to the sky, custom built in London by Marston and Langinger. Surrounded by gorgeous greenery, flowers and fruit trees, the Villa attributes its lush landscape to its favorable climate conditions  the elevated location boats better weather than its lakeside counterparts.

As an elite lifestyle brand, Engel & Volkers is perfectly suited to introduce the property to national clientele. I am proud to be part of a global brand that allows me to serve my clients locally, as well as in their ventures abroad, says Advisor Justin Fierro. The Cernobbio Villa is a true gem  I am thrilled to offer local clientele the chance to call it their own, Fierro adds.

Home to the world-renowned Villa DEste Hotel and a summer playground hosting the likes of George Clooney, Sir Richard Branson and Madonna, Cernobbio, Lake Como is the epitome of first-class living. Unwavering as a top travel destination for high society from around the world, the Cernobbio Villa acts as the perfect vacation home, investment opportunity and piece of paradise. Co-listed with Debbi DiMaggio of Highland Partners, the Villa is currently listed at $5,400,000.

About Engel & Volkers

Since its establishment in 1977 as a specialty boutique providing exclusive, high-end real estate services in Hamburg, Germany, Engel & Volkers has become one of the worlds leading companies specializing in the sale and lease of premium residential and commercial property and yachts. Engel & Volkers currently operates a global network of real estate advisors in more than 700 residential brokerages and 85 commercial offices spanning 34 countries across 4 continents, offering both private and institutional clients a professionally tailored range of luxury services. It established its North America corporate headquarters in 2007 and opened its first brokerage in the same year. Committed to exceptional service, Engel & Volkers supports its advisors with an array of premium quality business services, marketing programs and tools, multiple platforms for mobile, social and web, as well as access to its global network of real estate professionals, property listings and market data.

For more information please contact:

Sheela Shouhed

Director of Communications

Sheela.Shouhed(at)evusa(dot)comUnfriend ENGOs Befriend Facts Canadas economy is suffering billions of dollars in economic losses from blockaded pipelines; many such activists have been incited to action by ENGOs and activists like Dr. Suzuki Past News Releases RSS

On May 7, 2018, BNN Bloomberg reported that Albertas United Conservative Party leader, Hon. Jason Kenney, had declared war on the green left at the partys weekend AGM, says Friends of Science. Kenneys speech to delegates included a promise to repeal the carbon tax and to investigate foreign influence on Canadas climate and energy policies. He singled out the David Suzuki Foundation as an example of charitable foundations he would work to delist.

Dr. Suzuki has been the subject of much controversy over the University of Albertas announcement that it would confer an honorary degree on him at this years spring convocation. Friends of Science Society membership includes many science graduates from the University of Alberta. Friends of Science rejects the statement of U of Alberta president Dr. David Turpin justifying the award to Dr. Suzuki and posted a rebuttal on their blog on May 9, 2018.

Canadas economy is suffering billions of dollars in economic losses from blockaded pipelines; 175,000 oil-industry experts, skilled trades and labourers are unemployed. Many anti-oil sands protesters have been incited to action by foreign funded ENGOs and activists like Dr. Suzuki.

Dr. Suzuki frequently rails against big corporations which he says control government and media but he is silent about a sponsor of the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF)  the global giant Power Corporation, which has funded DSF since 2007, according to its 2016 CDP report.

Meanwhile, Canadians are on the warpath demanding transparency on the costs of carbon taxes to ordinary Canadians with Senator Linda Frum quizzing economists in Banking Hearings, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre has been persistently demanding answers in the House of Commons, and Jason Kenney testified to the House of Commons finance committee that people dont have a choice about reducing energy use in a vast, cold country. Premier Scott Moe of the province of Saskatchewan is taking the federal government to court over the carbon tax.

Friends of Science says Paris Agreement targets are unattainable without mass destruction of the Canadian economy, as outlined in Robert Lymans article, Can Canada Survive Climate Change Policy? a view echoed in Friends of Science May 2, 2018 report entitled CHECKSTOP which rebuts the federal governments recent paper on carbon taxes and Gender Based Analysis. Further, Canadas GHG output is a tiny portion of that in the world.

In CHECKSTOP, Friends of Science Society recommends that Canada align itself with US policies on climate and energy as the US is the largest trading partner. The two countries have friendly relations and share similar economic and cultural values.

As reported by Climate Home News on May 9, 2018, Bonn climate change talks, meant to pave the road to Paris Agreement rules, have stalled out on financial issues since the US pulled out of the agreement. Robert Lyman predicted this scenario in his blog post of June 4, 2017: Where will the UN get its climate money from now?

Friends of Science hold the position that the sun and internal earth variability like ocean cycles drive climate change; the effect of human-caused carbon dioxide is nominal, therefore economically damaging carbon taxes and GHG targets are unnecessary.

About

Friends of Science Society is an independent group of earth, atmospheric and solar scientists, engineers, and citizens who are celebrating its 16th year of offering climate science insights. After a thorough review of a broad spectrum of literature on climate change, Friends of Science Society has concluded that the sun is the main driver of climate change, not carbon dioxide (CO2).

Friends of Science Society

P.O. Box 23167, Mission P.O.

Calgary, Alberta

Canada T2S 3B1

Toll-free Telephone: 1-888-789-9597

Web: friendsofscience.org

E-mail: contact(at)friendsofscience(dot)org

Web: climatechange101.caEmmy Award Winning Hosts of "The Real" Diamonds, watches, all kinds of jewels, high fashion, electronics, beauty products, top shelf wines, spirits and unique beverages  all valuable prizes laid out for a parade of daytime stars last weekend.

It was a collision of the brightest stars  a day when The Real cast got together with Young And Restless people and talked about the Days Of Our Lives and ended up in General Hospital. All witnessed and reported by Daily Mail On TV people.

These were the brightest of stars gathered for the 45th anniversary of the Daytime Emmy Awards at the Official Emmys Style Lounge at The Hills Penthouse in West Hollywood followed by the Academys Golden Gifting Lounge at the historic Pasadena Civic Center.

From The Real, guests rubbed shoulders with Adrienne Bailon, Tamera Mowrey, Loni Love and Jeannie Mai, and got to meet ETs host, Kevin Frazier. Among other groups there was Jesse Palmer (Daily Mail), Sal Stowers (Days of Our Lives), Donnell Turner (General Hospital) and Mishael Morgan (Young and the Restless).

Diamonds, watches, all kinds of jewels, high fashion, electronics, beauty products, top shelf wines, spirits and unique beverages  all valuable prizes laid out for a parade of daytime stars last weekend.

From 11 AM to 7PM; The Official Daytime Emmys Golden Gift Lounge invited all nominees and presenters to sample the most extraordinary collection of fashion and beauty accessories in its history.

Celebrity guests were gifted like never before as they relaxed in a luxurious lounge which offered hors doeuvres and cocktails in the finest of Pasadenas historic architecture as they wandered and chose from the exquisite gift displays.

Ladies enjoyed high fashion womens clothing and innovative devices and beauty creations from Foreo, Swedish beauty tech brand which aims to empower you to brighten your life, by offering a new standard of innovative beauty and wellness devices."

It was the continuation of a wondrous Daytime Emmy week that began in spectacular style at the Golden Style Lounge at the Hills Penthouse in West Hollywood.

At that opening by-invitation-only ceremony daytime stars like Stowers and David Osmond mingled with all the cast of The Real and ETs co-host Frazier to choose designer gowns and sample mens high fashion.

The Golden Gift Lounge the next Saturday overflowed with with more stars and classy event gifts at the architectural classic Civic Auditorium.

On arrival, all guests were greeted with the hors doeuvres and an eclectic variety of world class wine, courtesy of Emerald Hare before making their way to the lavish cocktail bar at the center of the Gold Room, a perfect oasis for thirsty visitors who wanted to put up their feet for a while.

If you thought youd seen it all, check out a few of the star-studded line up of guests and special gift items all chosen just for the 45th Emmy Nominees, Hosts, Celebrities and Executive Producers!

A few lucky nominees received trips to soak up the sun in Turks and Caicos courtesy of the Turks and Caicos Tourism Board and the upscale Airbnb Bangtel. Single Dress provided High fashion womens clothing. The Goods gifted mens handcrafted leather accessories, fashion & lifestyle products. GEs Alexa powered C Sol light brightened up everyones day. Fanstereo had each guest plugged in with sleek headphones, and all visitors received one-of-a-kind gemstone Tanzanite jewelry from Safi Kilima. Biaggi offered its space-saving luggage as the official Emmy Gift Luggage for everyone to carry home their gifts. There were glamorous watches from Gomelsky, designer handbag and shoes from Badgley Mischka. Wardrobe essentials and jewelry were offered to both men & women from ShopLC Online Shopping Network.

The Daytime Emmy nominees and presenters also experienced a virtual complete body and mind makeover while they sorted through the Gold Rooms offerings. Those who didnt win an Emmy on Sunday had already taken home an abundance of free gifts that they can wear, display, apply or even drink.

Guests included, Adrienne Bailon, Tamera Mowery, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, Kevin Frazier, Mishael Morgan, Jesse Palmer, Chloe Lanier, Sal Stowers, Donnell Turner, Carolyn Hennesy, Annika Noelle, Melissa Ordway, Laura Wright,Gaby Natale, Joely Fischer, Michael Easton, Eric Martsoff, Judge Marion Milian, Kym Douglas, David and Marie Osmond, Carissa Culiner of E news, Vanessa Williams, Areva Martin, The Talk TV host Eve, Kristos Andrews, Jezlan Moyet, Lauralee Bell, Victorial Konefal, Finola Hughes, AJ Gibson, Christopher Sean, Kate Lindner, Lilly Melgar and

Produced by 4-time Emmy Award-Winner Lisa Lew of P&L Media

About Daytime Emmy:

The Daytime Emmy Award is an American accolade bestowed by the New Yorkbased National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming.

Vendors Included:

1. Foreo - Swedish beauty tech company FOREO aims to empower you to brighten your life, by offering a new standard of innovative beauty and wellness devices. https://www.foreo.com

2. GEs C Sol Light powered by Alexa - The C by GE Sol is an all-in-one smart light that has the features, functionality, and voice control of Amazon Alexa. https://www.cbyge.com/

3. Safi Kilima Tanzanite Jewelry - Tanzanite is not only rare but has evolved into one of the most desirable gemstones in the world. Their fine tanzanite collections embrace the essence of Tanzania, Africa  its boldness, its energy and lush colorations. https://safikilima.com

4. Biaggi Luggage - Shark Tank star and Biaggi CEO Stephen Hersh designed Biaggi as the first luggage brand to create four-wheeled luggage that folds for easy storage. https://www.biaggi.com

5. Nume Hair Tools - Discover the latest hair care and styling tools at Nume. Achieve healthier hair with the most coveted curling wands, blow dryers. https://numeusa.com

6. Shop LC Online Shopping Network - Find great online deals at Shop LC, a national

home shopping network featuring jewelry, fashion accessories, home decor and more. https://www.shoplc.com

7. Stephanie Audino Couture -. We sculpt your gown to your body to create the perfect fit and detail for your bespoke Steph Audino Gown.

8. For The Stars Fashion House - Creative director, curator, and designer to the stars Jacob Meir gathers thousands of hand made, unique and one of a kind designs created by 11 in-house designers.

9. Turks & Caicos Tourism Board - Turks and Caicos Islands, Home to the Best Beach in the World, breathtaking hues from inviting waters, and legendary diving, snorkeling and fishing. http://turksandcaicostourism.com

10. Fanstereo surrounded by Stereo - Fanstereo is making a push into the sub-luxury, daily use headphone market and the Studio43 headphone is the flagship product leading the charge. https://www.fanstereo.com

11. Samba Sol Resort Footwear - Samba Sol's creativity has brought to market the most comfortable, stylish, Eco-Friendly flip flops you will ever wear.

12. Emerald Hare Wines - Emerald Hare is built on the premise that extraordinary wines dont have to break the bank. http://www.emeraldhare.com

13. JSquad Resort Collection - Jsquad is a Los Angeles based designer house offering premium quality resort and holiday wear women apparel. http://jsquadclothing.com

14. MC Fine Jewelry  Luxury high and jewelry line handmade collection includes gorgeous diamond and gold.

15. Monat Hair Care  Naturally based and approved hair care with products made in US.

16. Sunglasses Museum- Your place to shop vintage, sunglasses from the 80s and 90s, for a reasonable price. https://www.sunglassmuseum.com

17. Four Wicks Candles - Melbourne based candle company, bringing luxury and love to your home, work, celebrations and your gift giving. Made out of soy wax.

18. BANGTEL- The next-generation hospitality concept that provides inspirational spaces to Stay, Play, or Party. http://www.bangtel.com

19. Helen Ficalora- Signature jewelry designs inspire beauty, love and peace.

20. Pillow of Health - Luxury, customizable, therapeutic pillow for a better nights sleep.

21. Shapes Brow Bar / Reema Beauty - Shapes Brow Bar prides itself in being the #1 expert in brows by providing lash services, tinting services, eyebrow threading services, and much more! https://www.shapesbrowbar.com

22. Hard Beverages  Hard is not an energy drink, in contrast, Hard is the essential fuel for your lifestyle. Hard delivers  clean caffeine. https://hardbeverages.com

23. Tanduay Rum  It is the best -selling rum from Asia. http://www.tandyayusa.com

24. Gomelski Watches  The company celebrates women that are defined by their spirit, women that believe in being effortless, genuine, and unconventional. https://gomelskywatches.com/

25. Giraffe Bath & Body - Giraffe Bath & Body is passionate about providing personal care products that improve the quality of life for anyone who is limited in flexibility and mobility.

26. Single Dress Luxurious garments for independent, stylish and passionate women.

27. Vanity Girl Hollywood - Hollywood-style vanities and mirrors. Just like the ones you see backstage at a runway show or on a high-fashion photo shoot.

28. Elements Watches - Watches with a charity twist! Every charity watch is designed with an industrial minimalism aesthetic that looks good on you, no matter what youre wearing. https://www.elementswatches.com

29. Signs of the Apocalypse Book. Ruminations and wit from an American roadside prophet.

30. Donore Cosmetics - When creating NON -TOXIC wholesome organic beauty products the company strives on using the finest ingredients to feed our skin.

31. Tagaras Hellenic Gastronomia - Hellenic Gastronomia + Artisanal Greek Olive Oil + Greek Wine

32. My Intent Bracelets - MyIntent Project is a catalyst for meaningful conversations and positive action.. They are not a jewelry company - we are a service project.

33. Milanblocks clutches - The box clutches combine crystals. acrylics, and patent leathers with animal prints, florals, and tropical effects.

34. Kosas Make-up - A makeup bag staple reimagined, this toasted pink elevates natural lip color, bringing a radiant, healthy glow with it.

35. Sacred Simple Crystals  Sacred stones including crystals and chakras. As tools for your evolution, creation, and protection, minerals offer a connection to the resonance of our planet and our innermost wisdom.

36. The Goods Mens Leathergoods  The company uses full grain vegetable tanned cowhide leather which are long-lasting, natural, and involves no additional processing.

37. TeaVibes Tea  The company combined the love for tea, Melrose street-style inspirations, and Cali vibes into every special blend they've crafted and sourced from around the world.

38. Tanka Bars - Based on traditional wasna and pemmican, we combine high-protein, prairie-fed buffalo and tart-sweet cranberries.

39. Hollywood Isle Book - From the earliest silent pictures to modern day productions like Aviator, the extraordinary histories of the Isle of Romance and the movie capital of the world are inexorably linked.

40. Junior Mints - Junior Mints are a candy brand consisting of small rounds of mint filling inside a dark chocolate coating, with a dimple on one side.

41. Ella Danla Leather Clutch  Elegant leather designer clutches with gold hardware accentsNurses are an integral component of the care delivery system, and while all are special, it takes a truly remarkable person to give of themselves the way that Kelly has to her patients, their families and the local community she serves, said Larry Kraska, Interim HealthCare Inc. CEO and President.

Interim HealthCare Inc., a leading national franchisor of home care, hospice and healthcare staffing, today announced Kelly Noctor as its 2018 Nurse of the Year. Kelly works as a registered nurse for Interim HealthCare of the Upstate (including Greenville, SC), bringing comfort and care to her patients and their families. The Interim HealthCare Nurse of the Year is awarded annually during National Nurses Week, which begins May 6 and ends on May 12, Florence Nightingale's birthday.

Nurses are an integral component of the care delivery system, and while all are special, it takes a truly remarkable person to give of themselves the way that Kelly has to her patients, their families and the local community she serves, said Larry Kraska, Interim HealthCare Inc. CEO and President. As an organization, we are honored to work alongside nurses who bring exceptional care to people at home and ensure they have the opportunity to live full lives while aging in place.

Interim HealthCare of the Upstate frequently receives calls from patients and families expressing their gratitude for Kelly going above and beyond in delivering outstanding patient care. A recent example of her dedication was when Kelly couldnt reach someone by phone. Being very concerned for the sick patient, she drove to their house only to hear several dogs barking and no response. Kelly called all the hospitals in the area, waited for police to come by for a wellbeing check and arranged for pet care. The patient was eventually located the next day at a hospital in another town. This is only one instance of the integrity and compassion that Kelly shows every day as a nurse.

"I am honored to be recognized as Interims Nurse of the Year, and Im grateful that my profession allows me to provide care and be part of so many lives in such a special community, said Kelly, who graduated from Edison State Community College with her nursing degree in May of 1996. Caring for people is more than just a job; its a true calling for me, and I have been lucky to do such meaningful work.

We need more great caregivers like Kelly to help take care of our aging population nationwide, said Kraska. The demand for in-home nurses and aides is rapidly rising, and we strongly encourage more people to consider a rewarding career in home health care.

To learn more, please visit Interim HealthCares career webpage.

About Interim HealthCare Inc.

Interim HealthCare Inc., founded in 1966, is a leading national franchisor of home care, hospice and healthcare staffing. It is part of Caring Brands International which also includes UK-based Bluebird Care and Australia-based Just Better Care, both well-known franchise brands in their countries. With more than 530 franchise locations in seven countries Caring Brands International is a global health care leader.

Interim HealthCare in the United States is unique in combining the commitment of local ownership with the support of a national organization that develops innovative programs and quality standards that improve the delivery of service. Franchisees employ nurses, therapists, aides, companions and other healthcare professionals who provide 25 million hours of home care service to 190,000 people each year, meeting a variety of home health, senior care, hospice, palliative care, pediatric care and healthcare staffing needs. For more information or to locate an Interim HealthCare office, visit http://www.interimhealthcare.com.It was a great idea: rent bridesmaids dresses. But the owner of Vow To Be Chic says the startup company didnt raise enough capital and had to close the business, leaving customers without their dresses and out of hundreds (even thousands) of dollars. Most of them have been unable to get their refunds. Complaints filed through Better Business Bureau have gone unanswered and BBB has revoked Vow To Be Chic's accreditation.

The companys outgoing message says theyre unable to answer the phone due to overwhelming demand during peak wedding season and suggests customers email their support team. The website simply says the business cant take any more orders.

While theres no sure way to get a refund there are some steps you can take. BBB has tips on what you should do when a company you do business with closes down. Also, what to do about gift cards if the company declares bankruptcy.

In this specific situation:



Check with other bridal stores. Some are offering discounts to help Vow to be Chic customers.

Vow to be Chic, Inc. is still listed as an active Delaware corporation on the California Secretary of States website. You may be able to use the information there in your attempts to communicate.

The California Courts have posted information on how you can take a company to Small Claims Court.

Besides filing a complaint with BBB, you can also file a complaint with the California Attorney General and with the Federal Trade Commission if your issues go unresolved. It may not get you your money back, but it will alert the regulatory agencies to the companys practices.

30 -

ABOUT BBB: For more than 100 years, the Better Business Bureau has been helping people find businesses, brands and charities they can trust. In 2017, people turned to BBB more than 160 million times for BBB Business Profiles on more than 5.2 million businesses and Charity Reports on 11,000 charities, all available for free at bbb.org. The Council of Better Business Bureaus is the umbrella organization for the local, independent BBBs in the United States, Canada and Mexico, as well as home to its national and international programs on dispute resolution, advertising review, and industry self-regulation.

MEDIA CONTACTS: For more information, journalists for national media outlets should contact Katherine Hutt (212-705-0131 or khutt@council.bbb.org). Journalists for local media outlets should contact their regional spokesperson (bbb.org/bbb-locator).North Central College President Troy Hammond and Nigel Blakeway, Chairman & CEO of Omron Management Center of America, Inc. and Omron Foundation President cut the ribbon.

North Central College celebrated the opening of a new laboratory in the Dr. Myron Wentz Science Center with a ceremonial ribbon cutting on May 8. The Omron Design and Automation Lab will give North Central College engineering students the exciting opportunity to work with a wealth of cutting-edge technologies currently used in industry while constructing their own working systems at the numerous workstations provided.

Giving students access to todays most sophisticated technology is a core purpose of the Wentz Science Center, and the laboratory will play a key role to this effect. The lab was built with funding from Omron Foundation, which coordinates the charitable efforts of the Omron companies in the United States. Omron is an industry-leading provider of automation technology and creative solutions for tackling societys challenges, and the Foundation supports engineering education as well as STEM initiatives throughout the K-12 education levels.

Omron prides itself on its long-term focus, so it is our greatest pleasure to help educate the engineers who will solve tomorrows challenges, says Nigel Blakeway, Chairman & CEO of Omron Management Center of America, Inc., and Omron Foundation President. We are thrilled to be part of the development of such a future-oriented laboratory and to be able to guide students as they begin their engineering journey.

The Omron Foundation has also granted all North Central College faculty and students unlimited access to its E-learning modules, which are packed full of information on core industry technologies such as vision, robotics, control, motion and safety. They will be an integral part of North Central Colleges new four-year bachelor of science degrees in computer, electrical and mechanical engineering beginning in the 2018-2019 academic year.

Omron Foundation has also supported North Central Colleges Japanese language program with grants that allow students to visit Japan each year and study there for terms of ten weeks or longer. Omron has supported the Japanese Language program since 2008 with the aim of helping students improve Japanese-American cross-cultural understanding.

About North Central College

Founded in 1861, North Central College is an independent, comprehensive college of the liberal arts and sciences that offers more than 65 undergraduate majors and six graduate programs. With more than 2,900 students, North Central provides a rigorous, student-centered education and fosters a diverse, inclusive and globally engaged community that prepares students for action and leadership in a complex world. Just 30 minutes from Chicagos Loop, the campus is located in the Historic District of Naperville, Ill.rated by Money magazine as among the nations Best Places to Live and by niche.com as the 2nd Best Places to Live in Illinois. Visit northcentralcollege.edu and discover what it means to #Be central.

About OMRON Foundation, Inc.

Founded in 1989, OMRON Foundation, Inc. (OFI) coordinates the charitable efforts of OMRON offices in the US to achieve the greatest positive social impact. The Foundation is funded by OMRON's subsidiaries in the US, which contribute a portion of sales revenue to the Foundation. The Foundation divides its charitable resources among organizations benefiting education, people with disabilities, cultural programs, health, and other social concerns including disaster relief.

About OMRON

OMRON Corporation is a global leader in the field of automation based on its core technology of "Sensing & Control + Think." Established in 1933, OMRON has about 36,000 employees worldwide, working to provide products and services in 117 countries. The company's business fields cover a broad spectrum, ranging from industrial automation and electronic components to automotive electronics, social infrastructure systems, healthcare, and environmental solutions. For more information, visit OMRON's website: http://www.omron.com.In Defense of Christians (IDC), the nations leading advocacy organization for Christians and religious minorities in the Middle East, commends the Lebanese government and people for holding their parliamentary elections for the first time in nine years.

While the results show marginal gains for Hezbollah and its allies, other moderate parties, including the leading Christian political parties, have also seen their share of power increase, markedly. In Lebanon, a country with a very complex political system, Hezbollah's trumpeted gains in the recent elections will not necessarily give it a veto power in the parliament. Hezbollah's strength emanates from the unlimited financial and military support it receives from Iran. The first victim of Hezbollah's foreign funded prowess is the Shiite community. The only community that failed to achieve a diversified representation in Parliament. The Lebanese Forces, a pro-Western and anti-Hezbollah Christian Party, doubled their number of seats and now have more members in parliament than Hezbollah. Multiple independent candidates also won seats. The main headline from this election is that Prime Minister Saad Hariris Sunni constituency did not show up to the polls and the result was a significant loss of seats for his Future Movement party. However, Hariri is still poised to remain Prime Minister, another positive outcome of the elections.

IDC calls on the U.S. to increase support for Lebanon at this critical moment when Iran is aggressively trying to exercise their influence while the country bears the burden of hosting 1.5 million Syrian refugees. U.S. support for Lebanon has generated the greatest return on U.S. investment in the Middle East, as it stands as a pluralistic, tolerant and free country that has had peaceful Muslim and Christian coexistence since the end of its civil war in 1990. If the U.S. ceases to engage with Lebanon, it will lose a strategic Mediterranean-based ally and the country will fall under Irans influence, endangering Israel and our other allies in the region.

It will be in the best interest of the United States and its Middle East Policy to continue, if not to increase its support to the Lebanese Army and other state institutions. This will not only reinforce the rule of law and democratic governance in Lebanon but it will have a significant co-benefit, denying Hezbollah and its sponsors the dominance they seek to maintain on the day to day lives of the Shiite community and other affected segments of the population.Ghanas President Nana Akufo-Addo will be staying in the United Kingdom for one week as he embarks on a short vacation.

A statement by the presidents director of communications, Eugene Arhin, revealed that Akufo-Addo will be enjoying his first vacation, since his assumption of office, with his wife, children and grandchildren.

The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Wednesday, 9th May, 2018, left Ghana for the United Kingdom on a week-long vacation, his first since being sworn-in as President on 7th January, 2017. He was accompanied by the First Lady, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, his children and grandchildren, the statement from the Presidency said.

Here are the things the president will be doing while on his first and short vacation in the United Kingdom.

ALSO READ: How Prez Akufo-Addo went from cool to cold

Akufo-Addo will speak at University of Oxford

President Akufo-Addo will be speaking at the University of Oxford during his one week vacation in the UK.

Whilst away, the President will honour two public engagements. On Friday, 11th May, 2018, he will speak at the University of Oxford, as part of its 2018 Africa Conference, on the theme Enough Rhetoric! Catalyzing an Era of Concrete Action, the presidents communications manager confirmed.

Akufo-Addo will be at the London Business School

The president will attend the Africa Business Summit at the London Business School where he is expected to deliver a keynote address.

He will on Saturday, 12th May, 2018, deliver the keynote address at the London Business Schools Africa Business Summit. On 13th May, 2018, the President will also take the opportunity of his vacation to attend the Anglican confirmation ceremony of his grandson, Louis, at his old school, Lancing College, in Sussex, a statement from the presidency said.Bawumia notes that mining companies not being faithful with dividends to government is depriving Ghanaians considerable amounts of domestic revenue.

Addressing participants at the launch of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)s Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa in Accra Tuesday, he stated that when we look at the data, however, we see a matrix of zeros as far as the dividends that Ghana earned from this carried interest.

READ ALSO: Seychellois are living the best life in Africa but Ghanaians are not so far behind

While the Ghanaian government has a 10% stake in most mines in the country, it has yielded zero dividends for the country for years, Bawumia said.

He further underscored the need to introduce a model designed to meet the country's development challenges rather than relying on revenue from the export of unprocessed natural resources.

The West African country hosts operations for gold producers from SAs AngloGold Ashanti to Kinross Gold.The 20-year-old woman was imprisoned last spring for violating her plea deal in a menacing case.

Though her lawyers made efforts at the time of her sentencing to ensure she was placed in females prison, the federal court judge reportedly refused to recognise her current gender.

As the court turned down her request, she was then caged with male inmates.

Having experienced consistent sexual and physical assaults in the prison at the hands of sex hungry male prisoners, Lindsay Saunders-Velez described the Colorado prison as discriminatory and dangerous for transgender offenders.

Her attorney, Paula Greisen has vowed to ensure she gets justice. She is quoted as saying: This issue is not going to go away. Were going to fight it until these individuals are treated with the respect they deserve.

As to how she became a female instead of her original male status, Lindsay Saunders-Velez said she has been out as a trans female since age 4.

Reports say she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2016 while in the youth corrections system.After rescuing the little school boy with his bag on his back, the men and women who appeared to be the schools staff claimed they were taking her to the police station.

It equally unclear yet which police station the woman was being taken to and what has become of her.

In the video, some men and women sat in the car which supposedly conveyed the woman to the police station.

Watch the video below:Judith Wandera told a Kenyan Magistrates court presided over by Principal Magistrate, Joan Wambilyanga that she was under the impression that the school drop-out was a grown man as he wore dreadlocks and claimed to be an accomplished man.

She added that the minor had told her he became a successful commercial motorbike rider after he was driven out of his parents home.

The teenagers parents reported their cohabitation to authorities, claiming their ward dropped out of school because of his association with Judith Wandera.

READ MORE: Man receives 5 strokes of cane for wrongly divorcing his wife

She was then arrested and arraigned for court, but the convict maintained that there was no way she could have known that the little boy she had been sleeping with was a youngster because he looked old in his dreadlocks.

The prosecutor, Nyakundi Mukaya told the court that: The boy was rescued on July 7, 2017 and the accused was arrested by police officers.

The court was expected to have pronounce her sentence on Wednesday, May 9, but the principal Magistrate, Joan Wambilyanga adjourned the sentencing till Wednesday, May 23, saying she had not concluded preparing the verdict."Join me in the Time Machine," he captioned a video he posted on Instagram Tuesday. In the clip, shot on the front steps of Rocky's old house, the 71-year-old movie star took a trip down memory lane.

"I don't know how many times I'm going to get a chance to visit this place, so maybe this is the last time I sit here on the Rocky steps," Stallone said. "A lot of memories went down here."

He then recalled a scene he shot with Talia Shire, who played Rocky's love interest Adrian Balboa: "I said, 'Look at this face. This is the face you can trust. Someday they're going to put this face on a stamp.'"

Stallone pointed out that the house's original address "1818" is still written on the brick foundation. "Some things come to an end, some things don't," he added. "There's just no end to Rocky."

Back in April, Stallone also stopped by the iconic Rocky statue, located at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and took a moment to take a few pictures with fans.

Stallone starred as Rocky Balboa in six of the original franchise movies. He first reprised the role for Creed in 2015, which earned him a Golden Globe win for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination.The said factories will be involved in the production and processing of garments, starch, and other items.

This was revealed at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Chinese and Ghanaian government represented by the Trade Minister on Wednesday (May 9, 2018).

The Chinese government will be represented by the China National Building Material Cooperation (CNBM). They are also expected supply equipment and other machinery to these factories.

It is unclear if the factories will be managed or operated by Chinese.

Meanwhile, the exact date for the start of construction is also yet to be made public.

In October 2017, a Deputy Trade and Industry Minister, Robert Ahomka Lindsay said 173 factories were set to be constructed across the country by private businesses.

Mr Ahomka Lindsay said that they have received business plans mainly from the agro-processing industry.

Of that 173, 46% are in agro-processing, and 36% are manufacturing, he said, adding that 65% of the projects were expansions of existing factories that had collapsed, or were under-functioning, while 35% were entirely new projects.

The one-district one-factory program is aimed at industrialising Ghana. It was launched by President Akufo-Addo at Ekumfi in the Central Region.This follows a challenge issued by the Vice President last year to the Bank of Ghana, the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), the Telcos and financial institutions to ensure that mobile money platforms were interoperable to make banking services more accessible to the large unbanked population, estimated to be about 70%.

Interoperability is the ability for customers to undertake money transfers between two accounts at different mobile money companies or to transfer money between mobile money accounts and bank accounts.

Speaking at the launch, the Vice President commended the hardworking Ghanaians and Ghanaian institutions whose efforts had resulted in a platform that provides a financial transactions engine that is versatile, efficient, robust, and enhances patronage.

It is a historic day for Ghana. A very big deal. We thank God for this dayThis singular achievement reinforces President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addos belief that with the right conditions and leadership, there is nothing we cannot achieve as a people.

The launch of mobile money payment interoperability system is expected to largely eliminate the difficulties associated with traditional banking services, such as the difficulty in opening bank accounts, the high costs associated with maintaining a bank account relative to customers income levels, the need to have basic literacy, administration and record keeping abilities and English-language capacity to operate a bank account, and the sheer intimidating nature of banking halls.

For example, customers who have mobile money accounts with say, MTN can easily transfer or receive money from other networks such as Airtel-Tigo or Vodafone.

Furthermore, mobile customers can move money from their mobile money accounts to bank accounts without any hassle, freeing up funds locked up in the telco sector.

As well, from the bank side customers can move money from their bank account(s) to mobile money accounts.

According to Fintech experts, this will make Ghana one of the global leaders in the interoperability payments space.

Phase Two of the interoperability platform will complete the Financial Inclusion Triangle by allowing the movement of monies between and among Telcos, banks, and e-zwich accounts in a seamless manner - and the flow is back-to-back.

When phase 2 is completed, customers will be able to pull monies from bank accounts to their mobile money accounts. The e-zwich integration is ongoing, and the central bank has instructed all Banks to complete the integration that allows customers to pull monies from bank accounts to their mobile money accounts by July 15 this year.

Vice President Bawumia challenged the financial institutions, the Telcos, and the Fintechs to find very innovative ways of turning mobile phones and the mobile money platform into vehicles of economic emancipation for the many players in the huge informal sector. He also challenged the stakeholders to extend the reach of mobile money interoperability beyond the shore of Ghana.This information was relayed to the trial judge by Kojo Adu Baohene, administrator of the church.

Bishop Obinim has been dragged before the court for allegedly assaulting two adopted children  a 14-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy who lived with him in the presence of his congregation.

Mr Boahene said: My Lord Bishop Obinim was not feeling well and he had to be taken to the hospital this morning and such could not turn up in court.

This new excuse didn't go down well with the trial judge, Mrs Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku who noted that Bishop Obinims excuses of being sick is becoming too many; and Next time I expect him in court.

On August 17, 2016, at about 1700 hours, the Accra Branch of the Church held a service, at which Bishop Obinim claimed he had a revelation from God that the two alleged victims were engaged in pre-marital sex and the 14-year old girl was pregnant.

The prosecution said Obinim said the victim was in the process of aborting the pregnancy and that the Holy Spirit has directed him (Obinim) to chastise the (teenagers) in the presence of the congregation.According to the prosecution in the full glare of the church, Obinim allegedly removed his belt and assaulted them.A new outbreak of EbolaVirusDisease (EVD) was declared on Tuesday by the DRC government, after two samples tested positive for EVD in Bikoro, Equateur Province.

In response to the new outbreak of Ebola, the AfricaCDC said Thursday that it has activated its emergency operation center (EOC) to support national outbreak response efforts, according to an African Union (AU) statement.

The team includes experts with previous experience in responding to the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa in 2014 and in the DRC in 2017.

A total of 250,000 U.S. dollars has been set aside for outbreak response activities, and more resources are being mobilized, the statement said.

The AU Commission has been informed of the outbreak and is ready to offer comprehensive support of all AU organs to the response.

NAN reports that the epidemic so far appears to be centred around the village of Ikoko Impenge, near the town of Bikoro.

Serge Ngaleto, the director of Bikoros main hospital said it had received four new suspected cases on Thursday, including two nurses who had treated others showing symptoms.

After contact, the nurses began showing signs, Ngaleto said.

We have isolated them.

That would bring the total number of people reporting symptoms to 25, of whom at least 17 have so far died.

This is the ninth time Ebola has been recorded in the vast, forested central African nation since it was first identified near its northern Ebola river in the 1970s.

It comes less than a year after an outbreak killed eight people in Congos remote northeastern forests.

Ngaleto said of all cases so far reported, seven were currently in the hospital in Bikoro. All of those could be traced back to Ikoko Impenge, about 60 km away from Bikoro, except for one from the next door hamlet of Pangi.

The health ministry said on Thursday it had dispatched a team of 12 experts to the area to try to trace new contacts of the disease, identify the epicentre and all affected villages and provide resources.

This advance team brought the first batches of equipment, mostly containing rapid diagnostic tests for the Ebola virus and laser thermometers, the Health Ministry statement said.

It said they had already arrived in the regional capital Mbandaka, about 150 km away from the affected area.

Ebola is best known and most feared for the internal and external bleeding it can cause in its victims, owing to damage done to blood vessels. Victims often die of shock but symptoms can be vague, including fever, muscle pain, diarrhoea and nausea.

The worst Ebola epidemic in history ended in West Africa just two years ago after killing more than 11,300 people and infecting 28,600 in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Nigerias immigration service said on Thursday it had increased screening tests at airports and other entry points as a precautionary measure following the Ebola outbreak in Congo.

Similar measures helped Africas most populous country contain the virus during the West African epidemic that began in 2013.She was awarded by the Africa Public Sector Conference and Awards (APSCA) 2018 held in Kigali, Rwanda.

She was given the 'Excellence in Empowering Women and Children Award' at the Africa Public Sector for her outstanding contribution to womens health and efforts against infant mortality in Ghana and across Africa.

The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ms Otiko Afisah Djaba, who represented the First Lady in Kigali, said Mrs Akufo-Addo's impressive commitment and purpose-driven interventions over the years, towards promoting the well-being of women and children makes her deserving of the prestigious award.

She said her ministry was proud of the First Lady for gaining recognition on the continent and beyond as well as for her consistent work in improving infant well-being.

The Minister cited the First Lady's efforts in renovating the Komfo Anokye Mother and Baby Unit as well as her leadership vis-a-vis on-going works at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Cancer centre, as a clear testament that makes deserving of the recognition.

Country Director of APSCA, Ms Carolyn Opata, also said the First Ladys award is in recognition of the giant strides she has made in diverse ways to improve maternal and child health care in the country.

According to Ms. Opata, the award was for people who had contributed to the development of their countries in Africa. It recognises the fact that her activities in this regard predate her becoming the First Lady of Ghana.

Ms. Djaba and her ministry also received separate awards for their outstanding contribution to gender and child rights and for the promotion of gender equality.

READ ALSO: Rebecca Addo wishes husband a lovely birthday

Other awards for Ghana were the Excellence in Electricity Service Delivery, which went to the Electricity Company of Ghana; Excellence in Public Procurement and Best Practice Award was won by the Public Procurement Authority of Ghana, while the Africa Public Sector CEO of the Year went to the Managing Director, Electricity Company of Ghana, Mr. Samuel Boakye-Appiah.Charles Agyei alias Rasta who is serving a 10-year jail term at the Koforidua prisons escaped on Wednesday (May 9, 2018) when he and other inmates went out with some prison officers to fetch firewood at Akwadum road.

According to Accra-based Starr FM, Rasta who was using a chainsaw machine to cut down the firewood escaped after realizing he was not being monitored.

READ ALSO: Angel Obinim dodges court by sickness excuse again

The Koforidua Prison commander, Bob Dery confirmed the incident but was unwilling to give any further details.

Meanwhile, the Prison officers who were in charge of the inmates have been dispatched since Wednesday to search for the fugitive.

Charles Agyei was arrested on 22 December 2016. He initially tried to escape when he was being sent to Court on December 23 but was recaptured. He was sent to court and fresh charges were slapped on him. He was jailed 9-months for that offence.

On April 2017, he was put before Court at Mpraeso Circuit Court and was charged with possession of narcotic substance which he pleaded guilty and was convicted to a 10-year jail term with hard labour.

The court stated that the 10-year jail term begins after serving the initial 9-month sentence.

READ ALSO: Man detained for killing pregnant woman and son

Rasta has completed serving the 9-months jail term and has started serving the 10-year sentence and was therefore not eligible per regulations of the Ghana Prisons Service to be taken out for labourer work without adequate security.

Sources indicate that the escapee operates with some drug barons who are alleged to have influenced and masterminded his escape.Particularly, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) finds the current spate of physical attacks against Ghanaian journalists by both state and non-state actors very alarming.

On April 10, 2018, the MFWA reported that 17 journalists had been physically assaulted in the country over the previous 15 months.

The report followed police brutalities against Latif Idris, a reporter with Joy News, who was covering an event at the headquarters of the Ghana Police Service in Accra.

Following this report, there were several assurances by the police that they would ensure that the growing trend of abuse against journalists are curbed.

Indeed, following the controversial ranking of Ghana as having the freest press freedom environment in Africa by reporters without borders, many government officials including the Minister of Information reiterated governments commitment to protecting the rights of journalists.

Also during the just-ended World Press Freedom Day event in Ghana, the Minister of Information and even the President of Ghana gave assurances that safety of journalists will be protected.

The MFWA therefore views with dismay the incident of May 4, 2018, in which one Hajia Fati a known NPP activist assaulted Ohemaa Sakyiwaa, a reporter of Accra-based Adom FM.

This incident is especially outrageous and embarrassing as it happened just a day after Ghana hosted the world to observe the World Press Freedom Dayand at the headquarters of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

This is the second time in recent times that Hajia Fati has abused journalists.

On January 31, 2018, she threatened a journalist, Kwakye Afreh-Nuamah, for reporting her colleague, one Hajia Boya Musah, to the police.

Hajia Musah had the previous day issued death threats against the journalist whom she accused of repeatedly criticising the performance of Ghanas Minister for Water Resources and Sanitation.

The assault on the Adom FM reporter is also the second such incident at the NPP headquarters in less than five months.

In the first incident, which took place on December 21, 2017, four journalists from three media houses were brutalized by party security guards while covering a demonstration at the partys headquarters.

Regrettably, the partys executives have not reacted to the incident despite a wave of public condemnation that followed it, including a petition from the MFWA to the Acting Chairman of the party, Mr. Freddie Blay, to ensure that the culprits are punished.

Although the NPP has, through its General Secretary, John Boadu, issued a statement to condemn the latest attack on Ohemaa Sakyiwaa, the statement has come too late and offers very little assurances.

In the first place, the reaction comes after three days of passionate appeals, condemnations and threats of boycott.

Secondly, the statement portrays an attitude of denial by referring to the assault as an alleged incident, despite the perpetrators own admission of the offense in a couple of interviews.

READ MORE: NPP condemns Hajia Fati after media threatens to blacklist party

MFWA commended the Multimedia Group for officially reporting the matter to the police and urge the police to ensure that justice is served.

It also commended all media organisations and journalists who have taken a stand against the on-going attacks on journalists and urge the media to take their fate into their own hands by showing solidarity and mobilizing themselves to fight back the creeping threat of tyranny and impunity.Abdul Razak Ismail, known in public life as "Razak Ember" who is a known sympathiser of the party was very vibrant during the party's unity walks across the country.

He has picked nomination forms tocontest as the deputy youth organiser position at Ayawaso East constituency.

Speaking to the media after picking his forms, he said the NDC needs a new chapter in the constituency to win the 2020 elections.

"I decided to contest this time around, having led the party at the branch level. The party needs to create a new chapter since we are in opposition and we need fresh ideas with new approach to ensure victory in 2020," he said.

He added that the party "The NDC is the party for the youth, we have done enough for youth and will ensure we appear more attractive to the youth.They said such an act will serve as deterrent to other political fanatics in the future.

Avid NPP supporter Hajia Fati allegedly slapped Adom FM reporter Ohemaa Sakyiwaa at the NPP Headquarters last Friday.

In a statement, the pressure group said it wishes to register its total abhorrence at the penchant of persons, particularly those in political authority or with political connections, to assault and batter journalists who are simply doing their work.

READ THE FULL STATEMENT BELOW

OccupyGhana wishes to register its total abhorrence at the penchant of persons, particularly those in political authority or with political connections, to assault and batter journalists who are simply doing their work.The recent reported assault on Ohemaa Sakyiwaa Ahwenepa, a reporter of Accra-based Adom FM by one Hajia Fati, a known member and operative of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at that partys headquarters in Accra is reprehensible and ought to be condemned outright. In addition, the perpetrator has to be dealt with to the fullest extent permitted by law.OccupyGhana is concerned that these attacks persist because of the failure, neglect or refusal to prosecute offenders. This has created a culture of impunity that has unfortunately infected and engulfed even the Ghana Police Service, when one considers the recent similarly barbaric, senseless and un-called for attacks on another journalist, Iddrissu Latif also of the Multimedia Group, while undertaking his legitimate journalistic duties.

Examples of such attacks are a legion. However, one thread that runs through them is the non-prosecution of the perpetrators. Added to this is the apparent lack of interest or inability of the victims to commence and sustain civil legal action against their assaulters and the owners of the premises where these assaults occur, particularly the political parties.He said the GH700 workers on the scheme will receive isn't much, however, it is better than being unemployed.

I have worked in a bakery, I have been a taxi driver, sold PK on the streets and did savings to get to where Im today. Im not happy with GH700 but they should take it for the time being. Because it is better than being in the house for two or three years without a job, he said.

On May 1, President Nana Akufo-Addo launched the Nation Builders Corps initiative in Kumasi. The scheme is expected to help curb the massive graduate unemployment in the country as it is projected to employ over 100,000 graduates.

Their reason is that apart from the meager salary which will be paid to them, the programme does not guarantee them of permanent jobs coupled with the fact they have been trained and will not require any further training.Police said the men entered the large mosque after midday prayers and stabbed three people.

"They further set certain rooms alight and fled in their getaway vehicle," police spokeswoman Nqobile Gwala said in a statement.

"The motive of the attack on the three men is unknown at this stage. Verulam police are investigating three counts of attempted murder and arson."

Paul Herbst, spokesman for the private IPSS medical rescue service, told AFP that the imam "who had his throat slit, passed away a few minutes ago due to his injuries."

"There were three people in the mosque -- a caretaker, a worshipper and the imam and they were held up by three armed men," Herbst said after visiting the scene.

"The priest was tied up and thrown to his knees and his throat was slit. The other two men were also stabbed -- one was stabbed in the abdomen and the other in the groin of his left leg.

"Before the assailants left the mosque, a petrol bomb was thrown into the mosque and it was set alight.

"The attackers managed to get out of the mosque. The imam was in a critical condition. He was treated by paramedics on the scene and transferred (to hospital).

"Fire services were on scene and put the blaze under control."

'Sudden attack'

Prem Balram, spokesman for the Reaction Unit South Africa security company, said he had arrived at the mosque to find two victims covered in blood lying in the forecourt of the mosque.

He said a third victim had been attacked inside the building, which was then set alight, and had jumped out of a window.

"Eyewitnesses said three attackers with guns had used knives. One knife was left behind," Balram told AFP.

"There have been theft and robbery incidents at mosques before, but not like this, when nothing appears to have been taken."

South Africa has a history of relative religious tolerance. About 1.5 percent of the country's population is Muslim.

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan is due to start next week.

"It is the first time anything like this has happened in South Africa, let alone in KwaZulu-Natal province," Faizel Suliman, chairman of the SA Muslim Network, told AFP.Thousands of mourners attended the funeral in the country's central Sofala province, a heartland of support for the Renamo group that he led for nearly 40 years.

Dhlakama, who died of a suspected heart attack last week aged 65, was buried in a private family cemetery in the village of Magunde.

During his decades as leader, Renamo evolved from rebels fighting in the bloody 1977-1992 civil war to an opposition party with lawmakers in parliament while also maintaining an armed guerilla force.

After a renewed bout of unrest, Dhlakama declared a truce in 2016 and had recently pursued peace talks with President Filipe Nyusi, leader of the ruling Frelimo party.

"We are burying the body, but we are not burying the ideas," his brother Elias Dhlakama said after the casket was lowered into the ground.

Some people perched on trees to watch the burial in the place Dhlakama was born on New Year's Day 1953.

"We're here not only to honour our father but also to thank him," said Dhlakama's niece Teresa Marceta.

Hundreds of vehicles took mourners to the family homestead where mud and reed huts have no electricity and water supplies.

Backed by apartheid South Africa, Renamo launched a bitter war against the Soviet-backed Frelimo government and fought for control of its strongholds in the north and centre of the country.

Dhlakama later then transformed Renamo into a political party which has participated in elections since the first multi-party democratic vote in October 1994.

He later retreated to his wartime bush camp in central Mozambique's Gorongosa mountains, claiming the government had reneged on a 1992 peace agreement.Slovak Prosecutor General Jaromir Ciznar said Wednesday in Bratislava that investigators were almost certain that the "attack was directed exclusively at him (Kuciak)" and that Kusnirova found herself "in the wrong place at the wrong time."

A Slovak prosecutor who spoke to journalists in March on condition of anonymity revealed that Kusnirova had been "shot once in the head" while Kuciak "was hit by two shots to the heart." Nothing had been stolen, they added.

The murders and Kuciak's last explosive report raised fresh concern about media freedom and corruption, plunging Slovakia, an EU member of 5.4 million people, into deep crisis.

Weekly mass protests in the capital Bratislava and other towns forced the government to resign in March.

The new government retains most of the members of the previous administration of Robert Fico, a populist leftist, whose close ally Peter Pellegrini is now prime minister.

Analysts believe Fico is still calling the shots from behind the scenes as he remains chairman of the governing Smer-SD party.

Slovakia said last week that it would extradite an Italian businessman Antonino Vadala wanted in Italy on drugs charges, whom Kuciak also named in his report, alleging he had ties to both the Italian mafia and people close to Fico and others in his government.

Vadala was arrested in March in connection with a European arrest warrant issued by Italy last year over alleged drug trafficking.Aliko Dangote and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi are the two most powerful Africans in the world according to a recent rating by Forbes.

The Nigerian business magnate and chairman of the Dangote Group occupies the 66th position on the list which also has the American Vice President, Mike Pence, on the 67th position.

Dangote ranks 21 spots below the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who occupies number 45 on the list.

The 61-year-old Nigerian businessman joined world leaders like Chinese president, Xi Jinping; Vladimir Putin, Russian president and Donald Trump, President of the U.S. on Forbes latest 2018 ranking of the World Powerful People.

Dangote, Africas richest man, is the only Nigerian on the list and one of the only two Africans who made the list. He has been featured on the list since 2015.

Abdel el-Sisi first made it to the most powerful peoples list in 2016, two years after he was sworn into office in 2014.

In 2017, Dangote made the list as the only black man apart from the president of the United States, Barack Obama, in the 2016 ranking released in 2017 and was listed at number 71 just above U.S. President, Donald Trump, who was listed at number 72.

Who is Dangote?

Dangote is the Chairman of the Dangote Cement which produces 44 million metric tons annually across the African continent and still plans to expand and increase its output by 33 percent by 2020.

According to Forbes rich list, Dangote as at March 2018 had an estimated net worth of $14.1 billion, putting him among the 100 richest people in the world and the richest in Africa, a position he has held for almost a decade.

Dangote reached the peak in 2014 when he came 23rd in the list of the richest people in the world.

Knowing el-Sisi

Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi is the sixth and incumbent President of Egypt, in office since 2014.

A Field Marshal, el-Sisi was born in Cairo, the capital of Egypt.

He joined the military and held a post in Saudi Arabia army before enrolling in the Egyptian Army's Command and Staff College.

In 1992, Sisi trained at the Joint Services Command and Staff College at Watchfield, Oxfordshire, in the United Kingdom, and then in 2006, he trained at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Sisi served as a mechanized infantry commander and then as director of military intelligence.Tangerang District Court in Banten found him guilty of religious defamation and also ordered him to pay a fine equivalent to $3,565, which is N1.2M or risk spending one more month in prison, The Jakarta Post reports.

"We sentenced the defendant to four years in prison and ordered him to remain in custody," presiding judge Muhammad Damis said.

The Muslim-turned-pastor, who was formerly as Saifuddin Ibrahim, was convicted under Electronic and Information Transactions Law 11/2008 for spreading information to incite hatred against religion.

Abraham's legal team plans to file for an appeal because "The sentence is too heavy for the defendant," said one of Abraham's lawyers, Maxie Ellia.

The video below shows the pastor's reaction to his sentence. Through his translator, the pastor says the "strength that I get is from Jesus who strengthens me He is a very good friend. He never leaves us. His promise is 'Yes' and 'Amen.' He will take care of you and your whole family."

How evangelism put the pastor in trouble

Rev. Abraham was arrested on December 5, 2017, after a video of him sharing his faith with a Muslim taxi driver circulated the internet.

Reportedly, he asks the driver to accept Jesus after preaching about marriage in the video. A blasphemy complaint was filed against him by Muhammadiyah, one of Indonesia's largest Islamic organizations because of the video.On Friday, April 20, 2018, two Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested in a Russian town called Polyarny. They were detained after raids in at least six locations, according to the regional authorities' newspaper, Murmanski Vestnik.

Raids like this, followed by other forms of persecution, are forcing members of the religious group to abandon the country.

They started fleeing Russia in 2017. Now there are about 1,000 Russians in Finland and other European countries.

According to Veikko Leininen, the spokesperson for Jehovah's Witnesses Finland branch, "Many dozens at least are still to come."

Religious persecution in Russia

On April 20, 2017, the Russian Supreme Court banned Jehovah's Witnesses and officially labeled them as an extremist organization!

The ruling also stated that any Russian found to be a member would be jailed for six to ten years. Its been one year since the court's decision and things have gone from bad to terrible.

Reportedly, 17 properties have been confiscated, while there are ongoing lawsuits to seize another 52 properties.

Jaroslav Sivulsky, a representative of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses, says, "After the decision of the Supreme Court, there was a surge of religious intolerance in the country. Between March 15, 2017, and April 1, 2018, the "European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses" received information, and far from complete, approximately 250 violations of the rights of believers, including attacks, vandalism, various kinds of discrimination, dismissals and the like.

"We know of 27 cases of vandalism. Most often this is insulting inscriptions, damage to buildings where believers live or where divine services were held before. In 7 cases, significant damage was caused. 13 citizens reported that after the decision of the Supreme Court were dismissed or forced to resign at their own will because of their religious beliefs."According to the Coordinator of the NYSC in the state, Mallam Abubakar about 1,596 corps members of the 2,126 posted to Adamawa refused to serve in the state.

Abubakar said that those that rejected their postings had sought redeployment to other states based on insecurity, marriage and health grounds.

The state NYSC Coordinator also said that the remaining 530 corps members who chose to serve in the state were not posted to serve in Michika, Madagali, Mubi North and Mubi South Local Government Areas due to security challenges.

ALSO READ: Celebrity lecturer explains what students enjoy in his lecture

However, there are those who requested to be posted to Mubi, particularly married women who have their families there which we obliged,

The coordinator, however, urged the people of Adamawa to appreciate corps members who decided to serve in the state by supporting them to give their best.

More than 60 people died in Mubi suicide blasts on Worker's Day

Insecurity is obviously the main reason most of the corps members rejected their posting as insurgency attack is still rife in the North-East.

On Tuesday, May 1, 2018, suicide bombers killed more than 60 people at a mosque and a market.

The blasts, said to have been carried out by young boys, happened shortly after 1:00 pm (1200 GMT) in Mubi, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the Adamawa state capital, Yola.

Imam Garki, from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said a joint assessment with the police and Red Cross found that 26 people were killed and 56 were injured, 11 of them critically.The FEC says the laws do not allow Federal Government Universities to charge its students.

The Minister of State for Education, Anthony Anwuka, announced this while briefing State House correspondents after the cabinet meeting, which was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Anwuka says the council has discussed the school fees being charged by the universities "and noted that as of law, no federal university should charge tuition fees."

The Minister also says the council understands that some universities charge their fees per unit course, adding that the government would investigate and stop it.

We understand some universities now charge fees per course unit and we are going to make sure that we investigate that properly and make it stop.

"Students can pay other auxiliary fees, but not in excess. Various university councils and management should be able to fix what fees students should pay that is affordable and acceptable to the students. That is the position.''

However, this law that makes school fees illegal in Federal Universities do not cover state government-owned and private universities.

ALSO READ:Nigerian students attend substandard Universities abroad

Anwuka said, "the federal government does not determine fees for private and state universities. It only takes responsibility for fees paid in the federal universities.

There are 1.9m students in Nigerian Universities

Meanwhile, the National Universities Commission has announced that there are 1.9 million students in all the universities across the country.Final year students of Zabzugu Senior High School reportedly attacked their teachers with stones and other dangerous weapons.

Punch's report, quoting an online news platform in Ghana, Adomonline states that the angry students vandalised school properties, smatched doors, television sets, and windows.

The students also reportedly claimed that it was their right to copy or send texts books into the examination hall.

Other schools allowed their students to cheat

A student of the school who didn't want his name mentioned said, even though they did not have any pact with their teachers to allow them to cheat, they were reliably informed that teachers from other schools aid their students by allowing them to copy.

Also, a teacher of the school who confirmed the attack said the crime the teacher committed was not allowing the students to copy during the West Africa Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination.

ALSO READ: FG declares free education in Federal Universities

He said, the students felt they had a right to send their notebooks and textbooks to the examination hall, a right they the teachers are yet to come across in any of the examination regulations.

As a result, the students mobilized themselves and stormed the school, vandalizing properties and threatening to kill any teacher they came across.For years, the Nigerian cinema has struggled with proper depiction of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community.

Stories that actually explore their experiences are not told for reasons such as moral and cultural beliefs; and when they are told, their representation is at best a bad caricature of their realities with film-makers repeatedly using long-running homosexual stereotypes for comedy.

Nevertheless, in recent times, there have been films that explore their experiences in a more engaging manner. These films, according to the producers, are aimed at bringing about a society that is free from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

Here are five Nollywood films that advocate for the protection of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Nigerians.

1. "Hell or High Water"

"Hell or High Water" tells the story of a young married pastor, who is loved and adored by the members of his church.

Things take a different turn for him when he has to confront his sexuality - an act that breaks him spiritually, emotionally and psychologically.

The story explores the reality of sexuality amidst spirituality and family.

In "Hell or High Water," Gbolahan (Enyinna Nwigwe) and Kelechi (Daniel K Daniel) represent hundreds of Nigerians, who, out of the fear of becoming second-class citizens, bullied, excommunicated from church or even killed, marry a wife for appearances.

"Hell or High Water" doesn't justify, support or condemn homosexuality. It simply starts a necessary conversation about homphobia, sexuality and religion in Nigeria.

2. "We Don't Live Here Anymore"

Aimed at tackling homophobia, "We Don't Live Here Anymore" tells the story of Tolu Bajulaiye and Chidi Egwuonwu, two teenage boys who find themselves embroiled in a high stake scandal that could alter the course of their future.

With an impending expulsion at bay, Tolu's mother, Nike, who is a powerful matriarch, pulls all the strings within her palm and resets the tone into what would become a battle of class, blackballing and a triggering society ready to punish anything besides the status-quo.

3. "Everything In Between"

Everything In Between is a drama series that explores issues of sacrifice, love, sexuality, and societal pressure.

The series tells the stories of three young professionals; Emma Okoye, Dayna Elliot and Demola Ogunjimi, and their struggle to conform to what is considered the norm in the Nigerian society.

In one of the episodes, Dayna's husband threatens to expose her relationship with her lesbian partner if she doesn't send him a particular amount of money.

4. "Veil of Silence"

A documentary, "Veil of Silence" draws attention to the experiences of gay persons in Nigeria. It also highlights the impact of laws that promote discrimination.

The short documentary which was released in 2013, also features interviews from activists, lawyers and public health professionals.

The documentary, which also explores the same sex marriage prohibition Act, was shot before the law was signed by former President Goodluck Jonathan on January 13, 2014.

5. "Unspoken"

Exploring friendship, secrecy and sexuality. "Unspoken" tells the story of four people and their intertwining relationships.To simplify it even further and bring it in everyones reach, DomainKing.NG, Nigerian web hosting company & internet domain registrar has taken a big step.

They have launched their feature-rich all-in-one web hosting packages that let you create a fully-fledged blog or website in minutes.

DomainKing promises to help you to create your websites very easily (and affordably) by offering all needs of websites in a single package.

The all-in-one web hosting packages start from as low as N300 per month & come as a full solution to help create, manage & secure your website without any extra cost.

There are 3 improved web hosting plans all of which come with fully managed WordPress support, a free domain, free SSL, unlimited emails, unmetered bandwidth with 30 days money back guarantee.

The following are the plans that you can choose from:

Soldier Plan: It is available for N300 per month with a free .com.ng domain, 2 GB disk space and unmetered Bandwidth.

Minister Plan: It is available for N800 per month with free .com.ng domain, 10 Gb disk space, unmetered traffic & allows hosting upto 6 websites.

King Plan: Costs N1600 per month with free .com or .com.ng domain, host unlimited websites, unlimited emails, unmetered disk space & bandwidth, free SSL, daily backups & Faster.

Pro Features that you will get with Hosting:

Free WordPress Setup:

WordPress is the most popular website builder with over 78 million active websites and almost 30% websites on the internet built with it. It even used by worlds top news sites such as pulse.ng, BBC and celebrity blogs like Davio and Beyonce.

DomainKing offers fully managed WordPress support with all their hosting plans staring from WordPress installation to troubleshooting any issues that you ever get with Wordpress.

5X Faster Hosting:

DomainKing.NG claims to offer the fastest web hosting in Nigeria with SSD accelerated servers & Inbuilt- page caching. These features would make websites almost 5 times faster than normal rotating disk servers. For instance, if you compare a website hosted on a normal server with a DomainKing hosted website, you will experience almost 5 times better performance on DomainKings servers.

No Traffic Limits:

Not many Nigerian providers offer Unmetered Bandwidth, but DomainKing offers unmetered traffic with no cap, right from the starter hosting plan i.e Soldier Plan. With this feature your website will never see a bandwidth error.

Website security:

DomainKing also provides proactive malware detection, mitigation & removal for free of cost. This feature is generally charged as a separate service by most providers like Godaddy & Hostgator. But DomainKing gives it all inclusive to you with hosting so your website is always secure and free from threats.

24/7 Expert Support:

Customers can get anytime support via live chat, emails and ticketing system. DomainKing promises an average response time is under 15 minutes. The live chat support offers instant help for all support & sales queries.Consequently, they are subjected to food insecurity due to poverty or unemployment, failure to find basic and school necessities for their children, lack of shelter, difficulty in accessing working capital for small-scale businesses, and victimization by harmful cultural practices.

In many traditional settings, the death of a husband can put women at the risk of social segregation and the loss of the security and social status their partners would have provided. They are immediately banished to the fringe of society and suffer different forms of stigma and discrimination.

For any nation or society interested in fostering progressive development, it is important that citizens create a social climate conducive for collective achievement. Apart from the need to adopt a friendly culture that dignifies victims and recognizes their pain, widows need support systems that provide opportunities to reintegrate into society after the loss of their spouses.

If we are going to achieve this, everyone needs to understand that widows are extremely disadvantaged. In a country where culture and tradition are used as tool to oppress disadvantaged women, we have a collective responsibility to overcome these barriers with practical solutions to alleviate their poverty and helplessness. Either as a corporate imperative or individual responsibility, actions and decisions have to be taken to rehabilitate widows disenfranchised by poverty and unemployment.

Consider Liptons Reason To Smile, an initiative by Unilever Plc.s leading tea brand which is aimed at supporting 1,000 Nigerian widows with necessary care packs and seed fund to start a business. Expected to be executed in states across Nigeria, the Lipton Reasons to Smile campaign is also giving all concerned Nigerians the opportunity to get involved with one Lipton pack at a time, give widows a reason to smile and lighten their burden.

In many Nigerian communities where a lot of women are housewives, fully dependent on their husbands, it becomes a great challenge when such families lose their breadwinner and find it difficult to cater for themselves and their children. These women need to be given a helping hand  a lifeline to create a better future for themselves and their communities in general.

The challenges that widows in our communities and cities experience daily affects everyone. They are our mothers, sisters, friends, neighbours and more. They remain one of the most marginalized persons, a depressing reality that has dealt a blow to compassion and decorum in our society. The least we can do is to care for them and also provide them with opportunities for solutions  which is the objective of the Lipton brand.

Widows need be celebrated and encouraged. They are an integral part of our society and deserve as much respect and dignity as anyone else. As women and mothers, they are active members of the Nigerian society who contribute to national development. We cannot allow them to be victimized and subjected to untold hardships just because they lost a loved one, Lipton is saying we have the power to lighten their burden and put smiles on their faces.

For updates on Lipton Reasons to Smile campaign, follow @LiptonNg on Twitter and LiptonNigeria on Facebook and Instagram.They were seen pacing the width of the restroom while a man whose reflection appeared on a dressing mirror filmed.

In a footage shared on Instablog9ja's IG on Thursday, May 10, 2018, the airport official, captured holding a broom, strolled aggressively through the entire room while trying to kill the pair.

His effort paid off after successfully squashing one of the rats. His headache however continued with the other.

Wild female Chimpanzee forces itself on Cross River farmer

A farmer in Cross River State, made an unlikely friend with a Chimpanzee, who reportedly followed him while returning from a trip to the farm.

The weird incident occurred in the Boki Local Government Area of the state. A Facebook user Osang Gabriel, confirmed this in a post.

ALSO READ: Mother and son killed by family dog turned enemy

"Wonders shall not end. A gorilla followed a farmer from the bush to his house at bitiah irruan boki cross River State to his living house live," writes Gabriel.However, in some instances, the mix of these traits have allowed us to turn on each other, sometimes in situations where we blame a particular tribe for problems that have simpler solutions, or attack members of a tribe based on stereotypes.

As part of our tribalism week, we will examine 5 recent instances where Nigerians have allowed tribal sentiment to come to the fore, thus starting conversations, inciting responses and in some cases, leading to violence.

(1) The Kaduna Declaration, June 2017:

While we thought all was well with Nigeria, we were reminded in June 2017 that we live in a country where people purporting to speak for a region can order a mass exodus of people from another tribe because they dont like the way they behave.

On June 6, 2017, Northern youths gathered at Arewa House, Kaduna to issue what they called the Kaduna Declaration, instructing all Igbos to leave the North before October 1, 2017.

The declaration was made by youths from 16 different politically-inclined groups, including most notably, the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, Arewa Students Forum, Northern Emancipation Network and Arewa Citizens Action for Change.

The declaration was quickly disparaged by local and national authorities

While there was no resultant bloodshed, thankfully, it spurred conversations about tribal relations in Nigeria and our memories of the Nigerian Civil War.

As of the time of writing this, there are a lot of Igbos living in the North.

(2) The Northern Pogroms, 1966:

In 1966, Igbos resident in the North of Nigeria were attacked in a series of massacres across states including Kano and Kaduna.

The carnage happened in the context of the struggle for federal power and the January 1966 coup which had left many Northern leaders dead.

One of them was Sir Ahmadu Bello, the leader of Northern Nigeria who had made it clear that he was not a fan of the Igbos during a particularly offensive BBC interview.

The role of Igbo officers in the coup - four of the five coup plotters were from the East - was widely noted.

That, and the fact that the coup had put an army officer from the East, Aguiyi-Ironsi, in power, incited a wave of fear that the Igbo had set out to rule the country.

On 29 July 1966, a counter-coup led by Northern Officers was launched in which hundreds of Igbo officers were killed. The coup triggered a swell of violence against Igbos in the North, perpetrated in part by Northern soldiers.

The killings led to counter-massacres in the East where hundreds of Hausas, Tivs and Idomas and members of other Northern tribes were killed. It also spurred a mass exodus on both sides, and ultimately, the Nigerian Civil War.

(3) The Lagoon Threat, 2015:

The jury is still out on the subject of just how much influence Nigerian traditional rulers and monarchs have in a society where power is either political, financial or both.

The Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, would be a great person to ask.

In the lead-up to 2015's gubernatorial elections, the Oba threatened that any Igbo man who did not vote for his chosen candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode, would be thrown in the Lagos Lagoon.

"On Saturday, if anyone of you goes against Ambode, who I picked, that is your end. If it doesnt happen within seven days, just know that I am a bastard and it is not my father who gave birth to me."

Jonathan is my son and I speak to him every day. By the grace of God, I am the owner of Lagos for the time being. This is an undivided chair. The palace belongs to the dead and those coming in the future."

On Saturday, if anyone of you, I swear in the name of God, goes against my wish that Ambode will be the next governor of Lagos State, the person is going to die inside this water.", the Oba said.

The Oba also made a note of adding that while they could vote as they wishes in the East, the Igbos would do well to respect his wishes and theose of the indigenes.

The Oba was aggrieved after surprising voting patterns had led to the victory of PDP candidates of Igbo and Delta extraction in three federal constituencies during the Presidential and National Assembly elections.

One has no idea how he planned to carry out his threat or whether he really meant to deliver on his promises in the first place.Most times, these generalisations enable us to consider and respect cultural and religious sensitivities. However, more often than not, they create stereotypes, widely held but oversimplified ideas of the people who come from these tribes.

It is fair to say nearly every Nigerian tribe has its own stereotypes.

Over the next week and a few, we will address the most popular stereotypes about Nigerian tribes, why Nigerian tribes are perceived as they are, the most important events in the history of our tribal relations and whether we will ever find an end to that very present scourge, tribalism.

To start with, among the many you will find, here are five stereotypes about the tribe famed for their industry and tenacity, the Igbo.

(1) Igbo people run medicine shops:

The majority of Nigerians buy their medicine from small patent medicine shops, and when we visit these shops, it is usually with the expectation that an Igbo man, who we refer to as the "chemist" is in charge.

As a 20-something year old born and bred in Lagos, I can say a fair number of the "chemists" I know were men from the east; likewise, there were those run by middle-aged Yoruba women and one in particular, run by a Hausa man, Mr Hassan.

The Igbo presence in that field is most likely a function of their industry and entrepreneurial leanings than anything else.

(2) The Igbos like business:

When it comes to trading and the fine art of buying and selling, in bits or wholesale, leave it for the Igbos. You will hardly find a field or industry where Igbos do not enjoy a strong share or influence.

Some of the most famous men from the East have been businessmen and captains of Industry, such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Tony Izenna, Ifeanyi Ubah and Tony Elumelu.

Much of this, as earlier pointed out, is down to a clear entrepreneurial ethic and years of influence that has been passed down over time.

However, putting them down to their business acumen is a disservice. The Igbos have also made a strong mark in other fields outside business. Chinua Achebe, Chiwetel Ejiofor and others of Igbo extraction in the diaspora like Tyler the Creator and Tinie Tempah are proof that it's not all business for the Igbo man.

(3) They are a domineering tribe

Many Nigerians believe that the Igbos have a tendency to enter new environments with the intention to control and bend the rules and resources to their will, a perception that was so strong that for a while, landlords in certain areas of the west would rather leave their properties empty than letting them out to people from the East.

ALSO READ: Aliko Dangote says the threat to evict Igbo from the North is nonsense

This is a very old perception in itself.

During an interview with the BBC that has since spurred numerous conversations, the Premier of the Northern Region at the time, Ahmadu Bello said, "Well, the Igbos are mainly the type of people whose desire is to dominate everybody. If they go to the village or town, they want to monopolise everything in that area. If you put them as a labourer, within a year they will try to emerge as the headman of that camp...and so on...well."

"We are not alive to their responsibilities because you can see from our modernisation policy that in 1952 when I came here, there were less Northerners in our service. Then I fought. Now all important posts are being held by Northerners.", he added.

Over time, we've learned that this is the result of nationalist sentiments and a sense of duty among most tribes to keep their resources for themselves.

Unfortunately, this stereotype has created a lot of hostility against the Igbos, from the 1967 Civil War to the present resentment towards Igbos in some areas of the west.

(4) Igbo women are light-skinned and promiscuous

I'd like to blame Nollywood for this.

Over time, the Nigerian film industry has perpetrated its own fair share of stereotypes and one of the strongest has been made by writing Igbo characters as light-skinned women who have multiple partners to meet their many needs, including "maintenance".

As Stephanie Linus and Genevieve Nnaji and attractive without being light-skinned.

We shouldn't have to tell you that promiscuity has nothing to do with tribe.

(5) They will do anything for wealth

Again, Nollywood. Thanks to Kanayo O. Kanayo, there is a belief that Igbo men are so desperate in their hunt for money that they will go to any length to amass wealth including those infamous money rituals.

Instances of young Igbo men showing up with unexplained wealth, like Victor Okafor, aka Ezego of Money has also not helped the phenomenon. But then, who doesn't like money?Dr Kingsley Osagie, President of the society, disclosed this during the 2018 World Asthma Day with the theme: It is never too late, it is never too early to think about airways inflammation.

Osagie, who also doubles as Consultant Pulmologist,the National Hospital Abuja also said that asthma remained a major condition with over 330 million people around affected.

The consultant said out of the number, Nigeria contributed not less than 15 million, out of which 250,000 yearly.

He, however, said that that deaths resulting from asthma were preventable and highly controllable, adding that asthma affected the airways of the lungs and made it hard for an individual to breath.

Osagie said World Asthma Day was an annual event commemorated globally on the first Tuesday of May.

He said the event was aimed at creating awareness about asthma and ensuring that people were well educated about the condition to enable them take informed decisions to live productive life.

Asthma happens when one comes in contact with something that irritates the airways, called asthma triggers.

He said the condition made airways to become narrower, thereby making it difficult for oxygen to function , adding that at this level, symptoms of asthma set in.

This could occur frequently, making an individual to wake up at night with symptoms, such as feeling of tiredness with low energy, coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.

However, with intake of right medications and correct use of inhalers, the patient can have relief from symptoms.

According to him, right medications and correct use of inhalers also control swellings and inflammation in the airways and help to prevent asthma attacks.

The consultant advised patients to avoid asthma triggers such as exercise, allergies like animal fur or dust, cigarette smoke, chest infections, air pollution among others.

In the same vein, Dr Olanisun Adewole, Secretary-General of Nigeria Thoracic Society, said asthma could start at any age, adding that while some people got the symptoms during childhood, others developed asthma later in life.

Adewole, who is also a Consultant, Chest Physician from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, added that individuals were more likely to develop asthma if they had family history or environmental allergies.

He said cold or chest infection could cause asthma in adults, adding that smoking during pregnancy increased the chances of an unborn child to develop asthma, when born while chemicals from air pollutants at work place could also cause asthma.

A trigger is anything that starts your asthma symptoms or makes symptoms worse by irritating the airways.

It could be difficult to find out what exactly triggers asthma.

He advised people to take note of where they were and what they were doing, urging that they should notice patterns that helped identify triggers.

Once triggers are identified, such can be avoided which can reduce the effect of the asthma.

The consultant noted that inhalers were the most effective therapy for asthma treatment but said could become critical when patients were on injection and oral medication.Here are five things the presiding officers of parliament discussed with the nations number one citizen:

1. The police were called barbarians

Dogara laid into the entire police force when they met Buhari.

Dont take our word for it. Heres Dogara in his own words:

Nigeria is a democracy. The police must operate within the ambit of the rule of law and due process. It is unacceptable for the police to continue to operate like a clan of tribesmen, a sort of upgraded barbarians, Dogara said.

2. Buhari was told that his IGP is a disobedient somebody

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris has twice failed to honour senate summons over the arrest of Senator Dino Melaye and other matters the lawmakers aren't pleased about.

When Saraki and Dogara met Buhari, they didnt fail to tell him how recalcitrant Idris has become.

According to Saraki; We also raised the issue of the non-appearance of the IG at the senate and felt that they must continue to ensure that he continues to apply obedience to the issue of constituted authority.

We are of great concern that this is not the first time this is happening and that matter needs to be addressed considering the importance of the powers of the constitution that gives investigative powers to us and that there is the need for police to accept that they too are under the constitution and they must obey that.

3. Lawmakers dont like the fact that Dino Melaye was wheeled into court

According to Dogara, A situation where people are wheeled to court, that doesnt give a good image of our democracy. I have not seen a democracy where people are wheeled to court, they are not in the proper frame of mind and they are forced to undergo trial.

Whatever it is, even if Dino is pretending as some have said in some section of the media, he cannot pretend forever. He is there, he will not run away, he is a senator and he can be tried any time he is in proper frame of mind.

4. Buhari considered the national assembly invasion an embarrassment

You know that day when thugs broke into the national assembly and stole the mace? Yeah, Buhari considered that incident an embarrassment, according to the lawmakers.

In Sarakis words: We also talked on the issues of concern to us  the invasion of the national assembly, which he showed great concern about and said action would be taken to investigate that.

Of course, he sees it as an embarrassment to the country and that there will be a proper investigation because it is something that is not just about the national assembly, it is about the country.

5. They also discussed the 2018 budget

Like you already know, the 2018 budget hasnt been passed and we are in May.

Saraki said the issue of the non-passage of the budget was on the table as well when they met Buhari.

He (Buhari) wanted to brief us on his trip to the United States and also the issue of the budget, Saraki said.

Saraki also told journalists after the meeting that the 2018 budget will be passed before end of next week.Each bound carriageway is further divided into four sections for ease of construction and traffic management.

NAN correspondents who visited the site also observed workmen laying iron rods along Section four on both the Apapa and CMS/Ijora bound carriageways.

Also, earth moving equipment were carrying out excavations on a section of the Apapa bound carriageway which is part of the second phase of the project.

A senior engineer who preferred anonymity told NAN that work had begun on Sections One and Four on phase two of the project.

The engineer said that the first phase of the project which is the CMS /Ijora bound carriageway was almost fully completed.

We have started work on the inbound section that is the Apapa bound carriageway. We are working on Sections One and Four of the inbound.

The Apapa bound carriageway is in the second phase of the project, he said.

Also, the Federal Controller of Works, Lagos, Mr Adedamola Kuti, confirmed to NAN that work on the first phase of Apapa-Wharf Road was almost completed and work had begun on the second phase.

We are working now on Section four.Saraki and the rest of the senators were livid after IGP Idris refused to honour an invitation extended his way--at the third time of asking.

It didnt matter that Idris had sent officers to represent him each time he was summoned. For the senate, those officers weren't good enough.

Moshoods press statement was an equally scathing one. It is believed that Idris is only being summoned by the lawmakers to explain why Senator Melaye is still a guest of the police.

Senate sends back IGP's representatives

Moshood said the IGP has done no wrong because under the provisions of the Police Act and Regulations, the IG could delegate a Deputy or Assistant Inspector-General of Police to represent him in an official capacity at any function.

He explained that Idris sent representatives the first time out, because he was on an official assignment with the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Bauchi on same date.

According to Moshood: The delegated officers went with a brief of the Inspector-General of Police on the matter to the senate but the senate refused to listen to the officers."

Moshood added that on May 2, the senate refused to acknowledge some senior officers delegated to represent the IG when he was on an official duty to Birnin-Gwari, Kaduna State.

45 persons were killed in Birnin Gwari this week.

Courts stop IGP from showing up at senate

The spokesman said that on May 8, the IG sent a letter to the president of the senate explaining why he would not be appearing before lawmakers on May 9.

This was because he is legally restrained from doing so, no thanks to pending cases before the courts filed by Sen. Dino Melaye against the IG and the Nigeria Police Force, Moshood said.

In Moshoods words: The action of the senate is a deliberate blackmail, witch-hunting with mischievous motives to hand-twist the IG to pervert the end of Justice.

The Nigeria Police Force is the first defender of democracy and all democratic institutions in Nigeria and will continue to do so.

"It is factual and verifiable that Sen. Dino Melaye was discharged and certified fit to stand trial by the National Hospital, Abuja before he was arraigned in Chief Magistrate Courts in Wuse, Abuja and Lokoja.

Was Melaye called a criminal here?

Melaye is still in court for charges bordering on illegal possession of firearms, attempted suicide, criminal conspiracy and damaging of government property.

But did the police just call Melaye a criminal in the following paragraphs or were they talking about someone else? You be the judge:

The Nigeria Police Force as a law abiding organization will continue to hold the Senate of Federal Republic of Nigeria in high esteem but wishes to impress on the senate not to harbour criminal elements among its fold or condone criminality".

'Criminal elements among its fold'......the only senator standing trial for alleged criminality at the moment is....but....hold on:

The Force will not be intimidated by any individual, groups or institution, constituent or otherwise to abdicate from its constitutional responsibilities of protection of lives and property, Moshood said.

That's as fierce a press statement as you are ever going to get from the police.The lawmakers also declared that Idris is unfit to hold any public office both within and outside the country.

Idris three strikes

The IGP had failed to show up on Thursday, April 26, 2018, following his trip to Bauchi,during President Buhari's visit to the state.

Idris also did not give any reason for refusing to appear before the Senate on Wednesday, May 2, 2018.

On Wednesday, May 9, 2018, the police boss was not at the Red chambers according to the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who said he got the information from the Clerk of the Senate.

Sagay fires back

Sagay, in a statement obtained from Independent, said that the Senate has shown that they are enemies of Nigerias democracy and not the Police IG.

The PACAC chairman also said that Idris did not shun the Senate, adding that the police boss sent someone to represent him.

Absolutely not! I dont think the IGP has constituted himself as enemy of our democracy.

It is the conduct of the senate that constitutes danger to democracy because of the way they frequently abandon their constitutional responsibilities and move en masse to engage in solidarity visits to their individual members who are undergoing trial in hospitals or other places. That is an indication of abandonment of democracy, he added.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Police Force has said that the Senate resolution declaring the Inspector-General of Police as enemy of democracy is deliberate attempt to blackmail him.Mr Faleye Olaleye, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Operations, in the state, made this known at a news conference in Jalingo on Thursday.

He said the suspects, who came on motorcycles, were killed during exchange of fire between them and security agents.

On May 10, we received an intelligence that some bandits were seen in large number at Mega village in Numan Local Government Area of Adamawa. Mega is at the border between Adamawa and Taraba.

 Several police and military personnel were deployed to prevent possible attack on the communities in the area.

 While the bandits were returning after attacking Meg a, they ran into our gallant military and police patrol team at Katibu, where they were repelled. Ten of the bandits were killed on the spot, he said.

Olaleye said exhibits recovered from the bandits were two AK47, one G3 rifle, one SMG, three dane guns and four motorcycles.

He gave the name of the suspect arrested as Michael Gwani.

He appealed to the general public to report anyone with gunshots injury to the police.

Speaking to newsmen, Gwani confirmed that he was actually arrested with a dane gun, but denied having a hand in the attacks at Mega.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Dipo died in the early hours of Thursday at the age of 42.

He had been suffering from a protracted illness before his death in a Lagos hospital.

The states party Chairman, Mr Moshood Salvador, in a statement issued after a condolence visit to the George family, said that the Lagos chapter was devastated by the news.

He said the party shared in the grief of the family at the trying period.

Salvador prayed for the peaceful repose of the deceased, while praying to God to grant the family the fortitude to bear the loss.

May the care and love of those around you provide peace and comfort to get you through the days ahead.

I hope our Lord brings you and your family the much needed peace during this testing time.Isiaka, 43, a businessman, and Olaide, 35, female fashion designer, however, pleaded not guilty and were admitted to a bail of N50,000 each with one surety each in like sum.

George said the sureties should be gainfully employed with an evidence of two years tax payment to the Lagos State Government.

Police Prosecutor Godwin Awase had told the court that the accused committed the offences on May 6 at Onipanu area of Lagos.

He said the accused and others still at large conspired to assault Mr Sheu Adeniran and his wife, Asiatu, by beating them for owing rent.

The accused, who are landlords children, conducted themselves in a manner likely to cause a breach of peace by hiring thugs to beat up the complainants.

According to Awase, the accused unlawfully entered the complainants apartment with the thugs and started throwing out their property.

`The accused were parking out the complainants property from the apartment and the complainants were trying to stop them which resulted into serious beating.

The complainants reported the case at the police station and the accused were arrested while others escaped, the prosecutor said.

The offences contravened Sections 168, 171 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 172 stipulates one year imprisonment for assault, while Section 411 prescribes two years for conspiracy.The Commissioner for the Environment, Mr Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti, gave the advice in Lagos during the 3rd Annual Stakeholders Interactive Session On Noise Pollution Control In Lagos State.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the interactive session organised by the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) has the theme: Noise Pollution Abatement Evaluation In An Emerging Smart City  Two Years Retrospect.

Durosinmi-Etti said that Lagosians needed to pay more attention to noise pollution since it had been identified as one of the major threats confronting the society in recent time.

He said that noise pollution was an environmental issue that had become quite significant over time in view of the increase in commercial activities.

According to him, it has become quite significant because of industrial and social activities stemming from urban migration which has resulted in population explosion.

Noise is referred to as an undesirable sound that results from the activities of man that is anthropogenic environmental degradation (human impact on the environment).

The World Health Organisation (WHO) reveals that noise is a dangerous agent that affects human health and the environment.

However, residents of Lagos State do not pay significant attention to the effect of noise pollution from long time exposure.

At other times, noise was seen as being positive and considered synonymous with modernity and dynamism.

The reality today is that population increases due to migration from rural areas to city centres has increased various activities, causing a proportional increase in noise generated, he said.

The commissioner said that noise affected individuals differently, depending on factors, type, duration, places and the moment produced.

He said that noise pollution could lead to inconvenience, annoyance, irritation and in some cases alter a human physical and psychological state.

Durosinmi-Etti said that temporary, reversible or progressive hearing loss were consequences from long-term exposure to noise pollution.

He said that long-term exposure to noise pollution increased blood pressure and heart rate disorders, muscle tension and digestive disorder, amongst other problems.

According to him, noise can also cause psychological consequences for individuals, thereby affecting mental concentration, learning and productivity.

The Lagos State Government will continue to partner with relevant stakeholders to improve the standard of living of Lagosians by advocating self-compliance in all facets of the environment.

The ultimate objective of the Governor of Lagos State, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, is to promote improved quality of life of citizens.

Therefore, this stakeholders summit is to emphasise the need for active contribution and commitment to a serene and peaceful environment towards achieving A Noiseless Lagos, he said.

A Sound Engineer, Mr Gboyega Adenuga, said there were the airborne noise and the impact noise.

Adenuga explained that airborne noise was sound travelling through air and could be blocked by installing an adequate sound barrier between the offending sound source and the area requiring protection.

He said that the impact noise was the mechanical transmission of vibration caused by an offending object impacting or directly vibrating another surface.

It is bad enough that Lagosians literally go to hell and return, just to commute from one point to another, given the traffic snarl they grind through daily.According to a report by Reuters, two security sources said the authorities are already investigating what led to the death of the unnamed diplomat.

The report also noted that Dubai-based al-Arabiya television identified the deceased as the consul general and described his death as an "assassination". Reports on the internet have also suggested he was killed with a knife by his attackers.

UPDATE - Nigeria confirms death

Nigeria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed the death of the diplomat, identifying him as Habibu Almu, a Nigerian Immigration attache at the Nigerian Mission in Khartoum, Sudan.

Spokesperson of the ministry, Tope Elias-Fatile, told the News Agency of Nigeria, "The Ministry has received the sad news of the untimely death of the Immigration Attache in our Mission in Khartoum, Sudan.Tagged: `Enlightenment Campaign on the Dangers of Irregular Migration Through the Implementation of the Project Passport To Safe Migration, the event was mainly targeted at the youths.

The Comptroller-General of the NIS, Mr Muhammed Babandede, who was represented by the Deputy Comptroller of Immigration (DCI), Imo Command, Mr Ndako Mamuda, said the campaign was organised to further sensitise the public to the risks involved in illegal migration.

We want to use this medium to alert the citizens, especially the youth, on the inherent dangers of irregular migration, Babandede said, adding, some have died trying to follow a shortcut.

The DCI, FCT Command, Mr Umar S. Umar said that the Passport To Safe Migration project was one of the several programmes put in place by the NIS to discourage irregular migration.

Umar said a United Nations(UN) report had indicated that the number of migrants continued to increase.

According to a United Nations report, there were 244 million migrants in the year 2015, with a minimum of 5 million Nigerians living in the diaspora, he said.Goji was recommended for compulsory retirement for refusing to proceed on transfer to the Mubi Judicial Division of the State High Court since July 2017.

A statement issued on Thursday in Abuja by Soji Oye, the councils Director of Information, said that the NJC took the decision at its 86th meeting held on May, 8 and 9.

Justice Michael Goji was recommended for compulsory retirement to Gov. Bindo Jibrilla of Adamawa, sequel to the advice of the State Judicial Service Commission to council after its findings on the allegations of misconduct levelled against him.

The Adamawa Judicial Service Commission had conducted an investigation on the conduct of Justice Goji, following the directive of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, after receiving the complaint of his misconduct from the Adamawa State Chief Judge.

Oye said that besides the recommendation for compulsory retirement, Goji was also directed to refund all salaries received by him from July 2017 till date.

He said that the NJC warned that if the embattled judicial officer failed to obey the directive, the Adamawa Government should deduct the amount from any entitlement due to him and remit same to the NJC.

He further said that the NJC, in exercise of its disciplinary powers, suspended Goji, pending his removal from office.

Oye also disclosed that petitions written against 25 judicial officers and others by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC ),were also considered by NJC.

According to him, the council resolved to empanel seven committees to look into the allegations.

He said that other petitions against other judges were dismissed for lack of establishment of misconduct, being subjudice or that such petitions were matters for appeal.

The dismissed petitions were against Justices Anwuli Chikere, John Tsoho, Emeka Nwite, and Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court.

Others were against Justices Adetokunbo Banjoko of FCT High Court; Taminu Zailani, Chief Judge of Kaduna State; M. A. Adeigbe, High Court of Osun, and E. N. Ogbuiji, High Court of Rivers.

He said the NJC also considered the reports of various investigation committees and dismissed petitions against Justice Paul Galinje of the Supreme Court, Justice Aminu Ringim, Chief Judge, Jigawa, and Justice Peter Umeadi, Chief Judge, Enugu State.

Oye said that the petition against Justice Galinje was dismissed following its withdrawal by the petitioners, who had alleged that he interfered in a chieftaincy matter in Taraba.

The petition against Justice Ringim was also dismissed because the petitioner withdrew it and the council said there was no longer need to investigate.Nine police officers and dozens of others lost their lives when a group of at least 30 armed robbers attacked Union Bank, Eco Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, First Bank, Zenith Bank and Ibolo Micro Finance Bank,as well as the Owode Police Station on April 5, 2018.

Even though the official death toll for the incident is nine policemen and eight civilians, reports have indicated between 30 to 50 people died as a result of the attack.

In a statement signed by Force Public Relations Officer, ACPJimoh Moshood, on Friday, May 4, 2018, he released pictures of four suspects who are still at large and wanted in connection to the crime.

According to a report by The Punch, one of the suspects, Michael Adikwu, was a police corporal who was attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Kwara State command before he was dismissed in 2012.

Adikwu was reportedly dismissed for aiding the escape of some robbery suspects and was arraigned in court and spent about three years in prison before he made his way out and created his own gang.

A senior police officer told Punch, "He (Adikwu) was a SARS operative at the Kwara State Police Command. He used to fraternise with robbers. There was a robbery that happened in Kwara State about six years ago. The robbers killed somebody and escaped. The police were able to arrest those robbers.

"He collected money from those robbery suspects and released them. Later, the robbers were rearrested and they confessed that he aided their escape. He was arrested, tried in an orderly room trial and dismissed.

"He was charged to court together with the robbery suspects and was in prison for three years. He and some of the robbers were able to manoeuvre their way out of the prison and formed a robbery gang."

Adikwu arrested by police for Offa robbery

After his picture was released by the police alongside that of three others last week, Adikwu has been arrested by the police after a tip-off from members of the public.

According to a source that spoke to Punch, he was arrested on Tuesday, May 8, by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team in a community in Kwara.

The source said, "The lead was given to the police by an informant. His hideout was cordoned off and he was arrested. He was apprehended by the IRT operatives in a community in Kwara State."

N5 million bounty on wanted suspects

While speaking on May 4, ACP Moshood disclosed that the Kwara state government has promised a bounty of N5 million for information that leads to the arrest of the suspects who are on the run.

He said, "Protection of the informant will be guaranteed by the police and handsome rewards in addition to the pledge of Five Million (N5,000,000) by the Kwara State Government await anyone whose information leads to the arrest of these wanted suspects."

He said the suspects have been placed on the watch list of the International Police and listed hotlines on which members of the public can contact with any information that could lead to their arrests. The lines are 08062080913, 08126285268, 08032365122, 07056792065, and 08088450152.The senate at plenary on Wednesday, declared the I-G as enemy of democracy and unfit to hold any public office within and outside the country for failing to honour its invitation thrice.

The senate had refused the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in-charge of operations and other senior police officers to represent the I-G when he was invited on April 26.

The Force spokesman, ACP Jimoh Moshood, in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday , described it as deliberate blackmail, witch-hunting, unfortunate and mischievous.

Moshood said that under the provisions of the Police Act and Regulations, the I-G could delegate a Deputy or Assistant Inspector-General of Police to represent him in an official capacity at any function.

He explained that Idris sent representatives because he was on an official assignment with the President of Federal Republic of Nigeria to Bauchi on same date.

The delegated Officers went with a brief of the Inspector-General of Police on the matter to the senate but the Senate refused to listen to the Officers."

He said that again on May 2, the senate refused to accord some senior officers delegated to represent the I-G when he was on an official duty to Birnin-Gwari area of Kaduna state.

The spokesman said that the I-G on May 8, sent a letter to the President of the Senate explaining why he would not be appearing before the Senate on May 9.

This he said was due to legal restraint as a result of pending cases before the courts filed by Sen. Dino Melaye against the I-G and the Nigeria Police Force.

It is pertinent that the Force informs the members of the Public that other reasons for which the Senate has summoned the Inspector-General of Police is official and not personal.

The action of the Senate in its resolution against the I-G today is a deliberate blackmail, witch-hunting with mischievous motives to hand-twist the I- G to pervert the end of Justice.

The Nigeria Police Force is the first defender of democracy and all democratic institutions in Nigeria and will continue to do so.

 It is factual and verifiable that Sen. Dino Melaye was discharged and certified fit to stand trial by the National Hospital, Abuja before he was arraigned in Chief Magistrate Courts in Wuse, Abuja and Lokoja,he said.

He said that the I-G and the Nigeria Police Force would not be deterred by blackmail from any individual or group no matter how highly placed from the enforcement of Law and Order.

The Nigeria Police Force, therefore, owes no apology to any individual or groups in its effort to ensure preservation of law and order and supremacy of the law of the land, he said.

Moshood implored the public to disregard and discountenance the resolution of the Senate on the I-G.

The Nigeria Police Force as a law abiding organization will continue to hold the Senate of Federal Republic of Nigeria in high esteem but wishes to impress on the Senate not to harbour criminal elements among its fold or condone criminality.The Kaduna state Governor had approached the World Bank for a $350m loan, but it was blocked by three Senators from his state, on the floor of the Senate.

The lawmakers are: Shehu Sani (Kaduna central), Sulieman Hukunyi (Kaduna north), and Danjuma Leah (Kaduna south).

In his reaction, El-Rufai, Friday, May 4, 2018, rained curses on the Senators.

Enemies of democracy

The Cable reports that the Governor said the three senators are enemies of the masses and democracy.

El-Rufai also said that they are ignorant of the real indices of development and progress in a democratic setting.

Mental examination

In his response, Shehu Sani wrote a letter to the Chief Medical Director of the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric hospital, Kaduna requesting a mental examination for Governor El-Rufai.

The Senator also said that the Governor is suffering from paranoid personality disorder.Olusola, who is also the Deputy Governor of the state, said this when he received the party Certificate of return at PDP National Secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said he was privileged to be the first gubernatorial candidate to be issued certificate of return, saying this means that we have won the July 14 election.

The governorship candidate said the people of the state would resist all forms of violence and money politics during the election in the state.

I want to assure our national leaders that, Ekiti state is for PDP. All the other parties are just shouting. Let them bring money, let them bring violence, Ekiti people will resist them.

We are no more interested in accommodating unnecessary interlopers. People want to take us through another round of economic slavery. We are no more ready for that.

I am ready and prepared to take up this challenge as the incoming governor of Ekiti state on the platform of the PDP.

There is a big difference between PDP and the other parties. We are a party that has totally eliminated imposition and impunity, he said.

Olusola commended the peaceful primaries on Monday in Ado-Ekiti and described PDP as a party with integrity, fairness, and transparency.

He commended Gov. Ayodele Fayose for his support, describing him as a fearless leader who stood on the side of the truth.

The governorship candidate also expressed his readiness to work with the party stakeholders and leaders, including the former national spokesman of the party, Prince Dayo Adeyeye.

The PDP National Organising Secretary, Col. Austin Akobundu (rtd), who presented the certificate of return to Olusola, described the primary as the most transparent in the party in recent history.

He said that PDP National Working Committee, led by Prince Uche Secondus, had shown impunity and imposition of candidates red card.

Akobundu urged the two aspirants in the primary and other stakeholders to work together for the success of the party.The group disclosed this when it paid a courtesy visit to Senate President Bukola Saraki on Wednesday, May 9, 2018.

The NLSA chairman, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai told Saraki that the Nigerian masses have lost confidence in the political class to effectively lead the country -- a situation, he said, would affect the northern region of the country.

All across Nigeria there is a palpable disquiet, distrust and loss of confidence of the mass populace on the nations political class, a situation that is both creating a serious threat to the survival of democracy in the country and a nationwide loss of confidence on northerners to effectively direct the affairs of this country, we see it as a matter of urgency that northerners of good standing come together to arrest the drift, recapture national power, redeem the battered image of the northern political class and rebuild confidence in our ability to effectually pilot our democracy, Yakasai said.

He revealed plans to hold a northern political summit to address some of these concerns.

Consensus northern presidential candidate

The group noted that they have no consensus presidential candidate from the region for the 2019 election.

Contrary to reports in some media, this body was not created to find a consensus presidential candidate for the north for the forthcoming presidential election nor for upcoming elections. The organization was created to promote unity and well-being of the people and together with other patriotic Nigerians to evolve a national blueprint that will address various problems confronting our nation."

Killings, insecurity

In his remarks, Saraki urged northern leaders to join hands with the Federal Government in finding lasting solution to the incessant killings taking place in the country.

Saraki noted that peace and unity is essential to achieve overall development of the country, while commending the group for rising up to contribute their quota in realizing a peaceful and prosperous country.

"By this time, as elders, you ought to be resting, but the patriotism in you brought you out. You said you are political but non-partisan, we are all political and we need to get Nigeria in the right direction, the Senate President said.

"Being leaders, this is the time to find lasting solutions. This is not the time for blame. This is the time for us to bring peace and regional dialogue. No society worth its salt will keep quiet in the face of these killings.

"Something somewhere is wrong. We need to meet to bring about peaceful coexistence and unity in this country. Part of the solution is to know that something is wrong.

"I am happy that you are here and we will speak truth about the problems and to conduct ourselves on how to encourage dialogue and ensure that the right thing is done," he said.A job recruiter has disqualified job applicants for not possessing one, a presidential aspirant has asked wives to deny sex to husbands who haven't got theirs, and a religious leader has divinely declared it a sin to be a Nigerian of voting age without acquiring the voter's card as Nigeria barrels towards the 2019 general elections.

The voter's card has largely been touted as a weapon that'll be used to usher in another political revolution in the country as many Nigerians are being encouraged to exercise their electoral power.

While speaking recently in Lagos, presidential aspirant, Fela Durotoye said the voter's card is an important weapon for the electorate to wield to choose a future that they desire.

"We need to get our PVCs. PVC is not a nice thing to have, it's a need thing to have if you want a future that you can choose. In fact, for me PVC is not just permanent voter's card, it's the power to vote your choice," he said.

While the sentiments of Durotoye, and others like him, are well-placed, it's a different story when you examine how much of a role the wishes of the electorate actually play in electing the best candidates for political offices with their voter's cards.

The big question mark over Nigeria's delegate system

Over the years, primary elections have become an integral part of Nigeria's electoral system as parties get together separately to elect a flag bearer to contest for elective positions on their platforms.

It is during the primary elections that parties go through an elimination process where they cut down a pool of challengers to just one to represent them at general polls, and this is where elections really happen.

In the Electoral Act of 2010, Section 87 stipulates that the procedure for the nomination of candidates by political parties for various elective positions could be by a direct or indirect process. While the direct procedure involves registered members of the party getting an equal opportunity to vote for the flag bearer as the general populace does in a general election, the indirect procedure empowers a special group of voters called 'delegates' to make the choice for everybody else.

Delegates are usually elected through ward congresses where registered party members elect people that will represent them at local, state and national congresses.

Some parties, most notably the People's Democratic Party (PDP), adopt a method where any registered party member that is also an elected or appointed public official is automatically a delegate at local, state and national congresses. They are called "statutory delegates".

For the primary election that led to the emergence of the flag bearer of the All Progressives' Congress (APC) at the 2015 presidential election, the party used both elected and statutory delegates to choose current president, Muhammadu Buhari.

Even though the Electoral Act makes provisions for two clear processes, political parties have notoriously opted for the closely-guarded indirect delegate system to elect flag bearers on their platforms.

The procedure has been heavily criticised most especially for being too easily manipulated by party leaders, aspirants, as well as delegates who have turned it into a money-making scheme.

In principle, a delegate should act through voted delegation by casting votes based on the wishes of the group of people they represent. However, delegates have frequently been accused of hawking their precious votes to the highest bidder and discarding the collective wish of the delegation they're supposed to responsibly represent to line their own pockets.

This incredibly-flawed democratic procedure has ensured that the electoral factory consistently churns out an unending stream of inadequate political office holders who most likely engage the occasional dishonest method to attain their positions.

As gate-keepers who enjoy the mandate of strengthening Nigeria's democratic chain by electing capable hands based on the true representations of the wishes of Nigerians, delegates typically fall behind the highest bidder.

This effectively incapacitates candidates of unreserved integrity who are competent enough to occupy positions that continue to accommodate an inadequate political crop and denies the electorate the opportunity of getting fair dividends of democracy.

Fixing the flawed delegate system will also require that attention is paid to another major drawback in Nigeria's electoral conduct which has been allowed to run unimpeded.

During its non-elective convention in 2017, the PDP's leadership reached the decision to zone the party's presidential ticket for the 2019 presidential election to a candidate from the northern region, while other positions, such as the party's chairmanship, got zoned to members from the south.

Since that decision was made, Uche Secondus, a party member from the south, has been elected the chairman of the national working committee as the party prepares to wrest power back from the APC.

The party's cast-iron decision to present a candidate from northern Nigeria for the 2019 presidential campaign has meant that a declaration of intent from someone like Ekiti state governor, Ayodele Fayose, to contest for the presidency on the party's platform next year has been laughed at by its leadership simply because he's a southerner. Then-acting chairman, Ahmed Makarfi, noted that Fayose's 2019 ambition was not "in compliance with the position of the party" on zoning.

With the PDP's decision to zone its ticket to the north regardless of if a better candidate emerges from the south, the party has already denied a large pool of worthy aspirants the opportunity to even contest on its platform.

When delegates are not selling out to aspirants for money, a zoning decision such as the one the PDP has made is bound to impact the decision of delegates to fall in line when it's time to elect a primary candidate later this year even if an aspirant from the south is overwhelmingly better than one from the north where the ticket has been gifted.

Decades ago, the party made the decision to assign elective and appointive positions to party members based on a rotational policy that notably jettisoned competence. Despite the well-intentioned motive to use zoning to 'equitably' distribute power fairly among Nigeria's very diverse crop of ethnic regions, the practice fundamentally runs against letting democracy take its due course.

While the PDP most notably employs the zoning system, other prominent parties, including the APC, are believed to be unofficially using the same process to decide elective and appointive positions.

Are you really voting your choice?

With a cocktail of zoning and an incredibly-flawed delegate system, the Nigerian electorate have been feeding off scraps for decades and keep getting cheated out of receiving the best possible representation in public offices.

While the illusion of voting for their choices has been championed every election season, the truth is Nigerians have oftentimes been forced into a corner where they have to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea.

It's actually an electoral culture in the country to vote for a candidate that you think is the lesser of two evils because the institution keeps churning out people who have most likely bent the corner in some way to get into a position where they can become the general electorate's 'choice'; this, at the detriment of more well-intentioned people who don't have the stomach to dabble in the dark arts of the country's intricately-dubious electoral system.

These systems are radically unhelpful in helping Nigeria navigate a period when the public is feeling completely exhausted and disillusioned with its political crop. For a transparent and more credible system where the people that get platforms to contest for offices are, for all intents and purposes, the choice candidates of a large portion of the people, the delegate system needs to be scrapped or at least revamped into something more reliable.

During his speech on The Platform, Durotoye urged Nigerians to show more active interest in the country's politics by joining political parties and fighting for reforms in voting laws to create a sound internal democracy.

He said, "More importantly, you also need to go and join a party but not just any party; prefer to join a party where you'll have voting rights as a member.

"If you cannot get voting right as a member, work very hard to become an executive and a delegate and then work to change the constitution of those parties. Until parties have internal democracy, we don't have internal democracy, we have selectocracy."

There are already efforts being made by some to be more transparent. For example, the National Secretary of KOWA Party, Mark Adebayo, announced in April 2018 that all party members will be delegates at its 2018 national convention and presidential primary election.

More parties should adopt this system as it is the most reliable in ensuring that the candidates that emerge as flag bearers in general elections are the products of a large section of regular voters and not instalments of a few greedy people whose palms have been greased. This is not to say the system is impervious to manipulations too, but it's easier to bribe, say, 5,000 delegates than it is to bribe 500,000.

For years, armed with just voter's cards and good wishes for the country, the Nigerian electorate has been systematically forced to decide to vote for candidates who have emerged from a system that hardly rewards competence.Known as Victory Day to Russians, May 9 remains a divisive date in the Baltic state and is not a public holiday.

Accounting for around 30 percent of Latvia's 1.9 million-strong population, ethnic Russians see it as a celebration of the 1945 Nazi surrender to the Red Army in Berlin, but most ethnic Latvians see it as the start of a harsh 50-year Soviet occupation.

Relatives of fallen Soviet soldiers later marched in Riga with their portraits and names in what locals call the "Bezsmertnij Polk", literally "Regiment of the Undead".

"My grandfather was drafted in the Soviet army, he was killed in action on the frontline on 25 January 1945, and I made this placard with his photo four years ago in honour of him," Viktors Opolchencevs, a mild-mannered and middle-aged man, told AFP.

This year's commemorations had extra meaning in light of the discovery of the remains of some 400 Red Army soldiers in a mass grave earlier this year during road-works near Saldus in the western part of the Baltic EU and NATO state.

The remains are yet to be identified and re-buried in a war cemetery later this year.

Protesters honouring victims of Soviet regime held a counter-demonstration at the Latvian capital's Museum of Occupation, which is focused on Soviet-era abuses before the regime fell in 1991.

Latvians officially commemorate the victory over the Third Reich a day earlier on May 8 in line with the tradition in Western Europe.

The orange and black striped Ribbon of Saint George, which is a controversial symbol of support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine as well as for fallen Soviet soldiers, was pinned to the clothes of many attending Wednesday's commemorations.

Caught between Russia and Germany, more than 100,000 Latvians fought on both sides during the war.It has 560 students and 100 "international volunteers", according to its website.

Agricultural expert Kim Hak-song and former accounting professor Tony Kim were both lecturers at the institution but were arrested by North Korean authorities as they were leaving the country.

The university previously said their detentions were "not connected in any way with the work of PUST", and sources stress that it carries out no Christian proselytisation, which is unwelcome in the North.

But it is understood the duo may have come to the attention of the Pyongyang authorities through previous Christian activities elsewhere.

The three detainees were granted "amnesty" by Pyongyang following a meeting between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and landed back in the United States on Thursday, to be welcomed by President Donald Trump.

"Our hopes and prayers have been fulfilled by their release," PUST said in a statement.

The university expressed "sincere hope" that the detainees would be able to "now enjoy some peace and rest with their families and friends, and begin to rebuild normal life".

The captivity of the US citizens has brought renewed attention to the school, known to provide foreign education to many children of the country's elite.

On its website, PUST says its mission is "to pursue excellence in education, with an international outlook, so that its students are diligent in studies, innovative in research and upright in character, bringing illumination to the Korean people and the world".

Korean American writer Suki Kim went to PUST undercover as an English teacher in 2011 and later wrote a book about her experiences.

"PUST offers a mutually beneficial arrangement for both North Korea and the evangelicals," she wrote in an essay published in the Washington Post last year following Tony Kim's detention.

"The regime gets free education for its youth and a modern facility... while the evangelicals get a footing in the remote nation," she said.After the 1973 Yom Kippur war, Ivory Coast, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and Kenya severed relations with Israel in protest and closed the doors of their embassies in Jerusalem.

They later renewed relations but moved their missions to Tel Aviv.

In 1980 Israel enacted a law declaring Jerusalem, including the mainly Palestinian eastern zone, its "complete and united" capital.

The United Nations Security Council declared the move illegal and adopted a resolution calling on "those states that have established diplomatic missions at Jerusalem to withdraw such missions".

The Netherlands, Haiti and several Latin American countries complied.

Costa Rica and El Salvador returned to Jerusalem in 1984, but left again in 2006.

In the wake of Trump's announcement on December 6, some at least are heading back -- and Israel is hoping for more.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has said his country's embassy will move to Jerusalem on May 16, and Paraguay's foreign ministry said on Wednesday it would follow suit.

The Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement that Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes would attend the opening ceremony, which would take place "by the end of the month".

Romania's government, supported by the speaker of its parliament, has adopted a draft proposal to move its embassy, which would make it the first EU member to do so.

But Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who has frequently clashed with the government, opposes the move in the absence of an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, and has called for Prime Minister Viorica Dancila's resignation.

On a visit to Jerusalem last month, Dancila acknowledged that at this stage she did not have "support of all parties as we would wish" to carry out the embassy move.

Czech President Milos Zeman has said he too would like to see his country's embassy transferred to Jerusalem.

He did not reveal any firm plan, however, and the government has only announced the reopening of its honorary consulate in Jerusalem and the establishment of a Czech cultural centre in the city.

On the other side of coin, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas his country would not move its Tel Aviv embassy to Jerusalem, official Palestinian media reported.

The European Union is sticking firmly to the international community's decades-long position that sovereignty in Jerusalem can only be decided by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Shortly after the Trump announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to Brussels for talks with EU foreign ministers.

"I believe that all or most of the European countries will move their embassies to Jerusalem," he told them, earning a chilly response from the bloc's foreign policy head Federica Mogherini.Yvonne Khatambi, the Nakuru Resident Magistrate directed Nyaguthii be held at Elementaita Police Station.

Water

She is accused of murdering Loise Njeri at Kanorero village in Gilgil under unclear circumstances.

Witness accounts state that the deceased had gone to fetch water from Nyaguthiis water tank as has been the norm with many villagers in the neighbourhood.

John Ngige, the deceaseds father-in-law said the suspect was a generous woman who assisted locals with clean water and was surprised when he received the news on the killing.

Senile

Mary was arrested immediately after residents called the police who took her to Elementaita Police Station. The body of the deceased was taken to Nakuru County mortuary.

Mr. Ngige said they were left in shock since there was no dispute between the suspect and the deceased or their families when the incident happened.

According to a section of the residents, the suspect might be senile considering her age and the sudden reaction.CA revealed that they had confirmed fresh reports through the National Kenya Computer Incident Response Team Coordination Centre of the international phone scam known as Wangiri which was first reported in January this year.

According to the government, victims of the scam receive very brief or missed phone calls from unknown international numbers.

The scheme is designed to lure phone users into returning the "urgent" international calls, upon which they are unknowingly redirected to premium numbers that drain their airtime.

The longer the victims stay on line, the more money they lose to the scammers, with post-paid subscribers being the hardest hit.

Dark web

The scammers purchase the phone numbers used in the scam from the Dark Web, which is a hidden part of the internet, known for buying and selling illegal goods and services.

Read Also: Unknown details emerge of the strange international numbers calling Kenyans

CA cautioned Kenyans against receiving numbers that bear the following international dialling codes: +41 (Switzerland), +963 (Syria), +252 (Somalia), +37 (Latvia) among others.As at 8 am on Thursday, the number of people who had perished had increased to 20, even as rescue operations including multi government agencies intensified.

Rongai police boss Japheth Kioko on Thursday said 20 bodies had been recovered, with search and rescue operation ongoing.

There are fears of the toll rising further because "many people" are still unaccounted for, according to local leaders.

Missing persons

Red Cross told the press on Wednesday night that tens of people were unaccounted for and 39 rescued. Those who were saved were taken to Bahati Sub-County and Nakuru Level 5 Hospitals.

The mega dam is located inside the farm of prominent farmer Mansukul Patel in Solai.A police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity told that the operation which has been ongoing for nearly a day, has only targeted a section of the site, adding that the retrieved bodies are of people who were trying to flee the waters.

He added that hundreds could have been trapped at the centre of the tragedy given over 300 homes were swept away at a time many people were at home, preparing to sleep.

"We found 11 of the bodies covered with mud at a coffee plantation and these are people who may have been escaping but could not make it due to the force and speed of the water from the flooded dam," he said.

He added: "Most of them are women and children who could not have been able to run fast, and the elderly."

The privately owned Patel dam, used for irrigation and fish farming, burst on Wednesday evening in Solai destroying over 300 homes, and property of unknown value.

ALSO READ: Solai Patel Dam tragedy in photos

The dam is largely surrounded by an informal settlement housing casual labourers who work on nearby farms.

"The search and rescue exercise is ongoing and more bodies have been retrieved. The death toll is now 41," said area police Chief Gideon Kibunjah.

He added: "It is a disaster because most people were asleep when the tragedy occurred and their houses were swept away."

State House Message

State House, through its spokesperson Mr Manoah Esipisu on Thursday afternoon said that the government is assessing the damage and would issue a comprehensive statement upon receipt of full details.

The Cabinet Secretary Interior and the Inspector General of Police are on the ground. Relevant authorities will issue a comprehensive statement once we have full details.

We are saddened by the loss of lives and property occasioned by the bursting of Patel dam in Solai, Subukia. First responders have been on the ground and we commend them for the work they are doing in the rescue efforts, Esipisu said via Twitter.

The Kenyan Red Cross on Thursday gave an estimate that up to 500 families may have been affected by the disaster.

"We have set up a centre near the scene for families to report missing members to enable us to reunite them," said Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui.

Several villages were affected around Nakuru, and already Solai Boys School has indefinitely been closed by the government. Dozens of other schools remain closed in most parts of the country over floods, especially in Siaya County.

Flash Floods

For nearly two months now, rains in the country have led to flash floods in major cities including Nairobi and Mombasa, and other areas including Tana River, Nakuru, Narok and Nakuru.

The government on Wednesday revealed that over 220,000 people have been displaced by flooding as heavy rains hit the country after three consecutive failed rainy seasons had left it in drought.

Last week, the Kenya Red Cross said that at least 21,000 acres of farming land has been submerged in water with an estimated 20,000 animals killed.

The floods have also destroyed road networks in some parts of the East African country and in some cases the military has stepped in to airlift residents from submerged houses. Narok-Mahi-Mahiu Highway and Suswa in Narok County.

The Red Cross appealed last week for Sh500 million to help those affected. The death toll due to floods now stands at over 190.The Governor said that there was no deal between the county and national governments.

NAMATA was created last year by President Uhuru Kenyatta through an Executive Order under the enabling provisions of the State Corporations Act.

The authority was expected to cover the counties of Nairobi City, Kiambu, Kajiado, Machakos and Muranga.

NAMATA Functions

According to the Act, NAMATA's core function is to provide a sustainable integrated public transport strategy based on the development of a sustainable urban mobility plan that will be the basis for the orderly and structured development of the proposed Metropolitan Area mass-transit system incorporating both the bus rapid-transit and commuter rail.

The move by Sonko is likely to strain the delicate relationship between City Hall and State House.

In January, the Nairobi County Boss accused individuals close to State House of interfering with the running of affairs at City Hall.

Read Also: President Uhuru creates new Transport Authority for the city

State House "clique"

Sonko said the individuals might not be directly from the House on the Hill, but are within the system made up of a clique of people who opposed his governorship bid and had created the perception that he cannot deliver if elected.QUIZ: Guess the Road Songs

We can't wait to get back on the road again! Play this quiz and see if how many you can get right!POLAND: Andrex Logistics has opened its Chryzanow transhipment facility in Poland, close to the Siemianowka  Svisloch border crossing with Belarus.Attempted murder case opened after shooting in Russian college

 RIA Novosti, Alexei Sazonov

10:48 10/05/2018

MOSCOW, May 10 (RAPSI)  A criminal case on attempted murder was opened on Thursday after a student started shooting in a transport college in Russias Novosibirsk Region, the Investigative Committees press service reported.

According to investigators, on Thursday morning, a 17-year old college student entered a classroom and shot at his course mate. Following that, the teenager shot himself and died at the scene. The victim was wounded and taken to a hospital.

Investigation is underway; medical, criminalistic, ballistic and other required examinations will be conducted, the statement reads.

Cases of attacks at schools became more frequent in 2018. In January, Russian schools suffered two attacks. On January 15, a student in the 10th grade and a former pupil of the same school in Perm intentionally caused multiple stab wounds to nine 4th graders and their teacher. The victims were hospitalized. The alleged attackers have been charged with attempted murder of more than two children collusively committed by a group of persons.

On January 19, a student of Buryatia's school entered the building and attacked pupils of the 7th grade; after that he set fire in a classroom with a bottle containing flammable liquid. Three children and a teacher were injured during the attack.

In April, a 17-year-old student entered an informatics class at his school in Sterlitamak, the second largest city in Russias Republic of Bashkortostan, and used a knife to cut a classmates hand and stab a teacher. Then he allegedly used a flammable liquid to set the school on fire which made one of the students to jump out of the window. Later, the alleged attacker stabbed himself. The fire did not result in any casualties. The suspect and the victims were transferred to a hospital.



Russian citizen gets 12 years in prison for plotting terror attack

 RIA Novosti, Andrey Stenin

11:38 10/05/2018

MOSCOW, May 10 (RAPSI)  The North Caucasus District Military Court has sentenced a native of Russias Republic of Dagestan Ramazan Ramazanov to 12 years in prison for preparing a terrorist attack in Stavropol, the courts spokesperson has told RAPSI.

The court found that the defendant adhered to an ideology of the Islamic State terrorist organization banned in Russia. He illegally purchased and kept fire arms, ammunition, explosives and other components for making improvised explosive devices. The man planned to use his home-made bomb for committing a terrorist attack in places of mass gathering in Stavropol, according to case papers.

Ramazanov failed to consummate the crime because he was arrested by police on April 22, 2017, the courts spokesperson said.



Moscow court upholds 8-year prison term for former regional governor Belykh

 RIA Novosti, Grigory Sysoyev

16:37 10/05/2018

MOSCOW, May 10 (RAPSI, Nikita Shiryayev)  The Moscow City Court on Thursday upheld an 8-year prison sentence for ex-governor of Russias Kirov Region Nikita Belykh convicted of corruption, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

However, the court allowed Belykh to hold posts in government agencies and municipalities.

On February 1, the Presnensky District Court of Moscow found Belykh guilty of taking 400,000 euros in bribes. In addition to the prison term, Belykh was fined 48.2 million rubles (about $860,700) and prohibited from holding state and municipal offices for 3 years.

The court established that Belykh received the bribe in a Moscow restaurant on June 24, 2016. He was arrested by the police red-handed.

In January, prosecutors asked to sentence the ex-governor to 10 years and fine him 100 million rubles (about $1.78 million) and to ban him from holding state and municipal offices for 8 years.Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale

Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada.

Search Real EstateSolider Systems Daily announced the US Army selected SIG Sauer's TANGO6 1-6x optic for the Squad Designated Marksman Rifle. The main difference between the SIG optic chosen and its commercially available brother is the reticle. The Army will use a reticle featuring a BDC that is spec'd to M80A1 ammunition.

In the announcement, Soldier Systems Daily said:

Earlier this year, the Army conducted a Limited User Evaluation of the Squad Designated Marksman Rifle. Based on the M110A1 Compact Semi Automatic Sniper System program, SDMR consists of a 7.62 NATO G28 rifle built by Heckler & Koch, equipped with an OSS Suppressor and Harris Bipod. The missing piece was the optic. The Armys Program Manager for Soldier Weapons invited industry, through the Tailored Logistics Support program, to submit 1-6x variable optics for the evaluation. They selected the SIG Optics TANGO6 1-6x Optic. It is a front focal optic and may recall that we previously covered this scope during Enforce Tac. Please note that this is not the mount which will be used on SDMR.

This optic was chosen specifically for the SDMR and as of now, the Directed Requirement is 6,069 systems. Funding is set for FY19.

In the feature photo, Daniel Horner, of the Army Marksmanship Unit, used the SIG Tango6 1-6x to win his tenth USPSA Multigun Nationals title (photo courtesy of Soldier Systems Daily).From filing 37 returns a year when the Goods and Sales Tax was first introduced in July last year, the process has undergone major changes as the GST Council considered and implemented various models to ease the pain for assessees.

Heres a recap of how the process has changed in 10 months.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com.

Original Model

Three forms are to be filed in a month apart from one additional annual return. Which means a total 37 returns are to be filed in a year. GSTR1 is to be filed by the seller by the 10th of the subsequent month. This gets auto-populated to the buyer, who corrects it, and then files GSTR2 by the 15th of the month. After that, GSTR3 contains the tax liability of an assessee as the seller, and input tax credit as the buyer. So, the assessee can net the two. For the first quarter (July-Sept, 2017), GSTR3B, the summary of input-output, is to be filed by 20th of the next month, instead of GSTR3.

Present system



After the GST filing got complicated, GST Council suspended GSTR2 and GSTR3. It extended GSTR3B first till December 2017, then till March 2018, and then till June 2018. Now it has been extended further. GSTR 3B is to be filed by 20th of the subsequent month. The deadline of GSTR1 was extended to 40 days from the end of the month of transactions. This timeline, however, again is being shortened in a phased manner. A group of ministers was constituted under Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi to suggest new models based on the suggestions of Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani and the officers committee.

Nilekani's Model



The seller will upload invoices and the buyer will acknowledge that. Input tax credit will be available to the buyer on the basis of invoices uploaded by the seller. No credit for missing invoices

Officers' Model



Similar to the Nilekani model but with an option for provisional credit for missing invoices. If the seller disputes the transactions, provisional credit will be reversed.

New model approved by GST Council

First stage The present model of GSTR1 and GSTR3B will continue for six months with the timeline for GSTR1 shortened. Second stage The seller will upload invoices. But, provisional credit will be allowed to the buyer, based on his/her calculations, even if the seller does not upload related invoices. GST Network will keep sending reminders to buyers about the difference between credit available to them and input tax credit they got. A buyer then can ask the seller to upload remaining invoices as well. Assesses will have to file one return in a month, except for those who have no transactions or those who are under the composition scheme as they will file quarterly returns. Third stage There will be no provisional credit. Credit will be based on invoices put up by the seller. The government will recover the tax from the seller and in extreme cases where the seller is not located or he/she does not have assets, the buyer will have to pay taxes. Other processes will be the same as in stage two.

With inputs from EY India

GST: India's biggest tax reformWhile moving towards the new technology is compelling and inevitable, powering 5G would also mean massive initial investments for telcos, says Surajeet Das Gupta.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

For the uninitiated, 5G, the next generation mobile technology, is not only about higher speeds, which was the case when consumers moved from 3G to 4G services.

It represents a fundamental shift in technology far beyond just mobile phone connectivity at higher speeds, low latency and better battery life.

5G will connect anything that is connected to the internet, which includes vehicles, devices at home, smart city infrastructure, machines in factories, doctors doing surgery remotely from some other city, and will enable industrial automation at a new level.

With speeds of an average 10 gigabits a second (it varies according to the amount of spectrum) it could be 100 times faster than your 4G, enabling consumers to download and watch 4K and 8K 3D videos, enjoy virtual and augmented reality amongst others.

Moving towards the new technology is compelling and inevitable.

Ericssons Nitin Bansal, head of network solutions, points out that the cost of producing 1 GB of data on 5G is one tenth that of 4G.

But powering 5G would also mean massive initial investments for telcos.

They will have to buy more spectrum as well as put in new electronics underlying the 4G network.

It is in this context that the government in India is putting in a road map for 5G services for which a high-powered committee has been set up.

This road map, which is still under discussion, broadly envisages earmarking the 5G spectrum band which the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) promises to do by June this year, followed by trial runs by most telcos on their networks in restricted spots in 2019 and possibly limited commercial launch by 2020.

Full 5G services, committee members say, would be possible only by 2023.

Rajan Mathews, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), says: We expect some applications to develop that are powered on 5G by the end of 2019 for commercial launch, and scientific institutes in India are already working on them.

"They could be remotely controlled electric power metres in cities or autonomous tractors powered by 5G.

The international road map is way ahead, with the first commercial launch of 5G services to be rolled out this year in the US, followed by China and South Korea. Nokia, for instance, has tied up with China Mobile to develop a 5G network for industrial users.

As many as 50 operators across the globe have already started or shortly plan to start commercial trial runs for 5G - the standards for 5G have been completed six months ahead of the deadline.

So how prepared are Indian operators? T V Ramachandran, president of the Indian Broadband Forum, which has telcos and online companies as its members, says: With 5G standards finalised, India has a golden opportunity to catch up with the world.

Ericsson, which conducted a live 5G service demonstration last year with speeds of 5.7 GHz at an event, is already talking to telecom operators rolling out 4G networks to offer them upgraded software to enable 5G.

Jio says its 4G network is already 5G-enabled.

Bharti Airtel, on the other hand, has just conducted lab testing on 5G in collaboration with Huawei.

It has also signed an agreement with South Korean S K Telecom to work towards the evolution of 5G.

And many telcos are rolling out MIMO technology, which increases efficiency and is a precursor to 5G, on their 4G network.

But neither Bharti Airtel nor the Vodafone-Idea combine has the money to splurge on 5G as they are financially under stress.

And most of them are making massive investments (Bharti Airtel is putting in Rs 26,000 crore) in the next 12 to 24 months to upgrade its legacy networks to 4G.

Also, unlike countries like China and the US where nearly all mobile towers are back-hauled through fibre, the case is different in India.

This is crucial because to carry huge amounts of data that 5G will generate in a reliable manner at high speeds you cannot have a microwave back-haul.

But in India, only 20 per cent of the 450,000 towers are powered by fibre.

And only one player, Jio, has over 70 per cent of its towers back-hauled by fibre.

Adding to the problem is 5G technology requires at least double to triple the amount of towers than 4G. This is because 5G is spectrum-heavy, and that is currently only available at higher bands (over 3 GHZ).

But while higher bands can handle huge amounts of data, their coverage is much shorter than lower bands, hence the need for more (and smaller) towers.

To maximise investment, telcos will have to build a market that goes beyond just mobile phone users.

Says a senior executive of a leading telco: Revenues in 5G will not come from the masses. For them, 4G and its enhanced versions will be enough for downloading and seeing movies.

"The bulk of the revenues will come from new applications that support 5G - like industrial automation, connected cities, health and agriculture.

Trai is still in consultation on which band will India choose for 5G spectrum and the choice seems to be for bands over 3 Ghz, for which many vendors are available (China and US are moving in the same direction).

Telcos, however, say they will require a minimum of 100 Mhz per operator in the sub-6 GHz spectrum and more than 100 Mhz in the higher bands to make 5G a reality.

That is multiple times more than what they require for 3G or 4G services.

That is why the more important issue, say telcos, is how spectrum for 5G services will be priced.

It cannot follow the template of previous spectrum auctions, when the premise was revenue maximisation.

Some have even suggested that in the initial limited commercial launches spectrum should be priced administratively rather than through the auction route.

The gap between India and the globe on 4G was much lower than when 3G was adopted.

On 5G, however, India has some catching up to do.Which designer will Meghan fancy on May 19?

With just days to go until Meghan Markle arrives at St George's Chapel in Windsor (the wedding is on May 19), her dress is still a closely guarded secret.

Will she nod to royal tradition, wearing a designer endorsed by Queen Elizabeth?

Declare herself a rebel with a fantastical gown by an emerging talent?

Or perhaps embrace her image as the people's princess with something from a more accessible designer?

A look at the labels that could walk down the aisle:

>> Ralph & Russo

Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

The Australian couple, Tamara Ralph and Michael Russo, are the creative brains behind Britain's only haute couture house.

They are hot on the list of designers to be walking down the aisle, with bookies giving Ralph & Russo 2/1 odds.

Photograph: kensingtonroyal/Instagram

Ralph & Russo became favourites after Meghan selected their $75,000 black illusion dress for her engagement photographs.

Photographs: Neilson Barnard, Frazer Harrison, Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Ralph & Russo has a long client list that runs into the thousands, with famous names like Angelina Jolie, Aishwarya Rai and Gwyneth Paltrow on it.

Photograph: Richard Bord/Getty Images

Wedding dresses currently make up 30 per cent of Ralph & Russo's revenue and the design house do have the biggest atelier in the world with over 300 employees, which means they are well equipped to take on a royal challenge.

The Daily Mail recently reported that Meghan will wear an intricately beaded Ralph & Russo dress. Ppalace officials have yet to confirm the report, meaning nothing is official.

>> Erdem

Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

In 2005, following an internship with Vivienne Westwood, Turkish-Canadian designer Erdem Moralioglu launched his label in London.

Many consider Erdem a top contender because of his penchant for hyper-feminine, ethereal, dresses and signature florals, which Meghan likes.

Photographs: Chris Jackson, Ian Vogler/Getty Images

Erdem is no stranger to royalty. He is a favourite of Kate Middleton, the duchess of Cambridge, and Meghan's to-be sister-in-law, having dressed her numerous times.

Photograph: Anthony Harvey/Getty Images

Meghan herself chose a tropical printed maxi-dress from Erdem's pre-Fall 2017 collection when Prince Harry and she attended Tom Inskip and Laura Hughes-Young's wedding in Jamaica last year.

Photograph: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images

Meghan told Vanity Fair that Erdem is 'a designer I've been wearing for years' when she wore one of his dresses for an interview with the magazine.

>> Roland Mouret

Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

There is a chance Meghan could turn to one of her many designer friends to dress her on the big day.

French designer Roland Mouret, who is also based in London, has been friends with the actress since they met in a hotel elevator in Istanbul years ago.

Photograph: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for CIROC Vodka

Meghan has worn his designs before, as seen in the image above where she opted for this teal gown for the 2014 Elton John AIDS Foundation benefit.

Photograph: Chris Jackson/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Roland has also dressed Kate. The simple, unfussy, silhouettes are very flattering, and are ideal for the minimalist.

Photograph: Roland Mouret/Instagram

Roland has also dressed Michelle Obama and Jennifer Lopez.

When pressed by Women's Wear Daily about his involvement in the wedding, Monsieur Mouret demurred: 'Mmmmm, I don't want to say. No comment. It's ... there is no comment on that. She's a friend. And that's ... I can't say.'

>> Alexander McQueen

Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Will Royal history repeat itself? Will Meghan turn into a copy-Kat?

Photographs: John Stillwell, Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Kate Middleton stunned one and all in 2011 walking down the aisle in a custom-made Alexander McQueen gown meant to 'combine tradition and modernity with the artistic vision that characterizes Alexander McQueen's work,' according to palace officials.

Photograph: Ben Stansall/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Markle has already dabbled with McQueen, sporting one of the label's suits at the Endeavour Fund Awards Ceremony.

Photograph: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

The design house is known for its intricate yet edgy gowns and consistently dresses stars (for instance Sex and The City's Sarah Jessica Parker) for the red carpet, making it a top choice for the royal gown.

>> Burberry

Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

The iconic British label -- best known for its trademark plaid -- is yet another name being bandied about.

Photograph: Ian Gavan/Getty Images for Burberry

Burberry is responsible for countless romantic designs many brides love to wear. Tulle, silk and lace creations abound: The brand brims with options.

Photograph: James Glossop/WPA Pool/Getty Images

More so, Meghan has worn Burberry in the past -- though in a casual get-up when she chose a blue-and-green-check Burberry trench for her engagement with the crowds in Edinburgh.

>> Stella McCartney

Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Stella is the latest name to be mooted as the royal wedding dress designer.

Photograph: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

McCartney has all the credentials -- the brand's USP is modern, understated femininity, all of which will appeal to Markle's personal style.

Photograph: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

The label's focus on sustainability and female empowerment will also resonate with the royal-to-be's socially-conscious sensibility.

It is also, of course, a British brand, which is a tradition for royal wedding gowns.

Photograph: John Stillwell/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Meghan has also worn Stella's elegant pieces -- the latest being a chic navy blue cape dress she wore for the queen's 92nd birthday.

On May 19, Meghan Markle's life will change forever, and the same can be said for the designer of her choice.From corruption to communalism, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's Rs 70 lakh Hublot watch to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, the electoral potboiler had it all.

IMAGE: Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka Sanjiv Kumar with Siddi tribe members show their fingers marked with indelible ink during a voting awareness campaign ahead of Karnataka Assembly elections in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Photograph: PTI Photo

The vitriol-filled campaign for the Karnataka assembly elections ended on Thursday with top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, making a last-gasp effort to sway the voters in a likely cliffhanger.

From corruption to communalism, Chief Minister Siddaramaiahs Rs 70 lakh Hublot watch to United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, the electoral potboiler had it all.

Like all state polls since he assumed the reins of power in New Delhi, Modi spearheaded the BJPs adrenaline-charged campaign despite the party having declared B S Yeddyurappa its chief ministerial candidate, while Rahul helmed that of the Congress.

Though Modi remained out of the electoral scene for a long time after addressing a public meeting in February, he launched a blitzkrieg on May 1, addressing over a score of rallies in his bid to wrest the key southern state, which BJP chief Amit Shah dubbed as the party's gateway to south, from the Congress.

Always high on energy during elections, he addressed at least three rallies every day when he was in Karnataka, or else interacted with workers of the BJPs different frontal organisations through the 'Namo App'.

Though development remained part of the political discourse, it was overtaken by a slanging match between the two parties over corruption.

The prime minister and Shah raised the issue of the killing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP workers by Social Democratic Party of India, a radical Islamist political party floated by the Popular Front of India, which Modi said was the abc of communalism.

Shah claimed two of the candidates fielded by the Congress were, in fact, members of the SDPI.

On day one of his campaign, Modi raked up the issue of Sonias foreign origin at an election rally where he dared the Congress chief to speak for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Karnataka government in any language, including his mother's mother tongue.

An emotional Rahul hit back on Thursday at a press conference where he said, "My mother is an Italian. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many Indians I have seen."

Modi repeatedly addressed the Siddaramaiah ministry as seedha rupaiah government (a government that takes bribes for work) and "10 per cent commission government.

Provoked, Siddaramaiah first called the Modi dispensation a 90 per cent commission government and then served legal notices to Modi and Shah, demanding an apology and threatening to file Rs 100 crore civil and criminal defamation suit if they did not tender it.

Rally after election rally, Rahul Gandhi targeted BJPs chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa over corruption when he helmed the state while BJP was in power between 2008 and 2013.

Will Modi ji tell the people of Karnataka why a man who spent time in jail for corruption is the BJP's CM candidate? Why the BJP has given 8 tickets to Reddy brothers and their associates who looted Rs 35,000 crore from the people of Karnataka?" he asked, as he sought to paint the saffron party into a corner.

The Congress president frequently referred to fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi in his speeches, alleging the government allowed him to flee the country after defrauding the Punjab National Bank.

Modi, who has powered the BJP to victory after victory in assembly polls in states in the last four years, also invoked nationalism and B R Ambedkar, after he was in the Congress president's firing line over a string of attacks on Dalits. He slammed the Congress for raising questions about the Army's surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Though Modi did not campaign in Karnataka on Thursday, he addressed BJP's SC/ST/OBC and Slum Morcha workers through his Namo App and said, "There is no place for Dalits and backward classes in the heart of the Congress."

He accused the Congress of insulting Dr Ambedkar, a Dalit icon.

Sonia Gandhi, who avoided the rough and tumble of elections for two years after she was taken ill during a roadshow in Varanasi ahead of the Uttar Pradesh polls, also addressed a rally in the Lingayat stronghold of Vijayapura where she said, "Modi is possessed by the devil of 'Congress-mukt Bharat' (bhoot lag gaya hai)".

Apart from Shah, who vigourously campaigned across the state over the last two months, the BJP fielded its Hindutva mascot Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who toured the communally sensitive coastal belt of Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada district.

Adityanath exhorted voters to elect a government that can protect people from jihadi forces.

After Rahul publicly declared he was ready to become the prime minister if Congress emerged as the single largest party, Modi mocked him, calling him a dynast and wondering whether the nation will accept him as its leader.

The campaign was hit by a fake voter ID card scandal in its dying moments, but election officials said those appeared to be genuine.

Nearly 10,000 cards were recovered from a flat in Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency on Tuesday, setting off a war of words between the Congress and BJP, with each alleging the owner of the apartment owed allegiance to the rival party.

The contentious issue of the Siddaramaiah government recommending religious minority status for the numerically strong Lingayat community took a back seat as the two parties appeared unsure about its electoral fallout.

Opinion polls and surveys have projected a thriller of a contest, with neither BJP nor the Congress getting a majority on its own and the Janata Dal-Secular of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda playing the kingmaker.

Polling for 223 seats of the 224-member assembly will be held on May 12. Election for the Jayanagar seat was countermanded after the death of the sitting BJP MLA and its candidate B N Vijayakumar.

Results will be declared on May 15.A chargesheet filed by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad against two suspected Islamic State operatives last month has claimed that an unidentified associate of one of the two arrested men talked about assassinating Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Yeah let's take Modi out with a sniper rifle, is a line from a conversation cited in the chargesheet, attributed to an associate of Ubed Ahmed Mirza.

The chargesheet against Mirza and Mohammad Kasim Stimberwala -- both arrested last October -- was filed before the chief judicial magistrate at Ankleshwar in Bharuch district.

As per a WhatsApp chat between Mirza and his associate, identified only as 'Ferrari', on September 10, 2016, Mirza talked about buying pistols.

In response, according to the charge sheet, 'Ferrari' said, Yeah, let's take (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi out with a sniper rifle Insha-Allah.

When 'Ferrari' mentioned a Russian-made gun, Mirza promptly replied, I want it.

In another WhatsApp chat with Ferrari on July 26, 2016, Mirza was told that IS handlers had asked its modules and lone-wolf attackers in India to use machetes and big chopping knives to target people.

Instead of taking the risk of buying guns and assembling explosives, one can target people, especially foreign citizens, using chopping knives, Ferrari told Mirza.

According to an ATS official, the process to identify the other people who figure in these chats, including 'Ferrari', is underway.

The ATS has alleged that Stimberwala and Mirza were highly radicalised by the Jehadi ideology of Islamic State and were actively planning lone-wolf attacks on Jews.

While Stimberwala worked as a laboratory technician at a hospital in Ankleshwar, Mirza was a practising lawyer at the Surat district court.

Abdullah el-Faisal, a radical preacher based in Jamaica, and suspected IS handler Shafi Armar have been shown as absconding accused in the charge sheet.

ATS claimed Stimberwala and Mirza were in touch with el-Faisal and Armar to plan attacks on Jews in India. They conducted a recce of some of the targets and were planning to send radicalised youths outside India to take part in terrorist acts, the charge sheet said.

Both have been charged under Indian Penal Code sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 121-A (sedition) and 125 (waging war against any Asiatic power in alliance with India), apart from the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.On Modi's personal attacks, Gandhi said, 'I have now learned to deal with him.'

Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw a 'threat' in him, and that the latters attack on him over his prime ministerial ambition was only aimed at 'distracting attention'.

Gandhi also hit out at Modi for raking up the issue of United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, saying 'my mother is Italian' but she was 'more Indian' than many

Indians.

"This election is not about Rahul. I have now learnt to deal with the prime minister. When he cant respond, he distracts," Gandhi told reporters in response to a question about Modis repeated attacks on him on Wednesday over his prime ministerial ambition.

Training his guns on Gandhi after he publicly declared his prime ministerial ambition at an interaction, Modi had wondered whether the country will ever accept such an 'immature and naamdar (dynast)' leader for the post.

Hitting out at Modi for his reference to Sonias foreign origin, Rahul said, My mother is an Italian. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many Indians I have seen.

"She has sacrificed her life for the country, she has suffered for the country. When Modi makes such comments, it shows the quality of the man. I am happy if he enjoys making such comments, he is welcome," he said.

The issue of Sonia Gandhis foreign origin was raked up by Modi at an election rally recently where he dared the Congress chief to speak for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Karnataka government in any language, including his 'mother's mother tongue'.

WATCH: PM's convinced that he's going to lose Karnataka, says Rahul during presser

The Congress president, who wrapped up his extensive campaign tour of Karnataka with a press conference, referred to a story about Gautam Buddha to claim the prime minister had 'anger' for everybody.

He said once Buddha was abused and shouted at by an angry man while he was seated with a disciple. When the disciple asked Buddha why did he not retaliate, he said the anger belonged to that man, and that since he did not accept the abuse, it went back to that person.

"Modi has anger inside him and he has got anger for everybody not only for me. I attract that anger because he sees a threat in me. His anger is his problem, not my problem," Gandhi said.

On Modi's personal attacks, Gandhi said, "I have now learned to deal with him, when he realises that he is coming into a space where there is no escape then he distracts and creates anger. We will not let him distract and create anger."

Spearheading the BJP's campaign, Modi had launched a scathing attack on Gandhi over his prime ministerial ambitions on Wednesday.

Gandhi hit back hard at the Bharatiya Janata Party for mocking him over visiting temples and calling him an 'election Hindu' who remembered Hindu shrines only during polls.

Maintaining that the BJP feels 'uncomfortable' about his temple visits, Gandhi said, "I don't think they understand the term Hindu, because the term Hindu is a perspective, it is something that is in the heart, it is imbibed.

"There are different beliefs....as a leader of a political party it is my job to stand with them in their beliefs," he said.

On the purchase of Rafale fighter jets which the BJP and the prime minister have claimed was a good deal, Gandhi said, "It is a very good deal for the prime minister and his businessman friend, who has a Rs 45,000 crore debt, who has never built an aircraft in his life."

Modi paid Rs 1,500 crore per aircraft that the UPA government had worked out at Rs 700 crore, he said.

"Of course, it is a great deal, it's absolutely a smashing deal for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and you can see the effects of it in the amount of money being thrown around in the state (polls)."

On BJP's criticism of politicisation of rape cases, he said atrocities against women and their rape was indeed a 'political issue, it's a national issue'.

"Are you telling me if Indian women are raped politicians shouldn't discuss it? It is absolutely a political issue, it is an issue that is fundamental. The treatment of our women is absolutely an issue," Gandhi said.

The Congress chief claimed India's foreign policy was 'decimated' as the prime minister looked at it as an individual exercise.

"He is under the impression that he can go on and have personal conversation with the President of China and everything will magically happen," Gandhi said.

He said the prime minister needs to take into confidence talented people in the foreign ministry.

"Are discussions happening with finance, foreign and defence minister on strategies? No. It's a one man show."

About a battery of union ministers descending on the state on the last day of campaign, Gandhi said the BJP was in 'panic' because they had realised that the Congress party was doing things differently.

The Congress president flayed the prime minister for his 'silence' on incidents of killing of Dalits and attacks on them.

Accusing the prime minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party of shielding Karnatakas influential and controversial Reddy brothers, he said the government had turned the Central Bureau of Investigation into Central Bureau of Illegal Mining to save the Reddy siblings.

Two of the Reddy brothers and several associates have been fielded by the BJP in the Karnataka polls.

Photograph:@INCIndia/TwitterWeve already presented some of the stunning early entries to the 2018 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest in the Nature category and now, here are incredible portraits and action shots of people from around the world that have been submitted in the People category.



As mentioned earlier, the grand-prize winner will be awarded $10,000 (Rs 6.67 lakh), will have their photo posted on the @NatGeoTravel Instagram account, as well as the bragging rights.

Take a look and be amazed!

(Please click on the image for full-page resolution)

Wanderlust Local festivals are the best time to understand the vibrant tribal culture. The Ghotpal Mandai in the Dantewada region of India is dedicated to the local deity. The local deities of all the neighbouring villages gather for the Ghotpal mela. The main attractions are the colourful display of culture through the Bison-Horn Madiya dance. Movements to the rhythm of tribal instruments evoke the soul of wanderlust.

Photograph: Willy Sanson/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest

Tribute to Marilyn My imagination ran wild, I was smelling the gunpowder, hearing the gun shots, neighing of the horses and the screams of the wounded, picturing what is it like to be under siege, protecting your freedom and ideals against foreign invasion. But human mind is incredible, a sudden breeze of wind took me straight to a different time, a completely different movie set, a hundred or so years later, well famed for a single, white dress.

Photograph: TihomirTrichkov/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest

The girl who leapt through time

Photograph: Daniel Cheung/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest

Leathers drying A woman at work in a street outside Dacca, in Bangladesh. These piece of leathers will become wallets, belts or part of shoes and sell in all the world.

Photograph: Erberto Zani/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest

Devotee stunt with sword Shri Nath Mhaskoba temple is located in the 'Veer' village near Saswad town of Pune, Maharashtra, India. This temple is dedicated to lord Mhaskoba. Veer Mhaskoba is Kaal bhairava an Avatar of the Hindu deity Shiva. People from this village gather together at temple to celebrate God's marriage ceremony every year. They celebrate this festival with dancing, chanting, throwing red colour etc.

Photograph: Mahesh Lonkar/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest

Shocking train journey Failed to get place inside the train, people climbed on the roof and outside of the train during Eid-ul Adha, one of the biggest Muslim religious festival, all wide Bangladesh mainly targeting to go home.

Photograph: Yousuf Tushar/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest

Freedom Andrey Karr from Western Riders Slacklines at sunset above big waves in Nazare, Portugal.

Photograph: Aidan Williams/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest

Tibetan Monks Tibetan Monks during the weekly pray in Tashi LhunPo Monastery in Tibet. The Tashi LhunPo Monastery was founded in 1447 by the 1st Dalai Lama, is a historic important and of the most influent monastery in Shigatse, the second-largest city in Tibet.

Photograph: Mattia Passarini/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest

Rust and Sweat Char Kaliganj in Dhaka, slum and home to one of the largest shipyards of Asia. A city made by giant skeletons of old ships which employ around 15,000 souls that work to both break down massive shipping vessels as well as create new ships from the parts. The age of labourers ranges from 8 to 80 and they all work together. The work is hard, crude, dirty and dangerous but it gives thousands of them employment and wages to feed their families.

Photograph: Mauro De Bettio/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest

The colourful people Lath mar Holi is a local celebration of the Hindu festival of Holi. It takes place days before the actual Holi in the neighbouring towns of Barsana and Nandgaon near Mathura in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where thousands of Hindus and tourists congregate, each year.

Photograph: Sampa Guha Majumdar/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year ContestDonald Trump personally welcomed home three American detainees on Thursday after they were released by Pyongyang, seen as a diplomatic win for the United States President ahead of his planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

IMAGE: One of the Americans formerly held hostage in North Korea gestures next to U.S.President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, upon their arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

The Americans -- Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim -- were freed on Wednesday while US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on a visit to the North Korean capital to finalise the details of the summit.

The trio had been jailed for anti-state activities and placed in North Korean labour camps.

Trump and his wife Melania entered the plane after it landed in the early hours of Thursday and a few minutes later emerged with the three Americans of South Korean origin to wave to the media.

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence were also on hand to welcome the three men home.

IMAGE: The Americans -- Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim -- were jailed for anti-state activities and placed in North Korean labour camps. Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

Speaking to the media on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews Air Force Base, Kim Dong Chul said his release felt like a dream.

We are very, very happy, he said.

The three former detainees earlier issued a joint statement thanking Trump for their release.

We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home, the trio said.

US President Trump told reporters that it was nice of the North Korean leader to release the three men ahead of their planned summit.

Frankly we didnt think this was going to happen... its a very important thing to all of us to be able to get these three great people out, he said.

Trump said he wanted to pay his warmest respects to the family of Otto Warmbier, the American who was released by the North Koreans in a vegetative state, only to die days later.

Asked if this was his proudest achievement, Trump said that would be when we denuclearise that entire peninsula.

Its a great honour. But the true honour is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons, he said.

IMAGE: US President Trump told reporters that it was nice of the North Korean leader to release the three men ahead of their planned summit. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Trump was also asked about the prospects of making a deal with the North Korean leader.

I really think he wants to do something and bring his country into the real world, Trump said.

I think this will be a very big success. Its never been taken this far, theres never been a relationship like this.

Trump has previously said the release of the three Americans was part of working towards the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

Some great things can happen, and thats what we hope, he added.

Trump said on Wednesday that he would announce the location and the timing of the summit in three days time. The two leaders are expected to meet sometime in June.

US media said Trump scored a diplomatic victory with North Korea releasing the three imprisoned American citizens.

After their meeting with Trump, the three men were expected to go to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland for further evaluation and medical treatment, CNN quoted White House Press Secretary Lindsay Walters as saying.United States President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore, the first-ever summit between the top leaders of the two Cold War rivals to discuss the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

Trump's announcement came hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned home from North Korea with three detained Americans.

Trump, who personally greeted the trio at the Andrews Air Force Base, praised Kim for their release ahead of their summit.

'The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!(sic)' Trump tweeted.

In April, Trump had stunned the world by accepting an invitation to meet Kim in an unprecedented sit-down.

Trump and Kim had previously traded insults and threats. The breakthrough came after the recent landmark talks between North and South Korea.

At a summit last month, Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed to work to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons, although the means of achieving this were not detailed.

The main issue under discussion at the Trump-Kim summit will be North Korea's nuclear weapons, which the US is demanding Pyongyang give up.

There has been no word from North Korea on its agenda or what it might offer, although a key issue is certain to be the presence of 30,000 US military personnel in South Korea, along with the removal of sanctions.

Trump has struck a cautiously optimistic tone in discussing the prospects of reaching a deal during his upcoming summit with Kim, saying he is hopeful a historic agreement can be brokered while also warning the talks could prove unfruitful.

But the President saw the release of the three Americans as yet another reason for optimism as he prepares for the summit.

"We are starting off on a new footing -- I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful. A lot of very good things have happened," Trump said as he greeted the three former prisoners.

The Americans -- Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim -- were freed on Wednesday by North Korea while Pompeo was on a visit to Pyongyang to finalise the details of the Trump-Kim summit.

The trio had been jailed for anti-state activities and placed in North Korean labour camps.

"I really think he wants to do something and bring the country into the real world," he added of Kim. "It's never been taken this far, there has never been a relationship like this. I really think a lot of progress has been made."

The summit, which has been in the works since Trump accepted Kim's invitation to meet in March, will be the first ever meeting between a sitting US president and North Korean leader.

US officials had also considered holding the summit at the Korean demilitarized zone or in Mongolia, but ultimately settled on the city-state of Singapore as the location.

Singapore has been used before for high-profile diplomatic occasions. In 2015, the leaders of China and Taiwan held historic talks in the South East Asian city-state - their first in more than 60 years, the BBC reported.

The US and Singapore have a close relationship. Singapore has diplomatic ties with North Korea but suspended all trade with Pyongyang in November last year as US-led international sanctions were tightened following a series of provocative actions by the reclusive state.A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.China revealed what military specialists believe could be a new long-range bomber for the first time to the public, showing that China has the ability to develop such aircraft.

A video, A Major Power Takes Off, released by Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) on Tuesday, shows the front outline of the long-range bomber as the video is about to finish. The flying-wing bomber was covered by a blanket, with only its outline visible.

The video was released to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of AVIC Xi'an Aircraft Industry Group.

Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the aircraft is possibly a new long-range bomber, similar to the US B-2 stealth bomber.

From the video, it's hard to determine the precise parameters of the bomber, but referring to other countries' aircraft, China's long-range bomber should have a range of at least 12,000 kilometers and 20 tons of storecarrying capacity, Fu Qianshao, an air defense expert, told the Global Times.

The bomber likely has prominent stealth defense capability and a better performance than the B-2, Fu said.

China has no obstacles in developing the flying wing long-range bomber and AVIC Xi'an Aircraft Industry Group has a great deal of aircraft manufacturing experience, experts noted.

Fu said the bomber was shown to the public before being officially announced, which demonstrates that China possesses mature technology for developing long-range bombers and has confidence in the aviation field.

The new bomber will enhance the strategic strike capability of the air force, analysts noted.DAMASCUS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian air defenses destroyed tens of Israeli missiles that were fired at Syrian positions before dawn Thursday, but some of the missiles hit their targets in Syria, the state TV reported.

The Israeli missiles targeted air defense battalions, radars, and arms depots, the state TV said, spelling no further details about the exact location of the targeted sites.

The missiles of the Syrian air defenses lit up the sky over Damascus while tracking the Israeli missiles and destroying them, sending a rattling sound that reverberated across the city like thunder.

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the intense Israeli missile attacks targeted positions of the Syrian army, Hezbollah and the Iranians in different parts of Syria.

A UK-based watchdog group said the Israelis targeted the Syrian positions near the capital Damascus and its countryside, central Syria, and the southern province of Qunaitera near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Dumair air base in the eastern part of Qalamoun region in the northern countryside of the capital Damascus is believed to have been hit, the group said, adding that the Israeli missiles fell near a position where Iranian fighters are stationed in that area.

The Israeli attack left big damages and losses in the offensive that started in the southern province of Qunaitera and expanded to other Syrian areas.

The Israeli attack started when the Israelis on Wednesday evening targeted military positions in Qunaitera, which pushed the Syrian side to shell Israeli military positions in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The cross-border tension expanded and the Israelis started shelling other military posts in Syria.

The pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV released a report about the targeted Israelis sites in Golan Heights.

The targeted Israeli military sites are a military reconnaissance center, a position for border security, a military center for electronic jamming, a military center for spying on wireless and wired networks, a communication station, an observatory for precision weapons, a gunships heliport, the headquarters of the regional military command of brigade-810, the command center of the military battalion in Hermon, and the winter headquarters of the special snow unit, according to the report.

This tension comes a day after Israel targeted a Syrian military site in the Kisweh area in the southwestern countryside of Damascus, as activists said 15 fighters were killed, including eight Iranians.

Last month, the Israelis targeted two military sites in Syria where Iranian fighters were located, including the T-4 air base in central Syria.

The Israeli attack comes amid heightened tension with Iran, following last month Israeli attacks on Syrian positions where Iranian military experts were located. It also comes after the United States announced withdrawal from the international nuclear deal with Iran on Tuesday.

It's the second large-scale missile strike on Syria since April when the United States and its Western allies launched a series of missile strikes on Syrian military positions in retaliation to allegations of chemical weapons use on a former rebel-held area east of Damascus.

But the confrontation with Israel early Thursday was long and more intense, reflecting the boiling tension between Israel on one side and Iran and Syria on the other.

Israel has repeatedly said it was not going to tolerate an Iranian military presence inside Syria, and targeted several positions where Iranian fighters were believed to have been stationed in recent years.

The Thursday attack was major Israeli-Syrian confrontation since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.A Z-18 modified helicopter landed on the deck of the domestically-built aircraft carrier berthed at the dockyard of Dalian Shipyard and left after a few minutes on the morning of May 5, according to reports by China Central Television. This was the first take-off and landing test of a carrier-borne helicopter on Chinas first home-grown aircraft carrier. The military expert Cao Weidong said that this test was intended to prepare for an upcoming sea trial.

According to media reports, the Z-18 helicopter has a large take-off weight, a strong load capacity, and a long flight range. The overall combat capability of the Z-18 has reached the level of its international antisubmarine counterparts. The Z-18 is an ideal carrier-borne helicopter for aircraft carrier combat groups. The aircraft carrier Liaoning is also equipped with multiple Z-18 helicopters.

The Z-18 has undergone a series of retrofits and can now be supplied in transport, anti-submarine and early-warning modes. Some media have pointed out that the Z-18 helicopter's take-off and landing test is the biggest surprise before the sea trial as it indicates that mooring test of Chinas first domestically-built aircraft carrier has proceeded.

The military expert Du Wenlong said that the Z-18 is China's largest helicopter, with a large internal and external load-carrying capacity and relatively strong precision components. The helicopter, with its varied types, is a good anti-submarine and early warning platform at sea. It is currently the standard equipment for the aircraft carrier Liaoning and the future new aircraft carrier, and is crucial for the operational support ability of aircraft carriers.

Experts believe that although the Z-18 only stayed on the deck of the aircraft carrier for a few minutes, the event has great significance. The test may have involved pilot communication training and test under complex electromagnetic conditions. It may include airfield tests on decks, islands, and other facilities, as well as adaptive landing tests.

Some media also pointed out that the Z-9 helicopter also landed on the deck of the berthed Liaoning carrier before sea trial. Take-off and landing tests have shown that the commanding and guidance system related to the landing of helicopters is operational, so the sea trial of Chinas first domestically-built aircraft carrier may start in the near future.

Cao said that after outfitting, the aircraft carrier will conduct a mooring test to check the power system in a static state and collect data on each cabin. The helicopter landing aims to test the new aircraft carrier's flight scheduling and landing capabilities, all of which are prepared for the sea trial. "The more preparations we have done, the closer we get to the sea trial," said Cao.

Cao also noted that the sea trial of Chinas first domestically-built aircraft carrier should include the take-off and landing of carrier-borne fighter jets and therefore its sea trial time may be longer than Liaonings.

Disclaimer: The author is Qiu Yue, reporter with People.cn. The article is translated from Chinese into English by the China Military online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. Chinamil.com.cn does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity.Image credit: IDI

The Board of Directors of the Israel Diamond Institute (IDI) has appointed Adv. Aviel Elia as its new Managing Director. He replaces Eli Avidar, who joined IDI in 2007 and successfully served in this position, with a brief hiatus, until now, says a press release from IDI.Elia, an attorney, has served as Legal Adviser and Company Secretary of IDI since 2013. As a key member of IDIs management team, Elia has been involved in developing company strategy and negotiating all critical company transactions. He holds a BA in Business Administration and LLB from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, and is studying towards an Executive MBA at Hebrew University.IDI Chairman Boaz Moldawsky said, I am very pleased that Aviel Elia has agreed to assume the position of IDI Managing Director. Aviel is very well versed in IDIs mission and activities. He has shown leadership, initiative and commitment. We are all very pleased that he will now be leading the organization.Aviel Elia said, I am very excited to assume my new role with IDI and to lead its talented and devoted staff. I was fortunate to have worked under Eli Avidar and I learned a great deal from him. IDI is in a unique position to work together with all parts of the industry to strengthen the Israeli diamond sector, by initiating new projects and by providing important assistance and tools to diamantaires, as we have in the past.WFDB & IDMA cancel 2018 World Diamond Congress

10 may 2018 News

World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) and the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) have cancelled the 38th World Diamond Congress scheduled to be held in Tel Aviv, Israel, from June 19 to 21, due to weak response to registration, regrets an announcement from the organisers.

The statement also says that influenced by the rising tension in the region, they have reached a decision to postpone the Congress. The Congress is the biennial gathering of the WFDB and IDMA.

In a joint statement, WFDB President Ernie Blom and IDMA President Ronnie VanderLinden said, "It is obviously with very great regret that we have reached the decision to cancel the Congress. We had a full agenda of issues regarding the state of the global diamond industry and preparations were in full swing. However, we have to take all factors into account, and felt it was the correct decision to make which is in the best interests of all concerned. The Congress will be held at a later date which will be determined in the near future.

The Congress was being organized by the Israel Diamond Exchange, and was due to feature a section on how technology can aid the diamond industry, among other matters.



Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&PolishedMetallica's Robert Trujillo and Kirk Hammett paid tribute to local legends ABBA during the band's concert at Ericsson Globe in the Swedish capital of Stockholm earlier this week.

The duo played a cover version of the ABBA classic "Dancing Queen" during their nightly "doodle" segment.

The European leg of Metallica's current World Wired Tour wraps with a two-night stand at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland this week.

The band will take a break to prepare for the North American leg of the world tour in support of their latest album, Hardwired To Self-Destruct.

The 2018-2019 tour has 34 stops. It kicks off in Madison, Wisconsin on September 2, and will wrap up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on March 13.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Entertainment NewsCanadian Tire Corporation, Limited (CTC.TO, CTC_A.TO) announced an agreement to purchase the company, controlled by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, which owns and operates the Helly Hansen brands and related businesses. Helly Hansen is a global brand in sportswear and workwear based in Oslo, Norway. CTC has agreed to purchase the company that owns and operates the Helly Hansen brands and related businesses for $985 million, and is assuming approximately $50 million of operating debt, net of cash.

CTC expects the transaction will be immediately accretive to EPS, EBITDA and Cash Flow, before the realization of synergies. CTC said it has ample financial flexibility to fund the acquisition and to maintain its current investment grade credit rating.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsEli Lilly and Company (LLY) and ARMO BioSciences, Inc. (ARMO) announced a definitive agreement for Lilly to acquire ARMO for $50 per share, or approximately $1.6 billion, in an all-cash transaction.

ARMO BioSciences is a late-stage immuno-oncology company that is developing a pipeline of product candidates designed to activate the immune system of cancer patients to recognize and eradicate tumors. ARMO also has a number of immuno-oncology product candidates in various stages of pre-clinical development.

The acquisition will bolster Lilly's immuno-oncology program through the addition of ARMO's lead product candidate, pegilodecakin, a PEGylated IL-10 which has demonstrated clinical benefit as a single agent, and in combination with both chemotherapy and checkpoint inhibitor therapy, across several tumor types. Pegilodecakin is currently being studied in a Phase 3 clinical trial in pancreatic cancer, as well as earlier-Phase trials in lung and renal cell cancer, melanoma and other solid tumor types.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of the second quarter of 2018. There will be no change to Lilly's 2018 non-GAAP earnings per share guidance as a result of the transaction.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsCanadian stocks may continue to rise Thursday, stoked by higher oil prices and a diplomatic breakthrough with North Korea.

Three Americans Americans ere freed Wednesday ahead of President Trump's upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Meanwhile, crude oil jumped near $72 a barrel to the highest since 2014, as Iranian officials snapped back at the U.S. for getting out of a nuclear deal, chanting "Death to America" in a lawmaking session.

The Energy Information Administration reported a draw of 2.2 million barrels in U.S. crude oil inventories.

Canadian Tire (CTC.A.TO) is buying sportswear maker Helly Hansen for $985 million.

"For more than 10 years, Helly Hansen has been an exceptional fit with CTC and this acquisition will strengthen our assortment across all of our banners," Canadian Tire chief executive Stephen Wetmore said in a statement.

Enbridge Inc. (ENB.TO) revealed a profit for first quarter that dropped from last year.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market AnalysisCadillac has confirmed that it will discontinue ATS Sedan at the end of the 2018 model year.

In an e-mail to CarBuzz, spokesman Donny Nordlicht wrote, "Production of the ATS Sedan is ending due to extensive plant upgrades, expansion and re-tooling to prepare for the next generation of Cadillac sedans."

"This year will bring forth significant changes to our product portfolio, most notably with the introduction of the all-new XT4 SUV as well as concluding the successful lifecycle of the ATS Sedan in North America. The ATS Coupe, which is on a later lifecycle, will continue into 2019." Nordlicht wrote in an email, the truth about cars.com reported.

The coupe version of the ATS will continue through the end of 2019.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News(Agencia CMA Latam) - The government of Argentina will ask the International Monetary Fund for a Standby Credit Facility (SCF), according to the country's Finance Minister, Nicol?s Dujovne. He is Washington and should meet with Christine Lagarde, the IMF's director-general.

According to the IMF, the SCF provides financial assistance to countries with short-term balance of payments needs. The agreement can range from 12 to 24 months and its use is limited to two and a half out of any five years. The deal may be extended or canceled, and following arrangements may be approved.

The IMF also says that a country with potential - but not immediate - balance of payments need can treat the credit line agreement as "precautionary" - the case of Argentina. In precautionary deals, there are no disbursements, but countries retain and accumulate the rights to request disbursements under the arrangement if a financing need were to arise at a later stage.

SCF arrangements treated as precautionary do not count toward the two and a half out of any five years' time limit on the use of the SCF referred to above.

Dujovne said that the credit line deal could be signed at the beginning of July.

In addition to the meeting with Lagarde, Dujovne will hold a meeting with the Under Secretary of International Affairs of the United States Department of the Treasury, David Malpass, since that country has the majority of the IMF's Board of Directors votes.

by Agencia CMA Latam

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.Vehicles attached to the 8th Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment receive the UN equipment inspection in the detachment in Wau, South Sudan, May 8, 2018, local time. (mod.gov.cn)

By Wang Guanbin and Zhang Xiaokun

WAU, South Sudan, May 10 (ChinaMil) -- The 8th Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment to South Sudan (Wau) passed the United Nations (UN) equipment verification on Tuesday with all the items meeting the verification requirements.

This is the third time that the 8th Chinese peacekeeping engineering detachment has passed the UN equipment inspection since deployment in the mission area in last September.

An inspection team of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) officials inspected the machinery, vehicles, power generators, medical facilities of the detachment, Chinese engineers were required to give on-site demonstrations of operating their equipment. The UN inspection team also conducted detailed verification of communication and logistics materials.

Since deployed to the mission area at the end of September last year, the 8th Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment has completed multiple tasks including the construction of UNMISS employees' base floor units and watchtowers in the UNMISS camp and reinforcement of defense works in the peacekeeping troops' camp area and so on.

A UNMISS inspection team member checks an ambulance of the 8th Chinese peacekeeping engineering detachment during the UN equipment inspection in the detachment in Wau, South Sudan, May 8, 2018. (mod.gov.cn)(Agencia CMA Latam) - The president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, confirmed that the country's government will resume peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla today in Havana, Cuba.

The talks have the immediate goal of reaching a ceasefire, and a longer-term objective to end hostilities between the government and the guerrilla.

Santos added that he would not be able to sign the peace agreement with the ELN because his mandate ends on August 7, but said that negotiations are on the right track and that the next Colombian president will be able to conclude the deal.

The peace dialog between Colombia and the ELN started in February 2017 and the greatest milestone so far has been a bilateral ceasefire of 101 days, between October 1 and January 9.

by Agencia CMA Latam

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.ICRC condemns Saudi airstrikes on Sanaa [10/May/2018] br> SANAA, May 10 (Saba)  The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) deplored the intensive airstrike campaign on densely populated neighborhoods of Sanaa since the beginning of this week, claiming the lives of civilians, in a statement obtained by Saba on Thursday.

It said at least five civilians were killed, including one child, and dozens were injured in the airstrikes that targeted the area near the presidential office in Sanaa on May 7.

The night before, explosions of another (Saudi-led aggression coalition) airstrikes shook al-Ordi area, another densely populated area in the capital Sanaa close to the historical old Sanaa city. Residents of the area reported heavy damage to property and civilian infrastructure, said the ICRC.

"The sound was horrific. Nothing like what I have heard before. I was so scared I did not know how to deal with my diabetic wife and panicking daughters. I did not know how to comfort them," Abu Mohammed, a father of five children and a resident of the old city was cited by ICRC as saying.

"It is heartbreaking to see that civilians in Yemen are constantly paying the highest price in this never-ending conflict," said Robert Mardini, the ICRC's regional director for the Near and Middle East, who is currently on a visit to Yemen. "We at the ICRC will continue to urge all the parties to the conflict to respect the laws of war and take every precaution to spare and protect civilians," he added.

The ICRC was very quick to respond to the influx of casualties at Sanaa hospitals, dispatching two war wounded kits, enough to treat 100 severely wounded persons to Al- Joumhouri and Al-Thawra hospitals, shortly after the Monday airstrikes.



Amal/Zak



sabaTrump has said the goal is for North Korea to agree to denuclearize. On Wednesday, Trump said "we have a chance that something really great for the world and great for North Korea" could be achieved.

Trump termed current U.S. communication with Pyongyang as "serious and positive" and expressed his appreciation to Kim for releasing the Americans to Pompeo. Asked if the unprecedented summit between an American president and a North Korean leader might be scuttled, Trump replied "everything can be scuttled."

"It'll be quite a scene," predicted Trump, saying their return is "very exciting" because "it represents something very important to this country, people never thought a thing like this could happen."

Trump said he and Vice President Mike Pence will go to Joint Base Andrews, in nearby Maryland, to greet the freed Americans when they arrive at 2 a.m. (EDT) Thursday.

The Korean-Americans are heading home with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who met with Kim for 90 minutes -- the second such meeting in little more than a month.

U.S. President Donald Trump says the date and location of his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will be announced within three days, but it will not occur at the Korean Demilitarized Zone as he had previously suggested as a possible venue. Trump made the remarks to reporters Wednesday at the White House, shortly after North Korea freed three American detainees.

 Released Americans

A senior U.S. official present for the exchange of detainees in Pyongyang told journalists traveling with Pompeo that a North Korean official informed the secretary of state that Kim had granted amnesties to the three Americans.

The released men were brought to the secretary's aircraft and were "able to walk on the plane without assistance," according to a White House statement. The U.S. Air Force jet then departed for a stop at Yokota Air Base in Japan before the second leg of the trip back to United States.

Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song were teaching at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology when they were separately detained in 2017, accused of participating in anti-state activities and trying to overthrow the government.

The third detainee, Kim Dong-chul, was arrested in Rason on the northeast tip of North Korea in October 2015, and sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor the following year after being convicted of espionage.

A U.S. official who participated in the latest talks in Pyongyang said substantial progress was made in planning for the summit and "we also agreed to meet again in person to finalize the details."

Pompeo told reporters traveling with him that holding such a summit would have been more difficult had the Americans still been detained. "For decades, we have been adversaries," Pompeo added. "Now we are hopeful that we can work together to resolve this conflict, take away threats to the world and make your country have all the opportunities your people so richly deserve."

Pence, in a statement, said that while the Trump administration "is encouraged that North Korea freed these innocent hostages, we will not let off the pressure until we achieve full denuclearization."

 Concerns About Trump-Kim Summit

Some members of Congress, while applauding the release of the three Americans, are expressing concern about the upcoming Trump-Kim summit.

"Releasing detainees is the easy part; the difficult part will be reaching an agreement with the North Koreans that establishes a strong verification regime that can ensure genuine denuclearization," said a statement from House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer.

"Congress has yet to see a concrete strategy from the President as to how he intends to avoid giving Mr. Kim a propaganda victory without securing the kind of verifiable commitment on denuclearization necessary for any summit to be a success."

Republican Senator Bob Corker said he is thankful for the release of the Americans who were unjustly detained. "We must approach North Korea's recent overtures and the potential for talks over denuclearization with great caution, and I believe the administration fully understands that and is preparing in the appropriate way," said the foreign relations committee chairman in a statement. "The committee will conduct appropriate oversight as the discussions with North Korea continue."

The removal of tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel from the Korean peninsula will not be on the table for the Trump-Kim talks, according to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, the defense secretary described the U.S. forces in South Korea as a stabilizing presence for the entire region.

"And this I would just say resonates among allies and not just in Japan and Korea because those forces are in the Northwest Pacific, but also around the world when they see that when trouble looms, we don't walk away," Mattis said.

Prosecutors searched LG headquarters in Yeouido in Seoul on Wednesday on suspicion of tax evasion by the group's owner family.

Prosecutors are investigating allegations that family failed to pay a transfer tax of W10 billion in the process of buying and selling stocks in affiliates (US$1=W1,081). A prosecution official said Koo Bon-moo, the LG chairman, "is not the target of investigation."

The prosecution received a complaint from the National Tax Service at the end of last year that taxes were evaded in the process of stock transactions by members of the owner family members.

Most Korean conglomerates remain in the control of the founder families even though they only hold a minority stake in their publicly traded firms thanks to a Byzantine network of cross-holdings.

Tax rules reflect this reality, so when the de-facto owners of conglomerates buy or sell stocks, they have to pay 20 percent more tax than on transactions between ordinary shareholders.

LG said it will cooperate with investigators and claimed it duly paid taxes on the sale of stocks by some members of the owner family but there were "differences of opinion" with tax officials over some of the transactions.A flurry of top international diplomacy is taking place in the run-up to the first U.S.-North Korea summit.

President Moon Jae-in spoke on the telephone with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday even as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang.

Pompeo met with Kim for about 90 minutes and returned to the U.S. with three American citizens who had been held captive by the North. On his way back to the U.S., he told reporters that Trump's summit with Kim will last one day but added the date and other details will be announced in a few days.

Pompeo also met with Kim Yong-chol, who is in charge of relations with South Korea, and stressed Washington's demands for a complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of the North's nuclear weapons and missile programs.

He reportedly told the North Korean leader that the U.S. does not want to split up the process of denuclearization despite Kim's calls for a phased approach.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (file photo) Ahead of his two-day visit to Nepal starting on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that India attaches high priority to friendly relations with the Himalayan nation. Stating that he is visiting Nepal at the invitation of its Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, Modi said in a pre-departure statement: "This will be my third visit to Nepal as Prime Minister. It reflects the high priority India, and personally I attach to our age-old, close and friendly ties with Nepal."



The Indian Prime Minister's visit comes soon after the visit of Oli to India last month, his first trip abroad after assuming office in February.



"These high-level and regular interactions reflect my government's commitment to the Neighbourhood First policy, in consonance with the motto of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas'," Modi said in his statement.



"Together, our two countries have completed several bilateral connectivity and development projects in the last few years, and have initiated transformational initiatives for the benefit of our two peoples."



Modi said that he and Oli will have the opportunity to take forward their wide-ranging discussions in New Delhi last month on issues of mutual interest, and to advance our cooperative partnership across diverse sectors.



The Indian Prime Minister also said that he will be visiting Janakpur and Muktinath apart from Kathmandu.



"Both these places attract a large number of pilgrims every year. They are living testimony to the ancient and strong cultural and religious ties between the peoples of India and Nepal," he said.



"As Nepal enters a new era of consolidating gains of democracy and achieving rapid economic growth and development, India will continue to remain a steadfast partner of Government of Nepal to implement its vision of Samriddha Nepal, Sukhi Nepali'."



Modi also said that he is looking forward to meeting the political leaders and friends in Nepal.



"I am confident that my visit will further cement our people-centric partnership with Nepal on the basis of mutual benefit, goodwill and understanding."



On Friday, Modi will fly directly to Janakpur from Patna and will be welcomed by Oli at the Ram Janaki Temple. The Indian leader will perform a special 'puja' at the temple and then take part in a civil felicitation programme in the Bahra Bigaha area.



Modi will later inaugurate the Ramayan Circuit, which is one among the 13 tourist circuits under the "Swadesh Darshan Scheme" of India.



From Janakpur, he will fly to Mustang where he will pray at the Muktinath temple. He will then reach Kathmandu, according to the travel itinerary made public by the Nepal government.



Nepali Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa said the Indian leader's visit will be religious and cultural. There will be no political agreements.





A day after asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to refrain from "ridiculing" Rahul Gandhi for declaring his ambition to become Prime Minister, the Shiv Sena on Thursday showered praises on the Congress chief, saying "he poses a challenge to the BJP" in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. "This is not the Rahul Gandhi of 2014. He is a changed person now. He has weathered abuse and criticism to emerge intellectually strong.



"He can throw up a serious challenge to the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2019," the Sena cautioned in an editorial in the party mouthpieces "Saamana" and "Dopahar Ka Saamana".



Asserting that "Gandhi has acquired political strength and clout", the ruling BJP ally pointed out that this was effectively demonstrated in the December 2017 Gujarat Assembly polls.



"The BJP leaders mock him in vulgar language, but Rahul Gandhi has always maintained Modi's dignity as Prime Minister and never stooped low to criticise him ever.



"This proves that Rahul Gandhi possesses political intellect and culture, which even his opponents would concede," the Sena added.



However, the Sena wondered why the BJP was running "so scared and indulging in chest-beating" over Gandhi's desire to become the Prime Minister should his party won.



"Today, the BJP wants to know how -- with a queue of Prime Minister aspirants among the opposition parties -- could Gandhi declare himself as a contender for the top post?



"This question should be replied to by the BJP's senior leaders like L.K. Advani or Murli Manohar Joshi and others," the Sena said in a veiled reference to the side-lining of the party's senior leaders under the current dispensation.



It went on to add that ditto was the scenario with the post of President, since many had hoped that Advani at least would be catapulted to the Rashtrapati Bhavan in June 2017.



But finally, Modi and BJP President Amit Shah had their way and they went ahead with their choice without consulting any of the allies and friendly parties, it said, adding how it had proposed the name of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for President.



"So, why is the BJP now demanding that Congress should consult its (UPA) allies before declaring the candidate for the Prime Minister's post? Let the people of the country decide whether Gandhi is good for them or not," the Sena said.



The Sena advised the BJP that instead of ridiculing Gandhi, "the BJP should have welcomed his statement and countered it by throwing a challenge to the Congress that it would defeat him in the 2019 battle".



The Sena reiterated the shabby treatment meted out by the BJP to its allies, and although it came to power with their support, the allies were rewarded "with back-stabbing, damage and destruction".



"The people will be the final judge whether Gandhi will become the Prime Minister or be dumped. Even Modi was very nice before the (2014) elections. But later on, peoples' pain and problems continue... The masses are reeling under it like a donkey carrying a heavy load... The only difference is, after each election, the donkey's master changes," the Sena concluded.



The Rolex Giraglia is three events in one, comprising an overnight race from Sanremo to Saint-Tropez; an inshore series in Saint-Tropez; and the famous offshore race 'La Giraglia', which runs 241 nautical miles from Saint-Tropez to Genoa via the islet that gives the event its name. The 66th edition starts on Friday, 8 June 2018 with the symbolic arrival race from Italy.

The event was established in 1953, in the aftermath of the Second World War, to help repair relations between Italy and France. It has been held every year since and has developed into one of the biggest sailing festivals of the Mediterranean season, regularly attracting around 2,500 professional and amateur crew members from all over Europe and beyond.

Fact: Luciano Frattini's Jalina, a yacht which returned to the race in 2017, won the inaugural edition of the Rolex Giraglia in 1953.



CAMARADERIE AND RESPECT

Created by the then presidents of the Yacht Club Italiano and the Yacht Club de France in a Paris bistro, the event is still organized by a combination of French and Italian yacht clubs. Today, the Societe Nautique de Saint-Tropez and the Yacht Club Italiano, both prestigious partner yacht clubs of Rolex, maintain the founding principles of friendship and fraternity. Rolex has been title sponsor of the event since 1998 since when the Rolex Giraglia has evolved into an event of significant international repute.



Fact: 22 entries took part in the first edition, which was raced from Sanremo to Toulon via the Giraglia rock.



INTERNATIONAL RENDEZVOUS

The three-race inshore series in Saint-Tropez provides both fierce competition on the water and a cherished opportunity ashore for crews to meet and exchange stories in one of France's most convivial and enviable Mediterranean ports. The 2018 inshore series takes place from 10 - 12 June.



Fact: New Zealander Neville Crichton is the only owner to break the Rolex Giraglia race record twice, triumphing in 2003 and 2008 with two different versions of his Maxi yacht Alfa Romeo. Crichton also won overall in 2010 with Shockwave.



MYTHIC STATUS

Commencing on Wednesday, 13 June the offshore race is the biggest draw of the Rolex Giraglia. The race is intense, and the margins for error are minimal. Precise navigation, flawless decision making and strong teamwork are essential attributes for the competing crews. The Giraglia islet, which lends the race its name, has achieved mythic status in the sailing world, similar to the Fastnet Rock, the Organ Pipes and Stromboli. A large ridge-backed rock, the Giraglia is the northern extension of the Cap Corse. It lies barely one nautical mile off the coast of Corsica, measuring 600 metres in length, a mere 50 metres wide and rising just 60 metres above sea level. Like all offshore races, each edition is unique and determined by the make-up of the fleet and prevailing weather conditions.



Fact: In 1999, only five out of the fleet of 77 yachts completed the offshore course within the time limit due to light winds.A Chosun Ilbo poll marking the first anniversary of the Moon Jae-in administration has found that only 11.8 percent of Koreans feel the economy has improved, while 49.4 percent believe it has gotten worse. Only one out of 10 felt the job market got better, while more than half felt it has become tougher to find work.

Government statistics paint a similar picture. With the sole exception of booming semiconductor exports owing to a global industry boom, most economic indices have headed down. Unemployment surged to a 17-year high in March, while industrial output dropped by the biggest rate in five years. The factory operation rate across the nation stands at just 70.3 percent, which is the lowest since the 2008 global financial crisis. But the government claims that an annual GDP growth rate of three percent for two straight years is something to brag about.

The Moon administration made job creation its top priority, but 38.8 percent of scholars at the Association of Korean Economic Studies cite the government's job-creation policies as its worst blunder. The government bulldozed through a minimum wage hike and giving temporary workers permanent status, scrapping policies aimed at making the labor market more flexible, and shortening work hours have actually had a negative impact on job creation.

That is how 70 percent of the respondents see it. They believe the government actually ended up harming job growth. Its pro-labor policies have prevented much-needed industrial reforms and ended up causing jobs to be cut. And politically motivated scrutiny of businesses continue with the government mobilizing financial regulators and prosecutors against the big conglomerates. Only a magician could create jobs under these conditions.

The government's economic policies are based on the firm belief that old-fashioned leftist policies are good and big businesses are evil. This justifies its generous use of taxpayer' money to finance its policies. According to the Bank of Korea, state spending outpaced private spending by a whopping 31 percent in the first quarter to reach a 35-year record. Reliance on tax spending is addictive. Korea may end up walking down the doomed paths of socialist Latin American and southern European governments.

Here is the thing. Weve known for some time now that the rate of development going on up in the highlands of Samoa has something to do with the growing number of flooding, devastating people living in lowlands and flood-prone areas.

We were especially suspicious in the case of the Vaisigano River and the whole Vailima, Malololelei, Tiapapata and Tiavi area.

Folks, you didnt need to be a rocket scientist to work out that the water from up there will have to find somewhere to go. And that in the recent past it has ended up in some peoples homes in the low-lying areas of the Apia Township, with devastating and deadly consequences.

What we did not have was data and the details (at least publically available anyway) that would prove these suspicions. But that is now about to change with the revelations on the front page of yesterdays Samoa Observer with the story titled Survey finds shocking discovery about flooding.

The survey was conducted by SkyEye Samoa with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (M.N.R.E.) and United Nations Development Programme (U.N.D.P.).

SkyEyes Chief Executive Officer, Faasootauloa Sam Saili, told the Samoa Observer that what they discovered in their survey compared to three years ago is shocking.

There has been a lot of change in terms of development such as human settlement, roads and infrastructure, especially in the upper catchment area, he said. Seeing and analyzing the data collected, SkyEye can now understand why there has been a flash flood just two weeks ago because the water catchment areas are not catching the water anymore.

This is because of the human and infrastructure development. Pretty much when it rains in the mountains, water just comes straight down. Theres no longer the healthy forest there that usually catches the water and keeps it, so thats what we understand when that flash flooding happened.

Well that pretty much confirms our suspicions all along, doesnt it?

But thanks to innovation and technology, we now know for sure what is responsible for these latest weather developments.

After cyclone Gita, there was a lot of flooding and there was a concern for what its like in the water catchment areas, especially the upper catchment areas where the water source for Apia urban area is sourced from, Faasootauloa said.

The issue is it is very difficult to actually access these areas because there are mostly no roads there and then theres also difficulty to view it, to try and get an actual evidence of what the area looks like at the moment, especially after the cyclone.

So the M.N.R.E. and U.N.D.P. contacted us whether we can survey all these areas so that they can actually get detailed analysis of whats going on.

M.N.R.E. carried out a similar survey three years ago, which was funded by Australian Aid.

They wanted to know what is there compared to three years ago, because three years ago, the M.N.R.E. got a grant from Australian Aid and the Australian Aid were able to survey the whole of Samoa using a technology called lidar, which is a very advanced technology for surveying areas, he said.

Faasootauloa said the areas they surveyed included Tiavi, Malololelei, Afulilo Vailima, Papauta all the way to Vaisigano and the area of the mountain included Malololelei, coming down to Moamoa all the way to the ocean.

The mapping took us more than a month because it is a very big area, very remote area. We surveyed all the area where catchment area of water starts from, so it starts from all the way up the mountain where the water source starts from.

We surveyed quite a huge area. Its not just the urban area but it starts all the way from the top down to the coast, so that we have a holistic view of how the whole area is.

He explained their concern is that when it rains in the upper catchment, the low lying areas are going to flood.

We believe thats why the Vaisigano, the Vaimoso River that runs just behind our office gets flooded. The outside of our office got flooded, lucky the foundation was high enough, but everywhere else outside was flooded, so we do have a personal stake in it as well.

So why does this discovery matter? According to Faasootauloa, M.N.R.E. has a lot of well-developed policies but the issue is getting the evidence to enforce those policies.

Some of the recommendations that we provided is looking at areas that have been devastated in the past three years to pinpoint those areas for forest rehabilitation, so encourage reforestation.

In Australia, they have this problem as well, but they have used other methods to try and address it. One of these methodologies is using weeds, planting weed close to the river to try and absorb water. There are specific kinds of weed that grow really fast because if youre talking about trees, itll take years for them to mature, but for weed they can grow within a month. So thats one of the things we are looking at.

Also we are looking at areas where it looks like a bottle neck because we were able to identify areas that were like a bottle neck where there are multiple river streams coming together and that area we need to focus on, either do a river flow adjustment or look at ways to try and make sure that when it rains, theres not a bottle neck there that allows water to keep rising, especially if there are logs there, creating a dam and then it bursts, causing flash flooding.

Needless to say, this study should form a critical part of Samoas response to the flooding of the recent past. Which reminds us, the last time we raised this issue, we pointed to a letter from a good friend of Samoa in Germany, Ulrike Hertel. We believe it is relevant to share it again today.

She wrote: Many Samoans are now calling for concrete walls to protect places near rivers from future flooding. However, the main reason why flooding in Samoa has become worse and worse is massive deforestation further up the hills.

Natural rainforest used to protect Samoan soil from slipping and being washed away, its roots held back rain water so it would not rush down all at once, but fill the rivers with clear water all year round.

Cattle farming and development of new settlement areas have destroyed most of these precious forests. It will not be possible to stop flooding if the forests are not back to where they belong, especially along and above the rivers.

No concrete wall will ever be strong enough, the water will just flow around it and destroy another area. The only working solution is to respect the beautiful nature God has blessed Samoa with, and to plant trees, plant trees, plant trees.

Looking at the developments in Apia, both SkyEyes survey and Ms. Ulrikes letter must be taken very seriously.

Have a great Thursday Samoa, God bless!Dear Editor,

Re: The big lauia

You got that right. The real problem is that there are people, ie, the big Lauias of Samoa along with the P.M., who are trying to change the traditional concept of land as a thing which had no monetary value into the concept the investors have, that land is a commodity with a monetary value.

Under the traditional concept lands value has always been one of sustenance, not lands having cash value.

To make money off land in the way of plantation, stores, small family business, and etc... still has the traditional concept of sustaining oneself and ones families off the land.

The big lauia the P.M. love so much, are helping him remove the traditional concept of land in the Samoan peoples psyche to one where lands are conceived of as cash. This is the palagi concept of land.

This new concept will alienate people from their lands even if it is leased rather than sold outright. I will make an analogy using children. Your children have no cash value.

Your children can work and bring money to the home to help sustain the home, but you would not sell your children for cash because they have no cash value. The next question would be, would you lease your child to a factory owner for one hundred years for a small monthly payment, and still say this child is part of your family.

You would not because you would never see your child for 100 years, even though you did not give up custody of your child, but you just leased your child for 100 years.

The truth is you have been alienated from your child and you have given up all right as a parent over your child. This is what Tuilaepa and his big Lauia are doing by creating a lease system with customary lands.

The traditional lands, which were once part of the family for sustenance, not cash, will become a cash commodity that the investors have autonomy over and you will never see your family member again.

In the traditional understanding of customary land, land is part of the family. It is this concept that Tuilaepa and his ilk are trying to erode.

This will destroy the Samoan family, because customary land is part of the Samoan family, just like a child is.

Wendy WonderA local school Principal is disappointed with Air New Zealands treatment of passengers bound for Samoa.

This is in relation to a recent incident pointing out that the Airline chose cargo over passengers.

Lorraine Williams told the Samoa Observer that she and other passengers were about to board their return flight to Samoa on 2 May when they were told that due to weight restrictions, they were cutting down the number of passengers.

She said she and the other passengers had to catch the next available flight.

Ms. Williams said there were a lot of empty seats on the flight.

She believes that cargo received priority over those that bought the cheap tickets and the one thing she and the other passengers had in common was that they had purchased cheap airfares on special.

The thing is, I booked and bought those tickets months ago, she said.

I even checked the Air New Zealand app and I was allocated a seat, but then I went to the airport and was asked to stand to the side. They told me, sorry due to weight restrictions we are cutting down on number of passengers and 17 of us got bumped off.

Ms. Williams has been a long time loyal customer of Air New Zealand and was ecstatic to find that in the past six months, Air New Zealand had reduced their airfares between Samoa and New Zealand quite dramatically.

She took advantage of the specials but found that the confusion that entailed was not worth it.

I went back about four times to the desk, I didnt get on. Then just randomly, they let one person on board. They then told three other people that they could get on but then the next day I saw those same three people at the checkout counter who said to me that they had gotten right up to the boarding section and were bumped off again.

My question is how do they choose who gets bumped off and who doesnt?

Ms. Williams says she has never had any problems with the airline until now.

She is skeptical of buying the cheap airfares that Air New Zealand has been advertising recently.

I see that Air New Zealand is advertising cheap fares to Samoa, which is a bit of a joke really when last week 17 of us got bumped off even though there were a lot of empty seats on the flight.

Trustworthiness is more important to Ms. Williams than price, and the Vaiala Beach Primary school Principal says she will think twice about purchasing those on special airfares again.

It makes me think I should fly with Samoa Airways. I have been a good Air New Zealand customer for many years and Im seriously reconsidering that. If they are going to advertise these cheap fares, they need to maintain their high standard of service no matter how much money you paid.

Contacted for a comment, a representative of Air New Zealand, Hannah Searle, said the reason there were weight restrictions on Ms. Williams Auckland - Apia service was because of poor weather forecast en route, which required the aircraft to carry additional fuel.

In the case of Ms. Williams Auckland - Apia service (NZ92) on 2 May, the operating weight was restricted due to poor weather forecast en route, which required the aircraft to carry additional fuel in case it could not land in Apia and need to either divert to an alternate airport or return to Auckland. Where this occurs, customers are prioritised over cargo.

After cargo had been removed from Ms. Williams flight the aircraft was still overweight meaning some customer needed to be transferred to a later service. These customers received a NZ$350 (T$650) voucher as compensation, which for some customers was more than theyd paid for the ticket.

Ms. Williams told the Samoa Observer that the airline did compensate her and other passengers who were bumped off the flight, but for her she would rather have been on the flight in one of the empty seats.

They told me there were a lot of empty seats, cargo over passengers? You get NZ$350 and $18 tala for food, Ms. Williams said.

I got an extra voucher for a taxi chit, I didnt need that. What I needed was to get back, its about the principle. Why bother with these cheap fares if you dont get the same service

Addressing the issue of how passengers are chosen to stand down from a flight, Ms. Searle went through their process and acknowledged that the value of the fare paid is taken into consideration.

Our process in these situations is to first ask for volunteers willing to delay travel. If there are no volunteers, then staff make a selection taking into account a number of factors, including the value of the fare paid, any mobility or special assistance requirements associated with a booking and air points loyalty tier status.

According to a source within the aviation industry, these disruptions are most likely stemming from Air New Zealands recent issues with nine of their 787 Dreamliner aircraft being grounded due to checks being undertaken on their engines.

The checks are necessary because of a directive issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency (E.A.S.A.) and to add to that disruption, the United States regulators have also brought in tough new standards covering how far Dreamliners can fly from airports in the case of an engine shutdown.

According to news report from Newstalk B dated 17 April; Air New Zealands international network continues to experience further disruptions as their fleet of 787 Dreamliners are being grounded while they conduct checks forcing the airline to juggle their fleet of aircrafts as the Dreamliner engine problems grow.

The European Aviation Safety Agency last week ordered additional maintenance checks on Trent 1000 package C engines, of which Air New Zealand has nine, after it was found that durability issues afflicting blades were worse than first thought, Newstalk B stated in their report.

Thousands of passengers have been affected by these disruptions including Pacific Island travellers, according to Air New Zealands latest media release on the Global issue affecting some of the Rolls Royce engines that power its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner fleet.Faceless writers who use social media, especially Facebook, for character assassination have been compared to murderers and members of terrorism organisation I.S.I.S.

The comparison was made by Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi during his weekly media programme.

People who are using social media to inflict so much hurt are the same as murderers in Arab countries, Tuilaepa said.

The only difference is that here they are killing people by assassinating their characters but in Arab countries, they are shooting them with guns.

Tuilaepa has recently returned from London where Commonwealth countries have unanimously committed to take action on cybersecurity between now and 2020.

The decision following a landmark declaration announced at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting where 53 leaders agreed to work to evaluate and strengthen their cybersecurity frameworks and response mechanisms.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa hailed the steps taken by the Commonwealth countries.

Back in Samoa, Tuilaepa said that while he was in London, he learned that the problem of people abusing social media and internet forums is not confined to Samoa.

When it comes to the issue of online technology, all fifty three countries (of the Commonwealth) are affected by social media problems.

Tuilaepa said the problems range from character assassinations to the growing number of unfounded allegations.

These people are like I.S.I.S. in their thinking, he said. Their goal is to break up governments. They like to stir up hate, create anxiety, start fights. What it does is that it makes people hate their leaders.

The Prime Minister added that these people like to find topics that incite emotional responses from their readers.

They go after sensitive topics like land and the like. So (in London) we were warned to be alert about the many different ways where the enemy is using to attack us to break up governments.

It is not a good thing, misusing and abuse of communication means that are meant to help development. There are people who are misusing these things to fabricate damaging allegations against other people.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa has been extremely critical of faceless writers who have been using Facebook and other online means to attack his Government. In a bid to put a stop to it, Tuilaepa has even threatened to black Facebook completely from Samoa.

Character assassination is worst than murder, he said.

The thing is that you can see that although the person is alive, he is dead. I thought it was just Samoa where this is happening, but its happening to all countries.

God will deal with these people there are many people who are praying for the betterment of Samoa.

In London, the Commonwealth Cyber declaration is the worlds largest and most geographically diverse inter-governmental commitment on cybersecurity cooperation.

It followed an announcement by the UK government to pledge up to 15 million to help Commonwealth countries strengthen their cybersecurity capabilities and tackle criminal groups and hostile state actors who pose a global threat to security, including in the UK.

Speaking after the announcement, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland said, Cyberspace opens up new opportunities for socio-economic development by broadening common space and extending access.

There is immense fresh potential for the multiple layers of Commonwealth connection to be used for the common good.

The many positive benefits that can be derived are easily undermined and subverted by cybercrime, which has no respect for national boundaries. Commonwealth member countries are working together to strengthen their capacity, individually and collectively, to detect and guard against the debilitating threats cybercrime poses to all many aspects of national, regional and international security.

With the internet increasingly central to global commerce, the Commonwealth Cyber Declaration sets out a shared vision of cyberspace in areas such as economic and social development, and online rights.

The declaration is also an important step for Commonwealth small states, which account for 31 of the Commonwealths 53 member countries.Samoa Victim Support Group (S.V.S.G.) has launched their alumni advocacy programme.

Held at their office in Apia, the alumni group comprises offenders who have graduated from their advocacy programme.

The programme has graduated 700 participants both women and men so far.

S.V.S.G. President, Siliniu Lina Chang, said the main idea behind the programme is to initiate change for the participants.

Siliniu says she looks forward to the members who have graduated from the programme to take full responsibility in handling themselves after the programme and also focus on helping others in the long run.

S.V.S.G. member Niutuiatua Onesemo added the main idea is to monitor and maintain the changes for them to become role models.

The advocacy programme focuses on anger management, stress management, drugs and alcohol management.

Fiu Fetinai Leaupepe, a certified counsellor who is also a registered nurse that is serving under the programme said: I am very thankful to the president for facilitating the offenders through this initiative.

Leaupepe assists by counselling on anger management, stress management and communication skills.

I have also witnessed changes in the lives of the people whom I counselled. The immense change in their lives gives me great hope and desire to work with more people, Leaupepe stated.

Alumni chairman, Pastor Faalili Pepe Ofisa expressed his appreciation of the programme. He said instead of going to prison, offenders were given a life-changing opportunity.

I want to change lives especially because I was in their shoes. I also suffered from great anger but I was able to overcome it, he said.

Pastor Ofisa said religion is a key factor to that change and the beginning of a successful life.So there you have it folks. Samoas international gateway took another step forward yesterday when Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi officially opened the Arrivals Area of the Faleolo International Airport.

The opening is the latest milestone in the $147 million Falelolo International Airport facelift project, which started in November 2015.

Fully funded by the Chinese government, the project will transform the facility from what it used to be into a truly international standard airport, rivaling some of the best in the region.

In fact, it has already done that with the departure section and now the new arrivals area. And once the apron and runaway project is completed, travellers will soon also enjoy aerobridges so they no longer have to endure the boiling sun and torrential rain during boarding and when they arrive. Exciting times.

At the start of the project, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said it is part of Governments plans to realise the Samoa Airport Authoritys vision of becoming the Pacific hub of air travel.

It is Governments hope that more new air carriers will make use of the new Faleolo facilities to push our tourism and trade transport, Tuilaepa said.

The simple truth is this. No one in their right mind will not get excited about developments that lift the profile of our country and bring us that much closer to fulfill our potential as one of the leaders in the region.

In terms of Samoa becoming the Pacific hub of travel, we have still got a long way to go. Lets not get that wrong. There is much work that remains to be done.

But this a good steady start. At this point in time, we want to acknowledge with gratitude Prime Minister Tuilaepa, Minister of Works Papalii Niko Lee Hang and the Government for the vision to persevere with the project amidst many challenges.

We especially want to thank China for providing the funding.

The fact is Samoa would not have been able to afford such a facility without the assistance from China. So thank you to Ambassador Wang Xuefeng, who is the face of China in Samoa, and all the work they are doing.

What can Samoa ever do without China? The completion of the latest phase of the airport would no doubt further cement the solid relationship between the two countries, further strengthening the cooperation and friendship that can only benefit our people.

Since the project started, many questions have been asked about the motives of China and whether there is really a need for such an expensive facility.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa acknowledged this right at the start when he turned his attention to the complaints about the development, in relation to members of the public questioning the cost of the project in relation to Samoas ballooning foreign debt.

He said the government couldnt just sit around while there are concessional loans, which provide opportunities for developments such as the airport.

No one else will develop Samoa, we have to plan it, he said. If we are afraid of it, we will only go backwards and not move forward

Prime Minister Tuilaepa has a point. And credit must be given to his government for the foresight, wisdom and courage to push for such developments.

We would be lying though if we said we are not concerned about the state of the foreign debt. Of course we are concerned.

With all these flash facilities, someone will have to pay for it. Our children, their children and their childrens children are the ones who will suffer.

Dont get us wrong. These projects are potentially sound when they are well run.

But they could easily become disasters when the planning is poor and when they are built with the wrong motives.

So far all weve heard is that with the new multi-million-tala airport, Samoa is pushing to have the biggest, the best and the most impressive airport facility in the Pacific region.

Which is okay but do we need to? Do airports attract tourists? Are the thousands of tourists flooding to Tahiti, Fiji and Cook Islands going there because of their airports? We dont think so.

Which is what worries us. With such an impressive facility  and mighty expensive too  it has to be commercially viable to sustain itself. Any less will mean the burden will fall on taxpayers shoulders which is the last thing we need.

The reality is we need more airlines to fly to Samoa to use that airport. To do that, this country, and this government, will need to do a lot more than opening an impressive airport to bring them here. Which means there is a lot more work to be done up ahead.

So lets celebrate this milestone but lets looking at making sure it is worth the price tag and that we dont end up worse off.

What do you think?

Have a great Friday Samoa, God bless!An interesting exchange has broken out between Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielelgaoi and his Tongan counterpart, Akilisi Pohiva.

It has led to Prime Minister Tuilaepa accusing Mr. Pohiva of being jealous of Samoa.

Tuilaepa made the comment in response to Mr. Pohiva questioning Samoas ranking on the World Press Freedom Index.

Samoa is ranked 22nd while Tonga is ranked 51st.

Speaking at the opening of the 5th Pacific Media Summit being held in Nukualofa, Tonga, Mr. Pohiva suggested that something was odd with the rankings.

You have all heard by now how that Tonga dropped two places from 49 to 51 on the 2018 World Press Freedom index, he said.

You have also learned that the reason for the drop is because of my governments unfair treatment of senior journalists in the Tonga Broadcasting Commission."

I have no problems with that but let me assure you all that it is a work in progress."

We are continuing to talk with the management and staff members of the Tonga Broadcasting Commission about improving our relationship and of course our position in the 2019 Press Freedom Index.

This is when he turned his attention to Samoa.

I must say that I am surprised by Samoas position on the Press Freedom Index where Samoa is 22nd," he said.

Oh congratulations! However what I went on about is the ongoing battle between my Samoan counterpart and the Samoa Observer. I cant believe that Samoa is 22nd and Tonga is 51st. This is unbelievable.

Asked for a comment yesterday, Prime Minister Tuilaepa laughed.

Our ranking is far superior than the United States of America, which is ranked 45th and this is good news for the Media and everyone who is here in my office, Tuilaepa said.

I am thankful that the Government puts up with you people, he said, laughing.

I am talking about freedom of journalists in our country and that is why the Tongan Prime Minister is somewhat jello (jealous) given that their ranking is very low, yet Samoas ranking is quite significant.

According to Prime Minister Tuilaepa, there is a difference in the governance of Samoa and Tonga.

At times, reporters want a comment at odd hours which is not an issue for me, he said. But if that was in Tonga, youll be cast far out."

But for our Samoa media, I start seeing you people from Monday until today (Thursday)."

And I always respond to your questions and you will find that I am hardly upset with the media.

There is a reason for this, he said.

If I am being interviewed while Im upset, it wouldnt be a productive interview, said Tuilaepa.

He also commented that others have taken their freedom of expression on Facebook.

I dare them to go and print their views on the newspaper and theyll be taken to Court but to hide behind secret identities is cowardly. We all know who they are, including a former Member of Parliament who was on the opposition side.

He did not name anyone.

According to R.S.Fs report, Tongas independent media outlets have increasingly assumed a watchdog role since the first democratic elections in 2010.

However, some political leaders have not hesitated to sue media outlets, exposing them to the risk of heavy damages awards.

Some journalists say they are forced to censor themselves because of the threat of being bankrupted.

In an effort to regulate harmful online content, especially on social networks, the Government adopted new laws in 2015, one of which provides for the creation of an internet regulatory agency with the power to block websites without reference to a judge.

The reelection of Prime Minister Samuela Akilisi Pohivas party in November 2017 was accompanied by growing tension between the Government and journalists, especially in public broadcasting, where two senior editors were sidelined under pressure from the Government, says R.S.F.

Pertaining to Samoa ranked 22 on the 2018 World Press Freedom Index, the report points to the liveliness of media outlets in Samoa, crediting the work of the Samoa Observer Group and Talamua Media among others.

According to R.S.Fs report on Samoa, the law criminalising defamation was repealed in 2013 raising hopes that were finally dashed in December 2017, when Parliament restored the law under pressure from Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

The grounds he gave were a supposed need to penalise so called ghost writers by which he above all meant those who dared to criticize members of his Government.

The R.S.F. report also points out the Samoa Media Council law adopted in 2015 was welcomed inter alia because it led to the adoption of a code of ethics in February 2017.The Pacific Media observed a moment of silence to acknowledge and honour the hard work of Ilia Likou, Samoa Observers Senior Reporter, in Tonga yesterday morning.

During the official opening of the Pacific Islands News Association (P.I.N.A.), President Moses Steven started with a moment of silence in honour of Ilia.

President of the Journalist Media Association of Samoa (J.A.W.S.), Rudy Bartley, sent an email from Tonga expressing sincere condolences to Ilias family, Gatoaitele Savea Sano Malifa, Muliagatele Jean Ash, Mataafa Keni Lesa and the Samoa Observer Group Family.

Iri, as known to many in her media family, was a well-respected and liked news reporter.

She had the drive to do her work to the best of her ability and always had a very professional approach in doing her work.

Mr. Bartley said a loss of a journalist is a loss for everyone in the media industry, whether its in Samoa or the Pacific. He said it is because of the common passion shared in the line of journalistic work.

The bonds and the fellowships are hard to break as these have developed over many years of working alongside each other. Ilia is no different.

We will miss not just the working relationship, but also the fun times shared with Iri and I can say that it has been very hard to forget and very sad to think about.

Nevertheless, the work continues and the media work will continue as we carry on the work that Iri was a part of, said Mr. Bartley.

He referred to the Editor of Samoa Observer Mataafa Keni Lesas comforting words that Ilia was a very special person who possessed unique qualities that will be dearly missed.

When it comes to her job, she was fearless and she was not afraid to ask the tough questions. The Samoa Observer and the media family in Samoa have lost a very committed journalist. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family, loved ones and friends, said Mataafa.

Ilia will be missed by all of us in the media and will also be a big loss to the Samoa Media.

Mr. Bartley said as J.A.W.S. President: I was very saddened to hear of her passing. I also extend the thoughts and prayers of the P.I.N.A. president, executive and participants of the summit now wrapping up in Tonga.

The J.A.W.S. would also like to express our sympathy to Ilias family during this difficult period.

May she rest in peace and the Lord provide her a place in heaven. 

I am sure she will be the senior reporter for Merita and heaven news service, said Mr. Bartley.SEATTLE (AP)  Nearly half of U.S. cancer doctors who responded to a survey say they've recently recommended medical marijuana to patients, although most say they don't know enough about medicinal use.

The results reflect how marijuana policy in some states has outpaced research, the study authors said. All 29 states with medical marijuana programs allow doctors to recommend it to cancer patients. But no rigorous studies in cancer patients exist. That leaves doctors to make assumptions from other research on similar prescription drugs, or in other types of patients.

"The big takeaway is we need more research, plain and simple," said Dr. Ilana Braun of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who led the study published Thursday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Patients want to know what their doctors think about using marijuana. In the new study, cancer doctors said their conversations about marijuana were almost always started by patients and their families, not by the doctors themselves.

Overall, nearly eight in 10 cancer doctors reported having discussed marijuana with patients or their families, with 46 percent recommending it for pain and other cancer-related problems to at least one patient in the past year.

Among those who said they recommended marijuana, 56 percent said they did not have sufficient knowledge to do so.

"They're not as close-minded as you might think, and they also feel they have a lot to learn," Braun said.

The survey was conducted in a random sample of cancer doctors; researchers got completed surveys from 237 doctors, or 63 percent.

Marijuana is considered an illegal drug by federal officials and federal restrictions have limited research. Last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine concluded the lack of scientific information about marijuana poses a risk to public health.

There's evidence marijuana can treat chronic pain in adults and medications similar to marijuana can ease nausea from chemotherapy.

In the study, 67 percent of cancer doctors said they view marijuana as a useful addition to standard pain therapies, with 75 percent saying it posed less risk of overdose than opioids. About half view marijuana as equal to, or more effective than, standard treatments for cancer-related nausea.

Marijuana isn't harmless. The National Academies report said pot smoking may be linked to higher chances of traffic accidents, chronic bronchitis from long-term use and schizophrenia and other causes of psychosis, especially in the most frequent users.

Dr. Steven Pergam of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance answers questions about marijuana's safety from his colleagues at the treatment center.

His responses depend on the patient. A dying patient with cancer that's spread? "Whatever they want to do to make themselves comfortable," said Pergam, who wasn't involved in the new research. A patient with leukemia, however, should be warned of a theoretical possibility of a fungal infection tied to cannabis use.

"If we're not comfortable having these discussions, patients will get information from other sources, and it's not going to be as reliable," he said.Tensions over historic resources and the citys housing needs may have created a unusual compromise in East Village.

Proposed designs for the latest housing complex would put a seven-story apartment building directly on top of a historic home.

The Ezabelle project at 454 13th St. is a departure from other developments that have moved homes to other locations, but might be a sign of the times as land becomes harder to come by.

It really feels like this thing literally landed on (the historic home), said Stephen Russell on Wednesday at the Civic San Diego Design Review Committee. The essence of it is really no longer in place.

Advertisement

Developer Soheil Nakhshab said the project honors the historic home by keeping it on the site and the 48-unit building provides badly needed affordable housing. Six of the apartments would be low income, averaging $600 to $700 a month. Other units will average about $1,300 a month. All of the units are studios, ranging from 211 to 348 square feet.

We all invested a lot of time together to determine how we could retain this (historic) structure, said Nakhshab, who told the committee about several historic groups it consulted with.

Despite misgivings about the design, the three-person committee approved the project to move forward to the main Civic San Diego board in two weeks. It is still subject to a meeting of the citys historic resources board and then finally to the San Diego Planning Commission. Appeals over the project could eventually go to the City Council.

Proposed design of Ezabelle in East Village. (Civic San Diego )

Alan Nevin, a consultant with Xpera Group who worked on the project, said it is in the developers best interest to try and keep historic resources on a site because that is what city officials prefer. The San Diego Register of Historic Resources lists as a goal that, whenever possible, historic structures should remain on site.

The 864-square-foot house on the Ezabelle site was built in 1881 and qualifies as a local (not national or state) landmark that is an example of Italianate style.

In any other neighborhood, Nevin said, it would have been scrapped.

Four residents of the Park Boulevard East condo building adjacent to the site spoke in opposition of the project, saying it would block sunlight to their building, cause more traffic congestion because no parking spots are required, create fewer opportunities for homeownership in East Village and did not look that great.

I dont think the incorporation of the historic house is in anyway tasteful, said resident Anthony Drew. I think it is an afterthought.

Samantha Weber, also a resident at Park Boulevard East, said having another low-income project in East Village meant reduced home values for condo owners. Also, she said for East Village to thrive, it needed more condo projects to increase gentrification in the area, still a hotbed of homelessness.

Design committee member Paola Avila said this is the kind of project she may have voted against in the past, but today it is necessary to meet housing needs.

The housing deficit in our region is a housing crisis, and its dangerous, she said. These projects are exactly the type of projects I support.

A criticism of Ezabelle from condo residents was that it wont have parking. Because the project meets requirements under the citys affordable housing density bonus, it is allowed to waive typical parking requirements.

Gary Smith, president of the San Diego Downtown Residents Group, said the Ezabelle project was basically the result of state law.

Sacramento said put in a token amount of affordable housing and you can get waivers from every regulation in the world, he said, and this is what were going to have to live with.

Nakhshab said if his company was required to build parking, it would not be able to complete the project. The economic analysis by the Xpera Group shows developing the property would cost $8.5 million, increasing to $10.7 million for the construction of underground parking.

As far as the new project blocking views, Russell said living downtown means there is always a chance new developments will affect residents.

These are foreseeable outcomes of development in a densely urbanized area like that, he said. I struggle with that because it is very real to the people who are experiencing it but it is a reality of the condition of those areas.

Nakhshab presented an alternative design, which he said would come at great expense to the project, that eliminated four apartments directly above the historic home that could make the apartment building seem less like it was placed directly on top. Design changes for removing the floor, or part of the floor, are expected to be reviewed next week by the Downtown Community Planning Council before moving on to the Civic San Diego board in two weeks.

Designs for the ground floor, including the historic home, include 1,794-square-feet of commercial space.

454 13th St. (Google )

Business

phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar

ALSO

San Diegos new single-family homes are pricey, modern and in short supply

Tijuana condo craze continues in to 2018

Last years housing market broke recordsU.S. President Donald Trump has announced that his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will take place in Singapore on June 12.

"We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!," Trump said on Twitter Thursday, hours after he personally welcomed home three Americans freed by North Korea.

During the event at Joint Base Andrews, in the state of Maryland, 25 kilometers from the White House, the president, accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, boarded a U.S. Air Force C-40 Jet to briefly speak with the three men who had been imprisoned in North Korea.

Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also greeted the three Korean-Americans when they came off the military plane. After handshakes the president, standing alongside the three men, expressed thanks to North Korean leader Kim for releasing them, stating that "I really think he wants to do something" to bring North Korea "into the real world."

Trump has said the goal for his upcoming talks with Kim is for North Korea to agree to denuclearize. Secretary of State Pompeo, who traveled to North Korea to secure the release of the detainees, said holding such a summit would have been more difficult had the Americans still been detained

A senior U.S. official present for the exchange of detainees in Pyongyang told journalists traveling with Pompeo that a North Korean official informed the secretary of state that Kim had granted amnesties to the three Americans.

The futuristic possibilities associated with autonomous, commercial drone activity  think food and package delivery, medical supply transport or enhanced border security  will be realized in San Diego, and soon.

Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that the city was selected to participate in its experimental commercial drone program, called the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program.

The city, in partnership with the city of Chula Vista and San Diegos Regional Economic Development Corporation, applied earlier this year for the program to push the limits of commercial drone testing in real-world environments. The program is also meant help the Federal Aviation Administration develop ground rules around commercial drone use across the country.

San Diego was one of 10 winning agencies, selected from a field of 149 city and state applicants. Other winners include the states of Kansas, Virginia, and North Dakota, and the cities of Reno and Memphis.

Advertisement

Though the specifics of the program remain unclear, the designation means that San Diego can obtain expedited approvals and waivers for its more than 20 regional partners to kick-start commercial drone testing.

The citys winning proposal included real-world applications, as put forth by its government, research and business partners  including UCSD, Qualcomm and Uber  already developing drone-related systems for commercial purposes.

San Diego is a hotbed of autonomous vehicle activity already, said Erik Caldwell, the director of economic development for the city of San Diego. What we really heard from our partner companies is that theyre ready to go, fast  the activity theyre doing indoors and in confined spaces is ready to move outdoors.

That means San Diegans will be some of the first in the nation to experience drone-powered conveniences such as food delivery from Uber in minutes.

The futuristic possibilities associated with autonomous, commercial drone activity  think food and package delivery, medical supply transport or enhanced border security  will be realized in San Diego, and soon.

We will work on food delivery (by drone in San Diego), which is one of the most exciting parts of the business, said Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Wednesday evening at the companys Elevate summit in Los Angeles. And, listen it is my personal belief that a key to solving urban mobility is flying burgers.

Other trial programs, as outlined in the citys proposal, will incorporate drones to improve border surveillance, as well as speed up hospital blood tests, with the latter application relying on drones instead of couriers to deliver samples to and from labs.

Behind the scenes will be Qualcomm, AT&T, Intel and others that have promised to join forces to address the technical and logistical hurdles associated with operating a fleet of unmanned vehicles in cities.

A key focus of the testing will be connectivity, using 4G LTE and upcoming 5G networks to accelerate the development of technology and support policy development, a spokesperson for Qualcomm said in a statement. The San Diego region possess a unique mix of environments from rural to urban with a mix of critical infrastructure, public utilities, tourist facilities, international border and coastal areas. We look forward to working with leading organizations in this pilot program to produce data which will assist the FAA in establishing rules and regulations necessary to safely integrate drones at scale.

While many of the details surrounding the UAS Integration Pilot Program are still unknown, city officials expect to learn how they can move forward at a Thursday morning briefing scheduled with the FAA.

Staff writers Lori Weisberg and Mike Freeman contributed to this story.

Business

jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruinFirst-term Assemblyman Randy Voepel is looking for another two years as the 71st District representative.

The former Santee mayor who left the Republican party for a time, then came back, will have competition from another Republican and a Democrat in the June 5 primary election.

The top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, will move on to the general election in November.

Voepel, Larry Wilske and James Elia are looking to represent an area that encompasses much of the East County region, from Borrego Springs to Spring Valley, and scattered parts of the Inland Empire in Riverside County, including Anza and Idyllwild.

Advertisement

During his first term, Voepel opposed the states sanctuary state legislation, voted against the gas tax increase and opposed the cap-and-trade extension that he says will only further increase costs on Californias working class.

I am proud of the work I have been able to do on behalf of my constituents, he said, noting that as a result of his voting record, he received an A rating from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

Voepel, 67, served four terms as mayor in Santee before making a run for Assembly in 2016. His opponent, Leo Hamel of Jamul, dropped out before the election.

When it comes to our economy, it was my goal to do what I could to reduce costs and unreasonable regulations placed on small businesses, Voepel said.

Randy Voepel (Courtesy photo )

In the Assembly, I have consistently stood against legislation that would expand unnecessary red tape and costs for businesses, and I received a 100 percent voting record from the National Federation of Independent Businesses for my record of supporting pro-jobs legislation.

Wilske calls himself a patriot first and foremost, and said his 30 years of service as a Navy SEAL has given him a deeper understanding of teamwork.

My goal is to provide the leadership and networking necessary at the ground level to allow Americans to once again trust, support, and embrace one another, regardless of our political differences, Wilske said.

Wilske said that his top concerns about the future include the economy, taxes and an overreaching government. His primary focus, he said, will be about bringing all parties together.

My goal is to provide the leadership and networking necessary at the ground level to allow Americans to once again trust, support, and embrace one another regardless of our political differences, said Wilske, 57, who grew up in San Diego and moved to a small ranch in Descanso two years ago with his wife.

Larry Wilske (Courtesy photo )

He said his goals include unifying neighborhoods to work beyond political boundaries and interact with schools, parks, and recreation centers; building business coalitions; and stopping politically motivated legislation that handcuffs law enforcement, citing sanctuary states as one of those.

Although a Republican like Voepel, Wilske said he believes that integrity and standing up for whats right is more important than any shallow loyalty to a particular political party.

I will never stand for unethical behavior from leaders, Wilske said. Moreover, we must be held to a higher standard because we work for you, the people we serve, and not the party we are members of.

Elia, 31, an accountant and business owner, is the son of a Chaldean Iraqi father who immigrated to the United States and raised eight children on his own after his wife died of cancer. Elia was born and raised in Spring Valley.

Elia is the director of operations for the Neighborhood Market Association. He and his wife live in El Cajon.

He said his platform is simple: Have California invest in workers and families and not special interest groups.

James Elia (Courtesy photo )

He said he is frustrated by income inequality, where single mothers are working more than one job to provide for their kids, people are not seeking medical attention because they cant afford health care and seniors on fixed incomes are facing skyrocketing rents.

Ive never dreamed of being a politician, Elia said, but I have dreamed of living in a community where all are promised what the American dream was, and that is life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. I decided to become the change that I want.

Elia said one of his visions is the creation of a public bank, as is done in North Dakota, where he said the rate of foreclosure is the lowest in the United States.

Members of the Assembly earn $104,000 annually.

karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.comDavid Feliciano will be taking over as superintendent of the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District next year, replacing Brian Marshall, who announced his retirement in March.

The La Mesa-Spring Valley School Board, in charge of a 12,500-student district and its $125 million budget, will finalize his contract on May 15.

Feliciano, the districts assistant superintendent of business services since December 2014, will start his new role Jan. 1, 2019. His current salary is $176,383.

Feliciano, 41, was born in Whittier and grew up in Southern California, graduating from Bonita High School in La Verne. He lives in Tierrasanta with his wife, Nicole, a former special education teacher, and their four children.

Advertisement

Feliciano graduated from Vanguard University with a bachelors degree in psychology and completed USCs School Business Certificate Management Program. He also completed the California School Board Association Masters in Governance Program.

Feliciano recently talked with The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Q: I understand you have a background with the district. Tell us a little bit about what you did and how that will help you in your new position as superintendent.

A: I have served as the districts assistant superintendent of business services since December 2014 and I have worked as a public school employee for the past 16 years. I started as a network analyst in the educational technology division at the Orange County Department of Education, and then as a director of educational technology and as an assistant superintendent of business services in both elementary (K-8) and unified school districts (K-12).

In these roles, I always felt my singular responsibility was to enable and support the vital work of teaching and learning in the classroom. As a technology director, I worked closely with teachers, and principals to provide the tools and applications needed to best serve our students.

As the assistant superintendent of business services, I have been able to work closely with all areas of the school district, from the boardroom to the classroom. In my current position, I have had the unique advantage of partnering with, and working alongside of, our teachers, principals, directors, and executive leadership. I am ultimately responsible for the business of education in the district, which I believe has served as a great course of preparation for me to transition into this new position.

Q: How has your experience as an educational leader prepared you for this position?

A: My first job in education was at the Orange County Department of Education as a network analyst. It was an unusual position because I was hired by the Educational Technology Division to work in the Information Technology Department. Back in the early 2000s (pre-iPhone), there was a clear line between information technology and educational technology.

As was often the case in school districts, IT objectives tended to stifle the innovation happening on the educational side of the house. IT would dictate how technology would be used, rather than support and enable innovation in ed-tech. I was hired to help bridge the divide between the two. From that time forward, my mission has been to place education at the center of everything we do in schools.

It sounds self-evident that education would be the center of everything we do in public schools, but on the business side of things, thats not always the case. We have bills to pay, buildings to repair, classrooms to clean and budgets to balance. Its easy for the focus to shift away from our principal mission of education. After all is said and done, I believe everything we do must come back to the impact a teacher can have in the life of a child.

Q: What do you feel are the biggest challenges facing school districts today?

A: Given that California ranks near the bottom of our country in per-pupil funding, pupil-teacher ratios and the percentage of taxable income spent on public education, I would say funding is one of our greatest challenges. Lack of fair and adequate funding at the state level impacts all districts, from student-to-teacher ratios and support staff in schools, to campus safety and adequate school facilities.

School districts are also facing a teacher shortage nationwide. This will only worsen as baby boomers retire en masse over the next decade. Education is the foundation of our democracy and our perpetual legacy. We have to take a hard look at ourselves as a nation and ask why more young people are not entering the teaching profession.

Q: What are your immediate goals for the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District?

A: I will focus my immediate attention on working to foster a sense of camaraderie and community throughout the district. Id also like to do more to engage our parents online, through our website and by increasing our presence on social media.

Q: What are some of your longer-term goals for the district?

A: Long term, Id like to develop a facilities master plan to proactively address the needs of our aging school facilities well into the future.

I truly believe in continuous improvement and will continue to advance our mission of building a community of lifelong learners. I believe this is principally accomplished by engaging our students, parents, teachers and staff, our foundations and the greater community in the good work of teaching and learning so that all children can realize their full potential.

Q: What will you do to blow off stress that will inevitably come with the job?

A: Thats an easy one. I hike with my kids. Theres nothing I enjoy more.

Q: Whats your favorite thing about East County?

A: The outdoors! We love to hike and camp in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, Mount Laguna, and Anza-Borrego State Park. We also spend lots of time hiking in Mission Trails. In my opinion, East Countys wilderness and open spaces are San Diegos best-kept secret.

karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.comIn 2004, Ron Morrison, a National City councilman at the time, was in favor of term limits for the mayor.

Morrison said he believed the mayor should have a fixed time frame to get things done. Otherwise, he said, the mayor is simply perpetuating the job.

Four months later, in November 2004, some 70 percent of voters approved a ballot measure that set three four-year term limits on the mayor.

Morrison was elected mayor in 2006 and has since reached those term limits.

Advertisement

Now, he wants residents to undo the voter-approved term limits so he can run for office in November.

Should Morrison be allowed to seek re-election? Thats the underlying question that has emerged from competing ballot measures that will appear before voters in a June 5 special election.

Measure B  the one Morrison openly supports  would repeal the term limits and replace them with new ones across the board for the mayor, City Council, city clerk and city treasurer. It proposes two four-year terms.

Measure C would keep the mayoral term limits in place and impose the same limits  three four-year terms  on the City Council, city clerk and city treasurer. It also restricts an elected official to six lifetime terms across offices.

Currently, there are no term limits in place for the city clerk, city treasurer or council members.

In a 4-1 vote in March, the City Council decided to place the two measures on the ballot in June  a special election that will cost taxpayers as much as $102,000. The previous estimate set the cost at $65,000, but that did not include the costs to cover signature verification for the ballot measures.

A cheaper alternative would have been to place the measures on the November ballot. That option would have blocked Morrisons chances of running for office.

If Measure B passes with more votes than Measure C, it will re-set Morrisons clock, making him eligible for re-election in November and perhaps in 2022. If Measure C is approved by voters, Morrisons 26-year political career in National City will come to an end.

So, why does Morrison want more time on the job?

Huge things are in front of us, he said in an interview, highlighting anticipated development in the downtown and waterfront areas. And yet, people that are wanting to run (for mayor) and wanting to control the council are wanting to do everything to destroy that.

He said he believes a qualified mayoral candidate has yet to come forward for the November election. So far, the only mayoral candidate is Councilwoman Alejandra Sotelo-Solis, who ran for mayor in 2006 and 2010.

If there was somebody else that had shown that they were qualified, I would gladly say that theres no need for Ron Morrison to run again, he said.

Sotelo-Solis said the mayors opinion is a reflection of his lack of leadership.

If youre a real leader, you would have been fostering someone to take on that role, she said.

In the same way Morrison has been accused of trying to manipulate the November election, the mayor said he believes Sotelo-Solis is doing the same in an attempt to run unopposed.

Sotelo-Solis dismissed that notion, saying its unlikely she would run unchallenged based on past elections.

Ultimately, Morrison said, he wants voters to decide in the November election whether he should stay on the job.

Im looking to give the people of National City a choice and a chance, he said. Until the people of National City tell me they want to go a different direction, Ill stick with it.

Sotelo-Solis said the mayor should walk away. She said she believes stagnant leadership creates an environment in which there are no opportunities for new ideas or growth.

When youve done close to three decades worth of service, you need to let new leadership and new blood help lead the city, she said.

Meanwhile, the opposing ballot measures have opened the door for groups within organized labor to funnel money into the special election.

On one end, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 135, led by Mickey Kasparian, created a political action committee in April to support Measure B. The local UFCW and Laborers International Union of North America Local 89 contributed $50,000 to the PAC.

The creation of the PAC has created speculation that the move could be, at least in part, a form of retaliation against Sotelo-Solis, who was among several local leaders who signed a February 2017 letter calling for an independent investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Kasparian. The labor leader, who did not respond to a request for comment for this story, has denied the accusations.

Other donations in support of Measure B include $20,000 from the National City Puppy store and another $20,000 from Rancho Bernardo Towing. The Poway-based towing company is owned by Angelos Towing, which has a contract with National City, according to state records.

On the other end, donations to the Measure C committee include $7,000 from Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletchers ballot measure committee; $5,000 from Unite Here Local 30, a hotel workers union; $10,000 from the San Diego County Building Trades Council, a coalition of construction unions; and about $7,400 from International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 569.

Other donations for Measure C include $3,000 from City Council candidate Jose Rodriguezs campaign. Rodriguez is running in the November election alongside Sotelo-Solis.

Measure B has received more than $147,000 in contributions, while Measure C has collected about $66,000.

Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandezNorth Park will roll out the red carpet Saturday for its annual block party known as SDCCU Festival of Arts.

Now in its 22nd year, the event will feature everything from art and music to food and craft beer.

Organizers are expecting more than 40,000 people to the free event, which kicks off at 11 a.m.

Four stages will feature live music from such acts as The Heavy Guilt, Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, Taken by Canadians, Spooky Cigarette and Finnegan Blue, among others.

Advertisement

New this year is a chef and brewer pairing event, which will be held in two sessions (noon to 4 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m.) for $30 each (plus a $3.72 fee). For more information, go to the website for details.

SDCCU Festival of Arts: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday. 30th Street and University Avenue in North Park. Free admission. northparkmainstreet.com

Twitter: @outdoorlivingsd

michael.rocha@sduniontribune.comDockless electric scooters, which have flooded into San Diego in recent months, could soon be banned from the boardwalk in Mission Beach.

City officials said Wednesday they are drafting an emergency ordinance aimed at restricting the motorized vehicles along the boardwalk from Crystal Pier south to the jetty.

The effort is being spearheaded by Councilwoman Lorie Zapf and Mayor Kevin Faulconer following a series of collisions between pedestrians and people riding the scooters.

For reasons of public safety on the boardwalk, we need to ensure that we are being diligent and that we dont have vehicles that are going 15 miles per hour, especially during the summer months, said Kelly Batten, chief of staff for Zapf. Lifeguards are now being forced to deal with these issues on the boardwalk, distracting them from the ocean.

Advertisement

The ordinance to restrict the motorized scooters along the boardwalk would need to be approved by the City Council, which is expected to vote on the issue at a regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, May 22.

Dockless bikes and scooters  which can be rented using a smartphone and credit card  have raised safety concerns in San Diego and other cities as riders continue to speed down sidewalks and leave the vehicles strewn in front of businesses and homes.

In the last few years, companies, backed by billions of dollars in venture capital, have rolled out thousands of the candy-colored dockless bikes all over the world, from Hong Kong to Paris to Seattle to Southern California.

Last Fall, Santa Monica-based company Bird pioneered the market for electric scooters, swooping into Los Angeles and San Diego. Then Bay Area start-up LimeBike started offering its own version of the motorized scooter.

Almost immediately, the new electric vehicles were met with both excitement and safety concerns. Under pressure from elected officials, Bird launched a public education campaign about how to use its product responsibly, as well as started giving away free helmets, which are required under state law to ride the motorized vehicles.

That hasnt been enough to alleviate the concerns of many pedestrians who have experienced the scooters whizzing by them at their top speed of 15 miles per hour.

Boardwalks in San Diego have a speed limit of 8 miles an hour, and state law prohibits riding motorized scooters on any sidewalk. Police have yet to crack down on people breaking either law.

Twitter: @jemersmith

Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.comAn operating room fire that started on a patients abdomen. Surgical placement of a drainage tube in the wrong kidney. An unnecessary gall bladder-related procedure. Repeated failures to document that doctors and nurses are following safety protocols.

These and other problems are among those uncovered during a series of safety inspections and re-inspections at Palomar Medical Center Escondido, according to documents provided under the Public Records Act by the California Department of Public Health.

Since April 2017, Palomar has faced a series of inspection findings that have concluded again and again that operations do not meet one or more of the 24 hospital conditions of participation for Medicare, the vast government-backed health insurance program for Americans age 65 and older.

Diane Hansen, Palomars interim chief executive officer, said in an email Wednesday that the organization is committed to meeting every requirement.

Advertisement

We take these incidents very seriously, and we are putting all our efforts to improve staff training so they never happen again, Hansen said.

Heightened scrutiny started with an operating room fire that state documents indicate occurred when a surgical instrument called an electrocautery caused the fire in an operating room at Palomar Medical Center when it passed too close to a flammable skin preparation used during a surgery on Sept. 9, 2016. Three months later, on Dec. 5, 2016, surgeons mistakenly placed a special drainage tube in a patients left kidney even though it was the right kidney that needed the operation.

Palomar self-reported both incidents.

Sheila Brown and Dr. Omar Khawaja, respectively Palomars chief operating and chief medical officers, said in an email this week that neither incident did lasting damage.

The fire, they said, caused an area of redness on the patients abdomen but no burns or scars. The patient with the misplaced drainage tube, they said, was sent home with no adverse outcome.

Inspectors subsequently examined the records of 39 patients during a survey conducted from April 20 through April 24, 2017, when they noted what inspectors called systemic problems that left the hospitals out of compliance with some of the requirements for participating in the federal governments Medicare program.

Updated medical histories and physicals were not taken, investigators found, for nine of the 39 patients whose records they examined. In one case, nurses failed to make sure a doctors order matched the surgical consent form that a patient signed. In two cases, a finding indicates that proper laterality markings were not used on patients bodies to ensure that the wrong organ was not operated on as occurred with the kidney drain incident.

For nine patients, hospitals also failed, inspectors wrote, to document that they used surgical checklists to make sure steps were not skipped during surgeries. In some cases, inspectors also found that Palomars quality assurance program didnt properly monitor and analyze the data collected as a result of the corrective action plan it put in place in late 2016 to make sure a surgical fire or wrong-side surgery never happened again.

A follow-up visit from inspectors from July 5, 2017 through July 7, 2017, examined another 31 randomly-selected patient records. One of those records, inspectors wrote, involved a patient who underwent an unnecessary diagnostic procedure after having their gall bladder removed on June 17, 2017, due to an operating room mixup where they were confused with another patient undergoing the same procedure one day earlier.

As was the case in the previous April survey, inspectors said that records for 15 of the 31 patients they examined didnt include documentation that surgical checklists were used during operations.

A full survey performed on Aug. 14 at Palomar Medical Center Escondido found problems in the facilitys kitchen, including perishable food that wasnt being held at proper temperatures and mold in the central dishwashing facility. Inspectors said the mold was cleaned up within one day of being noticed by inspectors.

The August survey also mentions a patient who died in his room on May 15, 2017, after removing telemetry leads used to monitor vital signs. The patient, records indicate, fell while returning to bed after using the restroom, and his nurse didnt hear the alarms which are designed to let caregivers know when monitors become disconnected.

Medication management was also mentioned. Inspectors found that some medications were inappropriately stored with regard to temperature or exposure to ambient light. And, automated drug-dispensing machines containing controlled medications, they said, were not always audited.

Hansen said in a previous interview that a doctor and nurse were fired for drug theft, but those incidents were not listed in government reports. A spokesman for the CDPH said Friday that the documentation has not yet been made public.

A fourth three-day follow-up survey that commenced on Oct. 16, 2017, did not mention problems with drug audits or following surgical safety procedures, suggesting that inspectors have found improvement in most of the items they started ticking off in April.

But the latest check still found issues that need to be addressed in order for Palomar Medical Center Escondido to be considered in compliance with Medicare rules. Two of 36 patient records examined, they said, did not have proper monitoring for patients on telemetry.

A nurse was also observed, findings indicate, to not be wearing proper protective equipment when entering the room of a patient with a clostridium difficile infection. The worker, according to inspectors, acknowledged that he should have gowned up but didnt because he was not directly delivering care to the patient. Problems were also found with a lack of training for nurses in how to safely dispense medications from glass ampules by using filter needles to make sure that tiny glass fragments dont end up getting injected into patients blood vessels.

In all cases, Palomar has indicated that it has followed up with significant actions designed to meet the governments concerns. For example, the hospital indicated that there have been no additional sanitary issues in the kitchen, alerts have been put into place that notify nurses more directly when telemetry patients pull away their monitoring wires and Palomar Health has adopted an extensive and ongoing drug diversion education program which must be followed by all staffers who distribute medications.

Clarification: This article was updated to reflect that was initially referenced as a gall bladder procedure involved diagnostics after a patients gall bladder was removed.

Health Playlist On Now Video: Why aren't Americans getting flu shots? 0:37 On Now Video: Leaders urge public to help extinguish hepatitis outbreak On Now San Diego starts cleansing sidewalks, streets to combat hepatitis A On Now Video: Scripps to shutter its hospice service On Now Video: Scripps La Jolla hospitals nab top local spot in annual hospital rankings On Now Video: Does a parent's Alzheimer's doom their children? On Now Video: Vaccine can prevent human papillomavirus, which can cause cancer 0:31 On Now 23 local doctors have already faced state discipline in 2017 0:48 On Now EpiPen recall expands On Now Kids can add years to your life

paul.sisson@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1850

Twitter: @paulsissonSan Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott is expanding and reinventing the Family Justice Center, a one-stop shop for domestic violence victims that was considered a national model before several recent years of decline.

Elliott wants to broaden the centers scope beyond the city boundaries, revive defunct partnerships with many social service agencies and begin serving victims of elder abuse and human trafficking.

She is optimistic the expansion wont cost city taxpayers any money because Elliott is hiring a grant writer and establishing a new nonprofit foundation to collect donations for the center.

The center worked closely for many years with a nonprofit called the National Family Justice Center Alliance, but that relationship ended five years ago after city officials raised questions about contracts between the center and the nonprofit.

Advertisement

In addition to boosting donations and grants, Elliott said she plans to lobby county officials to begin covering part of the centers budget because 31 percent of the victims it serves live outside the city.

We have big dreams, Elliott told the City Councils public safety committee recently. Its the only option in the region that provides victims of domestic violence with all of the necessary services they need under one roof.

Elliott, however, said the center has stagnated and lost many of its community partners since it was folded into the Police Department in 2009 as part of budget cuts prompted by recession. So she has spent the last few months analyzing the center, reviewing its operations and reaching out to former partners and regional organizations who help domestic violence victims.

Its almost like a startup, so were getting to know it from the ground up, Elliott said.

The analysis has covered the centers personnel, its budget, technology used by staff and the lease for the downtown space it occupies at 11th Avenue and Broadway.

Although she doesnt officially take the center over from the Police Department until July 1, Elliott hired a new executive director in April and is in the process of hiring two victim services coordinators.

She has also launched a new internal training program and plans to host a large forum with potential partner organizations later this month.

In addition, the center now has medical professionals on-site so that victims no longer have to travel from downtown to Escondido for post-violence exams.

And a new pilot program with the University of San Diego provides law students to help victims seeking temporary restraining orders.

Elliott said it also makes sense to begin offering help to victims of elder abuse and human trafficking, two forms of domestic violence that had lower profiles when the center was founded by former City Attorney Casey Gwinn in 2002.

Plans to regionalize the center could include adding locations at schools, establishing satellite community centers or launching mobile programs, she said.

A key to such efforts will be reviving partnerships with social service organizations and other community groups. The center once had 20 such partnerships, but now has only about a dozen.

The center will continue to have eight employees, but some of its workers will remain with the Police Department and be replaced with new hires.

The center is slated to receive just under $1 million in Mayor Kevin Faulconers proposed spending plan for the budget year that begins July 1, about the same amount it has received while part of the Police Department.

Elliott said the centers mission will remain stopping family violence, boosting victim safety, holding batterers accountable and providing long-term support to victims and their children.

The services it offers include a walk-in clinic, forensic medical exams, referrals to lawyers, therapy referrals for abused children, victim risk assessments and counseling.

Elliott said she will aggressively promote the foundation she plans to create to make sure everyone knows its the sole nonprofit accepting donations for the center.

One nonprofit that used to work with the city was the National Family Justice Center Alliance, which has renamed itself the Alliance for Hope and is no longer affiliated. A new nonprofit also calls itself the San Diego Family Justice Foundation but is also not connected to the citys effort.

Elliott said county officials initially balked at her requests for a financial contribution, but that shes confident the comprehensive business plan shes creating will persuade them.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrickCNCEC signs contracts with Kinshasa worth nearly 2.6b euros

From:ChinaDaily | 2018-05-09 21:33

BEIJING - China National Chemical Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (CNCEC) said Wednesday that it has signed engineering contracts worth 2.565 billion euros (about $3.05 billion) with Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The contracts include construction of a solid waste incineration power plant, highways, urban rail traffic systems and hospitals, the CNCEC said on its website.

The solid waste incineration power plant will have an annual treatment capacity of 750,000 tonnes and annual power generation capacity of 320 million kilowatt hours.

The company will ensure construction quality and efficiency of these projects, it said.Homicide detectives on Thursday identified a 50-year-old homeless man who was found dead in a Barrio Logan alley.

A 911 caller reported finding the body of Maurice William Daniels in an alley off of Logan Avenue near Commercial Street about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, San Diego police homicide Lt. Matt Dobbs said.

Patrol officers found Daniels on th eground, not breathing, with visible trauma to his upper body, though detectives have not specified what kind of injuries he suffered.

Paramedics administered emergency medical aid, but he was pronounced dead at the scene just before 7 a.m., Dobbs said.

Advertisement

Daniels was homeless and known to frequent the area where his body was found, the lieutenant said. He was possibly seen in that area with a woman about 11:30 p.m. Monday, about seven hours before his body was discovered.

The alley where Daniels was found is roughly five blocks south of the street corner in East Village where two assailants shot and wounded four people just after 11 p.m. Monday, but police do not believe Daniels death was related to the Monday night shooting or two deadly shootings Sunday that killed three men in Mountain View and Logan Heights.

Anyone with information about Daniels slaying or the homicides on Sunday was asked to call the San Diego Police Departments homicide unit at (619) 531-2293 or San Diego County Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

Tipsters may remain anonymous and could be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.A fire at an El Cajon aerospace company was knocked down quickly early Thursday by firefighters who then decontaminated their gear as a safety precaution, a Heartland fire official said.

Crews arriving at GKN Aerospace on West Bradley Avenue near Cuyamaca Street shortly after 5:30 a.m. found a smoldering fire in the ducts of the building, said Heartland Fire Capt. Sonny Saghera. The fire was knocked down in about 10 minutes by firefighters from Heartland, San Miguel and Santee departments.

The filters in the dust-collection system caught fire for an unknown reason, Saghera said. He said the fire was contained to those filters. He did not have a damage estimate.

Because of the type of business involved, hazardous materials crews were called out, but a containment system in the building was able to handle any runoff, Saghera said.

Advertisement

Firefighters remained on scene for about two hours to undergo decontamination, setting up a water system so each firefighter could go through the water with their gear on and then bag up the clothing to be sent out for professional cleaning.

Twitter: @karenkucher

(619) 293-1350

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.comFlames heavily damaged an apartment in the Nestor neighborhood Wednesday afternoon, leaving three people and three dogs displaced, San Diego fire officials said.

No one was injured, and firefighters controlled the blaze in less than 10 minutes before it spread to adjoining units.

The fire broke out about 2:30 p.m. inside a ground-floor unit in a two-story complex on Avenida del Mexico, near Elm Avenue and Interstate 5, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department officials said.

Firefighters found thick, heavy smoke and flames coming out of the front windows, Battalion Chief Steve Salaz told OnSceneTV.

Advertisement

He said Chula Vista firefighters helped extinguish the blaze.

OnSceneTV video showed front rooms in the apartment blackened.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

pauline.repard@sduniontribune

Twitter: @pdrepardA baby whose head was severely bitten by a pit bull on Monday will not suffer permanent brain damage, her mother said Wednesday.

Xochilt Gonzalez said her 2-month-old daughters nose has been reconstructed and she faces further plastic surgery, but her mental and physical development is not expected to be impaired.

Jemma-Linda Gonzalez recovery at Rady Childrens Hospital from a pit bulls bite (Xochilt Gonzalez )

Gonzalez spoke to reporters outside Rady Childrens Hospital, where tiny Jemma-Linda Gonzalez remains in the pediatric intensive care unit.

Advertisement

She is nothing but a strong, brave, amazing, miraculous little being, the mother told Fox 5 and other media outlets, speaking of Jemma-Linda.

She said the baby lost a lot of blood initially, when a neighbors pit bull became startled and bit the child in the face at her Logan Heights home.

It was life-threatening in the beginning and I thought my child was gone, Gonzalez said.

But doctors have told her that Jemma-Linda is not paralyzed, suffers no eye damage, and a Tuesday night MRI revealed no other serious damage to her head.

She started opening her eyes and moving around on Wednesday, and reacted when hearing her mothers voice, Gonzalez said.

Rady Childrens spokesman Carlos Delgado said the baby is listed in serious condition, and Gonzalez expects that Jemma-Linda will be in the hospital for a couple of weeks.

The 20-month-old pit bull, named Ookie, that bit the infant was later put down at the owners request, according to county Animal Services Director Dan DeSousa.

The incident occurred at Gonzalezs home on Irving Avenue about 2:30 p.m. Monday.

San Diego police Lt. Jason Weeden said Jemma-Linda was napping in an infant bouncy chair next to her mother when the dog pawed at the chair. The chair bounced, startling the dog, which reacted by biting the infants head and shaking her.

Weeden said the incident appears to be an accident, however, the investigation is on-going. ... No charges are anticipated at this time.

The babys older sister, Shermaine Eugene, posted on a GoFundMe page that the dogs owner rammed his fist into the dogs mouth to get him to let go of the baby.

Eugene wrote that Jemma-Linda had a broken nose, punctured eye sockets, misplaced jawline, fractured cranium, a torn lip, brain puncture and a crack behind her ear.

Staff writer Teri Figueroa contributed to this report.

pauline.repard@sduniontribune

Twitter: @pdrepardThe harmful impacts of San Diegos homelessness crisis are clear to everyone in our community, service providers and citizens alike. San Diego has the fourth largest population of people who are homeless in the nation, with over 9,000 who have no place to call home on any given night. Few neighborhoods remain untouched by this issue. In response, the city of San Diego proposed a new Navigation Center to help people on the streets get connected to resources. Now, San Diegans are asking: What role will the Navigation Center play? How will it help?

At Father Joes Villages, we believe that the Navigation Center can bring positive change to San Diego  if its done right.

Weve all seen many business models evolve over the past decade. Traditionally, if you had a product you wanted to sell, you set up a store, advertised, and worked to bring customers to you. Now, changes in mobile technology and connectivity allow for a more distributed model. Rather than bringing the customers to your store, you bring your store to the customers through online retail, social media and mobile business.

While the same cant be applied to all facets of homeless services, it certainly can, and should, be applied here.

Advertisement

People are experiencing homelessness in every neighborhood of San Diego. Thats why, when the Navigation Center opens later this year, we should not be content to serve only those who walk through the front door. Specially trained staff should go out into the community and seek out those who may not otherwise find their way to the center. There are some significant advantages to organizing the work this way.

First, it allows us to offer services to those who cant or wont reach out for support. People who actively pursue services are often the ones easiest to help. They already possess the self-awareness, willingness and ability to seek support. Others, often facing undiagnosed mental illness or struggling with addiction, wont or dont know how to get help  even though they are often the ones who need it most.

In addition to offering coordinated services onsite, deploying teams of trained professionals into the community will reach those who would otherwise be left behind. This approach will grant many more individuals access to the tools they need to overcome their homelessness.

Secondly, we can stretch our existing resources. As the head of San Diegos largest homeless services provider, I can say without hesitation that the size of the homelessness crisis far outpaces the funds we have to solve it. But by sending trained staff into the community who go beyond the traditional outreach duties of engagement, we can begin the work of ending homelessness right there on the streets.

Staff can connect people to more readily available resources like employment programs, mental health services and treatment resources. They can stay connected with them, helping people navigate San Diegos housing placement system and rental market right into a place of their own.

Thirdly, this distributed model of care also helps to meet people in need where they are rather than requiring them to travel to any specific neighborhood. As a non-profit based in the rapidly-growing downtown neighborhood of East Village, we know firsthand how a given community can feel overwhelmed by the problem of homelessness. By focusing the Navigation Centers program on bringing homeless services to the people, rather than bringing the people to the services, we can take a community-wide approach to a community-wide problem. We believe this is the right way to operate the center.

At Father Joes Villages, we believe that the Navigation Center can have a positive impact on homelessness in the region, but only if outreach to those struggling with homelessness is a main focus. We urge our city leaders to consider carefully the way that they choose to implement this program so that it can be the best fit for all of its neighbors, housed and homeless alike.

Vargas is president and CEO of Father Joes Villages.4S Ranch resident Kelley Gusich will debut her two latest novels during a book signing next week at the 4S Ranch Library, but fans wont be seeing her identified by that name on either of the covers.

Her teen/young adult novel Down in the Belly of the Whale was published under her maiden name, Kelley Kay Bowles, while Poison by Punctuation  the second in her Chalkboard Outlines mystery series  is under the name Kelley Kaye. She said the latter is a cozy pen name her publisher said was needed for the book reminiscent of the Murder, She Wrote television show.

Both will be available for purchase  along with her first mystery novel  at the 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 16 book signing in the 4S Ranch Library, 10433 Reserve Drive. Gusich will also read excerpts from her latest two books and answer questions.

The mystery series revolves around high school English teacher Emma Lovett and fellow teacher Leslie Parker. The duo solves murders in Pinewood, Colorado and this time they investigate the death of a cheerleader. In the first novel, Death by Diploma, the school janitor met his demise.

Gusich said the books were not supposed to come out so close together  the mystery became available on April 24 and teen book on May 5  but there were unavoidable delays at the former books publisher, so it did not come out last November as originally scheduled.

As for Down in the Belly of the Whale it is a book that has been percolating for more than a dozen years and was selected recently by a new Carlsbad-based publisher when Gusich submitted the transcript in a contest it ran. She won a crystal vase for writing the Indy Book of the Year and received a publishing contract.

Gusich said she first started working on it in 2005 while staying in the Berkshire Mountains. Its title was inspired by the 80s song Belly of the Whale by Burning Sensation  a one-hit wonder, as she called it  about the Biblical story of Jonah. The feelings of isolation he experienced are similar to those teenagers often feel, she said.

Gusich said she uses her real life for inspiration in her novels. She is a former high school English and drama teacher (taught for 20 years) who lived in Colorado and has multiple sclerosis. That illness is a key plot point in the teen novel  also set in Colorado  along with other topics Gusich said she knows through research and experience many teens deal with in their lives. Among topics featured are cutting as a way to release pain, child molestation and rape by a relative, attempted suicide, a parent with a serious illness, homosexuality plus the usual teen angst caused by acne, crushes, isolation and a need to fit in among ones peers during high school.

The main characters are high school freshmen, so Gusich said she sees no problem with readers as young as 13 reading about such topics, but does advise parents of younger teens to look the book over first to determine if their child is mature enough for the subject matter.

There is a positive message in it and ... all the intense stuff is off stage, Gusich said. They talk about the molestation and you do not see the cutting (occur). This changes the feel of the book; makes it less scary since those elements are not within the book itself.

The main character, 15-year-old Harper Southwood, claims to be a troll or a changeling since  in her view  there is no way she could possibly be related to her parents. She also has a super power: an ability to psychically know someone near her is going to get sick due to her uncontrollable physical reactions.

Gusich said the paranormal is something that has long attracted her and I feel like life is hard, so wouldnt it be cool to have supernatural ability? ... Especially as an adolescent?

All her books are available online at retailers such as Amazon. Down in the Belly of the Whale is $11.99 for a paperback, $21.99 for hardcover and $5.99 for Kindle version. Poison by Punctuation is $12.99 for a paperback and $8.99 for Kindle.

Email: rbnews@pomeradonews.comThe students of Pomerado Elementary School received a lesson in music on Friday thanks to two free concerts by Eve Selis and Marc Twang Intravaia.

The students were split into kindergarten through third grade for the first concert and fourth- and fifth-graders for the second.

Selis and Intravaia sang several songs and educated their young audiences on musical concepts like tempo, rhythm, major and minor chords, as well as broader concepts like empathy.

The concerts were presented by Poway OnStage as part of its Arts in Education Initiative, which is a series of programs designed to provide music and theater to students who might not otherwise have exposure to it. The initiatives programs also include Introduction to Instruments concerts, held at local high schools for fourth-graders, and a week-long theater camp once a year for children.

Michael Rennie, the president of Poway OnStage, said the foundation brings concerts to Poway Unified School District schools about twice a year. In the past, the concerts have mainly been touring artists who had availability in their schedules. Bringing Selis and Intavaia, who are both San Diego-based artists, is a leap forward for the program, he said, as working with local artists will make it easier to schedule concerts.

Outside of fifth grade band, this is the only music education (Pomerado Elementary) students will get this year, said Rennie, as the school does not have a full-time music teacher. I hope this is the beginning of a lifelong love of music. I hope one of these kids goes home tonight and shows their parents they know what tempo is.

Selis said that she and Intravaia have performed an educational concert once before in Bakersfield, but this was the first time anyone in San Diego asked them to perform in a school. Its fun for us, Selis said. Its a great way to give back. We love what we do and we want to spark that love (in the students).

Laura Crow, principal of Pomerado Elementary School, said the concert was important because many of the students do not have opportunities to go to live performances. It exposes them not just to music, but to different careers, she said.

Email: news@pomeradonews.comIt is impossible to care about something if you do not first know that it even exists.

I recently learned there is something far worse than teenage homelessness going on locally. It is called human trafficking. And not unlike homelessness, there is a natural tendency to assume this is someone elses problem, something one might encounter in poor and less-developed countries. Not so. According to the district attorneys office, there are an estimated 8,000 victims of human trafficking in San Diego. It is the second largest illegal activity in the city, worth more than $800 million annually. It begs the question, what exactly is human trafficking?

In his informative Nov. 10, 2017 San Diego Union-Tribune opinion piece, James P. Rudolph, a San Diego attorney and former human rights officer at the U.S. State Department, writes human trafficking covers sex trafficking and forced labor. Its a crime involving the exploitation of someone through the use of force, fraud or coercion. Its natural to think of human trafficking exclusively as sex trafficking, but the definition includes domestic servitude or even forced labor in the fishing and agricultural industries, both of which have a presence in San Diego. Read his column. What he is describing is nothing short of modern-day slavery.

This naturally leads to additional questions, where do these people come from where are they going? While victims of human trafficking can come from pretty much anywhere, including the U.S, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime UNODC specifically lists Russia, Eastern Europe, China and Nigeria as the premier exporters of human chattel, closely followed by several counties in Africa, Asia and South and Central America. Sadly, the UNODC does go on to identify the U.S. as the leading New World importer of human property. Mores the pity.

And what is our government doing about this shameful truth? Rudolph writes about the State Departments so-called 3P paradigm approach to combatting human trafficking: prosecution, protection and prevention. There are also resources. Victims of slavery and human trafficking are protected under United States and California law and can contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center toll free, 24 hours a day, at 888-373-7888. The San Diego hotline is 619-666-2757.

It begs one final question. What can we do locally? Presently, there are no San Diego County organizations providing housing solely for minor victims of human trafficking. For that, we must turn to the faith-based organizations. One such organization is the Children of the Immaculate Heart. This is a San Diego non-profit whose only mission is to serve survivors of human trafficking. They currently have one housing and rehabilitation program for adult survivor women with children. This summer, they are hoping to open another facility for minor girls who are survivors of human trafficking. They intend to call it The Refuge. What a perfect name. If you would like to help with this worthy cause, please feel free to contact them at 619-431-5537. The website is childrenoftheimmaculateheart.com.

The Gospel according to John, Chapter 11, Verse 35, is sometimes referred to as the shortest sentence in the Bible. Two simple words that speak volumes. One cannot imagine any other words that even come close to describing the tragedy, pain and suffering the victims of this monstrous sin we call human trafficking must be experiencing every single day. People bought and sold. Jesus wept. So should we.

Cronin is a Poway resident and safety officer at MCAS Miramar.Opening-up to 'benefit UK, the world'

From:ChinaDaily | 2018-05-10 08:25

China's deepening reform and ongoing opening-up is set to generate new opportunities for the shared development of China and the United Kingdom, and for the wider world, China's ambassador to the UK said on Tuesday.

Addressing British and Chinese representatives from business and media enterprises at a convention in Bloomberg's European headquarters, Liu Xiaoming reaffirmed China's commitment to further open up its economy to foreign investors, and to ease restrictions on entities doing business with China.

Underlining the pivotal role of China's reform and opening-up policy, which was adopted 40 years ago, Liu said the policy has enabled China to embrace the rest of the world with open arms. GDP has rocketed, from $175 billion in 1977 to $12 trillion in 2017, registering a 68-fold increase at an average annual growth rate of 9.5 percent.

China's share of the world's GDP has also increased from 2 percent in 1977 to 15 percent in 2017.

Meanwhile, a total of 700 million Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty, thanks to the reform policies that have now entered what the ambassador called the "deep water zone".

He said China's economic development has been achieved in an open market, and its future development requires an even greater openness of markets, so China will open even wider to the outside world.

He said more open-market access and more import facilities will further benefit foreign businesses enjoying opportunities brought by the Chinese market and by the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the UK. [Photo/CHINA DAILY]

"We will implement the opening-up measures in banking, securities, insurance and other parts of the service sector," he said, adding that the Chinese government will also raise the limit on foreign ownership of joint-venture companies in the automobile, shipbuilding, and aircraft sectors.

The Shanghai-London Stock Connect will be launched by the end of the year, the ambassador said, reiterating China's commitment to further open its financial industry to foreign companies and institutions.

Robust China-UK "golden era" relations have entered a new stage, Liu said, adding that the UK remains China's second-largest trading partner in the European Union.

The fact that China also stands as the UK's second-largest trading partner outside the EU has prompted the ambassador to call for a better dovetailing of both nations' development strategies.

He urged both nations to remain committed to international trading systems and to uphold globalization, while opposing protectionism. Both Beijing and London need to work together for steady and sustainable China-UK relations, he said.

Liu also suggested the UK's industries better harness their expertise and talent in finance, banking, fintech and other areas to tap into the "huge potential in economy and trade between China and the UK".Vice-premier will head trade team

From:ChinaDaily | 2018-05-10 03:12

Vice-Premier Liu He will lead a Chinese delegation to the United States to discuss economic and trade issues at an appropriate time, following China's receipt of an invitation from US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday.

A spokesperson from the ministry confirmed that Chinese officials and officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump have been talking about the visit.

This would be the second high-level meeting since a bilateral trade dispute escalated in March. The first talks took place in Beijing on May 3 and 4.

Experts predicted that officials from both sides would discuss how to avoid the proposed tariff on $150 billion of China's exports. China has warned that $50 billion in US goods are targeted for tariffs and vowed to fight to the end.

"Even though the Trump administration proposed steep tariffs on Chinese imports worth $50 billion with its first list in late March, we have noticed that the US government endeavored to avoid putting daily necessities and household goods on the list to minimize the impact on its people's daily lives," said Mei Xinyu, a senior researcher at the Ministry of Commerce's Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Mei said the two economies are intensely interdependent and intertwined and it is inevitable that any protective trade measures will hurt their economies and global value chain.

Other issues, including technology transfers, investment environment, exchange rate, talent flows and intellectual property protection, may also be discussed, said Chen Wenling, chief economist at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

The fast growth of China's middle-income earners has become the biggest consumption market for the US. Healthy China-US business ties will not only bring benefits to both countries, but also to economies in the Asia-Pacific region and the world, said Jiang Shan, former director-general of the Ministry of Commerce's Department of American and Oceanian Affairs.

"China's development will not challenge the current world order, and the US shouldn't see China as a strategic opponent," Jiang said. "Only dialogue can resolve the problems."

Lyu Xiang, a researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said as pillar industries of the US and European Union are less complementary than those of the US and China, the next target of the Trump administration might be the EU.

Contact the writers at zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.Kathmandu, May 10

The Lalitpur Metropolitan City has proposed to bring electric buses and smart roadside lights.

The Metropolis has already started homework to operate the buses as per the public private partnership model.

As electric buses are environment friendly, we thought it will be beneficial for the cultural and touristic sites in Lalitpur, said spokesperson of the Metropolis, Raju Maharjan.

The City has also formed a committee to study the proposal and submit it to the working committee.

We will coordinate with Sajha Yatayat too. We can coordinate with other companies and operate the bus, added Maharjan.

An electric bus with all facilities can cost up to Rs 20 million. Though it is expensive, the maintenance cost is too cheap as compared to diesel buses. The battery lasts up to 12 years and does not need to be repaired frequently like other buses, stated Maharjan.

A recent study has showed that the use of electric buses can reduce pollution in Kathmandu Valley by one third.

Likewise, smart lights will be installed along major roads of Lalitpur. A study for the same has also begun, informed Mayor Chiribabu Maharjan.San Francisco, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/09/2018 -- Fluid warmer is a healthcare device which is utilized in hospitals and other healthcare centers to warm fluids, colloid, crystalloid, or blood product before being administered. The fluid is warmed to the body temperature to prevent hypothermia in surgical or physically traumatized patients.



Hypothermia is an illness caused by various factors for example, exposure to cold temperature, health condition, physical trauma, age, and surgical conditions. Acute hypothermia results in amnesia, loss of fine motor skills, and confusion. Blood warmer devices help reducing the complications while blood transfusion. This is the major factor fueling the demand in sample warmer market within the forecast period.



Request a sample copy of the Report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=3290



On the basis of sample type, the global blood warmer devices market is bifurcated into blood samples and other samples. Among those, the blood samples segment is anticipated to dominate the global market. Based on end user, the market is categorized into blood banks & transfusion centers, hospitals, and tissue banks. Out of these, the hospitals segment was calculated to hold the highest number of market share in year 2017. As per the product type, the segment comprise of surface warming system, intravenous warming system, and blood warming accessories. Surface warming system is foreseen to be highly adopted product in the global blood warmer devices market.



Blood Warmer Devices/Sample Warmer Market: Trends and Opportunities



Increase in number of people suffering from hypothermia, rise in number of surgeries, and increasing number of people suffering from trauma are some of the major factors fueling the demand for blood warmer devices market all over the world.. As per the report published in Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and the Health and Social Care Information Centre, the detection rate of hypothermia in the UK has risen notably during 2005 to 2014. Hence, there has been a surge in demand for blood warmer devices/sample warmers within the duration of forthcoming years. Another factor contributing in the rising demand for blood warmer devices is rise in demand for blood warming products, all across the globe. The increase in number of blood transfusion cases and rising demand for blood in medical treatments are some more drivers propelling the growth of sample warmer devices market.



Request TOC of the report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=3290



Blood Warmer Devices/Sample Warmer Market: Regional Outlook



On the basis of geography, the blood warmer devices market is segregated into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Rest of the World (RoW). Among these, North America is likely to lead the global market in 2017. This is owing to the drivers for example growing cases of hypothermia, increasing volume of surgical processes, and the surging number of trauma cases of blood warmer devices/sample warmer products in the region.



Blood Warmer Devices/Sample Warmer Market: Competitive Landscape



Healthcare industry is witnessing a lot of investment in various sectors, out of which blood warmer devices is one of the significant one. BD (US), 3M (US), The 37Company (Netherlands), Stryker (US), Geratherm Medical (Germany), Sarstedt (Germany), Stihler Electronic (Germany), Barkey (Germany), Belmont instrument (US), EMIT (US), and Biegler (Austria) are some of the key players dominating the blood warmer devices market. Several firms are working on coming up with more innovative and accurate results for these devices.



Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/blood-warmer-devices-sample-warmer-market



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.Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/09/2018 -- The key players in the global dental consumables market accounted for nearly 62% of share in the overall market. Dentsply Sirona, Henry Schein Inc., and Danaher Corporation have been on the forefront in the market because of the strategy of low pricing and outstanding recognition of the brand. These players in the market are expected to concentrate on mergers, takeovers, and joint ventures to enhance their overall presence the in the international market.



The global market for dental consumables stood at an overall valuation of US19.6 bn in the year 2015. This valuation is expected to grow and reach a figure worth US$33.4 bn by the fall of 2024. This growth of the market is expected to be achieved with the help of a strong CAGR of 6.1% over the course of the given forecast period of 2016 to 2024.



Of the various products available in the global market for dental consumables, the segment of crowns and bridges is projected to witness a promising growth during the given period of forecast. The segment is estimated to develop with an impressive CAGR of 7.2% over the course of the given forecast period of 2016 to 2024.



In terms of geography, the global market for dental consumables can be segmented into key regions such as North America, the Middle East and Africa, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Of these regions, Europe is expected to be the leading regional market thanks to the growing facilities of oral healthcare across different nations such as Greece, the U.K., Spain, and Italy among others. The Europe market for dental consumables is projected to account up to 41.1% of overall market share across the globe.



Request for Sample Copy of Report @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=554



New and Effective Methods of Treatment to Drive Market Growth



The emergence of new services such as dental tourism in emerging nations such as Hungary, Turkey, and India have augmented a huge demand for dental consumables over the last few years. The less expansive nature of oral health care services offered in these upcoming economies has attracted several customers over the last few years to take up dental treatment. The low cost of labor, enhanced and effective methods of treatment, and minimal intervention of government regarding healthcare companies in the emerging nations are expected to act in favor of driving the overall development of the global market for dental consumables in the coming years.



The growing success rates of dental implants, specifically for the upper jaw is also projected to play an important role in the overall growth of the global market for dental consumables. This has resulted in the increased adoption of several processes that make use of dental implants. The market is also benefitting from the increasing incidences of dental disorders such as gum decay, tooth decay, mouth sores, and tooth erosion. In addition to this, the high prevalence of chronic diseases have also helped in fuelling the growth of the market for dental consumables. The increasing disposable income in the developing nations and altering lifestyles have made patients prefer improved oral care treatment and thus, helping the growth of the market in the coming future.



Enquiry for discount on this report @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=D&rep_id=554



Expensive Treatment Costs with Poor Reimbursements to Impede Market Growth



The main restraining factor for the growth of the global market for dental consumables is considered to be the high costs of products due to heavy spending on the activities of research and development. Additionally, poor policies of reimbursement after the treatment are also expected to hamper the growth of market in the coming years.Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/09/2018 -- The report "Electric Traction Motor Market by Type (AC and DC), Power Rating (<200 kW, 200 kW to 400 kW, and >400 kW), Application (Railway, Electric Vehicles, Elevators, Conveyors, and Industrial Machinery), and Region - Global Forecast to 2023", The electric traction motor market is expected to grow from an estimated USD 12.41 Billion in 2018 to USD 28.51 Billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 18.10% during the forecast period. The market is set to witness significant growth due to the rising demand from railway sector and the increased demand for energy efficient motors. Moreover, the rising demand of electric vehicles offers promising business opportunity in the electric traction motor market.



Browse 61 market data Tables and 38 Figures spread through 129 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Electric Traction Motor Market by Type (AC and DC), Power Rating (<200 kW, 200 kW to 400 kW, and >400 kW), Application (Railway, Electric Vehicles, Elevators, Conveyors, and Industrial Machinery), and Region - Global Forecast to 2023"



Download PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=248269129



Early buyers will receive 10% customization on reports.



AC segment is expected to be the largest electric traction motor market segment, by type, in 2018.



The AC segment is expected to be the largest segment of the electric traction motor market, by type, in 2018. AC electric traction motors are widely used in the electric vehicles and railway application to provide propulsion and higher torque. Advantages of AC motor, such as less maintenance compared to DC motor, better speed acceleration, and higher efficiency are the key drivers for the growth of the AC electric traction motor market.



The <200 kW segment accounts for the largest share of the electric traction motor market, by power rating, during the forecast period.



The <200 kW segment is expected to be the largest, by power rating, from 2018 to 2023. The factors driving the market for electric traction motors with a rated power <200 kW include vast implementation of these motors in electric vehicles and light rail vehicles such as trams, monorail, trolley lines, and street cars.



Asia Pacific: The largest electric traction motor market during the forecast period.



In this report, the electric traction motor market has been analyzed with respect to five regions, namely, Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and South America. Asia Pacific is the largest electric traction motor market, by region, during the forecast period. Rising urbanization and proliferation of electrification, demand from the railway sector, and supportive government plans are expected to drive the market for electric traction motor in this region. China, India, and Japan are the leading countries contributing to the growth of the electric traction motor market in Asia Pacific.



To enable an in-depth understanding of the competitive landscape, the report includes the profiles of some of the top players in the electric traction motor market, such as CRRC (China), Alstom (France), TSA (Austria), Siemens (Germany), ABB (Switzerland), and Bosch (Germany).



Inquiry Before Buy @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=248269129



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, "Knowledgestore" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.



Contact:

Mr. Rohan

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA : 1-888-600-6441

sales@marketsandmarkets.comPune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/10/2018 -- Glass Additive Market  Overview



Glass Additive exhibit excellent properties and are predominantly utilized in various end use application such as packaging, electronics & appliances, automotive & transportation, building & construction, and others. The market is predicted to witness healthy growth owing to their utilization in numerous end use industries specifically in packaging, automotive, and building & construction industry. On the basis of the end use industry segment, automotive & transportation is expected to register strong growth followed by building & construction due to rising consumer's disposable income combined with expanding packaging industry in developing countries worldwide. Furthermore, growing automotive manufacturing base in emerging economies along with burgeoning need for durable material is predicted to fuel the growth of the market over the forecast period.



Geographically, Europe accounted for the leading market share for glass additive in 2016, followed by Asia Pacific which is further trailed by North America. The North American Glass Additive Market is expected to witness steady growth during the forecast period on account of substantial growth of household appliances and packaging sector in this region. In North America, the market is further classified into Canada and the U.S., out of these the U.S. is estimated to hold major regional market share of Glass Additive due to significant presence of prominent producers in this region.



Get Sample of Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/5140



Asia Pacific is predicted to witness fastest growth over the assessment period in glass additive market during 2017 to 2023. The demand for Glass Additive is predicted to raise in various economies of Asia Pacific such as Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Japan, India, and China on account of rising population along with shifting of production units for most of the significant market players in this region. In Europe, Glass Additive Market is estimated to register significant growth on account of shifting consumer preference towards the glass additive based products along with growing usage in various end use industries specifically in Germany, Spain, UK, and Russia. Furthermore, numerous countries of Latin America and the Middle East & Africa are estimated to witness moderate growth in glass additive due to increasing per capita disposable income coupled with sales of Glass Additive based product specifically in Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil combined with increasing commercial, institutional, and residential construction activities specifically in Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE.



Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:



August 2016- Owens Corning announced to invest around USD 110 million to expand their production capacity at its composites in India. The new operation is predicted to start operation in early 2018. This expansion will help company to meet the increasing demand for glass fiber across the globe.



November 2017- SABIC, one of the leading chemical company announced to launch a new high performance compound named as THERMOCOMP to meet the requirement for large additive manufacturing. This product launch will strengthen company's position across the globe.



Competitive Landscape



The Glass Additive Report has analysed the level of competition among the key operating players in glass additive market as well as sector growth and market scenario. The global glass additive market composed of large number of suppliers operating in the market which includes large scale and medium scale manufacturers. The noticeable manufacturers of glass additive and medium level producers which has strong hold in the market have shifted their focus towards growth association specifically by Asia Pacific as small level and medium level suppliers belongs to this region specifically from South Korea, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, the Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, and Japan. Furthermore, the key manufacturers of glass additive are observed to follow various strategic plans to improve their product portfolio such as distribution agreements, joint ventures, product launches, strategic acquisition and mergers, and exclusive agreements. Various prominent producers in this market are estimated to expand their production capacity of glass additive to meet the growing demand for Glass Additive Worldwide.



Access Complete Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/glass-additives-market-5140Brooklyn, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/09/2018 -- The global Next Generation Display market is expanding on account of various factors which are extremely important to find out in order to understand the growth prospects of the global Next Generation Display market. The report aims to strengthen the decision-making power of readers, potential investors, and new entrance while also helping the well-established ones to make smart decisions. It gives information regarding the financial performance of various leading companies which exist by offering various important aspects of their working such as the business and financial overview, recent accomplishments, information on their strategy mergers and Acquisitions, apart from others. The challenges faced by them as well as the steps taken by them to overcome these challenges are also revealed in the report.



This report studies the global Next Generation Display market status and forecast, categorizes the global Next Generation Display market size (value & volume) by manufacturers, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top manufacturers in United States, Europe, China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and other regions.



For more info, get sample report for FREE here: https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1717671&type=S



The major manufacturers covered in this report

Samsung Electronics

Sony

LG

Philips

Universal Display Corporation (UDC)

Nova

Kyocera

...



The study objectives of this report are:



To analyze and study the global Next Generation Display capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);

Focuses on the key Next Generation Display manufacturers, to study the capacity, production, 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 market

To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market

To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.



Read Complete Table of Content of the Report at: https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-next-generation-display-market-research-report-2018.htm/toc



Table of Contents



Global Next Generation Display Market Research Report 2018

1 Next Generation Display Market Overview

1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Next Generation Display

1.2 Next Generation Display Segment by Type (Product Category)

1.2.1 Global Next Generation Display Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)

1.2.2 Global Next Generation Display Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2017

1.2.3 OLED

1.2.4 LCD

1.3 Global Next Generation Display Segment by Application

1.3.1 Next Generation Display Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)

1.3.2 Consumer Electronics

1.3.3 Defense and Aerospace

1.3.4 Automotive

1.3.5 Industrial

1.3.6 Medical



2 Global Next Generation Display Market Competition by Manufacturers

2.1 Global Next Generation Display Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)

2.1.1 Global Next Generation Display Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)

2.1.2 Global Next Generation Display Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)

2.2 Global Next Generation Display Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)

2.3 Global Next Generation Display Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)

2.4 Manufacturers Next Generation Display Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type

2.5 Next Generation Display Market Competitive Situation and Trends

2.5.1 Next Generation Display Market Concentration Rate



3 Global Next Generation Display Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)

3.1 Global Next Generation Display Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)

3.2 Global Next Generation Display Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)

3.3 Global Next Generation Display Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)

3.4 Global Next Generation Display Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)

3.5 United States Next Generation Display Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)

3.6 Europe Next Generation Display Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)

...



About QYResearchReports

QYResearchReports 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 feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.



Contact Us:

Brooklyn, NY 11230

United States

Toll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)

Tel: +1-518-618-1030

Web: http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comYak herders from Bhutan, Nepal, and the Tibetan Autonomous Region in China met with reindeer herders from Norway and Russia and found surprising commonalities in the challenges they face, especially climate change.

Imagine that youve never left your home village, that you speak only your native language, and that you suddenly find yourself travelling over 8,300 kilometres across the globe. For Yuden Pem this became a reality. She travelled from her village in the Haa district of Bhutan to Troms, a town in the northern part of Norway. Together with two other yak herders from the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region, she came to explore the potential of cross regional cooperation with representatives from the Arctic reindeer community.

Reindeer herders and yak herders can be found at the highest latitudes and altitudes on the earth. Their communities are the home of valuable natural resources and precious biodiversity and the location of vast areas of snow and ice, reserves of water that are vanishing with climate change. Although living continents apart in vastly different regions, both communities are experiencing changes in their livelihoods due to climate change, globalization and socioeconomic changes. Thus, there was a motivation for the herders to come together to explore commonalities and linkages, and to see if, through their deepened understanding of one another and through cooperation, they might be better equipped to address the challenges they are facing.

Dialogue between the yak and reindeer herders took place at the Arctic Frontiers in Troms at the end of January 2018. The conference offers an international platform for cooperation and sustainable development in the Arctic, bringing together representatives from government, academia and business.

For the past few years, institutions and individuals from the HKH have been involved in cooperative activities and in exploring commonalities with institutions and individuals in the Arctic. A growing Himalayan University Consortium brings together many universities from the HKH, and is also connected with the University of the Arctic. In developing the Himalayan Monitoring and Assessment Programme (HIMAP), advice was drawn from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme. And there is ample scope for scientific collaboration.

The eight countries of the Arctic have benefitted from an Arctic Council. At the Arctic Frontiers, the sharing of lessons learned from the Arctic experience helped representatives from the HKH to see if those lessons could be applied to the Himalayas. Perhaps the time is right for something like a Himalayan Council to emerge.

Similarities and common issues

Despite the fact that the herders did not speak a common language, the aim of the session was to create a dialogue and to build bridges across communities dealing with uncertain futures. The session was organised jointly by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry (ICR), the UARCTIC EALAT Institute and GRID-Arendal.

Together with Yuden Pem, Shilp Kumar Rai from Nepal and Changlin Xu from the Tibetan Autonomous Region in China represented the Himalayan yak herders. The reindeer community was represented by Ravdna Biret Marja from Norway, and Sergey Kharuchi plus Mikhail Pogodaev from Russia. One of the common issues experienced by all the herders was the loss of grazing land. Reasons differed, but the redistribution of land for industrial reasons or for conservation, the establishment of national parks, and the impacts of climate change were the most prominent.

A common challenge shared by the herders was the declining involvement of young people in this traditional livelihood option. Within both the reindeer and yak herding communities, herding skills and knowledge have been handed down through generations, and the traditional way of life is very much a part of their identities. Now, however, globalization and urbanization provide new opportunities, and the younger generation choose to find different paths not related to traditional pastoralism. Another issue raised by the herders was the difficulty in marketing their products. Reindeer meat is expensive compared to other types of meat, and market competition is much tougher now than before, resulting in the herders having to sell more meat to generate the same income. The yak herders also noted that many of their traditional products, especially those made from yak milk, are losing their popularity.

Climate change was a recurring theme throughout the session and all the herders underlined that it was impacting the stability of their livelihoods. Indeed, at the forefront of climate change challenges are the pastoralists at high latitude and high elevation. In the rangelands of the high north and high mountains, temperatures are rising faster than the worlds averages, the natural dynamics of ecosystems are changing and so too the grazing lands of yaks and reindeers. Although located in different parts of the world, it was an issue about which all herders felt strongly.

The commonalities were striking, but clear differences between the situations of Arctic-based reindeer herders and HKH-based yak herders are also there. Industrialization has reduced the area available for the Arctic-based reindeer herders in many places, but it is a lack of industrial development that is an issue for the HKH-based yak herders. Because yaks only live in high altitudes, herding communities often reside in remote and inaccessible areas which lack basic infrastructure like roads and electricity.

The future for cooperation

Despite the lack of a common language the Arctic Frontiers session provided a valuable platform for dialogue between herding communities. There was mutual agreement among the herders that knowledge exchange and the sharing of experiences and concerns was highly valuable. The session not only made clear the idea that climate change knows no borders and that it is a problem affecting communities worldwide, but also it highlighted that there are many similarities in the ways people in very different places are affected.

Facilitating connections between indigenous communities helps to amplify voices from the mountains. We found at the meeting that yak herders and reindeer herders, despite living worlds apart, easily connected with each other. Perhaps their combined wisdom and voice will both help in finding solutions and in voicing concerns to the global community, where action around climate change is moving far too slowly to make a dent in temperature rise.

Hanna Lnning Gjerdi works for The Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP) at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

The article was first published on The Third Pole. Read the original article.San Diego, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/10/2018 -- The Whistleblower Institute announces that Chicago area home health care companies allegedly Defrauded medicare out of millions of dollars.



Those who have a similar case or experienced a similar situation or any other wrongdoing within a corporation have certain options and should contact the Whistleblower Institute at mail@whistleblowerinstitute.com or call: 619-4521218. There are no costs or obligations to you.



According to the government, allegedly, Docs at the Door P.C., owned by Ajibola Ayeni, and Gateway Health Systems Inc., and its owners, Ajibola Ayeni, and Joy H. Turner-Ayeni, defrauded the United States by submitting false claims to Medicare.



Allegedly, Gateway Health Systems Inc and its owners received Medicare payments for home health services purportedly rendered to homebound individuals who were not actually in need of such services. Additionally, Docs at the Door P.C. allegedly falsely certified the non-homebound individuals as in need of home-health services, and fraudulently "upcoded" home physician visits to the second highest billing level in order to increase compensation from Medicare.



Reportedly, Docs at the Door and Gateway each claimed and were paid millions of dollars for services purportedly provided to Medicare beneficiaries. At the direction of the Ayenis, the companies created false documentation to cover up the fact they were claiming services not rendered, as well as services that were not medically necessary because the beneficiaries were not confined to the home. The Ayenis' fraud scheme netted them millions of dollars in federal health care funds to which they were not entitled, the suit states. Also, the government contends that the Ayenis attempted to conceal certain assets from the government after learning of the investigation.



The government complaint arose from a lawsuit filed under seal in 2013 under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act which permits a private person to file a lawsuit on behalf of the government and to share in any recovery.



Based in Illinois, Gateway Health Systems Inc is a home health agency and Docs At The Door Inc is a primary care center.



The Whistleblower Institute is an information portal for current or former employees and other people having insight information about wrongdoing and other illegal activities by individuals either individually or within corporations, through company culture and or within international affairs. Whistleblowers should keep in mind that under the Dodd-Frank Act any person who provides the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") with original information that leads to a successful enforcement action with over $1 million recovered must be awarded between 10%-30% of the total amount recovered. In order to determine the total amount of the reward there are numerous factors that need to be considered. Whistleblower actions are complex and our goal is to guide any whistleblower every step of the way. The Whistleblower Institute is dedicated to partnering with any individual who have information about fraud and we work with many of the best law firms worldwide.



Those who have a similar case or experienced a similar situation or any other wrongdoing within a corporation have certain options and should contact the Whistleblower Institute.



Contact:

Whistleblower Institute

2534 State Street - Suite 406

San Diego, CA 92101, USA

Phone: +1 (619) 4521218

Facsimile: +1 (619) 785  3185

Email: mail@whistleblowerinstitute.com



The material was prepared by the Whistleblower Institute for informational purposes only and is not legal or financial advice. The information is provided only as general information which may or may not reflect the most currently available public information, is not provided as a basis for any established or existing relationship, and is not intended to constitute legal or financial advice, or to substitute for obtaining such advice from an attorney or other advisor licensed in your state.San Francisco, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/09/2018 -- Neonatal phototherapy devices are medical devices which are used for the treatment of neonatal jaundice. Why is conventional phototherapy devices are most commonly made use of in photo therapy, new little phototherapy devices have benefits such as improved lifespan and ease of connectivity to incubators. Traditional phototherapy devices on the other hand are more affordable and hands more commonly used. Nevertheless during the forecast period, it is anticipated that the global new needle for the therapy devices Market will witness a considerable growth.



The different types of neonatal phototherapy devices available in the markets today are traditional phototherapy lamps, flexible phototherapy lamps, and phototherapy beds. It is expected that the launching of new products will bolster the growth of the global United phototherapy devices Market.



Request a sample copy of the Report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=3293



Neonatal Phototherapy Devices Market: Drivers and Trends



One of the key factors boosting the demand for neonatal phototherapy devices is the growing prevalence of neonatal jaundice. The increasing adoption of technology advanced medical devices as well as rising expenditure on Healthcare are some of the other factors that are assisting the neonatal phototherapy devices market to grow in various parts of the world. The growing initiative taken by governments to improve health care for new-borns and children will also ate the growth of this market. In addition to this the rising demand for effective treatment for neonatal jaundice, will subsequently drive the demand for neonatal phototherapy devices. Hospitals and Homecare settings are two of the end users of neonatal phototherapy devices.



There are a few factors which are hindering the growth of the global United phototherapy devices Market. One of the factors acting as a challenge is the stringent regulatory policies associated with product approvals. Loan approval rating time is acting as a challenge and restricting the growth of this Market. In addition to this the unavailability of new natal phototherapy devices especially in rural areas will also hamper the growth of this Market. Moreover, a lack of skilled professionals also pose a challenge.



Request TOC of the report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=3293



Neonatal Phototherapy Devices Market: Regional Analysis



Geographically, the global United phototherapy devices Market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. Of these the growth of the neonatal photo therapy devices Market is highest in North America on account of constant Innovation as well as adoption of Advanced Technologies as well as awareness among the people. The presence of sophisticated Healthcare infrastructure in North America is another key factor behind the growth of the market in this region. Europe is another key market for new devices on account of several initiatives taken by government as well as major Innovative products introduced by manufacturers in Europe. In the years to come, it is expected that asia-pacific will emerge as a lucrative market for neonatal phototherapy devices on account of the rising birth rate in countries such as China and India as well as advancements in the healthcare infrastructure in this region. Similarly Latin America is also expected to be a lucrative regional market in the years to come on account of the adoption of new technologies as well as an increase in the health care spending.



Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @ https://www.tmrresearch.com/neonatal-phototherapy-devices-market



Companies Mentioned:



Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Netherlands), Natus Medical Incorporated (U.S.), Novos Medical Systems (Turkey), General Electric Company (U.S.), Atom Medical Corporation (Japan), Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA (Germany), Phoenix Medical Systems Pvt. Ltd (India), Medela AG (Switzerland), BabyBloom Healthcare BV (Netherlands).



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.Largest cruise ship ever to call Havana

The 102,853gt Carnival Sunshine will offer the first Cuba sailings from Charleston, and become the largest cruise ship ever to call Havana.

Other added departures include Carnival Triumph from Fort Lauderdale, Carnival Paradise from Tampa and Carnival Victory and Carnival Sensation from Miami.

These new sailings complement previously announced voyages aboard Carnival Paradise and Carnival Sensation.

With the newly added voyages, Carnival will offer a wide variety of Havana departures across a broad spectrum of ships and itineraries.

Nine cruises from Charleston

From Charleston, Carnival Sunshine on Nov. 21, 2019, will offer a four-day cruise with a day-long call in Havana, along with eight five-day cruises featuring Havana and Freeport departing Jan. 6, Feb. 3 and 17, March 2, 16 and 30 and April 13, and 27, 2020.

Nine choices from Port Everglades

From Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades, Carnival Triumph will sail eight five-day cruises featuring an overnight call in Havana and a day-long call in Nassau departing Dec. 14, 2019, and Jan. 11, Feb. 8 and 22, March 7 and 21, and April 4 and 18, 2020. A five-day cruise featuring a Havana overnight and private island Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas sails Jan. 20, 2020.

Miami sailings with Havana overnights

From Miami, Carnival Victory on Nov. 22, 2019, will offer a three-day voyage with a day in Havana. Carnival Sensation's March 19, 2020 four-day cruise features an overnight in Havana and an extended visit to Nassau. Two five-day sailings with Havana overnights and visits to Freeport and Nassau depart Feb. 15 and 29, 2020.

More Tampa

Tampa-based Carnival Paradise added a five-day voyage Nov. 18, 2019, with a Havana overnight and a stop at Key West.Lawyers from Seward & Kissel (S &K), in a bulletin, explain that all US sanctions in place prior to the JCPOA are to be re-implemented no later than 4 November 2018 - with some coming back into effect earlier.

Since crude oil is the major commodity linked to Iran, barrels of crude play a major role in the story. With the US being a major nexus for insurance and reinsurance, the renewed sanctions will drive such activities to the London, European or Asian markets for owners of vessels, or traders of Iran-linked cargoes, if they not already.

At the time of the prior deal, enacted when oil prices were in freefall and supply build was rampant, Iranian crude oil exports, which had dwindled down to 1m barrels per day (bpd) quickly ramped back up to levels approaching 3m bpd. These were boom times for the tanker markets, as forward curves encouraged the marketplace to store crude oil.

Read More: Demand for Iranian crude shipments doubled since sanctions lifted

This time around, the commodity environment is markedly different from that in 2015 - forward curves are sloping downward - with spot WTI above $71 per barrel, and lower prices in subsequent years. Geo-political worries - notably concerning Venezuela but also Saudi Arabia - come at a time when developed country demand is high- with the forward curves implying that the party may not last. Short term, though- the oil will move.

Monthly offtake of crude and condensates from Iran from Clipper Data

Brokers Cowen & Company, who closely follow the energy sector, and its listed equities, said, in a report to clients: While the US imports no oil from Iran directly, companies with key US assets or headquarters could be affected by unilateral sanctions. The volume of Iranian crude exports to major integrated oil companies, however, is relatively small, and it is likely that renewed US sanctions have a much smaller impact on oil supply than the pre-nuclear deal sanctions. Integrated oil companies, which could fall victim at the sharp end of US sanctions, imported an incredibly small percentage of Iranian seaborne exports, Cowen, using data from Clipper, pegged this at under 5% of exported barrels. Moves to Asia have exceeded 60% or Iranian barrels in recent years.

At the high level, expect an even higher proportion of Iranian barrels going eastwards. S & K explains that: Sanctions on petroleum-related transactions with, among others, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO), and National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), including the purchase of petroleum, petroleum products, or petrochemical products from Iran.

There are important implications on the tanker front. Where major multinational oil companies, or other entities with a US nexus, which we can let the lawyers define, are chartering tankers, sanctions compliant vessels will be required.

Floating storage less of a factor

Oil storage is less of a factor than three years ago - with the implication that Irans tanker fleet would be available to handle its cargo moves - which was not the case in 2015 when most were tied up in floating storage. Indeed, analyst Fotis Giannakoulis, at Morgan Stanley, noted that Floating storage in the Middle East is now 12.2m barrels below a year ago, a staggering ~75% YoY decline. Thus, vessels now hauling Iranian crude may cease doing so- to assuage owners fears of being caught out by the new round of U.S. sanctions, but unlike 2015, there is ample Iranian flag tonnage to fill the void.While many of the worlds largest ports sink huge investments into being able to handle 20,000 teu containerships, Diane Edwards, WISTA international secretary and general manager (people, systems and technology) for the Port of Auckland said she believed containerisation would decrease over the next few years.

Speaking at the WISTA Conference Singapore 2018, Edwards said that people were still thinking of 3D printing in very traditional terms such as manufacturing spare parts for ships, but she sees a much its use spreading much wider as a disruptive technology once its adopted by consumers.

Read More: 3D printing to revolutionise ship supply sector

Edwards, who also specialises in change management, noted that from its introduction eight years ago the 3D printer was available in shops just three years later and now were being used to manufacture goods wholesale all around.

Container shipping has thrived with the production of goods in countries with low cost labour shipping finished goods to consumers in developed countries. Potentially when everyone has a 3D printer in their back yard they wont want to ship from around the world.

Should people start manufacturing consumer goods at home this could be very bad news for container shipping. I think 3D printing is one of those disruptive technologies that is going to decimate containerisation in 20 years.

It would be good news for bulk shipping though as 3D printing would increase the demand for raw materials.

Also on the panel was Eugene Khoo, senior assistant director (Tuas Port development) for the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), working on building the worlds largest single container port with a projected capacity of 65m teu. Khoo questioned the lack economies of scale of 3D printing which have driven large scale, global manufacturing. He said they had been closely monitoring 3D printing but were yet to see results.Automation Alley is working to prepare Michigan for the next industrial revolution. A new report should help Michigan manufacturers better understand their case.



The nonprofit technology and manufacturing business association is celebrating the release of its annual Technology in Industry Report, its eleventh year doing so.



The Oakland County-based organization believes that the world is in the midst of its fourth industrial revolution, or what Automation Alley refers to as Industry 4.0. Manufacturing is being disrupted by technology, and if Michigan is to remain a manufacturing center, it's going to have to embrace these technologies early on.



According to Automation Alley, there are eight transformative technologies changing the way we manufacture things: the Industrial Internet of Things, robotics, artificial intelligence, Big Data, cloud computing, cybersecurity, advanced materials and additive manufacturing, and modeling, simulation, visualization and immersion.



Among its findings, the Technology in Industry Report concludes that one key to succeeding in Industry 4.0 is Big Data, and using it to predict future trends by utilizing real-time intelligence to understand todays trends, and not yesterdays.



Other findings include:

While some jobs may be eliminated due to technological changes, other jobs will be created. Its up to manufacturers to re-skill and up-skill its labor force to stay competitive.

North America is well behind both China and Europe in embracing Industry 4.0. Tier 2, Tier 3, and smaller manufacturers are especially behind.

Future workers must develop people skills, nurture conceptual and futuristic thinking, and embrace continuous learning in order to succeed in Industry 4.0.

Automation Alley isnt new to Industry 4.0. In a 2016 profile, Tom Kelly, executive director of Automation Alley, told Metromode that Industry 4.0 should impact southeastern Michigan jobs even more so than autonomous vehicles.



The key is to embrace it now before its too late, according to Kelly.



"We are positioned well to win the next battle. Stop fighting the battle from yesterday. That's over. But now, with the digitization of everything, we can win. So let's run like crazy down that path," says Kelly. "We're in great shape to do that."



Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraith.Pilgrim Haven Natural Area is ready for the public. A grand opening of the natural area is set for 3:30 p.m. Saturday, May 12. The event is hosted by the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy and South Haven Area Recreation Authority Pilgrim Haven Natural Area is a 27-acre nature preserve on the Lake Michigan shoreline in South Haven. It is one of the largest remaining natural areas on Lake Michigan and features almost 800 linear feet of beach, a stretch of Dyckman Creek running through a forested upland, and a critical dune habitat.The public is invited to enjoy the area 365 days a year from dawn to dusk. It features an accessible parking lot, a barrier-free walkway to the beach including a mob mat to accommodate wheelchairs and strollers. The is also an electric gate entrance to Pilgrim Haven.The grand opening event will mark the transfer of management and maintenance of the natural area from SWMLC to SHARA. SHARA will take over the daily management and maintenance of the preserve. We anticipate the next phase will begin sometime this fall, says Ross Stein, SHARA Chair, and South Haven Charter Township Supervisor.SWMLC retains ownership and will continue to care for the natural areas on the preserve. It will focus on the ecology of the forests understory and the protection of the dune.Officials from SHARA will also share the next phase of improvements planned to make the preserve.Pilgrim Haven was donated to the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy in 2011 by the late Suzanne Upjohn Delano Parish. She purchased the property in 1985 to ensure that it would remain open space forever. This property formerly served the community as a camp for over 70 years, and it is well-known and beloved by many Michigan residents who visited the property as campers.SWMLCs continuing management of Pilgrim Haven Natural Area is supported by the Friends of Pilgrim Haven Natural Area Endowment Fund at the South Haven Community Foundation.We are extremely pleased to be able to share Pilgrim Haven, and now with the new public access improvements completed through the partnership with SHARA, the vision SWMLC established with broad community input is now fulfilled, says SWMLC Executive Director Pete Ter Louw.Source: Southwest Michigan Land ConservancyBe back soon!

This website is under maintenance.Check back tomorrow!

*If youre the owner of this website and have questions, reach out to Bluehost. Were happy to help.Keytone Dairy Corp, which owns a dairy factory in Christchurch, has launched a prospectus to raise up to A$15 million and list on the Australian Securities Exchange via an initial public offering.

It is aiming to raise A$12 million or up to A$15 million with oversubscriptions to facilitate a listing on the ASX through the issue of 60 million (up to 75 million with oversubscriptions) shares at an issue price of 20 Australian cents apiece, with the offer due to close on June 1. Peloton Capital is the lead manager for the sale.

Once listed, the company will have a market capitalisation of A$30 million, based on the IPO issue price and after the maximum subscription of A$15 million is raised, it said in a statement.

Keytone Dairy was created last September to acquire Keytone Enterprises, which is incorporated in New Zealand, and to manage and operate Keytones business.

In April it entered an exchange deed with the current shareholders of Keytone to acquire 100 percent of the issued share capital in consideration for the issue of an aggregate of 75,000,000 shares and 49,500,000 performance shares.

If the full oversubscriptions are raised the current shareholders will own approximately 50 percent of the shares. According to the Companies' Office, shareholders include New York-based investor Bergen Asset Management's Long Hill Capital, which has 44 percent, chief operating officer Vivienne Cheung, with 34 percent, managing director James Gong, with 16.8 percent and general counsel Richard Fyers, with 5 percent.

Keytone built a state-of-the-art dry powder facility in Sockburn in 2013, where it blends and packages milk powder, sheep milk powder, kiwifruit milk powder and lactoferrin under its own brands as well as manufacturing a range of powdered dairy products for supermarkets and other customers under their own private label brands. The company last year bought two adjacent sites in the Izone Industrial Park in Rolleston where it plans to build new manufacturing facilities enabling it to expand into new products and markets.

Funds raised from the IPO will be used to expand its manufacturing base from its one existing facility, substantially expand its product range into complementary high-margin, value-added products, expand its existing distribution network and develop distribution in additional geographic markets.

We believe that the ASX listing will turbocharge Keytone Dairys growth. Keytone Dairy has already purchased land for two new manufacturing facilities it plans to build, in addition to its purpose-built existing Christchurch facility," Australian-based non-executive chair Bernard Kavanagh said in a statement.

He previously told BusinessDesk that the company chose a listing in Australia over New Zealand because its key shareholder was already familiar with the ASX market and saw more opportunity for tapping investors in Australia.

Keytone Dairy holds a China Certification and Accreditation Administration (CNCA) license, a pre-requisite for the importation of dairy products into the Peoples Republic of China. It is also Halal-certified, enabling exports into Muslim countries.

Keytone Dairys products are exported globally, including to China, for sale in a variety of channels, including major supermarket chains, premium retail channels and online marketplaces.

(BusinessDesk)

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Related News:

8th October 2021 Morning Report

Briscoe Group Limited (NZX: BGP) Interim Report for Period Ended 1 August 2021

Good Spirits Hospitality Limited (NZX: GSH) Completion of Lease of Viaduct Venue

7th October 2021 Morning Report

Just Life Group Limited (NZX: JLG) Acquisition of Intenza New Zealand and Market Update

Experience Comvita's Story of Innovation and Connection at World Expo 2020 Dubai

National Day of Vaccination Backed by Business

The a2 Milk Company Limited (NZX: ATM) The a2 Milk Company to Defend Class Action

6th October 2021 Morning Report

NZME Limited (NZX: NZM) Market Update - COVID-19 Impacts

A black market in cattle sales and a lack of compliance with the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) regime by farmers is hampering the Ministry for Primary Industries' efforts to respond to Mycoplasma bovis, which is now New Zealand's largest animal surveillance issue.

"We do have, unfortunately, quite a black market of cows sold for cash," Geoff Gwyn, director of readiness and response at the Ministry for Primary Industries, told the primary production committee at the parliament today. "We're looking at bank records, taking affidavits."

Gwyn and other MPI officials were giving a briefing on the disease to the select committee. Head of Biosecurity New Zealand Roger Smith said it had been "a very challenging incursion response" because of the level of non-authorised stock movements and modern farm practices which meant cows were frequently moved to where the grass was best.

It was also a challenge because unlike a disease such as foot and mouth, there could be little outward sign of infection, and may display as a secondary illness such as mastitis or pneumonia, he said. "It's a very difficult disease to find. You could have perfectly healthy animals that showed no signs" of the disease. Definitive testing took 60 days unless the animal was dissected. "You have to take the head off the animal."

As of the start of this month, MPI had paid a total of $3.3 million in compensation to 22 farmers and has previously estimated the outbreak could cost about $95 million in tracking and tracing the spread of the disease and paying compensation to farmers, of which $60 million was the anticipated claims liability.

Some 22,000 cows are being culled, with about 11,000 animals destroyed so far. As of today, 38 farms were actively infected, 77 were under a restricted place notice and 225 were under notice of direction, a slightly lesser restriction. Almost 1,700 properties were deemed of interest because of risk events or because they were adjacent to infected properties.

Developments in the past six days had been a game changer in terms of the spread of the disease with confirmed infection in North Canterbury - a new region - and on a second North Island at near Pahiatua.

"In the last six days the spread has been totally above all expectations," Smith said. "Six days ago we had 129 properties under some sort of regulation control - in the last six days, we have moved that to 299."

Based on genotyping work, all the infections were the same strain of Mycoplasma bovis, with three clusters of infection within the network. While MPI understood that farmers wanted to maximise the value of their cows and grass, "it is fair to say not all stock movements are being well-documented," Smith said. In particular, there was a poor record of NAIT tracing of calf movements "and calves are a vector for the disease."

In some cases a farmer would have a record of a calf being born but no information on where it went. "If they have gone to the dairy herd, they may show up (with the disease) in three years," he said.

Tracing puts December 2015 as the earliest date of introduction to New Zealand. There was currently no conclusive evidence what pathway it took, Gwyn said, adding that in his experience it would be difficult to identify its origin overseas. Because the disease was endemic in other countries and not considered a particular threat, MPI's counterparts in other countries didn't have the same DNA databases that they tended to hold for diseases such as Foot and Mouth, he said.

MPI is currently working on recommendations from a review of NAIT and expects to make recommendations on the best way to respond to Mycoplasma bovis in coming weeks. While all options were still on the table, developments in recent days meant MPI was looking more seriously at long-term management and containment, rather than eradication.

Acting committee chair and former MPI minister Nathan Guy said at the briefing that some meat processors were charging $200 per animal to process infected cattle, which Gwyn said reflected the requirement for decontamination at the plant. Guy also asked whether MPI could provide a "letter of intent" to rural lenders worried about the weakened finances of an infected farm, but Smith said while the ministry was happy to meet with a farmer and their bank, it wouldn't provide a letter because of potential liabilities before compensation was set.

Gwyn said he wasn't aware of any restricted farm being foreclosed by its bank, to which Guy said: "Well, the caveat is yet."

Asked after the briefing to elaborate on the black market trade, Gwyn said it was "a small minority of farmers that sell calves for cash - so there's no record."

The MPI officials said the about 1 million cows are culled each year so the primary sector could cope with 22,000 being culled for this disease. It was no more than the cull that might occur in a drought. MPI was aiming to give affected farmers room the replace infected animals as quickly as possible to restore their cash flow.

(BusinessDesk)

Comments from our readers

No comments yet

Add your comment:

Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process.

Related News:

8th October 2021 Morning Report

Briscoe Group Limited (NZX: BGP) Interim Report for Period Ended 1 August 2021

Good Spirits Hospitality Limited (NZX: GSH) Completion of Lease of Viaduct Venue

7th October 2021 Morning Report

Just Life Group Limited (NZX: JLG) Acquisition of Intenza New Zealand and Market Update

Experience Comvita's Story of Innovation and Connection at World Expo 2020 Dubai

National Day of Vaccination Backed by Business

The a2 Milk Company Limited (NZX: ATM) The a2 Milk Company to Defend Class Action

6th October 2021 Morning Report

NZME Limited (NZX: NZM) Market Update - COVID-19 Impacts

The elementary school student's artwork was among 53 chosen over thousands of other entries in a contest run by Google. The contest was open to students across the US.

Insha Kittur, a fourth-grade student of Indian origin, made her Half Day School proud when she was declared State Winner for Illinois in the 'Doodle 4 Google' contest.

This year's theme was 'What inspires me?' and Kittur's doodle was titled Paradise of Knowledge. Her doodle shows a picture of an idea light bulb, a globe, backpack, books and other items that formed the word Google.

"Books inspire me as they take me to a very different world. They inspire me to discover the creativity of art, importance of history, the mystery of math, beauty of science, and let me know how this wonderful world works," Kittur said.

The finalists will be narrowed down to a group of five by a fan vote on https://doodles.google.com/d4g/.

The winner will receive a $30,000 college scholarship, and the winner's school will receive a $50,000 grant from Google. The national winner will be named in June and their artwork will appear on the Google homepage for a day.

To see a full list of state winners and to vote for Insha's creation online, visit: google.com/doodle4google/vote.html.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The NYPD arrested and charged a man Wednesday in connection to a West Brighton home invasion that occurred Monday.

Kenneth Turkus, 29, was taken into custody at the intersection of North Burgher and Morrison Avenues around around 1:30 p.m., a spokesman for the NYPD said.

Authorities allege he broke into a home on the 400 block of Davis Avenue, and forced the 84-year-old resident into a closet, which he locked.

"I have a cat that I feed, so I came in here and put the broom down to get the food," the victim told the Advance on Monday.

"And when I turned around, there was this man there. At first, I thought it was my nephew. But then, when I saw him, I asked, 'what are you doing in my house?'"

The man ran at her. "I started screaming and he knocked me down," she said.

Police said Turkus was in possession of a knife when he broke into the woman's home.

"He picked me up, and I said I don't have any money on me, it's upstairs," the victim, who asked not to be identified, said.

Grabbing her by her arm, the man led her upstairs into her bedroom, where she opened her closet, which contained money she kept in an envelope, which totaled between $200 and $400, she said.

An NYPD spokesman alleged Turkus took a total of $300.

Law enforcement sources said Turkus has a long criminal history of burglary and narcotics. He was allegedly found in possession of a hypodermic needle, and a glassine with heroin residue when police arrested him Monday.

Sources said Turkus was on parole at the time of his arrest. State Department of Corrections records indicate Turkus was released in October 2017 after an attempted burglary conviction in 2015.

Police charged Turkus with robbery, and criminal possession of a controlled substance. He had not yet been arraigned Wednesday night.CITY HALL -- With the state's top lawyer out following a damning report in which four women accused him of abuse, state Sen. Andrew Lanza says he is considering running for attorney general.

"I think we've gotta open up the doors and the windows of the attorney general's office and bring fresh air," the Island Republican said. "So whether it's me or another Republican candidate, I think the people of the state deserve a choice and that we need to change the direction there. We need to refocus that office on it's original purpose -- which is to ensure that the laws of the State of New York are applied in an even-handed and fair way."

State Solicitor General Barbara Underwood has stepped in as acting attorney general as many around the state have already been lining up to fill Eric Schneiderman's seat.

Lanza said for the last day politicians from the both Republican and Democratic side have approached him about running.

But Lanza says his biggest concern is being able to mount a campaign on such short notice -- a endeavor that is likely to be especially challenging for a Republican ahead of the nominating convention.

"Whether it's me or another Republican I think the voters deserve a choice," Lanza said. "What I hear from the Democratic party in the Assembly right now is that we're going to go down the same road that ended where we are now, and I think we need a new direction, we need fresh air and certainly somebody from the other party needs to get in there."

On Wednesday the Assembly announced a committee that will review potential candidates to fill the position, the Daily News reported. However, the paper reported that Senate Republicans are not participating.

The Legislature is required to fill the vacancy by law and its panel will accept applications and conduct interviews on May 15 and 16.

With the parties' nominating conventions right around the corner, the Daily News reported that Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the Democratic and Republican parties do not need to be bound to whoever the Legislature may choose to ride out Schneiderman's term that expires at the end of the year.

Lanza said he does not think that the Legislature should decide who should fill the position and that it should be decided by voters.

"In the interim I am not going to be part of a political process that helped the very same people in the Assembly who backed Schneiderman to pick the interim attorney general," Lanza said. "So it should be someone who will fill the remaining time, someone who is not going to be campaigning for the office in November, so that we don't immediately have a person that is supposed to be the attorney general for the next few months who is out there immediately campaigning and not even doing the job."

MALLIOTAKIS TAKES A STAND

Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis on Wednesday announced she is introducing legislation to require a special election for the attorney general and comptroller vacancies, removing the selection process from the Legislature and giving it to the voters of New York state.

Her legislation would require the governor to set a date for a special election within 60 days of the vacancy and for a special election date to be scheduled no sooner than 40 days or later than 60 days from the governor's proclamation establishing the election.

"My bill will give the power back to the people and require special elections to fill these vacant seats, allowing every voice to be heard statewide, as it should be in a democracy," Malliotakis said. "While it will take time to change the law, I encourage the Legislature to exercise the intent of this bill and allow Acting Attorney General Barbara Underwood to complete the term and let voters choose a new attorney general in November."

Lanza said he is also likely going to bring similar legislation he has been pushing for in the past to the Senate floor as early as next week.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) also announced Wednesday that lawmakers would put together a Screening Committee for the interim state attorney general, which Assemblyman Matthew Titone will also be a part of.

"It is unfortunate that this opportunity has arisen under such disappointing circumstances. Nonetheless I do not take my constitutionally mandated responsibility lightly. I am looking forward to thoroughly reviewing the resumes and interviewing everyone who is interested in this very important public service position," Titone said in a statement. "It is my hope that we can accomplish this fairly and expeditiously and resume our day to day legislative agenda before session ends."Editor's note: The Advance is publishing the adults' first names only because no criminal charges have been filed.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Images from a video showing an explosive confrontation between an emotionally distraught woman and a car full of kids have been posted to social media, sparking cyberthreats against one of the participants.

Now, both sides are asking authorities to press charges.

Footage of the incident, which took place Saturday, was shared with the Advance earlier this week.

THE FOOTAGE

The camera phone footage starts as a female motorist, Melanie, is seated on the driver's side of a sedan, which is stopped near the exit of a Mariners Harbor gas station.

Melanie turns toward the camera and shouts an expletive, then exits her car and marches toward the vehicle, screaming, "Turn off your f------ camera, you c---!"

Footage from a third-party witness shows a female passenger in Melanie's car screaming, "Melanie, stop it!"

Melanie returns to her car while kids in the back seat of the other vehicle shout that the woman looks "like a crack head."

One yells at her to "come to the car like that again."

Melanie approaches a second time and lunges into the rear window, arms flailing, yelling, "Take that phone out of your f------ hand!"

The camera apparently drops, but the kids can be heard on the video saying that an 11-year-old was struck during the ordeal.

MOM'S SIDE OF THE STORY

The kids' mother, Nubia, said she was attempting to exit the gas station after picking up her three children and their friends from a sleepover.

An 8-year-old, two 11-year-olds and a 12-year-old were in the rear of the vehicle, in addition to Nubia's 17-year-old daughter, who was seated in the passenger seat.

Nubia said Melanie was stopped in front of her, blocking the exit while engaged in a dispute with her female passenger.

"She was blocking traffic," said Nubia. "My oldest daughter said, 'We need to start recording.'"

The video submitted to the Advance begins when Melanie spots the family filming her.

Nubia filed a complaint the following day with the NYPD's 121st Precinct.

A police source confirmed a harassment complaint was on file, but said the matter was not deemed to be criminal at this time.

THE AFTERMATH

In the days that followed, Nubia posted photos of Melanie to Facebook in what she said was an attempt to identify the woman and make it easier for police to track her down.

One male posted a physical threat against Melanie on Facebook, while another tagged her employer in a comment, saying she "acts like a complete animal."

Willowbrook-based defense attorney Mario Gallucci, who was hired by Melanie, confirmed there was a dispute between Melanie and her sister inside the vehicle prior to the recording.

He said the women were grieving the recent death of their father and were on their way to their mother's house.

Gallucci said they couldn't agree on the best way to get there.

"Out of nowhere, the woman decides she's going to target and bully my client," he said. "And my client gets upset by this."

He said Melanie never hit any of the children and was only grabbing for the phone.

On Wednesday, Gallucci said he requested the Richmond County district's attorney's office file charges of harassment and cyberstalking, adding Melanie hasn't ruled out a lawsuit based on what he believes to be defamatory actions levied against his client.

A spokesman for the district attorney's office did not return a request for comment.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Six Port Richmond businesses were caught illegally selling alcohol to minors last month, during a statewide crackdown on underage drinking, authorities allege.

The State Liquor Authority, Department of Motor Vehicles and local law enforcement visited 756 establishments across New York and found that 200 of them, including a half-dozen here, flouted the law by selling alcohol to persons under age 21, said officials.

Forty-eight underage people were arrested for allegedly trying to use fake IDs to buy alcohol, authorities said. None of those arrests were on Staten Island.

The borough businesses accused are five convenience stores on Port Richmond Avenue - City 1 Food Mart Corp., Key Food, Mexico Supermarket Monte Alban Corporation, Plaza San Jeronimo, Inc. and Port Richmond Gas & Conv. Inc., authorities said.

Mom's Liquor Store Inc. at 2045 Richmond Terrace also sold alcohol to an underage person, said officials.

Businesses charged by the State Liquor Authority with underage sales face civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation. A first-time sale to a minor typically results in a $3,000 fine.

Store workers or licensees who sell alcohol to minors can be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor, officials said.

Additionally, persons under age 21 caught using phony IDs or false documents to purchase alcohol can be arrested and have their driver's license revoked for 90 days to a year.

Authorities seized 47 bogus IDs in the operation.

In line with the probe, underage decoys entered the establishments in a bid to buy alcohol. State Liquor Authority investigators went in separately to observe and verify when illegal transactions occurred, said officials.

The sweep marks the latest concentrated effort to stem the tide of young people's illegal alcohol consumption.

"State and local law enforcement are taking proactive measures to deter underage drinking and to prevent the dangerous and potentially life-altering consequences that can come with it," said Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in a statement. "We are committed to continuing these coordinated efforts to keep young New Yorkers and our communities safe."

State Liquor Authority Chairman Vincent Bradley said preventing the sale of alcohol to minors is a "priority" for the agency.

Officials say drinking before age 21 can interfere with brain development, causing potential learning difficulties well into a person's early 20s.

Early alcohol use is also associated with poor grades, absenteeism and higher school dropout rates, said authorities.

Reached by phone, a manager at Key Food said an underage customer had "tricked" a cashier last month into selling him beer.

The owner of Plaza San Jeronimo declined comment, as did a man who answered the phone at Mexico Supermarket.

Managers at City 1 Food Mart, Mom's Liquor Store, and Richmond Gas and Conv. Inc., which is a BP service station, were not immediately available.JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. -- Three Korean-Americans who were detained in North Korea for more than a year were greeted by President Donald Trump beneath a giant American flag after they returned to the mainland U.S. early Thursday.

Despite a middle-of-the-night landing, first lady Melania Trump and a host of senior administration officials joined Trump to celebrate the occasion. The president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men traveled to take a private moment with them.

The men, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, were released Wednesday amid a warming of relations between the longtime adversaries. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo secured their release in Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on final plans for a Trump-Kim summit. The Americans had boarded Pompeo's plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to a Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the U.S.

According to the White House, the three men would be transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation and medical treatment. Their families were not on hand for the ceremony.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska -- for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon -- the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," they said. "We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

Singapore has emerged as the likely summit site, late this month or in early June, as Trump seeks to negotiate denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in his highest-stakes foreign policy effort yet. Trump announced Wednesday that the demilitarized zone between the Koreas would not host the summit. Pompeo said the meeting would last one day and possibly a second.

Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Korea's leader for the prisoners' release -- "I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this" -- and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the "official suggestion" of the U.S. president, said North Korea's official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.

Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental U.S. Those advances were the subject of President Barack Obama's starkest warning shortly before Trump took office, and this is a crisis he's convinced his negotiating skills can resolve.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kim's willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating U.S. moves to tighten sanctions -- branded "maximum pressure" by the president. The wee-hours ceremony Thursday was to be an early celebration for an issue that has already put the prospect of a Nobel Peace Prize on Trump's mind.

"Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it," he said Wednesday when asked if the award was deserved.

The release capped a dramatic day of diplomacy in Pyongyang. After Pompeo's 90-minute meeting with Kim Jong Un, he gave reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked about the prisoners as he returned to his hotel. It was only after a North Korean emissary arrived a bit later to inform him that the release was confirmed.

The three had been held for periods ranging from one to two years. They were the latest in a series of Americans who have been detained by North Korea in recent years for seemingly small offenses and typically freed when senior U.S. officials or statesmen personally visited to bail them out.

The highly public and politically tinged arrival ceremony for the former prisoners organized by the White House was in stark contrast to the low-key and very private reception that the State Department had envisioned and carried out from the moment they took custody of them.

Department officials took great pains on their release in North Korea, as well as on their flights to Japan and Alaska, to keep them sequestered not only from the two journalists traveling with Pompeo but also from staffers not immediately involved in their cases. The trio, along with medical personnel, including a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Pompeo's plane in a small section of 12 business class-sized seats that was cordoned off by curtains on both ends.

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns in keeping with the minimal amount of information they had released since the men were imprisoned.

The fact that Trump was going to Andrews to welcome them home in person was almost an afterthought to Pompeo, who, when briefing reporters on their release, noted it last of all.

"The only other thing I should mention is I did speak with the President," Pompeo said. "I informed the President of this, and the President is planning to come out and meet the aircraft when we land."

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Warmbier was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

"We are happy for the hostages and their families," the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. "We miss Otto."

Of the newly released detainees, Kim Dong Chul, a South Korean-born U.S. citizen, had been held the longest. The former Virginia resident was sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison with hard labor after being convicted of espionage. He reportedly ran a trade and hotel service company in Rason, a special economic zone on North Korea's border with Russia.

The other two detainees hadn't been tried.

Kim Hak Song worked in agricultural development at an experimental farm run by the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, or PUST. The university is the only privately funded college in North Korea and was founded in 2010 with donations from Christian groups. He was detained last May for alleged anti-state activities.

Tony Kim, who also uses the name Kim Sang-duk, was detained in April 2017 at the Pyongyang airport. He taught accounting at PUST. He was accused of committing unspecified criminal acts intended to overthrow the government.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer celebrated the detainees' return but warned that "we'll see many more hostages" if the administration provides an incentive for imprisoning Americans.

"We are happy they've returned, but North Korea shouldn't gain by taking Americans and then releasing them," he said.

North Korea's state-run media explicitly mentioned plans for the summit for the first time. Pyongyang has been exceptionally cautious about its public framing of Kim's recent diplomatic moves, which are a major shift from the more aggressive focus on missile launches and nuclear development that heated tensions to a boil last year.

By Matthew Lee, Jill Colvin and Zeke Miller, Associated Press. Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey and Ken Thomas in Washington and Eric Talmadge in Pyongyang contributed to this report.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Richard H. Hungerford School was evacuated as a precaution following a brief fire in an elevator motor on Thursday, according to the FDNY.

A short time later, the FDNY checked out a report of an odor of gas at PS 78 at 100 Tompkins Ave., according to a spokesman for the FDNY/EMS.

Tompkins Avenue was blocked to traffic near the two schools during the emergency response.

The incident was called at about 12:15 p.m. on Thursday in the Hungerford School at 155 Tompkins Ave., according to a spokesman for the FDNY/EMS.

The fire at Hungerford was out prior to the arrival of about 60 firefighters and 12 units in the "all-hands" response, the FDNY spokesman said.

Children and staff have been allowed back into Hungerford, the FDNY spokesman said.

Children, some in wheelchairs, were seen being escorted off of buses and back into Hungerford.

No injuries or hospital transports have been reported from Hungerford, the spokesman said.

The gas odor was reported at 12:29 p.m. at PS 78 and was closed out at 1:27, with no further information available, according to a spokeswoman for the FDNY/EMS.

The schools are located on the borders of Stapleton and Clifton.

Police have called a "level-one" mobilization to control traffic near the schools, according to emergency radio communications.

-- Staten Island Advance staffer Kayla Simas contributed to this story.Chinese insurer Anbang's ex-boss jailed 18 years for fraud



Shanghai, May 10 (AFP) May 10, 2018



A Chinese court sentenced the former head of troubled Anbang Insurance Group to 18 years in prison on Thursday for fraud and corruption, Xinhua news agency said, following accusations of stealing more than $10 billion.

Wu Xiaohui was toppled as Anbang's head last year and China's insurance regulator announced an unprecedented takeover of the conglomerate in February, as the government moves to prevent heavily-indebted large private companies from collapsing and posing a risk to the financial system.

Wu's trial was held on March 28 at a court in Shanghai, where prosecutors accused him of defrauding Anbang of 65 billion yuan ($10 billion).

The funds were transferred to companies that Wu personally controlled for investment overseas, to pay down debts, or "personally squandered," the court had said.

The court also was told that Anbang had sold investment products that exceeded allowable fund-raising amounts by a whopping 723.9 billion yuan.

The government's swoop on Anbang marked its most aggressive step yet to rein in politically-connected conglomerates that grew rapidly and launched a wave of splashy multi-billion-dollar overseas investments fuelled by excessive debt.

The government of President Xi Jinping, who has dramatically strengthened his grip on power recently, has made cleaning up financial risks a top national priority.PHILIPSBURG:--- The Public Prosecutor has asked the Court of First Instance to sentence criminal lawyer B.B. to unconditional prison time of 6 months on charges of bribery and inciting an immigration employee to abuse her position.

According to the Public Prosecutor during the Ostrich investigation it was discovered, as a result of seizing a phone with WhatsApp conversations between a number of suspects, that B.B. had bribed immigration officers J.M. and K.B. into allowing two undocumented persons, working for a well-known insurance company, to enter the island.

The Public Prosecutor asked the judge to convict suspect B.B. on proof of bribery and incitement but to acquit the suspect of the human smuggling charge on the bases that suspect J.M. was also acquitted of this charge in the Ostrich investigation.

The investigation Ostrich has been deemed by the defense to specifically focus on suspect B.B. However this is far from the truth, the Public Prosecutor stated. The evidence against B.B. was coincidentally found when the phone of another suspect was seized. Bribing immigration officials in any manner seriously damages confidence in the government. In addition, public policies on illegal residency and entry was seriously undermined. On a small island like St. Maarten with many incoming and outgoing visitors the importance of a well-functioning border control system cannot be sufficiently emphasized.

Moreover the Public Prosecutor requested the judge to bar B.B. from the post on the Supervisory Board of the well-known insurance company. The Public Prosecutor pointed out that as Supervisory Director, the suspect should have supervised management and operations of the insurance company, rather than committing such a crime.

Suspect B.B. has not taken responsibility for the offences and although had resigned from the Supervisory Board of the insurance company, there is still the risk of repetition, stated the Public Prosecutor.

In addition the Public Prosecutor said that B.B. has abused the position as a criminal lawyer and has damaged the trust that society can and should place in lawyers. The Public Prosecutor suggested the Bar Association of St. Maarten discuss this case with B.B., as the Bar Association is the organization with primary responsibility. The ball is first and foremost in the court of the Bar Association on this point, said the Public Prosecutor.

In the Ostrich investigation a number of immigration officials were sentenced to severe unconditional prison sentences for, among other things, human smuggling, bribery, abuse of function and participation in a criminal organization. The court will announce the verdict on Wednesday, May 30th, 2018.

Prosecutor's Office Press Release.Solar Novus Today Has Been Integrated

With Novus Light Technologies Today

Visit Novus Light Technologies Today to see all the cutting-edge stories and products that you have come to enjoy on Solar Novus Today. In addition, you will find more information on related light-based technologies.



Get the latest solar and renewable energy news delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for the Green Technologies newsletter





CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO OUR GREEN TECHNOLOGIES NEWSLETTER





























Sebastopol, CA (95472)

Today

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 47F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 47F. Winds light and variable.The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2018 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy StatementSyria anti-aircraft defences intercept Israeli missiles: state media



Damascus, May 9 (AFP) May 09, 2018



Syrian anti-aircraft defences intercepted early Thursday Israeli missiles launched at Syria, according to the official SANA news agency, which cited a military source.

The Israeli missiles were launched in retaliation after Iranian forces in Syria fired rockets and missiles at the part of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel, the Israeli army said.Syrian army shoots down dozens of Israeli missiles: state media



Damascus, May 10 (AFP) May 10, 2018



The Syrian army early Thursday shot down dozens of Israeli missiles launched at Syria, state media said citing a military source, as tensions escalated in the region.

"Dozens of missiles were shot down in Syrian airspace by anti-aircraft systems," the official SANA news agency said, without specifying if the missiles were aimed at the Syrian capital, where explosions were heard early Thursday.

"Israel was aiming to destroy anti-aircraft defences and radar," SANA added.Israel missiles hit Syria military bases: state media



Damascus, May 10 (AFP) May 10, 2018



Israeli missile strikes fired at Syria hit military bases, as well as an arms depot and military radar, Syrian state media said Thursday, without specifying the location.

The official SANA news agency added that "dozens of missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft systems in Syrian airspace," saying a number of missiles had reached their targets.Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003



Baghdad, May 10 (AFP) May 10, 2018



US-led forces invaded Saddam Hussein's Iraq 15 years ago after claims it was harbouring weapons of mass destruction.

While his regime fell in just three weeks on April 9, 2003, the country was plunged into a grave crisis that would eventually lead to the emergence of the Islamic State group.

Here is a timeline of major events since the US-led invasion.



- Fall of Saddam -



The US-led invasion is launched with dawn air strikes on March 20 and announced to the world soon afterwards by US President George W. Bush in a televised address.

As international forces race across the desert of southern Iraq towards the capital, Saddam flees.

By April 9 US forces have taken control of Baghdad, where a large statue of Saddam is symbolically toppled.

Bush announces the end of major combat operations on May 1 aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier returning from the Gulf, with a banner behind him that reads "Mission Accomplished".

But by October Washington admits it has found no weapons of mass destruction.

Saddam is captured in December after nine months on the run. He is dragged -- bearded and dishevelled -- out of a small underground hideout and hanged three years later.



- Transfer of power -



The US-led administration officially hands political power back to Iraq in June 2004. In January the following year the country votes in its first multi-party election in half a century, a poll boycotted by Sunni Muslims.

The broadcast in April 2004 of images of torture and other abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib US military prison shocks the world.

A 2005 constitution enshrines autonomy for the Iraqi Kurdistan region in the north.



- Sectarian conflicts -



In February 2006, Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists blow up one of the country's main Shiite shrines, in Samarra, sparking a wave of sectarian killings which leaves tens of thousands dead and lasts until 2008.

In August 2007 more than 400 people die in the deadliest attacks in four years against the Yazidi minority in the north.

International forces start scaling down with the last US troops departing on December 18, 2011, ending a nine-year occupation and leaving behind a country mired in political crisis.

Between 2003 and 2011 more than 100,000 civilians have been killed, according to the Iraq Body Count database. The United States has lost nearly 4,500 troops.



- Jihadist breakthrough -



The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launches a lightning offensive, benefitting from the support of Saddam loyalists and the weakness of the new Iraqi security forces.

In January 2014 ISIL and its allies capture the city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi. They seize second city Mosul and Sunni Arab areas bordering the Kurdistan region in June. Tens of thousands of Christians and Yazidis flee.

The group declares a caliphate across the territory it has seized in Iraq and Syria, and rebrands itself the Islamic State (IS).

By the end of 2014, it holds one-third of oil-rich Iraq.



- Coalition fightback -



Following an appeal for help from the Iraqi government, US warplanes strike IS positions in northern Iraq in August 2014 and then form an international anti-IS coalition.

In March 2015 Iraq announces the "liberation" of Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, after nearly 10 months under IS rule. Ramadi and Fallujah are freed in 2016.

After a nine-month battle backed by US air power, Mosul is retaken in ruins in July 2017.

In December Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declares the "end of the war" against the IS group.



- Kurdistan, a new crisis -



A referendum on independence is held in Iraqi Kurdistan in September 2017 in defiance of a furious Baghdad, even more put out when 93 percent of voters back independence.

The non-binding vote is ruled unconstitutional by Iraq's top court and in mid-October Baghdad sends in troops to seize disputed oil-rich regions that Iraqi Kurdistan had controlled.Iraq: post-Saddam elections tarnished by violence



Baghdad, May 10 (AFP) May 10, 2018



Since the US-led invasion of 2003 and the fall of the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein, several elections have been held in Iraq, against a background of deadly violence.



- 2005: first post-Saddam vote -



January 30, 2005: Iraqis go to the polls in the first multi-party elections for more than 50 years to choose members of a Constituent Assembly, which will draft a new constitution.

Largely boycotted by Sunni Muslims, the vote is overshadowed by deadly attacks: seven suicide bombings take place in Baghdad and several others around the country.

The violence does not deter voters, especially Shiites in the centre and south of the country and Kurds in the north.

The vote, the first since the fall of Saddam, is won by the list sponsored by Shiite spiritual leader Ali Sistani, the United Iraqi Alliance. The Kurdish alliance comes in second place.

The results seal the coming to power of the Shiites, a majority in the country who have been oppressed for decades under previous regimes.

On April 7 the first Kurdish president in Iraq's modern history, Jalal Talabani, is sworn in. Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, is named prime minister.

On October 15, the constitution drawn up by the Constituent Assembly is approved at a referendum. It establishes a federal state and gives Iraqi Kurdistan an autonomous status.

Sunni Muslims, who had been involved in drawing up the constitution, had tried in vain to prevent the setting up of a federation.



- 2005: communities vote -



December 15, 2005: Iraqis from all sides of the community vote en masse at parliamentary elections.

Little violence is seen on election day itself, but the vote is overshadowed by threats from extremist groups, such as Al-Qaeda, resulting in large-scale security measures.

The conservative Shiite list again wins, followed by the Kurdish coalition. The Sunni alliance comes in third position.

In February 2006 sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis flares up. The conflict runs on for two years and leaves tens of thousands dead.

In May 2006 the Shiite Nuri al-Maliki takes over from Jaafari, who is unpopular with Sunni Arabs and Kurds.



- 2010: sectarian divisions -



March 7, 2010: As voting opens for parliamentary elections, mortars and rockets rock the capital while helicopters fly overhead. At least 70 missiles fall, mainly in Sunni neighbourhoods.

However, the massive turnout by Sunnis is a setback for Al-Qaeda which fails to intimidate the community despite its attacks and threats.

Shiites vote for Maliki's State of Law alliance and the Iraqi National Alliance; Sunnis vote for the secular Iraqiya of former prime minister Ayad Allawi.

In November a power-sharing agreement is struck between Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites. Talabani is reelected president and Maliki renamed prime minister.



- 2014: tainted by attacks -



April 30, 2014: The first parliamentary elections since the withdrawal of US troops in 2011 take place.

Two days before the vote the security forces are hit by a spate of attacks.

The electoral campaign is also targeted: several polling stations and election rallies are attacked in violence fuelled by sectarian divisions.

Maliki's Shiite alliance wins the election by a wide margin.

In August Shiite Haidar al-Abadi is charged with forming a new government to replace Maliki.

Maliki was accused of sectarianism and sidelined following the routing of the security forces by the jihadist Islamic State group, which conquered large swathes of Iraqi territory before being defeated in 2017.Islamic State in Iraq



Baghdad, May 10 (AFP) May 10, 2018



The Islamic State group launched a blistering offensive in 2014, capturing nearly a third of Iraq's territory before it was driven out at the end of 2017.

Here is a recap of the main events involving jihadists in Iraq.



- Jihadist breakthrough -



In January 2014, Iraq loses its first key town since the US-led invasion as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and its allies capture Fallujah and parts of Ramadi.

On June 10 ISIL launches a lightning offensive in northwestern Iraq, seizing second city Mosul and sweeping across Sunni Arab areas bordering the autonomous Kurdistan region. Tens of thousands of Christians and Yazidis flee.

On June 29 ISIL declares a "caliphate" in territories it holds in Iraq and Syria, rebranding itself the Islamic State (IS) group and declaring its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi "caliph".



- Yazidi abuses -



In early August IS conquers several Kurdish-held towns, including Sinjar and Zumar near the Syrian border, driving out tens of thousands of civilians, many from the Yazidi minority who flee to inhospitable mountain regions.

According to the United Nations, thousands of women and teenagers, many of them Yazidi, have suffered terrible abuse in zones controlled by IS, including rape, kidnapping and slavery.



- Anti-jihadist coalition -



In August 2014 the US gets directly involved in Iraq for the first time since its troops left in 2011, bombing IS positions and initiating a coalition to fight the jihadists.

Only a minority of the countries in the coalition deploys soldiers on the ground. The US, in the biggest contribution, sends 5,000 troops to Iraq.



- First defeats -



On March 31, 2015, Iraq announces the "liberation" of Tikrit, a city north of Baghdad, after nearly 10 months under IS rule.

On November 13 Iraqi Kurdish forces backed by US-led coalition air strikes recapture the northern town of Sinjar, and on February 9, 2016 IS is ousted from Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's largest province Anbar.

The army retakes neighbouring Fallujah on June 26.



- Mosul retaken -



A major offensive to retake Mosul is launched in October 2016 involving some 30,000 Iraqi troops, backed by US-led air support.

After a months-long battle that leaves the city in ruins and thousands displaced, victory is declared on July 10. The Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says it marks the end of the jihadists' "caliphate".

In August 2017 Iraq announces Tal Afar and the surrounding areas to the west of Mosul are fully retaken, declaring "the province of Nineveh is now entirely in the hands of our forces".

In November, Iraqi forces reclaim Rawa and Al-Qaim, the main town in the group's last bastion in the country along the border with Syria.



- Victory claimed -



On December 8 Iraqi forces announce a new drive against IS fighters holding out in the western desert.

A day later, Abadi declares the "end of the war" against IS and "complete control" of Iraq's border region with Syria.

Experts warn however that jihadists are still hiding in the vast desert plains along the porous border with Syria, and IS continues to claim sporadic attacks in Iraq.Berlin accuses Iran of 'provocation' after Israeli positions hit



Berlin, May 10 (AFP) May 10, 2018



Germany on Thursday accused Iran of "provocation" after Iranian forces in Syria fired a battery of rockets and missiles at Israeli army positions in the occupied Golan Heights.

"These attacks are a serious provocation that we strongly condemn. As we have always emphasised, Israel has a right to self-defence," said a German foreign ministry spokeswoman said in a statement, adding however that it is "crucial that there is no further escalation".Israeli strikes used 28 planes, fired 70 missiles: Russia



Moscow, May 10 (AFP) May 10, 2018



Israel's strikes on Syria saw 28 planes take part in raids with a total of around 70 missiles fired, Russia's defence ministry said on Thursday.

"28 Israeli F-15 and F-16 aircraft were used in the attack, which released around 60 air-to-ground missiles over various parts of Syria. Israel also fired more than 10 tactical ground-to-ground missiles," the ministry said in a statement, quoted by Interfax news agency.

Russia said Syria's air defence systems shot down more than half of the missiles, while the extent of the damage was still being assessed.

"The locations of Iranian armed groups and also the positions of the Syrian army's air defences in the area around Damascus and in the south of Syria were attacked," the ministry said.

Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights overnight.

It blamed the rocket fire on Iran's Al-Quds force, adding that Israel's anti-missile system intercepted four of the projectiles while the rest did not land in its territory.

On Thursday Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov called for "restraint on all sides", adding that Moscow was "concerned" at the development.

The strikes came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has provided massive military and diplomatic backing to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's seven-year civil war.

At the meeting Putin also expressed "deep concern" over US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from a key 2015 Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, a decision Netanyahu supported.

On Wednesday the Russian leader called the situation in the Middle East "unfortunately very acute".

Netanyahu had told Putin that "it is the right of every state, certainly the right of Israel, to take the necessary steps in order to protect itself from (Iranian) aggression)", his office said in a statement Wednesday, referring to Iran's presence in Syria.Iraq puts Belgian IS jihadist on trial



Baghdad, May 10 (AFP) May 10, 2018



An Iraqi court on Thursday began the trial of a Belgian Islamic State group jihadist who threatened attacks against the West in propaganda videos.

Tarik Jadaoun -- known by his nom de guerre Abu Hamza al-Beljiki -- pleaded "not guilty" to charges including carrying out attacks on Iraqi troops that could see him handed the death penalty.

Born in 1988, Jadaoun -- who was captured in ex-IS bastion Mosul in August -- appeared before the Baghdad court dressed in a beige prison uniform with a shaved head and bushy moustache.

"I was not a fighter, I was in charge of a group of IS nurses. I took care of everybody," he told the court. "I got lost and I appeal to your kindness."

Jadaoun, who has Moroccan roots, said he was forced by "one of the top IS commanders" to appear in videos threatening attacks against Belgium and France.

The footage saw Jadaoun earn the moniker "the new Abaaoud", after his compatriot Abdelhamid Abaaoud, one of the organisers of November 2015 attacks in Paris.

Earlier, investigators alleged Jadaoun was in charge of the "cubs of the caliphate" -- about 60 children aged eight to 13 who received intensive fitness and weapons training.

There was no mention of those accusations at the court session on Thursday.

The judge postponed the next hearing until May 22, with a judicial source putting the delay down to a lack of diplomatic representation for the accused.

Belgium does not have an embassy in Iraq, but the source said the foreign ministry in Baghdad had sent a letter to representatives from the country.

In total, Iraqi courts have sentenced to death more than 300 people, including dozens of foreigners, for belonging to IS, judicial sources said last month.

Since January, some 100 foreign nationals have been sentenced to death in Baghdad and around 185 to life in prison, officials said.

Thousands of foreign fighters from across the world flocked to the black banner of the jihadists as the group seized swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

Their self-declared "caliphate" has since been reduced to a rump territory of desert in the east of war-torn Syria.

The fate of those who survived ferocious onslaughts by various forces against IS has been a major headache for their home governments, which are often against seeing them return.UK warns against 'further escalations' between Iran and Israel



London, May 10 (AFP) May 10, 2018



Britain on Thursday warned against "further escalations" after Iranian rocket attacks against Israeli forces and retaliatory air strikes by Israel on what it said were Iranian targets in Syria.

"It is crucial to avoid any further escalations, which would be in no one's interest," Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in a statement.Saudi tests siren after Yemen rebels fire new missiles



Riyadh, May 10 (AFP) May 10, 2018



Saudi Arabia said Thursday it tested a new siren system for the capital Riyadh and oil-rich Eastern Province, the day after Yemeni rebels fired three ballistic missiles at the kingdom.

The Saudi civil defence posted a video on its official site of the alarm system being tested.

It said in a statement the system was designed to "face risks of all kinds" and alert the population "in case of emergency".

Yemen's Iran-allied Huthi rebels have in recent months ramped up missile attacks against neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition against them.

The Shiite insurgents announced they had fired two ballistic missiles at Riyadh and a third at the southern city of Jizan near the border, on Wednesday alone.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition said the kingdom's air defences intercepted all three, in statements carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

Riyadh has long accused Tehran of supplying the rebels with ballistic missiles, a charge the latter rejects.

Wednesday's salvo came after US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which he criticised for excluding measures to curb the Islamic republic's ballistic missile programme.

Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in Yemen in 2015 with the aim of pushing back the rebels and restoring the internationally recognised government to power.

The conflict has left 9,479 people dead and more than 55,000 wounded according to the World Health Organization.

More than 2,200 others have died of cholera and millions are on the verge of famine in what the United Nations says is the world's gravest humanitarian crisis.Russia and Iran will continue 'close coordination' on nuclear deal: Moscow



Moscow, May 10 (AFP) May 10, 2018



Moscow and Tehran will continue to cooperate on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear programme after the US pulled out of the deal, Russia's foreign ministry said Thursday.

Deputy Russian foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov met his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Tehran where the two sides "agreed to continue close coordination in this area," the ministry said in a statement.

"The Russian side highlighted its commitment to preserving the agreement," the statement added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday expressed his "deep concern" over Donald Trump's withdrawal from the 2015 deal.

Earlier in the day Ryabkov said Russia's "European partners" should also work to keep the deal together, in comments reported by news agencies.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday called on countries that oversaw the deal to "develop steps that would preserve this document that is important for regional stability".

"We agree to make the appropriate contacts with our German colleagues," he said in a joint press conference with his German counterpart Heiko Maas.Netanyahu says Iran crossed 'red line' with rocket fire



Jerusalem, May 10 (AFP) May 10, 2018



Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had crossed a "red line" by firing rockets at Israeli forces from Syria, leading to major Israeli air strikes on Thursday in the neighbouring country.

"Iran has crossed a red line. Our reaction was a consequence," the Israeli leader said in a video posted on social media.

"The Israeli army carried out an extensive attack against Iranian targets in Syria."

Iran has not claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.

Israel carried out widespread deadly raids against what it said were Iranian targets in Syria after rocket fire towards its forces which it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies.

Israel said 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight.

It blamed the rocket fire on Iran's Quds force, adding that Israel's anti-missile system intercepted four while the rest did not land in its territory.

No Israelis were wounded.

"We are in a prolonged campaign and our policy is clear: We will not allow Iran to establish itself militarily in Syria," Netanyahu said.Algiers, May 10, 2018 (SPS) - China on Wednesday has donated DZD10 million to the Sahrawi Red Crescent to provide the necessary food aid for Sahrawi refugees in the camps of Tindouf (around 2000-km southwest of Algiers).

"The Chinese Embassy in Algeria has donated DZD10 million to the Sahrawi Red Crescent. This donation will be used to provide food aid for Sahrawi refugees in Algeria, especially women, children and the elderly," said the Chinese Ambassador to Algeria, Yang Guangyu, during a ceremony devoted to that end at the headquarters of the Algerian Red Crescent (CRA) in Algiers.

Guangyu said that the Chinese Embassy in Algeria "has decided to make this donation on the eve of the holy month of fasting Ramadan, with the hope to alleviate the suffering of some women, children and the elderly."

In this regard, he recalled "Sahrawi refugees have been living, for over 40 years, in difficult conditions in camps and some of them, especially women and children, are in highly vulnerable conditions."

He added that through this donation, China is sending a message of sympathy to the Sahrawi refugees in Algeria, and expresses its "high respect" to Algerian authorities for the efforts and sacrifices made by hosting refugees on the Algerian territory.

For her part, CRA's President Saida Benhabyles expressed solidarity with Sahrawi refugees, adding that this Chinese donation, which coincides with the World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, will bring "happiness and hope to Sahrawi refugees."SPS

125/090/700Chahid Al Hafed (Sahrawi refugee camps), May 10, 2018 (SPS) - The Sahrawi Red Crescent made Wednesday an urgent appeal to humanitarian organizations and donor countries to meet the needs of the Sahrawi refugees faced these months to a substantial decrease in the order of 40% of the necessary aid.

According to the principle secretary to the Sahrawi Red Crescent Mohamed Amine Boukhers, the aid allocated by donor countries and international organizations has continued to decline in the past few years because of the worsening of the global conflicts notably in the region of the Sahel and in the countries of the Middle East (Syria and Yemen), causing new needs in food aid and medicines.

Speaking in a meeting with a delegation of parliamentarians and representatives of organizations of the Algerian civil society, the Sahrawi official underlined a drop in the financial aid granted annually notably by the United States from 10 million to 6 million Euros, by the European Union from 15 to 9 million Euros, by the European Community Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) and that granted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), dropping from 8 to 6 million Euros.

The drop in this financial aid led, according to Boukhers, to a lack of food ration per person while the number of refugees who need to be cared for is currently about 173,600 cases, according to census carried out recently by the Sahrawi authorities and UN agencies.

Food aid destined to thousands of refugee persons includes currently only basic foodstuffs, he added.SPS

125/090/700Bir Lehlou (liberated territories) , May 10,2018 (SPS)- President of the republic, Secretary General of the POLISARIO Front, Brahim Ghali, has sent a reply letter to the president of the United Republic of Tanzania Dr. John Pombe Joseph Magufuli, as a response to the letter he received from his Tanzanian counterpart following the tragic death of 30 Saharawi citizens in the Algerian plane crash on the 11th of April 2018.

This is the full text of the letter:

H.E. Dr. John Pombe Joseph Magufuli

President of the United Republic of Tanzania Dar es Salaam

Bir Lehlou, 09 May 2018

Excellency and Dear Brother, I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your very kind letter, dated 13th April 2018, conveying me and to the Saharawi people your sincere condolences following the tragic death of 30 Saharawi citizens in the Algerian plane crash on the 11th of April 2018.

Your sincere sentiments were a great consolation for us in those days of deep sorrow, it comforts us to know and feel that our friends share our grief.

I wish to express my profound gratitude to your Excellency and, through you, to the Government and the Brotherly people of the United Republic of Tanzania for your unwavering support and firm solidarity with our people on behalf of the Saharawi people, the bereaved families and, indeed, on my own behalf.

Please accept, Excellency and Dear Brother, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Brahim Ghali

President of Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic

Secretary General of the POLISARIO Front.

(SPS) 090/110English09/05/2018

GROWING THREAT OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM IN BIH

BANJALUKA, May 9 /SRNA/ - The Government of Republika Srpska warns in its latest report to the UN Security Council that the danger of Islamic terrorism in Bosnia and Herzegovina is growing as the territorial base of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is decreasing and also due to the fact that those from BiH who joined the IS are now returning to the country which is still a safe haven for jihadists.



The document notes that BiH has given more fighters to Iraq in Syria per capita than any other European country and that hundreds of jihadists are returning to BiH and other Western Balkan countries.



As we have presented in more detail in a document which Republika Srpska recently submitted to the UN Security Council, the Party of Democratic Action /SDA/ contributed to turning BiH into a safe haven for jihadists, reads the fifth part of the 19th Srpska Report to the Security Council entitled Threat of jihadi terrorism in BiH growing.



Srpska points out that the growing threat of jihadi terrorism in BiH is a reason for concern not only for the citizens of Republika Srpska, but of other European countries and their citizens.



The concern over the fact that jihadists are using BiH as a refuge grows among European leaders too. Czech President Milos Zeman has said that the Islamic State, whose black flags are flying in several towns, could form its European base in BiH, warns the report.



It notes that BiH has become a refuge for Islamic radicals because the SDA, the biggest Bosniak political party, is an Islamist party.



The Government explains in the report that consistent to its ideology, the SDA invited the Mujahideen to BiH during the 1990s war and continues to maintain close ties with radical Islamists.



The SDAs Islamist orientation was proved by its president Bakir Izetbegovic in October 2017, who then said that his father Alija left BiH as an endowment to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Islamist president of Turkey, reads the document.



The policies in BiH, adds the report, have turned the country into a safe haven for jihadists while the judicial institutions pronounce unbelievably lenient jail sentences to Islamic State fighters who have returned to the country.



The BiH Prosecutors Office has not sought justice for war crimes committed by the Mujahideen against Serbs. In addition, the security system in BiH, which is governed by the SDA, fails to supress the presence of jihadists in the country, states the fifth part of the report.



Srpska asserts that an additional threat to security is the further spreading of the Wahhabi ideology among the Bosniak population.



Members of the international community should call the Bosniak officials to account for allowing jihadi threats to escalate and support measures that can resolve the issue, reads the report. /end/dsEnglish09/05/2018

DODIK: INZKOS REPORT ANOTHER PILE OF LIES

BANJALUKA, May 9 /SRNA/ - President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik says a report by the High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina Valentin Inzko to the UN Security Council is another pile of lies in which Inzko relativised the almost visible dysfunctioning of the Federation of BiH and the State level and smeared Republika Srpska.



Republika Srpska has not made a single decision on secession and that is clear. The political topic called secession exists and will continue to exist and no one can stop that. Not a single authority in Republika Srpska has ever deliberated about it or put it on their agenda. Inzko lied to the whole world and the Security Council and thus smeared Republika Srpska, asserted Dodik.



According to Dodik, all reports by foreign intelligence agencies say that the talk of a paramilitary army is made up and Inzko lies again when he mentions a paramilitary army in Republika Srpska.



It is simply impossible and we dont know what else to do. It is unbelievable that the man of such rank should go to the UN Security Council and present piles of lies, said Dodik.



He emphasised that paramilitary formation is a made-up story and that it was obviously produced by Inzko himself, since he stubbornly insists on the topic.



High Representative Valentin Inzko told the UN Security Council that the key internal problems in BiH related to the Election Law and Criminal Code remain unresolved because many parties are focusing on the consolidation of power and currying favours with voters ahead of the election campaign.



Submitting the 53rd report to the UN Secretary General about the implementation of peace in BiH for the period from October 22, 2017 to April 21, 2018, Inzko mentioned irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric by prominent politicians on all sides.



Inflammatory rhetoric has also continued to be used by some senior officials from Republika Srpska, denying the statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina and advocating possible secession. Public comments were also made, glorifying convicted war criminals and calling for the return of an RS army. Some Croat officials have mused about the territorial reorganisation of the country and threatened the dissolution of the state if the current electoral issues are not resolved to their satisfaction, Inzko said. /end/dsEnglish09/05/2018

SRNA News Roundup /III/ - May 9, 2018

REPUBLIKA SRPSKA



BANJALUKA  At a meeting with the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to BiH, Petr Ivantsov, Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik has said that Srpska is proud of its good relations with Russia and wishes to improve them in all segments.



BANJALUKA  Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik has said that the Republika Srpska police force is subject to a harangue the aim of which is to destroy it and put again a police reform on the agenda.



BANJALUKA  Republika Srpska Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic has said that the property that was put at the disposal of local communities and institutions is inadequate and cannot be used for the accommodation of migrants, adding that the BiH level should take care of it.



BANJALUKA  The Republika Srpska Minister of Labor and Veterans Affairs, Milenko Savanovic, has said that Victory over Fascism Day is one of the most important dates in the history of mankind when the freedom-loving world defeated Nazi Germany.



KOZARA  Republika Srpska Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic said today on Mount Kozara that anti-fascist values from the history of the Serbian people must not be forgotten and reminded of many victims fallen on Kozara, of which everyone should be informed.



BANJALUKA  The president of the Socialist Party /SP/, Petar Djokic, has said that the Serbian people gave an immeasurable and the greatest contribution in the Balkans to the fight against Fascism and that May 9, as a historic date, influenced a makeover of the world and the emergence of new geopolitical relations.



MILICI  The Directorate of the Drina Insurance Company was solemnly opened today in Milici, in which construction and equipping KM 3,226,000 was invested.



BELGRADE  Davor Dragicevic, the father of young man David Dragicevic, of Banjaluka, who tragically lost his life, has said that his aim and the aim of the Movement Justice for David is to arrive at the truth about the tragic death of his son and denied that protests at the Banjaluka Krajina Square are being used to promote political messages and destroy Republika Srpska institutions.





BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA



SARAJEVO  The BiH Court has rejected an appeal filed by the Prosecutors Office of BiH of its decision to impose restrictive measures on the former commander of the 5th Corps of the so-called Army of BiH, Atif Dudakovic, and another 12 persons suspected of war crimes in the area of Krajina, instead of ordering that they be held in custody, Dudakovics lawyer Asim Crnalic has told SRNA.



SARAJEVO  BiH Defense Minister Marina Pendes today thanked a delegation of the Ministry of Defense of Saudi Arabia for a KM 1,650,000 donation for the resolution of the issue of arms and ammunition surpluses and additional strengthening of security at warehouses of the BiH Armed Forces, as part of the existing projects that are being implemented under the auspices of the UNDP and the OSCE Mission to BiH.





FEDERATION OF BIH



MOSTAR  Today, on Victory over Fascism Day and Europe Day, the renovated Partisan Cemetery in Mostar was solemnly opened.



MOSTAR  Mostar Mayor Ljubo Beslic has said that at todays ceremony of the opening of the renovated Partisan Cemetery, the city of Mostar was willfully presented as the case, stressing that there are politicians in BiH who want to use even the ceremony marking this day for manipulation and collecting cheap political points.





SERBIA



BELGRADE, MOSCOW  Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic took part in the military parade in Moscow and in the March of the Immortal Regiment where he marched shoulder to shoulder with Russian President Vladimir Putin.



KOSOVSKA MITROVICA  The deputy director of the Serbian Governments Kossovo Office, Dusan Kozarev, said today in Kosovska Mitrovica that the Serbian people are proud of their anti-fascist tradition and that Serbs almost always relied on Russia in decisive historical events and believed in its invincibility.





REGION



ZAGREB  The leader of the opposition SDP, Davor Bernardic, has said that partisans were the only legitimate army during WWII in Croatia and that the Ustashe, who committed horrific crimes, such as crimes in Jasenovac, were on the side of defeated fascist ideologies. /end/sgEnglish09/05/2018

SRNA News Roundup /IV/ - May 9, 2018

REPUBLIKA SRPSKA



UGLJEVIK/DONJA TRNOVA - Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining of Republika Srpska, Petar Djokic, has said that May 9  the Victory Day must never be forgotten as it was time the greatest evil in civilization was defeated, and has emphasized that it is necessary to insist on the politics of peace, co-operation, coexistence and to eliminate any risk leading to new conflicts.



BANJALUKA - The exhibition of photographs "The Most Beautiful Country", organized by Deputy Speaker of the Republika Srpska National Assembly, Nenad Stevandic, and the Russian Geographical Society Development Centre in Serbia, has opened at the Cultural Centre Banski Dvor this evening over the Victory Day.



UGLJEVIK - Republika Srpska Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Petar Djokic, stated today that the activities related to the sale of some Srpska companies shares is part of the plan being implemented by the Investment Development Bank /IRB/ this year.



BELGRADE  Leader of the Serbian Patriotic Movement Zavetnici, Stefan Stamenkovski, has said that "the personal tragedy of Dragicevic family, whose son David died in Banjaluka, is used to denigrate the institutions of Republika Srpska and to send the world a message these institutions are criminal with the aim of destroying Republika Srpska".



BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA



SARAJEVO - Members of the collegiums of both Houses of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH and Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic assessed today in a meeting in Belgrade that the two countries are important political and economic partners, whose good relations are crucial for the stability of the entire region.



SERBIA



BELGRADE  The event "Immortal Regiment" took place today in Belgrade, in which citizens walked the city streets carrying portraits of their ancestors, participants in the First and Second World War, the wars of the 1990s, as well as participants in defense of Serbia during NATO bombing in 1999.



REGION



PODGORICA - Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, has condemned the attack on Vijesti journalist Olivera Lakic and urged the Montenegrin authorities to ensure her security, and identify and prosecute the attackers. /end/vosBlog Archive Apr 2010 (22) May 2010 (25) Jun 2010 (8) Jul 2010 (12) Aug 2010 (18) Sep 2010 (19) Oct 2010 (29) Nov 2010 (30) Dec 2010 (18) Jan 2011 (13) Feb 2011 (21) Mar 2011 (23) Apr 2011 (19) May 2011 (31) Jun 2011 (36) Jul 2011 (46) Aug 2011 (26) Sep 2011 (12) Oct 2011 (15) Nov 2011 (17) Dec 2011 (7) Jan 2012 (18) Feb 2012 (4) Mar 2012 (12) Apr 2012 (18) May 2012 (10) Jun 2012 (21) Jul 2012 (8) Aug 2012 (15) Sep 2012 (7) Oct 2012 (17) Nov 2012 (20) Dec 2012 (10) Jan 2013 (58) Feb 2013 (59) Mar 2013 (60) Apr 2013 (98) May 2013 (135) Jun 2013 (204) Jul 2013 (293) Aug 2013 (351) Sep 2013 (363) Oct 2013 (348) Nov 2013 (374) Dec 2013 (442) Jan 2014 (547) Feb 2014 (476) Mar 2014 (526) Apr 2014 (527) May 2014 (469) Jun 2014 (408) Jul 2014 (472) Aug 2014 (522) Sep 2014 (443) Oct 2014 (472) Nov 2014 (497) Dec 2014 (536) Jan 2015 (539) Feb 2015 (520) Mar 2015 (582) Apr 2015 (658) May 2015 (679) Jun 2015 (673) Jul 2015 (728) Aug 2015 (803) Sep 2015 (923) Oct 2015 (924) Nov 2015 (802) Dec 2015 (791) Jan 2016 (782) Feb 2016 (835) Mar 2016 (929) Apr 2016 (866) May 2016 (947) Jun 2016 (1044) Jul 2016 (882) Aug 2016 (1035) Sep 2016 (967) Oct 2016 (918) Nov 2016 (854) Dec 2016 (885) Jan 2017 (879) Feb 2017 (777) Mar 2017 (896) Apr 2017 (872) May 2017 (850) Jun 2017 (851) Jul 2017 (971) Aug 2017 (1040) Sep 2017 (998) Oct 2017 (1144) Nov 2017 (1046) Dec 2017 (838) Jan 2018 (873) Feb 2018 (769) Mar 2018 (885) Apr 2018 (809) May 2018 (827) Jun 2018 (820) Jul 2018 (840) Aug 2018 (854) Sep 2018 (844) Oct 2018 (851) Nov 2018 (870) Dec 2018 (912) Jan 2019 (919) Feb 2019 (827) Mar 2019 (957) Apr 2019 (913) May 2019 (1007) Jun 2019 (935) Jul 2019 (950) Aug 2019 (936) Sep 2019 (910) Oct 2019 (920) Nov 2019 (874) Dec 2019 (908) Jan 2020 (941) Feb 2020 (849) Mar 2020 (898) Apr 2020 (848) May 2020 (822) Jun 2020 (789) Jul 2020 (819) Aug 2020 (858) Sep 2020 (841) Oct 2020 (873) Nov 2020 (812) Dec 2020 (780) Jan 2021 (765) Feb 2021 (716) Mar 2021 (819) Apr 2021 (805) May 2021 (815) Jun 2021 (824) Jul 2021 (830) Aug 2021 (832) Sep 2021 (791) Oct 2021 (195)It was recently revealed that North Korea has established a program for foreign agents that is only open to members of the elite North Korea families. The children of these families are eligible to attend the Mangyongdae Revolutionary Academy. Graduates of Mangyongdae are most likely to get the most senior government and military jobs. There are only about a hundred graduates a year and for the last few years, a computer science program has provided a specialized course for Mangyongdae students seeking to become foreign agents in enemy countries, especially South Korea. These agents are trained to hunt down high level defectors in foreign countries and either arrange to kill the defector or at least find out how the defector is doing, how many secrets they have divulged and, if possible, persuade the defector to shut up or even return to North Korea. To accomplish this the Mangyongdae students are taught the latest hacking techniques and what tools and mercenary hackers are available in the hacker underground and how to deal with the tools, and the mercs, to put together specialized efforts to track down defectors and monitor them. This means the Mangyongdae must be able to pass as a South Korean (speak with a South Korea accent, know the customs and slang) and assume a false identity convincingly.

As important as all these skills are the most important item is loyalty to North Korea. The Mangyongdae agents go after the growing number of high level North Koreans who are illegally leaving the country. The agents are trained to use social media to seek out known or suspected defectors, make contact and obtain more information about them.

Over the last decade, North Korea has been growing more concerned about key people defecting to South Korea or simply getting into China and making asylum deals with the Chinese government. The Chinese have always been receptive to such arrangements and there have been more of this as the hundreds of families at the top of the social pyramid in North Korea get out. This is a risky endeavor although there are more and more people smugglers who, for enough money, can get anyone out of the country. Worse, many high level defectors were already outside North Korea on official business when they arrange to disappear and defect. Some of these defectors have been diplomats and some of them were senior enough to be noticed when they disappeared.

These high-caste North Koreans report that there is a sense in the ruling families that the system isnt working and is doomed. The top people in North Korea are easy to identify. When North Korea was founded in the late 1940s a caste system was established to ensure that the most loyal and capable North Korean communists were recognized and rewarded for their efforts to maintain the new communist government for now and generations to come. The newly established secret police and communist party reported on everyone making it possible to create an official list of every family assigned to one of 51 social classes. From the beginning, most (29) of these classes were composed of people considered either hostile to the government or leaning that way. These new lower classes are where most of the new (and often quite wealthy) donju (entrepreneurs) are coming from. Most of the population falls into these 29 social classes, and they are getting increasingly hostile to a government that seems to do nothing but create one disaster after another. Members of higher-caste families are catching on as well and younger members are increasingly abandoning promising careers to flee the country. All that bribe money making its way to the higher caste North Koreans doesnt just go to buy an easier life in North Korea it often buys an escape. To deal with this problem among the most trusted classes a special program at the Mangyongdae Revolutionary Academy counter-intelligence program was established. Apparently, some of the Mangyongdae agents have been identified or even caught and this program is no longer as secret as it once was. Meanwhile the Mangyongdae Revolutionary Academy and its ultra-loyal students gets a lot more publicity inside (and outside) North Korea.

In addition to tracking down high-caste defectors, the Mangyongdae level agents are also assigned to monitor the loyalty of North Korea hackers working outside North Korea. North Korean defectors have revealed much about how North Korea has managed to establish and maintain hacking operations outside North Korea and make a lot of money for the cash hungry North Korea government. This became a higher priority operation in the last few years because of the growing list of economic sanctions imposed while at the same time there were more the opportunities for Internet based misbehavior. Some of these defectors were associated with the North Korean hackers who are, it turns out, mostly based outside North Korea because Internet access is better and operating outside North Korea makes it easier to deny that North Korean hackers are engaged in illegal activity. South Korea has obtained a lot of details about the North Korean hacker operations and even all0wed some defectors familiar with those operations to speak openly about it. Obviously, many of these North Korean hackers are not as loyal as they are supposed to be and something much be done to identify and punish the ones that defect and expose how the hacker program works.

The Mangyongdae agents are also trained in the usual methods of secretly contacting the center, usually via North Korea operatives based outside of North Korea and able to relay messages to and from North Korea itself. The skills North Korea hackers have developed are world class and increasingly difficult to counter or even detect. But this edge in skills and techniques depends on having loyal operatives in key positions, thus the importance of the Mangyongdae agents.

The North Korea hacker force consists of about 6,800 personnel but only quarter of these have software programming or engineering skills that enable them to develop and carry out the hacks. The rest are support staff, including many security personnel who monitor hacker activities to ensure loyalty and productivity. Over the last few years more and more of the hackers have been assigned to money raising operations rather than intelligence collection (spying). North Korea needs cash more than secrets and as a result each of these hackers has been bringing in about $100,000 a year in much needed income for North Korea. Alas for the hackers, like most North Koreans working abroad, see little of that money. This does not inspire loyalty and resolve to avoid the temptation to defect.

Most of the foreign operations are in China where the hackers and their support staff live in Spartan conditions and are closely watched. These hackers are aware of how much more valuable their skills would be in South Korea (where some currently are, working for South Korean software firms). Unfortunately you risk your life (and those of y0ur family) if you try to escape. But some have and some still do. Basing so many of the North Korean hackers in China is partly because there is apparently an arrangement with the Chinese to enable the North Koreans to keep operating in return for favors. In addition to not hacking Chinese networks, or any foreign ones the Chinese consider off-limits, the Chinese receive cash and, more importantly, access to data the hackers obtain. Some hacks attributed to Chinese hackers are apparently carried out by North Korean hackers in order to pay for continued presence in China (and the cooperation of Chinese security forces to prevent North Korean hackers from defecting.)

In 2013 South Korea came up with a number (over $800 million) for the cost of dealing with North Korean cyber attacks since 2007. The list was quite detailed. The attacks in March and June of 2013 accounted for 93 percent of the total damages. South Korea has been subjected to a growing number of Cyber War attacks since 2009, and the high cost of the 2013 ones showed that the North Koreans were getting better and that South Korea was not keeping up. The 2014 operation against smart phones was the first North Korean effort against smart phones and indicated there would be more and there were.

Long believed to be nonexistent, by 2013 it was clear that the North Korean cyber warriors did exist and were not the creation of South Korean intelligence agencies trying to obtain more money to upgrade government Information War defenses. North Korea has had personnel working on Internet issues since the 1990s and their Mirim College program trained most of the North Korean Internet engineers and hackers. North Korea has a unit devoted to Internet based warfare and this unit was increasingly active as the number of Mirim graduates grew.

Since the late 1980s, Mirim College was known as a facility that specialized in training electronic warfare specialists. But by the late 1990s the school was found to be also teaching some students how to hack the Internet and other types of networks. Originally named after the district of Pyongyang it was in, the college eventually moved and expanded. It had several name changes but its official name was always Military Camp 144 of the Korean People's Army. Students wore military uniforms and security on the school grounds was strict. Each year 120 students were accepted (from the elite high schools or as transfers from the best universities). Students stayed for 5 years. The school contained five departments: electronic engineering, command automation (hacking), programming, technical reconnaissance (electronic warfare), and computer science. There's also a graduate school, with a three year course (resulting in the equivalent of a Masters Degree) for a hundred or so students. The Mirim program has been modified since 2015 and is believed to be producing more graduates each year and in a growing number of specialties. Mirim graduates were key to getting the Mangyongdae program going.

It was long thought that those Mirim College grads were hard at work maintaining the government intranet, not plotting Cyber War against the south. Moreover, for a few years North Korea was allowed to sell programming services to South Korean firms. Not a lot, but the work was competent and cheap. So it was known that there was some software engineering capability north of the DMZ. It was believed that this was being used to raise money for the government up there, not form a major Internet crime operation. But by 2016 there was tangible and growing evidence of North Korean hackers at work in several areas of illegal activity. The Cyber War attacks apparently began around 2005, quietly and nothing too ambitious. But year-by-year, the attacks increased in frequency, intensity, and boldness. By 2009, the North Korean hackers were apparently ready for making major assaults on South Korea's extensive Internet infrastructure, as well as systems (utilities, especially) that are kept off the Internet.

Deceased (since 2011) North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had always been a big fan of PCs and electronic gadgets in general. He not only founded Mirim but backed it consistently. The only form of displeasure from Kim was suspicions that those who graduated from 1986 through the early 1990s had been tainted by visits (until 1991) by Russian electronic warfare experts. Some Mirim students also went to Russia to study for a semester or two. All these students were suspected of having become spies for the Russians, and most, if not all, were purged from the Internet hacking program. Thus, it wasn't until the late 1990s that there were a sufficient number of trusted Internet experts that could be used to begin building a Cyber War organization.

South Korea has to be wary because they have become more dependent on the web than any other on the planet, with the exception of the United States. As in the past, if the north is to start any new kind of mischief, they try it out on South Korea first. While many of the first serious attacks in 2009 were more annoying than anything else, they revealed a new threat out there, and one that not only got worse but turned out to be from the usual suspects. Now the threat is very real and growing rapidly.Items About Areas That Could Break Out Into War

May 9, 2018: According to official figures, in Mexico during 2017 29,168 people were murdered. Some groups that follow the situation contend the figure is a bit higher and they blame the difference on government reporting procedures. In the specific cases the different figures matter, but in the aggregate they tell the same story: the death toll since December 2006 when the (drug) Cartel War began now exceeds 207,000.

According to government figures, 2,729 were murdered during March 2018. If that is accurate, it is a record for the month of March. According to government figures, from January to March 2018, 7,667 were murdered. That is about 85 homicide victims a day and indicates there will be more than 30,000 murders in 2018. It is also the most violent first three months on record. How many of these murders are drug war related? Fair question. But authorities concede most of the victims were slain in organized crime-related incidents.

As a result of all this the national murder rate is moving up again and is now 20.5 per 100,000 people. That change has been very unpopular with Mexican voters. In 2015 the murder rate was 16 per 100,000. The high point was in 2011 (22 per 100,000.) It came down after that, to about 15 per 100,000 but now is on the rise again. Mexico has always been very violent and the murder rate was 17 per 100,000 in the mid-1990s. Mexico does not have the highest murder rate in Latin America. Currently that dubious record belongs to El Salvador (60.8) followed by Venezuela where the rate is 57 and rising. In neighboring Colombia the rate is 27 and falling.

Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa have murder rates of at least 20 per year per 100,000. North Africa is 5.9, the U.S. is 5, Europe is 3.5 and Asia is 3.1. While Americans always fear that the Mexican cartels will bring violence, as well as addictive drugs into the country, the actual distribution of the drugs is handled by local gangs. Some of these are composed of Spanish-speakers and many of them are illegal migrants. But the local distributors know that violence is bad for business, especially in areas that are well policed. In Mexico the dynamics are different and the number of drug related deaths much higher.

In Mexico government figures also tell another compelling story. Since Enrique Pena Nieto became president in December 2012, almost 105,000 people have been murdered. That exceeds the 102,859 murdered when Felipe Calderon was president (December 2006-December 2012). Recall that Pena promised to wind down the Cartel War and end the Mexican military's central role in that conflict. He argued that the military's training was incompatible with policing. Well, it is. But the Cartel War has not wound down and the Mexican military is still deeply involved in fighting it.

Here's a telling fact that shows how wrong Pena was in 2012: Pena's administration wrote and supported the new Internal Security Law, which was approved in December 2017. That law gives the Mexican military a legal framework for conducting public-security operations against organized crime syndicates. The law legalized operations the military had been conducting since 2006 on an ad hoc, look the other way basis; like arresting cartel leaders and gunmen, patrolling highways and setting up roadblocks. The law also gives Mexico's president the right to deploy military units as rapid reaction forces to meet criminal threats.

As of May 2018, government officials say the Sinaloa cartel and Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG) are the most powerful and best organized criminal operations in the country. Several "cartel hotspots" remain where the military is the preeminent security force, and they remain for two reasons. Municipal and state police do not have the ability to confront the criminal organizations. Why? They are either incompetent or too corrupt. The second reason: federal police lack the firepower and logistics sustainability to defeat the more powerful cartels. What's left? The Mexican Army and the Mexican Navy.

Why has the violence continued? Several analysts contend success has a role. American and Mexican law enforcement agencies have captured, jailed, and in many cases convicted numerous key cartel commandantes. That's good. But in the field, that has created "sub-cartels," violent factions fighting turf wars. The intelligence agencies call it "fragmentation." That's a good word.

According to the U.S. officials, Guerrero, Michoacan, Tamaulipas, Sinaloa and Colima are the most dangerous Mexican states. Recent reports support that assessment. In March 2018 the Mexican Army ordered 1,200 troops to launch a surprise attack on the Los Viagras criminal gang in Michaocan's Tierra Caliente region. However, Mexican citizens in Michoacan state say they cannot reply on the military for protection.

The action in Tamaulipas state -- which borders Texas-- has been dramatic. The army conducted a raid in Nuevo Laredo at the end of April 2018 that demonstrates why the Cartel War is a military matter. Soldiers uncovered four different weapons caches that they believed belonged to a Los Zetas cartel faction. Raid One: 11 AR-15 rifles, 33 AK-47 rifles. Raid Two: 24 rifles, several grenade launchers and "many" Mexican marine uniforms. Raids Three and four: 14-rifles (most of the automatic), 13 rocket launchers and over 100,000 rounds of ammo.

In Reynosa, another city in Tamaulipas, around 460 people have been killed in drug gang related violence since February 2017. Why? Two rival groups that once belonged to the Gulf cartel are fighting for control of the city. Violence occurs elsewhere. In December 2017 Veracruz state officials claimed they had "ended the activities" of the armed Sombra (Shadow) criminal organization. In January and February 2018 a new round of violence erupted.

Jalisco state continues to experience cartel violence to the point that federal authorities quietly concede Operation Jalisco has failed. That operation began in May 2015. It was supposed to eliminate the CJNG.

In February 2018 the Mexican Army sent a rapid response force of some 400 soldiers to Tijuana (Baja California state) to help local security forced quell an outbreak of cartel violence. The mayor of Tijuana conceded that his city had trouble recruiting qualified police officers and he did not want to lower the qualifications.

The Cartel War continues. (Austin Bay)In early 2018 Britain placed its first order for the BriteCloud expendable active decoy for use on the Tornado GR4 fighter-bomber. Development of BriteCloud began in 2012 and was complete (with a series of successful tests) at the end of 2017. BriteCloud is about the size of a soda can and can be used in existing NATO standard chaff/flare dispensers. BriteCloud, on being released, extends four fins at the rear to keep it aloft longer and begins emitting a signal that jams or deceives the radar of a radar guided missile so that the missile detonates a safe distance from the aircraft. In order to use BriteCloud aircraft must have some of their flare dispensers modified to receive information from the aircraft countermeasures system so that BriteCloud can be programmed to emit the correct signal when released.

BriteCloud was made possible by the development of smaller and more powerful computer and electronic components as well as electronic warfare software that enabled such a small (55mm in diameter) device to deal with the tracking systems of long range air-to-air missiles. These missiles are equipped to defeat a growing list of countermeasures. As such BriteCloud will have to be constantly updated to deal with missile guidance system improvements. Meanwhile, another version of BriteCloud is being developed so that it can fit the different size and shape square dispensers used in American warplanes.

What distinguishes BriteCloud from most other electronic decoys is that it is so small and only used when a missile is close and BriteCloud becomes a last chance device for avoiding a rapidly approaching missile. In the past, most decoys equipped with jammers and other electronic deception devices were larger and designed to deceive enemy sensors for longer periods and at greater distances from any friendly aircraft. A current example of that would be the American MALD (miniature air-launched decoy), which entered service at the same time BriteCloud development began and is still important to keep most missile threats from getting close enough for BriteCloud.

Like BriteCloud MALD has undergone constant upgrades. In 2017 the U.S. Air Force upgraded MALD-J, the powered jammer version of MALD with a jam-resistant GPS system. The MALD-J is three meters (9.5 feet) long and its pop-out wings give it a 1.55 meter (five foot) wingspan. The 130 kg (285 pound) decoy is powered by a small turbojet engine that gives it a speed of up to 1,000 kilometers an hour, for 45 minutes, at 11,000 meters (35,000 feet), or 20 minutes at 1,000 meters (3,100 feet). This enables MALD-J to travel about 800 kilometers on a typical mission. MALD-J can be programmed to fly a specific course to try and get enemy air defenses to open up so the enemy weapons can be spotted and destroyed. MALDs are also designed to be used in swarms to overwhelm enemy air defenses. The new MALDs cost nearly $300,000 each. The MALD-J is more expensive and about five percent heavier. The MALD-J was so successful in tests that the air force began converting hundreds of its unpowered MALDs to MALD-J.

The original MALD-J entered service in in 2012. It was only in 2011 that the air force agreed to buy the original MALD. A year earlier (2010), after more than a decade of development, MALD was delivered in sufficient (although classified) quantities so that aircraft could actually carry out operations with the new device. These tests were a success.

MALD is a powered decoy that appears on the enemy radar to be a warplane. The 2011 version of MALD worked and that came after six years of wasted effort on earlier designs that did not. After the original MALD entered service work then began on MALD-J, a radar jamming version. This version was found to be even more effective.

Currently, only the B-52, F-18, and F-16 are equipped to carry MALD. The air force will begin receiving MALD-J (the jammer version) by the end of 2018. The navy operates MALD-J from F-18Es, which will accompany EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft. The EA-18G could carry MALD-J but this would be at the expense of range. The EA-18G needs as much range as it can get in order to go deep into enemy air space and destroy air defenses.

The MALD manufacturer has also developed the needed equipment (special racks) so that up to 192 MALDs can be loaded on military transports and quickly launched. This would certainly catch the enemy's attention and distract them.

Meanwhile, MALD replaces a similar U.S. Navy jet powered ADM-141C ITALD (Improved Tactical Air Launched Decoy), which entered service about the time MALD entered development. ITALD is 2.34 meters (7.7 feet) long with a 1.55 meter (five foot) wingspan. It weighs 180 kg (400 pounds), has a top speed of 460 kilometers an hour, and a range of about 300 kilometers. ITALD, as well as the earlier, unpowered, TALD, contains passive and active devices to enhance the radar image the enemy will receive when they spot the decoy. The navy bought about 200 ITALDs. In the late 1980s, the navy bought over 2,000 ADM-141 TALDs, which proved successful during the 1991 Gulf War. Israel also had success in combat with their version of TALD, which was developed from similar decoys designed in the 1970s, based on Israeli and U.S. Navy experience with Russian equipped Arab air defense systems. The U.S. Air Force didn't get interested until after the Cold War ended and that led to MALD.

Early on the MALD was supposed to be a smaller (by 15 percent), simpler, and cheaper ($30,000 each) design. But, as is common with these projects, both the air force and the manufacturer kept coming up with new things the MALD had to have. Some were necessary while others were just part of the usual procurement politics. The current MALD has a range of nearly 900 kilometers and is apparently reliable enough to be used in combat. The radar jamming capability of MALD-J will be the first of many electronic warfare capabilities added to the higher (up to half a million dollars, or more, each) priced version of MALD planned for the future. This version is already in development. Thus the air force has pulled ahead in aerial decoy technology, although the TALD/ITALD series have the distinction of having been tested, and successful, in combat.An Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano A-29 experimental aircraft flies over White Sands Missile Range, N.M., August 1, 2017. The A-29 is participating in the U.S. Air Force Light Attack Experiment (OA-X), a series of trials to determine the feasibility of using light aircraft in attack roles. (U.S. Air Force photo by Ethan D. Wagner)

X

0 20

Help Keep Us Soaring





We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling. We need your help in reversing that trend. We would like to add 20 new subscribers this month.

Each month we count on your subscriptions or contributions. You can support us in the following ways:#Bong Joon-ho Award-winning directors Bong Joon-ho, Ryusuke Hamaguchi meet at Busan fest South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho on Thursday gave a thumbs-up sign to Ryusuke Hamaguchi, a rising Japanese director who made an impressive impact on world cinema this year with his...2017 Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Kazuo Ishiguro, Father Brown actor Mark Williams, and journalist and educationalist Lindsay Mackie share their passion for book collecting this Saturday

Vicky and Charlie Bennett - she brings the Lit Fest, followed by his Music Fest in Chipping Campden

With the Chipping Campden Literature Festival beginning next week, artistic director Vicky Bennett tells us about the many highlights, including horror galore

TO celebrate the bicentenary of the publication of Frankenstein, Chipping Campden Literature Festival, which runs from 8th to 12th May, has taken horror and superstition for its main themes fear,.

This has given us the opportunity to cover a wide variety of topics from the Imperial War Museums oral historian, Peter Hart, drawing on the experiences of both generals and ordinary soldiers in the final crucial eight weeks of WWI, to former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway, exploring the many important lessons we can learn from facing death, and Gaby Doherty outlining what it was like living in North Kensington before and after the Grenfell Tower fire.

Fiona Sampson and Miranda Seymour each present their outstanding 2018 #MeToo biographies: Fionas on the remarkable Mary Shelley, the teenage author of Frankenstein, and Mirandas on the lives of Annabelle Milbanke, mathematician and wife of Lord Byron, and their daughter, Ada Lovelace, who in the 1830s predicted the dawn of our modern computer age.

Dr Kathryn Harkup uncovers the science behind Frankensteins monster, and Professor John Sutherland scrutinises the fine and not so fine points of Bram Stokers gothic masterpiece, Dracula. Lynn Shepherd, author of The Pierced Heart, and Laura Purcell, author of The Silent Companions which was the BBC Radio 2 Book Club choice for Halloween, examine the enduring popularity of gothic fiction with former BBC TV Crimewatch broadcaster Sue Cook.

Other events include the nightmarish rebuilding of the gothic Houses of Parliament; our fear of ancient woodlands; and the Japanese fear of kasa-obake, the umbrella ghost, and the umbrellas role in fiction from Mary Poppins to Howards End; witches; the presence of the ghost in art and literature; and houses in fiction from Walpoles Strawberry Hill to Waughs Brideshead. Henry Hemming tells the story of Maxwell Knight, MI5s greatest spymaster.

The four-star luxury Cotswold House Hotel is hosting a literary lunch with Sunday Times bestselling thriller writer Rory Clements. His latest novel, Nucleus, tells of the foiling of the Nazi attempt to discover the secrets of Cambridges Cavendish Laboratory.

For practical book lovers there is a letter-press book cover workshop, and for film buffs a screening of the 1975 film adaptation of the Australian gothic novel Picnic at Hanging Rock, now enjoying TV and theatre remakes.

Poetry lovers can rediscover Miltons Paradise Lost with one of our greatest living academics, Professor John Carey, and enjoy the work of the outstanding lyrical poet and guitarist, Paul Henry, who entertains with his latest collection, The Glass Aisle. Paul is also running a workshop at which new and experienced poets can develop their writing in a supportive atmosphere.

Dame Harriet Walter discusses her acting career and why she has played male roles in Shakespeare, with Sam Walters, former director and founder of the Orange Tree Theatre Richmond.

Audience participation is positively welcomed as Sue Cooks Big Book Group read The Lost Girl, which draws on novelist Carol Drinkwaters own experience as a young #MeToo actress. Carol is best known as Helen, the wife of James Herriot in the BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small. Social historian, Jane Robinson, marks #Vote100 with Hearts and Minds, her nonfiction account of the suffragists Great Pilgrimage.

2017 Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Kazuo Ishiguro, Father Brown actor Mark Williams, and journalist and educationalist Lindsay Mackie share their passion for book collecting. And finally, on Saturday evening, we relax at the event run in conjunction with Chipping Campden Music Festival, at which pianist Lucy Parham and actor Henry Goodman tell the story of the exiled Rachmaninoff.

For full programme and tickets see www.campdenlitfest.co.uk

The Chipping Campden Music Festival, run by Vickys husband Charlie, follows on from the literature festival from 12th to 26th May, see www.campdenmusicfestival.co.ukBass Pro recently donated $91,128 to Sidney High School. "Cabela's has historically invested in the community," said Ralph Castner. "We want to continue doing things like that." The funds will be used to support the Career Pathways program and the One to One Chromebook Initiave. Pictured from left are Matt McKay (Sidney Public Schools Technology Coordinator), Tess Plummer (Sidney High School Career Pathways Advisor), Bass Pro Human Resources Director Sarah Kaiser and Bass Pro CFO Ralph Castner. The donation will go to support the high school's Career Pathways program and the District's 1:1 Chromebook program.

The Sidney School District Career Pathways and technology programs are being supported by a donation from Bass Pro and Cabela's.

Bass Pro Chief Financial Officer Ralf Castner and Bass Pro Human Resources Director Sarah kaiser were in Sidney Thursday to present a $91,128 check to the District. The funds will be used to support the 1-to-1 Chromebooks.

The 1-to-1 Chromebook program will provide students with tablet computers resulting in flexibility in the classroom and in how school work can be completed. In the March school board meeting, McKay said the computers will allow teachers to download lessons to all of the students' computers for efficiency and cost-saving to the District. Additionally, students can complete most assignments on the tablets most anywhere and submit them at the any available wifi signal or at the next school the next day. Teachers who use Chromebooks in the classroom will also be able to monitor all of the computers simultaneously.

Each computer will also include filtering software monitoring against inappropriate sites or verbiage. Students will not receive the Chromebook until they sign a condition of use agreement.

"I think we're ready for the next step, to move students to the 21st century," he said in the March meeting.

Parents will also have the opportunity to purchase non-refundable insurance on the devices for $20.

McKay also envisions adding charging stations in the school for tablets and cell phones.

The donation from Bass Pro and Cabela's also supports the Career Pathways program. The Career Pathways program is designed to provide real life skills and work experience for Sidney High School students who have an interest in specific areas of study. The areas of study are based on the six Nebraska Standards for Career Ready Practice.

The program benefits businesses and students. Businesses can showcase their work environment, encourage future workers and inform students about career opportunities in the field. Students have the opportunity to experience the daily routine of various work environments. They can also learn about the academic, technical and personal skills required by specific occupations. Students will also learn the connection between school, work and their goals of the future.Hundreds of riders will stream toward the middle of Nebraska this weekend, participating in the 10th Annual Law Enforcement Ride. From both ends of the state theyll travel, meeting in Grand Island and then going together to the Nebraska Law Enforcement Memorial.

The riders will be primarily members of law enforcement motorcycle clubs, but participants dont have to be law enforcement, or even motorcycle riders to participate and show support.

The ride has several parts to it. One is the comradery. Riders will spend the day with one another in support of those on law enforcement, but more importantly remembering those 135 fallen Nebraska officers. The ride also serves as a fund raiser, raising money to support the families of Fallen Police Officers and/or Firefighters, as well as for upkeep of the Law Enforcement Memorial.

Among those participating again this year are members of the local Centurians Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club. The club, formed in Sidney, also welcomes riders from Colorado and Wyoming into its fold. In the bigger picture, riders from Kansas are also expected to make the journey as well.

Local participants will meet at Cabelas retail store from 7-8:15 the morning of the 12th, departing eastward at 8:30. They will meet up with another group in North Platte, and together all will travel toward the rendezvous in Grand Island that afternoon. They will be meeting riders who have left from Omaha and Lincoln. In all, about 600 riders are expected to participate.

Local rider Randy Haddix said participants who dont ride motorcycles are also welcome to make the trip. He said for those who cant make the trip, they can also show their support by visiting with riders at the registration and seeing them off.ABC News(NEW YORK) -- The pilots behind the controls of a Southwest flight that turned deadly in April when an engine failed midair, talked to ABC News recently about the moment they knew there was a problem aboard the plane.



"We were passin' through about 32,000 feet when we had a, a large bang and a rapid decompression. The aircraft yawed and banked to the left, a little over more, a little over 40 degrees and we had a, a very severe vibration from the No. 1 engine that was shaking everything. And, that all kind of happened all at once," First Officer Darren Ellisor told ABC News' Martha Raddatz in an exclusive interview.



YOU CAN WATCH ABC NEWS' FULL INTERVIEW ON "20/20" FRIDAY AT 10 P.M. ET.



On April 17, Southwest Flight 1380 experienced engine failure about 20 minutes after takeoff from New York City's LaGuardia International Airport en route to Dallas Love Field. There were 144 passengers and five crew members onboard.



Passenger Jennifer Riordan, 43, of Albuquerque, New Mexico was partially sucked out of a window on the jet near the failed engine and later died.



Ellisor, 44, was flying the plane that day in April with Capt. Tammie Jo Shults, 56, an experienced pilot with Southwest Airlines and one of the Navy's first women pilots trained to fly fighter aircraft. She safely landed the plane in Philadelphia.



"My first thoughts were actually, 'Oh, here we go.' Just because it seems like a, a flashback to some of the Navy flying that we had done," Shults said. "We had to use hand signals because it was loud. And, there was, it was just hard to communicate for a lot of different reasons."



The National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday that it was apparently a fragment of the engine cowling, not a fan blade, that had struck the window of the Southwest plane, resulting in depressurization of the aircraft and Riordan's death.



In a letter to passengers obtained by ABC News, Southwest offered sincere apologies as well as a $5,000 check and the promise of a $1,000 travel voucher. The letter also stated that the airlines primary focus now is to assist the passengers who were aboard the flight in every way possible.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.LOS ANGELES -- The troubled son of Ryan O'Neal and the late Farrah Fawcett was back behind bars Wednesday for allegedly robbing a Los Angeles convenience store armed with a knife.

Police say Redmond O'Neal robbed the store not far from the Venice Beach Boardwalk around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday and fled on foot.

"He approached the clerk and demanded money from the register. The clerk, afraid for his safety, gave O'Neal cash from the till," LAPD Detective Meghan Aguilar told the New York Daily News.

Officers responding to the scene located the Hollywood heir in the area and made the arrest.

"Officers found the knife and cash in O'Neal's possession," Aguilar said.

O'Neal, 33, was booked on a felony robbery charge late Tuesday and was being held on $50,000 bail as of Wednesday afternoon.

O'Neal has struggled with drug addiction for years and racked up a series of drug-related arrests stretching back a decade.

He was in jail and at a court hearing the day his mother died in June 2009 and was briefly released to attend her funeral.

His half-sister Tatum O'Neal also has struggled with addiction and told People magazine in 2015 that she was extremely worried about his safety.

"I love him, but I have never seen a more scary side of addiction," she said.

"He's got addiction problems so bad that it breaks my heart," she continued. "Nobody knows what to do with Redmond. From what I've seen, there is no way he's going to survive."

-- By Nancy Dillon, New York Daily NewsA North Syracuse man used Facebook to try to convince a girl to take drugs and act sexually for him, troopers said.

Michael J. Clark, 33, of 12 Devonshire Road, North Syracuse, was arrested Wednesday, according to the New York State Police.

State police said they started investigating Clark after receiving a tip from a concerned citizen.

The citizen reported Clark was speaking to a minor and trying to coax the girl to "partake in drug and sexual activity for his benefit," troopers said.

Clark was charged with disseminating indecent material to a minor, a felony. He was released from the Onondaga County Justice Center early Thursday morning, inmate records show.WESTMORELAND, N.Y. -- Some Oneida County residents found printed information soliciting membership to the Ku Klux Klan in their driveways this morning, according to the sheriff's office.

Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol said deputies were called to Camelot Village in the town of Westmoreland for suspicious activity.

Residents told deputies that they found weighted Ziploc bags containing printed information soliciting membership to the United Northern & Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Maciol said in a news release.

The investigation indicates the weighted bags were left at the end of multiple driveways sometime between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m., Maciol said.

Deputies ask anyone with information to call the Oneida County Sheriff's Office at 315-736-0141. All calls will remain confidential.ITHACA, N.Y. -- A man set a fire Wednesday while damaging an Ithaca apartment, police said.

Woodrow Turner, 37, of Ithaca, was arrested by the Ithaca Police Department and charged with arson. He was arrested after a domestic violence incident, said Officer Jamie Williamson.

Police responded to a home in the 300 block of Monroe Street at 1:09 a.m. Wednesday.

Turner was arguing with the victim, Williamson said, when he threw a TV and flipped over furniture. The suspect also lit a plastic bag of towels on fire and smashed plates and glasses, he said.

The victim put out the fire before police arrived, Williamson said.

Officers found and arrested Turner at the Monroe Street apartment.

Turner was charged with fifth-degree arson, fourth-degree criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and second-degree harassment. He remains in the Tompkins County Jail in lieu of $2,000 cash or a $4,000 bond.Syracuse, N.Y. - Make cake pops? Now you can sell them, online, from your home kitchen.

State agriculture officials late last month expanded the list of foods that registered home cooks can sell from their kitchens.

The new rules also allow for these home food processors to sell jams, breads, soup mixes, cake pops and more online - as long as the customer also lives in New York state.

Before, the list included a few basics. For example, simple breads were allowed, said Jennifer Trodden, a deputy commissioner with the state's Department of Agriculture & Markets.

"Now we're allowing cinnamon rolls and (dinner) rolls," she said of the expanded rules. "We still allow brownies, cookies, fruit jams and jellies. We added a lot dried goods to the mix, dried spices and herbs."

The idea for a broader list and online sales came at the suggestion of Sen. Patty Ritchie, R-Oswegatchie, Trodden said. Some of Ritchie's constituents sold jams and treats at farmers markets or farm stands. They wanted to expand their business online, Trodden said.

New York already had allowed people to sell about a dozen items made in home kitchens, rather than commercial ones that are routinely inspected by health officials. That older list didn't reflect more recent food trends, such as dehydrated fruits and spice rubs, Trodden said.

So in April, another 19 items were added to the acceptable list. New items include soup mixes, dried baking mixes, pastas and dried fruit. "It's basically a more modernization of the list," she said.

Some items are still banned. Anything that needs to be refrigerated or contains dairy or eggs, for example, cannot be sold from home kitchens, Trodden said.

"If you don't have to refrigerate it, then you're pretty much good," Trodden said.

Canned vegetables - such as pickles or dilly beans - are not allowed, she added.

To sell home-prepared foods in New York, you must register with the state. The registration is free. In some cases, a home processor must provide the results of a water test.

Here are the approved items, as of April 2018:Syracuse, N.Y. -- The state is asking residents for help this year in controlling the spotted lanternfly, an invasive species discovered for the first time in New York in 2017.

The departments of Environmental Conservation and Agriculture and Markets today announced an outreach campaign to encourage residents to look for and report sightings of the lanternfly.

"This pest has the potential to severely impact our forests, as well as our state's agricultural and tourism industries," said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos in a statement. "New Yorkers are our eyes on the ground, and engaging the public's participation to support our efforts is a crucial step in preventing the spotted lanternfly from establishing itself in our state."

The insect was first found in Pennsylvania in 2014, and last fall in New York's Delaware County. That single lanternfly, believed to have been transported to New York by an interstate shipment, was dead.

It's likely a matter of time, however, before colonies of live lanternflies are found in New York.

"As of spring 2018, New York has no infestations, though it's possible they are present in low numbers and have not been detected yet," said the DEC's lanterfly web page. "Given the proximity of the Pennsylvania infestation, it is expected to be found in New York eventually."

The bug, native to China, feeds on more than 70 plant species and secretes a sticky substance known as "honeydew." That secretion attracts molds which harm plants.

That secretion is sometimes the first sign of infestation. DEC said residents should be on the lookout for:

Sap oozing or weeping from tiny open wounds on tree trunks, which appears wet and may give off fermented odors.

One-inch-long egg masses that are brownish-gray, waxy and mud-like when new. Old egg masses are brown and scaly.

Massive honeydew build-up under plants, sometimes with black sooty mold.

Nymphs, which are emerging now, are black with white spots; they turn red as adults. Adults appear in July and are about 1 inch long and a half-inch wide at rest.

Residents who see signs of lanternfly infestation are asked to send photographs, along with a description of the location, to spottedlanternfly@dec.ny.gov.

Contact Glenn Coin: Email | Twitter | Google + | (315) 470-3251Vanessa Marquette works at the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.

By Vanessa Marquette

Vanessa Marquette

Military Spouse Appreciation Day is celebrated on the Friday prior to Mother's Day, and that fact is not lost on me. Being in the military is very much a family affair. Both of my parents are retired Air Force veterans. They were away more often than being home. In a sense that prepared me for the life of a military spouse. I was used to learning new things and becoming independent at an early age. What it didn't prepare more for, though, was the struggle to come after college.

My husband has deployed twice since his first duty station at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in 2012. While I went through deployments and long trainings with my parents, these deployments became a bit tougher, as I was alone in

another state. We had less than a month's notice for both deployments. The second was just seven months before our wedding date (luckily, he made it home in time!). But it's not just being away from your significant other that is hard on the spouse, it's what you experience during deployments (and various training exercises) that would be hard for the civilian world to fully understand.

For me, and I'm sure every other spouse, I was nervous every single day something bad would happen to him. It was hard to watch the news. That's not all - terrible things can happen when they are gone, too. This last deployment in 2015, our dog died tragically, and a college friend died, all within two months of each other. The hardest part was not being able to be with each other during those hard times and having to go through those things alone. I was lucky to make close friends at Fort Bragg during that time and had family and friends visit, but not everyone is able to get that same experience. Many have to take on these horrible things alone, plus being a parent - which is one of the reasons military spouses are so resilient. They are able to manage difficult situations and face forward.

Finding a job is not easy for a military spouse. I was very fortunate, after many months of searching, to find jobs at all his duty stations. But it was a struggle. People didn't care about my master's degree or internship experience. I can't count how many times I was asked in an interview if my husband would be deploying and if I would stay in the area - or how long will he be stationed there, and will I stay if he goes. I knew I was defeated. Again, I was extremely lucky to land the opportunities I did because it all landed me to where I am today.

Now, my husband is stationed at Fort Drum in Northern New York - one of the most prestigious Army infantry divisions - and I'm able work at a place where I'm appreciated and valued. Honestly, coming home to Central New York (I'm from Rome), being able to work at Syracuse University (after being a fan for my whole life), my husband being stationed nearby, and being able to give back to veterans and military families and inform the world why military spouses should be hired - it is a dream! I know I'm a lucky military spouse because I'm one of the very few able to live their dream.

I would say another thing you learn as a military spouse is to cherish every moment and not to sweat the small things. A difficult thing for me sometimes is not having my close friends understand what I'm going through. I am usually able to relate more to families in the military since they have a better understanding. At some point, you realize your civilian friends won't always understand the struggles you face, and that's OK. This is our calling, and we do it gratefully and completely. It's part of honor and duty.After much anticipation, President Trump announced the United States would officially withdraw from the Iran Nuclear Deal, calling the agreement a "horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made." Former President Barack Obama called Trump's decision "a serious mistake" and Hillary Clinton said "it makes America less safe and less trusted." But others believe Trump made the right decision. What do you think?

PERSPECTIVES

President Trump announced the U.S. would officially withdraw from the Iran Nuclear Deal.

The Iran Deal is defective at its core. If we do nothing, we know what will happen. In just a short time, the worlds leading state sponsor of terror will be on the cusp of acquiring the worlds most dangerous weapons.... pic.twitter.com/58qwBLzxIH  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2018

Former President Barack Obama thinks Trump's decision was a bad one. Pulling out of the Iran deal only makes it easier for Iran to get nuclear weapons. Obama and other experts argue the Iran Nuclear Deal was working. Why pull out of an agreement when Iran was holding up their side of the bargain?

There are few issues more important to the security of the United States than the potential spread of nuclear weapons,... Posted by Barack Obama on Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Hillary Clinton echoed Obama's sentiment, stating Trump's decision "makes America less safe and less trusted."

Pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal is a big mistake. It makes America less safe and less trusted. Iran is now more dangerous. What's plan B? Anyone who thinks bombing is the answer is woefully misinformed.  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 9, 2018

But not everyone thinks Trump made the wrong decision. Richard Goldberg, an analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and longtime critic of the Iran Nuclear Deal, thinks Trump is doing the right thing. The Iran deal was weak, and Trump has left the door open to negotiate a better deal.

The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Digital, Inc. property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say.JERUSALEM (AP) -- Iranian forces based in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights early Thursday, the Israeli military said, triggering an Israeli reprisal and further escalating heightened tensions between the two bitter enemies in neighboring Syria.

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage. There were no Israeli casualties.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Iran's Al Quds force had fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though he would not say how Israel had determined the Iranian involvement. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan.

Israel "views this Iranian attack very severely," Conricus told reporters. He said Israel had responded, but did not provide details.

"This event is not over," he added.

Syria's state media said Syrian air defenses had intercepted "hostile Israeli missiles" early Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus.

Syrian media earlier said the hostilities began with Israeli fire at Syrian positions in the country's south from across the border. Pro-Syrian media said Syrian missiles then fired at Israeli forces. One TV station, Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen, said at least 50 missiles were fired from Syria at Israeli forces in the occupied Golan Heights. Syrian media said it was the first time in years that Syrians had fired at Israeli forces in Golan.

Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, anticipating an Iranian attack following Iranian vows to retaliate to what it says are recent Israeli strikes in Syria targeting Iranian outposts.

Late Tuesday, Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near the capital of Damascus. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard, killing at least 15 people, eight of them Iranians.

Last month, an attack on Syria's T4 air base in Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel. On April 30, Israel was said to have struck government outposts in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen pro-government fighters, many of them Iranians.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied most of the airstrikes. But for months, it has repeatedly said it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

In February, Israel shot down what it said was an armed Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace. Israel responded by attacking anti-aircraft positions in Syria, but an Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Iranian forces moved into Syria after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 to back the forces of President Bashar Assad. As that war winds down, and Assad appears to be headed toward victory, Israel fears that Iran, along with tens of thousands of Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen, will carry out attacks against Israel. President Donald Trump's announcement Tuesday that the U.S. was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran has triggered uncertainty and threatened to spark more unrest in the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Moscow on Wednesday to meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss military coordination in Syria.

Russia has also sent forces to Syria to back Assad. But Israel and Russia have maintained close communications to prevent their air forces from coming into conflict.

Together with Putin, Netanyahu toured a parade celebrating the anniversary of the World War II victory over the Nazis and then met the Russian president at the Kremlin for consultations.

After 10 hours together, Netanyahu said he conveyed Israel's obligation to defend itself against Iranian aggression.

"I think that matters were presented in a direct and forthright manner, and this is important. These matters are very important to Israel's security at all times and especially at this time," he said.

Israel views Iran as its archenemy, citing Iran's calls for Israel's destruction, support for militant groups across the region and growing military activity in neighboring Syria. Israel has warned that it will not allow Iran to establish a permanent military presence in Syria.

Israel's military went on high alert Tuesday and bomb shelters were ordered open in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights following reports of "irregular activity of Iranian forces in Syria." After an uneventful night, the military on Wednesday called on residents to return to "full civilian routine," meaning studies and excursions would continue as usual, although the shelters would remain open.

Amos Gilead, a retired senior Israeli defense official, told a security conference in the coastal town of Herzliya that Iran's intentions in Syria meant a wider conflagration may only be a matter of time.

"They want to build a second Hezbollah-stan," he said, referring to the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group that last fought a war with Israel in 2006. "They are determined to do it and we are determined to prevent it. It means we are on a collision course."More than a dozen students at a high school in a Nashville, Tennessee, suburb were injured along with their teacher when a science experiment turned into a chemical fire, sending nine people to the hospital.

Merrol Hyde Magnet School, a K-12 institution in Hendersonville just northeast of Tennessee's capital, was evacuated after the Wednesday morning incident in a high school chemistry lab.

The nine who were taken to hospitals were treated for burns to their faces and arms, Hendersonville Fire Department Chief Scotty Bush told reporters. Officials said they were all expected to be released before the end of the day. A total of 17 people were treated from the incident.

"This could have been a little bit worse," Bush said, thanking emergency workers and school officials. "Due to their abilities to take care of things, they acted quickly."

A few photos from the hazmat situation at Merrol Hyde Magnet School in Hendersonville. 17 students and one teacher injured. Incident appears to have happened in a science lab. Fire Chief said he doesnt believe any of the injuries are critical. @FOXNashville pic.twitter.com/Un7N5kvuMW  Kathleen Serie (@Fox17Kathleen) May 9, 2018

Bush said the accident occurred when a chemical reaction caused a flash fire of about three to five seconds.

Other children at the school were relocated as the fire department used fans to clear chemical fumes and tested the building's air quality, ABC News reported.

The school is expected to reopen Thursday.

Accidents in school chemistry labs are not unheard of.

About three years ago, a popular chemistry lab demonstration in Virginia went awry and burned five high school students, two seriously, prompting the National Science Teachers Association to send out a safety advisory to tens of thousands of science teachers.

The fire at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax County (Virginia) also led the school system to rewrite its safety protocols and ban the demonstration - known as a "rainbow flame" - which involves igniting a pool of ethyl alcohol on a lab table and adding salts to change the color of the flames, The Washington Post's Moriah Balingit reported. The school district's superintendent temporarily suspended all science experiments involving open flame.WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump will meet with North Korea's Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12, Trump announced Thursday, hours after suggesting that the release of three Americans held in the North heralded a potential breakthrough toward denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

"We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" Trump said in a tweet.

With the final details in place, Trump and Kim will meet in the first North Korea-U.S. summit talks since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Kim has suspended nuclear and missile tests and put his nuclear program up for negotiation, but questions remain about how serious his offer is and what disarmament steps he would be willing to take.

Earlier Thursday, with the American former detainees by his side on a dark air base tarmac, Trump said during a made-for-TV ceremony that it was a "great honor" to welcome the men back to the U.S., but he added that "the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons."

Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, other top officials and first lady Melania joined the president in the celebration in the wee hours of Thursday morning at Joint Base Andrews near Washington. The former detainees -- Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim -- had been released Wednesday amid the warming of relations between longtime adversaries.

They appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft. When asked by reporters how it felt to be home, one of the men answered through a translator, "It's like a dream; we are very, very happy." They later gave the president a round of applause.

Suggesting that recovery from their ordeals would take time, Pence recounted Thursday morning that Pompeo told him that at the refueling stop in Anchorage, "one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadn't seen daylight in a very long time."

Trump thanked North Korean leader Kim for releasing the Americans and said he believes Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearization at their upcoming summit. "I really think he wants to do something," the president said.

Pence said Thursday on NBC News, "In this moment the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith."

Singapore had emerged as the likely host of the summit after Trump yielded to the concerns of his aides and backed off his desire to hold the meeting at the inter-Korean demilitarized zone.

Located at the southern tip of Malaysia, Singapore is a regional hub in Southeast Asia whose free enterprise philosophy welcomes trading partners from everywhere. It has close diplomatic and defense ties with the U.S. and yet is also familiar ground for North Korea, with which it established diplomatic relations in 1975.

A prosperous city state, Singapore has already hosted a historic meeting between two leaders burdened with a legacy of bad blood and mutual distrust. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwan's then-President Ma Ying-jeou came in 2015 to discuss cross-strait issues, the first such meeting since Mao Zedong founded the People's Republic of China in 1949.

In the U.S., shortly before 3 a.m. on Thursday, Trump and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the detainees had traveled and spent several minutes meeting with them privately. The group then emerged at top of the airplane stairway, where the men held up their arms in an exuberant display.

U.S. service members on the tarmac burst into applause and cheers.

"This is a special night for these three really great people," Trump told reporters. On the U.S. relationship with North Korea, Trump declared, "We're starting off on a new footing."

The White House choreographed the arrival event, suspending a giant American flag between two firetrucks on the tarmac and inviting reporters to witness the return. The image-conscious president told reporters, "I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 o'clock in the morning."

The men were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where they were to be evaluated and receive medical treatment before being reunited with their families.

The public display stood in stark contrast to the low-key, private reception that the State Department had envisioned, in keeping with a practice of trying to protect potentially traumatized victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after their ordeal.

Department officials took great pains on the prisoners' release in North Korea, as well as on their flights to Japan and Alaska, to keep them sequestered not only from the two journalists traveling with Pompeo but also from staffers not immediately involved in their cases. The trio, along with medical personnel that included a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Pompeo's plane in a small section of 12 business class-size seats cordoned off by curtains on both ends.

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns in keeping with the minimal amount of information they had released since the men were imprisoned.

Shortly after they touched down in Alaska, the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," they said. "We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental U.S.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kim's willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating U.S. moves to tighten sanctions -- branded "maximum pressure" by the president.

Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the "official suggestion" of the U.S. president, said North Korea's official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Warmbier was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

"We are happy for the hostages and their families," the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. "We miss Otto.""All the horrors of all the ages were brought together; not only armies but whole populations were thrust into the midst of them," was how British Prime Minister Winston Churchill remembered World War I.

Because of new military technologies and trench warfare, the First World War saw unprecedented levels of death and destruction. The war took the lives of nine million soldiers and 13 million civilians through starvation, exposure and disease.

Headlines from the Syracuse Herald's alternate history from May 5, 1918, which described what could happen to Syracuse if the Germans captured it during World War I.

Although it was the first global war, Americans at the home front were spared the war's brutality.

This did not prevent the editors of the Syracuse Herald from publishing an "alternate history" on May 5, 1918, under the headline, "WHEN THE GERMANS CAPTURED SYRACUSE."

Described as "fragments of imagination," the piece revealed, the newspaper's editors wrote, "graphically what is almost certain to happen in scores of American cities unless Germany is completely crushed in the struggle on the other side."

Illustrated by artwork which showed the destruction of such Syracuse landmarks as the Onondaga County Courthouse and Onondaga Hotel, the story fed the stereotype of the German soldier as being ruthless, cruel and violent.

In the end, it was really a scare tactic used to sell Liberty Bonds, the government-issued war bonds used in World War I, which despite a massive publicity campaign, had only limited success.

The story begins with the fall of New York City and the Germans pushing their forces into Upstate New York.

"Syracuse waited. Throngs crowded Warren Street before the bulletins of the newspapers," the story said.

Extra editions were published every 30 minutes, each "revealing some new step in the sinister plans of the warlords."

As artillery thundered to the east and refugees poured into the city, Mayor Walter Stone tried to plan for a defense of Syracuse.

The Armory and Arena were to be used as barracks.

The only question on anyone's mind was how long before the Germans arrived.

Their attack came at midnight, from the air. Dozens of planes, shining spotlights below, appeared over University Hill, above them were "three great Zeppelins."

A bomb is dropped from a plane and explodes onto the tower at St. Mary's Cathedral sending it crashing into the circle below.

The Statue of Liberty is under attack in this poster advertising Liberty Bonds. The Herald's fictional account of Germany capturing Syracuse has a similar theme: purchase Liberty Bonds or liberty perishes.

Crowds of people rush out into the streets. The railroad tracks on Washington Street have been bombed, the Court House dome has a gaping hole, and a "wretched dwelling in the North Side became even more wretched."

The first four floors of the Onondaga Hotel were made into a hospital and was crowded with 400 injured. It is reported that 342 people are dead.

The German army appears on the outskirts of the city the next morning and begin to shell Syracuse.

They aim for the Onondaga Hotel and its wounded and quickly demolish it.

"The shells literally hailed upon the city; shells of every caliber - tear shells, gas shells, high explosive shells," the Herald reported.

Most of Syracuse University's building were damaged and the spire of St. Paul's Cathedral laid across Fayette Street.

The German infantry then attacked, and the city's small army of defenders were quickly swept aside.

"We must give up the city," Mayor Stone told the city council. "Further resistance is useless."

General von Kalbfleisch (a likely fictional general, whose name translated to "General of Veal") arrived and demanded the surrender of the city.

He asked for 5,000 barrels of flour, 2,000 horses, every cow and sheep in the area and for the city's bank vaults to be opened for his army.

A group of the city's leading citizens were rounded up and placed in the city jail as hostages. The list included famous names like Francis Hendricks, Donald and Robert Dey (the Dey Brothers), Huntington Crouse, H.H. Franklin, Lieutenant Governor Edward Schoeneck and Dr. John Van Duyn.

They were to be shot should anything happen to any German soldier.

That would be tested almost immediately.

A group of intoxicated soldiers tried to make a North Side girl dance with them. When her father tried to stop them, he was shot, and his body was thrown into the street. Two friends of the family heard the commotion and killed the soldiers.

"From that moment, all is confusion. Firing broke out in the entire North Side," the story said.

German soldiers fired into the crowds of rioters, not caring if they hit their comrades. German-Americans were hunted as traitors.

When the night was over 20 German soldiers were dead and 200 Syracuse civilians.

In retaliation, the hostages were taken to the ruins of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Clinton Square, along the Erie Canal.

The prominent Syracusans began singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," as German soldiers lined them up along side the canal.

"An easy way to dispose of swine," a German officer said.

"There was a volley..."

The fictional account ends with an army of Americans moving from the west to liberate Central New York. But a terrible cost was paid.

"In their rage, the Huns left not one stone upon another. Syracuse was laid in ashes."

"Did you buy Liberty Bonds?" was how the story ended.

This feature is a part of CNY Nostalgia, a section on syracuse.com. Send your ideas and curiosities to Johnathan Croyle: Email | 315-427-3958.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 ...This page no longer exists or may have been moved.If you believe this is a mistake please emailStephen Hawking believed there is intelligent alien life. Before he died on March 14, he was part of a $100 million project that aims to find extraterrestrial life.

The Breakthrough Listen Initiative

The Breakthrough Listen Initiative, created by Russian inventor Yuri Milner, Hawking, and others, has the objective of collecting deep space data to find signals of alien life.

"We believe that life arose spontaneously on Earth," Hawking said in July 2015 during the launch of the project. "So in an infinite universe, there must be other occurrences of life."

Australia's Parkes Radio Telescope became the third telescope used by Breakthrough Listen project to scan the heavens in 2016, joining the ranks of Automated Planet Finder at Lick Observatory in Northern California, and Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia.

New Parkes Radio Telescope Hardware To Expand Survey

On Monday, Breakthrough Listen project revealed the launch of an expanded survey of stars in the Milky Way with the installation of a multibeam receiver on the Parkes Radio Telescope.

The previous receivers used only observed a single point on the sky one at a time. Parkes telescope has also been targeting just a small sample of stars within a relatively short distance from our home planet.

In comparison, the new receiver will use 13 beams to scan a large swath of space, which could quickly pull data that researchers will analyze to find signals that indicate artificial origin.

Besides covering the plane of the Milky Way, the new observations will also include a region around the Galactic Center, the rotational center of the Milky Way. A supermassive black hole lies in this region and this is surrounded by millions of stars.

The new hardware will likewise allow the system to process 130 gigabits per second of observational data. Since the project is signed up for 1,500 of observation times with Parkes telescope for this year, it could mean collecting around 100 petabytes of raw data, which is equivalent to over 5 million HD movies.

Better Opportunity To Find Signs Of Alien Life

Danny Price, Parkes Project scientist with the Breakthrough Listen project, said that with the new capabilities, researchers will be able to scan the galaxy in unprecedented detail.

"By trawling through these huge datasets for signatures of technological civilizations, we hope to uncover evidence that our planet, among the hundreds of billions in our Galaxy, is not the only one where intelligent life has arisen," Price said in a statement.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Tourists at a state park in Utah began to throw dinosaur tracks into a lake after mistaking them for regular rocks. A park manager says that the area with dinosaurs tracks has been heavily vandalized as of late and people may not know what they're throwing into the lake are dinosaur tracks.

He adds that signs are posted warning people not to do it.

Getting Rid Of Fossils

Park manager Josh Hansen told the Salt Lake Tribune that he heard splashes while he is untying his patrol boat. What he heard was a kid throwing sandstone into a lake. The kid didn't realize that those rocks had dinosaur tracks on them. Hansen was able to save one of the tracks from destruction.

By the time that he reached him, several dinosaur tracks had already been thrown into the lake. This continues a pattern that Hansen noticed over the last six months, people have been vandalizing the site heavily.

Hansen has seen people just pick up rocks to throw them into the lake. He believes that they don't know that the tracks are on the rocks that they're throwing. Red Fleet State Park may send divers into the lake to see if they can find any of the fossils in the lake. Some of the tracks shatter when they hit the surface of the water.

Dinosaur tracks found at Red Fleet State Park date from around 200 million years ago. They belong to 8-foot-tall carnivorous dinosaurs. Many of the tracks could be found on a trail that runs along a slickrock slope. They're a big tourist attraction.

Utah State Park Urges Caution

People having no regard for the dinosaurs fossils found in the park have become such a problem that the Utah State Parks had to write a post on its blog. The blog stated that visitors to Red Fleet State Park have been breaking the sandstone slabs that contain the dinosaur tracks and throwing them into the lake.

Some of these tracks are 200 million years old. Since the main attractions to the park are the dinosaur tracks, they're urging people to make an effort not to destroy them. Hansen is telling people not to disturb any of the rocks that they may find at the park. He adds that it is illegal to displace the rocks that have tracks on them.

Signs were previously placed around the part of the park with the tracks and authorities will be adding more signs to discourage people from destroying the tracks.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Law enforcement officials warn that around a hundred drug-sniffing dogs might be possibly euthanized if recreational marijuana use becomes legalized in the state of Illinois.

Legalization Over Life

As it stands, several media outlets have portrayed the authorities as the bad guys based on their statement. However, several sources claim it was taken out of context. Initial reactions against the declaration were obviously negative as it sounded like the deaths of the dogs are being used as threats against the legalization of the drug.

On the flipside, it appears that the police officers are, in fact, worried that their 4-legged partners lose their job and will be possibly retired from the force. As these dogs are specially trained to serve their purpose, being put up for adoption is out of the question. Furthermore, if their handler cannot take care of them, it's a likely scenario wherein the dog is put to sleep.

An Ongoing Debate

The legalization of recreational marijuana has yet to be approved as Illinois lawmakers debate over the possibility of being the 10th state to approve its legal use. In 2016, the possession of up to 10 grams of the drug, which was considered small, was decriminalized. Those caught were required by the state to pay a fine of $100 up to $200.

Additionally, the state likewise implemented a pilot program for medical marijuana back in 2015. Only a few conditions were listed to qualify for its usage and it is scheduled to expire in 2020. Vocal supporters of the reform claim that the legalization of the drug for recreational use will bring in more revenue.

Those who are in the opposition argue that cannabis is possibly a gateway drug that can lead users to experiment with other prohibited substances. They also point out that federal law classifies pot as schedule 1 drug, the same as LSD and heroin.

In the meantime, Steve Petrilli, assistant police chief of the Normal Police Department and a K-9 handler with eight years of experience, believes that retraining is impossible.

"At this point, they're trained on five different odors. Once they're programmed with that, you can't just deprogram them," explained Petrilli. "I think the implications of that would be huge."

Euthanasia Not Necessary

The law enforcement officials express their concern over the estimated 275 trained drug search dogs. A report from The Washington Post, however, points out that nine states have already legalized marijuana but there is no recorded news of mass euthanasia done on drug-sniffing dogs.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Hepatitis B is a severe liver infection that is caused by the hepatitis B virus. If a person should have chronic hepatitis b which means it could last more than six months, a person is at risk of getting other diseases such as cirrhosis or liver failure, according to Mayo Clinic.

While the infection has been around for years as it was discovered in the 1960's, a new study that was conducted by genetics now shows that hepatitis b has been around since the bronze age.

Skeletons Speak

Though there was a vaccine created to treat the infection after it was discovered, hepatitis B has still caused the death of many people. In 2015, 900,000 people died from the infection and 257 million people still carry hepatitis B.

Scientists have now reported that they have recovered DNA from fifteen different skeletons that contain different strains of hepatitis B. The oldest skeleton that had a strain of it was 7,000 years old and a farmer that resided in what is now Germany.

There were two teams that made this discovery, one was led by Eske Willerslev, who is a geneticist at the University of Copenhagen. The researchers studied 304 samples from human remains that resided in Europe and in Asia. The teams discovered the remains of 25 people had matches for the infection which led to the researchers finding 12 hepatitis B genomes.

The Process

In order to find the strains of the hepatitis B, Willerslev and his team have to grind the teeth and bones of the skeletons together and then pulled out fragments of genetic material. Willerslev and his team were able to reconstruct the DNA of the individuals. The team also discovered the human genes aren't only found in teeth and bones but also in the waste.

The scientists used a technique called, "shotgun sequencing" where the long strands of DNA are shredded and cloned. The team then turned over the findings to the Centre for Pathogen Evolution at the University of Cambridge for further testing.

Many researchers, including biologist Hendrik Poinar, a professor at Canada's McMaster University, who wasn't involved in the study.

"One of the really cool things is it shows the presence of genotypes that are no longer circulating today - that is, they have gone extinct. We'd expect this, but to see it is really neat.," Poinar stated.

Willerslev also commented that this new discovery could help inform experts with the knowledge of these strains should they ever appear again.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.A nurse arrested on suspicion of spreading hepatitis C at a MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, Washington, denies having the virus or using drugs.

Nurse Potentially Infected Thousands With Hepatitis C

For those unfamiliar with the matter, the hospital issued a press release on April 30, warning that 2,600 patients who went through the ER during an eight-month period may have been exposed to hepatitis C.

The hospital said it was contacting patients at risk of exposure and offered free tests and treatment to those infected. Following the disclosure, a man who contracted hepatitis C after visiting the Puyallup Good Samaritan ER has filed suit against the hospital, and things are far from dying down.

The Puyallup Good Samaritan Hospital said that it thinks a nurse was taking parts of the pain medications intended for patients and injecting them to herself, then using the same needles on patients. The nurse in question was later identified as Cora Weberg.

Nurse Gets Her License Suspended

Last week, authorities arrested Weberg at the border to Canada, as she was attempting to leave the country on a pre-planned trip. She was released shortly after being booked into Pierce County Jail, but the Washington State Department of Health has suspended her license.

According to state officials, two patients who received pain medication from Weberg later found out they had hepatitis C. Many other patients are still getting tested to see if they contracted the virus.

Nurse Denies Having Hepatitis C

Weberg, on her part, has admitted to stealing discarded pain medication such as fentanyl and hydromorphone from the hospital. However, she denies using the drugs and sharing needles with patients. At the same time, she also denies having the virus, therefore refuting the allegations that she spread hepatitis C.

During a press conference at an attorney's office, Weberg said she has been fully cooperating with authorities. Her attorneys, meanwhile, said she could not infect those two patients with hepatitis C, but health officials and the police were looking for a scapegoat.

The Stolen Drugs Were For A Failed Suicide Attempt

After admitting to stealing discarded pain medication from the hospital, Weberg said that she took them because she planned to take her own life. Nevertheless, she highlighted that she never shared needles with patients, and she never had hepatitis C that could contaminate others.

"As of this very moment, I do not believe that I'm a contagious carrier of hepatitis C," she stated.

Bryan Hersman, Weberg's attorney, questioned the competency and honesty of the law enforcement and health department as Weberg never had hepatitis C. He claims that the nurse got one blood test when the investigation started and she passed, then got a second blood test that was inconclusive.

"Apparently there is a very low level of a pathogen in my blood that can constitute hepatitis C but not at the low levels found in my blood," Weberg said.

Regular Blood Donor

Furthermore, Weber's lawyers point out that she couldn't have had hepatitis C and gone undetected so far because she donated blood regularly. The attorneys said they contacted the Red Cross and confirmed that Weber was a blood donor and her blood was clean.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Archeologists stumbled on a significant historical find in East Africa, a cave that has deep historical ties to human civilization.

The Panga Ya Saidi System

Nature Communications released a study showing the discoveries of a group of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. The research team found Panga ya Saidi, a cave system near the coast of East Africa which can be traced to earlier generations of ancient civilizations. Currently, Panga ya Saidi is used by East African residents for traditional purposes such as burials.

Artifacts In The Caves

Inside the cave system, the team found several items that might have been used by the humans that lived over 67,000 years ago. One significant piece of old jewelry that the group found was a bead that the Max Planck Institute research team claimed was the oldest bead in Kenya, estimated to be around 65,000 years old. They also found beads made from ostrich eggshells which were determined to be 25,000 years old.

Other artifacts that were discovered during the archeological investigation were several sets of stone tools that were said to belong to the Later Stone Age. The researchers also found several bones and furniture pieces.

Outside The Cave System

When the Max Planck Institute research team ventured outside the Panga ya Saidi cave system, they found that the surrounding ecosystem has been intact for the last 78,000 years. The ecosystem could be described as a transitional region between forests and grassland. The team believed that the humans that lived in the area were hunter-gatherers who were able to adapt to various areas.

"This information adds to our knowledge that Homo sapiens was living in a variety of environments and that it could adapt to a variety of settings. It is clear that humans entered into an array of environmental settings as they expanded within Africa and migrated outside Africa," said Michael Petraglia, a professor at the Max Planck Institute to Haaretz.

An Africa Update

The Ebola virus has returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The government confirmed two cases of Ebola that were reported in the northwestern town of Bikaro. There were 10 more suspected cases of the virus. This is the eighth reported outbreak of Ebola that the DRC experienced since 1976.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority is looking for a leopard that not only snatched a 3-year-old child that visited the Queen Elizabeth National Park on May 4 but also devoured the kid. The child's parents and law officials found the child's skull and several bones. Authorities believe that since the leopard ate the child, the experience might transform the animal into a dangerous predator.

The same park also experienced a horrific tragedy when 11 lions were found dead. Conservationists believe that villagers poisoned eight lion cubs and three adult lionesses. Authorities saw the deceased lions in a town called Hamukungu. The lions were allegedly poisoned with the inexpensive and readily acquired insecticide Aldicarb.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Scientists set out to investigate the ancestral biogeography of Coerebinae, including 14 closest species of Darwin's finches, to understand where these birds truly originated from.

The Coerebinae, which was discovered in the Galapagos Islands in 1835, is the living proof of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. Whether this species, which belongs to the family of tanagers, originated from the Galapagos or not is the subject of debate.

Using state-of-the-art statistical software, researchers at San Diego State University have put the matter to rest. Their model uses two biogeographical categories: the first group included Galapagos, South America, and the Caribbean while the second group added subregions like the Amazon or the Andes for a total of eight sub-regions.

The results showed that Darwin's finches, including 14 of its closest species, are more likely to have originated from the Caribbean and not the South America mainland, which is closer to Galapagos.

"The results were a bit surprising because they suggested a dispersal pattern that was not necessarily the most 'straightforward' explanation for how these birds arrived in the Galapagos. I think one of the big takeaway messages here is the possibility that biogeographic events, like dispersal, may not necessarily happen like logic tells us they should," Funk said.

The Evolution of Darwin's Finches

If the giant tortoise is the symbolic trademark of the Galapagos Islands, Darwin's finches prove the theory of evolution by natural selection.

He, together with an ornithologist named John Gould, examined that the finches of the Galapagos Islands are similar to the one found in mainland South America. This led the scientists to think that these finches once had their colonies on the island.

However, the finches from the two different locations share different characteristics in terms of beak shape, claw size, and overall body size. Darwin theorized that the differences in the birds may be attributed to the type and availability of food in the Galapagos.

Theory of Evolution By Natural Selection

The distance islands of the Galapagos to mainland South America may also hinder breeding across different species of finches, suggesting that the finches could have evolved over time to suit the conditions of each island.

"An ancestor to this lineage that was more likely to wander would be much more likely to encounter oceanic islands such as those of the Caribbean, with the variance in bill shape providing the means for successful colonists to adapt to open ecological niches," the authors concluded.

"An underlying genetic component would allow this dispersal propensity to persist throughout subsequent speciation events until the long-distance dispersal to, and proliferation throughout, the Galapagos Islands."

What makes this bird important to biologists is that their physical variations suggest they have evolved to outcompete and outlast other species with less advantageous characteristics; thus, proving the theory of evolution by natural selection.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Nvidia's 10-series GeForce GTX graphics cards are back in stock, and they're available at their original manufacturer suggested price or MSRP.

As for why this is a big deal, it's because GPUs with reasonable costs have been hard to come by since the recent boom of digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Cryptocurrency miners have been hoarding these components, and as a result, the demand and price for them shot through the roof.

Now the value of these cryptocurrencies is starting to drop, and new mining technology is rendering today's graphics cards inefficient in comparison. Thanks to those factors, the chip maker is capable of keeping pace with the demand. After all, it has been "working really hard" to supply gamers with GPUs for months already.

Nvidia Restocks Its Shelves

Depending on the GPU, prices are anywhere between $150 and $700. For instance, the GTX 1080 Ti is available at Nvidia's official website for $700 with a limit of two per customer. On the other hand, there's the GTX 1060 with a $300 price tag as well as the GTX 1050 selling for $150 over at Newegg.

For the record, the lineup consists of the GTX 1050, GTX 1050 Ti, GTX 1060 3 GB, GTX 1060 6 GB, GTX 1070, GTX 1070 Ti, GTX 1080, and GTX 1080 Ti.

Nvidia Spreads The Word

Nvidia is letting its fans  and the world, for that matter  know that its GPUs are affordable yet again with its new Made to Game campaign. It's also taking things to Twitter to boot.

Inspired. Innovative. In-stock. GeForce GTX 10-Series GPUs are back on shelves at MSRP! #MadeToGame Shop Now: https://t.co/uliy5aw0TK pic.twitter.com/joCRUFmZcj  NVIDIA GeForce (@NVIDIAGeForce) May 9, 2018

To boil things down, gamers with rigs that are due for an upgrade can now get their hands on a powerful GPU at a reasonable price.

Of course, there's still a possibility that cryptocurrency miners will take advantage of the lower prices, which could bring supplies down and consequently increase the costs again. In other words, gamers may need to be quick, or else they might miss out on these new stocks.

It's also worth noting that AMD GPUs are still difficult to find online. That's because they can mine more efficiently than Nvidia's. At the moment, there's no word on how AMD plans to replenish its supplies.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.The National Transportation Safety Board is going to investigate the fiery car crash involving a Tesla Model S that killed two teenagers in Florida recently.

NTSB Opens Investigation Into Fatal Tesla S Model Crash

On Wednesday, May 9, the NTSB announced that it is initiating an investigation into the crash and fire of a 2014 Tesla Model S. The accident claimed the lives of two teenagers and injured one in Fort Lauderdale, Florida earlier this week.

The agency said the investigation will be led by a four-person team. The main focus of the investigation will be the post-crash fire that originated from the battery of the electric vehicle.

"The goal of these investigations is to understand the impact of these emerging transportation technologies when they are part of a transportation accident," Robert Sumwalt, NTSB Chairman, said in the press release.

Tesla vehicles are known to use Lithium-ion batteries, which can easily catch fire and burn rapidly in the event of a crash. However, Tesla has maintained that its electric vehicles catch fire far lesser compared to those powered by gasoline.

The NTSB also noted that it does not expect Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot system to be a part of the probe.

This isn't the first time the NTSB is looking into a fatal car crash involving a Tesla Model S in Florida. Last year, the agency investigated a Tesla Model S that killed a former Navy SEAL after he had crashed the Autopilot-enabled vehicle into a semitrailer truck.

The agency is also investigating another Tesla-related fire after a Model X SUV crashed on a freeway in California in March.

Police Believe Speed Played A Factor In The Fatal Crash

The Tesla Model S sedan was occupied by three teenagers, all aged 18. They were traveling southbound on Seabreeze Boulevard when the car drove off the road and crashed into a concrete wall, Detective Tracy Figone of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department said in a statement.

Immediately after the collision, the vehicle caught on fire and became completely engulfed in flames. The police believe that the speed at which the vehicle was traveling played a factor in the crash, but could not identify the source of the fire.

The driver and one of the passengers died after they had been trapped inside the vehicle due to the blaze. The third teenager was thrown out of the vehicle and was rushed to a nearby hospital where his condition is unknown.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Taking Air Travel to the Streets, or Just Above Them







Washington DC (SPX) May 08, 2018





There was a time when people and goods were moved through the crowded city on the ground, restricted to the busy street surfaces by necessity and gravity. So, inspired visionaries considered new ways to get about town and dreamt of innovative flying machines that could safely transport passengers and ship cargo within the urban jungle by rising above the congestion below. No, we're not talking about the Wright Brothers in 1903. This is the new era in air transportation that NASA and a ... read moreWASHINGTON (AP)  Democrats on the House intelligence committee have released more than 3,500 Facebook ads that were created or promoted by a Russian internet agency, providing the fullest picture yet of Russia's attempt to sow racial and political division in the United States before and after the 2016 election.

At least one ad in the campaign targeted Facebook users in Louisiana, centered on the officer-involved shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge in 2016, according to a WBRZ report.

Alton Sterling coverage: New videos and insight, Salamoni's defense, reactions, more Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul fired one officer and suspended another in connection to the Alton Sterling shooting on Friday after near

The ad, posted by the Facebook page "Don't Shoot," promoted a "Justice for Alton Sterling" rally at the Baton Rouge Police Department headquarters on July 9, 2016 and was headlined "Alton Sterling, an innocent 37-year-old Black male, was outrageously executed by two Baton..." before cutting off.

The intelligence report says the ad cost 8,199.13 Russian Rubles, approximately $132.95, and ran between July 6-9 in 2016. It was seen by more than 26,000 people and clicked on more than 2,000 times.

Most of the ads are issue-based, pushing arguments for and against immigration, LGBT issues and gun rights, among other issues. A large number of them attempt to stoke racial divisions by mentioning police brutality or disparaging the Black Lives Matter movement. Some promote President Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders, who ran against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary. Few, if any, support Clinton.

The intelligence committee Democrats released a sampling of the ads purchased by Russia's Internet Research Agency last year, but they are now releasing the full cache of ads that Facebook officials turned over to the panel after acknowledging in September they had discovered the Russian efforts. The release of ads from early 2015 through mid-2017 does not include 80,000 posts that the agency also shared. Some of the ads are partially redacted, part of an effort by Facebook and the committee to protect unsuspecting people whose names or faces were used.

An Associated Press review of the thousands of ads and their data shows how precisely  and sometimes randomly  the agency targeted them.

Some ads designed to appeal to critics of immigration were targeted to users who liked specific Fox News hosts, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, "Old Glory" and the United States Constitution, among other words.

Others were more narrowly targeted. Facebook users within 12 miles of Buffalo, New York, were directed to an event supporting justice for a black woman who died in a county jail. Another ad criticizing a Texas school teacher who lost her job after making racist remarks was aimed at adults living in Cleveland, Baltimore, St. Louis and Ferguson, Missouri.

One ad that targeted African-Americans concerned about discrimination was only to be shown to users accessing Facebook on Wi-Fi, rather than cellular. There was no explanation as to why that was.

Sometimes the targeting appeared to work  after a try or two. A January 2016 ad that promised news on "bad" refugees got five clicks when targeted at those interested in immigration or conservatism. But the same ad got 163 clicks when targeted at those interested in Syria, the Republican Party or politics.

Others got many more clicks. A pro-patriotism ad created on June 23, 2015 featuring a stylized drawing of a bald eagle was viewed nearly 530,000 times and was clicked on 72,000 times.

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg acknowledges mistakes, vows to find solutions to mishandling of personal information WASHINGTON (AP)  Here's what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wanted 44 senators to know about the scandal in which Cambridge Analytica used the 

Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

As the Russians attempted to pose as Americans, their language sometimes hinted at their origin. One ad railed against immigrants who "should prove that they are deserved to stay in the United States." Another read: "Your life matter. My life matter. Black matters."

Facebook revealed in September that it had discovered the divisive ads, which were paid for in rubles. Ads were still running in July and August of 2017, weeks before Facebook made the effort public.

In February, special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians of an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, charging several people associated with the Internet Research Agency with running a huge but hidden social media trolling campaign aimed in part at helping Trump defeat Clinton. The indictment was part of Mueller's larger investigation into Russian intervention in the election and whether Trump's campaign was involved. There has been no evidence that Trump's campaign was in any way associated with the social media effort.

The trove of ads released Thursday appears to back the assertion that the Russians wanted to hurt Clinton. Some spread rumors about her husband, former president Bill Clinton, or promote lies about her. Several depict Clinton behind bars.

Hundreds of the ads ran after the election, continuing the effort to sow discord. A series of ads posted two days after Trump was elected urge his supporters to show up at Trump Tower in Manhattan to respond to the "massive crowds of libtards" who protested him. It targets people within 50 miles of New York City and provides the street address.

That was one of many ads that attempted to set up events  sometimes on opposing sides of an issue.

In May 2017, the fake group "United Muslims of America" ran seven ads promoting two June 3 protests against the war in Syria  one at Trump Tower, the other at the White House. One of those ads targeted people with interests in peace, human rights, feminism and pacifism and those who were "likely to engage with political content (liberal)."

Facebook has said that more than 10 million people in the United States saw the ads, more than half of which ran after the election. Under fire from Congress, the social media giant has pledged improvements to its ad policies and enforcement. Facebook has made it easier to see the origins of ads, is forcing buyers to be more transparent about who they are and has worked to find more fake accounts, among other changes.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, said he was releasing the ads so it doesn't happen again.

"The only way we can begin to inoculate ourselves against a future attack is to see firsthand the types of messages, themes and imagery the Russians used to divide us," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Chad Day, Eric Tucker, Tom LoBianco and Desmond Butler in Washington, Mae Anderson and Nick Jesdanun in New York, David Hamilton and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco, Frank Bajak in Boston and Matt O'Brien in Providence, Rhode Island contributed to this report.The Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport has an interim director after a prolonged search for a permanent leader led the previous interim to jump ship.

The East Baton Rouge Metro Council agreed Wednesday to appoint Operations Manager Mike Edwards as the interim aviation director for the airport. Edwards applied for the position after Ralph Hennessy, who held the interim job for a year-and-a-half, announced last month he was leaving his post.

Hennessy had hoped to secure the permanent job after longtime Aviation Director Anthony Marino retired in 2016. But months after a national search began for Marino's replacement, Hennessy said he could not keep waiting when an offer came from a private firm.

Outgoing Baton Rouge airport interim director announces new job in private sector After resigning from the city-parish, interim airport director Ralph Hennessy will take a new job with engineering and planning consulting fir

On Wednesday, Edwards told council members he will also apply for the permanent job as aviation director. A resume he submitted for the interim position says he previously worked as the senior operations supervisor for the New Orleans International Airport before starting his job in 2014 at Baton Rouge Metro Airport.

Along with the Edwards appointment, the Metro Council on Wednesday also received its first report from the Council on Aging after the agency received a dedicated property tax that tripled the size of its budget.

Council on Aging Board Chairwoman Jennifer Moisant said the agency is proud of the increases to services they have implemented since receiving the additional property tax revenue. At least 15 Council on Aging employees and supporters attended the public hearing, including Council on Aging CEO Tasha Clark-Amar and recently fired Southern University law professor Dorothy Jackson.

When it was announced wed been expanding the Meals on Wheels program, our office received over 3,000 phone calls and it actually crashed our phone system," Moisant said.

In addition to expanding Meals on Wheels from five to seven days a week and eliminating the waiting list for the service, Moisant said, the Council on Aging has also started to identify areas across the parish where they hope to build senior centers. She said they expect to build senior centers in the Perkins Road/Kenilworth Parkway, Jones Creek, Port Hudson, Highland/Gardere and Jefferson Highway areas.

Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

+2 SU Board of Supervisors unanimously upholds Jackson's firing The Southern University board of supervisors voted unanimously Friday to uphold the firing of law professor Dorothy Jackson, who was terminate

Metro Councilwomen Chauna Banks, Tara Wicker and Erika Green lauded the Council on Aging. Wicker told staff they are doing an "absolutely great job," while Banks commended the Council on Aging's transparency.

But Councilman Dwight Hudson, who previously called on Clark-Amar to resign, said his impression and the feedback from his constituents has been less positive. Jackson was recently fired for her role in a Council on Aging-related matter, while Clark-Amar is under investigation by the State Office of Inspector General.

"Theyre concerned about the raises, as thats not what they were told when they voted on the tax," Hudson said, referencing recent pay increases for Council on Aging staffers. He asked about the recent pay raise for Trudy Bihm, who is the Council on Aging's special programs coordinator and Clark-Amar's special assistant.

Bihm recently received a pay bump from $48,000 to $68,000 a year, which Council on Aging employees defended at a board meeting last month. Council on Aging Chief Administrative Officer James Gilmore told Hudson on Wednesday that Bihm's pay increase was "an exception" to the pay raises that mostly benefited the agency's lowest-paid employees who provide direct services to seniors.

Gilmore said Bihm recently took on new job duties, which justified the increase in pay. Banks invited Bihm to the lectern, asking her to tell council members about her background. Bihm said she holds a master's degree, has previously worked in home health and has worked in multiple capacities for the Council on Aging since 2013.

Baton Rouge Council on Aging defends employee pay raises questioned by councilwoman The East Baton Rouge Council on Aging leadership defended recent employee pay raises on Friday, saying new tax money that tripled the size of 

Ive done a lot," she said. "I enjoy what I do. I dont enjoy being criticized for what I do.SORRENTO  Two fatal crashes happening with two hours of each other Sunday night in Ascension Parish killed a Gramercy man and two children frAshley Landry writes a letter to state legislators detailing her family's positive experience at University Hospital and Clinics Monday, April 30, 2018, at the hospital in Lafayette, La. Hospital staff and volunteers manned several tables outside the hospital entrances Monday to encourage patients, staff and visitors to write letters of support for the hospital. According to a Lafayette General Health web site, www.saveuhc.com, UHC is at risk of losing 800 staff members and training programs for medical students due to the state budget crisis. A Facebook post by Lafayette General Health stated, "With no budget for healthcare, UHC will have to close its doors on June 30 if the legislature does not fully fund it."Gov. John Bel Edwards, left, shakes hands with his designee on the Louisiana Justice Reinvestment Task Force, Flozell Daniels, Jr., right, President and CEO of Foundation For Louisiana, Thursday, March 16, 2017, during a press conference following a meeting in which the task force detailed its plan for criminal justice reform. The Rev. Gene Mills, President of Louisiana Family Forum, is at center, and Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre is at left, background.Gov. John Bel Edwards shakes hands in January 2016 with his health care transition team co-chairs, Gary Wiltz, CEO of Teche Action Clinic, and Ronald A. Goux, president of the Louisiana Nursing Home Association, at the State Capitol after Edwards signed his his first executive order to provide for Medicaid expansion in the state of Louisiana.A contractor working for Entergy New Orleans hired actors to support the utility's proposal to build a $210 million power plant in New Orleans East, Entergy acknowledged Thursday after an internal investigation.

Despite the admission, the City Council promised to conduct its own investigation.

The Hawthorn Group, a national public relations firm, hired the California-based firm Crowds on Demand to help create the image of widespread public support for the plant at City Council hearings, in violation of Entergy's contract with Hawthorn, Entergy officials said.

Hawthorn was not supposed to hire any subcontractors without notifying Entergy, the officials said.

These kinds of activities run directly counter to the way we conduct our business, said Entergy's general counsel, Marcus Brown. We apologize to the council, the community, and to the many supporters of the New Orleans power station project who took their own time to attend those public hearings and express their support for this important project."

Can't see video below? Click here.

Entergy has ended its relationship with the Virginia-based Hawthorn and has placed it and Crowds on Demand on a "do not hire" list, officials said.

The company also has added language to its standard consulting contracts that expressly bans firms from hiring actors to feign public support  an apparently legal practice known as "astroturfing"  for Entergy initiatives in the future, Brown said in an interview.

The Hawthorn Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Council President Jason Williams and Vice President Helena Moreno issued a statement late Thursday saying that the "allegations and subsequent confirmation of astroturfing during the City Council's consideration of the proposal ... fly in the face of the dignity, courtesy and respect of traditional public discourse vital to our democratic process."

They added: "While we acknowledge Entergy's efforts to swiftly investigate the matter and produce a report of its findings, as regulators, the City Council owes a fiduciary obligation to the citizens of New Orleans that we must honor. These serious allegations during a monumental proceeding by the City Council warrant a fully independent review by the council or by a third-party investigator hired by the council to transparently vet the facts of this matter."

Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

Asked this week whether the revelation that actors were paid could prompt a council reconsideration of the plant decision or some other penalty, Moreno said more would be decided once the probe is complete.

The council approved the plant's construction 6-1 in March, agreeing with Entergys arguments that the plant is needed to prevent possible cascading outages in New Orleans and to provide a local source of electricity generation.

Only two members of that council, Williams and Jared Brossett, are still in office. Both voted for the plant.

By the time of the March vote, the plants opponents already had begun questioning whether Entergy paid people to back the project, a claim the utility swiftly denied. The critics, including the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and other groups, filed a suit April 19 alleging the same claim in an attempt to block the project.

After the suit was filed, The Lens, a nonprofit local news website, was the first to interview at least three people who confirmed they were paid at least $60 and as much $200 apiece by representatives of Crowds on Demand to back the proposed 128-megawatt plant.

Entergy then acknowledged for the first time that it was investigating who did what to line up supporters. Officials said Thursday that they began their investigation the day the April lawsuit was filed.

Entergy said it reviewed thousands of pages of documents, including contracts, change orders and emails, to get to the bottom of who hired the California firm. It said it also interviewed its own employees who were involved in the power station initiative, as well as representatives of Crowds on Demand and the Hawthorn Group.

Those two entities admitted to working together, Brown said. "This activity was undertaken without our knowledge or approval, and I can say unequivocally that it would not have been approved had we known, he said.

Although Entergy asked Hawthorn to supply specific numbers of supporters at various council meetings  up to 75 grassroots supporters, 10 of whom would speak," on Oct. 17, "and up to 30 grassroots supporters, including 10 speakers, on Feb. 21, according to the investigation  it said it believed it was paying Hawthorn only to ask people to support it publicly.

Hawthorn was one of at least two consultants Entergy asked to gin up support for the power plant. The other was longtime local political strategist Bill Rouselle, who said Monday that he did not pay people to support the idea.

A coalition of the plant's critics who have urged the council to reverse its March 8 decision called Tuesday for multiple independent investigations. The Rev. Gregory Manning, a vocal Entergy opponent, also said he was "skeptical" of Entergy's claim that it was unaware of Hawthorn's actions.

In any case, he said, the utility should be held responsible for the debacle. "If they are over that subsidiary company, then they ultimately paid those actors," he said.The recently sworn-in New Orleans City Council is demanding that the Sewerage & Water Board comply with a law that requires it to produce quarterly reports to the council, an obligation it has skirted in the past.

A letter sent Thursday to the S&WB, signed by all seven council members, blasted the agency for not producing the reports for the previous council. It also laid out what kind of information will be expected in the future.

"The first order of business is to restore public confidence in the S&WB," the council members wrote. "As it currently stands, severe mistrust of the S&WB directly results from terrible customer service, lack of transparency, and poor efforts to engage the public. We strongly urge several recommended improvements to mitigate some of these issues and request information on factors that have contributed to the current state of affairs."

A representative of the S&WB promised to try to comply with the council's demands.

The letter largely focused on changes made in 2014 to the makeup of the S&WB's governing board. That measure removed council members from the board but required the utility to provide comprehensive reports to the council about its operations.

But that requirement was ignored for years. The agency's first report did not come until after the flood of Aug. 5, 2017, when public trust in the utility had been shattered by failures of the S&WB's drainage system and the misleading statements made by its top officials.

And once the S&WB was pressured into addressing the council, the resulting report fell so far short of what was expected as to be "indefensible and inexcusable," according to the letter.

"Remember this requirement asks for a bare minimum. S&WB could not even comply with that," the letter says.

Councilman Joe Giarrusso, who drafted the letter, said it was intended to let the S&WB know what the expectations are as quickly as possible, with the goal of having concrete answers when the next report is due in June.

"While we may not have direct statutory authority over the Sewerage & Water Board, we have the bully pulpit," Giarrusso said, arguing that it's crucial to get the accountability that "the public has been demanding for the past year."

The 10-page letter demands that in its next report, the S&WB address a detailed series of questions on topics ranging from the state of the drainage system to billing practices.

"I think the board needs to come clean with people about where they stand with being able to meet day-to-day needs," Giarrusso said.

S&WB Communications Director Richard Rainey said in an email that the utility plans to comply.

Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

"The specifics of the letter will be studied, and the S&WB is committed to responding to the council's requests as thoroughly and effectively as possible," Rainey said. "The S&WB's top priorities are to keep New Orleans safe and healthy and to serve its customers well, but just as important is the public agency's renewed promise to improve its accountability and be more transparent about how it operates."

It remains to be seen how those pledges will play out for both next month's report and future ones. The S&WB's leadership remains in flux, with Interim Executive Director Marcie Edwards' time at the agency due to end next month and no permanent replacement yet named.

Among the key topics covered by the letter are lingering questions about the state of the drainage system, particularly in light of a report by the international conglomerate Veolia that found major problems with equipment last fall. The letter demands a response to all the problems outlined in that report.

"Hurricane season is looming. We need to know how our systems will perform whether challenged with the usual summer thunderstorm or an act of God," the letter says.

The council also demanded improvements to the utility's billing and customer service procedures, calling its billing practices "an unmitigated disaster." About one in five S&WB customers have filed complaints about erroneous bills since late 2016, and the letter castigates the utility for failing to have a system in place to easily fix those errors.

"When S&WB sends an erroneous bill without an easy way for a customer to fix the utilitys mistake, customer confidence is lost. This is unacceptable," according to the letter. "S&WB must prioritize fixing its billing and customer appeals process immediately."

The letter also takes the S&WB to task for scandals that include the theft of brass and the improper use of handicapped parking tags by its employees.

"How can the S&WB ... turn its head the other way when an egregious violation such as this (latter) one is committed?" the council members wrote. "The agencys cavalier attitude toward waste and fraud must be immediately corrected."

The letter also lists specific subjects on which the council expects to receive more information, including water quality, loss of water due to problems with pipes, efforts to improve efficiency, and updates on cooperation between the utility and the Department of Public Works on infrastructure projects.

The council also called for more public engagement by the S&WB, including moving the agency's meetings from its relatively hard-to-access headquarters on St. Joseph Street to the City Council's chambers.Human T-cell leukemia virus type-1 (HTLV-1) was the first retrovirus discovered in humans. In the almost four decades since that finding, it has not spread nearly as far nor gotten nearly as much attention as its viral cousin, HIV, but prevalence is extraordinarily high in certain remote communities around the globe. Now, doctors are warning that we are not doing enough to understand and stop the virus.

A study wrapping up next month at Alice Springs Hospital in Central Australia has found that rates of infection in one local community are over 40% among adults. As CNN reported earlier this week, one of the researchers who discovered the virus thinks this should be a wake-up call to public health that we need to do more.

Robert Gallo, M.D., and his colleagues at the National Institutes of Health discovered HTLV-1 in 1979 (a similar discovery made around the same time by researchers in Japan was later found to be the same virus), but researchers believe it is far older than that: The virus's DNA has been found in 1,500- year-old mummies. The discovery was a scientific breakthrough that was vital to the identification of HIV just a few years later because it was the first time a retrovirus had been isolated in humans. In fact, until then, it was believed that retroviruses couldn't infect humans.

Like HIV, the HTLV-1 virus attacks T-cells leading to a weakened immune system. HTLV-1 can cause leukemia and lymphoma (cancers of the blood and lymphatic system), debilitating neurological issues, eye disease, and problems with bones and joints. It also causes bronchiectasis, a condition that damages the lungs, which is currently responsible for deaths in the impacted region of Australia.

Again like HIV, HTLV-1 is spread through infected bodily fluids such as blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk. Blood-to-blood transmission, such as during an infusion, is the most risky, but HTLV-1 can also be sexually transmitted or passed from mother to child. Though far less is known about HTLV than HIV, Gallo is confident that this virus does not spread through casual contact. He told CNN: "In short, I would not be afraid to use towels, drink out of the same glass, be part of the family, et cetera [as a person with HTLV-1]."

It is estimated that 20 million people are infected with HTLV-1 worldwide. Prevalence remains low in many countries, including the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Pockets, however, are scattered across the globe in which rates are alarmingly high. In addition to Australia, Brazil, Colombia, French Guyana, Gabon, Iran, Japan, Melanesia, Peru, and Romania, among others, have isolated areas of high prevalence. Communities affected by this virus share common characteristics; They tend to be poor, remote, and have few health resources available. The area in Australia that is currently battling HTLV-1 is populated by indigenous people.

That we know less about this virus than about HIV makes sense because HTLV-1 appears to be less efficient at transmission. The risk of mother-to-child transmission of HTLV-1, for example, is estimated to be 20% compared with 25% to 40% risk for pregnant women with HIV who are not receiving any drug therapy. Moreover, researchers have estimated that up to 90% of those who contract HTLV-1 will remain asymptomatic carriers throughout their lifetime, meaning they will likely not know they have acquired it and won't become ill but can transmit the virus to others.

The lack of public health activity around HLTV-1 is a problem for areas in which the virus is endemic and could lead to further global spread. There is, for example, no universal screening program for donated blood or tissues (though most developed countries do screen the blood supply). Graham Taylor, M.B., Ch.B., D.Sc., who runs the HTLV service for the United Kingdom, told CNN that this is one of worrisome the public health issues caused by the lack of response to the virus: "Then, you have the situation where blood which is infected with HTLV-1 can be given to a recipient, an organ can be given to a recipient." In addition, Japan is the only country that has a national screening program for pregnant women. Such programs are important because they can encourage women who have the virus to use formula, as most mother-to-child transmission happens during breastfeeding.

The lack of in-depth knowledge of the virus is also a problem, according to those who work in the field. In the CNN article, Gallo pointed out that no one understands why the prevalence of this relatively inefficient virus is so high in certain areas. He said it was possible that the areas have a variant of HTLV-1 that transmits more easily, but no one has done the research to confirm this hypothesis.

At this point, experts are not concerned about rapid spread of the HTLV-1 worldwide, but they do believe science needs to pay more attention to this neglected virus. Gallo, who is co-founder and director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told CNN: "We have to get attention to HTLV-1 quick." He pointed out that as of now nobody has done anything to treat or prevent the disease and calls the field "wide open for vaccine research."

It is understandable that the world took its collective eye off the first retrovirus discovered in humans once its more-efficient, more-deadly cousin demanded attention, but now we have to make up for lost time.Hi! Want to be friends? If you are preparing to add another dog to your household or to introduce your dog to a potential new friend, there are ways to help make that introduction more...

Race for Mayor hits home stretch Less than a month remains before Columbia residents go to the polls to vote for a new mayor. Four candidates are vying to replace long-term Mayor Steve Benjamin. For three...Hany Ramzy who has 124 caps with Egypt has advised Mohammed Salah that this is the right time for him to make a move to Spanish giants Real Madrid in an interview to ESPN. The Salah to Real Madrid rumours have showed no signs of stopping and have only increased after Liverpool and Real Madrid confirmed their berths in the final of this years Champions League. Salah has had an astonishing debut season with Liverpool but it remains to be seen whether he will agitate for a move in the summer or not as the chance of Liverpool selling him without any pressure is zero.

Best Real Madrid Books

Real Madrid will be looking to sign an attacking player in the summer as Cristiano Ronaldo is entering his final years of his careers and Gareth Bales injury troubles seem endless. The options for them at the moment seem limited with probably only Salah and Neymar, the only two truly world class players they can possibly sign. Salah might be an easier and a cheaper transfer than getting PSG to sell Neymar just one year after they bought him.A 104-year-old Australian scientist on Thursday committed assisted suicide in Switzerland where he went to die after his home country denied him the right to seek help in taking his own life.

David Goodall did not have a terminal illness but said his quality of life had deteriorated significantly and that he wanted to end it.

Goodall "died peacefully" in Basel, tweeted Philip Nitschke, founder of Exit International, the organisation which helped Goodall make the journey from Australia.

The death occurred at 1030 GMT from an infusion of Nembutal, a barbiturate, at the Life Cycle clinic, he said.

The honorary research associate at Perth's Edith Cowan University set off from Australia a week ago, and stopped in Bordeaux, France to see family before arriving in Basel on Monday.

"I no longer want to continue life," Goodall told journalists on Wednesday.

Read also: http://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2018/05/05/swiss-clinic-slams-australia-over-scientist-104-who-wants-to-die.html

Happy to end it

"I am happy to have the chance tomorrow to end it, and I appreciate the help of the medical profession here in making that possible," he said.

The 104-year-old said he hoped the widespread interest in his case would spur Australia and other countries to rethink their legislation.

"I would have preferred to have (ended) it in Australia, and I greatly regret that Australia is behind Switzerland" when it comes to right-to-die laws, he said.

Goodall secured a fast-track appointment with the foundation in Basel after he attempted but failed to commit suicide on his own earlier this year.

"It would have been much more convenient for everyone if I had been able to, but unfortunately it failed," he said of the suicide attempt.

But he said he was happy that he had been offered the "Swiss option", since he has been able to see most of his large family, which is spread over several countries, in the run-up to his final day.

Assisted suicide is illegal in most countries and was banned in Australia until the state of Victoria became the first to legalise the practice last year.

But that legislation, which takes effect in June 2019, only applies to terminally ill patients of sound mind and a life expectancy of less than six months.

Read also: Australia's oldest scientist heads to Switzerland to end life

Beethoven and cheesecake

According to Swiss law meanwhile, anyone who is of sound mind and who has over a period of time voiced a consistent wish to end their life can request so-called assisted voluntary death, or AVD.

Asked on Wednesday if he had any hesitations or doubts, the 104-year-old said: "No. None whatsoever."

In assisted dying, the person must be physically capable of carrying out the final deed on their own.

In Goodall's case that meant he had himself to open the valve that allowed the short-acting barbiturate to mix with a saline solution and flow into his vein.

Exit International said in a statement Thursday that Goodall wanted the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony played during the procedure and that "David died at the moment the song (sung in German) concluded".

Goodall had a final meal with his family -- his favourite, fish and chips followed by cheesecake -- and his grandchildren and a friend stayed with him until his death.

Nitschke said Goodall had asked for his body to be used for medical research or, if that request was refused, for it to be cremated and the ashes dispersed locally. He wanted no ceremony after his death.The regency of Tanah Datar, West Sumatra, together with the Industry Ministry, has established a small and medium enterprises (SMEs) center in Lintau Buo village, which will be dedicated to the development of the woven textile industry in the region.

As reported by antara, the ministrys director general for SMEs, Gati Wibawaningsih, said on Tuesday it was encouraging woven fabric makers to increase the value of their products in terms of design, motifs and quality.

She delivered the statement while accompanying National Handicraft Council (Dekranas) chairwoman Mufidah Kalla, who is also Vice President Jusuf Kallas wife, to the launch of the SMEs center in Lintau Buo village.

The center is expected to conduct strategic programs that will improve human resources competency, production, research and promotion.

Gati said woven textile was perceived to be a lucrative business and highly favored by many, just like the traditional woven songket fabric with its variety of motifs.

Hopefully this center can encourage woven fabric makers in Lintau Buo to create products that are trendy and suitable to customers taste, she added.

Read also: Weaving to preserve heritage, make ends meet

The ministry noted that there were 369 woven textile-focused SMEs centers spread across Indonesia, with 16,971 business units under its supervision.

The archipelagos woven textile industry is developing in many regions, and will hopefully help with the equitable distribution of income across the nation.

Woven textiles also contribute to foreign exchange, reaching US$2.6 million in 2016, with the Netherlands being the main importer.

Were striving to improve the performance of the nations woven textile industry so that its products can compete on the open market. Moreover, we are also protecting the local market, explained Gati.

Last year, the ministry handed over two jacquard manual weaving looms, a woven textile motif card perforator and a winding machine to the Tanah Datar regency to be used at the center in Lintau Buo village.

Apart from providing production tools, the Industry Ministry also assigned a woven textile expert to help the weavers. This is to improve their skills and the quality of their product, she said.

A production house -- which is equipped with a dyeing room, a waste water management installation and rooms for design-making and warping -- was provided by the ministry.

This woven textile SMEs center is set to become an edutourism attraction for both local and foreign tourists, said Gati. (mut)A Los Angeles judge has held up a ruling ordering Starbucks and other roasters to carry a cancer warning label on coffee sold in California.

Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle on Monday finalized an earlier decision he had rendered in a case pitting a little-known nonprofit group against some 90 companies that make or sell coffee.

In his ruling, Berle said that the companies, including Starbucks Corp., Keurig Green Mountain Inc. and Peet's Operating Co., failed to prove that the health benefits from drinking coffee outweighed the risk from a cancer-causing chemical produced during the roasting process.

The Council for Education and Research on Toxics had filed suit against the companies in 2010 under a three-decade-old law that requires firms to put warning labels on products that can cause cancer.

The group argued that acrylamide, a flavorless chemical found in most types of coffee, is among hundreds of chemicals listed in California as potentially causing cancer or being harmful to health.

The defendants in the case did not dispute that acrylamide was found in coffee but argued the substance did not pose a health risk and was a natural byproduct of the roasting process.

Read also: Three cups of coffee a day lowers risk of clogged arteries, says study

They said the benefits of drinking coffee outweighed the risk.

The judge, however, found that "defendants did not offer substantial evidence to quantify any minimum amount of acrylamide in coffee that might be necessary" for sound considerations of public health.

Several defendants in the case, including 7-Eleven, had agreed to settle before the judge's decision and to post cancer-warning signs for customers buying coffee.

But others, including Starbucks, decided to wait for the court ruling.

Attorney Raphael Metzger, who is representing the non-profit, said most of the parties have now agreed to take part in mediation to resolve the matter.

He said if a settlement is not reached, coffee makers face stiff civil penalties.

Apart from coffee, acrylamide is found in other foods cooked at high temperature, including potato chips, french fries and crackers.Danish painter Per Kirkeby, one of the most influential European artists of the post-war period, has died aged 79, according to his gallery.

Widely known as a sculptor, filmmaker and an author whose work focused on landscapes, light and colour, Kirkeby died on Wednesday in the city of his birth Copenhagen, the London-based Michael Werner Gallery announced in a statement.

"Over his career of five decades he developed a personal palette and vocabulary of images derived primarily from observations of the natural world," it said.

Kirkeby took part in several expeditions to the Arctic and Greenland as a natural history and geology student in the 1950s, and the trips inspired his colourful painting style, which he often described as the ongoing "process of sedimentation".

Described as the "king of Danish painting" by the Danish media, Kirkeby's death comes after he fell down a staircase and suffered a brain injury in 2013, announcing an end to his work two years later, according to Ritzau news agency.

Read also: Raden Saleh painting hammered at Rp 119.9 billion

Kirkeby began experimenting with performance and architecture in the 1960s, with an emphasis on bricks. In 1973, he launched his first outdoor brick sculpture inspired by Mayan architecture.

He was also the mastermind behind the video chapters of Danish director Lars von Trier's 1996 melodrama "Breaking the Waves".

Recognised for his costume and stage design for the New York City Ballet's "Swan Lake" (1999) and "Romeo and Juliet" (2007) productions, Kirkeby is survived by his wife Mari Anne Duus and their four children.Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, who has made no secret of his disdain for Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow some one million migrants into Germany, has said he might have to renounce his German citizenship over the issue.

"Did she really need to say it was necessary to welcome one million migrants at a time when France, which casts itself as the land of human rights, pledged to take in 30,000?" Lagerfeld said in an interview with French weekly Le Point published Thursday.

Again dismissing Merkel as a "pastor's daughter who can't accept the evil that Germany carried out after 1933," the designer accused her of fostering the emergence of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

"The AfD didn't exist, yet with one sentence she made it exist by alienating two million voters and sending 100 of these neo-Nazis into parliament," he said, referring to the 92 AfD lawmakers who obtained seats in the Bundestag in last September's election.

"If this keeps up, I'll abandon German citizenship," Lagerfeld said, without indicating what he might trade it for, though he has gushed previously that "a new day is dawning in France" with the arrival of President Emmanuel Macron.

"I like Macron personally, and (his wife) Brigitte, but that doesn't mean I want to become French," he told Le Point.

"I don't like nations, I'm cosmopolitan. And I don't feel German either -- I'm Hanseatic," he said, referring to the Hanseatic League of merchant guilds across northern Germany that emerged in the 13th century.

Read also: Lagerfeld's 'scruffy' beard raises eyebrows at Paris show

His stance would appear to be a stark reversal from one espoused just a few months ago, when he told Madame Figaro magazine that he was "a Kraut at heart".

"It's in my genes and I'm fine with that. And it's not because Mrs Merkel does stupid things that I'm going to renounce being German," he said.

Lagerfeld had already stirred up outrage last November by evoking the Holocaust while assailing Merkel for opening Germany's borders to migrants.

"One cannot -- even if there are decades between them -- kill millions of Jews so you can bring millions of their worst enemies in their place," he told a French television show.Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, May 10, 2018 07:00 1247 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e309019 1 National mako-brimob,DPR,police,budget,#MakoBrimobRiot,National-Police,prison-riot Free

In response to a deadly riot at the Mobile Brigade headquarters (Mako Brimob) in Kelapa Dua, Depok, West Java, that broke out on Tuesday evening, the House of Representatives is considering increasing the National Polices budget next year to empower the institution.

House Deputy Speaker Agus Hemanto said the additional funds should be used to recruit more police personnel and to weaponry.

[The riot] might have been possible because of a manpower shortage, and to recruit police personnel, they will need more money, Agus said on Wednesday in Jakarta.

The police received Rp 95 trillion (US$6.75 billion) in 2018, up from Rp 78 trillion in 2017. The institution will need to increase its abilities in anticipation of upcoming simultaneous regional elections and later the 2019 general election.

The riot at Mako Brimob in Depok has so far claimed the lives of at least five Densus 88 counterterrorism squad members and one militant. Another police officer is still being held hostage. The detention center houses imprisoned IS-linked militants.

House Speaker Bambang Soesatyo called on the Law and Human Rights Ministry to evaluate the ability of police personnel guarding the detention center.

Detention centers need more training to increase inmates skills and faith. The police should also intensify the monitoring system in detention centers All detention centers must have more training programs in terms of spirituality and skills for the inmates. The police should also strengthen the monitoring systems in detention centers, he said. (swd)Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, May 10, 2018 09:02 1247 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e30ea6e 1 National terrorism,mako-brimob,police,hostage,#MakoBrimobRiot,National-Police,Wiranto,prison-riot Free

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto has announced that the standoff between the security forces and terrorist inmates at a detention center located at the National Polices Mobile Brigade headquarters (Mako Brimob) in Depok, West Java, is over.

The minister said that on Thursday morning the authorities stormed the prison and the inmates, who had seized 30 weapons from the police and killed five officers, had surrendered.

Some 145 inmates gave up without resistance. Another 10 resisted but surrendered in the face of overwhelming force by the authorities.

Previously, the police said that five members of the Police's Densus 88 counterterrorism squad had been killed while another officer was being held hostage following a riot at the detention center that broke out on Tuesday night.

The hostage was released late at 2 a.m. on Thursday morning in exchange for food, the police said.

The hostage, Snr. Brig. Iwan Sarjana, is a member of Densus 88.

He had injuries and bruising to his face and body, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Setyo Wasisto told reporters at Mako Brimob.

Wiranto stressed that the police did not negotiate with terrorists, clarifying earlier statements by the police that they had negotiated with the inmates for the release of the hostage. (ahw)Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, May 10, 2018 16:16 1246 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e320854 1 National mako-brimob,Jokowi,#MakoBrimobRiot,prison-riot,Depok,terrorism Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has underlined that the state and the people of Indonesia will not tolerate terrorism.

The state and all of the people will never be afraid and will never give space to terrorism or any other effort to undermine the countrys security, he told journalists during a press conference at the Bogor Palace on Thursday.

In the brief press conference called after the 40-hour standoff ended, the president expressed appreciation for the work of the police in the prison riot.

All of the terrorist convicts have surrendered to the security officers, and at this opportunity I want to say the biggest thank you on behalf of the people and the state to all of the officers involved in handling this case, he said.

He also offered his condolences to the families of the five fallen officers.

I have ordered the deputy police chief to promote the ranks of the officers who fell victim to the terrorists brutality, he said.

The riot broke out at a detention center at the Mobile Brigade headquarters (Mako Brimob) in Kelapa Dua, Depok, West Java, on Tuesday evening. During the riot, an unconfirmed number of terrorism detainees killed five police officers, held another one hostage and seized a number of weapons stored as evidence in terrorism cases. The counterterrorism squad Densus 88 defused the standoff, after which 155 detainees surrendered. (gis/swd)Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Stephen Farrell and Angus McDowall (Reuters) Jerusalem  Thu, May 10, 2018 12:12 1247 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e318278 2 World #Iran,#Syria,#Israel,#attack,#war Free

Iranian forces in Syria launched a rocket attack on Israeli army bases in the Golan Heights early on Thursday, Israel said, prompting one of the heaviest Israeli barrages in Syria since the conflict there began in 2011.

The attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, just past midnight, marked the first time Iranian forces have hit Israel from Syria, where they have deployed along with Iran-backed Shi'ite militias and Russian troops to support President Bashar al-Assad in the seven-year-old civil war.

Syrian state media said dozens of Israeli missile strikes hit a radar station, Syrian air defence positions and an ammunition dump, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies.

Israel said the Iranian salvo of 20 Grad and Fajr rockets were shot down by its Iron Dome air defence system or fell short of the Golan targets. The Quds Force, an external arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, carried out the launch, Israel said.

"It was commanded and ordered by [Quds Force chief General] Qassem Soleimani and its has not achieved its purpose," military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters.

Israel struck back by destroying dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria, Conricus said, as well as Syrian anti-aircraft units that tried unsuccessfully to shoot down Israeli planes.

"We do not know yet the [Iranian] casualty count," he said.

"But I can say that in terms of our purpose, we focussed less on personnel and more on capabilities and hardware ... to inflict long-term damage on the Iranian military establishment in Syria. We assess it will take substantial time to replenish."

Tensions between Israel and Iran had already spilled over in Syria, worrying Russia, which want to stabilise Assad's rule.

Iran vowed retaliation after a suspected Israeli air strike last month killed seven of its military personnel in a Syrian air base. Israel regards Iran as its biggest threat, and has repeatedly targeted Iranian forces and allied militia in Syria.

Thursday's flare-up came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from a visit to Moscow, where he discussed Syria concerns with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Conricus said Israel forewarned Russia of its strikes on Thursday, which Syrian state media first reported hit Baath City in Quneitra, near the border. Further waves of missiles followed. Syrian state media said Israeli missiles had been brought down over Damascus, Homs and Sueida.

"Air defences confronted tens of Israeli rockets and some of them reached their target and destroyed one of the radar sites," Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing a military source. Another rocket hit an ammunition warehouse, it said.

Asked whether Israel had attacked near Damascus or scrambled communications there, an Israeli military spokeswoman said: "I have no comment on that at this time."

Syrian state television was broadcasting footage of its air defences firing, and playing patriotic songs. Damascus residents described explosions in the sky from air defence systems.

Israeli media said residents of Metulla, on the Lebanese border, had been instructed to go to bomb shelters. There was no official confirmation.

Lebanon's National News Agency, citing Lebanese Army Command, reported Israeli jets circling over Lebanese territory early on Thursday before exiting.

Fearing that Iran and Hezbollah are setting up a Lebanese-Syrian front against it, Israel has occasionally struck at their forces. The April 9 air strike that Iran blamed on Israel killed seven members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Expectations of a regional flare-up were stoked by US President Donald Trump's announcement on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal. Hours later, Israeli rocket rockets targeted a military base in Kisweh, a commander in the pro-Syrian government regional alliance said.

That attack killed 15 people, including eight Iranians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, though the commander said there were no casualties. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Ock Hyun-ju (The Korea Herald/Asia News Network) Seoul  Thu, May 10, 2018 14:49 1246 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e31d7c6 2 World #SouthKorea,#USA,#PeaceTalks,#NorthKorea,#NorthKoreaNuclear Free

South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha will travel to the United States this week for talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on North Korea and alliance issues, her ministry announced Thursday.

During the meeting, the countries top diplomats will exchange views on the outcome of the April 27 inter-Korean summit, ways to enhance policy coordination on achieving denuclearization of North Korea and building a peace regime on the peninsula, according to the ministry.

Also high on the agenda would be Pompeos recent trip to North Korea, where he met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un again to finalize plans for the upcoming North Korea-US summit. He returned to the US on Thursday, with three Americans released from detention in North Korea.

Their meeting is to pave the way for the summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump scheduled for May 22 in the US. It will be followed by Trumps meeting with Kim expected to take place by mid-June.

Kang and Pompeo are also to discuss ways to strengthen the countries 65-year-old alliance, and other pending issues, according to the ministry.

Following their meeting, they plan to hold a joint press conference.

It will be Kangs first face-to-face meeting with her US counterpart who was appointed in April. They had the first phone call on April 28.

Meanwhile, South Koreas top nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon also left for Washington on Wednesday for a four-day visit. He plans to meet key officials in charge of Korea policy, including Susan Thornton, acting US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Matthew Pottinger, senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council, according to the ministry.

Topics :

This article appeared on The Korea Herald newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta PostShare this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Dhaka  Thu, May 10, 2018 15:23 1246 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e31e439 2 World Bangladesh,rainy-season,lightning-strike,death,agriculture,rural-area,farmers Free

Dozens of Bangladeshis were killed in lightning strikes as pre-monsoon thunderstorms wreaked havoc across the South Asian country, an official said Thursday.

Farmers harvesting rice in open fields made up the majority of victims, Iftekharul Islam, a director at Bangladesh's disaster management department, told AFP.

"In the last 24 hours, 29 people have died from lightning in 12 districts. Almost all of them are farmers," he said.

Scores of people die every year after being struck by lightning during Bangladesh's wet season, which runs from April to October, but officials say the numbers are exceptionally high this year.

Islam said that more than 112 people had been killed in strikes in the first 10 days of May.

"Every day 10-12 people are dying from lightning," he explained, adding that it was instilling fear in farmers who harvest rice during this time of the year.

Authorities declared lightning a natural disaster after 82 people were killed in a single day in May 2016.

Independent monitors estimated that some 349 Bangladeshis died from lightning that year.

Experts say deaths are rising as Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest nations, witnesses the increased deforestation of rural areas.

Farmers are known to chop down trees to free up space to grow more rice.

Disaster management officials are trying to reduce the high death toll by planting five million palm trees to provide better shelter.

"We have already planted 3.8 million palm trees. But the trees take years to grow tall," said Islam.

Bangladeshi officials say a similar tree-planting programme in Thailand has yielded results.Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Vela Andapita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, May 10, 2018 13:45 1246 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e31c6b4 1 National mako-brimob,prison-riot,Depok,TerroristConvict,police-officers,police Free

Following the 40-hour standoff between security forces and terror inmates at a detention center located in the National Polices Mobile Brigade headquarters (Mako Brimob) in Depok, West Java, netizens have flooded social media with messages supporting the police.

Hashtags #KamiBersamaPOLRI (WeAreWithPOLRI) and #TindakTegasTeroris (FirmPunishmentForTerrorists) were among the trending topics discussed on Twitter in Indonesia.

Twitter user Fadli Isthofani through his personal account @FIsthofani voiced his support by quoting statements made by the presidents of the Philippines and Russia pertaining to terrorism.

Duterte: If ISIS comes to the Philippines, forget about human rights. Putin: To forgive the terrorists is up to God, but to send them to Him is up to me. Five police officers died. Al Fathihah [pray for the deceases], he tweeted.

Bang R. Duterte :

"If Isis comes to the Philippines, forget about human rights"

Mbah V.Putin :

"To forgive the terrorists is up to God, but to send them to him is up to me" #KamiBersamaPOLRI

5 Polisi lahum alfatihah  Fadli Isthofani (@FIsthofani) May 9, 2018

Another Twitter user named Sabeena, @SabeenaSepti, expressed her support by tweeting, #TindakTegasTeroris YES, I agree!! An eye for an eye, a soul for a soul.

#TindakTegasTeroris YES setuju!! Mata dibayar mata

nyawa harus dibayar dengan nyawa. Darah mereka halal  Sabeena (@SabeenaSepti) May 10, 2018

Several public figures have also joined the wave of support, late president Abdurrahman Gus Dur Wahids daughter Alissa Wahid who posted, For those who died while protecting us from terrorist attacks, I wish God will greet you all and hold you with eternal love. #KamiBersamaPOLRI.

Untuk kalian yang berpulang dalam tugas menjaga kami dari para teroris, semoga Allah menyambut kalian dengan sebaik-baiknya penerimaan dan mendekap kalian dalam Cinta abadi.#KamiBersamaPOLRI pic.twitter.com/Z6lSQdiEZN  Alissa Wahid (@AlissaWahid) May 9, 2018

Thousands of similar posts have also appeared on Instagram, with the account @kamibersamapolri created on Wednesday as a tribute to the officers who were killed during the riot.

As of Thursday, the administrator of the account has posted 26 photos showing support for the polices endeavors to combat terrorism in the country.

One post is an illustration of four police officers with civilians behind them. A message above them in bold red and black letters reads: KAMI TIDAK TAKUT (We not afraid).

Five police officers and one terror inmate were killed in the riot.

National Police deputy chief Sr. Comr. Syarifuddin said during attempts to end the standoff, 145 inmates gave up without resistance while other 10 inmates resisted but surrendered eventually.

All terror inmates will reportedly be relocated to Nusakambangan prison in Cilacap, Central Java.Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, May 10, 2018 18:51 1246 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e327c2b 1 City Lake-Sunter,reservoir,North-Jakarta,environment,#Jakarta,#environment Free

The North Jakarta administration has pledged to revitalize three reservoirs in the municipality  namely Rawa Badak, Cincin and Teluk Gong  to be made new tourist destinations.

The city administration had previously revamped Lake Sunter in North Jakarta, which has emerged as a new destination for tourists in the city. In addition to cleaning the lake, the administration has also repainted nearby houses in various colors.

We have made Lake Sunter a tourist destination. In the near future, we will make Rawa Badak, Cincin and Teluk Gong reservoirs tourist destinations as well, North Jakarta Mayor Husein Murad said on Wednesday, as quoted by beritajakarta.com.

Lake Sunter had become a hot topic in the previous month after a ministrys video went viral on social media.

In the video, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti challenged Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to restore the lake so that it could be as clean and well organized as the lakes in Geneva, Switzerland.

She was filmed during her working visit to the Annual United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights (FBHR), held from Nov. 27 to 29 in Geneva.

The administration was fast to respond the call and restore the lake.

On Feb. 25, the Lake Sunter Festival was held. Susi and Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno raced to cross the lake in front of thousands of visitors. (vny/wit)Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Agus Maryono (The Jakarta Post) Cilacap, Central Java  Thu, May 10, 2018 18:26 1246 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e326a3f 1 National Nusakambangan,mako-brimob,#MakoBrimobRiot,prison-riot,terrorism,convicts Free

Nusakambangan prison island, located in the Indian Ocean in Central Java, is set to welcome 155 terrorism detainees transferred from the Mobile Brigade headquarters (Mako Brimob) detention center in Kelapa Dua, Depok, West Java, following Tuesday's prison riot.

All 155 prisoners were immediately transferred to the maximum-security facility after allegedly triggering a riot, taking guns from on-duty police officers, killing five officers in the process and holding another one hostage. One rioting prisoner died during the standoff. Counterterrorism squad Densus 88 managed to defuse the standoff and free the hostage on Thursday morning.

Hendra Eka, head of Batu prison on Nusakambangan prison island, ensured that the island had adequate capacity to house them.

Let alone 150, we could even accept another 1,000 terrorism detainees, he told The Jakarta Post.

The 155 prisoners arrived on Nusakambangan prison island at around 5.30 p.m.

At the time of writing, up to 400 joint security personnel had been deployed to secure the area.

Nusakambangan prison island, which comprises seven prisons, currently houses 1,500 high-risk prisoners, including 70 terrorism convicts and 50 death row inmates.

The island has the capacity to house up to 3,000 prisoners. (swd)Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Karina M. Tehusijarana (The Jakarta Post) Depok, West Java  Thu, May 10, 2018 13:51 1246 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e31c752 1 National mako-brimob,IS,crime,#MakoBrimobRiot,National-Police,terrorism,prison-riot,Islamic-State Free

Police personnel are currently processing the National Police's Mobile Brigade headquarters (Mako Brimob) at Depok, West Java, as a crime scene, police spokesperson Brig. Gen. M. Iqbal said on Thursday.



"Investigators are currently conducting a crime scene investigation at the detention center located inside Mako Brimob to find evidence," Iqbal said.



He said investigator had already found several firearms and glass shards.



"We suspect that the terror convicts used the shards [against] our fallen colleagues," he said, adding that investigators had also found several rifles and handguns.



The investigation is ongoing, but early indications suggest that the prisoners seized the killed officers weapons and obtained more by breaking into the evidence storage.



The Islamic State (IS) previously claimed that prisoners involved in the riot were its "fighters", but police continue to deny any connection.



"There is no strong evidence [of a connection to IS] based on the statements of several wounded officers and terror convicts, but we will continue to investigate this," Iqbal said. "So far, we believe the incident was triggered by a dispute over food."



The 155 inmates were transported to Nusakambangan prison in Central Java shortly after they surrendered early Thursday morning. (swd)Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Moses Ompusunggu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, May 10, 2018 12:42 1247 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e31a7ca 2 National riot,rioting,IS,Islamic-State,terrorism,mako-brimob,brimob-hq,Brimob,National-Police,prison-overcapacity,prison-riot,prisoners,prison-riots,#PostScript,explainer,#Explainer Free

According to the National Police, the prison riot that killed five officers and led to a more than 30-hour standoff between terror inmates and security forces at a detention center located in the Mobile Brigade headquarters (Mako Brimob) in Depok, West Java, was triggered by a trivial matter.

Around 7.30 p.m. on Tuesday, a terror convict identified as Wawan Kurniawan, also known as Abu Afif, asked for a food package that had been brought by a family member. However, he was denied by a police officer who kept the food.

The detainee became upset and provoked others to protest and start a riot in Block B and C of the detention center. They broke down the walls and prison bars and proceeded to the investigators room, where they assaulted officers who were questioning new detainees.

While it is possible that the terror inmates, mostly linked to the Islamic State (IS) group, staged the incident in a plot to attack the police, riots are not uncommon in Indonesian prisons, which are plagued by many issues, mainly overcrowding.

In April 2017, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said the country had around 202,000 prisoners in January that year, while in March, the number had increased to 214,675, most of whom were drug convicts.

The countrys prisons and detention centers have the capacity of holding 130,000 inmates.

The more inmates, Yasonna said, the more difficult for the government to handle problems in prisons, such as sanitation, food supply and illegal levies by prison guards on visitors.

The detention center at Mako Brimob is no exception.

To be frank, the detention center suffers from overcapacity, National Police spokesman Setyo Wasisto conceded on Wednesday. We are going to carry out an evaluation.

He did not reveal the maximum capacity of Mako Brimobs detention center, but analysts believed that problems there went beyond overcrowding.

With dozens of terrorist convicts and suspects housed at the detention center, Tuesdays deadly riot was perhaps a disaster waiting to happen.

The detention center was not designed to serve as a high-security prison to permanently house terror inmates, Asia Foundation prison expert Leopold Sudaryono said on Wednesday.

[It is] thick enough from outside threats, but thin to threats from inside, said Leopold, a criminologist who also trains wardens at Nusakambangan in Central Java, Indonesias most secure prison.

Police seal off the National Police hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, on Wednesday afternoon after ambulances bringing dead bodies of casualties in the Mobile Brigade headquarters (Mako Brimob) in Kelapa Dua, Depok, West Java, riot on Tuesday evening, came in. (JP/Kharishar Kahfi)

Before the riot on Tuesday, the detention center had a brawl in November 2017, when terrorism detainees fought police officers searching their cells for contraband, including cellphones.

Standards for the detention of convicts who pose a high risk to security require each convict to be held in separate cells, so that they cannot interact with other inmates or prison guards. This condition is not possible in Mako Brimobs detention center, said Leopold. That is why there were two riots [at the detention center] in just five months.

In 2007, the administration of then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono designated Mako Brimobs detention center as a temporarily holding facility for police officers who face criminal charges, making it a branch of the notoriously overcrowded Salemba detention center in Central Jakarta.

Ten years on, the detention center has housed not only police officers facing criminal trials, but also civilians detained or convicted for cases ranging from terrorism and corruption, to blasphemy.

Former Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, who was convicted for blasphemy in 2017, is now serving his two-year sentence at the Mako Brimob detention center, located just 4 kilometers from the University of Indonesia (UI).

When the standoff came to an end Thursday morning, the police said they would send the 155 terror convicts who had surrendered to Nusakambangan.

The prison has a special block for terror convicts that currently houses 30 inmates and runs a deradicalization program.

We are ready to accept [the rioters] because it is our duty, the office of the Coordinating Political, Law and Security Affairs Ministers director general for penitentiaries, Sri Puguh Utami, said after a Wednesday meeting of Indonesias top security brass in Central Jakarta as quoted by kompas.com.

A revision of the Criminal Code currently being deliberated by the government and the House of Representatives mandates community service as a penalty for petty criminals, with a high-level law ministry official saying it could address the problem of overcrowded prisons.

But the only way to manage terror convicts is to strengthen the prisons in which they are being held, analysts said.

The [standoff] shows that the management of prisons housing terror convicts cannot follow general standards, because the inmates are categorized as high-risk convicts, the chairman Jakarta-based rights group Setara Institute, Hendardi, said in a statement.Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Bucharest  Fri, May 11, 2018 03:33 1246 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e336365 2 World Romania,corruption-case,fraud-cases,Victor-Ponta,Prime-Minister Free

Former Romanian prime minister Victor Ponta was on Thursday cleared of fraud and other charges by the country's high court after a corruption probe.

Ponta, 45, had been accused of 17 separate counts of forgery, complicity in tax evasion and money laundering, all dating from 2007-2011 while Ponta was working as a lawyer.

Ponta, who was leader of the Social Democrats and prime minister between 2012 and 2015, had claimed his innocence.

Prosecutors have 10 days to appeal the verdict.

Ponta was charged in the summer of 2015 while still in office, a first in a country where politicians often broke laws with impunity.

According to anti-corruption prosecutors, he received the equivalent of 55,000 euros ($62,000) from an acquaintance, Dan Sova, with whom Ponta had signed a business deal.

To justify the cash, which was paid in several monthly instalments, Ponta produced 17 invoices falsely claiming to have worked for Sova's legal firm, prosecutors told the court.

Sova, for his part, was cleared of charges ranging from complicity in abuse of power and tax evasion to money laundering.

Ponta resigned in November 2015 after huge street protests sparked by a nightclub fire which cost the lives of 65 people -- a tragedy blamed on corrupt officials waiving security protocols.Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Singapore  Fri, May 11, 2018 06:01 1246 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9e338d3b 2 SE Asia Singapore,US,North-Korea,Donald-Trump,kim-jong-un,summit,peace Free

It has one foot in the East and one in the West, is ultra-modern, secure and sometimes mocked as being a little dull -- Singapore was the safe pick for a historic first meeting between the unpredictable leaders of the US and North Korea.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday confirmed that the summit -- a first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader -- would take place in Singapore on June 12.

"We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" he tweeted.

Singapore also confirmed it would host the meeting, but did not give further details.

"We hope this meeting will advance prospects for peace in the Korean Peninsula," the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement late Thursday.

It followed a second visit to Pyongyang by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday to make arrangements for the summit.

The Southeast Asian financial hub was likely chosen for its neutrality, security advantages and track record of hosting international summits, observers say.

The ultramodern city-state has a robust security infrastructure and is widely considered one of the safest cities in Asia.

It has tight restrictions over media and public gatherings, which will allow for a controlled environment likely to be preferred by the North Koreans.

Singapore is also in the rare position of having friendly diplomatic ties with both Washington and Pyongyang.

It considers the US a close partner, while North Korea maintains a fully functioning embassy in the city-state.

Singapore and the North have a long history of cooperation -- the first law firm and fast food restaurant in Pyongyang were both set up by Singaporeans -- even if relations hit a snag last year when Singapore enforced new UN sanctions on trade.

Singapore will also be acceptable to China, North Korea's only major ally, which wields a strong influence despite its physical absence from next month's proceedings.

"As a neutral, and objective country with much-admired consistent foreign policy principles and a small state with no desire or capacity to harm other states and their interests, Singapore fits that bill well," said Lim Tai Wei, adjunct research fellow at the National University of Singapore's East Asia Institute.

- 'No baggage' -

By apparently agreeing to meet Trump 5,000 kilometres (3,100 miles) away from Pyongyang, Kim has to travel a significant distance out of his comfort zone, said Graham Ong-Webb, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).

Since Kim took over as leader, he has rarely left his isolated nation and has only officially ventured away from home this year, with two visits to China, most recently travelling to the northeastern port city of Dalian where he met Xi Jinping.

He also stepped across the border into South Korea during a historic meeting with President Moon Jae-in in April, making him the first Northern leader to set foot in the South since the Korean War ceasefire in 1953.

Remarkable images of the two leaders greeting each other warmly over the Military Demarcation Line that splits their countries, rich with symbolism and high political theatre, were broadcast around the world.

Trump had previously suggested that the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas could be a venue for his meeting with Kim, before ruling it out on Wednesday.

Nearby Mongolia was also ruled out as a possible neutral third-country venue, reportedly for security reasons.

But for Trump and Kim, Singapore is a convenient venue precisely because it "doesn't have the historical or political baggage," said Sarah Teo, an associate research fellow at RSIS's regional security architecture programme.

Singapore also has a track record for hosting international summits.

In 2015, the city-state played host to a historic meeting between China's president Xi and then Taiwanese president Ma Ying Jeou.

It hosts the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, a defence forum regularly attended by heads of state, defence ministers and high level military officials.

Now that the venue and date have been chosen, it only remains to be seen if Singapore will play host to a meeting that truly builds on hopes for the complete denuclearisation of the peninsula and a formal peace treaty to end the 1950-53 Korean War.Ryan O'Shaugnessy's qualifying entry for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest was removed from the broadcast by Chinese service Mango TV, according to a report by ESCtoday.com.



Albania's song - sung by Eugent Bushpepa - was also edited and removed by Mango TV before being shown to Chinese audiences, likely as a result of strict regulations imposed on foreign broadcasts.

China's media regulator SAPPRFT has a clause that "specifically requires that programs should not feature actors with tattoos [or depict] hip hop culture, sub-culture (non-mainstream culture) and dispirited culture (decadent culture)", which explains why Albania's entry was barred as some of the musicians in Bushpepa's band had visible tattoos.

For Ireland's entry, the reason was much more specific - China has a strict ban on same-sex relationships being shown on television and O'Shaugnessy's performance included a same-sex couple.

On top of this, an LGBT flag being held aloft in the crowd was specifically blurred out during the broadcast. So far, Eurovision have not commented on the decision to censor acts from Chinese television and it's likely that the same censoring will take place during the final this Saturday on Mango TV.

This isn't the first time there's been an issue with Ryan O'Shaugnessy's performance, as there were rumours a couple of months ago that Russian television channels would not carry Eurovision or O'Shaugnessy's performance. China's laws on broadcast and propaganda are incredibly strict, as its stopped cinematic releases like 2016's Ghostbusters from securing a release.

Here's the broadcast that was removed by Mango TV.

Via ESCtoday.comIf youre at all interested in fashion, the chances are by now youve seen Gigi Hadid on the cover of the June 2018 issue of Vogue Italia .

That said, youd be forgiven if you didnt quite realise it was Gigi Hadid on said cover; her normally blonde hair is black, her normally black pupils are red, and her normally white skin is brown.

The issue went on sale on Friday but the sneak peak uploaded onto Vogue Italia's Instagram on Thursday, understandably sneak peak

received enormous backlash.





A post shared by Vogue Italia (@vogueitalia) on May 2, 2018 at 1:56pm PDT

This isnt the first time the Vogue umbrella has come under fire for its lack of diversity (remember the team photo published by former Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue Alexandra Shulman when she stepped down last year?) but Hadid at least appears to be attempting to minimise the offence and damage caused by the racial insensitivity of her cover.

This is the staff photo of @britishvogue under the previous editor #AlexandraSchulman. Looking forward to....https://t.co/jLGaS6JVUs pic.twitter.com/wyViZfsnTU  Naomi Campbell (@NaomiCampbell) August 22, 2017

The model swiftly removed the picture from her own Instagram profile (though it remains on Vogue Italias) and this removal was followed quickly by a public apology uploaded to her social media platforms, i n which she admits she was bronzed for the shoot but blames the considerably darker skin tone on post-production editing:

The statement addresses the covers main criticisms- the extreme lack of diversity in the fashion industry and the unacceptability of a Caucasian females skin being darkened so considerably when there are innumerable women of colour who could have been featured on the same cover- and Hadid does appear to be genuinely sorry, a sentiment which has since been echoes, if somewhat less emphaticaly by the magazine, despite their refusal to remove the picture from their Instagram profile:

" Throughout its history, Vogue Italia has respected and encouraged the creative viewpoints of commissioned photographers. In our latest cover shoot by Steven Klein, the vision was to create a beachwear-themed story with a stylized bronzing effect. We understand that the result has caused some debate with our readers, and we sincerely apologize if we have caused any offence."

A post shared by Vogue Italia (@vogueitalia) on May 3, 2018 at 1:27pm PDT

In an email to Teen Vogue, Conde Nast International responded that  the vision was to create a beachwear-themed story with a stylized bronzing effect and Editor-at-Large Patti Wilson has stated that its a summer issue.

Its a swimwear story. Gigi was meant to look bronze, tan, and gorgeous. Nothing more than that.Jst

dat

fanx

luv

petitionVice-chancellor Sir Anthony Seldon made a statement criticising other universities for failing students on drugs and mental health.' This is in response to recently published statistics by The Sunday Times that show a 42 percent rise in students being disciplined for drug usage by their universities since 2015. The university is proposing to introduce a contract which, if broken, will expel students from the university. In a statement, Sir Anthony said that universities "need to shake themselves up and take more responsibility for students in their care." This has sparked a debate as to the responsibilities of universities, are they responsibile for students in their care or to create an environment where students can mature without being mollycoddled?' The latter is a stance taken by Mr Lloyd, an adviser on drug policy, and ex-member of the police force for the county of Cambridgeshire. He argues there are better ways to ensure the safety of university students, such as checking drugs before their usage.travellers

Peix

Holding a hint of pride, Formentera is the smallest of the Balearic Islands at a mere 20 kilometers long. With no airport, no fast-food joints or low-cost chain stores  yes, that means no McDonalds  tourism here is tightly tied to environmental ethics. In recent years, ecotourism has become a trend for the bohemian wanderlust crowd, and its clear Formentera leads in the Balearic green movement. Hotel numbers restricted, infrastructure control, and minimal traffic, the island has put huge efforts into boosting active tourism. Ecotourism is a combination of rural and sustainable tourism offering the possibility of being in contact with nature to support conservation efforts and observe wildlife. Formenteras local government, therefore, is collaborating with the locals as well asto make a responsible and respectful promotion of the territory. In a bid to limit traffic and pollution, visitors and locals alike are encouraged to travel using the a network of more than 100 kilometers of paths, most of which are suitable for cyclists and those covering on foot. A comprehensive guide proved by The Council of Tourism offers the length and details of 32 routes, as well as providing information on other types of heritage resources, points of interest and geographical data.With a surge in tourism in the summer months, the number of cars soars to as high as 50,800 vehicles  a 145% increase of cars and motorbikes on a road network that stretches less than 40 kilometers. Alongside the already implemented green routes, Formenteras economic and environmental sustainability is only looking to grow, with six e-Mehari cars being donated by Citroen as part of a pilot scheme to potentially banish petrol and diesel cars from its shores.Formentera also offers an array of natural tourism including bird watching tours, marine conservation, and panoramic beaches.andare fascinating wetlands that are visited by a number of migratory birds; best known for the pink flamingos arriving between the months of August and October for the winter months ahead. Another attraction of the green movement and being in contact with nature is present in the demand for luxury villas. As real estate values have rocketed, finding isolated and natural environments to disconnect from society is a largely sought experience. Still, within the minimal number of hotels that the island hosts, the impressiveis famed for its environmental contribution.

Image credit: Booking.com

sand

Found on Formenteras prettiest beach, the innovative hotel intends to remove all plastic waste by the end of this year  ensuring all 10 kilometers of whitestay that way. The entirety of the hotels plastic will be substituted for biodegradable options while employee uniforms have been redesigned by ethical fashion brand ECOALF. Ultimately, Formenteras pace of life is idyllic for enjoying white sands, turquoise waters and green nature sights with a mild-warm temperature variety ensuring over 300 days of sun each year.WOW

travelling

colourful

of

If you loveand documenting your adventures along the way, then this is the perfect job for you. The airline company is looking for two friends to help create a new digital Travel Guide. So, if youre an aspiring travel writer, blogger or vlogger, then this is certainly the summer job for you. Youll be expected to create short videos and snap some stunning photos. As well as writing breathtaking blog posts that really capture the beauty of Iceland. The blog posts and vlog will be expected to offer tips to future visitors on factors such as things to see and do, food, hospitality, nightlife and most importantly budget-friendly advice for each destination.When you leave on June 1st youll fly straight to Iceland and begin your summer adventure. Youll be living in a downtown Reykjavik apartment as well as working in the city. Not only will you be spending time living in the city of Reykjavik, abut peaceful city, but you will also get the opportunity to travel other European destinations such as Barcelona, Paris, and Stockholm. WOW Air will also jet you off to the United States and offer you the opportunity to visit New York and Los Angeles. Altogether over the three months, youll see yourself visitingApplications for the dream summer job are open until the 14th May. To apply, all you need to do is create and upload a short video of roughly two minutes showcasing your skills. Create a short travel guideyour hometown and upload it to the team on the WOW air Travel Guide website to be in with the opportunity of a lifetime.Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here

You have arrived at this page because the page or post you were looking for no longer exists. Please check our main navigation pages for other content: 

Home PageThe Memorial Day tradition continues.

The Island Road Runners are once again hosting their annual Memorial Day Run. The event serves as the groups only fundraiser and welcomes young and old to participate.

The group formed in 1981 and consists of people who live both on and off the island, who meet for a weekly run on Grosse Ile. The Memorial Day Run is seen as a way to promote both walking and running.

Runners, walkers, families and individuals come to Grosse Ile High School from all over southeastern Michigan for the annual event. Last years event brought in over 600 participants.

This years event will take place on May 28, the day Memorial Day is observed.

In recent years, a portion of the proceeds has gone to local high

school, middle school and elementary school programs. Several years ago the group also purchased a water fountain that sits on Groh Road in Grosse Ile. The water fountain is handicap-accessible and has a drinking bowl for dogs.

The event includes a 5K run/walk and an 8K run with a patriotic theme commemorating this special day. The entry fee for both is $30 by May 19, $35 from May 21-26 and $40 on race day.

Registration and packet pick-up is available at Total Runner, 15265 Dix-Toledo Road in Southgate, from May 21-26. Online registration is available at www.runsignup.com or an entry form can be downloaded from islandroadrunners.com.

The entry fee includes a quality, commemorative sweatshirt, picturesque certified courses, overall and age group awards, raffle, and one of the best post-race goodies tables around.

Awards (medals) will be given in both the 5K and 8K to overall and masters male and female winners, and the top three in each age group. Event times are as follows: 5K run/walk at 9:00 a.m., and 8K run at 9:05 a.m.

Also, a free 1-mile fun run (shirt not included) starts on the high school track at 8:30 a.m.

No registration is required for this event, described as a great family event with the kids. This race, called Little Stars, promotes childrens running. Every child crossing the finish line will receive a finishers medal.

Gold sponsors for this event include Beaumont Hospital, Total Runner, Public Service Credit Union, Jackson Snider Parker (JSP) Dentistry, Brooks, Downriver Surgery Center, Detroit Gradall, Island Stow-A-Way, Grosse Ile Bridge Company, Michael Perry Building Construction, Petes Place, R.L. Coolsaet Construction Co., Superior Turbo & Injection,

Planet Fitness/Southgate, Piping Components, Inc. and Siegel Chiropractic.

Eve Howell, a spokeswoman for the group, said the Island Road Runners would also like to invite runners and walkers to their weekly

run/walks every Saturday throughout the year at Grosse Ile Middle School at 8:30 am and, on Mondays during the summer months, at the Elizabeth Park Pavilion at 5:30 pm.

All paces and abilities are welcomed to these weekly (non-competitive) club workouts.

Saturday, May 19th, will be the kick-off for the summer Tailgate Treats which follow the 8:30 am run/walk at the Grosse Ile Middle School. For Tailgate Treats, the club provides food and beverages for all present. Both runners and walkers are invited, and membership is not required to participate.

If you would like to join or find out more info about the club, go to the website at islandroadrunners.com.

For more information on the Memorial Day Run or the Island Road Runners, call 734-282-1101 or email Howell at emhowell1@gmail.comWhile two students were suspended in the days following a threat posted on the Southgate Community Schools website, one of them has now admitted to making the threats.

The entire district closed April 25 and 26 after someone hacked into the district website and left a message claiming they would shoot up Anderson High School.

RELATED: Southgate closed district-wide after threats

School Supt. Jill Pastor sent a letter to parents Thursday saying police had gotten a confession from a student regarding the threats.

This threat was spread through social media, initially via Snapchat, she wrote. The police were immediately contacted and began investigating. The investigation involved the Southgate Police Department and the Michigan State Police.

Pastor said several students were involved in hacking the website, but only one was responsible for posting the threats after police concluded their investigation.

Police officials and the Southgate Community School District are pursuing legal and educational consequences, she said. Our technology department has made every effort to ensure that this does not happen in the future, including changing passwords.

Pastor said all of the students involved are being punished for their part, but didnt detail how many students or what the punishments would be.

Thank you for your patience during this investigation and for your continued support of the Southgate Community School District, she said.

Police officials didnt release the name or gender of the person who confessed.

remaining of

Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.Banknotes and coins: A lawsuit was filed today on behalf of the Bank of Israel, the first of its kind, against defendants convicted of counterfeiting banknotes. This step comes in addition to intensive enforcement measures carried out by the Israel Police, and reflects the close cooperation between the Bank of Israel and law enforcement authorities, using a variety of tools and methods to protect the public against currency counterfeiting, and to bring the full extent of the law against counterfeiters. The suit will send a clear and deterring message that in addition to criminal law, counterfeiters will also face civil lawsuits for significant amounts. The suit was filed on behalf of the Bank of Israel by the Civil Enforcement Unit of the State Prosecution and the Southern District (Civil) Prosecutor.

In addition to deterrent and enforcement measures, the Bank of Israel acts through a variety of channels to ensure that the banknotes provided to the public are authentic and secure. The security features on the new series of banknotes were created with advanced technology and are among the best in the world.

Counterfeiters have so far been unsuccessful in any attempt to mimic the security features, and the Bank of Israels public information and awareness efforts, under the slogan Its simple to make sure that its secure are intended to acquaint every citizen with the security features and easily check that the banknotes in his or her possession are authentic and secure.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu traveled to Moscow on Wednesday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss military coordination in Syria.

Israel fears that Iranian forces operating in Syria, along with tens of thousands of Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen, will carry out attacks against Israel once the civil war winds down in that country.

Russia has also sent forces to Syria to back the Assad regime. But Israel and Russia have maintained close communications to prevent their air forces from coming into conflict.

Together with Putin, Netanyahu toured a parade celebrating the anniversary of the World War II victory over the Nazis and then met the Russian president at the Kremlin for consultations.

After 10 hours together, Netanyahu said he conveyed Israels obligation to defend itself against Iranian aggression.

I think that matters were presented in a direct and forthright manner, and this is important. These matters are very important to Israels security at all times and especially at this time, he said.

Netanyahu also said: Ive just finished my meeting with Putin. the first part of the day, the military parade was a grand sight. It had historical value because this is the first time that any Israeli Prime Minister took part in this parade. Putin also mentioned Holocaust survivors for the first time. This is a great sense of pride for Israel and will only serve to increase communication between our two countries.Iranian forces based in Syria targeted northern Israel with 20 rockets on Wednesday night. This was met by a very IAF retaliation, striking out at Iranian infrastructure in areas of Syria.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, twenty-eight F-15s and F-16s took part in the mission, firing 60 air-to-surface missiles. A Saudi website reports 23 people were killed including Syrian forces.

In addition, the IDF Spokesperson briefed the foreign media that Israel updated the Russians before the large-scale attack in Russia.

During the night, the Israeli Air Force attacked the following targets:

 Iranian intelligence sites operated by the Quds Force.

 Logistics headquarters of the Quds Force.

 A military compound and logistics complex of the Quds Force in Kiswah.

 An Iranian military camp north of Damascus.

 Weapons storage sites belonging to the Quds Force at Damascus International Airport.

 Intelligence systems and installations associated with the Quds Force.

 Observation, military posts and weapons in the buffer zone.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)Owners of three cars produced by the VW Group have a potentially deadly safety fault that's been identified during independent testing.

The Volkswagen Polo supermini, SEAT Arona SUV and smaller Ibiza hatchback, have rear seatsbelts that could inadvertently become unbuckled if three passengers are sat in the back.

VW has warned owners not to sit three people across the back row until a recall has been issued to rectify the issue.

Seatbelt warning: The current Volkswagen Polo (pictured) is one of three VW Group models that has the potentially lethal problem that puts the safety of rear-seat passengers at risk

Finnish motoring magazine Tekniikan Maailma found that the middle seat buckle can push against the release button for the buckle to the left, undoing the seatbelt, as the graphic shows

Finnish motoring magazine Tekniikan Maailma identified the issue while road testing the three cars.

It found that the left rear buckle in the three could release when the car was travelling with three in the back and there were sudden changes of direction.

A VW spokesman has confirmed to Autocar that it had been notified of the problem and it would 'provide a technical solution shortly and recall the vehicles concerned'.

The issue seems to be caused by the higher mounting of the central seatbelt buckle than the one to its left on the latest examples of each three models.

During a high-speed move to the left, the weight of the middle passenger pushes his or her buckle onto the left buckle at an angle. The force then presses down on the release button, undoing the belt.

Tekniikan Maailma claimed that this occurred on more than one occasion in each of the three cars.

The magazine released a statement saying: 'According to our judgement, the unlatching is caused by a design fault.

'The easiest fix for the problem would be either to shorten or lengthen the attaching belt of the middle buckle by a couple of centimetres.'

The SEAT Ibiza is also affected. It, like the other cars impacted, went on sale from last year

The third affected model is the recently launched SEAT Arona compact SUV

The cars affected all went on sale last year and the fault is believed to only affect these recent examples.

A VW spokesman told Autocar that a recall for the problem would be issued 'in co-operation with the national vehicle registration authorities, who also approve the safety recall measures,' and warned owners not to carry three passengers in the back until the call back had been issued.

'As an immediate action, we will inform customers and advise not to have passengers use the middle rear seat of current Polo models until the cars have been equipped with the redesigned belt lock fixture,' he said.

SEAT has also confirmed that it has found the same issue and said it was 'working on possible solutions'.The Government's stake in Royal Bank of Scotland is finally set to be sold after the bailed-out lender was fined 3.6billion by the US for flogging toxic mortgages over a decade ago.

The bill from the US Department of Justice is its last major penalty for bad behaviour around the time of the financial crisis and a key milestone for the bank.

It means it can finally start paying dividends to shareholders again  a relief for its 180,000 small investors.

Final penalty: Royal Bank of Scotland has been fined 3.6billion by the US for flogging toxic mortgages over a decade ago

It also clears the way for the Treasury to sell the 70 per cent stake it acquired when the bank was bailed out with 46billion of taxpayers' cash in 2008.

Chief executive Ross McEwan said: 'This bank can move forward on one of its largest outstanding issues, but it's a stark reminder of what happens when you get things wrong.

'We had a culture that wasn't focused on customers, it was focused on making money for the bank.'

The 3.6billion DoJ fine is much lower than feared, with some analysts warning it could have been as high as 11billion.

RBS faced repeated delays to the settlement and Donald Trump's election as President slowed the process down further because he replaced scores of officials in the justice department.

Negotiations began in earnest only after the bank reported its first-quarter results less than a fortnight ago, but they then quickly gathered speed.

RBS held an urgent board meeting late on Wednesday and issued a statement confirming the settlement at midnight.

Now the bill is agreed, the British Government is expected to start selling shares back into private hands.

RBS was briefly the world's largest bank before the financial crisis hit, as boss Fred Goodwin sought to build a global empire.

At the time the Treasury took its stake in RBS the stock was bought for 502p per share  but its price is down 43 per cent since then, meaning the state is likely to lose more than 10billion.

RBS's latest bill caps years of charges for bad behaviour totalling 20.9billion, and it is likely to sink to another loss this quarter because of this fine.

But the settlement was nonetheless cheered by traders yesterday, with shares up 3.8 per cent, or 10.4p, to 286.5p.Two of the biggest names in fashion had massively different fortunes as they rode out the storm on the High Street.

Next shares soared 6.1 per cent as it reported a huge rise in online sales that offset a decline from shoppers going into stores.

But Superdry, famous for hoodies and T-shirts featuring Japanese writing, saw 256million wiped off its value after sales fell by 6 per cent to 86million during the 16 weeks to January 7. Its shares had slumped 19.4 per cent by the close.

The contrast was most marked by the way in which Next has embraced its online business, and urged shoppers to pick up website orders from stores  keeping footfall up.

Online revival: Next shares soared 6.1 per cent as it reported a huge rise in online sales that offset a decline from shoppers going into stores

Although purchases in Next stores declined 4.8 per cent, its online business grew 18 per cent, meaning it came in 40million above expectations.

Two heatwaves in the 14 weeks to May 7 also offset a decline in sales during a week of heavy snow across the UK.

Next, considered a High Street bellwether, left investors reeling earlier this year after it posted its second consecutive yearly decline in profits to 726million.

But the chain, headed by Lord Wolfson, 50, has now upgraded its full-year forecasts, with profits expected to shrink by 1.3 per cent rather than 2.9 per cent.

Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Next was an exceptionally well-run business that communicates well with its shareholders. He added: Time and again Simon Wolfson and team have said the unpopular thing and been right, so while these numbers are far better than anticipated, investors should probably keep expectations in check.

In a trading statement ahead of its full-year results, Superdry reported a 12.4 per cent rise in group revenue to 254million, boosted by a strong performance in its wholesale and online divisions.

Wholesale surged by 27 per cent to 128.6million while online grew 18.2 per cent to 38.7million.

But the 6 per cent fall in shop sales took the shine off, forcing Superdry to slash its profits forecast for the year.

These are now expected to be in the range of 96.5million to 97.5million compared to 98.5million. It also took a 7.2million hit for a writedown on its flagship shop in Berlin.

But it continued to open stores and added shopfloor space.

It comes after Superdrys co-founder Julian Dunkerton, 53, stepped down as a director to devote his time to charity and a cider-making and hotels business.

Dunkerton founded Superdry in 1985 from a market stall in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and listed it on the London Stock Exchange in 2010.

Euan Sutherland, the chief executive of Superdry, said: While the consumer environment remains challenging, we are confident that Superdrys reputation for quality, design detail and strong value for money, underpinned by our continued investment in the business, leaves us well placed.RBS staff are taking customers to nearby post offices and showing them how to make financial transactions when their local branch shuts.

Royal Bank of Scotland boss Ross McEwan said families hit by branch closures were being escorted to the nearest post office so they can learn about the services it offered, such as depositing cash and cashing cheques.

His comments angered campaigners seeking to protect Britains shrinking branch network.

Royal Bank of Scotland is axing 420 outlets this year in a push to save money, which has angered campaigners seeking to protect Britains shrinking branch network

Labour MP John Mann, a member of the Treasury select committee, said: The reports that RBS staff in closing branches are escorting customers to post offices are Monty Python-style banking  they would be funny if they werent true.

This is one of many stories which prove that the banks line that customers no longer use branches is fiction.

RBS is axing 420 outlets this year in a push to save money.

It has always claimed that it is closing branches because customers do not want to use them any more and would rather go online instead.

But Mr McEwan admitted that the lender offers customers training on how to use a mobile phone so they can go online instead  suggesting many do not know what they are doing.

Speaking to MPs on the Scottish affairs select committee, he said: We are asking all of our branch staff to have conversations with customers about the different ways of operating, be it online or through mobile.

We have what we call text experts who are helping customers actually use a mobile phone. I make no excuses for that, this is our most popular channel now.

He added that the bank uses a six-month window after a closure is announced to teach staff to tell customers where they can go instead  including nearby post offices.

RBS staff are taking customers to nearby post offices and showing them how to make financial transactions when their local branch shuts

This is important in rural areas with poor internet coverage, where some customers struggle to get banking to work online.

Mr McEwan said: Once weve made the decision to close a branch and weve given people time, we do then ask them to have a direct conversation about the other ways of banking  which could be through a mobile, it could be through a post office.

Ive been to see a post office myself, where the postmaster was delighted that we were escorting customers across.

Where theres not broadband, our people are taking customers across to the Post Office to introduce them to the postmaster so they have a relationship going forward.

Campaigners argue that bank branch closures drastically reduce footfall on high streets.

Shopkeepers and vulnerable people are hit particularly hard, and forced to travel miles to access basic financial services.

Mike Cherry, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: The fact that RBS is dedicating resources to switching former branch customers to other banking methods shows that the demand for in-person support is there.

'The best-resourced, highest-tech post offices are in urban areas, not in the rural communities where financial inclusion is more likely to be an issue.Royal Bank of Scotland has been handed a giant $4.9billion [3.6bn] fine to end a US probe into how it mis-sold toxic products that helped tip the world into a financial crisis in 2008.

The bank's chief executive Ross McEwan said the deal with US regulators over the allegations that it misled investors was a 'milestone' for the Edinburgh-based giant.

RBS' shares jumped up six per cent this morning because they had been warned the fine could reach $12billion [8.8bn] and the deal will now allow the Treasury to sell its stake.

The bank's disgraced former boss Fred 'the Shred' Goodwin took it to the brink of collapse ten years ago, almost destroying the British economy at the same time.

A few months later, RBS had to be bailed out by the British government to the tune of 45.5bn and the UK taxpayer still owns 71 per cent of the state-backed bank.

Royal Bank of Scotland has been handed a giant $4.9billion [3.6bn] fine to end a US probe into how it mis-sold toxic products that helped tip the world into a financial crisis in 2008

Ross McEwan said the deal with US regulators over its packaging and sale of mortgage-backed securities was a 'milestone' for the bank

The probe into RBS's sale of financial products from 2005 to 2007 was being carried out by the US Justice Department.

Chancellor Philip Hammond said last year that he was reluctant to sell shares while the DoJ probe had still to be resolved.

The DoJ said further details must be negotiated before a final deal is done.

Mr McEwan said: 'Today's announcement is a milestone moment for the bank.

'Removing the uncertainty over the scale of this settlement means that the investment case for this bank is much clearer.'

He added: 'Reaching this settlement in principle with the US Department of Justice will, when finalised, allows us to deal with this significant remaining legacy issue and is the price we have to pay for the global ambitions pursued by this bank before the crisis.'

RBS said about 2.6billion of the penalty would be covered by money already set aside.

The deal moves the bank a step closer to shake off government ownership. The government paid 45.5bn to bail out the bank after the financial crisis.

Last month RBS said it is to close up to 275 branches as it fights to cut costs after a decade on its knees

Last month RBS said it is to close up to 275 branches as it fights to cut costs.

Ross McEwan said the axe will fall on English and Welsh outlets run under its Royal Bank of Scotland brand.

Many of these are across the street from branches operated under RBSs NatWest brand, and customers will be able to use those instead.

The cuts will be on top of 180 closures already announced by RBS, triggering fresh fears for the future of High Street banking.

Campaigners warn that small businesses, the elderly and vulnerable people suffer most when branches are shut down because they are deprived of access to basic financial services.

RBS was previously ordered to sell the 275 branches to satisfy competition regulators as a condition of its 46 billion UK Government bailout during the financial crisis.

It spent the best part of a decade trying to split them off as a new bank called Williams & Glyn, but this proved too complicated.

Instead RBS is launching a 775 million fund to help rivals improve their business banking to satisfy the demands of competition watchdogs.

It means the lender is finally able to close branches, saving millions of pounds on staff and rent.The Nigerian government on Wednesday said it was acting to prevent the spread of Ebola from Democratic Republic of Congo where an outbreak of the disease has killed 17 people.

The federal government had put in place an emergency programme to monitor all border activity to keep Nigerians safe, Health Minister Isaac Adewole said after a cabinet meeting.

"We will be screening incoming passengers, particularly passengers from DRC and neighbouring countries. (The) Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) will also consider sending some team to DRC as part of building capacity for managing the outbreak," he added.

Nigeria, which does not share a border with DR Congo, is the only country in West Africa with a mobile laboratory for haemorrhagic fevers.

Funded by the European Union it can carry out rapid testing even in the most remote areas.

Ebola is one of the world\s most notorious diseases, being both highly infectious and extremely lethal.

There is no current vaccine to prevent Ebola or licensed treatment for it.

SOURCE: AFPthedonquixotic : hang-the-9 :



We have used Startech USB3 docks at work, but those don't provide power. https /www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834977567&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Notebook+Port+Replicators+%2F+Docking+Stations-_-N82E16834977567&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9NPa9rD72gIVDFYMCh0Biw2GEAYYAiABEgII-fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds Why not simply get the MS dock? https /www.bestbuy.com/site/microsoft-surface-dock-black/4561910.p?skuId=4561910&cmp=RMX&extStoreId=1407&ref=212&loc=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIx4aeo7D72gIVD4ezCh2hWQ1TEAQYASABEgLy9PD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds That way you just have to buy it once.We have used Startech USB3 docks at work, but those don't provide power. https/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834977567&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Notebook+Port+Replicators+%2F+Docking+Stations-_-N82E16834977567&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9NPa9rD72gIVDFYMCh0Biw2GEAYYAiABEgII-fD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

The reason for not buying the MS dock is because it's expensive. And buying it, I would have to buy two because I would need one for work, and one for home. Because the point of a dock is that it stays in one place, with all the wires hooked up, and you just plug in a single cord and get all your connections, and then unplug when you leave.

The reason for not buying the MS dock is because it's expensive. And buying it, I would have to buy two because I would need one for work, and one for home. Because the point of a dock is that it stays in one place, with all the wires hooked up, and you just plug in a single cord and get all your connections, and then unplug when you leave.

When I read "buy it twice" I thought you meant that it would be cheap quality and you'd have to replace it. Could not tell you if another dock will work to charge it, I know those USB ones work for data/video although they have issues with non-1080 displays. We used some lower quality 1050 displays and there was distortion. We use separate power connections for the MS Surface with the USB3 docks or use the MS docks.At the end, the right thing done the first time is often the cheapest and least time wasting.SHOULD SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVISTS APOLOGIZE TO THE KANSAS CITY FIREFIGHTER AFTER TARGETING HIS JOB?!?!?

The defense noted what they felt were inconsistencies in the grandfather's story that was not supported by a video played in court.





Witnesses on the stand collaborated different portions of the story, including the spitting.





One witness said Skeen mentioned guns in a "threatening way," while a second witness heard the alleged racial slur.





When the firefighter was spoken to that night, he said no slurs were used. Law enforcement witnesses testified that he smelled of alcohol and his eyes were bloodshot.

VIA SOCIAL MEDIA BLASTS WE CAN EXPECT UPCOMING PROTEST TARGETING HOOTERS COMING SOON!!!









KMBC: Terrance J. Skeen, 42, was charged with battery, disorderly conduct, and assault in connection with the case which happened at an Overland Park, Kansas Hooters Restaurant. Overland Park officials said Skeen was found not guilty on all charges after a short trial Wednesday.

Whilst some might disagree with the outcome, the dude accused of atrocities at a suburban "breastaurant" had his day in court and was found innocent of all charges.Moreover . . .Fact is, the pressure on KCFD was pretty intense and this defendant didn't exactly have a lot of pull.Deets from today's news coverage:Sneak peek . . .Protest might be a bit more effective than a boycott given that a smaller crowd to gawk at bewbs and enjoy chicken wings is a good thing.Check the links . . .You decide . . .Kansas City, Kansas, Police Officer Charged With Sexual Battery Steven Rios, a Kansas City, Kansas, police officer, has been charged with one count of sexual battery for touching a woman without her consent while on duty. The woman, a civilian employee of the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department, reported the incident March 9. Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree filed charges against Rios Monday.

Across the State Line there's also a law enforcement crisis in the making. In fairness,However, a recent statement from the Feds and increased scrutiny would suggest otherwise.Here's the definitive write-up and a glimpse look at this week's bad news for another law enforcement agency . . . Read more:Group suggest naming new Kansas City airport in honor of MLK KANSAS CITY, Mo. - An advisory committee has a new idea on how to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This proposal would take flight with King's name. The MLK Advisory Group proposed naming the new airport the Martin Luther King Jr. Airport.

The effort to honor MLK with the new Kansas City airport might be a viable solution to a community debatejust the latest distraction for this social justice effort that touts the economic benefit of civil rights tribute without much data to support their thesis.Checkit:INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- A former Independence Police Department employee's lawsuit accuses the city of Independence and its police chief of more than one alleged incident of sexual harassment and assault. According to the suit, the woman claims she was subjected to "repeated instances of sexually charged and assaultive behavior."Recently, the rising star ensemble kicked off their tour in Kansas City and controversy arose amid a notable absence.









QUESTIONS OVER BABYMETAL MISSING YUIMETAL STARTED IN KANSAS CITY!!!

is a trio of young women who have defied musical genres by mixing Japanese pop and death metal into their performances that have inspired fans across the globe.The band's roster:For those who would dismiss this international sensation and their musical relevance . . . Take a look at their credits which include but are not limited to:Additionally, their download, streaming and merch sales are ranked among the highest for any modern day Japanese musical act.Here's a look at the international musical crisis . . .The band's American tour will continue but here's what's important for our local music scene and the metro discourse . . .And so, once again, the spirit of Kansas City Internets advocacy, accountability and citizen journalism has inspired the world.Developing . . .



In Style: Taylor Swift Calls Kim Kardashian a Bully on Stage





Kansas City Hairdo Creativity

Local stylists use water guns to dye hair KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Two Kansas City hairdressers are dying hair watercolors with a unique apparatus - a water gun. The Splash Kaleidoscope technique, otherwise known as water gun hair color, was coined by Kat Collett and Andrew Collett. The Colletts see each time someone sits down in their chair as an opportunity to impact a life.

Spy Cam Justice Footage

Police hoping dashcam video can help solve Lee's Summit road rage murder Personal dashcam popularity has been growing - many people now have systems in their cars.

Local Ford Tough Times

Ford suspends production of F-150 trucks at Claycomo & Michigan plants KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Ford is suspending production of the F-150 truck, its bestselling and most-profitable vehicle, after a fire at a supplier's plant in Michigan last week. Ford announced that it will suspend production of the F-150 at its plant in Dearborn, Michigan, on Wednesday night.

NKC Rebuilding After Inferno

Day after devastating fire, North Kansas City business hits ground running at new location A preliminary investigation has determined that careless smoking was the cause of a fire that destroyed North Kansas City business block, the ATF says. Investigators say they were able to pinpoint the cause so quickly because of witness statements and videos. A smoking porch is located on the back of the south side of the building.

Help Get Justice In Grandview

Reward increased in unsolved 2016 Grandview homicide More reward money is being offered in a 2016 unsolved homicide in Grandview. There is a reward total of $3,500 for information that leads to an arrest or filing of charges in the killing of Donald "Donny" Herron Jr. Three people broke into Herron's home in the 6000 block of 153rd Street on June 6, 2016.

Show-Me Courtroom Rules

Full names, no audio recording, during Greitens trial St. Louis Circuit Judge Rex Burlison has rejected a media request to record audio during the felony trial of Gov. Eric Greitens. Burlison ruled Wednesday that still photography would be allowed for the first 10 minutes of the first day of trial, which is scheduled for Monday.

Kansas City Gun Drama Review

Theater review: KC Rep's Brother Toad overshoots America's gun culture Karen Almond Every time there's a Trayvon Martin, Philando Castile, Newtown or Parkland, Pulse, drive-by or Las Vegas, we Americans fall into grief, anger, angst, dismay. Or, perhaps, defiance. In his new play, Brother Toad, part of Kansas City Repertory Theatre's OriginKC: New Works Festival, Nathan Louis Jackson addresses how we think about guns - "Americans love guns more than apple pie" - and how we live with their pervasive presence.

Around the world we notice that an iconic hottie is slowly morphing into an activist . . .Closer to home, here are a few local news items today that are also worth a peek:And this is thefor right now . . .In Praise Of Kansas City Water Despite Rising Prices And Public Frustration

Water treatment plant makes healthy living possible in Kansas City An abundant source of clean drinking water is something most Americans take for granted, but it can be seen as a marvel of the modern age that contributes to a healthy society. Workers at North Kansas City's water treatment plant held a media tour to observe Drinking Water Week, which takes place the first full week of May each year.

Kansas City Safety Net Talk

The War on Work Harvard University professor Edward Glaeser looks at joblessness among "prime age" men between 25 and 54 and the public policies he says are creating incentives not to work, from unemployment benefits and food stamps to disability insurance and housing vouchers.

Fighting JoCo Doggie Breed Ban

Overland Park teen starts petition to urge city to repeal ban on pit bulls OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - An Overland Park teen has started a petition in hopes that the city will reconsider its ban on pit bulls. Taylor Walton, 17, launched a petition on Change.org last Thursday, calling on the city council to repeal the city's ban on pit bulls, which has been in effect since 2006.

Home Team Hype Returns???

Kansas City Royals: So you're telling me there's a chance? Remember back when Jim Carrey was actually an entertaining actor, back when he was making films like Dumb and Dumber? In that movie, as his character Lloyd asks Mary Swanson what the chances are of his getting together with her, he is told that his odds are one in a million.

Considering Crossroads Cuisine

The Return of the Jewish Deli & Other Weekend Possibilities The Jewish deli is back, Kansas City. Broadway Deli (2101 Broadway Blvd.) has opened in the former Pezzettino's space. The deli, which has a menu featuring Chicago-based Manny's Cafeteria & Delicatessen recipes and meats, has potato pancakes, eggs and salami, chopped liver, bagels and noodle kugel (noodle pudding).

We start our morning with classic Candice because her longstanding international hottie victory has garnered some impressive gains. Take a look:Closer to home, let's take a glimpse at the local morning news cycle:is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . .Early Release Days passed every Wednesday for the 185-School Year Calendar.

THERE'S WIDESPREAD RESISTANCE TO WEDNESDAY EARLY RELEASE ACROSS THE KCPS AND PARENTS ARE ALREADY ASKING THE DISTRICT TO RECONSIDER THE DECISION!!!

A controversial vote form last night's school board agenda has Kansas City Public School Officials waking up to community backlash.The debatable policy . . .It was a 5-4 vote and the Superintendent recommended the measure despite resistance.In the aftermath of the decision parents are worried about:Reality . . .Developing . . .was

WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM THIS OVERLAND PARK HOT MESS???

- SJWs didn't wait for a verdict or investigation and pronounced the KCFD worker guilty from the outset. Moreover, most local activists reject the innocence of the defendant despite the recent ruling.





- Reactionary critics now cite the incident as a "race hoax" amid a growing number of local unproven charges of violent discrimination that they contend proves racism doesn't exist.





- Still no answer to this one: Why would anybody have a family gathering with youngsters at Hooters???

TKC EXCLUSIVE: OUR BLOG COMMUNITY REPORTS THAT TENSIONS WERE HIGH IN THE COURTROOM YESTERDAY AND HARD FEELINGS FROM THE FAMILY AND ACTIVISTS REMAIN DESPITE THE NOT GUILTY VERDICT!!!

The claim that a KCFD worker spat on African-American toddler and used the N-wordStill, hard feelings remain betwixt factions who maintain the allegations vs. those who citeanother incident of racism purportedly disproved.And so we ask our blog community . . .A few items to start the conversation from "many sides" of the debate:And then, there's more to this story . . .Meanwhile, City Hall and Local 42 will have to answer continued public pressure against the former defendant who will push to be reinstated after recent sanctions resulting from this drama.Developing . . .Ranging from clothes to jewelry, glasses, footwear, hats and scarves, the minimalist pieces are available at the Cycladic Shop for one month only  while special orders are also an option

Cycladic figurines, helmets and amphorae on display at the Cycladic Art Museum in Athens provided the inspiration for a group of Greek designers to develop an exclusive collection currently on sale at the museum shop, according to the following report by Greek newspaper Kathimerini. The ancient Cycladic worlds austere forms are incorporated into the garments and accessories comprising Cycladic Forms, a project curated by veteran stylist Michalis Pandos. Ranging from clothes to jewelry, glasses, footwear, hats and scarves, the minimalist pieces are available at the Cycladic Shop for one month only  while special orders are also an option.

For the chic premiere of garments and accessories at the museum shop, Pandos sought the talents of designers whose creative vision is close to Cycladic forms, as well as those who reworked the silhouettes with a fresh point of view. Taking part in the project are 14 Greek designers and brands: Blanc Hats, Angelos Bratis, Deux Hommes, Di Gaia, Digitaria, Yiorgos Eleftheriades, Ergon, Magneto, Maria Mastori, Apostolos Mitropoulos, Rien, Danai Sakellari, Uglybell and Zeus & Dione.

While Cycladic Forms serves as a curtain raiser for more sartorial choices at the shop, the project proves that the Greek chic idea is still part of the international fashion conversation. The continuation of the Greek chic trend suits us, but this is something which requires proper management, Pandos told Kathimerini. Meanwhile, the Cycladic civilization has a different departure point when it comes to inspiration. It is broader than the reinterpretation of an ancient column, for instance, it is about the Aegean light, as well as formalism. It is both more specific and more general.

Read more at ekathimerini.com

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright:Tilemahos Efthimiadis License: CC-BY-SAAs the busy summer travel season approaches, global luxury travel network Virtuoso unveils that families are roaming the world in search of experiences that create closer bonds and lasting memories. Hailed as an industry trend forecaster, the 2018 Virtuoso Luxe Report surveyed its affiliated travel advisors to discover the leading destinations and developments that impact how families are traveling this year. Multigenerational travel continues its run as the year's top trend in the Luxe Report, and travel with one's immediate family finished close behind. As well, connecting with family through travel is one of 2018's must-have experiences.

Generation Z: The iGeneration is Coming On Strong

Consisting of young people born between the mid-1990s and mid-2010s (now approximately 3 to 23 years old), Generation Z is the largest age cohort in the U.S., with more than a quarter of the population (Forbes). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation reports that Gen Z has a buying power of $43 billion, and influences $600 billion of family spending. The Virtuoso Luxe Report found that this tech-savvy group, while still quite young, has considerable influence over family travel decisions, according to 90 percent of advisors polled.

Top 5 Ways Gen Z Influences Family Travel 1. Crave active experiences 2. Involve themselves in planning trips 3. Influence other's travel choices via word of mouth, social media and reviews 4. Seek unusual destinations 5. Look for visual destinations and experiences for social media



Virtuoso Analysis: Gen Zs seek authentic, unique experiences such as adventures they can have only in a particular destination. They have seen much of the world already, and therefore travel with a global mindset. As digital natives, their actions and decisions are influenced by peers on social media, as well as the visual appeal that destinations and activities hold for online sharing.

Top 10 Family Travel Trends 1. Beach resort stays 6. Ocean cruising 2. Active or adventure trips 7. Cultural immersion 3. Celebration travel 8. Educational trips 4. Mother/daughter or father/son trips 9. River cruises 5. Touring (guided or private) 10. Exclusive-use travel (private villa/island/jet/yacht)

Virtuoso Analysis: While sun-and-sand trips rise to first place from second in 2017, these are not the traditional fly-and-flop vacations. Families seek beach resorts with plenty of activities to keep the entire group engaged. Adventure travel is the second most popular trend, both for families and travelers in general, continuing the niche's recent boom. With today's fast pace of life, travel is a perfect way to gather loved ones together for a landmark celebration, or carve out time for parent/child bonding. Cruising  both ocean and river  is emerging as an ideal family trip, thanks to its convenience, great value and activities for every age. Today's families view travel as an important educational tool, immersing them in different cultures, bringing classroom lessons alive, and shaping global citizens.

Top 10 Hottest Family Destinations 1. Italy 6. Dominican Republic 2. Mexico 7. South Africa 3. Orlando, FL 8. England 4. Hawaii 9. Canada 5. Costa Rica 10. France

Virtuoso Analysis: Italy's appeal to families continues; it finishes as the top destination for the ninth consecutive year. While Europe still charms, with England and France also in the top 10, families are venturing to all corners of the globe. Warm-weather destinations such as Mexico, Hawaii and the Dominican Republic beckon those in search of relaxation. Orlando, with its theme parks and favorable climate, remains popular, moving up one spot from the 2017 list. Adventurous families are voyaging to destinations such as Costa Rica and South Africa. Canada, with its diversity of urban and nature experiences, offers something for every preference as well as great value for Americans.

Top 10 Unconventional Family Destinations 1. Iceland 6. Japan 2. Galapagos Islands 7. United Arab Emirates 3. Cuba 8. Egypt 4. Antarctica 9. Rwanda 5. Botswana/Mongolia (tie) 10. Croatia

Virtuoso Analysis: Driven by Gen Z's quest to experience new destinations, families are heading beyond the tried and true locales. The desire for authentic experiences figures into many of the unconventional spots, whether it be the unspoiled appeal of Iceland (also last year's top pick) and Antarctica, the wildlife of the Galapagos Islands, or Cuba's culture. As well-traveled families have already explored North America and Europe, they are focusing on African and Asian destinations. Botswana, Mongolia, United Arab Emirates and Egypt debut on the list this year.

Advisors from Virtuoso's travel agencies in North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and the Middle East were surveyed in the 2018 Luxe Report, providing insights into the year's hottest trends. To find a family travel specialist to plan your next trip, visit Virtuoso.com.

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.

Read more at prnewswire.com

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: pixabay.comTourexpi, turizm haberleri, Reiseburos, tourism news, noticias de turismo, Tourismus Nachrichten,  , travel tourism news, international tourism news, Urlaub, urlaub in der turkei,  , holidays in Turkey,   , global tourism news, dunya turizm, dunya turizm haberleri, Seyahat Acentas,

This site is best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+, at a minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768.Gateway Gulf, a major new investment event ongoing in Bahrain, welcomed 500 global investors and CEOs to the opportunities being created by the economic transformation in the GCC.



The invitation-only event, held under the patronage of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and chairman of the Bahrain Economic Development Board, is being held at the Four Seasons hotel, Manama from May 8 to 10.



HRH the Deputy King highlighted the regional opportunities available to investors, including the plethora of projects to be showcased during the forum, noting that these opportunities reflect Bahrains wider strategy to increase the role of the private sector in driving economic development.



Over the course of the two days, investment opportunities worth $26 billion will be showcased, with the first day focusing on new developments in the oil and gas, power and energy, and real estate and tourism sectors. Meanwhile plenary sessions explored the economic transformation taking place across the GCC powering a paradigm shift toward private-sector driven growth.



Speaking at the conference, Jassim Alsiddiqi, chief executive officer, ADFG, said: We see tremendous opportunity in the coming years. The best risk / reward opportunity is here in the GCC. In our mind, political and economic risk in the GCC is much smaller than in the rest of the world. The margins are superior here compared globally.



The forum attracted a significant delegation from China to explore opportunities being created in line with the regions strategic position on the Belt and Road initiative. Since 2014, Arab countries are estimated to have signed more than $50 billion in contracts with China. As an established gateway to the region, Bahrain is home to the regional bases of leading Chinese corporations including Huawei, Chinamex, CIMC and Bank of China.



Khalid Al Rumaihi, chief executive of the EDB, speaking on the second panel of the day about the key to attracting the right forms of FDI into the region, said: The government and the private sector need to work together to create solutions and unlock opportunities in the region. That means that government needs to change its approach, it needs to collaborate and be agile in order to respond to the changing opportunities being created. This is what we call our Team Bahrain approach.



Dr Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza, Minister of Electricity and Water Authority announced that the second phase of the Al Dur 2 Independent Water and Power Project will commence operations in early June 2020, in cooperation with the private sector. After the conclusion of the second phase, production is set to reach a total of 5,421 MW and 229 million imperial gallons per day, representing 38 per cent uplift in current electricity production capacity and almost 28 per cent increase in current water production capacity.



The Kingdoms Minister of Housing Basim bin Yaqoob Al Hamer, stressed the importance of partnership with the private sector in developing the housing sector in Bahrain and in providing decent housing for Bahraini citizens. Showcasing the successes of the programme, he praised the ability of the partnership to meet housing demands and the positive secondary effect this has on a number of additional sectors across the economy, such as contracting, engineering, banking, finance and retail.



Further discussions in the opening sessions of the event explored a range of issues in the GCC economy.



Speaking on the changing role of government in the GCC economy, Khaled Nasser Abdullah Al Roudan, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Kuwait said: The government accepts that privatisation is an important next step. We want to generate change and the private sector is an important part of that process. With most of the Gulf countries relying on oil, there has been a need for reforms and this has become imperative. The government cannot carry on its current path, we accept that, and we want to generate change.



Zayed R Alzayani, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, said: The GCC is starting a new journey. Diversification is top of the agenda and were seeing new sectors emerging in the region. For example, Bahrain has doubled the contribution of tourism to GDP in the past three years. No investment in the world is riskless, but the broader trend of the GCC is very positive. The GCC has proven to be sound, growing and people are investing here.



Speaking on his businesss plans for regional investment, Mohammed Alshaya, executive chairman of M H Alshaya Co said: Each country has its own DNA, its own challenges and opportunities. We as a business are investing every year in the expansion of our business. Were going ahead with a $4 billion project in KSA - would we do that if we were unhappy?



Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance, Bahrain addressed the challenges faced in terms of reassessing the role of government expenditure.



The question we need to ask is: How can a finance ministry move from setting a budget to becoming a solutions ministry? Its no longer just about funding, its about individual aspirations, Shaikh Ahmed noted.  TradeArabia News ServiceDubai Exports, the export promotion agency of the Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai, recently co-ordinated and led a multi-sector trade mission to Croatia to capitalise on the economic prospects in the country.



The team also explored the significance of exports to Croatia as an efficient gateway to the wider European Union (EU), as well as to Central and South Eastern Europe.



The trade mission focused on connecting UAE firms with counterparts through focused and pre-arranged B2B meetings. Dubai Exports also hosted a 'UAE and Croatia Business Forum' where Joseph Gene Petric, Assistant Minister in Croatia's Ministry of Foreign & European Affairs was the keynote speaker. Ivan Barbaric, vice president, Croatian Chamber of Economy also addressed the Forum.



Mohammed Al Kamali, deputy CEO of Dubai Exports, said: "Croatia is a market full of potential for UAE companies and this was evident in the B2B meetings during our trade mission. Croatian companies were extremely eager to meet with our delegation and we see promising signs for the future".



The newest member of the European Union and strategically located at the heart of Central and Eastern Europe, Croatia is one of the most developed countries in southeast Europe. Zagreb, its capital, is only a four-hour drive away from Vienna, Venice, Budapest, or Belgrade, and only a two-hour drive from the ports on the Adriatic coast.



As such, Croatia is ideally located for UAE companies to build business relations and export to the country. Moreover, the geostrategic location of the country makes it ideal to penetrate the wider region most of whom will become members of the EU by 2025. Economic forecasts for Central and Eastern Europe are extremely positive and GDP growth is expected to average 5 per cent per annum over the next 20 years.



Bilateral trade between Dubai and southeast Europe has been rising in recent years and 2017 saw an increase of 4 per cent over 2016. Exports and re-exports increased 18 per cent and 30 per cent respectively between 2016 and 2017.



The widespread use of English as the language of business; customers who are positive to UAE products and services; modern distribution channels and the highest Internet penetration in southeast Europe also make Croatia particularly attractive for UAE companies.



Dubai Exports also arranged five capacity-building sessions, which sought to educate UAE companies on the particular aspects of Croatian tax, legal system and payments structure. In addition, the session sought to inform UAE companies on the importance of understanding Croatian consumer behaviour.



Ahmed Belyoula, chairman of Emirates Marconi and vice chairman of the UAE Food and Beverages Manufacturers Group said: "Croatia and its neighbourhood are full of opportunities that UAE companies need to take advantage of, especially in the food and beverage sector. With a few large supermarkets and distribution companies that market is much easier to penetrate than most EU countries."  TradeArabia News ServiceGulf Capital, a top alternative asset managers in the Middle East, has acquired a strategic stake in Saudi Geidea, a leader in electronic payment and fintech solutions, for a total transaction value exceeding SR1 billion ($266 million).



The deal constitutes the largest acquisition in the Saudi Fintech sector to date, a statement said.



The transaction comes just days after the launch of an initiative by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority aiming to promote financial technology in the Kingdom and to transform Saudi Arabia into a destination for Fintech innovation, by providing a booming ecosystem driven by local and global players.



Dr Karim El Solh, chief executive officer of Gulf Capital, said: We are delighted to partner with Geidea, the leading payment solutions company in Saudi Arabia and to help support it on its ambitious growth and expansion plans.



In a relatively short period of time, Geidea has emerged as the market leader in the financial technology sector in Saudi Arabia, paving the way for more financial institutions and businesses in the Kingdom to adopt Saudi Arabias Vision 2030 of achieving far-reaching economic prosperity and moving towards a cashless society.



Geideas digital technologies also fuel the growth of the banking sector and the retail sector by providing digital financial transactions and the rapid transitioning to electronic payment systems. I look forward to working with Geidea towards achieving its vision of becoming the leader in the payment technology sector in the GCC region, he added.



Abdullah Bin Faisal Al-Othman, founder and president of Saudi Geidea, said: The reliance of financial institutions on financial technology in order to further develop and grow is a fundamental pillar for shaping the future of Saudi Fintech in light of the Kingdoms clear goal of achieving cashless cities to drive economic growth.



This deal is a major step in supporting investments in these areas with the aim of providing real digital transformation in financial services within Saudi Vision 2030s targets. We are confident that financial technology will make financial services faster, easier and less costly.



This deal is the fifth investment for Gulf Capital in the technology sector and is part of its efforts to develop the payment and digital financial transaction sector in the GCC.



Abdullah Hamad Al-Fozan, chairman of KPMG Al Fozan &Partners, the business consultants for Saudi Geidea, said: We are delighted with the success and growth of Geidea in the Fintech sector. We have always stressed that financial technology is an innovation enabler which will lead to tangible change in business models, one of the targets of Saudi Vision 2030.



We are confident that this strategic partnership between the two companies will be effective and will contribute to improving the infrastructure of the Saudi economy.



Abdullah Shahin, managing director at Gulf Capital, added: Geidea has been driving the transformation of banking and traditional retail towards electronic payment, with the full support of SAMA. The company is striving to drive the transformation towards a society that implements electronic payments rather than cash transactions.



With this aim, it has developed affordable but high quality systems and devices. We look forward to working closely with Geidea and to supporting its ambitious growth and regional expansion plans.



Geidea is a Saudi company established in 2008 with branches in Jeddah, Dammam, Abha and Tabouk in addition to 35 maintenance centers in different areas of the Kingdom. The company also has a research and development centre in Bengaluru, India and over 500 experts and specialists in providing IT solutions and was able in a short time to achieve substantial growth and to reach a leadership position in providing integrated financial solutions and to attract a large number of clients to its customer portfolio in the banking and retail sectors in the Kingdom, making it the primary provider of electronic payment solutions.

Gulf Capital invests across several asset classes including private equity, private debt and real estate and currently manages over Dh14.7 billion ($4 billion) of assets across 10 funds and investment vehicles.  TradeArabia News ServiceBahrain is planning to establish a fund to allow private players to invest in its oil and gas projects as part of a broader initiative to attract investment into infrastructure developments across various sectors in the kingdom, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication, citing Oil Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa.

For further details visit http://www.gdnonline.comBahrain's Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning has invited tenders for the construction of infrastructure for the King Abdullah Bin AbdulAziz Medical City, a major healthcare project coming up in the south of the kingdom.



The giant medical city project is being funded through a SR1 billion ($267 million) grant from the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and will be built on a one-million-sq-m plot donated by His Majesty King Hamad at Durrat Al Bahrain.



The development will be completed in multiple phases, said the ministry in a statement.



Under the $260-million first phase, a 288-bed hospital supported by on-site staff housing and other communal facilities will be developed, followed by the setting up of medical clinics, medical services building, specialised research centres in the prevailing diseases in the GCC region, including cancer, diabetes and obesity in the next phase.



A financing contract worth BD16.5 million ($43.5 million) has already been signed between Bahrain government and the Saudi Development Fund for the project.



The scope of work includes the main 66 kV power station, a sewage treatment plant, water collection tanks besides sewerage, irrigation and stormwater drainage networks. It also involves the internal and external roads networks, lighting, telecommunication network and aesthetic works, said the statement from the ministry.



Since the project has a major Saudi funding, the tenders will open to both Saudi and Bahraini contractors.-TradeArabia News ServiceThe civil aviation authorities in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) including, among several items, increasing flights to some Saudi cities, a report said.



According to a report in Kuna, Head of Kuwait's Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Sheikh Salman Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, said that the MoU is part of cooperation to improve operational matters between both countries.



Sheikh Salman signed the MoU with Head of the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) Abdul-Hakim Al-Tamimi on the sidelines of the General Assembly of the Executive Board of the Arab Civil Aviation Commission (ACAC), in Rabat, Morocco.



The agreement covers regulation of transport rights and freight services, and the bases of air operations, the report said.Bahrain has announced the launch of a new energy fund, a first-of-its-kind in the GCC that will provide institutional investors with access to portfolio of energy projects.



Announcing the new Bahrain Energy Fund today (May 10), Minister of Oil Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said the fund will seek to raise a total of $1 billion and receive an initial seed capital from entities in the kingdom including Nogaholding, Osool and Sico.



Shaikh Mohammed was speaking at the Gateway Gulf, which is being held under the patronage of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and Chairman of the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) in capital Manama.



The event brings together over five hundred global investors and business leaders to explore ways of unlocking the opportunities being created by the economic transformation in the GCC.



It provides a direct route into accessing the GCC market by showcasing major investment-ready projects worth $18 billion, with projects in the planning phase driving up the value of the project pipeline to $26 billion. The event also offers an opportunity to match funding with large-scale infrastructure projects in Bahrain.



Shaikh Mohammed said the fund will invest in a range of energy projects in Bahrain across the downstream, mid-stream and upstream sectors, which includes developments in the newly discovered oil and gas resource.



Some of the projects are at an advanced stage of development enabling a rapid deployment of capital, he stated.



As well as providing investors with access to a highly attractive asset class, the Fund will also introduce private capital to help fund major infrastructure in Bahrain and enhance development of vital energy projects.



It will also benefit from Bahrains status as a regional financial hub in developing the Funds structure and attracting investment.



Commenting on the fund, Shaikh Mohamed said: "We are delighted to announce the launch of the Bahrain Energy Fund  a real innovation for the region. For the first time, institutional investors will have the opportunity to gain access to energy assets."



These are exciting opportunities at an advanced stage of development, giving us the opportunity to deploy capital rapidly and generate returns for investors, while also accelerating the development of vital infrastructure projects in Bahrain.



Bahrain recently announced the discovery of a new tight oil and deep gas resource in the Khaleej Al Bahrain Basin, located off the west coast of the kingdom.



The find represents the largest discovery of oil in the Kingdom since 1932, when extraction started on Bahrains first oil well within the Bahrain Oil Field.-TradeArabia News Service

Online trends are shaping the future of Saudi Arabia's travel industry, which has witnessed a significant increase in mobile bookings across the kingdom.



Mobile bookings across Saudi Arabia skyrocketed in 2017 with Riyadh showing a 32 per cent jump followed by Jeddah with 31 per cent.



A study conducted by InsightOut Consultancy and Amadeus Saudi Arabia observed that more than 40 per cent of travellers in the region organised their trips online. In fact, one in three (33 per cent) travellers today actively search for discounts online during the shopping process, a growth of 14 per cent.



The study, which explored searching and planning habits of the regions travellers in a digital era, also highlighted that 57 per cent of travellers in the region booked their flight fares only a week prior to their travel dates.



The report acknowledges that the Middle East travel market is incredibly diverse when it comes to travel patterns. While value is a key driver in travel decisions, more people admit to being more influenced by friends, family and colleagues (53 per cent) than by search engines and review sites (47 per cent) or actual travel agents (31 per cent).



The research confirms that more travellers in the Middle East today will compare elements such as flights by themselves online (45 per cent), instead of going to a travel agent to compare similar products and services (34 per cent). Similarly, 64 per cent of corporate travellers prefer to search, book and pay online for business trips; more than those who depend on their company or a travel agent (30 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively).



Eng Nashat Bukhari, general manager of Amadeus Saudi Arabia, said: We are pleased with the significant rise in the consumers online travel trend in the region and as the industry continues to evolve, we will continue the deliver the latest cutting-edge technology dedicate to alter the shape of the travel industry in the region. - TradeArabia News ServiceTrader Vics at Hilton Dubai Jumeirah has welcomed Esteban Andres Gomez Coronado as its new head chef.



With over eight years of culinary experience working as a head chef and executive chef in a number of prestigious establishments across Chile, US and UAE, Chef Coronado has a passion for hospitality and culinary services.



Born in Chile in 1989, it was here that his journey into the culinary world first started when he joined a culinary school at the age of 14. During his six year tenure, he developed skills that allowed him to work his way up to take on the role of chef de cuisine at Pea Restaurant located on Easter Island.



Coronados career to date has seen him work across a number of establishments, including Altiplanico and Hare Noi hotel where he held the position of executive chef, managing the culinary requirements for all restaurants within the resort. Here he was responsible for a team of 10 and became known for his culinary creativity and presentation skills. He also spent four months working at My Moon, a Spanish restaurant in Wilhemsburg, New York.



Moving to the UAE in August 2015, Coronado secured a role at the illustrious Table 9, Hilton Dubai Creek  an award-winning venue that earned a reputation for high-quality, original menus. Responsible for the whole operation and kitchen staff, Coronado developed new dishes and hosted a series of cooking classes to drive a new revenue stream into the business. After one year in service, he made an internal transfer within Hilton Dubai, moving to Pachanga, a restaurant that specialises in South American cuisine, before taking on the role as head chef at Trader Vics, Hilton Dubai Jumeirah. Pushing the boundaries of the brand, Esteban has collaboratively worked alongside the Trader Vics Worldwide team to develop a selection of dishes that are only available at the JBR location and continues to develop key management and culinary skills. - TradeArabia News Service

MiFID II Transparency in Focus

Christian Voigt, senior regulatory adviser at Fidessa said the new annual reports requiring European Union investment firms to report on their most used trading venues or brokers increase transparency despite issues with some of the data.

He told Markets Media: The reports create more of a level playing field as they are publicly available for the first time, even to retail investors and people with a pension.

MiFID II, the regulation which went live in the European Union this year, aims to promote best execution by making investment firms publicly publish their top five venues/brokers for all trading on behalf of clients in the past 12 months. The first RTS28 annual reports were required by the end of last month covering trading activity last year for 22 asset classes including equities, debt, over-the-counter derivatives and structured products.

Voigt acknowledged there were issues with the data being reported and the fact that the reports are only produced annually. For example, the reports look to break down orders between passive or aggressive.

There are a lot of scenarios where this is not available as the flag is only valid for order book trading, Voigt added. For example, customers may choose to use the closing auction when there is more liquidity, or a periodic auction. There are many different ways to trade.

He continued that the data for the reports was already available but firms have needed to consolidate the information and build reports in the right format.

Andre Nogueira, director of trading analytics at broker ITG, said in an email that some firms underestimated the effort required to gather and organise the data for these reports.

What is proving the most difficult is classifying the data into the appropriate asset groups mandated by the European Securities and Markets Authority, added Nogueria.

For example, international listings do not have liquidity bands as Esma only publishes data for for European MiFID II securities, which poses problems for asset managers who trade globally.

Nogueria continued that firms may be required to use an affiliate, custodian or prime broker. However, firms are asking if further disclosures should be provided in such cases, as a counterparty list of one could appear to go against the spirit of best execution requirements under MiFID II, he added.

Tim Cave analyst at consultancy Tabb Group on European market structure, gave an example of the report from Goldman Sachs Asset Management:

https://twitter.com/_TimCave/status/990866279312580608

The required public MiFID II disclosures are published on the firms website. For example, Goldman Sachs Internationals securities division and/or investment banking division has published a 35-page report.

The top five venues for institutional equities trading are the London Stock Exchange, two order books at CBOE Europe, Deutsche Borses Xetra and Euronext Paris.

Goldman Sachs International also uses brokers to access markets for which it does not have direct membership - such as Santander to access the Spanish stock exchange and GSCO, a US affiliate, to access US execution venues.

For bonds, the top venues are Goldman Sachs International, Tradeweb Europe, London Stock Exchange and Bondvision Italia. The report said: The volume shown against Goldman Sachs International includes orders executed on MarketAxess and Bloomberg as these venues had no regulatory character under MIFID I.

Vikas Srivastava, chief revenue officer at foreign exchange technology provider Integral, said in an email that collecting complex data on such a large a scale and on a granular level is a complicated effort for most investment firms.

The increase in transparency surrounding execution data and policies will give investment firms deep insight into the execution quality achieved and delivered to the end investors, added Srivastava. This insight will allow market participants to continuously improve on execution and confidently demonstrate that they are trading with the best interests of their customers in mind.

For more information on related topics, visit the following channels:Carter Heyward was honored Tuesday with the American Association of Women (AAUW) Brevard branch's "Women Who Make A Difference Award" at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd.

AAUW member Amye McCallie presented the award to Heyward.

"It is for an unfailing willingness to be actively engaged in creating opportunities for dialogue among all groups to bring us together to build a more just, civil and compassionate community that we recognize Carter with this award," McCallie said.

McCallie talked about Heyward's background.

"She received her undergraduate degree from Randolph-Macon College and earned a Masters of Arts from Columbia University and a Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary, followed by a Ph.D. from Union University in 1980," McCallie said. "In 1974, she and 10 other women were ordained priests after pressing for women's rights in the church."

The Episcopal Church didn't officially sanction the ordination until 1976, and during that time, up until 2005, Heyward taught at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.

"Her teaching, speaking and writing have continued to be focused on women's issues, on equity and justice," McCallie said. "Throughout her life, Carter has been an advocate for justice and equity and has stepped in to bridge divides and built communities."

After moving to Brevard in 1996, McCallie said Heyward and a group helped establish the Free Rein Center in 2000.

"Her love of horses and the land offered the opportunity to look into the possibility of developing a therapeutic horse center, where humans and horses are partners in learning," McCallie said. "It capitalizes on the human-horse connection as the therapeutic agent in working with individuals and diverse groups of all ages with special needs and challenges."

McCallie said that in 2014 Heyward also became the "principle convener" of a group in Brevard to establish an National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Brevard chapter, as well as having served as an officer and current chairwoman for the Religious Affairs Committee, in which, in 2017, she organized a series of gatherings titled "A Time to Talk; A Time to Listen," which focuses on issues such as race, the environment, women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights. This year, she organized a discussion on gun control.

"We are pleased to present Heyward with the Brevard Branch AAUW 2018 award for 'Women Who Make a Difference,'" McCallie said. "An honorarium in your honor has been given to the AAUW National Eleanor Roosevelt Fund, which was established in 1998 to focus on issues that promote equality and education for women."

Heyward said she was "moved and honored" by the award, and to be in a room with women who "make a difference."

"It's because we are together in a variety of ways that we can make a difference, and that we do bring change to our communities, and that we are going to help get out of this mess that we are in right now, on so many levels," Heyward said. "The bridging of differences, and the reaching out beyond our own particular interest, I believe, is the path we all have to learn how to walk together."

Earlier in the luncheon, Paula Paddick, AAUW president-elect for 2016-2017, recognized Grace Roy, Sally Baker and Rachel Daniels, who founded the AAUW book sale in 1968.

Matt McGregor

"Beginning with simple card tables that were set up in front of what is now O.P. Taylor's, it was a traveling show at first, bouncing around from Brevard Elementary to Pisgah Forest Elementary," Paddick said. "In 1978, the proceeds were $2,000, and in 1984, the proceeds were $4,000, and by 1988, the AAUW began renting storage units."

Since its inception, proceeds have added up to be $419,000.

"There will come a day in the not-so-distant future when we will have reached that $500,000 mark, and I can only say, 'thank you' to the past and present members who make this possible," Paddick said.Transylvania County commissioners expressed frustration Tuesday that they are accused by some of not supporting the school system, while they also approved motions asking for, among other things, more details about capital spending in the schools.

During their regular meeting Tuesday, commissioners approved two motions: one asks the school system to provide by May 15 its complete and entire budget for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1, while the other asks for the school system to have its capital outlay requests laid out in categories and for the requests to be prioritized.

State laws require county commissioners to fund facility needs for public schools and school systems to submit capital needs and their budgets by May15.

On Monday night, the Board of Education approved its budget, including capital requests, for the new fiscal year (see related story above).

According to the N.C. Public School Forum Report, Transylvania County is currently ranked as providing the fourth highest per student funding among the states 100 counties. And, according to prior Forum Reports, was the fifth highest for several years. The county also noted that its capital spending per student is ranked as the 41st highest, while the county has the 11th lowest tax rate in the state.

Before approving the motions, commissioners talked about wanting more details on how the school system decides what to fund in its capital budget and what it eventually does fund.

Commission Chairman Larry Chapman said that he had seen in the past items listed on the capital needs as critical, but they are not completed and then show up again the next year.

Im sure there were legitimate reasons on why things were moved, he said, while also calling to see as much detail on all of these expenditures.

Chapman said he was more concerned about big-ticket items.

He said if the money is not spent on a particular item, then the county needs to know why, emphasizing again that capital funding is the countys responsibility.

He talked about being accused of not supporting the school system.

Im kind of tired of hearing that when we see these numbers, he said.

Its disconcerting, Chapman said, when looking at how Transylvania compares to others in the state.

We need as much detail on this, and we need to know when priorities change, he said, noting that he doesnt want to micro-manage but the commissioners need to know about the big items.

It would be helpful to see a prioritized list, Commissioner Mike Hawkins said.

Commissioner Page Lemel said shes talked to commissioners and managers in other counties.

We are all being squeezed, and we are all very angry at the state of North Carolinas education funding because they have been shifting more and more of the burden to keeping the operations going to our local education administrations, she said.

She said shes seen other counties reaction to the suggestion that they are not supporting schools specifically around capital needs.

She said some of the county governments are now assuming full responsibility for school capital funding.

The counties appropriate the money for school capital, Lemel said. It is held in a line item in the countys budget in the countys finance office.

The school capital improvement plan becomes part of the countys capital improvement plan, because for significant endeavors, large projects, you need to plan for these expenses to happen.

She said that in Dare County bills for school capital improvements come to the county, which pays for them, allowing what they thought was going to be happening is actually happening.

Lemel said she doesnt feel commissioners and the school system are speaking the same language, regarding capital expenses.

She said she doesnt regard a $1,950 paint job, for example, as a capital expense.

Also, she said, she analyzed three years of capital requests and outcomes and struggled to follow the money.

When accused of woefully underfunding the schools, she said, it is hard not to take that personally.

Lemel pointed out that she, Commissioner Jason Chappell and County Manager Jaime Laughter all have children in the local school system.

We believe in the public schools, she said. We want our schools to succeed. We are not going to do something that will jeopardize the quality of education in Transylvania County.

In 2012, Lemel said, $17 million in capital needs were identified in the school system and the county since then has provided $9.4 million in capital support.

Its hard to see where the money went, she said. And when I look at $5,000 for warm water in TC Hendersons elementary classroomsand then we carpet the office at another school for $13,000, I dont understand why we didnt put in the warm water for the little children to wash their hands over the carpet.

Its my fault that we didnt do that because capital is our responsibility as county commissioners.

State law, Lemel said, allows counties to fund capital in the school system a lot more specifically.

Im ready to stand up and be as specific as possible funding capital, she said, suggesting then the public will be able to better see what the county is funding.

Lemel said in the five years shes been a commissioner shes only received local current expense requests from the school system and never a complete budget.

(There are) too many critical projects that keep getting pushed aside, she said, later adding she doesnt know what the county is paying for in regards to the school capital budget.

And thats my failure, Lemel said. Hold me accountable. Let me be accountable, and I will work hard.

Commissioner Kelvin Phillips agreed with Lemels comments, saying during his research of capital requests he was not getting numbers to match.

Phillips has two grandchildren in the school system and he, too, was concerned about being accused of not providing adequate funding.

Hawkins said the county, in regards to its various projects, is now providing individuals reports, including photographs.

He wondered whether the school system could take the same approach.

Laughter said the county could request the school system to do so, but at this late stage in the fiscal year it would be better to start it next fiscal year.

Hawkins asked Lemel to what level did she want to tie funding. Would it include things such as buying band uniforms, he asked.

Lemel said the county could work with the school system to work out what exactly is considered a capital expense.

She said Dare County and its school system have come together and now speak the same language, creating a line-item fund in the county budget for school capital, and they are having more meetings between the school board and county.

The challenge, Lemel said, is maximizing our efficiencies.

Efficiency is not cutting a budget, she said. Its realizing the maximum opportunity for limited resources.

She mentioned the countys 41st ranking for capital funding per students and wondered if the county needs to study to see if it can do a better job in our annual capital spending.

Hawkins backed the creation of a committee, with two school board members and two commissioners, to figure out a way to deal with capital needs.

Regardless of the outcome of the bond, the needs still exist, he said.

Hawkins also noted that the Board of Education is not saying the county is not funding the school system enough, but (that sentiment) is out there.

Chappell agreed there was a need for more information to understand the different capital categories and the prioritization.

Lemel then made the two motions, which were unanimously approved.

Chappell said that part of the frustration occurs because the General Assembly, unlike the county and the school board, dont have established deadlines for their budgets.

It means for the county and the school system its a best guess on what funding they will receive from the state.

During the public comment period at the end of the meeting, School Board member Alice Wellborn addressed commissioners.

She noted the school board had approved its budget and prioritized the capital needs.

She too emphasized that the school board has no control over the state budget and must make guesses as far as what the state will provide with cost-of-living adjustments, retirement and health insurance.

The school board, therefore, cannot provide a complete and accurate budget by May 15, she said.

The school board would love to have a committee of school board members and commissioners talking about the school budget process and to be collaborative, Wellborn said.

We know you are interested in the children of Transylvania County just like we are, she said. You have responsibilities and we have responsibilities, and our responsibilities are as important as yours, and we are elected, just like you are, by the exact same people.

In other action:

Commissioners approved a proclamation designating May 20-26 as Emergency Medical Services Week.

The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting to the Transylvania County Finance Department for its comprehensive annual financial report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017.

To receive the certificate, a government must publish an easily readable and efficiently organized comprehensive annual financial report.

David Carter, Dr. John Folger and Daniel Cobb were re-appointed to the Transportation Advisory Committee.

Richard Houck was also appointed to the committee. Dawn McCall was appointed to the WCCA Board of Directors, and Madeline Dierauf was appointed to the countys Juvenile Crime Prevention Council (JCPC).

Commissioners approved the allocation of $104,212 from the NC. Department of Public Safety, Division of Juvenile Justice, to be awarded to the JCPC.

Commissioners next meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on May 21 in the county administration building.Silvermont Opportunity Center is partnering with Vaya Health in Asheville to provide free seminars to Transylvania County residents. The monthly seminars will be led by a member of Vayas Geriatric and Adult Specialty Team, which travels throughout western North Carolina providing community outreach in an effort to educate the community on various topics. The next seminar will be held on Thursday, May 17, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

The topic is post traumatic stress disorder. This evidence-informed presentation explores relevant information pertinent to traumatic events and experiences....Recently, roughly 130 community members gathered for a discussion about gun control, mental health and legal loopholes present in both the federal government and state laws concerning access to firearms.

Brevard Police Chief Phil Harris moderated a panel of three locals who were chosen to represent different perspectives on the subject: Carter Heyward, an Episcopal preacher and retired theology professor; Emily Walthall, a lawyer and gun owner, and cofounder of the local chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America; and Dave Hunter, a retired banker who formerly provided concealed carry permits training classes and is a self-proclaimed gun rights advocate.

This is the second of a two-part story about the panel discussion. The first part appeared in Mondays paper.

What other factors should we consider when addressing gun violence in our society?

Carter: I think the most important thing for us to talk about, not only here, but throughout our lives in our religious communities, in our homes, in our schools  there are people talking about gun safety and community safety  how can we build a culture of mutual respect.

Of course, parents play a huge role in this. We all need to be involved in conversations. How do we help our young adults experience themselves as worthy human beings and worthy of mutual respect with each other and us? Its a major spiritual problem facing all of us on all sides of the political divide. This is not about being a Democrat or Republican or a Libertarian or a Christian or a Jew or an atheist or a gun lover or a gun hater. So, how do we respect one another? I think in terms of the gun conversation, in particular, the more conversations like ones between Dave and I, the better. Dave and I would not be natural conversationalists over the gun topic, but because we knew each other, I trusted him and learned that he taught concealed carry. I thought we should talk together.

We really should talk to each other. We might even like each other. It needs to happen all over this county and all these United States.

Walthall: I would second that, but I do think that when this topic comes up people break down because they feel culturally attacked.

They feel like their values, especially conservative values, are being attacked or criticized. Their sense of control and security, that I think guns give a lot of us, is being attacked and trying to be taken away by people who do not mean any wrong, who are naive and ill-informed liberal people. I think thats a big part of the problem.

We are not going to agree on everything, but I think we need to build on community, and I think about avoiding some of those discussions on the internet. I think a lot of us have seen this conversation go down on Facebook and there are people coming from both sides attacking one another.

Their emotions are totally legitimate, and they need to be able to express those, but thats not the right way, and, probably, not the right platform for it. I really hope we can continue to build on what were trying to do in our community, but I think we have the same concerns about gun violence. I think we all have the same concerns for individuals wanting to feel respected and not attacked for their guns rights. I hope we can do that together, and I think thats the central part of the solution  being mutually respectful.

Hunter: I want to continue this dialogue and building relationships. If I were king for a day, I would start a really serious adult conversation about criminal justice reform.

These problems do not exist of themselves in a vacuum  they are interdependent. Forty five years ago we had 300,000 prisoners incarcerated across the U.S. Were now pushing close to 3 million. A lot of those people are non-violent drug offenders, and the way it translates in some of these peoples lives is, we take the worst instance in their life, we take the worst decision they have made in their life and we tag them with it for the rest of their lives. We give them the mark of being a felon. And being a non-violent felon can often mean an inability to secure employment, housing loss of franchise.

Somebody gets one little bad mark and they go into the system, and they never come out and its reflected in the level of incarceration in this country. We have spent $1.5 trillion on the war on drugs in the past 45 years. We spend $50 billion to $75 billion a year in this country on the war on drugs, and we spend $90 billion to $100 billion in incarceration. We have 4.5 percent of the worlds population and 22 percent of the worlds prison population. There is something terribly wrong there, and I believe beginning to address that we will begin to address the issue of violence in our society.

Kids and young people are cruel. What are we doing to start working with the schools to reduce the bullying?

Walthall: My husband and I have talked about this a lot. We graduated right before the time of social media and smart phones, 1999 and 2000. I was a junior in high school when Columbine happened, and it was very much on my mind when I was that age, but it seems like it has gotten worse.

I certainly think that the internet and the role of technology to thoughtlessly say something on social media and just destroy a teenager have made things worse.

I think also the internet can be a really harmful outlet for someone who feels that isolation and are angry and impotent. That is why I think programs like the Boys and Girls Club are important and law enforcement and church groups in our community. Mentorship is so important. I like to think that I am being proactive and part of the solution.

Hunter: As a military kid we moved every couple of years. I was always bullied, and I was always the new kid. But because of my size and my fathers insistence, I usually dealt with it myself.

Its a different time and a different age. It doesnt stop when you get inside your front door. It persists through social media. What the Boys and Girls Clubs do is create connections and relationships. I think the solutions to these kinds of things are creating those connections and these are pretty bright kids in the world today. Explain things to them and make them increasingly aware of how harmful it is. There will be those who will refuse to take the hint and, invariably, those people wind up on the outside of society. It never happens on our timetable, but universal justice gets weeded out much more slowly than we would like, but I think if we continue to create those connections, number one, increase the level of awareness amongst the youth or others as to how harmful the damage can be, that will at least give you some concrete steps you can take.

In 2016 the USA had 60,000 deaths by drugs, 37,461 deaths by motor vehicle, 7,105 handgun murders, 1,604 knife murders and 472 rifle murders. Why is this discussion centered on rifles?

Walthall: Those numbers seem right to me based on the studies that I have seen. By and far, handguns cause the most fatalities in this country. Two thirds of deaths are suicides and the rest are homicides.

When those two African American teenagers were shot to death on my block, they were handgun shootings. Looking at what happened in Vegas, of course, that shooter had a modified semi-automatic AR15, which is legal with bump stocks. Then, it became fully automatic. He killed 57 people, including himself, and shot an additional 422 people, and you fire 1,100 rounds in 10 minutes. I am not trying to shy away from this topic, restricting certain types of weapons. I do think that the number one issue in terms of the legal side is access. I have at least one friend who has an AR15. He keeps it in his gun safe, but I do think that the news focuses so much on these. Also, when you look at the deadliest shootings that have happened in the street, four of the five have happened since 2012. A ban on assault weapons  thats not going to work. The Bushmaster rifle that was used in Connecticut  there was an existing ban at the time, Bushmaster designed that weapon around that law. It was legal. Its not that I think those types of laws are futile. They have been passed in the federal court system. I do think that the primary issue in these situations is access, and thats one of the most viable solutions as a community.

Hunter: As we sit here today we have no idea how many assault-style weapons are in the possession of the public, with estimates as low as 2 million and as high as 20 million. We dont know. All of the legislation that has been proposed has not envisioned the confiscation of the guns; those firearms will continue to be out there.

Why is there a focus on that? There is power and influence in division.

There is money in division, and these kinds of rifles look fierce. They look like an M16 or an M4, or a fully automatic AK47. They symbolize a wedge that people can use to create this difference of opinion and manipulate emotion when, again, the facts are that these style of rifles, by and large, are not the issue. It is the inappropriate access.For the past several years, there has been a trend of ambivalence or disenchantment with the two major political parties. And the trend seems to be gaining some momentum.

Three facts indicate the strengthening of this trend. One is the increase in voters who register as Unafilliated. Decades ago, North Carolina and Transylvania County were strongly Democratic. But as more people moved into the state, the Republican Party gained in numbers and became competitive. For the last several years, Republicans have been the dominant force in county and state government.

But the fastest growing gro...For many people, summer means setting out on a road trip in search of bucket-list-worthy excitement or a relaxing vacation.

Whether you're going down the road to visit family or across the country to see a national monument, it is important to prepare your vehicle - and its tires - before you pull out of the driveway.

These five safety tips can help get your family ready to hit the road this summer:

Check Your Tread - A tire's tread depth can determine a vehicle's safe stopping distance. You can check your tread depth by sticking a penny upside-down in a tread groove. If you can see President Lincoln's head, it's time to replace your tires. Ensure Proper Tire Pressure - Low tire pressure can lead to poor handling and gas mileage, excessive wear and overloading. Drivers should check their tire pressure at least once a month, and especially before any long trip. Use a dependable air gauge or stop by an automotive store like Discount Tire or America's Tire to take advantage of complimentary air checks. Rotate Often - Tires should be rotated at least every 6,000 miles or earlier if irregular or uneven wear develops. Inspect Your Trunk - Some new vehicles no longer come equipped with a spare tire, opting instead for tire inflation kits that feature puncture coating sealants and air compressors, or even run-flat tires. Check your trunk to see what your vehicle contains and make sure you have a roadside assistance plan should the need arise. Don't Overload - The combination of heat and overloading a vehicle, which can be common during summer travel, is one of the most dangerous conditions for a vehicle's tires as overloaded tires can overheat and possibly fail.

When it comes to summer driving safety, it can be imperative to check your tires early and often. Knowing the condition of your tires can keep your family safe and your vehicle in quality condition.

"It is important that drivers know how to check and maintain their tires and recognize the warning signs of when to replace them, especially during the hotter months," said Tom Williams, senior vice president at Discount Tire. "Keeping customers and their families safe is our No. 1 priority each summer."

To learn more about tire safety before a summer road trip, or to schedule an appointment for a tire safety check, visit tires.com.

Michael French

mfrench@familyfeatures.com

1-888-824-3337

editors.familyfeatures.com

About Family Features Editorial Syndicate

Established in 1974, Family Features is a leading provider of free food and lifestyle content for print and online publications. Our articles, photos, videos and web content solutions save you time, money and help create advertising opportunities. Registration is fast and free - with absolutely no obligation. Visit editors.familyfeatures.com for more information.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018The East Coast versus West Coast mentalities have long been juxtaposed, and today CheapOair.com released the findings of a comparison on the differing preferences of Eastern versus Western U.S. travelers in the beginning of 2018.

CheapOair's data revealed that when West Coasters travel domestically, they prefer to visit other West Coast destinations including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Honolulu. Meanwhile, the domestic travel preferences of those from the Eastern U.S. is more widespread, and they are especially keen on travel to Florida, with Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, and Miamiamong their top 5 domestic destinations.

Top 10 U.S. Domestic Destinations by Region3 From East Coast From West Coast Ft. Lauderdale, FL Los Angeles, CA Orlando, FL Las Vegas, NV Los Angeles, CA Honolulu, HI Las Vegas, NV Denver, CO Miami, FL Seattle, WA Denver, CO Dallas, TX Atlanta, GA Phoenix, AZ San Francisco, CA Orlando, FL New Orleans, LA Miami, FL Chicago, IL San Francisco, CA

CheapOair's data found that airfare prices from West Coast gateways can be up to 16% higher than fares from the East Coast, especially when traveling within the US, to Canada, and to Europe. People who live on the West Coast seem to take advantage of the cheaper options by choosing to travel to Mexico and Asia more so than to other international regions.

Average Price per Passenger in Q1 20184

From East Coast From West Coast Within US $277 $297 To Canada $311 $361 To Mexico $430 $376 To Europe $810 $922 To Asia $974 $859

The data also shows that East Coasters primarily travel to Mexico and the Caribbean in the early part of the year, but then in May their bookings to Europe spike as the summer peak season approaches.

Top International Destinations by Region3 From East Coast From West Coast Cancun, Mexico Guadalajara, Mexico Kingston, Jamaica Mexico City, Mexico Mexico City, Mexico Bangkok, Thailand Toronto, Canada Cancun, Mexico Montego Bay, Jamaica Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

By consistently monitoring travel trends, CheapOair's mission is to educate and aid consumers and travel professionals in both planning their travel accommodations and staying current on the most popular destinations. With a portfolio of products, including rate and schedule information from more than 450 global airlines, CheapOair is a great way to book the travel that's right for you.

For more information, please visit www.CheapOair.com, www.cheapoair.com/mobile, or our social media pages, www.Facebook.com/CheapOair and www.twitter.com/cheapoair.

About CheapOair

CheapOair is a flight-focused, hybrid travel agency that enables consumers to book online, on mobile apps for iOS and Android, by phone or live chat. CheapOair (https://www.cheapoair.com, 1-800-566-2345) bridges the gap between an online and traditional travel agency with certified travel agents available 24/7 to help find deals and offers to destinations worldwide on over 450 airlines, 1 million hotels, and 100s of car rental companies. Partner airlines benefit from access to CheapOair's broad customer base that books high yield international travel and add-on ancillaries at above the industry average. Follow CheapOair on Facebook and Twitter to learn how to travel the world for less.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018American workers took an average of 17.2 days of vacation in 2017, according to new research from Project: Time Off, jumping up nearly a half-day (.4 days) from 2016. This marks the highest level for American vacation usage since 2010 (17.5 days) and a more than full-day increase since bottoming out at 16.0 days in 2014.

While this progress may signal the beginning of a cultural shift, there is still more room for improvement as a majority of Americans (52%) left vacation time unused in 2017 (down from 54% in 2016). Further, nearly a quarter (24%) of Americans have not taken a vacation in more than a year.

The findings, from State of American Vacation 2018, also show Americans are not fulfilling their wanderlust. The majority (84%) of Americans say it is important to them to use their time off to travel. Yet workers use less than half of the vacation time they take-just eight days-to travel. It follows that a staggering nine-in-ten (86%) Americans say they have not seen enough of their own country.

"While Americans are now using more vacation time, the benefits aren't being fully realized because most workers are using less than half of their time off for travel," said Project: Time Off vice president and report author Katie Denis. "Simple and avoidable barriers to travel end up costing American workers in the long term. When we forego travel, we miss out on defining moments, experiences and memories, and end up costing our economy, too."

The 52 percent of Americans who left vacation time on the table accumulated 705 million unused days last year, up from 662 million days the year before. The increase in unused days, despite Americans taking more vacation, is attributed to employees earning more time off (23.2 days in 2017, compared to 22.6 in 2016). America's unused vacation time is a $255 billion missed economic opportunity that has the potential to create 1.9 million jobs.

Barriers to Vacation Time

While Americans rank cost (71%), children (45%), and pets (39%) as the top barriers to travel, these barriers have little impact on actual vacation usage. Respondents who agreed that cost was a top barrier take about the same amount of vacation time as average (53% leave time unused, compared to 52% overall). The same proves out with children (52% to 52%) and pets (54% to 52%).

In fact, it is work-related challenges that continue to have the most influence on Americans' ability to vacation. Employees who were concerned that taking vacation would make them appear less dedicated or replaceable were dramatically less likely to use all their vacation time (61% leave time unused, compared to 52% overall). This held true for those who felt their workload was too heavy (57% to 52%) and no one else could do their job (56% to 52%).

The Traveler's Advantage

Americans taking all or most of their vacation days to travel-or mega-travelers-report dramatically higher rates of happiness than those using little to none of their time for travel.

Happiness with... All or Most (more than 75%) Little to None (less than 25%) Difference (% points) Physical health and well-being 61% 39% +22 How you spend your paid time off 76% 48% +18 Your company 59% 46% +13 Personal relationships 79% 66% +13 Your job 57% 46% +11

Further, mega-travelers are getting ahead at work. More than half (52%) of mega-travelers reported receiving a recent promotion compared to Americans who use little to none (44%) of their time to travel. Mega-travelers also report a higher likelihood of receiving a recent raise, bonus, or both than those staying at home (86% to 81%).

Workcation All I Ever Wanted?

The always-on work environment has created a new trend of workcations: traveling somewhere with the intent to work remotely for all or part of the time you are away. This new trend may be just a fad with only 10 percent of Americans haven taken a workcation and a majority (70%) calling the concept unappealing. Millennials will be the driving force if workcations become more mainstream: nearly four-in-ten (39%) Millennials say they find the idea of a workcation appealing, compared to 28 percent of Gen X and 18 percent of Boomers.

Work Perks That Work

This year's study also found that some workplaces are starting to understand the benefits of a positive vacation culture. The percentage of workers who say their company's culture encourages vacation jumped five points from 2016. The research found a major split when it came to the happiness of employees at companies with encouraging cultures versus their peers at firms that are discouraging or ambivalent to vacation (72% to 42%). These employees are also much happier with their job (68% to 42%) and how much vacation time they use (77% to 51%).

"Companies are increasingly realizing that an encouraging vacation culture has the power to positively influence the bottom line," Denis added.

About the Survey

Project: Time Off's State of American Vacation series provides the most comprehensive annual look at America's vacation habits. This year, GfK surveyed 4,349 U.S. employees who earn time off with economic analysis by Oxford Economics. See the report for a full methodology.

About Project: Time Off

Project: Time Off has uncovered an alarming trend: over the last 40 years, Americans are taking fewer and fewer vacation days. To reverse this trend, we aim to prove that vacation travel is valuable and necessary for strengthening personal relationships, inspiring creative thinking, improving professional performance, and promoting better health. Learn more at ProjectTimeOff.com.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018Big Ben, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, the River Thames have all lured Americans to Great Britain through the years, but now there's a renewed interest as England's Prince Harry is set to wed American actress Meghan Markle on May 19, 2018. According to a quick poll of travel agents in Travel Leaders Network - one of America's largest retail travel agency organizations - some are seeing an increase in clients wanting to travel to Great Britain as a result of the Royal wedding.

The royal wedding is expected to be one of the largest events for Windsor Castle and thousands are planning to flock to the area hoping to get a glimpse of the lovebirds as they travel in procession after their wedding ceremony. Whether you're traveling to Great Britain this spring or later in the year, here are some things to see and do while you're there.

Ride in Royal Footsteps. Given Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will take a carriage ride down Castle Hill through Windsor Town to the end of the Long Walk after they leave St. George's Chapel, tourists can duplicate this romantic journey. Horse-drawn tours are available to the public from Windsor Castle, with private guided tours on the Long Walk.

Art and Architecture in Windsor. Windsor Castle, about 45 minutes from London by train, has been home to 39 monarchs. Queen Elizabeth II spends many private weekends here. Traveling there with a BritRail Pass makes it simple to explore the entire country. The State Apartments of Windsor Castle are available for touring. They are furnished with some of the finest artwork from the royal collection. Queen Mary's Dolls' House, filled with intricate miniature furnishings, is also on the grounds.

Buckingham Palace, the queen's official London residence, is open for tours from July 21 to Sept. 30. Visitors can see the lavishly furnished State Rooms that are used for ceremonial occasions and entertaining, including the Throne Room and Ballroom. From February to November, the public can also tour the state mews, where the royal carriages are housed. The Queen's Picture Gallery, which contains art from the royal collection, is also open most of the year.

Diana's Fashion Sense. The memory of Prince Harry's mother, Princess Diana, lives on around Kensington Palace, home to many of today's British royals. On display here is "Diana: Her Fashion Story," featuring outfits worn by the late Princess of Wales. Other parts of Kensington Palace open to visitors include the King's Gallery and State Apartments, where the monarch would receive courtiers and government ministers. The exhibit "Victoria Revealed" explores the life of the British monarch, a reign spanning 63 years.

Warwick Castle, a medieval fortress built in 1068 and located on the River Avon, is about 90 minutes from London by train. Take an intriguing tour of the medieval vaults and climb to the top of the castle's towers and ramparts. In the summer, there are jousting tournaments on the grounds.

Southwest England. A visit to Southwest England is gorgeous, even from a train window, but it is not complete without a stop at Tintagel Castle's legendary ruins, says Jaime Buss, a travel specialist with a Travel Leaders location in Woodbury, Minn. The castle was built by Richard I, Earl of Cornwall, in the 13th century. "It was indeed a working castle and village at one time with sweeping views of the coast from just about every angle. You can even see Merlin the Sorcerer's cave below the castle ruins, which is where Merlin supposedly swept up the baby King Arthur and brought him to safety. On the other side of the bay from the cave there's a jaw-dropping waterfall."

Trooping the Colour. The annual parade, which for nearly 300 years has marked the official birthday of the British sovereign, will be June 9th this year. This impressive display of pageantry by Queen Elizabeth's personal troops, can be viewed free of charge by standing along the Mall or on the edge of St. James' park. "It's an amazing opportunity to see the entire royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace," says Kevin Fullen, a Travel Leaders agent in Tyler, Texas, who attended for the Queen's 90th birthday in 2016.

Feast Like a King. "It goes without saying that fish and chips must be on the agenda, just don't forget that there are so many other yummy treats in Britain that cannot be missed," says Buss, who has traveled throughout England. A train ride would allow one to stop for mouth-watering experiences in many different cities, from avant-garde haute cuisine to renowned ethnic and regional dishes. For tea time or an afternoon snack, Buss, says, "A warm scone topped with clotted cream and a generous dollop of strawberry jam is wonderful, but one must try Cornish pasties right out of Cornwall. A pasty, is a baked flaky pastry typically filled with meat and vegetables. It's like a handheld pot pie, eaten without silverware. They are delicious."

Travel agent experts at Travel Leaders can recommend many opportunities for a Great Britain vacation. From the highlights of London, to exploring the English countryside or traversing Britain by rail, leave the planning for your next royal adventure to the experts at Travel Leaders.

About Travel Leaders Network

Travel Leaders Network (www.TravelLeaders.com), assists millions of leisure and business travelers annually, and is one of the largest sellers of luxury travel, cruises and tours in the travel agency industry. Representing approximately 6,800 travel agency locations across the United States and Canada. Travel Leaders Network's award-winning Agent Profiler agent locator, marketing, technology, supplier partnerships and educational programs empower member agencies to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, grow their business and lead the industry. Travel Leaders Network is a Travel Leaders Group LLC company.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018

Search News Archive : Fast Travel News Promotion Via Search, Social Media + Email Follow Us On : FAISAL HOLDING UNVEILS NEW LOGO AND WEBSITE IN LINE WITH ITS FUTURE VISION Industry: Travel PR

A new logo and website have been launched for the UAE based family business group, Faisal Holding



(TRAVPR.COM) UAE - May 10th, 2018 - A new logo and website have been launched for the UAE based family business group, Faisal Holding, in the presence of the chairman, H.E Sheikh Faisal bin Sultan Al Qassimi, the board members, and its CEO.



With a striking modular design, the new logo features pillars reflecting the core corporate belief in a strong foundation essential to building a promising future, while key values lie in Faisal Holdings heritage being from the United Arab Emirates, emphasised by the incorporation of modern calligraphic elements in the logo.



Overall, the new look serves to reflect the core strength of the company, its global approach to bridging East and West, and an emphasis on teamwork.



Coinciding with the launch of the logo, a new website was also revealed for Faisal Holding, an updated communications portal that comprehensively details the companys vision, investments and projects, range of business and expansion philosophy.



At the launch and cake-cutting ceremony, speeches were made by the Managing Director H.E Sheikh Mohammad bin Faisal Bin Sultan Al Qassimi and the CEO Mr. Brett Schafer, and in the presence of the board members H.E Sheikh Khalid bin Faisal Al Qassimi and H.E Sheikh Sultan bin Faisal Al Qassimi.



H.E Sheikh Mohammad bin Faisal bin Sultan Al Qassimi explained that the new logo is a reflection of a larger vision, We are proud of our heritage which we consider as our top vision guiding the future of our corporate business. We have also developed the new website to meet the expectations of all stakeholders seeking to learn more about us or join us. This facelift represents excellence to make the next step of expansion unique equally and guided by our vision.



Additionally, the CEO Brett Schafer said: The new logo represents our goals, values, and achievements - put together to form an honest representation of what we truly seek. This new logo and new website are the beginning to our future and strongly reflect the true identity, position, and values of our company.

-End-



About Faisal Holding:

Established in Sharjah in 1975, by H.E. Sheikh Faisal Bin Sultan Al Qassimi, Faisal Holding LLC is a pioneering investment holding company with a widespread presence in the Middle East. Faisal Holding prides itself on their culture of integrity, sustainability, innovation, and value creation.



Coupled with its core business specializing in infrastructure development and large-scale projects along with a keen understanding of the global market, over the years, Faisal Holding has expanded into property and real estate management, investments, retail, hospitality and integrated marketing services.



The subsidiaries of Faisal Holding LLC are Toyworld Distributor LLC, Faisal Holding Investments, Faisal Holding Hotels & Investments, HMH - Hospitality Management Holdings, REEF Real Estate Investment Company LLC, and MPJ  Marketing Pro-Junction. Furthermore, the associate companies of Faisal Holding LLC include GIBCA and Grand Stores LLC.

For more information about Faisal Holding please visit faisalholding.com ### 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: Vinisha Company: Marketing Pro Junction Phone: +971 556130351 Email: pressrelease@mpj-pr.com Web: PRESS RELEASE TAGSmonicakchauhan@gmail.com

New Delhi, May 10

A day after announcing US$ 16 billion investment in India's largest online retailer Flipkart, Walmart Inc on Thursday said it will continue to grow its wholesale cash-and-carry business, adding 50 new stores in the next four-five years.

"We currently have 21 stores and plan to open 50 stores in four to five years. Plans are on track," Walmart India President and CEO Krish Iyer said at a select media roundtable called to explain the Flipkart deal.

Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon said Flipkart, in which the US retailer is acquiring 77 per cent stake, would continue to operate as a separate board-managed company with co-founder Binny Bansal as the CEO.

Flipkart gives Walmart an online presence. So far it had been handicapped by India's retail policy that does not allow overseas companies to sell directly to consumers (except in wholesale cash-and-carry segment).

Companies like Flipkart and Amazon operate as e-commerce marketplaces -- a segment where 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) is allowed.

"As we speak, we have a pipeline of 20 stores and we expect to open five stores in the current year and then pick up pace and eventually start opening 12-15 stores a year," Iyer said.

For the cash-and-carry business, Walmart currently operates in nine states and 19 cities and the future expansion is focused on more or less the same geographies.

"We are not spreading thin. We are continuing in same geographies but primarily focus is on Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana," he said.

At its 21 Best Price wholesale stores, Walmart sells everything from fast-moving consumer goods to furniture to other retailers and institutions. It could potentially use these Best Price stores as pickup and delivery points to service online sales made on Flipkart.

Analysts believe that Walmart's investment in Flipkart, whose 34 per cent market share in India's online sales is ahead of rival Amazon's 27 per cent, will boost the Indian e-commerce company's logistical operations and help it move into new areas such as online groceries.

Walmart is buying 77 per cent of Flipkart from existing shareholders, including Japan's SoftBank, for US$ 14 billion and investing US$ 2bn of fresh equity.

Walmart India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart Stores Inc and offers close to 5,000 items through its cash-and-carry wholesale format. PTIrchopra@tribunemail.com

New York, May 10

Two Indian-origin men have been charged by federal authorities in the US with securities and wire fraud for inflating the value of private funds they advised by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Anilesh Ahuja, 49, of New York, the founder, chief executive officer, and chief investment officer of a New York-based investment firm that managed hedge funds focused on structured credit products, was arrested on Wednesday, Audrey Strauss, the Attorney for the United States, said.

In addition, Strauss announced the unsealing of charges against Ashish Dole, a former chief risk officer and trader at the firm, and Frank Dinucci, a former salesman at a broker-dealer.

Dole, 34 of White Plains had pleaded guilty last November to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud and one count of securities fraud. Dinucci has also pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government.

Charges were also filed against Amin Majidi, a former partner and portfolio manager at the firm, and Jeremy Shor, a former trader.

Ahuja, Majidi, 52, and Shor, 46, are charged with participating in a scheme, from in or about 2014 through 2016, to commit securities fraud and wire fraud relating to the mismarking of certain securities held in hedge funds that the firm managed, thus fraudulently inflating the net asset value of those funds as reported to investors and potential investors.

At its peak, the mismarking across all funds managed by the firm exceeded USD 200 million.

The charges carry up to 25 years in prison and a maximum fine of USD 5 million.

Investors rely on a hedge funds performance numbers when deciding whom to trust with their capital. To compete with other peer funds, Neil Ahuja, founder of an investment firm, allegedly manipulated the firms performance numbers, using fraudulently inflated values for the firms securities holdings and lying to investors about how the firm would mark its positions, Strauss said.

She added that by allegedly cooking the books, Ahuja and his co-defendants made the fund appear more attractive to would-be investors and dissuaded current investors from withdrawing their investments.

In a separate action, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against Ahuja, Majidi and Shor.

According to the allegations in the charging documents, from at about 2014 through 2016, Ahuja, Majidi, Shor and others, including Dole and Dinucci, participated in a scheme to defraud the firms investors and potential investors by deceptively mismarking each month the value of certain securities held in various funds, fraudulently inflating the net asset value of those funds as reported to investors and potential investors. At times, the net asset value was overstated by more than $200 million across the funds managed by the firm.

The mismarking scheme evolved as a result of demands by Ahuja and Majidi that the firm maintain its track record of success and keep pace with the performance of peer funds, regardless of market conditions or the actual performance of the funds. PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Jalandhar: Kamla Nehru Public School organised The Learning Market Place, which celebrated the thrills and innovations of technology. It was a special event in which 410 students from Class XI to Class XII participated. Students preached, practised and propagated UNO Sustainable Development Goals through their exhibits, charts, presentations, models etc. The special feature of the day was a virtual tour of the Learning Market Place via Skype. TNS

Dance performances

Jalandhar: Salam Namaste International Group from Uzbekistan, in collaboration with Ranfer Busniess Lt Company and Sesame Magazine exhibited tremendous dance performances on the premises of Apeejay College of Fine Arts, Jalandhar. The mingling of traditions of Uzbekistan and India in the form of Kathak, Uzbek national dance, Bollywood dance and rhythmical performances on Punjabi folk songs left a mark of remembrance on the faces of audience. Principal Dr Sucharita said such enterprises acquaint youngsters with traditions and cultures of diverse countries. TNS

Innovation project

Jalandhar: Kamla Nehru Public School announced that 112 students of Class IX were taking part in an international project The Innovation Project. School principal PK Dhillon is the only Global Ambassador from India for The Innovation Project. The project is organised by Koen Timmers, MIE expert spanning across six continents from 488 schools across 85 countries which would focus on sustainability. Its a 4-week project, which started on April 16 and would be over on May 16. During four weeks students would be exploring, brainstorming, creating, discussing, connecting, presenting and share findings. Students would be designing an innovative prototype which would focus on UNO Sustainable Development Goals. Principal PK Dhillon said participation in project and collaborating with 488 schools across 85 countries to solve global issues was a wonderful opportunity. TNSpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Jammu, May 10

BJPs Jammu and Kashmir unit on Thursday opposed Chief Minister Mehbooba Muftis call for a unilateral ceasefire during the month of Ramzan till the completion of the Amarnath Yatra, claiming such a step was not at all in national interest.

The partys state unit said militants were demoralised due to Army action and a unilateral ceasefire would ease pressure and allow them to re-energise.

Referring to an all-party meeting held on Wednesday, BJP state units chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi said an opinion came up during the discussion for a unilateral ceasefire on the lines of one declared by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

We have a strong view...Unilateral ceasefire in the present situation is not in national interest at all, he added.

Flanked by another BJP spokesperson Arun Gupta, Sethi said the terrorist leadership in Kashmir Valley was under pressure because of the prolonged efforts of the Army.

There are large scale casualties of militants taking place on daily basis. Currently militants are holed up. They are under pressure, he said.

The raising of the demand for unilateral ceasefire is aimed to give a way out to the demoralised militants, ease pressure, and to save them, he said.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who heads the PDP-BJP government in the state, had said Centre should consider a unilateral ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir starting from Ramzan in mid May till the completion of the Amarnath yatra in August.

She made the remarks after a four-hour all-party meeting, which was convened to discuss the situation in the Kashmir Valley especially after a tourist from Chennai was killed in stone pelting on May 7.

Speaking here today, Sethi said the state BJP was not at all of this opinion. He also emphasised that a call for a unilateral ceasefire was not a unanimous decision at the meeting. The issue was raised by Independent MLA Engineer Rashid, Sethi claimed.

There was no debate on it and BJP did not agree to it, he told reporters here.

Our point is clear that pressure created by Army on the terrorists should continue along with operation all out and to a large extent listed militants have been eliminated and only few among them are active, Sethi said.

The way the operation all out is continuing, soon all militants will be wiped out from Kashmir, he said. It was a different time and situation when a unilateral ceasefire was undertaken by the then Vajpayee government on the borders and in the hinterland, he said.

The BJP spokesperson said militancy was in its last phase and it would be not a wise decision to go for a unilateral ceasefire.

Kashmir will return to peace and normalcy in the same way as the peace and normalcy prevailed in Punjab, he said.

On stone pelting in Kashmir, Sethi said there were stone-pelting units operating from Shopian to Baramulla in Kashmir. They keep moving from place to place to engineer stone-pelting on Army and para military forces, he said.

He said relaxation of any type at this stage will mean stepping back on the process of restoration of normalcy in Kashmir. Todays stone pelter is a potential terrorist of tomorrow. We will not agree are buy any argument that the hands of army should be tied, he added.

Taking a dig at the withdrawal of FIRs against first-time stone pelters, the BJP leader said government did not achieve the desired results. First-time stone pelters continue to resort to stone pelting and have not stopped pelting stones post amnesty. It is a serious issue and we need to review the amnesty scheme, he said. PTIpardeepdhull@gmail.com

New Delhi, May 10

The Centre seems not too keen about initiating a unilateral ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir as of now as the situation is not conducive and such an exercise in 2000 did not give the desired results, officials said here.

They said there was no guarantee that the Pakistan-based terrorists groups would reciprocate if the Centre agrees to the state governments request for a ceasefire.

Editorial: The ceasefire offer in J&K

Recalling the Non Initiation of Combat Operations (NICO), announced by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee in 2000, a senior government functionary said there was a major terror attack at the Srinagar airport during the crucial four-month period 18 years ago, and the announcement of such a decision now may be termed as a weakness in the current situation in the state.

Almost all terrorists groups operating in the Valley in 2000 had rejected the government offer. Many still recall that during the four-month period, terrorists were roaming freely in Kashmir. Is there any guarantee that such a situation would not repeat now, the official said requesting anonymity.

Six terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Toiba had attacked the Srinagar airport when the ceasefire was in force in 2000 in which two security personnel and two civilians were killed. All six terrorists were also killed in the retaliatory firing.

Another official described the prevailing situation in the Kashmir Valley as turbulent where nearly 80 incidents of violence occurred in last four months and civilians were often seen coming out to encounter sites to stage protests with the intention of giving the militants an opportunity to escape.

Under such circumstances, announcement of a ceasefire may be seen as weakness on part of the government, the official said and cited a series of brazen militant attacks, including the killing of eight Amarnath pilgrims last year.

The official, however, asserted that it would be a political decision and would be taken at the highest level of the government.

After an all-party meeting, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had said that the Central Government should consider a unilateral ceasefire in the state starting from Ramzan in mid-May till the completion of the Amarnath yatra in August.

Everyone (all parties) agreed that we should appeal to the Centre to consider a ceasefire like the unilateral ceasefire in (former PM Atal Bihari) Vajpayees time in Ramzan (later this month) till Amarnath yatra and Eid, she said.

Mehbooba said a ceasefire would provide relief to the people and help create a better atmosphere in the state.

The Centre should think on these lines so that the common people get some relief because they are facing many difficulties due of encounters, crackdowns and search operations, she said.

The Valley has witnessed the killing of over 55 militants including at least 27 locals this year. PTImonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Jammu, May 10

Four teenagers went missing in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur district and they were traced by police within six hours of their parents lodging a complaint.

Three people from Preyan Bassain village told the police in Round Domail area late last night that their four children had gone missing from their homes on Tuesday evening, a senior police officer told PTI.

Those missing were identified as two brothers Sunny Kumar (16) and Anil Kumar (14), Arun Kumar (16) and Rohit Kumar (12), he said.

The police immediately formed teams and started a search for the children, he said, adding that they were found at the Ludhiana railway station in six hours.

They were being brought back to Udhampur and further investigation into the case was underway, he said. PTIpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Siachen (J&K), May 10

President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday visited the Army base camp in Siachen, the worlds highest battlefield, and expressed gratitude to the soldiers posted there.

The bravery and valour of soldiers deployed in Siachen over the past 34 years, the President said, had given every Indian the confidence that the borders were safe and secure.

Kovind said he had come to Siachen to iterate to the troops posted here that all the citizens and the Government of India were always with them and supportive of their families.

Addressing the soldiers, he said as the supreme commander of the armed forces and as the president of India, he had come to them carrying the gratitude of the entire country.

The President said Siachen was the worlds highest battlefield and it was difficult to live even a normal life in the extreme climate.

In such a situation, it is extraordinary for soldiers to stay in a state of constant mobilisation and combat readiness. Their determination and dedication is worthy of the highest praise  and their allegiance to the defence of India is an ideal for all our fellow citizens, Kovind said.

The President also visited the Kumar Post.

Kovind is the second President to visit Siachen. The previous visit was undertaken by former president A P J Abdul Kalam in April 2004.

This makes Kovind the first President to travel to Siachen in 14 years.

He also asked soldiers posted at Siachen to visit the Rashtrapati Bhavan when they get time to visit Delhi.

Srinagar-based Defence spokesman said the president was accompanied by Chief of the Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat and Lt Gen D Anbu, General Officer in Commanding of the Northern Command.

After arriving at Thoise airfield, the President flew to Siachen and undertook an aerial survey of the glacier, the spokesman said. The President also paid his respects at the Siachen war memorial, a symbol of the sacrifice of 11,000 soldiers and officers who had been killed since the Indian Army began Operation Meghdoot on the Siachen glacier on April 13, 1984.

Some of the posts on Siachen were located at an altitude of more than 20,000 feet where the temperature dropped up to minus 52 degrees Celsius, making it the toughest war field for the soldiers guarding it. PTImonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Mumbai, May 10

Eleven serving defence officers and eight others have sent a legal notice to actors Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna, accusing the Bollywood couple of playing with the sentiments of the armed forces by putting up for auction a naval costume from the Hindi film Rustom.

The group, which also included the wife of a Navy man and seven retired officers, said it was offended that the actors had listed the costume as an "original naval uniform".

Uniforms resembling those of the armed forces pose a potential threat to national security as the said uniform, insignia and badges could pass for genuine service clothing and can find their way to anti-national elements who can use it to foment trouble," the notice said.

A copy of the notice has also been sent to the auction house Salt Scout and the office of the defence minister.

The group of 19 urged the minister to take action against the actors and to stop the auctioning of the outfit Kumar wore in the 2016 film, a fictional account loosely based on the real-life case of Naval Officer K. M. Nanavati, charged with and then acquitted of killing his wife.

"...by putting in auction 'Akshay Kumar's Rustom Naval Officer Uniform' you have shown no respect for national interest but have also played with the sentiments of armed forces personnel and their widows including my clients, who are retired, as well as serving armed forces officials and their family members," the notice read.

Kumar had put the outfit up for the auction on April 26 in support of an NGO working for the cause of animal rescue and welfare.

"Hi, all I'm thrilled to announce that you can bid to win the actual naval officer uniform I wore in Rustom! Auction's proceeds will support the cause of animal rescue and welfare. Place your bid at http://www.SaltScout.com," he wrote.

The bid, which will end on May 26, currently stands at Rs 2,35,000. The issue was first taken up by one of the officers, who called Khanna out on Facebook, warning her that he would "drag" her to court if she made even "a feeble attempt to auction this piece of costume in the garb of UNIFORM".

"...You touch our honour and we will give you a bloody nose," he said on the site.

Khanna responded by saying she would "not retaliate with violent threats but by taking legal action".

Kumar had said recently said the outfit was being auctioned off for a good cause.

"We are doing it for a good cause. The costume that I wore in the film is going (to be sold) for a good cause. So, I don't think we did anything bad. I can't help if someone feels bad about it," he had said.

Smita Dikshit, who has sent the legal notice on the group's behalf to the actor couple, told PTI, "People of India who are ex-Army men and who are serving the country are enraged and in anger that these celebrities are not sensitive towards the emotions of the Armed Forces." PTIpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Bengaluru, May 10

My mother is more Indian than many Indians, an emotional Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday, as he responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modis sarcastic barb at UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi over her foreign origin.

The Congress president recalled how, despite being an Italian by birth, his mother made sacrifices for the country.

My mother is an Italian. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many Indians I have seen.

She has sacrificed her life for the country; she has suffered for the country. When Modi makes such comments, it shows the quality of the man. I am happy if he enjoys making such comments, he is welcome, he told a press conference before winding up his extensive tour of election-bound Karnataka.

The issue of Sonia Gandhis foreign origin was raked up by Modi at an election rally in Santemaranahalli on May 1 where he dared the Congress chief to speak for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Karnataka government in any language, including his mothers mother tongue.

Modi was responding to Gandhis earlier dare to allow him to speak for 15 minutes in Parliament on various issues, including corruption, and that the Prime Minister will not be able to sit for 15 minutes.

It was not for the first time that Modi had spoken about Sonias foreign origin. Senior BJP leaders, including its president Amit Shah, have often brought it up while targeting her son.

At his election rallies Shah has frequently taken on Rahul baba, saying he was unable to see the changes brought about by the Modi government as he was wearing Italian spectacles.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had, in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, said Sonia was entitled to the love, affection and respect but not acceptable as the Prime Minister of the country.

I have always maintained that Sonia Gandhi came to our country as daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi and wife of Rajiv Gandhi and thus she is entitled to our love and affection. As the president of the Congress party, she is entitled to our respect. But if she wants to become the Prime Minister, then I say no, Swaraj had said.

Even Modi as the Gujarat Chief Minister had assailed Sonia, a person not from our soil, for giving lessons in swabhiman (self-respect).

A person not of our soil should not give us lessons about swabhiman (self-respect), Modi had told an election rally in Nashik ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. PTIgspannu7@gmail.com

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 10

Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP will train at least five persons in each village to establish direct samvaad (contact) with farmers on the Narendra Modi governments pro-farmer, pro-rural policies and decisions during its tenure.

While BJP president Amit Shah conducted road shows and Prime Minister Narendra Modi actively addressed BJP workers in poll-bound Karnataka via his NaMo App, senior party leader Virendra Singh Mast on Thursday said such westernised methods of electioneering and campaigning left him unimpressed.

Instead, direct contactsamvaadwas a more effective way to not just to talk to farmers about the governments efforts in their direction but also resolve other issuesfamily, social and culturalresponsible for their current -day distress, he said.

Talking with media persons on the three-day Deendayal Upadhyaya National Training Programme on training the Kisan Morchas national level office-bearers on establishing samvaad with farmers, he termed as futile the road shows by opposition leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Karnataka.

When reminded that the BJPs top leadership also favoured the electioneering methods, the BJPs plain speaking Kisan Morcha chief said they may be a good way to show strength but left him unimpressed.

Even technical samvad (like NaMo App) have limitations whereas the direct (one-to-one) samvad has no boundaries, he added.

The aim of the workshop to be held between May 18 to 20 in Gurugram is to propagate the BJP governments farmers friendly policies and counter Opposition parties negative campaign through samvad.

It will be further taken to states and then to every village where at least five party workers will be trained to disseminate pro-farmer achievements of the Modi government.



While Singh agreed that farmers were not happy as on date, he said their distress had been a gradual one and so will be their coming out of it.

There are many reasonssocial, cultural, divisions of land holdings for farmers distress. Our aim is to address all their issues through samvaad , he said.

Notably, the Modi-led government is under pressure due to farmers agitations and distress.

Observers also say farmers and Dalits will decide the fate of the 2019 elections.

Incidentally, Singh also said those who opposed GM crops and were now supporting it and were not doing the right thing.

Notably, the governments apparent support to genetically modified (GM) is a cause of concern for not just anti-GM lobby but also the BJPs ideological fountainheadthe RSS.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 10

The Supreme Court Collegium is likely to meet on Friday to take a call on the controversial proposal to elevate Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice K M Joseph to the Supreme Court that has turned out to be a bone of contention between the judiciary and the Executive.

The development comes a day after Justice J Chelameswar, who is due to retire on June 22 as a judge of the Supreme Court, wrote to Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra to convene a Collegium meeting to urgently re-send Justice Josephs name for appointment as a top court judge, sources said.

The government had last month returned Justice Josephs name. It had raised the issue of fair regional representation and questioned his seniority, saying he stood at serial No. 45 in the combined seniority of high court judges on all-India basis. There were 11 high court chief justices senior to him, it had said.

Joseph was appointed a permanent judge of the Kerala High Court on October 14, 2004, and went on to become Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice on July 31, 2014. He headed a Bench that quashed the Centres decision to impose Presidents rule in Uttarakhand in 2016.

His name was recommended by the Collegium along with that of senior counsel Indu Malhotra in January this year. But the government sent back his file to the Collegium and went ahead with the appointment of Malhotra who took oath as a Supreme Court Judge on April 27.

Amid heightened speculation over elevation of Justice KM Joseph, the Supreme Court Collegium had on May 2 deferred a decision on the fate of the judge whose file was returned by the government last month for reconsideration.

The five-member Collegium led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had met here after court hours on May 2, but decided to defer a decision on Justice Josephs appointment. The Collegium  which also included Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph  had not assigned any reasons for deferring a decision on the contentious issue.

But the deferment was understood to be due to lack of unanimity among the Collegium members, sources said. This was primarily because of the fact that the agenda included consideration of names other than that of Justice Joseph for elevation to the top court, they said, adding that some of the members needed more time to consider the issues and names involved.

Under the law on judicial appointments laid down by Constitution Bench verdicts of the Supreme Court, the government can ask the Collegium to reconsider its recommendation; but if the Collegium reiterates its recommendation it would be binding on the government.

In the letter sent to the CJI on Wednesday, Justice Chelameswar, the senior-most judge after the CJI, had sought to reiterate his decision for elevation of Justice Joseph to the top court as there was no change in circumstances that led the Collegium to recommend his name to the government on January 10, sources said, adding that he has responded to the points raised in Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasads April 26 letter to the CJI.

During his visit to Kerala last week, Justice Kurian Joseph too had said he was in favour of reiterating the Collegiums recommendation to elevate the Uttarakhand Chief Justice.editorial@tribune.com

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 10

The Congress is hoping to surprise the BJP in Karnataka with what it sees as a groundswell of Dalit, OBC and minority support in its favour.

Internal Congress calculation pegs a comfortable show for the party in Karnataka with leaders privately saying they would be able to form the government even if they attain the single largest party status instead of a simple majority.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has consistently hammered minority and Dalit alienation under the BJP and called for a vote for the incumbent Karnataka CM Siddharamaiah.

No other CM in the country has delivered so much social justice as Siddharamaiah, a Congress leader said.

Secondly, the Congress is banking heavily on Karnataka pride with Gandhi attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for recently calling Bengaluru a garbage city and a valley of sins.

This is not going to go down well with the locals at all and this is a blunder by the PM. The state pride has been hit hard by the way the PM has spoken in past few days. Congress stands for Karnataka pride, Congress insiders said, analysing factors that may work in partys favour.

The Congress is also waiting and watching the role of HD Deve Gowda-led JD-S in Karnataka and feels embracing the BJP in the state would be a kiss of death for the JD-S in the 2019 General Election.

BJPs confidence in JD-S is touching but we must wait and see what happens. If the JD-S goes with the BJP in any situation, it would have to go at the cost of Dalit and minority vote and then JD-S should forget all about 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Things are not as simple as they seem, a Congress leader noted.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Ramakrishna Upadhya

Bengaluru, May 10

Extremely shrill and bitter, the campaign for the 224-seat Karnataka Assembly elections came to an end on Thursday. Congress president Rahul Gandhi campaigned in the state for about two months and appeared to have given a headstart to the party, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived to bat in the slog overs, ensured the May 12 contest was more or less even.

Karnataka has never voted the ruling party back to power in three decades. Nevertheless, Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hopes to create a record by retaining his position. On the other hand, BJPs CM-candidate BS Yeddyurappa is making a concerted effort to wrest power after nearly a decade.

Most opinion polls have predicted a hung House with the JD(S), the third player, emerging as the kingmaker. But given the peoples aversion to coalitions, the possibility of one of the two big parties surging ahead by garnering floating votes cannot be ruled out.

Rahul Gandhis description of JD(S) as BJPs B party, which infuriated JD(S) chief HD Deve Gowda, could prove dear, should there be no clear verdict on May 15.

Wrapping up the election campaign, PM Modi chose to reach out to a whopping 25 lakh people in Karnataka through several video interactions on the NaMo app, accusing the Congress of betraying the Dalits and OBCs. Rahul Gandhi, who addressed a media conference here, criticised the PM for raking up UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhis foreign origin, saying my mother is Italian but she is more Indian than many Indians. He ridiculed the PM for not holding a single press conference in four years.

Siddaramaiah, besides banking on several pro-poor measures initiated by his government, is hoping that the decision to accord separate religion status to the Lingayats will pay off. Significantly, Yeddyurappa belongs to the Lingayat community.

Only six months ago, the BJP in Karnataka was in complete disarray with internal squabbles and the Congress mocking it for projecting Yeddyurappa, who had undergone a brief jail term on corruption charges, as its CM candidate. BJP president Amit Shah made several visits to Karnataka in the last three months, talked tough with local leaders and got them battle-ready.

Yeddyurappas jana parivarthana yatra in all 224 constituencies attracted enthusiastic crowds and the party got going. Having lost a string of state elections, the Congress desperately needs to win Karnataka to regain momentum for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well as to emerge as the leader of the Opposition camp.

Precisely for this reason, the BJP could join hands with the JD(S), if it falls short of a majority, and may even offer the CMs post to the JD(S). A decisive verdict, on the other hand, could entirely alter the narrative before the parliamentary elections.rchopra@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, May 10

The Delhi High Court on Thursday granted bail to lawyer Rohit Tandon, who is in jail in connection with a money laundering case post demonetisation, and another accused in the case, saying trial in the matter was likely to take time.

Justice Mukta Gupta granted the relief to Tandon and co-accused Raj Kumar Goel, a data entry operator, subject to their furnishing a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh each with two sureties of the like amount to the satisfaction of the trial court.

The order came on Tandons plea challenging the trial courts order denying him bail on the grounds that he is alleged to have been involved in a white collar crime with other co-accused in a well-planned manner.

Goel has been accused of engaging in earning profits by routing money into various accounts by using forged documents.

Both had been in custody for more than one year and four months, the high court noted in its order. PTIgspannu7@gmail.com

New Delhi, May 10

In a relief to yoga guru Ramdev, the Delhi High Court on Thursday issued an interim order restoring the ban on publication and sale of a book purportedly on his life, which he claimed contained defamatory content.

The court stayed an order of the additional senior civil judge (ASCJ) which had removed the ban on the publication and sale of the book.

I am going to restore the order of the trial judge. You (author and publisher of book) file your reply, Justice R K Gauba orally said referring to the initial order passed by additional civil judge (ACJ) banning the book.

The high court made it clear that it would pass a detailed order in the matter later.

The court granted the interim relief to Ramdev while hearing his plea challenging the order of the ASCJ which had lifted the ban on publication and selling of book titled Godman To Tycoon, allegedly based on the life of the yoga guru.

During the hearing today, the counsel appearing for Ramdev said that the appellate decided to look at the case afresh and did not bother to look at the reasoning of the ACJ while restraining the publication and sale of the book.

Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, representing Ramdev, said the ASCJ vacated the ban on the ground that the book was already available in the market on account of publication and sale, but how can this be a ground to deny injunction.

My prayer is to stop the circulation of the book. The assumption of the appellate judge was contrary to the law, he argued.

He claimed that the allegations in the book relating to Ramdevs life were incorrect.

In August last year, the ACJ had restrained publisher Juggernaut Books from publishing and selling the book titled Godman To Tycoon till further orders.

It had also restrained Amazon India and Flipkart Internet Pvt Ltd from selling the book online and said any pending delivery of the book to buyers be stopped immediately.

The book was published in July last year and authored by journalist Priyanka Pathak Narain.

Ramdev, in his suit, had alleged that the information in the book was false, tended to injure his reputation and led to an inference that the yoga guru had been involved in mischievous and criminal activities to achieve fame and success.

The publisher had earlier said that the book was a work of serious journalism. It was the product of over fifty interviews, many of them taped, with Ramdev and key players in his life, including close aides and family members, it had said.

The book contains a detailed 25-page note on sources that lists the interviews, articles, police reports and RTI replies that are the basis of each chapter, it had said in a statement.  PTIgspannu7@gmail.com

New Delhi, May 10

The government on Thursday said it was in touch with relevant people and authorities in Afghanistan to secure the release of seven Indian engineers who were abducted in the restive northern Baghlan province of the war-torn country on Sunday.

"We are in touch with different people who are involved in the exercise through the Afghan government," spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Raveesh Kumar said.

He, however, refused to share any specific details citing sensitivity of the case.

"I would not like to get into the details of the people and authorities with whom we are in touch with," he said at a media briefing.

The Indian engineers were abducted by the Taliban militants from near the Cheshma-e-Sher area in Baghlan on Sunday.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had a telephonic conversation with her Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani on Sunday evening during which she had sought all possible help of Kabul in securing the release the Indians.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval too had a telephonic conversation with his Afghan counterpart Hanif Atmar on the issue.

"This is a sensitive matter. The lives of seven Indians are involved and, therefore, I would not like to share much on where we are at this point of time," said the MEA spokesperson.

Afghan media, quoting Baghlan governor Abdulhai Nemati, reported that Taliban militants were behind the abduction of Indians and they were moved to the Dand-e-Shahabuddin area of Pul-e-Khumri city.

The Indian engineers of KEC International, an RPG group company, were working on a project for construction of a power sub-station in the country.

India has been carrying out reconstruction activities in the war-torn country. It has already provided at least USD 2 billion aid to Afghanistan.  PTImonicakchauhan@gmail.com

New Delhi, May 10

Justice J Chelameswar, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India asking him to convene a meeting of the collegium to urgently forward to the Centre the name of Uttarakhand Chief Justice K M Joseph as the judge of the apex court.

The government had on April 26 returned the Collegium's recommendation to elevate Justice Joseph seeking its reconsideration, saying the proposal was not in accordance with the top court's parameters and there was adequate representation of Kerala in the higher judiciary from where he hails. It had also questioned his seniority for elevation as a judge of the apex court.

An apex court official said, in his letter sent to the CJI late last evening, Justice Chelameswar has conveyed that he was reiterating his decision for the elevation of Justice Joseph as the judge of the top court since there was no change in the circumstance that had led the collegium to recommend his name to the government on January 10.

It is also learnt that, Justice Chelameswar, who retires on June 22, has responded to all the points raised in the communication to the CJI by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad expressing reservations on the elevation of Justice Joseph.

The meeting of the Collegium was expected to take place on Wednesday but Justice Chelameswar was on leave. Besides the CJI and Justice Chelameswar, other members of the collegium are Justices Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph.

Justice Kurian Joseph, during his visit to Kerala last week, had also reportedly made it clear that he was in favour of reiterating the recommendation of the collegium on the issue of Uttarakhand Chief Justice Joseph.

Though no official word was there on when the collegium would meet, the official said it is for the CJI to fix the date as there is no other agenda but to discuss the issue of returning the recommendation relating to Justice Joseph to the Centre.

Earlier also, notwithstanding the letters written by the collegium members to the CJI which had come into the public domain, the Centre had disregarded the recommendation about Justice Joseph. PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Patna/Ranchi, May 10

RJD chief Lalu Prasad arrived in Patna on Thursday after being granted three-day parole to attend his sons wedding scheduled for Saturday.

Prasad, 69, who has been convicted in four fodder scam cases by a special CBI court in Ranchi since December last year, had sought five-day parole, but was granted for three days. Lalu Prasad has been released on three-day parole (May 11-13) to attend his sons wedding, said Harsh Mangla, Inspector General (jail), Jharkhand. Lalu, along with his confidant Bhola Yadav and a team of doctors, reached Patna on Thursday evening.

Lalu was said to be medically fit to attend the wedding. We had moved an application for five-day parole of his behalf, but only three days were granted, said Bhola Yadav. He said Lalu might return to Ranchi by May 14.

Slogans of Lalu Yadav Zindabad resonated in Lalus residence as soon as the supporters learned that the RJD chief has been granted parole.

Lalus elder son and former Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadavs marriage with Aishwarya Rai, daughter of RJD MLA Chandrika Rai, is scheduled for May 12 in Patna.  OCgspannu7@gmail.com

Ranchi/Patna, May 10

Jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad was on Thursday granted a three-day parole to attend his sons wedding in Patna this Saturday, a senior jail officer said.

Prasad, 69, who has been convicted in three fodder scam cases by a special CBI court in Ranchi since December last year, is currently undergoing treatment at the RIMS hospital in the Jharkhand capital.

He has been granted parole for three days, Inspector General of Prison Harsh Mangla told PTI.

However, the IG Prison was not categorical about the effective date of parole and said it depended upon when the jail authorities would release him. Mangla added that as per the rules, the travel time is not counted in the duration of the parole.

Bhola Yadav, RJD general secretary and a close aide of Prasad, told PTI in Ranchi that they were planning to go to Patna by the evening flight.

Flight tickets are being arranged to go to Patna by evening flight today, Bhola Yadav, who is also an RJD MLA in Bihar, said adding Prasad is likely to return to Ranchi on May 14 on completion of parole.

Prasads elder son and former Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadavs marriage with daughter of RJD MLA Chandrika Rai is scheduled on May 12 in Patna.

The RJD chief was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) In Delhi on March 29 for specialised treatment and was discharged on April 30.

The hospital had said his condition had improved significantly but the former Bihar chief minister alleged a political conspiracy behind his discharge.

The application on behalf of the RJD chief, moved on Monday last, had sought a five-day parole but only three days were granted. Asked about it, the Jharkhand Prison IG said, We decided on the matter considering the need.

RJD supporters in Patna were upbeat about Prasads return to Patna. Prasad could not attend the engagement ceremony of his son in Patna on April 18 following which Tej Pratap had tweeted Miss you PAPA.

The 10, Circular Road bungalow, allotted to former chief minister and Prasads wife Rabri Devi, has been abuzz with wedding preparations for the past few days.

Slogans of Lalu Yadav Zindabad resonated in the complex as soon as the supporters learned that the RJD supremo has been granted parole and that he would be coming to Patna.  PTIrchopra@tribunemail.com

Mumbai, May 10

The government on Thursday said there is a great deal of interest for disinvestment of Air India, amid the deadline for submission of preliminary bids ending this month.

The last date for submission of Expression of Interest (EoI) for the proposed 76 per cent stake sale in debt-laden Air India is May 31. Earlier this month, the government came out with clarifications related to the disinvestment.

There is a great deal of interest for Air India, Civil Aviation Secretary RN Choubey said here.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the US-India Aviation Summit here.

Choubey said no American carrier had expressed formal interest for Air India.

The divestment would include profit-making Air India Express and joint venture AISATS, an equal joint venture between the national carrier and Singapore-based SATS Ltd.

Providing more time, the last date for submission of Expressions of Interest (EoIs) for Air India disinvestment was extended to May 31 from the earlier deadline of May 14. The qualified bidders would now be known on June 15, whereas the earlier date was May 29.

Starting the disinvestment process of the debt-laden national carrier, the preliminary information memorandum for the proposed sale of up to 76 per cent stake in Air India along with management control to private entities was issued on March 28.

The government also made it clear that it would have the rights of a minority shareholder with 24 per cent stake in Air India post disinvestment. PTIrchopra@tribunemail.com

Bengaluru, May 10

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modis attack on him declaring his prime ministerial ambitions was aimed at distracting attention.

This election is not about Rahul, the Congress president said.

I have now learnt to deal with the prime minister. When he cant respond, he distracts, Gandhi told reporters here after winding up his extensive tour of poll-bound Karnataka.

Gandhi was responding to Modis scathing attack on him after he declared his prime ministerial ambition.

At his election rallies, Modi had wondered whether the country would ever accept such an immature and naamdar (famous) leader for the post.

He also said Modi saw a threat in him.

Modi has anger inside...he has anger for everybody, not just me...and sees a threat in me, Gandhi said.

Expressing confidence that the Congress would win the Assembly polls in Karnataka on May 12, he said the opposition had restricted itself to making personal attacks during the campaign.

The BJP, he said, felt uncomfortable when he visited a temple.

I dont think the BJP understands the term Hindu, the Congress leader said.

The senior Congress leader also dismissed Modi indirectly over his mothers Italian origins.

My mother is Italian. She has lived a large part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many people I see, he said.

The Congress president said our foreign policy had been decimated. PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Kathmandu, May 10

Nepal is all set to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is arriving in the country on Friday for a two-day state visit during which he would hold talks with the top leadership here with a focus on implementing key India-assisted projects and building mutual trust.

This will be Modis third visit to Nepal and the first high-level visit from India since the formation of the new government in Nepal.

He will start his visit from the historic city of Janakpur, the birthplace of Sita, on Friday morning. In Janakpur, Modi will visit 20th century Janaki temple and offer special prayers. In the afternoon, he will fly to Kathmandu, where he will be given a guard of honour by the Nepal Army. The PM will call on Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun and President Bidya Devi Bhandari. In the evening, Modi will hold delegation-level talks with Oli. Later, both leaders will jointly lay the foundation stone of Arun-III hydro power project through a remote system.  PTIgspannu7@gmail.com

New Delhi, May 10

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday described his two-day visit to Nepal as a reflection of his governments commitment to neighbourhood first policy, and said as the Himalayan state entered a new era, India would continue to remain its steadfast partner.

Modi will visit the Himalayan nation tomorrow and it will be his third visit to that country as prime minister.

It reflects the high priority, India, and personally I, attach to our age-old, close and friendly ties with Nepal, the PM said in a statement.

He said his visit closely follows the state visit of Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to India last month.

These high-level and regular interactions reflect my governments commitment to the neighbourhood first policy, in consonance with the motto of sabka saath, sabka vikas, the statement said.

Modi said the two countries have completed several bilateral connectivity and development projects in the last few years, and initiated transformational initiatives for the benefit of their people.

Prime Minister Oli and I will have the opportunity to take forward our recent wide-ranging discussions in New Delhi on issues of mutual interest, and to advance our cooperative partnership across diverse sectors, he said.

As Nepal enters a new era of consolidating gains of democracy and achieving rapid economic growth and development, India will continue to remain a steadfast partner of government of Nepal to implement its vision of samriddha Nepal, sukhi Nepali (prosperous Nepal, happy Nepal), read the statement.

In addition to Kathmandu, Modi said he was also looking forward to visiting Janakpur and Muktinath. Both these places attract a large number of pilgrims every year.

They are living testimony to the ancient and strong cultural and religious ties between the peoples of India and Nepal, he said.

The prime minister said he was also looking forward to meeting the political leaders and friends in Nepal.

I am confident that my visit will further cement our people-centric partnership with Nepal on the basis of mutual benefit, goodwill and understanding, Modi noted.  PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Bengaluru, May 10

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw a threat in him, and the attack by him over his prime ministerial ambition was only aimed at distracting attention.

Gandhi also hit out at Modi for raking up the issue of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhis foreign origin, saying my mother is Italian but she was more Indian than many Indians. This election is not about Rahul. I have now learnt to deal with the PM. When he cant respond, he distracts, Gandhi said responding to questions about Modis repeated attacks on him over his prime ministerial ambition.

Training his guns on Gandhi after he publicly declared his prime ministerial ambition at an interaction here, Modi had wondered whether the country would ever accept such an immature and naamdar (dynast) leader for the post.

The Congress chief, who wrapped up his campaign tour of Karnataka with a press conference, referred to a story about Gautam Buddha to claim the PM had anger for everybody. Modi has anger inside him and he has got anger for everybody not only for me. I attract that anger because he sees a threat in me. His anger is his problem, not my problem, Gandhi said. He mocked the PM over visiting temples and called him an election Hindu who remembered Hindu shrines only during polls.  PTI

My mother more Indian than many

My mother is an Italian. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many Indians I have seen. She has sacrificed her life for the country. When Modi makes such comments, it shows the quality of the man. Rahul Gandhi, Cong chiefrchopra@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, May 10

Ruskin Bond fans have something to cheer againa new book will be launched on his 84th birthday on May 19 which is inspired by a letter from one of his many fans in Sri Lanka.

Lyrical and illustrated, Ranji and the Music Maker is a sunny story of forging bonds and simple joys.

The legendary author will launch the book at one of his most frequented places, Cambridge Bookstores in Mussoorie.

It was set off, inspired you might say, by the photograph of a small boy playing his flute for a kitten sent to me by a reader in Sri Lanka. I imagined the little boy as Ranji, says Bond.

The book by Puffin India is about young Ranji who once in the middle of his languid holiday, stumbles upon assorted musical instruments in the storeroom--first a shrill flute, then a blaring little trumpet and, finally, a too-big drum that may have once sounded a battle march.

He stages impromptu concerts down the road, not sparing his neighbours, the cats around his porch, or the peace-loving inhabitants of the zoo.

But all Ranji is really seeking is a friend wholl hear the magic in his din.

Ranji and the Music Maker has illustrations by Sayan Mukherjee.

Bonds first novel, The Room on the Roof, written when he was 17, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has written a number of novellas, essays, poems and childrens books.

He has also penned over 500 short stories and articles that have appeared in magazines and anthologies. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1993, the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2014.

Bond was born in Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh, and grew up in Jamnagar, Dehradun, New Delhi and Shimla. As a young man, he spent four years in the Channel Islands and London. He returned to India in 1955. He now lives in Landour in Mussoorie with his adopted family. PTImonicakchauhan@gmail.com

New Delhi, May 10

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Centre to take a decision by June 30 this year on the issue of banning import of pet coke in the country.

The apex court also asked the government to consider implementing the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) first in Delhi as the people were "struggling" due to pollution in the national capital. NCAP is aimed at tackling air pollution problem in 100 cities across the country.

You have lots of programmes but you can't implement it. You can't implement the programmes in Delhi and you are talking about pan-India. You at least implement it (NCAP)in Delhi first," a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta told Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni, who was appearing for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

"We are struggling in Delhi for years due to pollution. You implement the NCAP here at least," the bench said.

The court was hearing a matter related to a PIL filed in 1985 by environmentalist M C Mehta who had raised the issue of air pollution in the Delhi-NCR.

Nadkarni told the bench that the comprehensive action plan to tackle air pollution in Delhi-NCR would be notified in its entirety within four weeks.

He told the bench that parts of the comprehensive action plan have already been implemented in Delhi-NCR.

The bench, however, asked Nadkarni to ensure that the programmes aimed at tackling air pollution were not only notified, but also implemented properly.

It posted the matter for further hearing in July. PTIgspannu7@gmail.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 10

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who has gained admiration on social media for going out of her way to help Indians in foreign land, recently taught a Kashmiri student who was seeking her help a 'lesson'.

Sheikh Ateeq, who tweets from his @SAteEQ019, had requested Swaraj to help him with getting a new passport and said he needed to get back to his home, India as his health was deteriorating.

I am from J&K doing medicine course here in Philippines my passport got damaged I applied for new one 1 month ago I request u pls help me to get it as i literally need to go home for medical checkup (sic), Ateeq tweeted.

Swaraj responded to Ateeq saying she would have helped him if he belonged to the state of Jammu and Kashmir but his profile said Indian occupied Kashmir.

Your profile says you are from Indian-occupied Kashmir. There is no place like that, Swaraj tweeted.

The youth promptly corrected the location on his Twitter bio to jammu &kashmir/ manila.

Swaraj acknowledged the correction in a tweet that was shared minutes later and asked the Indian Embassy in Manila to help the medical student.

I am happy you have corrected the profile. Jaideep - He is an Indian national from J&K. Pls help him (sic), the minister tweeted.

If you are from J&K state, we will definitely help you. But your profile says you are from 'Indian occupied Kashmir'. There is no place like that. @indembmanila https://t.co/Srzo7tfMSx  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 10, 2018



Both of Swarajs tweets have been shared over 5,000 times and have been liked by nearly 10,000 people.

Ateeq has since deleted his Twitter profile.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Nay Pyi Taw, May 10

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday arrived here on a two-day visit during which she is expected to hold discussions with Myanmars top leadership on key bilateral and regional issues, including the situation in the Rakhine state from where thousands of Rohingya Muslims had fled following violence last year.

Myanmar is one of Indias strategic neighbours and it shares a 1,640 km border with a number of northeastern states, including militancy-hit Nagaland and Manipur.

On her arrival in Nay Pyi Taw, Swaraj was warmly received by Indias Ambassador Vikram Misri and Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Myanmar U Myint Thu.

EAM will hold discussions with Myanmar leadership to further reinforce our bilateral ties, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

She is expected to hold discussion on the situation in the violence-hit Rakhine state.

An estimated 6,00,000 Rohingya Muslims had fled Myanmars Rakhine State since August last year after large-scale violence there.

In December last, India had announced a development assistance of USD 25 million for the Rakhine state.

India on Wednesday sent to Bangladesh its second relief consignment to help tens of thousands of displaced following a military crackdown. PTIrchopra@tribunemail.com

Lucknow, May 10

The death toll in the storm that hit parts of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday night has risen to 16, an official said on Thursday as the Met office issued another bad weather alert for the state.

Four deaths were reported from Etawah, three each from Mathura and Aligarh, two each in Firozabad and Agra and one death each in Hathras and Kanpur Dehat last night, an official spokesperson said.

Twenty-seven others were injured in the calamity which affected nine districts, mostly in western Uttar Pradesh that had also borne the brunt of a previous storm on May 2-3.

The official said seven houses were damaged in last nights storm. Thirty-seven head of cattle perished.

A weather office spokesman on Thursday warned of more thunderstorms accompanied by strong winds on Saturday and Sunday at isolated places in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

He said a dust storm too was very likely at certain places in western UP.

On Sunday, thunderstorms accompanied by squalls with a wind speed of 50-70 kmph were very likely at isolated places in the state, he said.

Last weeks storm had killed 134 people and injured over 400 in five states, the Home Ministry had said. Uttar Pradesh was the hardest hit with 80 deaths, most of them in Agra district.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday issued fresh directives to the administration to speed up relief operations.

An official release said he asked the ministers-in-charge and district magistrates to visit the affected districts.

He said the assessment of the damage should be done immediately and repair work must begin at the earliest. PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 10

The government has initiated the process for customisation of the Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) scheme and set up Kheti Kosh to receive funding from corporates to strengthen the agricultural sector.

Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has been roped in to constitute a committee for formulating a customised FPO policy. A dedicated fund, Kheti Kosh, is also being set up to receive funds from corporates wishing to donate under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

A sum of Rs 50 crore has been approved for the PAU to set up an incubation facility for young farmers and graduates in agriculture, who form their FPOs. The university will train them and help in their capacity building to run collective farmer companies.

Since FPOs having a turnover of up to Rs 100 crore have a five-year tax holiday, it is a good business model to be pursued in Punjab.

The idea for having a customised FPO policy, based on broad guidelines of the Ministry of Agriculture, germinated during a meeting on agriculture sustainability held in Amritsar recently. Farmer groups, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other stakeholders felt that the FPO policy, which was announced in the year 2008, was not suitable for the state. It was felt that the policy was made according to the needs and the agricultural eco system of Baramati in Maharashtra. The matter was again discussed in a meeting chaired by Governor VP Singh Badnore last Saturday.

Since this collectivisation of small and marginal farmers into producer organisations is regarded as the most effective way to address the challenges of agriculture - improved access to investment, technology, inputs and markets, Punjab can lead young farmers and graduates in agriculture to set up their FPOs, said Suresh Kumar, Chief Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister.

About FPOs

Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) is an institutional form to mobilise farmers who build their capacities to collectively leverage their production and marketing strength. The state has 68 FPOs engaged in agro-processing, dairy and vegetable cultivation.editorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, May 10

Additional Sessions Judge Virinder Aggarwal has convicted Manjinder Kaur, alias Jyoti, resident of Dhillon Nagar, Gill Colony, Ludhiana, on the charges of killing her two daughters  five-year-old Liza Mashih and two-and-a-half-year-old Aksra  by strangling them.

Manjinder Kaur was ordered to undergo rigorous life imprisonment. Fine of Rs 5,000 has also been imposed upon her.

Delivering the verdict, the court held that there was no enmity between the mother and daughters. Manjinder Kaur herself also attempted to end her life by jumping into a canal, which showed that she was not satisfied with her life.

A case against Manjinder Kaur was registered at the Daba police station on May 20, 2016, following a complaint by Jagtar Masih, Manjinders husband, against her.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Ropar, May 10

Ropar District and Sessions Judge BS Sandhu on Thursday awarded death penalty to a 28-year-old man for killing two children.

Convict Ashok Kumar alias Pintu, a native of Baveta village in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh, had killed two brothers Manav (10) and Shivam (6) on September 25 last year.

He was in a live-in relationship with Rajni, the mother of the children, at Uchha Khera mohalla of Ropar town. Both victims were students of Sanatan Dharam Secondary School at Ropar.

Rajni had informed the police that her children had left home for school in the morning on September 25, but they did not reach the school. So, a case of kidnapping was registered.

Prosecution lawyer Mohit Dhupar said that Rajni had got married three times in the past. Her first two husbands had died and she got a separation from her third husband. The children were from her second and third marriages.

Following the separation from her third husband, she started living with Pintu, who was putting pressure on her to have his children. As Rajni did not want more children, she refused, said Dhupar.

On September 25 last year, he took a motorcycle of one of his friends and took the children near Sutlej river at Katli village.

There, Pintu threw them into ditches filled with water. During the search for the children, Pintu  in an attempt to misguide the police  even tried to implicate some Manoj, who had been stalking Rajni in the past.

But a neighbour had spotted him with the children near Katli village. Later, Pintus phone location was also found to be at that spot. Following these, the police nabbed him and recovered the bodies on September 28.rchopra@tribunemail.com

Amritsar, May 10

Punjab Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had a narrow escape when a stray bull attacked a group of people standing with him outside a temple here on Wednesday, police said.

The minister had gone to inspect the ongoing beautification project at Durgiana temple here when the incident occurred.

He was chatting with some mediapersons when the stray bull attacked them, the police said, adding that Sidhu was unhurt while two mediapersons got minor injuries. PTIeditorial@tribune.com

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 10

The big fat wedding of Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor and businessman Anand Ahuja in a traditional Anand Karaj ceremony held recently has embroiled in a controversy over violation of the Sikh rehat maryada (tenets).

Guru Granth Sahib was brought from the Golden Temple in Amritsar and former head priest of the Golden Temple Jaswinder Singh sat behind the holy scripture to bless the couple. The hazoori ragi and ardasia (one who performs ardas) from the shrine, too, were present.

Former SGPC general secretary Sukhdev Singh Bhaur and former Panj Pyaras said SGPC staffers overlooked that the kalgi on the turban of the groom was not removed in the presence of Guru Granth Sahib. Seeking intervention of Akal Takht, they demand action against the SGPC staffers whose negligence led to the violation of norms during the wedding.

It was a violation of Sikh tenets if anyone sits before Guru Granth Sahib with a kalgi on turban. This implies that the person is equating himself to the stature of Gurus, he said.rchopra@tribunemail.com

Washington, May 10

The CIA continues to be very concerned about potential contacts between Pakistani nuclear scientists and extremist groups and is monitoring them, US President Donald Trumps nominee to head the agency has said.

Gina Haspel, if confirmed by the Senate, would be the first woman director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

There was very deep concern about potential contacts, and we continue to monitor this very closely, between extremists and Pakistani nuclear scientists, Haspel told the members of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee during her confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

She was responding to a question from Senator John Cornyn.

Cornyn cited a book that reminded him that post-9/11, the then president George W Bush was concerned about reports that Osama bin Laden and al Qaida were meeting with the Pakistani officials connected with their nuclear programme to gain access to a nuclear device that they might then use for a follow-on attack against the cities like Washington DC.

Without divulging classified information, can you confirm that there were concerns about follow-on attacks using nuclear devices, biological weapons, other weapons of mass destruction that might have killed more innocent Americans as happened on 9/11? Was that the environment in which you and the country were operating in at the time? Cornyn asked Haspel.

There were very grave concerns on that front, Haspel answered.

And indeed, al Qaida had those kinds of programmes, efforts to acquire crude, dirty bombs, efforts to develop--they had a programme--a biological weapons programme. I remember the operative who was in charge of that, Haspel said. PTIgspannu7@gmail.com

Kuala Lumpur, May 10

With his shock victory in Malaysias election, Mahathir Mohamad has pulled off a political second act that few expected, joining the select ranks of politicians who have revived their careers.

The 92-year-old former strongman ruled Malaysia with an iron fist for more than two decades before stepping down, but returned to political life to challenge his own former party, snatching a surprise win in yesterdays poll.

Here are some other political figures who have had second, and even third acts during their careers: Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill is revered for leading Britain from the verge of defeat to victory in World War II, but his political career was far from smooth sailing.

Churchill was forced to resign from government in 1915 after the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, and his eventual return to the cabinet was contentious.

Appointed prime minister in 1940, he won acclaim for his rousing leadership during the war, but suffered a shock defeat in the 1945 election and was forced into the opposition.

In 1951, he won a second term as prime minister, but resigned several years later as his health deteriorated.

The ups and downs of his career have been cited as inspiration by other politicians looking for their own turnarounds.

Shinzo Abe became Japans youngest-ever prime minister when he took office in 2006 at the age of 52.

The son of a former foreign minister and grandson of a former prime minister, Abe seemed destined for political office.

But he resigned after just a year, hit by scandals and political disappointment and debilitated by health issues.

In 2012, he made a shock political comeback, returning to office on a pledge to revive Japans economy with his signature Abenomics programme.

He has said he was encouraged to seek a path back to power by reading a biography of Churchill entitled: Never Despair.

Billionaire Italian media mogul Silvio Berlusconi is perhaps the perennial political comeback kid, serving as prime minister three times, despite a string of scandals and legal woes.

After a first two-year term, he returned to power in 2001 following a campaign in which he sent a book boasting of his achievements to 15 million Italian homes.

He lost power in 2006, but returned to office two years later, only to see his premiership go down in flames over sex scandals and a financial crisis.

A tax fraud conviction means he is now barred from office, but that didnt stop him seeking to become a kingmaker by backing a protege in March elections.

The gambit failed, with the ever-confident former cruise ship crooner attributing his partys poor showing in large part to his absence from the ticket.

A divisive figure at home and abroad, Israels Benjamin Netanyahu has nonetheless proven a political master.

He became Israels youngest prime minister when he first won office in 1996, but was ousted just three years later by the opposition Labour party.

He returned to government as a minister with his right-wing party in 2002, eventually winning a second term as prime minister in 2009.

He has since earned the nickname King Bibi, fighting off a series of challengers despite the notoriously fractious and treacherous nature of Israeli politics.

Written off multiple times over corruption scandals and criticism for his brash and undiplomatic style, he is now Israels second longest-serving prime minister, and the only one ever to be re-elected three times in row.  AFPgspannu7@gmail.com

Karachi, May 10

Police in Pakistan have arrested the father and brother of an Italian woman of Pakistani-descent strangled in a suspected honour killing, police said on Thursday.

Rights groups say hundreds of women and girls are killed in Pakistan each year by family members angered at perceived damage to their honour, which may involve eloping, fraternising with men or any infringement of conservative values regarding women.

Sana Cheema, 25, who lived in the northern Italian city of Brescia, was visiting relatives in Pakistan when she died last month, after suffering from what her family initially said was a chronic ulcer and hypotension.

Social media activists in Pakistan spotlighted the case, citing Italian media reports that Cheema might have been killed by her family after she refused to marry a man they selected.

Police exhumed Cheemas body and a forensic report confirmed she had been strangled, a police official who investigated the case, Irfan-ul-Haq Sulehria, told Reuters.

He said police had arrested her father, Ghulam Mustafa, and her brother, Adnan Cheema.

The two are being held in a police lock-up and have not yet been brought before a court. They are due to appear in court when police complete their investigation, which may take weeks.

Italian media have said Cheema was in love with someone in Brescia whom she planned to marry, but her family did not approve.

Sana was in love with someone in Italy, Sulehria quoted the father as saying.

The family had suggested several alternative suitors, but Cheema declined, Sulehria told Reuters.

Reuters could not reach the family or a representative to seek comment. A telephone number for a relative appeared to have been turned off. The Italian embassy in Islamabad has not made any comment on the case.

In 2016, a British woman of Pakistani-origin was killed by her father and her ex-husband in the eastern city of Jhelum after she married someone she loved in England.

Pakistan adopted legislation against honour killings in 2016, introducing tough punishment and closing a legal loophole that had allowed killers to walk free if pardoned by family members.  Reutersmonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Islamabad, May 10

Pakistan is set to appoint a new ambassador in Washington as the US has announced travel restrictions on Pakistani diplomats across the country starting from Friday, the media reported on Thursday.

Pakistan's top envoy to the US Aizaz Chaudhry has announced to leave the post following the announcement of the restrictions.

On Wednesday, Chaudhary said hat the embassy had received the agreement for the new ambassador, Ali Jahangir Siddiqui, on Tuesday, paving the way for his appointment, reports Dawn news.

Siddiqui was nominated by the Prime Minister in March.

He said that instead of the mandatory six weeks, he has only requested for three weeks for winding up his engagements in the US capital.

"I am a civil servant and I obey orders from Islamabad," said Chaudhary. "I served my country with honour and dignity and I am ready to leave now." Chaudhary is expected to leave his job on May 29, only two days before an interim government is expected to take charge in Islamabad.

Siddiqui can stay for the next three months if the coming interim government agrees to keep him.

Under the travel ban, Pakistani staffers will have to seek prior permission from US authorities if they have to travel beyond the imposed 40 km radius, reports The News International.

IANSsanjiv@tribunemail.com

With his shock victory in Malaysias election, Mahathir Mohamad has pulled off a political second act that few expected, joining the select ranks of politicians who have revived their careers. The 92-year-old former strongman ruled Malaysia with an iron fist for more than two decades before stepping down, but returned to political life to challenge his own former party, snatching a surprise win.

Winston Churchill is revered for leading Britain from the verge of defeat to victory in World War II, but his political career was far from smooth sailing. Churchill was forced to resign from government in 1915 after the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, and his eventual return to the cabinet was contentious. Appointed PM in 1940, he won acclaim for his rousing leadership during the war, but suffered a shock defeat in the 1945 election. In 1951, he won a second term as prime minister, but resigned several years later as his health deteriorated.

Shinzo Abe became Japans youngest-ever PM when he took office in 2006 at the age of 52. The son of a former foreign minister and grandson of a former PM, Abe seemed destined for political office. But he resigned after just a year, hit by scandals and political disappointment and debilitated by health issues. In 2012, he made a shock political comeback, returning to office on a pledge to revive Japans economy. He has said he was encouraged to seek a path back to power by reading a biography of Churchill entitled: Never Despair.

Silvio Berlusconi, Italian media mogul, is perhaps the perennial political comeback kid, serving as PM three times, despite a string of scandals and legal woes. After a first two-year term, he returned to power in 2001. He lost power in 2006, but returned to office two years later, only to see his premiership go down in flames over sex scandals. A tax fraud conviction means he is now barred from office, but that didnt stop him seeking to become a kingmaker by backing a protege in March elections, but his gambit failed.

Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has nonetheless proven a political master. He became Israels youngest PM when he first won office in 1996, but was ousted just three years later by the opposition Labour party. He returned to government as a minister with his right-wing party in 2002, eventually winning a second term as PM in 2009. He has since earned the nickname King Bibi, fighting off a series of challengers. Written off multiple times over corruption scandals and criticism for his brash and undiplomatic style, he is now Israels second longest-serving PM.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Colombo, May 10

Sri Lanka on Thursday sharply hiked fuel prices by up to 130 per cent following pressure from the IMF which advised the government to reduce the heavy subsidies.

The prices of petrol and auto diesel that will come into effect from midnight have been increased to Rs 20 per litre and Rs 14 a litre, respectively, Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said.

Senaratne said the global oil price which fell to USD 45 a barrel had now gone up to over USD 74.

The price of diesel will rise, from Rs 95 to Rs 109 per litre, while petrol will now cost Rs 137 per litre, up from Rs 117.

The price of kerosene has been increased to Rs 101 per litre to stop the abuse of a big subsidy, Senaratne said.

But the poor income beneficiaries and fishermen would be given assistance, he said.

Citing losses, the Indian-Oil Corporation-owned Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC) had already increased the prices of fuel with effect from late March.

The Lanka IOC, which has around a one-third market share in the country, is the only private retailer of fuel in the island besides the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.

Sri Lanka had to secure a USD 1.5-billion IMF bailout two years ago and has struggled to limit huge losses at the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.

The International Monetary Fund has said it will only release the next tranche of its bailout loan if Sri Lanka implements a formula to adjust fuel prices.

There was an urgent appeal by Sri Lankas Central Bank, too, which warned that the government must ensure economic reforms. PTIrajivbhatia82@gmail.com

Washington, May 10

US President Donald Trump today announced that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore for a historic meeting to discuss the denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula.

Trump's announcement came hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned home from North Korea with three detained Americans.

Trump, who personally greeted the trio at the Andrews Air Force Base, praised Kim for their release ahead of their summit.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!," Trump tweeted.

The summit, which has been in the works since Trump accepted Kim's invitation to meet in March, will be the first ever meeting between a sitting US president and North Korean leader.

US officials had also considered holding the summit at the Korean demilitarized zone or in Mongolia, but ultimately settled on the city-state of Singapore as the location.

Pyongyang's weapons programme has seen tensions on the Korean Peninsula reach ratchet up in recent months, prompting fresh rounds of sanctions and fiery rhetoric from Trump and Kim. - PTImonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Andrews Air Force Base (US), May 10

US President Donald Trump welcomed three former US prisoners who landed at a military base near Washington on Thursday after being released by North Korea, thanking leader Kim Jong Un and sounding upbeat on a planned summit between the two.

The prisoners, freed after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to the North Korean capital, landed at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, where a giant US flag was suspended between ladders of two fire trucks on the

#WATCH US President Donald Trump receives three US citizens freed by North Korea, at an airbase near Washington pic.twitter.com/v6J2pfnNd6  ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2018



Trump and his wife boarded the plane, which arrived at around 2:40 a.m. (0640 GMT) for several minutes before the men stepped out, shaking hands with the president and waving to waiting media and military personnel.

"Frankly we didn't think it was going to happen and it did," Trump said after thanking Kim for releasing the men.

Trump said he really believed Kim wanted to bring North Korea "into the real world" and was hopeful of a major breakthrough at their planned meeting.

Details of the summit have yet to be announced, but one US official said Singapore had emerged as the most likely venue.

A White House spokeswoman said the three men would be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in nearby Maryland for further medical evaluation.

They are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul, detained in 2015; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST and was detained last year.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," the three said in a statement released by the State Department as their plane stopped over in Alaska.

"We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

North Korean state media said they were arrested either for subversion or "hostile acts" against the government.

Until now, the only American released by North Korea during Trumps presidency was Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old university student who returned to the United States in a coma last summer after 17 months of captivity and died days later.

Warmbier's death escalated U.S.-North Korea tensions, already running high at the time over Pyongyang's stepped-up missile tests.

Singapore likely

The release of the last U.S. detainees in North Korea appeared to signal an effort by Kim to improve the tone for the summit and followed his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut a nuclear bomb test site.

A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Singapore had emerged as the likeliest location for the planned summit after Trump ruled out holding it at the heavily fortified demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

Trump, who previously said Singapore was under consideration, said agreement had been reached on a date and venue and details would be announced within three days.

The release of the prisoners also gave Trump a chance to tout a diplomatic achievement soon after his decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal drew heavy criticism from European allies and others.

There was also no sign that Pompeo's visit had cleared up the question of whether North Korea would be willing to bargain away nuclear missiles that might threaten the United States.

Trump has credited his "maximum pressure" campaign for drawing North Korea to the table and has vowed to keep sanctions in place until Pyongyang takes concrete steps to denuclearize.

But former spy chief Kim Yong Chul, director of North Koreas United Front Department, said in a toast to Pompeo over lunch in Pyongyang: We have perfected our nuclear capability.

It is our policy to concentrate all efforts into economic progress ... This is not the result of sanctions that have been imposed from outside.

Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that while the release was not an explicit precondition for the Trump-Kim meeting, the North Koreans understood that they had to do it for any progress to be made.

"The North Koreans have still said nothing to indicate that they are willing to give up their nuclear weapons, not to mention permanently and verifiably dismantle their nuclear programmes," she said.

"We have no clarity about Kims intentions." Reuters.sanjiv@tribunemail.com

Washington, May 10

US President Donald Trump today announced that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore for a historic meeting to discuss the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.

Trumps announcement came hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned home from North Korea with three detained Americans.

Trump, who personally greeted the trio at the Andrews Air Force Base, praised Kim for their release ahead of their summit.

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!, Trump tweeted.

Trump has struck a cautiously optimistic tone in discussing the prospects of reaching a deal during his upcoming summit with Kim, saying he is hopeful a historic agreement can be brokered while also warning the talks could prove unfruitful.

But the President saw the release of the three Americans as yet another reason for optimism as he prepares for the summit. We are starting off on a new footing-I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful. A lot of very good things have happened, Trump said as he greeted the three former prisoners.

The Americans-Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim-were freed yesterday by North Korea while Pompeo was on a visit to Pyongyang to finalise the details of the Trump-Kim summit.

The summit, which has been in the works since Trump accepted Kims invitation to meet in March, will be the first ever meeting between a sitting US president and North Korean leader.

US officials had also considered holding the summit at the Korean demilitarized zone or in Mongolia, but ultimately settled on the city-state of Singapore as the location.  PTIMulti-temp trailers like this Utility 3000R are especially affected by trends such as more fresh delivery and food safety regs. Photo: Utility

The logistics industry changes as U.S. food consumption patterns change, says Mark Ehrlich, director, van product line at Wabash National. Equipment is changing as modes of transportation shift in response to the consumption trend.

Like the rest of the industry, refrigerated transporters are struggling to find and keep drivers. Meanwhile, outside factors range from regulations to the growing popularity of fresh convenience foods and e-commerce.

1. Last mile and fresh food

According to Statistica, U.S. annual online grocery sales amounted to about $14.2 billion in 2017 and are expected to rise to nearly $30 billion by 2021.

Paul Jarossy, director of marketing and new business development for Morgan Corp., says retailers are looking for lower-weight delivery vehicles that allow for drivers without a commercial drivers license. Smaller chassis like Ford Transits and Spinter vans are becoming more popular for that segment. It also means that the weight of the body is crucial. Morgans new home grocery body is based on its NexGen platform that uses weight-saving composite walls. That allows them to add more cargo capacity with a smaller chassis.

Its not just home delivery. Look at Sheetz, Jarossy says. This booming convenience store chain also offers burgers, pizzas, sandwiches, salads and other quick-service foods you can even order online for pickup. They move product from depot to stores, and there are a lot of stores in the delivery area, so they need to get in and out quickly. Even some of the medium-duty larger reefers are too big, so theyre looking for the smaller trucks.

2. Focusing on efficiency

For the refrigerated box itself and the refrigeration unit that keeps it cold, efficiency is more important than ever.

For instance, Carrier Transicold says its latest X4 units consume 5 to 22% less fuel than the models they succeeded, and Vector units consume up to 26% less fuel than previous models.

On top of that, electric standby allows reefer units to be plugged into AC power and run without the diesel engine while parked.

Carrier Transicolds David Brondum, director, product management and sustainability, notes that beyond simple fuel savings, freight efficiency encompasses how many tons of freight are moved with a given amount of fuel. Carrier has cut the weight in its current lineup, Brondum says. Unit weight savings can be greater than 350 pounds, allowing more cargo to be loaded. The North American Council on Freight Efficiency estimates the value of weight saved for a refrigerated van to be $2 to $5 per pound, based on  fuel savings and revenue generation potential. So a 350-pound weight savings may equate to a value of up to $1,750.

Solar power is another efficiency play. Third-party vendors offer add-on solar panels. ThermoKing offers ThermoLite panels, which can help lower fuel consumption and reduce emissions while extending battery life. We are finding that as customers adopt solar as a supplemental fleet power source, their reefers dont have to restart as often in order to charge batteries; in turn, our customers are saving fuel, explains Doug Lenz, Thermo Kings vice president product management, marketing and business development.

Wabashs new cold chain series refrigerated trailer uses proprietary molded structural composite with thermal technology (MSCT), which the company says improves thermal performance, saves weight, and improves damage resistance. Photo: Wabash

3. Driver factors & duty cycles

As many fleets move to shorter hauls to get drivers home more often, and as new electronic logging rules put more pressure on loading and unloading times, trailers are taking more of a beating, says Craig Bennett, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co.

You have more forklift traffic on the floors, hitting the walls, hitting the wear bands, and the rear end of the trailer that bangs into the docks. On top of that, he adds, everythings about speed because of [mandatory] ELDs get the trailer loaded and unloaded [fast]. So the forklift drivers  they dont really care that much about what happens to the wall or the floor. Theyre paid for speed, not delicacy.

Trailer makers are responding with more standard and optional features to help make trailers more durable. Utility, for instance, increased its trailer floor capacity, offers upgraded liners, and has made detail improvements to the back of the trailer.

4. Advances in materials

All these factors are leading some truck and body makers to develop different materials types of construction. Were always looking at better foaming techniques and materials, Jarossy says, noting that Morgans NexGen body uses a block foam, with the wall constructed like a sandwich. So theres no voids, so it has a very good R value.

Wabash National has introduced new molded structural composites, technology used in the aerospace, automotive, and marine industries. In van applications, were improving thermal efficiency by up to 28% while keeping weight comparable to a conventional reefer (20% lighter in some comparisons) and adding a 24,000-pound floor rating, Ehrlich says.

Body damage can allow water to get into the insulation, adding weight and decreasing the insulating ability, or causing materials to rot or corrode. Some of the things that typically have been known to be failure modes for reefers are the internal construction of the wall and the floor, notes Todd Eicher, engineering director and plant manager for Stoughton. Its PureBlue trailers platen-foamed sides and roof ensure that the trailer is fully insulated in 360 degrees, with no voids or uneven areas.

Eicher says new reinforced thermal plastics offer higher performance and are more durable than earlier plastics. Glass-reinforced composite materials are typically going to come at a little bit of a premium on paper compared to wood or metal, but the performance benefits tend to outweigh it.

Repair costs are another factor. Some newer designs offer great promise in terms of performance, Eicher says, but theres a lot to be said for maintaining a more conventional design that is going to be familiar to repair shops.

Bennett says in some applications, tougher duty cycles may call for less cutting-edge materials. At our test track in southern California, weve tested composite materials and plastics, and they dont perform as well as the current materials were using. The plastic cracks, particularly if the duty cycle is increased.

How those materials are put together makes a difference, he says. Utility uses a foam-in-place technique. The floor, walls, and roof are one continuous envelope of foam.

Anti-microbial liners like Great Danes Microban can address food safety regulations. Photo: Great Dane

5. Regulations

Maintaining and recording the cargo temperature per the shippers requirements has become a high priority for carriers since the Food Safety Modernization Act became law, says Chris Lee, Great Danes vice president of engineering. Great Dane, for instance, is implementing its integrated FleetPulse telematics system, which it says is the first of its kind. A number of third-party telematics systems are available.

Refrigeration units, of course, have been offering fleets real-time data via telematics for some time. All Precedent units now are equipped from the factory with Thermo Kings asset management system TracKing.

Fleets must also develop proper cleaning and washing procedures per the shippers requirements, Lee notes, adding that Great Dane offers antimicrobial solutions such as PunctureGuard and ThermoGuard reefer linings featuring Microban.

As Utilitys Bennett notes, You want an interior thats very cleanable. The hard places to clean are behind the air return bulkhead  ours easily hinges up to clean behind it and above it theres an air return chute in the ceiling that needs special attention when cleaning.

In addition, The government has introduced several environmental regulations and policies that are focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, says Wabashs Ehrlich. Federal GHG2 rules for trailers were put on hold by a court decision last fall. However, California is working on its own version of the GHG rules for trailers.

There is a lot of new technology available to address these trends, says Lee. However, it is important to remember that the technology must fit ones operations and should be vetted out by individual fleets. Technology will not provide ROI for a fleet if it does not work properly or fit the needs of its operations.facebook like button Tweet tweet button for twitter

Published May 10, 2017

Extra seating at Bayou Pointe Saturday for ULM graduation

The University of Louisiana Monroes Spring 2018 Commencement Ceremony is 10 a.m., Saturday, May 12, in Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

Special guest speaker will be Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Milton D. Moore III.

Due to the unprecedented number of graduates, Fant-Ewing Coliseum is expected to quickly fill. There will be 680 additional seats at Bayou Pointe where guests can watch the LIVESTREAM of the ceremony. The live stream will also be available on the ULM website, ulm.edu, for those unable to attend the ceremony.

Bayou Pointe opens at 8:30 a.m. and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Reserving or saving of seats is not allowed.

The address is 1 Warhawk Way, the website is ulm.edu/bayoupointe and phone number is 342-1900.

For seating and guest information, visit ulm.edu/commencement-info.

Parking:

Parking will be available in the green lot, Brown stadium lot, Malone stadium lot, and the grove. Lots will also be available on the west side of campus (ULM Library side) closest to Desiard Street and on Mitchell.

Northeast Drive will remain closed throughout the ceremony for disabled guest loading and unloading and VIP parking. These individuals are allowed to drop off anyone who is handicap; then park their vehicles in the designated parking lot in the triangle lot.

No parking on the grass except for parking in the Green lot and the Grove area. Also there will be no parking on the sidewalks.

Violators will be subject to vehicle tow if they are parked in these areas.

There will be a handicap loading and unloading area on the east side of the coliseum.

Guests are encouraged to remember:

Guest seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Reserving seats is not allowed. All markers placed in seats in an effort save them will be removed.

Please find a seat upon entering the Coliseum. Standing in walkways or entryways, on stairs, or along the handrails of the upper concourse during the ceremony is not permitted.

Use of air horns and other noisemakers is not allowed during the commencement ceremony.

To ensure that every graduate's name can be heard when announced, guests are asked not to make any noise other than that of normal applause as degrees are awarded.

Guests are not allowed on the floor of the arena to take photographs.

For our disabled or mobility-impaired guests:

Disabled/infirmed seating is provided on the arena floor of Fant-Ewing Coliseum. All seating is provided on a first come, first served basis (i.e., no saving of seats or spaces).

Access to the arena floor is through the ramp on the east side of Fant-Ewing Coliseum. Seating passes are not provided.

Drivers may drop off disabled/infirmed guests on the east ramp of the Coliseum (ULM Recreational Services/Activity Center side) prior to the ceremony before parking in one of

the nearby parking lots. Parking passes are not provided.

One adult is allowed to sit with each disabled/infirmed guest on the arena floor.

Unless disabled, children must be seated in the upper level of the Coliseum.

Any service animal must be identified as such by its harness/vest, card, or other appropriate form of identification. Upon entering the Coliseum floor, the disabled guest must notify Commencement personnel of the animal's presence.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, all guests in the floor-level seating area are asked to allow graduates to exit the floor before moving toward the ramp exit.| By David Kohn

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, announced that the school will receive $20 million in philanthropic support from one of its most distinguished, longtime board members and benefactors, Robert E. Fischell, ScD.

The gift, which will be used to transform UMSOM into a major center for bioengineering innovation, is part of Fischells longstanding commitment to integrating the fields of medicine and engineering for the benefit of society.

The gift was announced May 5 at the 2018 School of Medicine Gala. Click here to read about the gala, view gala videos, and browse a photo gallery.

Robert and Susan Fischell are honored by Dean Reece and other dignitaries at the 2018 School of Medicine Gala.

Increasingly, the solutions to our most complex health problems will be found at the intersections of medicine, engineering, and business, said Reece, who is also executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor. This generous gift from Dr. Fischell will elevate the UMSOM as a national leader in making innovative discoveries and developing new medical technology in ways that will have direct benefit to patients around the world.

Fischell, known for inventing life-saving medical devices, is one of the nations most innovative and successful technology entrepreneurs. In 2016, he received the National Medal for Technology and Innovation from President Obama at the White House, the highest honor for technological innovation bestowed by the president of the United States. In 2015, he was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors. He holds more than 200 patents, including nearly 30 patents on orbiting spacecraft, and is credited with pioneering the modern era of space satellites. Fischell has invented or helped to invent several important medical devices, including coronary artery stents, the implantable heart defibrillator, the implantable insulin pump, a device to prevent migraine headaches, and a device to prevent death from heart attacks.

Robert Fischell is truly a Renaissance Man for the 21st century, Reece said. The School of Medicine is deeply grateful to him for this transformational gift. We are so fortunate to have his wisdom, experience, and entrepreneurial spirit at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

UMB President Jay A. Perman, MD, said, Dr. Fischell exemplifies all of the qualities and values that we hold dearly at UMB. We are forever thankful for his long-term support and service to our institution.

The gift will be used to establish the Robert E. Fischell Center for Biomedical Innovation at UMSOM and provide funding for the school's new 450,000-square-foot research building, Health Sciences Facility III. It also will provide critical support for research funds and endowed professorships at the Fischell Center.

We are absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to support the UMSOM in this way, Fischell said. Our specific purpose for the new center is to help expand the UMSOMs capacity for biomedical engineering so that it will produce new technologies and devices that will help treat our most critical and chronic diseases.

For years, Fischell and his wife, Susan R. Fischell, have generously supported the school with major donations and gifts, including the endowment of the first deans professorship in honor of Reece. Claire Fraser, PhD, director of the Institute for Genome Sciences, was invested as the inaugural Deans Endowed Professor of Medicine.

Fischell earned a BS degree in mechanical engineering at Duke University before relocating to Maryland to work at the U.S. Naval Ordnance Lab in 1951 and then the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. In 1953, he earned a masters degree in physics at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP), and in 1996, the university awarded him an honorary doctorate degree.

Fischell is an active member of the University of Maryland community, serving on the Board of Visitors of the A. James Clark School of Engineering at UMCP. His support helped establish the Fischell Department of Bioengineering in 2006 and the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices at UMCP, which was inaugurated in 2016.

Fischell is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is the recipient of many major honors, including Inventor of the Year for the United States in 1983, induction into the Space Technology Hall of Fame and the Clark Schools Innovation Hall of Fame, and an honorary doctorate for humane letters from Johns Hopkins University in 2008.

Fischell is known for inventing life-saving medical devices like the one shown in the video below.| By Mary T. Phelan

A gift of $10 million from Bill and Joanne Conway, through their Bedford Falls Foundation, will enable the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) to provide scholarships to nearly 350 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees and aid in addressing the states nursing workforce needs. Maryland is one of four states in the nation anticipated to experience a shortage of 10,000 or more registered nurses by 2025.

This transformational gift, the largest in UMSONs history, will be disbursed over a five- year period. The Conways have pledged more than $15 million to UMSON during the past three years. Their most recent gift is one of the largest outright scholarship gifts to any school of nursing in the country.

What the Conways understand better than most is not only that Maryland needs nurses, but that Maryland needs nurses now, said University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President Jay A. Perman, MD. Maryland is among just a handful of states facing the countrys worst shortages in nursing. The Conways extraordinarily generous gift will begin remediating these shortages. And ultimately, what that means is that the care we provide to Marylanders will improve: Patient outcomes will improve, complex care will be delivered with fewer errors, well shorten in-patient hospital stays. And so, this gift is really an investment in the health and safety of all of Marylands citizens.

The Conways latest gift will fund 341 scholarships, bringing the total number of students benefiting from Conway Scholarships to more than 470. Two previous gifts, in April 2015 and January 2017, to date have funded 106 scholarships for undergraduate, masters, and doctoral nursing students at UMSONs locations in Baltimore and at the Universities at Shady Grove.

Bill and Joanne Conways unwavering commitment to support nursing students is transformative for the University of Maryland School of Nursing, said UMSON Dean Jane M. Kirschling, PhD, RN, FAAN. Combined with two previous gifts, this exceptional third gift will mean that more than 470 undergraduate and graduate students will benefit from full scholarships to defray their educational expenses. The Conway Scholars, some of whom have already graduated, are forever grateful for the unprecedented level of financial support and are deeply committed to fulfilling Mr. Conways vision that the Scholars always demonstrate caring and competence in the nursing care that they provide to the individuals, families, and communities they serve.

In addition, the latest gift funds Conway Scholarships for Registered Nurse-to-Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN-to-BSN) students from the University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus and from the University of Maryland Prince Georges Hospital Center. These students will complete prerequisites for baccalaureate nursing education at their local community college, the costs for which will also be covered, and will then matriculate to UMSON as Conway Scholars upon successful completion of the prerequisites.

We are incredibly honored and appreciative of the Conways demonstration of generosity, which will be invaluable in advancing the expertise and careers of dozens of nurses who are privileged to care for our patients at UMMC Midtown and UM Prince Georges Hospital Center," said Lisa Rowen, DNSc, RN, CENP, FAAN, chief nurse executive, University of Maryland Medical System; chief nursing officer, University of Maryland Medical Center; and UMSON associate professor. This gift gives our nurses an incredible opportunity to pursue additional training and knowledge that directly benefits our patients while also furthering their nursing careers.

The Conway Scholarship covers in-state tuition and fees. Post-baccalaureate recipients must also commit to serving as a clinical preceptor, teaching as a clinical instructor, or securing a full-time faculty position within three years of graduation. Additional information on the Conway Scholarship and its requirements may be found at www.nursing.umaryland.edu/conway.

The Conways decided several years ago that their philanthropy should help people who have demonstrated financial need to receive the education necessary to obtain jobs. Bill Conway is co-founder and co-executive chairman of the Carlyle Group, in Washington, D.C. The Conways are trustees of the couples Bedford Falls Foundation, which has bestowed significant nursing scholarships previously in the Mid-Atlantic region.

The University of Maryland School of Nursing, founded in 1889, is one of the oldest and largest nursing schools in the United States and is in the top 10 nationally for all of its ranked masters and DNP specialties. Enrolling nearly 1,900 students in its baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral programs, the School develops leaders who shape the profession of nursing and impact the health care environment.

For additional information, contact: Mary T. Phelan, senior media relations specialist, 410-703-3803 (o), 443-615-5810 (cell), maryphelan@umaryland.edu.

Eritrean mother Eden and her baby son leave a detention centre in Libya, bound for an evacuation flight to Niger.  UNHCR

TRIPOLI, Libya  Pregnant and fearing for her life, Eden* crammed into a boat on the southern shores of the Mediterranean with hopes of reaching safety in Europe. But when the overcrowded vessel flipped offshore, the 25-year-old Eritrean found herself instead in detention in Libya.

Held for months in poor conditions in Misrata, she and her newborn baby boy were among 132 vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers flown out of Tripoli to Niger today, after UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, resumed life-saving evacuation flights after a break of two months.

Get the days top refugee stories delivered to your inbox. Subscribe to our daily newsletter

"My only hope was to reach Europe so that my baby would see the light in a country where he could be protected and safe, said Eden, as she fidgeted with her fingers at an airport in Tripoli, overcome by the many sensations she was living. Today my prayers have been heard."

UNHCR began the emergency evacuations in November as part of a broader effort to address the complex movement of migrants and refugees along the Mediterranean routes, several of which converge in Libya.

"This programme is really about saving vulnerable individuals from further harm.

Many refugees and asylum-seekers are detained in harsh conditions in Libya for long periods of time. At present, UNHCR estimates that there are 5,700 individuals held in official detention centres, of whom 2,637 are concern to UNHCR.

Refugees in detention in Libya are languishing in extreme conditions that threaten their life and wellbeing, said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCRs Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation. So this programme is really about saving vulnerable individuals from further harm.

The flight, which departed Tripoli on Thursday morning, was the ninth since the evacuations began. The programme was suspended in March following concerns from the government of Niger that onward departures for resettlement in other countries were not keeping up with the pace of arrivals into Niger.

Eritrean refugee Simon, 38, waits at Tripoli airport for an evacuation flight to Niger after months in detention in Libya.  UNHCR/Photographer:Sufian Said

Aware of the difficult conditions that refugees are enduring in detention, authorities in Niamey generously agreed to the resumption of evacuations in May, offering additional spaces to host vulnerable refugees from Libya.

Along with Eden, 38-year-old Eritrean Simon also traveled to Niger. As a single man, he faced dangers en route to Libya including kidnap and forced labour. Many detainees prayed for days to be part of UNHCR evacuations, as it's the only hope we have to be released," he said before boarding the flight. "Today I am lucky to have been selected and departing to Niger where I am confident many opportunities will arise."

There are currently some 605,226 persons of concern to UNHCR in Libya, including 184,612 internally displaced people, 368,583 returnees and 52,031 registered refugees and asylum-seekers.

"Many detainees prayed for days to be part of UNHCR evacuations."

For the flight to happen, UNHCRs team in Libya had worked around the clock. A team visited different detention centres to register refugees, identifying the most vulnerable like Eden and Simon, and liaising with Libyan authorities to ensure that those selected for the flight had their exit permits ready to depart.

A logistics team meanwhile contracted the aircraft and arranged the refugees' transport from detention in Misrata, passing through several check points to reach Tripoli. Staff ensured blankets and other basic items such as clothing and shoes were also made available before travel.

See also: Somali torture survivor reunited with her sons in Niger

This was the charter flights second attempt to fly refugees and asylum-seekers out of Libya. On Tuesday, the aircraft had to turn back to Tripoli after encountering technical problems. The passengers had to spend an additional night in detention.

After reaching Niger, Eden and the other evacuated refugees will get another shot at finding long-term solutions, this time in the conditions of safety that they were desperately looking for when they left their countries of origin.

On arrival in Niamey, UNHCR met the refugees, taking them to transit guesthouses or 'cases de passage.' While solutions, including resettlement, are sought for them, they will receive food, psychosocial support and medical care, and will be able to take part in recreational activities such as sports, language, art and music classes.

With the resumptions of the evacuations from Libya to Niger, UNHCR hopes that many more refugees will find safety and, like Eden and Simon, have a new chance at life.

*Refugees' names changed for protection reasons

(With additional reporting by Louise Donovan in Niamey, Niger)Refugee youth delegate Laura Elizabeth Valencia Restrepo, 21, from Colombia, is attending a high-level meeting in Geneva devoted to finding sustainable solutions for refugee children and youth.  UNHCR/Jean-Marc Ferre

GENEVA, Switzerland  For Mohammed Badran, a 24-year-old Syrian who found safety in the Netherlands, being a refugee is not an identity, but an experience that can be used to bring communities together.

When we are only perceived as vulnerable beneficiaries of assistance, the opportunity to have a say in decisions that affect us is taken away from us, Mohammed told delegates this week at talks on a new comprehensive refugee response that is being developed by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. We need to rethink what it means to be a refugee and to include this vision in the compact."

To succeed, the global compact must be owned by refugees.

Mohammed was among young refugees who brought a fresh perspective to the talks. With the help of other Syrian refugees, Mohammed founded the NGO Syrian Volunteers in the Netherlands (SYVNL), which already has more than 600 members working to bring Syrian refugees and local Dutch communities closer. For him, refugees should not only be included in consultations on the compact, but also in the planning, monitoring and evaluation.

For it to succeed, the global compact must be owned by refugees, he said.

Mohammed is also part of the Global Youth Advisory Council (GYAC) that was formed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. GYAC delegates have spent months conducting consultations with refugee and host community youth, community leaders and government authorities to gather feedback on initial drafts of the global compact.

UNHCR Global Youth Advisory Council (Producer, Sylvie Francis / camera, Boris Weber)

As the number of people forced to flee their homes continues to climb, the compact aims to transform the way the international community responds to refugee crises. UNHCR was given the task of developing a global compact on refugees by the UN General Assembly in 2016, and it is expected to be adopted by the UN General Assembly at the end of 2018.

Threatened with female genital mutilation and forced marriage, Mariama Saran Sow fled Guinea at age 17. She found safety in Germany but has struggled to cope with her trauma.

I suffered a great deal of violence at home, but I feel like psycho-social support for refugees who have gone through traumatic experiences is still missing, she said. Children need to participate in activities when they first arrive to take their minds off their worries. Women also need safe spaces to talk about abuses they may have suffered. When we arrive, more often than not we do not speak the language of the host country. We need women interpreters with whom we can talk.

Safia Ibrahimkhel, 25, is a youth delegate from Afghanistan. She teaches English and computer skills to female students in an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan.  UNHCR/Jean-Marc Ferre

Simon Marot Touloung, 25, from South Sudan, says youth delegates have the responsibility to advise UNHCR on how best to work with and support young refugees.  UNHCR/Jean-Marc Ferre

Refugee youth Mariama Saran Sow, 25, is from Guinea. Threatened with female genital mutilation and forced marriage, she fled to Germany in 2010.  UNHCR/Jean-Marc Ferre

Other delegates also stressed the importance of working closely with host communities.

Host communities and local authorities are the first responders helping refugees, said Simon Marot Touloung, who fled South Sudan as an unaccompanied minor in 2000 and recently completed his bachelors degree thanks to a DAFI scholarship. He founded the African Youth Action Network, a refugee-led organization supporting coexistence initiatives in Kampala and South Sudan. In Uganda, local communities agreed to give parts of their land to South Sudanese refugees, as a way to say thank you for when South Sudan helped Ugandans in the 1970s.

Host communities are more welcoming to refugees when they do not view them as competition."

Denis Adhoch, a 30-year-old Kenyan, said host communities must be recognized for their generosity and given additional support.

Urban refugees live in informal settlements alongside locals who also struggle to make ends meet, he explained. When refugees receive services that locals cannot also benefit from, the perception that refugees receive preferential treatment and resentment may grow.

Through his work in Kalobeyei  a settlement next to Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya  Denis has seen how integrated services, that enable both refugees and host communities to access education, health, water and youth services, can help to facilitate integration.

Host communities are more welcoming to refugees when they do not view them as competition for the same resources, he said.

We greatly value the input of young refugees and we need to look at how to make sure the voices of youth refugees and host communities are translated into global policies, said Volker Turk, UNHCRs Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, who co-moderated the event alongside 21-year-old Colombian Laura Elizabeth Valencia Restrepo from the GYAC.

UNHCR is now midway through the formal consultations, which conclude in July and aim to ensure that the global compact on refugees can be adopted by consensus.

Laura, who fled to Ecuador in 2007, knows how vital refugees themselves will be to its success. We are part of the solution and we have the skills to be part of that, she said.UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, evacuated 132 vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers out of Tripoli and flew them to Niamey, the capital city of Niger, on Thursday. This is the first group of refugees airlifted out of Libya since the UNHCR humanitarian evacuation programme was temporarily halted in early March, following concerns from the government of Niger that onward departures for resettlement in other countries were not keeping up with the pace of arrivals into Niger.

Refugees in detention in Libya are languishing in extreme conditions that threaten their life and wellbeing, said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCRs Special Envoy for the Central Mediterranean Situation. So this programme is really about saving vulnerable individuals from further harm. The Government of Niger has generously offered additional space for up to 1,500 refugees in the Emergency Transit Mechanism run by UNHCR in Niamey with financial support from the European Union. We now urgently need to find resettlement solutions for these refugees in other countries.

This was the charter flights second attempt to fly refugees and asylum-seekers out of Libya. On Tuesday, the flight had to turn back to Tripoli mid-air, after facing technical difficulties. Refugees and asylum-seekers had to spend an additional night in detention.

Additional evacuations are being planned and will include refugees held in different detention centres in Libya.

Since November, UNHCR, with the support of the European Union and Libyan authorities, has evacuated 1,474 vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers, including single mothers, families and unaccompanied and separated children, out of detention in Libya, and relocated them to Niger (1,152), Italy (312) and Romania (10).

In addition, UNHCR has processed 477 cases for resettlement directly from Libya to third countries, and continues to call for additional resettlement places as a secure, life-saving and durable solution for vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers in Libya.

These initiatives are part of a range of measures needed to offer viable alternatives to the dangerous journeys undertaken by refugees and migrants along the Central Mediterranean route.

For more information on this topic, please contact:UNISPACE+50 High-level Segment

20 - 21 June 2018

M Building, Vienna International Centre, Vienna, Austria

Background

The UNISPACE+50 High-level Segment is an opportunity for United Nations Member States and Permanent Observers to reflect on the outcomes of the three UNISPACE conferences and consider the future of international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, as well as the work and mandates of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA). Member States are expected to adopt a UNISPACE+50 resolution on 20 June, which will be presented to the General Assembly in the form of a resolution for consideration at its seventy-third session in 2018.

The UNISPACE+50 high-level segment forms part of the 61 st session of COPUOS. From 22 to 29 June, COPUOS will revert to its regular session.

The List of Speakers, relevant documents and other information are available on the main webpage of COPUOS.

Participation

In accordance with the decision by the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (A/72/20):

(a) All States Members of the United Nations are to be invited by the Secretariat to participate in the high-level segment at the level of Head of State or Government, the ministerial level or at the otherwise highest possible level;

(b) The broader space community, including United Nations entities, other international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and non-governmental entities, including industry and the private sector, will be able to attend the UNISPACE+50 high-level segment, to be held on 20 and 21 June 2018, in accordance with established rules and practices of the Committee.

United Nations Member States and Permanent Observers are kindly asked to convey their delegation's details to the Office for Outer Space Affairs by Note Verbale.

Practical information for participants is available here. A list of suggested hotels in Vienna is available here.

Agenda at-a-glance

Wednesday 20 June 2018 Thursday 21 June 2018 10:00-13:00 Opening of the 61 st session of COPUOS Adoption of the agenda and election of the Officers of the Committee Statements by outgoing and incoming Chairs of the Committee Opening of the UNISPACE+50 High-level Segment Endorsement of the UNISPACE+50 resolution Member States' statements Member States' statements continue. 13:00- 15:00 Lunch break Ceremonial events Press conference UN-Space Panel, Inter-agency Meeting for Heads of United Nations Entities 15:00-18:00 Member States' statements continue. Member States' statements continue.

Friday 22 June: COPUOS regular session resumes in the M Building.

More information

Please contact us at oosa[@]un.orgUNISPACE+50 will be open to media.

It will be a unique opportunity to witness international space cooperation under the umbrella of the United Nations, and to interview people from throughout the global space community, including non-space-faring and emerging space nations, in one place in Vienna.

A press conference is currently scheduled for 2.15pm on Wednesday 20 June in room M4.

A media advisory on the UNISPACE+50 Symposium is available here, and a media advisory on the UNISPACE+50 High-level Segment is available here.

Media representatives who wish to attend UNISPACE+50, and who are not accredited to the VIC, should write to press[at]unvienna.org.

All other media-related enquiries, including requests for interviews with UNOOSA Director Simonetta Di Pippo and United Nations Champion for Space Scott Kelly, should be directed to daria.brankin[at]un.org.May 10 2018

An ambitious overhaul of Kilmartin Museum is on track after the heritage project secured a 3.2m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to transform it into a national centre for archaeology.An extension designed by Reiach & Hall Architects will link two existing museum buildings in order to better tell the story of Kilmartin Glen and better care for the artefacts and archaeology under its care while extending its community outreach and education role.An enlarged exhibition area will allow a greater collection of objects to be showcased while accommodating double the number of visitors and tripling the number of people it can offer, bringing a 5,000 year history of human occupation in the area to life.Dr Sharon Webb, director and curator at Kilmartin said: The award means weve nearly reached our fundraising target, bringing the implementation of the project that much closer.The project as a whole will enable us to properly care for the artefacts in our collections, and tell their stories interwoven with the sites and monuments in which they were found, as well as provide massive improvements to the visitor experience and the museums education service.Subject to additional fundraising to close a 100k shortfall the museum could move on-site in January next year to complete by summer 2020.May 10 2018

A chorus of criticism has convinced South Ayrshire Council to go back to the drawing board in its bid to build a flagship Keppie-designed headquarters on a sensitive waterfront site.No less than 364 objections were registered for the contentious build, which would have seen a four storey office block rise on the banks of the River Ayr, centerpiece of a 30m masterplan for land bounded by High Street, medieval Auld Brig and the Victorian New Bridge.Amongst those to thwart the project were the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland which expressed the view that the proposed scheme did not meet the standards of high quality architectural design and a detrimental effect on the towns skyline.Such sentiments were born out of divergence from an earlier masterplan by Niall McLaughlin Architects which called for a double-gabled frontage to address the river and direct access from the High Street.Architect Patrick Lorimer complained that No effort has been made to relate the new elevations to the existing, adding that local townscape characteristics have been completely ignored.Based on past precedent set by its office space for its West Dunbartonshire Council offices in Dumbarton Keppie dropped smaller attic levels in favour of screened rooftop plant and offered only a secondary access pend to the east  although provision would have been made to open an additional High Street entrance at a later date.Such sentiments led councilors to unanimously object to their own new home to allow a reappraisal of their approach.Ninh Binh Nitrogenous Fertiliser plant is one of the 10 project slipping further

According to newswire Vnexpress, after a year of implementing solutions in loss-making projects following a request from the National Assembly, with the exception of Lao Cai iron and steel plant and DAP 1 Haiphong fertiliser plant which managed to turn profit, the projects racked up VND18.67 trillion ($819.8 million) of accumulated losses, up VND2.55 trillion ($111.9 million) on-year.

With this massive loss, it will be difficult to pay principal and interest to Vietnam Development Bank (VDB) and other lenders.

Project loans from local banks amounted to VND41.8 trillion ($1.83 billion), including VND16.9 trillion ($1.83 billion) from VDB. Foreign loans guaranteed by the government totalled VND6.6 trillion and were used to fund Dung Quat Shipbuilding Industry Company Limited, Ninh Binh fertiliser plant, and Phuong Nam paper pulp mill.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) said the projects outstanding loans were still high, especially those borrowed by Dinh Vu polyester fibre factory, Quy Xa iron ore mining and quarrying project, and Lao Cai iron and steel plant, as well as Ha Bac fertiliser plant.

As of December 31, 2017, the 12 inefficient projects total equity decreased by VND4 trillion ($175.6 million) against 2016.

According to MoIT, the total initial investment in these 12 projects was some VND43.7 trillion ($1.91 billion), which was later adjusted to VND63.6 trillion ($2.79 billion) (an increase of 45.65 per cent). Of this, equity was VND14.4 trillion ($632.3 million), accounting for 22.56 per cent, while loans made up 74.6 per cent with about VND47.5 trillion ($2.08 billion). The remaining 2.84 per cent came from other sources.

At present, Phuong Nam pulp mill is on sale, and Bio-Ethanol Dung Quat plant has suspended operations after defaulting on its debts.

Besides, Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel plant-phase 2 is in limbo. Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel JSC (Tisco), the investor of Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel plant, considered taking Chinese contractor China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC) to court to deal with the overlong dispute over an engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) contract once and for all.

The remaining projects have either maintained or resumed operations.Tourism co-operation between Vietnam and Cuba has great potential.-VNS Photo Hoang Nam

Cuba is famous in Vietnam and HCM City as one of the best tourism destinations in the world, Le Truong Hien Hoa, director of the citys Tourism Promotion Centre, said.

Co-operation to promote tourism is strong between the two nations, especially in HCM City where many tourism promotion activities are undertaken.

Ho Xuan Lam, deputy director of HCM City ITPC, the organiser of the seminar, said: The seminar will provide useful information to the business community to invest in the Cuban tourism industry and introduce Cubas charms to Vietnamese tourists.

Indira Lopez Arguelles, Cubas consul general in HCM City, said: The Cuban tourism industry began to see strong growth soon after Cuba and the US had announced the establishment of diplomatic relations in December, 2014.

Lifting of the embargo was needed for the Cuban private sector to develop strongly, and it is a foundation to promote economic reform.

She summed up the various policies related to investment in Cuba, such as visa procedures, tourism development policies, incentives for Vietnamese companies that invest in hotels and restaurants, resorts, healthcare services, spas, logistics, supermarkets, and convenience stores.

Cuba has recently started to open up its economy to foreign trade and investment in ports, railway and airports, information technology infrastructure, and mining.

It has prioritised sectors like food processing, and seeks to promote exports of medical services and pharmaceutical products.

Tourism is now its fastest-growing industry and earner of the second highest amount of foreign exchange.

Cuba has beautiful and untouched beaches and a rich history.

Last year a record 4.7 million tourists visited the country, fetching revenues of $3 billion. The country is believed to have the potential to become the second biggest tourism destination in Central America behind only Mexico.

The island nation has 65,000 hotel rooms and 17,000 private hostel rooms for tourists.

It plans to build more hotels and hostels, targeting a total of 108,000 rooms by 2030, and expand Havana airport.

This is a big opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises in the real estate, restaurant, hotel and hostel businesses, Hoa said.

Viet Nam and Cuba established diplomatic relations in 1960, and bilateral ties have always been exceptionally close and warm.

Economic, trade and tourism ties have grown rapidly in recent times.

The seminar was attended by executives from 80 enterprises in the tourism, restaurant, hotel and resort, spa, and logistics industries.After the scandal brought out, DeAura spas have been renamed to Lily, Aphrodite Eros, Camellia, and Venus

DeAura swindles customers to sign loan agreement

DeAura set foot in Vietnam just two years ago, during which a lot of scandals point out dishonest business practices. Dozens of customers have visited the company headquarters to ask for a refund on DeAura's skincare products.

Nguyen Thi Hoi coming from Thach That district (Hanoi) was very tired and said that after clicking Like on facebook by accident, she was invited to try DeAuras beauty services and put into loan trap of VND43 million ($1,900).

After trying the product on half of her face, she was invited to buy a set of skincare products at the preferential price of VND43 million ($1,900) (the original price was VND73 million$3,200). Hoi denied numerous times because she was unemployed at the time.

However, DeAura officers enticed her with sweet words that she should spend only VND50,000 ($2.2) a day to become more beautiful. She was offered to take the set right after trying and could return if she did not like it. DeAura gave out a series of papers to pass off as a purchase agreement.

She did not let me read it, I could only sign without reading it and finding out that it was a loan agreement. I thought it was a present and that I only have to pay if I come to the spa and use their services. If I knew it was a nearly $2,000 loan agreement, I would not have signed. I have tried to return the brand new product set, but could not, recounted Hoi.

Numerous DeAura customers said that they did not know that they signed a loan agreement. They only found out that each of them had just borrowed nearly $2,000 after opening the box at home.

A customer called Le Thi Nhung (Hanoi) said: When I arrived at DeAura Spa, I was led into a private room and drank the water of the spa, then some staff came in to persuade me to sign the contract. I was disoriented and did whatever they told. When I wanted to return the products, they asked me to pay a penalty of VND7 million ($300).

According to feedback from numerous customers, their skin looked better after the first treatment at DeAura Spa, but treatment at home (using the same products) did not bring results, some even contracted acne.

Tran Thuy Linh (Hanoi) said that her face was swollen and pimples came out all over her face for one month. She has a certificate from the hospital, but DeAura has not allowed her to return the products and asked confirmation from a doctor appointed by DeAura.

The FE Credit card of a customer named Bui Thi Lan, who has to pay over VND1.8 million ($80) a month for 24 months to pay off her total debt of VND43 million ($2,000)

Thousands of customers trapped

Most DeAura customers told VIR that they signed the loan agreement without understanding what it was. They also said that DeAura in collaboration with a consumer finance company misrepresented the agreement and trapped them to sign loan contracts, essentially committing fraud.

On the social networks, numerous groups named DeAura scam have been established with thousands of members joining. This may be one of the reasons why DeAura had to be renamed. The parent company was renamed to Venesa in last March, while its spas also took on the names Lily, Aphrodite Eros, Camellia, Freyja, and Venus.

23,000 people purchased DeAuras products. However, many of these are unemployed, freelancers or workers with very low incomes (VND2-3 million, around $100 per month). However, in the loan contract, their incomes were noted to exceed VND10 million ($440) to meet the loan conditions.

Banking experts said that DeAura and a financial company under Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) have violated moral principles and Circular No.43/2016/TT-NHNN dated December 30, 2016 regulating consumer lending by finance companies.

However, according to lawyer Truong Thanh Duc, chairman of Basico, it is very hard to penalise DeAura.

Regardless of whether DeAura and the consumer finance firm cheated or provided unclear advices, customers cannot refuse after signing the contract, he said.

He also warned consumers to keep an eye out and educate themselves as firms like DeAura are spreading fast. State agencies also need to closely monitor business activities and alerts customers for similar cases.

Last month, the Vietnam Competition Agency (VCA) issued a penalty to DeAura Vietnam for VND400 million ($17,620) for violating regulations on cosmetics distribution and business.EVNGenco 2 to be make up before IPO to lure investors

Fluctuating profit

Not unlike EVNGenco 3, whose IPO was a massive failure (it only sold 7.4 million of the 267 million shares launched), EVNGenco 2 operates in the state-owned sector with great development potential.

Alongside subsidiaries fully owned by EVN and accounting units that are dependent on the parent company (Can Tho Thermal Power Company, Quang Tri Hydroelectricity Company, Song Bung Hydroelectricity Company), EVNGenco 2 owns 50 per cent of the charter capital of companies like Haiphong Thermal Power Company, Pha Lai Thermal Power Company, and Thac Mo Hydroelectricity Company.

In addition, EVNGenco 2 is in charge of many energy investment projects, including Hai Phong Thermal Power II, O Mon Thermal Power 1, 2, 3, 4, Trung Son Hydroelectricity, and Expanded Thac Mo Hydroelectricity, among others.

Although EVNGenco 2 generates increasing revenue, its profit has steadily decreased between 2014 and 2017. Additionally, the problem is further worsened by exchange rate losses.

For an energy company such as EVNGenco 2, owning subsidiaries and affiliated companies operating in various fields ranging from hydroelectricity to thermal power reduced risks caused by bad weather or production activity, thus sustaining the companys growth rate over 2014-2017.

Specifically, EVNGenco 2s revenue increased from VND20.4 trillion ($896.07 million) in 2014 to VND20.8 trillion ($913.6 million) in 2015, VND21.06 trillion ($925.06 million) in 2016, and VND21.82 trillion ($958.4 million) in 2017.

However, between 2014 and 2016, in stark contrast with revenue growth, profit decreased sharply. Notably, in 2014, EVNGenco reported a huge profit of VND1.58 trillion ($69.4 million), which fell by 50 per cent on-year in 2015 and another 50 per cent in 2016.

The companys profit finally increased in 2017, turning around the two-year trend. Notably, in 2017 EVNGenco 2 reported VND2.7 trillion ($118.59 million) in profit.

Along with concerns about unstable business results, exchange rate risk is another factor making investors hesitant to invest in EVNGenco 2.

The firm reported a loss from exchange rate differences in three consecutive years. Notably, in 2015, EVNGenco 2 documented a loss of VND788.2 billion, which increased to VND885.9 billion ($38.9 million) in 2016. Likewise, 2017 saw a continuation of this trend, despite slight improvements compared to previous years.

Thus, the burden of huge, continuous exchange rate losses makes it difficult for EVNGenco 2 to generate profit. Furthermore, high financial costs have eroded EVNGenco 2s profit over the past few years.

Improvements after EVNGenco 1?

After the failure of EVNGenco 3s IPO, EVN is taking steps to restructure its subsidiaries EVNGenco 1 and 2 to ensure the success of their IPOs.

Notably, as EVNGeco 1 is running losses before its IPO due to exchange rate losses, huge financial costs, and dependency on weather conditions, in 2017 EVN handed over Nghi Son Thermal Power Factory to EVNGenco 1. Thus, EVNGenco 1 could add VND2.84 trillion ($124.7 million) in profit generated by the factory to its financial statement. Thanks to this, EVNGenco 1 was helped out of the red.

EVNs handing over of the lucrative Nghi Son Thermal Power Factory to EVNGenco 1 has helped to improve the companys financial situation prior to its IPO. It is thus not unlikely that EVN will utilise the same method to up EVNGenco 2s game before the upcoming IPO.

Need for more transparency

Ever since the announcement of the upcoming IPO, many investors have expressed interest in EVNGenco 2s activities. However, the company website only displays its financial report for the years 2015- 2017, with no records from previous years.

Regarding the equitisation progress, intelligence from EVNGenco 2 shows that as of March 23, following the State Audit Office of Vietnam's Document No.439/2018 on the editing of audit reports, on March 28, EVNs board of executives has passed Document No.114/EVN-Exec on EVNGenco 2s enterprise value and transferred this information to the equitisation supervising committee for consideration and approval so as to report to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

Within the second trimester, EVNGenco 2 is continuing efforts to cooperate with related parties to perfect the proposal for land use. Also, the firm is working together with MoIT and the Ministry of Finance to reach an agreement on reorganisation and housing during its equitisation.Shoe and handbag manufacturers are increasingly looking towards Vietnam for their sourcing needs

According to newswire Reuters, at the annual shareholders meeting organised on May 9, Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted stated that the company will continue shifting its sourcing of footwear from China to Vietnam. However, China is still an important procurement market, irrespective of trade duties.

Kasper Rorsted added that in 2017, factories in Vietnam produced 44 per cent of Adidas footwear, 13 per cent more than the 31 per cent in 2012. Meanwhile, Chinese factories made up 19 per cent of Adidas products, down 11 per cent from 2012.

Last month German rival Puma (which makes about a third of its products in China) said that it is working on contingency plans to move some production from China to other Asian markets if US tariffs are imposed.

Besides, Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., the parent company of Uniqlo, has moved operations from China to Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, due to increasing labour expenses. At present, the company only needs to pay half as much on labour as in China.

Previously, in 2014, there has already been a wave of global shoe and handbag manufacturers transferring the bulk of their orders from China to Vietnam.

Notably, according to the Vietnam Leather and Footwear Association (LEFASO), in the first half of 2014, fashion brands like Nike, Adidas, and Puma transferred 25 per cent more orders from China and Bangladesh to Vietnam than in the same period last year.

A number of companies that had only ordered high-end handbags from China, such as Lancaster and Sequoia Paris, also expressed interest in Vietnam as a means of reducing the potential risk from Chinawhich is still considered the world's largest factory.

According to statistics published early this year by World Footwear Magazine, in 2017, Vietnam continued to rank second among the ten largest footwear exporters, with 1.02 billion pairs of shoes, equivalent to 7.4 per cent of the global footwear supply.

Footwear is one of Vietnams key export items, ranking 4th in export turnover. At present, Vietnamese footwear products are exported to 45 markets around the world. According to data from the General Statistics Office, in 2017, the export turnover of footwear reached $14.6 billion, up 12.6 per cent over 2016. The figure is expected to increase to $20 billion this year.

The Vietnamese leather and footwear industry shows great potential for development. Therefore, the country has been optimistic about the export turnover target of $24-26 billion by 2020, $35-38 billion in 2025, and $ 50-60 billion by 2035.File photo of section of an oil platform in the North Sea, around 160 kilometres east of Aberdeen, Scotland. (AFP PHOTO/POOL/ANDY BUCHANAN)

The main crude futures contracts had already been rising in recent weeks, hitting 3.5-year highs, on expectations Trump was going to withdraw from the 2015 pact that had opened up Tehran's atomic programme in return for an easing of sanctions.

On Wednesday, they each gained nearly three per cent.

"The geopolitical repercussions of this decision will no doubt be widely felt, and due to as many as one million barrels of crude supply per day being effectively taken off the market," said David Cheetham, chief market analyst at traders XTB.

Trump's decision alone was unlikely to have a major impact on the world's oil supply, said Thomas Pugh, commodities economist at Capital Economics.

"However, geopolitical tensions have intensified and if Iran decides to pull out of the nuclear deal, the impact on oil supply could be more severe," he said, predicting that oil prices would probably "remain elevated for the next few months at least".

A surprise fall in last week's oil stocks in the US, reported on Wednesday, added to upward pressure on oil contracts. Analysts had expected crude inventories to show an increase.

"Traders believe the sanctions will further tighten global supply at a time when some of the world's largest producers have already significantly reduced inventories," said Craig Erlam, an analyst with OANDA.

Oil's surge in turn helped lift shares prices in energy majors, with Royal Dutch Shell and BP higher in London.

"Both these firms have seen their share price rise to its highest level in several years," said Cheetham.

UP TO US$80?

Wall Street rose as New York-listed energy stocks, including ExxonMobil and Chevron, were up sharply.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has meanwhile said it will take all necessary measures to prevent supply shortages.

Trump reinstated US sanctions which could curtail Iran's ability to export oil, its mainstay for public revenues.

In an initial reaction to Trump's announcement on Tuesday Brent and WTI eased back, with some commentators suggesting he could still pedal back on some of his rhetoric and shift to a more diplomatic tone.

But when that did not happen they bounced back strongly.

There is now talk that crude could rise to US$80 a barrel, with gains helped also by uncertainty in oil-rich Venezuela, an OPEC-Russia output cap, improving global demand and a drop in US energy stockpiles.

Key figures around 1535 GMT:

Oil - Brent North Sea: UP US$2.17 at US$77.02 per barrel

Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP US$1.91 at US$70.97 per barrel

London - FTSE 100: UP 1.3 per cent at 7,662.52 points (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.2 per cent at 12,943.06 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.2 per cent at 5,534.63 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.3 per cent at 3,569.99

New York - Dow: UP 0.1 per cent at 24,371.30

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.4 per cent at 22,408.88 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 0.4 per cent at 30,536.14 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.1 per cent at 3,159.15 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at US$1.1859 from US$1.1864 at 2100 GMT

Pound/dollar: UP at US$1.3581 from US$1.3548

Dollar/yen: UP at 109.73 yen from 109.07 yenUS actor Sylvester Stallone greets fans upon his arrival for the premiere of Rambo in Tokyo on May 8, 2008. (Photo: AFP/Toshifumi Kitamura)

Stallone - now 71 - posted a teaser poster on his Instagram account late Tuesday (May 8), showing a graffiti-style image of Hollywood's most famous Vietnam veteran kneeling with his signature knife and the words: "Rambo V. Fall 2019."

"Something wicked is coming this way," the actor commented in a caption, a decade after his character last strapped on his famous headband and fired a hail of bullets at ruthless rogue soldiers in conflict-torn Myanmar.

Sylvester Stallone takes on Mexican sex-trafficking cartel in Rambo 5

The film's producers, Millennium Media, are selling the international rights for Rambo V at the Cannes film festival, which opened Tuesday.

The latest instalment in the franchise - launched with Bad Blood in 1982 - is slated to start filming in September in several locations including London, Bulgaria and the Canary Islands, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

In the new movie, John Rambo has swapped blood-drenched jungles for quiet ranch living in Arizona as he struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder.

But when a friend's granddaughter is kidnapped by a Mexican sex-trafficking cartel, Rambo cannot but jump back into action and join the hunt for the missing girl.

What ensues promises "a violent descent into hell", said Hollywood Reporter.US President Donald Trump warns Iran will face "very severe consequences" if it restarts its nuclear programme. (AFP/SAUL LOEB)

Asked how he would respond if Tehran restarted its nuclear efforts, Trump threatened that "Iran will find out."

"I would advise Iran not to start their nuclear programme; I would advise them very strongly," the US president told reporters at the White House. "If they do, there will be very severe consequences."

Trump's move undercut more than a decade and a half of diplomacy by Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia and past US administration, which had resulted in the deal that lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear programme.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had warned his country could resume uranium enrichment "without limit" but would refrain from doing so for now.

Other world powers have vowed to uphold the landmark deal, which places restrictions on Iran's nuclear programme and subjects it to international inspections.

US withdrawal, however, puts at risk billions of dollars of foreign investment in Iran and is likely to sharpen tensions in the Middle East.

In announcing the US pullout Tuesday, Trump dismissed the accord as an "embarrassment" that was "defective at its core" and called for a "new and lasting deal."President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton has never made any secret of his desire to see Iran's Islamic revolutionary regime ousted. (Photo: AFP/Nicholas Kamm)

America's European allies were dismayed by the decision, which fell even as London, Paris and Berlin were trying to negotiate a tougher accord to placate Trump.

And in Washington, even the sternest critics of the 2015 accord caught their breath as they digested the news - and wondered what new escalation might come next.

Senior administration figures insisted that Washington is still determined to work with its humiliated allies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb.

But it is hard to square Trump's professed quest for a "new and lasting deal" with his scornful dismissal of the "decaying and rotten" original agreement.

The US leader is increasingly surrounded by hawkish voices like those of his new national security adviser, John Bolton, and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.

Their public position is that Iran can be forced by economic pressure into even greater concessions than those it grudgingly accepted under the 2015 deal.

But Trump's decision opened a rift with European allies that weakens the common front against Iran, and it is far from clear that Tehran can ever accept a tougher deal.

Some now say the logic of Trump's "maximum pressure" tactics leads not to a new quest for an accord but an attempt to crush Iran's already weak economy and to topple its regime.

"We have a president who is tough," Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani told exiled Iranian opposition figures at the weekend. "We have a president who is as committed to regime change as we are."

But the 38-year-old Iranian revolution will not go down without a fight, and the risks of renewed regional war - or a renewed nuclear arms race - are growing alongside once taboo talk of regime change.

IRAQ DEBACLE

Celia Belin, a former policy adviser to the French foreign ministry and a visiting fellow to the Brookings Institution in Washington, says Europe will not reimpose its own sanctions on Iran.

"Europeans are slowly discovering Trump's 'hot potato' doctrine," she said, describing how Trump's habit of provoking unnecessary diplomatic battles then daring others to resolve them.

"However, it is unclear whether the Trump administration truly seeks a 'better deal,' or whether he and his administration are aiming for regime change," she warns.

So is Trump's true goal regime change? "Oh, I'm sure he would love that," says Rob Malley, a former adviser to president Barack Obama who helped negotiate the deal.

"I don't claim to be a Trump expert," Malley, now head of conflict resolution think tank the International Crisis Group, told AFP.

"But I'm sure that people around him - he just hired or promoted two people, Bolton and Pompeo, who never made a secret of their view that the only way to change this issue is by changing the regime and taking military action."

The phrase comes with a lot of baggage in Washington, where the 2003 US campaign to oust Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein and change his regime is now widely regarded as a mistake.

Saddam's fall and the subsequent insurgencies in Iraq is seen as having encouraged the spread of militant groups and created an opening for Iran's influence to grow.

Trump himself says he opposed the war but some veterans of former president George Bush's administration - notably the newly elevated Bolton - defend it to this day.

And, in their attacks on the Iran deal, some see an attempt to rewrite history.

For these conservative war hawks, Tehran's rising regional influence is a byproduct of Obama's decision to drop sanctions, and not of Bush's destruction of Iran's enemy in Baghdad.

With Bolton in the Oval Office, these voices are getting louder, and with them the chance of a new deadly confrontation is growing.Hoang Van Thang, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development

How would you evaluate the prospects of agricultural investment co-operation between Vietnam and Israel?

The prospects are very good now. The agricultural sectors of the two nations complement each other. Israel has a modern and creative agricultural sector, with numerous achievementsespecially in the context that we have always been facing droughts, water shortages, and a high level of desertification.

Israel has created an agricultural miracle, at all stages, including production of varieties and breeding, production of pesticides, irrigation, as well as processing and preserving products.

Vietnam also has great agricultural potential, with a record export turnover of $36.4 billion last year, which is expected to rise to $40.5 billion this year.

However, the Vietnamese agriculture remains limited in that its production achievements largely rely on using large land areas and manual labour. Meanwhile, the world has a growing demand for higher-value and higher-quality products.

Vietnam and Israel have had many successful investment co-operation projects, such as TH true MILK and Vineco. Many Vietnamese projects are effectively using Israeli technologies and machinery. Also, many Israeli investors and firms also perform well in Vietnam in irrigation and variety production, such as Hasfarm Da Lat and NaanDanJain.

In the new development framework, when the two countries are boosting the development of startups and agricultural projects, the Vietnamese government has enacted many new policies in favour of agricultural investment.

I do believe that in the time to come, the prospects of agricultural investment co-operation between Vietnam and Israel will be quite bright and see new breakthroughs, especially now that Vietnam is seeing a new wave of agricultural investment. This will help Vietnam successfully develop its own modern agricultural sector, with both enterprises and farmers being beneficiaries.

The Vietnamese government, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and many other ministries and relevant agencies will issue new policies and closely co-operate with the Israeli government and related ministries and agencies to support the co-operation of both nations enterprises and investors.

You are attending the 20th International Agricultural Exhibition and Conference and have also met with many enterprises and leaders from Israeli ministries. What are their views on agricultural co-operation with Vietnam?

At this event, we have met with the ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development, Foreign Affairs, and Economy of Israel, and Israel's Agency for International Development (Mashav) to discuss solutions to boost the co-operation between the two nations enterprises.

We have also visited many institutions, projects, and enterprises of Israel to gain experience. Many enterprises and localities from the two countries have inked co-operation deals. I do believe that in the time to come, agricultural cooperation between Vietnam and Israel will see stronger development.

Are there obstacles preventing Vietnamese enterprises and farmers from applying high-technology from Israel, as many of them are limited in capital and skills?

Yes, obstacles remain. Enterprises and farmers are finding it difficult to approach high-technology from Israel. However, the government has recently promulgated Decree 57 on incentives for agricultural and rural investment, which replaces Decree 210/2013/ND-CP issued in 2013. This is a new breakthrough in agricultural policy. Besides, the government also passed a policy to offer preferential loans to agricultural projects. In the near future, the government will also enact a decree on supporting the development of irrigation works and water saving. I also believe that such policies will also create new breakthroughs in agricultural and rural development.

How will these policies help Vietnam in attracting more agricultural investment?

I believe that together with the effectiveness of these policies and enterprises growing absorption of modern technologies, as well as the domestic agricultural sectors growing strength, Vietnam will be able to attract more investment.

However, in addition to great efforts made by private firms, the state would also need to invest more. Also, local firms need to improve their competitiveness if they want to lure in more foreign partners.

Israel is now one of the worlds brightest examples of high-tech agricultural development. What lessons can Vietnam learn from Israel?

Vietnam can learn many things from Israel. For example, it would need to have more new incentive policies for enterprises to conduct innovation and enhance creativity, and apply new technologies. From that, they can achieve better results which will benefit the state, businesses, and farmers as well.One of S-Fone branches when this network brand was operating

SPTs charter capital is over VND1.203 trillion ($53 million), VND102.5 billion ($4.5 million, 10.25 million shares) of which are in the hands of VNPT.

VNPT offers the initial price of VND12.038 on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX).

SPT was established in 1995 with the charter capital of VND50 billion ($2.2 million). It was the first joint stock company in the Vietnamese post and telecom sector. In 1996, SPT officially launched domestic and international postal services under the brand name of Saigon Post (SGP).

In 1997, the company began trading internet services under the brand name of SaigonNet, which provided S-Fone mobile network since 2010 but did not develop drastically and could not compete with other networks on the market.

In July 2012, S-Fone cancelled all labour contracts with its staff. In 2016, the licence of this mobile network expired and was not refreshed.

Business outcomes of SPT in 2015-2016

- 2015 (million dollar) 2016 (million dollar) Increase (per cent) Total asset value 106.65 107.1 0.42 Net revenue 31.6 35.33 11.82 After-tax profit 1.22 1.29 5.46 LNST/Equity 1.61% 1.7% - LNST/Net revenue 3.88% 3.66% -

Source: SPTs financial reports in 2015 and 2016You have permission to edit this article.

Edit CloseThe European Union (EU) deeply regrets the announcement by US President Trump to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The JCPOA, unanimously endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, is a key element of the global nuclear non-proliferation architecture and is crucial for the security of the region.

As long as Iran continues to implement its nuclear related commitments, as it has been doing so far and has been confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 10 consecutive reports, the EU will remain committed to the continued full and effective implementation of the nuclear deal.

The lifting of nuclear related sanctions is an essential part of the agreement. The EU has repeatedly stressed that the sanctions lifting has a positive impact on trade and economic relations with Iran. The EU stresses its commitment to ensuring that this can continue to be delivered.

The JCPOA is the culmination of 12 years of diplomacy which has been working and delivering on its main goal. The EU is determined to work with the international community to preserve it.The new B61-12 nuclear bomb - which the US is preparing to send to Italy, Germany, Belgium, Holland and probably other European countries - is now in its final stages of development.

This was announced by General Jack Weinstein, deputy chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, responsible for nuclear operations, speaking on May 1 at a symposium of the Air Force Association in Washington, in front of a select audience of senior officers and military industry executives.

"The program is doing extremely well," the general noted with satisfaction, specifying that "we have already conducted 26 engineering, development, and guided flight tests of the B61-12." The program provides for the production of about 500 B61-12s, beginning in 2020, for a cost of approximately 10 billion dollars. (This means that each bomb will cost twice what it would cost if it were built entirely of gold).

The many components of the B61-12 are designed in the Sandia National Laboratories of Los Alamos, Albuquerque and Livermore (in New Mexico and California), and produced in a series of plants in Missouri, Texas, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The bomb is tested (without nuclear charge) in the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada.

The B61-12 has entirely new "qualities" compared to the current B61 deployed in Italy and other European countries - a nuclear warhead with four selectable power options; a flight system that guides it with precision onto the target; the ability to penetrate into the subsoil, even through reinforced concrete, and explode at depth.

The greater precision and the penetrating ability make the new bomb suitable for attacking command-center bunkers , so as to "decapitate" the enemy country. A 50 kt B61-12 (equivalent to 50 thousand tons of TNT, three times the Hiroshima bomb) that explodes underground has the same destructive potential as a nuclear bomb of over one megaton (one million tons of TNT) that explodes on the surface.

The B61-12 can be dropped from the US F-16C/D fighters deployed in Aviano, and from the Italian PA-200 Tornados deployed in Ghedi. But the new F-35A fighters are needed to exploit all the capabilities of the B61-12 (especially its guidance system). This involves the solution of other technical problems, which are added to the numerous problems that occurred with the F-35 program, in which Italy participates as a second-level partner.

The complex software of the fighter, which has been modified over 30 times so far, requires still further updates. Modification of the 12 F-35s will cost Italy approximately 400 million Euros, which must be added to the still unassessed sums (estimated at 13-16 billion Euros) for the purchase of 90 fighters and their continuous modernization. This money will be State-funded (i.e. using our money), while the money from the production of the F-35 will end up in the coffers of the military industries.

The B61-12 nuclear bomb and the F-35 fighter, which Italy receives from the US, are therefore part of a single "parcel bomb" that will blow up in our faces. Italy will be exposed to further dangers as a forward base for the US nuclear strategy against Russia and other countries.

There is only one way to avoid this  by asking the US, on the basis of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, to remove all nuclear weapons from our territory; by refusing to provide pilots and nuclear attack fighter-bombers to the Pentagon in the framework of NATO; by exiting the NATO Planning Group; and by adhering to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Is there anyone, in the political world, willing to stop practising ostrich politics?Gibraltar to Attend Prestigious Money 20/20 Europe Conference

Paul Astengo, Senior Executive Private Clients with Gibraltar Finance who has responsibility for innovation initiatives and is Co-Chair of the DLT Working Group for HM Government of Gibraltar will be attending Money 20/20 Europe as a delegate.

The conference, held at RAI Amsterdam, Europaplein 2-22, 1078 GZ Amsterdam, Netherlands, will take place between 4th June 2018 and 6th June 2018.

Described by the organisers as an unmissable event for the smartest visionaries and innovators, Money20/20 is where the payments, FinTech and financial services industries come together to connect and build the future of money.

Albert Isola Minister for Commerce HM Government of Gibraltar commented, Money 20/20 is a global brand renowned for its high quality conferences. The Amsterdam conference will focus the eyes of the financial world on Europe. Every sector of the industry will be in Amsterdam to seize new business opportunities, strengthen partnerships and discover the latest disruptions. The focus on our marketing activity in this sector has now settled in Europe, having already covered North America and the Far East earlier this year, as we look to continue to deliver our message of leadership in this sector.

Full details for the event including ticketing arrangements can be found by following this link: https://europe.money2020.com/amsterdamThe iconic opening to 2001: A Space Odyssey, set to Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Stanley Kubrick died on March 7, 1999, shortly before the release of his final film, Eyes Wide Shut, but sometimes thats easy to forget. Nineteen years later, Kubrick remains inescapable. He is the subject of museum exhibits (including a mammoth, career-spanning tribute at LACMA a few years ago and a just-opened look at his years as a photographer at the Museum of the City of New York), books (most recently Michael Bensons Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke and the Making of a Masterpiece), and documentaries. And opening in New York this Friday, May 11 before expanding, Filmworker revisits Kubricks career from the perspective of Leon Vitali, an actor who largely surrendered his career in front of the camera to serve as Kubricks assistant.

Kubrick even has a new movie coming out, sort of. A new 70-mm. print of 2001: A Space Odyssey, struck from the original negative and touted as an unrestored print, will begin touring the country May 18 after being premiered at Cannes by Christopher Nolan, who helped shepherd the project.

With all that Kubrickiana floating around the cultural ether, its a good time to consider another approach to looking at Kubricks career: by listening to it. Kubrick was a distinctive visual stylist, but he also made innovative use of music. To explore this, we created a playlist that doubles as a history of Stanley Kubricks film career in 21 tracks.

1. Also Sprach Zarathustra, Richard Strauss (from 2001: A Space Odyssey)

Theres no other way to start a Stanley Kubrick playlist than with the track that accompanies one of the most famous opening scenes in all of cinema. (And closing scenes, for that matter.) As the moon, Earth, and sun lock into alignment, the music swells and the credits announce that well be watching A Stanley Kubrick Production of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The opening has lost none of its impact, but it has lost some of the context that made it a radical statement of purpose. Fans of thoughtful science fiction spent much of the 60s reading and watching TV while ignoring a string of mostly forgettable movies. Planet of the Apes started to change that in February of 1968. Then there was this a few months later: a movie that offered nothing less than a journey from humanitys beginning to a possible future beyond the infinite  lofty ambitions signaled with the soundtracks first, stirring notes.

Created in 1896 by German composer Richard Strauss, its the prelude to Also Sprach Zarathustra, a collection of tone poems inspired by Friedrich Nietzsches book of the same name, a sort of philosophical greatest-hits collection written in the form of a sacred text. It didnt take long for the track to become a cliche in the years after 2001. Elvis spent the 70s using it as his entrance music (a habit shared by Tom Cruises pick-up-artist instructor in Magnolia). The Brazilian musician Eumir Deodato rearranged it as a Grammy-winning slice of smooth jazz-funk (and you can hear that version in Being There). But, for all the echoes, the original still resonates loudest.

2. The Killing: Main and End Title, Gerald Fried (from The Killing)

3. On Patrol, Gerald Fried (from Paths of Glory)

In the 2001 documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures, director Tony Palmer says, Before Stanley Kubrick, music tended to be used in films as either decorative or heightening emotions. After Stanley Kubrick, because of his use of classical music in particular it became absolutely an essential part of the narrative, intellectual drive of the film. Its easy to pinpoint the moment when Kubrick broke with the traditional use of film scores  more on that below  but also worth noting that he could make great use of traditional scores. For his earliest films, Kubrick turned to Gerald Fried, a Juilliard-trained composer and oboist. Frieds music for Kubricks The Killing, which became Kubricks breakthrough feature in 1956, is in the tradition of other 50s noirs. But, like the film around it, it has an urgency and an inventiveness all its own, suggesting that the criminal game its characters are playing out beneath the surface of New Yorks straight world has unimaginable stakes.

Kubricks final collaboration with Fried was Paths of Glory, the directors unsparing look at the absurdity and inhumanity of trench warfare during World War I (and, by extension, all warfare anywhere at any time). Fried delivered an appropriately martial, percussion-heavy score with sinister undertones, as if the rhythms of war had become as inescapable for those in the film as the air around them. Fried, who remains active at 90, would go on to have a long composing career, largely working on television projects as diverse as Gilligans Island and Roots, for which he collaborated with Quincy Jones. Most famously, he worked on Star Trek, composing a number of instantly recognizable cues, including its fight music, first heard in Amok Time, the pounding drums of which make it a distant cousin to his Paths of Glory music.

4. Oysters and Snails, Alex North (from Spartacus)

Kubricks next movie was one he never set out to make. He took over the Roman epic Spartacus only after the firing of original director Anthony Mann. Kirk Douglas, whod starred in Kubricks Paths of Glory, brought Kubrick in and suddenly, at the age of 30, he found himself helming a project much bigger than any hed ever worked on before. He also inherited one of Hollywoods top composers, Alex North, who used the setting as an opportunity to work with a combination of ancient and modern instruments. This cue, created for a scene containing sexual themes that led to it being removed from the film for decades, combines an Ondioline  an early 20th-century electronic keyboard  with percussion and string sounds that could have been heard in the ancient world.

5. Space Station Docking, Alex North (from music for 2001: A Space Odyssey)

6. The Blue Danube, Johann Strauss II (from 2001: A Space Odyssey)

Kubrick seemingly liked Norths work well enough to accept MGMs suggestion that he work with him again on 2001. He didnt, however, like Norths work well enough to keep the score he created. In Space Odyssey, Michael Benson describes Norths time working on the 2001 score as a grueling experience in which he found himself competing with the classical pieces Kubrick had been using as temp music. North arrived thinking hed be composing a full score for a film with minimal dialogue, then discovered Kubrick wanted him to create a score that could complement the classical music Kubrick was beginning to see as essential to the film.

North eventually collapsed under stress and the 40 minutes of music he recorded in two days wouldnt see the light of day until 2007. Its, not surprisingly, terrific. But, listen to Space Station Docking and try to imagine it taking the place of Johann Strauss IIs waltz The Blue Danube (or, even better, compare the two clips above). This was Kubricks break with film musics past, a departure as radical in its own way as the use of Simon & Garfunkel in The Graduate, released the previous year.

7. Bomb Run, Laurie Johnson (from Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)

8. Lolita Ya Ya, Sue Lyon with Nelson Riddle and His Orchestra (from Lolita)

To double back a bit, its worth noting how playful, ironic, and darkly funny Kubricks use of score music could be. Dr. Strangelove began as a straight thriller until Kubrick decided the only way to depict nuclear brinkmanship was through black comedy. Laurie Johnsons score often feels like it went through a similar mutation. Bomb Run sounds noble to the point of absurdity, mixing percussion, stirring horns, and a choral group offering a wordless rendition of When Johnny Came Marching Home. Its one war-movie music cliche stacked on top of another, until the whole thing threatens to topple over.

For Lolita, Kubrick gave himself the task of adapting Vladimir Nabokovs seemingly unadaptable novel about Humbert Humbert, a professor who falls in love with an adolescent girl, played by Sue Lyon. For the music, Kubrick turned to bandleader Nelson Riddle, who composed the score, and Bob Harris, who provided the swooning theme that plays over the opening credits of a man lovingly painting a girls toenails. That sequence establishes an uneasy blend of tragedy and dark humor that carries through the rest of the film. But that doesnt mean you cant dance to it. The 1962 soundtrack produced the single Lolita Ya Ya, heard on Lolitas handheld radio when James Masons Humbert first sees her. Lyon provides the wordless vocals, but though the track didnt make her a pop star the song became a minor hit for the surf group The Ventures the same year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSbPqin3L6E

9. March From A Clockwork Orange (Ninth Symphony, Fourth Movement  Abridged), Wendy Carlos

10. Title Music From A Clockwork Orange, Wendy Carlos (from A Clockwork Orange)

11. Main Title From The Shining, Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind (from The Shining)

Kubrick continued his inspired use of classical music with A Clockwork Orange, a much dimmer version of a possible future than 2001. The films chief juvenile delinquent Alex (Malcolm McDowell) loves Beethoven seemingly as much as he loves rape and mayhem, but is this a sign that he still has a soul capable of redemption or just another nihilistic detail? The score by electronic music pioneer Wendy Carlos (then recording as Walter Carlos) doesnt provide any answers. Carlos broke through with the 1968 album Switched-On Bach, which brought the music of Bach to the then-new Moog synthesizer. Its an odd, often beautiful album that helped legitimize electronic music, but giving Beethovens stirring tribute to humanitys potential the Moog treatment sounds like a mechanical perversion of its noble sentiments  which may be the point. Kubrick used Carloss original music just as memorably, both in A Clockwork Orange and The Shining, where she uses the Moogs deepest, coldest tones to eerie effect.

12. Harpsichord Suite No. 4 in D Minor, George Frideric Handel (from Barry Lyndon)

13. Women of Ireland, The Chieftains (from Barry Lyndon)

Music plays a similarly central role in 1975s Barry Lyndon, which charts the rise and fall of an 18th century Irishman as he cheats and seduces his way into wealth and fortune. Two types of music fill the soundtrack: baroque and traditional Irish music, the latter represented most memorably by the Chieftains rendition of Women of Ireland. But its not a cheap contrast between the warmth of home and the perils of seeking your fortune abroad. Both seem to be attempting to express a sense of tragic inevitability, as if any moral lessons to be gleaned from Barrys misdeeds were incidental to the more enveloping notion that life undoes everyones best intentions in the end.

14. Hello Vietnam, Johnnie Wright (from Full Metal Jacket)

15. These Boots Are Made for Walkin, Nancy Sinatra (from Full Metal Jacket)

16. Surfin Bird, The Trashmen (from Full Metal Jacket)

Full Metal Jacket gave Kubrick a chance to make savvy use of a handful of 1960s hits while avoiding tracks that were already becoming cliched Welcome to the 60s soundtrack staples. Theres no Creedence Clearwater Revival, in other words. Instead, Kubrick opens the film with the 1965 country hit Hello Vietnam, written by Tom T. Hall and recorded by Johnnie Wright, letting its pro-war sentiments unspool as a group of new recruits get their heads shaved in advance of basic training. Later, hell let These Boots Are Made for Walkin sound like a descent into hell by dropping it over our first glimpses of Vietnam itself, and use Surfin Bird to capture the absurdity and chaos of battle, where a song about a bird on a surfboard starts to sound like a howl from the depths of madness.

17. Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing, Chris Isaak (from Eyes Wide Shut)

18. I Only Have Eyes For You, The Victor Silvester Orchestra (from Eyes Wide Shut)

19. When I Fall in Love, The Victor Silvester Orchestra (from Eyes Wide Shut)

Nicole Kidmans enthusiasm for heartbroken rock traditionalist Chris Isaak made a fan of Kubrick, who used this track from the 1995 album Forever Blue to soundtrack a memorable love scene between Kidman and her co-star (and then-husband) Tom Cruise. Isaaks suggestions of secrets and lies serve as the perfect accompaniment to Kidmans sidelong glances at herself in the mirror. Shes his but shes not; not entirely. Nobody ever is. Used relentlessly in the films marketing campaign, it became inescapable in the lead-up to its summer release. Its also the only such song on the soundtrack. In Eyes Wide Shuts early scenes, the central couple attends a party where every song seems to be about endless devotion, a contrast to what lies ahead for its protagonists, though maybe not as stark a contrast as it first appears given the films ending  which brings them back where they began, more or less.

20. Well Meet Again, Vera Lynn (from Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)

21. The Faithful Hussar, Susanne Christian (from Paths of Glory)

Dr. Strangelove famously ends with a nuclear apocalypse set to Well Meet Again, but the irony runs deeper than the title. Vera Lynns recording of Well Meet Again gave hope to countless soldiers during World War II, a promise that the war would end and the reunions begin some sunny day. This is an ending that that allows for no such days, just one last, grim chuckle as the world burns.

The darkest version of a Kubrick playlist would end there, with the mushroom clouds going up and the world winding down. But Kubricks reputation as a cold technician first and everything else second misses the humanism that underlies his work. Many share an abiding concern about the processes and institutions that dehumanize us, be it the brutal military induction of Full Metal Jacket, the distancing wealth of Barry Lyndon, or the bureaucratic machinery of Strangelove. Even A Clockwork Orange suggests, in the darkest way possible, that what makes us human is worth preserving, and the final moments of Eyes Wide Shut end his career with a blunt, one-word admonition to keep love alive.

When Kubrick died, Steven Spielberg gathered some friends for a dinner and screened the scene he felt best exemplified Kubricks work: the final moments of Paths of Glory. In the scene, a group of dispirited French soldiers gather in a bar where the proprietor forces a young German woman  played by Kubricks future wife, Christiane Harlan, credited as Susanne Christian  to sing for them. Theyre ready to jeer, or worse, but her rendition of a German folk song moves them in ways they could not have expected, or explain. Even here, the possibility of connection remains, if only in this fleeting moment. But even in the trenches, the melody lingers on.Archer Different Modes of Preparing the Fruit Season 9 Episode 3 Editors Rating 3 stars * * *  Previous Next  Archer: Danger Island. Photo: FXX/FX Networks.

Different Modes of Preparing the Fruit includes exactly two flashes of the real world of the show beyond Archers extended coma dream. The first comes in the form of a check to its constructed artifice, when Pam describes a tricky situation as a Catch-22 and Archer shoots back, I dont think thats a thing yet. (This season takes place during the preamble to World War II; Joseph Heller wouldnt even start writing his calling-card novel until 1953.) The second one busts right through the fourth wall, as Pam clarifies that the idol everyones searching for is most assuredly not a gold monkey while staring the viewer right in the face. (This is in all likelihood a nod to the short-lived ABC series Tales of the Gold Monkey, or rather, a firm declaration from creator Adam Reed that hes not ripping anybody off.) Archer hasnt fully lost sight of itself, and its starting to look like Reed may return to Archer Classic for the shows tenth and final season.

Until then, the series has to create meaning within the parameters its set for itself, and this weeks half hour makes promising inroads on that task. The whiffs of intrigue in last weeks fleeting mentions of a breadfruit plantation and an idol have matured into the pungent odor of mystery, and more promising still, the unfolding plot supplies the writers with ample opportunity to expound on colonialist geopolitics. Archers no longer about Archer, but its not a show about nothing, either.

Critical perspectives on Western imperialist presences in South America may seem an odd thing to want from a sitcom that makes a point to emphasize the elephantine proportions of one characters penis. But being funny has never been Archers problem; the weakest episodes earn that distinction through faulty plotting mechanics, never for a dearth of magnificent one-liners. (This episodes chinchilladas bit, for instance, is beautiful. The fur farm practically gave them the meat for free!) The show being merely hilarious is Reed on cruise control. When firing on all cylinders, he can be thoughtful and poignant  the things viewers want a fully grown TV program to be.

And there is, in the most general sense, a lot going on. This humble island has emerged as a crucial locus for a conflict on a planetary scale: Based on the files marked VERTRAULICH, the Nazis have taken an interest in this idol for what I can only hope are wackadoo mad-experiment reasons, maybe something in line with the sci-fi hokeyness of They Saved Hitlers Brain. Lanas looking at the bigger picture, offering the Germans a base of operations in exchange for purging her kingdom of the French presence. She plays both sides against the middle, upping her price of cooperation by inventing a hypothetical bidding war with the Japanese, signing a deal with the devil to protect her people. To what extent are they really Lanas people, though? Shes fiercely defensive of the subjugated population (Ethnocentrism much?) but her Western manners, picked up from boarding school in the States since age five, may belie ulterior motives. Though, I may be incorrectly placing significance on a throwaway line intended only to explain why Aisha Tylers not doing a vague South Pacific accent that might offend.

All will be revealed in due time, and now that the audience has a clearer notion of where this seasons headed and what it wants to do, we know how to look forward to the advancement of this arc. Danger Island has given itself a goodly number of plates to spin, between Lana and Cyrils machinations, Cheryls drunken faceplant into the world of high-price escorts, Kriegers new life as a talking goddamn parrot, Archer and Pams adventure-serial escapades, and the worldwide war that will soon engulf them all. Maybe its not a coincidence that last episodes centerpiece featured Archer poorly executing a landing only to emerge intact and ready to forge onward. This season got off to a frustrating start, but its steadied out and positioned itself for big things. The anthology format isnt being used as a crutch to exempt the writers from sorting through Archers baggage. Its a portal to an entirely different set of challenges and inquiries, no less substantive for its reorientation. The shifting upper hand between global superpowers has long been a favored story mechanism of Archer, and this season takes a new tack by focusing on the dealmaking as it happens, instead of the covert reactions by the black-ops scuttling around in the shadows. Back in the ISIS days, the agency trafficked in cold wars. On Danger Island, its bound to be a hot one.

Assorted notes

 Pity the poor Luigi, a kindly expatriate whose only dream is to feed the islands visitors with the cuisine of his Italian homeland. I have to imagine that its not his fault that all of his food is so awful. Wheres he going to find suitable ingredients on an island with such limited ecological diversity? I suppose he shouldve anticipated a dearth of fresh tomatoes or grain or what-have-you  know your market, Luigi! But still, its hard not to feel for the guy, damned to live out the rest of his days ignored by a virtually captive customer base. I watched the screener copy of this episode three days ago, and havent stopped thinking about Luigi since.

 Its Cheryl that takes this weeks best bit of dialogue, showing herself off following a bordello-ready makeover: I packed for a honeymoon, not a descent into profound and lasting shame! Malorys a close runner-up, reasoning that after room-and-board expenses, as well as the pimps cut, are removed from Cheryls pay, shes left with, Lets just call it an even  nine.

 A little bit of homophone humor for the multilingual among us: Ray complains about the destruction wrought on the street in front of Malorys hotel, crying out for la rue, which Archer and Pam hear as la roux, wondering, Isnt that a base for sauces or something? Like, gravies?

 The free revision of Pams character through her Danger Island iteration has been a lot of fun thus far. While she may still have her weakness for bear claws  in related news, Im pretty sure this series began ten thousand years ago  shes now beefy and chiseled, a physical force to be reckoned with. Thats put her on equal footing with Archer, and moved their dynamic closer to that of buddy cops. Hell, when their bickering breaks out into a full-on slap fight, theyre practically brother and sister.Photo: Stephane Cardinale/Corbis via Getty Images

The Kering Women in Motion Talk series at the Cannes Film Festival is a fancy invite. The luxury group that includes Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga among its brands has hosted the series since 2015, held in an intimate suite at the Majestic Barriere Hotel with a tranquil ocean view as its backdrop. Some of the biggest stars of the festival drop by  Isabelle Huppert and Robin Wright were among last years featured guests. Cold-pressed juices are handed out to attendees. Not just anyone gets to go. So when the golden ticket landed in my in-box, I was obliged to attend. Even at an essentially fluffy, star-obsessed event such as this, theres ostensibly plenty to talk about, especially as one of the most important film festivals of the year falls dismally behind the rest of the world with regard to representation of female directors.

The first event this year was a discussion with Carey Mulligan, whos here with Paul Danos Wildlife in the Critics Week sidebar. It was kind of a disaster. Things started off agreeably softball-ish, with moderator and Variety New York bureau chief Ramin Setoodeh asking the usual gobbledygook questions people ask actors (How did the 2016 election impact your performance as a 50s housewife in Wildlife?) It seems that, even with all the money and consideration poured into every detail of the event, the poor dears at Kering couldnt find a single woman in Cannes to moderate the discussion.

Related Stories Wildlife Is Superb  and a Major Moment for Carey Mulligan

But once the questions were opened up to the chosen few gathered there in the suite, it got downright excruciating. A rhetorical question Ill throw out into the ether: Why are heterosexual men so embarrassing? The media and industry professionals handpicked by Kering to bask in Mulligans presence included a gentlemen who wanted to know what Carey Mulligan thought of this years red carpet selfie ban (after she and Setoodeh had just discussed her distaste for social media), and another who asked her what she would think if I told her she was very beautiful  in French, forcing an interpreter to repeat the question in English. (Again: men, embarrassing, why.) Another asked her if she might consider working with Lars Von Trier now that his producer Peter Aalbaek has pledged to stop slapping asses. Thats great for him, Mulligan replied, clearly at a loss for how to respond to an obviously disingenuous question.

The brazen ridiculousness was not limited to men, of course: One woman requested that Mulligan offer some words of comfort to Dame Barbara Windsor, whose Alzheimers diagnosis was just announced. (Mulligan is an ambassador for the Alzheimers Society, so it wasnt a completely random request, but its the kind of smarmy celebrity performative nonsense that runs directly counter to any earnest productive discussion of a womans approach to her work and art.) Otherwise, not many women were called on, and the optics of the male moderator calling on male journalists at the fancy luxury women in film event were  [exasperated French sigh]. Meanwhile, female journalists whose actual beats are womens representation in the industry failed to get invited at all.

Like many corporate sponsored events that purport to further a dialogue about the role of women in the film industry, Women in Motion talks skew heavily toward actors as their headliners. Thats to be expected, particularly at a festival whose identity is wrapped up in celebrity and glamour (and the Art, of course). Even Carey Mulligan, who does not have a film playing at the Palais this year, commands more eyeballs than, say, Italian director and Cannes Grand Prix winner Alice Rohrwacher. There will always be more parity between men and women onscreen; unlike female directors, nobody needs convincing that women should be allowed to be actors (how much they get paid is a different story, of course).



But politically minded actors can use their clout to elevate projects by women filmmakers that might otherwise not get made. Mulligans varied work with female directors (most recently to great acclaim in Dee Reess Mudbound) was a tertiary topic of discussion at best. But thank god that guy got his chance to tell Carey Mulligan he approved of her appearance.Michelle Wolf isnt concerned at all about how her excellent Correspondents Dinner jokes were received. It went great. Every single person loved it. Across the board! Wolf told Seth Meyers on Late Night. In three days, Wolfs remarks became C-SPANs most-watched Correspondents Dinner video. Sarah Huckabee Sanders loved it. She called me, she was like, I loved it so much, I got every joke. Later, she told Seth a few jokes that she wasnt allowed to tell in her previous jos, the kind she said we can expect from her Netflix show:

The Break with Michelle Wolf premieres May 27.Photo: John Lamparski/Getty Images

A week after author Junot Diaz was publicly accused of sexual misconduct and verbal abuse, the Pulitzer Prize Board has issued a statement saying it will review the allegations made against the author. The statement reads as follows:

The Pulitzer Prize Board has authorized an independent review of allegations of misconduct against one of its members, Junot Diaz. Mr. Diaz said he welcomed the review and would cooperate fully with it.

Mr. Diaz was elected incoming chairman at the boards April meeting, as is customary for the senior member of the board. He has asked to relinquish this role, and the board has accepted his request. Mr. Diaz remains on the board.

Eugene Robinson, the boards immediate past chairman, has resumed the chairmanship on a short-term, interim basis.

Author Zinzi Clemmons claims that Diaz forcibly kissed her, and writer Carmen Maria Machado says he verbally abused her at a live Q&A event. Another author, Alisa Valdes, says Diaz was misogynistic, demeaning and cruel during a period where the two were seeing each other. Since the accusations first surfaced, Diaz has withdrawn from the Sydney Writers Festival, and MIT  where he is employed as a professor  has opened up an investigation into his alleged behavior.Photo: Big World Cinema

Rafiki opens with a burst of unfiltered teenage energy. A girls skateboard makes its way through the cracked streets and past the colorful kiosks of the Kenyan city in which she lives, as an anthemic pop song plays. Title cards splash the screen, depicting its two leads in icon-like artistic renderings, mythologizing them and their romance before weve even met them. Far from a spoiler, it sets the tone, like initials scrawled on the cover of a notebook or photos taped in a locker, of the kind of vision-board love the two young protagonists aspire to, no matter how impossible it may seem.

Rafiki, which makes its debut at Cannes despite being banned in its home country, is also the first Kenyan film to play the festival. Its an auspicious moment for director Wanuri Katiu, perhaps too auspicious for a film so light in its execution. Its story line doesnt stray too far from whats become a familiar LGBT romance template: love blossoms but is beset by external forces that conspire to snuff it out. The cultural particulars of growing up gay in Kenya (which trends extremely conservative when it comes to gay rights, and where same-sex sexual activity is illegal) give it dimension  the protagonist of Love, Simon was certainly never sent to church to have the demons drawn out of him by the congregants. But its lead protagonists and their endless reserve of raw, bittersweet chemistry are Katius greatest asset.

The girl on the skateboard is Kena, a lanky tomboy played by Samantha Mugatsia. With her pleasantly sleepy eyes and beatific smile, Mugatsia is a compulsively watchable film presence, her sloping posture both relaxed and yearning. Shes rivaled only by Sheila Munyiva as Ziki, the daughter of a rich politician who is Kenas fathers opponent in an upcoming election. Its hard to believe that both young women are first-time actors, complementing each other intuitively. Early in the film, we see Ziki dancing in the street with her girlfriends, her pastel-rainbow-wrapped braids gathered on her head in an exuberant pile of color; Kena watches her with glamorized shyness. Ziki is more a hothead and a flirt, the first to break through the two girls silent, smiling glances from across the street and suggest they go hang out.

When Kena and Ziki get together, time gets a little unstuck, the world gets softer, more impressionistic. Katiu doesnt mind if the dialogue doesnt sync from time to time, showing us a quiet moment or a tender touch as their halting, often nervous conversations float over it. These are some of the films strongest moments, as the two talk about what they want from their futures  Ziki dreams of traveling someplace where theyve never seen an African, and both agree with certainty that they dont want to be ordinary Kenyan girls, as their hand-holding and enchanted gazes into each others eyes become furtive kisses and embraces.

But these sequences also possibly belie Katius working with in her countrys strict content standards, the intimacy sometimes feels as though its straining against its own elliptical depiction. This forces a more poetic, suggestive treatment of Kena and Zikis love, but for an audience used to far more explicit onscreen treatments of gay sex (or sex in general), it may come off as a little nervous. Its certainly apropos, given the high stakes in keeping their relationship a secret  a local gay kid is harassed and harangued in public by Kena and Zikis friends, a sinister foreshadowing of the horrific turn the film takes when the girls relationship is discovered by the community. The film carefully builds Kenas world and her circle of friends and family, making it that much more crushing when so many end up turning on her.

Rafiki is lively and full of vision; this is Katius second feature film, and its clear she has a wonderful eye for detail and lyricism. But where its script comes up a bit short, Munyiva and Mugatsia carry it across the ultimately hopeful finish line. One hopes that the rest of the world has the opportunity to discover them soon.Riverdale Chapter 34: Judgment Night Season 2 Episode 21 Editors Rating 4 stars * * * *  Previous Next A scene from Riverdale, Chapter 34: Judgment Night. Photo: Katie Yu/The CW

Nothing like an unexpected houseguest to screw up your day. The Black Hood swings an ax at Cheryl, who flees upstairs; then he Heres Johnnys his way through her bedroom door. But hes too late. Shes already managed not only to climb out a window, but also to arm herself with a bow and arrow, which she launches directly into his shoulder. Luckily I was able to get to my archery set and hunting cape, explains Riverdales human embodiment of Little Red Riding Hood crossed with the Big Bad Wolf, when she gets Betty on the phone. Cheryl warns that this maimed animal is liable to attack anyone, including  if the person under that infamous hood is in fact Hal Cooper  his own family.

It may have just been the site of both an attempted axe murder and an arrow maiming, but Thistlehouse is nevertheless the calmest place in Riverdale right now, given that the town is basically in a state of martial law. The vibe is very dystopian 1985 Hill Valley, as presided over by Mayor Biff. Everythings on fire; everyones in a terrible mood. Hiram Lodge, a messy bitch who lives for drama  particularly drama that feeds into his private prison-building, law-and-order agenda, and particularly drama that he played a large role in engineering  is of course loving all of this.

Doing her part, Hermione announces that shes offering a $1 million bounty on the Black Hood, alive or preferably dead, and also alleges that the Black Hood shot Fangs Fogarty, which, no, definitely did not happen. It sure may have looked like Reggie shot Fangs  especially to the very displeased Serpents, who would now like to have a word with Reggie, please  but Archie is positive he tackled him before the rabid Bulldog could have pulled the trigger. (In that case, Im sorry for calling you useless, Archie!) Veronica, meanwhile, solves the crime by accident, when she spots Midge Klumps bereaved mother stumbling around town with a gun in hand.

Convinced that the earmarked Black Hood bounty is really the ransom she finagled from the St. Clairs, Veronica locks herself in her fathers office and searches for her money. She finds a folder labeled October Surprise, which, yes, I know, is a common political term, but sounds to me more like a prank that involves pooping in someones jack-o-lantern. Anyway, therein Veronica discovers telephoto creep-shots of Fred and Hermione canoodling (old loves dot tumblr dot com) and a pre-written press release titled Family Man Fred Andrews Not SO Innocent. To her horror, Hermione is well aware of this plan of her husbands, and agreed on the grounds that it would do more damage to her lover-turned-opponents campaign that it would to hers. (Uh, would it, though?)

Archie finally finds Reggie holed up at Pops. Theres a terrible commotion outside  but its not the Serpents, its the Ghoulies, all shiny and chrome. Their siege on the diner brings an entire new layer of Mad Max insanity to the table, with Jack Skellington eye makeup and homemade yet distinctly Dark Ages-inspired spiked weaponry. Putting Lodges leftover poker-night booze to good use, Pop teaches Archie to make a Molotov cocktail on the fly, and he lobs the flaming bottles from the roof. (Remember when the Chocklit Shoppes roof was reserved for covers of Keliss Milkshake? We were so young then.) Finally, Riverdales Zaddy Brigade  Tom Keller, Fred Andrews, and F.P. Jones  pull up in the ex-sheriffs not-yet-returned cruiser and wave a shotgun around, dispelling the Ghoulies and winning themselves a round of respectfully horny applause from the Pops clientele.

Hiram is angry when he hears that the Zaddy Brigade (of which he and his jawline are founding members) are being hailed as heroes, but hes about to have a bigger problem to contend with. A very large, very scary man with a hint of Canadian accent has been asking around town about him: This is Small Fry, the late Papa Poutines son, who promised his father hed seek vengeance against the loved ones of the man who killed him.

Betty arrives home to find the house empty but the kitchen sink suspiciously bloodied. While hes waiting for Fangs to get out of surgery, F.P. calls Betty looking for Jughead, and just so happens to mention he saw her, ahem, suspiciously bloodied father get admitted to the ER. She rushes to the hospital to find her dad has already checked himself out, but not before leaving the body of his murdered doctor behind in his bed. That seems unnecessary. The Black Hood  Hal? Can we officially call him Hal at this point?  calls and tells her to come home. Your mothers here, he says, warning hell slit Alices throat if Betty doesnt return immediately. There, she finds her dad  whose secret capacity for evil, I hate to say it, is not unhot, and Im hereby promoting him off the Zaddy Brigade bench  preparing to screen some old home movies for her unsuspecting mom. The footage is seriously creepy: A very young Hal is instructed by his offscreen mother to manipulate the Conway boy (that is, the future Mr. Svenson) to lie about who killed his family so as to protect Hals father, the real Riverdale Reaper. Sinners have to die, he repeats at her prompting.

Adult Hal demands that Alice turn on her tape recorder and explains that, contrary to family lore, Great-Grandpappy Cooper wasnt murdered by his Blossom brother. He was the killer, taking on the Cooper name to create a new identity: Mr. Conway knew, and had been blackmailing Hals father. And so the hereditary Cooper darkness was passed down to Hal  who in turn seems to have passed it onto Betty, but I guess well deal with that some other time, when she picks up her first axe  and who finally, conclusively, unequivocally (these are a Riverdale recappers famous last words) reveals himself to be the Black Hood. Lets take a moment here to celebrate: We did it! At long last, the mystery is solved! Tear open your Michael Scott happy box! Wait, why did Hal want to record this, anyway? I want everyone to understand, when they find us. Cool cool cool. Please ready your Michael Scott murder-suicide box.

Alice does what she does best and creates a distraction by belittling her mamas boy of a husband. Your father cant do anything right, she says. Not even be a serial killer. Solid, and accurate, burn. Hal begins to strangle his wife in a rage, until Betty knocks him unconscious with a fireplace shovel.

By the way, Hal told them earlier, that wasnt him firing shots at the debate. Meanwhile, over at the Andrews house, a guy in a black hood  if not the Black Hood  attacks Archie, then shoots Fred. This time, fortunately, Mr. Andrews is wearing a bulletproof vest. Archie chases the man outside, but he disappears. Later, after Hal is arrested, Betty and her pal confirm that the timeline of this attack versus the Cooper family meeting-from-hell doesnt check out. Hal couldnt couldnt have shot Fred tonight. So who did?

Is that the faintest whiff of blood and maple syrup in the air? Small Fry lumbers into the Pembroke, seemingly killing Andre and breaking down the door of the Lodges apartment, where only mother and daughter are home. Hermione grabs a gun off her husbands desk and shoots Small Fry repeatedly. Hiram sprints upstairs to find both women alive, if unhappy to see him. Theres another dead body in the study, Hermione dryly informs her husband. Hiram apologizes; Veronica recoils at his touch. She refuses to be his collateral damage.

Hey, remember Penny Peabody? Shes back! (Who isnt in this episode? Can anyone confirm if weve canonically ruled out raising Jason Blossom from the dead?) The exiled Snake Charmer and her newly forged allies, the Ghoulies, have taken Toni Topaz hostage. Jughead and, mainly, Cheryl and her archery set, manage to secure her release. But while shes got them there, Penny poses an ultimatum to the Serpents: Either they leave, giving up the Southside to the Ghoulies and their drug trade, or do battle with their rivals in Pickens Park at dawn.

The White Whyrm is already tenser than Clifford Blossom during a regional outbreak of wig lice when the news breaks that Fangs has died. F.P. calls for a vote on the possibility of war with the Ghoulies: The gang is unanimous in their ayes, except for Jughead. He argues theyll be outnumbered. F.P. argues they dont have any choice but to go down fighting. Ill rally the reserves, he says. I look forward to seeing which seemingly mild-mannered residents of Riverdale have quietly been in the Serpents reserves this whole time. Having deduced that his girlfriends best friends father (also his best friends girlfriends father) has both the Ghoulies and Penny on his payroll, Jughead calls up Hiram to make him a counteroffer. Then he phones Betty to tell her hell never stop loving her, which is not something you say under chill circumstances. She shares her worries with F.P., who activates the Serpent phone tree.

Jughead, we learn, has volunteered as a sacrificial lamb to his enemies in exchange for a promise of no bloodshed with the Serpents. He submits himself to Penny and dozens of bloodthirsty Ghoulies (a flock? a herd? a murder? whats the collective noun for Ghoulies?), who proceed to beat the life out of him  maybe literally. Let your dying thought be that your sacrifice was for nothing, and that come morning, Riverdale as you know it will cease to exist, Penny, rude, tells him. By the time F.P. and company find Jughead, hes a gruesome, bloody mess. His mutilated arm bears the evidence of Penny taking her pound of flesh.

If you, like me, find these visuals unpleasant, I recommend viewing photos of Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart looking adorable and entirely non-bloody at the Met Gala. Until next week!Annabelle Wallis, Jon Hamm, Jake Johnson, Ed Helms, Isla Fisher, and Hannibal Buress in Tag. Photo: Kyle Kaplan/Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and RatPac-Dune Entertainment

Most of the memorable moments in the recent sex farce Blockers are the big cartoonish ones, which you might expect from a movie that gives us John Cena chugging beer through his anus. But theres also one quiet moment I cant stop thinking about. Early in the movie, a character played by Hannibal Buress reassures his teenage step-daughter that prom is a night where friends deepen their bonds. For instance, at his own prom, he and his buddies convinced one guy to join the Army  and that friend was immediately killed in the Gulf War.

Its a funny bit, but even in the moment, I couldnt help but wonder, Wait, how old was Hannibal Buress during the Gulf War? So I Googled it: Hannibal Buress was born on February 4, 1983, which means in real life he was in somewhere near the second grade during Operation Desert Storm. Now, you might argue that Buresss character could have been talking about the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which Wikipedia says is sometimes also called the Gulf War, to which I say (1) no one calls the Iraq War the Gulf War, and (2) that would ruin the point of this post, which is about my favorite weird movie trope: comedies that get actors of wildly different ages to play childhood friends.

Take the recent I Feel Pretty, a star vehicle for Amy Schumer (June 1, 1981). Schumers character has two lifelong friends, and the three of them share the interests and cultural references of people born on the Gen-X/millennial border, which in this case means they all have matching tattoos of 90210s Andrea Zuckerman. One of the friends is played by Busy Phillips (June 25, 1979), which checks out, but the other one is played by Aidy Bryant (May 7, 1987), who was all of eight years old when Gabrielle Carteris decided to leave 90210. The whole movie I kept waiting for someone to bring up the fact that one of the friends was six-to-eight years younger than the other two, but for some reason the filmmakers decided to address boring things like plot and themes instead.

Aidy Bryant, Busy Phillips, and Amy Schumer in I Feel Pretty. Photo: Mark Schafer/Courtesy of STXfilms

Once you start thinking about this thing, you notice it everywhere. You see it in minor examples like the recent Most Likely to Murder, where Adam Pally (March 18, 1982), Rachel Bloom (April 3, 1987), and Vincent Kartheiser (May 5, 1979) all play former high-school classmates. You see it in Girls Trip, where Tiffany Haddish (December 3, 1979) was supposed to be college besties with three actresses born in the early 70s. And you especially see it in films about middle-aged men reconnecting with their high-school sweethearts, who thanks to the magic of the movies are often played by women nearly a decade their junior. My favorite example is This Is Where I Leave You, which imagined a world where Jason Bateman (January 14, 1969) and Rose Byrne (July 24, 1979) were old school chums. Playing a character nearly a decade younger than he really is happens to Bateman a lot  This Is Where I Leave You also gave us Corey Stoll (March 14, 1976) as his older brother, and in The Change-Up, his best friend since elementary school was played by Ryan Reynolds (October 23, 1976). (It even extends outside comedies; in the thriller The Gift, Batemans high-school classmate was played by the five-years-younger Joel Edgerton.) Its like hes been frozen in time as season-two Michael Bluth.

Why do I love it when this happens? First, because its silly. (Dramas dont usually have this problem, though I get a kick out of imagining a version of Mystic River that replaced Tim Robbins with Matthew McConaughey.) And second, because it seems incredibly easy to avoid  just say that the characters met at work, or at a bar, or while playing D&D, or at one of the many other places where you can meet and befriend people who are a different age from you. But no. Hollywood keeps on insisting that these actors grew up together, even while their hairlines tell a different story.

Which is why Im excited for the upcoming Tag, which takes this trope to its most absurd lengths yet. The film follows a group of friends who, the trailer informs us, have been playing the same game of tag for 30 years. These friends are played by:

 Jeremy Renner (January 7, 1971)

 Jon Hamm (March 10, 1971)

(Checks out, although I dont know if anyone necessarily would have expected Hawkeye to be older than Don Draper.)

 Ed Helms (January 24, 1974)

(Still pretty normal.)

 Jake Johnson (May 28, 1978)

(Getting weirder )

 Hannibal Buress again! (February 4, 1983, if you forgot.)

Taking the 30-year line at face value, this movie is about a game of tag that was originally played by two 17-year-olds, a 14-year-old, a 10-year-old, and a 5-year-old. In other words, madness.

So, why is this happening? Im sure most of it is comedies casting for chemistry rather than realism. (Tag has been in development for a while, first with similarly aged stars Will Ferrell and Jack Black, and later the 49-year-old Tracy Morgan was part of the ensemble. Youve got to figure that eventually the filmmakers just threw up their hands and brought in any actor who looked older than 30.) But youll also notice that, in many cases, the older actors in each movie are also the more famous ones. Its the vanity sizing of casting  surrounding your 40-something star with childhood friends in their 30s is a good way to signal to the audience that hes still got it.

But if you want to go full galaxy-brain, consider this: With the collapse of traditional markers of adulthood, our vision of what it means to be a grown-up has likewise become so murky that, in pop culture at least, theres really not much difference between a 33-year-old and a 47-year-old anymore. Both of them might be getting married, caring for a newborn, saving up for a house, or yes, playing a game of tag with their middle-school buddies.

Or maybe its just that Hannibal Buress is a really good auditioner. Yes, I think thats it.L-R: Keri Russell, director Stefan Schwartz, and Matthew Rhys while filming Harvest.

When Stan Beeman finally sneaks into the Jennings house to snoop around, it is dark and dead quiet on the Brooklyn set of The Americans.

Noah Emmerich, as Stan, slips through a French door and walks slowly across the familiar hardwood floors of the Jennings household. He enters the kitchen, where he sneaks a peek at the familys mail. He goes up the stairs  there really is a whole upstairs with full bedrooms on this meticulously constructed set  then comes back down again.

Without the context of the rest of the seventh episode of the sixth and final season  the one titled Harvest that aired Wednesday night on FX  its natural to assume that Stan is finally putting the pieces together and realizing that Elizabeth and Philip Jennings are more than just the ludicrously busy travel agents who live across the street. But thats not exactly clear; the dim lighting makes it challenging to fully interpret the expression on Emmerichs face as it appears on the monitors set up adjacent to the fake Falls Church, Virginia, home. Even the writing of the scene doesnt tip its hand. When Stan rests his eyes on a picture of the Jennings family and flashes back to the words uttered by a dying William Crandall  living the American dream  never suspect them  the script describes the FBI agents behavior with a simple, neutral: Stan stares at the Jennings family photo.

Still: Theres something eerie and momentous about watching Stan Beeman prowling through these rooms, his suspicions about his neighbors raised to a level that they have not reached since he first met them, more than six years earlier. It feels ominous. It feels like the beginning of the end.

Spending the day on The Americans set back in mid-January and watching the cast and crew film Harvest was like looking at a puzzle that wasnt fully put together. Eight scenes were shot that day  three in the Chicago hotel room where Elizabeth and Philip reconnect before executing the failed mission to protect the fellow spy known as Harvest, and a handful in the Jennings home, including the moments that follow Stan as he searches for confirmation of his hunch that Philip and Elizabeth could be Russian spies.

Russell between scenes on Harvest. Photo: Amy Lombard for Vulture

Its an important episode, one that sets up the dominoes that may (or may not) fall in the last three episodes of the series. Which is why its remarkable that it was written by Sarah Nolen, a 28-year-old Penn State grad who earned her first-ever TV writing credit by scripting Harvest.

After spending more than three years working as an assistant to the heads of an L.A. tech company, Nolen leveraged some connections and landed her dream job: working for The Americans in season four as the assistant to Joel Fields, one of the two showrunners. In the final season, she joined the writing staff. From the minute she arrived, shes made great, terrific creative contributions, Fields told me. We read some scripts of hers and some scene work of hers thats been really strong.

After the team broke season six, determining the overall narrative arc and creating an outline of what would happen in each episode, Fields told her, according to Nolen: If theres an outline that you feel particularly pulled to or interested in, let me know. But just so you know, I have one that I think you would really excel at.

To Nolens delight and surprise, that turned out to be Harvest, an episode that gave her the opportunity to write the weighty conversations between Elizabeth and Philip, Stans momentous visit to the Jenningses house, a complicated action sequence, and also the episodes talker  the setpiece in the parking garage, where Philip uses an ax to chop off the head and hands of deceased fellow-spy Marilyn to ensure her identity cant be traced.

When I chatted with Nolen in the writers office during my visit, the parking-garage scene had not yet been shot and the details of it were unknown to me. Nolen discussed it in general terms, without my understanding of exactly what would happen.

We write some pretty dark, dark things on the show, but on the world of our show its  like, for example, the tooth-pulling scene. We refer to that as actually a very intimate scene. Practically a sex scene, Nolen said, referring to the moment in season three when Philip has to yank a damaged tooth from his wifes head. Its something thats very gruesome and so hard to watch, but to us, Im not even seeing him using pliers on her. Im seeing intimacy. So I said this to [the director] Stefan [Schwartz] about [the head-chopping] scene in my episode, and he was like, I wouldnt want to date you  I was like, Its so romantic! And hes like, What?!

This scene in particular, she added, I viewed as really difficult and selfless and romantic and, also, tactical. But theres a lot of emotion to it.

As this episode was being shot, there was also a lot of emotion coursing through some of the people who work on The Americans. Production was still very much under way, but already sets had been struck. The furniture in the Jenningses master bedroom had been removed. Members of the staff were getting ready for the last-ever concept meeting, where the overall tone and execution of an episode is discussed. Fields and fellow showrunner/series creator Joe Weisberg could sense how close they were getting to leaving a job they still loved.

You take any group of people here, and when they work together, good ideas come out, Weisberg told me. He was sitting in a different room in the writers office in Brooklyn, which, at the time, was still very much intact, complete with its Ronald Reagan standee and its bookshelves stacked with Americans-relevant texts: The Book of EST, TV Guide encyclopedias from the 1980s, Secrets of Computer Espionage.

Its what you want in a collaborative environment, Weisberg continued. Its highly, highly functional. It feels good every day. It feels good from a work point of view, but it also feels personally good. I feel happy. I feel supported. I love the people Im around.

Wow, he said, pausing for a moment, starting to sense what its like when you arrive at the beginning of the end. Im going to miss the hell out of it.(CNN)Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump's pick to be the next CIA director, pledged Wednesday she would not restart the CIA's detention and interrogation program and that she would not follow an order that she found morally objectionable.

"I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if it was technically legal," Haspel said. "I would absolutely not permit it."

Haspel's role in the George W. Bush administration's interrogation program was front-and-center for her confirmation hearing, where she faced pointed questions about her views on the harsh interrogation of detainees and her role in the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes.

Haspel made clear that she does not believe the CIA should be in the interrogation business  and she would not allow the CIA to resume interrogations  but she declined to criticize the CIA for using waterboarding and other interrogation tactics that critics say amounted to torture.



"I'm not going to sit here with the benefit of hindsight and judge the very good people who made hard decisions who were running the agency in very extraordinary circumstances at the time," Haspel said.

The CIA nominee was pressed repeatedly by Democrats about whether she thought CIA's interrogation tactics were moral, which she answered by saying she supported the current "higher moral standard."

Sen. Kamala Harris of California tried a different tack, asking Haspel whether she thought torture "worked," as Trump has said.

"We got value information from debriefing of al Qaeda detainees," Haspel said. "And I don't think it's knowable whether interrogation techniques played a role in that."

Haspel was also pressed over her role in the 2005 destruction of the CIA tapes that was ordered by her boss, then-clandestine chief Jose Rodriguez.

She emphasized that the decision to destroy the tapes was his, but she did acknowledge she also supported it.

"I absolutely was an advocate, if we could within and conforming to US law, and if we could get policy concurrence to eliminate the security risk posed to our officers by those tapes," Haspel told Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California.

Haspel told Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat, that she would no longer support the destruction of the tapes today.

It's not clear whether Haspel's answers will sway skeptical Democrats. Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, questioned "the message the Senate would send" by appointing a director who worked in the interrogation program.

"Ms. Haspel has stated that the law has changed and that the RDI program is no longer legal. She has committed to upholding the law. I appreciate that, but it is not enough," Warner said.

In her opening statement, Haspel said she would not restart the interrogation program, saying it was now clear the CIA was "not prepared" to run an interrogation program.

"Having served in that tumultuous time, I can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and without reservation, that under my leadership, on my watch, CIA will not restart such a detention and interrogation program," Haspel said.

Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr praised Haspel, a 33-year CIA veteran, as the most qualified nominee that could have been chosen for the post, and argued that her confirmation hearing should not be used to put the George W. Bush administration's interrogation program on trial.

"I'd like to set the record straight and make clear to those in attendance, and the American people, that this hearing is not about programs already addressed by executive order, legislation and the court of law  it is about the woman seated before you," Burr said.

For lawmakers on the fence, Haspel's willingness to answer questions about her past will be a major factor in whether she will be able to clinch Democratic votes. And several senators from both parties say her answers will matter -- they're looking to her hearing to decide how they will vote on her nomination.

Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who is still undecided on Haspel, said the hearing was going to be key in whether he supports her.

"It's an important hearing," King said. "My principal concern is about the tapes' destruction and what she was thinking, what her role was. That's the essence of it."

Haspel was selected as deputy CIA director last year, a position that did not require Senate confirmation. But Trump's selection of Haspel to succeed Mike Pompeo atop the agency has been contentious ever since she was tapped in March. Her nomination was quickly opposed by human rights groups and many Democrats, as well as Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, over her role in the George W. Bush administration's interrogation and detention program, in which critics say the CIA tortured terror detainees.

Critics point to Haspel's time leading the CIA's black site in Thailand in 2002, where harsh interrogations were conducted. Then in 2005, she was chief of staff to the CIA's clandestine chief, Jose Rodriguez, when he ordered the destruction of tapes of CIA interrogations.

With Paul's opposition and Sen. John McCain's absence from Washington as he fights brain cancer, Haspel will need at least some Democratic support to win the simple majority needed for confirmation. Republicans are looking to the same red-state Democrats who voted for Pompeo's confirmation as secretary of state last month to also back Haspel. Several have signaled they're open to supporting her.

Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida pointed to support for Haspel from former Obama and Bush administration officials, while Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said she "has been a true soldier and done her job."

Other Democrats, however, say the CIA has failed to publicly disclose key details about her record that the public should have access to before she is confirmed to a Cabinet-level position.

Several Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee have urged the CIA and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to make Haspel's record in the interrogation program public.

The CIA has declassified some materials, including an internal 2011 report on the tape destruction clearing her of wrongdoing. And the agency provided additional classified material to senators but has argued that the information cannot be made public for security reasons.

Democrats say the response is insufficient, and they have complained that the CIA is selectively releasing favorable parts of Haspel's record.

They are also warning that Haspel will say little to nothing about the controversial parts of her career during the open hearing -- there is also a classified session for senators -- because they remain classified.

"As of now, this is headed toward a secret confirmation process," said Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, adding later, "It is going to take place in public. Yet I believe, as of now, people will not know much of what the nominee was doing during that crucial period and will not know a number of the facts ... that relate to her record and who she really is."

Haspel and the CIA tried to push back on the criticisms of her record in the lead-up to the hearing.

The CIA has waged its own public relations campaign for Haspel, releasing an extensive biography and tweeting support for her nomination. Dozens of former intelligence officials, including senior Obama administration officials, have expressed support for her nomination.

Haspel's leadership experience has left many in the GOP leadership confident she'll get the job.

"She's got the resume. She's got all the field work. She knows this job cold," Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, a member of GOP leadership, told CNN. Thune said Haspel "enjoys broad support among Republicans. The question is are there Democrats that will vote for her?"JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Actors Robert DeNiro and Alec Baldwin are giving some fundraising help to a Democrat hoping to unseat Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi.

Howard Sherman is one of six Democrats in the June 5 primary. He is married to actress Sela Ward, and they have a home near Meridian, Mississippi, where she was raised. The couple previously lived in Los Angeles.

Sherman's campaign spokesman David Davis confirms that DeNiro and Baldwin helped host a cocktail party Tuesday in New York, with suggested campaign donations of $1,000 to $5,400 per person.

Wicker faces one challenger in the GOP primary. He sent out his own fundraising email Wednesday, calling DeNiro and Baldwin "mega liberals" who have insulted President Donald Trump.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

5/9/2018 6:21:16 PM (GMT -5:00)CNN) -- Just maybe, the extraordinary scene that unfolded in the dead of night on an airfield outside Washington early Thursday is the start of something truly historic.

President Donald Trump welcomed home three American prisoners from North Korea, citing their release as proof that his diplomacy with the isolated state is delivering. In what must have been a surreal experience, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk -- who were only released from custody on Wednesday -- were suddenly plunged into a media circus.

"I think you probably broke the all-time in history television rating for 3 o'clock in the morning," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews as he stood alongside the freed prisoners.

While history suggests skepticism is warranted over North Korea's apparent opening, and Trump will face accusations of taking a premature victory lap, Thursday's events nevertheless pointed to a moment of rare hope in the world's last Cold War standoff.

By securing the prisoners' release the Trump administration could claim a genuine foreign policy victory that further built confidence ahead of his looming historic planned summit with Kim Jong Un.

The welcoming ceremony also offered the world a picture of Trump as a peacemaker, after he was widely condemned abroad for pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday.

'New footing'

Ever eager to command the spotlight, even at 3 a.m. ET, Trump strode out to the blue-and-white liveried government jet that carried the men home and was picked out of the night sky with floodlights and parked in front of a huge American flag.

After a few minutes inside, the President and first lady Melania Trump stood at the top of the aircraft steps with the three men, providing a photo to greet Americans as they awoke.

Trump said it was "nice" of the North Korean dictator, who presides over gulags and repression, to let the men go before the summit, which is expected to happen within weeks, possibly in Singapore.

He said the gesture was a sign that the thaw in US-North Korean relations was ahead of schedule

"We are starting off on a new footing -- I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful. A lot of very good things have happened," Trump said.

"I really think he wants to do something and bring the country into the real world," he added, referring to Kim, whom he once blasted as "Little Rocket Man."

"It's never been taken this far, there has never been a relationship like this. I really think a lot of progress has been made," Trump said.

The United States has made several agreements to freeze the North's nuclear program over the last 25 years, but the deals have always foundered amid cheating by Pyongyang and mistrust between the two sides.

Often, Andrews has been a scene of tragedy -- it was where President John F. Kennedy's body was returned on the night of his assassination. More recently, President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton looked on as the remains of slain US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens were returned home.

But early Thursday, the sense of optimism and symbolism approached euphoric levels.

Risk-taking

Trump is, however, also taking a risk -- by making such a splash of the prisoners' return he will be accused by critics of exploiting them as props for a presidency in crisis.

He also raised the stakes to massive levels ahead of the summit in a way that belies the complex and uncertain path towards his goal of convincing North Korea to verifiably dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

There was one moment of discord -- when Trump characteristically slammed The New York Times which he accused of reporting that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had gone "missing" when he was headed to North Korea to get the prisoners.

In fact, the paper said that European diplomats were "perplexed" that they couldn't reach Pompeo in the run-up to Trump's announcement on Iran.

Many experts believe that Trump deserves praise for turning his inflammatory rhetoric and strategy of maximum pressure into an opening for a summit that has the potential to ease one of the world's most dangerous standoffs.

There is now no doubt that the administration is comprehensively laying a bet on Kim's willingness to change: for instance, Pompeo was pictured in a chummy photo-op with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang.

But by personalizing the initiative, the administration is putting Trump's prestige on the line in a way that could backfire if the talks fail. Lost in the euphoria early Thursday was the reality that North Korea seized the Americans to use as pawns in its wider diplomatic chess game with the US.

Concessions made

So far, in the North Korean diplomatic gambit, Trump has granted Kim the huge concession of a one-on-one summit, a meeting long craved by Pyongyang.

Kim has not been quite so daring in return.

While he has frozen missile and nuclear tests, offered to close one of North Korea's nuclear test sites, and declined to kick up a stink about US-South Korean military exercises this year, Kim is yet to offer any "irreversible concessions to the United States," said CNN global affairs analyst Max Boot.

"It's great for example that he's releasing the three hostages, but remember he took the hostages in order to release them later and to get rewarded for it, so this is not a huge breakthrough," said Boot.

Given the imbalance in concessions offered so far, it is significant that Trump announced Wednesday that the summit with Kim will not take place in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.

White House officials are now preparing for the encounter to take place in Singapore, which would spare the US President the indignity of traveling to Kim's doorstep to meet him, CNN reported Wednesday.

Still, Kim's willingness to give up a bargaining chip in the form of the three prisoners at this stage is being interpreted in Washington as an indication that Kim wants to do everything he can to make the summit a success.

"This is what we would call at the State Department a CBM -- a confidence building measure -- obviously baked into the plan to agree to have Trump sit down with Kim Jong Un," said John Kirby, a former State Department spokesman and CNN contributor.

"Good news and certainly indicative of the fact that KJU is taking this summit seriously and that the North Koreans really are serious about wanting to sit down," Kirby said Wednesday on CNN's "New Day."

But Kirby warned that the release of the prisoners should not be interpreted as a sign that the summit itself will necessarily be a success or that Pyongyang would offer to give up its nuclear arsenal.

Indeed, in recent days, the massive scale of Trump's task has started to become clear.

According to China's official Xinhua news agency, Kim said during a visit to China to meet President Xi Jinping that the Korean peninsula could be denuclearized if South Korea and the US were ready to take "synchronous measures for the realization of peace."

Korea watchers interpreted those comments as a sure sign that Kim, who is desperate to alleviate his country's economic isolation, would demand significant concessions in return for ceding his nuclear arsenal.

Some White House officials, including national security adviser John Bolton before he took up his current post, have suggested that it will be a short conversation if Kim does not immediately agree to hand over his nuclear weapons.

The-CNN-Wire

 &  2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.A simple ribbon cutting revealed the split between Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and Governor Kay Ivey. Battle wants Iveys current job.

Since Governor Ivey refuses to debate, Mayor Battle took the fight to a celebratory podium.

"Governor, thank you for being here with us today. You're going to get your frequent flyer miles for coming up here as many times as we've been able to get you up here," Battle said Wednesday.

The tension between the candidates centered around the I-565 widening project.

"565 is going to be a key for us. we're going to have to take care of 565 for the growth here, the growth from Toyota, the growth from Polaris," Battle said while on he was at the podium.

Wednesdays comment by Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle is the latest from local lawmakers since Mazda Toyota selected the area for a massive new plant.

Days after Januarys announcement, State Representatives and Senators started talking about the widening of the interstate.

Governor Ivey re-approached the podium after Mayor Tommy Battle made his speech and talked about the widening project.

"Let me just remind you at the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce last month I announced that I-565 would be a high priority in bids this month for reconstruction of the interchange. The Greenbrier interchange. so I-565 is a high priority."

That exchange is the closest voters will get to a debate between Ivey and Battle. Ivey refuses to debate. She skipped a candidates forum a few miles down the road from Wednesday's groundbreaking at GE Aviation Facility in Huntsville.

After the private ribbon cutting was over, we asked Ivey why she returned to the podium after the Mayor.

"I just wanted to clear the air because I made that announcement. It was going to be a high priority and it is, and I made that announcement at the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce i think it was last month," she said.

Ivey was firm she is working to get the project done quickly.

"We're going to do it as fast as we can, but it's a big project and we've got to plan well. I-565 will be addressed in a timely fashion," she said.

Battle, however, questions what the word priority means to the Governor.

"I think somebody has not shown her how to make sure there is a priority there. If you are going to have a priority, then it needs to reflect in all your documents. In the Alabama Department of Transportation Development documents it does not reflect it there," he said.Fundraisers

A virtual event to support the league's mission of addressing food insecurity in the community. Get moving at least 1.5 miles per day for the entire month of October, in doing so you will travel virtually roughly the distance across Sangamon county.45 miles just not enough for you? For intense runners and walkers, we challenge you to go out and back through the corn, over the Sangamon river, and past the Capitol for 90 miles of challenge. (217) 544-5557Have a story idea or tip about something happening in the East Village? Or maybe a photo? Or several photos? Or video! We'd love to hear about it. Or see it. Or something. Please go here to submit a tip.ABSTRACT

Multichannel analysis of surface waves is a noninvasive technique for subsurface shear wave velocity imagining. This method is one of the most effective geophysical tools for geotechnical investigations. In this paper, we present multichannel surface wave data acquisition in a non-conventional manner in alluvium deposits. Fixed receiver and multi-source offset geometry were applied to obtain field data. The data processing comprised of generating CMP cross-correlated traces and then inversion to obtain dispersion curves. The inversion of dispersion curves is achieved by employing a genetic algorithm to obtain subsurface shear wave velocity. Finally, the one-dimensional shear wave models are obtained. The multi-source offset data acquisition with fixed receiver geometry technique in combination with CMP cross-correlation gathers for data processing worked in a quite efficient way to obtain subsurface shear wave model.

Keywords:

Shallow Geophysics, Noninvasive Technique, MASW, Shear Wave Velocity, Genetic Algorithm

1. Introduction

Near surface geophysical techniques and tools are more extensively applied in geological and geotechnical applications. The non invasive nature and rapid data acquisition in cost efficient manner make them an essentially necessary tool to invasive techniques. The multi channel analysis of surface waves (MASW) is one of the near surface geophysics techniques which have seen intensive applications in the geotechnical and engineering geology [1] . Multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) has been successfully applied in various shallow geophysical soundings [2] - [9] . MASW is a rapid and quick methodology to estimate the near surface shear wave velocity (Vs) and overcome more than a few shortcomings of other different techniques which lead to the false impression of phase velocities [10] [11] [12] . Fundamental mode of surface waves is often used, which comprised of the highest energy portion amongst all wave types [13] .

The arrival time coherency difference is the base for identifying the ground roll on multichannel record. The confidence level on shear wave velocity estimation results can be increased using appropriate data processing methodology [14] . Each wavelength has typical velocity signature, named as phase velocity [15] . There is a fundamental assumption that approximately 92% of ground roll phase velocity is comprised subsurface shear wave velocity [16] . The Rayleigh waves or ground rolls can be produced with impact source like hammer and non impact source like vibrosis. The depth penetration of this type of waves in normal conditions is assumed approximately equal to its wavelength [17] .

In current study, we applied fixed receiver geometry for MASW data acquisition in alluvial deposits. In conventional MASW technique, we need to move source and receiver positions for each shot. The current study is an attempt to explore the efficiency of fixed receiver geometry for data acquisition and CMP cross-correlation technique for data processing in alluvium deposits. The study area is located in Wadi Fatima, east of Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia (Figure 1). The Wadi Fatima is one of the distinctive foreland fold-thrust belts in the Arabian-Nubian Shield. The quaternary sediments are comprised of alluvial fillings and fan deposits [12] [18] .

2. Study Area

The study area is located in the Wadi Fatima. The outcrops rock comprised of Neo-Proterozoic age in the study area. These outcrops (Figure 2) can be divided into two major lithological units: Fatima group and pre-Fatima basement. The outcrops of pre-Fatima basement include granites, amphibolites, gabbros, andesites and local rhyolitic intrusions. The Fatima group comprised of sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks and lower greenschist facies. The Wadi fills comprised of moderate to poorly sorted, unconsolidated sand and gravels deposits of tertiary and quaternary age [19] [20] . The Wadi Fatima is a designated as graben structure, commonly termed as Fatima graben having major structural trend NE-SW. Many NW-SE faults dissect Fatima graben. These faults are linked with rifting at Red Sea [18] [21] .

Figure 1. Location map with study area in the red box.

Figure 2. Geological map of study area (12).

3. Field Survey

A long receiver array as possible is used in MASW method. Although, the lateral resolution of survey is compromised in longer array, the velocity model provided by the conventional MASW method is averaged over the total length of the spread. A smaller array is more suitable for enhancing lateral resolution [22] . The methodology to acquire data for current survey is similar to conventional MASW Data acquisition; however the receivers position was kept fixed. The source offset was increased. The MASW data is collected in 24 points in the study area (Figure 3). The Geometrics System and 24 vertical geophones with 4.5 Hz frequency are employed to acquire surface wave data. A 16lb sledgehammer was employed as a source of seismic waves. The choice of seismic source which meets the projects goals and requirements has strong influence on projects efficiency in shallow seismic surveys. Seismic source selected should be efficient to produce strong signal having specific frequency response [23] . Different offset geometries were applied to acquire 24 MASW profiles summarized in Table 1. A land streamer was built for MASW survey with one meter geophone interval using flat metals base connected along flexible Irrigation pipe

Figure 3. Location of MASW profiles across the Wadi Fatima in the study area.

Table 1. Description of various offset geometries with number of profiles acquired.

(PVC HDPE). The amplitude of surface-wave energy acquired in MASW is several times larger than body waves energy which is recorded in other seismic waves methods. Thus, pressure contact geophones can be utilized to record surface wave instead of the normally planted geophones. Pressure coupling actually permits the use of towable land streamers for MASW surveys, which results in continuous data acquisition. The efficiency of data acquisition is increased greatly as compared to traditional body wave seismic methods [24] .

Figures 4(a)-(c) are a field photographs demonstrating the procedure adopted for MASW data acquisition. It started with laying down the streamer along the location of surveyed profile, assigning the shots locations using zero distance from first channel (Table 1). Each shot location comprised of 5 stacks recorded in a single file in the recording unit (Figure 4(b)). After finishing the acquisition for all shots, the streamer was dragged by car to next location (Figure 4(c)). The major objective is to test various offset geometries in different alluvial deposits and the effectiveness of cross-correlation CMP gathers processing technique in this environment.

4. Data Processing and Results

The Common Midpoint (CMP) cross-correlation gathers for MASW data is a known technique with good estimation and accuracy of phase velocity. The CMP stacked gathers are utilized to obtain surface wave dispersion curve [22] [25] [26] [27] . The most vital step is shear waves velocity reconstruction in 1D by means of dispersion curve inversion [28] [29] . The inversion can be achieved by many methods like Genetic Algorithms [30] and/or least-squares approach [31] .

4.1. Common Mid-Point Cross-Correlation (CMPCC)

In case of MASW, the surface wave analysis package of SeisImager 4.2 version is utilized for data processing and inversion. Common mid-point (CMP) cross-

Figure 4. Field procedure for MASW data acquisition (a) Assigning shots location (b) Recording unit (c) Moving to next location (d) Fixed receiver geometry for MASW survey.

correlation gathers of MASW data are generated. This technique furnishes much better estimation and accuracy of phase-velocity curves. Data acquisition procedure for this technique is identical to acquisition of seismic refraction data. The CMP gathers are generated after calculation for cross correlation of the original waveform [32] . Figure 5(a) is example of shot gather acquired in the field. The basic scheme applied in this current study to generate CCCMP gathers is as follows: First, in each shot record, cross-correlation of each pair of traces is carried out. Second, correlation traces with identical CMPs are collected, and then traces with equal spacing are stacked in time domain. The resultant cross correlated gathers are referred as CMP cross-correlation gathers (Figure 5(b)). The Phase velocity dispersion plots from CMP cross correlation gathers are generated by applying multi-channel analysis (Figure 5(c)). Finally the genetic algorithm is utilized to obtain inversion of dispersion curves.

4.2. Genetic Algorithm

Genetic Algorithms (GA) are these days well known for geophysical data inversion. The GA philosophy is fast, exact, stable, and has numerous favorable circumstances over the other ordinary procedures [33] . The genetic algorithm is based on Darwins theory of evolution, in which likely solution is achieved [34] . The GA uses selection, crossover and mutation, the three fundamental operators of biological evolution process [35] . Geophysical parameters analogous to biological operators are wave speed, subsurface layers thicknesses and the densities

Figure 5. (a) Example of raw MASW data acquired in the field; (b) Cross Correlated CMP record generated; (c) Example of Phase velocity dispersion plots from CMP cross corraelation gathers; (d) Example analysis of observed MASW of showing best fit for phase velcoty curve by GA.

of these layers. The relative confidence on the inversion procedure can be altogether expanded for GA by utilizing most suitable initial input model [30] . Many scientist successfully applied GA effectively for inversion operations in geophysical Methods e.g., [36] [37] . The surface wave inversion carried out by GA calculation requires the minimum information [29] . The procedure is steady and exact, having different points of interest judged next to conventional methodologies. The best fits for calculated and observed dispersion curve is provided by genetic algorithm (Figure 5). The dispersion curves inversion is carried out to obtain 1D shear wave velocity profile. The shear waves velocity is presented by averaging the inverted dispersion curves velocity profiles at the center of MASW profile (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Shear waves profile in subsurface (32).

5. Discussion and Conclusion

The MASW data were acquired in Wadi Fatima, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Total 24 MASW profiles were acquired. CMP cross-correlated gather was generated and 1D shear wave velocities were obtained. Each profile was processed through CMP gathers generation, stacking of CMP gathers, generation of dispersion curves and finally by inverting those to obtain a 1D shear wave velocity model. Finally averaging was carried out for each velocity model obtained by inversion dispersion curves. The average velocity (1D) profile was assumed to the representative velocity at the center of each MASW profile obtained CMP stacks. The data acquisition with fixed receiver and multi-offset geometry reliably worked well in fluvial sediments. This technique provides a quicker way to acquire data in less accessible areas.

Cite this paper

Rehman, F., El-Hady, S.M., Faisal, M., Harbi, H.M., Ullah, M.F., Rehman, S. and Kashif, M. (2018) MASW Survey with Fixed Receiver Geometry and CMP Cross-Correlation Technique for Data Processing: A Case Study of Wadi Fatima, Western Saudi Arabia. Open Journal of Geology, 8, 463-473. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojg.2018.85027

References.         .      " ".      6.00 .     ...The day before Mother's Day, one Kimball mom will be handing her graduating son his diploma. As a member of the local board of education Carrie Tabor will present her oldest child, Nicholas, with his diploma this weekend as he graduates valedictorian of his class.

"I can't take credit for who Nicholas is, he just has done amazing things," she said.

Carrie, a mom of five spanning from high school graduate to newborn, said she feels blessed to have the opportunity, though she knows it will be a very emotional moment shared with an entire community.

"I had Nicholas when I was fairly young and because of him I ended up graduating a year early; I stayed home with him during that time," she said. " Then I got my Associates Degree and then finished out my Bachelor's online."

By the time she completed her second degree she welcomed her second son, Xavier, now 12, as well.

Their family moved to Kimball when Nicholas was in second grade.

"My mom's family is from Kimball," Carrie said. "What brought me back to Kimball was the house I live in. It was my grandma's house."

After moving to Kimball, Carrie met the man she would marry, Danny Tabor, and soon their daughter Emmaline, 8, was born.

"Then, pretty quick, we had Nalix (7)," Carrie said. "We decided we were going to put things on pause for awhile."

They eventually decided to have another baby and recently added their daughter, Theron, to the family.

"It is strange having a senior in high school and having a newborn in the family," she said. "What's great about my kids and husband is that having a newborn is a huge change to your family, but at the same time it feels like she has always been a part of us."

With his big brother graduating, Xavier is training to fill in.

"My kids are incredibly close," Carrie said. "Attempting to prepare for him to be gone is a huge moment for us."

The difficulties for each of the family members throughout this transition vary, but Carrie feels blessed for quick communication tools such as Face Time and Nicholas is already considering ways to connect to his newest sister.

"Nicholas is an amazing young man, just incredible. I am fortunate to have a son who is willing and able to step in and help out," she said. "Graduation is going to be a bigger change than bringing a baby in. I think it is just as hard for Nicholas to think about being away as it is for us to think about him being away. He is very concerned about Theron not knowing who he is, so he is trying to think of ways that he can connect with her while he is away."

With all of her children, Carrie recognizes strength, unique abilities and a genuine affection for one another.

"I am very lucky that I have the kids I have, they are very loving to each other and I am excited that Theron is going to get to grow up with such amazing siblings," Carrie said. "But for a period of her life she will probably be like an only child."

Though Nicholas is moving to Pennsylvania for college, and though Carrie knows the change will be difficult, she takes comfort in knowing how attached they are to one another.

"I imagine at some point they will end up back near one another," she said, "because that is just how close they are. They rely on one another, they trust one another."

Carrie embraces her children wholly, and it is important to her to allow them to be who they are.

"I didn't teach them to do most of the things they do or be the people that they are," Carrie said. "You just sit back and watch these amazing little beings just be who they are. I don't want my kids to be copies of me, I want them to be who they are."

Though it isn't always easy, Carrie said that as her children develop and grow into the people that they are, her role is to encourage and support them in their individuality. And though she takes little credit for the successes Nicholas has achieved, she hopes to have had enough influence to carry him comfortably into his future.

Carrie and Danny's youngest, Theron.

"I hope I have prepared him well enough to know that he can step out into that world and be strong and confident in who he is and he will know how to adapt to a place that is not Kimball," she said.Have you seen the activity and equipment working at the City dam property on County Road 22 on the south edge of town? What's going on out there? The Kimball Community Trail Project!

Kimball Area Foundation Fund members have been working with and coordinating city employees, to clean up trash and abandoned metal and wood piles, and numerous volunteers who are donating their time, efforts and expertise to this grassroots effort. They are blazing out a walking/bicycle trail, a future dog park and a remote control vehicle track. No motorized vehicles or horses will be allowed on the trail. Trees have been planted on the south edge of the property and more will be planted around the trail as the project progresses. Benches and shaded areas will be placed along the trail thanks to the Erin Aerni memorial fund. Additional trail loops will be added as the project progresses.

Howard and Peggy Atkins have set a challenge to the community to match funds they will donate to the project. After seeing an article ranking Kimball as one of the least healthy communities in Nebraska, they have teamed up with Kimball Area Foundation Fund to challenge fellow residents to contribute to the effort to make Kimball a better place to live and create a more inviting community. They knew Kimball didn't have a hiking trail but the City had an unused tract of land. The project has been approved by the Kimball City Council and the Kimball County Commissioners.

Together we can fulfill the need for the Kimball Community Trail! Please consider supporting this initiative that will benefit the residents and visitors of the Kimball area. Tax deductible donations for the trail can be made through the Kimball Area Foundation Fund. Gifts accepted can be in the form of monetary donations, memorials or ag donations. Donations can be a one-time transaction or set up to come out of checking or savings accounts on a set schedule.

Checks can be made to Kimball Area Foundation Fund with Kimball Community Trail in the memo field. Mail to PO Box 483, Kimball NE 69145, or you can give online by using this link and selecting Kimball Trails Project Account. https://www.nebcommfound.org/give/kimball-area-foundation-fund . Upon request, project presentations can be made to your group, organization or family.

"You ought to give some back," Howard Atkins said. "If we get the word out, maybe other people will realize they can donate some of their money to the community and have something to be proud of."

For more information or to volunteer, please contact us at [email protected] or contact one of these committee members: Lana Anderson 308-225-1948 or Jean Gilbert 406-451-6948.Kimball's, Madison Biesecker, is still bringing in honors, even though she has graduated from Southeast Community College, where she excelled in the classroom and on the volleyball court.

Madison received a Student of the Year award from Southeast Community College as the Math-Science Student of the Year and had her recent honor presented to her by Rebecca Burt, the Program chairperson and a former Bushnell resident.

Madison, the daughter of Drew and Cheryl Biesecker, was also named to the All-Nebraska Academic Team at a special Honors Night held in Lincoln. She was listed on the All-Nebraska Academic Team at the Recognition Day on April 25th as a nursing major at Southeast Community College. She now plans to transfer to Bryan College of Health Sciences to continue her education. At Southeast she was a member of the volleyball team and was also on the Student Senate. She has been on the Dean's List, PTK Honor Society and an Academic All American. Madison stated, "I got to fulfill my dreams of playing collegiate volleyball and continuing my education to become a nurse."Students at the Kimball High School worked to clean up the Ron Scott house during the community clean up.

Kimball High School students picked up around businesses on Tuesday, May 1, to give back to the community for all the support the school receives. They combined the hard work with a fundraiser and a meal.

Seniors put together salads, baked goods, and grilled hot dogs for the entire school for lunch before being sent around town to clean up.

Once the students were finished with their meals they met with their groups and were sent off to their designated clean up sites. Everyone worked hard for two hours as some seniors and staff were getting ready for the egg Russian roulette, the fundraiser.

After the Civics class heard the news that Mrs. Nikki Kilgore is battling breast cancer, they decided to raise money to help the Kilgore family.

Egg Russian Roulette was a huge success last year for a similar goal so students used the fundraiser again this year.

Cups were made for each staff member and senior classmate. Students and staff were able to "vote" for the Egg Russian Roulette teams by putting money into the cup with the names of who they wanted to see in the contest.

Mrs. Ferguson had snacks, drinks, and bracelets made for Nikki. These items were available in her room for purchase.

Additionally, students had the chance to wear hats in class for two dollars a day, and staff members were able to wear jeans for five dollars a day if they chose to.

Mr. Brashear, Mr. Hoffman, Amber Birkhofer and Justine Heeg had the most money in their cups winning the money and being chosen for the contest.

The students piled into the gym as the ones above began the competition. Mr. Hoffman never ran into an unboiled egg the entire time, while everyone else had gotten at least one of them.

While waiting for Nikki Kilgore, Byron Rowley walked down the steps to begin everyone's favorite carnival ride. Byron directed the direction the ride was going as everyone shouted. Cheerleaders led the student body in fun cheers and class chants. The students had fun interacting with seniors during this time.

Nikki Kilgore walked into the gym with her husband, Kevin Kilgore, as Paycen Harroun handed him a check with $2,500 that the school had raised for the family.

Though Kimball is a small town, when someone needs help, everyone in the community pulls together, including students at Kimball Jr. Sr. High School.

"I am excited about how much everybody participated. I am always amazed at how our community pulls together to help," said Mrs. Ferguson.No. 16 Kentucky hosts LSU, looking to remain unbeatenBy West Kentucky Star Staff May. 10, 2018 | 05:18 PM | PADUCAH, KY

The man who was driving the vehicle that struck County Judge-Executive Van Newberry, leading to his death in October 2016, has entered a guilty plea.Sheriff Jon Hayden confirmed that 69-year-old Willie G. Holsapple appeared in McCracken Circuit Court on Thursday and entered a guilty plea to vehicular homicide, which is a downgrade from the 2nd degree manslaughter charge at his March 2017 indictment. He also plead guilty to unsworn falsification to authorities.The recommended sentence on the vehicular homicide charge is two years in prison, and Holsapple will likely get 90 days on the falsification charge, with sentences running concurrently.He has been in jail or under house arrest as the case moved through the courts, so with credit for time served, Holsapple may have completed his sentence by the time it is formally announced by the judge in August.Newberry was struck while riding a bicycle along Old Cairo Road on October 13, 2016. He was thrown from the bike and suffered trauma to his head and chest. Medical personnel tried to revive Newberry until he arrived at Lourdes Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.Man Arrested on Kidnapping, Assault, Other Charges

Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

May. 09, 2018 | ALMO, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 09, 2018 | 06:39 PM | ALMO, KY

Officers checking on a woman who didn't show up for work arrested a man on charges of holding her against her will.



According to the Calloway County Sheriff's Department, deputies went to a home in Almo to conduct a welfare check on a woman who hadn't shown up for work. The woman's co-workers requested someone check on her because they said there had been previous reports of domestic violence.



When the sheriff and a captain knocked on the door, there was no answer. Based on the circumstances, officers entered the home anyway, and immediately heard a scream for help. The woman was found and the sheriff says she being held against her will by her estranged husband, 40-year-old Dardis Shane Markham, who was immediately arrested.



Deputies said Markham had come to the home in the early morning hours, armed with a flare gun and a butcher knife. After being held against her will for several hours, the woman said she briefly escaped but was recaptured and taken back into the home. Markham reportedly held his hand over the woman's mouth when the sheriff arrived, but she managed to yell for help when they got inside the home.



Markham was out on bond from a previous assault on the woman, and had been ordered to stay away from her and the home.



He was charged with kidnapping, burglary, wanton endangerment, intimidating a witness, terroristic threatening, assault (domestic violence), violation of conditions of release, and for possession of methamphetamine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia.



Markham was taken to Calloway County Jail.Murray State Suspends Greek Social Activities

Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

May. 09, 2018 | MURRAY, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 09, 2018 | 09:51 PM | MURRAY, KY

Murray State University has suspended all Greek social activities for sororities and fraternities after a death at a fraternity house last month.



The university announced the decision Wednesday. According to the Murray State News, in a letter to the Greek community, University President Bob Davies and Vice President for Student Affairs Don Robertson informed them of the university's decision. They said that a university committee will investigate the current policies and procedures that govern Greek activities, in order that a safe environment is provided for everyone.



The investigation and review will begin this summer and could extend into the 2018 fall semester. No Greek social events will be allowed until the review is completed.



The letter stressed that the move is not meant as punishment, instead it encourages a time to focus on values for which the organizations were founded.Americans Freed Hour Before Flight from Pyongyang

Advertisement

By The Associated Press

May. 09, 2018 | PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA

By The Associated Press May. 09, 2018 | 06:28 PM | PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA

After months of anticipation and drama, the release of three American detainees by North Korea played out amid high-stakes diplomacy and was only sealed about an hour before the U.S. secretary of state was wheels-up from Pyongyang.



The three men, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, walked on their own from a van and onto the plane of top diplomat Mike Pompeo. It was the culmination of Pompeo's 12-and-a-half-hour visit to the North Korean capital, which included a 90-minute meeting with leader Kim Jong Un.



Returning to his hotel from that meeting, Pompeo had given reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked if there was good news about the detainees. A North Korean official came to the hotel shortly after to inform Pompeo that Kim had granted amnesties to the three and that they would be released at 7 p.m. local time, according to a senior U.S. official present for the exchange. Carl Risch, the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, and a doctor went to another hotel to pick up the men and bring them to the airport, the official said. They finally left custody at 7:45 p.m., and by 8:42 p.m. they were flying home.



As soon as the plane cleared North Korean airspace, Pompeo called President Donald Trump to inform him of the releases with the men all apparently in good health; then other officials notified their families.



Even before Pompeo's plane had touched down for a stopover at Yokota Air Base in neighboring Japan, the president announced to the world by Twitter that the "3 wonderful gentlemen" were free.



They are the latest in a series of Americans to be held in North Korea for alleged anti-state activities in recent years, only to be freed during the visit of a high-level U.S. official or statesman. Their releases draw a line under an issue that had weighed on plans for a historic summit between Kim and Trump that will focus on North Korea's nuclear weapons.



"We're granting amnesty to the three detained Americans," the North Korean emissary told Pompeo at Pyongyang's Koryo Hotel, according to the senior U.S. official who requested anonymity to discuss the exchange. "We issued the order to grant immediate amnesty to the detainees."



"That's great," the secretary of state replied.



The North Korean official then advised that the releases would follow a "very brief ceremony"  which he described as more like a legal process. The official closed with a gentle warning for the U.S. to prevent a repeat: "You should make care that they do not make the same mistakes again," the official said. "This was a hard decision."



North Korea's official news agency, KCNA, said early Thursday that Kim "accepted an official suggestion of the U.S. president for the release of Americans who have been detained in the DPRK for their anti-DPRK hostilities," referring to the initials of the authoritarian nation's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The dispatch also made the first official mention by the North of plans for the Trump-Kim summit.



The Trump administration has made clear it regarded the arrests as politically motivated, and had been bitterly critical of North Korea's refusal to grant consular access to the three, other than a brief visit by a U.S. envoy last June. The envoy had repatriated college student Otto Warmbier, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor for stealing a propaganda poster. Warmbier died in June 2017, days after he arrived back in the U.S. with severe brain damage.



Since then, pressure to win the releases of the other three men, whom the administration has referred to as "hostages," has intensified.



Relatively little is known about the men, all Korean-Americans, and the circumstances in which they ended up in North Korean custody.



Kim Dong Chul, a former Virginia resident who had reportedly run a company on North Korea's border with Russia, had been sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison with hard labor after being convicted of espionage. Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, who had both taught at a university in Pyongyang that was founded with donations from Christian groups, had been held for about one year and apparently had not been tried.



Tony Kim's son Sol Kim, a graduate student in California, is the only relative of the detainees to have appealed in public for their freedom. On learning of the release of Tony, who also uses the name Kim Sang-duk, his family expressed gratitude and credited Trump for engaging directly with North Korea.



Washington and Pyongyang have remained in a state of war since the fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War ended and do not have formal diplomatic ties, complicating efforts to handle the cases of American detainees. Typically, Swedish diplomats based in North Korea handle U.S. consular affairs.



Pompeo, the most senior U.S. official to meet with a North Korean leader since 2000, was making his second visit to the isolated nation in five weeks  and less than two weeks after becoming top diplomat. Some in Washington had expressed disappointment that Pompeo's first trip, made in secret when he was still CIA director, did not win the freedom of the three captives.



Pompeo said Wednesday he was "thrilled" the men were now out.



"Though we're not quite back home yet, I welcomed them back," he said, recounting his first words with the men after they were freed. "They were happy to be with us on this plane to be sure," he said.



The three boarded under their own steam, when most of the U.S. delegation had already got on the plane. They were seated with medical personnel in a curtained off area of the aircraft.



After arriving at the stop in Japan, the men transferred to another plane with more medical facilities and were expected to land at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington in the wee hours of Thursday, where Trump planned to greet them.

EAST & NORTH HENDERSON AIR FORCE JROTC PROGRAMS RECEIVE TOP HONORS

NORTH HENDERSON HIGH

Master Sgt. Doug Draper and Major Kevin Den Boer from the North Henderson High School Air Force JROTC staff are very proud to announce that the NHHS Air Force JROTC has unit been recognized as an Air Force JROTC Distinguished Unit with Merit.

The highest honor that can be bestowed upon a JROTC unit, the Distinguished Unit with Merit designation is given to fewer than 10 percent of units nationwide. It recognizes AFJROTC units for exceptional performance far above expectations, which the North Henderson AFJROTC cadets have displayed through outstanding service to their school and community, while developing citizenship and leadership skills.

In the 2017-18 school year, 110 AFJROTC cadets at North Henderson have completed more than 1,700 community service hours and participated in numerous leadership events, including field trips to the National Space Center, piloting Civil Air Patrol aircraft, and several field training exercises with the North Carolina National Guard.

EAST HENDERSON HIGH

Following a Unit Evaluation by the U.S. Air Forces Headquarters Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFJROTC) in mid-April, East Henderson Highs AFJROTC earned an overall Exceeds Standards  the highest rating attainable.

According to Col. Paul C. Lips, Air Force JROTC director, the purpose of a Unit Evaluation is to provide feedback regarding the performance of a schools AFJROTC unit and to assess its compliance with Public Law, Department of Defense and Air Force Instructions, and the written agreement that exists between the school district and the Air Force.

In letters to East Hendersons Lt. Col. John L. Wilkerson and Master Sgt. Michael W. Jensen, Col. Lips wrote, It takes hard work, dedication and a passion for our cadets to Exceed Standards. You should be proud of yourself and what your unit has accomplished. The real winners this year are your cadets. Because of your excellence theyve been part of a great team and learned the payoff for setting high standards and working to meet them.

Not only are Easts AFJROTC leaders proud of their cadets dedication to their unit, Jensen said the unit is invested in its community and its people. The unit recently sponsored a canned food drive to help supply the Interfaith Assistance Ministry food closet, collecting and donating more than 700 food items.

Upcoming AFJROTC Event

East Hendersons AFJROTC Warrior Day field meet will be held at the high school on May 19 from 8:30 to noon, with AFJROTC units from other schools participating as East cadets manage all the events, tabulate scores, serve as judges, and more. Air Force members from the 14th Weather Squadron in Asheville and local military recruiters will assist by bringing a HUMVEE which is used in the competition, and an inflatable obstacle course for the cadets.

###Williamson, WV (25661)

Today

Cloudy with rain in the morning...then scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 74F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, with mostly cloudy skies overnight. Low 63F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.WiGBits Headline News Would you like to receive our WiGBits? Signup today!

WiG Entertainment News Would you like to receive our WiG Entertainment News? Signup today!

Digital Issue Would you like to receive our Digital Issue? Signup today!Israelis are celebrating.

President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, formally named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, makes America, Israel and the world much safer.

The deal threatened the security and the very future of Israel. It legitimized Iranian aggression throughout the Middle East and funded massacres and terror through sanctions relief and business contracts. It also enabled Iran to retain its nuclear infrastructure and the ability to reactivate it in the near future.

The announcement that the United States will pull out of the JCPOA follows decades of concerted Israeli efforts to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Contrary to the claim that no deal would satisfy us, Israelis, in fact, sought an arrangement that would dismantle Iran's nuclear facilities, halt its building of ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads and ensure that the jihadist regime in Tehran could never develop nuclear weapons.

We sought a treaty that would link Iran's ability to do business overseas with the cessation of its support for terror, of its campaign to dominate the Middle East and of its declared goal of destroying the Jewish state.

The JCPOA, signed in 2015, achieved none of this. Rather than blocking Iran's path to nuclear weapons, it paved it. All of Iran's nuclear facilities, including those intended to make atomic bombs, were retained, along with the bulk of their centrifuges. Iranian scientists, led by veterans of the secret nuclear weapons program, developed centrifuges able to enrich uranium at four times the 2015 rate. And international inspectors were denied entry into Iranian military sites.

These flaws would alone discredit the JCPOA, but the agreement also had expiration dates. Beginning in a mere seven years, the limitations on Iran's nuclear program would be gradually lifted. In a short period, Iran would be able to enrich enough uranium for an entire arsenal of bombs.

But JCPOA's failings did not end there. It ignored Iran's role as the world's largest sponsor of state terror, its complicity in the killings of a half-million Syrians and its threats to destroy the state of Israel. It even overlooked Iranian aggression against Americans. Iran did not need intercontinental missiles to reach Israel -- it needed them to hit the United States.

And yet the JCPOA rewarded Iran with many tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief and international contracts. Iran's quest for regional hegemony went unchecked. Endangered neighboring states considered launching their own nuclear programs, triggering fears of a Middle East arms race.

Justifiably, Israelis opposed the deal and failed to understand why, with Iran's economy in tatters, a better one was not signed. Now, though, the United States is again poised to apply immense pressure on Iran, greatly reducing its ability to mount aggression in the region and abroad. America, again, stands with its Middle East allies, sending an unequivocal message of strength to the world.

The threat of Iran nevertheless persists, especially in Syria, which it is trying to transform into a forward military base against Israel. Iran has also supplied Hezbollah with 130,000 rockets and embedded them in Lebanese villages. Faced with these dangers, Israel will continue to defend itself, confident in America's support and freed from the specter of a bad deal.A Denver woman is fighting for her life after coming down with what's known as "flesh-eating bacteria".

The infection is officially known as necrotizing fasciitis and it is not common. According to Dr. Jeff Bontrager at Lutheran Medical Center, he sees fewer than three cases per year at the hospital.

Sherry Apodaca is one of the few to battle it. She was admitted to the ER on April 28th because of pain in her arm.

"Excruciating pain. It's a pain that you can't even describe," she told FOX31.

She says she suffered at home for several hours before making the decision to get help. That decision saved her life.

"The doctor said that if she had stayed home another hour she would not be with us," her friend Cheryl told FOX31.

That same day, Sherry was rushed into surgery where doctors confirmed the diagnosis.

"The surgeon opening up looking at the tissues can see purulent or pus, kind of like the yellow goopy stuff," Dr. Bontrager said.

That goopy stuff is an indication that the bacteria is killing muscles and soft tissues. Doctors have already gone in six times to remove infected tissues and bacteria.

"Have you ever heard of that story the monsters inside you? That's pretty much what I had," Sherry said.

It is unclear where she may have contracted the infection. Flesh-eating bacteria is caused by common strains of bacteria that somehow get under the skin in a person with a weakened immune system.

"In the patient that's here at Lutheran it's actually a very common, it's just strep," Dr. Bontrager said. "But if it gets in the wrong place like a little bit deeper than just the more surface tissues that's where it can spread so fast and do a lot of damage."

That's when the infection becomes "flesh-eating" and potentially fatal.

"It's a lot to take in because I'm normally not a person to be shut into a hospital bed. I'm always on the go. I work every day," Sherry said.

While she still has a long road to recovery, she says she is grateful to be alive.

"The hospital literally saved my arm right now and my life," she said.A Texas university is trying to find any family members or friends of an Air Force veteran with ties to Hampton Roads who died on their campus last year.

Margaret Rosa King, 67, was found unresponsive near her car on the campus of University of North Texas on September 14, 2017.

She was taken to Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Denton, Texas where she was pronounced dead. Authorities with the Tarrant County medical examiner's office later classified her death as natural as a result of heart disease.

Unfortunately, neither the University nor the medical examiner's office have been able to locate or identify any next of kin.

King began working for UNT Facilities as a custodian in June of 2016, but she has a long list of degrees, several of which were earned in Hampton Roads. On her employment application, she indicated that after retiring from civil service, she enjoyed taking classes as a hobby.

She served in the Air Force from May of 1971 through September of 1974. King's time in Hampton Roads was spent earning an associate's degree in business from Tidewater Community College and a master's degree in gerontology from Norfolk State University.

Additionally, UNT says King had a bachelor's degree in business from Saint Leo University in Florida, an associate's degree in accounting and information technology from Tarrant County Community College, a master's degree in information science from UNT, and a master's degree in computer education from UNT.

She was working on a graduate degree in interdisciplinary studies at the time of her death.

Before working at UNT, she worked as a contractor for the Department of Defense and was with the Department of Defense Naval Aviation Depot, transferring to DCCA Lockheed Martin in 1997.

When neither the coroner or law enforcement were able to find her family, the UNT Facilities Department worked with the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery to arrange for King to be buried there.

UNT has planned a funeral service for her at the cemetery next week on Wednesday, May 16th.

Anyone who may have known King is asked to contact the University of North Texas here.Rome Lab could be getting the chance to enhance its security with the help of federal funding.

Congresswoman Claudia Tenney announced Wednesday evening that the National Defense Authorization Act includes $14.2 million for a secured perimeter fence for Rome Lab, something both she and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer were advocating for.

The perimeter fence would include lighting, video surveillance, card-controlled personal entry access gates, and a visitor control entry point.

The House Armed Services Committee marked up the bill Wednesday and the Senate is expected to do their part later this month. Both the House and Senate will have to pass the bill before the funding for Rome Labs fence becomes official.

Last month Tenney testified in front of members of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military, Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies to advocate for the Rome Lab fence funding, and she also submitted testimony to the House Armed Services Committee highlighting the important work done at Rome Lab.

In mid-April Sen. Schumer also launched an initiative to secure the $14.2 million in the bill, saying he would do everything he could "to ensure Rome Lab has all the resources in needs to continue its critical mission.

"Securing the funding for the perimeter fence is a critical win to enhance security at Rome Lab and I am proud that the advocacy of our office ultimately led to the inclusion of this funding in the House's proposal, Tenney said in a news release. For decades, Rome Lab has stood at the forefront of advanced cyber research and development projects within the Airforce. The highly sensitive nature of Rome Lab's research and development projects place the site at a heightened risk.

Tenney says the perimeter fence will help increase safety for the 3,000 people who work there, and make the facility less susceptible to terrorist-related activities.

You can view Tenney's testimony to the Appropriations Subcommittee here:Two members of the New Hartford Police Department are among the more than 2,000 police officers taking part in the Police Unity Tour on Thursday.

Investigators Shane Yoxall and Andrew Allen are participating in their third Unity Tour, riding bicycles from New York to Washington, D.C. to honor fellow law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty. The Unity Tours slogan is We ride for those who died, and it began in 1997 with only 18 bike riders who raised $18,000.

The primary goal of the Police Unity Tour is to raise awareness of law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty, and the secondary goal of the ride is to raise funds for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and Museum, according to the Unity Tours website. Last year, the Police Unity Tour raised $2.6 million for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

Investigator Yoxall is riding for Cpl. Michael Middlebrook of the Lafayette Police Department in Lafayette, Louisiana, End of Watch 10/1/17.

Investigator Allen is riding for Officer Jaimie Cox of the Rockford Police Department in Rockford, Illinois, End of Watch 11/5/17.A Utica man has been sentenced to prison time for breaking into an apartment and pointing a gun at a woman inside.

Angel Soto, 36, was sentenced Wednesday in Oneida County Court to 9  years in state prison with five years of post-release supervision, according to the Oneida County District Attorneys Office. Soto previously pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary.

Back in November, Utica police were called to an apartment on Scott Street after a woman reported that a man had forced his way into her apartment and pointed a gun at her. Police say the man, later identified as Soto, questioned the woman about a man who lived in the apartment, and after he searched the apartment and learned the woman was the only one there, he fled from the apartment.

Soto was arrested after the woman directed police to an apartment on Scott Street where she believed he had fled to. The apartment where Soto was found wasn't his residence, and it unoccupied at the time.

Soto was initially charged with:

- Two counts of first-degree burglary (Felony)

- Two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon (Felony)

- Two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon (Felony)

- Two counts of criminal possession of a firearm (Felony)

- Second-degree menacing (Misdemeanor)

- Obstruction of governmental administration (Misdemeanor)

______________________________

RELATED COVERAGE:

Police: Utica man forced his way into apartment, pointed gun at woman insideThe Illinois man who was found with a teenage girl in the city of Rome earlier this year will spend a year in the Oneida County Jail.

In February, 28-year-old Dakota Adair of Bradley, Illinois pleaded guilty to felony third-degree rape and criminal possession of a weapon. He was sentenced Thursday to one year in the Oneida County Jail on each charge, to be served concurrently for a total of one year, according to the Oneida County District Attorneys Office.

On Jan. 17, deputies in Illinois contacted the Rome Police Department about a 16-year-old girl who was reported missing on Jan. 14, and she was believed to be with Adair, possibly in Rome.

Rome police found Adairs car at the Red Carpet Inn on Lawrence Street in Rome on Jan. 17, and they found the missing teen and Adair in one of the motel rooms. Police also found a gun in the glove compartment of Adairs car, which was registered in Illinois but Adair wasnt legally allowed to bring it across state lines.

Adair was also wanted on a charge of child abduction in Wills County, Illinois.

____________________________

RELATED COVERAGE:

Illinois man found with missing girl in Rome pleads guilty

Illinois man facing additional weapon charge following rape arrest in Rome

Illinois man wanted for child abduction found in Rome motel with missing teen(CNN) -- Under an American flag and dark night sky, US President Donald Trump personally welcomed home three American detainees Thursday morning after they were released from North Korea.

The Americans -- Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim -- were freed Wednesday while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on a visit to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang to discuss President Trump's upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

No family members or friends of the three freed Americans were on hand for their arrival in the early hours of Thursday due to protocol reasons, an official told CNN, adding the men had to first debrief intelligence officials before heading to their homes.

Speaking to the media on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews Air Force Base, Kim Dong Chul said his release felt "like a dream."

"We are very, very happy," said Kim.

RELATED: 13 hours in North Korea: How US prisoners were released

Trump: 'Nice' of Kim Jong Un to release men

President Trump, who was accompanied by his wife Melania, told waiting reporters it was "nice" of the North Korean leader to release the three men ahead of their planned summit.

"Frankly we didn't think this was going to happen ... it's a very important thing to all of us to be able to get these three great people out," he said.

Trump also said he wanted to pay his "warmest respects" to the family of Otto Warmbier, the American who was released by the North Koreans in a vegetative state, only to die days later.

After their meeting with Trump, the three men were expected to go to the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland for further evaluation and medical treatment, according to White House Press Secretary Lindsay Walters.

After addressing the return of the three American detainees, Trump was asked about the prospects of making a deal with the North Korean leader.

"I really think he wants to do something and bring his country into the real world," Trump said.

"I think this will be a very big success. It's never been taken this far, there's never been a relationship like this."

Trump has previously said the release of the three men was part of working towards the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

"Some great things can happen, and that's what we hope," he added.

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence were also on hand to welcome the three men home.

Joking with reporters, Trump said the three men's arrivals had probably broken "the all time in history television rating for three in the morning."

The US President had earlier said on his Twitter it would be "quite a scene" when the detainees arrived in Washington.

Detainees still in North Korean custody

Rumors had swirled for days around the possibility North Korea might release the three Americans ahead of the summit, especially once Pompeo's visit to Pyongyang was revealed.

Trump had demurred on how likely their return was, telling reporters on Tuesday "we'll all soon be finding out." "It would be a great thing if they are," he added.

The three former detainees issued a joint statement on Wednesday thanking Trump for their release. "We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," the trio said.

While both South Korea and Japan welcomed the news of the Americans' release, the two countries are still waiting for word on their own citizens held or abducted by North Korea.

In a statement Wednesday, South Korean government spokesman Yoon Young-chan called again for Kim Jong Un to release the six South Koreans still held by the North.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly pushed for Trump to raise the issue of repeated abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korea in his upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un. More than a dozen abductees still remain missing, according to the Japanese government.

Meeting planned for Singapore

CNN reported Wednesday that administration officials have been instructed to move forward with plans to convene that meeting in Singapore, according to two people familiar with the plans.

Trump said on Wednesday he would announce the location and the timing of the summit in three days time, after repeatedly teasing the meeting date had been set. The two leaders are expected to meet sometime in June.

It will be the first meeting ever between a sitting US President and a North Korean leader, with both men meeting to discuss denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Other locations had been under discussion, including Mongolia and the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ), but experts said Singapore's neutral but opulent setting was likely to work in its favor.

It comes less than two months after a historic summit between Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on April 27 in the DMZ, where Kim became the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since 1953.

The White House Wednesday said they viewed the action to release the Americans as a "gesture of good will."

(The-CNN-Wire &  2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved)WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump welcoming home Korean Americans released by North Korea (all times local):

10:45 a.m.

President Donald Trump says he will meet with North Korea's Kim Jong in Singapore on June 12.

The president tweeted, "We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!"

Trump is providing details for the first time about the history-making meeting between a sitting American president and the leader of North Korea over denuclearization.

He'd said he favored holding the meeting at the Demilitarized Zone, the heavily fortified border separating the Koreas. But the island nation was favored by most of his advisers.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Pyongyang twice to meet with Kim in recent months, in a precursor to the Trump-Kim meeting. Pompeo returned overnight with three captive Americans during his most recent trip.





RELATED: President Trump welcomes 3 Americans freed by North Korea

CNN POLL: Three-quarters approve of Trump's plans to meet with Kim Jong Un

CONTINUING COVERAGE: Trump, Kim Jong Un coverage on WKTV.com

___

10:40 a.m.

The military hospital that received the three Americans released by North Korea says they will be reunited with their families once they have achieved what hospital officials call "an optimal period of decompression."

The statement was released through the Pentagon by the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

It says family support is critically important for the returnees, and that allowing them to decompress away from their families is the standard, proven process for all who reintegrate into American society after a period of captivity.

The statement says reuniting with families too soon can "cause additional psychological stress."

It adds that "too much stimuli all at once is emotionally overwhelming."

___

10:30 a.m.

A U.N. human rights expert is welcoming North Korea's release of three Americans as "another important building block" for peace prospects.

President Donald Trump welcomed three Americans home overnight. Their release comes before an expected meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Tomas Ojea Quintana is the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea. Quintana says in a statement that it was "important decision" by the North Korean government, "which I hope will offer an opportunity to further address human rights and humanitarian concerns."

He urged North Korea to release six South Korean nationals, including three pastors, who are still being held.

___

7:35 a.m.

Vice President Mike Pence is revealing new details about the conditions of the three Americans freed by North Korea, saying one was evidently kept from the daylight.

Pence tells ABC News that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told him that, during a refueling stop in Anchorage, "one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadn't seen daylight in a very long time."

Pence also told CBS he spoke Wednesday with the family of Otto Warmbier, an American detainee who died last year shortly after his release from North Korean captivity.

Pence said: "I simply let them know that while we received this news with joy, that Otto was on all our hearts and the family was in our prayers."

He adds: "We got Otto home the last year, but it wasn't soon enough."

___

7:35 a.m.

Vice President Mike Pence says North Korea has been dealing with the U.S. "in good faith" as President Donald Trump prepares for a historic sit-down with Kim Jong Un.

Speaking to NBC News, Pence says: "In this moment, the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith."

Pence says that despite Trump's recent praise for Kim, the administration is not ignoring the North's abysmal human rights record.

He says, "We have no illusions about that."

But Pence says the U.S. believes "North Korea has taken steps that indicate this may be an opportunity for a breakthrough" on the Korean Peninsula.

___

3:10 a.m.

President Donald Trump thanked North Korea's Kim Jong Un for releasing three Americans from captivity, saying he believes Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.

Welcoming the three Americans at a military base outside Washington early Thursday, Trump said of Kim, "I really think he wants to do something."

He added of the talks between his administration and the North Korean government, "It's never been taken this far."

Trump said he will not disclose whether he will have any personal conversations with Kim as they prepare for their historic summit in the coming weeks.

__

2:55 a.m.

President Donald Trump is on board the military plane carrying three Americans released from North Korea during a middle-of-the-night welcome ceremony at a military base outside Washington.

Trump is on hand to greet Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim at Joint Base Andrews, along with many senior administration officials.

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump climbed red-carpeted stairs to privately welcome the trio aboard the military C-40. The group is expected to disembark the plane together. The aircraft is parked before a large American flag suspended between two fire trucks.

The three former detainees will be transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for further evaluation and medical treatment, the White House says.

__

2:42 a.m.

A military plane carrying three Americans freed from captivity in North Korea has arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington. President Donald Trump is on hand to greet them.

A Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities arrived at the base at 2:42 a.m., carrying Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, who were released to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about 20 hours earlier.

Pompeo was in Pyongyang to discuss Trump's plans to meet with North Korea's Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks. He returned on a separate plane, joining Trump, first lady Melania Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on the tarmac.

The three former detainees will be transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for further evaluation and medical treatment.

__

2:20 a.m.

President Donald Trump has arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington to greet three Korean-Americans as they return to the mainland U.S. after more than a year imprisoned in North Korea.

The president is accompanied by first lady Melania Trump. Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, are also awaiting the arrival of the former detainees.

The men were released Wednesday as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un amid final plans for a Trump-Kim summit.

Pompeo's plane is expected to arrive at Andrews first, followed by a military medical plane carrying the three men who had been imprisoned. They will then be transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for further evaluation and medical treatment.

__

1:15 a.m.

State Department officials have taken great pains to keep three former North Korean detainees sequestered as they are flown back to the mainland United States.

The three men, along with medical personnel, including a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's plane in a small section of 12 seats that was cordoned off by curtains on both ends.

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns.

The three Korean-Americans - Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim - will be greeted by President Donald Trump when they arrive early Thursday at the Washington-area Joint Base Andrews. They were released Wednesday by North Korea.

__

12:45 a.m.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has renewed his pledge to win release of Japanese abductees detained for decades in North Korea as he congratulated three Americans' return home.

The Americans freed after more than a year in North Korea's prison flew home Wednesday.

Abe congratulated their release as Pyongyang's forward-looking step ahead of its summit with the U.S., but stressed that many Japanese are still stuck in North Korea.

Abe says he is determined to pursue efforts to bring them home and seek support from the U.S., South Korea and China.

Japan says North Korea abducted at least 17 Japanese decades ago to train spies in Japanese language and culture. Pyongyang acknowledged in 2002 abducting 13. It said eight had died, and allowed five others to visit Japan - and they stayed.

___

12:30 a.m.

President Donald Trump is promising "quite a scene" when three Korean Americans detained in North Korea return to the mainland U.S. after more than a year in prison.

Their freedom is a bonus from the warming of relations between the longtime adversaries.

Despite a middle-of-the-night landing Thursday at the Washington-area Joint Base Andrews, Trump and his wife plan to celebrate in person when the freed men arrive.

The men were released Wednesday as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un amid final plans for a Trump-Kim summit.

Singapore is the likely site for the historic meeting, late this month or in early June, and Pompeo says it would last one day and possibly a second.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP)  Hundreds of police officers from across the country are expected to attend the funeral for a western Indiana police officer who was killed during a shootout with a homicide suspect.

The funeral for 45-year-old Terre Haute Officer Robert Pitts takes place Wednesday at Indiana State University's Hulman Center. Officials say Pitts was fatally wounded when he and other officers approached 21-year-old suspect Christopher A. Wolfe, who died of a gunshot wound after barricading himself inside an apartment.

Terre Haute Police Chief John Plasse said Tuesday that Pitts represented "what is best in this society."

Pitts was a 16-year member of the Terre Haute Police Department following six years with the police force in the nearby city of Sullivan. He was the father of a daughter and two sons.WAVELAND, Ind. (AP)  Authorities have raided two suspected cockfighting operations in central Indiana and have seized more than 750 birds.

The Indiana Gaming Commission says agents assisted by police conducted the raids Wednesday morning near the Montgomery County town of Waveland and the Indianapolis suburb of Avon. Nearly 620 birds seized near Waveland and 145 seized in Avon were turned over to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The birds were taken to a temporary, undisclosed location, where a veterinarian from the Indiana Board of Animal Health was to examine the birds.

Gaming Commission Superintendent Rob Townsend says a tip three months ago led to the investigation of the operation near Waveland, which appeared to have been active for several years.

No arrests have been made.TIPPECANOE CO., Ind. (WLFI)  From Sagamore Parkway to Interstate 65 to State Street, Greater Lafayette has seen it's fair share of road work in the last year.

While projects like State Street are wrapping up, the last stretch is still going to cause some problems for drivers.

"We'll have a lot of closures through the summer when the students are gone in the Purdue campus area," said West Lafayette City Engineer Ed Garrision.

Closures and detours along Stadium Avenue, McCormick Road and Airport Road will have drivers rethinking their routes through campus.

However, Garrision said keeping the public informed on upcoming changes is a priority.

"Just make sure our residents know what's on," explained Garrison. "We may have not done the best job of that in the past , but we definitely have that as a high priority moving forward."

Projects outside of the city could also cause delays for drivers. That includes a 45 day plan to repair the Schuyler Avenue bridge over the Wildcat Creek.

Starting in July, the bridge will be down to one lane in either direction.

A major project on Klondike Road will improve pedestrian travel and add left turn lanes. That work begins in June.

Lafayette City Engineer Jeromy Grenard said there is some good news when it comes to construction.

"They've already seen a lot of what we're going to throw at them this year," said Grenard.

Projects like Restore Sagamore are almost done.

"Early July we'll be finished with all the Sagamore restrictions as far as the city's projects go," he said.

Grenard said there are several smaller projects planned to improve city streets, but he said they won't have as big of an effect on drivers as the Restore Sagamore Project.

"We're trying to reduce the amount of impact to the community," Grenard added. "Get in there. Get it done and get out."

For more information on upcoming construction projects in Lafayette, click here.

For more information on upcoming construction projects in West Lafayette Lafayette, click here.

For more information on upcoming construction projects in Tippecanoe County, click here.WASHINGTON (AP)  Taking the reins as party leader, President Donald Trump is returning to his campaign roots with big-stage events allowing him to target vulnerable Senate Democrats and mobilize his most fervent supporters on behalf of Republicans.

Trump was set to rally supporters in Elkhart, Indiana, on Thursday night, two days after state Republicans nominated former state lawmaker Mike Braun to challenge vulnerable Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly. Trump's political advisers view the event, which will also be attended by home-state Vice President Mike Pence, as a way to project party unity following a bruising primary.

Trump, who helped the Republican National Committee raise a record $132 million last year, has told advisers he is eager to ramp up his campaign travel on behalf of Republicans. The president carried 10 states in 2016 that have Democratic senators on the ballot this year and is expected to campaign heavily to help Republicans maintain Senate and House majorities and elect GOP governors.

"The president takes his role as leader of the Republican Party very seriously and after more than a year in office he understands too few Democrats are willing to join hands across party lines to support issues that the American people resoundingly called for," said White House political director Bill Stepien. "The president's calendar is mapped out with his political priorities in mind."

For Trump, who is preparing for a historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un amid an ongoing investigation into Russian election meddling and daily developments about his personal attorney's payments to a porn actress, the travel will allow him to frame the campaign debate, specifically Donnelly's no vote on last year's tax overhaul.

Trump's political advisers chose to hold the rally in the heart of Donnelly's political base. Before his 2012 election, the senator represented a House district that included Elkhart.

The city, home to manufacturing jobs and the recreational vehicle industry, was also paid a visit by President Barack Obama in 2009 when the region was suffering from unemployment rates surpassing 19 percent. Obama returned to Elkhart in 2016 to point to economic progress, but Trump carried the county and much of the region overwhelmingly that year.

Ahead of the rally, Donnelly's campaign said the senator had voted with Trump 62 percent of the time "because he works for Hoosiers, not any politician or political party."

The Indiana rally will be Trump's fourth political-style event in the past two weeks. Trump skipped the White House Correspondents' Dinner late last month to rally supporters in Macomb County, Michigan.

His speech last week to the National Rifle Association in Dallas put him before thousands of gun-rights activists who actively backed his campaign. And last Saturday, Trump was in Ohio, long the key electoral piece for any GOP presidential hopeful.

During the event in Cleveland, Trump was joined by Rep. Jim Renacci, who won the Republican Senate nomination on Tuesday with the president's endorsement. Trump said Renacci's opponent, Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, "does not think the way we think ... when it comes to borders, when it comes to so much," delivering a message that Republicans hope to hear frequently.

"If President Trump is willing to go out and define some of these opponents, it's extremely helpful to those campaigns," said Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign aide. "He'll deliver the negative messages, they can deliver the positive."

Ahead of West Virginia's U.S. Senate primary, Trump tweeted that Republican candidate Don Blankenship couldn't win the November election against Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, a top GOP target.

Advisers said the president was pleased that Republicans nominated Attorney General Pat Morrissey, considered a stronger challenger against Manchin.

"In West Virginia, his one tweet single-handedly swung the dynamics of a race," Stepien said.

Stepien said Trump would engage in a similar way in future races "if he feels particularly strongly about a race or feels a particular connection to a candidate" but added that would happen less often.

A key to Trump's message will be energizing low-propensity Republican voters in 2018, many of whom turned out for the first time in years to vote for him.

As he travels the country, Trump will face the question of whether his appeal is transferable to down-ballot candidates, much in the way that Obama struggled to rally core Democrats when he wasn't running himself.

Obama suffered broad losses in Congress and in statehouses during the 2010 and 2014 midterm elections, an outcome Trump hopes to avoid.

Appearing at a Cabinet meeting, Trump said that Tuesday ended up being "a very big night for the Republican Party" in primaries in West Virginia, Ohio and elsewhere.

"Every candidate that we wanted won, and they did very well," Trump said Wednesday. "There was tremendous enthusiasm."

___

On Twitter follow Ken Thomas at https://twitter.com/KThomasDCTIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI)  Recent data shows Lafayette and West Lafayette are the fastest growing cities in the state.

"From a small ant to a large elephant," said Randy Griffith when asked about growth in Greater Lafayette.



"Growth can be good," he added.

"I was born here, so I've been here 80 years," said Joe Bumbleburg. "I think that over the years Lafayette has done a really wonderful, incredible job of moving into the modern day."

Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski agrees. He said in a global economy, you're either growing or you're dying.

"Because the minute you think status quo is OK somebody is going to come in here and snatch up some of your businesses some of your resources, they're going to start draining all of your talent," said Roswarski.

That's not happening in Greater Lafayette. Large companies like Subaru are expanding. Jobs are being created, money is flowing into the local economy and more people are moving to the community.

"This house sold almost before the ink dried on the listing contract," said Cathy Russell, owner of The Russell Company Real Estate.

If you want to sell your house, do it now.

"Cause it's nothing like it has been in the past," explained Russell.

Buyers are so willing, they're signing escalation clauses. It's a purchasing technique Russell just started seeing within the past year.

"They're going to bid on the house maybe full price, maybe a little under, maybe a little lower, but then they're going to escalate their offer up to their cap," said Russell.

Sometimes she'll have 15 different offers at once. Russell knows why people fight to live here.

"Just a great sense of community, good schools, it's a great place to live," said Russell.

Tippecanoe School Corporation has been growing since its inception.

"We're one of the largest employers in the county, so as our school corporation grows we're adding jobs," said TSC Superintendent Dr. Scott Hanback.

Partnerships with local businesses and the University have allowed school corporations to better prepare students for jobs in the future too.

"The pending Greater Lafayette Career Academy. All three of us are going to come together and provide a place where students can have some significant curriculum that we might not be able to otherwise offer," said Hanback.

"I think what's going on here is what needs to go on here," added West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis.

Dennis said the neighboring cities have done an excellent job deciding what fits where. In West Lafayette, it's a world renowned research university, tree tops and roof tops. Across the river, it's advanced manufacturing with a small town feel.

"Those individually are great things but collaboratively, you can see how that really is starting to bring a lot of attention to Greater Lafayette," said Dennis.

It's bringing attention from both outside communities and lifetime residents like Shannon Smeltz.

"The restaurant scene is getting a lot more exciting and a lot more variety," said Smeltz.

That's because of restaurateurs like Melissa Mckeithanrohwer who just opened Core Life Eatery this week. She owns two other restaurants in Greater Lafayette as well.

"Performance history of my existing brands tells me that this is a strong market," said Mckeithanrohwer. "And it's a really sound investment for future growth for my brand."

It's an easy sell to employees when quality of life is constantly improving.

"We are hiring people that are coming into the community to relocate for a better opportunity to raise their children," said Mckeithanrohwer.

That may be the greatest benefit of all to those living here. Shannon Smeltz is proud she chose Greater Lafayette to raise her family.

"I wouldn't consider raising them anywhere else," said Smeltz.

It's not all rainbows and butterflies, though. There are some negatives that come with a rapidly growing community.

Including an increase in crime and homelessness.

Growing Pains airs Thursday night on News 18 at Six.TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind (WLFI) - While this school year wraps up, administrators within the Tippecanoe School Corporation are already looking to next year. That includes looking at textbook rental fees.

Administrators realize these fees can be an expense for parents when it comes time to register students.

They've been working to keep the fees as low as possible, but said the amounts can vary for each student and the different courses.

While many materials for students are now online, they still include fees.

"Textbook companies aren't going to be developing those digital materials for free and so those certainly still have a cost to them. That's one of the pieces that we take a look at, is digital more economical than having the actual textbook?" said Christy Fraley, Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Instruction.

In a meeting Wednesday, the school board approved the fees for the 2018-2019 school year.



China News on Women





Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home pageEC probes 'state aid' for Romanian uranium company

10 May 2018

Share

The European Commission (EC) has launched an investigation into whether public support received by Romania's National Uranium Company (Compania Nationala a Uraniului SA, CNU) is in line with European Union state aid rules. Romania notified the Commission in June last year of a restructuring plan for the company, which has been in financial difficulty since the loss of its main customer, nuclear utility Societatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica SA.

State-owned CNU has two operating sites: a uranium mine at Crucea-Botusana in the northeast of Romania and a mill and processing plant in Feldioara in Transylvania. The company's primary customer had been Nuclearelectrica, operator of Romania's two Candu reactors at Cernavoda. However, in 2016, Nuclearelectrica cancelled its contract with CNU and signed a uranium procurement contract with Cameco, claiming the Canadian company's offer had a price substantially lower than that of CNU.

The Romanian government made an urgent rescue aid loan of some EUR13.3 million to keep CNU afloat, which the EC temporarily approved on 13 September 2016. Under EU rules, state aid may be granted for a period of six months. Beyond that, the aid must be reimbursed or a restructuring plan submitted to the EC for approval.

Romania's restructuring plan calls for about EUR95 million (USD113 million) of support to CNU in the form of grants, subsidies, debt write-off and debt-to-equity conversion. The plan is to: extend the initial rescue loan of EUR13.3 million; grant EUR16.2 million to support investments for the modernisation of CNU; write-off public debt of EUR16.6 million; convert CNU's public debt of EUR2.9 million into CNU shares held by the state; and give CNU an operating subsidy of EUR45.8 million to cover the difference between its production costs and market prices over the restructuring period.

The EC said that EU state aid rules only allow state support for a company in financial difficulty under specific conditions. In particular, the company must be subject to a "sound" restructuring plan that will ensure its long-term viability. The company must also contribute to the costs of its restructuring. Any competition distortions resulting from the state support must also be limited.

"At this stage, the Commission has doubts that the planned restructuring aid is in line with these conditions," the EC said in a statement on 8 May.

The Commission said it will examine whether the proposed restructuring plan could restore CNU's long-term viability without continued state aid. It will also determine whether CNU or market investors are sufficiently contributing to the restructuring costs and if Romania is limiting the distortions of competition created by the aid.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topicsThe first day of competition at the Kentucky Spring Horse Show kicked off in exciting fashion at the Kentucky Horse Park where the Rolex Stadium highlighted the $35,000 Welcome Speed 1.45m CSI3* with 27 entries contesting Alan Wade's (IRL) 15-effort track resulting in 11 clear rounds. Racing to an impressive and unbeatable clear round, Todd Minikus (USA) and the Quality Group's Quality Girl claimed the lead by over three seconds with a time of 65.24 seconds to earn the victory.

With an extensive list of accolades to her name including the Zoetis $1 Million Grand Prix in Saugerties in 2014, the Elm Rock Farm Trophy at the inaugural Global Champions Tour of Miami Beach in 2015 and a clean sweep with three FEI victories at the Kentucky Spring Classic in 2016, Quality Girl is a proven winner. After nearly a year off, Minikus took his time bringing the 15-year-old Oldenburg mare back to the show ring and it paid off.

"Quality Girl has been off for quite a while and she's just come back and since she's come back off close to a year layoff she's been just awesome. Today was the kind of course where I could just let her gallop and if she's on her game there's probably not too many horses that are going to catch her. She's won so much in her career, she's just a good horse," Minikus said.

Second place was awarded to Samuel Parot (CHI) and his own 15-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding, Couscous Van Orti, with a clear round and a time of 68.85 seconds. Hot on Parot's heels in 69.22 seconds was Kevin Babington (IRL) and his own Mark Q, a 16-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding.Curious Cdn said: The arta the deal! Them camel jockeys 'll be GIVIN' us their oil when the Middle East is one, big smokin' ruin!



MAGA! Click to expand...

Hey, Washington will burn to the ground long before Riyadh. The natural resource contained in each will determine the future. On the one hand we have the worlds most sophisticated students of bullshjt and on the other cook stove fuel of the world. Who do you think will win in the end?And let,s keep in mind the word genocide, enemies of the States, etc.. American Imperialism is Fascism, plain and simple. There is always the next experimentors with your sons and daughters and they labour under the delusion that they can escape the curse. What does a better future mean to them? That you take the bullets and they take the cream? Stuffed with cream they hasten to tax havens and invest in further regiem change. War is the economy of this planets inhabitants, no other conclusion is viable. Take heart though, this planet regularly scrubs it,s surface with star dust to remove the out of season parts. And life goes on., against the odds even, maybe, perhaps,Where did all that high tech stone werk come from eh? There,s a great deal of revised history available on this web, and that of course raises it,s value while our various public education schemes dampens our appreciation of it, yes we pay to have students stupified. Use any metric you want, the fukkin line will always be longer and thicker then you can measure, under ordinary circumstances, where I come from. Mystification rules, pictures of stuff that never existed swirl about in our heads and we stand on clouds all day.New initiative launched to combat issue of begging in Wrexham town centre

This article is old - Published: Thursday, May 10th, 2018

A new initiative to combat the issue of begging on the streets of Wrexham town centre has been launched.

Launched by Wrexham Council, North Wales Police and third sector agencies, the joint initiative began on Tuesday May 1st  with some visible extra policing activities around town.

It comes as a result of an increase in reports of begging in the streets in the town centre and complaints from the public and some local businesses.

As a result locations where begging is taking place will be targeted, with warnings that fixed penalty notices will be issued when necessary, although there is no detail on if it is believed those begging would have the means to pay any fines, although it is hinted that some may have means to do so.

A letter sent to businesses by the Councils Town Centre, Markets and Events Manager explains: There has been an increase in report of begging in the streets of the town centre over the past few weeks, which has resulted in a number of complaints from the general public and some businesses.

As an attempt to combat the issue of begging, a joint initiative between the council, North Wales Police and third sector agencies was launched on Tuesday May 1st.

Locations where begging is happening will be targeted and persistent offenders will be offered support, however if they continue with their actions this will result in formal action being taken.

Some individuals are begging on the basis that they are homeless and not in receipt of any benefits. By working closely with our partners we have established that in many incidents that is not the case.

For this to be an effective initiative we will need co-operation and support from all town centre businesses.

Those notified are being asked to play their part, which could include a statement being taken from the individual /

business that witnessed the act and may require attendance at court at a later date to give evidence.

Please help us work together to tackle this issue to help ensure that Wrexham is a safe place to visit and shop.But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something

over there only because I am here . But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past

as pastThe Communications Workers of America (CWA) is forcing 14,000 AT&T workers in the midwestern US states to remain on the job more than three weeks after the April 14 expiration of their labor agreement. AT&T, which is still the worlds largest telecom company, continues to demand sweeping concessions from workers, regarding health care, pensions and further job cuts.

The CWA is defying the overwhelming strike authorization vote by AT&T Midwest workers who operate in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Workers at AT&T Legacy T who work nationwide are also working without a new contract.

Bargaining reports for both regions indicate that the company has not moved on any of their essential demands despite repeated offers by the union to compromise. On Thursday, AT&T rejected all the union proposals made at bargaining for the Legacy region. The company presented a counter proposal, which was rejected by the union the same day. In a letter to members, the CWA admitted the company has not moved on its demands to cut health care, pension and jobs. We are making incremental progress but not on priority issues.

Bargaining reports for the AT&T Midwest region state that the company and the union have reached agreement on many side issues, but not the major ones. This movement though, is not enough to say that we are near agreement on any of these issues, such as; wages, benefits, job security and moving more work into the bargaining unit.

AT&T has cut over 13,000 jobs just from its Midwest region in the past decade. In 2009, the CWA covered 20,000 workers in the region, today that number has been cut to just 7,000 workers.

For workers in the AT&T Legacy region previous concessions by the union have allowed the company to push health care costs onto the backs of workers. Since 2013, workers have seen their premiums more than triple, forcing many workers to forego buying insurance.

The company is demanding workers pay a third of the total cost of health care. At the current cost, this would amount to about $6,000 per year. For the average worker making $50,000 a year, this amounts to a 12 percent pay cut.

AT&T has also closed 44 call centers since 2011, including 8 in California, 5 in Texas, 2 in Michigan and 2 in Ohio. This has resulted in cutting 16,000 jobs.

In response to the companys moves to shift production to lower-cost countries, the CWA has promoted nationalism, echoing Trumps America First campaign against workers in Mexico, the Philippines, El Salvador and other countries.

A CWA report, titled, AT&T 2018 JOBS REPORTTelecom Giant Hollows Out Middle Class Workforce and Outsources to Global Contractors, Even as it Reaps Tax Windfall the union repeatedly calls upon AT&T to be good corporate citizen and to keep good, family-supporting jobs.

Far from uniting workers in the United States with workers throughout the world in a battle against the global telecom giants, the union seeks to pit workers of different countries against each other and to use this as another excuse to push through further concessions and layoffs of its members. At the same time, the CWA has close relations with 2016 Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanders who provides a left cover for the unions and the corporate-controlled Democratic Party.

The CWA has agreed to deep concessions in health care, pensions and jobs in exchange for AT&T agreeing to allow the union to collect dues from low-paid wireless workers AT&T and Verizon. The CWA claimed that once the wireless workers were organized the union would be stronger and could win better contracts including restoring of past concessions.

However, the CWA continues to enforce concession after concession. AT&T only agreed to the CWA organizing wireless workers because they recognize the union as a trusted partner in driving down wages, destroying jobs, boosting productivity while keeping workers strike actions to a minimum.

Over the past year, the CWA has again worked to keep their members divided and have signed concessions contracts at all five of AT&T other regions, including for the nearly 50,000 wireless workers they represent. It also called off a three-week strike by Frontier workers (formerly Verizon) in West Virginia after keeping those workers isolated and without winning any of their demands. Workers at Verizon are still seeing their jobs cuts despite claims by the CWA that the deal it signed in 2016, after selling out the six-week strike by 40,000 workers, had won job security.

The anger among AT&T workers and the 90 percent vote to strike is part of a growing movement of the working class, particularly teachers who have struck in West Virginia, Oklahoma and most recently Arizona, demanding better pay, health care and increased funding for education. In those struggles, the unions were also the chief obstacles to a broader mobilization of the working class.

Having seen the rebellion of rank-and-file teachers, the CWA wants to do everything to prevent telecom workers from breaking free from the unions control. That is why the prerequisite of any fight to defend jobs and living standards, will require the formation of rank-and-file workplace committees to take the conduct of the struggle out of the hands of the CWA and other unions.Australias parliamentary order was thrown into further turmoil yesterday when the countrys supreme court imposed a strict new test of sole citizenship to disqualify a Labor senator whose father happened to be born in Britain. Four other members of parliament, facing removal on the same basis, quickly quit their seats.

Just a day after the Liberal-National government handed down the federal budgetthe last before a possible early electionthe High Court took to a new level a purge of parliament to clear out anyone lacking unqualified allegiance to Australia.

The seven judges, who sit atop the judicial arm of the capitalist state apparatus, took their hardest line yet in applying a reactionary provision in the countrys 117-year-old constitution. Section 44(i) forbids anyone from standing for election to the federal parliament if they hold, or are entitled to claim, dual citizenship, even if, according to the court, they have no knowledge of that other potential allegiance.

The unanimous verdict takes to 15 the number of MPs undemocratically removed on this basis since the middle of last year, in an unprecedented judicial intervention into the political system. Further MPs, including government members, might be challenged following the latest ruling.

In effect, the court is reshaping the political order along nationalist and patriotic lines amid intensifying global geo-strategic tensions and danger of war, particularly between the US, China and Russia. The purge over dual citizenship dovetails with an escalating campaign against foreign interference in Australia, a witch-hunt directed primarily against alleged Chinese influence in business, politics and universities.

As soon as the judges disqualified Australian Capital Territory senator Katy Gallagher, her Labor colleagues Susan Lamb, who held the seat of Longman in Queensland, Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Western Australia) and Justine Keay (Braddon, Tasmania) resigned, along with Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, South Australia). A by-election was already due in Perth, Western Australia after Labors Tim Hammond quit, citing family reasons. The five by-elections may now be held on a single day in June or July.

No government members are among the latest batch to be ousted, so the Coalitions bare one-seat majority is not directly at stake. Nevertheless, the by-elections could become a test of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls survival, just weeks after his government handed down a pre-election budget on Tuesday.

Equally, the by-elections could determine the future of Labor Party opposition leader Bill Shorten. His leadership is reportedly under question inside his ranks after he rejected moves to refer the four Labor MPs to the High Court last year. Shorten has come under fire in the corporate media for demagogically posturing as an opponent of the governments budget plans for massive tax cuts for companies and high-income recipients.

If the ousted MPs successfully stand for re-election, they will hold the seats only until the next election, which could be held as early as August 4. This extraordinary upheaval, which is further discrediting the political establishment in the eyes of millions of people, can be understood only from the standpoint of an underlying political shift.

The courts ruling is thoroughly anti-democratic, as is the constitution. Because of the increasingly diverse immigrant population of Australia, about half its citizens and their children are now barred from standing for parliament. One of the judges, Justice James Edelman, insisted there is no absolute right for every citizen to participate in representative government by nomination for and election to the Commonwealth Parliament.

If citizens can be barred from standing for election for lacking undivided allegiance to Australia, what is next? Will the same test be extended to voting rights, or public service employment, or welfare entitlements, which are already being stripped from newly-arrived migrants?

The judges went even further than their rulings last year, in which they insisted that MPs must owe sole loyalty to Australia. They effectively overturned a 26-year-old officially-recognised exception to the citizenship rule. That exemption, which the court itself applied last year in a case involving a government minister, permitted people to nominate for parliament if they had taken reasonable steps to renounce their potential citizenship rights in another country.

Yesterday, the judges decreed that the exception applies only if a foreign state irremediably prevented a person from renouncing their citizenship or presented an insurmountable obstacle. This new rule would probably operate only if another country denied renunciation altogether or if the process involved doing military service or entering a war zone.

This interpretation extends the anti-democratic character of section 44 (i), which proscribes anyone from standing for parliament who has allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power or is entitled to the rights and privileges of a foreign power. All five MPs removed this week supposedly remained entitled to British citizenship when they nominated for election, even though they had applied for renunciation.

In Gallaghers case, the judges rejected her argument that by sending off renunciation forms to the British Home Office by April 20, 2016almost six weeks before she was nominated to become a senatorshe took every step within her power to renounce her citizenship. Her renunciation was not registered until August 16, two weeks after she was elected.

The verdict means that anyone contemplating running for election must initiate proceedings months in advance to ensure they have renounced any possible foreign rights and privileges.

Significantly, not only did the five MPs go without a whimper, there has been no opposition whatsoever within the political establishment to the reactionary ruling. Instead, Labor leaders, including Shorten, said they respected the High Courts decision, while the government enthusiastically celebrated it.

Both the Liberal-National and Labor leaderships have refused to support calls for a referendum to remove or modify section 44(i). As for the Greens, they have been the most vociferous champions of the disqualifications since last year, when two of their senators were the first to resign after doubts were raised about their eligibility.

Last year MPs agreed to establish a parliamentary Citizenship Register, compelling all MPs to produce documents, going back to the birth of their grandparents, to prove their sole Australian citizenship.

Over the past two years, media-driven investigations have vilified political and business figures, Chinese-born Australians and Chinese students studying in the country as a potential fifth column of the Chinese communist regime. A recent book by academic Clive Hamilton, a Greens member, accused Beijing of planning to take over Australia, and declared that a US-led war against China could be the only way to prevent it.

Far-reaching foreign interference bills are currently being pushed through parliament that effectively will prohibit any political activity linked to an overseas person or entity, and attack free speech, especially anti-war dissent.

As the Socialist Equality Party warned last September: Under conditions of immense war tensions internationally, tremendous economic uncertainty and rising class antagonisms, [this campaign] is being used to amplify a decades-long effort to divert and disorientate the population through nationalism and xenophobia.

The demand for unquestioned allegiance on the part of the parliamentary servants of the capitalist state is intended as a benchmark for implementation throughout society. Anyone who opposes the policies of the government will be labelled un-Australian, a servant of foreign interests, or, under conditions of war, downright treasonous.On Tuesday, the executives of five drug distributors testified before a House Energy and Commerce Committee oversight panel. The committee opened its investigation one year ago after newspaper articles reported on drug distributors shipping large quantities of opioid painkillers to West Virginia, fueling the ongoing drug overdose crisis in that state and across the country.

These drug distributorswho flooded communities with opioids while ignoring suspicious ordersalong with opioid manufacturers such as Purdue Pharma and Insys Therapeuticswho downplayed the addictive nature of opioids and promoted their expanded usebear substantial responsibility for the opioid epidemic in the United States where an average of 115 people die every day from opioid overdoses. West Virginia, the subject of the committee investigation, has the highest opioid overdose rate in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The committee received testimony from John Hammergren, President and CEO of McKesson Corporation; George Barrett, Executive Chairman of the Board of Cardinal Health Inc.; Steven Collis, Chairman, President and CEO of AmerisourceBergen Corporation; Joseph Mastrandrea, Chairman of the Board of Miami-Luken, Inc.; and J. Christopher Smith, former president and CEO of H.D. Smith Wholesale Drug Company.

At the hearing, company executives dodged responsibility while shedding crocodile tears over the opioid epidemic that they helped create, including by shipping large numbers of opioids to pill mills in West Virginia.

With the benefit of hindsight, I wish we had moved faster and asked a different set of questions [to the pharmacies], Cardinal Health Executive Chairman George Barrett told the committee.

I am deeply sorry we did not. Today, I am confident we would reach different conclusions about those two pharmacies, Barrett said, referring to two pharmacies in West Virginia that were shipped millions of pills by the company.

John Hammergren, President and CEO of McKesson Corporation, was asked about his company shipping 5.6 million pills to a Sav-Rite between 2007 and 2008, the equivalent of shipping 9,650 pills a day. The companys monitoring system, however, is supposed to flag orders greater than 8,000 pills a month.

He blamed the companys failure to detect the fraudulent orders on human error, while claiming the company had difficulty understanding the requirements of the law: In the past weve had challenges understanding the regulations the regulator was asking us to follow, he said.

Hammergren also tried to downplay the 151 million doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone McKesson shipped to West Virginia between 2007 and 2012 by arguing that they were only a fraction of the 2 billion doses of all prescription drugs the company distributed to the state.

West Virginia pharmacies overall were, and continue to be, very high volume customers for prescription drugs generally, he said.

With the sole exception of Joseph Mastrandrea, Chairman of the Board of Miami-Luken, none of the executives admitted to any responsibility for their companys role in the opioid epidemic.

According to a December 2016 investigation by the Charleston Gazette-Mail, between 2007 and 2012 drug distributors shipped over 780 million doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone to West Virginia, a state with a population of only 1.8 million people.

The House committees investigation has focused on the large shipments of prescription painkillers to a number of pharmacies located in small, rural towns in West Virginia: Tug Valley Pharmacy and Hurley Drug Company in Williamson; Westside Pharmacy in Oceana; Colony Drug in Beckley; the Family Discount Pharmacy in Mount Gay-Shamrock; and two Sav-Rite Pharmacies in Kermit.

According to data provided by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to the House committee, between 2006 and 2016, drug distributors shipped nearly 21 million prescription painkillers to two pharmacies, Tug Valley Pharmacy and Hurley Drug Company, located in Williamson, a town with just over 3,000 residents. Miami Luken shipped more than half of the 10 million pills sent to the Tug Valley Pharmacy.

Cardinal Health sent Hurley Drug Company nearly half-a-million doses of hydrocodone in 2011 alone, or about 41,000 doses per month. According to DEA data cited by the committee, the average rural pharmacy in 2011 was sent only 18,000 doses of hydrocodone per month.

The Westside Pharmacy located in Oceana, which has a population of about 1,400, sold nearly 600 times the number of oxycodone pills as another nearby pharmacy. Miami Luken shipped 4.4 million opioid doses to the pharmacy between 2008 and 2015, according to company data. H.D. Smith shipped 369,000 pills to the pharmacy in 2009 and over 625,000 in 2010.

In Beckley, a town of around 17,000 people, Miami-Luken shipped over 7 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to the Colony Drug pharmacy over a period of 11 years. Over just one three-month period (December 2013 through February 2014), the company supplied the pharmacy with 168,400 doses of oxycodone.

According to letters sent by the committee, the H.D. Smith Wholesale Drug Company sent over 1.1 million hydrocodone pills to the Family Discount Pharmacy located in Mount Gay-Shamrock in 2008, an increase of 1,880 percent over the previous year. This was enough pills to supply all of the 1,800 residents of the community 635 doses of hydrocodone. Between 2006 and 2014, McKesson and Cardinal Health together shipped 12.3 million doses of opiods to this pharmacy. By 2016, the total sold by all drug distributors to the Family Discount Pharmacy was around 16.6 million doses.

The Sav-Rite pharmacy located in the small town of Kermit, population 406, was the top purchaser of hydrocodone in the state and ranked number 22 in the country in terms of overall number of pills it received. Between 2005 and 2011, Miami-Luken shipped 6.3 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to Kermit. Between 2007 and 2008, McKesson shipped 5.6 million pills to the town. And, despite the start of a well-publicized federal investigation in 2008, McKesson resumed selling opioids to the pharmacy in 2011.

By law, these companies must report to the DEA all suspicious orders. However, through lobbying and political pressure, the companies have succeeded in not only largely skirting the law, but also in getting Congress to pass legislation making it more difficult for the DEA to crack down on negligent drug distributors.

The three primary drug distributorsMcKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health, and AmericsourceBergenare among the largest US corporations. In 2016, these three companies, which account for about 90 percent of all drug distribution revenues, had a combined $406.5 billion in US drug distribution and related revenues, according to the Drug Channels Institute. McKesson, with over $192 billion in revenue, is the fifth largest corporation in the country, while Cardinal, with $121 billion in revenue, stands at number 15. The three companies ship nearly 85 percent of all prescription drugs in the US.

So far, these companies have only received a slap on the wrist for actions that have caused untold suffering in communities not only in West Virginia, but across the country. For example, in settlements reached with the state of West Virginia, Cardinal Health paid $20 million, AmerisourceBergen paid $16 million and Miami-Luken paid $2.5 million.

In 2008, McKesson agreed to pay a $13.5 million civil penalty for failing to report suspicious orders and in 2017 paid a record $150 million civil penalty for similar actions. Cardinal Health agreed to a $44 million settlement in 2016.

While drug distributors have paid a total of $400 million in fines over the past 10 years, their combined revenue during this same period was over $5 trillion.Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell attended a Marx memorial event alongside various Stalinist politicians and academics to deliver a speech of pure political charlatanry.

Speaking at the closing session of Marx 200, McDonnell attempted to claim Marxism for the supposedly broad church of the Labour Party before presenting a distortion of the revolutionary thinker suited to the lukewarm Keynesianism of Jeremy Corbyn.

Far from warning the ruling class to tremble at a Communist revolution, in the words of the Communist Manifesto, McDonnell invited them to join him in politely discussing Marxs ideaspresumably over tea and biscuitsas part of his charm offensive in the City of London.

His attendance was predictably greeted by right-wing media diatribes denouncing him as a communist wolf in sheeps clothing. But these responses figured directly into McDonnells political calculations. He even opened his speech at the event with reference to the inevitable lurid headlines.

McDonnell is very aware that the political temper of many workers and young people to whom Corbyn is appealing is militant, anti-austerity and often anti-capitalist. He described the new 21st century as one in which society is scarred by grotesque levels of inequality and grotesque levels of poverty. It is essential, therefore, that the pro-capitalist measures and minimal reforms he advances are cloaked in the borrowed authority of Marx.

Such was the intention behind McDonnells inclusion of Marxs ideas in the wide range of multiple streams of thought in which the ideas and philosophy of the Labour Party and British Socialism have had their genesis.

This is a falsification. Marxism has never found a home in the Labour Party, which has always regarded Marxism and communism with naked hostility. Among the other streams of thought listed were Marxisms bitter opponents, the Fabians Beatrice and Sidney Webb and George Bernard Shaw. It was their ideasalong with those of conservative trade union leaderswhich had the real influence in the formation of the Labour Party and which isolated and eventually pressured the early Marxist Social Democratic Foundation out of the Labour Representation Committee.

From its formation in 1920, the Communist Party of Great Britain was repeatedly denied affiliation to Labour. Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) members, even in the period of its Stalinists degeneration, had to join individually, and only then to utilise their left credentials to present Labour as the vehicle for traveling the reformist British Road to Socialism.

This role as political apologists for Labours pro-capitalist programme and leadership is the Marxist tradition to which McDonnell defers. The same holds true for the Militant Tendency, where he began his career. Its 35 years of entry in the Labour Party centred on making the same claim as the Stalinists: that Labour could be transformed into a genuinely socialist party. Even then, this was met with expulsions in the 1980s that finally forced the Militant Tendency to become an open external party.

Most telling of all was the attitude of Labour to the genuine Trotskyists who maintained a presence within the party via the semi-clandestine entry group, the Club, led by Gerry Healy. Its members were subjected to increasingly severe witch hunts. The Trotskyists, who were winning increased support, waged a counter-offensive by founding the Socialist Labour League in 1959. The SLL applied to the Labour Party for political affiliation and was rejected, proscribed and dozens of its leading personnel, including Healy, expelled.

At the 1964 conference of the partys youth wing, the Young Socialists, the Trotskyists organised behind the journal Keep Left won a majority and passed resolutions demanding that an incoming Labour government carry out socialist policies. Labour leader Harold Wilson responded by closing down YS branches and expelling Keep Left supporters.

McDonnells political purpose in invoking Marx was made clear in his favourable citing of a supposed 21st century version of the Communist Manifesto published by two Financial Times writersa partner in a corporate advisory firm and a professor of law and financeas evidence of Marxisms revival.

According to McDonnell, the authors, Rupert Younger and Frank Partnoy, didnt do bad at publishing quite a challenging redraft.

This is referencing a deliberate evisceration of Marxism by avowed supporters of free market capitalism who seek its rehabilitation in the wake of the calamitous 2008 financial crash. According to the authors, it is no longer the spectre of communism that haunts the world, but the spectre of activism running through the Arab Spring, Trump, Brexit and Macron, joining shareholder activists with political, social and corporate activists among whom can be found billionaires such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg.

The new Manifesto declares that Marx and Engels, if alive today, would see the benefits of private property because their advocacy of the confiscation of private property and the abolition of inheritance had been proved appallingly wrong, underpinning murderous tyrannies across the world.

This seal of approval is coupled with an endorsement of Paul Mason, whose book Postcapitalism: A Guide to the Future is praised for declaring that social revolution led by the working class has proved to be a utopia. Instead, the world is seeing the flowering of an epoch of cognitive capitalism, a fourth industrial revolution in which shared knowledge comes to undermine the market mechanism in a struggle between network and hierarchy, McDonnell summarized.

McDonnell endorsed Masons fantasy of young tech entrepreneursan array of mini-Zuckerbergswaging an unconscious struggle for a new world in which time after time now... network is beginning to defeat hierarchy in the development of alternative forms that pre-shadow, pre-form Postcapitalism.

As for Marx himself, his legacy, according to McDonnell, is that there is now much greater interest and debate in Marxs theories of overproduction, under-consumption, declining rate of profit.

With vague references to the concept of who owns our economy, who controls our economy, he added that Marxs writings were being explored to find any relevance to the challenges we face from the rapid expansion of new technology, automation and artificial intelligence

All of which led back to his and Corbyns advocacy of a few reforms, a revival in the interest about co-operatives and Labours last manifesto commitment to the restoration of water, rail, Royal Mail back into public ownership.

In his opening report to the International Committee of the Fourth Internationals Marx memorial May Day Rally, WSWS Chairperson David North made the trenchant observation:

Much of the discussion of the relevance of Marx is dominated and distorted by this strict separation of the consideration of Marxs economic critique of capitalism from the recognition of the enduring significance of Marxism as the historical and contemporary international political movement of the most advanced sections of the working class for the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist system.

On the same day this report was given, McDonnell offered pathetic proof of this assessment. Not even the working class, let alone the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, were features of his speech, which focused instead on covering for the labour bureaucracies. He even referenced the supposed revival of the trade union movement at a time when membership of the unions has reached historic lows after decades in which they have suppressed industrial action and betrayed every strike they could not prevent from taking place.

That McDonnell chose to commemorate the bicentenary of Marxs birth at an event hosted by Lawrence and Wishart is most telling. The publishing house is historically associated with the Stalinist Communist Party of Great Britain and championing Popular Front-style collaboration with the democratic imperialist bourgeoisies in the 1930s.

Along with Stalinist-influenced theoreticians such as Ben Fine, on the platform was Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Communist Party of India Marxist. There were workshops at which members of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, a think tank of the German Left Party, were present.

It was under such circumstances that McDonnell declared that poor old Karl Marx has had some problems with branding in recent years, given that his name has been used to justify some of the most brutal totalitarian regimes of the last century

The allegation is that because these regimes have claimed themselves to be somehow related to Marx, that his analysis of society somehow contained the roots of this oppression. To which McDonnell replied, Well, from what youve heard today in all the workshops, what youve read, nothing could be further from the truth.

Framed as a defence of Marx, McDonnell in fact offers a blanket apologia for the Stalinists he was addressing, many of whose political careers were built on promulgating the lies that the Soviet Union was actually existing socialism and that the Maoist regime, even today, is socialism with Chinese characteristics.

In this, too, McDonnell stays true to his political training in the Militant Tendency, whose founder, Ted Grant, combined capitulation to social democracy with proclaiming Stalinism to be a form of proletarian Bonapartisman indirect representative of the proletariat that had created workers states in Eastern Europe, requiring only their democratisation.

McDonnell continues his long relationship with Stalinism to this day. Corbyns kitchen cabinet of advisers is dominated by lifelong Stalinists such as Seamus Milne and Andrew Murray, whose relations with the Labour leader go back decades. Like McDonnell, they will have stressed the need for Corbyn to discuss what now needs to develop further in a discussion on Marx, in order to claim that, thanks to his election as leader of the Labour Party, another world isnt just possible, another world is in sight.The following speech was delivered to the ICFIs May Day 2018 International Online Rally by Genevieve Leigh, a leading member of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) in the US.

The first half of this year been characterized by an upsurge of working-class struggles all over the world: against austerity in Iran; by technology workers in China; and a wave of strikes and rebellions by teachers and lecturers in Nigeria, Kenya, Tunisia, Mexico and across the US.

In all of these struggles, young workers and students have played an active role. In Iran, unemployed youth predominated in the demonstrations in rural towns. Students in the US organized demonstrations in support of their teachers. And over a million young people in the US and around the world held massive internationally coordinated demonstrations against school violence. Their march in Washington was the largest in history.

Genevieve Leigh speaking at the 2018 International May Day rally

While the Democratic Party in the US fought tooth and nail to make the protests about gun control reform, much broader issues drew a million youth to the streets. There is a widespread sense among young people that the ease and frequency with which they are massacred in American schools is symptomatic of the indifference and contempt with which the countrys ruling oligarchy regards their lives.

This new generation of the working class is becoming politicized, and in a time unlike any in history.

What are the conditions of young people today? Those born at the turn of the century have lived their entire lives watching the imperialist powers wage wars of aggression in every corner of the globe. The war in Afghanistan has been going on their entire lives. They have come of age as drone assassinations became institutionalized by the Obama administration. Young people in the Middle East have seen their societies ravaged by imperialist violence, while those in the US have had their friends and family members sent off to kill or be killed to advance the aims of the American ruling class for world conquest.

An 18-year-old today was eight when the global financial crash ushered in a tidal wave of social distress throughout the world, with the major capitalist powers, led by the US under the Obama administration, funneling trillions of dollars into Wall Street to bail out the banks.

US youth are entering into political life under the presidency of Donald Trump, the most right-wing administration in US history. Far right governments are on the rise throughout Europe. The first political experiences of this generation have been scenes of these governments deporting immigrants, attacking workers, slashing funding to education, all with the complicity of the Social Democratic and Labor Parties, and the Democratic Party in the US.

This generation has been born into conditions created by 40 years of social counter-revolution against the working class and the effects have been devastating.

Almost half of all youth in the millennial generation have no money in savings. We cant afford health care, homes, or an education. Young people make up an estimated 70 million out of the 200 million people out of work around the world. Children all over the world lack basic necessities. Approximately 3.1 million children die from hunger each year. Among students, homelessness and hunger are rampant with many youth having to make a choice between paying for school or having a home.

In the US, this crisis has manifested itself most graphically in a deadly drug epidemic. In just two years, from 2014 to 2016, the rate at which 2534 year-olds died rose by 19 percent, due overwhelmingly to opioid use.

While trillions are spent on war and handed out to corporations and the rich, working-class youth enter into schools starved of resources, with teachers who are forced to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Teachers in Oklahoma during the strike posted photos of destroyed textbooks. In Flint, Michigan there is a public high school which has gone an entire year with dozens of classes with no teachers at all. The same school is instead flooded with security officers and metal detectors.

When these students leave high school they have few options. Attend college and become saddled with thousands of dollars of debt. Join the military and become cannon fodder for the wars of the ruling class. Enter the workforce where wages have stagnated and most young people need two or three jobs to make ends meet.

This is the future the capitalist system offers the youth in 2018.

Working-class youth are entering into struggle. There is a vast reservoir of anger and hostility to the current system, to the state of the world, to oppression, war, societal violence, and inequality. There is little need to explain to young people that there is something deeply wrong with society. They understand very well the depths of the social crisis. They are living it.

When we talk to young people at protests, at work places, and on campuses they speak about revolution. Some call themselves socialists. Indeed, in the USthe center of world imperialismmore young people now identify with socialism than with capitalism.

This generation also has more access to technology, information and knowledge than anytime in human history. The Internet, which is used by millions of youth throughout the globe, has given this generation access to an almost endless library of information. Workers all over the world can now see each others conditions first hand. Crimes of the state, such as police killings, can be broadcast outside of the confines of bourgeois media. And, as we have seen with the wave of teachers rebellion, workers can use these technologies to organize outside of the framework of the corporatist media.

But what is most crucially absent from these struggles is a political perspective and a knowledge of the history of the socialist movement.

We were told by the unions in the teachers strike that education is not a political issue. The youth in March for Our Lives were fed the same line. In one breath they tell us, No politics! and in the next they say, but change will be made at the ballot box. But we know exactly what no politics means. It means the domination of the present politics. It means the domination of the politics of the ruling class.

Lenin, in his day, called them up liftersthose liberals and academics who he said are believers in law-abiding progress without a political struggle. And he waged a relentless fight against them. As we can see, these methods are well worn.

Leon Trotsky delivered a speech to young people in the Soviet Union in 1924, on May Day in fact, and he addressed this question as well:

The bourgeoisie carries out a division of labor. Politics is in its charge; the workers and peasants in the army are cannon fodder, slaves to the machines of destruction. And it is exactly the same so far as the younger generation is concerned, the young workers and peasants, that is. Politics fills the air; it is not possible to live outside of politics, without politics, any more than one can live without air.

He went on:

But the bourgeoisie cannot reveal its political face to the young people. It cannot say: there you are, the twelve- or thirteen-year-old son of a worker; you have been born into the world in order that, after serving an apprenticeship to some trade, you may go into a factory and there to the end of your days create with your sweat, blood, and marrow, surplus value for the lords of life, the bourgeoisie, who, from this surplus value, will create its bourgeois culture, its luxury, art, and learning for its children. The bourgeoisie cannot openly expound such politics to the young workers. It puts over its politics by way of circumlocution and allegories, imperceptibly or half-perceptibly, through its schools, its churches, and its press. And this work of the imperceptible bourgeois education of young people, or rather, the education of young workers and peasants in the interests of the bourgeois state, is concealed behind the slogan: the younger generation is outside politics.

Such slogans are used to deceive and disorient. The ruling class of today wants to keep young people from becoming political, and above all from turning to the working class and fighting for the political mobilization of the working class against the capitalist system. And they want to cut young people off from knowledge of the history of working-class struggle, expressed consciously in the history of the Marxist movement.

They want to drown young people in the reactionary, subjective, idealist and irrational politics of race and gender identity, which permeates the schools and universities. Theoretical tendencies associated with the Frankfurt School, the varieties of post-modernism, neo-anarchism and identity politics are all rooted in their rejection of Marxism and the revolutionary role of the working class.

The fight to build a socialist movement of the working class today requires a struggle to educate a new generation of students and working-class youth in the history and principles of Marxism and the Fourth International. Through this struggle, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) will win to its banner working-class youth and the best layers of the middle class who adopt the standpoint of the working class in the struggle for socialism.

The most critical task ahead for the revolutionary youth around the world is to understand their struggles as political struggles. We must study politics. For millions of workers and young people, seeking to create a society based on peace, equality and genuine democracy, this must be made our most pressing task. We must reject bourgeois politics and fight for revolutionary politics and for an independent political strategy of the working class.

The IYSSE calls for all young people participating in this rally today to take up the fight for socialism. Join the IYSSE.Wednesdays Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on the nomination of Gina Haspel as director of the US Central Intelligence Agency provided a revealing exposure of the criminality of the US intelligence apparatus as well as the disintegration of democratic processes within Americas capitalist state.

The subject at hand was whether a woman who played a direct and intimate role in the torture of detainees held incommunicado at so-called black sites around the world should be appointed to head what one senator described as the premier intelligence agency in the world.

The hearing was characterized by gushing tributes from both Democrats and Republicans to the work of an agency long ago dubbed Murder, Inc. for its crimes around the world, including the organization of political assassinations, the creation of terrorist armies and the orchestration of fascist-military coups.

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who after the hearing became the first Democrat to announce his support for the nomination, went so far as to tell Haspel that when speaking to constituents, I brag about what you people do in the Clandestine Services.

What people like Haspel did was amply documented in the Senate intelligence panels own report on torture released in 2014 over the objections of the CIA, which spied on Senate staffers and even broke into the committees computer system in a direct assault on the constitutional powers of Congress.

No member of the committee, including Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who chaired the committee at the time, saw fit to cite this report. The 500-page unclassified version of the report found that the activities led by Haspel at a CIA black site codenamed Cats Eye in Thailand included locking prisoners for prolonged periods in boxes as small as 21 inches wide, 2.5 feet deep and 2.5 feet high; walling, or slamming their backs and heads repeatedly into a wall; and water boarding, a technique where water is poured through a cloth placed over the victims mouth and nose, inducing drowning.

The committee found that among the hundreds who were illegally abducted, detained and tortured, a significant number had no connection to Al Qaeda or any similar organization. Some died as a result of their torment. Others, including those subjected to Ms. Haspels treatment, were left permanently damaged, both mentally and physically.

The Senate report became a dead letter within days of its release, never to be mentioned again by the politicians or the media. Now one of the chief perpetrators of the crimes described in the report is highly likely to be promoted to the top post in Washingtons main intelligence agency.

Indications that Haspel played a far wider role in administrating the torture program than just her stint in Thailand appeared to find fresh confirmation with the report from Guantanamo Bay that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was water boarded 183 times, had requested permission from a military judge to submit six paragraphs of information on Haspel. Mohammeds attorneys, US military officers, stated their agreement that the information was important.

In addition to overseeing torture, Haspel is deeply implicated in its cover-up, playing a key role in the decision to secretly shred 92 videotapes of the abuse meted out to detainees at the Thailand black site.

There was a farcical element to the hearing, with Democrats asking Haspel to condemn the torture that she supervised as immoral. She was having none of it. I believe that the CIA did extraordinary work to prevent another attack on this country given the legal tools we were asked to use, she replied to one such query.

Hers was a barely modified version of the defense made infamous by the Nazis at Nuremberg: She was only following orders and was told by superiors that her actionsin flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions, the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution and US statutes forbidding torturewere perfectly legal.

Now that the torture program has been shelvedat least for the momentshe proclaims that the CIA must hold itself to a higher moral standard. At the same time, she insisted, We followed the law then, and we follow the law now.

And, if the law is changed again to allow the CIA to torture and assassinate American citizenshardly a stretch of the imagination given the US presidents publicly stated fondness for water boarding and worse she will no doubt follow the law once again.

Morality has always been class morality, as Friedrich Engels famously wrote. The demands of Democrats for moral testimony from the 33-year CIA operative are both hypocritical and absurd.

No one has been punished for the grave crimes carried out under the Bush administration, from an illegal war of aggression in Iraq that claimed over a million lives to the systematic torture of detainees. Advancing the cynical slogan of look forward, not backward, Democratic President Barack Obama and his Justice Department blocked any prosecution of either the CIA torturers themselves or those, from George W. Bush and Dick Cheney on down, who oversaw their grisly activities.

Obama promoted John Brennan, who as Haspels superior at the agency played a major role in the program of illegal abductions, extraordinary rendition and torture. Brennan went on to direct Obamas drone assassination program before going back to the CIA as its director.

The Democrats prattling about morality is truly obscene. Their sole concern is that the elevation of Haspel will undermine Washingtons ability to wave the phony flag of human rights in justifying future acts of aggression.

Haspels backers are making an appeal to identity politics to promote her nomination, which would make her the first female CIA director, supposedly a victory for women everywhere. The elevation of this womanknown to her fellow agents as Bloody Gina for her unhealthy taste for torturewould signal the arrival of the #MeToo movement in the CIAs Langley, Virginia headquarters, one female ex-agent wrote in the Washington Post.

Perhaps more significantly, she would be the first operations officer from the agencys Clandestine Services division to become the CIA director since the ascension in 1973 of William Colby, who was infamous for his direction of Operation Phoenix, a massive campaign of assassinations and torture that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of men, women and children in Vietnam.

Haspels nomination comes as the US intelligence agency, in conjunction with the US military, is preparing for crimes that will eclipse even the atrocities of 45 years ago.

In her opening report to the committee, she spoke of the need for the CIA to confront destabilizing Iranian adventurism; an aggressive and sometimes brutal Russia, and the long-term implications of Chinas ambitions on the global stage. She vowed to pursue operations against these hard targets beginning on day one. Her words were entirely in sync with the Trump administrations National Security Strategy, which has shifted Washingtons focus from the war on terrorism to preparation for great power conflicts with Russia and China, i.e., a third world war.

Those who support Haspels nominationincluding virtually all living ex-CIA directors from Democratic and Republican administrations alike, along with powerful sections of the US ruling establishmentsee her as a fit candidate to lead an agency preparing for war abroad and repression at home. For them, Haspels history as a torturer was merely part of winning her spurs within an agency built upon violence, murder and criminality.Tuesdays Democratic and Republican primary elections in four statesIndiana, Ohio, West Virginia and North Carolinaconfirmed the continued right-ward course in both major capitalist parties, which contrasts sharply to the growing militancy in the working class and the general alienation from both parties in the majority of the population.

In three of the states, not even one-fifth of those registered to vote chose to go to the polls: the turnout was 19 percent in Ohio, 18 percent in Indiana and 14 percent in North Carolina. The figure in West Virginia was only slightly higher, at 26 percent.

In Senate contests, the Republican Party chose nominees to challenge three incumbent Democrats: state attorney general Patrick Morrisey will oppose Senator Joe Manchin in West Virginia; Representative Jim Renacci will oppose Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio; and millionaire businessman and former longtime Democrat Mike Braun will oppose Senator Joe Donnelly in Indiana.

Candidates for the Republican nominations campaigned as loyal hand-raisers for President Trump, seeking to ape his anti-foreigner demagogy on both immigration and trade. In Indiana, Braun ran television ads demonizing immigrants and trade with China, but his two opponents for the nomination went even further in directly identifying themselves with Trump. Representative Todd Rokita campaigned in a Make America Great Again cap, while Representative Luke Messer called for Trump to get the Nobel Peace Prize.

The West Virginia Senate campaign was equally degrading, with Morrisey and Representative Evan Jenkins competing with former A. T. Massey coal boss and convicted criminal Don Blankenship, who poured $3.5 million of his corporate fortune into ads which featured increasingly unhinged and racist diatribes.

In the week leading up to the vote, there was national media attention to Blankenship, amid claims that his campaign was surging, although attendance at his campaign events was invariably poor. In the end, Blankenship finished a poor third, taking only 20 percent of the vote.

The results in West Virginia are particularly noteworthy given the vilification of that state in liberal publications like the New York Times, which sought to portray Trumps runaway victory there over Hillary Clinton as the product of racism and cultural backwardness in Appalachia.

Republican Party officials and Blankenship himself attributed his defeat to the last-minute intervention by President Trump, who tweeted to supporters on the weekend that Blankenship could not win the general election. There is no reason to believe that Trump had such an impact. A far more forceful intervention by Trump in the Republican primary in Alabama last year, when he travelled to the state and campaigned publicly for then Senator Luther Strange, failed to shift many voters, and Strange lost the primary to Roy Moore, who then lost the special election in December to Democrat Doug Jones.

Despite the incessant claims that West Virginia is a red state, supposedly proven by Trumps 42-point victory margin over Clinton in 2016, more people voted in the Democratic primary than in the hotly contested Republican primary, 160,000 to 136,000. The incumbent Democrat, Joe Manchin, defeated a relatively unknown challenger, Paula Jean Swearengin, by 70 percent to 30 percent.

The Democratic contest was significant because Swearengin was opposing Manchin as a self-proclaimed progressive, calling for Medicare for all and professing support to the strike by 30,000 teachers and other education workers that shut down schools statewide for nine days in March. Swearengin, who prominently displayed a photograph of herself with Bernie Sanders on her web site, won 48,302 votes, more than the 47,571 votes for Morrissey, the winner of the Republican primary, and nearly double the 27,153 votes for Blankenship.

The fundraising disparity was equally remarkable: Manchin raised $5 million and spent nearly $1.4 million on the primary campaign, compared to only $184,000 for Swearengin, an accounting clerk from a coal-mining family in southern West Virginia. In addition to the $3.5 million from Blankenship, Morrisey spent $1.3 million and Jenkins, who finished second, spent $1.5 million. Swearingen spent less than $5 for every vote she received, compared to Blankenships $130 per vote.

The national media has barely reported the vote for Swearengin. The New York Times, for example, wrote: Also worrisome for Mr. Manchin were the number of Democratic voters who supported his primary opponent, who ran a nominal campaign. He lost about 30 percent of the vote and did even worse in some of the states coal counties, which are full of the sort of ancestral Democrats he will need to hold onto in November.

The Times did not even name his opponent or explain that the votes Manchin lost were an indication of a shift to the left among sections of working people. This was already seen in the large vote for Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary in West Virginia, which Sanders worked to divert behind the campaign of Hillary Clinton.

The left-ward movement of workers found a more genuine expression in the struggle waged by teachers and other school workers against the state government, despite the sabotage of the teachers unions and the state Democratic Party establishment.

There was a similar shift away from the Republicans in the Third Congressional District, which comprises the southern third of West Virginia, including Huntington and Beckley. More than 57,000 voted in the Democratic primary compared to just over 37,000 in the Republican primary, which was a seven-candidate contest to choose a successor to incumbent Republican Jenkins, who chose to run for the US Senate seat.

State Senator Richard Ojeda won the Democratic nomination against token opposition. After spending more than two decades in the US Army Airborne, with repeated tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ojeda became an Army recruiter based in Beckley before winning a seat in the State Senate in 2016. He was heavily promoted by union leaders during the teachers strike.

Ojeda is one of four candidates with military-intelligence backgrounds who won Democratic congressional nominations on Tuesday.

In the Second Congressional District of West Virginia, former Clinton State Department official Talley Sergent defeated another military-intelligence candidate, Aaron Scheinberg, a West Point graduate and Iraq War veteran. In the Seventh Congressional District of Ohio, Kenneth Harbaugh, a former Navy pilot who flew reconnaissance missions in the Middle East and against North Korea, spent $457,000 to defeat a nominal opponent. Harbaugh has raised more money than the incumbent Republican, Representative Robert Gibbs.

In the 13th Congressional District of North Carolina, Marine Corps veteran Dan McCready, now a green energy multi-millionaire, won the Democratic nomination, while the incumbent Republican, Representative Robert Pittenger, was defeated in the primary by a Christian pastor, Mark Harris, who attacked him as insufficiently conservative. In that primary too, there was a higher turnout in an uncontested Democratic primary than in a tightly contested Republican primary.

The result of that primary is a general election contest between a millionaire Democrat who claims to have found Jesus during his military service in Iraq, where he had himself baptized in the waters of the Euphrates River, and a fundamentalist Christian preacher who made his name opposing gay marriage and abortion rights.

The World Socialist Web Site has highlighted the political significance of the emergence of an openly CIA-military wing of the Democratic Party, with dozens of candidates who come directly from the national security apparatus rather than from more traditional venues such as local and state government, business or legal circles.

The author also recommends

The CIA Democrats

[7 March 2018]In a desperate bid to prevent a planned mass protest on Tuesday outside the Tamil Nadu secretariat in Chennai, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)-led state government arrested more than 1,200 government employees and teachers.

The May 8 demonstration was called by the Joint Action Committee of Teachers Organisations and Government Employees Organisations (JACTO-GEO).

Government employees and teachers want a new regressive contributory pension scheme scrapped and the previous system restored. They are also calling for immediate payment of wage rates recommended by the 7th Pay Commission.

The New Pension Scheme (NPS) was first introduced by the Hindu-supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government in August 2003 and came into effect in early 2004. Under the NPS all central and state government employees hired after January 1, 2004 were deprived of previously existing government-funded pension rights and forced to pay 10 percent of their salaries into the NPS, with an equivalent contribution from the government.

The NPS shifts the financial burden of pensions onto workers themselves and establishes a new funding mechanism for big business investment. The protesting Tamil Nadu workers are deeply opposed to Prime Minister Narendra Modis BJP government allowing pension scheme funds to be invested in the share market.

Expecting more than 20,000 protesters from across Tamil Nadu to arrive in Chennai, the state government mobilised about 6,000 police officers near the secretariat and established barricades throughout the city to stop, search and arrest state government employees and teachers.

Early morning police raids were conducted on the homes of leading JACTO-GEO members and activists. Some people were arrested while still in their beds. While most detained workers were later released, arrests continued across the state throughout the day.

The heavy police deployment blocked teachers and government workers reaching the secretariat building. Protests were held in other parts of the state capital and other cities. Tamil Nadu Higher Secondary Vocational Teachers Federation members demonstrated in Trichy over the arrest of 200 people from that city.

Tamil Nadu Minister for Personnel and Administrative Reforms D. Jayakumar rejected demonstrators demands, arrogantly declaring that the state faced a financial crisis. He claimed that the government only had 6 rupees out of every 100 rupees collected in tax receipts to pay for what he described as government welfare schemes.

The AIADMK governments rejection of government employees demands and its brutal crackdown on their protest is another indication of its anti-working class, pro-investor policies.

In 2003, the AIADMK government led by the former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram used the draconian Essential Services Act to sack nearly 200,000 striking state government employees.

While the JACTO-GEO denounced Tuesdays mass arrests, it has no intention of mobilising workers against the state and central governments new pension system. It continues to call for the state government to negotiate with the union. As one JACTO-GEO coordinator told the media, this week: We have further appealed to the government to invite us for negotiations about our long-pending and legitimate demands.

Last year, the JACTO-GEO capitulated to a Tamil Nadu high court directive and shut down a week-long strike by 33,000 teachers and other state employees over the hated NPS and for other demands.

The JACTO-GEO is dominated by the All India Trade Union Centre (AITUC), the Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and a union affiliated to Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a rival regional capitalist party in Tamil Nadu. The AITUC and the CITU are affiliated to Indias main Stalinist parliamentary partiesthe Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) respectively.

The treacherous manoeuvres of the JACTO-GEO and their affiliated unions flow from the big-business policies of all these parties.

The CPI and the CPM are hostile to any independent mobilisation of the working class and have functioned as key props of Indian capitalist rule, supporting all non-BJP central governments, including those led by Congress Party, since the Indian bourgeoisie initiated pro-market economic reforms in 1991. In the 2011 Tamil Nadu state elections, the CPI and CPM supported the AIADMK and its openly right-wing anti-working class record.

CPM Tamil Nadu state secretary K. Balakrishnan responded to Tuesdays mass arrest of teachers and government workers by appealing to the AIADMK government to hold talks with the unions.

* * *

WSWS reporters spoke to teachers protesting in Chennai on Tuesday.

Karupaiyan from Cuddalore, said: Ive been working for nearly 10 years but my salary is only 22,000 rupees [$US330]. There are five members in my family and they all depend on my income. I pay nearly 5,000 rupees per month in rent and so my salary is not enough. Im struggling.

We have the right to protest but the government is suppressing our rights. Weve not violated any constitutional rights but the Tamil Nadu government has joined with the BJP-led central government and are attacking the working class. These governments are not for the poor but look after the interests of the corporations.

In Tamil Nadu the number of peasant suicides have increased but the government is utterly indifferent to the problems facing the peasants. The politicians say India is a democratic country but after Modi came to power the communalist and caste policies became more aggressive in order to divide working people along religious and caste lines. Muslims and Dalits are not safe in India, this so-called democratic country!

Kala, a teacher from Nammakal, said: Judges salaries were recently increased by 200 percent and they are also eligible for a pension, and legislators are entitled to the pension scheme after a five-year term. Ive been working for 13 years but cannot get a pension.

Selvamani denounced the BJP and the Indian Stalinist parties. The BJP government favours foreign investments and allows 100 percent investment in the retail sector. Every field is dominated by the IMF and its anti-people austerity measures, he said.

The BJP and the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] are dividing working people along religious lines and the Sanskrit language is being imposed in the educational sector. People are rejecting the Stalinist parties, which is exemplified by the recent Tripura state elections, and in Stalinist-ruled Kerala [state], poverty, and unemployment are on the increase.

Kumaresan also criticised the CPM: The CPM is not a communist party and not for working people. It has no principles and switches electoral alliances between the AIADMK and the DMK. The CPM does not fight for the jailed Maruti-Suzuki workers who have been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Referring to West Virginia teachers strike in the US, he said: I agree that working class must unite internationally. That is the only way it can win its demands.Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, who pleaded guilty in February to lying to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators, is serving his prison sentence at a low-security facility in Pennsylvania, according to records from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

He is at the low-security federal prison in Allenwood, a small town in central Pennsylvania, and reported on Monday.

Van der Zwaan -- the first person imprisoned as part of the Mueller investigation -- is one of 1,243 inmates at the facility, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

He is scheduled to be released on June 4. He is listed as inmate #35255-016.

Van der Zwaan, who worked with Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort while he practiced law at a large international firm, admitted to lying and failing to turn over emails to Mueller's team in February.

He was sentenced in April to 30 days in prison and a $20,000 fine.We had used this road the year before, but this wasn't going to work for v13. " Trans Iowa Stories" is an every Sunday post w...UNITED STATES (WTHI) - Three Americans held hostage in North Korea just returned home Thursday morning.

The President and First Lady greeted the Americans at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington D.C. Thursday morning.

They landed on U.S. soil around 2:45 EST.

They were held hostage for over a year in North Korea.

Kim Dong Chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song were accused of hostile acts, or espionage, against North Korea.

Thanks to a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the country let the men go.

The U.S. says negotiations are not over. Pompeo also discussed plans for a summit between the two countries. President Trump says he will be meeting with North Koreas leader very soon. That will likely happen in Singapore.

He says the goal is to get rid of all nuclear weapons.SULLIVAN, Ind. (WTHI) - They say actions speak louder than words.

If that's the case, you could say the action of the community of Sullivan spoke loudly on Wednesday.

"He went to work every day to support us and make sure that we're safe in the community. Without him, some of us may not be safe...and we are because of people like him," Community member Brandon Spears said.

There were flags of honor and signs of gratitude.

Everyone coming out to show what Officer Rob Pitts meant to this community.

"His honesty, his loyalty, but primarily his friendship to not only me but to almost everybody in this town. He means so much to so many people that he's going to be missed terribly," Henry Bobe said.

Many waited hours to give their respects...and then finally, the procession made it's way to Sullivan.

The silence reflected the respect Officer Pitts had from this community.French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed Europe's commitment to the Iran nuclear deal Wednesday while urging Tehran to take part in future discussions over its ballistic missile program.

A day after US President Donald Trump announced he was quitting the pact, putting him on a collision course with some of the US' closest allies, Macron spoke with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani by telephone as attempts to salvage the deal began in earnest.

According to an -lys-e Palace readout of the call, Macron urged Iran to "engage in a wide discussion with all parties involved" on topics including the country's nuclear program after 2025, its ballistic missiles and its actions across the Middle East.

Macron confirmed that the French and Iranian foreign ministers would meet soon to ensure progress.

Earlier Wednesday, France's Foreign Secretary Jean-Yves Le Drian had attempted to calm tensions by insisting the Iran deal was "not dead."

"The American logic is an isolationist, protectionist and unilateral logic," Le Drian told French radio station RTL. "This is a break with international commitment and France deeply regrets this decision. We will bring businesses together in the coming days to try and preserve them as much as possible from the US measures."

Representatives from France, the UK and Germany -- key signatories to the six-nation negotiating group that brokered the 2015 Obama-era Iran deal -- would meet with their Iranian counterparts on Monday and were committed to preserving the agreement, Le Drian said.

That may yet prove difficult. On Wednesday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast doubt on whether the agreement could be saved by Europe and accused Trump of telling "several lies" during his announcement.

In his speech Tuesday, Trump described the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to curb Iran's nuclear program as "defective at its core" and said "it didn't bring peace, and it never will."

Trump said the "decaying and rotten" agreement would not prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb, and railed against the fact that it didn't address Iran's development of ballistic missiles or its support for US-designated terrorist groups in the Middle East.

While Trump's withdrawal represented a huge setback for the Iran deal, a source close to Macron's office insisted Wednesday that it was only the end of a chapter, not the end of the story.

During a visit to Washington in late April, Macron floated the idea of a broader deal that would address Iran's ballistic missile program and wider role in the region.

Sources at the -lys-e Palace told CNN that Iran's President had been open to the idea of a broader deal before Trump's announcement. The question now, the sources said, was whether Rouhani remains receptive now Trump has quit the pact. Iran did not respond to a CNN request for comment.

Merkel, May pledge to uphold deal

On Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel told a news conference that Germany had noted the US decision with "regret and concern" but said that Iran had "stuck to its obligations" laid out in the agreement.

''We must not question the Iran deal, however we also need to talk about a broader deal that goes beyond it," Merkel added.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May echoed her European counterparts Wednesday, telling Parliament that the pact was "an important step forward in helping to keep the world safe" and that she had made clear to Trump "in a number of conversations" that the deal should stay in place.

May conceded there were other issues related to Iran that needed to be addressed, including "ballistic missiles, the question of what would happen at the sunset clause at the end of the nuclear deal, and the destabilizing activity of Iran in the region. Those are issues that need to be addressed and we are working with our European and other allies to do just that."

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told Parliament he regretted Trump's decision, but added that "Britain has no intention of walking away."

In a statement published Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that "as of today" Iran has met all of the requirements of the nuclear deal.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said, "Iran is subject to the world's most robust nuclear verification regime under the JCPOA."

Anger in Tehran

Trump's decision sparked anger in Tehran, where Iranian lawmakers burned printouts of the American flag and the Iran deal in parliament Wednesday. The lawmakers were set to vote on a motion that would call for a "proportionate and reciprocal action" against the US for leaving the JCPOA, semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.

President Rouhani said Iran would take a few weeks to decide how to respond to the US withdrawal, but ordered the country's "atomic industry organization" to be prepared to "start our industrial (uranium) enrichment without limitations." He said Iran would abide by its commitments while it consults with the other signatories to the JPCOA.

On Wednesday, Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei described Trump's address as "shallow" and warned that Iran would not be intimidated by the US.

"Last night you heard the shallow statements Trump made. There were several lies in his speech. He threatened the Iranian govt. and the Iranian nation, claiming he would do one thing or another. On behalf of Iranian nation: 'Mr. Trump, you couldn't lift a finger if you tried,'" Khamenei tweeted in English on Wednesday.

In an earlier tweet Khamenei said: "I don't trust these three EU countries either. If the govt. wants to make a contract, they should ask for a guarantee, or else they will all do just as the U.S. did. If there's not definite guarantee, the #JCPOA cannot continue."

While Trump's decision was met with dismay in Europe, Israel and Saudi Arabia praised the US withdrawal.

"Thank you President Trump for your bold decision and your commitment to prevent Iran from ever getting nuclear weapons," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted Tuesday.

Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the US and brother of the Crown Prince, wrote on Twitter that his country "fully supports" Trump's decision and added that "we always had reservations with regards to sunset clauses, ballistic missiles program, and Iran's support for terrorism in the region."OXFORD, Miss. (WTVA) - Three people face felony charges with the Oxford Police Department in separate cases.

On May 7, Oxford police responded to the Links Apartments for a reported domestic violence situation. As a result, 25-year-old Demarkous Dennis of Oxford was arrested for domestic violence-aggravated assault. His bond was set at $10,000.



Demarkous Dennis | Photo: Oxford PD Demarkous Dennis | Photo: Oxford PD

Jadarrius Carmichel | Photo: Oxford PD Jadarrius Carmichel | Photo: Oxford PD

On May 6, Oxford police took a report in reference to forgery and credit card fraud. The suspect was identified as 23-year-old Hannah Russell of Oxford and a warrant was issued for her arrest. On May 8, police located here and took her into custody. Her bond was set at $6,000.

On April 11, Oxford police took a report of credit card fraud. The investigation led to the arrest of Jadarrius Carmichel, 18, of Cleveland, Mississippi. Police say he used another person's credit card at least four times. He was charged with credit card fraud. His bond was set at $7,500.HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WTVA) - A man accused of severely beating his mother is heading back to Monroe County in handcuffs from Florida.

Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell says Chad Moore, 39, was picked up by deputies this morning sometime near 9 a.m. CT in Hillsborough County, Fla.

Updated picture of Chad Moore | Photo: Monroe County Sheriff's Dept. Updated picture of Chad Moore | Photo: Monroe County Sheriff's Dept.

Cantrell says the deputies and Moore should be back in Monroe County later today.

Moore is accused of beating his mother on May 3 on Bigbee Road near Amory. She received several fractures as a result.

RELATED: Amory man accused of beating mother

He was arrested on May 6 and was placed into the custody of the Hillsborough County (FL) Sheriff's Department.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (The News Service of Florida) - House Speaker Richard Corcoran on Wednesday dropped his potential bid for governor and endorsed Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in the Republican primary.

Citing the cost of running a statewide campaign, Corcoran says he re-evaluated his long-speculated bid to succeed outgoing Governor Rick Scott and decided against running.

Wednesdays announcement cements a match-up in the Republican primary between Putnam and Congressman Ron DeSantis.

Corcoran feels Putnam is the GOPs best chance to keep the governors mansion in Republican control, where it has been for nearly 20 years.

Once I made the decision that I wasnt going to run, I am definitely not one who is going to sit on the sidelines," said Corcoran. "It took all of 2.2 seconds for me to utter the name Adam Putnam in my mind and say that I am going to get out and Im going to support Adam.

Putnam welcomed Corcorans backing.

To have the endorsement and to have the support of someone who knows Florida so well, and is so passionate about Floridas future, and is such a principled conservative, means everything in the world to me," said Putnam.

But signaling a contentious August 28 primary, the DeSantis campaign characterized the endorsement as an insider deal between two long-time members of the Tallahassee establishment, noting Corcoran and Putnam have disagreed on issues, including immigration.

DeSantis is endorsed by President Donald Trump. Whoever wins the Republican primary will face one of four Democratic gubernatorial candidates in the November general election.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Denise Williams arrest is a breakthrough in a 17-year cold case.

Her husband, Mike Williams, was missing for 17 years before his body was found last year.

Williams was walked out of her job at Doak Campbell Stadium in handcuffs by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon.

She's charged with conspiracy to commit murder, first degree murder, and accessory after the fact.

According to court records, Denise and her estranged husband, Brian Winchester, conspired between March 1 and December 16 of 2000, to kill Mike Williams, who Denise was married to at the time.

The indictment shows on December 16 of 2000, he was shot in Jackson County.

Then between August 1, 2014 and December 19 of last year, Denise was charged with helping Brian Winchester avoid arrest.

He is serving time for kidnapping and pulling a gun on Denise in August of 2016.

Court records show Brian has not been indicted on new charges.

WTXL spoke earlier with Mike Williams' former boss of 15 years. He reflects on Williams as an employee and the impact it had on him when he went missing.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Monday marked 10 years since the death of Tallahassee Police confidential informant Rachel Hoffman, who was killed during an undercover drug buy.

Her body was found 10 years ago today, in a swamp in Taylor County.

The men convicted of killing her, are behind bars for life.

The police officers who were part of the buy-bust were fired, and the city was held responsible, made to pay Rachel's parents $2.6 million.

But why did Rachel become a confidential informant to begin with?

Former State Attorney Willie Meggs says it was to work off her drug charges.

"Rachel was, in my opinion, motivated by not wanting her father and mother to know that she had been arrested. That would just be the end of the world to her," said Meggs. "Well it became the end of the world to everybody."

Her death prompted the passage of Rachel's Law, which was signed one year later.

Rachel's parents attorney, Lance Block, says there's no way to measure how successful Rachel's Law has been because we don't know how many confidential informants there are, or any of the demographics, so we don't know how many people have been injured or killed.

"Some police officers are not exercising good judgement," said Block. "They're willing to play Russian roulette with these people and their lives."

Confidential informants can help police solve crimes and bust drug dealers, but at what cost?

"Undercover work is the most dangerous type of police work there is," said Block.

For Rachel Hoffman, that cost was her life.

"Her death was, for Margie and Irv [Rachel's parents], the way they got back up off the floor from this, was to fight for other people," said Block.

It's what prompted the passage of Rachel's Law on May 7, 2009, one year after her death. The bill lists factors that law enforcement agencies should consider in deciding whether someone should be used as a CI.

But has it changed anything?

"We know there have been people killed as a result of working undercover since Rachel died, but we don't know how many," said Block.

And police may not want to reveal how many.

"The last thing police departments that want to use civilians to do undercover work want to do, is admit that they're loosing their CI's, because it has a chilling effect on recruitment," said Block.

While Lance and Rachel's parents will continue pushing for stronger legislation, they feel comfort knowing it's a step in the right direction.

"That's Rachel's legacy, is what her parents did in responding to her tragic death," said Block. "Maybe there's been a life that's been saved and if so, what Rachel's parents and I did was worth it."

The Tallahassee Police Department declined to go on camera, but told us their policies go beyond what Rachel's Law calls for, and they keep records of all their confidential informants, but they don't want to release any information, not even how many they use, because they say it could compromise their confidentiality agreement.

TPD also says they've made several changes since the passage of Rachel's Law.

They include tougher training for officers and no promises to informants in exchange for information. The State Attorney, Police Chief, and the CI's attorney are made aware of the use of the CI.ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Authorities in Florida are investigating a report that a teen was spotted struggling in a retention pond and screaming about being bitten before he disappeared.

An Orange County Sheriffs Office news release calls it a possible drowning. The release says deputies, wildlife officers and fire rescue workers began searching the Orlando pond around noon Wednesday.

A witness who lives nearby told deputies that a teenage male had been struggling to stay afloat while yelling, It bit me, multiple times. The teen eventually went underwater and didnt resurface.

Officials say a small alligator was spotted in the retention pond, but there was no evidence that it was related to a possible drowning.

Marine units were scanning the pond later Wednesday afternoon, while deputies canvased the area checking for missing people.Updated : 2018-05-10

(chinadaily.com.cn)

Wuxi presents San Antonio with a pair of giant purple clay figurines in honor of the Texan city's 300th anniversary. [Photo/wxrb.com]

Wuxi, the "erhu capital of China", was invited to attend the 300th anniversary of the founding of the city of San Antonio, Texas, on May 4 and 5.

Wuxi presented its Texan sister city with a pair of exquisite purple clay figurines and Wuxi's city mascot, A Fu, in celebration of their six-year relationship.

Members of Meijing Orchestra play traditional Chinese instruments in San Antonio on May 4, including the erhu, pipa and bamboo flute. [Photo/wxrb.com]

Meijing Orchestra from Meicun, where the erhu, a traditional Chinese string instrument, has evolved over 1500 years, gave a wonderful performance conveying the unique charm of traditional Chinese music and Wuxi culture.

Wuxi and San Antonio are both famous for being waterfront cities intercut by canals. The Wuxi section of the Grand Canal of China runs about 6 kilometers and showcases the distinctive features of riverside towns south of the Yangtze River.

A signing ceremony was held on May 5 to establish further exchanges and cooperation between the two cities, with Wuxi hoping to glean much from San Antonio's long history of canal management and associated tourism, while sharing its own ideas and efforts in building construction, education, culture, exhibition and tourism, deepening their relationship as sister cities.WORLAND  Six Worland High School students, Jamon Dower, Morgan Pennington, Megan White, Owen Kern, Peyton Woffinden and Tristan Lungren earned awards at the Wyoming High School Activities Association High School Art Symposium held at the Casper Events Center April 19-21.

The State Art Symposium is an art competition where all the schools in the state compete against each other.

Worland High School art teacher Pam Greek stated that she is very proud of her students and that despite many obstacles to deal with, her students handled everything like champs.

According to Greek only 25 pieces were chosen to receive congressional awards out of 4,000 with Dower and Pennington each earning one of those 25 with their two-dimensional entries. Their pieces will be on display in the state capitol until the art symposium next year.

Greek commented that Dower and Pennington have committed to studying art after high school.

The symposium also has the First Lady award, where the governors wife chooses art pieces to be displayed in the governors mansion. It should also be noted that Wyoming first lady Carol Mead visits the state art symposium to personally select several student works to exhibit in the Governors Mansion for the following year. While Worland did not have any selected this year (we have in the past), the fact that Mrs. Mead is such a huge supporter of what we do needs to be acknowledged. I dont know of too many other high school state competitions that leaders of the state attend on a yearly basis, Greek said in an earlier interview.

In total Worland art students brought home 10 blue ribbons with Dower earning six, Pennington two, White one and Kern, Woffinden and Lungren earning one for a skeleton tyrannosaurus they created in welding class.ROME, May 9 (Xinhua) -- An Italian man who wounded six Nigerian immigrants during a racist shooting spree went on trial in the central city of Macerata on Wednesday.

Luca Traini, 28, faces upwards of 15 years in prison if found guilty of charges including attempted mass murder and illegal weapons detention aggravated by racist hatred.

Traini's defense tried to argue he was "partially mentally unfit" at the time of the attack, Sky TG24 reported.

On Feb. 3, Traini went on a drive-by shooting rampage targeting immigrants in various parts of Macerata, then drove to a monument, gave the Fascist salute, wrapped himself in the Italian flag, and awaited arrest.

A search of his home turned up a copy of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's autobiography "Mein Kampf" and various Nazi memorabilia.

In 2017, Traini ran for local office as a candidate of the League, a rightwing anti-immigrant party that did very well in Italy's March 4 general election and whose leader, Matteo Salvini, may become the next prime minister of Italy.

Traini's rampage, which caused what local media described as scenes of "panic in the streets", took place during a court hearing for Innocent Oseghale, a Nigerian drug dealer accused of killing and dismembering 18-year-old Italian drug addict Pamela Mastropietro, stuffing her body parts into two trolleys and dumping them in the countryside.

Macerata Prosecutor Giovanni Giorgio told RAI public broadcaster at the time that Traini stated he initially wanted to kill Oseghale in court, then "changed his mind" and decided to go on a shooting spree instead.

He fired at least 30 shots from a semi-automatic Glock pistol, aiming at strangers.

"I wanted to avenge Pamela," Traini reportedly told police interrogators. "Illegal immigration must be stopped."

From jail, Traini sent flowers to Mastropietro's funeral, which was held in Rome on May 5 and was attended by various Italian politicians, the Nigerian ambassador to Italy, and the president of the Nigerian community in Italy.ROME, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Strong welfare and social disparities still exist in Italy, a study warned on Wednesday.

"Deciding to become mother in our country can affect the social, professional, and economic status of a woman, depending on the region in which a child is born," no-profit group Save The Children-Italy wrote in its Mothers Report 2017.

Such disparities would be mainly consistent with Italy's traditional North-South divide, with northern regions "increasingly virtuous, with few exceptions" and southern ones "too often lacking in motherhood services."

The group specified such gaps emerged from the analysis of 11 parameters in all three major indicators of mothers' welfare: health care, employment, and childhood services.

The report confirmed northeast Trentino Alto Adige as the most "mother-friendly" region -- the same as in the 2016 index -- followed by northwest Valle d'Aosta, and by Emilia Romagna (both in northern Italy).

Central Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche regions came next.

Southern Sicily ranked 20th, both registering the worst performance at national level, Save the Children noted. A little better was Calabria (19th), Apulia (18th), Campania (17th) and Basilicata (16th), all of them southern regions.

However, the research detected a general deterioration in mothers' welfare in the whole country, the group stressed in a statement after releasing the report.

A main cause of inequality would remain the difficulty to reconcile family and work life. "The unemployment rate among women -- and especially mothers -- is among the highest in Europe, and gender discrimination is well rooted in the job market," researchers said.

A strong imbalance between mothers and fathers in sharing the family burden still existed, giving women little chances to harmonize their domestic commitments with a job, also due to "a very poor supply of children educational services."

Even when succeeding in finding employment, mothers in Italy could count on fewer options and tools -- such as flexibility and other policies commonly use to boost female participation -- compared to other major EU countries, according to the study.

In 2016, women in Italy became mothers at 31.8 years on average -- compared to 30.6 years in Europe -- according to data by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT).

The country's fertility rate in the same year was 1.34 children per woman (more specifically, 1.2 for Italian women, and 1.97 for immigrant women) against an estimated European average of 1.60.

"In country such as Italy, where the number of newborn babies is in constant decline, it is unacceptable that so little attention is paid to motherhood, beyond rhetoric," Save The Children-Italy program director Raffaella Milano said.PRAGUE, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Czech President Milos Zeman on Wednesday attended the celebration of Victory Day at the Embassy of Russia here.

In his speech in Russian, Zeman said: "World War II was a war of racial hatred" and called for joining forces against terrorism.

Zeman said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed on starting the first session of the Czech-Russian discussion forum in early June.

Zeman said sanctions against Russia do not help, and only hamper economic exchanges. He said he would like to turn this public appearance into an initiative of the Czech Republic within the EU.LONDON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Wednesday pledged not to "walk away" from Iran nuclear deal, and demanded "concrete proposals" from Washington on how to now curtail Tehran's alleged nuclear weapons ambitions after U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the landmark agreement.

On Tuesday, Trump announced the decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which agreed to lift crippling economic sanctions on Iran in return for its agreement to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow international inspectors access to its facilities.

Speaking at the House of the Commons, Johnson said: "The JCPOA is an international agreement painstakingly negotiated over 13 years under both Republican and Democratic institutions and enshrined in UN resolution 2231."

"Britain has no intention of walking away," he said.

The JCPOA is an international agreement reached in Vienna in 2015 between Iran, the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States -- plus Germany), and the European Union.

"Instead, we will cooperate with the other parties to ensure that while Iran continues to restrict its nuclear program then its people will benefit from sanctions relief in accordance with the central bargain of the deal," he said.

Britain would remain "a party" to the JCPOA as long as Iran complied with it, he added.

Britain, France and Germany on Tuesday pledged to remain in the nuclear deal despite Trump's decision to pull U.S. out of the agreement.

In a joint statement, the countries expressed "regret and concern" over the decision and urged Iran to "show restraint" in its response.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that his country would remain in the deal as discussions with allies take place over the next "few weeks."Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 05:49:43|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

DAMASCUS, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The evacuation of the third batch of rebels and their families from countrysides of Homs and Hama province in central Syria was postponed on Wednesday, sources and reports said.

The rebels in the northern countryside of Homs and the southern countryside of Hama province are supposed to depart to rebel-held areas in the northwestern province of Idlib and the northern city of Jarablus, but the rebels in those areas have hurdled the entry of the first two batches from Homs and Hama, a source in Hama told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The source said that over 6,000 rebels and their families evacuated the countryside of Hama and Homs in the past two days, adding that the rebels are blowing up their command centers ahead of their withdrawal, which led to the killing of four militants when an arms depot went ablaze.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Turkish authorities and the rebels they are backing have prevented the entry of the Homs and Hama rebels.

The state news agency SANA said the rebels in Hama and Homs countrysides are handing over their weapons to the Syrian side as part of the evacuation deal.

The evacuation deal was reached between the rebels and the Syrian government on May 1 and is identical to other agreements that have been recently reached in the capital Damascus, which saw the evacuation of rebels from the Eastern Ghouta countryside and the eastern part of the Qalamoun region to Idlib and Jarablus last month.

The Russian-backed evacuation deals are aimed at curbing battles. Meanwhile, the rebels are leaving for other strongholds in northern Syria in order to secure more vital areas in central and southern Syria.WASHINGTON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that the time and venue of the meeting between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s top leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump have been "locked in."

Pompeo told reporters aboard his plane before arriving at Japan's Yokota Air Base for a stopover.

The U.S. top diplomat said that he talked with Kim in "a good and lengthy conversation" in preparation for the latter's possible meeting with Trump, adding Washington will announce them "in the next handful of days."

Trump said on the same day that the location of his meeting with Kim will not be at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the DPRK and South Korea, and the time and place for the meeting will be announced in three days.

"We had a chance to talk substantively about what we intend to be on the agenda, and also how we're going to begin to coordinate in the days ahead between now and the summit," Pompeo noted.

"Both sides are confident that we will set the conditions for a successful meeting between the two leaders."

"There were no moments where I felt like we were going to be anything but successful in the day," he said, noting the meeting "worth the time and effort, and I think very productive."

Speaking of the three freed U.S. citizens that came with him, Pompeo said "the doctors are with them now, but all indications are at this point that their health is as good as could be..."

He said the United States will have a "more complete readout of their complete conditions" in the next couple of hours.

Explaining the reason for the sudden release of them, Pompeo said "Kim is trying to set good conditions for the summit" with Trump.

"But there's still a lot of work to do to achieve our ultimate goal," he said, referring to what the United States has called a complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Trump, for his part, also praised Kim Jong Un for the release of the three U.S. citizens who were accused of trying to undermine the DPRK government.

Trump said that he and Vice President Mike Pence will be at Andrews Air Force Base to meet them at 2:00 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT) Thursday.

The White House earlier on Wednesday confirmed the release of three U.S. citizens detained in the DPRK, saying Trump appreciates the release and views it as "a positive gesture of goodwill."Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 06:50:05|Editor: Xiang Bo

Video Player Close

DAMASCUS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Israel fired several rockets on Syrian military positions in the southern province of Qunaitera on Wednesday overnight, with no immediate reports on losses, Syrian state TV said, as pro-government media said rockets targeted Israeli military positions in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The shelling targeted the al-Baath city, said the TV, spelling no further details, as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli shelling targeted military positions of Syria and its allies near al-Baath city.

In what appeared to be retaliation, Pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said tens of rockets were fired on Israeli military positions in the Israeli-held Golan Heights area, adding that four major Israeli military positions were targeted, including "sensitive" ones.

The TV said no party claimed responsible for firing on Israeli military sites as Israeli media outlets reportedly accused Iran.

Citing sources, the report said that Israel has also carried out airstrikes on Khan Arnabeh area in Qunaitera.

This tension comes a day after Israel targeted a Syrian military site in the Kisweh area in the southwestern countryside of the capital Damascus, and activists said 15 people were killed, including eight Iranians.

The Israeli attack comes amid heightened tension with Iran, following last month Israeli attacks on Syrian positions where Iranian military experts were located.

It also comes after the U.S. announced withdrawing from the nuclear pact.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 07:05:11|Editor: ZD

Video Player Close

Israeli soldiers guard a road in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on May 10, 2018. About 20 rockets were fired at Israeli military bases by Iranian forces in southern Syria on Wednesday overnight and some were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome defense system, said the Israeli army. (Xinhua/JINI)

JERUSALEM, May 10 (Xinhua) -- About 20 rockets were fired at Israeli military bases by Iranian forces in southern Syria on Wednesday overnight and some were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome defense system, said the Israeli army.

No Israeli injuries were reported in the attack, said the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in a statement issued on Wednesday overnight.

The Israeli army said that the IDF defense systems identified approximately 20 rockets launched by the Iranian Quds forces at IDF forward posts on the Golan Heights.

A number of rockets were intercepted by the IDF's Iron Dome aerial defense system, said the Israeli army.

Residents living in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights were asked to remain attentive to the instructions given out by the IDF.

At this moment, there are no further instructions, said the IDF.

"The IDF views this event with great severity and remains prepared for a wide variety of scenarios," said the Israeli army.SAN DIEGO, May 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- REVA Medical, Inc. (ASX:RVA) (REVA or the Company) will hold its 2018 Annual General Meeting of Stockholders (the AGM) on Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. US PDT (which is Thursday, 17 May 2018 at 9:00 a.m. AEST). The meeting will be held at the offices of DLA Piper LLP (US), 4365 Executive Drive, Suite 1100, San Diego, California 92121.



The AGM will be audiocast and may be accessed within Australia by dialing 1800 005 989 five minutes prior to the scheduled start time. Callers in the United States and Canada may access the call by dialing 1-877-312-5413. The conference ID is 7558037 for all locations.

If you reside outside of Australia, the United States, or Canada, or if you prefer to access the call through our website, please visit Events & Presentations under the Investors section of our website at www.revamedical.com, and click on the listen to webcast link. A live webcast and transcript of the call will also be available on our website.

About REVA Medical

REVA Medical is a medical device company focused on the development and commercialization of bioresorbable polymer technologies for vascular applications. The Companys lead products are the Fantom and Fantom Encore bioresorbable vascular scaffolds for the treatment of coronary artery disease. REVA is located in San Diego, California, USA and employs over 50 people in the U.S. and Europe.

Fantom and Fantom Encore are trademarks of REVA Medical, Inc.

United States Australia Australia Investor & Media Enquiries: Investor Enquiries: Media Enquiries: REVA Medical, Inc. Inteq Limited Buchan Consulting Brandi Roberts Kim Jacobs Rebecca Wilson Chief Financial Officer +61 438 217 279 +61 3 9866 4722 +1 858-966-3003 Andrew Cohen Cheryl Liberatore +61 408 333 452 Director, Communications +1 858-966-3045 ir@revamedical.com



KHARTOUM, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Central Africa Republic (CAR) on Wednesday officially apologized for Sudan over the recent assault on the residence of Sudan's Ambassador in Bangui, vowing to investigate the incident which resulted in the killing of one of the embassy guards.

CAR Prime Minister Simplice Sarandji on Wednesday met Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum and conveyed to him his country's apology.

"I have been sent by the president in this regard and I apologized for President al-Bashir and for the Sudanese people," Sarandji told reporters following his meeting with al-Bashir.

Sudan's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohamed Abdalla Idris told reporters that President al-Bashir has accepted the formal apology from the CAR government.

"What has happened is really sad, but will not affect the relations between Central Africa Republic and Sudan or the deeply-rooted ties between the peoples of the two countries," Idris quoted al-Bashir as saying.

Last Friday, a guard of the Sudanese Ambassador's residence in the CAR capital of Bangui was killed by members of police, where Khartoum summoned the CAR ambassador and officially protested over the incident.

Press reports quoted CAR government sources as saying that the guard was mistakenly killed by the members of the Central Office for the Suppression of Banditry (OCRB), who thought he was a militia member.ANKARA, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The United States will deliver the first batch of F-35 joint strike fighters to Turkey in June, despite attempts by the U.S. Congress to suspend the weaponry procurement, local media reported Wednesday.

The first batch of the 30 F-35 fighters will be delivered on June 21 in the U.S., where Turkish pilots will receive intense training, Hurriyet Daily News reported, citing Turkish defense industry authorities.

The Turkish military plans to upgrade the current F-16 fleets with 100 F-35 aircraft, in order to reinforce its air defense capabilities, the report said.

On May 4, the U.S. House of Representatives released the details of a 717-billion-U.S.-dollar annual defense bill, including the move to suspend weapons sales to Turkey.

The proposal urged the U.S. government to impose sanctions on Turkey since Ankara signed a deal with Moscow on the purchase of two S-400 surface-to-air systems last December.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said Turkey will retaliate if the U.S. ratifies a bill halting weapons sales to the country.PYONGYANG, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has expressed his confidence that the upcoming summit with U.S. President Donald Trump would be a historic one.

The summit would be an excellent first step toward promoting the positive development of situation on the Korean Peninsula and building a good future, Kim said during his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Kim highly appreciated that Trump showed deep interest in settling the issue on Korean Peninsula through dialogue, the news agency said.

He also agreed to the request by the U.S. side for the release of three Americans, and exchanged with Pompeo "the appraisal and view on the acute situation of the Korean Peninsula, which is now a pressing matter of the whole world's concern, and the stance and opinions of the supreme leaderships of the DPRK and the U.S. on their summit," according to the KCNA.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 07:30:19|Editor: Liu

Video Player Close

DAMASCUS, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Ten Israeli military positions in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights were targeted overnight Wednesday by rocket fire at a time when Israel hit Syrian positions in the southern province of Qunaitera amid heightened tension, according to the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV.

The targeted Israeli military sites include a military reconnaissance center, a position for border security, a military center for electronic jamming, a military center for spying on wireless and wired networks, a communication station, an observatory for precision weapons, a gunships heliport, the headquarters of the regional military command of brigade-810, the command center of the military battalion in Hermon, and the winter headquarters of the special snow unit, according to the report.

No party claimed responsibility for the attack, but Israel accused Iran of firing the rockets.

The incident came as Israel fired rockets on a military position in al-Baath City and Khan Arnabeh in Syria's southern Qunaitera province near the Golan Heights.

The Syrian state TV said no losses were reported from the Israeli strike on Qunaitera while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli shelling targeted military positions of Syria and its allies near al-Baath.

The tension came a day after Israel targeted a Syrian military site in the Kisweh area in the southwestern countryside of the capital Damascus. Activists said 15 people were killed, including eight Iranians.

Last month, the Israelis targeted two military sites in Syria where Iranian fighters were located, including the T-4 airbase in central Syria.

The Israeli attack came amid heightened tension with Iran, following Israeli attack last month on Syrian positions where Iranian military experts were located. It also followed the U.S. announcement of withdrawal from the international nuclear deal with Iran.A baker prepares sesame seed breadsticks in an ancient bakery in the old city of Aleppo, northern Syria, on May 6, 2018. (Xinhua/Hummam Sheikh Ali)

ALEPPO, Syria, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Despite the massive destruction of its ancient treasures in the past years of war and violence, the historic spirit and glorious past of the Syrian city of Aleppo is still alive.

When visiting Aleppo's ancient city, one of the most important historic Syrian cities, one can't help but being mesmerized by the greatness of its past as being one of the important stop of the ancient Silk Road.

Even though the ancient city is largely buried in ruins now, every falling stone perhaps dates back to hundreds of years.

In the Bab al-Nasr Souk, reportedly dating back to the Greek Phase B.C., only three or four shops have reopened since the city was liberated from the rebels in late 2016.

The souk is named after the adjacent Bab al-Nasr, or the Victory Gate, the northern gate of the ancient city of Aleppo. It has been destroyed and rebuilt several times throughout the history as it was hit by earthquakes in the ancient time.

One of these shops is an old bakery, possibly the only one of its kind in old Aleppo now.

This bakery produces various types of cookies and bagels, the most famous of which is the sesame seed breadsticks, known as Kaak al-Sakhaneh in Arabic, which used to be the most favorite food for the travelers and merchants on the ancient Silk Road.

Khaled Mari, current owner of the bakery, told Xinhua that the breadsticks are so popular among the travelers because they could last for months.

"People used to come and take the Kaak al-Sakhaneh in wrapped bags and would travel long distances, and as long as it's dry and not penetrated by humidity, it could last for two months and the taste remains the same as if just coming out from the oven," said Mari.

He explained that the bagels are heated several times in the oven until they are completely dry so that they won't easily become mouldy and rotten during the travel.

Recounting what his father and grandfather had told him, Mari said the Silk Road merchants used to buy this breadsticks while crossing Aleppo's old city toward Constantinople, Anatolia, the Black Sea and all the way to Europe.

He said that this bagel is still very popular for current residents in Aleppo just like the ancient time of Silk Road.

Alaa al-Sayyed, a lawyer and historical researcher, told Xinhua that the ancient city of Aleppo was located on the crossroads of several trade routes in the past.

"Aleppo was in the heart of the Silk Road, the one coming from China in the Far East toward what is currently known as Western Europe and the Spice Route coming from the far south in India to Yemen, Hijaz, the Levant and then north of Aleppo heading either towards the Black Sea to Armenia or the Caspian Sea, or to Constantinople to enter Western Europe," he said.

Al-Sayyed, who has many recent discoveries in the Bab al-Nasr gate area, said the caravans of the Silk Road used to pass through this market during their travels.

He said Bab al-Nasr, the northern gate of the ancient city of Aleppo, was so important as the commercial caravans used to pass through it to the ancient souk where shops were lined on both sides of the streets.

At the end of this souk, there were two Khans, or caravanserais, namely the Khan Kotbeh and Khan al-Wazir, in which the merchants used to sleep during their stay to exchange goods in the city. The Khans were damaged during the war in Aleppo.

Al-Sayyed said the Kaak al-Sakhaneh was one of the food items the merchants purchase while visiting Aleppo.

"The merchants used to buy their supplies from this souk and there are two bakeries here and I think that those bakeries are historic and used to produce special food for the caravans, including the Kaak al-Sakhaneh, which is characterized as being free of any humidity and can be taken for long trips," al-Sayyed said.

Nowadays, this souk, as well as the majority of the ancient souks in Aleppo, is largely destroyed by the war that raged in Syria. But, with the end of the war, signs of life have begun returning to the ancient city.

The shops that were not heavily damaged have started operating again, including the bakery that makes the Kaak al-Sakhaneh.

China has launched the Belt and Road Initiative since 2013, with an aim of building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with the Middle East, Africa and Europe along the ancient trade routes including the Silk Road.

Hopefully, Aleppo could revive its past fame and prosperity through participation in the Chinese initiative, and restoration of its ancient marketplaces and shops.Iraqi security forces have increased security ahead of parliamentary election. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

BAGHDAD, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces intensified security measures near hundreds of polling centers across Iraq, which will open for the security forces two days ahead of May 12 parliamentary, a police officer told Xinhua on Wednesday.

Colonel Nibras Mohammed Ali, head of media office of Baghdad police, told Xinhua that "the police of Baghdad province started deployment security patrols to secure the polling centers, in accordance with a plan presented by Baghdad Operation Command (BOC)."

The BOC plan includes setting up three security belts: one of which is members of Facilities Protection Police wearing civilian uniforms inside the polling centers, second belt for police forces around the centers, while the third belt for soldiers and other security forces to deploy in wider circle in the surrounding area, Ali said.

The security plan also concentrates on intelligence efforts to secure the polling centers, through carrying out pre-emptive operations during the past few days, Ali added.

The security forces searched the areas surrounding the polling centers and secured the nearby high buildings by deploying security members on their roofs, Ali said.

Ali praised the Iraqi citizens for being cooperative with the security forces during the pre-emptive operations, asserting that their cooperation is a result of defeating Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq, which gave great confidence to the citizens about the ability of the security forces.

"Up to 23,000 members of Baghdad police have participated to secure the elections, in addition to more security forces ready in intervene if needed," Ali said, adding that the Iraqi aircraft will also help in security the elections.

Tightened security measures could be seen near the polling centers in many areas in Baghdad, according to Xinhua correspondents who made a tour in the city.

Earlier in the day, an electoral security committee said in a televised press release that international airports and border crossings would be closed for 24 hours on the day of elections.

"The closure will last from midnight Friday till midnight Saturday," the state-run Iraqiya TV channel quoted the committee as saying.

The security measures also include restricting movement of vehicles in the cities, in addition to suspending traffic between provinces on Saturday, the channel said.

The security measures were taken ahead of the voting of the parliamentary election due on Saturday, in which around 7,000 candidates will compete for the 329 parliamentary seats.

This will be the first general election since Iraq's historical victory over the IS in December last year.

Iraq's previous general election was held on April 30, 2014, when the Iraqis elected 328 lawmakers for the parliament.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 07:50:23|Editor: Liu

Video Player Close

DAMASCUS, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian air defenses responded to Israeli missile attack after midnight in the southern province of Qunaitera, state TV reported early Thursday.

The event took place amid heightened tensions after the Israelis fired rockets on military positions in Qunaitera, and after rockets slammed Israeli military sites in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The state TV said Israel fired rockets on a military position in the al-Baath City and Khan Arnabeh in Qunaitera, ahead of the fresh wave of missile attack.

The TV said no losses were reported from the Israeli strike on Qunaitera while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Israeli shelling targeted military positions of Syria and its allies near al-Baath.

The latest tension came a day after Israel targeted a Syrian military site in the Kisweh area in the southwestern countryside of the capital Damascus. Activists said 15 people were killed, including eight Iranians.

Last month, the Israelis targeted two military sites in Syria where Iranian fighters were located, including the T-4 airbase in central Syria.

The Israeli attack came amid heightened tensions with Iran, following Israeli attacks last month on Syrian positions where Iranian military experts were located. It also followed the U.S. announcement of withdrawal from the international nuclear deal with Iran.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 08:05:26|Editor: ZD

Video Player Close

Photo provided by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 10, 2018 shows Kim Jong Un (R), top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), shaking hands with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on May 9, 2018. Kim Jong Un expressed his confidence that the upcoming summit with U.S. President Donald Trump would be a historic one. (Xinhua/ KCNA)

PYONGYANG, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has expressed his confidence that the upcoming summit with U.S. President Donald Trump would be a historic one.

The summit would be an excellent first step toward promoting the positive development of situation on the Korean Peninsula and building a good future, Kim said during his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Kim highly appreciated that Trump showed deep interest in settling the issue on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue, the news agency said.

He also agreed to the request by the U.S. side for the release of three Americans, and exchanged with Pompeo "the appraisal and view on the acute situation of the Korean Peninsula, which is now a pressing matter of the whole world's concern, and the stance and opinions of the supreme leaderships of the DPRK and the U.S. on their summit," according to the KCNA.

"The respected Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un warmly greeted Mike Pompeo and sincerely congratulated him on his recent official assumption as secretary of State," the news agency reported.

Pompeo expressed thanks to Kim for sparing time to meet him and said he came to the DPRK to personally convey the verbal message of the U.S. president and prepare for the summit.

"An in-depth discussion was made on the practical matters for holding the DPRK-U.S. summit and its procedure and ways," and Kim and Pompeo "reached a satisfactory consensus on the issue," said the KCNA.

Pompeo also expressed thanks to the hospitality to him and his delegation during their visit to Pyongyang and "the very beneficial talks which reached a full agreement," according to the report.

"He showed his resolution and will to strive for the successful DPRK-U.S. summit as the U.S. secretary of state," said the KCNA report.HAVANA, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Cuba on Wednesday condemned the withdrawal of the United States from a nuclear agreement with Iran.

Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its "profound rejection of the decision of the United States government to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or Nuclear Agreement with Iran and to reimpose sanctions on that country."

The statement added, "The failure to comply with these international commitments violates the rules of coexistence between states and can have serious consequences for the stability and security of the Middle East."

Cuba's government said it was opposed to the application of unilateral coercive economic measures against any country and said it recognized the legitimate right of every country to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Cuba also called on the United Nations Security Council to fulfill its responsibility to preserve international peace and security, and demanded the fulfillment of UN resolution 2231 on the Iranian nuclear issue, which was unanimously approved by the council.

Despite opposition from the other signatories and Democratic members of the U.S. Congress, U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States will withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, a landmark agreement signed in 2015 between Iran and six major powers.

Cuba and Iran established diplomatic ties in 1975. A year later the then-government decided to break them, but they were restored in 1979, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

Tehran and Havana maintain cooperation agreements in agriculture, education, engineering, biotechnology and other areas.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 08:20:28|Editor: Liu

Video Player Close

CHICAGO, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Michigan-China Week really acts as useful platform for Chinese companies to seek investment opportunities in Midwest U.S, a Chinese businesswoman told Xinhua on Wednesday in an interview during the three-day event.

Sophie Ou, CEO of Meganutra Inc's U.S. branch, said that by participating the event, she would find ideal partners to produce liquid health care product and learn more about laws and taxation rules in Michigan state. Meganutra Inc is a Chinese private owned importer of health products and service provider.

When asked why she decided to attend the event, Ou said Michigan State University is the top one in public health field, and they are forerunner in clinical medicine and nutriology research. "So I think maybe we can cooperate to make better formula and health care products for Chinese market."

Ou, also a member of the China General Chamber of Commerce-USA (CGCC), said her CGCC delegation has 29 CEOs joining the event. "We have seven people in a roundtable meeting with state Governor Snyder who said Michigan welcomes Chinese investment with open arms." She said.

As a keynote speaker in Michigan-China Business Summit, President of CGCC Chicago and General Manager Liang Pubin said U.S. Midwest States, including Michigan are business friendly regions with rich resources, expressing the hope that Chinese business executives could find ideal investment projects.

Ou also highly praised the organizer Michigan-China Innovation Center for its perfect arrangement.

The Michigan-China Innovation Center, created in 2016, said that Michigan is home to more than 300 Chinese companies, which represent more than 4 billion U.S. dollars' investment and more than 6,000 jobs.

In recent year, Michigan government had led several missions to China to promote Michigan exports and tourism as well as to attract investments.VANCOUVER, B.C., May 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Liberty Gold Corp. (TSX:LGD) (Liberty Gold or the Company) is pleased to announce voting results from the Companys Annual Meeting of Shareholders held on May 9, 2018 (the Meeting). A total of 99,149,075 common shares were voted, representing the votes attached to 56.05% of all outstanding common shares. Shareholders voted in favour of the election of all director nominees. The percentage of votes cast for each is as follows:



Total number of votes cast: Votes for: Dr. Mark ODea 81,006,186 85.8% Mr. Cal Everett 81,006,186 99.6% Mr. Donald McInnes 81,006,186 85.8% Mr. Robert Pease 81,006,187 99.8% Mr. Sean Tetzlaff 81,006,186 85.7%

The reappointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Professional Accountants as auditor of the Company, was also approved by the shareholders.

Voting results are released in accordance with Toronto Stock Exchange requirements. Detailed voting results for the Meeting are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

ABOUT LIBERTY GOLD

Liberty Gold is focused on exploring the Great Basin of the United States, home to large-scale gold projects that are ideal for open-pit mining. This region is one of the most prolific gold-producing regions in the world and stretches across Nevada and into Idaho and Utah. We know the Great Basin and are driven to discover and advance big gold deposits that can be mined profitably in open-pit scenarios. Our flagship projects are Goldstrike, Black Pine and Kinsley Mountain, all of which are past producing open-pit mines, where previous operators only scratched the surface.



For more information, visit www.libertygold.ca or contact:



Susie Bell, Manager, Investor Relations

Phone: 604-632-4677 or Toll Free 1-877-632-4677

info@libertygold.caSource: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 08:45:33|Editor: ZD

Video Player Close

Syrian air defense missiles are seen in the sky over the capital Damascus on May 10, 2018. Syrian official news agency SANA said the air defense was responding to a new wave of Israeli missile strikes. (Xinhua/Monsef Memari)

DAMASCUS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Sounds of explosions and air defenses are heard in the capital Damascus before daybreak Thursday, Xinhua reporters reported.

Syrian official news agency SANA said the air defenses are responding to a new wave of Israel missile strike.Terrorist inmates surrender after police strike in Indonesia'a jail Source: Xinhua 2018-05-10 09:20:43 JAKARTA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Militant prisoners surrendered to the police on Thursday after a strike launched by Indonesian police, Deputy Police Chief Commissioner General Syafruddin said. Editor: ZD Related News Back to TopHAVANA, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Senior officials from Cuba and Spain met in Havana on Wednesday to prepare for upcoming talks that will guide bilateral ties over the next four years.

Ricardo Cabrisas, vice president of the Cuban Council of Ministers, and Fernando Garcia, the Spanish secretary of state for international cooperation with Ibero-America and the Caribbean, stressed their mutual interests during this new period of cooperation.

The forthcoming agreements will take into account the priorities established within Cuba's Economic and Social Development Plan until 2030.

During the meeting, Cabrisas highlighted the good state of relations between Havana and Madrid.

Spain is the foreign country with most companies operating in Cuba and is the island's third-largest trading partner, behind China and Venezuela.

Garcia is leading the Spanish delegation to the 37th session of Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which is underway in Havana until Friday.

During his visit, Garcia will also hold talks with ECLAC's executive secretary Alicia Barcena, and Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca.CAPE TOWN, May 10 (Xinhua) -- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday voiced deep concern over the U.S. decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump made the announcement Tuesday, specifying that Washington would soon re-impose "the highest level of economic sanctions" on Iran.

The deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, the United States, Britain, France and Russia), Germany and the European Union (EU) in 2015, froze the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for a gradual normalization of economic and political relations with the international community and the end of sanctions.

"As a matter of principle, and deeply rooted in its foreign policy, South Africa supports multilateral diplomacy and the peaceful resolution of conflict," said Ramaphosa.

The JCPOA is a significant achievement in this regard, which provides a framework of confidence under which Iran can pursue the development of its nuclear capabilities for civilian purposes, Ramaphosa said.

In addition, the agreement was unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council in resolution 2231, which establishes a binding legal framework to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, the president said.

"It is important that the progress made over many years of negotiation should not be lost," Ramaphosa said.

Since its adoption, the JCPOA has contributed significantly to the reduction of tensions over Iran's nuclear program and still has an important role to play in promoting peace, stability and the normalization of relations, said Ramaphosa.

In the interest of regional and international peace and security, the South African government calls on the other parties of the JCPOA to continue to honor their commitments under the agreement, he said.

"In this regard, the decision of the United States should not prevent the remaining parties from honoring their commitments, nor should it impact negatively on the relevant structures and mechanisms created by the JCPOA," the president added.WASHINGTON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday spoke with South Korean President Moon Jae-in over phone to discuss the release of three U.S. citizens by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

In his second visit to Pyongyang, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo secured the release of the detainees, who accompanied him back to the United States. Trump said earlier on Wednesday that he and Vice President Mike Pence would welcome them at 2:00 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT).

Trump and Moon welcomed the DPRK decision to release the three American detainees, and expressed hope for joyful family reunions, according to the White House statement.

Trump noted in the phone call that he is looking forward to welcoming Moon to the White House on May 22, ahead of his meeting with the DPRK's top leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump called the release "a positive gesture of goodwill.

Pompeo also said Wednesday that the time and venue of the meeting between Kim and Trump have been "locked in."

U.S. media reported that the location would be Singapore, since Trump has denied the possibility of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the DPRK and South Korea earlier on Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of a cabinet meeting, Trump told the media that the time and place of the meeting would be announced in three days.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 10:36:02|Editor: Xiang Bo

Video Player Close

SHANGHAI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Wu Xiaohui, former chairman and general manager of Anbang Insurance Group, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for fundraising fraud and embezzlement of corporate funds.

The Shanghai Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court announced the sentence Thursday.

Wu was also deprived of his political rights for four years, and had 10.5 billion yuan (1.6 billion U.S. dollars) of his property confiscated, according to the court sentence.

His illegal gains and relevant yields they generated will be retrieved, the sentence said.UNITED NATIONS, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Wednesday demanded accountability for violence against ethnic minority Rohingyas in Myanmar's Rakhine State since August 2017.

"The members of the Security Council, in light of the importance of undertaking transparent investigations into allegations of human rights abuses and violations, urge the government of Myanmar to fulfil ... its stated commitment to holding accountable perpetrators of violence, including sexual violence and abuse, and violence against children," said the Security Council in a press statement.

The statement was issued after a trip by Security Council members to Myanmar and Bangladesh.

According to UN figures, around 70,000 Rohingya people crossed the border to Bangladesh after the outbreak of large-scale acts of violence in August last year.

The Security Council traveled to Bangladesh and Myanmar between April 28 and May 1. The members of the council visited the refugee camps in the city of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, where they met Rohingya refugees.

Myanmar signed an agreement with Bangladesh on the return of displaced people from Bangladesh in November last year, announcing a readiness to start the process on Jan. 23.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 11:01:08|Editor: Li Xia

Video Player Close

Officers stand guard outside the headquarters of Mobile Brigade in Depok, West Java, Indonesia, on May 10, 2018. All terrorist inmates surrendered to the police on Thursday after an exchange of fire between the two sides at a jail following a riot, according to the country's chief security minister. (Xinhua/Veri Sanovri)

JAKARTA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- All terrorist inmates surrendered to the police on Thursday after an exchange of fire between the two sides at a jail following a riot, according to the country's chief security minister.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security affairs Wiranto said the operation to take over prison blocks controlled by the militants ended at 07:15 a.m. local time.

The remaining 10 inmates have also surrendered after the police conducted strikes, bringing all the terrorist inmates ending their resistance, Wiranto added.

"Just now we heard the sounds of shooting, bomb explosions, tear grenades, amid the combing of the scene. In the strikes, the remaining 10 militants surrendered so that all the 155 terrorist inmates give up their fight," the minister said.

There were no casualties during the taking over of the blocks that had been controlled by the inmates after the riot, according to deputy police chief Syafruddin.

Hours before the operation, the police freed an anti-terror squad member who had been taken hostage during the riot after agreeing to comply with the terrorists' demand of food, national police spokesman Brigadier Gen. Setyo Wasisto said.

The terrorist inmates seized all weapons of five anti-terror policemen whom they killed on Wednesday during the clash in one of the blocks of the prison which is located on the outskirt of Indonesian capital, according to him.

One terrorist inmate was killed in the clash which broke out on Tuesday night.

The clash was triggered by the objection of the inmates to the prison's authorities making checks on food being brought to them, the spokesman said.

Security around the prison has been boosted and civilians are not allowed to get close to the entrance, according to the police.A Chinese worker inspects the Nabouwalu highway in Raula, Fiji, April 29, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhang Yongxing)

By Xinhua writer Zhang Yongxing

SUVA, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Thanks to the construction and upgradation by a Chinese company, Fiji's Nabouwalu road, once dusty in the dry season and bogged down in the wet season, has now become a modern and high-quality highway.

"It has cut travel time dramatically from about five hours to around two hours. We are very happy the traffic is now very convenient and local people like me have really benefited from it," said Osea Raula, a 39-year-old local resident.

Raula had worked in the Nabouwalu project for two years; now he works in a farm along the Nabouwalu highway. He said he had learnt a lot from his Chinese fellow workers.

The 70 km highway connecting Labasa and Nabouwalu with 14 new bridges, along with another 30 km highway at the Buca Bay, was constructed and upgraded by China Railway First Group (Fiji) Co., Ltd (CRFG), a state-run enterprise of China.

The two projects, located in Vanua Levu, the second largest island in the northern part of the South Pacific island state, were completed respectively as scheduled between 2011 and 2015, with the concessional loans provided by the Chinese government.

The Nabouwalu highway is a major boost to shipping services between the country's two main islands, Raula said, adding that it has brought a lot of business opportunities and helped grow Fiji's economy.

"China is our true and real good friend. I miss my Chinese friends. I want to say Bula (Hello), China and Vinaka Vakalevu (Thank you very much)," he said emotionally.

According to Wang Gang, deputy manager of the CRFG, the two projects used about 2,000 Fijian workers.

"We are very glad that we can do something to help Fiji promote its highway network in the northern island and make contributions to the local economy," Wang said proudly while pointing to the heavy traffic on the Nabouwalu highway.

In the process of the construction and upgrading, the company took into account such factors as geology, environment, humidity, flood and tide. "We are proud of having finished the projects in time after overcoming a lot of difficulties," Wang said.

Umesh Prasad, 49, manager of the Labasa-based Vinod Patel, a retail chain for selling home and building materials, told Xinhua that in Labasa, everyone has been talking about the new road as it definitely has made local people's travel more convenient, rapid and comfortable and has given a big boost to the local business.

"The businesses here in the city have really benefited from this new road as CRFG had helped create more job opportunities for local people," he said, adding, "I also believe that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative is a good thing for the developing countries like Fiji. It is just like the new road that will provide many business chances for all of us."

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of Silk Road.

Luigi Giuliani, a 78-year-old Italian, married a Fijian woman and has operated the La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life ) Holiday Villas along the Buca Bay highway since 2001.

Giuliani, who said he is from the home country of Marco Polo and has visited China for three times, spoke highly of the CRFG for building the Buca Bay road.

"Just before the opening of this road, the traffic depended on the weather. We just could see three or four vehicles per day, but now we can see three or four vehicles per minute," he said, adding that it not only benefits the whole community, but also opens up this part of the island to the extent. "It is unbelievable, a miracle."

"Now I have more guests than ever before. They are from different parts of the world. My villas are now full until the end of June, and I believe my guests will keep on coming in the rest of the year. I really want to thank CRFG for building this road, it is a good job," he said.

China has become a household name in Fiji. Even for Sepa Noya, a five-year-old boy who walked along the Nabouwalu road with one of his friends, told Xinhua that he knew this road was built by China. "It is good. Bula, China," he said with a smile on his thin and boyish face.

Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama attended the opening ceremony of the Nabouwalu project, saying that "our national highways are quickly becoming a source of national pride. A modern road network is being formed before our eyes that will benefit every Fijian."

The prime minister voiced his support for the Belt and Road Initiative.

Wang Gang said that China's experience is that "to be rich, one has to build road first." China and Fiji forged a strategic partnership based on mutual respect and common development in 2014, lifting bilateral relations to a new height.

"I do believe under the guidance of the (Belt and Road) Initiative and with the joint efforts of both sides ... the road to common development will be even wider," he said.by Xinhua writers Zheng Kaijun, Yan Lei

TOKYO, May 9 (Xinhua) -- China, Japan and South Korea injected fresh confidence into global growth on Wednesday by reaffirming their commitment to economic globalization as well as trade and investment liberalization.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in made the pledge here at a trilateral meeting, giving a big boost for free trade against a rising undercurrent of protectionism in the world.

PLEDGE OF COMMON DEVELOPMENT

During the meeting, which marked the resumption of the trilateral leaders' meeting mechanism after a two-and-a-half-year hiatus, the three sides agreed to meet on a regular basis to expand their common interests and manage disputes.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivers a speech while attending a business summit of China, Japan and South Korea along with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Tokyo, Japan, May 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)

China, Japan and South Korea are three big economies in the world, and are each other's key partner in trade and economic cooperation, said the Chinese premier, adding that they shoulder great responsibilities for boosting regional development, guiding regional economic integration and safeguarding regional peace and stability.

Strengthening trilateral cooperation, Li said, not only meets the needs of the three countries, but also accords with the expectations of the region and the international community at large.

Abe, for his part, pledged Tokyo's adherence to free trade. He said that as major traders in the world, the three sides all support free trade and open markets.

He called upon the three countries to come up with high-level trade rules that suit the current circumstances in the 21st century.

Meanwhile, Moon called the three nations inseparable cooperation partners, and said he hopes that the content of trilateral cooperation can be enriched.

The leaders' meeting came as some developed countries are retreating from free trade and threatening to flog others with soaring tariffs.

Against this background, China, Japan and South Korea can become important forces for promoting trade liberalization, said Tatsuhiko Yoshizaki, chief economist at Japan's Sojitz Research Institute.

"The world needs more voices calling out the fact that trade is not a zero-sum game, but win-win (cooperation)," Yoshizaki said.

TRILATERAL FTA, "3+X" COOPERATION IN THE MAKING

Besides their meeting, the three leaders also attended a business summit of their countries and a joint press conference.





Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (L-R) attend the 7th China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting in Tokyo, Japan, May 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)

They pledged to accelerate the negotiations for a trilateral free trade agreement (FTA) and to achieve the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) at an early date.

The Chinese premier also suggested that China, Japan and South Korea join hands to promote the building of an East Asian Economic Community, and stand together in an even more steadfast manner to safeguard the rules-based multilateral free trade system.

Pointing out that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative is creating new room for trilateral cooperation, Li said the three sides can carry out cooperation within a "China-Japan-South Korea+X" framework.

He proposed that the three countries roll out joint projects of this kind in production capacity cooperation, poverty reduction, disaster management and energy saving, so as to promote the development of other countries in the region.

The three countries' political will to speed up talks on a trilateral FTA and the RCEP will surely provide positive energy for promoting regional integration and growth, and for maintaining the trend of trade and investment liberalization, said Jin Jianmin, a senior fellow at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo.

NEW SPACE FOR COOPERATION

On expanding investment and industrial capacity cooperation, each of the three countries has its advantages, and prospects for their cooperation are broad, Li told the business summit.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in attend the 7th China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting in Tokyo, Japan, May 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

Beijing is willing to work with Tokyo and Seoul to strengthen cooperation in such areas as digital economy, artificial intelligence, environmental protection, and medical and health services, Li said.

Noting that the next year marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of the China-Japan-South Korea cooperation mechanism, Li urged businesses of the three countries to join hands not only to bring benefits to the three countries but also to provide new driving force for world economic growth.

For his part, Abe said that the resumption of trilateral cooperation creates new opportunities for the three countries' economic development and mutually beneficial cooperation.

He called for more people-to-people exchanges and more cooperation in finance, scientific research and technological development, as well as in dealing with population ageing.

Noting that the Korean Peninsula is taking an important turn for peace, the South Korean president said this will create more business opportunities.

Moon urged the three sides to step up cooperation in such fields as joint research and development, energy, medical services, environmental protection and disaster relief, so as to bring tangible benefits to the people of the three nations.

(Xinhua reporters Shang Jun, Zhang Zhengfu, Tan Jingjing, Hou Lijun, Qian Zheng and Gang Ye in Tokyo also contributed to the report.)CALGARY, Alberta, May 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. (Bellatrix or the Company) (TSX:BXE) (NYSE:BXE) is pleased to announce the voting results from its annual and special meeting of shareholders held May 9, 2018 in Calgary, Alberta (the Meeting).



VOTING RESULTS FROM THE MEETING

Each of the matters voted upon at the Meeting is discussed in detail in the Companys Management Information Circular dated March 26, 2018 (the Information Circular), which is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Companys website at http://www.bxe.com/investors/reports-filings.cfm.

Election of Directors

The number of directors to be elected to the Board of Directors of the Company (the Board) at the Meeting was fixed at ten and the following ten nominees were appointed as directors of Bellatrix to serve until the next annual meeting of the shareholders of the Company, or until their successors are elected or appointed:

Nominee Votes For Votes Withheld Brent A. Eshleman



93.76%

(6,710,060)

6.24%

(446,439) Murray L. Cobbe



93.26%

(6,673,835)

6.74%

(482,664) John H. Cuthbertson



92.64%

(6,629,622)

7.36%

(526,877) W.C. Mickey Dunn



93.47%

(6,689,297)

6.53%

(467,202) Lynn Kis



93.54%

(6,693,956)

6.46%

(462,543) Keith E. Macdonald



93.23%

(6,672,231)

6.77%

(484,268) Thomas E. MacInnis



93.60%

(6,698,273)

6.40%

(458,226) Steven J. Pully



91.89%

(6,575,987)

8.11%

(580,512)

Murray B. Todd



93.23%

(6,671,925) 6.77%

(484,574)

Keith S. Turnbull



93.39%

(6,683,570)

6.61%

(472,929)

Appointment of Auditors

KPMG LLP, Chartered Accountants, were appointed to serve as the auditors of the Company until the close of the next annual meeting of the shareholders of the Company, at remuneration to be fixed by the directors of the Company.

Approval of Unallocated Options

At the Meeting, an ordinary resolution was passed authorizing and approving all unallocated options under the Companys share option plan, as more particularly described in the Information Circular.

Acceptance of Companys Approach to Executive Compensation

On an advisory basis and not to diminish the role and responsibility of the Board, the Companys approach to executive compensation disclosed in the Information Circular was approved with approximately 87 percent of votes cast in favour.

Voting in respect of the appointment of the Companys auditors were conducted by a show of hands. Voting in respect of all other items was conducted by ballot, and as such the percentage of votes for those items reflects the results of the votes by ballot. Additional details in respect of the Meetings voting results can be found on BXEs profile at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov.

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SEOUL, May 10 (Xinhua) -- South Korean ruling party's approval rating hit a record high amid growing support from conservative voters, especially in the country's southeast region that has long been regarded as a home turf for the conservative bloc, a weekly poll showed Thursday.

According to the Realmeter survey, support score for the Democratic Party of South Korean President Moon Jae-in advanced 3 percentage points from the previous week to 56.9 percent this week.

It was the highest ever recorded by the governing party, topping the previous high of 56.7 percent tallied last May after the presidential election.

The result was based on a poll of 1,001 voters conducted from Monday to Tuesday. It had 3.1 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.

The Democratic Party won higher support from voters in the North Gyeongsang province, a traditional home turf for the main opposition Liberty Korea Party.

Chief of the Liberty Korea Party criticized the April 27 summit between President Moon and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as a "political show." The denunciation caused strong criticism of the conservative party from conservative voters.

Moon and Kim met at the border village of Panmunjom, agreeing to complete denuclearization and the turn of the current armistice agreement into a peace treaty by the end of this year. The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended with armistice.

Support for the Liberty Korea Party kept falling for the third consecutive week to 17.4 percent this week. The minor conservative Bareun Future Party won 5.6 percent of support, followed by the minor progressive Justice Party and the centrist Party for Democracy and Peace which garnered 4.5 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 11:31:18|Editor: ZD

Video Player Close

CANBERRA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Australian Army will soon be allowed to work alongside police when responding to acts of terrorism, under new laws which will be introduced to parliament in coming weeks.

The legislation will allow soldiers to be embedded with the police in order to "provide a collective and efficient means of dealing with terrorist attacks."

Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the changes will allow for a "military call out" when the police need help in dealing with a terror-related incident.

The changes followed recent international terrorist attacks and the conclusion of a review into the 2014 Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney which lasted two days and resulted in the loss of three lives.

Speaking on Australian radio, Turnbull said a full review was necessary into the nation's terror response and the government had been working with Australia's states and territories for the past 10 months in order to reach the best outcome.

"It's quite appropriate because it involves their (State and Territory) agencies and their sovereignty as well," he said.

"The measures I am announcing will ensure that the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is more readily available to respond to terrorism incidents, providing state and territory police with the extra support to call on when they need it."Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 11:46:22|Editor: Xiang Bo

Video Player Close

DAMASCUS, May 10 (Xinhua) - Israel is targeting the Syrian air defenses and radars as part of its ongoing missile attack, Syria's official TV reported Thursday.

The Syrian air defenses responded to dozens of Israeli missiles, but some of the missiles hit their target and destroyed one radar station, reports said.

Citing a military source, the TV said tens of Israeli missiles were destroyed.

Earlier, sounds of explosions were heard clearly before daybreak Thursday in capital Damascus.

The air defense missiles were clearly seen as flares of light in the sky, and its rattling sound resembled that of thunder while pursuing their targets.

Israel has seemingly intensified and expanded its cross-border missile strikes on Syrian positions with repeated small-scale attacks.

Meanwhile, the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said the Syrian air defenses are also targeting Israeli missiles in the countryside of Homs province in central Syria and countryside of Damascus, in what appeared to be a broadened offensive after starting in the southern province of Qunaitera.

The Israeli-Syrian tension escalated overnight Wednesday when Israel fired rockets on Syrian military sites in the southern province of Qunaitera. Rockets slammed Israeli military sites in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights afterward in what is believed to be the Syrian response.

This comes as Israeli military sites were also targeted, in what appeared to be a Syrian response to the initial Israeli attack in Qunaitera.

Pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV said 10 Israeli military positions in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights were targeted by rocket fire.

No party claimed responsibility for the attack but Israel accused Iran of firing the rockets.

Previously, Israel targeted a Syrian military site in the Kisweh area in the southwestern countryside of Damascus, and activists said 15 people were killed, including eight Iranians. Last month, the Israelis targeted two military sites in Syria where Iranian fighters were located, including the T-4 airbase in central Syria.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 12:06:26|Editor: Xiang Bo

Video Player Close

NANCHANG, May 10 (Xinhua) -- For Li Zengming, a resident in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, flocks of snow cranes wintering on Poyang Lake, China's biggest freshwater lake, has been a familiar scene for decades.

The pure-white cranes stop here before continuing their great migration, a long and arduous adventure to Siberia.

In late April, when Li, as usual, took a walk along a river, he caught sight of a crane lying in the water. "The crane lay motionless, so I immediately jumped into the river to save it," he said.

Without much struggle, the crane was dragged to the bank and soon sent to the provincial rescue and reproduction center for wild animal and plant.

"The crane was one or two years old," said Wang Zhiru with the center. "It was very vulnerable and could hardly stand on its own. It could have fallen behind due to malnutrition or illness."

After two weeks of good care, the crane was nursed back to health and could survive in the wild. But the main bird population had left Poyang Lake in mid-April and were taking a rest at the Momoge nature reserve in northeast China's Jilin Province, some 2,000 km away. They will soon embark on a new journey in the coming days.

After discussion with the vet, Wang decided to escort the crane to Jilin so that it could rejoin its flock before they leave for Siberia.

A 95-cm long, 42-cm wide, 85-cm high crate, with 32 air vents, was prepared to ship the crane by air. The oxygen level was also raised in the plane's cargo hold to ensure the smooth breathing of the crane.

The crane arrived in Changchun, capital of Jilin Province late Monday and was in good mood. "We prepared fish, its favorite food, to welcome it," said Wang Haijun with the wildlife rescue and breeding center in Jilin.

On Tuesday morning, the crane finally arrived at Momoge nature reserve after another 5-hour drive. Researchers at the reserve conducted a body check for the crane and a tracker was installed to monitor its navigation and condition.

The crane was set free Tuesday afternoon and researchers are closely monitoring the activity of the birds. No left-behind crane has been spotted in the reserve so far.

This is not the first time an injured snow crane was rescued and sent to rejoin migrating birds in China. In 2012, a crane in Shenyang, northeast China got stuck and injured in a hunter's trap, it was later successfully set free in Poyang Lake.

"Most of the injured cranes were released locally," said Yang An, head of the wildlife protection administration in Nanchang.

Snow cranes are listed as a critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. The world population was estimated at 3,600 birds, while a recent survey showed that about 3,440 of the cranes spent the last winter in the Poyang Lake area in Jiangxi, which means 95 percent of the world's white crane population now winter in China.

The cranes originally had three migration routes, but their population in the western and middle ranges have almost gone extinct due to hunting and habitat degradation.SYDNEY, May 10 (Xinhua) -- A surcharge on foreign purchases of homes in Western Australia will be raised from 4 to 7 percent, in line with the state's latest budget rollout, authorities said on Thursday.

The surcharge applies to "all purchases of residential property by foreign individuals and entities" from Jan 1, 2019, according to a government statement.

The move, estimated to raise 123 million Australian dollars in revenue over the period of 2018-19 to 2021-22 puts Western Australia "on par" with New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland states "for all foreign ownership of residential property."

"Importantly, this decision increases a surcharge that will only apply to foreign investors. Western Australian households and businesses will not pay the surcharge," the state's Treasurer Ben Wyatt said.

"It is fair for foreign owners of residential property, who benefit from our services and infrastructure, to make a contribution to Budget repair."

The surcharge increase comes amid a housing slump in Western Australia, where recent local media reports have pointed to significant falls in properties prices in and near state capital Perth in the aftermath of a mining boom.

The latest rate is a "remarkable" decision by the authorities, the ABC News channel quoted industry group Real Estate Institute of WA President Hayden Groves as saying.

"By adding another 3 percent to 7 percent, what it effectively will do is just disincentivise further any foreign investment in Western Australian property," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 12:31:30|Editor: ZD

Video Player Close

Najib Razak (C), chairman of Malaysia's ruling coalition and prime minister since 2009, attends a press conference in Kuala Lumpur May 10, 2018. Najib Razak said on Thursday that he accepted the result of the general elections, which saw his coalition losing to the opposition led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. (Xinhua/Chong Voon Chung)

KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Najib Razak, chairman of Malaysia's ruling coalition Barisan Nasional and the prime minister since 2009, said Thursday that he accepted the result of the general election, which saw his coalition lose to the opposition led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

"I accept the verdict of the people," said Najib, without conceding defeat outright.

The opposition Pakatan Harapan and its allies won a simple majority in the lower house of parliament on Wednesday's election, potentially putting an end to BN's rule for more than 60 years.

However, Pakatan Harapan and its allies were not contending under one united banner like BN, so Najib said that since no party won a simple majority, it will be up to the ceremonial Supreme Head of State to make the decision to appoint the new prime minister.by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- After U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal, some experts predict his move will lead to a heightened U.S.-Iran tensions.

"There definitely will be more conflict between the U.S. and Iran," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

After Trump on Tuesday announced he would pull out of the Iran nukes deal, Iran's supreme leader on Wednesday blasted the U.S. president over the move, and the Islamic Republic's lawmakers lit a paper U.S. flag on fire inside their parliament building, amid shouts of "Death to America!" from lawmakers, global media reported.

The 2015 nukes deal came following years of U.S. accusations that Iran was developing nuclear weapons; Tehran called its program peaceful. Under the agreement, Iran agreed to limit nuclear activities in exchange for ending sanctions that wrecked the nation's economy.

In response to the U.S. withdrawal from the deal, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday said Trump had made some "silly and superficial comments," according to global news outlets. "He threatened the regime and the people ... Mr. Trump I tell you on behalf of the Iranian people: You've made a mistake."

Some news outlets said the Iranian government's anger mirrored widespread fury in the Islamic Republic over the U.S. President's decision.

The sanctions, which had been lifted under the 2015 accord, wreaked havoc on Iran's economy, causing widespread unemployment.

"The Trump administration plans to impose additional sanctions on Iran that will make it more difficult for it to trade with other countries," West said.

"That will infuriate the Iranians and lead to some form of retaliation. There will be angry words and angry actions between the two countries," West said of the two nations.

"The situation could escalate into far more serious confrontations," West said.

Moreover, some analysts argued that Trump has little interest in easing tensions with Iran, given that Washington's main Mideast allies are also enemies of Iran.

"His closest allies in the Mid East, Israel and Saudi Arabia, are major enemies of Iran and are encouraging Trump to be very tough," West said.

For his part, Trump on Wednesday warned that Iran would face "severe consequences" if it re-started its nuclear program.HANOI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's total automobile sales in the first four months of this year were 79,115 units, a year-on-year decline of 2 percent, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association said on Thursday.

Specifically, sales of passenger cars rose 9 percent to 52,760, those of commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses, dropped 16 percent to 23,364, and those of special-purpose vehicles fell 37 percent to 2,991.

In the January-April period, Vietnam imported completely-built automobiles and components for assembly totaling nearly 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, down 32.2 percent on-year. Specifically, the country imported over 6,700 completely-built automobiles worth 198 million U.S. dollars, posting decreases of 79.8 percent and 69.8 percent, according to its Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Fewer automobiles, especially cars, were imported to Vietnam in the period because traders were not well-prepared to comply with a new governmental decree which requires traders to provide more relevant certificates and undergo more tests than before, explained local experts.

Last year, Vietnam's total automobile sales were 272,750 units, said the association.

This year, total vehicle sales will increase to over 284,400 units, global research company BMI Research forecast, explaining that passenger car demand would be driven by reduction in tax rates on vehicles with engine sizes of 2.0 liters or less, and elimination of tariffs on completely-built units from ASEAN member countries in January.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 13:41:44|Editor: ZD

Video Player Close

Gina Haspel, nominee for Director of Central Intelligence Agency, testifies at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on May 9, 2018. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Gina Haspel, the nominee for Central Intelligence Agency Director, pledged Wednesday the agency would not resume torturing, improving her chances of winning a Congressional nod.

"Under my leadership CIA will not restart such a detention and interrogation program," Haspel said in her opening statement at a Senate hearing, addressing one of the biggest skepticism against her.

Haspel, a career spy who spent 33 years in the CIA working mostly in the shadows, came under intense scrutiny regarding her past involvement with a Thai secret prison that was known to carry out "enhanced interrogation" methods, such as waterboarding or sleep deprivation.

Haspel's role in the destruction of the interrogation tapes was also called into question. She allegedly pushed for erasing evidence of the torturing and was able to persuade her superior in doing so.

Despite the tainted human rights record, Haspel insisted that she has "a strong sense of right and wrong."

The pledge to improve transparency has won at least one Democrat member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, a crucial gain which may clear the way for her nomination in the Senate.

"I have found Gina Haspel to be a person of great character," West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative leaning Democrat, said in a statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Haspel's, tweeted that she had put on a "spectacular" performance.

Haspel, 61, was nominated by Trump in March after former CIA Director Mike Pompeo was nominated and later cleared as secretary of state. The vote on her nomination is yet to be scheduled.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 13:46:46|Editor: ZD

Video Player Close

A specimen of crested ibis is seen at the crested ibis park on the Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, May 3, 2018. Crested ibises, an iconic bird that was on the verge of extinction in Japan in the 1980s, are now prospering and providing a boost to the local economy on the island of Sado, thanks to China's help. (Xinhua/Ma Ping)

by Hu Junkai, Shen Honghui, Yan Lei

TOKYO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Crested ibises, an iconic bird that was on the verge of extinction in Japan in the 1980s, are now prospering and providing a boost to the local economy on the island of Sado, thanks to China's help.

Since May, the island's farmers have been busy in the fields transplanting rice seedlings. In the morning and evening, white-plumaged crested ibises can be seen foraging elegantly in the paddy fields.

"We can see these birds foraging in the morning and evening all seasons now, as there are crested ibises' nests nearby our rice fields," said 54-year-old local farmer Katsumi Oi.

Sado, covering an area of 855 square km and with a population of 55,000 people, is the sixth largest island in Japan.

The so-called Agriculture in Harmony with Endangered Japanese Crested Ibis is seen as an advantageous resource on the island given its recognition by the the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage.

A crested ibis is an iconic bird deeply rooted in Japanese history and culture. Records of the bird could be traced back to as early as the Chronicles of Japan, a book of the history of ancient Japan finished in 720.

However, the number of crested ibises in Japan plunged in the 20th century as the birds were hunted for their meat and fine feathers. They also lost their habitats due to deforestation.

"Sado used to be the last habitat of crested ibises in Japan. But with the development of modern agriculture and the abuse of pesticides, food consumed by crested ibises, such as frogs and small fish, disappeared from the paddies, and crested ibises also went to extinct," said Takayuki Nishimaki, an official from the agriculture department of the local government.

To save the endangered species, the Japanese government captured the last five wild crested ibises on the island and relocated them to a conservation center.

But 22 years later, the last Japanese-born crested ibis died at the center at the age of 36, an age equal to 100 in human years.

Today's crested ibises on the island are all descendants of those from northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

In 1981, while the world was holding its breath for the endangered species, seven wild crested ibises, including three fledglings, were discovered in the mountains of China's northwest Shaanxi Province.

"The gloom in the conservation center (in Sado) was dispelled by the good news... These birds were to save the species from extinction," Hiroyuki Ishi, an environmental journalist and scientist, later wrote in an article.

With the seven ibises, China successfully launched its artificial breeding programs for conserving and protecting the species. In 1999, two crested ibises went to Sado as a gift from China, and three more ibises were sent to Japan by 2007.

Now, some 284 crested ibises are living in Japan, among which 281 are on Sado, while the other three flew to Japan's largest island of Honshu.

To boost the local economy, the city of Sado plans to increase the number of foreign tourists from 1,510 in 2011 to 5,000 by 2019, according to Hiroaki Iwasaki, a local government official, who says the target has already been achieved in large part due to the birds.

Moreover, crested ibises have become a brand of their own for local products, especially agricultural products.

"We produce 20,000 tons of rice every year, enough to satisfy the needs of 500,000 people a year, which is ten times of the population of Sado," said Manabu Watabe, an official from a local agricultural cooperative.

To excel in the fierce competition in the Japanese rice market, local farmers stressed that their rice is "produced in harmony with crested ibises."

To produce such rice, farmers must make the rice paddies an effective ecological system, where small creatures coexist in harmony and crested ibises have plenty of food, Nishimaki explained.

"Crested ibises increase demands on protecting the environment, and the birds successfully breeding here shows that the rice here is safe," said Nishimaki. "This is rice produced in harmony with crested ibises."TEMECULA, Calif., May 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Thousands of men and women who were once suffering from alcoholism and drug addiction are now residing in a sober living home throughout the recovery program. With literary hundreds of meetings every week in Orange County, California, as well as plenty of job opportunities, this unique town also offers some support services for newcomers from a recovery program.



The sober living homes in California are regarded as structured, supportive, and safe transitional living homes. They offer a set of rules and staff that are in place for the alcoholic and addict to help them succeed without relapse if they follow.

Many people complete their treatment program. After their discharge from their rehab facility, it is highly recommended for them to go to a sober living home in California. It is because they learned that by returning to familiar places, people, and things in their hometowns, they are very prone to relapse on their addictions.

Most of the sober living facilities in California have been proving themselves in the lives of addicts and alcoholics for many years now by assisting them to gain back their confidence and freedom and turn their journey into a productive individual of the society. One of the secrets to the success of early recovery is ongoing and continued counseling, and therapy when possible.

In addition to the fellowship steps such as the NA and AA, there are still many affordable drug rehab facilities in California. Most of these facilities are accepting major health insurances. Those who want to use it for the treatment only need to ask.

For more information about Sober Living Local, visit their site at https://www.soberlivinglocal.com

Contact:

Company: Sober Living Local

Address: Temecula CA

Contact Number: (888) 325-2454

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/f5e5e3bd-a5e3-4ba0-8297-97f84ebeefa0NEW DELHI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 people have died in thunderstorm in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in the past 24 hours, officials said Thursday.

"While four people died in Etawah district, three were killed in Mathura, two in Firozabad, and one each in Agra, Aligarh and Kanpur districts. While some people died after lightning struck them, some were killed as trees, power poles fell on them," a disaster management official said.

"Officials are assessing the damage in these districts," he added.

India had earlier this week put as many as 13 of its states, including Uttar Pradesh, and two central government-territories on high storm alert for 48 hours.

Last week, more than 125 people died and over 300 others were injured in fierce dust storms in northern and western India. The storms also brought down electricity poles, uprooted trees, destroyed houses and killed livestock in five states, including Uttar Pradesh.NEW DELHI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- At least 22 people have been injured in a cylinder explosion in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, police said Thursday.

The incident took place inside a popular sweet outlet near the Nagrota Surian bus stand in the state's Kangra district.

"The cylinder exploded late Wednesday evening when many people were inside the shop. Some 22 people, including four women, sustained burn injuries in the explosion," a police official said.

While 21 people were admitted to a government hospital in Tanda, one injured is undergoing treatment at Sukhsadan Hospital in Pathankot town due to his serious condition, he added.

"A probe has been ordered into the incident. We will book the shop owner if it's found that the blast was due to negligence," the official added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 14:11:54|Editor: ZD

Video Player Close

TOKYO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said here Thursday that new progress and lasting stable development should be made in China-Japan relationship as it returns to the normal track.

This is the best way to commemorate the signing of China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Li told a reception marking the 40th anniversary of the treaty in Tokyo.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 14:47:00|Editor: Liu

Video Player Close

BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- China's top property market watchdog has urged local governments to stick to real estate market management goals and not loosen regulatory measures.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development arranged talks Wednesday with senior government officials from Chengdu and Taiyuan cities on property market regulation.

Official data showed that both cities saw the prices of new and second-hand houses rise year-on-year in March.

The ministry reiterated that "houses are for living in, not for speculation" and urged them to take specific measures to ensure stable and healthy development of the local property market.

Local governments have been asked to increase housing supply for certain regions, build more middle-and-small-size houses and strengthen capital management to reduce leverage.

Last month, the ministry met with senior government officials of 10 cities, including Xi'an and Haikou, on real estate market management.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 15:07:02|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

OTTAWA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- A National People's Congress (NPC) delegation of lawmakers from China's Tibet Autonomous Region concluded its four-day visit to Canada on Wednesday.

The delegation, led by Baima Wangdui, deputy to the People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region and member of the Tibetan regional party standing committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), visited Toronto and Ottawa, where the delegation members met and exchanged ideas with people from all walks of life.

The delegation was widely welcomed. Baima Wangdui, who is also the secretary of the CPC Lhasa Municipal Party Committee, gave a comprehensive introduction to Tibet's economic and social development and answered questions from the Canadian side, which deepened mutual understanding.

In Ottawa, the delegation met with the Canada-China Legislative Association and the foreign and international development committee of the House of Commons. In Toronto, the delegation met with the head of the department of international relations of Ontario Province.

Baima Wangdui said China and Canada enjoy a good momentum of development in their relations and both sides share a wide range of common interests and opportunities for cooperation.

He said China is willing to work with Canada to earnestly implement the important consensus between the leaders of the two countries, deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, properly handle differences and sensitive issues, and promote the sustained and stable development of the strategic partnership between China and Canada so as to better benefit the two peoples, adding that the Tibet Autonomous Region is willing to continue to actively support and participate in friendly exchanges between the two countries.

Baima Wangdui related the historic changes that have taken place in Tibet since the implementation of the system of regional ethnic autonomy and the historic achievements in Tibet's economic and social development over the past 40 years of reform and opening-up, especially since the 18th CPC National Congress.

Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, he said, Tibetans are working with the rest of the Chinese to move towards the grand goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects and to strive for the realization of the "two centenary goals."

"Welcome friends from Canada to visit Tibet, take a look at the new socialist Tibet today, listen to the true thoughts of the Tibetan people, and enhance understanding of the reality of Tibet," he said.

The Canadian side said Canada attaches importance to developing relations with China, and the Canada-China Legislative Association will continue to work to promote the development of friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries. Ontario Province is willing to strengthen cooperation with China in the fields of economy and trade, science and technology, as well as tourism. Canada is impressed by Tibet's achievements in various fields in recent years and is willing to maintain candid exchanges with China to enhance mutual understanding.

During the visit, the delegation also met Tibetans living in Ottawa and Toronto, experts and scholars from Carleton University and the Canadian Institute of Foreign Affairs.

The delegation departed for the United States after being interviewed by the media Wednesday afternoon.SEOUL, May 10 (Xinhua) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha planned to visit Washington Friday for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ahead of the summit between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday.

Kang, who is currently staying in Cuba to attend a session of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, will fly to Washington on Friday to hold her first foreign ministers' meeting with Pompeo.

After the meeting, Kang and Pompeo planned to hold a joint press conference, the Seoul ministry said.

It would come ahead of the summit between top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, which is forecast to be held in May or early June.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in planned to visit Washington on May 22 to hold a summit meeting with Trump.

The Seoul ministry said Kang and Pompeo will share recently advanced situations on the Korean Peninsula and have an in-depth discussion on ways to closely cooperate in denuclearizing the peninsula and building peace through a successful DPRK-U.S. summit.

The foreign ministers will also discuss bilateral pending issues and reaffirm the alliance between the two countries as this year marks the 65th anniversary of the alliance, the ministry added.WASHINGTON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Eighteen were injured in an improperly conducted science experiment at a high school in Tennessee of the United States, authorities said Wednesday.

The explosion was caused by an unintentional chemical reaction in the science lab of Merrol Hyde Magnet school of the city of Hendersonville, which caused a temporary fiery-flash which lasted three to five seconds, local fire department chief Scotty Bush said.

Seventeen students and a teacher were injured in this accident and were treated at the site. Eight of them, who suffered second-degree burns, were later sent to a nearby hospital, while Bush said that all are expected to be discharged from the hospital soon.

All lessons for the rest of the day at the school were canceled as the school began their cleanup.

However, the school has not yet specified which chemicals caused the accident.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 16:07:18|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

JERUSALEM, May 10 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli military spokesperson said Thursday that the overnight Israeli airstrikes on Syria have set back Iran's military capabilities by "many months."

Israel's military said its air force struck "dozens" of military targets belonging to the Iranian al-Quds forces in Syria overnight between Wednesday and Thursday.

According to Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, a military spokesperson, the attack seriously damaged the Iranian forces in Syria. "It will take the al-Quds force months to recover from the Israeli strike," he said in an interview to the Hebrew-language Ynet news site.

Manelis said the airstrikes were carried out in retaliation for a barrage of rockets from Syria, but they were prepared in advance. "It took place as part of a pre-planned operation, based on solid intelligence and extremely high abilities of the Israel Air Force," Manelis said.

He said the attacks were "only the tip of the iceberg" of the army's capabilities.

"This strike is a message to everyone who seeks to harm us and undermine Israel and its sovereignty, especially in front of its citizens. The Israel Defense Forces are prepared for any scenario," he said.

According to Israel, about 20 rockets were fired at Israeli forces at around midnight in the annexed Golan Heights from Syria.

No Israelis were wounded. Israel blamed Iran's al-Quds forces.

A military statement said the Israeli attack targeted Iranian military sites in Syria, including Iranian intelligence sites, logistics headquarters belonging to al-Quds forces, a military logistics compound in al-Kiswah, south of Damascus, an Iranian military compound in north of Damascus, munition storage warehouses of al-Quds at the Damascus International Airport, intelligence systems and posts associated with al-Quds, observation and military posts and munition in the buffer zone.

In addition, the Iranian launcher from which the rockets were launched at Israel was also destroyed.

It was the largest military attack that Israel has carried out in Syria in the recent years.

The military said it "will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory."

Israel has been threatening for months that it will not allow an Iranian military presence in the territory of its northern war-torn neighbor.

Israel has been blamed for several recent deadly air attacks in Syria, which have killed Iranians. Israel did not officially acknowledge it was behind these attacks but it has been making preparations for possible Iranian retaliation for weeks.

In addition, during the eight-year war in Syria, Israel's military has responded to numerous spillovers of fire from the internal fighting near the disputed border in the Golan Heights by attacking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's army positions.

U.S. President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal on Tuesday has sparked more tensions and fears over a possible Iranian response.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 16:12:18|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Bilateral trade between China and Russia is expected to maintain double-digit growth this year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

Total trade is likely to exceed 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, MOC spokesperson Gao Feng told a press conference.

In the first four months, China-Russia trade jumped by nearly 30 percent year-on-year to 31.2 billion U.S. dollars, official data showed.

"The fast expansion was partly due to rising demand from Russia as the economy stabilizes," Gao said. "In addition, both the volume and price of commodities that China imported from Russia have increased."

New growth points have emerged. For example, Russia's exports of agricultural products to China jumped 35.3 percent in the first quarter compared with last year.

China's rising investments in Russia as well as bilateral cooperation in fields including energy and aerospace also contributed to the trade expansion, according to Gao.

"The two countries will take measures to optimize trade structure and cultivate new drivers for trade growth, so that the momentum can be maintained," Gao said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 16:32:23|Editor: Lu Hui

Video Player Close

JERUSALEM, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday that the Israeli airstrike on Syria destroyed most of Iran's military infrastructure in the country.

"We damaged almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," Lieberman told a conference in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.

"They have to understand: if you give us rain, you will get a flood."

Lieberman said that Israel is not interested in escalation. "We have no interest in conquering Syria. We do not interfere in the civil war. We hope that one day they will stop talking about the destruction of Israel," he said.

Lieberman reiterated an earlier statement issued by the military, according to which the Israeli strike came after Iranian al-Quds forces in Syria fired a barrage of rockets towards Israeli military posts in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

No Iranian rocket hit Israel, Lieberman said. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted several rockets and the others failed to reach Israeli territory, he said.

No injuries or damage were reported.

Following the rockets, Israel launched a massive air raid, striking some 50 sites in Syria.

A military statement said the attack targeted Iranian military sites, including Iranian intelligence sites, logistics headquarters belonging to al-Quds forces, a military logistics compound in al-Kiswah, south of Damascus, an Iranian military compound north of Damascus, munition storage warehouses of al-Quds at the Damascus International Airport, intelligence systems and posts associated with al-Quds, observation and military posts and munition in the buffer zone.

In addition, the Iranian launcher from which the rockets were launched at Israel was also destroyed.

It was the largest military attack that Israel has carried out in Syria in the recent years.

The military said it "will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory."

Israel has been threatening for months that it will not allow an Iranian military presence in the territory of its northern war-torn neighbor, were Iranian forces are fighting alongside the Bashar al-Assad army.

Israel was blamed for several recent deadly air attacks in Syria that killed Iranians. Israel did not officially acknowledge it was behind these attacks but it has been making preparations for possible Iranian retaliation for weeks.

In addition, during the eight-year war in Syria, Israel's military has responded to numerous spillovers of fire from the internal fighting near the disputed border in the Golan Heights by attacking Assad's army positions.

U.S. President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal on Tuesday has sparked more tensions.SAN DIEGO, May 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The opioid prescription monitoring program that President Donald Trump is pushing to fight against addiction may have an effect of driving more individuals to heroin, a recent study suggests.



The monitoring systems that require every doctor to document and double check the strength, number, and frequency of opioid prescriptions were introduced in 2011. The President has emphasized the utmost importance of strengthening all these measures to his plan against the prevalent heroin addiction. Because of that, doctors have been compliant. They put away their pens and provide less prescription.

Nevertheless, a new assessment of the programs effects on overdoses or drug abuses from Columbia University indicates that when prescriptions get tougher to come by, a lot of individuals may turn to more dangerous and life-threatening drugs.

Opioid prescriptions are credited for starting the epidemic. However, for many people combating addiction, the road ends at fentanyl or heroin.

Studies have shown that patients are prescribed more opioid painkillers after surgery than expected. More often, these harmful drugs still make their way into the hands of individuals such as friends, strangers, and family as long as they are willing to pay cash.

Approximately 80% of people who are addicted to the drugs began taking prescription like OxyContin, the blockbuster drug. The prescriptions of these drugs have increased since 1990. Between that year and 2015, there has been an increase of 350% to date.

President Trump, together with his public health experts and opioid commission around the country have called for all doctors to reign in the rate of their prescription. Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs have been used to track what doctors prescribe to patients, making flagging addicts easier than expected.

For more information, feel free to visit www.heroindetoxclinics.com.

Contact:

Company: Heroin Detox Clinics

Address: Temecula CA

Contact Number: (888) 325-2454

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/97d260da-cbb6-4b9a-b22a-469949881652Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 16:32:25|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

ZHENGZHOU, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The second Global Cross-border E-commerce Conference opened Thursday in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province.

Highlighting cross-border e-commerce's role in world trade, the two-day conference will have panel discussions on quality oversight, regulatory innovation as well as standards and rules in the sector.

"The development of cross-border e-commerce could help to innovate trade patterns, lead consumption trends, create more jobs and prompt industrial restructuring," said He Jinping, vice governor of Henan, at the opening ceremony.

Cross-border e-commerce trade has flourished in China in recent years. Data from the General Administration of Customs showed that China's e-commerce exports surged 41.3 percent to 33.65 billion yuan (5.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, while imports rocketed by 116.4 percent to 56.59 billion yuan.

In Henan alone, there are over 4,000 registered e-commerce companies.

"The fast expansion of cross-border e-commerce has offered opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises, long marginalized in global trade, to participate in world trade," said Long Yongtu, conference president.

More than 1,600 people from international organizations, government agencies, e-commerce platforms and express delivery companies attended the event.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 16:37:26|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- A thermal spring rich in the rare gas helium has been identified in Tibet Autonomous Region, and has the potential to be exploited, the Science and Technology Daily reported Thursday.

Researchers from China and the United States believe the helium concentration could be as high as 1.11 percent in some thermal-spring gas in Ali prefecture in Tibet, the newspaper quoted a source of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) as saying.

If helium concentration exceeds 0.1 percent it can be be industrially utilized.

Helium is a colorless and odorless inert gas with a low boiling point. It has been widely used in aerospace, low temperature superconductivity, the nuclear industry and scientific research. The concentration of helium in the atmosphere is only 5.2 parts per million, making the cost of its extraction very high.

In 2001, Chinese researchers with the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the CAS discovered thermal-spring gas with a high concentration of helium at an altitude of 4,340 meters, during a geothermal study. They and U.S. researchers with Stanford University in July gathered the gas samples and recently revealed the test results.

China has low levels of helium, and has relied on imports for a long time. There is only one natural gas field in China that can realize the industrial exploitation of helium.(File photo)An Israeli tank can be seen near the Israeli side of the border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel on May 9, 2018. (Reuters photo)

JERUSALEM, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday that the Israeli airstrike on Syria destroyed most of Iran's military infrastructure in the country.

"We damaged almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," Lieberman told a conference in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.

"They have to understand: if you give us rain, you will get a flood."

Lieberman said that Israel is not interested in escalation. "We have no interest in conquering Syria. We do not interfere in the civil war. We hope that one day they will stop talking about the destruction of Israel," he said.

Lieberman reiterated an earlier statement issued by the military, according to which the Israeli strike came after Iranian al-Quds forces in Syria fired a barrage of rockets towards Israeli military posts in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

No Iranian rocket hit Israel, Lieberman said. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted several rockets and the others failed to reach Israeli territory, he said.

No injuries or damage were reported.

Following the rockets, Israel launched a massive air raid, striking some 50 sites in Syria.

A military statement said the attack targeted Iranian military sites, including Iranian intelligence sites, logistics headquarters belonging to al-Quds forces, a military logistics compound in al-Kiswah, south of Damascus, an Iranian military compound north of Damascus, munition storage warehouses of al-Quds at the Damascus International Airport, intelligence systems and posts associated with al-Quds, observation and military posts and munition in the buffer zone.

In addition, the Iranian launcher from which the rockets were launched at Israel was also destroyed.

It was the largest military attack that Israel has carried out in Syria in the recent years.

The military said it "will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory."

Israel has been threatening for months that it will not allow an Iranian military presence in the territory of its northern war-torn neighbor, were Iranian forces are fighting alongside the Bashar al-Assad army.

Israel was blamed for several recent deadly air attacks in Syria that killed Iranians. Israel did not officially acknowledge it was behind these attacks but it has been making preparations for possible Iranian retaliation for weeks.

In addition, during the eight-year war in Syria, Israel's military has responded to numerous spillovers of fire from the internal fighting near the disputed border in the Golan Heights by attacking Assad's army positions.

U.S. President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal on Tuesday has sparked more tensions.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 16:52:29|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

BEIRUT, May 10 (Xinhua) -- A Syrian missile landed Thursday in south Lebanon during a major military flare-up between Israeli forces and Iranian and Syrian forces overnight, the National News Agency (NNA) reported.

"A surface-to-surface missile landed at dawn in the vicinity of the town of al-Hibbariyeh, during the exchange of fire between the Syrian forces and the Israeli enemy," the NNA said.

According to the report, the projectile only caused material damage, adding that the Lebanese Army experts had examined the exploded missile before transferring it to a military post.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International meanwhile reported that another missile had landed in the Bekaa town of Qab Elias near a Syrian refugee encampment.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 16:52:31|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with Tadamori Oshima, speaker of the House of Representatives of the Japanese parliament in Tokyo, Japan, on May 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

TOKYO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday called upon China and Japan to promote pragmatic cooperation and boost parliamentary exchanges.

Li made the remarks when meeting with Tadamori Oshima, speaker of the House of Representatives of the Japanese parliament, and Chuichi Date, speaker of the House of Councillors.

China is willing to work with Japan, on the basis of following the four political documents signed between the two countries, to firmly stick to the direction of peace and friendship, enhance strategic mutual trust, facilitate pragmatic cooperation, and promote steady and long-term development of bilateral relations, Li said when meeting with Oshima.

The Chinese premier arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday for an official visit to Japan and to attend the 7th China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting.

Li's visit to Japan is the first by a Chinese premier in eight years, coinciding with the 40th anniversary this year of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship.

China and Japan are now faced with new opportunities for deepening pragmatic cooperation after Chinese President Xi Jinping recently sent a clear message to the world that China would stand firm in expanding opening up at the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference, Li said.

The premier called on the two countries to make full use of their legislative exchange platform, and guide the public and various circles of the society to view China-Japan ties in an objective and rational way.

He asked to send positive information of strengthening China-Japan exchanges to the world, and make greater contribution to the improvement of bilateral relations.

Oshima congratulated Li on his successful Japan visit, saying the two countries signed several cooperation documents, and the China-Japan-South Korea trilateral meeting has achieved positive progress.

All of these contribute to peace, stability and prosperity of Asia and the world, Oshima said.

The Japanese House of Representatives expects to enhance exchanges with China's National People's Congress, and looks forward to boosting peace and friendship with China and healthy growth of ties through Li's visit, Oshima said.

When meeting with Date, Li said this year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, and his visit aims to, together with the Japanese side, review the spirit of peace and friendship, follow the principles set out in the treaty, and consolidate political mutual trust, to bring China-Japan relations back to normal track and achieve new progress on this basis.

As bilateral relations come back to normal track, parliamentary, region-to-region, and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries would surely get a new boost, promoting the healthy and steady development of China-Japan ties, Li said.

Describing parliamentary exchanges as a major part of bilateral relations, Li said China is willing to enhance communication with the Japanese parliament to increase mutual understanding and trust and consolidate the public opinion foundation of bilateral relations.

For his part, Date said the peaceful development of China not only bears significance to Japan, but to the region and the world as well.

Date urged the two sides to take the 40th anniversary of the signing of China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship as an opportunity to continue pushing forward bilateral ties while sticking to the strategic win-win principle and proceeding from overall interests.

The House of Councillors expects to make contributions to boosting mutual understanding and trust between the two countries and carrying forward bilateral ties, Date said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 16:57:32|Editor: Liangyu

Video Player Close

Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Xiong Bo (L) hands over a symbolic key to Cambodian Minister of Health Mam Bunheng in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on May 10, 2018. China on Thursday delivered the first batch of 20 mobile clinics to Cambodia in order to serve the country's rural communities, officials said. (Xinhua/Mao Pengfei)

PHNOM PENH, May 10 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday delivered the first batch of 20 mobile clinics to Cambodia in order to serve the country's rural communities, officials said.

The handover ceremony was made here between Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Xiong Bo and Cambodian Minister of Health Mam Bunheng.

Mobile clinics are buses specifically designed to be primary care clinics. Staffed by nurses, the clinics provide on-the-spot primary care for patients living in rural communities.

Supplied by Sinopharm Group, the mobile clinic was divided into seven sections and equipped with 22 kinds of advanced medical equipment that could effectively treat various common diseases, Xiong said.

He added that a team of Chinese medical experts would soon join their Cambodian counterparts to provide medical checkups and treatment to people in Phnom Penh, Kampong Cham province and Battambang province.

"We hope and believe that these mobile clinics will bring the Chinese people's friendly sentiments to the Cambodian people," he said, adding that this was another achievement marking the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Cambodia.

Bunheng said China signed to donate 40 mobile clinics to Cambodia in November last year, and the first batch of 20 mobile clinics was delivered to Cambodia today and the second batch of other 20 mobile clinics would be given to the country by October this year.

"This is the first time that China donated mobile clinics to Cambodia, and the mobile clinics will be allocated to all health departments in the country's 25 cities and provinces," he said. "These mobile clinics will bring health services with quality, safety and efficiency closer to the people."

The minister expressed his sincere and heartfelt thanks to China for the donation, saying that the mobile clinics would importantly contribute to enhancing the Cambodian people's well-being and life quality.

Voeurng Bunreth, director of the Battambang Provincial Health Department, said the mobile clinics were very important for people living in rural communities and his province had received two clinics.

"The donation of these mobile clinics to Cambodia is very useful for the Cambodian people who live in remote areas and are difficult to travel to health centers in towns. With these clinics, we can reach remote areas and help them," he told Xinhua.

Bunreth said the mobile clinics would provide medical services to residents in Battambang province from May 31 to June 4, and a Chinese medical team from Kunming City of southwest China's Yunnan province would also join the operation.

"We expect that we can provide medical services to around 2,000 people a day," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 16:57:34|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

TOKYO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said here Thursday that new progress and lasting stable development should be made in China-Japan relationship as it returns to the normal track.

This is the best way to commemorate the signing of China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Li told a reception marking the 40th anniversary of the treaty in Tokyo.

The treaty is an important milestone in bilateral ties, and the direction of peace and friendship between China and Japan has been clarified in the treaty, Li said at the reception, which was also attended by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Over the past 40 years, China-Japan relations have achieved remarkable progress under the guidance of the spirit and principles of the treaty, he noted.

It is based on the principles of the four cornerstone political documents, including the treaty, that the development of bilateral ties can be led back onto the right track in spite of twists and turns in the past, said Li.

Now, as Prime Minister Abe said, bilateral relations are standing at a new starting point, noted the Chinese premier.

Li is in Japan for an official visit, the first by a Chinese premier in eight years.CAIRO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian armed forces together with police killed 21 terrorists in North and Central Sinai during anti-terrorist raids over the past few days, a military spokesperson said on Thursday.

The air forces killed three terrorists while targeting four vehicles in their possession and the troops killed 18 others in fire exchange during raids on their hideouts in North and Central Sinai, Tamer al-Refaay said in a statement.

He added that six militants were arrested during the raids including a highly dangerous terrorist, in addition to the arrest of 232 suspects and wanted defendants in criminal cases who have been referred to concerned authorities.

The forces also destroyed 391 terrorist dens and hideouts and 15 trenches, besides ruining and seizing 30 vehicles and 49 motorbikes belonging to the terrorists.

An amount of weapons, explosives, ammunition and wireless communication devices were also seized during the raids according to the statement.

The raids are part of the large-scale anti-terrorist operation "Sinai 2018" that killed more than 250 terrorists since it was launched by the Egyptian forces on Feb. 9. At least 33 soldiers have been killed in the confrontations so far.

Egypt has been fighting a wave of terrorism that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, as well as civilians, since the military removed former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

A Sinai-based group loyal to the regional Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for most of the terrorist attacks in Egypt over the past few years.

Meanwhile, security forces killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terrorist war declared by newly re-elected President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's ouster.SYDNEY, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Representatives from six major Australian businesses on Thursday inked contracts in New South Wales (NSW) state capital Sydney to take part in the China International Import Expo (CIIE), as part of a signing ceremony in the runup to the global event that has attracted more than 100 Australian enterprises so far, according to organizers.

The inaugural import expo, which will be held in Shanghai from Nov. 5 to 10, aims to further open the Chinese market in line with the mutual benefits of maintaining free trade and open economies, involving products and services worth more than 10 trillion U.S. dollars in the next five years.

"Initiated by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the CIIE is meant to provide a platform to share China's growth, development and opportunities with the rest of the world," Commercial Counselor at the Consulate-General of China in Sydney Wang Hongbo said.

New South Wales Trade and Industry Minister Niall Blair said he was excited about the opportunity presented by the expo. Australian companies that signed the participation contract include health supplements maker Blackmores and food group Kilcoy Global Foods.

"As a government, we are well behind our businesses and make sure we are getting as many of our businesses across to the expo as possible," Blair said.

"I will continue to raise the profile through our local contacts here ... We want to be able to showcase what we can do here in NSW."

"The contracts will open a new door of collaboration, not just for the CIIE itself, but also to start a new page for collaboration, especially the areas that China and Australia have identified as priority sectors," Wang said.

The expo is important to demonstrate how collaboration can benefit all parties involved in trade and set an example for others to follow, she said.

"The CIIE showcases the fact that, in trade and investment, one's import is the other's export, so they are two sides of the same coin.

"We work together to continue to safeguard our multilateral trading systems and to show that being partners is always better, creating maximum benefits in a more balanced way," she said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 16:57:39|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

JERUSALEM, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Israeli fighter jets struck dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria early Thursday in response to a rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to a statement by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

The retaliatory and extensive attack launched from the Golan Heights hit a radar station, Syrian air defense positions and an ammunition dump among targets of the Quds Force, an IRGC external arm, which carried out the rocket attack just past midnight on the Israeli army bases in the Golan Heights.

The IDF said about 20 rockets were shot down by the Israeli Iron Dome air defense system or fell short of the Golan targets in the Iranian attack, while reporting no injuries.

It added that it had struck the Syrian air defense system because the latter fired, despite warning, trying to intercept its missiles against Iranian targets.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army warned against any further attack, saying "the IDF is prepared for a wide variety of scenarios" and will meet any attack "with force and determination."

While asking civilians to heed related instructions, it has decided to maintain the Golan daily routine including farming and school activities.

IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus told a news briefing Thursday morning that all the Israeli fighters returned safely after destroying Iranian and Syrian targets.

Conricus said the Israeli army will maintain a high-level alert in the Golan Heights.SAN DIEGO, May 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- During his speech at the World Healthcare Conference, HHS Secretary Alex Aza states that he wants to do more with regards to the prescription drugs in the US. According to his statement, the department together with the White House is working on a policy proposal that would aid in the lowering of the price of the prescription drugs. However, he didnt give further details about the discussion.



Some of the prescription drugs sold in the drugstores are too high. The result is not all people have the ability to purchase the drug. There is long legislation on this matter that ensures that the price of the drugs are going to take a downturn due to the mandatory discount that is going to be under Medicare part D. The plan has the capability to cover dual eligible.

There are many negative perceptions about the pharmaceutical industry for several years already. Despite a large number of medicines that are released by the industry, many people have a perspective that the profit operation of the industry is unfair. The reason is the large fund research that is under the US government.

According to a survey in 2017 by Gallup, the industry has a negative view of about 50%. There is only 33% who are in favor of the industrys performance. One of the reasons for the negative review is the difficulty of the patients in purchasing a prescription drug due to its high costs. The situation is not easy for them because most of the patients have to acquire plans just to have a lower price of the medicine.

However, the other observers view the situation as a benefit due to the large expense of the government in terms of prescription drugs. The expense is much larger than those done in the 1980s. But, the plan would still push through due to the aim to lower the price of drugs.

For more information about the topic, you could visit this website https://www.therecover.com/ or call through the numbers (888) 510-3898.

Contact:

Company: The Recover

Address: Temecula CA

Contact Number: (888) 510-3898

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/38a7f9cb-2673-41fa-bb29-16715cca3df6Israeli tanks are seen in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, on May 9, 2018. (Xinhua/JINI/Ayal Margolin)

JERUSALEM, May 10 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli military spokesperson said Thursday that the overnight Israeli airstrikes on Syria have set back Iran's military capabilities by "many months."

Israel's military said its air force struck "dozens" of military targets belonging to the Iranian al-Quds forces in Syria overnight between Wednesday and Thursday.

According to Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, a military spokesperson, the attack seriously damaged the Iranian forces in Syria. "It will take the al-Quds force months to recover from the Israeli strike," he said in an interview to the Hebrew-language Ynet news site.

Manelis said the airstrikes were carried out in retaliation for a barrage of rockets from Syria, but they were prepared in advance. "It took place as part of a pre-planned operation, based on solid intelligence and extremely high abilities of the Israel Air Force," Manelis said.

He said the attacks were "only the tip of the iceberg" of the army's capabilities.

"This strike is a message to everyone who seeks to harm us and undermine Israel and its sovereignty, especially in front of its citizens. The Israel Defense Forces are prepared for any scenario," he said.

According to Israel, about 20 rockets were fired at Israeli forces at around midnight in the annexed Golan Heights from Syria.

No Israelis were wounded. Israel blamed Iran's al-Quds forces.

A military statement said the Israeli attack targeted Iranian military sites in Syria, including Iranian intelligence sites, logistics headquarters belonging to al-Quds forces, a military logistics compound in al-Kiswah, south of Damascus, an Iranian military compound in north of Damascus, munition storage warehouses of al-Quds at the Damascus International Airport, intelligence systems and posts associated with al-Quds, observation and military posts and munition in the buffer zone.

In addition, the Iranian launcher from which the rockets were launched at Israel was also destroyed.

It was the largest military attack that Israel has carried out in Syria in the recent years.

The military said it "will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory."

Israel has been threatening for months that it will not allow an Iranian military presence in the territory of its northern war-torn neighbor.

Israel has been blamed for several recent deadly air attacks in Syria, which have killed Iranians. Israel did not officially acknowledge it was behind these attacks but it has been making preparations for possible Iranian retaliation for weeks.

In addition, during the eight-year war in Syria, Israel's military has responded to numerous spillovers of fire from the internal fighting near the disputed border in the Golan Heights by attacking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's army positions.TOKYO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in talks with U.S. President Donald Trump on the phone Thursday discussed policy measures ahead of the first-ever U.S.-Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) summit in the coming weeks, the foreign ministry here said in a statement.

Abe, according to the ministry, told Trump he welcomed the positive attitude of the DPRK and while passing on his congratulations for the release of three Americans detained by the DPRK, described their liberation as a major outcome, the ministry said.

Abe briefed Trump about the details pertaining to a summit held here on Wednesday with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, with the ministry saying that discussions and exchanges of opinions were held between the three addressing the upcoming U.S.-DPRK summit.

In a press conference following his phone conversation with Trump, Abe told a press briefing that he congratulated Trump on the latest diplomatic efforts made between Washington and Pyongyang, describing the freeing of the U.S. citizens as a "big achievement."Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 17:27:44|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

DOHA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Qatar has called on the international community to prevent nuclear arms race to maintain stability and peace in the Middle East region, state-run Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported on Thursday.

Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement released on Wednesday evening, said that it is following up closely on the latest development of the Iranian nuclear deal (JCPOA), after the U.S. decision to withdraw from the deal.

Qatar called on all parties to implement self-restraint and deal wisely with the ongoing situation that should be solved through dialogue, the statement added.

The statement noted that not being party to this deal, Qatar and the other Gulf countries would still be directly affected by any repercussions of the decisions by parties involved, due to geographical location, political and historical relations between Gulf countries and the deal's parties.

Qatar also stressed the importance of collective action by the international community to secure the Middle East region to be a nuclear-weapon-free Zone.

The JCPOA was reached in Vienna on July 14, 2015 between Iran, the European Union, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council including China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as Germany.

On May 8, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement and the initiation of new sanctions on the Iranian regime.

After Trump's announcement, the Iranian president said that he had ordered the country's atomic industry to be ready to restart industrial uranium enrichment.

Meanwhile, Russia announced in a statement that it would not abandon the JCPOA.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 17:52:49|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

SEOUL, May 10 (Xinhua) -- A trilateral economic cooperation between China, Japan and South Korea will play a key role in boosting regional stability and prosperity as well as the global economic recovery, an expert said here Thursday.

"The trilateral economic cooperation will play an important role in fostering the world economy's recovery as well as regional stability and co-prosperity," Lee Jong-heon, secretary-general at the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS), told Xinhua.

Lee referred to the joint declaration issued after a meeting in Tokyo Wednesday between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

The three leaders reaffirmed their commitment to building an open world economy and vowed to further promote free trade.

Lee said the three leaders saw the trilateral economic cooperation as an important axis of cooperation and agreed to strengthen economic cooperation.

The three leaders, Lee noted, stressed an importance for the three parties appealing to the importance of free trade to overcome challenges, such as protectionist moves, facing the world's economic order.

The South Korean expert said the agreement from the trilateral summit will become a very important ground laid for the upcoming negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the trilateral free trade agreement (FTA) between China, Japan and South Korea.

Referring to the agreement to strengthen a trilateral cooperation in non-traditional security sectors, such as energy, environment and disaster management, Lee said the issues will be more significant and urgent than any that should be tackled together by neighboring countries.

A strong cooperation between the three countries in the sector is directly linked to health and welfare of ordinary people, he noted.

The leaders of the three Northeast Asian countries met after the successful summit between South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which was held on April 27 at the border village of Panmunjom.

The two Koreas agreed to complete denuclearization and the turn of the current armistice agreement into a peace treaty by the end of this year. The Korean Peninsula remains technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended with armistice.

Lee said the three leaders had an in-depth discussion on regional security cooperation after the inter-Korean summit, noting the leaders shared a view over the countries' responsibility for and commitment to resolving issues on the Korean Peninsula and advancing the process of the peninsula's denuclearization.

The three leaders, he noted, made it known to the entire world for the three parties to make concerted efforts for the denuclearization by adopting a special statement welcoming the Panmunjom Declaration, announced after the inter-Korean summit.

Changing security situations on the peninsula will contribute to peace and stability on the peninsula, in Northeast Asia and in the world, the TCS chief noted.

Citing the three leaders stressing the importance for future-oriented friendship and cooperation, Lee said the leaders agreed to expand human exchanges between the three countries to 30 million by 2020 and foster cultural exchange.

The leaders also agreed to strengthen trilateral exchange among younger generations and in the educational sector, which Lee said would maintain and develop the friendly relations between the three countries in the next generation.ISTANBUL, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Turkish prosecutors on Thursday issued detention warrants for 96 people, including suspended soldiers, over their alleged links to a group believed to be behind a coup bid in 2016, local media reported.

According to the state-run Anadolu Agency, police launched simultaneous operations in 15 provinces across the country to catch the suspects.

Ninety-one of the suspects were reportedly suspended soldiers who served in the Turkish Air Forces Command.

The operations were conducted in line with an investigation launched by the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in the western province of Izmir, Anadolu said.

The Turkish government blames the network led by the U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen for the coup attempt in July 2016, in which 250 people were killed.JUBA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's main rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in Opposition ( SPLM-IO), said its leader Riek Machar will not return to South Sudan without any tangible peace deal with the government of President Salva Kiir.

Lam Paul Gabriel, SPLM-IO Deputy Military Spokesman, said the former first deputy president who is currently exiled in South Africa will not come to South Sudan because of safety concerns.

"What will bring Riek Machar back to Juba is the peace agreement if it is signed in Addis Ababa because this fighting is beyond Machar and Kiir," Gabriel said.

Machar fled South Sudan into neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in July 2016 following renewed fighting between his forces and those loyal to the government in the capital, Juba.

President Kiir last week asked the rebel leader to return to South Sudan, pledging to give Machar state protection.

"Riek Machar should come back to Juba not as a political leader, but as a changed man who has renounced violence, and he will be accorded protection by the government of South Sudan," Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny told Xinhua by phone.

"He would be able to run for any position in the future if there are elections in the country," Ateny added.

But Gabriel dismissed the president's pledge, saying they don't trust the intentions of Kiir and the SPLM-IO would only return to Juba if there is peace in the East African nation.

"We are fighting for the people who are suffering in the refugee camps. We need to sign peace first and come to Juba when there is peace for the people of South Sudan," Gabriel said.

South Sudan descended into civil war in late 20013, and the conflict has created one of the fastest growing refugee crises in the world. The UN estimates that about 4 million South Sudanese have been displaced internally and externally.

A peace deal signed in August 2015 between the rival leaders under United Nations pressure led to the establishment of a transitional unity government, but was shattered by renewed fighting in July 2016.

The next round of peace talks spearheaded by the East African bloc, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) are scheduled to reconvene in Ethiopia on May 17.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 18:22:57|Editor: Shi Yinglun

Video Player Close

SAN FRANCISCO, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Two artists from Beijing are working to raise public awareness of the sacrifices and contributions of Chinese railroad workers who had helped build the first U.S. Transcontinental Railroad.

Zhao Zhunwang, an artist who specializes in traditional Chinese painting, and Li Ju, a photographer and computer engineer, recently traveled along the railroad route from Sacramento, California, to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 10 days.

"First-hand experience is most important for an artist," Zhao, a member of the China Artists Association, said on Wednesday. He said that during the trip, he had to walk on foot and fight cold and hunger just like the Chinese workers did 150 years ago.

"Compared with the dangerous and harsh conditions of those workers, what we did is minimal," he said.

Zhao completed 60 paintings during the trip to prepare for a large-scale painting he plans to finish before May 10 next year -- the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

The final painting will depict important historical sites, like the Great Wall of China and Donner Pass in California, against the splendid landscape from Sacramento, capital of California, to Salt Lake City, said Zhao.

He said he planned to hold exhibitions in both China and the United States next year to pay tribute to the contributions of the Chinese railroad workers and promote China-U.S. friendship.

Li, who served as Zhao's guide, has visited the sites several times and documented his journey with photos.

In 2010, during a trip to the United States following American photographer William Henry Jackson's photographic journey in the 1860s, he was drawn to stories behind the Transcontinental Railroad.

In 2015, he signed an agreement to donate all of his photos to a Stanford University project called "Chinese Railroad Workers in North America," which was committed to exploring and documenting this largely forgotten piece of history.

The Transcontinental Railroad, originally known as the Central Pacific Railroad, was completed on May 10, 1869, linking the American East and West for the first time.

However, the role of Chinese laborers, who comprised more than 80 percent of the workforce, has been largely neglected.

In recent years, the activists' efforts to honor the Chinese railroad workers have been recognized by the U.S. government.

Last year, the California State Assembly declared May 10 California Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial Day in honor of the nearly 12,000 Chinese railroad workers who helped build the Transcontinental Railroad.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 18:48:03|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States should strengthen cooperation and properly manage differences, to jointly promote the healthy and stable development of Sino-U.S. economic and trade ties.

Ministry of Commerce (MOC) spokesperson Gao Feng made the remarks at a press conference here Thursday.

Gao expressed expectations that under the guidance of the two heads of state, China and the United States would earnestly continue in-depth communication under the principles of mutual respect and equal consultation.

Gao also expressed hope that the two countries would strengthen practical cooperation and properly manage differences to jointly promote the healthy and steady development of Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations.

The two heads of state have reached important consensus on properly solving bilateral economic and trade issues during a phone conversation on May 8, according to Gao.

The MOC said on Wednesday the Chinese side had accepted an invitation from the United States, agreeing to send a delegation to visit the country at a "proper time" for further economic and trade consultations.

As to possible imposition of additional tariffs on Chinese products announced by the U.S. side, Gao reiterated that China's position on the issue has not changed and will not change.

"China objects to the practices of unilateralism and trade protectionism, and the U.S. should put away its threatening stick," Gao said, adding that "the Chinese side will resolutely defend the interests of the state and its people."

Gao expressed hope that the two sides can make joint efforts to push the steady advancement of Sino-U.S. economic and trade cooperation, to achieve mutual benefits and win-win results, and deliver benefits to the people of the two countries and around the world.ROME, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Italian anti-terrorism units have arrested 14 people for allegedly financing Islamist extremist groups in war-torn Syria, prosecutors said in a statement Thursday.

Law enforcement has "identified a vast network of support for Islamist extremist combatant groups operating in Syria", the statement said.

The arrests took place in two separate dawn operations, and homes are being searched in the Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Sardinia, and Veneto regions.

"Joint anti-terrorism, state police and finance guard operation underway to execute 14 arrest warrants on subjects that collaborated to train Islamist extremist combatants. 20 homes searched in various regions," police tweeted.

In one operation, investigators "dismantled a transnational criminal organization made up of 10 Syrians" that laundered money in Hungary, Italy, Sweden, and Turkey. Two of those suspects have been charged with terrorist financing.

In a parallel operation, police arrested four Syrian and Moroccan "militants... accused of being part of a support cell for the al Qaeda-affiliated organization Jabhat al-Nusra, operating in Syria".

They are accused of terrorist criminal association, terrorist financing, and illegal financial intermediation.

"These money flows...are impossible to identify via current European Union (EU) and global control measures," Finance Guard General Alessandro Barbera of the Central Organized Crime Investigation Service (SCICO) told RAI News 24 public broadcaster.

Investigators tracked the illicit money and found out it was being "sent to Syria and used to purchase medicine, clothes, and military components," Barbera explained.

"We are always on high alert, but these operations show the (anti-terrorism) system is working," the general concluded.LUANDA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Angola's National Assembly discussed a draft law on the repatriation of money abroad in the country's capital here Wednesday, while the government remains unsure about how much money is abroad and how much it can recover.

"Nobody knows how much money is out there, otherwise there would be no need to be here today to make this law, it would be a waste of time. The state would have the means to get that money," said Marcy Lopes, the secretary of the President of the Republic for Political, Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, when responding to parliamentarians in the National Assembly session.

The draft law on the repatriation of money abroad is an initiative of the government and the draft Law on the Extraordinary Regime of Asset Regulation, proposed by UNITA, the largest opposition party.

Regarding expectations for the law, Lopes said that "this law will be approved, hopefully, to ensure legal mechanisms to get the money that is out there."

In December 2017, Angolan President Joao Lourenco urged government officials to repatriate money illegally held overseas by the beginning of this year or risk prosecution.

Lourenco said that those who act on his advice will not be questioned about the reasons for having the money outside the country, nor prosecuted.

The president warned that at the end of the grace period, the state will confiscate the money and bring it back to the country to benefit all Angolans and spur domestic investment.CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EnvoyAI today announced a new integration with Insignia Medical Systems InSight PACS to provide AI-enhanced imaging workflows to customers. For initial launch in the UK, this integration provides best-of-breed, curated AI content available on the EnvoyAI platform within the PACS environment at multiple integration points. These include AI results viewing directly within the PACS viewer, as well as within the already established Insignia integration with TeraRecon. EnvoyAI is the spinout formed by a 2017 TeraRecon acquisition of McCoy Medical Technologies. TeraRecons longstanding partnership with Insignia is further strengthened with the synergies between EnvoyAIs platform and TeraRecons latest advanced visualisation offerings.



The integrations with EnvoyAI and TeraRecon allow hospitals to customize their AI portfolio based on algorithms they can test and consume from within their Insignia PACS, including the utilisation of each hospitals own internally developed algorithms. Jon Hall, Chief Technology Officer, Insignia Medical Systems shared, Integrating to the EnvoyAI platform allows Insignia to more quickly and broadly execute on our goal of providing the most advanced functionality on the market to our end users. The integration provides instant access to premium AI directly as part of a cohesive end-user experience - expanding how we add value for our customers within a single, powerful interface.

The EnvoyAI platform readies the Insignia InSight PACS for the launch of any AI application  starting with the AI content already available on the EnvoyAI Exchange. With recent growth, the EnvoyAI Exchange now offers a total of 53 products from 22 partners, of which 10 have already achieved US FDA-clearance. The partnership creates added potential for future workflow integrations to TeraRecons iNtuition advanced visualisation solution already promoted by Insignia, as well as TeraRecons new NorthStar AI-results viewer for advanced physician interactions.

Maria Proud-Levitas, Regional Sales Manager for TeraRecon (UK) said, Working closely with Insignia for over 5 years has created a very clean and powerful offering for our customers. Building on that trust, we now look forward to delivering tools that take UK healthcare boldly into the future.

Steven Rothenberg, MD and Chief Medical Officer of EnvoyAI stated, The Insignia PACS integration makes the widespread use of AI an immediate reality for clinicians across the UK; allowing for the most rigorous data security protocols with on-premise installations. EnvoyAI is keen on bringing AI to clinicians in ready-to-use, powerful ways.

Richard Dormer, Managing Director of Insignia, said, We are excited to be building on our already fantastic relationship with TeraRecon to include the advanced technology available through EnvoyAI, which will ultimately help our customers and improve outcomes for patients.

The integration may be seen by visiting the EnvoyAI (Booth #103  Start-Up Street) and TeraRecon (Booth #405), locations at the upcoming Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland from May 31st  June 2nd, 2017. Online demonstrations are available by contacting EnvoyAI at info@envoyai.com, TeraRecon at info@terarecon.com, or Insignia at info@insigniamedical.co.uk.

About EnvoyAI (www.envoyai.com) EnvoyAI facilitates the streamlined distribution and hospital implementation of trained machine learning algorithms via a vendor neutral distribution platform. EnvoyAI provides a developer platform, integrations, and an open API for algorithm developers, technology partners, and end users. EnvoyAI assists research institutions and emerging AI companies in the translation and commercialization processes, starting with rapid deployment via a scalable, secure, cloud-based infrastructure with the ability to add local components to facilitate on-site deployments as well. EnvoyAI also works with distribution partners to make algorithms on the platform available to a very wide footprint of hospitals and, ultimately, to physicians.

About TeraRecon (www.terarecon.com) TeraRecon is a leader in advanced visualization, image viewing and post-processing. Our flagship product, iNtuition, consistently leads the advanced visualization category of the industrys leading independent technology analyst. We are committed to redefining advanced visualization by leveraging artificial intelligence, and to improving radiology workflow through personalized automation features that increase efficiency.

About Insignia (www.insigniamedical.co.uk) Insignia Medical Systems is the pioneering UK based PACS provider, offering technology-leading solutions for your entire organisation. With over 15 years pedigree in medical imaging, we have unrivalled experience in creating software that will take medical imaging storage to the next generation. As a British company specialising only in medical applications, we uniquely offer scalable solutions developed and delivered locally. All of our software solutions are owned and developed by us and as a company thats dedicated to the UK market we are quick to respond to the changing needs of the NHS.LONDON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- New measures to protect Britain's critical infrastructure and digital services from cyber attacks and computer network failure came into force Thursday.

Firms in health, water, energy, transport and digital infrastructure are now expected to have robust safeguards in place against cyber threats and report breaches and network outages to regulators within 72 hours or face fines of up to 23 million U.S. dollars.

The new law announced by Digital Minister Margot James will help reduce the number of damaging cyber attacks affecting Britain, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said in a joint statement with the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC).

The center was set up by the government in October 2016 as part of Britain's official intelligence and security organisation, GCHQ.

Since then the center has already responded to more than 950 significant incidents, including WannaCry.

The statement said the new tough regulations will also give new regulators powers to assess critical industries and make sure plans are in place to prevent attacks.

The regulator will have the power to issue legally-binding instructions to improve security, and if necessary impose significant fines.

The legislation will also cover other threats affecting IT such as hardware failures and environmental hazards.

Margot James, Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries, said: ""Organisations must act now to make sure that they are primed and ready to stop potential cyber attacks and be resilient against major disruption to the services we all rely on."

NCSC will also act as the single point of contact between Britain and EU member states.

Ciaran Martin, chief executive of the NCSC, said: "The UK government is committed to making the UK the safest place to live and do business online, but we can't do this alone. Every citizen, business and organisation must play their part."

The new directive is an important part of the British government's five-year 2.6 billion U.S. dollars National Cyber Security Strategy.Source: Xinhuanet| 2018-05-10 20:03:38|Editor: Lu Hui

Video Player Close

China's air-conditioner maker Gree has brought its eco-friendly products to the Australia's Air Conditioning, Refrigeration and Building Services Exhibition (ARBS), offering new air conditioning solutions to the Australian market.

"Hyper", a product specialized for the overseas market, is on display.

Gree's photovoltaic (PV) air conditioner which runs on clean and renewable energy is also featured at the exhibition.

In addition, the Chinese brand is showcasing its self-developed magnetic bearing centrifugal chiller.

"For many years our company has dedicated itself to developing Gree into a world famous brand and committed to product innovation with leading technologies," said Owen Lee, Assistant General Manager of Gree Overseas Sales Company.

The ARBS was held in Sydney from Tuesday to Thursday.FLORENCE, Italy, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella warned against euro-sceptic sentiments and political trends in an address on the European Union (EU) on Thursday.

At the eighth edition of an annual conference on "The State of the Union" organized by the European University Institute on May 10-12 here, Mattarella urged public opinion and political leaders to "rediscover Europe."

"We have to avoid a Eurosceptic narrative that provides alluring yet impracticable solutions," the head of state told the audience.

"We are safer, richer, and more free today that in post-war period," said Mattarella, adding "Yet, we seem to lack determination towards contemporary challenges, and someone prefers to choose 19th-century solutions to the problems of the 2000s."

A growing number of people and political actors, he noted, seemed to be forgetting that the European civilization, as well as the continent's wealth, could not be reduce to one single country or group of countries.

"Perhaps, we are not sufficiently aware that the 'extra-Europeans' look at us and perceive us more and more like Europe, and no longer as single separate realities," he explained.

The president's remarks came while last-ditch attempts were underway to form a coalition government, over two months after inconclusive elections held in early March.

Latest talks between rightwing, anti-immigrant League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) -- the two relative winners of the election -- may finally give way to a new government.

Both the League and the M5S -- to various degrees -- have expressed euro-sceptic sentiments, and harshly criticised some EU policies.

Formal talks among all parties brokered by the president have so far failed, and it was yet not sure the entire center-right block, with which the League run the campaign, will support a deal with the M5S.

In case of further failure, the country would most likely face snap elections.

Since its inception, the State of the Union conference draws European politicians, opinion leaders, analysts, and academics to the Tuscany city for a three-day debate on crucial EU issues.

This edition focuses on the theme of solidarity, encompassing economic, fiscal, and monetary policies, social investment, migration, climate change, and energy, organizers said.HANOI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam needs nearly 308 million U.S. dollars to deal with landslides along river banks, canals and seashores in its southern Mekong Delta, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The ministry said that landslides have occurred at 562 locations of river banks and seashores, with a total length of 786 km, of which 42 spots stretch 149 km in specially dangerous conditions, and it needs about 6,990 billion Vietnamese dong (307.9 million U.S. dollars) to reinforce such eroded locations, Vietnam News Agency reported on Thursday.

Apart from reinforcing dykes, provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta should address a number of issues of public concern like the unplanned and over-exploitation of sand and gravel, while heeding forestation, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said in Hanoi capital on Thursday at a working session with representatives of 13 Mekong Delta localities.

An Giang, Dong Thap, Ca Mau and Bac Lieu provinces are most affected by landslides, the prime minister noted.

Phuc said that mid- and long-term capital has been allocated to deal with 17 out of 42 specially dangerous spots.

He decided to allocate part of the state budget to Mekong Delta localities, helping them build urgent and important facilities, and part of Vietnam's ODA sources to form a climate change fund in the delta.KABUL, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Anti-government militants have stepped up activities against government interests elsewhere in the conflict-hit Afghanistan as three districts have fallen to the insurgents over the past one week.

Taliban militants in the latest achievements overrun the statically important Tala-o-Barfak district in the northern Baghlan province on Tuesday night putting the government forces into defensive positions.

According to local observers, if the Taliban were able to keep control over Tala-o-Barfak district which connects Baghlan to the central Bamyan province, the militant group would be able to tighten the noose around neighboring Kohmard and Sighan districts in Bamyan.

The militants have also captured Bilchiragh district in the northern Faryab province and Kohistan district in Badakhshan province, inflicting casualties on security forces, according to media reports, besides capturing arms and ammunitions, over the past few days.

Although the government forces have recaptured Bilchiragh district in the northern Faryab province and have been fighting back to evict militants from the remaining Kohistan and Tala-o-Barfak districts, Afghans have doubted government's ability to root out militants and bring about lasting peace in the country.

"It has been 13 days since we left our houses due to conflict in Tishkan district of Badakhshan but we have not received any humanitarian assistance from government, nor military operations to oust militants from our villages," complained a displaced person in talks with local television channel Tolo on Thursday.

Meantime, an army spokesman in the northern region Mohammad Hanif Rezai said that the security forces would chase militants elsewhere to ensure viable peace in the country.

The Taliban outfit launched its so-called annual spring offensive on April 25 and since then fierce fighting has erupted in parts of the country.

Both the Taliban and the hardliner Islamic State group claimed responsibility for attacks on police stations in Kabul on Wednesday that left over two dozen people dead and injured besides damaging properties at nearby buildings.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 20:03:34|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

KUNMING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Police have seized 351 suspected ivory products in southwest China's Yunnan Province, the local public security bureau said Thursday.

The products were seized during a campaign launched in February in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Deqen targeting illegal ivory trade. A total of 241 police officers were mobilized to inspect local tourist attractions, bird and flower markets and antique craft shops.

Among the confiscated products, mostly bracelets while others including necklaces and pendants, 31 have been confirmed as ivory ones, according to the public security bureau of Deqen.

China has banned ivory trade and commercial processing as part of its commitment to protecting wild animals.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 20:18:40|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

Visitors tour at the 14th China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industrial Fair in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, May 10, 2018. The Fair opened here on Thursday. (Xinhua/Mao Siqian)

SHENZHEN, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The 14th China International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF) opened on Thursday in Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province.

Covering themes such as the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, the Belt and Road Initiative and supply-side structural reform, the five-day event has attracted the participation of 2,308 organizations, including 130 from abroad, according to the organizers.

The venue consists of nine pavilions, focusing on such areas as fashion design, film and animation, press and publications, art and intangible cultural heritage.

Activities such as forums, the signing of contracts and marketing will be held during the event.

On the sidelines of the fair, an exhibition demonstrating China's achievements in the cultural sector during the past four decades will also be held.PARIS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called for a de-escalation in the Middle East after Israel and Iran traded overnight missile strikes over Syria.

"The president calls for a de-escalation in the situation," said a statement by the Elysee.

In a visit to Germany, Macron discussed the situation in the Middle East in a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and expressed concerns over the tension in the region fuelled by U.S. withdrawal from 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

According to a statement by the Israeli Defense Forces, Israeli fighter jets struck dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria early Thursday in response to a rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).by Bosun Awoniyi

LAGOS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria has never stopped the screening of inbound passengers at the airports since an Ebola outbreak in 2014 after an American-Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, brought it into the country, an official said Thursday.

Nigeria's Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday directed the health ministry to step up surveillance activities against Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country.

Minister of Health Isaac Adewole, who said this to reporters in Abuja, the nation's capital, added that the council's directive followed the reported reemergence of the disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The health ministry in DRC said cases of hemorrhagic fever were reported in its northwest region that is facing an Ebola epidemic as far back as December and the first deaths were reported in January.

The health ministry said on Tuesday that at least 17 people had died in an area of northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo where health officials have now confirmed an outbreak of Ebola.

Spokesperson for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Henrietta Yakubu told Xinhua that the aviation body still had all the equipment and adequate personnel at the airport to prevent the virus from coming into the country.

"We have always had thermal scanners in our airports that monitor temperature of passengers and capture their pictures. We still have hand sanitizers in our rest rooms too," she added.

"When passengers walk pass the scanners, it registers their temperature. If yours is high, you are pulled aside for observation," the spokesperson said.

The scanners are fixed apparatus at the arrival halls that take the picture and temperature of any given passenger at a particular time as the traveler passes through them, the FAAN spokesperson added.

Yakubu added that this was being supported by Port Health officers who ensure that any suspicious person is brought in for observation.

She said the authority would not relent on its effort at ensuring that inbound passengers were properly screened at the airports.

Earlier, Adewole, Nigeria's health minister, told reporters that the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC) will also consider sending some team to DRC as part of building capacity for managing the outbreak.

Adewole reassured Nigerians that the federal government was concerned about the outbreak and would continue to do everything possible to keep the country safe from the outbreak.

In 2014, Nigeria was declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization (WHO), having recorded no new cases of the highly contagious disease after six weeks.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Ebola is introduced into human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 20:38:48|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (R) shakes hands with his Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades during their meeting in Belgrade, Serbia, on May 10, 2018. Anastasiades arrived in Belgrade for a state visit. (Xinhua/Predrag Milosavljevic)

BELGRADE, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Presidents of Serbia and Cyprus, who met here on Thursday, agreed to strengthen cooperation and joint projects in a bid to deepen their countries' ties.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, who arrived in Belgrade Wednesday evening, met his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic at the Palace of Serbia.

The two leaders discussed the situation in the region and Cyprus, Serbia's European integration process, and future cooperation.

At a press conference after the meeting, Vucic praised Cyprus as one of the strongest protectors of international law among the European Union (EU) member states, and thanked his counterpart for the support related to Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija that unilaterally declared independence in 2008.

Anastasiades stressed that Cyprus does not recognize the unilateral declaration of the independence of Kosovo and sees it as an illegal act, as it contradicts resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council.

According to Vucic, the cooperation between the two countries will include tourism and infrastructural projects in Serbia, where companies from Cyprus have expressed their interest to participate.TRADING UPDATE

Volumes (Year to date, 8 May 2018)

2018 2017 Change Cars 100,400 98,000 +2.4% RoRo Freight 99,500 95,800 +3.9% Container Freight (teu) 116,400 115,100 +1.1% Terminal Lifts 109,000 104,000 +4.8%

Irish Continental Group (ICG) issues this trading update which covers carryings for the year to date to 8 May 2018 and financial information for the first four months of 2018, i.e. 1 January to 30 April with comparisons against the corresponding period in 2017. All figures are unaudited.

Consolidated Group revenue in the period was 96.4 million, an increase of 1.4% compared with last year. Net cash at the end of April was 69.3 million compared with 39.6 million at 31 December 2017 which includes the proceeds from the sale of the "Jonathan Swift".

It should be noted that ICG's business is significantly weighted towards the Summer period when a higher proportion of the Group's operating profit is normally generated. Fuel costs continue to be impacted by higher global fuel prices compared to the previous year.

Ferries Division

Total revenues recorded in the period to 30 April amounted to 52.3 million (including intra-division charter income), a 2.4% decrease on the prior year. The decrease was attributable to lower external charter income following the sale of the "Kaitaki" in June 2017 and the redeployment of the "Westpac Express" from November 2017.

For the year to 8 May, in this seasonally less significant period for tourism, Irish Ferries carried 100,400 cars, an increase of 2.4% on the previous year, while freight carryings were 99,500 RoRo units, an increase of 3.9% compared with 2017.

Container and Terminal Division

Total revenues recorded in the period to 30 April amounted to 46.8 million, a 6.1% increase on the prior year.

For the year to 8 May container freight volumes shipped were up 1.1% on the previous year at 116,400 teu (twenty foot equivalent units), while units handled at our terminals in Dublin and Belfast increased 4.8% year on year to 109,000 lifts.

Fleet Update

W.B. Yeats

On 19 January 2018, the cruise ferry "W.B. Yeats" was formally named and launched into the water. The "W.B. Yeats", which is undergoing completion works following the launch was scheduled to commence sailing with Irish Ferries between Ireland and France on the Dublin-Cherbourg route on 12 July 2018.

On 18 April 2018 Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesselschaft & Co.KG ("FSG") notified Irish Ferries that the delivery of the ship would be delayed to "on or about 13 July 2018". As it takes a number of weeks to prepare a ship for its first commercial sailing Irish Ferries searched the market to find a replacement ship to cover the July scheduled sailings, but no suitable ship was available. In the interests of minimising the level of disruption to passengers, a decision was taken on 20 April to immediately notify affected customers that Irish Ferries had to cancel a number of sailings and the company activated its contingency plan of releasing capacity on the "Oscar Wilde" sailings to France which had been held back in case there was any delay in the arrival of the "W.B. Yeats".

This precaution in holding back peak Summer capacity on the "Oscar Wilde" has cost Irish Ferries approximately 2.5 million in lost revenue. However, this action facilitated disrupted customers by offering them an opportunity to sail the day before or the day after their planned sailing, while giving customers 3 months' notice of the change. Customers were also offered the option of a full refund. All affected customers received a voucher for 150 towards a sailing to the Continent in 2019.

Irish Ferries deeply regrets this inconvenience to our passengers which is due to an extraordinary event beyond its control.

At this stage 94% of customers have chosen the option to reroute on alternative Irish Ferries routes, 5% have sought a refund with 1% yet to decide.



Sale of Jonathan Swift

On 30 January 2018, the Company announced the sale of the vessel "Jonathan Swift" to buyers Balearia Eurolineas Maritimas S.A. for an agreed consideration of 15.5 million less brokers commission. The vessel was delivered to the buyer on 26 April 2018 and the cash consideration will be utilised for general corporate purposes. The disposal has generated a book profit for ICG of approximately 14.0 million.

The vessel "Dublin Swift" (formerly Westpac Express) replaced the "Jonathan Swift" on the Irish Ferries fastcraft service on the Dublin - Holyhead route on 27 April 2018. The "Dublin Swift" completed a significant upgrade in passenger on board facilities prior to entering service to bring it up to Irish Ferries service standards. The "Dublin Swift" was acquired in June 2016 and had been on charter outside of the Group up to the end of November 2017.

New ferry for the Dublin Holyhead Route

On 2 January 2018, ICG announced that it had entered into an agreement with the German company Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesselschaft & Co.KG ("FSG") whereby FSG has agreed to build a cruise ferry for ICG at a contract price of 165.2 million which is scheduled for delivery mid 2020. The cruise ferry is being built specifically for Irish Ferries Dublin - Holyhead services. The investment provides Irish Ferries with a significant increase in both its freight and tourism carrying capacity on this fast-growing route. ICG intend to utilise credit facilities to finance this investment. When completed, the vessel will be the largest cruise ferry in the world in terms of vehicle capacity.

Dublin

10 May 2018

Enquiries

Eamonn Rothwell, CEO, +353 1 607 5628

David Ledwidge, CFO, +353 1 607 5628Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 20:43:50|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

NANNING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- A court in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region opened a trial Thursday on confiscating the illegal assets of a Red Notice fugitive suspected of embezzlement.

According to Guilin City People's Procuratorate, it launched an investigation into Huang Yanlan for misusing and embezzling a huge amount of money in August 2002. Later Huang fled. Interpol issued a Red Notice on her in 2005.

Since the suspect remains a fugitive, prosecutors have applied to the Guilin Intermediate People's Court to formally confiscate her illegal assets.

From 1993 to 1998, Huang allegedly took advantage of her position as general manager of a state-owned enterprise in the city of Guilin and deputy head of a city government department, and extracted about 1.17 billion yuan (184.3 million U.S. dollars) from the company's accounts, according to the prosecutors.

"The money was not recorded in the company's financial books," the prosecutors' application documents said.

About 400 million yuan of the money was found to have been transferred to another bank account illegally set up by the company to invest in futures.

Huang was later also suspected of personally extracting and entrusting a third party to withdraw about 575 million yuan from the futures investment account, 529 million yuan of which was also missing from any financial books, the prosecutors said.

Huang and her family paid 30 million yuan for 52 real estate properties in Shanghai from 1997 to 1999 as the first installment.

The Guilin Intermediate People's Court did not announce the judgement Thursday.ACCRA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- China will help the government of Ghana in constructing a new cocoa processing plant, according to Chinese Economic and Commercial Counsellor Chai Zhijing.

Chai said this on Wednesday when a group of Chinese experts called on the management of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) for discussions on the project.

Chai explained that the Chinese experts is in the country to carry out feasibility study on the project.

"The main purpose for the visit to Ghana is to see how much it will cost to build such a processing factory with capacity of 40,000 tones. There are a lot of technical details involved in building a factory which will be the basis for the final decision by the Chinese government," the counsellor said.

The Chinese counsellor said the Chinese government seeks to support Ghana to start exporting value added products including cocoa, hence the idea of cocoa processing factory.

Joseph Boahen Aidoo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana COCOBOD, said that the total projected cost of the factory to be located in Sefwi Wiawso, 398 km north-west of the capital, one of Ghana's major cocoa producing areas, was 60 million U.S. dollars.

"Due to the volatility of prices in the international cocoa market, Ghana seeks to develop new cocoa consumption markets for the product. Meanwhile the conventional cocoa market, in Europe and America has become stagnant but there is a new consumption pattern emerging in Asia, especially in China which we seek to explore," Aidoo explained.

He added that the conception of the new plant was timely and will further support the vision of the current government to transform Ghana into an industrialized nation.NAIROBI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenya plans to use satellite data in order to combat climate change, a senior government official said on Thursday.

William Ruto, the Deputy President, told a media briefing in Nairobi that one of the challenges to overcoming climate change is lack of data to effectively monitor the causes and extent of environmental damage caused by green house gas emissions.

"We are therefore going to deploy the latest technology including satellite data to ensure Kenya can adapt and mitigate the negative effects of climate change," Ruto said during the launch of the Africa Regional Data Cube.

The new tool is expected to harness the latest Earth observation and satellite technology to help Kenya, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Tanzania combat the climate change.

The launch was followed by in-depth training for government representatives of participating countries, so that they can immediately make use of this cutting-edge technology.

The data cube was developed by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) in partnership with the Group on Earth Observations, Amazon Web Services, Kenya government, Strathmore University in Kenya, and the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.

Ruto said satellite technology will help Kenya comprehend over a period of time how natural resources are being utilized so that targeted interventions can be deployed that can improve actions against climate change as well as secure sustainable food and water for the country.

Ruto noted that a vast majority of the Kenyan population derives its livelihood from the rain-fed agricultural activities as subsistence farmers.

"This makes them vulnerable to climate change because of its impact on rainfall amount as well as distribution patterns," he said.

He noted that Kenya will harness satellite technology to build and enhances its climate resilience and adaptive capacity.

Keriako Tobiko, the Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, said the climate is changing, with its effects and impact felt by ordinary people whose livelihoods depend on more predictable weather conditions.

He noted that due lack of clear policies, the country's forest cover has remained below the recommended 10 percent cover of total land mass.

"We will soon launch a national tree planning exercise to ensure forest over reaches 10 percent by end of 2022," he said.

Tobiko said Kenya as a member of the global community and a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention (UNFCCC) took to an emission reduction target of 30 percent by 2030 against a Business as Usual (BAU) scenario in its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

Kenya's NDC will be implemented through the National Climate Change Action as prescribed in Climate Change Act 2016.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 20:53:56|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

SHANGHAI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai Jiao Tong University has launched a trial run of a driverless minibus on its campus in Xuhui district, China Daily reported on Thursday.

The service, for on-campus commuting, uses an eight-seat vehicle developed jointly by the university's Research Institute of Intelligence Vehicles and a company specializing in automatic driving systems research and production, the newspaper said.

Guided by a map stored in the cloud, the bus can pick up passengers and take them to the stop they select by scanning a QR code.

There are currently four stops on the university's Xuhui campus. While on board, passengers can use a touch screen or speak to an interactive voice system to change their destination.

"It's really convenient for us to commute by bus on this expansive campus," Yuan Wei, a doctoral student, told the paper.

A monthlong test run was carried out earlier on the school's Minhang campus.

Since May 2, the three buses have carried more than 1,000 passengers safely at a maximum speed of 15 km per hour, according to Yang Ming, director of the institute.

"We installed sensors on the bus and used a special positioning and navigation system developed by the institute that can detect everything happening around the bus and manage it intelligently to avoid collisions," Yang told the newspaper.

"It's unlike driverless vehicles that rely on a real-time satellite positioning system, which can be affected by the surrounding environment and severe weather.

"The bus is also equipped with a core sensor that allows it to work properly even on rainy and snowy days, when people need the vehicle more than in good weather. A recharge of five to six hours can ensure a full day of operation."

To ensure safety during the trial run, a security officer on the bus can press a stop button if needed, even though he usually doesn't have to do anything, the newspaper reported. An emergency button is also available on the exterior of the bus.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 20:53:56|Editor: Shi Yinglun

Video Player Close

GAZA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian movements of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad condemned on Thursday the Israeli military escalation against Syria.

"Israel's escalation in Syria proves that it is the main enemy and the greatest threat to the nation and the source of terrorism in the region," Hamas movement, which rules Gaza, said in a statement.

The movement added that Arab and Islamic countries have the right to defend their territories and respond strongly to any aggression.

"It requires gathering all the nation's capabilities to deter the enemy, break its arrogance, and thwart its plans aimed at the Palestinian cause and the nation's wealth," according to Hamas statement.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad said in a statement that "the Israeli hand which tries to hit us as Arabs and Muslims must be cut off."

The movement blessed the Syrian response to the Israeli raids and considered it a "natural and predictable response," asserting that it will be at the forefront of confrontation with Israel.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) organized a protest in Gaza City, during which the participants raised Syrian flags and banners in solidarity with Damascus.

Deputy Secretary-General of the PFLP Abu Ahmed Fouad called for forming a joint operation room including "the Palestinian resistance factions" in the face of Israel.

Fouad said in a statement published on the website of the PFLP that his group is ready to join any battle against Israel.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) also condemned the Israeli "aggression" against Syria and considered it an attempt to drag the region into a new war that deepens the chaos and disorder.

In a statement, the Front called on the international community to "shoulder its responsibilities and intervene to deter Israel's aggressive policy."

Military sources in Syria said the Syrian air defenses responded to dozens of Israeli missiles, but some of the missiles hit their targets and destroyed one radar station.

Meanwhile, Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday that the Israeli airstrike on Syria destroyed most of Iran's military infrastructure in the country.

He reiterated that the Israeli strikes came after Iranian al-Quds forces in Syria fired a barrage of rockets towards Israeli military posts in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

A military statement said the attack targeted Iranian military sites, including Iranian intelligence sites, logistics headquarters belonging to al-Quds forces, a military logistics compound in al-Kiswah, south of Damascus, an Iranian military compound north of Damascus, munition storage warehouses of al-Quds at the Damascus International Airport, intelligence systems and posts associated with al-Quds, observation and military posts and munition in the buffer zone.

In addition, the Iranian launcher from which the rockets were launched at Israel was also destroyed.

It was the largest military attack that Israel has carried out in Syria in the recent years.

The military said it "will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory."

Israel has been threatening for months that it will not allow an Iranian military presence in the territory of its northern war-torn neighbor.

Israel was blamed for several recent deadly air attacks in Syria that killed Iranians. Israel did not officially acknowledge it was behind these attacks but it has been making preparations for possible Iranian retaliation for weeks.

In addition, during the eight-year war in Syria, Israel's military has responded to numerous spillovers of fire from the internal fighting near the disputed border in the Golan Heights by attacking Bashar al-Assad's army positions.

U.S. President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal on Tuesday has sparked more tensions.BUDAPEST, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Viktor Orban was re-elected as Hungary's prime minister by the parliament here on Thursday, starting a third consecutive and a fourth overall term as leader of Hungary.

Among the 199-seat National Assembly, the only house of the Hungarian parliament, Orban received 134 votes in favor and 28 against. To be elected, the prime minister needs more than half of the deputies' votes.

Orban took a solemn oath in front of the historical flags of Hungary.

Hungarian President Janos Ader on Monday officially called on Viktor Orban, the candidate for prime minister of the Fidesz-KDNP party alliance, to form a new government following the general elections on April 8.

The Fidesz-KDNP party alliance won the general elections by a large margin, securing 133 seats in the 199-seat parliament. EnditemULAN BATOR, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has declared 2018 as tourism year when it will promote green-eco tourism, the Ministry of Environment said Thursday.

The ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with Mongolian Tourism Association and Mongolian Culinary Federation to standardize services in the tourism sector.

Green-eco tourism will be promoted and service in restaurants and tourist camps improved. Specific rules and regulations will be developed for nature travelers.

In the first quarter of 2018, Mongolia saw 705,000 foreign tourists, up 11 percent from the same period last year, according to the National Statistical Office of Mongolia.NEW DELHI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were killed in an explosion at a stone quarry in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, police said Thursday.

The explosion took place in a remote area near Shikaripara in the state's Dumka district, some 350 kms from capital Ranchi.

"The blast was reported late Wednesday night. We have so far recovered two bodies. Efforts are on to pull out other bodies," local police chief Kishor Kaushal told the media.

Many miners who sustained injuries in the explosion were admitted to government hospitals, another police official said.

Local media reports said that the miners were fixing explosives in the stone quarry when they suddenly exploded.

"We are verifying the claims. A probe has been ordered into the incident," Kaushal added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 21:14:04|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

TAIPEI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Pro-reunification groups in Taiwan gathered in Kaohsiung Thursday to protest U.S. arms sales to the island and ask for peaceful development across the Taiwan Strait.

Protestors assembled in the city during a forum on defense industries of the United States and Taiwan, holding banners and boards that read, "We want peace, not war," "No more debts for arms sales," "No Taiwan independence," and other slogans.

The groups accused U.S. arms groups of siphoning money from the island's budget and sabotaging the peaceful development across the Strait, according to a joint statement issued by the groups.

The statement said huge military spending has become a burden for Taiwan, and the United States has been using the island to hinder the development of the mainland.

Continuous military purchases will not save, and will only destroy, the future of the island, said the statement.

Protesting groups included the Labor Party of Taiwan, the Alliance for the Reunification of China, and the China Tide Association.MOGADISHU, May 10 (Xinhua) -- At least seven Somali soldiers were killed and others injured in a deadly bomb attack on Thursday targeting a military vehicle in Wanlaweyn town in southern Somalia, about 90 km northwest of the capital of Mogadishu, local officials said.

Local officials said the improvised explosive device (IED) tore the military vehicle in which the soldiers were traveling on its way to Afgoye town, about 30 km west of Mogadishu.

Ali Nur, deputy governor of the Lower Shabelle region, said seven government soldiers were killed and two others injured when their vehicle hit the explosive device.Reference is made to the stock exchange release on 8 May 2018 announcing the purchase of own shares to cover the 2018 share savings scheme for employees.

As part of this program, Entra ASA purchased 50,000 own shares on 9 May 2018. The shares were purchased at an average price of NOK 115.2.

After the transaction, Entra ASA holds 54,659 own shares.

For further queries please contact: Tone Omsted, Head of Investor Relations, tel: +47 982 28 510, email: tom@entra.no

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.DAR ES SALAAM, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania has recorded a sharp decline in exports in 2017 as the country geared toward attaining an industrial economy.

Minister for Industries, Trade and Investment Charles Mwijage told the National Assembly on Thursday that exports of goods to China dropped to 142.3 million U.S. dollars in 2017 from 355.9 million U.S. dollars in 2016.

Tabling his ministry's budget estimates for the 2018/19 financial year, Mwijage said Tanzania's exports to the East African Community (EAC) countries also declined to 349.6 million U.S. dollars in 2017 from 437.7 million U.S. dollars in 2016.

"Exports to the United States dropped from 139.2 million U.S. dollars in 2016 to 75.7 million U.S. dollars in 2017," Mwijage told the House in the capital Dodoma.

He added that exports of goods to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states fell from 1,017.9 million U.S. dollars in 2016 to 877.8 million U.S. dollars in 2017.

Mwijage attributed the drop in exports to a drop in gold prices, production of similar products by many manufacturers and a decline of sales of precious metal ores, tea, coffee and cotton.

The minister said the government was taking measures aimed at fixing the worrisome trend, including enhancing production of crops such as sunflower, cotton tea and coffee.MANILA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- "I felt very sad when I heard that the 'comfort woman' statue was removed. I felt insulted," said Estelita Dy, 88, whose voice was cracking with emotion.

Dy is one of the few surviving Filipino women who were forced to work as sex slave in Japanese military brothels during World War II. She said on Thursday that she was devastated by the decision to remove the statue that depicts their long-standing demand for justice.

The statue was removed on April 27, less than five months after it was erected, on the eve of her 88th birthday. "That's why I was really devastated. I felt I was stabbed in the back again. It was painful," Dy said.

At a moment of the press conference, Dy appeared teary-eyed as she denounced the decision to knock down the statue along the famed Roxas Boulevard in Manila City.

The statue, a seven-feet bronze sculpture that depicts a blindfold, grieving woman in Maria Clara traditional Filipiniana gown, was erected in December last year, a few km from the Japanese embassy in Manila.

The unveiling took place 76 years after the Japanese invasion of the Philippines that started on Dec. 8, 1941, 10 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese imperial forces occupied the Philippines from 1942 to 1945 during World War II.

It's estimated that up to 200,000 women in their teens from around Asia, mainly in South Korea, but also in China, Indonesia and the Philippines, were forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels during that period.

To keep alive the memories of the "comfort women", similar memorial statues in South Korea, China and the United States have been built.

The erection of the statue in Manila angered Japan. Tokyo protested and demanded that it be taken down.

"Comfort women" is a euphemism for the women, mostly Asians, who were forced to work as sex slaves in Japanese military brothels.

Dy is among the hundreds of Filipino comfort women who publicly admitted in the early 1990s, exposing the sexual abuse they had suffered at the hands of Japanese soldiers during the 1942-1945 Japanese occupation of the Philippines.

Most of these women are in their teens when they were abducted by the Japanese soldiers and brought to a garrison to be repeatedly raped, according to the Lila Pilipina, or the League of Filipino Grandmothers.

Lawmakers from the House of Representatives filed on Thursday a resolution seeking to investigate the removal of the statue.

In filing the resolution, Gabriela Representatives Emmi de Jesus and Arlene Brosas said the removal of the statue "violates existing laws and blackens the memory of abused comfort women who died without even getting a formal apology from the Japanese government for the historical injustice which they suffered."

"We will never allow our dignity and our collective quest for justice to be traded merely for Japanese loans and investments. We will never let this incident be swept under the rug," De Jesus said.

Sharon Silva, the incoming executive director of Lila Pilipina, said the removal of statue "is very much in connection with Japanese aid and loans that the government was negotiating for. But we reiterate our stand there should never be a revision of Philippine history."

Teresita Ang-See of Kaisa Para sa Kaunlaran Inc. said she was told that the statue will never be put back on that same spot in public place, lamenting that the ageing war victims can't be given "a small piece of land, less than 100 square meters."

The Filipino "comfort women" are demanding an official apology from the Japanese government, compensation and inclusion of the "comfort women" issue in Japan's historical accounts and textbooks.

In 2016, the women's party-list filed a House resolution urging the Philippine government to demand a formal apology from Japan for the sexual slavery of thousands of Filipino women by the Japanese Imperial Army during WW II.

In the Philippines, more than 200 women came out open in the 1990s to tell their harrowing experience with the Japanese military. There are only less than 10 of them alive now, mostly in their 80s and sick, according to Dy.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 21:44:17|Editor: Liangyu

Video Player Close

Representatives from China and the Philippines attend a groundbreaking ceremony in Davao City, the Philippines, May 10, 2018. Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte held the groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday for a China-funded new water pumping station in Davao City. The construction of the water pumping station will give 3,000 families in the Buhangin District access to clean and safe drinking water, according to Duterte, daughter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. (Xinhua/Dong Chenwen)

MANILA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte held a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday for a China-funded new water pumping station in Davao City.

The construction of a water pumping station in the village of Callawa in Davao City will give 3,000 families in the Buhangin District access to clean and safe drinking water, according to Duterte, daughter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

"This project is a valuable addition to the environmental management initiatives of the local government as we gear up in ensuring a clean and green landscape for the city and in ensuring that pure water flow in the pipes of our homes," Duterte said.

Although this water pumping station in Callawa is but a small project, Zhao said, "it stands testimony to China's sincere commitment in helping Davao region achieve a balanced and sustainable growth."

"In the future, China is also willing to continue to share with our Filipino friends the experience in terms of rural development and poverty relief," Zhao said.

Zhao said securing a supply of clean drinking water not only caters to daily household necessities, but also bears great significance in improving the well-beings of the people in mountainous region of Davao.

"A friend in need is a friend indeed. China has always been committed to playing its due role in Davao's endeavor to pursue economic development and people's welfare," Zhao said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 21:44:18|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

DUBAI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Although geopolitical tensions have been increased in recent months in the Middle East region, decision makers of air carriers and holiday resorts took bold steps to expand their business.

Earlier on Wednesday, United Arab Emirates (UAE) international carrier Emirates Airline presented its annual results for 2017-2018, reporting its annual profit was 124 percent better than the previous fiscal year.

The airline added that for 2018-2019, it would add new routes to London, Santiago, Edinburgh, and an additional flight between Dubai and Auckland via Bali.

Low-cost airline Ai Arabia reported an eight percent year-on-year profit increase and added three new routes from its hubs in the UAE and Egypt in the first quarter of 2018.

Emirates Airline also keeps an eye on costs amid a rising price of oil, after U.S. Donald Trump announced his government would pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.

"While expanding our business and growing revenues, we also tightened our cost discipline. Across the Group, we progressed various initiatives to rebuild and streamline our back office operations with new technology, systems and processes," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates Airline.

Meanwhile in Dubai, the renowned Jumeirah Beach Hotel with 618 rooms will undergo a major refurbishment which started this month "with interior works are scheduled to finish by October 2018," according to Jumeirah's website.

In Bahrain, at the first Gateway Gulf Investor Forum on Wednesday, Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat and Jumeirah Group, a firm controlled by state-owned Dubai Holding, launched the 250 million U.S. dollar five-star Al Sahel Resort on the kingdom's southwest coast.

Also at the forum, aired on Gulf Arab television channels, Klaus Kleinfeld, CEO of Saudi Arabia's 500 billion U.S. dollar mega project Neom, said "the project has almost the size of Belgium. It is located at Saudi Arabia's northwest coast and already has hotels. It will have more resorts at the end of this summer."

Saudi Arabia revealed earlier in April, when the kingdom started to issue tourist visas, it will add 84 new hotels this year to its portfolio.

Bahrain's national carrier Gulf Air also aims to add eight new routes in 2018, according to Gulf Air CEO Kresimir Kucko who spoke at the Gateway Gulf forum.RAMALLAH, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) said Thursday that Israeli police arrested a member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party and his wife in Jerusalem.

Adnan Ghaith, a member of Fatah's revolutionary council, was arrested from his home in East Jerusalem town of Silwan along with his wife, said a statement by the PPC.

The PPC considered the move "a part of the Israeli policy aiming at undermining the Palestinian existence in Jerusalem, and part of the terrorism practiced against Palestinians."

"Israel's policy of arrests and deportation from Jerusalem will only increase Palestinians' resilience and holding on to their rights in the city, to protect the holy Islamic and Christian sites," said the statement.

No Israeli source was available to comment on the issue.

The Israeli army carries out arrest campaigns on an almost daily basis throughout the West Bank, which it says is aimed at "arresting wanted Palestinians," while Palestinians say they are often arbitrary and violent and target civilians.

Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians protested in West Bank city of Bethlehem, marching towards the Har Homa settlement built on mount Abu Ghuneim to the northeast of the city, in commemoration of the Palestinian catastrophe or Nakba of 1948.

Palestinian sources said that the Israeli forces threw gas and sound bombs towards protestors who were shouting slogans, singing nationalistic songs and raising the Palestinian flag.

The sources said that several people were suffocated due to tear gas inhalation and were treated by medics on location.

The catastrophe or "Nakba" for the Palestinian people is marked on May 15 each year, in memory of the forcible transfer of two thirds of the Palestinian people and ethnic cleansing of at least 418 villages as a result of the 1948 war.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 21:59:20|Editor: Yamei

Video Player Close

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (2nd L, bottom) is applauded by members of his party after taking the oath of office in Budapest, Hungary, on May 10, 2018. Viktor Orban was re-elected as Hungary's prime minister by the parliament here on Thursday, starting a third consecutive and a fourth overall term as leader of Hungary. (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)

BUDAPEST, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Viktor Orban was re-elected as Hungary's prime minister by the parliament here on Thursday, starting a third consecutive and a fourth overall term as leader of Hungary.

Among the 199-seat National Assembly, the only house of the Hungarian parliament, Orban received 134 votes in favor and 28 against. To be elected, the prime minister needs more than half of the deputies' votes.

MSZP (Socialist) and LMP deputies did not attend the session, arguing that the opposition MPs would not have a possibility to react to Orban's speech.

Orban took an oath in front of the historical flags of Hungary.

In his speech, Orban said "My government is based on a majority of two thirds, but I will work for the three-thirds."

"Now we have the chance to start new and big things, everything is together for executing big plans: international prestige, experience, self confidence, life force," he added.

The newly-elected also voiced his ambition about his country in the European Union (EU) for the future, saying "I want Hungary to become part of the first five nations of the EU for 2030, where it will be the best to work and live, the same goes to the international competitiveness."

In the economic field, the veteran prime minister said he wants to make Hungary be one of the world's top 10 with regards to the attraction of direct investments.

"High added value investments are needed," said Orban, adding that "with Poland we will form a new and large central European economic area."

The prime minister once again voiced his ideal for democracy. "Instead of not working liberal democracy, Hungary's answer to international challenges is the Christian democracy that defends Christian values, the role of men and women, the fight against anti-Semitism, and the defense of our borders."

"We want to form a new, integrated cultural, economic and infrastructural region in the Carpathian basin," he said.

About the EU, the prime minister said "We want a strong EU, we need the EU and the EU needs us, we are ready to take part in the changes that the EU must undergo, the EU must work as the association of free nations, and not a United States of Europe," Orban emphasized.

But he urged the EU to change its conception of migration, which the EU believes that migration is a fundamental human right.

"I am convinced that migration will lead on the long way to the end of nations, to the end of the languages, to the own culture, there will be one large open society and one large European government. I will work against this plan in the name of the Hungarian freedom," Orban said.

Hungarian President Janos Ader on Monday officially called on Viktor Orban, the candidate for prime minister of the Fidesz-KDNP party alliance, to form the new government following the general elections on April 8.

The Fidesz-KDNP party alliance won the general elections by a large margin, securing 133 seats in the 199-seat parliament.MOGADISHU, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Seven Somali soldiers were killed and two others injured on Thursday when a military vehicle ran into an improvised explosive device (IED) in Lower Shabelle region, southern Somalia, officials said.

A police officer, who did not want to be named, told Xinhua by phone that the soldiers were traveling outside Wanlaweyn town when the attack happened.

"I can confirm that seven soldiers have been killed in the blast," said the officer. "They were traveling outside the town," he added.

Eyewitness Amina Ahmed told Xinhua that the explosion could be heard from a distance, causing panic in the area.

"Everyone was scared since the blast was so heavy. We learnt that soldiers were killed," she said.

The attack comes barely a day after a bomb blast killed at least 15 people in the town which is located some 90 kilometers northwest of Mogadishu. The attack happened at a market Wednesday evening.

Ali Nur, deputy governor of the Lower Shabelle region also confirmed that the soldiers were traveling in a pickup vehicle which hit the explosive device on their way to Afgoye town.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the militant group has in the recent past set explosive devices on roads used by both the Somali army and their African Union counterparts.KABUL, May 10 (Xinhua) -- As many as 26 militants loyal to the Taliban outfit were killed following a series of operations in the country's southern Ghor and eastern Laghman provinces over the past 24 hours, officials said Thursday.

Up to 14 insurgents have been killed and six others wounded in Shahrak district of Ghor province since Wednesday and several villages have been liberated from militants' clutches, Mohammad Iqbal, the provincial police spokesman told Xinhua.

One local policeman lost his life during the operations, he added.

Similarly in Alingar district of the eastern Laghman province over the past 24 hours, 12 militants have been killed and another arrested during operations launched by the National Directorate for Security (NDS), said Sarhadi Zowak, the spokesman of the provincial governor.

Afghan militancy and counter-militancy have increased since Taliban launched its annual spring offensive on April 25 in the country.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 22:09:25|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

KIEV, May 10 (Xinhua) -- More than 4.4 million people were affected by the conflict in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, a senior Ukrainian parliament official said on Thursday.

Iryna Gerashchenko, first vice speaker of parliament, gave the figure to foreign experts, according to a statement by the parliament.

Gerashchenko also said the four-year confrontation between government troops and pro-independence rebels had left over 300 people missing.

The violence in eastern Ukraine, raging since April 2014, has claimed some 10,000 lives, injured about 24,000 people and made about 2 million others homeless.

According to the United Nations, the conflict has also left some 3.4 million Ukrainians in need of humanitarian assistance.PARIS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- France on Thursday urged Israel and Iran, who traded overnight missile attacks over Syria, to exercise restraint to avoid escalation in the Middle East.

Expressing its serious concerns over the escalation, French foreign ministry said in a statement that France "recalls its unwavering commitment to Israel's security and condemns any attempt to undermine it."

"In this regard, it recalls the urgency of negotiating a political solution to the Syrian crisis, calls on Iran to refrain from any military provocation and warns it against any attempt of a regional hegemony," it added.

French top diplomat Jean Yves Le Drian will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif next week to discuss the situation, according to the statement.

Israeli Defense Force said its fighter jets struck dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria early Thursday in response to a rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.The Annual General Meeting of Polarcus Limited ("Polarcus" or the "Company") (OSE: PLCS) was held today at the offices of Polarcus DMCC, Almas Tower, Level 32, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, U.A.E.

The Annual General Meeting resolved to approve all matters as proposed in the Notice dated 19 April 2018.

The Minutes of Meeting are attached.

Contacts

Caleb Raywood, Company Secretary

+971 4 4360 816

caleb.raywood@polarcus.com

Hans-Peter Burlid, CFO

+971 50 559 8175

hp.burlid@polarcus.com

About Polarcus

Polarcus (OSE: PLCS) is an innovative marine geophysical company with a pioneering environmental agenda, delivering high-end towed streamer data acquisition and imaging services from Pole to Pole. Polarcus operates a fleet of high performance 3D seismic vessels incorporating leading-edge maritime technologies for improved safety and efficiency. Polarcus offers contract seismic surveys and multi-client projects with advanced onboard processing solutions and employs approximately 350 professionals worldwide. The Company's principal office is in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. For more information, visit www.polarcus.comBRUSSELS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the landmark Iran nuclear deal has catapulted the fate of European companies' business with Iran into limbo.

The nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), froze the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for a gradual normalization of Iran's economic and political relations with the international community, and the end of sanctions.

Riding roughshod over vehement opposition across the pond, Trump on Tuesday scrapped the deal and declared that Washington would soon re-impose "the highest level of economic sanctions" on Iran.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin elaborated in an announcement that "sanctions will be reimposed subject to certain 90-day and 180-day wind-down periods. At the conclusion of the wind-down periods, the applicable sanctions will come back into full effect. This includes actions under both our primary and secondary sanctions authorities."

Much to Europe's displeasure, foreign companies doing business with Iran are at the crosshairs of the U.S. sanctions against Iran.

In an explicit warning, U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell on Tuesday twitted that "German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately."

German car manufacturer Volkswagen, French energy giant Total, and European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, among others, have stroke up economic ties with their Iranian partners with contracts worth up to billions of dollars, since the nuclear deal was signed by Iran and six world powers in Vienna in 2015.

Volkswagen, in cooperation with the Iranian automotive company Mammut Khodro, began the sale of Volkswagen's Tiguan and Passat models imported from Germany since August 2017.

That marked the Volkswagen brand's return to Iran after more than 17 years.

Another likely victim is Total, which has resumed purchasing crude oil in Iran in 2016 and signed a 20-year contract with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) in July 2017, for the development and production of phase 11 of the South Pars gas field.

The gas field, combined with the adjoining North Field in Qatar, is the world's largest natural gas field.

Under the agreement between Total and NIOC, Total operates the project with a 50.1 percent interest.

The project will have a production capacity of 2 billion cubic feet per day or 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The produced gas will supply the Iranian domestic market starting in 2021, according to the website of Total.

Another company in hot water is Airbus, which in 2016 signed a contract with Iran Air for 100 aircraft, including 46 single-aisle and 54 wide-body jets.

Iran Air has taken delivery of its first new A330-200 in March 2017. However, the U.S. exit of the JCPOA and the looming sanctions cast a shadow over the fate of the remaining delivery.

Thus far, there's no official statement from these companies in response to U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA.

But the European Union and governments of its member states have vowed to stick by the nuclear deal and shield European companies from U.S. sanctions.

Nonetheless, it remains unclear what the EU and its member states will do to deliver on their vows.

"Europe can seek to ease any resumed U.S. sanctions with other forms of economic and business inducements, but only at the cost of taking an unusually confrontational approach in transatlantic relations," wrote Jarrett Blanca, senior fellow in the Geoeconomics and Strategy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, in an article posted on the thinktank's website.ADDIS ABABA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has activitated an emergency operation to support efforts by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in fighting against the new Ebola outbreak in the country.

A new outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) was declared on Tuesday by the DRC government, after two samples tested positive for EVD in Bikoro, Equateur Province.

In response to the new outbreak of Ebola, the Africa CDC said Thursday that it has activated its emergency operation center (EOC) to support national outbreak response efforts, according to an African Union (AU) statement.

The Africa CDC has mobilized its epidemic response team (ERT) for imminent deployment. The team includes experts with previous experience in responding to the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa in 2014 and in the DRC in 2017.

A total of 250,000 U.S. dollars has been set aside for outbreak response activities, and more resources are being mobilized, the statement said.

The AU Commission has been informed of the outbreak and is ready to offer comprehensive support of all AU organs to the response.CAPE TOWN, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The South African cabinet has approved the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) agreement that establishes the common market for Eastern and Southern Africa, East African Community and Southern African Development Community, a cabinet spokesperson said on Thursday.

Now the agreement is going to Parliament for ratification, Phumla Williams said after a cabinet meeting in Cape Town.

The TFTA is a key Africa-led project that marks a decisive step to overcome the continent's colonial heritage of small fragmented markets, Williams said.

This will be achieved by promoting intra-African investments and attracting more foreign investment into the free trade area, she said.

As a result of regional integration efforts and stable economies, there has been strong growth in intra-African investments, said Williams.

The TFTA will boost intra-Africa trade in accordance with the aspirations of the AU's Agenda 2063

As part of Africa's integration approach, the envisaged AFTA is designed to combine market integration with industrial and infrastructure development to address Africa's productive capacity and supply side constraints, promote the diversification of Africa's export base from dependence on raw materials to value-added products, as well as alleviate the chronic infrastructure deficit in the continent.

Besides offering an opportunity to create larger economies of scale, a bigger market and improve the prospects of the African continent to attract investment, the TFTA will provide new export opportunities for South African products and services in West Africa and North Africa.

The South African government has repeatedly stated that it is committed to a coordinated strategy to boost intra-Africa trade and to build an integrated market in Africa that will see a market of over 1 billion people with a GDP of approximately 2.6 trillion U.S. dollars.CAIRO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture decided to ban agricultural imports from South Africa over the outbreak of deadly listeria bacteria in South African agricultural products, official MENA news agency reported Thursday.

The Egyptian ministry's Central Administration for Agricultural Quarantine also banned issuing any import permits related to agricultural products from South Africa until further notice, and ordered to review all similar permits issued since early January.

It ordered a list of all cargos coming from South Africa this month to be reviewed and not to dispose of any of them before the health ministry's approval that they are listeria free and suitable for human consumption.

Egypt imports from South Africa grapes, cherries, pears, pineapples, coconuts and other vegetables and fruits in the off season, besides meat products.

Some 1,600 people get infected and 260 of them die every year because of eating food contaminated with listeria monocytogenes. Listeria could also cause fever, muscle pains and cramps as well as abortion for pregnant women. It most likely infects people with weak immune systems.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 22:37:00|Editor: ZX

Video Player Close

A villager makes lion heads for folk opera in Huozhuang Village of Lingjing Town in Xuchang City, central China's Henan Province, May 9, 2018. With the help of e-commerce platform, the business model of Huozhuang Village, which has a long history of Chinese traditional opera props and costumes manufacture, has gone through fast development from scattered, clan little workshops to online businesses. The village has more than 300 households, with 80% of them engaging in producing and selling drama props and costumes, bringing annual sales of over 200 million yuan. On 2016, Huozhuang Village qualified itself as "Taobao Village" as defined by Alibaba, the e-commerce giant that runs the site Taobao. (Xinhua/Li An)Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 22:29:39|Editor: Liangyu

Video Player Close

Huang Kunming (C), 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, addresses a symposium on deepening structural reform of the cultural sector in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, May 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

SHENZHEN, May 10 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Thursday called for strong cultural confidence to push forward the reform of culture in the new era.

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 at a symposium on deepening structural reform of the cultural sector, held in Shenzhen of south China's Guangdong Province.

Huang stressed efforts to develop a socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, inspire the cultural creativity of the nation, increase the international influence of Chinese culture and help socialist culture flourish.BERLIN, May 10 (Xinhua) ---- French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday accused Germany of being too austerity and made strong plea for reforms in Europe, when he received prize for his contributions to European integration.

In a ceremony held in western German city of Aachen, Macron was awarded the prize for his contributions to European cohesion and integration.

In his acceptance speech, Macron praised Europe for maintaining 70 years of peace on the continent and outlined his vision for the future, calling for more unity among member states and warned that the divisions that appeared during the eurozone and migrant crisis risked undermining the EU.

He urged Germany to get over its "fetish" for budget surpluses and work with France on forging deeper economic cooperation.

"In Germany, there can be no eternal fetishism for the budget and trade surpluses, because they are made at the expense of others," said Macron in the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The French president warned that the EU budget must be "much more ambitious," and made a strong plea for profound reforms in Europe.

"We have to risk something, we have to act now....We have to muster the inner strength to really want this Europe." Europe should not remain an "unfinished symphony" of yesterday, "but we must write a new score".

Macron also noted that Europe had the task of creating peace and stability in the Middle East too, emphasizing with regard to the U.S. withdrawal of the Iran nuclear deal. "We must not just accept something, we need European sovereignty."

Merkel praised Macron's enthusiasm, commitment and courage, saying that "you're bursting with ideas and have revived the European debate with new proposals."

The award should be not only confirmation of the right way, but also encouragement and incentive to continue the journey confidently. "I'm looking forward to working with you on this journey," Merkel said.

The Charlemagne prize is named after the founder of the Holy Roman Empire who built a continental European empire. Charlemagne was crowned at Aachen in the year 800.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 22:29:41|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

Cai Mingzhao (R), president of China's Xinhua News Agency meets with Kyodo News President Masaki Fukuyama in Beijing, capital of China, May 10, 2018. Cai Mingzhao met on Thursday with Masaki Fukuyama, calling on both sides to further enhance cooperation. Xinhua launched its Japanese News Service on Feb. 1, providing news articles, photographs and video and audio reports in the Japanese language. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Cai Mingzhao, president of China's Xinhua News Agency, met on Thursday with Kyodo News President Masaki Fukuyama, calling on both sides to further enhance cooperation.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship. Cai said Xinhua is willing to enhance exchanges with Japanese media to help forge ahead the healthy and stable development of state-to-state relations.

Calling Kyodo an important partner of Xinhua, Cai said the two news agencies have had sound cooperation in the past five decades.

He expressed appreciation to Fukuyama and Kyodo for the sincere support they have provided to Xinhua during the launch of its Japanese News Service, encouraging both sides to further explore cooperation potential.

Hailing the long-term friendship between Kyodo and Xinhua, Fukuyama said Kyodo stands ready to further cooperate with Xinhua in Japanese news services and other areas.

Xinhua launched its Japanese News Service on Feb. 1, providing news articles, photographs and video and audio reports in the Japanese language.

Japanese is the eighth language in which Xinhua releases news reports, following Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic and Portuguese.

The Japanese news service is Xinhua's first multi-media news service intended for a single country.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 22:39:42|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

GAZA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Chief of Islamic Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip Yehya Sinwar warned Thursday that the loss of hope among the Gaza Strip's populations would turn the coastal enclave into a ticking bomb that might explode at any time.

Sinwar's warning was made in a two-hour meeting held at his office with bureau chiefs and media in coordination between Hamas-run government press office in Gaza and the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem.

Sinwar clarified to foreign journalists the reasons behind organizing the six-week marches of return on the eastern area of the Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel, which started in March 30 and will reach its peak on May 15.

"Over the past 70 years, the Palestinians suffered a great injustice and around one million Palestinians were forced to leave their lands and since then, they have been living scattered in refugee camps and all over the world," he said.

On May 15, the Palestinians will mark 70 years for the Nakba Day, one day after the 70th anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence. Organizers of the Great Marches of Return are determined to send tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza to demonstrate at the fence along the border with Israel.

He added that the United States will move its embassy to Jerusalem on May 14, an action "that is totally rejected by the Palestinians," he said.

He said as the Palestinians have been suffering displacement for 70 years and have been living under a tight Israeli siege for 12 years, "the Israeli occupation totally denied our legitimate rights and practiced all actions of repression, humiliation and persecution."

Sinwar, who was elected as Hamas chief in the Gaza Strip, said that the Gaza Strip won't be fitting for human living in 2020 "because the Israeli blockade had struck all aspects of life and forced the populations to be unable to live a dignified life."

The Hamas leader served 25 years in Israeli prisons and was released in a prisoner swap brokered between Hamas and Israel by Egypt in 2011, where 1,000 prisoners were released from Israeli jails for the release of an Israeli soldier captured in Gaza in 2006.

"I lived in Israeli prisons for around 25 years and after I was released, I discovered that life in the small Israeli prisons was much better than life in the big jail called the Gaza Strip in terms of food, electricity and medical services," he said.

He added that "95 percent of Gaza water is not drinkable, 80 percent (of the population) are living under the poverty line, 60 percent lost nutrition security, 45 percent are unemployed, and the most important thing is the sector of youths, who are the vast majority, had lost hope for having a dignified life."

"Such a horrible situation in the Gaza Strip had pushed the populations to join the marches of return calling for their right of return and breaking the siege," said Sinwar, adding that "these marches are peaceful and our people love peace and love life."

He stressed that during 42 days of peaceful and popular marches, the Israeli army killed around 50 people and wounded 8,000 others, adding "I challenge the Israeli side if one single Israeli soldier was injured during these marches."Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 22:44:44|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

ANKARA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday discussed with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani about the U.S. decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

In the phone call, Erdogan told Rouhani that he does not view the U.S. move as a right decision, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported, citing presidential sources.

Erdogan stressed that Turkey supports the preservation of the Iran nuclear deal, namely the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed in 2015.

The two leaders also discussed improving bilateral economic relations, the sources said.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the United States will pull out of the landmark nuclear agreement in 2015, vowing to re-impose nuclear-related economic penalties on Iran.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry has criticized Washington's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal as "an unfortunate step," stressing that Iran's nuclear program should be resolved through diplomacy and negotiations.Latvian English

Riga, 2018-05-10 08:47 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Annual Shareholders Meeting of Latvenergo AS was held on 9 May 2018 at 14:00 at the premises of Latvenergo AS at 12 Pulkveza Brieza Street, Riga.

The resolutions adopted at the Annual Shareholders Meeting:

1. To approve Latvenergo konsolideto un AS Latvenergo 2017.gada parskatu, financial statements are prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union;

2. To approve Latvenergo Consolidated and Latvenergo AS Annual Report 2017, financial statements are prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union;

3.1. To approve the distribution of Latvenergo AS profit for the year 2017 of EUR 150,890,619 as follows:

1) EUR 91,998,299 to pay out to the state in dividends;

2) EUR 58,892,320 to retain with a purpose to distribute them in year 2019, by adopting such decision along with the decision on distribution of Latvenergo AS profit for the year 2018;

3.2. To pay out to the state in dividends EUR 64,419,567, which have been transferred from Latvenergo AS profit for the year 2016 to Latvenergo AS retained earnings (reserves) with a purpose to decide on their pay-out to the state in dividends, by adopting such decision along with a decision on distribution of Latvenergo AS profit for the year 2017;

4. To appoint PricewaterhouseCoopers SIA to conduct the audit of Latvenergo AS for the year 2018, determining a remuneration of the auditor up to EUR 45,300 excl. VAT.

Additional information:

Janis Irbe

Group Treasurer

Phone: +371 67 728 239

E-mail: investor.relations@latvenergo.lv

www.latvenergo.lv

About Latvenergo

Latvenergo Group is the largest pan-Baltic power supply utility operating in electricity and thermal energy generation and trade, natural gas trade, electricity distribution services and lease of transmission system assets. Latvenergo AS has been acknowledged as the most valuable company in Latvia for several times. International credit rating agency Moodys has assigned Latvenergo AS an investment-grade credit rating of Baa2/stable.

Latvenergo Group is comprised of the parent company Latvenergo AS (generation and trade of electricity and thermal energy, trade of natural gas) and seven subsidiaries - Latvijas elektriskie tikli AS (lease of transmission system assets), Sadales tikls AS (electricity distribution), Elektrum Eesti OU (trade of electricity and natural gas in Estonia), Elektrum Lietuva UAB (trade of electricity and natural gas in Lithuania), Energijas publiskais tirgotajs AS (administration of mandatory electricity procurement process) and Liepajas energija SIA (generation and trade of thermal energy in Liepaja, electricity generation). All shares of Latvenergo AS are owned by the state and held by the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia.WASHINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The White House announced on Thursday that Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev will visit the U.S. president's residence and workplace on May 16.

It's the first time that the Uzbek president will be visiting the White House.

The White House said President Donald Trump will welcome Mirziyoyev on the latter's "historic first visit" here.

Trump and Mirziyoyev will discuss trade and investment and regional security, including developments in Afghanistan.

On Jan. 16, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev visited the White House and promised to continue to provide critical logistical support and access for Western troops fighting terrorism.

In April, Trump announced his Afghanistan strategy, saying the United States, instead of withdrawing its troops from the violence-hit country, will increase its military presence there. Central Asia plays an important role in this strategy.SKOPJE, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Macedonia Health Minister Venko Filipce and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Director Doina Bologa signed on Thursday an agreement on joint implementation of measures for the improvement of maternal and newborn health and reduction of mortality ratio.

According to Filipce, the agreement foresees a fund of 5 million Macedonian Denar (around 97,000 U.S. dollars), of which half of the funds are provided by the Macedonian government and half by UNFPA.

"This agreement aims the implementation of several activities by the end of the year such as trainings for the professional staff in two maternity hospitals that cover the highest number of birth, application of practices in line with the latest standards of the World health Organization (WHO) for the care of mothers and newborns," underlined Filipce.

Moreover, Filipce explained that the trainings will be offered from experienced WHO consultants.

This agreement is in line with the 2016-2020 UNFPA Program for Macedonia.

Infant mortality rate in Macedonia is about 11 deaths per 1,000 births, while neonatal mortality rate is 8, according to UNICEF data on Macedonia.CAPE TOWN, May 10 (Xinhua) -- South African law enforcement agencies have successfully conducted raids on illegal immigrants in Cape Town, rounding up a total of 25 suspects, authorities said on Thursday.

The raids were launched on Wednesday in two areas frequented by illegal immigrants, said Thabo Mokgola, spokesperson of the Department of Home Affairs.

The 25 illegal foreign nationals were arrested for allegedly contravening the Immigration Act, according to Mokgola.

More illegal immigrants will be arrested as investigations are continuing, he said.

Law enforcement agencies also arrested a manager at one of the restaurants that were visited, said Mokgola.

The manageer, he said, will be charged for contravention of the Immigration Act, which prohibits employment of illegal foreign nationals in South Africa.

Random inspections at places of employment are conducted to ensure that employers of foreign nationals comply with immigration laws, Mokgola said.

Employing foreigners who are not in possession of enabling documents is an offence, he added.

"Those who persist in flouting immigration and labor laws of the country will face the full might of the law," Mokgola warned.

This is in support of the national drive towards safer communities wherein citizens and documented foreign nationals are and feel safe, he added.DAR ES SALAAM, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency said on Thursday 72,000 Burundian refugees will be repatriated from Tanzania between April 5 and December 31, this year.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement that an agreement to repatriate the refugees was jointly made by Tanzania, Burundi and the UN refugee agency.

The statement said the repatriation of the Burundian refugees was agreed at the 20th meeting of the Tripartite Commission for the Voluntary Repatriation of Burundian Refugees in Tanzania held in the Burundi capital Bujumbura on March 28, this year.

The voluntary repatriation of Burundian refugees continued until March 29 when a convoy transporting 515 Burundian returnees from Nduta refugee camp to Songore transit center in Ngozi province in Burundi was involved in an accident near Ngara town in Kagera region in Tanzania, said the statement.

The statement said the accident left eight people dead, including six refugees, one International Organization for Migration (IOM) staff and one bystander.

The government of Tanzania, UNHCR, and its partners quickly mobilized to provide assistance to the Burundian refugees following the tragedy, said the statement.

During a review meeting between the government of Tanzania, UNHCR, and IOM, it was agreed that the voluntary repatriation exercise would be temporarily put on hold until mid-April and standard operating procedures reviewed, said the statement.

The statement said UNHCR will continue to support the operation to ensure that the repatriations were carried out in a sustainable and durable manner, based on the principles of voluntariness and informed decisions, and took place in safety and dignity.

There are 270,629 Burundian refugees and asylum-seekers living in Tanzania, and 84 percent of them have been in Tanzania since April 2015.SINGAPORE, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday said on Twitter that he looks forward to working with Mahathir, who was just sworn in as Malaysia's prime minister, and the neighbor country's new government to enhance cooperation.

Lee congratulated Mahathir and expressed his hope to catch up with Mahathir in person soon. He said Malaysia is a vital partner of Singapore, and the two peoples share strong and deep bonds.

He expressed wish of enhancing cooperation between the two sides, saying, "We can do much more together."MOSCOW, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Iran nuclear deal should be preserved despite the U.S. decision to withdraw from it, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.

At a joint press conference with his German counterpart Heiko Maas, Lavrov said it's important that all other signatories to the agreement promptly assess the situation, hold necessary consultations, and elaborate steps that could help preserve it.

The deal is crucial for regional stability and maintaining the non-proliferation of mass destruction weapons regime, Lavrov said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States will withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, and impose "the highest level" of economic sanctions on Tehran, triggering global outcry.

The landmark nuclear pact was signed in 2015 by Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States) plus the European Union (EU) and Germany.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that his country will stay in the deal with other signatories.

Lavrov said Russia values Iran's "balanced" position and will hold consultations on the future of the pact with the other signatories.

Maas said he plans to hold a meeting next week with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, as well as the foreign ministers of Britain, France and possibly other countries to discuss the issue.WASHINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that his meeting with top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong Un, will be in Singapore on June 12.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th," Trump said. "We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!"

The remarks came on the heels of the DPRK's release of three detained U.S. citizens, who came back with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo early Thursday after his visit to Pyongyang in preparation for the Trump-Kim summit.Ethiopian attendants walk along a train at the Lebu station in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, Jan. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

ADDIS ABABA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Ahmed Shide, Minister of Ethiopia Government Communications Affairs Office (GCAO), told Xinhua that China hasn't only become Ethiopia's top economic partner but a model for Ethiopia's economic ambitions.

Learning from Chinese economic growth experience, Ethiopia will have about 15 industrial parks by June, most of them built with Chinese money and expertise.

Ethiopia has also heavily invested with Chinese assistance in road, rail and air infrastructures to alleviate transportation problems for Ethiopia's exports.

Shide said landlocked Ethiopia has seen China's success in having an efficient and effective infrastructure to facilitate exports from industrial parks and as such is building a "development belt" to copy the Chinese success story.

The "development belt" will see Ethiopia build industrial parks located along the path of existing or under-construction rail lines to speedily transport products made in industrial parks to ports in neighboring Djibouti.

After reaching Djibouti, the products are then loaded and shipped to their final export destinations including China.

About half of the 15 industrial parks Ethiopia is constructing or has constructed are located along the 756kms Ethio-Djibouti electrified rail line built with Chinese expertise and finances at a cost of 4 billion U.S. dollars.

The rail line which recently started commercial operations has cut transportation time for Ethiopian goods to Djibouti ports from two days to 10 hours, giving a leg up for Ethiopia's economic dreams of becoming a light manufacturing hub in Africa and middle-income economy by 2025.

Shide said Ethiopia is also looking to further boost ties with China on air infrastructure, as the Asian economic powerhouse is the single largest market for its national carrier Ethiopian Airlines (ET).

ET currently flies to five destinations in China -- Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hong Kong and Guangzhou, and plans to add Shenzhen as its sixth destination in June.

With China working on being an airplane manufacturing center, Shide adds he foresees ET will soon be a customer of fully developed Chinese airplanes.

LEARN MORE FROM CHINA

With Ethiopia utilizing Chinese hard infrastructure expertise and money to support its ambitious economic plans, Gedion Jalata, CEO at Center of Excellence International Consult, an Ethiopian consulting firm, told Xinhua Ethiopia should also be learning from Chinese success in creating a meritocratic bureaucracy.

"China succeeded in bringing out of poverty 700 million people in 30 years not just because it built physical infrastructure, but it worked on its human capital helping create an efficient state bureaucracy, that's a soft infrastructure Ethiopia should build," Jalata said.

He said there are simple things the new Ethiopian administration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed can do if Ethiopia is to effectively learn from China's remarkable economic development.

"Ethiopian leadership, just like Chinese leadership, should have the political will, determination and commitment to meet the country's economic ambitions," Jalata added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 23:50:06|Editor: ZD

Video Player Close

A security personnel shows his figures with inks after finishing casting in a polling station in Baghdad, Iraq, on May 10, 2018. Iraqi security personnel Thursday cast their votes across the country ahead of parliamentary election slated for Saturday, amid tight security. The voting began after 7.00 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) when hundreds of soldiers and policemen lined up at polling centers across the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and in other cities to cast their ballots. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

by Jamal Hashim

BAGHDAD, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Millions of Iraqis will head to polling centers across Iraq on May 12 for the first time since the defeat of Islamic State (IS) group, giving Iraqis a new hope for more inclusive government that would counter wide spread corruption.

The coalitions formed to compete in the elections are showing fragmentation in sectarian and ethnic lines in response to voters who blame the Shiite-led government for failing to repair the crumbling infrastructure, reduce unemployment and end violence.

Najib al-Jubouri, a political expert and lecturer at Baghdad University, sees that the political landscape for the majority Shiite community shows five separate Shiite coalitions are competing for Saturday's elections:

Current Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and his predecessor Nuri al-Maliki heads separate lists within the ruling Islamic Dawa Party due to internal disputes between the two wings of Abadi and Maliki, Jubouri told Xinhua.

Abadi is seeking a wider voter base as his list is campaigning in each of Iraq's 18 provinces, including in the Sunni heartland of Nineveh and Anbar provinces, in addition to the three Kurdish provinces.

In theory, Abadi is in a strong position to win a second term, as he is credited with victory over the IS group, in addition to pushing the Kurdish Peshmerga forces from the disputed area, including the oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

He is also credited with balancing Iraq's relations with Iran and the United States, while he made great successes in his relations with Iraq's neighbors in the Gulf, especially with Saudi Arabia.

"However, Abadi has failed so far to convince Iraqis about his economic reform plan and his fight against corruption," Jubouri said.

Meanwhile, former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, leader of State of Law Coalition, is still seen by his considerable base of supporters as a strong leader who defended the Shiite interests, despite that many blame him for losing swathes of territories to IS group, including Mosul.

Still, Maliki is rejected by many local, regional and internationally parties, especially after Iraq lost about one-third of its land to IS and more than four million people were displaced during his eight-year rule.

The third Shiite coalition is the al-Fath Coalition (Conquest) headed by Hadi al-Ameri, who is the head of Badr Organization, which maintains its longtime ties with strong support from the neighboring Shiite country.

Ameri's Fath Coalition is expected to reap high percentage of votes in the Shiite provinces and is expected to make a breakthrough in the Sunni provinces because he has military presence and gained support from some tribal leaders in some Sunni provinces for helping defeat IS group in December 2017. But he is also blamed for including extremist Iranian-backed Shiite militias within the Hashd Shaabi brigades.

There is also al-Sa'iroon Coalition, which includes loyalists to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in addition to the Iraqi Communist Party and other parties of civil rights.

"Many Iraqis believe that this coalition will gain significant number of seats due to its cross-sectarian formation, as the group includes religious Sadrists, communists, liberal and others activists who are known of their struggle for countering corruption and improving governance," Jubouri said.

A fifth Shiite coalition is the al-Hikma al-Watany Movement, (National Movement of Wisdom) headed by Shiite cleric Ammar al-Hakim. Hikma Coalition cannot win the race with the other four major coalitions, but it can be instrumental in the post elections stage when the winning coalitions will regroup to form the largest alliance that would form the next government.

Meanwhile, the Sunni Arab polls runners are at their lowest point, as almost 2.2 million remain displaced, while millions others jobless and living in half-ruined cities.

Analysts believes that the devastative Sunni conditions would prevent large part of them from participating in the polls.

The Sunni traditional coalitions are also suffering fragmentation as some leading figures joined powerful Shiite coalitions like the sacked defense minister Khalid al-Obeidi, who joined Abadi's al-Nasr Coalition in Nineveh province, Jubouri said.

They entered the polls in several coalitions, including the two major coalitions of al-Qarar, led by the former parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, and al-Wataniyah, or National Coalition led by the Shiite secular Ayad Allawi, a veteran politician and former prime minister.

The Kurds in northern Iraq are also facing tough hurdles after the controversial referendum, held on Sept. 25 last year, as they are facing division in their parties.

Losing a few parliamentary seats is inevitable for the Kurds after they lost control over the disputed areas outside the Kurdish region, including Kirkuk province, Jubouri said.

The two major Kurdish parties, Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, are intending to run in the competition in two separate lists for the first time after the consequences of the referendum, while the oppositions parties like Gorran and other two smaller parties are joining in one coalition to compete for the parliament seats.

Ibrhim al-Ameri, a political analyst and teacher of politics at Baghdad University, told Xinhua that fragmentation of Iraqi political landscape would mean that there is potential for cross-sectarian coalitions.

"Such (cross-sectarian) coalitions could present genuine political and economic reforms to counter corruption and improves governance that would bring more stable security situation," Ibrahim al-Ameri said.

However, Ameri sees that fragmentation and repositioning in the political landscape could also open up opportunities for sectarian and ethnic hard-liners, who will be empowered by the political polarization.

"The rise of hardliners could complicate and delay the formation of next government, deteriorate security situation and let Iran to intervene further in Iraq's politics," Ameri concluded.

After the defeat of IS group, it is essential for the government to give confidence to the citizens that it is acting in the interest of the society, Ameri argued.

Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, successive governments have been unable to persuade the Iraqi people that national interests are being safeguarded by those in power, he added.

"The failure in forging trust in state authority would not help preserving the unity of the country, there is a need for less-sectarian, more inclusive and accountable government," Ameri said.

Ameri believes that the post elections stage would be more important than before the polls, as regrouping into larger alliances to form the largest alliance that would designate the next prime minister who will form the Iraqi government for the next four years.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Veritas Pharma Inc. (CSE:VRT) (OTC:VRTHF) (Frankfurt:2VP), (Veritas or the Company) provides the following statement to the recommendation issued by Members of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples calling for a one-year deferment to allow for further consultation with Indigenous groups on May 1, 2018.



Members of the of the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples in the Canadian Senate are recommending the Liberal government hold back on legalizing cannabis for up to a year in order to address its potential for harmful effects in Indigenous communities. The committee, chaired by Liberal Saskatchewan Sen. Lillian Dyck, said in its report on Bill C-45 that the government simply did not consult enough with First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities before pushing ahead with its plan to legalize the drug.

Veritas believes that any amendment to Bill C-45 would not affect the Company as its current interest is patient populations in Puerto Rico, USA as well as Latin America and it is strictly related to the medical cannabis marketplace with both export and import of medical cannabis.

Scott Alexander, Medical Director at Veritas Pharma stated, "We believe that due diligence should be done in structuring Bill C-45 to ensure that all Canadians concerns are addressed. Veritas is solely focused on the medicinal properties of cannabis and our work in Canada is completed in a Health Canada approved facility. We will not be affected by any delays in the passing of Bill C-45 in our continued pursuit of scientific research into the use of cannabis for medical purposes as we seek to maximize its therapeutic effects and minimize the adverse effects that some patients experience."

Veritas would like to assure shareholders that we continue to be committed to advancing the science in medical, not recreational, cannabis where its legal and accessible, and the Company will continue to pursue our existing strategy through its 100% owned subsidiary Cannevert Therapeutics Ltd. on research the growing demand for reliable medical grade cannabis to develop the most effective cannabis strains.

The community of Americans who now rely on legal medical cannabis, estimated to be 2.6 million people in 2016, includes a variety of mainstream constituency groups like veterans, senior citizens, cancer survivors, and parents of epileptic children.

Presently, over 60% of Americans live in a state where cannabis is legal either medically or recreationally, and a recent poll revealed that about 8 in 10 adults support the legalization of marijuana for medical treatment (82% 2016), while half of Americans support legalizing marijuana for recreational use, with a majority indicating that enforcing prohibition isnt worth the cost.

Veritas continues to actively engage with our advisors to provide assistance to government officials on the ongoing policy making initiatives related to medical cannabis in Canada, the United States and other parts of the World.

About Veritas Pharma Inc.

Veritas Pharma Inc. is an emerging pharmaceutical and IP development company, who, through its 80% owned subsidiary Cannevert Therapeutics Ltd. ("CTL"), is advancing the science behind medical cannabis. It is the Companys aim, through its investment in CTL, to develop the most effective cannabis strains (cultivars) specific to pain, nausea, epilepsy and PTSD, solving the critical need for clinical data to support medical marijuana claims. CTLs unique value proposition uses a low-cost research and development model to help drive shareholder value, and speed-to-market. Veritas investment in CTL is led by strong management team, bringing together veteran academic pharmacologists, anesthetists & chemists. The company's commercial mission is to patent protect IP (cultivars & strains) and sell or license to cancer clinics, insurance industry and pharma, targeting multi-billion dollar global markets.

Veritas Pharma Inc. is a publicly traded company which trades in three countries including Canada, on the Canadian Stock Exchange under the ticker VRT; in the United States, on the OTC under the ticker VRTHF; and in Germany, on the Frankfurt exchange under the ticker 2VP.

For more information, please visit our website: veritaspharmainc.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors

" Dr. Lui Franciosi"

Dr. Lui Franciosi

President and Chief Executive Officer

Further information about the Company is available on our website at www.veritaspharmainc.com or under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the CSE website at www.thecse.com.

Investor and Public Relations Contact

Veritas Pharma Inc.

Sam Eskandari

Telephone: +1.416.918.6785

Email: ir@veritaspharmainc.com

Website: www.veritaspharmainc.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not in any way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.WASHINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The White House on Thursday slammed Iran for the alleged rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli-occupied territory.

In a statement, the White House blamed the "provocative" attacks by Iran, saying the U.S. "strongly support Israel's right to act in self-defense."

No party claimed responsibility for the attack but Israel accused Iran of firing the rockets from Syria at Israeli army bases in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The tensions between Israel and Iran escalated after Israel released documents revealing Iran's nuke program earlier this month, and U.S. President Donald Trump's highly controversial withdrawal from the historic Iran nuclear treaty.

Israeli Defense Force said its fighter jets struck dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria early Thursday in response to the rocket attack.

Syria's Foreign Ministry said Thursday that the Israeli attacks will only increase tension in the region and pose a "serious" threat to regional and international peace, according to the state news agency SANA.

Israel has repeatedly said it was not going to tolerate an Iranian military presence inside Syria and targeted several positions where Iranian fighters were believed to have been stationed in recent years. Last month, Israel attacked on Syrian positions where Iranian military experts were located.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-10 23:55:07|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

SANAA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Six civilians, including an entire family, were killed in an overnight Saudi-led coalition airstrike, officials and residents said on Thursday.

Residents said they heard the sounds of planes at midnight and they accounted four separate powerful explosions on a family's house in Al-Azrakayeen district, north of the capital Sanaa.

A father, his wife and their two children were killed, as well as two workers in nearby popular restaurant were also killed from flying shrapnel of the military airstrike, a security official and the residents said.

Six other people, including a woman and three children, were wounded from the air attack, they said.

The targeted house, located on a regular road linking Sanaa to the northern province of Amran, was totally destroyed and several adjacent houses and shops were damaged.

On Monday, a coalition airstrike hit the presidential office in the most densely populated area at the heart of Sanaa at noon, killing six people, mostly from passers-by including a 13-year-old student.

The coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to roll back the Iranian-allied Shiite Houthi rebels and support the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The rebels have seized control over much of the country's north since September 2014, including the capital Sanaa, and forced President Hadi and his government into exile in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia.

The war has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced 3 million others, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.ARUSHA, Tanzania, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania is conducting a major review of various laws with a view to improving the industrial sector and attracting more business investments in the east African country, a senior official said on Thursday.

Charles Mwijage, Tanzania's Minister for Industries, Trade and Investment said that the legislations under review include the Investment Act of 1997, Standards Act No. 2 of 2009, and Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act of 1999.

The minister revealed this when presenting his ministry's budget estimates for the 2018/19 financial year, in the National Assembly in the country's capital Dodoma.

Mwijage said the review of the laws is now in its final stages before proposed amendments are brought before the National Assembly.

According to the minister, the law review is aimed at removing various contradictions which are hampering implementation of the laws, thus thwarting government efforts to improve the conditions of doing business in the country.

He added that the government is also reviewing various policies including the business policy at East African Community (EAC) level, and consumer protection policy against unfair and misleading markets.

"The government intends to come up with new policies including a National Standards policy, as well as a new strategy on innovative copyright," he told the House.

The ministry is furthermore working to ensure that Tanzania ratifies the Trade Facilitation Agreement of the World Trade organization, Mwijage said, adding that a draft of the agreement has already been submitted for government scrutiny prior to ratification by the National Assembly, he said.

According to the minister, government efforts to enable Tanzania to become an industrialized country have already led to a number of achievements.

He cited cement production as among industries that have been doing well, reaching 7.4 million tonnes per year against the national demand of 4.8 million tonnes.

"We are also doing well in the metals sector with the current number of factories standing at 25, thus allowing the country to be independent in steel products," he added.NAIROBI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- An Intergovernmental body, The Group on Earth Observations (GEO), on Thursday hailed China's efforts in promoting environmental conservation in Africa.

Steven Ramage, Senior External Relations Manager at the GEO, told Xinhua in Nairobi that China has over the past decades made tremendous progress in tackling pollution, improving energy efficiency as well as in the reduction of environmental degradation.

"China has been kind enough to offer these expertise and knowledge acquired to African nations for free to help them prioritize environmental conservation even as they pursue economic growth," Ramage said during the launch of the Africa Regional Data Cube.

Ramage said China is working closely with African nations to provide them with good practice and leadership to enable them use earth observations on various fields such as soil and water resource management to empower them to make better government policy for the good of their citizens.

The GEO has 105-member countries from across the globe and aims to use earth observation data that is partly collected using satellite technology to improve the living conditions of human kind.

The GEO has over 75 different activities in many fields such as agriculture and forestry in a bid to provide societal benefit for all.

Ramage said China is working to have a standardized approach in the area of policies for earth observations so that they help government make better policies.

He said over 20 Chinese government agencies are working with GEO to enable the latter achieve its global objectives.

"China has donated over 1 million data resources it has acquired from its satellites to the GEO's Open Data. This information is now available for free to help developing countries improve their decision making in sectors ranging from food security, irrigation and forestry conservation," he said, the GEO is also collaborating with China on the Digital Belt and Road Initiative.

He noted that the Digital Belt and Road Initiative is all about raising awareness on the usefulness of data and how it can help governments to make better decisions to improve the lives of their citizens.KAMPALA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) has withdrawn its proposal to shift its regional service center from Uganda to neighboring Kenya, a government official said on Thursday.

Don Wanyama, presidential spokesperson told Xinhua by telephone that the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has written to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni about the decision taken.

Wanyama said Uganda's ambassador at the UN Adonia Ayebare also confirmed that the UN will not move its base.

The retraction happens a day after a heated debate in the Ugandan parliament about the proposals to shift the base.

The legislators argued that it would be unfair to Uganda since the country has contributed to various peace missions around Africa and also hosts thousands of refugees from neighboring countries.

Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda told the legislators that Museveni had written to Guterres expressing his concern over the proposal.

The base was established at Entebbe International Airport, 40 km south of the capital Kampala after Uganda and the UN signed a memorandum of understanding in July 2010, according to Uganda's foreign ministry.

The ministry said the base is used to provide services to UN field missions in Africa. It currently provides administrative, logistics and information and communications technology services to 13 missions in Africa, representing over 73 percent of all United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions worldwide.MOGADISHU, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Five people were killed on Thursday in a military operation in southern Somalia, local officials have said.

South West state Information Minister Ugas Hasan Abdi said the military were pursuing the militant group al-Shabab in Ma'alinka village which lied between Afgoye and Barire towns in southern Somalia.

"The Somalia security forces conducted the attack, and the target was the terrorist group of al-Shabab. We are trying to establish more details on it," said Abdi.

Residents said there was a huge blast in the village followed by heavy fighting. "There was heavy blasts and then exchange of gunfire," a resident Mohamed Nur told Xinhua. "Several people were killed during the attack."

The authorities in Mogadishu have not issued an official comment on the latest attack.

At least 10 people were killed in Barire last year forcing the government to compensate the families after it admitted those killed were civilians. The U.S. government however maintained the dead were al-Shabab terrorists.SINGAPORE, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on late Thursday that the meeting between Donald Trump, president of the United States, and Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is to be held in the city-state.

Singapore is pleased to host the meeting between the two leaders on June 12, said the ministry in a statement, adding, "we hope this meeting will advance prospects for peace in the Korean Peninsula."

Trump tweeted earlier on Thursday that the highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and himself will take place in Singapore on June 12, and said," We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!"by Habtamu Liben

ADDIS ABABA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- As Ethiopia works to become the manufacturing hub of Africa, the engagement of Chinese companies, from road building to industrial park construction, is widely seen as a bridge to realizing that goal.

Here are some latest developments on the major Ethiopia-China cooperation projects in the Horn of African nation.

INFRASTRUCTURE BOOM

Chinese investments are found in various infrastructure areas of Ethiopia such as road, rail and air infrastructures, alleviating transportation problems in the East African country.

The Chinese-built Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway (or Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway), which connects landlocked Ethiopia and the Red Sea nation Djibouti, is Ethiopia's long-term solution to increasing export commodities and reducing import costs.

As Africa's first transnational electrified railway, the 752-km railway commenced commercial freight and passenger services in January. It has so far transported over 30,000 passengers and more than 11,000 containers of various types.

The railway is also at the center of Ethiopia's industrial ambitions as the country is building an economic belt along the rail line.

In the capital Addis Ababa, many residents now rely on the Addis Ababa Light Rail, a 475-million-U.S.-dollar project built with Chinese technology and currently operated by a Chinese team. The Export-Import Bank of China provided 85 percent of the funding.

Since its opening in September 2015, the light rail has transported 96.8 million people and won praise for greatly alleviating the city's traffic jam.

INDUSTRIAL PARK CONSTRUCTION

Drawing from China's economic growth experience, Ethiopia will have about 15 industrial parks by June, most of which were built with Chinese money and expertise.

In the latest announcement by the Ethiopian government, the construction of the Chinese-contracted Bahir Dar Industrial Park will be completed within three months.

The Ethiopian Industrial Parks Development Corporation (IPDC) previously disclosed that the 75-hectare industrial park will focus on labor-intensive industries that would export value-added textile, apparel and food products.

The park's contractor China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) has previously constructed the country's flagship Hawassa Industrial Park in the southern city of Hawassa, which was inaugurated in June 2017.

The Ethiopian government said the industrial park had attracted world-class textile and apparel companies including PVH, eventually contributing to the country's ambition of becoming Africa's light manufacturing hub with a lower-middle income status by 2025.

Kombolcha Industrial Park, also built by CCECC in Ethiopia's northern Amhara regional state, is expected to start productions this year. The industrial park is to support Ethiopia's efforts to have a manufacturing belt along the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway.

Built by another Chinese construction company China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), the Mekelle Industrial Park in northern Ethiopia is also designed to attract textile and apparel producing companies.

China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group (CTCEGCL) is presently building the Kilinto pharmaceutical industrial park (KIP) at the outskirt of the capital. The World Bank is financing the construction through a loan scheme.

MANUFACTURING MADE-IN-ETHIOPIA PRODUCTS

Chinese companies are also directly engaged in Ethiopia's manufacturing sector, helping produce Made-In-Ethiopia goods to boost the country's exports.

Huajian, a Chinese shoemaker producing for brands like GUESS, Calvin Klein and Nina, entered Ethiopia's manufacturing industry in 2010, when Ethiopia's first 40-hectare Eastern Industrial Zone went operational with Chinese investment.

The shoemaker in August 2016 opened another factory in Ethiopia in its own industrial park on the outskirts of the capital. Its two factories jointly provide direct jobs to more than 7,000 Ethiopians.

Every year in the two factories, about 5 million pairs of shoes labeled "Made In Ethiopia" are shipped to the United States and European markets, fetching some 31 million U.S. dollars for the East African nation in foreign exchange earnings in 2017.

According to the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC), Chinese companies have created more than 28,300 jobs in various sectors in Ethiopia during the five-year period between January 2012 and January 2017.

Mekonen Hailu, EIC Communications Director, told Xinhua that the jobs were created by 279 Chinese companies in Ethiopia during that period. Out of these jobs, over 19,000 were created in Ethiopia's manufacturing sector as the sector is leading its African peers by attracting companies from China, Hailu said.

Construction, service and agricultural sectors are other sectors hosting a great number of Chinese companies.WASHINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that his meeting with top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong Un, will be in Singapore on June 12.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th," Trump wrote. "We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!"

The remarks came on the heels of the DPRK's release of three detained U.S. citizens, who came back with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo early Thursday after his visit to Pyongyang in preparation for the Trump-Kim summit.

On April 30, Trump said that Singapore and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the DPRK and South Korea could be possible sites for his meeting with Kim.

The president on Wednesday ruled out the DMZ, a place he clearly preferred in his earlier tweets considering its symbolic implications.

U.S. analysts said Singapore won out for its neutrality.

While meeting with the three U.S. detainees at Joint Base Andrews, the U.S. state of Maryland, Trump said that his "proudest achievement will be ...when we denuclearize that entire peninsula. This is what people have been waiting for for a long time. Nobody thought we could be on this track in terms of the speed."

"Hopefully everything is going to work out at the highest level," he said, referring to his meeting with Kim. "We will see if we can do something that people did not think was going to happen for many, many years...we're starting off on a new footing."

When asked if he wanted to visit the DPRK one day, Trump said "it could happen."

Related:

Singapore confirms hosting Trump-Kim summitby Shiferaw Tadesse

ADDIS ABABA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) complements the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative in facilitating trade and cooperation among different countries, a senior African Union (AU) official said here on Thursday.

The AfCFTA and the Belt and Road Initiative are complementary as both focus on infrastructure development and connectivity toward facilitating trade and cooperation among countries, AU Commissioner for Trade and Industry Albert Muchanga told Xinhua after attending a ceremony whereby Kenya and Ghana deposited documents with the (AU) of ratification toward establishing the AfCFTA.

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It is aimed at achieving policy, infrastructure, trade, financial and people-to-people connectivity, building a new platform for international cooperation, and creating new drivers of shared development to benefit more countries and people.

Years of efforts by the African Union toward a continental free trade area bore fruit in March, when 44 of the AU's 55 member states of the Pan-African bloc signed the AfCFTA at an extraordinary summit in Kigali, Rwanda.

Kenya and Ghana are the first two countries that ratified the agreement. A minimum of 22 countries are needed for the AfCFTA to come into force.

The AU commissioner expressed hope that that threshold could be cleared in the coming nine to 12 months.

The AfCTFA complements the Belt and Road Initiative with transport, telecommunication interlinkages across the continent, Muchanga said.

"We are building railways. We are building roads. We are building airlines (airports). We are also building communication interlinkages among others," he said.

The year 2000 saw the initiation of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), a structured cooperation mechanism between China and African countries on different areas.

China will host the next FOCAC summit in September.

Sino-African trade and partnership is increasing, and the upcoming FOCAC summit would review such cooperation, the AU commissioner said.

Catherine Muigai Mwangi, Kenyan ambassador to Ethiopia and permanent representative to the AU, said African countries have been enjoying partnership and cooperation with China, particularly through the FOCAC platform.

Cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, which focuses on infrastructure development and connectivity among countries for mutual benefit, helps Africa realize its integration agenda, the ambassador said.

Africa cooperates with China, focusing on priority projects that have continental impact, Mwangi said.

"For instance, you want to develop infrastructure that connects countries. If you focus on infrastructure that is within a country, it doesn't promote integration," she said. "So you want cross-border infrastructure that connects from country to country. That's when we will be able to move people, move goods, and thereby attain true integration."VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stamper Oil & Gas Corp. (TSX-V:STMP) (FSE:TMP2) (OTCQB:STMGF) (Stamper or the Company) today announces the resignation of Dr. Waseem Rahman as a Director of Stamper effective immediately. At this time the Company will remain with a vacancy on the board until a suitable replacement is found.



The Company would like to thank Dr. Rahman for his many years of service and for his contributions to the Company wishes him all the best with his future endeavors.

About Stamper Oil and Gas

Stamper Oil and Gas Corp. (TSX.V:STMP) is an independent international oil and gas company, engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of conventional oil and natural gas properties. The Company plans to identify and build out a portfolio of high-impact oil and gas prospects, with a focus on Africa. Stamper is committed to creating sustainable shareholder value by evaluating and developing future prospects into commercially viable assets.

Stamper announces the issuance of 300,000 stock options at $0.21 to directors, management, and consultants of the Company for a term of twelve (12) months.

For further information on Stamper Oil and Gas please visit www.stamperoilandgas.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

David C. Greenway

President & Director

For further information, please contact:

Stamper Investor Relations

Phone: (604) 684-2401

Email: info@stamperoilandgas.com

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 certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking" statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Stamper Oil & Gas Corp. believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Stamper Oil & Gas Corp. management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, Stamper Oil & Gas Corp undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.NAIROBI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Flash floods from heavy rains pounding several parts of Kenya have claimed 158 lives and displaced 299,859 others since March, a humanitarian agency said on Thursday.

The Kenya Red Cross said numerous effects of heavy rains have caused displacement of populations, destruction of roads and water infrastructure, deaths and injuries, disruption of access to essential services and loss of livelihoods.

Abbas Gullet, Secretary General of the Kenya Red Cross, said a total of 49,975 households (approximately 299,859 people) have been displaced, 19,223 animals (livestock) lost and about 21,741 acres of farmland with crops destroyed.

"The effects of the floods countrywide have now reached a proportion of a national disaster and its severity will be seen when the rains are over. It is our duty to help the families recover from this disaster," Gullet said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

He said the majority of the counties affected are the same ones that were affected by the drought, prior to these rains.

"It is a double tragedy and these communities have been rendered more vulnerable because of the cyclical disasters and their coping mechanisms have been totally depleted," he added.

Kenya has been experiencing unprecedented flooding in recent days as torrential rains pound the country shortly after it had come out of a severe drought season marked by hunger and water scarcity.

The statement comes as the Kenya Meteorological Department said on Thursday the ongoing rains that have left a trail of deaths and destruction will subside in a month's time.

The department's director, Peter Ambeje, who dismissed the allegations in some quarters that the rains have been caused by the El Nino phenomenon, warned of increased rains in the Coastal and Western regions.

Ambeje said the rains would start declining in Northern parts of the country but would increase in the Coastal region. He attributed the current situation to a condition referred to as "Madden Julian Oscillation" which had hit the East Africa region.

"Our weather forecast indicates that the rains will reduce in Northern Kenya but increase in Western, Central and the Coastal region," he said in Naivasha during a workshop on Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay (AMDAR) system.

He noted that they had partnered with Kenya Airways in introducing the new AMDAR system to collect meteorological data as one way of improving service delivery.

Ambeje said that under the system, they would fit the Airways plane with software that would help collect data while on flight.

"In weather forecast data is very critical and under the Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay system we shall use planes from Kenya Airways to achieve this," he said.

The low lying plains have borne the brunt of floods as evidenced by massive destruction of homes, farms, infrastructure and basic amenities like schools and hospitals.

Many schools in the arid and semi-arid regions are already submerged in floods hence putting uncertainties on resumption of studies after the April holiday.

On Wednesday evening, a dam bust its banks in Solai, Subukia Sub-county in Nakuru severely affecting two village. This was one of the three dams in the area owned by a private investor, which was located in the middle of the three dams.

Gullet said 32 deaths and an estimated 500 households being displaced have so far reported by the government.

He said 41 survivors were taken to hospital, 35 of them were discharged while six are still in hospital.

He said five people have so far been reported missing at the Red Cross Tracing desk located at the incident site and the tracing teams are searching for them.

"These families will need long-term assistance by both government and other humanitarian players," Gullet said.

He said the Red Cross has released relief supplies to support the 500 displaced families and is offering psychosocial support to survivors, families and relatives of deceased. This has been done in partnership the County Government of Nakuru and the Central Government.ROME, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Italian anti-terrorism units have arrested 14 Syrian and Moroccan nationals who financed an Islamist extremist group in war-torn Syria by laundering money from illegal immigration, prosecutors said in a statement Thursday.

The network funneled over 2 million euros (2.40 million U.S. dollars) from Italy and other European countries to the al Qaeda-affiliated group Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria through the so-called "hawala" informal remittance system.

The system leaves no paper trail and is hard to trace because it takes place outside the banking and money transfer sectors, finance police said in a statement.

"The investigation uncovered ... a criminal structure of Islamic origin based in (the northern Italian area of) Brianza and which actively promoted illegal immigration into Europe, incessantly raising and transferring funds through unconventional channels such as hawala," the statement said.

National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor Federico Cafiero de Raho told a televised press conference that the money "came largely from illegal immigration".

"Previous claims that there is no connection between migration and terrorism have been contradicted," De Raho said.

"We don't have evidence that this network brought foreign fighters into Italy as migrants, but it is true that part of the funds this network managed came from clandestine immigration and they were used to support terrorism."

In one operation, Italian investigators "dismantled a transnational criminal organization made up of 10 Syrians" that laundered money in Hungary, Italy, Sweden, and Turkey. Two of those suspects have been charged with terrorist financing.

In a parallel operation, police arrested four Syrian and Moroccan "militants ... accused of being part of a support cell" for Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria. They are accused of terrorist criminal association, terrorist financing, and illegal financial intermediation.

The arrests took place in two separate dawn operations, and 20 homes were searched in the Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Sardinia, and Veneto regions.

"The arrested subjects sent money...mainly to Turkey and Syria using an ancient, difficult to trace system (hawala). Investigators uncovered solid evidence...thanks to intelligence activities and international cooperation," state police tweeted.

Investigators used wiretaps and undercover officers to dismantle the network, the finance guard said.

In a statement, Interior Minister Marco Minniti praised today's operation, which he said "uncovered and neutralized potentially hostile structures".PARIS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Elected a year ago, French President Emmanuel Macron gave himself fundamental reforms for France as an objective, a perilous exercise in a country known for being "irreformable" since social movements often mobilize against reforms.

In the past one year, Macron had launched several reform projects -- employment law, fiscal operations, education, institutional reform -- almost no sector has been spared. The objective is "to have a fair system, a strong economy for a strong France", Macron has said.

According to observers, never in recent years has a French president simultaneously undertaken so many reforms with such speed, probably due to the risk of stirring up opposition.

"In order to find the trace of similar rate of reform, it's necessary to return to the beginning of the 5th Republic, in 1959," said political scientist Olivier Duhamel on Europe 1.

Analysts remained skeptical that Macron will manage to see his reforms through to the end, unlike many of his predecessors who came up short.

"A third is already done and many are in progress," said Duhamel while clarifying that Emmanuel Macron has "tried to make the maximum number of reforms".

Elected with 66.1 percent of the votes, the French president launched the first round of reforms from the beginning of his term, including the controversial project to reform employment law which was adopted by an executive order.

But the end of the grace period was quickly accompanied by a plunge in popularity for the President.

According to an Ifop poll published two weeks before Macron had been in office for 100 days, only 36 percent of the surveyed French people said they were satisfied with his activity against 64 percent dissatisfied. That was 10 percentage points more negative than his predecessor Francois Hollande (54 percent dissatisfied vs 46 percent satisfied) at the same point.

The plunge in opinion polls can be explained by the reforms undertaken, especially the cuts in personal housing subsidies, the increase in social security contributions for pensioners, and the transformation of inheritance tax (ISF) into a tax on real estate holdings (IFI).

Some parts of his reform program have become the favorite angles of attack from his political adversaries, who have slapped him with the epithet "president of the rich" in allusion to his plans for the ISF.

French media, meanwhile, have not hesitated to see him as a right-wing president: "One year of Macron. The right finally has its president" was headline of Liberation last Monday in reference to his liberal politics. These attacks have a strong impact on public opinion.

The most recent polls, published in March, on the popularity of Macron and his Prime Minister, were not in his favor either.

According to the BVA poll for Orange, RTL and the Tribune, Macron's popularity reached its lowest level since his election, with only 43 percent of the French who had a "good opinion" of him, against "57 percent" (+4 percent) with a "bad opinion". His Prime Minister Edouard Philippe also recorded his lowest ratings, with 54 percent of the French who had a "bad opinion" of him.

Another poll, Viavoice published in March for Liberation, confirmed the popularity freefall, noting that only 41 percent positive opinions for Macron with a drop of 5 points since December" and "40 percent positive opinions" for Philippe.

In addition to losing the battle of opinion, Macron must also face social protest against his reforms, notable for now by recurring strikes or demonstrations which have paralyzed several sectors of activity for months.

If France is still far from the heavy protests against pension reforms which shut down the country in 2010, or the massive transport strike in 1995 against pension reform launched by former Prime Minister Alain Juppe, Macron's opponents are multiplying separate and shared actions, and are showing themselves just as determined to continue the struggle.

"We are surely set for one of the most important social movements in the history of the SNCF [national rail service]," said Laurent Brun of the CGT, one of France's largest trade unions, at the beginning of rail strikes.

The last day of national strikes was held last April 19, and the next is scheduled for May 26.

Macron is well aware of these difficulties. "Many have tried (to reform) and haven't succeeded, because the French detest reforms. As soon as we can avoid reforms, we do it," he said.by Olatunji Saliu

ABUJA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Seventeen smugglers of codeine have been nabbed in north-central Nigeria as the country begins to enforce its ban on the substance, the national anti-drug police said on Thursday.

Onah Ogilegwu, a senior official of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in the northern state of Kwara, said the anti-drug operatives in the state had arrested 13 of the suspects with codeine and various drugs.

All 17 suspects were arrested within one week.

Ogilegwu confirmed that anti-drug operatives had seized 12 cartons of codeine from the suspects. Some of the codeine cartons were being smuggled to another northern state by the suspects.

The suspects had confessed to making money from the sale of codeine for a very long time, he said.

The Nigerian government had announced the ban on codeine a week ago, directing relevant agencies to enforce it.

The ban includes halting the issuance of permits for the importation of codeine as an active pharmaceutical ingredient for cough preparations.

Codeine is a narcotic pain-reliever and cough suppressant similar to morphine and hydrocodone.

Getting and abusing codeine is relatively easy as it is less regulated than some opiates considered to be more dangerous.

The ban on all codeine-based cough syrup came amid increased reports of the abuse of such substances in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.

During a plenary session last week, the Nigerian Senate said its investigation revealed at least 3 million bottles of codeine-based cough syrups are consumed every day in the country, with 70 percent of them going into the enclaves of terror group Boko Haram in the northeast region.

According to a Senate leader, a few million bottles of the banned substance were found used last year in the northwestern Nigerian states of Jigawa and Kano.

The Nigerian government said cough syrups containing codeine would be replaced with dextromethorphan which is less addictive.

The dextromethorphan is a cough suppressant used to treat coughing, and also a drug of the morphinan class with sedative, dissociative, and stimulant properties.MADRID, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish Congress on Thursday took the first stage towards decriminalizing euthanasia when lawmakers voted in favor of a bill to open a debate over whether euthanasia and assisted suicide should be made legal in the country.

Various media outlets, such as Spanish TV network RTVE and the El Pais newspaper, reported that the bill to reform the Spanish penal code was approved with 173 votes in favor, 136 against and with 32 abstentions.

It is the first time after 16 attempts that a bill to make euthanasia legal has been able to get past the first hurdle of the Spanish political system. The bill looks to modify part of Spain's penal code which forbids anyone helping another person to end their life.

Spain currently has a penalty of between 2 to 5 years in prison for anyone who cooperates in the "actions necessary for another person to commit suicide", and between 6 and 10 years in jail if that cooperation directly causes the death of whoever wants to commit suicide.

The new bill aims to allow helping cause the "reliable, peaceful, painless death" of someone who "specifically, freely and unequivocally" requests suicide.

The right wing People's Party of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy voted against the bill along with the right wing UPN, from the region of Navarre, while the center-right force Ciudadanos abstained, with the votes in favor coming from center-left, left wing and nationalist parties.

An inquest carried out by the research company Metroscopia in March 2017 showed that despite being nominally a catholic country, 84 percent of Spaniards were in favor of people with terminal illnesses being helped to die "painlessly", as is already permitted in countries such as Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and Canada.

There is still a long way to go before the bill can become law, as it will have to progress through several stages. But Thursday's vote mans it will now be debated in a committee stage.KAMPALA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Over 900 Burundians have fled to Uganda claiming that they are being forced to participate in the voting exercise for a new constitution, an operation update by the UN refugee agency said on Thursday.

The update by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issued here said in the month of April 994 Burundians crossed into Uganda seeking refuge.

"The latest wave of new arrivals from Burundi revealed that they fled due to forced participation in the voting exercise for new constitution scheduled in May 2018," the report said.

The new arrivals bring the total number of Burundian refugees who have fled to Uganda to 2,074 individuals since the beginning of this year, according to UNHCR figures.

The refugees are mostly from the provinces of Bubanza, Bujumbura, Bururi, Cankuzo, Cibitoke and Karusi.

The others are from Kayanza, Kirundo, Muramvya, Muyinga, Ngozi and Ruyigi.

The UN agency said the refugees are also reporting persecution by the Imbonerakure militias as well as forced repatriation from Tanzania and Rwanda.

Burundians will vote in a referendum on the country's draft constitution on May 17. The draft constitution extends the presidential term from five years provided in the 2005 constitution to seven years and allows the president to serve two consecutive terms.

The draft does not ban the current president Pierre Nkurunziza to run again in 2020.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-11 00:55:26|Editor: Yamei

Video Player Close

Malaysia's new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (C) attends a press conference in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia, May 10, 2018. Mahathir Mohamad, 92, a former Malaysian prime minister who led the opposition to achieve a stunning victory in the general election, took the oath of office on Thursday night, becoming the world's oldest government leader. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei)

KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Mahathir Mohamad, 92, a former Malaysian prime minister who led the opposition to achieve a stunning victory in the general election, took the oath of office on Thursday night, becoming the world's oldest government leader.

Mahathir won the election after his coalition Pakatan Harapan secured 113 seats out of the 222 seats at the parliament's lower house, unseating the Barisna Nasional coalition, which has run the country for more than 60 years and of which Mahathir used to serve as the chairman.

TV live-broadcast showed that Mahathir, wearing traditional malay attire, pledged to serve the country and the people well.

He was accompanied by his wife Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali and other leaders in the opposition alliance, including Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, whom Mahathir pledged to tap as the deputy prime minister.

The ceremony, held at the national palace, was witnessed by Malaysia's head of state Sultan Muhammad V.

A statement released by the royal palace ahead of the ceremony said the king Sultan Muhammad V invited Mahathir to form the next federal government.

The royal palace also refuted allegations that the king delayed the appointment of Mahathir as the new prime minister, saying that he strongly supports and respects the democratic process.

The appointment of Mahathir as prime minister added more optimistic sentiments and jubilance to the country, with many Pakatan Harapan supporters taking to the street, holding flags and honking horns.

In his first press conference as the new prime minister, Mahathir said that even he himself did not anticipate the surprising election results. He thanked the Malaysian people for their support.

Mahathir listed his 22 years of experience being the former prime minister as his qualification to run the country again, saying he aimed to set up a good government, which is based on the constitution and the law.

As for the next move, he said he would consult with leaders of other component parties in the alliance on Friday, to divide the number of ministers among themselves to set up a new cabinet as soon as possible.

Mahathir reiterated his pledge to seek a royal pardon for Anwar Ibrahim and hand over the premiership within two years. Anwar is the former deputy prime minister of Mahathir who is in prison for sodomy charges. He is scheduled to be released in June.

Expectations are high for Mahathir to transform the Malaysian government from the race-dominated agenda to more constructive policies. During his last premiership, Mahathir introduced the "Vision 2020" blueprint for the nation to become a self-sufficient industrialized nation by 2020.

On his way to the royal palace on Thursday afternoon, Mahathir sat in a Malaysian-made sedan called Proton Perdana with car plate number "2020", a sign that he is still sticking to his plan.CAPE TOWN, May 10 (Xinhua) -- South African MPs on Thursday condemned an attack on a mosque in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal Province.

One person was feared dead and two others were wounded in the attack that happened on Thursday afternoon. The motive for the attack is still under investigation.

Three knife-wielding attackers entered the mosque and carried out the gruesome attack before setting the building alight, police said.

The attackers fled the scene in a white Hyundai. No one has been arrested.

Attacks on religious institutions are downright criminality and should be condemned, Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police said.

The attack was shocking and the South African Police Service (SAPS) should prioritize the investigation into it, Committee Chairperson Francois Beukman said.

"A mosque is a religious institution, and South Africa's Constitution guarantees and protects the right to religious practices," Beukman said.

This kind of attack on three innocent people is totally unjustified, he said, adding that "we want our communities to live in harmony, practicing their religions without fear."

"Everything should be done to arrest the perpetrators," said Beukman.

Anyone with information should contact law enforcement agencies, he said.KAMPALA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Lawyers from the Eastern African region have warned of an increase in human trafficking, noting that the vice could grow bigger than arms smuggling if not checked.

The lawyers from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia were meeting here on Thursday under the theme "strengthening regional responses towards child trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation."

They said countries need a multi-national approach to fight the crime since it is cross border.

"We also wanted to reemphasize how rampant child trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation are in the region and the need to deliberately report on them," said Mercy Grace Munduru, an official from the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers.

The lawyers noted that human trafficking was sometimes being carried out by high ranking public officials, which makes it complicated to fight.

They said since human trafficking was run by large organized crime networks, it was most likely to perpetuate other security threats like arms proliferation and smuggling.

The meeting recommended that member countries vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking offences and convict and punish traffickers, including government officials suspected of complicity.

Human trafficking earns profits of roughly 150 billion U.S. dollars a year for traffickers, according to a 2014 report by the International Labor Organization. Of that 99 billion dollars is from commercial sexual exploitation.

The root origin of most of the victims is Africa, with destinations such as western Europe.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-11 01:15:32|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

BEIRUT, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Interior Ministry released Thursday data of all the results from Lebanon's first parliamentary elections in nine years, which is held on May 6.

The Hezbollah militant party retained its 13 seats at the new parliament, while the Amal Movement of Speaker Nabih berri managed to increase its share to 17 MPs.

The Free Patriotic Movement of Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil obtained 29 seats while the Future Movement of Prime Minister Saad Hariri lost 14 MPs and stood at 21 MPs in the new parliament.

The Lebanese Forces of Samir Geagea were considered the biggest winner of the elections as it managed to increase its share from 6 MPs to 16 in the new parliament.

The Progressive Socialist Party of MP Walid Jumblatt maintained its 9 seats while the Kataeb of MP Sami Gemayel stood at 3, and so did the Marada Movement of former Presidential candidate MP Suleiman Franjieh.

Former Prime Minister Najib Mikati returned to the parliament with 4 MPs and the Syrian Social National Party obtained 3 seats.

There are 13 elected MPs who are considered to be independent as they are not affiliated with any party.

The results of the elections stem from 6,793 ballot boxes in Lebanon and 232 from expatriate voting. The results include the votes obtained by each electoral list and each individual candidate in all of Lebanon's 15 districts.

The 128-seat parliament maintain a term of four years.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nevada Copper Corp. (TSX:NCU) ("Nevada Copper" or the Company) is pleased to announce a series of important milestones in line with the current mine development schedule. These activities, which include the signing of a pre-works contract with Cementation USA Inc. and the securing of key long-lead time items, de-risk the re-start of construction of the Companys Pumpkin Hollow Underground Project (the Underground Project). These activities will allow the Company to promptly advance the re-start of construction of its 5,000 tons/day underground project, targeting first copper production in 2019.

Pre-Construction Highlights

Securing of Long-Lead Items: Procurement agreements to order SAG and Ball Mills for the processing plant, as well as mobile mining equipment, have been signed.

Procurement agreements to order SAG and Ball Mills for the processing plant, as well as mobile mining equipment, have been signed. Pre-Works Contract: Cementation USA Inc.  a leading, global mining contractor  has been hired to prepare the shaft for re-sinking which, at approximately 1900 feet, is just 250 feet from completion.

Cementation USA Inc.  a leading, global mining contractor  has been hired to prepare the shaft for re-sinking which, at approximately 1900 feet, is just 250 feet from completion. Pre-Construction Site Work: The Company has begun transitioning infrastructure from care and maintenance to active status and has ordered long-lead underground mining equipment.

The Company has begun transitioning infrastructure from care and maintenance to active status and has ordered long-lead underground mining equipment. New Staff Hires: A number of key operations and site team hires have been made; others are imminent.

Matt Gili, CEO of Nevada Copper, commented: "Construction readiness is at an advanced stage, and activity continues to ramp up at Nevada Coppers Pumpkin Hollow Site. The preliminary steps taken, including negotiating key contracts as well as on site activities and ordering of long-lead equipment, are in line with the current schedule of the Company and support the goal of first copper production in 2019.

Further Pre-Construction Details

Securing of Key Long-Lead Items

In anticipation of a re-start of full-scale construction activities, the Company has initiated procurement of certain key long-lead items, including:

SAG and Ball Mills for the process plant

LOI signed with Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation for a lease on certain Caterpillar and Elphinstone underground mining equipment, and;

LOI signed with Epiroc, an Atlas Copco company, for a lease on certain underground mining equipment.

It is the Companys intention to sign binding agreements and place deposits on critical path items to ensure availability and lock-in costs. Furthermore, the Company has Interim Services and Procurement Agreements in place in order to continue detailed engineering design and procurement of long-lead items.

Pre-Works Contract  Cementation USA Inc.

Nevada Copper has recently signed a pre-works contract with Cementation USA Inc., a leading global mining contractor with extensive worldwide experience in shaft sinking and underground mine development work. The signing of this contract allows for the preparation of the existing shaft and hoist infrastructure prior to the re-start of underground construction activities. Cementation USA Inc. was previously engaged by the Company in 2013 to commence shaft sinking and underground development and therefore has comprehensive, existing knowledge of the Underground Project.

Pre-Construction Site Work

In preparation for a re-start of construction, Nevada Copper has begun further site preparation and pre-works on its Underground Project, including:

Transitioning infrastructure from care and maintenance to active status;

Ordering of long-lead underground mining equipment;

Ordering of new auxiliary hoist and main ventilation fans;

Ordering of Galloway ropes and winches;

Galloway structural refurbishment;

Surface road upgrades and building site preparation; and,

Testing of equipment, ventilation, and pumps.

About Nevada Copper

Nevada Copper (TSX:NCU) is a copper company with significant production potential from its large land position in Nevada, United States. Nevada Copper is well placed to be the next North American copper producer, due to the advanced stage of its Pumpkin Hollow mine.



Its two fully-permitted projects include: the high-grade Pumpkin Hollow underground mine which is expected to move into construction shortly with a view to near-term commencement of copper production; and the Pumpkin Hollow open pit, a large-scale copper deposit which is currently undergoing an optimization program to target a reduced-capex, staged-development approach.

Qualified Persons

The information and data in this news release was reviewed by David Swisher, P.E., Vice-President, Operations of Nevada Copper, who is a Non-independent Qualified Person within the meaning of NI 43-101.

More information about the Underground Project is available in the Pre-Feasibility Study (the "Technical Report") as filed on SEDAR on January 9, 2018, and prepared in accordance with NI 43-101.

NEVADA COPPER CORP.

Matt Gili, President and CEO

We seek safe harbour.

For further information call:

Rich Matthews,

VP Marketing and Investor Relations

Phone 604-683-1309

Email: rmatthews@nevadacopper.comNAIROBI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan and Djibouti leaders on Thursday vowed to continue safeguarding peace and stability in the Horn of Africa region, specifically in Somalia, under the aegis of regional bloc and the African Union.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Djibouti counterpart Omar Guelleh called for enhanced and sustainable funding for the Africa Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) to facilitate the delivery of the Mission's mandate.

"Both leaders noted that al-Shabab continues to pose significant threat to Somalia and the region," they said in a joint communique issued at the end of a three-day visit by President Guelleh in Kenya.

Both Kenya and Djibouti are troop contributing countries under AMISOM which has been fighting the militant group in the Horn of Africa nation.

The two leaders expressed concern at the continued lukewarm international support for Somalia, in particular inadequate and unpredictable funding for AMISOM, which threatens to roll back the gains made thus far.

They committed to continue lobbying for adequate and sustainable support to AMISOM, including provision of force multipliers for the Mission in Somalia, as well as training for the Somalia Security forces.

"The leaders expressed deep concern at the effects of external interests that are destabilizing Somalia further," they said.

Guelleh who arrived in Kenya on Tuesday and his host, Kenyatta, also expressed their desire to see a faster pace in ongoing efforts to restore peace in South Sudan.

They urged leaders of South Sudan to place the interests of their people above their own in order to give peace a chance.

South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013 after political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar led to split within the SPLA, leaving soldiers to fight alongside ethnic lines.

The 2015 peace agreement to end the conflict was weakened after the outbreak of renewed fighting in July 2016.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-11 01:20:34|Editor: Liangyu

Video Player Close

SHANGHAI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has urged stepping up brand building and helping more Chinese products to go abroad and win global recognition.

"Reinforcing brand building and increasing quality supply are important content of realizing high quality development and more effectively meeting people's needs for a better life," Li said in an instruction on brand building.

In recent years, China has made positive progress in brand construction thanks to the joint efforts of all sides, the premier said.

Li urged all local authorities and government departments to implement the innovation-driven development strategy, improve total factor productivity and overall corporate competitiveness, and gather strength from mass entrepreneurship, innovation and internet plus pushes.

Targeting the people's new needs and constantly upgrading market demands, they should increase the variety of products, improve quality, nurture brands, and promote entrepreneurship and quality workmanship to make Chinese brands and Chinese products go global, Li said.

Activities marking the "Chinese Brands Day" began in Shanghai Thursday.

Vice Premier Hu Chunhua attended an expo and a forum on Chinese brands in Shanghai, stressing the importance of stepping up the development of Chinese brands.NAIROBI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The African Union Commission on Thursday urged scientists to integrate traditional knowledge into biosciences research.

Ysaye Gassama, the chairperson of High Leve Panel on Emerging Technologies of AUC, said the continent's genetic resources should be made strong factors for competitiveness and socioeconomic development.

"Let us consider our tradition as a base from which to build something new to help drive sustainable changes in bringing wealth and prosperity," Gassman said on Thursday during the launch of African Women for Biosciences (AWfB) Kenyan chapter in Nairobi.

Gassama noted that Africa's success relies on linkage of knowledge to innovation in key sectors of the economy.

She called for a transition to a bio-economy since it has a potential for job creation through innovation.

Gassama observed that modern biotechnology is giving rise to a new bio-economy system hence taking substantial share of the global production.

She said that through biotechnology, biomass production of plant and animal species will be a substitute to fossil minerals and chemical processes within a few decades.

The AUC official called for gender mainstreaming in science especially in the training of women and girls and the development of endogenous scientific capacity.

"We have to incorporate innovation to help countries reduce unemployment of the youths," she added.

Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs Margaret Kobia told women scientists to conduct research that uplifts the living conditions of women in rural areas.

"This initiative should provide unique platform to help empower women scientists to be able to mentor young scientists and women in rural areas who form 80 percent of farmers," she added.

Margaret Karembu, the chair of AWfB Kenyan chapter, revealed that the new outfit will help the government in fighting food insecurity by promoting science based farming in farming communities.

"This is a platform for professional women to engage the public on bioscience issues and advocate for investment in innovations that promote bio-based enterprises for sustainable livelihoods," Karembu added.

She added that the body will also facilitate mentorship for upcoming professionals in support of an inclusive scientific workforce.

AWfB Kenyan chapter plans to align the government's policies that ensure women in biosciences are at leadership and decision making levels and that women access biosciences research in the region for fostering potential collaboration and partnerships.

It will also create a linkage between women researchers and the industry to ensure transfer of cutting-edge technology products from biosciences.File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe upon his arrival at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kawagoe, near Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 5, 2017. (Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The White House said Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday about his coming meeting with top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong Un.

According to a White House statement, the two leaders discussed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's recent visit to the DPRK, and agreed to continue close coordination in advance of Trump's upcoming meeting with Kim.

Trump and Abe committed to maintaining trilateral cooperation with South Korea, and "affirmed the shared goal of North Korea abandoning its illicit weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs."

Japanese Foreign Ministry said earlier that Abe, on the phone, told Trump he welcomed the positive attitude of the DPRK and congratulated him on the release of three Americans detained.

Abe briefed Trump on the details pertaining to a summit on Wednesday with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, the ministry said.

Also on Wednesday, Trump spoke with the South Korean president over phone, when the two leaders welcomed the DPRK's decision to release three American detainees, and expressed hope for joyful inter-Korean family reunions.

Trump tweeted earlier on Thursday that his meeting with Kim will be in Singapore on June 12.KIGALI, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Africa needs to come up with firm action on women empowerment and gender equality and ensure that there are full and equal rights for both males and females in law and in practice, officials said Thursday.

"We cannot build strong and dynamic African economies, if women and girls, who form the majority of the population, remain excluded in spheres of development. We need firm action and commitment to achieve gender equality," Diana Ofwona, regional director of UN Women Office for West and Central Africa, said at the opening session of a gender conference in Kigali, capital city of Rwanda.

Whatever interventions being made to promote gender equality, they must not come at the cost of disfranchising men and boys, Ofwona said at the two-day event organized by the Rwandan government, UN and the Smart Africa secretariat.

The event brought together officials from the Rwandan government and UN, members of civil society and academia, gender activists and the private sector to discuss gender mainstreaming efforts in Africa.

Despite some of the efforts made with regards to gender equality and the empowerment of women, Africa still has a long way to go, said Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika, Zambia's former ambassador to the United States.

There is a need to act and show commitment to bridge this gap, she said.

She added that African governments must acknowledge that the implementation of gender equality has been too slow and uneven, and more efforts are needed to accelerate progress across the continent.

Political will by African leaders and policy makers is very key to achieving gender equality in social, political and economic areas in Africa, according to Protais Musoni, Chair of Pan African Movement' Rwanda chapter.

"It is even more urgent than ever that we ensure that gender equality is fully achieved as Africa focuses on agenda 2063," he noted.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-11 02:55:55|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

DAMASCUS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The evacuation of rebels and their families from three towns south of Syrian capital Damascus has completed on Thursday, under a Russian-mediated deal that saw them leave for rebel-held areas in northern Syria.

Hundreds of rebels and their families left Beit Sahm, Yalda and Babila towns south of Damascus in seven batches, as the evacuation process started earlier this month, state-run news agency SANA reported.

The three towns, adjacent to Islamic State (IS)-held areas of Hajar al-Aswad and Yarmouk Camp, are now empty of rebels and the Syrian police will enter as a prelude to the entry of the government institutions to those areas.

Other rebels, who wanted to remain in the towns, were offered reconciliation with the government, which is basically an amnesty offered by the authorities to those who surrender their weapons.

It is also worth mentioning that the three towns, in particular, have for long been out of the conflict zone, as the Syrian army concluded a truce with various rebel groups in these towns in 2014, and since then the Syrian government has been trying to turn the deal from a truce to reconciliation, which will allow the government to enter those areas and take control.

The military move to clear the southern rim of Damascus was initiated last month, after the rebels in the Eastern Ghouta had been evacuated to Idlib under a similar deal.

Russia has mediated almost all of the evacuation deals that have taken place in southern and eastern Damascus recently, making a big effort to reach a formula to end the presence of the ultra-radical groups in areas near Damascus without extra conflicts.LISBON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's Socialist Party (PS) government announced on Thursday that it would retable a motion to have banks automatically inform the tax office of any bank account containing 50,000 euros (60,000 U.S. dollars) or more.

"The President of the Republic has publicly declared that the circumstances that justified the bill's original veto have passed," read a government statement sent to the Lusa Portuguese News Agency. "The Council of Ministers has therefore decided to resubmit the bill for presidential approval."

The bill was originally submitted in September 2016, but vetoed by President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. At the time, the president called the bill "inopportune", saying neither the Portuguese economy nor the banking system was strong enough to handle the change.

A mass withdrawal of deposits had been predicted if the law was passed, at a time when Portugal's banking sector was particularly fragile. The Portuguese state had been forced to rescue the banks Banco Espirito Santo in 2014 and Banif in 2015 and recapitalize Caixa Geral de Depositios in 2016.

The bill is now back on the agenda after Catarina Martins, leader of the Left Bloc (BE), an informal coalition partner of the PS, raised the issue in parliament on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa said the government would revive the initiative as soon as circumstances proved "opportune".

Rebelo de Sousa immediately issued a statement on the president's official website saying the bill had been vetoed in 2016 due to the "especially delicate situation the Portuguese banking sector was then experiencing."

This was understood by the PS and BE to imply that the president believed circumstances had changed.

The Portuguese economy grew 2.7 percent in 2017 compared to 1.6 percent in 2016.

"The conditions are in place to take this step," said Portugal's finance minister, Mario Centeno, in a press conference that followed the Council of Ministers meeting. "The government has worked tirelessly to bring stability to the financial system," he added.

Centeno also reiterated that the new bill meant banks would simply pass on bank balance figures. "The tax authorities will not have access to bank accounts or movements," said Centeno.

The measure is necessary "to combat fraud, tax evasion and money laundering," he said.BRATISLAVA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Iran was set to damage Slovak companies, a Slovak opposition lawmaker said on Thursday.

Slovak companies have signed deals worth about 100 million euros (118 million U.S. dollars) with Iran, according to Veronika Remisova, member of parliament from OLaNO party.

"It's likely that they'll be forced to cut their business contacts with Iran due to sanctions, or their business will become extremely complicated," warned Remisova.

Another opposition party Freedom and Solidarity echoed the Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Ministry's regret about the U.S. decision to abandon the Iran nuclear deal.

"Economic sanctions will provoke Iran to renew the development of a nuclear bomb, while weapons and hatred will take the place of dialogue," reads a statement signed by MP Martin Klus and another politician Richard Sulik.

Slovakia's Foreign and European Affairs Ministry on Wednesday expressed its concerns about the United States' decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and reintroduce sanctions against the country.

The only realistic response to the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal is calling on all other parties to remain committed to it, said Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Ministry State Secretary Ivan Korcok.

"We're also calling on Iran to refrain from immediate steps in reaction to the U.S., while I believe that this deal will also meet its purpose to a certain extent event without the U.S.," said Korcok.Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Da Nang, Vietnam, Nov. 10, 2017. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

MOSCOW, May 10 (Xinhua) -- China topped a list of countries Russians viewed as the country's most necessary and valuable partner, a poll showed Thursday.

One third of the respondents chose China, followed by Belarus (13 percent) and the United States (8 percent), according to a survey conducted by Russian polling institute Public Opinion Foundation.

Russians made the decision because they thought China is a rapidly developing country with great economic opportunities.

Nearly half of the surveyed said cooperation with China is now the most important for the Russian economy, followed by Belarus (26 percent) and Germany (23 percent).

The pollster surveyed 1,500 Russian citizens aged 18 and above across the country on April 29.Israeli tanks are seen in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, on May 9, 2018. (Xinhua/JINI/Ayal Margolin)

MOSCOW, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Moscow hopes that Iran and Israel will exercise restraint after alleged mutual missile attacks, the Kremlin said Thursday.

"Moscow is concerned about the growing tensions and hopes that all parties will show restraint and resort exclusively to political and diplomatic means to solve all existing problems," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a daily briefing.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Israel fired some 60 missiles Thursday using 28 F-15 and F-16 aircraft and launched about 10 surface-to-air missiles to bomb armed Iranian detachments in Syria and Syrian air defense positions.

The attacks were carried out under the pretext of responding to alleged rocket strikes by Iranian forces based in Syria on Israeli positions in Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the Russian military said.

The tensions between Israel and Iran escalated after Israel released documents revealing Iran's nuke program earlier this month, and U.S. President Donald Trump's highly controversial withdrawal from the historic Iran nuclear treaty.

Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia advocates the resolution of the conflict through dialogue.

He said that Russia contacted both Iran and Israel, emphasizing the need to "avoid any mutually provoking moves."

The White House in a statement blamed the "provocative" attacks by Iran, saying the United States "strongly support Israel's right to act in self-defense."VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (NYSE:FSM) (TSX:FVI) announces today that it has filed its Management Information Circular for the Companys Annual General Meeting to be held on June 14, 2018. The Circular is also available for viewing on the Companys website.



Director Robert R. Gilmore has decided not to stand for re-election to the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting. Mr. Gilmore has been a member of the Board and served as audit committee chair since 2010.

Simon Ridgway, Chair of the Board of Fortuna, commented, On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank Robert for his commitment and service to Fortuna and its shareholders. Mr. Ridgway added, Roberts sound judgement and business experience have been an asset during the past eight years as we worked together to continue growing Fortuna and creating shareholder value.

Roberts significant contributions and insights throughout his tenure as director of the Company have complemented the Boards capabilities and strengthened managements decision-making process, said Jorge A. Ganoza, President, CEO and Director of Fortuna. We wish him well in his future endeavours.

About Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.

Fortuna is a growth oriented, precious metal producer with its primary assets being the Caylloma silver mine in southern Peru, the San Jose silver-gold mine in Mexico and the Lindero gold Project in Argentina. The company is selectively pursuing acquisition opportunities throughout the Americas and in select other areas. For more information, please visit its website at www.fortunasilver.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Jorge A. Ganoza

President, CEO and Director

Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.

Trading symbols: NYSE: FSM | TSX: FVI

Investor Relations:

T (Peru): +51.1.616.6060, ext. 0

E: info@fortunasilver.com

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward looking statements which constitute forward looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and forward looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, Forward looking Statements). All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are Forward looking Statements and are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those reflected in the Forward looking Statements. The Forward looking Statements in this news release may include, without limitation, statements about the Companys plans for its mines and mineral properties; the Companys business strategy, plans and outlook; the merit of the Companys mines and mineral properties; mineral resource and reserve estimates; timelines; the future financial or operating performance of the Company; expenditures; approvals and other matters. Often, but not always, these Forward looking Statements can be identified by the use of words such as will, will be or statements that events, could or should occur or be achieved and similar expressions, including negative variations.

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 be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward looking Statements. Such uncertainties and factors include, among others, changes in general economic conditions and financial markets; changes in prices for silver and other metals; technological and operational hazards in Fortunas mining and mine development activities; risks inherent in mineral exploration; uncertainties inherent in the estimation of mineral reserves, mineral resources, and metal recoveries; governmental and other approvals; political unrest or instability in countries where Fortuna is active; labor relations issues; as well as those factors discussed under Risk Factors in the Company's Annual Information Form. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward looking Statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.

Forward looking Statements contained herein are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management, including but not limited to expectations regarding mine production costs; expected trends in mineral prices and currency exchange rates; the accuracy of the Companys current mineral resource and reserve estimates; that the Companys activities will be in accordance with the Companys public statements and stated goals; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; that all required approvals will be obtained; that there will be no significant disruptions affecting operations and such other assumptions as set out herein. Forward looking Statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any Forward looking Statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that Forward looking Statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on Forward looking Statements.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-11 04:21:16|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

HAVANA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN) resumed on Thursday in Cuba its fifth round of peace talks with the goal of agreeing on a new temporary ceasefire.

In a joint statement in Havana, the two sides agreed to continue the intense talks in the next few days to reach concrete results.

"We are aware of the historical responsibility we have for Colombians and the international community and must take decisive steps to put an end to the armed conflict," said Gustavo Bell, leader of the government delegation.

Bell also insisted on the need for the Colombian society to become a major player in the process and an eventual ceasefire that allows the South American nation to have future presidential elections in peace.

"We can expect concrete and favorable results in the medium term. With everyone's determination we can have a future of peaceful coexistence," he said.

Meanwhile, Commander Pablo Beltran, the top ELN negotiator, said that after the satisfactory experience of the 101 days of bilateral ceasefire previously agreed by both sides, a new agreement is on the table taking into consideration the upcoming elections on May 27.

Beltran said Colombia is going through a "complex" moment as the implementation of the Peace Agreement signed in Havana by the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the extinct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) almost two years ago, faces "great difficulties".

"The only road for Colombia and for a political solution to the conflict is that this dialogue moves forward. No adversity will make us leave these talks and the goal is to take violence out of the conflict in our country," said Beltran.

He reiterated the ELN's concern about political persecution and violence against social leaders and former guerrilla fighters, a situation he describes as an "opposition genocide."

Bell and Beltran thanked Cuba for allowing both delegations to hold the talks in this Caribbean nation, after Ecuadorian president, Lenin Moreno, announced in April his decision to stop hosting the process and withdrawing as a guarantor country.

The talks are scheduled to conclude on May 25, when both delegations will report the results of their dialogues and their decisions on whether to continue holding the peace process in the island or in other guarantor countries, such as Brazil, Chile, Venezuela or Norway.

For four years Havana had hosted representatives of the former FARC guerrilla and Santos' government in a process that definitely concluded in November 2016 with the signing of a Peace Agreement currently in its implementation phase.WASHINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The United States said on Thursday it has imposed sanctions against nine Iranian individuals and entities it accused of transferring millions of dollars to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force.

The decision came on the heels of U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement to withdraw from the historic Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

While announcing the pullout on Tuesday, Trump vowed to impose "the highest level" of economic sanctions on Tehran and inflict punishments like secondary sanctions on nations that have business links with Tehran.

Trump's decision has sparked global outcry for its potential undermining of the multilateral treaty and the unilateral imposition of long-arm jurisdiction that would cost other nations' economic interests.

U.S. SANCTIONS

The U.S. Treasury said that it was working with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to "disrupt an extensive currency exchange network in Iran and the UAE that has procured and transferred millions in U.S. dollar-denominated bulk cash to" the IRGC-QF.

Iran's Central Bank "was complicit in the IRGC-QF's scheme and actively supported this network's currency conversion and enabled its access to funds that it held in its foreign bank accounts," the Treasury said in a statement.

Iran has "abused access to entities in the UAE to acquire U.S. dollars to fund the IRGC-QF's malign activities, including to fund and arm its regional proxy groups, by concealing the purpose for which the U.S. dollars were acquired," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement.

As a result of these actions, all property and interests in property of those designated today subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

In addition, foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate significant transactions for, or persons that provide material or certain other support to, the individuals and entities designated on Thursday risk exposure to sanctions that could sever their access to the U.S. financial system or block their property and interests in property under U.S. jurisdiction, said the Treasury.

It added that due to Trump's decision to cease the U.S. participation in the JCPOA, "as of August 7, 2018, the United States Government will re-impose sanctions on the purchase or acquisition of U.S. dollar banknotes by the Government of Iran."

TOUGH CHALLENGES AHEAD FOR U.S.

Thursday's sanctions against Iran were not the first time this year. The Treasury on March 23 imposed sanctions on an Iranian entity and Iranian individuals for "malicious cyber-enabled activities."

On Jan. 12, it also imposed sanctions on 14 individuals and entities over Iran's alleged human rights abuses and ballistic missile program.

A day after Trump's exit decision, White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said "we are preparing to add additional sanctions that may come as early as next week."

Peter Harrell, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said that given international opposition to the U.S. withdrawal and "scant international support for renewed sanctions," Trump would face formidable challenges.

"Perhaps the biggest diplomatic challenge Trump would face in reinstituting sanctions on Iran is convincing buyers of Iranian oil to reduce their purchases," said Harrell, also a lawyer who advises on sanctions compliance.File Photo: The picture released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) shows a new species of Helen's Flying Frog in Vietnam. (Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- A deadly fungus responsible for the devastation of amphibian populations around the world may have originated in East Asia, according to a new research published on Thursday in the journal Science.

Chytrid fungus has long been identified as a cause of the decline and extinction of species of frogs, toads, newts and other amphibians across several continents.

Researchers at Imperial College London suggested the killer fungus currently ravaging global amphibian populations originated in East Asia, highlighting the need to tighten biosecurity across borders, including a potential ban on trade in amphibians as pets to ensure the survival of vulnerable species.

The fungus causes a disease called chytridiomycosis, which attacks the animal's skin, affecting their ability to regulate water and electrolyte levels and leading to heart failure.

In this study, the research team gathered samples of the pathogen from around the world and sequenced the genomes of these samples, combining the data with genomes from previous studies to make a collection of 234 samples.

They identified four main genetic lineages of the fungus, three of which are distributed globally. A fourth lineage was found only in Korea, on frogs native to the region.

Cultures from this Korean lineage were found to contain much more genetic diversity than any other lineage.

Further analysis of the Korean Chytrid fungus showed no history of global outbreaks within their genomes, suggesting the Korean Chytrid strains were native to the region, and most closely resemble the ancestor of all modern Chytrid fungus.

Their findings support the idea that rather than dating back thousands of years, as previously thought, the range of the disease expanded greatly between 50 and 120 years ago, coinciding with the rapid global expansion of intercontinental trade.KIEV, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday discussed the possible deployment of UN peacekeeping troops in Ukraine's eastern region of Donbas with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, Poroshenko's press service said.

During their meeting in the western German city of Aachen, Poroshenko said that the presence of the blue helmets in Donbas would comply with Minsk agreements, according to a statement on the Ukrainian presidential website.

"The security component of the Minsk agreements cannot be fulfilled without a full-fledged peacekeeping mission," Poroshenko was quoted as saying in the statement.

According to the statement, Merkel and Marcon will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin later this month.

On Sept. 5, 2017, Putin said Moscow would ask the UN Security Council to send peacekeepers to patrol the contact line in Donbas, where armed confrontation between Ukrainian government troops and pro-independence rebels had been underway since April 2014.

Meanwhile, Kiev said it would agree to the deployment of the UN patrol only if the troops would be stationed across the whole area controlled by the rebels, including the Ukrainian-Russian border.

The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France form a diplomatic group, the so-called Normandy Four, which was set up to resolve the Ukrainian crisis in accordance with the Minsk deals.

The Minsk peace agreements, reached in September 2014 and February 2015 respectively, envisage a ceasefire, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the contact line, a prisoner exchange and local elections, among other measures.Source: Xinhua| 2018-05-11 04:46:22|Editor: Liangyu

Video Player Close

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meets with Toshihiro Nikai, secretary general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and Natsuo Yamaguchi, head of Komeito party, LDP's ruling coalition partner in Tokyo, Japan, on May 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

TOKYO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday called upon Japan's political parties to step up efforts to help promote relations between the two countries.

When meeting with Toshihiro Nikai, secretary general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and Natsuo Yamaguchi, head of Komeito party, LDP's ruling coalition partner, Li said this year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship.

Noting that China-Japan ties have witnessed both significant progress and twists and turns during the 40 years, Li urged the two sides to firmly stick to the direction of peace, friendship and cooperation, facilitate cooperation in various areas and promote steady and long-term development of bilateral relations, in accordance with the spirits of the four cornerstone political documents signed by the two countries.

China is willing to work with the LDP and Komeito to create a new future for China-Japan relations after all the rough times, the premier said.

Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the signing of the treaty, Premier Li's visit to Japan has brought bilateral ties back to normal track, said leaders of the two ruling parties, adding that the Japanese side highly appreciates it.

As ruling parties, the LDP and Komeito expect to enhance party-to-party exchanges with the Chinese side and continue to make unremitting efforts to achieve bigger progress in carrying forward Japan-China relations, the parties' heads said.

When meeting with heads or representatives of Japan's opposition parties, including Yukio Edano, leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Yuichiro Tamaki, representative of Democratic Party for the People, and Kazuo Shii, head of the Japanese Communist Party, Li said China and Japan are neighbors that can never be moved away.

The two economies are complementary to each other with enormous cooperation potentials, Li said.

The premier urged the two countries to review the spirit of the treaty, and follow the principles set out in the treaty. Only by doing this can we rectify the route for China-Japan ties so as to ensure the relations go forward along the right track, Li said.

The Chinese premier expects all the parties present at the meeting to make proactive efforts to promote the healthy and steady development of China-Japan relations.

Heads or representatives of the opposition parties said Japan-China ties are important to the peace and stability and economic development of East Asia and the world.

They also praised Premier Li for the visit which has brought China-Japan bilateral relations back to track and taken an important step forward.

They expect to take the 40th anniversary of the signing of the treaty as an opportunity to expand exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.

The Chinese premier arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday for an official visit to Japan and to attend the 7th China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting.

Li's visit to Japan is the first by a Chinese premier in eight years.LUSAKA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government on Thursday clarified that an audit report released by the Global Fund on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was not a new issue because it was conducted with the backing of government following reports of high drug pilferage at a government agency responsible for procurement and storage of drugs.

The Global Fund has released an audit report on the usage of grants it gives to Zambia, with the report highlighting that health products worth 1 million U.S. dollars went missing from the Medical Stores Limited.

The Global Fund has since requested the government to pay back the funds.

The revelation has caused anger among stakeholders who have accused the government of failure to control the continued abuse of resources in the Ministry of Health.

But Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya said there was nothing new in the findings of the audit because it was something the government had discovered in 2016 following it's internal investigations which showed high incidents of drug pilferage.

The Zambian minister told reporters that the government in collaboration with the Global Fund commissioned a surgical investigation following increased reports of a highly organized crime cartel involving some employees at the drug agency and some foreigners from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"This information was shared with the Global Fund which in the true spirit of partnership availed an external, conflict of interest free and objective forensic audit covering the period 2014 to 2016 to quantify the risk as well as identify the suspected losses in the supply chain system," he told reporters during a press briefing.

According to him, the investigations resulted in the arrest of seven suspects from the drugs agency as well as two DRC nationals over the pilferage of drugs, adding that stringent measures have since been put in place to arrest the situation.

He further said the stringent measures put in place at the drugs agency have resulted in significant reduction in wastage of drug supplies by more than 95 percent and zero expiry of antiretroviral drugs in the first quarter of 2018.

He further said the repayment of 1 million dollars to the Global Fund was standard procedure as any recipient country was required to repay the money if there was misapplication of the resources.CHICAGO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Iowa's economy is the most vulnerable to Chinese soybean tariff in the United States, according to a newly issued local report.

Iowa, a midwestern U.S. state, sits between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, exported nearly 2 billion U.S. dollars in soybeans to China in 2016, which made up about 4 percent of the state's economy, according to Des Moines Register citing a study by Moody's. The percentage is the largest of any state in the United States.

Missouri's exposure to soybean tariffs by China ranked second nationally, with soybean export to China contributing about 1.1 percent to the state's economy, according to the report.

Importing about 14 billion dollars of U.S. soybeans, China remained the crop's largest buyer in 2016. But a proposed 25 percent tariff on the commodity, which came in response to President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on Chinese products, threatened to cut into Iowan farmers' already dwindling profit.

Iowa's farm income had fallen about 74 percent in the last 5 years to 2.5 billion dollars in 2016, according to the report.KHARTOUM, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The final round of the Chinese proficiency competition for foreign college students was held Thursday at the headquarters of Sudan National Petroleum Corporation.

The competition, known as the Sudanese regional contest of the 17th "Chinese Bridge" Competition, brought together 12 contestants from three major Sudanese universities, including Khartoum, Bahri and Karary universities besides Confucius Institute in Sudan.

Muzn Mohamednour Abdulwahab Jibreel majoring in Chinese Language Department at University of Khartoum is the final winner. She will represent Sudan in the finals of the global "Chinese Bridge" competition in China.

"Language is a tool for inheriting the culture and a bridge among people. If you master the Chinese language, then you can learn more about China's ancient history and civilization and its great achievements," said Chinese Ambassador to Sudan Li Lianhe while addressing the event.

"I sincerely hope that more Sudanese people will join Chinese language learners to contribute to the promotion of China-Sudan relations and inheritance of culture among peoples," he noted.

Hosted by the Confucius Institute Headquarters in China, the "Chinese Bridge" competition, one of the most significant platforms for college students across the world to study Chinese language, serves as a bridge to promote the cultural exchanges between China and the outside world.by Stefania Fumo

ROME, May 10 (Xinhua) -- As European state leaders gathered at a two-day State of the Union event that kicked off in Florence on Thursday under the slogan Solidarity in Europe, a group of 105 rescued migrants landed in Sicily after a three-day odyssey at sea that included a diplomatic tug-of-war between Italy and the UK.

Migration is a hot-button issue with voters in the EU and in Italy, where anti-immigrant and populist forces made huge gains in the last national election in March.

As state leaders prepared to debate issues such as asylum-seeker integration and security versus solidarity, 63 men, eight women and 34 minors from nine different countries -- including Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea, and Sudan -- disembarked in the port city of Catania after a harrowing journey from Libya, where many were held captive, tortured, and robbed, according to SOS Mediterranee search-and-rescue NGO.

They were rescued Sunday from a sinking rubber dinghy off the coast of Libya by Spanish NGO ProActiva Open Arms, whose vessel, the Astral, flies a UK flag. However the 30-meter Astral is too small to hold over 100 people.

Accordingly, the Marine Rescue Coordination Center (UKMRCC) in London contacted SOS Mediterranee, which in partnership with NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) runs a 77-meter rescue ship, the Aquarius, which also flies a UK flag and has capacity of up to 750 people.

The Aquarius agreed to take the rescuees on board, but a protracted negotiation between Italy and the UK ensued as the two bickered over who should authorize the transfer from one vessel to the other and who should indicate the closest safe harbor.

Since both vessels fly UK flags, Italy held it was Britain's job to authorize the transfer, and then indicate a British port -- for example, Gibraltar -- to receive them. Meanwhile the "health and sanitary conditions on board the Astral continued to deteriorate," SOS Mediterranee said.

Finally on Monday night, the Rome MRCC broke the stall, authorizing the transfer. Late on Tuesday, as weather conditions were getting worse, Italy authorized the Aquarius to bring the rescuees to the Sicilian port of Catania, where the they arrived on Thursday morning.

The incident sparked condemnation from the EU, with ANSA Italian news agency citing a European Commission spokesperson as calling the situation "deplorable".

MP Giorgio Silli from Silvio Berlusconi's center-right Forza Italia party objected that "foreign vessels rescue migrants at sea and unload them in Italy: nothing has changed."

"We can't let our guard down," he added, according to ANSA. "A new route has opened between Algeria and Sardinia: of the people who arrived, three have been arrested because Italy had already deported them."

Silli was referring to Italy's anti-terrorism policy, which includes deporting Islamic extremists and jihadi sympathizers before they get a chance to carry out an attack.

Italy has borne the brunt of the international migrant crisis because its southernmost islands lie close to North Africa. A total of 9,789 migrants reached Italy across the Mediterranean as of May 10 this year, 84.51 percent lower compared to the same period in 2017, according to the Interior Ministry.

Although the arrivals have dropped drastically, public opinion in Italy has been inflamed by recent high-profile cases involving rapes and murders committed by rescued migrants who were given residency permits or protected status.RABAT, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The 18th Session of the Africa Executive Committee of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) will be held on Monday in Rabat, UCLG AFRICA announced in a statement on Thursday.

The event aims at examining the preparations for the Africities 8 Summit, which will take place in Marrakesh, from November 20-24, the statement said.

The Africities 8 Summit will be held under the theme "the transition to sustainable cities and territories, the role of African local governments," the source added.

The UCLG AFRICA is an institution that gathers 40 national associations of local governments from all regions of Africa as well as the 2000 cities that live more than 100,000 inhabitants.

UCLG AFRICA is a founding member of the United Cities and Local Governments world organization, and its regional section for Africa.

UCLG AFRICA is currently headquartered in the Moroccan capital Rabat, where it enjoys a diplomatic status as a Pan-African International Organization.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GLOBAL BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES CORP. ("BLOC or the "Company") (CSE:BLOC) (FSE:BWSP) (OTC:BLKCF) is pleased to announce that that the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") has approved the listing for trading of its common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") issued on December 21, 2017 pursuant to its bought deal private placement led by Canaccord Genuity Corp. with a syndicate of underwriters including Clarus Securities Inc., Eight Capital and Haywood Securities Inc.

LISTING OF WARRANTS

The Warrants will commence trading on the CSE on May 10, 2018, under the symbol BLOC.WT. There are currently 33,698,340 Warrants issued and outstanding. Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share of BLOC at a price of $1.75 until December 21, 2019.

SPINOUT OF MINING DIVISION

On January 25, 2018, the Company announced that it intended to pursue a plan of arrangement to spin out the value in its mining division. The spinout will be on a one-for-one basis with every share held of the Company entitling the holder to one share of Global Blockchain Mining Corp. (Blockchain Mining) The anticipated assets of Blockchain Mining will include as constituted at present, 6,666 machines and 100MW of power, Coinstream Mining Corp. (Coinstream), and Coinstream's additional assets, including its stake in Distributed Mining Corp. and the wholly owned Mozambique facility totaling 25 megawatts of capacity.

All shareholders as of the March 1, 2018 (the Record Date for the plan of arrangement), will receive shares in Blockchain Mining as soon as it commences trading with the CSE. Furthermore the Company has applied for a US trading symbol and will provide additional details as soon as they become available.

The Company also announces that further to our April 24th news release, the initial listing application for Blockchain Mining has been submitted to the CSE under the ticker FORK. Management anticipates FORK should commence trading in late May 2018, subject to approval by the CSE.

CORPORATE UPDATE

Further to the press release dated February 27, 2018, the Company wishes to advise that the below projects remain on track and that BLOC is looking forward to provide further information in the coming days and weeks:

Trade finance in conjunction with major state actors;



Enterprise peer-to-peer storage solutions;



Ethereum hard fork with features that enhance it as a global payment rails solution (the laser blockchain);



Tokenization of twelve incumbent gaming networks with over 400 million users, including functionality for both e-sports and gambling;



Securitization platform for artworks, including music, video and brands, in partnership with some of the world's most recognizable artists, brands and studios, something not possible before the advent of blockchain; and



Launch of an exchange federated on the Stellar network with leading forex (foreign exchange) and remittance partners to be announced.

In addition, the Company continues with its collaboration on, and monetization of, existing strategic equity and ICO investment holdings. The Company is currently reviewing over half a dozen new partnerships, including final-stage discussions on an investment into a genetics-to-sale cannabis blockchain platform, participation in the launch of an exchange for security tokens and a utilities exchange, and the launch of back-end payment systems to create fungibility for the Company's projects, and projects on which the Company is partnered.

OTHER CORPORATE MATTERS

On February 20, 2018, the Company announced that it would be making an investment of $2 million in the private token offering of MEvU, a product of Decent Tech Inc. (MEvU). The investment would be made in addition to the Companys acquisition of a 30% interest in Decent Tech Inc., MEvUs parent company. Based on recommendations from the Companys Investment Committee and the Board of Directors, BLOC has decided not to proceed with the investment in MEvU or Decent Tech Inc. at this time.

The Company also announces that Mr. Shidan Gouran will be taking over the CEO duties and title from Mr. Rik Willard effective immediately as Mr. Willard continues to focus on his other ventures. Mr. Gouran will continue to act as President & CEO for BLOC.

The Board of Directors would like to thank Mr. Willard for his contributions to the Company and wish him all the best with his future endeavors.

On behalf of the Company:

Shidan Gouran, President & CEO

(416) 854-3017

For more information, please contact:

IRTH Communications, LLC

ir@globalblockchain.io

800-689-8089

About Global Blockchain Technologies Corp.

The Company provides investors access to a basket of direct and indirect holdings within the blockchain space, managed by a team of industry pioneers and early adopters of all major cryptocurrencies.

The Company is focused on streamlining the currently arduous, lengthy, and complicated process that interested investors must undergo in order to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency space, with a view to becoming the first vertically-integrated originator and manager of top tier blockchains and digital currencies.

BLOC is listed on the CSE and its common shares trade under the ticker symbol "BLOC". Additional information relating to BLOC is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, the CSE at www.theCSE.com, as well as on the Company's website at www.globalblockchain.io.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Generally, any statements that are not historical facts may contain forward-looking information, and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or indicates that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to the Companys goal of streamlining the current arduous, lengthy and complicated process that interested investors need to undergo in order to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency space with a view to becoming the first vertically integrated originator and manager of top-tier blockchains and digital currencies. The Company has no assets and its business plan is purely conceptual in nature and there is no assurance that it will be implemented as set out herein, or at all. Forward-looking information is based on certain factors and assumptions the Company believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made, including but not limited to: statements and expectations regarding the ability of the Company to (i) successfully engage senior management with appropriate industry experience and expertise, (ii) gain access to and acquire a basket of cryptocurrency assets and pre-ICO and ICO financings on favourable terms or at all, (iii) successfully create its own tokens and ICOs, and (iv) execute on future M&A opportunities in the cryptocurrency space; receipt of required regulatory approvals; the availability of necessary financing; permitting and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: risks related to changes in cryptocurrency prices; the estimation of personnel and operating costs; general global markets and economic conditions; risks associated with uninsurable risks; risks associated with currency fluctuations; competition faced in securing experienced personnel with appropriate industry experience and expertise; risks associated with changes in the financial auditing and corporate governance standards applicable to cryptocurrencies and ICOs; risks related to potential conflicts of interest; the reliance on key personnel; financing, capitalization and liquidity risks including the risk that the financing necessary to fund continued development of the Companys business plan may not be available on satisfactory terms, or at all; the risk of potential dilution through the issuance of additional common shares of the Company; the risk of litigation. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information set out in this presentation, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.On May 10, Iraqi security personnel cast their votes across the country ahead of parliamentary election amid tight security. (Xinhua/Khalil Dawood)

BAGHDAD, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Millions of Iraqis will head to polling centers across Iraq on May 12 for the first time since the defeat of Islamic State (IS) group, giving Iraqis a new hope for more inclusive government that would counter wide spread corruption.

The coalitions formed to compete in the elections are showing fragmentation in sectarian and ethnic lines in response to voters who blame the Shiite-led government for failing to repair the crumbling infrastructure, reduce unemployment and end violence.

Najib al-Jubouri, a political expert and lecturer at Baghdad University, sees that the political landscape for the majority Shiite community shows five separate Shiite coalitions are competing for Saturday's elections:

Current Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and his predecessor Nuri al-Maliki heads separate lists within the ruling Islamic Dawa Party due to internal disputes between the two wings of Abadi and Maliki, Jubouri told Xinhua.

Abadi is seeking a wider voter base as his list is campaigning in each of Iraq's 18 provinces, including in the Sunni heartland of Nineveh and Anbar provinces, in addition to the three Kurdish provinces.

In theory, Abadi is in a strong position to win a second term, as he is credited with victory over the IS group, in addition to pushing the Kurdish Peshmerga forces from the disputed area, including the oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

He is also credited with balancing Iraq's relations with Iran and the United States, while he made great successes in his relations with Iraq's neighbors in the Gulf, especially with Saudi Arabia.

"However, Abadi has failed so far to convince Iraqis about his economic reform plan and his fight against corruption," Jubouri said.

Meanwhile, former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, leader of State of Law Coalition, is still seen by his considerable base of supporters as a strong leader who defended the Shiite interests, despite that many blame him for losing swathes of territories to IS group, including Mosul.

Still, Maliki is rejected by many local, regional and internationally parties, especially after Iraq lost about one-third of its land to IS and more than four million people were displaced during his eight-year rule.

The third Shiite coalition is the al-Fath Coalition (Conquest) headed by Hadi al-Ameri, who is the head of Badr Organization, which maintains its longtime ties with strong support from the neighboring Shiite country.

Ameri's Fath Coalition is expected to reap high percentage of votes in the Shiite provinces and is expected to make a breakthrough in the Sunni provinces because he has military presence and gained support from some tribal leaders in some Sunni provinces for helping defeat IS group in December 2017. But he is also blamed for including extremist Iranian-backed Shiite militias within the Hashd Shaabi brigades.

There is also al-Sa'iroon Coalition, which includes loyalists to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in addition to the Iraqi Communist Party and other parties of civil rights.

"Many Iraqis believe that this coalition will gain significant number of seats due to its cross-sectarian formation, as the group includes religious Sadrists, communists, liberal and others activists who are known of their struggle for countering corruption and improving governance," Jubouri said.

A fifth Shiite coalition is the al-Hikma al-Watany Movement, (National Movement of Wisdom) headed by Shiite cleric Ammar al-Hakim. Hikma Coalition cannot win the race with the other four major coalitions, but it can be instrumental in the post elections stage when the winning coalitions will regroup to form the largest alliance that would form the next government.

Meanwhile, the Sunni Arab polls runners are at their lowest point, as almost 2.2 million remain displaced, while millions others jobless and living in half-ruined cities.

Analysts believes that the devastative Sunni conditions would prevent large part of them from participating in the polls.

The Sunni traditional coalitions are also suffering fragmentation as some leading figures joined powerful Shiite coalitions like the sacked defense minister Khalid al-Obeidi, who joined Abadi's al-Nasr Coalition in Nineveh province, Jubouri said.

They entered the polls in several coalitions, including the two major coalitions of al-Qarar, led by the former parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, and al-Wataniyah, or National Coalition led by the Shiite secular Ayad Allawi, a veteran politician and former prime minister.

The Kurds in northern Iraq are also facing tough hurdles after the controversial referendum, held on Sept. 25 last year, as they are facing division in their parties.

Losing a few parliamentary seats is inevitable for the Kurds after they lost control over the disputed areas outside the Kurdish region, including Kirkuk province, Jubouri said.

The two major Kurdish parties, Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, are intending to run in the competition in two separate lists for the first time after the consequences of the referendum, while the oppositions parties like Gorran and other two smaller parties are joining in one coalition to compete for the parliament seats.

Ibrhim al-Ameri, a political analyst and teacher of politics at Baghdad University, told Xinhua that fragmentation of Iraqi political landscape would mean that there is potential for cross-sectarian coalitions.

"Such (cross-sectarian) coalitions could present genuine political and economic reforms to counter corruption and improves governance that would bring more stable security situation," Ibrahim al-Ameri said.

However, Ameri sees that fragmentation and repositioning in the political landscape could also open up opportunities for sectarian and ethnic hard-liners, who will be empowered by the political polarization.

"The rise of hardliners could complicate and delay the formation of next government, deteriorate security situation and let Iran to intervene further in Iraq's politics," Ameri concluded.

After the defeat of IS group, it is essential for the government to give confidence to the citizens that it is acting in the interest of the society, Ameri argued.

Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, successive governments have been unable to persuade the Iraqi people that national interests are being safeguarded by those in power, he added.

"The failure in forging trust in state authority would not help preserving the unity of the country, there is a need for less-sectarian, more inclusive and accountable government," Ameri said.

Ameri believes that the post elections stage would be more important than before the polls, as regrouping into larger alliances to form the largest alliance that would designate the next prime minister who will form the Iraqi government for the next four years.RABAT, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan security authorities in the Mediterranean port of Tangier foiled an attempted smuggling of some 1.96 tons of cannabis to Europe, local media reported on Thursday.

The drug was carefully concealed inside a truck heading to Spain, the Moroccan Hespress.com news site said.

The security services said investigations are underway to identify any accomplices, it added.

Despite efforts to crack down on cannabis farming in the past decade, Morocco remains the world's largest cannabis resin harvesting country, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.LONDON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers from the European Union (EU) members are expected to meet in London on Monday for a crisis meeting with Iran in order to save the Iran nuclear deal after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear agreement, the Guardian newspaper reported Thursday.

"Foreign ministers aim to reassure Tehran that the nuclear deal is salvageable at a meeting currently slated for Monday in London which they are expecting their Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif to attend," the newspaper said.

The meeting is being arranged at a time when Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Europe had a "very limited opportunity" to save the landmark deal.

EU ministers hope to put forward a credible package to soothe Iranian fears about the effect of Trump's decision on EU-Iranian trade, the newspaper said.

"The ministers recognise that Iran will only stay inside the deal if it is confident that the promised economic benefits can survive U.S. sanctions," the newspaper said. "But they were keen to stress that Trump's move had not necessarily dealt the agreement a fatal blow."

A day after the United States broke with the 2015 agreement and warned he would seek to hit European businesses that continued to trade with Tehran, the EU vowed to take steps to immunise firms from any U.S. sanctions.

In a phone call on Wednesday between French President Emmanuel Macron and Rouhani, Macron stressed his willingness "to continue enforcing the Iran nuclear agreement in all respects," the Elysee said in a statement.

The statement added that Macron had "underlined the importance that Iran do the same."

Also on Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson pledged not to "walk away" from Iran nuclear deal, and demanded "concrete proposals" from Washington on how to now curtail Tehran's alleged nuclear weapons ambitions after the U.S. president Donald Trump ditched the landmark agreement.

On Tuesday, Trump said that he withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which agreed to lift crippling economic sanctions on Iran in return for its agreement to limit its sensitive nuclear activities and allow international inspectors access to its facilities.

Speaking at the House of the Commons, Johnson said, "The JCPOA is an international agreement painstakingly negotiated over 13 years under both Republican and Democratic institutions and enshrined in UN resolution 2231."

"Britain has no intention of walking away," he said.

The JCPOA is an international agreement reached in Vienna on July 14, 2015 between Iran, the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States -- plus Germany), and the European Union.

Britain would remain "a party" to the JCPOA as long as Iran complied with it, Johnson added.

Britain, France and Germany on Tuesday pledged to remain in the Iranian nuclear deal despite Trump's decision to pull America out of the agreement.

In a joint statement, the three countries expressed "regret and concern" over the decision and urged Iran to "show restraint" in its response.

Meanwhile, Rouhani said that his country would remain in the deal as discussions with allies take place over the next "few weeks." EnditemGABORONE, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Information Society Technologies (IST) Africa Week conference, which started on Wednesday and will end on Friday, is being hosted in Gaborone, capital of Botswana.

Supported by the European Commission and African Union Commission, IST-Africa Week 2018 is the 13th in an annual series of Ministerial Level Technology Research Conferences.

Focused on Information Society and ICT Policy Dialogues, International Development, Research and Innovation Cooperation and Community Building, the conference bring together senior representatives of leading public, private, education and research organizations from 50 countries to discuss policy, share insight and identify collaboration opportunities.

IST-Africa Week is the flagship event of the IST-Africa initiative, co-funded under the European Framework Program since 2005.

At the officially opening the conference on Wednesday, President of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi told researchers and scholars in the field of Information and Communication Technology that research should provide governments and the private sector with possibilities of improvement in efficiency, productivity, economic growth and the well-being of society.

"I am pleased to inform you that government of Botswana has launched the National Research, Science, Technology and Innovation Policy and has set up a department dedicated to formulating research policies namely the Department of Research, Science and Technology. In addition, there is the Botswana Innovation Hub, the Botswana Institute for Technology, Research and Innovation, and the Botswana International University of Science and Technology, which are also national centers of research," he said.

He highlighted that Botswana was considering the establishment of Information Age Council, which would be responsible for advising government on the national direction of ICT.

Masisi noted that government would commence the establishment of the Public Key Infrastructure project whose main purpose would be to oversee and protect Botswana networks.

He said Botswana had embarked on the modernization of the government data network so as to enable provision of e-services such as e-health, e-commerce, e-education and e-agriculture, among others, which formed part of the transformational agenda of Botswana's Ministry of Communication and Transport.AmCham Hungary is hosting a morning seminar on May 28 on smart machines and Industry 4.0 with Rockwell Automation entitled Smart Manufacturing Demands Smart Equipment.

The seminar runs from 9:15 a.m. and covers: Industry 4.0: Building Smarter Machines in the Connected Enterprise; Smart Automation Devices and Intelligent Conveyor Systems; One Machine Built Project Realized with Rockwell Automation; and Factorytalk Analytics: Machine Performance.

The event, which is free for AmCham members and business partners of Rockwell Automation will be in English with no translation.

Venue: AmCham Conference Room

Address: 1051 Budapest, Szent Istvan ter 11., 6th floor

To guarantee a seat, e-mail peter.kovacs@amcham.hu by May 24.

Seats are limited, therefore AmCham will only accept two registrations per company.The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has raised its forecast for Hungarys GDP growth this year to 3.8%, up from its previous projection of 3.4% published in November.

The new forecast is below the governments projection of 4.3% growth. In a report on regional economic prospects, the EBRD noted investment growth in Hungary last year, at 16.8%, was the second-highest in the European Union.

The bank attributed the increase to a revival of corporate lending as well as improved absorption of EU funding. The bank said private consumption remains Hungarys key growth driver, supported by substantially increased disposable incomes. It counted the value chain effects of a potential slowdown in the euro zone and labour shortages among the risks to its growth forecasts.

Meanwhile, Economy Minister Mihaly Varga (pictured on top) met EBRD First Vice President and Head of Client Services Group Jurgen Rigterink at the lenders annual meeting in Jordan, the economy ministry said in a statement.

Hungary continues to count on the EBRDs active lending and investment activities in Hungary, foremost in the private sector, Varga said at the talks. We believe it is important for the EBRD to further boost its lending and investment activities in Hungary and the region, because there is a great need to accelerate the process of convergence, he added.

The EBRD is holding its 27th Annual Meeting and Business Forum at a venue in Jordan overlooking the Dead Sea on May 9-10.

Commenting on the forecast after the meeting, Varga said international institutions also recognised the achievements of Hungarian economic policymaking, noting that the EBRD report came after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bumped up its 2018 growth forecast for Hungary.

The banks report noted that the Hungarian growth rate speeded up to 4% last year thanks to strong domestic demand, rising investments on the back of the inflow of EU funds, and the strengthening of corporate lending, which was the second highest rate in the EU, the ministry said in a statement.

Further, the bank said consumption was supported by a significant rise in wages, the ministry statement said. Varga welcomed the EBRDs forecast, even if it is still below the Hungarian governments, it added.

At the same time, the EBRD report mentioned risks ahead in relation to the CEE regions possible peak in growth last year, noting that the growth rate this year was showing signs of slowing down.

It identified the possible slowdown of growth in the euro zone as a risk, as well as an increasingly problematic labour shortage. In its report released on Wednesday, the EBRD forecast Hungarys economic growth next year at 3%.

MTI Photo: Balogh ZoltanA total of 77 foreign university professors and academics released a statement on Wednesday to express solidarity with the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and independent Hungarian civil society in relationship with the Stop Soros legislative package that the Parliament is set to pass soon, the Hungarian Helsinki Committee said.

Hungarian civil society is facing a direct threat that affects its mere existence as the Stop Soros legislative package will make it possible for the government to simply ban the activity of organisations that assist refugees and immigrants, they said.

Strong and independent civil society organisations are as essential for democracy and the rule of law as strong and independent universities.



If NGOs such as the Hungarian Helsinki Committee are threatened, democracy is threatened, the statement reads.

Those who signed the document have called on their respective governments, universities and the EU to take action without delay to prevent this human rights violation.Polish airlines LOT on Saturday launched its direct flight between Budapest and Chicago, the first connection between the cities.

The flight is to operate on Tuesdays and Saturdays. At the opening ceremony at Chicagos OHare International Airport, Hungarian Consul-General Zita Bencsik said that the flight is a new example of the historic Hungarian-Polish friendship.

Their cooperation is the drive behind the Visegrad Group, she said, which has the potential to be a strong and reliable partner of its ally, the US, and to strike a sensible note within the European Union.

During the past week, LOT also launched its direct flight from Budapest to New York and American Airlines launched one between Budapest and Philadelphia.Vodafone Group Plc announced today that it has agreed to acquire UPC Hungary (excluding its Direct Home business), as part of a wider European acquisition that also includes Liberty Globals operations in the Czech Republic, Germany and Romania.

The value of the transaction is put at EUR 18.4 billion. UPC Hungary will be acquired on a cash-free, debt-free basis.

Following the acquisition, Vodafone Hungary will have a market share of about 25% in mobile, circa 24% in fixed broadband, and about 19% in Pay TV, becoming a fully converged national challenger.

The acquisition transforms Vodafones fixed-line and convergence strategy in Germany and key CEE markets, and complements the companys existing mobile operations, the company says.

UPC Hungary is the countrys largest cable operator, serving 1.8 million homes (43% of total households). Almost the entirety of UPCs network in Hungary has two-way capabilities, providing basic and enhanced video, broadband internet, and fixed-line telephony services to approximately 850,000 unique customers (excluding DTH).

"The acquisition of UPC Hungary will allow us to become a converged national challenger, able to offer Hungarian consumers the full suite of converged services, including mobile, fixed broadband and TV," said Amanda Nelson, CEO of Vodafone Hungary.

"Consumers and businesses will benefit from this enhanced competition in relation to both service and network innovation. It is our clear strategy to make converged services available on a national basis, allowing consumers and business to enjoy consistent service provision across the whole of Hungary," she added.

Vodafone Hungary is primarily active in mobile markets and currently has no meaningful presence in fixed-line markets, although it was successful in bidding for two of the 168 sub-regions that received state funding for broadband roll-out, whereas UPC is primarily a fixed player with only an MNVO presence in the mobile market through Vodafone.

Thus, there is only a very limited overlap and the acquisition will have no negative impact on competition, the press release notes.

The acquisition of UPC Hungary is part of a major investment by Vodafone in its European digital networks. It means that Vodafone will become the leading next-generation network ("NGN") owner in Europe, with 54 million cable/fiber homes "on-net" and a total reach of 110 million homes and businesses, accelerating its position as Europes leading fixed-line challenger and providing converged services to consumers and businesses, claims the company.

The deal would accelerate the availability of converged fixed, mobile and TV services in Hungary, Germany, the Czech Republic and Romania. Vodafones and Liberty Globals businesses in the CEE region are highly complementary, bringing together Liberty Globals 1.8 million broadband and 2.1 million TV customers with Vodafones 15.8 million mobile clients to enable the combined company to offer a range of new converged services to consumers and enterprise customers on a national basis, the press release asserts.

The deal will be subject to review and approval by the European Commission, and completion is anticipated around the middle of the calendar year 2019.AMBLER, Pa., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Phenom People, the leader in Talent Relationship Marketing, successfully held its first conference, IAMPHENOM, at the DoubleTree in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania last week. The conference boasted hundreds of attendees, including talent acquisition leaders from top brands around the world.



Our inaugural conference was a huge success, said Mahe Bayireddi, CEO of Phenom People. We didnt want the event to be a traditional user conference. We wanted to create an environment, a movement where people come together to inspire one another. We achieved that and so much more. We look forward to next years IAMPHENOM Conference.

The two-day speaker line-up included a mixture of industry practitioners and influencers as well as many renowned special guests including:

Neil Pasricha, New York Times best-selling author

Rudy Karsan, former CEO and co-founder of Kenexa

Colleen Truitt, head of talent acquisition at The Hershey Company

Leona McCharles, vice president of Global Recruitment at RBC

Shelia Gray, global leader Talent Acquisition at GE Appliances

Jonah Berger, New York Times best-selling author

Jalen Mills, 2017 Super Bowl winning Philadelphia Eagles Cornerback

Topics ran along three main themes for the IAMPHENOM Conference: inspiration, meditation, and happiness. In addition, industry practitioners discussed best practices, innovative strategies, the future of work, and technologys role in improving the talent experience.

Phenom People will be hosting the conference in Philadelphia again next year, and it promises to be bigger and better. For more information on the 2019 IAMPHENOM Conference, visit www.IAMPHENOM.com, and sign up on the email list for future updates and announcements.

About Phenom People

Phenom People, the leader in Talent Relationship Marketing, helps companies attract phenomenal talent through personalized digital experiences. The Phenom People Talent Relationship Marketing platform automates the complex process of driving awareness, interest, engagement, and acquisition for qualified talent.

For more information, please visit www.phenompeople.com to learn more about Talent Relationship Marketing.

Note to editors: Trademarks and registered trademarks referenced herein remain the property of their respective owners.

Media Contact:

Justin Noll

Phenom People

Justin.noll@phenompeople.comThis has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company.

As of 2020, Minuteman Review is now the proud owner and operator of Your Defence News, a website with a long history of breaking huge news stories and investigative journalism.

We hope you are equally as excited as us.

This means that now the teams of Minuteman can combine with the firepower of Your Defence News to stay at the absolute forefront for our readers.

Keep an eye. Big things are coming soon. We couldn't be more excited.

In the meanwhile, here are some of our most popular posts and categories to keep you busy.

Happy shootin' my friends!

Buying Guides:

Firearms

Firearm Accessories

Ammunition

Gun Safes

Scopes & Optics

Hunting

Air Rifles

Best AR-15

Best AR 15 Scope

Best Hunting Rifle

Best Gun Safe

Best AK 47

Best AR 10

Best Glock Triggers

Best Glock

Best Home Defense ShotgunVANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Finning International Inc. (TSX:FTT) (Finning or the Company) reported first quarter 2018 results today. All monetary amounts are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated.

Q1 2018 HIGHLIGHTS

All comparisons are to restated Q1 2017 results(1) unless indicated otherwise.

EPS(2) of $0.42 per share included insurance proceeds related to Alberta wildfires of $0.03 per share. Adjusted EPS(3)(4) of $0.39 per share was up 42% on a 19% increase in revenues.

Canada achieved improved operating leverage. Excluding insurance proceeds received in the quarter related to the 2016 Alberta wildfires, Canadas SG&A(2) as a percentage of revenue declined by 380 basis points and EBIT margin improved by 80 basis points to 7.5%.

South America reported a 13% increase in product support revenues in functional currency, driven by stronger demand from the Chilean mining sector, and an EBIT margin of 8.4%.

Working capital to sales ratio improved by 340 basis points to 27.1% - the lowest level over the last two years - on higher sales and supply chain efficiencies.

Adjusted return on invested capital(3)(4) of 13.5% was the highest in the last two years.

Equipment backlog(3) increased by over $300 million from Q4 2017 to $1.6 billion, driven by strong order intake(3) across all regions and market segments. The current backlog more than doubled from Q1 2017 and is at the highest level since Q2 2012.

Annualized dividend was raised by 5.3% to $0.80 per share, reflecting the expectation of improved market conditions and sustainable earnings growth.

I am encouraged by the continued positive market momentum and growing backlog at the start of 2018. We achieved strong revenue growth and improved profitability in the first quarter as we continue to benefit from leverage of additional revenues on fixed costs. I am particularly pleased with the progress we are making on our digital and supply chain initiatives, which enable us to reduce our cost to serve while transforming our customer experience. Looking ahead, we remain focused on capturing profitable growth opportunities in our markets, generating improved returns on invested capital, and advancing our long-term strategic priorities, said Scott Thomson, President and CEO of Finning.

Q1 2018 FINANCIAL SUMMARY

All comparisons are to restated Q1 2017 results(1) unless indicated otherwise.

Quarterly Overview

$ millions, except per share amounts Q1 2018 Q1 2017

Restated(1) % change Revenue 1,670 1,401 19 EBIT 113 86 32 EBIT margin 6.8 % 6.1 % EBITDA(2)(3) 157 131 20 EBITDA margin(3) 9.4 % 9.3 % Net income 71 47 53 EPS 0.42 0.28 53 Free cash flow (263 ) (76 ) (244 )

Included in Q1 2018 results is the following significant item that management does not consider indicative of operational and financial trends either by nature or amount. This significant item is summarized below and described in more detail on page 3 of the Companys management discussion and analysis dated May 10, 2018 (MD&A). There were no significant items in Q1 2017.

Q1 2018 EBIT and EBITDA by Operation

$ millions, except per share amounts Canada South America UK &

Ireland Corporate & Other Finning Total EPS EBIT / EPS 71 46 10 (14 ) 113 0.42 Insurance proceeds related to Alberta wildfires (7 ) - - - (7 ) (0.03 ) Adjusted EBIT / Adjusted EPS 64 46 10 (14 ) 106 0.39 Adjusted EBITDA(3)(4) 86 61 17 (14 ) 150 EBIT margin 8.4 % 8.4 % 3.7 % - 6.8 % Adjusted EBIT margin 7.5 % 8.4 % 3.7 % - 6.4 % Adjusted EBITDA margin(3)(4) 10.1 % 11.1 % 6.3 % - 9.0 %





Q1 2017 EBIT and EBITDA by Operation

$ millions, except per share amounts; restated(1) Canada South America UK &

Ireland Corporate & Other Finning Total EPS EBIT / EPS 46 44 7 (11 ) 86 0.28 EBIT margin 6.7 % 8.8 % 3.3 % - 6.1 % EBITDA 70 59 13 (11 ) 131 EBITDA margin 10.1 % 11.8 % 6.5 % - 9.3 %

Revenue was up 19% driven by improved customer activity in key industries across all regions. New equipment sales increased by 37%, reflecting stronger demand in mining, construction, and power systems markets, particularly in Canada. Product support revenue grew by 10%, with all regions reporting higher parts and service revenues in mining and construction segments.

Gross profit increased by 12%. Gross profit margin of 26.3% was below gross profit margin of 28.0% in Q1 2017 primarily due to a shift in revenue mix to new equipment sales. New equipment sales comprised 35% of total revenue compared to 30% in Q1 2017.

Excluding insurance proceeds received in the quarter related to the 2016 Alberta wildfires, SG&A as a percentage of revenue declined by 180 basis points from Q1 2017 to 20.1%, reflecting leverage of additional revenues on fixed costs. Adjusted EBIT was up 24% to $106 million and Adjusted EBIT margin increased by 30 basis points to 6.4%, driven mostly by improved operating leverage in Canada.

Adjusted EPS was $0.39 per share, up 42% from $0.28 per share in Q1 2017, primarily due to higher Adjusted EBIT.

Q1 2018 free cash flow was ($263) million use of cash compared to ($76) million use of cash in Q1 2017 due to higher working capital requirements to meet stronger customer demand.

Invested Capital(3) and ROIC(2) Q1 2018 Q4 2017

restated(1) Q1 2017

restated(1) Invested capital ($ millions) Consolidated 3,226 2,830 2,940 Canada 1,778 1,621 1,630 South America (U.S. dollars) 884 784 773 UK & Ireland (U.K. pound sterling) 178 147 172 Invested capital turnover(3) (times) 2.13 2.09 1.89 Working capital to sales ratio 27.1 % 27.4 % 30.5 % Inventory turns (times) 2.80 2.82 2.61 Adjusted ROIC (%) Consolidated 13.5 13.1 10.0 Canada 14.0 13.2 10.2 South America 17.8 18.1 15.6 UK & Ireland 13.4 12.8 7.7

Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, invested capital was up by 12% from Q4 2017 mostly due to an increase in new equipment inventory in all regions to meet stronger demand, and higher parts inventory in Canada in line with growing product support volumes. Lower accounts payable balances in South America due to timing, and an increase in unbilled work-in-progress in all operations due to stronger market activity also contributed to higher invested capital levels compared to Q4 2017.

Invested capital turnover and working capital to sales ratio continued to improve and were the best in the last two years, reflecting higher sales and supply chain efficiencies.

Adjusted ROIC increased by 40 basis points from Q4 2017, driven mostly by higher Adjusted ROIC in Canada, and was the highest Adjusted ROIC in two years.

Q1 2018 HIGHLIGHTS BY OPERATION

All comparisons are to restated Q1 2017 results(1) unless indicated otherwise. All numbers are in functional currency: South America  U.S. dollar; UK & Ireland  U.K. pound sterling.

Canada

Revenues were up 23%, driven by a 62% increase in new equipment sales spanning mining, construction, and power systems markets. Product support revenues rose by 11%, reflecting stronger demand for parts and service in the construction sectors and higher component rebuild activity in mining.

Adjusted EBIT of $64 million increased by 40% and Adjusted EBIT margin of 7.5% improved by 80 basis points from Q1 2017, reflecting leverage of additional revenues on fixed costs. Excluding insurance proceeds received in the quarter related to the 2016 Alberta wildfires, SG&A as a percentage of revenue declined by 380 basis points from Q1 2017.

South America

Revenues were up 15%. Product support revenues were up 13%, on higher demand from Chilean mining customers. Improved activity in construction and power systems markets drove a 12% increase in new equipment sales.

EBIT increased by 9% and EBIT margin was 8.4%, which was in line with managements expectations.

United Kingdom & Ireland

Revenues increased 19%, with higher revenues in all lines of business. New equipment sales were up 29%, driven by active construction and power systems markets, including industrial, marine, and electric power. Product support revenues increased by 6%, driven mostly by higher parts sales.

EBIT was up by 1.3 million to 5.5 million and EBIT margin improved by 40 basis points to 3.7% from Q1 2017 as a result of leverage of higher revenue on fixed costs. SG&A as a percentage of revenue decreased by 140 basis points from Q1 2017.

CORPORATE AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS

Dividend

The Board of Directors has approved a 5.3% increase in the quarterly dividend to $0.20 per share from $0.19 per share, payable on June 8, 2018 to shareholders of record on May 25, 2018. This dividend will be considered an eligible dividend for Canadian income tax purposes.

Investor Meeting  May 10, 2018

Finning will host an Investor Meeting on May 10, 2018 from 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM Pacific Time at the Sutton Place Hotel - Versailles Ballroom, 845 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British Columbia. The event will focus on Finnings strategic plan to improve customer experience through the use of technology and to achieve profitable and capital efficient growth. The presentations will include more information about the Companys digital strategy, the economic outlook, opportunities and priorities in each of the regions, global supply chain initiatives, and financial performance objectives. Following prepared remarks, there will be a Q&A with Finnings leadership team. The Investor Meetings video webcast and supporting presentation will be available livestream and archived following the event at: https://www.finning.com/en_CA/company/investors/events-presentations/2018-events-presentations.html

SELECTED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL INFORMATION $ millions, except per share amounts Three months ended March 31 2018 2017

restated(1) % change New equipment 584 425 37 Used equipment 96 73 31 Equipment rental 50 51 (3 ) Product support 936 849 10 Other 4 3 Total revenue 1,670 1,401 19 Gross profit 440 393 12 Gross profit margin 26.3 % 28.0 % SG&A (328 ) (307 ) (7 ) SG&A as a percentage of revenue (19.6 )% (21.9 )% Equity earnings (loss) of joint ventures & associate 1 (1 ) Other income - 1 EBIT 113 86 32 EBIT margin 6.8 % 6.1 % Adjusted EBIT 106 86 24 Adjusted EBIT margin 6.4 % 6.1 % Net income 71 47 53 Basic EPS 0.42 0.28 53 Adjusted EPS 0.39 0.28 42 EBITDA 157 131 20 EBITDA margin 9.4 % 9.3 % Adjusted EBITDA 150 131 15 Adjusted EBITDA margin 9.0 % 9.3 % Free cash flow (263 ) (76 ) (244 ) Mar 31, 2018 Dec 31, 2017 Invested capital 3,226 2,830 Invested capital turnover (times) 2.13 2.09 Net debt to invested capital(2) 36.1 % 30.2 % ROIC 13.7 % 13.1 % Adjusted ROIC 13.5 % 13.1 %

To download Finning's complete Q1 2018 results in PDF, please open the following link: http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/6203123b-020b-4e79-ae7a-09a8ecaf1d45

Q1 2018 INVESTOR CALL

The Company will hold an investor call on May 10, 2018 at 10:00 am Eastern Time. Dial-in numbers: 1-800-319-4610 (Canada and US), 1-416-915-3239 (Toronto area), 1-604-638-5340 (international). The call will be webcast live and archived for three months at http://www.finning.com/en_CA/company/investors.html. Finning no longer provides a phone playback recording; please use the webcast to access the archived call.

About Finning

Finning International Inc. (TSX:FTT) is the worlds largest Caterpillar equipment dealer delivering unrivalled service to customers for 85 years. Finning sells, rents, and provides parts and service for equipment and engines to help customers maximize productivity. Headquartered in Vancouver, B.C., the Company operates in Western Canada, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Contact information

Mauk Breukels

Vice President, Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs

Phone: (604) 331-4934

Email: mauk.breukels@finning.com

https://www.finning.com

Footnotes

(1) The 2017 comparative results described in this earnings release have been restated to reflect the Companys adoption of IFRS 15, Revenue from Contracts with Customers and IFRS 9, Financial Instruments effective for the financial year beginning January 1, 2018. More information on the impact of this adoption can be found in note 1 of the Companys interim condensed consolidated financial statements. (2) Earnings Before Finance Costs and Income Taxes (EBIT); Basic Earnings per Share (EPS); Earnings Before Finance Costs, Income Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA); Selling, General & Administrative Expenses (SG&A); Return on Invested Capital (ROIC). (3) These financial metrics, referred to as non-GAAP financial measures, do not have a standardized meaning under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which are also referred to herein as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. For additional information regarding these financial metrics, including definitions and reconciliations from each of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable measure under GAAP, where available, see the heading Description of Non-GAAP Financial Measures and Reconciliations in the Companys MD&A. Management believes that providing certain non-GAAP financial measures provides users of the Companys consolidated financial statements with important information regarding the operational performance and related trends of the Company's business. By considering these measures in combination with the comparable IFRS measures set out in the MD&A, management believes that users are provided a better overall understanding of the Company's business and its financial performance during the relevant period than if they simply considered the IFRS measures alone. (4) Certain 2018 and 2017 financial metrics were impacted by significant items management does not consider indicative of operational and financial trends either by nature or amount; these significant items are described on page 3 of the MD&A. The financial metrics which have been adjusted to take into account these items are referred to as Adjusted metrics.

Forward-Looking Disclaimer

This report contains statements about the Companys business outlook, objectives, plans, strategic priorities and other statements that are not historical facts. A statement Finning makes is forward-looking when it uses what the Company knows and expects today to make a statement about the future. Forward-looking statements may include terminology such as aim, anticipate, assumption, believe, could, expect, goal, guidance, intend, may, objective, outlook, plan, project, seek, should, strategy, strive, target, and will, and variations of such terminology. Forward-looking statements in this report include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: expectations with respect to the economy, markets and activities and the associated impact on the Companys financial results; expectations that the continued progress on the global supply chain will drive further working capital efficiencies and supply annual free cash flow in 2018; in Canada, recovery of commodity prices, activity levels from mining producers and contractors, expected deliveries of new equipment, demand for parts and services, upcoming infrastructure and pipeline projects, demand for construction equipment and power systems products, activity in the oil and gas sector, and competitive market conditions; the rate of recovery being dependent on commodity markets and timing of significant infrastructure projects; in South America, expected demand for mining equipment and product support as a result of copper production levels and fleet utilization, expectations of increased investment in infrastructure by the new Chilean government and resultant activity in the construction sector, expectations regarding the acceleration of oil and gas development in Argentina and the growing construction market, and Finnings continued investment in a new ERP system expected to go live in 2018 and the impact on EBIT margin; in the UK & Ireland, activity levels in the quarry, general construction, and plant hire sectors and the resultant demand for new equipment and product support, demand in the power systems sector, competitive pricing pressure in the equipment market, and the impact of Brexit; expected impact of and volatility in foreign exchange markets; Finnings belief that it continues to have sufficient liquidity to meet operational needs and planned growth and development; expected range of the Companys effective tax rate; the Companys focus on generating earnings leverage while investing in growth opportunities and long-term strategic initiatives; expected progress on optimizing the global supply chain and its expected results; expected results from cost reductions and sustainability improvements; the Companys commitment to grow return on invested capital; and expected results from execution of the Company's strategy framework. All such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbour provisions of applicable Canadian securities laws.

Unless otherwise indicated by us, forward-looking statements in this report reflect Finnings expectations at the date in this MD&A. Except as may be required by Canadian securities laws, Finning does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Forward-looking statements, by their very nature, are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties and are based on several assumptions which give rise to the possibility that actual results could differ materially from the expectations expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements and that Finnings business outlook, objectives, plans, strategic priorities and other statements that are not historical facts may not be achieved. As a result, Finning cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by these forward-looking statements include: general economic and market conditions; foreign exchange rates; commodity prices; the level of customer confidence and spending, and the demand for, and prices of, Finnings products and services; Finnings ability to maintain its relationship with Caterpillar; Finnings dependence on the continued market acceptance of its products, including Caterpillar products, and the timely supply of parts and equipment; Finnings ability to continue to improve productivity and operational efficiencies while continuing to maintain customer service; Finnings ability to manage cost pressures as growth in revenue occurs; Finnings ability to negotiate satisfactory purchase or investment terms and prices, obtain necessary approvals, and secure financing on attractive terms or at all; Finnings ability to manage its growth strategy effectively; Finnings ability to effectively price and manage long-term product support contracts with its customers; Finnings ability to reduce costs in response to slowing activity levels; Finnings ability to attract sufficient skilled labour resources as market conditions, business strategy or technologies change; Finnings ability to negotiate and renew collective bargaining agreements with satisfactory terms for Finnings employees and the Company; the intensity of competitive activity; Finnings ability to raise the capital needed to implement its business plan; regulatory initiatives or proceedings, litigation and changes in laws or regulations; stock market volatility; changes in political and economic environments for operations; the occurrence of one or more natural disasters, pandemic outbreaks, geo-political events, acts of terrorism or similar disruptions; fluctuations in defined benefit pension plan contributions and related pension expenses; the availability of insurance at commercially reasonable rates or that the amount of insurance coverage will be adequate to cover all liability or loss incurred by Finning; the potential of warranty claims being greater than Finning anticipates; the integrity, reliability and availability of, and benefits from information technology and the data processed by that technology; and Finnings ability to protect itself from cybersecurity threats or incidents. Forward-looking statements are provided in this report for the purpose of giving information about managements current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of Finnings operating environment. However, readers are cautioned that it may not be appropriate to use such forward-looking statements for any other purpose.Coun Perez reiterates warning to barangay leaders involved in drugs

07 Aug 2017 Hits:37 Comments(0)

Liga ng mga Barangay President, Councilor Jerry Perez yesterday reiterated his warning to all barangay officials from using or selling drugs. Perez said he is closely monitoring the activities of all the barangay officials and vowed sanctions against erring leaders. Aqui gane na mio barangay ya quita ya iyo na puesto cunel dos barangay leaders quien mas temprano ya sale positivo na...BENGALURU: Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Thursday said that the Voter ID card scandal that surfaced just days before the state Assembly polls clearly show the desperation of the Congress party to win the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections.

"Congress is trying to win elections with undemocratic ways. Recovery of Voter ID cards in Rajarajeshwari Nagar shows how desperately Congress wants to win the election. I want to alert those whose fake IDs have been made, that don't fall in Congress' trap and disturb polls," Amit Shah told reporters in Bengaluru.

Addressing at a press conference in the Karnataka capital, the BJP chief expressed his expectation of winning at least 130 seats in the Assembly polls. "BJP will win more than 130 seats and form government in Karnataka. There is no question of seeking or giving support to anyone," he said.

Expressing confidence, Shah said that in Yeddyurappa will become the chief minister.

"We can lose elections but can't sit with Social Democratic Party of India and Popular Front of India. Congress takes the support of SDPI and PFI to win elections and that's the difference between them and BJP. Congress doesn't refrain from taking the support of traitors," the BJP supremo added.

With just days left for Karnataka to go to polls, both the ruling Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have entered a high-pitched battle on the ground and on social media.

The BJP is eyeing to dethrone the Congress government in Karnataka, which is headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Karnataka polls are scheduled to be held in a single phase on May 12 and the counting of votes will be done on May 15. VVPAT machines, apart from EVMs, will be deployed in Karnataka for the polls.

The 224-member Assembly expires on May 28 in the state where the Congress is currently in power, with 122 seats against the BJP's 43. Karnataka is one of the eight states where polls were scheduled this year.

While Siddaramaiah-led Congress is eyeing a second term in the state, BJP wants to spread its wings to the 22nd state.What former US president John F. Kennedy said about victory and defeat can be paraphrased in the Indian context as: statism has a thousand fathers, but liberty is an orphan. Most politicians and intellectuals root for big state in almost every walk of life, while few have any concern for freedom, especially economic freedomthat is, the rights of businesspersons to conduct their businesses without meddlesome government intervention. The Delhi governments desire to cap profit margins for hospitals is another episode in our political class jihad against wealth creators.

To be fair to our political masters, we must admit that decades of socialism have not only harmed the economy but also badly corrupted the minds of people. Some time ago, a child died because of dengue at a private hospital which also charged over Rs 15 lakh for treatment. There were also other incidents of alleged medical neglect. In one case, a newborn declared dead was found to be alive (but the child didnt survive).

There was considerable public outcry and media outrage after the incident. Everybody was baying for the blood of those who run corporate hospitals and indulge in sharp practiceboth sets of people were anyway same, radical activists thundered. Besides, there is always and everywhere a demand for affordable healthcare, cheaper drugs and medical devices, for state controlgovernment should something about the health sector.

So, in a way, when our politicians take decisions shackling businesses, they also respond to the popular demand. For instance, there was perceptible support for the Delhi governments decision to shut down the private hospital whose doctors, it was alleged, had wrongfully declared a living baby dead. It is instructive to note that no government hospital has faced a similar fate despite regular reports of negligence and worse over there. The hospital concerned survived the temporary shutdown, but private hospitals, in general, may have a tough time in the foreseeable future.

For the Delhi government is contemplating caps on profit margins of hospitals. The idea is to control the prices of medicines, consumables, and devices like stents. For the purpose, the state government had constituted a nine-member committee in December 2017. It comprised members from the Delhi Medical Council, the Indian Medical Associations, and top officials from the health department. The panel has already submitted its recommendations to the government.

According to media reports, the panel has favored a maximum 50 per cent profit margin for drugs and devices above the manufacturing or procurement costs, whichever is lower. The caps will also be imposed on the packages for procedures. Emphasis is on transparency in anything that private hospitals charge from patients. Further, they also have to explain cost escalations.

If the Delhi government accepts the recommendations and implements them, it would be the first state to do thatand is likely to be followed by other states. For in our country bad ideas spread faster than the good ones; and they have a very high probability of getting executed.

Everything that the committee has recommended is bad because each of them has the potential of growing into a monster. Consider the provision of the 50 per cent profit margin cap on drugs and devices. Who decides about the cap? Bureaucrats, politicians, technocrats, etc., but all of them are maneuverable. How are the costs determined? Again there is scope for discretion; and in a sarkari set-up, discretion is the better part of corruption, not valor.

This fact was highlighted by Arvind Panagariya, Vice-Chairman, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, about three years ago. Delivering the Sixth R.K. Talwar Memorial Lecture on July 17, 2015, on Growth, Poverty and Economic Transformation of India, Panagariya said, Strict investment licensing, reinforced by protection against imports, promised guaranteed monopoly profits, which were anathema under the prevailing socialist norms. Therefore, the government came to fix the prices of many of the products such as cement, steel, scooters and automobiles at levels that would rule out obscene profits. Price controls in turn produced shortages and had to be complemented by controls on distribution through permits. So, queues and corruption emerged as natural responses. If you wanted an automobile, you had the option to either wait in a years-long queue or pay a bribe to jump the queue. And even then you received a vehicle of quality that no customer today would buy.

The wise, they say, learn from the mistakes of others, while fools learn from their own mistakes. Our political masters refuse to learn any sensible lesson.New Delhi: Actor Sanjay Dutt, who is currently shooting for his upcoming film 'Torbaaz' in Kyrgyzstan, has been roped in by director Karan Malhotra for his upcoming period film 'Shamshera'. Dutt will be pitted against actor Ranbir Kapoor in the mega action spectacle film.

The film will be produced by Yash Raj Films' and goes with the tagline  'Karam Se Dacait... Dharam Se Azaad'.

While Ranbir will be seen essaying the role of a dacoit in 'Shamshera', Sanjay will be seen as a ruthless, merciless villain in the period- drama adventure.

This would be Sanjay's first-ever project with the banner whereas Ranbir's third collaboration after 'Bachna Ae Haseeno' and 'Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year'. The film is part of YRF's three-movie deal with Karan Malhotra, who directed 'Agneepath' and 'Brothers'.

Karan, who has earlier worked with Sanjay in 'Agneepath', told DNA, "Shamshera is a ferocious and fearless character in the film. Therefore his nemesis, the villain had to be even more fierce and monumental in every aspect. Who better than Sanjay sir to give us that impact on screen?"

"'Shamshera' is exactly the film I was looking for. While growing up watching Hindi commercial cinema, I had an image of what a film hero should be doing. 'Shamshera' allows me to do everything that I had imagined and it's a very exciting project for me," Ranbir said in a statement.

"Karan is going to take me completely out of my comfort zone and I'm looking forward to this challenge," Ranbir said of the high-octane adventure which is set in the heartland of India.

In the first-look poster of the film, that was shared on the social media recently, one can see a silhouette of the actor, carrying an axe and a quiver of arrows.

A teaser of the project shows Ranbir leading an army of dacoits, and delivering the punch line of the film in a husky voice: "Karam se dacait, dharam se azaad".

Ranbir Kapoor as Shamshera:

'Shamshera' is set to go on the floors by the end of this year and shooting will wrap by mid-2019.New Delhi: Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal exited the business by selling his entire stake of over 5 percent for around Rs 7,000 crore to Walmart. US retail giant Walmart has formally announced that it is buying 77 percent of Flipkart's stake for USD 16 billion (Rs 1.02 lakh crore).

Sachin had once categorically said in an interview that he will never sell Flipkart, but after seeing ups and downs in business through 11-years, the e-commerce co-founder has finally quit.

He wrote a very emotional post on Facebook, hours after the formal announcement was made saying that he will be watching and cheering from the outside.

Sachin and Binny Bansal started Flipkart in 2007 with Rs 4 lakh, going door-to-door to deliver books, they had no intention to sell their company irrespective of the valuation.

Binny, not related to Sachin, will retain his 5.5 percent stake and will be Chairman of the company's Board. After working for e-commerce giant Amazon, the two friends set up Flipkart.

Sachin comes from a business family, while Binny's father was a banker and mother a public servant.

He started his career with an IT firm Techspan in 2005 and then joined Amazon Web Services in January 2006. Binny joined Amazon in January 2007 after working for an IT firm Sarnoff.

The Chandigarh duo envisaged making shopping easier. Sachin started operations of Flipkart in August 2007 and was joined by Binny Bansal about a month later.

In January 2016, Sachin had to give up his role as Chief Executive Officer at the company reportedly due to performance related issues.

Flipkart rejigged its management and Binny took over as CEO. A year later, Kalyan Krishnamurthy was elevated to the position of CEO of Flipkart.New Delhi: Walmart's acquisition of homegrown online retailer Flipkart for USD 16 billion faced opposition from traders and an RSS affiliate, though industry body Assocham said it was a 'salute' to the success of Indian start-ups.

While industry leader Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw saw the deal as a "huge endorsement for India's first e-tailing" company, Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani termed it as "just an event of change of ownership" and everything else in the market remained the same.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said the deal is nothing but a clear attempt to control and dominate the retail trade in India by Walmart through e-commerce in the long run.

RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) alleged that Walmart was "circumventing" rules for a "back-door entry" into India and sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to safeguard "national interest".

"This will further eliminate small and medium businesses, small shops, and opportunity to create more jobs. Most of these small entrepreneurs are already battling for their existence; entry of Walmart will further create problems for them," the SJM said in a letter to the prime minister.

On the other hand, Retailers Association of India while staying away from commenting directly on the acquisition, said some e-commerce companies in India have been flouting FDI Policy for marketplaces.

"Digitally powered e-Walmart will certainly vitiate the e-commerce and retail market. There will be an uneven level playing field to the disadvantage of retail traders. Only the venture capitalist, investors and promoters will be benefitted and not the country," CAIT said in a statement.

CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said the government should immediately frame a national policy for e-commerce and constitute a regulatory authority to regulate e-commerce business in India.

Till the time a regulator is constituted, the deal should be put in abeyance by the government and a close scrutiny should be held of the entire deal, he added.

The Retailers Association of India asked the government to take strong steps to ensure adherence to the FDI policy.

"We believe that some e-commerce companies in India have not been adhering to the guidelines issued under the Press Note 3 of the FDI Policy for marketplaces. These companies have been directly or indirectly participating in pricing and discounting, which is against the policy that seeks to create a level playing field," Retailers Association of India alleged.

Expressing contrasting view, Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said the industry body saw the "Walmart-Flipkart (deal) as a salute to the success of an Indian Start-Up that pioneered the fledgling online retailing in a country where bulk of the trade is in the unorganised sector."

"Isn't it so great that a start up goes on to fetch an enterprise valuation of about USD 21 billion, making the Walmart equity infusion as the largest ever FDI into India," Rawat said in a statement.

When reached out for his comments, Biyani, the pioneer of modern retail in India told PTI, "I think nothing changes, only the ownership has changed. The model is still the same."

He further said, "It's just an event. It is the change of hands from one foreign investor to other foreign investor; from a financial investor to a strategic investor."

Welcoming the development, Biocon Chairperson Shaw tweeted that the deal was a "huge endorsement" for India's first e-tailing company.

She further said e-commerce is a capital intensive business that needs deep pockets, which Walmart has.

ShopClues Co-founder & CEO Sanjay Sethi said, "This is also a great endorsement of the large opportunity that Indian market presents as well as the mettle of the Indian entrepreneur."

It also proves that there is a lot of money to be made in the Indian startup ecosystem, he said, adding "Flipkart team has done an awesome job in bringing the world's largest retailer to India".

Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) said the deal brings together synergies from both the parties, global experience and best practices of the retail giant.

The deal burnishes India's credentials as an attractive investment destination and reaffirms the maturity and viability of India's startups as well as its e-commerce sector, IACC Senior Vice President Lalit Bhasin said.

It (the deal) reaffirms the economic stability as well as growth prospects of India, and also highlights the strengthening bilateral commercial ties between India and the US, Bhasin said.

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the deal will open new chapters in the world of e-commerce and the growth of the sector expected to increase.

Going forward, reforms for development of the e-commerce infrastructure in India along with strengthening of the security and privacy systems would reinforce the e-commerce segment in India, the chamber said.

Walmart Inc said it would acquire 77 percent stake in Flipkart for about USD 16 billion in its biggest acquisition till date. The deal values the 11-year old Indian e-commerce firm at USD 20.8 billion.HOUSTON, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sysco Corporation (NYSE:SYY), the leading global foodservice distribution company, today announced it has established the William J. DeLaney Sysco Scholarship in honor of the Companys recently retired chief executive officer.



The scholarship will provide financial assistance to students attending the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston. The $25,000 annual scholarship will provide $5,000 each to five students, with the first five recipients being awarded in the fall of 2018. Five new recipients will be awarded annually.

We are pleased to establish this scholarship to honor Bills legacy and his many years of dedication to Sysco, stated Tom Bene, Syscos president and chief executive officer. Bill always stressed the importance of education. Providing assistance to students as they pursue their dreams of becoming members of the industry he loved is a fitting tribute.

We are very thankful for the generosity and continued support of Sysco, and for the creation of the William J. DeLaney Sysco Scholarship, said Miguel Cabrera, director of development and alumni relations at the Conrad N. Hilton College. These funds will help us support the next generation of hospitality leaders, who will be making their mark on our industry.

I am fortunate to have spent my career in the foodservice industry at Sysco, said DeLaney. I am proud of Syscos continued commitment to being a good corporate citizen. Helping students as they prepare for the future by developing themselves through education is a meaningful example of this commitment.

DeLaney began his career at Sysco in 1987 as assistant treasurer at Syscos corporate headquarters in Houston. He served in several corporate and field leadership positions throughout his Sysco career, including executive vice president and chief financial officer immediately prior to assuming his role as president and chief executive officer in 2009. DeLaney was also appointed to Syscos board of directors in 2009. DeLaney served as Syscos president until 2015 and as CEO until his retirement on December 31, 2017.

About Sysco

Sysco is the global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food products to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, lodging establishments and other customers who prepare meals away from home. Its family of products also includes equipment and supplies for the foodservice and hospitality industries. With over 65,000 associates, the company operates approximately 300 distribution facilities worldwide and serves more than 500,000 customer locations. For fiscal 2017 that ended July 1, 2017, the company generated sales of more than $55 billion.



For more information, visit www.sysco.com or connect with Sysco on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SyscoCorporation or Twitter at https://twitter.com/Sysco. For important news and information regarding Sysco, visit the Investor Relations section of the company's Internet home page at www.investors.sysco.com, which Sysco plans to use as a primary channel for publishing key information to its investors, some of which may contain material and previously non-public information. Investors should also follow us at www.twitter.com/SyscoStock and download the Sysco IR App, available on the iTunes App Store and the Google Play Market. In addition, investors should continue to review our news releases and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is possible that the information we disclose through any of these channels of distribution could be deemed to be material information.

Investor Contact:

Neil Russell

T 281-584-1308

Media Contact:

Camilla Zuckero

T 281-899-1839New Delhi: Within hours of adding Flipkart to its shopping cart at a USD 16 billion price tag, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told the e-retailer's employees that the deal was among the best decisions and emphasised that India was the best place was to be in, according to sources.

He is also learnt to have said the company intends to "empower" Flipkart and its staff as well as learn from them about building full ecosystems and payments.

"It is our intention to just empower you and let you run speed matters, decisiveness matters," McMillon said in his address to Flipkart employees.

In the biggest M&A deal in the booming e-commerce sector, Walmart announced buying 77 percent stake in Flipkart for about USD 16 billion (Rs 1.05 lakh crore).

Walmart's investment includes USD 2 billion of new equity funding that would help Flipkart to accelerate its growth pace amid stiff competition from Amazon, which is also pumping in huge funds into its India operations.

The fast-growing e-commerce market also has a number of smaller and niche players like SoftBank and Alibaba-backed Paytm Mall, Snapdeal and ShopClues.

Interestingly, there were speculations that Amazon had also made a bid for Flipkart, even though neither of the companies confirmed it.

"I am confident that this is one of the best decisions our company has made - we believe in India, have seen growth in India in every way. This is the best place to be anywhere in the world," McMillon, who is also Walmart President, said.

The Walmart chief stated that the values of the two companies were "very much aligned", according to sources.

"Respect in people, striving for excellence, acting with integrity, doing things we can be proud of, and the customer focus," he said citing some of the shared values of the two firms.

On the synergies of the deal, McMillon said the Bengaluru-based company can take advantage of Walmart's resources supply chain and retailing expertise -- while Flipkart could share its experience and expertise in building an entire ecosystem around online commerce business.

"We understand it is not just an e-commerce business Flipkart, Myntra, Jabong and the fashion business, PhonePe, EKart. This is a very special ecosystem, we get that and are excited about what this could become in the future.

"We hope we learn from you how to build an ecosystem, more about innovation and payments we will help with sourcing, supply chain expertise," he said.

Besides, the Walmart CEO is said to have assured Flipkart employees that it would work to make a big difference in food safety, supporting kirana stores and creating jobs in India.NEW DELHI: In more trouble for Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday arrested the son of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's brother-in-law in connection with the Public Works Department scam.

News Agency ANI confirmed that Vinay Bansal, the son of Arvind Kejriwal's brother-in-law, was arrested by the ACB officials in connection with the PWD scam.

Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested Vinay Bansal, son of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's brother-in law, in connection with Public Works Department scam.  ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2018

The ACB team had last year raided Kejriwal's brother-in-law Surender Kumar Bansal's residence and office.

The ACB also ordered an inspection of a Public Works Department (PWD) project as part of a probe into an alleged Rs 10 crore scam involving Surender Kumar Bansal.

The ACB action came after filing of three cases against Bansal and senior PWD officers in connection with the corruption allegation against them.

The investigating agency also questioned six engineers of the PWD in this connection.

The three FIRs were registered against Bansal and the PWD officers after it was discovered that the bills were cleared by different companies for different works.

The case involving Bansal, who died on 7 May, relates to a drain project and improvement of kerbs from Shani Mandir to Bakoli village up to Drain No. 6 on the National Highway44.

The FIRs do not mention Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Kejriwal's name, although complainant Rahul Sharma, Convener of NGO Road Anti-Corruption Organisation, has accused the Chief Minister of helping Bansal to get fake bills of around Rs 10 crore cleared.

The ACB had recorded the statement of Sharma on May 11.New Delhi: Indian designer Sanjukta Dutta will style Miss Grande Region 2018 Jessie Schroeder for the Cannes 2018 red carpet in Indian handloom Assamese silk.

The designer from Assam has designed a beautiful black gown, the fabric for which is woven by rural artisans of Assam. The motifs have been specially handcrafted with a strong significance to the culture of northeast India, said a statement.

"The golden motifs represent the agriculture prop of northeast India called Jaapi, which is the traditional hat used by the farmers and is a sign of honour usually presented to the guests. I am very happy that I am taking the culture and the rich handloom of India to Cannes," said Dutta.

Schroeder will wear her creation at the red carpet on May 14.

An engineer-turned-fashion designer, Dutta has been instrumental in taking Assamese fashion and handloom on both Indian and global platforms. Her creations have been donned by the likes of Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu, Dia Mirza and Preity Zinta and featured in fashion weeks in the country and abroad.

The traditional Assamese 'Anga-vastra' presented to Britain's Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton during their visit to the state in 2016 were also designed by Dutta.A Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist, who was recently arrested by Baramulla police following the killing of three civilians on April 30, has said that the Army could have killed him, but instead, armymen saved his life.

In a confessional video, recorded in police custody, LeT terrorist Aijaz Gujri appealed to other terrorists who are on wrong road to return to their homes and families. He said in the video that those who have taken up arms have left their homes and lives.

They have been living in jungles. I appeal to them that they should come back home to their parents, he said. Addressing another terrorist, named Nasir Amin, Gujri further said, I am Asking Nasir Amin that his mother is very ill and he should come back.

The LeT terrorist added that they first opened fire at the Army troop first, but the soldiers did not return the fire. I hid myself in bushes where I was arrested, where Army could have killed me but they saved my life.

Exposing the role of Pakistan in disturbing peace in the Valley, Gujri said, The day I was arrested, we were told by Pakistan to create violence in the valley. We were told that Army is doing brutalities while its not true. Its a conspiracy which was hatched in Pakistan.

The security forces had arrested four terrorists and seven Over Ground Workers (OGWs) in separate raids in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla following the killing of the civilians. The raids were conducted in north Kashmirs Old Town Baramulla and Sopore of Baramulla district.

The four terrorists were involved in recent killing of three youths  Asif Ahmad Sheikh, Haseeb Ahmad Khan and Mohmmad Asgar, residents of Kakkar Hamam in Baramulla.

On April 30, bullet-ridden bodies of three youth in their early 20s, were recovered from Khanpora Baramulla.

At the time, the police said that LeT militants were behind the attack. A police spokesperson said all the three persons were shot at from a very close range in Iqbal market of Old Baramulla town, killing them on the spot.

(With PTI Inputs)In a categorical message to the youth of Jammu and Kashmir, who are taking up arms or resorting to stone pelting, Army chief General Bipin Rawat has said that they cannot fight the Indian Army, and that Azadi could never be achieved by them.

In an interview to The Indian Express, the Army chief cautioned Kashmiri youth from getting carried away. We will always fight those who seek Azadi, those who want to secede. Its not going to happen, never, the Army chief was quoted as saying.

The Army chief further said that the cycle of killing would continue in Kashmir as fresh recruitments are being done by terrorist groups. Calling such attempts futile, General Rawat said it did not matter as to how many terrorists were killed.

He said that the Army or Indian administration does not like any sort of killing, but would fight with full force if compelled to do so. Comparing the role of Indian Army to that of security forces in countries like Syria and neighbouring Pakistan, General Rawat said that the forces in India havent been brutal.

Look at Syria and Pakistan. They use tanks and air power in similar situations. Our troops have been trying their level best to avoid any civilian casualty despite huge provocation...I know that the youth are angry. But attacking security forces, throwing stones at us isnt the way. he told The Indian Express.

He also questioned protests by locals during any operation by forces against terrorists. General Rawat said that if people do not want the terrorists to be killed, they should urge them to give up arms and surrender, adding that people were in fact inciting forces by resorting to actions like stone pelting.NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is expected to release the results of CBSE Class 10 and Class 12 examinations in the last week of May. The official confirmation of dates for the declaration of results is, however, yet to be announced.

Once the results are out, it will be available on the board's official website. The students who have appeared will be able to check their results at cbse.nic.in. The results will also be available on cbseresults.nic.in.

According to latest media reports, CBSE is going to release results of Class 10 on May 30. Earlier the results were to be announced on May 28 along with Class 12 results.

While the CBSE Class 10 exams were held from March 5 till April 4, the CBSE Class 12 exams 2018 had commenced from March 5. The economics paper was re-conducted because of the paper leak incident. The last date for internal assessment for Class 10 was April 15 and for Class 12 was February 8, 2018.

Here is how you can check CBSE Class 10, Class 12 Results 2018 -

Step 1: Log on to the official websites of the board - cbse.nic.in or cbseresults.nic.in

Step 2: Click on the link 'Class 10 Exam Results'

Step 3: Enter roll number and other required details

Step 4: Click on submit

The results will be displayed on the screen. Candidates are suggested to download their results and take a printout of the same for future reference. Students are advised to collect their official mark sheets from their respective institutes. The printouts are for information purposes only.

About CBSE

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was founded on November 3, 1962. It's headquartered at Preet Vihar, New Delhi. Its primary function includes preparing academic programmes and organizing examinations, especially for Class 10 and Class 12 studentsGSEB Gujarat Board Class 12 Science Results 2018 declared at gseb.org

Gandhinagar: In a few minutes from now, the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSEB) will announce GSEB Class 12 Results 2018 on its official website. Nearly 1.35 lakh students took the GSEB Class XII science exam, which was held from March March 17 - 28, 2018

Gujarat Secondary & Higher Secondary Education Board, Gandhinagar | HSC SCIENCE / GUJCET RESULT  2018 Results will be available on 10th May, 2018 after 9 a.m, said the official notice on the board's website.

In order to check results, candidates can refer to the following sites:

gseb.org gujarat.indiaresults.com examresults.net

Candidates who have appeared for the examination can register below to get their result through SMS or via email.

Steps to check GSEB Class 12 science exam results:

1: Visit the official website gseb.org or go to gujarat.indiaresults.com or examresults.net/gujarat/gseb-hsc-12th-result/

2: Now enter registration number/ roll number and if required, the mobile numbers and captcha

3: The results will be displayed on the screen

4: Candidates are advised to download and take a print out for further reference

The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board is a governmental body which is responsible for academic administration in the state of Gujarat, India, and has its jurisdiction over the states secondary and higher secondary education. It was formed on the basis of The Gujarat Secondary Education Act 1972. The board supervises, organises, controls, regulates and looks after the matters associated with school education in the state of Gujarat. The primary function of the board is to prepare academic programmes and organise examination for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC).GSEB Gujarat Board Class 12 Science Results 2018 declared at gseb.org

Gandhinagar: The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSEB) will release GSEB Class 12 Results 2018 for science stream any moment now on its official website gseb.org. Candidates can also check their scores at examresults.net and indiaresults.com.

Gujarat Secondary & Higher Secondary Education Board, Gandhinagar | HSC SCIENCE / GUJCET RESULT  2018 Results will be available on 10th May, 2018 after 9 a.m, said the official notice on the board's website.

Nearly 1.35 lakh students appeared for GSEB Class 12 science exams, which was held from March March 17 - 28, 2018

The candidates who have appeared for the examination can register below to get their result through SMS or via email.

Steps to check GSEB Class 12 science exam results:

1: Visit the official website gseb.org or go to gujarat.indiaresults.com or examresults.net/gujarat/gseb-hsc-12th-result/

2: Now enter registration number/ roll number and if required, the mobile numbers and captcha

3: The results will be displayed on the screen

4: Candidates are advised to download and take a print out for further reference

The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (abbreviated as GSEB) is a board of school education in the state of Gujarat, India. It is a governmental body which is responsible for academic administration in the state of Gujarat, India, and has its jurisdiction over the states secondary and higher secondary education. It was formed on the basis of The Gujarat Secondary Education Act 1972. The board supervises, organises, controls, regulates and looks after the matters associated with school education in the state of Gujarat. The primary function of the board is to prepare academic programmes and organise examination for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC).

GSEB Gujarat Board Class 12 Science Results 2018 declared at gseb.org

GSEB Result 2018: The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSEB) will release GSEB Class 12 Results 2018 on its official website gseb.org today, on May 10, at 9 am. Gujarat Secondary & Higher Secondary Education Board, Gandhinagar | HSC SCIENCE / GUJCET RESULT  2018 Results will be available on 10th May, 2018 after 9 a.m, said the official notice on the board's website.

Nearly 1.35 lakh students appeared for GSEB Class XII science exam, which was held from March March 17 - 28, 2018.

The candidates who have appeared for the examination can register below to get their result through SMS or via email.

Steps to check GSEB Class 12 science exam results:

1: Visit the official website gseb.org or go to gujarat.indiaresults.com or examresults.net/gujarat/gseb-hsc-12th-result/

2: Now enter registration number/ roll number and if required, the mobile numbers and captcha

3: The results will be displayed on the screen

4: Candidates are advised to download and take a print out for further reference

The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board is a governmental body which is responsible for academic administration in the state of Gujarat, India, and has its jurisdiction over the states secondary and higher secondary education. It was formed on the basis of The Gujarat Secondary Education Act 1972. The board supervises, organises, controls, regulates and looks after the matters associated with school education in the state of Gujarat. The primary function of the board is to prepare academic programmes and organise examination for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC).NEW DELHI: Following reports of six Indians who went missing in Afghanistan, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that the Indian government is in touch with the Afghan authorities.

"At this stage, I can share with you that we are in touch with the Afghan authorities in this matter," said MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar at a media briefing.

Kumar said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj as well as National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had telephonic conversations with their counterparts in Afghanistan.

"Our External Affairs Minister and NSA had a telephonic conversation with their counterparts and we have requested all possible assistance," the MEA official added.

He further added that the issue being sensitive, he would not like to share anything more at this time.

Six Indian nationals, along with an Afghan, believed to be employed with a power company KEC in Afghanistan, were abducted by a group of heavily armed unidentified men on May 6 from Bagh-e-Shamal village in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province.

According to local officials, the incident occurred while the employees were travelling to the area where the company has a contract for an electricity sub-station.

The Baghlan provincial council linked the incident to the Taliban.

(With inputs from agencies)Rockville, MD , May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- High exudate- and liquid-absorption capacity of superabsorbent polymers have swelled their adoption for applications in the medical industry. The industrys inclination toward sustainability and use of green products has led scientists to put efforts for developing eco-friendly medical superabsorbent polymers, thereby paving new growth avenues for stakeholders. With the GHDI in developing nations on the rise, expensive medical treatments and surgeries have gained interest of consumers, which in turn has augured well for sales of medical products including bandages, surgical pads and wound dressings.

Request For Sample Report- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=739

Excellent water retention and absorbency of superabsorbent polymers have been leveraged for product development in the medical sector, particularly in wound management. Efficient exudate absorption, and faster healing process are key attributes of medical superabsorbent polymers that have driven their popularity. This Fact.MR report foresees the market for medical superabsorbent polymers to record a splendid CAGR between the forecast period 2018 and 2027. Worldwide sales of medical superabsorbent polymers are poised to bring in nearly US$ 8,300 Mn revenues by 2027-end.

Medical Superabsorbent Polymers: Hospitals Contribute Significantly to Demand as Medical Waste Management Gains Higher Emphasis

End-use of medical superabsorbent polymers continues to remain high in hospitals. Operation theatres (OTs) form an integral part of hospitals, wherein the consistent flow of patients entail the requirement for a wide range of surgical procedures. This makes it imperative for hospitals to keep their OTs clean and hygienic. Minimizing the clean-up time prevails as a major concern among hospitals worldwide. Time-effective and safe management & disposition of suction canister waste is a primary task linked with surgery clean-ups.

Traditional suction canister solidifier take over 30 minutes for proper handling and disposing of waste. New technologies are therefore being developed using superabsorbent polymers, which remarkably trim the time taken for complete solidification and disposal of liquid medical waste. These technologies are demonstrating high penetration into hospitals worldwide, thereby complementing their dominance in the medical superabsorbent polymers market .

Innovation Remains a Cornerstone for Nonwoven Medical Superabsorbent Polymer Manufacturers

Non-woven medical superabsorbent polymers will remain preferred by end-users over their woven counterparts, as they offer relatively higher absorbency and flexibility. The report projects a robust increase in sales of non-woven superabsorbent polymers, with manufacturers making heavy investments in the development of innovative products and technologies such as P&Gs new line of bladder leak undergarments that offer maximum protection. Call of softer diapers has further led to technological innovations such as thermal-bonded non-woven superabsorbent polymers. Such innovations will rub off on demand and supply of non-woven superabsorbent polymers in the near future.

To know more about Medical Superabsorbent Polymers Market Trends, Check the link - https://www.factmr.com/report/739/medical-superabsorbent-polymers-market

Advanced Wound Care Continues to hold Bulk Shares of the Market, Report Says

The report projects revenues from medical superabsorbent polymers application in advanced would care to hold bulk shares of the market in the period of forecast. Faster healing process and recovery time coupled with high liquid absorption capacity of medical superabsorbent polymers bode well for enhanced therapeutic efficiency requirement in advanced wound care.

Led by the United States, North America is envisaged to spearhead the medical superabsorbent polymers market, driven by inflating Baby Boomers population that creates the need for adult incontinence products in hospitals, clinics, and ambulatory surgical centers. Immense focus on hygiene factor, and robust expenditure on medical products will remain key demand determinants for medical superabsorbent polymers in North America.

Airlaid technology is primarily preferred by medical superabsorbent polymers manufacturers, as it imparts the materials with better mechanical properties and reduced weight. Various technologies such as laminate and wet laid technology for manufacturing of these polymers, with an aim of delivering better results pertaining to quantity and quality.

To Buy Medical Superabsorbent Polymers Market Report, Check the link- https://www.factmr.com/checkout/739/S

About Fact.MR

Fact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.

Contact Us

Mr. Rohit Bhisey

Fact.MR

11140 Rockville Pike

Suite 400

Rockville, MD 20852

United States

Email: sales@factmr.com

Web: https://www.factmr.com/

Read Industry News at - https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/New Delhi: Justice J Chelameswar, the senior most judge of the Supreme Court who retires on June 22, has declined an invitation from the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) for his farewell function citing personal reasons, SCBA office-bearers said.

Justice Chelameswar had recently courted controversy by holding a press conference along with other three senior most judges -- Justices Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- on January 12, in which litany of allegations were made against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

SCBA president Vikas Singh said the bar body had met him last week to invite him for the farewell on May 18, which is the last working day of the Supreme Court before the summer vacation. "He declined the invite for the farewell function," Singh told PTI.

He said the members of the executive committee of SCBA today once again tried to persuade him to attend the farewell function but the judge did not agree citing personal reasons.

The judge also told the members of the bar that he had not accepted a farewell earlier when he was moving out of the Andhra Pradesh High Court to another high court.

SCBA honorary secretary Vikrant Yadav said the senior most judge today met the members of the bar at his residence, had a chat with them but declined the invite for his farewell.

He said it is a tradition that when a judge is retiring during the vacation, a farewell is thrown on the last working day before the holidays.

Justice Chelameswar today did not come to the apex court for judicial work.

As a result, he also missed the traditional Wednesday lunch of the judges when one of them takes a turn to bring 'ghar ka khana' (home food) from his or her home state. This was the third consecutive Wednesday when Justice Chelameswar did not attend court.Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is serving a sentence in fodder scam cases, has been granted parole for three days to attend the wedding of his son Tej Pratap Yadav and former Bihar chief minister Daroga Prasad Rais granddaughter Aishwarya Rai.

Jail inspector general of police Harsh Mangala confirmed that RJD leader was given parole. One team of Ranchi police has already been sent to Patna and the RJD chief is expected to leave for the Bihar capital from Ranchi by an evening flight on Thursday.

Some restrictions have been imposed on Lalu which he needs to abide to while being out of jail on parole. According to sources, the RJD chief is not allowed to talk to media and his movements will be recorded on video. He will remain in a security cover provided jointly by Bihar and Jharkhand police. As many as four officials of DSP rank have been given the charge for Lalu's security.

Sources also said that no politician, party worker or mediaperson would be allowed in the vicinity of the former Bihar chief minister.

On Wednesday there were reports of Lalu getting the parole. However, there was no official confirmation on the same.

Tej Pratap Yadav will be tying the knot with Aishwarya Rai at a function in Patna on May 12. The couple got engaged in a ceremony at Hotel Maurya in Patna on April 18.

Except for formers father and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is currently serving a sentence after conviction in fodder scam cases, all close family members and friends had attended the engagement ceremony.

The RJD supremo had applied for a parole from May 9 to May 13 to attend the wedding ceremony of Tej Pratap and Aishwarya. According to reports, the jail administration had sought the advice of advocate general to take a decision on the parole.MBOSE Class 12 HSSLC Results 2018: The Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE) has announced the Class 12 (HSSLC) results 2018 for Science, Commerce and Vocational fiels. Interested candidates can check the official websites: mbose.in, megresults.nic.in. The results were declared at 10 am on Thursday morning. The board is yet to announce the results for Arts stream.

MBOSE Class 12 HSSLC Results 2018: Toppers' list for Science and Commerce streams

Candidates can check their MBOSE results are these websites:

mbose.in megresults.nic.in results.shiksha meghalayaonline.in results.net/meghalaya indiaresults.com knowyourresult.com school.gradeup.co examresults.net/meghalaya

Candidates can also check their MBOSE Class 12 results via SMS:

Meghalaya Class 12 Results - HSSLC Science Examination 2018

SMS - MBOSE12S<space>ROLLNUMBER - Send it to 56263

Meghalaya Class 12 Results - HSSLC Commerce Examination 2018

SMS - MBOSE12C<space>ROLLNUMBER - Send it to 56263

Meghalaya Class 12 Results - HSSLC Arts Examination 2018

SMS - MBOSE12A<space>ROLLNUMBER - Send it to 56263

The Meghalaya HSSLC exams were held from 6 March to 29 March. The practical exams took place from 14 February to 22 February.

Steps to check MBOSE Meghalaya HSSLC Class 12 exams results 2018:

1: Visit official website Meghalaya Board of School Education MBOSE (Websites mentioned above)

2: Click on your link of either Science, Commerce and Vocational stream (As applicable).

3: Now, enter roll number

4. Download your Meghalaya Board Class 12 Result 2018 and save it for future referenceSRINAGAR: A day after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti batted for unilateral ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC), the Bharatiya Janata Party wing of the state said that there was no consensus of the party in the matter.

Following an all-party meeting, J&K BJP told news agency ANI, "There was no consensus on it. BJP doesn't stand by anything that says its time to observe unilateral ceasefire (with Pakistan)."

There was no consensus on it. BJP doesn't stand by anything that says its time to observe unilateral ceasefire (with Pak): J&K BJP on CM Mufti's statement after all party meet that said, 'Everyone agreed we must appeal Centre to think of unilateral ceasefire like Vajpayee ji did' pic.twitter.com/DfMr81coQQ  ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2018

The Chief Minister had on Wednesday said that both India and Pakistan should consider the prospect of a unilateral ceasefire. "Everyone (all parties) agreed that we should appeal to the Centre to consider a ceasefire like the unilateral ceasefire in (former PM Atal Bihari) Vajpayee's time in Ramzan (later this month) till Amarnath yatra and Eid," she said.

Mufti had said that a ceasefire would provide relief to the people and help create a better atmosphere in the state. "The Centre should think on these lines so that the common people get some relief because they are facing many difficulties due to encounters, crackdowns and search operations," she said.

India continues to maintain that peace is in the best interest of people in Jammu and Kashmir but is also firm that it won't be at the cost of innocent lives of either locals or army personnel. Pakistan has repeatedly attempted to provide cover fire to terrorists trying to cross over the LoC - crippling every attempt from the Indian side to maintain peace. The Indian Army has previously said that Pakistani forces deliberately target innocent villagers through mortar shelling.

Pakistan had violated ceasefire along the LoC 650 times till April and has continued unprovoked firing since as well. Indian forces have retaliated strongly each time. The valley has witnessed the killing of over 55 militants including at least 27 locals this year.NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a two-day state visit to Nepal starting on Friday. This will be the Prime Minister's third visit to the Himalayan state since he took over the reins of the government in 2014.

Ahead of PM Modi's visit, Chief Minister of Nepal's Province 2 Mohammad Lalbabu Raut expressed optimism saying "We are looking forward to his visit."

"We are looking forward to this visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We are leaving no stone unturned to make his visit in Janakpur a memorable and historical one," he added.

Defence Minister Ishwor Pokharel and Province 2 CM Raut will receive PM Modi at Janakpur Airport. They will be travelling to the country's historical and ancient city of Janakpur and visit Ram Janaki Temple where PM Modi will be welcomed by Nepal Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli.

During his visit, PM Modi and his Nepali counterpart will jointly inaugurate the hydro-electric project Arun III. His temple visit will be followed by a civic reception hosted by the mayor of Janakpur at Barhabigha ground.

There will be a call by Foreign Minister of Nepal Pradeep Gyawali. This will be followed by a ceremonial reception. He will also call on President of Nepal Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun. The two sides will hold bilateral talks as well.

PM Modi will also visit Muktinath temple and will depart for India on Saturday evening.

(With inputs from agencies)Nepal is all set to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is arriving in the country tomorrow for a two-day state visit during which he will hold talks with the top leadership here with a focus on implementing key India-assisted projects and building mutual trust.

This will be the third visit of Prime Minister Modi to Nepal and the first high-level visit from India since the formation of the new Government in Nepal.

He will start his visit from the historic city of Janakpur, the birthplace of Sita, tomorrow morning.

In Janakpur, Modi will visit 20th century Janaki temple and offer special prayers. Later, Prime Minister Modi will be accorded a civic reception by the Janakpur Sub-Metropolitan City at Barhabigha ground.

Ahead of the visit, Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali along with India's Ambassador Manjeev Singh Puri visited the city to take stock of the arrangements. The security has been tightened in the city with the deployment of more police personnel.

In the afternoon, the Prime Minister will fly to the capital, Kathmandu, where he will be given a guard of honour by the Nepal Army.

Welcome gates with pictures of Modi and his Nepalese counterpart KP Oli have been installed at different places on the way to the main city area from the Tribhuvan International Airport. Roads have been decorated with flags of Nepal and India.

The prime minister will call on Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun and President Bidya Devi Bhandari in the afternoon.

In the evening, Modi will hold delegation-level talks with Oli.

Later, both leaders will jointly lay the foundation stone of Arun-III hydro power project through a remote system and issue a press statement. Modi will also attend a banquet hosted by Prime Minister Oli.

On Saturday, Prime Minister will visit historic Muktinath temple in Mustang district situated in north-west Nepal to offer prayers Modi will attend a reception hosted by Ambassador Puri in his honour.

Leaders of various political parties in the country will call on Prime Minister Modi in Kathmandu.

Oli on Tuesday held discussions with former prime ministers and former foreign ministers about Modi's visit. He briefed them about issues to be taken up with Modi and solicited their advice. Oli also informed Parliament about the visit.

The visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between India and Nepal, and will enable leaders to discuss matters of mutual interest and to strengthen cooperation in all areas of age-old, multi-faceted and expanding partnership between the two countries, the Ministry of External Affairs said in New Delhi said in a statement last week.

Official sources in New Delhi earlier said that during Modi's two-day visit, India will seek to consolidate relationship with the new Nepalese government headed by Oli who has returned to power riding on a spectacular electoral victory and now leads a stable dispensation after years of political instability.

The aim will also be to bring "substance" and "seriousness" in ties, a source said, while expressing the hope that "it will further build trust between the two neighbours".

They said both sides will deliberate on the implementation of the ambitious rail project to link Kathmandu with Raxaul in Bihar and connecting landlocked Nepal with river transport system with India, apart from several other key connectivity projects.

India had offered these mega projects during Oli's visit here last month, seen as a move to counter China's efforts to expand influence over Kathmandu by offering various infrastructure projects.

Nepalese PM Oli had visited India around a month back which was seen as an attempt to repair Nepal's ties with New Delhi. In 2016, Oli had publicly criticised India for interfering in Nepal's internal matters and accused it of toppling his government over the issue of Madhesis, who are mostly of Indian-origin.

Modi and Oli are likely to sign a number of pacts and inaugurate the Rs 6000-crore Arun 3 project which is expected to generate around 900 MW of power.

The sources said there may be an announcement on the proposed Ramayan circuit, under which fifteen destinations like Ayodhya, Nandigram, Shringverpur and Chitrakoot will be developed to promote religious tourism.NEW DELHI: Nearly a decade after APJ Abdul Kalam became the first President to visit the Siachen Glacier, President Ram Nath Kovind visited the Army base camp in the area on Thursday. Siachen is considered to be the highest battlefield in the world.

News agency ANI posted a picture of President Ram Nath Kovind soon after he arrived in Siachen and tweeted, ''President Ram Nath Kovind visits Siachen base camp. He is the second President to visit the camp, after former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who visited in 2004.''

#JammuAndKashmir: President Ram Nath Kovind visits Siachen base camp. He is the second president to visit the camp, after former President APJ Abdul Kalam, who visited in 2004. pic.twitter.com/nByEm2Aitt  ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2018

''President Ram Nath Kovind will visit the Siachen base camp in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday and interact with soldiers posted there,'' a statement from the President's office had said on Wednesday.

#TopStory: President Ram Nath Kovind to visit the Siachen base camp in #JammuAndKashmir today and interact with the soldiers posted there. He will be the first president to visit the camp since the visit of former President APJ Abdul Kalam in 2004. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/VPbOAUbICU  ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2018

"He will be the first president to visit this camp since the visit of the then president APJ Abdul Kalam in 2004,'' the statement issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan had said.

He will also visit the Kumar Post, it added.

Kalam, known as the 'Missile Man of India', had made history by becoming the first Indian President to visit the heavily militarised Siachen Glacier in the first week of April 2004.

From the Thoise airbase, the former President took a helicopter to reach the base camp situated at over 18,000 feet.

Siachen has been peaceful ever since India and Pakistan entered into a ceasefire in November 2003 but remains a treacherous terrain, and casualties are not rare here even in times of peace.

According to a statement made by the Government in Parliament in December 2015, 869 soldiers have lost their lives in the glacier because of climatic conditions.

Siachen has been militarised since 1984 when both countries raced to occupy commanding heights.

(With PTI inputs)LUCKNOW: At least seven people were killed and half a dozen others injured as a strong duststorm hit many parts of western Uttar Pradesh late on Wednesday.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday night confirmed that at least four people have been killed in Agra while three others lost their lives in Etawah. The deceased include a woman.

''Four people died in Etawah district, three in Mathura and one in Agra in mishaps related to this evening's thunderstorm,'' Principal Secretary Information Avanish Awasthi told reporters late on Wednesday.

Awasthi said the district magistrates have been asked to distribute relief among the storm-hit people immediately.

Another death was reported from Hathras district, where a 15-year-old boy was struck by lightning while returning from the fields in Mohabbatpura village.

Gusty winds were blowing across western and central Uttar Pradesh and hail was also reported from Firozabad, neighbouring the Taj city, the official said.

Trees were uprooted at many places and power outages were also reported. Traffic was hit on highways at some places, the reports said.

The Regional Met office has predicted more such storms in the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials of the storm-hit districts of Aligarh, Agra, Mathura and Firozabad to ensure prompt relief to those affected in the rough weather.

He has also warned officials against any laxity with regards to relief and has asked them to make an immediate assessment of the losses and damage caused by the storm and ensure speedy disbursal of compensation.

Thunderstorms and lightning on May 2-3 had killed at least 134 people and injured more than 400 in five states, according to the Home Ministry.

Uttar Pradesh was the hardest hit with 80 deaths, most of them in Agra district.

About 100 people were killed then in the state as mud houses collapsed, trees were uprooted and electricity cables snapped.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had faced criticism then for not heading back immediately from the Karnataka election campaign, as news of the casualties poured in from his own state.

Since the May 2-3 thunderstorm, the India Meteorological Department had issued more bad weather alerts for northern India states.

Parts of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi experienced rain and strong winds yesterday.

(With PTI inputs)PALAKKAD: A girl student has alleged that she was forced to remove her innerwear to appear for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test or (NEET) on May 6 in Palakkad in Kerala. She also claimed that the external observer present for the center stared at her 'inappropriately' while she was appearing for the exam. The girl has filed a police complaint in connection with the allegations and a case under IPC section 509 (eve teasing by word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) was registered. The police have begun the investigation into the allegations.

The complainant along with some other girls, who appeared for the NEET conducted by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) at the Lion's school at Koppa, had to remove their brassieres as it contained metal hook before writing the test. According to the complainant, she was not comfortable writing the examination as a male external observer kept staring at her 'inappropriately.'

"The invigilator came and stood before her several times. He did not look at her face.. But at her chest. She tried to cover herself with the question paper. My sister was mentally tensed. The invigilator came near her two to three times. She found it difficult to write the exam properly, she was uncomfortable," the sister of the complainant said.

After her complaint, police said they will also be speaking to other students who appeared for the test in the same school. "We are trying to speak to more witnesses who appeared for the test in the school. We are trying to get the list of other students who wrote the test in this school," police sources were quoted as saying to news agency PTI.

The CBSE has however, said that it has not received any complaint in connection with any such incident. "We are enquiring and a report is expected by next week," CBSE Regional officer Tarun Kumar said over the police complaint.

Last year also, a controversy had erupted over NEET after a girl student from Kannur had complained that she was forced to remove her inner wear to write the test.

Over one lakh students had appeared for the test from Kerala this year.BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday mocked Congress president Rahul Gandhi for saying that he would like to be the Prime Minister in 2019 after the Lok Sabha elections.

Taking a dig at the Gandhi scion, Singh said, ''it would have been ok had others said this about him (Rahul Gandhi). But he is saying this himself. Brother, who is making you the PM.''

Dusra koi unke liye kehta to theek tha, par vo khud hi keh rahe hain? Bhaiya bana kaun raha hai aapko?: Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan while campaigning in Mysuru on Rahul Gandhi's that he would like to be PM in 2019 #KarnatakaElection2018 pic.twitter.com/CwvT7l7MXj  ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2018

Earlier, Shivraj's party colleague Shahnawaz Hussain had said that the Congress chief was day-dreaming about becoming the prime minister of the country  a post which will apparently remain occupied till 2024.

Attacking Rahul Gandhi for expressing his Prime Ministerial aspirations, BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain had stated that there was no vacancy for the top post till 2024 as Narendra Modi would again assume it after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"Now Rahul ji is saying he is ready to become Prime Minister....He is day-dreaming and congratulations for his beautiful dreams. But there is no vacancy for the PM post till 2024," Hussain said.

"The countrymen chose Narendra Modi ji for the Prime Minister's post and, after the 2019 elections, he will again become the country's PM...Congress leaders also know this", the Bihar BJP leader said this while speaking to reporters.

Continuing his attack on the Gandhi scion, Hussain said, ''After Rahul Gandhi became Congress vice president, his party lost 13 states and ever since he took over the reins of his party, it lost five. Karnataka, where elections will be held on May 12, would be the sixth one.''

The BJP spokesperson further alleged that Rahul Gandhi opening up about his prime ministerial ambitions is a 'Congress plan' to defend him in the event of his party's loss in Karnataka so that no one questions his leadership.

Hussain, however, admitted that though BJP under Narendra Modi's leadership has been winning assembly elections, there have been a few exceptions too.

As part of BJP's Karnataka election strategy, Hussain has been campaigning in Bidar and Kalaburagi districts adjoining Hyderabad.

Addressing a huge rally, Hussain said that it was almost certain that his party would win in Karnataka "despite extreme efforts by the Siddaramaiah government and Rahul Gandhi".

Hussain also took a dig at TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao who has mooted the idea of Federal Front to bring about a change in the national politics.

He has woken up late,'' Hussain said about the TRS chief.

"Many people are dreaming of (entering) national politics and he (KCR) too has a right to dream like Rahul Gandhi," Hussain said while accusing the TRS chief of diverting the attention of the people of Telangana from key issues.

"Now he is speaking of national politics....It will not have any impact", Hussain said.

(With PTI inputs)MONACO, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Scorpio Tankers Inc. (NYSE:STNG) (Scorpio Tankers, or the Company) announced today that it has entered into separate, privately negotiated agreements with certain holders of its outstanding 2.375% Convertible Senior Notes due 2019 (the Existing Notes) to exchange approximately $175 million in aggregate principal amount of the Existing Notes for approximately $175 million in aggregate principal amount of new 3.00% Convertible Senior Notes due 2022 (the Exchange Notes and such transaction, the Exchange Offer).



The Exchange Notes will be senior, unsecured obligations of the Company and will bear interest at a rate of 3.00% per year. Interest will be payable semi-annually in arrears on November 15 and May 15 of each year, beginning on November 15, 2018. The Exchange Notes will mature on May 15, 2022, unless earlier converted, redeemed or repurchased in accordance with their terms.

The Exchange Notes are freely convertible at the option of the holder on or after January 1, 2019, and may be converted prior to January 1, 2019 under the circumstances and during the periods specified in the indenture governing the Exchange Notes (the Indenture). Upon conversion of the Exchange Notes, holders will receive shares of the Companys common stock.



The conversion rate for the Exchange Notes is initially 250 common shares per $1,000 principal amount of Exchange Notes (equivalent to an initial conversion price of approximately $4.00 per share of the Companys common stock), and is subject to adjustment upon the occurrence of certain events. In addition, holders who convert their Exchange Notes in connection with a make-whole fundamental change (as defined in the Indenture), will, under certain circumstances, be entitled to a make-whole premium in the form of an increase in the applicable conversion rate.



Holders of the Exchange Notes will have the right, at their option, to require the Company to repurchase such holders notes if the Company undergoes a fundamental change (as defined in the Indenture), at a repurchase price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Exchange Notes on the fundamental change repurchase date, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, up to, but excluding, such repurchase date.



Closing of the Exchange Offer is expected to occur on or about May 14, 2018, subject to customary closing conditions. The Company anticipates $173.5 million in aggregate principal amount of Existing Notes will remain outstanding following closing of the Exchange Offer.



This Exchange Offer is separate and additional to the Companys announcement of new financing initiatives on April 25, 2018, for which the Company expects to make announcements for further individual transactions in the coming weeks.

This press release is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy the Exchange Notes, nor shall there be any sale of the Exchange Notes in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful. The Exchange Notes and the common shares issuable upon conversion of the Exchange Notes have not been, and will not be, registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act) or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction and may not be offered or sold absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements under the Securities Act.



About Scorpio Tankers Inc.

Scorpio Tankers is a provider of marine transportation of petroleum products worldwide. The Company currently owns or finance leases 109 product tankers (38 LR2 tankers, 12 LR1 tankers, 45 MR tankers and 14 Handymax tankers) with an average age of 2.7 years and time or bareboat charters-in 18 product tankers (two LR2 tankers, nine MR tankers and seven Handymax tankers).

Forward-Looking Statements

Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts. Scorpio Tankers desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words believe, expect, anticipate, estimate, intend, plan, target, project, likely, may, will, would, could and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, managements examination of historical operating trends, data contained in the Companys records and other data available from third parties. Although management believes that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond the Companys control, there can be no assurance that Scorpio Tankers will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. The Company undertakes no obligation, and specifically declines any obligation, except as required by law, to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

In addition to these important factors, other important factors that, in the Companys view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include, unforeseen liabilities, future capital expenditures, revenues, expenses, earnings, synergies, economic performance, indebtedness, financial condition, losses, future prospects, business and management strategies for the management, expansion and growth of the Companys operations, risks relating to the integration of the operations of Navig8 Product Tankers Inc. (NPTI) and the possibility that the anticipated synergies and other benefits of the acquisition of NPTI will not be realized or will not be realized within the expected timeframe, the outcome of any legal proceedings related to the merger with NPTI and the related transactions, the failure of counterparties to fully perform their contracts with the Company, the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand for tanker vessel capacity, changes in the Companys operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, the market for the Companys vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, charter counterparty performance, ability to obtain financing and comply with covenants in such financing arrangements, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, vessels breakdowns and instances of off-hires, and other factors. Please see Scorpio Tankers filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a more complete discussion of certain of these and other risks and uncertainties.

Contact Information

Scorpio Tankers Inc.

(212) 542-1616Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed that the party would win Karnataka Assembly elections hands down. Addressing a joint press conference with Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the Gandhi scion said that the fight in the state is between two ideologies.

The Congress party is united in Karnataka, and we are fighting the elections on real and fundamental issues concerning the state, said Rahul Gandhi, adding that while the Congress campaigned on the elections on fundamental issues, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) resorted to personal attacks.

"There is no comparison between the two opponents, on one side we have honest Siddaramaiah and on the other side we have corrupt people like Yeddyurappa and Reddy brothers," said the Congress party president.

The Gandhi scion also referred to the issue of foreign policy and relations with neighbouring countries, claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government has decimated the foreign policy of the country.

The Prime Minister met Xi Jinping in China without any agenda. We had an agenda and it's called Doklam. Our foreign policy has been decimated because he uses foreign policy as an individual exercise, said Rahul Gandhi.

He added, Russia is supplying arms to Pakistan, which it never did before. Our foreign policy is a disaster currently.

When asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing the Congress of politicising incidents of rapes, the Congress chief said that the party would continue to raise the issue, asserting that rape is a political issue.

Rapes of women is a political issue and it is a national issue. Does he want to say that politicians should not discuss about women security? Women security is a fundamental issue and politicians must speak about it, he said.

He also targeted the BJP for attacking him over recent visits to temple. He said that the BJP did not even know what Hindu means. I have been visiting temples, mosques, gurudwaras and churches, and that is troubling the BJP, said Rahul Gandhi.

On the issue of his capabilities for becoming the Prime Minister, the Gandhi scion said that the issues was being raised by PM Modi to distract the people of Karnataka. This election is not about me or the Prime Minister, it is about the people of Karnataka, about respecting what they want, said the Congress chief.New Delhi: The high-voltage campaigning in Karnataka for Assembly elections to be held on May 12 came to an end on Thursday evening. Top leaders from the Congress and the BJP addressed separate press conferences on Thursday during which they highlighted key aspects and focus areas of each party's campaign that lasted close to two months.

Congress and BJP leaders address the media:

Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw a "threat" in him, and the attack by him over his prime ministerial ambition was only aimed at "distracting attention". He also hit out at the PM for raking up the issue of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, saying "my mother is Italian" but she was "more Indian" than many Indians. "This election is not about Rahul. I have now learnt to deal with the prime minister. When he can't respond, he distracts," Rahul told reporters.

On Sonia's foreign origin, he said,"My mother is an Italian. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She has sacrificed her life for the country, she has suffered for the country. When PM Modi makes such comments, it shows the quality of the man. I am happy if he enjoys making such comments, he is welcome."

Rahul added, "PM Modi has anger inside him and he has got anger for everybody, not only for me. I attract that anger because he sees a threat in me. His anger is his problem, not my problem."

On the other hand, addressing the press in Bengaluru after leading a massive roadshow in Badami constituency, BJP chief Amit Shah said that the Congress wants to win the Karnataka assembly elections in an "undemocratic" manner and the "voter ID scandal" showed its desperation. He also sounded confident about the BJP forming a government on its own.

"The Congress wants to win elections in an undemocratic manner... The developments in the last three days have sent a shock wave across India among those who are concerned about strengthening democracy," he said, referring to the seizure of "bogus" voter ID cards from a flat in Bengaluru. Shah added that the BJP would win at least 130 seats.

The majority mark is 113 seats in the 225-member Karnataka Assembly. While elections are held for 224 seats, one member is nominated by the state Governor from the Anglo-Indian community.

PM Modi connects with 25 lakh people in Karnataka through his app

Meanwhile, PM Modi has reached out to a whopping 25 lakh people in Karnataka through several video interactions on his app, BJP IT department in-charge Amit Malviya said, as per PTI.

The PM concluded his interactions - which happened in the run-up to the Karnataka assembly polls - with an interaction with the workers of the state BJP's SC, ST and OBC wings. In the last couple of weeks, he has spoken to the workers of the Karnataka BJP's farmers, women and youth wings and also answered their questions.

Karnataka Assembly elections in numbers:

Nearly 1.5 lakh security personnel will be deployed during the Assembly elections in Karnataka on May 12 to ensure free and fair polls. Out of them, more than 50,000 will be from the central paramilitary forces. The Union Home Ministry has earmarked around 520 companies drawn from various paramilitary forces like the CRPF, BSF and ITBP to keep strict vigil and ensure peace during the polling process in the southern state as per PTI.

5.6 crore voters are expected to exercise their democratic right in the Karnataka polls. In the 2013 elections, there were 4.18 crore voters in the state. A total of 58,000 booths across the states have been set up. In 2013, there were 50,446 polling stations. Of all the booths in 2018, 600 would be completely managed by women and would be called 'pink booths', according to Chief Electoral Officer S Kumar. He told news agency ANI that 80,000 voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) along with 80,000 Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) will be used. More than 10 booths would be managed by specially-abled people while 28 booths will have an ethnic design.

The results of the Karnataka Assembly polls will be announced on May 15.

(With Agency inputs)BENGALURU: Fighting incumbency in Karnataka, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and state Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday held a press conference, trying to bring down the walls of defence erected by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP members.

"Yes, my mother is an Italian. But she is more Indian than many other Indian people I have seen. She has worked, suffered for the country," said son Rahul, a day after Modi attacked former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

The Gandhi scion also questioned the Prime Minister's agenda in the recent meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Prime Minister met Xi Jinping in China without any agenda. We had an agenda and it's called Doklam. Our foreign policy has been decimated because he uses foreign policy as an individual exercise, said Rahul Gandhi, exuding a new-found confidence.

The policy of the Congress was to pass on the benefits of international crude oil prices to the people of India. But the Modi government is passing on the benefits to its friends, he said, adding, Russia is supplying arms to Pakistan, which it never did before. Our foreign policy is a disaster currently.

I attract anger from PM Modi because he views me as a threat, said Rahul while responding to Modi's 'arrogance' jibe.

The central challenge in front of our country is to give job to youngsters. China is a competitor and a rising power. We have to manage our foreign policy with extreme care, but we are making fundamental errors, said Rahul.

Earlier in the press conference, Rahul said that rapes are a national issue.

Rapes of women is a political issue and it is a national issue. Does he want to say that politicians should not discuss about women security? Women security is a fundamental issue and politicians must speak about it, he said.

Thursday marks the last day of campaigning for Karnataka Assembly elections 2018. With just two days remaining for May 12 polls in the Congress-ruled state, top leaders from main political parties are making a last-ditch effort to woo voters.

The BJP is organising road shows in more than 150 assembly constituencies.

As we enter the last day of the public campaign, the BJP is organising roadshows in more than 150 assembly constituencies today attended by our central leaders and CMs of various states. Our workers are reaching millions of voters at their homes and heralding a new Karnataka,'' the Karnataka BJP said in a tweet.

The high-voltage campaigning will end at 5 pm on Thursday.

The counting of votes will be on Tuesday, May 15.New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not holding any press conference in the last four years and said that he would be meeting the media more often.

Taking to Twitter, Rahul said he enjoyed meeting the regional and national media at his 'packed' press conference in Bengaluru and apologised to those who could not get a chance to ask a question due to lack of time. However, the Congress chief said that unlike the PM, he would be doing many more press conferences in future. He also posted a number of pictures of his media interaction on Twitter.

Enjoyed meeting the regional & national press today in Bengaluru. We had a packed house! Im sorry not everyone got a chance to ask a question due to the paucity of time. But, unlike our PM who hasnt had a press conference in 4 yrs., I will be doing many more of these! pic.twitter.com/tzNVHVLXdu  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 10, 2018

PM Modi sees a threat in me, says Rahul Gandhi

Meanwhile, Rahul at the press conference said on Thursday that PM Modi saw a "threat" in him. He also hit out at the Prime Minister for raking up the issue of UPA chairperson and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, saying "my mother is Italian" but she was "more Indian" than many Indians.

"This election is not about Rahul. I have now learnt to deal with the Prime Minister. When he can't respond, he distracts," Rahul told reporters responding to questions about PM Modi's attacks on him over his prime ministerial ambition.

On the issue of Sonia's foreign origin, he said,"My mother is an Italian. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She has sacrificed her life for the country, she has suffered for the country."

The issue of Sonia's foreign origin was raked up by PM Modi at an election rally in Karnataka recently where he had dared Rahul to speak for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Karnataka government in any language, including his "mother's mother tongue".

Also, the Congress chief hit back hard at the BJP for mocking him over visiting temples and calling him an "election Hindu" who remembered Hindu shrines only during polls. Maintaining that the BJP feels "uncomfortable" about his temple visits, Rahul said, "I don't think they understand the term Hindu, because the term Hindu is a perspective, it is something that is in the heart, it is imbibed. There are different beliefs... As a leader of a political party, it is my job to stand with them in their beliefs."

On the purchase of Rafale fighter jets, he said, "It is a very good deal for the PM and his businessman friend, who has a Rs 45,000 crore debt, who has never built an aircraft in his life." PM Modi paid Rs 1500 crore per aircraft that the UPA government had worked out at Rs 700 crore, Rahul said. as per PTI.

Further, attacking the Modi government, Rahul claimed that India's foreign policy was "decimated" as the PM looked at it as an individual exercise. "He is under the impression that he can go on and have a personal conversation with the President of China and everything will magically happen," he said.

The campaign for the Karnataka Assembly elections ended on Thursday. Polling will be held on May 12 and results will be declared on May 15.

(With PTI inputs)HYDERABAD: Hitting out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi, the BJP has said that he appears to be day-dreaming about becoming the prime minister of the country  a post which will apparently remain occupied till 2024.

The latest attack on Rahul Gandhi's Prime Ministerial aspirations came from senior BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain who stated that there was no vacancy for the top post till 2024 as Narendra Modi would again assume it after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"Now Rahul ji is saying he is ready to become Prime Minister....He is day-dreaming and congratulations for his beautiful dreams. But there is no vacancy for the PM post till 2024," Hussain said.

"The countrymen chose Narendra Modi ji for the Prime Minister's post and, after the 2019 elections, he will again become the country's PM...Congress leaders also know this", the Bihar BJP leader said this while speaking to reporters.

Continuing his attack on the Gandhi scion, Hussain said, ''After Rahul Gandhi became Congress vice president, his party lost 13 states and ever since he took over the reins of his party, it lost five. Karnataka, where elections will be held on May 12, would be the sixth one.''

The BJP spokesperson further alleged that Rahul Gandhi opening up about his prime ministerial ambitions is a 'Congress plan' to defend him in the event of his party's loss in Karnataka so that no one questions his leadership.

Hussain, however, admitted that though BJP under Narendra Modi's leadership has been winning assembly elections, there have been a few exceptions too.

As part of BJP's Karnataka election strategy, Hussain has been campaigning in Bidar and Kalaburagi districts adjoining Hyderabad.

Addressing a huge rally, Hussain said that it was almost certain that his party would win in Karnataka "despite extreme efforts by the Siddaramaiah government and Rahul Gandhi".

Addressed a massive public meeting for @BJP4Karnataka election campaign at

Humanbad constituency district Bider, Karnataka. Just as the public's enthusiasm and kind of support is seen , it is evident that the BJP is going to form the government in Karnataka. @BJP4India pic.twitter.com/cg6mPH6MW5  Shahnawaz Hussain (@ShahnawazBJP) May 8, 2018

Hussain also took a dig at TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao who has mooted the idea of Federal Front to bring about a change in the national politics.

He has woken up late,'' Hussain said about the TRS chief.

"Many people are dreaming of (entering) national politics and he (KCR) too has a right to dream like Rahul Gandhi," Hussain said while accusing the TRS chief of diverting the attention of the people of Telangana from key issues.

"Now he is speaking of national politics....It will not have any impact", Hussain said.

(With PTI inputs)Mumbai: Benchmark Sensex gave up early gains to end 73 points lower at 35,246.27 on Thursday, breaking its three-day winning streak, as investors booked profit in recent gainers.

Investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of assembly elections in Karnataka on Saturday amid concerns over surging global crude oil prices and weakening rupee.

Oil prices continued their move higher after touching multi-year highs overnight as investors digested the news of renewed US sanctions on Iran and its impact on global oil supplies.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, hit their strongest since November 2014 at USD 77.76 per barrel today.

Unabated capital outflows by foreign funds and disappointing earnings by some companies too added to the weak trend, brokers said.

The 30-share Sensex rose over 128 points in morning trade and shot up to 35,500.76, but quickly lost momentum to hit the day's low of 35,203.85. It finally ended 73.08 points, or 0.21 percent lower at 35,246.27.

The Sensex had gained 403.97 points in the previous three sessions.

The broader NSE Nifty moved between 10,705 and 10,785.55, before ending 25.15 points, or 0.23 percent down at 10,716.55.

Meanwhile, on a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 704.03 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 664.92 crore yesterday, provisional data showed.Sonam Kapoor's wedding reception last night was a starry affair. The function saw the presence of who's who of the film industry with Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan being the biggest of the superstars to grace the event.

While the internet is still going crazy over viral videos of Bollywood big-wigs letting themselves loose at the grand event, Shah Rukh Khan took to Twitter to write about the reception and how Anil Kapoor is his source of inspiration.

"I kind of know, how it feels when a piece of ur heart gets married. Danced & celebrated love for daughters with my inspiration Anil Kapoor," Shah Rukh tweeted.

Sonam Kapoor responded to Shah Rukh's tweet calling him the best. She wrote, "Sir youre the best! Thanks so so much for the lovely wishes and the tremendous amounts of love you showered on Anand and me! We love you!"

Daddy Anil too responded to SRK's adorable tweet writing, "Thank you so much @iamsrk for all the love! I am so lucky to have friends like you who made this memorable occasion even more special!"

Check out the posts here:

Sir you're the best! Thanks so so much for the lovely wishes and the tremendous amounts of love you showered on Anand and me! We love you! https://t.co/gF7WrALCzk  Sonam K Ahuja (@sonamakapoor) May 9, 2018

Thank you so much @iamsrk for all the love! I am so lucky to have friends like you who made this memorable occasion even more special! https://t.co/kL40QT2gX6  Anil Kapoor (@AnilKapoor) May 10, 2018

On Wednesday, Anil expressed his gratitude and thanked the Mumbai Police for providing relevant security during his daughter's wedding ceremony on Tuesday. Anil said his family enjoyed the occasion to the fullest because of the constant support from the police.

"The constant support of Mumbai Police was a major reason behind our family being able to celebrate this occasion to the fullest without worrying about the safety! Thank you for all your help," Anil tweeted.

Anil also thanked the wedding planners for giving Sonam the 'wedding of her dreams.' He tweeted, "Thank you @wedniksha for helping me give my daughter the wedding of her dreams! You guys did a fantastic job of turning our thoughts into reality!"

Sonam married her longtime friend and Delhi-based businessman Anand Ahuja on Tuesday afternoon. From the film and fashion industry, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Karan Johar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Rani Mukerji, Swara Bhaskar, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Karisma Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, designer Kunal Rawal, designer Masaba Gupta and stylist Pernia Qureshi were present at the wedding ceremony.Mumbai: Actor Arjun Kapoor says it's high time people stop using the term "women empowerment" for the sake of it, and he feels change will happen for the better when the mindset of the men changes in the country.

Arjun, who has been associated with the Girl Rising campaign, interacted with the media at 'Bend The Gender Awards' here on Wednesday.

Sharing his views on women empowerment, Arjun said: "After working for so many years in the film industry, I have realised that in our film industry, we still have to give some sort of opportunities to women to come out, pursue a career, to make a life, to be independent, and to make choices.

"The term women empowerment' has been in vogue from the last few years. A lot of people make use of it but they only use for the sake of it. Actually they don't put it to use. I always thought that empowerment of women will take place when the men of India will change their mindset. So, we thought that we need to honour those men this year who have somewhere made a difference to their partners, sisters or children's life."

Arjun who played a house husband in Kareena Kapoor Khan-starrer "Ki & Ka", said supporting a woman does not necessarily mean helping them and sometimes just being with them quietly can also inspire a woman.

"In India, we often say that girls are not capable of doing certain things. But if a husband can support his wife to achieve her dreams and goals, then I think he is a true hero.

"The same would be the other way around. If a woman can go out and help a man achieving his ambitions, dreams and hopes, then we always say behind every successful man there is woman because of her sacrifices. The same way, I feel that behind every successful woman, every man needs to be there, so they should not just talk about a change, they should pick up a change because it's been very demoralising to see the small thinking of people towards women."

Asked whether an actress should have a shelf life when it comes to working in films, he said: "Come on, I am speaking to you a day after my sister's (Sonam Kapoor) wedding. She is going to continue working in films and she has one film releasing ('Veere Di Wedding').

"Anushka (Sharma) has been working since the last six months after getting married. Kareena is a prime example after her pregnancy break. I feel making sure that women are safer and comfortable is necessary for actresses to grow and to be able to harness their skills."

The "2 States" actor urged the media to highlight the change seen in the film industry, as compared to other fields and industries.

"If you see a film like Raazi', around 7-8 years back, it would have been a male-driven film. But today it's content driven and it's based on a true story. Makers of it haven't changed the gender of the protagonist and maintained essence of it.

"So, the way we are trying to change the mindset of people through Bend The Gender Awards', similarly our film and film industry will take some time to evolve, but at least we are trying that. We should give credit to the film industry where it is due. We are still way more secular, open than other fields and I think media should highlight that."Chennai: In a tragic incident, a 65-year-old woman was allegedly lynched in Tamil Nadu as the mob thought that she was a child trafficker.

According to The News Minute, Rukmani and her relatives were searching their Kula deivam or family temple in Athirmoor village near Polur, Thiruvannamalai, when a crowd of around 200 villagers mistook them for child traffickers and started beating them. Rukmani, who lived in Old Pallavaram in Chennai, is said to have died on the spot. Four others - Chandrasekaran (34), Mohan Kumar (34) and Venkatesan (51) - along with the car driver Gajendran, were seriously injured.

TNM, Superintendent of Police, R Ponni was quoted as saying by the media house - "The group had crossed the Athimoor village near Polur, via Jamunamarathur, when they stopped near an old lady's house to ask for directions to the temple. None of them had visited the village in a long time and two of them were from Malaysia. When they stopped to ask for directions, they gave chocolates to two children playing near the road. The old lady, on seeing this, alerted the villages saying that they were child traffickers. Within no time, hundreds of villagers gathered and started questioning the group. The senior officers from Thiruvannamalai arrived at the scene almost immediately. However, we couldn't stop the lynching as there were too many of them."

The villagers were reportedly enraged after seeing videos of child trafficking on WhatsApp and thought that the woman and her relatives had come to kidnap children. The mob did not listen to the group even after being told that they were from Chennai and had come to the village to go their family temple.

Later, the injured were rushed to the government hospital at Thiruvannamalai.

The incident, which is said to have happened on May 9, 2018, has reportedly been captured on camera. There are said to be some photos also doing the rounds. Ponni said that the police had received the videos and culprits have been traced.New Delhi: Google at the keynote at I/O its annual developer conference has said that the company is working on the ability for users to change black-and-white shots into color in just a tap.

The company has added AI capabilities in Photos. The feature, however, is still in development.

People create and consume photos and videos in many different ways, and we think it should be easier to do more with the photos you've taken, across all the apps and devices you use. That's why we're introducing a new Google Photos partner program that gives you the tools and APIs to build photo and video experiences in your products that are smarter, faster and more helpful, Jan-Felix Schmakeit, Google Photos Developer Lead posted in a blog.

In yet another blog, Nan Wang Software Engineer, Google Photos wrote, "Youll start to see a range of suggested actions show up on your photos right as youre viewing them, such as the option to brighten, share, rotate or archive a picture. These suggested actions are powered by machine learning, which means you only see them on relevant photos. You can easily tap the suggestions to complete the action.

Google has been using AI to make it easier for specially-abled people to communicate through Morse code technology. Google AI can now write words depending on the Morse code input.

Google's implementation will replace the keyboard with two areas for short and long signals and users can use multiple word suggestions above the keyboard just like on the normal keyboard.

The company has also created a Morse poster so as to learn Morse code more easily. Google is adding morse code input to its mobile keyboard.

With IANS InputsReston, VA, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HighPoint Globals acquisition of Primescape Solutions has been named a finalist for the 2018 Corporate Growth Awards in the category of Deal of the Year Under $50 Million.

The annual Corporate Growth Awards are sponsored by ACG National Capital to recognize the enterprises and individuals in the greater Washington, D.C. metro areas business community that have exhibited excellence in corporate growth and dealmaking over the past year.

HighPoints acquisition was selected as a finalist from a large number of nominated corporate transactions and deals, all of which were exceptional in their execution and the value they delivered to the parties involved. Finalists were chosen by the 2018 Corporate Growth Awards Committee, chaired by the former ACG National Capital President, Marc Marlin, a Managing Director at Kipps DeSanto & Co.

Every year, ACG National Capital receives hundreds of nominations for its Corporate Growth Awards from some of the regions fastest growing and most successful businesses, said Marc Marlin. Having a transaction named as a finalist in this distinguished and remarkable group of deals is an honor, and we look forward to recognizing all of the finalists, and our winners, at the upcoming Corporate Growth Awards Gala.

The acquisition of Primescape added digital strategies, software development, and data services to HighPoints focus on improving the citizen experience (CX), with services including contact center optimization, training and learning management, quality assurance, and journey mapping. The combined company continues to provide support for the full range of citizen touchpoints with government including websites, mobile apps, video, social media, and call centers.

We quickly saw that Primescape Solutions digital transformation services, together with HighPoints citizen experience technology and expertise, would enhance our ability to provide customers with end-to-end services, said Ben Lanius, CEO of HighPoint. This ACG recognition validates that our combined company is a powerhouse for critical citizen and digital services and ignites our passion for growth.

The winners of the Corporate Growth Awards will be announced at a black-tie gala on May 22, 2018 at the Ritz Carlton Tysons Corner. Additional information about the event and finalists can be found on the events page at www.acg.org.

About HighPoint

HighPoint helps government agencies elevate the citizen experienceTM by improving the touchpoints through which citizens interact with government. From contact centers and employee experience to digital and data services, our team works with government agencies to more efficiently integrate the people, processes and technology that help government deliver on the needs of citizens and employees. HighPoint delivers services for 15 government clients including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Office of the Comptroller of Currency, Department of State, Defense Logistics Agency and Department of Housing and Urban Development.

HighPoint is a privately held company founded in 2006 with 350 employees across offices in Indianapolis, Indiana; Baltimore, Maryland; and Reston and Herndon, Virginia. For additional information about HighPoint, visit www.highpointglobal.com.

About ACG National Capital

ACG National Capital, a chapter of the international association, ACG (Association for Corporate Growth) that serves Washington, D.C., northern Virginia and southern Maryland, drives middle-market growth and increases deal flow. It provides unparalleled opportunities for networking, deal making and professional development for individuals involved in building corporate value through M&A, strategic partnerships, organic growth and capital funding.

ACG National Capital's veteran leadership and its membership have participated in nearly every M&A transaction completed recently in the D.C. metro region with over 400 members. For more information, visit www.acgcapital.org or the ACG online publication at www.acgcapitalblog.com.New Delhi: Arshi Khan entertained the viewers with her antics on reality show 'Bigg Boss 11' and the 'awaam' loved her back. The controversial celebrity made some good friends inside the 'BB11' house and producer Vikas Gupta was one such person she bonded well with.

The two continued to remain friends, even after the show got over and were spotted chilling together on various occasions. However, on Vikas's birthday celebration, Arshi was nowhere to be seen and that raised many eyebrows.

It started a debate on social media about the alleged fight between Vikas and Arshi. And not to say the least, 'Bigg Boss 11' winner Shilpa Shinde's name was dragged in the issue. Now, Arshi opened up on the issue and tweeted about the same.

She tweeted:

Vikas or Arshi saath me nahi but Arshi or Vikas mom aaj bhi strong hai bcz I her. Didn't unfollow, wasnt upset dat he thanked others but because my fans were left out. When there's no love for your friendship there's no love at all. Also, stop being silly. #VikasArshi  Arshi Khan (@ArshiKOfficial) May 9, 2018

Aur best friend ke party me jaane keliye me excited thi. Uske gift bhi hai mere pass but end me nahi gayi kyuki bohot hurt thi or mere fans hurt the. Sab friendships me hota hai or sab realize n move on karte hai. I request all my fans to move on & stop trolling.  Arshi Khan (@ArshiKOfficial) May 9, 2018

Previously, when quizzed about the whole issue, Arshi told Timesofindia.com, First of all, this is a very silly issue. Yes I was upset with Vikas for not acknowledging birthday wishes from Virshians who love us both and they wished him at sharp 12. I was live on Facebook when we all wished him. So obviously it hurt them and me when he thanked all the other fandoms and categorically left us out. As his friend, I have supported him always and it has never mattered to me if he has supported me in return but I love my fans and they were upset about him leaving them out. It upset me too so I didn't go for his party. I even asked my fans not to abuse him but I can't help it if they still trolled him. Secondly, I didn't unfollow his mom. I love her dearly and we are still in touch. I love my friends but if there is no respect for that friendship I move on. I was hurt, still am but I don't understand why this silly fight went public. And I also request media to keep Shilpa out of the picture because she was never in it. I'm sure we'll sort it out and get on with our lives so I have no more comments.

Arshi shared a love-hate relationship with Shilpa Shinde inside the house. We hope Vikas and Arshi get back to being friends and let bygones be bygones.Bahraich: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Savitri Bai Phule on Thursday said that Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a 'maha purush' (great man) who had contributed in country`s independence.

"Jinnah was a maha purush and will always remain so. He had contributed in country`s independence," she said as per news agency ANI.

Jinnah ek mahapurush the, desh ki aazadi ki ladai mein unko yogdaan tha. Vo mahapurush the, hain aur rahenge: Savitri Bai Phule, BJP MP pic.twitter.com/UrB8Ln0QeA  ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2018

Meanwhile, on Wednesday Aligarh Muslim University Vice Chancellor Tariq Mansoor had met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss issues concerning the premier academic institution, engulfed in controversy over a portrait of Jinnah on its premises.

Singh assured the VC of all help from the Central government in restoring normalcy in the university, PTI had quoted an official privy to the meeting as saying. Mansoor had later told reporters that the meeting was fixed long ago and had nothing to do with the current controversy.

"I have requested the home minister to send Central government officials for the recruitment of students in central services like the engineering service," he had said. Mansoor had added that the portrait of the Pakistan founder had been hanging in the AMU students' union office since 1938 and it was a non-issue.

BJP MP Satish Gautam had written a letter to the AMU VC objecting to the portrait, triggering a row that led to two youths being arrested in connection with incidents of violence and exams being postponed to May 12.

(With PTI inputs)AMROHA: A wanted criminal, carrying a reward of Rs 12,000 on his head, has surrendered before the police in Uttar Pradesh's Amroha district in a true filmy style.

According to ANI, Faizan Ahmad alias Khanna, a resident of Deepasray village under Nakhasa police station of Sambhal district, came to the office of the Amroha Superintendent of Police (SP) on Wednesday wearing a placard on his neck saying, Dont shoot me. I swear never to commit crime again.''

Faizan Ahmad is a notorious criminal who is wanted by the Amroha Police in connection with several crime cases including attempted murder and attempted robbery.

The Deepasray village resident has been on the run since 2014. Fearing his death in a police encounter, Ahmad first spoke to the media persons and told them that he wanted to surrender before the Amroha Police with a pledge not to commit any crime again.

He then reached the Amroha SPs office and met Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Brijesh Singh and informed him about his resolve to lead a law-abiding life, away from crime.

Seeking forgiveness, Ahmad told the police officials present there that he would never commit a crime again and wanted to spend rest of his life in jail.

When asked why was he hanging a placard on his neck, Ahmad said that he was worried about his life as he feared that he would be killed in a police encounter.

He was then taken into custody and sent to jail.

Later, addressing a press conference, ASP Singh said, Ahmad is a notorious criminal. He had committed crimes in several districts. There is a case against him here at Hasanpur police station for attempted robbery and attempted murder. There was a reward of Rs 12,000 for him. Police had been looking for him for years.

On Wednesday, Faizan reached the SPs office and met me. He said he was afraid of police and wanted to surrender. He was arrested and taken into judicial custody, he added.New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the West Bengal Election Commission to not declare the results of the candidates who have won unopposed on their seats. The top court further confirmed the date of polling on May 14, asking the poll panel to ensure free and fair panchayat elections.



Calcutta High Court on filing nomination through e-mails was also stayed by the apex court. The SC directed the West Bengal state election commission to not accept nominations filed through e-mails for the state panchayat elections.

On May 8, the HC had directed the SEC to accept the nominations of those candidates named by CPI(M) who had filed their papers electronically within the stipulated time before 3 pm on April 23.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra took note of the fact that almost 17,000 candidates have won the panchayat polls unopposed. The bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said that the fact that 34 percent of the candidates have won the election unopposed is 'worrying'.

PTI had quoted SEC sources as saying in April 2018 that of the 48,650 seats in 3,358 gram panchayats, 16,814 were uncontested and of the 9,217 seats in 341 panchayat samitis, 3,059 were uncontested.

The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC had filed 1,000 nominations for the zilla parishads, followed by the BJP with 782. The CPI(M) and the Congress had filed 537 and 407 nominations respectively.

There were 134 withdrawals in the TMC camp, followed by the BJP with 153 withdrawals, the CPI(M) with 79 and the Congress with 54.

For the panchayat samitis, the TMC had filed 12,590 nominations, the BJP 6,149, the CPI(M) 4,400 and the Congress 1,740, the sources had said, as per the news agency.

Of these, there were 2,407 withdrawals by the TMC, 931 by the BJP, 558 by the CPI(M) and 301 by the Congress.

For the gram panchayats, the TMC had filed 58,978 nominations, the BJP 27,935, the CPI(M) 17,319 and the Congress 7,313, the sources said, as per the news agency. There were 7,033 withdrawals by the TMC, 4,490 by the BJP, 2,490 by the CPI(M) and 1,383 by the Congress, they had added.

The TMC had filed more nominations than the number of seats in all the three tiers.

(With Agency inputs)GENEVA: A 104-year-old Australian scientist who travelled to Switzerland to end his life committed assisted suicide on Thursday, a Swiss foundation said.

David Goodall, who had been barred from seeking help to end his life in his home country, did not have a terminal illness but said his quality of life had deteriorated significantly and that he wanted to die.

Goodall "died peacefully" in Basel, tweeted Philip Nitschke, founder of Exit International, the organisation which helped Goodall make the journey from Australia.

The death occured at 1030 GMT from an infusion of Nembutal, a barbiturate, at the Life Cycle clinic, he said.

The honorary research associate at Perth's Edith Cowan University set off from Australia a week ago, and stopped in Bordeaux, France to see family before arriving in Basel on Monday.

"I no longer want to continue life," Goodall told journalists on Wednesday.

"I am happy to have the chance tomorrow to end it, and I appreciate the help of the medical profession here in making that possible," he said.

The 104-year-old said he hoped the widespread interest in his case would spur Australia and other countries to rethink their legislation.

"I would have preferred to have (ended) it in Australia, and I greatly regret that Australia is behind Switzerland" when it comes to right-to-die laws, he said.

Goodall secured a fast-track appointment with the foundation in Basel after he attempted but failed to commit suicide on his own earlier this year.

"It would have been much more convenient for everyone if I had been able to, but unfortunately it failed," he said of the suicide attempt.

But he said he was happy that he had been offered the "Swiss option", since he has been able to see most of his large family, which is spread over several countries, in the run up to his final day.

Assisted suicide is illegal in most countries and was banned in Australia until the state of Victoria became the first to legalise the practice last year.

But that legislation, which takes effect in June 2019, only applies to terminally ill patients of sound mind and a life expectancy of less than six months.

According to Swiss law meanwhile, anyone who is of sound mind and who has over a period of time voiced a consistent wish to end their life can request so-called assisted voluntary death, or AVD.

Asked on Wednesday if he had any hesitations or doubts, the 104-year-old said: "No. None whatsoever." In assisted dying, the person must be physically capable of carrying out the final deed on their own.

In Goodall's case that meant he had himself to open the valve that allowed the short-acting barbiturate to mix with a saline solution and flow into his vein.Washington: US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore to discuss the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. The main issue under discussion at the Trump-Kim summit is expected to be North Korea's nuclear weapons, which the US is demanding Pyongyang give up.

There has been no word from North Korea on its agenda or what it might offer, although a key issue is likely to be the presence of 30,000 US military personnel in South Korea, along with the removal of sanctions.

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

Trump's announcement came hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned home from North Korea with three detained Americans. The US President, who personally greeted the trio at the Andrews Air Force Base, praised Kim for their release ahead of their summit.

On behalf of the American people, WELCOME HOME! pic.twitter.com/hISaCI95CB  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

Great day to be an American! Because of @POTUS Trumps strong leadership, tonight we welcomed home three Americans from captivity in North Korea. Honored to be there to say Welcome Home! #GodblessAmerica  Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) May 10, 2018

A night we will all remember. Thankful to live in America. pic.twitter.com/VbDrpUG5Yg  Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) May 10, 2018

.@SecPompeo briefs @POTUS on his trip to North Korea just before the returnees land at JBA. pic.twitter.com/vJQVjqokVl  Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) May 10, 2018

The Americans - Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim - were freed on Wednesday by North Korea while Pompeo was on a visit to the North Korean capital Pyongyang to finalise the details of the summit. The trio had been jailed for 'anti-state activities' and placed in North Korean labour camps.

"I had productive meetings in Pyongyang with Chairman Kim Jong-un and made progress. I'm delighted to bring home three Americans," Pompeo had said.

Headed back to #DPRK at the invitation of the North Korean leadership. I look forward to planning a successful summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un.  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) May 8, 2018

I had productive meetings in Pyongyang with Chairman Kim Jong-un and made progress. I'm delighted to bring home three Americans.  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) May 9, 2018

Until now, the only American released by North Korea during Trumps presidency was Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old university student who returned to the US in a coma in summer of 2017 after 17 months of captivity and died days later. Warmbier's death had escalated US-North Korea tensions, already running high at the time over Pyongyang's stepped-up missile tests.

"We are starting off on a new footing - I really think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful. A lot of very good things have happened," Trump said as he greeted the three former prisoners. "I really think he wants to do something and bring the country into the real world. It's never been taken this far, there has never been a relationship like this. I really think a lot of progress has been made," he added of Kim.

The summit, which has been in the works since Trump accepted Kim's invitation to meet in March 2018, will be the first-ever meeting between a sitting US president and North Korean leader.

Pyongyang's weapons programme has seen tensions in the Korean Peninsula reach ratchet up in recent months, prompting fresh rounds of sanctions and fiery rhetoric from Trump and Kim.

(With PTI and Reuters inputs)Russia has for the first time publicly displayed one of the most lethal weapons in its arsenal - the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal (meaning Dagger) air-launched hypersonic nuclear missile. Kinnzhal was part of Russia's Victory Day parade in Moscow on Wednesday and is one of its President Vladimir Putin's strategic weapons which he announced in March 2018.

One Kinzhal missile each was mounted on two MiG-31BM (NATO codename Foxhound) fighter jets which flew during the Victory Day parade.

The solid-fueled Kinzhal is an air-to-surface strike missile and Russian defence experts claim it is highly manoeuvrable. Kinzhal can reach a top speed of Mach 10 making it almost impossible to be intercepted by any known anti-missile system. The missile has a range of 1,200 miles (approximately 2,000 kilometres) and is capable of taking out targets at sea too. The 8-metre long and 1-metre wide Kinzhal can carry a payload of 480 kg which can be either a conventional warhead or a nuclear one.

Kinzhal was test-fired from a MiG-31BM in March 2018. The MiG-31BM has an unfueled range of 1,860 miles (approx 2993 km) and Kinzhal fired by the fighter has a potential intercontinental strike capability. The missile is basically a modified version of Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile, which too is highly manoeuvrable and can hit targets 500 km away.

However, western experts and NATO commanders have voiced their apprehensions about Kinzhal's capabilities. They say the Iskander-M reaches hypersonic speed only during the final phase of flight and since the Kinzhal is modelled on it, this air-to-surface missile will have similar features. Kinzhal is unlikely to be highly manoeuverable during the terminal phase, they say.

At present Brahmos, developed jointly by India and Russia, is the only supersonic cruise missile in active service in the world. The two countries are already working on developing Brahmos-II, which will be hypersonic and have a scramjet engine in place of ramjet. Scramjets allow combustion to occur in a supersonic airflow, thereby expanding the operating range above Mach 4, giving hypersonic capabilities.Washington: US President Donald Trump today said he is not interested in winning a Noble Peace Prize but wants victory for the world.

Asked by a journalist if he deserved a Nobel Peace prize, Trump said although everyone thought he did, he would never say it himself.

"You know what I want to do? I want to get it finished. The prize I want is victory for the world, not for even here. I want victory for the world. Because that's what we're talking about. So that's the only prize I want," Trump said in response.

The South Korean president had recently said Trump deserved to win the Nobel Peace prize for his efforts with regard to North Korea.

Trump said his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would be a very good thing for the region and the world.

"This is something that nobody thought was going to happen for years or more. I really believe it's going to be a great thing for North Korea, a great thing for South Korea and Japan. I want to thank (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping). He was very helpful to us two days ago on something very specific," the president said.

"We are working trade with China. They are doing okay because they're helping us, and I guess they're probably doing a little bit better because they're helping us. But they have really helped us on North Korea. We appreciate it and we appreciate President Xi," he said.

Trump said he spoke with his South Korean counterpart.

"I just spoke to President Moon and explained what was taking place with respect to the three gentlemen. And President Moon of South Korea was very, very happy to hear it. He, likewise, has been incredibly helpful," he said.

"So the relationships we have with (Japanese) Prime Minister Abe, President Moon and President Xi, I think it all goes into what is taking place right now. We very much look forward to having the meeting between the United States and North Korea. That will be announced over the next couple of days," Trump said.Kuwait City: The United States has allegedly given Israel the go-ahead to assassinate the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards overseas arm, the Quds force, according to a Kuwaiti newspaper.

Al-Jarida quoted an unnamed source in Jerusalem as saying that "there is an American-Israeli agreement" that General Qassem Soleimani was a "threat to the two countries" interests in the region. The report further said that Irans second in command in Syria, Mohammad Reda Falah Zadeh, may also "be a target" of an Israeli attack.

Meanwhile, in the largest operation in Syria since the signing of disengagement agreement in 1974, Israel on Thursday said it has struck almost all of the Iranian infrastructure on Syrian soil during the overnight raids in retaliation to a barrage of rocket fire on its territory by Iran.

The Israel Defence Force (IDF) claimed that the overnight clash, the largest-ever direct clash between the Iranian and Israeli armies, was a setback to Iran's military capabilities by "many months".

Israel's Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that his army struck "almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria" overnight in response to a rocket barrage at its military outposts in the Golan Heights by Iran, PTI reported.

Asserting that Israel does not want an escalation, Lieberman said that Israel won't allow Iran to turn Syria into a "forward base" against his country and that, Israel has no desire to expand their military presence to create new proxies and fronts. "If it rains on us, it will pour on them," he said.

"I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message," Lieberman further said, adding that Iran was truly the only country today that represents extremism, not just ideologically but also in its willingness to sacrifice its citizens, sacrifice its future for this same extremist ideology. He also confirmed that no rocket landed in the Israeli territory.

Israel had been bracing for a possible Iranian "revenge" attack after the Islamic Republic accused the Jewish state of having attacked one of its bases in Syria on April 9 in which nine Iranian commanders were said to have been killed. Israel did not confirm or deny its involvement in that attack.

The Agreement on Disengagement was an agreement between Israel and Syria, signed in May 1974, which officially ended the Yom Kippur War and the subsequent attrition period on the Syrian front.

The Israeli military accused the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Al Quds force and Soleimani, of launching the attack at the Israeli Golan Heights. This is the first time that Israel has directly accused Iran of firing on its territory.

(With PTI inputs)VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. (TSX-V:CEM) ("Constantine" or the "Company") is pleased to announce its 2018 exploration plans for the Palmer Copper-Zinc-Silver-Gold Joint Venture Project (Palmer or Project), in Southeast Alaska. Plans include:



10,000 meter diamond drill program using two rigs starting early June

Updated mineral resource estimate and Preliminary Economic Assessment study

Advance plans to initiate permitting underground exploration development

Constantines 51% share of the Joint Venture budget to year end is approximately US$4.5 million.

10,000 Meter Drill Program

The 2018 drill program will continue to have a dual focus of exploring for new deposits while also systematically defining and expanding the South Wall & RW Zone mineral resources. Discovery of the exciting new silver-gold-zinc rich AG Zone in 2017, which returned 9.2 meters grading 312 g/t (9.1 opt) silver and 0.9 g/t gold in discovery hole CMR17-89 and 11.3% zinc over 17.8 meters in hole CMR17-92 (see Company news releases dated July 27, 2017 and August 17, 2017), highlights the district potential of the camp. AG Zone is open to expansion along strike and at depth and will be an important part of the 2018 drill program.

Drilling will also test new geophysical targets identified by a regional 1,137 line km airborne electromagnetic survey completed over the Project last year. Multiple targets sharing similar geophysical characteristics to the known South Wall deposit have been defined, several of which coincide with areas of VMS style mineralization and hydrothermal alteration exposed at surface. The targets occur both on Joint Venture ground and 100% Constantine ground (Figure 1).

Mineral Resource Estimate and PEA

An updated mineral resource estimate has been initiated that will incorporate drilling and analytical data acquired since the resource was last updated early 2015. In addition to significant new South Wall drill results (e.g. 2.5% Copper and 7.4% Zinc over 45.4 meters in hole CMR17-82) the resource estimation will also include evaluation of the new AG Zone discovery. Results of metallurgical test work currently underway (see Company news release dated February 27, 2018) will also be incorporated in the estimation, including assessing the viability of barite as a marketable commodity, and potential optimization of copper and zinc recoveries.

Upon completion of the updated resource, a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) study will be initiated. The PEA will gauge the potential economic viability of the mineral resources, and will be the first such study to be commissioned for the Project. The Company is currently in the process of selecting a consulting firm to lead the PEA and is targeting the fall of 2018 for completion.

Underground Exploration Planning and Permitting

The Palmer Project Joint Venture intends to advance the planning and permitting of an underground exploration program that would include development of an underground access ramp. Underground access would importantly:

Provide a platform for drilling to expand the South Wall deposit at depth and along strike

Allow for the upgrading of existing mineral resources to support economic studies

Allow for collection of important metallurgical, environmental and geotechnical data

Enable the transition to year-round underground exploration work to advance this important new resource

Supporting technical studies as well as some surface construction are planned for the 2018 season.

About the Palmer Project

Palmer is a high-grade volcanogenic massive sulphide-sulphate (VMS) project, with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 8.1 million tonnes grading 1.41% copper, 5.25% zinc, 0.32 g/t gold and 31.7 g/t silver*. The Project is being advanced as a joint venture between Constantine (51%) and Dowa Metals & Mining Co Ltd. (49%), with Constantine as operator. The Project is located in a very accessible part of coastal Southeast Alaska, with road access to the edge of the property and within 60 kilometers of the year-round deep sea port of Haines. Mineralization at Palmer occurs within the same belt of rocks that is host to the Greens Creek mine, one of the worlds richest VMS deposits. VMS deposits are known to occur in clusters and with at least 25 separate base metal and/or barite occurrences and prospects on the Project, there is abundant potential for discovery of multiple deposits at Palmer.

About the Company

Constantine is a mineral exploration company led by a proven technical team with a focus on premier North American mining environments. In addition to the Companys flagship copper-zinc-silver-gold Palmer VMS Project, Constantine also controls a portfolio of high-quality, 100% owned, gold projects in the Timmins camp, Ontario. This includes the large, well located Golden Mile Property in Timmins and the Munro Croesus Gold Property that is renowned for its exceptionally high-grade past production. Management is committed to providing shareholder value through discovery, meaningful community engagement, environmental stewardship, and responsible mineral exploration and development activities that support local jobs and businesses.

Please visit the Companys website (www.constantinemetals.com) for more detailed company and project information.

On Behalf of Constantine Metal Resources Ltd.

Garfield MacVeigh

President

For further information please contact:

Garfield MacVeigh, President or Darwin Green, VP Exploration

Phone: 604-629-2348. Email: info@constantinemetals.com

* 8.125 million tonne inferred resource grading 1.41% copper, 5.25% zinc, 0.32 g/t gold and 31.7 g/t silver. See the Company's news release date May 11, 2015 and available on www.sedar.com. Resource estimate utilizes an NSR cut-off of US$75/t with assumed metal prices of US$1200/oz for gold, US$18/oz for silver, US$2.75/lb for copper, and US$1.00/lb for zinc. Estimated metal recoveries are 89.6% for copper, 84.9% for zinc, 75% for gold (61.5% to the Cu concentrate and 13.5% to the Zn concentrate) and 89.7% for silver (73.7% to the Cu concentrate and 16% to the Zn concentrate) as determined from metallurgical locked cycle flotation tests. An Inferred Mineral Resource is that part of a Mineral Resource for which quantity and grade or quality can be estimated on the basis of geological evidence and limited sampling and reasonably assumed, but not verified, geological and grade continuity. Confidence in the estimate is insufficient to allow the meaningful application of technical and economic parameters or to enable an evaluation of economic viability worthy of public disclosure.

Darwin Green, VP Exploration for Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. and a qualified person as defined by Canadian National Instrument 43-101 has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this release.

Notes:

Forward looking statements: This news release includes certain 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"). Forward-looking statements include predictions, projections and forecasts and are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as seek, anticipate, believe, plan, estimate, "forecast", expect, "potential", "project", "target", "schedule", budget" and intend and statements that an event or result may, will, should, could or might occur or be achieved and other similar expressions and includes the negatives thereof. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the expected. 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. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Companys expectations include actual exploration results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, results of future resource estimates, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of personnel, materials and equipment on a timely basis, accidents or equipment breakdowns, delays in receiving government approvals, unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and costs to remedy same, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause such actions, events or results to differ materially from those anticipated. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and accordingly readers are 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 release.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/5fedf4a0-3cdb-479e-af15-42b2f21af68eBefore the Russian invasion, May 9 was one of the most popular holidays in the country but in 2017, only 37 percent of Ukrainians recognized it as their favourite celebration

Ukraine's post-Maidan leadership has focused on building patriotism to unite the nation as it suffered from turbulence and war. The patriotism that emerged from the Euromaidan promoted a nationalistic symbolism that rejected and replaced the prevailing Russian and Soviet identities. But instead of uniting the country, the current effort has expanded the divide between Ukrainians who absorbed the Soviet Union as an element of their identity and those who see it as a forcibly-planted mythology. Violent confrontations often characterize the divide between these two perceptions.

The May 9 Victory Day holiday that commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany was celebrated throughout the Soviet and post-Soviet space. Before the Russian invasion, May 9 was the most popular holiday in Donbas and Crimea, and was a popular holiday in the rest of the country. In 2010, 58 percent of Ukrainians recognized it as their favorite celebration. This dropped to 37 percent in 2017, after Crimea and part of Donbas were invaded, and fell to 31 percent this year, according to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. However, even with reduced support for the holiday, it is accompanied by clashes on this day every year in the biggest Ukrainian cities: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhia, Odesa.

On the one hand, it was a major Soviet holiday, an integral part of Soviet mythology, a celebration of Stalin's victoryand how could Ukrainians, or anyone else, for that matter, be expected to celebrate Stalin in any context? says Marci Shore, an associate professor of history at Yale University and author of The Ukrainian Night. On the other hand, Victory Day celebrates the defeat of Hitler and Nazism. And inverting the meaning of Victory Day poses the risk of apologetics for Nazism, which, needless to say, would not be a move toward Western values.

Radical groups have warned in advance this year that they would be confronting the march. The confrontation between the two narrativesexemplified by the St. George ribbon of the Soviets and the black and red flag of Ukrainian nationalistsrepresents the search for Ukraine's lost identity in the symbols of its past. It also reveals the sorrowful reality of unhealed trauma that was exacerbated following the Revolution of Dignity.

The twentieth century was bloody for Ukraine; now, two World Wars, the great famine, and Stalin's dictatorship have been replaced by a period that is marked by three revolutions and constant economic and political crises. Ukraine has not had time to recover as it moves from one punishing storm to another.

The family of Ola Rondiak, an American psychiatrist turned artist of Ukrainian origin, has incorporated into its historical narrative many hardships from the Soviet era. Ola has not experienced the history herself, but the traumas live through generations in the stories, memories, and artifacts that are preserved.

During the current conflict with Russia, Rondiak has reflected this painful history through modern female portraits, which display a strong ethnic identity that aims to tell Ukrainian history. This is Rondiak's contribution to breaking down the widespread perceptions that Ukraine faced after the collapse of the USSR, which emerge when identities of colonizer and colonized have merged. In America, everyone was sure that being Ukrainian meant being Russian. I have been fighting for Ukraine in that sense for all my life, says Rondiak.

Ola Rondiak was inspired by her Ukrainian grandmother, whom she never met. Rondiaks grandfather fled to Europe and later to the United States, together with her then-young mother. The Soviets sent her grandmother to a labor camp in Russian Mordovia, where she spent almost fifteen years. She never saw her family again.

"There [at the prison camp], she secretly created these amazing embroideries, says Ola, showing a picture of one of only two pieces of Ukrainian-style embroideries that made it to her family in Chicago many years later. Here she embroidered with her prison mates, all of them praying. She used fish bones for needles, potato sacks for canvas, and threads from clothing.

These embroideries have become the symbol of Ola's familys efforts to preserve and understand their history, and the history of Ukraine. Ola Rondiak has been settled in Ukraine for twenty years. Her art speaks of the traumas of loss and grief, and of human vulnerability, but at the same time, the art has become a way of healing. Art helps us to feel things that we sometimes dont have the words for; and once we feel the pain, we can address the pain, and begin to heal, Rondiak says.

Misunderstandings and even violence in Ukraine during Victory Day are part of a conflict borne of traumas accumulated through a difficult history. They will exist as long as the issues of Ukraine's identity remain unresolved. The fabricated truth forcibly planted through generations has become the real truth for many Ukrainians brought up in the USSR. Extracting that perception means rejecting the values and beliefs of those who absorbed it as their own.

The reality is that the modern Ukrainian identity cannot represent one truth. Ukraine should learn how to recover instead of forcibly implanting a new manufactured truth from its past. As Marci Shore has stated, there is no magic remedy for liberating oneself from Soviet traumas. The repressed always returns; the past has to be worked through, she has written. We have to do hard work to understand, even if our understanding will always only be partial.

Read the original text here.Open source

The next major battle between Russian aggressors and Ukrainian defenders may take place not in Donbas but on the waters of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, a development that could prove even more dangerous to regional stability than earlier Russian acts of aggression. The situation has been deteriorating since March 26, when Ukraine seized a Russian ship that had violated its territorial waters and threatened further retaliation on other waterways, (see EDM, April 12, May 1). But over the last few days, conditions there have deteriorated sharply, with each country warning that it will use military force to defend its ships. In such a tense environment, an attack on even a merchant vessel could easily become perceived by the other side as an act of war.

According to Ukrainian officials, Russian naval and Federal Security Service (FSB) vessels have been stopping and searching ships passing through the Kerch Strait since the beginning of April. Russian sources have disputed the scope of that effort but now acknowledge they are introducing such procedures for all non-military vessels passing through the narrow waterway (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, May 3). The Russians say they are doing so as a further response to what Moscow calls Ukraines act of piracy in March, when Ukrainian border patrols stopped a Russian ship, arrested its crew and detained the ship in a Ukrainian harbor. Ukraine is not backing down from that action: a Ukrainian appeals court today (May 8) rejected efforts by the captain of that ship to be released (Vpk-news.ru, May 8). Meanwhile, some Russian officials are even suggesting that Ukraine should be grateful that the Russian Navyand Moscow is using military vessels to conduct these searcheshas not cut off all Ukrainian shipping into and out of the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait (Vestnik Kavkaza, May 4).

In response, Ukrainian Admiral (ret.) Ihor Kabanenko suggested that Kyiv should use its Navy to convoy civilian vessels travelling to or from Berdyansk or Mariupol (Mariupil) through the Kerch Strait. If Russian naval vessels were to try to interfere and inspect such shipping, he continued, that would constitute a clear act of aggression against which Ukrainian forces would have every right to respond and to call for the assistance of all countries committed to free passage on the seas (Svpressa.ru, May 6; Nezavisimaya Gazeta, May 5).

Kyiv has not yet acted on Kabanenkos proposal, but it will be under growing pressure domestically to do so, given that Russian commentators are warning Moscow will be intensifying its monitoring of all ships going to and from Ukrainian ports via the Kerch Strait (Stoletie.ru, Qha.com.ua, May 4). One reason for that perhaps is that the Kremlin has announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin will come to the opening of the Kerch Strait Bridge, between the Russian Federation and Russian-occupied Crimea, under which all vessels going into or out of the Sea of Azov must pass. The bridge has been under construction for years and the initial phase is nearing completion (see EDM, May 25, 2016; September 6, 2017; February 22, 2018). Putins visit is scheduled for next week (May 15), and Russian FSB and naval officers are certain to be on high alert to show themselves committed to the presidents security.

Sources in the Russian Navy insist they, unlike the Ukrainians, are simply obeying the law and will continue to do so, but they pointed out with obvious relish that the Ukrainian Coast Guard and Navy are not in a position to challenge Russian forces, whatever Kyiv chooses to do. Such antagonistic language is likely to further enflame the situation and make it more difficult for the two sides to back down in any way (Politonline.ru, May 3). And some Russian writers are now even suggesting imposing a blockade of the two Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov. Such an action would certainly badly harm the economy of that region hard, but Kyiv could compensate by shifting imports and exports away from those ports to Odesa in the west (Agitpro.su, May 3). Nevertheless, if Russia did try to blockade Ukraines Azov coasta step that would be in clear violation of international law and the 2003 agreement on shared use of the Azov Sea between Moscow and Kyivit could hurt southeastern Ukraine enough to encourage a new Russian ground attack against this region.

Kyiv has complained to Moscow about these latest Russian actions and threats in the sea; but so far it has not attracted a level of international support comparable to what it enjoys with regard to Russian forces on the ground (RIA Novosti, May 3). Such international support will be required both to prevent the Russians from stepping up naval/maritime pressure on Ukraine and to keep the Ukrainians from feeling even more isolated and thus deciding that they have no choice but to introduce the use of convoys to protect merchant shipping to their ports. If either or both of those things were to occur, the Kerch Strait almost certainly will become a new and dangerous flashpoint in the war.

Read the original text here.Few St. Georges ribbons, couple of marches with Soviet songs, few clashes Mainly without serious violations. Ukraine marked the 73rd anniversary of the victory over Nazism in the Second World War. Here we gathered all the information about May 9 public events in our country.

Public events in Kyiv

Kyiv started celebrating the Day of Victory with the "The first minute of Peace" action on the eve of May 9  at 11:01 p.m. on May 8 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. President Petro Poroshenko had his speech.

In the morning of May 9, the head of the state together with other high officials had a solemn procession on the Alley of Glory to the tomb of the unknown soldier.

The Immortal Regiment began their march at 11:00 a.m. on May 9 holding portraits of those deceased at the WWII, anti-fascist posters and with Soviet songs. According to the Police, about 2000 people participated in the march, which is less than a year ago.

A man with a rifle was detained in that area of the demonstration. However, later it was set that the man was heading to the stage performance and his MosinNagant wasnt fit to shooting.

Another man with a bayonet was detained, and another one tried to break through the metal frames. Later it has become known that one of those detained was Serhiy Mazur, the head of the C14 nationalist organization, he had broken the barrier. He was drawn up an administrative protocol and released.

Two women with St. George ribbons were detained. One of them is Olena Berezhna, a mother of Iryna Berezhna, a former MP from the Party of Regions (Yanukovychs party at his presidency). Olena is one of the organizers of the march of the Immortal Regiment. She was also drawn up an administrative protocol.

Another incident occurred during rallies in Kyiv  young man beaten a man born in 1954. The felon was detained.

Another man with a pepper spray ball in a bag was detained.

In total, six people were detained, all of them released later.

According to Kyiv Police, there was very little using of prohibited symbols compared with previous years, no series conflicts spotted in the city.

Public events outside Ukrainian capital

Victory Day in the regions of Ukraine: St. George ribbons, T-shirt with USSR inscription and brawls over the flags

A man and a woman in Odesa and one person in Zaporozhia with the St. George ribbons were detained on May 9.

In Nikopol, a case was opened against a person selling balloons with prohibited symbols.

An 80-year-old pensioner in Lviv came out for a mass event in a red T-shirt with the inscription USSR and communist symbols. He was also detained.

Open source

In Poltava, a man came to the Memorial of Soldier's Glory in a spiked helmet with a star. The headpiece was taken away, and the administrative protocol was drawn up. In addition, a dispute arose in the city between the participants of the march over the red colored flags without identification symbols. The conflict was resolved in the end.

In Melitopol however, people failed to avoid the fight. At first, the column of Immortal Regiment sang Katyusha song, chanted Fascism will not pass, and then a man with a St. George ribbon appeared at the Brotherhood Cemetery. The representatives of pro-Ukrainian organizations tried to tear the ribbon off and a fight began. The police intervened in the conflict and the man was detained.

In Zhytomyr, the clashes happened over the blue flag with the inscription To Moscow!, which some people tried to set on the tank - a monument in honor of the 20th anniversary of the victory over fascism in World War II. Law enforcers did not allow this and later the participants of the mass rallies joined with this flag to the solemn procession. The unknown person tried to take away the flag and the brawl occurred. After police intervention, the situation was resolved.

In Dnipro city, people tried to lay a wreath in the shape of a star to the tank. The police did not allow the Union of Soviet Officers to do this, so a brawl began, which was later joined by the pensioners with flowers: an aggressive crowd swore at the patrol officers and helped the Soviet Officers carry a wreath to the tank.

Three Soviet symbols lovers were detained in Odesa as well. One man attached a Soviet flag with the inscription "To Berlin!" on his BMW car. Two more people set the red flags on their houses.

Also, according to the local media, a participant in the "Immortal Regiment" rally was detained for glorifying Putin. Among the chants there were such as: Donbas, we are with you, Odesa is a hero city, Odesa is a Russian city, and even Glory to President Putin. It was also noted that one of the protesters used a gas canister against his opponent. He was detained.

Politicians also took a hit on this day. In the morning, representatives of one of the nationalist organizations poured brilliant green and sewage on the head of Rossotrudnichestvo (Russian Center for Science and Culture) Konstantin Vorobyov, who was going to Immortal Regiment march.

At the same rally, but in Mykolaiv, a deputy of the regional council Mykola Kravchenko was splashed with kefir. The culprit - a local Svoboda Party member Volodymyr Hubsky was detained and then released.The residents of the occupied city could see the flag of Ukraine in the sky

Open source

Residents of the occupied by "DNR" militants Horlivka on May 9 could observe a large flag of Ukraine in the sky over the city. It was launched from neighboring Svitlodarsk, as the Joint Operations Headquarters reported.

"Volunteers, joint forces operation soldiers, residents and schoolchildren of Svitlodarsk launched the National Ukrainian flag of 10X6 meters over the territory of the occupied Horlivka," the message says.

As you know, since April 2014, the militants of Donetsk region have occupied Horlivka.

Watch video!

As it was reported earlier, many mass events dedicated to Day of Victory over Nazism in WWII were held in Ukraine on May 9.

According to the police, around 1,5 thousand events were held in Kyiv. Around 390 thousand citizens participated in the events. 20,5 thousand police officers and National Guard servicemen were keeping the order in the state on May 9.

Ukraine was celebrating the end of WWII in a new way: for the first time our country distanced itself from the celebration of the Victory Day in the Soviet-style and organized official events devoted to the end of the war in Europe on May 8-9.

Later on, new names were attached to these dates on the legislative level. Thus, 8 May, according to the decree by president Petro Poroshenko dated 24 March 2015, became the Day of Memory and reconciliation, whereas 9 May, according to the decommunization laws that were approved by the Parliament of Ukraine in April of the same year, became the Day of victory over Nazism in WWII.

At the same time, the former date is a memorable day, while the latter is an official state holiday and day off.

Related video:In early 2015, he collected classified data, which contained the state secret; he intended to hand the information over to Russian special services

A lieutenant colonel of Ukraine's Armed Forces heard the sentence in his state treason case; the district jury in Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, ruled that the defendant will be imprisoned for 13 years.

According to the military prosecutor's office press service, the sentence was announced on May 10. The officer will be stripped of his military rank; he was judged under two articles of Ukraine's criminal code (state treason and hurting the law enforcer; the defendant resisted arrest and used brute force).

In early 2015, he collected classified data, which contained the state secret; he intended to hand the information over to Russian special services. The judicial procedure took two years.Since the annexation of Crimea in February 2014 and the Russian armed aggression in Donbas that followed, the fighting capacity of Ukraine's army has grown by 100,000 people, reaching the number of 255,000. Ukraine's defense minister Stepan Poltorak said that in his interview with Obozrevatel news agency.

'When the armed aggression began, the fighting capacity made 145-155,000 people. Now it's 255,000; that includes 250,000 serving with the Armed Forces, and another five thousand serving with the State Transport Service, which was turned over to the Defense Ministry's command', he said.

'We have practically switched to the professional army. Currently, only 20,000 of 250,000 servicemen are the conscripts; they are enlisted and trained as mobilization resource, they do not participate in military actions. The rest are those who signed the contract; they are the experienced fighters and they are ready for combat', the minister added.

In 2017, over 30,000 Ukrainian citizens signed the contract with the Armed Forces. Most of the candidates decided to stay and serve with the combat-ready units of the army.Read the original text on Facebook.

The National Guard of the Russian Federation (Rosgvardia) has severely dispersed those inconsiderable in number rallies, which did not even endanger the regime. Every one in five was detained in Moscow, including eighth-grade students. This means that the regime has designated its reactionary vector: the dissents will be pursued even more senselessly and mercilessly than before (five riot police per one schoolchild), repressions will be toughened, increased in numbers and even more devoid of meaning.

Russia has finally established a regime of the state lawlessness, which has two components. Citizens never know which law (even the most unlawful one) they violate: this allows to keep people in constant fear and force them to abandon attempts to undertake anything, even within the limits of permissible. Usually, democratic regimes differ from the authoritarian ones by a simple conventional scheme: in terms of the first one, everything is possible, except those things that are forbidden; in the second, you can do nothing except what is allowed. Under Putin's regime, everything is possible and nothing can be done until the executive (not even legislative) authorities have decided otherwise. See the example of Ulyukaev and Magomedov (Russian oligarchs Ziyavudin and Magomed Magomedov, who control the Summa holding and own assets in the energy, transport, agricultural and telecommunication sectors  Ed.), decisions on the political cases: some are imprisoned for reposting, others are allowed to publish the original post. But strictly until the authorities decide otherwise.

This implies the second essence of the state lawlessness of Putins regime: the executive authorities do not longer even need a formal reason for persecution and repression. Three years ago, the criminal case required a crime and evidence. Alexey Ulyukayev's trials lacked evidence and testimony from a key witness. In the case of Kirill Serebrennikov (described as one of Russia's leading theatre directors  Ed.), the absurdity is even stronger: the prosecutor's office insists that a play, attended by thousands of people, did not even take place.

Protests in Moscow were dispersed and people were beaten not only by the soldiers of Rosgvardia, but also by the Cossacks of the Central Cossack Army, trained for the money of Sobyanin's mayor's office. This means that those who disagree will also be wrestled with the most terrible methods by the hands of the worst scumbags, dressed as the Cossacks, as the Soviet army soldiers, or as paras. In the event of a crisis, the twisted should be on the side of power and should have some whipping boys. And those whipping boys are not the guilty party of the crisis, but the dissidents - the opposition, gays, hipsters, whoever.

Putin did not go to the Kremlin along his traditional route from the country residence through a city, blocked from the jubilant crowds. This time he overcame a distance of 200 meters - from his sanctum to the Kremlin Palace. Of course, this is probably due to the transport on which the inaugurated was traveling  despite all the rhetoric about the laughing Iskanders and other import substitution, it is unlikely that anyone would venture to use the domestic car (even if it was manufactured for 190.56 million U.S. dollars, even if it is externally indistinguishable from Rolls Royce Phantom. Moreover, such a man obsessed with his own safety and panic fear of being killed, like Vladimir Putin.

But another explanation also seems to be that Putin finally broke away from reality and does not want to have any connection with the people, even such a symbolic one as driving through the city in a cortege on the day of the inauguration. And this is bad, because another example of the president, who shows his face to the suffering via video (as a concert), is Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

In the US you can come to the White House so close that you might see the Oval Office. And the entrance to the Congress buildings, where the working offices of congressmen and senators are located, is absolutely free, they only check the security; there are no passport checks. Anyone can go to the Rayburn Building, and enter the office of a congressman. The entrance to the hearings and meetings is open.

Physical closeness to the people makes officials and politicians feel directly responsible for their actions. Putin does not feel any responsibility, because physically he is isolated from the crowd, which can be very scary. Moreover, when you cannot get rid of the faces of Hussein and Gaddafi during their last minutes

The more Russia turns into a mix of Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and North Korea, the tougher will be the response of the West. Yesterday I have attended a business dinner, where the assistant to the senator said that the issue of disconnection of Russia from SWIFT was on the agenda a month ago. He added that new sanctions were prepared.

In contrast to the ideas within Russia about how the West sees Russia (as a carrier of the idea of the Russian world, as a global power, as an alternative to the West and other nonsense), the United States has finally realized what Russia really is: an ordinary kleptocracy. That is a regime that uses power to increase personal wealth and political influence, through the misappropriation of public funds. Personal enrichment is the only idea of Putins regime. Everything else is just the methods and means of translating this simple idea into practice.

Russian kleptocrats, these part-time patriots, prefer to keep the treasured state funds in the West. Because, surprise-surprise, their money is protected by the law from state raiding (which takes place in Russia) only in democratic countries. In Russia, you can steal money with the same ease you might lose it under Putins regime (and of course, you can lose your money if it is honestly earned).

Therefore Putin's kleptocrats were taking money away from Russia and will continue doing it. According to the estimates of the US Treasury, unofficially voiced in Washington, there are Russian assets worth $ 800 billion there. For comparison, Russia's GDP is $ 1.2 trillion.

The United States has, finally, realized that dirty Russian (like Chinese and Arab) money destroy the foundations of a democratic American society. And the bureaucratic machine is moving: sanctions cannot be stopped now; kleptocrats will be caught by the hand, and eventually will happen at the system level.

Americans, of course, always emphasize that this is not the struggle of Bolshevism with the rich; normal, honest Russian business, like from any other country, is welcomed in the US. And it really exists, you know. However, this is something very rare. I mean those who do not invest in buying tasteless residences in Palm Beach, like Dmitry Rybolovlev, or in pro-Putin think tanks, but in high technologies, for example.

In general: Russia has the rosiest prospects for the next six years. Rosy like the Sharik dog from the famous joke had.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or 112.International and its owners.The overall sum of damage to the country's economy made some 30 million U.S. dollars

Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) busted a number of corrupt mechanisms in the country's defense industry complex. Due to these mechanisms, the country's economy lost over 30 million U.S. dollars.

According to the Bureau's press service, such schemes were detected in at least 15 enterprises of the defense industry across Ukraine. Criminal cases have been initiated.

In most cases, the crimes involved the conversion of property, its embezzlement or conversion by the abuse of authority, as well as the purchase of goods under increased prices, using the services of mediator companies, which are close to the management of state-run enterprises.

'According to the findings of detectives, statesmen play the key role in these corruption schemes; every second suspect belongs to that category of people', the press service says.

The NABU also prevents new corruption schemes; in case a corruption hazard is detected at an enterprise, they turn to the respective officials in order to eliminate the risks. Recently, the Bureau prevented the purchase of fuel and lubricant materials and the low-quality equipment, which allowed saving up to five million U.S. dollars', the Bureau said.It is planned that Turnbulls government will provide $50, 3 million during four years

Open source

The government of Australia will allocate more than $50 million for the investigation of the Malaysian MH17 crash in the Netherlands as the press service of Australian Foreign Ministry reported.

It is planned that Turnbulls government will provide $50, 3 million during four years to support the Dutch justice in the bringing of the perpetrators to justice.

Moreover, the mentioning financing is included in the federal budget of Australia for 2018-2019. The governmental coalition has submitted the project for the parliaments consideration.

According to the documents, the financing provides the extension of the work of the Australian Embassy in Kyiv.

As is known, Boeing 777 of Malaysian Airlines, flight MH17 was on its way from Amsterdam to Kuala-Lumpur, when it crashed in the militant-held area of Donetsk region in July 2014. The aircraft carried 298 people; no one survived. Experts found out that the passenger plane was shot down by a missile, fired from Buk, the Russia-made anti-aircraft missile launcher. The weapon was brought to Donbas by pro-Kremlin militants. Moscow has been denying any ties to the disaster.The date and place of meeting can be announced in the coming days

Open source

The officials of Donald Trumps presidential administration were ordered to prepare the historic summit between the U.S. President and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore as CNN reported.

"I can tell you that a date and location are set but beyond that, I don't have any other announcements at this point. But we expect that to be announced here in the next few days, Sarah Sanders, the spokeswoman of the White House said.

As it was reported earlier, the U.S. President Donald Trump on April 29 stated that the meeting with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, is to be held in three-four weeks.

Earlier, Trump said that the meeting with Kim Jong-un is to be held in May or in early June and expressed hope that the agreement on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula will be reached.

It was also reported the leaders of the US and DPRK can hold a meeting in Mongolia or Singapore.

Earlier the leaders of two Koreas had a historic meeting in Panmunjom, South Korea. After the talks, the leaders of the states announced the signing of a treaty of peace at the end of 2018, which will end the war between the states which officially lasts since 1953.

The leaders of the states have signed the Panmunjom Declaration for peace, prosperity and unity in the Korean Peninsula.MILWAUKEE, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Milwaukee-based Zywave, Inc., a leading provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for the insurance industry, recently announced Jason Liu as its new chief executive officer (CEO).



In his new role, Liu will drive Zywaves long-term vision and strategy as the company continues to offer innovative and world-class software solutions to insurance brokers across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. Liu will also oversee daily operations and has been appointed to the Zywave board of directors.

Zywave is a growing company, and Im excited for the opportunity to take our solutions to the next level, Jason Liu said. Zywaves suite of products sets brokers up for success, helping them build their book of business and differentiate themselves. As the new CEO, my job is to make sure we continue to foster relationships with our customers and, alongside our team of talented professionals, make Zywave the best it can be.

Liu has an exceptional track record, having led seven companies through significant revenue and valuation growth. Most recently, he served as CEO at Savo Group, a leading provider of sales enablement software headquartered in Chicago.

Zywave is a customer-first organizationits embedded in our culture, said Jim Lindner, who has been serving as Zywaves interim CEO and is chairman of the board. Our goal is to make our customers love us through our products, our service and the buying experience. Jasons 20-plus years of experience helps continue our commitment to our partners as we prove why thousands of brokers trust us with their businesses.

Liu holds a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science from Washington University.

About Zywave

Zywave is a leading provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology solutions for the insurance industry. The companys products include web-enabled marketing communications, business intelligence and analytics, client resource portals and agency management tools. More than 5,300 brokers and other industry customers worldwideincluding 93 of the top 100 U.S. insurance agenciesuse Zywaves proven solutions to differentiate themselves from the competition, enhance client services, improve efficiencies and achieve organic growth. Additional information about Zywave can be found at www.zywave.com.

Media Contact

Amy West

414-918-0567

Amy.west@zywave.comOpen source

Donald Trump, the President of the US and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will meet on June 12 as the American president reported on Twitter.

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

Earlier we reported that the officials of Donald Trumps presidential administration were ordered to prepare the historic summit between the U.S. President and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore.

As it was reported, the U.S. President Donald Trump on April 29 stated that the meeting with Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, is to be held in three-four weeks.

Earlier, Trump said that the meeting with Kim Jong-un is to be held in May or in early June and expressed hope that the agreement on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula will be reached.

It was also reported the leaders of the US and DPRK can hold a meeting in Mongolia or Singapore.

Earlier the leaders of two Koreas had a historic meeting in Panmunjom, South Korea. After the talks, the leaders of the states announced the signing of a treaty of peace at the end of 2018, which will end the war between the states which officially lasts since 1953.

The leaders of the states have signed the Panmunjom Declaration for peace, prosperity and unity in the Korean Peninsula.Irish low-cost air carrier Rynair is now negotiating with five Ukrainian airports about new flights. It considers the opportunity to start the flights in new directions in Ukraine next year. Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's CEO said this in his interview with a Ukrainian newspaper.

'We're having talks with another five Ukrainian cities - perhaps we will set our flights there. I guess we will develop and build up our presence on the market in Ukraine quite rapidly', he said.

He added, though, that it's too early to speak of any results due to limitations in the intergovernmental agreements, which need to be discussed with Ukraine's infrastructure minister.

When asked if the negotiations are underway with Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Kherson and Vinnytsia, O'Leary replied that the discussion continues with all the mentioned cities. 'I'll be glad if we can offer our passengers flights to such beautiful city as Odesa,' he said. Ryanair's CEO added that opening new flights to Kyiv is the company's priority in this market.

Earlier, the state-owned enterprise Boryspil International Airport said it expected to confirm the earlier announced schedule for flights operated by the Irish low-cost airline in May 2018. The enterprise's director Pavlo Ryabikin said at the Infrastructure Forum 2018 in Kyiv.According to him, the event is being scheduled for July 9

The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said that the jubilee 20th Ukraine-EU Summit will be held on July 9 in Brussels. He reported this on Twitter.

"With President Poroshenko preparing for our next EU-Ukraine summit on July 9," the message said.

With President @poroshenko preparing for our next EU-Ukraine Summit on 9 July. pic.twitter.com/cz2qhgoOdw  Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) May 9, 2018

As it was reported earlier, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, during a meeting in Germany with President of the European Council Donald Tusk, agreed to hold the jubilee 20th Ukraine-EU summit in the summer of this year in Brussels.

The parties at the meeting also discussed the situation in Donbas, the course of the Joint Forces Operation, the violation of the armistice by Russia and the continuation (strengthening) of anti-Russian sanctions.

As you know, Poroshenko is on a visit to Germany on May 9-10. There he plans to meet with the German Chancellor and the President of France. The Ukrainian leader will also take part in the events at the annual Charlemagne award ceremony to Emmanuel Macron.

Related: European leaders to discuss "Skripal case" at EU summit

Related video:The Hague Arbitration Court unanimously decided that Russia is responsible for violating the rights of Ukrainian investors and should compensate their companies for the losses caused by the Crimea annexation. This was stated in a press release of the court.

On 2 May 2018, having deliberated, the Tribunal issued its unanimous Award on the Merits, addressing issues pertaining to liability and damages, the message says.

It is noted that Russia has to pay Ukrainian companies 159 million dollars.

The Claimants contended that, as of August 2014, the Russian Federation breached its obligations under the Ukraine-Russia BIT by interfering with and ultimately expropriating their investments in real estate located in Crimea, it is stated.

As the court reported previously, after the hearing on the merits in this matter was held from 5 to 6 October 2017, the Tribunal invited the Parties to file post-hearing submissions by 11 December 2017. On 11 November 2017, the Tribunal posed supplementary questions on valuation to the Parties, inviting them to respond in their post-hearing submissions. The Russian Federation did not file any post-hearing submissions.

On 23 March 2018, the Tribunal declared the hearings in this arbitration closed.

Related video:The case will be submitted to the court after the inspection of the materials

Open source

The Prosecutors Office of Kyiv has finished the pretrial investigation and opened the materials of the case of the murder of Denis Voronenkov, the former MP of Russia's State Duma as the press service of the authority reported.

All parties of the criminal proceeding were reported at the end of the investigation.

The indictment will be filed to the court as the parties of the case familiarize themselves with the mentioned materials and the materials that can be owned by the defense, the prosecutors office specified.

As it was reported earlier, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko announced the results of the investigation of Voronenkovs murder. According to the prosecution, Vladislav Tyurin is a crime boss with the FSB connections, who commissioned the murder as he had personal reasons: his former partner Maria Maksakova became Voronenkovs wife.

The former MP of the Russian State Duma Denis Voronenkov was shot in the downtown of Kyiv on March 23 at the intersection of Pushkinska and Shevchenko streets near the hotel Premier Palace. The body guard of the former MP injured the attacker. The medical workers tried to save the life of the shooter but he died in the hospital.

The shooter is the citizen of Ukraine, born in 1988 Pavlo Parshov. He was born in Sevastopol and was enlisted by the Russian special services and had the aim to infiltrate the Armed Forces of Ukraine or National Guard.

The Holosiivo District Court of Kyiv extended the pre-trial restriction in terms of detention for 36-years old citizen of Pavlograd, Dnipropetrovsk Region Yaroslav Tarasenko on August 10. He was detained on suspicion of implication in the murder of Voronenkov. He is accused of intentional homicide committed by the previous concert, group of persons and provided by the part two, article 115 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.The searches took place at the houses of the Crimean Tatars in Crimea annexed by Russia as Crimean Solidarity reported on Facebook.

In Baidary village, Sevastopol, the searches took place in the early morning. Two Crimean Tatars-Muslims were detained in the result of the searches. The detained are two brothers Ernest and Enver Seitosmanovy. Both are single and do not have a family, the message said.

It is noted that Ernest Seitosmanov actively supported the families of earlier detained Sevastopol political prisoners.

As we reported on April 26, Russias FSB held another wave of the search of the Crimean Tatars in annexed Crimea. Ali Bariev was detained.

In April 2018, at least four people, including two Crimean Tatars mysteriously died in the remand center-1 in Simferopol controlled by the occupation authority of Russia.

Crimea was annexed by Russia by way of the illegal referendum that was held at the peninsula in March 2014. Earlier the Russian militaries that stayed there without any marking conquered all strategic military objects and building of the force and state bodies. The results of the referendum were not recognized by Ukraine and the world society. The number of the European and world countries, including Ukraine imposed the economic sanctions against Russia.Kurt Volker, the U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine will visit Donbas on May 14. Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine claimed this during the briefing after the meeting with the leaders of France and Germany as 112.ukraine broadcasted.

On Monday (May 14) we expect the visit of Kurt Volker who is the U.S. State Department coordinator. We clearly emphasized that Russia should support the draft resolution which clearly implements the roadmap with the Minsk Agreements and UN peacekeepers. It should be included in the decision of the UN Security Council. It is a key position for us, Poroshenko noted.

Earlier it was reported that Volker is going to visit the combat area in Donbas again - during his seventh visit in this office, which is slated for late April - early May.

Also, Volker demanded from Russia and the militants supported by it to stop threats to the OSCE observers. This statement is a reaction to the incident that took place on April 5 near the Kremenets, occupied by militants in the Donetsk area. Then the militants did not allow the OSCE monitors to launch a drone and threatened them with weapons.PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Found Objects The Good Word On Friday, May 11 the Native American Community Academy hosts an evening of poetry at El Chante: Casa de Cultura (804 Park Ave. SW). The serieswhich is exclusively for youthfeatures a writing workshop with spoken word artist Rowie Shaundiin Shebala from 6 to 7pm, and afterwards a poetry slam from 7:30 to 9pm. All young poets are invited to join and share their works for the chance to win a $100 cash prize.

It's Spreading Gloria Casale is the author of many works of fiction that thread dark mysteries with fast-paced thrills. The Albuquerque-based author recently saw the release of Bioterror: The Essential Threat. Dr. Casale is a recognized expert in the international transport of disease, and is a consultant at Sandia Laboratory. Her knowledge of medicine, disease and the spread of sickness adds an extra-scary layer to this work of fiction. Ask the good doctor all your questions, pick up a copy of the novel and get it signed all in one go this Saturday, May 12, from 1 to 3pm at Treasure House Books & Gifts (2012 S Plaza NW).

Uncoded 516 ARTS (516 Central Ave. NW) is at it again hosting a world-class opening for their latest, 21st Century Cyphers, curated by Claude Smith. Ways in which to communicate are more abundant than ever, while room for misunderstanding grows incrementally. In this group exhibition artists like Hayal Pozanti (who has also worked closely with the Tamarind Institute, and will have an artist talk there on May 17), Bart Exposito and Mirtha Dermisache explore language in all its complexity, using it as a foundation for works in a variety of mediums. The show in all its richness is unveiled on Saturday, May 12 during a public reception from 6 to 8pm. View in Alibi calendarRob M.

Over the last months, we've seen cannabis decriminalized in Albuquerque and hemp research legalized at the state level. At the national level, we're seeing serious bipartisan efforts to legalize hemp on the parts of lawmakers.

The country is clearly moving in the right direction, so why is it that only one gubernatorial candidate in New Mexico is willing to fully support cannabis legalization publicly? Last month, Democratic candidate Jeff Apodaca sent out a release detailing his plan to legalize recreational cannabis and expand the medical program. We were the first state to authorize medical marijuana in 1978 when my father signed the law, he wrote in the statement, why are we shooting for being the last to legalize cannabis for adult use?

And the others? In a profile recently published in the Albuquerque Journal, Democratic forerunner and US Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham says she's willing to sign legislation legalizing cannabis for adult use if it includes protections for kids, DWI, medical cannabis patients and sensible regulations. This is a vast improvement and seems like a glowing pro-cannabis stance, but I still remember soft language coming from her camp a few months ago when she called to move towards legalizing recreational cannabis in a way that improves public safety and conduct a thorough analysis of recreational cannabis programs in other states. That might sound promising, but this old cynical warhorse has been around the block enough to know a squeamish lack of commitment when I hear it. She also managed to tag on that while legalizing, the state needs to make sure we do not jeopardize the current New Mexico medical cannabis industry and existing producers. Which seems like an odd concern that has little to do with ethics or public health. CuriousI believe this demands closer inspection over the coming months.

The final Democratic candidate, Sen. Joseph Cervantes doesn't plan to legalize at all, according to his profile in the Journal. He says he's open to hearing plans that show economic and regulatory viability, but is more concerned with championing decriminalization, which he says he'll do immediately if elected. Only problem: The voters in Albuquerque and Santa Fe already have that. You're just going to have to do better, Cervantes.

Meanwhile, when asked about his stance on legalization of cannabis last month, the sole Republican candidate Congressman Steve Pearcesaid, I do not see how in combating poverty you can put one more obstacle in front of people who are struggling to get out of poverty, so I dont see where I would support recreational marijuana. He also added: I dont see how it fits that were going to deal with addiction and yet were going to people, This one is OK.  A spokesperson for Pearce later claimed the comment wasn't made to distinguish cannabis use by rich and poor people, and said the candidate meant that Colorado has their right to spend their tax money mitigating the destructive effects of drug addiction how they choose, implying that legal cannabis is a detriment to society.

It might come as no surprise that Pearce is bucking legalization, but the Democrats are clearly going against their own party's sentiments. In March, the New Mexico Democratic Party publicly announced their support for legalizing at the federal level at the party's pre-primary convention. They encouraged New Mexican Democrats to support the removal of cannabis from the list of scheduled drugs in the Controlled Substances Act.

I can't help but wonder how every candidate but Apodaca seems to have trouble perusing the growing body of research and data pertaining to the positive effects cannabis has had on the states where it's legal, but the constant refrain of need more research means they must be missing a few studies here and there.

I suppose their days are quite busy, so I suggest we all help them out a little. Two studies were published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine last month that linked access to cannabis and lower rates of issued opioid prescriptions. In Association Between US State Medical Cannabis Laws and Opioid Prescribing in the Medicare Part D Population researchers at the University of Georgia found that states with medical cannabis dispensaries had a 14.4 percent reduction in the number of daily opioid doses filled compared to states without medical marijuana laws. In Association of Medical and Adult-Use Marijuana Laws With Opioid Prescribing for Medicaid Enrollees, data showed that in states where medical and recreational cannabis laws were enacted, they were followed by reductions in Medicaid opiate prescription rates of 5.88 percent and 6.38 percent, respectively.

Since Pearce obviously doesn't understand the actual connection between cannabis and opioid addiction, I'll be mailing full copies of these studies to his office in Washington (2432 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515). I bet there's a good chance one of his interns will give him the bullet points.

Here's an idea: If you find any good literature out there, dear reader, why don't you pass it along to these poor souls. Let them know that they're falling behind the times. Lujan Grisham's office's mailing address is 400 Gold Avenue SW, Ste. 680, Albuquerque, N.M. 87102. Cervantes' office gets mail at 2610 South Espina, Las Cruces, N.M. 88001.

Maybe they just dont know what we actually want.BOSTON, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nothing says summer in the city like hanging out with friends after work enjoying some tunes, playing lawn games and sipping cold drinks.



To make sure we all get our fair share of fun, The Boston Calling Block Parties are returning to Dewey Square Park this evening  and CHEN PR is back as a sponsor.

Set for Thursdays from 5:00  8:00 pm through mid-September, The Gallerist will kick off the annual weekly series. Produced by Boston Calling Events LLC and held in partnership with The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, the block parties are presented by Miller Lite and include cosponsor Barefoot Wine.

Open to anyone 21 years of age or older, this years line-up includes:

5/10  The Gallerist

5/17  Bourbon Chasers

5/24  DJ Frank White

5/31  Nonplussed

6/7  The Almighty Duck

6/14  Rob Pagnano

6/21  Nonplussed

6/28  Absolute Gentleman

7/5  DJ Frank White

7/12  Rob Pagnano

7/19  East Coast Soul

7/26  Hi8us

8/2  These Wild Plains

8/9  The Whiskey Barrel Band

8/16  Giant Foot

8/23  Sudden Relic

8/30  East Coast Soul

We moved into Downtown Crossing five years ago and immediately fell in love with the vibe, said CHEN PR Co-founder Chris Carleton. The people who fuel the Boston/Cambridge innovation ecosystem are all within a quick walk or T ride from Dewey Square Park, so its a perfect location to hold these bashes. The block parties give everyone a chance to hang out and relax, and we love cosponsoring them.

About CHEN PR

CHEN PR is a full-service strategic communications firm partnering with technology companies to deliver results-oriented media relations, analyst relations and content services. Celebrating our 21st anniversary, the agency's field-proven combination of insightful counsel and flawless tactical implementation helps clients -- ranging from startups to multinationals -- to define markets, increase sales, expand channels, enhance valuations and drive exits. Visit us at www.chenpr.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.A collection of objects and stories from Asian and Pacific Islander Americans that provide intimate windows into traditional origins and the American experience. Runs through 5/25.

The cultural and ethnic foundations of New Mexico are routinely examined through a tri-cultural lens: Native American, Hispanic and Anglo; however, there are many more layers to its fabric that are not simply peripheral, but integral to the New Mexico story.

Chinese, Filipinos, Japanese, Asian Indians and many more peoples representing the Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora contribute to New Mexico history and identity. Early business owners, farmers and laborers from Asia and the Pacific islands came to New Mexico in search of opportunity beginning in the mid-1700s. They endured institutionalized discrimination and brutal racism, but also found acceptance and inspiration that resulted in enduring contributions to New Mexicos distinct expression. Immigrants continue to settle in New Mexico, bringing with them unique stories of identity.

Journeys, Judgment and Jubilation: Stories of Identity from the Albuquerque Asian/Pacific Islander Communities is a collection of objects and stories from Asian & Pacific Islander Americans that provide intimate windows into traditional origins and the American experience.

Adelamar Alcantara, Viengkeo Kay Bounkeua, Esther Churchwell, Calvin Kobayashi, Virgilio Velasco, and Fay Yao are featured in the exhibit.

Join us Friday, April 6, 6pm  7:30pm for an opening reception and conversation. The exhibit is hosted by the New Mexico Humanities Council located at 4115 Silver SE, Albuquerque. Visitors are welcomed Monday through Friday, 9:00 am  4:00 pm. Journeys, Judgment and Jubilation: Stories of Identity from the Albuquerque Asian/Pacific Islander Communities closes May 25, 2018.The exhibit includes fourteen concepts by twelve artists or teams that illustrate a proposed outdoor artwork installation that is consistent with the Art Park 21 theme.

The Albuquerque main library is currently hosting the exhibit: Art Park 21: Groundwork. This exhibit was organized by AP21 co-organizers John Davis and Siobhan Roome. The goal of the Art Park 21 team is the establishment of a 21st century art park in the vicinity of Albuquerque or Santa Fe, NM. The Art Park 21 team also includes arts professionals from the area who share this vision for a venue for eco-centric artworks. The current exhibit includes fourteen concepts by twelve artists or teams that illustrate a proposed outdoor artwork installation that is consistent with the Art Park 21 theme.

A key element in the groundwork for establishing this park will be a temporary exhibit of multiple outdoor installations that fit the theme of the park. The park will feature eco-centric installations that take 21st century views of what could be possible in an art park, and of our relationship with our environment. Installations that represent a product of collaboration between one or more artists/artisans and an engineer/scientist/researcher/technician would be welcome, as well as artworks that make use of new knowledge, materials, techniques or technology and that place a value on sustainability. Themes include: atmospheric elements such as wind, rain, sunlight, humidity; artworks that incorporate plant life, recycled or repurposed elements; artworks that generate electricity; interactive artworks; artworks that explore the interface between three dimensional art and architecture. Our website: artpark21.org will have the latest information on this effort and social media will be used to spread the word and broaden support. We are hoping to have several of these proposed installations temporarily sited on open space lands in the Albuquerque area and are working to make this happen.

With a long term goal of establishing a sustained venue for the exhibit of outdoor eco-centric art, this exhibit is one step in broadening that conversation with our community.Chloe Zhaos melancholy neo-Western drama The Rider is a remarkable film for a number of reasons. First is the almost painful empathy it has for its characters, a modern-day collection of pot-smoking, cell phone-slinging young cowboys living on the impoverished Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Second is the films main character, Brady Blackburn, a wild horse trainer and wannabe rodeo star who suffers a near-fatal brain injury while bronc busting. And yet our protagonist gets back in the saddle (literally and figuratively) weeks later, pursuing the only lifestyle hes ever knowndespite the fact that it could very well mean his death.

The remarkable part is that Brady Blackburn is played by Brady Jandreau, a real-life wild horse trainer and wannabe rodeo star who suffered a near-fatal brain injury while bronc busting. The roles of Brady Blackburns quietly disappointed father, his developmentally disabled sister and all his rodeo-worshipping pals are played by Brady Jandreaus real-life family and friends, heavily blurring the lines between fact and fiction.

So how does a Chinese filmmaker living in Denver end up having a mutualistic symbiotic relationship with a South Dakota cowboy? Zhao met Jandreau while shooting her 2015 indie drama Songs My Brother Taught Me on the Oglala Lakota Native American reservation. It was there she saw her first Indian cowboys. Speaking on the phone while out on a press tour for the film, Zhao admits, I didnt know they existed before. I met some of them and thought they were this amazing American contradiction. Culturally, they were a very different group of people that I knew nothing about. I was quite ignorant. And after meeting some of them, I put them in my first film. I always had a desire to make a film about them. Then when I met Brady, it became very clear who the star of that film should be.

Jandreau, who recently passed through Albuquerque as part of the Professional Bull Riders Tour (he wasnt riding, just visiting old friends), recalled the meeting as well. Serendipitously, the filmmaker visited the ranch Jandreau was working at. Chloe come out to the ranch, the Muleshoe Angus, to learn about cowboys in the heartland of Americaespecially Indian cowboys. Thats where I met her, on or about April of 2015. We talked. She told me she was a director. I had never been around anyone who had anything to do with movies. Chloe told us she wants to come out and ride horses with us. She wants to go do ranch work with us. I was, like, All right. But we dont pay very good around here.  Zhao explained she wasnt looking for a career change, only doing research for Songs My Brother Taught Me. By the end of the summer, she leaned how to ride very well and became fast friends with Jandreau.

Less than a year after the filmmaker and the cowboy met, Jandreau suffered his horrific head injury, fracturing his skull in three places at a local rodeo. I rode Gus two weeks after my injury, and I started training wild horses for the public about a month and a half after my injury. recalls Jandreau. Thats when Chloe found out about it. Shes like, Whoa. Are you crazy? You could die. I was like Well, I dont feel alive not riding. Thats one thing that really inspired her to write [The Rider].

Motivated by the tale, Zhao approached Jandreau with the idea of starring in a movie based almost entirely on his own real-life story. Jandreau agreed. I figured if shes not scared of getting on a 1,200-pound animal that shes never seen before, then why would we be scared of cameras?

The Rider, which has snapped up a number of awards at international film festivals, is difficult to categorize. Is it a documentary? Is it a biopic? I know that people use the word docudrama. I understand why that word is used. But on a personal level, Im not a huge fan of the word, because this is fictional story, points out Zhao. I want to give credit to these actors, who are amazing actors. They are not just being themselves. Theyre actually acting, just like any other actor. So I think Id call it a fictional film inspired by real people and played by real people.

Id say probably 40 percent of it is entirely fiction, assesses Jandreau. For example, unlike in the film, Jandreaus mother is not deceased. Also, I never worked at a grocery store.

Despite the fact that Jandreau is no professional actor, his portrayal is haunting andabove allbrutally honest. Though he says little, theres no doubt this guy is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Jandreau credits Zhao for the results. Im a horse trainer. I call Chloe the actor trainer. She makes it easy to act. But then again a lot of that had to do with my past life. I always had a lot of weight on my shoulders.

Despite what sounds like the makings of an inspirational true-life tale, The Rider is no feel-good story of overcoming adversity. Its a story of crushed dreams, thwarted lifestyles and tough economic realities. Although he now operates a horse training ranch with his wife, Jandreaus rodeo career is a thing of the past.

At one point in The Rider, the fictionalized Brady tries to drive home the seriousness of his injuries to his macho rodeo pals, This is a brain injury. Its not just a broken rib. The response comes back, tellingly, Its all the same to a cowboy. So what drives young men to get into such a dangerous lifestyle?

To many young people on the reservation, they feel that theres no hope, theres no way out, says Jandreau. To many, this is their hope and a way outwhether its just traveling to rodeos or going big professionally. Many of us are brought up around it not knowing anything else. I got on my first sheep at the mutton busting at a rodeo when I was 2 1/2. Basically, my love began. Its just really hard to let go of something so prominent in your lifestyle and the lifestyle of those around you.

Its that admirably stubborn stick-to-it nature and quiet country dignity that The Rider ultimately celebrates. When I first met Brady, he did not have this injury, says Zhao, summing up her motivation. So it wasnt that I was interested in this head injury and wanted to make a film about that. It was Brady that I found had star quality and wanted to make a movie about that.Dateline: United Kingdom

Parishioners at a medieval church in Essex are relieved now that their first public restroom has been blessed by a bishop. According to a press release issued by the Church of England in Essex and East London Diocese of Chelmsford, the Reverend Derek Clark, a semi-retired farmer and roofer, decided to do something about his dwindling congregation when he realized that a lack of public facilities was driving them away. To remedy the situation, he purchased a 23-foot long and 7-foot wide refurbished portable restroom with his own funds. The reverend reportedly tows the lavatory behind his tractor three miles to All Saints Church in the hamlet of Ulting from his farm twice a month. Bishop of Chelmsford Stephen Cottrell was called to the church last month to bless the portable john. He said it was the first time he'd been asked to bless a toilet. The new restrooms have reportedly attracted more people to the church in recent weeks. The reverend says attendance has gone from around 6 or 8 people to between 20 and 30 people since their introduction. Clark told reporters at The Sun that the idea came to him from God, but he also said he'd seen examples of the portable restrooms at agricultural shows.

Dateline: Hawaii

A man who has survived being attacked by a bear and a rattlesnake was attacked by a shark last month. Dylan McWilliams, of Grand Junction, Colo., told local news KJCT8 in Colorado that while body boarding off the island of Kauai in Hawaii, he was attacked by a tiger shark that was reportedly six to eight feet in length. He told reporters that he saw the underwater predator swimming beneath him and managed to kick it before swimming to shore. According to BBC News, McWilliams required seven stitches in his leg to treat the wound left by the distinctive shark bite. While speaking to local reporters, his mother clarified that this was not the first incident in which her son had been attacked by wild animals. She claims he has been attacked by skunks, raccoons, a rattlesnake and a mother moose. It was also revealed that he escaped a bear attack in 2017 while camping in the Colorado wilderness. The bear reportedly grabbed McWilliams by the back of the head before the man began poking it in the eye, driving the animal away. He was badly mauled and received nine staples in his head as a result. He told reporters that the attacks can be blamed on bad luck. McWilliams is currently waiting for his wounds to heal so he can return to bodyboarding. McWilliams is a survival training instructor. He teaches students how to survive in the wilderness and live off the land like the explorers did.

Dateline: Sweden

Sweden has admitted publicly that Swedish meatballs are, in fact, Turkish. The official Twitter account of Sweden said last week that the famous Swedish dish was actually derived from a Turkish recipe given to King Charles XII in the early 18th century. Let's stick to the facts! the tweet exclaimed. It is unclear what prompted members in the government to make the admission. The New York Times reported that the tweet led to media attention in Turkey, where it has been suggested in a tongue-in-cheek fashion that Sweden has stolen other Turkish cultural staples. The account responded to comments, noting that the traditional combination of lingonberry jam and meatballs is specific to Sweden. According to South China Morning Post, Swedish meatballs aren't the only dish whose country of origin is often misrepresented. They report that spaghetti might have come from China before making ts way to Europe thanks to Marco Polo.

Dateline: Scotland

Scientists have developed a contact lens that will allow users to shoot laser beams from their eyes. According to a study recently published in Nature, researchers at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland have created an ultrathin and flexible membrane that measures less than a thousandth of a millimeter thick that can be attached to a contact lens and worn on the eyes. The membrane is made from an organic semiconducting polymer that emits very low-powered laser light when illuminated by another laser. The membrane is able to produce a scannable barcode with a series of unique laser lines projected from the surface. It requires no battery, since the semiconducting polymer fluoresces when exposed to light and will theoretically not harm the user's retina, as the emission is of low intensity. The technology has not been tested on a human eye, yet. Researchers instead used a cow's eye for experimentation. It is unclear what the membrane will be used for, but it has been suggested that it could be used to authenticate currency and as a reliable identification marker for people.PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Letters Prioritize Alzheimers Dear Editor, New Mexico has 38,000 persons living with Alzheimers disease and dementia and many of them face the challenges of living in rural and isolated communities without healthcare support or services. The fact that this happens every day underscores the growing public health crisis of Alzheimers disease in our state. Did you know that Alzheimer disease is the most expensive disease in America at $259 billion annually and that it is the sixth leading cause of death with no cure, treatment or prevention? I was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease 5 years ago at age 53. I am a volunteer advocate for the Alzheimer's Association, N.M. Chapter because I believe that the impact of this disease affects us all in New Mexico and in the nation. The time to do something is now. Many voices are needed let our lawmakers know that Alzheimer's is a priority. Your voice added to mine can make a difference. Ask your Congresswomen Michelle Lujan Grisham to make these issues a priority. Increased funding to the National Institutes of Health for Alzheimer's research. The amount requested in fiscal year 2019 is an additional $425 million. Support of the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer's Act (S. 2076/H.R. 4256), which would create an Alzheimer's public health infrastructure across the country to implement effective Alzheimer's interventions focused on public health issues such as increasing early detection and diagnosis, reducing risk and preventing avoidable hospitalizations.

Hatin Haaland Dear Alibi, This was a bad week for Ole New Mexico to endorse Deb Haaland in the NM CD-1 Congressional race. It was, after all, the same week that Nicole Bagg, a former 2016 National Delegate from Las Cruces, held an ABQ press conference to denounce Haalands malicious malfeasance against Bagg (back in 2016), when Deb was still the DPNM State Chair (and Nicole was still a hopeful Democrat). Importantly, Ms. Bagg believes that Deb behaved so irresponsibly in her role as State Chair that Nicoles faith in the Democratic Party, and in any kind of concerted political action, was permanently snuffed out. Without going too deeply into the Haaland-Bagg case, let it be said that, as chair, Haaland facilitated an extra two years of emotional and sexual predation by now former Dona Ana County Commissioner John Vasquez. In a very real sense, Haaland, who was relatively healthy physically, was more irresponsible in allowing the alcoholic Vasquez to act out against numerous Democratic women, than was Vasquez himself. Especially because Commissioner Vasquez was also notorious for being social friends with racists and people with antisocial qualities. However, when it comes to enablers, no one matches DPNM Executive Chair Joe Kabourek, in his obsequious gatekeeping for the Debster. Joe is he who allows Deb Haaland to pose as a tough, decisive leader, rather than the empty-headed bowl of Jell-O she is in real life. So, both Joe and his Oliver Hardy sidekick, Treasurer Robert Lara, ran interference for Deb when Nicole Bagg first complained of being accosted by Vasquez. Then, when Nicole actually bumped into Haaland in Oct. 2016, during the Silver City SCC meeting, Deb turned tail and refused to even speak to the abused lady from Las Cruces. This behavior is par for this incompetent pseudo-leader. In truth, Haaland, Kabourek and Robert Lara are not just bumbling bureaucrats, who were clueless about the raging manchild Vasquez. Realistically, the unholy trio conspired, for personal and career reasons, to cover up the commissioners legitimately criminal behavior against numerous vulnerable professional women in the Democratic Party of New Mexico. Regrettably, Nicole Bagg, at great cost to her personal life, has been the only one with the courage to call out these poor excuses for party leadership. So, we can only applaud when Ms. Bagg called on Thursday for Executive Director Kabourek to resign and for Deb Haaland to drop out of the race for CD-1 Congressperson. If Nicole were truly vindictive, she would file malfeasance suits against these three and an assault charge against John Vasquez. But, if she has decided to abstain from more punitive action, the rest of us as Democrats, and as citizens desiring justice, must take up her call for Kaboureks termination. More importantly, we must demand that Deb Haaland stop disgracing the Democratic Party, and drop out of the Congressional race. Ya basta! Enough!Newscity

MVD ID Requirements Questioned

A temporary restraining order was filed against the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division requesting that the agency suspend its practice of illegally denying driver's licenses and state IDs to eligible residents.

According to a press release from the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness and Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a temporary restraining order was filed in state district court against the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department and the Motor Vehicles Division last week. The order requests that the MVD stop denying ID applications to eligible residents until a class action lawsuit filed earlier this year is resolved.

The two groups filed the lawsuit against the MVD in January, claiming the department failed to implement a state law set in place in 2016 which gave residents the option of applying for a second-tier license instead of the federally-approved Real ID compliant driver's license. The optional identification cardsa drivers authorization card and state ID that does not meet federal standardswere made available to non-citizens or those who were unable to comply with Real ID requirements. However, the suit filed in January claimed that MVD employees were asking for more documentation than is required by the new law, including a social security card.

If granted, the injunction will force MVD to halt the observance of illegal regulations, notify all residents who were denied a card in writing of the reason for their denial and record and preserve the name and mailing address of anyone whose application is denied.A few weeks ago, Weekly Alibi did its best to warn readers why a Republican Steve Pearce governorship might yet happen here in New Mexico. Now as the Democratic Primary election approaches, lets take a closer look at the Democratic Partys plansembodied by three politicos seeking the nomination to move forward to Novemberto thwart efforts to keep a Republican in our states top office.

Well endorse a candidate in this race in a few weeks. Until then, heres a roundup of the Democratic candidates and highlights of their assorted platforms for the office of governor of the state of New Mexico. Readers who want a deeper look at the donkeys running for governor are invited to check out individual websites for a complete low-down leading up to the June 5 primary election.

Jeff Apodaca

courtesy of the candidate

Hailing from Las Cruces and Santa Fe, N.M., Apodaca is the son of former governor Jerry Apodaca, who served in the position from 1976 to 1980. Until recently, the younger Apodaca cut his professional teeth as a media executive, where he served in upper management positions at Univision, Tribune Broadcasting, AOL and the CBS Television Network. In the past few years, he returned to his home state to manage Univision stations in the rocky mountain states.

Plain spoken, Apodaca recently tweeted, Im not running because its my turn. Im running to turn New Mexico around, because its your turn, its New Mexicos turn. This candidates platform reflects that common citizen appeal and goes something like this:

Apodaca is convinced that our state is at the bottom of many listseconomic, educational and culturaldue to mismanagement. Further he maintains that he can turn the state around by accessing $23 billion in investment funds that our state government is sitting on. According to recent reports in the press, this huge amount of potential funding for state programs is an asset trove larger than many developing countries. Although questions remain about how such revenue sources could be used to bolster our states economy, Apodaca is clearly convinced that capitalizing and using such funds could ensure economic security for our state in future years.

As part of an overarching economic plan to reestablish the Land of Enchantments money power, Apodaca plans to launch investment plans worth billions, update our lagging tax system and create and maintain preference for New Mexico small businesses. By bringing investments into the state, Apodaca further plans to update and repair an aging infrastructure, grow our rural economies and then further invest in state-developed technologies and start-ups.

Although economics plays a substantial role in Apodacas platform, he has also been noticeably vocal on the subject of cannabis. As governor, Apodaca would convene a conference of parties interested in medical cannabis, adult recreational cannabis use and hemp manufacturing, all in the hopes of creating and passing unified cannabis legislation that would legalize cannabis in 2019.

Joe Cervantes

courtesy of the candidate

Cervantes, a graduate of the UNM Law School , is also from Dona Ana county, where he served in both houses of New Mexicos Legislature. In this capacity, Cervantes says he successfully passed laws by working with legislators from both parties and has [therefore] overcome gridlock...

Cervantes message to voters also focuses on the economic woes and possibilities the state currently faces. This candidate believes the key to regaining our stature as a solidly and economically progressive state rests on the shoulders of our younger citizens. By providing quality education and jobs to high school and college graduates, Cervantes believes New Mexico can ultimately flourish. Hes against corporate tax cuts and will focus on growing small business. Further, his platform calls for collaboration between education, business and technology sectors in order to provide sustainable growth here.

Improving the quality and efficiency of state educational institutions as means of revitalizing the states economy is a keystone in Cervantes march forward, but so, also is a recognition of our states rich Hispanic culture and therefore, its dependence on immigrant communities throughout the state.

After recent developments along the southern borderand an appearance by US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Cervantes released the following statement regarding our relationship with Latin America, writing, As the Senator who represents this area of New Mexico, I have the experience of working within our borders communities to address the unique conditions of living along the border. We need to be working hand in hand with our southern neighbors in Mexico, to grow our economy, continue international trade and other economic development opportunities. I am opposed to militarizing our borders and will work with local officials to implement best practices, not outsiders from Washington, D.C. We should not be caving to the misguided policies of the Trump administration like Governor Martinez has.

Michelle Lujan Grisham

courtesy of the candidate

It goes without saying that Grisham , currently serving out her term as District 1 US Representative for New Mexico, also sees change from the normative as a path to glory for New Mexicans and their lives here in America.

She also graduated from the law school at UNM, and has previously served as the director of the states agency on aging, as well as the Secretary of the N.M. Department of Health and on the Bernalillo County Commission. As a congresswoman, Grisham is currently on the Budget and Agriculture Committees.

Because of her experience as a lawmaker and especially because of her work as health secretary, Grisham believes that she is the most prepared of the candidates to step in and reverse the Martinez Administrations damage to our physical and behavioral health systems.

Economically, Grisham plans to use a portion of the the Severance Tax Permanent Fund to invest in New Mexico businesses and further proposes doubling film production work in the state to further augment revenue coming into Nuevo Mexicos coffers. Importantly, Grisham also has proposed immediately raising the states minimum wage, in order to give more than 100,000 citizens access to buying power that will help break the cycle of poverty.

Grisham has also spoken out on the issue of public safety and her platform contains plans to strengthen local police forces with more officers and resources, as well as to crack down on domestic violence while diverting from incarceration non-violent drug offenders. The candidates position on cannabis has been clear for some time and if elected, she plans to support legislation that would legalize recreational use of the plant that prioritizes public safety and uses much needed revenue from cannabis sales to improve living conditions statewide.

And in the End ...

Clearly, all three of these public servants are qualified to be our next governor. Though they vary slightly in regards to policies and legislation they would pursue, its certain that they provide a bright alternative to another four years of Republican control with Trumpian overtones. By voting Democratic in the general election, citizens have a rare opportunity to rebuke the backwards looking agenda of the current administrations, state and federal. With all of that said, happy voting Burquenos!The New York City Economic Development Corporation has invested more than $115 million to reactivate the terminal as a shipping hub.



New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) has signed a lease through 2054 with developers and a stevedoring company that plan to reactivate the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal as a shipping hub.

NYCEDC said it has signed a long-term lease with Red Hook Container Terminal and Industry City. Red Hook Terminals operates terminals in another part of Brooklyn and Newark, N.J. Industry City is a developer of the area surrounding the marine terminal, what was once known as the Bush Terminals.

The new shipping terminal will be called the Sustainable South Brooklyn Marine Terminal and will encompass 64.5 acres. The entire site encompasses 88 acres and includes a recycling facility that has been operational for several years. NYCEDC says it has invested more than $115 million to reactivate the terminal.

The developers say they expect to move more than 900,000 metric tons of material annually through the port.

In the short term, 250 jobs are expected to be created.

New uses for the facility include waste paper recycling and export, the importation of lumber, salt and aggregate material, container-on barge-operations and project cargo.

Already the terminal has served as a staging area for components for the New York Wheel, a Ferris Wheel that promoters are planning to build on Staten Island and would be similar to the London Eye. The future of that project is uncertain, however, as work stopped last year in a dispute between the developer and the contractor building it. However, a press report on Wednesday said the 630-foot observation wheel is close to getting back on track.

SSBMT said it also has the potential to create over 1,000 additional jobs by serving as a fabrication hub for prospective tenant Deepwater Wind, which it said has indicated its interest in establishing a major offshore wind jobs hub on the Brooklyn waterfront to support its South Fork Wind Farm and future projects.YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. The French foreign ministry has released a statement on the election of Nikol Pashinyan as Prime Minister of Armenia.

France welcomes the dialogue between political forces that allowed the Armenian Parliament to elect a new prime minister on May 8, in respect of the Constitution and the fundamental rights of Armenias citizens.

It [France] offers him [Pashinyan], and the Armenian people, its best wishes for success.

France will continue to provide its support for Armenia, the French foreign ministry said.

Nikol Pashinyan was elected Prime Minister by the Armenian parliament on May 8 in the second round of voting.

59 MPs voted in favor, 42 voted against the candidacy of Nikol Pashinyan. He needed at least 53 votes to be named Prime Minister.

As required by the Constitution, a new government must be formed within 15 days after electing a Prime Minister.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan Kocharyan3.11 million ounces gold equivalent in the indicated category*

2.12 million ounces gold equivalent in the inferred category*

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ascot Resources Ltd (TSX.V:AOT) (OTCQX:AOTVF) (Ascot or the Company) is pleased to announce an updated NI 43-101 resource estimate for its flagship Premier-Dilworth property in British Columbias Golden Triangle. The additional resource includes high-grade zones from the Premier and Northern Lights area that were modeled using a cut-off grade that is suitable for underground mining. (See Table 1 and Table 2 on the following pages).

When the new management team joined six months ago, focus was shifted from the previous open pit mining scenario towards developing higher grade, underground resources. Operations can be re-started within a potentially shorter time-frame by using the existing underground infrastructure. Higher grade resources will maximize the profitability of the current processing facilities. Future operations will be more profitable, less disruptive and easier to re-permit by starting initial production within the existing footprint of the project.

Derek White, President and CEO of Ascot Resources commented, This resource will be the first step in a series of resource developments, which we believe will add significant ounces with each resource update. Our principal business objective is to maximize the utilization of the existing infrastructure, specifically with regard to the mill throughput of up to 3,000 tonnes per day. Currently we are drilling in the Big Missouri area as part of our next resource update. We remain extremely excited about the prospect of adding resources to re-start operations.

The Company identified various areas to develop higher grade resources based on the existing drill spacing across the property. The development of additional high-grade resources will take place in a series of steps. This maiden high-grade resource was developed in the Premier-Northern Lights area only, in the southern part of the property where the existing drill spacing was close enough to define underground resources.

Premier-Northern Lights Mineral Resources

The updated NI 43-101 resource estimate for the Premier-Northern Lights zone (as at May, 2018) resulted in the following additional resources:



281,059 AuEq oz in the indicated category (1.21 Million tonnes (Mt) grading 7.23g/t AuEq at 3.5g/t AuEq cut-off)*

319,675 AuEq oz in the inferred category (1.64 Mt grading 6.18g/t AuEq at 3.5g/t AuEq cut-off) (See Note 4 on Page 3 for calculations of AuEq)*

In November of 2017, the Company engaged Mr. David Rennie, P.Eng. of RPA Inc (RPA) to prepare an updated NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate focused on eight high-grade zones in the Premier-Northern lights area. The modeled high-grade zones outline two curvilinear structural planes where quartz breccias and stockwork development host gold mineralization in these mineralized fault zones. Historic mining at the Premier mine focused on narrow zones that were steeply dipping close to surface. New modeling has revealed that the dip of the structural zones decreases at depth into more flat lying bodies. The thickness of the mineralized zones with moderate dip appears to be more substantial.

In April of this year, the Company commenced the 2018 drill program with infill drilling on the 602 zone. The drill holes to date intercepted the modeled zone at the projected depth based on visual inspection, supporting the validity of the new geological model. Assays of these holes are pending and will be reported as they become available. There is significant potential to expand the 602 zone to the west and down dip. Other areas in the Premier-Northern Lights zone that have expansion potential are the Ben, Prew and the 609 zones. These possible extensions will be tested later in the year. Currently the focus is on the Big Missouri area to infill and add additional high-grade resources. The Company will be exploring other attractive targets on the property later in the summer.

Table 1 (Indicated) and Table 2 (Inferred) summarize the mineral resources estimate for Premier-Northern Lights area. Table 3 is the current total for the Premier- Dilworth property.

The undiluted and in-situ mineral resource estimate incorporates the Premier-Northern Lights zones reported at underground cut-off grades (3.5g/t of gold (Au)).

Table 1:

Indicated Resources Cut-Off

(g/t AuEq) Tonnage

(t) Au

(g/t) Ag

(g/t) AuEq

(g/t) Au

(oz) Ag

(oz) AuEq

(oz) 6.0 562,000 10.06 36.3 10.32 182,000 656,000 186,443 5.5 654,000 9.43 35.2 9.67 198,000 739,000 203,005 5.0 757,000 8.83 34.0 9.07 215,000 827,000 220,601 4.5 878,000 8.24 32.8 8.47 233,000 925,000 239,264 4.0 1,030,000 7.64 31.6 7.86 252,000 1,040,000 259,043 3.5 1,210,000 7.02 30.6 7.23 273,000 1,190,000 281,059 3.0 1,450,000 6.37 29.5 6.57 297,000 1,380,000 306,346 2.5 1,700,000 5.81 28.3 6.00 318,000 1,550,000 328,497 2.0 1,910,000 5.40 27.3 5.59 332,000 1,680,000 343,378



Table 2:

Inferred Resources Cut-Off

(g/t AuEq) Tonnage

(t) Au

(g/t) Ag

(g/t) AuEq

(g/t) Au

(oz) Ag

(oz) AuEq

(oz) 6.0 589,000 8.76 23.5 8.92 166,000 445,000 167,756 5.5 752,000 8.08 23.1 8.24 195,000 559,000 196,968 5.0 950,000 7.45 24.0 7.62 227,000 734,000 229,165 4.5 1,150,000 6.95 23.9 7.12 257,000 882,000 259,336 4.0 1,390,000 6.46 24.2 6.63 288,000 1,080,000 290,526 3.5 1,640,000 6.01 24.9 6.18 317,000 1,310,000 319,675 3.0 1,920,000 5.59 24.3 5.76 345,000 1,500,000 345,000 2.5 2,250,000 5.15 23.5 5.31 373,000 1,700,000 373,000 2.0 2,580,000 4.76 22.9 4.92 395,000 1,900,000 395,000

Notes:

1) CIM (2014) definitions were followed for Mineral Resources

2) Mineral Resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of 3.5 g/t AuEq

3) Mineral Resources are estimated using long-term metal prices of US$1,350/oz Au and US$20/oz Ag

4) Gold equivalence was calculated using a ratio of 65:1 Ag:Au and Ag recovery of 45.2%

5) The zones were interpreted using a minimum true width of 2.5 m for steep dipping zones and 3.0 m for moderate to flat dipping zones

6) Numbers may not sum due to rounding.

In addition to the Premier-Northern Lights underground resources, the property hosts a significant open pit resource at Big Missouri and Martha Ellen, only 4 kilometres to the north of the Premier project within easy trucking distance to the Premier mill. These previously reported resources are summarized below: (The NI 43-101 technical report was prepared in March 2014 for this area by Mr. Ronald G. Simpson, P.Geo., Geosim Services Inc., however, the focus at that time was on open-pit mining.)

Big Missouri  Martha Ellen Resources

The previous NI 43-101 technical report prepared in March 2014 for the Big Missouri-Martha Ellen area contained the following resources:

2.83 million equivalent ounces of gold in the indicated category (93.50 Mt grading 0.94 g/t AuEq), see Note 4 above.

1.80 million equivalent ounces of gold in the inferred category (79.28 Mt grading 0.71 g/t AuEq), see Note 4 above.



Through a staged growth, the Company plans to add more high-grade resources after the completion of the 2018 drill program. The Premier mine was once North Americas largest gold mine and Ascot believes that its favourable location near Stewart, B.C. along with its well-established infrastructure will facilitate its ability to re-start the mine with a low capital cost approach.

Total Updated NI 43-101 Resources as at May, 2018

Table 3:

Total Premier-Dilworth Project Mineral Resources

Class Deposit Tonnes



000's Average Grades Contained oz (000's) Au g/t Ag g/t AuEq Au Ag AuEq Indicated Open-Pit 1,2, 3 93,502 0.82 6.9 0.94 2,475 20,783 2,830 Underground 4, 5 1,210 7.02 30.6 7.23 273 1,190 281 Total Indicated Open-Pit & Underground 94,712 0.90 7.20 1.02 2,748 21,973 3,111





Inferred Open-Pit 1, 2, 3 79,278 0.59 7.2 0.71 1,494 18,238 1,804 Underground 4, 5 1,640 6.01 24.9 6.18 317 1,310 320 Total Inferred Open-Pit & Underground 80,918 0.70 7.56 0.82 1,811 19,548 2,124

Notes:

1) Mineral Resources are reported at a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/t AuEq

2) Source: Technical report prepared by Ronald G. Simpson, effective date 31 March, 2014

3) The gold equivalent grade was calculated using metal prices of $1400/oz for gold and $24/oz for silver. The gold equivalence formula is as follows: AuEq g/t = Au g/t + (Ag g/t * 0.017)

4) Mineral Resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of 3.5 g/t AuEq

5) Gold equivalence was calculated using a ratio of 65:1 Ag:Au and Ag recovery of 45.2%

6) The mineral resources presented here were estimated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions and Guidelines prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by CIM Council May 10, 2014.

7) Figures are rounded and totals may not add correctly.

Ascot has engaged SRK as study manager to direct a team of consultants to optimize engineering studies for the mine re-start plan. One of Ascots many advantages at the Premier-Dilworth site is that is has its own mill and tailings facility located at the mine site, which has the capacity to process between 1,000 and 3,000 tonnes per day using conventional crushing, grinding and Carbon in Leach (CIL) to produce a dore product.

In accordance with National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101), an updated technical report for the Premier Project will be filed on SEDAR and the Companys web site within 45 calendar days of this disclosure.

The Company is also pleased to announce that an investor conference call with President and CEO, Derek White will be held on Thursday, May 10, 2018 at 2:00 pm Pacific time and 5:00 pm Eastern time. Mr. White will discuss the updated resource and next steps for the Company going forward. A question and answer period will follow the presentation.

To participate, please dial: Canada/USA toll-free 1-800-319-4610 or International toll +1-604-638-5340 and request join to the Ascot Resources Conference Call. Participants please dial in 5 to 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

Qualified Persons

Each of David Rennie, P. Eng. of RPA and Ronald G. Simpson, P.Geo., Geosim Services Inc., is an independent qualified person (as defined in NI 43-101) responsible for this mineral resource estimate. RPA and Geosim Services have conducted independent data verification relating to drill hole location and orientation, sampling methodology, assay QA/QC and database integrity and found the results satisfactory. RPA and Geosim Services acknowledge that they have reviewed the technical content presented in this news release and approved the written disclosure.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF

ASCOT RESOURCES LTD.



Derek C. White, President and CEO

For further information contact:

Kristina Howe

VP, Investor Relations

778-725-1060 / khowe@ascotgold.com

About Ascot Resources Ltd.

Ascot Resources is a gold and silver focused exploration company with a portfolio of advanced and grassroots projects in the Golden Triangle region of British Columbia. The companys flagship Premier Project is a near-term high-grade advanced exploration project with large upside potential. Ascot is poised to be the next Golden Triangle producer with an experienced and successful exploration, development and operating team, coupled with a highly regarded major shareholder.



For more information, please visit www.ascotgold.com

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

All statements, trend analysis and other information contained in this press release relative to markets about anticipated future events or results constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as seek, anticipate, believe, plan, estimate, expect and intend and statements that an event or result may, will, should, could or might occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation, statements regarding: the anticipated use of proceeds of the Offering, the Companys 2018 drill program, and the exploration and mineralization potential of the Premier property, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to business and economic risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results of operations to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Ascots expectations include fluctuations in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; the need for cooperation of government agencies and native groups in the exploration and development of properties and the issuance of required permits; the need to obtain additional financing to develop properties and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay in exploration or development programs and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; and uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and opinions of management at the date the statements are made. Ascot does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. The meeting of US President Donald Trump and North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un is expected to be held in early June in Singapore, Fox News reports citing its sources.

CNN reports Trump told reporters at the White House that he would announce the time and location in three days.

Trump ruled out the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that divides North and South Korea as a potential location for the talks with Kim. Singapore and the DMZ are the only two places Trump has floated in public as potential venues for the meeting.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un says the upcoming meeting with US President Donald Trump will bring positive changes to on the Korean Peninsula, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Thursday after Kims meeting with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, TASS reported.

He (Kim Jong-un) said the upcoming North Korea-US summit will be a historic meeting for the first step towards development of positive changes on the Korean Peninsula and building better future, the agency said.

Pompeo arrived in the North Korean capital city to discuss organizational details of the upcoming meeting between the two countries leaders.

The meeting of US President Donald Trump and North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un is expected to be held in early June in Singapore.

Trump told reporters at the White House that he would announce the time and location in three days.

According to CNN, Trump ruled out the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that divides North and South Korea as a potential location for the talks with Kim. Singapore and the DMZ are the only two places Trump has floated in public as potential venues for the meeting.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. The first Cabinet meeting chaired by new Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will take place May 11, the governments press service said.

The upcoming Cabinet meeting will take place May 11 at 11:00, the press service said in a statement.

Nikol Pashinyan was elected Prime Minister by the Armenian parliament on May 8 in the second round of voting.

59 MPs voted in favor, 42 voted against the candidacy of Nikol Pashinyan. He needed at least 53 votes to be named Prime Minister.

As required by the Constitution, a new government must be formed within 15 days after electing a Prime Minister.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. President of the European Council Donald Tusk and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker have addressed a joint congratulatory letter to Nikol Pashinyan on his election as Prime Minister of Armenia, the PMs office said.

"Excellency,



We would like to congratulate you on your election as Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia and wish you all the best in the exercise of this important mandate. We welcome that during these last days all sides have avoided confrontation and shown restraint and responsibility.



We look forward to cooperating with you in your new position to further strengthen the relations between the European Union and Armenia, particularly through the implementation of the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement which has received the unanimous support of the Armenian Parliament, including with a view to further consolidating democracy, strengthening the rule of law, protecting human rights, and creating a prosperous and resilient economic and social system for the benefit of the citizens of Armenia. To achieve these important goals we believe that a comprehensive dialogue among all political stakeholders in Armenia remains crucial.



Finally, we look forward to your positive engagement within the Eastern Partnership and for the promotion of security, stability, democracy and prosperity in Armenia and the broader region", the joint letter says.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. A group of demonstrators are rallying outside Yerevan City Hall demanding the resignation of Mayor Taron Margaryan. Members of the City Council from the opposition Yelk and Yerkir Tsirani factions have joined the protests.

Demonstrators have blocked the street outside the building and traffic has been shut down.

Yelk faction head Davit Khajakyan told reporters that their faction has also submitted a demand requesting Taron Margaryans resignation.

In terms of the practical demand we are waiting for our other friends of the faction, in order to be able to hold a sitting and have a discussion about practical steps, he said.

Commenting on a possible candidate for Mayor, Khajakyan said the Mayor should be elected from members of the City Council.

I dont think any HHK member of the City Council would assume such a burden. Something has really changed in our country and these realities must be reckoned with, he said.

Khajakyan says the faction must discuss the matter with members of the Civil Contract party, who are currently busy with forming a new government.

Incumbent Mayor Taron Margaryan is serving in office since 2011. He was re-elected by the City Council in 2017.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. ARF lawmaker Armen Babayan has filed for resignation to Speaker of Parliament Ara Babloyan, ARF secretary Armenuhi Kyureghyan told ARMENPRESS.

Armen Babayan decided to be fully engaged in business and in order for there not to be a misunderstanding that he is doing business while being in the legislative branch, he decided to step down  with this also emphasizing the separation of the legislative [branch] and business, she said.

The law prohibits Members of Parliament to be engaged in business activities.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. The investigative committee has launched criminal proceedings on the murder of a 61 year old man in Yerevan. The suspected killer, the victims brother, has been arrested, the committee said.

The body of the 61 year old was discovered around midnight May 9 in a park. The body had multiple traumas and wounds to the head.

The investigation quickly revealed the suspect  a 52 year old man  who is the younger brother of the victim. Police ruled that the killer used an axe to murder his brother.

The murder weapon has been found.

The investigation is still ongoing.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. ARF MP Armen Babayan, who made a decision to step down, will be substituted by the candidate registered under the next number of the partys proportional list in the Parliament.

ARF faction secretary Armenuhi Kyureghyan said that candidate is Spartak Seyranyan.

Earlier ARF faction lawmaker Aghvan Vardanyan has submitted resignation application. Armenuhi Kyureghyan told Armenpress that Ruzanna Arakelyan will replace Aghvan Vardanyan. Kyureghyan said today is the deadline for Vardanyans final decision.

ARF lawmaker Armen Babayan has filed for resignation to Speaker of Parliament Ara Babloyan on May 10 and decided to fully engage in business.

The ARF Supreme Body of Armenia earlier said it has decided to expel Aghvan Vardanyan from its ranks after examining the disciplinary issue of the MP.

The ARF had endorsed opposition leader Nikol Pashinyans candidacy for Prime Minister in the May 1 vote, but in a surprise move MP Vardanyan took the floor and said that he will not take part in the voting. Vardanyan noted that taking into consideration his partys endorsement of Pashinyan, he is willing to step down if the ARF deems it necessary.

The ARF was quick to respond. It said that Vardanyans statement is a personal decision and contradicts the official stance of the party.YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Member of Parliament from the Republican Party (HHK) faction Mrs. Hermine Naghdalyan, chairperson of the HHK Womens Council, sought medical attention on May 7 for chest pain in the heart area. The Nork Marash Cardoiology Clinic, where Naghdalyan had been admitted to, told ARMENPRESS that the lawmaker underwent coronarography.

The patient was discharged on May 8 because she was feeling better, the clinic said.

Naghdalyan wasnt in attendance of the parliamentary sitting on May 8 when MPs voted to elect Nikol Pashinyan as Prime Minister.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. The formation of an agreed government by Armenias Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is a necessity, political scientist Alexander Iskandaryan told a press conference in Armenpress, adding that Pashinyan needs support in the Parliament.

Nikol Pashinyans main resource is his huge popularity. It is understandable that if the parliamentary minority forms a government, it will not last long. It is also understandable there is an issue of cadres, and the cadres around Pashinyan are not so many. In addition, people surrounding him were leaders of rallies, but how they will demonstrate themselves in the governance field is another issue. It is understandable that those who supported Pashinyan in the Parliament, did it not for his beautiful eyes. And in order to solve the existing issues, to satisfy the existing demands, support is needed in the Parliament. As Nikol Pashinyan wants to move on the legislative path, at this stage the formation of an agreed government is a necessity, the political scientist said, stating that at this stage one thing is obvious  intensive discussions are being held between the political forces.

As for the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the political scientist said now fight is underway whether RPAs role will be maintained in the future political reality. When Serzh Sargsyan resigned, an attempt was made to step back a little by keeping the RPA with its role. According to Iskandaryan, this attempt failed and in such circumstances the RPA members had to yield which they did on May 8. And now they do everything to maintain the party united and to have any position in the parliament in the future situations.

Commenting on the possibility to hold snap parliamentary elections, the political scientist said a little difficult situation has been created.

There are talks to make changes in the Electoral Code. Its obvious that parliament is needed for that, and in order for that changes to be adopted in the parliament, support is needed. In order to reach this either they need to agree with them or to continue the pressure in the street, or both, the political scientist said, adding that this will require time. He says the RPA will probably oppose any change, but they will not succeed greatly since the pressure will continue. Alexander Iskandaryan, taking into account the current situation, doesnt expect holding elections in a very short period of time.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanEnglish Estonian

Ekspress Grupp has announced on the 21st of February, 2018 the reorganization of 50% joint venture AS Ajakirjade Kirjastus. Estonian Competition Authority gave its approval on the 21st of March.

We will announce that according to the agreement, Ekspress Meedia, the daughter company of Ekspress Grupp, will take over the publishing of monthly magazines Eesti Naine, Anne ja Stiil, Pere ja Kodu, Oma Maitse, Tervis Pluss and Jana and the weekly magazine Kroonika as of May 31st, 2018. From the 1st of June, Ekspress Meedia is the responsible publisher of these magazines.

AS Ajakirjade Kirjastus, together with the rest of publications will be merged with AS SL Ohtuleht; after the merger the name of the new legal entity will be AS Ohtuleht Kirjastus. These two companies will be merged also on the 1st of June, 2018.

The main goal of the reorganization is to create a better online-output of the content of printed magazines of Ajakirjade Kirjastus and support the co-operation between the publications and the strong web platforms of the group. In 2018, it is not reasonable to begin constructing a new large web centre, instead it is sensible to offer the reader quality content in co-operation with existing platforms. None of the magazines issued will be closed: the strong media brands will continue being published, but their content will be more accessible to the readers. The six monthlies and the weekly Kroonika will be available on the website of the market leader Delfi. Ohtuleht on the third position will be able to strengthen itself with the content of three monthlies, crosswords and the weeklies, which are well compatible with its profile. For the subscribers, all magazine subscriptions will remain unchanged.

The ownership structure of the newly merged company, AS Ohtuleht Kirjastus, will not change. As before, it will belong to AS Ekspress Grupp and OU Suits Meedia in equal parts.

Additional information

Mari-Liis Ruutsalu

CEO

Tel: +372 5122591

mariliis.ryytsalu@egrupp.eeYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. New Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan gave an exclusive interview on May 10 to Georgias First Channel, namely speaking about the Armenia-Georgia bilateral relations, the Armenian Embassy of Georgia said of Facebook.

The Armenian Prime Minister said: Georgia is a friendly country. The brotherly relations of Georgia and Armenia must be developed, because we are brotherly countries and partners. Georgia has a decisive role for Armenia in our partys [Civil Contract] program. I think our relations must be free from geopolitical factors and impact, which, unfortunately arent always positive, PM Pashinyan said, adding that Armenia and Georgia must deepen relations in all directions, both economic and political, as well as between the two peoples.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has made the first appointment since taking office on May 8.

The Prime Minister appointed Eduard Aghajanyan to serve as his Chief of Staff.

Nikol Pashinyan was elected Prime Minister by the Armenian parliament on May 8 in the second round of voting.

59 MPs voted in favor, 42 voted against the candidacy of Nikol Pashinyan. He needed at least 53 votes to be named Prime Minister.

As required by the Constitution, a new government must be formed within 15 days after electing a Prime Minister.

The new Prime Minister must nominate candidates for deputy Prime Ministers and ministers within five days after the election to the President.

After the formation of the Cabinet, the Prime Minister must submit his governments action plan for parliamentary debates within 20 days.

The parliament has seven days to debate the action plan. In the event of rejection of the action plan, the parliament is dissolved by virtue of law.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator - Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. New Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan invited his Georgian counterpart Giorgi Kvirikashvili to Armenia and expressed hope that he will receive a similar invitation from Georgia.

PM Pashinyan gave an exclusive interview to Georgias First Channel on May 10, Armenpress reports.

As for the Georgia-Armenia ties, PM Nikol Pashinyan says its necessary to further deepen the relations between the two countries. He said the Armenia-Georgia relations must not be based on geopolitical influences.

Georgia is a friendly country. The brotherly relations of Georgia and Armenia should develop as we are brotherly countries and partners. Georgia has a decisive role for Armenia in our partys program. I think our relations must be free from geopolitical impacts. Sometimes our relations are affected by geopolitical factors which, unfortunately, arent always positive. Sometimes we have negative factors, Nikol Pashinyan said. I think we need to form relations which will be free from geopolitical factors. Armenia and Georgia must deepen the relations in all spheres, both economic and political, and the relations between peoples must also develop, the Armenian PM said.

English translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, 10 MAY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 10 May, USD exchange rate down by 0.12 drams to 486.56 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 0.34 drams to 577.79 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.12 drams to 7.81 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 2.95 drams to 660.80 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 64.56 drams to 20552.9 drams. Silver price up by 0.33 drams to 257.18 drams. Platinum price up by 184.24 drams to 14282.3 drams.YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Political scientist Alexander Iskandaryan could predict the reaction of the USA and the EU to the election of Nikol Pashinyan as the Prime Minister of Armenia, but he cannot say the same for Russia.

Frankly speaking, I do not remember a Russia with such a relevant behavior. There can be several reasons for such a behavior. We can think that the Russians took some lessons from the developments in Ukraine, Georgia and Abkhazia, when Russia stood with one of the sides. I think we should also take into account that the developments in Armenia greatly varied from similar situations in other countries. Here the movement was not directed against Russia, about which Nikol Pashinyan had announced many times, Iskandaryan said at a press conference at ARMENPRESS media hall.

Nikol Pashinyan was elected Prime Minister of Armenia by the parliament in the second round of voting on May 8 with 59 votes in favor and 42 votes against.

Vladimir Putin was the first to congratulate him on May 8. Pashinyan and Putin also held a telephone conversation in the evening of the same day. They agreed to discuss bilateral relations on May 14 at the EAEU summit in Sochi.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator  Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. The U.S. Embassy in Armenia is not authorized to confirm, deny, or discuss law enforcement investigations. At the request of ARMENPRESS to comment on the reports of some media outlets about the alleged visit of the FBI group to Armenia.

As a matter of policy we do not confirm, deny, or discuss law enforcement investigations, an Embassy employee said.

ARMENPRESS tried to get information also from the General Prosecutors Office. The Prosecutors Office of the Republic of Armenia has no information about the visit of such a group for the mentioned goal, a Prosecutors Office employee said.

A number of Armenian media outlets spread information recently about the visit of an FBI group to Armenia, noting that the group members will launch an investigation into illegal capital outflow.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator  Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Founding Executive Director of Luys Foundation of LUYS Foundation Jacqueline Karaaslanian has announced about the termination of the activities of the Foundation. ARMENPRESS reports Jacqueline Karaaslanian posted an open letter on the Facebbok page of the Foundation, which runs as follows,

Nine years ago exactly, then President Serzh Sargsyan and Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan of Armenia offered me the opportunity to head LUYS, their newly created and visionary Education Foundation. The goal was to grow a generation of critical thinkers and innovators to ensure that Armenia will thrive and participate on an equal footing with leading nations.

Giving youth access to the best education meant empowering them to question everything and become agents of change for the country. Our LUYS Website went live on May 9th 2009 and we started granting scholarships to Armenian students accepted at the worlds top universities.

LUYS has been one of the greatest adventures in my life. I began my work in education with the Centre Mondial Informatique et Resources Humaines, a program supported by Francois Mitterrand, Frances President at the time, in order to bring technology education to every citizen in the world. I then joined the founding members of MITs Media Lab lead by Nicholas Negroponte along with 12 exceptional world Scientists such as Seymour Papert and Marvin Minsky, the founding fathers of Artificial Intelligence. The MIT Media Lab researchers and scholars are often described as the inventors of the Future obsessed with making the world a better place.

Learning combined with action to create positive change is the MIT Know-how that I brought into Luys. I was blessed to work with the most amazing, daring and diverse group of passionate Armenian scholars and scientists, some 550 of them engaging in building the new knowledge economy of the Republic of Armenia.

Today, I wish to express my deep gratitude to the Founders of LUYS, its Scholars, my incredibly smart and dedicated Staff, the many Advisers and Friends and the community we created together. What an enriching experience it has been to work and continuously learn and grow with you all.

During these past weeks Armenia has been the center of the worlds attention for an unparalleled set of events that lead to a change of government while keeping peace and understanding on all sides. This incredible accomplishment is to be credited to all who now stand together to imagine and build the future of Armenia.

Armenia rewards the Bold. This is the best description and tag line that comes to my mind and that I am borrowing from GK Brand Armenia.

Today May 10th 2018 is the day that the Luys Staff and myself have been asked to cease our work serving the LUYS Foundation. I wish to reassure all present scholars and already registered ones for 2018-2019 that their scholarships will be honored. Official communications will issue further information.

Change is growth. It always comes with a shift of mindsets and power. It teaches us to let go, give and create. As the Luys motto would state; Learn, Do, Co-create. LUYS has delivered on its promise during these past nine years. Today a new era is born.

Let us all remember that Knowledge is power and shows the path to prosperity when it is combined with the language of peace and trust. Armenia must continue investing in education.

Investing in Knowledge and Youth is our only way to building a thriving Armenia. I firmly believe that education is the solution to every present and emerging global challenge.

Today, I take leave of LUYS with gratitude to all my fellow Armenians and always with trust in the future ahead.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator  Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. U.S. Charge dAffaires to the OSCE Michele Siders has announced at the Permanent Council meeting that Armenias people and government are valuable partners.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the official website of the U.S. Mission to the OSCE, Siders particularly said,

The United States congratulates Armenia on its election May 8 of a new prime minister. The Armenian people and their elected representatives have resolved a potential crisis peacefully and in accordance with the constitution, rule of law, and Armenias OSCE commitments. We continue to urge the peaceful formation of a new government in accordance with the rule of law, and reflecting the interests of all Armenians.

The government and people of Armenia are valuable partners. We look forward to working closely with the new government and with the people of Armenia on the many areas of shared interest between our countries, including trade, working in support of democracy and rule of law, and safeguarding regional and global security.

The United States continues to strongly support a negotiated settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. U.S. policy remains constant: the only solution is a negotiated settlement based on international law that includes adherence to the principles of non-use of force, territorial integrity, and self-determination. As a Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, we will remain actively engaged with the sides in seeking a peaceful solution.

Finally, we encourage Armenia to continue its cooperation with the OSCE. Todays renewed initiative by Armenia to inform the Permanent Council of the domestic political situation is a positive step. The Armenian Cooperation Program provides a valuable mechanism for the OSCE to provide support. We encourage Armenias new government to draw on this assistance and to consider other areas where the OSCE can be helpful.

ENGLISH: Editor/Translator  Tigran SirekanyanCarles Puigdemont, the ousted leader of Catalonia who on Thursday stepped back from efforts to reappoint him, has been a convinced secessionist since his youth, long before the issue moved to the centre of Catalan and Spanish politics. The 54-year-old former journalist became president of Catalonia in January 2016, after an election in which separatists won a majority in the regional parliament for the first time. Less than two years later, on October 1, 2017, Puigdemont staged an independence referendum even though the courts had ruled it unconstitutional. The Catalan government claimed that 90 percent of voters backed independence in the referendum, with Puigdemont declaring that his region had "won the right to an independent state". A virtual unknown when he became president of the northeastern Spanish region of 7.5 million people, Puigdemont, who combs his hair in a shaggy Beatles-style mop, become the main enemy of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government. In Amer, the small mountainous village of 2,200 people where he grew up, and in Girona, where Puigdemont served as mayor from 2011 to 2016, he is recalled as a convinced separatist. "In Catalonia many people became separatists in an allergic reaction to Madrid's policies. Not him, he always had these convictions," said Puigdemont's friend Antoni Puigverd, a poet and journalist. Puigdemont has never hidden his separatist tendencies, not even when he joined his predecessor Artur Mas's CDC party in 1980 at a time when it merely wanted to negotiate greater autonomy for Catalonia -- far from the idea of breaking away from Spain. His friend Salvador Clara, a leftwing secessionist councillor in Amer, added that Puigdemont had defended the independence of Catalonia "since he can remember". - Pro-independence family - In July 2015 Puigdemont became president of the Association of Municipalities for Independence, which brings together local entities to promote the right to self-determination. For 17 years he worked for Catalonia's nationalist daily El Punt, which now publishes under the name El Punt Avui after merging with another paper. He later created a regional news agency and an English-language newspaper about his region. "He always combined his political activism with journalism," said Ramon Iglesias, a journalist with news radio Cadena Ser in Girona. In 1991, while working at a local newspaper in Girona, Puigdemont launched a campaign to change the spelling of the name of the city from the Spanish version, Gerona, to Girona, the Catalan spelling, Iglesias recalled. Born on December 29, 1962, into a family of bakers, Puigdemont was the second of eight siblings. "We're a pro-independence family through and through," his sister Anna, who runs the family bakery in Amer, told AFP. - 'Enormous freedom' - Puigdemont -- currently on bail in Germany, as Madrid tries to persuade the German courts to extradite him to faces charges of rebellion over the October 1 referendum -- speaks English and French as did his predecessor Artur Mas. He is also a Romanian speaker as his wife Marcela Topor comes from Romania, and they have two girls. But unlike Mas, who implemented unpopular austerity measures during Spain's economic crisis, Puigdemont is more of a social democrat who was better able to seduce the far-left members of Catalonia's separatist faction who were wary of Mas. Catalan journalist Enric Juliana said Puigdemont's long-standing separatist convictions had made him the "ideal candidate" to succeed Mas, who never managed to convince some separatists of his dedication to a cause he embraced only a few years ago. In June 2016, when far-left separatists withdrew their support, he took a risk and called a motion of no confidence in the Catalan regional parliament, which he survived. "He arrived where he is by chance. He did not aspire to a political career, and that has given him enormous freedom," Puigverd said. The 54-year-old former journalist became president of Catalonia in January 2016, after an election in which separatists won a majority in the regional parliament for the first time.RATHBONE BROTHERS PLC ('Rathbones')

RESULTS OF THE 2018 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

NOTIFICATION REQUIRED BY LISTING RULE 9.6.18

At the forty-seventh Annual General Meeting of the Company held at 8 Finsbury Circus, London, EC2M 7AZ on Thursday 10 May 2018, all the resolutions proposed (which were contained in the Notice of Meeting dated 6 April 2018) were passed on a poll.

Resolutions 1 to 16 were ordinary resolutions and resolutions 17 to 20 were special resolutions.

The full text of the resolutions is set out in the Notice of Annual General Meeting, a copy of which is on the Company's website at www.rathbones.com/investor-relations/corporate-governance/general-meetings . A copy has also been made available for inspection through the National Storage Mechanism which can be found at http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM.

The results of the poll were as follows:

Resolution For % Against % Votes cast Votes cast as a % of the voting capital Withheld 1 To adopt the report and accounts for the year ended 31 December 2017 40,624,676 99.94 22,580 0.06 40,647,256 79.15% 437,752 2 To approve the directors' remuneration report for the year ended 31 December 2017 35,351,465 86.91 5,323,547 13.09 40,675,012 79.20% 409,995 3 To approve the directors' remuneration policy 34,588,745 85.07 6,068,046 14.93 40,656,791 79.17% 428,216 4 To approve the amendments to the rules of the 2015 Executive Incentive Plan 40,481,820 98.82 483,186 1.18 40,965,006 79.77% 120,003 5 To declare a final dividend of 39p per share for the year ended 31 December 2017 41,071,609 100.00 0 0.00 41,071,609 79.97% 13,400 6 To re-elect Mark Nicholls as a director 40,741,860 99.38 253,960 0.62 40,995,820 79.83% 89,188 7 To re-elect Philip Howell as a director 40,600,078 99.20 328,711 0.80 40,928,789 79.70% 156,220 8 To re-elect Paul Stockton as a director 40,952,990 99.71 117,060 0.29 41,070,050 79.97% 14,959 9 To re-elect James Dean as a director 40,816,545 99.69 125,770 0.31 40,942,315 79.72% 142,694 10 To elect Sarah Gentleman as a director 39,987,402 98.96 420,298 1.04 40,407,700 78.68% 677,309 11 To re-elect Kathryn Matthews as a director 40,754,874 99.54 187,441 0.46 40,942,315 79.72% 142,694 12 To re-elect Jim Pettigrew as a director 40,825,848 99.69 127,331 0.31 40,953,179 79.74% 131,830 13 To re-appoint KPMG LLP as auditors of the Company 40,543,803 99.17 339,124 0.83 40,882,927 79.61% 202,081 14 To authorise the audit committee to agree the remuneration of the auditors 40,898,049 99.85 59,959 0.15 40,958,008 79.75% 127,001 15 To approve an authority to make political donations and to incur political expenditure 40,094,279 97.88 870,475 2.12 40,964,754 79.77% 120,255 16 To approve a general authority to allot ordinary shares 39,444,329 96.30 1,514,485 3.70 40,958,814 79.75% 126,195 17 To authorise the disapplication of pre-emption rights 40,752,585 99.51 198,864 0.49 40,951,449 79.74% 133,560 18 To further authorise the disapplication of pre-emption rights regarding shares issued in connection with an acquisition or capital investment 37,123,070 90.65 3,828,378 9.35 40,951,448 79.74% 133,560 19 To authorise market purchases of ordinary shares 40,620,735 99.18 337,697 0.82 40,958,432 79.75% 126,576 20 To authorise the convening of a general meeting (other than the AGM) of not less than 14 days' notice 40,073,540 97.84 884,773 2.16 40,958,313 79.75% 126,696

For the purposes of section 341 of the Companies Act 2006, the votes cast are expressed as a percentage of 51,356,140 ordinary shares. A vote "withheld" is not a vote in law and has not been counted as a vote "for" or "against" a resolution. In accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.2, a copy of the resolutions passed at today's AGM will be submitted to the National Storage Mechanism.

Ali Johnson

Company Secretary

Tel: 020 7399 0326Colombia's government said it hopes to reach agreement on a new ceasefire with National Liberation Army guerrillas before the May 27 presidential election as long-running peace talks resumed Thursday in Havana. Gustavo Bell, head of the government delegation, told reporters the latest round of talks would focus on building "a more robust ceasefire" than a previous 101-day truce that ended in January after Bogota accused the rebels of a spate of deadly attacks. A new ceasefire would allow "the elections to be held in absolute peace" and bring an end to "kidnappings, extortions, recruitment of children and attacks on infrastructure," Bell said. President Juan Manuel Santos ordered his team to resume talks in March in response to a unilateral ceasefire by the ELN for that month's legislative elections. Santos is trying to conclude a peace agreement with the country's last active rebel group, similar to the one signed with the larger FARC guerrillas in November 2016. The FARC has since become a political party. Santos steps down in August and has admitted that any peace deal with the 1,500-strong ELN will likely come too late for him to sign. The opinion polls' favorite to succeed him in this month's vote, right-wing senator Ivan Duque, is opposed to negotiations with the rebels. Bell told reporters in Havana he hopes that it will be possible "to reach a specific moment in which it is Colombian society itself that asks and gives continuity to these talks, regardless of the government that is elected in the next elections." ELN chief negotiator Pablo Beltran was keen to play up the rebels' willingness to pursue a peace deal. "We are aware that the only viable way for Colombia, for a political solution, is to move forward on this path of dialogue." Cuba stepped in to host the talks after Ecuador -- which hosted several rounds of talks over a 15-month period since February 2017 -- pulled out last month in protest over an upsurge of violence on its border with Colombia. Peace taks between Colombia's government and its last rebel group National Liberation Army (ELN) resume in Havana with chief ELN negotiator Pablo Beltran (L), Cuban guarantor Ivan Mora (C) and Gustavo Bell (R), the head of Colombian negotiating teamA new film by the enfant terrible of Russian theatre -- who is under house arrest in Moscow -- received a standing ovation and rave reviews Thursday after it was shown at the Cannes film festival. The cast of Kirill Serebrennikov's "Leto", a biopic of the Soviet-Korean rock legend Viktor Tsoi, were cheered as the movie premiered at the world's top film festival. Influential US critic David Ehrlich of the IndieWire website called it "a sort of '24 Hour Party People' for the early 1980s Leningrad underground rock scene". "Exuberant, shapeless, gorgeous long-takes galore, a 'psycho killer' singalong, the end of an era. I dug it," he tweeted of the movie, which features music by Lou Reed, David Bowie and Blondie and animated sequences woven into the black-and-white film. Festival director Thierry Fremaux had earlier held up a white placard with Serebrennikov's name as the cast climbed the steps of the red carpet to the cinema. A seat was left symbolically empty inside for the filmmaker, who has been under house arrest on embezzlement charges since last August. He has dismissed the charges as "absurd" and his supporters see them as political. At a packed press conference Thursday, producer Ilya Stewart blasted Serebrennikov's arrest while the film was still being made as "ridiculous", but thanked the festival and movie critics for their full-throated support. "It's bittersweet obviously because... Kirill being free would be much better than all of this but there's been huge support from the West," he said. "There's also been huge support from Russia, it's important to note, a big cluster of liberally minded people are as outraged by the situation, and it's a national discussion (now) in Russia." Serebrennikov's detention has sent shockwaves through the Russian arts world. The 48-year-old has revolutionised Moscow's theatre scene with radical stagings of new plays and by reinventing classics. He has also won prizes at the Cannes and Rome film festivals, while his 2012 film "Betrayal" was nominated for the prestigious Golden Lion at Venice. - Putin: 'I can't help' - Although he has never openly criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin, Serebrennikov has attacked the growing pressure being put on artists in Russia to conform. "Leto", which means summer, is in the running for Cannes' top prize, the Palme d'Or. It tells the story of Tsoi, whose songs are seen in Russia as anthems of the late 1980s Perestroika era. Stewart, the producer, said the movie was a clear commentary on freedom of expression in today's Russia. "Anything Kirill does in his work whether it's ballet, theatre or any of his films, regardless of it being a period film or not, is about today," he said, adding that the film was set for a June release in Russia. The actor who plays Tsoi, German-born Korean Teo Yoo, said he hoped the cry for freedom by the film's youthful rockers -- who dodge official repression to live out their dreams -- would echo around the world. "I hope young get inspired by the film and that no form of oppression (will) hold them back to be creative," he told reporters. Both the festival and the French government had pleaded with Moscow to allow Serebrennikov to travel to Cannes for the screening. Fremaux said Putin had told the festival that "Serebrennikov has problems with the judiciary of our country. I would have loved to help but the courts are independent." Russian conservatives were outraged when Serebrennikov was allowed to direct a ballet about legendary gay ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev at the Bolshoi. Nikita Mikhalkov, a powerful Oscar-winning film director with close Kremlin links, said Serebrennikov should not have been allowed "to hang Nureyev's cock" in the country's most important theatre. This was a reference to the production's use of a famous full-frontal nude photograph of the dancer by Richard Avedon. Serebrennikov is one of two directors competing for the Palme d'Or who has been banned from travelling to the festival. Dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi is also barred from leaving his homeland for supporting pro-democracy activists after the "stolen election" of 2009. The General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival Thierry Fremaux holds a cardboard bearing the name of Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov ahead of the screening of his film "Leto (Summer)". He is under house arrest in Moscow and barred from attending the film festival. Russian actress Irina Starshenbaum wears a pin with the image of director Kirill Serebrennikov as she arrives for the screening of "Leto" in Cannes Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov behind bars during a court hearing in Moscow last yearAfonso Dhlakama lived in a secret location and led armed fighters against the Mozambique government -- but on Wednesday he was given an official memorial service and praised by the president. He died of a suspected heart attack last week among his Renamo troops in his Gorongosa bush hideout, marking the end of his decades of opposition to the Frelimo-led government. Having transformed himself from a guerrilla fighter into an opposition politician, he had been pursuing peace talks with President Filipe Nyusi. But he always kept his rebel forces on hand and retained his warrior image. "Believe me... I am not going to die from Frelimo bullets, they will never kill me. I will die of malaria or illness, on a day that God will choose," Dhlakama once told a reporter. His group -- Renamo -- evolved alongside him from militant rebels fighting in a bloody civil war to an opposition party with lawmakers in parliament while also maintaining guerillas. "He has been the identity for Renamo for almost 40 years. Dhlakama is Renamo and Renamo is Dhlakama," Johanna Nilsson, a Swedish academic specialising in Renamo, told AFP. "Renamo has lost a figure who had the ability to rally the votes. It will put a lot of pressure on Renamo to now try to convince people from a political point of view rather than a personal point of view. "His death is iconic in itself. I think that regardless if you are Frelimo or Renamo, he had that kind of status." - Notorious war atrocities - The son of a traditional chief, Dhlakama was born on New Year's Day 1953 in the small Magunde village of the central province of Sofala. He served in the Portuguese colonial army from 1971 to 1973 before joining Frelimo in 1974 to fight Portuguese rule that ended the following year. After rising through the ranks, in 1977 he abandoned Frelimo and joined, along with other rebels, a rival outfit called Renamo (Mozambican National Resistance). Renamo, backed by apartheid South Africa, launched a bitter war against Frelimo and its Marxist-Leninist ideals and fought for control of its strongholds in the north and centre of the country. He took over Renamo aged 26 in 1979 following the death of the movement's leader Andre Matsangaissa, who was killed in battle. Dhlakama led the guerrilla movement until the signing of a peace agreement in Rome in 1992 ended a 16-year war that devastated the economy and left one million dead. During the conflict, he gained notoriety over atrocities committed by his troops and his use of child soldiers. Dhlakama then transformed Renamo into a political party and it took part in Mozambique's first multi-party democratic elections in October 1994. He later retreated to his wartime bush camp in central Mozambique's Gorongosa mountains, claiming the government had reneged on the 1992 peace agreement. After waging a low-level insurgency between 2013 and 2016, he recently opened peace talks with the government. He leaves a disoriented party and deep uncertainty about the future of the peace process. President Nyusi hailed him on Wednesday as a man who was working "in search of lasting peace." Dhlakama will be buried on Thursday in his home village. Having transformed himself from a guerrilla fighter into an opposition politician, Afonso Dhlakama had been pursuing peace talksIraq is gearing up for key parliamentary elections on Saturday, some five months after declaring victory over the Islamic State group, with the dominant Shiites split, the Kurds in disarray and Sunnis sidelined. A lull in violence ahead of the fourth such nationwide vote since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003 has spurred some hope for Iraqis, but surging tensions between key players Iran and the United States could rattle the country. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi -- who has balanced off Washington and Tehran -- is angling for a new term as he takes credit for the brutal fightback against the jihadists and seeing off a Kurdish push for independence. But stiff competition from within his Shiite community, the majority group that dominates Iraqi politics, should fragment the vote and spell lengthy horse-trading to form any government. Whoever emerges as premier will face the mammoth task of rebuilding a country left shattered by the battle against IS. Despite a rare period of calm, more than two and a half million people remain internally displaced and the jihadists still pose a major security threat. Over 15 blood-sodden years since the US-led invasion upended Iraqi politics there is also widespread disillusionment with the same old faces from an elite seen as mired in corruption and sectarianism. - Shiite rivals - Abadi -- who took over as IS rampaged across the country in 2014 -- is facing two leading Shiite challengers to his Victory Alliance, which has pitched itself as an attempt to bridge Iraq's Shiite-Sunni divide. Ex-prime minister Nuri al-Maliki -- a bitter foe despite coming from the same Dawa party -- is widely reviled for stirring sectarianism and losing territory to IS, but draws support from a hardline base. Former transport minister Hadi al-Ameri -- who has close ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guards -- is hailed by many as a war hero after leading paramilitary units that fought IS alongside Baghdad's troops. He wants US forces that helped battle the jihadists to leave Iraq for good, challenging Abadi's cautious foreign policy that has seen him build bridges with Iran's rival Saudi Arabia. Overall just under 7,000 candidates are standing and Iraq's complex system means no single bloc looks set to get anything near a majority in the 329-seat parliament. "There is certainly a contest between the three main lists for the post of prime minister, but that will not impact the system that sees the Shiites control and run Iraq," said Jordan-based analyst Adel Mahmud. Among the other groups jostling for position in the negotiations to come is an unlikely alliance between Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr and secular communists that is looking to ride a wave of protests against corruption. - Sunnis, Kurds struggling - Votes in the Sunni heartlands once dominated by IS -- including Iraq's devastated second city Mosul -- are up in the air as traditional alliances have been shredded by the fallout of jihadist rule. Abadi is aiming to be the first Shiite leader to make inroads there but apathy is high as people struggle to rebuild their lives and few efforts have been made to reach out to the hundreds of thousands still displaced in camps. Political forces in the Kurdish community -- often seen as potential kingmakers -- are also in disarray after a controversial vote for independence in September backfired spectacularly. Baghdad unleashed a battery of sanctions and seized back disputed oil-rich regions in the wake of the ballot and the Kurds now look set to lose some of their clout on the national stage. In a sign of the disenchantment with Iraq's squabbling elite, the country's top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani has broken with previous habits and not urged people to cast ballots. Instead he demanded that Iraq's nearly 24.5 million registered voters refuse to re-elect legislators who have already held government jobs and proved to be "corrupt and failing". The swirling uncertainty around the elections has sparked concern that IS -- which has threatened to attack the vote -- could profit from any power vacuum. There are also fears that a spike in tensions between the US and Iran after President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal could spill over into Iraq, where both play major roles. But while the situation remains combustible, analysts say that for now no side appears keen on destabilising Iraq as it emerges from the turmoil of the war against the jihadists. The US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement "will of course have a direct influence on the political situation in Iraq," said Iraqi political expert Essam al-Fili. "But the situation is sensitive and parties loyal to Iran will surely want to join forces with a moderate Shiite figure who can get American approval." Electoral campaign posters are seen on May 8, 2018 in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi talks during a campaign rally in the city of Najaf on May 3, 2018 Iraqi supporters of shiite leader Moqtada Sadr attend a campaign rally in the capital Baghdad on May 4, 2018 An Iraqi soldier stands guard near an electoral campaign poster in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on May 1, 2018Around one million soldiers, police and other security personnel were voting across Iraq on Thursday in the first national elections since the country declared victory over the Islamic State group. Servicemen in uniform queued up to cast their ballots two days before the rest of the country heads to the polls for a parliamentary election Saturday, just five months after the months-long battle against the jihadists drew to a close. Iraqis are hoping that the vote can lock in the fragile peace that has settled over their country some 15 blood-soaked years since the US-led ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein. But they face the mammoth task of rebuilding after years of devastating conflict, while IS continues to pose a major security threat. Police and presidential guard members waited on Thursday morning outside a school in central Baghdad that had been turned into a polling station. Security was tight after IS threats, and voters were frisked several times as they entered to cast their ballots. Police special forces officer Ahmed Qassem told AFP that he voted for the candidate who "will help the poor and fight corruption". "The most important thing is that it is the people who are choosing their representatives and who will become prime minister," the 38-year-old said. In the southern city of Basra, police and soldiers filed out of polling stations with indelible ink on their fingers to show they had voted. Traffic policeman Hassan Mohammed said he wanted "change" and hoped for a "new government that will bring us a better future". To the north in the autonomous Kurdish enclave, fighters in the region's peshmerga security forces -- which played a key role in fighting IS -- also lined up to vote. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is angling for a new term as he takes credit for the fightback against the jihadists and for seeing off a Kurdish push for independence. But stiff competition from within his Shiite community, the majority group which dominates Iraqi politics, is likely to fragment the vote and spell lengthy horse-trading before any government is formed. Overall, some 24.5 million voters are registered for the elections, with some of roughly one million Iraqis living abroad also set to begin voting Thursday. Members of the Iraqi security forces cast their votes in parliamentary elections at a polling station in the holy city of Najaf on May 10, 2018 A member of the Iraqi security forces shows his ink-stained index finger at a polling station after casting his vote in parliamentary elections in the southern city of Basra on May 10, 2018 Members of the Iraqi security forces queue up in Baghdad to vote in parliamentary elections on May 10, 2018Iranian forces based in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli frontline military positions in the Golan Heights early on Thursday, the Israeli military said.

This triggered an Israeli reprisal and escalated already heightened tensions in what appeared to be the most serious violence in years.

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome rocket defence system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage. There were no Israeli casualties.

This frame grab from video provided on Wednesday, May, 9, 2018 by Syria News, shows people standing in front of flames rising after an attack on an area known to have numerous Syrian army military bases, in Kisweh, south of Damascus, Syria on Tuesday. Source: Syria News via AP

The Syrian capital of Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn and firing by Syrian air defences over the city was heard throughout the night.

An Israeli official said Israel was targeting Iranian positions inside Syria.

Syrian state TV quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israel was trying to hit air defence positions and radar stations.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said earlier that Irans Al Quds force fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though he would not say how Israel determined the Iranian involvement.

Iranian forces based in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights early Thursday. Source: AP, file

The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan, which was captured from Syria in the 1967 war.

Israel views this Iranian attack very severely, Lt Col Conricus told reporters.

He said Israel had responded, but did not provide details.

This event is not over, he said.

Syrias state media said Syrian air defences had intercepted hostile Israeli missiles early on Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus.

Hours later, state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast a live feed of Syrian air defences firing into the sky above the capital, and loud explosions and air defence firing were heard through the night.

Story continues

An Israeli army spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on Twitter Israel was acting against Iranian targets inside Syria, a rare admission by an Israeli official.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied most of the airstrikes.

But for months, it had repeatedly said it would not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

Syrian media earlier said the hostilities began with Israeli fire at Syrian positions in southern Syria from across the border.

Pro-Syrian media said Syrian missiles then fired at Israeli forces.

One TV station, Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen, said at least 50 missiles were fired from Syria at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights. Al-Ikhbariya TV said missiles targeted 10 Israeli positions.

Syrian media said it was the first time in years that Syrians had fired at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights.MONTREAL, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PyroGenesis Canada Inc. (http://pyrogenesis.com) (TSX-V:PYR), a TSX Venture 50 high-tech company, (the "Company", the Corporation or "PyroGenesis") a Company that designs, develops and manufactures plasma waste-to-energy systems and plasma torch systems, is pleased to announce today the appointment of Mr. Andrew Abdalla as an independent director and Chair of the Audit Committee.



Mr. Abdalla, CPA, CA, is a partner at MNP, a leading national accounting, tax and business consulting firm in Canada. Mr. Abdalla brings to the Board of Directors of the Company (the Board) more than 20 years of strategic planning, and tax advice, with a specific focus on sales and income tax, acquisitions and divestitures, business valuations, corporate reorganizations and spinoffs. Mr. Abdalla received his Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) designation in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a graduate diploma in public accounting from Concordia University in Montreal.

Mr. Abdalla was the Companys auditor for the 15 years prior to KPMG taking on that role, and as such, has extensive valuable knowledge and background of the Companys operations.

On behalf of the Board, it gives me great pleasure to welcome Andrew as its newest independent member and Audit Committee Chair, said Mr. P. Peter Pascali, CEO and President of PyroGenesis. Not only does Andrew bring to the Board an impressive set of financial and accounting skills, but he also brings a unique familiarity, not only of the Company, but of the specific requirements demanded of a Chair of an Audit Committee. Andrews extensive history of having to deal with Audit Chairs, as Audit partner, lends itself well to this position. We are looking forward to having him add his expertise, to that of the Boards, during this exciting time in the Company's evolution.

Mr. Abdalla has been granted an option to acquire 250,000 common shares of the Corporation (the Common Shares). The stock options have an exercise price of $0.52 per Common Share and are exercisable over a period of five (5) years. The options are granted in accordance with the Corporations stock option plan. The appointment of Mr. Abdalla, and the grant of options, remain subject to regulatory and Exchange approval.

About PyroGenesis Canada Inc.

PyroGenesis Canada Inc., a TSX Venture 50 high-tech company, is the world leader in the design, development, manufacture and commercialization of advanced plasma processes. We provide engineering and manufacturing expertise, cutting-edge contract research, as well as turnkey process equipment packages to the defense, metallurgical, mining, advanced materials (including 3D printing), oil & gas, and environmental industries. With a team of experienced engineers, scientists and technicians working out of our Montreal office and our 3,800 m2 manufacturing facility, PyroGenesis maintains its competitive advantage by remaining at the forefront of technology development and commercialization. Our core competencies allow PyroGenesis to lead the way in providing innovative plasma torches, plasma waste processes, high-temperature metallurgical processes, and engineering services to the global marketplace. Our operations are ISO 9001:2008 certified, and have been since 1997. PyroGenesis is a publicly-traded Canadian Corporation on the TSX Venture Exchange (Ticker Symbol: PYR) and on the OTCQB Marketplace. For more information, please visit www.pyrogenesis.com

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words "may", "plan", "will", "estimate", "continue", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "in the process" and other similar expressions which constitute "forward- looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements reflect the Corporation's current expectation and assumptions, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, our expectations regarding the acceptance of our products by the market, our strategy to develop new products and enhance the capabilities of existing products, our strategy with respect to research and development, the impact of competitive products and pricing, new product development, and uncertainties related to the regulatory approval process. Such statements reflect the current views of the Corporation with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and other risks detailed from time-to-time in the Corporation's ongoing filings with the securities regulatory authorities, which filings can be found at www.sedar.com, or at www.otcmarkets.com. Actual results, events, and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward- looking statements either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor the OTCQB accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

SOURCE PyroGenesis Canada Inc.

For further information please contact: Rodayna Kafal, VP, Investor Relations and Strategic Business Development, Phone: (514) 937-0002, E-mail: ir@pyrogenesis.com

RELATED LINKS: http://www.pyrogenesis.com/Dozens of Bangladeshis were killed in lightning strikes as pre-monsoon thunderstorms wreaked havoc across the South Asian country, an official said Thursday. Farmers harvesting rice in open fields made up the majority of victims, Iftekharul Islam, a director at Bangladesh's disaster management department, told AFP. "In the last 24 hours, 29 people have died from lightning in 12 districts. Almost all of them are farmers," he said. Scores of people die every year after being struck by lightning during Bangladesh's wet season, which runs from April to October, but officials say the numbers are exceptionally high this year. Islam said that more than 112 people had been killed in strikes in the first 10 days of May. "Every day 10-12 people are dying from lightning," he explained, adding that it was instilling fear in farmers who harvest rice during this time of the year. Authorities declared lightning a natural disaster after 82 people were killed in a single day in May 2016. Independent monitors estimated that some 349 Bangladeshis died from lightning that year. Experts say deaths are rising as Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest nations, witnesses the increased deforestation of rural areas. Farmers are known to chop down trees to free up space to grow more rice. Disaster management officials are trying to reduce the high death toll by planting five million palm trees to provide better shelter. "We have already planted 3.8 million palm trees. But the trees take years to grow tall," said Islam. Bangladeshi officials say a similar tree-planting programme in Thailand has yielded results. Bangladesh is planting millions of palm trees to reduce the risk from lightning strikes following a similiar scheme in ThailandFrance's President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday pressed German Chancellor Angela Merkel to move decisively and quickly on reforming the European Union, warning that the bloc stands at a critical juncture as a United States led by Donald Trump turns inward. A year after he took office, Macron voiced his impatience at Germany, which has so far proved resistant to his flagship reform proposals aimed at shoring up the EU following the shock of Brexit. Using the occasion of an award ceremony in Aachen where he received the prestigious Charlemagne prize for efforts in boosting EU integration and cohesion, Macron made an impassioned plea to Merkel to take swift action. "Don't wait, act now," he said, urging Germany to overcome its "fetish" for budget and trade surpluses and back reforms even if it meant loosening its purse strings. At a time when the United States is going its own way in ditching the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord, as well as threatening allies with punitive trade tariffs, Macron said Europe needs more than ever to stand united and show greater strength. "If we accept that other major powers, including allies... put themselves in a situation to decide our diplomacy, security for us, and sometimes even make us run the worst risks, then we are not more sovereign and we cannot be more credible to public opinion," Macron said, in a clear attack against Trump's decision to quit the hard-fought Iran accord. Trump has also warned European companies to pull out of Iran or face sanctions. But Macron urged Europeans to stand up against diktats from abroad. "Don't be weak," said the 40-year-old president. "We need to choose, build, speak with all so as to construct our own sovereignty that will be the guarantor of stability in (the Middle East)." - 'Take destiny in own hands' - Merkel too underlined that Europe can no longer count on the United States. "It is no longer such that the United States simply protects us, but Europe must take its destiny in its own hands, that's the task of the future," she said in Aachen. But she also acknowledged that disagreements still dog many proposals for further integration of the bloc, even though she and Macron have promised to agree on a common roadmap for the future of the EU by a major summit in Brussels in June. Macron has made little headway to date on a range of ambitious projects, most notably a common eurozone budget and finance minister, a joint military "rapid reaction force" and an EU tax on the revenues of technology giants. The stakes for Europe are high as France, Germany and Britain face a period of outright confrontation with historic ally United States, over both Iran and Trump's plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the EU. Washington has already warned that European companies will be subject to fresh sanctions against Tehran, setting a six-month deadline to end any business in Iran or risk heavy penalties. Discussions on the eurozone are "difficult" between France and Germany, acknowledged Merkel, who was hamstrung for half a year after inconclusive elections in September left her struggling to find coalition partners. She agreed that "the European economic and currency union must be made more sustainable," but crucially, the German leader was silent on Macron's call for a common eurozone budget. Her party has also firmly slapped down the proposal of a finance minister for the bloc. Undeterred, Macron insisted Thursday that he wants "a more integrated eurozone, with its own budget". He also took aim at the Germans over their reluctance to spend, as well as their wariness of any plan that potentially draw resources from richer countries to help out struggling ones. Turning the tables on the German argument, Macron said: "In Germany, there cannot be a perpetual fetish for budget and trade surpluses, because they are achieved at the expense of others." Germany has been under fire for keeping a tight grip on its purse strings despite its record surpluses. Berlin on Wednesday forecast that state coffers will receive around 63.3 billion euros more in tax intake through to 2022. Although Finance Minister Olaf Scholz pledged tax breaks and investments, he did not announce any increased in spending for Europe. Rather, Berlin has vowed to keep its budget balanced. French President Emmanuel Macron stressed the importance of the EU speaking with one voiceHuge quantities of meth are seeding unrest inside Bangladesh's refugee camps, as jobless Rohingya turn drug runners for a criminal chain that stretches back to Myanmar -- and the soldiers who drove them out. The little red methamphetamine pills, better known as 'yaba', that have got Southeast Asia high for decades are pouring westwards from Myanmar. Rohingya refugees are moving them across Bangladesh?s Cox's Bazar district, which hosts around one million of their stateless Muslim minority. And drug money is bringing new problems to an already traumatised refugee community. Bangladesh authorities warn shootings, extortion and kidnappings linked to drug disputes are on the rise, adding another layer of complexity and danger to life in the seething camps. "Many young men are falling into the drug lords' trap," says Abdus Salam, a Rohingya community leader in the Shamlapur refugee camp. "It's very easy to exploit refugees." Over 100 Rohingya have been arrested on drug charges since last August, when a vicious crackdown by Myanmar's army expelled the Muslim minority into Bangladesh in huge numbers. Drug seizures in Cox's Bazar are skyrocketing, as organised crime gangs recruit from the vast pool of cheap and expendable labour. On March 15, 1.8 million tablets were dumped along the Cox's shore by spooked traffickers. Days later, a further 900,000 were found abandoned in boats. But a lot more are getting into Bangladesh undetected, according to the country's Department of Narcotics Control, which estimates 250-300 million pills will be popped this year. Drug money is also blurring dividing lines in unexpected ways, as ethnic Rakhine Buddhists -- who loathe the Rohingya and helped force them out -- elbow their way into the trafficking racket into Bangladesh. With the price of a yaba pill tripling to $3-$3.5 in Bangladesh "no one cares who is Buddhist or Rohingya", explains Bangladesh Border Guard commander Lieutenant Colonel Asadud Zaman Chowdhury. - Meth town - Nearly all of Bangladesh's yaba arrives from Myanmar across the Naf river, which last year was packed with boatloads of fleeing Rohingya, their exit framed by dark billows of smoke from torched villages. Now, the boats also ferry pills, made in the meth labs of eastern Myanmar. They arrive around Teknaf, where locals say the trickle-down of narco profits can be seen in the souped-up motorbikes and lavish homes that stand out in an otherwise scruffy district. A single main road runs from Teknaf north to Cox's Bazar City. It is peppered with checkpoints, but still the poorest locals and increasing numbers of Rohingya take the daily risk of muling drugs. On a recent Friday AFP witnessed two seizures within an hour along the road. The first was of 12,000 of the vanilla-scented pills, found stuffed under a seat on an abandoned bus, which was aptly named the 'Nil Enterprise.' Shortly afterwards, a woman travelling with her young daughter was arrested with drugs stashed inside pouches of tamarind. She could be jailed for up to two years. - Soldiers - On the other side of the border, the identities of those at the pinnacle of the Rakhine drug pyramid remain elusive, but lower down the chain, officials, local businessmen and soldiers have all been caught. On Monday an army private was arrested at a checkpoint in Myanmar's Maungdaw district with 200,000 tablets -- a subsequent search led to a stash house with 1.6 million pills packed in bags ready for transit. On October 1, 2017, while Rakhine was still white-hot with violence, a pair of soldiers were detained in Maungdaw town -- a few kilometres from the Naf river -- with nearly two million yaba pills worth around $2.8 million locally. Big pay days are also stirring unlikely alliances. Speculation is mounting that Rakhine and Rohingya militant groups, both fighting Myanmar's state for different reasons, are collaborating over drugs. "They are involved in trafficking together to buy weapons," a Myanmar drug police source told AFP, requesting anonymity. - Guns and gangsters - Trapped in poverty and unlikely to return to Myanmar any time soon, Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar are using drug money to claw their way from penury. "I got involved in this business five years ago after meeting a powerful local man," a Rohingya mule-turned-dealer told AFP, requesting anonymity as he feared reprisals. The money got his family out of the refugee camp to an apartment in Cox's Bazar city. "If I don't do it, someone else will," he added. But where the drugs flow, violence follows. Anwara Begum pushes her finger through a hole in a t-shirt made by the bullet that killed her son, Hossein Ali, in a squalid lane of the Nayapara camp near Teknaf. Police linked the killing to drugs and a notorious thug in the camp with alleged ties to a Rohingya militant group. The victim's family deny the drug link, saying Hossein was killed over a festering dispute between families. Regardless of the motive, his murder -- and a spate of kidnappings -- has electrified the Rohingya camp grapevine with fear and rumour. "Thirty or forty guys in each camp are gangsters," says his older brother Hassan Ali, 32, who says he was the intended target. "I don't feel safe anymore, but we have nowhere to go." Bangladesh Border Guards search a fishing boat on the Naf River in Teknaf, a key trade route for the meth tablets that are flooding into Bangladesh through the Rohingya refugee camps Map and data on drug seizures in Myanmar's Rakhine state. Seizures of yaba -- caffeine-laced meth pills -- have rocketed as the refugee camps in Bangladesh have swollen Desperate conditions inside the refugee camps and the unavailability of legal work have forced some Rohingya into ferrying drugs Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled violence in Rakhine state as army-backed mobs torched settlementsRafael Nadal won his 50th consecutive set on clay on Thursday to break John McEnroe's 34-year record and beat Diego Schwartzman at the Madrid Open. Nadal's comfortable 6-3, 6-4 victory moves him into the quarter-finals in the Spanish capital and means he sets a new Open era best for the longest streak of victorious sets on a single surface. McEnroe's 49-set winning streak on carpet in 1984 included him clinching the Madrid Indoor Open title and Nadal may well be about to follow suit. He will play Austria's Dominic Thiem on Friday for a place in the last four. Nadal had insisted before the match this latest milestone had barely crossed his mind but if nothing else, it is testament to the 31-year-old's relentless consistency over the past 12 months. The run includes tournament triumphs in Barcelona, Monte Carlo and last year's French Open, where he will be the clear favourite later this month to claim a 17th major crown. Schwartzman, ranked 16th in the world, briefly threatened a comeback on Manolo Santana court when he broke back at 4-3 in the second set. But the Argentinian double-faulted to give his opponent a second break in the very next game, as Nadal sealed a straight-forward victory in an hour and 44 minutes. 50 up: Rafael Nadal set another record in Madrid on ThursdayPakistan's top judge has ordered the first official investigation into the country's deadliest terror attack, a massacre at a school that killed more than 150 people in 2014, authorities said Thursday. Relatives of the victims -- mainly children -- have long called for an accounting of the security and intelligence failures that allowed Pakistani Taliban gunmen to storm the school, run by the powerful military, in the northwestern city of Peshawar on December 16 that year. No government or military official has ever been held to account for the security failings. Criticism of Pakistan's powerful armed forces, especially their counter-insurgency operations, is largely seen as a red line in the country. Supreme Court Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar ordered the formation of a judicial commission to examine the attack during a court hearing in Peshawar Wednesday, Abdul Latif Yousafzai, advocate general of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told AFP. The inquiry was set to be completed in two months, he added. No official explanation of the timing was given. But the announcement comes after the newly formed Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) civil rights group has made the issue a central demand in recent months, putting renewed pressure on the government. PTM is set to hold a massive rally in the sprawling port city of Karachi on Sunday, which is home to millions of ethnic Pashtuns and expected to draw thousands of supporters. Following the announcement, families of the victims cheered the decision, with some moved to tears. Ajun Khan, who lost his only son in the attack, told AFP he hopes the commission can uncover who was responsible for the negligence that allowed the militants to execute the hours-long bloodbath. "We want the commission to probe the incident and place a responsibility for the negligence and failure of the state to protect our children," Khan said. The investigation comes after a dramatic improvement in security across the country following several successful military offensives targeting extremist strongholds. The alleged mastermind behind the school attack was killed in a drone strike in 2017, according to the Pakistani Taliban, who have claimed responsibility for it. The Pakistani state has also said it has hanged at least four men involved in the attack, though the nature of their role has not been made public. The massacre at a Peshawar school was the deadliest terror attack in PakistanParaguay announced Wednesday that it intends to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, becoming the third country to do so after the United States and Guatemala. In a brief statement, Paraguay's foreign ministry said it had "begun the process of executing the presidential decision." "We are very pleased by the important decision to move the Paraguayan embassy. This decision by (President Horacio) Cartes is fair and brave," Israeli ambassador Zeev Harel told daily newspaper ABC de Asuncion. On Monday, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon posted a tweet celebrating the move, before it was confirmed by Asuncion Wednesday. "Wonderful news as the international recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital gathers momentum," he wrote. According to Israel's foreign ministry, Cartes may attend the opening of the new embassy on May 21 or 22 -- accompanied by president elect Mario Abdo Benitez, who is set to assume power in August. Paraguay's announcement comes days ahead of the US embassy's relocation on May 14, which coincides with the 70th anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel. US President Donald Trump's decision to move the US embassy -- a move that broke with decades of diplomacy and international consensus -- has sparked major protests by Palestinians, who consider east Jerusalem the capital of their future state. Israel said Paraguay's President Horacio Cartes, pictured here in 2016 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, could attend the opening of the new embassyA woman has revealed her anger over a lengthy compensation battle with Qantas after her luggage was run over and destroyed on the tarmac of Perth Airport.

Melissa Chung, 32, from Melbourne, arrived in Perth over the Easter weekend only to be greeted by a large plastic bag on the baggage carousel containing her luggage.

On closer inspection, her belongings, including a $1500 Apple laptop, had been badly damaged inside the ripped-up bag.

Ms Chungs $1500 was left unusable after a baggage vehicle ran over her luggage. Source: Melissa Chung

It was in a giant plastic bag with all of my [luggage] contents spilling out with just a note to go to the Qantas desk, she told Yahoo7 News.

After being directed to the customer desk with her damaged belongings, including smashed up cosmetics and ripped clothing, she was left frustrated with the way the matter was handled.

There was no apology, she revealed. She just told me my bag had been run over by a tug carrying luggage.

She said she was told to claim the damage, which she estimates is $3000 worth, on her travel insurance.

However, she argued most people, including herself, dont have travel insurance for domestic flights.

Ms Chung says the total damage caused was around $3000 worth, including unusable clothes and make-up. Source: Melissa Chung

It became clear they have a script that they need to stick to to avoid liability, she noted.

Getting nowhere, Ms Chung reluctantly agreed to follow up the matter via mail, lodging a compensation claim days later.

But she was was again left angered by the airlines response.

It has been very frustrating. I was looking for a plan or a schedule about the damage, I submitted the paperwork, rang them several times but they couldnt tell me when [the matter would be resolve], she said.

It is really unsatisfactory.

Despite her bag being completely ripped open, Ms Chung says Qantas failed to apologise and were unhelpful. Source: Melissa Chung

Qantas asked Ms Chung to provide receipts for the damaged goods, however, she said because some items were up to two years old, this request was not possible for her.

When she thought her saga couldnt get any worse, she received a response from Qantas informing her that she could not claim compensation for her laptop and make-up as they shouldnt have been in checked-in luggage according to their Conditions of Carriage.

Story continues

I used to check in laptops for work routinely without any problem, Ms Chung pointed out.

After no one was speaking to her like a real person, she decided to take her matter onto Facebook, sharing a series of images of the damage, pleading for Qantas to reach a compromise.

Ms Chung noted she had specifically chosen Qantas over a budget airline but has been left disappointed with their appalling customer service.

A Qantas spokesperson told Yahoo7 News the airline is looking to rectify her compensation issues.

Were very sorry for the damage to Melissas bag and the inconvenience it caused, they said.

Well be reaching out to Melissa to ensure any potential compensation for the damage is processed as soon as possible.Ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont on Thursday rejected being re-appointed as leader of the region, following pressure from Spain's government and months of political turmoil over its independence bid. Puigdemont's announcement from exile in Germany came a day after the Madrid government stepped in to block him from once again becoming president of Catalonia, pressuring the separatist camp to pick another candidate and form a regional government. Separatist allies had said they would try to have Puigdemont back in the role by next week after the regional parliament voted through reforms allowing him to be re-appointed without being present. Madrid, however, successfully requested the Constitutional Court to cancel the reform and in a video message Puigdemont said he was now willing to step aside. "The intolerance and the lack of respect of the state towards the will of the citizens of Catalonia have appeared clearly in the eyes of the world," he said in the video. He proposed political newcomer Quim Torra as his successor, urging the next regional executive to build an independent country. The region has been in political limbo since Spain's conservative central government imposed direct rule on the region after it unilaterally declared independence in October. Separatists won regional elections in December, but fresh polls will be triggered if a new leader is not elected by May 22. Puigdemont, who first fled to Belgium, was detained in Germany in March after Spain issued a European arrest warrant against him. Madrid wants to extradite him to Spain to try him on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds for staging an independence referendum in Catalonia on October 1 even though the courts had ruled it unconstitutional. - 'Rebellion' - A German court last month dismissed the extradition request for Puigdemont on the rebellion allegations and released him on bail. Spanish prosecutors have since handed over new information to Germany they hope will prove the use of violence, to justify the rebellion charge and their extradition request. Only last month, hundreds of thousands of people marched in Barcelona to protest the jailing of nine Catalan separatist leaders who are facing trial on "rebellion" charges in Spain. The protest came six months after the first incarcerations of the leaders for misuse of public funds, sedition and rebellion -- which carries a prison sentence of 30 years and implies that a "violent uprising" took place -- over their separatist push. They include the heads of Catalonia's two largest pro-independence groups -- Jordi Sanchez of the ANC and Jordi Cuixart of Omnium Jordi Cuixart. Prosecutors say the two men played central roles in orchestrating pro-independence protests in September in Barcelona during which national police were trapped inside a government building for several hours and their vehicles were destroyed. They are also accused of mobilising thousands of pro-independence supporters to prevent police from stopping the October 1 independence referendum from going ahead. Sanchez was elected as a lawmaker in snap polls in Catalonia in December and has twice been proposed as a candidate to lead a new Catalan regional government, but a judge refused both times to allow him to leave jail to be sworn in. Separatist allies said they would try to have Catalonia's ousted leader Carles Puigdemont Puigdemont back in the role by next weekProduct Helps Publishers Create Easily-Monetizable Article Inventory

Contextual Ad Unit Establishes New, Premium Display Opportunity for Brands

Seamless Integration, Increased Viewability, High-performing Product Keeps Audiences Top of Mind

NEW YORK, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hearst Newspapers, the publisher of 24 dailies and 64 weeklies reaching more than 44M unique visitors across the U.S., today announced it has selected SolidOpinions pay-per-article advertising platform for its digital properties.

The SolidOpinion platform creates new, high-performance inventory that is leveraged for contextual advertising messages by brands. Concurrently, SolidOpinion generates accretive value for publishers by creating a new, premium ad unit, enabling advertisers to target their messaging above headlines of directly relevant articles.

At Hearst Newspapers, we are always looking to diversify our revenue portfolio with new advertising products, said Fergal Carr, Hearst Newspapers senior vice president of Consumer Product. "We are pleased to work with SolidOpinion on its pay-per-article product and platform across Hearst Newspapers major digital desktop and mobile properties.

We designed the platform with audiences in mind first, said Arthur Meyerovich, SolidOpinion co-founder. We are thrilled to join forces with a publishing group that recognizes and appreciates the role that audiences play in digital publishing.

See Laurie Sullivans article in MediaPost for more on this.

About SolidOpinion

SolidOpinion is the leading commenting solution for web publishers worldwide. The companys core product is a fully customizable discussion platform that generates revenue, traffic, actionable data, and in-depth engagement for publishers. SolidOpionions engagement platform is powered by the EGT token, which can be stored in Ethereum (ERC-20) compatible digital wallets. It enables agencies and marketers to manage campaigns simply and seamlessly, with robust targeting and measurement functionality. Launched in 2015, SolidOpinions enterprise-scale commenting platform delivers billions of monthly impressions across hundreds of publishers in 14 countries and languages. For more information, please visit: https://solidopinion.com

About Hearst Newspapers

Hearst Newspapers is the operating group responsible for Hearsts newspapers, local digital marketing services business and directories. With more than 4,000 employees across the nation, Hearst Newspapers publishes 24 dailies and 64 weeklies reaching more than 44 million unique visitors across the U.S. with related mobile websites and digital products. It also operates digital marketing services and directories businesses under the LocalEdge brand.An icy pocket of Antarctic air moving over Australias southern and eastern states is causing temperatures to plummet, with some parts of the country set to drop to 0 degrees overnight ahead of a cold day on Friday.

The cold front sweeping across Tasmania, Victoria, NSW, ACT and Queensland is bringing rain, hail, thunder and strong winds along with unseasonably cold temperatures.

Melbourne is expected to receive a months worth of rain over the next three days  the wettest period so far in 2018.

If the city fails to reach the forecast maximum of 13 degrees on Thursday, it will officially be the coldest day this early in the year since 1970, Weatherzone reports.

Snow falls on Mount Buller. Source: Getty/File

The cold front brought snow to the Victorian alps overnight on Wednesday, with Falls Creek, Mount Hotham, Mount Buller, the Grampians and Mount Baw Baw receiving considerable amounts of powder.

Snow has also fallen in parts of NSW, ACT and Tasmania and is expected to reach the NSW Central West on Thursday afternoon and possibly in the Blue Mountains overnight.

Were seeing snow falling to 800m so its definitely snowing on the Grampians,Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Michael Efron said on Thursday.

After snow fell in the Victorian Alps on Wednesday night Mt Baw Baw Alpine Resort spokesman John Fascio said it was likely to receive a further 30cm by Friday.

With the official snow season launch only a few weeks away, if this weather continues well be in for one of our best snow seasons yet, he told AAP.

Melburnians will wake up to chilly temperatures of just 7 degrees on Friday morning, with wind gusts expected to reach up to 100km/h in some parts.

Melbourne is predicted to receive a months worth of rain in just three days. Source: Getty/File

The wind chill factor will make it feel about one to three degrees colder than that, Weatherzone meteorologist Graeme Brittain told Yahoo7.

Rain, hail, thunder and strong winds will continue to blast the state through to Friday.

The cold front appears to be affecting Canberra the most, with the city expecting to plummet to 0C overnight. If the forecast maximum of 9 degrees on Friday proves accurate, Weatherzone says it will also be the citys coldest day this early in the year since 1970.

Story continues

Hobart and Sydney will both have overnight lows of 9C, but while Tasmania will be hit with heavy rainfalls, New South Wales residents will only be expecting showers.

Those along the NSW coastline could experience winds of up to 90km/h, with waves predicted to reach as high as six metres off beaches in the Hunter on Saturday.

One Hobart resident captured the downpour over the city. Source: Instagram/onlybeloved_yuki

Mr Brittain said southern facing beaches would be most affected, and warned against ocean activities such as surfing and rock fishing.

Brisbane residents will experience a sudden drop in temperature on Friday night, with an unseasonably cold low of 9 degrees on Saturday morning, about 7 degrees cooler than the previous morning.

The sunshine state will avoid heavy downpours and strong winds, and will still maintain a high of 20 on Saturday.

Temperature across all states are set to rise by mid-next week.

North Korea released three American prisoners and handed them over to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, clearing a major obstacle to an unprecedented summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The men, who were freed after Mr Pompeo met Mr Kim, were on their way home aboard the chief US diplomats plane, which stopped in Alaska to refuel before heading to Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.

Mr Trump said he would greet them when they arrived at at the base on Thursday morning local time.

We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo and the people of the United States for bringing us home, the three said in a statement released by the State Department as their plane stopped over in Alaska.

We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

From left: Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong-chul. Source: Reuters

The release, which was praised by the White House as a gesture of goodwill, appeared to signal an effort by Mr Kim to set a more favourable tone for the summit and followed his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut a North Korean nuclear bomb test site.

While Mr Kim is giving up the last of his American detainees, whom North Korea has often used as bargaining chips with the United States, their return could also be aimed at pressuring Mr Trump to make concessions of his own as he tries to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear arsenal, something it has not signalled a willingness to do.

The release gave Mr Trump a chance to tout a diplomatic achievement just a day after his decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal drew heavy criticism from European allies and others.

I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health, Mr Trump wrote on Twitter.

Story continues

US CIA Director Mike Pompeo meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, North Korea. Source: Reuters

I appreciate Kim Jong-un doing this and allowing them to go, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.

Kims handover of the Americans was in response to an official suggestion from Mr Trump, the North Korean state news agency KCNA said in its account of the talks with Mr Pompeo.

It was their second encounter in less than six weeks to prepare the first-ever meeting between sitting US and North Korean leaders.

Mr Trump said agreement had been reached on a date and venue for the summit and details would be announced within three days.

He ruled out the heavily fortified demilitarised zone between North and South Korea, increasing the possibility the meeting could take place in Singapore, which he previously said was under consideration.Specialists have discovered the shocking truth behind a runny nose doctors claimed was allergies.

Nebraska woman Kendra Jackson had been seeing doctors for years trying to get to the bottom of why her nose was constantly running and why she had chronic headaches and a cough.

Many doctors had simply put the symptoms down to allergies.

Everywhere I went I always had a box of puffs, always stuffed in my pocket, she told KETV.

Kendra Jackson had CSF mistakenly diagnosed as allergies. Source: Nebraska Medicine

Ms Jackson suffered a car crash in 2013. She was hit from behind and her head whacked the dashboard.

Her symptoms started shortly after that.

[It was] like a waterfall, continuously, and then it would run to the back of my throat, she told KETV.

Doctors at Nebraska Medicine later discovered she had a cerebrospinal fluid leak (CSF), where half a pint of brain fluid was running through her nose daily.

Doctors said Kendra Jacksons surgery was not too invasive. Source: Nebraska Medicine

Ms Jackson said she couldnt sleep, I was like a zombie and doctors told her the fluid could have caused a serious infection.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, CSF is when spinal fluid leaks through a hole in the skull.

Patients typically complain of clear, watery drainage usually from only one side of the nose or one ear, it said.

Drainage can increase with tilting the head forward or straining. Other symptoms can include headache, vision changes and hearing loss.

Kendra Jacksons life has returned to normal since the surgery. Source: Nebraska Medicine

Nebraska Medicine Rhinologist Dr Christine Barnes told KETV the surgery Ms Jackson finally had a few weeks ago was not too invasive and they used angled cameras and instruments to patch up a hole between her skull and nostrils with fatty tissue.

Since the surgery, Ms Jacksons life has returned to normal.

I dont have to carry around the tissue anymore, she said.

And Im getting some sleep.VENICE, FL, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Advanced Credit Technologies, Inc. ("CyberloQ" or the "Company") (PINK: ACRT) is pleased to announce the following update on the Company's business and information objectives going forward.



After months of in depth coding and testing within the IOS and Android environments, Advanced Credit Technologies, Inc. has been granted approval to launch the CyberloQ multi-factor authentication App system within the Apple and Google stores, effective immediately. This first version is strictly for the "Re-Seller" program and will be rolled out to the mainstream and other channel partners in the very near future. The process to gain approval requires that the CyberloQ apps adhere to strict privacy and financial guidelines. Now that this has been accomplished it gives the Company the ability to activate its Re-Seller channels and begin to derive revenues for the Company, stated Mark Carten, the Companys Chief Technology Officer and developer of CyberloQ. This is a big step for the Company and we are ready to bring CyberloQ into the mainstream to prevent FRAUD and protect personal assets on a global scale.

The Company has established relationships with Network America, S&P Peripherals, among others to begin marketing CyberloQ to their respective networks as detailed in the Companies latest 8K filing. Each Company has a specific network and channel that will benefit from the CyberloQ offering. Joe Meier, President and CEO of Network America remarked, "Network America's seasoned services and consulting team has been helping businesses choose and implement the most powerful, layered security solutions available. This partnership with CyberloQ will enable our customers to further protect and secure user devices like never before." Established in 1991, Network America is a premier professional services organization providing license procurement, design, training, implementation and ongoing support for systems management to organizations worldwide. Network America is veteran-owned and a schedule 70 GSA holder; visit www.naisolutions.com for more information.

Software & Peripherals, LP has a TPSA (Third Party Supplier Agreement) in place with Dell since early 2006. As a Dell Third Party Supplier, we assist Dell by enabling the Sales Team to sell products that Dell doesnt currently offer or products that are in their catalog, but might be on long leads or have pricing that is out of line. In addition, we can also help with custom requirements by leveraging our nearly 40 factories worldwide that we currently partner with, stated Larry Tuggle, Director of Operations with S&P.





In early 2011 S&P was re-classified as a Third Party Supplier / Aggregator. As an Aggregator, S&P assists potential Dell partners to navigate the process of selling through Dell while they go through the on-boarding process. We are able to take on the indemnity for that particular partner ( CyberloQ ) and allow the sale of the partners products through Dell to Dells customers. This allows the Account Team to move forward with deals while the on-boarding process takes place. Once on-boarding is complete, we step away and allow Dells process to work as its intended.



The Company will continue to provide relevant updates as they become available.





Safe Harbor:

From time to time, the Company may issue news releases that contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbor created by those sections. This material may contain statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. For those statements, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statement provisions contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and any amendments thereto. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, goals, assumptions, or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements." "Forward-looking statements" are based upon expectations, estimates and projections at the time the statements are made that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated.

The Company discourages any and all promotional activity by non-Company actors, and encourages investors and potential investors to review the Company's public filings, its website and its press releases, and to discuss these matters with their personal legal and financial advisors. Non-Company newsletters/recommendations, websites or general stock symbols/classifications or other identifiers regarding our securities, whether positive or negative, should not be relied on because these items are simply opinions/policies of a third party. These third parties are, in many instances, paid by the publisher or other third parties and the Company believes that they profit from the publication of this literature and the results on the market. These materials should not be a substitute for investors' research and/or independent decision-making.



PAWTUCKET, RIAccording to an announcement emailed to supporters earlier today, the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health (CSPH) will be closing the doors of its "drop-in" clinic in Pawtucket, and will be relocating the organization's main offices to the state's capital, nearby Providence. The exact address was not revealed.

The Center, a non-profit founded by sex educator/sexologist Megan Andelloux, saw its share of flak from locals when it first started up, with rumors circulating that it would actually function as a brothel, an abortion clinic, and/or a haven for sex trafficking. Shortly before the opening, Pawtucket Mayor James E. Doyle voiced "serious concerns about the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health locating on Main Street" after having received an anonymous letter bashing the idea of such a center. But after the local chapter of the ACLU expressed its dismay over opposition to the Center, and Andelloux explained its mission more fully to the local zoning board, CSPH was allowed to open.

The emailed announcement also noted that longtime Executive Director Kayla Wingert will be leaving her position on July 24 "to start her own exciting new chapter," though again, the announcement contains no clue as to what that chapter will be.

The email lauded "those ... who have been following the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health since its inception in 2010," but informed those followers that "Our staff members work several jobs to be able to make a livable wage, and it has been a longtime goal to create a paid internship program. Team CSPH does life-changing work, and all staff members and interns deserve to be compensated accordingly with fair wages and benefits. We want to do right by our staff by reallocating costs in order to provide this compensation." In order to do that, Board Chair Erica Busillo Adams said she hoped that the "regular visitors to our cozy sex-positive space in Pawtucket" would understand that it was a choice between paying employees a living wage and maintaining the drop-in clinic, so that clinic is scheduled to close on May 31.

Adams noted that CSPH's clinical therapy services would continue, and that the staff would continue planning the next Study Sex College Tour, hosting CSPH's upcoming Sexual Attitude Reassessment, and continue running its Non-Toxic Masculinity series, while continuing to refine the organization's online resources. CSPH is already searching for a new executive director, which Adams described as "someone who can continue our fundraising momentum and help us to continue making our services widely accessible." A job description is expected to be posted online within the next few days.

"While both of these substantial changes come with strong emotions, our hope for the future far overpowers any fear or anxiety," Adams wrote. "The CSPH has always stretched well beyond Pawtuckets city limits. Were excited to put more energy into connecting with our supporters in all states, including Rhode Island! The CSPH will be doing more than ever before to reach you whenever and wherever you need us."

Adams said that there will be a small gathering at the Pawtucket clinic location on May 31: "We hope youll join us to say goodbyes (or 'see you laters!') to Kayla and this special space," also noting that, "In the future, we hope to open the doors to a new drop-in location once again, where uterus pillows, books from our sex ed heroes, and antique vibrators will bring our community together. Until then, we cant wait to connect with you in the digital sphere!"After voting along party lines to repeal Obama-era net neutrality regulations last December, the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday made it official, announcing that the rules guaranteeing an open internet will end on June 11, 2018.

As of that date, internet service providers such as Comcast, AT&T and others will no longer be prevented from favoring certain sites over others, by blocking or slowing traffic to some sites and creating an internet fast lane for others.

The repeal of net neutrality will likely hit the online porn industry hard, leading to censorship by ISPs  or the creation of bundled porn site "packages" which consumers could access only by paying hefty additional fees.

On Thursday morning, Senate Democrats announced that they have filed a petition that will force a Senate floor vote that could overturn the FCC decision, a decision aggressively supported by the boards Donald Trump-appointed Chair Ajit Pai (pictured above). All 49 Democrats in the Senate plus one Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, say they plan to vote against repealing net neutrality rules, overriding the FCC boards 3-2 vote.

With ailing Arizona Republican John McCain expected to miss the vote, the move to block net neutrality repeal would carry by a 50-49 vote. But unfortunately for open internet advocates, the vote would be largely symbolic. The Republican-controlled House appears highly unlikely to endorse any Senate move to block the FCCs decision. And even if the House did vote along with the Senate, Trump would almost certainly veto the measure, allowing net neutrality to expire on June 11.

So what happens after June 11?

In one dramatic scenario, internet services would begin to resemble cable-TV packages, where subscriptions could be limited to a few dozen sites and services, according to an analysis by the technology magazine Wired. Fortunately, thats not a likely scenario. Instead, expect a gradual shift towards subscriptions that provide unlimited access to certain preferred providers while charging extra for everything else.

A group of state attorneys general have filed lawsuits to stop the repeal of net neutrality. And in three states  New York, California, and Montana  state governments have passed rules prohibiting ISPs that do not adhere to net neutrality standards from receiving state contracts.

Photo by Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia CommonsCYBERSPACETwo days after dropping a bombshell into the middle of the Donald Trump Russia collusion case, tying it to his own Stormy Daniels case, attorney Michael Avenatti posted another previously secret documentthis one linking Trumps personal attorney Michael Cohen directly to Keith Davidson, the Los Angeles lawyer who arranged hush money payoffs to three women, including Daniels, who say they had sex with Trump, or with a close Trump associate.

Avenatti posted what he says is an email from Cohen to Davidson. The text of the email reproduced by Avenatti and dated April 11two days after the April 9 raids on Cohenreads: I lost all my contacts as I had to get a new phone. Please send me all your contact info. Also, why did Anthony back out on ABC to do the story? Let me know how you want to communicate.

The email is signed with Cohens electronic signature, which identifies him as Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump. Trumps newest attorney, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, has said that of course Cohen is no longer Trumps attorney, but the email appears to show that as of April 11, he was.

Avenatti told Britains Daily Mail newspaper that he obtained the email directly from Davidson after I demanded it.

Why is the email significant, beyond showing that Cohen was calling himself Trumps lawyer less than one month ago? According to Avenatti, the communication could indicate that Cohen was attempting to obstruct justicethough Avenatti was not specific as to how the communication from Cohen to Davidson would constitute obstruction.

On April 9, the FBI raided Mr. Cohens home, office and hotel room, Avenatti wrote on his Twitter account Thursday morning. Within 48 hours, Mr. Cohen sent the below email to Mr. Davidson. Why? They had no ongoing legal matter at the time. Was it part of an attempt by Mr. Cohen to obstruct justice or worse?

Daniels is suing to get out of her hush agreement, for which Cohen paid her $130,000, designed to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. Davidson negotiated the deal with Cohen while representing Daniels. But Avenatti says that Davidson was not properly representing Daniels interests because he had a close relationship with Cohen, and their negotiations amounted to collusion.

This is supposed to be an adversarial process, Avenatti told The Washington Post. These guys should not be in the same bedroom, let alone the same bed.

Davidson has denied that his dealings with Cohen were improper. But he also represented Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal who recently settled a lawsuit over her own hush money payoff over her alleged affair with Trump. Davidson also negotiated a $1.6 million payoff to another Playboy centerfold model, Shera Bechard, who had an affair with top Trump fundraiser and close friend Eliot Broidy.

Cohen represented Trump or Broidys side in all three payoff deals. According to a recent New York Magazine article, the Bechard payoff may not have actually been to protect Broidywho confessed to the affairbut in fact was intended to shield Trump himself, for whom Broidy was acting as a front. But the allegation that it was Trump, not Broidy, who conducted the affair with Bechard that resulted in her pregnancy, remains speculative.

In his bombshell earlier this week, Avenatti posted financial records showing that Cohen received millions of dollars in payments from several large corporations, including $500,000 from a company linked to a Russian oligarch, and that cash could have been used to reimburse Cohen for the $130,000 paid to Daniels.

Photos by IowaPolitics.com/Gary/Wikimedia CommonsCYBERSPACETwo of the worlds largest and most powerful internet companies recently changed their technology in a way that critics say plays right into the hands of government censorsand the move comes around the same time that the Russian government blocked nearly 16 million internet addresses in an effort to censor the messaging app Telegram.

Google says that its new technological change has been in the works for a long time, though the company didnt say how long, but some critics suspect that the companyas well as Amazon, which also made a similar move in Aprilcaved to pressure from Russia.

The tech update by Google and Amazon has barred a feature known as domain fronting, but the companies say that they never intended to support domain fronting anyway, with Google claiming that the tool worked only due to a quirk of our software stack.

Domain fronting allows a user to reach blocked sites by disguising the address of the site the user is trying to reach. A government censor becomes unable to tell when users are accessing blocked sites. Last month, Russia blocked millions of internet addresses used by Telegram, a messaging app widely employed by anti-government activists in countries with repressive regimes. Iran banned the app earlier this year after activists used Telegram to organize street protests.

Russia blocked the Telegram addresses last month after Telegrams owners refused to share users private messages with the Kremlin. The app has about 200 million users, many of them in countries that were part of the former Soviet Union.

Domain fronting provides a workaround, letting users appear to be accessing a common address, such as Google.com, when they are actually reaching one of the millions of banned addresses.

But on April 13, internet developers began to notice that the domain fronting technique no longer worked, using Google. On April 27, Amazon also disabled domain fronting on its own networks.

This timing has caused some to question if Russian pressure played a role in the decision, wrote Daily Beast tech reporter Kimberly Zenz on Tuesday. It may haveGoogle and Amazon have yet to reply to questions on the topicbut this decision did not occur in a vacuum.

Zenz noted that domain fronting can also be used by hackers and other criminalsa possibility that could lead to liability issues for big internet companies such as Google and Amazon. In fact, the Russian intelligence hacking group APT29, also called Cozy Bear, which was responsible for the hacks of Democratic Party servers during the 2016 presidential election, has used domain fronting to disguise its online espionage activities at least since 2015.

Photo via Wikimedia CommonsLOS ANGELESRuPaul's Drag Race remains one of the most popular "game shows" on cableand now, SoCal fans will have a chance to meet not only RuPaul herself, but several current and past contestants at the L.A. Convention Center this weekend, as DragCon 2018 debuts Friday evening.

Perhaps the biggest news to come out as the big weekend approaches is that RuPaul herself will be guest-starring on an upcoming episode of The Simpsons, where "Marge stumbles upon the world of drag, discovers her inner fierceness and starts serving housewife realness!"or so says a DragCon press release. Perhaps more exciting, though, is that Simpsons stars Yeardley Smith and Tress MacNeille, as well as Simpsons writer (and Drag Race fan) Carolyn Omine will be appearing on a panel at DragCon to discuss, among other things, being female in a male-dominated industry and how the fem-positive message of drag can inspire and empower. They'll also answer audience questions. The panel is scheduled for 2:30 Sunday afternoon, in the Synergy Room of the Convention Center's South Hall.

DragCon will also be doing its part to get trans fans and, really, everyone else to come out and vote in the 2018 midterm elections, via a panel on Saturday titled, "Billy Eichner Wants You...To Glam Up The Midterms!" Popular comedian Eichner has teamed with the folks behind the "Funny Or Die" video series to urge people to come to the polls in November, since the races at issue there will decide who controls Congress for the following two years. Eichner will be joined on the panel by drag queen superstars Alaska 5000 and Peppermint. According to the promo material for the panel, the 2018 election is "the most important event of the year, so dont f%ck it up! Because voting is whaaaaat?!? FUNDAMENTAL!" (We thought that was "reading," but what the hell...) The panel will take place Saturday at 11:30 a.m. in the Uniqueness Room.

Looking over the list of panels, it turns out that there are apparently a number of gamers in the trans community. Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Nerve Room will be "Dungeons, Dragons And Drag Queens," "an original D&D adventure, played before a live audience," with panelists BenDeLaCreme, Fraya Love and Kitty Powers, and moderated by Matt Baume. Then at 2 p.m., look for "Gay For Play: Queer Culture And Video Games," where Twitch Partner Dylan Zaner and gaming gurus Biqtch Puddin, Deere, Erika Klash and Kameron Michaels discuss "how queer culture and video games intertwine when discovering your identity. These gamers will tell their stories on how growing up queer and being a gamer influenced their lives in and out of drag." Finally, On Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Talent Room will be "Adventures in Tabletop Gaming," where fans can get to "Geek out with queer tabletop gamers as they discuss the latest trends in games, creating LGBTQ storylines, and building community! Theyll be recommending games that you might want to pick up, how to bring drag to tabletop adventures, and organizing inclusive gamer gatherings wherever you live." Moderated by Baume, this panel includes Bonnie Burton, Fraya Love and Terry Chiu.

And that's not the half of it. Also of interest will be "WOW [World of Wonder] Presents Plus: Cool Mom," where "cool mom" Jinkx Monsoon and her gay son Nick "spend quality time discussing everyday parent/child topics like hooking up, internet porn and smoking marijuana." That'll be at 11 a.m. in the Synergy Room.

Committed drag queens will probably want to hear "Partners In Drag: Committed Queens," where "Chad Michaels, Ginger Minj and Dusty Ray Bottoms spill the tea on balancing long-term relationships with the demanding life of a drag superstar." In a similar vein, there'll be "Keepin It In The Family: Drag Mothers And Daughters," which asks the burning questions, "What is a drag mother? How do you get one? And how do you make the relationship work? Drag mothers and their daughters get together to share the ups and downs of being familyfrom sharing wigs to stealing men, theyre giving you all the T, gurl."

Learn all about the convention programming here.

Point is, there'll be no shortage of things to do at DragConand to make it even more interesting, there'll be more than 30 Instagram-worthy photo op spots that will be located on the convention floor, including the actual Werkroom from RuPauls Drag Race Season 10, a "Judges Panel" with cutouts of RuPaul and Michelle Visage, the Snatch Game set, the White Horse from All Stars, the Warhol Drag Factory, the car from RuPauls Covergirl music video, and more. And let's not even talk about the parties!

Tickets for RuPauls DragCon LA are available at rupaulsdragcon.com, with convention events taking place May 11-13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center's South Hall.Hovis has launched an investigation into claims that workers at one of its manufacturing sites were under the influence of alcohol or drugs on-site.

Scottish television channel STV reported that four employees at the Duke Street-based Glasgow bakery were sacked after taking drug tests and another nine workers resigned on the spot when bosses announced that all staff would be tested.

The bakery giant, which employs 338 people at the Scottish factory, refused to confirm the number of employees involved or provide details of the incident when approached by British Baker.

At Hovis, we have a zero tolerance policy for alcohol or substance use during working hours, the companys statement said.

It was bought to our attention that a very small number of employees at our Glasgow bakery may be under the influence of alcohol or drugs while at work. We are continuing to investigate these claims.

Altogether 3,165 employees work for Hovis across the UK.

In March the business announced it had introduced electric vehicles to its fleet as part of a move to reduce its carbon footprint.The document is based on the "Chicago statement," a set of guidelines laid down in 2015 by the Committee on Freedom of Expression at the University of Chicago.

"The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is committed to the production and dissemination of knowledge through open inquiry and the fearless exchange of a wide-range of ideas," the resolution states. "The ability to speak freely, debate vigorously, and engage deeply with differing viewpoints is the bedrock of our aspirations at Carolina. As the oldest state university in the country, with a long and complex history, we are ever aware that speaking out on controversial issues often raises opposition and efforts to silence the outspoken."

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a proud history of supporting free speech and expression. One of the proudest moments in its history - and justifiably so - is how the entire university community fought the infamous Speaker Ban Law of the 1960s . There is a marker on campus to honor that fight and remember.In the 1960s, the forces trying to silence unpopular speech came mostly from outside the campus. Now those forces are mostly on campus. The sources of the threat can change, but their goal is always the same: to prevent the airing of certain ideas, beliefs, even questions. Their effect would be the same even if the content of those forbidden ideas differ.Stifling free speech and expression is counter to the genius of a free state. If possible, however, it is an even greater offense to the genius of a university. It is an abject betrayal of the spirit and pursuit of academic inquiry.For these reasons and more, I am encouraged by the resolution " On Principles for the Promotion and Protection of Free Speech " adopted this month by the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is a vigorous defense of free speech for the right reasons.As reported by Carolina Journal While the resolution is itself not policy and therefore not enforceable, it sets the tone, as CJ points out. The resolution is a strong moral declaration that recognizes that freely expressing ideas is irrevocably linked to a university's ultimate mission to educate.As a testimony to the timeless nature of this principle, consider how seamlessly its explication today meshes with its frequent invocations five decades ago against the Speaker Ban Law.For example, the Faculty Council issued a statement on October 23, 1963, thatThe faculty then declaredChancellor William B. Aycock gave a speech on June 6, 1960, entitledHe warned against allowing the university's freedomAycock also saidA UNC Student Government resolution of February 10, 1966, declared thatAmong other things, the resolution also held thatand thatIt is not lost on this observer that the faculty are defending this principle now when they presumably are in profound disagreement with the ideas often subject to suppression at this moment in time. They issued this resolution despite well-known passions within academe and presumably on campus to suppress certain kinds of speech. Those passions have produced the malicious byproduct that defending free speech in the abstract is the same as agreement with and advocacy of the worst ideas.In short, the university needs this return to principle. We have been eroding the key distinction, as famously attributed to Voltaire, ofPolitical winds shift. Taboos change. Without protection of speech, the censors of one era could find themselves censored in the next.The UNC faculty are to be commended for upholding the greater principle at stake. They are protecting the university for years to come.

U.S. Reps. Richard Hudson and Ted Budd of North Carolina host a May 2, 2018 roundtable to discuss human trafficking issues. (CJ photo by Kari Travis)

SALISBURY - State and federal leaders are rightly taking steps to rescue victims of human trafficking, but unless lawmakers increase support for survivors' care and rehabilitation, those efforts will be thwarted, a group of North Carolina experts say.U.S. Reps. Richard Hudson, R-8th District, and Ted Budd, R-13th District, talked at length Wednesday, May 2, with a group of 13 community, nonprofit, and law enforcement officials. The discussion, which centered on North Carolina's rank in the top 10 states for human trafficking, was propelled by the April 11 enactment of the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, a law that blocks advertising websites from theThat legislation received mixed reviews, with some organizations, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, claiming it might muzzle free speech. Reason, a libertarian policy magazine, protested that the bill would harm the welfare of voluntary sex workers who depend on Backpage to screen and regulate their clientele.Those claims are bogus, Hudson told Carolina Journal.he said.FOSTA criminalizes "reckless disregard of sex trafficking." Punishments include fines and prison terms of anywhere between 10 and 25 years.The federal government has seen an 87 percent drop in web-based trafficking ads since the bill passed Congress, Hudson said.Those improvements are tremendous, but unless escaped victims have somewhere to go, the cycle will continue, said Carla Tweddale, founder and president of Lily Pad Haven, a Charlotte-based nonprofit that provides housing and rehab for survivors.Tweddale said.North Carolina confirmed 221 cases of trafficking in 2017, making it the eighth-worst state for modern slavery in the U.S., data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline show . In 2016, the state identified 181 cases, putting it in 10th place.The actual population of victims is likely much higher, said Tweddale. Those who are trafficked rarely self-report. Many are under the influence of drugs. Stockholm syndrome and distrust of law enforcement also prevent women and men from seeking escape, said James Chavis, Kannapolis chief of police.More than 70 percent of cases involve sex slavery, NHTH reports. The nation's top two trafficking venues are hotels and massage parlors. Online ads, such as those formerly featured on Backpage and Craigslist, are the third-highest resource for traffickers.In 2017, North Carolina lawmakers passed legislation to regulate massage parlors and publicize the NHTH phone number. Some lawmakers pushed a move to fund survivor care centers and increase public education on the issue, but the bill gained little traction.Lawmakers must provide more money, Tweddale said. Lily Pad Haven was founded in 2011, when only 98 beds in the nation were available specifically for the care of trafficking victims. The organization now has served a total of 71 survivors, but it must turn away four or five victims every week.Law enforcers desperately need access to more care centers, as officers don't have the capacity to treat drug-addicted victims, said Chavis.It's tough to expand services when staffing is so costly, Tweddale said.Hudson said.Federal lawmakers will seriously consider how to support organizations like Lily Pad Haven, but it's anyone's guess how long those efforts may take, Hudson told CJ.Raising awareness remains critical, since so few realize the trade is an everyday horror for people in North Carolina communities, said Sherry Earnhardt, a board member for the Triad Ladder of Hope.When explaining modern American conservatism to students, both young and not-so-young, I mix my methods. There are tables and charts. There are lengthy readings from ancient, medieval, and modern thinkers. There are philosophical arguments. And there are stories, lots of stories - comedies, tragedies, analogies, and parables.Among the latter, a favorite of mine is Chesterton's Fence . The British writer G.K. Chesterton introduced it in his 1929 book The Thing. An illustration of the critical importance of tacit knowledge, the parable began with Chesterton imagining a fence or gate across a road.Chesterton wrote.Notice that Chesterton didn't say the fence - representing social institutions, traditional ways of doing things - shouldn't be removed. Both characters in the parable are "reformers." Rather, Chesterton's point was that institutions and traditions have histories. Over the course of time, many people apparently thought them useful or valuable.These people could be mistaken, of course. Human beings are fallible. But the fallibility principle applies to past, present, and future humans. Forcibly changing things without fully understanding origins, complexities, and consequences can produce disaster.In his new book Suicide of the West Jonah Goldberg explores this thesis with wit, wisdom, and an infectious dose of intellectual curiosity. From his posts at the American Enterprise Institute National Review , the Los Angeles Times , and elsewhere, Goldberg has become a leading voice in American conservatism - or perhaps "voices" is the better term, as he sometimes plays the wry observer, sometimes the moral conscience, and sometimes the class clown.As it happens, Goldberg mixes his methods, too. He supplies plenty of empirical data and philosophical reasoning in support of his timely argument that the great economic, social, and political blessings of the Enlightenment are imperiled by the persistence of cognitive biases, tribal identities, and the emotionally gratifying but practically foolish schemes of progressives and populists.Still, Goldberg knows that human beings are chiefly a storytelling species. We aren't walking encyclopedias or abacuses. Indeed, he follows the lead of Israeli historian Yuval Harrari in saying thatSuch stories of civilization aren't simply pleasant (or unpleasant) fictions. They are relational, foundational, and form the first step in the journey to truth. They bind communities together. They defend necessary social institutions against corruption by our own primal natures.I can't do justice to Jonah Goldberg's extensive argument, which ranges from anthropology studies, John Locke's politics, and Joseph Schumpeter's economics to Brave New World, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones. But I can pass along one of his parables.Goldberg posits that the Enlightenment-era classical liberalism that produce "the Miracle" - the unprecedented surge in human wellbeing of the past two centuries - is both indispensable and artificial. "Imagine a brand-new car in a field," Goldberg writes. "Left untouched for a decade or two, it will still be the same car." But it will show signs of corrosion and decay. A century later, "a passerby will find a shell and some relics." After a thousand years, "it may be like there was never a car there at all." Constitutional government, free enterprise, the voluntary associations that form civil society - they are just as subject to corrosion and decay.> Goldberg later warns,After reading Suicide of the West, you may well grab the nearest farming implement and join us. I'll be the one holding the ax.CHARLESTON, S.C. and HARPENDEN, United Kingdom, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- weatherXchange, the platform which helps companies access index-based weather risk protection, is pleased to announce the expansion of the Instantaneous Indicative Pricing service to include zero premium swaps. The addition of indicative swap pricing will further streamline the structuring and price quoting process in the weather market.



Instantaneous Indicative Pricing allows for improved price discovery of weather hedges. Protection Sellers benefit from reduced workload associated with manual pricing as indicative prices are calculated by a software application using configurable pricing algorithms hosted on each Protection Sellers servers. Hedgers benefit from having an indication of costs before finally contacting a Protection Seller for firm pricing. Instantaneous indicative prices are currently provided by five participating Protection Sellers: AXA Global Parametrics, Coriolis Capital Ltd, MSI GuaranteedWeather, Munich Re, and Sompo Global Weather.

The launch of Instantaneous Indicative Pricing has been a huge success for the weather market and weatherXchange, said David Whitehead Co-CEO of weatherXchange. Since the launch we have seen a constant stream of new hedgers and broker-advisors approaching the market using these newly developed tools. Michael Moreno, Co-CEO of weatherXchange added, When we talk to users of the platform the most requested feature is the support of zero premium swaps. These structures are commonly used tools by the energy markets to hedge weather risk. This technological breakthrough will further improve market efficiency while improving the workflow of both hedgers and brokers.

About weatherXchange

weatherXchange Limited is part of the Speedwell Weather group of companies which have been involved in the index-based weather risk market since its earliest days in 1999. weatherXchange is an independent platform which provides free access to thousands of quality weather data sets worldwide and a user-friendly tool to simplify the design of weather protection contracts. weatherXchange links Hedgers, Broker-Advisors and Protection Sellers thereby helping businesses with weather risk to more easily access weather risk protection. The weatherXchange Platform also offers post-transaction services necessary to settle a transaction and to monitor the performance of a hedge.

For further information on weatherXchange please visit www.weatherXchange.com or contact: ClientOnBoarding@weatherXchange.com.

If your firm is experienced in the weather risk mitigation sector and is interested in working with weatherXchange as a Broker-Advisor please contact NewPartners@weatherXchange.com.

weatherXchange Limited is registered in England number 3790989 and authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Its registered address is Mardall House, 9-11 Vaughan Road, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 4HU. weatherXchange Limited is exempt from the requirement to hold an Australian financial services licence under the Corporations Act 2001 in respect of financial services. The FCA operate under UK legislation which differs from Australian.

David Whitehead

Co-CEO

weatherXchange

418 King St, Floor 2, Charleston, SC 29403, USA

T: +1 (843) 737-4843

E: david.whitehead@weatherxchange.com

Web: www.weatherXchange.comDave Cullen's Columbine Lecture Link Predicting Crime Link Juvenile Rights Link Bowling for Columbine Movie Link Lockheed Martin Weapons Interview Link We have all the experience needed to "Call the Question".In parliamentary procedure, the previous question (also known as "calling for the question", "calling the question", "close debate", "calling for a vote", "vote now", or other similar forms) is generally used as a motion to end debate on a pending proposal and bring it to an immediate vote.In the future perfect AI (artificial intelligence) world, we will predict who will be our next killer. But who is going to intervene?In 2013, Virginia became the first state to pass legislation requiring each local school board to adopt policies for threat assessment teams. The teams include experts in counseling, instruction, school administration, and law enforcement.University of Virginia professor Dewey Cornell, who helped develop the Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guideline, told PolitiFact that it may be impossible to prevent all school shootings, but a simple focus on building security is "terribly short-sighted."Cornell said.Maybe Michael Moore is correct ...we are a violent nation and maybe we can observe the mental health of students. Someday, police will have time to prevent crime and solve crime. Someday criminals will obey gun laws.The first line of defense is a secure school with armed security guards. The second line is identifying potential killers and keeping them out of general population. The third line is gun control for potential killers.The 80/20 rule suggests that a 20 per cent effort will solve 80 per cent of the problem.Last thought on school security: The old idea of police surrounding the school is replaced with the new idea of entering the school during the shootings. The only problem is that several students will be injured by friendly fire.If you ask my opinion, I would say the problem will not be solved in my lifetime. We are a Prozac Nation with angry diverse populations and Liberals are adding to children's' confusion of their role in society. Young Black men are killing each other dozens each night in the Ghettos. Young men enter the military knowing their duty is to protect us from the enemy.Call the question. This is a problem without a solution.A story from Community College psychology course: I young man was repeatedly reported to the police for capturing and slaughtering neighborhood pets. Child psychologist never cured him; he never attended reform school. He went on to become a world famous brain surgeon.Then he got into the good stuff.Trump said that Barack Obama's Iran dealbut that the dealThis is eminently correct. All of the deal's proponents who suggest that Iran's nuclear ambitions were curbed by the deal are, quite simply, lying - Iran's ambitions were merely postponed, with the knowledge that a full nuclear breakout in 2025 would result in zero sanctions of any kind. As Trump stated,Trump mentioned that Israeli-garnered intelligence showed that Iran had lied repeatedly about its ambitions - that it wanted to develop nuclear weapons all along. The deal, Trump concluded,As Trump pointed out, Iran's military budget "has grown by almost 40 percent," and the mullahs used the new moneyTrump concluded:Trump is, of course, absolutely correct across the board. And despite the Obama team's shrieks of outrage - and their obvious attempts to play defense for one of the worst regimes on the planet - Trump is right to remove the United States from this deal. Here's why.For all the reasons Trump mentions, this deal never should have been signed. Team Obama lied brazenly to the American people about the newfound moderation of the Rouhani government; the Rouhani government is a terrorist government. The deal does nothing about Iran's missile programs or terror funding. The United States now provides cash to pay for both. And Iran has no intention of disarming; they'll merely delay until it's worthwhile not to do so anymore.The deal didn't merely remove sanctions on Iran. It effectively blocked America's allies from doing anything to stop the Iranian nuclear forward motion. If Israel and Saudi Arabia had attacked Iranian facilities, they would have been cross-ways with the United States and the Europeans. The deal effectively made Tehran an ally, and our real allies enemies.Obama worked out a pathetic arrangement with Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) to reverse the normal course of procedure for treaty approval - instead of 60 senators being required to greenlight a treaty, now it would take 60 senators to kill the treaty. That was never Constitutional. Trump is right to abrogate the deal on those grounds alone.Since 2015, the pace of Iran-backed Syrian slaughter has only increased; Hezbollah has effectively taken over all of Lebanon; Hamas has re-armed with Iranian help; Yemen has devolved into Iranian-backed chaos. Iran has ratcheted up its terrorist programs since it became clear that the United States would not back its allies against Iran in any serious way.After the Iraq War, Muammar Qaddafi gave up his nuclear program, knowing that there was a serious possibility that the United States would take action. After the Iran nuclear deal, the North Korean regime even more loudly pursued nuclear development, knowing that it would earn goodies from the United States. By pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and making it clear that there are continuing consequences for dictatorships seeking nuclear weapons, Trump has made it obvious to North Korea that their best move here is to disarm, and to do so with credible methods of enforcement.No, killing the deal won't lead to US-led war in Iran - Trump has no such desire. But it could and should lead to concerted action by America's allies, both economic and military, if need be. The false binary presented by the Obama team was always a horrible lie, a propagandistic effort to paint foreign policy hawks into the corner.The Iran deal was a disaster. Trump is right to kill it.And the Obama team's new attempts to curry favor with terrorists in Tehran should tell you everything you need to know about their agenda in the first place.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.Tom Campbell

The legislature comes to Raleigh Wednesday for the "short session" and opening day promises to be far more exciting than most years. Lawmakers will be greeted by crowds of teachers and educators, projected to be as large as 10,000, showing up to Rally in Raleigh in support of public education.Teachers can also be learners. They have watched protests and walkouts in Oklahoma, West Virginia, Kentucky and Wisconsin and from them have learned that when they gather in significant numbers and present a unified message they can get the attention of and action from politicians. The goals for Wednesday's rally are to advocate for higher teacher pay for veteran teachers, to seek additional funding for textbooks and school support personnel and also to show their concern over the diversion of priorities and funding from public schools in favor of private school vouchers.North Carolina doesn't allow either formal teacher unions or strikes, but that doesn't prohibit what is essentially a work slowdown from teachers who collectively choose to take personal leave the same day. So many have requested leave that many school systems, especially larger ones, cancelled classes for May 16th, partly to express solidarity with teachers, but the reality is that current estimates indicate that more than one-third of all students could face empty classrooms that day, far exceeding the number of substitute teachers systems could find.It will not surprise you that legislators and conservatives blame this on NCAE, Democrats and Governor Cooper, adding it is unconscionable to prevent our children from receiving a day of education. Parents will be forced to either find alternative childcare or to stay home from work. Educators claim this rally would be unnecessary if our lawmakers had adequately funded teachers and public schools. Does it feel like we've heard this song before?But legislative leaders are pretty good at judging wind direction and have learned from recent teacher protests in other states. Like good surfers they decided that they couldn't stop this wave, so they should do their best to ride with it. Before the opening gavel signals the start of session next week House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger announced they have reached consensus on a $23.9 billion budget to begin July 1st. And surprise, surprise, even though noticeably short on detail, they happily proclaimed that this budget would include pay raises for teachers and state employees. It is, after all, an election year.Those promised raises are a long way from being finalized, however if crowd sizes come anywhere close to projections we suspect that the sight of all those teachers on Halifax Mall will be enough to cause die hard penny pinchers on Jones street to get religion. It is, after all, an election year.Make no mistake. Just as the shots fired at Concord signaled the beginning of the Revolutionary War in 1775, this year will be chronicled as the year teachers found their voices and leveled the playing field a little bit with lawmakers. Our hope is that they will use this new found strength and power not just to receive more pay, but to effect meaningful and measurable improvements for the more than 1.5 million students in our state.We will be watching and learning.Contact: White House

White House Press Office

On May 11, 2004, pursuant to his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 50 U.S.C. 1701-1706, and the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003, Public Law 108-175, the President issued Executive Order 13338, in which he declared a national emergency with respect to the actions of the Government of Syria. To deal with this national emergency, Executive Order 13338 authorized the blocking of property of certain persons and prohibited the exportation or reexportation of certain goods to Syria. The national emergency was modified in scope and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13399 of April 25, 2006, Executive Order 13460 of February 13, 2008, Executive Order 13572 of April 29, 2011, Executive Order 13573 of May 18, 2011, Executive Order 13582 of August 17, 2011, Executive Order 13606 of April 22, 2012, and Executive Order 13608 of May 1, 2012.The President took these actions to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the actions of the Government of Syria in supporting terrorism, maintaining its then-existing occupation of Lebanon, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and missile programs, and undermining United States and international efforts with respect to the stabilization and reconstruction of Iraq.The regime's brutality and repression of the Syrian people, who have been calling for freedom and a representative government, not only endangers the Syrian people themselves, but also generates instability throughout the region. The Syrian regime's actions and policies, including with respect to chemical weapons, supporting terrorist organizations, and obstructing the Lebanese government's ability to function effectively, continue to foster the rise of extremism and sectarianism and pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States. As a result, the national emergency declared on May 11, 2004, and the measures to deal with that emergency adopted on that date in Executive Order 13338; on April 25, 2006, in Executive Order 13399; on February 13, 2008, in Executive Order 13460; on April 29, 2011, in Executive Order 13572; on May 18, 2011, in Executive Order 13573; on August 17, 2011, in Executive Order 13582; on April 22, 2012, in Executive Order 13606; and on May 1, 2012, in Executive Order 13608, must continue in effect beyond May 11, 2018. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared with respect to the actions of the Government of Syria.In addition, the United States condemns the Assad regime's use of brutal violence and human rights abuses and calls on the Assad regime to stop its violence against the Syrian people, uphold the Cessation of Hostilities, enable the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and allow a political transition in Syria that will forge a credible path to a future of greater freedom, democracy, opportunity, and justice.The United States will consider changes in the composition, policies, and actions of the Government of Syria in determining whether to continue or terminate this national emergency in the future.This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.An LPN in Philadelphia was arrested today over the death of H.R. McMaster Sr., an Army veteran and the father of former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.

McMaster Sr. was staying at Cathedral Village, a senior living community, to recover and receive rehabilitation following a stroke. He arrived at the facility on April 9th and by April 13th he was gone, dead from blunt force trauma suffered from a fall. He was 84 years old.

Nurse Charged with Manslaughter

Cathedral Villages own policy dictated that staff should routinely monitor for cognitive changes in residents who are a known fall risk. Mr. McMaster Sr. was alone just before midnight on April 12th when he fell in his room and hit his head. A CNA found him and reported it to Christann Shyvin Gainey, an LPN working at Cathedral Village via General Health Care Resources, one of the largest nursing and allied health staffing agencies on the east coast.

Instead of following protocol and performing regularly scheduled checks for neurological impairment, Ms. Gainey left him in a wheelchair in the hallway where he ultimately died in the early hours of April 13.

In order to cover up her failure to do her job, Ms. Gainey changed Mr. McMasters records to indicate that she had performed multiple neurological assessments, including one performed nearly 20 minutes after he had died. She admitted to supervisors that she had falsified documents to look like she had performed 8 checks in order to save her fellow nurses from having to do them. Security camera footage verified that Gainey performed none of those checks on Mr. McMaster.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a press conference that Christann Gainey is being charged with involuntary manslaughter, neglect of a care-dependent person and records tampering. He went on to say that a family should never have to hear that their elderly loved one died alone in a hallway. Shapiro commented This nurse ignored her job responsibilities, falsified paperwork, lied to her supervisors and neglected Mr. McMaster, who died.

It is unclear if the family intends to pursue civil action against the nursing home.



Falls Deaths Can Be Prevented

The elderly are at risk for falls even without the presence of a physical, mental, or health condition. As we age, our vision begins to worsen, we lose strength, agility, and sense of balance, and we are more likely to be taking medications that may also impair our ability to safely move around. When a nursing home resident has a health condition that affects their balance, a fall prevention plan must be created uniquely for that resident. The plan should specify activities and movements that require assistance, such as getting out of bed, bathing or navigating hallways.

While a fall might sometimes be inevitable, many times they are preventable. Alarms can help notify nursing home staff that a resident is attempting to move and frequent staff checks can help ensure that a resident isnt attempting to perform a task or activity that might cause them to fall. Just as important as a fall prevention plan is a fall care plan, or a list of essential checks that must be done to ensure that no cognitive or physical impairment or injury has been sustained. While Mr. McMasters fall might not have been able to be prevented, had the LPN performed the proper checks, staff would have been able to identify that he was suffering from a brain bleed that ultimately caused his death just 8 hours later.

If someone you love has fallen in a nursing home and has suffered neurological or physical impairment, injury, or even death, the nursing home abuse and neglect attorneys of Chicagos Levin & Perconti want to help you. In 1992, we became one of the first firms in the country to dedicate ourselves to pursuing justice for elderly victims of nursing home abuse and neglect. Since then, we have successfully litigated and settled numerous cases against nursing homes throughout Illinois and in nearly every area of Chicago. Contact us now for a free consultation at 312-332-2872 or click here to complete our online case evaluation form.'Dual Arrests' in Domestic Violence May Soon Be Illegal in Connecticut

Trying to sort out domestic violence incidents can be notoriously tricky. Tensions are high (sometimes literally, involving drugs or alcohol), facts are few, and stories often conflict.

Rather than ask patrol officers to become Sherlock Holmes, many jurisdictions allowed "dual arrests" in incidents of domestic assault, where officers arrested both the perpetrator and the victim. But the Connecticut Legislature just passed a bill aimed at ending victims of domestic violence being arrested along with their abusers.

Dueling Interests

For years, police were accused of failing to properly respond to domestic violence allegations. Whether it was the inability to figure out the party responsible for the incident, or the thought that both parties would be treated equally and should be forced to "cool off," police began to arrest victims as well as aggressors about 30 years ago.

Victims' advocates have criticized dual arrests, claiming the targets of violence were further victimized by the arrest, facing humiliation, the cost of hiring a lawyer, and the prospect of a criminal record. "If victims get arrested, they can lose their house and lose their children," said Connecticut Representative William Tong, one of the bill's biggest backers. "The effects go far beyond the instance of abuse or battery."

Aggressor Arrests

Connecticut, whose dual arrest rate was almost 10 times the national average, will join Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York in limiting dual arrests, if the governor signs the bill as expected. Massachusetts urges officers to make an arrest in domestic violence cases, or do a mandatory write-up in dual arrest instances. Connecticut's new law will require officers to determine which party is the dominant aggressor, or who initiated the abuse, in domestic violence situations, and discourage officers from arresting victims just because they fight back during an assault.

If you have more questions about domestic violence laws, or have been arrested in a domestic incident, contact an experienced criminal defense attorney as soon as possible.

Related Resources:Satellite laser communications trial using ADVA FSP 3000 CloudConnectTM key step to closing digital divide

Munich, Germany. May 10, 2018. ADVA (FSE: ADV) today announced that, together with the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt DLR), it has set a new data transmission record for free-space laser communications. The trial, which emulated a ground to a geostationary satellite link, succeeded in transmitting 13.16Tbit/s of data over a distance of 10.45km a vital step towards delivering high-speed broadband to rural and underdeveloped areas. The ADVA FSP 3000 CloudConnectTM platform was crucial to the trial, transporting huge amounts of data and managing extreme levels of atmospheric turbulence. DLR developed the free-space terminal technology that coupled a fast varying, distorted wavefront into a fiber with a cross-section smaller than a human hair. The record-breaking trial is key to DLR's aim of enabling broadband coverage based on affordable satellite links.

"This trial is a significant milestone in the evolution of stable, high-speed communication via satellite. It's showing the industry that multi-Terabits of data can be transported every second via satellites using free-space laser communications," said Christoph Gunther, director, DLR Institute of Communications and Navigation. "One of our core aims is helping to achieve global connectivity and this test is a big part of realizing that goal. Through a lot of close collaboration between the DLR and ADVA teams, we've been able to demonstrate that this approach is not only feasible but that it's ready to be used to transmit the enormous amounts of data needed for tomorrow's users. Setting this benchmark brings high-speed broadband for everyone a step closer to reality."

The demonstration involved a laser connection between a ground station in Weilheim, Germany, and a mock satellite more than 10km away on the mountain Hohenpeienberg. The distance and speed both break new ground with the figure of 13.16Tbit/s nearly eight times the DLR's previous record. At this data rate, all printed books in the world could be transmitted in about half a minute. The feat was made possible by ADVA's technology including its QuadFlexTM line cards. These support high-order coherent modulation schemes and enabled each wavelength to carry 200Gbit/s payload data using dual-polarization 16QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) and strong soft-decision forward error correction. Atmospheric turbulence in the terrestrial link was equivalent to that experienced in a worst-case scenario between ground and geostationary satellites.

"Together with the DLR team, we're helping shape the future of connectivity. This trial shows the full potential of free-space laser links to transform communications across the globe. We're proud that our FSP 3000 CloudConnectTM is making it possible," commented Jorg-Peter Elbers, SVP, advanced technology, ADVA. "Throughout the tests, the stability of the connection was vital. Even short interruptions of only milliseconds mean Gigabits of lost data. Thankfully, our FSP 3000 CloudConnectTM is one of the most resilient platforms on the market. This trial is about delivering the transformative power of the internet to communities and countries that need it most. By enabling affordable, reliable broadband via satellite at speeds that make a difference, we really are helping to close the digital divide."

About ADVA Optical Networking

ADVA Optical Networking is a company founded on innovation and driven to help our customers succeed. For over two decades, our technology has empowered networks across the globe. We're continually developing breakthrough hardware and software that leads the networking industry and creates new business opportunities. It's these open connectivity solutions that enable our customers to deliver the cloud and mobile services that are vital to today's society and for imagining new tomorrows. Together, we're building a truly connected and sustainable future. For more information on how we can help you, please visit us at: www.advaoptical.com.

Published by:

ADVA Optical Networking SE, Munich, Germany

www.advaoptical.com

For press:

Gareth Spence

T +44 1904 699 358

public-relations(at)advaoptical.com

For investors:

Stephan Rettenberger

t +49 89 890 665 854

investor-relations(at)advaoptical.comI've eaten durian a few times. Weighing as much as ten pounds, the hard greenish shell of this Southeast Asian fruit is studded with hard spikes, like some kind of living medieval weapon. Growing at the tops of trees up to 40 feet tall, durian fruits have been known to drop from branches and kill people below.

It takes a mighty thwack of a machete to persuade a durian to yield its cache of grayish-yellow sluglike pods. With an odor somewhere between sweetened garlic and pig manure, the fruit's stench is so overpowering that it can be smelled through a car's closed trunk.

To me, durian tastes like rotten bananas mixed with garlic and a drop of gasoline. And the aftertaste remains on your tongue for at least 24 hours, even after you brush your tongue with toothpaste. Despite  or more likely, because  durian is so foul, it's considered a delicacy by millions of people. People love it or hate it, there is no in-between. Those who adore it as "The King of Fruit" in its native Indonesia, Malaysia, and especially Thailand (which dominates its export market) are willing to fork over what amounts to a month's salary for a prime specimen. In Singapore alone, $30 million worth of the fetid fruit slithers down gullets of fearless gourmands each year. The governments of several Asian countries forbid people from bringing durian onto any type of public transportation. Most hotels have a ban on the fruit, and rental car agencies issue fines for cars that are returned smelling of durian.

Many visitors to Malaysia and Thailand are tempted to try durian. Here are some reports published on the Internet:

"I nearly vomited from the smell alone. I would describe it as a cross between dirty diapers and propane."

"It's like eating ice cream in a sewer."

"It really does smell like decaying flesh combined with rotting eggs."

"It was similar to eating a cheesecake covered with a layer of feces"

"That is the single most disgusting thing I've ever experienced in my life; get it out of my face."

In the video above, Crazy Russian Hacker tries durian for the first time. His experience was similar to mine. At first, it tastes pretty good, but every subsequent bite gets worse, until you feel sick.

Portions if the text above are from my book, The World's Worst.

The Grenfell Towers fire was one of the most deadly fires in modern British history, killing at least 72 people, with no way to know how many more may have died.



The fire was particularly vicious because the building had been sheathed in an extremly flammable cladding, in part because residents of nearby luxury flats felt the poorly maintained facade was an eyesore.

Now, leaked documents reveal that the original plan had been to clad the building in fireproof materials, but that the Conservative councillors from Kensington and Chelsea (whose financial footing was "robust") rejected that proposal in order to save 200,000 on a total bill of 3.5 million.



There was sustained pressure from the council to cut costs on the project despite the authority being in "robust" financial health, according to accounts for 2014. It had 235m in usable reserves and had underspent its budget for services by 23m. The council had originally only wanted to spend 6m on Grenfell, but later set the budget at 9.7m when it realised it also needed to replace the heating system. In July 2013, however, the council's housing committee reported that Leadbitter, which was interested in the nonflammable cladding, was on course to spend 11.3m and so it put the contract out to tender and launched a cost-cutting programme which it called "value engineering". The following summer, with Rydon on board, the council's tenants management organisation emailed the project team: "We need good costs for Cllr Feilding-Mellen [deputy leader in charge of housing]." At that point 300,000 was removed from the cladding budget and zinc panels were replaced with the aluminium composite material with the plastic core.



Grenfell Tower: fire-resistant cladding plan was dropped

[Robert Booth/The Guardian]

(via Naked Capitalism)Police in Rialto, California have released bodycam footage of an incident in which Bob Marley's granddaughter was detained when a white neighbor reported her for suspected burglary. Donisha Prendergast was merely staying at an Airbnb, on her vacation, with friends, while Black.

The Rialto Police Department was served Monday with a notification of pending legal action on behalf of Prendergast and two others, Komi-Oluwa Olafimihan and Kelly Fyffe-Marshall.

From USA Today:

In a Facebook post, Fyffe-Marshall, a filmmaker, detailed the group's experience saying they were surrounded by seven police cars and a helicopter as officers demanded they put their hands in the air. While the group was joking at the misunderstanding at first, she said things escalated about 20 minutes into the encounter. The officers said they didn't know what Airbnb was, asked for proof of the rental and detained the women for 45 minutes, Fyffe-Marshall continued. She said the reason the neighbor called the police was because the group didn't wave to her.

Prendergast and two friends were detained by police as they left the Airbnb rental where they'd been staying, while attending the Kaya fest in San Bernardino County. The rental was in a mostly white area.

On Thursday, the artists held a press conference in Harlem, and demanded a criminal investigation into the white neighbor who called the cops on them. The police refused to believe the Airbnb host even when they phoned and spoke to police. There's video of one of the Rialto cops telling them someone reported "there's three black people stealing stuff."

On her Instagram video, Prendergast said she "got surrounded by the police for being black in a white neighbourhood" and felt "sad and irritated."

From Buzzfeed's report:

"There was an individual that placed this racist call with false allegations to the Rialto Police Department on April 30th. And we want her held accountable," said attorney Jasmine Rand, who along with Benjamin Crump, is representing the three women. Activist and artist Donisha Prendergast  the eldest granddaughter of reggae legend Bob Marley  filmmaker Kelly Fyffe-Marshall and Afrofuturist artist Komi-Oluwa Olafimihan attended the Kaya Festival in nearby San Bernardino and stayed at an Airbnb for two nights, along with a white photographer friend. As the four left on April 30, a neighbor called the police and reported a suspected robbery, after they didn't wave hello at her as they placed their suitcases in their car. The identity of the neighbor is not public. Police cars and a helicopter responded, Rand said. She said police told her clients a neighbor had reported three black people acting suspiciously.

Airbnb's senior advisor Laura W. Murphy and director of national partnerships Janaye Ingram sent a letter [PDF] to the Rialto Mayor and Interim Chief of Police.

"We are deeply disturbed by the public reports suggesting that the police department's response was dictated by the guests' race," the letter said. "As African-American women who have seen the inequitable treatment of people of color, we know that these kinds of incidents are often rooted in implicit and explicit bias. They are hurtful, discriminatory, traumatic and must end."



[More: San Jose Mercury News]David Chasteen is a veteran of the CIA, who has also served in combat with the United States Army in Iraq, and elsewhere.

David just tweeted what amounts to the best response I've seen yet to Gina Haspel's behavior during her Senate confirmation hearing earlier this week. Didn't watch it on CSPAN or read the hot takes? Here's what she did: deny, obfuscate, justify, lie.

Haspel is President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Central Intelligence agency. She was involved in the destruction of CIA tapes that documented waterboarding of war-on-terror detainees, and she was involved in other agency endeavors that amounted to torture.

Haspel this week said torture is passe, and she wouldn't okay it now as CIA chief. This former rank-and-file CIA guy calls BS.

During CIA training in 2013, I was instructed that CIA officers are allowed to violate US law while conducting operations. I pushed back against this interpretation during class and was reprimanded for doing so. I have no reason to believe that that training has changed.  David Chasteen (@davidschasteen) May 10, 2018

In the Army, I received training on not just my right but my responsibility to disobey unlawful or immoral orders. No such training was part of the CIA's curriculum for DO officers during my tenure from 2006 to 2014. This is not part of the culture.  David Chasteen (@davidschasteen) May 10, 2018

All nations' intelligence agencies (and armies) break FOREIGN laws because espionage (and invasion) isn't legal. That's par for the course. But where soldiers have a rich tradition of moral philosophy, the CIA tends to respond with "we were just following orders."  David Chasteen (@davidschasteen) May 10, 2018

We hanged Nazis who used this defense. If the CIA is going to inculcate a tradition of respect for the rule of law, it's going to require a significant change in curriculum and some intelligence equivalent of courts martial empowered to actually enforce that law in the field.  David Chasteen (@davidschasteen) May 10, 2018

Related reading, below.

"Now I hear that Gina Haspel, who as a C.I.A. officer ran a black site in Thailand in 2002 that sounds like the one where I was tortured, has been chosen to lead the whole agency. " https://t.co/Ic4cBm9Pgk  ???? ?????? (@xeni) May 9, 2018

Remember, Haspel has said CIA record keeping is an adequate record of what CIA does. CIA records say Nashiri was also taped. pic.twitter.com/IQSWI6Y2EU  emptywheel (@emptywheel) May 10, 2018

The biggest danger of Haspel isn't, IMO, that she'll restart torture. It's that she'll use the same anti-democratic bureaucratic tactics CIA/she used w/torture to protect the agency after it executes another stupid order from POTUS.  emptywheel (@emptywheel) May 10, 2018

This smear vs @SenJohnMcCain has been debunked many times, including by @PolitiFact https://t.co/CoBpZXsNMV People who repeat the lie do so because he has vocally opposed torture, including by CIA. No surprise it's revived this week during Haspel hearing https://t.co/tCrZyz28GI  Indira Lakshmanan (@Indira_L) May 10, 2018

The latest Humble Bundle features dozens of Nebula-winning and Nebula-nominated novels and short stories from past and present, everyone from Octavia Butler and Ursula K Leguin to Samuel Delany and John Brunner, to say nothing of Kate Wilhelm, Joanna Russ, and four titles from Serial Box.

You get to name your price for the books and stories, with a minimum of $20 to get all $445 worth of ebooks; the files are multiformat, work on every reader and are DRM free. You get to apportion money to the writers/publishers and the Science Fiction Writers of America, whose special funds support writers with medical crises, grievances against publishers, and other emergencies.

Humble Book Bundle: Super Nebula Author Showcase 2018 presented by SFWA (pay what you want and help charity) [Humble Bundle]Back in 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in Riley v California, holding that border guards do not have unlimited authority to search our personal electronic devices when we cross the border, requiring individualized criminal suspicion before a search can take place.



Now, in U.S. v. Kolsuz, the first appellate ruling since Riley, the Fourth Circuit appeals court has held that it is unconstitutional for US border officials to subject visitors devices to forensic searches without individualized suspicion of criminal wrongdoing.

The Fourth Circuit didn't rule out the possibility that manual searches were also unconstitutional, but did not rule on the matter, and the ruling also suggests that warrants may be needed before border guards can undertake forensic searches of electronic devices.

Another case, Alasaad v. Nielsen, brought by EFF and the ACLU in Massachusetts, seeks to establish that warrants are required for all border device searches. The Electronic Frontier Foundation submitted an amicus brief in Kolsuz asking the court to require warrants for all border device searches.



The Fourth Circuit's ruling applies only to forensic, not manual, searches of electronic devices at the border because Kolsuz only challenged the use of the evidence obtained from the forensic search of his cell phone is his prosecution. "We have no occasion here to consider whether Riley calls into question the permissibility of suspicionless manual searches of digital devices at the border," the court said. While we're heartened that the Fourth Circuit left open the possibility that manual searches may also require individualized suspicion, we disagree with the court's unsupported statement that "the distinction between manual and forensic searches is a perfectly manageable one," given that manual searches of electronic devices enable government agents to access virtually the same personal information as forensic searches.



Fourth Circuit Rules That Suspicionless Forensic Searches of Electronic Devices at the Border Are Unconstitutional

[Sophia Cope/EFF]Net Neutrality is extraordinarily, improbably popular with Americans: 87% of Americans have both heard of Net Neutrality and believe it should be protected; virtually the only opponents Net Neutrality has are telcoms lobbyists and politicians who've had money funneled their way through telcoms PACs and direct contributions.



Luckily for Congress, Net Neutrality was killed by the FCC, and that meant that Congresscritters didn't have to go on record with a position on Net Neutrality during an election year.

Until now.





The Congressional Review Act lets Congress and the Senate overrule administrative agencies like the FCC, but it takes a simple majority in each house to call the vote. Pro Neutrality Senators think they've got that majority: 48 Democratic Senators, plus Angus King (I-ME) Susan Collins (R-ME) make it 50, and with John McCain hospitalized with cancer, only one more Republican needs to flip, and three of them seem ready to do so (Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), John Kennedy (R-LA), Rob Portman (R-OH).

It's unlikely that Congress and the Senate will actually vote to repeal Ajit Pai's Net Neutrality-killing order, but just getting every politician to put their name next to a vote one way or the other will make it easier to turn Net Neutrality into an election issue in October.

The Senate has forced a vote to restore net neutrality [Russell Brandom/The Verge]

(Image: Free Press, CC-BY-SA)LOS ANGELES, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via OTC PR WIRE-- Full Alliance Group, Inc. (OTC PINK:FAGI) ("Full Alliance Group" or the "Company"), a holding company, is pleased to announce that in a continued effort to expand operations of its newly-acquired subsidiaries MY PAY and Kelevra Digital Solutions SA de CV (Kelevra Digital Solutions), met with Visa and Finnovista representatives this week in Mexico City as part of Visas Everywhere Initiative.



Visa is aggressively targeting Latin America and the Caribbean for service offering expansion and is meeting with select financial services provider start-ups. Desired financial services targets are capable of meeting diverse local market needs by transforming payment services and commerce in the region. Visas Everywhere Initiative is a global innovation program that tasks start-ups like MY PAY with solving payment and commerce challenges, enhancing their product offerings, and providing visionary solutions for Visas partner network.

Full Alliance executives met with Visa and Finnovista representatives to discuss potential collaboration for the initiative. Mr. Galvan Lopez, Vice President of Business Development for Latin America, represented Full Alliance Group. Mr. Galvan Lopez is the architect behind MY PAY, our innovative POS Banking and Financial Service, Smartphone banking, and bill payment solution. MY PAY removes obstacles to financial services currently faced by the majority of the population in Latin America. The MY PAY platform provides competitive technology tools to underserved markets including the unbanked and small businesses like grocery stores, drug stores, hardware stores, etc.

The Company believes MY PAY and Kelevra Digital Solutions are positioned to grow significantly within the domestic Mexican financial services and FinTech markets. This will allow the Company to leverage international opportunities as well as benefit from synergies with other Full Alliance Group companies.

The Full Alliance Group is excited to participate in additional meetings over the next few weeks and anticipates making further announcements regarding Visas Everywhere Initiative program as the process moves forward.

Sincerely,

Jacob Thomas

Chairman / CEO

About Full Alliance Group Inc.

Full Alliance Group Inc. (OTC PINK:FAGI) is a multi-faceted holding company with varied interests in banking and point-of-sale (POS) technology, financial services, real estate, nutraceuticals and computer software development. Full Alliance Group provides investment capital, modern business practices, and best-in-class management to assist growing companies to reach their greatest potential.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This shareholder update may contain a number of forward-looking statements. Words and variations of words such as: "expect", "goals", "could", "plans", "believe", "continue", "may", "will" and similar expressions are intended to identify our forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: our expectation for growth, benefits from brand-building, cost savings and margins. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated in our forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: continued volatility of, and sharp increase in: costs/pricing actions, increased competition, risks from operating internationally, consumer weakness, weakness in economic conditions and tax law changes.When Trump whined this morning in one of his usual bully boy name-calling tweets, Senator Chuck Schumer had the perfect response. Schumer reminded the insecure president of his wife Melania's no cyberbullying #BeBest initiative, launched just this week.

Bully boy's tweet:

Senator Cryin' Chuck Schumer fought hard against the Bad Iran Deal, even going at it with President Obama, & then Voted AGAINST it! Now he says I should not have terminated the deal  but he doesn't really believe that! Same with Comey. Thought he was terrible until I fired him!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

Schumer's response:

Not sure if the orange font in Schumer's tweet was intentional, but it's a nice touch.

Via Washington Post

Image: 14398/pixabayNews / National

by Staff reporter

MDC-T has unveiled the list of potential candidates who will battle it out in internal elections for a ticket to represent the party in the coming general elections.Acting chairman, Morgen Komichi said MDC-T has approved CVs from 512 candidates for the 141 National Assembly seats the party had allocated itself in the MDC Alliance deal."We are heartened that over 3 000 people have submitted their CVs with the wish of being able to represent the MDC-T, which is contesting the forth coming elections under the banner of MDC Alliance," he said.Nelson Chamisa's spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka will abandon his secretariat job and head into the political arena, as he guns for Goromonzi West, where he will fight it out with Taurai Killford and Anna Denhere.A battle looms large in Kuwadzana East, where party deputy treasurer-general, Chalton Hwende faces Shakespear Mukoyi, known for leading the vanguard, and Wellton Janjasi.Jameson Timba will face Samuel Banda for the Mount Pleasant constituency, with the winner set to battle it out with Zanu PF's Jason Passade and independent candidate, Fadzayi Mahere.In Mabvuku, it is the battle of two Jameses, as former broadcaster, James Maridadi will battle it out with James Chidhakwa, while in Highfield West, youth leader, Happymore Chidziva will have to fight it out with Simon Hove and Biggy Moyo Shumba.In Mbare, Starman Chamisa will face off with Mujarira Pawo, Paul Horekore, Munyaradzi Mapukute and Richard Machona.Late MDC-T president, Morgan Tsvangirai's daughter, Vimbai, is eyeing Glen View South, where she will face Wellington Kanyana and Simbiso Demba.MDC-T, which had not managed to field candidates in all the country's wards in the past, have said this time, they would contest everywhere."In the past, we have fallen short by about 400 councillors, but in this election, we are going to field 100%," Komichi said."Let me say this time, we even have candidates in resettlement areas and we have a footprint in all wards."MDC-T Alliance partners will select their own candidates.News / National

by TellZim

An enraged man who was in court on charge of fondling a woman without her consent, stormed out of the dock and threatened magistrate Caroline Tafira whom he felt, as a female magistrate, was not fit to handle such a case.Tatenda Mkanganwi (22) of Tabungaidzwa village under Chief Mkanganwi had to be restrained by security officers who were attending the court after he told the magistrate that she was too junior for him and that she did not know him well.He lashed out at the magistrate, telling her she was too young to send him to jail after she had pronounced that he be remanded in custody for continuation of trial."Une sure here iwe kuti ungandiendesa kujeri, uri mwana mudokosa, ndokurovesa, wakajaidzwa mukadzi iwe. (Are you sure that you can send me to jail? You are too young, I will beat you up. You don't know me very well)," said Mkanganwi as he jumped over the dock to where the magistrate was.Magistrate Tafira had to remand Mkanganwi in custody and ordered him to be examined by two doctors before he could be brought back to court.News / National

by Staff reporter

MDC Alliance president, Nelson Chamisa will win the upcoming general elections but President Emerson Mnangagwa will not relinquish power and civil war will be fought before the two men unite for an inclusive government, self-styled prophet Arnold Chikosi has said.In an interview, Chikosi, of the Prophetic Generation Global Church, said he had a vision of Chamisa winning the election by a wide margin, but with Mnangagwa refusing to let go.He said the nation was agitated as the incumbent refused to hand over power, with a full blown civil war only coming to an end through a government of national unity which accommodated many MDC officials.He said he saw honey and milk flowing after the inclusive government as investors began establishing businesses in Zimbabwe."I came across a dream, where Mnangagwa was refusing to hand over power to Chamisa after he had won resoundingly."I saw a civil war, and a lot of blood was spilled but an inclusive government was formed afterwards and I saw Zimbabweans enjoying as most senior people from the MDC Alliance were holding influential posts in the new government," said Chikosi, who claimed a number of local politicians have visited him to seek his blessings in the primary elections.News / National

by Staff reporter

A Harare woman has revealed that her husband was a fake pastor and was in the habit of sending her mysterious messages following a misunderstanding in their marriage.The matter came to light when Johana Mahachi opened up at the Harare Civil court seeking for a peace order against Mazvarire Mabuge.She told the court that her husband had lied that he was a pastor and only to realise the truth after getting married."Your Worship, this man told me that he was a pastor and I only came to know the truth after we got married."He is a liar and he was sending me mysterious messages saying he was ready to die."He also sent me presents and at one point he sent a dirty $5, I do not understand the reason."I want this court to stop him texting and bar him from going to my parent's place of residence because I no longer love him," she said.In response Mabuge refuted the claims."Johana is my wife and we are legally married but she is under pressure from her parents who are influencing her."When we got married she told me she was positive and I told her that we should stop having a child since she was not taking some tablets."This is the reason why we are having these problems that led her to move to South Africa," he said.Presiding magistrate Manase Masiiwa granted peace order in Mahachi's favour.Opinion / Columnist

Whenever there is development or an achievement of any sort, it is the norm for people to commend such progress.The Government of Zimbabwe must be applauded for appreciating the services offered by its employees, through among other incentives increasing their salaries, a situation which many people believed was long overdue in that sector.Local press reported this week that Government offered a 10 percent salary increment to all civil servants with effect from the first of July 2018.This is a major development as for a long time since the era of the former President Robert Mugabe, civil servants' salaries have not been reviewed, a situation which promoted disgruntlement in the public service sector. A number of civil servants' union boards had been threatening to down tools, as a way of presenting their grievances to the Government.However, with the new administration in power, civil servants should place their hopes on President Emmerson Mnangagwa's Government which have their interest at heart. In that vein, civil servants should expect more incentives from their employer which may be non-monetary.Most Government employees had thought that their employer had forgotten their concerns, but, their worries are being addressed and resolved.Civil servants should be reminded that their welfare is in safe hands. The current increment of their salaries is just the beginning. Government will continue upgrading their living standards through other non-monetary incentives which includes housing stands among other benefits. Already, President Mnangagwa pledged that Zimbabwe would be a middle income economy by 2030.The fact that the new dispensation is working tirelessly to mend the ailing economy and at the same time vow to increase the civil servants salary means it is indeed a Government of the people. Before the new Government, civil servants were promised a lot of incentives which never materialised.The new Government is administrating Government programmes differently from the previous dispensation for the betterment of all Zimbabweans. The new Government is keen to improve the challenges that its employees and citizens are encountering through seeking best possible solutions to resolve them.In as much as striking and other forms of protests are a democratic right for every employee in Zimbabwe, every worker should put the interest of the country first. Every Zimbabwean needs a better standard of living and it can only happen if we all pull in one direction. Investors need to invest in a country that is peaceful; hence the protests by teachers or any other grouping can create a wrong impression about the country at a time we are seeking friends from all over the world.Civil servants should appreciate the role that the Government is playing towards improving their living standards. Last year, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa pledged that Government would pay them their 13th cheque, a thing which is currently being done every month. So far, Government has managed to fulfil its promise and paid annual bonuses to most civil servants including the security forces.On the other hand, it is known that whenever Government increases salaries of its employees, there are some unscrupulous business people who have a propensity of hiking prices of goods for no apparent reason. In that regard, the responsible authorities should ensure that the business community sticks to their business ethics. In addition, Consumer Council of Zimbabwe must be encouraged to continue keeping any eye on business people who breaches their business principles as a way of protecting consumers against unfair prices from mischievous retailers in the event that they hike prices.This also applies to illegal money changers who at most times have a tendency of raising the rate of foreign currency on the parallel market whenever Government increases salaries of civil servants. Sad as it is, the high rating of foreign currency will also cause disturbances on prices of commodities in retail shops.As environmentalists bemoan the Liberal government's promise to build the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, Ottawa handed them a victory of sorts last night with the passage of a tanker moratorium bill that will prohibit tankers carrying crude oil from loading or unloading at ports in northern British Columbia.

Bill C-48, which passed the House of Commons along party lines and is now headed to the Senate for its second legislative phase, was introduced after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet vetoed Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline  a project that would have carried crude from Alberta through northern B.C. to a tanker terminal in Kitimat for export to Asia.

At the time, Trudeau said it would be a mistake to move crude through the pristine Great Bear rainforest, describing the region as the "jewel" of B.C.

The legislation  which would ban tankers capable of carrying more than 12,500 metric tons of oil from an area that stretches from the northern tip of Vancouver Island to the Alaska border  has been both celebrated and pilloried by local Indigenous peoples.

The failed Northern Gateway project had secured financial agreements with some 21 First Nations along the project's route  an entity called Aboriginal Equity Partners owned a 33 per cent stake in the line  while others Indigenous communities were worried about the potential for a spill in coastal waters.

Environmentalists championed C-48's passage Wednesday because it would effectively prevent another project like Northern Gateway.

"It's a significant win for the coast that the oil tanker moratorium has finally reached this point, and we wish it swift passage through the Senate," Jessica Clogg, executive director of the West Coast Environmental Law Association, said in a statement. "This is a big step forward for keeping north coast ecosystems, communities and livelihoods safe from the risk of oil spills."

Story continues

But an Indigenous-owned company called Eagle Spirit  which hopes to build a 1,500-km pipeline that would carry up to two million barrels of crude per day from near Fort McMurray to tidewater  has already launched legal action in a B.C. court to stop Bill C-48.

"We absolutely do not support big American environmental NGOs (who make their money from opposing natural resource projects) dictating government policy and resource developments within our traditional territories," the chiefs council opposing Bill C-48 recently wrote on a GoFundMe page created to raise money to cover their legal costs.

"We support the First Nations-led Eagle Spirit Energy energy corridor because it would provide real-world sustainable benefits and own-source revenue and meaningful participation for the poorest communities in Canada through a project whose outcomes cannot be duplicated by government."

Proponents of Eagle Spirit say the government didn't properly consult with Indigenous communities before introducing the bill  a complaint typically heard from Indigenous people looking to block natural resources development.

Trudeau instructed Transport Minister Marc Garneau to implement the tanker ban in his initial mandate letter, which was released before the department began consultations with Indigenous people in the area.

If the tanker ban is enacted, the $16 billion Eagle Spirit project would have to be either shelved or rerouted over the Canada-U.S. border to Hyder, Alaska, where no such tanker ban has been contemplated.

Conservative MPs said the tanker moratorium is further proof the Liberal government is anti-pipeline.

"Let us not fool ourselves. This is not a tanker ban. This is to stop development in the resource sector and to stop shipping products to the West Coast," Saskatchewan MP Randy Hoback said.

"It is what the Liberals really planned to do from day one, and this bill is how they are going to achieve it. That is very disappointing.

"People in Western Canada just cannot understand the government ... it keeps chopping off the hand that feeds it. It is so sad."

Garneau said this "historic" bill accomplishes the government's environmental priorities and simply formalizes an existing voluntary tanker exclusion zone.

"These strong measures against potential oil pollution are what Canadians want and expect," he said during an appearance before the Commons transport committee.

"The oil tanker moratorium will allow us to preserve this precious ecosystem for the enjoyment and benefit of future generations. We have an opportunity now to accomplish something of historic importance. And we should grasp that opportunity."

The bill must next pass the Senate before becoming law.The classic "plain Jane" of ice cream flavours may soon be off the shelf in a popular Calgary shop.

A spike in pure vanilla extract prices has forced bakeries and ice cream makers to reconsider the world's most popular flavour.

Village Ice Cream's three locations have stopped using vanilla ice cream as a base for other, more complex flavours, and they may take the classic treat off the menu entirely.

"I think our customers will understand if the situation is  just too expensive," owner Billy Friley told CBC Radio's Calgary Eyeopener on Wednesday. "I don't think anybody wants to spend $12 on a single scoop of ice cream."

When Friley opened in 2012, he said he was paying about $50 US for a gallon (3.79 litres) of vanilla extract. Now, he is paying at least $550 US for the same amount. Recently, that's converted into $750-$800 Cdn, due to a falling Canadian dollar.

So far, Village Ice Cream has cut at least four flavours that used vanilla as a base.

"We would rather just not sell vanilla than use the artificial extract, so we will stick with the real extract as long as we can," he said. "If it gets too expensive, then we will have to take vanilla off the menu."

'Rather astronomical'

Prices are up to "rather astronomical levels" but are expected to drop slightly over the next few years, said vanilla dealer David van der Walde of Aust & Hachman Canada.

Regardless, he said the market and farmers must make major adjustments.

"I mean, there is vanilla available now, but it's extremely expensive," he said.

The world relies on the island nation of Madagascar for 80 per cent of its genuine vanilla, so any issues farmers are having there impact everyone. Changes to weather patterns  a cooler spring, altered rainy season and intense storms  have made it difficult to predict an effective planting strategy.

"They are suggesting that climate change is also affecting vanilla production simply because there are more cyclones, but also it's not as warm when it's supposed to be warm  there's not as much rain," said van der Walde, who has worked in the industry, including in Madagascar, for more than 30 years.

Story continues

"So it's changing, and whether they can adjust to that remains to be seen."

A severe cyclone and other bad storms added to the problem by ruining some crops, and he said the high prices are encouraging thieves to pillage farms and mug people carrying cash for their businesses. If thieves are caught by farmers, they are often killed, van der Walde said.

"When dealing with countries like Madagascar, it's much more difficult. You've got political issues down there, you've got climatic issues," he said.

Other vanilla-producing nations haven't been able to fill in the gap, facing their own environmental problems  and it takes a minimum of two years to produce a crop.

Natural vs. artificial

According to Industry Canada trade data, Canadians imported more than two-thirds of its vanilla last year from Madagascar. They spent roughly $42.9 million on the flavour, almost four times the cost of vanilla imported in 2013.

Van der Walde said home bakers wanting quality vanilla should seek out reputable producers, or buy more expensive beans in tubes, as extracts may now be of lesser quality. But he warns the buying habits of big companies, not home users, are dictating the overall price.

Not just local ice cream makers want to stick to the natural ingredient, which many say has a better taste than artificial extract. It's even used to add creaminess to chocolate, Friley noted.

Either way, it's out of the hands of small shops.

"The problem is, what do you do about that homemade pie?" Friley said. "There's nothing better than a scoop of vanilla ice cream on homemade pie."

Listen to how high vanilla prices send a chill down ice cream makers' spines:



- MORE CALGARY NEWS | Family fights parking ticket after rushing newborn to emergency

- MORE CALGARY NEWS | Despite glitches, emergency alert testing will resume across Canada

- MORE CALGARY NEWS | Mobile grocery market launches summer program into 'food deserts'

With files from Josie Lukey and the Calgary Eyeopener.Operators of Canada's new emergency alert system say they are learning from failed tests earlier this week in Ontario and Quebec, although reports of countrywide tests on Wednesday had mixed results.

Alert Ready officials say they are working to resolve glitches in the system following problems in Quebec and Ontario on Monday.

The company behind the system said the first alert test on Wednesday in Newfoundland and Labrador worked.

"Wireless service providers have verified that the test message was successfully distributed across their LTE wireless networks in the province," reads an emailed statement sent on behalf of Pelmorex.

The alert, however, was a few minutes late and anecdotal reports suggest it might not have reached all users.

A spokesperson for the provincial ministry in charge of overseeing the alert told CBC News the delay was due to a "minor adjustment to the program shortly before the scheduled test time of 1:55 p.m." made by Pelmorex, the company that operates the alert system.

Ngai said the tests in Nova Scotia and P.E.I. were also successful.

The Alberta Emergency Management agency said in a statement that the agency is working with the federal government, wireless service providers and Pelmorex to review the results of the test "to understand what happened across the country and what can be done to strengthen the system before a real emergency takes place."

Widespread reports of problems

Across the country, anecdotal reports suggest the system might not be working properly.

In Calgary, a survey of the CBC newsroom showed some received the alert, while others did not. Those who did not receive the notifications were using phones linked to participating service providers and linked to an LTE network as required.

Likewise, reporters in Manitoba had mixed results with their phones.

In the Northwest Territories, some residents contacted by CBC received alerts, but many didn't, including multiple staff members at CBC in Yellowknife and Inuvik. This included a variety of generations, models and brands of smartphones.

Story continues

In some cases, CBC phones with LTE enabled did not receive the alert in Yellowknife. Most LTE-enabled CBC iPhones which did not receive the alert did not have the latest software version installed.

Canadians can check if their phones are compatible with the emergency alert system on the Alert Ready website.

Twitter lit up with those who didn't get a notification.

Tom Sampson, chief of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, said at a news conference Wednesday he's heard anecdotally that 50 per cent of people received the alert, and that it seems to be somewhat random as to whose phone received it  not necessarily tied to whether or not a phone was connected to Wi-Fi, or related to the phone's service provider.

"This is why we run tests. I had expected the number would have been higher, but I still say it's a success," he said.

"The alert did work. It worked, it went out, it didn't go to every phone. That's the issue right now."

For those who didn't receive the alert, Sampson said that there are plenty of other ways to reach people in emergency situations, including the capacity to interrupt radio and TV broadcasts and through social media.

He also suggested that Canadians download the emergency alert app for their region to ensure they don't miss any messaging.

Ontario, Quebec glitches

On Monday, mobile users in Ontario and Quebec were supposed to receive alerts on their devices as part of a test of the regulator-mandated warning system, which was to be fully in place by April 6.

No alerts were registered on devices in Quebec, while only some mobile subscribers in Ontario received the signal.

System operators blamed the Quebec malfunction on a computer coding error and were still investigating what went wrong in Ontario.

Test signals are also expected to sound on radio and TV stations today in provinces and territories outside of Ontario and Quebec, except Nunavut.

"Alert Ready tests planned for Wednesday will proceed as scheduled," system officials said in an email prior to the start of testing. "Alert Ready partners have been actively working to resolve identified issues."

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ordered wireless providers to implement the system to distribute warnings of imminent safety threats, such as tornadoes, floods, Amber Alerts or terrorist threats.

Here are the times for tests scheduled for today. All times are local:

- Yukon 1:30 p.m.

- Northwest Territories 1:55 p.m.

- Alberta 1:55 p.m.

- British Columbia 1:55 p.m.

- Saskatchewan 1:55 p.m.

- Manitoba 1:55 p.m.

- Newfoundland and Labrador 1:55 p.m.

- Nova Scotia 1:55 p.m.

- Prince Edward Island 1:55 p.m.

- New Brunswick 6:55 p.m.SUWANEE, GA, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SANUWAVE Health, Inc. (OTCQB: SNWV) is pleased to announce that Dr. Perry Mayer, Medical Director and principal at The Mayer Institute TMI in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, will be joining the Clinical Advisory Board at SANUWAVE. TMI is one of Canada's prominent Preventative Diabetic Foot Care, Advanced Wound Care and Diabetes Education clinics. Dr. Mayer and his team are strongly committed to advancing technologies and prevention practices at TMI, a center of excellence in the treatment of the diabetic foot. Dr. Mayer received his undergraduate degree from Queens University in Kingston and medical degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He spent one year practicing in Northern Ontario before returning to Kingston to practice family medicine and establish the Quarry Foot Clinic. In 2003, Dr. Mayer moved to Hamilton, Ontario to concentrate solely on the treatment of the diabetic foot. He formed The Mayer Institute in early 2006, which at present has over 16,000 patient visits per year, with over 9,000 of those visits related to diabetic wound care.



Engaging global resources for expert guidance and collaboration as SANUWAVE commercializes therapies through the dermaPACE System is an important business development initiative for us, stated Kevin A. Richardson II, Chief Executive Officer of SANUWAVE. We have received fantastic responses to our US FDA approval and expect to become a material player in the wound care space in Canada.

About SANUWAVE Health, Inc.

SANUWAVE Health, Inc. (OTCQB:SNWV) ( www.sanuwave.com ) is a shock wave technology company initially focused on the development and commercialization of patented noninvasive, biological response activating devices for the repair and regeneration of skin, musculoskeletal tissue and vascular structures. SANUWAVEs portfolio of regenerative medicine products and product candidates activate biologic signaling and angiogenic responses, producing new vascularization and microcirculatory improvement, which helps restore the bodys normal healing processes and regeneration. SANUWAVE applies its patented PACE technology in wound healing, orthopedic/spine, plastic/cosmetic and cardiac conditions. Its lead product candidate for the global wound care market, dermaPACE, is US FDA cleared for the treatment of Diabetic Foot Ulcers. The device is also CE Marked throughout Europe and has device license approval for the treatment of the skin and subcutaneous soft tissue in Canada, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. SANUWAVE researches, designs, manufactures, markets and services its products worldwide, and believes it has demonstrated that its technology is safe and effective in stimulating healing in chronic conditions of the foot (plantar fasciitis) and the elbow (lateral epicondylitis) through its U.S. Class III PMA approved OssaTron device, as well as stimulating bone and chronic tendonitis regeneration in the musculoskeletal environment through the utilization of its OssaTron, Evotron and orthoPACE devices in Europe, Asia and Asia/Pacific. In addition, there are license/partnership opportunities for SANUWAVEs shock wave technology for non-medical uses, including energy, water, food and industrial markets.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, such as statements relating to financial results and plans for future business development activities, and are thus prospective. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not statements of historical fact regarding intent, belief or current expectations of the Company, its directors or its officers. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Companys ability to control. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Among the key risks, assumptions and factors that may affect operating results, performance and financial condition are risks associated with the regulatory approval and marketing of the Companys product candidates and products, unproven pre-clinical and clinical development activities, regulatory oversight, the Companys ability to manage its capital resource issues, competition, and the other factors discussed in detail in the Companys periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

For additional information about the Company, visit www.sanuwave.com .



In Iran, use of the messaging app Telegram has officially been banned.

For some 40 million Iranians, Telegram has been an integral part of daily life, a place to talk with friends and family beyond the reach of government censors. Which is why, after anti-government protests broke out in the final days of 2017, the government instructed the country's internet service providers to implement temporary controls that would make Telegram harder to use  before outright banning its use this month.

Anecdotal reports are one thing. But to understand how, exactly, Telegram was being blocked  and to what extent in different parts of the country  researcher Mahsa Alimardani turned to technical data gathered by a watchdog group called the Open Observatory of Network Interference, or OONI.

The organization collects evidence of internet censorship in more than 200 countries, with help from as many as 50,000 volunteers  often activists and human rights defenders but also regular citizens  who run OONI's internet measurement testing apps each month. The tests look for telltale signs of what people in the digital rights community call "information controls"  the myriad techniques used to block websites and apps or make them so slow to load they become impossible to use.

During the Iran protests, having that data "was really valuable to show what the government was doing," said Alimardani, who leads some Iranian digital rights programs for the advocacy organization ARTICLE 19 and is a doctoral student at the Oxford Internet Institute.

"It's just good to have this kind of empirical evidence to supplement what's coming from anecdotal evidence," she said.

As network filtering and censorship technology become easier to obtain and use  and incidents of blocking, filtering, or full internet shutdowns increase  data collected by OONI is playing an increasingly important role in holding governments to account.

Story continues

The goal, says Arturo Filasto, the project's lead and founder, is to complement the on-the-ground work of local partners with some "solid technical, undeniable evidence that these sorts of controls are in place."

'Holding government officials to the fire'

OONI was formed in 2011 as part of the Tor Project, a non-profit group that developed the Tor browser, which anonymizes users' web-browsing activity. That makes it ideal for circumventing censorship but also a prime target for government censors.

After Tor users reached out for help, Filasto hacked together some simple software for the users to run. The data collected helped the Tor team understand precisely how Tor was being blocked, and that soon became a project of its own. Today, six people work on the core OONI team full-time.

All of the data collected by OONI's measurement software  called probes  is stored in a publicly accessible database, where anyone can go to understand what's being blocked, filtered, or throttled in a particular country, and how. That data can be used to track the evolution of information controls over time or link censorship with political events like elections and protests.

For example, OONI tracked the censorship of news and human rights groups during 2016 political protests in Ethiopia and the blocking of social media both before and after Uganda's presidential election that same year. In Malaysia, news outlets that reported on a 2016 scandal involving the prime minister were also blocked. And, much like Iran, Russia has moved to block the use of Telegram in recent weeks.

The data has also proven enormously valuable to researchers working to document censorship around the world. The University of Toronto's Citizen Lab released a report at the end of April  relying, in part, on OONI data  about the use of internet filtering technology from a Canadian company called Netsweeper. The researchers say Netsweeper technology is used in 10 countries to censor everything from political criticism to LGTBQ resources.

"It's about holding government officials to the fire and keeping their commitments to protect free expression clear," says Peter Micek, the New York-based lawyer for the global internet access advocacy organization Access Now, which also relies on OONI data.

AccessNow has been tracking the rise of internet shutdowns through its KeepItOn Coalition, which reported 104 internet shutdowns in 20 countries last year.

Censors getting smarter

Mapping instances of internet censorship is far from an exact science, and OONI's work is not without challenges.

Maria Xynou, who has handled community outreach and research for OONI since 2016, says the team has spent years trying to make its measurement software as easy as possible for less tech-savvy users  namely, the human rights advocates, lawyers and journalists who are most interested in running tests.

A mobile app for iPhone and Android released last year significantly expanded their coverage, and has helped OONI make more comprehensive observations. The nature of the internet is such that traffic isn't always routed along the same path. Sometimes a connection might route along a path where access is blocked, and other times not. Some internet service providers might block different sites and services than others, even in the same city. What's accessible can change depending on the IP address a person is connecting from.





It can also be hard to distinguish between instances of confirmed, intentional censorship, and weird network anomalies, even with technical evidence in hand. Some censors have noticed this too, and have eschewed the traditional block pages that are often displayed in place of the requested website in favour of more subtle tampering  making pages appear to load slowly, or not at all  so that it is harder to tell that censorship is actually taking place

"If more censors were to do something of that sort, I think our job would be a bit harder," Filasto says. "Because at that point it's pretty hard to distinguish what is intentional government mandated censorship from just some form of networking issue."

At the same time, OONI is trying to make things even easier for users. Later this year, Filasto expects the team to begin work on an automated censorship alert system. When OONI's systems detects the possibility of new information controls in a country of interest, people can be notified using something like a tweet, email, or push notification  which should make it even easier for the average person to track new cases of censorship in places that matter to them.

"I feel like it's a very empowering thing," says Xynou. "You don't need to trust your ISP to protect your rights. You don't need to trust your government. Instead, you as a citizen can inspect your own network and see what's happening."NDP leader says he was unaware of 'impropriety' allegations against Moore

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he and his team were not aware of the allegations of inappropriate conduct against caucus member Christine Moore, despite the complainant's claim that it was an open secret in Ottawa.

Afghanistan veteran Glen Kirkland told CBC Moore approached him after his testimony before a parliamentary committee five years ago and invited him to her office, where she gave him alcohol  then followed him back to his hotel and later sent him explicit messages.

"This came out right when it happened and everyone knew about it," Kirkland told CBC's The Current.

Kirkland alleges Moore, a nurse, offered him gin even after he told her he was taking antidepressants and painkillers, and was not supposed to be drinking.

He said what happened next was consensual but he felt he would not have been in that situation if Moore hadn't been a member of Parliament.

"She took advantage of her position," he said.

Singh said he only learned of the allegations this week.

"Knowing about a relation is one thing, knowing about the specific allegations that were brought forward by the CBC specifically outlining some impropriety, that was absolutely unknown to me, unknown to the team the impropriety of it," Singh told reporters.

Singh, who took the reins of the federal party in October 2017 after serving as an Ontario NDP MPP, also said he was unaware of any relationship between Kirkland and Moore.

In a statement emailed Tuesday, Singh said Moore had been suspended from her duties pending an investigation. He said Moore's role in caucus will be re-evaluated once the investigator's work is complete.

She remains a member of the NDP caucus.

Singh said members of the caucus will be encouraged to contact the independent investigator if they have information to impart.

When contacted by the CBC for an interview earlier this week, Moore said she wanted to wait before speaking.

On Tuesday she released a statement. In it, she said she welcomes the opportunity to participate in the investigation process.

Story continues

"Out of respect for the fairness and the integrity of the process, I will not be commenting further on these allegations at this point," she said.

Earlier this year, Moore sent a letter complaining about fellow NDP MP Erin Weir's behaviour, saying he was the "last person" who should get the job of caucus chair.

That prompted an investigation that turned up harassment and sexual harassment complaints against Weir.

He was kicked out of caucus just last week.

Singh said Weir was expelled after it became clear that "a rehabilitative approach is no longer possible."

Weir said he was kicked out because he spoke publicly about his case.

Singh said Moore's involvement in the Weir investigation isn't relevant to this new probe.

"If there's an allegation, we'll take it seriously and an inquiry will take its course. It should not in any way impeach somebody's credibility about other complaints and other issues," he said.Photo credit: Getty Images

From Town & Country

The royal wedding is quickly approaching, but the father of the groom clearly isn't sweating the details. Both Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, are on a tour of France and Greece this week.

While visiting the flower market in Nice earlier today, Charles weighed in on the upcoming nuptials.

When asked how he was feeling about his son Prince Harry's marriage to Meghan Markle, he reportedly said, Obviously marvelous. Im sure it will be a very special day for everybody.



Asked how he was feeling about the wedding, Prince Charles said: Obviously marvellous. Im sure it will be a very special day for everybody. - Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) May 9, 2018

According to royal correspondent Richard Palmer, the Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla called Meghan "a great girl."

Prince Charles and Camilla in the flower market in Nice pic.twitter.com/iPuKNJV5hV - Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) May 9, 2018

ITV also reports that Camilla said she "can't wait" for May 19, and when asked about the birth of Prince Louis, she said, "Its all very exciting." She later added, "More to go too. A few more babies to go, Zara has got a baby coming."



Charles and Camilla have both spent time with Louis in the weeks after his birth, and there's no doubt that Harry and Meghan's wedding will bring back happy memories for the couple as well. They tied the knot in Windsor back in 2011, though they had a civil ceremony at the town guild hall, followed by a blessing in St. George's Chapel.

After their morning in France, Prince Charles and Camilla have already jetted off to Athens, where they will continue their tour by meeting with the President of Greece. Before his trip, Charles reportedly said, "Greece is in my blood," a reference to his father, Prince Philip's Greek heritage. They'll return home to the U.K. later this week, with plenty of time to prepare for the royal wedding.

You Might Also LikeThe province of Saskatchewan is attempting to intervene in a court battle over the Trans Mountain pipeline.

The provincial government in British Columbia is asking its court of appeal whether the province has jurisdiction over the $7.4 billion pipeline expansion project.

British Columbia has said it is defending its coast from the potential for a catastrophic oil spill, while the federal government and the province of Alberta say the project is in the national interest.

Saskatchewan's justice ministry is applying to participate in the case.

"Saskatchewan remains dedicated to standing up for the hard-working people in our natural resources and energy sectors," Justice Minister Don Morgan said in a news release.

"We know that these pipelines are necessary for our energy companies to get their products to tidewater to ensure a competitive price, and that the increased capacity this pipeline represents stands to benefit all Canadians."

The project would triple pipeline capacity of the line which already runs oil from Edmonton to Burnaby, B.C.

In March, the province of British Columbia lost a bid to challenge a National Energy Board ruling that would allow pipeline company Kinder Morgan Canada to bypass local bylaws in Burnaby. At the time, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley hailed the decision as a victory for her province.

Last month, Kinder Morgan announced it was stopping any non-essential spending for the project, and gave Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a deadline of May 31 to give a clear signal the project will proceed.

Correction : A previous version of this story said that the Saskatchewan government had been given intervenor status in this case. The province is applying to participate in the case.(May 09, 2018 3:52 PM)WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he will announce the site for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un within three days and it will not be held at the demilitarized zone along the border between the two Koreas. "It will not be there," he told reporters at the start of a Cabinet meeting at the White House when asked if the planned meeting would be at the DMZ. "We're going to announce it within three days." Trump, who scrapped a visit to the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone due to bad weather during a visit last year, suggested in April that the DMZ would be an excellent venue for his summit with Kim. Kim met South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the end of April at a building in Panmunjom known as the Peace House. Trump suggested that having the summit at Peace House would carry a symbolic value that having it in a third country would not. But the U.S. president also has said the two sides were considering other places as a possible site for the summit, including Singapore. "People never thought you were going to have a situation where were having serious and positive communications with North Korea. And we are," Trump told reporters as his top diplomat was en route home from North Korea, where he was given three U.S. citizens who had been detained there. "What happens? Who knows," Trump said. "We have a chance at something very great for the world." North Korea released three American prisoners and handed them over to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, clearing a major obstacle to the summit. (Reporting by Jim Oliphant; Writing by David Alexander; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Alistair Bell)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.

.

JNS.org..09 May '18..American parents give their kids kites and balloons to play with. Palestinian parents give their kids kites and balloons to try to burn Israel down.The contrast between the two societies would make for an interesting story in, or a segment on, say, 60 Minutes. Dont count on either of themor any other major secular Western news-media outlettaking an interest in the story any time soon. Its as if trying to ignite Israel (figuratively and now literally) is the new norm, and thus not newsworthy.For news of the latest attacks, turn to the Israeli news media. There, we learn that Palestinian Arabs in Gaza launched a wave of helium-filled balloons, with flaming Molotov cocktails attached to them, on Monday to fly across the southern border with Israel. Seven of the balloons made it, causing great damage (asput it).One of the balloon bombs set off a huge fire in the wheat fields of Kibbutz Mefalsim. The destruction, estimated at hundreds of thousands of shekels, was especially extensive because harvest time is fast approaching. Thats a devastating amount for a small kibbutz (total population: approximately 1,000).Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas. RUSSELL LAMAR ESTES, Appellant v. THE STATE OF TEXAS NO. PD-0429-16 Decided: May 09, 2018

KEASLER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court as to Parts I, II, III, and V, in which KELLER, P.J., and YEARY, KEEL, and WALKER, JJ., joined, and filed an opinion as to Part IV, in which KELLER, P.J., and YEARY and KEEL, JJ., joined. NEWELL, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which HERVEY and RICHARDSON, JJ., joined. ALCALA, J., dissented.

OPINION

In enacting the current form of Penal Code Section 22.011(f), the Legislature apparently wished to provide higher penalties for polygamists who sexually assault their purported spouses. But the resulting statute has the potentially unintended effect of punishing married offenders more harshly than unmarried offenders. Does the State have a rational interest in enforcing this scheme? We believe it does, specifically as applied to cases in which a married adult sexually abuses a child. We reverse.

I. FACTS

The opinion below adequately conveys the details of the offense. The essential facts are as follows.

[O]ver the course of approximately one year, Russell Estes had an ongoing sexual relationship with K.A., a then-fourteen-year-old girl. They had sexual intercourse on multiple occasions and engaged in other sexual acts with each other. During that span, Estes was legally married to someone else. So, in addition to charging Estes with sexual assault of a child, ordinarily a second-degree felony, the State also alleged that K.A. was a person whom the defendant was prohibited from marrying or purporting to marry or with whom the defendant was prohibited from living under the appearance of being married[.] This additional fact, if proven true, would subject Estes to first-degree-felony punishment under Penal Code Section 22.011(f):

An offense under [Section 22.011, describing the offense of Sexual Assault,] is a felony of the second degree, except that [it] is a felony of the first degree if the victim was a person whom the actor was prohibited from marrying or purporting to marry or with whom the actor was prohibited from living under the appearance of being married under Section 25.01 [describing the offense of Bigamy].7

Estes was also charged with various counts of indecency with a child.

A. Trial Court Proceedings

Estes filed a pre-trial motion to quash the child-sex-assault counts within the indictment, in which he objected to what he called the [b]igamy element of this allegation[.] Specifically, Estes argued that Section 22.011(f) is unconstitutional both facially and as applied to [him] because it treats married people more harshly than  unmarried people in violation of the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the United States and Texas Constitutions. When this motion was denied, Estes asked for, and was granted, a running objection along these lines.

As relevant here, Estes was ultimately found guilty of all five counts of sexual assault of a child. In a single special issue, the jury also found that [K.A.] was a person whom [Estes] was prohibited from marrying or purporting to marry or with whom [Estes] was prohibited from living under the appearance of being married, thereby triggering the Section 22.011(f) enhancement. Within the first-degree-felony punishment range, Estes was sentenced to 12 years' confinement on each count of sexual assault of a child.

B. Appeal

Before the Second Court of Appeals, Estes re-urged his contention that Section 22.011(f) is unconstitutional as applied to him. Estes primarily argued that, because this particular application of Section 22.011(f)  impinges on his fundamental right to marry, the constitutionality of the statute should be reviewed under the strict scrutiny standard. However, Estes maintained, even if reviewed under the more deferential rational-basis test, the law is still unconstitutional as applied to him because the Section 22.011(f) enhancement was intended to apply only in cases where the offense of bigamy or certain categories of bigamy are involved.

In response to Estes's claims, the State advanced two possible rational bases for upholding the constitutionality of Section 22.011(f) in this case. The State argued that this application of Section 22.011(f) can be rationally understood as a method of preventing the sexual exploitation of children by those who would use the cloak of marriage  to gain access to potential victims. The State also proposed that this application of Section 22.011(f) advances Texas's legitimate interest in protecting and nourish [ing] the union of marriage.

The court of appeals rejected both of these rational bases. Regarding the State's cloak of marriage argument, the court found nothing in the record to support the claim that a defendant's status of being married creates greater opportunities and access for sexually assaulting children. The court also declared that it could not fathom that the legislature intend [ed] to resurrect the notion of criminalizing adultery through the language contained in section 22.011(f). Finally, the court of appeals faulted the State for advocating a reading of the statute that, in the court of appeals' judgment, would result in an extraordinarily broad number of potential applications. The court of appeals ultimately concluded that, under the circumstances of this case and as applied to appellant, Section 22.011(f) violates equal protection because it penalizes him differently than a similarly situated defendant without a rational basis for doing so. The court went on to affirm various other aspects of his convictions for sexual assault of a child as second-degree felonies and remanded those charges to the trial court for a new trial on punishment. Both parties petitioned this Court for discretionary review.

C. Discretionary Review

We granted the State's petition for discretionary review to reexamine the court of appeals' conclusion that there is no rational basis for the State's applying the Section 22.011(f) bigamy enhancement to the conduct of a monogamous person.

We also granted Estes's petition for discretionary review to determine whether his equal-protection claim should be reviewed under strict scrutiny. However, because the court of appeals concluded that this particular application of Section 22.011(f) fails even the rational-basis test, it explicitly declined to consider Estes's arguments that strict scrutiny should apply. In these circumstances, [an appellant's] arguments for heightened scrutiny are best left open for consideration by the Court of Appeals on remand. Especially when addressing the constitutionality of a particular statutory provision, a reviewing court should not anticipate a question of constitutional law in advance of the necessity of deciding it; neither should it formulate a rule of constitutional law broader than is required by the precise facts to which it is to be applied. Both of these canons of judicial restraint would be compromised were we to reverse the court of appeals on an issue that it expressly declined to address. We therefore dismiss, as improvidently granted, Estes's first issue on discretionary review.

Furthermore, based on our resolution of the State's sole ground for review, we need not reach Estes's second issue, in which he claims that it was error for the Court of Appeals to affirm Appellant's sexual assault convictions as second-degree felonies  rather than order the prosecution of Appellant dismissed. We turn now to the State's ground for review.

II. LAW

A. No State shall  deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.29

The United States Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause as essentially a direction that all persons similarly situated should be treated alike. Resolving a claim that some state action has resulted in the law's unequal application begins with the reviewing court deciding which of the devised standards for determining the validity of the complained-of state action should apply. The default, general rule or standard is that state action is presumed to be valid and will be upheld if it is but rationally related to a legitimate state interest. This general rule gives way, however, when a state action either classifies by race, alienage, or national origin, or impinge[s] on personal rights protected by the Constitution. Under these circumstances, the state action is subjected to strict scrutiny, and will be sustained only if it is suitably tailored to serve a compelling state interest.

B. [A] rational means to serve a legitimate end.36

How a reviewing court applies these constitutional standards depends upon the type of constitutional challenge being made. In a facial constitutional challenge, the claimant asserts that the complained-of law is unconstitutional on its face, meaning that it operates unconstitutionally in all of its potential applications. Conversely, in an as-applied challenge, the claimant concedes the general constitutionality of the statute, but asserts that the statute is unconstitutional as applied to his particular facts and circumstances. Under either type of challenge, the reviewing court begins with the presumption that the Legislature acted both rationally and validly in enacting the law under review.

We have said that resolving an as-applied challenge requires a recourse to evidence. By dint of the presumption of constitutionality, the challenger, and no other party, bears the burden of producing this evidence. He must do so by specifically demonstrating that the law in question is unconstitutional as applied to him; that it may be unconstitutional as to others is not sufficient (or even relevant). Likewise, it will not suffice for him merely to introduce evidence that the State's conceived reason for the challenged distinction is not what actually motivated the legislature in passing the law that it did. Indeed, this consideration is entirely irrelevant for constitutional purposes. In other words, a legislative choice is not subject to courtroom fact-finding and may be based on rational speculation unsupported by evidence or empirical data. Instead, those challenging the legislative judgment must convince the court that the legislative facts on which the classification is apparently based could not reasonably be conceived to be true by the governmental decisionmaker. This is a heavy burden.

Above all, a court should spurn any attempt to turn rational-basis review into a debate over the wisdom, eloquence, or efficacy of the law in question. As its name would suggest, rational-basis review should focus solely on the rationality of the law or state action. Should we determine that the State has invoked a legitimate governmental purpose and, in enforcing its law, has charted a course that is rationally related to it, our inquiry is at an end.

III. ANALYSIS

We have interpreted Section 22.011(f) as essentially requiring proof that the defendant committed sexual assault and that, if he were to marry or claim to marry his victim, or to live with the victim under the appearance of being married, then he would be guilty of bigamy. In State v. Rosseau, we rejected a facial challenge to the constitutionality of Section 22.011(f), noting that it has at least one valid application: the punishment of bigamists who sexually assault their purported spouses. In this narrower, as-applied challenge, Estes contends that, while Section 22.011(f) might enjoy constitutional validity in other settings, it is unconstitutional as applied to him because it treats married persons and unmarried persons differently and in effect punishes him for being married. To that contention, we now turn.

A. The State has a legitimate interest in deterring, preventing, and punishing the sexual exploitation of children.

The State argues that Section 22.011(f) advances the legitimate interest the Texas Legislature has in protecting the well-being of children by preventing their sexual exploitation. Specifically, the State says that, as applied to Estes, the statute protects children against sexual predators who would use the cloak of marriage to gain access to children whose parents might be less cautious in sending their children to homes with married parents. So the State invokes what the Supreme Court has referred to as the compelling interest a government has in safeguarding the physical and psychological well-being of  minor[s].

May the State plausibly invoke this interest to justify its use of the bigamy enhancement in this case? After all, some extra-textual indicators of the legislative intent behind the Section 22.011(f) enhancement suggest that it was aimed specifically toward protecting those who had suffered from the blight of bigamy and polygamy[.] And the literal text of Section 22.011(f) is not explicitly directed towards sexual assaults involving children. Under the literal text, anyone who engages in sexually assaultive, would-be-bigamous conduct may trigger the enhancement, whether his acts are inflicted upon a child or not.

Despite these indications to the contrary, the State may still rely upon its general interest in protecting children to justify its use of the enhancement in this case. We have previously acknowledged that the literal language of Section 22.011(f) accomplishes more than merely punishing actual instances of bigamy. And, in the same case, we noted that Section 22.011(f) was [amended] as part of a senate bill that was broadly aimed at providing more protection to children and the elderly. The State's use of the enhancement to deter and punish conduct such as Estes's at the very least implicates this broader goal. Indeed, the State's construction arguably has the virtue of advancing both the narrow goal of deterring sexually-assaultive polygamous practices and the broader goal of providing more protection to children from sexually exploitative practices generally.

Then again, any debate over the real legislative intent behind Section 22.011(f) is, to some extent, beside the point, at least in the context of an as-applied constitutional challenge. The Legislature passed, and the Governor signed into law, a bill whose literal language is plainly broad enough to cover Estes's conduct in this case. In other settings, we have said that the literal text of a statute is the only definitive evidence of what the legislators (and perhaps the Governor) had in mind when the statute was enacted into law. The competing counter-indicia of legislative intent identified above are prime examples of why this rule of statutory construction has withstood the test of time, and why it makes good sense in this context, as well.

In any event, we need not concern ourselves with whether the Legislature truly intended for the law to be used in the fashion employed by the State in this case, for it is entirely irrelevant for constitutional purposes whether the conceived reason for the challenged distinction actually motivated the legislature. Our job is simply to determine whether, assuming the Legislature intended to pass precisely the law we have before us, the State's use of that law in Estes's case is rationally related to the compelling interest the State has in protecting children from sexual abuse. For the following reasons, we conclude that it is.

B. Section 22.011(f), as applied here, is rationally related to the State's interest in protecting children from sexual exploitation.

Rejecting the notion that the State's proposed use of Section 22.011(f) is rationally related to the goal of protecting children from sexual abuse, the court of appeals made two observations. First, the court of appeals opined that the evidence in this case  does not show that appellant used his marital status to gain the trust of [K.A.] or her parents. Second, it could find no evidence in the record to support the general proposition that a defendant's status of being married creates greater opportunities and access for sexually assaulting children.

We disagree with the court of appeals' approach to this question. In each of these observations, the court of appeals pointed to a silent or underdeveloped record in support of its conclusion that Section 22.011(f) is unconstitutional as applied to Estes. In so doing, it seemingly shifted the burden to the State, either to produce evidence that Estes used his marital status to gain the trust of [K.A.], or to substantiate the assertion that marriage creates greater opportunities and access for sexually assaulting children. If so, the court of appeals ran afoul of the rule that the constitutional challenger bears the burden of proving that the law is unconstitutional as applied to him. A State  has no obligation to produce evidence to sustain the rationality of a statutory classification. It was Estes's burden to rebut, with credible evidence, the notion that married men have an easier time gaining would-be victims and parents' trust. It fell upon him to show that this assumption could not reasonably be conceived to be true. Had Estes put on evidence to show that any speculation by the Legislature in this regard would have been objectively [ir]rational, both the trial court and the court of appeals would at least be in a better position to evaluate the strength of Estes's arguments.

Then again, though we discount no possibility, it would seem that this is a showing Estes was unlikely to make even if he had presented any evidence to this effect. As the Supreme Court recently explained, there is an indelible connection in our society between the union of marriage and the ideas of family, home, stability, security, safe haven and, indeed, children. These connections were not conjured from thin air; they are deeply embedded in the public's time-honored understanding of what marriage entails. Just as the Supreme Court did, the Legislature could rationally conclude that to be a married man or woman is to project the kind of stability and safe haven that many children find comfort in. It could rationally conclude that one who has solemnly sworn to forsak[e] all others might be perceived, at least by some parents, as being less likely to make sexual advances upon their children. And it could rationally see fit to declare that one who would enjoy this marital perception of trustworthiness will be punished all the more severely if he uses it to groom, and then sexually abuse, a child.

We express no opinion whether we agree with any legislative assumption that married people are more trustworthy around children than their unmarried counterparts. Regrettably, men like Estes make such a belief difficult to hold. But, paradoxically enough, Estes's case also serves as a reminder that the public perception in this regard is all too real. We are simply unwilling, at least on this record, to discard as irrational the idea that marriage bestows upon its participants a certain aura of trustworthiness, specifically in regard to children. Nor do we think the Constitution precludes our Legislature from reserving, for deterrent purposes, a higher degree of punishment for those who would defile that trust by using it to sexually assault a child.

IV. COUNTER-ARGUMENTS

Judge Newell's concurring and dissenting opinion posits at least three different arguments as to why he disagrees with our approach. According to Judge Newell, (1) the rationale we adopt today is, essentially, that marriage is really good and crimes against children are really bad[.] He also (2) construes our discussion of legislative intent as a finding that the legislative intent behind the statute was really about punishing sexual assault committed under a cloak of marriage.  Instead, he believes that, (3) to conclude that Section 22.011(f) survives rational-basis review, one need only observe that the distinction drawn within the statutory language itself between married and unmarried offenders  is at least rationally related to the state's interest in prohibiting bigamy and polygamy. We address each argument in turn.

A. Judge Newell mischaracterizes our rationale.

Judge Newell oversimplifies our argument when he describes it as proceeding along the lines of, marriage is really good and crimes against children are really bad[.] Although we would almost certainly agree with each of these sentiments from a policy perspective, we need not rely upon either of them in reaching our ultimate result. Instead, our analysis focuses exclusively and appropriately on the reasonableness of a particular legislative assumption: that married people have an easier time gaining the trust of children and parents than unmarried persons. The Legislature could rationally conclude that those who are inclined to make sexual advances upon children, and whose marital status would make the commission of a crime in satisfaction of those urges incrementally easier to consummate, may need an additional deterrent to further dissuade them from committing such a crime. And, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, it could reasonably conclude that increasing the range of punishment in these circumstances is appropriately suited to that task.

B. We need notand do notdecide what the true legislative intent behind Section 22.011(f) was.

Judge Newell evidently thinks that, when we say that the State may invoke its general interest in preventing the sexual exploitation of children in defending Section 22.011(f) against Estes's constitutional attack, we necessarily hold that the Legislature had this precise interest in mind when it enacted the Section 22.011(f) enhancement. But we are not making any claims about what the Legislature really intended to accomplish in amending Section 22.011(f). This is because, consistent with Supreme Court precedent, we consider any debate about the Legislature's true intent to be irrelevant to the constitutional question presented in this case.

Next, Judge Newell contends that we misapply F.C.C. v. Beach Communications, Inc. because, according to Judge Newell, Beach involved a record that was utterly silent with respect to legislative intentwhereas in this case, he accuses us of substituting [our] own policy preferences for th [ose] of the Legislature. But Judge Newell's argument proceeds from a premise that is demonstrably false. It would be inaccurate to say that the regulatory provision at issue in Beach was wholly unsupported by extra-textual indicia of legislative intent. To the contrary, the intermediate appellate litigation leading up to the Supreme Court's opinion in Beach discussed the relevant legislative history in some detail. The relevance of Beach, then, is not that a reviewing court [is] authorized to engage in rational speculation only when it ha[s] no other information regarding the legislative intent. Instead, it is that a reviewing court may engage in rational speculation to uphold the constitutionality of a statute even when the government's proffered rational basis finds no support within the legislative history. This is why, in Beach, the Supreme Court found that the regulation in question was supported by at least two conceivable rational bases.

Judge Newell also suggests that our discussion of legislative history is somehow inconsistent with the Court's opinion in Arteaga v. State. But we do not hold in this case that the legislative intent behind the statute was really about punishing sexual assault committed under a cloak of marriage [.]  We expressly decide that, even if this proposition is debatable, it is of no consequence to the proper resolution of this case. This holding in no way conflicts with Arteaga's observation that the Legislature's primary aim in amending Section 22.011(f) was diminishing the blight of bigamy and polygamy.

C. Judge Newell's approach would nullify as-applied constitutional challenges.

Judge Newell alternatively proposes to resolve Estes's constitutional challenge by focusing exclusively upon the classification drawn by the statutory language itself. His approach essentially has two steps: First, identify a legitimate interest advanced by the statute, making sure that it is an interest that is actually contemplated by the relevant legislative history; and then, decide whether the statutory language the Legislature adopted in furtherance of that interest is rationally related to it. Applying this approach, Judge Newell cites Rosseau for the proposition that there is at least a legitimate state interest in prohibiting bigamous or polygamous relationships and sexual assault pursuant to such relationships, and then argues that this interest alone provides a rational basis for drawing the distinction between married and unmarried offenders within the sexual assault statute. His analysis does not take into account the particular circumstances of the defendant against whom the statute was applied. Instead, he focuses exclusively on the classification drawn within the statute.

At the outset, it is worth noting that Judge Newell's approach seeks to answer something that is solely and entirely a legal question whether the literal text of the statute is reasonably related to its apparent aim. The particular facts of the case, and circumstances of the defendant, are tellingly irrelevant to this question. Thus, by consider[ing] only the text of the measure itself, and not its application to the particular circumstances of [the] individual[,] Judge Newell is functionally conducting a facial constitutional analysisone that this Court already undertook in Rosseau. But Rosseau itself acknowledged that [a]rguments pertaining to an as-applied challenge  must be reserved for another day. And if Judge Newell is correct that an as-applied challenge may be resolved simply by identifying a previously-acknowledged State interest, regardless of whether it is implicated in the present case, and then measuring the literal statutory language against that interest, upholding a statute's constitutionality on facial grounds would necessitate that it be upheld as to every conceivable as-applied ground, as well.

It is well-settled that a statute may be valid as applied to one set of facts and invalid as applied to a different set of facts[.] So a reviewing court may not resolve an as-applied constitutional challenge solely by comparing the language of the statute to an un-implicated governmental interest and then asking whether the former is rationally related to the latter. To hold otherwise would be to misapprehend the thrust of Estes's argument. Estes does not contend that the literal language of Section 22.011(f) is insufficiently related to the goal of curbing polygamous practices; he asserts that this particular application of the statute does not further that goal. Our rejoinder is simply that, even if this is so, any legitimate state basis will suffice to uphold the constitutionality of the challenged applicationeven if the State's proffered basis is not specifically mentioned within the relevant legislative historyso long as the challenged application is rationally related to that basis.

As-applied review must take into account the particular facts and circumstances of the litigant, for without such evidence, a reviewing court cannot appropriately discern the classification that is being challenged, and the circumstances under which the State asserts an interest in enforcing that classification. The particular facts and circumstances that informand limitour ruling today are that Estes is a married man convicted of sexually assaulting a child. We express no opinion whether other kinds of challenges, if raised, would be more or less likely to succeed than the one presented here; we simply disapprove of any as-applied analytic approach in which it would be unnecessary to consider the individual facts and circumstances of the case under review.

V. CONCLUSION

We reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and remand the case for that court to analyze Estes's remaining constitutional claims.

FOOTNOTES

. See TEX. PENAL CODE  22.011(f).

. See State v. Rosseau, 396 S.W.3d 550, 558 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013).

. See Estes v. State, 487 S.W.3d 737, 74346 (Tex. App.Fort Worth 2016, pet. granted).

. Id. at 744.

. Id.

. 1 CR at 7 (Indictment No. 1388628).

. TEX. PENAL CODE  22.011(f).

. See id.  21.11.

. 1 CR at 78 (Motion to Quash Counts 15 of the Indictment).

. Id.

. Id. at 243 (Special Issue No. 1).

. Appellant's Brief in the Second Court of Appeals at 30.

. Id.

. State's Brief in the Second Court of Appeals at 1920.

. Id. at 1819 (citing Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct. 2584, 2599601 (2015)).

. Estes, 487 S.W.3d at 749.

. Id.

. See id. (Through its briefing and its oral argument, the State proposes that under section 22.011(f), a sexual assault becomes a first-degree felony when the defendant is married but the victim is not, when the victim is married but the defendant is not, when the defendant and victim are both married but not to each other, or when the victim is too young to be married.  [W]e cannot conclude that the legislature intended for the increased penalty under section 22.011(f) to apply in such an expansive fashion.).

. Id. at 750.

. Id. (citing Thornton v. State, 425 S.W.3d 289, 298 (Tex. Crim. App. 2014)).

. See State's Petition for Discretionary Review at 3.

. Appellant's Petition for Discretionary Review at 1.

. Estes, 487 S.W.3d at 747 n.8 (citations omitted) (Appellant argues that we should apply a higher review of strict scrutiny with respect to his equal protection claim because section 22.011(f) impinges on his fundamental right to marry. We need not resolve that argument because we conclude  that as applied to appellant, section 22.011(f) does not have a rational governmental basis.).

. See F.C.C. v. Beach Communications, Inc., 508 U.S. 307, 314 n.6 (1993) (quotation marks and citations omitted).

. Brockett v. Spokane Arcades, Inc., 472 U.S. 491, 501 (1985) (citations omitted).

. Contra Concurring and Dissenting Opinion at 22 (arguing that the court of appeals effectively decided the issue of whether strict-scrutiny review is appropriate).

. Smith v. State, 463 S.W.3d 890, 900 (Tex. Crim. App. 2015) (Yeary, J., concurring and dissenting) (When a court of appeals has failed to address an issue that was squarely presented to it, rather than reach that issue for the first time in discretionary review, we have typically remanded the cause for the court of appeals to address in the first instance.).

. Appellant's Petition for Discretionary Review at 1.

. U.S. CONST. amend. XIV,  1.

. City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, 473 U.S. 432, 439 (1985) (citations omitted).

. Id. at 43940.

. Id. at 440 (citations omitted).

. Id. (citing, inter alia, McLaughlin v. Florida, 379 U.S. 184, 192 (1964) (invalidating under strict scrutiny an anti-fornication law that by its terms applied only to interracial couples)).

. Id. (citing, inter alia, Skinner v. Oklahoma ex rel. Williamson, 316 U.S. 535, 541 (1942) (invalidating under strict scrutiny a law permitting the sterilization of habitual criminals)).

. Id. (citations omitted).

. Cleburne, 473 U.S. at 442.

. State ex rel. Lykos v. Fine, 330 S.W.3d 904, 90809 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011).

. Id. at 910.

. Faust v. State, 491 S.W.3d 733, 74344 (Tex. Crim. App. 2015) (When reviewing the constitutionality of a statute, we presume that the statute is valid and that the Legislature acted reasonably in enacting it.).

. Fine, 330 S.W.3d at 910.

. Rosseau, 396 S.W.3d at 557 (Appellee, as the individual challenging the statute, has the burden to establish its unconstitutionality.).

. Fine, 330 S.W.3d at 910.

. Beach Commc'ns, Inc., 508 U.S. at 315.

. Id.

. Id.

. Vance v. Bradley, 440 U.S. 93, 111 (1979).

. Id. at 9697 (in cases where neither a suspect classification nor a fundamental liberty interest is at issue, courts are quite reluctant to overturn governmental action on the ground that it denies equal protection of the laws).

. See, e.g., Nordlinger v. Hahn, 505 U.S. 1, 1718 (1992) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted) ([T]he Constitution presumes that, absent some reason to infer antipathy, even improvident decisions will eventually be rectified by the democratic process and that judicial intervention is generally unwarranted no matter how unwisely [a reviewing court] may think a political branch has acted.).

. Beach Commc'ns, Inc., 508 U.S. at 314 (citations omitted).

. Arteaga v. State, 521 S.W.3d 329, 335 n.9 (Tex. Crim. App. 2017) (emphasis omitted).

. 396 S.W.3d at 558.

. Appellant's Brief in the Second Court of Appeals at 24.

. State's Brief on the Merits of State's Petition for Discretionary Review at 16.

. Id. at 17.

. New York v. Ferber, 458 U.S. 747, 75657 (1982) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

. Arteaga, 521 S.W.3d at 337.

. See TEX. PENAL CODE  22.011(f).

. Arteaga, 521 S.W.3d at 335 & n.9 (When we discuss facts that would constitute bigamy, we do not mean that the State has to prove that the defendant [actually] committed  bigamy.) (emphasis in original).

. Id. at 337.

. Id.

. See id. at 335 n.9 ([T]o elevate second-degree felony sexual assault to first-degree felony sexual assault under Section 22.011(f), the State must prove that the defendant committed sexual assault and that, if he were to marry or claim to marry his victim, or to live with the victim under the appearance of being married, then he would be guilty of bigamy.) (emphasis in original).

. See Boykin, 818 S.W.2d at 785 (emphasis in original).

. Contra Estes, 487 S.W.3d at 749 (Again, we cannot conclude that the legislature intended for the increased penalty under section 22.011(f) to apply in such an expansive fashion.).

. Beach Commc'ns, Inc., 508 U.S. at 315.

. Estes, 487 S.W.3d at 748.

. Id. at 749.

. Id. at 74849.

. Heller v. Doe, 509 U.S. 312, 320 (1993).

. Bradley, 440 U.S. at 111.

. Beach Commc'ns, Inc., 508 U.S. at 315.

. Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S.Ct. 2584, 2599 (2015) (quoting Zablocki v. Redhail, 434 U.S. 374, 386 (1978)) (characterizing marriage as the relationship that is the foundation of the family in our society).

. Id. at 2600 (quoting Zablocki, 434 U.S. at 384) (discussing [t]he right to marry, establish a home, and bring up children ).

. Id. (Marriage also affords the permanency and stability important to children's best interests.).

. Id. at 2599 (quoting Goodridge v. Dep't of Public Health, 798 N.E.2d 941, 955 (Mass. 2003)) ([M]arriage  fulfils yearnings for security, safe haven, and connection that express our common humanity[.] ).

. Id. at 2600 (A third basis for protecting the right to marry is that it safeguards children[.]) (citations omitted).

. Id. at 2601 ([T]his Court's cases and the Nation's traditions make clear that marriage is a keystone of our social order.).

. Id. at 2600 (acknowledging the recognition, stability, and predictability [that] marriage offers, especially in the eyes of children).

. Sapp v. Newsom, 27 Tex. 537, 538 (Tex. 1864).

. See 4 RR at 119 (wherein K.A.'s mother testifies that she let her daughter spend nights at Estes's house because she knew that [Estes's wife] would be present); id. at 125 (wherein K.A's mother testifies to her feeling that [Estes] had the same moral values and beliefs that [she] did); id. at 147 (wherein K.A. testifies that she initially developed a bond of trust with Estes because he had a family of his own).

. See Cleburne, 473 U.S. at 439 (The State may not rely on a classification whose relationship to an asserted goal is so attenuated as to render the distinction arbitrary or irrational.).

. Concurring and Dissenting Opinion at 10.

. Id. at 17.

. Id. at 10.

. Id.

. See, e.g., Obergefell, 135 S.Ct. at 2608 (No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family.); Ferber, 458 U.S. at 756 (A democratic society rests, for its continuance, upon the healthy, well-rounded growth of young people into full maturity as citizens.).

. See Concurring and Dissenting Opinion at 17 (Here, we have some indication of the legislative intent behind the passage of this amendment, yet the Court nevertheless posits a different rationale for the statute.).

. See supra Part III.A.

. See Beach Commc'ns, Inc., 508 U.S. at 318 (quoting United States Railroad Retirement Board v. Fritz, 449 U.S. 166, 179 (1980)) (Whether the posited reason for the challenged distinction actually motivated Congress is constitutionally irrelevant[.] ).

. Concurring and Dissenting Opinion at 1718.

. See Beach Communications, Inc. v. F.C.C., 959 F.2d 975, 982 (D.C. Cir. 1992) (First, there is legislative history that supports the FCC Petitioners adduce other excerpts from the legislative history; however, these excerpts are at best ambiguous.); see also id. (referring to [g]eneral descriptions of Congress' purpose in distinguishing between cable and SMATV).

. Concurring and Dissenting Opinion at 17.

. See also Fritz, 449 U.S. at 179 ([W]e disagree with the District Court's conclusion that Congress was unaware of what it accomplished or that it was misled by the groups that appeared before it. If this test were applied literally to every member of any legislature that ever voted on a law, there would be very few laws which would survive it. The language of the statute is clear, and we have historically assumed that Congress intended what it enacted.).

. Beach Comm'cns, Inc., 508 U.S. at 317 (Applying these principles, we conclude that the common-ownership distinction is constitutional. There are at least two possible bases for the distinction; either one suffices.).

. Concurring and Dissenting Opinion at 17; see also Arteaga v. State, 521 S.W.3d 329 (Tex. Crim. App. 2017).

. Concurring and Dissenting Opinion at 17.

. Arteaga, 521 S.W.3d at 337.

. Concurring and Dissenting Opinion at 6 ([A] proper application of the [rational-basis] standard  focuses upon whether the Legislature had a rational basis for drawing a classification in the statute.).

. Id. at 8 (identifying prohibiting bigamous or polygamous relationships and sexual assault pursuant to such relationships as the legitimate state interest furthered by Section 22.011(f)); id. at 1418 (arguing that, by sustaining Section 22.011(f) as a rational means of deterring child abuse, the Court substitut[es] its own policy preferences for th[ose] of the Legislature).

. E.g., id. at 10 (Though the statute is written more broadly than necessary to accomplish its intended goal, the distinction between married and unmarried offenders underlying Section 22.011(f) is at least rationally related to that goal.).

. Id. at 8 (citing State v. Rosseau, 396 S.W.3d 550, 558 (Tex. Crim. App. 2013)).

. Id. at 9 (citing State v. Green, 99 P.3d 820, 830 (Utah 2004)).

. See id. at 6 n.17(faulting the court of appeals for focus [ing] exclusively on the effect the statute has on Appellant).

. Id. at 5 (In this case, the problem with the court of appeals['] analysis lay in the focus upon whether there was a rational basis to elevate Appellant's punishment  rather than upon whether there was a rational basis for the Legislature to draw a distinction between married and unmarried defendants in the statute.).

. Karenev v. State, 281 S.W.3d 428, 435 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009) (Cochran, J., concurring).

. Id. (citing 16 C.J.S. Constitutional Law  113, at 149 (2005)).

. See Rosseau, 396 S.W.3d at 558 (Therefore, the statute is not facially unconstitutional because it has at least one valid application: the punishment of bigamists who sexually assault their purported spouses.).

. Id. at 558 n.9; see also id. at 558 n.9 (In a facial challenge to a statute's constitutionality, we examine the statute as it is written, rather than how it is applied in a particular case.).

. Cf. Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, 410 (1989) (We thus conclude that the State's interest in maintaining order is not implicated on these facts.).

. Fine, 330 S.W.3d at 910.

. Contra Concurring and Dissenting Opinion at 510.

. Appellant's Brief on the Merits of State's Petition for Discretionary Review at 16 (Appellant does not contend that  the State was required to prove Appellant committed an offense under Section 25.01 to prove he committed an offense of sexual assault bigamy as charged in this case.).

. Id. at 11 ([T]he application of Section 22.011(f) to Appellant in this case is not rationally related to the express governmental interest the legislation that amended Section 22.011(f) was enacted to promote.).

. Fine, 330 S.W.3d at 910.

. E.g., Estes, 487 S.W.3d at 747 n.8 (citations omitted) (Appellant argues that we should apply a higher review of strict scrutiny with respect to his equal protection claim because section 22.011(f) impinges on his fundamental right to marry. We need not resolve that argument because we conclude  that as applied to appellant, section 22.011(f) does not have a rational governmental basis.); id. at 750 (citations omitted) (Having concluded that section 22.011(f) violates equal protection as applied in this case, we decline to address appellant's argument that the application of the section in these circumstances also violates his due process rights.).Back in January, Southern Draw Cigars announced its first major release for the 2018 calendar year  a lancero size for its Rose of Sharon line. Rose of Sharon is an Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade offering that had a very limited release just before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)s August 8, 2016 deadline before pre-market approval would be required. The widespread release of Rose of Sharon occurred in 2017 with three sizes (Robusto, Toro, and Gordo) introduced into market. The release of Rose of Sharon would garner both critical and commercial acclaim and would play a big role into Southern Draw Cigars capturing our Cigar Coop Award for Small Company of the Year. Today, we take a closer look at the Rose of Sharon Lancero.

Lancero sizes are nothing new for Southern Draw Cigars, as two years ago the company introduced lancero line extensions to two of its other lines with the Firethorn Pome Lancero and the Kudzu Axil Lancero. However, with the Rose of Sharon Lancero, the company took a slightly different approach for its official launch  the first batch was offered as an exclusive cigar to Famous Smoke Shop. This approach is something the company started doing with the release of Southern Draws QuickDraw Corona Gorda line extensions. But like the QuickDraw line extensions, it didnt take long for a nationwide release of the Rose of Sharon Lancero to its authorized retailers.

The naming of the Rose of Sharon keeps consistent with the companys theme of naming its premium core lines after flowering plants. The name is also a tribute to Sharon Holt, the wife of Southern Draw Cigars Chief Evangelist, Robert Holt.

Without further ado, lets take a closer look at the Rose of Sharon Lancero and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

The Rose of Sharon consists of an Ecuadorian Connecticut shade wrapper over a Nicaraguan binder and a combination of Nicaragua and Dominican fillers. As with all Southern Draw Cigars, the Rose of Sharon is produced at AJ Fernandezs Tabacalera Fernandez factory in Esteli, Nicaragua.

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut

Binder: Nicaraguan

Filler: Nicaraguan (Viso, Seco); Dominican Piloto Cubano (Ligero)

Country of Origin: Nicaragua (Tabacalera Fernandez)

Vitolas Available

At this time, the following five sizes are being made available for Southern Draw Cigars Rose of Sharon. All these sizes are available in a semi-box pressed format, with the exception of the IGNITE Perfecto.

Lancero: 6 1/2 x 40

Perfecto (IGNITE Release): 6 x 56

Robusto: 5 1/2 x 54

Toro: 6 x 52

Gordo: 6 x 60

Other potential sizes for future widespread distribution include a Belicoso (5 1/2 x 50) and another perfecto size (5 x 58).

The Rose of Sharon Lancero size is presented in 20-count boxes. The 6 1/2 x 40 size is slightly shorter and thicker than the classic 7 1/2 x 38 lancero size.

Appearance

The Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper of the Rose of Sharon Lancero had a light brown color to it. This was a wrapper with a silky complexion and some light oil on it. Any visible veins were on the thin side and the cigar itself was nearly void of any visible veins. As mentioned this is a semi-pressed cigar  with slightly rounded edges. The Rose of Sharon Lancero also featured a covered footer and was finished with a thick pig-tail cap.

There are two bands on the Southern Draw Rose of Sharon. The bands incorporate the new coloring scheme introduced at the 2017 IPCPR Trade Show. The primary band has a pink background with a black and gold frame. On the band is the text SOUTHERN DRAW. Below the text is a gold ribbon-like design with the text SOLI DEO GLORIA (which is Latin for Glory to God alone) in a thin dark black font. The remainder of the band has gold adornments. On the left side of the band is the text AGED while on the right side of the band is the text HAND MADE  both in black font.

There is also a secondary band located just below the primary band. This features the text ROSE OF SHARON in gold font which sits on a pink colored background with black trim around the edges. There are also gold adornments surrounding the text.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

As opposed to pulling off the pig-tail cap of the Rose of Sharon Lancero, I opted to place a straight cut to remove both the cap and the pig-tail. It was then on to the pre-light draw stage. The dry draw produced a mix of cream, wood, and a slight berry note. I considered this to be a satisfying pre-light draw. At this point, I was ready to light up the Rose of Sharon Lancero and see what the smoking experience would have in store.

Flavor Profile

The start to the Rose of Sharon Lancero kicked off with notes of red pepper and cream along with the same subtle berry note I detected on the pre-light draw. Early on, the pepper notes subsided and some cedar notes surfaced. As the flavor profile took form the cream, berry, and cedar notes were primary. The berry and cream combination didnt taste like dessert, it very much had a natural tobacco quality to it. Meanwhile, the red pepper settled in the background. Concurrently, there was an additional layer of black and red pepper on the retro-hale.

Later in the first third, the cream notes receded, leaving the cedar and berry in the forefront. As the cigar experience of the Rose of Sharon Lancero progressed to the second third, the cream notes joined the red pepper receding into the background. Toward the midway point, the pepper slowly increased, and the cream notes slowly began to dissipate.

By the last third, the berry notes remained primary. The red pepper was pretty much in the forefront while the cedar notes moved into a secondary role. Most of the creaminess present early on had now dissipated. This is the way the flavor profile of the Rose of Sharon Lancero came to a close. The resulting nub was slightly soft to the touch, but cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

Construction-wise, the Rose of Sharon Lancero shines. This is an extremely well-constructed box-pressed lancero. Ecuadorian Connecticut wrappers are quite delicate, but there were no adverse effects from the box-pressing.

The excellent construction translated to the burn and draw attributes. The burn of the Rose of Sharon Lancero maintained a straight burn line as well as a straight burn path from start to finish. The resulting ash was firm with a light gray color. The burn rate and burn temperature were both ideal.

The draw to the Rose of Sharon Lancero performed quite well. It had a nice balance of openness versus resistance. For a box press, I liked that this draw wasnt too open or loose.

Strength and Body

From both a strength and body perspective, the Rose of Sharon Lancero is going to be on the low end of medium. I didnt find much in the way of variance of the intensity level on either attribute. The strength and body of the Rose of Sharon Lancero balanced each other nicely with neither attribute overshadowing the other. Comparing this to the larger ring gauge sizes, I found the Lancero to offer a little more strength, but a little less body.

Final Thoughts

The story of the lancero in the U.S. market is well-known  they dont sell, but they have the most passionate fan base. Ive long taken the position that the lancero is not the greatest thing since sliced bread. Some blends work in a lancero  and many do not. In the case of the Rose of Sharon Lancero, the blend is terrific. Its a testament to the blending that has taken place with the Rose of Sharon, because I can also say this blend has worked excellently in the 60 ring Gordo. While I did find the firsttwo-thirdss of the Lancero to be more enjoyable than the last, this is still a blend that exceeded expectations.

All things considered, this is a cigar that I would recommend to either the experienced or novice cigar enthusiast. As for myself, its a cigar Id reach for again  and one that I would recommend a box purchase of.

Summary

Key Flavors: Berry, Cream, Cedar, Red/Black Pepper

Burn: Excellent

Draw: Excellent

Complexity: Medium Plus

Strength: Medium

Body: Medium

Finish: Good

Rating

Value: Box Purchase

Score: 92

References

News: Southern Draw Cigars to Release Rose of Sharon Lancero

Price: $10.00

Source: Southern Draw Cigars

Brand Reference: Southern Draw

Photo Credits: Cigar Coop, except where notedVAL-DOR, Quebec, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Golden Valley Mines Ltd. (Golden Valley or the Company) (TSX-V:GZZ) announces an update on several of the Companys activities, including developments at the Companys subsidiary Abitibi Royalties Inc. (Abitibi Royalties), of which the Company owns 49.2% (5,605,246 shares).

1. Related Entities

Abitibi Royalties and Developments at the Canadian Malartic Mine

Abitibi Royalties recently announced an update on its net smelter royalties (NSR) at the Canadian Malartic Mine.

An initial inferred mineral resource was recently declared on the East Malartic Property, which was a historical gold producer directly adjacent to the Canadian Malartic Mine. As at December 31, 2017, inferred mineral resources at Odyssey, East Malartic, Barnat and Jeffrey that are subject to Abitibi Royalties 3% NSR are estimated at 2,313,925 million ounces of gold (32.8 million tonnes grading 2.2 g/t gold).

The 2018 exploration program consists of 140,000 metres of drilling with a budgeted cost of $US17.2 million, including 80,000 metres for valuation in the upper and middle parts of the East Malartic Zone. There are currently three drill rigs at the East Malartic Project and six rigs at the Odyssey Project. In the Q1 2018, 22,089 metres of drilling (46 holes) were completed at the Odyssey Project and 13,600 metres (18 holes) were completed at the East Malartic Project.

For more information pertaining to Abitibi Royalties NSR interest at the East Malartic Property and the Odyssey Project, please see Abitibi Royalties Technical Information in its press releases dated March 19, 2018 and May 7, 2018.

International Prospect Ventures Inc.

Golden Valley holds an approximate 16.6% interest (4,170,910 shares) in International Prospect Ventures Inc. (International Prospect). Dr. Scott Jobin-Bevans was recently announced as International Prospects VP, Exploration.

International Prospect has made application for rights to eight tenements totalling more than 927 square kilometres in the Marble Bar and Nullagine districts of Western Australia where new conglomerate-hosted gold discoveries have been made, led by Novo Resources. The tenements have been recommended for grant by the Western Australian Department of Mines and are now going through Aboriginal title process. International Prospect has signed three agreements with Aboriginal groups as part of this process and is awaiting their formal approval and grant of the tenements. International Prospect is conducting a review of historical work and planning its initial 2018 program.

Val-dOr Mining Corporation Exploration Update

Golden Valley holds an approximate 24.6% interest (8,163,634 shares) in Val-dOr Mining Corporation (Val-dOr Mining). Initial ground work underway on several base and precious metals properties in NW Quebec, including mapping and geophysical surveys, to further resolve targets for a drill program later in the year.

2. NSR Updates and Longer-Term Catalysts

Sirios Resources Inc. (Sirios) - Cheechoo Gold Property Highlights

The information that follows has been prepared by partner and program operator Sirios and has not been independently verified by Golden Valley: Sirios recently announced its assay results in drill hole #139: 56.4 g/t Au over 8.2 m, including 867.1 g/t Au over 0.5 m from the Jordi Zone on the Cheechoo gold property. Sirios also reported that the 2017-2018 autumn-winter diamond drilling program at the Cheechoo gold property has been increased by more than 7,000 metres, bringing the total program to 25,000 metres. More than 55 drill holes have been completed in 2018 to date, in addition to the 33 drill holes completed in autumn 2017. Please see Sirios press releases dated April 17, 2018; April 23, 2018 as well as Sirios' March 31st Management Report for further information.

The Company currently owns approximately 3% of Sirios and holds an NSR on Cheechoo, which ranges from 2.5% - 4.0% depending on commodity prices.

3. Near-Term Catalysts  Joint Ventures (Partner Funded)

Battery Mineral Resources Limited (BMR)  Cobalt project near Matachewan, Ontario Island 27 Prospect

A ground follow-up prospecting, mapping and sampling program was completed in 2017. Selective historical geophysical data has been reviewed and reprocessed. Historical drill holes were reviewed, re-logged and re-sampled. A detailed exploration effort for 2018 is planned, including diamond drilling of the target.

On June 1, 2017, the Golden Valley entered into mining option agreement with BMR pursuant to which the Company will grant to BMR an option to acquire up to an 80% interest in the Island 27 Property, in consideration for which the Company will receive $500,000 in cash payments and Battery Minerals will incur $5,000,000 in expenditures over a 4-year period. Once the option is exercised, Golden Valley will have a 20% free carried interest in the property and a 1% NSR.

Alexandria Minerals Corporation (Alexandria)  Gold Project near Val-DOr: Centremaque Gold Prospect

Alexandria recently reported that a total of 7 drill holes for 3,348 metres were completed at Centremaque, of which two were included in Alexandrias press release dated April 9, 2018 (CAX-18-001 and CAX-18-003) to test the two known zones of mineralization. The information that follows has been prepared by partner and program operator Alexandria and has not been independently verified by Golden Valley: Alexandria reported that the shallow zone is hosted in brecciated, biotite and chlorite altered ultramafic volcanics with up to 5% pyrrhotite and 1% chalcopyrite from 285.85 m to 286.50 m and returned up to 0.65 m @ 14.50g/t Au in hole CAX-18-001. The deeper zone contained a zone of chlorite-tourmaline altered sediments/volcanics located north of the ultramafics, containing up to 9 visible gold grains gold grains between 337.10 m and 338.75 m. The zone returned up to 1.80 m @ 36.62 g/t Au, including 1.00 m @ 40.57 g/t Au at a depth of 337.10 m also in hole CAX-18-001. Hole CAX-18-003 intersected both zones with lower order intercepts. Drilling to date has shown the zone to extend for 300m. Please see Alexandrias press release dated April 9, 2018 for further information.

Alexandria may earn an 80% interest in the Centremaque gold project by issuing treasury shares of Alexandria to Golden Valley over a four year period from date of signing with a total value of $250,000, and by conducting exploration activities totaling $4 million over the same four year period, of which $250,000 is to be spent in the first year of the option agreement. The price of the shares, and therefore the number of shares to be issued, is determined by reference to the market price at the time each tranche is due.

Bonterra Resources Inc. (Bonterra)  Gold Project near Osisko/Windfall Lake: Lac Barry Prospect

The Lac Barry Prospect is located to the southwest along the projected strike extension of mineralization on the West Arena Property of Bonterras 100% owned Gladiator Gold Project, which is currently being drilled on by Bonterra. In addition, the Lac Barry Prospect is adjacent to and immediately southwest of Bonterras Coliseum Property.

Bonterra is planning a follow-up exploration program per results obtained from 2017. Further ground geophysical and geochemical programs plus mapping, prospecting is also planned. The proposed drilling program will be success based and focus on mineralized trends extending west from Gladiator deposit.

In 2016, Golden Valley granted an option to Bonterra to acquire an 85% interest in the Lac Barry Prospect. In accordance with the option agreement, Bonterra issued to Golden Valley Mines 519,480 common shares in the capital of Bonterra having an aggregate value of $200,000, and Bonterra must incur expenditures in an aggregate amount of $2,000,000 over a three year period on the Lac Barry Prospect.

Bonterra has met the option agreement expenditure requirements for the second anniversary date (March 10, 2018) of $750,000.

Upon the exercise of the option, Golden Valley shall retain a 15% free carried interest in the Lac Barry Prospect and a 3% net smelter royalty (NSR), with 1% of the NSR being subject to a buyback in favour of Bonterra for $1 million payable by Bonterra to Golden Valley.

Glenn J. Mullan, P. Geo., the President and Chief Executive Officer of Golden Valley, is a Qualified Person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101, and is responsible for the technical content presented in this news release.

About Golden Valley Mines Ltd.: The Company typically tests initial grassroots targets while owning a 100% interest therein and then seeks partners to continue exploration funding. This allows the Company to carry on its generative programs and systematic exploration efforts at other majority-owned grassroots projects.

For additional information please contact:

Glenn J. Mullan

Chairman, President, and CEO

Golden Valley Mines Ltd.

152, chemin de la Mine Ecole

Val-dOr, Quebec J9P 7B6

Telephone: 819.824.2808 ext. 204

Email: glenn.mullan@goldenvalleymines.com

Forward Looking Statements:

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words expects, plans, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates, projects, potential and similar expressions, or that events or conditions will, would, may, could or should occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or realities may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Companys management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that managements beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

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.It's the end of the world as we know it. The big financial news this week was the value of shares in Gordon's Gin plummeting. Why?...Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



Nairobi, May 10, 2018The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the Gambian Supreme Courts decision yesterday to declare criminal defamation unconstitutional, but is dismayed that segments of the countrys criminal code on sedition and false news were upheld.

According to the news website Front Page International and the secretary general of the Gambia Press Union, Saikou Jammeh, the court upheld provisions that punish statements likely to promote hatred among different classes and sedition relating to the countrys president and judicial processes and decisions. While a provision that criminalizes the spreading of false news online was found unconstitutional, the court maintained parts of the criminal code that punish similar offenses with up to two years in prison, according to Jammeh.

This decision is one step forward, two steps backwards for Gambia, and sends a message that journalists are still not free to work without the threat of criminal prosecution, said CPJ Africa program coordinator Angela Quintal from New York. We urge the government of President Adama Barrow, who pledged to champion media freedom, to uphold his word by urgently enacting legislative reform.

The Supreme Courts decision contradicts a February 2018 ruling by the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that directed Gambia to immediately repeal laws on libel, sedition, and false news, according to CPJ research.Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



CPJ, along with 64 other non-governmental organizations, today wrote to Tanzanian President John Magufuli to express concern about a worrying decline in the respect of human rights, including freedom of expression.

In recent months, Tanzania has implemented laws that undermine freedom of speech online, restrictions on peaceful protests, and closed media outlets, the letter said. The organizations urged Magufulis government to take proactive measures to protect these rights and to recognize publicly the essential role that a vibrant civil society and an independent media play in creating peaceful and equal societies.

The letter can be read here.India and Panama have signed two agreements on exemption of Visas for holders of Diplomatic and Official Passports and in the field of Agriculture. These agreements were signed in the presence of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and President of Panama Juan Carlos Varela Rodrigues in Panama city. It was second leg of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidus his first official foreign visit to three countries Guatemala, Panama and Peru to strengthen Indias relations with them.

Key Facts

India and Panama always had cordial relations. These ties are based on our common values and shared commitment to democracy, pluralism, multi-culturalism, and the rule of law. During Vice President M Venkaiah Naidus visit, both countries resolve to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. India will set up two centres for Biodiversity and Innovation in Panama worth US $10 million and US $15 million each. Both countries have agreed to boost cooperation in key areas by strengthening cooperation in tax information, economic cooperation, air services, traditional medicines, culture and space.The first edition of this years bi-annual Naval Commanders Conference was held in New Delhi from 8 to 11 May 2018. It discussed aspects concerning countrys maritime security, analyse mission-based deployments and larger issues of geo-strategic Indian Ocean Region (IOR), a region witnessing increasing Chinese presence.

Key Facts

During the conference, top echelons of Indian Navy reviewed its new Mission-Based Deployments philosophy aimed at ensuring peace and stability in the region. The new deployment philosophy is in furtherance of Prime Ministers vision of Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR). It aims at sustained, peaceful and yet responsive presence of Indian Naval ships in critical areas and choke points.

It also examined various measures taken to improve combat efficiency, including new transition cycle for ships for transition from maintenance periods through training phase and thereon to full scale operations will be examined at conference. Indian Navys focus over past year has been on combat efficiency and materiel readiness, and upkeep of its large fleet of 131 ships and submarines.

It also reviewed measures to ensure safety, continued training, and checks and balances on crew proficiency on-board its frontline warships. It also undertook review of overhaul of training standards of units by revamping Ship Operating Standards (SHOPS). The new SHOPS will be unveiled shortly and it focuses on Role-based training in realistic scenarios and sets standards to be met by units as also targets individual crew proficiency levels.

It also deliberated upon steps to improve Teeth-to-Tail ratio and explore niche fields such as Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Analytics. Moreover, it also focused on harnessing cutting-edge technology, specifically those Made-in-India, to improve organisational effectiveness and efficiency.

Background

Indian Ocean is considered the backyard of Indian Navy. It is critical to Indias strategic interests. Over the years, the region has witnessed increasing Chinese presence. China increased its presence in IOR by constructing deep-sea Gwadar Port in southern Pakistan and naval base in Djibouti in Horn of Africa. The region also has seen increase in deployment of Chinese ships for anti-piracy operations.Chicago, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Guaranteed Rate, one of the nations largest retail mortgage lenders, reached $3 billion in total locked loan volume for the month of April and eclipsed records previously broken in March. In a highly-competitive housing market, the retail mortgage lender showed its the home purchase expert by achieving the following records: 9,387 in total locked units, $2.5 billion in locked purchase volume and 8,041 in locked purchase units.





Its absolutely astounding to see these records being achieved and occurring only one month after a record-breaking March, said Founder and CEO Victor Ciardelli. In a shrinking market, its incredibly rewarding to have financed this many homes and to have been part of our customers journey to home ownership.

Freddie Mac forecasts the 2018 loan originations market to be down about 20% compared to 2016, according to Ciardelli. With a two-month, record breaking streak, our team is seizing the market share and proving that Guaranteed Rate has the winning formula for success.

Further demonstrating aggressive growth, Guaranteed Rate had its largest loan officer recruiting class in April, recruiting a total of 70 originators. The company expects 2018 to be its largest hiring growth year in company history.

About Guaranteed Rate

Guaranteed Rate is one of the largest retail mortgage lenders in the United States. Headquartered in Chicago, the company has approximately 210 offices across the U.S. and Washington, D.C., and is licensed in all 50 states. Since its founding in 2000, Guaranteed Rate has helped hundreds of thousands of homeowners with home purchase loans and refinances and funded nearly $19 billion in loans in 2017 alone. The company has become the Home Purchase Experts by introducing the world's first Digital Mortgage technology and offering low rate, low fee mortgages through an easy-to-understand process and unparalleled customer service. Guaranteed Rate won an American Business Award for its Digital Mortgage technology in 2016, ranked No. 1 in Scotsman Guide's Top Mortgage Lenders 2016, was chosen as Top Lender 2016 and 2017 by Chicago Agent magazine, made the Chicago Tribune's Top Workplaces list seven of the past eight years, and was named Best Overall Online Lender and Best Lender for FHA Refinance by NerdWallet in 2018. Visit rate.com for more information.Myanmar: Development could hurt Ayeyarwady River: environmentalists

by SI THU LWIN

May 10,2018 | Source: Myanmar Times

Environmentalists and conservationists have warned that unbridled economic development along the Ayeyarwady River could cause irreversible harm to its ecosystem. Damage has been done to some extent to the rivers ecosystem by urban development and economic expansion. We need to protect the river immediately, said U Myo Thit, minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation in Mandalay Region. U Myo Thit underscored the importance of the role water plays in the development of the country and stressed the need to ensure sustainability in the use of this natural resource. The ecosystems of rivers support economic development. The Ayeyarwady River has given so much support for the economic development of our country. It is a gift from Mother Nature.



The Water Resources and Rivers Development Department is carrying out river bank erosion protection as well as river beautification and enhancement to jumpstart efforts to save the river. The WWF Myanmar said the results of a study it conducted from the source of the Ayeyarwady River to its mouth, as well as the present conditions of the people living along the river will be submitted to the Union government. Discussions about the results of the study on the role of river in Myanmars economy will be held for the second time in Mandalay, Monywa, Pathein, and Pyay cities, said Dr Hannah Baleta, coordinator of WWF Myanmars River in the Economy.



She added that preparations are being made to conduct a study in Myitkyina town, which is located near the river source. The findings will be submitted to the Union government, National Water Resources Committee so that they can be utilised in the Ayeyarwady River Study Project funded by the World Bank, she said. Studies have been conducted on the lives of people along the river, production of sand and stones, the condition of businesses dependent on the river, and fishing. This is not one project, but were providing assistance so that the results of the studies are beneficial to [future] projects, Hannah Baleta said.



The first discussion was held in January 2018 in the same four cities, and it was discovered that there were problems in local fishing and sand and stone production, so negotiations are being carried out to improve things. The first time we made an assessment of the situation on the river, Baleta said. This time there would be discussions on future prospects and the consequences of big projects on the Ayeyarwady. The rivers condition and an economic assessment of the river started in May 2017 and will end in August 2018.Iran, which pumps about 4 per cent of the worlds oil, exports about 450,000 barrels per day to Europe and around 1.8 million bpd to Asia.

London/Dubai: Opec is in no hurry to decide whether to pump more oil to make up for an expected drop in exports from Iran after the imposition of new US sanctions, four sources familiar with the issue said, saying any loss in supply would take time.

The Opec has a deal with Russia and non-opec producers to cut supplies that has helped erase a global glut and boosted oil prices to their highest since 2014.

Officials are considering whether a drop in Iranian exports and a decline in supply from another Opec member, Venezuela, demands adjusting the deal that runs to the end of 2018. Ministers meet in June to review the policy.

US sanctions on Iran will have a six-month period during which buyers should wind down oil purchases, meaning any loss of supply will not be immediately felt in the market. I think we have 180 days before any supply impact, an Opec source said when asked about any plans for action.

A second Opec source said that, while the need to add extra supply was being considered, the safest thing for the group to do for now was to sit tight and monitor the situation.

Brent reached $78 a barrel on Thursday, its highest since November 2014, two days after President Donald Trump said the US was abandoning an international nuclear deal with Iran and would impose new sanctions.

Iran, which pumps about 4 per cent of the worlds oil, exports about 450,000 barrels per day to Europe and around 1.8 million bpd to Asia.Media name new owner of Yanukovych helipad in Kyiv

The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine is probing into the site construction for funds illegally obtained by the entourage of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterUkraine to import gas at record high prices in May

According to the expert, prices are driven up by Trump's Iran policies and EU demand.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterKEMP, Texas, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Larson Electronics, a Texas-based business specializing in industrial lights, power distribution stations and other related products, released an explosion proof hydrocarbon gas sensor with a Class I, Division 1 & 2 (Groups B, C, D) rating for combustible environments. The device is used to test and monitor levels of toxic gas in the air, which is applicable to hazardous locations and facilities that handle or process volatile gas.



The EXP-SNR-TG-EC-ITS-ALG-HC200 is configured to uncover hydrocarbon vapors with a detection range of 0-200 ppm. Equipped with a sensor, amplifier and memory module, the compact unit offers non-digital, analog output (4-20 mA output range). An integral sensor holder keeps the device stable during use. For seamless monitoring, the explosion proof hydrocarbon sensor features an LCD graphic display. In 3-wire mode, a backlight is available for viewing in low-light environments.

Simple magnetic controls allow individuals to execute commands, view data, implement alarms and calibrate the unit without opening the sensors enclosure. This also reduces meticulous operation. An internal data logger stores previous gas measurements and readings. Using an external interface, individuals may download the data for storage, reporting or logging. Password protection is available for businesses concerned about security breaches and unwanted tampering.

The explosion proof hydrocarbon gas sensor is made out cast aluminum. A yellow housing ensures immediate and maximum detection of the device. The EXP-SNR-TG-EC-ITS-ALG-HC200 is designed for flammable environments with a temperature range of -25 to +55C. Examples of industrial work sites that require an explosion proof hydrocarbon gas sensor include the following: chemical processing plants, hydrogen storage facilities, butane extraction rooms, propane-based operations, facilities where methane is present and more.

About Larson Electronics LLC: Larson Electronics LLC is a manufacturer of industrial lighting equipment and accessories. The company offers an extensive catalog of industry-grade lighting and power distribution products for the following sectors: manufacturing, construction, food processing, oil and gas, military, marine and automobile. Customers can benefit from the companys hands-on, customized approach to lighting solutions. Larson Electronics provides expedited service for quotes, customer support and shipments.

For further information, please contact:

Rob Bresnahan, President and CEO

Toll-free: 1-800-369-6671

Phone: 214-616-6180

Fax: 903-498-3364

E-mail: sales@larsonelectronics.com

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/510e79d9-f27e-400e-bbd3-b2f648470152

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/4ba50c7c-dd18-4aa6-97a9-e9ba0719ee87

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/fcbbb592-34cf-4e04-8b63-888f514a6479

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/5124fcc3-7b56-45e4-84f8-d5e7496c9868

http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/24979044-89d2-4559-9899-35a9c147313eThe Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, UOKiK, has initiated proceedings against Gazprom and five international entities responsible for financing the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

It said the precedent procedure was initiated several days ago, but the announcement was made on May 9.

UOKiK suspects that the parties to the transaction, despite the withdrawal of the notification of concentration, jointly implement the project, financing the Nord Stream 2.

"The President of the Office may impose upon an undertaking a maximum fine of 10% of the turnover generated in the financial year preceding the year in which the fine is imposed if the undertaking performed a concentration without obtaining consent from the President of the Office. In addition, where the concentration has already been implemented and restoration of competition in the market is otherwise impossible, the President of the Office may order in particular: disposal of the entirety or a portion of the undertaking's assets; disposal of stocks or shares ensuring control over the undertaking or dissolution of the company over which the undertakings have joint control," UOKiK said in the statement posted on its website.

In 2016, Polish officials analyzed the decision of the six companies to establish a company for building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and decided that the planned concentration between Gazprom and five international companies could lead to restriction of competition, the office said.

UOKiK concluded that Gazprom already had a dominant position in gas supplies to Poland, and the transaction could lead to further strengthening of the company's negotiating power towards recipients in the country. "The participants of the consortium withdrew the notification, which in practice meant a ban on the merger," the office said.

UOKiK President Marek Niechcia discovered that the partners had started funding the project. "Unfortunately, as the preliminary proceedings proved, the entities decided to finance this project despite UOKIK's objection. This may constitute a violation of anti-monopoly law and that is why we put the allegations to Gazprom and five other entities," Niechcia said.

In the opinion of the office, the activities of Gazprom and its partners - Engie, Uniper OMV, Shell, and Wintershall - "could be an obvious attempt to circumvent the lack of consent to establish a company financing the construction of the gas pipeline." "In fact, the purpose of both activities was the same. Both the creation of a joint venture and the conclusion of subsequent agreements were mainly aimed at financing the construction of Nord Stream 2," the office said.ZAMMLER POLSKA Sp.z o.o. (Poland), part of Ukraine's ZAMMLER Group, providing transport and warehouse logistics services, plans to expand its own fleet of trucks by 100 Volvo trucks by the end of 2019, ZAMMLER Group Director Viktor Shevchenko has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"We have analyzed the prospects of development on the Polish logistic market and came to the conclusion that we need to focus on transportation by road Thanks to the fact that we have received access to cheap Polish loans, in summer we will expand our own fleet by 38 Volvo trucks, and by the end of next year we plan to have over 100 new trucks. We buy them in Poland. The cost of one truck is EUR 120,000," Shevchenko said.

He said that after expanding the fleet the logistic operator would consider a possibility of expanding warehouses in Poland.

"After entering the Polish market we acquired seven trucks and leased 3,000 square meters of warehouse space near Warsaw to service our Ukrainian clients (their share in the warehouse is 90%). This should be a platform for training for us and our clients, who also plan to enter the European market. We offer lower price to these clients if they need it, provide them with consultations of our lawyers. We see prospects in long cooperation and hope to develop together with them on the European market," Shevchenko said.

The ZAMMLER Group incorporates Zammler Ukraine (Kyiv), Zammler Warehouse LLC (Martusivka, Kyiv region), Zammler Fulfilment LLC (Krasylivka, Kyiv region), MLS LLC (Kharkiv), Ningbo Zammler Trading Co LTD (China) and ZAMMLER POLSKA Sp.z o.o. (Poland).

The group provides services in the sphere of transportation by road, by rail, by sea and by air, customs clearance services and a full range of warehouse services.Special Representative of the U.S. State Department for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker expects progress on the part of Russia in the issue of the UN peacekeeping mission in the east of Ukraine after the inauguration of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an interview with Voice of America, answering the question why Moscow had not yet responded to a proposal regarding the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine, Volker noted that the absence of an answer was not a surprise for the United States. We knew that it would take them [the Russian side] time, because ahead of all there was the re-election of President Putin, and then inauguration. At the same time, I want to note that this is still a hot spot. People are still being killed, and humanitarian problems continue unabated. The time has come. We are waiting for a response from the Russian authorities and we hope for some progress, he said.

He expressed confidence that there is a real chance to end the war in Donbas, if President Putin wants.

I think that it rests with Russia to decide. There is no internal conflict. There are no grounds for a civil war, no reasons for military operations, except for the presence of Russian troops. If we agree on a resolution, especially regarding the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission, which will provide security zones, we will really get an opportunity to put an end to the conflict. There is such a possibility, but it requires Russia's desire to act in this way, Volker stressed.

As for the publication of the Bellingcat investigation team about the involvement of the Russian military in the bombardment of Mariupol in 2015, the U.S. special envoy noted that this is part of a broader picture that they have been looking at for a long time.

Armed units in the east of Ukraine, controlled by Russia, almost daily violate the ceasefire regime, which may concern both Mariupol and other places. Russian personnel officers were deployed to the armed forces in the east, so I would not say that this could become a surprise for us, he said.

As reported, inauguration ceremony of re-elected in March this year Russian President Vladimir Putin was held in Moscow on May 7, 2018.

On the same day SBU Chief Vasyl Hrytsak said that investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) had established the involvement of regular servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces in a rocket attack on the Skhidny residential district of Mariupol on January 24, 2015, which killed 31 people and injured 117 more.

He said that the SBU would transfer to the International Court of Justice part of the materials on the events in Mariupol in 2015, in particular, intercepted negotiations.CLEARWATER, Fla., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On May 7, Boy Scout Troop 313 held their semi-annual Court of Honor  a ceremony which congratulates the efforts that the boys put into their training by promotions to the next ranking, badges and other awards. The ceremony was held in the Clearwater Community Volunteers (CCV) Center in Downtown Clearwater, which is fully supported by the Church of Scientology Clearwater.



I love to have the Scouts come into my center and especially for a ceremony like this, said Clemence Chevrot, Director for the Clearwater Community Volunteer Center. To see the different families come together to support the Scouts reminds me of what humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard once said, A community that pulls together can make a better society for all. Thats what were doing here at the Clearwater Community Volunteer Center  pulling people together.

There were 41 Scouts, Scouters and parents at the CCV Center for the awarding of the boys ranks. Ten Scouts received their next rank or hard-earned Merit Badges and five of those Scouts are on the runway to achieving the rank of Eagle Scouts.

The Clearwater Community Volunteer Center has been working with the Boy Scouts since its opening on the 24th of March along with over 15 other nonprofit organizations. The center provides the venue, catering, and equipment for free to the Boy Scouts, as it does to all of the not-for-profit groups that it works with.

Troop 313 is open to boys of any faith, as is any troop. Boys in the Scouting program are encouraged to be faithful and loyal, as laid out in the Scout Oath and Law.

For more information about the Clearwater Community Volunteers Center or to have your non-profits event there, please call Michael Soltero at the Clearwater Community Volunteer Center at (727) 316-5309.

About the Church of Scientology:

The Scientology religion was founded by humanitarian and philosopher, L. Ron Hubbard. The first Church of Scientology was formed in the United States in 1954 and has expanded to more than 11,000 churches, missions and affiliated groups, with millions of members in 167 nations. Based on L. Ron Hubbard's words, "A community that pulls together can make a better society for all," the Church of Scientology regularly engages in many humanitarian programs and community events. To learn more, visit www.scientology-fso.org.





Michael Soltero

(727) 467-6860

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/30d696a0-de0f-4ca6-9dbe-f9c6188c3ea3During the working visit to Germany to attend the Charlemagne Prize ceremony, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko met with President of the European Council Donald Tusk to hold the next 20th Ukraine - EU Summit in Brussels in the summer of 2018.

The president of Ukraine informed the president of the European Council on the situation in Donbas, the JFO course and the recent facts of violation of the Minsk agreements by the Russian side. The two also discussed the issue of the continuation and possible strengthening of the regime of sanctions against Russia, the presidential press service reported.

"The leaders discussed the implementation of reforms in Ukraine, particularly the creation of the anticorruption court, the reform of the national security system, the implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU, as well as the ways to enhance the EU assistance," the message reads.From the time of the announcement of the "Easter truce" from April 30 to May 2, 2018, the Ukrainian side has recorded 1,512 incidents of shelling by militants from occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk (ORDLO) and one battle, press secretary of the second president of Ukraine, Trilateral Contact Group representative Leonid Kuchma, Darka Olifer has said.

In addition, Olifer noted that, despite repeated insistence by the Ukrainian side, Russian representatives refused to provide security guarantees in the area of the Donetsk filtering station to station personnel and observers of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in carrying out repair and restoration works.

She stressed that the Ukrainian side remains "committed to the Minsk agreements and fulfills all the obligations it has undertaken," and "the solution of the conflict is possible only through political and diplomatic means."

"For the real world, the Russian Federation should stop supplying equipment, weapons, fuel through the uncontrolled section of the Russian-Ukrainian border, and ensure unimpeded access of the OSCE SMM to all occupied territories, including the bordering areas where, in accordance with the agreements reached in September 2014, security zones have been established under the constant supervision of the OSCE's SMM.Groysman to visit Zakarpattia region on Friday

Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman will make a working trip to Zakarpattia region on Friday, May 11.

The corresponding announcement has been posted on the website of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers.

The program of the PM's trip hasn't been made public yet.Ukraine hopes that defense cooperation with the United States would be expanded, including the U.S. help in strengthening of the air defense system and upgrading the military plane fleet of the Air Forces of Ukraine, Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak has said.

"Over the years of the war ... The United States has provided us with assistance for $800 million. The year 2018 will be particularly sensitive. I hope it will significantly improve the level of combat readiness of the troops," he said in an interview with obozrevatel.ua.

The defense minister also optimistically evaluated the prospects for building up Ukrainian-U.S. defense cooperation. According to him, at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State James Mattis in February, "we saw that our U.S. colleagues are ready to expand cooperation."

Answering the question about which weapons, in addition to the Javelin medium range anti-tank guided weapon, Ukraine "asked the United States for at the meeting," he said: "We need to improve the level of readiness of our air forces, air defense."

Speaking about the priorities of rearmament with the aim of increasing the combat readiness of the Armed Forces, Poltorak also said: "Today we must focus our attention on several areas: the creation of air defense complexes, ramp-fire systems, artillery systems, modern anti-tank weapons and electronic warfare."

"All these components ensure success in conducting military operations," he said.A slight decrease in harvest winter crops is possible due to a lack of moisture in soil in southern regions of Ukraine, Head of the agrometeorological department of the Ukrainian weather center Tetiana Adamenko has told Interfax-Ukraine.

"Today droughts are seen on the territory of Ukraine, particularly in the south, which primarily refers to winter crops, in the southern districts of Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhia regions, where there was no rain for 25-30 days. This is local. Harvest could be smaller in these regions due to a drought," she said.

According to Adamenko, in the rest of the territory, due to the large amount of precipitation during the cold period, moisture is sufficient to form a normal harvest of winter crops.

"The situation with spring crop is not so good due to sowing in April and a short time for it. There are still no sprouts in many areas because they were sowed in dry soil, but the situation should change with the arrival of the cyclone. We expect after May 15-16 the temperature drop and it will be raining," she said.

As of the moment, fruit crops are not in danger, they are in the active flowering phase.

"A somewhat unfavorable factor was the high air temperatures in April, which contributed to rapid flowering, which may affect the number of fruit, but this will not drastically affect the volume of the harvest," Adamenko said.Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister for European Integration Olena Zerkal has called on companies to file lawsuits with international courts against the Russian Federation regarding damages after annexation of Crimea so that the price of occupation for Moscow is higher.

"The first decision on compensation for property lost as a result of occupation of Crimea, and the first victory on this section of the legal front," Zerkal wrote on her Facebook page, while commenting on the award on the merits by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on May 9 in a lawsuit of a group of 19 Ukrainian individuals against Russia on unlawful expropriation of their property.

According to her, despite the fact that the text of the court ruling still remains confidential, it can already be reported that the arbitrators recognized that Russia is responsible for actions in Crimea on the basis of an agreement on mutual protection of investments between Ukraine and Russia, the so-called nationalization by the occupation authorities is a violation of the investment agreement, and that Russia must pay $159 million in compensation to the affected companies, as well as to compensate for the costs associated with the litigation.

"The conclusions for us are the following. The illegal occupation has its price. The burden of aggression will be heavier for Russia. This is only the first victory. A lot of cases of Ukrainian companies, including Naftogaz, Oschadbank, Ukrnafta and PrivatBank, are already under consideration," Zerkal said.

She recalled that this month hearings were also underway on the case of Naftogaz Ukrainy and that the decision was expected in the case of Oschadbank.

"We know that the number of companies that are preparing similar suits is growing. I call on all companies that have lost their property in Crimea to actively fight for compensation for losses," she said.

According to her, despite the fact that the arbitrators do not give an answer to the question of the legal status of Crimea after occupation, because "this is beyond the competence of investment arbitration, but every decision on cases of illegal actions of the Russian Federation on Ukrainian territory brings us closer to the fact that the question of the obvious illegality of the occupation will get its legal assessment."

"Sooner or later we will come to the fact that Russia's aggression will be the subject of legal proceedings," she said, adding that Russia will not be able to avoid responsibility for illegal expropriation.

As reported, on March 23, having consulted the parties, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague declared the hearings in the arbitration started under a lawsuit of Everest Estate LLC (Kyiv), former Board Chairman of PrivatBank Oleksandr Dubilet and 17 other companies against the Russian Federation closed.

"On 2 May 2018, having deliberated, the Tribunal issued its unanimous Award on the Merits, addressing issues pertaining to liability and damages," the court said in a press release issued on May 9.

The court recalled that after the hearing on the merits in this matter was held October from 5 to 6, 2017, the tribunal invited the parties to file post-hearing submissions by December 11, 2017.

On November 11, 2017, the Tribunal posed supplementary questions on valuation to the parties, inviting them to respond in their post-hearing submissions. The claimants filed their post-hearing brief, together with an additional valuation report, on 11 December 2017. The Russian Federation did not file any post hearing submissions, the court said in the press release.

The article of the UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) Arbitration Rules 1976 which the tribunal referred to says that the arbitral tribunal may inquire of the parties if they have any further proof to offer or witnesses to be heard or submissions to make and, if there are none, it may declare the hearings closed.

According to the rules, the award shall be made in writing and shall be final and binding on the parties. The parties undertake to carry out the award without delay.

The award may be made public only with the consent of both parties. The arbitral tribunal shall state the reasons upon which the award is based, unless the parties have agreed that no reasons are to be given.

According to the rules, within thirty days after the receipt of the award, either party, with notice to the other party, may request that the arbitral tribunal give an interpretation of the award. The interpretation shall be given in writing within forty-five days after the receipt of the request.

In addition, within thirty days after the receipt of the award, either party, with notice to the other party, may request the arbitral tribunal to correct in the award any errors in computation, any clerical or typographical errors, or any errors of similar nature.Travel to Ukraine is mostly not accompanied by any problems, but British fans should be aware of the current political situation and take into account a number of other circumstances, the British Embassy in Ukraine has said.

"Most trips to Ukraine are trouble free, however there have been cases of violent attacks on foreign nationals in Kyiv and some of these may have been racially motivated, so take extra care and be vigilant at all times. Be aware of the current political situation (in particular the tension between Ukraine and Russia) and avoid any action that could provoke a hostile reaction," the embassy said in its travel advice.

According to tips, the pavements, even on the main roads, are difficult to negotiate for those with disabilities. Access to public transport is also difficult.

The embassy recommends that British fans use banks and official exchange booths for currency exchange.

"As in any other city beware of pickpockets and bag snatchers at airports, railway stations, around the town center, in the stadium and when using public transport; keep valuables and wallet out of sight," British diplomats note.

The embassy said that drinking alcohol is prohibited in public places (except bars, restaurants).

"Local alcoholic drinks are often stronger than in the UK so make allowance for this," the travel advice says.

The British embassy explained that in case of detention British consular officials can visit a detainee at his or her request and hand out the list of English-speaking lawyers if needed.

"But they cannot get you out of prison, represent you in court or pay your bills. If you wish to see a consular official please make this request clear to the local police authorities," diplomats say.

The UEFA Champions League between England's Liverpool and Spain's Real Madrid will be played in Kyiv on May 26.The Irish low cost air carrier Ryanair is considering the possibility of opening its own data center in Ukraine, airline executive director Michael O'Leary has said in an interview with the Ukrainian Travel Gazette.

"At a meeting with President [of Ukraine] Petro Poroshenko, we discussed the option of establishing our subsidiaries in Ukraine. In particular, we would be interested in the opportunity to create our own data center here. Now a similar center in Poland has more than 100 Ukrainian employees, and we need to expand the staff. It would be logical to create another such center for the collection and processing of information in the territory of Ukraine and employ here about 250 local IT specialists but not take them to Poland," he said.

In addition, according to the expert, the airline in the long term is also interested in opening a center for aircraft maintenance in Ukraine, for which it is necessary to conduct an examination of the regulation of such activities in our country, including by European bodies.

He also noted that the airline is interested in the employment of Ukrainian pilots and stewards.

"But this is problematic enough, since we are a European airline, and Ukraine is not a member of the European Union. All of your pilots and stewards must verify their licenses under EASA requirements, and this a time consuming process," he said.

At the same time, he noted that citizens of Ukraine already fly in the crews of the airline, and expressed hope their number will increase in future.First Deputy Head of the National Police of Ukraine Viacheslav Abroskin has said at a meeting between representatives of the police departments of Ukraine and Turkey that the police of the two countries have common points of contact for documenting and investigating crimes committed by organized criminal groups in the territory of both states.

"We cannot say that members of an organized criminal group 'specialize' only in trafficking in human beings or distributing drugs. I invited all leaders of criminal police to the meeting so that we could discuss the issues of counteracting organized criminal groups in various areas and establish cooperation at all levels. I hope that we will have many crimes solved together," the press service of the National Police of Ukraine quoted Abroskin as saying on Thursday.

Abroskin added that Ukraine's police possess information about the leaders of criminal groups that organize criminal activities both in Ukraine and in other countries. Consequently, as part of cooperation, Ukrainian police are ready to provide all the necessary information to Turkish colleagues.

He noted that the exchange of necessary information would help both countries to prevent the commission of serious crimes.

"We are now openly working with European countries on specific organized criminal groups and areas for combating organized crime. We teamed up with a number of European countries to exchange information. There are already positive developments, and we see the reaction of the underworld," Abroskin said.

The Turkish side supported this format of cooperation and expressed full interest in interaction between police officers of the two countries.Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has disclosed the results of his talks with the leaders of European countries and European Council President Donald Tusk, which were held in Aachen, Germany, the press service of the Ukrainian president reported on Thursday.

In particular, Poroshenko and Tusk discussed the preparation, agenda, date and steps to be taken before the EU-Ukraine summit.

"This is one of the elements of the formation of a new agenda for Ukraine," Poroshenko said.

He noted the importance of a digital union, the cancellation of roaming for Ukrainians who, using the visa-free regime, will travel to the European Union, cybersecurity, as well as steps in the security sphere.

Poroshenko also held talks with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and met with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. A number of other meetings are to be held with members of the German government.

"We have a very ambitious program of economic cooperation, cooperation [in the sphere of security], as well as cultural and humanitarian cooperation," Poroshenko said.

He noted that the agenda is very tense: "We clearly state that our path is European integration. Our path is transatlantic integration."

"By the way, we also discussed preparations for the Ukraine-NATO summit as part of the NATO summit in Brussels. We agreed on other international meetings where, I am very glad, the pro-Ukrainian coalition of peace will speak with one voice. The leaders of France and Germany guarantee that these steps are effective," Poroshenko said.COMPANY REGULATORY ANNOUNCEMENT

10 May 2018

Result of Annual General Meeting

At the Annual General Meeting of Irish Continental Group plc ("ICG" or the "Company") held today, Thursday 10 May 2018, all resolutions proposed were passed on a show of hands.

The full text of each resolution was included in the notice of the Annual General Meeting circulated to shareholders on 9 April 2018.

Details of valid proxy appointments held by the Board are available on the Company's website www.icg.ie.

Copies of the above documents will be submitted to the Irish Stock Exchange and the UK National Storage Mechanism. These documents will therefore shortly be available for inspection at www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM and at the following address:

Companies Announcement Office

The Irish Stock Exchange plc

28 Anglesea Street

Dublin 2

Tom Corcoran

Company SecretaryInterior Ministry should draw up plan for de-occupation of Donbas before summer - Avakov

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has held a meeting with the heads of all central executive government agencies of the Interior Ministry system, during which a plan of measures to prepare the Interior Ministry system for restoring Ukraine's sovereignty in temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions was discussed.

"We should have this document this summer. It will include two parts - preparatory and practical. The main goal of the plan is to liberate temporarily occupied territories, restore the constitutional order of Ukraine, protect the rights and freedoms of our citizens," the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's press service quoted Avakov as saying.

Avakov said that information plays an important role in the implementation of this plan.

"We should involve the public in discussing the plan and inform the population at every stage," he said.

The head of the working group, adviser to the minister Ivan Varchenko, said that the working group had outlined all challenges and threats in temporarily occupied territories.

"The working group that drafted this plan has found all the challenges, in particular, criminal, socio-economic challenges, those related to the hostilities, information, cultural and political challenges. We also developed ways to overcome them," Varchenko said.Outspoken MP Ali Motahari and a number of other Iranian political figures have criticized setting fire to a picture of the US flag and a copy of the nuclear agreement (JCPOA) at the Majles session on Wednesday May 9, the morning after US President Donald Trump announced the United States pullout from the nuclear deal with Iran.

Majles Speaker Ali Larijani did not object to hardline MP Mohsen Kouhkans controversial act, but tried to play it down by jokingly warning him not to set the Parliament ablaze.

Kouhkan said in his defense that it was an individual initiative and that he made the decision without coordinating with anyone else. We should have shown our revolutionary anger to 40 years of US enmity against Iran, further explaining that I set fire to the US flag, because I was not able to find a photo of Trump.

He said that some other MPs welcomed his move and chanted death to America while he was setting fire to the flag.

Motahari strongly condemned the act, saying setting fire to the flag, puts us face to face against the American people.

Reformist MP Mahmoud Sadeghi said in a tweet that he objected to Kouhkans act, but he was unable to do anything to stop it.

Another MP, Alireza Rahimi, who also tweeted about his opposition to Khoukans act, said Islamic culture, as well as rationality and political logic rejects acts such as setting fire to the flag of other nations.

Rahimi said in a tweet that the majority of MPs and the speaker of the Majles did not approve of the act and strongly rejected it.

Rahimi attributed this kind of controversial behavior to hardline figures who wish to undermine the Rouhani administrations authority.

Centrist MP Fatemeh Saeedi, wrote in her twitter page that she believes setting fire to another countrys flag would not secure Irans national interests, adding, Flags are symbols of nations and it is our responsibility to respect other nations.

Meanwhile, political commentator Sadeq Zibakalam said sarcastically the act of this revolutionary showed that trump did not get everything wrong, adding that the MPs showed a bit of Iranians rich culture and civilization.

Reformist figure Mostafa Tajzadeh blamed those who benefit from sanctions as perpetrators of such controversial acts. He said these are the same individuals who call for Rouhanis resignation.

In another development, a number of students linked to Baseej militia also set fire to a US flag and a copy of the JCPOA.

Following the US pullout, Irans President Hassan Rouhani has said that Iran will stay in the nuclear deal and will continue negotiations with Europe, China and Russia in order to secure Irans interests.

However, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said that he does not trust Germany, France and the UK, and has called on the Rouhani administration to seek practical guaranties about their commitment to the JCPOA.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made a phone call to President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin on May 7, the presidential press service reported.

The head of the Azerbaijani state congratulated Vladimir Putin on his taking the office as President of the Russian Federation and wished him new success in the activity for the sake of prosperity of the Russian people.

President Aliyev also congratulated the Russian president on the upcoming Victory Day - May 9.

President Putin voiced a gratitude to President Aliyev for his congratulations and attention, and also congratulated the head of the Azerbaijani state on the upcoming Victory Day.

President Aliyev thanked for the congratulations.

During the phone talk, the heads of states noted the successful development of the Azerbaijani-Russian strategic partnership and exchanged views on the prospects of the bilateral relations.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

Azerbaijans national leader Heydar Aliyev was certainly a pivotal and unique figure in the history of not only Azerbaijan but on the global stage, Rob Sobhani, director general of the Caspian Group Holdings, told Trend.

Heydar Aliyev took a country that was facing massive dislocation due to the collapse of the Soviet Union (in terms of health care, education, international isolation) and turned it around within a few years. This act of bold statesmanship is nothing but miraculous, he said.

Sobhani pointed out that Heydar Aliyev had a very warm personality which allowed him to conduct diplomacy in favor of Azerbaijan with all world leaders.

Heydar Aliyev did not allow negative views about him or his country and was always preserving the interests of Azerbaijan, he added.

Heydar Aliyev knew very well that there were forces who did not want Azerbaijan to be independent and economically powerful, said Sobhani.

This knowledge allowed him to maneuver in such a manner that guaranteed the independence of Azerbaijan, added Sobhani.

His love for the people of Azerbaijan and elevation of the heritage and culture of Azerbaijan above all else was a key factor in the success of Heydar Aliyev. For over 70 years the identity of Azerbaijan was subsumed by the Soviet communism but Heydar Aliyev was able to turn this around by emphasizing the identity of Azerbaijan, he concluded.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_ZeynBaku, Azerbaijan, May 10

Trend:

May 10 marks the 95th birthday anniversary of the architect and founder of the modern independent state of Azerbaijan, outstanding statesman, brilliant son and national leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev.

President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, family members, relatives and friends of the national leader visited the Alley of Honors.

President Ilham Aliyev laid a wreath at the grave of National Leader Heydar Aliyev, and paid tribute to him.

The national anthem of Azerbaijan was played.

Then, the president and his family members laid flowers at the graves of prominent ophthalmologist, academician Zarifa Aliyeva, outstanding statesman Aziz Aliyev, renowned doctor and scientist Tamerlan Aliyev.

The event was also attended by Prime Minister Novruz Mammadov, Parliament Speaker Ogtay Asadov, Head of the Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev, ministers, heads of committees and companies, MPs.Headline changed, details added (first version posted on 09:41)

Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

Trend:

May 10 marks the 95th birthday anniversary of the architect and founder of the modern independent state of Azerbaijan, outstanding statesman, brilliant son and national leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev.

President Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, family members, relatives and friends of the national leader visited the Alley of Honors.

President Ilham Aliyev laid a wreath at the grave of National Leader Heydar Aliyev, and paid tribute to him.

The national anthem of Azerbaijan was played.

Then, the president and his family members laid flowers at the graves of prominent ophthalmologist, academician Zarifa Aliyeva, outstanding statesman Aziz Aliyev, renowned doctor and scientist Tamerlan Aliyev.

The event was also attended by Prime Minister Novruz Mammadov, Parliament Speaker Ogtay Asadov, Head of the Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev, ministers, heads of committees and companies, MPs.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and family members attended a tree-planting campaign on the occasion of the 95th birthday anniversary of national leader Heydar Aliyev May 10.

The campaign took place in an area around Gala-Turkan highway.

Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev informed President Aliyev about the green areas created.

President Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva and family members then planted trees in the area.

The president and first lady then posed for photographs together with the participants of the tree-planting campaign.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

Trend:

The night stage of the Efes-2018 international exercises held in Turkey's Izmir was conducted at the Doganbey training ground on May 9, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said in a message.

First, the ministrys enlarged delegation led by Azerbaijans defense minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov visited the exhibition of the Turkish defense industry and got acquainted with models of modern weapons and military equipment.

Then the Azerbaijani delegation together with high-ranking representatives watched the night stage of the exercises.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

Trend:

Azerbaijanis, who live abroad, should inform the public of the foreign country they live in about the truth regarding the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict instead of being so zealously engaged in propaganda against Azerbaijan and its people, Azerbaijani Presidents Assistant for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov said in a Facebook post May 10.

"Some of our compatriots, who live abroad, have become a tool in the hands of anti-Azerbaijani circles," he said.

He stressed that on May 9, the US Helsinki Commission, characterized by its special interest in Azerbaijan, held regular hearings regarding the election and fundamental freedoms in the country.

Id like to remind that back in December 2016, chairman of the Commission, Congressman Chris Smith put forward a bill providing for harsh sanctions against Azerbaijan, Hasanov noted. The provisions of this draft law were aimed at seriously undermining the US-Azerbaijan relations in the economic, political and military spheres. This is the very Smith, who has for a long time shown special zeal for the US government to recognize the so-called Armenian genocide.

The Commission chairman, who must demonstrate equal attitude to all countries, peoples and confessions, repeatedly expressed his special love for Armenia and the Armenian people, Hasanov said.

"It is no coincidence that these hearings were organized by the Commission led by Chris Smith," Hasanov noted. Along with people who closely watched and showed interest in the processes in our country, experts also took part in the event, and they, for various reasons, held a strict anti-Azerbaijan stance. The speeches at these hearings showed that speakers have very superficial and in most cases erroneous impressions about the processes taking place in Azerbaijan, the correlation of political forces in the country, the real weight of some structures represented by a political party or social movement in the life of society and their real intentions.

One of our compatriots, who created an information resource outside Azerbaijan at the expense of foreign grants and donations, and published a few years ago an article on the importance of recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide on the website owned by this resource, again brought to the agenda the issue of sanctions, criticized the activities of Azerbaijan in the lobbying sphere and once again urged the US and the EU to exert serious pressure on Azerbaijan, Hasanov said.

It is strange that somebody who is distinguished by vulgar behavior and insulting rhetoric was invited to the event, he noted.

"Not understanding what he says, this person accuses the Western countries of maintaining normal relations with the Azerbaijani authorities, considers it almost a tragedy when the leaders of the EU, leading European countries and the US send congratulatory letters to President Ilham Aliyev following the presidential election," Hasanov added.

Some of our compatriots living abroad are actively used to belittle our state, our people and the power of the country, he said. Apparently, this zeal and the events held in various countries, visits from one country, and even from one continent to another, arent only a personal initiative. Of course, a lot of money and constant instructions from some anti-Azerbaijan circles and states stand behind this. I call on them: abandon your wrong path. If possible, establish contacts with politicians, political scientists, representatives of NGOs and the media that oppose the aggressive policy of Armenia and express Azerbaijans fair position, attract them to your activities. In this case, you will earn the respect and confidence of the people you belong to... One more question: do you think that the representatives of the Armenian lobby, who were present at yesterdays hearings, would turn their country into an object of discussions, like you did? In any case, this is worth thinking of.Headline changed, details added (first version posted on 12:58)

Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

Trend:

Azerbaijanis, who live abroad, should inform the public of the foreign country they live in about the truth regarding the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict instead of being so zealously engaged in propaganda against Azerbaijan and its people, Azerbaijani Presidents Assistant for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov said in a Facebook post May 10.

"Some of our compatriots, who live abroad, have become a tool in the hands of anti-Azerbaijani circles," he said.

He stressed that on May 9, the US Helsinki Commission, characterized by its special interest in Azerbaijan, held regular hearings regarding the election and fundamental freedoms in the country.

Id like to remind that back in December 2016, chairman of the Commission, Congressman Chris Smith put forward a bill providing for harsh sanctions against Azerbaijan, Hasanov noted. The provisions of this draft law were aimed at seriously undermining the US-Azerbaijan relations in the economic, political and military spheres. This is the very Smith, who has for a long time shown special zeal for the US government to recognize the so-called Armenian genocide.

The Commission chairman, who must demonstrate equal attitude to all countries, peoples and confessions, repeatedly expressed his special love for Armenia and the Armenian people, Hasanov said.

"It is no coincidence that these hearings were organized by the Commission led by Chris Smith," Hasanov noted. Along with people who closely watched and showed interest in the processes in our country, experts also took part in the event, and they, for various reasons, held a strict anti-Azerbaijan stance. The speeches at these hearings showed that speakers have very superficial and in most cases erroneous impressions about the processes taking place in Azerbaijan, the correlation of political forces in the country, the real weight of some structures represented by a political party or social movement in the life of society and their real intentions.

One of our compatriots, who created an information resource outside Azerbaijan at the expense of foreign grants and donations, and published a few years ago an article on the importance of recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide on the website owned by this resource, again brought to the agenda the issue of sanctions, criticized the activities of Azerbaijan in the lobbying sphere and once again urged the US and the EU to exert serious pressure on Azerbaijan, Hasanov said.

It is strange that somebody who is distinguished by vulgar behavior and insulting rhetoric was invited to the event, he noted.

"Not understanding what he says, this person accuses the Western countries of maintaining normal relations with the Azerbaijani authorities, considers it almost a tragedy when the leaders of the EU, leading European countries and the US send congratulatory letters to President Ilham Aliyev following the presidential election," Hasanov added.

Some of our compatriots living abroad are actively used to belittle our state, our people and the power of the country, he said. Apparently, this zeal and the events held in various countries, visits from one country, and even from one continent to another, arent only a personal initiative. Of course, a lot of money and constant instructions from some anti-Azerbaijan circles and states stand behind this. I call on them: abandon your wrong path. If possible, establish contacts with politicians, political scientists, representatives of NGOs and the media that oppose the aggressive policy of Armenia and express Azerbaijans fair position, attract them to your activities. In this case, you will earn the respect and confidence of the people you belong to... One more question: do you think that the representatives of the Armenian lobby, who were present at yesterdays hearings, would turn their country into an object of discussions, like you did? In any case, this is worth thinking of.CALGARY, Alberta, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Utilities Limited (TSX:CU) (TSX:CU.X)



At the Annual Meeting of Share Owners of Canadian Utilities Limited (the Corporation) held on May 9, 2018 in Edmonton, Alberta, a resolution was passed by ballot, electing each of the following 10 nominees proposed by management as a Director of the Corporation to hold office until the next Annual Meeting of Share Owners of the Corporation or until his/her successor is elected or appointed.

NOMINEES



VOTES FOR %

IN FAVOUR Matthias F. Bichsel 68,567,592 99.99 Loraine M. Charlton 68,561,794 99.99 Robert B. Francis 68,566,800 99.99 Robert J. Normand 68,566,640 99.99 Hector A. Rangel 68,566,592 99.99 Laura A. Reed 68,566,860 99.99 James W. Simpson 68,560,778

99.99 Nancy C. Southern 68,565,704

99.99 Linda A. Southern-Heathcott 68,565,504

99.99 Charles W. Wilson 68,559,922

99.99

This matter is described in greater detail in the 2018 Notice of Annual Meeting of Share Owners and Management Proxy Circular dated March 7, 2018.

With approximately 5,400 employees and assets of $21 billion, Canadian Utilities Limited is an ATCO company. ATCO is a diversified global corporation delivering service excellence and innovative business solutions in Structures & Logistics (workforce housing, innovative modular facilities, construction, site support services, and logistics and operations management); Electricity (electricity generation, transmission, and distribution); Pipelines & Liquids (natural gas transmission, distribution and infrastructure development, energy storage, and industrial water solutions); and Retail Energy (electricity and natural gas retail sales). More information can be found at www.canadianutilities.com.

Media & Investor Inquiries:

D.A. (Dennis) DeChamplain

Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

403-292-7502





Forward-Looking Information:Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Ilkin Shafiyev - Trend:

Heydar Aliyev's political wisdom and foresight earned him a high reputation among his compatriots and abroad, says the address of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the participants of the Russian-Azerbaijani historical and documentary exhibition titled "Heydar Aliyev: Personality, Mission, Heritage", held May 10 at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku.

The address was read by Vladimir Chernov, head of the Russian Presidential Directorate for Interregional Relations and Cultural Contacts with Foreign Countries.

"Heydar Aliyev's political wisdom and foresight, his ability to delve into the essence of the most difficult issues, great organizational talent earned him a high reputation among compatriots and abroad. Heading independent Azerbaijan in a difficult historical period, he became a true leader of his country and did much to consolidate the Azerbaijani society. Heydar Aliyev considered building friendly relations with Russia, strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation and constructive partnership between our countries as the key conditions for successful development of Azerbaijan. It is gratifying that the current President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev worthily continues this course," the Russian president said in his address.

"This large-scale exhibition is the result of joint efforts of historians, archivists and representatives of government agencies of our countries. I would like to thank everyone who took part in its preparation," said Putin.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Fikret Dolukhanov, Vugar Imanov - Trend:

Heydar Aliyev is the person who had a special merit in strengthening of the Azerbaijan-Russia relations, currently characterized as strategic, President Ilham Aliyev said in his message to participants of the Russian-Azerbaijani historical and documentary exhibition titled "Heydar Aliyev: Personality, Mission, Heritage".

The message was read out by Azerbaijani Presidents Assistant for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov at the exhibition held in the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku on May 10.

"Heydar Aliyev was an outstanding statesman and politician who gained a high reputation not only in the post-Soviet area but throughout the world. His rich experience in the state management and high organizational skills, obtained over the years of service as the chairman of the Committee for State Security of the Republic, head of the Azerbaijan SSR, and then First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, allowed him to head the independent Azerbaijan, and during the most difficult period, to lead the country out of a deep crisis to the path of sustainable development," reads the message.

"Heydar Aliyev had a special merit in strengthening of relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, currently characterized as strategic ties. During the years of independence, our states have managed not only to preserve, but also to multiply the good-neighborliness traditions and mutually beneficial cooperation accumulated by many generations," President Aliyev said in his message.

President Aliyev highlighted the fact that the exhibition held in Baku demonstrates numerous archive documents and photos that allow not only to see versatile personality of Heydar Aliyev, but also to get acquainted with his heritage.

"I am sincerely glad that a colorful catalog, in which continuation of the political course of the national leader is clearly discernible, has been prepared for this event. I hope the publication will take a worthy place in funds of many libraries," reads the message.

President Aliyev further expressed deep gratitude to the Russian side, which is the initiator of this project, and also thanked historians and archivists of both countries.

"I am sure the exhibition will contribute to strengthening of the friendship between our peoples," President Aliyev said in his message.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanovBaku, Azerbaijan, May 11

By Samir Ali  Trend:

The opinions voiced by new Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during his visit to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region show that he has no new ideas on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani MP Elman Nasirov told Trend May 10.

Pashinyan repeats the thoughts of the Armenian former political leadership, he said. "He does not want to voice something new. Pashinyan's statements about the interest in the negotiation process and that the illegal regime must participate in this process as a party have reduced the belief that the prime minister will take a constructive position in the conflict settlement.

The illegal regime will never be able to participate in the settlement of the conflict, as a party, because both the conflict itself and the fictional regime were created by predatory Armenia, Nasirov said. Therefore, negotiations are held between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The participation of the illegal regime created in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, as a party to the negotiations, may mean the recognition of its legitimacy, he said. Pashinyans thoughts in any case can not be accepted and may lead to a standstill in the conflict settlement.

As for Pashinyan's opinion on increasing efforts to recognize the independence of the fictional regime, the MP stressed that these statements of the new prime minister coincide with the thoughts of Armenian ex-president Serzh Sargsyan, Nasirov said. "In fact, Sargsyan did not show such persistence in the issue of the independence of the illegal regime, as Pashinyan did."

The new prime minister also stressed that he is also interested in opening the border with Turkey, adding that he considers this important for Armenia.

However, Turkey has set a condition for Armenia to cease its occupation policy and withdraw its troops from Azerbaijans lands and afterwards, the issue of opening the border may be discussed, Nasirov said. I think that Pashinyan could not find the answer to the question about the primary reason for Armenias plight.

It is obvious that the primary reason is Armenias aggressive policy towards Azerbaijan, he said. That is why Armenia is in the hard conditions of blockade within which Azerbaijan and Turkey apply sanctions against Armenia, restricting it in energy, economic and transport sectors."

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, May 10

Trend:

Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez of the Miami-Dade County, one of the tourism centers in the US, signed an appeal in connection with the 100th anniversary of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with the Diaspora said in a message May 10.

The appeal reads that World Azerbaijanis have been celebrating May 28 as the Republic Day for the past 100 years. Establishment of the Azerbaijan-American Cultural Association in Florida on Oct. 26, 2006 is aimed at preservation and continuation of these traditions, he added.

The document highlights establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first secular parliamentary republic in the Muslim East, on May 28, 1918, and its recognition by democratic states, including the US.

It further reads that the ADR granted all citizens the voting rights irrespective of race, sex, ethnic and religious affiliation.

Gimenez, hailing strengthening of the relations between the United States and Azerbaijan, announced May 28, 2018 as the National Day of Azerbaijan.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 11

Trend:

The Azerbaijani flag will be raised in all the occupied territories, including Shusha and Khankendi, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev.

He made the remarks addressing the solemn ceremony to mark the 95th birth anniversary of national leader Heydar Aliyev.

The head of state noted that Azerbaijans principled position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unchanged.

In 2003-2018, over 15 years, many international organizations, the UN General Assembly, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and other organizations adopted resolutions and decisions reflecting our position, the justice in connection with this conflict. The Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resolved only on the basis of norms and principles of international law, the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan must be fully restored, four resolutions of the UN Security Council must be implemented. These resolutions clearly indicate that the occupying forces must unconditionally leave the occupied lands. There is no other way to resolve the conflict, the president said.

Ilham Aliyev stressed that the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is not the subject of negotiations, has never been and never will be.

The Azerbaijani people and the Azerbaijani state will never allow a second Armenian state to be created on Azerbaijani soil. If someone thinks differently, I believe that he vainly lives in illusions. The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan should be ensured completely and unconditionally. Justice and international law require this. Nagorno-Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan. This is evidenced by history and culture, international law says this. The so-called "referendum" held in Nagorno-Karabakh was not recognized by any country, or any international organization. This once again shows that the international community, all countries recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan. We will continue to strengthen our principled position. Azerbaijan has ample opportunities both in the international arena and in the region. Without our participation, no project can be implemented in the region. The sooner this is understood in Armenia, the sooner the conflict will be resolved and peace will be ensured in our region. We, at the same time, do a lot of work in the world in connection with the Khojaly genocide. Unprecedented brutality, the Khojaly genocide, committed by Armenians, has been recognized as genocide by more than 10 countries in recent years, and this process will continue. We have built a strong army. Leading rating agencies that determine the strength of the army, see the Azerbaijani army among the 50 strong armies. We know this and our military power is growing day by day. Two years ago, the Azerbaijani army liberated a part of the Agdara, Fizuli, Jabrayil districts from the occupants and the flag of Azerbaijan flutters on these lands, on our native lands today. I am confident that the day will come and the Azerbaijani flag will be raised on all territories today still under the occupation, including in Shusha and Khankendi, Ilham Aliyev said.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

Trend:

The meeting between students of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) and management of SOCAR Carbamide Plant was held.

It gathered BHOS rector Elmar Gasimov, BHOS fourth and fifth year students studying in the Process Automation Engineering programme, director of SOCAR Carbamide Plant Khayal Jafarov, other representatives of BHOS and the plant. During the meeting director of the Carbamide plant Khayal Jafarov made detailed presentation on the plant for BHOS.

He particularly stressed that the construction of the plant aimed at increasing productivity of lands allotted for agriculture of the country and consequently production of necessary fertilizers at the same time prevention of currency outflow while purchasing fertilizers from foreign countries. Mentioning that 99% of construction was completed Khayal Jafarov underlined that in upcoming August ammonia is expected to be the first product and later the production of carbamide will be launched.

In addition, he underscored that principles of environmental protection and security were constantly in the forefront. Then Khayal Jafarov said that the plant was in great need of qualified specialists. In this connection, he touched upon the issue of internship programs at Carbamide plant for BHOS students and recruitment of BHOS graduates. Khayal Jafarov said that they need particularly young and professional staff as BHOS students having proficiency in English.

BHOS rector Elmar Gasimov extended his gratitude to Khayal Jafarov and his staff for organization of the meeting and taking interest in BHOS students. Rector pointed out that being educated and trained in line with academic programs meeting international standards and having proficiency in English BHOS students successfully work for SOCAR enterprises and leading transnational companies thus surpassing other candidates in terms of knowledge and experience. I am convinced that our students will join internship programs of Carbamide Plant and in future they will contribute in its activity, said Elmar Gasimov.

Then students raised questions of structure of the plant, work principles and future plans. In conclusion, the tour around the plant was organized for BHOS staff and students enabling them to be familiarized with activities of the plant.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

Trend:

The Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles has published a book on Azerbaijan in English in order to further convey the truth of Azerbaijan to the US public, the Consulate General told Trend.



The 120-page book, entitled "Azerbaijan - Everlasting Heritage, Inspirational Harmony", includes information on the geography, natural resources, ancient history, rich culture and art, traditions of strong ethnic and religious tolerance, the state structure and foreign policy, rapid economic development, tourism potential of Azerbaijan, ADA University, ASAN Service and other issues. Colorful pictures of Baku and other beautiful regions of Azerbaijan adorn various sections of the book.



The section of the book, titled Illegal Occupation of Azerbaijans territory informs the readers about the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. Speaking about the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the book highlights the fact that this historic region of Azerbaijan has been part of many different Azerbaijani states throughout the history.

Touching on the division of Azerbaijan between regional powers in the beginning of the 19th century, the publication stresses that as a result of the infamous Kurekchay and Turkmenchay treaties an estimated 200,000 Armenians left Persia and the Ottoman Empire, and migrated primarily to Yerevan and Nagorno-Karabakh. 30,000 Armenians settled in Karabakh alone, increasing their share of the population from 8.4% to an estimated 34.8%.

In Yerevan, the proportion seemed to have increased from 24% to 53.8%. In return 35,000 of the 117,000 Azerbaijanis who once lived in Yerevan and Karabakh were compelled to flee, the book notes.

Speaking about the illegal military occupation and ethnic cleansing of around 20 percent of Azerbaijans internationally recognized sovereign territory by Armenia in the early 1990s, the publication says: The United Nations unanimously condemned the occupation of Azerbaijani territory, and in 1993 the Security Council passed four resolutions (Nos. 822, 853, 874, 884) demanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Armenian forces from the occupied areas of Azerbaijan. Armenia, however, ignored these resolutions, and the UN Security Council did nothing to enforce compliance. Armenia also ignored resolutions of the European Parliament as well as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which condemned the occupation and ethnic cleansing.



The book also draws attention to the many atrocities carried out by Armenian troops against Azerbaijani civilians in the course of armed conflict, including the Khojaly Genocide of 1992, when the Armenian army massacred over 600 Azerbaijani civilians that also included around 300 children, women and elderly. In this regard, it is noted that as a result of the Justice for Khojaly campaign, led by Ms Leyla Aliyeva, the public awareness about Khojaly has been increasing in the world, including in the US.



The Consulate General plans to distribute this booklet among US Congresspersons, state elected officials from California and other states of the Western US, mass media, academic circles, universities, libraries etc.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:

Personnel changes will undoubtedly be carried out in the new Ministry of Culture, said Minister of Culture Abulfas Garayev speaking about the activities of the new ministry established on the basis of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The minister believes that the culture sphere in Azerbaijan contributes to attracting numerous guests to the country and helps Azerbaijan win universal recognition. The sphere of culture will always serve for the spirituality of the Azerbaijani people and its promotion.

The minister noted that the newly established Ministry of Culture will not change the direction of its activities. "We practically do not change the direction of our work, but continue it. Simply, the tourism sector will now be managed as an economic sector. Today, the tourism industry of Azerbaijan makes a great contribution to the country's economy. The functions of the Ministry of Culture are somewhat different in this respect. Nevertheless, employees of the Ministry of Culture will continue their work to promote Azerbaijani culture in order to attract tourists," Garayev said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on some measures to improve public administration in the sphere of culture and tourism, according to which the Ministry of Culture and the State Tourism Agency were established on the basis of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Spanish city of Barcelona held a presentation on the economic potential of Uzbekistan, the Uzbek news agency Jahon reported.

The delegation of Uzbekistan briefed the Spanish colleagues on business conditions in the country, such as legal guarantees, existing political and economic stability, and favorable geographical location of the country.

Representatives of the city administration and business circles of the region, as well as local journalists participated in the event.

Spanish businessmen showed interest in the free economic zones of Uzbekistan, such as Jizzakh, Navoi, Kokand, Gijuvan, Hazarasp, Angren and Urgut.

European businessmen consider such presentations to create new opportunities for business activity. For many, Uzbekistan is a new business direction, and the experience of such Spanish companies as Maxam and Talgo, which are actively working with the country, is extremely useful in this regard.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanovBaku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

The Baku International Sea Trade Port should take advantage of the unique opportunities of its geographical location and become a hub of regional scale, president of the Port Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Zeno D'Agostino said May 10 during a session at the conference of the International Association of Ports and Harbors in Baku.

Zeno D'Agostino noted that the favorable location of the port is one of the most important factors influencing its development into a transport hub.

"Baku has the necessary factors for this. The port should take advantage of the unique opportunities of its location at the intersection of trade routes. As I know, a legal framework has also been established. It is necessary to organize the work of customs and integrate various terminals into the port in order to develop into a hub of regional scale in the future," D'Agostino said.

Baku hosts World Ports Conference 2018 on May 8-11. The event is attended by port heads, government representatives, professors and experts from Europe, Japan, Iran, Georgia, Indonesia, Nigeria and other countries. The participants of the event will discuss cargo transportation along the Silk Road, the development of transport hubs and the role of ports in this issue, as well as issues of multiculturalism, cultural differences in global logistics, the activities of free trade zones, intensification of competition among them and other topics.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @MTsurkovTrendMIAMI, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Progressive Care Inc. (OTC.QB:RXMD), a healthcare services and technology company, is pleased to announce that the Company has scheduled an investor conference call at 4:30 PM ET on Tuesday, May 15th, 2018.



Its been a very eventful and very successful three months, stated S. Parikh Mars, CEO. We respect the importance of open communication, and enjoy keeping investors up to date on Company developments through these ongoing quarterly calls.

On the call, S. Parikh Mars, Progressive Care Inc. CEO, will address:

An overview of the Companys Q1 2018 financial results

Company and industry trends and developments

Status updates on 2018 initiatives

In addition, interested parties have the opportunity to submit questions concerning the Company prior to the call to Stuart Smith at SmallCapVoice.Com, Inc. via email: ssmith@smallcapvoice.com by 3:00 PM eastern standard time on Monday, May, 14th, 2018. Mr. Smith will compile a list of questions and submit them to the Company prior to the conference call. Which questions will be addressed will be based on the relevance to the shareholder base, and the questions appropriateness in light of public disclosure rules.

To access the call:

Dial-In Number: 1-857-232-0157

Access Code: 422095

For those unable to participate in the live conference call, a replay will be available at https://smallcapvoice.com/blog/rxmd/ shortly after the call has concluded. An archived version of the webcast will also be available https://progressivecareus.com/investor/.

Get connected and stay in touch with us on social media:

Progressive Care Inc.

https://www.facebook.com/ProgressiveCareUS/

https://twitter.com/ProgressCareUS

PharmCo, LLC

https://www.facebook.com/pharmcorx/

https://twitter.com/PharmCoRx

About Progressive Care



Progressive Care Inc. (RXMD), through its PharmCo, LLC, is a South Florida health services organization and provider of prescription pharmaceuticals, compounded medications, provider of tele-pharmacy services, the sale of anti-retroviral medications, medication therapy management (MTM), the supply of prescription medications to long term care facilities, and health practice risk management.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements

Statements contained herein that are not based upon current or historical fact are forward-looking in nature and constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements reflect the Companys expectations about its future operating results, performance and opportunities that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. These statements include but are not limited to statements regarding the intended terms of the offering, closing of the offering and use of any proceeds from the offering. When used herein, the words anticipate, believe, estimate, upcoming, plan, target, intend and expect and similar expressions, as they relate to Progressive Care Inc., its subsidiaries, or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to the Company and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:

Mirza Aliyev has been appointed as the new head of State Service on Management of Agricultural Projects and Credits under the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan, the ministry told Trend May 10.

Earlier, Mirza Aliyev held various positions in Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, Kapital Bank OJSC, and also worked in the UN Geneva Office.

In February 2018, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on the appointment of the previous head of the State Service on Management of Agricultural Projects and Credits Rufat Rustamzade as deputy chairman of the Food Security Agency of Azerbaijan.

The duties of the head of the State Service on Management of Agricultural Projects and Credits were temporarily fulfilled by Rustamzades deputy Zaur Aliyev.

The State Service on Management of Agricultural Projects and Credits was established by the decree of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in October 2014 on the basis of the State Agency for Agricultural Credits under the Ministry of Agriculture.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anvar_MammadovBaku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend

The Supervisory Board of the Azerbaijan Insurers Association (AIA) has decided to establish an intermediaries Committee under AIA, said a message from the AIA.

The decision was made at the regular meeting of the Supervisory Board due to the fact that a number of insurance intermediaries have already become members of AIA and there is a need for a structure that will deal with insurance intermediaries, according to the message.

The meeting participants also reviewed applications for AIA membership by Efendi Legal and IP Consultancy and Progress Insurance Agency, carrying out intermediary activity. Following the discussions, Efendi Legal and IP Consultancy was accepted as an AIA member.

The participants also discussed the payment of membership fees. It was noted that a number of insurance companies have debts in membership fees, which could damage their image. The companies were recommended to pay their debts in a short time.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anvar_MammadovBaku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

The free economic zone (FEZ) in Azerbaijan will be very successful, said Michael Proffitt, director and CEO of Dubai Logistics City.

He made the remarks on the sidelines of the World Ports Conference 2018 of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) in Baku on May 10.

Proffitt said he worked with Taleh Ziyadov, head of the Baku International Sea Port, on the concept of a free economic zone at the initial stages of its formation.

Saying he assisted Ziyadov in developing a plan and putting it into practice, Proffitt noted that he visited Baku several times to work on the site.

He thinks the free economic zone in the new Baku Port in Alat is very important for turning Azerbaijan into a logistics hub.

Proffitt said the country's parliament passed a law on the FEZ, so a legal framework has already been established.

Further it is necessary to develop the infrastructure, he said.

Proffitt said that for Baku it is very useful to take advantage of Dubai's experience in this area.

All processes and procedures, available knowledge simply need to be adapted and applied in realities of Baku, Azerbaijan, the region, he said.

He highly appreciated Baku's chances of becoming a regional logistics hub.

A legal framework and necessary infrastructure, a correct assessment of the needs of customers and proposals that may be of interest to investors - these are what is needed to fulfill this task, he said.

Establishment of an infrastructure at the FEZ is also important, but all this will take a little time, Proffitt said, adding that enterprises for packaging and completion of products will be established, which will create added value, contributing to opening of a large number of workplaces, and ultimately having a favorable effect on the country's economy

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @MTsurkovTrendBaku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Ilkin Shafiyev - Trend:

Baku International Sea Trade Port is an important project that makes a special contribution to the unification of Asia and Europe, Director General of Port & Harbor Bureau in Osaka (Japan) Hiromu Yabuuchi told Trend May 10 on the sidelines of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) Baku 2018 World Ports Conference.

He said that until he arrived at the conference, he didnt hear much about Baku, adding that in the last few days he got acquainted with the city and the Baku International Sea Trade Port project.

The geographical location allows the capital of Azerbaijan to be a bridge between Europe and Asia, Yabuuchi said, noting that Baku is a very important city in terms of international transportation.

In turn, Yuan Yue, deputy director general of Guangzhou Port Authority of China, said that the Azerbaijani government pays much attention to the development of transit potential, and in this context to the Baku International Sea Trade Port project.

The conference being held in Baku is one example of this, she said, adding that she hopes Azerbaijan will achieve great results in this direction.

Baku hosts World Ports Conference 2018 on May 8-11. The event is attended by port heads, government representatives, professors and experts from Europe, Japan, Iran, Georgia, Indonesia, Nigeria and other countries.

The participants of the event will discuss cargo transportation along the Silk Road, the development of transport hubs and the role of ports in this issue, as well as issues of multiculturalism, cultural differences in global logistics, the activities of free trade zones, intensification of competition among them and other topics.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @IlkinShafiyevMinister of Transport and Roads of the Kyrgyz Republic Zhamshitbek Kalilov, in the framework of his participation in the International Forum "The Great Silk Road - Towards New Development Borders" in Ashgabat, met with acting Minister of Road Transport of Turkmenistan Garaev Jumageldy, the press service of the Ministry of Transport reported.

During the meeting, acting Minister of Road Transport of Turkmenistan informed the delegation from Kyrgyzstan about the ongoing work of the Ministry on the development of road transport, the construction of high-speed motorways, the implementation of sustainable and safe operation of road transport and the proper maintenance of the road network in order to meet the needs of the economy and the population of Turkmenistan in road transport.

The sides discussed the state of bilateral relations in the field of road transport, the transportation of goods, the exchange of forms of permits for transportation and the transit of goods between the two countries.

Kalilov noted that the Kyrgyz Republic adheres to the development of multi-vector transport infrastructure, including the development of transport corridors.

On the same day, the Minister of Transport and Road of the Kyrgyz Republic met with Director General of the Turkmen Airlines Dovran Saburov.

During the meeting, the sides discussed bilateral relations in the field of civil aviation. The Kyrgyz Minister noted that the Ministry is taking measures to develop civil aviation by liberalizing the air transportation market and modernizing the airports of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The minister also noted that the opening of direct air communication between the cities of Bishkek and Ashgabat will give a new impetus to the two states to deepen bilateral relations of trade, economic and tourist spheres.

Director General of Turkmen Airlines Dovran Saburov noted that the participation of the Kyrgyz delegation headed by the Minister of Transport and Roads of the Kyrgyz Republic in the International Forum "The Great Silk Road - to new development milestones" means that Kyrgyzstan attaches special importance to the development of bilateral cooperation with the states of the Organization of Economic Commonwealth (ECO) on the development of transport, including in the field of civil aviation.

The head of Turkmen Airlines stressed that the opening of direct flights between the two countries will give the two countries the opportunity to develop in trade and economic, transport and logistics and tourism and other areas.

During the meeting, the sides agreed to continue to conduct appropriate work between the aviation authorities of the two countries on the early opening of flights between the two states.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has appointed Wiebke Schloemer new Director for the Europe and Central Asia region, which includes Azerbaijan, IFC said in a message on May 10.

Schloemer has over 20 years of experience in project and corporate finance, and in private equity across a wide range of industries, including energy, transport, utilities, telecoms and technology sectors. Prior to her appointment, she led IFCs infrastructure investments across Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, managing investments of over $5.5 billion, according to IFC.

Schloemer joined IFC in 2004 as an investment officer in the telecoms, media and technology (TMT) group based in Washington, DC. Her subsequent regional experience includes Europe and Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and the East Asia and Pacific region.

Prior to joining IFC, Schloemer was employed at the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg, and DEG, the German Investment Corporation, working on infrastructure debt and equity transactions in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

She took the office on May 1, 2018.

Azerbaijan became a member of International Finance Corporation in 1995. Since beginning of the cooperation, IFC has issued over $500 million for projects in Azerbaijan covering financial services, infrastructure and production.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anvar_MammadovBaku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Azerbaijan presented data on its daily oil production in April 2018 to the OPEC Joint Technical Committee as part of the Vienna Agreement, the Azerbaijani Energy Ministry told Trend on May 10.

Daily oil production stood at 785,700 barrels in April 2018, of which 755,700 barrels accounted for crude oil and 30,000 barrels for condensate.

Meanwhile, 623,600 barrels of crude oil, 30,000 barrels of condensate and 21,700 barrels of oil products were exported per day.

The Ministry stressed that Azerbaijan again fully fulfilled its obligations under the oil deal.

Azerbaijans average daily oil production stood at 781,900 barrels in 2017 under the OPEC agreement to curb daily crude output by 834,000 barrels, said the ministry.

In January 2018, daily oil production stood at 814,600 barrels, in February 2018  at 806,000 barrels and in March - 794,000 barrels.

OPEC Joint Technical Committee was created on Jan.22 2017 to monitor the implementation of countries commitments to cut oil production.

In December 2016, at a meeting of oil producers in Vienna, 11 non-OPEC member countries, including Azerbaijan, agreed to cut oil production by a total of 558,000 barrels a day. The agreement was concluded for the first half of 2017 and was extended until the end of the first quarter of 2018 at a meeting on May 25, 2017.

At the last OPEC meeting in Vienna, the agreement was again extended until the end of 2018. Azerbaijan supported the decision.

--

Follow the author on Twitter: @MTsurkovTrendBaku, Azerbaijan, May 11

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

SOCAR Energy Ukraine, a subsidiary of Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR in Ukraine, with the start of the navigation season, has launched two oil bunkers - offshore filling stations for small and medium-sized ships, the company said in a message on May 10.

One of the oil bunkers is located in the territory of the Muromets park, Kiev and the second - in the Odessa region, in area of the yacht club "Sauvignon".

SOCAR floating gas stations offer brand diesel and petrol Nano, as well as gasoline AI-95, the company said.

The representative office of SOCAR was opened in Ukraine in 2008. In 2009, the company purchased about 20 filling stations of the Tala-Nafta network in Odessa and Nikolaev regions, as well as a large oil depot Svitanok in the Odessa region.

In 2010-2011, the company took control of the fuelling networks ONIO (four filling stations in Kiev and the region) and GFC (in Lviv region). In August 2012, SOCAR received permission from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to purchase 26 filling stations and one tank farm of the Kalina group.

The network operates 60 petrol stations in Ukraine, as well as two Baku-1 oil bunkers in Kiev and Ganja in Odessa.

Since late 2016, the company has also been engaged in trade of natural gas in Ukraine.

--

Follow the author on Twitter: @MTsurkovTrendPrime Minister of Estonia Juri Ratas congratulated Muhammedkaliy Abylgaziev on his appointment to the post of prime minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, the Kyrgyz Governments press service reported.

Estonia and Kyrgyzstan have traditionally friendly relations. Kyrgyzstan is seen as the most democratic state in Central Asia, which sets an example for the entire region. Kyrgyzstan is an important partner for the development of cooperation for Estonia. We also express our further support in implementing e-government by using the successful experience of Estonia in this direction. It is gratifying to note the significant progress in the implementation of the Tunduk project and will continue to make efforts for the successful completion of this project.

Estonia also seeks to promote the relations of the European Union with Kyrgyzstan. We will endeavor to conduct rapid negotiations on the EU-Kyrgyzstan Agreement on enhanced partnership and cooperation, as well as to prepare a new strategy of the European Union to deepen ties with Central Asia, which will contribute to the processes of democratic and economic reforms.

"Once again, let me wish you all the best and success in your responsible post. I look forward to holding high-level visits between our countries in the near future. I am confident that cooperation between our countries will continue to expand and develop in the spirit of cooperation in favor of the peoples of our countries and international understanding," the message says.Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, May 10

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

The situation of human rights in Turkmenistan has been discussed in the UN, the UN news center reported.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Vepa Hajiyev made a speech at the UN office in Geneva, where the 30th session of working group of the human Rights Council started its work.

The representative of Ashgabat stated that his country had joined to a number of international treaties, and the accession to the Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the International criminal court and the optional Protocol to the Convention against torture, which allows human rights defenders to visit without preconditions the prisons of states being parties to the Protocol, is under consideration now.

Turkmenistan actively grants citizenship to stateless persons and refugees. In the period from 2013 to 2018, 4,827 people received passports of Turkmenistan. Hajiyev said that Turkmenistan is expanding people's access to the Internet.

"To date, the number of mobile and fixed Internet subscribers in our country has exceeded two and a half million," the representative of Turkmenistan said.

It was stressed that in Turkmenistan restrictions on access to the Internet apply only to the sites related to terrorism and extremism. In 2017-2018, six religious organizations were registered in the country.LEXINGTON, Mass., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imprivata, the healthcare IT security company, today announced the appointment of Wes Wright to Chief Technology Officer (CTO).



Mr. Wright will be responsible for leading Imprivatas global technology strategy while providing technical leadership across all areas of Imprivatas overall business plan and strategic vision. Mr. Wright has a wealth of experience leading technology teams supporting innovation in healthcare, most recently as CTO of Sutter Health. Mr. Wrights appointment reflects Imprivatas continued commitment to innovation leadership in the healthcare arena.

I am thrilled to have Wes join Imprivata as he brings a wealth of technical and industry knowledge, an extensive background in healthcare, IT Leadership, and security, and represents a strong voice of our customers, having spent more than 20 years in IT leadership roles within healthcare organizations, said Gus Malezis, President and CEO of Imprivata. His tremendous cache of knowledge and experience will help Imprivata further our mission of creating trusted digital identities  of clinicians, of patients, and of medical technologies.

At Sutter Health, Mr. Wright was responsible for the technical services strategies and operational activities for this $16 billion not-for-profit, Sacramento-based hospital and integrated delivery network. Prior to Sutter, he held the position of CIO at Seattle Childrens hospital, where he was responsible for the information services strategies and operational activities for the $1.8 billion not-for-profit hospital, research institute, and foundation.

After 25 years in the provider space, I was ready for a new challenge, and I had watched with admiration as Imprivata combined a passion for innovation with ground-breaking technology to transform the world of health IT, while holding digital identity at center of everything they do, Wright said. At a time when were moving toward digital identity as the new frontier in healthcare, I couldnt be more excited to join the premier healthcare identity company in the world.

Mr. Wright also has spent extensive time serving in multiple roles in the US Air Force. Most significantly, in his role as Chief of Staff for a 3-Star General, responsible for 77 military hospitals, he managed the coordination of all communications from the Generals staff, prepared all presentations, and understood all of the Generals operational responsibilities.

About Imprivata

Imprivata, the healthcare IT security company, provides healthcare organizations globally with a security and identity platform that delivers ubiquitous access, positive identity management, and multifactor authentication. Imprivata enables healthcare securely by establishing trust between people, technology, and information to address critical compliance and security challenges while improving productivity and the patient experience. For more information, please visit www.imprivata.com.

Media Contact:

Kerry Pillion

781-761-1452

kpillion@imprivata.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/62838906-59eb-495f-b3c9-770298e4579eAshgabat, Turkmenistan, May 10

By Huseyn Hasanov Trend:

Turkmen Foreign Ministry hosted a meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Moldova Ruslan Bolbochan, the Turkmen ministry said in a message.

The sides discussed issues of cooperation in the trade and economic, energy and transport spheres.

The topics related to the opportunities for establishing direct contacts and deepening cooperation between the business circles of the two countries were also touched upon.

The meeting participants paid attention to the organization of the next session of the intergovernmental commission, holding of a joint business forum and a meeting on transport cooperation.

The meeting participants expressed interest in the development of cooperation in the gas and energy fields, as well as in the sphere of civil aviation, the message said.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev will make his first official visit to the United States on May 15-17, 2018 at the invitation of President of the United States of America Donald Trump, the press service of the president of Uzbekistan said on May 10.

Reportedly, the parties plan to discuss current state and prospects of development of the Uzbek-American cooperation, as well as to exchange views on topical international and regional issues.

The president of Uzbekistan will also hold bilateral meetings in the Congress, the Ministry of Defense and the US State Department, as well as in the World Bank.

The presidents of Uzbekistan and the United States of America are also planning to adopt a joint statement On Beginning of a New Era of Strategic Partnership and to sign numerous documents that envisage further strengthening of bilateral relations in various fields.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanovBaku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and President of the United States of America Donald Trump will meet in the White House on May 16, the US embassy in Uzbekistan said on May 10.

Donald Trump will meet President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev during his first historic visit to the White House on May 16, 2018. Presidents will discuss resuming bilateral strategic partnership between the United States and Uzbekistan in order to realize common interests and solve emerging problems, the statement of the embassy read.

The sides will also discuss Uzbekistan's progress in implementing important reforms, expanding volume of trade and investments, as well as in addressing regional security issues, including stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan.

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev will make his first official visit to the United States on May 15-17, 2018 at the invitation of President of the United States of America Donald Trump, the press service of the president of Uzbekistan said on May 10.

Reportedly, the parties plan to discuss current state and prospects of development of the Uzbek-American cooperation, as well as to exchange views on topical international and regional issues.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanovTehran, Iran, May 10

By Kamyar Eghbalnejad - Trend:

Iran has discovered a new gas layer in border with Turkmenistan, Seyyed Saleh Hendi, head of the exploration of the state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), told Trend.

The new gas layer is discovered in Koppeh Dagh (or Kopet Dag) after carrying out explorations and conducting drilling operations for a long time, Hendi added.

The field belongs to Iran, however it is located near the border with Turkmenistan.

Kopet Dag sedimentary zone in northeast Iran is a sedimentary zone which lies along the Turkmenistan border. It has been proven to be rich in gas and hosts giant fields in Iran and Turkmenistan. An exploration block has been identified in this sedimentary zone.

The Islamic Republic holds around 34 trillion cubic meters of proven gas reserves, sharing 18 percent of total global gas reserves, which puts the country in the top of the world's gas holders list.Tehran, Iran, May 10

By Kamyar Eghbalnejad - Trend:

Iran hasnt received any signal from the French energy giant Total about pulling out from cooperation with Iran after the US decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal, Mohammad Meshkinfam, head of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC), said.

Iran has so far received no official messages from Total on cutting cooperation for development of South Pars Phase 11, Meshkinfam said at a press conference, held May 9 in Tehran.

The comment comes one day after the US President Donald Trump announced that the US walks away from the accord reached in 2015 between Tehran and the six world powers. Trump also announced that the US re-imposes the "highest level of economic sanctions" on the Islamic Republic.

"Our relations with Total are based on the contract and mutual respect and I dont think we will have any problem in this regard," Meshkinfam added.

He further said that the French company continues its cooperation under the contract with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) last July.

Recently Total experts have held a meeting with Iranian side and discussed details of the project, he said, adding that this shows Totals determination to move ahead with the project.

The French companys deal with Iran was the first major Western energy investment in the Islamic Republic since sanctions related to Irans nuclear power program were lifted in 2016.

The project will have a production capacity of 56 million cubic meters of gas per day. The produced gas will be supplied to the Iranian domestic market starting in 2021.

Total will be the operator with a 50.1 percent stake, alongside Chinese state-owned oil and gas company CNPC with 30 percent and Petropars, a subsidiary of National Iranian Oil Co., with 19.9 percent.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

On May 8, the US President Donald Trump put an end to Washingtons commitments under the nuclear deal walking away from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached in 2015 between Tehran and the six world powers. Trump also announced that the US re-imposes the highest level of economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic, including the sanctions against the countrys oil sector.

Mehrdad Emadi, an economic expert and consultant at the UK-based Betamatrix International Consultancy, believes that the re-imposition of the US sanctions against Tehran will not cut the countrys oil export to below the pre-nuclear deal period in short term, but in medium term it can seriously impact Tehrans oil sale.

In the short to medium term, I do not envisage a fall in Iranian exports to below one million barrels a day. However, in medium term, with the economic slowdown in Turkey and China, it is conceivable that Irans exports could decline to 1.2 -1.4 million barrels a day, Emadi told Trend May 10.

Before it got hit with sanctions in 2012, Iran was exporting 2.5 mb/d of crude oil and gas condensate, of which 18 percent was supplied to the EU. After 2012, the EU cut Iran oil purchase and Asian countries had to decrease Iranian oil import gradually, which led to a drop in export of Iranian oil and gas condensate to 1.2 mb/d in 2015. After elimination of sanctions in 2016, based on nuclear agreement, Iran resumed its oil exports and increased it to over 2.8 mb/d in April.

"Reintroduction of sanctions will not stop Iran from selling its oil, but at the same time it will reduce the presence of Iran in international oil markets," according to Emadi. To explain this dichotomy, Irans main buyers - China and India - are locked into long term contracts which allow them to pay in their national currencies, yuan and rupee. But given the fact that neither currency is as convertible as the US dollar and the euro, effectively Iran ends up being forced into spending the yuan on Chinese goods and the rupees on Indian goods, the expert noted

He further remarked that similar arrangements also have been agreed on with Turkey in the last six months.

Yet in my view this is not a meaningful presence in the international oil market, where exporters compete to get the best deal for their crude. None of these three countries will be prepared to fully comply with US demands; however, the more significant part of Iranian exports is where Iran earns hard currency from the sale of its crude.

In this category, the EU, South Korea and Japan are the main sources of hard currency for Irans oil revenues, and the US sanctions  as it was shown before the JCPOA  found their greatest impact in Europe, where buyers of Iranian crude reduced their purchase to 80 percent, the expert said, adding that similarly, Korea and Japan reduced their imports from Iran to less than 50 percent of its pre-sanction level.

Emadi further said the significance of this group is that without their payments in hard currency, the Iranian economy will face a currency crisis created by the shortfall of its earning of dollar and euro. Observing the recent events in the value of Iranian rial, such a shortfall could result in the depreciation in the value of rial pushing the rial-to-dollar rate to 110,000  within the first 12 months and again doubling the rate in the second year.

My forecast is that should Europe cave in under pressure and boycott Iranian oil, Iran will see a reduction of 700,000 barrels a day in its exports, he added.

Responding to a question about options available to refineries in the EU and among the Asian buyers of Irans oil to avoid the US punishment in case of continuing purchase from Tehran, the expert said it should be considered in the context of the position of their national governments in each country.

Should the governments decide to comply with US demands, the refineries - as was seen in Europe and Japan - will have to make the necessary adjustments to process crude from other countries, Emadi said.

The closest substitute for Iranian medium sulfur crude is from Russia (Ural); however, given the restriction facing Russia, the next best alternative is Iraqi crude from southern Iraq and should Iraq be able to expand its export capacity, then the EU and Asian refineries would find it less costly to substitute Iraqi oil for Iranian crude, the expert explained.

However, if they resist the pressure from America, then I expect to see a small number of refineries being targeted by the US treasury - imposing heavy fines on them to make an example for other refineries.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Presidents of Turkey and Iran, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hasan Rouhani, discussed during a telephone conversation the US decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran, Turkish media reported on May 10.

Reportedly, Erdogan once again voiced his view that the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran is mistake.

No other details of the talks were reported.

Erdogan previously said that the United States will not benefit from withdrawing from the nuclear deal with Iran.

"The US refusal of the nuclear deal with Iran shows that Washington was not sincere with regards to the deal," Erdogan said.

On May 8, US President Donald Trump announced that the US withdraws from the agreement with Iran on the nuclear program reached by the six international mediators (Russia, the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany) back in 2015.

Trump further announced about restoration of all sanctions, the effect of which was suspended following the deal.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizogluBaku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:

State support is needed for successful implementation of blockchain technology in Azerbaijan, Marketing Director of Keepface Emin Veli told Trend.

He noted that the introduction of blockchain technology requires funds that can be allocated by the state or big investors.

"First of all, it is necessary to create the necessary legal basis for further use of blockchain technology in Azerbaijan. The next step could be the establishment of an association of all structures using the blockchain technology and crypto-investors. Such organizations exist all over the world, but unfortunately, we do not yet have one. The state should be directly interested in this issue," Veli said.

He said Azerbaijan can become a very attractive country for initial coin offering (ICO).

"Currently there are many problems in this area in the world - most countries are tightening their legislation. But there are countries like Belarus and Malta, which, on the contrary, open their markets for ICOs. This is typical for small countries; this is a chance for them," said Veli.

Another possible step, he said, could be the formation of startups based on blockchain technology.

"At the same time, the state could allocate grants for this purpose. This is a very important and necessary step. For the state and big holdings these amounts will be insignificant, but such a step will be a great incentive for startups. For the introduction of blockchain technologies funds are needed, and they can be allocated either by the state or big holdings," Veli said.

Blockchain is a way of storing data, or a digital register of transactions, deals, and contracts. Its main difference and undeniable advantage is that this registry is not stored in one place, but distributed among several thousand computers around the world.

The principle of operation of the blockchain is quite simple - digital records are combined into "blocks", which are then linked cryptologically and chronologically into a "chain" with the help of complex mathematical algorithms. Each block is linked to the previous one and contains a set of records. New blocks are always added at the end of the chain.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Anvar_MammadovBaku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Prospects of developing ties with Armenia do not bother Ankara at all, but unfortunately, Armenia's political elite failed to understand this obvious fact over the past nine years.

The statements made by Armenia's ex-president and ex-prime minister, as well as the recent statement made by newly-elected Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan can prove this.

Pashinyan, in his yesterday's statement, noted that Armenia is still ready to establish diplomatic relations with Turkey without any precondition.

However, Pashinyan added, the Armenian side remains faithful to the process of international recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide.

Turkey did not hesitate in responding to the usual statements of the Armenian side.

Normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations is out of question without the liberation of the Azerbaijani territories, the Turkish presidential administration announced commenting on Pashinyan's statements voiced during a briefing for foreign reporters on May 9.

Touching upon Armenia's claims on the "Armenian genocide", the presidential administration reminded that Turkey has opened all its archives for the investigation of the 1915 events.

"Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly voiced the necessity of opening the archives. If there were reliable historical facts of the so-called genocide against Armenians, Yerevan would have agreed with Ankara's proposal to open the archives," the administration said.

In fact, Turkey does not have hostility towards Armenia. If Turkey considered Armenia as its enemy, then no Armenian citizen could visit Turkey. According to the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry, 3,456 Armenian citizens visited Turkey only in March 2018. And in the first quarter of 2018, the number of Armenian citizens visiting Turkey hit 9,187.

Furthermore, even according to the data for 2010, the number of illegal Armenian migrants, living in Turkey reached 100,000 people. If we take into account that Armenia's top 'export' is labor migrants, then it is possible that the number of illegal Armenian migrants in Turkey will noticeably increase over the past years.

Armenians should understand that Turkey is such a great country that it does not deport these illegal migrants, even despite their utopian dreams of a "Great Armenia".

The Armenian authorities also do not understand that Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and its sovereign rights over Nagorno-Karabakh are so important for Turkey that, regardless of the political preferences of Ankara, any concession to Yerevan on these fundamental issues is out of the discussion.

---

Rufiz Hafizoglu, deputy editor-in-chief of Trend. Follow him on Twitter: @rhafizogluBaku, Azerbaijan, May 10

Trend:

A protest rally is underway at the building of the Yerevan city administration, and the protesters demand resignation of the citys mayor Taron Margaryan, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Dozens of people are taking part in the protest rally. Opponents of the mayor accuse him of ineffective activity and unaccountability to citizens.

Member of the Republican Party of Armenia Taron Margaryan, who has been mayor of Yerevan since 2011, is the son of Armenias former Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan, who died in 2007.SAN RAMON, Calif., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Armanino LLP, one of the top 25 largest accounting and business consulting firms in the U.S., announced today a list of charitable organizations selected to be Q1 2018 beneficiaries of grants sponsored by its charitable giving arm, the Armanino Foundation. These charitable organizations in education, health and social services and animal welfare are nominated by firm employees and selected by a committee of the firm. Since its kick off 18 months ago, the Foundation has raised more than a quarter of a million dollars for worthy charities and emergency disaster relief in Armaninos communities.



We are excited to announce the first round of grant recipients for 2018, which are a diverse group of worthy organizations nominated and selected by our staff, said Andy Armanino, managing partner of Armanino LLP. The Armanino Foundation is an extension of our values as a firm that allows us to give back to organizations that make a positive impact on our communities.

The Q1 grants kick off a year of giving and service projects, as the Armanino Foundation will sponsor volunteer vacations for firm staff. Volunteers will travel to Hawaii, Kissimmee, Florida and Houston to work on a range of community projects including environmental cleanup, disaster recovery homebuilding and staffing a resort for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.

Armaninos firm culture is community-based, and the firm has responded by creating ways to facilitate and support opportunities for employees and partners to engage in charitable activities and with one another. Volunteer Vacations is a unique program allowing employees the opportunity to be sponsored to travel and volunteer all over the country and internationally in a formalized and structured way, ensuring the firm can engage employees and partners with worthy charitable organizations and make an impact on its communities in perpetuity. The program has received high marks and participation from Armaninos employee base.

The foundation is directed by a board and committee of 17 members from across the firm. Its chair, Mary Tressel, director of consulting marketing at Armanino, oversees grant administration, volunteer vacation operations and bylaws.

The 12 grant recipients for Q1 2018 include:

Advancement Project  Promotes new strategies for achieving universal opportunity combined with a racially, socially and economically just democracy.

American Cancer Society Relay for Life  The community-based fundraising event of the American Cancer Society to fight cancer.

Brandeis School of San Francisco  Dedicated to inspiring students to lead lives of learning and purpose with a purposeful K-12 academic environment.

Charis  Charis primarily focuses on the unseen spiritual needs in Haiti, and secondarily on the seen physical needs.

Friends of Scouting, Boy Scouts of America  The annual fundraising campaign to raise the operating funds necessary to provide a quality Scouting program.

Jewish Community Center of San Francisco  The oldest Jewish center on the West Coast, providing educational, social, cultural and fitness programs to the community since 1877.

Hillel Silicon Valley  Provides a welcoming supportive environment to enrich students college experience and enable them to connect with the Jewish community and Israel.

New Horizons  Dedicated to helping individuals with special needs reach their potential and fulfill their dreams.

PAWS Animal Shelter  Works hard to ensure all pets at PAWS Animal Shelter are well-loved, cared for, healthy and live in a home environment as opposed to a typical "animal shelter."

Refuge for Women  A leader in providing specialized long-term care for women who have escaped human trafficking or sexual exploitation.

School of Arts & Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza  An institution that provides a uniquely designed cultural facility for community events and programs that embrace all cultures, while exploring the artistic traditions, cultural history, and contemporary creative expression of Mexican Arts.

YMCA of the East Bay  The nations leading nonprofit committed to strengthening communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility.

To learn more about the Armanino Foundation and the impact its making in the communities where firm employees live and work, please visit its website.

About Armanino LLP

Armanino LLP (www.armaninollp.com) is one of the top 25 largest independent accounting and business consulting firms in the nation. Armanino provides an integrated set of audit, tax, business management, consulting and technology solutions to companies in the U.S. and globally. The firm helps clients adapt and change in every stage of business, from startup through rapid growth to the sale of a company. Armanino emphasizes smart technology, leading a cloud revolution of financial, operational, sales and compliance tools that are transforming the way companies do business. The firm extends its global services to more than 100 countries through its membership in Moore Stephens International Limited, one of the world's major accounting and consulting membership organizations. In addition to its core consulting and accounting practices, Armanino operates its division, AMF Media Group (www.amfmediagroup.com), a media and communications services agency. Its affiliate, Intersect Capital (www.intersectcapitalllc.com), is an independent financial planning, wealth and lifestyle management firm.

Kyle McGuire, AMF Media Group

925.790.2788

kyle@amfmediagroup.comBaku, Azerbaijan, May 10

Trend:

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that he has proposed President Sarkissian to dismiss the chief of police and director of the National Security Service, RIA Novosti reported.

"I have just signed a proposal addressed to the president to dismiss the chief of the police Vladimir Gasparyan and Director of the National Security Service Georgi Kutoyan," Pashinyan wrote on his Facebook page.

On May 8, the National Assembly elected Pashinyan as the prime minister.

Actions against the election of former President Serzh Sargsyan as Armenia's prime minister began on April 13. The opposition accuses Sargsyan, who was twice elected president, of poor governance and deterioration of economic situation in the country. On April 17, the opposition announced the beginning of a "velvet revolution". Despite the protests, the Armenian parliament elected Sargsyan head of the Cabinet on the same day.

Less than a week later, on April 23, Sargsyan resigned amid continuing protests.Georgias Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Finance, Parliament, the National Bank, the Partnership Fund, the local banking sector and a Turkish delegation are teaming up to develop new initiatives for promoting small and medium-size business and make access to finances easier for them, Agenda reports.

Representatives of the Turkish delegation talked about their experience in economic development and access to finance.

The Turkish Credit Guarantee Fund offered a credit guarantee mechanism for small and medium-size businesses. This mechanism successfully functionins in Turkey which is reflected on by employment and the economic growth of the country.

"We are starting a new reform for the development of small and medium-size business and access to finances for this segment, Georgias Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili said.

"The credit guarantee mechanism is a guarantee fund that serves as a guarantor for commercial banks, small and medium-size businesses. We are deeply convinced that this reform will give even more stimulus to the development of small and medium-size business in Georgia and thus create new jobs, he added.Israel is reported to have carried out a missile strike on a military outpost south of the Syrian capital, Damascus, according BBC News.

Syria's state news agency Sana said two missiles were shot down in the Kiswah area on Tuesday night, and that two civilians were killed in an explosion.

But a monitoring group said the missiles hit an Iranian weapons depot, killing 15 pro-government fighters.

Israel declined to comment. But the reports came after it noted "irregular activity" by Iranian forces in Syria.

The Israeli military placed its troops in the occupied Golan Heights on high alert and urged civilians to prepare bomb shelters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile flew to Moscow to discuss Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a key ally of the Syrian government.

Syrian state television broadcast video footage overnight which it said showed air defences intercepting two missiles fired towards Kiswah, about 10km (6 miles) south-west of Damascus.

Sana reported that a man and his wife were killed by an explosion resulting from the interceptions as they drove along the Damascus-Deraa motorway.

A commander in a regional military alliance supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Reuters news agency that the missiles targeted a Syrian army base.

However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, reported that the missiles struck weapons depots and missile launchers belonging to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards force.

Eight members of the Revolutionary Guards and several other non-Syrian nationals were among at least 15 pro-government fighters who were killed, it said.Chinas GCL Group has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Egypts ministry of military production to build a solar panel facility at a cost of up to $2 billion, Reuters with reference to the state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Thursday.

Under the MOU, which was signed on Wednesday, the facility will manufacture panels capable of producing 5 gigawatts (GW) annually, it said, without mentioning the location or timeframe of the project.

Egypt in 2014 announced extensive plans to develop renewable energy targeting 4.3 GW of wind and solar projects to be installed over three years, but many investors pulled out following contract disputes.

Egypt aims to meet 20 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2022.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a former general who took office in 2014, has promised to revive the economy, which has struggled since a 2011 uprising scared away investors and tourists, Egypts main sources of foreign currency.

He has called in the military to assist in major infrastructure projects and with distribution of subsidized commodities to help curb price rises.

The economic weight of the military, which produces everything from bottled water to macaroni, has long been a topic of speculation in Egypt but official comment on its economic activities is rare.

Sisi said in March that the militarys economic activities were equivalent to 2-3 percent of GDP, well below the more than 50 percent that some have claimed.Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday agreed to enhance political mutual trust and step up economic cooperation between the two countries, Xinhua reports.

Improving and developing China-Japan relations is in the interest of both sides and conducive to regional peace, stability and prosperity, Li said at a joint press conference following a meeting with Abe.

Noting that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Li urged the two sides to review the spirit of the treaty, consolidate the political foundation of bilateral relations, and push forward steady and long-term development of China-Japan ties down the path of peace, friendship and cooperation.

The two sides have confirmed their willingness to abide by all the principles set out in their four cornerstone political documents, properly handle sensitive issues concerning history and Taiwan, and, through practical actions, demonstrate the political consensus of treating each other as partners instead of threats, Li told reporters.

The four documents refer to the 1972 Sino-Japanese Joint Statement, the 1978 China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, the 1998 China-Japan Joint Declaration, and the 2008 joint statement on advancing strategic and mutually beneficial relations.

Li said the two sides have agreed to promote economic cooperation while strengthening political mutual trust, and enhance cooperation in the areas of finance, energy conservation, environmental protection, high technologies, sharing economy, health care and elderly care, as well as cooperation at local levels.

The two sides have also agreed to establish a mechanism facilitating their cooperation in third-party markets, so as to boost their international competitiveness, Li said.

For his part, Abe expressed warm welcome to Li for his official visit to Japan.

Bilateral relations have been moving forward thanks to efforts made by both sides since opportunities of improvement emerged last year, Abe said.

He added that among many other consensuses, the two sides have agreed to establish a maritime and air liaison mechanism to jointly manage and control maritime crises and turn the East China Sea into a sea of peace, cooperation and friendship.

They have also reached new agreements on expanding investment cooperation, conducting cooperation in third-party markets, and co-producing movies, Abe said, adding that Japan is willing to work with China to maintain the healthy and stable development of bilateral ties.

Li arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday for an official visit to Japan and the seventh China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting. The trilateral mechanism was resumed after a two-and-a-half-year hiatus.The number of positive factors encouraging growth of trade between China and Russia is permanently increasing, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce Gao Feng said on Thursday, TASS reports.

"In general, the number of factors having positive impacts on the growth of the Chinese-Russian economy is permanently going up," he said. "In future, we plan to take, jointly with the Russian side, encouraging measures to optimize the structure of bilateral trade, to improve the quality of corresponding transformation processes, to create new stimuli to prompt its development."

Gao Feng cited official statistics indicating that trade relations between the two countries will continue upwards dynamics in the next few months to make it possible to exceed a threshold of $100 billion in bilateral trade in 2018.

According to Chinas customs services, trade between China and Russia went up by 27.3% in January-April 2018, to reach $31.1 billion. Chinas exports to Russia went up by 21.1%, to exceed $13.9 billion. Import of Russian-made products and services jumped by 32.8% to stand at $17.2 billion.

In 2016, Russia-China trade went up by 2.2% on the previous year and amounted to $69.52 billion. In 2017, the figure went further up by 20.8%, to $84.07 billion.Improving economic situation in Russia, diversification of a list of Russian goods imported to China, new incentives to stir up mutual trade turnover and growing Chinese investments to Russia are four main drivers of dynamic trade development between the two countries in recent months, official spokesperson of the Chinas Commerce Ministry Gao Feng said at a press conference on Thursday, TASS reports.

"According to the analysis completed by the Commerce Ministry of China, recent dynamic growth of Sino-Russian trade is explained by four key factors. Firstly, the economic situation in Russia continues to improve in a sustained way. Secondly, China increased purchases of a wide range of Russian products," the official said. "Thirdly, the number of new positive incentives to boost trade with Russia is growing on a going basis," Gao Feng said.

Further to traditional supplies of energy resources, agricultural products experience stable growth in the structure of Russian exports, the official said. "Fourthly, investments of China into the Russian economy have growth notably," he added.

According to China customs, trade turnover between Russia and China surged 27.3% to $31.1 bln in January - April. Exports of China to Russia rose 21.1% to more than $13.9 bln. Imports of Russian goods and services in China soared 32.8% to $17.1 bln.

It was reported earlier that the trade turnover between China and Russian increased by 20.8% annually to $84.1 bln in 2017.Chinas securities regulator has received an application from JPMorgan Broking (Hong Kong) Ltd, a unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM.N), to set up a joint-venture brokerage, it said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission will examine the application effectively and according to the law, the regulator said in a statement published on its website.

JPMorgan aims to hold a 51 percent stake in the brokerage, it added.German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters at a news conference following talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that the parties had failed to reach an understanding on the Skripal case, TASS reports.

"We also talked about the Skripal case," he said. "From our point of view, Russia has shown little willingness to take part in the constructive investigation of these acts. We reached no understanding here. We have different assessments, and we exchanged them."German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told Irans president that she supports maintaining a big-power nuclear accord, following the withdrawal of the United States, as long as Tehran upholds its side of the deal, her office said on Thursday.

In a telephone call with Hassan Rouhani, Merkel called for talks to be held in a broader format on Irans ballistic missile program and its regional activities - including in Syria and Yemen, her office said in a statement.

She condemned overnight attacks by Iranian forces on Israeli military positions in the Golan Heights, and called on Iran to contribute to de-escalation in the region, the statement added.San Francisco, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Puls Technologies, the rapid-response services platform for smart devices, and ANTOP, a global leader in the development of digital indoor and outdoor HDTV antennas, today bring in-home installation services for ANTOP antennas to Los Angeles.

With 22.2 million cord cutters in America, and as many as 34 million cord-nevers, the demand for affordable local programming has never been higher. ANTOPs full line of indoor and outdoor digital TV antennas offers multiple solutions for consumers seeking access to broadcast TV without loathed monthly cable and satellite bills. Same-day installation from Puls ensures a seamless transition from cable to cable-free TV.

Were all about providing exceptional service in the last mile of the consumer experience, so supporting this massive and growing customer base is critical, said Eyal Ronen, CEO and co-founder of Puls. Partnering with a leader in the antenna space is a milestone in our mission to facilitate seamless end-to-end experiences with the technology at the heart of daily life.

Were thrilled to expand our relationship with Puls as we work to ensure the ANTOP customer experience is second to none, said Eric Jiang, ANTOP President. Puls technicians have been trained to get customers up and running in no time - regardless of the product a customer selects from our wide range of antenna solutions.

Already live in Houston, the partnership today expands to include Los Angeles and will roll out nationwide over the course of 2018. Technicians will be available for home installations from 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m., seven days a week. The price for a custom install will begin at $99.

To schedule a Puls technician, visit Puls.com/antop, and to learn more about ANTOPs products, visit antopusa.com.

About Puls

Founded in 2015, Puls Technologies, Inc. (formerly CellSavers, Inc.) connects consumers with highly skilled technicians to install or repair smart technology devices anytime, anywhere. Providing services in more than 45 local markets, Puls leverages a proprietary technology platform to match customers with the right technician, managing the process from start to finish, with most repairs addressed within 60 minutes. With thousands of 5-star reviews on Facebook and Yelp, Puls goes the extra mile for each customer and corporate partner to ensure exceptional service and guaranteed results. Puls is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in San Diego and Tel Aviv and has raised $43 million in financing to date with backing from Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings Red Dot Capital, Samsung NEXT, and Viola Ventures. Learn more at www.Puls.com.

About Antop Antenna

Established in 1980, ANTOP has become one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of digital indoor and outdoor TV antennas. ANTOP continues to provide consumers with high quality, excellent performing digital TV antenna options to Cut-the-Cord on cable and satellite TV and enjoy the freedom of no-cost free broadcast TV. For additional information visit antopusa.com.Iranian forces on the Syrian-held side of the Golan Heights shelled Israeli army outposts on the strategic plateau on Thursday but caused no casualties, the Israeli military said, Reuters reported.

Israel retaliated for the attack, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, without elaborating.

Conricus said that, in Thursdays attack, around 20 projectiles, most likely rockets, were fired by the Quds Force, an external arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, at around 12.10 a.m.

A few of those rockets were intercepted by Israels Iron Dome air defense system, Conricus told reporters. We are not aware of any casualties. The amount of damage that we currently assess is low.

Asked if Israel retaliated for the salvo, he said: We have retaliated but I have no further details about this.Israel forewarned Russia of its strikes on Thursday against multiple targets in Syria, an Israeli military spokesman said, according Reuters.

The Russians were informed prior to our attack by the established mechanisms that we have, Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters without elaborating.The United States supports Israels sovereign right to self defense, a White House National Security Council spokesman told TASS, commenting on Israels strikes at the Syrian territory.

"We stand with Israel in the fight against Irans malign activities. We strongly support Israels sovereign right to defend itself," he said.

A spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said earlier the Iranian Quds forces had fired at least 20 missiles at Israels forward positions on the Golan Heights shortly after midnight on Thursday. He said some of the missiles had been intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system. Shortly after that, Israel delivered airstrikes at the Syrian army positions in Khan Arnaba, Tell al-Ahmar, Tell al-Qbaa and Qasr al-Naql in the Quneitra province some 40 kilometers of Damascus.Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday he hoped the latest round of violence with Iran on the Syrian frontier was over, Reuters reports.

I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message, Lieberman said at the Herzliya security conference near Tel Aviv.

Iranian forces in Syria had launched a rocket attack on Israeli army bases in the Golan Heights early on Thursday, Israel said, prompting one of the heaviest Israeli barrages in Syria since the conflict there began in 2011.

Lieberman said Israel hit almost all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria.

He said none of the Iranian rockets struck inside Israeli-held territory, and they either fell short or were shot down by Israeli defenses.

On the Golan Heights, Israeli schoolchildren went to class as usual on Thursday morning and sirens had sent residents into shelters overnight.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israels air strikes against Iranian targets in Syria were appropriate because the Islamic Republic had crossed a red line, Reuters reports.

In a brief video address, he said Israel carried out a very broad attack against Iranian targets in Syria.

We are in the midst of a protracted battle and our policy is clear: We will not allow Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria, Netanyahu said.Cuba on Wednesday condemned the withdrawal of the United States from a nuclear agreement with Iran, Sputnik reported.

Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its "profound rejection of the decision of the United States government to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or Nuclear Agreement with Iran and to reimpose sanctions on that country."

The statement added, "The failure to comply with these international commitments violates the rules of coexistence between states and can have serious consequences for the stability and security of the Middle East."

Cuba's government said it was opposed to the application of unilateral coercive economic measures against any country and said it recognized the legitimate right of every country to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Cuba also called on the United Nations Security Council to fulfill its responsibility to preserve international peace and security, and demanded the fulfillment of UN resolution 2231 on the Iranian nuclear issue, which was unanimously approved by the council.

Despite opposition from the other signatories and Democratic members of the US Congress, US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States will withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, a landmark agreement signed in 2015 between Iran and six major powers.

Cuba and Iran established diplomatic ties in 1975. A year later the then-government decided to break them, but they were restored in 1979, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

Tehran and Havana maintain cooperation agreements in agriculture, education, engineering, biotechnology and other areas.At least 21 people were killed when a dam in western Kenyas Nakuru county burst its walls, overrunning nearby homes, the St John Ambulance rescue service said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

10:39 (GMT+4) A dam burst in a Kenyan town after weeks of heavy rain, causing huge destruction and deaths, a government official said on Thursday, while a local television station said 20 bodies had so far been recovered, Reuters reports.

The dam gave way in Solai, in Nakuru county, 190 kilometres(120 miles) northwest of Nairobi, late on Wednesday.

The water has caused huge destruction of both life and property. The extent of the damage has yet to be ascertained, Lee Kinyajui, the governor of Nakuru, said in a statement.

Private television station KTN News said that 20 bodies had been recovered from the scene so far.

Kenya Red Cross said on Twitter it had rescued 39 people so far.

Kenya, like other countries in East Africa, has experienced heavy rain over the past two months. The government said on Wednesday the rain had killed 132 people and displaced 222,456 in 32 counties since March.Attackers entered a South African mosque after midday prayers, stabbed three people, and set the building on fire before fleeing, Al Jazeera reported.

One person was killed and two victims were in critical condition on Thursday after the mosque attack in the eastern town of Verulam, just north of the city of Durban, South Africa's state broadcaster SABC reported.

Images showed men receiving medical care on the ground outside the mosque. One man's white robe was soaked in blood.

"The imam, who had his throat slit, has passed away a few minutes ago due to his injuries," said Paul Herbst, spokesman for the private IPSS medical rescue service.

A manhunt was under way for the assailants. Police Captain Nqobile Gwala in KwaZulu-Natal province said investigators are looking at three counts of attempted murder and arson.

"The motive of the attack on the three men is unknown at this stage," Gwala said.

The incident appeared to be unprecedented in South Africa, where about 1.5 percent of the country's 55 million population is Muslim.

"It is the first time anything like this has happened in South Africa, let alone in KwaZulu-Natal province," said Faizel Suliman, chairman of the SA Muslim Network.

Prem Balram, spokesman for the Reaction Unit South Africa security company, said he arrived at the mosque to find two victims covered in blood lying in the forecourt of the mosque.

He said a third victim was attacked inside the building and jumped out of a window when it was set alight.

"Eyewitnesses said three attackers with guns had used knives. One knife was left behind," Balram said. "There have been theft and robbery incidents at mosques before, but not like this, when nothing appears to have been taken."

Nick Piper, a director at Signal Risk, an Africa-focused risk management firm, said South Africa has a "low baseline terrorism risk".

"Incidents of this nature are - on average and without further evidence - more likely to be linked to personal or communal grievances than acts of terror as we understand them," he said.Russia is concerned about the escalation of tensions between Iran and Israel and has asked the parties to provide details of the missile attacks, Russian Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and African Countries and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told TASS, responding to a question.

"All of this is very alarming and raising concerns. It is necessary to deescalate tensions," he said. "We are verifying all the details now."

"Weve got contacts with all parties," Bogdanov noted in response to the question on whether Russia took any efforts to normalize the situation. The high-profile diplomat added that there were contacts with the Israeli side on May 9, meaning a high-level meeting in Moscow.

On Thursday morning, Israel attacked tens of Iranian military facilities in Syria in response to a missile attack on the army positions in the Golan Heights. Earlier on Thursday, Irans Quds Force had launched at least 20 missiles and other projectiles on the frontlines of the Israeli army in the Golan Heights, according to Israel.

The Iron Dome air defense system intercepted some Iranian missiles, and the others failed to reach the area. No victims or damage in Israel were reported.Russias defense ministry said on Thursday that Syria had shot down more than half of the missiles fired at it overnight by Israel, Reuters with reference to the RIA news agency reported.

Iranian forces in Syria launched a rocket attack on Israeli army bases in the Golan Heights early on Thursday, Israel said, prompting one of the heaviest Israeli barrages against Syria since the conflict there began in 2011.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- First Majestic Silver Corp. (First Majestic) (NYSE:AG) (TSX:FR) (Frankfurt:FMV) and Primero Mining Corp. (Primero) are pleased to announce the completion of the plan of arrangement (the Arrangement) previously announced in the joint news release of First Majestic and Primero dated January 12, 2018.



Under the arrangement, which took effect as of 12:01 am (Vancouver time) this morning, First Majestic has acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Primero. Shareholders of Primero will receive 0.03325 First Majestic shares for each share of Primero held.

Keith Neumeyer, President and CEO of First Majestic said, With this closing, First Majestic is integrating a large, world-class, silver and gold mine into its portfolio of operating mines. The San Dimas mine, becoming our seventh mine in Mexico, will result in a transformational leap forward in our production profile with an estimated doubling of profitable ounces produced.

In the near future, we will be communicating our plan for San Dimas which will include ways to further improve productivity over the next 12 months, continued Mr. Neumeyer. I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Wheaton Precious Metals, the Primero shareholders and the employees of San Dimas into the First Majestic family.

With the Arrangement now complete, it is expected that Primeros shares will be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) in approximately 2-3 business days in accordance with the rules of the TSX.

First Majestic expects to announce later today the closing of the termination of the silver purchase agreement with Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. relating to the San Dimas Mine and the implementation of the new precious metals purchase agreement with Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. on the San Dimas Mine, as further discussed in the joint news release of January 12, 2018.

In connection with the Arrangement, holders of Primeros $75 million 2020 convertible debentures (the Debentures) previously approved an amendment to the terms of their governing indenture pursuant to which the Debentures will mature on the next business day following the effective date of the Arrangement. As such, all Debentures will mature and will be repaid in full in accordance with the terms of the indenture on May 11, 2018.

ABOUT FIRST MAJESTIC

First Majestic is a mining company focused on silver production in Mexico and is aggressively pursuing the development of its existing mineral property assets. The Company presently owns and operates seven producing silver mines; the San Dimas Silver/Gold Mine, the Santa Elena Silver/Gold Mine, the La Encantada Silver Mine, the La Parrilla Silver Mine, the San Martin Silver Mine, the Del Toro Silver Mine and the La Guitarra Silver Mine. Production from these seven mines is projected to be between 27 to 30 million silver equivalents ounces in 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION contact info@firstmajestic.com, visit our website at www.firstmajestic.com or call our toll free number 1.866.529.2807.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF

FIRST MAJESTIC SILVER CORP.

signed

Keith Neumeyer

President & CEO

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes certain ForwardLooking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forwardlooking information under applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, target, plan, forecast, may, schedule and similar words or expressions, identify forwardlooking statements or information. These forwardlooking statements or information relate to, among other things: the termination of the existing silver purchase agreement and implementation of the new precious metal purchase agreement; the date of de-listing of Primeros shares; the future plans for and the development of the San Dimas Mine; future silver production; future growth potential for First Majestic; plans to improve productivity; and repayment of the Debentures.

These statements reflect the parties respective current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the respective parties, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forwardlooking statements or information and the parties have made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: failure to meet the necessary conditions to closing the termination of the existing silver purchase agreement (including failure to file all necessary security registrations); decisions by the Toronto Stock Exchange with respect to de-listing of Primeros shares; the synergies expected from the Arrangement not being realized; business integration risks; fluctuations in general macro-economic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets and the market price of First Majestics shares; fluctuations in the spot and forward price of silver, gold, base metals or certain other commodities (such as natural gas, fuel oil and electricity); fluctuations in the currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso versus the U.S. dollar); changes in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments in Canada or Mexico; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities; 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); and the factors identified under the caption "Risk Factors" in First Majestics Annual Information Form, and under the caption "Risk Factors" in Primeros Annual Information Form.

Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forwardlooking statements or information. Although the parties have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. The parties do not intend, and do not assume any obligation, to update these forwardlooking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements or information, other than as required by applicable law.Russia continues to be ready for dialogue on cybersecurity with the US despite the fact that the previous round of consultations in Geneva did not take place because of the American side, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said on Thursday, TASS reports.

"Of course, we are ready," he said answering a question from a TASS correspondent. "Our president has always said that our task is to work with everyone."

He noted though that the US partners do not always show such willingness.

A Russian-US meeting on cybersecurity was scheduled to be held in Geneva in late February. However, the American delegation refused to take part in it at the very last moment. According to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, the consultations were derailed by Washington.

Russia considers the establishment of a common database on foreign terrorist fighters as an effective mechanism in the war on terror, he said.

"The establishment of a common database that would contain information about foreign terrorist fighters and additional measures for sharing information on their movements could become an effective mechanism in countering this phenomenon," said Syromolotov, who is in charge of international cooperation in the war on terror.

"In this context we pay attention to the capabilities of the international database on countering terrorism that was created under the auspices of the heads of intelligence services and security and law enforcement bodies and contains information about foreign terrorist fighters," he added.

The 16th meeting of the heads of intelligence services, security bodies and law enforcement bodies - partners of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) was held in October 2017 in Krasnodar. It gathered 117 delegations from 76 countries and six international coalitions, including the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the European Union.Russia has completed the delivery of the first regimental set of the air defense system S-400 to China. A third ship carrying missing support equipment has arrived at its port of destination. China will begin acceptance procedures at the end of May, a military-diplomatic source told TASS.

"The last batch of military equipment for the first regimental set of S-400 systems has been delivered by sea from Ust-Luga, the Leningrad Region, to China," the source said. "The ship has brought the equipment not damaged during a December storm in the English Channel and the damaged equipment after repairs."

A regimental set of S-400 systems was dispatched to China by three ships. Russias federal service for military-technical cooperation said last January that during a heavy storm in the English channel support equipment on board one of the three ships was affected. The transport ship had to return to the port of departure for re-examination of the affected components for defects. At the beginning of April it was announced that the first two ships carrying the bulk of the equipment had arrived in China.

According to the source, now that the third ship has arrived, the full regimental set of S-400 systems is in China. It includes the command center, radars, launchers, guided air defense missiles, power supply equipment and other items. Russian specialists will begin the handover of the military equipment to China at the end of May. The whole procedure will take about two months.

The federal service for military-technical cooperation has refrained from comment.

The conclusion of a contract with China for the supply of S-400 systems was announced in November 2014. Presidential aide for military-technical cooperation Vladimir Kozhin confirmed the conclusion of the contract in November 2015. China is the first foreign customer of these air defense systems. It is to obtain two regimental sets of S-400.

The air defense system S-400 Triumf is Russias long- and intermediate range system meant for hitting air attack weapons (including stealth aircraft) and other targets amid heavy fire and radio-electronic resistance.Washingtons withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for the Iranian nuclear program may trigger military activities in the Middle East, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov told reporters on Thursday, TASS reports.

"The situation in the Middle East is complicated and now it will become even more complicated and may lead to military activities," he said, adding that "the reason is that Iran will give a relevant response."

The senior Russian diplomat pointed out that "the US policy towards this region has been aimed at driving Iran out," while Iran, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Hezbollah Shia movement "have been fighting terrorism." According to Syromotov "chances are that it will result in local conflicts."

The Russian deputy foreign minister also said that the "the coalitions air forces and Israel are now targeting the positions of Hezbollah and the IRGC in Syria. "If this is not military activities, then what is it?" Syromolotov said.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump announced Washingtons withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, which imposed restrictions on Tehrans nuclear activities in return for the removal of the United Nations Security Councils sanctions and unilateral US sanctions. According to Trump, the JCPOA left the door open for Iran to circumvent restrictions and develop a nuclear bomb. The US president said that old sanctions would be restored and new ones would be introduced in case Tehran attempted to pursue its nuclear ambitions. At the same time, Trump called for making a new agreement.Moscow will seek to make sure that US sanctions on Iran neither destroy the nuclear deal nor affect Tehrans partners, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following talks with his German counterpart Heiko Maas on Thursday, TASS reports.

"We will seek to make sure that it does not destroy the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for the Iranian nuclear program. This is our common goal," he said. "Besides, we will seek to ensure that there is no extraterritorial influence on Irans partners," Lavrov added.

"The World Trade Organization has rules on this matter, so some non-judicial agreements may be made. As far as I understand, this is what our European partners want to reach with the Americans, they want to bargain something. I dont know if there could be success," the Russian top diplomat noted.

Russia appreciates the Iranian leaderships balanced response to US President Donald Trumps decision to quit the treaty.

"We appreciate the Iranian leaderships balanced response to that decision (US decision to quit the JCPOA), because all likely implications of Washingtons step are to be evaluated. Any haste here would be counterproductive," Lavrov said.

"Russia, Germany, France, Britain, China and Iran are to make such evaluations. We are already in this process and will present our opinion soon," he added.

Lavrov pointed out that the US administrations decision to quit the JCPOA was very worrisome. Washington, he said, "commits a major violation of the UN Security Councils Resolution 2231, which endorsed that plan and made it part of international law."

The decision to remove sanctions in accordance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for the Iranian nuclear program is not subject to review, Lavrov said.

"As for unilateral US sanctions, we can do nothing in that regard. However, it cannot refer to sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council. That removal is not subject to review," Lavrov said.

"If Washington once again tries to make these restrictions exterritorial, it will significantly affect the situation in the region and relations between the United States and Europe, as well as between the United States and Russia. We will evaluate it from the standpoint of the World Trade Organizations principles," Lavrov added.

The Russian top diplomat pointed out that one of the nuclear deals objectives was to facilitate the strengthening of the non-proliferation regime. "These achievements are likely to face very significant damage," he noted.

In 2015, Iran and six major powers (five member states of the United Nations Security Council - Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and China - and Germany) agreed on the final Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for the Iranian nuclear program, which particularly stipulates the removal of sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program.

US President Donald Trump has many times criticized the deal accusing Iran of violating it. He particularly said that it was "one of the most incompetently drawn deals" that he had ever seen.

On May 8, Trump announced Washingtons withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, which imposed restrictions on Tehrans nuclear activities in return for the removal of the United Nations Security Councils sanctions and unilateral US sanctions. According to Trump, the JCPOA left the door open for Iran to circumvent restrictions and develop a nuclear bomb. The US president said that old sanctions would be restored and new ones would be introduced in case Tehran attempted to pursue its nuclear ambitions. At the same time, Trump called for making a new agreement.Moscow is ready to search for generally acceptable approaches together with its Western partners, including Germany. However, the prospects for cooperation continue to be marred by the situation that emerged through no fault of Russia, top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday opening talks with his German counterpart Heiko Maas, TASS reports.

"We are ready to look for generally acceptable approaches with our German and Western partners even under the current situation, which we find utterly unsatisfactory, that has been created through no fault of ours. It continues to cast a shadow over any prospects for cooperation both in Europe and on the global stage as a whole," he stressed.

"We count on cooperation on a whole range of issues in our bilateral relations, on international affairs precisely as far as Germany is willing to go," he noted. "Russian-German ties constitute a relationship between the two leading powers on the European continent. Europes situations have always depended on their state of affairs."

"When hard times struck these relations, the entire continent was affected. On the contrary, when Russia and Germany were able to come to terms with each other that was beneficial for all Europeans," Lavrov stressed.

Russias top diplomat recalled that "the historic reconciliation between our two peoples, which took place, in a very large measure, thanks to our countrys active support for German unification, was of paramount importance for Europes destiny." "It was hoped that this would be followed by a genuine unification of Europe, that the common European home based on equal and indivisible security will be built," Lavrov went on to say. "Unfortunately, this did not happen, but we do bear in mind that strategic objective."

"I look forward to a frank conversation. I appreciate the fact that you [Maas] decided to come [here] for a direct discussion shortly after your appointment. That is always much more useful than microphone diplomacy," he concluded.Washingtons withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal serves as a cover for protectionist policy, which runs counter to the WTO rules, Russias Acting Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, TASS reports.

"It arises many questions. As you know, European capitals, including Paris, have voiced extreme concern over the violation of the interests of French and European companies active in Iran as they now may face US sanctions," he added. "It is actually protectionism in disguise as these steps run totally counter to the WTO rules," Peskov pointed out.

According to the Kremlin spokesman, much work needs to be done in this regard, particularly by lawyers. "As far as we understand, our European counterparts intend to employ all the existing international mechanisms to protect their interests," he concluded.Russia has launched a training program for Egyptian specialists, who will work in the countrys nuclear power sector, the Russian Presidents special envoy for the Middle East and African countries, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Thursday, TASS reports.

Speaking at a round table on Russian-Egyptian relations as part of the International Economic Summit Russia-Islamic World KazanSummit, he said:

"I would like to mention the construction of the first nuclear power plant in Egypt under the Russian model."

Bogdanov said that the nuclear industry in Egypt will be created "almost from scratch."

"Besides generation of electricity the Egyptian economy and industry need so much, it will create thousands of new jobs," he added.

"At the preparatory stage, which took several years, the parties did a lot of work - from the development and adjustment of technical and financial parameters to the approval of important legislative decisions on the demand for economic and environmental security," Bogdanov said.

"We expect that the practical work on the project will start soon. We have just begun a very serious work which concerns training of Egyptian specialists to work at such facilities as the nuclear power plant," he said.

In March, Chief Executive Officer of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom Alexei Likhachev said that construction work at the Egypts El Dabaa nuclear power plant (NPP) can provisionally start in 2020.

Acts on entry of the El Dabaa NPP construction projects into effect were signed on December 11, 2017 in Cairo in presence of presidents of Russia and Egypt.

The two countries signed an inter-governmental agreement to construct the first nuclear power plant in El Dabaa in November 2015. The facility consisting of four power units with 1,200 MW capacity each, will be built near the city of El Alamein on Egypts northern coast, 3.5 kilometers away from the Mediterranean Sea. The launch of the first unit is expected in 2024. The total cost of the project is estimated at $30 bln.The presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdgan, agreed in a phone conversation on Thursday to coordinate their further steps regarding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Irans nuclear program, the Kremlin press service said, TASS reported.

"The situation, linked to United States unilateral withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Irans nuclear program, was discussed. It was stressed that the JCPOA is of utmost importance for international and regional security and also for the global non-proliferation," the Kremlin said in a statement.

The sides also confirmed "Russia and Turkeys determination for further cooperation with other participants of the Plan of Action and for coordination of measures in this context," the statement reads.Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The United States has no right to refuse supply of F-35 fighters to Turkey, said the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish media reported May 10.

Erdogan noted that Turkey is a strategic partner of the United States, and Ankara as a partner has always fulfilled its obligations.

He also said that Turkey has paid for the supply of F-35 fighters.

Earlier, Washington and Ankara agreed on the supply of about one hundred F-35 fighters.

The agreement between the Turkish government and Lockheed Martin Company was signed in May 2017.

Earlier, representatives of the Democratic Party of the United States put forward the initiative to cancel the delivery of the fifth-generation fighters F-35 to Turkey because of the country's purchase of Russian S-400.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, the Turkish authorities will take retaliatory measures if Washington blocks supplies.

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizogluThe United States will deliver the first batch of F-35 joint strike fighters to Turkey in June, despite attempts by the US Congress to suspend the weaponry procurement, local media reported Wednesday, Xinhua reported.

The first batch of the 30 F-35 fighters will be delivered on June 21 in the US, where Turkish pilots will receive intense training, Hurriyet Daily News reported, citing Turkish defense industry authorities.

The Turkish military plans to upgrade the current F-16 fleets with 100 F-35 aircraft, in order to reinforce its air defense capabilities, the report said.

On May 4, the US House of Representatives released the details of a 717-billion-US-dollar annual defense bill, including the move to suspend weapons sales to Turkey.

The proposal urged the US government to impose sanctions on Turkey since Ankara signed a deal with Moscow on the purchase of two S-400 surface-to-air systems last December.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said Turkey will retaliate if the US ratifies a bill halting weapons sales to the country.REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sumo Logic, the leading cloud-native, machine data analytics platform that delivers continuous intelligence, today announced registration is open for Illuminate 2018, its second annual user conference. The two-day event is an opportunity for Sumo Logic users and ecosystem partners to share best practices for leveraging continuous intelligence for modern application innovation. Illuminate 2018 takes place Sept. 12-13, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport Hotel in Burlingame, Calif., and registration details can be found on the conference website.



More than 1,600 companies and 50,000 users count on Sumo Logic to harness the power of real-time machine data analytics and deliver the continuous intelligence they need to build, run and secure modern applications and accelerate digital business transformation. Illuminate offers resources to practitioners and leaders across development, operations and security to receive hands-on training, certifications, technical sessions and real-world case studies from peers and partners to learn how to get the most out of the Sumo Logic platform.

Last years conference brought together more than 500 customers, partners, prospects and technical experts to network and learn from one another on how to better build, run and secure their modern applications in the cloud. Sessions included a keynote from LinkedIn co-founder and current Greylock partner, Reid Hoffman, and in-depth technical presentations from marquee customers and partners such as Acquia, Canary, F5 Networks, Hootsuite, JFrog, Samsung SmartThings and Xero. Illuminate attendees also gain access to the Sumo Logic Certification Program, which aims to empower users with the knowledge, skills and data insights needed to manage and secure modern applications across the full application stack. More than 200 attendees obtained certifications by exhibiting the proficiencies needed to effectively analyze their machine data.

We kicked off Illuminate last year with the goal of bringing light to dark and empowering our vibrant community of thousands of users to overcome the modern-day application and security challenges facing their organizations, said Ramin Sayar, president and CEO of Sumo Logic. Regardless of where they are in their cloud journey, theres no better place than Illuminate for practitioners and leaders to come together to learn how to leverage machine data analytics to manage their modern applications in todays dynamic IT environment. Illuminate 2018 is going to be even bigger and better with new trainings and certifications, customer presentations and networking opportunities and we look forward to welcoming returning and new attendees to the conference.

Call for Papers

Sumo Logic is now accepting submissions for customer presentations to highlight real-world strategies and stories about how machine data analytics are providing business value. Speaker topics include (but are not limited to):

The Journey to the Cloud (Cloud Migration)

Operations and Performance Management of Applications and Infrastructure

Operations and Performance Management for Containers and Microservices

Best Practices for Using Serverless Architectures at Scale

Cloud Security and Compliance

Best Practices for Implementing DevSecOps

Sumo Logic to Enable Improved Customer Support/Success

Unique Use Cases (I Didnt Know You Could Use Sumo to)

Best Practices to Adopting and Leveraging Sumo Logic Effectively within Your Organization

The call for papers closes June 22, 2018. For more details on submitting a speaking proposal, please visit Sumo Logics Call for Papers blog.

Illuminate 2018 Conference Details

When: Sept. 12-13, 2018

Where: Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport Hotel, Burlingame, Calif.

Registration can be found on the Illuminate 2018 website

Call for papers closes June 22, 2018

Follow Illuminate on social media using #IlluminateSumoCon

Visit Sumo Logics blog for more details

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 Contact

Danielle Salvato-Earl

Offleash for Sumo Logic

sumo@offleashpr.com

(650) 922-7287North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un said he is convinced his upcoming meeting with US President Donald Trump will bring about positive changes on the Korean Peninsula, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Thursday after Kims meeting with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, TASS reports.

"He (Kim Jong-un) said the upcoming North Korea-US summit will be a historic meeting for the first step towards development of positive changes on the Korean Peninsula and building better future," the agency said.

Pompeo arrived in the North Korean capital city to discuss organizational details of the upcoming meeting between the two countries leaders.

US President Donald Trump told journalists on Wednesday the venue and date of his meeting with Kim Jong-un would be announced within three day. However, he noted, it would not be Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. Meanwhile, Associated Press said citing its sources in the US administration that Singapore is seen as the most probable venue for the summit planned for late May or early June.U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed three former U.S. prisoners who landed at a military base near Washington on Thursday after being released by North Korea, thanking leader Kim Jong Un and sounding upbeat on a planned summit between the two, Reuters reports.

The prisoners, freed after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to the North Korean capital, landed at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, where a giant U.S. flag was suspended between ladders of two fire trucks on the edge of the taxiway.

Trump and his wife boarded the plane, which arrived at around 2:40 a.m. (0640 GMT) for several minutes before the men stepped out, shaking hands with the president and waving to waiting media and military personnel.

Frankly we didnt think it was going to happen and it did, Trump said after thanking Kim for releasing the men.

Trump said he really believed Kim wanted to bring North Korea into the real world and was hopeful of a major breakthrough at their planned meeting.

Details of the summit have yet to be announced, but one U.S. official said Singapore had emerged as the most likely venue.

A White House spokeswoman said the three men would be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in nearby Maryland for further medical evaluation.

They are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul, detained in 2015; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST and was detained last year.

We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home, the three said in a statement released by the State Department as their plane stopped over in Alaska.

We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

North Korean state media said they were arrested either for subversion or hostile acts against the government.

Until now, the only American released by North Korea during Trumps presidency was Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old university student who returned to the United States in a coma last summer after 17 months of captivity and died days later.

Warmbiers death escalated U.S.-North Korea tensions, already running high at the time over Pyongyangs stepped-up missile tests.The US Department of Treasury has blackballed six individuals allegedly associated with Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and three affiliated business entities, just days after the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, Sputnik reported.

The updated list of individuals subject to sanctions has been expanded with the names Meghdad Amini, Mohammad Hasan Khodai, Said Najafpur, Masud Nikbakht, Foad Salehi and Mohammadreza Khedmati Valadzaghard, which the US says are linked to the "Quds Force" of the IRGC.

After leaving the Iran Nuclear Deal, Donald Trump has threatened Iran with new sanctions, which has led to an escalation of tensions between Tehran and Washington.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump announced his decision to retreat from the JCPOA, which requires Tehran to keep a peaceful nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions.

Trump also announced that he would re-impose US sanctions on the country. Following Trump's announcement, the leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom expressed their regret over Trump's decision in a joint statement, stressing their countries' commitment to the JCPOA.KYODO NEWS - May 10, 2018 - 15:15 | World, All

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday urged Japan to join China's "Silk Road" infrastructure project, saying its participation would likely contribute to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic stimulus policy.

"Our working-level cooperation will evolve. Our One Belt, One Road initiative will be coordinated with Japan's growth strategy," Li said in a speech in Tokyo at a reception celebrating the 40th anniversary of the signing of a bilateral friendship treaty.

At a summit between Abe and Li on Wednesday, Japan and China agreed to launch a public-private sector council to consider specific projects of cooperation related to Beijing's "One Belt, One Road" cross-border infrastructure initiative.

China has sought to expand its infrastructure networks in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa to attain its goal of connecting countries along the ancient Silk Road more closely, but concerns linger in Japan over Beijing's transparency in its financing.

Li's remarks suggest that China is willing to cooperate with Japan to tackle protectionist moves by U.S. President Donald Trump, as trade tensions between Beijing and Washington have been intensifying.

(Li Keqiang)

In the speech, Li also said China and Japan "have responsibilities to oppose protectionism and protect free trade as the world's major economies," adding Beijing and Tokyo should join hands to shore up the global economy.

China and Japan "have a wide range of common interests," Li said, expressing hope that the two countries will deepen cooperation in such fields as innovation, state-of-the-art manufacturing and finance.

Abe said at the same reception, "Japan and China have entered an era of partnership from that of competitiveness. We want to promote concrete development in Asia by private-sector companies. We want to lead Japan-China ties to a new stage."

As for the recent situation surrounding North Korea, Li said that China and Japan will work in tandem to resolve the nuclear crisis and achieve denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.

The reception was hosted by organizations including the Japan Business Federation, the nation's biggest business lobby known as Keidanren. Around 1,400 business leaders and senior officials of groups running Japan-China private exchanges attended it.

It is the first time Li has visited Japan since he became China's head of government in 2013. The last Chinese premier to make an official visit to Japan was Wen Jiabao in 2011.

Li, who is on a four-day trip to Japan from Tuesday, attended a trilateral summit with Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae In, as well as bilateral talks with them on Wednesday, around two weeks after the landmark inter-Korean summit on April 27.

The premier had an audience with Emperor Akihito earlier Thursday. He is scheduled to visit the northernmost main island of Hokkaido from Thursday night through Friday afternoon.

In recent years, Sino-Japanese ties have been mired in a territorial row over the Senkaku Islands -- called Diaoyu in China -- that escalated after the Japanese government effectively put them under state control in September 2012.

Bilateral relations have clearly been improving, however, following the reappointment of Xi Jinping to a second five-year term as Chinese president in March.KYODO NEWS - May 10, 2018 - 09:19 | World, All, Japan

An alliance of opposition parties scored a historic victory in Malaysia's general election, official results showed Thursday, with 92-year-old Mahathir Mohamad set to return as prime minister after stepping down from the post in 2003 following a 22-year rule.

Declaring a victory in Wednesday's election, which ended the 61-year rule of the governing National Front coalition, Mahathir told reporters he will be sworn into office by the king later Thursday.

"We informed the palace that we achieved the majority so there will be a swearing-in ceremony," said Mahathir, who ruled with an iron fist from 1981 to 2003 under the National Front coalition, popularly known as BN.

According to the Election Commission, Mahathir's four-party Alliance of Hope, or PH, won a majority in the race for the 222 seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the federal parliament.

PH wrested 121 of the 222 seats up for grabs in the House of Representatives and the 12-party BN coalition secured 79.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's BN has ruled Malaysia without interruption since independence from Britain in 1957.

Najib, whose party, the United Malays National Organization, is the lynchpin of BN that styled itself as a defender of ethnic Malay rights, has yet to concede defeat. Najib is scheduled to hold a press conference later Thursday.

The opposition Pan Islamic Party, or PAS, the single largest opposition party, obtained 18 seats, while four more went to a minor party and independent candidates.

BN held 132 seats in the lower house before dissolution, the opposition 88 and independents 2.

Mahathir turned Malaysia's politics on its head when he quit the United Malays National Organization in 2016 after a public spat with Najib and embraced his former critics including Anwar Ibrahim, whom he sacked as his deputy in 1998 and jailed.

In his campaign to unseat Najib, Mahathir got the four ideologically disparate opposition parties to agree to run under a single banner with the logo of Anwar's party, the People's Justice Party.

Up until the eve of polling, surveys from independent pollster Merdeka Center still pointed to BN maintaining its edge, with greater funding as well as control of the media and government working to its advantage. Factors such as the recent redrawing of electoral boundaries, which created more ethnic Malay majority seats, and the midweek polling date expected to depress voter turnout were also supposed to favor BN.

Defying the odds, Mahathir was able to tap into a groundswell of discontent among the electorate over the rising cost of living, blamed by many on the unpopular 6 percent goods and services tax.

The opposition alleged that Najib introduced the GST in 2016 because he needed the revenue to cover the massive debts accrued by state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad that is now the center of a massive money laundering probe in a host of countries from the United States to Switzerland and Singapore.

1MDB was founded by Najib and investigators in the United States said some $4.5 billion has been misappropriated from the fund by his cronies and stepson to buy luxury penthouses, expensive jewelry and artwork.

The opposition alleged that Najib introduced the GST in 2016 because he needed the revenue to cover the massive debts accrued by state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad that is now the center of a massive money laundering probe in a host of countries from the United States to Switzerland and Singapore.

According to the Election Commission, PH not only retained its grip on the Selangor and Penang states, but has also seized Kedah, Perak, Negri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor and Sabah from BN.

PAS meanwhile successfully defended Kelantan from BN's onslaught and wrested Terengganu state from BN, leaving the coalition with only Perlis and Pahang states.

The unprecedented showing by the opposition has been attributed to a "Malay tsunami" with Mahathir as the catalyst.

"Mahathir has undoubtedly been the key and winning factor for PH. He took a deflated and disjointed opposition and turned the election into one of the fiercest, most competitive elections in recent history," Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani, analyst with public affairs consulting firm Bower Group Asia Malaysia told Kyodo News.

In Malaysia's race-based politics, voters tend to vote along ethnic and religious lines.KYODO NEWS - May 11, 2018 - 10:21 | All, World, Urgent

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he will meet for the first time with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore in a bid to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The summit, the first encounter between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader in the absence of diplomatic relations, comes after Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae In pledged last month to work for the "complete denuclearization" of the peninsula.

In the upcoming meeting, analysts will observe whether Trump and Kim agree on concrete measures with a time frame to rid North Korea of nuclear weapons and all ballistic missiles -- not only intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the United States but shorter-range ones capable of hitting South Korea and Japan.

"We're going to set the table. We're going to make a great deal for the world, for North Korea, for South Korea, for Japan, for China," Trump said at a rally in Indiana.

Earlier Thursday, he tweeted, "The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!"

The announcement came hours after three U.S. citizens detained in North Korea returned home, a diplomatic outcome that cleared a major hurdle for the unprecedented meeting.

Asked by reporters if the return of the Americans is his proudest achievement, Trump said, "My proudest achievement will be -- this is part of it -- but will be when we denuclearize that entire peninsula."

(Trump applauds three Americans released from detention in North Korea)

In Singapore, Trump is expected to push Kim to take concrete action toward a complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization and dismantle all missiles and related facilities.

Along with the nuclear and missile issue, Trump has promised to press Kim to resolve the North's abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, an issue Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sees as a top priority for his government.

During April 27 talks with Moon at the truce village of Panmunjeom in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, Kim said he would abandon nuclear weapons if the United States agreed to formally end the 1950-1953 Korean War and promised not to commit aggression against the country.

Kim said Pyongyang will dismantle its only known underground nuclear test site in May, and that the North is prepared to have talks with Japan, according to South Korea's presidential Blue House.

Kim did not refer to the closure or abandonment of nuclear facilities other than the Punggye-ri site, where North Korea has carried out all of its six nuclear tests to date, starting in 2006 and continuing until the most recent and powerful one in September of last year.

(Kim Jong Un (L) and Moon Jae In)

[Korea Summit Press Pool]

On Thursday, Trump expressed optimism about his engagement with Kim. Asked why Kim freed the detainees now, Trump said, "I really think he wants to do something and bring that country into the real world."

"I think this will be a very big success," he said, without elaborating.

But the U.S. leader has emphasized that Washington will maintain maximum pressure and sanctions on Pyongyang in coordination with the international community until the North denuclearizes.

In reference to broken promises by North Korea during nuclear negotiations in the past, Trump said recently he will not be cheated by Pyongyang.

He criticized previous U.S. administrations for giving North Korea too many concessions despite the country not abandoning its nuclear weapon ambitions.

Speaking to reporters on April 30, Trump warned to Kim, "If it's not a success, I will respectfully leave."

In reflection of Trump's such feelings, his national security adviser John Bolton said, "No one in the Trump administration has any illusions about the negotiations ahead."

In an op-ed piece carried in the Thursday edition of the Washington Post, Bolton underscored close coordination with Japan and South Korea over North Korea, and wrote that Chinese President Xi Jinping "will also play a critical role in any resolution to the North Korean nuclear threat."

(Punggye-ri Nuclear test site)

[DigitalGlobe/38 North via Getty/Kyodo]KYODO NEWS - May 11, 2018 - 00:05 | World, All

Opposition leader Mahathir Mohamad, who stunningly trounced Malaysia's once-mighty National Front coalition in Wednesday's general election, was sworn-in Thursday as the country's seventh prime minister.

Dressed in a formal black and gold Malay traditional attire, the 92-year-old former strongman who ruled between 1981 and 2003, took his oath before King Muhammad V at the National Palace, officially making him the world's oldest head of government.

Wednesday's election victory of an alliance of four opposition parties ended 61 years of rule by the National Front, also known as Barisan Nasional or BN, which is headed by Mahathir's predecessor and former protege Najib Abdul Razak.

The Alliance of Hope, or PH, wrested 121 of the 222 seats up for grabs in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the federal parliament.

(Mahathir Mohamad)

The 12-party BN, which Mahathir once led, only managed to score 79 seats in the face of a groundswell of disaffected voters angry over the rising cost of living and rampant corruption.

Earlier Thursday, Mahathir had stressed the urgency of putting a new government into place without delay, telling a press conference, "There is a lot of work to be done. You know the mess the country is in and we need to attend to this mess as soon as possible."

Mahathir ran under the banner of the People's Justice Party or PKR in the election after the Najib's government slapped a provisional ban against his Malaysia United Indigenous Party or PPBM for non-compliance of party rules.

PKR is the party led by jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

BN faced a groundswell of disaffected voters angry over the rising cost of living and rampant corruption.

Najib has long been under a cloud of controversy surrounding the state fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, that he founded.

(Najib Abdul Razak)

The fund is subject of a massive money laundering probe in a host of countries and Najib's cronies have been accused of embezzling billions of dollars from it.

Earlier, it was widely thought that Mahathir might be sworn-in as early as Thursday morning, causing hordes of reporters and cameramen to gather outside the palace located in a swanky neighborhood just outside the city center.

When that did not happen, the country was set abuzz with speculations over the delay.

It did not help that Mahathir has a testy relationship with the country's monarchy.

In 1983, the firebrand premier had a standoff with the country's hereditary rulers when he pushed to amend the Constitution to strip away some of their powers including to declare emergency.

But despite some bad blood, the Sultan of Johor state on Thursday called for the poll results to be respected and for a new government be established immediately.KYODO NEWS - May 10, 2018 - 15:07 | All, Feature, Japan, World

Japanese Emperor Akihito met with visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, expressing his wish that relations of goodwill between their nations would further improve.

It is the first time the emperor has met with a Chinese premier since meeting with Wen Jiabao in June 2010.

Li said he hopes his visit this year -- marking the 40th anniversary of the signing of a friendship treaty -- would help develop bilateral ties into a "long-lasting and stable relationship," according to the Imperial Household Agency.

In response, the emperor said, "I hope our relations of goodwill and friendship will improve."

During their 20-minute meeting, Emperor Akihito thanked Li for China's move to donate a pair of crested ibis to Japan. "Although ibises were once extinct in Japan, I'm glad many are being bred again thanks to China's help."

The meeting came a day after Li attended a trilateral summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae In in Tokyo's Akasaka Palace state guesthouse.

(Pool photo)

Emperor Akihito, who took the throne in 1989, visited China in October 1992 with Empress Michiko as the first emperor to do so.

The emperor also said he feels nostalgic, when recalling his first visit and the cordial welcome he had experienced.

Li told the emperor that the latter's interaction with the people in China has left an "impression" and is "symbolic" of the friendship between their countries.

Japanese Emperor Akihito met with visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

It is the first time the emperor has met with a Chinese premier since meeting with Wen Jiabao in June 2010.

(Pool photo)

The meeting came a day after Li attended a trilateral summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae In in Tokyo's Akasaka Palace state guesthouse.

Emperor Akihito, who took the throne in 1989, visited China in October 1992 with Empress Michiko as the first emperor to do so.After two men were arrested on Thursday, the police pasted a notice outside his house asking him to appear before it in connection with the violence that claimed eight lives.CLEARWATER, Fla., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On May 8, Mr. Christopher King, grandson of Blues Legend BB King and founder of the Gentlemens Course non-profit organization, delivered human rights education to over 40 students and teachers at Durant High School in the wake of 18 year-old Grover Wills being shot and killed at a nearby gas station. United for Human Rights, an international organization sponsored by the Church of Scientology and which educates on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, supplied Mr. King with their educational materials.



Shootings like this are a blatant violation of our human rights, said Mr. King. We need to work at a grass-roots level to educate our youth on their rights so they can properly defend themselves and others. Right now it is more important than ever to know your human rights.

Mr. Kings seminar included an overview of his non-profit called the Gentlemens Course where he educates on etiquette, decorum, appearance, diction and how to treat others properly. Mr. King incorporated his partnering program, Youth for Human Rights, and spoke about the treacheries of human trafficking.

This seminar is one in a series of educational seminars Mr. Christopher King is delivering around the Tampa Bay area. Over the last week, Mr. King has spoken in 3 schools to 240 students and will visit another 3 schools.

For more information or to get involved with the Gentlemens Course or Youth for Human Rights, please contact the Human Rights Center in Downtown Clearwater at (727) 467-6960.

About Youth for Human Rights Florida:

Youth for Human Rights is an international non-profit, non-religious educational program based off of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its purpose is to teach youth their human rights to create valuable advocates for tolerance and peace. Youth for Human Rights is one of eight humanitarian programs the Church of Scientology supports. It was Scientology Founder, L. Ron Hubbard who said, Human rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream.

For Immediate Release

Dylan Pires

(727) 467-6860

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/eecfc333-1ab2-4123-998d-adcfdc04fe40VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dajin Resources Corp. (Dajin) (TSX-V:DJI) (OTCQB:DJIFF) (Germany:C2U1) is pleased to announce that it will be participating in The MoneyShow Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada, Monday, May 14 to Wednesday, May 16 at Ballys and Paris Resorts, 3645 & 3655 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas.



Dr. Catherine Hickson, P. Geo, Dajins Chief Operating Officer, will be presenting The Best Lithium Brine Prospect in North America: Dajins Teels Marsh project, Nevada on Tuesday, May 15th from 1:30 - 2:15 pm and participating in the Money, Metals and Mining Panel discussion on Wednesday, May 16th from 10:45 to 11:30 am.

If you plan to attend the conference, please drop by and meet Dajins directors, Brian Findlay, Dr. Catherine Hickson and Dr. Mark Coolbaugh at booth # 320.

About The MoneyShow:

The MoneyShow Las Vegas 2018 invites attendees to be part of the largest educational event for individual investors in America. This year more than 3,500 attendees who are affluent, educated and engaged will gather in Las Vegas, Nevada  all seeking advice, direction and resources to make profitable investment decisions to ensure their financial well being. For further information please visit The MoneyShow Las Vegas website at: moneyshow.com

About Dajin: (www.dajin.ca)

Dajin, through Dajin Resources S.A. (Dajin S.A.), holds concessions or concession applications in Jujuy Province, Argentina that were acquired in regions known to contain brines with Lithium, Potassium, and Boron values. These concessions exceed 93,000 hectares (230,000 acres) and are primarily located in the Salinas Grandes/Guayatayoc salt lake basins. In February 2018, Dajin announced the results of 25 shallow brine samples covering an area of 550 hectares (5.5 km2) in the northwestern corner of the 4,300 hectare (43 km2) San Jose/Navidad mina. Concentrations ranged from 281 mg/l to 1,353 mg/l, averaging 591 mg/l Lithium. Dajin S.A. is partnered with LSC Lithium Corporation who has agreed to spend $2,000,000 to earn a 51% interest in Dajin S.A.s Lithium properties while building a significant presence in Argentina. (click here for information on LSC Lithium Corporation)

In the United States Dajin holds a 100% interest in 403 placer claims covering 7,914 acres (3,202 hectares) in the Teels Marsh valley of Mineral County, Nevada. These claims are known to contain Lithium and Boron values and are adjacent to the birth place of US Borax Corps first borax mine. Dajin also holds a 100% interest in 278 placer claims covering 5,591 acres (2,262 hectares) in the Alkali Lake valley of Esmeralda County, Nevada, located 7 miles (11 kilometers) northeast of Albemarles Silver Peak Lithium brine operation in Clayton Valley.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Brian Findlay

President & CEO

For further information please contact:

Julie Hajduk at 604-609-6151or julie@dajin.ca

Head of Corporate Development

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility

for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.BOZEMAN - A Montana State University ecologist has been awarded a prestigious appointment that will take him to South America to work on a project to help countries meet conservation goals set as part of an international agreement.

Andrew Hansen, professor in the Department of Ecology in MSU's College of Letters and Science, has been awarded the Fulbright-Universidad Nacional de Colombia Distinguished Chair in Biodiversity and Sustainable Development. Awards in the Fulbright Distinguished Chairs Program are viewed as among the most prestigious appointments in the Fulbright Scholar Program.

Hansen said he is thrilled to have received the Fulbright, which will allow him to spend four months at the National University of Colombia in Bogata. There, he will analyze ecosystem data gathered by NASA that could help more than 30 countries keep their commitment to protect biodiversity.

"Most countries around the world signed onto the Convention on Biodiversity in 2010 that identified several conservation targets to be met by 2020, like expanding the protected area coverage and reducing forest degradation and increasing connectivity between protected areas," Hansen said.

Those countries are now developing conservation plans, he said, but they often don't have the information needed to analyze the current conditions of their ecosystem and evaluate the best way to achieve targets and implement their plans. At the same time, NASA has been producing sets of data that could provide that much-needed information.

Hansen is leading a project to get that spatial data into the hands of the policymakers in those countries so they can make informed decisions regarding conservation and biodiversity protection as set out in the convention. The project is a collaboration between NASA Earth Science and the United Nations Development Program, or UNDP, and includes some of the leading remote-sensing and conversation scientists, including the head of the United Nations Biodiversity Development Program who is a co-investigator on the study, Hansen said. Additionally, four labs are represented from the U.S., Canada and Australia.

"We have this extraordinary team to develop the science and work with the countries so they can apply science to this issue and UNDP then will be reporting success in 2020." Hansen said.

First, the project will focus on eight countries - Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia and Vietnam - that Hansen said were selected because of their involvement in several international conservation programs and because they are highly dedicated to meeting their conservation goals. After that, the researchers will turn their attention to the more than 30 remaining countries that are part of the agreement.

"It's been very interesting to be interacting with the representatives from these eight countries through three webinars and one face-to-face meeting," Hansen said. "Just in terms of pragmatics, it's remarkably interesting and challenging to work across this range of countries with this diversity of people and languages and cultures and scientific capacities."

Colombia is an ideal location for this work, he said, because the university has field stations at branch campuses around the country that have datasets that are important to the project. Hansen will compare the field station datasets with the ones NASA collected.

"The NASA satellite data layers are global layers, so they've been accuracy-assessed across many countries but not within individual countries in a scientifically valid way," Hansen said. "So, we'll be using the data from the field sites as 'truth' and then assess the extent to which NASA satellite data match those."

The data layers relate to forests, he said, and include canopy cover, canopy height and the time since the last disturbance. There are also data related to "the human footprint," that integrates population density, land-use change and transportation corridors.

"We're also merging those layers to identify forests that are the tallest, oldest, best forests for biodiversity and also have low human pressure - the 'best of the best' for biodiversity," he said. "The project is somewhat unique in doing this to get a higher-order product."

Another objective, he added, is to use the dataset analyses to work with scientists and land managers in each country to inform conservation planning, particularly connectivity between protected areas.

"As human pressure has built up in places around the world, the remaining natural habitats have become increasingly fragmented and converted to smaller patch sizes that are increasingly far apart,"

Hansen said. "If the wildlife within those smaller patches are not able to move between those patches and interact, that could lead to a change in genetics or population extinctions."

Hansen will be in Colombia from October to January 2019, where, he said, there are remarkable conservation scientists and ecologists.

"In addition to the university, there is the Humboldt Institute, a government-run biodiversity research center that is a globally known," he said. "As a consequence, there are a large number of conservation projects occurring in Colombia, so it's a real hotbed for next-generation conservation science."

He noted that Colombia is the world's second-most biodiverse country, the first being Brazil, with ecosystems ranging from the super-wet Pacific coastal forests to the top of the Andes and down into the Amazon basin.

"There are many indigenous people still living on their native lands," Hansen said. "So, in addition to modern cities and modern science, it has a strong agricultural community, an indigenous community and these diverse landforms and ecosystems."

He said that while he has been able to explore different types of ecosystems in his work, he hasn't had the opportunity to spend time in the tropical forest.

"Just like it's wonderful to get to know people and make new friends, it's wonderful to get to know new ecosystems because each one is so fascinating in its own right," he said.

"By getting to know several ecosystems, one then gets the opportunity to ask, 'What do they have in common? How are they different? Why? And, how should management strategies be crafted accordingly?'" said Hansen who teaches a course in comparing ecological systems.

Hansen has worked on other studies funded by NASA Earth Science aimed at solving resource management issues. One focused on the ecological conditions of six U.S. national parks. The other, NASA's Landscape Climate Change Vulnerability Project, was a five-year study that concentrated on the public lands in the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains and led to the book, Climate Change in Wildlands: Pioneering Approaches to Science and Management, which Hansen co-authored.

Hansen's research program at MSU has been "highly successful, generating $17 million in research and outreach funding," said Diane Debinski, head of MSU's Department of Ecology.

"His work on climate change and adaptation, land use change, large landscape conservation, protected areas, biodiversity, habitat fragmentation and connectivity has resulted in 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, three books, and 20 additional book chapters," Debinski said.

"This work will fill a critical gap in using spatial data to inform conservation decision-making," she said. "While one of the main products of this work will be actual maps, the proposed research will aid in putting MSU 'on the map' as an institution that is producing prestigious, cutting-edge conservation science."

###President Donald Trumps long-anticipated decision to pull the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on the Islamic Republic will have a swift effect on some big companies.

The U.S. administration is giving affected companies either 90 days or 180 days to wind down their interactions with Tehran before sanctions kick in again.

However, the sanctions for now only affect companies that operate out of the U.S. or have significant exposure there. The big question now is how the U.S. will treat its allies, which want to maintain the deal despite the U.S.s withdrawal: Will it take measures against their companies if they continue to do business with Iran?

Here are six of the firms that will be hitor not, depending on the details that are still to come.

Boeing and Airbus

Plane-makers Boeing and Airbus are probably the highest-profile casualties of the reimposed sanctions, as they had been planning to start selling aircraft to the Islamic Republic for the first time.

Boeing ba is of course based in Chicago, but France-based Airbus eadsy also needed its now-revoked U.S. export license because more than 10% of its parts are American.

Only Airbus has already delivered any aircraft to Iranthree of the 100 ordered by Iran Air, at a list price of around $19 billion. Boeing has a big backlog on orders anyway, so it never got round to making its planes for Iran Air (80 aircraft for $17 billion) or Aseman Airlines (30 for $3 billion).

General Electric and Total

GE ge is hit pretty hard here. Not only is it one of the U.S. companies making parts for Airbus, but it has also received big parts orders for oil and gas facilities in Iran.

The company said it will adapt [its] activities as necessary to conform with these changes in U.S. law.

Speaking of energy, Frances Total tot has a $2 billion deal with Chinas CNPC to develop Irans South Pars gas field. Its already spent $90 million to develop the field, and Irans state oil company says it wont be compensated until production begins. The National Iranian Oil Company also said that Total would lose its stake in the field to CNPC if it withdraws from Iran.

Story continues

On the plus side, oil prices have risen as a no-brainer consequence of Trumps withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actionso Totals shares are up too.

Volkswagen and PSA Group

Volkswagen vlkay had been reticent about entering the Iranian market, due to its exposure to the U.S. market, but last year it started selling cars in the Islamic Republic again. That may have to change now.

Meanwhile, Frances PSA Group pugoy the company that makes Peugeots and Citroenshas also been keenly selling into Iran. It even touted its lack of exposure to the U.S. market as an advantage over its German rivals, and sales in Iran helped to offset PSAs difficulties in territories such as China and the U.K.

Now that the U.S. sanctions are back, PSA says it is hoping for the EU to adopt a common position on Iran. So far, France, Germany and the U.K. have all said they want to stay in the Iran deal.

If PSA wants to start selling Peugeots in the U.S. again, as it has indicated, it may have to pull out of Iran anyway.Texas Capital (TCBI) Down 9.8% Since Last Earnings Report: Can It Rebound? Texas Capital (TCBI) reported earnings 30 days ago. What's next for the stock? We take a look at earnings estimates for some clues.

General Electric Company GE signed an agreement with French manufacturing group Alstom, under which Alstom will exit three joint ventures, in return for a consideration of $3.1 billion. The transfer of all interests to GE will occur on Oct 2.

The three joint ventures cover grid, nuclear, as well as renewable assets and were created as part of Alstom's 12.35-billion sale of its energy business to GE in November 2015. GE had acquired the French companys energy business under former Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt.

Alstom stated that it intends to exercise options to sell its interests in the Renewables and Grid joint ventures. Per the original agreement, GE will then be deemed to have exercised option to acquire Alstoms interest in the Nuclear joint venture.

Alstom intended to exit the businesses to concentrate on the manufacturing of rail equipment. Separately, Siemens AG SIEGY and Alstom agreed to merge their rail operations in September 2017.

The 2015 acquisition of Alstoms assets had fortified GEs foothold in the business of servicing and maintaining gas turbines, while the joint ventures in renewable energy and electrical transmission businesses also added to its strength.

However, since then, the market for gas turbines has weakened considerably. In fact, CEO John Flannery has commented that GE was late in recognizing the weakening demand. Both GE and Siemens are now overhauling their businesses and slashing jobs to endure the slump.

GE Power is the biggest segment of the conglomerate in terms of corporate revenues. However, the unit has been a drag on earnings in the last few quarters, as global demand increasingly favours renewable energy sources. Also, overcapacity, lower utilization and fewer outages are other factors that are dampening demand. Industry experts opine that the acquisition of Alstoms assets further compounded the problems for GE, as it increased operating costs and contracted margins.

Story continues

Nevertheless, in 2017, Flannery assured investors that energy, aviation and healthcare will continue to be the focal points of GEs operations. It has been nearly five months since Flannery outlined his plan to divest more than $20 billion of assets.

In April, GE inked an agreement to sell a trio of its health-care information technology businesses to private equity firm Veritas Capital for $1.05 billion. The deal marks one of the first notable portfolio-related moves since Flannery announced the plan to exit at least $20 billion of businesses. However, he has hinted at the possibility of the companys disintegration into separately-traded businesses.

The overhaul, along with cost cuts and cultural changes, encompass Flannerys attempts to pull GE out of one of the deepest slumps in the companys 126-year history. The companys shares have lost 47.7% in the past year, wider than the industrys decline of 12.2%.

Zacks Rank & Stock to Consider

General Electric presently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the same space include Comerica Incorporated CMA and State Street Corporation STT, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Comerica has trumped estimates in each of the trailing four quarters and generated an average beat of 5.2%.

State Street Corporation also has a decent earnings history, having generated a positive average beat of 5.5% over the same time frame, beating estimates all through.

Wall Streets Next Amazon

Zacks EVP Kevin Matras believes this familiar stock has only just begun its climb to become one of the greatest investments of all time. Its a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in pure genius.

Click for details >>



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



Comerica Incorporated (CMA) : Free Stock Analysis Report



State Street Corporation (STT) : Free Stock Analysis Report



General Electric Company (GE) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Siemens AG (SIEGY) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment ResearchBy Bernardo Vizcaino

SYDNEY, May 10 (Reuters) - Australian Islamic fund manager Crescent Wealth is building closer links with its Malaysian counterparts, aiming to attract investors from the established Islamic financial markets in Asia, its top executive said.

The Sydney-based firm has appointed Malaysia's CIMB Principal Islamic to help run its cash fund, the only such sharia-compliant product currently available in the country.

This will help cater to Asian investors who are increasingly allocating funds to Australia's property and equity markets, said Talal Yassine, managing director of Crescent Wealth.

"We have been building new strategic partnerships as we explore growth opportunities locally, in Southeast Asia and the Gulf region."

CIMB Principal Islamic is a joint venture between CIMB Group , Malaysia's second largest bank, and U.S.-based Principal Financial Group.

Crescent also plans to draw more business from institutional clients in the Gulf region through segregated mandates, which typically range in size between $25 million and $100 million, Yassine said.

The firm, which was launched in 2011, has seen steady growth of its business despite an unwelcoming tax environment in Australia for sharia-compliant financing deals.

Its cash fund now has more than A$60 million ($45 million) in assets and its property fund A$101 million, compared to the firm's A$20 million in total assets under management back in 2013.

In 2016 Crescent also launched an Islamic property fund in Malaysia, alongside KAF Investment Funds Berhad. ($1 = 1.3389 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Bernardo Vizcaino; Editing by Eric Meijer)A boy aims a Remington firearm at the annual National Rifle Association (NRA) meeting in Dallas, Texas, U.S., May 4, 2018. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

By Tom Hals

WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) - Bank of America said on Thursday it was standing by its pledge to stop financing civilian assault weapons and suggested it may be preparing to exit a loan for gun maker Remington Outdoor Corp that sparked criticism of the lender.

The statement by Vice Chairman Anne Finucane follows a Reuters report on Sunday that the lender was participating in a $193 million credit facility that will help stabilize Remington's business when it emerges from bankruptcy this month.

After the report, activists including student gun control activist David Hogg were critical of the bank and took to Twitter using the #BoycottBankofAmerica hashtag. Hogg was a student at the high school in Parkland, Florida, where a February shooting helped touch off a renewed push for stricter U.S. gun control.

"Let me be clear - we are not changing our policy to end financing of the manufacture of these military style firearms," said Finucane, who emphasized the policy change was on a go-forward basis.

She said the Remington financing was in the works for months before the firearms policy was announced on April 10.

A bank spokesman confirmed the statement, which took the form of a letter that Bank of America distributed in response to inquiries about its gun policy.

Bank of America is providing $43.2 million of the credit facility, with the rest coming from six other banks.

The banks have committed to providing the credit, and when Remington exits bankruptcy the credit facility will be established to replace an existing facility of the same size that Remington used to get through its Chapter 11.

The letter also indicated Bank of America may be preparing to exit the Remington credit facility soon after it is financed by selling its participation, as the agreement allows.

"Remington is aware of the policy that we subsequently announced, and that policy will dictate our future actions after the bankruptcy proceedings conclude," said Finucane's letter.

Story continues

Bank of America could have faced potential legal action and damages if it had backed out of its commitment to provide the Remington financing, particularly if the company failed to emerge bankruptcy.

In addition, the bank was concerned about its reputation for standing by lending commitments if it reneged on its Remington financing, according to a source familiar with the bank's thinking.

Remington makes the Bushmaster rifle that was used in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in which 20 children were killed.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; editing by Noeleen Walder and Cynthia Osterman)California is on cusp of becoming the first U.S. state to require solar panels on all new homes beginning in 2020.

The California Energy Commission voted Wednesday in a 5 to 0 vote to adopt the policy as part of the state's Building Energy Efficiency Standards. The California Building Standards Commission will need to give the final approval before the mandate can be enacted. It is expected to support the energy commissions vote.

The mandate, which will change the building code for residential buildings up to three stories high, aims to increase the amount of solar energy used in the state. Three years ago, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that requires at least 50% of the state's electricity to come from renewable energy by 2030.

There is a cost. The solar panel mandate is expected to add an average of $9,500 to the cost of a new home. However, proponents argue that it will also help raise the value of the home and attract buyers who will benefit from lower electricity bills.

"This is an undeniably historic decision for the state and the U.S. California has long been our nation's biggest solar champion, and its mass adoption of solar has generated huge economic and environmental benefits, including bringing tens of billions of dollars of investment into the state, Solar Energy Industries Association CEO Abigail Ross Hopper said in a statement. Now, California is taking bold leadership again, recognizing that solar should be as commonplace as the front door that welcomes you home.

Hoff acknowledged that other states may not be ready to follow Californias lead. Still, Hodd said she remained hopeful that some will adopt similar policies once leaders in those states see the benefit of Californias mandate.

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.comWilliam Li China Nio

Younger Chinese consumers don't appear to see products from Europe and the US to be superior to domestic brands the way that their parents did.

The shift in perception has led to increased dominance of the Chinese smartphone market by domestic companies, rather than Apple.

William Li, founder of electric car startup Nio, believes the same trend will play out between his company and Tesla in the Chinese automobile market.

For decades, Chinese consumers have prized foreign brands, thinking that products made by American or European companies indicated higher quality than domestic. Increasingly, that's no longer the case.

Chinese people born before 1985 have a "mindset that foreign brands are better" than Chinese ones, billionaire William Li told Business Insider during a recent interview at the 2018 Beijing Auto Show. But for those who were born after 1985, the mindset is different.

"When I first went to the United Kingdom in 1997, I thought that the difference between China and Europe was quite significant," Li said. "But for those born in the 1990s, when they visit Europe or the US, they do not think there is a significant different."

Li is the founder of electric car startup Nio, which is counting on that trend to help it compete with Tesla.

The change in perception among Chinese consumers is showing up in numerous markets in China previously dominated by western companies. A study by Credit Suisse released in March found that young Chinese consumers are increasingly showing a "domestic brand bias."

More than 90% of young Chinese consumers would prefer to buy domestic home appliance brands, according to the study. Meanwhile, domestic companies producing food, beverages, or personal care products increased their share of the market by 3.3% over the last decade to nearly 70%, according to Nielsen.

Chinese consumers, especially the younger generation, dont just believe the notion that foreign brands are better. Right now, Chinese consumers think China is good and Made in China is not bad at all," Charlie Chen, head of China consumer research at Credit Suisse, told South China Morning Post in March.

Story continues

The Chinese smartphone market is dominated by domestic companies  Huawei, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi. Apple is the only foreign brand in the top five, but it has lost significant ground to the domestic brands in recent years.

Apple's market share is believed to be down to 37% from a 2015 high of 54%.

Li believes that the rise of domestic smartphone companies is attributable both to a closing gap in perceived quality and because smartphones serve their users better when they "rely on local service, local software, local support, and local data."

"That's why, for the Samsung and the iPhone, their market share is now decreasing in the China market," Li said.

5ae6f0d819ee8655008b4668 1334 916 (1)

UBS

The trend has also been happening in the auto industry. In 2017, Chinese car makers took 44.2% of the market. That's up from 38.4% in 2014. Li is bullish that domestic car brands can grow to 65% market share over the next decade.

The increase in market share is more impressive when you consider that many Chinese car companies like JAC, Geely, and SAIC are priced similarly to foreign brands, Li said.

Li is hoping the change in Chinese consumers' perceptions extends to the electric car market, where he hopes Nio will be able to take on Tesla, which doubled its sales to $2 billion in China in 2017.

Though Tesla currently dominates as a status symbol among China's luxury market, Li said that he believes Nio and other Chinese electric car manufacturers will eventually prevail because they have "a better understanding about Chinese users and they can develop their software and adapt it to their behaviors."

NOW WATCH: Apple invested $1 billion in this Chinese company

See Also:

SEE ALSO: Ford is betting China will beat the US and dominate the electric car market

DON'T MISS: The Elon Musk of China explains why its 'Tesla killer' wont fall into the same trap as troubled electric car startup Faraday Future[caption id="attachment_27728" align="alignnone" width="620"]

Michael Avenatti, attorney for Stormy Daniels, leaves the Daniel P. Moynihan Courthouse in Manhattan after a hearing in front of Judge Kimba Wood regarding a search warrant that was executed at the home, hotel and office of Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen. (Photo by David Handschuh/NYLJ)[/caption] Attorneys for Michael Cohen said Wednesday they want U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood of the Southern District of New York to deny the pro hac vice application by adult film actress Stephanie Clifford's attorney, Michael Avenatti. Cohen's team, led by McDermott Will & Emery partner Stephen Ryan, said Avenatti should be denied the ability to appear in the Southern District because of statements and material he made public Tuesday. Cohen's lawyers argued the statements and disclosures were untrue, meant to damage Cohen's reputation and based on information Avenatti possesses improperly. "Mr. Avenatti has ... deliberately distorted information from the records which appear to be in his possession for the purpose of creating a toxic mix of misinformation," Ryan said in the letter. "He has disclosed the identities of some of Mr. Cohens clients and has incorrectly deemed their contractual relationships and corresponding payments to be 'possibl[ly] fraudulent and illegal' without any basis to make such assertions." The information released by Avenatti showed funds flowing into the bank account of a shell company that was also used to make the $130,000 payment to Clifford, who uses the stage name Stormy Daniels, as part of an agreement to keep her from talking about an affair with President Donald Trump. Avenatti claims that a company allegedly tied to a Russian oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin transferred $500,000 to Cohen's account. It was just one of a number of payments made by firms and companies that flowed through the account, according to numerous reports. In a section of Avenatti's own report, he describes what he says are possible fraudulent and illegal financial transactions Cohen was engaged in. One of the claims is of a wire transfer to Cohen from a company called Actuarial Partners Consulting into a Toronto bank account owned by a Michael Cohen. That Michael Cohen, however, is actually a foreign aid worker in Tanzania who does work for Actuarial Partners Consulting. According to an email shared with the court, the aid worker Michael Cohen "expressed grave concerns about the breach of his privacy by Mr. Avenattis apparently improper possession and publication of his personal bank records," according to Ryan. "Mr. Avenattis conduct in somehow obtaining random bank records and publishing them without proper concern for their accuracy is extremely troubling for the parties in this case, the court, and the public," Ryan said. He went on to provide three other examples involving transactions from companies in Singapore, Hungary and Taiwan that Ryan says the lawyer Michael Cohen was never part of. Ryan said that Avenatti did appear to have information from Cohen's actual bank records, including transactions with AT&T and Novartis for consultancy work by Cohen on their behalf. Ryan notes that the government, too, has been in possession of these records and others now made public since its April 9 raid on Cohen's home and offices. To Cohen's legal team's knowledge, Avenatti has made no lawful attempt to obtain the records from the government, Ryan stated. He noted reports that the U.S. Department of Treasury is investigating whether the bank records in Avenatti's possession were improperly disseminated. "If Mr. Avenatti wishes to be admitted pro hac vice before this court, he should be required to explain to this court how he came to possess and release this information," Ryan said. In an emailed statement, Avenatti called Ryan's letter "baseless, improper and sanctionable." "They fail to address, let alone contradict, 99 percent of the statements in what we released," Avenatti said. "Among other things, they effectively concede the receipt of the $500,000 from those with Russian ties.(Adds detail on hurdles to complete Peru deals; adds details of talks to sell Supervia)

By Tatiana Bautzer and Carolina Mandl

SAO PAULO, May 10 (Reuters) - Brazilian creditors of conglomerate Odebrecht SA are leading the efforts to sell the group's commuter rail unit, Supervia Concessionaria de Transporte Ferroviario SA, as banks raise pressure on the corruption-ensnared group to accelerate asset sales, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

Odebrecht hired Banco BTG Pactual SA as an adviser months ago to sell Supervia, the sources added, asking for anonymity because talks are still private.

But failure to reach an agreement with potential acquirers following talks with investors caused creditors, led by Itau Unibanco Holding SA, to intervene, joining the efforts to sell the company through their investment banking units.

According to one of the sources with knowledge of the matter, Odebrecht did not agree on Supervia's valuation with the first group interested, United Arab Emirates' sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Development Co PJSC.

Last month, Odebrecht's construction unit failed to repay $144 million in bonds and said Odebrecht SA was still in negotiations with Banco Bradesco and Itau to receive new loans to make the repayment within the 30-day grace period.

Talks for the loans are still ongoing, but other two people with knowledge of the matter said no agreement has been reached yet. Banks say Odebrecht's asset sales program is proceeding more slowly than expected. Supervia was seen by the banks as an example of the delayed assets sale.

Odebrecht has not received all the proceeds from the deals it announced, mostly due to legal hurdles to close deals in countries such as Peru.

For instance, Odebrecht sold its hydroelectric plant Chaglla in northern Peru last August to a consortium led by China Three Gorges Corp for $1.39 billion, but so far has not received the proceeds.

But creditors say in the case of Supervia, there is no pending legal issue preventing the sale.

Story continues

Since Mubadala expressed interest in Supervia, two other groups, Starboard Restructuring Partners and RTM Brasil, showed interest and plan a joint bid, according to one of the sources.

BTG Pactual, Itau, Mubadala and Starboard did not immediately comment on the matter. Odebrecht said in an emailed statement to Reuters that its transportation unit "is in talks with another investor to sell its stake in Supervia."

Odebrecht acquired 60 percent of Supervia in 2011. The company operates urban commuter trains in 12 cities in the state of Rio de Janeiro and transports around 750,000 people daily. (Additional reporting by Stanley Carvalho in Abu Dhabi; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Leslie Adler)VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kestrel Gold Inc. (the Corporation or Kestrel) (TSX-V:KGC) announces that Brendan Reeve has resigned as the Chief Financial Officer of the Corporation and Kevin Nephin has been appointed to the position of Interim Chief Financial Officer of the Corporation. The Corporation would like to thank Mr. Reeve for his contribution and service to the Corporation.



About Kestrel Gold Inc.

Kestrel Gold Inc. holds a 100% interest in the King Solomons Dome project and has options to earn a 100% interest in three gold projects totaling approximately 4,200 hectares located within the Yukon portion of the Tintina Gold Belt, as well as four copper-gold projects in British Columbia, Canada, north of the Red-Chris copper-goldmine, totaling approximately 7,200 hectares. Numerous mineralized occurrences exist on these various properties and each has an excellent data base from previous work. Kestrels proposed 2018 work programs will focus on further enhancing the value of these projects.

For further information contact:

Kevin Nephin, President and CEO

Office (604) 799-2456

kvnephin@gmail.com

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.Tuesday's primaries in four predominantly Republican states left Democrats with a big cash advantage and a handful of new openings.

Yet despite the financial advantages, the political headwinds are largely against Democrats in states that voted for President Donald Trump in 2016.

In West Virginia, Republican Senate candidate Patrick Morrisey enters the general election campaign with $800,000 in cash on hand, compared with Democratic incumbent Sen. Manchin's $5.3 million war chest.

Tuesday's primaries in four predominantly Republican states left Democrats with a big cash advantage and a handful of new openings as they work to defend vulnerable Senate seats and try to flip House districts this fall.

Particularly in Senate races in Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana, where Democrats are playing defense, incumbents maintained a healthy edge in cash on hand. Yet despite the financial advantages, the political headwinds are largely against Democrats since all three states voted for President Donald Trump by sizable margins in 2016.

West Virginia coal baron and convicted criminal Don Blankenship spent nearly $3 million  almost entirely from his own pocket  only to lose the state's GOP primary to West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who raised about half as much.

Morrisey now enters the general election campaign with just $800,000 in cash on hand, based on the latest figures available from the Center for Responsive Politics, compared with Manchin's $5.3 million war chest.

Still, Democrats face an uphill battle in the state, which voted Republican by wide margins in both the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections. Yet Tuesday's turnout bodes well for Manchin. Overall, he and his Democratic primary rival, Paula Swearengin, outpolled Morrisey and five other GOP contenders.

In Ohio, incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown had more than $12 million in campaign cash entering the primary. He now faces GOP primary winner Jim Renacci, currently a House member from Ohio's 16th District.

Story continues

But Renacci spent less than $1 million to dispense with his two major GOP rivals, leaving him with a war chest of $4.2 million as his campaign gears up for the November ballot.

Republicans turned out in greater numbers than Democrats in Tuesday's primary. While Democrats swept Ohio in both the Senate and presidential elections in 2012, the state went for President Donald Trump in 2016 by 8 points.

Indiana's Democratic incumbent senator, Joe Donnelly, was sitting on more than $6.2 million heading into Tuesday's primary, more than four times as much as the winner of the GOP nomination, Mike Braun.

But Tuesday's turnout, where Republicans outvoted Democrats by nearly 2-to-1, doesn't bode well for Donnelly. The state also voted for Trump in 2016 by 15 points.

Most of the districts represented in Tuesday's House primary races are considered safe for Republicans. But a handful of upsets in the primaries left Democrats with a few new opportunities for upsets in the general election.

In North Carolina's 9th District, GOP incumbent Robert Pittenger lost his primary bid to GOP rival and former pastor Mark Harris, who will face Marine Corps veteran Dan McCready in the November election. Overall, more Democrats voted than Republicans. McCready also enters the general race with a $1.3 million war chest.

In North Carolina's 13th District, Democrat Kathy Manning will face incumbent Ted Budd, who was uncontested for the GOP nomination. Manning enters the general race with nearly twice as much cash, based on the latest data available.





More From CNBC

Enbridge Inc.s ENB indirect subsidiary Enbridge (U.S.) Inc  has inked a definitive agreement with AL Midcoast Holdings, LLC (AL Midcoast), an affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners, LLC, for sale of Midcoast Operating, L.P. and its subsidiaries (Midcoast) for $1.120 billion in cash.



Subject to regulatory approvals and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions, the transaction is projected to close in the third quarter of 2018.



The Midcoast Operating, L.P. and its subsidiaries (Midcoast) carry out the company's U.S. natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) gathering, processing, transportation and marketing businesses along with supplying to renowned basins in Texas.



The natural gas gathering, treating, processing and transportation as well as NGL transportation assets located in the East Texas, Western Anadarko and Barnett shale plays comprise the Midcoast business. It also includes about 11,200 miles of natural gas gathering and transportation pipelines, 2,075 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of natural gas processing capacity and 1,330 MMcf/d of treating capacity.



Other assets include a NGL logistics and marketing business (comprising ELTM, L.P. and Enbridge Marketing (U.S.) L.P.), as well as a 35% interest in Texas Express Pipeline, including a 594-mile, 20-inch NGL pipeline and a 35% interest in Texas Express Gathering. This also includes115 miles of NGL pipelines and other NGL infrastructure comprising the company's Texas Express NGL pipeline system.



The sale includes its 100% owned gathering and processing assets in Texas and Oklahoma.



In another announcement, Enbridge entered into an agreement with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) to monetize a 49% interest in a few North American onshore renewable power assets as well as 49% of Enbridge's interests in two German offshore wind projects Hohe See and related expansion through a newly-formed joint venture with CPPIB for about CAD$1.75 billion.



Enbridge is expected to contribute all of its Canadian renewable power assets, held through Enbridge Income Fund, as well as two U.S. assetsthe Cedar Point Wind Farm in Colorado and the Silver State North Solar Project in Nevada. However, interests in some other U.S. renewable power assets are expected to be retained by the company. The interests in these assets might be monetized or sold at a later date.



Per the terms of the agreement, CPPIB will fund its 49% pro-rata share of the remaining construction capital necessary for completion of the Hohe See projects, offshore Germany. It is projected to be operational by 2020. The additional capital commitment is estimated at about CAD$0.5 billion, taking CPPIB's total commitment to about CAD$2.25 billion.



Enbridge and its affiliates will continue to manage, operate and provide administrative services for the renewable power assets. The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2018.



These transactions are in sync with Enbridges strategy to move towards a pure regulated pipeline and utility model as well as achieve its target of selling non-core assets worth CAD$3 billion in 2018. The proceeds from the sale will be used to strengthen its balance sheet and boost the financial flexibility to fund its secured growth program of CAD$22 billion.



Price Performance



Over the last three months, Enbridges shares lost 7.5% compared with the industrys 4.8% decline.

Story continues









Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider



Enbridge currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).



A few better-ranked players in the same sector are Nine Energy Service, Inc NINE, BP plc BP and CVR Refining, LP CVRR. All three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.



Nine Energy Service is engaged in delivering onshore completion and production services to unconventional oil and gas resource development. The company pulled off a positive earnings surprise of 6.25% in the preceding quarter.



BP is among the leading integrated energy players in the world. The company delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 29.6% in the trailing four quarters.



Sugar Land, TX-based CVR Refining is an independent downstream energy partnership with refining and associated logistics properties in the Midcontinent United States. The company delivered average positive earnings surprise of 7.05% in the last four quarters.



Wall Streets Next Amazon



Zacks EVP Kevin Matras believes this familiar stock has only just begun its climb to become one of the greatest investments of all time. Its a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in pure genius.



Click for details >>



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



CVR Refining, LP (CVRR) : Free Stock Analysis Report



BP p.l.c. (BP) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Enbridge Inc (ENB) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Nine Energy Service, Inc. (NINE) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.colorado blockchain

The bill would have exempted certain digital currencies from being regulated as securities under the Colorado Securities Act.

Colorados blockchain bill, House Bill 1426, would have also been a boon for innovation in the state was making its way through the State Assembly but got derailed abruptly on Wednesday in a vote.

HB 1426 was all but on its way to the governors desk after seemingly passing both the House and Senate votes. But the approval of the bill by the Senate was overturned when in a final vote a couple of state senators had a change of heart. The final tally in the third reading of the bill was 17 yea votes and 18 nay votes.

At the heart of the bill, and seemingly the chief point of contention, was the open blockchain token, which is defined as a digital unit that is capable of being traded or transferred between persons without an intermediary or custodian of value. An open blockchain token would not have met the criteria as a security if its issuers didnt promote it as an investment, it wasnt exchanged for goods or services and, it had not been entered into a repurchase agreement.

If a digital currency didnt qualify as an open blockchain token, it would be deemed a security and would have been required to register as such. In hindsight, the bill was a risky proposition given that SEC Chairman Jay Clayton has made it clear that he has yet to see an ICO token that doesnt fit the description as a security.

Architect Calls Colorado Blockchain Bill an Epic Fail

colorado blockchain

Despite its controversy, the bill would have rolled out the welcome mat for more innovation in the state and given blockchain startups looking to ICO more regulatory clarity than what theyre receiving from the Wall Street watchdog, the SEC.

The failure of the bill seemingly took the wind out of the sails of Senator Tim Neville, a Republican and one of the bills architects who reportedly called the result an epic fail. The points of failure as it pertains to the bill were reportedly the Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and the Colorado Department of Regulatory Affairs. Attorney General Cynthia Coffman told the Denver Post:

Story continues

The language in HB14-26 that would have carved out open blockchain tokens from the definition of a security under the Colorado Securities Act was overly broad and vague. The language would have created immunity from criminal liability for someone who commits securities fraud in that context, putting Colorado consumers at risk. That is why my office opposed the bill.

Senators Lucia Guzman and Daniel Kagan both voted no in the final count after previously supporting the bill, and the Attorney Generals reluctance was a deciding factor, at least in the case of Guzman.

Featured image from Shutterstock



The post An Epic Fail: Colorado Blockchain Bill Hits the Skids appeared first on CCN.

Every day, Wall Street analysts upgrade some stocks, downgrade others, and "initiate coverage" on a few more. But do these analysts even know what they're talking about? Today, we're taking one high-profile Wall Street pick and putting it under the microscope...

Shares of Fluor (NYSE: FLR) got devastated after earnings last week.

Analysts had been expecting the engineering and construction titan to report $0.77 per share in profit for fiscal Q1. When Fluor reported a $0.13-per-share loss instead, investors revolted -- sending Fluor stock down 22% in a day (and down a bit more in the days that followed). What goes down sometimes comes back up, however, and we're seeing that happen in early trading today, as Fluor shares get back up off the floor (sorry, I couldn't resist) and climb higher on the back of an upgrade from Merrill Lynch.

Here's what you need to know.

Nuclear power plant in a field of flowers

Fluor helps energy companies build power plants (among other things). But if nobody's building power plants, that's bad news for Fluor. Image source: Getty Images.

Fluor got mopped

Let's begin with Fluor's Q1 2018 earnings news, which came out last Thursday.

Fluor reported a $0.13-per-share loss for its fiscal first quarter, a big comedown from the $0.43-per-share profit it had earned one year prior. Fluor blamed the loss on a $0.69-per-share charge to earnings taken to account "for forecast revisions on a gas-fired power project." CEO David Seaton said, "Results for the quarter did not meet our expectations as a result of continued challenges on a gas-fired power project." If not for that charge, Fluor would have earned a profit, and earnings would have been $0.56 per share.

But here's the thing: Even without that charge, Fluor's earnings would have fallen short of the $0.77 per share in profit that Wall Street was looking for. Worse, Fluor cut its guidance for full-year profits by much more than the gas-fired misfire would appear to necessitate. Indeed, Fluor cut guidance by a full dollar, to a new range of $2.10 to $2.50.

Story continues

Given this one-two punch of bad news, Fluor's sell-off last week appears justified.

Merrill Lynch unfazed

And yet, if you ask Merrill Lynch, Fluor's sell-off has the silver lining of providing new investors a much more attractive entry price into the stock. What's more, Merrill Lynch thinks you should enter Fluor today, upgrading the shares to buy.

Why?

From what it's seeing in the "capex cycle," construction firms like Fluor that cater to the energy and mining industries are in the "early innings" of a cyclical recovery, explains Merrill Lynch in a note today on TheFly.com. It believes that energy and mining companies have underinvested in capital equipment over the past few years, and the analyst predicts a recovery in capex spending among Fluor's customers in H2 this year (hint: H2 begins in less than two months). The banker even goes so far as to say that Fluor's energy and mining profits could "double."

Merrill's advice therefore is to get ahead of the trend and buy Fluor today, because this stock is going to $58 a share within a year.

Does that make sense?

Energy and mining are big parts of Fluor's business. Along with one additional business in the company's flagship energy, chemicals, and mining segment, they accounted for nearly half the company's revenue last year, and for as much as two-thirds of annual revenue over the last three years, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

On the one hand, this data supports Merrill Lynch's thesis that Fluor customers have been underspending on capital investment "over the past few years." At the same time, it suggests that Fluor's results could indeed improve dramatically in the event capital spending in energy and mining goes up. What's more, the analyst's optimism about a recovery in these markets makes sense, given what we've seen happening in commodities pricing.

In energy alone, for example, we've seen the price of oil crater below $30 a barrel in early 2016, only to more than double over the next two years. (WTI crude is currently trading for close to $70 a barrel.) It makes sense that, with oil now more profitable to extract, Fluor's oil industry customers would ramp up their capital spending this year to take advantage of the more attractive prices their product can now command -- and this would be good news for Fluor.

What it means to investors

Fluor looks well-positioned to capitalize on this trend itself. The company's balance sheet, while not exactly debt-free, is at least net debt-free. Fluor has roughly $200 million more in cash on hand than it has debt on its books, leaving it in a net cash position on the balance sheet.

On the other hand, thanks in part to last week's bad news, Fluor is currently generating negative free cash flow, which means its cash surplus could evaporate if Merrill Lynch's predicted turnaround in industry capex spending doesn't materialize pretty darn quick.

So far, things aren't looking great on this front. In last week's update, Fluor noted that while it took in $4.8 billion in revenue in Q1, it won only $2.5 billion in new contracts to replace that revenue. The company's backlog of work to perform continued shrinking, and now stands at just $29.1 billion, down 30% from one year ago.

Merrill seems to think this situation will improve over the next few months, and if it's right, Fluor stock could turn around in a hurry. As for me, I'll be watching like a hawk. When I first recommended Fluor shares on Motley Fool CAPS last year, copious free cash flow was a big part of my personal buy thesis.

Despite Merrill Lynch's endorsement, now that FCF has disappeared, I'm giving serious thought to changing my CAPScall and giving Fluor a thumbs-down instead.

More From The Motley Fool

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Ford Motor Co. says it will halt production of its top-selling F-150 and Super Duty pickup trucks at several of its U.S. plants where they are built following a fire at a plant in Michigan that produces instrument panels.



The Detroit Free Press reports the truck side of Ford's Kansas City (Mo.) Assembly Plant shut down this week because of the parts shortage, idling about 3,600 workers, with no date set for reopening it. Ford is mulling whether to shut down the Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan, which employs 4,000 workers. "It is a very fluid situation," Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker told the Freep.



Production of Super Duty trucks has reportedly been halted at Kentucky Truck and Ohio Assembly, though no workers have been sent home because the plants both build other vehicles.



It's believed that Ford has enough stock to weather the stoppage, with an 84-day supply of F-Series pickups at the end of April, Automotive News reports, so a production stoppage would have to last for many weeks to eat away at that inventory surplus. The automaker is working hard to find a source of replacement parts, and parts supplier Meridian Magnesium is moving dies to other facilities, including one in Ontario, Canada.



The F-Series pickups are the best-selling vehicle in the United States and generate most of Ford's profits. Ford has sold 287,295 of them though April, according to CarSalesBase.com, up 4 percent over the same period in 2017.



The fire, which also triggered several explosions, took place May 2 at Meridian Magnesium Products of America's plant in Eaton Rapids, Mich., near Lansing, injuring two workers. The plant employs more than 400 workers and is the city's largest employer. Parts of the 208,000 square-foot building remain open, but layoffs are believed to be possible. A cause is still unknown.



.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Story continues

It's also disrupted production at several other North American automotive plants. One is Fiat-Chrysler's plant in Windsor, Ontario, that produces the Chrysler Pacificaminivan and the Dodge Grand Caravan. An FCA spokeswoman tells the Freep the company "is adjusting production schedules as needed to minimize plant downtime, but will make up any lost production."



Automotive News also reports that Mercedes-Benz has canceled production shifts in certain areas of its plant in Vance, Ala., in light of a shortage of cockpit components, while BMW said production of its X5crossover was briefly affected.



Related Video:

A fire knocked out production at one of Ford's suppliers.

The shortage of parts could knock out production of Ford's best selling and most profitable vehicle, the F-150 pickup truck.

With key components about to run out, Ford F is pulling the plug on production of its most profitable and popular model, the F-150.



The move means approximately 4,000 workers at Ford's Dearborn Truck Plant will be temporarily laid off, joining roughly 3,600 workers at Ford's truck plant in Kansas City who were told to stay home earlier this week.



Both assembly plants are unable to continue building the F-150 pickup truck due to a lack of critical components supplied by Meridian Lightweight Technologies. An explosion and fire at Meridian's facility in Easton Rapids, Michigan, last Wednesday completely knocked production of components used in the instrument panel of the F-150.

The components shortage has also prompted Ford to stop production of the F-Series Super Duty pickup at its production plant in Louisville, Kentucky.



Tuesday afternoon the United Auto Workers alerted members who build the F-150 at the Dearborn Truck Plant that production could be stopped later this week.

"The company doesn't know when or for how long we will be down," wrote Burkie Morris of the UAW in a letter to members.



A spokesperson for Ford tells CNBC, "We are working closely with the supplier to manage the situation."



How much could stopping production of the F-Series hurt Ford and dealers who rely on the popular pickup truck to generate huge sales? That depends on how long the assembly lines are shut down.



"It takes 76 days for an F-150 to sell, so the company does have a bit of a cushion," said Ivan Drury, Edmunds senior manager of industry analysis. "But when you have a vehicle that comprises a quarter of your company's sales, any production disruption is going to cause some consternation."



Last month Ford sold 73,104 F-Series pickups, with the overwhelming majority of those being the F-150 according to company sales reports. Meanwhile, the automaker ended April with nearly a quarter million trucks on the ground at dealerships, a high percentage were F-150 models.



That inventory will keep Ford dealers stocked for several weeks, though an extended halt to production could be problematic for the automaker and painful for more than 7,600 workers.







Story continues





More From CNBC

* Macron to talk to Rouhani, then more Europe Iran meetings

* Talks also planned with companies with stakes in region

* Iran respecting deal, must show restraint - Le Drian (Updates with more comments from French minister, context)

PARIS, May 9 (Reuters) - France's foreign minister said on Wednesday the Iran deal was not dead despite U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull out, and French President Emmanuel Macron would speak to his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani later in the day.

Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio that France wanted to stick to the nuclear accord that Tehran agreed with world powers in 2015 - a pact which he said Iran had honoured.

Macron's meeting would be followed by high-level talks between the Iranians and Britain and Germany, as well as France, Le Drian said. Meetings would also be held with the likes of oil giant Total and others with major business and economic stakes in the region, he added.

"The deal is not dead. There's an American withdrawal from the deal but the deal is still there," he said.

"The region deserves better than further destabilisation provoked by American withdrawal. So we want to adhere to it and see to it that Iran does too, that Iran behaves with restraint."

The 2015 agreement, worked out by the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia, China and Iran, lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear programme. The pact was designed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.

Trump said on Tuesday he would reimpose U.S. economic sanctions on Iran as he pulled out of "a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made". Other countries that helped Iran develop its nuclear programme would also face sanctions, he added.

Britain, Germany and France have already urged the United States not to take steps that would make life harder for other countries that still want to stick to the pact.

Separately, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told French radio that Trump's decision on Iran was a mistake and that the United States should not consider itself as the world's "economic policeman".

Story continues

Le Drian said France, like others, was well aware that there were concerns about issues beyond Iran's nuclear capability, namely its ballistic weapons programme, but said they could be addressed without ditching the nuclear deal.

"Yes, there is a real risk of confrontation," he told RTL, regarding Trump's decision on Iran. "I hope it will not be a setback for peace," he added.

Le Drian said that regular reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency had showed Iran was complying with the agreement. (Reporting by Brian Love and Matthias Blamont Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Andrew Heavens)President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the U.S. would withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, reinstating powerful sanctions that stand to affect a number of multinational companies.

Not only will U.S. companies be affected by the change in policy, but the president said at the White House that under certain circumstances the U.S. will impose sanctions on other countries that continue to deal with Iran.

A number of corporations rushed to tap the Iranian market when the Obama administration provided sanction relief in 2015 under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the Iran deal is known. But for some of those companies, those deals could turn into losses if the new sanctions require them to cancel transactions.

Here are some companies that could be affected by the reimposition of sanctions on Iran:

Boeing

The Treasury Department said that after a 90-day wind-down period, which ends Aug. 6, it would revoke authorization to export commercial passenger aircraft and related parts and services to Iran.

In April 2017, Boeing signed a $3 billion deal to sell 30 jetliners to Iran. That was in addition to a previous deal, valued at nearly $17 billion.

In reaction to Trumps announcement on Tuesday, Boeing said that it would work with the government regarding the future of its deal.

Following todays announcement, we will consult with the U.S. government on next steps, Gordon Johndroe, Boeings vice president of government operations communications, said in a statement. As we have throughout this process, well continue to follow the U.S. governments lead.

Airbus

European aerospace manufacturer Airbus makes 10% of its aircraft parts in the U.S. and is therefore subject to the U.S. policy changes. Airbus has a deal to sell 100 aircraft to IranAir.

In a statement on Tuesday, Airbus said it would make future decisions in full compliance with the reinstated sanctions.

Were carefully analyzing the announcement and will be evaluating next steps consistent with our internal policies and in full compliance with sanctions and export control regulations, Airbus said.

Story continues

General Electric

Non -U.S. affiliates of General Electrics oil and gas business received orders from Iran in the first quarter of 2018 for valves and parts for machinery and equipment used in gas plants, according to regulatory filings.

In a statement, GE said it would amend its plans if necessary to comply with U.S. government policy.

We are reviewing the Presidents decision and will adapt our activities as necessary to conform with these changes in U.S. law, the company said. GEs activities in Iran to date have been limited and in compliance with U.S. government rules, licenses and policies.

Volkswagen

Last year, German automaker Volkswagen began exporting vehicles to Iran for the first time in nearly two decades. The company said it would monitor developments closely.

"Volkswagen began exporting vehicles to Iran last year, the company said in a statement. We are therefore monitoring and reviewing political and economic developments in the region very closely. As a matter of principle, Volkswagen complies with all applicable national and international laws and export regulations."

Total SA

French oil and gas giant Total SA has signed a $2 billion contract in conjunction with a Chinese company to develop the South Pars natural gas field  the worlds largest.

The company has already spent $90 million developing the project, according to Bloomberg, and will not be compensated for it until production actually begins. It would also lose its entire stake to the Chinese oil and gas company if it has to cancel the contract.

Related ArticlesSAN DIEGO, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Adderall is often prescribed to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD (as well as narcolepsy and depression) and is a drug that can help people sit down and focus who normally could not do so for long stretches of time. But Adderall or speed, has taken on a more sinister role as it has become popular on college campuses as a chemical study aid for all nighters before exams. One study suggested that as many as 1 in 5 college students had taken Aderall or its twin Ridalin to help them study at some point.



Regardless of Adderalls perceived benefits, it is an amphetamine, and under the Controlled Substance Act, Adderall is a Scheduled II controlled substance. By definition, this means that the drug runs a high risk of abuse and dependence. For a drug meant to increase focus, the drug can eventually take it all away. It is understood now that addiction to Adderall is medically comparable to addiction to cocaine and other amphetamines.

Adderalls non-medical use and abuse is a highly documented problem on many campuses. According to a study by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2009, there was substantial evidence that, not only did colleges have a growing problem with Adderall abuse, but there was also a direct correlation to its abuse and other types of drug abuse.

The study found that full-time college students, between the ages of 18 and 22, were twice as likely to abuse Adderall than those of the same age not in college (6.4 percent versus 3.0 percent).

Risks

The potential problem with Adderall and amphetamines is that as usage becomes habitual, tolerance also increases requiring higher and higher doses of the drug for similar effects which can lead to addiction. And overdosing on Aderall can be fatal. In 2005, Canada went so far as to ban Adderall XR after linking it to 20 deaths and 12 strokes, although the ban has since been lifted.

Amphetamines have also been linked in some cases to anxiety disorder, psychosis, and sexual dysfunction. Emergency medical attention should be sought if you experience any of the following symptoms: muscle twitches, hallucinations, delusions and irregular heart beat. Sudden heart attacks have been reported by some who showed no symptoms of prior heart problems.

Withdrawal

Furthermore, long-term use of Adderall can alter brain function permanently due to irregular blood flow to the brain which can lead to chronic convulsions and tremors. After prolonged and regular use of Adderall, stopping abruptly can also result in problems.

People suffer from withdrawal symptoms including tiredness, crankiness, extreme hunger, nightmares and severe, often suicidal, depression. A gradual reduction is highly recommended. Because of the highly addictive potential of Adderall and its increasing availability, professional help may be required in the form of rehab or substance abuse therapy.

For more information about the topic, you could visit this website https://www.therecover.com/ or call through the numbers (888) 510-3898.

Contact:

Company: The Recover

Address: Temecula CA

Contact Number: (888) 510-3898

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/e7e56bb0-731a-4442-94be-56aa1f417e8a(Fortune)

Despite oil prices taking a wild ride this week, the latest actions by U.S. President Donald Trump wont be reflected in the Canadian oil market.

On Tuesday, Trump announced that the U.S. would be pulling out of a 2015 deal with Iran which sent oil prices up to a three-and-a-half year high. But while the overall oil market saw a boost, the long-term impact of the move wont be felt here in Canada.

Klaus Edenhoffer, Economist at the Conference Board of Canada, says that Iran makes up about 11 per cent of the oil exports from OPEC, about 4.5 million barrels a day, and that most of that supplies China and India.

We might see a minor reduction in exports from Iran, said Edenhoffer. This might affect the oil price a little bit, a dollar or two. But oil prices are high anyway, so it wouldnt have that much of an effect.

As for any potential boost the Canadian oil industry will get, it isnt likely to be much. Edenhoffer says we may see a slight redistribution of the market share, but it will likely be going to the U.S., because Canada isnt able to export much more oil because the existing pipelines are at capacity.

Canada has the issue that we dont have enough pipeline to take advantage of the growing U.S. market, said Edenhoffer. And were already seeing pressure from the U.S. and increased production. Renewed sanctions against Iran wont change a whole lot.

The fluctuating price of oil isnt likely to throw off Canadian companies, either.

Canadian oil and gas companies are used to facing market uncertainties, and this is no different, said Lance Mortlock, EY Canada Oil and Gas Leader. Companies have learned hard lessons over the last few years. They know oil price stability is likely a thing of the past and that geopolitical uncertainty will remain a constance presence.

Mortlock says the focus shouldnt be on predicting the future but standing up to market events like this one. A recent study by EY and the University of Calgary Haskayne School of Business found that reacting appropriately to risks was one of the keys to success for Canadian oil companies.

Story continues

Canadian oil and gas organizations that are thriving excel at identifying, mitigating and quickly adapting to risks and challenges as they emerge, said Mortlock.

Chances are good the average Canadian wont end up feeling the impact of the U.S.-Iran fallout at the pump. With oil prices and uncertainty already as they are, more volatility wont raise gas prices much more noticeably than any other factor.

Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.



Late Tuesday night in Tehranthe capital of what President Trump calls the worlds biggest state sponsor of terrorismthere was one sure way to catch the presidents announcement that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal: Fox News.

Thats where at least one startup entrepreneur in Tehran followed the presidents declaration, tuning into the conservative-leaning networks livestream service on the Internet, as many of Irans 80 million people regularly do in order to follow American news. The announcement, while a blow, was hardly unexpected. This is nothing new to us, Mohammadreza Azali, 30, co-founder of TechRasa, a startup website and event organizer in Tehran, told Fortune by phone on Wednesday. We have been under sanctions for the past 40 years, and we survived. So it is nothing new for Iranians to stand up against these sanctions.

The shock and frustration among Iranians after Trumps announcement was a contrast to the optimistic atmosphere when Fortune traveled to Tehran two years ago. At that time, Iranians spoke of a burst of new business energy, after the nuclear deal promised a roll-back of Western sanctions and brought a flood of interested companies to the country to look at opportunities.



At least for now, there is fighting talk among some in the country as they absorb Trumps decision to reimpose sanctions against Iran, nearly three years after former President Barack Obama, along with E.U. countries, China, Russia and the U.N., signed an agreement with the Iranian government to halt its nuclear enrichment program until 2025. The deal, signed in July 2015, promised to roll back significant economic sanctionsallowing Iran to sell its oil internationally, for example, and not punishing multinationals that signed contracts with Tehran.

Since then, however, several of those promises failed to materialize, as conservative lawmakers in Washington balking at lifting sanctions. As soon as Trump came to power, the U.S. sanctions did not fully lift, says Vahid Jozi, an Iranian-Canadian tech entrepreneur in Toronto, who recently returned from Tehran, and is involved in creating startups in Iran. For Iran, nothing has changed.

Story continues

Instead, Jozi says that after decades of isolation from the U.S., Iranians have pieced together workarounds, such as building internet applications platforms to replace Apples App Store. Every time we have needed something that was not available, we built it, Jozi says, when reached by phone in Toronto. The potential upside of business ventures in Iran is still extremely high.

Yet few doubt that Trumps decision to pull out of the Iran deal will have a major impact on the countrys economy.

Everyone is worried, from the taxi driver on the street to corporate CEOs, says Ardavan Amir-Aslani, an international lawyer with offices in Paris and Tehran, who represents major companies weighing business deals in Iran. Companies looking at Iran will not take the risk of suffering consequences in the U.S. in order to go into Iran, he said on Wednesday from Tehran. So we are back to stage one before the nuclear agreement, and probably even worse.

Amir-Aslani fears that the economic effects of Trumps decision will likely embolden conservative hardliners, who from the start criticized the more moderate President Hassan Rouhani for cutting a deal with Western leaders. For years, they warned that the U.S. was untrustworthy; now their argument appears to have won out, he says.  All will render the Rouhani government weaker and emaciate its position, he says.

The hopes for massive investment were high at one point. McKinsey Global Institute estimated that if Iran sanctions were lifted, the country could increase its GDP by $1 trillion and create nine million new jobs by 2035.

Instead, only a tiny trickle of deals have been signed since the 2015 agreement, as major global companies waited for assurances that the U.S. would not reimpose sanctions, and that they could operate in Iran without facing American sanctions. Such assurances never came.

Europes Airbus Group, for example, has delivered only three planes, part of a multi-billion-dollar deal it had signed to replace some of the aging aircraft of Iran Airs fleet. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenberg told investors last month that the company had for now shelved a 110-plane deal with Iran in line with the U.S. government processes.

Those processes are now clear. Shortly after Trumps announcement, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that Boeing and Airbus would violate U.S. sanctions if they continued operating in Iran. The existing licenses will be revoked, he said.

Amir-Aslani believes Trumps withdrawal will hit Irans economy hard. The government is trying downplay the matter, saying itll continue with EU, he says. But people understand that the economy is going to go down the drain.[caption id="attachment_30457" align="alignnone" width="620"]

Iranian flag. Image: Wiki.[/caption] President Trump has made the decision to withdraw from the JCPOA and has left the door open to discussions about a new agreement with Iran. The pros and cons of this decision will continue to be debated in the days to come. But unbelievably, in all the public commentary to date about what's at stake with any new Iran deal, there has been essentially no mention of the Americans who are being imprisoned by the Iranian regime. My father, Robert Levinson, is the longest held hostage in US history. He was taken while visiting Kish Island, Iran, in March 2007. Since then he has had no contact with the outside world, and he and my familymy mother, my six brother and sisters and Ihave been living a nightmare no one should ever experience. For the past 11 years, we have been unable to get any acceptable response from the Iranians as to what happened to my father, and we feel that our efforts to get him home are at a complete stalemate. We are desperate for justice and mercy, and day after day, the Iranians and their Supreme Leader fail to provide it. We have been told repeatedly that Iran is a country of laws, and the Iranian judiciary is scrupulous in its adherence to those laws. We know firsthand this is a lie. In a recent interview, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated that the Iranian judiciary is an independent organ, just what you would say about your courts, and we cannot have an impact on the decision of our judiciary. However, according to a meeting we had just a few weeks ago with our lawyer from Iran, Mr. Mohamad Hossein Aghasi, there is absolutely no indication of sufficient will and determination by this independent organ in following up on my father's case, which was opened through proper judicial channels after my father was taken. Practically nothing has moved on the case since it was filed, and there is no record that the investigation into what happened to him, which should have been directed and overseen by the court, has ever taken place. The Iranian courts have ignored a motion filed by Mr. Aghasi to compel a witnessDavid Belfield (aka Dawud Saluhuddin), the last known person to see my father in Iranto testify. Mr. Aghasi has followed up on this motion repeatedly, but still the Judiciary has not acted on his legal request. And although Mr. Aghasi filed the case as criminal kidnapping, it was subsequently reclassified with no notice to our attorney as a "security" case (the equivalent of a local missing persons case being moved to Homeland Security with no explanation) and no visible action has been taken since it was moved. Why? What is it about this case that is preventing a judicial system with a reputation for legal rigor from following its own procedures? Who is interfering with the Iranian court's own established protocols to block the case of my father, Robert Levinson, from being resolved? What will finally compel action? Iranian government officials recently stepped up their claims that my father left Iran: Levinson traveled to Iran in a certain period, then he left Iran, and Iran has no information on him after he left the country. Yet they provide no supporting details such as when he left, where he went, and what "evidence" they have that this even happened. My fathers passport has never appeared in any other country. The Iranians have never produced a final report despite years of claiming they have completed their investigation. Mr. Aghasi tells us the case is still open in the Iranian courts so how can they claim he left but have no further information? Even the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention rendered an opinion and expressed concern at the governments lack of response to the allegations brought against them. All we want is information that can help us find our father and bring him home. In its handling of the case of Robert Levinson, it is clear the Iranian judicial system has been failing to live up to its own standards for years now, and my family and my father continue to suffer. The silence of the Supreme Leader is deafening. If Iran wants to be taken seriously as a global power in the international community, they have the opportunity right now to show goodwill by acting immediately to send my father home. We need justice and mercy. We need our father home.

Sarah Moriarty is the daughter of Iranian hostage Robert Levinson.Yuzo Kano, chief executive of major Japanese exchange bitFlyer is trying to build a global cryptocurrency powerhouse, one former financier at a time.

The Goldman Sachs Group alumnus who made bitFlyer Japans largest bitcoin exchange has doubled his staff in the past six months in a bid for global expansion. His team, which is expected to reach 300 this year, includes a fixed income chief at Barclays Plc and a former Credit Suisse Group AG senior private banker, according to Bloomberg.

Deregulation Boosts Options In Japan

Kano has taken advantage of Japans cryptocurrency deregulation whereby exchanges are now licensed by the countrys securities regulator, enhancing their credibility. Kano views Japan as the best place to launch a global operation.

A former convertible bonds and derivatives trader, Kano said he has to expand his staff to become the top exchange, and the skills he needs usually come from global banks.

BitFlyer is already the fourth largest exchange behind BitMex, Binance and OKEx, according to data from Bloomberg, Coinhills and Coinmarketcap.com.

Its transactions averaged around $2 billion daily in late April and early May, due to bitcoin margin contracts favored by Japans day traders. The exchanges users tripled to 2 million in the past year.

Global Offices Planned

With offices in Tokyo, San Francisco and Luxembourg, Kano hopes to open offices in Australia, South America, Africa and Asia. He also plans to expand into digital payments and a broker advisory service for startups interested in ICOs. His strategy resembles that of fellow Goldman alumnus Mike Novogratz, who recently launched a New York crypto merchant bank.

One of Japans largest exchanges, bitFlyer is now looking to expand into a number of other continents.

Many would agree with Kano that former traders and bankers bring good backgrounds to crypto since they know how to work in regulated markets. This is becoming more important as governments learn more about crypto. Last month, bitFlyer strengthened its AML rules when a Nikkei newspaper revealed that users can conduct limited functions without fully fulfilling customer verification.

Story continues

Crypto players need finance talent for business development, account management, operations, sales, compliance and other areas, agreed Razin Ashraf, the head of the Divine Solutions Japan recruiting firm.

High Salaries Offered

In his bid for talent, Kano is sweetening the pot for recruits.

Coders at bitFLyer can command $100,000 with only a high school education, providing they have a good track record from coding tournaments and hackathons.

There are plenty of people at the company making over $200,000, Kano said, adding that BitFlyers top finance recruits include bankers in their 40s who are tired of bureaucracy and younger people disillusioned with the industry and anxious to join a startup.

All full-time employees get stock options they can cash out without waiting for bitFlyers planned IPO.

Kanos recuitment moves makes good sense given that more Wall Street firms are entering the crypto space.

Also read: License approved: Japanese bitcoin exchange bitFlyer expands into Europe

Finance Giants Expand Into Crypto

Goldman Sachs is planning to launch a bitcoin trading business, while Intercontinental Exchange Inc., which owns the New York Stock Exchange, is reportedly creating a platform to allow investors bet on the cryptocurrency. SBI Holdings Inc. and Monex Group Inc. in Japan are also investing in crypto.

Not all indicators are positive, however.

Average daily turnover at global crypto exchanges declined to $9.1 billion in April from $1 billion in December. According to CryptoCompare, major tokens fell more than 50% from their highs. In addition, Google searches for crypto and bitcoin have fallen by over 70% since late last year.

Bitcoin nonetheless is up more than 1800% over two years and ICOs continue to expand despite rising regulatory activity. Wall Streeters are having a hard time ignoring the excitement after watching the 2005-2007 prosperity give way to the global financial crisis

Daisuke Murayama, a 35-year-old former Barclays trader who took a pay cut to joined bitFlyer in February, said he did not see a future in traditional finance.

Featured image from Shutterstock.



The post Japans BitFlyer Raids Banking Talent in Bid For Global Crypto Exchange appeared first on CCN.

English French

CHALK RIVER, Ontario, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), Canadas premier nuclear science and technology organization, is pleased to announce that it has hired over 100 new scientists, engineers and other technical professionals from around the world as part of its recruitment campaign to foster the continued growth of its nuclear science and technology products and services. The hiring is to support CNLs Long-Term Strategy, an ambitious 10-year plan that will position the organization as a global leader in nuclear science and technology, and a period during which CNLs research staffing is projected to grow by more than 20 per cent.

CNL intends to develop a variety of new products and services as part of its transformation, including the deployment of small modular reactors, the pursuit of commercial opportunities in targeted alpha therapies, and the use of hydrogen to decarbonise Canadas transportation sector. In order to prepare for this organizational transition, CNL established a human resources strategy last year to ensure that it has the high-calibre workforce needed to grow and expand CNLs science and technology programs.

The revitalization of the Chalk River Laboratories campus is an exciting time for CNL, with the construction of new, world-class facilities, the modernization of the sites infrastructure, and the development of ambitious new research programs. But this transition extends to our people as well, commented Mark Lesinski, CNLs President and CEO. We are working hard to attract new talent, and to grow and retain the talent we have here already, to develop and deliver the innovative nuclear products, technologies and services of tomorrow. So far, that process is going very well.

The permanent shut down of NRU created an opportunity to retain the talent CNL already has, and to redeploy hundreds of staff into new positions within the company in support of its renewed science and research programs. Many vacancies, particularly in CNLs research programs, remain. In response, CNL refocused its recruitment efforts to attract high-quality talent globally to augment its existing team.

With the recent hiring of over 100 new research personnel, and ongoing interactions with talented candidates, CNLs effort has proven very successful. The new additions to CNLs research programs include international expertise in a variety of disciplines, including nuclear physics, fuels and materials for light water reactors, hydrogeology, cyber security, metallography, molecular and cell biology, data science, and high temperature heat transfer engineering.

CNLs research staff embody our science and technology capabilities, and so we are absolutely thrilled that weve been able to attract these high-calibre employees to CNL through this focused recruitment, explained Kathy McCarthy, Vice-President of Research and Development. We have a very ambitious vision for the future of our organization, but we need the right people to bring this vision to life. Through this campaign, weve taken an important step towards that objective.

Over the coming year, CNL will continue to work to attract new talent to fill remaining vacancies in its R&D organization and other business areas. CNLs recruitment specialists will be visiting colleges and universities across Canada and the US, as well as career fairs, industry events and strengthening the online recruitment materials and job postings. For more information on working at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, to review the human resources strategy or to apply to vacancies, please visit www.cnl.ca.

About CNL

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is a world leader in nuclear science and technology offering unique capabilities and solutions across a wide range of industries. Actively involved with industry-driven research and development in nuclear, transportation, clean technology, energy, defence, security and life sciences, we provide solutions to keep these sectors competitive internationally.

With ongoing investments in new facilities and a focused mandate, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is well positioned for the future. A new performance standard reinforced with a strong safety culture underscores every activity.

For more information on the complete range of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories services, please visit www.cnl.ca or contact communications@cnl.ca.

Contact:

Patrick Quinn

Director, Corporate Communications

CNL, 1-866-886-2325By now, you've probably seen the video. And if you haven't, well there it is above: Mike Hale's silver Ford Mustang being devoured by the ravenous Pele, Hawaii's volcano goddess, and her unstoppable crush of lava. Yet, if you look closely in that video, you'll see something else, specifically in the foreground that meets its fiery end. That would be the R2-D2 mailbox his daughter made for him one Christmas.



"That had sentimental value," Hale said in an interview with WXChasing. "The Mustang, I do have other cars."









Indeed, the Mustang was one of many cars Hale kept at his now-destroyed home in Leilani Estates for use in his small rental car business. With the help of friends, he managed to evacuate the rest of his inventory, but the Mustang's battery was dead, so it was at the bottom of a priority list that also included retrieving valuables from inside his home.



You can read more about what it was like for Hale as he and his friends evacuated during the eruption at the Washington Post as well as watching the full interview video at WXChasing. It's worth a read/watch.



Related Video:The U.S. withdrawal from a nuclear accord with Iran slams shut what had been a brief opening for historic aircraft sales by Co. and Airbus SE to the Islamic Republic.

President Donald Trump's announcement that the U.S would seek to reimpose sanctions left little hope that the planemaking duopolists will be able to consummate $40 billion in aircraft deals struck by Iranian carriers during the brief trade thaw. Both companies' export licenses to Iran will be revoked, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters.

The plane orders, badly needed to upgrade the Islamic Republic's museum-vintage airliners, would have had the potential to build Tehran into an aviation hub that could better compete with Dubai and Qatar, the region's aviation super powers.

They also represent a lost opportunity for Chicago-based Boeing and Toulouse, France-based Airbus. The European planemaker is subject to U.S. export restrictions to Iran because more than 10 percent of the parts on its jets originate with U.S. companies such as Corp., Inc. and Co.

Airbus said it will "carefully analyze" the implications of the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic before deciding how to proceed. "This might take some time, " a spokesman for the company said by email.

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.comNEWPORT BEACH, Calif., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PIMCO, a leading global investment management firm, has entered into a strategic partnership with Beacon Platform Incorporated, a financial technology company specializing in the development of cloud-based, end-to-end development and production platforms. As part of the partnership, PIMCO has acquired a minority stake in Beacon and will license the Beacon platform to aid in delivering quantitative research and analytics to PIMCO portfolio managers globally.



Beacons platform allows investment firms to build their proprietary analytical models and tools in a controlled, secure environment connected to relevant market and enterprise data. PIMCO will integrate the platform with its valuation models, risk analytics and technology. The platform will be deployed globally to deliver proprietary models developed in-house by PIMCOs quantitative analysts and technologists and will support the firms 240 portfolio managers around the world.

Quantitative models and technology are integral to PIMCOs investment process and this strategic partnership with Beacon will allow us to continue to innovate and evolve as the industry changes, says Emmanuel Roman, PIMCOs Chief Executive Officer. Our portfolio managers around the world will have broad access to Beacons platform for faster and more efficient use of PIMCOs proprietary risk analytics and quantitative research, helping them implement investment strategies to deliver attractive returns for our clients.

Beacon co-founders Kirat Singh and Mark Higgins added: Were excited to partner with PIMCO at a time when a seismic shift in technology has created opportunities to better access and deploy analytical investment models. Beacons modern software platforms give forward-thinking firms like PIMCO the ability to adapt and thrive as the pace of innovation continues to accelerate.

PIMCOs partnership with Beacon is part of the firms broader strategic efforts to further integrate technology and quantitative research into our investment process. PIMCO recently announced it will open an office in Austin, Texas later this year, in part to recruit talented technologists to advance the firms underlying investment-related infrastructure.

About PIMCO

PIMCO is one of the worlds premier fixed income investment managers. With our launch in 1971 in Newport Beach, California, PIMCO introduced investors to a total return approach to fixed income investing. In the 45+ years since, we have continued to bring innovation and expertise to our partnership with clients seeking the best investment solutions. Today we have offices across the globe and 2,150+ professionals united by a single purpose: creating opportunities for investors in every environment. PIMCO is owned by Allianz S.E., a leading global diversified financial services provider.

About Beacon

Beacon is a financial technology company that delivers a cloud-based, end-to-end development and production platform. With Beacon's open architecture, transparent source code, and automated infrastructure solutions, clients can build in-house functionality on a platform that has been proven at some of the largest financial institutions in the world. We give financial and quantitative developers the tools they need so that they can focus on the business rather than plumbing and process. And for business users, we deliver fully integrated applications for analytics, pricing, risk management, and more.

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including the performance of financial markets, the investment performance of PIMCO's sponsored investment products and separately managed accounts, general economic conditions, future acquisitions, competitive conditions and government regulations, including changes in tax laws. Readers should carefully consider such factors. Further, such forward-looking statements speak only on the date at which such statements are made. PIMCO undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements.

Contact:

Agnes Crane

PIMCO  Media Relations

Ph. 212-597-1054

Email: agnes.crane@pimco.comBy David Shepardson and Jeffrey Dastin

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. Transportation Department's 10 winning drone pilot projects aimed at spurring the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in a wide variety of fields do not include Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and China's DJI, but do involve Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O).

Virginia Tech, one of the winners, said that Alphabet's Project Wing, AT&T Inc (T.N), Intel Corp (INTC.O), Airbus SE (AIR.PA) and Dominion Energy Inc (D.N) are among the partners for its pilot programme that will explore package delivery, emergency management and infrastructure inspection. A spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Transportation, another winner, said Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is among its partners, and Apple said it plans to use the testing programme to improve Apple Maps by capturing aerial images.

The pilot programme is aimed at producing data to assist the Federal Aviation Administration in establishing rules and regulations to safely integrate drones at scale. The FAA still must decide questions before the pilot projects begin including whether drone deliveries should follow city streets or cross backyards.

The 10 pilot drone test projects selected from 149 applications are in California, Tennessee, North Dakota, Nevada, Kansas and other states.

Nevada-based Flirtey, a drone delivery startup, said it was a partner on four of the winning applications including Virginia Tech's. Flirtey said in a statement that it and government partners "will now have access to fast-tracked regulatory approvals as they work to expand lifesaving drone delivery operations."

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said that drone use is surging. She said the administration must "create a path forward" to ensure the safe integration of drones.

She said there are "no losers" and she thinks dozens of the applicants not chosen could be greenlighted by the FAA in the coming months.

Story continues

Amazon, which hopes to one day deliver packages with a fleet of drones, said it was unfortunate its applications were not selected but supports the U.S. efforts.

"Were focused on developing a safe operating model for drones in the airspace and we will continue our work to make this a reality, said Brian Huseman, Amazon's vice president of public policy.

Asked why the Transportation Department had not selected Amazon or DJI, Deputy Transportation Secretary Jeff Rosen told Reuters that the projects had gone through a rigorous review process. "There were no losers -- only winners," Rosen said. "This is an important first step in the process of drone integration."

The company has worked with the FAA on policy as it tested drone technology around the world. It began limited drone deliveries in the United Kingdom in 2016.

China's SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd said it submitted about a dozen applications.

"We congratulate the winners and will be happy to work with any of them with hardware, software or technical assistance to help these exciting ideas come to life, said Adam Lisberg, spokesman for the world's largest maker of non-military drones.

Apple plans to use the drone testing programme in North Carolina to gather information to improve its Apple Maps service, the company said.

"Apple is committed to protecting people's privacy, including processing this data to blur faces and licence plates prior to publication," the company said.

Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) is among the partners for a Kansas project, while Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) is joining a winning bid from the City of San Diego to test a wide range of public safety, commercial and emergency response applications.

Memphis Airport Authority Chief Executive Scott Brockman told Reuters that it had also been picked and that its partner FedEx Corp (FDX.N) will use drones to inspect aircraft at its hub in Tennessee as well as parts deliveries for aircraft and some package deliveries between the airport and other Memphis locations. Another partner is General Electric Co (GE.N), he said.

RULES NEEDED FOR PEOPLE, BACKYARDS

Earlier, the department confirmed it had sent two planned rules to the White House to regulate the increased use of unmanned aerial vehicles.

One rule submitted would allow drones to fly over people while another proposal submitted would allow for remote identification and tracking of unmanned aircraft in flight. After both are formally proposed, it would take months or possibly more than a year before they are finalized.

Current rules prohibit nighttime drone flights or operations over people without a waiver from the FAA. The FAA has no requirements or voluntary standards for electrically broadcasting information to identify an unmanned aircraft.

The FAA has said regulations are necessary to protect the public and the National Airspace System from bad actors or errant hobbyists. Several incidents around major airports have involved drones getting close to aircraft.

The wide interest in the U.S. initiative, launched by President Donald Trump last year, underscores the desire of a broad range of companies to have a say in how the fledgling industry is regulated and ultimately win authority to operate drones for purposes ranging from package delivery to crop inspection.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Jeffrey Dastin; Additional reporting by Stephen Nellis; Editing by Bill Rigby and Lisa Shumaker)LAGOS, May 10 (Reuters) - Unilever Nigeria plans to hold shareholder meeting on May 10 to vote on the proposed sale of its Blue Band margarine business, the company said on Thursday.

The brand, made and distributed by Unilever Nigeria in the west African country, is being sold by parent Unilever as part of the 6.8 billion euro ($8.1 billion) sale of its Flora Food Group spreads arm to private equity firm KKR .

($1 = 0.8412 euros) (Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing by Mark Potter)* German chancellor and French president seek de-escalation

* Merkel urges EU to improve common foreign policy

* Merkel: Europe cannot fully rely on U.S. any more

* Macron: Other powers haven't kept their word (Adds French foreign minister)

By Michael Nienaber and Richard Lough

BERLIN/PARIS, May 10 (Reuters) - France and Germany on Thursday urged Israel and Iran to exercise restraint and avoid further escalation of hostilities in the Middle East after the heaviest military exchange ever between the two regional adversaries.

Israel said it had attacked nearly all of Iran's military infrastructure in Syria, destroying dozens of sites, after Iranian forces fired rockets at Israeli-held territory for the first time.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the Iranian rocket attacks and Israel's response in Aachen, western Germany, and called for prudence and de-escalation.

"The escalations of the past few hours show us that it is truly about war and peace. And I can only call on all sides to exercise restraint here," Merkel said during a ceremony awarding Macron the Charlemagne Prize for strengthening EU integration.

Expectations of a flare-up in the Middle East were stoked by President Donald Trump's announcement on Tuesday that he was withdrawing the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

The Middle East was becoming very dangerous, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, adding that there was no 'Plan B' in response to Trump's move and that France wanted to keep the accord alive even without Washington on board.

"It is clear that last night's incidents are part of a new context in the Middle East, where what we feared happening is becoming reality: the Syrian and Iranian issues are becoming intertwined," Le Drian told BFM TV.

The Trump administration portrayed its rejection of that agreement as a response, in part, to Tehran's interventions in the Middle East, underpinning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tough line towards Iran.

Story continues

"LET'S FACE IT"

Merkel told Iran's President Hassan Rouhani in a telephone call on Thursday that she supported maintaining the nuclear accord as long as Tehran upholds its side of the deal. Macron told Rouhani the same a day earlier.

Germany, France and Britain want talks to be held in a broader format on Iran's ballistic missile programme and its regional activities - including in Syria and Yemen.

In her speech in Aachen, Merkel urged the European Union to strengthen its foreign and defence policy, arguing that Europe could no longer fully rely on the United States to protect it.

"Let's face it, Europe is still in its infancy with regard to the common foreign policy," she said. "And it will be existentially necessary to make progress here because the nature of conflicts has completely changed since the end of the Cold War."

Pointing to the civil war in Syria, Merkel said that many of the global conflicts today were flaring on the doorstep of Europe.

"And it is no longer the case that the United States of America will simply protect us. Instead, Europe has to take its destiny into its own hands. That is the task for the future."

Macron echoed the call to flesh out Europe's common foreign and defence policy. "We made the choice to build peace in the Middle East. Other powers ... haven't kept their word," Macron said, without naming a country directly.

"We must succeed in building our own sovereignty, which in this region, will be the guarantor of stability," he said. (Reporting by Reuters TV in Aachen, Michael Nienaber in Berlin, Richard Lough in Paris, writing by Michael Nienaber, Editing by William Maclean and Toby Chopra)Our Mission

The Foreign Press Centers support the Department's mission by deepening global understanding of U.S. policy, society, culture, and values through engagement with foreign media. The United States Department of State has Foreign Press Centers in Washington, D.C. and in New York, New York. We promote the depth, accuracy, and balance of foreign reporting from the U.S. by providing direct access to authoritative American information sources. *The FPCs are receiving journalists on an appointment only basis. For assistance, please contact a media relations officer or email the collective dcfpc@state.gov*TAMPA, Fla., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nextech Systems, a leading provider of health care technology solutions for specialty physician practices, today announces Jeff Griggs will join their sales team as the new Chief Revenue Officer. With more than 20 years experience with a variety of technology and sales organizations, such as Oracle, Salesforce and Avaya, Griggs will oversee the sales and client success departments to drive new growth and development company-wide.



Hired in March 2018, Griggs will lead the Client Success, Inside Sales, Regional Sales and Sales Operations teams and will continue to build and develop the sales team through leadership training and new processes, as well as furthering a culture of growth and outcomes throughout the teams.

Prior to joining Nextech, Griggs worked as a senior vice president at Apttus, where he helped build out and develop the companys North American sales division. Earlier in his career, he also worked with Salesforce to develop and grow their Atlanta regional sales team, and with Oracle to build a new sales team, process and go-to-market strategy.

We couldnt be more thrilled to have Jeff on board to help oversee new growth and change within our sales department, said Mike Scarbrough, Nextechs president and CEO. Jeff has worked with some of the most reputable technology companies in the world, and were excited to have his leadership at Nextech, specifically as we increase our commitment to client success and product innovation.

There are many opportunities in the health care industry right now, said Griggs. Unfortunately for many practices, inefficiency can be more common than not. Nextechs product innovations and historic specialty expertise help clients address specific needs and improve their organizations across the board. Im excited to help impact and improve that process and am personally drawn to the meaningful work that can be done to drive change in the health care industry, overall.

To learn more about Nextech's culture and career opportunities, visit www.nextech.com.

About Nextech

Nextech is the complete health care technology solution for specialty providers. Since 1997, Nextech has been focused on delivering intelligent, intuitive, integrated solutions that empower specialty physicians to maximize efficiency, optimize charting accuracy and increase overall practice profitability. Nextech services more than 7,000 physicians and over 50,000 office staff members in the clinical specialties of Ophthalmology, Dermatology and Plastic Surgery.

For more information contact:

Wyn Partington

Chief Marketing Officer

(813) 425-9260

marketing@nextech.comTORONTO, May 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mezzotin Minerals Inc. (Mezzotin or the Company) (NEX:MEZ.H) announced today that a definitive agreement has been entered into by the Companys Zimbabwean subsidiary for the sale of its Sabi Star rare earth property (the Property Sale) to a Zimbabwean subsidiary (the Purchaser) of Hong-Kong based Max Mind Investment Limited (Max Mind), an arms length private investment company.

The Sabi Star property consists of 30 mineral claims covering approximately 2,348 hectares located in Eastern Zimbabwe. The Purchaser is currently operating the Sabi Star property under a royalty arrangement entered into by the parties in late 2015 and which runs to 2020, subject to extension at the Purchasers option for an additional five years (the Tribute Agreement). The purchase price for the Sabi Star property is US$125,000 payable in cash.

On April 11, 2018, the Company announced a proposed debt settlement with Max Mind (the Debt Settlement) whereby loans advanced to the Company in connection with the Tribute Agreement, and accrued interest thereon, would be converted into 8,014,969 common shares of the Company, which would represent 14.1% of the outstanding shares of the Company following the Debt Settlement. The Debt Settlement is subject to regulatory approval which has not yet been received and no common shares have been issued to Max Mind. Max Mind currently owns no common shares of the Company. Neither the Property Sale nor the Debt Settlement is conditional upon the completion of the other transaction.

Solely by virtue of the Debt Settlement, Max Mind is considered to be a related party of the Company under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (the Rule) and TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.9 (the Policy) and the proposed Property Sale is considered to be a related party transaction under the Rule and Policy. The Property Sale is however, exempt from the formal valuation requirements of the Rule and Policy as the Companys common shares are not listed on a specified stock exchange or market. In addition, the proposed Property Sale is exempt from the minority approval requirements of the Rule and Policy as the proposed transaction is supported by Paul Ekon, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company and beneficial owner of approximately 52.6% of the outstanding common shares of the Company.

As the sale of the Sabi Star property will constitute the indirect sale of substantially all of property and assets of the Company, the proposed transaction is subject to the approval of shareholders holding not less than two-thirds of the common shares of the Company voting on the matter. An annual and special meeting of shareholders has been scheduled for June 25, 2018 in Toronto to consider the proposed Property Sale and other matters of annual and special business. The proposed Property Sale is also subject to all necessary regulatory approvals, including the approval of the NEX Board of the TSX Venture Exchange, and the receipt by the board of directors of an independent valuation of the Sabi Star property indicating that the purchase price is fair to the Company. The proposed transaction is anticipated to be completed in early July 2018 assuming that all regulatory and shareholder approvals have been obtained. A copy of the Sale of Claims Agreement relating to the proposed transaction will be filed and available for viewing and download on the Companys profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

In the event that the proposed Property Sale is completed, the Company intends to search for assets or businesses in a broad range of sectors and industries to merge with or acquire to reactivate the Company and maximize value for shareholders. The can be no assurance that the proposed Property Sale transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

About Mezzotin Minerals Inc.

Mezzotin Minerals Inc. is a junior exploration company listed on the NEX Board of the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada. The Company is engaged in the exploration of mineral properties in Zimbabwe and holds exploration permits and mining claims known as the Sabi Star project covering approximately 2,348 hectares which has been optioned to Max Mind Investments (Zimbabwe) (Private) Limited. The project is located in Eastern Zimbabwe approximately 150 kilometres from Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, and approximately 250 kilometres from the border of South Africa. The project is located on the Odzi Gold Belt, a known mineralization belt having historically produced gold, copper, tin, tantalum, niobium and diamonds.

For additional information please contact:

Lawrence Schreiner

Chief Financial Officer

Mezzotin Minerals Inc.

Tel. 416-496-3077

lschreiner@manbancorp.com

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.LOS ANGELES, May 09, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HAWTHORNE, CA - Known as the city of neighbors, Hawthorne is home to tech giants; SpaceX, Tesla, and a number of aerospace companies who will soon have a new neighbor of their own - smart video doorbell and security cameras company, Ring which was recently acquired by Amazon for over $1 billion.

Ring video doorbells and security cameras stream live HD video and two-way audio straight to smartphones, tablets, and PCs allowing homeowners to safely answer the door from virtually anywhere in the world. The Ring campus headquarters is currently located in Santa Monica, California and will follow the path of many fellow cutting-edge companies by relocating to the former aerospace hub - Hawthorne, California. We are proud to join the list of innovative, forward-thinking companies that call Hawthorne home, said Jamie Siminoff, inventor of Ring. Our new space will allow Ring to grow as we work to make our neighborhoods safer."

M-Rad, a Los Angeles based architecture and design studio has been selected to design the creative office space complete with a grand atrium with 30 trees, unique co-working space, and a state-of-the-art engineering and design wing for the technology startup. As a small but fearlessly progressive architecture and design studio, the opportunity to design Rings headquarters in this rapidly evolving tech hub couldnt be a better fit for us, said Matthew Rosenberg, CEO and Founder of M-Rad. With SpaceX, Tesla, and Amazons shipping center located a stone's throw away, some of the worlds most renowned creative geniuses of the tech industry will have their eyes on the development of this area which we feel extremely honored to be a part of.

The new 62,000 square foot Ring headquarters in the South Bay will be developed by Vella Group, known from New York to Los Angeles for its success in equity, brokerage, and investments in the real estate market. Hawthorne has become a hotbed for technology companies seeking sustainable alternatives to creative office space in El Segundo and L.A.'s Westside, said Zach Vella of Vella Group. We are thrilled to play a role in this exciting transformation that will continue to bring good-paying, creative jobs to the city.

With construction set to begin soon, the Ring team of 250 employees is eagerly anticipating the completion of the project which is slated to be finished within the year.

M-RAD

M-Rad is an international, award-winning architecture and design studio which uses a progressive business model to reform the architecture industry. Their unique, multi-faceted approach incorporates M-Rad in every step of the architecture process; from design and development to marketing and branding.

PROJECT TEAM

M-Rad Architecture | Matthew Rosenberg, Carlos Augusto Garcia, Alexander Kallioras (visualizations)

PROJECT ADDRESS

12515 Cerise Avenue, Hawthorne, CA 90250

For more information visit www.m-rad.com

###



AttachmentsNEW YORK, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zenergy Brands, Inc. (OTCQB:ZNGY), the nations leading next-generation utility, announces it has engaged the corporate communications expertise of NetworkNewsWire ("NNW").



Headquartered in Plano, Texas, Zenergy provides an entire suite of conservation-based products and services that enable clients to achieve sustainability goals, reduce carbon emissions, and improve their bottom line. The Companys trademarked, cutting-edge Zero Cost Program reduces utility consumption by 20 percent to as much as 60 percent by offering energy conservation, smart controls, and efficiency-based products and services to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal end-use customers.

NNW is a multifaceted financial news and publishing company that delivers a new generation of social communication solutions, news aggregation and syndication, and enhanced news release services. NNWs strategies help public and private organizations find their voice and build market visibility. As part of the Client-Partner relationship with Zenergy, NNW will leverage its distribution network of over 5,000 key syndication outlets, various newsletters, social media channels, blogs, and other outreach tools to generate greater brand awareness for the Company.

"Zenergys vision is to deliver comprehensive smart energy service to its customers, states Sherri Franklin, Director of Brand Awareness Distribution (BAD) Solutions for NNW. We are pleased to support this vision with a corporate communications campaign that keeps the investment community up-to-date on the Company's operations and technology.

About Zenergy Brands, Inc.

Zenergy Brands, Inc. (OTCQB:ZNGY) is a next-generation energy and technology company operating in the emerging smart energy, conservation, and utility industries. The Company provides energy conservation, smart controls, and efficiency-based products and services as a fully integrated energy company. Zenergy is a public company, fully reporting to the SEC and currently trading on the OTCQB, a venture market designed for early-stage and developing U.S. and international companies.

To learn more about Zenergy, visit www.zenergybrands.com or www.whatiszenergy.com.

To connect with the Company on its social media accounts, use the links below:

Facebook: Zenergy Brands

Twitter: @ZenergyBrands

Instagram: @ZenergyBrands

YouTube: Zenergy Brands

About NetworkNewsWire

NetworkNewsWire (NNW) is a financial news and content distribution company that provides (1) access to a network of wire services via NetworkWire to reach all target markets, industries and demographics in the most effective manner possible, (2) article and editorial syndication to 5,000+ news outlets, (3) enhanced press release services to ensure maximum impact, (4) social media distribution via the Investor Brand Network (IBN) to nearly 2 million followers, (5) a full array of corporate communications solutions, and (6) a total news coverage solution with NNW Prime. As a multifaceted organization with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, NNW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. By cutting through the overload of information in todays market, NNW brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. NNW is where news, content and information converge.

For more information, please visit https://www.NetworkNewsWire.com .

Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the NetworkNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by NNW, wherever published or re-published: http://NNW.fm/Disclaimer

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set in the company's SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.

Corporate Communications Contact:

NetworkNewsWire (NNW)

New York, New York

www.NetworkNewsWire.com

212.418.1217 Office

Editor@NetworkNewsWire.comWINNIPEG, Manitoba, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Monsanto Canada today announced it plans to commercialize TruFlex canola with Roundup Ready Technology in 2019.



TruFlex canola will be Monsantos next-generation canola trait and Monsantos first new biotech trait in canola since Roundup Ready canola was introduced to Canadian growers in 1996. TruFlex canola will serve as the base platform on which all future Monsanto pipeline traits in canola will be stacked.

Weve had discussions with grower groups and conducted focus groups with individual growers about the challenges they face on the farm and the need to bring new traits and genetics to the marketplace to help drive yield, said Dave Tornberg, North American Traits and Systems Marketing Manager with Monsanto. One of the best routes to higher yield potential is through effective weed control. TruFlex canola can help make that happen.

TruFlex canola will be part of an improved canola system designed for a range of growing conditions. It will offer farmers several benefits over our current technology that include:

Improved control of tough weeds  The TruFlex canola system will allow for the control of a broad spectrum of tough-to-control weeds including cleavers, foxtail barley and wild buckwheat. It will also help enable season-long dandelion control.

 The TruFlex canola system will allow for the control of a broad spectrum of tough-to-control weeds including cleavers, foxtail barley and wild buckwheat. It will also help enable season-long dandelion control. Flexibility in spray rates and timing  The TruFlex canola system will enable a wider application window providing growers with up to 10-14 more spray days than our current technology. And by enabling flexible application rates, it will help growers choose the right rate for the unique weed challenges they face on their farm.

The TruFlex canola system will enable a wider application window providing growers with up to 10-14 more spray days than our current technology. And by enabling flexible application rates, it will help growers choose the right rate for the unique weed challenges they face on their farm. Higher yield potential through genetics and improved crop safety  New genetics will help deliver higher yield potential and the improved crop system will deliver better weed control and crop safety over Genuity Roundup Ready canola.

Dandelions, foxtail barley and wild buckwheat are some examples of tough-to-control perennial and annual weeds that will have improved control with the TruFlex canola system compared to our current technology, said David Kelner, Monsantos North American canola portfolio manager. As well, the flexibility in spray rates will allow for control of a much wider spectrum of weeds, with the ability to control new weeds such as yellow foxtail, biennial wormwood and common milkweed.

TruFlex canola will also allow farmers the option to apply Roundup WeatherMAX in-crop at a rate of 1.33 litres/acre for a single application or 0.67 litres/acre for two applications, controlling 24 new weed species  all with improved crop safety. And with the added benefit of a wider window of application that extends past the six-leaf stage all the way to the first flower, farmers will have more flexibility to manage their in-crop applications.

The increased flexibility provided by the wider window of application will really appeal to farmers, said Tornberg. Farmers are increasingly pressed for time and TruFlex canola will give them anywhere from up to ten days to two weeks more time to spray without causing harm to the crop. It helps them manage their acres more effectively and deal with those stressful weather conditions that result in late spraying that can negatively impact yield.

Stewarded plot trials and field demonstrations will take place at several locations across Western Canada in 2018 to allow farmers to see the performance of TruFlex canola in the field. Monsanto has built a robust stewardship plan to manage this activity.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Health Canada granted full food, feed and environmental safety approval of TruFlex canola in June 2012 and the product has been approved for import in several export markets. Import approval from China is pending and should be granted in the first quarter of 2019.

About Monsanto Canada

Headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Monsanto Canada Inc. is part of the larger global Monsanto Company. Monsanto is committed to bringing a broad range of solutions to help nourish our growing world. We produce seeds for fruits, vegetables and key crops  such as corn, soybeans, canola and cotton  that help farmers have better harvests while using water and other important resources more efficiently. We work to find sustainable solutions for soil health, help farmers use data to improve farming practices and conserve natural resources, and provide crop protection products to minimize damage from pests and disease. Through programs and partnerships, we collaborate with farmers, researchers, nonprofit organizations, universities and others to help tackle some of the worlds biggest challenges. To learn more about Monsanto, our commitments and our more than 20,000 dedicated employees please visit: www.monsanto.com or follow us on Twitter @MonsantoCda.

Media inquiries should be directed to:

Trish Jordan

Public Affairs Director

(204) 985-1005

ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW PESTICIDE LABEL DIRECTIONS. Roundup Ready technology contains genes that confer tolerance to glyphosate, an active ingredient in Roundup brand agricultural herbicides. Agricultural herbicides containing glyphosate will kill crops that are not tolerant to glyphosate.

TruFlex canola with Roundup Ready Technology is not currently available for commercial sale or commercial planting. The information presented herein is provided for educational purposes only, and is not and shall not be construed as an offer to sell.



Monsanto and Vine Design, Roundup Ready, Roundup WeatherMAX, Roundup and TruFlex are trademarks of Monsanto Technology LLC, Monsanto Canada Inc. licensee. 2018 Monsanto Canada Inc.



tndvekas760 wrote:

I took it is as an Assumption question, cause of the 'unless'!! Further, I eliminated D and E cause they are just supporters not Assumptions!! Did I go wrong.....? Please clarify!!!!

I looked at the question as an Assumption type question as well, though focusing on the Q-Stem is what matters most.Consumer Activist: He concludes that the result of the major airlines abandoning all but their most profitable routes has "worked to the disadvantage of everyone" who does not have access to a large metro airport.The Industry Rep believes he is wrong. The airlines dropping all but their most profitable routes has NOT worked to the disadvantage of the ppl who do not have access to a large metro airport.He uses as evidence the fact that Regional Airlines have move in to take over these "non-metro" routes and that there is now "more flights into and out of most small airports" than there was before.Looking at the GAP from the Facts the Industry Rep uses to the Conclusion he makes: what must be true for his answer to be "effective"?Bigger and more does not always mean better. The 2 terms are not synonymous. He must be assuming that these regional airlines coming in and now providing even MORE flights into and out of the small airports is a GOOD THING for the consumers who lack access to a large metro airport. The Industry Rep must be assuming that "more flights" by the regional airlines = something that does NOT put these consumers at a disadvantage.(C) perfectly fills in this Gap in the Industry Rep's response.If it were true that increasing the number of flights to which customers of "non-metro", regional airports have easy access to actually DID work to the disadvantage of the consumers, then the Industry Rep's response is not effective.(A)It does not have to be true that "NO" small airport has fewer flights now than it did before. Some could have less and it is still true that the regional airlines moved in and there are more flights now than ever before at these "non-metro" airports.(B)Similiarly, it does not have to be true that EACH of the major airlines abandoned ALL but the largest metro airports. The airlines dropped their "most profitable routes." Regardless, this is not something that would help to make the Industry Rep's rebuttal more effective. Focusing on his line of reasoning is more effective and this does not affect it.(D)This fact may strengthen the Industry Rep's rebuttal in some small way by showing that the consumers are a bit better off with cheaper flights, but this Fact is not something that is NECESSARY for the Industry Rep's rebuttal to be effective. His rebuttal is focused on the amount of flights now available, not the cost.(E)We are not told anything about whether the number of competitors has increased or decreased. It could be that the same airline companies are around, but the regional ones just took on more routes.Furthermore, another clue is the words "long-term advantage." It is not clear whether the Industry Rep is focused on the effects to consumers in the long-term, short-term or both.(C) is the correct answerVantagePointMBA wrote:

Hi there,



Thanks for reaching out and sharing some specific questions about your applications! Let's dive right in!



- There's a lot to like about your profile: solid work experience and career progression, good GMAT, interesting cross-cultural perspective, etc. However, I do have a question for you about your GPA - is it 2.5 out of 4.0? How does that rank compared to the rest of your class? In the US, that's a pretty low GPA and could be an issue for the top schools, which is why I ask. Lastly, your extra-curriculars look pretty light.

- When you ask if the schools will consider you to be an international applicant - for what purpose(s) are you asking? In your application, you'll have the opportunity to note what citizenships you hold and you would include both your US and Filipino ones.

- To strengthen your candidacy, I would suggest continuing to excel in your career and seek opportunities for leadership / impact (that will make for great stories in your essays), deepen your involvement outside of work and find a way to step up as a leader and make a real difference in your community or towards a cause that you're passionate about (i.e. go above and beyond volunteering for a few classes), and consider taking some additional courses to help offset your undergrad GPA if it is as low as it seems (if not, you can ignore that last recommendation).



I hope that helps! Best of luck to you!



Kindly,

Melody

Posted from my mobile device

Thanks Melody.My GPA is a 2.5/4 which is about average by my schools standards. Our school doesnt curve grades so its not common to receive As. No excuse for the low GPA other than being unfocused and immature. Would you say passing the CFA exams help lessen adcoms fears of my academic capabilities? The exams are relatively quant-heavy and were taken more recently than my college classes. Additional classes to offset my GPA arent really an option in the Philippines.- Im asking the international applicant question to figure out whether there would be a diversity factor considered in my application.South Royalton, Vermont, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Windsor County States Attorney David Cahill, Chittenden County States Attorney, Sarah George, and the Center for Justice Reform at Vermont Law School, invite community members convicted of misdemeanor marijuana offenses to Expungement Day, a free information session to assist individuals with removing convictions from their record. Expungement Day for Windsor County convictions will be held from 9 a.m. to Noon Saturday, June 9, in Oakes Hall, Room 012 at VLS. Expungement Day for Chittenden County convictions will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday, June 12, in Courtroom 2C of the Costello Courthouse at 32 Cherry Street in Burlington.

Effective July 1, Vermont law changes to allow for the personal possession of small amounts of marijuana by individuals age 21 and older. In recognition of this change and shifting attitudes about marijuana, the Windsor and Chittenden County States Attorneys have agreed to support the expungement of all old misdemeanor marijuana possession offenses that arose within Windsor and Chittenden County. This does not apply to felony-level offenses, convictions for sale of marijuana, or any offenses that took place outside of Windsor or Chittenden County. Cahill and George will support expungement regardless of any prior or subsequent convictions for other offenses. However, even after July 1, it will remain illegal to possess more than an ounce of marijuana, to use marijuana in a public place, or to drive under the influence of marijuana or any other drug. These laws will continue to be enforced by police and prosecuted by the Windsor and Chittenden County States Attorneys.

Under Vermont law, 13 VSA 7606, once a conviction is expunged, a person may lawfully claim that he or she was never arrested, convicted, or sentenced for the marijuana possession offense. While Vermont affords these protections for expunged offenses, other states and the federal government may treat the effect of the expungement differently.

During each Expungement Day, Professor Robert Sand, director of the Center for Justice Reform, along with VLS students and other volunteers, will educate community members about how to complete an expungement petition. Though volunteers will not provide legal advice, by the end of the session, participants will have a completed expungement petition ready for filing. Both States Attorneys have agreed to accept the petitions and file them with their respective courts.

When a person has paid their debt by virtue of a criminal conviction, that should be finitethey shouldnt keep paying said Sand in a VPR interview earlier this year. There is room within our judicial systemand it should be appropriately resourcedfor court to be a place where rights are restored.

Participants in Expungement Day should plan to bring valid, government-issued photo identification as well as any records they have related to their prior misdemeanor marijuana offense, to include the original docket number. For more information about Expungement Day, email justicereform@vermontlaw.edu.

Expungement Day is supported with a generous contribution by the Pennywise Foundation.

The Center for Justice Reform at Vermont Law School addresses deficiencies in the criminal justice system and other responses to harm and conflict. The center offers degree and training programs for law and masters students as well as criminal justice professionals, educators, and other community members who seek to develop alternative, less punitive, responses to harm. For more information about the center, visit vermontlaw.edu/justice-reform.

###

Vermont Law School, a private, independent institution, is home to the nations largest and deepest environmental law program. VLS offers a juris doctor curriculum that emphasizes public service; four masters degreesMaster of Environmental Law and Policy, Master of Energy Regulation and Law, Master of Food and Agriculture Law and Policy, and Master of Arts in Restorative Justice; and four post-JD degreesLLM in American Legal Studies (for foreign-trained lawyers), LLM in Energy Law, LLM in Environmental Law, and LLM in Food and Agriculture Law. The school features innovative experiential programs and is home to the Environmental Law Center, South Royalton Legal Clinic, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, Energy Clinic, Food and Agriculture Clinic, Center for Applied Human Rights, and Center for Justice Reform. For more information, visit vermontlaw.edu, find us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitterand Instagram.PranavChamp wrote:

Thanks to all of these super-folks!



Hjort, rhyme, ryguy904, riverripper, kwam, audio, ncp, kryzak, nink, aaudetat, toubab, sterny, highhopes, isa, lepium ,walker,and last but not the least Praetorian.

PranavChamp wrote:

This post is like 'Google search'. Simple,Efficient and Saving lot of time

kryzak wrote:

just wondering, should we put this in the Knowledge Vault area?



On behalf of everyone, you are welcome!You figured it out!MAYNARD, Mass., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kuebix, creator of a transportation management system that delivers true freight intelligence, announces that Founder and President, Dan Clark, will speak at next weeks Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference. The annual event takes place May 14  17, 2018 in Phoenix, AZ. In addition to having a speaking presence at the conference, the company will exhibit their Transportation Management System (TMS) at Booth 221 throughout the event.



Clarks presentation, The Art of Inbound Freight: Process Optimized by Technology, will provide proven strategies to help companies take control of their inbound operations through a collaborative system with suppliers and carriers. His presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, May 16th, from 12:40 PM to 1 PM. This is a must-attend session for companies of all sizes who are struggling with good inbound freight management, which can improve shipment visibility, reduce transport costs and enhance customer service  all of which lead to bottom line profitability.

Inbound transportation management is an often overlooked operation, but can significantly boost efficiencies if done correctly, says Dan Clark, Founder and President, Kuebix. Managing supplier and carrier relationships, implementing routing guides and supplier compliance programs, and consolidating inbound shipments to full truckloads when possible are some of the demonstrated strategies we suggest companies use to better manage their inbound. It is an art, not a science to manage inbound, and we look forward to sharing it with industry peers at the conference so they can create value within their supply chains.

Clark is a logistics industry innovator who possesses extensive operations and sales experience gained from years of working with leading freight carriers and companies with multi-million dollar supply chains. He continues to deliver on his original vision of using best-of-breed cloud technologies to create an intelligent transportation management system that returns control and visibility to freight shippers at companies of all sizes. As a passionate thought leader on how technology is revolutionizing the logistics industry, Clarks session will provide the information shippers need to begin taking control of their inbound operations.

The Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference 2018 - Move to Mastery: Innovate, Disrupt and Scale the Digital Supply Chain features discussions from industry thought leaders and analysts about creating supply chains that embrace the transformative power of agility and responsiveness so they can quickly anticipate and respond to unexpected events, and turn disruption to advantage.

Read the Kuebix ebook The Art of Inbound: 11 Ways to Save Money and Increase Efficiencies on Your Inbound Freight.

About Kuebix

Founded by a freight industry technology innovator, Kuebix offers a transportation management system (TMS) with Freight Intelligence that enables companies to capitalize on supply chain opportunities through visibility, control and the use of predictive analytics. Kuebix is democratizing the rating, booking and tracking of freight with Kuebix Free Shipper, a free TMS that is ready to use in minutes. Shippers looking for financial management, advanced analytics and other premium features can upgrade to Kuebix Business Pro or Kuebix Enterprise and then seamlessly add Premier Applications and Integrations as needed. Kuebix also offers unique Managed Service Programs to businesses looking to partially or fully outsource transportation management. For more information visit: www.kuebix.com.

Media Contacts:BARRIE, Ontario, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Economic efficiency, social equity and environmental accountability are all important to Alectra and these same values resonate with changemakers at Georgian College.

Thanks to a $750,000 investment over five years from Alectra Inc., Georgian students and faculty working with industry partners will have a state-of-the-art facility for changemaking research, innovation and commercialization pursuits.



Alectra President and CEO Brian Bentz and Georgian College President and CEO MaryLynn West-Moynes announced the investment on May 10 inside Georgians Advanced Technology, Innovation and Research Centre (ATIRC), currently under construction at the Barrie Campus. To emphasize the deep partnership the two organizations share, Bentz was accompanied by several Alectra employees who are also Georgian alumni to assist in making the announcement.



Our investment in this Advanced Technology, Innovation and Research Centre demonstrates how our support of the communities we serve extends beyond the poles, wires and transformers found in our distribution system, explained Bentz. Once it is completed, this facility will provide students with opportunities to learn about the use of cutting-edge technologies needed to be part of tomorrows workforce.



Standing inside an 8,000-square-foot research-rich environment located on the first floor of the ATIRC, the soon to be named Alectra Centre for Research, Innovation and Commercialization will be the focal point and heart of the building. It is the only one of its kind in Central Ontario, a go-to source to test concepts, accelerate development and showcase promising research and new products.



West-Moynes said the ATIRC will be a game changer.



We are determined to advance the research and innovation agenda at Georgian and across the regions we serve, and could not be more thrilled than to have Alectra partner with us on this important mission, she said.



In addition to its financial investment in infrastructure, Alectra will continue to participate in applied research with the college and create opportunities for co-op students and graduates, particularly from the electrical engineering programs.



The ATIRC will be home to new engineering and environmental sustainability degree-diploma programs in partnership with Lakehead University that deliver the best of college and university combined.



Through its legacy utility PowerStream, Alectra is a long-time supporter of Georgian College, previously investing in the colleges Centre for Sustainable Technologies and electric vehicle charging station.

Contact:

Elaine Murray, Communications Specialist, Georgian College, 705.728.1968, ext. 1003

elaine.murray@georgiancollege.ca

Rachel Bertone, Media Spokesperson, Alectra Utilities, 1-833-MEDIALN (1-833-633-4256)

Rachel.bertone@alectrautilities.com

About Georgian College

Degrees, diplomas, certificates, apprenticeships and more  Georgian College offers more than 125 market-driven programs to accelerate your success. Georgian is Ontarios #1 co-operative education college and #1 in graduate employment among all Ontario colleges. We're recognized as a trailblazer in entrepreneurship and social innovation education. Georgian is home to 11,000 full-time students, including over 1,600 international students from 60 countries.

About Alectra Inc.

Alectras family of energy companies distributes electricity to nearly one million customers in Ontarios Greater Golden Horseshoe Area and provides innovative energy solutions to these and thousands more across Ontario. The Alectra family of companies includes Alectra Inc., Alectra Utilities Corporation and Alectra Energy Solutions.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/74585ade-79b9-4bf8-b3a9-30edac0af955As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQMISSION, Kan., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (Family Features) Most relationship experts agree that making time for date night is important, whether its the early days of a blossoming romance or decades into a comfortable marriage. Spending that valuable time together doesnt have to be expensive as long as you take the time to make it special.



Plan your next date with these ideas for low-cost experiences with the one you love:

Share time outdoors. Except in the most extreme conditions, theres always something to do outside and most of those activities are either free or relatively inexpensive. Whether its taking a stroll hand-in-hand or planning a picnic at a scenic location, the exercise and fresh air can be good for your body and mind, for both you and your beloved.

Dine on a dime. Although the days of a nickel burger are long gone, there are ways to curb your spending when you eat out. For example, many restaurants offer menus with smaller portions as well as promotional nights with discounts geared toward certain audiences. Some restaurants even offer daily discounts, as high as 10 percent off your total bill for AARP members. If you are not a member, its simple to sign up online. Membership is just $16 a year, so it can practically pay for itself with the use of just one of the dining offers.

Simply stay in. When youre conflicted between going out on a date or settling for a night on the couch, its possible to have both. Order takeout from a favorite spot and bring it to the comfort of your home for the best of both worlds. It allows you to avoid kitchen cleanup and simply commit to enjoying one anothers company without interruption.

Master the movie schedule. Prime time at the theater can be pricey, but if your calendar is flexible, you can catch a show earlier in the day for a steep discount. Some theaters also offer special discounts for ordering tickets online. An added bonus: taking in an early movie with a snack may help save money on dinner later.

Enjoy special engagements. Whether its a local sporting event or a musical performance by a group visiting your town, sharing a pastime that youre passionate about is a good way to share a piece of your life and interests to help establish a deeper connection with a loved one. Conversely, if its a new experience for you both, it may establish a newfound bond that you can explore together over time. Dont let ticket prices dissuade you. Take advantage of offers that may be available to you, special showings or even a ticket discount with your AARP membership.

Explore more tips and ideas to make the most of your relationships and everyday life, too, at AARPAdvantages.com.

Michael French

mfrench@familyfeatures.com

1-888-824-3337

editors.familyfeatures.com

About Family Features Editorial Syndicate

Established in 1974, Family Features is a leading provider of free food and lifestyle content for print and online publications. Our articles, photos, videos and web content solutions save you time, money and help create advertising opportunities. Registration is fast and free  with absolutely no obligation. Visit editors.familyfeatures.com for more information.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://resource.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/8234fe92-b5da-47f5-8ff7-b772b86dabc7Generates Continued Revenue Growth During Quarter

Company Reaffirms 2018 Guidance

ATLANTA, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Crawford & Company (www.crawfordandcompany.com) (NYSE:CRDA) (NYSE:CRDB), the worlds largest publicly listed independent provider of claims management solutions to insurance companies and self-insured entities, today announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018.

The Companys two classes of stock are substantially identical, except with respect to voting rights and the Companys ability to pay greater cash dividends on the non-voting Class A Common Stock (CRD-A) than on the voting Class B Common Stock (CRD-B), subject to certain limitations. In addition, with respect to mergers or similar transactions, holders of CRD-A must receive the same type and amount of consideration as holders of CRD-B, unless different consideration is approved by the holders of 75% of CRD-A, voting as a class.

Consolidated Results

First Quarter 2018 Summary

Revenues before reimbursements of $273.1 million, compared with $267.3 million for the 2017 first quarter

Net income attributable to shareholders of $8.6 million, compared to $7.7 million in the same period last year

Diluted earnings per share of $0.16 for CRD-A and $0.14 for CRD-B, compared with $0.14 for CRD-A and $0.12 for CRD-B in the prior year first quarter

Diluted earnings per share of $0.16 for CRD-A and $0.14 for CRD-B in the 2018 first quarter, compared to non-GAAP earnings per share before restructuring and special charges, of $0.15 for CRD-A and $0.13 for CRD-B in the prior year first quarter

Consolidated operating earnings, a non-GAAP financial measure, were $18.2 million or 6.7% of revenues in the 2018 first quarter, compared with $18.3 million or 6.8% of revenues in the 2017 first quarter

Consolidated adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, was $28.1 million or 10.3% of revenues in the 2018 first quarter, compared with $26.6 million or 10.0% of revenues in the 2017 period

Mr. Harsha V. Agadi, president and chief executive officer of Crawford & Company, stated, This is an exciting time at Crawford as the comprehensive strategy that we implemented through 2017 is beginning to show signs of success as can be seen in our first quarter results where sales grew 2.2%, year over year, and earnings per share improved. The review of our core values, which led to the realignment of our organization around a refreshed corporate mission and vision, was central to our strategy which is designed to return Crawford to sustained revenue growth. This now drives everything we do including how we go to market, how we service our clients and who we hire.

The second step to our growth strategy was the recruitment of experienced, solution based sales people to improve our sales capabilities as we focus on selling the One Crawford Solution. We have also re-evaluated our entire sales process including our sales materials, how we respond to RFPs, how we measure and track sales leads, as well as exploring opportunities to improve our technology and training to support our global sales team. Improving top line revenue growth is core to our strategy and early signs of success are clear as the momentum in our new business pipelines is building. The effectiveness of our sales teams is critical to our success as we deliver innovative solutions designed to solve the industrys most complex challenges.

The most recent step in our strategy was the realignment of our organization such that Crawford faces the market in the same manner as our clients. What we had found through our extensive review this past year was that our 2017 business structure was not meeting our clients needs, not to mention limiting the growth potential of the Company. As a result, we have successfully reorganized the Company into Global Service Lines during the first quarter, which will sharpen our method of delivery to our clients and better enable our sales teams to increase market share and grow the Company.

Another benefit of our move to Global Service Lines is our ability to harness the expertise and product knowledge from across the Company in order to develop innovative solutions designed to solve the challenges of Carriers, Corporations, and Intermediaries. This will position Crawford to be a stronger partner to our clients as technology continues to drive the evolution of our industry. Our goal is to drive innovation in the claims settlement process, in order to deliver value to our clients in the form of improved customer satisfaction and service and reduced claim leakage which will result in improved market share and profitability for Crawford.

Mr. Agadi concluded, The momentum in our business is clearly accelerating as our move to Global Service Lines is unleashing the vast potential that exists within Crawford. We will continue to strive to be on the forefront of innovation within the claims settlement process and see opportunities to enhance and expand our solutions internationally. Taken together, we are excited with the progress that we have achieved executing our strategic plan in the first quarter as we have made real progress towards the achievement of our longer term goal of delivering 5% revenue growth and 15% earnings growth, annually.

Segment Results for the First Quarter

Crawford TPA Solutions: Broadspire

Crawford TPA Solutions: Broadspire segment revenues before reimbursements were $100.2 million in the 2018 first quarter, increasing 4% from $96.3 million in the 2017 first quarter. On a constant dollar basis, a non-GAAP measure, first quarter 2018 revenues were $98.8 million. Crawford TPA Solutions: Broadspire recorded operating earnings of $7.8 million in the first quarter of 2018, representing an operating margin of 8%, compared with $8.0 million, or 8% of revenues, in the 2017 first quarter.

Crawford Claims Solutions

Crawford Claims Solutions revenues before reimbursements were $90.4 million in the first quarter of 2018, increasing 9% from $83.1 million in the first quarter of 2017. On a constant dollar basis, first quarter 2018 revenues were $87.2 million. Operating earnings were $0.7 million in the 2018 first quarter, compared with $2.4 million in the first quarter of 2017, representing operating margins of 1% in the 2018 period and 3% in the 2017 period.

Crawford Specialty Solutions

Crawford Specialty Solutions revenues before reimbursements were $82.4 million in the first quarter of 2018, down 6% from $87.8 million in the same period of 2017. On a constant dollar basis, first quarter 2018 revenues were $80.0 million. Operating earnings were $10.5 million in the 2018 first quarter compared with $8.4 million in the 2017 period. The segments operating margin for the 2018 quarter was 13%, as compared to 10% in the 2017 quarter.

Unallocated Corporate and Shared Costs and Credits, Net

Unallocated corporate costs, net were $0.8 million in the first quarter of 2018, compared with $0.5 million in the same period of 2017.

Restructuring and Special Charges

The Company recorded no restructuring and special charges in the 2018 first quarter and $0.6 million in the 2017 first quarter. Restructuring costs for the 2017 first quarter were comprised of costs related to the establishment and phase in of the Company's global business and technology service centers and other restructuring charges for asset impairments and lease termination costs.

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow

The Companys consolidated cash and cash equivalents position as of March 31, 2018 totaled $64.0 million, compared with $54.0 million at December 31, 2017. The Companys total debt outstanding as of March 31, 2018 totaled $267.3 million, compared with $225.7 million at December 31, 2017.

During the three months ended March 31, 2018, the Company repurchased 1,011,958 shares of CRD-A and 53,888 shares of CRD-B at an average cost of $8.28 and $8.96, respectively. During the three months ended March 31, 2017, the Company did not repurchase any shares of CRD-A or CRD-B.

The Companys operations used $13.6 million of cash during the 2018 period, compared with $20.5 million used in the 2017 period.

2018 Guidance

Crawford & Company is reaffirming its guidance for 2018 as follows:

Consolidated revenues before reimbursements between $1.12 and $1.14 billion;

Net income attributable to shareholders of Crawford & Company between $43.0 and $48.0 million, or $0.78 to $0.88 diluted earnings per CRD-A share, and $0.71 to $0.81 diluted earnings per CRD-B share;

Consolidated operating earnings between $85.0 and $95.0 million;

Consolidated adjusted EBITDA between $127.0 and $137.0 million.

To a significant extent, Crawfords business depends on case volumes. The Company cannot predict the future trend of case volumes for a number of reasons, including the fact that the frequency and severity of weather-related claims and the occurrence of natural and man-made disasters, which are a significant source of claims and revenue for the Company, are generally not subject to accurate forecasting.

Conference Call

As previously announced, Crawford & Company will host a conference call on May 11, 2018 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss its first quarter 2018 results. The conference call can be accessed live by dialing 1-800-374-2518 and using Conference ID 4496059. A presentation for tomorrows call can also be found on the investor relations portion of the Companys website, http://www.crawfordandcompany.com. The call will be recorded and available for replay through June 11, 2018. You may dial 1-855-859-2056 to listen to the replay.

Non-GAAP Presentation

In the normal course of business, our operating segments incur certain out-of-pocket expenses that are thereafter reimbursed by our clients. Under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), these out-of-pocket expenses and associated reimbursements are required to be included when reporting expenses and revenues, respectively, in our consolidated results of operations. In the foregoing discussion and analysis of segment results of operations, we do not include a gross up of segment expenses and revenues for these pass-through reimbursed expenses. The amounts of reimbursed expenses and related revenues offset each other in our results of operations with no impact to our net income or operating earnings. A reconciliation of revenues before reimbursements to consolidated revenues determined in accordance with GAAP is self-evident from the face of the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations.

Operating earnings is the primary financial performance measure used by our senior management and chief operating decision maker (CODM) to evaluate the financial performance of our Company and operating segments, and make resource allocation and certain compensation decisions. Unlike net income, segment operating earnings is not a standard performance measure found in GAAP. We believe this measure is useful to others in that it allows them to evaluate segment and consolidated operating performance using the same criteria used by our senior management and CODM. Consolidated operating earnings represent segment earnings including certain unallocated corporate and shared costs and credits, but before net corporate interest expense, stock option expense, amortization of customer-relationship intangible assets, goodwill impairment charges, restructuring and special charges, income taxes, and net income or loss attributable to noncontrolling interests and redeemable noncontrolling interests. The reconciliation of operating earnings to net income attributable to shareholders of the Company on a GAAP basis is presented below.

Adjusted EBITDA is not a term defined by GAAP and as a result our measure of adjusted EBITDA might not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. However, adjusted EBITDA is used by management to evaluate, assess and benchmark our operational results. The Company believes that adjusted EBITDA is relevant and useful information widely used by analysts, investors and other interested parties. Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income attributable to shareholders of the Company with adjustments for depreciation and amortization, net corporate interest expense, income taxes, restructuring and special charges, and stock-based compensation expense.

Unallocated corporate and shared costs and credits include expenses and credits related to our chief executive officer and Board of Directors, certain provisions for bad debt allowances or subsequent recoveries such as those related to bankrupt clients, defined benefit pension costs or credits for our frozen U.S. pension plan, certain unallocated professional fees, and certain self-insurance costs and recoveries that are not allocated to our individual operating segments. Restructuring and special charges are non-core items not directly related to our normal business operations, or our future performance.

Income taxes, net corporate interest expense, stock option expense, and amortization of customer-relationship intangible assets are recurring components of our net income, but they are not considered part of our segment operating earnings because they are managed on a corporate-wide basis. Income taxes are calculated for the Company on a consolidated basis based on statutory rates in effect in the various jurisdictions in which we provide services, and vary significantly by jurisdiction. Net corporate interest expense results from capital structure decisions made by senior management and the Board of Directors, affecting the Company as a whole. Stock option expense represents the non-cash costs generally related to stock options and employee stock purchase plan expenses which are not allocated to our operating segments. Amortization expense is a non-cash expense for finite-lived customer-relationship and trade name intangible assets acquired in business combinations. None of these costs relate directly to the performance of our services or operating activities and, therefore, are excluded from segment operating earnings in order to better assess the results of each segment's operating activities on a consistent basis.

Income taxes are calculated for the non-GAAP presentation of net income before restructuring and special charges based on statutory rates in effect in the various jurisdictions in which charges exist, and vary by jurisdiction. Following is a reconciliation of segment and consolidated operating earnings to net income attributable to shareholders of Crawford & Company on a GAAP basis. The reconciliation of 2018 guidance is to the midpoint of the guidance range.

Three months ended Full Year (in thousands) March 31,

2018 March 31,

2017 Guidance

2018 Operating earnings: Crawford TPA Solutions: Broadspire $ 7,824 $ 7,968 Crawford Claims Solutions 715 2,434 Crawford Specialty Solutions 10,451 8,352 Unallocated corporate and shared costs, net (815 ) (461 ) Consolidated operating earnings 18,175 18,293 $ 90,000 (Deduct) Add: Net corporate interest expense (2,564 ) (2,036 ) (10,000 ) Stock option expense (450 ) (417 ) (1,800 ) Amortization expense (2,765 ) (2,777 ) (11,000 ) Goodwill impairment charges    Restructuring and special charges  (605 )  Income taxes (3,966 ) (4,835 ) (21,000 ) Net loss (income) attributable to noncontrolling interests and redeemable noncontrolling interests 139 41 (700 ) Net income attributable to shareholders of Crawford & Company $ 8,569 $ 7,664 $ 45,500

Following is a reconciliation of net income attributable to shareholders of Crawford & Company on a GAAP basis to adjusted EBITDA. The reconciliation of 2018 guidance is to the midpoint of the guidance range.

Three months ended Full Year (in thousands) March 31,

2018 March 31,

2017 Guidance

2018 Net income attributable to shareholders of Crawford & Company $ 8,569 $ 7,664 $ 45,500 Add: Depreciation and amortization 11,440 10,180 48,300 Stock-based compensation 1,565 1,296 7,200 Net corporate interest expense 2,564 2,036 10,000 Restructuring and special charges  605  Income taxes 3,966 4,835 21,000 Adjusted EBITDA $ 28,104 $ 26,616 $ 132,000

Following is information regarding the weighted average shares used in the computation of basic and diluted earnings per share.

Three months ended (in thousands) March 31,

2018 March 31,

2017 Weighted-Average Shares Used to Compute Basic Earnings Per Share: Class A Common Stock 31,199 31,409 Class B Common Stock 24,472 24,690 Weighted-Average Shares Used to Compute Diluted Earnings Per Share: Class A Common Stock 31,761 32,248 Class B Common Stock 24,472 24,690

Following is the reconciliations of GAAP Net Income and Earnings Per share to non-GAAP Adjusted Net Income and Diluted Earnings Per Share for the three months ended March 31, 2017. The three months ended March 31, 2018 did not have any adjustments to GAAP Net Income and Earnings Per share.

Three months ended March 31, 2017 (in thousands) Net income

attributable to

Crawford &

Company Diluted

earnings per

CRD-A share Diluted

earnings per

CRD-B share GAAP $ 7,664 $ 0.14 $ 0.12 Add back: Restructuring and special charges, net of tax of $198 407 0.01 0.01 Non-GAAP Adjusted $ 8,071 $ 0.15 $ 0.13

Further information regarding the Companys operating results and cash flows for the quarter ended March 31, 2018, and financial position as of March 31, 2018, and cash flows for the three months ended March 31, 2018 is shown on the attached unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

About Crawford & Company

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Crawford & Company ( www.crawfordandcompany.com ) is the world's largest publicly listed independent provider of claims management solutions to the risk management and insurance industry, as well as to self-insured entities, with an expansive global network serving clients in more than 70 countries.

The Companys shares are traded on the NYSE under the symbols CRD-A and CRD-B. The Company's two classes of stock are substantially identical, except with respect to voting rights and the Company's ability to pay greater cash dividends on the non-voting Class A Common Stock than on the voting Class B Common Stock, subject to certain limitations. In addition, with respect to mergers or similar transactions, holders of Class A Common Stock must receive the same type and amount of consideration as holders of Class B Common Stock, unless different consideration is approved by the holders of 75% of the Class A Common Stock, voting as a class.

Earnings per share may be different between CRD-A and CRD-B due to the payment of a higher per share dividend on CRD-A than CRD-B, and the impact that has on the earnings per share calculation according to generally accepted accounting principles.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION REGARDING THIS PRESS RELEASE, PLEASE CALL BRUCE SWAIN AT (404) 300-1051.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the expected future financial condition, results of operations and earnings outlook of Crawford & Company. Statements, both qualitative and quantitative, that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical experience or Crawford & Companys present expectations. Accordingly, no one should place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made. Crawford & Company does not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that may arise or not arise after the date the forward-looking statements are made. For further information regarding Crawford & Company, including factors that could cause our actual financial condition, results or earnings to differ from those described in any forward-looking statements, please read Crawford & Companys reports filed with the SEC and available at www.sec.gov and in the Investor Relations section of Crawford & Companys website at www.crawfordandcompany.com.





CRAWFORD & COMPANY CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS Unaudited (In Thousands, Except Per Share Amounts and Percentages) Three Months Ended March 31, 2018 2017 % Change Revenues: Revenues Before Reimbursements $ 273,104 $ 267,267 2 % Reimbursements 17,283 12,263 41 % Total Revenues 290,387 279,530 4 % Costs and Expenses: Costs of Services Provided, Before Reimbursements 197,619 192,737 3 % Reimbursements 17,283 12,263 41 % Total Costs of Services 214,902 205,000 5 % Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses 61,660 59,992 3 % Corporate Interest Expense, Net 2,564 2,036 26 % Restructuring and Special Charges  605 (100 )% Total Costs and Expenses 279,126 267,633 4 % Other Income 1,135 561 102 % Income Before Income Taxes 12,396 12,458  % Provision for Income Taxes 3,966 4,835 (18 )% Net Income 8,430 7,623 11 % Net Loss Attributable to Noncontrolling Interests and Redeemable Noncontrolling Interests 139 41 239 % Net Income Attributable to Shareholders of Crawford & Company $ 8,569 $ 7,664 12 % Earnings Per Share - Basic: Class A Common Stock $ 0.16 $ 0.15 7 % Class B Common Stock $ 0.14 $ 0.13 8 % Earnings Per Share - Diluted: Class A Common Stock $ 0.16 $ 0.14 14 % Class B Common Stock $ 0.14 $ 0.12 17 % Cash Dividends Per Share: Class A Common Stock $ 0.07 $ 0.07  % Class B Common Stock $ 0.05 $ 0.05  %





CRAWFORD & COMPANY CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS As of March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017 Unaudited (In Thousands, Except Par Values) March 31, December 31, 2018 2017 ASSETS Current Assets: Cash and Cash Equivalents $ 63,956 $ 54,011 Accounts Receivable, Net 173,554 174,172 Unbilled Revenues, at Estimated Billable Amounts 132,915 108,745 Income Taxes Receivable 4,109 7,987 Prepaid Expenses and Other Current Assets 24,651 25,452 Total Current Assets 399,185 370,367 Net Property and Equipment 41,869 41,664 Other Assets: Goodwill 98,462 96,916 Intangible Assets Arising from Business Acquisitions, Net 96,224 97,147 Capitalized Software Costs, Net 88,627 89,824 Deferred Income Tax Assets 23,398 24,359 Other Noncurrent Assets 72,134 67,659 Total Other Assets 378,845 375,905 Total Assets $ 819,899 $ 787,936 LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS INVESTMENT Current Liabilities: Short-Term Borrowings $ 24,546 $ 24,641 Accounts Payable 41,982 49,303 Accrued Compensation and Related Costs 64,670 75,892 Self-Insured Risks 11,994 13,407 Income Taxes Payable 3,193 2,703 Deferred Rent 15,839 15,717 Other Accrued Liabilities 43,740 36,563 Deferred Revenues 37,182 37,794 Current Installments of Capital Leases 557 571 Total Current Liabilities 243,703 256,591 Noncurrent Liabilities: Long-Term Debt and Capital Leases, Less Current Installments 242,202 200,460 Deferred Revenues 24,083 22,515 Accrued Pension Liabilities 81,550 87,035 Other Noncurrent Liabilities 27,084 27,596 Total Noncurrent Liabilities 374,919 337,606 Redeemable Noncontrolling Interests 6,447 6,775 Shareholders Investment: Class A Common Stock, $1.00 Par Value 30,529 31,439 Class B Common Stock, $1.00 Par Value 24,448 24,502 Additional Paid-in Capital 54,647 53,170 Retained Earnings 267,682 269,686 Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss (187,537 ) (196,477 ) Shareholders Investment Attributable to Shareholders of Crawford & Company 189,769 182,320 Noncontrolling Interests 5,061 4,644 Total Shareholders Investment 194,830 186,964 Total Liabilities and Shareholders Investment $ 819,899 $ 787,936





CRAWFORD & COMPANY SUMMARY RESULTS BY OPERATING SEGMENT Unaudited (In Thousands, Except Percentages) Three Months Ended March 31, Crawford TPA Solutions:

Broadspire % Crawford Claims Solutions % Crawford Specialty Solutions % 2018 2017 Change 2018 2017 Change 2018 2017 Change Revenues Before Reimbursements $ 100,237 $ 96,326 4.1 % $ 90,442 $ 83,148 8.8 % $ 82,425 $ 87,793 (6.1 )% Direct Compensation, Fringe Benefits & Non-Employee Labor 58,718 55,590 5.6 % 60,948 55,468 9.9 % 43,386 41,521 4.5 % % of Revenues Before Reimbursements 58.6 % 57.7 % 67.4 % 66.7 % 52.6 % 47.3 % Expenses Other than Reimbursements, Direct Compensation, Fringe Benefits & Non-Employee Labor 33,695 32,768 2.8 % 28,779 25,246 14.0 % 28,588 37,920 (24.6 )% % of Revenues Before Reimbursements 33.6 % 34.0 % 31.8 % 30.4 % 34.7 % 43.2 % Total Operating Expenses 92,413 88,358 4.6 % 89,727 80,714 11.2 % 71,974 79,441 (9.4 )% Operating Earnings (1) $ 7,824 $ 7,968 (1.8 )% $ 715 $ 2,434 (70.6 )% $ 10,451 $ 8,352 25.1 % % of Revenues Before Reimbursements 7.8 % 8.3 % 0.8 % 2.9 % 12.7 % 9.5 %

(1) A non-GAAP financial measurement which represents net income attributable to the applicable reporting segment excluding income taxes, net corporate interest expense, stock option expense, amortization of customer-relationships intangible assets, restructuring and special charges, goodwill impairment charges and certain unallocated corporate and shared costs and credits. See pages 4-5 for additional information about segment operating earnings.Image: https://twitter.com/HilalAzmi

Kuala Lumpur, May 10 (IBNS): At 92, Mahathir Mohamad is set to become the oldest leader in the world, after he registered a shock victory against his protege and former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Razak, who's rule in recent years were marked by corruption, was challenged by his former mentor, who switched to the opposition after breaking his retirement.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, Mohamad said, "Yes, yes, I am still alive."

He added that his goal is to 'restore the law' and said that he is not looking for revenge.

However, critics feel that a smooth transition in power may not happen, as the previous coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN), who were recently ousted, remained in power since independence in 1957.

Following his loss, the former Prime Minister Najib Razak said that he will 'accept the verdict of the people'.

As no single party registered a majority, it is up to the Malaysian king to decide who will form the cabinet.

Mohamad's Pakatan Harapan - the Alliance of Hope - won 113 of the 222 seats being contested, while BN secured 79 seats.

The 92-year-old ruled the country for 22 years, from 1981 until his resignation in 2003.

According to reports, Mohamad's rule was marked by economic success, however, he was largely a authoritarian, who even imprisoned his own deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, accusing the latter of corruption and sodomy.

Ibrahim, who was jailed for sodomy, had called for political reforms, before he was exiled.

Najib too has been accused of corruption, which he has refused unequivocally.

Accusation against the former Prime Minister consists of embezzling state funds, amounting to USD 700 million, from an investment fund he set up.

Though Malaysian officials have cleared him of the charges, Najib has copped criticism of retarding investigations by removing key investigators and officials from their posts.



New York, May 10 (IBNS): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep concern on Wednesday over the recent and sharp escalation in the Yemen conflict, calling on all parties to make civilian protection a priority.

Civil conflict deepened across the country in 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition intensified military operations against Houthi rebels who control the capital Sanaa.

Coalition airstrikes hit a government building in the densely-populated Tahrir district of the capital on Monday, reportedly killing six people, and rebels fired several missiles in the days that followed towards different targets in Saudi Arabia.

The Secretary-General reminds all parties to the conflict that they must uphold international humanitarian law, including taking steps to protect civilians, said a statement issued on behalf of the Secretary-General, by his Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

All potential violations of international humanitarian law should be thoroughly investigated and those responsible for violations must be held accountable, added the statement.

Dujarric emphasized the Secretary-Generals appeal not to escalate the fighting further as this adversely impacts the chances for peace.

Since political unrest first began in Yemen in early 2011, the UN has been engaged in helping Yemenis to find a peaceful solution. However, fighting continues and the ensuing humanitarian crisis has only deepened in a country that was already one of the regions poorest.

A negotiated political settlement through inclusive intra-Yemeni dialogue is the only way to end the conflict and address the ongoing humanitarian crisis, said the statement.

UN Photo/Jean-Marc FerreNew York, May 10 (IBNS): Evolving and increasingly deadly threats, together with deepening humanitarian crises mean that United Nations peacekeeping missions around the world need more support for blue helmets on the ground, Force Commanders told the Security Council on Wednesday.

In their briefings, military chiefs from the UN peacekeeping operations in Darfur, Mali and South Sudan underscored that these obstacles have to be overcome, if UN missions are to implement their mandates; in line with the Dos Santos Cruz Report on casualties suffered by peacekeeping missions.

The retired Lieutenant Generals report released in January, said the UN flag no longer offered natural protection to peacekeepers, and UN peacekeeping has pledged to develop an action plan to put its recommendations into practice.

We owe it to our peacekeepers, both civilian and military, to implement the action plan, to change our mind-sets and to adapt  how we lead at all levels  to the new challenges we face, said Major General Jean-Paul Deconinck, the Force Commander at the UN Multidimensional Stabilization Mission in Mali, MINUSMA.

The mission remains one of the most dangerous of all UN missions, where more than 160 uniformed and civilian peacekeeping personnel have lost their lives.

In addition to the threats posed by armed groups and terrorists, supplying remote outposts and dealing with harsh environments have severely challenged UN operations; underscoring the importance of comprehensive training, high-quality medical equipment, air-support and strong intelligence gathering and processing entities, said Maj. Gen. Deconinck.

The multidimensional nature of UN operations must also include a regional approach to address the crisis through all the dimensions, in all countries of the Sahel region, he added.

Darfur

Lieutenant General Leonard M. Ngondi, the Force Commander at the African Union-UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), stressed that the importance of peacekeeping missions as political tools for finding durable solutions to conflicts, could not be overemphasized.



These include restrictions on UNAMIDs freedom of movement and cooperation on the part of the Sudanese government; dealing with armed groups operating outside the peace framework; helping ease inter-communal conflicts over natural resources; and dealing with rising crime and banditry together with the proliferation of weapons.Challenges in Darfur, though different in nature than Mali, are also extremely complicated and must be addressed for the Mission to deliver on its mandate, he said.

In increasing support for UNAMID, Lt. Gen. Ngondi urged the Security Council to consider adding a so-called transition strategy as part of the Missions mandate.

Lessons learned from missions in Liberia (UNMIL) and Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) show that good transition guarantee gains made are not in vain, he said.

South Sudan

Force Commander at the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Lt. Gen. Frank Mushyo Kamanzi, also spoke of the challenges faced by the mission in the worlds youngest country that has spent much of its short history since 2011, mired in conflict, plunging the country into a humanitarian and economic crisis.

Providing security and civilian protection in South Sudan has grown more complex having moved from a conflict between two parties to one in which the transitional Government has the upper hand, but faces political and military opposition from multiple actors, said Lt. Gen. Mushyo.

Protection of civilians remains our priority task and we continue to provide physical protection to over 209,000 internally displaced persons and UN agencies and other humanitarian actors who live and work within the five Protection of Civilian sites, he added, noting that over 40 per cent of UNMISS peacekeeping troops are dedicated to this task.

Underscoring the importance of a political solution to the crisis in the country, the UNMISS Force Commander called on the Security Council to encourage all parties in the country to work to that end, which he said will in turn improve the prospects of the mission achieving its mandate.

UN Photo/Marco DorminoKabul, May 10 (IBNS): At least seven people died in the dual attacks in Afghanistan's Kabul city on Wednesday, reports said.

According to the country's Ministry of Public Health, 17 others were injured in the attacks, which took place on Wednesday afternoon, near police headquarters.

"First a suicide bomber detonated his explosives close to the gate of PD13 and the second bomber entered inside the compound and he was killed by police after 20 minutes of clashes," Kabul Police Chief Daud Amin said on Thursday.

The attackers had security forces uniform and were equipped with RPG, hand grenade and guns," he added.

Police said that at least five suicide bombers targeted a private travel agency, but eventually failed.

"The target was Shahir Travel Agency but police rescued all 300 employees of the agency, Amin said, adding that, The attackers were killed by police during the clearance operation."

The first and second attacks were later claimed by ISIS and Taliban respectively.



Image: Google MapsBahamas/Ottawa, May 10 (IBNS): Marie-Claude Bibeau, Canadian Federal Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, on Wednesday concluded a three-day visit to the Bahamas, Caribbean Islands, where she attended the 21st meeting of the Caribbean Communitys (CARICOMs) Council for Foreign and Community Relations, media reports said.

In the meeting Bibeau had discussed key issues such as enhancing relations, and strengthening long-term economic and climate resilience in the region.

Established in 1973, CARICOM aims to foster regional economic integration and includes 15 members: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.

"Canada-Caribbean relationship and addressing key issues of regional importance, such as the impact of climate change, as well as enhanced trade and investment. That is why, as part of our 2018 G7 presidency, development and finance ministers as well as central bank governors will meet this month to discuss solutions that will support climate and economic resilience in this time of need," Bibeau said.

Canada had provided over $2 million for humanitarian assistance in response to hurricanes Maria and Irma in the fall of 2017.

Later during UN-CARICOM conference in Nov 2017, Canada pledged an extra $100 million over five years on reconstruction and climate resilience in the Caribbean region.

A number of bilateral meetings with Caribbean partners were also held by Bibeau and on behalf of Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, attended the launch of The Bahamas Delivery Unit, an initiative to improve accountability and achieve results to improve lives in the region.

At the Summit of the Americas in Peru, in April 2018, Trudeau had announced an additional $25 million for two initiatives that will improve climate-resilience efforts in the Caribbean.

Theme of Investing in Growth That Works for Everyone would reportedly be discussed by G7 development and finance ministers and central bank governors in a meeting from May 31 to June 2, 2018, in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.

Bibeau reiterated, throughout her visit, Canadas commitment to support post-hurricane reconstruction and long-term climate and economic resilience in the region.

She noted Canadas commitment to championing the interests of vulnerable Caribbean states in international forums, such as the G7 and the United Nations.

Importance of promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, were highlighted by Bibeau, as the main motive of Canadas Feminist International Assistance Policy, which would build economic growth that leaves no one behind.



(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

Image: Marie-Claude Bibeau/FacebookTrumps well-publicized disdain for the agreement, along with his apparent intractability in the face of efforts by European partners to get him to change course, left little doubt about his decision to withdraw. But the other signatories to the agreement  the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China, and Iran itself  were reportedly hopeful that he would still take a less aggressive approach to sanctions, applying them only to Iran and giving foreign investors a significant grace period before they began to face consequences for doing business in Iran.

Although it will still take time for sanctions to be fully re-imposed, Trump signed a presidential memorandum putting the process into motion immediately after he delivered his remarks on Tuesday afternoon, suggesting that countries who do business with the US will need to immediately begin taking measures to either halt investment in the Islamic Republic or attempt to insulate themselves from American enforcement.

Questions remain as to which course of action various nations, including the signatories to the nuclear deal, will take. In the weeks preceding Trumps announcement, some European officials suggested that the European Union might pass sanctions blocking legislation as it did in 1996. But this would require universal agreement on the issue by member states, and it is not clear how attainable this is, in light of varying levels of closeness with the US and varying expressions of concern about the Iranian activities that Trump highlighted in his speech.

Although the European parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action have continued to defend it against American pressure, they have also expressed views similar to Trumps regarding the need for additional constraints on Irans ballistic missile development, support of terrorism, and intervention in regional conflicts such as the Syrian Civil War.

Additionally, the White House is evidently doing everything in its power to ramp up pressure on European allies in hopes of extending the effectiveness of the JCPOA withdrawal. Toward that end, Andrew Peek, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said of the USs European partners, Were going to be encouraging them to reduce [their investments in Iran]. We are going to engage them constantly, as we have been, to try to get to a place where we come to an agreement that better addresses the totality of the Iranian regimes threat.

After quoting Peek on this point, Voice of America News also noted that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had promised to revoke licenses previously granted to Boeing and two European aircraft manufacturers who use American parts in their products. All three had entered into agreements to sell commercial aircraft to Iran after the JCPOA went into effect, although the New York Times reports that Boeing had neither fulfilled any orders nor placed them on its books, allowing for its chief executive to downplay the impact of the lost contract, valued at approximately 20 billion dollars.

UPI reported on Wednesday that the president announced in a cabinet meeting that the sanctions to come would be among the strongest sanctions that weve ever put on a country. As well as contributing to the pressure the White House is exerting on European partners, this statement apparently underscored the veiled threat he had made to Iran in his speech the previous day, when he predicted it would face bigger problems than ever if it decided to abandon its own obligations under the deal and accelerate its nuclear activities.

While the world waits to see what the European signatories of the JCPOA do in response to the American withdrawal, it also remains to be seen whether Iran will retaliate or try to keep the deal in force without the participation of the US. These two issues will almost certainly prove to be closely intertwined. On one hand, if Irans adversaries press it to pull out of the agreement on its own end, there will be little to discourage the Europeans from following the example of US sanctions. On the other hand, the US might succeed in pressuring the Europeans to follow suit first, in which place the Iranians will surely retaliate.

Already, Iranian lawmakers have responded to the news of Trumps decision by burning a copy of the agreement and an American flag, for the first time within the chambers of parliament. Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has noticeably positioned himself on the fence over the future of the nuclear deal. ABC News quoted him as boasting that preparations had been made for the start of unlimited nuclear enrichment, but the same report indicated that he was ready to meet with European officials to discuss the possibility of keeping the JCPOA in force.

Everything depends on our national interests, Rouhani was quoted as saying. But it is obvious that much will also depend on whether Europe entertains a more persuasive argument from Irans allies or its adversaries.

While the Trump administration is prominent among those adversaries, its assertive policy for the Islamic Republic is eagerly backed up by Israel and Saudi Arabia. Disclosures from Israeli intelligence were cited by Trump in his speech as definitive proof that Iran had been lying when it claimed its nuclear program was peaceful. And earlier, the administration had repeatedly called attention to ballistic missiles fired into Saudi Arabia by Iranian proxies in Yemen as evidence of Iran violating the spirit of the nuclear deal.

Both of the regional allies to the US were naturally quick to weigh in on Trumps announcement. Of Saudi Arabia, Newsweek reports that its leadership had urged the snapback of international sanctions in response to any increase in Iranian nuclear enrichment activities. The Saudis also reiterated earlier assurances that they would quickly pursue nuclear weapons capability if Iran obtained a nuclear bomb. But they also vowed to work with the US and other allies to prevent this outcome and also to confront all of Irans malign activities, in line with the priorities outlined by the US president in his speech.

Saudi Arabia and Israel had both staunchly opposed the JCPOA since the beginning, but as Trump works to secure European buy-in, he also has support from some voices that had resisted American withdrawal. As an example of this, the Washington Post highlights Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who was critical of the agreement but had reportedly played a role in preventing Trump from exiting it earlier. Nevertheless, he now says that he sees an opportunity for the US to work closely with its European allies to secure a new and more compelling agreement over the Iranian nuclear program and other Iranian activities.

Time will tell whether parties with differing views about their Iran strategy will be able to exploit that opportunity in a way that is finally satisfactory to all who are involved.Giuliani, a keen supporter of the MEK, explained that freedom, a beloved American value, was a bipartisan issue, noting that the attendees at the Washington convention came from both sides of the aisle.

Giuliani told the crowd that freedom was sorely lacking under the Iranian Regime, with the people facing restrictions on their religion, their clothing, and almost every aspect of the lives. This is especially prevalent in the political arena, as the Regime banned the MEK as a political group in the 1980s.

MEK members or supporters are subject to persecution, arrest, and even execution by the Regime. In 1988, the Regime executed 30,000 MEK members in just a few months and have not been brought to justice for it.

Things have not improved for the MEK in Iran. In 2016, a large group of MEK members who were living in exile in Iraq, had to be transferred to Albania for their own safety as the Regime continued to attack the MEK in Iraq.

Giuliani, who recently visited the MEK members in Albania, explained that now the MEK members were able to live without fear of the Regimes rocket attacks, they were able to focus on bringing freedom to Iran.

The Iranian people and the MEK are desperate to bring freedom to Iran, something that Giuliani said was present long before the first Free Iran Grand Gathering in Paris.

Giuliani said: I hope and I pray that it happens because freedom for any oppressed people helps all of us theres nothing thats more important than bringing freedom and liberating good people like the people of Iran.

Indeed, Giuliani pointed out that the ongoing nationwide peoples protest in Iran, organised by the MEK, was a sign of how desperate for freedom the Iranian people truly were, citing that many protesters were calling for regime change, which can be punishable by death. Despite the extrajudicial killings of 50 protesters and the imprisonment of over 8,000  14 of whom have been tortured to death in prison  the Iranian people are continuing their protests.

Giuliani praised Donald Trump and the rest of the administration for standing behind the Iranian people and publicly supporting their fight for freedom.

Giuliani said: We got a president whos tough, a president who doesnt listen to the people who are naysayers and a president that is as committed to regime change as we are.

In his speech, Giuliani predicted that Trump would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal  as Trump did on Tuesday  as the sanctions relief was only allowing the Iranian Regime to increase its military power and provide more support to terror groups, like Hezbollah and Hamas. The money was not  as evidenced by the protests  being used to give the Iranian people a better standard of living (i.e. providing healthcare or education).

Giuliani said: The only people getting wealthy in Iran are the mullahs and Rouhani and Khomeini and all the people who cooperate with them. Everybody else is poor now. People who used to be middle-class and wealthy are now poor. And you think theyre going to take that from much longer? So my guess is this is gonna happen faster than people think.

Giuliani then advocated that the only alternative to the Regime was the Iranian Resistance, including the MEK, led by Maryam Rajavi. Currently Rajavi serves as the president in exile and she has a ten-point-plan for a free Iran when the Regime falls.

As noted on the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI): Giuliani made clear that this is an Iran worth fighting for and an Iran that he is willing to fight for.Govt serious towards developing Karnali Province: PM

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said the government is serious about developing Karnali province. PM Oli said so while receiving a memorandum submitted by a delegation of Karnali Province headed by the province Chief Minister.OXNARD, Calif., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Infratab, Inc., a leader in radio frequency sensor solutions for perishables, adds seminal U.S. and European wireless Internet of Things (IoT) sensor patents to its worldwide intellectual property portfolio of radio frequency sensors, software, analytics, and cloud solutions.



Infratabs patents cover radio frequency IoT sensor tag architecture, in-tag sensor operating environment and application software, condition metrics for real-time assessment of and actions related to the condition of an object, and the methods for setting up, calculating, reporting, storing, analyzing and using sensor data by trading partners in the supply chain and by those concerned with quantifying and monetizing condition.

Three of Infratabs patents, US 9,946,904 B2, Apparatus and Method for Monitoring, Communicating Data Associated with a Product, dated April 17, 2018 and EP 3 179 222 B1; Shelf-Life Monitoring Sensor-Transponder System, dated January 17, 2018 and validated in April 2018 in nine European countries; and Hong Kong patent application 17106058.7, granted April 24, 2018; are continuations of earlier Infratab patents.

Of these, Therese Myers, Infratab, Inc. CEO says, These recent patents reflect our early awareness of the importance of condition-based decision-making, not just to brand owners, their trading partners and users in the cold chain; but also of the importance of condition-based decision-making to those concerned with degradation through measurable wear-and-tear.

Infratabs Freshtime radio frequency sensor tags, middleware, and cloud software and analytics, provide monitoring and tracking of perishables by trading partners who make, store, transport, sell, service and use perishables. Its Freshtime metrics, used in-tag, in middleware, and in cloud; enable validated, secure and thus trusted quantification and monetization of condition, whether that of a perishable or a thing. Freshtime radio frequency solutions, today RAIN-RFID and NFC-based, with low power Bluetooth (BLE) solutions in development, build upon traditional temperature logging conventionsadding how is it? to GS1 cold chain what, where, and when tracking of perishables.

Infratabs Freshtime Dual RAIN-RFID and NFC sensor tag, in which sensor status can be read by either RAIN-RFID readers or NFC smartphones, is the first and only RAIN-RFID sensor tag. The Freshtime Dual tag enables both high-volume, fast-moving consumer goods companies (FMCG); and low volume growers, small businesses, restaurants, labs and consumers; to get visibility into the quality and condition of the perishables they are handling and using.

Myers continued, Who would have thought that our simple idea of adding a live date onto MITs Internet of Things early radio identification chip would spawn such a variety of Lego-like solutions for managing perishables and reducing perishable waste throughout the cold chain. We are truly grateful that our dream of a live-date on milk can finally become a reality.

Stanton Kaye, President of Infratab, Inc. says, The three recently-granted patents address tagged items and the spaces in which they reside. Also important to Infratabs portfolio is a fourth patent, US 9,710,754 B2 patent, Inference Electronic Shelf Life Dating System for Perishables, dated July 18, 2017. This patent addresses perishables which are removed from a monitored environment for a short period of time, and then returned to it. It provides a trusted method for inferring how much shelf life is used while the perishable is out of the monitored environment so that monitoring can continue once it returns.

Infratabs Freshtime Shelfies, covered by the fourth patent, and currently in test, are multi-temperature liners for totes, boxes, shelves and pallets. Shelfies track shelf life used while perishables are on the liner in a monitored space, infer shelf life used for the time away from the monitored environment, and resume monitoring when the items re-enter the monitored environment.

Infratabs president, Stanton Kaye, in March 2018 received the esteemed AIM 2018 Percival Award. The award honors outstanding contributions to the application of automatic identification and data capture technologies; and Food Logistics Rock Stars of the Supply Chain for 2018 award. Infratabs Freshtime 2018 was a finalist for best product of the year at RFID Live, April 2018.

Infratabs intellectual property portfolio includes 4 US patents with 2 patents pending; 3 European patents in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, The Netherlands, Turkey, and United Kingdom with 1 EU patent pending; and international patents in Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, Hong Kong (2), India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand with patents pending in Brazil and the PCT.

For more information about Infratab and its Freshtime product line of sensor tags, software and cloud solutions, go to www.Infratab.com or call Infratab Public Relations 805-874-4603.

Infratab, Inc. a California corporation is the leader in condition-focused IoT sensor solutions for perishables and things experiencing measurable change. Infratab Freshtime sensor tags, software, and analytics answer the questions How fresh? and How is it?, enabling actionable, trustworthy condition monitoring. Infratab is headquartered in Oxnard, California with offices in Bangalore, India.

Media Contact

Therese (Terry) Myers

CEO

Infratab, Inc.

publicrelations@infratab.com

805-874-4603Minister Yadav vows to end all kinds of syndicate

Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Matrika Prasad Yadav has made it clear that all kinds of syndicate in the agencies under his ministry will be abolished.The British diplomats also advise fans to be aware of the current political situation.

The British Embassy in Kyiv has issued travel advice for Liverpool fans travelling to Kyiv for the UEFA Champions League Final between Liverpool FC and Real Madrid on Saturday, May 26.

"Most trips to Ukraine are trouble free, however there have been cases of violent attacks on foreign nationals in Kyiv and some of these may have been racially motivated, so take extra care and be vigilant at all times," the Embassy said.

The British diplomats also advise fans to be aware of the current political situation (in particular the tension between Ukraine and Russia) and avoid any action that could provoke a hostile reaction.

Read alsoFC Shakhtar Donetsk win Ukrainian Cup for 12th time, FC Dynamo Kyiv defeated by 2-0 score

"As in any other city beware of pickpockets and bag snatchers at airports, railway stations, around the town centre, in the stadium and when using public transport; keep valuables and wallet out of sight. Take special care not to leave jackets or bags containing wallets or passports unattended if you're in a restaurant or a bar," the Embassy said.

Fans should also be wary of accepting drinks in bars from strangers. "Drinking alcohol is prohibited in public places (except bars, restaurants). Local alcoholic drinks are often stronger than in the UK so make allowance for this," it said.

According to the travel advise, smoking is prohibited in public places, including bars, bus stops, subways, the metro, playgrounds, parks and the stadium itself.

"Use designated areas for smoking. Don't get involved with drugs  the penalties are severe," the Embassy warned.A One-Woman Show: Vanessa Bell Calloway as Zora Neale Hurston

Vanessa Bell Calloway, actress known for her role in Coming to America and recurring role in the television show Shameless, spoke to the Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper about her upcoming one-woman show Letters from Zora. Letters from Zora, produced by Gabrielle Denise Pina and directed by Anita Dashell-Sparks, unveils the intimate life of writer Zora Neale Hurston.

LOS ANGELES SENTINEL NEWSPAPER (LAS): This is a major figure to take on. How did this entire process begin?

VANESSA BELL CALLOWAY (VBS): Gabrielle Pina wrote the playwright so beautifully. We had the opportunity to look at Zoras letters. The show was originally for one night, but I told her we must keep going. People need to see this. I call it a ninety-minute poem. For me as an actress, the words resonated. Research played a major role in designing this play. There were tons of pictures of Zora that helped me gain a better perspective. People have done projects on Zora, but nothing this intimate.

ADVERTISEMENT

LAS: Through your research, what fact stood out the most about Zora?

VBS: That I found the most entertaining was her love life. She wrote some deep letters about her lovers. No one could bring her down! Once you see the play you will learn. She wrote over a thousand letters. The letters are the true center piece. Her life is intertwined and told by these letters.

LAS: As an actress you are thrown many roles. What made you want to do this specific role?

VBS: Me and Gabby met through our sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. She asked me to read. When I first got the material, I couldnt believe how beautiful it was. If you wouldve told me ten years ago that I would do a piece on Zora Neal Hurston, I would not believe it. Ive always wanted a one-woman piece. I never wanted a one-woman show strictly about my life and this was a subject I could gravitate towards. It was such a blessing from God that I got this piece.

LAS: You also have a history of dancing. How much has dancing impacted your acting?

VBS: became a storyteller early in my life through dancing. Dancing is telling a story without words. I had to display the mood of the piece and the intention of the choreographer. It was a natural progression to become an actress. Im constantly looking at the correlations. Its not only the physical but also the energy. Dance has always been a critical part of my life. It just works for me.

LAS: What goes through your mind before the play begins? What type of preparations do you have?

ADVERTISEMENT

VBS: I go over my lines. I never become tired of doing that. I do it until it becomes second nature. I listen to certain types of music too. I like to listen to something melancholy because it puts my body in the right mood for certain moments in the show. I must let my body prepare for emotional scenes.

LAS: What is the overall end goal you want the audience to leave with?

VBS: People who come to the show may know little about Zora. Everybody will leave learning more about her life. People have left the show crying. They tell me they never knew how amazing she was personally. I want people to leave enthralled and engaged and connected. They can either connect to me or connect to her or her message. Im happy people have a renewed perspective about her life.

Letters from Zora begins Mothers Day weekend at the WACO Theater Center in North Hollywood beginning May 11 and ending May 20. Tickets can be purchased at wacotheatercenter.com.Airbnb Owner Blames Her Black Guests Lack of Good Nature as Reason for Her Neighbor Calling the Police

View Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BiNc1DWgzU_/?utm_source=ig_embed

ADVERTISEMENT

New video released by police Tuesday provides more details into the incident that caused three black people to consider a lawsuit over what they say was an excessive response to a racially motivated 911 call in Southern California.

The body camera footage released by the Rialto Police Department initially shows a laid-back interaction between officers and the group they had pulled over, which included the granddaughter of reggae legend Bob Marley.

The footage shows they later disagree whether the 911 call, made by an older white woman, was racially motivated, but the interaction never becomes heated.

The group had been checking out of their Airbnb rental with luggage when a neighbor called police April 30 reporting a possible burglary.

Filmmaker Kells Fyffe-Marshall posted a short video on Facebook showing a portion of the interaction with police and wrote that they were surrounded by seven police cars and told to put their hands in the air.

They locked down the neighborhood and had us standing in the street. Why? she wrote. A neighbor across the street saw three black people packing luggage into their car and assumed we were stealing from the house.

ADVERTISEMENT

The video quickly spread on social media and was shared by activist Shaun King, who described it as a group of young black women come face to face with death.

Later, Marleys granddaughter, Donisha Prendergast, expresses frustration that the matter isnt being cleared up faster and said they wouldnt have been reported if they were white.

Besheer asks her what race had to do with it. The talk ends as Besheer walks away, saying what sounds like, Stop pulling it, guys.

The police department played the videos at a news conference and planned to post them on its website.

Fyffe-Marshall and Prendergast didnt respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Their attorney, Jasmine Rand, said Tuesday that she put Rialto police on notice of the potential for litigation.

Marie Rodriguez, the owner of the Airbnb the group was renting, defended her neighbors call to 911 and the police response.

Rodriguez said it was the first time she rented out her home on Airbnb, and that her neighbor was concerned when she saw strangers packing up suitcases. The neighbor told Rodriguez that when she approached the group, they behaved strangely.

She walked over, smiled at them and waved and they basically looked at her like she was a Martian, Rodriguez said. She added, Strange vehicle, strange people, in a suburban neighborhood, and theyre not friendly. She called the police, and I dont blame her.

In a separate interview with The Sun, Rodriguez reiterated that police was called because the guests were rude to her neighbor and race had nothing to do with it.

Theyre making it sound like its racially motivated, and it has nothing to do with that. Its all over social media. It was based on their rudeness and lack of good nature that caused her to call the police. It had nothing to do with being black, she told the paper.

The police video captures the neighbors reasoning for calling 911.

They had luggage in their hands and they werent really looking at me, said the woman, who wasnt identified. They didnt behave like neighbors and I know the couple that owns the house and I didnt recognize them  I wasnt being nosy. I was just being observant.At the Intersection of Faith and Wellness

The African American Faith Community, in addition to being the epicenter of traditions of worship and faith development, has been the hub of resources, information, activism, and multi-layered partnerships within and on behalf of the African American community at-large.

In keeping with that tradition, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, (CDU)s CTSI and the CDU Mervyn M. Dymally (MMD) School of Nursing, has partnered with New Vision Church of Jesus Christs outreach and worship auxiliaries to provide a host of services to the 90011 zip code area (one of the most under-resourced zip codes in Los Angeles County).

Under the coordination of CDUs Community Faculty member, Aziza Lucas-Wright, M.Ed. (also the First Lady Emeritus of New Vision COJC) and MMDs Professor Ana Cortez, the two entities have provided services to over 500 community members at events entitled, Love-In-Action and Prayer-In-the-Park. The students, under the supervision of Professor Cortez, administer blood pressure screenings and disseminate wellness promotion and health services for referral print materials.

ADVERTISEMENT

In addition to being an ongoing feature at these events, the CDU MMD School students show up every third Sunday (Wellness Sunday) at this progressive church to conduct blood pressure screenings and awareness activities for its worship service participants.

On the third Sunday of February, Professor Cortez and student, Bantale Ayisire, not only provided the blood pressure screening service, they delivered a brief, yet profoundly relevant talk on the far-reaching effects of uncontrolled blood pressure  leading to numerous participants staying beyond worship service to have their blood pressure read and recorded.

Of this relevant and potentially life-saving community service by the MMD School of Nursing partnership, Senior Pastor of New Vision Church of Jesus Christ (currently operating at Avalon Carver Community Center, 4920 So. Avalon, LA, 90011), Attorney Monique Woodert writes, As a Servant Leader, I am always concerned about not only the spiritual well-being but the psycho-social and physical health of the congregation. To that end, it has been a blessing of enormous proportion to have the nursing students come on a Sunday and provide educational lectures, materials and health and wellness checks to the congregation. The nursing students connect contextually and educationally to the individuals that they serve and are well received by the church members. It is my sincere belief that their presence and presentation is saving lives.

There is an ongoing commitment by Professor Lucas-Wright and Professor Cortez to continue these outreach efforts to the church as well as to South Park homeless encampment citizens directly across the street from the Church. The combined mission statements of CDU, the MMD School of Nursing and New Vision Church of Jesus Christ converges to form a much needed safety net for this community.

For those faith-based institutions seeking to become involved with Academic/Community-Partnered Research and Development, please contact Aziza Lucas-Wright at: [email protected]TORONTO, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (TSX:GCM) announced today the release of its unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying managements discussion and analysis (MD&A) for the three months ended March 31, 2018. All financial figures contained herein are expressed in U.S. dollars (USD) unless otherwise noted.



Serafino Iacono, Executive Co-Chairman of Gran Colombia, commenting on the Companys results for the first quarter of 2018, said, We have reached another milestone with the successful completion of our debt refinancing which will shortly conclude with the full repayment of the principal amount of our 2020 Debentures and 2024 Debentures. We are also pleased with the continued improvement in the operating and financial results we are reporting today. With the enhanced liquidity made possible by the debt refinancing, we have a stronger balance sheet that, together with our internally generated cash flow, will allow us to forge ahead with the execution of our strategy to create value by exploring, developing and modernizing our mining operations.

First Quarter 2018 Highlights

The Company successfully closed its $98 million Offering of Units on April 30, 2018 (the Closing Date) to refinance its 2020 Debentures and 2024 Debentures (collectively the Senior Secured Debentures), providing the Company with greater access to its internally generated free cash flow to explore, expand and modernize its mining operations, and significantly reducing the potential dilution to the Companys shareholders compared with the existing capital structure. On the Closing Date, the Company deposited sufficient net proceeds from the Offering with the trustee for the Senior Secured Debentures to fund their redemption on May 14, 2018 (the Redemption Date). By extinguishing the full amount of the issued and outstanding Senior Secured Debentures with the net proceeds of the Offering, the $9.6 million of cash in trust as of March 31, 2018, representing the sinking fund for the Senior Secured Debentures, has since been released for inclusion in the Companys unrestricted cash balance, which stood at $3.4 million at March 31, 2018. Since the Closing Date, a further $2.3 million aggregate principal amount of Senior Secured Debentures have been converted by holders into common shares, decreasing the ultimate amount required to be redeemed. At the Redemption Date, the excess funds deposited with the trustee for the redemption of the Senior Secured Debentures will be returned to the Company, further bolstering its cash position. The current issued and outstanding aggregate principal amount of the Senior Secured Debentures is $88.6 million and the Company has 29,317,798 common shares issued and outstanding.



on April 30, 2018 (the Closing Date) to refinance its 2020 Debentures and 2024 Debentures (collectively the Senior Secured Debentures), providing the Company with greater access to its internally generated free cash flow to explore, expand and modernize its mining operations, and significantly reducing the potential dilution to the Companys shareholders compared with the existing capital structure. On the Closing Date, the Company deposited sufficient net proceeds from the Offering with the trustee for the Senior Secured Debentures to fund their redemption on May 14, 2018 (the Redemption Date). By extinguishing the full amount of the issued and outstanding Senior Secured Debentures with the net proceeds of the Offering, the $9.6 million of cash in trust as of March 31, 2018, representing the sinking fund for the Senior Secured Debentures, has since been released for inclusion in the Companys unrestricted cash balance, which stood at $3.4 million at March 31, 2018. Since the Closing Date, a further $2.3 million aggregate principal amount of Senior Secured Debentures have been converted by holders into common shares, decreasing the ultimate amount required to be redeemed. At the Redemption Date, the excess funds deposited with the trustee for the redemption of the Senior Secured Debentures will be returned to the Company, further bolstering its cash position. The current issued and outstanding aggregate principal amount of the Senior Secured Debentures is $88.6 million and the Company has 29,317,798 common shares issued and outstanding. The Company also settled $7.3 million aggregate principal amount of its 2018 Debentures on April 30, 2018 through a concurrent offer to holders of its 2018 Debentures to voluntarily settle their debt prior to maturity with a combination of 19% in cash, funded by the sinking fund, and 81% in common shares at the conversion price. The Company continues to expect that it will use its option to settle its remaining 2018 Debentures, of which $34.4 million aggregate principal amount is currently issued and outstanding, at maturity in August 2018 with common shares to the maximum extent possible. In accordance with the 2018 Debenture holders consent solicitation process to facilitate the Offering, the Company has increased the annual interest rate on the remaining issued and outstanding 2018 Debentures from 1% to 5% effective the Closing Date and through to their maturity.



on April 30, 2018 through a concurrent offer to holders of its 2018 Debentures to voluntarily settle their debt prior to maturity with a combination of 19% in cash, funded by the sinking fund, and 81% in common shares at the conversion price. The Company continues to expect that it will use its option to settle its remaining 2018 Debentures, of which $34.4 million aggregate principal amount is currently issued and outstanding, at maturity in August 2018 with common shares to the maximum extent possible. In accordance with the 2018 Debenture holders consent solicitation process to facilitate the Offering, the Company has increased the annual interest rate on the remaining issued and outstanding 2018 Debentures from 1% to 5% effective the Closing Date and through to their maturity. The Company is on track to meet its guidance for 2018 with total gold production of 52,672 ounces in the first quarter of 2018 , up 35% over the first quarter of 2017, and a further 16,119 ounces produced in April 2018. Fueled by continued growth in the Companys high-grade Segovia Operations, the Companys trailing 12-months total gold production increased to 187,485 ounces as of March 2018, up 8% over the total for 2017 of 173,821 ounces and within the Companys guidance range for 2018 of between 182,000 and 193,000 ounces.



, up 35% over the first quarter of 2017, and a further 16,119 ounces produced in April 2018. Fueled by continued growth in the Companys high-grade Segovia Operations, the Companys trailing 12-months total gold production increased to 187,485 ounces as of March 2018, up 8% over the total for 2017 of 173,821 ounces and within the Companys guidance range for 2018 of between 182,000 and 193,000 ounces. Revenue increased 42% in the first quarter of 2018 over the first quarter last year to $64.8 million, positively impacted this year by the increased level of gold production as described above and 10% better realized gold prices in the first quarter of 2018 as spot gold prices rose 9% compared with the first quarter last year.



increased 42% in the first quarter of 2018 over the first quarter last year to $64.8 million, positively impacted this year by the increased level of gold production as described above and 10% better realized gold prices in the first quarter of 2018 as spot gold prices rose 9% compared with the first quarter last year. Total cash costs (1) and all-in sustaining costs (AISC) (1) averaged $670 per ounce and $896 per ounce, respectively, for the first quarter of 2018, down from $748 per ounce and $941 per ounce, respectively, in the first quarter last year. An increase in the proportion of the Companys total gold sales coming from the lower cost Segovia Operations coupled with a reduction in Segovias total cast cost to $616 per ounce as a result of head grade improvement in the Company-operated areas of the Providencia mine and further reduction of fixed costs on a per ounce basis, led to the improved total cash cost per ounce for the Company in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the first quarter last year. AISC in the first quarter of 2018 included $180 per ounce of sustaining capital expenditures, up from $143 per ounce in the first quarter of 2017, reflecting the Companys continuing commitment to explore, develop and modernize its high-grade Segovia Operations in the improving gold price environment.



and averaged $670 per ounce and $896 per ounce, respectively, for the first quarter of 2018, down from $748 per ounce and $941 per ounce, respectively, in the first quarter last year. An increase in the proportion of the Companys total gold sales coming from the lower cost Segovia Operations coupled with a reduction in Segovias total cast cost to $616 per ounce as a result of head grade improvement in the Company-operated areas of the Providencia mine and further reduction of fixed costs on a per ounce basis, led to the improved total cash cost per ounce for the Company in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the first quarter last year. AISC in the first quarter of 2018 included $180 per ounce of sustaining capital expenditures, up from $143 per ounce in the first quarter of 2017, reflecting the Companys continuing commitment to explore, develop and modernize its high-grade Segovia Operations in the improving gold price environment. Adjusted EBITDA (1) doubled in the first quarter of 2018 to $27.4 million compared with $13.6 million in the first quarter of 2017, bringing the trailing 12-months total adjusted EBITDA at the end of March 2018 to $89.3 million, up 18% compared with 2017.



doubled in the first quarter of 2018 to $27.4 million compared with $13.6 million in the first quarter of 2017, bringing the trailing 12-months total adjusted EBITDA at the end of March 2018 to $89.3 million, up 18% compared with 2017. The Company generated $2.6 million of Excess Cash Flow (1) in the first quarter of 2018, up from $2.3 million in the first quarter last year. The Company took advantage of its improved operating cash flow in the first quarter of 2018 to accelerate $5.6 million of its income tax payments that ordinarily would have been made in the second quarter of 2018 to facilitate the commencement in May 2018 of the monthly physical gold deliveries to the Gold Trust Account under the new gold-linked notes issued pursuant to the Offering.



in the first quarter of 2018, up from $2.3 million in the first quarter last year. The Company took advantage of its improved operating cash flow in the first quarter of 2018 to accelerate $5.6 million of its income tax payments that ordinarily would have been made in the second quarter of 2018 to facilitate the commencement in May 2018 of the monthly physical gold deliveries to the Gold Trust Account under the new gold-linked notes issued pursuant to the Offering. The Company reported net income for the first quarter of 2018 of $5.4 million, or $0.25 per share, compared with a net loss of $0.8 million, or $0.04 per share, in the first quarter last year, with the year-over-year improvement principally attributable to the increased income from operations in the first quarter of 2018 driven by higher gold sales volumes and realized gold prices and lower total cash costs per ounce.



for the first quarter of 2018 of $5.4 million, or $0.25 per share, compared with a net loss of $0.8 million, or $0.04 per share, in the first quarter last year, with the year-over-year improvement principally attributable to the increased income from operations in the first quarter of 2018 driven by higher gold sales volumes and realized gold prices and lower total cash costs per ounce. Adjusted net income (1) for the first quarter of 2018 of $9.8 million, or $0.46 per share, up from $3.1 million, or $0.16 per share, in the first quarter last year, also reflected the improvement in income from operations as noted above.

(1) Refer to Non-IFRS Measures in the Companys MD&A

Financial and Operating Summary

A summary of the financial and operating results for the first quarters of 2018 and 2017 follows:

First Quarter 2018 2017

Operating data Gold produced (ounces) 52,672 39,008 Gold sold (ounces) 49,610 38,434 Average realized gold price ($/oz sold) $ 1,293 $ 1,174 Total cash costs ($/oz sold) (1) 670 748 All-in sustaining costs ($/oz sold) (1) 896 941 Financial data ($000s, except per share amounts) Revenue $ 64,786 $ 45,717 Adjusted EBITDA (1) 27,443 13,591 Net income (loss) 5,352 (784 ) Per share - basic 0.25 (0.04 ) Per share - diluted 0.12 (0.04 ) Adjusted net income (1) 9,846 3,084 Per share - basic 0.46 0.16 Per share - diluted 0.12 0.04 Excess Cash Flow 2,554 2,276 March 31, December 31, 2018 2017

Balance sheet ($000s): Cash and cash equivalents $ 3,400 $ 3,272 Cash in trust for Senior Debentures (2) 14,465 11,911 Senior debt, including current portion (3) 101,042 98,713 Other debt, including current portion 394 439

(1) Refer to Non-IFRS Measures in the Companys MD&A.

(2) Represents amounts deposited into sinking funds for the Senior Debentures, net of cash used for the NCIBs and partial redemption.

(3) Represents carrying amounts, which are at a discount to principal amounts, for the Senior Debentures. At March 31, 2018, the aggregate principal amounts of the 2018 Debentures, 2020 Debentures and 2024 Debentures issued and outstanding were $44.0 million, $48.0 million and $43.3 million, respectively (December 31, 2017 - $45.2 million, $48.7 million and $47.0 million, respectively).

The Offering

On April 30, 2018, the Company completed a private placement of 97,992 units (the Units) of the Company for aggregate gross proceeds of $97,992,000 (the Offering) to refinance its Senior Secured Debentures. Each Unit consists of $1,000 principal amount of senior secured gold-linked notes (the Notes) and 124 common share purchase warrants (the Warrants and each, a Warrant) of the Company (12,151,008 Warrants in aggregate). Each Warrant has an exercise price of CA$2.21 and entitles the holder thereof to purchase one common share in the capital of the Company at any time prior to the maturity of the Notes. The Notes and Warrants comprising each Unit will not separate until 45 days following the Closing Date. The Notes and the Warrants are also subject to a hold period equal to four months and a day following the Closing Date, and the Company will take commercially reasonable steps to obtain approval for the listing and trading of the Notes and the Warrants on the Toronto Stock Exchange by the end of the hold period. The Notes bear interest at 8.25% per annum, to be paid monthly, and have a six-year term. The Company is required to set aside an amount of physical gold each month in a trust account (the Gold Trust Account) and the proceeds from the quarterly sale of the gold will be used to repay the principal amount of the Notes based on a guaranteed floor price of $1,250 per ounce. The scheduled annual number of physical gold ounces to be deposited into the Gold Trust Account will vary by year, representing approximately 10% of the projected annual gold production from the Companys Segovia Operations and ranging from 15,594 ounces in the first year down to 10,000 ounces in the final year of the term of the Notes.

Segovia Operations

At the Segovia Operations, gold production in the first quarter of 2018 of 46,472 ounces was up 42% compared to the first quarter of 2017 primarily due to improved head grades in the Company-operated areas at the Providencia mine. This brings the Companys trailing 12-months total gold production from Segovia to 162,363 ounces, up 9% from 2017 fuelled by continuing growth in the Company mines which represented 94% of Segovias trailing 12-months production. With a further 14,331 ounces produced in April, the Company continues to expect Segovias annual gold production for 2018 will range between 158,000 and 167,000 ounces.

Total cash costs per ounce at the Segovia Operations (which represented approximately 90% of total gold sales in the first quarter of 2018) improved to $616 per ounce in the first quarter of 2018 compared with an average of $690 per ounce in the first quarter of 2017. The increased production level at Segovia in the first quarter of 2018 continues to have a positive impact reducing fixed operating costs on a per ounce basis compared with the first quarter of 2017. The improvement in head grades at the Company-operated areas in the Providencia mine also had a positive impact on Segovias total cash cost per ounce in the first quarter of 2018. The Company continues to expect that Segovias total cash costs will remain below $700 per ounce in 2018.

Gran Colombias AISC of $896 per ounce for the first quarter of 2018 included $8.9 million of sustaining capital expenditures, equivalent to $180 per ounce sold ($37 per ounce higher than the first quarter of 2017), the major components of which included (i) $4.0 million for exploration and mine development at Segovia, including 5,400 meters of the 2018 drilling program, (ii) $2.2 million for the Segovia mines including underground equipment and ventilation improvements at the El Silencio mine and completion of a ventilation shaft and further infrastructure upgrades at the Providencia mine, (iii) $1.1 million for further upgrades of equipment in the Maria Dama plant and laboratory at Segovia together with costs associated with a new filter press and the project to construct the new El Chocho tailings storage facility, and (iv) $0.7 million related to the 44kV connection at the Segovia mines.

National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report for Segovia Operations

Gran Colombia announced today that it has filed a prefeasibility study (PFS) technical report on its Segovia Operations (the Technical Report) pursuant to National Instrument 43101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43101"). The Technical Report supports the disclosure made by the Company in its 2017 Annual MD&A dated March 27, 2018 and related news release and is based on the Mineral Reserve and Mineral Resource estimate for the Segovia Operations with an effective date of December 31, 2017.

The PFS has provided Segovias first reported Mineral Reserve of 660,000 ounces of gold based on 1.7 million tonnes of material at an average head grade of 12.4 g/t. Although the preliminary results announced on March 27, 2018 identified all of the Mineral Reserve as probable, the final results included in the Technical Report comprise 68,000 ounces of proven Mineral Reserve based on 46,000 tonnes at an average head grade of 45.4 g/t and 592,000 ounces of probable Mineral Reserve based on 1.6 million tonnes at an average head grade of 11.4 g/t.

The PFS life-of-mine (LoM) production schedule foresees the total 1.7 million tonnes of material being processed over a six-year mine life resulting in a total gold production of 610,000 ounces produced at an average LoM total cash cost (1) of $669 per ounce and an AISC(1) (excluding corporate G&A) of $896 per ounce. At an expected long-term gold price of $1,300 per ounce, total LoM undiscounted after-tax free cash flow from mining operations amounts to $148 million. The PFS production schedule includes only proven and probable Mineral Reserves, and as such, the projected mine life for the PFS will be shorter than the Companys current expectations (which remains at 2026 as per the previous Preliminary Economic Assessment) due to the exclusion of Inferred Resources which the Company currently mines and intends to mine in the future. The contract miner material processed at the Companys Maria Dama plant from the small mines located in the Companys mining title is also not included in the LoM production schedule in the PFS as it falls outside the Companys mines and Mineral Reserves.

The Technical Report, with a report date of May 10, 2018 and an effective date of December 31, 2017, was prepared by SRK Consulting (U.S.), Inc. (SRK) and is entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report Prefeasibility Study Segovia Project Colombia". The qualified persons for the purposes of NI 43-101 include Ben Parsons, MSc, MAusIMM (CP), Principal Resource Geologist; Brian Olson, BS Chemical Engineering, P.ENG, MMSAQP, Senior Metallurgist; Cristian A. Pereira Farias, SME-RM, Senior Hydrogeologist; David Bird, MSc, PG, SME-RM, Principal Geochemist, John Tinucci, PhD, PE, ISRM President/Practice Leader/Principal Geotechnical Engineer; Jeff Osborn, BEng Mining, MMSAQP, Principal Mining Engineer; Fernando Rodrigues, BS Mining, MBA, MAusIMM, MMSAQP, Practice Leader/Principal Mining Engineer; Clara Balasko, MSc, PE, Senior Civil Engineer; and, Mark Allan Willow, MSc, CEM, SME-RM, Practice Leader/Principal Environmental Scientist.

The report is available on the Companys website at www.grancolombiagold.com and under the Companys profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

(1) Total cash cost per ounce and AISC per ounce are non-IFRS measures and are disclosed herein in accordance with the Companys basis of calculation as disclosed in its MD&A. In the Technical Report, SRK included $26 per ounce of smelting and refining costs in these non-IFRS measures which the Company includes as a deduction in deriving its reported realized gold price per ounce sold.

Marmato Operations

At the Marmato Operations, production remained steady with 6,200 ounces of gold in the first quarter of 2018 compared with 6,240 ounces in the first quarter of 2017. This brings Marmatos trailing 12-months total gold production at the end of March 2018 to 25,122 ounces, on par with 2017s annual production. The Marmato Operations produced 1,788 ounces in April and the Company continues to expect that its annual gold production will fall within its guidance range for 2018 of between 24,000 and 26,000 ounces.

Total cash costs at the Marmato Operations (which represented approximately 10% of total gold sales in 2017) increased to $1,141 per ounce in the first quarter of 2018 compared with $1,061 per ounce in the first quarter of 2017 reflecting the impact of the lower mill recovery on gold production in the first quarter of 2018. The Company continues to expect that Marmatos total cash cost in 2018 will remain below 2017s annual average of $1,049 per ounce.

Outlook

The Company started off 2018 with a total of 52,672 ounces of gold production in the first quarter and another 16,119 ounces in April 2018. The Company continues to expect to produce a total of 182,000 to 193,000 ounces of gold for the full year compared with the 173,821 ounces produced in 2017. Production growth will continue to be fuelled by the Companys mines at its high-grade Segovia Operations which are expected to produce between 158,000 and 167,000 ounces in 2018.

In the first quarter of 2018, the Company executed approximately 5,400 meters or approximately 27% of its planned 20,000 meters drilling campaign for the full year to continue its efforts to upgrade and extend its mineral resources at the Segovia Operations. Capital investment in 2018 at the Segovia Operations will continue to focus on ongoing mine development at its Providencia and El Silencio mines, and commence mine development at its Sandra K mine, along with ongoing investments in mine infrastructure upgrades, ventilation, health, safety and environmental initiatives, mine equipment and expansion of tailings storage facilities.

At Marmato, the Company completed a conceptual study in 2017 to consider the potential for underground mining operations combining the existing operating mine with the Deeps mineralization. In 2018, the Company will follow up with further technical studies and up to 10,000 meters of drilling leading toward the expected completion of a preliminary economic assessment by the end of the year.

The Companys total cash cost averaged $720 per ounce sold in 2017. In 2018, the Company expects that its total cash cost will increase slightly, averaging less than $735 per ounce sold for the full year, as a result of entering contracts in the latter half of 2017 for additional higher cost, high-grade material from the contract miners operating within its Providencia and El Silencio mines. The Company also expects that with its capital investment program in 2018, including the ongoing exploration activities at Segovia and execution of the drilling program and technical studies at Marmato, its AISC for the full year will increase from 2017s full year AISC average of $918 per ounce but will remain below $950 per ounce.

Webcast

As a reminder, Gran Colombia will host a conference call and webcast on Friday May 11, 2018 at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss the results.

Webcast and call-in details are as follows:

Live Event link: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/tck6woh8 International: 1 (514) 841-2157 North America Toll Free: 1 (866) 215-5508 Colombia Toll Free: 01 800 9 156 924 Conference ID: 46778182

A replay of the webcast will be available at www.grancolombiagold.com from Friday, May 11, 2018 until Monday, June 11, 2018.

About Gran Colombia Gold Corp.

Gran Colombia is a Canadian-based gold and silver exploration, development and production company with its primary focus in Colombia. Gran Colombia is currently the largest underground gold and silver producer in Colombia with several underground mines in operation at its Segovia and Marmato Operations. Gran Colombia is continuing its exploration, expansion and modernization activities at its high-grade Segovia Operations.

Additional information on Gran Colombia can be found on its website at www.grancolombiagold.com and by reviewing its profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information



This news release contains "forward-looking information", which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to anticipated business plans or strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative 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 statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Gran Colombia to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements are described under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form dated as of March 27, 2018, which is available for view on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and Gran Colombia disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

For Further Information, Please Contact:

Mike Davies

Chief Financial Officer

(416) 360-4653

investorrelations@grancolombiagold.com



California needs $100 Million Dollars to establish the Youth Reinvestment Fund

Thousands of California youth are incarcerated every year for low-level offenses. Our youth deserve a better approach, one that can have the added benefit of reducing the disproportionate impact the justice systems have on youth of color, children with disabilities, girls, LGBTQ youth, and foster children.

It is time we stop incarcerating our children and start investing in their future. I will be asking the state of California to establish The Youth Reinvestment Fund, which would add $100 million to the States budget to improve outcomes of vulnerable youth populations using trauma informed, community and health-based interventions in lieu of arrest, detention and incarceration.

The Youth Reinvestment Fund proposal will allocate $15 million to hire social workers to support cases involving minors in juvenile or criminal court, including youth re-entry and other critical youth-related needs within the public defender office. $10 million would fund Tribal Diversion Programs for Native American youth, and $75 million would fund local diversion programs and community-based services for at risk youth over a 3-year grant period.

ADVERTISEMENT

Of the approximately 62,000 annual juvenile arrests in California, two-thirds of the arrests are for status offenses or misdemeanors; the majority involved youth of color. Approximately 8 out of 10 youth arrested are referred to probation, however, many are detained. Research has shown that non-detention alternatives, particularly for low-level offenses, are more appropriate responses to curb delinquent behavior, avoiding pushing youth deeper into the juvenile justice system. Most importantly, communities that have intentional diversion programs show improved outcomes for youth and public safety.

Effective diversion programs in the state already exist. Los Angeles Centinela Youth Services (CYS) is a pre-arrest juvenile diversion program that produces low recidivism rates of its graduates. By using principles of restorative justice and trauma-informed care, CYS empowers youth, families and crime victims to become accountable, to heal and realize their full potential. Also San Franciscos Huckleberry Youth Programs the Community Assessment and Resource Center (CARC) serves as a single point of entry for crisis intervention, assessment, service integration and referral of arrested youth. Researchers found diversion and mentoring programs produced $3.36 of benefits for every dollar spent in terms of reduced crime and associated costs to taxpayers.

The Youth Reinvestment Fund will support the creation and expansion of trauma-informed, developmentally-appropriate and culturally-relevant community diversion programs for youth as an alternative to system involvement for low-level offenses. Youth in conflict with the law who are met with responses that account for and address their immaturity and underlying trauma and mental health needs see far better health and educational outcomes than youth who are not. As healthy productive adults they earn more money and contribute to tax revenue and do not draw down on public support, such as housing assistance or food stamps. This more appropriate approach can have the added benefit of reducing the disproportionate impact the justice system has had on our most vulnerable youth.Columbia Graduate Students Find the Best Fit for High School Students

Two graduate students at the Teachers College at Columbia University are set to launch an app this Summer that will give students a closer look into colleges and universities if they arent able to visit the campus.

Rebecca Kwee and Asha Owens met through a program at their college, called EdTech Innovation, which funds projects and research involving education and technology. Kwee studies higher education and Owens studies school technology and media, so they joined forces to create an app that would help students who are applying to college.

Last semester we were inspired by a podcast that talked about the Summer Melt, which is where a lot of low-income, minority and first-generation students get into college, but they dont attend in the fall, said Owens. We decided to look into it and realized that there really is an information gap between lower-income students and their wealthier peers.

ADVERTISEMENT

Best Fit will bridge that gap by setting up a social media platform where students and colleges have profiles. The students profiles will show their interests, including what they want to study, what city they would like to live in, their extracurricular interests and more. The information will also be associated with the students grade-level. Once logged in, they will have a newsfeed that shows the profiles of different colleges that would be a good fit for them.

Our goal is to help students discover schools outside of their existing network. A lot of existing websites require students to put in colleges that they already know. Instead of narrowing their options, we want them to find out about schools that they havent heard about, said Kwee.

The college profiles will include information from the schools website such as how to apply, tuition costs and descriptions of courses for their major. What makes Best Fit more innovative, however, is the social media component on the college profiles. Students will be able to see what people are posting about the college life at different universities. They will also get to see exclusive, interactive videos from current students who talk about their experience at the college as well as different tips for incoming freshmen.

Through EdTech Innovation, Kwee and Owens were able to practice coding, design and research. Their experience has moved rather quickly as everything has happened in less than a year. Kwee is from Singapore, Owens is from Georgia and they are in different graduate programs so the chances of them linking up werent as likely. They met in the Fall of 2017 and have since won the EdTech Innovation Award and traveled all over the country pitching their app at different competitions.

Were moving really quickly. Weve been competing and applying to different grants and awards. In a way it has become a full-time job but were fortunate to have one-another, said Owens. Becca and I relate because we both chose our colleges without ever seeing them and we were fortunate, but there are a lot of people in our shoes who make decisions like that and they dont succeed and its detrimental to their future success. We want to bring as much information to students about colleges as we can.

Kwee and Owens are set to graduate with their masters degrees in May and plan to go full force into their app over the summer. While they are moving quickly and gaining notoriety, Best Fit is still in the early stages. The graduate students are seeking funding for product development, testing and to reach a larger number of students. For more information on the Best Fit app, visit www.best-fit-app.com.Congresswoman Maxine Waters Earns TIME 100 Influential Honors

TIME magazine recently honored Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

According to a press release about the honor, The list, now in its fifteenth year, recognizes the activism, innovation and achievement of the worlds most influential individuals.

Waters said that she was shocked and surprised by the recognition and that she felt very, very blessed to receive the honor.

ADVERTISEMENT

In a commentary about the award, Black-ish actor Yara Shahidi wrote that, Congresswoman Maxine Waters of the 43rd District of California, a.k.a. Auntie Maxine, has made my generation proud to be nieces and nephews.

Shahidi continued: She is adored and admired by people who care about social justice and is oh so eloquent in letting the world, particularly the White men of Congress who dare test her acumen, know that she is not here for any nonsense.

Waters said that for many young people, she is one of the few lawmakers willing to step outside of the box of a traditional, non-confrontational lawmaker to speak truth to power.

And even though, she captured the attention of millions in a viral video exchange with United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Waters acknowledged that the use of the phrase reclaiming my time is a part of the regular order of business in Congress.

Its what we use when it is our time to speak and were being ignored by the people who are on the panel and you want to shut them down, Waters said. We use it when were being interfered with by another member of Congress in a debate.

Waters continued: It was something that I used at a time when it was important for me to let Mr. Mnuchin know that he couldnt have his way that it was my time and I intended to use it and he could not usurp it.

ADVERTISEMENT

Waters said that the video inspired a lot of women and showed that, even on Capitol Hill, women lawmakers must have the courage to demand respect.

Waters said that young people welcome the openness and tenacity that she displayed during that exchange with Mnuchin and in her searing criticism of President Donald Trumps performance.

They welcome it this is the first time theyve seen this kind of authenticity, Waters said. For many of them, this is the first time theyve seen this kind of authenticity.

Shahidi, who also stars in the Black-ish spin-off Grown-ish, said that Waters, says what many of us are thinking.

She reminds us that we are worthy of any space we occupy, Shahidi said. In this time of sociopolitical unrest, Congresswoman Waters has been the brilliant, tenacious representative of the people that we all need.

Shahidi added: Shes not new to it, shes true to it.

Waters is one of President Trumps most vocal critics on Capitol Hill, even calling for his impeachment.

[President Trump] has defined himself as someone who is not deserving and that should be our mantra, that should be the conversation, that should be what we talk about with our newspapers and our radio stationswe need to speak up, Waters said. We have to let everyone know we dont accept this and we dont feel helpless like victims in all of this. We are going to resist him and we are going to fight him.

Waters said that Black newspapers should run stories about the Trump Administration, every week, monitor digital media, especially social media, and pay attention to special counsel Robert Muellers investigation about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Waters said that the Black Press must cover President Trump in a way that allows the average person to stay up-to-date and to understand whats going on in the White House.

That conversation can help people get more involved, get people excited about registering to vote and to get out to voteand see what we have to do to change this government.

Black millennials need to know that they can make a significant difference in the upcoming midterm elections, Water said.

If our millennials vote, we win, Waters said. We can take back the House, we will keep many of our state legislature seatsif [millennials] go to the polls, we win.Connecticut Approves 1st African American Chief Justice

In a historic vote, Connecticut lawmakers unanimously confirmed Associate Justice Richard Robinson as the next chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. He becomes the first African American to hold the judicial branchs top job.

The Senate on Thursday voted 36-0 in favor of Robinsons nomination, with one top Republican lauding him as a man of the people who has remained grounded while having a stellar career as an attorney, superior court judge and associate justice. The House of Representatives unanimously approved Robinsons nomination on Monday.

Robinson, 60, was Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloys second chief justice nominee this session. Associate Justice Andrew McDonald, a former Democratic state senator and Malloys former legal counsel, would have been the nations first openly gay chief justice of a state Supreme Court if confirmed. He was narrowly rejected by the Senate in March.

ADVERTISEMENT

Some of McDonalds supporters, including Malloy, accused opponents of blocking the nomination for political reasons and because McDonald is openly gay. Opponents vehemently denied the accusations, claiming McDonald has been an activist jurist. McDonald has denied that charge.

While he didnt bring up McDonald by name, Senate Republican leader Len Fasano on Thursday praised Robinson for his methodology in reaching legal decisions, saying it differentiates him from other potential candidates for the chief justice position. Fasano had opposed McDonald.

Robinson is not in an isolated bubble, said Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, a co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He is not in some ivory tower.

Robinson replaces former Chief Justice Chase Rogers, who retired in February. Superior Court Judge Steven Ecker was confirmed Thursday to succeed Robinson on the states highest court.

The approval of Justice Robinson to serve as chief justice of the Supreme Court no doubt makes history in Connecticut, and I wish him the best in his duties leading the judicial branch, said Malloy, who credited Robinson with having a passion toward building a stronger, fairer society for all.First Ladies Offer Uplifting Words to Black Mothers

African American mothers can face a myriad of tests in todays times. Raising children in a world of school shootings, cyber bulling, police encounters and drug abuse could make one fearful to let youngsters out of the house.

Fortunately, God is present with us, even in the midst of setbacks, hurdles and fears. With Mothers Day approaching, the L.A. Sentinel reached out to three first ladies who reaffirmed the power of God to protect, guide and bless those who believe on the name of Jesus.

Here are their responses to the question: What spiritual words of encouragement can you share with Black mothers dealing with challenging circumstances?

ADVERTISEMENT

First Lady Dr. Betty Price of Crenshaw Christian Center: God is real, Jesus is real, and the Holy Spirit is real. Mothers should trust their childrens lives to God by faith, and He will help them overcome any circumstances.

Psalm 37:4 says to delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 84:11 says no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Jesus said in John 15:5 that without Him you can do nothing.

So trust your children to Jesus; He will help you with them.

First Lady Myesha Chaney of Antioch Church of Long Beach: You are doing it. You are waking up every day and jumping in the race of life.

Even in difficult times, you continue to move forward. You care for your family, community, and you still find time to serve your church.

God sees you and deeply cares for you. You are not alone. There is hope, healing, and strength in the One who holds this world in his hand.

ADVERTISEMENT

Be encouraged. Your story is still being written.

First Lady Lashawnda Jackson of Bryant Temple AME Church

To all of our Black mothers caring for our families, be encouraged and know that with God, we can make it.

As mothers, we go through trials and tribulations, but rejoice in knowing that God is still in control.

We must trust in the Lord with all our hearts as it says in Proverbs 3:5-6, I encourage you to continue to stand when everything is falling around you.First Woman Mayor of New Orleans Takes Oath of Office

The first woman to hold the job of New Orleans mayor since the city was founded 300 years ago was sworn in Monday.

LaToya Cantrell focused on the symbolic meaning of her winning the office in her inaugural speech. We broke every kind of glass ceiling, Cantrell told a jubilant crowd in the citys Mahalia Jackson Theater. After 300 years, dont you think its about time a woman was in charge?

Cantrell repeatedly said shell need the help of all residents to meet challenges that include addressing the needs of an aging city water, sewerage and storm drainage system and lagging economic opportunity for black people and businesses in a majority-black city. Far too many of our people are still left behind, said Cantrell, an African-American woman, originally from Los Angeles, who came to New Orleans to attend historically black Xavier University.

ADVERTISEMENT

History also was made at the ceremony when City Council members were sworn in. One, Cindy Nguyen, is the first Vietnamese council member.

The ceremony was presided over by Donna Brazile, the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman and New Orleans native. It ended with Cantrell, elected officials and hundreds in the audience strolling out to brass band music in a traditional New Orleans second line parade.

Cantrell succeeds term-limited fellow Democrat Mitch Landrieu, whom she credited in her speech with bringing progress to the city he took over in 2010. She leaves behind a City Council post she won in 2012.

Before that, she was a neighborhood activist in the citys Broadmoor area, which was among those hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She was widely credited with helping to scuttle a city proposal to turn the badly flooded area into green space.

She was elected mayor in November.

Her day began with a service at the historic St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter. Evening events include a reception for veterans at the National World War II Museum followed by the inaugural ball at Mardi Gras World, a venue on the Mississippi River where iconic Carnival season floats are stored.

ADVERTISEMENT

Aside from infrastructure needs and a lingering crime problem, Cantrell also is dealing with an investigation of city finances. The probe by Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry began after Cantrells runoff opponent in November accused her of misusing her City Council credit card. The allegations didnt stop her from winning 60 percent of the vote over Desiree Charbonnet, a member of a powerful New Orleans political family.

Landry said in a statement last week that his investigation is still active. That was followed by a statement from Cantrell communications director Beau Tidwell, which said that contrary to what Landrys statement insinuates, the findings of his staff completely exonerate Mayor-elect Cantrell.Howard University Medical Student Is Making A Difference

Every now and then, there is someone who comes along that makes a difference in the community. Ladera Heights native, Shannon Sullivan will begin her 3rd year of medical school at Howard University College of Medicine (HUCM) in Washington, D.C. this July and is a M.D. Candidate for the class of 2020. She studying to help make sure new generations survive their entry into this world.

Neonatology is a subspecialty of pediatrics involved in the care of newborns, including those who were born prematurely and have congenital diseases, among a wide array of other illness and diseases, said Sullivan. From my perspective, neonatology can give newborns a chance to thrive, especially with all of the technological and medical advancements that have been made over the years, such as the discovery and development of synthetic pulmonary surfactant to help premature infants breathe.

Shes known since age 12 that working in the medical field was where she would fulfill her purpose. Sullivan found out she was born prematurely at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Cedars-Sinai. After learning about her struggle to survive at birth, she knew what she wanted to do with her life.

ADVERTISEMENT

I was born 3 months early, with both my mother and I fighting for our lives, said Sullivan. I spent a year requiring oxygen therapy.

She continued, My love and curiosity for science and medicine never wavered from my childhood. When I was in 9th grade, I emailed Dr. Charles Simmons, Chair of Pediatrics and Director of Neonatology at Cedars-Sinai, expressing my budding interest in neonatology.

That marked the beginning of a mentorship that continues to this day.

Sullivan was a teen volunteer in the NICU administrative office and completed three research internships. She has been a part of the Cedars-Sinai Teen Volunteer Program, which places teens in clerical and clinical areas of the hospital to interact with patients, answer phones and perform other helpful services. After high school, Sullivan attended Columbia University in New York, earning a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering in 2014. Sullivan entered the program and served as a pediatrics research intern through July 2015.

A busy student at Howard University, Sullivan shared a little bit about her schedule.

There isnt an average day in medical school, because we are all involved in a different school and extracurricular activities throughout the day, said Sullivan. In addition to morning lectures, we have interactive small group sessions where we reinforce what weve learned and apply it to clinical scenarios.

She continued, In medical school, I have been able to immerse myself into the field in so many ways inside and outside the classroom.

With every opportunity I have had, my love and passion for medicine grows.

ADVERTISEMENT

While pursuing her dreams has never been in doubt, the road towards her goals havent been easy. Like with any pursuit in life, there have been challenges along the way, but Sullivan has met them and overcome them. She spoke on some of those challenges shes faced.I have encountered teachers, friends, and strangers who judged me and doubted my abilities based on my identity as a female and/or minority, said Sullivan. Their thoughts used to negatively affect me.

She added, Through my personal and professional growth within the Los Angeles-based Association of Black Women Physicians (ABWP) as a pre-med student, and now as part of the HUCM family, the ABWP and HUCM communities have helped me to wholeheartedly believe in my potential as a future physician and provided opportunities for students to not only succeed but also reach back and pull the next person up.

Daily, I aim to be a more open-minded and compassionate person. I seek to encourage underrepresented minorities to keep striving for their goals, regardless of any doubts they or others may have.

Sullivan took some time to explain the importance of Neonatology and the importance of her research and work to the community.

Much research has been done about statistics of prematurity, access to prenatal health care, and health disparities over the years, said Sullivan. From my perspective, neonatology can give newborns a chance to thrive, especially with all of the technological and medical advancements that have been made over the years, such as the discovery and development of synthetic pulmonary surfactant to help premature infants breathe.

She continued, During my time in the NICU as a Research Intern at Cedars-Sinai, I worked on projects that could further improve the neonatal outcomes. For example, I contributed to a project focused on the development of non-invasive, neonatal acoustic gastrointestinal (GI) biosensors that would measure acoustic signals from the GI tract of newborns. We hypothesized that a quantifiable biomarker of neonatal GI motility would help facilitate the standardization of feeding practices and improve clinical management of NICU patients.

Before that, in my senior year at Columbia, I worked on a senior design project in which my group designed, built, and tested a continuous fetal monitoring device in order to improve the quality of life and increase patients access to treatment in low-resource countries.

Sullivan is making a difference in the medical field and is no doubt an inspiration to many around her. There are many youth in the community who are interested in pursuing careers in medicine. She shared some advice with how they should go about starting those careers.

Pursuing medicine is a long road that required commitment, dedication, and perseverance, said Sullivan.

Not everyone has a straight path, and that is completely ok. I tell my mentees often that whatever they choose to do should be because they have an interest or passion  not because they feel it is what they should do or to check boxes or to fulfill someone elses wishes.

I hope students interested in medicine can pursue their interests and passions whether its in scientific research, clinical research, volunteering, music, fashion, sports, writing, film-making, etc. because these experiences will add to your story as a future medical student and as a future physician.

Find a mentor (or several) and maintain a relationship with them to discuss your life and career goals, dreams, and plans. Having a support system is important in your medical journey.Supv. Ridley-Thomas Pushes County to Publicize Contract Opportunities in Minority Publications

Recently, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and the County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors spearheaded a motion to create policy for placing classified advertisements to publicize the countys contracting opportunities in local newspapers and weeklies.

The motion comes from concerns of newspapers like the Sentinel, being left out of an over $6 billion dollar contract in which the county spends for goods and services.

In late April, local publications were invited to weigh in on the benefits that the policy would have and to show support for the motion. Some of the newspapers and weeklies in attendance were the Los Angeles Sentinel Managing Editor, Brandon Brooks, La Opinion Newspaper, and PACE News.

ADVERTISEMENT

The reading of the agenda item began with Ridley-Thomas providing those in the room with background information on the motion.

In recent years the board has thoughtfully enacted reforms to the countys contracting policies, said Ridley-Thomas.

These reforms aim to leverage the countys purchasing power and the way that cultivates a more equitable economy.

Ridley-Thomas stated that he would like the county contracts to support the vitality of small businesses and social enterprises, foster more minority-owned and women-owned business opportunities, increase opportunities for veterans, extend employment to people with convictions amongst other things.

PACE News Founder/President, Dr. Gloria Zuurveen, spoke next, followed by Brooks.

This is a subject very near and dear to not only myself but as I said, to our entire staff. The L.A. Sentinel is celebrating its 85th year this year, and that is very historic. We are very proud to be an institution of the community and a support system, said Brooks.

I always say, educate, inform, and inspire and I think thats our duty every day. This is about social justice, about inclusion, about equity, and this is an opportunity for us to partner in the right way. I dont believe we are looking for by any means a blank check or a handout as someone would say. We are looking for an opportunity or a fair share of opportunities to promote and to amplify these opportunities that you all have.

ADVERTISEMENT

Brooks goes on to say that these contract opportunities are in the communities where publications similar to the Sentinel, represent. He also mentioned the economic empowerment behind the Taste of Soul Family Festival and the evolution of the way in which news is disseminated.

[Taste of Soul] gives vendors an opportunity to showcase their businesses in front of thousands and thats just a taste of the community, I believe we represent on a daily and weekly basis. We have also evolved with our community by offering the Anytime, Anywhere campaign (we have a website and a mobile app) and we are able now to meet our consumers in a market where they need to be met.

Brooks closed with touching on the contract being a prime opportunity to work with the county.

In the motion, Ridley-Thomas discusses the importance of contracting these opportunities to help increase the economic impact of the large amount of goods and services the county obtains.

As such, it is appropriate to evaluate the current process for conducting outreach and publicizing county contract opportunities to ensure that they are achieving the intended goals.

The motion requested that the Board of Supervisors direct the Chief of Executive Officer, in consultation with the Director of the Department of Internal Services and County Counsel, to report back in writing in 30 days with the following:

The process that thecountyof Los Angeles (County) employs to select websites and print publications to advertise county contract opportunities, including the factors considered when deciding whether or not to post an advertisement The websites and print publications regularly used to advertise contract opportunities with thecounty The mechanism used to determine whether posted opportunities are effectively maximizing outreach to prospective vendors, and are intentionally including all segments of the population And a recommended policy to ensure regular updates to thecountys publicizing process to promote greater access and awareness of county contract opportunities.

The motion was moved by Ridley-Thomas and seconded Supervisor Hilda Solis, as amended, resulting in the motion being passed unanimously. Many publications believe the Board of Supervisors motion is a great start and a step in the right direction in creating diversity in contracting opportunities at the county level.Local Black Leaders Announce Support of Villaraigosa for Governor

On Thursday, May 3, 2018 a press conference was held at the Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper announcing the support of former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor. Villaraigosa was surrounded by faith and community leaders, and local prominent political leaders from the City of Carson, Inglewood, and Compton.

The press conference began with an opening prayer from Xavier Thompson, President of Baptist Ministers Conference. The event continued with remarks from Los Angeles Sentinel Executive Publisher, Danny J. Bakewell, Sr., Los Angeles City Council President, Herb Wesson, Compton Mayor Aja Brown, Inglewood Mayor James Butts, and Carson Mayor Pro Tem, Jawane Hilton.

Next, Wesson alongside Councilmembers Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Curren Price, took to the podium to pledge their support for Villaraigosa.

ADVERTISEMENT

On behalf of Marqueece, Curren, and I, it is an honor to be here in the midst of such great leaders and activists in the community where we live and the community that we love, said Wesson.

In life you dont agree with people all of the time and Lord knows I have not always agreed with Governor Brown. But I can say this. This state is much better off since he has been here. He was the kind of governor who doesnt read polls. He doesnt check the temperature as to how the wind blows. He was a leader and its important for us to ensure that we have an individual in Sacramento that is not afraid to lead. I submit to each and every single one of you, that that person is Antonio Villaraigosa.

Wesson goes on to say, that friendship has nothing to do with his reasoning for supporting the former mayor.

I have friends that I love that I wouldnt send to the store to get a loaf of bread, he said.

I support him because Antonio realizes that governing is not about doing what you want to do. Governing is about doing what you have to do. Leadership is about taking people places where they dont think they want to go. Leadership is about telling people the things that they need to know, not the things that they want to hear. So, Im proud to stand here with Councilmen Curren Price and Marqueece Harris-Dawson, from the great city of Los Angeles, to pledge our support to Antonio Villaraigosa.

In closing, Price urged residents to vote and stated that he believes the people of Southern California, the City of Los Angeles, and Blacks, hold the key to this election.

Inglewood Mayor Butts, accompanied by his two councilmembers, George Dotson and Ralph Franklin spoke next. Followed by Compton Mayor Brown and her delegation from the City of Compton, Councilmembers Janna Zurita and Tana McCoy, and Satra Zurita from the Compton School Board.

He is a man who wants results, said Butts.

ADVERTISEMENT

When I came to the airport we were one of the lowest entities in safety and when I left, we were rated number one by TSA. There are so many cities in this country that are now on the verge of bankruptcy because of unfunded liabilities. Because elected officials dont have the guts to do what needs to be done to right the ship. Antonio Villaraigosa, and I know from personal experience working for him, that he is a results oriented person that will continue the legacy of Governor Brown in righting the ship here in California. More importantly, he will make sure that everyone in this state gets to enjoy the fruits and the prosperity of this state.

Mayor Brown stated that she wants a governor who has walked the streets of Southern California and understands the issues of Black and Brown people.

Homelessness is at an all-time high and economic development is threatening the viability of our state. When affordable transportation and accessible transportation to our region is something thats critical to our future, we need someone who understands the Southland. Someone who has had boots on the ground, that can empathize with our community and is not afraid to walk our streets and understands our issues and will fight for Southern California. I am pleased to offer our support from the City of Compton, to the future governor of the great state of California, Antonio Villaraigosa, she said.

Hilton, accompanied by his delegation from the City of Carson, Councilman Cedric Hicks, spoke next.

We will do everything in our power to make sure Antonio gets elected, said Hilton.

[Sometimes], when people get elected, they dont remember who got them there. Antonio is the one who always remembered who got him there and we will do everything we can, everything possible, to get him that seat.

Other community and faith leaders who were also in attendance to show their support for Villaraigosa included: Sweet Alice Harris from the Parents of Watts, Kalid Shaw from Stop the Violence, Increase the Peace, Tracy Mitchell from Mothers in Action, Rev. Chip Murray from FAME (retired), Bishop Blake from West Los Angeles, Minister Tony Muhammad from the Nation of Islam, Pastor Wade from Mt. Moriah (retired), Rev. J. Edgar Boyd from FAME, Marc Little from Faithful Central, Rev. Daryl Barnes from Paradise Baptist, Bishop Noel Jones from City of Refuge, Rev. Bernard Jackson from Phillips Temple CME, Rev. Rank Oliver from Power of Faith, Commissioner Cheryl Turner, Commissioner Felicia Brannon, Commissioner Gail Willis, Commissioner Bill Funderburk.

The press conference continued with a campaign speech from Villaraigosa.

Over the 25 years I have been in public office, I [have] received a lot of endorsements. Some of them I knew very well, some of them not so well but they took a chance on me. But what I am so proud of today, is the fact that these are the people that I have worked with, not for one or two or three years. Many of the people here I have worked with for three and four decades. Not just when I was in office but in 1980 when Mark Ridley-Thomas, we started the Latino-Black round-table, said Villaraigosa.

Villaraigosa goes on to say that without ongoing support from the city and local leaders, he would not have been mayor.

My entire life, I have understood to whom much is given, much is expected. I have always acknowledged that whether I am in the African American community, at the Democratic Convention, in mostly Angelo communities, he said.

Im here today because there was a Civil Rights Act. Im here today because there was a Voting Rights Act. Im here today because people fought for my right to be able to run, and I know that and this community opened up a door for me. I never would have been Mayor of Los Angeles.

If elected into office, some of the issues Villaraigosa plans to tackle are homelessness an affordable housing.

If you notice one of the things about this campaign and they have talked a lot about it in the debates, is that I show up. Im present and accounted for. You dont see me in this neighborhood and this community and Im running for governor, said Villaraigosa in response to why residents should vote for him as opposed to one of his opponents, Lieutenant Governor of California, Gavin Newsom.

You see me in every part of the state that needs a leader that says, I value you, I respect you. I believe if we are going to be great, we have to grow together.

Visit www.lasentinel.net to check out our one-on-one interview with Villaraigosa. For the latest election news follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and download our mobile app.Local Nurse Brings Seminar to South L.A. Residents

On Saturday, May 19, the Nurses Pub Foundation will be hosting a nurse recruiting seminar, Walking the Red Carpet to A Successful Nursing Career from 124 p.m. at the Old Library at 1501 East 103rd Street Los Angeles, CA 90002 . Admission is free for students and housing community residents as well as local WorkSource career center students. Doors open at 11:30 a.m.

Walking the Red Carpet is designed to promote walking from a lower socioeconomic economy into economic development, walking into professionalism, walking into a higher self-esteem and future success, said Mona Clayton, MSN, RN and CEO of Nurses 2 Rock Pub and The Nurses Pub Foundation. Nursing gave me a way out of financial dependence and more autonomy for me and my daughter.

Clayton continued, We encourage everyone attending to come dressed in business casual attire or their professional uniforms for the official red carpet.

ADVERTISEMENT

The event aims to promote success in the job market and get away from the mentality of getting a job and more about having a career. Clayton wants to introduce the community to the lucrative world of nursing and how lives are transformed for families especially single mothers.

My life was transformed as a single parent when I became divorced and it was my goal to be able to provide for my daughter despite any obstacles or setbacks during her childhood, said Clayton.

Joining forces with the Los Angeles Housing Authority, Work Source (Watts/LA) and other seasoned nursing professionals for this event, Clayton spoke on her partnerships. She was strategic in her choices and hopes to make a positive impact in a community in need.

I was able to get in contact with Mr. John King who is an executive at the Housing Authority, said Clayton. [He] was extremely instrumental in connecting us with the Los Angeles Work Source and Councilman Joe Buscainos office, in addition [to] helping to find the venue for our event.

She continued, I was driving down Central Avenue after meeting with the school executives at Maxine Waters and noticed the Housing Community and thought this would be a great place to target our event. For housing residents and nearby schoolsmaybe there are many single mothers that may need an opportunity and a boost of encouragement or motivation.

Celebrity stand-up comedian, Taquita Love, who is a pediatric oncology and research nurse, will be performing at the event. Love has been featured on Funny or Die and Laughs on Fox.

ADVERTISEMENT

The event will also include a panel discussion and Q&A session from seasoned nursing professionals.

Nurses are the gatekeepers and we actually are the main line of defense for medical errors and we educate the public and patients and their families, said Clayton. Nurses are the source of compassion that sit at the bedside with dying patients and comfort sobbing families when the outcome is not optimal.

Clayton encourages the community to take advantage of the event. Anyone interested in the career, seasoned nurses and other professionals that may want to transition into nursing, high school students there will be something for everyone. She also feels that nurses are health care celebrities that often dont get that recognition so the significance of the red carpet also is for the future nursing students and seasoned nurses to get a taste of the Red Carpet celebrity lifestyle.

We look forward to changing lives in a major way and to having many future events for the community, said Clayton.

Lunch will be provided but everyone must register via the website www.thenursespub.org click on upcoming events tab or call (562) 537-1646. Event link: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/the-nurses-pubtm-foundaton-11420247027NEWMARKET, Ontario, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AirBoss of America Corp. (TSX:BOS) (the "Company"), announced today that the nominees listed in the April 9, 2018 Notice of Meeting and Management Information Circular of the Company were elected as directors of the Company at the Annual General and Special Meeting held earlier today in Aurora, Ontario (the "Meeting"). Detailed results of the vote for the election of directors, the appointment of auditors and the approval of unallocated awards under the Companys 2015 Omnibus Incentive Plan are set out below.



Election of Directors

Nominee Votes For % For Votes Withheld % Withheld Robert L. Hagerman 17,037,015 99.97 4,400 0.03 Mary Matthews 16,901,664 99.18 139,750 0.83 Robert McLeish 16,798,780 98.58 242,635 1.42 Brian A. Robbins 17,037,926 99.98 3,489 0.02 P. Grenville Schoch 17,036,702 99.97 4,713 0.03 Alan J. Watson 17,037,702 99.98 3,713 0.02

Appointment of KPMG LLP as Auditors

Total Votes Percentage of Votes Cast Votes For 17,499,966 99.99% Votes Withheld 2,310 0.01%

Approval of Unallocated Awards under the Companys Omnibus Incentive Plan

Total Votes Percentage of Votes Cast Votes For 12,173,248 71.76% Votes Against 4,790,353 28.24%Park Hills Features Bell-Inge at 31st Annual Womens Day

Park Hills Community Church, Reformed Church in America, will celebrate their 31st Annual Womens Day on Sunday, May 20, at 11 a. m. The theme is Women of God, Believing in the Power of Prayer and Praise, based on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24.

The Rev. Lawrence K. Dove is the senior minister and the Rev. Dr. Arnetha E. Bell-Inge, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Compton will be the guest preacher.

An ordained Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Inge previously served at Lynwood United Methodist Church and as an associate minister at Bethel AME Church. Also, she is an adjunct professor at the University of La Verne where she teaches Religious Studies.

ADVERTISEMENT

Inge completed her Master of Divinity degree at Claremont School of Theology and received her Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary. In addition, she serves on the board of ordained ministry in the AME Church Southern California Conference and on the board of Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches.

Dr. Hansonia Caldwell Harriford, a retired professor of music at CSU Dominguez Hills, will direct the Womens Day Chorus. She directed the chorus at 11 previous Womens Day services.

Harriford, who serves as minister of music at Knox Presbyterian Church, also directed and produced the award-winning documentary, Amen: The Life and Music of Jester Hairston.

Minister Yolanda Dove, president of Park Hills Womens Ministries, and Mrs. Reva Turner, Womens Day chairperson, invite the community to attend the worship and reception following the service.

Park Hills Community Church is located at 5247 Overdale Drive in Los Angeles. For information, call the church office at (323) 294-1421 or visit parkhillsrca.org.PRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL FOR BLACKS

First of two parts

(The following paper was presented in April 2011 at a UC Santa Barbara conference, California Dreamin: Social Vision and The Crisis of Californias African American Communities. Clearly, the major barriers to Blacks progress have not changed and the recent spike in police killing young Black men is only the tip of the iceberg.)

ADVERTISEMENT

Things have gone from bad to worse, yet efforts to develop and sustain unity among Black leadership is distressingly lacking. Blacks tend not to hold their leaders accountable, which adds to an unwillingness to change their self-serving behavior. Having internalized Americas values without full access to its benefits, both the community and Black leadership are reluctant to challenge the oppressive racist status quo.

In Los Angeles, as in other metropolitan areas, a host of pressing issues range from public schools failing to educate Black children and racial targeting, to violence and pervasive poverty. (Although schools continue to fail Black students, Black educators and other Black leaders remain conspicuously silent.) Black leadership also skirts the thorny issue of immigration which is mired in distrust, but has the increasingly remote potential for mutually beneficial Black-Latino collaboration.

Heavily Latino SEIU Local 1877 was the (reluctant?) incubator for launching a new Black security officers union and the LA County Federation of Labor has, at times, supported efforts to increase Black membership. Still, the overall employment picture remains bleak for Blacks, and without being an equal at labors decision-making tables, their sub-status will not change. (The fledgling Black Workers Center in Los Angeles deserves support as a potentially strong conduit for recruiting and helping to train and place Black workers in good jobs.) Black and Latino leaders, when pressed, profess interest in working together, but have rarely done so on a sustained basis, in recent years. Obviously this makes collaboration extremely difficult.

Blacks failure to hold its leaders accountable has spawned a host of self-serving, so-called leaders. Many are ambulance chasers and/or pay-for-view civil rights activists who surface at high-profile media venues. Many are pawns of mainstream media; some even specialize in exploiting the emotions of murdered victims loved. Occasionally, these frauds endanger lives, which happened when a self-annointed negotiator claimed to have brokered a gang truce; a young Black man was shot as a result of the bogus claim.

To better understand the barriers and potential solutions for improving Black leadership, historical antecedents must be understood and given proper weight. Black oppression in this country is with parallel- the only exception is the massive desecration of Native Americans life and culture. The impact of Americas brutal treatment of African slaves and calculated systemic efforts to totally wipe out their culture are scarcely noted outside of the Black community. In fact, slave masters meant to strip slaves of every vestige of positive human attributes, e.g., family, language, history and cultureall designed to ensure subservience. Blacks have always fought such efforts with indomitable resilience, but that resilience has been seriously challenged by conditioned inferiority. Nonetheless, Blacks have managed to rebound in the face of enormous odds. This stems, in large measure, from their ancient history of caring, communal and ethical values, shared responsibility and respectall the antithesis of Americas individualism and materialism.

Psychological conditioning, codified in both law and custom, was designed to seal Blacks sub-human-status. One of the most insidious legacies of slavery is self-hate, still prevalent, especially among poor inner-city Black youth. Black leaders are typically silent on hard issues and tend to be only episodically outraged, even over the most egregious offenses against the Black community. Countless examples include brutality by law enforcement, showcased in high profile cases like Rodney King (Los Angeles), Donovan Jackson (Inglewood) and the murder of Oscar Grant (Oakland). (More recently, Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown etc., etc.)

ADVERTISEMENT

The growing chasm between middle-class and poorer Blacks also adds to the difficulty in achieving political and economic clout i.e., marshaling sufficient pressure to bring about real change. Even the re-emergence of extreme conservatism has not generated a collective response from Black leadership. The Tea Party Movement, coupled with continuing systemic inequities, underscore the need for caring, effective Black leadership. However, these days, collaboration and unity are largely confined to rhetoric by Black leaders whose main priority seems to be keeping their jobs rather than serving the community..

Challenges constantly collide and collude, impeding Black progress in the ongoing struggle for justice. Continuing formidable barriers would have proven fatal long ago but for Blacks storied resilience. But resilience alone is not sufficient and Black leadership must begin anew to assume its role and responsibility as servants of the people.

Ineffective, self-serving leadership and its cohort, disunity, have crippled Black peoples minds and political strength. Therefore, leaders must move from individual to group-orientation which is essential, for effectively collaborating with other groups and can only be done from positions of strength, not weakness. Black leaders must again demonstrate the will and integrity necessary to meet the needs of their constituents.

The ethical, moral and political agendas of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, for example, must be revived because as commentator Bruce Dixon intones, Many Black leaders are unwilling or unable to defend the opportunities that made their emergence possible. The Black community must insist that its leaders again embrace moral and ethical values as an indispensable part of Black life and an imperative for a great and resilient people.

[email protected]Rightfully Remembering Malcolm and Martin: Living Lives of Service and Sacrifice (PT 1)

Part 1. The troubled, troubling and taxing times in which we live, and the rugged, racist and treacherous terrain on which we fight demand more from us than episodic engagement, convenient contributions and controlled anger from the edges. Indeed, the life and death of Min. Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and all our other honored ancestors who gave their lives in service and sacrifice for us and the advancement of human good taught this fundamental lesson. It is that we must always be at the center of our own lives, at the heart of our own struggle and in the vanguard of the rightful struggles to radically confront and transform this society, contributing meaningfully to the righteous remaking of the world. But as our foremother Maria Stewart taught us, we must enter the field of action with open eyes, focused minds and unbreakable wills.

For as the evidence and insights of history and the teaching and lives of Malcolm and Martin have taught, the armed guardians of the established order will come for us, come to instill fear in us, to capture, confine, kill and crush us. And they will do this under the cover and camouflage of law and with the support of media messages designed to indict, discredit, and isolate all those who resist and to render them intellectually and politically irrelevant and yet personally and socially dangerous. Indeed, in the midst of our standing up and stepping forward, it will become clear that at virtually every site of power in the system, there is social policy and socially sanctioned practice to condemn and crush righteous resistance.

It is at this point that the ultimate sacrifice and martyrdom of Min. Malcolm X, February 21, 1965 and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4, 1968, and the morality of service and sacrifice they taught and lived offer us a model and map of the way forward. Surely, most of us will never have to make a choice of ultimate sacrifice, but we are compelled by our history, culture and circumstance to serve well and sacrifice when and where we are needed and able. To fully appreciate the lessons in the morality of service and sacrifice Min. Malcolm and Rev. King taught and lived, we must not think of their death as simply an assassination. For although we can rightly refer to their deaths as assassination, assassination indicates only what the assassins did; what the oppressor and his collaborators, enemies of Black and human freedom, did. And thus, it leaves out a lifetime of what Malcolm and King did, the many and varied sacrifices of a lifetime and of their very lives.

ADVERTISEMENT

Also, failing to focus on their sacrifice, we would miss the lessons of their martyrdom and the expansive meaning of their lives, as well as their conscious and committed choice to give the wholeness of their lives to their people, to the liberation movement. And we would pass over their unbreakable commitment to the ancient African ethical imperative to bear witness to truth and set the scales of justice in their proper place, especially among the voiceless, devalued, vulnerable and oppressed regardless of the cost or consequences, including the laying down of their lives.

This is why in 1966, we of Us named February 21st Siku ya Dhabihu, the Day of Sacrifice, a day to commemorate the awesome ultimate sacrifice Malcolm made for us, for our Movement and to open up a new horizon of African and human history. And we called for the students, workers and all others to stay away from school and work in commemoration and to come to the headquarters of Us for a rally of remembrance and continued resistance. And in 1968, Us, along with other members of the Black Congress, a united front of which we were a founding member, held a memorial rally of remembrance and continued resistance for Dr. King in the wake of his martyrdom in April of that year. We formed a wider front calling it the Operation Unity Committee for the rally, even though the Black Congress was inclusive of the major activist organizations in the city and county of L.A. I had introduced the concept of operational unity, unity in diversity, unity without uniformity on a national level at the first National Black Power Conference in Newark, NJ in 1967, although it was a part of Kawaida philosophy and practice since 1965.

In both the commemoration rallies of remembrance and resistance for Malcolm and King, we stressed the moral and social significance of their service and sacrifice for our people and our struggle. And we called on our people to continue and increase the struggle, live the values for which we love and honor them and through our love, work and struggle keep alive and pass on this awesome legacy.

To commemorate and celebrate the life, leadership and legacy of Min. Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., then, we must take into critical account their recognition and respect of the moral significance and social necessity of service and sacrifice. Indeed, our respect and love of them is rooted especially in our profound appreciation for their teaching and living a morality of sacrifice in the service of our people and in the pursuit of freedom, justice and other human good for us and the world.

To serve is to do good for others and to be of positive use to them in varied and countless ways. And to sacrifice means to give up something of value for the sake of others or for something valued that causes hardship, deprivation or runs the risk of harm, injury or death. There are several reasons we sacrifice, including: to build character; fulfill obligations; achieve goals; bond with each other; build community; bear witness to truth regardless; and to wage and win struggles, especially regardless of costs and consequences to ourselves. And all of these are interrelated contributions to creating and sustaining good in the world.

It is important to note, however, that what they taught and how they lived their lives of service and sacrifice is deeply rooted in Africancontinental and diasporanintellectual, political and religious history and culture. It is an ethical tradition that reaches back in time to the ancient African spiritual and ethical texts such as The Husia and Odu Ifa and is passed on thru the lives and lessons learned from ancestors like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, Mary McLeod Bethune, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Barker, to Malcolm X and Martin King.

ADVERTISEMENT

These conceptions of the moral and social necessity of service and sacrifice are derived from the ancient African ethical understanding that to live is to have relations with others and thus obligations to them. Indeed, to live is to come into being, survive, thrive and flourish through and with others and thus to incur mutual obligations to each other in various ways. Is this not the meaning of John Mbitis interpretation I am because we are, and because we are, therefore I am? Is not this position also affirmed in the ubuntu insightngingumuntu ngabantuI am a person through other people? And certainly, it is reaffirmed in the Kawaida contention that I am related and relate; therefore I am. Given this fundamental ethical understanding, a central part to our coming into being, honoring our obligations and flourishing as Africans and human beings is to become self-consciously capable and committed relational human beings. And at the heart of all this are service and sacrifice for each other, especially in troubled times and urgent and ongoing struggle.

Dr. Maulana Karenga, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, California State University-Long Beach; Executive Director, African American Cultural Center (Us); Creator of Kwanzaa; and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture and Essays on Struggle: Position and Analysis,

www.AfricanAmericanCulturalCenter-LA.org; www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org; www.MaulanaKarenga.org.Scholarship Honors Legacy of Compton Youth Minister

The late Minister Arturo DaNaire Frazier will continue to uplift others through the establishment of an annual scholarship in his name.

Thanks to the efforts of Fraziers mother, Roni Gatus, and his prayer partner, Minister Yvonne Camper, the Arturo Frazier Scholarship Foundation will surprise two Centennial High School seniors with a $2,500 award to assist with college expenses.

Arturos passion was the youth, so to continue his legacy, we raised over $5,000 to fund the scholarships in his honor, said Gatus, who joined with family members and Camper to organize a gala fundraising event earlier this year.

ADVERTISEMENT

Fraziers life tragically ended Dec. 11, when a driver on Atlantic Avenue stuck him. He had just left Unity Christian Fellowship Church and was crossing the street to reach his own car when the vehicle hit him.

According to his sister, Tyoni Reed, The driver stopped immediately and gave assistance. They called the police and they cooperated with the authorities. When emergency crews arrived, they found Frazier unresponsive and soon pronounced him dead.

However, Frazier touched many young people and adults throughout the Southland. His funeral drew over 2,000 people paying their respects, said Gatus.

A popular preacher in the Los Angeles area, Frazier was born and raised in Compton and graduated from Centennial High. He revealed that he received his call to ministry in 1994 and was ordained as a youth minister at Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church in Compton and directed the churchs Save Our Youth Today and Tomorrow program. When he passed away, Frazier was the youth minister at Full Harvest International Church led by Bishop Clarence C. McClendon.

He graduated from Southern University where he earned a degree in Business Management. Recently, Southern University announced it was presenting a posthumous award to Frazier and making him an honorary member of the schools top 40 students.

In addition, Frazier worked for National Housing Services in Compton. He was candidate for the Compton Unified School Board in 2015 and previously served as a project manager for Los Angeles Urban League and as a staffer for several local, state and federal elected officials.

ADVERTISEMENT

God used him in a mighty way. Everyone thanked me, but it was nothing but God and when it was time to go, it was time to go and I accepted it. It hurts that hes not here, but Im fine, she said.

To keep his memory alive, the family decided to not only hold a 40th birthday party for Arturo in February, but sell tickets as well with the plan of pouring the funds into the nonprofit scholarship foundation.

We will do this every year. Well hold a birthday party in February and in May, when students in our school announce their college awards and honors, Ill surprise two students, said Gatus, who works at Centennial.

We just want to be a blessing to the less fortunate in city of Compton who choose to do well.

To donate to the Arturo Frazier Scholarship Foundation, visit adfscholarshipfund.org.SoCal 1st Business and Professional Women Celebrate 50th Anniversary

The Church of God in Christ Southern California First Jurisdictions Business and Professional Women (BPW) will celebrate the 50th anniversary of BPWs 1968 elevation to a COGIC national auxiliary.

BPW will also salute the appointment of its first president and chairwoman, the late Bessie Christian of Southern California First, and the late Gladys Yizar, as secretary.

The celebration will be held during the Annual Personal Development Conference on Saturday, May 19, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and Resort, 6161 Centinela Ave., in Culver City. The ticket donation is $40.

ADVERTISEMENT

Dr. Wanda Barnett Street, M.D., MPH and BPW chair, and Attorney Sheila Bankhead Grisham, co-chair, will host the event.

The theme of the conference is [email protected]  Equipped, Empowered and Engaged for a New Season.

Lady Lois Cole, BPW vice president emeritus and chair of the Clergy Wives, serves as 2018 honorary chair and will be saluted by the Auxiliary. Frances Miller Harris, international president of the Business and Professional Womens Federation will be the special guest and honored for her years of dedicated service.

The Personal Development Conference will feature Superintendent Isom McCray and Evangelist Cleo Barker, who will present Reflections of Bessie Christian  First Chairwoman of the Business and Professional Women, 1968.

Also, Dr. Tammarra Lewis, Ed.D., will share insight on navigating a career and fulfilling our potential and Evangelist Rochelle Collins, executive director of Cannon House, will speak on Transformation through a Transition House.

Other sessions include Karen Simpson  Mastering and Maximizing the Grant Money Funding Game, Mrs. Celestine Palmer, founder of the Los Angeles African American Womens Law Pac and Policy Institute  Black Women Taking Back the Ballot Box, Dr. Yolanda Dawson, author of Chosen By God, Overlooked by Man,  Parallel Pursuits and Ventures, and Evangelist Mattie Eskridge  Dont just Retire, Rewire and Refire.

ADVERTISEMENT

Former Business and Professional Women honorees as well as the general public are welcome to attend. For more information, call Dr. Street at (951) 787-1952 or Attorney Bankhead Grisham at (323) 293-7737.The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Daphne Maxwell Reid to be honored this May

Whether you grew up as a kid in the 1990s watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air or youre now just tuning into the classic TV sitcom, you are more than familiar with the character Vivian Banks, whose teenage nephew (Will Smith) comes to live with her wealthy family from Philadelphia. Initially played by Janet Hubert-Whitten, Daphne Maxwell Reid reprised the role in the shows fourth season as the beloved matriarch. These days she is a renaissance woman, respected artist, designer, and education activist. Working from her home in Virginia, and still happily married to pioneering actor, producer, writer and director Tim Reid (WKRP in Cincinnati, and Sister, Sister), Reid is living proof that a passion for creativity and a dedication to hard work can ensure a lifetimes worth of success.

In an interview with Reid, I was given the opportunity to get her thoughts on how she found stardom as a model and actress, and if she still keeps in touch with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air cast.

Reids creative journey began as a child in the Bronx where she was encouraged to pursue her passions and gain a sense of responsibility. I grew up knowing that I could be anything I wanted to be, but I also learned the joy and responsibility of working, said the actress.

ADVERTISEMENT

Before taking her place in front of the camera, the budding talent found her place at Northwestern University (NU) in the 1960s. It was during the heart of the Civil Rights Movement that Reid took a stand against the lack of educational resources that were not available to Black students at NU.

Reid began her journey as an activist May 3, 1968, joining her student body where more than 100 undergraduate and graduate students occupied the Bursars Office in the first major sit-in at Chicagos Northwestern University. The peaceful protest lasted 36 hours and led to University leaders negotiating with students, committing to enhance services and support for Black students as well as a Black Student Union, known as The Black House for NU.

On being a part of history, I grew up in a family where my mother was always protesting or standing up for something or for someones rights and when I told her that we were taking over the Bursars office, she said just let me know if you need bail money. I just knew what they were asking for was what the school needed and I said Im in. We went in and took over the building and ask the people to leave and they did and we locked the doors from the inside and shut the school down for a couple of days.

As an advocate, Reid was a part of a fabric of demonstrators that took action against injustice that is still seen in todays social and political climate.

On being considered a pioneer for her advocacy, she states, I was just going on about my business. I knew I could do anything I wanted to do and I decided to do that, and acted on it with courage and integrity, and I got that pioneer label, she said.

Breaking new barriers is nothing new for Reid, who decades ago was #Blackgirlmagic, becoming the first African American homecoming queen at Northwestern University. It was an honor for Reid who did not expect to win, nor the backlash she received for the title. I still wonder how that happened, she laughed. I was elected and it was as much as a surprise to me as it was to them. I was not celebrated, I was kind of shunned and disrespected, but I carried the title with my head up high. They didnt place me in the yearbook that year, because they said the homecoming wasnt important that year.

During the 1960s during the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, Black women werent placed at the forefront and celebrated. However, Reid made history again as the first Black model to grace the cover of Glamour magazine (1969). I went in for my shoot, and was instructed by my agent to put on a red jacket, pull my hair to the side, put on mascara and lip gloss and that was it. I was as surprised to see myself on the newsstand as my mama was. They didnt warn me that I was going to be on the cover, I found it on the newsstand and it was cool.

ADVERTISEMENT

The NU student who signed with Eileen Ford modeling agency admitted modeling wasnt something she dreamed of doing, but smiled her way through her career, taking the modeling world by storm.

Inspired by her social and political views, Seventeen Magazine sought out Reid for a feature. They wanted a Black girl to talk about Black Power and I was then selected to be in a real girl issue of Seventeen Magazine. In January of 1967, we did the shoot and I had a full page and a fixture in the magazine, this was during my freshman year of college.

As a model, she parlayed her success into an acting career. With guest starring roles in shows like WKRP in Cincinnati, Hill Street Blues, and Simon and Simon, she first took a lead role on the acclaimed series Franks Place, opposite her husband.

On her journey to Hollywood, I became an actress accidentally while I was modeling in Chicago. A man named Robert Conrad was shooting a television series and my agent sent me over to audition and I got the role. He started my acting career, writing me into the show. I was in the right place at the right time and blessed by the stars and God to be able to perform, said Reid.

The activist, turned actress furthered her career by landing the prime role as Vivian Banks on the hit NBC comedy The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Known to endearing fans as Aunt Viv, the adored matriarch who is successful and an anchor to her family, stated It was big fun! I had been doing a lot other television series and was blissfully titillating away my time on my new farm in Virginia, when they had asked me to audition for the show when it first started. They said its a new half-hour sitcom with a rapper and I was like ah, no thank you very much, and didnt audition.

However, Reid had a change of heart when the show aired, stating it was a great show. Fate came knocking at her door three years later and she was again asked to audition for the role. I got on the first plane smokin. It took me two and a half weeks to secure that role, but I was so blessed that I was able to do it, she stated.

On how it was working with the cast, I fell in love with actor James Avery (played the character of Philip Banks), he was just the most wonderful partner to work with. He and his wife and my husband and I had a great relationship together. It was a wonderful time, she said. The cast was fabulous, they welcomed me like I had been there all along. It was the most comfortable transition that I have ever made.

She landed the role, coming in as the second actress to play the character for seasons 4 -6, replacing Janet Hubert-Whitten who was first cast as Banks. Although both actresses carried out the role on the show, the controversy surrounding Reid and Hubert-Whitten has always been of interest to fans and the media.

On how it was coming into the 4th season, Im sure there was anger, etc. on Janets part, but I never met the woman, so I dont know. Ive heard her stories; but they never talked about her to me, or the whole situation. The cast embraced her when she was there and they embraced me when I was there. There was no snickering going around, it was just welcome, lets get to work.

Classic 1990s sitcoms are getting a reboot. Full House, Will & Grace and Roseanne have made a return to television, according to multiple reports, many hope The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air will follow suit.

While fingers are crossed for a reboot, Reid is not waiting to catch up with her TV family on-air. We had a reunion last yeara lunch and it was wonderful. I keep up with Averys wife, she is a very good friend of mine, Karyn Parsons who played my eldest daughter, Tatyana Ali and her new baby boy, Alfonso Ribeiro and his family, and I get to see Will every once in a while.

The actress keeps busy as the host of Virginia Currents (PBS), and as a spokesperson and board member for Virginia State University (VSU), doing outreach, public relations, and speaking engagements that allow her to preach the importance of education and career prep for students of color.

As an education activist for Historical Black Colleges and Universities, Reid looks to increase resources for a higher education for Black students. I was very involved in making sure that students got their moneys worth; college is very expensive. I stay active and involved with helping to raise awareness and funds for particular HBCUs that I have been working with.

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Bursars Office Takeover, Reid was honored by the Northwestern University Black Alumni Association (NUBAA) for her participation in the 1968 sit-in, held May 3-6.

I think its lovely, she said. Its going to be the second time that the Black Alumni Association has honored me. They gave me a hall of fame award about eight or nine years ago. This is a wider audience of Black Alumni Association and University Alumni Association and its a bigger honor and I appreciate greatly.

With a lifetime of success, Reid resides with her husband in Virginia, pursuing her lifelong passion for fashion and photography. Taking her creativity to another level, the photographer specializes in fine art photography that features doors and doorways from around the world, including Cuba, Venice, France, China, Germany and Belgium. She is an author to memoir and cookbook, Grace, Soul and Motherwit: A Cookbook Spiced with Personal Memories.

On pursuing her current projects, I decided at age 60 to start a photography career. I learned how to print my own prints, create my own catalogues and do gallery shows. The journey part was a blast! Its wonderful to keep learning throughout your life and I enjoy it.

With a thriving artist career, she has added clothing designer to her portfolio.

Reid who has been a seamstress for much of her life, created many of her own outfits and costumes as a young actress and model, and has now developed those skills into an exclusive, custom clothing line called Daphne Style, making colorful and versatile Chinese silk brocade jackets that are wearable works of art.

She considers them to be statement pieces and wants her work to be personal projects, not mass manufactured.

Daphne Style wowed audiences at New Yorks fashion week last fall and is featured on her website daphnemaxwellreid.com.

Reid believes in being in control of ones own destiny and having the confidence to live your best life.

I was blessed when I was born, God gave me a lot of wonderful gifts and to be able to share those gifts is what is so fulfilling for me.The Truth About 15-year-old Gun Violence Victim Hannah Bell

Samantha Mays was thankful for the financial donation she received from gang prevention advocates, but she appeared more grateful and relieved that she could speak the truth about her 15-year-old daughter gunned down right before her eyes.

According to Mays, some Los Angeles Police Department officers treated her horribly right after the shooting.

I was hurt. The police department, not all of them  some of them  were really nice to me. But they took my baby. They didnt tell me til 25 minutes later what hospital she was going to. They told me to move out the way, that I was in a crime scene, and the crime was where I was standing with my daughter, said Mays.

ADVERTISEMENT

Our last words shouldnt be from my sister, I got shot, mama. It burns,  said Bellss brother.

The mother and daughter were at The Best Burger near 78th St. and Western, buying dinner so Bellcould take her insulin shot, Mays said. She said she blames herself for the death at times, because Bell wanted Jack in the Box, but she decided on the burger stand. Family members assured her otherwise.

When Mays heard the shots, she thought it was a drive by and threw her daughter on the ground and covered her for protection, but it was too late. Bell was struck, but Mays didnt know it because there was no blood, she said.

She said shes heard multiple media reports of Bell being shot three to six times, but her child was shot in the side, the hole was no bigger than shirt button.

It was no blood on the scene nowhere. I knew it was bad  I was just trying my best to be positive, Mays stated.

During an exclusive press conference at the Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper on May 4, Mays said she has not had time to stop and process everything, because shes keeping Hannahs name in the public in hopes the hooded person who shot her on April 29, or anyone with answers comes forward.

Police say they dont believe Bell was involved in a gang, according to media reports, and they are investigating whether she or a man standing near them was the intended target.

ADVERTISEMENT

I have talked to other parents and they said the same thing happened to them with the ambulance and the police department, using everything as a crime, and not letting me kiss her, said Mays.

Somebody took my child, killed her, on the scene, shot her, and then on top of that, the ambulance and the police department snatched her out of my hands, not giving me a chance to tell my baby to hold on, how much I love her, how much her family needs her, lamented Mays.

Yall just ripped everything from me. I lost everything! Everything and Im tired of it! Im tired of them putting such negative statements and not having no compassion  How would you feel if you was there and they tell you cant be next to them, she asked.

Mays alleged that after her child had passed away in her absence, she was told she could kiss her at the funeral home, because shes evidence.

The man didnt come up and fight her! She didnt have no evidence up under her nails! You took her. She just got hurt, and then on top of that yall come and take her and then throw me out of the crime scene, where Im at, where the crime happened against me! And you treat me like a criminal, cried Mays as she pounded her hands against her chest.

The truth about Hannah

According to Mays, media has been reporting lies, such as her daughter was involved in gangs. She also alleged that police have asked her schoolmates if Bell was a prostitute.

The truth about Bell is that she was respectfully feisty, hated gangs and drugs, and wanted to be a model, her mother and family shared. She was the best auntie in the world, said one brother.

She loved to dye her hair, just like her family. She was also excited about having a quinceanera (Spanish girls sweet 15 celebration). She was smart and hated bullies, they continued.

The Los Angeles City Council adopted District 8 representative Marqueece Harris-Dawsons motion for a $50,000 reward. During a May 4 press conference at the Sentinel, the Stop the Violence Increase the Peace Foundation presented Ms. Mays with a $500 donation.

My prayers go out to you, said Lawanda Monroe, the foundations director.

While intervention is important, an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure, said Ms. Monroe.

At press time, no funeral arrangements had been made.Two African American Females Star in Disneys Beauty and the Beast, the Broadway Musical

Back by popular demand at the CASA 0101 Theater, TNH Productions presents Disneys Beauty and the Beast, The Broadway Musical. The musical based on the fairytale story, La Belle et la Bete, written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot De Villeneuve, tells the love story of a young woman who lives in a provincial town and falls in love with a Beast, who is actually a handsome young prince living in a castle in France. To help tell this story, Founding Artistic Director, Josefina Lopez, and Musical and Artistic Director and Founder, Rigo Tejeda, felt it was necessary to work with a diverse cast to reflect the current times in which we live.

Our culturally diverse production of Disneys Beauty and the Beast will be a visual and aural feast for the eyes and ears for theatergoers of all ages and backgrounds. Our current production of the show will feature some returning cast members, along with many very talented new actors in leading and supporting roles, as well as new members in the ensemble, said Tejeda in a statement.

Recently, the Los Angeles Sentinel had the opportunity to speak with the two African American women starring in the Broadway musical, Samantha M. Lawrence double casted for the role of Belle, and Jacquelin Schofield casted for the role of Mrs. Potts.

ADVERTISEMENT

Meet Samantha M. Lawrence Starring in the Role of Belle

Versatile vocalist Lawrence, moved from Maryland to Los Angeles in 2016 to continue her pursuit of musical theatre. Now, she has had the chance to perform all over the Greater Los Angeles area. Some of her past L.A. credits include: Don Giovanni (Chorus, Pacific Opera Project), Cabaret at the Merc, Motown Vol. 4, Jesus Christ Superstar (Soul Girls/Ensemble, Buena Park and STS Productions), and Songs for a New World (Woman 1, Chromolume Theatre). Lawrence has also performed at The W Hotel as part of 42 Seven Productions Live in the Living Room series. Currently, her main focus is preparing for her double casted role as Belle!

Los Angeles Sentinel (LAS): How did you prepare for the role of Belle?

Samantha M. Lawrence (SML): I really had to go back and not become as worldly, and what I mean by that is that I had to become a little more naive. It was really hard to go back to that place where you are really young and you dont really know a lot. A lot of it for me was going through and watching the animated Disney movie again. The animated film took me back to when I was a little girl watching these Disney movies and how much awe and wonder there was in that world.

LAS: What similarities, if at all, would you say you have in common with Belle?

SML: Her character sees the good in everyone and everything, and I do that. Having gone through the world and having seen all the crazy things that happens on the news, you still want to believe that there is good in everyone and everything you come across. Belle in my opinion is kind of bubbly, she doesnt have very much of an attitude to her. I try to deny it a whole lot but my personality is a bit bubbly too.

LAS: Do you have any advice for young women of color who are thinking about pursuing a career in musical theatre?

SML: Absolutely do it! A lot of casting directors havent moved past the appearance thing yet and I just learned about type casting myself. It cant hurt to go out and show them what you have anyway because the worst they can tell you is no.

ADVERTISEMENT

Aside from her musical theatre career, Lawrence has also made appearances in television commercials, print ads and was featured in a musical video. Whats next for her? More auditions of course. Lawrence is also interested in doing voice overs.

Meet Jacqueline Schofield Starring In the Role of Mrs. Potts

Brooklyn native Schofield, originally had plans to attend law school. However as she likes to put it, the arts called and she answered. After relocating almost three years ago to Los Angeles, Schofield became a 2012 Ovation Award winner for her performance in The Color Purple. Additionally, Schofield was also nominated for an NAACP Theatre Award for Best Supporting Female for her performance as Mrs. Muller in Doubt: A Parable. However, she is most excited about her role as Mrs. Potts.

LAS: How did you prepare for the role of Mrs. Potts?

Jacquelin Schofield (JS): I read through the script and watched the movie over again. I leaned more toward the animated version as to how I was going to bring her character to life in my betrayal of the role.

LAS: What similarities, if at all, would you say you have in common with Mrs. Potts?

JS: I see her as very maternal. I thought about myself even though Im not married yet and I dont have any kids, I feel like a lot of people describe me as being very warm and maternal. I see her as somebodys favorite auntie when you always want to be over their house. Thats my personality. I am a naturally warm, friendly, and a loving person and thats how I view Mrs. Potts.

LAS: Do you have any advice for young women of color who are thinking about pursuing a career in musical theatre?

JS: I believe we cannot let society tell us because we are Brown and Black that we cannot do this or that or the other. You can do anything and do not be discouraged by what quote on quote society tells you. Or what you hear on the news and see on social media. If this is something that you really want to do, and that you know in your heart of hearts that you want to do, then do it!

Aside from her lengthy career in musical theatre, Schofield has also appeared on TV One, TruTv, Showtime, and the REELZ Network. Schofields latest career moves involve continuing her journey in the world of arts. Recently, she booked a role in Arthur Millers The Crucible as Tituba.

Disneys Beauty and the Beast the Broadway Musical, opened this Friday, May 11 and runs through June 10. However, Schofields final performance as Mrs. Potts will take place on Sunday, May 27. Lawrence will be on stage Friday, May 25 through Sunday, June 3. Catch Schofield and Lawrence on stage together on the following dates:

Friday, May 25th at 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, May 26th at 2:00 p.m.

Saturday, May 26th at 8:00 p.m.

Sunday, May 27th at 3:00 p.m.

For ticket purchases and more information please visit www.casa0101.org.United Negro College Fund Hosts Education Summit in Washington, D.C

Members of the United Negro College Fund hosted an education summit in Washington, D.C., Thursday April 26, where they released A Seat at the Table: African American Youths Perception of K-12 Education, a research report aimed at amplifying voices overlooked in education, they said. The summit served as a discussion space for the report, which among other things, revealed that contrary to a pervasive narrative in the U.S., nearly 70 percent of low income African American youth feel that educational success is a top priority. For that reason, UNCF members said they will now be involved in the engagement and exploration of the role of African American students, leaders and voicesspecifically the role of HBCUsin education reform efforts to ensure that these students perspectives are truly examined in future research and engagement efforts.

Key findings from the report showed that a little more than half of African American youth felt prepared for college through high school provided resources. Some of the biggest obstacles to college included financial difficulties, standardized tests, math and lack of support and services from their schools. Also, the study found that about one third of African American students felt that their race limited their opportunities in life and that only a little over 40 percent felt safe at school.

As opportunity gaps persist, it is important that stakeholders strongly consider action-oriented approaches like investing in school and university partnerships, increasing access to guidance counselors, employing transparent data systems and implementing cultural competency training to create better educational opportunities for African American youth, said Dr. Meredith B.L. Anderson, author of the report.

Now, more than ever before, we need African American students to be ready for college and the rigorous demands of the 21st century job market, said Naomi Shelton, director of K-12 advocacy for UNCF.

We will continue to push until all students who want to go to college are afforded the opportunity. We believe that if students are academically prepared for college, we can radically change the story of whats possible.

Researchers gathered data for A Seat at the Table from nearly 800 African American participants, part of a national survey of about 1700 low income students including both African American and Latino youth. The survey was conducted in several studies in 2013 including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Chicago and Atlanta. Its key findings, they said, highlight perceptions of success, education and future aspirations held by low-income African American youth, who report substantial drive and determination, despite significant obstacles and negative narratives regarding their success. Overall, the results illuminate the importance of including student voices in understanding aspirations, school-level practices and educational environments.

A Seat at the Table is the last report in UNCFs three-part series on K`12 educational views within the African American Community. The other two are Done to Us, Not with Us: African American Parent Perceptions on K-12 Education and Lift Every Voice and Lead: African American Leaders Perceptions on K-12 Education Reform. UNCF annually awards $100 million in scholarships and administers more than 400 programs, including scholarship, internship and fellowship, mentoring, summer enrichment, and curriculum and faculty development programs.

To learn more visit UNCF.org.

ADVERTISEMENTUnited State of Women Summit Shines Spotlight on Black Women

The USOW 2018 summit held May 5 and 6 at the Shrine Auditorium and locations throughout Los Angeles brought together 6,000 women and allies from across the country for hands on training sessions hosted by community organizations. The inclusive event shined a special spotlight on the power of Black women.

Statistic show Black women voted over 90 percent for Hilary Clinton and were the determining factor in the highly charged recent Alabama Congressional race where they turned out a victory for Doug Jones. Yet during a panel entitled By Trust You Meant Support, Right? The Importance of Investing in Black Women, moderated by CNN political contributor Angela Rye, the need for more action was evident.

Panelist included Aja Brown, mayor of Compton, LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter Fund, Glynda C. Carr co-founder of Higher Heights, Alicia Garza, Black Futures Lab and Black Lives Matter and Bre Campbell, Executive Director, Activist, Actress, Trans Sistas of Color Project-Detroit. The ladies discussed the need for the DNC to do better by black women candidates and appealed for a call to action.

ADVERTISEMENT

Carr of Higher Heights spoke with the Sentinel regarding Black women as she stated, for me democracy doesnt begin and end on election day, it frankly begins. At Higher Heights, we say we are building a national network of Black women and allies to elect black women, influence elections and advance progressive policy.

After the Alabama Doug Williams victory hashtags like #ThankBlackWomen and #TrustBlackWomen went viral, sparking a conversation about Black womens power. Statistics show Black women are trendsetters and trailblazers who routinely shape American culture and politics, but still underrepresented at decision-making tables. The panel posed questions like How do we ensure thanking Black women means investing in them? How do we ensure trusting Black women means listening to them when theyre advocating for themselves and their communities?

Another highlight and call to action came from Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, as she encouraged women to create policy and sign the Reform LA Jails petition which she launched to create accountability and transparency within Los Angeles law enforcement.

Another notable moment came from Valarie Jarrett, former Obama senior adviser who stated United State of Women has grown from a single event into a force that is helping to grow the womens movement and empower women leaders across the country, said Valerie Jarrett, who is co-chair of United State of Women. The momentum that led to todays successful event will continue far into the future.

Next, former First Lady Michelle Obama, created motivation and excitement as she served conscious conversation moderated by Tracey Ellis-Ross, where she expressed her frustration with men failing up.

After the summit, the United State of Women launched four new programs as part of this new organizing initiative:

The Ambassador Program will support local leaders who are ready to step up and run United State of Women organizing projects in their communities. Selected activists will receive the tools, data and community sharing needed to set goals, organize and win concrete steps for gender equality in their local community.

Summer Community Meetings will be hosted by Ambassadors nationwide to organize women and allies who want to take action for gender equality.

USOW Digital Force Fellows will recruit budding content creators and pair them with media platforms looking to drive action, focused on the goal of owning the internet and social channels in support of gender equality.

The Online Action Hub will track nationwide activity and connect activists.

Featured speakers throughout the summit included Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Tiffany Lopez, Jeanette Antolin of the U.S. Womens Gymnastics Team; Actress and Activist Connie Britton; Journalist and Editor Elaine Welteroth moderating a conversation with Actress and Activist Yara Shahidi, Activist, Educator, Writer, and Co-Founder of Campaign Zero Brittany Packnett, and U.S. Senator Kamala D. Harris; Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and First Lady Amy Wakeland; Journey Jamison, Teen Gun Violence Activist, and Mei-Ling Ho-Shing and Tyah-Amoy Roberts, Parkland Student Activists; and many more. Learn more at www.theunitedstateofwomen.org/.SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) today presented its 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award to Las Virgenes Municipal Water District (LVMWD) Board Member and ACWA Past President Glen Peterson. ACWAs Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals who have made a remarkable and lasting contribution to California water.



Peterson was honored for his three decades of public service to the California water community, which includes 31 years of service to LVMWDs board of directors and 25 years of service to Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) as the boards LVMWD representative. Peterson was appointed to the Colorado River Board of California by Gov. Jerry Brown and is currently serving as MWDs delegate on the board.

Through his roles with LVMWD and MWD, Peterson has been instrumental in a number of important efforts such as the construction of Diamond Valley Lake, the development of the Inland Feeder Project, serving on the Quantification Settlement Agreement negotiating committee for MWD on the Colorado River, and advocating for California WaterFix. One of his proudest accomplishments is receiving a Public Health Appreciation Award from the California Department of Health Services for his work in fluoridation, which he counts as the single most important and cost-effective public health achievement of his career.

There is no doubt that Glens contributions to California water over the past thirty-plus years are worthy of this award, said ACWA President Brent Hastey. Glen is a dedicated public servant and his efforts to advance California water, not only on behalf of the residents in his district, but also on behalf of ACWA members is remarkable.

Throughout his career, Peterson has been actively engaged in ACWA, serving as the associations president from 2008-09, vice president from 2006-07, chair of ACWAs Federal Affairs Committee from 2004-05, and multiple terms as a member of ACWAs State Legislative Committee.

He has played key roles in ACWA priorities including the development of ACWAs Water Conservation and Water Use Efficiency Policy Principles and supporting the passage of the Delta Reform Act of 2009  historic legislation which established the principle of co-equal goals and laid the groundwork for long-term conservation policy and Delta conveyance solutions. Peterson also helped develop a storage chapter in the water bond that was overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2014 as a key element of Proposition 1.

Peterson has served on the boards of directors for the National Water Resources Association, the Mountains Conservancy Foundation, the Agoura Community Center Foundation, and the Agoura Hills Rotary, among others.

The award was presented during ACWAs 2018 Spring Conference & Exhibition in Sacramento where more than 1,300 local water officials are gathered through Friday for programs and panel discussions on a variety of key water issues.

For more information about ACWAs awards programs, please visit www.acwa.com/about/awards.

ACWA is a statewide association of public agencies whose more than 440 members are responsible for about 90% of the water delivered in California. For more information, visit www.acwa.com.

Contact: Heather Engel, Director of Communications | (916) 441-4545 | C (760) 217-0627Wife: Cosby Convicted by Mob Justice, not Real Justice

Bill Cosbys wife called Thursday for a criminal investigation into the suburban Philadelphia prosecutor behind his sexual assault conviction, saying the case that could put the 80-year-old comedian in prison for the rest of his life was mob justice, not real justice and a tragedy.

Camille Cosby made her first comments on the verdict in a three-page statement sent to the media through a family spokesman, as institutions from Hollywood to Madison Avenue continued to wipe away the remnants of his legacy. He was expelled on Thursday from the motion picture academy and the Advertising Hall of Fame.

Camille Cosby compared her husband of 54 years, convicted a week ago on three counts of aggravated indecent assault, to Emmett Till and other Blacks mistreated by the justice system.

ADVERTISEMENT

Once again, an innocent person has been found guilty based on an unthinking, unquestioning, unconstitutional frenzy propagated by the media and allowed to play out in a supposed court of law, she said. This is mob justice, not real justice. This tragedy must be undone not just for Bill Cosby, but for the country.

Camille Cosby, 74, said chief accuser Andrea Constand was a liar whose testimony about being drugged and molested at Cosbys home in January 2004 was riddled with innumerable, dishonest contradictions.

She echoed Cosbys lawyers, who contended that Constand framed him to score a big payday.

Cosby is on house arrest while awaiting sentencing. His lawyers have vowed to appeal.

Her statement did not address behavior Cosby has admitted to, such as philandering and contention that he was having a consensual affair with Constand.

Constands lawyer bristled at the statement and asked, why would any reputable outlet publish that?

ADVERTISEMENT

Twelve honorable jurors, peers of Cosby, have spoken, lawyer Dolores Troiani said. There is nothing else that needs to be said.

Constand said in a tweet last week that Truth prevails. The jury said in a statement Monday that she was credible and compelling.

Prosecutors opposing a request for juror names from The Associated Press and other news media outlets urged a judge on Thursday to consider a cooling off before theyre disclosed. They cited a 90-day wait in the case of Casey Anthony, the Florida mother acquitted in 2011 of charges she killed her young daughter.

Camille Cosby stayed away from both of her husbands trials, except for the defenses closing arguments. She and Bill Cosby had five children, two of whom have died, and she served as his business manager.

Before the jury came in last week to hear from Cosbys lawyers, 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 prosecutions turn to argue, she left the courtroom, and Constand entered.

Constand sued Cosby in 2005 when prosecutors dropped a criminal investigation after four weeks. Cosby wound up settling for nearly $3.4 million after giving four days of depositions, including testimony about giving quaaludes to women before sex, that a juror said Monday was instrumental in his conviction.

Camille Cosby compared the dozens of other women whove accused her husband to a lynch mob spurred on by the medias frenzied, relentless demonization of the man who earned a reputation as Americas Dad playing Dr. Cliff Huxtable on the top-rated family sitcom The Cosby Show.

She compared his treatment to Till, the Black teenager who was kidnapped and murdered after witnesses said he whistled at a white woman in a Mississippi grocery store in 1955, and Darryl Hunt, a Black man wrongly convicted of raping and killing a White woman in North Carolina in 1984. Constand is White.

Someday the truth will prevail, it always does, Camille Cosby said.

She said her husbands prosecution was politically motivated, repeating his teams contention that he had been a pawn in a heated race for district attorney.

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele attacked opponent Bruce Castor in campaign ads over his decision not to charge Cosby in 2005 and announced Cosbys arrest a month after winning the November 2015 election.

She said Steele and his team were exploitive and corrupt and that their primary purpose is to advance themselves professionally and economically at the expense of Mr. Cosbys life.

If they can do this to Mr. Cosby, they can do so to anyone, she said.

Steeles office declined to comment.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, as Constand has done.United States lawmakers met Wednesday with President Donald Trumps choice to lead the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The Senate Intelligence Committee held a confirmation hearing on his nomination of Gina Haspel as CIA director. Haspel is a long-time operative for the agency and currently its second-in-command.

Committee members wanted to know about her part in carrying out the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" program. The agency has been criticized for its methods of questioning terror suspects who were captured after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. Critics have likened some of those interrogation techniques to torture.

Haspel told the committee that the CIA has learned tough lessons from its use of severe detention and interrogation. She also said that, as director, she would not let the agency restart such a program.

The committee hearing directed international attention on a woman who has made her career by operating in almost complete secret.

Just last week, Haspel offered to withdraw her nomination as the agencys director. However, Trump administration officials talked to her for several hours, persuading her to stay on.

CIA career

The idea Haspel would walk away from something big is foreign to those who have worked with her during her more than 30 years at the CIA.

Former coworkers describe the 61-year-old deputy CIA director as strong, sure and honest. They say she is exactly the kind of leader who would build trust and loyalty from those still in the intelligence community.

But the idea that Haspel would place the well-being of the agency above her own political future resonates with those who have served with her.

Carol Rollie Flynn served 30 years at the agency, working in secret operations and at the CIAs anti-terrorism center.

"I think she's a genuine public servant who's in this to do the right thing, do a good job and serve the country," Flynn told VOA.

Carmen Medina, another former coworker, is a former CIA deputy director of intelligence. She said of Haspel, "There was just not a lot of ego about her, at all."

Yet it is exactly those qualities that seem to make Haspel and the Trump administration an unusual partnership.

Her friends and former colleagues say Haspel is a skilled political operator. But they say she wants to present policy makers with a true, factual idea of what the intelligence shows. She does not color it with any favoritism for one set of policies or another.

CIA push for apolitical Haspel

And that difference may explain in part why the agency has done so much to push for Haspel's confirmation.

Former acting director John McLaughlin says "An agency professional is what these times require, these times of alternative facts and partisan politics at a high-level."

Medina noted an independence to Haspels thinking. "It might make her not as influential perhaps as someone like (Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo..."

Concerns about torture

Yet there are many for whom none of this is enough given what is known about Haspels past.

In 2002, she briefly was responsible for a secret CIA prison in Thailand. Its detainees were waterboarded for information, among other things.

Additionally, Haspel is accused of calling for the destruction of 92 videotapes of interrogations. Those tapes were destroyed in 2005, leading to a Justice Department investigation that ended without charges. The CIA has always said her actions were legal.



However, Albert Mora, a former top lawyer for the Navy, disagrees. "The act of torture is a criminal act," he said.

Robert Ford, the former U.S. ambassador to Syria, is even more critical.

"She made a conscious decision to take these jobs, and therefore a conscious decision to be associated with the programs."

Defending Haspel

Earlier this week, the Trump administration released a statement calling questions about the interrogation program "a false debate." It said responsibility lies with policymakers who approved the program and not those who carried it out.

However, for many, the level to which the CIA is already involved in this debate over Haspels nomination is worrisome.

"It is reasonable, as a matter of informing the Congress and the public about this nominee, to be putting out public information about her [Haspel]," noted Paul Pillar, another former CIA officer.

"To the extent that any of the releases ... go beyond the providing of useful information and seem to take the form of lobbying, then I think it is improper," he added.

Im Mario Ritter .

And I'm Anna Matteo.

Caty Weaver wrote this story for VOA Learning English based on reports from VOANews.com and the Associated Press. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

enhanced interrogation - n. a central intelligence program of detaining and questioning people using methods considered torture and illegal by many

tough - adj. physically and/or emotionally strong

lesson - n. something learned through experience

resonate - v. to affect or appeal to in a deep or emotional way

genuine - adj. sincere and honest

ego - n. the opinion that you have about yourself

waterboarding - v. an interrogation method in which water is forced into a detainee's mouth and nose so as to create the sensation of drowning.

conscious - adj. awake and able to understand what is happening around you

associate - n. to relate or connect in some way

lobby - v. to work to influence government decisions that relate to a particular industry, issue, etc.

improper - adj. not following rules of acceptable behavior: legally or morally wrongHawaiis Kilauea volcano could soon send huge rocks and ash shooting out of its summit crater. The last time this happened was almost 100 years ago.

Scientists say the risks of a forceful summit burst will rise in the coming weeks.

Kilauea has destroyed 36 structures  including 26 homes  since it began releasing lava from vents, or openings in the ground. There are now 15 vents spread across the Pahoa area of Hawaiis Big Island.

Tina Neal is a scientist-in-charge at the Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory. She said the lava lake looks similar to conditions seen before a major summit eruption in 1924. That explosion killed one person and sent rocks, ash and dust into the air for 17 days.

This could happen again, scientists say, once the summit lava lake drops so low that groundwater can flow into the channel that feeds magma to the crater. The magma would heat the water and create steam. This would push out rocks that have collected there.

Don Swanson is another scientist with the Observatory. He said the magma is likely to drop below the water level around the middle of May. Scientists do not know how long it would be after that for an explosion to take place.

We suspect its a rapid process, Swanson told reporters on a conference call.

No one lives in the immediate area of the summit crater. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which includes the crater and surrounding area, announced that it would close Friday ahead of the possible explosive event.

Cindy Wood was visiting the national park from Canada. It seems pretty safe to me right now but theyd know best, she told the Associated Press. We dont know whats going on underground. Life and safety is whats most important.

Earlier this month, officials ordered nearly 2,000 people to leave the neighborhoods around the vents. But some ignored the order and stayed to watch over their property.

Some have refused to follow orders to leave because of fears their property would be robbed.

I'm Caty Weaver.

The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

summit - n. the highest point of a mountain : the top of a mountain

crater - n. the area on top of a volcano that is shaped like a bowl

lava - n. melted rock from a volcano

vent - n. an opening through which air, steam, smoke, liquid, etc., can go into or out of a room, machine, or container

magma - n. hot liquid rock below the surface of the Earth

channel - n. a path, tube, or long narrow place where water flows

rapid - adj. happening in a short amount of timeUnited States President Donald Trump has announced his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place on June 12 in Singapore.

The president wrote on Twitter We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace! The meeting would be the first between a sitting U.S. president and a leader of North Korea.

The announcement came hours after Trump welcomed three Americans who had been held prisoner in North Korea back home on Thursday.

The former prisoners arrived at Joint Base Andrews near Washington early in the morning. North Korea freed the prisoners after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met for a second time with the North Korean leader.

Trump and his wife, Melania, boarded the plane that carried the three men. The three then stepped out, shaking hands with the president and waving to media and military personnel.

Trump thanked the Korean leader for their release. He said, Were starting off on a new footing. This is a wonderful thing that he released the folks early.

Trump said he believed Kim wanted to bring North Korea into the real world and he had high hopes for their planned meeting.

I think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful, Trump said.

Only months ago, Trump and Kim exchanged insults.

However, tensions began to ease beginning with North Koreas participation in the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February. Trump then accepted an invitation to meet with Kim.

The three former prisoners are Korean-Americans.

Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song were teaching at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. They were separately detained in 2017. North Korean officials accused the two of anti-state activities and trying to overthrow the government.

The third detainee, Kim Dong Chul, was arrested in October 2015. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labor in 2016 after being found guilty on charges of spying.

Kim Dong-chul said, I was treated in many different ways, but overall I had to do much labor and when I became ill I received some treatment.

The three appeared to be in good health on their release. But they were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for additional medical examinations.

The release followed a recent announcement by Kim that North Korea would suspend missile tests and shut down a nuclear bomb test area.

Bonnie Glaser is an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She warned that, The North Koreans have still said nothing to indicate that they are willing to give up their nuclear weapons.

American Vice President Mike Pence agreed. He told the CBS This Morning program, What Kim Jong Un has said publicly and in discussions is that he is prepared to negotiate to achieve complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Pence added, Those words are important, but well see what they mean.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English with additional reporting from Reuters. Mario Ritter was the editor.

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

folks n. people

participation n. the act of being involved or taking part in something

indicate v. to show, to direct attention to

achieve v. to get or reach by working hard

denuclearization n. the process of removing nuclear weaponsCoreLogic, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides property information, insight, analytics, and data-enabled solutions in North America, Western Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Property Intelligence & Risk Management Solutions (PIRM) and Underwriting & Workflow Solutions (UWS). The PIRM segment combines property information, mortgage information, and consumer information to deliver housing market and property-level insights, predictive analytics, and risk management capabilities. It also offers proprietary technology and software platforms to access, automate, or track the information and assist its clients with decision-making and compliance tools in the real estate and insurance industries. This segment primarily serves commercial banks, mortgage lenders and brokers, investment banks, fixed-income investors, real estate agents, MLS companies, property and casualty insurance companies, title insurance companies, government agencies, and government-sponsored enterprises. The UWS segment combines property, mortgage, and consumer information to provide comprehensive mortgage origination and monitoring solutions, including underwriting-related solutions, and data-enabled valuations and appraisals. This segment also provides proprietary technology and software platforms to access, automate, or track the information and assist its clients with vetting and onboarding prospects, and meeting compliance regulations, as well as understanding, evaluating, monitoring property values. It primarily serves mortgage lenders and servicers, mortgage brokers, credit unions, commercial banks, fixed-income investors, government agencies, and property and casualty insurance companies. The company was formerly known as The First American Corporation and changed its name to CoreLogic, Inc. in June 2010. CoreLogic, Inc. was incorporated in 1894 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.

Read MoreJacobs Engineering Group Inc. provides technical, professional, and construction services. The company's Aerospace, Technology, Environmental and Nuclear segment offers scientific, engineering, construction, nuclear, environmental, and technical support services to the aerospace, defense, technical, and automotive industries. Its Buildings, Infrastructure and Advanced Facilities segment develops/rehabilitates plans for highways, bridges, transit, tunnels, airports, railroads, intermodal facilities, and maritime or port projects; develops or rehabilitates critical water resource systems, water/wastewater conveyance systems, and flood defense projects; and provides engineering design, construction management, design build, and operations and maintenance. This segment also designs and constructs buildings; offers consulting, engineering, procurement, construction management, and delivery services for life sciences clients; and provides services relating to modular construction and other consulting and strategic planning services, as well as offers services in containment, barrier technology, locally controlled environments, building systems automation, off-the-site design, and fabrication of facility modules. The company's Energy, Chemicals and Resources segment offers services relating to onshore and offshore oil and gas production facilities, processing facilities, gathering systems, and transmission pipelines and terminals; feasibility/economic studies, technology evaluation, conceptual engineering, front end loading, detailed engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance, and commissioning services; and engineering, procurement, and construction solutions. This segment also provides services, such as manufacturing complex, expansions, modifications, and management of plant relocations; construction management and field construction services; and services to operate and maintain facilities. The company was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Read More1 hour ago

Have You Made These Year-End Tax Moves? Here's How to Keep More of Your Money

Uh, where did 2021 go? Once you get over the shock that it's already the second week of October, you may want to consider some tactical year-end tax moves. More than two-thirds of Americans experienced financial setbacks in 2020, according to Fidelity.

Read ArticleThe following companies are subsidiares of The Procter & Gamble: "Procter & Gamble Services" LLC, "Procter & Gamble" LLC, Agile Pursuits, Agile Pursuits Franchising, Arbora, Arbora & Ausonia, Arborinvest, Billie, Braun (Shanghai) Co., Braun GmbH, Braun-Gillette Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG, Celtic Insurance Company, Compania Procter & Gamble Mexico, Compania Quimica S.A., Corporativo Procter & Gamble, Cosmetic Products Pty. Ltd., Detergent Products B.V., Detergent Products SARL, Detergenti S.A., Eurocos Cosmetic GmbH, FPG Oleochemicals Sdn. Bhd., Fameccanica Data S.p.A., Fameccanica Industria e Comercio Do Brasil LTDA., Fameccanica Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Fater S.p.A., Fountain Square Music Publishing Co., Gillette (China) Ltd., Gillette (Shanghai) Ltd., Gillette Aesop Ltd., Gillette Australia Pty. Ltd., Gillette Canada Holdings, Gillette Commercial Operations North America, Gillette Diversified Operations Pvt. Ltd., Gillette Egypt S.A.E., Gillette Group UK Ltd, Gillette Gruppe Deutschland GmbH & Co. oHG, Gillette Holding Company LLC, Gillette Holding GmbH, Gillette India Limited, Gillette Industries Ltd., Gillette International B.V., Gillette Latin America Holding B.V., Gillette Management LLC, Gillette Nova Scotia Company, Gillette Pakistan Limited, Gillette Poland International Sp. z.o.o., Gillette Poland S.A., Gillette U.K. Limited, Gillette del Uruguay, Giorgio Beverly Hills Inc., Hyginett KFT, Industries Marocaines Modernes SA, LLC "Procter & Gamble Novomoskovsk", LLL "Procter & Gamble Distributorskaya Compania", Laboratorios Vicks, Liberty Street Music Publishing Company, Limited Liability Company 'Procter & Gamble Trading Ukraine', Limited Liability Company with foreign investments Procter & and Gamble Ukraine, MDVIP, MERCK KGAA NPV, Marcvenca Inversiones, Modern Industries Company - Dammam, Modern Products Company - Jeddah, New Chapter, New Chapter Canada Inc., Olay LLC, Oral-B Laboratories, P&G Distribution Morocco SAS, P&G Hair Care Holding, P&G Industrial Peru S.R.L., P&G Innovation Godo Kaisha, P&G Israel M.D.O. Ltd., P&G K.K., P&G Northeast Asia Pte. Ltd., P&G Prestige Godo Kaisha, P&G Prestige Service GmbH, P&G South African Trading (Pty.) Ltd., PGT Health Care (Zhejiang) Limited, PGT Healthcare LLP, PPI ZAO, PT Procter & Gamble Home Products Indonesia, PT Procter & Gamble Operations Indonesia, Phase II Holdings Corporation, Procter & Gamble (Chengdu) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (China) Sales Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (East Africa) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Egypt) Manufacturing Company, Procter & Gamble (Enterprise Fund) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Consumer Products Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Enterprise Management Service Company Limited, Procter & Gamble (Guangzhou) Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Health & Beauty Care) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Jiangsu) Ltd. China, Procter & Gamble (L&CP) Limited, Procter & Gamble (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Procter & Gamble (Manufacturing) Ireland Limited, Procter & Gamble (Shanghai) International Trade Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Acquisition GmbH, Procter & Gamble Administration GmbH, Procter & Gamble Algeria EURL, Procter & Gamble Amazon Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Amiens S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Argentina SRL, Procter & Gamble Asia Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Australia Proprietary Limited, Procter & Gamble Azerbaijan Services LLC, Procter & Gamble Bangladesh Private Ltd., Procter & Gamble Blois S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Brazil Holdings B.V., Procter & Gamble Bulgaria EOOD, Procter & Gamble Business Services Canada Company, Procter & Gamble Canada Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Chile , Procter & Gamble Chile Limitada, Procter & Gamble Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Commercial LLC, Procter & Gamble Commercial de Cuba S.A., Procter & Gamble Czech Republic s.r.o., Procter & Gamble DS Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Danmark ApS, Procter & Gamble Detergent (Beijing) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Deuttschland GmbH, Procter & Gamble Distributing (Philippines) Inc., Procter & Gamble Distributing New Zealand Limited, Procter & Gamble Distribution Company (Europe) BVBA, Procter & Gamble Distribution S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Eastern Europe, Procter & Gamble Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Procter & Gamble Egypt, Procter & Gamble Egypt Distribution, Procter & Gamble Egypt Holding, Procter & Gamble Egypt Supplies, Procter & Gamble Energy Company LLC, Procter & Gamble Espana, Procter & Gamble Europe SA, Procter & Gamble Export Operations SARL, Procter & Gamble Exportadora e Importadora Ltda., Procter & Gamble Exports, Procter & Gamble Fabricacao e Comercio Ltda., Procter & Gamble Far East, Procter & Gamble Finance (U.K.) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Holding Ltd., Procter & Gamble Finance Management S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Financial Investments LLP, Procter & Gamble Financial Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Financial Services S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Finland OY, Procter & Gamble France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH, Procter & Gamble Germany GmbH & Co. Operations oHG, Procter & Gamble GmbH, Procter & Gamble Grundstucks-und Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, Procter & Gamble Gulf FZE, Procter & Gamble Hair Care, Procter & Gamble Hellas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Holding (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Holding France S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Holding GmbH, Procter & Gamble Holding S.r.l., Procter & Gamble Holdings (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Home Products Private Limited, Procter & Gamble Hong Kong Limited, Procter & Gamble Hungary Wholesale Trading Partnership (KKT), Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Health Care Limited, Procter & Gamble Inc., Procter & Gamble India Holdings, Procter & Gamble Indochina Limited Company, Procter & Gamble Industrial - 2012 C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial Colombia Ltda., Procter & Gamble Industrial S.C.A., Procter & Gamble Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Costa Rica, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Guatemala, Procter & Gamble Interamericas de Panama, Procter & Gamble International Operations Pte. Ltd., Procter & Gamble International Operations SA, Procter & Gamble International Operations SA-ROHQ, Procter & Gamble International S.a.r.l., Procter & Gamble Investment Company (UK) Ltd., Procter & Gamble Investment GmbH, Procter & Gamble Italia, Procter & Gamble Japan K.K., Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan Distribution LLP, Procter & Gamble Kazakhstan LLP, Procter & Gamble Korea, Procter & Gamble Korea S&D Co., Procter & Gamble Lanka Private Ltd. Sri Lanka, Procter & Gamble Leasing LLC, Procter & Gamble Levant S.A.L., Procter & Gamble Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Berlin GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing GmbH, Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Procter & Gamble Manufacturing SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Marketing Romania SRL, Procter & Gamble Marketing and Services doo, Procter & Gamble Maroc SA, Procter & Gamble Mataro, Procter & Gamble Mexico Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Mexico Inc., Procter & Gamble Middle East FZE, Procter & Gamble Nederland B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Investments B.V., Procter & Gamble Netherlands Services B.V., Procter & Gamble Nigeria Limited, Procter & Gamble Nordic, Procter & Gamble Norge AS, Procter & Gamble Operations Polska Sp. z o.o., Procter & Gamble Overseas India B.V., Procter & Gamble Overseas Ltd., Procter & Gamble Pakistan (Private) Limited, Procter & Gamble Partnership LLP, Procter & Gamble Peru S.R.L., Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals France SAS, Procter & Gamble Philippines, Procter & Gamble Polska Sp. z o.o, Procter & Gamble Portugal - Produtos De Consumo, Procter & Gamble Product Supply (U.K.) Limited U.K., Procter & Gamble Production GmbH, Procter & Gamble Productions, Procter & Gamble Productos de Consumo, Procter & Gamble RHD, Procter & Gamble RSC Regional Service Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Retail Services BVBA, Procter & Gamble S.r.l., Procter & Gamble SA (Pty) Ltd, Procter & Gamble Satis ve Dagitim Ltd. Sti., Procter & Gamble Seine S.A.S., Procter & Gamble Service GmbH, Procter & Gamble Services (Switzerland) SA, Procter & Gamble Services Company N.V., Procter & Gamble Services Ltd., Procter & Gamble Share Incentive Plan Trustee Ltd., Procter & Gamble South America Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Spol. s.r.o. (Ltd.), Procter & Gamble Sports and Social Club Ltd., Procter & Gamble Sverige AB, Procter & Gamble Switzerland SARL, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Limited, Procter & Gamble Taiwan Sales Company Limited, Procter & Gamble Technical Centres Limited, Procter & Gamble Technology (Beijing) Co., Procter & Gamble Trading (Thailand) Limited, Procter & Gamble Tuketim Mallari Sanayii A.S., Procter & Gamble UK, Procter & Gamble UK Group Holdings Ltd, Procter & Gamble UK Parent Company Ltd., Procter & Gamble Universal Holding B.V., Procter & Gamble Verwaltungs GmbH, Procter & Gamble Vietnam, Procter & Gamble d.o.o. za trgovinu, Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.C.A., Procter & Gamble de Venezuela S.R.L., Procter & Gamble do Brasil S/A, Procter & Gamble do Brazil, Procter & Gamble do Nordeste S/A, Procter & Gamble-Rakona s.r.o., Progam Realty & Development Corporation, Redmond Products, Richardson-Vicks Real Estate Inc., Richardson-Vicks do Brasil Quimica e Farmaceutica Ltda, Riverfront Music Publishing Co., Rosemount LLC, SPD Development Company Limited, SPD Swiss Precision Diagnostics GmbH, Scannon S.A.S., Series Acquisition B.V., Shulton, Surfac S.R.L., Sycamore Productions, TAOS - FL, TAOS Retail, Tambrands Inc., Temple Trees Impex & Investment Private Limited, The Art of Shaving - FL, The Dover Wipes Company, The Gillette Company, The Gillette Company LLC, The Gillette co., The Procter & Gamble Distributing LLC, The Procter & Gamble GBS Company, The Procter & Gamble Global Finance Company, The Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Company, The Procter & Gamble Paper Products Company, The Procter & Gamble U.S. Business Services Company, This is L., US CD LLC, Vidal Sassoon (Shanghai) Academy, Vidal Sassoon Co., WEBA Betriebsrenten-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Walker & Company Brands, and iMFLUX Inc..Linux computer maker System76 launched its first laptops with 8th-gen Intel Core processors last year. Those computers featured quad-core, 15 watt processors based on Intels Kaby Lake Refresh architecture. But now System76 is taking pre-orders for a laptop that packs much more power.

The updated System76 Oryx Pro features an Intel Core i7-8750H hexa-core, 45 watt processor and support for up to NVIDIA GeForce 1070 graphics.

The notebook is available with Ubuntu 18.04 Linux or the companys own Pop!_OS, which is based on Ubuntu. And despite featuring a 15.6 inch display and high-end hardware, the Oryx Pro measures just about 0.7 inches thick and weighs just under 4.4 pounds.

Its not cheap though: prices start at about $1599.

For that price you get a model with NVIDIA GeForce 1060 graphics, 8GB of RAM, a 250GB solid state drive, and a choice of 1080p or 4K matte IPS display.

But if you can afford the upgrades, the Oryx Pro can be configured with up to 32GB of RAM and up to 5TB of storage (with a 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD and a 4TB 2.5 SATA SSD).

Other features include two USB 3.1 Type-C ports, three USB 3.1 Type-A ports, an SD card reader, HDMI and DisplayPort 1.3 jacks, stereo speakers, a headset jack, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, a backlit keyboard, and a 55 Wh battery.

All told, the computer seems pretty competitive (on paper at least), with the latest Coffee Lake-H laptops from Dell, HP, Asus, MSI, and others. But one key difference is that most of those laptops will ship with Windows 10, while the System76 Oryx Pro is designed to run GNU/Linux software.

via Phoronix

Share this article: Share this: Facebook

Twitter

Reddit

Pocket

Tumblr

Pinterest

LinkedIn

Email

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The Windows 10 April 2018 Update may just be starting to roll out, but Microsoft is working on the next version of Windows and members of the Windows Insider program can take the latest preview build for a spin starting today.

Windows 10 Preview Build 17666 includes improvements to the upcoming Sets feature and a whole bunch of other changes. One of the ones Im most looking forward to trying is Clipboard history.

It may not sound exciting, but when the new Clipboard experience is enabled, hitting Ctrl+V will paste the last thing you copied, as always. But holding the Win+V keys will show a new window that includes your clipboard history, allowing you to choose what you want to paste. Theres also support for pinning items you use regularly.

Build 17666 also allows you to choose a dark theme for File Explorer to see a black background with light accent colors.

Microsoft has extended Start Menu search previews so you can see previews of apps, documents, and other content as you type your query. And you can now create names for Start Menu folder tiles.

As promised, theres also an update to the Notepad application with support for Unix and Linux-style line endings, which means text files created on Linux wont look ridiculous if you open them with Windows Notepad anymore.

Speaking of Notepad, you can also right-click text in a document and choose the search with Bing option to search the web for that text.

Share this article: Share this: Facebook

Twitter

Reddit

Pocket

Tumblr

Pinterest

LinkedIn

Email

President Donald Trump greets the three Americans who arrived back in the United States after being imprisoned in North Korea, in Maryland, on May 10, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

3 American Prisoners, Now Free, Greeted by Trump

WASHINGTONThree Americans took their first breaths of freedom as they stepped off their plane in Maryland early Thursday morning.

The three, who had been imprisoned in North Korea, were greeted by President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump on the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base. Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, also attended.

The weather was balmy and the mood festive as crowds gathered to witness the homecoming. A massive American flag, held up by two fire trucks with extended ladders, created the backdrop for a grandstand set up on the tarmac.

The greatest achievement will be to denuclearize the whole [Korean] peninsula, Trump said after he had met with the men on the plane before they disembarked. We very much appreciate that [Kim] allowed them to go before the meeting. We have a very good chance of doing something meaningful.

I think [Kim] did this  because he wants to bring his country into the real world, Trump said. Well see what happens. Were talking about a few weeks.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled back to the United States at the same time as the three men.

The men are Kim Dong-chul, Kim Sang-duk, and Kim Hak-song.

Kim Dong-chul had been in prison since October 2015. Kim Sang-duk and Kim Hak-song were arrested in April and May last year, respectively.

The families of the returnees are not at the airport, according to the White House.

One of the men said being home again was like a dream, and were very, very happy.

One of the men was asked how he was treated in North Korea.

We were treated in many different ways. For me, I had to do a lot of labor, but when I got sick, I was also treated by them, he said.

After arriving and meeting with the president, the returnees were taken by bus to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for further evaluation and medical treatment. The White House is referring any questions about their medical condition to the State Department.

Trump said on Twitter on May 9 that the date and time had been set for the talks between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump said he will reveal the details of the meeting sometime in the next few days, but that it wont take place in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.

The release and return of the detainees is another major concession by Kim Jong Un ahead of the upcoming meeting with Trump. Kim has already agreed to complete denuclearization and peace with South Korea at a summit between the two countries in April.The MTA is holding a town hall meeting in Manhattan tonight and next Wednesday in Williamsburg to discuss plans for the impending L-pocalypse. Tonight's meeting will be held at The Auditorium (66 West 12th Street) starting at 6:30, with doors opening at 5:30. In addition to outlining the alternative service plans, officials will be taking questions from members of the public.

Hundreds of thousands of commuters will be impacted by the project, which is expected to begin in April 2019, when L service between Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn and 8th Avenue in Manhattan will be completely suspended. As previously reported:

To mitigate the trauma, the MTA and the Department of Transportation released a five-page contingency plan in December, which calls for the creation of a new bus network, beefed up service on nearby subway lines, HOV restrictions on the Williamsburg Bridge (sometimes), and the transformation of 14th Street into an exclusive busway (sometimes). But the two agencies have repeatedly warned that it is difficult to overstate how painful the shutdown will be.

80 percent of riders are expected to go onto other subway lines, and the MTA is planning to address this with additional service on the J/M/Z and G lines, and longer cars on the C and G lines. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has spoken out about the difficulty of riders with disabilities to use the subway, which could only get worse with the increased number of commuters on other Brooklyn lines.

The @MTA is not doing enough to support #riders with #disabilities facing the #LTrain shutdown. I'm calling for immediate ADA upgrades to @NYCTSubway stations in #Brooklyn and #Queens that are expected to see a shutdown-related surge in ridership. https://t.co/ZWOxx3BHPT  Eric Adams (@BPEricAdams) May 8, 2018

The DOT is planning to add increased protected bike lanes, and three new bus routes are being created, from Grand Street and Bedford Avenue to Lower Manhattan via the Williamsburg Bridge. The city could see 5,000 additional bikes come into the West Village each day.

The shutdown could result in 70 additional buses crossing the Williamsburg bridge per hour, and make 14th Street the busiest bus route in the country, the New York Times reports. Buses would not be getting their own dedicated lanes over the bridge, instead the MTA will be using HOV-3 lanes. Private cars would only have to stay off of 14th street during rush hours, even though rush hours are not necessarily the times that most people ride the L. Critics of the MTA's current plan fear it could turn 14th street into a bus parking lot.

After Hurricane Sandy, millions of gallons of water poured into the subway system, but the Canarsie tube, through which the L travels between Manhattan and Brooklyn, was hit particularly hard. After considering a years-long partial shutdown, the MTA ultimately decided to fully suspend service for an estimated 15 months.

This is having a ripple effect far beyond just the daily commute. The only slight silver lining might be that this shutdown is lowering rents in North Brooklyn.

So if you want to tell the MTA how you feel, come out tonight to The Auditorium near Union Square, at 66 West 12th Street, or next Wednesday to Progress High School, at 850 Grand Street at Bushwick Avenue. Thats right off the L on Grand Street.In a Legislative Assembly (AL) session solely dedicated to hearing the replies from the government on several matters raised by lawmakers, a gaming industry blacklist became the focus of discussion.

The blacklist, shared among gaming concessionaires, allegedly includes names and data of gaming industry workers that for one reason or another had issues with their employers and eventually quit their jobs or were fired.

The matter, raised initially by lawmaker Leong Sun Iok, was then widely debated with several other lawmakers intervening on the topic.

In his spoken enquiry, Leong was questioning the government on the questionable legality of the blacklist. He accused the gaming concessionaires of using such a list to put pressure and fear on their workers, threatening to blacklist their names and jeopardize their chances of ever getting another job in the industry.

From the government side, the reply came from the Labor Affairs Bureau (DSAL) director, Wong Chi Hong, who as on previous occasions denied the existence of such a blacklist.

All residents have the same rights under the Labor Law, he said, adding, all data collected [by employers] should be done according to the Personal Data Protection Act and its transference [to other entities] needs to be done with the consent of the interested [parties].

The DSAL director further remarked that both the DSAL and the Gaming Inspection, and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) have not received any complaints about this alleged list since 2015.

Wong also said, if a candidate thinks he did not got a job because he had been included in such a list, he can [file a] complaint to DICJ or to DSAL. Refusal to hire a worker because they are included on a blacklist would constitute an administrative infraction punishable with a fine ranging from MOP20,000 to 50,000 per worker involved.

The bureau director also noted that the DSAL received only nine complaints on this matter between 2009 and 2015.

Not pleased with the reply, Leong hit back saying, we know that the government insists to say that such a list does not exist but we all understand already if it exists or not, according to the cases we receive [from citizens]. Leong called on the government to assume a different approach and publish some kind of guidelines for the concessionaires to avoid what he called the continuing of the abuse.

The blacklist has existed for a long time and many workers already had to deal with this, added lawmaker Au Kam San on the topic. Some concessionaires even demand that their workers quit from the job instead of being fired, in a way to be able to find another job in the industry.

Au also added that the DSAL investigation is only asking employers whether such a blacklist exists. When they deny its existence, the DSAL archives the cases on the grounds of lack of evidence.

Lawmaker Ella Lei was in agreement with Au, adding that most of the cases are related to absence from work or arriving late. Its because of the existence of such a list that the workers are afraid of reporting such cases, she said, adding, the government cant determine the truth and the workers do not trust the law.

In reply to the accusations, the deputy director of DSAL, Ng Wai Han, noted that the bureau, hears both parties as well as witnesses and analyzes, when possible, documental proof.

The employer has to issue a certificate to state the reasons why the employee was dismissed, she said.

Another of the topics that gathered the attention of several lawmakers during yesterdays session concerned the governments promotion of the Year of Gastronomy and its relation with the city and its old and traditional restaurants. Two spoken enquiries instigated the discussion; the first from Chui Sai Peng and Ip Sio Kai and the second from Chan Hong.

The governments reply was delivered by the deputy director of the Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO), Cheng Wai Tong, who noted that the government has invested a lot of money and other resources to promote the Year of Gastronomy. With reference to the old shops, Cheng said that the Macau Economic Bureau and the Macao Foundation had created several support funds with a shared capital of MOP218.9 million.

Cheng also said that the government is creating a database of Macanese Gastronomy, which is one of the priorities of the work plan of the creation of the Gastronomy City for the upcoming four years.

According to the official, preparatory works on the topic were discussed during a March 15 meeting of a group composed of representatives of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, the Institute for Tourism Studies, the MGTO and the Macanese Gastronomic Brotherhood.

Government to create body to coordinate works on the Greater Bay

The government is preparing the creation of a public entity  to be either a public department or a bureau  to coordinate the works related with to the Greater Bay Area. The acknowledgement was made yesterday at the Legislative Assembly (AL) by the coordinator of the governments Policy Research Office, Lao Pun Lap, while replying to a spoken enquiry from lawmaker Angela Leong.

Leong was addressing the topic noting the difficulties that could arise for the Macau citizens and entrepreneurs to compete in the Greater Bay Area, due to a lack of knowledge of the different laws and procedures applied in each region.

In the governments reply, Lao said that the relevant authorities were preparing the creation of such a department and that, at the moment, preparatory works are being [conducted]. They will be disclosed to the public in a timely manner.

Not advancing much more on the topic, the coordinator reaffirmed once more  as the Chief Executive had done before during his last visit to the AL  that the final details will depend on the Greater Bay Area plan that will [also] be revealed soon.

Agnes Lam, Si Ka Lon, Leong Sun Iok, Ip Sio Kai and Pang Chuan were some of the other lawmakers that sought more details, particularly on the competencies of the new public service, without success.The Hong Kong- Zhuhai-Macau Bridge may increase Hong Kong residents willingness to live in Zhuhai or Macau, while still working in Hong Kong.

According to a telephone survey conducted by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), 39.8 percent of the respondents doubted the feasibility of commuting to work in Hong Kong while living in Macau, while 35 percent considered it feasible. The rest (25.2 percent) did not know or felt hard to tell.

The survey successfully interviewed 703 respondents, all Hong Kong residents living in the neighboring SAR.

If relocation changed to Zhuhai, more respondents (48.2 percent) doubted the feasibility of commuting to work in Hong Kong, while 28.3 percent agreed to the feasibility. The rest (23.5 percent) did not know or felt hard to tell, according to CUHK.

Further, 38.5 percent of the respondents would prefers to ride a bus to Macau via the bridge, in contrast to 26.3 percent of them who would prefer to travel by ferries.

Some 51.1 percent of the respondents do not intend to visit Macau more often after the bridge was commissioned, while 31.2 percent intend to do so. The rest (17.7 percent) did not know or felt hard to answer. When the destinations are mainland cities of the western Pearl River Delta, 54.6 percent of the respondents would not expect to visit them more often, while 24.6 percent would do so. The rest (20.8 percent) did not know or felt hard to answer, the survey stated. JZThe Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM) said in a statement this week that all partners of the Guangdong-Macau Cooperation and Development Fund, of which the Macau Government is a part of and invests a total of RMB20 billion from its Fiscal Reserve, have no intention to increase the capital size. The Fund is jointly initiated by Guangdong and the MSAR and managed by Chinese-state-owned enterprises. Guangdong Hengjian Investment Holding Co., Ltd and Guangdong Namyue Group, are also said by the AMCM to be operating in a market-oriented manner, investing in key high-quality projects including those related to the Greater Bay Area effort. It is intended that such projects will be beneficial to the economy and livelihood of the two regions as well as infrastructure of free trade zones in Guangdong. Reaffirming that there are no intentions for the timebeing to raise that capital, the AMCM noted that to allow more flexibility for future cooperation, both parties agree that, depending on future conditions, both sides can increase the capital size on the basis of a unanimous agreement until the established limit of RMB100 billion.

LRT contractors to be penalized for unexplained delays

The Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT) has discussed regulations that would penalize Light Rapid Transit (LRT) contractors who delay the LRT construction without providing a reasonable explanation. In reply to lawmaker Leong Sun Ioks inquiry, DSSOPT pledged that the SAR government would closely supervise the LRT construction in order to ensure the timely and qualified completion of the LRT, as well as to cooperate with the opening of the LRT Taipa section in 2019. The DSSOPT claimed that the LRT construction progress would continue to be pending amid legal cases concerning the project.With the threat of tariffs and counter-tariffs between Washington and Beijing looming, Chinese buyers are canceling orders for U.S. soybeans, a trend that could deal a blow to American farmers if it continues.

At the same time, farmers in China are being encouraged to plant more soy, apparently to help offset any shortfall from the United States.

Beijing has included soybeans on a list of USD50 billion of U.S. exports on which it has said it would impose 25 percent tariffs if the United States follows through on its threats to impose the same level of tariffs on the same value of Chinese goods. The U.S. tariffs could kick in later this month; China would likely retaliate soon after.

It can take a month or more for soybean shipments to travel from the U.S. to China. Any soybeans on their way to China now could be hit by the tariff by the time they arrive.

The Chinese arent willing to buy US soybeans with a 25 percent tax hanging over their head, said Dan Basse, president of AgResource, an agricultural research and advisory firm. You just dont want the risk.

China typically buys most of its soybeans from South American nations such as Brazil and Argentina during spring and early summer. It shifts to U.S. soybeans in the fall. As a result, for now, the cutbacks from the United States are relatively small.

But should they persist, it could cause real pain to U.S. farmers. Roughly 60 percent of U.S. soybeans are shipped to China.

There might also be a political impact: Three of the top five soybean-exporting states  Iowa, Indiana and Nebraska  voted for President Donald Trump in 2016.

Illinois, the top soybean exporter, and Minnesota, the third-largest, backed Hillary Clinton.

Basse said that it has been roughly three weeks since China has made any major soybean purchases, an unusually long delay.

Some Chinese buyers might be showing support for their government in the trade dispute by turning away U.S. soybeans, Basse said. The dispute may also make it seem too risky to buy from the United States over the long run.

The United States could lose the reliable supplier label that weve had these many years, Basse said.

Data from the U.S. government data show that sales of soybeans have fallen from about 255,000 metric tons in the first week of April, when the trade dispute began, to just 7,900 in the week that ended April 26.

Cancellations have also jumped, to more than 140,000 metric tons in the week ending April 26. In the same week last year, there were no canceled sales at all.

Some analysts argue that the shifts arent yet particularly significant. China buys most of its soybeans from the United States in the late summer and fall, and then switches to South American sources, mainly Brazil and Argentina, in the spring. So the current market activity doesnt necessarily reflect the pattern that would occur during the main buying season.

These numbers were talking about are pretty minor, said John Baize, an economist for the U.S. Soybean Export Council.

The U.S. ships about 35 million metric tons of soybeans to China a year, Baize said. China usually imports about 100 million tons a year and cant import enough from other countries, he said, to abandon the United States as a source.

Wheres China going to buy its beans? Baize asked.

That may be true in the short run. But Basse suggests that Brazil has enough land that could be used for soybean cultivation that it could soon mostly replace the United States as a supplier to China.

And if the Chinese market were to be closed to U.S. farmers, they might be able to sell some portion of their soybeans to other markets. Baize said that huge multinational companies, such as Cargill and ADM, might, for example, sell more U.S. soybeans to Europe, where they wouldnt face any tariffs, though this likely wouldnt make up for the loss of the Chinese market.

At the same time, China is looking more to its own farmers. Since China announced its potential tariffs on U.S. soy in April, the government has encouraged farmers to cultivate more soybeans. Beginning this month, Chinese farmers say, Beijing reduced corn subsidies and raised annual soybean subsidies from 2550 yuan ($400) per hectare to 3000 yuan ($470) or more per hectare in major soybean-producing provinces in northeast China.

An adjustment had already been planned to help draw down Chinas substantial corn stockpiles, so the change wasnt necessarily aimed at U.S. soy growers, analysts say.

But the subsidy adjustment did come with political undertones. Officials in major soybean-producing provinces were describing the promotion of local soybeans as the most important political task in agricultural production at present. Heilongjiang in northeast China announced a pilot project to plant soybeans on over 100,000 new hectares, with an extra 2,250 yuan ($353) subsidy per hectare.

The moves are prompting farmers like Liu Cong to focus more on growing soy. Liu says he used most of his land to grow corn last year but this year is planting more soybeans.

This is encouraging for farmers, he said in a phone interview. Were more motivated.

Zhang Xiaoping, China director for the U.S. Soybean Export Council, says that Chinese buyers have been canceling soybean purchases of last years U.S. soybean harvest because of the threat of tariffs.

The buyers literally stopped buying from the U.S., Zhang said. Exporters cannot find any buyers in China. Christopher Rugaber & Dake Kang, Washington, APThe Chief Executive, Chui Sai On, began a two-day visit to Thailand yesterday. Chui met with the Foreign Minister of Thailand, Don Pramudwinai, in Bangkok. The MSAR government leader said that Thailand is an important cooperation partner and highlighted the benefits of both parties under the One Belt, One Road initiative.

The CE and Don Pramudwinai yesterday witnessed the signing of the memorandum of understanding for city twinning between Macau and the Province of Phuket.

In other initiatives, the MSAR government will organize the International Forum for the Development of Traditional Medicine 2018 (Thailand) in Bangkok, along with a photo exhibition themed One Country, Two Systems and One Belt, One Road.

Speaking to the media, the Foreign Minister of Thailand said that he discussed matters related to the possibility of cooperation in many areas with Chui Sai On, including economy, trade, tourism, public health, traditional Chinese medicine, innovation, entrepreneurship and cultural industries.

Before arriving to Thailand, Chui Sai On and the Macau delegation concluded a three-day visit to Cambodia to meet with the Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen.

During a meeting on Tuesday, the two officials also spoke on the potential launch of further direct flight services between Macau and Cambodia, and agreed to strengthen cooperation in human resource training and on the promotion of high quality agricultural products.

The Government Information Bureau announced in a statement that Chui has reviewed the results of the ongoing cooperation between the two regions in tourism, financial services, trade and cultural affairs.

According to the CE, Cambodia could explore new development opportunities through Macaus robust communities of returned overseas Chinese and the citys ties with Portuguese-speaking countries.

In a separate meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of Cambodia Sar Kheng, Chui stated that Cambodia was a key partner for Macau in helping the city to push forward its contributions to the Belt and Road initiative.

He also stated that cooperation between Macau and Cambodia had already achieved success in many different areas.

He continued by highlighting the positive contributions to cooperation between Macau and Cambodia made by representatives of the business sector, returned overseas Chinese communities, and young people from both regions.

Emirates Group reported a 67 percent jump in full-year profit and said there are no plans to merge with Etihad Airways, the Abu Dhabi airline thats restructuring.

The worlds biggest long-

haul airline boosted net income to 4.11 billion dirhams (USD1.1 billion) in the 12 months ended March 31, as higher oil prices spurred a revival in Middle East travel. Sales rose 8.1 percent to 102 billion dirhams, the Dubai-based airline said in a statement.

Earnings rebounded after a slump in the previous fiscal year as Emirates pared frequencies to destinations including the U.S. and higher crude prices lifted sales from the regions oil-based economies. The carrier is reaping benefits from closer ties to sister company FlyDubai, pushing any deal with Etihad off the agenda, according to Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum.

Many people have reported there will be a merger, Sheikh Ahmed said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. There is no such thing. Not at all. I think when we talk about synergy today, it is between Emirates and FlyDubai. There have never been talks with Etihad about a merger, he said.

Local press reports have suggested that a deal might be on the horizon after state-controlled Etihad posted a $1.87 billion loss in 2016 following the failure of an alliance-building strategy that saw it pour cash into Air Berlin Plc and Alitalia SpA, which later filed for insolvency.

The earnings indicate Emirates is emerging from the toughest operating conditions in its three-decade history. The carrier has become an industry heavyweight by exploiting the Gulfs position at a natural global crossroads, something that Etihad had sought to replicate.

Emirates profit has returned to the levels of fiscal year 2013-2014. Business conditions remain tough, with a gradual recovery in key markets feeding initially into airfreight activity and only to a lesser extent into air travel and tourism, Sheikh Ahmed said.

The chairman played down the impact of a staffing shortage that Tim Clark, the airlines president, said last month had led to the idling of planes and paring back of flights. Emirates is short of small numbers of cabin crew and doesnt lack pilots as it seeks to better match recruitment to the arrival of new aircraft, Sheikh Ahmed said. The overall headcount fell 2 percent during the year to just above 103,000.

Rising crude prices represent a double-edged sword. Surging oil prices in the second half of our financial year increased our operating costs, Sheikh Ahmed said. It also stoked the embers of economic recovery which contributed to better seat load factors and a modest climb in yields.

Jet-fuel costs rose 18 percent during the year, the carrier said. At the same time its aircraft flew with 77.5 percent of seats occupied, an improvement of 2.4 percentage points. Yields, a measure of fares, increased 2.3 percent. The recovery was also supported by the Dnata ground- handling unit, which posted a record profit after expanding through acquisitions.

Emirates is still evaluating its engine choice for the latest batch of Airbus SE A380 superjumbos as an alliance of General Electric Co. and Pratt Whitney seeks to snag the contract from current supplier Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc. A decision will be made soon, Sheikh Ahmed said. BloombergTwo migrant group representatives have expressed disappointment over the surge in childbirth fees, which would significantly affect vulnerable groups in the region, particularly domestic workers.

In March, representatives from the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (IMWU) and Greens Philippines Migrant Workers Union met with the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam, who promised them that domestic helpers would only see a three-times hike in the childbirth fee and not nine times as has been implemented.

He [Tam] said before that domestic workers would not be charged nine times higher, but only three times from the original cost of both normal and cesarean delivery [so] this makes us unhappy, said Wariyanti told the Times.

Although the Social Affairs Bureau (IAS) would provide a subsidy for non- local women who earn below MOP4,050 per month, amounting to two-thirds of the service of the childbirth delivery cost, Wariyanti expressed fears that the application process may still be problematic.

Benedicta Palcon from the Greens Philippines Migrant Workers Union acknowledged that the subsidies would not be of help as the overall expense would not only equal to MOP2,925, citing other hospital expenses.

The adjusted fees of delivery services for non-resident parents will be officially applied starting from June 1. A dispatch concerning the topic, signed by Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam was also published in the Official Gazette. Low-income migrant workers who earn less than MOP4,050 per month are eligible to apply to the government to get a waiver for two-thirds of the service she would need to pay for childbirth delivery.

The subsidy policy will only apply to families where a marriage certificate is provided. De facto marriages will be excluded.

The migrant representatives noted that they were expecting a much lower fee for non-residents after Tams assurance to the migrant workers.

Meanwhile, Wariyanti added another problem that could occur, as many domestic workers do not earn the same amount of salary as written in the contract.

Many domestic helpers do not earn what is written in the contract. The actual payment is less so its going to be difficult, she said.

The migrant groups previously said that the government did not consult with their associations before announcing it would hike birthing fees in February.

Meanwhile, a non-resident worker is currently facing a setback as she plans to give birth in the region in July, adding that she would have to go back to the Philippines to give birth by cesarean section.

Jhunnafe Mijares, working in an integrated resort, lamented she would still have to process documents to allow her to fly home.

Im supposed to give birth here, all has been settled after asking for a quotation at the public hospital [] but after the announcement a few days ago, we resorted to go back home and just give birth there rather than paying over MOP17,000, she said.

The migrant worker, wife of Loreto Mijares who was granted a Honorific Title  Prestige Award by the government  admitted that it is problematic to fly back home at this stage of pregnancy, stressing that she would have to go back home alone.

It was really a sudden decision and it has affected my schedule work. I have already bought tickets for my parents to come in July to assist us but we have no choice but to forfeit it, said Mijares.

I understand that theyll have to increase the fees but even for us its too much. Its almost twice our salary, she added.

Meanwhile, Loreto is still worried that some airlines may not allow her to fly back home, adding that she would have to take another flight to her province.

At this stage, I already cannot travel alone as its inconvenient but I have no choice. C-section delivery here has become too expensive, she added.

agnes lam against birth fee hike for migrants

LAWMAKER AND social critic Agnes Lam slammed the new law, which will come into effect by June 1. I do not feel comfortable with this one. If these people are not working in Macau and the government charges more I have no objection. But for those working here, whether they are permanent or not, our health system should be taking care of them somehow, said Lam, who spoke on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of her office. Its not okay for them to ask [non-local women] to go back to their countries and give birth. Thats not humane. I do not support this decision, I do not like this policy, Lam added. The legislator stressed that the child birth costs for locals and for those non-residents who are integrated in the society should remain equal.The office of lawmaker Agnes Lam has received 319 cases of complaints and calls for assistance from local residents, most of them involving the regions infrastructure.

Yesterday, Lams party list, Civic Watch, officially opened its office in a bid to cater to residents seeking the offices assistance.

According to Lam, the number of cases received between October 2017 and April 2018 was unexpected, thus implying that the office would serve as a much-needed platform to reach out to the locals.

The number of cases is more than I thought. Originally, before we opened the office, I didnt think people would find us, the lawmaker told the press on the sidelines of the offices opening ceremony.

Most of the cases we are dealing with [are] related to the [citys] infrastructures. More or less about city environment and about peoples residential [environment], she explained.

Apart from the cases that involve road construction and medical issues, Lam noted that several families are seeking assistance on obtaining speech therapy or occupational therapy for their children.

I help a big group of families who have children that [need] speech therapy or occupational therapy. I arrange meetings [with the government] and help tackle individual cases, said the legislator.

According to Lam, these parents find it challenging to seek such services due to the lack of professionals, and she thus suggested Macau create a scheme that will provide subsidies to these families to seek treatment in the neighboring regions.

They cant really seek enough help in the local system. The government is trying hard to get resources but since we dont have enough professionals and [services], we may need another kind of intervention to help them, Lam said.

Another significant issue that the office is working on is the accountability of government officials.

Lam noted that she has submitted an inquiry to the government on how they could revise the law to assure that those who are in elected positions are accountable.

Some cases sent to the Civil Watch office also involve seeking assistance on apartment purchasing.

Part of [the overall number of] cases are settled already. It takes a special kind of negotiation and coordination with the government she explained. Lam said many of the cases are still undergoing this process.

With some of the cases, we do some kind of mediation, and [help] two parties to reach a solution, Lam added.

Civic Watch pledged during the campaign period last September that it would call on the government to improve the standard of medical care, urging the government to formalize guidelines for medical procedures.

The list also called for improvements to the existing mixed education systems, along with ensuring that students with special education needs are provided for, and suggested that the government review the subsidization scheme for teaching aid purchases, to promote inclusive education.China, Japan and South Korea agreed yesterday to cooperate on ending North Koreas nuclear program and promoting free trade, two hot-button issues challenging their region.

The agreements came at the first summit for the Northeast Asian neighbors after a hiatus of more than two years, bringing together Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Abe said they discussed how they can get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, but he didnt provide any details. China and Japan, in particular, have differences over how best to achieve North Koreas nuclear disarmament.

The meeting comes amid a flurry of developments on the Korean Peninsula. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met Moon on April 27 and Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this week, in a surprise visit to the Chinese coastal city of Dalian. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to Pyongyang, North Koreas capital, to finalize details of a summit planned between President Donald Trump and Kim.

We must lead the ongoing momentum toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and achieve peace and stability in Northeast Asia, Abe told a joint news conference in Tokyo.

Japanese Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura said the three leaders also agreed to work toward two free trade agreements, a free trade pact among themselves and the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership with Southeast Asian nations.

Trump has threatened all three countries with tariffs in a bid to seek trade concessions from them. His moves have raised fears of a trade war between the U.S. and China.

Li, the No. 2 official in China after President Xi Jinping, said earlier that free trade is a good way to promote a global economic recovery.

We are willing to work with Japan and South Korea to jointly maintain regional stability and push forward the development of the three countries, he said before the meeting started.

The leaders also agreed to hold trilateral summits on regular basis and set up a secretariat. The summits, which started in 2008, are supposed to be held annually, but yesterdays was the first since November 2015.

Analysts say Japan is trying to showcase improved ties and cooperation with China and South Korea so its views will be represented in any negotiations with North Korea.

Abe reiterated Japans position that it would normalize ties with North Korea only if the latter took concrete steps toward abandoning its nuclear and missile programs and resolved the issue of Japanese abducted by North Korean agents.

Japans leader was to hold talks separately with Moon and Li later yesterday. Japanese officials said they plan to propose a free and peaceful East China Sea, but do not plan to raise contentious issues such as South Korean comfort women forced to provide sex to Japans wartime military.

Moon is to leave Japan after half a day. After that, Abe will host a dinner and lunch for Li and join him on the northern island of Hokkaido on the final day of his four-day Japan visit. Mari Yamaguchi, Tokyo, APAfter falling asleep in the common room of Yale University's graduate student housing on Monday night, Lolade Siyonbola found herself questioned by Yale police officers because a white graduate student alerted campus authorities to her presence. Siyonbola, who is black, posted videos of her exchanges with the student and police on Facebook.

In one video, she tells the officers, as they verify her identity (she shows officers her keys to her room and the Hall of Graduate Students), "I deserve to be here; I paid tuition like everybody else; I am not going to justify my existence here... I am not going to be harassed."

Apparently the complaining student, Sarah Braasch, had previously called police to HGS in March when Siyonbola had invited a friend, Jean-Louis Reneson, another black Yale graduate student, to the building. Reneson got lost in the building, and the Yale Daily News reports:

Reneson told the News that Braasch did not appear to believe that he was a Yale student trying to enter the HGS common room for a meeting, and instead accused him of being an intruder. Feeling ignored, I went down to the base of the twelfth floor and eleventh floor and turned my back, but she continued to verbally assault me from the twelfth floor claiming that I didnt belong here and I was making her uncomfortable, Reneson said. Reneson said that Braasch then left the area, and Siyonbola subsequently showed up to begin the meeting. But, according to the complaint, four police officers then showed up in HGS to inspect a suspicious character on the twelfth floor. According to the complaint, shortly after establishing that Reneson was a Yale student invited by Siyonbola for a meeting in HGS, the police left.

Yale University Secretary and Vice President for Student Life Kimberly Goff-Crews sent an email to all students:

I am deeply troubled by an incident that took place Monday night in the Hall of Graduate Studies. One graduate student called the police to report another student in the common area, who had every right to be there. The Yale police officers who responded spoke with both parties and subsequently admonished the complaining student that the other student had every right to be present. As Vice President for Student Life, I have worked with administrators, faculty and students to strengthen the resources available to address incidents of racial bias, discrimination, and harassment. This incident and others recently reported to me underscore that we have work to do to make Yale not only excellent but also inclusive. I strongly believe we must strive to create an environment that values equity and justice and in which all students are empowered to pursue their personal and professional goals  environment that is diverse, intellectually challenging, and broadly welcoming. Over the last 48 hours, I have been in discussion with Dean Lynn Cooley, Chief Ronnell Higgins, and other university staff, including Yale police, to better understand what exactly happened at HGS on Monday night, and how we can work together to avoid such incidents in the future.



We still have so much more to do.

Goff-Crews also said that she, Chief Higgins, and Dean Cooley would hold "listening sessions" with students. Cooley sent a message to students saying, "Incidents like that of last night remind us of the continued work needed to make Yale a truly inclusive place. I am committed to redoubling our efforts to build a supportive community in which all graduate students are empowered in their intellectual pursuits and professional goals within a welcoming environment. An essential part of that effort must be a commitment to mutual respect and an open dialog."

However, Siyonbola said that Cooley never contacted her about the initial complaint about Reneson about being profiled, "[T]his time the email that she sent was very vague, just not decisive, it just wasnt direct with what the actual issues are. Do you want black students at Yale or do you not want black students at Yale? If you do, then be very clear about taking decisive action so incidents do not continue to happen. We dont want to wait for a fatality, we dont want to wait for what happened at Harvard before actual action is taken on this."

Siyonbola posted on Facebook yesterday, "Grateful for all the love, kind words and prayers, your support has been overwhelming  Black Yale community is beyond incredible and is taking good care of me. I know this incident is a drop in the bucket of trauma Black folk have endured since Day 1 America, and you all have stories. Share below if you feel led. xo"

The Yale incident comes a week after three black women were checking out of their Airbnb rental in California, and someone called the police on them. Last week, two Native American high school students were yanked from a Colorado State University tour because a woman thought they were suspicious because they were so quiet. Last month, an Upper West Side resident called the police on a black man who was moving into his new apartment in the building and, in Philadelphia, two black men were arrested for not buying anything at a Starbucks (they were waiting for a third person to join them).Atlantic Citys Ocean Resort Casino says it will open on the same day as the Hard Rock casino.

Bruce Deifik, who owns the former Revel casino, says the Ocean Resort will be ready for guests on June 28. He gathered recently hired employees together at the casino on Monday and announced the opening date.

It was important for us to share this news with you directly, as the team here at Ocean, both as part of our family and as a part of the wonderful community that is Atlantic City that will continue to play an integral role in our future success, Deifik told the workers.

It was not immediately clear whether the two casinos would stagger their opening ceremonies so they didnt take place at the same time. Hard Rock plans a ceremonial guitar smashing outside its casino.

Revel closed in September 2014 and was one of five Atlantic City casinos to go out of business since 2014. That group also included the former Trump Taj Mahal, which closed in October 2016 and is reopening as the Hard Rock.

Ocean Resort CEO Frank Leone said June 28 will be a significant day for Atlantic City.

We look forward to June 28 as the culmination of all of our planning and know that this will be a special day for Atlantic City as it turns the page on a new chapter of revitalization, he said.

The two casinos will combine to restore about 6,500 of the 11,000 casino jobs that were lost since 2014 due to shutdowns.

They are both racing toward their openings, hiring workers and making physical renovations. Hard Rock will go before New Jersey gambling regulators seeking a casino license on Wednesday; no hearing has yet been set for Ocean Resort.

Hard Rock last week hired its 3,000th employee, and began installing its name in big gold letters on the side of its parking garage, even as the rest of the building facade is being prepared for the Hard Rock logo.

Ocean Resort recently installed new carpeting, is reconfiguring its casino floor to make it easier for guests to get around, knocking down a stone wall that separated it from most of the Boardwalk, and preparing slot machines for installation. Wayne Parry, Atlantic City, AP

Hard Rock seeks casino license

New Jersey gambling regulators are expected to decide whether to grant a casino license to the new Hard Rock property. The Casino Control Commission is due to rule on Hard Rocks application for a casino license for the former Trump Taj Mahal, which the company is rebranding into a music-themed resort. Hard Rock is one of two shuttered casinos reopening on the same day this summer: the former Revel casino also plans to reopen on June 28 as the Ocean Resort Casino. No hearing has yet been set for Ocean Resort. Together, they plan to restore as many as 6,500 of the 11,000 jobs that were lost when five of Atlantic Citys 12 casinos shut down since 2014.The local government now expects to put the Border Gate bus terminal into partial operation during the Chinese New Year holiday of 2019.

Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosario revealed the information earlier this week to the Legislative Assemblys Follow- up Committee on Land and Public Concession Affairs.

Previously, the estimated completion date to the renovation of the border gate bus terminal was in the second quarter of 2019.

Raimundo assured the AL committee that, by the end of this year, the border gate bus terminal renovation will be almost fully completed.

Regarding the progress of other projects that were damaged during last years Typhoon Hato, the government reported that the IIha Verde affordable house project will see its repair works finished in June at the latest.

Previously, the government announced it would incorporate a calculation of rainy days into construction contracts in order to stop contractors from using rainy days as an excuse to delay the completion of projects. The Infrastructure Development Office will soon introduce the new method.

During the meeting, Rosario stated that due to the large number of public engineering projects in Macau, and due to the shortage of human resources, the government is under pressure to complete projects, which in turn leads to less comprehensive supervision of projects.Vietnam has requested yesterday China to withdraw its military equipment from South China Sea outposts, saying their deployment seriously violates Hanois sovereignty, increases tension and destabilizes the regional situation.

The comments came after CNBC reported last week that China had installed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems on three outposts in the contested Spratly Islands, which are also claimed by Vietnam, among others.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said in a statement that Vietnam has sufficient legal basis and historical evidence to affirm its sovereignty over the Spratlys and the Paracels in the South China Sea.

Vietnam request that China [] show its responsibility in maintaining peace, stability in the East Sea, do not carry out militarization activities, withdraw military equipment illegally installed on features under Vietnams sovereignty, she said, using Vietnams name for the South China Sea.

China wont say whether it has deployed missiles to man-made island outposts in the South China Sea but says it has the right to take whatever actions it wishes on territory it claims as its own.

U.S. broadcaster CNBC quoted intelligence sources as saying that China has deployed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles on Fiery Cross Reef, Subi Reef and Mischief Reef in the contested Spratly island chain. CNBC said the defensive weapons were also spotted in satellite images of Woody Island, where China has a large military presence.

The missiles could strike both U.S. and other foreign navy vessels and military planes that regularly overfly the area, actions that Chinese forces often counter or protest.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said last week peaceful constructions and deployed defensive facilities aimed to meet the need of safeguarding national sovereignty and security, which is also the right of a sovereign state.

Hua denied such work constituted militarization and accused the U.S. of increasing military tensions in the area, adding that they should be prepared for the consequences.

China has constructed seven man-made islands and equipped them with runways, hangers, radar and missile stations, further cementing its vast territorial claims in the busy waterway. The U.S. says that militarization of the South China Sea runs contrary to Chinese President Xi Jinpings assurances to Washington. MDT/APU.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to North Korea yesterday to finalize plans for a historic summit between President Donald Trump and the Norths leader, Kim Jong Un.

U.S. officials said Pompeo will also press North Korea for the release of three detained American citizens, whose imminent release Trump has been hinting at.

Pompeo discussed the agenda for a potential summit in a meeting with Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the central committee of North Koreas ruling party.

Later, at a lunch of poached fish and duck hosted by Kim Yong Chol, Pompeo said the senior official had been a great partner in working to make the summit a success.

For decades, we have been adversaries. Now we are hopeful that we can work together to resolve this conflict, Pompeo said, adding that there are many challenges along the way.

Kim noted the improved relations between the Koreas, as well as the Norths policy to concentrate all efforts into economic progress in the country.

This is not a result of sanctions that have been imposed from outside, he added, citing the will of the Korean people. Trump has said that his pressure tactics brought North Korea to the negotiating table.

The trip, Pompeos second to North Korea this year, had not been publicly disclosed when he flew out of Washington under cover of darkness late Monday aboard an Air Force 757. Trump announced the mission Tuesday afternoon as he laid out the case for withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal with Iran, another bitter U.S. adversary.

Minutes later, Pompeo arrived in Japan to refuel before flying on to Pyongyang. Accompanying him were a handful of senior aides, a security detail and two journalists  one from The Associated Press and one from The Washington Post, both given roughly four hours notice of his departure.

When the flight arrived yesterday morning in Pyongyang, North Korean officials were on hand to greet Pompeo. A motorcade took Pompeo and his delegation to the Koryo Hotel, the main hotel for foreigners in Pyongyang.

The trip came just days after North Korea expressed displeasure with Washington for comments suggesting that massive U.S. pressure had pushed Kim Jong Un to the negotiating table.

Pompeo, who first traveled to North Korea as CIA chief in early April, is only the second sitting secretary of state to visit the reclusive nation with which the U.S. is still technically at war. The first was Madeleine Albright, who went in 2000 as part of an unsuccessful bid to arrange a meeting between then-

President Bill Clinton and Kim Jong Uns father, Kim Jong Il.

Plans are being made, relationships are building, hopefully a deal will happen and with the help of China, South Korea and Japan a future of great prosperity and security can be achieved for everyone, Trump said at the White House as he announced Pompeos visit.

Pompeos first trip to Pyongyang, over Easter weekend before he was confirmed as secretary of state, was a closely held secret. News of it did not emerge until just before his Senate confirmation vote less than two weeks ago. Shortly afterward, the White House released photographs of Pompeo and Kim. It was not clear whether Kim would meet Pompeo on this trip. AP

Analysis

Kim breaks with his flight-phobic father, travels by plane

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (center) arrives at an airport in Dalian, China this week

Hyung-Jin Kim, Seoul

U

nlike his dictator father, who famously shunned air travel, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un jetted off to the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian this week, becoming the first North Korean ruler to fly abroad in 32 years.

Since taking office in late 2011, Kim has occasionally flown inside North Korea. The recent foreign trip, albeit not far from the North Korean border, comes ahead of his expected summit with U.S. President Donald Trump aimed at ending the North Korean nuclear problem.

Was Kim trying to test his jets flight capacity because his summit with Trump could happen in Singapore? Did he simply want to show that hes different from his flight-averse father? Or perhaps he had urgent matters to discuss with Chinese President Xi Jinping that precluded the time-consuming train he took in March to Beijing to meet Xi.

Here are several things to know about the Kim familys travel habits:

THE GOSHAWK

Kims official plane is a remodeled version of the Soviet-made IL-62. North Korea calls it Chammae-1, named after the goshawk, North Koreas national bird.

South Korean media say the plane can fly at a maximum speed of 900 kilometers per hour and carry about 200 people. Its maximum flight range is about 9,200 kilometers but it has reportedly never flown that far.

Some experts say one reason why North Korea apparently wants to have a Kim-Trump summit in Pyongyang, the Norths capital, is that Kims plane might not be able to fly to faraway places like Switzerland, Sweden or Washington.

Kims younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, used Chammae-2, the same kind of aircraft as her brothers, when she visited South Korea in February to attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. She became the first member of North Koreas ruling Kim family to visit South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

PREVIOUS AIR TRAVEL

Schooled for several years in Switzerland, Kim is believed to have traveled by air many times during his teenage years.

After he became North Koreas leader, state media said he was aboard Chammae-1 when he reviewed air force planes taking part in combat aeronautics contests and inspected construction work in Pyongyang. North Korean media photos also showed Kim looking out the windows of his plane; walking down the stairs from the plane, and walking with his wife, Ri Sol Ju, on a red carpet placed on an airstrip.

Other photos showed Kim in the cockpit of a fighter jet.

DIFFERENT FROM HIS FATHER

Before Kims Dalian trip, no North Korean leader had publicly gone abroad by air since Kims grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, flew to the Soviet Union in 1986.

Kim Jong Il flew by plane to a conference in Indonesia with Kim Il Sung, his father, in 1965. But after that he reportedly never flew because of a fear of heights. During his 1994-2011 rule, Kim Jong Il made about a dozen known overseas trips, mostly to China, and conducted countless inspections of military posts, factories and other places  all by train.

Analysts say Kim Jong Uns air travel may be aimed at showing hes a confident, normal leader who meets international standards.

South Korean media say Kim Jong Il had several luxurious trains equipped with reception halls, conference rooms and high-tech communication facilities. To guard against possible attacks, his train reportedly traveled with two other trains, with one running ahead of his to check the safety of the rail line while another carried security agents and followed behind. According to state media, Kim Jong Il died of a heart attack during a train trip.

When Kim Jong Un visited Beijing, which is much farther than Dalian, in March for talks with Xi in his first overseas trip since his inauguration, he took a deep green special train reminiscent of his fathers. Last month, he took a black Mercedes limousine to return home after a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a village along the Koreas border. APWall Street analysts have given Enel Generacion Chile 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 Enel Generacion Chile wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Vedanta Ltd. is a natural resource company, which engages in the exploration, extraction, and processing of minerals, oil, and gas properties. It operates through the following segments: Copper, Aluminum, Iron Ore, Power, and Oil & Gas. The Copper segment focuses in custom smelting and also include a copper smelter, a refinery, a phosphoric acid plant, a sulphuric acid plant, a copper rod plant, and three captive power plants. The Aluminum segment comprises refinery and a captive power plant at Lanjigarh and a smelter, a thermal coal based captive power facility at Jharsuguda both situated in the State of Odisha in India. The Iron Ore segment explores, mines, and processes iron ore, pig iron, and metallurgical coke. The Power segment consists 600 MW thermal coal-based commercial power facility at Jharsuguda in the State of Odisha in Eastern India. The Oil and Gas segment involves in the exploration and development and production of oil and gas. The company was founded by Dwarka Prasad Agarwal on June 25, 1965 and is headquartered in Mumbai, India.

Read MoreThe head of the FDNY Pension Fundand the former president of the firefighters' unionwas fired after he was arrested for drunk driving in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday night.

Steve Cassidy "was traveling on Seventh Avenue in Midtown when he lost control of his Toyota Prius and mounted the sidewalk near West 30th Street about 11:55 p.m. Tuesday," sources told the NY Post. "The 62-year-old Kips Bay resident crashed into a dumpster, which then struck a nearby storefront and damaged the building, according to sources. He narrowly missed hitting pedestrians."

He was also allegedly found with cocaine.



An FIT student filmed Cassidy being helped into a police van after he crashed his car. Jakob Grabel said, "He was sitting in the drivers seat just kind of dazzed and confused as to what was going on."

Grabel added, "He got out of the car and tried to walk off, but two good Samaritans stopped him. I called 911. He was mumbling gibberish, not speaking any proper English."

Grabel's video shows Cassidy getting into the van with difficulty.

The Daily News reports that a prosecutor said Cassidy told a witness that he had too much to drink and claimed that he wanted to punch someone in the face.

Cassidy pleaded not guilty to the charges. The News' sources say that Cassidy recently had double knee surgery and had taken medication before drinking.

In 2016, Cassidy was appointed by FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro to run the New York City Fire Pension Fund , after 14 years as the head of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.Findings from a South Australian-led study on antibiotic use and the effectiveness of vaccinations could have significant implications for vaccination programs globally.

Researchers from the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute in Adelaide have discovered in preclinical animal models that antibiotic exposure in infants could impair their responses to five important, routine vaccinations.

The team, that also included members from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Australia and Flinders University, have established a clinical study at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia, to identify whether this phenomenon also occurs in human infants.

The clinical study will also explore how the healthy gut biome influences the effectiveness of vaccination.

Lead researcher, Associate Professor David Lynn, EMBL Australia Group Leader, Infection and Immunity at SAHMRI and Associate Professor, College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University, said the study found that antibiotics change the way a baby becomes immune.

"We have showed that the bacteria in the gut (microbiome) are important in shaping the strength of the infant immune system. It appears that antibiotics in the first year of life change the way the body builds immunity and responds to vaccination," he said.

The preclinical research with mice showed that exposure to antibiotics in early life leads to impaired immune responses to routine vaccinations against meningitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis and whooping cough.

"One of the things that we found in the mice is that it's not the antibiotic exposure per se that causes the problem, but the recolonisation by abnormal microbiota after antibiotic exposure," Associate Professor Lynn said.

"Genetics certainly contributes [to the effectiveness of vaccines on individuals] but what our research suggests is that our gut microbiota play a significant role in how well we respond to a vaccine. I think that's an important factor to consider in optimising a vaccine program in future  particularly in developing world settings."

The researchers also found that the microbiome in mice can be restored and strengthened with prebiotics, probiotics and transplants. They found that restoring the gut microbiome after antibiotic exposure rescued the impaired vaccination responses.

Associate Professor Lynn said that up to 40 per cent of infants are either directly or indirectly exposed to antibiotics via their mothers in the neo-natal period. By a year old, the period where these vaccines are administered, 50 per cent of infants in Australia will be exposed to antibiotics.

"I think we need to think a lot more carefully about the frequency of antibiotic exposure. We can't really assume that it does no harm," he said.

"There's room to seriously restrain our frequency that we administer antibiotics  particularly in this early life period."

The per capita consumption of antibiotics in Australia is among the highest in the world, while vaccinations come second only to clean water as the most effective frontline strategies available for preventing infectious diseases.

President of the Australasian Society for Infectious Disease (ASID), Professor Cheryl Jones said it appears that the use of antibiotics is in areas where it may not be needed  such as common viral infections and colds.

"ASID believes this is an important issue because we know that overuse or misuse of antimicrobial antibiotics is a driver to resistant infection and that is a major problem we have across the world," she said.

The study is published Published in Cell Host & Microbe today.

Explore further Taking antibiotics during pregnancy is linked to increased risk of child infection, hospitalization

More information: Miriam Anne Lynn et al. Early-Life Antibiotic-Driven Dysbiosis Leads to Dysregulated Vaccine Immune Responses in Mice, Cell Host & Microbe (2018). Journal information: Cell Host & Microbe Miriam Anne Lynn et al. Early-Life Antibiotic-Driven Dysbiosis Leads to Dysregulated Vaccine Immune Responses in Mice,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2018.04.009

Provided by The LeadUCLA researchers worked with a team that included a Latino scriptwriter and filmmaker, therapists and Latinas who served as consultants to create and test Catalina: Confronting My Emotions.

For years, MarySue Heilemann, an associate professor at the UCLA School of Nursing, has worked with Latinas dealing with depression and anxiety, looking for ways to connect them to effective treatment.

Then, she met media scholar Henry Jenkins at a UCLA/USC symposium. His groundbreaking insight into digital storytelling in the 21st century showed her that an audience can take an active role in a story when it unfolds across multiple platforms and formats, including television shows, blogs and videos accessible on smartphones, laptops and other devices. This phenomenon is known as "transmedia storytelling."

Imagining how a compelling story could ignite interest in a topic that is often considered taboo, Heilemann set out to create such a project to attract English-speaking Latinas with elevated symptoms of depression and anxiety. The idea was to make the story accessible via a smartphone or computer because it would be convenient and private. The goals were to create easy ways for women to engage in educational and therapeutic features to enhance their awareness that help for their symptoms exists; to boost their confidence that they could seek help for themselves; and to encourage them to connect with a hotline, clinic or other resources.

While Heilemann's idea was taking shape, she met the producers of the Emmy-nominated Hulu original drama series "East Los High," who encouraged her to pursue her goal. Their use of bonus videos to extend the story inspired Heilemann even more.

Heilemann realized that for the project to be successful, the main character in the story would need to be dynamic, engaging and relatable to the target group. She worked with a talented creative team that included a Latino scriptwriter and filmmaker, therapists and Latinas who served as consultants to create and test "Catalina: Confronting My Emotions." More about the study was published last year.

Now, researchers wanted to know what exactly made the main character Catalina so relatable to the participants. Through qualitative research, Heilemann's team took a closer look by examining Latinas' perceptions of Catalina. Results of the study were published this month in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

"Our goal was to understand what Latinas valued about Catalina to deepen our understanding of how to create characters that are socially and culturally appropriate, as well as entertaining," Heilemann said.

The story of Catalina is told through events in her everyday lifein her own home, her neighborhood, a social situation with friends, and finally, leaving the counseling center where she ultimately received help.

A great deal of work went into developing the character. First, drawing insights gleaned from multiple previous studies, Heilemann selected an array of various attributes and worries that Latinas identified as important. Then, she proposed a composite sketch of Catalina that included her backstory, life circumstances, motives and goals. Along with a basic storyline, this material was given to a Latino scriptwriter, who put words and scenes together to develop the script. Two Latina therapists, in addition to two more who also had significant experience with Latina patients, critiqued the script. After production, feedback from theater testing with Latinas led to the final edit.

All of the subjects watched each video and participated in the interactive features. To find out why participation was so high, the researchers interviewed the women one by one. They found that the Latinas embraced Catalina as a real person with a past, present and future. Her emotional vulnerability resonated with them ("that's how I feel right now"). They recognized shared experiences ("I'm not the only one going through this"). They related to Catalina's "handle-it-and-keep-going" attitude even if they felt a lack of support themselves. Through Catalina, they imagined how they could take action ("it pushed me to not wait").

"We believe that transmedia can be a tool to bring useful knowledge through an interactive story-based experience that ultimately increases healthy choices. But it's more than just making a video and sharing it on social. It has to resonate with the audience," Heilemann added.

"Transmedia storytelling for health is a growing discipline," Heilemann said. "By understanding the appeal of our main character, we hope to offer strategies to help other researchers create effective interventions featuring characters that audiences find relatable, enjoyable, inspiring and compelling."

Explore further Transmedia storytelling can be an effective health intervention

More information: MarySue V Heilemann et al. A Mental Health Storytelling Intervention Using Transmedia to Engage Latinas: Grounded Theory Analysis of Participants' Perceptions of the Story's Main Character, Journal of Medical Internet Research (2018). Journal information: Journal of Medical Internet Research MarySue V Heilemann et al. A Mental Health Storytelling Intervention Using Transmedia to Engage Latinas: Grounded Theory Analysis of Participants' Perceptions of the Story's Main Character,(2018). DOI: 10.2196/10028Term 4 nursing students practised lifts and transfers in a mobility lab while the wearable posture device called the Lumo Lift provided haptic feedback and collected data. Credit: Lynda Sea, University of Calgary

Nurses are often considered the unsung heroes and backbone of our health-care system but it's their actual backs that bear the brunt of physically demanding movements like lifting and transferring patients. In fact, nurses are the highest category of workers to experience back injuries on the job, even more than construction workers, says nursing researcher Linda Duffett-Leger.

"Back injury is a major problem among nursesit's a cost to the health-care system of nearly a billion dollars a year," says Duffett-Leger, RN, Ph.D., assistant professor, Faculty of Nursing. "It costs many nurses their career and is contributing to a worldwide shortage of nurses."

She points out that 66 per cent of new nursing graduates experience burnout in their first year in the workforce, many who outright leave their nursing careers entirely. And, if you're still wondering why the back health of nurses should be front of mind for everyone, a temporary shutdown of an emergency section in a New Brunswick hospital earlier this year highlights the potential impact of this issue on an already critical shortage of nursing staff in Canada.

Duffett-Leger is currently leading an interdisciplinary study at the University of Calgary which explores how wearable technologies can be used to help reduce the risk of back injuries among nurses. Her research is supported by the Faculty of Nursing and by the Sensor Technology in Monitoring Movement (STiMM) Program, funded by the Office of the Vice-President (Research) through the Engineering Solutions for Health: Biomedical Engineering (BME) research strategy.

"Using an upstream approach, we are first working with our nursing students to develop a technology we will pilot with nurses in the clinical setting," she says. "By involving [nurses] in the design, we end up with a system that is more relevant and useful to the user."

Earlier this year, 236 undergraduate nursing students at UCalgary shared some baseline information with the research team about their history of musculoskeletal injuries via an online survey. Some Term 4 UCalgary nursing students even wore a wearable posture device called the Lumo Lift as they performed lifts and transfers in the lab. The device provided haptic feedback, buzzing when the user was not in the correct posture, but it also recorded data like steps taken in a day and time spent in good posture.

Computer science instructor Sasha Ivanov, sitting, left, discusses feedback with the nursing posture app team at the first iOS app prototype feedback session Feb. 14. Credit: Susan Cannon, University of Calgary

"What we're seeing is that back injuries are occurring as a result of nurses not using proper body mechanics," says Duffett-Leger. "Four decades of research led to the proliferation of no-lift policies and the widespread implementation of hydraulic lifts in the hospitals to assist nurses in safely moving patients. But we haven't seen a decline in back injury among nurses as a result, in fact, there has been an increase. This suggests that lifting is not the primary source of the problem."

Observing her students, Duffett-Leger noticed "what we were teaching them about using proper body mechanics was not translating when they practised lifts and transfers in the lab. She says, "proper body mechanics is a learned behavior so it requires reinforcement over time and that's where the wearable tech comes in."

She pitched her study to a group of UCalgary computer science students enrolled in an iOS app development course (CPSC 599, taught by Alexander (Sasha) Ivanov). A team of six students signed up to help her develop a working app prototype for the wearable device over the course of one semester.

After many focus groups and design sessions with nursing students who provided feedback and input during the development phase, the computer science students created a prototype that displayed metrics like good vs. bad posture, progress over time and the ability to set posture goals in a simple, intuitive dashboard.

Nikolaas Lam, one of the fourth-year computer science students, says the experience was valuable because they were trying to solve a very real issue. "My mom and sister are both registered nurses, so the project was a bit personal as well," he says. "The dynamic nature of this project was a great learning experience, and I'm really happy with the product Linda and our team were able to develop."

For Duffett-Leger, who also sits on the BME Calgary steering committee, this cross campus collaboration with engineering, computer science, kinesiology and nursing was crucial to developing a better end product.

"As a nurse, I often see in clinical setting or community settings, health-care problems that can be addressed with a technological solution. If we have this opportunity for our students across disciplines to work together, then we create a community and we get a better product."

In the fall, Duffett-Leger plans to pilot the software developed with students in their final term of nursing and new grads in a clinical setting, since there's a peak prevalence of back injury in this group. "The next logical step is to explore that vulnerable transition period for nurse from education to practice."

Her plan is to investigate how wearables can be used across the spectrum to: provide nursing students and new nurses a learning tool help to prevent injuries; enable health-care administrators to monitor the health of their employees to target early interventions; and guide injured nurses about how to safely re-enter the workforce without incurring further injury.

"Nursing has this culture of self-sacrifice. The goal is to really change that culture by working closely with our nursing students to come up with solutions before they enter practice," she says. "What we want to do with the technology is to empower nurses to better monitor and maintain their back health, mitigating back injury before they get into a situation.

"We want our nurses to have long and healthy careers."

Explore further Nurses' experience of compassion impacts delivery of careExperimental setup to investigate implicit learning of surroundings. Credit: Tohoku University

Spatial representations of surroundings, including those outside the visual field, are crucial for guiding movement in a three-dimensional world. The visual system appears to provide sufficient information for movement despite our visual field being limited to the frontal region. However, this theory had not been scientifically tested until now.

A group led by Professor Satoshi Shioiri from the Research Institute of Electrical Communication at Tohoku University in Japan, used a visual search experiment to demonstrate that the human visual system indeed has the ability to perceive things beyond the limits of the visual field. The team designed a 6-panel-display which covered the 360-degree area surrounding the viewer. On each panel display, six letters appeared at the same time.

The viewer was asked to find a particular letter and the time it took to find the target was recorded. After repeated exposure to the same spatial layouts surrounding the viewer, locating the target object became faster even if the viewer had no explicit knowledge of the repetition. This happened even when the target object was located in the rear, which shows that visual processing is not limited to the visual field, but extends to a wider field around the viewer.

The results indicate that representations of surroundings exist in the brain that can be used to "look back" without the need for turning, perhaps for smooth and efficient movement. In other words, our brain constructs a 360-degree world even though visually we are usually only aware of the area in front of us.

This is the first study that has scientifically sought to demonstrate this spatial ability. It is an important step for revealing the brain function which links perception and movement.

Explore further Neuro filter sharpens visual processing

More information: Satoshi Shioiri et al. Spatial representations of the viewer's surroundings, Scientific Reports (2018). Journal information: Scientific Reports Satoshi Shioiri et al. Spatial representations of the viewer's surroundings,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-25433-5Credit: CC0 Public Domain

For those planning to become parents, advances in sequencing technologies could make preconception carrier screening more useful by looking at a much broader set of genes. And in a recent clinical study published May 10 in The American Journal of Humans Genetics, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University found that parents-to-be do want access to the information this kind of screening makes possible. The study uncovered genetic variants that more targeted panels might have missed, but the researchers believe interpretation challenges remain before this technology becomes more broadly available.

Carrier screening has, in the past, focused on looking for genetic variants associated with common disorders, especially those known to be more prevalent in specific ethnic populations. But the development of accurate sequencing technologies that can process data on many genes in parallel has made it feasible and affordable to expand this screening to include much more of the genome.

"By using whole-genome sequencing, we're casting a very large net over a lot of different clinical conditions. We're looking at hundreds of genes, not just a handful of genes or targeted panels, which means this method provides much more information," says senior researcher Sue Richards, a geneticist at Oregon Health and Science University.

Part of the study, which included 131 women who were not yet pregnant andif those women were found to be carrierstheir male partners, looked at how much of that information participants wanted. If they were carriers for a life-threatening disorder, they were automatically informed. But they were also asked to decide what other information they wanted to receive. Richards and her colleagues found that 93% of participants wanted to know if they were carriers for any kind of disorder, whether mild, severe, adult-onset, or unpredictable, and 99% of participants wanted to know about medically actionable findings that might affect their own health. "This tells us that people like to make choices. They wanted information," she says.

The researchers found that 78% of participants were carriers of at least one of the more than 700 disorders for which they were tested. "We found well-known variants in genes that are on other panels. We found ones associated with ultra-rare disorders that aren't on any other panel. We found novel variants, too," she says.

The researchers only informed participants about results for variants that were known to cause a disorder or likely to cause a disorder, which left a large number of what are called variants of uncertain significance. "Those are variants we currently can't interpret at all. And that's the one thing that clinicians hate to see on a clinical lab report. Because it says, 'We can't tell you if this is pathogenic or benign. We don't have enough information,'" she says.

The challenge is even greater in carrier screening because there's no phenotype to associate with the genetic variant. Carriers are healthy and don't show symptoms, so interpreting a variant that no one knows anything about is much more difficult than doing so in affected individuals. Although there are many groups working on classifying novel variants, Richards still thinks the challenges of interpreting them is one of the biggest roadblocks to making this kind of screening available to everyone. "I think we're pretty close to being there technologically right now. But the other challenges, I think, take a little more time to overcome," she says.

Another challenge, she believes, is helping people understand their results: all participants in her study were provided with extensive genetic counseling, but if this type of screening becomes more widely offered, a more streamlined counseling process might be necessary.

"Our mission in genetics, and in any medical field, is really to do no harm. This is about empowering people. It's about giving individuals and couples the knowledge that they need to make their own informed decisions and reproductive choices."

Explore further ACOG recommends use of carrier screening before pregnancy

More information: The American Journal of Human Genetics, Punj et al.: "Preconception Carrier Screening by Genome Sequencing: Results from the Clinical Laboratory" DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.04.004 Journal information: American Journal of Human Genetics The, Punj et al.: "Preconception Carrier Screening by Genome Sequencing: Results from the Clinical Laboratory" www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(18)30136-8A new outbreak of Ebola that has killed 17 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo is thousands of miles (kilometres) from Nigeria.

But health officials in Abuja this week moved quickly to introduce emergency measures, including screening visitors from the DRC and neighbouring countriesand for good reason.

Not only was Nigeria one of the countries affected by the last outbreak that killed over 11,000 across West Africa, it also regularly faces sudden, deadly and often unknown epidemics.

Last year, some 1,100 people died and nearly 15,000 were infected in a meningitis C outbreak, while there were also cases of monkey pox.

This year, there have been record numbers of Lassa Fever cases. In the past, health workers have scrambled to contain the spread of polio.

With a hot and humid climate near the Equator, NigeriaAfrica's most populous nation with more than 180 million peopleis a fertile breeding ground for viruses.

That, a crumbling healthcare system and transport links to the rest of the continent and wider world means health experts pay Nigeria extra special attention.

"Climate change, demographic growth, rapid urbanisation and promiscuity are aggravating factors, so outbreaks are something we have to be more careful about," said Valerie Nkamgang Bemo, emergency response deputy director for the Gates Foundation.

Preparation vital

In a country where an "average" town has about one million inhabitants, and where there are two cities with more than 10 million people, preparation is key.

Medical teams need to be trained, data from previous epidemics analysed and the transportation of samples organised in advance.

"Each state must have an emergency response to epidemics, depending on the specific risks they face," said Bemo.

Nigeria is situated at the heart of the "meningitis belt" that stretches across sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east, making outbreaks common.

But Bemo said: "It is not acceptable to have so many deaths of meningitis, a seasonal disease, when you know it's coming."

In recent years, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has been at the forefront of efforts to combat highly infectious diseases.

In 2014, when the first case of Ebola was detected in Lagos, the world held its breath.

Lagos is Nigeria's teeming economic capital, where some 20 million people live cheek by jowl. Rapid transmission both inside and outside the country was feared.

But in the end, only seven people out of 19 confirmed cases died of the virus. The WHO at the time hailed Nigeria's containment of the disease as a "spectacular success story".

Certainly luck played a partthe first patient, a Liberian diplomat, was prevented from leaving the hospital when he first showed symptomsbut so did preparation.

Contingency plans for an outbreak of polio were dusted down and adapted, giving health professionals a blueprint to work from.

At the same time, Nigeria's government came under heavy pressure from foreign countries to contain the spread.

Global attention

Adaptation is key, said the Gates Foundation's Bemo. "In West Africa, people travel a lot, they are nomadic and impossible to trace," she added.

"The mistake in Sierra Leone during Ebola is that people wanted to address it like it was an outbreak in a forest village in Congo."

But the best-laid plans risk being scuppered by inadequate funding of the public health sector, making foreign help essential.

This year, the federal government has set aside 340.5 billion naira ($945 million, 800 million euros) for health, the equivalent of 3.9 percent of its total budget.

That is still well below the 13 percent recommended by the World Health Organization, and not enough to raise standards of care or help improve the overall health of Nigerians.

Public sector health workers have currently been on strike for three weeks.

In areas from infant and maternal mortality to malnutrition, Africa's biggest oil producer, which is also one of the continent's top economies, performs poorly.

Despite this Nigeria "has more resources in comparison with any other country in West Africa", said Christian Happi, director of the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases at Redeemer's University in southwest Nigeria.

That includes a European Union-funded mobile laboratory, based in Irrua, in the southern state of Edo, for the rapid detection and diagnosis of haemorrhagic fevers.

"The world has invested a lot of money in Nigeria because it's highly populated. It can become a global problem, a time bomb."

Explore further Nigeria says will prevent Ebola spread from DR Congo

 2018 AFPCredit: American Heart Association

Regular annual visits to the OB-GYN can be a linchpin to improving women's heart health, according to an advisory issued Thursday that encourages collaboration with cardiologists and spells out recommendations on how the two can prevent heart disease.

More than 90 percent of women have at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease. At the same time, most women use their checkups with the obstetrician or annual "well-woman" visits to their gynecologist as their primary point of care, according to the joint advisory from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Heart Association published in Circulation.

That makes those visits "a powerful opportunity to counsel patients about achieving and maintaining a heart-healthy lifestyle, which is a cornerstone of maintaining heart health," said AHA President Dr. John Warner, an executive vice president at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Traditional risk factors for heart disease  such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity  may affect women differently than men. Regular health milestones like menopause and pregnancy can affect heart health. And preterm delivery and pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes can increase cardiovascular risk.

"Pregnancy is essentially a 'stress test' for women, and these adverse pregnancy outcomes can be used to identify women who are at an increased risk for [heart disease], even in those for whom the conditions resolve after delivery," according to the advisory.

So, the visits can be a logical place to talk about weight, nutrition, stress and being active, said Dr. Haywood L. Brown, outgoing president of ACOG and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He said he first began realizing the need for better coordination and communication more than a decade ago while he chaired the OB-GYN department at Duke. Now, there's a "new awakening."

"Many women carry these risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and we should be counseling them on lifestyle modification and further follow-up," said Brown, a co-author of the advisory. "Many of them don't see their cardiologist or internist until there is a problem. This partnership is key. It's about early counseling and early intervention."

Even with education campaigns and millions spent in advertising and outreach to let the public know that heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, statistics about awareness are worrisome.

Fewer than half  45 percent  of women know their No. 1 health danger is heart disease, and about 39 percent of primary care physicians ranked it as a top concern, after weight and breast health.

"It's really concerning to us that maternal mortality has been rising, especially the last 10 years," said Dr. Lisa Hollier, professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and chief medical officer in obstetrics and gynecology for Texas Children's Health Plan. She became president of ACOG last week.

"I'm really focusing on reducing preventable maternal mortality and homing in on cardiovascular causes, which account for 25 percent of all" maternal deaths now, she said. "These statistics are really part of the call to action. We know we need to work collaboratively with our partners in medicine to provide the best care for women."

Developments in software algorithms could potentially analyze electronic medical records and trigger patient education and needed referrals. But any high-tech solution begins with low-tech communication, the doctors said. It's important to correctly record a patient's history of disease, risks and pregnancies and share that information between doctors' offices.

"Working it together and having standardized protocols and enhanced screening processes," Hollier said, "would help OB-GYNs and cardiologists bridge the information silos and work together for women."

Explore further Annual well woman visit to the OB/GYN can keep your heart healthy

More information: Haywood L. Brown et al. Promoting Risk Identification and Reduction of Cardiovascular Disease in Women Through Collaboration With Obstetricians and Gynecologists: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Circulation (2018). Journal information: Circulation Haywood L. Brown et al. Promoting Risk Identification and Reduction of Cardiovascular Disease in Women Through Collaboration With Obstetricians and Gynecologists: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,(2018). DOI: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000582Young Latina women who have experienced racial or ethnic discrimination are less satisfied overall with their contraceptive care, which could affect their access to more effective contraceptives, a new study from Oregon State University has found.

The findings indicate that experiences of discrimination, inside or outside medical settings, can have a dramatic effect on women's comfort using reproductive health services, said Lisa Oakley, the study's lead author and a post-doctoral researcher in OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences.

"It is a positive finding that three-quarters of the women in our study reported being satisfied with their contraceptive care, but among the quarter that reported being unsatisfied, their experience with discrimination and its negative effects on satisfaction could severely affect their contraceptive use experience," Oakley said. "That's really important because a lack of access to effective birth control contributes to increased rates of unintended pregnancy."

The study was published recently in the journal Women's Health Issues. Co-authors are S. Marie Harvey, associate dean and distinguished professor OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences and Daniel Lopez-Cevallos, assistant professor of ethnic studies in OSU's College of Liberal Arts.

Harvey received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the research, which was part of a larger Latino Health project focused on the social and cultural factors related to contraceptive use, risky sexual behavior and HIV prevention among young adult Latinos living in rural Oregon.

The researchers' goal in the latest research was to better understand the factors that may affect Latinas' satisfaction with contraceptive services. In all 211 women, ages 18-25, participated in the study, which included surveys and interviews. About 40 percent were born in the U.S. and about 60 percent were born outside the U.S. Among the foreign-born, the average length of U.S. residency was 8.4 years, with a range of less than six months to 24 years.

Initially, the researchers found experiences of discrimination, medical mistrust and structural barriers to care, such as trouble with childcare or getting time off work to see a doctor, were associated with low satisfaction. But when considering all of these influences together, they found that everyday instances of discrimination were the largest influence on women's satisfaction.

It's particularly critical for young women of reproductive age to have access to effective contraceptives to prevent unintended pregnancies, Harvey said. The most effective methods of birth control, including hormonal pills or implantable devices, can only be obtained through a medical provider.

"The causes of unintended pregnancy are broad, but one reason is a lack of access to birth control," she said. "Those who lack access are at higher risk of becoming pregnant, regardless of the individual's behavior. It's a systemic issue."

The researchers found that most of the women in the study, about 83 percent, had seen a health care provider for birth control services in the past, and of those, nearly 90 percent reported receiving birth control services in the past year.

About 75 percent of the women reported being very or extremely satisfied with their birth control services. Among the remaining women, the most significant reason for dissatisfaction was perceived racial or ethnic discrimination.

The perceived discrimination cited by women in the study represents discrimination occurring in everyday experiences such as going to the bank, buying groceries or finding a place to live, Oakley said. It is rooted in the larger environment and culture of a community, but impacts individuals' satisfaction with health care.

"Ensuring health care providers have culturally-responsive staff and reducing other barriers to access, such as child care, transportation and unemployment, can help women feel more satisfied with their overall care," she said. "And satisfaction with care helps to ensure that women will continue to seek medical care, including contraceptives."

"However, because everyday discrimination was the key driver of women's dissatisfaction in this study, it is important to look outside the health care system and into the larger community to identify spaces where discrimination and cultural competence can be addressed," Oakley added.

The study helps researchers understand Latinos' health care experiences in non-traditional but fast-growing settlement areas such as rural Oregon, where Latino populations have grown significantly but the systems to support them have not kept pace, said Lopez-Cevallos.

"Latinos in these areas may not have access to societal supports and resources such as health care that are found in more traditional settlement areas," he said. "They also may be exposed to more discrimination than in areas that do not have a history of Latino settlement. Those early, negative experiences can have a long-term impact on their lives and their decisions about health care."

Explore further Mistrust, discrimination influence Latino health care satisfaction

More information: Lisa P. Oakley et al, Racial and Ethnic Discrimination, Medical Mistrust, and Satisfaction with Birth Control Services among Young Adult Latinas, Women's Health Issues (2018). Lisa P. Oakley et al, Racial and Ethnic Discrimination, Medical Mistrust, and Satisfaction with Birth Control Services among Young Adult Latinas,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.whi.2018.03.007(HealthDay)A restrictive fluid regimen is not associated with increased disability-free survival for patients at increased risk of complications during major abdominal surgery, but is associated with increased acute kidney injury, according to a study published online May 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine. The research was published to coincide with the annual meeting of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, held from May 7 to 11 in Sydney.

Paul S. Myles, M.P.H., D.Sc., from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues randomized 3,000 patients who had an increased risk of complications while undergoing major abdominal surgery to receive a restrictive or liberal intravenous-fluid regimen during and up to 24 hours after surgery (1,490 and 1,493 patients, respectively).

The researchers found that at one-year, the rate of disability-free survival was 81.9 and 82.3 percent in the restrictive and liberal fluid groups, respectively (hazard ratio for death or disability, 1.05; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.88 to 1.24; P = 0.61). The rate of acute kidney injury was 8.6 and 5.0 percent in the restrictive and liberal fluid groups, respectively (P < 0.001).

"Among patients at increased risk for complications during major abdominal surgery, a restrictive fluid regimen was not associated with a higher rate of disability-free survival than a liberal fluid regimen and was associated with a higher rate of acute kidney injury," the authors write.

Copyright  2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved.The distance a patient can walk in 6-minutes before a heart operation may be a clue to whether that patient will develop problems with memory, concentration, and attention after the procedure, according to a study published online today in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Broadly speaking, a decline in cognitive performance after surgery is known as postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). With POCD, a patient's mental aptitude is weaker after surgery, resulting not only in a greater risk of complications, but also a lesser quality of life. Cognitive deterioration is increasingly recognized as a common occurrence after major surgery, especially among older adult patients.

"This study indicates that the easy and inexpensive 6-minute walk distance (6MWD) is a valuable assessment for identifying patients at a high risk for POCD," said Kazuhiro Hayashi, PT, MSc, of Nagoya University Hospital in Japan. "If we are able to identify patients who are at risk for POCD, we can provide early treatment and encourage them to better understand the dysfunction."

For this study, Hayashi and colleagues identified 181 patients who were undergoing non-emergency heart surgery between March 2014 and August 2015 at Nagoya University Hospital. The mean age of the patients was 71.4 years.

Patients performed the 6MWD test upon admission for their operations. Functional exercise capacity was measured by having patients walk the length of a predetermined course at their own pace while attempting to cover as much ground as possible in 6 minutes. The distance covered in that duration was measured to the nearest meter. According to the results of this study, a low 6MWD was an associated risk factor for POCD after cardiac surgery. In fact, the lower the 6MWD was, the more significant the reduction in cognitive function postoperatively was. Of the study participants, 51 (28 percent) developed POCD.

"It is increasingly recognized that a patient's fitness level has an impact on how well he/she does after a surgical procedure," said Rakesh C. Arora, MD, Ph.D., of St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, Canada, who was not involved with this research. "This study further highlights the need for the health care team to undertake a more detailed assessment of patients' physical fitness before the operation. The 6MWD is an important component of this evaluation."

According to Dr. Arora, the identification of patients at risk for POCD and other cognitive disorders should alert the health care team to consider modifying anesthetic and medication choices during-and-after the operations, as well as assist with discharge planning as patients transition to home. In addition, the health care team should consider strategies, such as prehabilitation, to optimize the patients' fitness before their operations. Dr. Arora explained that prehabilitation includes a combination of exercise training, education, and social support intended to improve patients' physical and psychological readiness for surgery.

"Prehabilitation may be of benefit to patients with poor physical fitness by improving postoperative recovery and post-discharge functional survival," said Dr. Arora. "Patient self-management and follow-through are essential, however, as is the patient's understanding of their health issues and their proposed plan of care."

Dr. Hayashi agrees that a multidisciplinary approach, which includes elements such as prehabilitation, is key to a better assessment and treatment outcome. "Precise preoperative risk assessment for postoperative complications is critical, and when indicated, supervised exercise before an operation should be recommended to improve functional exercise capacity before heart surgery," he said.

More information: Kazuhiro Hayashi et al, Preoperative 6-Minute Walk Distance Is Associated With Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction, The Annals of Thoracic Surgery (2018). Journal information: Annals of Thoracic Surgery Kazuhiro Hayashi et al, Preoperative 6-Minute Walk Distance Is Associated With Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2018.03.010The private waste management company whose driver killed two people on the streets of New York City in the last six monthsone of whom was their own employee that they initially claimed was a random pedestrianstill has a license to collect garbage. On Wednesday, City Councilmembers, Teamsters, and safe streets advocates rallied outside the city agency charged with regulating the private carting industry to demand that they revoke Sanitation Salvage's license.

"Why has BIC never, never, ever denied or suspended a hauler for a pattern and practice of unsafe [driving] and a complete disregard for safety standards?" said Councilmember Antonio Reynoso, who chairs the council's Sanitation Committee, referring to the Business Integrity Commission, which oversees private carting.

"Today I'm calling BS on this industry," Reynoso added. "They've done absolutely nothing to improve the conditions for their workers, clean up their trucks or improve the efficiency of their routes. And we see the results. Two men dead at the hands of the same driver."

That driver, Sean Spence, struck and killed 21-year-old Mouctar Diallo in November. According to a ProPublica report, Spence initially told police that Diallo, a Guinean immigrant who lived with his mother, was a random person who lept onto the truck. Local TV stations and the Daily News reported that the man was "homeless."

When investigators learned that Diallo was actually a helper working for Sanitation Salvage, they did nothing to sanction Sanitation Salvage or Spence.

From ProPublica reporter Kiera Feldman:

The New York Police Department said lying to the police was not a crime. The department maintains it did a thorough investigation, collecting witness statements, 911 calls and videotape from the scene. The police, a spokesman said, had no authority to investigate the operations of a private sanitation company. A spokeswoman for the Bronx district attorney said the Business Integrity Commission had made no criminal referral to prosecutors about the conduct of Sanitation Salvages employees and thus prosecutors had no cause to investigate further.

On April 27th, Spence fatally struck 72-year-old Leo Clarke as he was walking across the street in the Bronx. Sanitation Salvage suspended the driver, but the NYPD determined that there was no criminality involved.

Reynoso was joined in calling for Sanitation Salvage's license to be revoked by Councilmembers Ben Kallos, Helen Rosenthal, and Carlina Rivera.

The recent accidents are absolutely tragic, and we are saddened by the untimely loss of life," Lee Silberstein, a spokesperson for the company, said in a statement. "However, our operation is predicated upon three important principles: 1) safety, first and foremost; 2) fulfilling a crucial need for our customers and the city; and 3) being a good neighbor. A complete review of our record and operation will show that we live by these principles and a revocation of our ability to do business is unwarranted.

Daniel Brownell, the Commissioner of the BIC, said, Upon learning the driver lied to the City about the circumstances of this fatality, we requested the drivers suspension and have been diligently investigating Sanitation Salvage and its practices. If this investigation finds that Sanitation Salvage should no longer be operating on our streets, BIC can initiate the process to revoke the companys license.

"As horrendous as these events are, as egregious as Sanitation Salvage's behavior is, there is not simply one bad apple, the whole orchard is rotten here," Reynoso told the crowd. "The private sanitation industry is out of control. Many of Sanitation Salvage's routes had over 1,000 stops, and this is not uncommon in the industry. 1,000 stops in one shift."

In 2016, the City's Sanitation Department published a study showing that by dividing the city up into different collection zones, and only allowing certain private carting companies to pick up commercial waste in their respective zones, commercial truck traffic could be reduced by as much as 68 percent.

"Reducing commercial collection truck traffic will lead to cleaner air, less traffic, safer streets, and quieter nights in neighborhoods across New York City," the report stated.

A spokesperson for the Sanitation Department said they intend to release their implementation plan this summer. The Department has suggested it will take around three years to put into place.

Allan Henry, a helper at Action Carting, also attended the rally. Henry said he hangs off the back of the truck collecting trash and dumping containers. He said he usually works 60-75 hours a week. When he started 6 years ago he was working 80 hours a week.

Action Carting describes itself as "the most progressive and innovative provider of non-hazardous waste management services," but its drivers have killed at least five pedestrians and cyclists since 2008.

"It's real pressure, you want to get done at a certain time, at the same time you don't want to hurt yourselfyou want to be in physical good healthand it's hard to do that working six days a week," Henry told Gothamist.

He added that there are close calls almost every night. "It's just normal now, every night is the possibility that something will go wrong. It's getting to the point where they need to make a major change now or something worse could happen."

As for Diallo's death, Henry said that "it's unfortunate he lost his life, but this is going to provoke change in the industry."

Additional reporting by Christopher Robbins.Sugar mama? Researchers are teasing out the benefits of various molecules in human milk. Credit: Stefan Malmesjo, CC BY

While living in a mother's womb, cushioned by amniotic fluid and protected from the outside world, babies have only minimal exposure to microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. Shortly after birth, a newborn's collection of microorganisms  their microbiome  begins to develop as a succession of bacteria colonizes their gut.

A variety of factors, such as mode of delivery (cesarean or vaginal birth) and antibiotic use, influence this population of bacteria. After that, human milk serves as a primary way more bacteria are introduced to a baby's system, as it can contain up to 700 different species of bacteria.

In my research as a chemist, I've been focusing on the complex sugars that human milk contains. My colleagues and I are interested in how these sugar molecules help mold a baby's microbiome and contribute to overall health. Ultimately we hope that knowing more about individual molecules in human breast milk will lead to the development of better infant formulas that can be used in cases where breastfeeding isn't possible.

What's in mother's milk

You've probably heard that breast milk provides all the energy requirements, vitamins and nutrients that an infant needs. In fact, the World Health Organization recommends exclusively breastfeeding babies for the first six months of life when possible. Unfortunately there are a number of reasons that breastfeeding can be a challenge to keep up; and indeed, only about a quarter of American babies meet that guideline.

Breastmilk has a number of health benefits, beyond just keeping a baby well-fed. Exclusively breastfed babies have lower infant mortality due to common childhood illnesses such as diarrhea, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, ear infection, necrotizing enterocolitis and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), compared to formula-fed counterparts. And antibodies in milk mean breastfeeding helps babies recover quicker when they do fall ill.

Researchers know human milk contains two types of simple proteins, whey and casein, which are easily digested. It also has complex proteins including lactoferrin, which inhibits the growth of iron-dependent bacteria, and secretory IgA, which protects the infant from viruses and pathogenic bacteria. It provides a number of essential fats that are necessary for brain development, vitamin absorption and nervous system development.

And then there are the complex sugars called human milk oligosaccharides or HMOs that have long been neglected by the scientific community. As trained organic chemists, my team took an interest in HMOs precisely because not much was known about them. A few studies had found that these sugars were food for good bacteria, but not the pathogenic ones. It seemed like there must be more to the story. We also knew we'd be able to synthesize in the lab any molecules we identified as important.

Basic techniques of organic chemistry can isolate the sugars from a mothers milk. Credit: Steven Townsend, CC BY-ND

A closer look at mom's milk sugars

These complex sugars in human milk appear to provide a growth advantage for good bacteria. For example, breastfed infants have a microbiome rich in two species of bacteria: Bacteroides and Bifidobacteria. Both species are symbiotes, meaning they live with us on a daily basis, but typically cause no harm. They live in the human gut where they use human milk oligosaccharides as energy sources to grow, whereas pathogens do not. Breastfed babies tend to be colonized to a lesser extent by infectious species, meaning they get sick less.

Many of the protective properties of human milk have been attributed to its HMO component. For instance, research has shown that HMO supplementation shortens the duration of rotavirus infection  one of the leading causes of diarrhea in infants.

Bovine milk, which most formula is based on, however, contains a negligible oligosaccharide component. Additionally, bovine milk oligosaccharides lack the structural complexity and diversity of HMOs. So formula-fed infants do not obtain comparable oligosaccharide-fostered protections to those who are breastfed.

A case study: Group B strep

Based on these known effects of human milk oligosaccharides, my research group took an interest in Group B streptococcus. All mothers-to-be are screened during the third trimester of pregnancy for Group B strep; although it isn't much threat to a healthy adult, this bacteria can be passed to the baby during labor and birth, with an increased risk of infection.

We noted that, even though Group B strep bacteria are present in breast milk, children who breastfeed are not at increased risk for Group B strep infection. Why? Could HMOs be providing protection against this bacteria?

To investigate, our team worked to isolate the complex sugars contained in donated human milk. With these molecules in hand, we began to test whether HMOs acted as antibiotics against Group B strep. In an initial study, we tried to grow Group B strep both in the presence and absence of HMOs. It turned out that HMOs do prevent the growth of Group B strep bacteria.

We also observed that different women produced HMOs with varying levels of antibiotic activity. This was not surprising as there are over 200 different HMOs in breast milk. Every woman produces a different set of sugars and they change during lactation. In followup studies, we showed that HMOs have antibiotic properties against a number of additional pathogens, including staph.

Going forward, our goals are to figure out exactly how these sugars are working and why specific women produce sugars that are more antimicrobial than others. Once researchers understand more about which HMOs are the most important ingredients in breast milk for baby health, these compounds can be synthesized and added to infant food products. A better quality infant formula that more closely mimics human breast milk may help close the health gap between breastfed and formula-fed babies.

Explore further Sugars in some breast milk could help protect babies from group B strep

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.Rolls-Royce launched its first-ever SUV at the automakers headquarters in Goodwood, England today.

Named the Cullinan, the new vehicle boasts a 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12 Rolls-Royce engine which delivers 420kW of power and 850Nm of torque.

The four-wheel drive SUV also features an all-wheel steering system, which the automaker says turns it into a capable off-roader.

Rolls-Royce built the Cullinan using a three-box design, featuring a glass rear partition wall separating passengers from the luggage compartment.

It is the second vehicle to be built on the carmakers all-new aluminium architecture.

SUV

The Cullinan is the carmakers first foray into the SUV market, and is expected to turn heads in South Africa.

Rolls-Royce named the new SUV after the world-famous 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond, discovered in South Africa on 26 January 1905.

According to the GM of Rolls-Royce Sandton, Marek Letowt, four Cullinans will arrive in South Africa in November 2018.

Rolls-Royce CullinanOur trust documents also allow either spouse to hold his or her separate property in his or her name as sole trustee, even though both spouses are trustees of the overall trust.

But thats not playing it safe.

We did not draft your trust document, so your trust could say otherwise.

If you sign a deed putting your half of the apartment building into your joint trust and you get divorced later, your wife can make things very difficult for you.

Remember the old saying that possession is nine-tenths of the law?

If the two of you get divorced, she may refuse to sign a deed putting the property back into your name, even though it belongs to you alone.

It would make your divorce more expensive than it would be otherwise if you have to fight her over this.

Its a silly rule, but the best way to keep your separate property separate is to keep it separate.

The cautious thing for you to do would be to keep the property out of your wifes name, even as a trustee.In the future, Napa Valley College may gain a new road  and another link to the surrounding city.

A master plan to modernize the two-year schools main campus in south Napa could include construction of a north-south route in its northwest quadrant. The street, combined with a westward extension of NVCs main entryway off the Napa-Vallejo Highway, would open a new access point on Imola Avenue at its intersection with Gasser Drive  itself a gateway to a movie theater and shops that have transformed the area in recent years, as well as to hundreds of new housing units farther north.

The Imola Avenue road is one of the first development ideas to be weighed by the colleges three-member real property committee, which grew out of an earlier ad hoc committee of NVC trustees and reviewed the plan at its first public meeting Monday night.

Maps included with the master plan, first released in draft form in 2015, show an extension of Magnolia Drive beyond the roundabout that guides visitors south toward the colleges main buildings and parking lots. Drivers on the new westbound corridor would connect to a north-south roadway that would hook into the existing Imola-Gasser crossing.The grand jury accused Tuteur of four willful or corrupt misconduct charges, three related the Williamson Act. This provided the backdrop to the Board of Supervisors workshop on the Williamson Act, though the grand jury accusations didnt come up.

Napa County contains some of the most highly valued vineyard property in the world, the grand jury accusation papers said.

All agricultural preserve and agricultural watershed land is restricted to farming under county law without regard to the Williamson Act, the papers said. Yet the tax breaks designed to preserve agriculture lower the countys $37 billion property tax roll by $573 million.

The grand jury calculated owners of these high-value properties pay about $6.3 million less per year in property taxes than they would if the program wasnt in place. This is tax money that would otherwise go not only to the county, but local schools, cities and other agencies.

Tuteur attended the Board of Supervisors Williamson Act workshop. Gregory asked him about the Williamson Acts financial effects.

Napa County has 848 Williamson Act contracts and 402 do not yield the property owners any financial benefits, Tuteur said. Those seeing no benefits all involve vineyards, he said.A theft at the Safeway store in American Canyon was thwarted after store employees noticed two men sneaking around in a storage area on Wednesday night, according to American Canyon Police.

After the men were seen at about 7:50 p.m., they fled the storage area on foot and jumped a masonry block fence, leading into a neighborhood, police said. When officers arrived, a foot pursuit through backyards began.

Police first apprehended and arrested Joseph Albert Peres, 22, of Oakland, who complied with police commands. The other man, later identified as Rayshon Deante Davis, 21, of Concord continued to be chased by police and K9 Chase. When threatened with the dog's release, Davis gave up, police said.

More than $1,300 in liquor items had been taken from the storage room and stashed in nearby bushes prior to the chase, police said. A prying tool had been used to break into the storage room.

Peres and Davis were both booked at the Napa County jail on suspicion of felony shoplifting and misdemeanor possession of burglary tools.

Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.ST. HELENA  The quasi-volunteer model that has served the St. Helena Fire Department so well for 107 years is finally showing some cracks.

At a special meeting last week, Fire Chief John Sorensen briefed the City Council on his proposal to hire two full-time firefighters, at a cost of $200,000 a year, to supplement a squad thats struggling to muster enough people to respond to a sharply increasing number of calls.

The department has 26 paid-per-call firefighters, including six that were recruited last year. But many of them work out of town, leaving only nine firefighters in St. Helena who can be relied upon to drop what theyre doing and respond to daytime calls.

At least two of them need to respond for a routine medical aid, and more for car accidents and fires. And not all nine of them are qualified to drive the fire trucks, so sometimes responders have to wait at the firehouse for a driver to arrive.

Meanwhile, call volume went from 728 in 2012 to 851 in 2016, and then shot up to 977 in 2017  an increase of 15 percent in one year. Thats almost equal to the 1,032 calls fielded by the Calistoga Fire Department, which began the transition from volunteer to volunteer/professional in 1996.A wind advisory, with the possibility of downed trees and power lines, will be in effect for the North Bay mountains and East Bay hills from 7 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m. Saturday, according to the Napa County Office of Emergency Services.

Although most of Napa County is not included in the advisory, Angwin is in the advisory area.

Residents in these areas should expect northeast winds 25-40 mph with gusts up to 55 mph, according to The National Weather Service in San Francisco. The highest wind speeds will occur at the highest elevations, especially at ridge tops and peaks. Blowing debris, downed trees and power lines, and hazardous driving conditions are possible.

Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.SANTA ROSA -- A man was fatally stabbed during a fight in Santa Rosa on Wednesday evening, according to police.

The people involved were gone when officers responded around 7:45 p.m. to a report of a fight in the 1200 block of Slater Street, police Sgt. Josh Ludtke said.

Kaiser Permanente Medical Center staff notified police a short time later that a male stabbing victim was at the hospital. The victim was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital due to the serious of his injuries, and he died there, Ludtke said. His name has not been released.

The victim was stabbed a number of times and the suspects fled in a vehicle believed to be a white Chevrolet Equinox with California license plate No. 6YZM739, Ludtke said.

Police identified the suspects as Johnny Luis Martinez, 20, and Gabriel Cardin Heredia, 25, both of Santa Rosa. The department released photos of the suspects, who are both still at large, Ludtke said.

Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call the Police Department's violent crimes investigations team at (707) 543-3590.More generally, pulling out of the Iran deal is one area where Trump could act virtually alone. But as Richard Neustadt argued, governing by decree, even when it is possible, tends to be costly to presidents both directly and indirectly. Directly because Trump wants to re-establish tough sanctions on Iran. But they won't be effective unless other nations join in, and it seems very unlikely that Europe, let alone Russia or China, will go along. In fact, it's likely that upsetting European allies will make it harder for Trump to succeed in his ambitions for better trade deals.

And there could be a price to pay domestically. Presidential reputation matters. This isn't the only agreement Trump is attempting to rewrite this week. His rescission package sent to Congress to cut spending is an effort to bulldoze over the budget deal Republicans and Democrats struck, and Trump signed, only a few months ago. But the president can't act on his own on recission, and his cuts will probably be defeated. Still, as Nuestadt said, everyone who has to deal with the president closely watches how he goes about his job. He raises the price he'll have to pay for future deals each time he acts as if he isn't bound by an agreement; only a fool would agree to something with Trump without making it extremely difficult for him to back out later or attempt to shirk his obligations.

There's more to the presidency than self-interest and maximizing influence, of course. Neustadt said, however, that presidents often find the best policy course by seeking to build their own power. One way or another, it seems Trump has once again failed to protect his own influence, and therefore he risks weakening his presidency one more time.

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He taught political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio and DePauw University and wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.On Sunday May 6, the No on Measure C committee published an ad listening Napa residents who joined them in opposition to the proposed Measure. My name, Nancy Heine, was listed in error. I have contacted the people who placed the ad and asked them to remove my name from their list of endorsers.

I am actually a strong supporter of Measure C, which protects Napa Countys watershed and oak woodlands from overdevelopment, particularly on our hillsides. Ensuring that our hillsides are not over developed protects our reservoirs, Lake Hennessey, Milliken Reservoir, and Bell Canyon Reservoir, from water degraded by toxins from fertilizers and pesticides.

Also, forested lands retain water easing the severity of drought, which is a fact of life in California.

Measure C strikes a balance between environmentalists who want more protection, and some vintners that want less regulation, by strengthening Measure J, known as the Agricultural Preserve.

Measure C protects oak woodlands by increasing the number of acres to be preserved or replaced when an acre is removed. Measure C protects our watershed, our woodlands and our health, our environment and our future generations. That is why I am in favor of Measure C.

Nancy Heine

NapaA letter published here on May 2 asked the question: Why does Congressman Mike Thompson support U.S. sugar policy?

To me, thats a no-brainer, considering the C&H Sugar refinery right here in his district provides nearly 700 local jobs for working families, including mine. These are good-paying union jobs with an average compensation of $75,000 a year, plus benefits, and theyd be impossible to replace. We know that once American manufacturing jobs are lost, they rarely come back.

U.S. sugar policy, which operates without taxpayer costs, ensures that our jobs arent sent overseas to heavily subsidized sugar industries in Brazil, India and Thailand. What wouldnt make sense is if our local representative voted to outsource our jobs to foreign countries for no reason and send 700 of us to the unemployment line.

Our sugar refinery has been a mainstay of our company town for more than 100 years. Today, it is state of the art and our technology allows us to be one of the most efficient producers in the world. Were proud of the products we make right here in America and how we craft them.

Our local sugar factory, which opened its doors in 1906, is also an economic engine that generates nearly $50 million a year for the Bay Area.Opponents  including employees at PG&E and REACH Air Medical Services  have also said that Measure D would limit utility contractors ability to work on power lines during emergencies. Caloyannidis said those commercial activities would be exempted, and the measure is instead aimed at personal helicopter landings by residents and their guests.

Also attending Wednesday's forum was Cio Perez, whos challenging Diane Dillon for the District 3 seat on the Napa County Board of Supervisors. Perez supports Measures C  the watershed and oak woodlands protection initiative  and D, while Dillon is neutral.

Perez defended the initiative process, which opponents of C and D have criticized as a less than ideal way to enact laws. Perez said initiatives are instrumental in helping the citizenry guide the politicians and not the other way around.

Mike Hackett, one of the authors of Measure C, said initiatives like C and D are all about citizens taking back power thats been usurped by our government.

Whats the problem in Napa County? Why are we seemingly headed down the wrong road? Hackett said. Because theres too much power in too few hands.

Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.Ahead of his Nepal visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India would remain a steadfast partner of the Himalayan nation in its quest for growth and development.

The prime minister exuded confidence that his visit will further cement people-centric partnership with Nepal on the basis of mutual benefit, goodwill and understanding.

Modis visit to Nepal is seen as an attempt by both the countries to bring back normalcy in ties after a spell of uneasiness as it comes little over a month after his Nepalese counterpart K P Sharma Oli came to India.

Describing his two-day trip to Nepal as a reflection of his governments commitment to neighbourhood first policy, Modi said the Himalayan nation has entered a new era and India would continue to support it.

As Nepal enters a new era of consolidating gains of democracy and achieving rapid economic growth and development, India will continue to remain a steadfast partner of government of Nepal to implement its vision of samriddha Nepal, sukhi Nepali (prosperous Nepal, happy Nepal), Modi said in a statement.

Olis visit was seen as an attempt to repair Nepals ties with New Delhi. In 2016, the Nepalese leader had publicly accused India of interfering in his countrys internal matters and trying to topple his government.

Prime Minister Oli and I will have the opportunity to take forward our recent wide-ranging discussions in New Delhi on issues of mutual interest, and to advance our cooperative partnership across diverse sectors, Modi said.

He said his visit reflects the high priority, India, and personally I, attach to our age-old, close and friendly ties with Nepal.

These high-level and regular interactions reflect my governments commitment to the neighbourhood first policy, in consonance with the motto of sabka saath, sabka vikas, he said.

Modi said the two countries have completed several bilateral connectivity and development projects in the last few years, and initiated transformational initiatives for the benefit of their people.

In addition to Kathmandu, the prime minister said he was also looking forward to visiting Janakpur and Muktinath. Both these places attract a large number of pilgrims every year.

They are living testimony to the ancient and strong cultural and religious ties between the peoples of India and Nepal, he said.Armenia Central Bank chief in Rome, meets with Italy PM

Russia peacekeepers, philanthropists hand warm clothes to Artsakh families

State Department: US, Russia do not want to allow Iran to have nuclear weapons

Newspaper: Armenia state to no longer cover treatment expenses of patients not vaccinated against coronavirus?

Newspaper: Armenia judicial system to be in volatile situation in short time

UN Human Rights Council agrees to appoint special rapporteur on Afghanistan

Launch of Armenian Studies Program announced during Armenia President's visit to Sapienza University

Will Turks be able to enter 26 countries of Schengen Area without visas?

Dinner served in honor of Armenia President and his wife in Italy

Armenian parliamentary standing committee chairman meets with Russia Ambassador

Armenia Ombudsman submits to Pope Francis reports on tortures of Armenian POWs in Azerbaijan

Customs Attache: There hasn't been and there is no bias against Armenian drivers at Upper Lars checkpoint

Greece-France defense agreement will allow them to help each other in case of third country's attack

Turkish FM: Turkey's position on supporting Ukraine's "integrity and sovereignty" remains unchanged

Russian peacekeeping forces, charitable organizations provide assistance to boarding school in Karabakh

Zakharova: Moscow proceeds from priority to ensure geopolitical stability in South Caucasus

Armenia President pays tribute at Altar of the Homeland monument at Venice Square in Rome

Turkey, Iran to hold political consultations

Karabakh FM expresses condolences over death of Vigen Chitechyan

Armenia territorial administration and infrastructure minister has new deputy

Armenia Deputy PM Mher Grigoryan receives US Ambassador

Armenia Security Council Secretary, Netherlands Ambassador attach importance to fight against corruption

Digest: Armenian POW returned from Azerbaijan, PACE speaks on mandatory COVID-19 vaccination risks

Armenia and Italy are deepening cooperation in justice sector

Apprehended ARF-D members are released

Armenia high-tech industry minister receives Russia Ambassador

Armenia Embassy in Russia hosts delegation led by Armenian parliamentary speaker

Decisions to arrest Armenia ex-defense minister, arms supplier are appealed

Dollar continues going down in Armenia

Artsakh President to Putin: Your role in process of peaceful, final settlement of Karabakh conflict is invaluable

Amir-Abdollahian: We consider inadmissible Zionist regime provocative movement in our region from Azerbaijan territory

Iran FM announces readiness to visit Armenia, Azerbaijan

US ambassador to Armenia attends unveiling of new x-ray machine donated to Ashtarak city hospital (PHOTOS)

Putin: Russia attaches great importance to close cooperation with strategic ally Armenia

Police disrupt ARF youths protest outside Armenia government building

Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople meets with the Pope, in the Vatican

UK envoy to Armenia does not comment on Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, Karabakh situation

Iran Supreme Leaders representative leaves Azerbaijan

Armenias Pashinyan to Russias Putin: We are grateful for your efforts to establish peace in South Caucasus

Putin, Aliyev confer on situation in South Caucasus

Putin, Erdogan discuss regional issues

4 new cases of coronavirus reported in Artsakh

PACE new resolution urges to ensure that COVID-19 vaccination is not mandatory

Zelensky sacks Ukraine ambassador to Armenia

PM: Armenia, Armenian people are grateful to Japan

Armenia PM: We have made decision regarding local elections

Armenia, Italy presidents farewell ceremony held in Rome (PHOTOS)

Sarkissian to Putin: Armenia highly values your contribution to maintenance of peace, stability in region

Having legal system is important for business development in fair environment, says UK ambassador to Armenia

Armenia President, Italy PM meeting in Rome (PHOTOS)

Baku not ruling out another meeting between Armenia, Azerbaijan FMs

Armenia President meets with Rome mayor

1,309 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Biden approval rating hits new low in latest poll

Armenia ombudsman in Italy parliament, presents evidence of Azerbaijan torture of Armenian captives

World oil prices dropping

Serial killer in US lured by social media is sentenced to 160 years in prison

Newspaper: Armenia authorities face new problems in setting up parliament committee of inquiry into 44-day war

Newspaper: Opposition Armenia bloc plans to hold forums, rally

Armenia PM admits that in 2018 he could have disclosed Karabakh negotiation process content

Armenia health minister: Out of 2,446 hospital beds for coronavirus patients, 2,300 are occupied

China-Taiwan military escalation reaches peak in past four decades

Armenia President: We welcome pro-Artsakh documents adopted by nearly 50 regional and city councils of Italy

Armen Sarkissian meets with President of Italian Senate

Nikol Pashinyan: Armenia to build new nuclear power plant, negotiations have been launched

Italy's Quirinal Palace hosts exhibition featuring works of Aivazovsky, Saryan and other Armenian painters

Armen Sarkissian meets with President of Italy's Chamber of Deputies Roberto Fico

Catholicos of All Armenians meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican

Armenia ex-Ambassador to The Netherlands Vigen Chitechyan dies

Armenia PM again says he is guilty for all the failures of the Armenian side during last year's war

FM: Discussion on occupied territories of former NKAO will create new threats to Armenia

Karabakh emergency situations service: Rescue squad finds remains of another Armenian soldier in Jrakan

Mattarella: Armenia and Italy can boast about their friendly relations

Nikol Pashinyan: Armenia agreed to stop the hostilities on October 7, 2020

Iran, EEU begin talks to reach agreement over permanent treaty on free trade zone

An abundant TechnoFall with Inecobank - NFC payments and more

Armenia FM says his Indian counterpart will visit Yerevan in the next few days

Deputy PM: A comprehensive study of documents agreed by Armenian and Azerbaijani is necessary

Digest: Azerbaijan using Armenia's airspace, Baku says it's ready to mend relations with Yerevan

Health minister: All coronavirus vaccines in Armenia meet quality standards

Armenia health minister: Those who recovered from COVID-19 also need to get vaccinated

Armenia Deputy PM announces name of another POW returned from Azerbaijan

Armenia and Italy Presidents hold personal talks at Quirinal Palace

Armenian FM: MFA welcomes Iran's stance on inviolability of Armenia's borders

EU ready to share experience with Azerbaijan and Armenia in borders demarcation and delimitation

Dollar dropping in Armenia

Lavrov: Russia, Iran discussed 3 + 3 format concept with Turkey, Caucasus countries participation

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian: Iran won't accept geopolitical changes in the Caucasus

Armenia Ambassador meets with Iranian Deputy FM

Armenia Parliament Speaker visits Armenian church of Russia and New Nakhijevan Diocese

Armenia to host event with companies having made investments worth over $2,000,000,000

Aliyev announces start of process of opening communications with Armenia

Civil Aviation Committee confirms Baku-Nakhchivan flight through Armenia airspace Wednesday

Armenia government programs under EU assistance package are discussed

Azerbaijan lodges complaint with ECHR for review of case of assassination attempt against Lapshin

Armenian MP also on list of Erdogan's petition to strip several Turkey lawmakers of parliamentary immunity

Armenia Deputy PM Suren Papikyan has new advisor

Armenia State Revenue Committee chief has new deputy

Italy President to Armen Sarkissian: OSCE Minsk Group is the format for sustainable and peaceful solution

Armenia ombudsman emphasizes to Vatican Secretary of State urgency of returning Armenian captives in AzerbaijanRussia views new US sanctions against Russian defense bodies as a desire to get even with Moscow after a fiasco of a missile strike against Syria on April 14, Russias Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, TASS reported.

"Formally, Russia is being accused of breaching US legislation that bans cooperation in defense technology with Iran, North Korea and Syria, and that cannot have any relation to our country," the ministry said. "In fact, it is obviously a hackneyed desire to be even for a fiasco of the missile attack launched by the United States alongside the United Kingdom and France against the Syrian Arab Republic on April 14 in violation of international law."

"Maybe, [they are blacklisted] for training and instructing well the Syrian air defense servicemen who shot down most of western aggressors missiles," the foreign ministry said emphasizing that the Russian General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate and Rosoboronexport arms export company had been placed on sanctions lists before.

"The Americans seem to have forgotten that they have sanctioned them more than once and intend to threaten us what they have failed to frighten us with earlier," the statement reads.

Washington is incapable of pressuring Russia both economically and politically to stop protecting own interests or supporting partners, Russias Foreign Ministry said.Chief of Armenia Police Vladimir Gasparyan and Director of the National Security Service Georgi Kutoyan have been dismissed. The decree was signed by President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian.

Earlier in the day, Armenia Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a recommendation to Armen Sarkissian about relieving Gasparyan and Kutoyan from their positions.

A protest action was staged Thursday outside the Yerevan Municipality building, in the capital city of Armenia.

According to the respective press release by the initiative group of this demonstration, they demand the resignation of Mayor Taron Margaryan and the dissolution of the current municipal council.

The protesters closed off the street across and the area around the city hall building demanding to see Margaryan, but he did not appear. The action lasted around 4 hours.

The new Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, on Thursday appointed Civil Contract Party member Eduard Aghajanyan Prime Ministers Chief of Staff.

The EU top diplomat Federica Mogherini spoke by phone with Nikol Pashinyan to congratulate him on his election as the new Prime Minister of Armenia.

They agreed on the importance of the partnership between the European Union and Armenia and looked forward to meeting in person. Mogherini invited PM to Brussels at the earliest opportunity. They also briefly discussed foreign policy priorities, including the -Karabakh conflict, the peaceful resolution of which remains, as reiterated by the High Representative, a top priority for the European Union.

On Thursday, Pashinyan received congratulations from European Commission and European Council chiefs.

MPs from the Republican Party of Armenia Grigor Avalyan and Armen Babayan have given up their parliamentary seats.

Nonpartisan MPs who are represented in the National Assembly by Grand Holding company, will no longer be an MP, says the statement issued by the company. In our view, there will no longer be a need for businessmens presence in the National Assembly of new Armenia, the statement reads.

ARF Dashnaktsutyun faction member Armen Babayan submitted a petition to the National Assembly Chairman Ara Babloyan on giving up his parliamentary seat.

Arsen Hambardzumyan, representative of the Supreme Body of ARF Armenia, told Armenian News-NEWS.am that this was Babayans personal decision.

Several days ago ARF faction secretary Aghvan Vardanyan also renounced his parliamentary mandate and, subsequently, he was ousted from the party.

A man in Yerevan has killed his brother with an axe.

On Wednesday at around 3pm, police officers found the dead body of a man at the plot of land of a house.

The police and investigators found out that the suspect is the victims 52-year-old brother, and he was detained. According to the source, he had killed his brother with several strikes with an axe.GeoProMining, a diversified international group of mining companies (GPM or the "Company") jointly with local authorities of Ararat, Vardenis and Agarak cities celebrated a series of events, dedicated to the 73rd anniversary of the Great Patriotic War, as well as the 26th anniversary of the formation of the army of the Republic of Artsakh.

Thus, within the framework of festive events, the ceremony of opening of "Khachkar" took place. This monument  Khachkar, is a gift to the city of Vardenis, which commemorates the memory and the honor of the people, who participated in the liberation struggle of Artsakh.

"The tradition to celebrate the Victory Day - May 9 is never revised in our company. This is the most significant date in the history of Armenia and Russia, once again proving the development and strengthening of the centuries-old friendship of the people of Armenia and Russia.

This is the second Khachkar, which GeoProMining presents to Armenia. The first monument was presented to the city of Agarak in 2015, dedicated to the centennial of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. "- said the General Director of GPM Gold,Anatoliy Gogotin.

"Every year, traditionally, employees of the Agarak Combine, and I personally visit the veterans of the Great Patriotic War of Megri and Agarak. As yet, every year there are less and less veterans of the war, but our main task is to preserve the memory." - commented the General Director of Agarak copper-molybdenum combine Andrey Sinyakov.

Veterans of the Great Patriotic War, relatives of those who died in the Artsakh war, employees of the company, members of administrations of local communities and residents of the city took part in the celebrations. As part of the festive events, meetings with veterans, marches of memory and honor, laying flowers at monuments were held. All veterans of the Great Patriotic War, and the families of those killed in the Artsakh war were provided with material assistance and presents from the GPM Company.

"May 9 is the date in the heart of everyone, who knows the value of the peace, who above all places honor and freedom of the Motherland. The heroic deed of our veterans has predetermined the peaceful, decent life for many generations, gave them the opportunity to create and boldly go forward. And today their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren confidently keep this victorious heights, work for the present and the future of their country, faithfully serve the Motherland, honorably respond to modern challenges, guarantee the successful development, power and prosperity of our Motherland," said the president of GeoProMining,Roman Khudoliy.

GeoProMining founded in 2001, is an international private company with diversified resource base of gold and other metals. GeoProMining enterprises are located in Russia and in Armenia. In Armenia GeoProMining owns two enterprises - Agarak Copper-Molybdenum Combine (AMMC) and GPM Gold, which operates the Sotk gold mine and the Ararat gold recovery plant.

The company's social investments in the Republic of Armenia over the past 10 years exceeded 8 million US dollars.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart said all should resist against US unilateralism and they should understand that they cannot simply walk out from international accords as they will be very costly for them, IRNA reported.

During telephone conversation with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Rouhani said the JCPOA is a very significant international accord which helps restore global security and stability and a treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

IAEA issued eleven reports indicating that the Islamic Republic of Iran has remained committed to all its pledges with regards to the JCPOA, President Rouhani said.

The JCOPA is an international accord won signature of seven countries along with the United Nations, he said.

Unfortunately, the US has been disloyal to its obligations and walked out of the deal unilaterally and we expect all world leaders to condemn the move now, President Rouhani said.

Europe and mainly those countries engaged in nuclear talks with Iran should make their stands clear in the remaining short time to compensate the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, he said.



In the telephone conversation Turkish president, for his part, said the JCPOA is a successful model in the world and all sides should do their best to protect it.

'Turkey believes that the US walkout was a grave mistake and has officially announced that it will not accept the move,' Turkish president said.

The US is the main and final loser of such decision, he said while lauding Iran's wise and constructive stands to this end.

Negotiations for protection and continuation of the JCPOA will help restore regional and global security and stability and Ankara will spare no efforts to attain such goal, Turkish president said.

The two sides should do their best to protect their economic interests and leave no room for intervention of outsiders, he said.As the drummers welcomed them, beating Kuku and Kakilambe rhythms on their djembes and dunduns, the 180 graduates strode into the Shalala Student Center ballroom with their heads high and eyes focused aheadproud to be participating in 2018 Senior Mwambo, a Malawian word for the ceremonial rite of passage established at the University of Miami in 1992.

Ive been attending Mwambo since I was a freshman, and to be here, now, graduatingwow, theres a lot of emotion, said Keion Farmer, referring to the ceremony that marks the transition of black graduates from college to advanced education and professional careers. Im happy and proud to be a black man graduating from the University. The U has honored me, and I want to honor the U, to just keep serving and trying to make my ancestors proud.

Farmer, together with Olumayowa Stephanie Olabis Olujohungbe, popularly known as May, both earned Nanga awards for their outstanding student achievements, both academic and in service to the University and the community.

The Mwambo Ceremony is one of our greatest traditions, said Michelle Maldonado, assistant provost of Undergraduate Education. Diversity is challengingand it should bewe learn from being unsettled. But diversity does not undermine unity, and it is diversity that makes us excellent here at the University.

Keynote speaker Christopher Lomax, B.M. 05, J.D. 08, a former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice and an associate with Jones Day, focused his message on the lyrics in Nina Simones song To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, challenging the graduates to laugh a lot and to enjoy life, but also to work to address the systemic oppression that has evolved through the legacy of slavery.

Class of 18, the ball is in our court. Dont forget about our brothers and sisters who live on the margins of society, Lomax said. Youngyou are full of potential. Giftedyou are full of promise, and blackis to be beautiful, bold, brilliant, and uncompromising in your convictions. You have a tremendous opportunity to shake up the world.

Jashua Sa-Ra, the ceremonial elder, offered the libation, or blessing, to invoke and honor the spirit of the ancestors. Its because of them, all those that have gone before us, that we have gotten to where we are, he said. Now today, we can jump higher than ever.

Patrick Masala, B.A. 93, is one of those ancestors. An international student from Malawi, Masala served as president of the African Student Union and was instrumental in launching Mwambo, as part of his efforts to encourage pride in African culture on campus. Masala died of pneumonia soon after entering a graduate program at UM.

Renee Dickens Callan, director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, a principle coordinator of Senior Mwambo, earns her doctorate this semester and was honored as the final student to receive her kente clothstole, a symbol of African cultural identity.Home | News | General | Cowbellpedia winner gets foreign scholarship

By Oghenefego Obaebor

AYODELE Akinkuowo, the 2015 Senior category winner of the Cowbellpedia Secondary Schools Mathematics TV Quiz Show, has secured a scholarship to study Aeronautic Engineering at the University of Moscow, Russia. Promasidor Nigeria Limited, the makers of Cowbell Milk brand and sponsors of the Quiz Show also donated $2,500 in appreciation of the feat by a Cowbellpedia Ambassador.

Akinkuowo was a student of Adeyemi College of Education Demonstration Secondary School, Ondo, Ondo State when he won the Cowbellpedia Mathematics competition in November 2015. While hosting him in Lagos, Mr. Anders Einarsson, Managing Director of Promasidor Nigeria Limited, noted that the company remains proud of the achievement of the young man who has hoisted the Cowbellpedia flag higher by his brilliant outing. He added that the money was a token of support for his trip and assured that Promasidor would continue to support the academic development of Nigerian children.

In his remarks, Akinkuowo expressed deep gratitude for the gesture and promised not to diminish the Cowbellpedia spirit in all his future endeavours. He disclosed that the competition has not only emboldened him to face the challenges of life, but it has also taught him a big lesson in faith and hope.

The day I won the competition three years ago, my mother wept. When the then Governor Olusegun Mimiko invited me and my parents to the Government House in Akure for doing the state proud, I wept especially after the governor shook my hand. I can never forget such moments. God and Promasidor have been kind to me. I will never forget, he said.

The Cowbellpedia ex-champion said that the process to winning the scholarship to Russia was rigorous, but he was glad to beat the thousands of applicants who went through the various stages of test, examination and elimination. Actually, I got the information from a friend and I collected the form. The process was tough, but I just had this confidence that I can fly. I told my friends that after Cowbellpedia, nothing can scare me again, especially the fact that we were the first set on the TV Quiz Show, Akinkuowo said.

He described the scholarship as a dream come true since Aero or Space engineering has been his childhood dream. The civil engineering I was studying at the University of Ibadan was actually my second choice. So, when this came, it was indeed, a dream come true, the young lad said with a broad smile.

The Cowbellpedia initiative has produced champions and heroes in the last two decades. Last November, Munachi Ernest-Eze, a student of Loyola Jesuit College, set a new record by winning both the Junior and Senior categories of the Cowbellpedia Secondary Schools Mathematics Television Quiz Show within a period of two years.

Emmanuel Mebude, a student of Ogunlade Memorial Secondary School, Surulere, Lagos, also set a new competition record in speed and accuracy. He answered 17 questions in the Cowbellpedia 60 Seconds of Fame segment in the preliminary rounds of the Senior category.

Oluwaseun Idowu held the previous record of 16 questions in the Junior category.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Nigeria lacks 1.2m teachers in varsities  Babalakin

Stories by Dayo Adesulu

IT has been disclosed that the 162 universities in Nigeria need 1.2 million teachers to teach the various accredited courses in the universities. According to the National Universities Commission, NUC, the country presently has 41 federal universities, 47 state universities and 74 private universities.

Speaking at the investiture of the University of Lagos, UNILAGs 12th Vice-Chancellor, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council, UNILAG, Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN) said: According to NUC, Nigerian universities require 1.2 million graduates to teach accredited courses in the universities.

Adequate funding

While stressing the need for adequate funding of education, he disclosed that most states cannot adequately fund their universities.

Babalakin posited that state universities would be the best institutions if properly funded. He, however, noted that among the state governments, only the Lagos State has conveniently funded its university.

Explaining how difficult it is for the Federal Government to fund the 41 federal universities, he said that with a population of about 40,000 students, UNILAG receives between N10 billion and N11 billion from the Federal Government annually. With a population of over 40,000 students, it will require N48 billion annually to effectively reposition its academic activities, he said.

The pro-chancellor maintained that for academic activities to thrive, more investments and commitments from key stakeholders must be in place. He urged the Lagos State governor to assist UNILAG in the various projects before the institution which happens to be his alma mater.

Babalakin, who lamented the decadence in the sector, noted that there are no Nigerian universities ranked among 800 institutions in the world. Recalling with nostalgia the global competitiveness of Nigerian universities in the 60s, Babalakin pointed out that University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan was the pride of Commonwealth countries.

According to him, among the Commonwealth nations, UCH was ranked top, adding that all hands should be on deck to bring back the past glory.

Meanwhile, the UNILAG 12th Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, in his investiture speech said that his vision was to build a UNILAG that is first among equals, producing graduates that are locally relevant, globally competitive and are able to advance their visibility as a research and innovation-driven institution.

Infrastructural development

He added that his mission was to build the spirit of collectivism and value re-orientation in advancing total human capital and in infrastructural development befitting a 21st Century globally competitive university.

He said: I am determined to rebrand the university and ensure that it becomes a hub for research by the end of my tenure in 2022. I am glad that our management team as well as members of staff are already keying into the vision, this is evident in the growing desire by our faculty to carry out research.

I have also considered it extremely necessary to visit our major stakeholders, to emphasise the importance we attach to our relationship with them and intimate them of our plans to open new frontiers through collaboration. We reckon that our friends and alumni must join us in building a university that we shall all be proud of.

We are ready to deploy our human and physical resources to assist. We are ready to undertake cutting-edge research to address urgent national issues. I have personally challenged our staff and students to make good use of their ingenuity and resourcefulness. This is exemplified by a group that was recently commissioned to develop zero-emission cars that can be used on our campus and by farmers to transport their farm produce to the market.

Prominent among my goals is setting up a modular refinery as well as obtaining a mining licence for the university. When in place, the refinery and mining sites will serve as laboratories for our students in the faculties of Engineering, Science and other related faculties.

This model is already in use at UNILAG Television and UNILAG Radio, where our Mass Communication students are trained to be top class journalists. We are committed to enriching the experiences of our students by providing the conducive atmosphere for them to excel. We are also aware of the students ingenuity, thus, the Entrepreneurship and Skills Development Centre is being reinvigorated to sharpen their business skills and promote their innovative ideas.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Obasanjo, Obiano, Soludo, 45 others to receive Red Cross awards in Anambra

By Vincent Ujumadu

AWKAFORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo, Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Professor Chukwuma Soludo are among 48 persons to be honoured by the Nigerian Red Cross Society in Anambra State, on Saturday, for their contributions to the development of the society.

Others listed for the award include the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige, Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Professor Joseph Ahaneku, his counterpart at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Professor Greg Nwakoby, Obi of Onitsha, Nnaemeka Achebe, Igwe Orizu of Nnewi, Senator Andy Uba, Chief Pete Edochie, as well as some presidents general of town unions.

Addressing reporters yesterday as part of activities to mark this years World Red Cross Day, the Anambra State Chairman of the Nigerian Red Cross, Justice Paul Obidigwe said the awardees should be appreciated for contributing immensely towards the building of a healthy society.

Speaking specifically of the former president, Obidigwe said Obasanjo would be made the Grand Commander of Humanity, adding that he had not been identified as one of those who hid the nations wealth in foreign lands.

He promised that the Red Cross would continue to assist the vulnerable, less privileged, accident/disaster victims and the motherless babies, even as he complained that paucity of funds was a major drawback in the activities of the organisation.

He listed Ambulance Vehicles, First Aid Boxes, Medicament, Stretchers, Blankets, among others, as some of the pressing needs of the Red Cross, adding, these items would enhance our capacity on disaster preparedness mitigation and rapid response to the most vulnerable in times of human needs.

The state Vice Chairman of the Red Cross, Professor Peter Katchy said that the organization responded to 65 fire incidents, three building collapse, three fire outbreak in industries in Onitsha and rescued many accident victims in various parts of the state within the past one year.

He added: We assisted in taking injured passengers to hospitals for treatment, maintained sanity on our roads while collaborating with the Federal Road Safety Corps staff and assisted government during the last immunization campaigns.

We also brokered peace during communal clashes involving communities, particularly at Umueri and Aguleri. During the flooding period in Anambra East and West, we distributed materials to over 2000 communities and actively assisted displaced persons in the 28 flood camps spread across the 10 local government areas of the state.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Pupils protest building of markets near their school in Onitsha

By Vincent Ujumadu

AWKAHUNDREDS of pupils of Beth-Roots Model Schools, Victory Estate, Onitsha, a private institution, yesterday, took to the streets to protest the building of a multi million naira market and a shopping mall near their school, arguing that converting the residential and educational area into a commercial centre would endanger their lives.

Their action elicited sympathy from residents of the estate, who informed Vanguard that there was no provision for the building of markets in the area in the original plan of the estate located at the 3-3 area of Onitsha.

Carrying placards which read,  Respect our right to education, Our future is worth more than money, I love school, please keep me safe, and Live and Let live, the pupils called on Governor Willie Obiano to intervene in the matter by prevailing on those behind the approval and construction of the market, to demolish them in the interest of the pupils.

They said that some of them had been involved in accidents following the activities of commercial vehicle drivers bringing building materials and offloading them near their school, adding that allowing the existence of the market in the area would endanger their lives and hinder their movement in and out of the school premises.

A petition which the school authority sent to Governor Obiano read: They want to expose us to imminent danger by siting this market here. How can we cope with the volume of traffic that will be on this road if this market is allowed to exist here?

This area is already built up with shops which were not on the original plan for the estate. Our governor, Chief Willie Obiano should save us from this calamity. All of us must not be traders.

 Our founding fathers like Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chinua Achebe, Prof Kenneth Dike, Prof Chike Obi and so on were not traders. Why are they foisting this trader mentality on all us now?

Counsel for the school, Mr. Valentine Utulu, had also petitioned the state governor, asking him to stop the distortion of the master plan of the area by traders and such interest groups.

The lawyers petition entitled: Protest against the distortion of the master plan of Victory Estate, Odoagba/Otakpo Phase two, 3-3,Onitsha, read in part: There is no approval for a market in that vicinity. The area is designated as a residential area, with schools and limited commercial activity.

There is no provision made in the master plan to accommodate the huge traffic of vehicles the proposed market will attract and it will greatly and adversely affect the quality of life of residents, pupils and those merely driving through.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | NSITF makes case for workplace safety

By Prince Okafor

The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, has called on employers in Nigeria to improve on safety awareness in their work places to avoid unnecessary industrial accidents.

General Manager, NSITF, Lagos Regional Office, Mrs. Olufunke Aleshinloye, who gave this advice, disclosed plans to get 90 per cent of workers in the country to key into this scheme.

Speaking during a road show to mark this years World Day for safety and health at work in Lagos with theme, Improving Safety and Health of Workers Aleshinloye, said: The NSITF was established by decree No 73 of 1993 with the fundamental mandate of implementing the Employees Compensation Act, 2010.

The NSITF was established vide Decree No. 73 of 1993 to succeed the defunct National Provident Fund, NPF, which had been in operation since 1961 to make provisions for compensation in the case of death, injury, diseases or disability in the office place.

In order to fulfil the mandate of the ECA, 2010, a social insurance scheme known as Employees Compensation Scheme was designed for serving employees to ensure that they are adequately protected with regards to compensation whenever they suffer injuries from workplace accidents; any injury in the course of work outside the workplace or disease emanating from working conditions.

On non-compliance, Aleshinloye noted that there was sanction for defaulters who failed to pay as at when due.

She said: Defaulters will get imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year or fine of not less than N100,000 or both imprisonment and fine for an individual.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | A look at INECs Kano child-voter probe

By Ochereome Nnanna

THE result eventually came out but how many concerned Nigerians paid attention? One would have thought that people would eagerly wait to receive the outcome of the INEC probe of the massive involvement of child voters in the 10th February 2018 Kano State Local Government Election. As usual, our collective attention had moved on to other things. This is why governments and officials get away with blue murder. Mistakes are repeated over and over and Nigeria never moves forward.

On Friday, 4th May 2018, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, addressed a press conference presenting the report of this probe panel headed by an INEC National Commissioner, Engineer Abubakar Nahuce. This eight-member committee was empanelled on 16th February 2018 in response to the uproar following the hordes of child voters who participated in the Kano Local Government polls swept by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

INEC

With the 2019 general elections only one year away, Nigerians were bothered that the Kano election was a test-run of what was ahead which would obviously favour the ruling party. While submitting the report on 24th March 2018, Nahuce assured that his committee consulted closely with critical stakeholders such as civil society groups, political parties, the print, electronic and social media as well as security organisations.

Anxiety, however, set in after more than a month and nothing was heard of the matter from electoral umpire. That press briefing last week Friday provided a breather as it gave the people the opportunity to hear what the INEC had found out.

In a nutshell, Prof. Yakubu disclosed that the only role that the INEC played in the Kano local council election (as in all polls organised by the state electoral commissions, SIECs) was making available the National Register of Voters, NRV, to the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission, KANSIEC, headed by Prof. Garba Sheka. The law does not allow the national electoral umpire to do anything beyond that. Yakubu also confirmed that KANSIEC did not substantially use the INEC voter register in the conduct of the local government election. In fact, KANSIEC did not even bother to accredit voters from the register. People (perhaps, including the children) just queued up and were allowed to vote.

The INEC Chairman reminded the public that the probe was undertaken because the child voters were linked by critics to the National Register of Voters compiled by the Commission. Having established that no such linkage took place, INEC declared itself and the National Register of Voters exonerated from any such electoral malfeasance in the Kano LG poll. The Commission also stressed that throughout its probe and up till the moment of the press briefing, no individual or organisation came forward with any evidence or complaint of INEC complicity or the use of the NRV in conducting a flawed local government election in Kano State. It added that some of the images and videos of child voters which led to the uproar had been available in the public space even before the Kano LG poll.

Professor Yakubu, however, called on members of the public, political parties and all stakeholders in our elections to partner with the INEC in the continuous effort to clean up the electoral register, especially when it is displayed for claims and objections.

In my view, INEC has done a great job in showing that it is not involved in any real or alleged involvement of child voters in the Kano LG poll. It also successfully exonerated the National Register of Voters. But the job is only halfway done. This probe was unable to confirm or deny the involvement of child voters in the Kano State LG poll. The law does not even allow it to go into such things as INEC has no power to inquire into the activities of the supposedly Independent State Electoral Commissions. So, INEC can plead a legal lacuna in not being able to establish the truism or falsity of the Kano State child voter issue as the election was conducted by a SIEC. But if child voters participate in any election conducted by the INEC, the Commission will not be able to exonerate its staff.

The questions remain: why did KANSIEC not use the INEC register as mandated by law? Who will bring KANSIEC and the sponsors of the child voters to account? Who can stop the repeat of this rape of our democracy in future elections? What are the Police and security agencies doing about this?

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that children massively participate in voting, even in INEC-conducted elections, in the North. In 2007, I covered the presidential election in Katsina State, the home state of the two main presidential hopefuls, Umar YarAdua of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigerian Peoples Congress, ANPP. I visited their respected hometowns  Katsina and Daura  to monitor the election. We, the reporters and electoral observers, were shocked to see these children come in their numbers to line up, get accredited and to vote! Nobody  electoral officials, political party agents, political contestants and security agents  raised an eyebrow. An attempt by some of us to call attention to this anomaly was hushed down as if we were putting our safety on the line.

The INEC electoral register (NRV) must be thoroughly cleaned up, and the INEC should not be left alone to do the job. The INEC is only (supposedly) an umpire. The political parties and the citizenry have a greater stake in ensuring we have a clean electoral register and to insist on keeping out ineligible voters such as children. The security agencies are paid to enforce the law. We must all play our parts to get the democracy that will produce credible leaders.

It is OUR job.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Deeper Life deepening Christianity

By Josef Omorotionmwan

SOME caveat is necessary here. This is not an advertorial for the Deeper Life Bible Church. Rather, it is more in keeping with the tradition of seeing something and saying something. That is what Nigeria desperately needs today to pull her out of the doldrums in which she finds herself.

The penultimate weekend, my WhatsApp and Facebook platforms were inundated from every direction with the news of unveiling of the biggest and best-equipped Hospital ever built in Africa. This Hospital is owned by the Deeper Life Bible Church.

Located in the Gbagada area of Lagos, Nigeria; the Hospital has many interesting features. It is a 10,000-bed mega facility intended to cater for the health needs of well over 35,000 indigent people annually.

It has Pediatrics, Psychiatry, General Out Patient, Burns, Oncology and 15 other major Departments, all stocked with the latest equipment necessary for such a world class facility.

The Surgery Department has state-of-the-art equipment and easily rivals John Hopkins Hospital or any of the best health-care facilities anywhere in the world. The facility will be thrown open to all, irrespective of their financial or social standing.

In the estimation of the General Overseer of the Church, Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, the Hospital will employ thousands of Doctors, Nurses, other paramedics as well as other sundry administrative staff. This provides a ray of hope for our teaming youth population who are pouring out of our health institutions annually. It will also provide a speed-brake to the issue of brain-drain of our people who rush abroad in search of greener pastures. Most importantly, it will drastically reduce the billions of Naira in medical tourism that the Nigerian elite squander abroad. With just a fraction of what they were spending abroad, the Nigerian elite can now get in Nigeria, what they used to go abroad for; plus the fact that they can now save themselves from the vagaries of the harsh European and American weathers.

Pastor Kumuyi emphasises the fact that services at the Hospital will be rendered to indigent members of society, free of charge, while the rich will be required to pay, thus lending credence to the time-tested Socialist manifesto, From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.

While declaring the Hospital open, the obviously elated Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, went down memory lane and quoted copiously from several verses of the Bible showing how Jesus Christ healed the sick, fed the poor and generally looked after the welfare of thousands of poor people around him.

Vice President Osinbajo commended the church and the people who provided the facility and summed up his impression this way: At least, some people are thinking in the right direction and emulating their Master, the Messiah, instead of accumulating wealth that cannot travel with them to the great beyond.

The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Akimummi Ambode, who was visibly excited, was full of praises for the church and those who provided the magnificent and well-equipped Hospital. Hear him, I hope others would emulate them rather than giving their money to jet-acquiring Pastors who litter the landscape and build mega businesses for themselves and their families to enjoy, yet they teach their followers to pray to God to solve their financial needs.

The Deeper Life initiative provides a new challenge to other churches. The general practice hitherto has been for the church leaders to involve all their members at the stage of providing the facilities only to cut them off after completion. The members would put everything they have and sometimes even borrow to support the university or hospital building. They would go and carry blocks, iron rods, wood, water and supply everything from morning till night, sometimes without food  only for the facilities to become the property of the General Overseer and his family. At that point, the poor members no longer see the brake-light of the institutions and their owners.

At the tax front, these owners boldly display the names of the churches and engage tax authorities in their out-dated argument that churches should not pay tax. Modern tax authorities have maintained that churches per-se should be exempted from taxation; but if a church engages in a business venture, it is duty-bound to pay tax on the profit from such business.

It is the dawn of a new era. As we enter into this glorious era, we must begin to constructively engage some of the Churches that the world is dynamic and all well meaning people must approach it in its dynamic form.

In the light of the current dynamism, there are churches that should begin to revisit the issue of blood. Anaemia has assumed a new dimension as a major killer disease in todays world. The upsurge in cases of anaemia may not be unconnected with changes in our food and our eating habits, as distinct from the biblical times when the food was more organic. Yet, in Nigeria today, some church-owned hospitals abhor blood transfusion. Their patients die daily like poisoned rats.

This writer once worked as a contractor to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH, where I renovated some of the Wards, including the Consultant Out-Patient Department, COPD. Almost on a daily basis, patients were Brought-In-Dead, BID, from a nearby church-owned hospital where blood transfusion was forbidden!

In Nigeria, government is still at war with itself. When are we going to stop equivocating and start showing that no Government official should be flown abroad for the treatment of any ailment, including the executive ones? When are we going to start believing that no Nigerian should die for want of superior treatment here?

At least, we can say bravo to Pastor Kumuyi and his followers. They have demonstrated that Nigeria is still possible; and that the good life is still here. We search no further.

But in all this, how much assurance do we have on maintenance culture, the lack of which has been our albatross? Here is a major challenge to Deeper Life and the rest of us!

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Fresh woes for APC

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor and Omeiza Ajayi

Ex-PDP members (nPDP) write Buhari, issue 7-day ultimatum to address issues

Allege political pogrom against members; Saraki, Dogara, Goje, others involved

ABUJA  The All Progressives Congress, APC was yesterday, headed towards another major crisis as one of its legacy groups, new Peoples Democratic Party, nPDP, issued a seven-day ultimatum to President Muhammadu Buhari to address grievances of marginalization and persecution of its members.

President Buhari with APC National Chairman John Odigie Oyegun, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Chairman APC Governors Forum and Governor of Imo State Rochas Okorocha

The ultimatum was conveyed in a letter to the President, channelled through National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun by a delegation of the nPDP led by Alhaji Kawu Baraje, chairman of the defunct nPDP. The letter was signed by Baraje as chairman, and Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola as Secretary.

In demanding for a meeting with the President ahead of the national convention of the party, the nPDP bloc expressed dismay that despite significant contributions they made, they have been sidelined by the government. Even worse, they fumed that positions they got in the National Assembly have led to persecutions and witch-hunt against them.

Meanwhile, the Presidency rebuffed enquiries on the development yesterday as it directed enquiries to the party.

National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi said he was out of the office when the delegation came and so did not have a narrative of the discussion with the National Chairman.

All I have seen is what is there on social media, he told Vanguard yesterday.

The nPDP statement, Vanguard gathered last night, was articulated with the acquiescence of major players in the bloc, including Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Speaker Yakubu Dogara and other major players in the bloc who crossed over from the nPDP to the APC in 2014.

Conspicuously left out was Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who only got to know of the development through aides contacted by Vanguard yesterday. An Amaechi associate was, however, dismissive of the threat from the ministers former colleagues.

Other major players in the nPDP who were alleged to have given vent to the letter were Senators Rabiu Kwankwaso, Danjuma Goje, Magnus Abe, Aliyu Wamakko, Governor Aminu Tambuwal among others.

It will be recalled that other major political blocs that converged to form the APC were the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Congress for Progressives Change, CPC and the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP.

The other blocs were however dismissive of the threat with a member of the National Working Committee, NWC of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, describing the nPDP threat as unserious and ineffectual.

They are not serious. Is Amaechi not in the executive, is Bukola Saraki not Senate President? Is Dogara not the Speaker? So, what do they mean?, a source in the former ACN said.

Senior officials of the CPC were not forthcoming on the issues yesterday. The last spokesman of the party, Engr. Rotimi Fashakin did not respond to a text message sent to him and did not respond to calls.

nPDP seeking better deal

Vanguard, however, gathered that the demand was coming in order for the bloc to explore the prospects of a better deal within the APC , failing which they might explore other options available to them. One of the options for the members is to return to the PDP with the possibility of changing the name of the party or to remain within the APC and fight themselves to relevance.

In the letter to the National Chairman by Baraje and Oyinlola, the nPDP said: We the members of the APC, who moved over from the PDP to form the APC before the 2015 general election in Nigeria are desirous of strengthening our party especially now that new party congresses have commenced, and the convention and another round of general elections are imminent. Obviously, this cannot be achieved without addressing fundamental issues which we wish to raise in this letter.

We, therefore, wish, with due respect, to re-state our expectation then and now that the APC we all laboured to build would be one united, inclusive, cohesive and progressive party devoid of divisions, factions, cleavages and tendencies. We envisioned a political party promoting equal rights for all Nigerians and ensuring rapid and even development across the country. Of course, there is no gainsaying the fact that the lofty ideals enumerated above cannot be attained without ensuring justice for party faithful and citizens.

Kindly indulge us to offer a brief reminder of the history of events that led to the victory of the APC in the 2015 general election and the presidential election in particular. It is an undeniable historical fact that the movement of the former new PDP block to form the APC contributed immensely to the victory of the APC in the elections. The former new PDP included five sitting Governors of Sokoto, Kano, Kwara, Adamawa and Rivers States and former governors of Kebbi, Gombe, Osun, former Vice President of Nigeria, former acting National Chairman of PDP, sitting Speaker of the House of Representatives, many serving members of the National Assembly and many renowned politicians and PDP elders. It was a watershed moment in Nigerias political History.

Most of these leaders not only delivered their states to the APC at the elections, some of the governors were also assigned specific responsibilities to ensure that other states were also delivered to the APC in the 2015 elections. Then Governor of Sokoto took charge of Kebbi, and then governor of Kano State took responsibility for Kano, Kaduna and Jigawa States, just to mention a few examples. There were also unprecedented efforts by many stakeholders such as Senator Bukola Saraki, in concert with others, to deliver the entire North-Central to the APC.

These efforts, contributions, and sacrifices were made in spite of the fact that the presidential ticket was taken by the erstwhile Congress for Progressive Change, CPC and the ACN blocks of the party. It is a matter for grave concern that His Excellency, Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari, has never publicly acknowledged our efforts in the face of clear evidence that the total number of votes scored by the APC in states where leaders and members of the then new PDP block held sway made the difference.

The stubborn facts are as follows: In Kano State, APC scored 1,903,999 in 2015, and in Kwara 302,146. In Sokoto State, it scored 671,926, and 374,701 in Adamawa. In Kebbi State, APC had 567,883 votes and 885,988 in Jigawa. It was the same story in Gombe (459,898), Kogi (264,851), and Benue (373,961) votes. These represented significant additions to the APC victory column. Indeed, the influence, activities, momentum and ripple effects generated by the former newPDP block was significant in the victory of APC in the entire elections in the whole country.

nPDP lists grievances

At this stage, we would chronicle a few grievances which, if addressed, will lead to a harmonious APC where justice, equity, fairness, and peace will reign and enable APC avoid rancour, reinvigorate the pace of national development and face the 2019 general election as one united party.

Our grievances include:

In the constitution of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, the New PDP block was generally sidelined as virtually no position was conceded to it. The only member of FEC that belonged to former New PDP block comes from a state that contributed virtually no vote to the APC in the 2015 presidential election.

B. There has been no significant patronage and appointments to executive positions in various government agencies such as chief executives and executive directors of government agencies and parastatals as members of our block of the party continue to helplessly watch as these positions are shared by the erstwhile CPC, ACN, ANPP and even APGA blocks of the party and those who have no party at all.

C. In appointments into boards of various government agencies, very few former New PDP members were patronised. These are however not commensurate with our contributions to the growth and victory of the party.

D. When members of the former new PDP block showed interest in running for the offices of President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, they were subjected to a vicious and relentless political opposition as if they were not legitimate members of the APC family.

E.During the party primaries preparatory to the 2015 general election, most of the promises made to sitting members of the National Assembly, who belonged to the former new PDP in terms of a level playing field were reneged upon or observed more in breach.

F.There has been general lack of consultation, non-recognition and even persecution of former new PDP members and leaders by the party and government. For example, some of our leaders are denied the security cover necessary to visit their constituencies even though they are elected representatives of the people in a government they sacrificed so much for.

G.Harassment, intimidation, and persecution of former New PDP leaders by the government, is still an ongoing affair. We do not want to overstate the obvious by cataloguing names of former new PDP stalwarts that are targets of this political pogrom.

H.There is inadequate reflection of programme and policy contributions of members of the former new PDP block in the running of the government.

Our belief is that it does not augur well for our party if a section of it feels that it is being treated as outcasts and meddlesome interlopers in the party they rightly belong with the legitimate expectation to be treated with justice both in the running of the party and the government.

Arising from the issues outlined above, among others, we request for an urgent meeting with the Leader of the party, and the Party Executive leadership to find lasting solutions to the issues raised so as to prepare the party as a fighting force to deliver more pungently on its manifesto and face the 2019 general election with even greater commitment. The meeting will also enable us to work out modalities to ensure a level playing field for all in the congresses and convention of the APC.

 Given the constraining factor of available time and in the interest of our great Party, it is strongly advised that the said urgent meeting be held not later than seven days from the date of the receipt of this letter.

 In conclusion, we the members of the former New PDP block of the APC wish to reiterate that this letter is written patriotically with the best of intentions and the good of our party, the APC, and is issued to alert the leadership of the APC and in particular, the leader of our party, President Buhari, who only recently indicated his intention to seek a second term as President, of grievances that exist within the party with a view to ensuring justice for all members of the APC family regardless of the blocks they came from prior to the formation of the APC, the statement added.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Atiku invests in Nigeria's health sector, to build 100-bed world class hospital in Abuja

- Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is one of Nigeria's biggest indigenous investors

- Atiku's investments are scattered all over the country and doing well

- The former vice president is now making strong inroads into the health services sector

Africa Health Services is set to establish a 100-bed hospital in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

The company is owned by Nigeria's former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

Adamawa-born Atiku is one of Nigeria's biggest indigenous investors, with investments scattered all over the country and doing well.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

The Waziri of Adamawa is noted for being a shrewd business man after he retired from the Nigeria Customs Service in April 1989.

It was my pleasure meeting with the delegation of the management of Saudi-German Hospital led by Dr. Rajeev Kaushal over joint partnership with our company, Africa Health Services for the establishment of a 100-bed hospital in Abuja, the 71-year old politician wrote on his Twitter page.

Atiku made the announcement a day after he donated N10million for the treatment of bomb blast victims in his home state of Adamawa.

The former vice president is famed for his generosity, reason why he is political loyalists have remained with him through thick and thin.

He is expected to contest for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)'s presidential primary ticket ahead of the 2019 elections.

READ ALSO: 2019: Democratic Youth Congress to purchase nomination form for Buhari

Meanwhile, there are indications that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is clearing the coast for President Muhammadu Buhari to emerge as its sole candidate ahead of its primary election later this year.

Buhari, who informed the APC National Executive Council recently about his interest to seek reelection in the coming presidential election has been endorsed by the 24 governors of the party.

The governors are said to have firm grip and control of the delegates that would vote during the presidential primary. This is an advantage ahead of the exercise for the incumbent against other contestants.

Buhari to Contest for Presidency in 2019! on NAIJ.com TV

[embedded content]

Subscribe to watch new videos

Source: Naija.ng

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Why Senate can no longer invite IG - Police say matter now in court

- Nigerian Senate has now been dragged to court by the police

- The inspector general of police has refused to personally honour the Senate's summon over alleged ill treatment of Senator Dino Melaye

- Senators, according to the police, were taking the matter of Dino Melaye too personal

The police have dragged Nigerian Senate to court to determine if the inspector general of police, as a matter of law, must always appear in person each time the upper chamber invites him.

According to the police, the Senate can no longer invite the inspector general again until the court decides on their prayers.

Mr David Igbodo, commissioner of police, legal department of the force headquarters, disclosed this on Sunrise Daily, a programme on channels TV.

The police was reacting to the recent declaration by the Senate that inspector general of police was an enemy of democracy and unfit to hold public office.

READ ALSO: I am charting a new political course outside APC - Oyinlola resigns as NIMC chairman

He also accused the Senate of taking the issue of invitation of the IGP very personal

"That declaration that the inspector general of police is an enemy of democracy and unfit to hold office is laughable. They have no power to make such declaration," Igbodo said.

Going further, he said that: "The inspector general of police was invited on the 25th to appear on the 26th and unfortunately he was in Bauchi state with the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He sent a DIG to represent him and when the DIG got to the national assembly, the lawmakers said no. They requested for a brief and the inspector general prepared a brief and gave the brief to the DIG to brief the national assembly on the issue pertaining to Senator Dino Melaye and still, they rejected it, insisting that they want to see the inspector general of police in person."

"At this point, a constitutions issue has arisen, so the inspector general of police said, ok, fine, let us go to court to let the court decide weather he must as a matter of law appear in person each time the national assembly invites him or whether he can exercise his power of delegation under the law and police acts and regulations.

"So we are in court. We posed five questions and seven prayers. And until the court decides that, the national assemble has no power to invite the inspector general of police," he added.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that the inspector-general of police, Ibrahim Idris, responded to the Senate for describing him as an enemy of democracy after he failed to appear before it.

Idris in a statement via police spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, on Wednesday, May 9, accused the Senate of trying to blackmail him.

He said he was on an official assignment when he was invited by the Senate and duly asked senior ranking officers to represent him as constitutionally stipulated.

Lets talk about salaries of Nigerian senators | NAIJ.com TV.

[embedded content]

Subscribe to watch new videos

Source: Naija.ng

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Nigeria has lost much due to the absence of History in school curriculum - Historians lament

- Some historians in Nigerians have said that the country has lost a lot for removing history from school curriculum

- The historians said that much of the Boko Haram insurgency would have been avoided if the subject had not been removed

- They said that there is no way of planning for the future if the past is thrown away

Top historians have said the cancellation of the History subject from the curriculum of secondary schools across the country by the federal government in the last 34 years, has caused great harm to the nation.

The historians remarked that if the government had left the subject in the curriculum, it could have prevented restiveness like the Boko Haram insurgency and herdsmen attacks, the Vanguard reports.

READ ALSO: Ohanaeze Ndigbo holds Igbo summit May 21 in Awka

Rasheed Olaniyi, who authored the book entitled: History for Senior Secondary Schools, said: We have lost so much in the past 34 years when the Federal Government cancelled History from the secondary school curriculum.

Perhaps, if the subject had not been cancelled, people like Ibrahim Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, could have studied History and he may not have taken up arms and started this unnecessary destruction of lives and property.

Moreover, Gbenga Adefaye, the general manager and editor-in-chief, Vanguard Newspaper, underscored the importance of the subject in national development. Adefaye harps on history Adefaye who was a co-launcher at the event said: It is instructive that almost after 30 decades of taking History out of the curriculum of Nigeria, it has been restored.

The powers-that-be that took History out of the curriculum also took out Religious Studies; they also took out Physical Education. This, he said, led to the retrenchment of teachers in the second republic stressing. He further said: Now, I tend to wonder, if we dont teach History, how do we know our past?

How do we plan for the future? If we dont teach religious studies how do we check morality? But right now, Im happy that common sense has returned. We have now realized we have to teach History. We now know, we have to teach religious studies in order to teach morality in our secondary schools.

On the lackadaisical attitude of children to reading, he said: They are either texting or wasting their time on the internet. The country will be the loser on the long run. So, as parents, we owe it as our duties to put libraries in our homes and buy books for our children and encourage them to read these books.

Through this medium we improve the educational capabilities of our children. We neglect our historyOgbogbo Before unveiling the book, the Head of Department of History, University of Ibadan, Professor Ndubuisi Ogbogbo expressed dissatisfaction at the way the government trivialized the History subject.

PAY ATTENTION: Get the Latest Nigerian News Anywhere 24/7. Spend less on the Internet!

Ogbogbo said: In this country, we tend to neglect our history. Elsewhere like in Japan, as an author, you can write any textbook you like but you cant write about their history because it goes through a lot of processes and then government will have to approve it.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com reported that many years after it first adjusted curricular of schools, the national council on education had returned History to be taught in schools across the country.

There had been clamour for the subject to be returned especially because of the current state of the country having to do with various agitations and the fact that most Nigerians lack knowledge of past happenings in the country.

Benue IDPs: Education amidst crisis | NAIJ.com TV

[embedded content]

Subscribe to watch new videos

Source: Naija.ng

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Falana faults Senate for summoning President Buhari over $496m Tucano helicopters

- Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, said Nigerian Senate has no right to summon president or state governors

- Falana said by virtue of Section 67 of the constitution it can only summon a minister when the affairs of his or her ministries are under consideration

- He also said the constitution has given the president the discretion to address the National Assembly either jointly or separately on any matter of national importance

Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, declared that Nigerian Senate does not have power whatsoever to order president Muhammadu Buhari to appear before the lawmakers, adding that it has no power to summon him as well as state governors.

Falana made this known on Thursday, May 10, when he appeared as a guest on Channels Televisions breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily.

NAIJ.com gathered that Falana who backed up his point by quoting Sections of the Constitution, said the president or the governor of a state cannot be summoned by the National Assembly (NASS).

READ ALSO: Why I did not show up at the Senate - IGP Idris speaks up, says he's not an enemy to democracy

There is no such power given to NASS by the Constitution to summon everybody. It has given the president the discretion to address the National Assembly either jointly or separately on any matter of national importance.

The senior lawyer also said: The Senate didnt get it right this time around. By virtue of Section 67 of the Constitution, the National Assembly or either chamber can summon a Minister when the affairs of his or her ministries are under consideration.

The only other occasion where a public officer can be summoned by the National Assembly is when proceedings are ongoing to expose corruption (Section 88) and when a law is being debated either with a view to amending it or to have a new law entirely.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Speaking further, Falana stated that the lawmakers can, however, fix areas of the Constitution perceived as weak, rather than going beyond its limits as such actions can subject the institution to ridicule.

He added: What can be done, a constitutional review is ongoing, you can deal with the identified gaps but dont go outside the limit of your powers. When you do that, you ridicule the institution and that is what is going on.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that Femi Falana stated he would sue the federal government on Wednesday, November 15, over injuries he sustained after falling into a manhole.

The lawyer made his comments on Tuesday, November 14, at the National Stakeholders Summit on Whistleblowing in Abuja, the nations capital.

There's no hope for us in Nigeria - on NAIJ.com TV:

[embedded content]

Subscribe to watch new videos

Source: Naija.ng

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | NJC sacks Adamawa Judge, sets-up 7 panels to probe 25 Judges

sacks Adamawa Judge, orders him to refund salaries

okays appointment of 21 new Judges

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJASequel to petitions from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the National Judicial Council, NJC, on Thursday, constituted seven panels to investigate 25 Judges fingered in sundry financial crimes.

The legal body equally sacked Justice Michael Goji of the High Court of Adamawa State for refusing to proceed on transfer to the Mubi Judicial Division of the State High Court since July, 2017.

NJC which is headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen, maintained that the action of the judge amounted to gross misconduct.

Despite recommending Justice Goji for compulsory retirement to Governor Bindo Umaru Jibrilla of Adamawa State based on the advice of the State Judicial Service Commission, NJC, in a statement signed by its Director of Information, Mr. Soji Oye, directed the embattled Judge to immediately vacate his office, as well as to refund salaries he received in the last 10 months.

The Council said it took the decision at the end of its 86th Meeting which was held on May 8 and 9 May.

According to the statement, The Adamawa State Judicial State Commission had conducted an investigation on the conduct of Hon. Mr. Justice Goji, following the directive of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, after receiving the complaint of his misconduct from the Adamawa State Chief Judge.

Aside from the recommendation for compulsory retirement, Council also directed that he should refund all salaries received by him from July, 2017 till date, failing which the Adamawa State Government is to deduct the amount from any entitlement due to him and remit same to the National Judicial Council which pays salaries of all Judicial Officers in the Federation.

In the interim, the Council in exercise of its disciplinary powers under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, has suspended Hon. Mr. Justice Goji from office pending his removal from office.

Meantime, NJC said it considered reports of various Investigation Committees and dismissed petition written against Justice Paul Adamu Galinje of the Supreme Court, and against Chief Judges of Jigawa and Enugu States, Justice Aminu Sabo Ringim and Justice Peter Umeadi, respectively.

The petition against Hon. Mr. Justice Paul Adamu Galinje of the Supreme Court was dismissed sequel to its withdrawal by Hon. Yaro Abarshi and Hon. John Yobi Yarafa and others, who alleged that he interfered in a Chieftaincy matter in Taraba State.

The petition against Hon. Mr. Justice Aminu Sabo Ringim was also dismissed because the Petitioner, Dr Jamil Gwamna who wrote to Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, Minister of Power and Works who in turn forwarded same to the National Judicial Council, withdrew the petition.

The allegation was that the Hon. Judge ordered the arrest, assault, and detention of staff of Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) when they disconnected the electricity at the State High Court and the Judges house for non-payment of bills.

The Committee that investigated the matter found that the Petitioner could not show or prove that Hon. Mr. Justice Ringim instructed or directed the arrest of KEDCOs staff.

Council did not find any reason to further investigate Hon. Mr. Justices Paul Galinje and Aminu Ringim after the withdrawals.

Petitions written against twenty-five (25) Judicial Officers and others by EFCC were also considered by Council after which it resolved to empanel seven (7) Committees to look into the allegations.

Petitions against various Judges were dismissed for, lack of establishment of misconduct, being subjudice or that such petitions were matters for appeal.

The dismissed petitions were against Hon. Mr. Justices A. I. Chikere and J. T Tsoho, Emeka Nwite and Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court, Hon. Mr. Justice Adetokunbo Banjoko of FCT High Court, Hon. Mr. Justice Taminu Zailani, Chief Judge, Kaduna, Hon. Mr. Justice M. A. Adeigbe, High Court, Osun State (who had already retired from the Bench), and Hon. Mr. Justice E. N. Ogbuiji, High Court, Rivers State.

Council at the Meeting also recommended twenty-one (21) Judges for appointment as Chief Judges, Grand Kadi, High Court Judges, Sharia Court Kadis, President, Customary Court of Appeal, and one (1) Member, Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Council also received the Report of the Performance Evaluation Committee of Judicial Officers of Superior Courts of Record in the Federation on sixteen (16) Judges invited by the Committee to explain their low performance in the last two (2) to four (4) quarters in the year 2017, the statement further read.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | The Osinbajo example: Bridging the gap as a pastor and politician

By Bernard Okri

ON January 8, 2018, Vanguard published a story titled, Fuel Scarcity: Nigerians commend Osinbajo for selfless leadership. It was one of many headlines that commended the number two citizen of Nigeria for his service to the people as a politician.

Osinbajo is a man who has a track record for his dedication, perseverance, courage and for achieving excellence in his work as a public servant, in the church as a pastor or at home as a husband and father. He is a man who knows how to find a balance despite the responsibilities on his shoulders.

Not many believe that you can succeed as a pastor and public servant at the same time, but Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo is re-defining the thought of many Nigerians.

Despite his busy schedule as Vice President, he has never forsaken the gathering of the brethren even while helping to attract successes to efforts by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to re-invent Nigeria on many fronts.

In addition to assisting in putting the national economy on track for fast recovery as head of the Economic Team, Osinbajo has won the heart of the Nigerian youths for the government through a well-designed Social Intervention Programme, SIP, comprising the N-Power, GEEP Market Moni, Home Grown School Feeding initiative and the Conditional Cash Transfer for the unemployed in the country. He has been the bridge through which the South-South zone of the federation re-connected with the Buhari government, a development, which assisted in mitigating tension in the zone.

The latest exploits by the Vice President in bringing the good agenda of the Buhari government to fulfillment came through his unrelenting efforts to expose corruption perpetrated under the past government of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Osinbajo has been doing that because the war against corruption is one of the major planks of the policy thrust by the present government to re-invent Nigeria.

His background as an established Pastor in the Redeemed Christians Church of God, RCCG, offers an insight on why he seems to be neck-deep in the task by the Cabinet to fight corruption. As a pastor, he is ordained to stay off any acts of corruption, set examples on how not to be corrupt, speak against corruption and its incubus as well as expose corruption even when in an embryonic stage. Vice President Osinbajo, when honking on acts of corruption, dwells on facts and figures available to the Cabinet. He is committed to assisting Nigeria stave off the possible return of the menace with every successive government. For effectively bridging the role of a pastor and a politician, Osinbajo deserves applause.

A week ago, the Vice President stepped on toes when he featured in the latest episode of the The Platform, organised by the Covenant Christian Centre in Lagos, alleging that three persons stole $3 billion (N1 trillion) in the Jonathan administration.

Not too long ago, he had alleged that the Jonathan administration shared the sum of N150 billion just two weeks to the 2015 elections, whereas, the same government spent just a paltry N14 billion on agriculture in 2014; N15 billion on transportation and only N153 billion on infrastructure in three years. Osinbajo, perhaps, has more privileged information on monumental kind of mindless corruption which the Jonathan government allowed in its six years tenure.

Although Nigerians are aware that the government ran by Jonathan knew nothing about frugality and parsimony on financial matters, with evidence of alleged infamies against his government on corruption still in the public domain, Jonathan, who had before now remained taciturn and reclusive, swallowing all guilt about his failure, is now finding the courage to make feeble kicks.

Last week, Jonathan, likely prodded by jobless aides who still leech on him, resolved to take his brittle grievance to the RCCG Shepard, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, asking him to call the Vice President to order for lying against him. Incredible! The question is: will Jonathan, whose government still has questions to answer on financial matters ever accuse anyone of lying against him?

From observation, Jonathan who had long owned up to some grave mistakes while his regime lasted, would never have dreamt of approaching Pastor Adeboye to call the Vice President to order for telling the truth against him. The truth is; Jonathans former Social Media aide, Reno Omokri, prodded his latest move to approach the RCCG for succour. The tweets by Omokri on the issue are enough evidence to show that he, indeed, prodded the reaction by Jonathan.

Before now, Reno Omokri has been crying more than the bereaved since Jonathan conceded victory to President Buhari in the 2015 Presidential election. Reno Omokri since then has never seen anything good in the succeeding administration of President Buhari. He had whipped sentiments sufficient to rebrand and remold Jonathan out of power and had consistently failed. Remo Omokri acts as if a grand plan was afoot for Jonathan to return to power in 2019.

Jonathan and members of that administration are lucky that they are Nigerians. In other climes, Presidents and Prime Ministers who merely accepted bribes and kickbacks are either in the dock today or behind bars.

This year alone, the world has witnessed how Presidents and Prime Ministers of different countries were arraigned in court on allegation of corruption; not borderring on looting the Nigerian style, but on account of carelessness in handling bribery cases.

Former South-African President, Jacob Zuma and Mauritius President, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, are classic examples of how matured democracies abhor corruption. South-Africa and Mauritius never allowed the leaders breathing spaces until they eased them out of power, parading them in courts, all the same.

The same scenario is playing out in Brazil where two successive leaders, Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor, Luiz Lula da Silva are currently in court answering charges on corruption over alleged 400 million euro bribe.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing charges filed against him by the Police, which recommended his prosecution on two count charges of corruption and breach of trust.

Nigeria too can fall in line with countries that present great abhorrence for corruption, showing sincerity of purpose and the will-power to just fight the menace at all levels.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | CP Edgal attributes successes in crime fighting to IGPs policy

By Evelyn Usman

Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, Imohimi Edgal, has attributed the successes recorded in the fight against crime and criminality in the state to what he described as clear cut policy objective and directive of the Inspector- General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.

Edgal- IGP Idris

Edgal in a statement signed by the commands spokesman, Chike Oti, a Superintendent of Police, mentioned in particular,that the Community Policing objective of the present police administration was the fulcrum on which all crime fighting strategies of the command and the entire Nigeria Police, revolves.

The statement reads:  The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, on behalf of officers and men of the Lagos State Police Command, wishes to reassure the Inspector-General of Police of the absolute loyalty and commitment of the command to duty.

The command has explicit confidence in the IGP and in what he is doing for the country in the war against crime, as well as his quest to restore the police to its pride of place as the number one crime fighting organisation in the country.

 The IGP, a lawyer by training, is a firm believer in the rule of law and will never do anything to disrespect the law he swore to protect.In the words of the IGP, the police derives its powers from the constitution and therefore must be obedient to law and order.

Since his assumption of office, the IGP has helped in no small measure, the institution of peace in the country, improvement in the welfare and standard of living of officers and men of the police and smooth running of the Force through his directives contained in the Force Order and Force Administrative Instructions.

The CP therefore calls on Nigerians to support the Inspector General of Police in the onerous task of policing the nation and the restoration of peace, law and order in the country.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: Generalroger ver

Early bitcoin investor and prominent bitcoin cash (BCH) supporter Roger Ver recently participated in VI Bitconf, a cryptocurrency conference held in Sao Paulo, Brazil. According to local news outlet Portal do Bitcoin, Ver wasnt physically there, as he participated while in Tokyo.

Nevertheless, the chief executive officer of controversial website Bitcoin.com used the opportunity to promote Bitcoin Cash as the real bitcoin and even offered $100 worth of BCH to the first audience member who scanned a QR code.

Per Portal do Bitcoin, Ver reminded the audience he first learned about bitcoin in 2011, and quickly realized the potential the cryptocurrency had. Since then, hes been promoting bitcoin until last year, when he started promoting bitcoin cash, a cryptocurrency he claims to be more in line with Satoshi Nakamotos original vision.

During the VI Bitconf conference, the entrepreneur defended bitcoin cash as a more efficient payment method than bitcoin, and he argued that BCH will eventually surpass BTC, even as a store of value.

As covered by CCN, this isnt the first time Ver has argued that bitcoin cash will surpass bitcoin.

petro

Notably, he also addressed Venezuela and its oil-backed cryptocurrency, the petro (PTR). He noted that the Bitcoin Cash community is helping Venezuelans through the Eat BCH charity, and invited audience members to donate to the cause.

When asked about the petro, Ver notably stated:

I would be very skeptical about anything that comes from governments, even more so from the government of Venezuela.

As CCN reported, Venezuela has held a token sale to distribute its oil-backed cryptocurrency and claims it will positively impact the countrys economy within three to six months. The cryptocurrency was created to bypass US sanctions, and saw president Donald Trump bar US citizens and residents from investing in the cryptocurrency  a move Venezuela claims was free publicity that doubled the number of interested investors.

Story continues

Some, including Venezuelas National Assembly, strongly criticize the Petro, with the century-old think tank Brookings Institute even claiming it undermines legitimate cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Nevertheless, it dubiously received the Satoshi Nakamoto prize in Russia last month.

Taking advantage of his time speaking at VI Bitconf in Sao Paulo, Ver further claimed that bitcoin cashs upcoming hard fork is taking the cryptocurrency to the next level, as it will increase its block size to 32 MB, allowing for greater transaction volume and speed. Moreover, he argued it will allow bitcoin cash to compete with ethereum when it comes to smart contracts.

Featured Image from YouTube



The post Roger Ver Pumps BCH, Slams Venezuelas Oil-Backed Petro at Brazil Crypto Conference appeared first on CCN.



Sharon Osbourne was left stranded in Mexico last week after she forgot her passport.

The 'X Factor UK' judge was forced to miss her husband Ozzy Osbourne's show in the city on Friday (04.05.18) night after she flew in on a private jet with the 69-year-old rocker and his entourage, but was refused entry through customs because she had accidentally left the important travel document back at home in the US.

Taking to Instagram, Sharon uploaded a black-and-white photograph of Ozzy on board and said: "Ozzy on his way to Mexico and performing in front of 80,000 people and I had to miss the whole thing as I forgot my passport at home in the U.S. (sic)"

The 65-year-old host then explained the mishap and how she was kept in an immigration office for hours on end during her show 'The Talk' on Tuesday (08.05.18).

She recalled: "I was on that plane, and we landed in Mexico City at like twenty to six in the evening on Friday and I realised I had forgotten my passport.

"So the first thing you think of is, 'Oh. If I sit here, I can get somebody to bring me my passport. I'll sit here for five hours. We're in the airport, and then I can go through immigration. Well, no. I couldn't. Ozzy had a show to get to and all of the guys were going to the show, he had to leave me. And so I'm there with the pilot, and then, we were saying, 'Somebody will come with the passport.' They said, 'No you can't. It doesn't work that way. You have to leave the country.'

"But you can't get on a plane without your passport! This was a private plane, but if you want to go on a commercial airline, you need your passport to get back to America, so the airlines wouldn't take me. So I'm stuck."

However, Sharon's day went from bad to worse as officials finally agreed to let her fly back on her private jet when the airport shut and she was kept on the runway.

She explained: "So then we said, 'Okay. This plane will take me home. Fine. So they refilled the plane and the authorities there were saying, 'Fine. You can just leave. Fill the plane and go.' Well they knew that the airport was going to close, and so they closed the airport, and I was sat on the runway in the plane.

"I was sat there from twenty to six until 10:30 the next morning because they kept saying, 'You can leave. You can leave. The airport opens at 6:00, 6:30, so then you can leave.' Well no. I couldn't leave. They still said, 'You can't leave. We've got paperwork to do on you.' 'Okay. Alright.' "

Sharon eventually touched down in Los Angeles on Saturday (05.05.18) afternoon.HELLO? WHO DO I BILL FOR THE THERAPY I'M GONNA NEED AFTER THE PARKING GARAGE SCENE?

Reply

Thread

Link

Also, I'm gonna need to check in with Oleg next week. I sorely missed him in tonight's episode.

Reply

Thread

Link

Ok one last comment and then I'll got to bed and stop spamming my own post.



But the sound direction in this episode was BRILLIANT. The silence spoke volumes. Wonderful performances all around by the actors to communicate everything that wasn't being said.

Reply

Thread

Link

IT WAS TV PERFECTION IN EVERY FORM

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

OMG, literally just a few days ago I was thinking about the Annelise/luggage scene and how there's never been anything that came close to topping that for me in terms of gruesomeness. But then they went and did that.



I'm so glad that Stan is finally catching on to what's been right in front of him the whole time.



And because it can never be said enough, Paige is so fucking naive. If she ever gets caught, that girl is going to fold like a cheap suit.

Reply

Thread

Link

mte @ that garage scene/baggage scene



took stan long enough lol

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Oh man. Elizabeth is pretending like she's giving Paige a choice, but she's not being honest with her about SO MUCH about what this job is really like. If first-generation American spying is just copying documents at the State Department, then why so much emphasis on self-defense?

Reply

Thread

Link

Yeah it infuriates me. She acts like she is looking out for Paige and giving her a choice, but then straight-up lies about what they actually do. The murders, the sexual manipulation, all of it. Elizabeth really pisses me off lol.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

i always felt like she is lying to herself more than paige. like hoping that paige's role will be completely different from what she and phillip had to do, so she just doesn't tell her because she feels like paige won't ever need to find out first hand. and then after all these near misses, i think she's starting to see paige and her love for paige more clearly, hence the warning in this episode.

i still think some kind of tragedy will either be caused by, and happen to, paige to end the season and force elizabeth to finally choose between her country or her ~heart (her family, her daughter).

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I saw the reactions on twitter and i spoiled myself a bit so i can't wait to watch it and comment, i'm going to miss this show so much and if Keri and Matthew don't get at least a nom...

Reply

Thread

Link

I can't put my feelings about the recent episode into words.



Sarah Nolen wrote a killer episode. Bless the J's for giving her the opportunity to write in the final season.



I'm scared for everyone. I bet Philip took the cyanide pill from Harvest's necklace. And *that* scene with Miriam  my gosh! I had to look away during that scene.



Oleg was missed in this episode. I was eager to find out what was in Philip's note. Costa Ronin said last week that it's going to be revealed in this episode. Maybe next week we'll find out about it.



I'm not ready for this show to be over. Just thinking about the series finale feels like my heart is being carved out. 

Reply

Thread

Link

How the hell does this post only have 8 (now 9) comments?!?!? 

Reply

Thread

Link

Now 11 :D



Sarah deserves a writing nomination, that episode was FANTASTIC, OMG, i still can't believe how good it was, if S4 was literal perfection S6 is beyond that, i honestly think this show is even better than BrBa and i am/was a huge BrBa stan lmao, the J's and everyone on that show deserve way more recognition! now i'm going to be even more mad if they don't win (if they get that nom)

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I watched it and OMG, that was too much, it was too good, i can't believe it, flawless episode, Sarah Nolen better gets an Emmy nom for this, everything was too perfect, and the acting?? from everyone it was A+++++, every single one gave everything, Keri was magnificent as usual and Matthew?? HE WAS AMAZING, TOO GOOD, THAT FINAL SCENE WHEN HE REMEMBERS THE WEDDING?? his face, everything, he is too good, he deserves all the awards, same Keri, same the show and the J's, ugh, i can't wait to find out but i don't want it to end !!!

Reply

Thread

Link

starting to wonder if stan is going to find out at all. can't believe there's only 3 episodes left

Reply

Thread

Link

Give Keri her Emmy already.

Reply

Thread

Link

I screamed in my apartment at Stan looking at the photo of them. I just don't know what direction they are going to go!!

Reply

Thread

Link

this was a great episode, i was kind of scream-cackling at the parking garage scene because it was sooo much

Reply

Thread

LinkBoyfriend of pregnant Hong Kong woman killed in Taiwan may face further charges

Prosecutors of a 19-year-old Hongkonger charged with theft and handling stolen goods after his girlfriends alleged murder in Taiwan revealed for the first time in court on Thursday that they were looking into pressing more charges.

The news came less than a week after Taiwanese prosecutors sought help from Hong Kong authorities upon discovering Poon Hiu-wing, 20, was three months pregnant when she was killed while on holiday with her boyfriend, Chan Tong-kai, in February.

Chan, who returned to Hong Kong alone on February 17, is currently remanded in the city after being charged in March with two counts of theft and one of handling stolen goods.

On Thursday, acting senior public prosecutor Claudia Ko Hoi-yee asked for the case to be adjourned for another eight weeks before Chan enters a plea at Kwun Tong Court.

More time is needed for further inquiries on the possibility of adding new charges, Ko told magistrate Chu Chung-keung.

Chans defence counsel, Ronny Leung, did not object but asked for prosecutors to speed up the handling of the present charges.

Police have already conducted a lot of investigations, he said, referring to video-recorded interviews, CCTV footage and bank records. Police have all the information needed. Hopefully this is the last adjournment.

Leung also asked for a media gag over his request in case potential jurors were prejudiced by what he said when the case went to a higher court. The magistrate dismissed the application.

No bail application was made.

Chan will be remanded until the case returns to the same court on July 5.

Hong Kong prosecutors allege Chan dishonestly received stolen goods belonging to his girlfriend, including an HSBC bank card, a Casio camera, an iPhone 6 and NT$20,000 (US$2,560).

He was further accused of stealing money from Poons Hang Seng Bank account on two occasions between February 21 and 23 via a cash machine at Plaza Hollywood in Diamond Hill. He allegedly took HK$10,000 (US$1,280) on the first occasion and HK$8,500 on the second.

This article Boyfriend of pregnant Hong Kong woman killed in Taiwan may face further charges first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.Ford Philippines recently announced its April retail sales of 1,836 vehicles, pushing its year-to- date sales to 8,284 vehicles. The Ford Ranger led the April performance with sales of 798 vehicles, driving its year-to-date total up by 15 percent from a year ago to 3,306 vehicles.

The Ford Everest midsize SUV delivered April sales of 499 vehicles, driving its year-to- date sales to 2,258 vehicles. The Ford EcoSport compact SUV posted sales of 472 vehicles, pushing year-to-date sales to 2,314 vehicles.

The recently-launched new Ford Mustang sold 40 units in April, bringing year-to- date sales to 151 vehicles.

We remain optimistic with our overall outlook for the remainder of the year, said Bert Lessard, managing director, Ford Philippines. With our fast growing customer base in the Philippines, were also continuing with efforts to further enhance the ownership experience, including a more competitive cost structure for our scheduled service maintenance and services that add more convenience for our customers.

The post Ford Ranger Drives Ford Philippines April Sales appeared first on Carmudi Philippines.Unprecedented clashes between Israel and Iran over Syria have sparked calls for restraint from world leaders worried about the risk of all-out war, even as both sides say they want to avoid a regional conflict. All eyes will be on any fresh military activity Friday after Israel carried out widespread deadly raids against what it said were Iranian targets in Syria on Thursday in response to rocket fire towards its forces that it blamed on Iran. The reported exchange of fire came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trump's decision Tuesday to withdraw from the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a move Israel had long sought. The bombardment led to calls for calm from Russia, France, Germany and Britain and the European Union, while the United States put the blame squarely on Iran and stressed Israel's right to "self-defence". Germany and Britain joined the United States in denouncing the rocket fire towards the Israel-occupied Golan Heights they also said was carried out by Iran, while France reiterated its "unwavering support for Israel's security". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had "crossed a red line" and that the resulting bombardment against targets in Syria "was a consequence". Iran's President Hassan Rouhani told German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a telephone call that he did not want "new tensions" in the Middle East. Rouhani did not mention Israel's strikes in Syria, or those against the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. But the chairman of his country's parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, Allaeddine Boroujerdi, condemned the strikes, warning that "Israel has entered a dangerous game". The Israeli raids in Syria, which a monitor said killed 23 fighters, were one of its largest military operations in recent years and the biggest such assault on Iranian targets, the Israeli military said. "We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said. "I hope we've finished this episode and everyone understood." Israel carried out the raids after it said 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the Golan Heights at around midnight. It blamed Iran's Quds force, adding that Israel's anti-missile system intercepted four while the rest did not land in its territory. There were no Israeli casualties. If confirmed, it would be the first time Iran has sought to directly attack Israeli-controlled territory aside from an alleged attempted drone assault in February. - 'New phase' - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported that dozens of rockets were fired from Syria towards the Israeli-occupied Golan, without saying who fired them. A senior pro-regime military source in Syria confirmed the salvo of rockets, insisting Israel had fired first. Later, in the early hours of the morning, explosions were heard in Damascus, while live images were broadcast on television showing projectiles above the capital and several missiles destroyed by anti-aircraft systems. Syrian state media said Israeli missile strikes had hit military bases as well as an arms depot and a military radar installation, without specifying where. The official SANA news agency said "dozens of missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft systems in Syrian airspace", acknowledging a number had reached their targets. Israel's military later confirmed it had carried out the raids, saying some 70 military and intelligence targets had been struck and all of its aircraft had returned safely. Syrian air defences, which fired dozens of times on Israeli jets, were also targeted, he said. Syria said it was the Israeli strikes that marked a "new phase" of direct involvement in the country's seven-year conflict. Its army said three people had been killed. In a rare if not unprecedented move for an Arab country, Bahrain backed Israel's right to "defend itself" after the strikes. - Russia hotline - Bahrain is a close ally of Saudi Arabia and the two countries, whose foreign policies are often in lockstep, view Iran as the chief threat to the region. Israel has long warned it will not accept Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria, where the Islamic republic is supporting President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the civil war. It has been blamed for a series of recent strikes inside Syria that have killed Iranians, though it has not acknowledged those raids. The Jewish state says it has conducted dozens of raids in Syria to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to Iran-backed Hezbollah, another key foe of Israel. Israel had been preparing itself for weeks for possible Iranian retaliation. Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal has added to tensions and led to a new level of uncertainty over how Iran will respond. At a rally in Indiana on Thursday Trump said he still wanted intrusive inspections of Iran's nuclear sites to continue despite his decision to withdraw from the pact. European allies are scrambling to save the hard-fought deal but have found themselves increasingly critical of Washington's stance. In an interview with the French daily Le Parisien, France's foreign minister condemned Washington's decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran as "unacceptable" move that unilaterally punished European companies for trade with Iran. burs-mjs/dwo/dv/jta/slsOverseas Filipino workers (OFWs) returning home from the Middle East (PHOTOVILLE International)

KUWAIT The Philippine delegation to Kuwait confirmed that a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on the protection of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) in the Gulf State will be signed on Friday, May 11.

Speaking in a press conference on Wednesday night, May 9, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said both governments finally have agreed on the provisions of the MOA on the welfare and protection of Filipino workers in Kuwait.

Tatlo pong mga Cabinet secretary o ministers dito sa Kuwait ang aming nakausap, Roque said. Dito naman po kay Ministry of Labor ang napag usapan talaga ay iyong tungkol doon sa Memorandum of Agreement na pipirmahan na,

The provisions in the proposed MOA on OFW protection included the ones President Rodrigo Duterte expected to be in the agreement. First is the condition that passports of OFWs should be deposited with the Philippine Embassy. Second, OFWs will be given one day off weekly with pay. Third, OFWs will be allowed at least 7 hours of sleep every night. Fourth, OFWs should be provided a proper and healthy meals.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said though the Kuwaiti government agreed, he admitted that the other party was adamant at first over the said provisions.

Iyon ang naging mainit na debate, iyong passport dahil initially they agreed that the passport should be deposited with the Philippine Embassy. Pero ang sabi nila hindi na kailangang ilagay sa MOU iyan, basta we will agree. So our technical working group insisted na kailangan nandun sa MOU. Finally, after a heated argument nag-agree na sila, Bello explained.

The Kuwaiti government has created a special police unit that works 24/7 to respond to reports of distressed OFWs, according to Roque.

Meanwhile, Kuwait has released the four Filipino drivers who accompanied embassy officials in the controversial rescue mission last month. Roque assured that the four will not be deported and they are cleared of charges.

Story continues

Alongside these developments, the Philippine officials also confirmed that the Kuwaiti government allowed the repatriation of the 600 distressed OFWs in the Gulf State. One hundred fifty of them will be going home together with the Philippine delegation.

Maiiwan iyong 62 kasi may kaso pa. Pero yung walang kaso pauuwiin na nila at their expense. Nabigla nga kami, napasipa ako kay Sec. Roque nung sinabi na at their expense. So that is a bonus na unexpected talaga, Bello said.

Meanwhile, newly appointed special envoy to Kuwait Abdullah Mama-O is expected to arrive to Kuwait today, May 10, for the finalization of the agreement before the official signing tomorrow, May 11.  Mirasol Abogadil / Marje Pelayo | UNTV News & Rescue

The post PH-Kuwait agreement on OFW protection to be signed on May 11 appeared first on UNTV News.Unfortunately for the intrepid astronauts in Stanley Kubricks 2001, a Space Odyssey, the HAL 9000 computer knows how to read lips. Credit: IMDB

Almost everyone knows the story of HAL 9000, the killer supercomputer in Stanley Kubrick's landmark film 2001: A Space Odyssey, whose 50th anniversary will be celebrated on May 12, 2018 at the 71st Cannes Film Festival. In an intriguing scheduling coincidence, IBM, Kubrick's partner during the filming of A Space Odyssey, and Airbus have just unveiled the CIMON (Crew Interactive Mobile Companion) project, an "intelligent, mobile and interactive astronaut assistance system" that will join the International Space Station.

These two events propel us into a debate over the risks created by the development of superintelligence that could eliminate jobs on a massive scale or, even worse, wipe the human species off the face of the planet  and raise the question of how to assess such a threat.

To date, we have no experience of accidents or disasters due to faulty or malicious AI. However, the imaginations of artists and scientists are a treasure trove of material that tells the story of superintelligence freed from any human control.

A story of AI going wrong

2001: A Space Odyssey is a forerunner of contemporary controversies. It tells the story of the struggle and eventual conquest of a human being, the only survivor of a methodical programme of extermination led by a sentient supercomputer.

Aboard the spaceship Discovery One, only the supercomputer HAL 9000 has been informed by its creators of the purpose of the mission: to reach Jupiter and search for signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence. Although considered to be infallible, HAL makes an error. The machine refuses to admit this, and, caught out, it claims that the mistake is due to "human error". In principle the humans are the computer's designers but, if it is to be believed, could it in fact be the computer itself? Adopting this line of reasoning, the machine gives itself a status that crew members could not imagine  that of a living, sentient and thinking being.

For the crew, HAL's error is unacceptable. There is no room for forgiveness or charity: error may be human, but it is not machine. There is no appeal: HAL must be taken out of service. The supercomputer, omnipresent and omniscient, immediately discovers the project designed to end its life. To survive and complete its mission, it decides to eliminate the crew. Only one human survives, Astronaut David Bowman, and he resumes, with even more determination, the digital homicide mission.

Bowman succeeds in penetrating the core of the unit and then mechanically, emotionlessly and almost ceremoniously disconnects, one by one, the machine's memory circuits from their housing. Like a child caught with its hand in the cookie jar, the computer tries, by talking about itself, to derail the lobotomy. In a final attempt, it sings a song it learned in its first hours of "life", but nothing works, and finally its voice fades away.

AI that can talk about itself

Much more than the story of a fight to the death, one of the treasures of the film is that is considers the narrative dimension of AI. It's able not only to make up stories about itself, but also can fail due to circumstances and its own errors. Thus, the elimination of the crew is not the result of HAL 9000 becoming autonomous, but from a "bad story" that the machine tells itself, that of believing that the crew could compromise the mission.

Kubrick's work thus makes it possible to conceive the risks caused by superintelligence not in terms of technical domination, but as the construction of an imperfect narrative identity. Although reality is still far from catching up with fiction, some initial findings in this area are worth thinking about.

In 2016, a novel titled The Day a Computer Writes a Novel Almost won a Japanese literary prize, the Nikkei Hoshi Shinichi. It was prewritten by an AI research team from the University of Hakodate, whose work initially consisted of selecting words and sentences, then defining parameters that allowed a program to "write" the novel. Of more than 1,450 submissions for the prize, 11 had been written, at least in part, by a non-human. Of course, the jury knew nothing about the "authors".

The following year, in the same spirit but without a digital co-author, Zack Thoutt, a fan of the TV series Game of Thrones, used a neural network fed with over 5,000 pages of text from the books on which it was based to predict what might happen next in the story. The result is far from equal to the work of author George R. Martin, but the text is, for the most part, understandable and the predictions are similar to some of the theories that are popular with fans of the series.

More recently, a program designed by MIT's Media Lab  baptised "Shelley" after Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus  created terrifying tales, designed to scare. The first stage was to train the program with stories written by humans taken from a database of over 140,000 references. In the second stage, the computer generated its own works that it improved by collaborating with humans who responded to its messages via Twitter.

HAL 9000 au Robot Hall of Fame. Credit: Photojunkie/Wikipedia, CC BY

And in the domain of reading and understanding stories, Google has just launched its "Talk to book" service that allows users to converse in natural language with an automatic learning algorithm that is supposed to help them in their future reading choices.

Stories that evoke the risks of AI

If, like HAL 9000, AI computers try to write stories, they are still far from reaching the standards set by human authors. Although no one can predict with certainty what artificial superintelligence might look like, it remains possible to imagine it by producing stories that stimulate our thinking.

The historian Yuval Noah Harari undertook the task, imagining a future where the automation of machines would cause the disappearance of the majority of jobs. He argued that humans risk losing their economic value because intelligence will be decoupled from consciousness. While intelligence is necessary to drive a car or diagnose a disease, consciousness and subjective human experiences are not mandatory.

Even more alarmist, the philosopher Nick Bostrom puts forward the idea that humans will probably not have the opportunity to experience this disastrous revolution because it is likely they will be exterminated as soon as artificial superintelligence appears.

Both Harari and Bostrom base their conclusions on a reduction of action to its functional dimension, judged solely in terms of effectiveness. But such a vision neglects whole areas of human existence. To remedy this, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio argues that life represents a complex act in which feelings are the expression of a permanent struggle to achieve a balance that underpins human existence. For Damasio, without subjectivity there is no creativity, and without the emotions that are manifest in the relationships between the body and the brain to perceive reality, there is no humanity.

Accepting this relegates Kubrick to the rank of a genius whose prophecy, albeit poetic, is unrealistic. It also means admitting that an AI computer will never be able to redefine its own mission at the expense of its creators. And finally, we must take very seriously the idea that the main risk to humanity is a cyberwar initiated by humans themselves  a conflict populated by drones and killer robots supported by swarms of computer viruses that all smarter than the others.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.Viewed under the microscope, this image shows the immature sex organs of a developing turtle. Cells that will eventually give rise to either eggs or sperm are stained red. The center panel shows that silencing a key gene called Kdm6b transforms a turtle gonad that otherwise would have become a future testis (left) into a future ovary instead (right). Credit: Ge et al.

Boy or girl? For those who want to influence their baby's sex, superstition and folk wisdom offer no shortage of advice whose effectiveness is questionable at bestfrom what to eat to when to make love. But some animals have a technique backed by scientific proof: In turtles and other reptiles, whether an egg hatches male or female depends on the temperature of its nest.

The phenomenon was first discovered in reptiles more than 50 years ago, but until now the molecular details were a mystery.

In a study published May 11 in the journal Science, researchers say they have finally identified a critical part of the biological "thermometer" that turns a developing turtle male or female.

According to a team at Duke University and Zhejiang Wanli University in China, the explanation lies not in the DNA sequence itselfthe A's, T's, C's and G'sbut in a molecule that affects how genes are expressed without altering the underlying genetic code.

"Temperature-dependent sex determination has been a puzzle for a really long time," said Blanche Capel, a cell biology professor at Duke who led the research. "This is the first functional evidence of a molecular link that connects temperature with sexual development."

Unlike humans and most other mammals, the sex of many turtles, lizards and alligators isn't determined by the chromosomes they inherit, but by ambient temperatures during a sensitive stage of development.

For a common pond and pet turtle called the red-eared slider, for example, eggs incubated at 32 degrees Celsius (nearly 88 Fahrenheit) produce all female hatchlings, while those kept at 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) hatch as males.

In the study, the researchers show that cooler egg incubation temperatures turn up a key gene called Kdm6b in the turtle's immature sex organs, or gonads. This in turn acts as a biological "on" switch, activating other genes that allow testes to develop.

To home in on the critical Kdm6b gene, the researchers took a group of freshly laid turtle eggs, incubated them at either 26 or 32 degrees Celsius, and looked for differences in the way genes were turned on in the turtles' gonads early in developmentbefore their fate as ovaries or testes has been decided.

In a previous study, researchers examined all the gene readouts, or transcripts, produced in the turtles' gonads over this critical time window.

They found several genes that were turned up or down at one temperature but not the other. But one of the first genes to shift was one called Kdm6b, which became much more active at the cooler incubation temperatures that produce males, and was almost silent at warmer, female-producing temperatures.

In the new study, the team used a technique developed by collaborators at Zhejiang Wanli University to suppress the Kdm6b gene in turtle gonads and see how it affects their sexual development.

Silencing the Kdm6b gene, they found, transforms a growing turtle embryo kept at temperatures that would otherwise produce a male with testes into a baby female with ovaries instead.

Further experiments showed that the protein encoded by the Kdm6b gene in turn interacts with a region of the genome called Dmrt1, which acts as a master switch to turn on testis development.

They found that Kdm6b activates the Dmrt1 master switch by modifying histones, the ball-like proteins that DNA is wrapped around inside the cell nucleus, like thread wound around a spool.

In many species, the tail of histone proteins is decorated with special chemical markers, or methyl tags, that keep genes along the DNA molecule inactive.

Kdm6b gene activity turns on the Dmrt1 master switch by removing these repressive tags and "loosening" the histone tails, which makes the DNA wound around the histones easier to access and read.

"It's like removing the brakes off the male pathway," said co-author Ceri Weber, a Ph.D. candidate in the Capel lab at Duke.

Researchers have found temperature-related shifts in Kdm6b gene activity in other species whose sex depends on incubation temperature, such as alligators and bearded dragons. "This suggests that similar molecular mechanisms may be at work in other reptiles too," Capel said.

The researchers think that Kdm6b and the protein it encodes don't sense heat or changes in temperature inherently, since cooler incubation temperatures increased gene activity in the turtle's future testes but not in other developing organs such as the heart or the liver.

"The next step is to find the temperature-sensing trigger," Weber said. "We're trying to narrow down the possibilities."

In addition to Capel and Weber, study authors include Chutian Ge, Jian Ye, Wei Sun, Haiyan Zhang, Yingjie Zhou, Cheng Cai and Guoying Qian.

Explore further Research probes temperature-dependent sex determination in turtles

More information: Chutian Ge et al, The histone demethylase KDM6B regulates temperature-dependent sex determination in a turtle species, Science (2018). Journal information: Science Chutian Ge et al, The histone demethylase KDM6B regulates temperature-dependent sex determination in a turtle species,(2018). DOI: 10.1126/science.aap8328This infographic shows how the scaling of reproductive-energy output in marine fishes affects our understanding of fisheries management, the efficacy of marine protected areas, and the impacts of climate change on fish stocks. Credit: Centre for Geometric Biology (Monash University)

What difference does it make whether an angler catches one big fish or two smaller fish, each half its weight? Experts assumed that big and small fish invest the same proportion of their energy to make eggs. But a new report in Science by a Smithsonian biologist and colleagues shows that plus-sized females invest disproportionately more in the number of eggs and the size of individual eggs. Therefore, taking a single big fish has a bigger impact on the fish population than taking multiple small ones.

"Our results are critical for fisheries management: They tell us to reduce fishing pressure on large fish rather than smaller ones in order to maintain and replenish stocks," said staff scientist D. Ross Robertson at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. "We need to focus on reducing fishing pressure on large fish rather than exploiting them more heavily than small fish."

Led by Diego R. Barneche at Monash University's Centre for Geometric Biology and the University of Sydney, Robertson, along with evolutionary biologists Craig White and Dustin Marshall, also from Monash University, surveyed egg number, egg volume and energy invested in eggs by 342 different marine species, based on publications in Google Scholar about wild fish, as well as data on egg-quality of a range of species collected by Robertson.

The number of eggs laid by a single mother ranged from 11 to almost 58 million eggs per clutch. Egg volume ranged from a hundredth of a cubic millimeter to 0.345 cubic centimeters.

The energy content of eggs from fish collected at sites around the world from Japan to Corsica ranged from seven hundredths of a Joule to almost 300 Joules. Larger eggs have slightly less energy per unit volume than small eggs but a much higher energy content overall.Rather than finding a straight linear relationship: more weight implies more egg production, they found a power-function relationship: as weight goes up, the effort put into reproduction rises exponentially.

"There have always been two quite different explanations of the relationship between size and fecundity," Robertson said. "We collected enough data to identify what we think is generally the correct relationship."

From river systems, to trees, to genes, scientists are discovering that the properties of biological systems are often governed by power laws, rather than linear relationships. For example, scaling up the effective dosage of a drug in a mouse to the weight of a human resulted in overdoses, because the relationship was not linear. Also, ecologists working in Africa found that bigger species of savannah animals require disproportionately more space to live in than smaller animals.

"The realization that fecundity in marine fish is non-linear is important not only for managing commercial fish stocks to maintain and enhance their productivity, but also for understanding evolution and for managing invasive species such as lionfish, in which the big females seem to be concentrated in deep water," said Robertson.

Explore further Brood parasitism in fish

More information: D.R. Barneche el al., "Fish reproductive-energy output increases disproportionately with body size," Science (2018). Journal information: Science D.R. Barneche el al., "Fish reproductive-energy output increases disproportionately with body size,"(2018). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi  1126/science.aao6868Appeal on projects that could mask global warming is published in Nature by scientists from 12 countries, including Brazilian Paulo Artaxo. Credit: Pixabay

Placing giant mirrors in orbit to reflect sunlight before it reaches Earth and launching millions of tons of sulfur into the stratosphere to simulate the effects of a major volcanic eruption are among the mind-boggling climate geoengineering projects that are under consideration as ways to mitigate the global warming caused by greenhouse gases.

The impact of this kind of initiative on global ecosystems remains highly uncertain. According to a commentary published in the journal Nature, the only certainty is that developing countries will be the most affected both by climate change and by any action taken to try to slow or stop the rise in global temperatures.

The text is signed by 12 scientists from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Jamaica, Kenya and Thailand, among other countries. Brazil is represented by Paulo Artaxo, a Full Professor at the University of Sao Paulo's Physics Institute (IF-USP) who is also at the steering committee for one of Sao Paulo Research FoundationFAPESP's Research Programs, namely the Global Climate Change Research Program (RPGCC).

The authors of the article argue that solar geoengineering cannot be an alternative to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and urge caution: "We recognize its potential physical risks and socio-political implications. And we oppose its deployment until research into its safety and effectiveness has been completed and international governance mechanisms established. But we are committed to the co-production of research and to well-informed debate."

According to Artaxo, projects that model the results of geoengineering strategies have been conducted in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, but so far, scientists from developing countries have not taken part.

Interest in geoengineering is burgeoning along with growing evidence that the Paris Accord signed by 195 countries in 2015 to contain greenhouse gas emissions will not be sufficient to limit global warming to 2 C above pre-industrial levels.

"If emissions continue at the current pace, the average temperature rise could reach between 4 C and 7 C during this century," said Artaxo. "To prevent a collapse of the ecosystems that sustain our planet, it may be necessary to resort to geoengineering at some point. But without serious research involving the entire world, we run a serious risk of doing even greater damage to the climate than we are now. An error in the use of any technique could cause the deaths of hundreds of millions of people from famine, thirst and other causes."

Research conducted to date shows that solar geoengineering techniques could temporarily cool Earth but would have significant side effects that might actually be worse than the harm they were intended to mitigate.

A strategy that has been tested on a small scale involved the casting of iron particles into the ocean to increase the absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) by marine biota.

"This could, indeed, be an effective way of removing CO2 from the atmosphere," said the RPGCC-FAPESP member. "However, it would cause sharp and rapid acidification of the ocean. Simulations suggest large-scale use of this technique could lower ocean pH so far that practically all marine species would be wiped out."

If sulfur were launched into the atmosphere, the main impact would be felt by plants, most of which depend on direct sunlight to photosynthesize efficiently. "This technique could benefit species that photosynthesize with diffuse radiation. In other words, it would radically change the planet's biodiversity, and humanity would have no idea of the long-term impact," Artaxo said.

To Artaxo, the real concern is not the physical and chemical dimension but governance. Who would be responsible for deciding which techniques to use, when, where, and on what scale, especially since action taken by a single country could affect the entire planet? Who would pay for any damage done to specific countries? Above all, who could guarantee that the measures would continue to be taken for 100 or 200 years?

"Imagine we started to inject sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere and that after one or two decades, this became impossible owing to a severe international economic crisis or world war. The global temperature reduction obtained during the period could be reversed in no more than a year," Artaxo said.

Participation in the debate

No in-depth research on geoengineering to mitigate climate change has yet been done in Brazil. In Artaxo's view, it is vitally important to investigate the potential effects on the carbon balance, on the functioning of Amazonia and on rainfall in the Northeast, among others.

The article published in Nature also stresses the importance of studying the effects of geoengineering on hurricanes in the Caribbean, floods in Bangladesh and agriculture in East Africa, for example.

"Developing countries must be in a position to make up their own minds. Local scientists, in collaboration with others, need to conduct research that is sensitive to regional concerns and conditions. (...) Broader discussions among academics, policymakers, the public and public intellectuals are needed on climate risks and justice," the authors write.

Explore further Global South experts urge developing countries to lead on solar geoengineering research

More information: A. Atiq Rahman et al, Developing countries must lead on solar geoengineering research, Nature (2018). Journal information: Nature A. Atiq Rahman et al, Developing countries must lead on solar geoengineering research,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/d41586-018-03917-8The global thermometer has risen by one degree since the mid 19th-century, enough to see a crescendo of climate-enhanced droughts, floods, heat waves and superstorms

UN talks ending Thursday failed to hammer out a draft of the "operating manual" that would bring the landmark Paris climate treaty to life, forcing governments to add an emergency negotiating session ahead of a December climate summit.

"We have been here for two weeks and fell short of what was foreseen," Elina Bardram, the European Union's top climate negotiator, told AFP.

"We were not even close."

The 197-nation Paris Agreement, inked in 2015, calls for capping global warming at "well under" two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and 1.5 C if feasible.

The global thermometer has risen by one degree since the mid 19th-century, enough to see a crescendo of climate-enhanced droughts, floods, heat waves and superstorms.

Voluntary national pledges to reduce carbon pollution would still allow temperatures to rise by three degrees or more, unleashing forces that could pull at the fabric of civilisation, say scientists.

The agreement also promises at least $100 billion (85 billion euros) per year from 2020 to help poor countries wean their economies from fossil fuels and cope with climate impacts, present and future.

But the devil is in the details, almost all of which remain to be ironed out.

'Too slow

How will national pledges to slash greenhouse gas emissions be measured and verified? By whom? Should China, India and other emerging economies be held to the same standards as Europe, Japan and the United States?

On money, where are the billions promised going to come from? Will they be loans or grants, from governments or banks?

These and hundreds of other questions need to be sorted by the end of the December 3-14 UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland. The Paris Agreement enters into force in 2020.

But during the 11-day talks in Bonn "the pace of work was too slow," said Amjad Abdulla, chief climate negotiator for The Maldives and spokesman for dozens of small island states threatened by rising seas.

The highly technical talks have roiled a decades-old schism between rich and developing nations that could hamper completion of what negotiators call the Paris "rule book".

Developing nations led by China and India, for example, have said reporting requirements for the so-called "nationally determined contributions" of wealthy countries should be more stringent, and detail the level and timing of financial aid to climate-vulnerable nations.

For developed nations, this is uncomfortably reminiscent of the two-tiered systema few dozen rich countries in one column, the rest of the world in anotherunderlying the ill-fated Kyoto Protocol.

'Radio silence' on money

"The European Union acknowledges that there are differences in capabilities," said Bardram. "What we don't accept is that there would be a strict bifurcation between developed and developing countries."

Disagreements over money remain the biggest roadblock to progress.

"The finance issue has been so polarised and political, that there has not been any give on this so far," said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based advocacy and research group.

US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of Paris pact, and his administration's efforts to boost fossil fuel technologies, have not helped.

"Trump is doing tremendous damage on the climate finance front," said Meyer.

"There is no one putting forward the $2 billion (1.68 billion euros) to replace the Green Climate Fund pledge that Trump is not going to honour."

For developing countries, this stalemate has undermined the still fragile foundation on which the Paris pact was built.

"The radio silence on money has sown fears among poor countries that their wealthier counterparts are not serious about honouring their promises," said Mohamed Adow, lead climate expert for Christian Aid.

A parallel track at the talks have sought to lay the groundwork for a new round of carbon cutting pledges to help close the so-called "emissions gap".

The Paris Agreement calls for revisiting current committment in 2023, but on current trends, experts warn, that may be too late.

Many key issues will be taken up at half-a-dozen ministerial and summit meetings between now and December.

"That's something the negotiators can't work out," said Meyer.

The added negotiation session will take place in Bangkok from September 3 to 8.

Explore further Dramatic action needed on climate change: UN

 2018 AFPAn image from 1886 showing a group of Indigenous Australians posed around the lower Murray River in flood. Credit: national_library_of_australia_commons/flickr , CC BY

Fish have ears. They also have ear bones, known as otoliths. Recent research has focused on otoliths of fish from Australia's inland waters. These unique structures act as a kind of scientific time capsule, telling us about environmental conditions of the past.

Prior to European arrival, Australia's rivers were naturally dynamic systems. Fluctuations in salinity levels occurred in tune with inflows of sea water from the ocean, and fresh water arriving from further upstream.

Waterways such as the Murray River and Coorong are now severely degraded from human activities, such as barrage construction and the removal of water for irrigation.

Before these alterations, rivers provided bountiful food and other resources for local people. We can only begin to imagine the sheer number and size of the fish and other animals that would have been found in these waters. But they existed  and evidence can be found in the remains of the meals of the Indigenous people who lived near these waterways over tens of thousands of years.

Ancient fish remains tell a story

Ancient fish remains are a key source of evidence to help archaeologists and palaeoecologists reconstruct past environments. Fish otoliths, hold a wealth of unique information within their makeup.

Otoliths are hard, calcium carbonate structures that help with balance and hearing. They are located in the head of all bony fish, directly behind the brain.

Surfaces of an archaeological otolith from a 1m long mulloway (top). X-ray image shows the location of otolith in the head of a mulloway. Otolith images from Morgan Disspain. Credit: Mulloway X-ray copyright Australian Museum

Different fish species have otoliths of different shapes and sizes, and an otolith's internal structure has seasonal growth rings, similar to those of a tree. Features of otoliths can be used to identify the species, size, age, growth rate, and season of death of an individual fish.

Analysis of the oxygen isotope values of fish otoliths can provide information on the temperature of the water in which the fish lived, while studying concentrations of trace elements such as barium can indicate the salinity levels of the water.

Middens are occupation sites where Aboriginal people left the remains of their meals; they can contain shell, animal bone, plant remains, stone artefacts, and hearths. Studies conducted on archaeological fish otoliths excavated from Aboriginal midden sites have provided rare data on fish populations, environments and the use of natural resources by Indigenous Australians in times long ago.

When these data are compared with modern records, changes in fish populations and environmental conditions can be assessed.

Trace elements can show changing salinity

Studies of otoliths from ancient Aboriginal camp sites along the Lower Murray River (approximately 6400 years old) and Coorong region (approximately 2900 years old) show the changing nature of the waterways.

Trace element analysis reveals fluctuating levels of salinity in both the river (which is now predominantly fresh) and the estuary (which now experiences hypersaline conditions in some areas). This change is likely the result of the extensive alteration of the river since the early 1900s.

Inside structure of an archaeological Argyrosomus japonicus (mulloway) otolith, with black spots indicating increments. Otolith is aged to 7 years; the edge increment is hyaline, indicating the fish died in the warm season. Credit: Morgan Disspain, Author provided

People did express opinions about these changes when they were first initiated. Historical newspaper articles record the concern of residents and fishers about the damage barrages and weirs were having on fish populations. An article titled Fishermen Oppose Murray Barrage  Would Mean Ruin, reported from Milang and published in The Advertiser, 27 June 1933 reads: "Most local fishermen are strongly opposed to the proposal to build a barrage across the mouth of the Murray. They declare that it would completely block the supply of butterfish (mulloway) about the lakes."

The locks impede the free passage of the fish during low water periods, and the seepage of salt water from irrigation turns the water, impounded by locks and weirs, stagnant and salt, and kills the fish.

What we know about sizes of fish over time

The impact of overfishing and environmental changes on river systems can be seen by assessing the size and age of relevant fish species. Overfished populations usually experience some degree of change that reflects the targeting of larger, older individuals  with some species more susceptible to long-term impacts.

However, because the systematic collection of fisheries data in most parts of the world is only very recent  less than 100 years in most parts of Australia  it is difficult to determine what fish populations looked like prior to the industrialisation of fishing in the nineteenth century.

The "shifting baseline syndrome" refers to the concept that fish populations are measured against baselines identified by each successive generation of researchers, baselines which themselves may represent significant changes from even earlier states.

Overriding this issue to some extent, fish remains from archaeological sites can be used to extend the recent record of fish population data. When combined with historical archival information and modern fisheries data, changes in fish abundance, age and size over time can be examined. In particular, fish length can be determined based on the size of the otoliths.

Excavating an Aboriginal midden site at the Coorong. Credit: Lynley Wallis

The endangered iconic Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii), Australia's largest native freshwater species, is currently known to reach lengths of around 180 centimetres, weigh up to 100 kilograms, and live to an age of around 48 years.

It is one large fish.

Archaeological otoliths from midden sites in the Lower Murray River region that are at least 5000 years old, show that in the past, monstrous Murray cod (more than 220 centimetres long!) once lived in this part of the river, and were targeted by the Indigenous people who lived there, the Ngarrindjeri.

Historical records show that between 1955 and 2001, Murray cod were the third most commercially harvested species in the Lower Murray-Darling catchment. However, the commercial fishery is now closed, and the species has been listed as vulnerable under Australia's Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999.

Archaeology for environmental science

Conservation and rehabilitation of native flora and fauna is of vital importance if we are to ensure its survival for future generations.

But it can be difficult to truly understand the extent of damage that has been wrought on our environment throughout the industrialised age  because seeing past our own experience is impossible without evidence from the time long before us.

Archaeological remains hold crucial information for increasing our knowledge of the past condition of our waterways and native fish populations. Ancient fish otoliths in particular, carry unique evidence that can inform us of past fish populations and environmental conditions, providing real rehabilitation targets.

Explore further Warming world will affect fish size and fisheries

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.Through their complementary crown and root systems, trees in mixed forests are often better supplied with light, water and soil nutrients. Credit: L. Steinacker/TUM

Mixed forests are more productive than monocultures. This is true on all five continents, and particularly in regions with high precipitation. These findings from an international overview study, in which the Technical University of Munich (TUM) participated, are highly relevant for forest science and forest management on a global scale.

"We know of the many advantages of mixed forests," states Professor Hans Pretzsch, co-author of the study and author of a recent book on the ecology and management of mixed-species stands. "Mixed-species forests are ecologically more valuable as versatile habitats. They mitigate climate change, as they mean a higher carbon sink."

Trees in mixed-species forests are often better supplied with light, water, and soil nutrients via their complementary crown and root systems. "This makes mixed stands more resilient during dry years. In addition, they are more stable against pests and visually more appealing," adds Prof. Pretzsch from the Chair of Forest Growth and Yield Science in Weihenstephan.

But these arguments alone have not yet managed to convince forestry management to promote mixed-species stands. This meta-analysis and overview study now shows that a prudent selection of the combination of tree species leads not only to more ecological and resilient forests, but also to greater productivity, explains Pretzsch. The study documents that mixed stands perform better in terms of productivity than monocultures, particularly in areas with favorable water supplies, such as in Central Europe.

In cooperation with other forest scientists from France, Georgia, Switzerland and Scotland, the TUM experts reviewed 600 studies which analyzed the influence of mixed forests on productivity. The yardstick used was the increase in volume of trunk wood which was calculated via repeated measurements of the tree diameter, height, and trunk shape.

From these studies, they filtered out 126 case studies in 60 areas on five continents published in 1997 and 2016. All these studies are based on long-term experiments for which regular measurements have been taken for decades, quite a few of which are in Bavaria.

"Based on these findings, the interactions between the individual tree species will be studied in more detail at the TUM," states Pretzsch. The prerequisites for this are long-term experimental areas, which, in Bavaria however, have primarily encompassed monocultures in the past.

The forestry experiments in Bavaria are the oldest in the world, and provide a unique empirical data basis. As early as the 1870's, Permanent Secretary for Forestry August von Ganghofer (father of the author Ludwig Ganghofer) had experimental areas created with the conviction that only repeated analyses supply reliable information. Most of those experimental plots are continuously measured till present, explained Pretzsch, who is the Head of the network of long-term experiments in Bavaria. The network of plots currently consists of over 1,000 individual areas, 80 percent of which are monocultures.

In the coming five years, they will be expanded with more than a hundred hectares of mixed stand experiments.

This mammoth project will provide important facts on the functioning and management of mixed stands in the future. "This will be highly interesting for science and provide practical decision-making aids," says Pretzsch. "In light of climate change and the increasing ecological, economic, and social requirements that forests need to fulfill, mixed stands will increase in importance throughout the world."

Explore further How trees coexistnew findings from biodiversity research

More information: H. Jactel et al, Positive biodiversityproductivity relationships in forests: climate matters, Biology Letters (2018). Journal information: Biology Letters H. Jactel et al, Positive biodiversityproductivity relationships in forests: climate matters,(2018). DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0747A captive Oriental fire-bellied toad (Bombina orientalis) imported into Europe from South Korea. Credit: Frank Pasmans

A deadly fungus responsible for the devastation of amphibian populations around the world may have originated in East Asia, new research has found.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), known as chytrid fungus, has long been identified as a cause of the decline and extinction of species of frogs, toads, newts and other amphibians across several continents.

Chytrid is distributed around the world but to date it has remained unclear where killer strains of the pathogen first emerged.

Now, new research published in the journal Science and led by researchers at Imperial College London alongside partners including ZSL (Zoological Society of London), suggests the killer fungus currently ravaging global amphibian populations originated in East Asia.

The researchers highlight the need to tighten biosecurity across borders, including a potential ban on trade in amphibians as pets to ensure the survival of vulnerable species.

Dr. Simon O'Hanlon, from the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial and first author of the paper, said: "Biologists have known since the 1990s that Bd was behind the decline of many amphibian species, but until now we haven't been able to identify exactly where it came from."

"In our paper, we solve this problem and show that the lineage which has caused such devastation can be traced back to East Asia."

Chytrid is passed from animal to animal and spreads rapidly in the wild, causing catastrophic mortality and declines in some species, while others are less affected.

Researchers trying to isolate Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in a petri dish using a swab taken from an amphibian. Credit: Dirk Schmeller

The fungus causes a disease called chytridiomycosis, which attacks the animal's skin, affecting their ability to regulate water and electrolyte levels and leading to heart failure.

In this latest study, an international team involving 38 institutions gathered samples of the pathogen from around the world. They sequenced the genomes of these samples, combining the data with genomes from previous Bd studies to make a collection of 234 samples.

Researchers analysed the data, looking at differences between the genomes. From the samples, they identified four main genetic lineages of the fungus, three of which are distributed globally. A fourth lineage was found only in Korea, on frogs native to the region.

Cultures from this Korean lineage were found to contain much more genetic diversity than any other lineage. Deeper analysis of the Korean Bd showed no history of global outbreaks within their genomes suggesting the Korean chytrid strains were native to the region, and most closely resemble the ancestor of all modern Bd.

Using the genetic data, the team estimated when the killer strain of Bd currently plaguing amphibians diverged from its most recent common ancestor. Their findings support the idea that rather than dating back thousands of years, as previously thought, the range of the disease expanded greatly between 50 and 120 years ago, coinciding with the rapid global expansion of intercontinental trade. The team's finding Asian strains of Bd in pet Oriental fire-bellied toads strongly supported this idea.

According to the researchers, human movement of amphibianssuch as through the pet tradehas directly contributed to spreading the pathogen around the world.

They add that the paper provides strong evidence for a ban on trade in amphibians from Asia, due to the high risk associated with exporting previously unknown strains of chytrid out of this region.

The group also highlights the threat of another amphibian pathogen which has also emerged from Asia (B. salamandrivorans or BSal) affecting salamanders in Europe and whose spread is also linked with the global trade in pet amphibians from Asia.

Professor Matthew Fisher, from the School of Public Health at Imperial, said: "Our research not only points to East Asia as ground zero for this deadly fungal pathogen, but suggests we have only uncovered the tip of the iceberg of chytrid diversity in Asia. Therefore, until the ongoing trade in infected amphibians is halted, we will continue to put our irreplaceable global amphibian biodiversity recklessly at risk."

Explore further Skin bacteria may predict vulnerability of amphibians to killer chytrid fungus

More information: S.J. O'Hanlon el al., "Recent Asian origin of chytrid fungi causing global amphibian declines," Science (2018). Journal information: Science S.J. O'Hanlon el al., "Recent Asian origin of chytrid fungi causing global amphibian declines,"(2018). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi  1126/science.aar1965Researchers envision thermoacoustics in solids eventually harnessing the extreme temperature gradient of outer space for electricity on satellites. Credit: Purdue University image/Mo Lifton

A solid can serve as a medium for heat and sound wave interactions just like a fluid does for thermoacoustic engines and refrigerators - resulting in leak-free machines that can stay operating longer.

Leaky systems have limited how engineers design thermoacoustic devices that rely on the interplay between temperature oscillations and sound waves. Researchers at Purdue and the University of Notre Dame have demonstrated for the first time that thermoacoustics could theoretically occur in solids as well as fluids, recently presenting their findings at the 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.

"Although still in its infancy, this technology could be particularly effective in harsh environments, such as outer space, where strong temperature variations are freely available and when system failures would endanger the overall mission," said Fabio Semperlotti, Purdue assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

Thermoacoustics has been an established and well-studied phenomenon in fluidswhether as a gas or liquidfor centuries. "Applying heat to a fluid enclosed in a duct or cavity will cause the spontaneous generation of sound waves propagating in the fluid itself," said Carlo Scalo, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue. "This results in so-called singing pipes, or thermoacoustics machines."

While fluids have been historically used for these systems, the extra step of building something to contain the fluids and prevent leaks is cumbersome. This led the researchers to consider solids as a replacement.

"Properties of solids are more controllable, which could make them potentially better suited to these applications than fluids. We needed to first verify that this phenomenon could theoretically exist in solid media," said Haitian Hao, Purdue graduate research assistant in mechanical engineering.

Thermoacoustics enables either waste heat or mechanical vibrations to be converted into other useful forms of energy. For refrigerators, sound waves generate a temperature gradient of hot and cold. The vibrating motion makes cold areas colder and hot areas hotter.

Engines use an opposite process: a temperature gradient provided by waste heat leads to mechanical vibrations.

Solid state thermoacoustics initially seemed unlikely, since solids are somewhat more "stable" than fluids and tend to dissipate mechanical energy more readily, making it harder for heat to generate sound waves.

The researchers developed a theoretical model demonstrating that a thin metal rod can exhibit self-sustained mechanical vibrations if a temperature gradient is periodically applied to segments of the rod. This balanced unwanted mechanical energy dissipation and showed that, like fluids, solids contract when they cool down and expand when they heat up. If the solid contracts less when cooled and expands more when heated, the resulting motion will increase over time.

Solids can also be engineered to achieve the needed properties for achieving high thermoacoustics performance. "Fluids do not allow us to do this," Semperlotti said.

Extreme temperature differences in space would be perfect for generating mechanical vibrations that are then converted to electrical energy on spacecraft.

"A solid state device would use the sun as its heat source and radiation towards deep space as its cold source," Semperlotti said. "These systems could operate indefinitely, given that they do not have any part in motion or fluid that could leak out."

Researchers still need to complete an experimental setup to validate this design idea and better understand the thermoacoustics of solids as discovered through mathematical calculations and modeling.

"Possible applications and performance of these devices are still in the realm of pure speculation at this point," Semperlotti said. "But the phenomenon exists and it has the potential to open some remarkable directions for the design of thermoacoustic devices."

Explore further Study reveals secrets of 'fluid-like' heat flow in solid semiconductor at nanoscale

More information: Haitian Hao et al. Thermoacoustics of solids: A pathway to solid state engines and refrigerators, Journal of Applied Physics (2018). Journal information: Journal of Applied Physics Haitian Hao et al. Thermoacoustics of solids: A pathway to solid state engines and refrigerators,(2018). DOI: 10.1063/1.5006489The lava lake at the summit of Kilauea dropped to more than 700 feet below the crater rim in just a few days. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey

Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has been oozing lava for more than three decades. But in recent days fountains of lava hundreds of feet high, a dozen new fissures and plumes of steam, ash, and gases have struck the area around Kilauea and forced more than 1,700 people to flee their homes. Hundreds of earthquakes and changes in the shape of Kilauea foretold the eruption and facilitated early warnings for residents, but it remains unknown how the eruption will unfold or how long it will last. Stanford University volcanologist Paul Segall, a professor of geophysics in the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth), described the science behind this latest eruption, what we can learn from it and how forecasters can begin to answer those questions about what happens after a volcano blows.

Kilauea has been erupting slowly for years without being a threat to people and their homes. What changed?

It's been erupting more or less continuously since 1983, with pauses and some changes in behavior. It had been erupting in very sparsely populated areas; those areas were overrun by lava flows a long time ago. Starting on Wednesday [May 2], the eruption shifted to the east, through what we call the East Rift Zone, and moved closer to people. Road access to that area is limited, so if it cuts the roads, people who live south of that are pretty much isolated.

How did geologists know this eruption was coming? Did they have a real volcano forecast?

On Monday, April 30, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) saw that earthquakes were migrating into this area and the ground was changing shape. Very precise GPS units measured the motion of the volcano to millimeter level accuracy and tilt meters measured how the ground was tilting. We can measure ground deformation from space with radar satellites as well.

Volcano forecasting like what we saw at Kilauea is real, but it's not foolproof. We're interested now in moving to more physics-based forecasting, in the way that weather forecasting has gone from being very empirically driven to very complex numerical calculations.

Empirical forecasts work very well in volcanoes that erupt frequently because you're able to collect a lot of data and see patterns. Well, what do you do when you're faced with a volcano that's never erupted in historic time? Sometimes those are the most dangerous ones. You can try to draw analogies to other, similar kinds of volcanoes, but a physics-based approach would add to our ability to do forecasting.

We also want to understand better how these systems work. We know to some degree what causes explosive versus non-explosive eruptions, but what controls the time scales of how they evolve? We'd like to predict once an eruption has started, how long it will last.

Have there been any surprises at Kilauea so far?

The magnitude 6.9 earthquake on Friday was a surprise. There are earthquakes all the time, but there hasn't been an earthquake of the size we saw on Friday since 1975.

When an earthquake occurs, that changes stress in the volcano, and that may or may not lead to other things. For example, at the summit of the volcano, the lava level has been dropping since Friday. And you might think that's a good thing. But if it drops low enough that it allows groundwater to come into the volcanic conduit and make contact with very hot lava, it can lead to potentially explosive eruptions. The water table at Kilauea is very low  hundreds of meters below the surface  so it would have to drop really far.

Does activity at Kilauea tell us anything about what we might expect as far as seismic or volcanic activity elsewhere?

The Hawaiian volcanoes are examples of what we call hotspot volcanoes, which are quite different from other types of volcanoes like Mount St. Helens in the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest. So we can't always just take what we learn in Hawaii and translate it verbatim to, say, the Cascades. We do gain insights, but they're a different flavor of volcano.

The Hawaiian volcanoes are sitting right in the middle of the Pacific plate. Hot material in the mantle is rising from great depth and impinges on the Pacific plate. It begins to melt, at a depth of 50 kilometers or so, and that melt begins to accumulate and then rise upward  buoyant relative to the surroundings  until it reaches reservoirs within the crust where it's stored temporarily until it erupts onto the surface.

The migration of the Kilauea eruption this past week into more populated areas is being driven by relatively shallow processes, which are not going to affect anything in the Cascades or Japan, or anywhere else around the Pacific Ring of Fire. This will be isolated to Kilauea.

As a person who has spent a lot of time in volcano country, how do you think about the choice to live potentially in the path of lava flows?



I participated in the Wrigley Field course a couple times, and one time we went out with some students, not too far from where the activity is now  a little farther west  and we saw people rebuilding houses on lavas that were probably a year old.

That's a little crazy.

But everybody has their own level of risk tolerance. People very close to Kilauea are aware of lava flow hazards. The thing that worries me is on the other side of the island  the Kona side where all the big resorts are. There are lava flows from Mauna Loa volcano  a much larger neighbor of Kilauea  that are not that old. In some cases, they're places where recent lavas took only eight hours to reach the ocean. That would roar right through these developments.

I don't know that everybody who's buying property or living in these areas knows that these are still active areas. There's a lot of education that needs to be done. Zoning and planning is also important.

As long as the volcanic activity stays at Kilauea, close to areas where it's been very active in recent times, most people are going to say they knew what they were getting in for. Not that long ago, decades ago, large lava flows extended very far on the other side of the island. I think that is going to blow people's minds if that happens again. Because I don't think they're prepared for it.

Explore further NASA Satellite detects Kilauea fissuresUnloading one of the two Galileo satellite containers from the 747 cargo aircraft. Galileo satellites 23 and 24 left Luxembourg Airport on a Boeing 747 cargo jet on the morning of 4 May, arriving at Cayenne  Felix Eboue Airport in French Guiana that evening. Credit: ESA-CNES-Arianespace/Optique Video du CSG - P Baudon

The next two satellites in Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system have arrived at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, ahead of their planned launch from the jungle space base in July.

Galileo satellites 23 and 24 left Luxembourg Airport on a Boeing 747 cargo jet on the morning of 4 May, arriving at Cayenne  Felix Eboue Airport in French Guiana that evening.

They were then unloaded, still in their protective air-conditioned containers, and transported by truck to the cleanroom environment of the preparation building within Europe's Spaceport.

This pair will be launched along with another two Galileo satellites, which are due to be transported to French Guiana later this month.

The quartet will be launched together on a customised Ariane 5 on 25 July.

The Galileo System began Initial Services on 15 December 2016, and a growing number of commercial devices are using Galileo today. Completion of the constellation should improve Galileo's positioning accuracy further still.

But Galileo satellites will continue to be launched into the future: a further 12 Galileo 'Batch 3' satellites were ordered last June, supplementing the 26 built so far to provide further in-orbit spares, and replacements for the oldest Galileo satellites, first launched in 2011.

Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system relies on a full set of 24 satellites, orbiting in three orbital planes in medium-Earth orbit to provide positioning, navigation and timing services worldwide. Credit: OHB System AG

A steady stream of orbital spares, ready to replace satellites reaching the end of their operational lives, is essential to ensure Galileo continues operating seamlessly.

Looking further ahead, with the aim of keeping Galileo services as a permanent part of the European and global landscape, replacement satellites will be required by the middle of the next decade, offering improved performance and added features.

Galileo is Europe's own global satellite navigation system, consisting of both the satellites in space and their associated ground infrastructure.

The definition, development and in-orbit validation phases were carried out by ESA, and co-funded by ESA and the European Commission. This phase created a mini-constellation of four satellites and a reduced ground segment o validate the overall concept, ahead of further deployment.

Success led to the current Full Operational Capability phase, fully funded by the EU and managed by the Commission. The Commission and ESA have a delegation agreement by which ESA acts as system design authority and procurement agent on behalf of the Commission.

Explore further Galileo in place for launchAn illustration showing the up and down pseudospin states, a light pulse and the hilly energy landscape experienced by the electrons. Credit: Stefan Schlauderer, University of Regensburg

A technique to manipulate electrons with light could bring quantum computing up to room temperature.

A team of researchers in Germany and at the University of Michigan have demonstrated how infrared laser pulses can shift electrons between two different states, the classic 1 and 0, in a thin sheet of semiconductor.

"Ordinary electronics are in the range of gigahertz, one billion operations per second. This method is a million times faster," said Mackillo Kira, U-M professor of electrical engineering and computer science.

He led the theoretical part of the study, to be published in the journal Nature, collaborating with physicists at the University of Marburg in Germany. The experiment was done at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

Quantum computing could solve problems that take too long on conventional computers, advancing areas such as artificial intelligence, weather forecasting and drug design. Quantum computers get their power from the way that their quantum-mechanical bits, or qubits, aren't merely 1s or 0s, but they can be mixtures known as superpositionsof these states.

"In a classical computer, each bit configuration must be stored and processed one by one while a set of qubits can ideally store and process all configurations with one run," Kira said.

Credit: University of Michigan

This means that when you want to look at a bunch of possible solutions to a problem and find the best fit, quantum computing can get you there a lot faster.

But qubits are hard to make because quantum states are extremely fragile. The main commercial route, pursued by companies such as Intel, IBM, Microsoft and D-Wave, uses superconducting circuitsloops of wire cooled to extremely cold temperatures (-321F or less), at which the electrons stop colliding with each other and instead form shared quantum states through a phenomenon known as coherence.

Rather than finding a way to hang onto a quantum state for a long time, the new study demonstrates a way to do the processing before the states fall apart.

"In the long run, we see a realistic chance of introducing quantum information devices that perform operations faster than a single oscillation of a lightwave," said Rupert Huber, professor of physics at the University of Regensburg, who led the experiment. "The material is relatively easy to make, it works in room temperature air, and at just a few atoms thick, it is maximally compact."

The material is a single layer of tungsten and selenium in a honeycomb lattice. This structure produces a pair of electron states known as pseudospins. It's not the spin of the electron (and even then, physicists caution that electrons are not actually spinning), but it is a sort of angular momentum. These two pseudospins can encode the 1 and 0.

An artists rendering of a pulse of circularly polarized light hitting a 2-D semiconductor, putting the electrons into a pseudospin state that could store information as part of a new, faster computing technology. Credit: Stephen Alvey, Michigan Engineering

Huber's team prodded electrons into these states with quick pulses of infrared light, lasting just a few femtoseconds (quintillionths of a second). The initial pulse has its own spin, known as circular polarization, that sends electrons into one pseudospin state. Then, pulses of light that don't have a spin (linearly polarized) can push the electrons from one pseudospin to the otherand back again.

By treating these states as ordinary 1 and 0, it could be possible to create a new kind of "lightwave" computer with the million-times-faster clock speeds that Kira mentioned. The first challenge along this route will be to use a train of laser pulses to "flip" the pseudospins at will.

But the electrons can also form superposition states between the two pseudospins. With a series of pulses, it should be possible to carry out calculations until the electrons fall out of their coherent state. The team showed that they could flip a qubit quickly enough to execute a string of operationsbasically, it's fast enough to work in a quantum processor.

Moreover, the electrons are constantly sending out light that makes it easy to read a qubit without disturbing its delicate quantum state. Clockwise circular polarization indicates one pseudospin state, counterclockwise the other.

The next steps toward quantum computing will be to get two qubits going at once, near enough to one another that they interact. This could involve stacking the flat sheets of semiconductor or using nanostructuring techniques to fence off qubits within a single sheet, for example.

Explore further Ultrashort light pulses for fast 'lightwave' computers

More information: F. Langer et al. Lightwave valleytronics in a monolayer of tungsten diselenide, Nature (2018). Journal information: Nature F. Langer et al. Lightwave valleytronics in a monolayer of tungsten diselenide,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0013-6At Oliktok Point, on the North Slope of Alaska, a broadly skilled team of scientists gathers and analyzes data to advance understanding of the arctic atmosphere. Visible in the center of the picture is a DataHawk unmanned aerial system. Credit: Gijs de Boer

Last spring, University of Colorado, Boulder research scientist Jessie Creamean spent a few weeks in frigid and windy Oliktok Point, Alaska. Within sight of the ice-bound Beaufort Sea and North Slope oil rigs and refineries, she set up an aerosol sampling system for a project on ice nucleating particles (INPs).

INPs are a poorly understood factor in arctic mixed-phase clouds, which play a significant role in controlling how much energy reaches the region's vulnerable sea ice.

Creamean works at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and is part of a broadly skilled team of Boulder-based researchers at work on a four-year project designed to advance understanding of the arctic atmosphere.

It's funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program and led by another scientist at CIRES, principal investigator Gijs de Boer.

The project centers on Oliktok Point, a short-term atmospheric observatory funded by the DOE's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Research Facility and home to the third ARM Mobile Facility (AMF3). It is about 260 kilometers (162 miles) southeast of Utqiagvik (formerly known as Barrow), where ARM maintains its fixed North Slope of Alaska (NSA) atmospheric observatory.

The Right Skills

The entire ASR team is made up of physical scientists, but each has a diverse set of skills pushing the project ahead. Creamean, for one, specializes in aerosols (tiny cloud-forming particles in the air) and aerosol chemistry. De Boer, the ASR team lead for ARM efforts at Oliktok Point, is an expert in remote sensing and unmanned aerial systems (UAS)the low-flying, slow-flying aircraft being promisingly tested as platforms for atmospheric observations.

Joining them in the Oliktok project are other experts from CIRES, each listed with an abbreviated hint of the expertise they bring: Matthew Shupe (cloud processes); Amy Solomon (large-eddy simulations and regional modeling); Christopher Cox (remote sensing and surface radiation budgets); Sergey Matrosov (scanning radars and precipitation properties); Christopher Williams (remote sensing, cloud dynamics, and microphysics); Maximilian Maahn (remote sensing, polar clouds); and doctoral student Matthew Norgren (aerosol-cloud interactions).

Joining the project group from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder are Allison McComiskey (aerosol-cloud interactions) and Dave Turner (cloud evolution and longwave radiative transfer).

Arctic Missions

When the ASR project was launched in March 2015, it embraced an ambitious set of science questions related to fast-evolving conditions in the Arctic, where sea ice cover is shrinking, permafrost is warming, and ecosystems are changing.

These rapid changes are taking place within an atmospheric regime that has increasingly clear effects on weather in the lower altitudes and on earth systems at large.

De Boer and his collaborators have taken aim at knowledge gaps in some fundamental arctic atmospheric processes, with an eye to reducing uncertainties in the models designed to simulate present conditions and to predict future ones.

Together they have had a hand in 13 papers so far, either published or accepted.

"There is a lot more to be done," says de Boer, noting a list of tasks on the whiteboard behind him. He hopes they will be addressed before the project closes out in February 2019.

Progress, in a Few Headlines

Until the brief respite of summer, Oliktok Point can be harshly cold and windy. Image courtesy of Gijs de Boer.

Broadly, the project has already shed light on the atmospheric influence of local industry near the site. It has also deployed new ways of measuring the atmosphere, including UAS and tethered balloons. "They provide perspectives we haven't had in the past," says de Boer.

The project has also added information on what de Boer calls "spatial variability." Instead of Utqiagvik being the only source of atmospheric data for that part of the Arctic, now there are two observatories from which to evaluate hypotheses.

The project's official missions start with an investigation of the transitions between clear and cloudy atmospheric states in the high latitudes. "We've captured new information," says de Boer. Novel simulations are underway.

Project investigators are also delving into high-latitude precipitation. In the Arctic, it is very hard to represent accurately the shape and mass of snowflakes, in part because it is hard to distinguish blowing snow from new snow. To address this difficulty, the team uses data from advanced instrumentation, including scanning cloud radars.

Much of the heavy lifting here comes from work on cloud microphysics by Matrosov, who uses scanning and longer wavelength radars to unravel precipitation properties, and by Solomon, an expert in using very high-resolution large-eddy simulations and regional modeling to understand key physical processes.

Before the Oliktok project very few data were archived about that sliver of the Arctic, says Shupe, a veteran of cold-weather campaigns. "We've gone from almost nothing coming out of there to having some important data products, studies, and papers."

He pointed to studies by Maahn, Creamean, de Boer, Matrosov, and Williams (who did work on mathematically decluttering radar signals at the site, where the brightness of refinery pipelines is a confounder).

Shupe is also working with Turner to modify their Shupe-Turner algorithm for retrieving Arctic cloud properties (based on microphysical data from Utqiagvik) to conditions at Oliktok. It will soon be released to the ARM Data Center.

The project also has a mission to characterize aerosols and the interactions between such particles and clouds. It is here that Creamean's work, supported by ARM, takes on meaning. She is measuring INP freezing temperatures and concentrations at Oliktok Point, a research first.

During March 2017, and with help from site technicians who watched over her instruments through May, Creamean collected daily samples (dust, bacteria, and other particles) for a project that will soon yield a paper. Her questions: Where do these seeds for cloud droplets and ice crystals come from, and how do they impact the properties of arctic clouds?

The team is also exploring how aerosols scatter and absorb radiation in the atmosphere along Alaska's North Slope; how such cloud-forming particles behave within seasonal cycles; and how different those particles are at Oliktok, within sight of oil fields, compared to the relatively pristine air of Utqiagvik.

A 2017 paper, led by Maahn, looked at how cloud droplet sizes are affected by local industrial inputs at Oliktok.

The most ambitious task of the research team may be its investigation of arctic clouds and their climatological influence. In that region and elsewhere, clouds are one of the largest sources of uncertainty in models.

This summer will help on that score, when de Boer leads an ARM campaign he hopes will make Oliktok Point a central hub of activity during the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP), an intensive period of coordinated international arctic observations.

De Boer says Profiles at Oliktok Point to Enhance YOPP Experiments (POPEYE), scheduled for July 1 through September 30, will add enhanced UAS, tethered balloon, and radiosonde (weather balloon) measurements to those already being collected by AMF3.

Explore further Researchers collect more precise weather, climate data with help from unmanned aerial system

More information: Matthew D. Shupe et al. Deriving Arctic Cloud Microphysics at Barrow, Alaska: Algorithms, Results, and Radiative Closure, Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology (2015). Matthew D. Shupe et al. Deriving Arctic Cloud Microphysics at Barrow, Alaska: Algorithms, Results, and Radiative Closure,(2015). DOI: 10.1175/JAMC-D-15-0054.1 www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/14709/2017The schematic of the optomechanical circulator and directional amplifier designed by research group. Credit: SHEN Zhen

The USTC Microcavity Research Group in the Key Laboratory of Quantum Information has perfected a 4-port, all-optically controlled non-reciprocal multifunctional photonic device based on a magnetic-field-free optomechanical resonator. This achievement is published in Nature Communications .

Light has bidirectional transmission reciprocity in common dielectric materials. Breaking this reciprocity in the direction of light transmission is of great significance in classical and quantum information processing. Optical circulators, isolators and directional amplifiers are examples of non-reciprocal devices. Yet the most common optical non-reciprocal devices are based on Faraday effects using magneto-optical materials, which are difficult to integrate on-chip. Therefore, in recent years, interest has increased in realizing on-chip, all-optical non-reciprocal devices.

In 2016, DONG Chunhua's group experimentally demonstrated the optomechanically induced non-reciprocity in a whispering gallery mode microcavity. On this basis, the group used a single cavity coupled with dual waveguides to implement a four-part versatile photonic device, including the functions of narrow-band filter, 4-port optical circulator and directional amplifier. The function mode can be switched arbitrarily by changing the control light.

For the circulator, the signal light incident from the ports 1, 2, 3 and 4, exits from the ports 2, 3, 4 and 1, respectively, constituting a 1-2-3-4-1 circular path. When only focusing on ports 1 and 2, it is also an efficient optical isolator; for directional amplifiers, signal light incident from port 1 is amplified and exits from port 2, not the other way around. Thus in the direction of 1-2 has directional amplification. The demonstrated device can even realize optical circulators with single-photon level and can be generalized to microwave and acoustic circuits.

Explore further Scientists experimentally realize optomechanically induced non-reciprocity

More information: Zhen Shen et al, Reconfigurable optomechanical circulator and directional amplifier, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Zhen Shen et al, Reconfigurable optomechanical circulator and directional amplifier,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04187-8

Provided by University of Science and Technology of ChinaThis composite image of Jupiter was taken as Juno swung away from Jupiter's south pole following its closest approach to Jupiter on 1st April 2018. JunoCam took the central part of the image when Juno was 24,749.4 km above Jupiter's cloud tops. Jupiter was larger than JunoCam's horizontal field of view of about 58 degrees. JunoCam took additional images from other perspectives and distances along Juno's trajectory. Those additional images have been reprojected as if they would have been taken from the same vantage point. Credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstadt / Sean Doran

Members of NASA's Juno mission team, some of the world's leading observers of Jupiter, and citizen scientists from across the globe will attend a workshop 'New Views of Jupiter: Pro-Am Collaborations during and beyond the NASA Juno Mission' at the Royal Astronomical Society in London on 10-11 May.

JunoCam images presented at the meeting by citizen scientists Gerald Eichstadt and Sean Doran include an animation showing the evolution of swirling features in the giant planet's atmosphere and a composite image of Jupiter's cloud tops.

Gerald Eichstadt, a mathematician working as a software professional, has taken two images from JunoCam and reprojected them to the same vantage point to enable a direct comparison between the images and show the subtle motions within the atmosphere. By modelling the movement of individual pixels in the images, he has created an animation that extrapolates the swirling evolution of the vortices in the atmosphere.

Eichstadt explains: "This animation represents a 'feasibility test'. Building on this initial work, we can add in more variables that will give us a more detailed description and physical understanding of Jupiter's atmosphere."

Sean Doran, in collaboration with Eichstadt, has created a new composite image of Jupiter as seen by Juno as it swung away from Jupiter's south pole on 1st April 2018. Because Jupiter was larger than JunoCam's field of view when the main portion of the image was taken, Eichstadt rendered four other images to the same viewing geometry to reconstruct a mosaic of the whole planet. Doran then processed the composite image to balance and blend the overlapping components, sharpen the contrast, and fill gaps.

Two JunoCam images, taken around 8 minutes 41 seconds apart, have been re-projected to the same vantage point, cropped, and enhanced in a context sensitive way. A subtle motion can be perceived through a simple "blink comparison". Credit: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstadt

"It's something of a labour of love that requires plenty of patience," says Doran. "Energetic particles impact the CCD and produce bright specks. Once I'd finished the processing, I needed to go through and repair a couple hundred of these bright pixels."

Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester, who has co-organised the workshop with the support of Europlanet 2020 Research Infrastructure, says: "The contribution of the Earth-based support campaign to the Juno mission, both professional and amateur, has proven to be invaluable in filling the spatial, temporal, and spectral gaps in Juno's capabilities. Now two years into the mission, we've seen some tremendous new science emerging from this collaboration, and breath-taking imagery of Jupiter's complex atmosphere that would not have been possible without the talented army of citizen scientists that have been working alongside the JunoCam team every step of the way."

"The amateur observations are key to detecting and rapid changes of the atmospheric properties in time on shorter time scales than possible from the professional community, whose resources are shared among many different programs. Thus, they not only measure changes between Juno's close encounters with Jupiter, but they also provide a means to anticipate changes that might influence how future observations can be interpreted, and they could even influence decisions on Juno's observing strategy in the case of unexpected phenomena," says Glenn Orton of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, who is the Juno science team member in charge of coordinating Earth-based observations to extend and enhance the science return from Juno's investigation of Jupiter and its magnetosphere.

Animation extrapolating the movement of the clouds from JunoCam imagery taken on 1st April 2018. Credit: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstadt

John Rogers of the British Astronomical Association, who co-organised the workshop says: "Many of these people have known each other for years by email addresses and social media alone, so to have them all in one place will be an incredibly special opportunity, fostering new collaborations and cementing existing friendships."WASHINGTON -- A statement by Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry claiming there is no persecution of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalists, made two days before veteran correspondent Soltan Achilova was violently assaulted in the latest of eight such incidents targeting her over the last year, has been condemned by RFE/RL.

Deputy Foreign Minister Vepa Hadjiyev said at a hearing of the UN Human Rights Council on Turkmenistan in Geneva on May 7 that "the fact that Radio Liberty correspondents work freely in the country" proves that there is media freedom in Turkmenistan. Hadjiyev added that contributors to RFE/RL's Turkmen Service report information without any restrictions, without any harassment or persecution.

RFE/RL President Thomas Kent, citing the violent attack on Achilova, called the ministers statement outrageous and offensive.

Six of our correspondents quit their jobs between 2014 and 2016 because of a deliberate, state-sponsored campaign of intimidation and abuse that targeted them because of their reporting, Kent said. Saparmamed Nepeskuliev, another correspondent, is serving a three-year prison sentence on narcotics charges that we believe are bogus and brought in retaliation for his journalism, and other RFE/RL correspondents and their family members have faced prison, torture, and psychological abuse because of their work."

On May 9, Achilova, 68, was on her way to photograph a ceremony at the countrys new WWII memorial complex in Ashgabat when she was stopped by several men in plain clothes she described as security agents, who were soon joined by three police officers. The agents told her it was forbidden to take pictures, and demanded she delete any photographs.

I refused, and then two agents took me from both sides under my arms and dragged me down the stairs toward a white car, calling her a slut and traitor of the motherland, Achilova told RFE/RL. They forced her inside the car, where they then threatened her with arrest on drug-related charges if she didnt delete the photographs. When she refused again, insisting she was breaking no law, they seized her camera and deleted the photos themselves. They kept her for two hours, demanding that she stop working for RFE/RL, and then released her.

Achilova, who has worked for RFE/RL reporting the experiences of ordinary Turkmen residents with her photographs for years, has faced an onslaught of physical assaults by police, thugs, and other unidentified assailants.

The attacks drew a reaction from RFE/RLs Kent last July, who said, The Turkmen government must immediately put an end to the persecution of Soltan Achilova and assure her safety.

Turkmenistan is tied with North Korea as the worst country in the world for media freedom, according to Freedom Houses 199-country Freedom of the Press 2017 survey; according to Reporters Without Borders 180-country 2018 World Press Freedom Index, Turkmenistan ranks 178, ahead of only Eritrea and North Korea.

RFE/RLs Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk Radiosy, has for 65 years provided an alternative to the state-run media monopoly, providing Turkmen-speaking audiences accurate, locally sourced, and uncensored news and information. In the past year (through April 2018), the Turkmen Services website has been visited an average of 1.2 million times every month, while more than 421,000 videos were viewed on the Services Facebook page.

----Two opponents from the last battle for the 24th Congressional District seat are back on the 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." " Fissure 7 (including a massive lava bubble burst) opened up on May 7, 2018 and actively spewed lava for several hours. USGS

If you've been following the news lately, you know about the lava devastating Hawaii's Big Island. Maybe you also saw that viral time lapse video of a fiery blob engulfing someone's car at the scene.

Recently, part of the Kilauea volcano  which is located by the island's southern shores  collapsed. This was followed by a series of earthquakes, including one that measured 6.9 on the Richter Scale. Since then, hot lava has been seeping up out of the ground through fissures in or near residential areas. Several Hawaiians have lost their homes and geologists don't yet know when the episode will end.

Advertisement

Hawaii's Hot Spot

The same geologic force that built this state is currently destroying some of its communities. Without volcanism, there'd be no Hawaii. The tropical island chain was forged by a hot spot, an upwelling of magma that's located beneath the earth's surface and is unusually high in temperature. The one we're discussing today is out in the Pacific Ocean. In the late Mesozoic Era, magma from the hot spot penetrated the sea floor's crust. When magma reaches the surface of our planet, it becomes known as "lava."

Anyway, this prehistoric lava cooled down and hardened into rock. Solid rock began to accumulate, forming volcanoes which eventually created the Hawaiian island of Meiji about 85 million years ago. And that was just the warmup act. The hot spot went on to create all the other islands in the Hawaiian archipelago. Right now, it sits right under the so-named "Island of Hawaii"  also called "Big Island."

That particular landmass mostly consists of five big volcanoes. Two of them  Kohala and Mauna Kea  haven't erupted in millennia. But the others are still active, including Kilauea, the volcano that's caused so much trouble over the past few days.

Advertisement

Kilauea's Great Walls of Fire

Mighty Kilauea stands by the southeastern shore and makes up about 14 percent of all the Big Island's terrain. It's also downright hyperactive: Kilauea has been releasing lava more or less continuously since 1983. First-time visitors to Hawaii may be surprised by its appearance. Most people think of volcanoes as tall, steeply-sloped structures. Kilauea does not conform to this stereotype; instead, it's what geologists call a "shield volcano." These are wide, gently curved volcanoes normally made of low-viscosity, basalt-based lava.

It's best to think of Kilauea as a lava distribution center with multiple outlets. Reservoirs of magma are hidden under the volcano. Pressure is constantly driving some of this molten rock toward the surface. One escape route is Halemaumau, a crater near the volcano's zenith, which holds a standing lake of lava. Then there's Puu Oo, another crater down by Kilauea's base.

Earthquakes have been rocking the area lately and on April 30, a section of Puu Oo's crater floor collapsed. That triggered even more earthquakes, which haven't done the locals any favors. Increased seismic activity is driving magma away from both Puu Oo and the summit of Kilauea. The lake at Halemaumau has fallen by 722 feet (220 meters) so far and scientists don't know how long the draining process will continue  or if it'll ever be reversed.

Meanwhile, an underground influx of magma is traveling toward a rift zone on the mountain's eastern side. Rift zones are sections of a volcano where the surface rock is weak, thin and prone to cracking. The new rumblings at Kilauea's east rift zone have produced long ventilation fractures  or "fissures"  in the ground.

" " Lava from fissure 7 is seen here from a different vantage point as it slowly advances through the Leilani Estates subdivision in Kilauea's lower east rift zone. USGS

Advertisement

What Comes Next?

On Thursday, May 3, fissures started to appear in the district of Puna. The big cracks provided an easy escape route for magma, which came sputtering out of them in the form of lava. Intermittently, the number of eruptive fissures has gone up: By Tuesday, May 8, there were 14 overall.

Though no human fatalities have been reported yet, the creeping lava's devoured at least 35 buildings  including 26 homes. The lava is high in iron, but low in silica, which makes it viscous and slow-moving. Unfortunately, lava speed is not the only safety issue that the authorities must consider. Toxic sulfur dioxide gas is being released with the lava. This can lead to acid rain and create respiratory problems for those who get too close.

As of today, more than 7 billion cubic feet (198 million cubic meters) of lava has escaped the fissures and oozed across the Big Island. The authorities ordered 2,000 residents to evacuate, but some chose to linger behind. In response, the police have been going door-to-door to clear civilians out of Leilani Estates, a hard-hit area located 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the volcano. Governor David Ige has asked for federal relief as Kilauea continues to devastate roadways, neighborhoods and crops.

Is there an end in sight? Geologists warn that more lava may soon be on its way and Talmadge Magno  Hawaii County's Civil Defense Administrator  has informed the press that the fissure eruptions "show no sign of slowing down." The U.S. Geological Survey also issued an alert on May 9 warning residents that the continued dropping of the lava lake at Halemaumau at Kilauea's summit raises the "potential for explosive eruptions in the coming weeks."

Still, past incidents can tell us a little bit about what we can expect once this entire thing finally blows over. Fissure eruptions tend to leave dikes in the ground. These are intrusions of igneous rock that cut through existing layers in the crust and frequently assume a speedbump-like appearance. The eruptions also build ramparts of rock.

While the destructive power of volcanoes can't be denied, they're also creative things. Already, cooling rock from the 2018 Kilauea fissure eruptions have generated over 494 acres (200 hectares) of new land. Dangerous as volcanoes are, we benefit from them as well.

Now That's Interesting The Hawaiian hot spot is a fixed point under the restless Pacific tectonic plate. For eons, this plate has been moving to the northwest at a leisurely pace of 3 or 4 inches (7.6 to 10 centimeters) per year. New islands were created as the plate was dragged over the hot spot. That's why the oldest landmasses in the Hawaiian archipelago are at its northwestern tip. As you travel to the southeast, the islands get progressively younger. Youngest of all is Big Island, which also happens to be the largest.Lets say you lent money to a friend using an IOU.

Or you provided a business service or goods to a client.

And then your friend or your client refuses to pay you. What happens next?

Generally, there are 3 parts to the debt recovery process:

Getting to know your debtor Court judgment for the debt Enforcement of the judgment if the debtor still does not pay up

Please do not treat the following as legal advice. It can only be a rough guide that gives you an overview of the options available.

Profiling and Negotiating

To increase your chances of debt recovery, you should have as much information about your debtor as possible. Here are some basic questions:

Who is the debtor?

You have to know who to claim from if you wish to start a legal process.

If the debtor is a person, and the amount of debt owed is at least $15,000, bankruptcy proceedings are an option. Because bankruptcy brings about personal restrictions, it may encourage the debtor to pay up if he can.

If your debtor is a company, do you have a personal guarantee? Who are the directors of the company?

What assets does the debtor have in Singapore?

All the proceedings are useless if the debtor simply has no money. A lawyer and possibly a debt collector can assist you in conducting checks on the debtor:

What are the companys financial circumstances?

Are there assets available for attachment?

Does the company have income?

If the debtor is an individual, does he have a job?

There may be situations where it is not economically viable to spend money on a civil claim in the first place. Although some costs are recoverable, it is still contingent on you being able to recover your debt from the debtor in the first place.

If the debtor is in a tight financial situation and simply has no money and no assets to pay you with, it may not be worthwhile to begin a legal process. Instead, negotiating on a payment plan may be more cost-effective.

However, do seek legal advice to ensure youre not being taken advantage of if a debtor claims he has no money to repay you.

Story continues

Getting a Court Judgment

Getting an Order of the Tribunal or a court judgment is the next step towards compelling payment should the above fail.

If the debt owed is up to $20,000

Your best recourse would be to file a claim with the Small Claims Tribunals. Thats because lodging fees are inexpensive and you do not need to hire a lawyer to file a claim at the Small Claims Tribunals.

However, there are limitations:

The limit on the claim amount is $20,000 unless there is the consent of both sides to raise the limit to $30,000.

The Small Claims Tribunals also does not hear all kinds of cases. For example, loan cases are excluded.

If you are owed more than $20,000, or your claim does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Small Claims Tribunals

You will need to file a civil claim with the courts. This follows the normal civil litigation process.

Although you can represent yourself, it is advisable to get a lawyer. A lawyer will usually profile your debtor to determine your chances of getting your money back and the best strategy of doing so. He should also advise on the economic viability of proceeding with the cases.

Before filing the claim, the lawyer will usually first send a letter of demand. A letter of demand should not be expensive, but at the same time it may not be enough to compel the other side to pay up.

The cost of proceeding further with a writ depends on the complexity of your case, and what the other side does in defence.

Enforcement of the Debt

Even if you get an Order of the Tribunal or a court judgment, it is not the end of the story. If the debtor still does not pay up, the next step is enforcement proceedings.

There are different options for enforcing your court judgment and each will have its own process. Most will end up enforcing by writ of seizure and sale.

Instead of Debt Recovery, If Someone Owes You Money Can You Go to the Police?

Unfortunately, you cant go to the police if someone owes you money. Personal loan cases are treated as civil cases instead of criminal cases, so the police will not be able to assist you. You will have to go through the debt recovery process mentioned above instead.



It should be obvious by now that debt recovery is not an easy process. To avoid being in such situations, businesses can make use of commercial measures such as upfront payment, bank and personal guarantees, credit limitation, etc. That way, the risk of incurring bad debts is mitigated.

The post Debt Recovery in Singapore appeared first on SingaporeLegalAdvice.com.What Does Indonesia

The Indonesian Embassy has recently announced that it has implemented a S$6,000 insurance bond on employers of new Indonesian foreign domestic workers (FDW). While the necessity of this bond is currently disputed by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in Singapore, the Indonesian Embassy believes it is a justifiable move to protect their domestic worker population. However, is the bond really necessary in Singapore? And who stands to gain from it the most? Below, we examine the new performance bond's terms and conditions as well as how it will affect FDW employers.

Reason for Implementation

Performance bonds for FDW employers are nothing newin addition to the S$5,000 bond required by the MOM, the Philippines government has required one as well since 1996. These bonds are put in place to protect domestic workers from poor living and working conditions as well as discourage mistreatment by their employers. Indonesia's decision to implement their own performance bond comes mainly due to the 1,579 migrant worker cases that were handled in 2017, which included complaints of sexual, physical and emotional abuse.

What Employers Should Expect

Indonesia's performance bond operates very similarly to the current MOM and Filipino performance bonds. For instance, you can risk breaching the bond if you fail to give your worker 4 days off per month, don't provide 3 meals a day, refuse to cover her medical fees (which should be covered by your maid insurance), pay her below minimum wage and subject her to life-threatening work. With a few small exceptions around religious practices, these regulations are pretty identical to MOM's own policies. In most cases, this means that you will only breach the Indonesian bond if you do something that breaches the MOM's bond.

How Does This Affect You Financially?

Currently, you can only purchase a guarantee for the Indonesian bond from two insurers: AIG and Liberty Insurance. Both insurers sell the bond guarantee for S$70, releasing you from the responsibility of making a S$6,000 cash deposit to the Indonesian Embassy. Compared to the Filipino bond guarantee, which is offered by most insurers the market, this price is almost twice as expensive as the typical S$2,000 Filipino bond guarantee when you hire through an agency but similar to the average price for the S$7,000 Filipino bond guarantee required for direct hires.

Story continues

Besides the high cost of the new bond being imposed by the Indonesian embassy, there are other factors that are making some FDW employers worried. The main one is a clause in the insurer's terms and conditions that states that any demand or request by the Indonesian Embassy to collect the bond will be sufficient evidence for the insurer to make the paymentregardless of whether there is proof and without giving any prior notice to the employer. Theoretically, this means that you may not be able to dispute the claim and risk losing S$6,000 even if you're not at fault. If you refuse to pay the S$6,000, you will be subject to an 8% annual interest until you pay it or the insurer can take legal action against you. For this reason, the MOM recommends that you have the funds available should you choose to hire an Indonesian domestic worker.

However, the Indonesian Embassy has recently provided some clarification regarding its new policy. This included guidelines to what would constitute a bond breach and the possibility for a mediation attempt between the employer and the employee. The embassy also mentioned that the performance bond will only be collected as a last resort if mediation attempts fail or the employer refuses to cooperate. If this is the case, then employers may be less at risk for unsubstantiated claims against them.

What Current and Future Employers of Indonesian FDWs Should Do

Thus far, the Indonesian bond is required only by the Indonesian embassy and not by the Singapore government. Therefore, your FDW will still be able to work in Singapore without the new bond, provided she holds a valid work permit. For renewals or new hires, the Indonesian embassy may ask you to sign a new employment contract and purchase the performance bond. However, it is important to know that the MOM will not penalise you for not proactively seeking to purchase the bond unless you are reached out to directly either by the Indonesian Embassy or your domestic worker's employment agency.

Frequency of Bond Breaches

The majority of domestic worker employers will not experience a bond breach. In fact, the probability of a bond breach is less than 1% in a given year. On the other hand, destructive domestic worker and employer relationships still occur more frequently than anyone would like, so it would make sense that foreign governments would want to protect their workforce. While the possibility of a bond breach is small, you should still take extra precautions to make sure you are not doing anything that can go against your Indonesian worker's contract. Doing so will help you reduce the chances of breaching the bond on the currently ambiguous termsat least until further clarification is provided.

The article What Does Indonesia's New S$6,000 Performance Bond Mean for FDW Employers in Singapore? originally appeared on ValuePenguin.

ValuePenguin helps you find the most relevant information to optimise your personal finances. Like us on our Facebook page to keep up to date with our latest news and articles.

More From ValuePenguin:A 104-year-old Australian scientist on Thursday committed assisted suicide in Switzerland where he went to die after his home country denied him the right to seek help in taking his own life. David Goodall did not have a terminal illness but said his quality of life had deteriorated significantly and that he wanted to end it. Goodall "died peacefully" in Basel, tweeted Philip Nitschke, founder of Exit International, the organisation which helped Goodall make the journey from Australia. The death occurred at 1030 GMT from an infusion of Nembutal, a barbiturate, at the Life Cycle clinic, he said. The honorary research associate at Perth's Edith Cowan University set off from Australia a week ago, and stopped in Bordeaux, France to see family before arriving in Basel on Monday. "I no longer want to continue life," Goodall told journalists on Wednesday. - Happy to end it - "I am happy to have the chance tomorrow to end it, and I appreciate the help of the medical profession here in making that possible," he said. The 104-year-old said he hoped the widespread interest in his case would spur Australia and other countries to rethink their legislation. "I would have preferred to have (ended) it in Australia, and I greatly regret that Australia is behind Switzerland" when it comes to right-to-die laws, he said. Goodall secured a fast-track appointment with the foundation in Basel after he attempted but failed to commit suicide on his own earlier this year. "It would have been much more convenient for everyone if I had been able to, but unfortunately it failed," he said of the suicide attempt. But he said he was happy that he had been offered the "Swiss option", since he has been able to see most of his large family, which is spread over several countries, in the run-up to his final day. Assisted suicide is illegal in most countries and was banned in Australia until the state of Victoria became the first to legalise the practice last year. But that legislation, which takes effect in June 2019, only applies to terminally ill patients of sound mind and a life expectancy of less than six months. - Beethoven and cheesecake - According to Swiss law meanwhile, anyone who is of sound mind and who has over a period of time voiced a consistent wish to end their life can request so-called assisted voluntary death, or AVD. Asked on Wednesday if he had any hesitations or doubts, the 104-year-old said: "No. None whatsoever." In assisted dying, the person must be physically capable of carrying out the final deed on their own. In Goodall's case that meant he had himself to open the valve that allowed the short-acting barbiturate to mix with a saline solution and flow into his vein. Exit International said in a statement Thursday that Goodall wanted the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony played during the procedure and that "David died at the moment the song (sung in German) concluded". Goodall had a final meal with his family -- his favourite, fish and chips followed by cheesecake -- and his grandchildren and a friend stayed with him until his death. Nitschke said Goodall had asked for his body to be used for medical research or, if that request was refused, for it to be cremated and the ashes dispersed locally. He wanted no ceremony after his death.Oil prices reached fresh 3.5-year highs on Thursday, before profit taking took hold, amid expectations that US President Donald Trump's decision to tear up the Iran nuclear deal will lead to tighter crude supplies. The president's announcement earlier this week over Iran, a major producer of crude oil, has helped light a fire under the commodity, with both main oil futures contracts striking highs not seen since the end of November 2014 and speculation rampant they could go even higher. "In the aftermath of Donald Trump's announcement on the Iran nuclear deal, oil has continued to rally on Thursday although the gains the are being made are now slowing," noted Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda trading group, before investors began to take their profits. "While it remains unclear what impact the sanctions -- which are not backed by the other countries that signed up to the initial agreement -- will have on output, the moves we've so far seen suggest there is a belief it will be significant." Trump's decision Tuesday meanwhile came as data shows US stockpiles are dwindling, major producer Venezuela is wracked by economic upheaval, and OPEC and Russia press on with an output cap. Meanwhile, Israel conducted widespread strikes overnight against Iranian targets in Syrian territory, their largest military action yet against their regional foe and a dramatic escalation along the tenuous border with Syria. "If the tension in the Middle East does not subside, oil prices are likely to push higher in the short-term," said analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald. - Rate expectations drive stocks - On other markets Thursday, the British pound slid after the Bank of England (BoE) held its key interest rate at 0.50 percent and slashed the growth forecast for the British economy less than one year before Brexit. "The pound has suffered steep losses once again against the dollar and other major counterparts on Thursday after the Bank of England kept interest rates unchanged as expected," said FXTM research analyst Lukman Otunuga. The BoE now sees the British economy growing by 1.4 percent this year, compared to an earlier forecast of 1.8 percent growth, and inflation to fall more quickly. Otunuga said this provides "less reason to believe that the BoE will be in a hurry to raise UK interest rates", expectations of which had been supporting the value of the pound. European and US stocks pushed higher. "US stocks are adding to yesterday's solid advance in early action, with consumer price inflation coming in cooler than expected, while trade and geopolitical concerns remain relatively in check," said analysts at Charles Schwab brokerage. US consumer prices rose by 0.2 percent in March, while analysts had been expecting a stronger gain of 0.3 percent. Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare, noted that stocks rose following the data, which "helped temper concerns about the potential for the Fed to be more aggressive than expected." The figures were the latest to illustrate that inflation has not so far leapfrogged to levels that would prompt the Fed to lift interest rates more swiftly than the current pace. Higher interest rates would increase costs for businesses and may tempt investors to switch their money to government bonds. - Key figures around 1530 GMT - Oil - Brent North Sea: DOWN 13 cents at $77.08 per barrel Oil - West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 11 cents at $71.03 New York - Dow: UP 0.7 percent at 24,711.66 points London - FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 7,700.97 (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.6 percent at 13,022.87 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.2 percent at 5,545.95 (close) EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.02 percent at 3,569.11 Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.4 percent at 22,497.18 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 0.9 percent at 30,809.22 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 3,174.41 (close) Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1894 from $1.1848 at 2100 GMT Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3538 from $1.3545 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 109.56 yen from 109.72 yen burs-rl/jhThe Wisdom of Jihad was on sale at Mustafa Shopping Centre and Things that nullify ones Islaam was on sale in a bookstore at Golden Landmark Shopping Complex (PHOTO: Suhaile Md/Yahoo News Singapore)

UPDATE ON 11 MAY: In response to queries from Yahoo News Singapore, an IMDA spokesperson said that it will review the books in question. IMDA steps in when there are public feedback or complaints, or when importers refer publications to IMDA for advice, added the spokesperson.

IMDA did not respond toYahoo News Singapores query on whether any member of the public had given feedback about the books to IMDA.

A father need not worry about martyrdom in the battlefield as God will provide for his children. Muslims cannot praise non-Muslims even if they are trustworthy or interact with people in a good way.

These are just some of the claims set out in books found on the shelves of a well-known religious bookstore and a popular shopping centre in Singapore.

Religious scholars and teachers spoken to by Yahoo News Singapore were particularly concerned by The Wisdom Of Jihad, found at Mustafa Centre in Little India, and Things That Nullify Ones Islam, which was being sold by a religious bookstore at Golden Landmark Shopping Complex.

The asatizah (Islamic scholars and teachers) said that such English-language books, originating from Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, are ill-suited for Singapores multi-racial and multi-religious context.

If allowed to take root, the ideas found in such texts will inevitably affect inter-religious relations in Singapore, added Dr Mohamed Ali of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).

Jihad, an Arabic term for striving, can refer to both physical and spiritual struggles. However, The Wisdom Of Jihad, written by Abuhuraira Abdurrahman and published by Perniagaan Jahabersa in Johor Baru in 2000, deals specifically with armed jihad.

Such a book should not be made available to the public, said religious teacher Zahid Zin, chief executive officer of the Muslim Youth Forum in Singapore. He added that the 7th-century battles referred to in the book must be seen in the context of that age and cannot be applied today, particularly in Singapore where a Muslims right to live and practise Islam is protected.

Story continues

The jihad for Muslims in Singapore focuses on dealing with a disruptive economy, education, and income inequality among other issues, said the 34 year-old, who is a board member of the Islamic Scholars and Religious Teachers Association (Pergas).

A spokesperson from the Management Office of Mustafa Centre declined to comment on how the books came to be sold on their shelves.

Extremist viewpoints

Meanwhile, Things That Nullify Ones Islam, published by T.R.O.I.D Publications in Canada in 2013, focuses on the work of 18th-century theologian Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab from central Arabia.

It also includes commentaries by Dr Saalih al-Fowzaan from Saudi Arabia. One of Saalihs books was banned by the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) last October.

Religious teacher Ashraf Anwar felt that Things That Nullify Ones Islam, is of greater concern because of the way it has presented verses from the Quran. For example, while Quranic verses in the Arabic language were accurately printed in the book, the English interpretations of these verses were questionable.

For example, a passage in the book states that it is obligatory to have animosity for the disbelievers and hate them even if they are the closest relatives of a Muslim.

But the Quranic verse that the passage referenced has no mention of hate or animosity, said Ashraf, who teaches Arabic language and Islamic studies at Simply Islam, a private Islamic education centre in Singapore.

Ashraf noted that he uses the same verse to teach his students that faith is personal and should not be imposed on others. He added that interpretations in the book are biased and de-contextualised and may mislead the average local Muslim who may not speak Arabic.

An exclusivist mindset may lead to extremism, added Dr Mohamed Ali, a counsellor with the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG) that works on rehabilitating Muslim extremists.

The long-term solution is for Muslims to continually learn to have a critical and discerning mindset said Mohamed. Muslims should also refer to Islamic scholars for a contextualised understanding of their faith.

The Islamic learning tradition relies on face-to-face interaction with a teacher, he added.

The owner of the religious bookstore in Golden Landmark Shopping Complex where the book was found on sale did not respond to repeated calls and requests for an interview.

Singapores publishing industry is mostly self-regulated with guidelines set by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). Importers, publishers, and retailers of books dealing with religion must ensure that their content does not promote violence, or incite inter-religious or inter-racial tensions.

Last October, four books on Islam were banned by MCI for promoting inter-religious hostility. Three months before that, nine books by Singaporean Rasul Dahri were also banned for containing extremist views.

Yahoo News Singapore has sent queries to the IMDA with regard to The Wisdom Of Jihad and Things That Nullify Ones Islam.Mahathir Mohamad, center, speaks to the media at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Wednesday, May 9, 2018. Official results from Malaysias national election show the opposition alliance led by the countrys former authoritarian ruler Mahathir Mohamad has won a majority in parliament, ending the 60-year rule of the National Front. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Ong)

By Marc Lourdes

Malaysia won its independence yesterday.

Unlike what happened on 31 August, 1957, we were not freed from the shackles of our colonial masters. No, this was an independence of the mind, the soul and the spirit.

For decades, Malaysians had been slaves to the idea that they needed a representative of their own race in order to ensure they would be taken care of.

For decades, Malaysians were told that the communal status quo could only be maintained by the social pact that underpinned the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) governments coalition  a coalition made up of parties representing the major races in the country.

For decades, Malaysians were made to feel that an abysmal government  one where leaders lived to excess while people suffered, one where corruption and kleptocracy was the norm  was the price to pay for peace, harmony and a middling kind of success.

On 9 May, that changed. Malaysia took a good, hard look at its leaders and decided it had finally had enough.

They decided, for the first time in the countrys history, to take a gamble on a future without BN and give somebody else a mandate instead.

A change of government during elections is a process thats routine in any modern democracy. For Malaysia, its the political equivalent of a hurricane or tsunami  brutal, shocking and something the country is completely unprepared for.

Mahathir Mohamad, center, celebrates at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Wednesday, May 9, 2018. Official results from Malaysias national election show the opposition alliance led by the countrys former authoritarian ruler Mahathir Mohamad has won a majority in parliament, ending the 60-year rule of the National Front. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

But the best thing about the result of this election is that the people have sent a message through the ballot boxes  to themselves and to those who would be their leaders.

To themselves, the message is simple: We are in charge. We are in control. Politicians are there to serve us, and to serve at our pleasure  not the other way round. We have finally taken back the power we have abrogated for far too long.

And to politicians, its a warning: Dont f*** with us anymore. Use and abuse us again, and we will slap you. Hard. We have overcome our fear of change and of the unknown. It is now time you feared us.

Story continues

In this, there is a lesson as well as a caution to the outgoing and incoming governments. It is probably too late for outgoing Prime Minister Najib Razak now, but for his people  whats left of them at least  its a lesson to never take power for granted. The coming weeks, months and years should be a time of soul searching for BN, for them to devote themselves to serving the people of Malaysia even if they are out of office.

Time doesnt heal all wounds, but it can certainly cure a good many of them. BN could well find themselves in the sunshine again one day and regain some of the love and the trust Malaysians used to have for them  but they need to be honest enough to ask themselves some tough questions and rediscover their integrity before they can think of asking Malaysians to vote for them again.

Mahathir Mohamad is a perfect example of a wound healed by time. In this new wave of adulation, lets not forget this is the man at whose feet we can lay the blame for much of Malaysias current problems. He may try to deny it, offer half-hearted apologies or blame others, but the reality is that the excesses of Najibs leadership would not have been possible had it not been for Mahathirs slow erosion of Malaysia as a functioning democracy in over 22 years as premier.

Malaysia has forgiven him all this in its desperation to find an alternative to Najib. It is perhaps the greatest irony of this election that this country has decided to look to its insalubrious past to secure a better future.

And this is the caution for Mahathir and his newly-minted government: Malaysia will not be holding you to the same standards as Najib and his ilk. It will hold you to higher ones. Malaysia is counting on you and is trusting you to fulfil your pledges and promises. Betray that trust at your own peril.

Marc Lourdes is the former Asia head of CNN Digital, and the previous editor-in-chief of Yahoo Malaysia and Singapore. The views expressed are solely his own. Follow him on Twitter at @marclourdes

Related stories

Malaysian leader Mahathir wont be sworn in as Prime Minister on Thursday

Singapore looks forward to working with new Malaysian government: PM Lee Hsien Loong(FILE PHOTO) President Rodrigo Duterte

MANILA, Philippines  After Wanda Teo, President Rodrigo Duterte hinted that another government official would be removed from office due to reports of corruption.

Speaking before an audience in Malacanang on Wednesday at the presentation of new generation currency banknotes and coins by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the President said that after Teos resignation, theres another one coming up.

Since the President took office, a number of public officials have been sacked from their positions. Some of those he fired due mostly to junketeering and diversion of public funds were, named publicly.

You know if you go to other places to attend important meetings that would  may affect the country, I would appreciate itPero kung climate change dito sa Brussels, then climate change sa Tokyo, climate change dito sa IndonesiaYou have spent millions for that and I do not see any improvement, Duterte said.

Nevertheless, the President said it saddens him that the people who urged him to run for presidency are the first ones to be dismissed.

But you know if youd notice, karamihan noong nawala sa akin (most of those who were fired) are really the very first person who  Im very sad that they are the very first to go, he said.  Rosalie Coz | UNTV News & Rescue

The post Duterte hints at firing another govt official over corruption appeared first on UNTV News.As Octopus challenges WeChat Pay and Alipay, will the battle for Hong Kong taxis break new ground in a cash-reliant trade?

Hong Kongs taxi drivers have often been accused of refusing to move with the times and embrace electronic payments as an alternative to cash.

But from the end of last year, mainland e-payment operators WeChat Pay and Alipay began to crack the market, with QR code-based payments that have proved successful in mainland China. The battle for market supremacy hotted up when Hong Kongs Octopus  makers of the citys near-ubiquitous stored-value travel card  started using QR codes too, hoping to win over cabbies attracted by the cards popularity.

How can you pay Hong Kong taxi fares?

Until the end of last year, the only way to pay taxi fares in Hong Kong was cash, unless you used a taxi-hailing app and the driver was signed up to it. But things are changing. Now WeChat Pay, Alipay and Octopus are all vying to sign up as many local cabbies as they can. And taxi-hailing mobile apps such as HK Taxi, Didi Hong Kong and SynCab let passengers pay by credit card.

How receptive are local taxi drivers to these e-payment methods?

Not very. Passengers still mostly have to reach for their wallets instead of smartphones to settle cab fares. More than 1,000 taxis had signed up for WeChat Pay HK by December while more than 1,500 had chosen Alipay, according to the two companies. Earlier this month Octopus said more than 1,000 drivers had signed up to its app. But even taken together, those figures are a fraction of the citys 18,163 taxis.

Alipay is a unit of Ant Financial Services Group, an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the South China Morning Post.

Why are Hong Kong cabbies reluctant to accept e-payments?

Firstly, the citys ageing taxi drivers are not as tech-savvy as their passengers. The average age of Hong Kongs registered taxi drivers is 58, according to Taxi 2020, a blueprint report published by the Legislative Council last year. Long working hours and low wages have failed to attract young drivers to join the industry, which is consequently shrinking, the report said.

Story continues

Hong Kong cabbies earn about HK$10,000 (US$1,300) to HK$15,000 per month for working 10 hours per day six days per week, said Gung Cheuk-leung, a Hong Kong Island taxi driver. He had not set up any e-payment options because he did not know how to.

And the electronic payment record is of concern to many drivers, who work while claiming government welfare payments intended for people whose income does not cover their outgoings. Records of a higher-than-declared income could mean an end of their payments. One New Territories taxi driver, who preferred not to be named, said he was worried that the records would affect his eligibility.

Taxi drivers need to pay monthly or daily rent to the licence plate owner. A Hong Kong Island taxi plate can cost HK$500 or more per day, one taxi plate company said.

Which e-payment options are the most convenient and inconvenient for drivers and passengers?

Mobile taxi-hailing apps HK Taxi, SynCab and Didi HK all allow credit card payments. Users pay by hitting a button on their phone before getting out of the car.

Passengers who hail taxis on the street can scan a QR code more easily than taking out an Octopus card and tapping it on the drivers phone. Battling that relative inconvenience was one of the reasons Octopus added QR codes to its system earlier this year.

This article As Octopus challenges WeChat Pay and Alipay, will the battle for Hong Kong taxis break new ground in a cash-reliant trade? first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.Attendees at the 2014 Pink Dot rally. (Reuters file photo)

The We are against Pinkdot in Singapore (WAAPD) Facebook group that was briefly taken down by the social media platforms administrators on Wednesday (9 May) has been reinstated.

Roy Tan, 60, a retired healthcare practitioner, had uploaded a screenshot of Facebooks response, sent to him by a friend, at around 5pm on Wednesday.

In Tans post, Facebook said that WAAPD had violated the platforms community standards and was subsequently removed. Weve let WAAPD know that their group has been removed, but not who reported it, the statement added.

Tan, who himself reported the group for displaying hate speech around two years ago, told Yahoo News Singapore that the recipient of the response had made a similar report recently.

The public group was observed to be reinstated less than a day later, with Facebook issuing an apology for having erroneously removed it.

At around 1.20am on Thursday, WAAPD moderator and administrator Azman Ivan Tan posted a screenshot of a warning issued by Facebook, in which the company said it had removed the group in error.

We are sorry for the error, and have restored your group, said the statement.

Along with the screenshot, Azman called for the WAAPD group, consisting of over 6,700 members, to follow rules and be civil.

Please check your postings and be nice. Discuss (based) on facts and not emotions, he added. Let this be a lesson/reminder that we need to be the bigger ones. Be the nicer ones.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed with Yahoo News Singapore on Thursday that the WAAPD group had been removed erroneously. The spokesperson declined to reveal when the group was removed and reinstated.

There was content in the group which violated our policies, which we have removed, but we should not have removed the group in its entirety, said the spokesperson, who also declined to reveal the number of reports made against the group since its creation about five years ago.

(PHOTO: Facebook / Azman Ivan Tan, We are Against Pinkdot in Singapore)

According to Facebooks website, its policies on community standards include the removal of content or groups that promote violence and criminal behaviour, objectionable content  such as hate speech  as well as violate someone elses intellectual property rights.

Story continues

The consequences of breaching these policies may vary depending on the severity of the breach and a person or groups history on Facebook.

The WAAPD describes itself as a public policy discussion platform on the Pink Dot movement in Singapore that stands against the normalisation of homosexuality within Singaporean society.

Pink Dot Singapore is a non-profit movement that organises an annual rally, of the same name, held in support of Singapores lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The event has been held since 2009 and will mark its 10th edition this July.

Last year, WAAPD attracted public attention for criticising and making police reports against the Cathay Organisation for putting up an advertisement at the Cathay Cineleisure mall promoting the Pink Dot rally.

The organisation was subsequently requested by the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore to remove a phrase in the advertisement that read, Supporting the freedom to love.

Yahoo News Singapore has reached out to Azman Ivan Tan for comments.

More Singapore stories:

Acting on faith: LGBT Muslims and Christians in Singapore forming their own spaces

Over $70,000 raised for family of commercial diver who died on the job

COMMENT: The winds of change hit Malaysia  and it turned out to be a hurricaneGulf Arab countries were on Wednesday bracing for the economic and security fallout after President Donald Trump announced the United States was exiting the Iran nuclear deal. Three countries led by Saudi Arabia immediately backed Trump while Qatar reacted cautiously. Oman and Kuwait also gave circumspect positions. Trump dealt a hammer blow to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Tuesday, removing key sanctions relief for Tehran and casting its future into doubt. "We will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction," Trump said, warning that any nation could suffer American economic wrath for aiding the Islamic republic. Oil prices rose after Trump's announcement, prompting Saudi Arabia to pledge it would work to prevent supply shortages. While Gulf petro-states stand to benefit from a rise in prices, the US move could mean new fissures in the region. Saudi Arabia applauded Trump's announcement, but said it would seek to develop its own nuclear weapons if Iran does. Asked whether Riyadh would "build a bomb itself" if Tehran seizes on the US move, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNN: "If Iran acquires nuclear capability we will do everything we can to do the same." In remarks an hour before Trump's declaration, senior Kuwaiti diplomat Khaled al-Jarallah said his country stood by the JCPOA as the best option for "stability" in the region. Qatar, alienated by a Saudi-led boycott, said priority must be given to non-proliferation and preventing a nuclear arms race. "All parties have an interest to act with restraint and wisdom in the face of this situation and to try to resolve conflicts through dialogue," its foreign ministry said. Dubai, whose volume of trade of trade with Iran is in the billions of dollars, saw its stock market dip a noteworthy two percent. Oman, the back-channel for US-Iran talks that paved the way for the 2015 accord, said Wednesday "the option of confrontation is not in the interest of any party". - US clout in doubt - Anxious Gulf states will be closely monitoring the Russian, Chinese and European response to the US financial gauntlet in the coming weeks and months. Middle East analyst James Dorsey, a senior fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said any economic showdown will force Gulf states to weigh their responses. Saudi Arabia, whose heir to the throne Mohammed bin Salman is seeking foreign investment for his "Vision 2030" programme of reforms for a post-oil era, may not put all his eggs in Trump's basket. Washington's allies may find formulas to avoid sanctions exposure. Oman has plans in the works for a sea pipeline that will import Iranian natural gas. "The deal has been structured in a way that it is shielded from any potential liability or prosecution under the American sanctions," said an Omani analyst, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject. The analyst told AFP the sultanate has drawn up contingency plans for various scenarios, even an economic boycott by hawkish Gulf neighbours. He said the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have recently imposed barriers on movement of people and goods "on and off". While Muscat is sceptical its neighbours would resort to a total embargo, "everything is possible". Should new cracks emerge in the region, ambitious economies, namely China, could seek zones of influence. The concern, the analyst said, is the Gulf becoming "the new playground for a revived Cold War". - Going nuclear - The other looming debacle is whether a US pullout from the Iran deal could trigger a nuclear arms race. Trump said his decision to leave the JCPOA was designed to counter that possibility. "If I allowed this deal to stand, there would soon be a nuclear arms race in the Middle East," he said. But minutes after he spoke, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran could resume uranium enrichment "without limit" if its interests are not assured by the remaining signatories. "Whether or not (the Iranians) go for a military programme, you're going to get a nuclear race in the Middle East," said Dorsey. In March, Saudi Arabia's crown prince said if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, the kingdom would be compelled to follow suit. Trump said Tuesday said he was ready to work on a new nuclear accord, one that would also curb Iran's missile programme. Saudi Arabia's air defences intercepted two ballistic missiles over Riyadh on Wednesday, state media said, the latest in a series of attacks claimed by Iran-allied rebels in neighbouring Yemen. Riyadh has long accused its regional archfoe Tehran of supplying Yemen's rebels with ballistic missiles, a charge Tehran denies. Analyst Dorsey believes Iran will not compromise on its ballistic missile programme "because that is the core of their defence policy". For Saudi Arabia, that is "fine" because it means the return of sanctions and ratcheting up pressure on Iran in the region, including by Israel. "It's about Iran," said Dorsey, "not about finding a solution."The first defendant to take the witness box in Hong Kongs body-in-cement murder trial told the court on Thursday no one believed in an international crime group offering a bounty of US$20 million to kill the victim.

Tsang Cheung-yan told the High Court the group, which had an imaginary hit list including the Pope, then US president Barack Obama and other world leaders as well as the victim and Tsang himself, was just a fantasy crafted with friends to discuss crimes they would not dare to carry out.

No one thought it was true, Tsang, 28, said.

He also said he and another defendant had once decided to turn themselves in after fleeing to Taiwan, but were arrested before they had the chance.

Tsang, along with Keith Lau, 23, and Cheung Sin-hang, 26, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Cheung Man-li  known as Ah J  in their Tsuen Wan flat on March 4, 2016.

They pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful burial of a body.

Prosecutors earlier claimed someone attacked 28-year-old Ah J in Flat 9D of the DAN6 industrial building with chloroform, before Tsang injected him with alcohol. They then put the body in a home-made concrete coffin.

In a recorded interview with police played for jurors earlier in the trial, Cheung Sin-hang said Tsang belonged to a group named There that placed a US$20 million price tag on the victim, which motivated the trio to murder him, the prosecutors said.

There was also a delete record list, on which each person was given a price tag.

But Tsang said the group was originally called T.here, meaning that T, Tsangs nickname, was here.

Tsang said the group was meant to be a joke, adding he also put a price tag on himself.

He said the price associated with Ah J was a reflection of his personal worth and financial status.

Story continues

Tsang accused Lau of floating the idea of robbing Ah J days before his death. The plan, he said, involved knocking Ah J out and taking his money. But Lau never said he would kill anyone, nor did he expect anyone would die.

He initially followed Laus suggestion and even went to Kwun Tong Promenade to scout for a site. He gave up on the plan after seeing several surveillance cameras.

Yet he admitted buying chloroform on the morning of March 4, prompting a question from the judge.

I dont understand. You disagreed [with the plan] but you were the one who bought things  for the robbery? Mr Justice Patrick Li Hon-leung said.

Tsang replied he was the one with the money and when Li asked whether he could have lent it to the others, Tsang said: Its my habit not to give my money to other people.

He also said Lau forced him to inject Ah J with a type of alcohol called 151, which contains more than 70 per cent alcohol by volume.

Tsang then told the court how Lau began to look crazy.

From the look in his eyes, it seemed he was asking me to do something so  I just followed what he wanted me to do, Tsang said.

After Ah Js death, the three then fled to Taiwan. On April 10, while Lau was out celebrating his birthday, Tsang said he and Cheung decided to surrender themselves to the Taiwanese authorities, but they were arrested before they had a chance.

Laus defence counsel, Keith Oderberg, challenged Tsang, saying that as the oldest of the three defendants, he was the one who enjoyed manipulating people.

Tsang said that wasnt true, but admitted he liked having people dependent on him.

He agreed when Oderberg suggested he would be open to being dishonest in the pursuit of making money.

The court also heard the trio and a fourth flatmate once searched videos about hiding dead bodies, mutilating them and draining their blood. But Tsang said that was part of the fantasy.

Tsang was expected to continue his testimony on Friday.

This article International crime group offering US$20 million to kill Hong Kong man was fantasy, body-in-cement murder 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.Ninety-two-year-old Mahathir Mohamad was Thursday sworn in as the world's oldest elected leader after a stunning election win that swept Malaysia's establishment from power after more than six decades. In a huge political upset, former strongman Mahathir's opposition alliance broke the grip on power of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which had governed Malaysia uninterrupted since its birth as an independent country in 1957. It capped a dramatic comeback for Mahathir, who previously ruled the country at the head of BN for 22 years and came out of retirement to take on his ex-protege, Prime Minister Najib Razak, after the leader became embroiled in a massive corruption scandal. In a ceremony at the national palace steeped in centuries-old Muslim Malay tradition, Mahathir was officially sworn in as prime minister by King Sultan Muhammad V. Mahathir, wearing traditional Malay dress, took the oath of office in an elaborately decorated room, with political allies and senior government officials in attendance. As he was inaugurated, hundreds of revellers outside the palace cheered and sang the national anthem, with some breaking down in tears. Fireworks lit up the night sky across Kuala Lumpur. "We feel so united tonight," 24-year-old student Abdul Aziz Hamzah, who was among the crowd, told AFP. "Mahathir is so insightful and experienced because he's been here before." One of the most remarkable aspects of Mahathir's comeback has been his reconciliation with jailed opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim, his former nemesis. Their relationship has loomed large over the Malaysian political landscape for decades. Anwar was Mahathir's heir-apparent until the premier sacked him in 1998 over political differences, and he was subsequently jailed on charges of sodomy and abuse of power. Anwar was jailed again during Najib's rule but is due out in June -- and Mahathir has pledged to help him get a royal pardon, allowing him to run for political office again and potentially become prime minister. - 'Heads must fall' - The opposition faced an uphill battle at the election due to what critics said were no-holds-barred attempts by Najib to hang on to power. His government was accused of gerrymandering while activists said he hurled cash and gifts at voters and there was a litany of problems with the electoral roll, including dead people appearing on the list. Najib called the vote mid-week, in what critics said was an effort to keep turnout down -- elections are normally held at a weekend in Malaysia. But in the end voters flocked to the polls in droves in a determined bid to push him out. Najib had initially refused to offer a clear concession. But after Mahathir was sworn in, he congratulated him on Twitter and said he was "willing to assist a smooth transfer of power". At a press conference after being sworn in, Mahathir said the government's main focus would be on the economy. A major concern for Malaysians in recent times has been the soaring cost of living. He said his administration would abolish laws that are "oppressive", and that widely-condemned legislation outlawing "fake news" would be examined. The new government would look into clawing back money allegedly looted from sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, he said. Billions of dollars were allegedly stolen from the investment vehicle that was set up and overseen by Najib, in a massive scandal that battered Malaysia's international image. Both Najib and 1MDB deny any wrongdoing. Mahathir has previously vowed that Najib will face justice over the controversy. He also said that "certain heads must fall" in government departments. "We found that some people were aiding and abetting a prime minister which the world condemns as a kleptocrat," he said. Initial delight felt by many at the opposition victory will likely give way to some apprehension. Mahathir was also accused of being an authoritarian leader, and political opponents were thrown in jail during his time in office. But for the opposition, he proved to be the perfect standard-bearer to take on Najib. He is a staunch supporter of the country's Muslim Malays who could appeal to the country's biggest ethnic group, and whose years in power were remembered as a prosperous period in the country's history.Manilas top envoy to Beijing hails landmark deal opening up China to influx of 500,000 migrant workers  but Hong Kong may pay the price

A top-level Philippine envoy to Beijing on Wednesday revealed that the two countries were close to a deal which would see the number of Filipino migrants employed in China swell to 500,000  more than double the estimated current total.

The landmark agreement would grant legal employment status to 300,000 Philippine nationals and was expected to be signed by the end of this year, William J Lima, Manilas special envoy to China, said.

Relations between the Philippines and China are particularly good at the moment and I expect this deal can be concluded before the end of this year, Lima said on the sidelines of a forum in Hong Kong.

The special envoy, appointed by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to deal with Beijing on a range of key economic and trade issues, estimated that around 200,000 Filipinos were working illegally in China, most of them domestic workers.

With the 300,000 we expect to be permitted to work legally in mainland China under the deal, added to the 200,000 black market workers we estimate are already working there, that would make the total number close to half a million, he said.

He did not make it clear if the deal to create 300,000 legally permitted positions related only to domestic workers, or to other types of employment too. The Gulf News quoted the Philippine Secretary of Labour and Employment Silvestre Bello as saying last month that the Chinese authorities wanted Filipino cooks, carers, domestic workers, musicians and nurses to work in China.

The special envoy also did not say if the unauthorised Filipino workers in China would be granted amnesty, though the concern group Asian Migrants Coordinating Body suggested separately this should be done.

Lima added that there were still some small issues to be ironed out, for example the differences in employment-related health service provisions available in China and the Philippines.

Story continues

For instance, China offers a range of traditional medicine that Filipino workers might not be used to, he said. This is something we are still talking about.

However, things are going well generally and I expect we can conclude fairly soon.

Last month, senior Chinese and Philippine officials signed a memorandum of understanding on the employment of Filipinos to teach English in China, following a meeting between President Xi Jinping and his counterpart Duterte in Hainan province for the Boao Forum.

Chinas foreign ministry said in a written reply on Wednesday night that both sides have since been working on allowing English teachers from the Philippines to work in China, as was agreed upon in the memorandum. The ministry added that such cooperation would bring concrete benefits to citizens of both countries.

Foreign domestic workers are facing issues in getting fair treatment in Hong Kong, even with a robust legal system

Allan Bell, Hong Kong Domestic Workers Roundtable chairman

The relationship between China and the Philippines is being continuously enhanced. Cooperation on all aspects are being expanded, the ministry stated, though it did not say if China had plans to allow Filipinos to take up other employment apart from teaching jobs.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration was still processing a request for comment on Wednesday night.

While the Hong Kong government has held open the door to maids from the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries for many years, the mainland has had a different policy.

It was only about two years ago that some mainland cities started to allow foreign maids to work.

Eman Villanueva, spokesman for the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, warned that Filipino domestic workers may leave Hong Kong for teaching jobs on the mainland because many of them were teachers in the Philippines before coming to the city.

They could be maths or science teachers in the Philippines, but because the main language in the country is English, they will be capable of becoming English teachers in China, he said.

Gulf News reported that Filipino teachers who work in China would be paid HK$11,800 (US$1,500) a month. The monthly minimum wage for domestic workers in Hong Kong is HK$4,410. Employment agency bosses have said unauthorised maids in the mainland are paid 6,000 to 7,000 yuan (US$940 to US$1,100) a month.

Allan Bell, chairman of the concern group Hong Kong Domestic Workers Roundtable, said Filipinos keen to work on the mainland needed to be careful about bogus contracts where they are promised a teachers job, but end up with another, lower-paid, job.

Foreign domestic workers are facing issues in getting fair treatment in Hong Kong even with a robust legal system and professional law enforcement. The situation in China may be very different, he said.

Will there be a labour tribunal to manage disputes between employees and employers? Will there be a problem with corruption? Language will also be an issue, since English can be used in Hong Kong and translators are made available, what will happen in China?

This article Manilas top envoy to Beijing hails landmark deal opening up China to influx of 500,000 migrant workers  but Hong Kong may pay the price first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.

More from South China Morning Post:French President Emmanuel Macron waves next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as he arrives to receive a Charlemagne Prize in Aachen, Germany May 10, 2018. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

By Michael Nienaber and Richard Lough

BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) - France and Germany on Thursday urged Israel and Iran to exercise restraint and avoid further escalation of hostilities in the Middle East after the heaviest military exchange ever between the two regional adversaries.

Israel said it had attacked nearly all of Iran's military infrastructure in Syria, destroying dozens of sites, after Iranian forces fired rockets at Israeli-held territory for the first time.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the Iranian rocket attacks and Israel's response in Aachen, western Germany, and called for prudence and de-escalation.

"The escalations of the past few hours show us that it is truly about war and peace. And I can only call on all sides to exercise restraint here," Merkel said during a ceremony awarding Macron the Charlemagne Prize for strengthening EU integration.

Expectations of a flare-up in the Middle East were stoked by President Donald Trump's announcement on Tuesday that he was withdrawing the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

The Middle East was becoming very dangerous, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, adding that there was no 'Plan B' in response to Trump's move and that France wanted to keep the accord alive even without Washington on board.

"It is clear that last night's incidents are part of a new context in the Middle East, where what we feared happening is becoming reality: the Syrian and Iranian issues are becoming intertwined," Le Drian told BFM TV.

The Trump administration portrayed its rejection of that agreement as a response, in part, to Tehran's interventions in the Middle East, underpinning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tough line towards Iran.

"LET'S FACE IT"

Merkel told Iran's President Hassan Rouhani in a telephone call on Thursday that she supported maintaining the nuclear accord as long as Tehran upholds its side of the deal. Macron told Rouhani the same a day earlier.

Story continues

Germany, France and Britain want talks to be held in a broader format on Iran's ballistic missile programme and its regional activities - including in Syria and Yemen.

In her speech in Aachen, Merkel urged the European Union to strengthen its foreign and defence policy, arguing that Europe could no longer fully rely on the United States to protect it.

"Let's face it, Europe is still in its infancy with regard to the common foreign policy," she said. "And it will be existentially necessary to make progress here because the nature of conflicts has completely changed since the end of the Cold War."

Pointing to the civil war in Syria, Merkel said that many of the global conflicts today were flaring on the doorstep of Europe.

"And it is no longer the case that the United States of America will simply protect us. Instead, Europe has to take its destiny into its own hands. That is the task for the future."

Macron echoed the call to flesh out Europe's common foreign and defence policy. "We made the choice to build peace in the Middle East. Other powers ... haven't kept their word," Macron said, without naming a country directly.

"We must succeed in building our own sovereignty, which in this region, will be the guarantor of stability," he said.

(Reporting by Reuters TV in Aachen, Michael Nienaber in Berlin, Richard Lough in Paris, writing by Michael Nienaber, Editing by William Maclean and Toby Chopra)KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 (Reuters) - Global ratings agency Moody's said on Thursday that a stunning election upset in Malaysia puts the country into uncharted territory and some of the opposition's campaign promises could be credit negative for its sovereign debt rating unless there are adjustments.

Mahathir Mohamad's opposition alliance secured an unexpected victory in the polls on Wednesday against Najib Razak's Barisan Nasional coalition.

"Some campaign promises, if implemented without any other adjustments, would be credit negative for Malaysias sovereign," Moody's said in a statement.

These include the proposed abolishment of the goods and services tax and the reintroduction of fuel subsidies, the statement said. (Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Kim Coghill)Russian President Vladimir Putin was accused Thursday of returning his country "to the Middle Ages" by the director of a new film at Cannes about the bloody conflict in eastern Ukraine. Sergei Loznitsa -- whose movie "Donbass" focuses on the war there -- also spoke up in support of Palme d'Or contender Kirill Serebrennikov, who missed the premiere of his movie Wednesday because he is under house arrest in Moscow. "Leto" has garnered the most ecstatic reviews of the festival so far, being hailed as a "Russian 'Trainspotting'" by critics. "You can only have sympathy for Serebrennikov, especially given that this situation depends only on the will of one man," Loznitsa told AFP, referring to Putin. "It's as if we've returned to the Middle Ages where one sovereign decides everything," said the director, who comes from a Russian-speaking family in Ukraine. "When I think of Putin, I also think of Shakespeare's Macbeth," Loznitsa said in reference to one of literature's most famous villains, a once-brave warrior who was corrupted by ambition. His hard-hitting film, "Donbass", is set in the brutal conflict between government forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine amid a "post-truth" world dominated by fake news. Loznitsa, a Cannes veteran whose previous film "A Gentle Creature" was in the race for the top Palme d'Or prize last year, said he felt compelled to make the film because of "the world crumbling around him". - 'Decay and disintegration rule' - "My main concern and my main subject is the particular type of human being, which is produced by a society, where aggression, decay and disintegration rule," the director said. "The information war waged by Putin's Russia uses all of the most efficient and modern technical means available to influence attitudes around the world, to hammer home one truth as the truth." Loznitsa is treated as a national treasure in Ukraine after making some two dozen documentaries and films that have brought him international renown. His documentary "Maidan" about Kiev's bloody pro-EU revolution premiered at a special Cannes screening in 2014. At the time, Loznitsa made a point of refusing to speak with the Russian media on the red carpet. The Berlin-based filmmaker said his latest work only saw the light of day because it was made outside of Russia. Serebrennikov's "Leto" -- a biopic of the Soviet-Korean rock legend Viktor Tsoi -- received a standing ovation after its premiere. A seat was left symbolically empty in the cinema for the filmmaker, who has been under house arrest on embezzlement charges since last August.Mahathir scored a shock election win in Malaysia. (Photo: Reuters)

Following Malaysias historic election result, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that Singapore wishes Malaysia all the best in its political development and looks forward to working with the new government.

In a post on Facebook on Thursday morning (10 May), Lee said the outcome represents a major change in Malaysian politics.

Adding that the Singapore government is following the situation closely, Lee said, As Malaysias closest neighbour, we have a vested interest in Malaysias stability and prosperity. While Malaysian politics are for Malaysians to decide, Singapore wishes Malaysia all the best in its political development.

The Singapore government looks forward to developing a constructive relationship with the next Malaysian government, said Lee, without naming anybody in particular.

Mahathir Mohamads Pakatan Harapan coalition won 113 of the parliaments 222 seats, defeating his protege Najib Razaks Barisan Nasional coalition.

Parliament speaker Tan Chuan-Jin called the Malaysian election results stunning, saying that the Singapore government looks forward to working with the new Malaysian government and leaders to strengthen the relationship between both countries.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam described the result as a clear vote for change, saying, [It] was across the board  Malays, Chinese, Indians and even the Dayaks in Sarawak. Wish Malaysia well, and hope we continue to work together for mutual good of our people.

Related:

Veteran Malaysian leader Mahathir scores shock election win

Why BN lost, or how we decided to embrace a 92-year-oldTens of thousands of demonstrators took to Nicaragua's streets Wednesday, rallied by students demanding justice, democracy and the departure of President Daniel Ortega. Throngs of young people, who have rallied on and off in weeks of demonstrations, chanted "They were students; they weren't criminals" -- referring to people killed in the unrest that exploded on April 18. The protests broke out against Ortega in mid-April but their deadliness, the brutality of the repression by security forces and arbitrary arrests, sparked national outrage and fueled protests across the Central American nation. Ortega, a 72-year-old leftist leader who has ruled Nicaragua for the past 11 years, has yet to engage in dialogue, despite increasing pleas from the Roman Catholic Church, which has offered to mediate. Demonstrators chanted "They must go" and waved signs charging that Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, are "thieves" and "murderers." Nicaragua's legislature has created a truth commission to investigate the deaths, but students and rights groups have questioned its impartiality and demanded an outside probe. The latest rally included university students, farmers, small business owners and other people around the country. The wave of anti-Ortega unrest was triggered by an aborted attempt to reform the near-bankrupt social security system, but quickly expanded to include a wave of grievances against the president, including claims of corruption and repression. The protests pose a serious challenge to Ortega's authority, though thus far no figure has emerged to front the anti-government movement.Five arrested after triad gang debt collectors stage ambush on Kowloon Peak and steal two mobile phones and HK$2,500

Four men suspected of being debt collectors for a Hong Kong triad gang stole HK$2,500 (US$318) and two mobile phones in a robbery in the early hours of Thursday on Kowloon Peak  but were arrested soon after when the victim raised the alarm.

A taxi driver was also taken into custody, while two other suspected triad members travelling in a different car got away after police set up a roadblock at the bottom of Fei Ngo Shan.

The victim, a 27-year-old man, who the Post understands owed the triad members money, had been driven to the top of the mountain around midnight from Cheung Sha Wan by the pair in a Mercedes-Benz.

When the victim got out of the car near a pavilion on the Fei Ngo Shan Road hillside, the four suspected debt collectors got out of a taxi that was already parked there and approached him.

The victim then realised it was an ambush and tried to escape, but was stopped by the gang, a police source said. He was punched and robbed of HK$2,500 and two mobile phones in the incident.

After the hold-up, the gang then fled in the two vehicles.

The victim suffered facial abrasions and was taken to United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong for treatment after the attack. He was able to get help from a female passer-by, who called police at 12.07am.

Police first responders set up a roadblock at the bottom of the hill, at the junction of Jats Incline and Ngau Chi Wan Street in Choi Hung.

About 10 minutes later, police intercepted the cab at the roadblock and arrested the driver and his four passengers.

However, the Mercedes stopped at a short distance away from the roadblock and the two men jumped out and fled on foot. Officers scouted the area but no further arrests were made. Police were understood to still be searching for the two gang members.

Story continues

The four suspected debt collectors were understood to be asylum seekers, who police believed were hired by the triad to help collect the debt.

According to the force, the five suspects are being detained at Wong Tai Sin police station for questioning and none of them have been charged.

This article Five arrested after triad gang debt collectors stage ambush on Kowloon Peak and steal two mobile phones and HK$2,500 first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.For a project such as Album, do you begin with a cohesive idea? Or is it a case of collecting tricks and then formulating a concept as you progress?

From the start I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to convey because I have been with the brand for so long and knew what it needed in a video.

The main thing was for it to not feel like a gimmick that will look dated quickly.

I wanted to make something that feels timeless. I mainly tried to establish a filming style to follow early on in the project for myself, and the others involved in shooting, and let the skating be the focus. We put our budget towards travel mainly, and then the music. I think theres a perception that etnies is this massive brand with tons of money but thats just not true.

Sure, the brand has global reach but as with everyone these days in skateboarding, we are all trying to make the most of what we have, so Id rather prioritize that the money be spent on getting good skating at new and unique spots and making good music: those are the most important components of the video. All the decoration in the world wont make a skate video interesting if the action is dull, and new spots for the skaters to get hyped on is essential to that.

Photo: Sam McGuire

I guess with the musical aspect of this one being so crucial to the end product that you had a frame work to base parts around though?

A good skate video boils down to very simple formula of inspiring skating aligned well with good music. Improving the camera work and production value can only take it so far without good skating and good music.

Can you give us a little background on how the score came to be organized please? All the musicians involved in it have serious skateboarding pedigrees and its a very diverse mix  how did you go about orchestrating it?

I thought that by making a soundtrack I could help give the video an identity of its own because you cant immediately place the music to anything else; compared to just using a mix of famous hits that already have a footprint so to speak. I also remember when I got into skating back in the mid 80s there was a sound that was associated with skate culture. Whether it was original soundtrack for old Powell videos, or a Santa Cruz video with bands like fIREHOSE that became synonymous with skate culture, skating had a very identifiable sound back then.

Not that I was aiming to just revive the old 80s sounds  I knew this had to be contemporary  but there was a part of me wanting to return to a by-skateboarders-for-skateboarders-vibe and also pay a little homage to the legacy of those old videos.

A huge influence on this decision was realizing that I actually know a lot of talented musicians who were making music that inspired me. So I decided that all the music was to be from musicians who are from skateboarding culture.

My good friend Noel Paris, who is a really talented musician, artist and skateboarder, happens to have has a sick little recording studio at his place called the Bionic Ear and was down to produce it so thats where most of the tracks were recorded. The only tracks not to come out of Bionic Ear were the tracks by Atiba and one by Solar Sons, my friends band.

I was definitely hyped to see Mike Watt involved, given that Minutemen and fIREHOSE have contributed music to some of the most iconic videos ever  did you get to spend much time with him? Is he aware of how widely both Paranoid Chant and Brave Captain were circulated because of being on those videos?

I was especially hyped that Mike Watt was involved too. I met him a few years ago when I shot the video for Dinosuar Jrs track Over It. His band was also on the tour so we got him to cameo in a couple of scenes, which was fun.

He is so down to earth for someone of such legendary status and was totally down to be involved in this. I interviewed him about this project and asked about old skate videos with his music in them and his responses were so rad.

Totally saw the connection to skate culture back then and saw what skaters did as being real and no bullshit  kinda like his music scene  so he was aware but said he didnt realize till much later the impact it had. He was on tour in Europe with J Mascis and the Fog, and skaters told him they got hyped on his music through watching VHS Santa Cruz skate videos on repeat. It was great to see how much he appreciated the two worlds overlapping and the mutual respect was genuine. When he came into the studio I was especially impressed with the level of care and attention he put in to making it the best he could.

Musicians like John Herndon and Mike Watt are so talented that they could have knocked out a couple of takes and dipped out. We would have probably been super hyped on just that, but when you see them striving to keep improving and perfecting it for the sake of our little skate video I couldnt have been happier. They knew what we put into the video on our end and wanted to come through on their parts with the same level of integrity.





With so many artists involved, how did you go about allocating studio time and recording? Did the artists see the sections that they were scoring and work along with it? Or did people arrive with tunes ready?

It was a little difficult to juggle the scheduling of musicians, and so only a couple of tracks had several musicians jamming together. This meant that we had to work on several tracks simultaneously and layer them up with musicians separately or in smaller groups. The core musicians writing and recording the tracks were Noel Paris, Randy Randal, Leo Romero and Frank Velasquez.

Noel wrote the initial outline of most of the tracks based off of some direction I gave him, along with a rough cut of the skaters parts. Then Randy and the others would layer different instruments and depending on the track needs, we would line up other guest musicians to roll in. Its a lot to ask for them to show up and on the spot write and record something they are proud of so we tried to set it up where there was a lot of room to play around with ideas, record a lot of takes and edit it later, so that while in the studio they could try things freely.

I sat in on almost every session and gave fairly specific direction to begin with but mostly I relied on their talents as they are the musicians after all, and I was there to make sure they didnt drift off on a tangent. Noel has a fantastic ear for writing and recording and is a great producer, so between him and the pool of talent, it knew like we were in safe hands.

Photo: Sam McGuireAfter premiering at House of Vans last Friday, the Altar Skate Shop X House of Vans edit filmed during the shop teams lock in there is now online in full.This lock in session (a now regular event at House of Vans so hit them up for details) also doubled up as a celebration of the shops eighth birthday, no mean feat for a skater owned shop born in the small town of Dartford so big props to Chris and the crew for smashing it for this long!

Having the skatepark which lurks in the depths of Waterloos Victorian arches opens up a whole host of lines which are otherwise unavailable due to cross traffic and also reduces the chance of your beer getting spilled by at least 50%, making getting one of these going if you get the chance a bit of a no brainer.

With Luke Sherlock, George Reilly, Nathan Staples, Leo Goodhew, Harley Dean, Ben King, Altar mastermind Chris Chambers, Sam Coe, Craig Questions Scott and Tom Youell the chosen crew to hit the street and miniramp rooms then you can be guaranteed that the pizza fuelled session went off

Filmed and edited by Jake Martinelli.

Check out previous HOV Lock Ins below for an idea of why you might want your local shop to organise one!

Brixtons Baddest X House of Vans

Three Amigos X House of Vans

For more from Altar, peep owner Chris Chambers recent 30 tricks at 30 edit, the footage from their session just before the opening of the new Better Extreme in Kidbrooke and the 15 minute video which resulted from a spring trip to Barcelona last year, in the grand tradition of escaping the British winter for some Catalonian sun.THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

London, England | May 8

Facebook announced Tuesday that it is banning foreign advertisements related to Irelands abortion referendum amid concerns that North American groups are trying to influence the campaign.

Irish voters will decide May 25 whether to repeal a constitutional ban on abortion, in a divisive referendum that has drawn international attention.

Ireland bars political donations from abroad, but the law does not apply to social media advertising. U.S.-based antiabortion groups are among those who have bought online ads in Ireland during the campaign.

Facebook says starting Tuesday it will begin rejecting ads related to the referendum if they are being run by advertisers based outside of Ireland.

We understand the sensitivity of this campaign and will be working hard to ensure neutrality at all stages, Facebook said in a statement. Our goal is simple: to help ensure a free, fair and transparent vote on this important issue.

Facebook has tried to improve its transparency after revelations that political consultancy Cambridge Analytica harvested users data.UNITED STATES.- Irans supreme leader chastised President Donald Trump on Wednesday over his decision to pull America out of the 2015 nuclear deal, while lawmakers lit a paper U.S. flag on fire inside parliament, shouting, Death to America!

The government backlash reflected broad public anger in Iran over Trumps decision, which threatens to destroy the landmark agreement. While Iranian officials, including the parliament speaker, say they hope Europe will work with them to pre- serve the deal, many are pessimistic.

In comments before school teachers, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Trump:You cannot do a damn thing! The exhortation from Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, follows a pattern of Iranian leaders declaring their nations ability to resist foreign pressure or interference.

Khamenei described Trumps speech Tuesday announcing his decision as having over 10 lies, without elaborating on them. He also said Trumps remarks threatened both Irans people and its theocratic government.

The body of this man, Trump, will turn to ashes and become the food of the worms and ants, while the Islamic Republic continues to stand, Khamenei said.

Earlier Wednesday, the law- makers, including a Shiite cleric, held the flaming flag alight as their colleagues joined their chants. They also burned a piece of paper representing the nuclear deal and stomped on the papers ashes.

Later, dozens of hardliners set fire to a U.S. flag during a protest in front of the former U.S. embassy and called for a retaliatory response.

While U.S. flag-burning is common in Iran and harsh criticism of America has been a staple of Iranian parliamentary politics for years, it was the first time political observers could remember anything being burned inside the parliament itself.The Associated Press

VATICAN CITY.- Pope Francis on Tuesday assigned a Vatican office to concern itself with the role of women in the Catholic Church and their equal dignity  his latest effort to address longstanding complaints of womens second-class status in the church.

Francis approved new statutes for the Vaticans laity and family office, one of the big new departments he created as part of his reform of the Vatican bureaucracy.

Tambien te puede interesar: Cyprus, Israel, Greece push for gas pipeline to Europe

The original statutes made no specific mention of women. The new ones say the office should contribute to a reflection on the identity and mission of women in the church and in society, promoting their participation.

Francis recently appointed three women as consultants for the Vatican doctrine office, the first time in its history.

At Francis request, the Vaticans commission for the Latin American church also dedicated its recent assembly to women, and proposed the Vatican convene a whole church meeting of bishops on women.

The head of the commission, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, recently told the Vaticans womens magazine Women Church World that the assembly  which for the first time included women  was an eye-opener for him.

I have to confess that the meeting profoundly changed the ideas I had on the issue, Ouellet was quoted as saying. As a Canadian, Ouellet said he was familiar with the near dogma of womens equality, but said he had never assimilated what that actually meant in his life as a priest, bishop and now prefect of the Vaticans bishops office.BASSEM MROUE

Beirut, Lebanon | May 8

The first convoy of buses carrying opposition fighters and civilians from a rebel enclave in central Syria reached a region controlled by Turkish troops on Monday and were awaiting permission to enter, a Syrian war monitoring group said.

The evacuations from besieged, northern areas of Homs province and small parts of Hama province are part of an agreement reached last week between insurgents and Russia for the fighters to leave the area or surrender. Russia is a close ally of the Syrian government.

The Syrian government will take control of the area after rebels leave. Fighters who elect to stay can benefit from an amnesty, but most are expected to be drafted into the army months later.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said tens of thousands of fighters and civilians will leave the central region, bound for northern parts of Syria controlled by opposition fighters and Turkish troops.

The area includes the towns of Rastan and Talbiseh, which were among the first regions to see protests against President Bashar Assads government after the uprising began in March 2011. It is the last and largest region besieged by government forces.

Government forces have been making steady gains since Russia joined the war in 2015 on their side.

Last month, government forces captured eastern suburbs of the capital, Damascus, forcing tens of thousands of people to relocate to the countrys north.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said tens of thousands of fighters and civilians will leave the central region, bound for northern parts of Syria controlled by opposition fighters and Turkish troops.

The Observatory said the convoy that left central Syria late Monday is now waiting for permission to enter the region of alBab, which is controlled by Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters.RAHIM FAIEZ

Kabul, Afghanistan | May 9

Suicide bombers struck two police stations in Afghanistans capital on Wednesday, killing at least seven people and wounding 17, officials said. Interior Minister Wais Ahmad Barmak said a total of eight suicide bombers took part in the attacks, one of which was claimed by the Islamic State group and the other by the Taliban.

In the first attack, in western Kabul, the attackers hurled hand grenades and blew themselves up, setting part of the station on fire, Barmak said, adding that a third suicide bomber was shot and killed by police. He said two police were killed in the attack and two police and a civilian were wounded. IS claimed the attack in a brief statement carried by its Aamaq news agency.

Twin suicide bombings claimed by IS last week killed at least 25 people, including nine journalists who had rushed to the scene of the first attack. It was the deadliest assault on reporters since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The second attack unfolded in the city center, where a suicide bomber struck the entrance to a police station in order to clear the way for another four bombers. Barmak said two or three more attackers were holed up in a nearby building, trading fire with security forces. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to media.

Najib Danish, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the violence ended after almost seven hours.

Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahid Majroh said a total of seven people were killed and 17 wounded in the attacks.

Both the Taliban and IS frequently target Afghanistans Western-backed government and security forces. Twin suicide bombings claimed by IS last week killed at least 25 people, including nine journalists who had rushed to the scene of the first attack. It was the deadliest assault on reporters since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban advanced on a district compound, officials said Wednesday, with one reporting the capture of the northern district by the insurgents and another saying heavy fighting was still underway.

The battle for the compound in the Bilchirgh district, in the northern Faryab province, came a day after the insurgents captured the district compound in the remote Tala wa Barfak district, in the northern Baghlan province. The Taliban have captured several districts in different parts of the country from Afghan security forces since 2014, when the U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission and shifted to a supporting role.

Mohammad Hashim, a member of parliament from Faryab province, said the Taliban captured the district headquarters in Bilchirgh early Wednesday after more than 40 security forces retreated under heavy fire. He said the Taliban also captured several villages nearby.CATHERINE LUCEY | JOSH LEDERMAN

Washignton, US | May 9

President Donald Trump warned Iran on Wednesday against resuming its nuclear weapons program, a day after announcing that he was withdrawing the U.S. from the landmark Iran nuclear deal.

I would advise Iran not to start their nuclear program, Trump told reporters at the start of a Cabinet meeting when asked about the potential consequences. I would advise them very strongly. If they do there will be very severe consequence.

The 2015 agreement, which was negotiated by the Obama administration and included Germany, France and Britain, had lifted most U.S. and international economic sanctions against Iran. In exchange, Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear program, making it impossible to produce a bomb and establishing rigorous inspections.

The comments came a day after Trump announced he was withdrawing the U.S. from the accord with Iran, abruptly restoring harsh sanctions in the most consequential foreign policy action of his presidency. He declared he was making the world safer, but he also deepened his isolation on the world stage and revived doubts about American credibility with a rationale that contradicted the analyses of U.S. and foreign intelligence sources.

The 2015 agreement, which was negotiated by the Obama administration and included Germany, France and Britain, had lifted most U.S. and international economic sanctions against Iran. In exchange, Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear program, making it impossible to produce a bomb and establishing rigorous inspections.

But Trump, a severe critic of the deal dating back to his 2016 presidential campaign, said Tuesday in a televised address from the White House that it was defective at its core.

On Wednesday, he claimed the deal was going to lead to nuclear proliferation all over the Middle East and bragged the sanctions would be among the strongest that weve ever put on a country.Analysis: How much carbon budget is left to limit global warming to 1.5C?

Posted on 10 May 2018 by Zeke Hausfather

This is a re-post from Carbon Brief

In 2015, by signing up to the Paris Agreement on climate change, nearly every country pledged to keep global temperatures well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5C.

Limiting warming to 1.5C requires strictly limiting the total amount of carbon emissions between now and the end of the century. However, there is more than one way to calculate this allowable amount of additional emissions, known as the carbon budget.

While calculations based on Earth System Models (ESMs, see below) used in the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report suggest that we have only a few years left at our current rate of emissions before we blow the 1.5C carbon budget, some recent studies have suggested that the remaining carbon budget is much larger.

In this article, Carbon Brief assesses nine new carbon budget estimates released by different groups over the past two years. Most show larger allowable emissions than were featured in the last IPCC report. A number of studies suggest that carbon budgets estimates based on ESMs may be on the low side as a result of limitations with how some models represent the carbon cycle.

However, there is still a wide range of variation in these new carbon budgets, arising from differences in approaches, timeframes, estimates of warming to-date and other factors. Recent studies suggest the remaining carbon budget to limit warming to well below 1.5C might have already been exceeded by emissions to-date, or might be as large as 15 more years of emissions at our current rate.

Many new estimates

The idea of a carbon budget that ties an amount of future warming to a total amount of CO2 emissions is based on a strong relationship between cumulative emissions and temperatures in climate models. What had started out as a simple communication tool has become quite complicated, with different studies getting very different results as to the allowable carbon budget for very low emission pathways like 1.5C.

This relationship between cumulative emissions and warming is not perfect, as it will change based on what happens to non-CO2 greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide, as well as how quickly climate-cooling aerosols are reduced. It also does not perform quite as well when there are net-negative emissions  when more emissions are being removed from the atmosphere rather than being added.

The figure below shows various estimates of the allowable carbon budget to keep temperatures well below 1.5C, where well below implies a 66% chance of keep temperatures below 1.5C warming (and a corresponding 33% chance of exceeding the target). These probabilities reflect the sizable uncertainty in the sensitivity of the climate to CO2 emissions. Coloured bars correspond to the carbon budget from different studies listed on the left, while values below zero mean that current cumulative emissions already exceeded the well below 1.5C carbon budget.

Remaining carbon budgets in gigatonnes CO2 (GtCO2) from various studies that limit warming to a 66% chance of staying below 1.5C (see links at end of article), as well as equivalent years of current emissions using data from the Global Carbon Project. Ranges reflect reported budget uncertainties, while points show best-estimates. All studies have been normalised based on observed emissions to show the remaining budget as of January 2018. Integrated assessment models limit warming to well below 1.5C warming in the year 2100, while other approaches avoid any exceedance within the next century. Chart by Carbon Brief using Highcharts.

Carbon budgets have been estimated by a number of different methods, including complex ESMs (shown in yellow), simple climate models employed by Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs, shown in red), and by using observational data on emissions and warming through present to constrain the ESM results (shown in blue).

The budgets shown differ in their approach to the 1.5C target. ESMs and combined observation/ESMs use what are called threshold exceedance budgets. These keep increasing emissions until temperatures reach 1.5C and assume that emissions stop immediately once the threshold temperature is reached, which is essentially impossible in the real world. The budget for a 66% chance of avoiding 1.5C is simply based on the 66th percentile across all of the different ESMs. IAMs, on the other hand, use threshold avoidance budgets that create emission scenarios tailored to keep warming in 2100 well-below 1.5C.

Earth system models

ESMs are a type of complex climate models that simulate the carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, atmospheric chemistry, ocean ecology and changes in vegetation and land use, which all affect how the climate responds to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. They have vegetation that responds to temperature and rainfall, and, in turn, changes both the uptake and release of carbon to the atmosphere.

These models were most recently run in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5), an international effort of modelling groups around the world to create climate model runs of a set of common future climate scenarios leading up to the 2013 IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.

The models, labelled IPCC AR5 ESMs in the figure above, collectively estimate a remaining carbon budget of 118GtCO2 between 2018 and 2100, if temperatures are to be kept well below 1.5C. This amounts to approximately three years of current emissions until the budget is exhausted.

A new study by Prof Jason Lowe and Dr Dan Bernie at the UKs Met Office Hadley Centre takes these CMIP5 models and tries to account for additional uncertainties in the carbon budget associated with feedbacks, such as carbon released by thawing of permafrost or methane production from wetlands, as a result of climate change. They incorporate a wide range of additional feedbacks, some of which enhance and some of which reduce future emissions and resulting warming. They find that including these additional feedbacks results in a well below 1.5C carbon budget of between -192GtCO2 and 243GtCO2, with a best estimate of 67GtCO2.

A carbon budget of below zero indicates that existing emissions already commit us to a greater than 33% chance of 1.5C warming or more by the end of the century and that more emissions would have to be removed from the atmosphere than emitted to meet the target.

CMIP5 models used the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios that specified future concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases between 2005 and 2100, but did not specify the actual emissions of CO2 in any given year. This approach was chosen because not all climate models participating in CMIP5 were ESMs; some were more simple General Circulation Models (GCMs) that lack a carbon cycle to convert emissions into atmospheric concentrations.

In order to estimate the cumulative CO2 emissions for use in calculating the carbon budget, ESMs within CMIP5 had to back-calculate emissions based on the atmospheric concentrations using the carbon cycle within each model. These carbon cycle models are not perfect and tend, on average, to have lower emissions associated with current CO2 concentrations than our best estimate of emissions that have actually occurred. This appears to be due to an underestimate of land or ocean carbon sinks in some ESMs.

While the models get the warming just about right for the current concentrations of CO2, the fact that they tend to have lower estimates of historical emissions means that the carbon budgets based on the relationship between cumulative CO2 emissions and warming tend to be on the low side.

This was first pointed out in a 2014 study by Prof Pierre Friedlingstein of the University of Exeter and colleagues. Its potential implications for 1.5C carbon budgets was prominently highlighted by Dr Richard Millar and colleagues in a paper last year.

While this mismatch in modelled and observed emissions is relatively small, it can make a considerable difference for very stringent carbon budgets like that associated with 1.5C.

Estimates combining ESMs and observations

A number of different studies have tried to improve carbon budget estimates from ESMs by matching them more closely to observations of emissions and warming that have actually occurred up to the present day.

This has taken a number of different forms. The paper in 2017 by Millar and his colleagues calibrated the total past emissions and warming in ESMs to match present observations. They then looked at how much more emissions would be allowable to increase temperatures by the difference between todays temperature and 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. This has the benefit of removing any mismatch between past emissions or temperatures in observations and ESMs.

Millars estimate of the carbon budget to stay well below 1.5C warming was 625GtCO2, or roughly 15 more years of emissions at our current rate. This was more than five times higher than the prior estimate from the IPCC. The finding generated a considerable amount of controversy in the community when it was first published.

The Millar et al paper has been criticised by Dr Andrew Schurer of the University of Edinburgh and other researchers for using a temperature record that was not representative of what ESMs are actually simulating. Specifically, Millar and colleagues used the HadCRUT4 temperature series to estimate remaining warming till the 1.5C target is reached. While consistent with the IPCC assessments of historical warming, it lacks coverage of much of the fast-warming Arctic region and blends surface air temperatures over land with slower-warming sea surface temperatures over the ocean.

Schurer and colleagues point out that using an observational record with global coverage and emulating the same global surface air temperatures as the models use would increase estimated warming to date and reduce the carbon budget noticeably.

Applying their approach to Millar et als well below 1.5C carbon budget, Carbon Brief estimates that this would reduce the carbon budget to between 325GtCO2 and 506GtCO2, with a best estimate of 416GtCO2  or 10 more years of emissions at our current rate. This is based on Schurers 5th-95th percentile range of current warming relative to the late-1800s, using the Cowtan and Way temperature record corrected for the difference between sea surface temperature and surface air temperature warming rates. This carbon budget is still considerably higher than the IPCCs estimate, suggesting that approaches informed by observations are important to correct for too-low estimates in the models.

Schurer and other researchers also point out that the carbon budget would be even smaller if the pre-industrial period were defined relative to the 1700s or earlier rather than the late-1800s. Some human emissions and associated warming are likely to have occurred by the late-1800s. However, ESMs and IAMs all use a late-1800s baseline, so how pre-industrial is defined does not explain the differences between carbon budget estimates.

A new paper by Dr Katarzyna Tokarska and Dr Nathan Gillett uses a similar approach to Millar and colleagues, matching ESMs to current emissions and temperatures. They avoid some of the issues in Millar by using more globally-representative surface temperature records, though they still use series that blend surface air temperatures over land with slower-warming sea surface temperatures over the ocean.

Tokarska and Gillett also screen for ESMs that agree well with observed emissions, removing a number of models whose historical emissions differed too much. They find a well below 1.5C carbon budget of 395GtCO2, considerably lower than that of Millar but reasonably well in line with Schurer and colleagues.

Finally, a paper by Dr Philip Goodwin of the University of Southampton and colleagues also rebaseline ESMs to match present emissions and temperatures, but instead of using the set of CMIP5 models to devise their budget, they employ a simplified ESMthat is designed to be consistent with observed warming and emissions to date. They find a remaining well below 1.5C carbon budget of 693GtCO2, quite similar to the Millar paper. However, their overall range of carbon budgets for 1.5C is much narrower than is found in Millar et al; their budget for a 66% and 44% chance of staying below 1.5C is 693 to 821GtCO2, respectively, compared to 625 to up to 1870GtCO2 in Millar et al.

Integrated assessment models

Integrated assessment models (IAMs) take underlying socioeconomic factors, such as population and economic growth, as well as a climate target  such as limiting warming to 1.5C  and estimate what changes could happen to energy production, use, and emissions in different regions of the world to reach the targets in the most cost-effective way.

They rely on the simple climate model known as MAGICC (Model for the Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Induced Climate Change) to convert emissions of different greenhouse gases into atmospheric concentrations and warming. MAGICCs carbon cycle model is designed to match historical concentrations to observed emissions and should be largely free of the underestimate of historical emissions present in more complex ESMs.

The IAMs featured in the last IPCC report estimated the remaining well below 1.5C carbon budget from January 2018 at between -192GtCO2 and 26GtCO2. This would mean that there are effectively zero years of remaining emissions until the carbon budget is exhausted and temperatures at the end of the century could only be kept below 1.5C by removing more CO2 from the atmosphere than emitted over the remainder of the century.

These IAMs were recently updated by Dr Joeri Rogelj of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria and colleagues as part of the modelling exercises in the lead up to the next IPCC report. They now show a somewhat wider range of -182 to 393 GtCO2, with the difference from the prior set of IAMs due in part to differing assumptions about future emissions of non-CO2 greenhouse gases.

IAM-based carbon budgets differ from those that come from ESMs in a number of ways. First, instead of using an ensemble of models to calculate the 66th percentile of runs that result in 1.5C warming, they use a range of possible climate sensitivity values that ends up providing a more conservative estimate of what it would take to exceed 1.5C.

Specifically, while ESMs that have a 66% chance of avoiding 1.5C still show warming of around 1.45C, IAMs with a similar target have much lower 2100 warming, reaching only 1.3C to 1.4C above pre-industrial levels. Not all IAMs shoot for exactly a 66% chance of avoiding 1.5C warming as well, with some adopting somewhat more conservative targets.

Second, IAMs specifically aim to have global average surface temperatures below 1.5C in 2100, rather than limiting warming to no more than 1.5C at any point between present and 2100. Nearly all IAMs that meet a 1.5C target overshoot 1.5C around mid-century before reducing temperatures through massive amounts of negative emissionsin the second half of the 21st century.

This makes the calculation for the budget somewhat different, especially as net-negative emissions can cloud the assumptions behind the relationship between cumulative emissions and warming.

Third, because the maximum warming lags emissions of carbons by about a decade, budgets based on ESMs (or combined observations/ESMs) do not fully account for emissions over the final decade before the 1.5C threshold is exceeded. IAMs, on the other hand, are somewhat penalised because the cooling from negative emissions in the last decade before 2100 is not fully accounted for.

These combine to make IAM carbon budgets relatively low compared to combined observation/ESM budgets. To try and reconcile the two, Rogelj and colleagues recalculated the Millar budget, taking into account more globally representative temperature observations, differences between the level of warming reached, as well as other factors, to make it more comparable to the IAM budgets. They found that Millars budget would be between 25GtCO2 and 375GtCO2, nicely overlapping much of the range of IAM budgets.

However, Millar suggests that additional research may be required to fully resolve the differences in budgets. He tells Carbon Brief:

I would say that in my opinion this is an important area for further work by the community. It seems likely to be a combination of factors/definitional differences  as Dr Rogelj says  account for the difference between the IAM and non-IAM budgets, as both physical climate uncertainties and technical/societal uncertainties regarding how much we are able to reduce contributions to warming from non-CO2 matter to estimates of remaining budgets.

Challenge of defining 1.5C

Despite setting a goal to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5C, the Paris Agreement never defined what, exactly, this meant. It could be interpreted either as aiming for 1.5C warming with a 50% chance of staying below it, or as aiming for well below 1.5C similar to the 2C goal with a 66% chance of avoiding more than 1.5C warming. It is also ambiguous whether this refers to changes in global air temperature as simulated in models, or blended mixtures between air temperature and ocean surface temperature more similar to observational temperature records.

Some reports have focused on a 50% chance, while others have focused on 66%. It seems likely at this point that the well below 66% interpretation of 1.5C will win out in the end, because the IAMs being run in preparation for the next IPCC report have embraced that approach.

The figure below shows the carbon budgets for all of the recent studies that have looked at limiting warming to no more than 1.5C with a 50% chance. It includes many of the studies that also looked at a well below 66% chance, in addition to two new studies that only look at the 50% chance outcome.

Remaining carbon budgets in gigatonnes CO2 (GtCO2) from various studies that limit warming to a 50% chance of staying below 1.5C (see links at end of article), as well as equivalent years of current emissions using data from the Global Carbon Project. Ranges reflect reported budget uncertainties, while points show best-estimates. All studies have been normalised based on observed emissions to show the remaining budget as of January 2018. Chart by Carbon Brief using Highcharts.

Unsurprisingly, carbon budgets for a 50% chance of avoiding 1.5C are universally higher than in the well below 66% case. A new paper by the Potsdam Institutes Dr Elmar Kriegler and colleagues summarises the remaining carbon budget from January 2018 in existing studies across the various methods used as spanning a wide range from -182 to 818 gigatonnes CO2 (GtCO2, shown in grey).

The two new studies (shown in purple), by Prof Damon Matthews and colleagues, and by Millar and Friedlingstein, use an approach to carbon budget calculations that avoid relying on models all together. They estimate the relationship between observed warming and observed cumulative CO2 emissions, calculating the transient climate response to cumulative emissions  the amount of warming per teratonne carbon (TtC, or 1000 gigatonnes carbon).

They both end up getting estimates of transient climate response to cumulative emissions smaller than what is found in climate models  and a carbon budget that is correspondingly larger. Even here, however, the results are somewhat sensitive to the temperature series used. Millar and Friedlingstein find a transient climate response of 1.84C/TtC using the Cowtan and Way temperature record, 2.05C/TtC using the Berkeley Earth temperature record, and a median estimate of 2.11C/TtC using CMIP5 ESMs (though with a wide range from 0.82.5C/TtC). Conversely, they find that the transient climate response would be reduced new 2017 estimates from the Global Carbon Project are used, which have higher historical land-use CO2 emissions.

Matthews and colleagues estimate the remaining 50% 1.5C carbon budget from January 2018 at 977GtCO2 (or 24 years of current emissions), while Millar and Friedlingstein estimate it at 835GtCO2 (20 years of current emissions). This is considerably higher than the IPCC earth system model value of 268GtCO2 (seven years of current emissions).

Large uncertainties remain

There have been a wealth of new studies on the remaining carbon budget to limit warming to below 1.5C published over the last two years. While they have generally reinforced the conclusion of Millar and colleagues that the IPCCs models have underestimated the remaining carbon budget, sizable differences between the studies still remain and it is hard to pin down a precise number to use as the remaining allowable emissions.

In general, because the difference between todays cumulative emissions and those in a 1.5C world are so small, they are quite sensitive to many different factors, including how much observed warming has occurred to date, how much non-CO2 emissions are expected in the future, what range of climate sensitivity is used in calculating the 66% chance of avoiding, and many other issues.

While IAMs tend to find carbon budgets much lower than combined observations/ESMs, the two are not necessarily directly comparable. IAMs are targeting warming in 2100 (and often overshooting 1.5C in the interim), while ESMs are simply looking at how much CO2 can be emitted before temperatures exceed 1.5C. At this point, it is likely premature to suggest that IAM carbon budgets may be too low.

Ultimately, as Dr Glen Peters at the CICERO Center for International Climate Researchin Norway has argued, the idea of a remaining carbon budget simply may not be very useful concept for strict emission targets, such as 1.5C. The rise in global temperatures is already close enough to 1.5C that small differences in calculations have a big impact.

Similarly, because nearly any plausible scenario would require a large amount of negative emissions later in the century, the carbon budget itself is not a hard cap on emissions. No matter what carbon budget is used, there is still less than 0.5C additional warming to go before 1.5C is passed and only a few decades before the world has to reach net-zero  and then net-negative  emissions.

Update 10/4/2018: The uncertainty range shown for the Goodwin et al study in the remaining carbon budget for a 50% chance of less than 1.5C warming figure has been updated to show the correct values. The text has also been updated indicate that the Goodwin et al study showed a much more narrow range of overall budgets for different percent chances of staying below 1.5C than were found in Millar et al.

Update 11/4/2018: The article has been updated to reflect that the carbon budget in the Kriegler et al study refers to a 50% rather than 66% chance of remaining below 1.5C.The presidents longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen has been operating a secret Washington consultancy, accepting payments from major corporations and other entities.

Is this normal? In some ways, experts say, it is.

We have an entire industry of individuals with close relationships to government officials that sell and capitalize on that relationship, says Paul Seamus Ryan, a vice president at Common Cause, a government watchdog.

Not normal: the fact that Cohen did not make his activity public by hanging a shingle as a lobbyist. Doing it all in secret, never having done it before, while simultaneously working for a public official, and the public official being the presidentthese are new glosses on an old profession, he observed. Not normal: trading off being not just a well-connected person but the sitting presidents lawyer. Another thing thats not normal is for a presidents lawyer to set up an LLC and make a hush money payment to a porn star. Common Cause has filed complaints with the Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission arguing that the Stormy Daniels payment, which was made in October 2016 from Cohens newly formed Essential Consultants LLC, was a campaign finance violation.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

On Tuesday night, the New York Times and NBC confirmed a report from Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti asserting that under Cohens stewardship, Essential Consultants LLC graduated from hush money payments to political consulting, taking in six-figure sums from the Russian-backed investment firm Columbus Nova, Korea Aerospace Industries, AT&T, and Novartis.

Whats the difference between these payments and lobbying, campaign finances, any of that? asked John Wonderlich, the executive director of the Sunlight Foundation. These payments do away with the entire artifice of a broker or a campaign, its just pure pay-to-play. Campaign finance regulation has been eroded a lot over the last 20 years, and its like Cohen skipped ahead another 20. In a way, it fits with a broader Trumpian pattern: doing the quiet thing loud (plus the hush money, foreign payments, and the lawyer issue). It is not by any stretch of the imagination normal.

Advertisement

Dallas-based AT&T, the nations largest telecom company, has a pending merger with Time Warner that is opposed by the Justice Department. The company spent more than $16 million on lobbying in Washington last year, according to OpenSecrets.org. The company says it hired Cohen for advice on issues including regulatory reform at the FCC, corporate tax reform and antitrust enforcement.

Advertisement

Cohen made an astounding $1.2 million from the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartisa $100,000-per-month retainer that was paid out for a full year even though Cohen met with Novartis only once. Novartis spent nearly $9 million in lobbying in 2017, according to OpenSecrets, though Cohen was not a registered lobbyist, so his retainer would not be included in that sum.

Advertisement

Novartis told the Washington Post it hired Cohen for advice on the Affordable Care Act.

Though the company found, after the one meeting, that Cohen would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated, it continued to make payments throughout his 12-month contract. An anonymous employee told the health publication STAT that Cohen had approached the company, promising access during a chaotic transition period.

Advertisement

That posturepaying for access under the guise of expertiseis typical, says Lee Drutman, a fellow at the New America foundation and the author of The Business of Lobbying.

A lot of companies were scrambling to figure out how to talk to the Trump administration, he told Slate. Some of them might have panicked and tried to sign up somebody who they thought could get them access. Its not unusual that money would go to a consulting firm set up by someone close to someone in power. Whats unusual is that theres someone still working for the person in power.

Advertisement

Advertisement

So is it normal? Drutman asked out loud. It is not normal.

In a long and delightful 2017 story in the New York Times Magazine, Nicholas Confessore recounts the tumult that accompanied the Trump transition on K Streeta time in which Trump insiders like former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski were able to reinvent themselves as registered lobbyists with lists of blue-chip clients. Desperate power players threw money at the newly minted insiders; a billionaire offered one lobbyist $1 million for a photo with the president in the Oval Office. One man, Confessore reports, offered Lewandowski $250,000 for the president to tweet about him. Lewandowskis ace in the hole? A promise to get the president on the phone.

Advertisement

The gold rush lured in plenty of people with tenuous connections to Trump, and it lured in Michael Cohen, who received in April 2017 a $500,000 strategic alliance fee from the law firm Squire Patton Boggs, a potential sweetener for other clients. He is the latest in a long line of people to capitalize on connections to people in power, including Democratic uber-lobbyist Tony Podesta, whose brother served in the Clinton and Obama White Houses.

Advertisement

Not normal, says Nick Allard, dean of the Brooklyn Law School and former head of lobbying at Patton Boggs (several years before the Cohen deal, which Allard said he had nothing to do with). Just the brazen, shameless, sloppy attempt to peddle the ability to buy results is not only shocking but is done at a level that in recent modern history we have not seen.

Were in dangerous territory because when theres a suggestion that enormous sums of money change hands for no professional work being done, questions arise as to what that money is for.

Its not clear if Cohen violated disclosure requirements for lobbyistsyou have to do lobbying work, such as meeting with elected officials, to meet the thresholdor if he was in fact offering access to Trump rather than just insight. When theres a new guy in town, nobody knows who he is or how hell act, theres a great deal of interest in getting reliable information, says Jan Baran, a D.C. lawyer who advises clients on lobbying, among other subjects. At least since January 20th, he added, nothing has been normal.May 3 is World Press Freedom Day.

Reporters and media NGOs have compiled a summary of the state of freedom of speech in Armenia. Its a given that cases of violence against reporters increase during elections, rallies and mass demonstrations.

Experts have shown that the same was the case during the recent protests, led by Nikol Pashinyan, to first oust Serzh Sargsyan as prime minister and then to topple the government led by the Republican Party of Armenia.

Ashot Melikyan, President of the Committee to Defend Free Speech, told Hetq that 27 reporters and camera-operators were injured while covering recent civil disobedience in Armenia, this according to preliminary data. 16 were physically assaulted. In two cases, media outlet reps were pressured but no physical violence was used. Their work was interfered with. Another nine were injured during scuffles or when police employed special measures.

Prosecutor General Office data shows that between April 13 and 23 of this year, 17 cases where the work of reporters covering civil disobedience was hindered were registered. Twelve of these, regarding 14 reporters, are described as having evident signs of criminality.

Analyzing the events of past years, Melikyan notes that cases of violence against reporters and the press were perpetrated by the police, those individuals in civilian dress enjoying police protection, or those in the service of the government.

If we analyze the events of the past ten years, we see that most of the cases where the rights of reporters and the press have been trampled have gone unanswered, and the authorities dont take sufficient measures to bring to find the guilty and hold this responsible. I believe theres a tendency here. The authorities of the Republican Party of Armenia have never been serious regarding the violation of reporter rights. Theyve looked the other way, and frequently, have covered up the cases, Melikyan writes.

In 2017 alone, the Committee registered 11 violations of violence against reporters, 113 cases of media outlets and their workers being pressured in various ways, and 62 violations of receiving and disseminating information.

2017 was also unprecedented in terms of the number of new court cases against reporters and media outlets. According to the Union, 30 court cases alone were filed against Daniel Ionnisyan, founder of the Sut.am news website, and the Informed Citizens Union that he coordinates. They deal with a March 24 article revealing how principals of schools and kindergartens used their administrative powers to collect votes in favor of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia during the pre-election campaign. All the plaintiffs demanded a retraction of the alleged slander and AMD 2 million in compensation. However, at the first court session, all these petitions were withdrawn. Over the year, there were sixty cases in which media outlets or reporters were involved, all dealing with insult and slander.

After these developments, I believe that the new government must create better conditions for freedom of speech and for media outlets to freely operate, says Melikyan. The laws that regulate the sector concern him, especially The Law on Television and Radio, whose many clauses dont correspond to todays standards. In addition, he finds it unacceptable to have such a supervised broadcast field.

For Armenias poorest class, TV remains the major source of information. There are people who arent accustomed to paying for news and depend on unpaid TV and radio stations. In the case of paid for TV, Melikyan says their credibility and diversity is questioned. He believes, sadly, the print media is dying. Financial difficulties arent the only reason. He also points to the splitting of the print media into different branches  political, economic, oligarchic, etc.

The concentration of news outlets in the hands of certain oligarchs is unacceptable. These are not only holdings but are news outlets n and ruled by one owner. I can bring different examples. I believe that all of this has led to various international organizations, including Freedom House, describe Armenia as a country not having a free press, Melikyan says.

Tehmineh Yenokyan: The Examination of Cases is Productive

Tehmineh Yenokyan, a reporter with Lragir.am., is one of the reporters injured during the My Step protests. On April 27, she filed a report at the Nor Nork police station that a group of unknown persons hindered her professional work in Yerevan at the intersection of Heratsi, Armenakyan and Myasnikyan streets. A criminal case was launched based on Article 164 of the Criminal Code (Hindrance to the legal professional activities of a journalist).

Tehmineh says that those who hindered her work and attacked demonstrators were the relatives/friends of Nor Nork administrative district employees.

The police arrived when those people had already attacked the demonstrators. I file a report about the crime at the Nork police station. I noted that I had no financial demand and that my professional work had been grossly hindered. Based on my experience, I had no expectations that the perpetrators would be identified. I have two other cases, dating to 2013, that are still in the examination phase. Nevertheless, given the changes taking place in the country, perhaps those people will be identified, that the case will go to court, and that just punishments are meted out, says Tehmineh.

The reporter says that one of the cases was launched based on the December 2, 2013 incident involving illegalities by the Shengavit police. Russian President Putin arrived in Armenia on that day and people were peacefully protesting Armenias membership in the Eurasian Economic Union. When Yenokyan was covering the protest for Lragir.am a group of men in civilian dress grabbed her and drove her to the police station. She was held there for over an hour before being released.

Tehmineh says that the prosecutor never launched a case. She protested the decision up to the appeals court. The case is now being heard.

The other case involves the Electric Yerevan protests of 2015, when the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission decided to hike the price of electricity in Armenia. Protesters blocked Yerevans Baghramyan Avenue for days. The reporter had a confrontation with police. She then petitioned the European Court of Human Rights, regarding the domestic courts examination of the matter unproductive.

Its Imperative to Ensure Strict Methods of Accountability

Armenian Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan says the research conducted by his office shows that reporters possess the correct understanding that the lack of accountability mechanisms is the reason why the impression that theres impunity in the country takes shape. All this becomes evident during elections and other events of public importance, since the defense of the right of reporters to work freely during such times goes a long way to create public confidence in the processes taking place.

From a system-wide perspective, an atmosphere must be created in the country where reporters feel that their professional work is being defended by the government. We have always noted that cooperating with reporters must be an operating principle of all government bodies, given that it also ensures the dissemination of the work of public officials, says Tatoyan.

The Human Rights Defender says his office has compiled a list of cases in which reporters have been hindered in carrying out their professional work during the recent political protests, and that a list has been forwarded to the proper authorities.

Sadly, there are still misconceptions and stereotypes regarding about the role that reporters play that make their work more difficult and not as productive as possible. Thus, its vital to uproot those public perceptions, with the presumption always being in favor of the reporters legal and respectful work, Tatoyan says.

He believes reporters play an irreplaceable public role, especially during important events like parliamentary elections. Thus, their work must be fully protected to allow for the collection and dissemination of any information on electoral irregularities and violations.

Law enforcement must immediately respond to any news that reporters are being hindered in their work. But this is still not enough.

To defend the rights of reporters most effectively, strict measures of accountability must be enacted against those found guilty of hindering the work of reporters, regardless of who they are.

Top photo courtesy of HakobHovhannisyan (media.am)There was a timeand it wasnt that long agowhen Christine ODonnell-class Republican candidates were fodder for late night humor and media snickering instead of potential presidential material. Now that its clear that any Republican can win, those jokes arent funny anymoreexcept when the Republican in question has already lost. Don Blankenships defeat in the West Virginia Republican senatorial primary gave Trevor Noah all the excuse he needed to briefly return to those halcyon days, and he clearly relished the opportunity to dig into a Republican kook who, for now, anyway, has been kept safely away from the levers of political power.

Advertisement

And thank God Blankenship is safe to laugh about now, because his campaign was, as they, say, a rich text. He called Mitch McConnell Cocaine Mitch! He made an ad about McConnells China family! He went to prison after twenty-nine coal miners died in an explosion at one of his mines! That last one isnt all that funny, except for the part where Blankenship thought he could be a senator afterwardalthough stranger things have happened. As Noah explains, the would-be Senators bizarre, incompetent, and openly racist campaign wasnt just funny in its own right. Like Johnson says, Blankenship was not just comedic, but the cause of comedy in others. Even Mitch McConnell came out of nowhere to taunt Blankenship with a Narcos meme on social media. Its all very, very funnynow that Blankenship has lost.This conversation is adapted from this weeks episode of the podcast Represent.

Aisha Harris: Kristen, is it fair to say that you are obsessed with the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle?

Kristen Meinzer: Thats right: American Hollywood star, divorcee, woman of color. She is marrying Prince Harry.

Harris: I know.

Meinzer: I just cannot tell you how excited Ive been about this. And Ive been a royal watcher my entire life. My mother was an anglophile, I was brought up to care very deeply about all of the stuff that happens in this family: the weddings, the affairs, the beheadings, all the inbreeding, all of the stuff. I am totally into the whole royal family. Theyre like the longest-running reality show family ever.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Harris: I, meanwhile, do not care.

Meinzer: I know you dont care.

Harris: But I do find our nations obsession with this fascinating, especially considering that fact that we fought to get away from the British people

Meinzer: Even when George Washington first became president, Americans wanted him to be a king. And hes like, Thats not what things are about here, guys, thats what we were fighting against. Im not going to be a king. Look at all the Disney movies. We love princesses, we love kings.

Harris: So even I have read a lot about this new princess a lot since I discovered she existed

Meinzer: Youre talking about Meghan Markle.

Advertisement

For centuries, the British royal family has conquered or annexed places where the people have a complexion like yours or mine.  Kristen Meinzer

Harris: Meghan Markle, yes. First of all, why do you care specifically about Meghan Markle? What makes her different, aside from the fact she is obviously a woman of colorwhat about her is so fascinating to you?

Meinzer: Cant I make that the first on my list though? For centuries, the British royal family has conquered, or ruled, or taken over, or annexed places where the people have a complexion more like yours or mine. And yet they would never deign to marry those people. And now, finally all these places that had to wave flags and say God save the queen but were never actually represented in the royal familyMeghan Markle looks a little bit more like all those people. And thats very meaningful to me. So, its not just like, Oh, isnt it great, theres a black woman in there. No, its that this family ruled over millions of people for centuries and none of those people ever got to be in the palace.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Harris: Yeah, I think Meghan is very smart and very aware of what all this meansshes going into this very open-eyed as someone who is of mixed heritage. At the same time, the reason why this is all happening is just because she met and fell in love with someone. Which to me still feels sort of like an antiquated reason to make a heroine out of her.

Advertisement

Meinzer: Your idea that love cant be revolutionary breaks my heart. Is there any romance in that heart of yours? Isnt it truly revolutionary for a gay person to be able to say, as a gay man, I love this man? Isnt it truly revolutionary for a white princewhen, for hundreds and hundreds of years, princes like him had to marry a certain kind of woman, regardless of whether or not they wanted to for him to say, no, this is the woman I love, and have that be a revolutionary act? I dont see it as antiquated.

Advertisement

Harris: Yeah, I mean, theyve only been dating less than two years. I feel like placing so much significance on her for her romantic choices doesnt feel empowering to me, in a way, if thats the right word. And also, lionizing Harry for his bravery in choosing her rubs me the wrong way, too.

Advertisement

Meinzer: Yeah, theyre obviously not changing structural racism. Theyre not changing the laws on the books. Theyre not changing thousands of years of history and oppression.

Harris: Ive seen a lot of my friends, black female friends, who see themselves in Meghan Markle and find this to be very exciting, and I wish I could feel that way. I wish and I dont wish. But the royal family to me just smacks of everything thats wrong with the general relationship between wealth and powernone of it is actually earned, its just handed down from person to person based completely on the act of procreation.

Advertisement

I do want to talk a little bit more about Meghan Markles acting career. In 2016, she wrote for the U.K. version of Elle about being a biracial person and what its meant for her to evolve and sort of embrace that and how its actually affected her career. I have to be honest again: When I first realized she existed and she was marrying Prince Harry, I was like, Oh, I didnt know she was black. I think she says in this op-ed that shes been deemed ethnically ambiguous. Its interesting to me that in many of the movies shes been in, her parents have been cast as both white.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Its interesting to me that in many of the movies shes been in, her parents have been cast as both white.  Aisha Harris

Meinzer: Yeah, in the Hallmark movies. In that Elle article, I love how forthright she is about this stuff. I get the sense Hollywood frequently says: Hey, just be marketable to everyone, dont talk about this. But shes been honest about how racial ambiguity has affected her career. And on Suits, her character, Rachel, at one point says, I think its to her boyfriend on the show, Well, hold on, you didnt realize I was half black? Did you think I was just tan?

Harris: In real life, her mother is black.

Meinzer: And her mother has dreadlocks and has been ruthlessly made fun of by some of the British tabloids. Theyve pretty much said that shes a thug or a gangster without actually using those words. Straight Outta Compton, I think was one of the lines. When its like, actually no, she was working in Hollywood and Meghans dad is an Emmy awardwinning lighting designer, and her mother is a licensed social worker and a yoga instructor and used to also work in Hollywood.

Advertisement

Harris: I did think Meghans article was smart and balanced. And those tabloid headlines are just flat-out racist, obviously. At the same time, the fact that in some cases, she can pass for white makes it feel less revolutionary to me that the royal family is embracing her. I will say: I read an interview with royal biographer Andrew Morgan in which he compared Harry and Meghans relationship to rebooting a show or a franchise, and he said, If you were sitting in a script office in Hollywood and you said, give me a character that will make the Royal family relevant for the next 100 years, they would have said, okay, shes racial, divorced, and an actor. He was basically suggesting that this is the reason the queen is so happy about this. But that just seems to me, even my small little heart

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Meinzer: Even you find that questionable.

Harris: Even I think that frames the familys acceptance of her as more insidious than it is. Its not insidious! Its just boring.

Meinzer: Listen, Harrys a really sensitive guy. Hes talked about mental health, hes been very open about needing help over the years and never properly or fully reckoning with the loss of his mother. According to a different royal biographer, Katie Nicholl, the family was just so overjoyed when they met Meghan because he had been lonely and they had never seen him so in love before. Prince Philip, in particular, really clicked with her and thought that she was just the most fantasticI know, the look of shock on your face.

Advertisement

Harris: Philip?

Meinzer: Thats what I said when I read this, too. Im like, What?

Harris: For those who dont know, Philip is just the king of racial and misogynistic gaffes. He said many, many terrible things in public and they cannot all be discounted as just the ramblings of an old man. Hes kind of terrible.

Meinzer: But apparently, those two really, really clicked, and the whole family just was so overjoyed because they were worried about Harry. The family was incredibly happy when they saw how in love he was with Meghan and how much the adoration went both ways.

Harris: I am not impressed by Philips role in all this. But I guess I can find some compassion in my heart for Harry and Meghans romance. What time do we have to wake up to watch this?

Meinzer: Coverage starts at 4 a.m. EST.

Harris: Ill let you catch me up on all the details at a godly hour.Liberals are having fun mocking Tuesdays New York Times story about the intellectual dark web. In the article, Times editor and writer Bari Weiss describes a network of writers and provocateurs who have been ostracized from polite society, mostly for saying things offensive to the left. These exiles have responded by congregating and developing their own audience.

Critics think the Times article is bad and stupid because the dissidents it profiles are bad and stupid. These dissidents arent even exiles, the critics point out: They have large audiences and are well-paid. But this is a lazy critique. Weiss hasnt venerated the IDW. She has drawn a frank portrait of its ongoing struggle between intellectuals and charlatans. If you read the article with an open mind, youll learn useful things about the IDWs insights and weaknesses. Youll also learn a thing or two about your own blinders.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Weiss doesnt pretend that the leading voices on the IDW are starving. She details their best-selling books, their tens of thousands of dollars in monthly donations, and their millions of podcast listeners and YouTube viewers. But lesser figures in this world arent so lucky. Some are scrounging for a living. Some have been warned about their job security. Some have been physically threatened. Bret Weinstein, a biologist at Evergreen State College, had to teach off campus after the police chief advised him to stay away for his own safety. Jordan Peterson, a best-selling psychologist, gave a lecture at which a protester, armed with a garrote, broke a window.

The larger problem is that these folks have become segregated from academia and mainstream media. Thats bad for them, but its also bad for people on the left and center left who dont hear their ideas. Consider some of the questions that drove troublemakers to retreat to the IDW. Heres one: Is it OK to ask all white students to leave a college campus for a day? Weinstein and his wife, Heather Heying, also a biologist at Evergreen State, said no. For that, they were called racists and hounded by their critics. They eventually resigned their jobs and sued the school for not protecting them from the resulting hostility.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Heres another question: Should parents of children with gender dysphoria take social and hormonal measures to transition these kids at an early age? Debra Soh, who began life as a gender-dysphoric girl and is now a straight female neuroscientist, got in trouble for cautioning against such measures. In a 2015 op-ed, she cited research indicating that most gender-dysphoric kids grow out of that feeling.

Or how about this: Is it wrong to make women wear burqas? Sam Harris, a neuroscientist and podcaster, says yes. That position offends people on the left who think its wrong to judge other cultures. The moral confusion that operates under the banner of multiculturalism,  Harris tells Weiss, can blind even well-educated people to the problems of intolerance and cruelty in other communities.

Advertisement

Advertisement

You can argue with Weinstein, Heying, Soh, or Harris. You can doubt whether they needed to leave academia or the mainstream media to defend their views. But the fact is, they left. Thats a problem. Its a sign that something is wrong in our public square.

The most wrongheaded indictment of the Times story is that Weiss glorifies as dissidents and heretics people who are really just idiots or demagogues. In reality, she spends much of the article dissecting the cranks, grifters and bigots who populate the IDW. She reprimands Candace Owens, a young black right-winger, for telling blacks, despite evidence to the contrary, that immigrants are stealing their jobs. She calls the IDWs credulous treatment of Alex Jones and Mike Cernovich cynical or stupid.

Advertisement

Advertisement

The IDWs predicament, according to Weiss, is that having rejected the ideological strictures of academia and the liberal media, it has become a subculture with no gatekeepers at all. Conspiracy theorists of 9/11, Sandy Hook, and Pizzagate are given platforms alongside everybody else. In this Wild West of free speech, Weiss asks, how is a viewer supposed to know whom to trust?

Weiss puts her finger on a bad habit of contrarians: violating taboo for its own sake. She raps Peterson, who, like many in the I.D.W.  seems to relish the outrage he inspires. (Ive figured out how to monetize social justice warriors, Peterson half-joked in a podcast.) She notes that skeptics in the IDW see Owens as a mere provocateur in the mold of Milo Yiannopoulos. Kanye West has compounded this problem with his vacuous comments about freethinkers and different ideas. Just because an idea is different doesnt mean its good.

Advertisement

One temptation facing the IDW, in Weiss account, is populism. Some of its leaders talk constantly about the regressive left, not the right, because stories about left-wing-outrage culture, particularly on college campuses, take off with their fans. This lures the IDW into what one of its founders, Eric Weinstein, calls audience capture: saying what your audience wants to hear, instead of what it needs to hear.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Another temptation, related to audience chasing, is celebrity worship. Weiss describes how Eric Weinstein and another IDW figure, Dave Rubin, have sucked up to Kanye West, hoping to cultivate and capitalize on his support. They might get it, at the price of rationalizing Wests nonsense.

If you read her story, youll see lots of other concerns. Schoolyard taunts (sanctimonious prick) and glib analogies (the Democrat Plantation) flourish in a culture that prizes controversy over rigor. Theres also a casual, naive inference that since free speech is good, ideas cant be harmful. The only way you can construe a group of intellectuals talking to each other as dangerous, Heying tells Weiss, is if you are scared of what they might discover.

Advertisement

But these problems arent unique to the IDW. And it has many features and practices that the left, right, and center ought to emulate. It offers a forum to skeptics and dissenters. Its politically diverse, ranging from Trumpers to Never Trumpers to Bernie Sanders fans. It attracts people who arent afraid to confront [their] own tribe, such as Ben Shapiro, who left Breitbart News when it became a Trump mouthpiece. It encourages civil dialogue. It cultivates debate over everything from Trumps truthfulness to Wests foolishness.

You dont have to love the IDW. You dont even have to think it does more good than harm. But you ought to ask why so many people have fled to it, what we can learn from it, and why self-satisfied progressives are so quick to dismiss it.While theres still much to piece together from the revelations involving Donald Trumps personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and his shell company, Essential Consultants LLC, the possibility that Trump was personally involved in Cohens self-dealing could make the ordeal one of the most serious corruption scandals in presidential history.

First, the facts. Cohens company took more than $4 million in payments from various companies, including one linked to a Russian oligarch. Theres no direct evidence that Cohen was involved in a pay-to-play scheme, but it certainly looks suspicious. Cohen accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from major corporations with business before the Trump administration, including AT&T, which made four payments totaling $200,000 to Cohens shell company and only ceased those payments after Trumps Federal Communications Commission repealed regulations around net neutrality. Cohen also took $500,000 in payments from Columbus Nova, an investment firm tied to Russian oligarch (and Vladimir Putin ally) Viktor Vekselberg. While we dont know if those payments are related directly to President Trump, we do know that last year, Cohen hand-delivered to thennational security adviser Michael Flynn a plan to lift sanctions against Russia.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Its possible this is all innocuous, that Cohena fixer for Trump who, with his knowledge, used cash from this shell company to pay hush money to a pornographic actress for an extramarital affairalso maintained an aboveboard consulting firm, for which these payments are legal and legitimate. But if that isnt true, if what were looking at is the outline of a broad network of improper payments and illegal contributions, then we have something truly unprecedented. No, its not Watergate or Iran-Contrawhere the president and his executive branch took extraconstitutional actions that threatened the integrity of the entire system. But it is the kind of blatant self-enrichmentcorruption in the traditional sensethat we rarely see at this level of American politics, or at this scale.

Advertisement

It is the kind of blatant self-enrichmentcorruption in the traditional sensethat we rarely see at this level of American politics, or at this scale.

Indeed, past examples of presidential corruption didnt actually involve the presidents tarnished by them. Ulysses S. Grant was savaged throughout his presidency for the self-dealing and personal enrichment that plagued his administration. Most notorious was the Whiskey Ring scandal of 1875, wherein whiskey distillers successfully bribed Treasury Department agents, helping them evade millions of dollars in taxes. But, once he became aware of this wrongdoing, Grant gave Treasury Secretary Benjamin Bristow full freedom to pursue an investigation that eventually ended with criminal indictments against multiple officials, including Grants secretary, Orville Babcock.

Advertisement

The gold standard for presidential corruption, the Teapot Dome scandal under President Warren Harding, involved Interior Secretary Albert Fall. Fall had taken more than $400,000 in cash and no-interest personal loans in exchange for arranging low-rate, noncompetitive contracts for friendly oil companies. In todays dollars, thats nearly $6 million in bribes. Hardings offense was managerialindifferent to allegations of wrongdoing against Fall, he took no action to investigate claims of quid pro quo. It wasnt until after the presidents death in 1923 that an investigation would uncover the breadth of Falls deceit, earning him a $100,000 fine, nine months in prison, and the dubious honor of being the first former Cabinet member convicted of a felony committed while in office.

Advertisement

Advertisement

By contrast, President Trump is directly involved in this unfolding scandal. He now admits that he reimbursed Cohen to buy Stormy Daniels silence. And given his close relationship with Cohen, its possible he knew Fortune 500 companies and Russian oligarchs were funneling millions of dollars to the same account used to pay for his liaisons. Even if Trump is nominally disconnected from some of Cohens activities, what we already know about Daniels and the web of payments to keep her silent is damning. Add the ongoing scandal of Trumps self-enrichment from the office of the presidency, and you have a previously unseen level of corruption from the White House.

Advertisement

This is all the more egregious because, in addition to his own corruption, Trump is presiding over a host of corruption scandals in his Cabinet, from nepotism and abuse of taxpayer funds at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to the torrent of petty graft at the Environmental Protection Agency, where Administrator Scott Pruitt is under fire for his ties to lobbyists and other unethical behavior.

Advertisement

The permissive attitude toward this type of graft has filtered down to others in the Republican Party. On Tuesday, ABC News interviewed West Virginia voters as they cast their ballots in the states Republican Senate primary. One of those voters lost three cousins in the mine explosion overseen by Don Blankenship, one of the three candidates for the nomination. Still, that voter backed the former coal baron, who went to prison for his culpability in the accident. I want an honest crook, and thats Blankenship, said the voter.

Blankenship lost, but that same sentiment helped Trump become president. And it continues to buoy Trump as he is beset by scandal. It reflects the broad idea that Washington and its denizens are corrupt; that politicians are corrupt; and that open corruption is better than the alternative. But while Washington is marred by self-dealing and countless conflicts of interest, its also true that the casual corruption and graft of a Trump or Pruitt or Blankenship are rare. And what seems present from Michael Cohen, and potentially the president, is extraordinary.

A certain amount of cynicism about the process is warranted. But most politicians arent crooks, and to believe otherwise is to give license to those who only care to line their pockets, and will betray the public to do it.I wrote Thursday morning that the Washington Post had printed a column that qualified as the worst take on the debate over whether Gina Haspel, who supported the torture of War on Terror detainees, should become CIA director. I was very wrong. This is the worst take:

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Thats Thomas McInerney, an Air Force veteran and Fox News Insider who has appeared on the network to discuss military issues for many years. (The clip above is from its sister business channel.) The Songbird John claim appears to be derived from a debunked 2008 smear campaign that was launched against McCain in part by a notorious North Carolina man who was convicted of assault in 1993 for attacking one of McCains aides.

McInerneys previous highlight as an analyst was probably when he reported that secret information indicated the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 plane had been diverted to Pakistan for potential use as a weapon of mass destruction. (The information is starting to become verified, he told Sean Hannity at the time. Weve got a lot of sensors up there  I suspect we may, in the next 24 to 48 hours, start hearing from either the Malaysian government or the Pakistani government. If the Pakistani government doesnt talk soon, theyre going to be complicit in this. Responded Hannity: Id argue that theyre complicit now. The plane did not land in Pakistan.)

Advertisement

McCain is currently recuperating from cancer treatment and surgery in Arizona.

Advertisement

Update, May 11: The Fox Business host who was speaking to McInerney, Charles Payne, has issued an apology.

This morning on a show I was hosting, a guest made a very false and derogatory remark about Senator John McCain. At the time, I had the control room in my ear telling me to wrap the segment, and did not hear the comment. I regret I did not catch this remark, as it should have been challenged. As a proud military veteran and son of a Vietnam Vet these words neither reflect my or the networks feelings about Senator McCain, or his remarkable service and sacrifice to this country.

Advertisement

Advertisement

CNN media reporter Brian Stelter says Fox has told him, meanwhile, that McInerney will no longer appear on its networks.

The retired Air Force officers wildly defamatory comment is, however, expected to immediately make him a leading contender to win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. (Joke.) (Maybe.)

Further Update, 12:05 p.m. on May 11: A Fox spokeswoman emails to clarify that McInerney has not been a paid Fox News contributor since last August, when he raised eyebrows for suggesting that a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula would not necessarily have significant downside becuase the people who would die in it would be mostly North Koreans. Prior to being taken off the payroll, McInerney had made at least 150 Fox News appearances over the course of at least 15 years, during which time he stated in a court document that Barack Obama may have been constitutionally ineligible to be president because he was born abroad and told Bill OReilly that the U.S. didnt find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq because Russian special forces troops hid them in Syria on Saddam Husseins behalf.Gina Haspel was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday facing questions from senators in her quest to become head of the CIA. On Wednesdays Gist, Mike Pesca spoke with Tim Weiner, author of Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, about the hearings. They discussed how Haspel dodged several questions about her involvement in torture as a CIA officer and what that means for the agency going forward. The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mike Pesca: What were the most revealing questions?

Advertisement

Tim Weiner: Sen. Kamala Harris of California [asked], Is torture moral, yes or no? No, [Haspel] wouldnt go there.

Is there good evidence that torture has yielded actionable and unique information?

No. In fact, the CIA inspector general said it didnt. People who are being tortured will say anything to stop the torture. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, was waterboarded 184 times in 2003, and he told the CIA that there were black Muslims training up in Montana to execute terrorist attacks, which is not true.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

I could understand looking at Gina Haspels resume and saying that it is unfortunate that we cannot know more, but it is also proper that we cannot know more. And I could also understand saying that there are conflicting virtues in such an organization, and one is we really do want people to follow orders. But I cant really understand the way of thinking that you would want someone in that job who could not say flat out that torture is immoral.

Advertisement

You know, espionage is amoral. A CIA officer working overseas, as Haspel did for most of her career, is a species of legal criminal. Espionage is illegal everywhere. Youre asking people to commit treason when you recruit them as agents. Its a dirty, difficult, dangerous business, and it requires lying about who you are and what you do.

Now, you can be a great clandestine services officer, but when you get back to Washington, you cant lie to your fellow Americans. You cant lie to your fellow CIA administrators and bosses back at headquarters. If you do, youre dead. Intelligence is based on trust, and if you cant trust one another, youre doomed.

Advertisement

This is also why we have civilian control and oversight of the CIA. We might want a nest of these amoral actors doing the best they can to get us the information, but we also should very much want the people at the top defining where the lines are, and thats why elected senators have to confirm Haspel. I understand that she has a great resume and shes skilled in many areas, but it seems very problematic to have no one in the chain who will say, Well, the bright lines are to be drawn by me.

Advertisement

The great problem with congressional oversight of the CIA is that oversight is one of those words that has two meanings.

Advertisement

Since 9/11 it has been the prevalent meaning of congressional oversight to look the other way. There are important exceptions, but weve gotten to the point where certainly most of our elected representatives are willing to take what comes in exchange for a promise that there wont be another 9/11 attack.

Should senators have set up a scenario where they concede that perhaps you were a person in the chain of command who had an order that was signed off by the Justice Department, but what we want to do here is determine that if you were higher up in that chain of command what would you have said?

Advertisement

Theres a crucial couple of years2005, 2006, 2007that Haspel would not address, when she was a senior officer in counterterrorism and in the clandestine service, the division of CIA that does spying. Torture had been outlawed, largely at the instigation of Sen. McCain, who knows something about torture, having been tortured as a prisoner of war.

Advertisement

"I think that most people at the CIA are going to be standing on their chairs cheering if shes confirmed, because shes one of them."  Tim Weiner

Whats the CIA doing in response? Is it saying, Stand down, everybody? Use kid gloves? Follow the Army field manual, which forbids violent interrogations? Theres a lot of ambiguity because people have been deceiving their superiors on this issue, on the destruction of the tapes, and everybodys kind of hunkered down in the defensive posture because nobody wants to be indicted.

We dont know what Haspel did in positions of first-rank responsibility. We do know this: I think that most people at the CIA, both the intelligence officers and the analysts, are going to be standing on their chairs cheering if shes confirmed, because shes one of them.

Advertisement

Weve had a lot of politicians running the CIAMike Pompeo, most recently. Porter Goss was Bushs choice, a congressman, a terrible director, disastrous leadership. There hasnt been somebody straight out of senior leadership in the clandestine service confirmed since Richard Helms in 1965.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Was he a good chief?

He, in my opinion, was one of the very best. Unfortunately, he also had to plead guilty to lying to Congress later in his career and paid a $2,000 fine.

He had two oaths. One, put your hand on the Bible, raise your right hand, and swear to tell the truth at his confirmation hearings to become ambassador to Iran in 1973. The second oath [was] to protect the secrets. Asked if to the CIA had anything to do with trying to overthrow the government of Chile, he said, No senator, nope, not us. Lie.

Operation Condor.

And these twin oaths between keeping the secrets and telling the truth to your fellow Americans, Haspel is the embodiment of the contradiction. She chose not to talk about crucial elements of her career, including elements that would sound great if the American people knew about them. She didnt say, but I can tell you that she served in Baku, Azerbaijan, she served in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, she served in the Middle East, and with specific emphasis on targeting Moscows espionage in those countries. Thats hard work, and she deserves respect for that. And the CIA has chosen to declassify details like she once helped out Mother Teresa. Does that make her a saint?

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Apart from the enhanced interrogation and extraordinary rendition aspects of what she did, does her experience, resume, and comportment argue for her, or against her, to lead the CIA?

Shes obviously smart. Shes obviously dedicated. She obviously, having spent the last 31 years working at the CIA, knows the agency upside down and backward. Having particular expertise in Russian operations, she might be handy to have around when the Russia investigation gets closer and closer to the White House, which it will. The intelligence component of that is going to be crucial, and cooperation with Robert Mueller will be essential to the pursuit of the case.

Advertisement

What if Trump says, I want you to do something immoral, illegal, or just plain insane? She said, I am not going to re-institute torture. She said that flat out. She had to say that, or shed be doomed.

Advertisement

What Id want to know if I were sitting up there is how do you brief the president when he wont listen to anything longer than a tweet? How will intelligence inform the White House? How are you going to get ground truths through Donald Trumps thick head? What if he doesnt want to talk to you? What if he does things that you think are palpably nuts? How do you speak truth to power?

Advertisement

From your reporting, does the rank and file of the CIA or even the elites within the CIA, do they view the enhanced interrogation program as just doing our job, and perhaps an ugly consequence of their loyalty and their oath? Or do they view it as something that should have been done, and ugly, but it was the right thing to do?

Advertisement

I think now they realize, 15, 16 years after the fact, that they didnt know how to do this, they should never have been given the job, and that they dont want to do it again.

Thats the consensus in the CIA?

I mean, people probably should have gone to jail over this. Weve never had a full reckoning. Weve never had a public examination of this. Weve never had the facts to deal with that. But these were violations of laws of God and man, not to mention the Geneva Conventions.

Why is it that then shes so popular? Why is it more of a circling the wagons if theyve had this rethinking of the actual misdeeds?

Advertisement

Advertisement

When youre let into the clandestine service of the CIA, when you become a spy, its like youre being initiated into a mystical sect. Only you and you fellow brothers and sisters can understand. Everybody else doesnt understand. No one can fully grasp the power, the mystique, of your smoke and your mirrors, and your rituals, and your rites.

Advertisement

That said, intelligence is a necessity. Yes, its distasteful. Yes, its a dangerous and dirty business. But, if youre a superpower thats projecting your power overseas, if you dont have the intelligence, youre dead. When intelligence fails, people die.

And weve only been at this for barely 70 years, the United States, running a secret intelligence service. The British have been at it since Queen Elizabeth I in 1500s. The Russians have been at it since Peter the Great in the early 1800s. And the Chinese have been at it since Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War 26 centuries ago.

Advertisement

Were grownupswe realize we have to be good at this. Are we good at it? Not very. So I think for CIA officers to have one of their own put in the No. 1 position as directorsomeone who, with the exception of torture, had by all accounts an exemplary careertheyre willing to live with the stain.

How might things have been different if John McCain were there in person?

That would have changed the entire ballgame. If McCain had lifted his bony index finger and pointed at Gina Haspel and said, You are a participant in one of the darkest chapters in the history of this country, you countenanced torture, she could not have looked him back in the eye.On Tuesday, a white graduate student at Yale called the police to report that one of her black classmates was napping in a dorm common area. The ensuing encounter between the police and the student, Lolade Siyonbola, who is getting a masters degree in African studies, was captured in a video that has drawn national attention to the case.

Its the latest in a string of recent incidents in which white Americans have called the police on their black neighbors for nothing at all: In Philadelphia, it was Starbucks while black. In Rialto, California, Airbnb while black. And in New Haven, Connecticut, trying to pull an all-nighter while black.

Advertisement

At the core of each incident is white Americans deep suspicion and mistrust of their black neighbors. The most infamous example of this dynamic occurred in Sanford, Florida, in February 2012, when neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman called the police on 17-year-old Trayvon Martin before stalking him, confronting him, and killing him. (The Sanford Police Department told Zimmerman not to follow Martin; Zimmerman was ultimately acquitted on charges of second-degree murder.) But more mundane displays of this regularly play out on forums like NextDoor, a website for neighborhood news and activism where interest gravitates, tabloid-style, towards perceived disorder and its perpetrators.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

What warrants a call to the police? In 2014, writing in the aftermath to the death of Eric Garner, who died in an illegal police chokehold while being detained for selling cigarettes in Staten Island, New York, Emily Bazelon made the case that white people ought to avoid calling the police on black people in non-emergency situations, given the increased risks they face from law enforcement. Its become pretty much a given for me that if the criminal justice system gets a hold of a black person, especially if he is poor, there is a terrible, heightened risk that it will try to crush him, she wrote. Its fair to assume Bazelons strategy has become more prevalent among liberal whites as videos and reports of police brutality become more and more common.

Advertisement

In many places, the police are being called less often, not more, than a trusted force should be.

This recent spate of 911 calls gone awry may prompt renewed ethical debates at dinner parties in Center City Philadelphia or New Haven, a reflection of an expanding awareness of a national crisis of confidence in police. But, as ever, liberal whites are a little late to the issue, which is not just that the police are being called too often, but also that many people dont trust law enforcement enough to call 911 at all. For minorities, immigrants, and lower-income Americans, as well as those living with mental illness, the legitimacy of the police has been in question for years. Whites are abusing a privilege those people dont even have. In many places, the police are being called less often, not more, than a trusted force should be.

Advertisement

Advertisement

In 2016, a team of sociologists analyzed more than a million 911 calls made over a period of seven years in Milwaukee. The idea was to discern how the brutal 2004 beating of Frank Jude, a black man leaving a party in a white neighborhood, and subsequent police cover-up would have affected black confidence in calling the MPD. They found that calls to police dropped steeply after the Jude beating, especially in black neighborhoods. And 911 calls also dropped in black neighborhoods after two other high-profile police shootings, one of whichthe 2006 killing of Sean Bell by plainclothes and undercover NYPD officersoccurred more than 1,000 miles away.

Advertisement

High-profile cases of excessive police force constitute a severe breach in the social contract that exists between citizens and the criminal justice system, the researchers concluded. That breach is so sudden and violent when unarmed black men are beaten or killed that virtually no institutional response, from public apologies to sanctioning offending officers, can swiftly repair it. The result was a city where crimes went unreported and witnesses were less likely to come forward. The six-month period in 2005 after Judes story was reported in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel saw a 32 percent increase in homicides over the previous and subsequent year, the deadliest spring and summer over the seven-year period.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Families of those with mental illness have long said that police forces are ill-trained to respond to reports of peopleespecially minoritieswho may not be able to submit to their orders. Last month, police in New York shot and killed Saheed Vassell, a Brooklyn man who struggled with bipolar disorder. Three locals called 911 reporting that Vassell was threatening people with what appeared to be a gun; after he was shot, the object was revealed to be a pipe. The New York Daily News reported on other New Yorkers with loved ones who struggled with mental illness. Even those who fear that their relatives will hurt themselves or those around them are reluctant to make 911 calls.

This problem has been compounded by the lax and inconsistent application of federal law protecting disabled people from police violence. The Americans with Disabilities Act clearly requires law enforcement officers to accommodate mentally ill individualsby, for instance, refraining from pulling the trigger when a disabled person does not immediately respond to a verbal command. But while lower courts have confirmed and enforced this rule, the Supreme Court has yet to resolve it definitively. That ambiguity has allowed officers to flout their obligations under the ADA. Nearly half of police shooting victims are mentally ill.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Residents of low-income communities have other reasons to hesitate before calling the cops. Across the country, nuisance laws trigger penalties for residents who make multiple 911 calls, discouraging victims of domestic violence from reporting their abusers. Landlords receive fines for addresses that draw multiple police visits, and usually respond by evicting tenants. (The ACLU has sued to overturn nuisance laws in several places, but they remain popular among municipal leaders.) In addition to penalizing survivors of domestic abuse, an Ohio study found that nuisance designations tend to fall on people experiencing mental health crises and residents seeking medical assistance to prevent a fatal drug overdose, expanding the group of people who have strong incentives not to call the police.

Advertisement

When white people call the police, they expect the level of caution and respect theyve grown accustomed to in their law enforcement interactions.

Another group thats not calling the police: immigrants. Beginning in the George W. Bush years, city and county police departments established 287(g) agreements with the Department of Homeland Security, which deputized beat cops to serve as immigration police. Many of these agreements were phased out during the Obama administration, but theyve come roaring back under Trump as part of the presidents efforts to turn Immigration and Customs Enforcement into a ruthlessly efficient deportation force.

Undocumented immigrants may thus have good reason not to trust their local police. Some have called 911 to report a crime and instead wound up detained by ICE. Some conservative states like Texas have passed laws that force every police officer to act as an immigration agent. The results have been predictable: According to a recent survey, undocumented Mexican immigrants in San Diego said they would be 60 percent less likely to report a crime if they knew local police were working with ICE, and 43 percent less likely to report being a victim of a crime. ICE activity at courthouses has further discouraged immigrants from cooperating with local law enforcement, which is one reason police chiefs have defended sanctuary city measures as law-and-order policies that build trust in immigrant communities rather than degrade it.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

What these accounts show is that while well-off white people may call the police too frequently, we wont solve this problem by discouraging them from doing so. Bad laws, bad police, and a bad criminal justice system have already had a chilling effect on trust in law enforcement. Yes, the student who called the cops on Lolade Siyonbola was partly at fault. But so, too, were the officers who treated her like a legitimate suspect, seeming to assume her guilt.

Things being what they are, white people should think long and hard before calling the police on a minority. Many of us have been inculcated with a vision of cops as benign guardians of liberty. Yet their presence raises the possibility of racial bias, abuse, and even extrajudicial execution. We should resist calling the police when were suspicious of a minor crime like shoplifting. We should reserve 911 for situations that present the possibility of violence. Each time we call the cops, we risk shunting someone into a racist criminal justice system designed to strip them of their rights and dignity.

Advertisement

In March, Dave Reiling, a resident of Sacramento, California, called the police after somebody broke into his truck. When officers arrived on the scene, they promptly shot Stephon Clarka black, 22-year-old, unarmed father of two, standing on his grandparents patioeight times, killing him. It makes me never want to call 911 again, Reiling said three weeks later. They shot an innocent person.

There, in a nutshell, is Americas 911 problem: When white people like Reiling call the police, they expect the level of caution and respect theyve grown accustomed to in their own law enforcement interactions. For many Americans, thats not the way things turn out. This state of affairs is the result of a police force that operates under the assumption of white innocence and black guilt. One consequence of that? When the most vulnerable members of society need the police, they are too afraid for their own wellbeing to summon them to the scene.Iranian and Israeli forces exchanged fire early Thursday morning, according to the Israeli military, which said it retaliated with missile strikes after Iran launched 20 missiles targeting Israeli military positions in the Golan Heights. Heavy military jet activity, explosions and air-defense fire could be heard throughout the night in the area, the Washington Post reports.

According to the Israeli military, the rockets were fired by special forces linked to Irans Revolutionary Guards, a move, which, if confirmed, would mark an ominous milestonethe first time Iran has carried out a rocket attack directly on Israel. The two countries have been conducting a proxy war in Syria under the guise of the countrys ongoing civil war.

Advertisement

Israel has reported no known casualties and minimal damage as a result of the rocket attack; a portion of the rockets were intercepted by Israels Iron Dome missile defense system. Israel had been bracing for a retaliatory attack from Syrian territory after a number of deadly strikes against Iranian targets [in the Golan Heights], the New York Times reports. But analysts said the Iranians had been restrained from striking back while awaiting President Trumps decision on whether to withdraw the United States from the nuclear agreement with Iran.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, the IDFs Arabic-language Twitter account said its military was moving against Iranian targets in Syria and warned Damascus not to intervene, the Guardian reports. Syrian state media said anti-air defenses were responding to a new wave of Israeli missiles and is dropping them one by one. It said shells fired from Israel hit southern Syrias Quneitra province, adjacent to the Golan Heights.From 2012 to 2014, Michael McFaul served as Barack Obamas ambassador to Russia. This was a time of tension in the ever-worsening relationship, but one that almost seems quaint in hindsight. Russia had not annexed Crimea, the ensuing American sanctions had not enraged Vladimir Putin and his inner circle, and the idea of Russian meddling in a presidential election eventually won by their preferred candidate, Donald Trump, would have seemed deranged. And yet, here we are.

In his new book From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putins Russia, McFaul looks back at his time in Moscow, explains why it came to an abrupt end, and examines how U.S.-Russian relations went even further off the rails after he left. His book is both a history of the postCold War period and an account of trying to conduct diplomacy with Putin and his inner circle.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

I spoke by phone with McFaul recently. During the course of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed how people still misunderstand Putins power, whether the Obama team did enough to combat Russian interference, and what has and hasnt surprised him about the still mysterious Russia scandal.

Isaac Chotiner: When you look back on the U.S.-Russia relationship over the past decade, do you see the fundamental realities of the relationship as being inevitable based on the different interests of the countries? Or do you think there was a different path out there, and because of policy mistakes on one or both sides, we didnt end up in a better place?

Advertisement

Michael McFaul: I think thats the fundamental question. I do not think we were destined to be in this conflictual relationship based on interests, or history, or the balance of power in the international system. I dont see it that way at all.

I think the real drivers for our current confrontational relationship were two things. One is Putin came back as president. One might have thought that the difference between being prime minister and president wouldnt have been that much on policy. It turned out to be rather fundamental, because his worldview was very different than President [Dmitry] Medvedev. He saw us as a competitor. He framed issues in zero-sum terms. Medvedev did not. Just that change had an impact. It would have been different had Medvedev in some way become president in 2012.

Advertisement

Advertisement

In combination with that, what I think was fundamental in driving us apart were our different responses to popular movements in the world. First starting in the Arab Spring in 2011, where we reacted to those events just like everybody else. We didnt promote those events initially, but Putin thought that we were promoting regime change in all of those countries, not just Syria but Egypt, and Libya, and the entire region. That became a real confrontational moment in our relationship. Even more important were popular demonstrations first in Russia that started in 2011 and bled into 2012, and then Ukraine in November 2013, ending with the fall of [Viktor] Yanukovych in 2014. In both of those cases, Putin thought that we were trying to foment revolution.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Wouldnt the Putin case be that we did overthrow Muammar Qaddafi and were clearly supportive of the revolution in Ukraine? Again, that doesnt excuse his behavior at all, but it does seem like his worldview is not coming out of a vacuum.

Yes and no. First of all, to run the initial counterfactual, youve got to think about two different counterfactuals. One is: What if there was no Arab Spring? It wasnt inevitable that that would happen the way it did. We most certainly didnt anticipate it, I can tell you that. What if there werent popular demonstrations in Russia against the regime? I think U.S.-Russian relations would have been on a very different trajectory. Same with Ukraine. Those were all shocks to the U.S.-Russia relationship, exogenous shocks is what we could call it in political science, that neither we nor the Russians had any control over. You take those out, you have a different trajectory.

Advertisement

Advertisement

The second one is important, the way you just described Putin, and youre right. If Putin is the president, and is in charge, and these events happen, given his worldviewhis personal worldview, not the Russian worldviewthats the way he will frame, and understand, and theorize, if you will, about what was happening in those events. By the way, he was very blunt about that in explaining it to Obama when they met.

But imagine two other counterfactuals. One, Medvedev stays as president. In fact, you dont even need to think about the counterfactual. When Medvedev was president, there was a color revolution, a so-called color revolution in Kyrgyzstan. The regime was overthrown. One hundred people died. Three hundred thousand people left the country. It felt like it was a civil war, and we didnt get into, Youre to blame, No, youre to blame, over that. We actually worked with Medvedev to defuse that crisis. Kyrgyzstans not as important as Ukraine, of course, but its a part of the Eurasian Economic Union. Thats the dog that didnt bark. Thats the nonevent that could have been a major event.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Then the second bigger counterfactual: Theres this myth that is locked in after 20 years of his rule that Putin was the natural outcome of the chaos of the 90s and that there was this massive popular demand for Putin, and Putinism, and the strongman taking over in Russia. Thats myth, because the truth is Putin was chosen by Boris Yeltsin to be the next president of Russia. The people ratified it, but it was Yeltsin anointing him as his successor, back when Putin had an identification of 5 percent. Nobody knew who he was when he was prime minister. If you think about that event, and imagine, had the other heir apparent from 1997 become president. And we know from his memoirs, we know from things that hes said, that Yeltsin actually had chosen Boris Nemtsov to be his heir apparent. He brought him from Nizhny Novgorod to be the first deputy prime minister. He was grooming him to be his successor. What happened was that August 1998 financial crash, which then compelled Yeltsin to fire that whole government. Had that not happened, August 1998, again another outside variable, it starts in Korea, not Russia, and Boris Nemtsov had become president, I think the trajectory of U.S.-Russian relations would have been very different.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

You keep bringing up Medvedev, and I think the common perception in the West was that he was essentially Putins puppet of some sort, and was doing Putins bidding, and Putin could choose, which he did, to come back, and that he always held power. From what youre saying, it seems like the Russian system is maybe more complicated than that.

Medvedev strikes me, and I got to know him pretty well when he was president, as a leader with lots of ambition, and I would say instincts towards political modernization, economic modernization. Hes the guy that started their equivalent, what they would like to be their equivalent of the Silicon Valley.

Advertisement

We still have time to warn him.

Advertisement

He had constrained power because of Putin, and when push came to shove, he was ready to play second fiddle and step down. When he did that, by the way, it really disappointed not just Western liberal opposition leaders, but the like-minded thinkers like him in the Russian government.

So why did he do it?

Because he was offered, Either you step aside, or Im going to run against you and crush you, and youll have no job. That was what he was offered, to be prime minister or to be on the sidelines.

Advertisement

Why did Putin feel the need to step aside initially in the first place then?

He did not want to violate the constitution. I believe that. I do think he thought that this might work, to have the good cop, bad cop, to have Medvedev as this face to the external Western world while Putin could be doing other things. We tend to grossly oversimplify the way the Russian government works. In that system, Medvedev was in charge of foreign policy.

Advertisement

We even tried to reach out to Putin, for instance in trying to get new sanctions on Iran. When we did, he pushed us back and said, Go deal with Medvedev. I actually set up that phone call in the fall of 2009 where we called Putin under the excuse of talking about our Olympic bid, because hes the expert on the Olympics. Obama called him, and then he tried to segue from that conversation over to Iran. Putin said, I dont do foreign policy, because Im the prime minister, but I just happen to have the president sitting right here. Were having lunch. Let me hand over the phone to him. That was a clear sign to us about who was in charge.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Im scared of that world, where youre going to watch a video of me someday, and its going to look like me and sound like me, but the words are not going to be mine.  Michael McFaul

Then the biggest moment, if you dont want to believe my anecdote, the clearest moment where you had a really stark disagreement about foreign policy, was in the spring of 2011, when we were fearful about genocide in Benghazi, Libya. We wanted to stop that, what we thought was going to be just a slaughter of innocent civilians. Medvedev supported us. He went along with U.N. Security Council resolutions. He didnt vote for them, but he abstained from them, knowing fully well that that was going to lead to military intervention. That had never happened in the history of Russia or the Soviet Union at the U.N. Security Council, where they were acquiescing to military intervention in a sovereign country. Putin didnt like that decision, and he came out after the resolution passed, two days later, publicly for the first time ever, chastising Medvedev for being naive about American intentions. In my own view, that was the beginning of the end of Medvedev as president. I think it was also the beginning of the end of the reset.

Advertisement

Some people have speculated that Obama and Putins personal chemistry was really bad, and that played a role in worsening relations. From your experience, was that true?

Advertisement

Well, yes and no. Was it true that they had bad chemistry? The answer to that is yes. They are very different people. Medvedev, temperamentally, educationally, normatively was much closer to Obama than Putin. Remember Medvedev was a lawyer, 10 years younger, didnt go to KGB school, didnt spend most of his formative years working for the KGB.

But I would also say that we tend to overestimate, including me in my previous writings, the role of chemistry in diplomatic relations. Nobody does anybody any favors because they had a nice piece of chocolate cake or they had a good summit. Everybodys out there defending what they believe to be the national interests of their country. In that respect, no amount of chemistry was going to overcome Putins fundamental distrust of us when it came to what he believed was our role in fomenting these popular uprisings.

Advertisement

Advertisement

From what Ive read, it sounds like the Obama people and Obama himself, just like everyone else, thought Hillary Clinton was going to win, and that really than rather rock the boat before the election, they decided not to respond maximally to Russian interference. Do you think, in retrospect, that was a mistake?

Advertisement

Advertisement

Yes. Thats a hard call, because they were damned if they did, they were damned if they didnt. They knew that. I had left the government by then, but these are all people I know well. They tried to square the difference with that Oct. 7 statement that they made. In retrospectand Im glad you used that phrase, because its easy to say in retrospectI would have liked them to make more of that timing. I worked at the White House for three years. I know if you want to create news, there are ways to do it. You have the president make the statement. You background it with journalists. Its called the rollout. They did a rollout of that statement that was very distant from the White House for political reasons. I think they erred too far on the side of caution, but I think its a really close call. I dont want to pretend that it would have been easy to do.

Advertisement

Every time I interview someone who spent a lot of time in Moscow or spent a lot of time around the Russian elite, I like to ask them what they make of the Russia scandal, because I find people often have a different take than people here do. Whats your perspective on it?

Advertisement

When I was the U.S. ambassador, I experienced firsthand this disinformation put out about me. I guess we call it fake news now. They put out nasty things about me that were just untrue. They were untrue. They would Photoshop my image on posters, and made it sound like I was trying to overthrow the regime. The bottom of it, real bottom-feeding, was when they put out a video of me suggesting that I was a pedophile. That level of disinformation and just grotesque stuff, I experienced early on. That part that is all revelatory for people that dont understand the Russian system as well, I knew back then, because they had been using those tactics not just against me but against opposition leaders as well.

Advertisement

Advertisement

By the way, I think theres a lot more coming on that front, because the technology is getting better. Im scared of that world, where youre going to watch a video of me someday, and its going to look like me and sound like me, but the words are not going to be mine. Its going to be hard to know whether its really me or not. The Russians have invested heavily in those kinds of technologies. Thats the one I would say where what I experienced and what we saw in 2016, I see continuity.

Second, and I dont want to get ahead of my skis here, because I dont know where the investigation will end and what Mr. Muellers going to find, but I do know that Vladimir Putin uses surrogates all the time, business surrogates, to create leverage with people through business arrangements, usually through corrupt business arrangements. Thats how he creates leverage against the oligarchs inside of Russia, and thats how he operates in parts of the post-Soviet world. That murky world of giving money, paying three times the price for this, that, and the other, those are very common Putin instruments of influence that I have seen up close and personal in Russia. I wont be surprised by that part.

The part that does surprise me was the audacity of the intervention. Both the stealing of the emails, and publishing them through surrogates, sending Russians into our country acting as Americans. Ive lived in Russia for six or seven years of my life. Ive known Putin since 1991. Even I was shocked by the chutzpah and the audacity of those activities. I would not have predicted that in 2016.Republicans have a not-so-secret weapon to counteract all those small-donor Democrats: A few very rich friends.

Politico reported Thursday that casino mogul Sheldon Adelson recently gave $30 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the Paul Ryan-aligned super PAC that plans to spend big defending House Republicans this fall. Thats three times the total Adelson gave to the group in 2016, a year that would see Democrats gain a half-dozen seats but still come up nearly 50 seats short of a majority. Adelsons check represents more than half the $51 million the CLF raised during the entire 2016 cycle, and more than what the group brought in during the 2014 and 2012 campaigns combined, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Advertisement

Of course, Ryan, as an elected official, isnt legally allowed to ask Adelson for that much money. So instead, the House speaker reportedly flew to Las Vegas last week for the meeting, but then left the room so his friends could close the deal for him.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Adelsons donation, which will show up in the groups next FEC filing, will add to the Congressional Leadership Funds advantage over its Democratic counterpart, the House Majority Fund. As of early April, the CLF had raised $42 million, while the Nancy Pelosi-aligned House Majority Fund had brought in a relatively paltry $19 million.

Small-dollar fundraising may be a good gauge for voters enthusiasm, but its the megadonors who are likely determine which party has more to spend in the months between now and November. In 2016, Tom Steyer gave $90 million to liberal super PACs, outspending Adelson, who sent a combined $78 million to conservative super PACs that cycle.* There were also a number of other Democrats clustered near the top of the 2016 individual super-PAC donor leaderboard, including Donald Sussman (no. 3 with $35 million), Michael Bloomberg (no. 7 with $24 million) and George Soros (no. 9 with $20 million). Steyer has already cut his own $30 million check this year, though to an outside group he controls, and just this week the New York Times reported on a new alliance of wealthy Democrats who have quietly raised nearly $10 million for a joint-committee aimed at flipping the House. (Thats 10 million apples compared to Adelsons 30 million oranges since their group is structured in a way that it can give cash directly to candidates, who get discounted ad rates.)

Advertisement

Advertisement

In 2016, GOP-aligned super PACs outspent their Democratic rivals by $165 million across all elections, $607 million to $442 million. And House Republicans are hoping to benefit from similar largesse from their friends in the midterms. Theyll likely need it given recent special elections suggest Democrats are getting far more bang for their buck these days.

Republican megadonors have good reason to heed the call. While the GOP tax law hasnt turned out to be a huge success with your average voter, it will definitely pay dividends for the partys donor class. Take Adelson, whos worth an estimated $43 billion (and who alsobonus!vehemently opposed the Iran nuclear deal that Trump just broke). As Bloomberg News Steven Dennis notes, Adelsons company, Las Vegas Sands, reported a $670 million tax windfall in the first quarter of the year thanks to the Republican tax overhaul. At that rate of return, a $30 million investment looks like a bargain.Prime Ministers Father Vova Pashinyan: There are many Nikols in Armenia

Vova Pashinyan, father of newly-elected Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, lives in his native Ijevan. Hes been in Yerevan, staying at his sons apartment, during election process. Hetq interviewed him today.

Mr. Pashinyan, you have three sons - Artak, Armen and Nikol. Why the name Nikol? Its different from the others.

It was my mom who decided, not me. When Nikol was born, I was not in Ijevan, and my mother decided to name him after my father, who went to war when I was four months old and did not return. I was very glad for that.

In 1988, when Nikol was 13 years old, he got very enthusiastic about the Armenian people's desire to gain independence. There were always rallies in front of the Ijevan Cultural House. He was always there, writing patriotic poems and reading them to the people during those rallies. People liked it. At one of the rallies, Nikol called on the Komsomol members to put down their membership tickets on the stairs. And children did it. Then he started writing very strong articles about communists, posting them on the walls of the school. Teachers complained to the principal, and the principal called me. Even when I tried to hold Nikol back from doing it, he continued.

Your son is Armenias prime minister. How do you feel about it?

I'm quite worried, since I'm afraid of my son getting harmed. It will be very difficult and hard. Why? Firstly, because they have destroyed the country. Unemployment, emigration, widespread poverty... What kind of strength and wisdom should one have to be able to restore the country?

Of course, the people are very enthusiastic, but they are also waiting for very quick changes, and it will be very difficult and strenuous to manage that hard work in a short run. Thats why Im worried.

Taking into consideration the unsuccessful movements in the past, were you optimistic this time?

I never talked to him about politics. I did not intervene in his affairs. I watched from afar, thinking about what the resolution would be. I was praying to God that no blood of our people would be split.

Recalling March 1, 2008, where I was present night and day ... I was just terrified of that thought because I knew that they were capable of everything.

What changed in 2018 for the people to wholeheartedly support Nikol Pashinyan's movement?

As the proverb says, the people's cup of patience cup had been filled. It wasnt possible to stay silent any more. People needed a driving force to protest. How long could people stand that terrible situation?

Nikol Pashinyan always made critical remarks, whether as an MP or a journalist. What was your approach, did you ever ask him to stop?

Never. Whenever Nikol visited Ijevan, I only had one thing on my mind  let my child rest a bit, get some fresh air. We never talked about political issues.

In your interview to the Russian RBC, you said that there are more intelligent people in Armenia who can represent the country.

The journalist asked if I wanted Nikol to be prime minister. I replied that there were many smart people in Armenia, and it was up to the people to choose. Why only Nikol, is there only one Nikol in Armenia? There are many of them.

Who does Nikol take after most his father or mother?

Mostlymy mother. It was my mother who raised Nikol, and he adored her.

Is it possible that youll move to Yerevan together with your family?

Never. I will never leave my Ijevan.

What kind of emotions does the prime ministers father have?

Same as before he became prime minister. I'm not boasting about my son being the country's leader. Someone has to lead the country. The leader should be a good person, someone who loves the country.

When someone gets a high position in Armenia, its always said that now relatives will also get positions. What do you think, will Nikol Pashinyan give his relatives any positions?

Never. Nikol Pashinyan should look for intelligent and professional people - be it relatives, pro-government or opposition people, and I'm sure he'll do it. He will never appoint his relatives. If he suddenly does, I will feel very hurt.

Please name one or two important issues that should be prioritized by your son's government in your opinion.

First, I consider raising our country's defense capacity a priority. Second, justice should be established in the country, so that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law.Does the U.S. Constitution require states to subsidize religious private schools? For decades, the answer has been an unambiguous no; indeed, the Supreme Court has held that, to the contrary, the Constitution prohibits government subsidies for religious organizations. Last June, however, Chief Justice John Roberts turned that rule on its head with his opinion in Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, which for the first time held that the Constitution sometimes compels states to provide public funds directly to a house of worship. Roberts decision feigned modesty, but it also seemed to open the door to the possibility of mandatory government funding of religious education.

Advertisement

On Monday, the New Mexico Supreme Court grappled with the ramifications of Trinity Lutheran in Moses v. Ruszkowski. Moses boils down to largely the same question asked by Lutheran: Can a state deny government benefits to sectarian schools because of their religious character without violating the First Amendment? Under Trinity Lutheran, at least, it appears that they cannot. This compulsory entanglement of church and state illustrates just how dramatically Roberts has undermined the constitutional separation of church and state.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

In many ways, Moses is a perfect sequel to Trinity Lutheran, because it should clarify the radical scope of Roberts ostensibly narrow opinion. Trinity Lutheran revolved around a Missouri churchs Learning Center, which is used to teach the Gospel to children. The center includes a playground, and in 2012, the church applied for a grant from the state to cover the cost of playground resurfacing. The grant program helped nonprofit entities buy rubber playground surfaces made from recycled tires. Missouri rejected the churchs application, citing a provision of the state constitution that forbids the use of public funds in aid of any church, sect or denomination of religion. Trinity Lutheran sued, alleging that Missouri had violated its rights under the First Amendments Free Exercise Clause. The Supreme Court ruled in its favor, holding that a state may not deny a public benefit to religious institutions solely because of their religious character.

Advertisement

This compulsory entanglement of church and state illustrates just how dramatically Roberts has undermined the constitutional separation of church and state.

As Justice Sonia Sotomayor explained in a dissent, this conclusion veers so far off course that it collides with a different constitutional provision: the Establishment Clause. The Supreme Court has long interpreted the Establishment Clause, which bars the government from respecting an establishment of religion, to proscribe the government from funding the exercise of religion. Roberts wriggled around this rule by insisting that the Missouri grant merely subsidized a playground, not religion itself, and thus funded strictly secular activities. But Sotomayor deftly dispensed with this fiction. The Church has a religious mission, one that it pursues through the Learning Center, she wrote. The playground surface cannot be confined to secular use any more than lumber used to frame the Churchs walls, glass stained and used to form its windows, or nails used to build its altar.

Advertisement

Advertisement

At the end of her dissent, Sotomayor warned that Roberts decision would quickly spread to cases that dealt with more than just playgrounds. She was quite right. The very next day, the court vacated two lower court decisions: one ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court holding that the state constitution barred a school district from funding vouchers for religious schools, and another from the New Mexico Supreme Court holding that the state constitution barred the legislature from funding (secular) textbooks for religious schools. SCOTUS directed both courts to reconsider these rulings in light of Trinity Lutheran.

Advertisement

The reconsideration did not get far in Colorado: In January, the case was abruptly dismissed after residents voted out the pro-voucher members and replaced them with new members eager to end the litigation. But the New Mexico case has dragged on, and on Monday, the state Supreme Court heard arguments, again, in Moses v. Ruszkowski. In 2015, the court unanimously found that the New Mexico Constitution strictly prohibited the legislature from aiding sectarian schools. Now, though, the justices had been ordered to decide if this prohibition violates the First Amendments Free Exercise Clause. They had to decide, in short, if Roberts opinion was really as sweeping as Sotomayor had charged.

Advertisement

Advertisement

With perceptive exasperation, a majority of the court seemed resigned to the fact that, yes, Roberts opinions tied their hands, casting serious doubt on the state constitutional provision that bars aid to religious schools. Their states clause is expansive and unambiguous: It declares that no funds appropriated, levied or collected for educational purposes, shall be used for the support of any sectarian, denominational or private school, college or university. In its previous decision, the court had predictably read the provision to prevent the legislature from paying for sectarian schools textbooks with public funds. While the textbooks themselves were secular, the court explained, they still helped parochial schools further their religious mission, allowing them to divert money they would have spent on instructional materials  to other uses in their schools. But the justices were worried this holding now clashed with Trinity Lutheran, as SCOTUS hinted in June.

Advertisement

How do we get around Trinity? Justice Petra Jimenez Maes asked Frank Susman, who argued that religious schools may not get free textbooks under the state constitution. We have to apply that principle, Maes asserted. Im having trouble saying Trinity does not apply to this section.

Advertisement

But Justice Edward Chavez seemed to see a way to navigate around Roberts Trinity point in Moses. The classification being created, he pointed out, is not religious vs. secular, as it was in Trinity. Its schools who are under exclusive control of the statei.e., public schoolsand those who are under the control of someone elsei.e., private schools.

With perceptive exasperation, a majority of the court seemed resigned to the fact that, yes, Roberts opinions tied their hands.

Chavez is exactly right: Unlike Missouris state constitution, the New Mexico Constitution doesnt bar aid to religious educational institutions; it bars aid to private ones, including religious schools. Theoretically, that distinction could get Moses v. Ruszkowski out from under Trinity Lutheran. But Justice Charles W. Daniels quickly jumped in to undercut that hope.

Advertisement

Lets talk about the elephant in the room, the justice told Susman. The reason that provision was put in our state constitution was because [Congress said] we wouldnt be allowed to be a state  unless we incorporated a constitutional provision prohibiting aid to religious and sectarian schools. And so in order to become a state we did that, but we added private schools. Daniels concluded by stating that the real motivation of the provision was Congress anti-Catholic animus.

Daniels was partly correct. When New Mexico became a state in 1912, Congress demanded that it adopt some kind of Blaine Amendmenta constitutional provision forbidding government aid to parochial schools. Some historians argue that Blaine Amendments were motivated solely by anti-Catholic sentiment, although this claim is strongly contested and, at a minimum, dramatically oversimplified. Moreover, theres no actual evidence that New Mexico enacted its absolute ban on taxpayer funding for religious education with any discriminatory intent. It may just as likely have been motivated by a desire, shared by many state constitutional drafters, to funnel all educational funding to the young states nascent public education system.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Nonetheless, Eric Baxter, an attorney for the conservative Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, arguing for the parochial schools, told the justices that the New Mexico Constitution was indisputably motivated by anti-Catholic sentiment. To see why, Baxter said, the justices had to look beyond the plain text of the constitution to its history and context in order to glean discriminatory animus on the basis of religion. In making this ask, Baxter implored the court to do precisely what opponents of Donald Trumps travel ban want the U.S. Supreme Court to do to reveal Trumps anti-Muslim animus as the motivation behind the ban. Yet Becket has conspicuously declined to take sides with the Muslim families suing against the travel ban, while jumping at the opportunity to defend New Mexicos mostly Christian religious schools.

Advertisement

Toward the end of arguments, Susman noted that California, Oregon, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Missouri, South Dakota, and Hawaii all have bans on public aid to religious schools like New Mexicosbans each states Supreme Court has upheld.

Those, Daniels cautioned, were all before Trinity Lutheran. Now some of those citations are suspect, dont you think?

The answer, unfortunately, may well be yes. Although the justices seemed dividedand clearly concerned about the Establishment Clause implications of the casethey all sounded eager not to get reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court. To play it safe, a majority of the justices sounded prepared to interpret Trinity Lutheran broadly. Their ruling, expected within the next few months, may vindicate Sotomayors fears, taking the cases principle far beyond a single church playground.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Thats a shame. For more than a century, courts have assumed that states can use public funds exclusively on public schools. But Trinity Lutheran suggests that, in fact, states may be obligated to spend public funds on private religious schools toonot just on playgrounds, but also on textbooks, and eventually tuition, through vouchers for sectarian institutions. Trinity Lutheran was the first wave in a constitutional sea change; Moses v. Ruszkowski could carry it further, and eventually, SCOTUS may take it to its logical conclusion by compelling states to provide vouchers for parochial schools. Roberts implied that his opinion had a narrow sweep. In reality, it is poised to sweep away a key barrier in the separation of church and state.The day after it was revealed Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen received $500,000 in payments from a financial firm linked to a Russian oligarch aligned with Vladimir Putin, Pro Publica reports another longtime Trump personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz, also represented the very same Russian firm as recently as last year. Kasowitz says he has represented the private equity firm Columbus Nova since 2010; Columbus Nova operates as the U.S. investment vehicle for Renova Group, a financial company run by Putin ally, Viktor Vekselberg. Columbus Nova also happens to be founded and run by Vekselbergs cousin, Andrew Intrater. Vekselberg and Renova Group were both targeted by U.S. sanctions in April; Vekselberg and Intrater have been questioned by Robert Mueller.

Advertisement

Its not completely clear the implications of the financial link between Vekselberg, Columbus Nova, and Kasowitz, but, at the very least, it shows an intimate business connection between the Trump World and the Kremlin-approved businesses. Columbus Nova told Pro Publica that its hiring of the pair of Trump lawyers was a coincidence. From Pro Publica:

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Kasowitzs work for Columbus Nova stretches back to at least 2010 in related cases filed in New York and Illinois. In Illinois, Fifth Third Bank sued Columbus Nova and several affiliated entities, alleging that they had caused the bank to lose tens of millions of dollars on loans to a life insurance financing program that was permeated  by fraud and embezzlement. In the New York case, Kasowitz and three other attorneys at his firm filed a separate suit alleging that it was Fifth Third Bank that had committed fraud and caused losses.

Advertisement

More troubling is the idea that a lawyer (Kasowitz), who was for a brief two-month period in 2017 in charge of the president of the United States legal defense in the Russia investigation, was on the payroll of a Putin-aligned oligarch just months before assuming that role. A spokesperson for Kasowitz told Pro Publica the litigation the lawyer was involved with settled in early 2017, but there is no public record confirmation of that fact. Kasowitz was ousted from Trumps Mueller defense team in July 2017, but the New York Times reported in March that he was still in contact with Trump, who was considering bringing the lawyer back to his legal team in a larger role.In a small town in southern Virginia, in February of 2016, a young woman had a stillbirth. Katherine Dellis was 30 to 32 weeks pregnant when she passed out in her bathroom. When she woke up, the fetus was lying next to her on the bathroom floor. She wrapped the remains in a bathmat, put it in a trash bag, and put another trash bag around it. Her father, oblivious to what was inside, deposited the bag in a public dumpster, according to court documents.

Advertisement

Later, at an emergency room, the physician treating Dellis heard her story and called the police. An autopsy would later reveal that the fetus lungs had never breathed air, confirming that it had expired before leaving the womb. Even so, Dellis was arrested and charged with a felony. Her crime? Concealing a dead body. Dellis entered a conditional guilty plea that allowed her attorney to continue arguing that the statute she supposedly violated does not apply to her case. One year after her stillbirth, she was sentenced to five months in jail.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The Washington Post called attention to Dellis case on Wednesday in a piece about a recent Virginia Court of Appeals decision that upheld her conviction. She and her attorney contend that because the fetus was never alive, it cannot be considered dead. In Dellis first trial, prosecutors argued that a fetus can meet the statutory definition of a dead body, as evidenced by the fact that a medical examiner could determine that the fetus died less than several days before it left Dellis body. If physical evidence can prove when a fetus expired, then, for the purposes of the law, prosecutors said, it can be dead.

Advertisement

In their opinion, the three appellate judges (one of whom, Rossie Alston, has been nominated by Donald Trump for a federal judgeship) wrote that the statute regulating the disposal of dead bodies serves two purposes: to prevent cover-ups of criminal activity and to protect public health. The judges concluded that the statute should apply to fetuses as well, because fetal remains could pose the same public health risks as dead bodies and theres nothing to say that concealing them wouldnt indicate evidence of criminal activity.

The opinion is unpublished, which means it cannot be cited as precedent in future court cases. But the argument it advancesthat a fetus that has never lived outside a womb should be treated the same as a human being who hasis troubling. In recent years, several states have enacted regulations requiring fetal tissue from abortions to be buried, entombed, or cremated. Such laws in Texas and Indiana have been permanently blocked by federal judges.

Advertisement

Advertisement

The language in these provisions is intentionally misleading: Medical waste is often incinerated anyway, but calling it cremation evokes the death of an adult. When fetal remains arent incinerated, theyre disposed of in medical landfills. In Texas, where a federal judge ruled the states fetal burial and cremation law unconstitutional, the law still would have allowed medical practitioners to dispose of fetal remains in landfillsonly post-cremation, in ash form. Defending the law in court, a Texas health official said shed envisioned the fetuses buried in a mass grave, for a cost of $2 apiece. Conservatives defend such regulations as ways to give dignity to fetal remains, but the ends produced by those rules dont support that goal at all. Instead, reproductive-rights advocates argue, such laws are written to instill shame in women seeking abortion care and enshrine fetal tissue with humanity in the public consciousness.

Advertisement

Advertisement

These laws, and the Virginia Court of Appeals ruling on the case of Katherine Dellis, also give credence to the idea that fetuses deserve the same rights as living people. More than 90 percent of abortions in the U.S. take place within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, when the average fetus is less than 3 inches long. A state that requires anything akin to death rites for fetal tissue is one step closer to arguing, as personhood laws do, that these fetuses have a right to tax-free college savings accounts, that contraception is murder, and that embryos should be able to sue the woman from whose egg they developed.

Advertisement

The opinion in Dellis case also envisions a society in which a person who has a miscarriage must involve authorities in the aftermath and proceed with the same urgency and care as if shed happened upon a dead body in her backyard. Around 1 in 5 recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage, and about 24,000 stillbirthsfetuses lost after the 20th week of pregnancyoccur in the U.S. each year. The impact of a court precedent or more explicit regulation that recognized miscarried fetuses as dead bodies would be vast and punishing. The anti-abortion activists applauding the Virginia courts decision seek to impose a brutal burden on pregnant women, who would be forced to worry about the legal ramifications of their miscarriages in addition to the physical and emotional ones. In addition to restricting the rights of women who wish to end their pregnancies, they would have the state penalize women who dont, whose pregnancies end prematurely and against their will.

Countries with abortion restrictions far stricter than those in the United States routinely interrogate or jail women for having miscarriages if a doctor or witness believes they may have self-induced an abortion. In El Salvador, for instance, miscarriages are shrouded in suspicion; the already-painful medical event has become a site of blame, anxiety, and violence. A country that begins jailing women for traumatic stillbirths they did not induce risks treading the same cruel path.Two young men in balaclavas gaze into the camera. Suddenly a policeman approaches. Smiling broadly, he puts his arm around one of the masked young street protesters. More police officers enter the frame. Smiling and laughing, they huddle together to take a selfie with the protesters. They all seem to agree that the boys look good in their police-issued balaclavasthe very masks that, just a day or two earlier, the riot police were wearing during a tense standoff with thousands of demonstrators surrounding government buildings.

Advertisement

When I saw that video, I started to realize that Armenias peaceful revolution was succeeding beyond anyones wildest dreams.

A week and a half earlier, when I had first heard about the protests against soon-to-be Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, Id taken a far more cynical view. Ive only lived in Armenia two years, having moved here to take a faculty position at the American University of Armenia, and had no prior connection to the country or its people but had already absorbed the conventional wisdom: Sargsyan and his conservative Republican Party of Armenia, or RPA, had ruled the country for the past 15 years and seemed set to rule for at least 15 more. Sargsyan had previously been president, but in order to get around a constitutional two-term limit, the party had managed to switch the country from a presidential to a parliamentary system so he could still hold on to the reins of power as prime minister. Its members controlled the majority of seats in parliament, despite the fact that seemingly every Armenian I met hated Sargsyan and his party.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Revolution doesnt need blood.

You might wonder, as I did, how politicians that unpopular kept getting elected. The answer is that, even with international observers trying to guarantee free and fair parliamentary elections, the Republican Party used every dirty trick in the book to sway the vote. Some voters simply received cash bribes. Other forms of coercion were subtler; for instance, more than 100 school principals across the country actively recruited, registered, and threatened parents into voting for the RPA.

With so many forces keeping Sargsyan and his wealthy cronies in powerand the opposition divided between several different minority partiesI assumed that these demonstrations against the RPAs move to keep Sargsyan in power would be a noble yet futile gesture, a brief murmur of dissent before the RPA-dominated parliament inevitably selected Sargsyan as the nations new prime minister. Still, I tried to remain sympathetic toward my students as they skipped class to protest. I reckoned that eventually, a couple of decades down the line, their generation might be the ones who would actually effect change in Armenia. That is, if they stuck around for that long. Alternatively, they might just join the hundreds of thousands of Armenians who had immigrated to other countries during the Sargsyan era, frustrated by the lack of opportunities in their homeland.

Advertisement

Advertisement

The protests were not immediately successful. Sargsyan was easily elected prime minister on April 17. But he only lasted six days before resigning. What happened in those six days can serve as a lesson for anyone trying to organize a movement for democratic social change.

Nikol Pashinyan, the minority MP who led the protests, was adamant that they remain nonviolent, citing the precedent of Czechoslovakias Velvet Revolution. This was not always easy. When protesters took to the streets, they were often met by police in full riot gear, their faces obscured by shields and the aforementioned balaclavas. But rather than reciprocating this aggression, protesters defused the tension by raising their hands and imploring police to join them. By the day of Sargsyans resignation, this noncomplementary response strategy was yielding major results. My Facebook feed was buzzing with videos of soldiers escaping their barracks to join the street protests and statements from high-ranking police officers calling upon their comrades to join the peoples movement.

Advertisement

Advertisement

As my colleague Melissa Brown puts it, these events showed that, You can have a popular uprising by appealing to peoples best selves, not their worst selves. When I asked my students what they learned from participating in the Velvet Revolution, they concurred. Revolution doesnt need blood, one wrote on my Facebook page. A former student added that, You have a civic duty to demand change, but the manner in which you present a movement is a reflection of your values.

Advertisement

Crucially, the organizers chose to present the demonstrations as positive, friendly, and inclusive, spurring more and more Armenians to join the movement with every passing day. Although it started primarily as a student movement, demonstrators actively encouraged people from many different generations and backgrounds to join them. In these protests, conservative rural villagers stood side by side with liberal urbanites, temporarily putting their differences aside in light of their common goals. As one of my students noted, The biggest strength is in unity and in the belief that each one of us is important for making a change.

Advertisement

To help foster that sense of unity, the demonstrators used relatively simple slogans like Reject Serzh. Sometimes, they just used sounds instead of words. After street protesters waved signs reading, Honk if you reject Serzh, drivers around the country began using their car horns as instruments of political dissent. They were joined by housewives who, at 11 p.m. each night, would bang their pots and pans in the windows. As this wave of noise swept across the country, Armenians began to recognize just how many of their neighbors were fed up with the current government and that encouraged otherwise-fearful citizens to join the movement.

Advertisement

To the extent that it has covered these events, the international media has tended to frame whats happening in Armenia as a battle between two leaders: oily oligarch Serzh Sargsyan versus revolutionary Nikol Pashinyan, cutting a Che Guevara figure in his trademark beard and camouflage T-shirt. Such coverage is understandable, since Pashinyan, a former journalist himself, is a colorful, media-savvy figure with a great backstory thats earned him comparisons to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. Hes even a former political prisoner, jailed for several months on charges of provoking public unrest during protests against Sargsyans win in the 2008 presidential elections. But the movement is much bigger than Pashinyan. On April 22, when Sargsyans government tried to crack down on the protests by detaining Pashinyan and most of the movements primary organizers, more than 100,000 people defied police orders and congregated in Yerevans Republic Square for a self-organized rally, drawing more participants than ever before. Only hours later, Pashinyan was freed and Sargsyan resigned.

Advertisement

Advertisement

The crisis was not over, but as I walked the streets of Yerevan, I noticed a sense of optimism that wasnt there just a month earlier. Even as the Republican-dominated parliament sought to retain its power and obstruct the popular call to name Pashinyan as the new prime minister, my Armenian friends remained euphorically confident, emboldened by a newfound sense that in Armenia, the people really do have the power. On May 1, when all but one Republican MP voted against Pashinyans bid to become prime minister, there were no angry riots. The next day, people simply held a general strike that brought the country to a standstill, shutting down government offices and blocking vital roads. Yet in practice, it felt more like a nationwide street festival, as Armenians played music, performed folk dances, and even grilled barbecue in the middle of normally busy intersections. Photos of the festivities circulated on social media, under the tagline Armenian Style of Revolution.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

On May 8, Armenias parliament revoted, and this time, with the grudging support of several Republican MPs, Pashinyan was elected prime minister. For many here, it was the culmination of their dreams for a new Armenia, and yet they recognize there is still a lot of work that must be done to guarantee a truly fair and democratic nation. Meanwhile, they arent resting on their laurels; in the past few days, citizen activists have targeted systemic corruption on the local level, taking on the mayors, hospital officials, and school principals who once served as enforcers for the Republican Party.

As an outsider, Im proud of what my Armenian friends have accomplished, and Im more than a little awed by their bravery. I also cant help wondering whether activists in my homeland could follow their example. Of course Armenia is much smaller and more ethnically homogenous than the United States, so not every element of the Armenian style of revolution would translate. But even in a diverse and divided country like the U.S., there are still common grievances shared by the majority of the electorate; for instance, the lack of economic opportunities, which motivated many Armenian protesters, is also a worry for many Americans.

Finally, I am struck by what Armenians have dubbed their movement: the Revolution of Love and Tolerance. When Americans think of political activism, love and tolerance might not be the first words that come to mind. But maybe they should be.Looks like this is really going to happen. President Trump tweeted Thursday that the highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th.

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The location of the first ever meeting between a North Korean leader and a sitting U.S. president has been the subject of intense speculation since Trump accepted Kims invitation to meet in March. A number of cities including Pyongyang, Beijing; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; and several European capitals had been floated as potential venues. Just last week, Trump said publicly he wanted the meeting to happen in the DMZ between North and South Korea, where Kim recently met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, since it would be a symbolically powerful venue for a celebration if a breakthrough were to occur at the meeting.

Singapore makes sense as a venue. Its a rare country that historically has had good relations with both the United States and North KoreaNorth Korea has an embassy there. Until recently, Singapore was one of North Koreas largest trading partners, and North Koreans enjoyed visa-free travel there, though the Singaporeans have cracked down lately in compliance with U.N. sanctions. Singapore also has experience hosting major summitsit was the location of the historic meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan in 2015. The security details for Trump and Kim will also likely appreciate that the authoritarian city-state is likely to keep public disturbances to a minimum.

Advertisement

Advertisement

In another milestone, Kim flew to Dailan, China, on Monday, becoming the first North Korean leader to fly abroad in 32 years. This may have been a dress rehearsal and demonstration that, unlike his aviophobic father, this Kim is capable of going places he cant reach by train.

The announcement of the summit came hours after Trump welcomed home three Americans whom North Korea had held prisoner. Their release is a significant confidence-builder ahead of the summit, not that Trump is lacking in confidence. My proudest achievement will bethis is part of itwhen we denuclearize that entire peninsula, Trump said after thanking Kim for releasing the men.

While these are all positive developments, its still unclear whether North Korea would actually be willing to give up its long-sought nuclear weapons, as Trump hopes, or what concessions it would demand in exchange. Ideally, this summit will be the beginning of a process of reducing tensions on the peninsula, though the president seems to have much grander ambitions for it.The drone future that we all know is comingmore drones, everywhere, ferrying our stuff to wherever we want it sentisnt coming just yet. Before flying robots can speckle the sky from coast to coast, the government needs to pass regulations that allow drones to fly beyond the line of sight of the operator, over densely populated areas, and at nightall things currently prohibited unless the drone operator gets a special waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration. Drones also have to be integrated into the national air traffic control system, which will have to help coordinate their movement and ensure the autonomous flyers dont collide in the sky.

Advertisement

But before any of that gets off the ground, the U.S. Department of Transportation is giving the green light to 10 areas across the country to set up test sites for drones to do things like delivery, mosquito-killing, and security. Those sites were announced Wednesdaymarking what many see as a milestone for an industry that thinks it will be worth more than $80 billion in the next seven years.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The selectees include the cities of San Diego and Reno; the Choctaw Nation in Durant, Oklahoma; Virginia Tech; the departments of transportation in Kansas, North Carolina, and North Dakota; the Lee County Mosquito Control District in Ft. Myers, Florida; the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority in Memphis, Tennessee; and the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

Advertisement

The idea is that with these 10 programs, cities, tribes, and municipal agencies can partner with approved businesses to set their own rules for projects within prescribed areas and test out ways of safely integrating the technology into their airspace before broad federal laws are passed. That means the Department of Transportation in Kansas might give approval for Microsoft, which its collaborating with for its testing program to help build a drone tracking system for drone deliveries throughout the state. Virginia Tech is working with Alphabet, the parent company of Google, which has a drone initiative called Project Wing. In September 2016, Project Wing, with approval from the FAA, delivered burritos to students at Virginia Tech via drone. In Memphis, Tennessee, FedEx will be testing drones to deliver airplane parts at the airport. The test sites will be active for two and a half years and will share data they collect to the FAA and the U.S. Department of Transportation to help craft a federal plan for drone integration. Only after all this can non-recreational drones be a realistic commercial possibility in your town.

So if youre planning a visit to Fairbanks, Alaska, or Raleigh, North Carolina, later this yearlook up. You may well see a flying robot delivering a pizza.Google is no longer, at its core, a search engine. Its now foremost an artificial intelligence engine. And its goal is not to help you find information, but to become an extension of your very self.

That might sound alarmist or far-fetchedunless you watched Google I/O 2018, the companys annual developer conference, this week. The big takeaway from the conference is that the Google Assistantthink Alexa, but smarterhas displaced Google Search as the companys central product, the one that binds all the others. Its scary and ambitious goal: to blur the line between human and machine to the point where they become literally indistinguishable.

Advertisement

The company isnt trying to turn you into a cyborg in any kind of physical respect. Presumably, it learned a lesson from Google Glass, the augmented reality glasses that flopped when they were widely deemed dorky and douchey. Rather, Google is now beckoning you to accept its software as part of your extended mind, in all kinds of new ways. It promises to think for you, speak for you, and carry out actions in the real world on your behalf.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The highlight of the conference was a jaw-dropping demo in which the Google Assistant placed a call to a hairdresser, carried on a humanlike conversation with the receptionist, and navigated multiple scheduling conflicts to book an appointment for 10 a.m. on Wednesday. You can listen to the whole interaction, and read more about the tech behind it, in this post on Googles A.I. blog.

Advertisement

There are real differences between granting intimate access to your life to a person you trust and granting the same access to one of the most powerful corporations the world has ever seen.

The uncannily humanlike uhs and mm-hmms that punctuated the Assistants dialogue drew appreciative laughs from the crowd. Yet on reflection, the demo was as unnerving as it was dazzling. Google has built probably the worlds most potent A.I., and now its busy devising clever ways to pass it off as human. As if we needed more fakes in the tech world.

That new feature that humanizes Assistants speech with all-too-real tics is called Duplex. It will launch this summer as a small experiment, available to a limited number of Assistant users. It sounds a lot like the now-defunct Facebook M, except that M turned out to be an Oz-like wizard powered largely by human contractors behind the scenes. Perhaps there will be some of that in Duplex as well, but Google sure made it seem like Duplexs intelligence was the real dealthat is, the artificial deal.

Advertisement

Advertisement

More importantly, Duplex is not a one-off gimmick. Its the leading edge of Googles full-scale thrust into artificially intelligent agents.

The products debut came shortly after Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a new Gmail feature called Smart Compose. Building on the Smart Reply function pioneered in Googles Inbox mobile app, Gmail will now help you write full emails from scratch. It will predict what you might want to type, based on both its knowledge of you and situational cues, such as the day of the week. The companys demo showed its A.I. typing almost an entire email with the subject line Taco Tuesday, right down to suggesting that the recipient bring the chips and salsa.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Already Smart Replywhich suggests brief email responses such as Ill be there and Looking forward to ithas proved hugely popular with power users, accounting for 12 percent of all replies in Inbox. Now, with Smart Compose, more and more emails will be software-generated, and its easy to imagine a time in the near future when you cant tell if youre holding a conversation with your friend or with Google. Maybe you wont care, because Google is handling your side of the conversation too.

Advertisement

When its not posing as you in interactions with others, Google Assistant will be working to interact with you in evermore natural and human ways.

Perhaps the Assistant update thats most noteworthy in practical terms is one called continued conversations. Until now, Google has always required you to say, Hey Google again before each new request or command. Its an inescapable reminder that youre talking to a computer and not a person. Now, however, Google Assistant will keep listening for eight seconds after it answers you, inviting follow-up questions that dont require you to say, Hey Google again. If the new Assistant works as advertised, that capability will go a long way toward making it more humanoid. Google is also giving Assistant the ability to parse and respond to multiple questions in the same sentence, like, What time is the Warriors game, and who are they playing?

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The company announced six new voices for Assistant, and as a stunt, it even hired John Legend to do one. (The John Legend voice will be available in certain contexts, Google hinted, and showed a video of Legend reading someone their daily briefing.) It also showed off a new feature called pretty please that will encourage your kids to address their Google Home or Android device politely. Some critics were quick to read this as Google trying to teach your kid manners, which sounds fairly overbearing. On the other hand, kids verbally abusing virtual assistants is a real complaint of many parents. (Amazon recently announced similar features for Alexa. For that matter, there are probably some grown-ups who could benefit too.)

Advertisement

Google Assistant is getting "Pretty Please" mode to respond if you're polite to it. I love this because I always say please to it. #io18 pic.twitter.com/b2DgVd274e  Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) May 8, 2018

Advertisement

Advertisement

There is a less dystopian way to view all of this. Its that Google is simply trying to automate the basic capabilities of a human personal assistant, as the name Google Assistant implies. This may not be entirely reassuring, especially to those who hold jobs as personal assistants. But its in keeping with Silicon Valleys long-standing project of automating various forms of labor, starting with low-skill jobs and working its way up the value chain. Besides, impressive as the technology seems, its not at all clear that the Assistant will prove as deceptive a human in practice as it was in Googles carefully cherry-picked demos. Its not like Google has suddenly solved the Turing test.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Still, its noteworthy that building machines that can pass for humans now seems to be one of Googles explicit goals. And there are real differences between granting intimate access to your life to a person you trust and granting the same access to one of the most powerful corporations the world has ever seen. For one thing, if a human assistant started using your personal data to sell advertisers access to your time in unguarded moments, youd probably fire them.

Just because Google wants us to accept its Assistant as an integral part of us doesnt mean it will happen. Maybe Duplex, Smart Compose, and the rest will catch on with early adopters and then falter, like Glass before them. BuzzFeeds Charlie Warzel suggested users may shy away because the technology is both invasive and infantilizing. Maybe people wont sacrifice their privacy and the humanity of their basic interactions at the altar of timesaving and convenience. But the history of Google says they willprovided only that it really works.The Federal Communications Commission repealed the rules mandating network neutrality last year, but until Thursday the FCC hadnt announced the day that the deed would become official. Now we have it: June 11, 2018. In one month, internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon will be allowed to exert significantly more control over how Americans access the web. That might mean blocking access to websites, slowing down connections as they please, or charging websites a fee to reach users at faster speeds. Under the news rules, anything goes as long as internet providers say in their terms of service that they reserve the right to do so. And all of this will happen against a backdrop in which most Americans only have one or two options for high-speed internet.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The repeal of the network neutrality rules, which were put in place by the Obama-era FCC to prevent internet providers from throttling speeds and blocking access to information online, was on the top of current FCC Chairman Ajit Pais agenda as soon as he took over the agency in 2017. In December 2016, the month before President Trump appointed Pai, the chairman said he planned to fire up the weed whacker and remove the network neutrality rules, which he says hinder innovation. While theyd certainly argue otherwise, Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T seem to have done plenty of innovating even with the rules in place. All three companies have said on investor calls that investment in their networks has actually increased since 2015, after the Obama-era rules were on the books.

Advertisement

The repeal didnt happen without a fight. Opposition to the decision to rescind the rules garnered more public comments than any rulemaking in the FCCs history. Last year, 23 million comments poured into the FCC on the issue, the overwhelming majority in favor of upholding the network neutrality protections. And this was despite a comment process marred by meddling corruption (largely in favor of repeal), which caused some commissioners on the FCC to call for the network neutrality actions to be put on hold until the commission could sort out the myriad red flags that popped up during the public participation process. Thousands of bots submitted comments. Others were made under stolen identities (including the names of dead people). Hundreds of thousands came from Russian email addresses, and they mostly were in favor of rescinding the open internet rules. The FCCs electronic public input system was even hit last year by a mysterious cyberattack, which is subject to an ongoing federal investigation.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Still, none of this derailed Pais deregulatory agenda, which is expected to be hit with multiple lawsuits challenging the network neutrality rollback on the grounds that public agencies are legally required to engage in a fair public comment process in the course of passing new policy. Some states attorneys general have moved to sue the FCC for moving forward with the net neutrality repeal despite the serious snafus that have corrupted the public engagement process. And governors in New York, Montana, and Hawaii have issued executive orders that bar state offices from doing any business with internet providers that dont adhere to basic network neutrality protections, like prohibitions on speeding up access to sites that pay to reach users at faster speeds.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Democrats on Capitol Hill are fighting back, too. On Wednesday, Senate Democrats filed a petition to undo or prevent a repeal of network neutrality protections. The petition, which was introduced under whats called a Congressional Review Act resolution, will force a vote in the Senate that would only need a simple majority to pass. Right now, 49 democratic senators and one republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, have said theyll vote in favor. And with Sen. John McCain absent because of his cancer treatment, 50 votes would be enough to send the resolution to the House. There it hits bigger roadblocks. House Republicans outnumber democrats 236-193, which means at least 20 Republicans would have to get on board if every Democrat voted in favor. Then President Trump would have to sign onan unlikely prospect, to put it mildly. But even a symbolic legislative defense of network neutrality helps keep the issue alive, and the midterm elections arent far off. Theres a lot of fight left in this particular struggle for the future of the net.Allegations of nepotism, corruption and strong political interference have affected the image of Slovak public servants for years. The good news is that inside this huge body there are people determined to change it and unafraid to speak their minds.

In March, I went to submit my annual tax report in Bratislava. I mentally prepared myself to face a long queue and the clerks unpleasant faces. I entered the big hall and somebody directed me to an office where a pleasant lady quickly checked my papers, asked me to complete one missing detail and here I was, done in about 10 minutes with no accompanying trauma.

It was a rainy day but my mood was bright. Waiting at the bus station with fellow fans of the Bratislava public transport in front of two big potholes in the pavement, it became clear that the god of probabilities worked against us so we all got our fair share of mud sprayed on our clothes. No bus could avoid them as they were strategically placed right where the buses had to stop. But as I promised myself to keep the good vibe from the tax office, I was sure the stains would not be visible on my dark trousers.

10. May 2018 at 8:57 | Anca DraguVardenik residents never met with MP Hakob Hakobyan, as they demanded yesterday after the legislator reneged on his promise to vote in favor of Nikol Pashinyan on May 8.

It was Hakobyans son Paruyr who showed up in the Gehgharkunik village instead.

Hakobyan was not one of the thirteen Republican Party of Armenia MPs who voted for Pashinyan yesterday.

On May 2, residents turned off the water turning the turbines of a hydro-electric plant owned by Republican Party of Armenia MP Hakob Hakobyan. They demanded that he vote in favor of Pashinyan, the peoples candidate. Hakobyan promised that he would.

Paruyr Hakobyan didnt want to talk politics with residents, sticking to matters related to the hydro-plant.

Armen Hovhannisyan, the Vardenik municipal staff secretary, told Hetq that Paruyr Hakobyan promised to allocate a portion of the plants profits to the community and to maintain sufficient water flows through the river to sustain the eco-system.Culture and quizzes: How Bratislava celebrated Europes birthday

Visitors can learn more about all EU member states.

Font size: A - | A +

Cultural and music performances in various European languages, quizzes and competitions were part of the programme in downtown Bratislava, celebrating the symbolic birthday of the European Union.

In addition, there were numerous stalls with information about EU member states.

May 9 is a common holiday for Slovaks and all Europeans, said Ladislav Miko, head of the EC Representation in Slovakia, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

The organiser of the Europe Day in Bratislava was both the EC Representation and the EP Office in Slovakia. The partners include the Governments Office, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the city of Bratislava, TASR wrote.

Why do we celebrate May 9?

On May 9, 1950, the then French foreign affairs minister Robert Chuman introduced a proposal to create the European Coal and Steel Community, which would particularly supervise the producers of these strategic materials and help secure peace in Europe. At the time, Europe was recovering from WWII and steel was the most important material for the armaments industry.

The proposal, known as the Schuman Declaration, is considered the beginning of the European Union.

The original EU founding members were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Slovakia joined the club in 2004, TASR reported.

10. May 2018 at 13:06 | Compiled by Spectator staffSpecial plane expected to take better pictures of Slovakia

The increasing number of municipalities in both countries are interested in quality aerial shots.

The inhabitants of Slovakia and the Czech Republic will have to get accustomed to the Skyper GT9, a two-seat ultra-light plane of Slovak origin, which will fly above their heads in the following months.

The plane, bought by Banska Bystrica publishing house CBS, which has issued more than 40 books with aerial pictures from the Slovak regions, wants to use it for better and higher-quality pictures of the mapped areas.

The main reason for purchasing the plane is the increasing interest of municipalities and companies in aerial shots. This is the case of both Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the TASR newswire reported.

What are the advantages?

Since the plane can fly 200 kilometres per hour, and its maximum speed is 220 km/h, it can quickly arrive in any town or village in Slovakia, said Milan Paprcka, pilot and photographer, as quoted by TASR. And the Czech Republic is close, too.

With one full fuel tank, the plane can fly for six hours and a total of 1,000 kilometres, which makes the flight flexible. It also saves time.

In case we need to land, there are many more airports we can choose from, since we can land and take off from a shorter runway at a smaller airport, Paprcka added, as quoted by TASR.

Since it is possible to fly only 100 km/hr., photographers can take better and higher quality pictures.

They manufactured a special window for taking pictures, where we can also use bigger lens, Paprcka said, as quoted by TASR.

10. May 2018 at 13:10 | Compiled by Spectator staffDocuments from Finland prove Defence Ministry made secret military trade deals

Finnish investigative reporter sees similarities between the Slovak-Finnish deal and a Finnish-Slovene corruption scandal.

Font size: A - | A +

The Defence Ministry sealed a deal with the Finnish producer of military transporters long before it admitted to doing so to Slovak taxpayers, as well as the rest of the government.

The ministry, led by nominee of the Slovak National Party (SNS) Peter Gajdos, has faced suspicions of having manipulated the more than 400-million-worth military modernisation deal since October 2017, when they first submitted the purchase proposal to the cabinet session, but its approval was delayed by the coalition partners. At that point, the opposition and some media started digging into the issue and found several questionable aspects about it.

Martin Dubeci, a security analyst currently affiliated with the Progressive Slovakia political party, now published details from the technical agreement between Slovakia and Finland, which he requested from the Finnish party.

The agreement confirms what I have been saying in the long run, Dubeci wrote on his Facebook profile on May 9. It was all cooked up in advance.

The deal

Minister Gajdos submitted a classified document to the government proposing that Slovakia should purchase 81 eight-wheel transporters for 417 million in mid-October.

The Slovak armed forces will receive the 8x8 vehicles between 2018-2024, the ministry subsequently declared back in October. About 70 percent of the new vehicles will be produced by Slovak firms, while the cost per vehicle should not exceed 4 million including VAT, Gajdos told the press. The ministry expected this to result in 50 new jobs. Gajdos also announced that Slovakia would cooperate with the Finnish company Patria in the development of these vehicles.

Read also:

Read also: The army showcases the vehicles it plans to buy Read more

The SNS did not succeed in having the purchase plan immediately approved by the ruling cabinet, with its coalition partners complaining about the intended direct order without a tender and the classified material being submitted to the cabinet members in the last moment. The government finally approved the purchase in mid-November and assigned the Defence Ministry the task of presenting the prototypes of both the 8x8s and the 4x4s by the end of 2018.

Long before

Dubeci now found in the agreement that the decision for the concrete model that the two countries would develop together was made in July 2017. Finland was supposed to provide the vehicle prototype in October 2017, but the government only approved the purchase in November.

The documents describe how the project will be financed, how the prototype will be developed, when it will be supplied, and such, Dubeci told the Sme daily. These things happened long before the ministry received the mandate from the government to do it.

10. May 2018 at 16:46 | Compiled by Spectator staffPeople should attend municipal elections

The organisers of the For a Decent Slovakia gatherings say they have a different opinion on the current situation in Slovakia than the prime minister.

Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer) has not introduced any strong measures to bring about fundamental political or systemic changes, said the representatives of the For a Decent Slovakia initiative.

They are currently considering further steps. One of the possibilities is to continue with the protest gatherings the initiative said after meeting Pellegrini on May 10.

Read also:

Read also: Five things that the murders of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova have changed Read more

If politicians want, they can carry out changes in a few hours as was proven when the new government was formed in two days, said one of the initiatives representatives, Juraj Seliga, as reported by the SITA newswire.

He called on politicians to deal with the important topics, such as corruption in state administration, proper investigation and the setting of courts and the prosecutors office to a similar tempo.

Strong measures missing

After meeting the prime minister today, I can say we have different opinions on whats happening in Slovakia at the moment, Seliga said, as quoted by SITA. While the prime minister says the situation is calm, we think that the strong measures necessary for progress are still missing.

Read also:

Read also: General prosecutor: Some police chiefs act unlawfully in Kuciak investigation Read more

Among the topics that need to be dealt with are the investigation of the double murder of Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova and the situation at the Agriculture Ministry, which has recently been criticised by General Prosecutor Jaromir Ciznar.

This proves that processes in Slovakia are not functioning correctly and were still closely watching for the steps and measures that need to be taken by politicians and which are still missing, Seliga added, as quoted by SITA.

Pellegrini said in a statement that he was listening to the opinions of young people on the current political situation and the problems Slovakia is facing. He told them about his vision of Slovakia as a country friendly towards its citizens and the steps he intends to take aimed at improving the lives of people in Slovakia, as reported by SITA.

Next steps

The initiative wants to continue involving citizens in public affairs. An ideal opportunity for this is presented by the upcoming municipal elections, in which people can show what direction they want the country to go.

Read also:

Read also: Thousands attended concert commemorating Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova Read more

Although they did not specify their next steps, the representatives of For a Decent Slovakia stressed they do not want to form a political party. They will coordinate their activities with the organisers of gatherings held across Slovakia, SITA reported.

10. May 2018 at 22:34 (modified at 11. May 2018 at 7:01) | Compiled by Spectator staffMore free Slovak language courses for non-EU foreigners

The courses are for beginners and pre-intermediate speakers.

The Migration Information Centre (MIC) of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) will begin another round of free Slovak language lessons for foreigners coming from outside the EU in Bratislava (May 15) and Kosice (June 4). The courses, due to take place in the afternoons and evenings, are meant for beginners and pre-intermediate speakers, the TASR newswire reported.

Lessons for beginners in the capital will take place each Tuesday and Thursday at the C.S. Lewis High School in Bratislava-Petrzalka, with lessons for pre-intermediates each Wednesday at the same school.

Read also:

Read also: Free Info Days for foreigners relaunched Read more

Meanwhile, Open Courses for the Slovak language in Kosice will take place each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, based on the schedule published on the mic.iom.sk website.

The courses are meant for all citizens of non-EU countries who are holders of permanent, temporary or tolerated residence permits in Slovakia and for people of any age. The courses, which are free of charge, include lessons on social and cultural orientation, the IOM informed.

10. May 2018 at 22:12 | Compiled by Spectator staffThe following letter appears on the LUYS website:

Nine years ago exactly, then President Serzh Sargsyan and Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan of Armenia offered me the opportunity to head LUYS, their newly created and visionary Education Foundation. The goal was to grow a generation of critical thinkers and innovators to ensure that Armenia will thrive and participate on an equal footing with leading nations.

Giving youth access to the best education meant empowering them to question everything and become agents of change for the country. Our LUYS Website went live on May 9th 2009 and we started granting scholarships to Armenian students accepted at the worlds top universities.

LUYS has been one of the greatest adventures in my life. I began my work in education with the Centre Mondial Informatique et Resources Humaines, a program supported by Francois Mitterrand, Frances President at the time, in order to bring technology education to every citizen in the world. I then joined the founding members of MITs Media Lab lead by Nicholas Negroponte along with 12 exceptional world Scientists such as Seymour Papert and Marvin Minsky, the founding fathers of Artificial Intelligence. The MIT Media Lab researchers and scholars are often described as the inventors of the Future obsessed with making the world a better place.

Learning combined with action to create positive change is the MIT Know-how that I brought into Luys. I was blessed to work with the most amazing, daring and diverse group of passionate Armenian scholars and scientists, some 550 of them engaging in building the new knowledge economy of the Republic of Armenia.

Today, I wish to express my deep gratitude to the Founders of LUYS, its Scholars, my incredibly smart and dedicated Staff, the many Advisers and Friends and the community we created together. What an enriching experience it has been to work and continuously learn and grow with you all.

During these past weeks Armenia has been the center of the worlds attention for an unparalleled set of events that lead to a change of government while keeping peace and understanding on all sides. This incredible accomplishment is to be credited to all who now stand together to imagine and build the future of Armenia.

Armenia rewards the Bold. This is the best description and tag line that comes to my mind and that I am borrowing from GK Brand Armenia.

Today May 10th 2018 is the day that the Luys Staff and myself have been asked to cease our work serving the LUYS Foundation. I wish to reassure all present scholars and already registered ones for 2018-2019 that their scholarships will be honored. Official communications will issue further information.

Change is growth. It always comes with a shift of mindsets and power. It teaches us to let go, give and create. As the Luys motto would state; Learn, Do, Co-create. LUYS has delivered on its promise during these past nine years. Today a new era is born.

Let us all remember that Knowledge is power and shows the path to prosperity when it is combined with the language of peace and trust. Armenia must continue investing in education.

Investing in Knowledge and Youth is our only way to building a thriving Armenia. I firmly believe that education is the solution to every present and emerging global challenge.

Today, I take leave of LUYS with gratitude to all my fellow Armenians and always with trust in the future ahead.

Jacqueline Karaaslanian,

Founding Executive Director of Luys Education.This site focuses on Republican politicians and conservatives that rip off their constituency. We have the Tea Party, fundamentalist churches, the corruption of ALEC and other special interests groups. But the site also supports progressive Democrats and the local Democratic Socialist of America. We must have ideas on how to replace regressive and corrupt politicians with something better. For comments steveotto2001@yahoo.com or ottozero2001@yahoo.com.Thank You

Your email address is now confirmed.

You'll start receiving the latest news, benefits, events, and programs related to AARP's mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age.

You can also manage your communication preferences by updating your account at anytime. You will be asked to register or log in.Ho Chi Minh City has set a target of receiving 1.5 million Chinese tourists a year by 2020 and making China the biggest source of holidaymakers to the southern metropolis, a top tourism official said Tuesday.

Some 540,000 tourists from China visited Ho Chi Minh City last year, with local tourism authorities planning to triple the figure in the next two years, La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the municipal tourism department, confirmed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Khanh said there is room to attract more Chinese tourists to Ho Chi Minh City, and the municipal tourism authorities also seek to boost bilateral tourism ties between China and Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh City and China are expected to hold a tourism promotion seminar to increase Chinese arrivals to the city, Khanh said.

The event will be attended by about 200 travel businesses from the two countries, who will discuss ways to create more attractions to meet the tastes of Chinese holidaymakers in the city, particularly in District 5, home to many Chinese Vietnamese.

On May 5, a delegation from the Chinese Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City visited some of the citys river tourism destinations, he added.

Khanh also acknowledged the phenomenon of the so-called zero tour, involving visitors from China traveling to Vietnam at dirt cheap prices and only taken to shops and restaurants built exclusively for Chinese tourists in the Southeast Asian country.

The Ho Chi Minh City tourism department will coordinate with other agencies to tighten control over travel firms to prevent downsides such as these zero-dollar tours, Khanh underlined.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Four out of six middle school students who went to play near a lake in Vietnams Central Highlands on Wednesday died, while the other two were hospitalized, when one of them slipped into the body of water.

Three of the students lost their lives when they were trying to save their drowning friend, who was also declared dead in the tragic incident in Tuy Duc District, Dak Nong Province, according to a local official.

After one student slipped into the lake, all of the other five rushed to grasp the childs arm, but they were all pulled into the deep water, Nguyen Ngoc Long, chairman of Tuy Duc District, said.

Local people heard the shout for help of the students and managed to take all of them to the shore.

Relatives and friends of the students who fell into a lake in Dak Nong Province, Vietnam, on May 9, 2018, wait at a local hospital. Photo: Tuoi Tre

However, four of them, including the first to fall into the lake, were later declared dead.

The other two were hospitalized and were in stable conditions as of late Wednesday, Long added.

All of the deceased were eight-graders.

Drowning was the leading cause of unintentionally injury deaths amongst Vietnamese under 19, with 3,500 drowning fatalities every year, according to the information dated last year on the Ministry of Healths website.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!WASHINGTON/SEOUL -- Singapore is the most likely venue for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a U.S. official said, after Pyongyang cleared a major obstacle to the meeting with the release of three American prisoners.

The three prisoners, freed after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Kim in the North Korean capital, were flying back to Washington where Trump said he planned to meet them early on Thursday.

The release of the men appeared to signal an effort by Kim to improve the tone for the summit and followed his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut a nuclear bomb test site.

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Singapore has emerged as the likeliest location for the planned summit after Trump ruled out holding it at the heavily fortified demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

Trump, who previously said Singapore was under consideration, said agreement had been reached on a date and venue and details would be announced within three days.

The release of the prisoners gave Trump a chance to tout a diplomatic achievement just a day after his decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal drew heavy criticism from European allies and others.

I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health, Trump wrote on Twitter.

I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this and allowing them to go, Trump told reporters at the White House.

The three men are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul, detained in 2015; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST and was detained last year.

We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home, the three said in a statement released by the State Department as their plane stopped over in Alaska.

We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

North Korean state media said they were arrested either for subversion or hostile acts against the government.

Cautious optimism

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that while there was reason for some optimism about the Kim-Trump summit, the U.S. troop presence in South Korea would not be part of initial negotiations.

There was also no sign that Pompeos visit had cleared up the question of whether North Korea would be willing to bargain away nuclear missiles that might threaten the United States.

Trump has credited his maximum pressure campaign for drawing North Korea to the table and has vowed to keep sanctions in place until Pyongyang takes concrete steps to denuclearize.

But former spy chief Kim Yong Chul, director of North Koreas United Front Department, said in a toast to Pompeo over lunch in Pyongyang: We have perfected our nuclear capability. It is our policy to concentrate all efforts into economic progress ... This is not the result of sanctions that have been imposed from outside.

Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that while the release was not an explicit precondition for the Trump-Kim meeting, the North Koreans understood that they had to do it for any progress to be made.

The North Koreans have still said nothing to indicate that they are willing to give up their nuclear weapons, not to mention permanently and verifiably dismantle their nuclear programs, she said.

We have no clarity about Kims intentions.

Pompeo will now meet South Koreas foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha, on Friday to prepare for Trumps meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-In on May 22 and his later meeting with Kim, the South Korean foreign ministry said.Check out todays latest news stories:

Society

-- A fierce fire broke out around 8:00 pm on Wednesday on the second floor from the top of a 25-story building in Cau Giay District of Hanoi, taking firemen approximately an hour to extinguish the flames. Cases of fire-bound residents and casualties have not been reported.

-- Four eight-graders died on Wednesday afternoon in an attempt to rescue their peer who fell into a river in a rural area of Dak Nong Province in Vietnams Central Highlands while having a game on the bank near deep water.

-- The management of the Hon Ba Natural Reserve in south-central Khanh Hoa Province on Wednesday proposed utilizing 600 hectares, roughly 35 percent of its total area, to serve ecotourism in all its three zones currently in use for strict flora and fauna protection, ecological restoration, and administrative and service purposes.

Business

-- The State Bank of Vietnam has requested all banks in Vietnam to temporarily cease raising charges for withdrawing cash at ATMs, citing the need for the credit institutions to enable greater information transparency and explanation of any changes to customers.

-- Nearly 8,000 Vietnamese will have an opportunity to work in South Korea in fish farming and industrial production, in accordance with a memorandum signed by the two countries during the visit of President Moon Jae In to Vietnam in March.

-- A group of Vietnamese scientists said they are poised to mass-produce tried-and-trusted Ivacflu, a low-cost vaccine against seasonal influenza fetching one-third the price of imported vaccines.

-- Factories in Vietnam produced 44 percent of Adidas footwear volume in 2017, up from 31 percent in 2012, while Chinese suppliers made 19 percent, down from more than 30 percent in 2012, Reuters quoted chief executive Kasper Rorsted as telling an annual meeting of shareholders on Wednesday.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Two fires occurred on Wednesday night and Thursday morning at a high-rise and a shop in Hanoi, killing one person.

Flames were blazing through the penultimate floor of a 25-story building under construction in Cau Giay District, at around 8:00 pm on Wednesday, according to witnesses.

Firefighters took about an hour to put out the fire, with authorities blocking traffic at the ends of Le Van Luong Street, where the building sits.

Police have not found any one stranded in the building.

Fire breaks out on the penultimate floor of a building in Cau Giay District, Hanoi, Vietnam, May 9, 2018. Photo: Tuoi Tre

In the second incident starting at 6:30 am the following day, raging fire spread from a bedding shop to a semidetached store, selling industrial gas cylinders, and a three-floor house near the Vinh Tuy Bridge in Long Bien District, Hanoi.

Locals reported hearing multiple explosions in the event, with a huge column of smoke climbing into the sky for 30 minutes before the flames were extinguished.

A female senior residing in the house died, while completely burned beddings and fire-licked gas cylinders were found in the two shops, according to a local official.

Police are probing the cases.

A fierce fire is seen in Long Bien District, Hanoi, Vietnam, May 10, 2018. Video: Facebook account Hien la ten cua toi

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Nope not quite Mr. Dentons chair..

7:30s Leigh Sales will interview Hillary Clinton, currently in Australia on a speaking tour, in a TV exclusive.

In an Australian TV exclusive, 7.30 anchor Leigh Sales will interview former Secretary of State and 2016 Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton. Weeks after her exclusive interview with former FBI director, James Comey, Leigh follows up with another must-watch TV event.

7.30 Monday May 14 on ABC.This morning Todays Richard Wilkins, who is head of the Australian Eurovision jury, chatted to Jessica Mauboy about her rehearsal in Lisbon.

Wilkins, who had just viewed the rehearsal joked he had just been in the secret bunker. Jurors vote for opposing countries during the rehearsals, but cannot vote for their own.

But is the chat is a breach of the Eurovision rules?:

No member of a National Jury shall be connected in any way with any of the participating songs entered and/or artists performing in the ESC in such a way that they cannot vote in complete independence and impartiality.

SBS told TV Tonight Wilkins interview did not impact his ability to vote independently with impartiality.

Mauboy also spoke with Sunrise Live from Lisbon, but withdrew from a chat with ABC News Breakfast.

This morning Virginia Trioli said, Were being told shes tired. She has managed to speak to a few media organises this morning, but too tired to speak to us. Which is an enormous shame. We want her voice to be in great state in order to compete.

So we wish her well.

SBS declined to comment.The latest in a conga line of music bio-dramas is a valentine from Seven to our Livvy.

Olivia Newton-John: Hopelessly Devoted to You stars our Delta in the titular role, a match-made in pop princess heaven, from her mid-20s onwards.

Part I also features Morgan Griffin as schoolgirl Olivia, from her TV talent show appearances to her early years in London, under the guardianship of her German mother Irene (Robyn Malcolm). Griffin is a stand-out as the effervescent teen songstress, flashing million dollar Livvy smiles and exuding bucketloads of sweetness and sincerity, without ever feeling fake.

Together with gal pal Pat Carroll (Georgia Flood), they work the London clubs trying to make their mark on the British pop scene in the late 1960s. Theirs would become a lifelong friendship, while Carrolls boyfriend muso & gifted songwriter John Farrar (Ben Shumann) would become a significant career relationship.

But a romance with Shadows guitarist Bruce Welch (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) would not last, causing Olivia to remain wary of mixing business with pleasure. She would later meet film producer Lee Kramer (Todd Lasance) whilst finding success in the US, where such doubts return in the script by writers Elizabeth Coleman and Keith Thompson.

Delta Goodrem assumes the role halfway through Part I after Morgan Griffin sets the scene (in some points we see Griffin lip-syncing Delta mimicking Olivia). Goodrem suits the crooning style of Olivia very well, and both share personal traits including pop success and facing cancer battles.

Other cast includes George Xanthis in the very difficult role of John Travolta, Kate Jenkinson as Pat Carroll from 22, Lucy Honigman as a young Helen Reddy and David James as producer Alan Carr. Watch out for Diana Glenn, Alison Bell, Jeremy Stanford and more to come in Part II.

The musical recreations are well-staged if reliant on Melbourne locations doubling for London and the US (observers can play spot the location). Crowd scenes are too stretched by the obvious budget limitations, but digitally inserting Goodrem / Griffin into TV clips with Cliff Richard and Johnny Carson are rather fun. However devices to indicate time and travel passages are very dependent on stock footage, maps and montages.

But Part I lacks enough drama to match recent biographies devoted to INXS, Peter Allen, Molly or The Easybeats. Whilst Part II doubtless has plenty of personal hurdles -cancer, business bankruptcy, missing partner, wild child daughter- the opening episode is as Sandra Dee as Livvy herself. The script doesnt identify enough flaws or inner conflict to work without the musical numbers. Theres no sign of sex, drugs & rock and roll in this very broad pitch, presenting Olivia / Delta (they are practically interchangeable) as saccharine as their public images when it had an opportunity to show the real woman behind the evergreen melodies.

Taking a nod from its title, this valentine is indeed devoted to its star and could do with a little bit more stepping out in tight black lycra and leather jacket to find the drama. Given the passion of the first instalment Im optimistic thats coming in Part II.

Olivia Newton-John: Hopeless Devoted to You begins 8:30pm Sunday on Seven.press STANDARDS have been questioned significantly more since the social media revolution and especially since the Leveson Inquiry, the official inquiry into press standards following the phone hacking scandal by News International. But ministers have seen off a bid to force them to implement a second stage of the Leveson inquiry into press standards.

Despite an impassioned speech by former Labour leader Ed Miliband, the government won by 304 votes to 295. Labours Tom Watson has campaigned in favour of tougher press standards over many years. He called todays vote on Leveson 2 a question of honour.

Do we need Leveson part 2?

Unsurprisingly, the CEO of News Media Association (NMA) wrote in an opinion piece for the Guardian that stage two is unnecessary. He claims that The General Data Protection Regulation is coming into force. The role of the Information Commissioners Office in protecting data is strengthened by positive amendments in the bill. But will the new regulation and amendments really do its job in making sure the press operate truthfully because so far despite numerous complaints and blatantly false articles, both the Sun and the Daily Mail avoid large fines and other possible sanctions against them.

The problem is that the likes of NMA and other Conservative supporting media outlets cite multiple myths about the Leveson Inquiry to back their claims.

Firstly, they say that no more needs to be done because of extensive prosecutions and the shutting down of the News of the World. However, the Leveson Inquiry was meant to be in two parts in the first place, Part 1 looked into press regulation but not the specifics of any wrongdoing, the conspiracies or the cover-up. Part 2 could not begin until the criminal and civil trials had been completed, which they now have.

Many of the executives involved are still in charge elsewhere and new evidence has since emerged. Furthermore, Rebekah Brooks returned as Chief Executive of News UK and faces allegations that phone hacking was rife during her stint with the Sun. The 50 million widely cited by those trying to stop Leveson II is a falsehood, this refers to the combined cost of Part 1 of the Inquiry (5.4 million) and the three primary police investigations, Operations Elveden, Tuleta, and Weeting (including Operation Golding).

The necessity of a free press is well known but for as long as it has existed as a money-making venture, it has been manipulated into device to control populations to help increase the profit for their multi-billionaire owners. The fact that 80% of the free press in Britain is owned by 5 billionaires, shows the state of the affairs that has been the way for at centuries.The House of Lords have inflicted yet another defeat on Theresa May as the Peers backed retaining key aspects of the single market by continued participation in the European Economic Area (EEA) on Tuesday, similar to the deal which Norway enjoy with the EU. The legislation was helped by a rebellion of Labour Peers, along with a smaller rebellion amongst the Conservative Peers. Nonetheless, this is yet another defeat for the government by the Lords.

The latest defeat means that the government plan for a clean break is looking ever-more unlikely but what is a concern is that the government dont have a plan going forward, as was evident in PMQs on Wednesday when Theresa May refused to answer Jeremy Corbyns questions on the customs union.

PMQs and Lords vote

Theresa Mays government have been dealt multiple blows over Brexit at the beginning of May the Lords voted on an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill giving MPs the power to prevent the UK from leaving without a deal, or make the Prime Minister return to negotiations, was approved by 335 votes to 244. Her team have been coming under increasing scrutiny ever since the negotiations have come to saunter towards the finish line and the divide within the party is growing by the day. With the likes of Boris Johnson ready pounce on a beleaguered Theresa May.

During PMQs, Jeremy Corbyn was efficient with his questioning and kept asking the PM about the UKs arrangements with the EU over the customs union after Brexit.

He pointed out that Greg Clark, the business secretary, said jobs would be at risk without a proper customs deal, highlighted that her own Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that her custom partnership plan was crazy, he also said that Sir Ivan Rogers, the former ambassador to the EU, called Mays customs plans a fantasy island unicorn plan and finally quoted the father of the house Ken Clarke, when he said that she should stand up to the right wing loonies.

The problem was that Theresa May didnt just fall flat, she was uninspiring and her rhetoric was tired. The normally boisterous defence from the Conservative benches fell flat and the deputy speaker Lindsay Hoyle, who was standing in for John Bercow whilst he was attending the funeral of former speaker Lord Smith, kept the house firmly in order and the session went remarkably quick which was noted by the likes of Andrew Neil.

Brexit means?

Brexit is an issue that has engulfed both parties and they should both be criticised for their approach, Labour havent really had a specific plan but they arent the ones who have access to all the information the government does, nor are they the ones negotiating. This means their Brexit plan has been largely flexible, except in the area of the possibility of a second referendum, the front bench has been against that for the most part.

The Conservatives have been in a complete mess over the negotiations, it took them around 9 months to agree on the leaving fee, Irish border (something that is not entirely resolved) and the rights of EU citizens. Then in setting up the outline for trade negotiations, their ideas have been branded as fantasy.

The government is split over the transitional period, whether we remain part of the customs union and/or single market and cabinet ministers have been dropping like flies over various other scandals.

Overall, the referendum was diabolical and the subsequent negotiations and the continuing shambles being made of the negotiations with no clear direction, highlights that no-one has a plan for leaving the EU. But the issue for both parties is that with the vote so close in the first place, even if the outcome would now switch to remain, the divide would remain around the same and that means no matter what they do, they will be alienating almost half the population over Brexit. That is why Labour have been focusing their attentions on the reason why people voted Brexit, wages, housing and general disenfranchising of generations.* Three draft bills are part of Petroleum Industry Bill

(PIB)

* Drafts set out tax, royalty rates for oil, gas firms

* Would create funds for communities hit by operations

* President would have power to award petroleum licences

(Adds details of bills)

By Paul Carsten and Alexis Akwagyiram

ABUJA, May 10 (Reuters) - Nigeria's government plans to

create a powerful energy regulator with broad oversight of the

oil and gas sector, according to draft versions of sweeping

reforms known collectively as the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

The draft laws, posted on the Nigerian legislature's website

on April 30, are the versions intended for the Senate, the upper

house of parliament.

The PIB aims to improve transparency, attract investors,

stimulate growth and increase government revenues.

After being debated for well over a decade, the unwieldly

and contentious legislation was broken into sections to help it

pass into law.

The governance part of the bill was passed by both houses of

parliament in January. However, that section has not yet been

signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, who is also

Nigeria's oil minister.

The inability to pass the law and uncertainty around

taxation has stunted investment in the west African nation,

particularly in deep-water oil and gas fields.

The three PIB sections yet to be passed address fiscal and

administrative issues and local communities affected by the oil

industry.

On Tuesday, Senate President Bukola Saraki told Reuters

Nigeria's parliament aims to pass the long-delayed PIB by the

end of July.

The administrative bill largely deals with the scope of the

Nigerian Petroleum Regulatory Commission, which would be the

main body regulating the oil and gas sector in the country.

The commission would have the power to grant, amend and

revoke licences for all kinds of activity in the industry, from

exploration and drilling to distribution and sales. It would

also make public all those licences, permits and authorisations,

as well as the details of interests or shares held.

Story continues

The bill sets the time limits for various kinds of licences:

three years for an exploration licence, 25 years for onshore

petroleum licences and 30 years for deep offshore.

The draft seeks to put an end to Nigeria's subsidies for

petroleum products, with a "short transition towards full market

pricing", within a year of the bill being signed into law.

"The President may direct the Commission to negotiate and

award Petroleum Licences to qualified investors outside of the

bidding process," the draft also said.

The fiscal bill sets out the rates of tax and royalties for

various oil and gas enterprises, as well as various breaks such

as upstream gas operations receiving a tax-free period of five

years from the start of production.

For profits from: Assessable tax (%)

Onshore crude 65

Shallow water crude 50

Onshore natural gas 30

Shallow water natural gas 30

Deep offshore upstream crude 40

Deep offshore upstream gas 30

Tranches of production Royalty rate

(barrels per day) (%)

Onshore areas:

First (Other OTC: FSTC - news) 2,500 2.5

Next (Frankfurt: 779551 - news) 7,500 7.5

Next 10,000 15.0

Above 20,000 20.0

Shallow water areas:

First 10,000 5.0

Next 10,000 10.0

Next 10,000 15.0

Above 30,000 20.0

Deep water areas:

First 50,000 5.0

Next 50,000 7.5

Above 100,000 10.0

Additional tax will also be charged when crude prices exceed

$60 a barrel, the draft said.

The third draft section of the PIB addresses communities

that host or are affected by oil and gas sector work.

For decades, communities in the Niger Delta oil heartland

have complained that spills and pollution have destroyed their

land and killed off wildlife.

RIghts group Amnesty International accused international oil

majors Royal Dutch Shell PLC (LSE: 0LN9.L - news) and Eni SpA (LSE: 0N9S.L - news) in

March of negligence when addressing spills in Nigeria.

Other oil majors such as Exxon Mobil Corp, Total SA (Paris: FR0000120271 - news)

and Chevron Corp also operate in Nigeria.

The draft bill seeks to address some of those concerns by

making companies whose operations are in or near communities set

up a trust, with a fund, for the benefit of those people.

Failure to do so would result in the suspension of their

licence, the draft said.

Companies would have to contribute 2.5 percent of annual

operating expenditure for work in that area into the trust's

fund, which would then be used to improve infrastructure, job

creation, education and health facilities.

(Reporting by Paul Carsten and Alexis Akwagyiram

Additional reporting by Camillus Eboh

Editing by Adrian Croft)OSLO (Reuters) - Swedish industrial technology firm Hexagon <HEXAb.ST> said Ola Rollen would remain CEO even though he faces an appeal against his acquittal in January over insider trading charges.

A Norwegian appeals court said earlier on Wednesday that it agreed to hear an appeal by prosecutors against Rollen's acquittal of the charges. They related to his 2015 purchase of shares in Norway's Next Biometrics <NEXT.OL>, which is not connected to Hexagon.

At the original trial, prosecutors asked for an 18-month prison term for Rollen, one of Sweden's best known business leaders. Rollen was unanimously acquitted by an Oslo court on Jan. 10. He maintained his innocence during the trial and has continued to run Hexagon, which he has led since 2000.

"Rollen looks forward to this matter reaching a conclusion in the Court of Appeal," his lawyers said in a statement, adding that they still believe the case had no merit.

The court announced its decision after the close of trade on the Stockholm stock exchange. Hexagon's shares, which fell sharply on the initial news of an investigation in October 2016, rose to all-time highs following the acquittal.

"This decision doesn't change anything; thus, Ola will continue as Hexagon's president and CEO with the board's full support," Chairman Gun Nilsson said in a statement on Wednesday.

A date for the new trial had not yet been set.

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Susan Fenton)LISBON (Reuters) - The Portuguese government issued a decree on Thursday giving tax authorities automatic access to bank account balances in excess of 50,000 euros (44,113 pounds) as part of a drive against tax evasion and money laundering.

The decree was first approved by the cabinet in 2016, but vetoed by President Marcelo Rebelo de Souza at the time. On Wednesday, the president said his only concern then was about a difficult situation in the banking sector, which such a measure could have exacerbated.

Portuguese banks have since improved their solvency and most returned to profits.

"The conditions are in place from the financial and legal point of view to make this step... crucial to combat tax fraud and evasion as well as money laundering," Finance Minister Mario Centeno told a news briefing.

Until now, Portuguese tax authorities needed a judge's permission to receive information about bank account balances of Portuguese citizens. Such data about accounts held by foreigners is already shared with fiscal authorities in their respective countries under various international treaties.

Since the start of its economic and debt crisis in 2010, Portugal has taken various measures to combat tax evasion and the shadow economy, the latter estimated to have accounted for about one-fifth of the gross domestic product.

The Accounts Tribunal estimates that such measures brought in around 500 million euros to state coffers in 2016.

(Reporting By Sergio Goncalves and Andrei Khalip)FILE PHOTO: "Quantum Dot" SUHD televisions are displayed at the Samsung Electronics booth during the 2016 CES trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada January 7, 2016. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo

By Heekyong Yang and Yuna Park

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean regulators turned up the heat on Samsung Group [SAGR.UL] over its complex ownership structure, with the country's antitrust chief saying on Thursday the arrangement for control at the nation's top conglomerate was "not sustainable".

Samsung Group is controlled through a web of circular shareholdings between companies such as Samsung C&T <028260.KS>, Samsung Life Insurance <032830.KS>, and Samsung Electronics <005930.KS>.

Critics have said the structure has enabled the family of Samsung heir Jay Y. Lee to retain control of the companies in the conglomerate, especially crown jewel Samsung Electronics, with minimum investments.

"The clear fact is, the current ownership and control structure of Samsung Group, which goes from Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee to Samsung C&T to Samsung Life Insurance to Samsung Electronics, is not sustainable," Kim Sang-jo, chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission, told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting with business leaders.

Circular shareholdings have been common among Korea's powerful family-controlled conglomerates, or chaebols, who have faced growing calls for reform from the government and investors.

Kim is popularly known as the "chaebol sniper" for his shareholder activist campaigns before joining the Commission. He has often criticized chaebols for their complicated cross-shareholding structures that he has said are aimed at cementing family control.

In 2016, as part of an activist group, Kim had suggested Samsung Group could resolve its complex structure by first setting up a financial holding company centred around Samsung Life Insurance, and by then forming a holding company centred around Samsung Electronics.

Kim said on Thursday he is urging Jay Y. Lee to make a decision concerning the ownership structure, adding that Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Yoon Boo-keun, who attended the meeting, had told him it will be considered.

Story continues

A Samsung Electronics spokesman did not have an immediate comment.

Samsung Group has come for criticism earlier too, most notably from U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Management, which proposed as a solution in 2016 that Samsung Electronics split itself into two.

Samsung Electronics rejected that proposal but accepted part of the fund's proposals by announcing plans to cancel its existing treasury shares worth over $35 billion by 2018.

Others have also questioned the group's ownership structure recently.

The country's top financial regulator said on Wednesday that Samsung Life Insurance must consider ways to lessen the risk of having too much of its assets concentrated in one place, including selling some or all of Samsung Life's stake in Samsung Electronics.

"Lessening the risk of concentrated assets is key to securing financial stability, which is what we are interested in," said Choi Jong-ku, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission.

"If there are any concerns about retaining management control (of Samsung Electronics), we are saying, look for ways to keep it while lessening the risk."

Samsung Life Insurance is at the heart of a cross-shareholding structure in which it owns about 8 percent of Samsung Electronics, which has a market value of about $340 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.

($1 = 1,072.8000 won)

(Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Yuna Park; Additional reporting and writing by Joyce Lee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)The edge of our solar system is ringed by a vast cloud of small, icy bodies. But astronomers have always suspected there were a few infiltrators here and there. They thought that as large planets wandered through the solar system during its early days, they kicked a few more traditional rocky asteroids out to this cold, dark exile.

Now, they've finally proven that hunch, according to a new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. That paper uses new data about an object discovered in 20042004 EW95to identify it as a rocky asteroid like those found in the belt located between Mars and Jupiter.

"It looks fairly convincing to me," Linda French, an astronomer at Illinois Wesleyan University who wasn't affiliated with the new study, told Newsweek. The result suggests that scientists have been on the right track in believing that in the early days of the solar system, Jupiter and Saturn spent some time wandering through the solar system, with their huge masses disturbing everything else in the area. "Basically, all hell broke loose in the solar system and all the small bodies got tossed around," she added.

Trending: Suicide Bomber Kills Civilians and Soldier Near Largest U.S. Military Base in Somalia

Read more: NASA named its next New Horizons target Ultima Thule, a mythical land with a Nazi connection

The object had seemed a little odd, not quite matching the small, icy look of its neighbors in the Kuiper Belt, the same region where Pluto is found. It looked enough of a weirdo for us to take a closer look, first author Tom Seccull, a graduate student in physics at Queen's University Belfast in the U.K., said in a press release.

In order to identify what 2004 EW95 was made of, the team studied the light reflected off of it. That showed what the team recognized as the signature of a carbonaceous asteroid, the same kind of carbon-rich asteroid that is typically found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Story continues

Don't miss: Trump Administration Ordered Mass Deportations Despite Warnings From Senior U.S. Diplomats: Report

That's the best evidence to date that the early hubbub sent objects flinging out from the center of the solar system to its edges. Astronomers already had proof that the reverse happened, with some small icy bodies clearly belonging to the far reaches of the solar system wandering in toward its heart.

05_08_asteroid

ESO/M. Kornmesser

"It's really nice to see that there's a degree of symmetry," Neyda Abreu, a geoscientist at Penn State DuBois who wasn't involved with the new research, told Newsweek. "That is truly fascinating."

Most popular: Scientists Are Building a Telescope Called 'The World's Biggest Eye on the Sky' to Explore Alien Planets

Abreu added that the presence of a type of compound called phyllosilicates on 2004 EW95 is particularly intriguing. Those compounds don't form unless there's water presentand that means that an asteroid like this one could have carried both organic compounds and water out to the borders of the solar system.

From there, because gravity is relatively weak, it's a quick hop out to other solar systems. For Abreu, that raises an exciting possibility: that these exiled asteroids could allow different solar systems to trade the ingredients of life.

It's too early to say precisely how many of these misplaced asteroids may be lurking in the Kuiper Beltbut given how 2004 EW95 looks compared to its neighbors, there's almost certainly at least one.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekHalf of Brits believe the risk of war is the countrys most pressing humanitarian issue (Rex)

Nearly half of people in Britain believe the most pressing humanitarian issue facing the country is the risk of war, a survey has found.

The Aurora Humanitarian Index surveyed nearly 11,000 people in 12 countries and found that 49% of Britons regarded risk of war as the most pressing global humanitarian challenge facing humanity now  an increase of 16% since 2017.

Terrorism remains the primary concern but with enduring trouble in Syria and discord between Russia and the West, the proportion in the UK fearing conflict is on the rise.

The trouble in Syria and discord between Russia and the West has prompted a rise in the fear of war (Rex)

It was seen as the top reason for people leaving their homes around the world, according to the survey.

More than half (52%) of Britons surveyed felt refugees deserved more support and 38% regretted that the country was not doing enough to help  up 11 points from last year.

Almost half of Britons thought legally established immigrants should be able to become citizens of the UK, up 10 points from 2017.

MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO

Ruben Vardanyan, co-founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, said: Its heartening that nationalistic attitudes towards refugees is in decline in the UK.

However, what is worrying is that this is the third year that the Humanitarian Index has revealed an alarming level of ignorance about the realities of the global refugee crisis.

Its critical that people remain informed on the nature and scale of the problem, otherwise apathy and complacency get in the way of action on behalf of the worlds most vulnerable.

Story continues

More than half of Britons surveyed felt refugees deserved more support (Rex)

A group of MPs published a report last year which said in many parts of the UK refugees were being welcomed.

It warned of a two-tier system of support and claimed Government policy left many newly recognised refugees at risk of homelessness and destitution.

The annual public opinion study gauges attitudes towards humanitarian issues worldwide, the effectiveness of humanitarian intervention, and individuals motivations to intervene on behalf of others.Parts of Missoula County, Montana, were under evacuation order due to flooding along the Clark Fork River on Wednesday, May 9. The river was expected to be at major flood stage, 13 feet, by Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

The river was forecast to crest at 13.5 feet on Saturday.

About 60 homes were ordered to evacuate on Tuesday, including the Orchard Homes area, a news report said. Those around the evacuation area were warned they may be ordered to evacuate as the river continues to rise.

This video shows the Orchard Homes area on Tuesday. Credit: Missoula County Sheriffs Office via StoryfulLloyds unerring accuracy, warm tone and sensitive interpretations endeared him to audiences worldwide

If the popularity of the flute today rivals that of the 18th century when its patrons included Frederick the Great, then its reputation is in no small measure due to the talents of Peter Lloyd.

Without doubt one of the greatest British flautists of the second half of the 20th century, he was perhaps the last survivor of the families of wind principals who so dominated the British orchestral scene throughout that period.

Likewise, an outstanding teacher, his total dedication proved pivotal in helping mould the creative personalities of many of this countrys most eminent practitioners.

One of three brothers, born in Dorset to a financial analyst, Peter Lloyd was educated at Dauntseys School in Wiltshire.

There his prodigious talents, both scholastic and musical rapidly came to the fore.

Exempted from National Service due to asthma, a condition that troubled him throughout his life, Lloyd then moved to the Royal College of Music where he studied the flute with Edward Walker.

At the same time a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, surprisingly, his services were soon dispensed with, his playing deemed not up to standard.

For three years, from 1953 until 1956, Lloyd began his professional career with the Scottish National Orchestra.

He then further refined his technique by moving to Paris to undertake intensive study with Fernand Caratge.

Back in England he moved to Manchester for an initial spell with the BBC Northern Orchestra, before returning to spend a further three years with the Scottish National Orchestra as first flute in 1958. After further refining his technique, again in Paris, but this time with Jean-Pierre Rampal, it was back to Manchester and a second spell with the BBC Northern.

By now emerging as the leading flautist of his generation, as a performer, Lloyd revelled in the unique opportunities afforded by the instrument, his colourful and virtuosic playing rarely failing to make an impact. Over the years his seemingly effortless delivery, unerring accuracy, warm tone and sensitive interpretations endeared him to audiences worldwide.

Story continues

Likewise, his sense of humour, generous spirit and impeccable timing won him the high regard of colleagues. He was also a regular at Abbey Road, his artistic palette embracing everything for the film scores of John Williams to the latest pop offerings.

In 1967, Lloyds outlook found a particularly happy and expressive outlet when he moved to London to spend 20 years with the London Symphony Orchestra. Soon noted as a section leader with a soloists personality, happy to share the principals chair with William Bennett, his brilliant and incisive sound became one of the glories of the orchestra. A leading light in the LSOs Discovery programme, he was heard in many of its finest performances under conductors as diverse as Sir Colin Davis, Leonard Bernstein, Claudio Abbado, Andre Previn, Bernard Haitink and Sir Georg Solti.

While engaged in extensive orchestral, concerto and recital work, chamber music increasingly came to the fore. A member of the Sonar Ensemble, the English Taskin players, he also joined his LSO colleagues such as Jack Brymer, Derek Wickens, and Martin Gatt in the Barry Tuckwell Wind Quintet.

In the company of the pianist, Rebecca Holt, together they proved a formidable artistic partnership. Their authoritative advocacy, particularly of much neglected French 20th century flute repertoire, added a new dynamic to Lloyds already extensive and richly varied discography.

As a teacher, Lloyd was meticulous, exacting and demanding never more so than during his 20 years at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Increasingly inhabiting a much more international landscape, in 1987, Lloyd moved to the US to teach and perform at Indiana University. Five years later, now back in England and settled in the Northwest, there his second wife, Thelma Handy, was leader of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Serving as professor of flute at the Royal Northern College of Music from 1993 onwards, in 1999, he was elected an honorary fellow.

Twice married, he is survived by six sons, three from each marriage.

Peter John Lloyd, musician, born 9 September 1931, died 15 April 2018The Prime Minister has apologised to a Libyan rebel and his wife over the "appalling treatment" they suffered as the Government settled their case.

In a statement to the House of Commons, Attorney General Jeremy Wright revealed the Government has reached an out-of-court "full and final settlement" with Abdel-Hakim Belhaj and Fatima Boudchar over the UK's role in their rendition.

Mrs Boudchar, who was present in Parliament with her son Abderrahim to hear Mr Wright's statement on Thursday, will be given 500,000.

In 2012, the couple brought a claim against the UK Government, former Labour foreign secretary Jack Straw and ex-foreign office director Sir Mark Allen.

They alleged the UK was complicit in their abduction, detention and rendition to Libya in 2004, following which they suffered a "harrowing ordeal that caused them significant distress".

At the time, Libya was ruled by brutal dictator Colonel Gaddafi, whose regime Mr Belhaj - a politician and former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group - was opposed to.

Their rendition, following their seizure in Bangkok, Thailand, came around the same time as ex-prime minister Tony Blair's controversial "deal in the desert" with Gaddafi.

Mrs Boudchar was pregnant when detained and gave birth shortly after her release from a Libyan jail in June 2004.

However, Mr Belhaj was not released until March 2010, less than 18 months before the fall of Gaddafi's regime amid the Arab Spring uprisings.

He alleges he was tortured during his detention.

Revealing the settlement of the legal case, Mr Wright told MPs: "On 3 May, the claims against Jack Straw and Sir Mark Allen were withdrawn.

"Today, I can announce to this House that, following mediation, the UK Government has reached a full and final settlement of Mr Belhaj and Mrs Bouchar's claims."

Mr Wright paid tribute to the "constructive way" the couple had approached the mediation, adding: "This has been a long-running and hugely complex piece of litigation, which has been difficult for all the individuals involved."

Story continues

The Attorney General revealed no admissions of liability have been made by any of the defendants in settling the claims.

The couple have now withdrawn their claims against all defendants, with the Government agreeing to pay the 500,000 sum to Mrs Bouchar.

Mr Belhaj did not seek and has not been given any compensation.

Mr Wright told MPs it is "important that we should act in line with our values and in accordance with the rule of law".

"That means that when we get things wrong it is right and just that we should acknowledge it, compensate those affected and learn lessons," he added.

He described how the events took place after the September 11 terror attacks in New York in 2001, which had left the UK "suddenly adapting to a completely new scale and type of threat".

Mr Wright has met both Mr Belhaj and Mrs Bouchar, while Theresa May has written to them each to say the UK Government is "profoundly sorry".

The Prime Minister wrote: "What happened to you is deeply troubling. It is clear that you were both subject to appalling treatment and that you suffered greatly, not least the affront to the dignity of Mrs Boudchar, who was pregnant at the time.

"The UK Government believes your accounts. Neither of you should have been treated in this way."

In a statement issued by his lawyers, Mr Belhaj said: "I welcome and accept the Prime Minister's apology, and I extend to her and the Attorney General my thanks and sincere goodwill."

Speaking outside Parliament, Mrs Boudchar said: "This is an historic day for us. The British Government apologised to us for what we've been through. We've waited for six years for this apology."

Mr Straw, who served as foreign secretary between 2001 and 2006, welcomed the withdrawal of proceedings against him.

In a statement, he said: "As foreign secretary I was responsible for approving or authorising a wide range of matters to protect our national security, including by meeting our international obligations to share information with international partners.

"I took these responsibilities very seriously. As I have said on many occasions I sought to act at all times in a manner which was fully consistent with my legal duties, and with national and international law.

"In every case where my approval was sought I assumed, and was entitled to assume, that the actions for which my approval was sought were lawful.

"This included in appropriate cases obtaining assurances as to the humane treatment of those concerned.

"This case clearly raises serious issues. However I remain constrained for national security reasons as to what further I can say publicly."The green light could soon be given to fund the search for little green men. Legislation put forward by the U.S. House of Representatives for the future of NASA proposes $10 million be spent for each of the next two years on the search for technosignatures, such as radio transmissions.

The Search for Extraterrestrial Life Institute (SETI) looks for radio signals in space and had government funding for its quest until 1992 when it was cut following objections from a senator that nothing had been found.

Former director of SETI research, Jill Tarter, was part of that project which used radio telescopes in Puerto Rico and California that scoured space for potential signals.

Trending: Watch the Moment HIV Infects New Host: Footage Is Helping Scientists Develop a Vaccine

RTX29G2M

REUTERS/NASA/Handout via Reuters

Now she hopes that the latest pledge from Congress means the search can resume and allow the construction of better equipment to examine the cosmos for longer.

Ten million at once for one year won't do much but $10 million a year, as an ongoing funding stream, could do a great deal.

Don't miss: Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition Update Brings Cross-Platform Play in June

It could allow people to build special-purpose instrumentation, and then use it on the sky for a long time," she told The Atlantic.

After government funding was cut, NASA has been focused on searching for biosignatures in space and signs of early microbial life.

This meant that SETI scientists had to rely on academic institutions or private donors to continue their research. Avi Loeb, from Harvards astronomy department said even if detecting tiny microorganisms in our own solar system was more likely than finding communication from light years away, SETI research is still valuable.

Story continues

Most popular: Mayim Bialik on 'The Big Bang Theory' Season 11 Finale and Her New Book 'Boying Up'

RTX5RPKI

REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

I dont see a reason to do one and not the other, because its also very challenging to look for primitive life. Its not as if its a piece of cake, an easy task. Otherwise, we would have done it already, he told The Atlantic.

In 1992, the only known planets were those in the solar system. Now, there are more than 3,700 known exoplanets, a number of which were discovered by the spacecraft Kepler.

Kepler showed us that planets are as common as cheap motels, so that was a step along the road to finding other life because at least theres the real estate. That doesnt mean theres any life there, but at least there are planets, Seth Shostak, from SETI said.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekAhead of Prince Harry's wedding, one of his close army colleagues has revealed what it was like to train alongside him and why he's taken on a record-breaking cycle challenge to raise money for Harry's mental health charity.

Dean Stott, a former member of the UK Special Forces, met Harry on army training in 2007.

A new Sky documentary, Harry and Meghan: A Love Story, meets up with Mr Stott in Chile as he tries to complete a gruelling 14,000-mile cycle ride across North and South America along the Pan American Highway.

He is doing it to raise money for the Heads Together campaign launched by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry to get people talking about mental health.

He said: "What I'm trying to promote on this challenge is also that physical activity can help your mental state so I think more people talk about it, more people are aware about it.

"If someone like Harry can talk about it then anyone can.

"Mental health doesn't discriminate, it can affect anyone regardless of who you are."

:: World first for Sky News royal wedding coverage

The programme looks at Prince Harry's time in the army, especially his two military tours in Afghanistan, a time when he earned the respect of his fellow soldiers and gained some close friends.

Mr Stott said: "He fitted in really well and that's what I was really surprised about, how grounded he is and how relatable he is.

"Straight away he never saw himself as an outsider, he saw himself as part of that team and I think that's how he's had such a great career in the military."

:: Everything you need to know about the royal wedding

General Lord Richard Dannatt, who was chief of the general staff at the time, also features in the programme and recalls meetings he had with Captain Henry Wales.

Talking about how army life helped to get the young prince back on the right track, he said: "He's a delightful young man.

Story continues

"I mean, we all know about Prince Harry when he was younger... falling out of nightclubs and that kind of stuff, but he was a young man.

"He undoubtedly had a difficult and complex childhood."

The documentary Harry and Meghan: A Love Story will air on Sky One at 9pm on Wednesday 9 May and on Sky News at 9pm on Friday 11 May - or watch it now on Sky News on Catch Up.

:: Sky News will broadcast live in Windsor the week before the royal wedding with all the build up to the big day, with exclusive live coverage of the wedding in UHD in a special programme from 9am to 3pm on Sky News and Sky One on Saturday 19 May.European stocks are trading on a mixed note, helped by a weaker-than-expected print on consumer prices in the States.

In the background meanwhile, traders were also keeping tabs on events in the Middle East following an Israeli counter-strike against Iranian military assets in Syria.

As of 1511 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was down by 0.37% or 1.46 points to 391.0, alongside a sharp drop for the FTSE Mibtel of 1.24% or 300.42 points to 23,966.31.

The German Dax on the other hand was ahead by 0.24% or 31.30 points at 12,974.78 with the Cac-40 essentially treading water at 5,535.73

Following a lower-than-expected 0.1% rise in 'core' US CPI last month, the yield on benchmark 10-year German bunds was down by two basis points at 0.54%.

Commenting on the possible follow-on effects on oil prices from geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, Michael Hewson at CMC Markets UK said: "The rise in the oil price, now up over 50% since September last year hasnt as yet prompted a re-evaluation in this years economic forecasts but as can be seen from recent weak consumer data, in Europe, the UK, as well as the US, it could well be starting to have an effect in some of the more recent retail sales numbers.

"Paying more to fill up your vehicle leaves a lot less room for those consumer discretionary items. If oil prices move above $80 a barrel, as seems likely given recent events with the Iran nuclear deal, as well as unrest and upcoming so-called elections in Venezuela, this could well cause further headaches for policymakers, if the global economy were to slow on the back of these price rises."

The flow of economic data meanwhile was on the light side, although Italian industrial production figures for March did surprise to the upside, rising by 1.2% month-on-month (consensus: 0.4%), according to ISTAT.

In parallel, Greece's unemployment rate was reported by ELSTAT to have edged higher to 20.8% in February, from the upwardly-revised reading of 20.7% for January.AstraZeneca reported recent trial findings for two of its lung cancer drug candidates on Monday, claiming both Imfinzi and Tagrisso had shown positive effects in the PACIFIC and FLAURA trials.

The FTSE 100 drugmaker and its global biologics research and development arm MedImmune presented the full progression-free survival data from a planned interim analysis of the Phase III PACIFIC trial, investigating Imfinzi (durvalumab).

It said the results showed that Imfinzi demonstrated a statistically-significant and clinically-meaningful improvement in progression-free survival compared to the current standard of care, with active surveillance in patients with locally-advanced stage III, unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had not progressed following standard platinum-based chemotherapy concurrent with radiation therapy/

Results of the Phase III PACIFIC trial, included at the Presidential Symposium I of the European Society of Medical Oncology 2017 Congress in Madrid, Spain, showed an improvement in progression-free survival of more than 11 months in patients treated with Imfinzi, compared to placebo.

AstraZeneca said the progression-free survival improvement with Imfinzi was observed across all prespecified subgroups, including PD-L1 expression status.

Patients receiving Imfinzi also had a lower incidence of metastases than those receiving placebo.

The PACIFIC trial continued to evaluate overall survival, the other primary endpoint, AstraZeneca explained.

The Phase III PACIFIC results are incredibly encouraging for a patient population that until now has been without treatment options, said AstraZenecas executive vice president for global medicines development Sean Bohen.

As the first immuno-oncology medicine to achieve improvement in progression-free survival in this setting, Imfinzi is showing clear potential to become a new standard of care for patients with locally-advanced, unresectable NSCLC who have not progressed following chemoradiation.

Dr Luis Paz-Ares, principal investigator of the PACIFIC trial from the Hospital Universitario Doce de Octubre in Madrid, said that for patients with locally-advanced unresectable NSCLC who have completed chemoradiation therapy, Imfinzi represented a potential new treatment option in the context of clear unmet clinical need.

Durvalumab overtly prolongs the period in which the disease is controlled with reasonable side effects.

In addition, it offers hope to increase the cure rate in this setting, but more mature follow-up is needed to assess its impact on survival.

In its second announcement, AstraZeneca presented the full results of the Phase III FLAURA trial, which it said supported the potential of Tagrisso (osimertinib) as a new standard of care in the first-line treatment of adult patients with locally-advanced or metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

The company said the results of the Phase III FLAURA trial, also included at the Presidential Symposium I in Madrid, and demonstrated a superior, clinically-meaningful progression-free survival advantage with Tagrisso compared with the current treatments, erlotinib or gefitinib.

The FLAURA data are truly exciting, said Sean Bohen.

Until now, even with the therapeutic advances offered by the first- and second-generation EGFR inhibitors, less than 20% of EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC patients survive for five years.

The FLAURA data suggest early and sustained benefit with Tagrisso that has the potential to significantly impact long-term patient outcomes and help address the considerable unmet need that remains.

Dr Suresh S Ramalingam, principal investigator of the FLAURA trial from the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University in Atlanta, said the FLAURA data for osimertinib were likely to result in a major paradigm shift in the treatment of patients with EGFR mutation-positive advanced lung cancer.

Not only did the trial demonstrate a robust improvement in efficacy with osimertinib when compared to other commonly-used EGFR inhibitors, the side effects profile was also more favourable with osimertinib.Defence group BAE Systems reiterated its expectations on Thursday for 2018 earnings to be flat on the year, as it said there were good prospects to add to its order backlog.

BAE said that negotiations with Saudi Arabia relating to the principal terms of plans to buy 48 Typhoon aircraft are progressing. Meanwhile, the company is one of two competitors in the running to win US amphibious combat vehicle contracts.

In Australia, the group has secured the 10-year Jindalee operational radar network upgrade programme contract and is expecting a decision by half-year on the preferred tenderer for the Commonwealth's nine-ship SEA 5000 Future Frigate programme.

In a statement that will be read out at its annual general meeting in Hampshire later, chief executive Charles Woodburn said: "We have a large order backlog and strong franchises with good prospects to further these positions in the coming months.

"The new organisation structure is now established to drive our strategic priorities to deliver both in year targets and to provide a solid foundation for medium term growth."

At 0825 BST, the shares were up 0.3% to 616p.On The Beach grew adjusted profits 15% in the first half of the year but the bottom and top line were affected by the collapse of Monarch Airlines, while separately chairman Richard Segal has decided to step down.

The online short-haul beach holiday specialist reported its first half-year results as a FTSE 250-listed company, with group revenue of 45.3m in the six months to 31 March, up 19% on the same period last year.

UK revenue of 44.4m was up 19%, which was faster growth than the past full year but slower than the 23% reported in the first four months of this financial year.

There was an estimated 1.1m impact for lost bookings due to winter seat availability and seat pricing following the Monarch failure.

International revenue increased 51% to 0.9m, with Sweden enjoying its strongest period of trading since launch, supported by an increased investment in Sweden and Norway to accelerate growth.

Daily unique visitors increased 24% to 34.1m and 62% of traffic to the website is now branded or non-paid compared to 57% in the same period a year ago.

UK revenue post marketing grew 19% to 23.0m which reflects accelerated investment in iSunshine.co.uk, acquired a year ago, and driving traffic to build momentum.

Group adjusted EBITDA increased 14% to 15.4m, with the UK up 17% to 17m and international losses of 1.6m compared to 1m a year ago.

Sunshine has lower margins, while across the board some "modest and tactical discounting" was made, which house broker Numis suggested bookings and market share grew faster than revenue.

Adjusting for the slower revenue growth and additional investment in international, Numis trimmed its full year revenue forecast 5% and PBT 4%.

Chief executive Simon Cooper said booking growth strengthened towards the end of the period and has continued into the second half. He added: "Given the resilient and flexible nature of our business model, the board remains confident in delivering a full year result in line with management's expectations, taking into account the one-off impact of flight capacity constraints as a result of the Monarch failure and the accelerated investment to support International growth.

"To support our continued desire to attract and retain the best digital talent, we have signed a lease on a new digital HQ in Manchester which has the capacity to support our growth ambitions. Fit out work will begin shortly and we are scheduled to occupy this exciting new space by the end of 2018."

Chairman Segal will be succeeded by Lee Ginsberg, currently senior independent non-executive director, at a date yet to be confirmed, with his senior independent director role taken by David Kelly. Both Ginsberg and Kelly have been on the board since listing.TP ICAP updated the market on its trading for the four month period from 1 January to 30 April on Thursday, reporting revenue growth of 3% to 601m, as shareholders arrived at the companys annual general meeting.

The FTSE 250 firm said that revenue growth was consistent with its full year guidance in March.

Trading was marked by improved conditions in rates products and an uptick in equity volatility, though that was offset by ongoing weaknesses in power and poor credit markets.

Global broking delivered an increase in revenues of 5% to 442m, which the board aid was primarily driven by a good performance in the rates business, which was up 8%, and the equities business, which was ahead 22% following a strong performance in the Americas.

The energy and commodities division saw a 4% decline in revenues to 111m, with power and commodities markets still struggling, although the PVM oil business continued to perform well.

Institutional services revenue was down 7% to 10m, and data and analytics revenue rose 4% to 36m.

TP ICAPs board said both business divisions were going through a period of restructuring in line with its strategic goals.

The integration of TP ICAP remains our number one priority and we remain firmly on track to deliver our target of 100m of synergies, said CEO John Phizackerley.

Post the successful delivery of readiness for MIFID II we are now moving in to large IT system migration, as well as increasing our workforce in Belfast.

New combined offices are shortly scheduled to open in London and New York.

Phizackerley said in markets, the global rates environment continued to be increasingly constructive, with bouts of volatility seeming likely to continue.

We also continue to progress our plans for growth in data and analytics, institutional services, and energy and commodities.The historic summit between the US and North Korea will be held in Singapore, CNN reported citing people familiar with the plans.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would announce the date and location in three days

Trump reportedly ruled out the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean peninsula as one of the potential locations for the meeting with Kim Jong-Un.

Although the White House did not confirm the date or location, Trump's press secretary Sarah Sanders said both had been decided already.

Speaking about the summit, Trump said on Wednesday that everything could still collapse: Everything can be scuttled. Everything can be scuttled. A lot of good things can happen, a lot of bad things can happen. I believe that we have -- both sides want to negotiate a deal. I think it's going to be a very successful deal.

Recently Kim Jong-Un agreed to release three Americans that were held in North Korea after he met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. North Korean officials saw it necessary to overcome this obstacle to improve the relations in the meeting with the US president.

Trump welcomed them home as they landed on US soil on Thursday and thanked Kim for his decision.A cut to the maximum stake on addictive betting machines to 2 has been delayed after a senior minister led a cabinet revolt against the plans. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport planned to announce the reduction today after winning over sceptics in the Treasury but a source close to the cabinet says Esther McVey, the work and pensions secretary, has strongly objected to the plan. - The Times

The chairman of 21st Century Fox, Lachlan Murdoch, said the media company planned to press ahead with plans to merge with Disney and take full control of Sky on Wednesday but said the company was considering its options as cable giant Comcast prepares a higher bid. Last December Fox agreed to sell most of its cable and studio assets to the Walt Disney Company. It is also looking to acquire the shares of Sky it doesnt already own. - Guardian

BPs bid to sell the North Sea gas field it owns with Iran could face an eleventh hour delay as the threat of US sanctions raises concern for the industry regulator. The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) is expected to pause the 300m deal agreed between the oil major and North Sea minnow Serica Energy late last year because the sale includes the Rhum gas field which is part-owned by Irans state oil company. - Telegraph

Ministers are facing calls to reassure businesses in key sectors including manufacturing and farming that they will be adequately defended from unfair trading practices after Britain leaves the European Union. In a new report, the Commons international trade committee expressed serious concerns over whether the Trade Remedies Authority, which will handle trade disputes and consider how best to protect industries, will be operational in time for Brexit next March. - The Times

Shoppers face a significant rise in food prices if the government fails to secure a free trade deal with the European Union, peers have warned. In a bleak assessment of the impact of Brexit, the Lords EU energy and environment subcommittee suggested grocery costs would rise, businesses could go bust and year-round supplies be put at risk. - Guardian

ZTE, one of the worlds largest telecom equipment makers, may be the first major casualty of a trade war brewing between China and the US. The Shenzhen-based company said it had ceased major operating activities, in a filing late on Wednesday to the Hong Kong stock exchange. - Guardian

Iran is likely to launch cyber attacks on Western businesses within months in retaliation for the US pulling out of the nuclear deal, security experts have warned. The businesses at greatest risk are banks and financial services, critical infrastructure providers and energy companies along with government departments. These are the same targets that felt the brunt of Iranian hacking in 2012 and 2014. - Telegraph

Robert Mueller, the special counsel, has been investigating payments made by corporations to Donald Trumps attorney Michael Cohen, two of Cohens clients said on Wednesday. AT&T and the Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis both said they were contacted by Muellers office in November last year, as Novartis confirmed it had paid Cohen $1.2m  significantly more than was initially disclosed. - Guardian

BMW's Rolls-Royce will today unveil its first SUV which could be the most important vehicle for luxury car-maker since its acquisition by the German carmaker 20 year ago. At noon the covers will come off the 4x4  called the Cullinan  officially launching one of the most anticipated, and quite probably most expensive, cars ever. - Telegraph

Hundreds of British companies will face legal action after failing to comply with a new requirement to report the pay gap between male and female staff, Britains equality watchdog said this evening. All companies and charities with more than 250 employees are now legally required to publish those details on their own websites and a government site dedicated to the topic. - Telegraph/Reuters

A digital advertising start-up used by Tesco Mobile customers to reduce their bills has won a High Court injunction against Google to prevent its technology being banished from hundreds of millions of smartphones. Unlockd, an Australian company backed by investors including Lachlan Murdoch, eldest son of media mogul Rupert, alleged that plans by Google to evict it from the Play Store and cut it off from an advertising clearing house amounted to monopoly abuse. - TelegraphDebt purchaser Arrow Global made saw revenues grow throughout the first quarter of its trading year as a result of an increase in core collections and a 19.9% increase in asset management income.

Arrow's revenue expanded 19.6% to 77.1m for the three months leading to 31 March, thanks largely to the capital-light asset management revenues boost to 18.9m.

Core collections improved 11.6% to 86.0m as Arrow's overall collections performance remained strong at 103% of original underwriting forecasts, demonstrating its "track record of prudent investment and portfolio servicing expertise".

Underlying profit after tax of 11.4m was up 10.3% year-on-year and earnings per share of 6.5p were 10.2% higher.

The group noted that after the integration of Parr Credit, its Italian asset, the structural backdrop for future growth remained attractive.

Chief executive Lee Rochford said, "The power of our differentiated model has meant that we have had another strong start to the year. Our sophisticated approach to capital investment and asset management, underpinned by our strong institutional client relationships and unique servicing capabilities, has meant that we have continued to purchase high volumes of portfolios at our required returns while maintaining the growth of our capital-light asset management revenues."

"I remain confident that we are favourably positioned to capitalise on future opportunities and we remain on track to deliver our financial targets for the year," Rochford added.

As of 0930 BST, Arrow shares had declined 3.78% to 356.50p.It is a delight for anyone to graduate from college. It was especially a delight when the public learned that a 92-year-old South Carolina woman graduated. Annie Dillard decided to go back to college five years ago when she was 87 years old.

She graduated from Midlands Tech, a two-year college in Columbia, South Carolina. She received an Associates of Liberal Arts degree, according to WLTX-TV. It took her more than two years to graduate because she still works. She studied while working as a cosmetologist at the hair salon that she started 30 years ago.

When she graduated on Wednesday, May 9, the school let her lead the procession, and she was the first to cross the stage to get her degree.

92-year-old Annie Dillard is about to walk the stage for Midlands Tech to get her 4th degree  Join @WLTX in congratulating her and all fellow grads! pic.twitter.com/et4RnqQeCe  Alicia Neaves (@AliciaWLTX) May 9, 2018

Decision to go to college

Dillard said she decided to return to college because she wanted to learn more about what is going on in the world today. She also wanted to be around some of the 16,000 old and young students at the college She added that this is an automated world, and if she had stayed at home just watching television she wouldn't have been learned what she did.

Fourth college degree

Dillard is no stranger to college life. Her recent degree is her fourth one. She earned a bachelor's degree from Allen University in the 1960s. She plans to return to college to get another degree two weeks from now. If it takes her five years to get another degree, she will be 97 years old when she graduates.

She doesn't mind because she is not ready to stop learning.

Midlands Tech was excited and honored to have Dillard graduate because she is the oldest person who has ever done so in the history of the school.

The widow and mother of a daughter who is a doctor is a great inspiration for others. She says you can make it if you try, but you have to start somewhere.

Dillard is active outside of the classroom. She is a very good bowler on a bowling team.

Other older graduates

It is definitely remarkable that Dillard graduated at 92, but there have been some graduates who were older. Every year around this time of the year, newspapers are full of announcements about older people who have graduated from high school and college.

According to online reports and YouTube videos, the oldest graduate was 105 years old. It goes to show that people should never give up on their dream because it can be fulfilled if they keep at it.

Do you know anyone as old as Annie Dillard who has graduated from high school or college? Don't you find her story very inspirational?A Cornell University senior had not planned to deliver her thesis in only her underwear, but after a remark from her professor, Letitia Chai responded by stripping off her clothes. Then she asked her classmates to join her in their underwear during her presentation last week.

Student and professor

Professor Rebekah Maggor questioned Chai about her attire that was a long-sleeve blue button-down shirt and denim short shorts. The professor simply asked Maggor if that was what she was going to wear during her presentation and if her mother would approve of it.

Chai clapped back by stating that her mom is a Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies professor whose job is to empower people. The senior concluded by saying she thinks her mother would have no problem with her presenting her thesis in short shorts.

Presentation in underwear

Chai was offended by the teacher's questions about her outfit. She protested by taking off her shirt and cut-offs. The Cornell senior was left standing in her underwear, and that's the way she presented her entire thesis in Professor Maggor's Acting in Public class. The 18-year-old student asked her classmates to join her by stripping off their outer clothes while they listened to her presentation.

After Chai told the mixed group of men and women to strip, 28 of the 44 people in the conference room in the physical sciences building removed their clothes.

The remainder of the students kept their clothes on.

Maggor explained to the school newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, that the university does not have a dress code and she does not tell her students what to wear. She does ask them to dress appropriately for the persona they will present.

Professor Maggor said she was not picking on Chai in any way.

She said in another session, she had asked a male student to remove his cap. Chai argued that the two cases were not the same.

A Cornell University student delivered her thesis wearing only her bra and underwear in protest of a professor who allegedly questioned her choice of clothing. https://t.co/OAvSf1oyrp via @AOL  Rachel P, a/k/a Red Lipstick Girl  (@museum_mouse) May 10, 2018

During the discussion period following Chai's presentation, a male international student commented that a speaker has a moral obligation to the audience to dress conservatively.

Social media

Of course, everything is posted on social media these days. A photo of Chai delivering her thesis in her underwear was posted on Twitter and a video of the presentation is on YouTube.

The classmates believed Chai's reaction was not the best way to handle the situation. Even worse, she posted an account of what happened on Facebook.

This is one for the record books, but what do you think? Do you think the student was wrong to strip for her presentation?After it was announced that North Korea had released three United States citizens who had been jailed in the country, the White House was quick to use the news to praise the president. In response, Donald Trump Jr. made sure to chime in with thoughts of his own, before facing backlash on social media.

I imagine they are really excited that there someone in office with the guts to fight for them. You know... as opposed to the weaklings before him. Why dont we ask them tomorrow after theyve caught up with their families??? https://t.co/JAE4XeiZBV  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 9, 2018

Imagine being released after years in a North Korean prison camp and finding out that Donald Trump is President of the United States.  Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) May 9, 2018

Don Jr. on Twitter

It's been well-documented that the relationship between the United States and North Korea has not been positive.

Ever since the election of Donald Trump, that relationship has been put to the test, especially as the former host of "The Apprentice" has called out North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in public, labeling him with the nickname "Rocket Man." Despite this, the recent summit between North and South Korea proved to be successful, leading to further negotiations with the Kim regime and the United States. With a meeting between Trump and Kim upcoming, North Korea released three U.S. citizens that have been jailed in the country.

North Korea has released three Americans it had been holding captive; they're on their way back to the U.S. with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, President Trump said this morning. https://t.co/ZatQ32iQXO  NPR (@NPR) May 9, 2018

Following the news that American citizens Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim, and Kim Dong-chul were headed back to the United States along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, critics of the Trump administration were still weary of what took place.

Comedian Tim Young tweeted out "Imagine being released after years in a North Korean prison camp and finding out that Donald Trump is President of the United States." In response, Donald Trump Jr. reacted with hostility on May 9.

"I imagine they are really excited that there someone in office with the guts to fight for them," Donald Trump Jr.

tweeted. "You know... as opposed to the weaklings before him," he added, before aggressively asking, "Why don't we ask them tomorrow after theyve caught up with their families???"

Twitter reacts

Following Donald Trump Jr's defense of his father for reportedly helping gain the release of three Americans form North Korea, critics took time to hit back.

"So Kennedy, Roosevelt, Washington all those PAST presidents are WEAK #Trump!??? SERIOUSLY! You have NOT accomplished anything in your own ..who's a WHIMP now!??? Your wife got wise and divorced you!!" one tweet read.

I'd run screaming back to the North Koreans and say, "Take me back."  Rockfish (@boblund1951) May 9, 2018

So Kennedy, Roosevelt, Washington all those PAST presidents are WEAK #Trump!??? SERIOUSLY! You have NOT accomplished anything in your own ..whos a WHIMP now!??? Your wife got wise and divorced you!!  The Observer  (@Mindboggler123) May 9, 2018

You are so pathetic.  sKs (@SuzanneKnox14) May 9, 2018

"Excuse me 2 were captured under his watch . How could any one try to even get them out before.

Plus they were captured about a year ago. Why was nothing done then. Why wait till South and North Korea start talking," a Twitter user wrote. "YOUR father DID NOT DISCOVER AMERICA OR ESTABLISHED IT. After 1 yr seriously Trump! DELUSIONAL!" another tweet added.

Two of them were detained in 2017, one in 2016, asshole!  Neil Canter (@NeilCanter) May 9, 2018

YOUR father DID NOT DISCOVER AMERICA OR ESTABLISHED IT. After 1 yr seriously #Trump ! DELUSIONAL!  The Observer  (@Mindboggler123) May 9, 2018

Excuse me 2 were captured under his watch . How could any one try to even get them out before . Plus they were captured about a year ago . Why was nothing done then . Why wait till South and North Korea start talking  Hopper (@Hopp359) May 9, 2018

"I'd run screaming back to the North Koreans and say, 'Take me back,'" a social media user wrote. "Two of them were detained in 2017, one in 2016, a**hole!" a follow-up tweet went on to read.On Monday night, a bombshell story broke accusing New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of physical abuse against multiple women. As the story went viral, Donald Trump Jr. was quick to celebrate due to Schneiderman's affiliation with the Democratic Party.

Hey Eric, its not role play if only one of you is in on it.



Ex: Schneiderman called me his 'brown slave,' would slap me until I called him 'Master' https://t.co/eIZ1ETQ5GC via @nypmetro  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 8, 2018

Don Jr. on Twitter

In a report first broke by journalist Ronan Farrow in the New Yorker on Monday night, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was accused of physical violence against at least four women.

One of the women to go public, activist and writer Tanya Selvaratnam, claims that Schneiderman would refer to her as his "brown slave" and would slap her until she responded by calling him "master. Selvaratnam even went on to describe the year-long relationship as a "fairy tale that became a nightmare." Just hours after the news became public, Schneiderman resigned from his position resulting in various reaction from the media and the world of politics.

Self awareness level: 0



Or substantially less than that. https://t.co/GXgFyueKLD  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 8, 2018

Presidential Counsel Kellyanne Conway came under fire for tweeting out the story with her own caption reading "gotcha," which was followed by multiple tweets from Donald Trump Jr.

"Seems like the natural thing to do when its just 'role play' Am I Right," Don Jr. tweeted out. After Eric Schneiderman announced his resignation, the younger Trump replied by tweeting, "That was fast. I figured he would hold out for a solid 6 or 7 hours."

Seems like the natural thing to do when its just role play #AmIRight https://t.co/NPpGDdSKTv  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 8, 2018

Donald Trump Jr.

then tweeted a 4-year old tweet from his father mocking Eric Schneiderman for appearing to wear make-up. "It's like he can see into the future," he said of his father's tweet. "Hey Eric, it's not 'role play' if only one of you is in on it," Don Jr. added in yet another tweet.

That was fast. I figured he would hold out for a solid 6 or 7 hours. https://t.co/u8bKjL4LcY  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 8, 2018

Twitter reacts

After Donald Trump Jr.

sent out his various tweets about the Eric Schneiderman scandal, he quickly faced an onslaught of criticism. "Your wife and 5 kids left you bc you had numerous affairs. Its not marriage if shes the only one married," one tweet read.

When even your wife wants nothing to do with you, you aren't the best mouthpiece for women.  The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) May 8, 2018

Your wife and 5 kids left you bc you had numerous affairs. Its not marriage if shes the only one married.  Stephanie (@honesteph) May 8, 2018

Hey Junior, it's not a marriage if only one of you is in on it.   Koko   (@Kokomothegreat) May 8, 2018

"When even your wife wants nothing to do with you, you aren't the best mouthpiece for women," a Twitter user wrote.

"Hey Junior, it's not a marriage if only one of you is in on it," another tweet added. "You keep setting us up to the spike the ball, Demon Seed. Your father rap*d your mother. 15 additional women have accused him. That's 4x's as many. Schneiderman should pay. So should Pappy Cumquat Twitler," an additional tweet noted.

Should YOU of all people be trouncing on someone with indiscretions in their past???#STFUdonnie  Silence Dogood (@PolitiTroll1776) May 8, 2018

Keep that in mind when your dad grabs women married women by the p*ssy and walks into a Teen Miss America dressing room  Alt VP Fights for #LBGT Rights (@PenceConscience) May 8, 2018

You keep setting us up to the spike the ball, Demon Seed.



Your father raped your mother.



15 additional women have accused him.



That's 4x's as many.



Schneiderman should pay. So should Pappy Cumquat Twitler.https://t.co/CjQl8x9Onc  Sarah Wisniewski (@BishTrumpsCray) May 8, 2018

"Keep that in mind when your dad grabs women married women by the p*ssy and walks into a Teen Miss America dressing room," a social media user wrote. "Should YOU of all people be trouncing on someone with indiscretions in their past?,' a follow-up tweet read.Tensions between Iran and Israel are beginning to heat up, when the two enemies exchanged fire during the night in Golan Heights on late Wednesday (May 9). According to CNN, Israel reported more than 20 rockets launched by Iranian forces in Syria and aimed towards Israeli territory. The Iranian missiles were intercepted by Israels aerial defense system, which concluded in sudden explosions in the night sky.

Just two days after President Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini warned the president in a message that stated, youve made a mistake. In an hour after opting-out of the agreement, Israel launched an air attack on Syrian military outpost near the capital of Damascus.

Iranian leaders have not issued a statement in response to the attacks, but according to CNN, it will be the first time Iranian forces launched rockets to purposely attack Israel.

Russia, France, and Germany have issued a statement that both countries -- Iran and Israel -- to exercise restraint, but according to BBC News, the U.S. accuses Iran as the main aggressor. U.S. officials stated that Iran held, full responsibility for the consequences of its reckless actions. The U.S. felt that Israel bore the right to defend itself against its enemies.

What exactly happened in Golan Heights?

Golan Heights is a city near Damascus, which is the capital of Syria. Since the Middle East War in 1967, Israel has occupied Golan Heights.

The two enemies exchanged fire during the night, crisscrossing rockets against the night sky as innocent people watched in horror. According to CNN, Israels Iron Dome, which is an aerial defense system, intercepted four Iranian rockets. There were no hits located in Israel. There are three recorded deaths and two injuries in Syria due to Israeli missiles.

The attack also destroyed Syria's radar station, ammunition depot, and caused severe damage to Syrias air defense.

What was the motive?

In an hour after President Donald Trump opted-out of the nuclear agreement with Iran, Israel launched an attack on Syria. In retaliation, Iran -- who supports Syria -- launched missiles threatening and showcasing their strength and power onto Israel.

Though, why did the two countries open fire?

Tensions between Iran and Israel has been building for years, and there has been no report outlining the reasons why behind these attacks. After the Israeli attacks on Tuesday, the country went on high-alert, anticipating the response of an Iranian attack. Some speculate Donald Trump withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal created a sense of panic and destabilization in the Middle East, particularly in Iran and Israel.

It is not certain that the response of missile air strikes had anything to do with Donald Trumps decision to opt-out of the Iran nuclear deal.

A world thirsty for war

The attacks between Israel and Iran is enough evidence to show the world that we are one bomb away from a full-blown war.

The moment Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran agreement, Israel went on high-alert expecting an attack made by Iranian forces. Though it was an Israeli missile that was launched onto a Syrian military outpost, Iran fired back in retaliation.On Tuesday (May 8), Michael Avenatti, the attorney who is representing Stephanie Clifford/Stormy Daniels in her non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and defamation cases against Donald Trump and Michael Cohen, released an executive summary exclusively to CNN. The report detailed the results of their investigatory work regarding the $130,000 hush payment from Cohen to Daniels on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump. Their investigation showed the account used for the payment was linked to Russia.

It should be noted that the Avenatti report was fact-checked by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and upon CNN's receipt of the document, their reporters were also able to verify the contents.

And as such, the information proved to be accurate thus far but more details will need to be corroborated and authenticated, reported CNN's John King.

Follow the money

According to Avenatti, his investigation uncovered the many business clients that Cohen took on since 2015, particularly around the time of the presidential campaign election, as this was the time period Avenatti was most interested in knowing about. What he found was that Cohen's shell company, Essential Consultants, was formed right before his client, Stormy, was paid the hush money at the end of October 2016, just days before the election.

Shortly after the Stormy-payment was made, a large sum of money was paid to Cohen and other subsequent payments.

This one particular payment was of interest because it was a $500,000 payment from a wealthy Russian oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, who has close ties to Russia's President, Vladimir Putin. The money was part of a series of payments and paid after the election. It is possible that this was the repayment for Stormy and a means to replenish Cohen's bank account, said Avenatti.

However, it wasn't just the billionaire's half a million dollar payment that drew further scrutiny, it was the timing of the payment and the total amount paid between the time of the election up until 2018 from Russians and other US entities. It is believed that this is what caught the eye of the Robert Mueller's special counsel team.

Russian money

In the early part of 2018, Viktor Vekselberg flew into the US on his private jet and landed in New York. He was greeted at the airport by federal agents who seized his phone and spoke to him about the nature of his business in the US, according to CNN reports. The billionaire was more than cooperative with the agents and was later questioned by Robert Mueller and afterward placed on the US' sanctions.

It turns out that the Russian oligarch made large contributions to Trump's campaign, victory events, and inauguration. He also has a cousin in New York, Andrew Intrater, who runs a US-affiliate company, Columbus Nova. This is how money was sent to the US and found its way to Cohen's bank account from the Vekelsberg's Russian Conglomerate, Renova Group, reported CNN.

It wasn't just the Russians giving Cohen money after the election, there were US companies paying Cohen too. But why?

US money

According to the executive summary, and later publicly confirmed in press releases, the companies who were named in the report paid Cohen hundreds of thousands of dollars for access to the president. In response to Avenatti's report, AT&T said their reason for paying Cohen $200,000 was to get "insights into the new administration." The same went for Novartis, a big pharma company, which paid $ 399,920 and had already spoken to Robert Mueller. And although Korea Aerospace Industries which paid Cohen $150,000 did not release early statements, they find themselves in the same boat.

The information Avenatti reported was a bit shocking to say the least, and just when America began to sober, another shock surfaced on Thursday (May 10). The totals were incorrect. It turns out, the amounts were nearly three times higher. AT & T actually paid $600,000, and Novartis $1, 200,000. Understanding the backlash, executives from both AT & T and Novartis sent a apologetic memo to employees on Friday (May 11) noting it was a "big mistake" to hire Cohen, reported CNN.

And to be clear, pay-to-play is not illegal. This is a common practice used by registered lobbyists to get their agendas heard by certain lawmakers. Cohen's problem is, he isn't a lobbyist; nor did he follow through on his agreements he made with the companies like Novartis, according to their own media statements.

Run the numbers

If we calculate the initial amounts reported paid to Cohen by the four companies, the total is $1,249,920 which is just $50,000 shy of the $1.3 million figure Rudy Giuliani tossed out during one of his TV tour interviews with ABC News. This magical number Rudy referenced was the amount he said he would have paid for the Stormy-payoff because, the way he saw it, $130,000 was a "nuisance payment."

Giuliani's math would appear to be just an eery coincidence because the actual amount reported to date is $2,450, 000. And this was just from those four companies. The numbers do not reflect the lines of credit Cohen took out during the 2016 campaign which, according to The Wall Street Journal, was over $770,000.

So total corporation payments, donations and bank loans given to Cohen could be well over $4 million.

When Avenatti went public with his report, Michael Cohen and his lawyers pushed back by filing a claim in court on May 9 asserting Avenatti illegally obtained Michael Cohen's bank records and published false information about the fixer. Avenatti denied this, and Cohen's assertion has not been found to be true. Cohen claimed the information received was from two different Michael Cohens in other countries.

Regardless of Avenatti's summary, Michael Cohen is linked to two investigations, the Russia probe, and his own criminal investigation. All of this information will certainly be considered and scrutinized by both courts. As for now, there is a lot of smoke and America will have to wait until all becomes clear.Is Amber Portwood leaving her nine-year-old daughter and heading to Los Angeles to support her boyfriend, Andrew Glennon, as he continues his behind-the-scenes career in Hollywood, California? During the "Teen Mom OG" finale episode on Monday night, Glennon was seen getting a job offer on the west coast and right away, fans wondered if the longtime reality star would be leaving her child once again.

No, you know, I cant leave Leah, I couldnt, Portwood said during a follow-up interview with Us Weekly magazine on April 9. I just couldnt move away from her," she continued.

"Im gonna stay here in Indianapolis. After meeting Glennon while filming "Marriage Boot Camp: Reality Stars Family Edition" with ex-fiance Matt Baier, Portwood spent several weeks away from her daughter, in addition to the time she spent in production, as she and Glennon got to know one another. Then, months later, after learning Portwood was pregnant, the couple relocated back to Portwood's hometown in Indiana.

Amber Portwood is closing on a new home

In addition to Amber Portwood's decision to remain in Indiana, despite her boyfriend's impending move to Los Angeles, the "Teen Mom OG" star told Us Weekly that she will soon be closing on a new home in a "beautiful area" of town. As she explained, she and Glennon are planning to raise their baby boy in Indianapolis.

Meanwhile, she's accepted the fact that Glennon will be frequently be traveling back and forth to the west coast as his career continues.

You just have to learn how to be apart from each other, which is obviously hard for me, cause I love being right next to [Andrew Glennon] and hes the same way, Portwood explained. That said, Portwood noted that she and their baby boy, who they've already named James, will be traveling with Glennon to California at times.

Amber Portwood believes Andrew will be a great father

While Glennon already has plans to spend time away from his family, Portwood has no doubts about his parenting abilities. In fact, she is quite confident that he will be an amazing father to their child. I know hes gonna show little James all the things that he grew up around," she noted, citing her boyfriend's childhood in the beach town of Malibu.

To see more of Amber Portwood, Andrew Glennon, and their co-stars, including Gary Shirley, Catelynn Lowell, Tyler Baltierra, Ryan Edwards, and Maci Bookout, tune into new episodes of the seventh season of "Teen Mom OG" on Monday nights at 9 PM on MTV.Hot on the heels of the reports that Marci Miller is leaving Days of Our Lives comes news regarding what DOOL will do with the character of Abigail Deveraux DiMera in response to Marci's departure. Fans immediately started to wonder if Kate Mansi, who left the role of Abigail in 2016, might reprise the role. Now the word is that Kate is indeed ready to head back to daytime and this will definitely get fans buzzing.

Fan-favorite Mansi is ready to do daytime again, for a short while

According to SheKnows Soaps, Kate Mansi is officially returning to Days of Our Lives as Abigail Deveraux DiMera.

Interestingly, however, it sounds as if this will not be a long-term return. Soap Opera Digest details that Mansi will be seen as Abby at some point this summer, but only for a brief period of time.

It seems that Marci Miller's decision actually came about a while ago and she simply decided not to renew her contract. Miller has not yet addressed these reports, but "DOOL" fans can't help but wonder if the oftentimes vicious treatment she got on social media from viewers might have played a role in her decision to depart.

Miller may have made the decision to leave the soap a while back, but the news apparently stunned those on the set. It's not known as of yet when Marci will stop appearing as Abigail on Days of Our Lives or when Kate's scenes will start airing.

Viewers will see this play out over the summer

The character of Abigail is central to the current Days of Our Lives storyline world, but the show does tape about six months ahead, so things could be in a very different place by the time Miller leaves and Mansi returns. It certainly is reassuring to viewers that they won't be facing another recast, as not all "DOOL" fans were won over by Marci's portrayal of the character as it is.

However, it'll leave many rattled to know that Mansi is apparently only returning for a short arc.

Where will the writers leave things with Abigail when these changes take place over the summer? Will they kill off Abigail with Mansi back in the role, send her back to a mental health institution indefinitely, or have her ride off into the sunset with Chad?

There is a lot of talk swirling about Billy Flynn, who plays Chad, and his status with the show too, as it seems uncertain whether he's planning to stick around or not. When push comes to shove, "Days of Our Lives" fans may feel best about simply having Chad and Abigail, with Flynn and Mansi in the roles, happy and leaving Salem to tackle new adventures elsewhere. Are you glad to hear that Kate Mansi is returning? Stay tuned for "DOOL" spoilers about how this will be handled and for specific dates as they emerge.Kyle Richards broke down while discussing her strained relationship with her sisters, Kathy Hilton and Kim Richards, during last night's "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" reunion special, and explained why the two ladies may have gotten the wrong idea about her new show. As fans may have heard, Richards is producing a new series, "American Woman," about her childhood and unconventional upbringing.

Around the time the episode aired, Richards chatted with "The Daily Dish" podcast about the show, explaining that her sisters didn't really understand what the series would be about when she first spoke with them about the project.

As she explained, she told Hilton and Richards that the series wasn't a reality show, but a scripted series that would be loosely based on their lives growing up with mom Kathleen Richards. "Its a fun show," she insisted.

Is 'American Woman' really a 'dark comedy,' as described?

According to Kyle Richards, the first announcement about "American Woman," which stars Alicia Silverstone, noted the series as a "dark comedy," which suggested the series would be sketchy. However, while there will be some moments that aren't exactly laugh-worthy, it is far from a horror. "Im not here to torture anybody," she said.

After years of appearing on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," Richards is excited to be trying something new and working behind the camera.

"I really, really love it," she said, adding that she had no idea that she would be so "neurotic" about making the series perfect. As she explained, it was extremely important to her that viewers felt that they were in the 1970s while watching the show.

Kyle Richards' relationship with her sisters isn't in a great place

During last night's conclusion of the three-part "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" reunion, Richards admitted that she hasn't spoken to her older half-sister, Kathy Hilton, in about six months.

As for her relationship with her older sister Kim Richards, they seemed to be on good terms at the end of last year. However, as some may have seen over the weekend, Kim was recently seen hanging out with Richards' longtime nemesis, Brandi Glanville, who used to be featured on the Bravo reality show.

While Kim Richards appeared on the reality series for its first seven seasons, she was not seen at all during season eight.

"American Woman" premieres on the Paramount Network on Thursday, June 7 at 10 PM.The date and venue for the summit meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are finalized and the US president is understandably happy at the way things are working out. He is on track to achieve what no other president has been able to. He looks at the developments in North Korea as something good because it could bring peace to the Korean peninsula.

USA Today reports that a number of contentious issues will have to be resolved to mutual satisfaction before the two leaders can shake hands. These are being identified and suitable strategies will have to be worked out to avoid hiccups.

Status of US troops

Withdrawal of US troops is expected to be a major issue that North Korea will want to finalize at the summit meeting. The US has deployed warships in the region to protect its allies, South Korea and Japan. If Kim Jong-un abandons his nuclear ambitions, puts the plug on his nuclear test site and destroys his nuclear weapons, the US troops will no longer be required.

Donald Trump will have to ensure that this issue is taken care of because if the threat of nuclear weapons is neutralized, the troops can be deployed elsewhere. Trump has said that there have been no talks on withdrawal of troops but it could be on the cards from the point of view of economy.

On this subject, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has already indicated that this will be sorted out by its allies South Korea and Japan in coordination with North Korea.

He had made this statement soon after the meeting between Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un.

North Korea appears to be jittery

The US has sent eight several stealth fighter jets to be a part of the annual joint South Korea-U.S. air training. North Korea perceives this as an attempt to disrupt the process that is gradually building up to herald in peace in the Korean peninsula.

They have warned the United States that the Norths efforts to bring peace should not be taken as a sign of its weakness.

Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are unpredictable leaders and have engaged in verbal duels in the past. Therefore, both sides must tread with caution to ensure that the ongoing peace process is not jeopardized.

North Korea had conducted missile tests, it had sent ICBMs flying over Japan and had also identified a few US targets for nuclear attacks. Those actions gave rise to global panic which is gradually receding after the recent initiatives taken by the two Koreas. The world does not want any further escalation of tension but, wants peace to return.Nepal is all set to welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a two-day official visit starting on Friday.

This will be Modis third tour to Nepal. High security was in place in Janakpur, Kathmandu and Muktinath where the Indian leader will be visiting.

Three helipads were constructed at the Janakpur Airport for the landing of Modis helicopter. He is scheduled to arrive in Janakpur at 10 a.m. and will be received by Defence Minister Ishwor Pokharel and Chief Minister of Province-2, Lalbabu Raut.

He will offer special prayers at the citys Ram Janaki Mandir, making him the first Indian Prime Minister to do so with khodasopachar rituals.

Before Modi, then Indian Presidents Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, Giani Zail Singh and Pranab Mukherjee performed these special prayers employing the khodasopachar rituals, said Ram Tapeshwar Das Vaishnav, the priest at the Janaki Temple.

Later, Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and Modi will jointly inaugurate the Ramayan Circuit Bus Route connecting Janakpur (Goddess Sitas birthplace) to Ayodhya (Lord Rams birthplace).

The Ramayan Circuit is among the 13 tourist circuits under the Swadesh Darshan Scheme of India.

Modi will then be offered a civic reception at the Bahrabigahas Rangabhoomi ground where he is likely to address the people gathered to welcome him. Leaders of the parties representing the district have been invited to attend the programme. The provincial government has announced a public holiday to coincide with his visit.

After Janakpur, Modi will fly to Kathmandu to hold one-on-one talks with Oli. He will also meet President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun and leaders of the major political parties.

The Indian Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone for Arun III hydroelectricity project in Sankhuwasabha district of eastern Nepal, undertaken by Indias Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam, through video conferencing.

The 900-MW project is expected to be completed in five years. India will spend $1.5 billion on it.

Modi and Oli will also jointly address the media. The Nepali leader will later host a dinner for his Indian counterpart.

On Saturday, Modi will visit Muktinath temple at the foot of the Thorong La mountain pass in Mustang district to pay obeisance and also announce a surprise gift for its development and reconstruction.

The Annapurna trekking route in Manang will be closed for three days to trekkers and tourists due to security reasons.

Kathmandu Metropolitan City will hold a civic reception for Modi with Mayor Bidhya Sundar Sakya presenting an artistic key to the Indian Prime Minister.

According to officials, certain agreements were expected to be signed between the two leaders.

Modi will also be praying at Pashupatinath temple. Security has been tightened in the country and as many as 11,000 security personnel from both countries will be deployed during the visit.For a bit, Zach thought his family would question his decision. But everyone he told was supportive. The last family member he told about his decision was his grandfather Joe Robertson.

He grew up off of nothing pretty much, too, and worked his way up but in a totally different field than going to school, Zach said. He graduated high school and then started welding and worked his way up.

Robertson wasnt sure why Zach would be scared.

I guess that was him thinking that he ought to stay where he was, Robertson said. But Im always a firm believer in the more education you have, the better off you are.

Zachs mom was more than ecstatic.

I said, Whatever you need, child, well get you there, Hockl said.

Zach wants to be there for his family and support them, but doesnt want as much help from them.

I dont want other people to worry about me. I like to take care of myself. I learn better that way on how to take care of myself, Zach said.

After a year of commuting for his associates degree, the trip to Blacksburg was relatively shorter.

Virginia Tech was just home, Zach said.Zip. Whoosh. Zip. Zip. These are the sounds of a needle moving in a vinyl records groove while someone moves a turntable back and forth. With a closer listen, the sounds transform into a melodic, rhythmic moment  or an evolving musical instrument.

Record scratching  along with Virginia Techs distinctive Linux Laptop Orchestra, multimedia soundscapes forged in the Cube, and new ways to notate music arrangements through self-scrolling spreadsheets  are part of a unique direction of study at Virginia Tech, with the development of a new creative technologies in music option through the bachelors degree in music.

This innovative area of study, inspired by emerging digital technology and unrestricted methods of soundmaking, is as competitive and rigorous as traditional music programs. Yet it also provides undergraduates the opportunity to explore musical applications involving engineering, the visual arts, theater, and cinema.

The foundation of the creative technologies in music program, one of the first of its kind to receive accreditation through the National Association of Schools of Music, is electroacoustic  using electronics to create music, whether by creating new instruments, composing music, researching sound, or using a combination of these in performances. Students can choose to pursue electroacoustic composition, research, or both.

The students who want to enter on the composition side are the ones who understand the concept of computer or electronic music, said Ivica Ico Bukvic, an associate professor in creative technologies in music at the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts. They think about becoming DJs or turntable artists, using instruments that arent represented in traditional music programs and yet offer incredible levels of musicianship and virtuosity. Were trying to catch those awesome, creative students who havent yet found their niche.

Bukvic leads the program along with two of his School of Performing Arts colleagues, Eric Lyon, an associate professor of music technology and composition, and Charles Nichols, an assistant professor of composition and creative technologies.

Our initiative is to build the creative technologies and composition areas into world-class programs, Nichols said. I compose locally to present my pieces globally, and I encourage my students to do the same. Ive had students present their music at national and international conferences and festivals, such as a film-scoring workshop at New York University, the Charlotte New Music Festival, and International Computer Music Conferences in Australia and Slovenia.

During the audition process, students have the option of bringing in their own instruments and performing a re-conceptualized, self-created arrangement that highlights their instruments uniqueness.

For students interested in research, entry into the program involves presenting a self-created tool  often for phones, tablets, or computers  that shows a larger potential that the degree option would help enhance. Research could focus on such topics as sound properties, acoustics, spatial sound, sonification, or the human perception of sound, as long as it is centered on sound or music.

The creative technologies field gives me the perspective to use technology for creative pursuits through composition, such as how to create music algorithmically, and it teaches me problem-solving in the computer science field, said Galina Belolipetski, a senior from Rockville, Maryland, who is majoring in computer science, music composition, and creative technologies in music.

Its a fantastic field for collaborative work, Belolipetski added. Ive worked with individuals who study engineering, psychology, computer science, and cinema, and I hope to continue to work in fields like theatre and science.

The genesis of the degree option began a decade ago, when Bukvic conceived a plan and began working toward accreditation. To help with the process, in 2007, he founded and now directs the Digital Interactive Sound and Intermedia Studio (DISIS), which involves music as a catalyst to bring different majors together.

Through DISIS, housed in Newman Library, Bukvic discovered that the interdisciplinary nature of the studio appealed to more than traditional music majors. Many of the students projects engage in real-world applications, such as collaborations with NASA and research funded by the National Science Foundation.

Through the studios successes, Bukvic and his colleagues hope to recruit students who want to push the boundaries of music and sound.

With this program, you explore a range of artistic endeavors, he said. You never feel youre overstepping your bounds. You chase that unrestrained creativity that makes you feel passionate and brings out the best in you.

Several students who have taken related courses before creative technologies in music became available as a degree option have spoken to the classes success in helping them achieve a range of careers. These graduates now work in Fortune 500 companies, have become computer programmers, or have enrolled in graduate school.

We want students to graduate empowered with a skillset of self-sufficiency, confidence, and curiosity, Bukvic said. The world is theirs. No matter what they do, they will succeed, and thats the most important message this degree option bestows on students.

Written by Leslie King

The road to Yuma

For Victor Tango AutoDrive Team, the road to Yuma itself was the first challenge.



It is really an underdog success story, said Andy Cohen, a senior from Crozet, Virginia, studying mechanical engineering and a member of the controls subteam and the business subteam lead.

Weeks prior to competition, the team was modifying their competition-provided 2017 Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle when a member of the team pressed the wrong pedal while switching out of drive and accidentally crashed the vehicle into the garage door of their testing lab, located in a parking garage near the University Gateway Center.

We werent sure if it was going to be totaled or whether the $100,000 of hardware we had mounted on the roof was destroyed, Cohen said. This was a really scary moment for us. This was our worst nightmare imaginable.

They assessed the damage and declared the incident a minor setback, Cohen said. With a few fixes, they were back up and running in a weeks time.

Then the battery died. They tried charging the electric vehicle at stations all over campus and a Chevrolet dealership, and found that not only had it died, it would no longer charge. With three weeks left to competition and local dealerships and specialists unsure how to fix the car, their only option was to send it back to General Motors in Detroit, Michigan.

The team was left to wait. With no information on the status of their car, the team had to make an executive decision  they were not going to be able to compete. They sent a letter to General Motors citing safety risks  even if they got their car back in time, they would need dozens of hours of testing to ensure the safety of the students operating the vehicle from inside.

Despite the hours, stress, and late nights already poured into the competition, the team didnt think it could be done, and the window closed on the first year of the AutoDrive competition.

The next half-week was probably the most blissful experience weve had of our lives, Cohen said, reminiscing on the newfound time team members had. It was almost a bittersweet feeling when, later that week, we got this out-of-the-blue notice from [General Motors] and they say, Weve fixed your car, were sending it back tomorrow.Getty Images

En espanol | Few professionals enjoy the trust and respect that nurses do. Theyve earned every bit of it and deserve even more.

Why is it, then, that so many of the most educated, thoroughly trained and well-credentialed nurses arent allowed to use all their skills and talents to take care of patients who want and need their help? Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) have extensive post-graduate education, including at least a Masters degree and often a doctorate of nursing practice. They have had specialized training to qualify as a certified nurse midwife, clinical nurse specialist, certified registered nurse anesthetist, or nurse practitioner. Yet in more than two-thirds of the states, antiquated laws prevent APRNs from practicing to the full extent of their education, training and certification.

As we celebrate National Nurses Week from May 6 to May 12, this would be a good time to focus on fixing this inequality, a top priority for AARP because consumers and family caregivers need full access to all of our clinicians.

Its been over seven years since the Institute of Medicine issued a report calling for nurse leaders to play an expanded role to improve health care in the United States; yet, many barriers and limitations still exist.

Restrictions vary by state, but often APRNs have to wait for a physician to sign documents such as disabled parking placards, referrals for physical therapy, or death certificates. In some states, APRNs cannot write prescriptions for certain drugs  or at all. Some arent even allowed to refer patients to specialists.Northern State University seeks $29.5 million for new Lincoln Hall

The plan would cost $29.5 million, and would replace Lincoln Hall and demolish Briscoe Hall.NAME: Raymundo (Ray) Lara

Raymundo (Ray) Lara POLITICAL PARTY: Democratic

Democratic OCCUPATION: Title I Coordinator Gadsden ISD

Title I Coordinator Gadsden ISD CITY OF RESIDENCE: Chamberino

Chamberino RELEVANT EXPERIENCE: 17 Years of experience in K-12 education, 10 years community service/volunteer work.

17 Years of experience in K-12 education, 10 years community service/volunteer work. EDUCATION: BA NMSU.

BA NMSU. CAMPAIGN WEBSITE: facebook.com/RayLaraforStateRepresentative

What are the top two things you would do to improve the economy in New Mexico ?

I can only speak for my District on this issue. 1) Improve coordination between educational institutions and employers to include job training and internship opportunities to provide employers with a trained, educated workforce. 2) Build infrastructure and have it quickly available to attract business construction.

What are the top two things you would propose to address the states high crime rate ?

1) Restore full funding for mental health care. 2) Implement community-policing programs.

How would you address the states high DWI rate ?

Start holding folks responsible, many issues with drinking start with youth and the accessibility of alcohol. By implementing/enforcing social host ordinances, we can begin to hold adults responsible for providing alcohol to minors and we can begin to create even more awareness of the dangers of underage drinking/DWI.

New Mexico now spends about $270 million a year for early childhood programs, such as home visiting, pre-kindergarten and child care assistance. Do you support or oppose a constitutional amendment that would withdraw more money from the Land Grant Permanent Fund to increase funding for early childhood services ?

I fully support early childhood programs and I have firsthand experience with the success that many programs have had, however, I would have to study the impact from tapping additional funds from the LGPF would be before supporting or opposing such a measure.

Do you support or oppose legalizing recreational marijuana use in New Mexico and taxing its sales ?

Yes.

Do you support or oppose opening the states primary elections to voters who arent affiliated with either major political party ?

Im open to the idea of open primaries, however, I think that the way the system works now functions just as well.

Do you support or oppose raising New Mexicos minimum wage, currently $7. 50 per hour? If so, by how much ?

I support it, however I feel that it is up to the municipalities and/or counties to decide what their local economy can support.

Do you support or oppose basing any percentage of a teachers performance evaluation on student test scores ? Explain.

I oppose basing any percentage of a teachers performance evaluation on student test scores. I dont believe in using the students standardized test scores to determine whether a teacher is doing their job. This should be determined at the local school site by the teacher and the administrator.

Do you support merit bonuses for teachers who do well on their evaluations? Do you believe unions should have the authority to block such bonuses ?

No, I do not support merit bonuses. The unions shouldnt have the authority because it shouldnt be implemented in the first place.

Do you think having 32 state institutions of higher education is too many? What would you propose to make higher education more efficient ?

No, each one serves a different population at a different location. I dont understand how having to many higher education institutions is a bad thing.

How should the states lottery scholarship program be kept solvent into the future ?

Dedicate 100% of lottery funds for the scholarship.

Do you support or oppose making New Mexico a so-called right-to-work state, by changing state labor laws so that nonunion employees would not have to pay union fees as a condition of employment ?

I oppose this proposal to make NM a right to work state.

Do you favor making New Mexico a sanctuary state ?

Yes, state agencies should not be enforcing federal immigration laws.

If an Ethics Commission is approved by voters, at what point do you think ethics complaints should become public ?

After they have gone through the proper steps to either exonerate or punish the violators (innocent until proven guilty).

Do you believe the initial police incident reports and videos of arrests and crime scenes should be public ?

Incident reports, yes. Video only after it has gone through the court system.

The state faces balloon payments on its Rail Runner debt in 2025 and 2026, a federal requirement for tens of millions of dollars in safety upgrades for the train, and declining ridership. On the other hand, the train is popular with the commuters who rely on it, and the Rail Runner may seek federal funding for the safety changes. Do you support continuing operation of the Rail Runner ?

Yes, I also support expansion to Las Cruces.

Do you favor imposing a gross receipts tax on all internet sales ?

Yes.

New Mexico has more than 100 exemptions and deductions in its gross receipts tax system. Would you favor eliminating some or all of them as part of an attempt to lower the base rate? If so, which ones? If not, why ?

Municipalities and counties depend on gross receipt taxes to fund their day-to-day operations. I would carefully consider the impact on these exemptions before making a decision on this.

What would you support to make New Mexico schools safer? Would that include changing New Mexicos gun laws? If so, what specific changes to the gun laws would you support ?

I really like the school resource officer model for school safety. The only persons allowed to carry firearms onto school campuses are licensed officers of the law so I dont know what changes to NM gun laws would be needed that would benefit schools, I would have to research that some more.

Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens ?

N/A.

Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding ?

No.

Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state ? If so, explain.

No.Twenty eight of New Mexicos 189 high schools were ranked in this years U.S. News Best High Schools report, a national ranking that analyzes over 20,500 public schools in the country.

Thats about 15 percent of schools in the state being recognized, but neighboring states to New Mexico had higher percentages of schools making the list.

In Colorado, 17 percent were ranked. And Utah had 30 percent, while Arizona had 26 percent.

Albuquerque Institute for Math and Science was the top school in New Mexico and No. 223 in the nation.

We have been on the best schools list for years and had the gold badge for four years, said principal of 13 years Katharina Sandoval-Snider.

But Sandoval-Snider is looking to keep improving, aiming to be ranked higher on a national scale each year.

If you are continuing to get better then the children are getting better, she told the Journal.

She said being nationally recognized hasnt lost its spark, because she is competitive, looking to see if the school has improved each year.

But you wont find her throwing any parties just yet.

What matters more to me is when we get PARCC scores, she said, adding thats when she hopes to see an opportunity to celebrate.

But one school thats typically ranked wont be celebrating this year.

Cottonwood Classical Preparatory School has a history of being ranked highly, but this year and last year the school has been kept off the list.

Last year, Executive Director Sam Obenshain said data from the International Baccalaureate, which offers college-level courses at high schools, wasnt submitted and thats why Cottonwood wasnt included.

Obenshain said the school was previously ranked in the top 100 schools in the nation.

However, this year the school didnt have a high enough graduation rate, according to U.S. News spokeswoman Madeline Smanik.

Obenshain said a coding error was to blame.

Foreign exchange students were coded incorrectly, which hurt the schools graduation rates because they dont typically graduate from the United States, translating as dropouts in the data, he said.

The executive director is hopeful next year the school will get the national kudos since the error has been fixed.

From our calculations, we have a 99 percent graduation rate, he said.

No. 2 in the state was the Academy for Technology and the Classics in Santa Fe, but New Mexicos national stackup drops over 200 spots with ACTs national rank at 474.

AIMS and ACT were the two only New Mexico schools to get gold badge recognition. To get a gold badge, the schools had to have a certain amount of kids taking college-level courses in high school.

In the state, seven others earned silver medals and 19 earned bronze medals.

U.S. News and a nonprofit research firm RTI International looked at several tiers of factors to determine the rankings. They first looked at how students performed compared to how they were statistically projected to do in their state. Then they looked at how underserved students performed compared to other national underserved student populations. For the third year, U.S. News also used graduation rates in its ranking formula. And the last step was checking for college readiness by researching college-level coursework exam data for each school.A brother and sister team has pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit vehicle air bags and air bag covers online and out of their Albuquerque home.

Dina Gonzalez-Marquez, 24, and Emilio Gonzalez-Marquez, 22, were charged after they sold a fake air bag and cover to an undercover homeland security officer in 2015, according to Dina Gonzalez-Marquezs plea documents filed in federal court in Albuquerque Wednesday.

The two now face deportation to Mexico and five years each of unsupervised probation, though sentencing has yet to be scheduled, according to a news release from federal prosecutors.

Air bags and covers like the ones the two sold can be purchased to replace broken devices or air bags that have deployed in a crash.

In her plea, Dina Gonzalez-Marquez says she knew they were selling fake merchandise, which officials say can fail to deploy or deploy dangerously once installed.

Specifically, I would purchase counterfeit airbags and covers from overseas and list them for sale on eBay, Craigslist, AirBagsPlace.com, Airbag-Driver-Side-Cover.myshopify.com, and GemsCarAirBagCover.jimdo.com, Dina Gonzalez-Marquez said, according to her plea documents.

At one point, eBay blocked the duo from selling their items on the site because the items had been determined counterfeit.

And an attorney for Honda contacted the two and told them to stop selling the counterfeit items, many of which included fake Honda stamps.

Still, the plea agreement says the brother and sister continued to sell the items, including to an undercover officer, online and out of their home on Valencia and Trumbull, near San Mateo and Zuni.

They were charged with conspiracy and trafficking in counterfeit goods or services in April 2017. They entered their pleas Wednesday.Albuquerque city councilors on Monday unanimously approved a resolution urging the state Legislature to support open and accessible medical aid in dying for those terminally ill and mentally competent adults seeking control over their own deaths.

Sponsored by councilors Diane Gibson and Isaac Benton, the resolution supporting Medical Aid in Dying, also known as the End of Life Options Act, states that if people accomplish their advance care planning, have thoughtful conversations with family and loved ones, receive palliative and hospice care when they approach the end of life, the chances of having the kind of death one seeks are greatly improved.

During discussion, Benton relayed a personal experience with his father-in-law, who was a Holocaust survivor.

Just last year, I had a member of my family choose the option to end his life in California, Benton said. We knew he was very ill. He told us in advance that he had done all the paperwork and done all the proper arrangements to exercise this option in California. I had trepidations about it. It made me nervous, the whole idea to a certain extent, but when I got there and I saw how happy he was, it was remarkable.

State Reps. Deborah Armstrong, D-Albuquerque, and Bill McCamley, D-Las Cruces, introduced the End of Life Options Act during last years legislative session. The Senate voted down the bill.

Both representatives addressed the council on Monday, along with other speakers.

One of those was retired Judge Elizabeth Whitefield, who left the federal court bench in 2016.

I am the face of one of the users of that bill, Whitefield told councilors through a tracheostomy tube. I may be using it. Im not a quitter. I know my death is going to be painful. Having this resolution made into state law allows me to have the dignity that cancer has taken away.

No one spoke against the resolution during the meeting.

Plans call for the resolution to be delivered and presented to representatives of the state Legislature.Now that two high-profile defense lawyers have been assigned to his case, Davon Lymons trial in the death of Albuquerque police officer Daniel Webster will likely be pushed back until March 2019.

Lymons public defenders were removed from his case in February over a conflict of interest, and attorneys Gary Mitchell and Tom Clark have since taken it over.

Mitchell and Clark on Monday asked 2nd Judicial District Judge Briana Zamora for a delay both because they each are balancing heavy first-degree murder caseloads and in order to allow them time to prepare for trial.

New counsel, pursuant to order of the court not allowing transfer of previous defense counsels files and seeking to avoid any conflicts that would have them disqualified, must start from scratch in their investigation of the case and the charges brought against Mr. Lymon, Mitchell wrote in a motion.

During a hearing Monday, Zamora reviewed Clark and Mitchells schedules over the next several months and determined that the earliest available date for the murder trial is in late March. Lymon will also go to trial in December on forgery and firearm charges that have been separated from the rest of his case.

Prosecutors with the Attorney Generals Office argued that the attorneys busy schedules were not sufficient reason for such a delay and asked the court to set the trial as quickly as possible.

According to police, Lymon shot and killed Webster during a traffic stop in October 2015. Lymons original attorneys have asked the state Supreme Court to review Zamoras decision to remove them from his case. That request is pending.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

An Albuquerque man convicted of killing his girlfriends daughter in 2012 is headed back to prison for 12 years for a probation violation he committed just 10 weeks after completing his five-year murder sentence.

Daniel Aragon, 26, pleaded no contest in January 2016 to second-degree murder and child abandonment resulting in death in connection with the killing of 22-month-old Emma Rose Gonzales.

Prosecutor Haley Murphy said Wednesday that the girl suffered injuries to her skull and torso that medical examiners described as excruciatingly painful.

By my count, your honor, Emma was struck or kicked a minimum of six to eight times, probably more, Murphy said at a hearing before state District Judge Jacqueline Flores.

Under his plea agreement, which came after two trials ended with hung juries, Aragon was sentenced to five years followed by five years of probation. An additional 25 years was suspended, meaning if he violated probation he faced that much time in prison.

Aragons attorney, Daniel Salazar, argued Wednesday that prosecutors were unable to get guilty verdicts at trial, so they crafted another plan.

They figured the drug addict couldnt keep it together all this time, Salazar said.  We cant get a conviction, but maybe we can get him on the back end, and thats exactly what happened.

When he was sentenced in February 2016, Aragon received credit for more than three years he spent in custody awaiting trial. That time was shaved off of his sentence, so Aragon was released in November.

By February 2018, he was back in custody, accused of violating probation.

According to court documents, Aragon skipped a drug test and then failed to report to the Probation and Parole Office. When authorities went to his home the next day, he didnt answer and was later found hiding in a back room. During Wednesdays hearing, Aragon admitted that he did not allow probation and parole officers into his home, a technical violation.

In a statement to the judge, Aragon said that hed gotten high with his mother shortly after his release.

Ive never had my mom, so thats what I did, he said. Was it stupid? It was stupid. Do I regret it? I do regret it. But it was a time to be real with my mom that Ive never had.

Prosecutor Alissa Berger asked the judge to impose the full 20-plus years, but she also suggested a 12-year sentence would be fair. She argued that Aragon was a poor candidate for additional probation and should be punished.

He smothered his chance on probation, like, unfortunately, he smothered the life out of this little girl, Berger said.

Salazar asked the judge to impose a one-year sentence for the violation to get his attention.

By no stretch of the imagination does testing positive get you 25 years, Salazar said.

Before announcing her decision, Flores said that when she originally sentenced Aragon in the case, she said there would be zero tolerance for violations.

Im very careful when I say things like that, because I know that its important that people can have confidence that Im going to follow through with what I say Im going to do, she said. When I say zero tolerance, I mean it.As everyone knows from the 1980s big hair metal band, Poison, every rose has its thorn.

Now Rozie the elephant, who gave birth to a calf last week at the ABQ BioPark Zoo, also has a Thorn.

On Wednesday the zoo announced the babys name, Thorn, was selected from about 3,000 submissions from local residents, said zoo spokesman Greg Jackson.

The elephant keepers narrowed the choices down to three  Thorn, Solo and Ren, the latter two being Star Wars references in deference to the babys birth date: May the Fourth (be with you), said Jackson.

Solo and Ren were by no means the only Star Wars-suggested names. The list also included Boba-phant, Jedi, Darth, Han, Chewbacca, Anakin, Skywalker, Yoda, Luke, Obi, R2-D2, Jango, Finn, Lando and Zuckuss.

Among the other possibilities were Duke, Joey, Thumper, Packy, Pixie, Pedro, Poppy, Lorenzo, Ozzie, Buster, Nizhoni, Nugget, Trumpet, Felix, Fido, Snoot, Elefonso, Zoobie the Newbie and Trunky McTrunkface.

Little Thorn entered the world last Friday at about 1:15 a.m. in the zoos elephant barn. Mother Rozie, 25, was in labor for just a short while, although she did carry the 200-pound little guy for 659 days  the exact number of days she carried her previous two calves.

Thorn shares the same May the 4th birth date as his father, Samson, who turned 20 on Friday. Samson was transferred to the Oregon Zoo last month to be part of that zoos breeding program.

The new Asian elephant calf is the fourth one born into the multi-generational herd at the ABQ BioPark Zoo. The herd also includes Rozie, 25; Rozies mother Alice, 45; Rozies other offspring, Daizy, 9, and Jazmine, 4; Samsons brother, Albert, 19; and an unrelated female, Irene, 51.

Rhonda Saiers, the zoos elephant manager, told the Journal last week that the baby elephants primary source of nutrition for at least a year or two, will come from mothers milk, a source so rich that the baby can gain up to two pounds a day. That means, since he was born last week, Thorn has gained about 12 pounds.

Asian elephants are indigenous to southern and southeastern Asia, from India and southern China into Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. They are considered critically endangered with no more than 50,000 still living in the wild, where their native habitats are shrinking because of human encroachment, poaching and being struck by trains and other vehicles, according to various animal and wildlife conservation sites.Rudy Giulianis account of Donald Trumps role in the payment to Stormy Daniels has collapsed into near-incoherence. In his latest interviews, the newly minted Trump lawyer has adopted a posture of impenetrable epistemological modesty  theres nothing he knows about the case, or can possibly learn about it anytime soon. Giuliani retreated to this tack after directly contradicting the presidents denial of knowing anything about the hush money, and getting rebuked by Trump for being ill-informed and not yet up to speed.

It shouldnt be this complicated.

Getting their story straight would be much easier if they adopted a simple, nay simplistic, legal and political strategy  telling the truth.

Giuliani shocked the political world when he said last week that Trump had reimbursed his fixer Michael Cohen for the payout to the porn star. Rudy declared that this made it a private transaction, and therefore it couldnt be a campaign-finance violation. Case closed.

But the legal reasoning wasnt airtight  if Cohen made the payment to influence the campaign, it didnt matter if Trump paid it back or not  and Trump wasnt ready to endorse Rudys version of events.

By this past weekend, the former New York City mayor was on This Week on ABC News, incapable of saying much of anything at all. Had, George Stephanopoulos asked, Trump met Stormy Daniels? It depends, Giuliani replied, on kind of what you mean by met her, right?

When did Trump first learn Daniels asked for payment? Dont know and doesnt matter to me. Stephanopoulos pointed out that Giuliani told the website BuzzFeed that Cohen complained to Trump about not getting paid back after the 2016 campaign. So, the president knew about the payment after the campaign?

Cant say that, Giuliani answered.

Hadnt Rudy stated it as fact in an interview? Well, maybe I did, he conceded. I can just say its rumor. I can prove its rumor, but I cant prove its fact. Yet. Maybe we will.

Why did Trump deny knowledge of the payment on Air Force One on April 5? Well, I dont know.

Rudy sounds like hes been charged with unraveling one of the great mysteries of our time, when its all resolvable with about two questions: Mr. President, when did you find out about the payment to Stormy Daniels? When did you pay Cohen back? This is about a five-minute conversation.

Rudy is not limited by his ability to gather facts, but by the presidents willingness to be forthright. Although it would be painful  to the first lady, above all  Trump would be well-served to play it straight. He could make a vague confession about past conduct hes not proud of; say that Cohen paid off Daniels to avoid embarrassment, with added motivation as the election approached  what Giuliani has been trying to say; and amend his campaigns Federal Election Commission filing in an excess of caution.

Its never ideal to admit to a possible violation of the law, even a technical one. But campaign-finance violations are rarely prosecuted, and current Justice Department guidance says that a sitting president cant be indicted.

This means that it is most important for Trump to win in the court of public opinion, and having a believable, consistent account is much better than basing a defense on a flat-out denial that no one believes, almost certainly not even Rudy or Trumps other advocates.

Compared to the other allegations against Trump  collusion with the Russians, obstruction of justice  a decade-old affair is not a matter of great public import. But Bill Clinton showed how a president can parlay prideful denials, overconfidence in his ability to talk his way out of anything and personal embarrassment into a legal and constitutional conflagration. And, eventually, he had to tell the truth anyway.

Rudy Giuliani has had a rocky debut in his new role, but the ultimate problem here isnt the counselor, but the client.

Rich Lowry can be reached via e-mail: comments.lowry @nationalreview.com.  2017 by King Features Syndicate.It will be old home week for the Albuquerque Police Department, with the likes of former Chief Ray Schultz, former Deputy Chiefs Beth Paiz and Paul Feist and others on the list of witnesses expected to be called next week in a scurrilous federal case involving allegations of sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation.

Talk about a rough reunion.

Its taken six years, several attorneys, a change of judges and the whittling down of charges and defendants for the case filed by Terysa Welch to get to trial, which is expected to begin Monday in Albuquerque before U.S. District Judge Kenneth Gonzales.

Yet in the contemporaneous context of the #MeToo movement that continues to emerge in the stories of brave, fed-up women across the country, Welchs case seems right on time.

Her lawsuit claims Albuquerque violated the federal Civil Rights Act and the state Human Rights Act by subjecting her to many attempts by her supervisors and co-workers in the elite Repeat Offender Project to discriminate, harass and jeopardize her safety and reputation because of her sex.

And, the lawsuit alleges, when Welch complained about her hostile and vengeful work environment, she was retaliated against.

In the volumes of documents included in her lawsuit, what emerges is the story of a strong and capable woman whose dream to work in law enforcement was not always appreciated by her male counterparts.

She was a tomboy raised on elk meat and endurance in Montana, a champ at any sport she tried, a good shot with a rifle. She was fearless, mauled by a dog while in first grade yet always the first among her male colleagues to enter dangerous spots where dogs snapped and growled.

In 1998, she graduated near the top of her class at the APD Law Enforcement Academy and became a cop. Soon after becoming a police officer, she set her sights on joining the ROP unit, then an elite group of officers who often worked undercover and tracked the worst of the worst criminals  and at that time a unit without women.

To Welch, it was a challenge she readily accepted.

But in 2002 when she made it into ROP, Welch said, she was called a skirt, a sex object, someone not wanted because she was a woman.

We just dont want a chick in here, you know, we dont want a girl, one detective said in a deposition concerning comments made by some ROP detectives about Welch. And then when she actually came in, I think it was like, the day that she came in, we had a meeting and you know, one of the guys stepped up and said, You know what, I might be wrong for saying, this is a good old boys place and they aint no chicks that should be in ROP.'

One of her supervisors engaged in unwanted touching, painful hugging, comments about his genitals and inappropriate and demeaning sexual comments such as writing on her evaluation that he wanted to have children with her, the lawsuit says. Another suggested that Welch engage in group sex with him and his wife.

Welch alleges that she and her male partner were set up by being told to show up in one location only to learn they were supposed to meet elsewhere with the rest of the ROP team. She was penalized for her tardiness, but her male partner was not.

Welch, the lawsuit alleges, was ordered to show up for mandatory team workouts only to find no one there.

In one instance, she was cornered in an office by two armed ROP detectives who made her fear for her life, the lawsuit alleges. In another, Welch had cornered a presumably heavily armed repeat offender and called for backup, but none arrived from her ROP team.

The lawsuit also accuses her superiors of sending her alone on dangerous assignments, while her male counterparts were allowed to double up on less risky callouts.

The city has rebutted all of Welchs claims, saying that it acted promptly every time it learned of Welchs complaints and that any conditions placed on her employment, if any, were the result of legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons, not her sex.

In 2010, Welch was temporarily transferred from ROP to the burglary unit while her complaints were handled. She never returned.

According to her lawsuit, her cubicle at ROP was cleaned out, her belongings tossed into boxes along with garbage, a photo of her made to look as if she were waving goodbye and a shoelace tied up in a hangmans noose.

And still she persisted. In 2013, she was promoted to sergeant. She is now a lieutenant in APDs aviation division at the Albuquerque International Sunport.

The ROP unit, which lost most of its elite status after becoming involved in a number of controversial police shootings, was disbanded in 2014 as part of the citys agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.

All the APD personnel named in the lawsuit, including Schultz, are no longer on the force.

Next weeks reunion is a necessary one in the name of justice, but its not likely to be a comfortable one.

UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico is getting six of the 35 federal prosecutors being sent to Southwestern border states to prosecute an increasing caseload as the districts implement a zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration, the U.S. Department of Justice said earlier this month.

Federal prosecutors in New Mexico already have ramped up their prosecutions of illegal immigrants, John Anderson, U.S. attorney for New Mexico, said in a recent interview.

Its no secret that the (U.S.) attorney general has made immigration enforcement a priority across the Southwest border, said Anderson, who took over the job two months ago. That (zero-tolerance policy) is something that we have implemented in the district.

As part of that change, his office has gotten rid of caps put in place by his predecessor limiting the number of prosecutions.

Anderson said U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions advocated for a hard-line policy against illegal immigration during his trip to Albuquerque and Las Cruces last month.

The American people made very clear their desire to secure our borders and prioritize the public safety and national security of our homeland, Sessions said in a prepared statement when announcing the additional prosecutors. Promoting and enforcing the rule of law is essential to our republic.

By deploying these additional resources to the Southwest border, the Justice Department and the Trump Administration take yet another step in protecting our nation, its borders, and its citizens. It must be clear that there is no right to demand entry without justification.

Sessions has asked U.S. Attorneys Offices throughout the Southwest to prioritize the prosecutions of alien smuggling; of illegal re-entry, a felony for those in the U.S. illegally after already having been deported; and of improper entry, a misdemeanor for those illegally entering the U.S. for the first time.

To assist in the prosecutions, the DOJ is sending eight additional attorneys to both southern Texas and Southern California, seven to West Texas, and six each to New Mexico and Arizona.

Anderson said his office, which has about 75 attorneys on staff, already has received additional resources for immigration prosecutions. He said special assistant U.S. attorneys from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and someone from an organized crime unit within the DOJ have been sent to New Mexico to assist with cases.

1,000 a month

Anderson estimated that his office is prosecuting about 800 to 1,000 immigration cases per month where there isnt an underlying more serious crime, like a violent crime or narcotics trafficking.

The majority of those cases are misdemeanor improper entries. But there are about 75 to 100 illegal re-entry cases his office receives from border patrol each week, he said.

Former U.S. Attorney Damon Martinez at one point during his tenure capped the number of illegal re-entry cases  where there wasnt any underlying violent or serious crime  at 150 cases per month.

That cap is no longer in effect, Anderson said. Our policy is now a 100 percent prosecution policy.

Anderson said both illegal re-entry and improper entry are often relatively quick prosecutions.

The misdemeanor improper entry cases are typically wrapped up within four to six days and the person is deported.

Most people who plead guilty to illegal re-entry serve about 30 to 45 days before being deported. Those sentences are enhanced if someone is a repeat offender or has racked up different criminal charges in the United States, he said.

Extemely troubling

Kristin Greer Love, a staff attorney for the ACLU in New Mexico, criticized the new policies.

Prosecuting immigrants as criminals is heinous and a waste of resources, she said. Its extremely troubling to see the Sessions Trump administration prioritizing immigration crime through prosecution.

Greer Love said taking such an approach on immigration splits up families, takes resources from more serious matters and wont serve as a deterrent against people trying to come to America to unify with families.

And many of the people prosecuted for improper entry have legitimate claims for asylum, she said.

For the U.S. government to respond to a humanitarian situation with resources for deploying federal agents and prosecutors to criminalize these people is heinous, she said.

Though federal prosecutors in New Mexico are making changes to their immigration policy, the states largest city is taking a different approach.

Mayor Tim Keller recently signed into law a bill making Albuquerque an immigrant-friendly city. The legislation prohibits city resources or personnel from assisting a federal agency in enforcing immigration laws.

The citys efforts to become more immigrant-friendly come as the DOJ has threatened to withhold law enforcement grants from cities or jurisdictions that have such policies in place.

Its obviously something thats on the radar screen, Anderson said. Youve seen more direct action by DOJ against places like California, places that they see as being more extreme, but we do have those issues here. My personal take on it is  this is a real political flash point, and I think if we can enter a more productive dialogue, I think we will see there is room for cooperation.

When asked for an example of possible cooperation, Anderson advocated for communication between local and federal law enforcement about undocumented people who are being held at local detention facilities.

In the past, local governments, including some in New Mexico, have had to pay judgments after lawsuits were brought by immigrants in jail at the request of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents when they otherwise would have been released.

I understand the problems that arise when you are holding someone just for (an ICE hold), Anderson said. But, really, its just a phone call. Were going to release this person at 5 p.m. on Friday afternoon, do with that what you will. Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

Editors note: Today the Journal concludes its profiles of the three candidates competing in the Democratic primary for governor. Go to ABQJournal.com for their answers to questions on issues.

SANTA FE  Its been 44 years since a sitting New Mexico lawmaker was elected governor, a fact thats not lost on Joseph Cervantes.

But the veteran southern New Mexico legislator, trial lawyer and businessman who hails from a prominent farming family, is banking on his Roundhouse fluency as a selling point with New Mexico voters.

Its been 44 years  thats seven administrations  that weve elected governors as outsiders to the process who have never balanced a budget, never sponsored and introduced legislation and got it passed, and frankly, who have never enjoyed a working understanding of the legislative process, Cervantes said in a recent interview.

Cervantes, 57, has experienced the highs and lows of the Legislature.

He introduced several prominent ethics-related bills that were signed into law, including the 2007 Fraud Against Taxpayers Act, the 2010 Whistleblower Protection Act and a 2009 measure that opened legislative conference committees to the public.

But Cervantes also was stripped of his House Judiciary Committee chairmanship in 2007 by then-House Speaker Ben Lujan after an internal Democratic power struggle. He said at the time that it was a case of having too many roosters in the henhouse.

Cervantes, who won election to the Senate in 2012 after more than a decade in the House, said he hasnt been afraid to buck legislative leadership during his time as a state lawmaker.

Since I got to Santa Fe, Ive been about trying to change it, he said. Ive been reforming things since I was there, and naturally that meant sometimes challenging the status quo and some people who were a part of it.

Lobbyist J.D. Bullington, who has worked at the state Capitol for more than 20 years, said Cervantes has not changed since becoming a member of the Legislature in 2001, unlike some other legislators.

Hes great to work with, from a lobbyists standpoint, because you know what youre going to get, Bullington said. He is fundamentally the same person now as when he first came in.

However, Cervantes independent streak has not always endeared him to party insiders.

He came in third at the state Democratic Partys pre-primary convention in March  with fewer than 10 percent of delegate votes  and has struggled to keep up with rivals Michelle Lujan Grisham and Jeff Apodaca when it comes to fundraising.

To boost his gubernatorial bid, Cervantes made a $1 million loan to his campaign last month, on top of $400,000 he had previously lent. He has also reported getting hefty contributions from relatives.

He told the Journal the personal money will be spent on TV ads, field offices and other campaign expenditures.

Were absolutely putting it to use  theres no other point to having it, Cervantes said. There was a time in our history when people would put their livelihoods, and their careers and even their lives on the line for political reasons, and I believe that courage is missing from people in politics today.

Upbringing

Cervantes grew up in a fourth-generation farming family in La Mesa, a small community along the Rio Grande in southern Dona Ana County.

His grandfather made a living selling vegetables out of the back of a truck, but the family business eventually grew into an agricultural powerhouse that now includes a chile-processing facility and a 1,400-acre farming operation that produces chile, alfalfa and cotton.

Cervantes left the farm, first to get a degree in architecture in California and then to pursue a legal career in Albuquerque after going back to school for a law degree. He eventually returned to Las Cruces to start a private law practice and was elected to the Dona Ana County Commission in 1998 at the age of 37.

As a lawyer, Cervantes specializes in tort law. He was a plaintiffs lawyer in a wrongful death suit that resulted in the New Mexicos largest-ever jury award, a $165 million judgment that stemmed from a 2011 crash involving a FedEx truck and a family pickup truck in which a mother and daughter were killed.

Asked why he decided not to stay in the family business, Cervantes described the inquiry as a psychiatrists question before adding, The honest answer is I wanted to make sure that I was doing things on my own.

However, he still holds a financial stake in several family commercial farming ventures, according to annual disclosures filed with the Secretary of States Office.

He has also defended one of his familys companies, Cervantes Agribusiness, from legal claims that it tried to circumvent a federal visa program to hire more Mexican laborers.

It might not be his day job, but Cervantes has touted his agricultural background in TV campaign ads  in which he trades a suit and tie for a plaid shirt with rolled-up sleeves  and says its part of the reason hes running for governor.

When you grow up in a farming family, youre ingrained with the duty of leaving things to the next generation, and leaving them better than you found them, Cervantes told the Journal. Its an approach to life where its not about today  its about the next generation.

Legislative record

At the state Capitol, Cervantes has strayed from his caucus on some votes.

He voted in favor of a 2011 bill backed by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez that would have repealed the law allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain New Mexico drivers licenses  the bill never reached the governors desk  and was one of only eight senators to vote no on a 2013 tax package that passed the Legislature on the final day of that years 60-day session.

But he also voted in support of Democratic-backed bills to increase the states $7.50-per-hour minimum wage and a proposed 2017 tax hike package aimed at plugging a gaping hole in the state budget.

I dont put labels on myself ever, other than as a Democrat, Cervantes said when asked to define himself politically. There are issues where Im going to be defined as very progressive, and there are going to be issues where Im defined less so.

In his current position as Senate Conservation Committee chairman, Cervantes cast the key vote during this years session to table a bill that would have allowed the Public Service Company of New Mexico to recoup its investment in abandoned coal plants by issuing low-interest bonds that would have been paid off by customers over a 20-year period.

While successful in some of his attempts to change legislative practices, Cervantes has met resistance in his recent bid to overhaul the states system for funding roads, dams and other public works projects.

Bills sponsored by Cervantes seeking to require more public scrutiny of such infrastructure projects have stalled in each of the two most recent regular legislative sessions.

The capital outlay process has a lot of folks who like it the way it is, he told the Journal.

His district, Senate District 31, is largely rural and Hispanic. It encompasses part of Las Cruces, along with the border communities of Santa Teresa and Sunland Park.

Issues and hurdles

If hes successful in his bid to become the first sitting lawmaker elected governor since Jerry Apodaca in 1974, Cervantes says he would push to double the states minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020.

He has also vowed to decriminalize marijuana use and sponsored legislation that would have done just that, but has expressed wariness about proposals to legalize recreational cannabis use  as nine other states and the District of Columbia have done  and tax its sales.

First, however, Cervantes must win over enough Democratic voters in the June 5 primary election to earn the partys nomination. The winner will face off against Republican Steve Pearce in the November general election. Longtime New Mexico political observer Brian Sanderoff said Cervantes faces obvious geographic and name recognition hurdles in the three-way primary race featuring candidates with strong Albuquerque ties.

As a state senator from Las Cruces, Joseph Cervantes is not a household name in New Mexico, said Sanderoff, president of Albuquerque-based Research & Polling Inc.

Cervantes points out he lived in Albuquerque for roughly 10 years and two of his three daughters are attending graduate school at the University of New Mexico. He also cites his connections with Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, forged during the time the two spent as colleagues in the Senate.

But Cervantes does not hold back in claiming that the Democratic Partys current leadership apparatus stifles independent thinking, saying party leaders should allow for more leeway when it comes to political views and issues facing rural New Mexico.

There are those in the party who dont want a robust campaign and dont want a robust debate in the primary process, he said. Theyd like to anoint one blue Democrat and one Republican and let them have at it.

In addition, with New Mexico lagging behind its neighbors in terms of recent job growth and still posting one of the nations highest unemployment rates, Cervantes said its not time for a governor that needs on-the-job training.

The notion you can bluff your way through a governorship or even a presidency just doesnt work, he said. The bottom line is you have to have the respect of the people you hope to lead and that respect comes from having an understanding of the issues.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  The three Democrats left standing in the race for the partys lieutenant governor nomination have each been elected to public office and know a thing or two about traversing the campaign trail.

But the similarities end there, as Howie Morales, Rick Miera and Billy Garrett come from different parts of New Mexico and have divergent views when it comes to how they would approach the $85,000-per-year job.

Morales, 45, a former special education teacher from Silver City who has been a member of the Senate since 2008, said if elected he would focus largely on helping the states next governor with education policy issues, including assisting in the choice of a new Cabinet secretary for the Public Education Department.

I plan on being a lieutenant governor whos very mobile and energetic about bringing change to New Mexico, said Morales, who has called for an end to current standardized testing for K-12 students used by the state.

He also ran for governor in 2014 and has significantly out-raised his two Democratic rivals since entering the race in December 2017.

Miera, 66, represented a Democratic-leaning state House district that includes parts of Albuquerques Old Town and Downtown areas from 1991 through 2014, serving as House Education Committee chairman and, later, as the chambers majority leader.

A retired therapist and avid motorcyclist, he said his behavioral health background sets him apart from the other candidates and would allow him to effectively act as an ombudsman as lieutenant governor.

To me, community mental health is really the basis we should be striving for, Miera said. As a therapist, I gravitate to how we can help each other.

Garrett, 72, is a retired National Park Service administrator  including stops at the Grand Canyon and Gateway National Recreation Area in New Jersey  who has been a Dona Ana County commissioner since 2011.

He said he could be a sounding board for the governor, while taking a long-term approach to education, health care and state economic issues, saying many previous lieutenant governors have been effectively ostracized by the governor.

I have a number of ideas about how that position could be used constructively, Garrett said. The lieutenant governor is not a legislator and neither is he a Cabinet secretary running a particular program.

Under the state Constitution, New Mexicos lieutenant governor serves as acting governor while the governor is traveling outside the state and is first in line to take over in case the governor leaves office. The lieutenant governor also presides over the state Senate and has a seat on the state Board of Finance.

Beyond that, however, the office has few proscribed day-to-day duties, and previous lieutenant governors have used it to champion a wide range of causes.

Under New Mexico law, the lieutenant governor runs separately from the governor in primary elections, but the eventual nominee then runs on a ticket with the gubernatorial nominee in the general election.

Michelle Garcia Holmes, a former law enforcement officer and ex-chief of staff for the Attorney Generals office, is the lone GOP candidate running for the post.

Outgoing Lt. Gov. John Sanchez, who is also a Republican, has held the position since 2011 but is barred from seeking a third consecutive term in office.Santa Fe is not ready for a public bank, but the city should work with the Legislature and state officials to look into creating a public bank at the state level that Santa Fe and other cities could utilize.

Thats one of the recommendations of the citys Public Bank Task Forces final report that was presented to the City Council on Wednesday.

The report concludes that current legal and regulatory requirements are not conducive to the creation of a State-chartered Public Bank, and would require legislation to change existing laws. If that were to happen, then state officials could consider forming a public bank.

We believe this more appropriate statewide scale would justify work needed to amend the current legal and regulatory restrictions, the report says. We also think incurring business planning costs and examining capitalization requirements would be justified.

Several people who spoke during a public hearing on the matter said they were disappointed that the task force determined a public bank wasnt feasible for the city at this time. But they were encouraged by the prospect of a public bank owned by the state.

Glenn Schiffbauer, executive director of the Santa Fe Green Chamber of Commerce, said 95 percent of businesses in the state are small businesses, which often have trouble obtaining loans. He said a state-owned public bank could help rectify that.

I think its a great start and since we do a lot of lobbying (at the state Legislature) we are willing to help in any way we can, he said.

City Councilor Renee Villareal, who helped lead the effort to study the possibility of forming a public bank, said she remained encouraged by the report. She promised to introduce resolutions consistent with the task forces recommendations.

Im not forgetting about the public bank effort, she said. Were not done yet.

Mayor Alan Webber said he supported a state-owned public bank when he ran for governor in 2014.

I still think its worthy of consideration, he said.

The nine-member task force was appointed by former Mayor Javier Gonzales a year ago to provide information to the City Council about public banking so it could make an informed decision about whether it should take steps to apply for a New Mexico bank charter.

According to the task forces report, the purpose of a public bank is to maximize the financial and human potential of the community.

Local investing of economic resources can address critical, locally identified priorities in ways current financial entities are not able to accomplish, the report says.

Benefits of a public bank include keeping public money invested locally, lowering costs for borrowing and lending, and using internal money to finance infrastructure, according to the report.WASHINGTON  Envisioning a very special moment for world peace, President Donald Trump announced Thursday he will meet North Koreas Kim Jong Un for highly anticipated summit talks in Singapore on June 12. He set the stage for his announcement by hosting a 3 a.m., made-for-TV welcome home for three Americans held by Kims government.

We welcomed them back home the proper way, Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Indiana Thursday evening.

Final details in place, Trump and Kim agreed to the first face-to-face North Korea-U.S. summit since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Its the most consequential and perhaps riskiest foreign policy effort so far in Trumps presidency as North Koreas nuclear program approaches a treacherous milestone  the capacity to strike the continental U.S. with a thermonuclear warhead.

Trump says the U.S. is aiming for denuclearization of the entire Korean peninsula, but he has yet to fill in just what steps that might include and what the timing would be.

Were starting off on a new footing, Trump said of himself and Kim as he welcomed the detainees in a floodlit ceremony at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington. He hailed their release as a potential breakthrough in relations between the longtime adversary nations.

He and Kim will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace! he said of the summit later on Twitter. He told his rally crowd, I think its going to be a very big success.

Kim has suspended nuclear and missile tests and put his nuclear program up for negotiation, but questions remain about how serious his offer is and what disarmament steps he would be willing to take. The White House has said withdrawal of thousands of U.S. troops from South Korea is not on the table.

Long before dawn Thursday, with the former detainees by his side on the air base tarmac, Trump said it was a great honor to welcome them back to the U.S. but the true honor is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.

The ceremony, which also featured a giant American flag suspended between the ladders of two firetrucks, emphasized Trumps penchant for the dramatic as he raised expectations for the summit. And it underscored how closely the fate of his foreign policy agenda is being tied to the North Korean negotiations.

He had wanted to hold the summit in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas but yielded to the concerns of officials who thought a DMZ meeting would focus attention on relations between the North and South rather than the nuclear question.

Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, other top officials and first lady Melania joined the president for the air base celebration. The former detainees  Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim  had been released Wednesday at the end of Pompeos visit to North Korea.

They appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft. One said through a translator, Its like a dream; we are very, very happy. They later gave the president a round of applause.

Pence said Pompeo had told him that at a refueling stop in Anchorage, one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadnt seen daylight in a very long time. The men were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation before being reunited with their families.

Trump thanked North Korean leader Kim for releasing the Americans and said, I really think he wants to do something on denuclearization.

Pence said on NBC News, In this moment the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith.

Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who was among several Republican lawmakers who dined with Trump and National Security Adviser John Bolton Wednesday evening before the detainees returned, said their release was a positive development, but he remained cautious about North Koreas intentions.

We are in uncharted waters, he said. This is the highest level diplomacy that the United States has to offer. Failure would be a significant setback to diplomatic efforts.

As for the venue, why Singapore?

White House spokesman Raj Shah said the country has relationships with both the U.S. and North Korea, meaning both presidents security  and a sense of neutrality  can be assured.

Located at the southern tip of Malaysia, the prosperous city state is a regional Southeast Asia hub whose free enterprise philosophy welcomes trading partners from everywhere. It has close diplomatic and military ties with the U.S. and yet is also familiar ground for North Korea, with which it established diplomatic relations in 1975.

Since their independence, theyve very deliberately developed a reputation as an honest broker between East and West, said David Adelman, the former U.S. ambassador.

The White House choreographed the arrival event at the air base, the image-conscious president telling reporters, I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 oclock in the morning.

The public display stood in stark contrast to the low-key, private reception that the State Department had envisioned, in keeping with a practice of trying to protect potentially traumatized victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after an ordeal.

Shortly after they touched down in Alaska, the department released a statement from the freed men. They expressed their appreciation to Trump, Pompeo and the people of the United States and added: We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

North Korea had accused the three of anti-state activities. But their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nations nuclear weapons.

The three are:

 Kim Dong Chul, 64, a South Korea-born U.S. citizen and the longest-serving detainee. He received a 10-year prison term with hard labor in April 2016 for allegedly perpetrating state subversive plots and espionage against North Korea. Before his sentencing, the former Virginia resident publicly apologized for slandering North Koreas leadership, collecting and passing confidential information to South Korea and joining a smear campaign on the Norths human rights situation. Other foreigners have publicly admitted crimes but have said later their confessions were given involuntarily.

 Tony Kim, who also goes by the Korean name Kim Sang-duk, had a masters degree in business administration from the University of California, Riverside, and taught accounting at a private university in Pyongyang. He was detained at the Pyongyang airport for criminal acts of hostility aimed to overturn North Korea, according to the Norths Korean Central News Agency, which didnt detail those acts.

 Kim Hak Song, who worked in agricultural development at an experimental farm run by the same school, the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. He was accused of engaging in unspecified hostile acts against North Korea.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage. Warmbier was arrested in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor.

We are happy for the hostages and their families, the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. We miss Otto.

___

Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey and Ken Thomas in Washington, Grant Peck in Bangkok, and Eric Talmadge in Pyongyang contributed to this report.BEIRUT  Israeli forces unleashed a heavy bombardment against Iranian military installations in Syria on Thursday in what Israel called retaliation for an Iranian rocket barrage on its positions in the occupied Golan Heights, the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

The two rivals have long fought each other through proxies, and with the new exchange each seemed to be sending a warning that a direct clash between them could swiftly escalate.

If we get rain, theyll get a flood, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned.

The scope of the attacks  which Israel called its largest in Syria since the 1973 Mideast war  raised the specter of a full-fledged war between Iran and Israel in Syria, a conflict that could potentially drag the militant Hezbollah and Lebanon into the mix with devastating effects, although both sides appeared to signal they wanted the confrontation to remain contained, at least for now.

Israel, however, has been emboldened by President Donald Trumps withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal earlier this week, and the latest escalation seemed to signal a potentially coordinated surge in military activity targeting Iran.

The Israeli military said Thursday it hit nearly all of Irans military installations in Syria in response to the overnight Iranian rocket barrage that targeted Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It was the first time Israel has directly accused Iran of firing toward Israeli territory.

Iranian media described the Israeli attack as unprecedented, but there was no official Iranian comment on Israels claims.

Iran has vowed to retaliate for repeated Israeli airstrikes targeting its forces in Syria. But it seemed to carefully calibrate its response by targeting the Golan Heights, which Israel annexed in 1981 in a move that is not internationally recognized, instead of striking Israel proper.

Tehran is wary of a wider military conflagration with Israel that could jeopardize its military achievements in Syria at a time when it is trying to salvage the international nuclear deal and may be limited in its ability to strike back.

The recent clashes reveal the difficulty both sides face in dealing with an unprecedented situation, said Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East studies at Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs.

The clashes will eventually likely lead not to further escalation, but to the consolidation of new red lines tacitly endorsed by Israel and Iran, he said in an analysis written for the Carnegie Middle East Center.

The extent of the damage inflicted by the Israeli airstrikes was not immediately clear.

Israel said among the targets were weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centers used by elite Iranian forces in Syria. It also said it destroyed several Syrian air-defense systems after coming under heavy fire and that none of its warplanes were hit.

The Syrian military acknowledged that the strikes destroyed a radar station and an ammunition warehouse, and damaged a number of air defense units. It said three people were killed and two were wounded.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the civil war through sources inside Syria, said 23 fighters, including five Syrian soldiers, were killed. It was not immediately clear if any Iranians were among the dead.

The White House swiftly condemned Irans provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens and expressed strong support for Israels right to act in self-defense, while Russia said the Israeli strikes marked a dangerous escalation and urged both Israel and Iran to avoid provoking each other.

In a statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Iranian regimes deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East.

Israel has carried out over 100 airstrikes in neighboring Syria since the civil war erupted in 2011, most believed to be aimed at suspected Iranian weapons shipments bound for the Hezbollah militant group.

But in the past few weeks, Israel has shifted to a more direct and public confrontation with Iran, striking at Iranian bases, weapons depots and rocket launchers across Syria, and killing Iranian troops. Israel accuses Tehran of seeking to establish a foothold on its doorstep, something it has vowed never to allow.

Reflecting the scope of the pre-dawn attack, Russias military said 28 Israeli jets were involved, striking Iranian and government sites in Syria with 70 missiles. It said half the missiles were shot down.

Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, an annual security gathering north of Tel Aviv, Lieberman said Israel would respond fiercely to any further Iranian actions.

We will not let Iran turn Syria into a forward base against Israel, the Israeli defense minister said. If we get rain, theyll get a flood. I hope that we ended this chapter and that everyone understood.

In a statement issued as Israels security cabinet met, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strike sent a clear message that whoever attacks us  we will attack them sevenfold and whoever prepares to attack us  we will act against them first.

Iranian state television announced the Israeli strikes, sourcing the information to Syrias state-run SANA news agency, and described the Israeli attack as unprecedented.

Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 war and annexed it in 1981. In 1974, Israel and Syria reached a cease-fire and a disengagement deal that froze the conflict lines with the plateau in Israeli hands.

Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defenses over the city was heard for more than five hours.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow sees Thursdays strikes as a very alarming development.

He noted that in contacts with the leadership of both countries, including a meeting Wednesday between Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, we underlined the necessity of avoiding any actions that might be mutually provocative.

Russia sent forces to Syria to back President Bashar Assad in 2015. But Israel and Russia have maintained close communications to prevent their air forces from coming into conflict. The pan-Arab Al Hayat newspaper reported Thursday that Russia and Israel were developing an agreement to keep Iran out of southern Syria and allow Syrian government forces to retake the region.

Israel said early Thursday that Irans Quds Force fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said four of the rockets were intercepted, while the others fell short of their targets. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Golan.

Conricus said Israel was not looking to escalate the situation but that troops will continue to be on very high alert.

Should there be another Iranian attack, we will be prepared for it, he said.

The two sides have been on a collision course for months.

In February, Israel shot down what it said was an armed Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace. Israel responded by attacking anti-aircraft positions in Syria, and an Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Earlier this week, Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near Damascus. The Observatory said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Irans elite Revolutionary Guard, killing at least 15 people, including eight Iranians.

Last month, an attack on Syrias T4 air base in the central Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel.

___

Heller reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, Albert Aji in Damascus, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.BEIRUT  There may not be much Iran can do about President Donald Trumps withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but across the Middle East, it has a variety of ways it can hit back at the United States and Americas regional allies.

Iran has expanded its influence far beyond its borders in recent years, sponsoring an army of tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen spread across Iraq and Syria, all the way to Lebanon. A rocket attack overnight on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights may have been a first salvo, underscoring Tehrans reach. Israel responded with a blistering wave of missile strikes early Thursday.

Iran also holds enormous political sway in neighboring Iraq and in Lebanon, where its main Shiite ally, the militant Hezbollah group, scored significant gains in weekend elections. In Iraq, two powerful political alliances expected to win seats in parliamentary elections on Sunday also maintain strong ties to Iran.

In his speech announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, Trump called Iran the worlds leading state sponsor of terror, citing its support for terrorist proxies and militias such as Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as its activities in Yemen.

The rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia has torn the region apart, playing out on regional battlefields and fanning sectarian flames in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen. Trumps decision will likely intensify those confrontations, and could also embolden Israel to step up its own proxy battles against Tehran.

Here is a look at proxy battlefields in Irans looming confrontation with the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Israel:

___

SYRIA AND THE GOLAN HEIGHTS

Any confrontation between Iran and Israel is likely to play out first and foremost on the battlefields of Syria, where Iran has built an extensive network of militias during Syrias civil war. Advisers from Irans elite Revolutionary Guards, as well as trainers, commanders and experts, are stationed in military bases across the country.

It also has spy drones that it can use to attack from the sky. In February, Israel shot down what it said was a drone that contained explosives sent by Iran from an air base in Syria, prompting Israeli airstrikes that killed at least seven Iranians. An Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Israels main concern is southern Syria, near the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, where Tehran has been boosting its presence for years and where it could launch rocket attacks into Israeli territory.

Israel has said it will do what it takes to fend off Irans military entrenchment. A series of strikes over the last few months  all blamed on Israel  have struck Iranian assets in Syria and killed Iranian forces there.

The strikes have prompted threats of retaliation from Tehran, and Israel has girded for a response, ordering bomb shelters open in the Golan.

Israel will no doubt strike back following any attack on its territory, a scenario that could spiral into a wider conflict that experts say no side is currently interested in.

With Trumps backing, Israel may even feel emboldened to take further pre-emptive action against Iranian targets in Syria. Irans presence in Syria is no match for Israels powerful military, and Irans hopes of salvaging the deal and appearing moderate on the world stage may further hinder its ability to strike back.

___

LEBANON AND ISRAEL

Southern Lebanons rolling hills bordering Israel are another arena of influence for Tehran through its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah.

The frontier has been largely quiet since the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006, and Hezbollah is averse to starting a new confrontation in light of its costly intervention in Syria, where it has lost hundreds of fighters.

Launching a new war could endanger Hezbollahs political support base, including its Shiite constituency, which is wary of another ruinous war with Israel.

Hezbollah has said, however, that it stands ready to defend Lebanon in case of any Israeli attack, and its leader has hinted it may retaliate for repeated Israeli airstrikes in Syria.

Israel has repeatedly targeted weapons shipments destined for Hezbollah, taking advantage of the groups thinly-spread fighters preoccupied by the war in Syria.

With the war winding down and the group able to refocus on its longtime foe, Israel, the border between the two countries may again heat up. Embroiled in scandals at home, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may also seek a provocation to divert attention from his domestic crises.

____

YEMEN AND SAUDI ARABIA

The war in Yemen, widely seen as a proxy battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran, is another theater Tehran could exploit to inflict pain on its enemies.

Yemens Shiite rebels, the Houthis, have fired a series of missiles into neighboring Saudi Arabia during the three-year-old conflict, most recently on Wednesday, a day after Trumps announcement.

The United Nations, Western nations and Saudi Arabia say Iran supplies the Houthis with long-range missiles capable of reaching Riyadh. Iran denies arming them.

___

GAZA AND JERUSALEM

Confronted by Iranian-allied Hezbollah on its northern border, Israel also faces another enemy to the south with Hamas in Gaza.

Tehrans relationship with the Islamic militant group has known highs and lows. Hamas developed close ties with Iran after the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, with support  both military and financial  peaking following Hamas victory in the 2006 parliamentary elections.

Ties ebbed with the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011, when the Hamas leadership-in-exile left Syria amid President Bashar Assads crackdown on Sunni Muslim rebels, many with ideologies similar to those of the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent movement of Hamas. Ties with Iran have since somewhat recovered, and Hamas is believed to again get funding from Iran.

Since late March, Hamas has been staging weekly mass protests meant to break a stifling, decade-long Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the impoverished territory. Thousands of Palestinians have demonstrated along Israels border fence with Gaza, with some briefly crossing into Israeli territory, hurling burning tires and damaging the fence. Dozens have been killed by Israeli fire and hundreds have been wounded.

The protests are set to intensify Monday when the U.S. Embassy opens in Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of Palestinians are set to descend on the border area and mass breaches of the border fence may be inevitable.

___

IRAQ

Iran sponsors a range of Shiite militias in Iraq and has deep ties to the countrys economy and political system. Many Iraqis fear escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran will destabilize Iraq just as the country is starting to recover.

Riad Hadi, an Iraqi army veteran, said Iraq will end up paying the price for Trumps withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

If they blockade Iran, the pressure release will be Iraq, said the 48-year-old, who was wounded in both legs in a bomb blast in his Baghdad neighborhood.

On Wednesday, a powerful Iraqi paramilitary group with links to Iran said Trumps withdrawal from the nuclear deal would ignite the region.

We are resistance factions and we are ready to target Americans in the region in case America hits Iran. It will be a violent response, said Jafar Husseini of Iraqs Hezbollah brigades.

There are some 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq training Iraqs military after the country declared victory over the Islamic State group last year.

___

ASSASSINATIONS AND ATTACKS

Amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran, a return to assassinations and overseas attacks cannot be ruled out.

Iran blamed Israel for the assassination of at least four Iranian nuclear scientists between 2010 and 2012 and arrested a number of Iranians alleged to have carried out the killings on behalf of Israels Mossad spy agency.

In 2011, U.S. officials said they foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabias ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, the current Saudi foreign minister.

___

Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Philip Issa and Qassem Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.FORT WORTH, Texas  The highest criminal court in Texas has overturned the murder conviction of a man who spent 19 years in prison for the stabbing death of a friend.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday overturned the conviction of 44-year-old John Earl Nolley.

Nolley was freed in 2016 after a witness admitted he lied and a bloody palm print at the crime scene was linked to another person.

Nolley had been sentenced in 1998 to life in prison after being convicted of murder in the slaying of Sharon McLane in Bedford, northeast of Fort Worth.

The witness who lied was a jailhouse informant and the case contributed to changes in state law that placed more controls on testimony provided by informantsCopyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

BERNALILLO  Eleven New Mexico school districts will begin offering state prekindergarten programs for the first time next school year and more money is coming for existing programs.

The Public Education Department announced Thursday it is pumping $4.37 million into the new programs at districts across the state, and an additional $5.66 million for expanding, existing programs.

More than 1,500 additional spots will be available statewide  increasing from 5,186 this year to 6,786 next year.

Albuquerque Public Schools will see an additional $1.5 million, which will allow the district to bring in about 130 more students, although that is fewer slots than APS requested.

Among the districts launching the pre-K program for the first time is Carlsbad Municipal Schools. At the formal announcement Thursday, Superintendent Greg Rodriguez said the new efforts goal is to invest into pre-K to give kids a jump start and hopefully impact graduation rates down the line.

That echoes the message being touted by lawmakers, educators and candidates in this years statewide elections. They are pushing early learning programs as crucial to improving the overall education outcome of New Mexicos students, who consistently lag behind in standardized test scores.

Last year, the Legislative Finance Committee released a report on pre-K that showed the programs have proven to improve math and reading proficiencies for low income 4-year-olds and to lower special education and retention rates.

Rodriguez said Carlsbad prepped for three years to make the program happen, lining up a facility and teachers for the program. Four new teacher jobs and four education assistant positions will be created for Carlsbads new program, which is expected to cover 350 students next year.

Rodriguez joined Gov. Susana Martinez and Education Secretary-designate Christopher Ruszkowski at La Escuelita Pre-School in Bernalillo to provide details on the increased programs.

The states pre-K program consists of half- and full-day programs for 4-year-olds. Teachers have to be licensed and are reviewed under a state teacher evaluation system.

Some programs are housed as part of an elementary school and others are in separate facilities.

Each year a district estimates the number of students it expects for the following year in half-day slots and full-day slots, and the state decides how many to fund.

Money for unfilled slots is returned to the PED to use the next year. Ruszkowski said that from $2 to $4 million will be reverted to the fund in a given year because schools dont use it all. He said that about $1.5 million is expected to be reverted from this school year, but the number wont be finalized until the summer.

$10M more allotted

With the addition of the 11 districts, state pre-K will be present in 65 districts and six state charters, according to PED.

Overall, state pre-K programs are getting about $10 million more in the next school year, increasing the PED funding from $23.6 million last year to $33.6 million in 2018-2019.

Thats the most weve ever given, Gov. Susana Martinez said before sitting with a class of La Escuelita preschoolers.

(Some) 1,500 (more) students statewide will have the opportunity to participate, she said.

The state has increased funding for pre-K programs fivefold

since the 2011-12 school year.

This year, lawmakers appropriated $8 million of the extra funds while the other $2 million came out of money that reverted to the pre-K fund.

The money is distributed based on demand. PED allots the money based on districts enrollment projections and history of past enrollments.

For example, APS requested enough money to pay for 350 half-day students and 775 full-day students for the 2018-2019 school year.

PED says the district will get funding for the 350 half-day students but only for 594 full-day spots. The department said thats because APS has historically reverted funds back to it because enrollment was lower than projected.

Last year, APS requested 717 half-day and 220 full-day students. But enrollment was at 606 for the half-day and 202 for full-day, according to PED.

APS funding will go from $3.5 million to about $5 million in the next school year for its pre-K, said Ruszkowski. PED said that if APS were to have more children who want to join a pre-K program than funded for in 2018-2019, additional money can be allotted if needed.

Meanwhile, PED denied some requests to launch the pre-K program, according to Ruszkowski.

Dulce Elementary School, which was designated a school in need of more rigourous intervention, is working on restructuring and did not have a complete plan in place yet, he said. A charter school in Espanola also wasnt approved because of the available pre-K options  either through private preschool or Head Start programs  already in the area.

School districts implementing state pre-KLAS CRUCES, N.M.  Prosecutors have cleared a Las Cruces police officer of any wrongdoing in the deadly shooting of a New Mexico man suspected of homicide.

Dona Ana County prosecutors determined last week that officer Joseph Campas shooting of 23-year-old Nathaniel Montoya in mid-February was justified under state law.

Montoya was accused of shooting and killing 29-year-old Abraham Gomez in Las Cruces. An officer spotted Montoya in a car a day after the shooting.

Police entered into a pursuit, which ended at a Las Cruces gas station where Montoya crashed. Police say Campa commanded Montoya to show his hands.

Police say Montoya raised a gun and Campa fired several shots. Montoya was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say a rifle was recovered from the car.NAME : Sylvester Stanley

: Sylvester Stanley POLITICAL PARTY : Democrat

: Democrat OCCUPATION : Retired law enforcement

: Retired law enforcement CITY OF RESIDENCE : Albuquerque

: Albuquerque RELEVANT EXPERIENCE : 43 years

: 43 years EDUCATION : 14 years

: 14 years CAMPAIGN WEBSITE : stanleyforsheriff.com

1. What would be your approach to making Bernalillo County a safer place?

My approach to make Bernalillo County a safer place is to have community policing, along with a partnership with the neighborhood association and be proactive with our property crimes and gang/narcotic investigations.

2. What differentiates you from your opponents?

I differentiate with my opponents by having a 20- year management and leadership career in law enforcement  retired as a first sergeant in the Army, police chief of three different departments  totaling over 43 years of law enforcement service.

3. What was your most important action during your law-enforcement career?

During my police career I have had the opportunity to work in three different communities as a police chief, where I was responsible for recruiting, hiring and training young men and women to be premier law enforcement officers.

5. Do you think the Sheriffs Office deputies should use on-body cameras or dashboard cameras? Why or why not?

Yes, I believe that on-body cameras are important. It protects the integrity of the investigation by showing a complete picture from the beginning to the end of the investigation. I believe it minimizes the liability toward the department and county in lawsuits.

6. How would you ensure the Sheriffs Office policies align with best practices?

By having members of the department and county legal review the policies on a regular basis and make the necessary changes if the sheriffs department policy is outdated.

7. Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunk driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state?

No.

8. Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens?

No.

9. Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding

Yes, I have filed a personal bankruptcy case, however I withdrew the case before it made it through the court proceeding and took care of my financial obligations.It all started with her mother.

Star Ridsdale, a licensed naturopath, was looking for a way to ease her mothers crippling arthritis pain so the elderly Minnesota farmer no longer had to spend $50 an ounce to get only limited relief.

The product Ridsdale came up with  Pain, Anxiety and Arthritis Care  got a big boost Thursday when it was approved to compete for shelf space at Walmart stores nationwide.

Ridsdale, who is CEO of Southwest Therapy & Rehab, was invited to pitch her product before managers at the Walmart location on Eubank NE. She was told she was competing with other local contenders, but she learned to the fanfare of cupcakes and balloons that she already had been chosen and would be making her way to the national competition next month.

Walmarts annual, daylong Open Call event is an exciting and unique opportunity for American entrepreneurs to come to Walmart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.,  to potentially get their product in the hands of millions of Walmart customers, according to a news release.

Ridsdales cream, which contains hemp and emu oils, as well as camphor and eucalyptus oil, sells for $6.24 an ounce  lower than similar products Walmart carries.

The products real test came when Ridsdale tried it on her mother.

She loved it, Ridsdale said. And it just snowballed from there.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

GALLUP  One of New Mexicos top education executives said Thursday that a new mentorship program for teachers at low-performing schools is helping improve student achievement.

In a presentation to the Legislative Finance Committee, Debbie Rael, a deputy secretary for the Public Education Department, shared data showing that schools in the Teachers Pursuing Excellence program are outperforming other schools in the state.

The eight initial schools in the program had below-average rates of student proficiency in math and English-language arts at the outset of the program, according to her presentation. But over the past two years, the proficiency rates have climbed several percentage points above the average for New Mexico schools that arent participating.

We know were closing the achievement gap in these schools, Rael said.

In the 2017 school year, for example, 27 percent of students at Teachers Pursuing Excellence schools were proficient in math, compared with 20 percent for schools outside the program, according to Raels numbers.

The program pairs high-performing teachers with educators who are struggling, based on a controversial state rating system that factors in student test scores and classroom observations. Theres a similar program for principals.

Discussion of the teacher mentoring program  started by Gov. Susana Martinezs administration in 2015  came as New Mexico lawmakers questioned top executives in the Public Education Department about efforts to help Native American students.

American Indian students show the lowest proficiency rates on reading, math and science tests in New Mexico, according to a report prepared by nonpartisan legislative analysts.

Some lawmakers expressed frustration about whether enough is being done to help Native students.

Theres no part of the state that cares more about education than tribal communities, said Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, a Gallup Democrat and chairwoman of the Legislative Finance Committee.

Rael, New Mexicos deputy secretary for school transformation, highlighted Teachers Pursuing Excellence as a new program with promising results at closing the achievement gap among different demographic groups.

She told lawmakers that struggling teachers work with a mentor to learn strategies they can deploy in the classroom.

The state spends about $1.5 million a year to provide stipends, usually to every teacher at a participating school.

Matt Montano, deputy secretary of teaching and learning, told lawmakers that the state is also trying to recruit more Native Americans into teaching careers. Theres growing evidence, he said, that having Native teachers helps Native students.

Rep. Jim Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, said teacher salaries are a constant source of complaint.

If were going to recruit good people, Trujillo said, were going to have to pay better.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

WASHINGTON, D.C.  The majority of the nations production of plutonium cores for nuclear weapons would take place at the Department of Energys Savannah River Site in South Carolina under a plan certified by the Nuclear Weapons Council and announced Thursday, but a lesser number of plutonium pits would still be made at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The council has accepted a National Nuclear Security Administration recommendation to repurpose a facility at Savannah River to make 50 pits a year coupled with an enduring mission to make at least 30 pits per year at Los Alamos, currently the only place in the country set up to make the softball-sized cores.

The two-pronged approach is the best way to manage the cost, schedule, and risk of such a vital undertaking, according to a statement Thursday by Ellen M. Lord, Department of Defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment and chairwoman of the Nuclear Weapons Council, and Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty, Department of Energy undersecretary for nuclear security, administrator of the NNSA and a member of NWC.

Furthermore, by maintaining Los Alamos as the Nations Plutonium Center of Excellence for Research and Development, the recommended alternative improves the resiliency, flexibility, and redundancy of our Nuclear Security Enterprise by not relying on a single production site, the statement said.

At her confirmation hearing in February, Gordon-Hagerty told Congress that ramping up plutonium pit production was the most important issue on her agenda as head of the nations nuclear weapons complex.

Democratic members of New Mexicos congressional delegation, who had been lobbying fiercely to keep and expand the plutonium work at LANL, said the announcement was both good and bad for the weapons lab.

In a joint statement, Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and Reps. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Ben Ray Lujan lamented that pending plans to build new underground modules for making the plutonium pits at LANL will be halted.

While we are pleased that Los Alamos National Laboratory will remain the Research & Development Plutonium Center of Excellence and will be allowed to expand their plutonium pit production capability with a new multi-billion investment, halting the long-planned modular expansion of LANLs facilities for plutonium pit production will set back our militarys life extension programs and stretch the Labs existing facilities and workforce to its limits, the New Mexico lawmakers said.

Instead of wasting billions of dollars exploring the construction of a new facility that will likely never be completed somewhere else, the Department of Energy should immediately move forward with the new, modular plutonium facilities at Los Alamos  as originally endorsed by both Congress and the Nuclear Weapons Council.

Modernization plan

The NNSA is under a congressional mandate to make 80 pits a year by 2030 as part of an extensive nuclear weapons modernization plan. It has been studying whether LANL or somewhere else is the best place to reach that goal.

The possibility that pit manufacturing  which comes with billions of dollars in funding for operations and facilities and hundreds of jobs  might take place somewhere other than Los Alamos was first reported by the Journal last year, after NNSA officials made brief mention of the idea at public meeting in Santa Fe.

Udall and Heinrich inserted an amendment into the latest defense budget bill that made it more difficult for NNSA to move pit production from LANL, requiring the Nuclear Weapons Councils approval. The amendment also set a deadline of this week for action.

The U.S. manufactured thousands of pits during the Cold War at the old Rocky Flats facility in Colorado.

No new pits have been made since 2011, when LANL completed the last of 29 for Navy submarine missiles. The most ever made at Los Alamos in a year is 11.

Meanwhile, work at LANL was stalled by a series of mistakes, and the lab has faced scrutiny for safety lapses, including several in recent months involving plutonium and preliminary pit-making work.

Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuke Watch New Mexico, said the NNSA announcement represented in large part a political decision, designed to keep the congressional delegations of both New Mexico and South Carolina happy.

There is no explanation why the Department of Defense requires at least 80 pits per year, and no justification to the American taxpayer why the enormous expense of expanded production is necessary, Coghlan said.

Late last year, a summary of results page from the NNSA study was leaked showing estimates that the goal of 80 pits a year could be reached quicker and more cheaply at sites other than Los Alamos, including Savannah River, despite several prior years of planning for new underground facilities for plutonium work at LANL.

New Mexicos congressional delegation called the study deeply flawed from the start.

LANL director Terry Wallace said the lab welcomes the NNSAs decision to continue full-scale production of plutonium pits at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and to invest in a surge capability at the Laboratory to maximize pit production.

In reaffirming the Laboratorys status as the Nations Plutonium Center of R&D Excellence, the NNSA has given the Laboratory a big vote of confidence.

Wallace added: This commitment by the government to expand our plutonium mission reiterates the critical role we play in ensuring the nations securityand pit manufacturing is central to that.

In a memo to staff, Wallace also said, The NNSA is investing an additional $3 billion in new mission space, which includes people, infrastructure, and equipment.

Old pits

Some critics maintain there is no need to make any new pits, with thousands produced in the past and now in storage that could be adapted for use. Former NNSA Director Linton Brooks recently proposed the use of old pits as an alternative if new production proved too difficult.

No new pits are needed for any warhead, said Greg Mello, executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group, another nuclear weapons watchdog organization. In the longer run, government would be wise to focus on pit re-use, because there are thousands of usable pits sitting around.

But Mello also said the NNSAs decision appears to be a rational one within the limits of existing law.

LANL cant handle the industrial mission, period, and there was always going to be overlap in time between small pit production at LANL and the establishment of any new production site, he said.

Thursdays news release said a facility for pits at Savannah River Site will be created by converting the Mixed-Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, or MOX.

The facility was conceived for conversion of weapons-grade plutonium from dismantled warheads into fuel for nuclear reactors as part of an agreement between the U.S. and Russia to dispose of tons of weapons-grade plutonium.

But the giant project, which broke ground more than a decade ago, has faced delays, litigation and costs ballooning from an early estimate of $4 billion to a projected $17 billion now. The Obama administration called for abandoning it.

South Carolina officials, including Gov. Henry McMaster, have been pushing to keep the MOX mission even as local officials in the Savannah River area, near Augusta, Ga., have been wooing the pit work, with positive resolutions passed by local governments.

But on Thursday, as the NNSA unveiled the pit production plan, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry executed a waiver to terminate MOX construction, according to a report in the Aiken Standard, a South Carolina newspaper.

Political jab

Heinrichs Senate race opponent this year, Republican Mick Rich, blamed Heinrich for the pit work that is going to South Carolina.

This disappointing news shows once again how Martin Heinrich fails to stand up for New Mexicos national labs  and how critical they are to our economy and national security, campaign spokesman Mike Lonergan said.

Brad Elkins, Heinrichs campaign manager, responded, Having a vision and fighting for our labs and workers like Senator Heinrich does is the best way of ensuring a durable and strong set of missions for years to come. Bragging about being a cheerleader for Donald Trump or one of his latest cabinet secretaries is not.Mothers Day is one of the most special and celebrated days in India and across the world. To commemorate this day in a truly meaningful way, Miracle Foundation India, a non-profit organization based in New Delhi has teamed up with Dell to raise funds to brighten up the lives of children without parental supervision and, ultimately, find a loving family for every child.

As a part of this Mothers Day campaign, Miracle Foundation India will engage with the employees from Dell to run a fundraising campaign. The employees can make a donation in honour of their mom (or the special mother figure in their lives). The donations will empower housemothers who shower endless love of a mom on the orphaned children.

More enduring than flowers, less indulgent than chocolates, this Mothers Day gift is sure to be every moms favourite gift ever.

The activities will be processed at Dells offices in Gurugram (NCR) and Hyderabad.

Speaking on this association, Ms. Nivedita DasGupta, Country Head of Miracle Foundation, said, Being involved of such huge corporate is an added advantage to our foundation. With our joint efforts, this Mothers Day, we will be able to empower the Housemothers along with the children without parental care and I hope our association can make a huge impact in their life.

We at Dell are proud to partner with Miracle Foundation in this wonderful initiative. Every Mothers contribution is immense in the growth and development of a kids life, and to honor and recognize that, Miracle Foundation is undertaking a tremendous initiative for children without parental care by giving them care and hope to build a strong future. I am happy my extended team could participate and make a difference this Mothers Day, Nupur Puri of Dell, added

There are 8 million institutionalized children around the world, many of whom languish in orphanages without access to nutritious food, clean water, a quality education and medical care. Surprisingly, 80% of these kids have a living family member. Most families wouldnt leave their children in institutions if they had the right support to care for them. The fact is, many children are in orphanages because their families are poor and cant afford to feed or educate them. This is no reason to be institutionalized.

For those wishing to donate online, can do so by visiting:

https://www.ketto.org/fundraiser/miraclemomsAfter successfully collaborating on Belaseshe, Praktan and Posto leading Indian film studio Eros Internationaland Windows joins hands once again for their next Bengali film Haami, directed by director duo Nandita Roy and Shiboprasad Mukherjee. Starring Shiboprasad Mukherjee himself, Gargi Roychowdhury, Sujan Mukherjee, Churni Ganguly, Kharaj Mukherjee, Koninica Banerjee, Aparajita Adhya and acclaimed contemporary dancer and actor Tanusree Shankar, the film releases on May 18.

This social commentary revolves around the friendship of two children that beautifully captures innocence of pure unadulterated love and will take you down the memory lane of your childhood days of fun and friendship. This movie also asks questions that need to be answered, who is to be blamed when society lets down our little ones? The individual or the system? Where did parent teacher trust vanish? Why don't we nurture our children's innocence?

With a subject that will appeal to the national audience, Eros will release the movie in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.

Commenting on the films release, Nandu Ahuja, Senior VP, India Theatrical, Eros International said, We have had a long fruitful association with Shiboprasad and Nandita with three consecutive hits. Their films entertain as well as touch upon strong humane subjects that promise a pan India appeal. Haami too will strike a chord with the audiences with the very current and relevant subject that it addresses..

Director Shiboprosad Mukherje added, We are pleased with the kind of support Eros has given to all our movies. Taking Bengali cinema beyond the regular territories motivates Nandita and me to make movies for a larger audience and we look forward to a continued partnership with themPROI Worldwide, the worlds largest partnership of integrated independent communications agencies, has appointed Clare Parsons as its Global Chair. She will chair its International Board of Directors with immediate effect. This is the first time PROI Worldwide, formed in 1970, has appointed a woman to the role. The announcement was made at PROIs Annual Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal on May 5, 2018 and Clare will serve in the post for two years.



Clare Parsons, who chairs leading London based strategic communications agency Lansons, replaces outgoing Hong Kong based PROI Global Chair Richard Tsang, Chairman of SPRG Asia, one of the largest integrated communications firms with offices throughout Asia.



Lansons is an industry leading reputation management and public relations consultancy that has grown consistently since its formation in 1989. In February this year, Lansons was named Best City (Financial) Agency in the UK by the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA). In April, the firm was ranked the 15th best Medium Size Workplace in the UK by the Great Place to Work Institute, the 14th year in a row it has been in the top 50. Fourty one of Lansons 110 people own the firm with 75% of the equity owned by women.



Clare Parsons comments: Ive never defined myself as a woman in business, but it is a huge honour to be the first female Global Chair of a company Ive worked closely with over the last 12 years.



Across the world, clients are recognising the strengths of independent public relations and communications agencies and thats why so many PROI Worldwide partner agencies are growing rapidly at present.



Collaboration and cooperation are key themes that, as Chair, I will continue to actively promote to develop closer working relationships with all PROI Worldwide partners around the world, by tapping into local market experts who, understand the nuances and the opportunities in all key markets across the world. An increase in sharing best practice and insights will maximise opportunities and synergies across our international partnership. By continuing dialogue and exchanging ideas, we continue to learn and grow together, becoming more effective strategic partners and better consultants for our clients.



Clare co-founded Lansons in 1989. During the three decades running Lansons, Clare leads Lansons international business and has also been actively involved both in the PR industry as a whole and with the not-for-profit sector. Over the years, Clare has sat on a wide range of industry and not for profit committees including the UKs Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). Clare is a trustee of HighTide, the British theatre company and charity that has an unparalleled eleven-year history of successfully launching the careers of emerging British playwrights; a member of the 30% Club championing diversity inclusion; and has recently joined the advisory group of Trustee Recruitment Pathways. Clare was recognised with the Stephen Tallent medal, an award by the CIPR for her contribution to the industry through which she was also made a fellow, and she is a past Real Business Magazines Top 100 Women UK Entrepreneur.Diversity in the workforce has become a necessity today, and more so in the leadership positions. It cant be denied that women bring a high level of creativity and empathy while solving problems and handling crises. Women leaders bring to the table a different level of dexterity.

AdGullys The W-Suite series features interactions with influential women leaders in India, who share some deep insights on what being a woman leader means in Indias business landscape, the mantras to succeed, achieving work-life balance, pay parity and much more.

Leena Duwadi started her career as a popular Radio Jockey from Nepal, before becoming a TV anchor and now the Editor-In-Chief of WittyFeed, Indias largest content marketing platform. Duwadi is responsible for managing 1,200+ pieces of content every month that is distributed through dozens of social platforms. At WittyFeed, she leads and mentors a team of new age storytellers who are inspiring millions of people around the world.

How would you define todays woman leader?

No doubt women today are more evolved, smarter and up front. They have the guts to follow their passion and take the responsibility of bringing some good change in their own and others lives. Hence, today we are witnessing more women leaders than the earlier times. In my personal opinion, todays women leaders are the true face of feminism. They are making this world a better place for everyone, most importantly, for girls and women. But, the leader term should not be limited to the professional front. A woman who is a homemaker is also a leader. Leadership is an attitude, an attitude of uplifting the people around and motivating them to do good things. A leader creates more leaders. And I am so proud to share that I lead a team where 70 per cent of the members are females. Many of them are at the managerial level. Its a matter worth boasting about. At least I believe so.

What are the foremost attributes that women leaders in todays business ecosystem must possess?

I believe, leadership attributes are the same for every genre. No matter which sector you belong to. But when we are talking about the business ecosystem, some of the qualities one must have are: farsightedness, visionary, strategic ability, positive diplomacy, charismatic personality, etc. But not to forget, discipline, integrity, and humility are the basics. If one is not disciplined, nobody is going to respect her. If a woman leader doesnt have integrity, she wont be able to justify her professional existence. In todays business ecosystem, where there is so much competition, the qualities that I have mentioned are must-haves. And I see that female leaders are aware of what they are supposed to do.

Despite the qualifications, aptitude, and experience, why do you think we dont see the expected number of women business leaders, especially when it comes to boardroom decision-making?

As I expressed earlier, things are changing, positively changing, but theres a lot that still remains. Our country has been male dominant for decades, but the scenario is changing now. There is going to be enormously positive changes in the days to come. I recently read somewhere, according to a recent survey by LinkedIn, 35 per cent of increment has been observed in womens entrepreneurial leadership since 2009. This is a good sign. Also, as I mentioned, 70 per cent of my team consists of females, and in many ways they are a part of the decision-making process or are decision makers. I see many of them going on to make it to boardroom decision making in the near future. I know you will not have this question in your list in the next few years!

What more do Indian organisations need to do to encourage and groom women leaders?

Identifying the right talent and giving them the liberty to grow. Providing women employees the right kind of training and grooming with respect. This is exactly what WittyFeed does. And I am so proud to be a part of it. I may sound odd, but a lot of other growing companies should follow WittyFeed. The way WittyFeed has a culture that respects and grooms women in its team is truly appreciable.

According to you, what are the Dos and Donts for todays women to break through the glass ceiling?

For me, there are no donts. A woman has the right to do everything that falls within her integrity. First and foremost, a woman should be able to break the barriers that exist inside her mind. And when it comes to the workplace, a woman should be aware of her rights and authority. If she feels she is deserving but is not being treated equally as male colleagues, she should speak out. Not raising ones voice is one of the donts. I keep on receiving messages from a lot of ladies where they raise the similar concern. I tell them that until and unless you take a stand confidently, no one is going to take you seriously. Be it your family, your circle, society or your workplace, have the guts to break the stereotypes.

How acute is the gender pay gap issue in India today? What needs to be done to address this in an effective manner?

I dont think so. The situation is not what many people assume it to be. My experience and observation state that there is no as such criticality in gender pay gap issue. Those who are deserving, get paid with respect. To make this paying culture much more effective, both the parties have equal responsibilities. We have a lot of examples like Deepika Padukone, who was paid more than two fellow male actors in Padmaavat. Also, women should speak out if they feel they are the victims of injustice. See, I may repeat my views here, but a lot of things depend on the woman herself. For example, I am aware of what I deserve and what not. I should drag the managements attention if I sense something is not justified. Not only this, its my responsibility to give a shoulder to other women who share a similar concern but are not able to raise a voice.

Do you think the leadership effectiveness of women is higher than men? Why?

Of course yes. I may sound a bit biased here, but this is on the basis of my work experiences with multiple leaders and organisations. At the same time, I am not showing doubts over male leaders capability and impact. Theres no doubt that female or male, it all depends on the leadership qualities that a person possesses. Every leader has his/ her own way of dealing with people and situations. And its so good to see that with time, the respect and preference for women leadership has increased. I have seen this actually happening.

What are the five most effective lessons that you have learned as a woman leader?

Respect should be earned, it cannot be just expected.

Leadership is an attitude, theres no formula for it.

Have integrity, it will keep your confidence high.

Do not expect anything from your people until and unless you have inculcated it in your own life.

Its not about gender, its all about how much you keep yourself deserving.

How challenging has it been for you to maintain a balance between career goals and family responsibilities? What is your mantra to maintain that balance?

Honestly speaking, I am among those lucky people who have no bondages in life. In fact, ever since I started working after completing my 12th, I started seeking no-bondage circumstances. Situations happened the way I shaped them. There were struggles and hurdles, but I was able to manage everything because I had the passion (and still have) for the things that I dream to achieve. And I know what I want to do in life.

Another thing is that I have always believed that theres nothing like personal and professional balance. Whatever is associated with you is your personal life and it includes both work responsibilities and other family stuff. For me, every single task that I am supposed to do is my profession. Be it content leading or my household chores. So, my mantra is  I take responsibility as responsibility. I dont differentiate things as personal and professional.

How proactive has your organisation been when it comes to addressing a serious issue like sexual harassment at the workplace?

This is a serious concern. As we are becoming more advanced in many aspects, more of such issues have been raised. Its because women are more aware now. They have started raising their voice, which is a very good change in our society and the workplace. Like WittyFeed, organisations now have a womens cell in their workplaces to take care of such issues. The existence of such womens cell is a very remarkable step. Companies are now aware of the need for such a cell. So, the only need is that women should be more vocal about things that they do not like.After weeks of speculations and leaked information, the deal is done. Walmart Inc has announced it has signed definitive agreements to become the largest shareholder in Flipkart Group. Walmart will pay approximately $16 billion for an initial stake of approximately 77 per cent in Flipkart. The remainder of the business will be held by some of Flipkarts existing shareholders, including Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, Tencent Holdings Limited, Tiger Global Management LLC and Microsoft Corp.

While the immediate focus will be on serving customers and growing the business, Walmart supports Flipkarts ambition to transition into a publicly-listed, majority-owned subsidiary in the future. The investment will help accelerate Flipkarts customer-focused mission to transform commerce in India through technology and underscores Walmarts commitment to sustained job creation and investment in India, one of the largest and fastest-growing economies in the world.

In a statement issued, Doug McMillon, President & CEO, Walmart, was quoted as saying, India is one of the most attractive retail markets in the world, given its size and growth rate, and our investment is an opportunity to partner with the company that is leading transformation of eCommerce in the market. As a company, we are transforming globally to meet and exceed the needs of customers and we look forward to working with Flipkart to grow in this critical market. We are also excited to be doing this with Tencent, Tiger Global and Microsoft, which will be key strategic and technology partners. We are confident this group will provide Flipkart with enhanced strategic and competitive advantage. Our investment will benefit India providing quality, affordable goods for customers, while creating new skilled jobs and fresh opportunities for small suppliers, farmers and women entrepreneurs.

Binny Bansal, Flipkarts Co-founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, added here, This investment is of immense importance for India and will help fuel our ambition to deepen our connection with buyers and sellers and to create the next wave of retail in India. While eCommerce is still a relatively small part of retail in India, we see great potential to grow. Walmart is the ideal partner for the next phase of our journey, and we look forward to working together in the years ahead to bring our strengths and learnings in retail and eCommerce to the fore.

Founded in 2007, Flipkart has led Indias eCommerce revolution. The company has grown rapidly and earned customer trust, leveraging a powerful technology foundation, including artificial intelligence, and emerging as a leader in electronics, large appliances, mobile and fashion and apparel. In a market where Walmart expects eCommerce to grow at four times the rate of overall retail, and with well-known platforms such as Myntra, Jabong and PhonePe, Flipkart is uniquely positioned to leverage its integrated ecosystem, which is defined by localized service, deep insights into Indian customers and a best-in-class supply chain.

Flipkarts supply chain arm, eKart, serves more than 800 cities, making 500,000 deliveries daily. In the fiscal year ended March 31, Flipkart recorded GMV of $7.5 billion1 and net sales of $4.6 billion representing more than 50 percent year-over-year growth in both cases. With the investment, Flipkart will leverage Walmarts omni-channel retail expertise, grocery and general merchandise supply-chain knowledge and financial strength, while Flipkarts talent, technology, customer insights and agile and innovative culture will benefit Walmart in India and across the globe.

While Walmart and Flipkart will leverage the combined strengths of both companies, they will maintain distinct brands and operating structures. Currently, Walmart India operates 21 Best Price cash-and-carry stores and one fulfillment center in 19 cities across nine states in India, with more than 95 per cent of sourcing coming from India, aiding suppliers, creating skilled jobs and contributing to local economies across the country. Krish Iyer, President and CEO of Walmart India, will continue to lead that part of the business.

Walmarts investment includes $2 billion of new equity funding, which will help Flipkart accelerate growth in the future. Walmart and Flipkart are also in discussions with additional potential investors who may join the round, which could result in Walmarts investment stake moving lower after the transaction is complete. Even so, the company would retain clear majority ownership. Tencent and Tiger Global will continue on the Flipkart board, joined by new members from Walmart.

Read the full statement issued by Walmart here.

Industry Reactions

Satish Meena, Senior Forecast Analyst with Forrester:

What the deal means for Walmart: Walmart has been looking to get into the Indian retail market for more than 15 years, but the regulation of not allowing FDI into multi-brand retail has made it impossible for Walmart to access the Indian market. Walmart tried to enter via a wholesale model with Bharti in India, but failed. Now they see online as the only method to enter the Indian market, which leaves Flipkart as the best investment option for Walmart.

What the deal means for Flipkart: For Flipkart, this deal is more than just money. If they are looking to raise more funds they already have Softbank as a backer. However, to remain the number one player in India (Amazon coming a close second in just 4 years in India), they are looking to expand beyond smartphones and fashion. This deal with Walmart can provide Flipkart the expertise of running offline stores, access to sellers and manufacturers, supply chain and the know-how to get into the grocery segment. Amazon has been selling grocery in India for the past one year while Flipkart has not rolled out this category. With Amazon closing the gap in categories other than fashion, Flipkart needs Walmart to remain competitive in the long term.

What the deal means for the Indian eCommerce market: According to Forrester Data, the Indian online retail market is around ~$20 billion in 2017 (2.4% of total retail market in India), which is still relatively small when you compare it to the penetration in other mature markets. The upside is big for both Amazon and Flipkart in the next two decades. No other market except China and US can compete in terms of total retail opportunity. We expect the online retail market in India to reach $73 billion by 2022 from $20 billion in 2017.

To reach the next 100 million buyers, both Amazon and Flipkart will have to invest billions of dollars in warehousing, last mile delivery, and ensure that they provide quality products at low prices. This is a time-consuming process and both these companies need patient capital to capture the online retail opportunity. For customers, the entry of Walmart is good news as they will get the best deal through competition between these companies.

N Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research, (Publishers of The Brand Trust Report):

The Walmart-Flipkart deal is a disrupter in online retail industry in India. Walmarts partnership and investment in Chinese online store, JD.com, is the model that they will probably replicating in India as well. The Walmart-JD.com partnership in China has turned the applecart for Amazon in the country and this new partnership has the potential to do the same in India.

The partnership of the two giants, Walmart and Flipkart, will provide a new model by creating a mixed on-ground-online ecosystem difficult to replicate easily. Not only will Flipkart get access to nearly 2,000 of Walmarts products exclusively, but Walmart will also get the well-established e-tailing delivery system that Flipkart has sharpened over the years, giving it logistics support throughout India.

We are also likely to see another disruption that comes with the Walmart-Flipkart partnership. Due to Walmarts strong base in grocery, this entity is also likely to go very aggressive on selling grocery products online very soon, and apart from giving Amazon a run for their money in this area, online grocery retailers like Bigbasket, Grofers are likely face the brunt of it.

Also, the combination of the duo will help enhance the brand trust in e-tailing with the consumer, with counterfeits becoming common in all types online purchases thus far. All-in-all, consumers will certainly benefit in convenience, quality, variety, due to such large players entering the Indian online-retail turf.

Sanjay Sethi, Co-founder & CEO, ShopClues:

The Flipkart team has done an awesome job in bringing the worlds largest retailer to India. This is also a great endorsement of the large opportunity that Indian market presents as well as the mettle of the Indian entrepreneur. It also proves that there is a lot of money to be made in the Indian start-up ecosystem.

Shrenik Gandhi, Co-Founder and CEO, White Rivers Media.

"This move in the e-commerce industry is a very positive and welcoming move. It is a win-win situation for everyone - customers, company and the entire ecosystem. The biggest advantage of consolidation is synergy! When one of India's largest homegrown e-commerce players merges

with one of the giants of international retail, the synergy is something worth looking forward to. Also on a global level while Amazon went into the offline space with the acquisition of Whole Foods, Walmart acquired Jet.com and now Flipkart to strengthen its online presence. This signifies that these two giants will deliver lucrative and most compatible solutions for end customers in retail, thus benefiting the entire ecosystem."

Mr. Ameen Khwaja, Founder & CEO, LatestOne.com

"Walmart -Flipkart deal is a positive development for the Indian e-commerce industry. Apart from being the biggest M&A the country has witnessed in years, it brings with it two distinct advantages. Firstly, Indian online consumers stand to benefit tremendously. With Walmart comes its way of doing business: offering the best prices in market.

Secondly, a retail company of such size will bring in its best practices  be it vendor management or logistics and supply chain management  which would definitely help build a more robust infrastructure for ecommerce sector as a whole. LatestOne.com, which now happens to be the only Indian-owned e-commerce player in the country, stands to benefit immensely by this development. Expect to see faster growth in near future. Its a shot in the arm for the sector which has seen quite a few blips recently".

Indian Retail Industry

As representatives of the entire retail industry, it is RAIs policy to not comment on any deals between individual companies. Having said that, we would like to affirm our support to both online and offline channels of retail as well as Indian and International retail. We believe that some e-commerce companies in India have not been adhering to the guidelines issued under the Press Note 3 of the FDI Policy for marketplaces. These companies have been directly or indirectly participating in pricing and discounting, which is against the policy that seeks to create a level playing field. We hope that while the government takes positive steps promote retail, it also takes strong steps to ensure adherence to FDI policy.White Rivers Media, Indias fastest growing digital marketing agency has recently wrapped up its digital amplification activity for Viviana Mall, called #StopAcidSale.

The month-long campaign was a part of the third edition of malls property - Extraordinaari, which promotes women empowerment by recognizance and honouring the trailblazers who are encouraging their fellow women to scale newer heights. The idea behind this activity was to establish thought leadership among its competitors along with creating awareness against the sale of acid and curb the same.

To highlight the same, the mall hosted a fashion show with acid attack survivors and giving them a platform to share their story.

A two-pronged approach was devised to maximise the sole goal of the campaign -

Increase awareness about acid attacks, what causes them, and how to curb them

Gather support for the admirable spirit of the acid attack survivors who walked the ramp.

The entire activity was promoted massively on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Facebook Stories was used extensively to convey the message. On Instagram too, the Insta-story feature was used with boomerangs, rewind, handsfree and a host of other story formats to create maximum reach. The mall reached out to global body positive brands on Twitter to bring the initiative to light.

On Twitter, the hashtag #TweetASalute was used, which saw participation from more than 300 Twitter influencers, including NGOs and celebrities. Viviana Mall reached out to multiple international malls and urged them to join the movement. This, too, was supported by influencers. The campaign also saw support from ace music producer Sulaiman Merchant and actress Preeti Jhangiani.

This campaign sparked thousands of conversations on social media about vitriolage and why the Government should stop acid attacks. People all across geographies started talking about this campaign.

The entire concept was later taken a notch ahead, in association with Bombay Times Fashion Week, where the acid attack survivors walked the ramp at the Bombay edition of the Times Fashion Week.

Speaking on the same, Shrenik Gandhi, CEO and Co-Founder, White Rivers Media, said, We have been associated with Viviana Mall for the past 4 years and with every campaign we strive to provide them better. With this activity we aimed to take a step forward with Extraordinaari and we are glad we got such a positive response and support from digital influencers.

Speaking on the same, Rima Pradhan, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Viviana Malls said, There are 250 to 300 acid attacks reported in India every year, despite laws restricting the sale of acid or other deadly chemicals. Acid is still sold openly in some parts of India in spite of there being various substitutes for it. We wanted to curb the sales of acids in India and are grateful to White Rivers Media for their support in the same.

The entire activity potentially reached out to more than 2million+ people on Facebook and Instagram and created impressions of more than 10 million on Twitter.IKEA, the Swedish home furnishings company, today announced a contest in which the winners will experience behind-the-scenes of its first TV commercial to be shot in Bangkok. IKEA is ready to launch its first store in India in Hyderabad soon to be followed by Mumbai in 2019. The contest is open till May 10, 2018 for IKEA Family members (loyalty program of IKEA) in Hyderabad and Mumbai. Two members who get the maximum number of people from Mumbai and Hyderabad to join IKEA Family between 3-10 May, will be chosen winners. The three-day trip to Bangkok will include behind-the-scenes on the sets of IKEA Indias first ever TV commercial where winners will also meet IKEAs interior designers, a day of sight-seeing with family and a visit to the IKEA store in Bangkok to experience IKEA solutions even before the store opens in India.

The IKEA Family members have been eagerly waiting for the store launch. During our interactions with them, they spoke of their enthusiasm to get a feel and touch of the IKEA experience beyond the Hej Home, our experience centre in Hyderabad. We thought the contest was great way to give this feel and touch experience, said Neha Jindal, Country IKEA Loyalty Manager, IKEA India.

MRM McCann is the agency behind the contest while Dentsu is the creative agency behind the commercial.

https://events.ikea.in/referra l/contestlandingAmerican taxpayers have spent more than $1.5 billion on Israels Iron Dome missile defense system since 2011. Now Congress thinks its high time the technology benefits the United States.

The House Armed Services Committee voted 60-1 Wednesday to advance an annual defense bill that authorizes $30 million for the US Army to acquire Iron Dome hardware and test its interoperability with existing US missile defense systems for the first time. Congress has allocated $92 million in funding for Israels Iron Dome system this year, up from $62 million in 2017.

US tax dollars have funded and really helped build these systems that are very effective in Israel and show an effectiveness, Riki Ellison, the chairman of the nonprofit Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, told Al-Monitor. Reaping some of those benefits of those systems into our systems seems to be a logical thing.

The bill comes as the US Army is concerned that deficiencies in its short-range air defense capabilities could hinder military operations in Europe, particularly as tensions with Russia continue to mount. Iron Dome, which was first developed to defend against Palestinian rocket attacks, can defend an area of nearly 60 square miles.

Immersion of the system now is needed because theres a gap of air defense for our army, said Ellison. Iron Dome is a developed system that can supplement the gap we have to fill right now, especially in Europe and to some extent possibly the Pacific.

The United States first tested the Iron Dome on US soil in 2016 and again in 2017. The Pentagon also has some experience trying to integrate Iron Dome with US systems, using it in coordination with the US-made Patriot missile battery in a February exercise inside Israel.

Israel has said that should the United States select the system to fill its short-range air defense gap, Raytheon would become the primary contractor, with the Israeli defense firm Rafael serving as a subcontractor. Israel has deployed two Iron Dome battalions with 10 batteries.

This cooperation improves Israels ability to defend its citizens and the US Armys recent tests of Iron Dome [are] a clear indication that our own forces can benefit from this battle-proven technology, Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., said earlier this year.

Roskam previously teamed up with Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., in March on a letter asking the House panel overseeing defense appropriations to study an Army acquisition of the Iron Dome.

We also envision the possibility of utilizing US-Israeli missile defense systems beyond the Middle East, they wrote. Today, our forces face challenges from an emboldened, aggressive and increasingly militarized Russia, North Korea and other adversaries heightening our immediate need for advanced missile defense systems to protect our forward-based forces and key fixed installations.

In their letter, Roskam and Engel pointed out that the US Army has full data rights and a coproduction agreement.

Adoption by the Army of Iron Dome," they wrote, could provide an important near-term capability to US forces as well as a surge production capacity if we or Israel required the system in a time of crisis.

However, Elilison noted that it could take up to two years of testing to make the system compatible with the existing US air and missile defense architecture. And it remains to be seen whether the Iron Dome is capable of taking out cruise missiles.

The bill requires the Armys director for the air and missile defense cross-functional team to brief Congress on the Armys plans for this experiment and demonstration by April 2019.GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  The Ministry of Interior and National Security in the Gaza Strip revealed the identity of a man suspected of being behind the attempted assassination of Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in an April 28 press conference.

The ministry accused senior figures of the General Intelligence Service in Ramallah of being behind the bombing of Hamdallahs convoy after entering the Gaza Strip on March 13. The same people were behind the attempt to assassinate Maj. Gen. Tawfiq Abu Naim, the ministry said.

Abu Naim is the head of the Palestinian Internal Security Forces in Gaza. He survived an assassination attempt after a bomb placed under his car exploded Oct. 27, 2017. Back then, the Hamas leadership blamed Israel for the attack.

The government-owned news outlet Al-Rai reported April 28 that the ministry noted, Those behind both assassination attempts have played a role in previous acts of sabotage in the Gaza Strip and Sinai under the cover of extremist groups, adding that they were planning to target international figures visiting the Gaza Strip  including the Egyptian security delegation that visited April 14 for meetings on the efforts to implement the Palestinian reconciliation understandings.

Hamas said at a press conference of its own April 28, A group in the Ramallah intelligence service wanted to put an end to reconciliation.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the security services in the West Bank, Maj. Gen. Adnan Al-Damiri, wrote in a Facebook post, Hamas is trying to absolve itself of responsibility for bombing the prime minister's convoy.

The Ministry of Interiors press statements came about a month after security services in Gaza announced March 21 that the main suspect in the convoy bombing is Anas Abu Khousa, without naming any organization suspected of being behind it.

Some Palestinian parties believe that the timing of the press conference is linked to the growing dispute between President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas in Gaza and the failure to achieve Palestinian reconciliation. Hamas thus revealed all the circumstances of the assassination attempt in what appears to be a way to pressure Abbas.

The press conference was held only two days after the Palestinian National Council (PNC) convened in Ramallah April 30. Abbas insisted on holding it as scheduled despite opposition by a majority of factions, particularly from Hamas.

Osama Qawasmi, a member of Fatahs Revolutionary Council, said in a press statement April 29, The misleading conference held by the Ministry of Interior in Gaza aims to disrupt the PNC and undermine the relationship with Egypt.

Hamas refused to participate in the PNC because it was held in the absence of a Palestinian national consensus, according to Ismail Haniya, head of Hamas political bureau, April 30.

Thus, some observers believe that Hamas' press conference was a last-ditch effort to discourage Abbas from holding the meeting and to pressure him to postpone it until all Palestinian factions agree to hold it.

Osama Abu Nahl, a professor of modern and contemporary history at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, The press conference came at a very important time  too close to the PNC meeting in Ramallah  and this aims to undermine the PNCs legitimacy. He continued, Hamas has provided the evidence it had. President Abbas could have presented the proof he says he has about Hamas involvement in the bombing of Hamdallahs convoy during his speech at the PNC meeting, but he did not.

Abu Nahl added, I believe this was intentional by President Abbas, and it indicates that there may be some sort of recognition on his part of being involved in the convoy bombing.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Fatah spokesman Atef Abu Seif, however, rejected that idea. He stated, The truth is yet to be revealed. The press conference in Gaza has meant nothing to us but Hamas' ongoing denial of what really happened.

Samih Hamouda, head of the political department at Birzeit University in the West Bank, also told Al-Monitor that the timing of the press conference was linked to the PNC meeting, calling it part of the conflict between Fatah and Hamas, and noting, The division has become a chronic condition.

Security analyst Rami Abu Zubaydah believes that the Ministry of Interiors conference was convened after Hamas failed to prevent the bombing of Hamdallahs convoy through coordination with the Egyptian intelligence service and return to the reconciliation in accordance with the signed agreements.

Abu Zubaydah told Al-Monitor, I believe the Egyptian intelligence was aware of the information revealed during the conference and might have even given the green light to make it public knowledge, especially since Fatah and President Abbas are unwavering when it comes to reconciliation. He added, This is a sign of good coordination between the Egyptian intelligence and Hamas, which was the product of long talks and meetings in Egypt and Gaza.

Abu Zubaydah explained that the information provided by the Ministry of Interior in Gaza regarding the bombing of Hamdallahs convoy indicates that we are as far away from reconciliation as possible. Thus, he believes that Hamas has only one choice in Gaza, and that is to support the marches of return in order to create pressure against the blockade.

Yet, Abu Nahl noted, The Palestinian Authority wants to push Hamas into being the one to separate the Gaza Strip [from the West Bank], and this does not bode well for the movement since there would be a political price to pay.  But is Hamas willing to pay the price?

Meanwhile, the Palestinians are waiting for May 15 to arrive, the day various Palestinian factions plan to organize a comprehensive national strike coinciding with the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.President Donald Trump could soon face the first public test of his nuclear deal gambit as Iran weighs a formal complaint against the United States for violating the agreement.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif indicated last month that Iran may seek redress before the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions Joint Commission if the United States pulled out of the deal. The panel has no authority over US sanctions policy, but it could draw Iran and the remaining parties closer together  and isolate the United States.

I expect them to do something within the structure of the Joint Commission, Jarrett Blanc, who coordinated oversight of the deal for President Barack Obamas State Department, told Al-Monitor. Iran senses here both risk and opportunity. The opportunity is that for the first time in decades, the US doesnt have the initiative. And Iran can try  its going to be difficult  but they can try to cement the wedge that the US has driven between ourselves and our closest allies.

Zarif laid out the case for a JCPOA complaint in an interview last month with The New Yorkers Robin Wright. Iran, he told her, could respond to a US withdrawal by resuming uranium enrichment or even pulling out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or it could file a complaint with the JCPOA panel, its 12th since the deal went into effect.

The objective of the process is to bring the United States into compliance, Zarif said at the time. If they want to kill the deal, they have that option, but they have to face the consequences. Its dangerous to be arrogant, very dangerous.

By going through the JCPOA, Blanc said, Zarif and his boss, President Hassan Rouhani, would be creating an opening domestically to try to cement the deals gains with its remaining parties. Zarif and Rouhani's strategy of engagement with the West is in deep trouble, with hard-liners burning a copy of the nuclear agreement on the floor of parliament this morning to chants of Death to America.

If Rouhani and Zarif want to give this a try, then they need to buy some time, Blanc said. And I think one way would be to say, Look, the deal has got a mechanism and were working through that mechanism. It gives them time to conduct a negotiation.

A lot of this does have to do with legitimacy and illegitimacy, he added. And so the sense that the US is the one thats isolated here when normally its Iran that feels isolated, I think that potentially could be helpful [for Rouhani].

Despite the internal pressure to pull out of the crippled deal, the Iranian president so far is standing by the agreement while engaging in emergency diplomacy with the remaining parties.

I have ordered the Foreign Ministry to negotiate with the European countries, China and Russia in coming weeks," Rouhani said Monday. "If at the end of this short period we conclude that we can fully benefit from the JCPOA with the cooperation of all countries, the deal would remain."

The Europeans so far have been receptive to having that conversation with Tehran even as the United States pulls out.

Our governments remain committed to ensuring the agreement is upheld, and will work with all the remaining parties to the deal to ensure this remains the case including through ensuring the continuing economic benefits to the Iranian people that are linked to the agreement, the leaders of France, Germany and Britain said in a joint statement Tuesday. We urge the US to ensure that the structures of the JCPOA can remain intact, and to avoid taking action which obstructs its full implementation by all other parties to the deal.

US negotiators, meanwhile, appear to have been caught flat-footed by Trumps abrupt decision to pull out of the deal, four days before a self-imposed May 12 deadline. With Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the air on his way to nuclear talks in North Korea, lower-level diplomats were left to frantically push back Tuesday against reporters skeptical that the administration had any idea what to do next after talks with the Europeans failed to reach an outcome that pleased Trump.

We did not talk about a Plan B in our discussions because we were focused on negotiating a supplemental agreement, a State Department official acknowledged in a testy background briefing with reporters. So we did not  we did not talk about Plan B.

That has left an opening for Iran to try to draw concessions out of the Europeans through the JCPOA.

While the United States does very little business with Iran, the country is particularly vulnerable to Americas so-called secondary sanctions against third parties. By getting the remaining JCPOA parties to formally commit to the deal, Iran could help solidify an emerging resistance against US sanctions targeting countries that choose to uphold their end of the agreement.

If the Europeans were going to push back against US secondary sanctions, they would need to take a mix of political and practical economic and finance steps, Blanc said. Does saying something in the Joint Commission, does that make it more meaningful to the private sector? No. They would still need to figure out those actual technical things they need to do. But its part of the mix. Politics is part of it.

And when push comes to shove, he predicted Europe would side with Iran.

I dont think theres any question that all of the parties of the JCPOA would side with them that the US is in violation, he said, when the US admits to being in violation.Iraqis are heading out to the polls this week, and the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said it is making sure everyone who is eligible to vote will have the opportunity. At the same time, IHEC says a new electronic, fingerprint-based voting system will keep out everyone who's not eligible.

IHEC is opening polling stations on May 10-11 for Iraqis living outside the country and on May 12 for the 24 million potential voters inside Iraq. Officials have no estimate of how many Iraqis outside the country are expected to participate. The legislative election will be Iraq's first since the Islamic State (IS) invaded in 2014. Baghdad has declared victory over IS, but more than 1 million Iraqis remain displaced in Iraqi camps.

In the elections, almost 7,000 candidates are competing in Iraq's 19 provinces for 329 parliamentary seats. Some candidates launched their campaigning before April 10, which IHEC chairman Maan al-Hitawi told Al-Monitor violated the electoral rules.

Several complaints have been made so far to the IHEC regarding electoral rules violations. In March, all Iraqi political parties signed a UN Electoral Charter of Honor regarding campaigning. The political blocs signed the charter," Hitawi said, "but alas, they didn't abide by it.

Electoral rules violations aren't surprising in countries such as Iraq, with no long history of democracy and elections. Most of Iraq's political parties have presented no plans for how to improve the government, so they sometimes violate election rules, trying to gain an advantage over their rivals. Baghdad municipal officials noted several instances of parties hanging posters and banners where such signage isn't allowed.

When such violations occur, offenders receive a warning. If they don't remedy the situation within three days, they are fined 2 million dinars (about $1,700). Fines increase for repeat offenses. If they violate the rules a fourth time, they will be excluded from the elections. So far, we have fined 100 candidates, but none were excluded, Hitawi said.

Several prominent Sunni and Shiite figures, such as Atheel al-Nujaifi (Sunni) and Muqtada al-Sadr (Shiite), expressed concerns about the potential for more serious offenses such as vote-buying or misuse of voter ID cards. Some activists are even saying they expect massive fraud. But Hitawi said claims about rigged elections are baseless. Our role in the IHEC is to get rid of any concerns, doubts or rumors about fraud. We have introduced technology to preserve the integrity of elections and reassure everyone that rigging them is impossible, Hitawi said.

Our teams have monitored the process and called on anyone who has proof of votes being bought to present [it], but so far no one has filed a complaint or submitted any document proving that candidates are buying votes or voter [IDs], he added.

There was evidence that IS intended to interfere with elections. IS claimed responsibility for the killing of Farough al-Jobouri, a candidate from al-Watania Coalition, on May 7. Also, the Iraqi intelligence agency double-checked electoral data in Mosul after some refugees returned there. Hitawi said agents found IS affiliates listed in the records and ended up revoking 20,000 electoral [ID] cards."

Such diligence should allow elections in Mosul to proceed normally, the same as in other provinces, he said. There are 2.3 million citizens in Mosul eligible to vote.

Across the nation, Hitawi anticipates that 50% to 60% of eligible voters will participate in the election. That projection is similar to figures for the 2014 elections, when 60% participated. However, the battered economy in Iraq and widespread criticism of the government and parliament might affect that rate significantly. Activists have called for election boycotts because many would-be voters remain displaced. Also, some clerics have declared that just stepping into a polling station would be a sin, as voters' presence would help cover up corruption and vote-rigging.

So far, only 48% of the 24 million voters in Iraq have updated their ID cards as had been required, according to the head of IHEC. But to increase the voting rate, IHEC announced it will accept old cards as well, "because 24 million voter cards cannot be updated in a short time; it would take years, Hitawi said.

Among all Iraqi voters, 400,000 internally displaced persons are eligible to vote. Hitawi said IHEC is prepared and employees will have voting equipment ready in areas where the displaced are staying.

For the first time, Iraq is using an electronic voting system. IHEC paid $135 million for the Miru system from South Korea. There have been several complaints about this system, as some Iraqi figures claim that it's not trustworthy and the server can be hacked by foreign countries.

But Hitawi disagrees. Miru was selected from among nine international companies that submitted tenders. Miru met the conditions and specifications, and UN technology experts confirmed that Miru has what Iraq needs for a successful election process.

The Miru server is in Baghdad at IHEC headquarters. Hitawi believes the data is fully encrypted and protected. No hacker will be able to reach the carrier because they would need over 240 hours of continuous work to decrypt over 2,000 [programming] codes. They won't be able to do anything, especially since it takes the data only one hour to travel from earth stations and reach the carrier through satellites, which is not enough time for hackers to get in, Hitawi said.

There will be 56,000 polling stations. More than 250,000 mostly temporary IHEC employees will run the election. Hitawi is confident that the Miru system will prevent any human intervention or manipulation at polling stations.

The electronic devices will be counting and sorting at the polling stations without any human intervention, so forgery is impossible  and those who claim the elections are rigged only want to undermine the IHEC and are possibly driven by internal and external parties that have no interest in holding the elections, Hitawi said.

IHEC has sent more than 200 invitations to international organizations and foreign electoral bodies to come to Iraq and observe the elections, in addition to the embassies and international organizations operating in Iraq. Around 900 international observers have so far requested accreditation, Hitawi said. Also, IHEC has approved more than 200 journalists from outside of Iraq to cover the elections.

IHEC will announce the preliminary results within 48 hours, as it only needs 24 hours to receive all data from polling stations inside and outside of Iraq, according to Hitawi.Iraq is known as the home of one of the oldest forms of Islamic calligraphy, the Kufic script, which was named after the city of Kufa. Copies of the Quran dating to the eighth century were written in the Kufic script. Despite efforts to save the calligraphic heritage, it is fast disappearing.

In a move to introduce Islamic calligraphy to the younger generation, the Iraqi Cultural Center for Calligraphy and Decorative Arts in Anbar organized a festival April 8 that was attended by dozens of Iraqi artists.

This art form was chosen as the subject of the festival because it was a less daring choice in the post-Islamic State era. Even among conservatives, calligraphy, which was used in mosques and palaces to decorate them with Quranic verses, is seen as an art that is closely linked to the history of Arabs and Islam, and therefore more permissible than other art forms such as music or painting.

But despite the respect accorded to this form of decorative writing, calligraphic art is much neglected in Iraq, according to Iraqi calligrapher Aqbas Hussein al-Okabi.

Okabi is a member of the Iraqi Calligraphers Group, which was founded in the 1970s. This nongovernmental organization provides a network for calligraphers and organizes trainings and exhibitions. The organization does not receive governmental funding, and its headquarters in Baghdad was established in 2003 through the personal financing of its members.

Okabi told Al-Monitor, Calligraphic talents aren't given opportunities because there is no chance to support them. The letters of the Arabic language are at risk due to the inability of the younger generation to draw them right. He noted that calligraphy is not taught in art classes in schools.

He added, "Childrens handwriting is incredibly bad [these days], not to mention the rampant spelling mistakes.

Hussam al-Shalah, a calligrapher who has worked in the field for 40 years, told Al-Monitor that what distinguishes the Arabic letters from the letters of other languages is how they flow and relate to one another. This gives the words different forms and shapes, making the calligrapher a painter, he said.

Shalah noted that calligraphy, which had been a dominant form of art in Iraq and the Middle East, is gradually disappearing. There are no pioneers to revive this art. Even good and meticulous calligraphers are hard to find, he said.

Mohammad al-Shumari, an amateur calligrapher in his 40s, told Al-Monitor that few young people take up calligraphy, and when they do they rely on self-study. If a student wants to learn calligraphy in an institute or specialized center, he would not find it and would have to resort to self-study and visiting or corresponding with senior artists in the field, he said.

Shumari said that most calligraphers are self-taught and regard calligraphy as a hobby rather than a profession. One of the reasons behind the declining interest in calligraphy is that expos and art events are not turned into profitable projects that meet the calligraphers financial needs and help him focus on his art to develop it further, he added.

He suggested establishing at least one Arabic calligraphy institute in Baghdad.

Yet there is growing interest in the art of calligraphy outside Iraq. The Division of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Iowa welcomed Iraqi calligrapher Ghazi al-Mashaal April 16 for a lecture on calligraphy, Arabic letters and the history of the Arabic alphabet.

Iraqi calligraphers Liwaa al-Samirai and Hakem Ghannam participated with hundreds of calligraphy artists in the Dubai International Calligraphy Exhibition April 16.

Chabib al-Medhati, an artist who works at the Iraq National Library and Archives in Baghdad, told Al-Monitor that the Iraqi Calligraphy Center of the country's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage organized an expo to celebrate Arabic Manuscripts Day on April 4, which brought together many artists.

The expo is important because it brought back our attention to calligraphy, which is a great legacy immortalizing the Arabic handwriting and Islamic decorative arts, he said. Iraqis have a great responsibility to protect the art of handwriting. Baghdad is a pioneer in calligraphy and has known major calligraphers throughout history such as Ibn Muqla, Ibn al-Bawwab, Hashim Mohammed al-Baghdadi and Mohammed Said al-Sakkar.

Calligraphy artist Eadan al-Shumari, who has 50 years of experience in the field, complained to Al-Monitor about the digital techniques and use of computers that have harmed the art of handwriting. "Systems that honor Arabic calligraphy are required to keep the practice alive in schools and universities, he said.

He noted that the faculty of arts at the University of Babylon has been working in this direction by teaching the technique of calligraphy to second- and third-year students. He expressed hope that the faculty would establish a department for calligraphy in the future.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was determined that the world would know Iran had violated its 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers, but he was stingy with the truth. In his recent news conference, Netanyahu addressed Iranian positions from before the agreement was signed and did not supply proof that Tehran had not fulfilled the terms of the deal. Nonetheless, if US President Donald Trump is to be believed, the warmed-over leftovers Netanyahu fed him removed any doubts he might have had about the need to pull out of the deal. And most Israelis are cheering their leader.

Netanyahu is determined for the people of the world to know that Jerusalem is Israels eternal capital, and most importantly for the Israeli people to know which Israeli leader made the worlds biggest superpower move its embassy there in recognition of that fact. That effort, too, has gone well for him. On May 14, Netanyahu will celebrate the inauguration of the US Embassy in Jerusalem. Most Israelis will join him. According to the Peace Index compiled by the Evens Program in Mediation and Conflict Resolution at Tel Aviv University and the Israel Democracy Institute, 68% of Jewish Israelis regard the move of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as a positive step for Israels interests, although the Palestinians view it as a severe blow.

Netanyahu is determined to eliminate the term occupied territories. Here, too, he can take credit for a major victory: Last month's annual State Department report on human rights around the world replaced occupied territories with Israel, the Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza. If theres no occupation, Israel can do whatever it wants in these territories, including theft of Palestinian lands, abuse of its residents and even deportation. If there is no occupation, Palestinians can be uprooted to make way for Jewish settlements, the 1993 Oslo Accord can be erased from the history books and such trivialities as international law can be ignored. After all, when Trump announced the US withdrawal from the Iranian agreement, he was showing the world that international pacts signed by his country are at best a recommendation.

The Peace Index indicates that Netanyahu need not concern himself with public pressure on the Palestinian issue, as 67% of the Jewish Israelis surveyed do not feel that Israel should relax its curbs on the Gaza Strip given the dire economic situation of its 2 million Palestinian residents. A sweeping majority of those polled, 83%, support Israels policy of using live fire to disperse Palestinian protesters along the Gaza border fence. Most Israelis dont want to know what their government is doing in their name in the Jordan Valley, which makes up a third of the West Bank territory. They slept peacefully in the pre-dawn hours of May 8 while Israeli forces raided the village of Khirbet Humsa in the northern Jordan Valley and evicted five Palestinian families from their tent homes. This was the third such eviction within two weeks in order to carry out military drills in the area, and among the 29 residents were 19 minors, including a baby and a child with Down syndrome.

The BTselem human rights organization claims the endless military exercises in the northern Jordan Valley reflect a decadeslong policy of making life miserable for members of the Palestinian communities to drive them out. The Israeli authorities destroy infrastructure facilities funded by European states such as wells and solar panels, confiscate water tanks and cut water pipes. At the same time, in conjunction with the Israel National Fund, the militarys Civil Administration is planning a surge of Jewish settlement in the Jordan Valley. Last December, the Ministry of Housing announced that 10,000 new inhabitants would move into the region, doubling its population. The plan, which has been allocated 35 million shekels ($9.75 million) in taxpayer money, would put an end to the two-state solution. Netanyahu does not want the world to know it.

Israelis are obviously not at liberty to dwell on Palestinian suffering when they are repeatedly told that Iran plans to throw a nuclear bomb at them. When Iranian shelling from Syria sends residents of the Golan Heights into shelters, who cares if the Israeli army orders hundreds of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley to vacate their lands and make way for Jewish settlers? The Breaking the Silence organization? Rest easy, radical right-wing hotheads are breaking their bones. The New Israel Fund? Netanyahus buddies  the extreme-right Im Tirzu organization  are taking care of them. How about non-Israeli proponents of human rights? Interior Minister Aryeh Deri detains and deports them. In the latest such move, Deri ordered the expulsion of a Human Rights Watch representative over his alleged support for the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement.

Another recent deportation target was Columbia University law professor Katherine Franke, faculty director of the Public Rights/Private Conscience Project. Israeli authorities detained Franke upon her April 29 arrival at Ben-Gurion Airport and deported her. In a written interview with Al-Monitor, Franke rejected Israeli claims that she was active in anti-Israel BDS efforts. Her visit, she explained, was designed to prepare a fact-finding mission by American human rights groups and to examine possible cooperation between several Palestinian law schools in the West Bank and Columbia University on a joint human rights masters program. A government cannot claim to be democratic in nature when it punishes its critics, whether by denying them entry to work collaboratively with Israeli and Palestinian NGOs and academics, when it revokes the residency status of Palestinians who are insufficiently loyal to Israel as a Jewish state or when it deports human rights advocates, Franke wrote.

It appears that when a person like Trump, who is willing to separate children from their immigrant parents, leads Frankes country, Israel can also deport children from their land and at the same time portray itself as the only democracy in the Middle East. Indeed, Netanyahu is capable of selling Trump anything. And so, when the president elected by Frankes people is willing to buy a used Iranian archive from Netanyahu, millions of people can be kept under occupation but the term occupation must be relegated to the State Departments archives.

The question is how Europes leaders will deal with Trumps Israeli friend. Netanyahu cannot sell them a bill of goods about Iranian violations of its nuclear agreement. They are still allowed to help human rights organizations operating in the occupied territories and to get reports from them about everything that Netanyahu doesnt want the world to know.As the theater lights dim, a voice bellows out to the audience, We have been taught in life to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel. But if you see any light at the end of this tunnel, pull the trigger.

This is the opening line of In the Tunnel, an insightful satire about the Arab-Israeli conflict whose impact has become even stronger since the surge in violence in the Gaza Strip since the end of March. Directed by Irad Rubenstein, this political play by Tel Avivs Gesher Theater has performed to a full house for over a year. The play is scheduled to travel abroad, mainly to the United States, later this year.

"I hope we irritate everyone, left and right," Rubenstein said. "Because then it will force the audience to really think about what we are doing in this conflict, and especially in Gaza."

The reference to the tunnel is both literal and figurative. The play, written by Roee Chen, takes place in a tunnel, representing a Hamas tunnel dug under the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip in order to enable its militants to penetrate into Israel. These tunnels have become a focal point in the violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. As a deliberate unsubtle metaphor, the tunnel offers an in-your-face, frightening, depressing and comical view of the absurdity of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The jokes are rapid and often macabre.

The metaphor is played up even before the play begins. Along with the plays program, each member of the audience is handed a ballot and asked to vote: Will there be any light at the end of the tunnel? The actors act out what the majority decides on.

A group of high school seniors majoring in theater arts at a school outside Tel Aviv were noisily casting their ballots during a performance in mid-April.

I brought my students to see this play for many reasons, said Moriah, the teacher in charge, who asked that neither she nor her students be identified with their full names. I brought them here because as theater students they should see this play  its brilliantly staged. I also took them because next year they will be going into the army. This is the reality that they will face  many of them will be posted on the Gaza border. There may be another war in Gaza in the future. The tunnels are real. I want them to think, to be challenged  as theater students, as future soldiers, as citizens.

Bar said, Im a bit anxious about seeing this play. In July Im going into the army, joining a combat unit. I can vote at this play; I voted that there will not be light at the end of the tunnel, because I dont think there will ever be an end to this conflict.

In the Tunnel is an immersive experience, with strong lighting, realistic sounds of gunfire and constant action. The stage has two levels: The upper stage is designed as a TV studio where a popular, inane morning show with a ditzy star broadcasts yoga and health food segments. The lower stage is a cross section of a tunnel that runs from Gaza to Israel. Hisham, a Hamas militant; Tzlil, a young Israeli conscript; and Yiftah, a jaded, 40-year-old Israeli reservist commander who just wants to get home in time for his daughters bat mitzvah, are fighting it out. Yiftah is wounded and is lying on a mine that, if he moves, will kill them all. The tunnel is blocked on both sides.

As the news of the attack spreads, the yoga studio is hastily converted into a TV news room, where clueless senior military officials, puffed-up Israeli and Palestinian politicians and a hapless United Nations peacekeeper offer useless, empty cliches and care more about their photo ops than they do about the men trapped in the tunnel. Below, Hisham, Tzlil and Yiftah must find a way to coexist as they munch on the grape leaves Hisham's mother has made, then share a few joints and become delightfully stoned.

At this performance, the crowd voted that there would be no light at the end of the tunnel.

I feel shellshocked, said Bar as he left the theater. I laughed a lot  some of the scenes are really, really funny. But its an awful kind of funny.

He hesitated and added, Since I was little, I have wanted to be a combat soldier. The danger in the tunnel doesnt scare me as much as the leaders. I am going to risk my life because the leaders dont care about us, the soldiers, the people. Thats crazy.

Standing next to him, his friend shook his head. I voted for the light," Tali told Al-Monitor. "But even before I saw the play, I had been thinking about conscientious objection. If these guys in the tunnel can get along, then why do we need to fight?

Moriah listened carefully to what her students said. This is why I brought them here. It is important that they think for themselves, that they challenge their assumptions. This is what good theater should do," she noted.

In response to the question if she is not concerned about demoralizing the students just before their army duty, she said, Going into the army is compulsory. But no one can tell you what to think about that.

Rubenstein told Al-Monitor that many high school groups attend the play. 'In the Tunnel is political theater, but its not didactic and we dont take a particular political stand. My goal is to make the audience think about the situation and the decisions that the politicians  and we  make, he said.

Minister of Culture Miri Regev has threatened to cut funding for plays and theater groups that present, in her opinion, anti-Zionist or anti-Israeli messages.

Rubenstein said he is not concerned. This play is stronger than the politicians, he noted. Performances are sold out. The Israeli public wants to be challenged and will not accept the superficiality that politicians like Regev want to force on them.

He also insisted that In the Tunnel is a patriotic play. I served in the military. As an Israeli citizen, it is my duty to do reserve duty. As a proud Israeli, it is also my duty to raise these issues. As an artist, it is my duty to create good drama, he concluded.As reactions to the United States decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal continue to reverberate globally, NATO member Turkey has made its displeasure clear. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani that Washingtons move was wrong. In a telephone conversation held Thursday, the two leaders reportedly discussed the potential effects of the deal and Erdogan said he favored the preservation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that was signed in 2015 between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany. According to Turkeys state-run Anadolu news agency, the pair also focused on improving bilateral economic ties.

Airing Ankaras worries, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin declared, The unilateral US decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement will lead to new conflicts and instability. He added, We do not wish the Iranian people to be negatively affected by these sanctions and we wont hesitate to do our part if were to do something about them.

Iran is among Turkeys top suppliers of oil and natural gas and a vital land bridge for Turkish truckers carrying goods to Central Asia. They are unable to access the region via neighboring Armenia, a far shorter route, because of Ankaras refusal to open its borders with the former Soviet republic out of solidarity with Armenias top enemy Azerbaijan. The longtime regional rivals share a porous mountainous border and a common fear of Kurdish separatists active on both sides. The fear of Kurdish gains overseen by US forces in northern Syria has propelled Iran and Turkey into shelving their differences over the Syrian regime and their respective claims of leading Shiite and Sunni Muslims and forming an alliance with Russia.

The timing of the US withdrawal will have shifted Turkish conspiracy thinking into even higher gear.

The decision comes as a federal court in Manhattan prepares to sentence Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a Turkish banker accused of involvement in a Byzantine scheme that saw Turkeys state-owned Halkbank allegedly conspiring with now jailed Iranian-Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab to launder hundreds of millions of dollars through the US financial system on behalf of Iran. Erdogan and assorted Turkish officials have long charged that the case is part of a global plot to undermine Turkey. Meanwhile, Turkish businessmen nervously await the scale of an expected fine to be levied on Halkbank by the US Treasury and its likely effects on Turkeys wobbly finances.

Karabekir Akkoyunlu, a scholar of Turkish-Iranian relations, agrees that the US withdrawal from the JCPOA coupled with escalating tensions between the United States, Israel and Iran could have a big impact. On the economic front, rising oil and gas prices would put an immediate strain on Turkeys troubled economy, while the specter of renewed US sanctions would constrain Turkish trade with Iran, he told Al-Monitor. In the wake of the Zarrab case Im not sure the Turkish government would find the guts and space to circumvent US sanctions this time, especially given the ideological zeal that drives Trumps new national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Some analysts believe the US withdrawal offers Turkey opportunities. Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners, a business consultancy, told Al-Monitor, Turkeys coin has suddenly appreciated, because without our contribution, exerting meaningful or economic pressure on Iran is very difficult.  Washington will offer Turkey new incentives to lure it away from the Russia-Iran axis. Yesilada argued that with US-Iranian tensions compounded by rising friction with Russia, Turkey is simply too valuable to lose for the West. But much will hinge on Turkeys strategic skills in navigating the new environment.

Akkoyunlu concurs that if Turkey plays its cards well and eases itself into a pragmatic mediation role it can turn the crisis to its advantage and repair its tarnished international image. But it's unclear whether Ankara can be so dexterous. Until Washington scales back its support for the Syrian Kurds, relations can hardly improve. If anything, with Congress threatening a panoply of sanctions for Turkeys continued detention of North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson and a deal to purchase Russian S-400 missile systems, they are set to get even worse. Turkey will more likely attempt to cooperate with Iran to invent [new] ways to sidestep soon to be imposed [US] sanctions," Yesilada said.

Mustafa Gurbuz, a nonresident fellow at the Arab Center, a Washington-based think tank, argued that one of the main reasons is that like the Tehran regime, counterbalancing Western influence in the Middle East is one of the priorities defining new Turkish policy under Erdogan. Gurbuz told Al-Monitor, Despite increasing tensions between Turkey and Iran during the early years of the Syrian civil war, the geopolitical calculus in Ankara and Tehran has shifted back to perceiving each other as strategic allies. In the long run, however, The fluctuating nature of Kurdish politics in both Syria and Iraq will be a significant factor in shaping the course of Ankara-Tehran ties.

But if Erdogan emerges sufficiently stronger from the June 24 presidential elections he may decide to revive peace talks with Turkeys own Kurds. This, in turn, would ease pressure on their Syrian cousins and rekindle friendship with Washington at Tehrans expense. But for now, it's all a big if.

I am not too worried about Turkeys economic problems that are more manageable than Argentina's," said Yesilada. "I am worried about Ankaras failure to read the global strategy game and constantly shooting itself in the foot.Grocer ALDI is coming to Hoover's Stadium Trace Village development.

Village developer Broad Metro LLC has announced the addition of ALDI to the project at Alabama 150 and Interstate 459.

The $40 million, 44-acre development was announced last year, with a medical center, an organic grocery, restaurants, retail stores and hotels.

Developers say the Stadium Trace Village ALDI will be a new prototype for the company, with features designed to encourage walkability, foot traffic and a better connection with the surrounding village.

"Daily needs and essentials are key to our vision for Stadium Trace Village," Broad Metro Principal Will Kadish said in a statement. "I want to thank ALDI for working with our architects and engineers to create a design that will integrate into our project seamlessly and for developing a program for the Stadium Trace Village store that helps promote walkability and a strong connection with the surrounding Village."

Stadium Trace Village is scheduled to open later this year. Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said he is "looking forward to more good news in the days ahead."

"I am very excited about the announcements of the UAB Clinic and now ALDI," Brocato said. "The City's vision for Stadium Trace Village is to bring new assets and services to enhance the quality of life for our residents and to further grow our economy."If you want to innovate in business, where you live, what you look like, what your gender is, makes a difference.

AOL cofounder Steve Case told a gathering in Birmingham today that he's trying to change that.

Case was in town, with "Hillbilly Elegy" author JD Vance, as part of the "Rise of the Rest" bus tour. Earlier today, the two met members of Birmingham's startup community at Innovation Depot, and they spent the day hopscotching through the city, spotlighting attention on the city's entrepreneurial community.

At the Rise Tour's "Fireside Chat" at Sloss Furnaces, Case and Vance talked about where Birmingham fits into America's economic ecosystem. "Rise of the Rest" was created to spotlight startup communities between the coasts. The Magic City is the tour's 35th stop on its seventh tour.

Last year, Case and Vance announced a $150 million Rise of the Rest Seed Fund in support of emerging startup communities outside of the usual arenas of Silicon Valley, New York City and Boston.

As Case said, any startup needs venture capital to have any shot at success. Yet 75 percent of capital last year in the U.S. went to three states - New York, California and Massachusetts. California alone got 50 percent Alabama got about 1 percent.

That means, Case said, that California got the same amount of money every week that Alabama did for the whole year. Men get the overwhelming majority of capital, and it's harder for minority owned businesses to find investors.

Yet, Case said he found Birmingham a thriving, promising home to big ideas and big dreams.

"Birmingham exceeded our expectations," Case said.

Vance said one of the reasons he wrote "Hillbilly Elegy," the story of his Appalachian upbringing in Ohio, was to illustrate economic insecurity in different parts of the country.

Case said he finds that same anxiety among Americans who ponder a future with autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, and robots promising to take jobs. He compared it to the first economic disruption Birmingham faced, when historically thriving steel and manufacturing jobs left the city.

"I'm involved with, and looking for, companies that are disruptive in a positive way," Case said. "But most people in most parts of the country are anxious. They fear a different kind of disruption that will reduce jobs in their community."

The message of the tour, he said, was to remind people that startups with bold ideas and small beginnings can create new jobs and new opportunities. One of the reasons Birmingham was chosen was because of a supportive business climate, and its ranking as the number one city for millennial entrepreneurs.

Vance took up the same theme, saying fears of a "post-apocalyptic" wasteland wrought by a robotic workforce is "ridiculous."

"Human beings will have good jobs, as long as we continue to invest in different parts of the country," he said.

Following the chat, eight startups gave pitches before a panel of judges, which included Case and Vance.

Tonight these @RiseOfRest finalists make history! @WoodfinForBham proudly supports the representatives of the 8 startups vying for $100,000. #ROTR7 pic.twitter.com/mvl0taL3fD  City of Birmingham (@cityofbhamal) May 9, 2018Two of Alabama's aerospace companies will take a $39 billion hit from President Donald Trump's decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran.

Airbus and Boeing look to lose about $39 billion in contracts they have already inked with Iranian interests, according to the Washington Post.

Airbus signed a December 2016 deal to supply Iran Air with 100 airplanes for around $19 billion. It has delivered three planes so far, the first new aircraft acquired by Iran in 23 years, the Post reported.

Boeing was supposed to supply Iran Air for 80 aircraft at a list price of about $17 billion through 2025. It also had a 30-airplane deal with Iran's Aseman Airlines for $3 billion at list prices.

Trump announced Tuesday the U.S. will pull out of the landmark nuclear accord with Iran, which included Germany, France and Britain. He called the 2015 agreement a "horrible one-sided deal that should never ever have been made." He added that the United States "will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction."

Both companies said through statements that they would comply.

Gordon Johndroe, a Boeing vice president, said in a statement: "As we have throughout this process, we'll continue to follow the U.S. Government's lead."

"We will do the right thing," Jeff Knittel, chairman of Airbus Americas, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

The impact on Boeing was judged by analysts to be modest, while Airbus stands to lose more. However, the Toulouse, France-based Airbus had braced for the decision, Reuters said.

Boeing employs roughly 2,700 people in Alabama, while Airbus has about 500 employees in state. Boeing's Alabama operations are centered in Huntsville's Jetplex Industrial Park and at Redstone Gateway, while Airbus operates in Mobile.A western Alabama man was convicted Thursday in the 2016 shooting death of another man during a Veteran's Day Parade.

A Hale County jury found Cedric O'Neal Rhodes, 41, guilty of a reduced charge of manslaughter. He was convicted in the death Nov. 12, 2016 killing of 51-year-old Daryl Conner, said District Attorney Michael Jackson.

The shooting happened about 1:15 p.m. that during the Sawyerville Veteran's Day Parade. Sheriff Keith Ellis was escorting the parade when he heard several shots fired from the area of Dedrick Circle and Topaz Road. Deputies went to investigate and found Conner had been shot multiple times.

He was taken to the Hale County Hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later. Rhodes was quickly taken into custody and later charged with murder in Conner's death. The two men knew each other, and the shooting happened during a dispute.

The jury heard testimony beginning Tuesday and started deliberations midday Thursday. Hale County Circuit Judge Don McMillan will hand down Rhodes' sentence in about three months after there is a pre-sentence investigation and report.

Rhodes will remain jailed until sentencing.

"There is no excuse for there to be a killing at a Veteran's Day Parade when we are honoring our great soldiers,'' Jackson said following Thursday's verdict. "We are going to ask for the maximum sentence for this gunslinger."Birmingham's second downtown grocery store is expected to open this August.

Buildout of the Organic Harvest grocery store in the former Parisian building at 1924 2nd Avenue North is expected to take two-to-three months, said Michael Maddox, chief executive officer of the grocery store chain.

Downtown Birmingham needs a store that provides healthy food options and educates customers on how to eat healthy, he said, during a tour of the soon-to-be grocery store on Wednesday.

The downtown Organic Harvest will include grab-and-go breakfast and lunch options as well as a juice and smoothie bar, produce, dairy and frozen food sections, vitamin supplements, some hardware and other groceries.

Maddox said 95 to 98 percent of the foods sold in the store are organic and natural. Nothing sold in the store contains additives, food dyes, preservatives or added hormones, he said.

"It will be packed. There will be a lot of amenities in here," he said of the store.

Robert Emerick, client relations manager for economic development group Rev Birmingham, said Organic Harvest will be a catalyst for development in the 2nd Avenue North corridor.

When people think of a downtown grocer, they think of stores like Organic Harvest, which offers grab-and-go options, he said.

"(The store) is centrally located in one of the highest density corners of downtown, and it activates a pretty prominent vacant storefront," he said.

Maddox said the Birmingham store is a new concept for Organic Harvest, which has operated a store in Hoover for 14 years.

"We really believe this is going to go well, and we can take this concept to other downtown locations," he said.

A second Organic Harvest store in Hoover is expected to open at the Village at Brocks Gap shopping center in the fall.

In downtown Birmingham, Organic Harvest is building in the former Parisian store that opened in 1937.

The company is keeping as many of the original details of the building as possible such as the exposed ceiling and brick walls and the wood and tile flooring.

Organic Harvest's seating area and lecture room will be located on the second floor of the store.

Maddox said the city is working with them to have street parking available to customers. Customers will also be able to park in the parking deck across the street, he said.

Before picking the 2nd Avenue location, Maddox said he was preparing to sign a lease for another building two or three block away. He said his broker found the location at the last minute.

"When I saw it, I fell in love with it," he said of the space. "It has historical value. I love where it is. It is just the perfect place for us."The suspect in a Cordova shooting that left a man in critical condition was taken into custody late Wednesday night.

Danny Guthrie was captured in a wooded area near Townley, said Cordova police spokesman T.J. Armstrong.

The shooting happened shortly before 6 a.m. Wednesday at a home on Annex Street. Police dispatched to the home found the 27-year-old victim seriously injured and he was airlifted to UAB Hospital in Birmingham.

Armstrong said investigators determined the shooting was the result of a drug deal. Guthrie, police said, went into the victim's home, a struggle ensued and the resident was shot. The suspect fled the scene.

Later in the day, police received information on a possible location for Guthrie. With assistance from the ALEA State Drug Task Force, the State Fire Marshal's Office and the Walker County Sheriff's Office, lawmen set up a perimeter in the Townley area where they believed Guthrie was hiding.

Armstrong said tracking dogs from Donaldson Correctional Facility were brought in and, within minutes of beginning the search, Guthrie was taken into custody by Cordova Police Chief Nick Smith and other officers.

Guthrie is being held in the Cordova City Jail pending formal charges. At the time of his arrest, Armstrong said, Guthrie was already wanted on numerous charges from the sheriff's office.President Donald Trump has nominated a deputy Alabama Attorney General for a spot on the federal bench.

Trump announced Thursday he has tapped Alabama Special Deputy Attorney General Corey Maze to serve as a District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Alabama AG Steve Marshall said he "wholeheartedly" supports the nomination.

"Corey Maze is a very talented and experienced lawyer who would be an outstanding addition to the Northern District Court bench. He possesses a broad base of legal experience from the prosecution of criminal trials and appeals as an Alabama Assistant Attorney General, to arguing cases before the U.S. Supreme Court as former Alabama Solicitor General, to successfully representing Alabama in the landmark BP oil spill case," he said.

Maze has served as chief of the AG's Special Litigation unit since 2011 and has acted as the state's primary counsel in cases like the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the current opioid crisis. From 2008 to 2011, Maze served as the state's Solicitor General and argued three cases in the U.S. Supreme Court of the United States. He also won three "Best Brief Awards" from the National Association of Attorneys General.

He is a graduate of Auburn University and Georgetown University Law Center.Chief Jeff Bridges is stepping down as top cop at the Trussville Police Department.

Trussville Mayor Buddy Choat confirmed Wednesday that Bridges is retiring effective July 1. The mayor said the chief informed him of his decision to retire on Monday and informed the police department staff on Tuesday.

Bridges was named chief last year following the retirement of Don Sivley. The mayor said Bridges told him he had bought some property in another county and was moving there with his family.

"It caught me off guard, but you do what you've got to do for your family,'' Choat said.

Bridges joined the department as a police officer in 1994 and rose through the ranks. He was sworn in as chief in October 2017.

"I hate to lose him,'' Choat said, "I can tell you that."

The mayor said Bridges' last day will be June 1. Capt. Eric Rush will lead the department while city officials begin the process of naming a permanent replacement.An investigation is underway after a lime plant worker was severely injured in an industrial accident Wednesday night.

Alabaster firefighters responded just after 6:30 p.m. to Lhoist North America, a lime plant on First Avenue West. Fire Executive Officer Rowdy Tidwell said one worker was badly burned and airlifted to UAB Hospital.

Tidwell said the cause of the explosion remains under investigation. No additional details were immediately available.One man is in custody and another is on the run after they crashed a stolen vehicle in north Alabama at the end of a Tennessee police chase, authorities said.

Madison County sheriff's deputies and a Huntsville police K9 team are searching for a man who fled the scene of the crash, said Lt. Donny Shaw, a sheriff's spokesman. Authorities said the suspect is described as a 6-foot black man who was wearing a red shirt. Shaw said the man might be armed.

The crash happened this morning on U.S. 231 in front of Bennett Nursery. The driver lost control as they were being chased by deputies from Madison County and Lincoln County, Tennessee. Shaw said the vehicle was southbound when it crossed the northbound lanes, and hit another vehicle. The suspect vehicle crossed the ditch and came to a rest at Bennett Nursery. No injuries were reported.

Derell Deonta Hamlett

One 24-year-old suspect, Derrell Deonta Hamlett, was taken into custody. He's held in the Madison County Jail on a charge of receiving stolen property.

Authorities set up a perimeter in the area of Meridan Street, Winchester Road and U.S. 231 to search for the missing suspect. Further details haven't yet been released.

Updated at 3:46 p.m. to add the name, charge and mugshot of Hamlett, the captured suspect.More than a dozen people have been arrested and pleaded guilty to operating illegal gambling machines in Florence and Lauderdale County, authorities said.

An undercover investigation by the Lauderdale County Drug Task Force led to the seizure of 128 machines and more than $40,000 at convenience stores throughout the city and county, said District Attorney Chris Connolly. Connolly described the machines as being similar to slot machines.

After authorities received multiple complaints about illegal gambling at local gas stations, undercover informants were sent inside, court papers state. The informants gambled on the machines and were paid cash for their winnings, Connolly said.

"Of the machines we seized, there was well over $40,000 in those machines," the district attorney said. "We believe that had accumulated in a 24-hour period."

The following suspects were booked into the Lauderdale County jail on Tuesday:

Chaulal Patel

Chirag Parikh

Ghanshyam Patel

Harsh Patel

Jagtar Singh

Kirtbhai Patel

Parimal Patel

Paul Ram

Prabodhkumar Patel

Rama Gangar

Sahib Sodhi

Shaileshkumar Patel

A 13th person was arrested, but his charges were dismissed by the DA's office.

At a court hearing Tuesday, each of the other 12 defendants pleaded guilty to possession of gambling devices and received a one-year suspended jail sentence. Each defendant is required to pay $100 for each gambling machine he had. The fines are capped at $500.

"Our goal was to get the machines out of the area and to let those machine operators know we aren't going to tolerate that in our county," Connolly said.

Updated May 10 at 2:58 p.m. to show charges were dismissed for one of the people arrested.An Alabama physician is scheduled to go on trial Friday on charges that he improperly prescribed fentanyl and other drugs to 3 Doors Down guitarist Matthew Roberts, who died of a drug overdose.

Dr. Richard Snellgrove of Fairhope faces a 13-count federal indictment in Mobile alleging unlawful distribution of controlled substances and health care fraud.

An indictment alleges he prescribed the drugs that killed Roberts, who was found dead in August 2016 in a hotel hallway near Milwaukee. Roberts was to perform a charity concert there. Court papers state Snellgrove began prescribing drugs to Roberts as early as 2005 and knew Roberts had addiction problems.

Snellgrove has pleaded not guilty. He faces up to 240 years in prison and up to $2.8 million in fines if convicted.

Roberts' family is also suing Snellgrove and Rite Aid Corp. and others in a civil lawsuit in state court in Alabama. Court records show that case is stayed pending the outcome of Snellgrove's criminal case.

Roberts was a founding member of 3 Doors Down when the rock group began in 1996 in south Mississippi.

He co-authored the band's hit song "Kryptonite," which in 2001 was nominated for a Grammy award for best rock song.

Snellgrove began treating Roberts in 2005, according to the indictment, which specifically cites prescriptions of oxycodone, lorazepam and fentanyl that Snellgrove wrote for Roberts and someone else referred to as "J.R." A DEA agent has testified that Snellgrove wrote prescriptions to "J.R." because Roberts' insurance wouldn't pay for fentanyl.

Roberts left the band after its 2012 European tour, but continued to play guitar. He had gone to Wisconsin to perform with another band in a benefit concert involving the military when he died.

On Aug. 20, 2016, Roberts was found dead in the hallway of a hotel in West Bend, Wisconsin, with a guitar case beside him and a patch that delivers fentanyl on his body, a special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration wrote in an affidavit.

A medical examiner later ruled the cause of death to be an overdose involving fentanyl, hydrocodone and alprazolam, the affidavit stated.

Both the prosecution and the defense plan to call expert witnesses to testify about whether Snellgrove was prescribing medicine properly. The two sides have clashed in pretrial motions over the use of those experts.A west Alabama man is in the intensive care unit after he was bitten by a coral snake--a snake known to have powerful neurotoxins in it's venom.

Mississippi station WTOK news reported Jeffery Phillips was bitten by a coral snake last week in front of his home in Gilbertown after his children discovered the snake.

Phillips' older brother told WTOK that he mistaked the snake as a king snake, an error that left Phillips paralyzed after the snake bit him.

He was rushed to Anderson Hospital in Meridian, Mississippi. He remains in the intensive care unit (ICU), according to updates on a GoFundMe page started to help pay for his medical bills.

According to the GoFundMe account, Phillips may need extensive physical therapy to learn how to walk, eat and write again.

The family has also set up a donation account with Regions Bank. Just mention Phillips' name when making the donation.The Alabama Board of Education voted 7 to 2 to approve a compensation package that will cost Alabama taxpayers more than $311,000 for the first year of newly-appointed State Superintendent Eric Mackey's contract, which starts Monday.

Board Vice President Stephanie Bell, R-Montgomery, and board member Ella Bell, D-Montgomery, voted no. They were also two of the four votes against appointing Mackey on April 20.

Stephanie Bell said the contract gave too much control to Mackey and not enough to the board. Bell said the contract wasn't "taxpayer-friendly."

Gov. Kay Ivey's general counsel Bryan Taylor went over the terms of the contract, which include a base salary of $245,000, an initial three-year term, effective May 14, 2018, through May 13, 2021, and a yearly $21,000 housing allowance.

Former superintendent Michael Sentance was paid $198,000. Tommy Bice, who retired in March 2016, had been paid $250,000 in base salary.

Mackey will be given an automatic 3 percent raise, effective May 14 of each subsequent year, beginning in 2019, unless the board votes to disapprove that increase.

Ella Bell objected to the amount of the raise, pointing out that teachers are not given that 3 percent raise every year. Teachers will get a 2.5 percent raise next year.

The contract is considered a three-year rolling contract, meaning that if the board does not vote to not renew the contract before May 13 of each year, then the contract will be automatically extended by a year.

Automatic extensions will continue through 2025, meaning Mackey could remain in place until 2028 unless the board votes to not renew his contract. By law, the contract can only be in place for four years at a time.

The contract also includes provision of a state-owned car for official travel, and reimbursement of up to $5,000 yearly for professional development activities. Professional association dues, to the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools and the School Superintendents of Alabama, will be paid as well.

The contract does not require an annual evaluation, which Bell raised concerns about during a Wednesday meeting of the subcommittee charged with negotiating the terms of the contract. Bell said the evaluation should be required, while Ivey and board member Jeff Newman, R-Millport, said it should be left up to the board to decide year by year.

The contract states the board and superintendent will work together to devise an evaluation instrument, but doesn't require the board to use it. Whatever instrument is agreed upon must be given to Mackey 12 months prior to actually using it.

Additionally, if the board finds fault with the superintendent's performance, they must make specific recommendations for improvement.

Taylor said Mackey had already signed the contract prior to his bringing it to the board for a vote. Mackey was not present at the meeting.

Alabama K-12 Superintendent Eric Mackey's contract, effective May 14, 2018 by Trisha Powell Crain on Scribd

Updated 11:05 p.m. to include the actual contract.Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Lyn Stuart (Mike Cason)

Two Republicans who have served on the Alabama Supreme Court for more than a decade carry contrasting messages and styles into the race for chief justice.

Chief Justice Lyn Stuart, who replaced Roy Moore in the court's top job, says she brings no agenda other than making a court system that faces funding and staffing challenges the best that it can be.

Stuart's opponent, Associate Justice Tom Parker, says state courts can be vehicles for eventually reversing U.S. Supreme Court decisions that he said have undermined the Constitution. Parker is a longtime ally of Moore and has said Moore was "unlawfully removed from office."

The winner of the June 5 primary will face the Democratic nominee, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Bob Vance, in November. Vance is unopposed in his party.

Voters elected Stuart to the Supreme Court in 2000 and reelected her twice, giving her the longest tenure of the nine justices.

Two years ago, Stuart became acting chief justice when Moore was suspended for ordering probate judges to enforce Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such bans unconstitutional.

Last year, Moore lost an appeal of his suspension and resigned to run for the U.S. Senate. Gov. Kay lvey appointed Stuart to replace him, and now she is seeking a full, six-year term in the court's top post.

Stuart said the job carries most of the responsibilities of an associate justice plus the duties that come with being the administrative leader of the state court system.

"There are some decisions that only the chief justice can make," Stuart said. "So I'm pretty hands-on with everything."

Stuart spent eight years as a district judge and four years as a circuit judge in Baldwin County. Stuart says that experience as a trial judge, which Parker does not have, helps her in reviewing cases and in administrative decisions.

"Much of what we do is evaluate the performance of a judge," Stuart said. "Did the judge get it right? Did the judge get it wrong? And part of that is understanding what it's like to be in a courtroom."

Alabama Supreme Court Associate Justice Tom Parker (Mike Cason)

Parker was deputy administrative director and general counsel for the Alabama court system and an assistant attorney general under AGs Jeff Sessions and Bill Pryor before voters elected him to the Supreme Court in 2004. Voters reelected Parker in 2010 and 2016.

Parker said he's proud to be a friend of Roy Moore, who was twice removed from the office Parker seeks.

"I have great admiration for the reverence in which he holds the Constitution and his willingness to stand on issues that are definitive for our future," Parker said.

Like Moore, Parker was the target of an ethics complaint by the Southern Poverty Law Center to the Judicial Inquiry Commission. The SPLC said Parker violated prohibitions on judges talking about pending or impending cases and undermining public confidence in the judicial system when he made comments about the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage during a radio interview in 2016. Parker was a candidate for reelection as associate justice at the time.

The radio host asked Parker what would happen if a state Supreme Court refused to accept the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized gay marriage.

"I doubt that it would be a blanket defiance of all jurisdiction of the U.S. Supreme Court, but in regard to the Obergefell decision, where it's clear that they jumped outside of all the precedents in order to impose their will on this country, that yes, resisting that decision could maybe start a revival of what we need in this country to return to our original founding principles," Parker said, according to the SPLC complaint.

The JIC dropped the complaint. But before that, Parker filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the prohibition on speaking about cases pending or impending in any court violated his free speech rights as a judicial candidate.

In March, U.S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins granted, in part, Parker's request for a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the prohibition on speaking about cases, finding that it was too broad. Parker's lawsuit is ongoing.

Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage, Parker remains staunchly opposed to the decision.

"It's a travesty of the judicial system," he said. "We had five justices on that court really impose their political will on America."

As for the Roe v. Wade decision, which held that a woman's right to have an abortion was protected by the Constitution, Parker said, "It was just invented out of whole cloth just to satisfy a political agenda."

Parker said the ideological balance of the nation's high court could tip in what he considers a favorable direction. Parker said decisions by state courts could then help drive change.

"President Trump is just one conservative appointment away from giving us a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court," he said. "And they're going to need decisions that they can use to help reverse some of the travesties, the political decisions of the past."

Stuart said she opposes abortion and believes marriage is between one man and one woman but does want to talk about specific cases related to those beliefs.

"I'm pro-life and I believe in traditional marriage," Stuart said. "And beyond that, I'm not sure that I should speak directly to specific court decisions."

Stuart said she did not want to say anything that could cause her to have to recuse in a case.

"I think it's too important for me to sit on the cases and make decisions," Stuart said.

As chief justice, Stuart has the role of advocate for the court system with state lawmakers, who determine the budget.

Stuart said the state's courts have endured lean years but have fared better recently. She says funding and allocation of personnel are the top challenges.

"That's what we've been working on the last two years," Stuart said. "The Legislature, again, in each of the last two sessions has been generous with us. They've given us monies that we need. It's not all that we need but it's enough to move us in the right direction."

Lawmakers have raised the General Fund appropriation for the judicial branch from $118 million in 2017 to $127 million in 2019.

Stuart said some circuits have used local funds to help pay employees' merit raises since 2014 while others could not afford that. Starting Oct. 1, the court system will have state funding to replace those local supplements and raise employees in the other circuits to the same level.

"It will allow those circuits that had those local funds to use them for other purposes, whatever they may choose to use it for," Stuart said.

Parker said the state court system has been underfunded for too many years.

"We're still limping along," Parker said. "If you limp for a while you learn how to limp. We're surviving in that mode right now."

Parker said he could be a strong advocate because of his experience lobbying the Legislature when he was the founding executive director of the Alabama Family Alliance, now called the Alabama Policy Institute.

"I'm comfortable in that arena and I will go after it," Parker said.

Parker declined to put an estimated percentage on how much more money is needed. He said the biggest needs are in circuit clerk's offices.

"We just need to flesh out this system again so it can function as it was designed to function and as Alabama needs it to function," Parker said.

Last year, the Legislature created a commission to reallocate judges to fit caseloads. Stuart said there are more judges than needed in Jefferson County and too few in other areas, including Madison, Mobile, Autauga, Chilton, Elmore, Lee and Tuscaloosa counties.

The reallocation legislation will allow judgeships to move according to need starting in 2020. Stuart estimates it will take until 2030 to complete the realignment because the law requires changes to be gradual.

"It will just be such a slow progression," Stuart said. "But it is a beginning."

Parker said misalignment happened because the Legislature established judgeships based on political clout and that it's causing a strain in some circuits.

"There are pockets where it's really hard to keep pace right now," Parker said. "But with judicial reallocation, hopefully we can provide them some relief."

The two candidates agree that criminal sentencing guidelines passed by the Legislature a few years ago have generally worked. Alabama's prison population has declined because of more emphasis on probation and other prison alternatives for certain nonviolent crimes.

The guidelines were intended, in part, to make sentencing more uniform.

"I have to say that I was a little bit skeptical at first because I truly believe in judicial discretion," Stuart said. "But I've actually done some of those calculations based on the new sentencing guidelines. It seems to work out pretty well."

Stuart said the state can't ignore the prison problem.

"We've either got to reduce the prison population or build new prisons or risk a federal takeover," Stuart said.

Parker said it's important for judges to retain discretion on sentences because they can discern from experience the relative seriousness of criminal acts. But he said the guidelines are generally achieving their intent of reducing wide variations in sentencing for similar offenses.

"We're seeing judges more comfortable with it," Parker said. "Whenever you change a system it's a learning process. And there are some who don't want to change and we've gone through part of that transformation. And now we're just trying to get people to think within this new framework and help make recommendations to fine-tune it."

Parker said he enjoys taking his campaign message across the state and reconnecting with people he's met during previous campaigns.

He embraces the criticism and attention he has drawn for speaking out on legal issues, noting the SPLC complaint and a 2014 article by ProPublica that said his legal writings posed a threat to abortion rights.

"Those who are not taking strong stands don't draw enemies," Parker said. "And I think it speaks volumes to Alabama voters that a man shall be known by his enemies."

Stuart said she hopes voters are paying attention to the chief justice race because of the importance of the court system and how it eventually touches most people.

"My only goal as being chief justice is to give Alabama the very best court system we can have, one that serves the people of Alabama well, that serves the litigants, regardless of where they're from when they come to the courtroom," Stuart said. "One that would be recognized as outstanding nationally and one that my children and grandchildren can be proud of."

Biographical information:

Tom Parker

Age: 66

Hometown: Montgomery

Education: Sidney Lanier High School, Montgomery; Dartmouth College, bachelor's degree; Vanderbilt University School of Law, juris doctorate.

Professional experience: Partner in Parker & Kotouc, a Montgomery law firm; assistant attorney general; founding executive director of the Alabama Family Alliance (now the Alabama Policy Institute); founding executive director for the Alabama Family Advocates; deputy administrative director of courts, general counsel for the Alabama court system; director of the Alabama Judicial College; legal adviser to Chief Justice Roy Moore; elected associate justice of Alabama Supreme Court in 2004, 2010 and 2016.

Family: Married to the former Dottie James of Auburn for 36 years.

Community activities: Member of Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church.

Lyn Stuart

Age: 62

Hometown: Bay Minette

Education: Escambia County High School, Atmore; Auburn University, bachelor's degree in sociology and education; University of Alabama School of Law, juris doctorate.

Professional experience: Assistant attorney general; special assistant attorney general for Alabama Department of Corrections; assistant district attorney for Baldwin County; district judge, juvenile judge, Baldwin County (1989-1997); circuit judge, Baldwin County (1997-2001); Special Family Court judge, Baldwin County (1989-2001); elected associate justice of Alabama Supreme Court in 2000, 2006 and 2012; acting chief justice (2016-2017), chief justice (2017 to present)

Family: Married to George Stuart for 37 years; three children and two grandchildren.

Community Activities: Member of First United Methodist Church; Jubilee Woman's Club member and past president; Alabama Federation of Women's Clubs board of directors; Heritage Junior Women's Club past president/member; Bay Minette Kiwanis Club past president/member.Cliff Sims, the Alabama native who started the "Yellowhammer" political blog before working at the White House, has a new role with the Secretary of State.

Sims has been reassigned from his position as Special Assistant to the President overseeing message strategy at the White House Communications Office, according to media reports. He will now serve as Senior Adviser to new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Citing unnamed sources, Politico reported Sims was recognized for "outstanding" work on communication efforts for Pompeo's confirmation but that his exit comes after apparent clashes with other White House staffers, particularly those who moved over from positions at the Republican National Committee.

Sims did not respond to request for comment.

Sims joined the Trump administration in January after taking a leave of absence from Yellowhammer to work on the GOP presidential campaign. A native of Enterprise, Sims is a graduate of the University of Alabama.

News of Sims' move prompted comment from former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci.Sue Bell Cobb has two donkeys who roam the property at her home on Pike Road in Montgomery, appropriate symbolism for one of the last Democrats to hold statewide office in Alabama.

Now she wants to be the first Democrat elected governor in Alabama since Don Siegelman, who left office in 2003.

She has something many of the other candidates she's running against don't have - statewide name recognition.

She's worked as a judge in most of the state's counties.

"I tried cases in 40 of Alabama's 67 counties," Cobb said. "Have robe, will travel."

Beyond that, she starred in one of Alabama's most memorable campaign commercials ever.

Cobb was elected the first woman chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2006 with commercials that featured her playing "This Little Light of Mine" on piano at Evergreen First United Methodist Church in her hometown.

"People remember me," Cobb said. "They remember my name."

Cobb, chief justice from 2007-11, has been one of the rare Democrats to hold elective statewide office in Alabama in the past decade. Former Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley was elected in 2008 and served 2009-2013 as president of the Alabama Public Service Commission. Since 2013, Republicans have held all statewide offices.

But Cobb said the scandals involving Gov. Robert Bentley, who resigned, and Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard and Chief Justice Roy Moore, who were removed from office, have set the stage for a Democrat to be elected governor.

The election of U.S. Sen. Doug Jones over Moore last year proved a Democrat can be elected statewide, and it can be done in 2018, she said.

House firebombed

Cobb, 62, was born March 1, 1956, in Louisville, Kentucky, grew up in Evergreen, and attended the University of Alabama, where she got a bachelor's degree in history and then a law degree in 1981. She was appointed a judge in Conecuh County District Court, elected in 1982 and re-elected in 1988. Her house was firebombed in 1989 by a man who had appeared in her court and was later committed to a mental facility. He threw a Molotov cocktail into her house and set it on fire. "I'd had him in my court several times," Cobb said. The bombing happened three months before a mail bomb killed federal Judge Robert Vance at his home in Mountain Brook.

The bombing and fire at her house gave her a sense of vulnerability. "I carried a gun for years," Cobb said.

She took trial judge assignments in dozens of counties and from 1995-2007 served as a judge on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

Cobb prided herself on activism for reforming the juvenile justice system in Alabama, helping to found Alabama Children First, a non-profit group created to promote programs to improve the lives of children in the state.

Cobb said she retired as chief justice before her term was over primarily to care for her ailing mother, who died on Feb. 6, 2013. "I made the right decision," she said. "My mother was dying."

Expensive race

She also was vocal in her complaints about the cost of campaigning for the state Supreme Court. She raised $2.6 million in the 2006 campaign, she said, while her Republican opponent Drayton Nabers Jr., raised more than $5.5 million in one of the most expensive judicial races in the nation.

"There was no way I could raise the money and do the job," Cobb said.

In a 2015 opinion piece written for Politico, she said she was ashamed of how much money she had to raise running for chief justice.

Her chief rival in the current campaign for governor, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, called her a quitter for leaving office before her term expired, allowing a Republican to take the office back. "You quit when it mattered most," Maddox said.

In the race for governor among Democrats, Cobb had raised $517,380 through the end of March, compared to $554,857 for Maddox.

The gubernatorial primaries will be June 5.

Cobb believes that Gov. Kay Ivey is the favorite to win the Republican primary and believes that Cobb's the favorite to win the Democrat primary, setting up the first election between two women candidates for governor in Alabama history. Ivey was lieutenant governor and became governor when Bentley resigned on April 10. "It's been difficult, when you're running against an incumbent Republican governor in a state that hasn't been known for electing Democrats," Cobb said.

"Doug Jones has proved that a Democrat can win," Cobb said. "I've already proven I can beat a Republican when Republicans were a lot better thought of."

Cobb is married to William J. Cobb, Executive Director of Governmental Affairs of Bell South. They met in 1987 and married in 1990. They have three children, two sons from his previous marriage and a daughter they had together. Kaitlin, 21, has been working on her campaign.

Cobb's husband underwent heart bypass surgery on April 26, two days after Cobb took part in a debate of Democratic candidates for governor at the Lyric Theatre in Birmingham. She said her husband wanted her to go ahead with the debate, even though they had just learned that he had 95 percent blockage in the main artery leading to his heart.

On the offensive

At the debate, she didn't hold back. That little light of hers may have stoked into a roaring flame.

Cobb said afterward she felt that she didn't have as much time as she needed to prepare for the debate as they dealt with her husband's heart issue, and perhaps her performance was off. But she went on the offensive in the debate, accusing Maddox of favoring the wealthy at the expense of the poor during the rebuilding of Tuscaloosa after a 2011 tornado. Maddox defended himself, noting that if people had been unhappy with the recovery they didn't show it, since he'd been re-elected twice since the tornado.

"I feel like I'm running for mayor again," Maddox said of her attacks.

"I wish you were," Cobb said.

Also during the debate, Cobb defended a letter she wrote recommending former U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions for U.S. Attorney General. "I believe I made the right decision at the time," Cobb said. "It was a measured, tempered letter of support."

She previously found Sessions supportive of her work, she said.

"I worked with him year after year after year, securing additional support for drug courts, mental health courts, veterans treatment courts, all of the courts that we know reduce recidivism," Cobb said.

"I've been disappointed about many of the actions he's taken," she added.

"I explained to him my concern about some changes that he's made in prosecutorial philosophy of non-violent offenders."

Banking on a lottery

She has been heavily promoting a state lottery as a solution to the state's budget woes. "The people want it," she said. Although it's been voted down before, "there have been a lot of Powerballs since Don Siegelman" failed to get a lottery passed, she said.

The lottery would provide money to help solve pressing issues in the state, especially education, and free up money for infrastructure and other needs, she said.

"We have issues everywhere," Cobb said. "We have the most overcrowded, underfunded prison system in the country."

For Cobb, passing a lottery remains a key to put the state on a path to solving problems.

"My concept of the lottery has got legs," Cobb said. "It's resonating with people. My ideas about how the money should be spent will transform the state economically. It would fully fund work force development and jobs. It will tell everybody Alabama's open for business. It would make sure every child is ready to succeed by the time they get to first grade. It's going to create thousands of jobs. Every county will get their fair share of jobs."

Judge Sue Bell Cobb

Cobb championed model drug courts that she says reduced the number of people serving time in prison for non-violent drug offenses.

Cobb says that her experience working in most counties of the state has given her an unusual insight into the problems of the state.

"I was in a rural county with a low caseload," Cobb said. "The judges in rural areas ought to be taking on additional cases. I did everything. It made me a better judge."

Cobb served as chief justice both before and after Roy Moore, who has been removed from that office twice, once for installing a giant granite Ten Commandments monument that he refused to remove.

"Running the courts was not his priority," Cobb said of Moore. "He had his agenda, and that certainly was his priority, his own personal agenda."

Cobb said in the debate that she supports "a modest but adequate increase in our fuel tax" to repair infrastructure.

"Alabama is operating government on the lowest amount of tax revenue of any state in the nation, which is why we're lagging behind our sister Southern states," she said. Alabama ranks 51st out of 50 states and the District of Columbia for state and local tax collection at $3,141 per capita.

The court system of Alabama remains underfunded, like many other aspects of the state, she said.

"The courts have got to be adequately funded," Cobb said. "It impacts business. It impacts children. It impacts public safety. The courts are like emergency rooms in hospitals. If a problem's serious enough, it's going to come into the court."

While chief justice, she made the most of funding by maximizing efficiency, she said.

"I was the one that turned the courts basically paperless," and replaced it with electronic filing, Cobb said. "My predecessor had started it. We are much more efficient, but we don't have enough money."

Cobb said that as she travels the state, her campaign meets people that say they were helped by her reforms. "I had a young man come up to my staff and say ... She saved my life. She is the reason we have drug court, and drug court saved my life."

She said she also helped avoid layoffs of probation officers during the recession.

"I carved out about $340,000 and wrote a memorandum of understanding with Jefferson County to keep the juvenile probation officers," Cobb said. "Why? I had made juvenile detention initiatives a priority. It saved tax dollars and it was a more appropriate way to deal with non-violent youth. We were locking up kids that were not a risk to the community. We were locking them up because their aunt couldn't come pick them up by 5 o'clock."

The Rev. Curtis Knott, a prison minister, said Cobb became involved in an effort to build a chapel for Draper Correctional Facility, which used a multi-purpose room for worship services.

"Her involvement and concern is personal," said Knott, who served on the board of directors with Cobb for the Draper Worship Center Initiative, which raised $100,000 to build a chapel. That plan has now been sidetracked because Draper was shut down as a prison at the end of March, he said. It held more than 1,000 inmates in a facility designed for 656. Those prisoners have been sent elsewhere, and Draper is set to be used for vocational training through J.F. Ingram State Technical College.

Cobb's efforts show she cares about treating prisoners humanely, Knott said.

"She's continued to work with us to identify other usage within the Department of Corrections," Knott said. "We must treat them as people not as objects. I think Sue Bell would make it more humane. She is a caring person. She wants to makes things better for them."

Small-town roots

Growing up in Evergreen, Sue Bell's father, Otis Bell, owned Evergreen Auto Parts.

"It's a small, close-knit family community that revolves around school and church," said Doris Gorum, whose father, Ray Sasser, owned Lone Star Service Station and repair shop.

"We always had horses," Cobb said. "My whole childhood, especially my teenage years, in the summer I would ride twice a day. I'd get up early and ride, and ride late in the afternoon."

After Cobb was appointed a judge out of law school by Gov. Fob James, she returned to Conecuh County and hired Doris as a court clerk.

"Thirty-seven years later, I'm in the same position," said Gorum, now senior judicial assistant.

"She pretty much has always given her all plus some," Gorum said. "She's just a hands-on person, very persistent. She doesn't give up. If it's something she believes in, she's going to stand up for it: honesty, integrity, transparency. Even things that might hurt her politically, if it's what she believes, she's not going to back down."

Growing up in Evergreen gave Cobb a taste of Alabama's shortcomings, and a thirst to help change things, Gorum said.

"Conecuh County is a poor county," Gorum said. "We have a lot of poor people. People go out of their way to help you. She's definitely a product of it, but she's broadened her horizons way beyond Evergreen. She was starving for knowledge. She saw a broader spectrum. The problems can't be fixed here until you fixed the problems beyond. You have to resolve them on a larger level. She saw the problems of families and children and that's where she focused."

For Cobb, it all starts with concern for children that grew out of her experience with the juvenile justice system.

"If you put the prevention of child abuse and neglect as a top priority, you'd have a different state," Cobb said.A ceremonial ribbon cutting at a Huntsville business turned into a flashpoint of politics Wednesday as Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle raised concern over the widening of nearby Interstate 565.

And Gov. Kay Ivey, sitting on the stage as Battle spoke, then jumped from her seat to reiterate her comments made last month in Huntsville that the highway project is a "priority" for her.

Meanwhile, planning report documents on the Alabama Department of Transportation website indicate that the widening of I-565 is decades away with the earliest construction on the project scheduled for 2043. Other parts of the I-565 project are scheduled to begin as late as 2050, according to the documents.

The discussion about the interstate spur from I-65 into Huntsville made for a tense interlude amid the series of speeches at GE Aviation, a high-tech facility manufacturing revolutionary lightweight composites used in jet engines that will ultimately employ about 300 people. The composites can be developed for an array of uses, GE said.

Afterward the speeches and the formal ribbon cutting, Ivey told reporters that she spoke unprompted during the program about I-565 to "set the record straight" after Battle's comments.

Battle, of course, is one of three Republicans challenging Ivey for the GOP nomination in the June 5 gubernatorial primary.

Gov. Kay Ivey and Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle together on stage at ribbon cutting event at GE Aviation in Huntsville on Wednesday, May 9, 2018. (Paul Gattis/pgattis@al.com)

Ivey had already taken her turn at the podium, speaking for about six minutes in commending GE Aviation for its investment in Alabama and praising the state's workforce.

Battle followed with similar comments before bringing up the issue of widening I-565. He called out to state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, who was sitting in the audience. Orr's district includes parts of I-565 and he is a member of the legislature's General Fund committee.

Battle outlined recent development projects that are anticipated to significantly raise the amount of traffic on I-565 - including the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA facility that is expected to create about 10,000 direct and indirect jobs - to demonstrate the need for the expansion.

"And one other thing, as we come out of here, we all recognize that I-565 is - where's Arthur Orr?" Battle said. "Arthur, 565 is going to be a key for us. We're going to have to take care of 565. The growth (at GE Aviation), the growth from Toyota, the growth from Polaris. We are going to have more and more traffic on that road.

"I know all the employees who come in early in the morning and go out late at night and get into the middle of that quagmire (that is I-565), that every one of you is going to make sure at some point that we get on the ball and get that done. And Arthur, I pledge you my support to make sure that gets done."

Seconds later, Battle concluded his remarks and stepped away from the podium. At that point, Ivey left her chair on the stage and returned to the microphone.

She began speaking while the audience was still applauding Battle's comments.

"Let me just remind you that at the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce last night, I announced that I-565 would be a high priority and they are accepting bids this month on reconstructing the interchange at the Greenbrier interchange," Ivey said. "I-565 is a high priority."

I-565 is among what are perceived as three critical roadways that officials have said need significant expansion. The widening of I-65 south of Birmingham in Shelby County is already underway and the new bridge on I-10 in Mobile is competing with I-565 for funding.

The remodeled interchange - which will connect Greenbrier Parkway with I-565 to the south and I-65 to the north - that Ivey spoke of will not affect the traffic bottleneck where traffic backs up as I-565 shrinks to two lanes in each direction as it nears I-65.

The interchange improvements at Greenbrier, according to the ALDOT planning report, is scheduled for 2018 at a cost of about $11.5 million.

In meeting with reporters following the ribbon cutting at GE Aviation, Ivey explained why she returned to the podium to speak about I-565.

"I made that announcement at the chamber of commerce in Huntsville over a month ago," Ivey said. "Because I-565 is congested now but looking to the future with Toyota Mazda, it's even going to be more so. So advanced planning is always prudent. I just wanted to clear the air because I made the announcement that it was going to be a high priority and it is and I made that announcement at the Huntsville chamber of commerce last month."

When asked by WHNT's Brian Lawson about the distant construction dates, Ivey asked about the date of the ALDOT report. The report does not include a date but are the most current documents on the ALDOT website. Ivey said she believed the report came from 2016.

The ALDOT document, however, includes the renovation of the Greenbrier interchange on I-565 - a project necessitated by the Mazda Toyota plant - announced in January -- that will be located at that exit. The interchange improvements, which Ivey spoke of Wednesday, are scheduled to be done this year.

"I-565 is a high priority," Ivey repeated in response to the question about the ALDOT report. "They're starting work on it as we speak. And we'll move right ahead. We've already started on I-65 moving north."

Pressed on what a "priority" is about I-565, Ivey said, "It means we're going to do it as fast as we can. It's a big project and you've got to plan well and 565 will be addressed in a timely fashion. And, yes, you have to plan to make monies available because there's not a bucket of money just sitting there. You've got to shift and make priorities. And we're in that process and we will continue."

Asked if she expected the dates on the ALDOT document to move up, Ivey said, "I would hope so. I plan for it to."

Ivey said moving I-565 up the list ahead of the I-10 bridge "has not been discussed so I can't comment on that right now."

In an interview with AL.com last year, Orr said it was "imperative" that I-565 be widened within the next five years.

"It's that important," Orr said in November 2017 - two months before Mazda Toyota Manufacturing became the state's largest economic development.

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks also sent a letter to Ivey in March, urging her to shepherd along the widening of I-565. Brooks' congressional district includes I-565.A man accused in Tennessee of snatching an elderly woman's purse after Bible study is now jailed in Alabama.

Gilbert Dean Ostring Jr.

Gilbert Dean Ostring Jr. is held without bail in the Jackson County Jail in northeast Alabama, records show. He's charged with breaking and entering a vehicle and theft of property, jail records show.

The 48-year-old is wanted in Nashville, Tennessee in connection with a purse snatching that happened in the parking lot of Lebanon Church of Christ. The 70-year-old victim was walking to her car around midday on May 1 when a man in a pickup truck took her purse, according to Nashville police. Police said in a news release that the incident caused the woman to fall to the pavement, and suffer broken bone and facial injuries.

Detectives identified Ostring as the suspected robber through surveillance footage. Police said he drove up to the woman and asked her for directions to a nearby shelter.

"He then reached out of his window, grabbed the victim's purse and forcibly yanked it away, causing the 70-year-old to hit the asphalt hard," police said.

Police said Ostring has multiple prior convictions in Tennessee for crimes including theft, forgery, identity theft, fraudulent use of credit cards and reckless aggravated assault. He got out of state prison in June 2017.

It's unclear how Ostring was captured. He was taken into custody by Scottsboro police in Alabama. He was booked into the county jail Wednesday around 7 p.m.Roy Moore may not be on a ballot in this election year but he's pulling for a longtime aide to win a seat in Congress.

Rich Hobson announced Wednesday he had received Moore's endorsement for his candidacy in the 2nd Congressional District Republican primary.

Hobson is seeking to win the seat held by U.S. Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, in a race that also includes state Rep. Barry Moore, former congressman and Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright and political newcomer and Iraqi Freedom veteran Tommy Amason.

"I have known Rich Hobson for over 25 years and know his reputation for honesty, integrity and devotion to duty is above reproach," Moore said in the announcement from Hobson's campaign. "He has the experience, wisdom, and ability to tackle tough problems and resolve them expeditiously, which will serve the people of Alabama well in the United States Congress.



"Rich is a husband, father, and grandfather who will fight to preserve the United States Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Rich Hobson is a proven leader who will stand up to liberal voices in Congress who seek to disparage our history and destroy the values that have made this country great."

Hobson worked as administrative director of the Office of Courts during both of Moore's terms as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Hobson has also served as executive director for the Foundation for Moral Law founded by Moore. And Hobson worked closely with Moore during his 2017 U.S. Senate campaign.

"It has been an honor for me to work under Judge Moore's leadership for much of my career, and I am honored that he is standing with me now," Hobson said in the announcement. "The rock-solid convictions and values that he has upheld in the fact of relentless opposition have earned him the respect of men and women of integrity across our state and nation. He certainly has my respect, and I am grateful for his support."Democratic gubernatorial candidate Sue Bell Cobb on Thursday reiterated support for her campaign's field director in Jefferson County, Paul Littlejohn, after it was revealed this week that Littlejohn spent 30 years in prison on rape and sodomy charges.

Speaking at a news conference in Linn Park, Cobb said Littlejohn, who she said was recommended to her, has been "literally the picture of redemption" since he was released from prison in 2014, pointing out that he has three degrees, managed a halfway house and became an associate minister.

Littlejohn, 55, was convicted in 1985 of rape and sodomy of an adult female, according to Alabama Law Enforcement Agency records. He maintained that he did not sexually assault the victim, but that he did not stop the incident, which occurred in a parking lot while he was waiting in his car.

Cobb said her campaign was not aware of Littlejohn's criminal history until after he was hired.

That appeared to contradict what her campaign manager, Landon Nichols, told AL.com's Roy Johnson in a feature about Littlejohn that was published Wednesday. Nichols said the campaign learned of Littlejohn's past through a background check before he was brought on, but the campaign manager told AL.com on Thursday that there was no background check and that the campaign had checked references.

Cobb said Littlejohn offered to resign from her gubernatorial campaign but she refused to accept it "because he's done an amazing job."

"I simply would not fire someone who was redeemed, who was rehabilitated," she said. "This is an individual who paid his price, his debt to society and turned his life around. To be honest, I trust him with my life."

The former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice said Littlejohn runs field operations for her in Jefferson County and that he does not knock on doors. She said he performs "quality assurance over the phone" and manages a team of workers. Littlejohn registered as a sex offender last year.

Cobb called out the Alabama Political Reporter for not calling her campaign before it ran a story on Littlejohn that suggested he knocked on doors for the campaign.

"If the Alabama Political Reporter had taken time to follow journalism ethics ... they would've discovered Paul does not knock on doors," she said.Montreal, Canada  Annamaria Enenajor says its about righting a wrong.

The Toronto-based lawyer is among a group of other professionals and activists leading a campaign to get the Canadian government to grant amnesty to those with simple cannabis possession convictions on their records.

With Canada planning to legalise recreational marijuana by July 1, amnesty would address an historic injustice that has affected hundreds of thousands of people across the country, Enenajor said.

We find it particularly unjust because we know that the individuals who are most impacted by the criminalisation of cannabis are people who are vulnerable members of society and marginalised and racialised members of society, she told Al Jazeera.

Launched earlier this month, the Campaign for Cannabis Amnesty wants the federal government to grant a blanket pardon to Canadians convicted of minor cannabis possession.

It hopes to get 5,000 signatures on an online petition to get the government to enact amnesty legislation.

Having their convictions expunged would help members of already disadvantaged communities  especially black and indigenous people  find better jobs, access social services and social housing, and travel freely, Enenajor said.

However, in its current form, the bill to legalise recreational cannabis in Canada does not address amnesty for past convictions.

It shows that the impacts that decades of criminalisation has had on individual lives are really an afterthought for the government  and it should be front and centre, Enenajor said.

Once the law is enacted

So far, Ottawa has said it plans to examine the issue of amnesty only once the law is changed.

The recreational use of cannabis is expected to be legal countrywide this year under Bill C-45, which passed a second reading in the Senate in March and was sent to committees for further study.

The bill sets out broad rules to regulate the recreational cannabis industry, including what companies have licences to sell cannabis products, and makes it legal for adults to possess and share up to 30 grams of cannabis.





Canadas provinces and territories will be tasked with implementation; they will control how and where cannabis is sold and how many marijuana plants each resident can legally have at home, among other things.

Speaking to reporters in January, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged that Canadas current system is hurting Canadians and criminalising Canadians who perhaps shouldnt be.

But that is an engagement we will take once we have a legalised and controlled regime in place, not before, Trudeau said.

That was echoed by a spokesperson for Canadas public safety minister.

Canadas current law on cannabis has proven to be an abject failure, Scott Bardsley told Al Jazeera in an email, but the government intends to take its time to make this change in an orderly, coherent way.

In the meantime, the existing law remains in place. Were working assiduously to get the job done, Bardsley said.

Right now, a person convicted of possessing up to 30 grams of cannabis can apply to the Parole Board of Canada for a criminal record suspension five years after completing his or her sentence.

Once Bill C-45 is enacted, we will examine how to make things fairer for Canadians who have been previously convicted for minor possession offences, Bardsley said.

Racialised communities

Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, an assistant sociology professor at the University of Toronto, said racialised and impoverished communities have borne the brunt of Canadas war on drugs for decades.

Policing itself is generally concentrated in more impoverished and highly racialised neighbourhoods, and so even though rates of cannabis use are high across different demographic groups, its those people  who have been disproportionately harmed, he told Al Jazeera.

Last year, the Toronto Star published an investigation into marijuana arrests in Toronto, Canadas largest city, between 2003 and 2013.

{articleGUID}

The newspaper found that cannabis charges disproportionately affected black people; while only making up about eight percent of the citys population, 34 percent of the more than 40,600 cannabis possession charges were filed against black people.

Also in Toronto, cannabis arrests increased just as police ramped up a practice called carding, in which officers would stop and document people who were not suspected of committing any crime, Owusu-Bempah explained.

The practice is a form of racial profiling, he said.

In the US, carding  which has since been outlawed in Toronto, but has been documented across Canada  more commonly goes by the name stop-and-frisk.

Police are also more likely to formally process racialised people through the justice system if they are found with cannabis, rather than give them a simple warning, Owusu-Bempah said.

While most of the nearly 11,300 people without prior convictions were released when police found them with small amounts of marijuana in their possession, 15.2 percent of black people were detained for a bail hearing, the Star reported.

Only 6.4 percent of white people were similarly detained.

Providing those pardons I think does do something to start correcting those wrongs  and this harmed not just individuals, but their families, of course, as well as their entire communities, Owusu-Bempah said.

We should, in recognising the failure of the war on drugs, also recognise the harm that weve done to certain segments of our population and set an example to the rest of the world by  working to redress those harms.

Removing barriers

Most Canadians apparently back amnesty, as well.

Six in 10 people (62 percent) said they support or somewhat support pardoning people with cannabis possession charges, according to a May 2017 survey commissioned by The Globe and Mail newspaper.

But advocates say Canada needs to go further than just amnesty; some argue that citizens who have been most harmed by the countrys drug laws should be given ways to join the burgeoning, legal cannabis market.

Matthew Green, a city councillor in Hamilton, Ontario, just west of Toronto, said the way Canada has set up the system thus far will lead to the continued criminalisation of working-class or racialised communities.

{articleGUID}

The government has prioritised giving big pharmaceutical companies and others with ties to the political class a foothold in the billion-dollar industry, Green said, while many others remain shut out.

Why is it that some people in working-class and racialised communities will be criminalised for it, where corporate-class or financier-class political cronies are going to see profit from it? he asked Al Jazeera.

Green said marginalised groups should be encouraged to participate in what some have described as a Green Rush.

Enenajor agreed, pointing to Oakland, California, where at least half of all cannabis licenses will be issued to people with possession convictions, or who live in areas where police have carried out a disproportionately high number of cannabis arrests.

The Equity Applicants programme seeks to remove barriers for Oakland residents who have been the most victimized by the war on drugs to join the industry, the city says.

That idea, Enenajor said, hints at a broader recognition that something has to be done to address the historic injustice thats been reflected through the criminalisation of marijuana.

I think its really important as we move forward to look back and ask the question of whose lives have been affected by this erroneous approach, she said.

The proposed legalisation of cannabis [in Canada]  is a critical moment for us because in some ways it brings to the forefront the reality that complete criminalisation is not the right approach to solve any social problem.Observers fear that the lines between independent journalism and politics in Iraq are becoming increasingly blurred.

Earlier this month, Iraqi journalist Muntadher al-Zaidi, who shot to prominence in 2008 when he hurled a shoe at George W Bush and called the former US president a dog, announced his candidacy for the May 12 parliamentary elections.

I want to lock up all the thieves whove robbed Iraq of its wealth, he told Al Jazeera, explaining that he plans to pass a law that would see corrupt politicians held to account.

The nomination of Zaidi with the Sairoon Coalition  an alliance between the Sadirst Movement and the Iraqi Communist Party  was celebrated by his supporters. But it was not received with the same level of enthusiasm among the wider Iraqi public as his farewell kiss [to Bush] from the Iraqi people 10 years ago.

The Sairoon Coalition led by Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr is one of the five main Shia factions running in the election for a new parliament.

While many parties have taken the opportunity to emphasise a unified, cross-sectarian national identity in the run-up to the vote, Iraq remains plagued by divisions along sectarian and ethnic lines.

With a large number of Iraqi journalists contesting the upcoming elections, the first since the defeat of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL also known as ISIS), observers fear that the lines between independent journalism and politics in Iraq are becoming increasingly blurred.

According to Iraqs High Electoral Commission, there has been a record number of journalists and media personalities entering the electoral fray.

We dont know the exact number for journalists running in the election, but they are definitely in the tens. The numbers are visibly larger than in previous votes, said Hazem al-Radinee, a member of the high board of electoral commissioners.

Iraqi journalist Muntadher al-Zaidi, who hurled his shoe at George W Bush in 2008, announced earlier this month his candidacy for the upcoming elections [AFP]

The move, which many have described as a visible phenomenon, has also raised the concerns of fellow journalists who believe that their profession will be marred by politics.

Zaidi is one of dozens of journalists whove nominated themselves. We now ask who isnt running rather than the other way around, said Haider al-Karkhi, an independent journalist based in Baghdad, who thinks Zaidis nomination was not surprising.

Blurred lines

Political parties from across the various sectarian and ethnic divides have nominated journalists among their candidates.

One example is the famous TV presenter Ahmed al-Mulla Talal, who had previously competed in 2014 election with former Prime Minister Nouri al-Malikis Shia State of Law Coalition.

This time, Talal, who presents a daily political programme on Sharqiyya TV, is running with the Shia-leaning Al-Madani Party.

Although Talal pulled out of the race two months before the vote, he continued to host his programme and work as a journalist while still being a candidate.

He never discussed the Madani Party on his programme but he managed to garner so much support for it during his campaigning outside of his programme, said al-Karkhi.

Also running for a Shia Coalition is journalist Hadee Jalo Maree, who used to be known for using social media to criticise politicians, from Al-Madani Party; and popular Al-Ahd TV presenter Wajih Abbas for the Fatah (Conquest) Coalition led by Hadi al-Amiri.

The Fatah Coalition acts as an umbrella for groups affiliated with the Shia militia groups of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs), which participated in the war against ISIL.

More votes

A lot of media personalities and social media activists were approached because of their popularity in order to get votes, Renad Mansour, a research fellow at Chatham House, said on the phenomenon.

Independent Iraqi journalist Marwan Hisham agreed: Party leaders think journalists can give their parties a softer image for their political plans which will then become more palatable for the public.

Among the most prominent Sunni Coalitions that have fielded a long list of journalist nominees is al-Qarar al-Iraqi which brings together Mutahidoon Alliance led by former Vice President Osama al-Nujaifi and the Arab Project led by well-known Sunni businessman Khamis al-Khanjar.

For Isam al-Ubaidi from the al-Qarrar al-Iraqi list, bringing journalists into politics is a logical move to attract more candidates.

Journalists who've nominated themselves were always involved with media platforms funded by parties. Entering politics is only a continuation of their work. Zaid al-Ojeli, Head of Journalistic Freedoms Observatory in Iraq

Every person has a constitutional right to run in the election and we chose who will run for us based on their background and political outlook, he said.

Al-Ubaidi, who sees nothing wrong with the partnership, said that parties should be able to capitalise on the popularity of journalists to attract votes.

Journalists and media personalities can be among the best campaigners and advocates for a party and its electoral plan.

They are public figures and this is something a party should take advantage of, al-Ubaidi told Al Jazeera.

Opinion journalist

According to Zaid al-Ojeli, head of the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory in Iraq, there are two types of journalists in the region; independent reporters and editors, and others who represent a political view.

Journalists whove nominated themselves were always involved with media platforms funded by parties and were never considered independent in the first place, said al-Ojeli. Entering politics is only a continuation of that work.

But for others, the incentives offered to journalists joining parties and the financial gains tied with public offices may have attracted them, said al-Ojeli.

But journalists who jumped on the election bandwagon say there is no contradiction between their entry into politics and their work in the media.





For renowned journalist Omar al-Jamal who is running with Sunni Coalition al-Qarar al-Iraqi, being an opinion journalist keeps his credibility intact despite his entry into politics.

As an opinions journalist, my political views and leanings have always been out there, said al-Jamal who has worked as a presenter for a political programme on Fallujah TV, a satellite channel owned by Khanjar, one of al-Qarar al-Iraqis leaders and funders.

Parties want to win; its normal for them to try and garner the support of public figures and journalists to make their list stronger, he added.

Although al-Jamal plans to remain in politics even if he does not win a seat in parliament, he sees a potential return to journalism in the future as unproblematic.

Returning to the media after nominating myself would be normal because I would continue to raise awareness and draw public attention to the same views, he explained.

I was approached by Nujaifis office and after some deliberation, I decided to run with the party because its political outlook is closest to my own, al-Jamal told Al Jazeera.

Another of al-Qarar al-Iraqis journalist nominees is Manal Almoatasim, who like Jamal, sees her nomination as a continuation of her journalistic career.

With more journalists being nominated, observers fear that the lines between independent journalism and politics in Iraq are becoming increasingly blurred [AFP].

I decided to run because I felt Iraq needed new faces and representatives. I chose al-Qarar because their ideas overlapped with mine, Moatasim who worked as a journalist for a decade presenting various political TV programmes, said.

I am a well-known journalist and this is an advantage when it comes to getting votes, added Moatasim who believes her popularity will help her get into parliament.

No independent journalism

According to Mansour of Chatham House, the overlap between politics and journalism in Iraq is not a new development.

The lines between the media and politics have been blurred for a long time in Iraq. Journalism isnt independent in any way, said Mansour.

Despite this, the move has caused a stir on the streets of Baghdad and elicited a lot of reaction from journalists and the wider public alike.

If it were about representing the public, journalists have a more important role to play in society than in politics. Zaid al-Ojeli, Head of Journalistic Freedoms Observatory in Iraq

Some of these journalists think that by being in politics they can achieve some the peoples demands which they used to convey as journalists, said Hisham, the journalist.

They dont realise that even if they grasp the peoples needs, they wont be able to push them forward if they get into parliament, he added.

Instead, they will lose their credibility and representability for the public, said Hisham.

Al-Ojeli agrees: If it were about representing the public, journalists have a more important role to play in society than in politics.

A professional journalist would always remain within the realm of the media.

Follow Arwa Ibrahim on Twitter: @arwaibAfter several weeks of intense protests, on May 8, the Armenian National Assembly elected Nikol Pashinyan to serve as countrys next prime minister by a vote of 59-42. At the heart of this revolution was a rejection of corruption, violence, and the Republican Party of Armenias (RPA) failed domestic socioeconomic policies and demands for greater social justice.

Over the past several weeks, Armenians have expressed a strong desire to be rid of the oligarchic system and to implement a more democratic and just system of governance. Pashinyan has spoken about making a break with the past and about the importance of rule of law, human rights, and the need to create a more equitable society, in which everyone is equal before the law. As the euphoric celebrations continue, he now faces the difficult task of developing a programme of action to address the many political, economic, and social issues facing the country (such as 18 percent unemployment; 30 percent poverty; the unresolved conflict; continuing emigration and brain drain; etc.).

An Armenian model of development?

Armenians are now demanding to live in a fairer, more just society, where citizens live with dignity and free from physical and economic violence. In this post-revolutionary period, there is the opportunity to radically rethink the hitherto accepted neoliberal model of development, which relied on privatisation, deregulation, and the apparent abdication by the Armenian government of its responsibilities for ensuring the well-being of its citizens.

{articleGUID}

I find it useful to draw on the work of the Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen. In his groundbreaking work, Development as Freedom, Sen examined how in a world of unprecedented increase in overall opulence, millions of people in both rich and poor countries are still unfree in that they are denied elementary freedoms and remain imprisoned in one way or another by economic poverty, social deprivation, political tyranny or cultural authoritarianism. Rather than fetishising economic growth and solely focusing on the growth of the gross national product (GNP), Sen maintains that GNP growth should be viewed as a means to expanding the freedoms enjoyed by members of society. He challenges narrow views of development in which political or social freedoms are seen as not conducive to development instead arguing that substantive freedoms, including the liberty of political participation, the opportunity to receive education or healthcare, are constituent components of development.

To be clear, while knowledge of different economic and social development models and programmes can inform the formulation of development policies in Armenia, there are no readymade solutions. Policymakers in Armenia should be cautious to avoid the mistakes that occurred immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, where policy solutions were imported and implemented without due concern for their fit with the local context. It will not suffice to say, as former Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan suggested, lets imitate the Singaporean model of development. The Singapore model relied on the Lee thesis, named after the former prime minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, which maintains that democracy hurts economic growth and development and that authoritarian rule can be beneficial for growth. Is this the development model Armenians want  ie, to sacrifice democracy and freedom for economic growth? Or would they prefer to create an Armenian model of development? These are discussions which must be had.

To be successful, policies are needed which recognise Armenias social, cultural, historical, geostrategic, and geographic specificities. This will mean not only developing new policies and approaches, but also rejecting certain norms and patterns of behaviour. For example, the cultural practice of nepotistic patronage, locally known as in-laws, acquaintances, relatives (xnami canot barekam) dates to the Soviet period but thrived under the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) government as family members of RPA officials were appointed to positions of power in both the public and private sectors. If the country is to develop in a more sustainable, just and inclusive manner, clientist networks of patronage and cronyism should be tackled as it perpetuates corruption and contributes to the brain drain. But to achieve such changes, one cannot solely rely on top-down policy solutions; it will require the development of new cultural understandings, values, and norms.

New values and practices should also include greater inclusion of women in political life, who, while active in this and past movements, often find themselves relegated to the sidelines afterwards. While in the heady days of the revolution, many talked about love and solidarity, sexist attitudes do not disappear overnight.

Pathways and actors

A question that often accompanies discussions about social development concerns the financing of social spending. There have already been discussions about reforming taxation policies.

{articleGUID}

Research by tax justice campaigners highlights how different practices, ranging from tax competition to tax avoidance, increase economic inequality, distort economies, and rob countries of much-needed revenues. In one report, the Tax Justice Network found that globally it is estimated that between $21-32 trillion is stashed offshore. Recent reports by both Armenian and international investigative journalists, including the Panama and Paradise Papers respectively, have shown that Armenian oligarchs, public servants, and even an army general have made use of offshore tax havens. While there are ongoing discussions in Armenia about how these assets can be retrieved, it will be difficult, due to lack of access to information and resistance from those offshore account holders, some of whom continue to hold political positions.

Advancing sustainable, just and inclusive development, isnt simply about the state taking action; the private sector and civil society also have a role to play. The private sector can in theory, although not always in practice in Armenia (ie, due to tax avoidance, creation of monopolies, etc), support development. As for civil society, while some civil society organisations might find it easier to work with a Pashinyan-led government, they should also be cautious about becoming too cosy. Because as international experience ranging from post-apartheid South Africa to the UK under New Labour demonstrates, when civil society actors become too close to the government, they often jeopardise their independence, autonomy, and ability to hold powerful actors to account.

Finally, I do not have space here to adequately examine the potential role of the diaspora, but given that more Armenians live outside the borders of the Republic of Armenia than inside, it is expected they will play a role going forward. And indeed, Pashinyan has expressed his support for diasporic participation not only through investment but also repatriation and participation in state-building and development.

Challenges

While the post-revolutionary period offers opportunities, there are also many obstacles. The most obvious obstacle to change will be the RPA old guard and oligarchs, as many fear they will play an obstructionist role in upcoming days by rejecting Pashinyans proposed programme. A key challenge will also be in addressing concerns around accountability and justice, without that process devolving into political vendettas, which Pashinyan has repeatedly said he is against.

Second, moving from being in opposition to governing means striking the right balance between making political compromises, building alliances, and remaining true to core principles. And already some question the implications of accepting the support of oligarch Gagik Tsarukyans Prosperous Armenia Party.

Finally, last but not least, one can never exclude external intervention or interference in the countrys domestic development by different actors (state and non-state). I prefer not to speculate at this juncture at what may or may not happen as much remains unclear, but in the past international organisations, such as the World Bank and IMF have played a role in shaping the current model of development through aid and loan conditionalities.

Armenia now has an historic opportunity to restart its post-Soviet path. Pashinyan intends to act quickly and decisively and many hope that he will be able to achieve his rights and justice-focused programme of action for socioeconomic and political reforms. But nothing is a done deal; soon Pashinyan is to submit his programme to the National Assembly for a vote and it remains to be seen what they will decide.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.Attackers stabbed victims during midday prayers north of the city of Durban then set the mosque on fire.

Attackers entered a South African mosque after midday prayers, stabbed three people, and set the building on fire before fleeing.

One person was killed and two victims were in critical condition on Thursday after the mosque attack in the eastern town of Verulam, just north of the city of Durban, South Africas state broadcaster SABC reported.

Images showed men receiving medical care on the ground outside the mosque. One mans white robe was soaked in blood.

The imam, who had his throat slit, has passed away a few minutes ago due to his injuries, said Paul Herbst, spokesman for the private IPSS medical rescue service.

A manhunt was under way for the assailants. Police Captain Nqobile Gwala in KwaZulu-Natal province said investigators are looking at three counts of attempted murder and arson.

The motive of the attack on the three men is unknown at this stage, Gwala said.

The incident appeared to be unprecedented in South Africa, where about 1.5 percent of the countrys 55 million population is Muslim.

It is the first time anything like this has happened in South Africa, let alone in KwaZulu-Natal province, said Faizel Suliman, chairman of the SA Muslim Network.

Prem Balram, spokesman for the Reaction Unit South Africa security company, said he arrived at the mosque to find two victims covered in blood lying in the forecourt of the mosque.

He said a third victim was attacked inside the building and jumped out of a window when it was set alight.

Eyewitnesses said three attackers with guns had used knives. One knife was left behind, Balram said. There have been theft and robbery incidents at mosques before, but not like this, when nothing appears to have been taken.

Nick Piper, a director at Signal Risk, an Africa-focused risk management firm, said South Africa has a low baseline terrorism risk.

Incidents of this nature are  on average and without further evidence  more likely to be linked to personal or communal grievances than acts of terror as we understand them, he said.The dam in the Rift Valley region of the country burst its walls, sweeping away hundreds of homes, officials say.

More than 30 people have been killed in Kenyas Rift Valley after a dam burst its banks following weeks of torrential rain that also forced hundreds from their homes, officials said.

Water burst through the banks of the Patel Dam in Solai, Nakuru County, on Wednesday night, sweeping away hundreds of homes, including those on the expansive Nyakinyua Farm, which borders the reservoir.

We have recovered 38 bodies and many people are missing. It is a disaster, Rongai police chief Joseph Kioko said on Thursday.

Up to 40 people were rescued from under the mud  many more are feared trapped  and taken to hospital on Thursday morning by the Kenya Red Cross and Nakuru County disaster management teams.

39 people taken to hospital last night after Patel Dam in Subukia, Nakuru County, broke its banks affecting nearby villages. Search and rescue efforts by County Government, Kenya #RedCross Society and @Ems_Kenya ongoing.  Kenya Red Cross (@KenyaRedCross) May 10, 2018

Officials said the water and mud spewed out of the reservoir submerged homes over a radius of nearly two kilometres.

It was a sea of water. My neighbour was killed when the water smashed through the wall of his house. He was blind so he could not run. They found his body in the morning, Veronica Wanjiku Ngigi, 67, told Reuters news agency.

{articleGUID}

My other neighbours also died. All our houses have been ruined. There is another dam which is also overflowing which is looking risky. We are scared.

Military helicopters have been deployed to rescue flood-affected Kenyans [Thomas Mukoya/Reuters]

Almost an entire village was swept away by silt and water, Gideon Kibunja, the county police chief in charge of criminal investigations, said.

At least 132 people have died and more than 225,000 displaced, from floods caused by seasonal rains since March, according to a government statement.

Military helicopters and personnel have for the past week been deployed to rescue people marooned by the flooding.CIA nominee Gina Haspel declines to say if torture is immoral

Trumps controversial pick for CIA director faced questions from the Senate committee over her role in interrogations of terror suspects at secret detention sites.The first Ebola death was confirmed in a new outbreak and 11 people have now been infected by the deadly virus in Democratic Republic of Congo, including three health workers.

The announcement by Health Minister Oly Ilunga on Thursday came as five new suspected cases of Ebola were also reported in Congos northwestern town of Bikoro, where an outbreak of the deadly virus was declared this week.

One of the defining features of this epidemic is the fact that three health professionals have been affected, Ilunga said in a statement. This situation worries us and requires an immediate and energetic response.

Two nurses who were in contact with patients are also among five suspected cases, Bikoro Hospital director Dr Serge Ngalebato said.

Another is a woman from Ikoko Impenge, the epicentre of the outbreak some 30km from Bikoro, he said.

We have isolated the patients  All of the sick are presenting signs of fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal pain and intense fatigue, Ngalebato said.





Before Thursdays statement by Ilunga, two cases of the Zaire strain of Ebola had been confirmed in the region.

This is the ninth Ebola outbreak in Congo since 1976, when the deadly disease was first identified.

There is no specific treatment for Ebola, which is spread through the bodily fluids of people exhibiting symptoms. Without preventive measures, the virus can spread quickly between people and is fatal in up to 90 percent of cases.

The director of the National Institute of Biological and Bacterial Research, Dr Jean Jacques Muyembe, said on Wednesday health experts should be able to quickly contain this outbreak because the area is so remote.

The Ebola cases were confirmed after officials in the capital, Kinshasa, were alerted early this month to the deaths of 17 people from a hemorrhagic fever in recent weeks. However, those cases were not confirmed through testing. There are various hemorrhagic fevers  including Ebola.

The cases are likely linked to a policeman in the Bikoro health zone who presented symptoms of hemorrhagic fever and died in December, Muyembe said. His mother and 10 others then showed similar symptoms.

None of the Ebola outbreaks in Congo were connected to the massive outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa that began in 2014 and left more than 11,300 dead.Meeting set on June 12 will be the first-ever face-to-face between leaders of the US and North Korea.

US President Donald Trump announced he will hold talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12.

Trump made the announcement on social media on Thursday just hours after welcoming three Americans freed from prison in North Korea as they arrived back in the United States.

The Kim-Trump meeting will be the first between leaders of the US and North Korea.

We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace, Trump wrote in his Twitter post.

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

Trump is expected to push North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons at the meeting in exchange for security guarantees and the removal of stifling economic sanctions.

The Singapore announcement follows US Secretary of State Mike Pompeos second visit to Pyongyang to finalise plans for the summit.





Earlier, Trump suggested the demilitarised zone at Panmunjom between North and South Korea would be a possible venue for the breakthrough meeting.

Singapore emerged as the likely host of the summit after Trump yielded to the concerns of his aides and backed off his desire to hold the meeting at the inter-Korean demilitarised zone.

Angry rhetoric

Plans for a summit between Trump and Kim follow months of angry exchanges between the two over Pyongyangs testing of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, including some theoretically capable of reaching the US mainland.

But a surprising about-turn by Kim in recent months raised hopes of a turning point.

Trump thanked North Korean leader for releasing the Americans and said he believes Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearisation at their upcoming summit. I really think he wants to do something, the president said.

US Vice President Mike Pence said on Thursday on NBC News, In this moment, the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith.



Seoul and Pyongyang have been technically at war since the 1950s because the conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

But South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Kim agreed at a landmark summit last week to work towards a permanent treaty to replace the 65-year-old armistice.

Preparations for the Trump-Kim meeting gathered further momentum since the Korean summit.

South Koreas government said it had high hopes.

We welcome the North Korea-US summit to be held in Singapore on June 12. We hope the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, as well as permanent peace on the peninsula, will successfully come about through this summit.Islamic scholars from three Muslim countries set to meet in Indonesia in an effort to bring peace in Afghanistan.

Prominent Muslim scholars from three countries are set to meet in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, on Friday, hoping to find a solution to decades of war and bloodshed in Afghanistan.

At the trilateral Ulema Conference, scholars from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Indonesia will discuss challenging the narrative of holy war pushed by the Taliban armed group as the way to free the country from US-led forces.

The Taliban was removed from power in 2001 after US forces invaded Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks in New York.

Scholars hope the move will persuade the Taliban, which has been running a bloody armed rebellion since 2001, to come to the negotiating table, but analysts say it could have the opposite effect.

...any religious pronouncement against the Taliban or their extremist tactics could strip Taliban's religious legitimacy, which is the last thing they want to hear Javid Ahmed, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council

Akram Khpalwak, head of the Afghan governments High Peace Council secretariat, who will attend the Jakarta summit, hopes the participants will reach an agreement and release a fatwa  a religious edict issued by an expert in Islamic law  to persuade the Taliban to enter peace negotiations with Afghan officials.

But that seems unlikely, as the Taliban turned down an invitation to the conference, which is organised by the Indonesian government.

Surrender of Mujahideen

In a statement in March, the Taliban, who control or exercise influence in 13 percent of Afghanistans 408 districts, called the conference un-Islamic and urged all Islamic scholars to refrain from participating.

The invaders [the foreign troops in Afghanistan] have employed various stratagems to prolong their indirect occupation, an important part of which is called the Peace Process which seeks the surrender of Mujahideen [Taliban fighters], the statement said.

Javid Ahmed, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council in the US who covers counterterrorism issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan, said the Taliban were concerned by the conference.

{articleGUID}

This is because any religious pronouncement against the Taliban or their extremist tactics could strip Talibans religious legitimacy, which is the last thing they want to hear.

It may also marginally curb the Taliban recruitment.

Borhan Osman, an senior Afghan analyst for the International Crisis Group, said a scholarly discussion on the religious dimension of the war in Afghanistan is unprecedented.

The idea by the Afghan government to get a fatwa from Ulamas [Islamic scholars] to delegitimise the Talibans fight as jihad was floated seven years ago, but had never made headway until now, he told Al Jazeera.

However, he added: It is yet to be known how big an impact such a meeting would have, especially as it is not an independent initiative, but undertaken at the request of the Afghan government.

Khpalwak, meanwhile, acknowledged that it would be difficult to achieve the conferences goal as some Pakistani scholars agree with the Taliban narrative of holy war.

What we expect from them is to contribute to ending the foreign occupation in the country and by extension, to bring peace Senior Taliban member based in Doha

I believe whatever agreement we reach on will be in the best interest of Afghanistan, as we will do everything according to the Islamic law, he said.

A senior member of the Talibans political office in Doha, Qatar, who declined to be named, said the group expected Indonesia to work on steps towards ending the foreign occupation in Afghanistan, instead of issuing a fatwa.

What we [Taliban] expect from them [the Ulemas of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Indonesia] is to contribute to ending the foreign occupation in the country and by extension, to bring peace, he said.

In the first three months of 2018, more than 700 civilians were killed, and nearly 1,500 injured in a series of explosions and suicide attacks carried out by the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), according to UNs mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

With such a staggering number of civilian casualties, it is yet to be determined how much progress the conference would make towards peace, especially since the Taliban considers the Afghan government to be puppets of the American forces.

The ideal situation in an effort to bring peace in Afghanistan would be if the Taliban respond to a peace proposal in good faith, negotiate an immediate ceasefire, appoint a peace envoy and a negotiating team, and begin to engage in direct talks with Afghanistan  and the United States, said Ahmed.Berlins neutrality law bars the wearing of overt religious symbols and clothing for state employees on duty.

A court in the German capital, Berlin, has ruled that the city was right to bar a Muslim teacher, who wears a hijab (headscarf), from taking classes in a primary school, rejecting her discrimination complaint.

Justice Arne Boyer said on Wednesday that the city states so-called neutrality law, which bars the wearing of overt religious symbols and clothing for state employees on duty, weighed stronger than the right to free religious expression.

Primary school children should be free of the influence that can be exerted by religious symbols, said Martin Dressler, a court spokesman.

{articleGUID}

The court, however, found that the young woman, who was not publicly named and did not appear at the court hearing, is allowed to continue teaching older vocational students in a Berlin public secondary school.

Appeal possible

The ruling, which was still subject to a possible appeal, was expected to impact a wider debate on the issue in Germany, where rules on the hijab differ between the 16 federal states.

The hijab is a headscarf worn by many Muslim women who feel it is part of their religion.

German national law bans all civil servants from covering their faces (this includes the wearing of niqabs and burkas  the full veils worn by some Muslim women) except for when it is required for health and safety reasons, such as firefighters wearing breathing masks.

However, there is no nationwide ban on civil servants wearing the Muslim hijab, and many states weigh the tension between freedom of religion and civil servants neutrality rules on a case-by-case basis.

The predominantly Catholic state of Bavaria recently ordered Christian crosses, which already hang on walls in schools and courtrooms, to also be fixed in the entrance halls of state administration buildings.

Germanys Constitutional Court ruled in 2015 that a general ban on teachers wearing headscarves was against the right to religious freedom. States have different ways of dealing with the issue.Israel responds after Iran fires rockets at occupied Golan

If confirmed, this would be the first rocket attack carried out directly by Iran, rather than by one of its proxies, against Israel.Military says it carried out the strikes after Tehran fired missiles towards its forces in the occupied Golan Heights.

The Israeli army said on Thursday it hit dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria overnight, accusing Tehran of launching rocket and missile attack towards its forces in the occupied Golan Heights.

The (Israeli military) has struck dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria, Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists.

He said they targeted intelligence, logistics, storage and vehicles as well as the origin of the rockets.

The Israeli military also said that it had destroyed some Syrian military targets.

A Syrian radar installation was destroyed in the attack, Syrian state news agency SANA cited a military source as saying.

This is the first time that Israel has directly accused Iran of attacking it from within Syrian territory since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Al Jazeera correspondent Harry Fawcett said from Jerusalem.

The question is whether that will be a deterrent or whether it could invite further escalation from the other side now that these things are in train, accidental escalation towards further conflict is always a possibility.

Destabilise the entire region

Israel was accused of attacking an airbase near Homs province in April. In February, an Israeli F-16 fighter jet was shot down by the Syrian military while targeting what it called Iranian sites responsible for launching a drone into the occupied Golan Heights.

Israel has carried out more than a dozen strikes in Syria in the past year.

The two countries are still technically at war, although the border had remained largely quiet for decades until 2011 when the Syrian conflict broke out.

This was one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and the biggest against Iranian targets.

Conricus said Russia was informed before the attack.

Moscow and Tehran are close allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has been fighting a civil war for the past seven years. Over half a million Syrians have died, and nearly half of the prewar population has been displaced.

Al Jazeeras Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Beirut, said the move created concerns in neighbouring Lebanon after the Lebanese army said the countrys airspace had been violated by Israeli fighter jets.

Israel has said in the past that the Syrian government is paving the way for Iran and Hezbollah [a Lebanese Shia militia] to maintain a strong military presence in the [occupied] Golan Heights not far from the border with Israel.

Ahelbarra said that any confrontation between Israel and Iran could trigger a reaction from Hezbollah, which backs President Assad.

If that happens, then you might end up with a situation where you have different frontlines, different battlefields happening at the same time, which could further destabilise the entire region.Irans reaction to latest deadly strikes to determine the length and intensity of confrontation, say analysts.

Israeli raids against alleged Iranian targets inside Syria have raised fears of a major confrontation in the Middle East.

Amid international calls for restraint and calm, Israeli officials said Thursdays attacks were not aimed at opening a new front in Syrias war, but analysts say much will depend on Irans response.

The Israeli military has said that its warplanes targeted intelligence, logistics, storage and vehicles in response to rocket fire targeting its forces in the occupied Golan Heights, which it blames on Iran.

Avigdor Lieberman, Israels defence minister, said the Israeli assault struck almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, and added that Israel will desist from launching any further attacks.

I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message, he said, but warned that if it rains on us [Israel], it will pour on them [Iran].

Iran has not commented on the rocket fire.

Situation unclear

The situation remains unclear, with an independent war monitor claiming the rockets followed a first Israeli bombardment on the town of Baath in Quneitra province.

Also on Tuesday, Syrian state media reported attacks on a military base in Kisweh, south of Damascus, and accused Israel of carrying out the raid.

The strikes on Kisweh came shortly after President Donald Trump announced US withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and resulted in the deaths of 15 people, eight of whom were Iranians, according to the war monitor.

{articleGUID}

Iranian forces based in Syria reportedly retaliated the next day, launching 20 rockets in the direction of the Israeli-occupied Syrian territory of Golan Heights.

The Israeli military accused Irans Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and its Quds Force, headed by General Qassem Suleimani, of being behind the attack.

Analysts said the Israeli retaliation was meant to signal Tel Avivs resolve, without allowing the conflict spiral out of control.

I dont think Israel is interested in continuing a prolonged war with Iran because this might spill over to other theatres, including in Lebanon with Hezbollah, effectively making it a proxy war, Yossi Mekelberg, a professor of international relations at Regents University, London, told Al Jazeera.

Israel runs the risk, by doing what it did, that Iran will feel almost obliged and forced to retaliate again.

Thats the danger when things like this start, you dont know how and whos going to stop. You know how it starts, but you dont know how it will end.

Wed like to stop

Mekelberg said the message that Israel was trying to get across is that it was not interested in escalation.

By saying we achieved our objectives, Israel is effectively saying wed like to stop', he said.

However, the ball is now in the court of Iran.

Ghanbar Naderi, an Iranian political analyst, said it was unlikely that Iran will pull back and relinquish all the gains it has made in Syria in recent years.





In Naderis view, the attacks on Iranian outposts are a last-ditch attempt by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels prime minister, to save face as he struggles to accept the Syrian government and its Iranian backers successive victories.

At the end of the day, this is a limited campaign in order to send the message that they have not lost the war.

I think they have lost the war and should call it quits and allow Syria to reconstruct itself from scratch, Naderi said.

Naderi, however, is unequivocal about Irans willingness and ability to retaliate in the event of future Israeli aggression.

This is not the first time that Israel attacks Syria from the Golan Heights and certainly wont be the last one, he says.

We are expecting more attacks in the coming weeks and months. But the simple fact is that Iran is going to stay in Syria.

If Israel hits Syrian or Iranian forces, there will be retaliation. This is no longer the Syria of five or six years ago.After a strong showing in the parliamentary election, veteran leader becomes the worlds oldest statesman.

Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as Malaysias next leader following his stunning election victory over the ruling coalition that had governed the Southeast Asian nation for six decades.

Dressed in traditional Malay dress, Mahathir took the oath of office at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Malaysias constitutional monarch, King Sultan Muhammad V, administered the oath.

At 92, Mahathir became the worlds oldest head of state.

Mahathir Mohamad  live https://t.co/SHPput8X2J  Dr Mahathir Mohamad (@chedetofficial) May 10, 2018

As he was sworn in, fireworks lit up in the night sky across Kuala Lumpur.

Hundreds of Malaysians lined the road leading to the palace, waving party flags and cheering the veteran politician who previously ruled for 22 years until his retirement in 2003.

Addressing a news conference after the ceremony, Mahathir thanked supporters and said, Right away, we will have to do a lot of work tomorrow.

Mahathirs alliance of four parties, the Pakatan Harapan or Alliance of Hope, trounced the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which had ruled the country since its independence from the British.

Voters appeared to punish defeated Prime Minister Najib Razak who has been embroiled in a massive corruption scandal for years and also implemented a highly unpopular sales tax.

Earlier in the day, Najib, who ruled Malaysia for nearly a decade, said he accepted the verdict of the people. He did not attend the swearing-in ceremony at the palace.

The opposition won 121 seats, one more than required for a simple majority, and BN has 79 in the 222-member parliament, according to official results.

Mahathir said he had been assured of support from a raft of parties that would give his government 135 members of parliament.

This upset ranks up there with Brexit and the Trump election, said Aninda Mitra, a senior sovereign analyst at BNY Mellon Investment Management.

Corruption downfall

Mahathir decided to take on Najib in the wake of the financial scandal and joined the opposition, with many old foes during his previous rule, to defeat him.

The US Department of Justice says $4.5bn was looted from the 1MBD investment fund by associates of the former prime minister between 2009 and 2014, including $700m that landed in Najibs bank account.

Najib denies any wrongdoing.

Mahathir told reporters he will try to make the ringgit currency as steady as possible, and return the billions lost in the 1MDB scandal.

We believe that we can get most of the 1MDB money back  We have to increase the confidence of investors in the administration, he said.

The new government will also repeal a goods and services tax introduced by Najib, review foreign investments and abolish oppressive and unfair laws, he added.





Whats next?

Few had expected Mahathir to prevail against a coalition that has long relied on the support of the countrys Malay ethnic majority.

Khoo Ying Hoi, a professor of international and strategic studies at the University of Malaya, said the election has proved to us that we moved beyond racial politics.

Its really people power through the ballot, said Khoo.

Mahathir joined hands with jailed political leader Anwar Ibrahim, his one-time deputy with whom he fell out in 1998, and together their alliance exploited public disenchantment.

Mahathir said one of his first actions would be to seek a royal pardon for Anwar. He said he would step aside within the next two years so Anwar could become prime minister.

Anwars wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, is to be deputy prime minister.

Al Jazeeras Divya Gopalan, reporting from Kuala Lumpur, said Malaysians were still taking stock of the unexpected elections results.

At the moment, there is a sense of euphoria here, she said. There has been disillusionment with the previous government with the rise in the cost of living, corruption allegations, so they feel like they have mobilised some kind of change.Three assailants on the run after killing one worshipper during midday prayers and critically wounding two others.

South African police are hunting for three attackers who cut the throat of an imam and stabbed and seriously injured two other people at a Shia mosque.

The attack on the mosque on Thursday in Verulam, a town 27km north of Durban, left the Muslim community outraged and demanding answers.

Major Bheki Langa, KwaZulu-Natal provinces acting police commissioner, said in a statement the motive was still unclear. The assailants also set the mosque on fire before escaping in a getaway vehicle.

Such criminality cannot be tolerated. A team of investigators has been dispatched to solve the case and bring perpetrators to book, Langa said.

Emergency rescue services initially said the imam of the mosque had died after the attackers slit his throat. But the Herald newspaper reported on Friday that the imam had survived the attack and was in a critical condition at a local hospital, together with the caretaker of the mosque who was also stabbed.

The man who died was a worshipper named Abbas Essop who had come to the imams aid after he had heard screams from the mosque. The assailants had also reportedly slit Abbas throat.

Swift condemnation

The incident drew immediate condemnation from the Muslim leadership across the country.

Faisal Suleman, chairperson of the South African Muslim Network, told Al Jazeera his organisation would not want to speculate on a motive given it was still not clear.

We condemn this attack and we are urging the law enforcement to spare no effort in apprehending the perpetrators alive so that the reasons become known, Suleman said from Durban.

South Africa has not had such attacks in the past, so we caution against speculation.

The Muslim Judicial Council denounced the bloodshed and said the core of Islamic teachings and principles are respect for all human beings.

Islamic scholar Shaykh Rafeek Haseen told community radio station Voice of the Cape that Durbans Muslim community is in shock and urged people not to jump to conclusions.

It may be a case of money laundering or a personal issue between the perpetrators and the victims. I do not think we should jump to conclusions that this attack is motivated by sectarianism, said Haseen.

The United Ulama Council of South Africa denounced these grievous and vicious attacks.

We condemn these unjustifiable acts of violence, which foster nothing but tension, mistrust, and insecurity within communities, said the groups Secretary-General Yusuf Patel.

Extremely rare

Muslims make up about 1.9 percent of South Africas 55 million population, with most following the Sunni Muslim denomination. Attacks on mosques are extremely rare, but observers note anti-Shia rhetoric has been on the rise over the past few years, especially on social media.

Farid Sayed, editor of the Muslim Views newspaper based in Cape Town, said there have been attacks on mosques before, but usually from the racist, white right-wing.

Sayed said many Muslims in South Africa deny the fact that there is intra-faith intolerance in the community.

One can dismiss this as a once-off attack, it may not even be a sectarian attack. But I think it alerts us to the fact that we could actually be facing a situation where there could be violence [in the future].

In the past, it was always verbal attacks, not physical. I have some [social media] posts that suggest that it was just a Shia mosque, in other words, they deserved to be attacked, Sayed said.

The countrys parliament also released a statement condemning the violence.

A mosque is a religious institution and South Africas constitution guarantees and protects the right to religious practices, Francois Beukman, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, said in a statement released from parliament.

This kind of attack on three innocent people is totally unjustified. We want our communities to live in harmony, practising their religions without fear.

Additional reporting by Mishka Wazar and Lizeka MadunaSouth Korean president has managed to hold an inter-Korean summit but has he improved the economy and job market?

Seoul, South Korea  On April 27, South Korean President Moon Jae-in shook hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the military demarcation line between the two Koreas.

After the handshake came the historic walk across the border that stunned the world.

Liberal politician Moon, 65, came into the office a year ago following months of candlelit protests that led to the unprecedented ousting of Park Geun-hye amid a swirling corruption scandal.

Unlike his predecessor, Moon, a former human rights lawyer, made an effort to portray himself as an accessible president, opening the office website as a platform for the public to lodge petitions and making it mandatory for the Blue House to respond if they garner 200,000 signatures within 30 days.

Moons approval rating peaked at a remarkable 83 percent following the successful hosting of the first inter-Korean summit on South Korean soil.

Moons approval rating at mid-80 percent is the highest achieved by any president after just one year in office, according to Bae Jong-chan, managing director of Research & Research.

Determined to avoid the same dangers of misplaced and misused authority that brought down the former president, Moon also hoped to reduce the power of the presidency by bringing in constitutional reform.

However, with a weak ruling party in parliament, his grand plan to revise the single-term, five-year presidency to a maximum of two four-year terms was stymied after the National Assembly failed to change the referendum law to bring the issue to a public vote.

After inheriting a country fed up with corruption and poor leadership, Moons image as a humble president is helping him garner high approval ratings.

Some pundits, however, warn that the rosy numbers could nosedive should the planned US-North Korea summit not end on a high note.

Showing is very important in politics, but if the public cant feel the change, their support will die too, Shin Yul, Professor at Myongji University, told Al Jazeera.

If the summit between Washington and Pyongyang goes well, itll prove that Moon was a good mediator. Until then, its too early to tell.

Economy and employment

Prior to last years presidential elections, the state of inter-Korea relations was not a priority for many South Koreans.

A Gallup poll showed the top two priorities picked by voters for the incoming president to focus on were reviving the economy and creating jobs. Moon appears to have come up short on both.

According to a Korea Economic Daily poll of 140 opinion leaders on Moons first year, 73.6 percent said Moon was doing worst in reviving the economy.





At 11.6 percent, youth unemployment in March reached its highest in two years despite extra government spending of 11 trillion Korean Won ($10.2bn) last year.

If the Moon administration enters its second or third year and the president cant show sufficient economic achievement, his approval ratings could fall to 50 to 60 percent, said Bae.

Demographically, most of his support comes from voters in their 20s and 30s, while people over 60 from the countrys conservative-leaning southeastern region show a lower approval of Moon.

But even those on the right are not immune to his charm, with one of the most conservative civic groups chanting pro-Moon slogans outside the Blue House on the same day as the inter-Korean summit.

Much of this popularity is based on Moons charisma.

South Koreans are crazy about President Moon, said Bae.

But the president must be very careful and remember to narrow the gap between him and his governments popularity.Voters to take part in a referendum later this month to decide whether or not to liberalise abortion laws.

People across Ireland take to the polls on May 25 to vote in a highly anticipated referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment.

First voted into the Irish Constitution in 1983, the Eighth Amendment recognises the right to life of the unborn child, effectively placing a ban on abortion.

In 2013, however, The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act was introduced to allow for abortions if the mothers life is immediately threatened, including by suicide.

An estimated 150,000 women have travelled outside Ireland for abortions since the early 1980s.

An estimated nine women travel to the UK a day to procure abortions, while a further three take abortion pills illegally.

According to Irish law, people who procure abortions illegally risk a 14-year jail term, although no woman has ever served jail time.

Pro-abortion rights campaigners are pushing to repeal the Eighth Amendment on the grounds that Irelands abortion laws are among the most restrictive in Europe, while anti-abortion rights campaigners want to retain it, arguing that human life encompasses the stages from conception to death.

The Irish government has proposed a bill which would allow women to have abortions without specific indication up to the 12th week of pregnancy.

Leo Varadkar, taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland, said: There will be a waiting period of 72 hours for reflection and counselling. Terminations beyond 12 weeks will remain illegal except in very specific circumstances.

These would include mental health issues.

{articleGUID}

John McGuirk, director of communications at Save the 8th, an anti-abortion rights group, says late-term abortions on the grounds of the mothers mental health are inhumane.

This basically means that on mental health grounds, healthy babies can be aborted up to 24 weeks to 6 months, he told Al Jazeera.

In the UK, 97 percent of abortions are carried out on healthy women with healthy unborn children.

Ireland is one of the few countries in the world which protects the unborn and people want to change this?

Abortion does not cure a mental health problem  all it does is end the life of a healthy baby brutally.

McGuirk believes the Irish public is in the dark about what the government is proposing.

McGuirk, director of communications at Save the 8th [Barbara McCarthy/Al Jazeera]

Pro-choice campaigners are focusing on the very small number of very distressing cases  those where women have to travel abroad to procure abortions when their baby suffers from fatal foetal abnormality of if they have been raped, but most abortions take place on healthy mothers, with healthy babies, he said.

Irish people would not vote to repeal the Eighth Amendment if they understood the law that would replace it, psychiatric nurse Cathrina OSullivan said.

Its a lot cheaper to end the life of a baby than it is to support it, she told Al Jazeera.

I had a crisis pregnancy when I was 18. I live in Kerry, on the southwestern tip of Ireland.

Had there been an abortion clinic in Kerry, or a doctor handing out abortion pills, my daughter wouldnt be here.

A child is the greatest gift life could give me, and I was so close to not accepting it.

In the UK, one in five pregnancies end in abortion, and were so close to importing that culture to Ireland. Life is a gift and not a problem.

The Yes campaigners think that a crisis-pregnancy is the end of the world. Its not. Thats why Im voting no.

A child is the greatest gift life could give me, says OSullivan [Barbara McCarthy/Al Jazeera]

Currently, 78 percent of the Irish population is Catholic, and members of the church are hoping their members will vote No.

The archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said the Catholic Church must be anti-abortion rights.

Being pro-life is not an ideological position, he told Al Jazeera.

The Church needs to be a beacon of support at any vulnerable moment along the path of life.

Yes campaign

Ivana Bacik, a professor of law and labour senator, argues that the Eighth Amendment is uniquely misogynistic.

Because of the Eighth Amendment, we could not legislate to allow abortion in cases of rape, nor where a pregnancy poses a serious risk to a womans health; nor even in cases where a baby is incapable of being born alive, he said.

Article 40.3.3 (the Eighth Amendment) needs to be removed as it does not address the health needs of Irish women and has put lives at risk.

Bacik argues that the Eighth Amendment is uniquely misogynistic [Barbara McCarthy/Al Jazeera]

She argues that outlawing abortion does not prevent crisis pregnancy, but it has compounded the crisis of pregnancy, particularly for the women who undertake the journey to seek abortion abroad or take abortion pills illegally.

It is estimated that up to 3,000 women may take abortion pills each year in Ireland.

Its pretty simple, if you think the law is too restrictive, vote Yes to repeal, Bacik told Al Jazeera.

This is a once in a generational opportunity to vote. If we blow it now, thats it.

Lisa Connell, member of LGBT for Choice

Bacik fears that if the Eighth Amendment is not removed, women procuring abortion pills will face criminal charges if caught.

Were not looking beyond May 25th. This is not a vote for or against abortion. It is already here. It is a vote to regulate abortion, and to make it safer.

According to the Yes campaign, one in 20 women in Ireland have had an abortion.

Lisa Connell, a member of LGBT for Choice, insists that Irish women will have abortions regardless, and voting No wont stop that.

Lisa Connell, member of LGBT for Choice [Barbara McCarthy/Al Jazeera]

Irish people are ready for change, she told Al Jazeera. Were still basking in the glow of the gay marriage referendum, which took place in May 2015.

Even though its an entirely different issue, I think there are certain comparisons between the two, Connell went on to say.

A lot of people ask us, why are we involved? Whats it got to do with us?

Principally, its about a fundamental human rights issue. Why shouldnt women be able to access these?

Why should women be in a situation where the life of their unborn foetus is on par with theirs?

Im standing in front of a Repeal the Eighth mural, which was painted over, as it as it constitutes political activity.

Its representative of how people in Ireland feel, you can paint over a mural, but ultimately you cant paint over an issue.

You need to look at the bigger picture and ask yourself what kind of country you want to live in.

I think that the gay marriage referendum mobilised a certain section of society and one of its biggest successes was the student movement.

Its naive to predict anything, its going to be tight, but I think Irish people are ready to Repeal the Eighth Amendment.

Follow Barbara McCarthy on Twitter: @barbsmccarthySecurity forces vote early in Iraqi elections

Thursdays early voting did not include the popular mobilisation units, but there are hopes that the successful merger of factions on the battlefield can be translated into cooperation in the political arena.Noura Hussein, 19, was forced by her parents to marry her cousin three years ago, activists say.

Noura Hussein, a 19-year-old Sudanese woman, was sentenced to death by a court for stabbing her husband to death after he raped her.

The death penalty for Hussein was confirmed by a judge on Thursday after her husbands family rejected financial compensation and insisted on retribution.

The husbands family received the verdict with claps of joy and cheering, said Amal Habani, a Sudanese journalist and womens rights activist who attended the hearing in Omdurman, Sudans second-largest city.

But for Husseins supporters at the courtroom, the news was very distressing, Habani told Al Jazeera.

Husseins legal team has 15 days to appeal the death sentence.

According to another human rights activist who also attended the hearing, large crowds of supporters for Hussein gathered outside the court to protest the verdict, but police violently dispersed them.

People protested carrying signs and posters to show their disapproval of the verdict, said Rasha Abualayla. But the police snatched the posters out of their hands and even started beating some of them.

Rights activists have campaigned on behalf of Hussein on social media and a #JusticeForNoura hashtag has trended on Twitter.

Underage, forced marriage

At 16, Hussein was forced by her parents to marry her cousin, according to activists.

According to members of the #JusticeForNoura campaign, Hussein was forced to sign the marriage contract in 2014. She then fled to a relatives house in eastern Sudan before the wedding ceremony was completed.

Her father allegedly tricked her into returning to her husband. After six days of Hussein refusing his advances, he raped her with the help of family members who held her down, supporters say.

She would not have sex with the man, Sarah ElHasan, a rights activist, told Al Jazeera. He recruited some of his cousins and brought them [to his] home where they held her down while her husband raped her.

When Husseins husband attempted to rape her again, she stabbed him to death before returning to her family, who then handed her over to police.

We will try to appeal the decision in the next 15 days  We are hopeful that it will be possible, said a member of Husseins legal team, who asked not to be named because of the cases sensitivity.

Noura had lots of problems in her life and marriage, which should be taken into consideration  We are working on getting the judge to see those sides of the case.

A teenager who was forcefully married and raped by her husband has been sentenced to death. Activists want #JusticeForNoura. pic.twitter.com/jZJtqqzF2C  Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 10, 2018

According to Habani, forced and child marriages in Sudan are an ongoing issue womens rights activists have been trying to address.

Like Noura, who was only a child when she got married, there are many child marriages and forced marriages in Sudan. The law doesnt see that as illegal and neither does it consider marital rape so, explained Habani.

Noura faced a lot of violence from her family to marry a man she rejected from the start. Then, she was beaten into submission by his family to consummate the marriage. Noura was a victim before she became a criminal. She shouldnt have been handed down a death penalty.US president thanks North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and greets three Americans released by Pyongyang.

Three Americans freed from prison in North Korea have arrived back in the US a day after their release.

US President Donald Trump, alongside First Lady Melania Trump, welcomed the trio when they arrived at the Joint Base Andrews in Maryland outside Washington, DC, on Thursday.

Kim Dong-chul, Tony Kim, and Kim Hak-song were held by North Korea for periods ranging between one and two years over alleged anti-state activities.

We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home, the three said in a statement released on their behalf by the US Department of State on Wednesday.

Their release follows US Secretary of State Mike Pompeos visit to North Korea to finalise plans for a summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

This is a special night for these three really great people, said Trump, as he thanked Kim for the release.

Trump added that his proudest achievement will be when the entire Korean Peninsula is denuclearised.

I had productive meetings in Pyongyang with Chairman Kim Jong-un and made progress. I'm delighted to bring home three Americans.  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) May 9, 2018

The US had frequently called for the release of the three prisoners, all of whom are Korean-American nationals, with their detention widely seen as being politically motivated.

The prisoners release marks the latest development in improving US-North Korea relations in the run-up to Trump-Kim summit.

Who are the former detainees?



Kim Dong-chul, who served the longest sentence of the three, was arrested in 2015 and handed a 10-year prison term with hard labour for alleged spying.

Before that, he had been running a company in North Koreas special economic zone.

Tony Kim, who was arrested at Pyongyang airport last year, was an accounting teacher at the only privately funded college in North Korea.

The state claimed he was committing criminal acts of hostility.

Kim Hak-song, who worked in agricultural development at the same university as Tony Kim, was also arrested last year.

He was detained on similar charges, but its not known if their cases were related.

Analysis  Kimberly Halkett, Al Jazeera

This is certainly a foreign policy achievement for Donald Trump.

It is a patriotic moment for many Americans to see these men returning to US soil and walking in such good health.

There was an audible cheer as the three disembarked from the medical plane that had transported them to the US. One of the freed men, Kim Dong-chul, raised his arms triumphantly before walking down to the tarmac.

This is certainly a significant moment for these men who will now go on for further medical treatment. This is certainly a pivotal point for the US which is viewing this as a goodwill gesture on North Koreas part.Belhaj, who was seized in Bangkok in 2004, says a tip-off from Britains MI6 led to his capture and eventual torture.

The UK has apologised for contributing to the ill-treatment of Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhaj, who was kidnapped in Thailand in 2004, transferred to Libya and tortured.

Belhaj  who was seized with his then-pregnant wife Fatima Boudchar and four children while on their way to the UK  has said that a tip-off from MI6, the British foreign intelligence agency, led to their capture.

The UK governments actions contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering  On behalf of Her Majestys government, I apologise to you unreservedly, Theresa May, Britains prime minister, said in a letter to Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar, which was read out in parliament on Thursday by Jeremy Wright, the attorney general.

Wright said the settlement with the couple included a 500,000 payment to Boudchar.

Speaking in Istanbul, Turkey, after the settlement was announced, Belhaj said: I welcome and accept the prime ministers apology, and I extend to her and the attorney general my thanks and goodwill.

For more than six years I have made clear that I had a single goal in bringing this case: justice. Now, at last, justice has been done.

Britain has made a wrong right today, and set an example for other nations to follow.

Belhajs case, and that of another Libyan dissident Sami al-Saadi, whose family was also abducted and rendered to Libya, had been investigated by British police who accumulated nearly 30,000 pages of evidence over a five-year period.

Wright said the settlement with Belhaj included a 500,000 payment [AFP]





While the Saadi family received a 2m ($2.5m) settlement two years ago, Belhaj insisted he only wanted an apology and a symbolic 1 ($1.24) payment from each of the defendants.

Following the announcement, which Boudchar attended with her son in London, she thanked the British government for their apology.

I thank the British government for its apology  I accept the governments apology, Boudchar said.

By todays settlement, I look forward to rebuilding my life with dignity and honour, and living free from the weight of these events with my husband and our five beautiful children.

For Cori Crider, a lawyer and the strategic director of Reprieves Abuses in Counter-Terrorism Team, who has been working as a lawyer and counsel to the family for many years, the settlement is a victory.

This is not just Abdul-Hakim and Fatimas victory. It is a victory for everyone who opposes injustice, secret detention, and torture, said Crider in a written statement following the announcement.

Britain lost its way when it got mixed up in rendition, but today, by apologising for its part in that dark story, the UK has stood on the right side of history.

Years-long ordeal

A former fighter with the anti-Gaddafi Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), Belhaj was imprisoned in Libya for six years after his capture.

During that time he says he was routinely tortured and mistreated.

The case came to light after the fall of Tripoli in 2011, when faxes from Mark Allen, MI6s then-counterterrorism director, describing the rendition flights were found in the ransacked office of Moussa Koussa, Libyas head of intelligence.

The US deemed the anti-Gaddafi LIFG to be a terrorist group allied with al-Qaeda.

Belhaj denied that any links between the group and al-Qaeda existed and said he believed his rendition to Libya was part of a covert deal between former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, who was overthrown and killed in a popular uprising in 2011.

Reconciliation deal

Belhaj and Saadi were released from jail in Tripoli in 2010 under a reconciliation deal arranged by Gaddafis son Saif al-Islam.

British officials, including Jack Straw, then the foreign secretary and responsible for MI6, repeatedly denied that they had anything to do with the rendering of terror suspects, a practice more widely undertaken by the CIA.

However, in 2011, documents revealed when NATO aircraft destroyed the Tripoli offices of Gaddafis intelligence chief, Moussa Koussa, implicated the UK government.

In a letter to Koussa, dated 18 March 2004, Mark Allen, MI6s counterterrorism chief, congratulated him on Belhajs safe arrival in Tripoli, adding that British involvement in the operation was the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over the years.Analysts dispute significance of Hezbollahs gains at the expense of Saad Hariris party as poll fever cools.

Beirut, Lebanon  The dust has finally settled in Lebanons parliamentary election, after most of the 128 winning candidates were announced on Monday.

Yet, as election fever cools in the country, analysts continue to dispute the significance of the results, especially when it comes to Hezbollahs gains.

Until Sundays vote, the country had not held a general election since 2009, due to regional crises, security concerns and internal political wrangling.

Overseen by security forces, the vote was largely peaceful, yet monitors reported some 7,000 documented violations.

Just under 50 percent of Lebanons approximately 3.8 million eligible voters cast ballots  a drop from the last elections 54 percent turnout, which observers have attributed to voter apathy and politicians blamed on a confusing new electoral system.

Unofficial results calculated by parties electoral machines began to emerge on Monday morning amid silence from the interior ministry, which had planned to release final numbers at dawn.

By the time Nouhad Machnouk, the interior minister, announced the official results after 8pm on Monday, political leaders had already held press conferences in which most declared victory.

Biggest winners

Early analysis of these preliminary figures indicated that Hezbollah and the Amal were the biggest winners, along with their allies.

{articleGUID}

The morning after, pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al Akhbar declared the election a slap against Prime Minister Saad Hariris Future Movement (FM) on its front page.

FM lost seats in its three strongholds of Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon, to Hezbollah-backed Sunni candidates.

In a televised speech on Monday, aired hours before the official results, Hezbollahs leader, Hassan Nasrallah, called the result a very big political, parliamentary and moral victory for the choice of resistance.

Israeli officials were also quick to weigh in  commenting on Twitter on Monday, Naftali Bennett, a hawkish member of the Israeli cabinet, said: Hezbollah = Lebanon, signalling that Israel will not differentiate between the state and Hezbollah in any future war.

Official results were largely consistent with preliminary numbers, which only called a few seats incorrectly.

Lebanons leading English daily, The Daily Star, broke down the outcome as follows:

Hezbollah and Amal, which ran unified lists as Al Amal Wal Wafa (Arabic for Hope and Loyalty) but also ran joint lists with parties and political figures across the country, took 28 seats, 13 and 15 seats respectively.

Hezbollah and Amal currently hold 13 seats each.

President Michel Aouns Christian-majority Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) increased its numbers from 18 MPs up to 22 seats, including allied independent candidates.

Geagea to the fore

To the surprise of some, Samir Geageas Lebanese Forces (LF), traditionally Hezbollahs biggest critic, nearly doubled its number of MPs from eight to 14.

That puts the Christian-majority LF party in a position to challenge FPM.

{articleGUID}

The Azm Party, led by former PM Najib Mikati, also made gains, electing four MPs up from a single seat.

Mikati said on Monday that he was most definitely a candidate for premiership in the new cabinet.

The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) and Tashnag, the leading party in the Lebanese Armenian community, both won an additional seat. SSNP now has two, and Tashnag has three MPs.

A veteran journalist, Paula Yacoubian, was the sole victorious candidate who ran with a coalition of civil society groups named Kollouna Watani (Arabic for We Are All for the Nation).

Another Kollouna Watani candidate, Joumana Haddad, was announced a winner in the preliminary results only to be overturned later on Monday, when the seat was called for an FPM candidate.

The news provoked an immediate protest, staged by anti-establishment activists and voters.

Biggest losers

Hariris Sunni-majority FM party saw a drop from 33 seats to 21. FMs biggest symbolic loss was in the capital Beirut, a long-time stronghold of the party, where pro-Hezbollah candidates gained a few traditionally Sunni seats for the first time.

{articleGUID}

Another establishment party, Walid Jumblatts Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), the largest in Lebanons Druze community, lost two seats, dropping from 11 MPs to nine.

The Kataeb Party, a family-dominated party also known as the Phalanges Party, currently headed by Samy Gemayel, dropped from five MPs to three.

The Marada Movement, led by Sleiman Frangieh Jr, maintained its three seats.

Based on this count, 14 seats remain, seven of which the Daily Star identified as pro-March 8, four as pro-March 14 and the remaining three as independent.

Following the assassination of the late PM Rafik Hariri in 2005, widely attributed to pro-Syrian elements, two major protests in the countrys capital marked a split of the political arena into two broad camps: the pro-Syrian, Hezbollah-led March 8 bloc and the anti-Syrian, Western and Saudi-backed March 14 bloc.Iraq will be caught in the middle of the anti-Iran approach the US is adopting, analysts say.

Iraqs political progress will likely be hindered by the US decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, analysts say, since the two rival countries continue to back different sides in Iraq.

As Iraq gears up for its first parliamentary elections on Saturday since the defeat of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) last year, experts say the roles played by the US and Iran over the past several years have heavily influenced Iraqs political scene.

While the US backs the government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Iran backs Shia-dominated paramilitaries loyal to its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

According to experts, the US and Irans influence in Iraq date back to the US-led invasion in 2003, which removed former President Saddam Hussein from power.

The US then ordered the dismantlement of Iraqs army and banned the Sunni Baath Party from government under the de-Baathification law.

The Baath party had been in power for 40 years prior and, under the new law, many Iraqis who were party affiliates lost their jobs. Consequently, an estimated 400,000 people became marginalised in Iraqi society.

The US appointed Nouri al-Maliki  a Shia politician, who targeted and marginalised Sunnis and Kurds during his tenure  as prime minister, leading to a sectarian war that resulted in the displacement of more than one million Iraqis between 2006 and 2008.

Iraqi elections

Saturdays election is seen as different from previous ones mainly because regional issues are playing a more important role than the local ones, Haider Saeed, editor-in-chief of the Siyasat Arabiya journal, told Al Jazeera.





Iraqis fear deteriorating US-Iran relations may threaten the countrys first attempt at creating a nationalist government that surpasses sectarian and intra-political divides.

Haider al-Abadi was successful in balancing US and Iran interests in the past, but its going to be much harder for anyone to sustain that, Saeed said.

US involvement this time around is greater than it ever was before, he added.

Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, Middle East Forum analyst, told Al Jazeera the US government generally considers it important to maintain influence in Iraq as a counter to Iranian influence.

Its more about limiting Iranian influence and preventing dominance of pro-Iranian factions in Iraqs government and security sector, he said.

Geostrategic depth

Renad Mansour, research fellow at Chatham House, told Al Jazeera Iraqs geostrategic importance is another reason why the US wants to keep its influence in the country.

Maintaining a friendly Iraqi government is important [for the US] for geopolitical calculations in the region, Mansour said. If the US loses Iraq, it loses a considerable amount of influence in the area.

In the past, the US had seemed indifferent to Iranian influence in Iraq, but Saeed argues that in the near future, Iraq will be forced to choose which ally to keep.

In the next few years the US administration will be asking Iraqi leadership where do they stand on the disputes with Iran and which side will they stick with, Saeed said. Iraqi leadership will be put in an awkward position.

Iran is expected to respond to the US aggressive language towards it and the nuclear deal abandonment by working to further solidify its influence in neighbouring countries.

Mahjoob Zweiri, director of the Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University, said Iran has already started laying the groundwork.

How this is going to affect Iraqs general election is unclear, said Zweiri. The outcome of the [tension] appeared early when Iran tried last week to raise question marks about Abadis legitimacy to be prime minister, and tried to play down his ability to be elected.





Sending messages

Al-Abadi, who is expected to continue as prime minister for a second term, has managed to maintain a balanced relationship with the US, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

However, he is considered by some within Iraq as pro-US, which might hamper his political image going forward.

Iran is trying to send a clear message to the US that if you want to pressure Iran on the nuclear deal, we have a response to that, and the first will be in Iraq, Zweiri said.

Of course, Iraq is not the only platform where they try to send messages. The Lebanese election was a clear message as well where we saw the result in favour of Hezbollah.

The Iran-backed Shia party won a small minority in Lebanese parliament on May 6.

Zweiri added Iran would likely capitalise on the political gains in Lebanon to communicate to the US that deteriorating relations would reflect on the entire region.

According to Mansour, this is highly likely especially in light of the US exiting the Iran nuclear deal.

The withdrawal will give more power to the so-called conservative factions of the [Iranian] leadership and they have to do something [as a response] and show their own people, he said.

But Mansour warned Tehran will have to be careful in its engagement as anti-Iranian sentiment is growing in Iraq.

The challenge to Iranian influence is happening on the streets, and if the US can harness that, it will do the job for them.I love the old gospel song "Peace in the Midst of the Storm." In the midst of the Deep State's raging, unprecedented hate-storm against Trump, he remarkably remains at peace, and so should we.

Trump and We the People are winning. The fake news media sell their lie 24-7 that voters regret voting for Trump and he is mere days from impeachment. In truth, Trump's approval has risen to 51%. Leftists are pulling their hair out in frustration, screaming, how can we stop this freaking outsider amateur politician? The tide is turning in our favor.

The Deep State's billions, traps, and lies continue to fail. Incredibly, Trump repeatedly lands on his feet, confidently pressing forward on making America great again. It's a God thing, folks.

At the 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner, Michelle Wolf wrongly assumed that her hate-filled attacks on Trump and the women in his administration, along with her callousness against unborn babies, would score a home run for liberalism. Even devout leftists were uncomfortable with Ms. Wolf vomiting the left's pure hatred for traditional Americans for all the world to see. Wolf's foul-mouthed, mean-spirited monologue hit a home run for conservatism. We are winning, folks.

Pop icon Kanye West's recent conservative comments and praise for Trump are huge. With Kanye's 27 million Twitter followers, millions of blacks heard conservatism for the first time. Since Kanye's conservative tweet, black male approval of Trump has doubled. In essence, Kanye's message mirrors mine: stop weakening yourselves with victim mindsets, make right choices, and simply go for your dreams. Liberate yourselves from slavery on the Democrats' government dependency plantation. In Trump and Kanye, God is using unexpected vessels to spread His truth. Conservatism truly is best for all people. Kanye represents a huge crack in the left's wall of ignorance enslaving low-info voters.

It was thrilling to hear Trump announce that the United States will withdraw from Obama's insane Iran nuke deal. Trump pulled no punches in explaining why Obama appeasing Iran was dangerous for America and our ally, Israel. For crying out loud, folks...what idiot president gives $150 billion to a regime that chants, "Death to America!"?

Israel is despised by most leftists. Trump having the courage to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and actually move our U.S. embassy to Jerusalem is amazing. Regarding Israel, God said, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse" (Gen. 12:3).

Remember Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, who was outrageously held in a Mexican jail for seven months? Obama refused to make a phone call for Tahmooressi's release. Presidential candidate Trump intervened, successfully freeing Tahmooressi.

Amazingly, Trump's secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is headed home from North Korea with three previously held hostages  a gesture of good faith for Trump's meeting with Kim Jong-un. Can you say "Trump: The Art of the Deal," boys and girls?

In essence, Obama received an affirmative action Nobel Prize because he is black and for touring the world apologizing for who we are as Americans and begging forgiveness. Numerous pundits say Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize the old-fashioned way  he earned it.

If Trump successfully ends the 70-year-old Korean War and Kim Jong-un follows through with his vow to end North Korea's nuclear program, Trump absolutely deserves the Nobel Prize. If Trump wins the prize, that giant popping sound will be leftists' heads exploding around the world. Extraordinarily great things are happening, folks.

Given that leftist activist justices are responsible for day-of-birth abortions and same-sex "marriage," Trump getting conservative Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court is huge for rulings based on what truly is in our Constitution. If Justice Anthony Kennedy retires as rumored, Trump could put another constitutional conservative on the court. Awesome!

Americans suffering from high taxes, low wages, and high unemployment was Obama's proud new normal. Trump has dynamited Obama's mountain of overreaching tyrannical job-killing regulations, reversing over 800. Trump has unemployment at 3.9%, the lowest since 2000. In his first year, Trump created two million jobs. His tax cuts have our economy booming, creating more jobs, with Americans smiling again with more money in their pockets. Manufacturing jobs have risen by 304,000 under Trump. Black and Hispanic unemployment is at a historic low. All Americans are winning with Trump in the White House.

In defiance of the fake news media's 24-7 "destroy Trump" propaganda reporting, here is more good news you probably haven't heard. Two million fewer Americans are on food stamps. Consumer confidence is near a 17-year high. Business confidence is near 1980s levels. Three million Americans have received bonuses.

The Deep State continues to obstruct Trump's repeal of Obamacare. Nevertheless, Trump has ended Obama's outrageous tyrannical individual mandate, which demanded that Americans buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

The illegal invasion of our country is down 70%, the lowest in 17 years. Trump has started the border wall.

Folks, I could go on and on with Trump's long list of wins for We the People in a remarkably short amount of time.

Bottom line: Be of good cheer, folks. As a Christian, I believe that the prayers of millions of Americans saved us from anti-God, anti-America, and anti-freedom liberal destructive tyranny under Hillary Clinton. God gave us Trump, and he is winning for We the People.I received a text from a prominent pro-Israel leader alerting me to online headlines that screamed, over three consecutive days, in large bold type:

"Top Republican in California Senate Race Called for Government Free from Jews" (The Forward, 4.29.18)

"Top Senate challenger in California is white supremacist with anti-Semitic agenda" (JTA, 4.30.18)

"The GOP's 'Nazi Problem' Comes to California with Anti-Semitic Holocaust Denier Candidate" (Haaretz, 5.1.18)

This was all news to me, and I'm rather well informed about California politics and its intersection with the Jewish community.

Who is Patrick Little, this "top" Republican running for office, and what is this GOP "Nazi Problem"?

I called my friends at the California Republican Party and quickly spoke to the chairman of the party. He thanked me for calling and shared that immediately upon hearing about these headlines, he issued a same-day declarative denunciation of the candidate in the name of the CRP, issued by the senior communications official:

Mr. Little has never been an active member of our party. I do not know Mr. Little and I am not familiar with his positions. But in the strongest terms possible, we condemn anti-Semitism and any other form of religious bigotry, just as we do with racism, sexism, or anything else that can be construed as a hateful point of view.

Concise. Morally clear. Commendable.

But who is Patrick Little? No one knows!

I spent the day reaching out to party officials and representatives. To everyone's knowledge, Little has never run for public office, never donated to the GOP, never been active in any campaigns, never offered any thought leadership in conservative circles, never spoken at or attended a GOP convention or been associated with any Republican elected official. No one had ever met him or heard of him.

What the heck is going on here?

Do you think that maybe the ideological perspectives of Haaretz and The Forward might cause them to highlight so loudly a completely unknown person as somehow a top contender for the U.S. Senate from the largest state in the union? Any possible mischief in writing in bold, "The GOP's Nazi Problem"?

Let's stipulate two things:

1. The reporting about Patrick Little indicates he's beneath "little." If accurate, he's pathetic, a hater, loser, conspiracy theorist, and nut-job.

2. Since no experienced or well funded Republican is challenging wealthy incumbent Democrat senator Dianne Feinstein in 2018, it's possible that, according to the only poll cited in the articles, 18 percent of primary voters "support" Little.

Isn't it clear though that these polls reflect likely Republican voters expressing endorsement of a Republican without knowing anything about him?

Little has apparently no campaign and no money. He has sent no mailers to voters and doesn't even have a campaign website. He has appeared in zero debates. He is unknown.

Well, thanks to some in the Jewish press, that is less true now.

I understand informing the Jewish community about anti-Semites, who exist in both parties.

Longtime senior Democratic congressman and DNC leader Keith Ellison worked for Minister Louis Farrakhan, and Farrakhan has met with many elected Democrats in Congress.

Very disturbing.

Two current Republican congressional candidates, in Wisconsin and Illinois, are a Nazi Party leader and a white supremacist.

Very ugly.

But context and care must be applied as well. Little is not going to be a U.S. senator. Mr. Little is not going to win the primary. Little leads no movement, has no following, and is not a "top" Republican.

The never-ending point-scoring game, in which biased media and political partisans, mostly based in Washington, D.C., constantly highlight the absurd, fringe anti-Semites in each party, is moving American Jewish politics from contentiousness to something more sinister.

I think the polls that matter are those that show upwards of a 50-point differential between Republicans and Democrats on issues such as support for Israeli defensive actions against Palestinian terror or Islamist jihadi threats.

I think Senator Dianne Feinstein's record is an issue. She double-crossed Senator Bob Dole, after having co-sponsored the Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act (1995), when she pulled her support for the measure in order to undermine Mr. Dole's presidential run in 1996. She has been a consistently rough critic of Israel ever since, and she castigated President Trump for his decision to move the U.S. embassy, which will occur this month, after repeated promises by presidents of both major parties.

Agree or disagree, Senator Feinstein's ambiguous support for the Jewish state is an issue worthy of media attention.

Democrat Calif. state senator Kevin de Leon is an issue. He is Dianne Feinstein's major opponent. He publicly claimed that "half my family is in California illegally." That means they likely used stolen identities to get employment and driver's licenses. That seems an issue worthy of debate. At the California Democratic Party convention this spring, de Leon prevented incumbent senator Dianne Feinstein from securing the party's endorsement. The rise of a radical left in California is an issue for many Jewish voters.

The fact that California is a one-party state, ranking at the bottom of the 50 states in tax burden, welfare, crime, state pension liabilities, 4th- and 8th-grade educational results, and business climate  now, that is an issue for sincere citizens across party lines.

Golden State Republicans do not have a strong enough bench to offer a serious candidate likely to make the "top two" runoff in the November general election. That too is worthy of commentary and analysis.

But big bold headlines a few weeks before the June primary election seem calculated to raise the profile of a no-name.

Might it serve far-left Jewish media outlets to highlight and battle the "GOP's Nazi Problem"? Clickbait and smearing the GOP all in one.

I stipulate that there are bad actors in both parties. But could there be any media bias (dare I say fake news?) in painting Republicans as Nazis? Look, the sky is falling!

Don't look at the mess President Obama left in the Middle East, the lies told by former secretary of state John Kerry about Iran's nuclear program, or the recent revelations of Obama's huge gifts of money to the Palestinians on his way out of office. Instead, virtue-signal in battle against the "GOP's Nazi Problem"  without first calling the Republican Party for comment or information, by the way.

California Republicans disavowed someone they had never met, without prompting, simply because his reported views disgust them. Then they banned Little from their convention, just held in San Diego.

If we cannot agree that 99 percent of Republicans and Democrats condemn Nazis and white (and black) supremacists, then we are beyond reasonable discourse.

But the statement of the California Republican Party wasn't the headline, or even in the articles.

It should have been, rather than the "Chicken Little" partisan journalism we saw instead.

Larry Greenfield is former Calif. director of the Republican Jewish Coalition and a columnist with www.JewishJournal.com.The N.Y. Times reported on Pres. Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the notorious P5+1 deal with Iran that was consummated in 2015. The reporting by the Times is so scurrilous and biased as to deny all fundamentals of journalistic ethics. This bias is totally against the Trump decision, as one might expect. But the horror of the story is extends beyond the bias: the Times staffers have bought into a false and morally repulsive narrative of the meaning of that deal.

Though five other major countries were on board, the deal was and is a threat to the security of the entire world. In the first paragraph, the Times article refers to our withdrawal as "isolating the U.S. from its 'Western allies'." This statement is an example of deceit on steroids. What about the two non-Western allies who also were signers of the deal: Russia and the People's Republic of China? Are they allies? Is there nothing strange in that two of the signers of the deal are Russia and the PRC, countries with which we have love-hate relationships? Does that fact alone pass the smell test?

The N.Y. Times' reporting is not merely imbalanced or non-objective. Though its front-page article is a "news story," it reads more like an editorial. No legitimate voices of support for the deal are acknowledged in their lead article by Mark Landler. Rather, it appear that for the Times, we have moved from a totally positive outcome as certified by the previous administration under Pres. Barack Obama to a completely misinformed, wanton, and hostile repudiation of that deal by Pres. Trump, who is portrayed acting more out of pique than reason. One gets no sense that there were grave concerns about the deal from many quarters from the time it was instituted.

Even the headline of the May 9, 2018 N.Y. Times is intensely negative. It reads: "Trump Abandons Iran Pact He Long Scorned." This headline is utterly contemptuous of the Trump decision to withdraw and comes under a convoluted way of handling phrases that I have understood since my college days  namely, "tricky wordsmithing." You see, Trump, they say, has "abandoned" the pact. Abandonment has negative connotations. There is a note of futility, of giving up, of hopelessness. Compare the word "abandon" with "rejects," "repudiates," "leaves," "tears up," "pulls out of," or "discards."

Then in the second half of the headline, the Times says the reason for this is Trump's longstanding scorn for the pact. It is based on his subjective feeling of scorn. The headline tells us we are out, and implies at the same time that this pulling out is all about Trump expressing his feelings of scorn, not actually about "the deal" (which the Times calls a "pact" to give the original Obama-Kerry-generated paperwork more dignity than the word "agreement" or "deal" would provide). These are all clever verbal sleights of hand.

Then the Times tells us that Trump's decision leaves "in tatters" an agreement reached after "two years of grueling negotiations." Here in the second paragraph Trump is portrayed as disrespecting the efforts of our statesmen. He shredded their work. He tore it up as if it was nothing. Trump thus does not have real concerns and grievances, but is a destructive killjoy who, being the petulant and self-centered person the Times perceives him to be, wiped out all that work in a fit of pique and self-gratification. The decision to discard the deal according to Mr. Landler is more of a frenzied expression of pique than a reasoned decision.

Then, by only the fourth paragraph, the Times delivers the coup de grace (so it thinks) to the Trump decision by stating the strong likelihood that Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and the PRC will be joining Iran in turning its wrath upon the United States. Imagine: all these disparate interests had gotten together, put aside many differences, and worked with Iran to reach an incredibly complex set and subsets of accommodations and compromises, and these are now thrown out the window!

They had kicked Iran's nuclear ambitions ten years down the road, and, incredibly, Trump and those tens of millions of deplorables who put him in office fail to be satisfied that this is sufficiently restrictive of Iran's nuclear ambitions. What do those deplorables think they could accomplish in two years dealing with matters of this complexity? The Times fails to note that many treaties (not mere agreements) take many years to be negotiated. SALT II, for example took seven years to negotiate and was in fact a treaty and not a mere agreement. Yet even SALT II, despite the length of time it took to negotiate, was not passed by the U.S. Senate because of Russia's invasion of Afghanistan.

The gloom-and-doom treatment of Trump's decision in only the first four paragraphs gained momentum in paragraph five of the Times article. Trump's move "could embolden hard-line forces in Iran." I would ask every reader of the Times article and every reader of this piece to ask himself: does anyone in his right mind actually think there is such a thing as a non-hardline mullah or ayatollah in Iran? Does anyone really believe that Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani, or foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is treading on eggshells while even greater fanatics wait to oust him?

Despite having already asserted in paragraph four that the other signatories "are likely to join Iran in accusing the United States," by the tenth paragraph, we find that Iran is not accusing us. Instead, this same stupid and biased article states that the response from Iran was "muted," not accusatory. The facts on the ground thus refute the Times' own stated opinion.

Nowhere are any public officials in the U.S. quoted who are rejoicing at the moral and strategic clarity of Trump's decision to restore sanctions and to repudiate one of the worst deals in the history of the U.S., possibly the world. The only person quoted who supports Trump is Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel. Is it too much to ask how the N.Y. Times can purport to be a news organization of record when it fails to quote anyone of substance in the United States who supports this deal?

The repudiation of this deal was one of the key promises of Trump's campaign. Tens of millions are disgusted at the thought of the U.S. sending billions of dollars to Iran in unmarked planes, in different currencies, and stacked on pallets, as though this were both normal and legitimate. The deal reeks of corruption and moral indifference to the fate of peace on Planet Earth.

President Trump has shown a moral courage that impressive-sounding but self-serving, unpatriotic weasels like John Kerry could never expect to appreciate. Every patriot is in awe of Pres. Trump's decision to leave the Iran deal.In a 1977 speech to the Institute of Public Relations, Margaret Thatcher said, "Britain is no longer in the politics of the pendulum, but of the ratchet."

Margaret Thatcher's description of the political state of Great Britain could just as accurately describe the state of politics in the United States in 2018. Many conservatives have found solace in the belief that times of statist control will result in the country shifting in a more conservative direction. The problem with this theory is that while it may accurately describe the mood of the country, it does not describe the mood of the ruling political figures. Republicans, after years of Democratic rule, have found themselves in control of the House, the Senate, and the presidency, but we haven't seen a significantly different conservative policy.

The Trump administration has cut back on regulations including the individual mandate in Obamacare, issued a tax cut, and appointed originalist federal judges. There has also been the passage of a $1.3-billion omnibus spending bill that continued funding Planned Parenthood, furthering the expansion of the federal government. The explanation of this phenomenon is provided in the idiom Thatcher coined as the "ratchet effect." Once liberals have ratcheted the nation far to the left, conservatives cannot turn the ratchet the other direction. They can slow or maybe even stop the lurch to the left, but they can never bring the country any farther back from where the left has turned them. The left has the nation on autopilot toward an ever growing centralized government. In 2018, with the constitutional principles, hanging only by a thread, bold candidates and bold solutions must be the answer.

Bold Candidates

Conservatives are often quick to rally around the most articulate conservatives. The ability of a candidate to explain constitutional conservatism is a tremendous quality for a candidate to have, but time and time again, we have seen articulate conservatives bend to the will of the progressive majority. The most sought after attribute future candidates should possess was best stated by Ron DeSantis as he was describing the late Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia: "[p]erhaps the most important quality for a constitutionalist Supreme Court justice is something that Scalia demonstrated in spades: backbone. There will be times when the proper reading of the Constitution will diverge sharply from the conventional wisdom of D.C. elites, the legacy press and the legal intelligentsia. Scalia never wilted in the face of intense criticism; indeed, he reveled in it, as it was a sign that he was properly discharging his constitutional duty." This backbone is the quality that allowed Scalia to be successful.

In Washington, D.C., there are intense pressures applied to representatives. Those who challenge the system will find that there is something that both sides of the aisle can agree on: they hate you. This pressure applied over years has proven incredibly successful at wearing down even the most conservative of legislators. Candidates must have the "backbone" of an Antonin Scalia to stand up to the prolonged pressure.

William Buckley sums up what this type of candidate looks like in his mission statement for National Review, 1955: "[a] conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it." In order to get this type of candidate, we must reject political prognosticators who press conservatives to back moderate safe candidates "who can win." Traditional red states must nominate these candidates. Local Republican leaders should press to change their nominating process from primaries to caucuses. Caucuses allow grassroots supporters to have a larger impact than special interest groups. Caucuses give local community leaders the ability to make the case for their bold constitutional candidate. It was a Utah caucus that produced Mike Lee. Just a few bold candidates like Mike Lee do more for conservatism than hundreds of candidates who don't have the temerity to fight back.

Electing bold candidates is not enough. The federal government will perpetually grow in power in the corrupted model in place today. This is far from the government the founders intended for America. The bold solution for our federal government, unmoored from constitutional principles, is found in the Constitution itself.

Bold Solutions

On September 15, 1787, at the Constitutional Convention, George Mason of Virginia was worried about allowing only Congress to amend the Constitution. Mason's concern was that if Congress was part of the problem, it would block beneficial change. James Madison's notes describe Mason's position when discussing the Amendment process: "on Congress, no amendments of the proper kind would ever be obtained by the people, if the Government should become oppressive, as he verily believed would be the case."

As Mark Levin lays out masterfully is his book The Liberty Amendments, Article V of the Constitution allows the American people to bypass Congress to directly amend the Constitution.

The states through conventions have the ability to directly propose and ratify amendments to the Constitution. This gives states the ability to utilize the constitutional concept of federalism to take back some of the powers usurped by the federal government. The amendments proposed by Levin include a balanced budget amendment limiting spending and taxation; an amendment repealing the 17th Amendment, thereby empowering state legislators, as the founders originally put in place; an amendment requiring photo ID to vote to protect our elections; an amendment allowing the national legislature or state legislatures to override a ruling from the Supreme Court with a three-fifths vote; an amendment allowing two thirds of states the ability to override federal statutes; and amendments placing term limits on Congress and limiting federal judges to one 12-year term. These amendments will structurally place the federal government back in the constitutional constraints that embody the separation of powers principle that limits the ability for government to become tyrannical. The term limits imposed will change the dynamics of the elected bodies. No longer will leadership be confined to members who have been influenced by D.C. corruption for decades. Elected officials will be much more accountable to the needs of their constituents and less likely to deviate from their core principles.

Short- and Long-Term Solutions

Amending the Constitution through an Article V convention is not a solution that will occur within the next few months. It may take years to accomplish, but it is a structural solution to bring the country back under constitutional principles. The country did not devolve to this point in a matter of months, and consequently, the long-term solution is not going to be a rapid fix. That should not deter conservatives. Conservatives should join the grassroots movement to push for a convention.

In the short term, we must back candidates with backbone  candidates who will fight the progressives in both parties. These bold candidates must be able to withstand the onslaught levied against them, slow the statist agenda, and become beacons for the conservative movement at the national level. We must break through the ratchet effect on government and make significant strides to save constitutional conservatism.Make America Great Again. These four words helped Donald Trump crush Crooked Hillary and take him all the way to the White House. Democrats were left shattered as Trump appealed to a certain audience who had been left behind by the Obama administration for too long. Now ahead of his visit to the U.K. in July, he is changing opinion again. People are beginning to like him overseas; they are acknowledging his difference, decisiveness, relatability, and clear messaging.

From a communications perspective, Trump unequivocally has had a positive whirlwind effect. He has done this by leveraging previously disregarded leadership tactics coupled with an understanding of his various target audiences. Trump managed to identify the audience that matters most, prioritize it, and enable it. This was not an accident. Trump's informed and considered leveraging of social media and information operations has been outstanding. He has expertly created a profile that generates engagement, accentuates his points of difference, and therefore generates discussion, which indubitably enhances his agenda.

The age of lazy opinion is over. We now have an incredibly well educated population who are not satisfied until the why and the so what are satisfactorily answered. Trump has been able to galvanize opinion with modern audiences. How did he do it?

Information environment and the advent of social media. Social media have been among the main reasons for Trump's ascendancy to the presidency. He has correctly identified that the way to drive engagement and build his brand was to talk to people on the same level and by the same means. Social media not only enabled Trump to convey his messages in a timely fashion, but enabled him to relate to the audience.

Data. The Trump campaign was able to increase the odds of resonance and cut-through considerably through targeted and precise advertising. The role of data in achieving campaign success was identified and effectively utilized from the beginning to the end of Trump's presidential campaign.

Millennial generation. They are arguably the most important cohort to be engaging with. The role and significance of the marginalized and disaffected should never be neglected. The younger generation today feels marginalized and feels that it has been dealt a bad hand. Trump was able to identify this unrest and concurrently identify that the majority of the youth would be siding with Clinton.

Fake news versus real news: taking advantage. This is hard, and if fake news is used effectively, it can reinforce your Normative Social Influence (NSI) and negate any progress toward Informed Social Influence (ISI). The efficacy of messaging on social media is further distorted by the sheer volume, which increases the opacity of the information environment exponentially and makes it increasingly difficult for one's message to be heard. Trump overcame this by remaining agile and consistent in his nature and narrative. The real issue is making your message heard through the clutter of fake and real news and by building up a trusted brand. This is what Trump did masterfully.

What actions did Trump take to achieve success?

Used insights to understand his audience. He identified the current audience behavior and sentiment and set out to appeal to it and identified key intervention points. By successfully understanding his target audience, he was able to draw out actionable insights to maximize the effectiveness of his campaign.

Leveraged his point of difference as a candidate. Trump leveraged the fact he was not a politician by nature and that he stood for change, something different, something that would achieve results. He was able to pursue the narrative of "things have not worked in the past; I am the unconventional, successful breath of fresh air." This is a compelling narrative to any person who does not believe that the government represents him.

Used unambiguous, entertaining, and easily digestible language. Trump's rhetoric on Twitter, no matter how inflammatory, offensive, imprudent, and shocking, has been orchestrated. This makes Trump "exciting" and engaging for all people regardless of political affiliation. A powerful tool! Even those who do not support him and disagree with his anachronistic and abhorrent behavior still check in to see what he is up to.

Remained consistent in persona and messaging. Identified the role of conversation cohort messaging (messaging along the lines of commonality irrespective of demographic). In doing so, he was able to achieve cut-through, persuasion, and engagement. Complementary to this, he orchestrated his image so that he was seemingly accessible and relatable.

So what makes a good leader, and is the President doing it? Many analysts and experts talk about efficiency, time-keeping, adaptability, and the ability to inspire people. Donald Trump certainly has covered all those and more. Through policy, the economy hasn't faltered, and his foreign policy decisions on the Koreas, Iran, and Syria have all been lauded by world leaders so far. There seem to be substance and action behind his Twitter account. On the world stage, Trump is delivering on what he said he would do.

Jamie Monckton, Director of Global Influence, a Strategic Communications consultancy in London.https://globalinfluence.com/President Trump's star-studded trade envoy left China last Friday, failing to make any real progress in trade talks. This should come as no surprise, as the U.S. came out guns blazing in initial trade negotiations with aggressive demands, making it clear that Beijing and Washington are worlds apart in goals for trade relations.

The trade talks come at a time of widespread uncertainty in international trade, and amid an ongoing trade skirmish between the two countries. While negotiations are expected to continue, a quick resolution to the trade conflict seems now out of question, and a tit-for-tat trade war seems likely to become reality.

With a large envoy of top economic and trade officials  including two cabinet secretaries (Wilbur Ross and Steven Mnuchin); Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, and economic adviser, Larry Kudlow; and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer  it appeared that the U.S. was serious and determined to make a deal with the Chinese. However, the U.S. eight-point plan to "balance" the trade relationship with China clearly shows that the U.S. is overestimating its leverage and reflects how unlikely the U.S.-China trade dispute will be resolved any time soon.

The plan continues the Trump administration's aggressive efforts to get "better" and "fairer" trade deals for the U.S. through unilateral action and outlandish demands. The U.S. has essentially asked China to change the entire structure of its economy in one swoop, with more tariffs or other restrictive measures inflicted if the Chinese fail to comply, and demands that the Chinese refrain from retaliating against U.S. actions.

The U.S. requests for China include slashing tariffs on American products to levels no higher than corresponding U.S. tariffs, strengthening intellectual property (I.P.) rights protection and enforcement, easing investment restrictions in China for U.S. companies, and eliminating all subsidies linked to its "Made in China 2025" industrial policy.

The U.S. insists that China cut its bilateral trade surplus with the U.S. by $200 billion  almost two thirds  by 2020 through increased purchases of U.S. goods. This demand is highly in line with Trump's misguided view of trade surpluses and deficits as a country's economic scorecard and his continued disdain for the bilateral trade deficit with China. However, reducing the trade deficit with China shouldn't be a goal at all, as it's a rather inconsequential measure that reflects macroeconomics and the comparative advantages of each country.

Another aggressive U.S. demand is for China to guarantee that it will refrain from taking retaliatory action in response to U.S. restrictions on Chinese investments or imports and will drop current retaliatory actions and WTO disputes. Additionally, Washington asked Beijing not to target U.S. farmers and agricultural products.

These are unreasonable demands, as China has been retaliating against U.S. tariffs in kind over the last few months.

In response to American tariffs on steel and aluminum, China imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products totaling $2.4 billion. Chinese officials threatened to retaliate against Trump's Section 301 tariffs by announcing a list of 106 U.S. products that may be subject to its own 25-percent tariff, covering $49.8 billion in U.S. imports. Finally, China most recently imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties of 178.6 percent on U.S. sorghum, and there are reports of China deliberately not buying U.S. soybeans  a top U.S. agricultural export to China.

China has made it clear it will fight American levies. A continued threat of tariffs and a comprehensive list of aggressive demands will unlikely bear any fruit. Instead, Washington should focus on starting negotiations with more feasible and less intrusive individual requests. This would show seriousness and willingness in making an actual deal  not just a bullying ploy  and the Chinese would be more willing to negotiate. Ultimately, the goal needs to be centered not on the bilateral trade deficit and an all-encompassing agreement, but on lowering China's barriers to trade and pushing the Chinese toward more liberalization.

Fortunately, China is showing willingness to further liberalize its economy and lower trade barriers, irrespective of U.S. threats. At the annual economic forum this year, President Xi pledged to further open China's markets for trade and investment, committing to boost imports, ease restrictions for foreign investment, lower automobile tariffs, and provide greater protection for I.P. While China hasn't implemented these proposals yet, we should take advantage of Xi's willingness to open Chinese markets more.

A large-scale, bilateral trade agreement with China would be the ultimate objective but is unlikely to materialize. There are too many moving parts and concessions that China would currently be unlikely to accept. This is apparent in the list of demands given to China this past weekend that resulted in retaliatory demands from China.

Instead, the main intent of Trump's trade team should be to ensure that China's recent intent to open its economy is followed and address systematic concerns about China's trade practices that most impact U.S. interests. In exchange, the U.S. should be willing to drop the new tariffs on Chinese imports and accept other demands.

Formal negotiations on specific issues  such as I.P., foreign investment, and tariff reductions in certain sectors  should take precedence. The investment agreement between Canada and China in 2014 is a great example. A good place to start would be to ask China to cut its high tariffs in many sectors, such as reducing the 25-percent Chinese tariff on foreign automobile imports closer to parity with the American tariff of 2.5 percent.

Another is I.P. theft and forced technology transfers, which cost America between $225 billion and $600 billion annually. Xi originally announced last year, and reiterated this year, that China will boost I.P. protections. Talks should build upon this, ensuring that China lives up to its commitments, and work to ease restrictions of foreign investment into the country. Rather than dangling tariffs, the U.S. should make it clear that a dispute will be brought to the WTO if the situation is not improved  a mechanism that has been highly successful in the past, with the U.S. winning around 90 percent of the WTO disputes it brings.

Fighting protectionism with protectionism isn't the answer. No one wins a trade war. China is known for talk and no action, but if the U.S. can approach the Chinese correctly, we can realize beneficial gains. The U.S. strategy needs to refrain from its combative stance with the use of punitive tariffs and unobtainable blanket demands, and instead promote the common benefits of the large U.S. and Chinese markets while seeking small concessions in China's trade policy.

Unfortunately, if this bilateral, confrontational approach continues, more tariffs and a damaging trade war are sure to result, with American consumers bearing the costs.

Jimmy Sengenberger is president and CEO of the Millennial Policy Center, a public policy think-tank based in Denver, Colorado. Jacob Dubbert is a fellow in economic opportunity and fiscal policy at the MPC.When I graduated from Cal in 1967 I decided I wanted to see some of the world, and in September I flew on a special student charter from Oakland to London. I think it cost about $120. The next day I took a ferry to France and hitchhiked down to Munich for the Oktoberfest.

I met some Englishmen there, drinking beer at the Hofbrauhaus, and they told me about a trip they were going to take to Tehran. It was a caravan of used Mercedes that some Iranian smugglers were shipping there by road. If you drove one of these cars from Munich to Tehran you could make $100, plus a bus ticket back to Istanbul or on to Kabul, Afghanistan. They said these Iranians were just businessmen avoiding import duties. I would be the registered owner of my Mercedes, and once in Tehran I'd transfer title to an Iranian.

It all made a certain amount of sense, and after asking about it at the American embassy I decided to go. There seven cars in all, and we drove through southern Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria to Turkey.

Bulgaria was just as backward as Turkey, but there was a definite difference between them. In Bulgaria, even though it was a communist dictatorship, it seemed familiar somehow, like you were still in part of Europe. Once we got into Turkey, I felt like I was in an alien culture, something completely different.

In Istanbul I saw a fair European-looking boy of sixteen or so who was a porter, carrying a heavy and awkward load on his back. He was sweaty and dirty, with a blank look on his face. He was just a beast of burden in a cruel world.

We had to kill some time in Tehran while the title was being transferred, and we stayed in some cheap hotel in the Shoosh. This was in the southern, low-rent part of the city, where you had to watch your step.

I went to the Grand Bazaar in the middle of town to see what I could see. It was all new to me, and I liked just wandering around. I guess I stood out, wearing a nice plaid Pendleton wool shirt, which a couple merchants offered to buy from me.

A young Iranian guy introduced himself to me, and offered to show me around town. He spoke good English, and worked as a translator of foreign films which were shown in Iran. We went up to the northern, more prosperous part of the city, and he showed me the American embassy, among other things.

We went into a little beer hall of some sort, and had a couple beers. They were playing popular Iranian music, and I was surprised how good it was. One song, in particular, I remember. It was some sort of love song, sung by a woman with a beautiful, exotic voice.

There were a couple of young women at a table across the room, and one of them was very attractive. We started eyeing each other, and my Iranian friend said that was very unusual. Iranian girls weren't easy.

He explained the native religion of Iran, which was Zoroastrianism. It was sort of an ecological religion, in which there was a natural balance between water, fire, earth, and air. It sounded like a reasonable way to look at the world.

Twelve years later the Shah was overthrown, and Iran hasn't been the same. Sometimes I wonder what happened to my Iranian friend, and that beautiful girl.

Iranians aren't Arabs, and the Moslem religion was imposed on them by the sword. Not everyone in the Middle East is either fanatical Shia or Sunni. There is a civilized underground in Iran even today, and we should give it all the encouragement we can.

President Trump is doing right by Irans people.

Fritz Pettyjohn is a retired Alaska State Senator, who blogs at ReaganProject.comThe newly appointed American ambassador to Germany is Richard Grenell. His first day on the job was Tuesday, the day President Trump announced America's withdrawal from the Obama-Iran nuclear deal. It was something.

Taking his cue directly from a White House talking points and fact sheet, Ambassador Grenell tweeted:

As @realDonaldTrump said, US sanctions will target critical sectors of Irans economy. German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.  Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 8, 2018

The reaction was fast and furious. Many German politicians were in high dudgeon, saying they say they don't like being lectured to. As for German firms, they do a reported $3.5 billion's worth of business with Iran. Some are talking defiance, while others have been expecting the reimposition of sanctions and have been reducing their Iranian footprint accordingly.

When the dust settles, the end result will probably be as German public TV ZDF commentator Wulf Schmiese predicts: "Their dealing[s] with the U.S. are too valuable to them" not to comply.

Image: Jim Trodel via Flickr.New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman resigns after former girlfriends accuse him of rotten behavior. This same story has come out concerning so many Democrats that you wonder how such people ever got elected. You wonder how such a jerk ever got a girlfriend. And you wonder at such extreme hypocrisy. Schneiderman is yet another elected Dem who said one thing while doing the opposite -- parading around in favor of womens this and womens that while treating the women in his own life literally like slaves.

Ultimately you wonder why a woman in America, especially a professional woman, would put up with such behavior for even a second. The social scene in New York must teem with couples where he treats her awfully and she just sucks it up. Hollywooders in the same boat have explained that they go along with it because they want to work in that industry and theres no choice. One begins to suspect that at least some women secretly like being treated this way; you know, the dominate-me, humiliate-me type. Now theyre taking advantage of a passing phase to cash in on their own strangeness.

The Northeast public square has always been something of a gathering place for strange agents but its beginning to look like that may be all there is. People with more normal egos dont get it. Weiner, Spitzer, Schneiderman How many others? Rush Limbaugh says its more than hypocrisy, that Lefty culture produces this type of man as a matter of course. Once again Rush nails it. Youll find a few Pubs among the nasty rotten set; overwhelmingly, that place is dominated by the scuzzy Left.

Somewhere in New York City, an as-yet-unexposed public official assures himself his girl wont rat him out for treating her badly. When she finally does come forward the rest of the world will yawn: this again? In one of his flicks Samuel Jackson says something to the effect of, If you keep doing what youve always done, youll always be what youve always been. As long as Noo Yockers keep voting for liberals, this is exactly what theyre gonna get.Please take yourself back to the days following September 11th. Was anyone concerned about mistreating terrorists? Or were you concerned, as I was, that we might be hit again with an even larger bomb?

We are witnessing a lack of seriousness surrounding the Gina Haskell confirmation hearings. It sure looks to me as if Senate Democrats are looking for a video clip that they can then send out in a fundraising letter. It is embarrassing!

Brigitte Gabriel hit the target with her article:

Haspel, despite her decades of excellent service keeping our country safe, is now at the receiving end of the leftist smear machine, as it attempts to redefine her reputation as some sort of torture queen -- simply because she was doing her job and protecting America from its enemies. Opposition to Haspel began when ProPublica published a story claiming that Haspel oversaw a clandestine base where waterboarding took place, and that she mocked the prisoners suffering in a private conversation. This was not true, and ProPublica had to retract parts of its story and apologize to Haspel for its errors. The truth is that Haspel did not become the chief of base at an overseas terrorist interrogation camp until after the waterboarding of terrorist suspects had ended. Likewise, she was cleared of any wrongdoing regarding the disposal of terrorist interrogation video tapes while serving at this overseas post.

Add to this that it was President Clinton who signed the executive order creating rendition prisons that are suddenly so controversial. After 9/11, reality and threats took it to another level that included Gitmo. As we know, Senator Obama promised to close Gitmo but President Obama didn't.

Once again, we see a confirmation hearing turned into just another opportunity for Senate Democrats to tell us, and their base, that they oppose everything Trump. We know that they do but it cheapens the confirmation process to turn it into five-minute attacks on President Trump.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.The Senate Intelligence Committee held its confirmation hearing on Gina Haspel on Wednesday. As usual, the Democrats on the committee behaved badly, like the virtue-signaling bullies they are. Like all leftists, they profess to care equally for known terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- the mastermind of 9/11 that took the lives of nearly three thousand people that day and many, many more deaths of the first responders in the ensuing years -- and law-abiding agents of our own intelligence agencies.

Screen grab from CBS News

These Democrats, like Jack Reed, Mark Warner and Kamala Harris, think the American people agree with them, that terrorists should never be interrogated using "enhanced techniques, " like waterboarding. KSM was waterboarded numerous times. It did not hurt or kill. He knew it would not hurt or kill him. He eventually gave up crucial information. To suggest the use of this particular procedure is on the same moral plane as what John McCain and his fellow POWs suffered at the Hanoi Hilton is beyond ludicrous. It is as though these Democrats cannot differentiate between good and evil. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the personification of pure evil. Kamala Harris, Mark Warner and Jack Reed mercilessly badgered Ms. Haspel as though she had personally tortured John McCain or had personally beheaded someone the way that KSM beheaded Daniel Pearl on a video that went viral.

These Democrats are a mystery. Do they actually think that a majority of Americans think as they do? That we do not know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil? This is why Donald Trump won the election. Today's left is as clueless as clueless gets. They seem to believe that there is a moral equivalency between hard-core terrorists and CIA agents whose job it is to prevent further attacks. There is not.

Who are these smug, condescending, self-righteous senators who so casually malign Haspel, a 33-year veteran of the CIA including of course the aftermath of 9/11? What has any one of them ever done that comes close to the service Ms. Haspel has given her country? Not one thing. They are shallow, self-promoting parvenus who are so enamored of the sound of their own voices they cannot discern how ridiculous they sound to the rest of us.

The CIA did do extraordinary work after 9/11. Haspel herself was not the author of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" for which she is now being treated like a criminal. What is pathetic is that to answer the question honestly "Do you believe those techniques were immoral (or moral)" would be to indict herself. Of course it was moral. She knows it, believes it, as do millions upon millions of other Americans who for years lived in fear of Al Qaeda and their next attack on the homeland. The men and women who volunteer to serve in our military know it. But the tyranny of political correctness combined with the moral relativism of the Left has rendered honest dialogue a risky business, even when life and death issues are the subject. KSM killed thousands of people, but they think we should be worried about how he was treated once captured!

Any woman who has survived and been promoted in the Agency for thirty-three years is some kind of heroine; and few of us had ever heard her name before Trump chose her to head the CIA. She has the absolute respect of her colleagues, which should be enough for the same crowd that gave the criminally odious John Brennan a quick pass. He endured nothing like the committee put Haspel through on Wednesday. And now we know that he is the head of the snake that set out to take Trump down both before and after the election by wholly illegal means.

One should not be overly optimistic but it seems there is an awakening upon us. The American people have perhaps grown very weary of the professional politicians who presume to be our betters, the Kamala Harrises of the DC establishment who feel so entitled to besmirch people like Gina Haspel. They revel in their ability do so, in public and on television. Like Diane Feinstein, Hillary Clinton and Harris's predecessor Barbara Boxer, Harris is a gotcha gal. These are the worst representatives of women in power. Haspel is the best. If, as it seems, Americans are waking up to the wholesale contempt our self-appointed elites have for us all, Kamala Harris will never be President. She should never have been elected as Senator. She is the worst of what the feminist movement produced, the worst of what women in power so often become.When a team loses badly in a competitive sporting event, the players normally admit that the other team was just the better team on that specific day. They don't kick, scream, pick fights, and blame everyone else. Rather, they regroup, learn from their mistakes, make changes to get better, and decide on a specific approach or method to utilize the next time the two teams meet. In other words, they have a plan!

In the 2016 elections, the Democrats had no plan! Hillary Clinton ran with no message, no theme, and nothing new to tell the American public. A year and a half later, nothing has changed. Rather, the Democratic Party has resorted to name-calling, fighting, and underhanded tactics in an effort to solidify its base. These tactics, however, have had the opposite result and have helped Republicans.

As a litigator who has tried cases, one of the most important things I know to do when preparing a case for trial is to choose a theme. In other words, what is your story, and what message are you trying to "sell" to the jury? This theme should be clear from your opening statement and should be reiterated and supported all the way through closing arguments.

The absence of a clear message or theme can be fatal to your client's case, just as it was to the Democrats in 2016. It leaves the jury (voters) in limbo, forces them to engage in guesswork and speculation, results in division among the jurors (voters), and makes the lawyer (Democratic Party) look unprofessional, disorganized, and incompetent.

The Democratic Party has a problem. It does not have a clear message or theme that it can sell to the American public. Rather, the party, through many of its members and some of the major news outlets, has attempted to solidify its base by attacking President Trump directly or indirectly.

For example, Democrats continue to allege that President Trump colluded with the Russians during the 2016 election. To date, there has been no evidence of collusion. Democrats also continue to attack or try to block some of President Trump's different appointees, including Judge Neil Gorsuch; Mike Pompeo; and, most recently, Gina Haspel. Moreover, some Democrats (and a few Republicans), including former president Obama and Dianne Feinstein, have attacked President Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal. The list goes on and on, but the nexus among most of the attacks continues to be President Trump.

While many Democrats continue to attack President Trump and those directly or indirectly associated with him, he continues to succeed and to do what he promised. He gutted Obamacare, persuaded the North Korean leader to discuss possible denuclearization, withdrew the United Stated from the terrible Iran deal, arranged for the release of three Americans from North Korea, improved the economy, decreased unemployment, and reestablished America's credibility as a superpower around the world.President Trump notoriously once said of John McCain, "Hes not a war hero, I like people who werent captured." Trump seemed to be saying, inartfully, that McCain played on sympathy for his experience as a POW of the North Vietnamese to catapult himself, inappropriately, into the US Senate.

At the time I thought President Trump's remarks were inappropriate, but now I wonder if Trump was on to something. Specifically, I wonder if McCain's experience as a captive diminished his judgment.

McCain has never been what you might call a very "solid" Republican or Conservative. He was the decisive vote against the "skinny repeal" of Obamacare; he was the author of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance act, which tried to limit political free speech; he believes in imaginary global warming; he was never strongly in favor of tax cuts, and supported amnesty for illegal aliens.

But what caught my attention was a statement McCain made yesterday against CIA nominee Gina Haspel. McCain, who is so ill that he cannot attend Senate sessions, could have chosen merely to be silent about Haspel if he were not predisposed to voting for her. Instead, he made a special effort to stab her and President Trump in the back with a statement seemingly intended to torpedo her nomination.

McCain's problem with her? That Haspel participated in some capacity in interrogating 9/11 suspects. McCain, the victim of torture, real torture, at the hands of the North Vietnamese, finds any kind of enhanced interrogation techniques unacceptable.

Sen. John McCain is urging the Senate to reject Gina Haspel, President Trump's pick to run the CIA, claiming Haspel's "refusal to acknowledge torture's immorality is disqualifying." McCain, who is home at his ranch in Arizona as he battles brain cancer, made the statement after Haspel testified in her confirmation on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning. McCain said Haspel had a chance to "explain her involvement in the so-called enhanced interrogation program during the Bush administration, and account for the mistakes the country made in torturing detainees held" after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Senator McCain has totally lost sense of right or wrong as well as any sense or proportionality.

First of all, what the CIA did to terrorists was not torture. Torture inflicts permanent damage to parts of your body. John McCain was bayoneted in the stomach and foot. Water boarding, while certainly unpleasant, is nothing like being bayoneted.

John McCain was also a prisoner of war, entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions.

The 9/11 terrorists were not in uniform and were specifically intending to kill large number of civilians. That made them entitled to no protections at all.

Furthermore, after thousands of Americans were killed in 9/11, there was concern about other possible mega-attacks on American soil. Under those circumstances President Bush was fully reasonable in authorizing enhanced interrogations and Gina Haspel, in whatever capacity, was justified in carrying them out.

But John McCain doesn't seem to understand any of this context or distinctions. He equates the CIA, which was trying to protect American lives, with the brutal North Vietnamese. He equates being bayoneted with being water boarded. He equated uniformed soldiers with terrorists who blend in and target civilians.

I know that Senator McCain is very ill and it's not politically correct to criticize him, but I think by putting a statement out against Gina Haspel, he opens himself up to legitimate criticism. And I think that the North Vietnamese broke Senator McCain, making him unable to see the difference between torture and interrogation, and between soldiers and terrorists, and it's sad that one of his final acts in politics is to try to cripple the CIA by torpedoing Ms. Haspel's nomination.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.Yesterday, Israeli warplanes struck an Iranian missile depot in Syria, killing at least 7 members of the Revolutionary Guard. Iran vowed retaliation and today, they launched at least 20 rockets at Israeli positions on the Golan Heights. It was the first time Iran responded to an Israeli strike by launching an attack on Israeli soil.

In response, the IDF launched a massive retaliatory strike that targeted all of Iran's military infrastructure.

Reuters:

It was the heaviest Israeli barrage in Syria since the start in 2011 of its civil war, in which Iranians, allied Shiite militias and Russian soldiers have deployed in support of President Bashar al-Assad. Syrias Army Command said three people were killed and two injured. A war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the strikes killed at least 23 military personnel, including Syrians and non-Syrians. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Iranian rockets either fell short of their targets, military bases in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, or were intercepted. Expectations of a regional flare-up, amid warnings from Israel it was determined to prevent Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, were stoked by U.S. President Donald Trumps announcement on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal. The Trump administration portrayed its position against that agreement as a response, in part, to Tehrans military interventions in the region - underpinning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus tough line towards Iran. The Golan attack was just further demonstration that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted and another good reminder that the president made the right decision to get out of the Iran deal, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News. Israel said 20 Iranian Grad and Fajr rockets were shot down by its Iron Dome air defense system or did not reach targets in the Golan, territory Israel captured from Syria in a 1967 war. The Quds Force, an external arm of Irans Revolutionary Guards, carried out the launch, Israel said.

The rockets Iran used in their rather pathetic "retaliation" were among the least sophisticated in Iran's arsenal. They are not very accurate and have a low explosive yield.

So Iran delivered a pinprick and Israel lowered the boom:

Syrian state media said Israel launched dozens of missiles and hit a radar station, Syrian air defense positions and an ammunition dump, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies. Russias defense ministry said Syria had shot down more than half of the missiles fired by Israel, RIA news agency reported. We hit ... almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, Lieberman said, in a question and answer session at the annual Herzliya security conference in Tel Aviv. I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message. Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters the Iranian attack was commanded and ordered by (Quds Force chief General) Qassem Soleimani and it has not achieved its purpose. Conricus said Israel responded by destroying dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria, as well as Syrian anti-aircraft units that tried unsuccessfully to shoot down Israeli planes. We do not know yet the (Iranian) casualty count, he said. But I can say that in terms of our purpose, we focused less on personnel and more on capabilities and hardware ... to inflict long-term damage on the Iranian military establishment in Syria. We assess it will take substantial time to replenish.

What are we to make of Iran's feeble response? Perhaps the Iranians were hoping that a mild retaliation would lead to restraint by Israel. If they did, they're dumber than they talk. Instead, perhaps we should consider that Iran feels well and truly trapped between Israel's increasing pressure on their presence in Syria and the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement, giving the US a free hand to make the Iranians howl.

A rock and a hard place. Iran may have been constrained by the simple equation of military power arrayed against them. A more vigorous response to Israel's attacks might have led to an even more dangerous escalation with Israel - an escalation that might have included targets on Iranian soil. And standing by supporting Israel would be the US (and maybe Saudi Arabia). In a conflict, Iran would have no chance and the regime's survival would have been an open question.

A wild card to be considered are the Russians. At about the time Israeli warplanes and missiles were raining destruction in Iran's infrastructure in Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Moscow meeting with President Putin.

Bloomberg:

The Russian president hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the annual Red Square military parade, hours before Israeli forces struck dozens of Iranian targets inside Syria. Netanyahu did his best to please, wearing on his lapel a brown-and-black St. Georges ribbon, a symbol of Russian World War II remembrance that has come to be the banner of the Kremlins intervention in Ukraine. He had a big ask: That Putin not deliver advanced air-defense missiles to Syria, a move that could threaten Israels aerial dominance. For now, Moscow seems willing to let the Jewish state mount limited strikes. While Iran is a key ally in the Syrian war, the Kremlin doesnt want it to get too powerful. Russian officials are also worried about the risk of escalation, especially with thousands of Russian troops based there. Putin has a vested interest in keeping Iran in his corner, and is sending a top diplomat today to Tehran for talks.

There is no love lost between Iran and Russia. They don't trust each other, and Putin fears Iranian influence on their puppet President Assad. Putin is apparently willing to look the other way while Israel whittles Iran down to size in Syria - as long as Russian troops or Assad's control aren't threatened.

If Iran is serious about retaliating against Israel, they are going to have to do better than 20 inferior rockets fired at Israel's military perimeter. But Tehran might have little choice. With their economy so bad that workers around the country are striking for not getting paid, and unemployment at 20%, Iran simply can't afford to go to war with anyone, much less a far more powerful neighbor like Israel.As he unburdens himself from the cares and bonds of a lifetime, and never will face Arizona voters again, Senator John McCain is letting it all hang out. In his forthcoming final book, which may sell more copies to Democrats than to Republicans, he reveals a friendship of sorts. Caitlin Yilek writes in The Daily Caller:

In a copy of his forthcoming book, The Restless Wave, obtained by the Daily Beast, McCain said he appreciated the call from Obama. The two ran against each other in the 2008 presidential election. Among the people who called to thank me was President Obama, McCain writes. I appreciated the call, but, as I said, my purpose hadnt been to preserve his signature accomplishment but to insist on a better alternative, and to give the Senate an opportunity to work together to find one.

The excerpts reveal an admiration for Obamas style:, after noting that he did not respond positively to President Trumps efforts to lobby him to vote for repeal:

He [Obama] hadnt called to lobby me before the vote, which I had appreciated. He had last called me not long after the November election, during the transition to the Trump administration, to congratulate me on my reelection. He added that he was counting on me to be an outspoken and independent voice for the causes I believed in as I had been during his presidency. I thanked him, and said I would try to be.

If only the senator had been this candid before facing the voters.The first alleged render of the Galaxy Note 9 appeared online earlier this week, having been shared by one industry insider from China who has a positive track record with leaking Samsungs upcoming products. The image that can be seen above shows an Orchid Gray variant of the Android phablet and suggests the South Korean tech giant will once again be launching dual-SIM models of one of its flagships, based on the two signal strength indicators in the phones notification bar.

The Galaxy Note 9 appears to be visually identical to its 2017 predecessor, being yet another Samsung-made offering with an Infinity Display, a Super AMOLED panel with an elongated aspect ratio of 18.5:9. Much like the Galaxy Note 8, this years S Pen-equipped device is likely to support a QHD+ resolution of 2,960 by 1,440 pixels and be offered in two main variants. The international model should feature Samsungs own Exynos 9810 chip, whereas the versions sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and China are expected to ship with Qualcomms Snapdragon 845, as was the case with the Galaxy S9 lineup commercialized two months back. Recent reports indicated Samsung may have found a way to mass-produce smartphones with in-screen fingerprint readers, with the implication being that the Galaxy Note 9 will be the companys first product to feature such a scanner.

The Seoul-based original equipment manufacturer is also rumored to offer the Galaxy Note 9 in at least one new color, with previous reports mentioning a Teddy Brown variant of the phablet. The high-end offering is expected to feature 6GB of RAM and a 64GB storage space base, together with a 3.5mm audio jack. While the Galaxy Note 8 boasted a 6.3-inch screen, the upcoming device may be equipped with a 6.4-inch panel, insiders claimed earlier this year. Samsungs custom implementation of Android 8.1 Oreo should also be part of the package, together with NFC, Bluetooth 5.0, heart rate monitor, and Bixby 2.0, a new iteration of the companys artificial intelligence assistant. The Galaxy Note 9 is likely to debut in late August or early September, around the time the IFA 2018 trade show takes place in Berlin, Germany.The controversial Restoring Internet Freedom act that the Federal Communications Commission voted for in December and published in the Federal Register this February will be entering into force on June 11, according to a Thursday public notice from the agency. The final version of the act will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow, marking the start of a 30-day countdown until the measure is implemented and the 2015 net neutrality rules are repealed in practice.

A vote on whether to dismiss the FCCs repeal will be held by the U.S. Senate in the coming days, backed by a petition signed by 47 Democrats, two independents, and Republican Senator Susan Collins. As Republican Senator John McCain is still absent from the Congress due to health issues, net neutrality proponents are expecting a 50-49 vote in their favor. The dissenting group on Wednesday officially petitioned for a Senate vote and a ten-hour floor debate on the matter under the Congressional Review Act. Senator Ed Markey said the vote may be held as soon as next week.

Telecom giants who support the net neutrality repeal argue that the Obama-era Title II regulations inhibit investments in the industry, consequently discouraging innovation and job creation, primarily due to the fact that they classify them as utility providers, thus making them unable to sell prioritized Internet access. While the net neutrality debate has often been steered in the direction of Internet speeds, paying for faster online access has nothing to do with the issue and isnt a practice thats targeted by the existing Title II regulations. Instead, the current rulebook prevents Internet service providers from discriminating against certain websites and online systems by throttling user access to particular domains while allowing faster access to others. While several ISPs like AT&T already advocated for a federal bill meant to regulate net neutrality in a manner that avoids classifying them as utility providers, all of them are pushing against the notion of prioritized access being outlawed.

Advertisement

The difference between throttling certain content or allowing prioritized fast lanes to other websites is effectively non-existent in practice, net neutrality advocates argue, claiming that the idea of Internet content bundles akin to those from the cable industry would be achievable in practice without net neutrality, allowing ISPs to e.g. sell Internet access and charge extra for unthrottled connections to popular websites such as YouTube and Facebook, less popular websites, or both. Besides consumers, ISPs would also be able to pressure companies, i.e. website owners to pay for ensuring their content isnt throttled by their basic Internet packages of the future if the net neutrality rules are repealed, advocacy groups argue.

Nearly two dozen state attorneys general already sued to block the FCCs repeal from going into effect earlier this year, as did a number of consumer advocacy groups. Even if the upcoming net neutrality vote in the Senate is successful, President Trump would still be able to block the lawmakers from preventing the repeal. In a tweet from 2014, the now-President called net neutrality Obamas attack on the internet and hasnt spoken favorably of the regulation since being sworn into the highest office in the country. Numerous states including California and New York are presently pushing for their own net neutrality laws which the FCCs repeal technically forbids, albeit that provision is also expected to be challenged in the court of law as possibly unconstitutional, much like the rest of the act.The Samsung Galaxy S8 Lite has been rumored to arrive for a while now, the alleged device got certified by TENAA quite recently, and now, the phones press renders and a possible release date surfaced. If you take a look at the gallery down below, you will see a number of seemingly official Galaxy S8 Lite press renders, which show off both Red and Black variants of the phone. Having said that, a different source, a Chinese tipster known as Ice Universe hinted that the phone will be announced on May 21, he published the news via Weibo (Chinese social network).

As you can see, the Galaxy S8 Lite will look like the Galaxy S8, it even seems like Samsung is looking to recycle its design altogether. A fingerprint scanner will be included on the back, right next to the phones camera, while an LED flash will sit on the other side of that camera sensor. Samsungs logo will be included on the back, and the device will be made out of metal and glass. Interestingly enough, only the back side of the Galaxy S8 Lite is pictured here, but the front side will probably look the same as the front side of the Galaxy S8, so we know what to expect here unless Samsung opts to include a flat display on the front, though thats not that likely.

Having said that, TENAAs listing actually confirmed the Galaxy S8 Lites spec sheet, according to the provided info, the phone will sport a 5.8-inch fullHD+ (2280 x 1080) Infinity display, and were probably looking at a Super AMOLED panel here. Qualcomms Snapdragon 660 64-bit octa-core SoC is said to fuel this smartphone, while the phone will include 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, which youll be able to expand using a microSD card. Android 8.0 Oreo will come pre-installed on the device, along with Samsungs custom skin, while a 16-megapixel camera will be included on the back. An 8-megapixel camera will sit on the front side of the device, while a 3,000mAh battery will also be a part of the package, and it will support fast charging. Two SIM card slots will be included in this phone, while IP68 certification for water and dust resistance will also be included.Googles fall hardware event will see the announcement of both the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL Android flagships, as well as a Pixel-branded smartwatch, known industry insider Evan Blass said Thursday, citing a reliable source. Google is also planning on debuting the second-generation Pixel Buds at the same happening, as per the same report. While the Pixel 3 lineup was already widely expected to launch this October, the existence of the other two products has been less certain up until now, with the Pixel Buds enjoying a mixed reception from both critics and consumers alike, whereas Google also gave little indication of being interested in creating a first-party smartwatch so far.

A Pixel-series wearable would presumably be based on the same philosophy Google followed while creating the Pixel smartphone series, being meant to serve as both an ultra-premium representative of its product category and a reference design for other original equipment manufacturers to follow. Googles China division reportedly increased its focus on wearables last year and with Android Wear now being rebranded into Wear OS so as to be more inclusive, the tech giant may be looking to illustrate what its new wearable ecosystem is meant to represent with a first-party smartwatch. Android Wear launched over four years ago but is still behind Apples watchOS in terms of market share, according to every major analytics company in the segment, with the industry-wide consensus being that Apple Watches now amount for over 40-percent of the market on their own. Wear OS also competes with Samsungs Tizen and a number of independent alternatives. Google said its March transition from Android Wear to Wear OS was meant to reflect the fact that every third owner of an Android Wear product was also an iPhone users, thus communicating the platforms capabilities more effectively and avoiding confusing consumers who may think the system only works with Android smartphones.

Qualcomm on Tuesday confirmed its following up on the Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip after more than two years this fall, adding that its new silicon will be found inside at least one premium smartwatch that will go on sale in time for the 2018 holiday season. Its presently unclear whether Google is the entity behind that intelligent timepiece and if the Alphabet-owned company even has the capabilities to mass-produce a smartwatch in-house, or if it will once again turn to one of its technology partners for help in bringing another hardware product to the market. In case of the latter, one of the likeliest candidates for the Pixel smartwatch manufacturer is LG Electronics, with the South Korean company already boasting established small OLED panel manufacturing operations delivering screens for wearables and strengthening its relationship with Google in recent times across all consumer electronics segments. LG manufactured last years Pixel 2 XL, is rumored to be involved in the Pixel 3 project, and is also planning on releasing a new Wear OS devices on its own next month, with its upcoming product being the Watch Timepiece, a hybrid device that combines a touchscreen with physical clock arms, according to information obtained by AndroidHeadlines.Google made a ton of announcements at Google I/O this week, including some that were part of the developer keynote yesterday afternoon. A smaller part of that keynote was indeed its changes to Material Design. Leading to the developer conference, a good number of the leaks indicated that it might be called Material Design 2 but thats not the case. When asked about it, Googles VP of Design, Matias Duarte, informed us that the team did not want to invalidate the original Material Design guidelines. As those are still part of the system, but instead wanted to show that it is evolving. Duarte also jokingly said that product naming is hard, but the real gist of this is that its an evolution of the original version of Material Design, thus naming it Material Design 2, just didnt make sense.

Material Design actually debuted back in 2014  which believe it or not, was nearly four years after Duarte joined the team. Since then it has evolved quite a bit over the years. However, one of the issues that Duarte and his team encountered with Material Design, was the fact that it did not cater to every brands needs. This was largely because there was a pre-selected list of colors available for you to use. Whereas now, the team allows developers to input a HEX code and get the exact color to match its brand. Essentially making Material Design much more customizable. In fact, the team likes to say that it is infinitely customizable, with guardrails. Meaning that you can customize it as much as you want, theres infinite possibilities, but there are somethings you cant do with Material Design.

The whole announcement for the design team at Google I/O this week was the fact the theming engine, Material Theme Engine. Its a pretty simple tool for developers to use, allowing developers to essentially plug in their colors and get a material design theme for their app. This is going to make it much easier for developers to adopt Material Design in apps going forward. This is something that the team is also pretty proud of. Noting that when it released Material Design back in 2014, it was lacking a lot of what it has now. Back in 2014, Google lacked a cohesive design across all of its products. Some could argue that is still the case, but its not quite the same thing.

Advertisement

Duarte iterated that as a designer, his work is never done, and also stated that youll see more frequent updates to Material Design in the coming months. This doesnt mean that the team will be rolling out comprehensive changes that affect all of its guidelines, but instead rolling out components and such that can be updated easier with affecting an entire app or website (if its a web service versus an app on Android). The mission of Material Design hasnt changed here, and that mission is to help people make more beautiful, more usable things and with the addition of the Material Theme Engine, the design team has done just that.Google is now working on a new application called Lookout that is intended to aid users with visual impairments by utilizing a devices camera and A.I. Of course, the application isnt quite ready yet but the company has provided a substantial number of details about it prior to its launch. It works by using machine learning and the onboard camera to both examine objects and people in the surrounding environment and to gauge the contextual relevance of those. Feedback is provided to the user about that environment via audio. Although some things, such as restrooms or exits are more likely to be pointed out across more situations, there are also several different modes planned.

Those different modes will make it possible to provide additional context for the A.I. to work with. For example, Work and Play mode is designed to help in office spaces, shopping, or new environments. Home mode centers around the users household, with contexts provided which focus on cooking, chores, and other aspects of home life. There is also a text-specific mode called Scan and an Experimental mode for new features. The A.I. interacts with the user by reading text aloud or pointing out specific objects within the confines of whats relevant based on those modes. Presumably, at some point, Lookout will also be able to utilize other audio output methods. So it should prove useful in a huge variety of circumstances. The addition of other output options would also mean it can also be used more privately if desired.

The move is hardly surprising given both the search giants recent push to deliver new accessibility options and its drive to deliver on the A.I. front. Those two categories of technology have in fact been a huge part of this years Google I/O 2018 event, as well. For now, Google hasnt provided details about when, exactly, Lookout will become available to users. However, it is expected to arrive in the Play Store before the end of the year. In the meantime, the company has also shared a video primer to show what the app is capable of right now.Googles Pixel Buds can now be customized so Spoken Notifications are only provided for the apps the user wants notifications from. This change is actually occuring at the app level with the Google app now showing the option to customize the experience, first spotted by 9to5 Google.

While it is currently unclear when the feature definitely became live, it was not a feature that was understood to be offered up until now. Instead, users only had the opportunity to either activate or disable Spoken Notifications in general. Now, however, users can head through the Google app settings to where the Spoken Notifications tab is located and once the tab is clicked through it will open a separate page (shown below). This is the same page and process that was in effect previously though the newer version of the page now includes separate toggles for all the apps installed on a device. The screenshot below shows the interface in its default mode highlighting how apps like Hangouts, Messages, and WhatsApp are all activated by default, while other apps are not. This will vary from device to device depending on which apps are installed, though it seems message apps are considered a default category. In either case, the option to completely enable or disable Spoken Notifications through the same main toggle is unchanged for those who prefer an all or nothing choice.

While this will be a useful new feature to owners of the Pixel Buds, it might not be the only one that is coming soon. As other customized actions are also thought to be on the way thanks to a recent teardown of the Google app which revealed the option to customize gesture actions such as double-tapping the earbuds. At present, this action is predetermined to activate Assistant through the suggestion is it could be used for other useful actions, such as track-skipping. On a related note, while it is unclear when the Google app was updated to accommodate this new customized option, it was also noted today that the Google app is now showing the new Assistant voices Google announced during I/O 2018. Allowing Assistant users to customize the voice they hear that little bit more.South Korean antitrust watchdog criticized Samsungs corporate ownership structure earlier today, having specifically targeted the circular shareholding practices that allowed the founding Lee family to maintain a tight grip of the countrys largest conglomerate despite officially only owning a minority stake in it. While speaking to reporters on Thursday, Korea Fair Trade Commission Chairman Kim Sang-jo said the current ownership and control structure of Samsung Group, which goes from Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee to Samsung C&T to Samsung Life Insurance to Samsung Electronics, is not sustainable.

While the structure that involves Samsung affiliates owning stakes in one another allows founders to continue controlling their companies while still benefiting from the public capital markets and were previously even used for circumventing inheritance tax, investors have often criticized firms that resort to them based on the fact that circular shareholding lowers the perceived value of any particular stock. That sentiment was at the center of a late 2016 push from American hedge fund Elliott Management that advocated for Samsung splitting itself into two. Prior to joining Koreas antitrust regulator, Mr. Kim called for a similar move, with the chaebol considering the idea two years ago but ultimately dismissing it as being too complex to reliably execute.

Samsung is now said to be planning to sell some of the circularly owned shares of its business and streamline its corporate structure in the process of doing so. The plan has reportedly been approved by Samsung Group scion Jay Y. Lee shortly after he was released from prison on a suspended sentence over bribing top government officials earlier this year, despite the fact that a more straightforward structure would weaken his grasp over the conglomerate. The transition still isnt expected to include $26 billion worth of Samsung Electronics stock owned by Samsung Life Insurance, with Mr. Kim on Thursday targeting that pool of shares in particular. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Yoon Boo-keun said the Seoul-based tech giant will consider such a move. Mr. Lee is presently touring the world and meeting with industry leaders, including those from Samsungs direct rivals, having been keeping a low profile ever since an appellate court freed him in early February.The mainland China version of OPPOs R15 Pro is now ready to receive the recently announced Android P Beta Preview, according to the company. The new preview was launched on May 8 for developers wanting to check out the software on non-Google devices, which was made possible thanks to Googles Project Treble. There are actually no fewer than 7 devices that are set to be compatible with this preview, not including Pixel-branded devices. However, OPPO is among the first to provide a bit more information about what that entails. With that said, its important to remember that these previews are not necessarily intended for daily use or use by the general public. There will almost certainly be bugs and glitches confronting developers that download and install the update since that is, after all, the whole purpose of these test versions. Bearing that in mind, anybody interested in checking it out will want to read over the installation instructions  included via a button below  prior to getting started.

For clarification, OPPO has stated that this OS will not be a new variation on its own ColorOS Android skin. Development on that is still ongoing and is expected later on, after a stable release of Android P is finalized. Instead, it seems as though installing the Android P Beta will install the stock OS itself. So moving back to OPPOs firmware will probably require a similar amount of work to this installation. That wont likely be much of an issue for the developers this Beta is intended for but it is worth pointing out. Meanwhile, the OPPO highlights several new Android P features with this version of Googles mobile OS. As highlighted at this years Google I/O 2018 event, the update will include features from Developer Preview 1 and 2. Notably, that includes screen notch support, multi-camera API, and better indoor positioning via Wi-Fi RTT for precision down to 1-2 meters. It will also include Googles newly improved security, pill icon gesture navigation, a better set of notification controls, and the new Markup screenshot editor.

Anybody who doesnt have experience with developer software and firmware implementations, as mentioned above, will probably want to skip this Android P Beta and wait for the official release. It also bears repeating that those who do want to check it out should heed OPPOs advice and read over the instructions first to ensure they are up to the task. The instructions are included through the first button below, while the download for the firmware can be accessed via the second button.

Advertisement

Read The Installation Instructions

Download Android P Beta For OPPO R15 ProSome aggressive original equipment manufacturers arent content with the currently widely accepted 2019 launch timeframe for 5G-enabled smartphones and would like to bring such devices to the market by late 2018, Qualcomm Engineering SVP Durga Prasad Malladi told India-based ETTelecom. While the fifth generation of mobile services will already become available in limited areas in the second half of this year, the current plan is to commercialize it in conjunction with pucks or cutting-edge routers meant to serve as an alternative to broadband Internet access, whereas no real talk of 5G smartphones being available for purchase prior to 2019 has been heard so far.

Chinese ZTE is the only major OEM that previously confirmed its exploring the idea of launching a 5G handset in late 2018 but after the U.S. Commerce Department hit it with a seven-year ban on purchasing American technologies over its violations of Iran trade sanctions last month, its overall future remains uncertain, with the firm recently ceasing all major operations and raising concerns over whether it will be able to produce any kind of phones at all moving forward, let alone 5G-ready ones. While the worlds first 5G handsets are likely to be flagships, Mr. Malladi said Qualcomm will make sure OEMs have their options open from day one, so entry-level and mid-range offerings capable of communicating with such next-generation networks may not be far behind their premium counterparts, or at least wont be late due to technological limitations.

Qualcomm is also looking beyond smartphones in the context of 5G, the industry veteran said, having pointed to the companys recent laptop push as one natural avenue of growth for the firm thats recently been looking to power a variety of portable Windows ultrabooks with its Snapdragon chips. Tablets are also likely to receive 5G capabilities in the near future, Mr. Malladi indicated. The Qualcomm official confirmed there will absolutely be a 5G alternative to Voice over LTE (VoLTE) but it may be a while until such a solution becomes available even after 5G networks are commercialized. Regardless, the non-standalone nature of the specification used as a basis for early 5G means that devices will be simultaneously connected to both 4G LTE and the new standard, so VoLTE will remain just as available as before until a better technology comes along, Mr. Malladi concluded.I was traveling recently and needed to stop for a dinner break while en route. I found an attractive looking restaurant that specialized in fusion cuisine. I ordered a grilled chicken Banh Mi and Korean Kalbi baby back ribs. Though both dishes were tasty, the Banh Mi was merely a grilled chicken sandwich with carrot and cabbage coleslaw and sriracha mayonnaise, possessing none of the characteristics or attributes of the iconic Vietnamese sandwich. The ribs were glazed with a barbeque sauce made with Korean pepper paste but otherwise bore no resemblance to the traditional Korean Kalbi barbeque. I would have been happier if the menu had listed the dishes as simply a chicken sandwich and BBQ ribs, rather then trying to portray them as something they werent.

Paella, my practice round

A societys culture is expressed through its food traditions  often the assimilation of one cultures cuisine by another culture can spark nationalistic indignation. This cultural pride was dramatically demonstrated by the impassioned responses to British celebrity chef Jamie Olivers recipe for My favourite paella. When Chef Olivers website published his recipe for the classic Spanish rice dish paella that included chicken, chorizo and prawns, he was barraged with angry hate mail. The outcries of indignation included: Jamie, please read more about paellas before calling anything paella. This recipe is rice with things. Paella never has chorizo. Please go to the corner and think about this abomination. I hate it when people do not define paella correctly. Its as if they want to see the whole world burn! Chorizo in paella??? This is a massive no-no. Someone needs to stop this, it is so heartbreaking as a Spaniard to see how badly Spanish food is represented in your country. The abuses committed in the name of Paella Valenciana are excessive  an absolute scandal.

I find this controversy most amusing because Spains national dish has diverse multicultural origins. Paella is a rice dish that dates back to the mid-19th century from a region on the east coast of Spain near the city of Valencia. The Romans had introduced irrigation to the area and the conquering Moors had begun growing rice in the area 1,200 years before. The workers in the areas fruit orchards would cook rice over a wood fire. They seasoned the rice with saffron, which had been introduced by Arab spice traders. Because good slow-burning firewood was scarce in this unforested region of Spain, the orchard workers would cook over vines and branches pruned from the orange trees. These prunings created intense heat. If the rice were to have been cooked in a round-bottomed pot, like the type used for jambalaya in the American South, the rice on the bottom would be scorched before the rice on top was ready. So the orchard workers used a wide, flat-bottomed shallow pan called a paellera, which had been introduced by the Romans.



The rice grown in the region defined the character of the dish. The short-grained variety known as Bomba swells to seven times its dry size as it absorbs the flavors of the stock without getting mushy.

As the dish evolved in modern times, a culture and ritual developed around it. Traditional paella became a picnic dish cooked outdoors on Sundays by men while the women were away at church. Served communally and eaten directly out of the pan, diners started at the perimeter and worked toward the center, scooping up pieces of chewy caramelized rice sticking to the bottom of the pan called the socarrat.

Spains national dish dates to the mid-19th century.

Paella

with chicken, chorizo, shrimp and shellfish



  cup uncooked Bomba Rice per person 1 cup chicken stock per person 5 threads saffron per person dissolved in a little white wine 4 tablespoons or more olive oil, to cover bottom of pan 1 piece of chicken, such as a thigh, per person  to 1 soft chorizo, such as Bilbao or Palacios, per person  teaspoon Spanish sweet pimenton (paprika) per person 1 clove garlic per person, minced  cup chopped onion per person  cup grated tomato (cut in half, grate and discard the skin) per person 2 shrimps per person 2-4 mussels per person red piquillo peppers cut in strips (or substitute jarred roasted red peppers) frozen artichoke hearts or peas cooked cannellini beans lemon wedges for garnish salt to taste

Heat stock in a separate stockpot.



Crush saffron and add it to stock or a little bit of white wine.



Heat paella pan (or other shallow fat-bottomed pan) over medium heat. This can be done on a stovetop or in a kettle grill.

Add olive oil and fry chicken until it begins to brown.

Next, add garlic and onions and saute until translucent.



Add chorizo and cook until heated.



Add the rice, stirring until well coated with oil.



Add the paprika and grated tomato. Stir while cooking for a few minutes.



Add saffron-flavored wine and hot stock. Bring to a boil while scraping the bottom of pan.

Now the rice should be level and you will not need to stir from this point on. Adjust heat to maintain a nice simmer.



When the rice has absorbed a good amount of liquid but still has a soupy appearance, add the mussels or clams.



Once the rice is cooked, add the shrimp or prawns, tucking them down into the rice. Then add the piquillo peppers, artichoke hearts, green beans, beans and peas. During this time, the rice should be caramelizing on the bottom of the pan or creating what is called the socarrat. It will make a faint crackling sound and smell toasty sweet but not burnt. Set aside to rest for 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, garnish with lemon wedges and serve.



Recipe adapted from spanishtable.com



Peter Glatz and Bertha Bus will defy tradition by preparing paella with chorizo for the Corkscrews Spanish dinner on Sunday, May 20, at 5:15 pm. Call 698-1112 for information.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AMG

HP

We're talking about Brabus , of course. A couple of decades ago, a new Brabus model would only debut a couple of years after Affalterbach's 63came out. However, the company now has a variety of accessories available for the average consumer... who can afford something like a CLS-Class.Why is this not the CLS 53 ? Well, we've already established with a previous video share that the AMG model is heavier and more expensive. You can just get something like the 450 Edition 1 and get 100% of the CLS III experience.So, let's get into the nitty-gritty of what Brabus is offering. While the black-grey color theme is typical of the company, you don't get a body kit. That's right, those side skirts and front splitter are from Mercedes. Only the front and rear badges have been changed, replacing the star with a big B.The D40 logo lets us know that there's a diesel under the hood, but not which. Mercedes offers three of them, with outputs from 245 to 340. However, there's no mention of a D40 on the E-Class or S-Class facelift, which might share the inline-6 powertrains.The wheels are a big part of what the Germans are offering. There are five choices in 20 or 21 inches. Some of them are a bit over-the-top, like the blocky Maybach-like design. What next, drum brakes hiding under there? But the gunmetal finish works with every color, from red to white.As for the interior, Brabus doubled down on custom carpets and illuminated door sills. Honestly, we can do without both and will happily wait for the full leather wrap. Red or blue? However, the custom aluminum pedals might be a good idea. They almost seem like a DIY project you could do on the weekend.SUV

From Automotive News : The last day of production wasn't met with any official celebration. No TV news crews. No final group photo. Reading between the lines, this is a fundamental change in the way the Ford Motor Company does business in North America. After all, trucks, crossovers, and SUVs reign supreme these days.While theres no direct replacement for the C-Max, the Focus will come back to the United States as the Focus Active in 2019. And it will be manufactured in Chongqing, China, following in the footsteps of the Yantai-built Buick Envision. Given these circumstances, whatll happen to the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant?As we speak, the Dearborn-based automaker is converting the facility to welcome the Ranger for the 2019 model year. And after the mid-size pickup truck, the Jeep Wrangler-rivaling 2020 Bronco will follow suit, riding on the Rangers platform.In the coming years, the Fusion and Taurus will also be discontinued from the U.S. lineup, joining the Fiesta, Focus, and C-Max. The Mustang , therefore, will be the only passenger car manufactured in the United States by the Ford Motor Company. For the rest of the lineup, trucks and utility vehicles of all shapes and sizes will have to make do, ranging from the EcoSport to the Expedition and F-Series.Theres even an all-electricin the offing, developed by Team Edison and marketed as the Mach 1. Whats more, the Ford Motor Company confirmed that it would introduce hybridized versions of the Mustang, Escape, Explorer, and F-150.On a related note, all new Ford models sold in the United States will have 4G LTE connectivity by 2019. Also from a technological standpoint, automatic emergency braking (AEB) will become standard by 2022.According to local police, cited by NBC Miami , the cause of the crash seems to have been excessive speed. The Fort Lauderdale Police department says a gray 2014 Tesla Motors Model S drove off the roadway and struck a concrete wall. It immediately caught fire, becoming fully engulfed in flames.Whereas the circumstances surrounding the accident seem to be clear, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) stepped in to investigate why and how the vehicle caught fire. This would be the second Tesla car to ignite after hitting a concrete barrier in less than two months.NTSB has a long history of investigating emerging transportation technologies, such as lithium-ion battery fires in commercial aviation, as well as a fire involving the lithium-ion battery in a Chevrolet Volt in collaboration with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said in a statement NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt."The goal of these investigations is to understand the impact of these emerging transportation technologies when they are part of a transportation accident."The transportation safety watchdog has not yet finished its investigation in the March 23 Model X crash that claimed the life of its driver.There are two main directions the investigation is likely to take in this latest crash. The first is to establish whether the cars Autopilot was engaged, and the second to see whether Tesla batteries catching fire is turning into a pattern.The first task seems to have been solved, as had the Autopilot been engaged, the speed of the vehicle would have been limited to 35 mph. That, says the police, is not the speed at which witnesses claim the Model S was traveling when hitting the barrier.Cessnas diesel-powered Turbo Skyhawk JT-A is no longer in production for sale directly to customers, Textron has confirmed to AVweb. The airplane, which was certifiedlast June by both the FAA and EASA, has been deleted from the companys website. However, the Continental CD-155 engine will still be offered to customers directly through Continental as a Supplemental Type Certificate installation for the Cessna 172, a Textron Aviation spokesperson told AVweb in an email. Installation can be facilitated and accomplished by Continental after aircraft acceptance and delivery from Textron Aviation, the spokesperson said. Cessnas sales of the JT-A were actually under Continentals STC approval.

We trust that this change to deal directly with the engine manufacturer will be beneficial to our customers, while also helping us further streamline our production process, the spokesperson said. The 155-hp turbo-diesel Continental CD-155 can run on either diesel or Jet-A fuel, and boosted range by about 50 percent compared to the conventional Skyhawk. The option added about $60,000 to the base price. When it was introduced, Textron officials said they expected the new engine option would expand sales globally. Besides the added range, the diesel engine offers a speed boost to 134 knots and improved takeoff performance, especially in high and hot conditions, according to Textron.

Although the emerging pilot shortage has stimulated demand for trainers, diesel-powered models arent getting much lift in the North American market. Even worldwide, demand appears weak. According to Jimmy Lockhart of Africair, a Miami aircraft distributor that also offers Continental diesel conversions of the Cessna 172, market interest is strong, but sales are not. He says the company has converted about 70 airplanes to diesel, but none have been sold in the last 18 months. He said lack of interest in the Cessna JT-A was probably due to its high price  twice the cost of a diesel conversion.Image: Uber

Uber is looking for an international launch city for its UberAIR aerial ridesharing program, the company announced at its second annual Uber Elevate Summit on Wednesday. Uber has issued an open call for interested governments to submit a formal Expression of Interest by July 1, 2018. From there, Uber says it will begin conversations with cities that it thinks might be a good match.

According to Uber, that match will be a city with more than 2 million people at a population density of over 2,000 people per square mile. It also wants a place that experiences issues with traffic congestion but doesnt have much in the way of extreme weather, temperatures or elevations. Also on the list of desirable traits is a power grid capable of supporting UberAIRs all-electric aircraft.

In the U.S., UberAIRs has picked Dallas and Los Angeles as its launch cities. On the first day of the conference,Uber announcedthat itplansto begin commercial aerial operations in 2023. The electric-powered VTOL aircraft model to be used for the ridesharing programisstill under development. The goal is to have demonstrators in the air by 2020.A majority of Americans are supportive of talks between North Korea and the U.S. over the regime's nuclear program, but almost half don't think Kim Jong-un and other North Korean leaders are serious "about addressing international concerns," a new Pew Research survey shows.

The big picture: Americans are more supportive of talks with North Korea than they were of talks with Iran before the nuclear deal was reached, Pew reveals. In March 2015, 49% of the public approved of negotiating with Iran, compared to 71% who approve of negotiations with North Korea.

Yes, but: The public is also more aware of negotiations between North Korea and the U.S. than they were about talks with Iran. Slightly under half of Americans say they've heard "a lot" about talks with the regime, compared to 27% that heard a lot about the Iran deal.

The kicker: About one third of Americans believe the U.S. "plays a less important and powerful role as a world leader today than it did 10 years ago."Airplane manufacturers Boeing and Airbus will lose roughly $39 billion in combined plane contracts with Iranian carriers as a result of the Trump administration's reimposition of sanctions following the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the Washington Post's Steven Mufson and Damian Paletta report.

The backdrop: Both companies were reportedly the biggest beneficiaries of the Obama-era pact that eased sanctions on Iran in return for increased restrictions on its nuclear weapons program. In 2016, Airbus signed a deal to supply Iran Air with 100 airplanes for about $19 billion, and Boeing had a $20 billion contract to deliver 110 aircrafts. "The aircraft sales were among the most sought-after contracts for Iran," write Mufson and Paletta.

On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the Boeing and Airbus licenses would be revoked.

But, but, but, Boeing's CEO Dennis Muilenburg has "downplayed the loss" of jetliner sales to Iranian air carriers, noting that the company hasn't started building any planes for Iranian carriers, Bloomberg reports. Meanwhile, Airbus had reportedly delivered three of the 100 planes it agreed to supply.Donald Trump Jr. is preparing to dive into the 2018 midterm elections.

What's next: He wants to use his influence within the Republican base to "expand our majority in the Senate and protect our majority in the House," said a source close to the president's son. Expect Don Jr. to be raising money for Republican candidates and staging rallies.

Behind the scenes: Immediately after the race was called in the West Virginia Senate primary on Tuesday, Don Jr. spoke to Patrick Morrisey to congratulate him on his victory.

People briefed on the call said Don Jr. offered to come down and campaign with Morrisey to defeat Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.

on the call said Don Jr. offered to come down and campaign with Morrisey to defeat Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin. Don Jr.'s first trip to West Virginia is expected to be scheduled fairly soon.

Don Jr.'s priority states for midterm Senate races: West Virginia, Missouri, Montana and Indiana.

Between the lines: Those are all states where President Trump has solid approval ratings. A source close to Don Jr. said he believes his brand of "MAGA conservatism"  pro-gun, anti-media, anti-establishment  could make a difference in turning out the base in these states.The White House has issued a statement of support for Israel after it carried out a large-scale attack on Iranian military installations in Syria. Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Iran "bears full responsibility for the consequences" of the rocket barrage on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that prompted Israel's response.

Why it matters: Things are heating up quickly  all as Iran decides how to proceed internationally and diplomatically following President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. This statement puts the White House firmly behind Israel at a time when tensions with Iran are reaching dangerous heights.Iranian forces stationed in Syria reportedly fired 20 rockets at Israeli military positions in the Golan Heights early Thursday, Israels defense forces told the AP. No Israeli casualties were reported.

The timing: This comes a day after President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the multination Iranian nuclear deal. The move has stoked fears of further escalating tensions between countries neighboring Syria.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Nepal on Friday intent on keeping the small South Asian country away from China's grasp.

The big picture: Nepal is located between the two Asian giants. It has historically been closer to India, a fellow Hindu-majority country with which it shares deep cultural and economic ties. But India is worried that Chinese investment is causing its neighbors loyalties to shift.

Nepal's economic livelihood depends on Indian exports, tourism and remittances from its citizens working in India, says Shailesh Kumar, Asia director for the Eurasia Group. The Nepali rupee is also pegged to the Indian one.

But Nepal has felt overwhelmed by Indian influence. After the 2015 Nepali earthquake, India implemented an unofficial blockade of supplies during a time of dire need to protest Nepal's treatment of its ethnically-Indian citizens.

After the 2015 Nepali earthquake, India implemented an unofficial blockade of supplies during a time of dire need to protest Nepal's treatment of its ethnically-Indian citizens. China, meanwhile, has made big-ticket offers to build roads and dams in Nepal without conditions based on Nepal's domestic politics. Every south Asian country needs infrastructure, Kumar says, but Nepal is desperate for it.

to build roads and dams in Nepal without conditions based on Nepal's domestic politics. Every south Asian country needs infrastructure, Kumar says, but Nepal is desperate for it. While campaigning, Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Oli espoused pro-China views, vowing to restarted stalled Chinese projects, but since taking power he has shown a willingness to cooperate with India, says Kumar.

Timing: Modi's trip to Nepal comes after Oli visited India last month and Modi himself went to China to meet with Xi just a few weeks ago.

What to watch: "Modi needs to make sure any drift that has been taking place ends," and he'll do that by offering greater Indian financing of and investment in Nepali infrastructure projects, Kumar says.

Go deeper: Nepal is just one of the flash points in the IndiaChina rivalryBeijing is paying top dollar to woo star Chinese scientists back home to win the AI race and build a home-grown chip industry. But for the vast majority of foreign-educated graduates, finding work back in China is tough.

What's going on: The U.S. is making it harder for foreign university graduates to remain in the U.S., Axios' Stef Kight reported earlier. Meanwhile, Chinese students in the U.S. are increasingly choosing to go home after getting their diploma, despite the intense competition.

Here is what a recent Chinese returnee told me: "Right now, landing a good job in China is very, very difficult. The competition is more fierce than ever. There is a large number of Chinese students who graduate from prestigious universities or colleges every year, and having only the degree does not make you stand out. You also need prestigious internships, and a clear career direction."

By the numbers: From 1978  the dawn of the Deng era  till 2016, about 82% of Chinese studying abroad returned home, according to China's Ministry of Education.That the 2015 nuclear deal has so far delivered on its core promise is not in dispute by most observers. If Iran today chooses to dash for a nuclear weapon it will be found out, thanks to the restraints imposed on it by the deal.

Yes, but: The performance of the deal was not the key factor in President Trumps withdrawal of the U.S. from the agreement. His decision points to the greater aim of bringing about regime change in Tehran, as suggested by his appeal to the Iranian people to rise up and reclaim their country from the Islamist dictatorship.

Why is Trump gambling that Iran is ripe for regime change? That's what Iran hawks in his circle, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, are telling him. Just this past weekend, Rudy Giuliani, another Trump loyalist and anti-Iran voice, told an Iranian opposition group rally in Washington that Trump is committed to regime change in Tehran.

To a lesser extent, this notion that the Iranian regime is on the brink is also backed by mounting evidence of popular anger about Iran's inept domestic and foreign policies. The regime often prioritizes its Islamist agenda over the everyday needs of its citizens. It's not likely any members of his administration expect Iran to come back for new talks with Washington and give away more for less, so Trump is essentially banking that anger is about to tip the balance in Tehran and attempting to expedite it.

Th bottom line: It's uncertain whether renewed American efforts to sanction Irans economy would be able to spark a regime-toppling popular uprising. Another possibility is that the regime in Tehran will successfully blame the U.S. for the suffering of the Iranian people. Trump's gamble could go either way, though the latter fate seems more likely in the short term.

Alex Vatanka is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.Three U.S. prisoners in North Korea are coming home, and President Trump will be meeting them when the plane arrives in the wee hours of Thursday morning.

Why it matters: "[T]he release of the three Americans is permanent, and Mr. Kim forfeited a bargaining chip in freeing them. No other Americans are believed to be held prisoner in North Korea," Choe Sang-Hun writes for the N.Y. Times.

The details: NYT adds, "A senior United States official said the prisoner release was an American condition to the planned talks between the leaders of the United States and North Korea."

Trump's triumphant announcement:

"I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with Kim Jong Un. Date & Place set."

"Secretary Pompeo and his 'guests' will be landing at Andrews Air Force Base at 2:00 A.M. in the morning. I will be there to greet them. Very exciting!"

The newly-freed prisoners: Tony Kim, detained since April 23, 2017; Kim Hak-song, detained since May 6, 2017; Kim Dong-chul, detained since 2015.

P.S. Trump has ruled out the DMZ as a location for the North Korean meeting. Singapore is among the remaining options.In announcing yesterday that he would not waive sanctions against Iran, President Trump put the United States in violation of the nuclear deal and left the agreements future in doubt.

Why it matters: Theres no denying that this is a crisis of Trumps own making. Iran is not in violation of the JCPOA, a fact confirmed by not only IAEA inspectors but also by Trumps own Secretary of Defense. Even the Israeli intelligence that Trump cited shows nothing more than the fact that Iran had a nuclear program prior to 2003.

Although the deal didnt address every concern, it was successfully preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Trump has instead opted for an uncertain future, raising the risks of an Iranian bomb and a U.SIranian conflict.

Its another page in the playbook that guided Trumps withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership  a decision he has since tried to reverse  and his approach to North Korea, which began with a series of increasingly hostile tweets that could have precipitated a war.

The bottom line: Trumps decision on the nuclear deal is the latest example of his tendency to manufacture foreign policy crises where none exist. His shoot first, ask questions later foreign policy ultimately makes us all less safe.

Emma Ashford is a research fellow at the Cato Institute.Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian initiated on Thursday the dismissal of the heads of Armenias police and National Security Service (NSS) who had been appointed by his predecessor Serzh Sarkisian.

The police chief, Vladimir Gasparian, and the NSS director, Georgi Kutoyan, were formally relieved of their duties by President Armen Sarkissian. The presidential decrees were requested by Pashinian earlier in the day.

Gasparian, 59, has headed the national police service since 2011, while the 36-year-old Kutoyan was named to run the NSS in 2016. Kutoyan previously worked as an assistant to Serzh Sarkisian, who was Armenias president from 2008-2018.

The NSS is the successor agency to the former Armenian branch of the KGB, the Soviet secret police.

Pashinian gave no reasons when he announced the impending dismissal of the two men in the morning. He named their replacements later in the day.

The new NSS chief, Artur Vanetsian, is a 38-year-old officer who has worked for the powerful security agency for the last 15 or so years. Vanetsian has the rank of NSS colonel.

Gasparian will be succeeded as police chief by Valeri Osipian, until now a deputy head of Yerevans police department responsible for public order and crowd control. Osipian has been a fixture at just about every major anti-government rally staged in the Armenian capital in the past decade.

He frequently warned and argued with Pashinian during the anti-government protests which the former opposition leader launched on April 13 in a successful attempt to topple Serzh Sarkisian. Osipian publicly congratulated and hugged Pashinian after the latter was appointed as prime minister on Tuesday.

Pashinian emphasized the symbolic significance of Osipians unexpected appointment. Its a good symbol for us to try to eliminate that culture of barbed wire in Armenia, he wrote on Facebook.

Pashinian has yet to appoint any members of his cabinet. He has promised to form a government of accord as a result of consultations with political forces represented in the Armenian parliament. He met on Thursday with Vahram Baghdasarian, the parliamentary leader of Serzh Sarkisians Republican Party (HHK).

Baghdasarian said after the meeting that the HHK, which holds the majority of seats in the parliament, will not propose any ministerial candidates. He made clear at the same time that it will not prevent HHK members, among them several acting ministers, from joining Pashinians cabinet. They would only be ordered to suspend their membership in the party, Baghdasarian told RFE/RLs Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).

Baghdasarian also indicated that the parliament majority is ready to vote for the new governments policy program which Pashinian is expected to submit to lawmakers later this month. I dont think that the newly elected prime minister could bring a program containing provisions that will lead us to vote against it, he said.

The HHK majority reluctantly agreed to Pashinians becoming prime minister on Tuesday after weeks of massive protests organized by the opposition leader in Yerevan and other parts of the country. The protests forced Serzh Sarkisian to resign as prime minister on April 23.Paul Morigi/WireImage via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- A Fox Business Network host is apologizing for a remark a retired three-star general and Fox News guest made on his program Thursday  saying Sen. John McCain's opposition to Gina Haspel becoming CIA director was because torture "worked" on McCain.



"The fact is John McCain  it worked on John," retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney told host Charles Payne. "Thats why they call him Songbird John.'"



McCain has always denied giving up harmful information when he was a prisoner of war and when critics distributed a flyer during the 2008 South Carolina presidential primary claiming he did, it was debunked by the fact-finding website PolitiFact.



Payne tweeted that McInerney's remark was "very false and derogatory" and "should have been challenged."



During the Vietnam War, McCain, now 81 and battling brain cancer, was held as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese for more than five years.



McCain has recounted stories of lying to his interrogators under torture, including giving them the names of the Green Bay Packers' offensive line instead of the names of his own squadron.



On Wednesday, McCain urged his Senate colleagues to vote "no" on Haspel's nomination because of her role in the CIA's enhanced interrogation program.



Haspel played key leadership roles at the CIA at the time when the agency was carrying out the controversial program.



"I believe Gina Haspel is a patriot who loves our country and has devoted her professional life to its service and defense," McCain said in a statement. "However, Ms. Haspels role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge tortures immorality is disqualifying. I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination."



But on Fox Business Network, McInerney insisted torture was an effective method that should be used.



"The fact is those methods can work, and they are effective, as former Vice President Cheney said. And if we have to use them to save a million American lives, we will do whatever we have to," he said.



After 35 years of service, McInerney left the military in 1994 after serving as the assistant vice chief of staff of the Air Force.



During the Obama administration, he routinely questioned whether the president was born in the United States.



In September 2016, he was among 88 military leaders who endorsed Donald Trump for office.



Payne, the Fox program's host at the time McInerney made the remark, later on Thursday tweeted "My Apology to Senator McCain and his Family."



This morning on a show I was hosting, a guest made a very false and derogatory remark about Senator John McCain. At the time, I had the control room in my ear telling me to wrap the segment, and did not hear the comment," Payne tweeted.



"I regret I did not catch this remark, as it should have been challenged. As a proud military veteran and son of a Vietnam Vet these words neither reflect my or the networks feelings about Senator McCain, or his remarkable service and sacrifice to this country.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.By Rashid Shirinov

The Armenians well remember the senseless statement that their former president Serzh Sargsyan made last year in the parliament, when he publicly declared his intention to increase the population of the country up to 4 million by 2040.

Not surprisingly, the population of Armenia did not believe the politician who liked to make empty promises. The emigration continued, taking tens of thousands of doctors, engineers, teachers and scientists away from the country.

As a result, Armenia ended 2017 with a decrease of 13,400 permanent residents, according to the National Statistical Service of the country.

The population grew slightly in Yerevan (1,800 people), but it continued to decline in the regions. Almost 4,000 residents of each of Armenias poorest regions Shirak and Lori left the country last year, and about 1,500 people left Gyumri and Vanadzor  the second and third largest cities of the country.

Rather than opening new jobs in the regions in order to stop the growth of poverty and emigration, the government of Armenia was doing its utmost to support the outflow of population. Three years ago, the last large enterprise of Vanadzor  its chemical combine was completely closed. As many as 300-350 people worked there in recent years, while their number was 5,000 in Soviet times.

The official data say that as many as 30 percent of the Armenian population are poor, but the real figure may be much higher. As for emigration, the resident population of Armenia was 3,230,000 on January 1, 2008, but it dropped to 2,972,000 in the beginning of 2018.

Now Sargsyan is gone, but the problems of the country are still out there. The new leader Nikol Pashinyan is now obliged to resolve dozens of problems, including the social and demographic ones.

Some Armenian demographers groundlessly place high hopes in this issue on the new government, saying that those who left Armenia will begin to come back having seen the victory of the people. This, of course, is just a fiction. The latest statements by Pashinyan about the future of the country do not yet have credibility among the population.

In addition, his provocative statements about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict completely cancel out the improvement in the life of the Armenians and the growth of Armenias population. The Armenian leaders should finally realize that the current doleful state of Armenia stems from its launch of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and there will be no serious improvement in any sphere of Armenia until the Karabakh problem is resolved.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Laman Ismayilova

YARAT Contemporary Art Space invites yoga fans to lecture by guru Swami Bodhichitananda Saraswati on May 17-19.

For the first time guru Swami Bodhichitananda Saraswati will visit YARAT to share his knowledge on Integral and Evolutionary Spirituality.

The event organized as part of YARAT Freestyle project, an open platform for everyone who looks to engage creatively with a broad and diverse audience.

Swami Bodhichitananda Saraswati is a Kriya Yogi who has lived in the Indian Himalayas since 1991. He received monastic vows from the Self-Realization Fellowship, founded by Paramahansa Yogananda in California, and from Sri Swami Chidananda Saraswati, Rishikesh, in 1999. He was a personal assistant to Swami Chidananda, and had many roles at the Divine Life Society. His Kriya Yoga Guru is a Himalayan Yogi, Swami Jnanananda Giri, who walked to India in 1952 after reading Autobiography of a Yogi. Swami Bodhichitananda primarily teaches Kriya Yoga of Babaji, Integral and Evolutionary Spirituality. He is founder of the Himalayan Yogis Ashram, Rishikesh. Its mission as an ashram and spiritual retreat is to promote Indian spiritual knowledge and culture, embrace all religions and saints of the world, and for a means to gain direct knowledge and experience of Truth. His 35 years of yoga experience gives him much inner knowledge that he shares in a simple and joyful with all students.

The lecture will be held in English with Russian translation.

The event starts at 19:00.

The number of seats is limited, for registration, please contact: +994 50 246 92 92

YARAT is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to nurturing an understanding of contemporary art in Azerbaijan and to creating a platform for Azerbaijani art, both nationally and internationally. Based in Baku, YARAT (meaning CREATE in Azerbaijani) was founded by Aida Mahmudova in 2011.

It realizes its mission through an on-going program of exhibitions, education events and festivals. YARAT facilitates exchange between local and international artistic networks including foundations, galleries and museums.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan Fashion Week is coming back soon with new amazing looks.

The fashion show will take place in Baku Flame Towers on May 17-19. The runway show is timed to the 100th anniversary of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

The fashion show will feature a series of ceremonial shows with the participation of such famous designers as Fakhriya Khalafova, Diana Ahadpur-Kengerli, as well as Alex Chzhen, Yerlan Zholdasbek, Makhaim, Mak Mari and many others who will present new fashion collections Autumn- winter 2018/19.

Azerbaijan Fashion Week will help to plunge into the history of the beauty and style of Azerbaijani women. Before you flashed images, transformed over a hundred years, clearly demonstrating the evolution of fashion in the last century.

Besides fashion shows, AFW showrooms will be available for the guests. Fashion lovers have a chance to talk with designers, learn about the latest fashion trends, discover new names and find something special for their wardrobe.

During its existence due to the high level of organization and finding the status of the leading fashion event of the country, the Organizing Committee of Azerbaijan Fashion Week signed a number of partnership agreements for cooperation with fashion weeks in different countries, promoting Azerbaijan and region in the fashion community at the international level.

Its partners include Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia, Kazakhstan Fashion Week, Tbilisi Fashion Week, Caspian Fashion Week, Belarus Fashion Week, and Krasnodar Fashion Week.

A few days ago, an agreement was also signed with Volga Fashion Week, whose representative will also be among the honored guests of Azerbaijan Fashion Week.

Official website: www.afw.az.

For more information and press accreditation please contact: [email protected]

Media partners of the event are Azernews.az, Trend.az, Day.az, Milli.az.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Rashid Shirinov

A gala concert dedicated to the Europe Day took place at the Opera Studio of the Baku Music Academy on May 7. The event gathered representatives of the EU states embassies in Azerbaijan, as well as of the embassies of Switzerland, Norway, Brazil, Costa Rica, Israel, Peru, Moldova, Mexico, the U.S. and Argentina.

The concert was opened with an introductory speech by the head of the EU delegation to Azerbaijan, Ambassador Kestutis Jankauskas, who noted that the event was organized within the IMAGINE Euro Tolerance Festival.

This year is special for us  it celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic, the 70th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, and the 10th anniversary of the EU mission in Azerbaijan. We invite you to enjoy music, which is a bridge between cultures, Jankauskas said.

Azerbaijans Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev, in turn, congratulated all Europeans on the holiday and thanked the EU delegation for holding such an concert.

Similar events have been held in Baku over the past few years. Such initiatives help the peoples of different countries to find a common language and get closer. We are working for political, economic and cultural ties between our peoples and we are very pleased with the intensive negotiations between the countries, he said.

Then the students of the Arts Gymnasium performed the anthems of Azerbaijan and the EU.

The concert program was developed by Stefano Moscaritolo, Italian composer and Art Director of the United Cultures, and his wife, composer Kamala Alizade. The composers created many works of the event specially for the Europe Day.

Moscaritolos composition European Counterpoint for electronic music and tar, which reflected the ethnic motives of all the peoples of the EU, caused delight of the public. The performance of the honored artist of Azerbaijan Sahib Pashazade on tar also pleased the representatives of diplomatic missions.

Moreover, the Chamber Orchestra of the Baku Music Academy, under the guidance of the honored artist of Azerbaijan, famous conductor Fuad Ibrahimov, performed a number of works by Azerbaijani and foreign composers, such as Agshin Alizade, Farhad Badalbeyli, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Frideric Handel, Gara Garayev, Antonio Vivaldi, etc.

Another memorable composition of the event was Moscaritolos ForZakhintos in the version for tar, countertenor and string orchestra. The vocal of the honored artist of Azerbaijan Ilham Nazarov and the sound of the national instrument surprisingly harmonized in the modern composition. During the concert, Nazarov also sang the famous jazz song Strangers in the night.

Kamala Alizades work Sea and Stars for guitar, piano and string orchestra was dedicated to the EU. Another work by the composer O Patria Mia for countertenor and string orchestra closed the event.

At the end of the concert, the audience thanked the musicians and organizers with a standing ovation.

The IMAGINE Euro Tolerance Festival, timed to the 70th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, will continue in Baku until May 17.

The festival features a dense calendar of events: musical performances, master classes, a theatre exhibition, film screenings, as well as debates and discussions with internationally acclaimed film directors and musicians.

Notably, this is the second IMAGINE Euro Tolerance Festival, while the first one was also held in Baku last October. A number of well-known film directors, musicians and other artists and performers took part in the festival.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Rashid Shirinov

The worlds leading states and the international community should strongly condemn Armenias occupation policy against Azerbaijan, Ukrainian political scientist Vadim Savenko told Day.az on May 9.

He stressed that the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict poses a serious threat to the entire region.

Azerbaijan enjoys great prestige in the region and in the world, and it has clearly demonstrated its independent foreign policy in the system of international relations, as well as its leadership qualities as the leading country of the South Caucasus, the expert said. All these serious bonuses are a great help for the worlds actors to be more active in the restoration of the territorial independence of Azerbaijan in accordance with the principles of international law.

The political scientist further noted that for more than two decades Armenia has been keeping the native lands of Azerbaijan under occupation, and it refuses to comply with the requirements of the UN Security Council resolutions, which clearly indicate the need for the withdrawal of Armenian military units from foreign territories.

Thus, Armenia grossly violates the principles of international law, which is unacceptable. Similarly, the resettlement of Syrian Armenians to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is extremely unacceptable, Savenko said.

He noted that if Armenia is really concerned about the fate of its compatriots, it is much logical to place them in Yerevan or in other cities and regions of Armenia, but not in the occupied Karabakh.

Such actions by the Armenian authorities show that their initiatives are only a part of the aggressive policy directed against Azerbaijan, the expert emphasized.

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.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Azerbaijan still hopes that the new political leadership of Armenia will not repeat the mistakes of its predecessors, pursue a sober minded policy with a view of building civil and peaceful relations with the neighbouring countries, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministrys Spokesperson Hikmat Hajiyev told Trend commenting on the remarks made by new Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"The new Prime Minister of Armenia resorting to Karabakh narrative seems to prefer political agitation instead of being engaged in addressing daunting social-economic problems of Armenia and Armenian people. We do regret that he has started to make controversial statements about the negotiation process on resolution of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. There is no need to invent bicycle", Hajiyev said.

The spokesperson stressed that Armenia, in contravention of the UN Charter by use of force occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions of Azerbaijan and conducted notorious ethnic cleansing against million more Azerbaijanis in the seized lands.

"It is worth reminding that according to the decisions of CSCE (OSCE) Ministerial Council, held in Helsinki in March 1992 CSCE (OSCE) Minsk Group was established, Armenia and Azerbaijan were recognized as the two sides of the conflict and the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of the region were accepted as the interested parties.

The resolutions of the UN Security Council 822, 853, 874 and 884 adopted in 1993 constitute the fundamental basis for the political settlement of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The UNSC resolutions condemned the occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan and reaffirmed respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and the inviolability of its internationally recognized borders. In those resolutions, the Security Council also confirmed that the Nagorno-Karabakh region is part of Azerbaijan, and demanded immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces from all the occupied territories of Azerbaijan", Hajiyev added.

Hajiyev noted that in order to disguise its direct responsibility for military aggression against Azerbaijan, Armenia distorts and misinterprets the principle of the peoples right to self-determination and, attempts to impose the view that this principle may be applied in the form of unilateral secession for the Armenians living in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

"In reality, such a view has nothing in common with the principle of self-determination set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Final Act) of 1975 and other international documents. Moreover, it is abundantly clear that claims of self-determination are unsustainable when they are accompanied by egregious violations of international law, including its peremptory norms (jus cogens), such as those prohibiting the threat or use of force against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of States.

With regard to self-determination the Article VIII of the Helsinki Final Act establishes: acting at all times in conformity with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and with the relevant norms of international law, including those relating to territorial integrity of States. Moreover, the Helsinki Final Act expanded Article 2(4) of the UN Charter and codified the territorial integrity, the inviolability of frontiers and the non-use of force as separate principles to emphasize the norm of territorial integrity", he said.

As he noted, the inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh, are entitled to the internal right of self-determination within the boundaries of Azerbaijan. "It envisages that Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan will live together in peace, dignity and prosperity within the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan.

We do still hope that the new political leadership of Armenia will not repeat the mistakes of its predecessors, pursue a sober minded policy with a view of building civil and peaceful relations with the neighbouring countries. Settlement of the conflict can contribute to ensuring of sustainable peace and security in the region and establishment of comprehensive regional cooperation. First of all, the population of Armenia can benefit from such perspectives of regional cooperation. Therefore, ball is in the court of Armenian side.

I would like to reiterate that Azerbaijan stands ready to continue the substantive negotiations on the basis of existing agenda with the mediation of OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs for the soonest resolution of conflict", Hajiyev said.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations is out of question without the liberation of the Azerbaijani territories, the Turkish presidential administration told Trend on May 9, commenting on today's statements of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Khankendi, where he held a briefing for foreign journalists.

Turkey stands for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, the administration noted.

"Turkey's position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is clear and precise, and Armenia should unconditionally withdraw from the occupied Azerbaijani territories", the Turkish presidential administration said.

Touching upon Armenia's claims on the so-called "Armenian genocide", the Presidential Administration reminded that Turkey has opened all its archives for the investigation of the 1915 events.

"Opening of the archives was repeatedly announced by the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan. If there was a "genocide" against Armenians in history, Armenia would agree with Ankara's proposal to open archives".

Today Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated Armenia's readiness to establish relations with Turkey without preconditions.

Armenia announced the cancellation of the protocols on the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations on March 1, 2018. The protocols on the normalization of relations between the two countries were signed by the foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia on October 10, 2009, but they were never ratified.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, allegedly carried out "genocide" against the Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. While strengthening the efforts to promote the "genocide" in the world, Armenians have achieved its recognition by the parliaments of some countries.

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.

Armenian president Armen Sarkissian on May 8 signed a decree appointing Nikol Pashinyan as the prime minister. Opposition leader Pashinyan was elected Armenia's prime minister with 59 MPs voting for and 42 against during a special session of the National Assembly on May 8.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The last visit of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev to Turkey is a clear indicator of relations between Ankara and Baku, said Ibrahim Kalin, the Press Secretary of the President of Turkey.

Kalin noted that Azerbaijan and Turkey are the closest countries to each other.

"Turkey and Azerbaijan are linked by fraternal relations, cultural, religious and political ties," the spokesman said.

He noted that strengthening relations with Azerbaijan, including with other Turkic-speaking countries, is a priority for Turkey.

Ilham Aliyev paid a visit to Turkey on April 25.

Turkey participates in the majority of large-scale projects implemented by Azerbaijan in the region. Among them are the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum projects. Turkey and Azerbaijan demonstrated their leadership in signing the agreement on the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) project in Istanbul in 2012, which is one of the important components of the Southern Gas Corridor, which will allow Azerbaijan to send gas to the world market. In the summer this year, gas will begin to flow through TANAP to Turkey first, and then through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline to Europe in 2020.

Another large-scale project of the century is the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which will ensure more active economic and trade cooperation between Ankara and Baku with the involvement of a large flow of goods from Central Asia to Europe. With the launch of the railway in November 2017, the time of cargo transportation decreased by 12-15 days. Before the commissioning of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, the cargo flow between Europe and China was realized via sea routes, lasting on average 25-30 days.

The State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan reported that trade turnover with Turkey in 2017 amounted to $2.64 billion, of which $1.37 billion fell on exports to Turkey. Trade turnover between the two countries increased by 14.8 percent in 2017. In the first quarter of this year, the Azerbaijani-Turkish trade turnover amounted to $573.1 million (an increase of 3.7 percent for the year).

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles has published a book on Azerbaijan in English in order to further convey the truth of Azerbaijan to the US public, the Consulate General told Trend.



The 120-page book, entitled "Azerbaijan - Everlasting Heritage, Inspirational Harmony", includes information on the geography, natural resources, ancient history, rich culture and art, traditions of strong ethnic and religious tolerance, the state structure and foreign policy, rapid economic development, tourism potential of Azerbaijan, ADA University, ASAN Service and other issues. Colorful pictures of Baku and other beautiful regions of Azerbaijan adorn various sections of the book.



The section of the book, titled Illegal Occupation of Azerbaijans territory informs the readers about the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. Speaking about the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the book highlights the fact that this historic region of Azerbaijan has been part of many different Azerbaijani states throughout the history.

Touching on the division of Azerbaijan between regional powers in the beginning of the 19th century, the publication stresses that as a result of the infamous Kurekchay and Turkmenchay treaties an estimated 200,000 Armenians left Persia and the Ottoman Empire, and migrated primarily to Yerevan and Nagorno-Karabakh. 30,000 Armenians settled in Karabakh alone, increasing their share of the population from 8.4% to an estimated 34.8%.

In Yerevan, the proportion seemed to have increased from 24% to 53.8%. In return 35,000 of the 117,000 Azerbaijanis who once lived in Yerevan and Karabakh were compelled to flee, the book notes.

Speaking about the illegal military occupation and ethnic cleansing of around 20 percent of Azerbaijans internationally recognized sovereign territory by Armenia in the early 1990s, the publication says: The United Nations unanimously condemned the occupation of Azerbaijani territory, and in 1993 the Security Council passed four resolutions (Nos. 822, 853, 874, 884) demanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Armenian forces from the occupied areas of Azerbaijan. Armenia, however, ignored these resolutions, and the UN Security Council did nothing to enforce compliance. Armenia also ignored resolutions of the European Parliament as well as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which condemned the occupation and ethnic cleansing.



The book also draws attention to the many atrocities carried out by Armenian troops against Azerbaijani civilians in the course of armed conflict, including the Khojaly Genocide of 1992, when the Armenian army massacred over 600 Azerbaijani civilians that also included around 300 children, women and elderly. In this regard, it is noted that as a result of the Justice for Khojaly campaign, led by Ms Leyla Aliyeva, the public awareness about Khojaly has been increasing in the world, including in the US.



The Consulate General plans to distribute this booklet among US Congresspersons, state elected officials from California and other states of the Western US, mass media, academic circles, universities, libraries etc.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Sara Israfilbayova

World oil prices on May 10 are trading at their highest levels since November 2014 on the decision of U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran.

Brent crude oil futures were at $77.78 per barrel, up 0.73 percent, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 0.77 percent, at $71.69 a barrel, according to RIA Novosti.

Oil prices have renewed their highs for 3.5 years after Trump announced that the U.S. is withdrawing from an agreement with Iran on the nuclear program reached by the six international mediators (Russia, the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany) in 2015. In addition, the U.S. president announced the restoration of all sanctions, the effect of which was suspended as a result of the deal.

The imposition of sanctions against Iran could lead to a reduction in world oil reserves. At present, Iran accounts for about 4 percent of the global supply in the oil market, according to Reuters. Analysts at Goldman Sachs note that U.S. sanctions against Iran are likely to have a high level of efficiency. According to their forecasts, in the summer the price of Brent crude oil could reach $82.5 per barrel.

Support for the growth of world prices also provided data on the reserves of raw materials in the U.S. The Energy Ministry of the country reported that commercial oil reserves in the U.S. (excluding the strategic reserve) for the week ended on May 4 decreased by 2.2 million barrels, or 0.5 percent - to 433.8 million barrels, while the reduction was projected only 0.2 million barrels.

OPEC and non-OPEC producers reached an agreement in December 2016 to curtail oil output jointly and ease a global glut after more than two years of low prices. OPEC agreed to slash the output by 1.2 million barrels per day from January 1.

Non-OPEC oil producers such as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan agreed to reduce output by 558,000 barrels per day starting from January 1, 2017.

OPEC and its partners decided to extend its production cuts till the end of 2018 in Vienna on November 30, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry.

---

Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz



By Trend

Europe has a limited opportunity to preserve the nuclear deal with Tehran, Irans President Hassan Rouhani told French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call on Wednesday, according to the Iranian Students News Agency.

Under the current conditions, Europe has a very limited opportunity to preserve the nuclear deal, and must, as quickly as possible, clarify its position and specify and announce its intentions with regard to its obligations, ISNA quoted Rouhani as telling Macron in the phone call.

Macron traveled to the United States in late April in an attempt to convince U.S. President Donald Trump not to withdraw from the nuclear deal.

Rouhani told Macron that Irans rights under the deal related to the selling of oil, banking, investment and insurance must be guaranteed in a transparent and clear way, ISNA reported.

Foreign companies who have contracts with Iran must also announce their decision after Trumps withdrawal from the deal, Rouhani told Macron, according to ISNA.

He also said Iran has met its obligations under the deal and has never enriched uranium for a weapons program.

In a speech on Tuesday, Trump said the nuclear deal would allow Iran to enrich uranium to reach the brink of a nuclear breakout.

Despite what Trump thinks, enrichment in Iran has never been for obtaining a nuclear weapon but instead has been for scientific and technical pursuits, Rouhani told Macron, according to ISNA.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzIMC S.A. (the Company) will hold its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (the AGM) on 14 June 2018

at its registered office: 16, rue Erasme L-1468 Luxembourg

R.C.S. Luxembourg B 157843



Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of the Company (the "AGM") to be held on 14 June 2018 at 10.00 a.m. CET at the registered office of the Company with agenda as follows:



1. To nominate Mr Christian Tailleur or any other employee of TotalServe Management (Luxembourg) S.A. as the chairman of the general meeting of shareholders.



2. To nominate Mrs Catia Campos or any other employee of TotalServe Management (Luxembourg) S.A. as the scrutineer of the general meeting of shareholders.



3. Presentation and approval of the management report of the board of directors of the Company (the "Board of Directors") (the "Report of the Board"), the independent auditor's report on the annual accounts of the Company prepared in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (the "Auditor's Report"), the individual annual accounts of the Company for the financial year ending 31 December 2017 (the "Annual Accounts"), the consolidated financial statements of the Company's group prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards for the financial year ending 31 December 2017 (the "Consolidated Financial Statements") and presentation and report by the Board of Directors of the salary, fees and advantages paid to the executive directors.



4. Review and approval of the Annual Accounts of the Company for the financial year ending 31 December 2017.



5. Review and approval of the Consolidated Financial Statements of the Company's group for the financial year ending 31 December 2017.



6. Allocation of the profit for the financial year ending 31 December 2017.



7. To acknowledge that the approved audit firm (cabinet de revision agree) of the Company appointed on 25 April 2017, namely H.R.T. Revision S.A., a public limited liability company (societe anonyme) with registered office at 163, rue du Kiem, L - 8030 Strassen, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, registered with the Luxembourg Register of Commerce and Companies under number B 51238 ("HRT Revision") has merged into BDO Audit, a public limited liability company (societe anonyme) with registered office at 1, rue Jean Piret, L-2350 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, registered with the Luxembourg Register of Commerce and Companies under number B 147570 ("BDO Audit"); the latter continuing the activities of HRT Revision.



8. To consider, approve and ratify the signature of an engagement letter with BDO Audit dated 3 January 2018, formalising the relationship between BDO Audit as the approved audit firm (cabinet de revision agree) of the Company and the Company, including for auditing the financial statements of the Company for the financial year ending on 31 December 2017.



9. Discharge to the members of the Board of Directors.



10. Confirmation of the mandates of the current members of the Board of Directors.



11. Miscellaneous.



The AGM is formally convened 30 days before the meeting date by (i) the publication of the convening notice in a Luxembourg nationwide newspaper and on the on the Luxembourg Official Gazette (Memorial C, Recueil des Societes et Associations) and (ii) the dissemination of the convening notice on a EU-wide basis through appropriate media in accordance with the applicable Luxembourg legal provisions such as the Luxembourg l aw of 24 May 2011 on shareholders' rights in listed companies, the Luxembourg law of 10 August 1915 on commercial companies, the Luxembourg law of 11 January 2008 on transparency requirements and the Luxembourg law of 9 May 2006 on market abuse.

The convening notice shall be made available on the Company's website, from the date of the publication above-mentioned to the date of the AGM (included), at the following address http://www.imcagro.com.ua.







1 Confirmation of attendance and record date



The AGM is properly convened 30 days before the meeting date by (i) the publication of the notice in a Luxembourg nationwide newspaper and the Recueil Electronique des Societes et Associations and (ii) the dissemination of the notice on a EU-wide basis through appropriate media in accordance with the applicable Luxembourg legal provisions.



Each shareholder wishing to exercise its rights to attend and vote at the AGM should send to the Company a form to confirm its participation to the AGM (the "Form of Participation"), no later than Thursday 31 May 2018, 18.00 CET.



The rights to vote at the AGM are determined in accordance with and at the record date (the "Record Date"), which is set on Thursday 31 May 2018, at 24.00 (midnight) CET. Only shareholders who confirmed their participation to the Company on due time will be authorized to participate and vote at the AGM (the "Authorized Shareholder(s)").



The Form of Participation can be downloaded from the Companys website at www.imcagro.com.ua and shall be returned in original by the shareholder to the Company at the Notice Address (as defined hereafter) and following the instructions provided herein.



In addition to the Form of Participation, each shareholder who holds its shares in the Company through the facilities of the Polish National Deposit of Securities (the "KDPW") or Clearstream Banking S.A. (as the case may be) shall request an original depositary certificate (the "Shareholder's Certificate") from the broker or custodian bank who is a participant of the KDPW or Clearstream Banking S.A. (as the case may be) and who maintains the securities account for such shareholder evidencing its amount of shares held at the Record Date.



A shareholder intending to participate to the AGM (in person, by correspondence, or by use of a proxy) shall provide the Company with a Shareholder's Certificate issued at the Record Date.



The Shareholder's Certificate shall be delivered in English. In the contrary, the shareholder shall provide at its own expense and within the same deadlines as the ones applicable to the delivery of the Shareholder's Certificate, a certified true translation by an officially agreed translator.



The Shareholder's Certificate should be issued by the shareholders broker or custodian bank at such time as to enable the shareholder to deliver the Shareholder's Certificate (original or copy) to the Company no later than on Thursday 7 June 2018, 18.00 CET. In case of translation of the Shareholder's Certificate, the shareholder shall ensure the certified true translation (original or copy) is delivered to the Company together with the Shareholder's Certificate and no later than Thursday 7 June 2018, 18.00 CET.



To receive information on formal requirements of, and documents to be submitted to the broker or the custodian bank for the purpose of the issuance of Shareholders' Certificates, all shareholders are advised to contact their brokers or custodian banks.

Each shareholder shall deliver the original Shareholder's Certificate either (i) in person, (ii) by hand-delivery or, (iii) by mail (ordinary or registered), at the address for notices to the Company as provided in item 6 ("Notices and further questions to the Company") (the "Notice Address"), no later than Tuesday 12 June 2018, 18.00 CET. A copy of the Shareholder's Certificate may also be delivered by e-mail to Christian.tailleur@lu.totalserve.eu, but no later than Thursday 7 June 2018, 18.00 CET.



Only Authorized Shareholders who were holders of the Company's shares at the Record Date will be allowed to attend and vote to the AGM subject to (i) the confirmation of their participation to the Company (through the form of participation available on the Company's website at www.imcagro.com.ua), no later than Thursday 31 May 2018, 18.00 CET and (ii) the delivery to the Company of the original Shareholder's Certificate, within the forms and delays prescribed herein.



2 Participation in the AGM



 Any Authorized Shareholder who holds one or more shares of the Company at the Record Date is entitled to attend and vote at the AGM, if it fulfilled all formalities to confirm its participation within the applicable forms and delays. One share entitles to one vote on each resolution to be voted. Each Authorized Shareholder may participate:



1) In person (in the case of a natural person) or by means of its duly authorized representatives (in the case of a legal person).



2) By correspondence, using the proxy voting form (the "Proxy Voting Form and Instructions") as available on the Company's website (www.imcagro.com.ua). Only voting instructions expressed by the use of the provided Proxy Voting Form and Instructions (duly filled) are considered as valid and recorded.



The Proxy Voting Form and Instructions shall be delivered by the Shareholder to the Company, either (i) by hand-delivery (with acknowledgement of receipt), (ii) by a registered mail, or (iii) by special courier, to the Notice Address.



In any case, the Company shall receive the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions in original, together with a certified true copy of the international valid ID card, passport or other official document in English evidencing the Shareholder's identity and the original of the Shareholder's Certificate (if not delivered before) no later than Tuesday 12 June 2018, at 18.00 CET or it will not be recorded as valid.



3) By proxy (both in the case of a natural person or a legal person) through the appointment of a natural or legal person (the "Proxy Holder") to attend and vote at the AGM in the Authorized Shareholder's name and upon written instructions of the Authorized Shareholder. The Proxy Holder may not be a shareholder.



The Proxy Holder must be designated in writing (the "Proxy") and the Proxy must be delivered in original by mail (ordinary or registered) to the Notice Address.



In any case, the Company must receive the Proxy before Tuesday 12 June 2018, at 18.00 CET, or it will not be recorded as a valid Proxy and the Proxy Holder will not be authorized to attend and vote at the AGM on behalf of the Authorized Shareholder.



The Proxy Holder is entitled to act in the Authorized Shareholder's name and exercise the same rights the Authorized Shareholder benefits (please refer to item 3 "Rights of the Shareholder").



The Proxy Holder is only entitled to vote at the relevant general meeting for which the proxy is provided (or such subsequent meeting having the same agenda) and an Authorized Shareholder can only appoint one proxy to represent it.



Each Authorized Shareholder may act as a Proxy Holder for another Authorized Shareholder taking into account potential conflicts of interests and the obligation to act following written instructions of the proxy provider given in the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions (except the case where the Authorized Shareholder gave proxy to its Proxy Holder under the "Option A" of the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions).



 What documents should a participant bring at the AGM?



(i) A natural person is required to bring at the AGM an international valid ID card, passport or other official document in English confirming his/her identity;



(ii) A legal person is required to bring:

a) an extract in English from its respective trade register; and/or

b) other documents in English evidencing the right of a natural person to represent the Authorized Shareholder at the AGM (e.g., an unbroken chain of powers of attorney), and

c) an international valid ID card, passport or other official document in English confirming the identity of the Authorized Shareholder's representative.



(iii) A Proxy Holder appointed by an Authorized Shareholder is required to bring:

a) an ID card, passport or other official document in English confirming the identity of the Proxy Holder;

b) the Proxy in English (or a copy); and

c) the duly filled Proxy Voting Form and Instructions, signed by the Authorized Shareholder and any other written instructions given by the Authorized Shareholder to its Proxy Holder if the case may be (e.g., question to ask during the AGM).



Please note that in all cases the Proxy to represent an Authorized Shareholder at the AGM can only be provided directly by the Authorized Shareholder himself (and not by a proxy of the Shareholder).



In case of any doubts relating to the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions or the Proxy presented by a Proxy Holder to participate in the AGM and admission thereto, the decision of the chairman of the AGM will be decisive regarding the admission of the considered Proxy Holder to attend and vote at the AGM.



For the convenience of its Authorized Shareholders, the Company proposes to appoint any lawyer (avocat) or attorney at law (avocat a la Cour) of NautaDutilh Avocats Luxembourg S.a r.l., each individually and with full power of substitution, as proxy for the Authorized Shareholders (the "Proposed Shareholders' Proxy") to attend the AGM and vote in accordance with the voting instructions of the Authorized Shareholder as provided in the duly filled Proxy Voting Form and Instructions, signed by the relevant Authorized Shareholder.



Please note, however, it is permitted to nominate a proxy other than the Proposed Shareholders' Proxy. One person may represent more than one Authorized Shareholder.



If the designated Proxy Holder is the Proposed Shareholders' Proxy, the following steps will be applicable:



1) Download and complete the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions available on the Companys website at (www.imcagro.com.ua) and indicate the Proposed Shareholders' Proxy as proxy;



2) Duly fill and sign the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions and the voting instructions herein (please be aware that voting instructions must be specifically provided for each resolution if the chosen proxy is the Proposed Shareholders' Proxy, otherwise the Proposed Shareholders' Proxy will abstain from voting for each resolution where no voting instructions were properly provided);



3) Attach thereto all documents specified in the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions (i.e., the original Shareholders' Certificate, if not already deposited with the Company, evidencing the rights of the Authorized Shareholder at the Record Date); and



4) Send the duly completed Proxy Voting Form and Instructions together with all required documents to the Company, no later than Tuesday 12 June 2018, 18.00 CET, within the forms and delays required for the participation by proxy as indicated in the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions.



 Important information:



(i) In any case, the original Proxy Voting Form and Instructions shall be delivered by the shareholder to the Company together with the original Shareholder's Certificate (if not yet delivered) and all required documents before Tuesday 12 June 2018, 18.00 CET, or the voting instructions will not be recorded as valid.



(ii) The Proxy Voting Form and Instructions together with all required documents must be duly completed and signed to be recorded as valid voting instructions.



(iii) Only an Authorized Shareholder who provided the Company with its Shareholder's Certificate within the forms and delays required and who have not collected such Shareholder's Certificate before the AGM date, may appoint a proxy designated by the Company. In all other cases, the Proxy given by the shareholder will be or becomes ineffective.



(iv) If, for any item on the agenda of the AGM (the "Agenda") requiring a vote, the voting instruction is not properly completed in the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions (except the case where the Authorized Shareholder gave proxy to its Proxy Holder under the "Option A" of the Proxy Voting Form and Instructions), the Proposed Shareholders' Proxy will abstain from voting.



(v) Voting through a Proposed Shareholders' Proxy is an option proposed by the Company for the sake of convenience. Naturally, each Authorized Shareholder may attend the AGM and vote its shares in person or through its own proxy.



(vi) The name, address and other information on the Authorized Shareholder shall be consistent in all documents. Admission to the AGM of persons other than those representing the Authorized Shareholders shall be decided solely by the Chairman of the AGM.



 How to revoke the Proxy granted to a Proxy Holder?



Each Authorized Shareholder may revoke a Proxy given to the Proxy Holder by sending a document expressly revoking the granted Proxy to the Company within the forms and delays indicated below.



The Proxy Holder must be revoked in writing (the "Revocation") and the Revocation must be delivered in original and in English by mail (ordinary or registered) to the Notice Address. Such Revocation will be effective and the Proxy will be revoked if it is delivered to the Company not later than Tuesday 12 June 2018, 18.00 CET. The Revocation needs to comply with the formalities of the original Proxy.



Each Authorized Shareholder may revoke the granted Proxy at the AGM itself.



3 Rights of the Authorized Shareholder



 The right to table draft resolutions and/or add items to the agenda



Any Authorized Shareholder acting solely or with other Authorized Shareholders, together holding at least 5% of the share capital, may:



(i) add items to the Agenda; and

(ii) table draft resolutions regarding items of or to be added to the Agenda.



Such request (the "Request") must be made in writing in English and contain a justification regarding the proposal.



The Request must be delivered by latest Wednesday 23 May 2018 (i) by mail (ordinary or registered) to the Notice Address, or (ii) by e-mail to Christian.tailleur@lu.totalserve.eu and indicate an address (postal or electronic) where the Company may send the acknowledgement of receipt of the Request.



The Company will then add the proposed items to the Agenda and publish an amended version of the Agenda.



 The right to ask questions



Each Authorized Shareholder, acting in person or through its Proxy Holder, may ask questions regarding one or several items of the Agenda, during the AGM. If acting through its Proxy Holder, the Authorized Shareholder must give written instructions to the Proxy Holder for the questions to raise, or at least, a general right to ask all questions (regarding one or several items of the Agenda) the Proxy Holder may deem appropriate.



The Company will then answer to the questions raised, on a best-effort basis during the question and answers session of the AGM, on an individual or global basis (if the question was raised several times).



The Company will however not have to answer the question if the answer can be found in the Q&A section of the Company's website, at the following address: www.imcagro.com.ua.



4 Language of documents



All documents relating to the AGM (including the Shareholders' Certificate) must be delivered to the Company in English. If any document has been prepared in any other language, the Authorized Shareholder must translate such document into English prior to the AGM and provide the Company with the translation together with the translated document, within the forms and delays as applicable to the translated document itself.



5 Language of AGM



The AGM will be conducted in English. Please note that the English language version of all resolutions is binding as the resolutions will be adopted in English.



6 Notices and further questions to the Company



Shareholders should address all notices and queries with respect to the AGM to the following Notice Address:



IMC S.A.

16, rue Erasme

L-1468 Luxembourg

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg



Or by email to the following e-mail address: Christian.tailleur@lu.totalserve.eu.



On all related correspondence (e.g., such as the object of the mail or the e-mail), kindly indicate the following notice: 2018 Annual General Meeting IMC S.A.



Please note that the Company's website is at the following address: www.imcagro.com.ua



Four Port Arthur men were indicted and charged with federal violations in connection with a crime spree from July 2017 to March 2018, a U.S. District Court said on Wednesday.

The men conspired "with each other to commit robbery" to obtain money from businesses using firearms, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District Court of Texas.For the second time in as many months, a Lumberton Middle School student has been arrested for threatening classmates.

Police Chief Danny said an eighth-grade boy was arrested Thursday morning on a terroristic threat charge.

The boy was taken to the county's juvenile detention facility in Kountze, he said.

School administrators called the police to the campus after several students overheard the boy threaten one of his peers.

READ MORE: Lumberton 7th grader threatened to shoot up school, police said

In early March, a Lumberton seventh-grader was arrested after threatening a school shooting.

In a message to a student in another local school district, the student said he was "mad at everyone and hates everyone," and said he was going to shoot people at Lumberton Middle School, Sullins said in a March 8 interview.

Police found no weapons in the student's belongings or in the school. The student was charged with making a terroristic threat and a class A misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest.

At least two other Southeast Texas students were arrested this semester for allegedly making terroristic threats.

A Little Cypress-Mauriceville High student was detained at the Minnie Rogers juvenile detention facility on Feb. 22 after allegedly posting a threat on social media, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

Kirbyville police arrested a Kirbyville High School student on Feb. 16 for allegedly saying "that he hated everyone and wanted to kill everyone" during a class discussion about the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland, Florida.

About one-third of the more than 30 districts in Region 5 reported real or rumored threats in the month after the Parkland shooting.

PSuy@BeaumontEnterprise.comWorship services will go on as usual this weekend at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, days after the church office was damaged by an explosive device, the Rev. Steven Balke said Friday.

Beaumont Police and the FBI cleared the crime scene at the church Friday afternoon, removing the yellow caution tape intended to keep parishioners and gawkers away.

BPD declined on Friday to release any further information about the device, which detonated sometime between 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. Thursday.

Officers were called to the church just after 9 a.m. on Thursday about some "criminal mischief," when they discovered the explosive device, Chief Jim Singletary said Thursday.

The explosion broke one window and caused minor damage to exterior brick walls and bushes next to the office door.

Employees at businesses near St. Stephen's Church on Friday said they were staying alert but otherwise treated the day as normal.

India Plowden, who watched the stream of panicked parents on Thursday picking up their children through the window of Malley Cleaners on Delaware Street, said she wasn't worried about a repeat incident in the same neighborhood.

"I'm more concerned about another incident in another area," she said.

On April 26, an explosive device was found outside Starbucks on Dowlen Road, about a mile from the church on Delaware.

That package, which was left on top of a trash can outside the store, was found just before sunrise by an employee. Unlike the device at the church, the package found at Starbucks did not detonate.

BPD confirmed that the package contained a "legitimate explosive device" but declined to reveal the contents of an accompanying note.

Singletary declined to comment on Thursday about any possible connection between the two incidents but asked residents to report any suspicious packages found at their homes or businesses.

"We're on alert," said Patrick Davis, who was working at Beaumont Major League Barber Shop on Delaware Friday. "I'm not picking up any packages."

He said fewer customers were coming in and the area seemed less busy than on typical Fridays.

Janice Wooten, who works at State Farm in the shopping center next to the church, said she wasn't concerned about coming to work Friday but called all of her grandchildren on Thursday to warn them about not touching suspicious items.

With so many homes still being repaired after Harvey, people are receiving "lots of packages," she said. "I told them all to be more careful, and not to pick up any packages that aren't expected," she said.

"I hope the community can just watch out for one another and be mindful," Plowden said.

Lamar University announced on Friday it would have heightened security for this weekend's graduation ceremonies "in response to recent events in our area."

"There is no credible threat at this time. We are just being overly cautious," said Daniel McLemore, Lamar's associate director of marketing communications. "It's the smart thing to do."

In an email to students, the university warned people to report any suspicious items to LU police or 911.

Beaumont Police, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the Thursday explosion.

Singletary said Thursday that no information about suspects, possible motives, intended victims or the components of the device would be released.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/LizTeitz

ICYMI: Package left at Beaumont Starbucks in April contained explosive device

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/LizTeitzPolice in Acadiana, Louisiana are searching for a 75-year-old Beaumont woman who went missing while visiting family, according to katc.com.

The TV station said Helen Marie Bertrand was last seen at a Maurice gas station Wednesday night.U.S. Customs and Border Protection/AP Photo/U.S. Customs and Border Protection

An impressive photo by Texas police shows the lengths alleged drug smugglers will go to hide contraband.

On Thursday, the Round Rock Police Department shared a photo of a Honda Accord's modified gas tank containing 71 pounds of methamphetamine, worth $2 million.

NEAT DATA: Map shows which drugs are most common in the Texas workforce

Police said they discovered the massive cache of drugs after an officer pulled over a vehicle whose occupants had conflicting stories.



During the traffic stop on Interstate 35 authorities said a K-9 drug-sniffing dog gave a positive alert leading to the bust.

Police said an estimated $2 million worth of methamphetamine was crammed inside the modified gas tank.

From the looks of the slushy contraband, it doesn't seem like the cleanest way to ship a product.

Round Rock police arrested 36-year-old Leon Fields of Theodore, Alabama, on a charge of manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance, reports the Austin-American Statesman.

Scroll through above to see some of the strangest and most unique ways drugs have been smuggled.Here are seven updates for ASC leaders to know for May 10, 2018.

30 Sutter Health ASC employees allege company blocked breaks, seek lost wages

Current and former employees of Sutter Health's midtown Sacramento surgery center accused the organization of preventing them from taking breaks in hearings May 7. About 30 employees are seeking lost wages and penalties.

Surgical Care Affiliates partners with Massachusetts Avenue Surgery Center

Bethesda, Md.-based Massachusetts Avenue Surgery Center became a part of Surgical Care Affiliates' network of surgical care providers. Massachusetts Avenue Surgery Center's 27 physician partners serve patients in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Envision board ponders ways to boost value  Company sale on the table

Nashville, Tenn.-based Envision Healthcare reported $307.6 million in net revenues for ambulatory services, a 2.6 percent year-over-year decrease. Envision attributed the decline to weather- and flu-related cancellations. To enhance shareholder value, Envision's board is conducting a full review of options, which include rationalizing the company's portfolio or selling the company.

University of Maryland Medical System plans $50M investment in medical center with ASC

Baltimore-based University of Maryland Medical System filed a plan to invest $50 million in a new medical center next to the Laurel (Md.) Regional Hospital. The new facility, UM Laurel Medical Center, will feature a surgery center, 24/7 emergency care, behavioral health resources and outpatient programs such as wellness promotion.

WellSpan Health delays opening of $49M outpatient center

The anticipated opening of WellSpan Health and Surgery Center in Penn Township, Penn., has been pushed back to spring 2019. The 80,000-square-foot, $49 million outpatient facility was initially expected to open fall 2018.

Texas Free Market Surgery's 2 ASCs, hospital join self-pay promoting network

Lake Hills-based Texas Free Market Surgery is adding its two ASCs and surgical hospital to Health Beyond Insurance's provider network. HBI beneficiaries will now be able to go to Lake Hills-based The Hospital at Westlake Medical Center, Lake Hills-based Westlake Hills Surgery Center and Austin, Texas-based EHI Surgery Center.

Cumberland Valley Surgery Center completes 1st opioid-free TJR

Hagerstown, Md.-based Cumberland Valley Surgery Center completed its first total knee replacement without using opioids. The surgery center staff began planning for the procedure in November 2017 and performed it successfully at the end of April. To facilitate pain management, the surgeons implanted a pump into the top of the patient's knee, which released a numbing medicine for three days after the procedure.Marlton, N.J.-based Virtua Health is negotiating to add 13 independent ASCs to its network, NJ Biz reports.

Here's what you should know.

1. Virtua CEO Dennis Pullin said the health system is negotiating with independent physicians to increase its outpatient surgery capabilities.

2. The deals would be setup as joint ventures, but it's unclear how many will come to fruition. Mr. Pullin said "some deals could fall through and some may not."

3. Virtua COO Al Campanella said Virtua was the first system in New Jersey to have a freestanding surgery center 30 years ago. He added the health system's outpatient ambulatory services business makes up 52 percent of its total revenue.

4. Virtua is capitalizing on a recently passed bill allowing registered one-room surgical centers to obtain licenses from the New Jersey Department of Health. The bill allows physician owners to sell their surgical centers more easily.Sutter Health employees made headlines last week for requesting thousands of dollars in compensation after they missed breaks and worked through lunches at the health system's Capitol Pavilion Surgery Center. New testimony reported in the Sacramento Bee outlines what the nurses faced and the challenges of the case.

Here are six things to know.

1. The surgery center's employees are testifying during hearings at the California Labor Commissioner's office about being forced to work through lunch and miss contracted breaks. Pilar Tallent, RN, reported she requested premium pay for missing breaks and the surgical center director said, "Really? That's what you want? Really? You couldn't just eat at your desk?"

2. California law stipulates hourly employees, like Capitol Pavilion Surgery Center employees, receive a 10-minute break for every four hours worked and a 30-minute lunch within the first five hours of arriving; hourly employees that work a subsequent five hours in the same day are guaranteed a second 30-minute meal break.

However, the employees signed a meal and rest break waiver during orientation that states: "This will certify that at times the nature of the employee's work prevents the employees from being relieved of all duties during the employee's meal period. As a result on those occasions, the employee voluntarily wishes to waive the duty-free meal period provided by law, and instead work an on-duty meal period when the nature of the work prevents the employee from taking a duty-free meal period. The employee will not be paid for these on-duty meal periods."

3. The employees testified they had forgotten signing the waivers and had worked late-night shifts when there was not relief for meals or breaks.

4. Employees are able to revoke the waiver at any time; however the testifying employees had not made that request.

5. The employees said they didn't feel requesting the premium pay would affect scheduling or pay, and Sutter has added on-duty nurses to provide relief during breaks, according to The Bee.

6. Deputy Labor Commissioner Stephen Franck reportedly won't make a decision on the case until all cases are presented.

Editor's note: This article was updated May 10 to clarify that Capitol Pavilion Surgery Center is not a free-standing ASC.The Wall Street Journal published its analysis of 2017 pay for S&P 500 chiefs, listing compensation for UnitedHealth's David Wichmann, Aetna's Mark Bertolini and other notable healthcare industry CEOs.

Envision Healthcare's Christopher Holden was among the CEOs of companies with the lowest shareholder returns and had a 66.3 percent pay decrease from 2016 to 2017.

Mr. Holden's 2016 pay was higher than usual because of a one-time equity award made by the board of one of the firms that merged in December 2016 to form Envision Healthcare, the company told WSJ.

Here are compensation stats and rankings for 20 notable CEOs in the healthcare sector.

1. Christopher A. Holden, Envision Healthcare

Total pay: $7.3M (2017)

Pay rank: 377 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: -45 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $52,228

Median pay ratio: 140 to 1

2. R. Milton Johnson, HCA Healthcare

Total pay: $17.3M (2017)

Pay rank: 99 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: +19 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $55,354

Median pay ratio: 312 to 1

3. David S. Wichmann, UnitedHealth Group

Total pay: $17.4M (2017)

Pay rank: 97 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: +40 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $58,378

Median pay ratio: 298 to 1

4. John H. Hammergren, McKesson

Total pay: $20.1M (2016)

Pay rank: 4 out of 47 companies in 2016

Company performance: -5.1 percent shareholder return (2016)

Median employee pay: Not available

Median pay ratio: Not available

5. Kevin A. Lobo, Stryker

Total pay: $14M (2017)

Pay rank: 170 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: +31 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $66,901

Median pay ratio: 209 to 1

6. Kent J. Thiry, DaVita

Total pay: $15.3M (2017)

Pay rank: 138 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: +13 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $60,332

Median pay ratio: 254 to 1

7. Alex Gorsky, Johnson & Johnson

Total pay: $29.8M (2017)

Pay rank: 16 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: +24 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $66,000

Median pay ratio: 452 to 1

8. Daniel P. Florin, Zimmer Biomet

Total pay: $4.9M (2017)

Pay rank: 427 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: +18 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $61,496

Median pay ratio: 87.7 to 1

9. Omar Ishrak, Medtronic

Total pay: $15.7M (2016)

Pay rank: 12 out of 47 companies in 2016

Company performance: +7.2 percent shareholder return (2016)

Median employee pay: Not available

Median pay ratio: Not available

10. George S. Barrett, Cardinal Health

Total pay: $11M (2016)

Pay rank: 25 out of 47 companies in 2016

Company performance: +2.2 percent shareholder return (2016)

Median employee pay: Not available

Median pay ratio: Not available

11. Brenton L. Saunders, Allergan

Total pay: $32.8M (2017)

Pay rank: 11 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: -21 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $94,064

Median pay ratio: 187 to 1

12. Leonard S. Schleifer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Total pay: $26.5M (2017)

Pay rank: 26 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: +2.4 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $123,418

Median pay ratio: 215 to 1

13. Stanley M. Bergman, Henry Schein

Total pay: $7.2M (2017)

Pay rank: 380 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: -7.9 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $71,304

Median pay ratio: 101 to 1

14. Gary S. Guthart, Intuitive Surgical

Total pay: $5.1M (2017)

Pay rank: 422 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: +73 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $157,491

Median pay ratio: 32.1 to 1

15. Bruce D. Broussard, Humana

Total pay: $19.8M (2017)

Pay rank: 61 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: +23 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $57,385

Median pay ratio: 344 to 1

16. Joseph R. Swedish, Anthem

Total pay: $18.6M (2017)

Pay rank: 83 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: +59 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $70,867

Median pay ratio: 262 to 1

17. David M. Cordani, Cigna

Total pay: $17.6M (2017)

Pay rank: 92 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: +52 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $63,010

Median pay ratio: 279 to 1

18. Gregory C. Case, Aon

Total pay: $14.6M (2017)

Pay rank: 156 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: +21 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $67,492

Median pay ratio: 217 to 1

19. Mark T. Bertolini, Aetna

Total pay: $18.8M (2017)

Pay rank: 78 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: +47 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $79,720

Median pay ratio: 235 to 1

20. Larry J. Merlo, CVS Health

Total pay: $12.3M (2017)

Pay rank: 221 out of 456 companies in 2017

Company performance: -5.7 percent shareholder return (2017)

Median employee pay: $38,372

Median pay ratio: 320 to 1Google rebranded its Google Research division to "Google AI" in a move to reflect the company's growing focus on artificial intelligence research.

In a May 7 blog post explaining the change, Google highlighted its recent AI efforts related to computer vision, healthcare and voice assistants.

In the healthcare realm, for example, the Google Research team in February published research findings on an AI algorithm that may be able to predict a patient's risk of heart attack or stroke using only photographs of the interior lining of the individual's eye.

"For the past several years, we've pursued research that reflects our commitment to make AI available for everyone," the blog post reads. "To better reflect this commitment, we're unifying our efforts under 'Google AI,' which encompasses all the state-of-the-art research happening across Google."

As part of the transition, Google renamed all of its Google Research channels, including its Google+, Twitter and blog.Cynthia Silhol requested her own medical records from Brooksville, Fla.-based Oak Hill Hospital, but instead, she allegedly received 256 pages of a stranger's health information, WTSP reports.

The documents Ms. Silhol received contained an Ohio patient's name, address, date of birth, Medicare ID number and Social Security number, which Ms. Silhol believes constitutes a HIPAA violation.

Someone has since picked up the wrong medical records from Ms. Silhol's house, and she expects her records to be delivered May 10. "I'm very upset," she told WTSP. "I really am  I have no idea where my records are. Who got mine?"

Oak Hill Hospital, which is owned by Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, told WTSP: "Protecting the security of our patients' records is something we take very seriously, and we apologize for this mistake, which we are correcting  We have retrieved the patient record, we are conducting a process review to help ensure this doesn't happen again, and we will be notifying those affected."

More articles on cybersecurity:

The Oregon Clinic notifies patients to PHI breach following compromised email account

OIG finds holes in military's EHR security, facilities could be fined up to $1.5M

6 cloud-based systems in the City of Tulsa hacked

The Oregon Clinic in Portland is notifying an undisclosed number of patients their protected health information may have been compromised when an unauthorized third party gained access to one of the clinic's email accounts.

The clinic discovered the intrusion March 9 and immediately disabled the unauthorized access to the account. It launched an investigation into the incident, which determined April 19 that PHI  including names, dates of birth and certain medical information such as medical record numbers, diagnosis information, medical condition, diagnostic tests performed, prescription information, and health insurance information  may have been affected. A small group of patients may have had their Social Security numbers compromised.

The Oregon Clinic offered affected individuals one free year of credit and/or identity monitoring services through Experian. The clinic is also recommending patients review their account statements and credit reports for suspicious activity.

Becker's Hospital Review reached out to The Oregon Clinic for comment. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

More articles on cybersecurity:

15 healthcare privacy incidents in April

Ransomware infects computers at Center for Orthopedics Specialists; clinic notifies 85k

Transcription service MEDantex leaks medical records

After two women were shot while standing outside of Chicago-based Mount Sinai Hospital in early May, the Chicago Tribune spoke to several emergency room workers who compared their experiences dealing with violent patients, their families and, oftentimes, their fellow gang members to working in a "war zone."

The day following the shooting, the hospital was placed on lockdown because of a virtual riot in its lobby, according to the Tribune.

While Chicago faces a mayoral election this year and city officials claim crime is down, ER workers are observing otherwise.

"We see so much sadness, we work with good people, our Sinai family, and we have many patients who are, well, patient," a Mount Sinai nurse told Tribune reporter John Kass. "But there's the other side. Every night nurses are verbally abused, physically threatened, spit on. It's a constant barrage. It can get scary. They say, 'I'll get you after work.'"

"And this shooting that happened just the other night outside the hospital? It happened right where I get picked up after work," the nurse added. "It's the law of averages. It's a roll of the dice with gangs out of control. That's my life, man."

A Chicago paramedic said Mount Sinai has one of the worst ERs because it is located right off the street. Mount Sinai's ER nurses and physicians are often confronted with threats and angry families and friends, but several of the employees Mr. Kass spoke to expressed frustration with what they referred to as "frequent fliers," or repeat customers who are shot, treated and then visit the ER months later having been shot again or having shot someone else.

"In the ER, among us, there's a lot of disgust, sadness, that were looking at lives being lost," the nurse told Mr. Kass. "And were scared for ourselves, because we don't know who's coming in the door when the gang families come in. They can be angry, threatening, and we're just trying to do our jobs. Does anybody care?"

While city violence is a top issue in the upcoming election, much of the conversation has been around Chicago's skimpy police force and the gang activity that increases as the weather warms up  not on the safety of the surgeons and nurses that work tirelessly to save lives.

"We're in a war zone. The gangsters keep bailing each other out on gun crimes. They really dont do real time, theyre out with guns and they shoot and they shoot," an ER nurse told Mr. Kass. "I had a nurse at a different hospital, riding her bike home. Gangsters in a car with a wounded buddy hit her on her bike, taking their buddy to the ER. She had a broken pelvis. Did that make the news? No. We're casualties of this war too."

More articles on EDs:

Man who allegedly masturbated in Austin ER charged with indecent exposure

Texas hospital closes ED to reduce expenses

Man arrested after flooding Logan Regional Medical Center ER

As health systems look to the future, they are forced to make investments now to expand, upgrade or renovate their facilities.

Here are nine hospitals or health systems that recently announced or completed construction projects worth more than $300 million in the past month reported by Becker's Hospital Review.

1. Mount Carmel East to complete $310M makeover in June

Columbus, Ohio-based Mount Carmel East will complete its $310 million modernization project, which includes a five-story patient tower, in June.

2. Banner Health has $1.7B worth of construction projects in the works

Phoenix-based Banner Health has 386 active construction projects across its markets, totaling $1.7 billion.

3. UPHS Marquette to open $300M replacement hospital in 2019

UP Health System Marquette (Mich.) will open a $300 million replacement hospital in April 2019.

4. NewYork-Presbyterian unveils $1.1B ambulatory care center

New York City-based NewYork-Presbyterian completed construction April 24 on its David H. Koch Center, a $1.1 billion ambulatory care facility in Manhattan that will soon become home to a women and children's hospital.

5. Adventist's Florida Hospital releases details of $600M network revamp: 8 notes

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.

6. Texas Medical Center unveils plan for 30-acre medical research campus: 8 things to know

Houston-based Texas Medical Center unveiled plans April 23 for a sweeping medical research campus that brings together five of the state's powerhouse research institutions. While leaders of the five founding institutions have yet to disclose the project's price tag, estimates reveal it will cost a total of $1.5 billion.

7. Indiana University Health prepares for $1B transformation

Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health is preparing to start a major consolidation project, which is expected to cost $1 billion.

8. Clovis Community Medical Center eyes $390M expansion

Clovis (Calif.) Community Medical Center will begin a $390 million, 144-bed expansion project in May after receiving final approval from the hospital's board of trustees April 3.

9. Planning board OKs Maine Medical Center's $512M expansion plan

The Portland (Maine) Planning Board unanimously approved Maine Medical Center's $512 million expansion project March 27. Construction began in May.Brookings, Ore.-based Curry Medical Center regained its critical access hospital designation from CMS May 7 after having it rescinded roughly one month ago, according to KDRV.com.

CMS reportedly notified the hospital in early April CMC did not meet the agency's requirements for participation in Medicare's CAH program. CMS rescinded the designation because of a proximity violation: CMC was roughly 35 miles away from two major hospitals, Brookings-based Sutter Coast Health Center at Brookings-Harbor and Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City, Calif.

Virginia A. Razo, PharmD, CEO of Gold Beach, Ore.-based Curry Health Network  the parent company of Curry Medical Center  told the publication she requested a review of the ruling and submitted supplementary information indicating the hospital should retain its CAH designation, according to the report.

Dr. Razo said she was notified May 7 the medical center did meet CMS' requirements for the CAH designation, and that the hospital was "grandfathered in" because its CAH status was granted before the proximity restrictions were implemented, the report states.Brentwood, Tenn.-based Quorum Health ended the first quarter of 2018 with a net loss, but the company hopes to improve its financial position by restructuring its portfolio.

The 28-hospital system, which is a spinoff of Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems, said operating revenues decreased 7.7 percent year over year to $486.8 million in the first quarter of this year. The decline was largely attributable to Quorum operating fewer hospitals in the first quarter of 2018 than in the same period a year earlier. The company has sold or closed 10 hospitals since the spinoff from CHS in April 2016.

Quorum said a $7.9 million increase in funds from the California Hospital Quality Assurance Fee program partially offset the decline in revenue.

After factoring in operating expenses and one-time charges, the company ended the first quarter of 2018 with a net loss of $98.5 million, compared to a net loss of $27.2 million in the same period a year earlier.

Quorum is focused on restructuring its portfolio to improve financial performance. Since the company began selling off hospitals in 2016, it has received $84.8 million in net proceeds from divestitures. Quorum used the bulk of those funds  $74.9 million  to pay down the company's debt.

Quorum is currently targeting an additional $165 million to $215 million in asset sales. As of May 9, the company has signed letters of intent to divest seven facilities. Those potential transactions represent net cash proceeds of more than $100 million.

More articles on healthcare finance:

Texas hospital closes, allegedly owes Cigna and Aetna $43M

LifePoint slips to $8.8M net loss as admissions decline

116-bed Missouri hospital to close next monthIt has been an eventful week for Bay Area Regional Medical Center in Webster, Texas. The hospital officially closed its doors, laid off about 700 employees and plans to seek bankruptcy protection. Also, a lawsuit filed against Bay Area Regional Medical Center this week by a lab testing company revealed the hospital may owe Cigna and Aetna a combined $43 million.

Bay Area Regional Medical Center announced plans last week to shut down. Although the news release said the hospital would cease operations May 10, the facility officially closed over the weekend when the last patients were transferred out, a Bay Area Regional spokesperson told Fox 26.

According to a lawsuit filed in Texas district court May 7 by ESA Toxicology, a Houston-based lab testing company, the shuttered hospital may owe Cigna and Aetna a total of $43 million.

In May 2015, the hospital contracted with ESA for lab services for DNA genetic specimens and urine toxicology specimens. Under the agreement, ESA claims it was responsible for preparing and collecting the bills and statements for all laboratory services provided by ESA to Bay Area Regional Medical Center, and the hospital was responsible for monitoring all payer agreements for compliance.

ESA alleges the hospital failed to comply with many of its obligations under the agreement. Specifically, the lab company claims Bay Area Regional Medical Center stopped making full payments to ESA in July 2016. ESA further alleges the hospital failed to monitor payer agreements.

According to the lawsuit, Bay Area Regional Medical Center's contracts with Aetna and Cigna prohibited the hospital from outsourcing laboratory services. In December 2017, Aetna sent the hospital a letter demanding it return $26.1 million in overpayments the insurer allegedly made as a result of the hospital improperly submitting claims for lab services performed by independent laboratories. In January, Cigna sent Bay Area Regional Medical Center a letter demanding $17.4 million for the same reason.

On April 9, Bay Area Regional Medical Center sent a letter to ESA demanding indemnity for the demands by Aetna and Cigna. ESA claims it is not responsible.

"Aetna's and Cigna's demands against BARMC result from BARMC's violations of its contacts with Aetna and Cigna, contracts to which plaintiff was not a party, and the terms of which were deliberately concealed from plaintiff," ESA wrote in its motion for declaratory judgment.

Bay Area Regional Medical Center did not immediately respond to Becker's request for comment.

More articles on healthcare finance:

HCA to spend $300M on employee benefits with focus on attracting nurses

How CHS, Tenet, HCA, LifePoint and UHS fared in Q1

116-bed Missouri hospital to close next monthDavid Brandon, president and CEO of UnityPoint Health-Dubuque (Iowa), is resigning, effective June 1. Mr. Brandon will also leave his position as senior vice president of West Des Moines, Iowa-based UnityPoint Health.

Mr. Brandon is moving back to Indiana, " to be closer to his family," according to an emailed statement from UnityPoint Health. He is considering job opportunities both in and outside of healthcare.

Mr. Brandon has served as UnityPoint Health-Dubuque CEO for the last eight years, during which time the hospital launched the Grandview Expansion Project, its largest-ever expansion project that included new emergency, heart care and surgical services departments.

Ted Townsend, current president and CEO of UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids (Iowa), will replace Mr. Brandon on an interim basis. He will serve in a dual role at both hospitals beginning June 1.

Mr. Townsend is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives. He joined UnityPoint Health-Cedar Rapids as CEO 16 years ago.Drug manufacturer Novartis paid President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen $1.2 million for healthcare policy lobbying services that Mr. Cohen was unable to deliver, according to CNBC.

Mr. Cohen founded Essentials Consultants in October 2016 and reached out to Novartis in February 2017, promising senior officials access to President Trump if they contracted with his company. Novartis and Essentials agreed to a $100,000 per month contract for one year.

Novartis officials met with Mr. Cohen one month after signing the deal and "determined that Michael Cohen and Essentials Consultants would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated," according to a statement from Novartis.

"As the contract unfortunately could only be terminated for cause, payments continued to be made until the contract expired by its own terms in February 2018," Novartis wrote in their statement.

Novartis was contacted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office in November 2017 regarding their engagement with Mr. Cohen, who is under criminal investigation for his business practices. The company provided all information requested and now "considers this matter closed as to itself and is not aware of any outstanding questions regarding the agreement."A University of California workers' strike widened May 8 as members from two additional unions walked off the job in sympathy, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Here are five things to know.

1. UC workers, represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, began a three-day strike May 7 over issues such as wages, healthcare premiums and job outsourcing. Members of the University Professional and Technical Employees and California Nurses Association joined the walkout in support on May 8.

2. The CNA represents 14,000 workers at UC's medical centers and student health clinics, while members of the University Professional and Technical Employees include pharmacists, physical therapists, researchers and other workers.

3. Some members of UAW Local 2865, which represents more than 17,000 academic student employees and research assistants at UC campuses, also participated in the strike, according to the LA Times.

4. The LA Times could not clearly specify the total number of workers who walked off the job in sympathy. However, Bill Fitzpatrick, a senior construction inspector, told the publication approximately 10 percent of members of the University Professional & Technical Employees at UC Santa Barbara participated in the strike.

5. The California Public Employment Relations Board granted UC's request to keep certain essential employees from participating in the strike. Additionally, medical centers hired a number of replacement workers and have rescheduled thousands of surgeries, cancer treatments and appointments, reports the LA Times. John de los Angeles, spokesperson for AFSCME Local 3299, told The Sacramento Bee via email the union also developed a patient protection task force to respond to life-threatening situations as needed.

More articles on human capital and relations:

Kaiser workers to protest at hospitals across California: 10 things to know

Hospitals and unions: 11 recent conflicts, agreements

Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital workers hold picket amid contract negotiationsTwo former Webster, Texas-based Bay Area Regional Medical Center employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the hospital and its parent company May 7, claiming the institutions violated the law by failing to provide sufficient notice of the hospital's closure, which occured May 10.

Bay Area Regional officials and the hospital's parent company, Houston-based Medistar, announced the closure of the 191-bed hospital and officials' intent to file for bankruptcy May 4. Approximately 900 employees were affected by the closure.

In the lawsuit, obtained by Becker's Hospital Review, the two employees allege Bay Area Regional and Medistar violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 by "failing to give  at least 60 days' advance written notice of termination, as required under the WARN Act."

Because of the violation, the employees are entitled to their wages and retirement benefits for 60 days, "none of which [have] been paid," the employees allege in the lawsuit.

A lead attorney on the lawsuit told Click 2 Houston because of the lawsuit's class-action status, any employee who discovered they were terminated without cause May 4 can join the lawsuit.

"[With] any corporation with more than 100 employees, you're supposed to get 60-day notice and obviously we didn't get 60 days' notice," one of the plaintiffs in the case told Click 2 Houston. "We're not looking to get rich. We're just looking for something we should have got in the first place."

To access the class-action lawsuit, click here.The FDA is suing two stem cell clinics to stop them from marketing treatments the agency hasn't approved.

In addition, the FDA said it is seeking permanent injunctions against the clinics "for significant deviations from current good manufacturing practice requirements."

Here are eight things to know about the injunctions.

1. The FDA filed two complaints in federal court May 9.

2. One complaint seeks an injunction against US Stem Cell Clinic of Sunrise, Fla., its chief scientific officer Kristin Comella and its co-owner and managing officer Theodore Gradel. The FDA alleges these parties were involved in marketing stem cell products without the agency's approval and violated good manufacturing practice requirements. Some of the alleged violations, the agency said, could affect the sterility of products and in turn patient care.

3. The FDA sent a warning letter to the clinic in August 2017 regarding alleged violations identified at the facility during an agency inspection. The FDA asked the company to respond to the letter with a plan of corrective action. In the complaint, the agency contends the clinic did not address the violations and remained noncompliant.

4. Now, the FDA said it wants US Stem Cell and its representatives to stop marketing their stem cell products, receive approvals from the agency and comply with good manufacturing practice requirements.

5. The FDA's second complaint is against California Stem Cell Treatment Center, which has locations in Rancho Mirage and Beverly Hills; Cell Surgical Network Corporation of Rancho Mirage; and individual physicians Elliot B. Lander, MD, and Mark Berman, MD. The agency said it also seeks to stop these parties from marketing unapproved stem cell products.

6. As with the first complaint, the FDA said it wants these parties to stop marketing their stem cell products, receive approvals from the agency and come into compliance with good manufacturing practice requirements.

7. In a statement to The New York Times, Ms. Comella said of the injunction filings: "It is my life's work to pioneer regenerative medicine and educate the public about its healing potential. I remain steadfast that no government agency should deprive individuals of their right to harness the cells that exist in their body."

8. Dr. Berman told The Times his clinic had helped many patients and that he unsuccessfully tried to reach a compromise with the FDA. Additionally, according to the publication, he said he believed stem cells should not be regulated as a drug.

Read more about the FDA's complaints here.

More articles on legal and regulatory issues:

UW Health privacy lawsuit reduced in scope, scheduled for Dec. 3 trial

University of Arkansas Medical Sciences fires 3 after patient's HIV records leaked

UnityPoint Health hit with class-action lawsuit over data breachTwo California men filed a lawsuit against drugmaker Gilead Sciences May 8, claiming they were harmed because the pharmaceutical company intentionally delayed the development of a safer version of tenofovir  its lead HIV medication, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The lawsuit alleges Gilead executives knew the company's scientists developed a less-toxic form of tenofovir as early as 2000. Instead of pursuing the safer alternative, the company hid the medication's risks to continue profiting. Further, the lawsuit claims by shelving the safer alternative, the company extended the number of years where patents shielded the HIV treatment from competition, which allowed it to charge high prices.

The HIV medication poses risks to patients' kidneys and bones. The company's sales team is now urging physicians to switch patients to new drugs to reduce potential harm.

The lawsuit claims HIV patients suffered from as many as 10 years of "additional accumulated kidney and bone toxicity" as the company kept the safer version on a shelf in its lab.

"A company I trusted with my life took advantage of that trust by misrepresenting the side effects," said Michael Lujano, one of the plaintiffs, according to the LA Times. "Gilead shelved a far safer drug  simply to increase its long-term profits."

The two men filed a parallel case that seeks class action status for patients who took the medication from Oct. 26, 2001, until the present.George Barrett, executive chair of pharmaceutical distributor Cardinal Health, appeared before a U.S. House subcommittee May 8, where he apologized for the company's role in distributing millions of painkillers to West Virginia pharmacies, according to WOSU.

Here are seven things to know.

1. Mr. Barrett expressed regret at the fact that the company did not act sooner to halt millions of hydrocodone and oxycodone pills from being shipped to two West Virginia pharmacies. West Virginia has the highest rate of opioid overdose deaths in the country, The Washington Post reports. "With the benefit of hindsight, I wish we had moved faster and asked a different set of questions. I'm deeply sorry that we did not," Mr. Barrett said.

2. However, after being asked whether Cardinal held responsibility for the opioid epidemic, Mr. Barrett said, "No sir, I do not believe that we contributed to the opioid crisis."

3. Mr. Barrett joined executives from several leading pharmaceutical companies, including AmerisourceBergen, McKesson and Miami-Luken. When the subcommittee asked the executives whether their company contributed to the opioid crisis, four of the executives said "no." Joseph Mastandrea, chairman of the board of Miami-Luken, was the only executive to answer "yes."

4. The testimony comes as the subcommittee has been investigating pill dumping in West Virginia by wholesale drug distributors for the past year. Law requires distributors to submit suspicious drug orders to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

5. Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., chair of the committee's investigations panel, wondered "why did the distributors repeatedly fail to report suspicious orders" of prescription opioids. In several cases in West Virginia, "the volume of controlled substances a distributor sends on its own should be cause for concern," he added.

6. McKesson and Cardinal Health shipped 12.3 million doses of opioids to a small pharmacy in West Virginia between 2006 and 2014, according to an analysis conducted by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.

7. Cardinal Health is facing over 300 lawsuits from local and state governments over its role in distributing painkillers.A violent high-speed chase, which ended in a fatal shooting, forced the 632-bed Beaumont Hospital-Dearborn (Mich.) into lockdown May 9, according to The Detroit Free Press.

The incident began around 8:30 p.m., when one man started chasing and firing a gun at the other man as they drove. The chase went through several Michigan cities, including Melvindale and Allen Park, before heading to Dearborn.

"One of the parties was armed with an assault rifle and a handgun," Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad said. "He was firing at the other party in the other car. They ended up in the area of Beaumont Hospital."

It is unclear what initiated the dispute; however, it was later determined the two men had dated the same woman. One man was the woman's ex-boyfriend and one was the woman's current boyfriend.

The violent chase ended with the shooting suspect killing himself in the hospital's north parking lot. The other man's injuries were not life-threatening.

As the chase entered Dearborn, the hospital was placed on lockdown. The announcement of an active shooting was made over the loudspeaker, causing tense moments for patients, visitors and staff.

"Police pursued the shooter into a parking entrance on our campus. In an abundance of caution, the campus was placed on lockdown," hospital spokesperson Paula Rivera-Kerr told The Detroit Free Press. "At this time, police are investigating the situation and have reassured hospital leadership that all patients, families and staff are safe and secure."

No shots were fired inside of the hospital. The lockdown was lifted at 10:28 p.m. May 9.Ortho Kinematics is a spine diagnostic imaging company in Austin, Texas.

Here are four things to know.

1. Ortho Kinematics pioneered Vertebral Motion Analysis, a spinal instability test based on spine motion analysis.

2. VMA test results are uploaded to cloud servers, where they are processed to produce motion measurements to assess instability. Instability testing results and video X-ray images of spine motion are available within hours and can be accessed by any internet-connected computer, tablet or smartphone.

3. The VMA system is browser-based, HIPAA-compliant, and has a "zero IT footprint" requiring no installed software. It is designed to easily integrate with PACS systems.

4. Ortho Kinematics recently named spine industry alum Erik Wagner as interim CEO.

More articles on imaging:

Dr. Jeremy McCandless performs 1st robot-assisted knee surgery in San Diego with MAKOplasty: 3 quick insights

15th EOS system installed in Australia: 3 things to know

5 most commonly ordered MSK extremity imaging servicesHere are eight things for spinal surgeons to know for May 10, 2018.

Jury awards $4.5M over misplaced pedicle screw during spine surgery

On April 6, a Union County, N.J., jury awarded a plaintiff $4.5 million over a botched spine surgery. The plaintiff will recover $2.25 million because of a high-low agreement the lawyers entered after closing arguments, the New Jersey Law Journal reports. The suit claimed that a March 2011 lumbar fusion surgery performed by neurosurgeon Marvin Friedlander, MD, and orthopedic spine surgeon Douglas Bradley, MD, strayed from the accepted standards of care because a pedicle screw was placed in the wrong location. Read more about the case, here.





InVivo Therapeutics reports a $4.8M net loss in Q1

In the first quarter, InVivo Therapeutics experienced a net loss of $4.8 million compared to a $6.4 million net loss in the same period in 2017. Decreases in operating expenses allowed for a smaller net loss. During the first quarter, the company named Richard Toselli, MD, its president and CEO.





Memorial Health lays off 85 employees with push toward spine, joint focus

Savannah, Ga.-based Memorial University Medical Center laid off 85 employees, WTVM reports. The hospital is shifting other team members into new roles focused on direct care delivery. Memorial Health is currently making a push to focus on its centers of excellence for children, cancer, heart, joint, spine, minimally invasive surgery and emergency care.





Orthopedic surgeon who shot sales rep had been drinking alcohol; new evidence emerges in case

Details continue to emerge surrounding the shooting death of an orthopedic device sales representative at the home of Adam Lazzarini, MD, according to WLTX 19. The victim, William Holland, was a Stryker sales representative at the time of his death in October 2017; he had been visiting Dr. Lazzarini in his home when Dr. Lazzarini pointed a gun at his chest and the gun "went off." A warrant released earlier this week states Dr. Lazzarini had been drinking prior to the incident and made "false and conflicting statements to officers" after the event. Read more about the case, here.





Top New York spine surgeon leaves to join North Carolina program

Syracuse, N.Y.-based Crouse Hospital surgeon Eric Deshaies, MD, is leaving the hospital May 31 to direct a spine program in Charlotte, N.C., according to syracuse.com. Dr. Deshaies joined Crouse in 2014 to help expand the hospital's neuroscience program.





New York hospital reportedly pays CEO $660k to 'disappear'

The former CEO of Syracuse-based SUNY Upstate Medical University reportedly entered into an agreement with the hospital to resign and continue earning his chief executive $660,500 annual salary for one year, according to syracuse.com. Read more, here.





61% of spine, nerve patients not on narcotics 1-month postop under new protocol

Researchers investigated the impact of an "enhanced recovery after surgery" protocol implemented at Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania for spine and peripheral nerve surgery patients, according to Medscape. The University of Pennsylvania found ERAS reduced the postoperative use of opioids in its spine and nerve surgery patients. Patients under the ERAS protocol had a less need for opioids at one month compared to the control group, but experienced similar pain relief.





Deaconness Health System opens new orthopedic, neuroscience hospital

Evansville, Ind.-based Deaconness Health System cut the ribbon on the Orthopedic and Neuroscience Hospital on the Deaconness Gateway campus in Newburgh, Ind., May 4. The six-story, 215,000-square-foot specialty hospital includes inpatient and same-day surgeries and procedures, medical retail space and an Ortho Neuro Specialty Clinic for acute and ongoing treatment.



An Irish software company with clients including Disney, Netflix and Spotify is creating 85 new jobs in Belfast as it aims to ensure UK market access post-Brexit.

And Cork-based Teamwork.com has said it could scale up its operation here significantly.

For now, its hiring 55 developers and 30 technical support staff for a development and support hub, with average salaries of 37,000.

The company chose Belfast out of a potential 30 locations and has received support of 680,000 from economic development agency Invest NI towards the posts.

Belfast will be their biggest office outside Cork. It has a total of 200 staff.

The firm is based in Belfast city centres Scottish Provident Building, which houses a number of companies, but chief executive Peter Coppinger told the Belfast Telegraph: The plan is to scale up to get our own office. Were growing 40 or 50% year on year and that means well be hiring a lot over the next 10 years so were in it for the long haul.

Asked how big the Belfast workforce could eventually get, he said: I could see this operation scaling up significantly but I dont want to be drawn on that (numbers).

It all depends on access to talent. But what we see right now is that weve already found 10 fantastic people.

The Belfast office will be developing one product to add to its existing three, Mr Coppinger said: Our grand vision is to have a suite of products. Were in a billion dollar market here.

And he summed up its products as helping businesses all around the world and their teams to be more efficient and organised.

We have 22,000 customers, and our products can be used in 40 different languages.

Our customers range from one-man wedding planners to massive teams of companies and our products streamline entire businesses.

They mean that on a team, everybody knows that they must be doing and can schedule things, and instead of people having to dig around emails, everything is organised. It can go into any business or any organisation.

Chief technology officer Daniel Mackey said the available skills base had helped score Belfast at number one of a possible 30 locations. We looked at available talent, accessibility and the fact that it was English-speaking and the same timezone.

And we chose Belfast because its about future-proofing us against the effects of Brexit. Right now, the UK is our fourth-biggest market, but we hope to expand that with new offerings.

He said the company paid above-market rates for its staff, including bonuses for performance.

There are already eight people in place in Belfast with plans to hire another 20 in the short-term and the reaminder over the next few years. It also has offices in Limerick, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Buenos Aires.

Mr Coppinger added: For high-growth technology companies such as ours, we have to prepare for the future and possible opportunities, especially with the uncertainty around Brexit.

Being in Northern Ireland will ensure we can tap into the great talent pool on offer and access the UK market in future.

Invest NI chief executive Alastair Hamilton said: The new development centre will be key to helping the company achieve growth.

As well as software developers, a specific customer support team will be based in Belfast to provide technical and knowledge support to customers on both new and existing products.

Our software development sector has gone from strength to strength. In the last five years 30 companies have chosen to set up dedicated software development centres here.

I am pleased that Teamwork.com has chosen to join this growing number of businesses drawn here by the talent of our people.Businesses from Northern Ireland are in Birmingham today to find out about opportunities worth a potential 7.5bn arising from high speed rail network HS2

Businesses from Northern Ireland are in Birmingham today to find out about opportunities worth a potential 7.5bn arising from high speed rail network HS2.

Firms from all over the UK are attending the supply chain engagement event with HS2 direct contractors.

There are civil engineering contracts worth 7.5bn to deliver phase one of HS2.

The direct contractors are to hold more than 1400 meetings to discuss 90 contract packages with potential suppliers, ranging from environmental works, such as landscaping, to construction materials and plant supply.

David Poole, HS2 procurement and supply chain director, said: "Today's event is a great next step in our programme to engage with businesses from across the UK, and give them all the tools to make the most of HS2's emerging supply chain opportunities.

"HS2 is a long-term national programme and it's great that businesses from across the UK, from as far as Inverness and Belfast, are gearing up to get on board with HS2."More than 15m has been paid to workers not receiving the full minimum wage in the past year, new figures show

More than 15m has been paid to workers not receiving the full minimum wage in the past year, new figures show.

HM Revenue and Customs said a record 200,000 of the UK's lowest paid employees received money they were owed, twice as many as in the previous year.

The increase followed the launch last year of an online service by HMRC, which led to a 132% rise in the number of complaints.

Business Minister Andrew Griffiths said: "Employers abusing the system and paying under the legal minimum are breaking the law.

"Short-changing workers is a red line for this Government and employers who cross the line will be identified by HMRC and forced to pay back every penny and could be hit with fines of up to 200% of wages owed."

Penny Ciniewicz, the director general of customer compliance at HMRC, said: "HMRC is committed to getting money back into the pockets of underpaid workers."Brexit Secretary David Davis has turned down an invitation to appear before the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.

The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee has expressed its disappointment after Brexit Secretary David Davis declined to appear before it.

The NI Affairs Committee had wanted to discuss the lack of a viable solution to the Irish border with the Mr Davis.

Read More

The committee said that due to the lack of an obvious technical solution from the evidence received they did not believe that a frictionless post-Brexit border would be possible and invited Mr Davis to appear before them to update them on the issue.

Mr Davis declined, saying he had already given evidence relating to Northern Ireland before the Exiting the European Union Committee and the Lords EU Committee.

He suggested that the committee invite Robin Walker MP (Department for Exiting the European Union) and Shailesh Vara MP (Northern Ireland Office) to speak in his place.

Mr Walker and Mr Vara's predecessor, Chloe Smith MP, had already appeared before the NI Affairs Committee in November 2017.

The committee said they specifically requested Mr Davis appear due to his role as lead negotiator for the United Kingdom and given the central importance of a Northern Ireland border solution to the Brexit process.

His opposite number, the EUs Michel Barnier, has already given oral evidence to the committee

Committee chairman Dr Andrew Murrison MP said they felt asking Mr Davis to give evidence was a "reasonable" request.

My committee is most disappointed that David Davis has turned down our invitation to give evidence on what all agree is an absolutely pivotal element of the Brexit process. Michel Barnier has given us oral evidence as EU negotiator and the committee felt it would be reasonable to ask his UK counterpart Mr Davis to do the same," Dr Murrison said.

Expand Close EU negotiator Michel Barnier AP / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp EU negotiator Michel Barnier

This is more urgent now as a technical solution to the border is one of two options cited by ministers. Given the committees caution over the prospects for a technical solution in its original report on the Irish land border post Brexit, we wanted to give the minister an opportunity to say what progress had been made.

"We would then be happy to update our report if warranted by evidence received. Otherwise, clearly, we cannot and the opinion expressed in the original report will have to stand.

A Department for Exiting the European Union spokesperson said they were committed to ensuring a frictionless border in Ireland.

"The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union takes his parliamentary commitments extremely seriously. He has provided evidence to the Exiting the EU Committee six times, and to the Lords EU Committee five times - and has answered numerous questions in relation to the negotiations and Northern Ireland at both."

"Our policy is clear - we are committed to ensuring there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland and to ensuring the same unfettered access for Northern Ireland's businesses to the whole of the UK's internal market. We have set out our preferred customs models to enable trade to remain as frictionless as possible.

"The UK remains committed to all the scenarios outlined in the Joint Report, and following March European Council, the UK and EU negotiating teams are now engaged in ongoing discussions on these issues."Special clinics have been set up to deal with the thousands affected.

The Department of Health has announced an independent inquiry into the Belfast Trust's handling of complaints concerning Dr Michael Watt.

It has also extended a review into Belfast Trust outpatient services to cover all Northern Ireland's health trusts.

Last week the Belfast Trust announced a recall of 2,500 patients treated by neurologist Dr Watt - the biggest recall of its kind in Northern Ireland. It is holding special clinics over the coming weeks to see all patients concerned. Some are thought to be as young as 14.

Read More

Head of the Northern Ireland Department of Health Richard Pengelly, said given the seriousness of the case and the impact on patients it was "clear a rigorous review was required".

"The public needs to be assured that this issue has been properly and appropriately handled by the Trust, and that any lessons for the future are learned," he said.

The inquiry will review the process initiated by the Belfast Trust in December 2016, in relation to concerns raised about the clinical practice of Dr Michael Watt. The panel will also assess whether any complaints or concerns relating to Dr Watt prior to December 2016 should have provided grounds for earlier intervention.

The inquiry panel will be chaired by Brett Lockhart QC. The panel will also include a member with clinical leadership expertise.

Reviews are underway into the Belfast Trust's actions over the issue as well as a review of the doctors patients at two private clinics.

Dr Watt was suspended from duty by the Trust in June 2017 although he remains an employee.

On Thursday a protest was held in support of Dr Watt.

Department of Health Permanent Secretary Richard Pengelly said: The focus since last week has rightly been on establishing a robust patient recall process. That remains the first priority.

However, it is clear that a rigorous review is also required  given the seriousness of the situation and the impact on patients.

I am indebted to Mr Lockhart for agreeing to lead this inquiry panel and undertake this important work.

The department has already commissioned the RQIA to undertake a review of governance of outpatient services in the Belfast Trust with a particular focus on neurology services. This review will then be extended as part of its rolling programme of inspections to cover all five Northern Ireland Health Trusts.

The department has also asked the RQIA to commission a parallel piece of work to ensure that the records of all patients or former patients of Dr Watt who have died over the past ten years are subject to expert review.

Campaigner Rhonda O'Neill suffers the rare condition autonomic neuropathy which affects all her organs.

"It is difficult to diagnose and treat," she told the Belfast Telegraph at a protest outside the Royal Victoria Hospital in support of Dr Watt.

"But Dr Watt has been fantastic. He has tried wonderful treatments that have helped and made such a difference and now he has left I have to see a different neurologist."

Those behind the protest said they had been "inundated" with support and had a gathered over 300 signatures on a petition calling for his reinstatement.

Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close A rally in support of Dr Michael Watt takes place at the RVH in Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Rally in support of Dr Michael Watt takes place at the RVH in Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph Rally in support of Dr Michael Watt takes place at the RVH in Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph) Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp A rally in support of Dr Michael Watt takes place at the RVH in Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)Belfast City Council (BCC) is hoping to introduce a last-mile delivery service to tackle city centre gridlock caused by delivery vehicles.

Belfast and Dublin City Councils are jointly launching the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) challenge, offering 230,000 (202k) to businesses to develop more efficient freight services.

The competition is in partnership with Enterprise Ireland and the last-mile delivery project is part of the wider Smart Belfast initiative, which aims to use to technology to address everyday challenges in the city.

Belfast city centre has a number of traffic hotspots where larges volumes of traffic frequently cause congestion, particularly at peak times.

In a joint tender, Belfast and Dublin councils said there was a need to cut down on the number of freight vehicles in their respective cities.

Both Dublin and Belfast are looking for ways to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of deliveries, reducing the number of goods vehicles in their respective urban centres, the tender reads.

Councillor Aileen Graham, deputy chair of BCCs Strategic Policy and Resources Committee, said the changing nature of business and online retail has transformed the way goods are delivered.

This has had an impact on things like air quality, traffic management and infrastructure, she added.

We made a commitment in The Belfast Agenda to improve the city living experience and make it easy to do business.

So were partnering with Dublin to understand these changes in more detail. We also want to explore ways to enhance the effectiveness of deliveries for city centre business.

We have some fantastic, innovative companies in Belfast and I encourage them to apply to this competition,.

Belfast City Council is hosting an information session for interested companies at Belfast City Hall on May 17.

The competition is funded through Enterprise Irelands Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programme and both city councils have also contributed funding.

Broken up into two phases, the first stage of the competition will take place this summer and will see funding given to up to five companies to develop their initial plans or "proof of concept".

These concepts will seek to understand the impact of goods deliveries on both cities and explore ideas for new ways of working.

Phase two, which will run from Autumn 2018 to Spring 2019, will provide further funding to take a number of these ideas forward to a prototype stage.A west Belfast doctor is leading a scoping inquiry into the Irish CervicalCheck scandal.

Dr Gabriel Scally, a former NHS doctor, will oversee and examine key elements of the controversy that has rocked the Republic's health system.

An audit by CervicalCheck of 1,482 women diagnosed with cervical cancer since 2008 found potential errors in 208 cases as tests incorrectly gave the all-clear.

Seventeen of these women have died, while a number of others have been told their cancer is terminal.

Dr Scally (63) arrived in the Republic yesterday to begin work on the inquiry.

He will be looking at a range of issues, including the withholding of audit results from affected women.

He is expected to report back to the Republic's Health Minister Simon Harris by the end of next month, setting out his findings.

Dr Scally studied at Queen's University, where he trained first in general practice and then in public health. He has held senior roles at both the UK's Department of Health and the NHS, and is currently the president of the Epidemiology and Public Health section of the Royal Society of Medicine

He also holds a series of academic roles, including as Professor of Public Health and Planning in the University of the West of England.

The medic served for seven years as director of public health in the Eastern Health and Social Care Board and was appointed public health director in the NHS in England in 1994.

Dr Scally has dealt with a number of high-profile health service failures and also assisted the Northern Ireland enquiry into the hyponatremia-related deaths as both an expert witness and as an adviser to the chair.

Meanwhile, another Northern Ireland man is in the running to claim the top health job in the Republic in the short-term.

Tony O'Brien is currently the director of the Health Service Executive (HSE) and is expected to step down at the end of June.

He has come under intense pressure to vacate the post sooner in light of the Cervical Check controversy.

The HSE has two deputy directors general, one of whom is likely to step in as interim director during the recruitment process.

Dean Sullivan, who left his role as director of commissioning at the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) last year, is reported to be in the running for the role.

Mr Sullivan is currently the chief strategy and planning officer. John Connaghan is chief operations officer.

Both men could be in the running for interim director general, the Irish Times reported.

Mr Sullivan joined the HSE from the HSCB, where he was responsible for the strategic planning of health and social care services.

He worked previously as a senior civil servant for the Department of Health, overseeing improvements in waiting times across a range of hospital and community services.The alleged head of a cannabis growing operation worth in excess of 600,000 must remain in custody, a High Court judge has ruled.

Luong Bui, 41, is accused of running factories across Northern Ireland - including one discovered at a warehouse with living quarters for those growing plants.

Refusing him bail, Mr Justice Maguire rejected any suggestion of delays in the case.

Bui, originally from Vietnam but now a British citizen, faces charges of conspiracy to supply and produce Class B drugs, being concerned it their production, possessing criminal property, dishonestly using electricity, and assisting unlawful immigration.

The alleged offences were committed between April 1 and December 5 last year, when police raided an industrial unit on the Glen Road in Comber, Co Down.

A previous court heard the warehouse had been divided into 10 rooms split over two floors.

Officers seized 1,200 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of 600,000.

Two other men were spotted on the premises, although one of them managed to escape.

The second man was detained and told police he had travelled with others in the back of a lorry from Vietnam to the United Kingdom.

He then claimed that he was flown from England to Northern Ireland before being driven to the warehouse.

The man said he had been there for about a month and a half, that he received instructions on how to care for the plants and that he resided in living quarters within the factory, according to the prosecution.

Other, smaller-scale cannabis-growing facilities were uncovered at residential properties in the Four Winds area of Belfast and Coalisland, Co Tyrone.

Bui, of Lisburn Road in Belfast, is allegedly linked to the factories by CCTV surveillance evidence and fingerprints found on a tenancy agreement.

He was said to have been located during searches carried out the same day at his home.

It was claimed that he tried to dump three mobile phones in a toilet cistern as police entered the property.

Opposing bail at an earlier hearing, a Crown lawyer contended that Bui heads an organisation linked to a high-end crime gang operating on both sides of the Irish border.

Defence counsel argued that his client runs a horticultural supplies business which legitimately provides equipment such as plant pots, carbon filters and soil found at the Comber warehouse.

He mounted a fresh bid for bail based on the time taken to progress the case.

But rejecting the application, Mr Justice Maguire said: "The fact that five months has expired at this point doesn't create the momentum where the court would deviate from the normal approach of seeking to ensure the protection of the public from those who may be engaged in serious and organised drug activity."POSED BY MODEL. Generic photo of a teenager drinking alcohol. Children under 15 should not drink a drop of alcohol, even at home, the Government's chief medical officer said today. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Thursday January 29, 2009. Sir Liam Donaldson received the backing of health campaigners for attempting to clear up some of the 'mixed messages' given to parents about their children and drinking. See PA story HEALTH Alcohol. Photo credit should read: David Jones/PA Wire

Staff at Derry City and Strabane District Council could be tested for drugs or alcohol use under a scheme.

The council's Governance and Strategic Planning Committee approved a new workplace alcohol and drugs policy at Tuesday's meeting. Employees may be tested for drug or alcohol use if a manager is suspicious that an employee has reported for duty under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The new policy is designed to provide a safe and healthy work environment for employees.

Sinn Fein's Caoimhe McKnight said: "It is good to see the council working to help staff if they have problems."

Awareness training on drugs and alcohol will be given to all new council employees as well as existing employees.

The Workplace Drugs and Alcohol Policy defines the roles and responsibilities for all employees in relation to alcohol and drugs.

"It also provides a framework for employees to seek support for an alcohol or drugs related problem," according to council papers.EU diplomats have proposed a post-Brexit situation where Northern Ireland becomes 'the new Hong Kong' (Anthony Devlin/PA)

EU diplomats have proposed a post-Brexit situation where Northern Ireland becomes 'the new Hong Kong'.

Political website Politico reports European negotiators have proposed a 'one state, two systems' approach as a solutions for dealing with issues around a border on the island of Ireland.

The story quotes unnamed "high-ranking officials in Brussels" who say the hand over of Hong Kong could set a precedent for the current negotiations between Europe and Britain.

The proposed solutions would see the draft agreement between the EU and the UK place Northern Ireland in a different customs territory.

It quotes the official as saying: "The one thing you cannot say about Margaret Thatcher is that she was soft on sovereignty... if Thatcher agreed it for Hong Kong, why not Northern Ireland? It would not affect the constitutional integrity of the UK. The head of state would still be the Queen."

A UK official quoted says the proposal is unacceptable as it is based on Britain handing over sovereignty for Hong Kong - something it had not plans to do for Northern Ireland.

Contacted by the Belfast Telegraph, head of office with the European Commission in Northern Ireland Colette Fitzgerald said: "The Article 50 negotiations for the UK's withdrawal from the EU are carried out by the Chief Negotiator Mr Michel Barnier and his Task Force 50 team in Brussels.

"The EU position on Northern Ireland is set out clearly in the draft Withdrawal Act agreed with the UK and is available of the Task Force 50 website."

The Task Force 50 website contains documents outlining the how the UK will withdraw from the European Union, and includes speeches and statements made by EU officials on the subject.

Speaking at the All-Island Civic Dialogue in Dundalk at the end of last month, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said: "The consequences of Brexit should not and must not lead to the return of a hard border, neither on maps nor in minds."

Pressure has been growing on the UK to put forward viable solutions to the issue of the border on the island of Ireland and post-Brexit customs arrangements.

On Thursday, the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee expressed its disappointment after Brexit Secretary David Davis declined to appears before it to discuss the issue.Bosses at one of Northern Ireland's best-known furniture retailers have lost a High Court battle over the sale of their former flagship store.

Cyril and Ernest Fulton claimed the 1.75m price for Fultons Fine Furnishings' premises on Boucher Road, Belfast had been a gross undervalue.

The store was sold in August 2013 after the firm went into administration at the owners' request the previous July.

Since then the interiors company has made a comeback and continues to trade from its showroom in Lurgan, Co Armagh.

The Fultons were challenging claims by banking group AIB that more than 900,000 in loan facilities was owed, the court heard.

They argued that the statutory demands should be set aside on a number of grounds, including an allegation that the Balmoral Plaza premises in Belfast was deliberately sold at a gross undervalue and without being put on the open market.

A report from a valuer instructed by Cyril and Ernest Fulton estimated it could potentially have been worth between 4.5m-5m.

According to their case, selling the premises at open market value would have extinguished liabilities to the bank. On that basis, they contended, the statutory demands should be set aside.

But a bank official gave evidence about why it had not objected to the administrative receivers' recommendation for the sale price.

He stated it was justified due to lack of interest in the asset and a genuine risk that a further open market process might not achieve the 1.75m figure.

Ruling on the dispute, Madam Justice McBride said neither Cyril nor Ernest Fulton has a claim against the bank for any alleged sale at an undervalue by the receiver.

"The sale was conducted by administrative receivers," she pointed out.

"The receivers act as agents of the company and not the bank who is the creditor in this case.

"Therefore, any claim regarding a sale at an undervalue would be against the administrative receivers and not against the bank."

Madam Justice McBride also held that money would still be owed if the store had been sold at a higher price.

"I am not satisfied that there is an arguable case that any claim by Cyril Fulton and Ernest Fulton in respect of a sale at an undervalue would exceed or equal the debt they each owe to the bank," she said.

Rejecting allegations the sale process was conducted improperly, the judge added: "There is no evidence before the court of criminality save bald assertions."The Government, backed by the DUP, has narrowly voted down attempts to establish a new inquiry into relations between the media and police.

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband led moves to amend the Data Protection Bill to establish a statutory inquiry dubbed 'Leveson Two', but this was rejected by 304 votes to 295 when pushed to a vote in the Commons.

Government amendments were approved, with one ensuring the Information Commissioner's Office conducts a review of journalists' compliance with the new law over the next four years, including in Northern Ireland.

Later, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said: "Within this ICO review, or aligned to it, we will make sure there is an independent named reviewer for Northern Ireland."

The move was welcomed by Ian Paisley, who told MPs that the media here "were exempt from proper scrutiny by Leveson".

He added: "That is why people feel aggrieved. Many members whose phones were hacked, like myself, were completely ignored by that process. Now, perhaps, we will have the chance of fairness."

Last night former Ulster Unionist leader and former broadcaster Mike Nesbitt said the media in Northern Ireland played an important role in holding institutions to account.

"For that reason, our media should be willing and keen to be scrutinised to ensure they are factual, open, transparent and honest about their reporting, including their right to promote a political viewpoint (excepting the BBC/UTV)," he said.

"It is a question of who or what body represents independent scrutiny and I am uncomfortable with the idea of trusting politicians to make those decisions, given the reasons Leveson was established in the first place.

"We also need to reform NI's laws of defamation and rebalance freedom of expression versus protection of individual rights."

During yesterday's debate Culture Secretary Matt Hancock also confirmed that Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary would be undertaking a review of how police forces were adhering to new media relations guidance, as recommended by Sir Brian Leveson.

A second Opposition amendment, which would have forced publishers not signed up to a state-backed regulator to pay their opponent's legal costs in relation to alleged data breaches even if they won the case, was dropped after the SNP withdrew its support.

Mr Hancock warned the measure would have had a "catastrophic" impact on local papers.

He said it would have meant newspapers having to risk paying costs even if a story was accurate and in the public interest. The minister warned the clauses would have made it "near impossible" to uncover stories of abuse - and highlighted the work of The Times' chief investigative reporter, who uncovered the Rotherham child abuse scandal.

Of the Opposition amendments, Mr Hancock said: "Consider the impacts of these clauses on an editor: faced with criticism of any article by anyone with the means to go to court, a publication would risk having to pay costs even if every single fact in the story is true and even if there was a strong public interest in publishing.

"I am determined that we have a system that is strengthened so people have recourse to justice when things go wrong."

He said regulator IPSO had brought in a system of "compulsory low cost arbitration" which means "ordinary people" can take claims to newspapers.

Several MPs spoke of occasions when they thought they may have been subject to questionable information-gathering activities.

Local newspaper editors said the amendments could have destroyed regional journalism.Dr John Compton is former chief executive of Health and Social Care Board

A former health chief has warned that the ongoing Stormont stalemate has left politicians unable to scrutinise a minister over the controversy surrounding a neurology consultant.

John Compton said events around the unprecedented recall of patients are a reminder that "we are all the poorer" for the absence of a functioning political system.

More than 2,500 patients of consultant neurologist Dr Michael Watt were subject to the largest ever patient recall in Northern Ireland amid concerns of misdiagnoses.

Some 200 additional clinics started reviewing patients last weekend and are due to continue for 12 weeks.

"The focus must now exclusively be on ensuring they are seen in as timely a manner as possible, and supported through the process. Even with the best of intentions, this cannot happen in less than 12 weeks," said Mr Compton, who retired as chief executive of Northern Ireland's Health and Social Care Board in 2014.

Private consultants are being paid for by the Belfast Trust to assist with the recall.

Mr Compton said that a process will be developed to "explain and understand what has happened".

"Many people will contribute to this process, Royal Colleges, RQIA, the Belfast Trust, the Department of Health - but above all, it will need to give voice to the people most personally affected," he added.

"The one absentee looks like it will be our political system, and this must be a concern to us all.

"Had the political system been in place a minister would have made a statement on the event, MLAs would have scrutinised him or her on our behalf, and the health committee would have questioned those involved.

"As time has passed we have all become used to 'no politics' and have to a greater or lesser extent lost interest in the political system. The events in the health service in this past week should remind us all we are the poorer for not having a functioning political system."

As the scandal emerged last week, other health crises erupted in England and the Republic.

UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt apologised after it emerged that as many as 270 women may have died because of a major IT error that left 450,000 patients in England missing crucial breast screenings.

An independent inquiry has been ordered.

And in the Republic, Health Minister Simon Harris publicly apologised following the CervicalCheck scandal.

Hundreds of Irish women who had smear tests in 2011 were incorrectly reported as being clear. Issues surrounding the cancer screening programme were brought to the public's attention in a court case taken by Limerick mother-of-two Vicky Phelan over a missed abnormality in her smear test.

Mr Compton said it was "worth contrasting" the political response to the health scandals to what has "happened politically in Northern Ireland".

He added: "Jeremy Hunt, the minister, has been to the fore in exercising political leadership both in the House of Commons and the media." As thousands of medical cases are reviewed by the Belfast Health Trust, some former patients who back Dr Watt are today planning a protest over the decision to suspend the consultant.

Campaigners and supporters of Dr Watt are sending a letter to the trust, saying their lives have been put at risk by the decision to suspend him.

The group is expected to protest outside the Royal Victoria Hospital this afternoon.

The Facebook group, calling itself 'Voice in Support of Dr Michael Watt', says it was set up in response to the "relentless witch-hunt and trial by media".

"We are patients of Dr Watt's and trust in him implicitly," the group stated.

"We have not been given a voice and are calling on all who wish to, to show their support."

Meanwhile, SDLP deputy leader Nichola Mallon called on the Belfast Trust to offer patients "greater support", including counselling services for neurology patients attending the recall clinic. The North Belfast MLA said: "I have been contacted by more than one patient over the last few days who have attended the recall clinic and had their world turned upside down by news of a possible wrong diagnosis.

"These patients were offered no counselling and no support after receiving such traumatic news.

"One patient told me they have been suffering anxiety attacks since.

"They felt they had no other option but to contact their GP for help and have been told they need to wait two weeks for an appointment. That is not acceptable. Recall patients are already highly distressed.

"To be told by a consultant that you are facing a possible misdiagnosis is devastating."

A spokeswoman for the Belfast Health Trust said: "We have nothing further to say."

Helpline numbers: Belfast Health Trust: 0800 980 1100. Ulster Independent Clinic: 028 9068 6511Police investigating the murder of a man in Dungannon in 1993 have arrested a man.

Detectives from Legacy Investigations Branch investigating the murder of Matthew Boyd arrested a 49-year-old man in Belfast on Thursday.

He was taken to the Serious Crime Suite at Musgrave Police Station for questioning before being released that evening.

Shortly after 3pm on 11 January 1993 Matthew was discovered slumped over the steering wheel of his Red Vauxhall Astra Estate car on the Donaghmore Road outside Dungannon. He had been shot twice.

Mr Boyd was taken to hospital for treatment to his injuries but passed away later that evening.

Detectives are appealing for anyone who was in the area on the day in question and who witnessed the murder or anyone with any information that can assist with the investigation to contact them in the Legacy Investigations Branch 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.Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Portrait of Fredrick Temple Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Bust of Fredrick Temple Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Ulster Tower , Mantle Clock and a Bust of Fredrick Temple Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Ornamental stand for the bell from HMS Ulster. Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Ornamental stand for the bell from HMS Ulster. Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Portrait of Lord Armaghdale by Riviere Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Portrait of Lord Craigavon Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Portrait of Sir Henry Wilson MP Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Portrait of Rt Hon JM Andrews by F McKelvey Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

A throne Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

A throne Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Mould and damage on A model of Parliament buildings Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Mould and damage on A model of Parliament buildings Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

A model of Parliament buildings Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Mould and damage on A model of Parliament buildings Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

A model of Parliament buildings Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Jim Allister reveals Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Jim Allister reveals Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Jim Allister reveals Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

Jim Allister reveals Stormont art work at a lock up on the outskirts of Belfast on May 10th 2018 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

A treasure trove of art linked to the key moments in Northern Ireland's history was uncovered for the first time after years in storage.

TUV leader Jim Allister has been campaigning for six years for the items to be put back on public display.

Most of the items were moved to storage in 1995 to allow refurbishment at Parliament Buildings at Stormont.

Included is a portrait of Northern Ireland first Prime Minister James Craig in ceremonial uniform, the wig worn by Sir Hugh O'Neill, the Speaker of the Northern Ireland House of Commons and a table thought to have been used for the signing of the 1801 Act of Union.

In the past six years almost 80,000 has been spent on housing the items which are currently housed in a warehouse outside Belfast.

MLA Jim Allister said: After several years campaigning on the issue I was permitted to view the many artefacts and works of art belonging to the Assembly - and thus to the public - which have been hidden away for years in commercial storage, for which the public is paying over 11,000 per annum.

I found nothing offensive or objectionable from which the public must be protected.

Instead, I saw some marvellous and interesting works of art and historic memorabilia which are part of Northern Ireland's history and which should be available for any interested member of the public to see. Why should things as varied as portraits of former Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland, a model of Thiepval Tower, various ceremonial items, the stand for the Bell from HMS Ulster and the ceremonial wig of the first Speaker, be hidden away?

I am renewing my call for the Assembly Commission to establish a permanent exhibition of these items in Parliament Buildings so that any interested member of the public can view them. There are plenty of empty rooms.

An Assembly Spokeswoman added: While a small number of the artefacts and artwork held by the Assembly Commission are currently in offsite storage, most are either on permanent public display, displayed in other parts of Parliament Buildings or on long term loan to other locations.

"Once the Assembly appoints a new Commission, it will be open to it to consider the merits of an exhibition of artwork in Parliament Buildings.

Stormont Hidden History in Dunmurry Warehouse-BBC:

Im very pleased as a member of the Assembly Commission to have given Jim Allister Permission to view the artefacts. Reminds Jim of what he is missing.....  Alex Maskey (@AlexMaskeySF) May 10, 2018Labours sister party in Northern Ireland the SDLP has written to all of Jeremy Corbyns MPs, warning them that his current approach to Brexit will not prevent a hard border with the Republic.

In a letter leaked to The Independent, the SDLP beseeched Labour MPs to back a plan to stay aligned with the single market  which Mr Corbyn himself has refused to support.

The SDLPs Brexit spokesperson Claire Hanna, urged Labour MPs to act for the sake of peace in Northern Ireland and not for British political convenience.

It comes amid a deepening row within Labours ranks about its approach to Brexit, sparked when dozens of Labour Lords went against Mr Corbyns will and voted to pass a proposal to keep the UK in the European Economic Area (EEA).

Conservative MPs have told The Independent they have enough rebels to pass the plan  which would effectively keep Britain in the single market  through the Commons and make it law, as long as Labour also backs it.

Labours current position is that it respects the 2016 referendum, that Britains EU membership must end, that the country should remain outside the single market and leave customs union to negotiate a new bespoke customs relationship.

But in her letter, Ms Hanna wrote: Voters in Northern Ireland rejected leaving the EU. It cannot be right for the majority opinion here to essentially go unheard.

We dont believe the issue of the Irish border, and the impossibility of avoiding a hard economic frontier without single market access, was sufficiently addressed during or since the campaign.

It is important to note that customs union membership alone will not prevent such a border.

Underlining the point, she argues that a hard border cant be prevented by clever words in a treaty text or by imagined technological innovations.

Ms Hanna explains that she is writing on behalf of the entire SDLP to urge Labour MPs to back the EEA amendment, when it eventually comes to a vote in the Commons.

She added: [A hard border] will only be prevented if we retain full access and full alignment with the single market and customs union. No other solution is possible.

As a sister party of the Labour Party, the SDLP is urging Labour to use this opportunity to act in all of our interests by remaining in the EEA.

Turning to the threat to the Good Friday Agreement from a hard border, she says the amendment must be backed to protect the hard won peace in Northern Ireland.

She wrote: As a party committed to the principle of consent and campaigning for support for Irish unity, the SDLP understands the importance of the guarantees offered in the Agreement to all sides as a way of building confidence in the process of political change.

Abrogating those guarantees for the sake of British political convenience is not a good outcome for those seeking to build that consent for change.

The words will particularly grate on Mr Corbyn, who prides himself on having been a strong advocate of peace ahead of the Good Friday Agreement.

A total of 83 Labour peers defied Mr Corbyns will on Tuesday and voted for an amendment to Ms Mays EU Withdrawal Bill that would effectively keep Britain in the EUs single market.

The amendment will now come to the Commons, with The Independent having been told Conservative rebels have enough MPs to make it law as long as Labour also backs it.

Such a move could well spark a Tory Brexiteer backlash in the form of a vote of no confidence in Ms May, that would likely bring the government down, sparking an election and an opening for Labour to win power.

But in comments that have infuriated some of his MPs, Mr Corbyns office failed to back the amendment, claiming the single market was problematic for his plans to intervene in British industry if he wins power.

When asked if Mr Corbyn would back the amendment, his spokesman said it was not what we are proposing.

The spokesman explained that staying in the EEA could undermine a future Labour governments ability to intervene in UK industries with particular issues around state aid and reversing privatisation.

With the row over Labours Brexit position deepening, Mr Corbyn is set to be confronted on the matter if he attends the next meeting of the parliamentary party on Monday.

On Wednesday five Labour MPs from the North East wrote for The Independent contradicting party line, warning of the impact on living standards of leaving the single market and demanded a new referendum on the eventual Brexit deal.

Ms Mays cabinet is also deeply divided on Brexit, with the issue of what kind of customs relations to adopt set to be discussed again at a meeting of senior minister on Tuesday.

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson has denied being disloyal, despite calling the option of a customs partnership, said to be preferred by Ms May, a crazy idea. Business secretary Greg Clark has said thousands of jobs could be put at risk if the UK does not implement the idea.'Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal visits Wakefield's Citizens Advice Bureaux and left holding a plastic bag, July 1989 (left); and Princess Anne visits a Save the Children Gala at Pontefract Racecourse, July 1994 (right) Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5707901/The-Crown-eyes-public-Amateur-photos-royals-offer-glimpse-royal-family.html#ixzz5F1XgLKsi Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Sharon Libby, who took this snap of the Princess of Wales in October 1992 (left) said: 'Fantastic day when [Diana] was given Freedom of the City of Portsmouth... it was mesmerising to see her so close up

'This was taken whilst the Queen Mother was on holiday at the Castle of Mey. She had turned up to watch the local sheep dog trials and support the event. As ever she was a dream to photograph, turning in her car seat to ensure l got the shot. She had a wonderful knack of making you feel very special and each time l was lucky enough to meet her, she was effortlessly charming' (snapped by David Butler in August 1992)

A new book provides a unique photographic record of the royal family - from the people's perspective.

This image was taken in 1992 by Jill James, who recalled: 'Princess Diana was visiting my daughter's nursery in [London] SW14. My daughter is the one on the end of the table looking at her friend as though to say, "Who did you say this was?" She is about six months old in the picture. Princess Diana was very amused at all the cornflour being thrown around and made sure she didn't get too close!'

Describing his close-up snap of the bride-to-be taken in March 2018, Paul Ratcliffe said: 'Meghan Markle pictured on her visit to Birmingham's Millennium Point. One of the many engagements she and Prince Harry undertook prior to their wedding'

'Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal visits Wakefield's Citizens Advice Bureaux and left holding a plastic bag, July 1989 (left); and Princess Anne visits a Save the Children Gala at Pontefract Racecourse, July 1994 (right)

Prince Charles snapped by Amanda Smyth in Templemore Avenue, east Belfast in May 2015. The book, which is published this week, captures candid snaps of the royals picked from the estimated 50,000 engagements they have completed since the Second World War

A new book provides a unique photographic record of the royal family - from the people's perspective.

The Crown from the Crowd contains over 250 previously unseen, lost or forgotten images from the nation's 'attic archives'.

And some of those include photos of royal trips to Northern Ireland.

Do you have pictures of the Royal Family taken during one of their visits to Northern Ireland? Send them to us at prainey@belfasttelegraph.co.uk.

The book charts the extraordinary evolution of the people, characters and behaviour of the members of the House of Windsor.

The book, out now, came about after former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond issued a national call-to-action to plunder their albums and attics for unseen photographs of the royals.

The book will raise funds for veterans' charity, Help for Heroes.Newly-elected Sinn Fein MP Orfhlaith Begley is facing calls to drop the name of a "Nazi collaborator" from the title of her party's local branch.

Last week, Ms Begley secured the West Tyrone seat vacated by Barry McElduff.

In 2010, her local party branch or cumann added the name of Joe McGarrity to its title "in recognition of his historical contribution".

The Carrickmore and Creggan branch is now known as the Frank Ward/Joe McGarrity cumann.

But former DUP culture minister Nelson McCausland said McGarrity had collaborated directly with the Nazis during the Second World War.

Read More

Writing in today's Belfast Telegraph, he said: "While Ulstermen and Irishmen, Protestant and Roman Catholic, were fighting the Nazi war machine on the battlefields of Europe, Joe McGarrity was happy to work with the Nazis and seek their support.

"It is hard to believe that in this day and age any political party would honour someone like McGarrity who collaborated with the Nazis but that is the shameful reality for Sinn Fein.

"After her election, Orfhlaith Begley said that she was 'holding out an open hand in friendship' to unionists. So perhaps she will reflect on the name of her local Sinn Fein cumann and demand the removal of the name of a man whose association with the Nazis should be a source of shame."

A Sinn Fein spokesperson accused Mr McCausland of "selectively poring over history books looking for fresh excuses to remain stuck in the past".Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has come under fire after intervening in the case of jailed dissident republican Tony Taylor.

Speaking in the Dail last week Mr Coveney, who also serves as Tanaiste - equivalent to deputy prime minister - said that it was of "particular concern" that Taylor's latest parole hearing could take much longer than expected.

Read More

He said his department were in regular contact with the Northern Ireland Office regarding Mr Taylor's case and that he would personally raise it with Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley.

Mr Coveney also revealed that Mr Taylor had twice been visited in prison by Irish Foreign Office officials.

Taylor was returned to Maghaberry Prison in March 2016, on the instructions of the then Secretary of State Theresa Villiers.

The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) said his licence was revoked by the Parole Commission because of the risk he posed to the public.

However, he has not been charged with or convicted of any new offence.

Taylor, a former IRA man, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 1994 after he was seriously injured in a premature explosion in Derry.

He was then released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

In 2011, Taylor was then sentenced to three years behind bars for possession of a rifle in a case that made history by using covert surveillance evidence gathered by a drone.

Expand Close Meeting: Simon Coveney PA / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Meeting: Simon Coveney

Mr Taylor's wife Lorraine told BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme that his incarceration was having a "devastating effect" on the family.

The couple's 24-year-old son Blaine is severely disabled and his father acted as his primary carer before his imprisonment.

Mrs Taylor said her husband had been "taken hostage and put in jail for no reason."

She said that because her husband is an Irish citizen it is only right the Irish government intervenes in the case.

Also speaking on the programme, DUP MLA Paul Frew said that the Irish Government should stay out of the issue.

"It is important not to make statements that risk inflaming community tensions further and undermining the justice system in the United Kingdom.

"Simon Coveney can say what he wishes but there is enough issues on his desk, not least issues relating to terrorism, that he can be helping the UK with in order to get truth and justice.

"Politicians can cause hurt, people have suffered in our terrorist campaigns and the Troubles we have lived through. I feel he has used this as a useful fool for his office.

"The Parole Commissioner has deemed that Tony Taylor poses a risk to the public and I am glad people like that are off the streets."

Former Northern Ireland Justice Minister and Alliance leader David Ford said politicians should not get engaged in active judicial process.

"I think Simon Coveney is unwise to have gotten engaged in this and this is not a political issue.

"From my experience in seeing similar cases, I was satisfied that the Parole Commissioners acted on proper evidence, the standards of proof when returning someone on licence are no the "beyond reasonable doubt" for the conviction in the first place.

"They are taken at a lower level of probability to provide public protection."Police in Magaluf have arrested two people over the death of Northern Ireland tourist Aaron Henderson.

Officers said a British man aged 35 is suspected of killing Aaron and a 37-year-old Spaniard is suspected of trying to cover up the crime.

The unnamed British man was held on Tuesday afternoon at the bar where he works in the resport.

The second man, a manager at the same unidentified bar, was held yesterday morning.

Aaron (30), from Coleraine, lost his fight for life in hospital on May 1 after suffering head injures in a street attack on April 27. He was assaulted in the early hours of April 27 at the end of Punta Ballena Street.

Investigators from Majorca's Civil Guard force were said to have spoken to a witness who told them he saw Aaron being pushed to the ground and then kicked in the head in the notorious party resort.

Police said: "The Civil Guard has arrested a British man aged 35 as the author of a crime of homicide.

"They have also arrested a Spanish man aged 37 on suspicion of concealing the crime.In the early hours of April 27, a tourist was assaulted in Magaluf.

"As a result of the beating he received he had to be transferred to Son Espases Hospital in Palma and died in the hospital on May 1. Civil Guard officers launched an investigation to determine what had happened.

"After interviewing several people who said they had witnessed the incident, carrying out other enquiries and receiving the results of the autopsy, they determined it could be a homicide and not an accident.

"Investigators managed to identify the possible author as a result of the enquiries and arrested him on Tuesday afternoon at the bar in Magaluf where he works as a manager.

"This morning Civil Guard arrested another man who also works as a manager at the same premises on suspicion of concealment."

Both suspects are expected to appear before a judge in a closed court hearing in the next 24 hours.

The judge will decide whether to remand them or release them in custody as part of an ongoing criminal probe.

Shopkeeper's son Aaron was on holiday with his girlfriend Danielle Baxter. It is understood that on the night of the attack he decided to carry on partying after she decided to go back to their holiday accommodation early.

Danielle posted an emotional tribute on social media after his death, saying: "I love you Aaron 'Hendy' Henderson always and forever, you've made me the happiest I've ever been in my entire life."

Aaron's dad Paul revealed their family had decided to donate his organs so his death "wouldn't be in vain". He told the Belfast Telegraph: "It's hard for the family to stay strong. It will never get easier, but we just want to get Aaron home.

"It's been a nightmare having him out there all this extra time, especially with his children waiting."

He described his son as a bubbly character who was highly popular with customers at the family wholesale business in Coleraine.

Mr Henderson told how the family made the decision to donate his organs.

"They pronounced his death on May 1, as they were keeping his heart going even though he was brain dead," he said.

"I told a boy at our hotel reception we'd donated his organs.He came round and opened his shirt, telling us when he was six months old he got a new heart.

"It was a hard decision, but we knew it was the right thing to do."Shopworkers union Usdaw has hit out at Belfast City Council over its handling of a proposed summit on extending Sunday trading hours.

Last month the strategic policy and resources committee decided to organise a weekend summit of all stakeholders in a bid to break the deadlock after the decision was deferred twice in as many weeks.

Councillors have been unable to reach agreement on the issue of designating Belfast as a "holiday resort", thus allowing large shops to extend their trading hours on 18 Sundays each year.

In the last 12 months there has been one committee vote and two public consultations on the issue.

Combining the two consultations, there is a slight majority (52.8%) in favour of extending Sunday trading hours for large shops.

Retail NI and USDAW are firmly against extending the Sunday trading hours in Belfast.

Others, including Hospitality Ulster and Visit Belfast, are in favour.

USDAW has spoken out about Belfast City Council's handling of the proposed summit, saying that the union wants to develop Belfast's wider weekend economy rather than only discussing the single issue of Sunday trading hours.

"The arrangements the City Council have made go nowhere near what is required and it is disappointing they have taken this approach. We would have to question whether they are taking it seriously," USDAW divisional officer Mike Aylward said.

"Organisations that need to participate in the summit have been given only six days notice of the meeting.

"Only two hours have been allocated for the summit, we cannot possibly properly consider all options that might contribute to boosting the weekend economy of Belfast in such a short time."

Mr Aylward added the meeting agenda appeared to have been narrowed to matters strictly relating to the specific proposal to designate Belfast as a holiday resort, rather than the underlying issue of developing Belfast's weekend economy.

"Usdaw remains committed to working openly with all parties as part of this process, however we do believe this meeting does not achieve the aims of the weekend summit agreed by city councillors," he said.

The union called for the gathering today to be used as a preliminary meeting ahead of a full weekend summit.Another Northern Ireland council is to stop charging fees for the burial of children

Another Northern Ireland council is to stop charging fees for the burial of children.

The motion was brought before Mid and East Antrim Borough Council by Ulster Unionist councillor Stephen Nicholl.

It came after his party colleague Julie O'Flaherty brought a similar motion to her local council - Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon - following the death of her two-year-old son Jake.

A similar scheme waiving fees for children is already in effect in England and Wales.

Under the proposals parents will no longer have to meet the costs of burials and cremations, with these fees being met by government funding.

A Children's Funeral Fund will only be considered in Northern Ireland when power-sharing is restored.

Mr Nicholl said: "This council recognises the introduction of government funding in England and Wales to cover the funeral costs of children.

"In the absence of a functioning government in Northern Ireland, such action cannot be introduced regionally. We can resolve this until the introduction of a regional initiative."

The motion was supported unanimously and it was agreed that Mid and East Antrim Council will waive all costs normally associated with the provision of a grave for children under 18 years of age.

UUP councillor Lindsay Millar seconded the motion.

She said: "With the lack of a functioning regional government, local councils have a new opportunity to make a lasting impact on the lives of our residents.

"This motion will not cause a great expenditure to the council, but will truly make a difference to parents whose lives have been shattered by the death of a child, and I am glad our council has unanimously agreed to this."

Paul Reid, the Mayor of Mid and East Antrim, said: "Nobody should be denied the right to bury their own child in a dignified and proper way.

"Parents who have lost a child are already facing tragic circumstances and the burden and process of cost shouldn't be another.

"I am pleased that Mid and East Antrim Borough Council is adopting this scheme, showing its commitment to the citizens of the borough."

A proposal to waive child burial fees is also being considered by Belfast City Council.The Prime Minister has clashed with nationalist politicians over her claim that the system for investigating soldiers and police in Troubles-related incidents is "patently unfair".

Theresa May yesterday claimed some paramilitaries were not being pursued, as senior Conservative MPs hit out at suggested proposals which fail to offer former soldiers immunity from prosecution in legacy cases.

Read More

But SDLP MLA Dolores Kelly branded the Prime Minister's remarks as "scandalous" and said statistics completely contradicted her claim.

A statute of limitations offering former soldiers and police officers immunity from prosecution is not expected to be in the Government's draft legacy proposals.

Instead, Mrs May seems set to opt for the DUP suggestion of a new law covering several wars and conflicts in order to ensure former paramilitaries don't benefit from an amnesty.

The Prime Minister said: "The situation we have at the moment is that the only people being investigated for these issues that happened in the past are those in our Armed Forces or those who served in law enforcement in Northern Ireland - that is patently unfair.

"Terrorists are not being investigated, terrorists should be investigated and that is what the Government wants to see."

But Mrs Kelly hit back: "While we all know the British Government isn't one for dealing in facts, let me remind Mrs May that the official PSNI released figures in 2017 showed that investigations into killings by the Army accounted for only approximately 30% of its legacy workload.

"The majority of investigations were attributed to killings carried out by republicans and loyalists."

She said Mrs May's claim was due to the "chokehold" the DUP had on her government.

DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said a statute of limitations for the Armed Forces should also cover conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan. "A statute of limitations is a much broader issue. We believe it should be dealt with separately from the legacy proposals," he said.

"If you introduce a statute of limitations which relates only to Northern Ireland and our troubled past, organisations like the IRA would then press for an amnesty for their members and we believe it would be completely unacceptable to equate members of the Armed Forces with members of an illegal terrorist organisation." Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie described the proposed Historical Investigations Unit (HIU) as at best a grave miscalculation by the Government and at worst a betrayal of the RUC and the Army.

"Only the state has records, so inevitably the HIU's focus will be on the police and Army because no equivalent records exist for the IRA or loyalist terrorist groups, who between them were responsible for 90% of Troubles-related killings," he said. "This suits those who wish to rewrite the past and portray the state, police and Army as the villains of the piece.

"But it does a massive disservice to those who put on uniforms and bravely stood between the terrorists and those they sought to terrorise."

Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O'Neill said the Government had committed to begin a consultation on a draft legacy Bill, and a paper had been circulated to the political parties with the expectation that it would be published this week.

"However, it is now being reported that it could be delayed yet again due to opposition within the clearly dysfunctional British Tory Cabinet. That simply isn't good enough," she said.

"Victims have already been waiting far too long and they should not be held to ransom by Tory party in-fighting."War of words: Doug Beattie (right) has hit out at Gerry Kelly's (left) comments.

Claims made by Sinn Fein that the British Government is treating victims of the Troubles with "contempt" are absolutely staggering, an MLA has said.

Doug Beattie, the Ulster Unionist Partys justice spokesperson, has hit out at Sinn Fein after Gerry Kelly accused the UK Government of being "hurtful" to victims and their families.

Read More

Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday that investigating soldiers and police in Northern Ireland for killings during the Troubles was unfair.

Sinn Fein MLA, responding to the prime ministers remarks, said: What she is saying is shameful and what she is clearly pointing towards is while no one should be above the law, she wants British troops to be above the law. She is being hurtful to victims and families of victims, some who have been waiting up to 50 years for some truth and justice.

He added: Remember, victims are at the core of this. Theyre the ones who are frustrated and angry at the delay, upon delay and it needs to stop.

However, Mr Beattie, a former soldier, said he was staggered by the hypocrisy of Sinn Fein's comments.

Firstly, just when did Sinn Fein start to care about the victims of the Troubles, especially the tens of thousands that were created by the IRAs terror campaign?," he said.

"It was the IRA who showed contempt for victims when they bombed the Abercorn, Claudy, La Mon and Enniskillen, yet there is no Sinn Fein condemnation of these crimes.

Secondly, Sinn Fein helped write the book in showing contempt for victims. Its what they do every time they attend commemorations for IRA terrorists at Castlederg, Cappagh or Clonoe. Or name play parks after Raymond McCreesh. Or mock the murder of ten innocent workmen shot by the IRA at Kingsmills.

Any interest Sinn Fein now have the victims of the Troubles has come almost 50 years too late to be of any use. They will not be allowed to re-write history. Doug Beattie, Ulster Unionist justice spokesman

Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle O'Neill said she would be writing to Theresa May about her "inaccurate, misleading and mischievous" comments.

These remarks are deeply insensitive to the loss and pain of hundreds of families who have been bereaved by the British state forces," she said.

"They have caused deep hurt and offence and could even undermine confidence in the rule of law and the administration of justice.

They are also demonstrably untrue as has been evidenced by official statistics and statements on legacy investigations."Irish president Michael D Higgins laid a wreath at the burial plot of leaders of the 1916 Rising as the representatives of the country's judiciary and Defence Forces turned out for the State's annual Arbour Hill Commemoration Ceremony.

Arbour Hill is the final resting place of the seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Republic, including Padraig Pearse and James Connolly.

Those in attendance included the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle O'Neill and Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin.

Defence Forces chief of staff, vice admiral Mark Mellett, was also present and the celebrant of the mass before the ceremony was Bishop of Limerick, Brendan Leahy.

Members of the Seventh Infantry Battalion formed a guard of honour to the burial plot. There was a series of prayers, including some by representatives of the Church of Ireland and the Jewish and Islamic faiths.An internal briefing note that flagged potential errors in cervical screening tests two years ago stressed the need for a media strategy to respond to stories of women whose cancer diagnosis was missed.

The memo to HSE bosses from Irelands National Screening Service (NSS) also advised a pause in the process of communicating to clinicians the findings of an audit of smear test results belonging to women who were subsequently diagnosed with cancer.

A further note, circulated four months later, acknowledged that while the majority of cancers were detected as early as possible through cervical screening, not all cancers were prevented.

The HSE forwarded three 2016 memos to the Oireachtass Public Accounts Committee on Thursday as members probed the deepening controversy around misinterpreted smear tests.

Expand Close Alan Kelly (Niall Carson/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Alan Kelly (Niall Carson/PA)

Acting chair of the PAC, Labours Alan Kelly, branded the documents devastating.

Last week, it was revealed that an audit by CervicalCheck  the national screening programme for cervical cancer  of 1,482 women diagnosed with the cancer since 2008 had found potential errors in 208 cases, as tests showed no abnormality when they should have been given a cancer warning.

The majority of the 208 women  162  were not initially told of the outcome of the audit. Of the 208, 17 have since died.

Under-pressure director general of the HSE Tony OBrien, who has faced down calls to quit, told the PAC the 2016 notes had not raised alarm bells with him, because they stated that women were being informed of the audit results

The first note, dated March of that year, outlined details of the audit process undertaken by CervicalCheck and that results were to be communicated to patients.

The subsequent two, circulated in July, provided updates on the situation.

In a section titled next steps, the first memo stated:

 Pause all letters

 Await advice of solicitors

 Decide on the order and volume of dispatch to mitigate any potential risks

 Continue to prepare reactive communications response for a media headline that screening did not diagnose my cancer.

It earlier said: There is always the risk that in communicating individual case reports to clinicians of an individual patient reacting by contacting the media if they feel that screening did not diagnose my cancer.

This is a risk that is inherent in having a clinical audit process as part of the national programme.

Mr Kelly said the HSE appeared more interested in protecting its reputation than communicating with patients.

This was a strategy to ensure the HSE, the corporate brand, is being protected, he said.

This is a devastating document because of the tone and manner in which it is written and also where it focuses on from a communications point of view.

The controversy was triggered by the case of Vicky Phelan, the terminally ill mother whose legal battle cast light on the issue.

Last month, Ms Phelan, a 43-year-old mother of two from Co Limerick, settled a High Court action for 2.5 million euro after being incorrectly told in 2011 that her smear test had given a negative result for cancer.

In 2014, she was diagnosed with cancer but only told of the false negative last September.

On Thursday, another woman impacted by the false negatives issue  37-year-old Emma Mhic Mhathuna from Co Kerry  revealed that she had now been diagnosed with terminal cancer  five years after being told her smear tests were normal.

UK health expert Dr Gabriel Scally has been commissioned by the Irish government to lead an inquiry into the misinterpretation of the cancer tests.

A planned away day Cabinet meeting that had been scheduled for Friday has been postponed.

The Cabinet will instead meet in Dublin as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Health Minister Simon Harris continue to deal with the controversy.

Mr Varadkar was health minister when the first memo was sent to HSE chiefs.

The Department of Health confirmed on Thursday night that the memos were shared with the department.

However, a spokesman said they were only relayed to certain officials and none were brought to the attention of any serving health minister.Founder of the Northern Ireland Crown Forces Veterans for Justice, Mel Brown outside Belfast Crown Court (David Young/PA)

A veterans group in Northern Ireland has voiced opposition to any move to introduce a statute of limitation on Troubles prosecutions.

The Northern Ireland Crown Forces Veterans for Justice organisation echoed concerns already raised by DUP leader Arlene Foster that an amnesty for former security force members would, by law, have to also include ex-paramilitary gunmen.

Ex-Ulster Defence Regiment soldier Mel Brown, founder of the veterans support group, said she was opposed to anything that drew an equivalence between army, police and paramilitaries.

We do not want to have any shape or form of equivalence with terroristsMel Brown

Northern Ireland Crown Forces Veterans for Justice would not be in favour of the statute of limitations, given mostly the same concerns that Arlene Foster has voiced on the issue, she said.

We have a fear it would actually sanitise terrorism and would put them on a equal footing with ourselves, so we would not like to see that come into play.

We do not want to have any shape or form of equivalence with terrorists.

Group member Colin Brown, another former soldier, said the current system for investigating Troubles incidents in Northern Ireland was unfair.

He claimed paramilitaries were not being pursued by the authorities while soldiers were being brought before the courts over incidents that happened 40 years ago.

Mr Brown said veterans had been left behind in the peace process.

We cant not stand by our veterans here who were the law and order of this country in what were very, very testing times, he said.

We did not set out to murder or kill anybody and we will not stand by and let our names be dragged through the mud  we have been quiet for too long.

Members of the group were at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday to show support for former soldier Dennis Hutchings, who is due to stand trial on two charges linked to the shooting of a man with learning difficulties in Co Tyrone in 1974.

Hutchings denies the charges.Nigeria

Representatives from Nigerias leather sector claim the Governments long-term neglect of the industry in favour of oil production has halted its competitiveness and hindered the full potential of using its hides and skins in domestic manufacturing.

Full access to this article is limited to International Leather Maker Subscribers

How to Subscribe Subscribing is EASY, you can do it online. Once we receive payment and approve your subscription we will send you a password allowing you online access to additional content like this article.Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 A local Artist records the The 12th of July Parade which takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

An Orangewoman is pictured taking part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Orangemen take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Bands take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Orangewomen take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Orangemen in period costume take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Orangemen take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

A Union flag is seen as Orangemen take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Orangemen take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Bands take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 A local Artist records the The 12th of July Parade which takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Orange Order members march past St Patricks Church in Belfast as part of the 'Twelfth of July' celebrations.

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Orangewomen are pictured taking part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

An woman is pictured as Orangemen take part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Orangemen are pictured taking part in the annual July 12 parade in Belfast, on July 12, 2017. July 12 is the main marching day in the Orange Order calendar. The parades mark the Protestant commemoration of the 327th anniversary of King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. / AFP PHOTO / Paul FAITHPAUL FAITH/AFP/Getty Images

Pacemaker Press 12/7/2017 The 12th of July Parade takes place from from Clifton Street threw the streets of Belfast on Wednesday, As thousands of people line the streets across Northern Ireland the 12th of July celebrations. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 12th july 2017 12th July Orange Order parade takes places in Belfast with lodges from all parts of the city and beyond being led by marching bands from Carlisle Circus in north Belfast to Barnett Demesne in south Belfast. UTV's Paul Clark poses for a pictured on Royal Avenue in Belfast City Centre. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 12th july 2017 12th July Orange Order parade takes places in Belfast with lodges from all parts of the city and beyond being led by marching bands from Carlisle Circus in north Belfast to Barnett Demesne in south Belfast. The parade makes its way through the city centre. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

Blake McCord(4) from north Belfast pictured in Royal Avenue in the city centre. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

12th July Orange Order parade takes places in Belfast with lodges from all parts of the city and beyond being led by marching bands from Carlisle Circus in north Belfast to Barnett Demesne in south Belfast. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com

The birthplace of Orangeism will host the largest Twelfth of July demonstration this summer, it has been confirmed.

The conservation village of Loughgall will be one of 17 venues across Northern Ireland holding processions to mark the 328th anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne.

Preparations are at an advanced stage for the biggest day in the parading calendar, with upwards of an estimated half-a-million people expected to participate or spectate in what is widely regarded as one of the largest annual festivals in Europe.

Thousands of Orangemen, women and juniors  accompanied by over 600 marching bands  will step out at the various locations with much pageantry, colour and heritage on display.

The traditional sight and sound of Lambeg drums will add to the festivities in Co Armagh. The parade will pass the Museum of Orange Heritage at Sloans House, where the Orange Institution was founded in 1795 following the Battle of the Diamond, located on the outskirts of Loughgall.

A large Scottish contingent is expected in Belfast, as the city hosts the longest Twelfth parade on the day, with participants walking over six miles to the field. The capital and Ballymena are the only venues where Twelfth demonstrations occur annually.

Other significant parades will take place in Londonderry, Brookeborough (Fermanagh), Ballyclare (Antrim), Donaghcloney (Down) and Stewartstown (Tyrone).

Meanwhile, breaking with tradition, over 1,000 Orangemen from Mourne District will join their neighbouring brethren at the Newcastle demonstration.

Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, Edward Stevenson, hailed the enhanced cultural experience offered by the yearly celebrations.

The Twelfth of July offers a unique opportunity for the Orange Institution and the bands community to showcase our culture and heritage, and we are confident of welcoming increasing numbers of visitors, tourists and families to all of our parades, he said.

There are very few events on these islands that can bring such vast numbers of people onto the streets, either by taking part or simply to watch the music and pageantry.

Mr Stevenson will be in attendance at the Castlederg demonstration.

The senior Orangeman added: The Twelfth is truly a day like no other as we celebrate much that is important to the Reformed faith, our civil and religious liberties and our British heritage. Our proud cultural traditions will once again be on display at 17 venues throughout Northern Ireland.

The Twelfth demonstrations will follow the traditional Rossnowlagh parade held in the Republic on the preceding weekend. This year the annual Donegal procession takes place on Saturday July 7.

The 17 demonstrations on Thursday July 12 2018, will be held in Loughgall, Belfast, Brookeborough, Stewartstown, Castlederg, Ballygawley, Newtownards, Newcastle, Donaghcloney, Londonderry, Garvagh, Ballyclare, Aghalee, Broughshane, Ballymena, Portglenone and Rasharkin.Britain has condemned a rocket attack on the occupied Golan Heights by Iranian forces based in Syria, and said that Israel has every right to defend itself.

Downing Street called for calm on both sides and urged Tehran to refrain from further assaults.

Number 10 also urged Russia to use its influence in Syria to rein in Iranian aggression.

Iranian forces fired 20 rockets across the border at Israeli frontline military positions early on Thursday, the Israeli military said.

The attack was followed by retaliatory strikes by Israeli jets, which struck dozens of Iranian military installations within Syria.

The IDF has struck dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria in response to the Iranian rocket attack against Israel. Quds force is behind attack and has played the initial price. IDF remains ready for various scenarios but does not seek to escalate the situation. pic.twitter.com/4rC8gHK2LG  Amnon Shefler (@LTCShefler) May 10, 2018

Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) had hit almost all of the Iranian infrastructure in Syria.

But he insisted Israel had no interest in escalation of the situation, adding: I hope that we have finished this chapter and that everyone got the message.

Prime Minister Theresa Mays official spokesman said: We condemn Irans attack on Israel. Israel has every right to defend itself.

We call on Iran to refrain from any further attacks and for calm on all sides.

We call on Russia to use its influence in Syria to prevent further Iranian attacks.

Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck dozens of military targets belonging to the Iranian Quds forces in Syrian territory pic.twitter.com/LwBJTMkxYR  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 10, 2018

There are no reports of Israeli casualties in the rocket strikes.

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome defence system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage.

Mrs May reiterated her condemnation of the Iranian attacks and the UKs support for Israels right to defend itself in a telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

At the same time, she stressed Britains continued support for the Iran nuclear deal  which Israel has long opposed  despite US President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from the agreement.

The Prime Minister noted our statement calling on Iran to refrain from any further attacks, and for calm on all sides, a No 10 spokesman said.

They agreed it was vital for the international community to continue working together to counter Irans destabilising regional activity, and for Russia to use its influence in Syria to prevent further Iranian attacks.

The Prime Minister reiterated our position on the Iran nuclear deal, noting that we and our European partners remain firmly committed to ensuring the deal is upheld, as the best way of preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.The Prince of Wales lays a wreath during a visit to the Commonwealth War Graves in Athens, Greece (Andrew Matthews/PA)

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall paid their respects to fallen soldiers as they visited the Commonwealth War Graves in Athens.

The couple were greeted by Captain Tim Ferns, the UK Defence Attache, veterans, guests and even vegan demonstrators.

Those gathered at the short ceremony observed a minutes silence after the sound of a trumpet before the prince laid a wreath on a tomb which read: Their name liveth for evermore.

Expand Close The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall during a visit to the Commonwealth War Graves (Andrew Matthews/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall during a visit to the Commonwealth War Graves (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Charles spoke to a 101-year-old war veteran, Themistocles Marinos MBE, who had received eight Greek medals, including a Gold Gallantry Cross, Military Cross and Distinguished Services Medal.

Mr Marinos spoke of his illustrious career in the armed forces, including his time with submarines, which led the prince to describe him as a remarkable man and to tell him he was very proud.

Expand Close Charles and Camilla try traditional Greek coffee (Chris Jackson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Charles and Camilla try traditional Greek coffee (Chris Jackson/PA)

Speaking of his age, Charles asked is he really 101? and added: It must be the Greek sunshine.

But before his departure, Charles encountered a vegan group who displayed a banner which read: Charles, go vegan. Compassion looks great on you, before chanting please, Charles, please go vegan.

Expand Close Camilla reads to schoolchildren (Andrew Matthews/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Camilla reads to schoolchildren (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Prior to the ceremony, the couple stopped for refreshment during a walkabout in the Kapnikarea area of central Athens.

Despite drinking coffee like the locals, Charles refused a plastic straw due to his campaign to reduce plastic usage.

On Thursday morning, the prince was greeted by Archbishop Ieronymos II at the entrance of his palace.

Expand Close Charles was urged to go vegan (Andrew Matthews/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Charles was urged to go vegan (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Charles received a gift of an icon of the Virgin Mary and he presented the archbishop with a family photograph of himself and the Duchess of Cornwall.

The prince said: Im afraid my gift is very inadequate in return.

Expand Close Charles receives a gift of an Icon of the Virgin Mary from His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece (Andrew Matthews/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Charles receives a gift of an Icon of the Virgin Mary from His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece (Andrew Matthews/PA)

In the afternoon, Camilla visited the Kaisariani Monastery where she read a passage from Harry Potter And The Philosophers Stone to a group of schoolchildren.

When asked what her favourite book was, the duchess responded: When I was very young, which was 100 years ago, I used to love the books of Rudyard Kipling.

Expand Close Camilla during a visit to the Kaisariani Monastery (Andrew Matthews/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Camilla during a visit to the Kaisariani Monastery (Andrew Matthews/PA)

The children then surprised the duchess by acting out the scene she had just read to them before handing her a painting they had done of the Hogwarts Express.Prince Harry's marriage to Meghan Markle is going to be a "very special day for everybody", the Prince of Wales has declared.

Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall spoke during a visit to a flower market in Nice in the south of France.

He said: "It's absolutely marvellous. It's going to be a very special day for everybody."

Asked what it has been like getting to know Miss Markle, Camilla said: "It's very nice, all very exciting. We can't wait."

And asked about the arrival of grandson Prince Louis and the royal wedding in one year, she added: "Quite a lot. A few more to go.

"Zara's got a baby coming."

The couple spoke about the May 19 wedding in Windsor on the way to the airport from Nice Flower Market, where they met stallholders and shoppers.

The visit was their final engagement in France before setting off for Greece and the next leg of their five-day tour.

When the couple land in Athens they will be welcomed by Kate Smith, the British ambassador to Greece.

Charles and Camilla will first head to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where the prince will lay a wreath to remember the unknown and missing casualties of war. After paying their respects at the monument, the couple will meet the President of Greece Prokopios Pavlopoulos and his wife Vlassia Pavlopoulou-Peltsemi at the Presidential Mansion.

After a private exchange of gifts, Charles will arrive at the Maximos Mansion to meet the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras while Camilla will be escorted through the Benaki Museum by the prime minister's partner Betty Baziana.

Before jointly attending an evening meal at the Presidential Mansion, the prince will also meet with the leader of the Greek opposition Kyriakos Mitsotakis.A teenage jihadi bride plotted a terror attack on London under the guise of an Alice In Wonderland themed tea party, a court has heard.

Safaa Boular was aged 17 when she allegedly decided to be a martyr and launch a grenade and gun attack on the British Museum.

Her resolve was strengthened after her Islamic State fiance Naweed Hussain was killed in Syria before she could join him.

While in custody for allegedly attempting to travel to IS territory, she passed on the baton to her older sister Rizlaine Boular, the Old Bailey heard.

Expand Close Rizlaine Boular (Met Police/PA) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Rizlaine Boular (Met Police/PA)

In calls from jail, she talked about a party with her 21-year-old sibling, which was said to be a code word for a terror attack.

The pair also made reference to a Mad Hatter and having an Alice In Wonderland themed tea party, jurors heard.

Over the next three days, Rizlaine and her mother Mina Dich, 43, carried out reconnaissance around major landmarks in Westminster and bought a pack of knives and a rucksack, the court heard.

But on April 27 last year  the day of the proposed knife attack around the Palace of Westminster  police swooped to arrest Rizlaine Boular, jurors were told.

Rizlaine Boular, of Clerkenwell, central London, has already admitted planning an attack and with the help and support of Dich, the jury was told.

But Safaa Boular, now 18, who lived at home with her mother in Vauxhall, south west London, has denied two counts of preparing acts of terrorism.

Expand Close Safaa Boular court case PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Safaa Boular court case

Opening the Old Bailey trial, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC told jurors Safaa Boular planned to unleash violence and terror in the heart of London.

He said she was inspired following a failed bid to marry IS fighter Hussain, who was in his 30s.

After just three months chatting on social media, the couple had declared their love for each other, the court heard.

Safaa Boular wanted to marry Hussain and don a suicide belt each, jurors were told.

Mr Atkinson said: Their plan then was that together they would, as Hussain put it, depart the world holding hands and taking others with them in an act of terrorism.

But Boulars aim to travel to Syria accompanied by her sister was scuppered when she was stopped by police at Stansted en route home from a holiday in Morocco in August 2016.

Boular allegedly switched her attention to Britain, keeping contact with Hussain on a secret phone through encrypted Telegram chat.

But British Security Services had deployed specially trained role play officers to engage with the pair online to keep track of their activities.

Both Hussain and Boular talked about an ambush involving Russian-style guns and pineapples  code for grenades, jurors heard.

The defendant sobbed when she found out about Hussains death in April last year, and was comforted by her sister and mother, who told her hes in paradise.

Expand Close Mina Dich (Met Police/PA) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Mina Dich (Met Police/PA)

She told an officer posing as an IS fighter that all she needed was a car and a knife to get what I want to achieve, the court heard.

She allegedly confided that she had no time to lounge around, adding: My heart yearns to be reunited with my dear husband for the very first time.

In encrypted chat, she said Hussain had told her something about a British Museum and the tokarev and pineapple, Mr Atkinson said.

Tokarev was said to be a type of Russian gun and pineapple, a code word for grenades.

In a conversation on April 8 last year, Rizlaine Boular allegedly told her: The bus goes past the British Museum and I thought of you, in apparent reference to the target.

But on April 12, Safaa Boular was charged with planning to go to Syria so was unable to carry out her chilling intentions, Mr Atkinson said.

Instead, she encouraged Rizlaine to carry the torch forward in her stead in telephone calls from prison, he said.

Joel Bennathan QC told jurors that Safaa was groomed by Hussain, who was twice her age.

In an opening speech, he said: She was a child who was sexually groomed, someone who was groomed to be radicalised. Thats what happened to this young person.

He added that her family had encouraged and celebrated it.3 Regiment Army Air Corps practice marching at Wattisham Airfield in Suffolk as they prepare for the royal wedding (Aaron Chown/PA)

Prince Harrys former Army comrades have spoken about their nerves and excitement at being given a ceremonial role at his wedding to Meghan Markle.

Some of the soldiers who trained and served with Harry in the UK and Afghanistan will have pride of place outside St Georges Chapel, in Windsor Castle as the royal newlyweds emerge.

More than 250 members of the armed forces will perform ceremonial duties at the wedding on May 19.

Expand Close An Apache helicopter in Suffolk as the 3 Regiment Army Air Corps prepare for the royal wedding on May 19 (Aaron Chown/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp An Apache helicopter in Suffolk as the 3 Regiment Army Air Corps prepare for the royal wedding on May 19 (Aaron Chown/PA)

Twenty-three soldiers, one sergeant and one officer from Harrys former Army Air Corps regiment will line the street outside the chapel where the royal couple will say their vows.

The prince, known in the Army as Captain Wales, served with 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps as an Apache helicopter pilot in Helmand Province in late 2012.

Captain William Calder, who will be half company commander on the day and lead his soldiers in a royal salute, said he had some nerves ahead of the big day.

He said: We will march through Windsor into the castle in time for the end of the wedding and as the couple and the royal family depart, we will be pride of place presenting them with a royal salute as they emerge from the chapel.

Expand Close 30mm dummy ammunition at Wattisham Airfield as the 3 Regiment Army Air Corps prepare for Prince Harry and Meghan Margle's wedding (Aaron Chown/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp 30mm dummy ammunition at Wattisham Airfield as the 3 Regiment Army Air Corps prepare for Prince Harry and Meghan Margle's wedding (Aaron Chown/PA)

It makes me a little bit nervous that we will be front and centre  the Queen and the senior members of the royal family will be stepping out the door right beside us and Ill probably be positioned about five metres from them.

Capt Calder, 32, who has dual UK/US citizenship, said his unit would be training hard ahead of the wedding and he reacted with stunned surprise when he found out he would play such a key role.

He added: This is absolutely not our normal business, we are an Apache regiment, we fly Apaches for a living and we are very operationally focused most of the time.

For us stepping into ceremonial duties is something a little bit outside of our remit but its a nice, special treat and something different.

Having been born in New York before moving to the UK at the age of seven, Capt Calder said his family on both side of the Atlantic were looking forward to the nuptials.

Understandably, my family are pretty excited, he said.

Ive got a lot of family in the US, who somehow seem to be much more excited even than the British family members.

So I think I will have loved ones keeping an eye on me all across the world, for better or worse.

I think even the American ones will be waking up early to keep an eye.

Capt Calder said his only meeting with the prince was a chance encounter at the cafe at Army Aviation Centre at Middle Wallop, in Hampshire, where the royal asked him Can I join you?

I knew he looked familiar, finally it dawned on me it was Prince Harry and of course he was utterly natural and charming and friendly and just like any other officer in the regiment, he said.

Expand Close Craftsman Dekin, a Royal Electrical Engineer of 3 Regiment Army Air Corps in front of an Apache helicopter at Wattisham Airfield (Aaron Chown/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Craftsman Dekin, a Royal Electrical Engineer of 3 Regiment Army Air Corps in front of an Apache helicopter at Wattisham Airfield (Aaron Chown/PA)

Another soldier who served with the prince during his time at Wattisham, Staff Sergeant North, said he too harbours a few nerves but he was confident the half company would be ready.

Its a privilege, he said.

Obviously there will be a few thousand people in attendance and millions of people worldwide watching the event but to be one of the roughly 250 military personnel taking part, to be able to see it will be amazing.

Theres always going a little bit of nerves and trepidation with anything you do to that level but by the time we get there, the training we conduct this week and next, well be looking smart and good to go.

The 35-year-old, whose first wedding anniversary is the following day, will have to miss part of his daughters fourth birthday to perform his duty.

He said she was delighted her father was involved and she would probably watch a recording of the event later.

I get to miss the soft play but I will be home in time for bedtime, which is the most important part and in time for the presents, he said.

Corporal Stuart Armstrong, 27, a communications specialist who worked with Harry day-to-day during Apache training, said it was an honour to be nominated and the soldiers had been busy preparing.

He said: Weve been at it all week this week, so between practising our drill, getting our uniforms ready so its been pretty much non-stop all week.

He said the prince had been just like another officer.

The AAC soldiers selected practised their drill in the sunshine at a windy Wattisham Flying Station, in Suffolk, on Thursday.

They paraded and gave the royal salute in their dress uniform, known informally as blues, with a red stripe down each leg and sky blue beret.

Joining them will be a half company of 25 personnel from RAF Honington in Suffolk, where Prince Harry is Honorary Air Commandant.

The selected group will form a guard of honour during the royal wedding carriage procession.

They conducted uniform inspections, foot drills, rifle drills and sword drills as part of their preparations on Thursday.

Sgt Adrian Dixon, who is in the RAF Police stationed at Honington, said taking part would be the highlight of my career.

Prince Harry was serving in Afghanistan at the same time as I was and I often wonder was he up overhead in his Apache as I conducted my patrol, he said.

He was there for me when I needed him, now I can be there for him on his special day.Omid Saidy was stabbed in the neck near Parsons Green tube station (Metropolitan Police/PA)

A teenager has been found guilty of killing a youth worker who confronted a group of drug dealers outside his home.

Omid Saidy was knifed in the neck after he chased two teenagers from outside his house near Parsons Green, south-west London, the Old Bailey heard.

The 20-year-old had gone after the suspected dealers with his friend Oluwafemi Omotosho, known as Femi, who came off his moped and was stabbed in the chest as he lay on the ground.

Shafiq Smith, 19, and a 17-year-old, who cannot be named because of his age, were on trial accused of Mr Saidys murder.

Giving evidence, the youth admitted drug dealing in the area but told jurors Mr Saidy had a knife and he stabbed him in self-defence.

Expand Close Police at the scene outside Parsons Green Tube station after the stabbings (Yui Mok/PA) PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Police at the scene outside Parsons Green Tube station after the stabbings (Yui Mok/PA)

A jury acquitted the 17-year-old boy of murder but found him guilty of manslaughter.

Smith was cleared over the killing but was convicted of wounding Mr Omotosho with intent.

Prosecutor Timothy Cray had told the Old Bailey trial: Omid was angry that people were dealing drugs near (his) address.

He said the group had been asked to move on earlier on October 16 last year but returned that evening with their faces masked or wearing hoods.

After an initial chase by Mr Saidy and his father Majid, who had come outside with the family dog to ask the group to go away, the defendants produced knives, the court heard.

Majid Saidy told jurors the youths were taunting his son with the blades and he tried to tell him to let it go.

But the victim ran after them, saying: Im not having this, they cant be waving knives at me like that.

A fight ensued under a railway bridge  not covered by CCTV  on Parsons Green Lane near the Tube station, in which Mr Saidy was killed and his friend was injured.

Mr Cray had told jurors: Should they have chased the defendants? Absolutely not.

Dealing with drug dealers is the work of the police and the events show how quickly violence can spread if individuals try and take the law into their own hands.

But did Omid need to die for the mistakes he made, and did Femi need to be stabbed in the chest when he was lying on the ground?

Smith, of Laitwood Road in Wandsworth, and the 17-year-old, of Shildon in Durham, who were 18 and 16 at the time, denied all the charges against them.

They will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on a date to be fixed.

Detective Chief Inspector Noel McHugh, of Scotland Yard, said: Omid tragically lost his life for simply asking some drug dealers to move on from outside his home.

Omids family are heartbroken to have lost a loving son and brother. Omids poor father witnessed his death. Omid was a voluntary youth worker who wanted to make young peoples lives better. His loss has left a huge gap in the community.

In a statement, the victims family said: Nothing will bring back out our beloved son Omid and we dont feel that justice was fully served with the verdict.

However, we as a family hope that this conviction goes some way to showing the young people out there that carrying a knife in public has serious consequences. We pray that no other family has to go what we have gone through.Abdel Hakim Belhaj said he will job his claim in return for an apology (Cori Crider/Reprieve)

Britain has reached a full and final settlement with former Libyan dissident Abdul Hakim Belhaj over his rendition to the regime of dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright told the House of Commons that Prime Minister Theresa May has written to Mr Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar to apologise for the appalling treatment they received.

Ms Boudchar is to receive 500,000 in compensation, said Mr Wright. But Mr Belhaj, 52, always made clear that he was not seeking monetary compensation and will not receive any.

Expand Close Fatima Boudchar and her son Abderrahim Belhaj, 14 outside the Palace of Westminster (Kirsty O'Connor/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Fatima Boudchar and her son Abderrahim Belhaj, 14 outside the Palace of Westminster (Kirsty O'Connor/PA)

The couple have fought a long legal battle over their claim that they were kidnapped and returned to Libya in 2004 in a joint M16-CIA operation linked to Tony Blairs infamous deal in the desert with Gaddafi.

They said that after three years evading Gaddafis agents after fleeing Libya, they were seized in Malaysia and sent to Thailand for rendition to the north Africa country as a result of a tip-off from UK intelligence.

Ms Boudchar, who was five months pregnant at the time, was released shortly before giving birth, but her husband was held in prison and tortured for six years. He said that during his incarceration, he was questioned by British agents.

The settlement includes the withdrawal of claims against the British government, former foreign secretary Jack Straw, and former MI6 head of counter-terrorism Sir Mark Allen, said Mr Wright. But he stressed that there was no admission of liability from any of the defendants.

In her letter, Mrs May said that the UK Government believes their account of the events and told them: Neither of you should have been treated in this way.

The Prime Minister wrote: The UK Governments actions contributed to your detention, rendition and suffering. The UK Government shared information about you with its international partners.

Expand Close Ms Boudchar holding a letter outside the Palace of Westminster (Kirsty O'Connor/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Ms Boudchar holding a letter outside the Palace of Westminster (Kirsty O'Connor/PA)

We should have done more to reduce the risk that you would be mistreated. We accept this was a failing on our part.

Later, during your detention in Libya, we sought information about and from you. We wrongly missed opportunities to alleviate your plight: this should not have happened.

On behalf of Her Majestys Government, I apologise unreservedly. We are profoundly sorry for the ordeal that you both suffered and our role in it.

Expand Close Libyan dissident legal battle PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Libyan dissident legal battle

In a statement released by his lawyers, Mr Belhaj welcomed and accepted Mrs Mays apology and said he extended his thanks and sincere goodwill to the Prime Minister and Mr Wright.

For more than six years I have made clear that I had a single goal in bringing this case: justice, he said. Now, at last, justice has been done.

Today is a historic day, not just for myself and my wife. We hope our case will serve as a marker for future generations.

Expand Close Fatima Boudchar (left) and her son Abderrahim Belhaj, 14, with lawyer Sapna Malik (Kirsty O'Connor/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Fatima Boudchar (left) and her son Abderrahim Belhaj, 14, with lawyer Sapna Malik (Kirsty O'Connor/PA)

A great society does not torture; does not help others to torture; and, when it makes mistakes, it accepts them and apologises. Britain has made a wrong right today, and set an example for other nations to follow.

Ms Boudchar said: I accept the Governments apology.

This case has forced me to relive the lowest moments in my life for many years, and at times it has been a real struggle to keep going. But by todays settlement I look forward to rebuilding my life with dignity and honour, and living free from the weight of these events with my husband and our five beautiful children.

Sapna Malik from law firm Leigh Day, who represented Mr Belhaj and Ms Bouchar, said: Todays candid apology from the Government helps restore the humanity and dignity so brutally denied to my clients during their ordeal and is warmly welcomed.

Expand Close Tony Blair and Colonel Gaddafi PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Tony Blair and Colonel Gaddafi

Mr Belhaj was leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, part of the Islamist opposition to Gaddafi who were branded terrorists by the dictator. He fled the country in 2001.

His kidnap took place two weeks before then-prime minister Tony Blair visited the north African state to meet Gaddafi.

The meeting, in Gaddafis desert tent, marked a dramatic restoration of ties with the former pariah state following Tripolis announcement that it was giving up its weapons of mass destruction programmes and joining the fight against al-Qaida. Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell simultaneously announced a deal for gas exploration rights off the Libyan coast.

Documents found in the abandoned British embassy and regime offices following the violent overthrow of Gaddafi in 2011 revealed details of UK intelligence links with Libya.

Expand Close Labour Summer Party PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Labour Summer Party

They included a faxed letter from Sir Mark in which he congratulated Gaddafis intelligence chief Moussa Koussa on the safe arrival of Mr Belhaj, saying that it was the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years.

Another Libyan dissident, Sami al-Saadi, who was returned to Tripoli from Hong Kong in a joint British-Libyan operation and jailed for six years, accepted a settlement of 2.2 million in 2012 from the UK Government.

But Mr Belhaj always said that he would drop his case in return for an apology and an admission of liability by the British government and the nominal sum of 3  amounting to 1 from each of the defendants in the civil action.Theresa May has been branded weak by a European Commissioner, amid continuing deadlock over Britains proposals for customs arrangements after Brexit.

Gunther Oettinger, a member of Angela Merkels CDU party and ally of the German chancellor, also took a swipe at Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, telling an audience of students: (He) has the same haircut as (Donald) Trump. That tells you everything.

The Government was accused by Labour of subverting democracy by delaying debate on key pieces of Brexit legislation in a bid to avoid rebellions, following a string of 14 defeats in the House of Lords.

The legislative timetable for the coming period set out by Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom made no mention of Brexit bills, and Downing Street declined to say when MPs would be asked to consider the Lords amendments or bills on trade and customs.

Labours Valerie Vaz suggested the Government was being cynical and parking the trade (bill), customs bill and the EU (Withdrawal) Bill  so as to avoid rebellions.

She told MPs: This is unprecedented and the Government is effectively subverting democracy.

But Ms Leadsom insisted there was no hold-up, saying the bills would come forward in due course.

Labour MP Wes Streeting, a supporter of the Peoples Vote campaign for a second referendum, said: The Government is sinking into the quicksand of Brexit, and the more they struggle, the deeper they sink.

The country is waiting for a plan, but all we are seeing is chaos.

Addressing students from schools across the EU in the German city of Karlsruhe on Wednesday, Mr Oettinger said: Mrs May is weak and Boris Johnson has the same haircut as Trump. That tells you everything.

According to German news agency DPA, he continued: One can only hope that sensible compatriots will put Mrs May on the path to a clever Brexit.

Addressing British students in his audience, he said: Id like to ask you to start a movement in 15 years time to come back into the EU again.

Mrs Mays official spokesman brushed off suggestions that the comments might reflect a cooling in Berlins attitude towards her administration, telling reporters: The Prime Minister has a very strong relationship with the chancellor in relation to Brexit and a series of other matters.

We look forward to that constructive relationship continuing.

The spokesman played down reports that Britain could seek an extension beyond December 2020 of the Brexit transition period to allow time for the introduction of new technology avoiding a hard customs border in Ireland.

We reached an agreement with the European Union on the implementation period and that agreement is clear that the implementation period will end in December 2020, he said.

The maximum facilitation technological solution is one of two options currently under review ahead of a meeting of Mrs Mays Brexit war cabinet expected next Tuesday, alongside her own preferred customs partnership.

Mrs May was unable to secure the backing of senior ministers last week for the partnership option, which would see the UK collect tariffs on behalf of the EU.

Officials are working on a revised version of the scheme.

"Will you accept a compromise over the customs union" @Jo_Coburn



"The customs union means we are effectively staying in the EU. So no. Of course not" @Jacob_Rees_Mogg adding gov't was "elected on a manifesto saying we would leave customs union"



"It did not win @Alison_McGovern pic.twitter.com/Z9mIGWJc4Q  BBC Daily Politics and Sunday Politics (@daily_politics) May 10, 2018

Prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the European Research Group of eurosceptic Tory backbenchers, said that Mrs Mays customs partnership proposal seems to be running into the sand because it practically doesnt work.

He rejected any extension to the transition period, currently due to stretch for 21 months following the official date of Brexit in March 2019.

Mr Rees-Mogg told BBC2s Daily Politics that remaining in the European customs union after 2020 would be a dramatic failure of Government policy.

The Prime Minister wrote an article for The Sun On Sunday just last weekend saying she was going to leave the single market and customs union, said Mr Rees-Mogg.

I trust the Prime Minister to do what she says she will do.Abdel Hakim Belhaj said he will job his claim in return for an apology (Cori Crider/Reprieve)

Britain is expected to issue a formal apology to a Libyan dissident who was kidnapped and tortured by Muammar Gaddafis forces after an alleged tip-off from UK intelligence.

Abdel Hakim Belhaj, 52, and his wife Fatima Boudchar allege they were returned to Gaddafis brutal regime in 2004 through a joint M16-CIA operation linked to Tony Blairs infamous deal in the desert with the Libyan dictator.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright is expected to announce the settlement of Mr Belhajs long-running claim for compensation when he delivers the apology in a statement to MPs in the House of Commons.

Expand Close Tony Blair and Colonel Gaddafi PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Tony Blair and Colonel Gaddafi

Ms Boudchar, who was five months pregnant when she and her husband were taken to Libya, will attend Parliament with her son Abderrahim for the announcement.

Her husband, now a politician in Libya, is scheduled to hold a press conference in Istanbul shortly afterwards.

Mr Belhaj was leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, part of the Islamist opposition to Gaddafi who were branded terrorists by the dictator. He fled the country in 2001 and evaded Gaddafis agents until his arrest three years later in Thailand.

He spent six years in jail in his native country before Gaddafi fell from power in the Arab Spring of 2011 and claims he was tortured throughout his incarceration. He claims he was questioned by British intelligence officers while in detention.

Ms Boudchar was released just before she gave birth.

Their kidnap in Thailand and rendition to Libya occurred two weeks before then Prime Minister Tony Blair visited the north African state to meet Gaddafi.

The meeting, in Gaddafis desert tent, marked a dramatic restoration of ties with the former pariah state following Tripolis announcement that it was giving up its weapons of mass destruction programmes and joining the fight against al-Qaida. Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell simultaneously announced a deal for gas exploration rights off the Libyan coast.

Mr Belhaj and his wife have been suing the British government, former foreign secretary Jack Straw, and former head of counter-terrorism at M16 Sir Mark Allen.

They claim MI6 provide key intelligence on their movements which led to their capture and rendition by the US to Libya.

Documents found in the abandoned British embassy and regime offices following the violent overthrow of Gaddafi in 2011 revealed details of UK intelligence links with Libya.

Expand Close Labour Summer Party PA Archive/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Labour Summer Party

They included a faxed letter from Sir Mark in which he congratulated Gaddafis intelligence chief Moussa Koussa on the safe arrival of Mr Belhaj, saying that it was the least we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years.

Another Libyan dissident, Sami al-Saadi, who was returned to Tripoli from Hong Kong in a joint British-Libyan operation and jailed for six years, accepted a settlement of 2.2 million in 2012 from the UK government.

But Mr Belhaj has always said that he will drop their case for an apology and an admission of liability by the British government and a nominal sum of 3  amounting to 1 from each of the defendants in the civil action.President Donald Trumps nominee to be CIA director says that she does not believe torture works and would not carry out any presidential order she thought was immoral.

Facing tough questioning by members of the Senate intelligence committee, Gina Haspel insisted her moral compass is strong.

If confirmed, she said she would not permit the CIA to restart the kind of harsh detention and interrogation programme the spy agency ran at black sites after 9/11 and tainted Americans image worldwide.

I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if it was technically legal, said Ms Haspel, a 33-year veteran of the agency.

I would absolutely not permit it.

Ms Haspel, who is currently acting CIA director, was responding to a question about what she would do if President Trump ordered her to do something she thought was morally objectionable.

President Trump has said he supports subjecting terror suspects to harsh interrogation tactics like waterboarding, which simulates drowning, and a hell of a lot worse.

I dont believe that torture works, Ms Haspel said, adding that she does not think President Trump would ever ask her to resume waterboarding.

The 61-year-old intelligence professional, who has served in undercover assignments both domestically and abroad for more than three decades, faces what will likely be a close confirmation vote in the full Senate.

Her nomination has become contentious because she was chief of base of a covert detention site in Thailand where terror suspects were waterboarded.

There also have been questions about how she drafted a cable that her boss used to order the destruction of videotapes of interrogation sessions conducted at the site.Iranian forces based in Syria fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights early on Thursday, the Israeli military said.

The attack triggered an Israeli reprisal and escalating already heightened tensions in the area.

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome rocket defence system intercepted some of the incoming projectiles, while others caused only minimal damage.

(Israel) views this Iranian attack very severely

Syrias capital of Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defences over the city was heard throughout the night.

An Israeli official said Israel was targeting Iranian positions inside Syria, while Syrias state news agency SANA quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israeli missiles hit air defence positions, radar stations and a weapons warehouse, but claiming most incoming rockets were intercepted.

About an hour ago, IDF defense systems identified approximately 20 rockets that the Iranian Quds forces launched at IDF forward posts on the Golan Heights  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 9, 2018

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted an unidentified security official as saying Israels attacks inside Syria were the most extensive since the two nations signed a disengagement agreement after the October war of 1973.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said earlier that Irans Al Quds force fired the rockets at several Israeli bases, though he would not say how Israel determined the Iranian involvement.

The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Israeli-controlled Golan, which was captured from Syria in the 1967 war.

Israel views this Iranian attack very severely, he told reporters.

A number of rockets were intercepted by the IDF's Iron Dome aerial defense system. No injuries were reported. The IDF views this event with great severity and remains prepared for a wide variety of scenarios  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 9, 2018

Syrias state media said Syrian air defences intercepted hostile Israeli missiles early on Thursday that were fired over southwestern Damascus.

Hours later, state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV broadcast a live feed of Syrian air defences firing into the sky above the capital, and loud explosions and air defence firing were heard through the night.

An Israeli army spokesman, Avichay Adraee, said on Twitter that Israel was acting against Iranian targets inside Syria, a rare admission by an Israeli official.

Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, anticipating an Iranian attack following Iranian vows to retaliate to what it says are recent Israeli strikes in Syria targeting Iranian outposts.

Late on Tuesday, Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near the capital of Damascus.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that likely belonged to Irans elite Revolutionary Guard, killing at least 15 people, eight of them Iranians.

Last month, an attack on Syrias T4 air base in Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel. On April 30, Israel was said to have struck government outposts in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen pro-government fighters, many of them Iranians.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied most of the airstrikes. But for months, it has repeatedly said it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

Iranian forces moved into Syria after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 to back the forces of President Bashar Assad.

As that war winds down, and Assad appears to be headed toward victory, Israel fears that Iran, along with tens of thousands of Iranian-backed Shiite militiamen, will carry out attacks against Israel.

US president Donald Trumps announcement on Tuesday that the US was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran has triggered uncertainty and threatened to spark more unrest in the Middle East.Donald Trump has announced the date for the summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un (Niall Carson/PA)

US President Donald Trump has said he will meet with North Koreas Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12.

The president tweeted: We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!

Mr Trump provided details for the first time about the history-making meeting between a sitting American president and the leader of North Korea over denuclearisation.

He had said he favoured holding the meeting at the Demilitarised Zone, the heavily fortified border separating the Koreas.

But the island nation was favoured by most of his advisers.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has travelled to Pyongyang twice to meet with Mr Kim in recent months, in a precursor to the Trump-Kim meeting.

Mr Pompeo returned overnight with three captive Americans during his most recent trip.

With the final details in place, Mr Trump and Mr Kim will meet in the first North Korea-US summit talks since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Mr Kim has suspended nuclear and missile tests and put his nuclear programme up for negotiation, but questions remain about how serious his offer is and what disarmament steps he would be willing to take.

Earlier on Thursday, with the American former prisoners by his side at a dark air base, Mr Trump said during a made-for-TV ceremony that it was a great honour to welcome the men back to the US, but he added that the true honour is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.

Vice president Mike Pence, Mr Pompeo, other top officials and first lady Melania Trump joined the president in the celebration in the early hours of Thursday morning at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.

The men  Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim  had been released on Wednesday amid the warming of relations between longtime adversaries.

Mr Trump thanked Mr Kim for releasing the Americans and said he believes the North Korean leader wants to reach an agreement on denuclearisation at their upcoming summit.

I really think he wants to do something, the president said.

Mr Pence said on NBC News: In this moment the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith.

Singapore had emerged as the likely host of the summit after Mr Trump yielded to the concerns of his aides and backed off his desire to hold the meeting at the inter-Korean Demilitarised Zone.

Located at the southern tip of Malaysia, Singapore is a regional hub in South East Asia whose free enterprise philosophy welcomes trading partners from everywhere.

It has close diplomatic and defence ties with the US and yet is also familiar ground for North Korea, with which it established diplomatic relations in 1975.

Shortly before 3am, the president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men had travelled and spent several minutes meeting with them privately.

The group then emerged at the top of the planes steps, where the men held up their arms in an exuberant display.

US service members burst into applause and cheers.

This is a special night for these three really great people, Mr Trump told reporters.

On the US relationship with North Korea, Mr Trump declared: Were starting off on a new footing.

The freed prisoners appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft.

When asked by reporters how it felt to be home, one of the men answered through a translator: Its like a dream; we are very, very happy.

They later gave the president a round of applause.

Suggesting that recovery from their ordeals would take time, Mr Pence recounted that Mr Pompeo told him that at the refuelling stop in Anchorage one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadnt seen daylight in a very long time.

Expand Close Donald Trump greets Tony Kim, Kim Hak Song and Kim Dong Chul (Susan Walsh/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Donald Trump greets Tony Kim, Kim Hak Song and Kim Dong Chul (Susan Walsh/AP)

The White House choreographed the arrival event, suspending a giant American flag between two fire engines on the ground and inviting reporters to witness the return.

The image-conscious president told reporters: I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 oclock in the morning.

The men were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre, where they were to be evaluated and receive medical treatment before being reunited with their families.

The public display stood in stark contrast to the low-key, private reception that the State Department had envisioned, in keeping with a practice of trying to protect potentially traumatised victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after their ordeal.

Mr Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental US.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Mr Trump has pointed to Mr Kims willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating US moves to tighten sanctions  branded maximum pressure by the president.

Expand Close Donald and Melania Trump with the freed men (Alex Brandon/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Donald and Melania Trump with the freed men (Alex Brandon/AP)

Mr Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the official suggestion of the US president, said North Koreas official news agency KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nations nuclear weapons.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the US with severe brain damage.

Mr Warmbier was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labour.

His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

We are happy for the hostages and their families, the Warmbiers said in a statement. We miss Otto.Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said Britain will not "walk away" from the Iran nuclear deal following the dramatic withdrawal of the US from the agreement.

European diplomats were scrambling to salvage the three-year-old accord amid fears that Donald Trump's threat to impose the "highest level" of sanctions on Tehran could trigger a new confrontation in the region.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany remained committed to the agreement while French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian insisted it was not "dead".

The DUP's Sammy Wilson welcomed Mr Trump's decision. The East Antrim MP blamed Iran for "prolonging the conflict in Syria and promoting war in the Yemen". He said: "Iran was an out of control rogue state which was causing havoc in the Middle East."

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood branded Mr Trump's decision to withdraw from the deal as "a reckless attempt to assert his authority with no understanding of the catastrophic consequences".

He added: "Trump's delusion should worry us all. His fixation on sticking it to Obama and his determination to follow through on outrageous policies, both foreign and domestic, should be of great concern to the international community.

"I am calling on Iran and European allies to continue to preserve the deal in spite of President Trump's whimsical decision to attempt to sabotage it."

Meanwhile, former Ulster Unionist First Minister Lord Trimble has signed up to an advertisement backing Mr Trump's move.

It stated: "We stand alongside you in ending the dangerous appeasement of Iran and taking all and any action required to stop Iran going nuclear, help its people, halt its spreading of terror and achieve peace and stability in the Middle East and among all peoples and nations." In Tehran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei voiced defiance, saying Mr Trump "cannot do a damn thing", while legislators in the Iranian parliament burned a paper US flag.

At Prime Minister's questions Theresa May told MPs the European powers were working to address the concern which had led Mr Trump to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Mr Johnson said the Government continued to believe the agreement was "vital" to UK national security and had done its "utmost" to persuade Mr Trump not to abandon it.

He said it was up to the US to spell out the way forward and he urged the administration not to take any action which would hinder the efforts of the other parties to make it work.

"For as long as Iran abides by the agreement... then Britain will remain a party to the JCPOA. Britain has no intention of walking away," he said.

"Instead we will co-operate with the other parties to ensure that while Iran continues to restrict its nuclear programme, then its people will benefit from sanctions relief in accordance with the central bargain of the deal." In a statement, the International Atomic Energy Authority - the global watchdog responsible for monitoring the agreement - said "as of today" Tehran was continuing to honour its commitments.

Mr Johnson's comments came amid fears that the reimposition of US sanctions could hit European firms - which have led the way investing in Iran under the JCPOA - particularly hard.It was the by-election that was started by a tweet and a lack of respect for the victims of IRA terrorism. Now, West Tyrone has a new MP, albeit another abstentionist MP, Orfhlaith Begley. Orfhlaith is one of the new faces of Sinn Fein and the introduction of another young female representative is part of the current Sinn Fein "makeover". The graduates of the Maze, Maghaberry and Armagh are not quite as prominent these days and a prison sentence no longer features among the "desirable" criteria for Sinn Fein candidates.

Since she graduated from university, Orfhlaith Begley has been working in the solicitor's office of her brother Sean-Pol Begley, but at the same time she has been gaining political experience.

As the daughter of a Sinn Fein councillor she grew up in a political family and was already well-acquainted with election campaigns.

Moreover, she has been actively involved for many years in the Frank Ward/Joe McGarrity Sinn Fein Cumann (branch) in the Carrickmore and Creggan area of Tyrone.

Of course, it wasn't always the Frank Ward/Joe McGarrity Cumann. Previously, it was just the Frank Ward Cumann, but, in 2010, Sinn Fein members in Carrickmore decided to honour one of their own, a native of the village named Joe McGarrity. The addition of his name to that of the cumann was "in recognition of his historical contribution".

So, what was that "historical contribution"?

McGarrity emigrated from Tyrone to the United States of America in 1892 and revived Clan na Gael, the American sister organisation to the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

The rest of his life was devoted to the republican cause of Irish separatism and the use of violence to achieve that end.

He helped to finance the 1916 Easter Rising and supplied arms and ammunition to republicans during and after the Irish War of Independence. In that regard he was similar to many of the other republicans after whom Sinn Fein has named its branches.

However, there is another - and later - aspect to the "historical contribution" of Joe McGarrity.

McGarrity is also remembered for his role before and during the Second World War.

In 1939 he worked with IRA leader Sean Russell in implementing the "S Plan" - a terrorist bombing campaign in Britain and one directed against civilian targets. In just one explosion - in Coventry - the IRA murdered five people.

McGarrity also collaborated directed with the Nazis and sought their support for the IRA. Indeed, he was the initial link between Irish republicanism and the Nazis. He met Nazi agents in America and travelled to Berlin, where he met Hermann Goring.

This led on to "Plan Kathleen" - a plan for a Nazi invasion of Northern Ireland, which would be supported by the IRA. The plan came to nothing because the Nazis recognised that the IRA was a small and rather incompetent organisation.

Nevertheless, the IRA chief of staff at the time, Sean Russell, was another collaborator and so the IRA in Ireland and Clan na Gael in America were both controlled by men who were happy to collaborate with the Nazis.

While Ulstermen and Irishmen, Protestant and Roman Catholic, were fighting the Nazi war machine on the battlefields of Europe, Joe McGarrity was happy to work with the Nazis and seek their support.

It is hard to believe that, in this day and age, any political party would honour someone like McGarrity, who collaborated with the Nazis. But that is the shameful reality for Sinn Fein.

After her election, Orfhlaith Begley said that she was "holding out an open hand in friendship" to unionists.

So, how about her holding out an open hand in friendship, not just to unionists, but to all those who love democracy and detest the evil of Nazism?

As an MP, Orfhlaith Begley has a new standing within her party and she has, therefore, the opportunity to show leadership.

So, perhaps Orfhlaith Begley will reflect on the name of her local Sinn Fein cumann and demand the removal of the name of a man whose association with the Nazis should be a source of shame - even to a party like Sinn Fein.It has been six years since the late Liam Clarke published his article on the Caleb Foundation in the Belfast Telegraph, revealing the Christian lobbyist group's "web of influence" within the DUP. Considering that the foundation's website has officially gone offline, it is fitting that a re-evaluation of this organisation is necessary in the modern landscape of Northern Ireland's politics.

The Caleb Foundation was formed in 1998 to give the smaller evangelical Churches a voice in local politics. Caleb has traditionally lobbied against abortion and same-sex marriage. The foundation's chairman, Wallace Thompson, prefers to classify the lobby group predominantly as an ethical foundation, rather than an overtly religious one.

The organisation has included two DUP political advisers and two DUP MLAs, who served on Caleb's council of reference. Thompson himself is a former NIO civil servant.

The council also consists of 14 evangelical ministers who are united by a literal interpretation of the Bible and that those who do not believe in this way are headed for eternal damnation.

Encroaching on the 11th anniversary of devolution - and considering that devolved powers have, quite possibly, ran their course - it is necessary to evaluate some of the changes within Northern Ireland's political culture that have occurred since.

Caleb - the organisation which Clarke described as "the rock on which the DUP was built" - has failed to keep up with the province's increasingly secularising tide.

Whatever ties Caleb has had traditionally to the DUP have decreased recently, mostly due to what many evangelical Christians see as the DUP's catering to a more centrist stance in order to appeal to a wider audience. However, Caleb has also fallen victim to unfortunate circumstances and poor choices.

In 2007 Caleb lost one of its finest lobbyists, George Dawson MLA, to cancer. More recently, the lobby group lost a key member, ex-DUP adviser David McConaghie, to a voyeurism scandal in 2015. This further weakened the foundation's reputation.

Despite the frequent characterisation of evangelicals as unwavering bigots, it must be said that Thompson does not fit the mould. He is often self-critical of his organisation and embarrassed by some of the behaviour he has witnessed evangelicals partake in, especially of some of the inflammatory language he has heard cast at the LGBT community.

Thompson actually displayed an unbelievable amount of self-awareness. He is accepting of a pluralistic society and that he is in a "minority view".

"I have to accept that I can't always have what I want to have in terms of ethical standards in society. You would now find a more pragmatic approach, compared to 10 years ago."

Thompson also relayed to me that he has built some relationships with Catholics. It is fair to assume that Caleb has not had many interactions with the nationalist community throughout the years. But, if you were to ask Thompson about this subject, you would find, in fact, that you were wrong.

Past studies have shown that it was the most religious sections of society that were the least likely to interact socially. Thompson - reiterating that the Caleb Foundation is predominantly an ethical group - stated that he would be delighted to work with Catholics on social issues, a concept that would truly be transformative to Northern Ireland's peace process. Thompson still takes a stance against abortion and same-sex marriage. These two issues were mentioned more often throughout our talks than any other issue.

Although Thompson said that Christians should be reaching out to the LGBT community with a message of "gospel love and understanding", he also took this line, as also pointed out by Clarke in 2012: "Ideally, all legislation should reflect biblical morality. If we apply principles of society to moral and ethical things, society will improve exponentially."

The question should then be asked: is this actually what evangelicals are doing? Is concentrating on two social issues exemplary of implementing morals into society? Is this an example of attempting to build more respect and reconciliation into society? I would argue not.

Condemnation is rarely associated with morality. There was not a strong recognition that possibly the general focus of evangelicals was not that representative of all of the many virtues the Bible advocates. I am not arguing that Caleb members need to change their beliefs. However, I do believe the foundation is in need of transformation of its public persona. It is true that many young people are not as interested in religion as past generations, but it is necessary to be reflective of why this might be.

A large part of this has to do with the condemnation certain religious individuals have been guilty of, something that youth growing up in a more pluralistic society are rightfully sceptical of.

Transforming the concentration of organisations such as Caleb to more positive public messages may help evangelical organisations to stay relevant.

Certainly, these are things the Bible can support. And, if it is truly relevancy that evangelicals are attempting to preserve, then self-reflection must at some point give way to action. Otherwise, in the words of Thompson himself, you become "a group of well-meaning individuals that won't achieve much but talking".

A trend that I found within much of the conservative evangelical community was that, without an opposition, evangelicals struggle for relevance. I would highly doubt that this is the message that they truly want to convey.

It is certainly not a biblical message and this does not seem to be a view that a modernising youth in Northern Ireland much wants to listen to. Perhaps it is collaboration that ought to be fostered throughout the province.

This separation of oneself as "saved" v "damned" can be quite pervasive in society, especially in a post-conflict society, where many people are seeking reconciliation (something that Churches should be readily able to provide).

This separatism is, quite literally, a roadblock to a Christian's own agenda and prevents one from recognising the many avenues of actually being able to spread love to people in a pragmatic and impactful way.

It was refreshing to speak with a man willing to "journey" away from the more entrenched views of his peers and it seems obvious that the Caleb Foundation could do much worse than having Thompson at the helm.

Within a rapidly evolving society, the evangelical community's historical roots in Ulster are seemingly beginning to unravel.

It is up to men like Thompson to be able to adapt their messages to the needs of the public today - messages they so fervently believe society needs.

Michael Avila was a postgraduate student at the Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen's University Belfast, where he wrote his master's dissertation on the Caleb FoundationFormer Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad celebrates with supporters at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur after the opposition alliance won a majority in the Malaysian general election, May 9, 2018.

Mahathir Mohamad emerged triumphant after leading Malaysias main opposition bloc to an upset victory early Thursday (local time) against a ruling coalition he had helped entrench as the countrys dominant political power.

Mahathir, who will turn 93 on July 10, sprang out of political retirement two years ago, demanding clean government. He later became the oppositions driving force and held true to a vow of demolishing the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition at the polls. He is now poised to become the world's oldest prime minister.

His four-party Pakatan Harapan (PH) bloc ousted Barisan, led by his former protege, Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose nine years in power were tarnished by corruption allegations.

On Wednesday night, hours after at least 70 percent of 15 million registered voters turned out to cast their ballots, Mahathir claimed that Pakatan had won enough parliament seats in the general election, allowing it to form the next government.

It would seem that we have practically achieved that figure of 112 and the figure for BN is very much less than that, Mahathir told reporters. This isnt fake news. They are left far behind. The likelihood is that they would not be forming the government.

The final results posted Thursday morning (local time) on the Malaysian Election Commissions website showed that Pakatan had won at least 113 seats, one seat above the threshold of 112 parliamentary seats needed to clinch a simple majority and choose a new prime minister.

In the run-up to the May 9 election, pollsters and analysts predicted that Mahathir and Pakatan likely would win the popular vote away from Barisan but would not capture enough seats for a parliamentary majority, partly because of a newly reconfigured electoral map that, according to observers and critics, appeared to boost the ruling blocs chances of winning.

In the 2013 election, BN lost the majority of votes but clung to power by pulling in 133 seats.

Mahathir, a former medical doctor nicknamed Doctor M, governed the Muslim-majority nation with an iron fist for 22 years beginning in 1981.



During his rule, he helped transform Malaysia into one of Southeast Asias most-prosperous nations.

On Feb. 29, 2016, Mahathir left the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the anchor party in a ruling bloc that has dominated Malaysian politics since independence from Britain in 1957.

But to help bring down Najib, Mahathir said UMNO must be demolished.

During an interview with BenarNews in September 2016, Mahathir described UMNO as beyond resuscitation, beyond turning around.

It has become very bad. It has become very, obviously, very corrupt. The leaders are corrupt, he said.

Mahathir stunned the nation when he bolted to the opposition and joined forces with his arch nemesis, former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whom he once sent to jail on a sodomy charge. Anwar is now serving a prison term over a separate sodomy conviction, but is expected to be released in June.

Principals son

The son of a school principal, Mahathir was educated at Sultan Abdul Hamid College, one of Malaysias oldest and most prestigious schools, based in his home state of Kedah.

He launched his political career in 1946 when he joined UMNO. After receiving his degree in medicine from the University of Malaya, Mahathir worked as a government health officer and later ran a private medical practice in Kedah for seven years.

He was elected to parliament in 1964 and appointed as the countrys fourth prime minister on July 16, 1981.

At the peak of his leadership, Mahathir developed Malaysias high-tech industry. He also oversaw the building of mega projects, including the Petronas Twin Towers  the worlds tallest buildings until 2004.

From 1991 to 1995, the country experienced economic growth with a low unemployment rate.

But during his term as prime minister, Mahathir also faced criticisms after he ordered the arrests and detention of more than 100 people, including opposition leaders and activists, under the internal security act in 1987. About 30 years later, Mahathir stopped short of apologizing, but accepted blame for the arrests.

During an interview with Bloomberg News last month, Najib described Mahathir as a person obsessed about control, about calling the shots.

U.S. authorities allege that between 2009 and 2014, top executives of 1MDB and Najibs associates looted at least $4.5 billion from the fund in a complex money-laundering scheme through acquisition of properties and bank deposits in the United States, Singapore, Switzerland and other countries.

Najib has not yet issued an official comment on the election tally. No BN leader made any comments to reporters gathered at UMNO party headquarters on Wednesday.Malaysia's outgoing Prime Minister Najib Razak speaks to reporters during a press conference at Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, May 10, 2018.

Updated at 3:32 a.m. ET on 2018-05-10

In a somber press conference hours after Malaysian election results were announced, outgoing Prime Minister Najib Razak said he would respect the outcome of voting while accusing his electoral rival of sedition.

Without mentioning him by name, Najib referred to a speech former premier Mahathir Mohamad had given around midnight Wednesday slamming the slow pace of electoral results and suggesting the delay was deliberate and an indication of results manipulation.

"There was also allegations that my friends and I were planning to have a National Security Council meeting last night ... to declare an emergency. That is another example of sedition," Najib said while flanked by outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, outgoing Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and other senior members of his government.

"No such meeting took place," said the 64-year-old leader, calling the election a "tough clash" marked by "slander" against his government.

In brief remarks at his party headquarters in Malaysia's capital, Najib, who had been prime minister since 2009, never mentioned Mahathir or the opposition coalition that ousted his government by name.

He said Malaysia's king would decide whom to select as Malaysia's next prime minister as no party had achieved a simple majority of parliament seats.

Official results showed that parties in the informal Pakatan Harapan alliance, which had announced Mahathir as its prime minister candidate, won 113 of parliaments 222 seats, while Najib's Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition won 79.

"BN will honor whatever decision His Majesty will make and I urge all Malaysia's to keep calm and have faith in the king's wisdom to make the best decision," he said.

"I accept and my friends all accept the verdict of the people, and Barisan Nasional is committed to respect the principle of parliamentary democracy.

'Lets not waste more time'

Appearing before reporters about 90 minutes later in Selangor, Mahathir said leaders of his alliance had written to Malaysias king, Sultan Mohammad V of Kelantan, asking for a new prime minister to be sworn in as soon as possible.

We would like to make it clear that there is the urgency here to form a government now. Today. That is because there is currently no government of Malaysia, Mahathir said.

We hope that by 5 oclock today we will have a new government.

He said his coalition now claimed the allegiance of well over 135 MPs including the Sabah Heritage Party and other individuals in Sabah.

Pakatan Harapan has already won a clear majority and therefore we are entitled to form a government, Mahathir said.

Separately, the sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar, called for a new prime minister to be sworn in without delay.

Elections [are] over. I ask for everyone to respect the choice of the people. I hereby ask for a government to be established immediately and lets not waste more time, he said in a statement.

'Not perfect'

In his earlier remarks, while thanking his colleagues and their families, Najib said his government had elevated Malaysians quality of life and was proud of its record, but "there are things that are not perfect in the time when we were in power."

Najib has been buffeted by a scandal over 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a state fund from which billions of dollars were allegedly siphoned off.

The U.S. Justice Department says $4.5 billion was looted from 1MBD by associates of Najib, including $700 million that landed in his private bank accounts. He has denied any wrongdoing.

In a statement late Wednesday the U.S State Department congratulated Malaysia for a hard-fought election campaign and high levels of peaceful participation in the electoral process.

We fully expect all institutions will carry out their functions and duties to produce and implement official results in accordance with the federal constitution and the will of the people, it said.

N. Natha in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Villa (center), walks beside Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano (left), as he arrives at Manilas international airport after being expelled from Kuwait, May 2, 2018.

A Philippines spokesman on Thursday said a special team of government officials met with their Kuwaiti counterparts over a diplomatic fallout that led to the arrest of four embassy employees in the oil-rich Gulf state.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, who left Tuesday night to join the team led by Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello, said the Philippine delegation met with their counterparts and that both countries look forward to the normalization of ties.

Kuwait, on its part, has expressed the value of Filipinos in Kuwait, Roque said in a statement, adding that an agreement expected to be signed by both countries aims at improving labor conditions of the thousands of Filipino workers there.

About 260,000 Filipinos live in Kuwait, many of them employed as domestic workers. The Philippine economy is dependent on foreign remittances with about 10 percent of the countrys population working overseas and sending money home.

Roque said Kuwait agreed to create a special unit within its police force that the Philippine embassy can contact at all hours to respond to cases of complaints by Filipino workers.

Kuwait also agreed to free four Filipinos employed by the Philippine Embassy who were detained after Kuwait expelled Manilas envoy about two weeks ago after a social media posting soured relations between the countries.

Kuwait expelled envoy Renato Villa after declaring him unacceptable following an embassy-coordinated rescue of Filipino domestic helpers who allegedly had been abused by their employers. The mission was recorded and shared on social media by the foreign department, angering Kuwait.

President Rodrigo Duterte had sought to appease Kuwait and met with its ambassador. The presidential palace said the labor issue had been ironed out, only to be told by Kuwait that it had expelled Villa and recalled its own ambassador to Manila.

The dispute erupted as both nations were negotiating an end to a ban imposed by Duterte on sending workers following the discovery of a slain Filipina worker stuffed inside a refrigerator in February. Duterte lashed out at Kuwait, after receiving reports of the woman identified as Joanna Defames.

Felipe Villamor in Manila contributed to this report.Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, the truth about the harms of marijuana.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesReal-life Stories: Ghost Boys' Of India Were Shunned From The World Pulse oi-Syeda Farah

What is the most bizarre thing that you have seen off late? There are certain things in life which make us realise that life gives us many reasons to be thankful for the smallest things that we take for granted in life.

This article is all about two kids who were labelled as 'Ghost Boys' from India. These boys were shunned from the world around them unless an NGO played a role that changed things for them completely.

Apparently, the two boys were ostracised as 'Ghost Boys' by schoolmates as they had pointed teeth and thinning hair, but they have finally been accepted in their remote village.

Check out the story of the 'Ghost Boys' who are young boys who have already dealt a lot at such a young age.

Find out more about these young boys...

They Hid Behind Doors For 11 Long Years!

Ashfaq and Mushtaq Khan are two young kids who are aged 11 and 8, respectively. Due to their medical condition the boys used to hide behind the walls in the village of Madhya Pradesh. They hid themselves to escape the taunts and stares of others.

The Young Boys Had A Rare Genetic Disease

The young boys are also labelled as "Ghost Boys' for having a rare genetic disease known as hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED).

About The Condition

In this condition the human body loses some of its ability to sweat, and the condition also causes the missing teeth. People suffering from this condition also have thinned-out hair.

More About The Condition

Because of this rare condition, the kids tend to heat up very quickly; hence, they have water poured over their heads every half an hour to help them cool down.

The Brothers Were Outcasted By The Villagers

The brave pair suffered from a disease that caused them to have missing teeth and even a flat nose. The brothers who are aged 11 and 8, were not accepted by the society as they treated them as outcasts.

Due To Lack Of Funds The Boys Were Not Treated

Since the boys come from a poor background, getting them treated was just a dream as the family lacks funds to pay for private treatment. And living in a remote village of Madhya Pradesh, where specialised medical facilities do not exist, their doctor, Mukesh, warned that their condition could get worse.

Their Mum Hopes For A Miracle

Their mother, Abila hopes for a miracle for their children. She wishes that someone would come forward to help them financially, as the family cannot afford the required medical treatment.

An NGO Changed Their Thinking!

Finally, the boys could take a deep breathe when a local NGO intervened and made the villagers aware of their condition. Apparently, the NGO launched a public awareness campaign to help local people understand their condition.

The Boys Have Been Accepted Now

Once the NGO revealed to the villagers that the brothers suffer from a rare condition, people started interacting with the boys and they could continue going to classes as well. The brothers revealed that they were often being humiliated in their classroom by others for looking this way, but after they were made aware, they stopped.

The Boys Enjoy Their Current State

Though the boys still suffer from the rare condition, they seem to be happy about life and its offering as they are able to make friends and even continue studying instead of being shunned by the society.

Liked the story? Then keep checking our section as we bring in the details of the latest happenings around the world.

GET THE BEST BOLDSKY STORIES! Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, May 10, 2018, 19:00 [IST]By Ann O'Loughlin

The States corporate watchdog has said it was absolutely wrong for INM to claim it was deprived until March last of information casting doubt on its former chairman Leslie Buckleys explanation for the removal of data from INM in 2014.

Lawyers for then INM CEO Robert Pitt gave INM information to that effect in August 2017 and it was very curious for INM to complain critical information came as a bolt out of the blue to the company when the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) moved last March for appointment of inspectors to INM, Brian Murray SC, for the ODCE, told the High Court.

It would appear, based on information obtained to date, Mr Pitt may have been right and Mr Buckley may have been wrong, he said.

There was the prospect Mr Pitt may also have been right in relation to his concerns about other issues, including the proposed purchase of Newstalk by Communicorp, a company of INMs major shareholder Denis OBrien, which purchase did not proceed.

Counsel stressed the ODCE has made no findings on these issues which would be a matter for the court if INM loses its judicial review challenged aimed at halting the ODCE application for appointment of inspectors to INM.

To treat the ODCE's concerns, as set out in his sworn statement seeking inspectors, as if those were conclusions in a report, demonstrated the "falsity and absurdity" of INM's arguments in the judicial review, he said.

The judicial review concluded today and judgment was reserved by Mr Justice Seamus Noonan.

ODCE Ian Drennan initiated the application for inspectors over concerns about the alleged data breach at INM and other issues arising from protected disclosures made by Mr Pitt and INM Chief Financial Officer Ryan Preston on dates in 2016 and 2017.

INM argues there is no basis for appointment of inspectors and the ODCE application was made in breach of its right to fair procedures. In closing arguments for INM, Paul Gallagher SC said it did not accept the criticism of it by the ODCE.

INM did not in August 2017, or before March 2018 , have a critical document that cast doubt on Mr Buckleys explanation for the data removal, a spreadsheet containing the names of 19 people whose data may have been accessed, he said. The ODCE had that spreadsheet but had not provided it to INM for several months.

INM should not be criticised for having accepted Mr Buckleys explanation the data interrogation was part of a cost reduction exercise linked to a legal services contract as INM had no evidence suggesting Mr Buckley was telling untruths in that regard, he said.

Absent such evidence, it would have been an enormous step to suggest to its then chairman he was telling an outright lie.

INM was in a very difficult position in 2017 because of a dispute between Mr Pitt and Mr Buckley and it was only in August 2017 Mr Pitt raised concerns about a possible data breach dating back to October 2014.

INM took the matter very seriously, the relevant people were interviewed, and it hired Deloitte to investigate a range of issues. INMs IT director Gerry Wilde disputes a number of matters set out by Mr Pitt arising from a conversation between them, counsel also said.

Earlier, Mr Murray said Mr Pitt had said he had concerns, based on information communicated to him by Mr Wilde, that large, indiscriminate amounts of data, including emails and records, had been extracted and removed from INM over a period from October 2014.

Mr Pitt had said the information suggested the data was to be searched by third parties in relation to certain people, including former INM CEO Gavin OReilly and former INM executive Karl Brophy, and possibly legal advisers, for the possible benefit of third parties.

Mr Pitt also outlined concerns an invoice for a third party allegedly involved in accessing the data was paid by Blaydon, a company linked to INMs major shareholder Denis OBrien.

Mr Pitt had asked his concerns be notified to the Data Protection Commissioner and the INM Board convene to discuss them, counsel said.

INM had notified the DPC on August 24 but the ODCE had raised various points about that notification, he said. INM had told the DPC the data was accessed for a limited business purpose when INM had information suggesting it could not be quite so confident about that. The DPC was also not told someone outside INM paid for this, raising issues why someone outside INM would do so and what rights such payment gave over the data exercise.

INMs assertion nothing was identified before last March that could have lead the Board to believe the explanations given to it by Mr Buckley for the data interrogation were not true is at least questionable in light of the material from Mr Pitt, counsel said. INM has said, in sworn statements filed since March, if Mr Pitts information was correct, that meant the Board was intentionally misled by Mr Buckley, he noted.

Mr Murray also argued there was no legal obligation on the ODCE to consult with INM before seeking inspectors. That would involve introducing a special rule for powerful public companies like INM, impose a remarkable preconditionon the entitlement of public bodies to go to court and raise fundamental questions about the courts entitlement to administer justice in public and in accordance with law.By Joe Dermody

Arrabawn Co-op delivered a 37m increase in milk payments to its suppliers in 2017, with the average milk price 37.45c per litre up 10c versus the previous year.

The Tipperary co-ops annual report also shows milk supply up 9% to 361m litres during 2017. Turnover for the year rose 25% to 249m, up from 199m in 2016.

Arrabawn has milk suppliers across Munster, Leinster and Connacht.

Shareholder earnings were up from 9.5m to 10m, with the 4.6m operating profit up from 4.5m in 2016.

Shareholders funds also increased from 47.8m to 51.1m, with shareholder value now having grown by 36% over the past five years.

In terms of commodities, butter prices were at unprecedented unseen levels at over 7,000 per tonne.

With intervention available for skim-milk powders, the protein market was also supported, also helping to bolster the strong milk price.

Arrabawns strong performance was aided by the co-ops 40m investment programme over the past five years. This continued in 2017, including at its liquid milk processing plant at Kilconnell.

The completion of the current investment programme at the plant in the first half of 2018 will deliver significant spare capacity, with the Co Galway site capable of processing 150m litres per annum.

Further investment was also made at the companys Nenagh operations, particularly through an effluent plant upgrade to bring it in line with environmental best practice.

The companys agri business also had a very strong year with excellent growth in all categories.

The performance of the new store in Tyone on the outskirts of Nenagh was very strong, validating the wider investment programme that this year will also see work on another new flagship store start, this time on the outskirts of Athenry.

Feed sales in 2017 also surpassed all previous records, growing 17% to 150,000 tonnes.

Arrabawn CEO, Conor Ryan, said: 2017 was a very successful year by any standards. Ultimately, we were able to pay out an additional 37m to our suppliers, which averages out at 40,000 per supplier.

This significant increase was off the back of a positive 2016.

There has been a significant growth in milk supply, coming predominantly from existing suppliers but we are also seeing new entrants to the market. The increase in supply has resulted in further investment requirements commencing last year and this will continue throughout 2018.

Arrabawn chairman, Sean Monahan, added: The performance in 2017 validates the investment strategy undertaken by Arrabawn this decade.

"We were competitive through 2016, but 2017 saw us in a position to pass on significant milk price increases to our suppliers, reflecting market returns. We have also worked closely and supported our existing suppliers and new entrants through this growth phase across a range of initiatives.

Meanwhile, in April the co-op cut 2c off its March milk price, giving suppliers a base price of 32.05c per litre including VAT.

It offset the cut with a 2c bonus in light of difficulties facing farmers.By Eamon Quinn

The Central Bank cant compel lenders to write down distressed mortgage debt rather than selling on the loans, but will continue to ensure all types of mortgage lenders follow the regulators code of conduct, governor Philip Lane has said.

Mr Lane said Irish banks have already done quite a bit to lower their high levels of non-performing loans.

Along with other European regulators, the Central Bank had urged banks to deal with soured loans at a time when the economy is growing strongly.

But speaking at the launch of its annual report, Mr Lane told reporters it was not up to the Central Bank to decide the type of deal that a lender should strike with a distressed borrower, and again urged distressed borrowers to engage with their lenders.

Most Irish mortgage lenders, including Permanent TSB, have faced scrutiny this year as they prepare to sell on distressed mortgages worth billions of euro at huge discounts to so-called non-bank lenders, or vulture funds.

Opposition politicians have urged banks to write down debt rather than selling the assets only for the mortgage loans to end up in the hands of funds which have no long-term connection with the country.

Prudential regulator and deputy governor Ed Sibley said the banks had restructured many residential mortgages.

And there was no evidence that non-banks who had bought distressed mortgages were more aggressive in seeking legal remedies, he said.

Tracking progress in reducing non-performing loans remained a priority for the regulator this year, said the Central Bank.

The Central Bank said it turned a profit of 2.6bn last year, of which 2.1bn will go to the Exchequer, and repeated that the profits will fall in future years as it sells off crisis-era financial assets.

And despite the strong economy, the small Irish economy still faces risks because it is vulnerable to global changes such as Brexit, which means we can grow strongly for extended periods but are especially vulnerable to negative shocks, said Mr Lane.

High stocks of both public and private debt and the inherent volatility of the Irish macro-financial system requires ongoing vigilance.Failte Irelands Dublin Convention Bureau will today target significant new UK business in London - worth a potential 45m - as it promotes Dublin and Ireland as a world-leading destination for conferences and meetings at its annual Meet Dublin in London event.

Top UK buyers will meet directly with 50 of Dublins leading hoteliers, business meeting venues and conference organisers to generate new business for the Meetings, Incentives, Conference and Events (MICE) sector in Dublin through a showcase of the world-class facilities the city can offer business delegates.

With visitor numbers from the UK to Ireland down by 5% following the Brexit referendum result, the Meet Dublin in London workshop event aims to leverage the strength of the lucrative business tourism sector in bringing delegates and new business from the UK market to Ireland.

This years Meet Dublin in London event, which has become a firm favourite in business tourism event bookers calendars, is drawing its largest UK attendance ever with almost 280 top UK meetings and events buyers.

The pitching will take place on the Silver Sturgeon boat located on The River Thames at an event created by Failte Ireland with special host, Emmy Award winning Irish TV personality, Baz Ashmawy.

Speaking ahead of the event in London about the importance of Business Tourism for the wider industry, Failte Irelands Head of Commercial Development, Paul Mockler said:

In the first quarter of this year alone, Failte Ireland has already secured 42m worth of new global meetings and events, helping to drive growth and jobs across the country.

"Business tourism is the most lucrative form of tourism, with visitors travelling to Ireland for business purposes spending almost three times more than the average visitor.

With the uncertainty caused by Brexit, it is more important than ever that we put our best foot forward in attracting our nearest overseas market to Ireland to ensure we maximise the potential of this sector.

Reiterating the importance of directly targeting the UK market, Sam Johnston, Manager of Failte Irelands Dublin Convention Bureau, added:

The Meet Dublin in London event is the perfect way of proactively promoting Ireland to this priority market by bringing a showcase of what it is that sets Ireland apart directly to the doorsteps of top UK buyers. Dublin has a lot to offer - world-class venues and incentive experiences, ease of access, amazing landscapes, top hospitality and incredibly strong industries.

"We look forward to bringing more UK business to Irish shores in the coming year and beyond.

Baz Ashmawy.

Speaking about how the event has helped to boost bookings, Suzanne Mulvey, Sales Manager Meetings & Events at Red Cow Moran Hotel, said:

I have attended the Meet Dublin in London event for the last three years, and each year the momentum has built at this great event. In 2017, the Red Cow Moran Hotel secured a substantial group booking from a London based buyer at the event.

"We delivered this piece of business in October 2017, building a new relationship with the buyer who has since sent us more requests, while experiencing a notable increase in enquiries from other buyers we met on board the Silver Sturgeon in 2017.

"It has been the perfect platform for us to tell the story of our 14m investment. We are excited to attend this year and look forward to a great networking event with fellow trade partners and new international buyers.

Lauretthe McClellan, Director, Pineapple Events, added:

The annual Meet Dublin in London workshop is a very special event and one of the industry highlights of the year, showcasing the very best of Dublin and its partners.

"Its an opportunity to make valuable contacts and network in a very unique setting on board the stunning Silver Sturgeon, whilst enjoying Irish hospitality as its finest. We have met such a wide range of suppliers who have introduced us to new products and venues, which have resulted in placing some excellent events in the City over the past couple of years.

- Digital DeskBy Geoff Percival

Grafton Group shares fell by over 2% despite the builders supply group saying a weather-related slowdown in trading in the last two months wont affect annual performance, and that it remains on the lookout for more acquisitions.

Speaking at Graftons agm in Dublin, chief executive Gavin Slark said the group is continually looking for further acquisition opportunities, both in existing and new geographical markets.

Mr Slark said the group is open to spreading to new countries, but is more focused on finding the right takeover opportunities, be they in existing territories or new ones.

Graftons UK builders merchanting division accounts for over 90% of group revenue; but the group is active in Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium too, with that spread helping to soften any Brexit-related slowdown in the UK market.

Indeed, underlying activity in the UK market was slightly softer in the four months to the end of April, partly due to the recent severe weather but also because competitive market conditions have exerted more pressure on prices.

After last month reporting a strong set of annual figures for 2017  including a 15% rise in pre-tax profits and a 9% jump in revenues  Grafton yesterday said that total revenue, on a constant currency basis, was up by 6.2% year-on-year in the first four months of 2018.

UK merchanting saw a 5% annualised jump in revenue, while the same operation in Ireland saw a 7.6% increase, with the Netherlands ahead by over 20%.

Only the Belgian merchanting division saw a decline, with sales down nearly 4%.

The retail side of the business  which solely covers the Woodies DIY chain and represents 6% of group sales  grew revenues by 4.7%.

Mr Slark said underlying market conditions in Ireland remain positive, driven by good momentum in a recovering residential and non-residential RMI (repair, maintenance, improvement) market.

We should continue to benefit from exposure to strong growth markets in Ireland and the Netherlands and, consistent with our view coming into the year, expect underlying demand in the UK RMI market to remain subdued, but housebuilding to perform strongly, he said.

Analysts expect Grafton to generate 9% operating profit growth this year and the group said its full-year expectations remain unchanged.

Berenberg analysts recently tipped Grafton to keep growing via acquisition, forecasting the company has around 300m (340m) to fund such activity  both in the UK and elsewhere  this year.The head of the Central Bank has warned of another potential crash in house prices in the next two to three years.

Appearing before the Finance Committee this morning Philip Lane has warned of a "material risk of a reverse in house prices" as more homes, apartments and student accommodation come on stream.

The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office reveal that property prices continue to climb with the cost of homes outside of Dublin increasing by 13.4% in the year to March and rising by 12.1%.

Prof. Lane also warned that Government will have to focus on delivering surplus budgets and not just deliver balanced budgets in the coming years to avoid an overheating of the economy.

While he said public spending should not be cut, it is likely that Government would not be able to significantly cut taxes if they are to focus on delivering a significant surplus.

He said the "big question" for the Central Bank and for Government is "what is the appropriate budget balance when you face the risk of overheating?"

Prof. Lane told the Committee: "I will be working more on this in the coming months before I give my pre-budget advice but I would generally flag that the debate here is maybe too narrow.

"So trying to target a budget balance of around zero is maybe not going to be enough.

"So having a conversation actually around significant budget surpluses is not something I am hearing too much here, I don't think it is an issue for now but maybe in the next year or two it may be the case where we have to go to a situation where to ensure stability in the economy running a significant surplus may be important," he said.By Kevin Buckland and Nao Sano

Toyota Motor shares jumped the most in more than seven months after the carmaker announced a shares buyback and gave a profit guidance that assuaged concerns about a slowing US market and stronger yen weighing on earnings.

The worlds most valuable carmaker plans to buy back up to 300bn yen (2.27bn) of shares. The companys 2.3tn-yen operating profit forecast also exceeded average analyst estimate.

Chief executive Akio Toyoda is accelerating cost reductions, trying to shore up the companys coffers to prepare for a shift toward electrification and autonomous driving.

Even as growth sputters in the US, where the carmaker sells a quarter of its vehicles, it is managing to ward off competition with demand for the RAV4 sport utility vehicle and updated Camry sedan.

The outlook for the year was a positive surprise, said Koji Endo, an analyst at SBI Securities.

Its much more aggressive than expected and seems like Toyota has shifted from its conservative forecasts, the analyst said.

While China is on track to become the biggest market for Nissan and Honda, Toyota sells only half as many vehicles there as in the US.

Toyota said it sees growth coming from Asia this year and that means China.

Sales at its Japanese, north American and European units are all expected to decline, the company projected.

Toyota shares jumped almost 4% in Tokyo trading, helping it erase declines for the year.

The company has also gradually been increasing sales in China, lessening its reliance on a US market where rising incentive spending is weighing on margins.

Additions to the model lineup could provide a boon to Toyota later this year.

The company plans to release an all-new edition of the RAV4, its biggest-selling SUV in the US, and introduce the compact crossover C-HR in China, its first entry in the nations hottest segment.

The yen could continue to be a hindrance.

Exchange-rate changes will probably cut 230bn yen from operating profit this year, Toyota said.

After averaging a fairly steady 112 per dollar last year, Japans currency has strengthened to 109 in 2018 as the threat of a trade war between the US and China spurred demand for the yen as a safe haven.

Foreign-exchange analysts on average predict the yen to appreciate to 103 per dollar in 2019, and Toyota, as well as Honda, are forecasting an average of 105 yen for the current fiscal year.

BloombergBy Thomas Seal and Joe Mayes

Vodafone is shaking up Europes fragmented media and telecom market with a 18.4bn deal to buy almost a third of John Malones Liberty Global, part of a global push for scale as carriers face massive network investments and competition from digital players.

US billionaire Mr Malones Liberty is best known here as the owner of cable firm Virgin Media and broadcaster TV3, as well as for owning a significant stake in ITV.

Virgin Media figures show that in Ireland it had 1.06 million so-called revenue-gathering units in its cable, internet, and phone operations at the end of March, up from a year earlier but down from the end of December.

Including TV3, it said its total Irish revenues grew 11.6% to 109m in the quarter from a year earlier.

Mr Malone also owns a number of hotels in central Dublin and stud farms, including Castlemartin in Co Kildare, the estate formerly owned by Tony OReilly.

The agreement appears to signal a retreat by Mr Malone, by focusing Liberty more on the UK and Ireland, its largest markets, and follows the sale of its Austrian cable division to Deutsche Telekom late last year.

However, Liberty could choose to take the cash and double down in markets where it can buy rivals to scale up.

Were moving to a region thats going to be dominated by a handful of players, said Paolo Pescatore, a media and telecom analyst at CCS Insight in London.

We expect Liberty to use these funds to strengthen its position on other markets such as the UK, or in Switzerland, he said.

The companies both seek to be top carriers in each of the markets where they operate, but Liberty had been struggling to find a way to gain clout with mobile services in Germany.

The deal is what the German market needs, said Mike Fries, Libertys CEO.

So I think this will get approved and I think its definitely in the best interests of consumers and well make that argument, he said.

The tie-up, scheduled to close around mid-2019, may not mark the end of Liberty and Vodafones discussions.

Executives on both sides have publicly mused about the potential for a merger of the companies, to create a European challenger with the mobile and fixed assets to better take on incumbents.

Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao told reporters yesterday a deal in the UK is not on the agenda and that Vodafone is very happy with how a Netherlands arrangement is working, while Mr Fries said no other arrangements are currently being contemplated.

Still, the transaction sets the stage for Vodafone to potentially scoop up the rest of Liberty in a few years, if its cheap enough, said RBC analyst Jonathan Dann.

With the acquisition of Libertys German and Eastern European units, Mr Colao is reshaping spheres of influence in a way that has already drawn a harsh rebuke from his closest rival, Deutsche Telekom.

The purchase, the largest by Mr Colao in his decade running Vodafone, threatens the continents biggest carrier Deutsche Telekom in its home market.

The deal, which was announced after months of talks, has the CEO of Germans former phone monopoly spitting fire.

Tim Hoettges, seeking his own multi-billion American tie-up of unit T-Mobile with Softbank Groups Sprint, vowed to fight against what he characterised as a re-monopolisation of Germanys cable market by Vodafone, while Mr Colao appealed to ambitions by European regulators to challenge incumbents to invest.

The EU has always been talking about the need to have cross-country competitors in telecoms, Mr Colao told reporters. This is actually the first and biggest creation of one of those, both in mobile and fixed, he said.

The transaction gives Vodafone, already Germanys largest cable operator, the second-biggest cable network, as well as Libertys Czech Republic, Hungary, and Romania divisions, providing more scale to bundle internet, phone, and TV services.

While the two inked a joint venture in the Netherlands in 2016, discussions about more transformative mergers had stalled. Vodafone will pay Liberty 10.8bn of cash and assume 7.6bn of debt, Vodafone said.

Bloomberg. Additional reporting, Irish Examiner1. Comments must not be racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted.

2. Comments must not involve little more than name-calling and insulting remarks.

3. Comments must not be made by "anonymous" or "unknown".

4. Comments must not try to sneak in some free advertising for themselves (like spam).

I invite anyone who wishes to comment on this blog to do so. I enjoy the comments, whether you agree with what I have said or not. But some people want to abuse the right to comment, and since this is my blog, I have decided to lay down the following rules. If your comment violates these rules, it will not be published.The tragic case of a terminally ill mother-of-five from Kerry dominated Leaders' Questions in the Dail, amid fresh calls for HSE chief Tony O'Brien to resign.

A Morning Ireland interview with Emma Mhic Mhathuna on RTE Radio One was the item asked about by all Opposition leaders to Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.

Ms Mhic Mhathuna is one of scores of Irish women who were wrongly told they had normal smear tests through the CervicalCheck screening programme, prompting the Government to set up a scoping inquiry into the scandal.

Fianna Fail's Dara Calleary appeared to become emotional when he referred to the interview in which Ms Mhic Mhathuna said she feared her young baby would not remember her after she dies.

I dont even know if my little baby is going to remember me. This isnt fair. And no amount of money can replace this, she said.

Mr Calleary repeated her comments and called on the Government to "stop dithering" and act "to end the torment of the women at the heart of the scandal".

The time for defiant defence is over, the time to defend the realm is over. Please stop, Mr Calleary said.

Sinn Fein's Louise O'Reilly asked Mr Donohoe whether he retains confidence in Mr O'Brien.

The only agenda this Government has is to establish fully what has happened, that is why we have established an inquiry, that is why a number of people are no longer in place and why we are putting in place supports for those women affected, the minister said in response.

He said everyone who listened to the interview on the radio could not help but be stopped in their tracks by what they heard.

Labour TD Alan Kelly, who is the vice-chair of the Public Accounts Committee, raised a memo sent to Mr O'Brien in 2016 about the pending scandal and called on Mr Donohoe to ensure the State covers all costs with rectifying the scandal.

Mr Kelly said: It is a continuous drip drip of information. There was no follow-up in terms of accountability to ensure clinicians spoke to their patients.

"It just stopped and that is just wrong from an accountability point of view."

In her interview, she said: The Government needs to go; theyre not actually capable of minding us. Im dying and I didnt need to die.

"If my smear test was read right in 2013 I wouldnt be here in this situation today, she told RTEs Morning Ireland.

Ms Mhic Mhathuna will have further tests tomorrow to determine how long left she has to live.

How long exactly Ive got. Theyll know more when they get the results. All my doctors - my GP, my gynaecologist, my oncologist, theyre a fabulous team. If theres anything available theyll find it, she said.By Ann O'Loughlin

Independent News & Media effectively wants a special rule giving it a legal right to be heard before the Office of Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) seeks the appointment of inspectors arising from concerns about the conduct of its affairs, the High Court has been told.

What INM argues for would involve introducing remarkable precondition to the entitlement of public bodies to go to court and raised fundamental questions about the courts entitlement to administer justice in public and in accordance with law, Brian Murray SC said.

In arguments for the Director of Corporate Enforcement Ian Drennan (ODCE) opposing INMs judicial review challenge to the decision to seek inspectors, Mr Murray said there was no legal obligation on the ODCE to consult INM before going to court.

INMs contention there was such an obligation is unstateable and its case for judicial review of the ODCE decision to seek inspectors should fail, he said.

INM had produced no legal authority to support its case and you can be absolutely certain they have looked, he told Mr Justice Seamus Noonan.

This judicial review puts exclusive emphasis on the impact on INMs share price of the ODCE application and contends that companies without share prices dont suffer such reputational and economic damage, he said.

This meant INM was advocating a special rule for public companies, the largest, best resourced and most powerful companies in the State.

What INM envisaged is that the ODCE has to write to the company, say he is proposing to appoint an inspector, the companys lawyers then look for reasons and the ODCE gives a summary of those.

Does anyone seriously believe that is going to be acceptable?  he asked. Of course not.

If INMs arguments in this judicial review are right, that endlessly self-replicating procedure is the scenario, he said.

The courts have clearly stated the fact proceedings such as this may cause embarassment, reputational injury, inconvenience or even damage is not in itself a reason for imposing an obligation on the applicant to consult, he said.

INM had shown no exceptional circumstances to require that it be consulted.

Every State applicant that brings proceedings such as this ground those on facts or opinions which are not the same as the findings of an inquiry, he also argued.

Context is everything and the facts and opinions of the ODCE were presented for the purpose of the court making findings and not anyone else.

The ODCE is presenting a case, he is not presenting a report with findings or conclusions and it was absurd for INM to argue otherwise.

Ian Drennan.

The initiation of the ODCE application was not, contrary to what INM argues, the last step in the process, he said.

This was because, after the ODCE application is initiated, INM files its response and there would be a hearing later to decide whether inspectors should be appointed. That decision would be made by the court having heard the sides.

Today is the second day of INMs application for judicial review over the application for inspectors, initiated last March following the ODCEs year long investigation into matters at INM. The ODCE application will only be heard if INM loses its judicial review.

Mr Drennan sought the appointment of inspectors over concerns about an alleged data breach at INM over a period from October 2014 and other issues arising from protected disclosures made by former INM CEO Robert Pitt and INM Chief Financial Officer Ryan Preston on dates in 2016 and 2017.

INM argues there is no basis for appointment of inspectors and contends the ODCE application was made in breach of its right to be heard and to fair procedures.

It says it should have been given critical information in the possession of the ODCE concerning the data breach and given an opportunity to act on that, and to respond to the various concerns of the ODCE, before the inspectors application was initiated.

It also says it has a very high standard of corporate governance and denies any wrongdoing.By Patrick Flynn

An Aer Lingus flight was forced to return to Dublin Airport this morning amid fears that a hare had been sucked into one of the jets engines during take-off.

Flight EI-582 departed Dublin at 8.15am and was bound for Malaga in Spain with 287 passengers on board.

Soon after take-off the crew informed air traffic controllers that they had struck two "rabbits or hares" on departure.

An inspection of the runway was carried out and at least one hare carcass was discovered. It was feared that a second dead hare may have been sucked into one of the Airbus A330-300s engines.

The crew continued their journey for a time but turned around about 30 minutes later just north of the French coast.

The flight returned to Dublin for a safe landing. The crew did not declare an emergency but airport crews were standing by for the flight's return.

Engineers were also waiting to inspect the aircraft while a replacement plane will take the passengers onto their destination later this afternoon.

An Aer Lingus spokeswoman said: Flight EI582 departed Dublin Airport this morning, en route to Malaga with 287 guests on board. The aircraft turned back less than one hour into the flight, due to a technical issue, and landed safely at Dublin at 9.52am."

"Guests disembarked normally and will be flown to Malaga this afternoon on a replacement aircraft. We apologise to our guests for this disruption to their travel plans, the company said.By Fiona Ferguson

A former worker at a juvenile residential unit has been given a suspended sentence for possession of child pornography.

Philip Devereux (51) was tracked through his email address after the Toronto Police Department passed on information to INTERPOL relating to individuals who had bought DVDs from a Canadian company involved in the distribution of child pornography.

Devereux, of St Michan's House, Greek Street, Dublin , pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography at his home on January 9th, 2013. He has no previous convictions.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard gardai recovered a laptop containing 24 images, a floppy disk containing six child sex stories and 13 DVDs containing images of nude or partially nude pre-pubescent boys.

Judge Martin Nolan said he accepted the quantity of images in this investigation was not too great but said it was nevertheless a serious case.

He noted that Devereux had pleaded guilty, co-operated with the gardai and handed over his devices and passwords. He said Devereux had no prior record and had taken steps to address his problem.

The judge took into account a psychologist's report, as well as Devereux's strong work history and support from some members of his family.

Judge Nolan noted the case had been hanging over Devereux, as it had been delayed by a lack of resources to deal with the avalanche of material to be analysed at the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau (GNCCB).

He said the higher courts had given direction that in a case where an accused person had no criminal record and there was no distribution or other aggravating factors, then a non-custodial sentence should be considered.

Judge Nolan said in relation to Devereux he did not feel a custodial sentence was justified. He imposed a two and a half year sentence which he suspended in full.

Garda Shane Connolly told Sinead McGrath BL, prosecuting, that gardai received confidential information via INTERPOL in relation to names, addresses and invoices relating to individuals who had bought DVDs from a Canadian company involved in the distribution of child pornography.

Gardai traced Devereux through his email address which was listed as having ordered material.

During a search carried out at Devereux's home in January 2013, he admitted having accessed child pornography on the internet and gave gardai an overview of his internet use, as well as his email passwords. Gardai seized electronic media storage, a laptop and DVDs.

The items were passed to the GNCCB and analysed there in 2017.

The material fell into two categories ,category one involving pre-pubescent boys witnessing or involved in explicit sexual activity and category two involving boys with their genital or anal area exposed.

Garda Connolly said the laptop contained 24 illegal images, 19 of which fell into category one and five which fell into category two. The images on the 13 DVDs all fell into category two, while six child sex stories found on a floppy disk fell into category one.

Devereux was arrested by appointment in March 2017.

Garda Connolly agreed with Bernard Condon SC, defending, that his client had been proactive in presenting himself to gardai in relation to the sex offenders register. He agreed that it had taken four years to have the equipment analysed by gardai, saying there was a large backlog of material at that office.

Mr Condon said that it had been a number of years since the offending, that Devereux had not come to any further garda attention and had been making efforts to rehabilitate.

He handed in a number of letters and a psychologist's report which outlined matters including that Devereux had some difficulties in his personal development in identifying his sexuality. He has been attending counselling and has support from some members of his family.

Mr Condon said his client had been in employment all his life and at the time had been working at a residential unit. He said Devereux had been suspended from work without pay.

He asked the court to take into account that the conviction would have very significant consequences for his client and would be a mark on him forever.Update - 9pm: The Department of Health has said that documents relating to the CervicalCheck audit "were not brought to the attention of any Minister for Health".

In a statement, it said the HSE shared a number of documents in relation to the CervicalCheck clinical audit with the Department, including the memos made available to the PAC today.

"However, nothing so far has been identified that changes our basic assertion that the fact of clinical audit being undertaken and arrangements being made to disclose to patients in this regard were positive features of CervicalCheck," it said.

The Department said the documents were not shared outside the CMO and Acute Hospitals Divisions.

It said it is currently examining the records in relation to CervicalCheck and that "a full discovery will be undertaken and all documents will be made available to the Scoping Inquiry to inform its considerations".

Update - 8pm: Fianna Fail confirms support of no confidence motion in O'Brien

Fianna Fail has confirmed it will support a motion of no confidence in the director general of the HSE, Tony OBrien, writes Daniel McConnell.

The motion was tabled by Sinn Fein and will be taken next Tuesday.

On Twitter, Fianna Fails health spokesman Stephen Donnelly this evening said: Weve recently had sight of next weeks motion, calling on Minister Harris to remove the HSE Director General. Fianna Fail will support this motion, and reiterate that we call on the DG to step down immediately.

It comes as the Government has postponed a planned Cabinet meeting in Monaghan tomorrow to deal with the crisis.

We've recently had sight of next week's motion, calling on Minister Harris to remove the HSE Director General. Fianna Fail will support this motion, and reiterate that we call on the DG to step down immediately.  Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) May 10, 2018

Update - 7.10pm: Zappone calls for O'Brien's resignation after 'game-changer' CervicalCheck memo released

Minister Katherine Zappone has described a memo on the CervicalCheck scandal sent to HSE head Tony O'Brien in 2016 as a "game changer" and has called for her fellow ministers to call for his resignation, writes Elaine Loughlin.

A memo released today shows that HSE management were informed in July 2016 that CervicalCheck was preparing a media response to potential adverse headlines to the effect that "screening did not diagnose my cancer".

The memo also said that letters to inform women would be "paused".

Responding, this evening, Ms Zappone said: "I think it is a game-changer; adding I hope it moves my colleagues to make a different decision.

Ms Zappone said she had called for Mr O'Brien's resignation at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday before the release of the memo.

"In the context of a Cabinet meeting I expressed the view that I felt that it would be important for him to resign his position or for the Government to ask him to stand aside, that I felt that would be a signal for accountability and we need that.

"That's the view I have."

Update - 5pm: Memo to HSE director warned of media headlines that screening did not diagnose my cancer after audit

An internal memo to HSE director general Tony O'Brien warned that an audit of cervical cancer screening cases could result in headlines such as "screening did not diagnose my cancer".

The memo was prepared for HSE management in July 2016 but released to the Public Accounts Committee today.

It said that negative media coverage could ensue after the CervicalCheck audit but that they were prepared for such coverage as "communications materials" had been created to "ensure transparent, effective and robust communications processes are in place so as to provide clear information for the media and the public".

CervicalCheck first initated an audit in 2010.

The memo says that cervical screening is not 100% accurate: screening cannot give a yes or no answer and a negative screening result does not mean that the disease will not develop in future.

It ended by outlining the next steps to be taken, those being:

 Pause all letters

 Await advice of solicitors

 Decide on the order and volume of dispatch to mitigate any potential risks

 Continue to prepare reactive communications response for a media headline that screening did not diagnose my cancer.

Update - 1.51pm: Under-fire HSE director general Tony O'Brien was told of the CervicalCheck tests audit in an internal memo two years ago, writes Fiachra O Cionnaith of the Irish Examiner.

However, he has insisted the message did not "ring alarm bells" because he was told women would be informed of what happened.

Mr O'Brien confirmed he was informed in March or April 2016 that Cervical Check had conducted a clinical audit of women who took the tests and about plans to tell the women of what happened at a Dail meeting on Thursday morning.

Speaking at the latest meeting of the cross-party public accounts committee, Mr O Brien told Labour TD Alan Kelly that in March or April 2016 he received a memo from officials about the audit.

He said it raised no "alarm bells" because the memo also outlined a communications strategy to inform the women of what happened - which was subsequently not followed.

He added that to his recollection did not mention the number of women who may be involved, and that he will supply the PAC with the memo this afternoon.

During the same meeting the Department of Health's secretary general Jim Breslin told Sinn Fein TD David Cullinane the Department was also informed of some of the details of the memo in early 2016.

He said he did not know how much detail the Department was given, but that he would provide this to the PAC in the coming days.

Meanwhile, during the same meeting HSE officials again claimed they do not know how many of the women affected by the cervical cancer scandal have since developed terminal cancer.

Speaking after Kerry woman Emma Mhic Mhathuna told RTE Radio's Morning Ireland programme she will learn on Friday how long she has to live, HSE officials told Sinn Fein TD Jonathan O Brien they do not know how many other women are facing the same situation - two weeks after the scandal became public.

1.06pm: 'There are no wagons being circled' around Tony O'Brien, says Paschal O'DonohoeThere has been no circling of the wagons around Tony O'Brien, but he should continue as head of the HSE, according to the Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.

Mr O'Brien faced further calls to resign this morning at an Oireachtas Committee.

Mr Donohoe said: "Our only agenda is to do the right thing, established what has happened.

There are no wagons being circled, there are no circles being created.

The Finance Minister later said Mr O'Brien should continue his work.

Fianna Fail TD Marc MacSharry called for his resignation, but Mr O'Brien said he could not take responsibility for what happened at CervicalCheck as he didn't know about it.

He also accused Marc MacSharry of scaremongering, saying: "Why don't we both wait until the outcome of the expert review, and then you can reflect and I can reflect.

"At the moment, you are causing hysteria."

That is something Fianna Fail Deputy leader Dara Calleary told the Dail was rich.

Mr Calleary said: "If he (Tony O'Brien) won't take accountability for his own role in this, Minister, we don't need words, we don't need promises, we don't need shouting or roaring in this chamber, we need action."

The issue will re-emerge in the Oireachtas next week with Sinn Fein's motion of no confidence in Tony O'Brien.

11.04am: Fianna Fail TD tells Tony O'Brien 'there is zero accountability' in CervicalCheck scandal

The head of the HSE Tony O'Brien has accused a TD of trying to cause hysteria over the CervicalCheck scandal.

Mr O'Brien is appearing before an Oireachtas committee where he has been accused of dancing on the head of a pin to avoid resigning.

Watch live here:

He says he did not know about women not being told of the audits of their smear tests, and there is no way smear testing can be infallible.

Fianna Fail TD Marc MacSharry attacked Mr O'Brien's stance saying this was one of the worst scandals in the history of the State.

Mr MacSharry said: "What you're implying is, we enter the system we set it up, it did a lot of good work and there were some casualties.

"That's the implications of what you are saying."

Mr O'Brien replied to the deputy saying: "You need to step back."

However, Mr MacSharry said: "In fairness Mr O'Brien, none of this is personal Mr O'Brien, but we do have to hold people to account and there is zero accountability, it seems to me."

"How is your position tenable?"

Mr O'Brien said question was based on a presumption that an action had been taken that led to the diagnosis, and claimed that it is far from established.

He said that, while it is clearly "always very tragic" when any young person is terminally diagnosed with cancer, the reason for a screening programme is to limit the number of such cases, but it cannot eliminate them.

Mr O'Brien said: "Your question is based on a fundamental premise that this has arisen because of the cervical screening programme, and I don't accept that is a reality.

"There is a review process I think it is wrong to jump to conclusions in advance of that process."By Ruaidhri Giblin

A Laois man jailed for beating and raping his wife has lost an appeal against his conviction which centred on the question of consent.

The 46-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the victim's identity, had pleaded not guilty to raping the woman but admitted assaulting her by punching her in the face on the same occasion on January 8, 2015

He was unanimously found guilty of rape by a Central Criminal Court jury and sentenced to seven years imprisonment with the final two suspended by Mr Justice Paul Butler on December 20, 2016. The man's conviction for marital rape was the fourth recorded in the State since it was criminalised in 1990.

The prosecutions case that the woman was afraid for her life and felt sex was the only way out. The Court of Appeal heard that it was an unusual and nuanced case.

The couple both had backgrounds in different Christian fundamentalist communities or sects and this may have influenced their approach to answering questions, particularly complainant when giving evidence at trial.

Dismissing the mans appeal against conviction today, Mr Justice George Birmingham said the couple married in 1994 and had a number of children. They had experienced difficulties in their marriage for some time and had attended marriage counselling.

The woman saw her husband as "controlling". She was restricted from driving the family car because the husband felt her driving "did not achieve optimum fuel consumption".

At around 9.30pm on the date in question, the man went to bed and the woman remained knitting until around 11pm when she went upstairs, undressed and got into bed beside him. At first she thought her husband was asleep but then realised that he was, in fact, crying softly.

She curled up against him and the next thing she remembered, her husband was on top of her, punching her in the face and chest area.

She started screaming "help me God" to which her husband said "no God is going to help you". At one stage the man said to her "now I'm going to rape you and I'm going to enjoy it but at that stage a funny thing happened, the woman stated.

She said her husband had not penetrated her, although he appeared to think that he had. She commented that she was sort of laughing in her head because she felt God had deluded his mind into thinking he was doing this to her but he was not.

I just thought he looked really sad. I said hes completely lost his mind, hes completely delusional and I actually felt sad for him. So then I started to tell him that I loved him, that I didnt mean to hurt him and that I was sorry for hurting him and I rubbed him on the back and I calmed him down and we had sex basically, I wasnt physically forced to have sex with him.

Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Pauline Walley SC, said the woman was a traditional, God fearing lady who believed absolutely that when she got into the witness box, she had to tell the truth.

Ms Walley said the woman participated in the sexual act because it was her way of surviving and that a woman can feel coerced into having sex with her husband because she has been beaten and terrified.

The man moved to appeal his conviction on grounds that the trial judge erred in directing the jury on the concept of recklessness having regard to the particular facts of the case, erred in misdirecting the jury on the issue of resistance (section 9 of the Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990) and in doing so, undermined the defence's case.

The mans barrister, Caroline Biggs SC, said there had been a "break" between the assault and the penetrative act. What was in her mind, and his mind, at the time of penetration, was the issue, counsel said.

Notwithstanding his use of the words that he would rape her, Ms Biggs said he couldn't follow through with that or have the required intent because he couldn't sustain an erection.

Ms Biggs said the the woman realised her husband could not "sustain an erection, and that, at the time of the penetrative act, she was voluntarily consenting. Ms Biggs said the woman accepted that fear was not at the forefront of her mind at the time of penetration.

She submitted that the trial judge gave an incorrect direction to the jury on the issue of recklessness. All the defence asked the judge to say was that in order to be reckless, the accused must have consciously averted or thought about the risk that she was not consenting - that he thought about it, Ms Biggs said, but that the trial judge lowered the thresh hold envisaged by the Supreme Court by using the word careless in his direction to the jury on this issue.

Mr Justice Birmingham said it was undoubtedly the case that the complainant said a number of things in evidence which were very welcome indeed from the defence perspective.

However, the fact that defence counsel got answers to questions she was hoping for, did not determine an application to direct the mans acquittal. The trial judge was required to have regard to all the evidence in the case and not just the answers given to particular questions, the judge said.

Mr Justice Birmingham said the jury may have taken the view that what occurred was a continuous event.

He said the jury may have taken the view that a man who had violently assaulted a woman, causing her to fear for her life, and stated specifically that he was going to rape her, must in fact have known that she was not consenting to sexual intercourse or must, at the very least have believed it was possible she was not consenting.

Mr Justice Birmingham, who sat with Mr Justice Alan Mahon and Mr Justice John Edwards, said the case was properly left to the jury.

A further ground of appeal on the trial judges charge to the jury on the issue of recklessness was also dismissed.

As unusual as the case was in some respects, we have little doubt but that the jury must have been fully aware of what the issues in the case were and the jury was in a position to resolve those issues, the judge said.By Gerard Cunningham

No evidence was found on garda computer systems or electronic devices to support the allegations of former press officer Supt David Taylor that he was instructed to give negative briefings to the media about whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe.

Two scientists from the Forensic Service Northern Ireland (FSNI) told the Charleton tribunal that they examined telephones and computers which were used by Supt Taylor and by former garda commissioners Martin Callinan and Noirin O'Sullivan between July 2012 and May 2014, the period when Supt Taylor was at the Garda Press Office.

Computer systems at Garda HQ, including the PULSE system, were also examined.

The tribunal is examining allegations by Supt Taylor that he was directed by former garda commissioner Martin Callinan to brief the media negatively on Sgt McCabe. Mr Callinan denies the allegation.

Elaine Strachan of the FSNI told the tribunal that she examined three telephones which had been used by Supt Taylor, two telephones which were used by Mr Callinan, and two telephones and an iPad used by Ms O'Sullivan.

Text messages on the first phone used by Mr Callinan had been deleted, Ms Strachan told the tribunal. The second phone had been handed back to Garda HQ by Mr Callinan when it developed a fault, and after it was repaired it was assigned to another officer. No information from the time when Mr Callinan used the device remained on the phone.

No evidence to support Supt Taylor's allegation was found on any of three phones which were used by Supt Taylor between September 2014 and May 2015, after he was reassigned from the press office.

An iPad which was used by Ms O'Sullivan contained no evidence to support Supt Taylor's claim that he was instructed by Mr Callinan to give negative briefings, or that Ms O'Sullivan was aware of such an instruction.

An Apple iPhone 4 which had been used by Ms O'Sullivan, and was given to her son, also contained no relevant data, and all information recovered from the phone related to the former commissioner's son. Two Samsung Galaxy phones which were used by Ms O'Sullivan in 2016 and 2017 also contained no relevant evidence.

Mark McConnell of the FSNI said he examined a laptop used by Supt Taylor during his time as press officer, using a list of 33 keywords suggested by the tribunal.

Keywords included McCabe, Cabe, Whistleblower, Rat, child, child abuse, kiddy fiddler, reputation, negative publicity, and the name of Miss D. No files found using these words were relevant to the tribunal's inquiries.

Supt Taylor did not have access to his garda email account on the laptop, the tribunal heard. A search of an image of the computer hard drive also yielded negative results.

A computer which was used by Mr Callinan, and purchased from Garda HQ on his retirement, was wiped and reset to factory settings on April 4th, 2014, "in accordance with Garda protocol", tribunal barrister Ms Kathleen Leader said. No data before that date was available, Mr McConnell said.

Mr McConnell also examined various computer systems at Garda HQ, including the Garda PULSE system.

One garda system which holds garda correspondence, contained two "potentially relevant" files relating to Sgt McCabe but neither was about briefing negatively, Mr McConnell said.

One of these files related to a Fixed Charge Penalty system complaint. The second related to correspondence from the Northern Region assistant commissioner's office in Sligo containing a Tusla notification of suspected child abuse. The correspondence, received by Garda HQ on May 16th, 2014, contained a scanned PDF and a Word document.

The Tribunal has previously heard evidence of the creation of a Tusla file in error after a 2006 allegation against the sergeant resurfaced. The allegations by Miss D had been dismissed by the DPP after the 2006 garda investigation but when they resurfaced they were incorrectly recorded as a more serious allegation.

A copy of the Tusla notification was also held on FileShare, a file storage system. FileShare also contained seven documents relating to Sgt McCabe, which related to policing issues in the Cavan-Monaghan district. One of the documents, a "Chronological Sequence Report" made reference to the Miss D allegations.

Barrister Donal McGuinness, on behalf of Mr Callinan, asked the witness to confirm that "any information at all denigrating Sgt McCabe would have been considered relevant and no such information was found." Mr McConnell agreed this was the case.

Ms Leader said that there were two "privileged systems" Mr McConnell was not granted access to, and witnesses will give evidence on those systems tomorrow. Supt Taylor is scheduled to begin his evidence next week.By Aoife Nic Ardghail

The jury in David Drumm's conspiracy to defraud trial has been told that the prosecution will conclude its evidence next week.

Judge Karen O'Connor said that the trial, which is at day 72 of hearing, is getting very close to the conclusion.

Mr Drumm (51) of Skerries, Co Dublin, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring with former bank officials Denis Casey, William McAteer, John Bowe and others to defraud depositors and investors at Anglo by dishonestly creating the impression that deposits in 2008 were 7.2bn larger than they were.

The former Anglo Irish CEO has also pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to false accounting on December 3rd, 2008, by furnishing information to the market that Anglo's 2008 deposits were 7.2bn larger than they were.

Sinead McGrath BL, prosecuting, read the witness statement of Lorraine Hanrahan who had a managerial role at Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM) at the time.

In the statement, Ms Hanrahan confirmed she was aware of the September and October 2008 transactions between ILIM and Anglo Irish Bank. She stated that when she was briefed, she was told that the proposed deals were to be kept confidential.

She said she initially spoke with her own manager as she was concerned that the payments to be deposited with Anglo were large.

Ms Hanrahan told gardai that these transactions were non-standard because of the amounts involved and that it was not normal for Permanent TSB to have acted as an agent for ILIM in the deals. She said she had to use a temporary account during the 1bn transactions to balance statements and that it was unusual to put such amounts across this type of account.

The jury also saw copies of statements showing four transactions of 1bn between Anglo and Irish Life and Permanent.

Judge O'Connor reminded the four women and ten men of the enlarged jury not to carry out their own research or engage with anyone at the matter, before sending them for an extended weekend.

The trial continues in legal argument tomorrow with the jury returning on Monday for continuing evidence.Revenue officers in Cork have uncovered a cannabis grow house and seized 10,000 in cash in two separate operations.

Early yesterday morning, officers at Ringaskiddy Ferry Port seized 10,000 in cash when they stopped and searched a vehicle that was about to board the ferry to Roscoff.By Ann O'Loughlin

The Supreme Court will decide later whether to proceed with hearing an appeal concerning An Bord Pleanalas approval for the first phase of a 850m data centre for tech giant Apple in Co Galway.

While Apple has announced it has decided not to proceed with the centre at Athenry, Oisin Collins BL, for the objectors, Sinead Fitzpatrick and Allan Daly, said the appeal raises important legal issues relevant to similar projects which should be decided.

The disputed planning permission also remains extant, the court heard.

Nuala Butler SC, for An Bord Pleanala, said she would take instructions whether it will argue the appeal is moot or pointless given Apples decision not to build.

If the Supreme Court decides to proceed with the appeal, the State and environmentalist Peter Sweetman will also ask the court to be permitted to intervene.

Garret Simons SC, for the State, said, if the appeal is proceeding, the State wished to intervene in support of the Boards position.

Mr Collins, for the appellants, said he had been told by Mr Sweetman he wished to intervene because he had raised similar concerns as the objectors in this case in relation to a development by Amazon.

Ms Butler said there would be a "very strong objection" by her side to Mr Sweetman being permitted to intervene. There was precedent for the State to intervene in matters where there is a public interest, she added.

Earlier, Rory Mulcahy SC, for Apple, confirmed it had decided not to proceed with the development.

The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, made directions for motions to be brought setting out the positions of the sides and adjourned the matter to May 31 for further directions.

Apples announcement it is not proceeding comes after the Supreme Court last week said it would hear the appeal by Mr Daly, of Athenry, and Ms Fitzpatrick, who lives close to the site.

The court also indicated it may be necessary to make a preliminary reference of issues to the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU).

The court said one of the matters to be considered is whether a point of law arises concerning the application of broad general principles of EU law in particular cases and, if so, whether the court was obliged to refer issues to the CJEU.

An artist's impression oft he now-scrapped proposed Apple data centre in Athenry.

The central issue concerns the manner in which the Board was required by law to have regard to the potential expansion of the data centre project from one data hall to the possible construction of a total of eight data halls, the court said.

It said there may be a point of law of general public importance concerning the application of the relevant broad general principles of EU law to this category of case.

If such a point does arise, the court would then have to consider whether it must make a reference to the CJEU concerning provisions of the EU Treaty applying to a court of final appeal.

The applicants sought a Supreme Court appeal after the High Court's rejection of their case last October. They argued the Board was legally obliged to carry out an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of Apples entire masterplan for eight data halls, which would increase total demand on the national grid by 6-8%, and not an EIA of just one hall.

The overall grid connection planned at Athenry would have a footprint equal to Dundrum town centre but there is no national assessment and no strategic assessment concerning how data centres being built across the country will be supplied with energy, they said.By Tom Tuite

A 17-year-old boy was in a frenzy like state when he stabbed a shopkeeper seven times for a buzz during a drug-fuelled raid in Dublin, a court has heard.

The teen, who cannot be named because he is a juvenile, pleaded guilty at the Dublin Children's Court to assault causing harm and attempted robbery at Mace on the Lower Kimmage Road on the night of December 5th last when the owner was repeatedly stabbed.

He also admitted that he robbed the same shop of about 200 on April 20th, 2017.

The court heard the teenager suffered from mental health issues and had a drug problem. Sentencing was adjourned.

CCTV evidence of both incidents was shown.

During the raid on December 5th, the teen walked into the shop wearing a home-made balaclava and holding a knife. He approached the shop owner behind the till and stabbed him three times.

The shop keeper was forced back and continued to receive punches and was stabbed four more times as he fought off the youth who discarded his mask during the incident.

Garda Jason OCarroll told the court the boy was in a frenzy-like state, stabbing him numerous times.

The teens home was searched the following day and evidence was recovered. On arrest the boy immediately asked how the victim was, Garda OCarroll said.

When questioned the teenager claimed he did not know why he had done it and he maintained no one else had forced him to carry out the raid.

He was asked if he had done if for a buzz to which he replied yes, the court was told.

The shop owner had four stab wounds to his back, and one each to his left shoulder, his collar bone and his left hand. He needed 20 stitches, the court was told.

Judge John OConnor heard that during another raid on the same shop in April 2017, the boy entered with his face uncovered and he took a bottle of Smirnoff Ice from a shelf.

Security camera footage was shown of the teenager brandishing the bottle and holding it high as he approached a shop assistant at the till which he then opened.

He took 200 and fled.

Garda OCarroll agreed with defence counsel Alison Fynes that neither raid was sophisticated. He also agreed the teenager had been abusing substances at the time.

The court was told the boy, who was aged 16 at the time, had been abusing tablets and cannabis. He was easily led by his friends, counsel said and the garda accepted the youth had been hanging around with a bad crowd who were a bad influence on him.

The teen had no prior criminal convictions and until these incidents had only come to attention for minor public order matters.

However, gardai were also aware of a serious self harming incident in which he had phoned his local station to say he had taken a number of pills and he did not know what was going to happen. This led to his hospitalisation.

Ms Fynes told the court the boy, who was accompanied to court by his parents, had struggled with a mild learning disability and mental health issues: depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder and emotional disconnect

Medical reports were furnished to the court.

He had attended drug counselling and a mental health facility, the court was told. The boy has also been included in a support scheme to help defendants abide by bail terms.

He has to continue residing at his home address, sign on three days a week at his local garda station and obey a curfew from 10pm to 6am.

Judge John O'Connor has acceded to a garda request to impose another bail term banning the youth from going to the shop or nearby Sundrive Road "unless in a car with his mother".A Canadian tourist helped save a man from drowning during a dramatic river rescue in the centre of Cork city last night.

The alarm was raised at 7.28pm when a man entered the river at St Patrick's Quay, opposite Merchant's Quay shopping centre.

Investigations were still underway on Thursday night to establish how he man came to be in the water.

The female tourist, who was passing with a friend, saw the man in the water and dived in to help. She was joined in the water seconds later by a uniformed garda.

Five units of Cork City Fire Brigade rushed to the scene and realised they had to recover three people from the water.

Third officer Gerry Myers said they deployed an inflatable raft and a rescue basket and had the gear and three swift water rescue technicians in the water within three minutes of getting the call.

The specially trained firefighters recovered the woman and the garda first, before retrieving the casualty to the quay side.

The man then went into cardiac arrest but thanks to the swift action of fire fighters and National Ambulance Service paramedics, he was revived at the scene.

He was taken to the Mercy University Hospital where his

condition was described as serious but stable.

The garda and the tourist were in shock, but unhurt.

Mr Myers said he was very proud of the crew who were involved in the rescue.Update - 6.15pm: President Michael D Higgins is set to intervene in the cervical cancer tests scandal, saying he will meet with Emma Mhic Mhathuna after her heart-breaking news she has terminal cancer, writes the Irish Examiner's Fiachra O Cionnaith.

Speaking in Florence, Italy, today Mr Higgins said he is deeply saddened by what has happened and wants to offer whatever support he can to those who are affected.

"It's just a tragic, tragic, awful reality that she's facing and of course there are others too who are carrying the burden of an auditing system that has failed out citizens," the president said.

The unprecedented intervention came after Ms Mhic Mhathuna asked Mr Higgins to intervene in the scandal amid claims the Government and the HSE is failing to act on the issue.

In a heart-breaking interview on RTE Radio's Morning Ireland programme, the Kerry mother said she has terminal cancer and will be told how long she has left to live on Friday.

Update - 2.40pm: The mother of five caught up in the CervicalCheck scandal has explained how she had to tell her young children that she was dying.

In an interview today on An Saol o Dheas on RTE Raidio na Gaeltachta, Emma Mhic Mhathuna, has made an appeal to President Michael D Higgins.

'It hasn't hit me that I'm dying' - Emma Mhic Mhathuna speaks after terminal cancer diagnosis | https://t.co/Pi1tmGg05h pic.twitter.com/40WoGpBDn1  RTE News (@rtenews) May 10, 2018

She also said some of the most senior politicians in the country were like Teletubbies.

Emma explained to Helen Ni She how she had to sit down with her children to tell them she was dying yesterday. Emma is raising her children on her own as a single mum.

She said: I sat down and told them I was dying ... Oisin, hes six years of age, he asked if Id be coming back, dont go anywhere Mammy, do you not love me? He doesnt understand.

I had to ask them the awful question  do you want to be kept together ... I have a very hard job now because I have five children and my father lives in England.

Its hard to find a good family for one child, but for five ...

This morning, Donncha was on one side of me in the bed and Oisin was on the other, they fight over who can be beside Mammy in the morning... who will be able to take my place when Im gone?

"You cant put a price on (the importance of) my job.

In the interview on RTE Raidio na Gaeltachta, Emma appealed to the President to take a stand on the matter.

And Id like to say to the President, if hes listening, think about the women in your family, and ask yourself, if someone gave one of them cancer unnecessarily, what would you do?

"Its unbelievable. Women of Ireland are dying, they are the daughters and mothers of this country.

"I have five children, Vicky Phelan has two ... how many children will be without mothers after this scandal?

Emma also said that she had no confidence in politicians.

It has really upset me, because theyre all standing back and they know somebody has to take responsibility for killing the women of Ireland... Im very angry about it.

The English for our national anthem Amhran na bhFiann is The Soldiers Song, but theres no soldiers looking after us here.

"Theyre like Teletubbies. I have a new name for the Taoiseach, Tony and Simon  Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po, because they havent a clue what theyre doing.

10.07am: 'My children are going to be without me' - Mother reveals heartbreak after terminal cancer diagnosis

A mother-of-five who has been told she is going to die because of cancer has said she is not sure if her youngest child will even remember her.

Emma Mhic Mhathuna is one of the at least 209 women whose smear tests were incorrectly read, and subsequently went on to develop cervical cancer, despite having religiously attended CervicalCheck, the national screening programme.

She found out she was in that cohort last Sunday following a call from her doctor in Dublin where she had initially been treated after being diagnosed with stage 2B cervical cancer in 2016.

Ms Mhic Mhathuna said that, as a mother, telling her young family of her terminal diagnosis was the hardest thing she has ever done.

Ms Mhic Mhathuna had told the Irish Examiner: The doctor told me that the smear results I got in 2013 were wrong  the first indications of cancer, the cells changing in the body, were there.

If I had got the right results at that time, I wouldnt be where I am now  I had a kidney infection in January, I have a lung infection now. My life  well Im not too worried about my life, but the kids are very very young.

She told RTEs Morning Ireland today that it was her job to protect her children from bad news.

This morning she said: "This is what makes it so heartbreaking. I'm dying when I don't need to die ... This isn't fair.

My children are going to be without me and I'm going to be without them.

And I tried to do everything right and I don't even know if my little baby is going to remember me."

Ms Mhic Mhathuna, who had "such a good day" celebrating her child's confirmation on Tuesday, explained that she was meant to collect her results on the same day, but decided against it.

The Co Kerry resident was central to the HSE promotional video Im relieved that she is protected for the HPV vaccine last year.

She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2016 and was told it had spread to her bones.By Ann O'Loughlin

A woman who went in to hospital for a pain injection but later sued, claiming she was afraid she may have AIDS after a blood test was taken, has lost her High Court action.

Ms Justice Bronagh O'Hanlon dismissed the case of Kathryn Singleton who had claimed that a blood test was taken after undergoing a procedure under sedation at St Columcilles Hospital, Loughlinstown, Dublin.

At issue was the consent given by Ms. Singleton for the blood sample which was to check for Hepatitis and HIV after a doctor during the procedure had been pricked with a bloodied needle.

Ms Justice O'Hanlon ruled Ms Singleton understood fully the reason for the blood test, gave a full, free and informed consent to the procedure being carried out and showed alertness and full comprehension in that she was able to instruct that she did not want her GP to be informed of the result of the blood test..

The judge said the court found Ms Singleton had not been a credible witness and there were many inconsistencies in her evidence.

Costs of the case, which ran for six days and was described by the judge as "one of exceptional difficulty", will be decided at a later date.

Kathryn Singleton (58) from Liverpool, but who previously resided in Arklow, Co Wicklow, had sued what was then the East Coast Area Health Board.

She claimed that as she emerged from the effects of sedation at St Columcilles Hospital on May 1st, 2003, she was approached by a doctor who allegedly insisted on taking a blood sample from her because of some incident which had occurred in theatre during the procedure.

She claimed that as a result she suffered severe inconvenience, distress and personal injury and the taking of the blood sample, she alleged, constituted a breach of her constitutional right to bodily integrity.

She further claimed there was an alleged failure to provide her with an appropriate or adequate explanation for the taking of the blood sample and that there was an alleged failure to treat her with dignity and respect.

She further claimed a needle stick injury was allegedly allowed to occur in the course of her surgical procedure, thus placing her at risk and at no time was she given an appropriate explanation.

The claims were denied.

Ms Justice O'Hanlon said she accepted the evidence of the doctor who took the blood test as a truthful and credible witness.

She said his taking of the consent and the blood test from this patient was done with the same level of skill as any medical practitioner of equal status acting with ordinary care in accordance with the ethics of his own profession and in line with the standard required.Iraqi forces in co-ordination with US-backed Syrian forces have captured five senior Islamic State leaders, the US-led coalition said.

In a statement, coalition spokesman Army Colonel Ryan Dillon called the arrests a "significant blow to Daesh", using the Arabic acronym for the extremist group.A former University of Queensland staff member has been charged with more than 100 counts of fraud spanning six years.

Cindy Marianne Jean Johnston, 46, appeared in Brisbane Arrest Court briefly on Thursday morning charged with 116 counts of fraud, one count of forgery and one count of uttering a forged document.

The woman was a former University of Queensland employee. Credit:Danielle Cronin

It was alleged the former UQ financial officer, a school manager who worked there from 2011-2017 and who was known as Cindy Marianne Jean Van Der Gevel during her time at the university, "dishonestly" used a UQ bank card on numerous occasions between 2011 and 2017 across a number of greater Brisbane locations.

The University of Queensland referred the matter to police after internal processes detected financial anomalies, a UQ spokesperson said.The councils chief-executive, Colin Jensen, wrote to Cr Johnston on April 3 to inform her she would be fined $6307.50 as the panel had determined she engaged in misconduct.

Councillor Nicole Johnston: will take her own council to court over a conduct review panel decision. Credit:Glenn Hunt

Cr Johnston was the subject of a Councillor Conduct Review Panel hearing after she failed to leave a council budget meeting on June 22, 2017 , when council chairman Angela Owen directed her to do so.

Independent Brisbane City councillor Nicole Johnston will fight the council in the Supreme Court over a conduct review panel decision and a fine of more than $6300.

Court documents filed by Cr Johnstons solicitors allege the direction for her to leave the meeting were not made in accordance with the Meetings Local Law.

I say that because a) I was never given a warning as required by section 21(2)(d) and section 21 (3) of the Meetings Local Law 2001; and b) The chairperson never moved, or called on another councillor to move, a motion I be suspended as required by section 21(4) of the Meetings Local Law 2001; and c) The Purported Suspension Motion was therefore not moved of passed in accordance with the requirements of section 21 of the meetings Local Law 2001, Cr Johnstons signed affidavit, taken by her solicitor, said.

The raw transcript of the June 22 council meeting was submitted to the court.

In a statement, Cr Johnston said she was concerned she had been deliberately excluded from participating in council meetings as an elected representative contrary to the rules of procedure.

Expelling me as a duly elected representative for failing to leave a meeting and sanctioning me for failing to leave without even considering whether the decision to expel me was made in accordance with the Meetings Local Law 2001 undermines the integrity of our democratic system and is wrong, she said.Detectives are searching a Lockyer Valley property in relation to the disappearance and suspected murder of Sam Price-Purcell.

Mr Price-Purcell went missing from the Mitchelton area on February 16, 2015, when he was 25 years old. It is believed he travelled to the Toowoomba area.

Police are searching a property for more clues into Sam Price-Purcell's disappearance.

Detective Senior Sergeant Michael Jones said officers were at a Helidon property on Thursday morning searching for possible clues and personal items belonging to the missing man.

"The exact details of what we're looking for I'm not prepared to reveal at this stage but our investigation so far has led us to believe some evidence was disposed of at that location after Sam went missing," he said.A woman and her horse who vanished on a camping trip in Victoria's high country has been found safe after four nights lost in the bush.

Narelle Davies rode her horse, Depict, from a campsite at Howqua Hills, near Mt Buller, on Saturday but failed to return to her campsite.

Her family raised the alarm when she didn't return to her Mansfield home as planned on Monday.

Her disappearance sparked a massive search with authorities fearing for her welfare as a brutal cold front edges towards Melbourne.Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison look like they want a fight over tax cuts more than they want the tax cuts themselves.

The Prime Minister and Treasurer are prepared to take the entire $140 billion tax package to the brink of defeat so they can sharpen the contest with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten at the next election.

Yes, they are serious about the reform. It delivers on the Liberal Party's low-tax message. But they also want to wedge Shorten.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull outside Parliament House on Wednesday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The key question: will they hold out against Senate demands to split the package? So far, the Senate is calling their bluff. Every crossbencher knows from history that the government insists on the package deal right up until the moment it buckles.The government and opposition are playing down the possibility of a referendum to amend section 44 of the constitution and resolve the citizenship crisis, instead urging political candidates to be more diligent in ensuring they are eligible for Parliament.

The months-long saga ended the careers of another five MPs on Wednesday, with the High Court ruling Labor senator Katy Gallagher ineligible and triggering the rapid resignations of four lower house MPs. A 'super Saturday' of five byelections  including one stemming from another Labor MP's unrelated resignation  now looms as a test for both Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.

Labor MPs Justine Keay, Josh Wilson and Susan Lamb and Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie announced their resignations on Wednesday afternoon soon after the court ruled that former senator Katy Gallagher was still a dual citizen when she was formally nominated at the last election.

Susan Lamb, Josh Wilson, Justine Keay, Rebekha Sharkie and Tim Hammond (who resigned last week for family reasons). Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Asked how the Parliament would solve the crisis that began in mid-2017, Mr Turnbull told ABC radio the government had previously argued for a more lenient interpretation of section 44 but it was "very hard" to change the constitution.And that's where we'll wind up the blog.

It's been another day focused on tax cuts and citizenship. Mercifully, things were less frenetic than yesterday.

Keep an eye out for Bill Shorten's budget-in-reply speech tonight at 7.30.

The live blog will be back on May 21, when Parliament returns.

My name is Fergus Hunter  you can find me on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks to Alex Ellinghausen and Dominic Lorrimer for the pictures.As Bill Shorten chews on his old, now worthless guarantee that not one of his Labor MPs had a citizenship problem, he has another, even more potentially mortifying prospect dangling over his leadership.

Should even one of the three Labor MPs who have made a fool of him and his promise that there was no cloud over any of our people now lose to a Coalition candidate at the coming 'Super Saturday' of forced byelections, it will be a historic humiliation.

Only once since federation has a government won a federal byelection from the opposition party.The Turnbull government faces an unprecedented public test of its $140 billion tax cut plan as the citizenship crisis triggers a new round of byelections within weeks.

In a day of drama in Parliament, four Labor MPs and one independent were forced to quit for failing the citizenship test in the constitution despite claiming for months they were eligible.

The decisions clear the way for at least five byelections in federal seats next month where Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will campaign on the income tax cuts against growing objections to the plan from Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.

A clash over fairness threatens to derail the Coalition's sweeping income tax plan as new analysis reveals the cost will climb to more than $18 billion a year while delivering the biggest gains to wealthier workers.Mayors and councillors charged with serious integrity offences would be automatically suspended with pay, under planned changes announced by Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe on Thursday.

The Palaszczuk government will seek new powers to suspend or dismiss mayors and councillors during next weeks Parliament sitting.

Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe made the announcement on the Gold Coast on Thursday. Credit:Dave Hunt/AAP

Mr Hinchliffe said suspicion and distrust had impacted the entire sector, leading to a loss of public confidence and trust in councils.

The reputation of local government has taken a hit in Queensland, with current and former mayors and councillors in some of our biggest councils facing dozens of criminal charges, he said.The Queensland government will oppose federal moves to sell 80 hectares of Commonwealth land at Birkdale, which had been earmarked as a potential university site, for housing.

The land, on Old Cleveland Road East, was slated in Tuesdays federal budget to be sold to developers to build 400 new homes.

Queensland Planning Minister Cameron Dick and Capalaba MP Don Brown at the Birkdale bushland site.

State Planning Minister Cameron Dick confirmed the land was outside the urban footprint, the zone in which residential housing was allowed.

Mr Dick said the state governments south-east Queensland regional plan, ShapingSEQ, prohibited the use and subdivision of the land for residential housing.The hepatitis B virus has been infecting people since at least the Bronze Age, according to a new study by geneticists who teased the virus from 4500-year-old human remains.

One of these Xiongnu warriors, who fell in battle and were found in a mass grave in Mongolia, carried an ancient hepatitis B sequence. Credit:Alexey A. Kovalev via The Washington Post

Hepatitis B was discovered in the 1960s, and a vaccine (and Nobel Prize) came swiftly thereafter.

Despite the vaccine, the virus still kills people, and chronic infections cannot be cured. Nearly 900,000 people with the virus died in 2015, mostly from liver complications, according to the World Health Organisation. An estimated 257 million people carry the virus that targets the liver and can be a risk factor for cancer.

Wayward viral particles in the blood also catch in teeth and bones. In some ancient humans, the virus became entombed in these hard materials - until researchers cracked open the samples and sequenced the DNA strands inside.Washington: US President Donald Trump is preparing to impose new sanctions on Iran, perhaps as early as next week, to ensure it does not develop nuclear weapons.

"We are 100 per cent committed to making sure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told a news briefing, a day after Trump announced the United States was withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

US President Donald Trump is risking trade and other wars. Credit:AP

"We're going to continue to put maximum pressure, enormous sanctions on them.

"All of the sanctions that were in place before the deal are back in place and we are preparing to add additional sanctions that may come as early as next week."Trump, frustrated by news reports about a continuing investigation into his presidential campaign's ties to Russia and faced with criticism from key European allies for withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, was eager to celebrate a foreign policy triumph.

The return of the prisoners  Kim Dong-chul, Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song  to the United States removed a delicate obstacle as the president prepares to sit down with the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, for a landmark nuclear summit.

Washington: Three US prisoners freed from North Korea landed at the Andrews airforce base early on Thursday morning to a personal greeting from President Donald Trump.

Hours earlier, he had mused on Twitter about barring the news media from future events because of displeasure over what he perceived to be negative coverage of his administration. But dozens of journalists assembled at the air base early on Thursday, training their cameras on a large American flag that had been strung up on the tarmac as they awaited the arrival of the president and the freed prisoners.

The arrival of the men in Maryland capped a whirlwind journey for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who secured their release during a 13-hour visit to Pyongyang, the North's capital. He was in Pyongyang to arrange the summit meeting, which Trump hopes to use to persuade Kim Jong-un to abandon his nuclear weapons program.

The president spent the hours before the men's arrival in a celebratory mood. He mentioned in a Cabinet meeting that "everyone thinks" he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for overseeing the prisoners' release.

Loading

"But I would never say it," Trump continued. "The prize I want is victory for the world."Latest News Pepper and Aussie unite to make play for mortgage brokers to shift over to SME Linkup between lending and mortgage giants shows why brokers should be diversifying their business

Timelio lands Goldman Sachs deal to boost SME offering Platform that matches SMEs to investors for financing gets $270m cash facility

The governments support of open banking has been labelled a sensible approach by the industry.

A government statement said it will act to implement the recommendations in the final report of its independent review into open banking. The system will be phased in from July 2019, paving the way for the introduction of the governments Consumer Data Right (CDR) in the banking sector.

While financial data like credit and debit card, deposit and transaction data will be available from then, mortgages will not be included until February 2020. Personal loans and other data will be available from July 2020.

As part of the budget, treasurer Scott Morrison outlined $44.6million in funding over the next four years for a CDR, which will allow for users to access and transfer their data.

Open Banking will allow customers to share personal information with other financial institutions to help them find a better deal on expenses such as electricity bills, telecommunications and other items.

Australian Banking Association (ABA) CEO Anna Bligh said it was important to get this reform right with the security of customer data at the forefront of policy making.

She said, The ABA welcomes the governments announcement on open banking, which charts the way forward for this important reform which will empower customers.

The industry is pleased that the government has outlined a phased introduction that enables it to design a good system the will both benefit customers and protect their data.

Banks are committed to delivering this reform within the tight timeframe and are looking forward to seeing further details contained in the draft legislation as soon as possible.

Spotcap Australia and New Zealand managing director, Lachlan Heussler, believes the news will also help small businesses thrive by removing points of friction in everyday financial transactions.

He said, "The government response to the open banking review promises to revolutionise the current financial landscape in Australia, increasing choice and driving further innovation in the fintech and financial service industries.

Open banking has undeniable benefits in terms of consumer choice and experience. It will break down barriers, encourage competition and help consumers save money through improved price comparison and service switching options.

"As a fintech that is committed to empowering Australian businesses with accessible finance, open banking will allow Spotcap to serve customers in a much faster, safer and scalable way. It will allow us to innovate and develop new ways to help small businesses flourish and grow.

"Spotcap has already helped thousands of small businesses in Australia. We put the customer at the forefront of everything we do, and open banking will open the doors for us to help even more Aussie businesses gain access to much-needed capital to help them succeed. It's an exciting time for our industry, consumers and small businesses across Australia.

The funds allocated in the budget for the CDR are split between three separate organisations. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will receive $20.2m over the four years, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner will receive $12.9 and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) will receive $11.5.

Related stories:

Reverse mortgage plans a positive step

Regulators are being 'funded for action'

Budget reaction: 'Lack of attention' to housingSign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC

They are the eyes on the storm.

A new exhibit opening in Red Hook this weekend showcases the work of artists from Dominica and other Caribbean islands devastated by Hurricane Maria. Dominica After Maria, opening May 12 as part of the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalitions 40th season, will not only raise cash for disaster relief groups  it also offers a big boost for the artists involved, said the shows curator.

I organized this exhibit with the inclusion of other Caribbean artists because I wanted them to get the opportunity where people can support them and buy their work, or donate to the Caribbean disaster management, said Donna Mason.

Mason, an art agent, first travelled to the island nation of Dominica in 2010, and developed relationships with many artists there. After Hurricane Maria hit the island, she felt obligated to organize a charity event.

I am Jamaican, but Im very connected to Dominica, she said. I learned about the country and connected with a lot of artists, and after this hurricane, I knew those artists would illustrate their experiences and need help.

There are eight artists in the exhibit  four with Dominican roots, some with other connections to the island, and others from countries that have faced similar natural disasters, according to Mason.

Relateable story: This collage piece by Puerto Rican artist Johnny Camacho depicts the islands flag blended with the shape of the island. Photo by Zoe Freilich

One artist, Mercedes Nugent-Head, has painted an image of ocean waves inspired by stories from her late mother and grandmother, who were raised on Dominica. Nugent-Head, who lives in Guadeloupe, says that her painting hits a sore spot, since she has never been able to visit the island it depicts.

I never got to go to Dominica  and I was actually planning on going to Dominica, and then Maria hit, said Nugent-Head. When I get there one day, I hope to see what my mother talked about in her time there.

Puerto Rican artist Johnny Camacho, whose home island was also hit hard by Hurricane Maria, has a collage piece in the show. He says the exhibit is a rare chance for visitors to see the aftermath of a natural disaster though the eyes of artists who were affected.

A lot of people might be oblivious to all the islands that got hit and the people that need help, he said. So I think its great to see artists from the islands and get to see how their culture and upbringing is actually projected through their brushstrokes.

Dominica After Maria at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition [499 Van Brunt St., Door 7, at the water in Red Hook, (718) 5962507, www.bwac.org]. Opening reception on May 12; 16 pm. On display through June 17, SatSun; 16 pm. $5 suggested donation.

Reach reporter Alexandra Simon at (718) 2608310 or e-mail her at asimo n@cng local.com . Follow her on Twitter @AS1mon.Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC

Theyre leaf-ing it in a judges hands.

A group of Fort Greeners is taking the Department of Parks and Recreation to court after officials fibbed about the health of dozens of trees they want to chop down in Fort Greene Park to make way for their controversial makeover of a swath of the green space.

We found so much misinformation coming from the Parks Department, said Sandy Reiburn, a member of anti-redesign group Friends of Fort Greene Park, which filed the lawsuit last month. It is basically cutting down healthy trees for the purpose of a redesign  what other funny business is going on?

Last year, agency leaders claimed the trees in question wouldnt survive for much longer while trying to gain support for their plan to refashion a corner of the meadow near Myrtle Avenue and Saint Edwards Street, prompting Reiburn and a fellow friend of the park to request a report by city-hired arborists on the status of the plants  which the locals said showed the trees were perfectly healthy after they received the study via a Freedom of Information Law request.

And after uncovering that untruth, the friends of the park began to wonder what the agency withheld from another redesign-related report on the parks history and current condition, which arrived heavily redacted after the group submitted another foil request for that document, according to their lawyer.

Nothing makes anyone more curious than being told that you cant see something, said Michael Gruen. Its a good report, very thorough and objective  Im talking what we can see of it  and it is hard to imagine on what basis they removed large sections.

Gruen on April 20 submitted an Article 78 appeal  a legal motion that challenges decisions made by city or state agencies  to a Supreme Court judge in Manhattan, demanding officials fork over the entire contents of the redacted report that landscape architects prepared in 2015 as the Parks Department planned the makeover of Fort Greene Park, which calls for axing the mostly healthy trees and leveling some decades-old hilly mounds in order to install an open pedestrian plaza leading from the street to the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument.

The judge will decide whether the agency must fork over the full study in the next few weeks, according to Gruen, who said the ruling will determine whether the friends of the park will proceed with a more robust lawsuit to stop the redesign in its tracks.

Right now we have a case that can be decided quite quickly, he said. I hope that will tell us more, and if its necessary to do a suit over the actual project.

And even if the current court case cant upend the entire $10.5-million makeover  which is set to begin next year after being okayed by both the local community board and Landmarks Preservation Commission  its outcome could still lead Parks Department officials to reconsider axing the healthy trees, according to Reiburn.

Maybe this will slow them down to come up with a reasonable compromise where the trees remain viable, she said.

Earlier this month, another New York State court ruled in favor of journalists Article 78 suit against the city, granting them access to Mayor DeBlasios e-mails with a bigwig at a powerful consulting firm after the reporters argued the documents were necessary to determine what, if any, influence the man held over Hizzoners decisions while in office.

A Parks Department spokeswoman declined requests for comment, citing a policy not to discuss pending litigation.Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC

Police arrested a man suspected of killing a renowned educator while burglarizing his Flatbush home on May 7.

Paramedics pronounced Jeremy Safran  a professor of psychology at the New School in Manhattan  dead at the scene after authorities found him unconscious and unresponsive in the basement of his Stratford Road residence at 5:54 pm, while responding to a 911 call about the in-progress burglary, according to a police spokesman.

He had trauma to the head and body, the spokesman said.

Officers also found the 28-year-old suspect hiding inside a basement closet, and took the man into custody, later charging the Sheepshead Bay resident with murder and burglary, cops said.

Safrans death shocked faculty and students at the New School, where the 66-year-old academic gained acclaim for his work with psychotherapy, according to a spokeswoman for the institution.

Jeremy was deeply respected and admired by the New School community and his colleagues throughout the psychology profession, the rep said. We offer our deepest condolences to his family.

Police are still investigating the incident, and the medical examiner has not yet determined the cause of Safrans death, according to officials.A day after announcing $16 billion investment in India's largest online retailer Flipkart, Walmart Inc today said it will continue to grow its wholesale cash-and-carry business, taking the total number of stores to 50 in the next four-five years.

"We currently have 21 stores and plan to open 50 stores in 4 to 5 years. Plans are on track," Walmart India President and CEO Krish Iyer said at a select media roundtable called to explain the Flipkart deal.

Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon said Flipkart, in which the US retailer is acquiring 77 per cent stake, would continue to operate as a separate board-managed company with co-founder Binny Bansal as the Group CEO.

Flipkart gives Walmart an online presence. So far it had been handicapped by India's retail policy that does not allow overseas companies to sell directly to consumers (except in wholesale cash-and-carry segment).

Companies like Flipkart and Amazon operate as e-commerce marketplaces -- a segment where 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) is allowed.

"As we speak, we have a pipeline of 20 stores and we expect to open 5 stores in the current year and then pick up pace and eventually start opening 12-15 stores a year," Iyer said.

For the cash-and-carry business, Walmart currently operates in 9 states and 19 cities and the future expansion is focused on more or less the same geographies.

"We are not spreading thin. We are continuing in same geographies but primarily focus is on Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana," he said.

At its 21 Best Price wholesale stores, Walmart sells everything from fast-moving consumer goods to furniture to other retailers and institutions. It could potentially use these Best Price stores as pickup and delivery points to service online sales made on Flipkart.

Analysts believe that Walmart's investment in Flipkart, whose 34 per cent market share in India's online sales is ahead of rival Amazon's 27 per cent, will boost the Indian e-commerce company's logistical operations and help it move into new areas such as online groceries.

Walmart India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart Stores Inc and offers close to 5,000 items through its cash-and-carry wholesale format.News of Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal's exit from the company had surfaced even before the Walmart deal was finalised. Now, with the Walmart-Flipkart deal following through, Sachin Bansal has put up an emotional post on Facebook, bidding adieu to the company he started a decade ago in a 2BHK-flat in Bengaluru's Koramangala with Binny Bansal.

"Sadly my work here is done and after 10 years, it's time to hand over the baton and move on from Flipkart. But I'll be watching and cheering from the outside - Flipsters, you better continue to do a good job!" Bansal wrote in the post with equal measures of nostalgia and encouragement.

Talking about what he would be doing in his time off, Bansal said, "I'll be taking some long time off and focus on finishing a few personal projects which I haven't been able to find time for. Will catch up on gaming (and see what kids are playing these days) and brush up on my coding skills."

He also added that Flipkart upheld customer centricity and that he got to work with the best people in these years, took on some of the biggest challenges and solved many complex problems.

On Wednesday, US retailer giant Walmart Inc acquired 77% stake in home-grown Flipkart for $16 billion making it the biggest acquisition till date. The value of Flipkart now stands at $20.8 billion.

Sachin Bansal would sell his entire 5.5% stake in the company for $1 billion, reports suggest. However, co-founder and Group CEO Binny Bansal along with Chinese investment giant Tencent Holdings, US hedge fund Tiger Global and Microsoft will continue to hold their stake in the new entity.

Reports had suggested earlier that Sachin Bansal was planning to leave the company due to disagreements on strategies drawn up by Walmart.

Sachin and Binny Bansal - who are not related - met each other in IIT Delhi as students. From there, they went on to Amazon to work as interns before starting their own company. In the beginning, Flipkart sold only books. The duo would stand outside Gangaram Book Stores on Bengaluru's Church Street to distribute free bookmarks and target the right audience. Three years later in 2010, Flipkart expanded its catalogue to include electronics, mobiles, games, music and movies before further expanding to include personal care products, large appliances, laptops, cameras and stationery in 2011. They eventually acquired Myntra in 2014, Jabong in 2016, and finally eBay became a part of the group in 2017.After the Flipkart-Walmart deal yesterday, all eyes are on the homegrown giant. Although how it will alter the Indian e-commerce ecosystem remains to be seen, experts and bystanders alike are voicing their opinions. One amongst them is Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who like Sachin and Binny Bansal, is known for building an empire from scratch.

Once the deal was sealed, Sharma took to Twitter to congratulate the company. He called the deal an 'incredible outcome' for every believer of Flipkart and an answer to those who were dismissive of Indian start-ups. "This is 1 Lakh crore+, all cash deal! I call it, perfect answer to those who were dismissive of Indian startups in an open-for-all market. What an incredible outcome for every believer of Flipkart. (sic)" he tweeted.

This is 1 Lakh crore+, all cash deal !

I call it, perfect answer to those who were dismissive of Indian startups in an open-for-all market. What an incredible outcome for every believer of @Flipkart . https://t.co/uiG9gSTK7v - Vijay Shekhar (@vijayshekhar) May 9, 2018

Vijay Shekhar Shama had voiced his support for the Flipkart-Walmart deal before as well. In an exclusive interview to The Economic Times, Sharma had earlier said that the deal is good for India. "This is the perfect example of perseverance, aggression and relentless hard-work," he said.

As for his own company, Paytm has been growing by leaps and bounds. Earlier this year reports mentioned that the payments app reached a valuation of $10 billion. After RBI rolled out its KYC requirements for e-wallets, Paytm recorded a fall of 10-15% in its transactions in early March. However, the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-helmed company pulled up their numbers in April. In fact, this year, Sharma is looking at Rs 5,000 crore of investment in the business.

"These are early build-ups, so they will take a lot more money than other categories. This year, we are looking at more than Rs 5,000 crore of investment, including payments and financial services. The majority will be in financial services," Sharma told the newspaper.

On Wednesday, US retailer giant Walmart Inc acquired 77% stake in home-grown Flipkart for $16 billion making it the biggest acquisition till date. Flipkart's valuation now stands at $20.8 billion.President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a historic summit on June 12 in Singapore where the US leader will try to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. It will be the first ever summit between the leaders of the two countries. The two men exchanged fiery rhetoric last year over North Korea's attempts to build a nuclear weapon that could reach the United States but tensions have since calmed considerably.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" Trump said on Twitter. Trump's announcement came just hours after three Americans who had been held prisoner in North Korea arrived at a US military base outside Washington, having been released by Kim.

Trump said on their arrival that he believed Kim wanted to bring North Korea "into the real world" and had high hopes for their planned meeting. "I think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful," Trump said. "My proudest achievement will be - this is part of it - when we denuclearize that entire peninsula."

South Korea government said it had high hopes for the summit. "We welcome the North Korea-US summit to be held in Singapore on June 12. We hope the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula as well as permanent peace on the peninsula will successfully come about through this summit."

The choice of Singapore will put the summit on friendly turf for Trump, as the island nation is a strong U.S. ally and the US Navy frequently visits its port.

US officials had looked at several sites other than Singapore for the historic meeting but each was seen as problematic.

Trump's own preference was for the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, but aides argued that this would look too much like Trump going to Kim's turf. A quick trip to Pyongyang was also seen as bad optics for Trump, U.S. officials said. Mongolia was considered but was seen as too close to China, they said.10 May 2018, 2:38 PM

Walmart to pay $16 billion for control of Flipkart

Walmart Inc said on Wednesday it will pay $16 billion for a roughly 77 percent stake in Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart, the U.S. retailer's largest-ever deal as it competes with Amazon.com Inc in an important growth market. Walmart's acquisition opens a new front in its battle with Amazon, which had expressed interest in making a competing offer. Amazon holds about 27 percent of India's burgeoning e-commerce market, according to Euromonitor, where Walmart only operates 21 cash-and-carry wholesale stores in the country that sell to businesses. Walmart expects the deal to help set it up "for growth and profits in the future," Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said on a call with investors as reported by Reuters

Walmart CEO says deal will empower Flipkart employees

Just hours after announcing Walmart's acquisition of Flipkart in the biggest e-commerce deal in the history, Walmart President and CEO, Doug McMillon sent out his remarks to Flipkart employees saying that the deal was the best decision they have ever made. Addressing the change in ideals after the takeover, McMillon assured, "Our values are very much aligned. Respect in people, striving for excellence, acting with integrity, doing things we can be proud of, and the customer focus." On the synergies of the deal, McMillon said the Bengaluru-based company can take advantage of Walmart's resources supply chain and retailing expertise - while Flipkart could share its experience and expertise in building an entire ecosystem around online commerce business.

Google announces Android P Beta, built on machine learning and artificial intelligence

The keynote at the Google I/O 2018 was all about artificial intelligence and machine learning. The search giant launched many features across products including Google Compose, which helps in writing emails faster, new Google News app with AI, Android P and more. With the Android P Beta, Google aims to make Android smarter and easier to use than ever. Android P has machine learning at its core and will help the smartphone learn and adapt as per the usage. Google has partnered with Deep Mind, the world leader in artificial intelligence, to build Adaptive Battery for Android P.

Noida International Airport project to be completed by 2022

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) on Tuesday gave in-principle approval to the Uttar Pradesh government to build Noida International Airport at Jewar, a town situated about 100 kms away from New Delhi. This will be the second airport in the Delhi NCR region that will be expected to give relief to the existing airport in Delhi which is bursting at the seams. The bidding process is likely to start in the first week of July. The state government has formed an expert committee that will into the rehabilitation and resettlement process. The land acquisition process is expected to start by early June.

Vijay Mallya can be regarded as 'fugitive from justice', says UK High Court

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, wanted in India to face charges of fraud and money laundering of around Rs 9,000 crore, can be regarded as a "fugitive from justice", the UK High Court has concluded. Judge Andrew Henshaw, who upheld a worldwide freeze order and ruled in favour of 13 Indian state-owned banks to recover funds amounting to nearly 1.145 billion pounds in a judgment, took note of the fact that the 62-year-old businessman is contesting his extradition to India relating to "alleged financial misconduct".



Chhota Bheem readies for Netflix and a new 3D project

Chhota Bheem, the popular cartoon character, which recently completed its 10 years, has powered its way in to Netflix. Being billed as the India's first Netflix original television show for children, a new version of the cartoon character would soon be available on the online streaming platform. The character, which is called "Mightly Little Bheem", would be a baby and therefore won't speak and this would make it possible for the channel to broadcast the content across the 190 countries. Rajiv Chilaka, the founder and CEO of Greengold Animation, creator of Chhota Bheem, informed Business Today that the company recently signed with Netflix for the show and is currently working on the production.Jazeera Airways starts services to Mumbai

Mumbai, May 9 (PTI) Low-cost Kuwaiti carrier Jazeera Airways, which commenced its India operations last November, will start flight services to Mumbai from May 10.

The Middle East-based airline will fly seven-times a week on the Kuwait-Mumbai route with its dual-class Airbus A320 aircraft, the Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) said in a release today.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) is set to receive Kuwaits Jazeera Airways, which will start flight services to Mumbai from May 10, the release added.

By commencing operations to the CSIA, Jazeera Airways has become one of the largest carriers into India from Kuwait, it said.

MIAL is a joint-venture company that operates the city airport.

Set up in April 2004 as the first private airline in the West Asia, Jazeera launched India operations with a direct flight to Hyderabad from Kuwait on November 17 last year.

The Mumbai airport has 53 passenger airlines operating to 96 destinations in the country and across the globe, accounting for 17 per cent of the overall air traffic in India, the release said.

"A growing Indian expatriate population in Kuwait and strengthening trade ties between India and Kuwait are fueling demand for travel between the two countries," the release said adding, the new services will especially benefit business travellers between the two country.

Jazeera has a fleet of eight Airbus A320 planes and plans to expand the fleet to 15 planes by 2020. PTI IAS RAM SS SS SS SSEven though its founding CEO Aditya Puri has got over two years to serve before he hangs up his boots, the HDFC Bank management is not taking any chances. India's largest private sector lender will start hunting for the next-in-line to fill in CEO's shoes 18-24 months ahead of Puri's retirement. Not just this, the successor will also get to work closely with Puri for a year. During the 12-month overlap period the incoming CEO will get learn the tricks of the trade hands-on from Puri.

At an analyst meet, HDFC Bank's Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Aditya Puri, who will retire in October 2020, laid down a roadmap for the succession planning. Puri said that the depth of leadership at the bank will ensure that the transition is smooth.

Puri, who has been the Managing Director of the Bank since September 1994, said that the talent for CEO's post could be internal or external and an announcement will be made in the next 18 months.

Puri is credited with building India's biggest bank in terms of market valuation from scratch. At a time when Puri's peers at Axis Bank and ICICI Bank are caught up in controversies, the market capitalisation of HDFC Bank crossed Rs 5 lakh crores early this year. The bank became third company to achieve this milestone in India after TCS and RIL. According to Goldman Sachs, HDFC Bank will touch the market cap of $100 billion by 2020.

Puri has been at the helm of HDFC Bank since its inception, making him the longest-serving chief executive of any private-sector bank in the country. Puri has over 40 years of experience in the banking sector in India and abroad.

According to BloombergQuint, the bank's top management told analysts that growth was on track. Even if there is a moderate recovery in the capex cycle, this is unlikely to derail retail credit growth. Retail credit growth will continue to do well at least for the next five years driven by under-penetration. HDFC Bank will focus on organic growth and M&A is not on the table.How long does it take for your favourite food delivery app to bring your order to your doorstep? About 30 minutes in the best case scenario, we're guessing. How about a 5-minute delivery time? Well, that's the next big thing that Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is now promising. "Push a button and get food on your doorstep," he reportedly told the crowd at the recent Uber Elevate Summit, adding that Uber is already the world's largest food delivery business.

According to Bloomberg, Uber Technologies Inc. is planning to deliver food by drone in San Diego, USA, as part of a wide-reaching commercial test program approved by the federal government on Wednesday. The US Department of Transportation has selected 10 state, local and tribal governments in partnership with a handful of top companies, including Uber, Alphabet Inc., FedEx Corp., Intel Corp. and Qualcomm Inc., for the most far-reaching test program to date for burgeoning drone commerce.

Hamburgers via drones was not the only grand plan revealed at the 2nd Annual Uber Elevate Summit, which recently concluded in Los Angeles. According to The Financial Times, the company also set out a detailed plan to fill the skies with thousands of short-range electric aircraft and announced a partnership with NASA, the US aeronautics agency, to model an urban air-traffic control system. As Khosrowshahi put it, "Uber can't just be about cars. It has to be about mobility".

For the uninitiated, Uber Elevate is a relatively new product that the company is investing in, which explores the potential of vertical take-off and landing vehicles. On Khosrowshahi's maiden visit to India in February, he had told the media that "Ultimately, what we want to create is not only anUber on the ground but also one in the sky. With battery technology rapidly improving in terms of size, power and storage, we believe we are now in a position for manufacturers to build vehicles with multiple rotors that make this possible." Of course, he had added that it would take about five years or so for such vehicles to be available on a pilot basis.

At the very least, the talks about air mobility by the impressive speaker list at the summit and all the data thrown at the attendees helped deflect attention from Uber's grounded autonomous-car program. The company had suspended all North American tests of its self-driving vehicles in March after one such car hit and killed a woman crossing the street in Arizona.

The report added that according to Khosrowshahi, Uber would resume testing in "the next few months", once the National Transportation Safety Board completed its investigation.Xiaomi launched the Redmi S2 at an event in China. The device was listed on China's e-tailer, Ali Express' website which also revealed most of the specifications of the device. The device seems to be built specifically with India and China in mind. So far, there's no report about the company launching it here. However, Xiaomi is expected to bring the device to India and place it in the crowded mid-range segment.

The USP of the phone is a 16 megapixel front facing snapper with 2um micron pixel size and the budget price. Xiaomi is trying to capitalize on the selfie-phone market by introducing a second phone in the budget range; the first was the Redmi Y1 which also comes with a 16megapixel sensor. The selfie camera of the phone is the biggest highlight. It comes with AI portrait mode and AI beautification.

The primary camera comes with a dual-lens setup. It features a combination of 12megapixel and 5-megapixel sensors with pixel size of 1.25um microns.

The new Redmi S2 comes in two variants, one with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage and the other with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. Xiaomi revealed the prices of the device with the 3GB RAM variant priced at CNY999 (Roughly Rs 10,500) and the top variant at CNY 1299 (roughly Rs 14,000).

During the launch event the Chinese company compared its latest device with other selfie-centric phones like Oppo A3 and Vivo Y85.

The device is powered by Snapdragon 625 which can still be spotted on various Xiaomi devices selling in India, including the Redmi Note 5.

The Redmi S2 will have a 5.99-inch display with HD+ resolution (720 x 1440 pixels) and an 18:9 aspect ratio screen with narrow bezels.

It will come with Android 8.1 Oreo based MIUI 9 operating system. The handset will be powered by the Snapdragon 625 SoC with Adreno 506 for graphics.

The Redmi S2 will come with an array of colour choices namely Black, Rose Gold, Gold, White, Blue, Red, Pink, Grey and Silver.

According to the TENNA listings, the smartphone will have microSD card support up to 256 GB for storage expansion. However, the Aliexpress listing shows the same at 128 GB. The Redmi S2 will have a batter of 3080mAh.The latest Morgan McKinley Ireland Employment Monitor was released today. The report measures the pulse of the Irish professional jobs market by tracking the number of new job vacancies and new candidates within the Republic of Ireland each month.

The monitor shows that the number of professional job vacancies available in April 2018 increased by 5.5% nationally since March. Overall, the availability of professional jobs reduced by 11.5% in April 2018 compared to the same month a year ago.

There was also a reduction of 1.2% in the number of professionals seeking new roles in April compared to the previous month. The monitor also recorded a marginal increase of 0.2% in the number of professionals actively seeking new job opportunities in April 2018, compared to April 2017. Morgan McKinley say this reflects improving economic conditions and overall balance in the professional jobs market in a climate where unemployment has fallen below 6% for the first time in over a decade.

Most in demand positions in April 2018 included Data Analyst, Business Analyst, Data Protection/Data Privacy Officer, Multilingual Technical Support, Quality Manager, Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning Engineer, Communications Specialist, Management Accountant and IT Project Manager.

Morgan McKinley say opportunities in the Legal Sector are being created in the local market at an increased pace. The employment experts believe there are two main reasons for this - uncertainty over Brexit and GDPR. Both conditions represent uncharted territory whereby legal firms are aiming to assist clients to navigate through Brexit and GDPR with advice and clarity.

Commenting on the monitor, Global FDI Director at Morgan McKinley Ireland, Trayc Keevans said, "Overall April was very strong from a jobs announcement perspective particularly from the Biopharma sector. We saw a number of large multinationals make significant job announcements in regional locations such as Dundalk, Louth and Meath ahead of locations such as Dublin and Cork. We are now seeing the regions really starting to compete with urban locations in terms of job creation particularly in new emerging technologies."

Source: www.businessworld.ieOver 100 delegates from leading Irish-based tech firms attended an event yesterday in Dublin themed Successful Scaling which was run by Technology Ireland in association with Bank of Ireland.



At the event, delegates heard insights in terms of why Irelands technology sector is among the most dynamic areas in the Irish economy. Those in attendence discussed strategies on selling product solutions to large corporates, balancing support for current offers while still focussing on innovation and future offerings, and the lessons learnt on access to funding.

Bank of Ireland revealed that it had increased its lending to Irish Technology firms by 150% in 2017 and forecast that projected revenues of indigenous tech firms are set to grow by 20% in 2018 to 3.5bn.



Speaking yesterday, Head of Technology Sector at Bank of Ireland, Adrian Mullett said, Given this growth, we are setting up a dedicated technology sector relationship team to manage mid-market technology companies exclusively with an initial focus on the Dublin region. This is in addition to our well established national sector expertise support model. This extra support will allow Bank of Ireland to better serve technology companies and capitalise on the growth in lending we have delivered."



Director of Technology Ireland, Paul Sweetman added, "The success of Irish software and technology companies is built on an ecosystem of collaboration. We are delighted that Bank of Ireland has partnered with us on this mornings event and thankful for their continued support of the Technology Ireland Innovation Forum."

Source: www.businessworld.ieIt was announced today that Apple has scraped its plans to build a 850m data centre in Athenry, Co Galway, citing delays in the Irish planning process. This was in relation to a Supreme Court appeal against An Bord Pleanalas decision to grant planning permission on their lands in Athenry.

The data centre would have been one of the largest in Europe with 300 temporary construction jobs and 50 permanent technical jobs for the site at Derrydonnell Woods, near Athenry.

It was designed to service Apples European business in online services for Apple Music, iCloud, the App Store, Messages, Maps and Siri.

Apple is the new top company In Ireland with sales of 119bn according to The 2018 edition of The Irish Times Top 1,000 Companies list which was released today.. Disclosures made last year as part of a European Commission into its tax affairs revealed that Apple puts all its sales outside of the US through Ireland and as a result of its massive turnover it dominates the 2018 listings.

Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys, has expressed dissappointment with the decision. Speaking today, Minister Humphreys said, "I very much regret that Apple will not be pursuing its plans to construct a data centre in Athenry, especially as the project would have been a source of significant investment and job creation for Galway and the West of Ireland. Notwithstanding this bad news, I welcome that Apple have confirmed that they are strongly committed to their existing operations in Ireland. The Government, together with IDA Ireland, did everything it could to support this investment. This included high-level engagement with the company, both at home and abroad. Ultimately, in spite of these efforts, Apple has taken a commercial decision not to proceed, making it clear that the delays that beset this project caused them to reconsider their plans."

She added, "These delays have, if nothing else, underlined our need to make the States planning and legal processes more efficient. The Government has therefore already been working, over the last number of months, to make improvements to those processes. This will ensure we are better placed to take advantage of future such investment opportunities, whether from data centre providers or other sectors."

Source: www.businessworld.ienews, latest-news

Good morning Canberra! You're in for some rain today and temperatures are dipping as low as zero degrees. There's even a chance of a thunderstorm... with small hail. It'll also get no warmer than 11 degrees. There's no way to put a positive spin on that. Let's talk about something else. Here's today's top headlines instead. Universities are rife with binge drinking culture. Their students are some of Australia's biggest drinkers, and 80 per cent of those drinking do so to get drunk, a survey of first year students reveals. Fourth year ANU student Tess Masters says binge drinking on campus is highly visible and almost expected. A new campaign will aim to change attitudes to student drinking on university campuses and reduce the problem. Daniella White reports on the initiative. The ACT government has extended its poker machine transfer scheme for another year, but clubs are waiting for new laws to implement a promised 4000 cap meant to replace it. Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay has introduced a bill to extend the scheme until August 2019, a year longer than the original timeline set by then-minister Joy Burch in 2015. Meanwhile casino owners Aquis face a deadline next week to respond to the government on its plans for its unsolicited bid for a $300-million-odd redevelopment. Daniel Burdon looks into the trading scheme in this story. Squash is a vigorous but ultimately non-contact sport. No one would think that, in middle age, players would be able to come out winners in a fight with some thugs. After vandals did thousands of dollars of damage to Sue Parker's Hyundai i30 when it was parked outside the Weston Creek Community Centre in Parkinson Street on Wednesday, this assumption was put to the test. And the squash players came out on top. Megan Doherty spoke to Ms Parker about the brawl. A day after Labor's Katy Gallagher was booted from parliament in a High Court decision, the ACT is picking up the pieces and looking at what went wrong. Former speaker and Canberra Liberal Vicki Dunne said the ACT parliament inadvertently misled the Governor-General by nominating Ms Gallagher, and an inquiry into what happened would go some way to amending that. Her comments came as ACT Labor secretary Matt Byrne defended the partys role in Ms Gallaghers nomination, and committed to review the partys processes. Katie Burgess and Sally Whyte have the latest information in this unfolding saga. A new suburb planned for Canberra's north could worsen the risk of flooding along some of Canberra's light rail route that was inundated during a one-in-100-year weather event earlier this year. The ACT government has signed a $126,000 contract with an Australian engineering firm to investigate the risk of flooding on Flemington and Morriset Roads. Both already are prone to flooding and development in the new Gungahlin suburb of Kenny could worsen the situation, the contract signed last month says. Katie Burgess reports here on the documents.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/fa4b1033-a8b0-474c-9195-b34182f2ec97/r0_233_4500_2775_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, latest-news

Canberra Grammar School students have put in some backbreaking work to help rebuild classrooms devastated in the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal. The group of 21 students, teachers and parents travelled to the country with Canberra charity REACH for Nepal in April, on the third anniversary of the disaster. The April 2015 earthquakes claimed more than 8000 lives and left reconstruction bills amounting to billions of dollars. Grammar not only raised $10,000 that covered the cost to rebuild the four classrooms, but also directly assisted in the rebuild of the rooms. The trip was part of their outdoor education unit. The school's department head Sue Donoghoe said there was lots of hands-on work to do. "The volunteers from CGS carried 1400 blocks and moved 10 tonnes of sand and cement from outside the remote schools boundary to the building site using makeshift utensils,'' Ms Donoghoe said. "They then mixed the cement and assisted in the laying of the large blocks, as well as painted doors and window frames.'' The rebuild project coincided with the third anniversary of the earthquakes and the local villages in the area were very grateful for the generosity shown by the CGS volunteers. "It was a great experience for our students and all those involved  it was very rewarding work,'' Ms Donoghoe said. The Canberra-based foundation REACH for Nepal was established in August 2015 in response to the earthquakes earlier that year by friends Lachhu Thapa and Lou Nulley. "This is the largest project to date undertaken by the REACH for Nepal foundation," co-founder Mr Nulley said. The objectives of the foundation are defined in the acronym of its name  Rebuild, Educate, Assist, Children/Communities (giving) Hope for Nepal. "We have completed 10 major projects to date in a number of villages, but this project is the biggest in terms of the number of people volunteering and funds raised. It is also the first project sponsored by a school,'' Mr Nulley said. For more information about the work of the foundation or ways in which you can contribute, visit reachfornepal.org. Mr Nulley said he hoped other schools and institutions could consider making the same life-changing trip. "Thereby not only benefitting the people in Nepal, but also those here in Canberra who get great joy in making a real difference in the lives of those less fortunate than themselves by volunteering their time and donating funds,'' he said.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/d78527e4-ce2c-406e-8c15-0d80e65319ec/r0_126_1280_849_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, latest-news

It's 30 years since Queen Elizabeth II opened a grandstand named in her honour at Thoroughbred Park in Canberra - and provided an opportunity for one of the great photographs of larrikin PM Bob Hawke. While the Queen's chief purpose during her 1988 visit to Canberra was to open the new Parliament House and celebrate Australia's bicentenary, she also performed many other official duties including opening the purpose-built Queen Elizabeth II Grandstand on May 8 of that year. The same day she indulged her love of the gee-gees by attending the QEII Bicentennial Stakes, organised by the ACT Racing Club. The Queen watched Beau Zam trained by Bart Cummings take out the race, sitting in the grandstand a little more impassively than Hawke who unashamedly cheered on the victor over New Zealand performer Bonecrusher. The race day was attended by 16,000 people. To celebrate the anniversary, a gallery of items showcasing horse racing in the ACT region since the 1800s is now set up in the foyer of the Canberra Racing Club at Thoroughbred Park. The public is invited to come and have a look at the local equine history.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/cd153db3-dcd2-4e64-88e7-167320fee72a/r0_442_4788_3147_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, latest-news

A man, Pete, comes home drunk and abusive one night in a rural Australian town and strikes his wife. It's a frequent occurrence but this time his family's reaction is different. Something snaps and one of his daughters knocks his legs out from under him, the other hits him in the head and his wife shoots him in the neck. What do they do next? And how will the town - which has previously ignored Pete's abusive behaviour - react to the disappearance of one of its own? Brenna Harding, who plays younger daughter Ida in Angus Cerini's play The Bleeding Tree, said one woman a week was killed in Australia through domestic violence. She said she hoped one day social justice would prevail and the work could be regarded as a period piece. The setting and time of the play are unspecified but Sophie Ross, who plays Ida's older sister Ada, said, "What's really important about The Bleeding Tree is it could be set now. It's very pressing and important now. It could be set now, it could've been set 50 years ago. "Why do we all know the statistics and do nothing? We all know it's very important and a major problem - we're still searching for some sort of solution." Ross said The Bleeding Tree was unusual in that the major event of the play, the killing, was presented at the beginning. "It starts in a level of high drama, shock, grief." Then, she said, it went on to deal with such issues as what to do with the corpse as well as the reactions of other people - all played by Harding, Ross and Paula Arundell, who plays Mum. The Bleeding Tree, directed by Lee Lewis, premiered at Griffin Theatre Company in 2015 with Arundell, Shari Sebbens as Ada and Airlie Dodds as Ida and won Helpmann Awards for best play, best direction and best female actor. It also won the NSW Premier's Literary Award. In 2016 the same production was presented by the Sydney Theatre Company and now Griffin is taking the play on tour, with Arundell from the original cast joined by Harding and Ross, all of whom have extensive stage and screen credits. The Bleeding Tree is on at The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre, until Saturday, May 12. Bookings: canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 62752700.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/96e2fd95-f232-4b3d-9709-fed2d1e95460/r0_229_4500_2771_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, latest-news

Is NAPLAN on next week? Well there you go. So much for the fever which is gripping schools around the country. My sons school hasnt sent home one ounce of information about it. Mind you I may have just missed it. Because its not like Im stressed by NAPLAN at all. And I only tend to pay attention to notes which Im interested in, like where rugby is next weekend, or what novel theyre meant to be reading in English. Mind you, Im at the end of my NAPLAN journey. My daughter first sat the test in year three in 2010, just two years after the standardised testing was introduced. Shes in year 11 now, done with it all. My son is in year nine so this is his last hurrah too. Not that any of us have ever given much of a hurrah about it, ever. For me, it just happens to be another way for them to fill in a couple of hours at school on any given Wednesday in May. Like lunch, or a science lesson, or a spelling test, or a mammoth Snapchat streak. Dont get me wrong. The data, when taken as a whole, has many benefits. Theres a lot to be learned about how your child is tracking, how Australia, as a nation, is tracking, so we can make improvements across all sorts of levels. But if you think the only way to judge educational performance is from NAPLAN results then perhaps youre the one who should be going back to school. Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said last week NAPLAN provides parents with a valuable update on their childs literacy and numeracy skills. NAPLAN will not be going away any time soon because it is an important deliverable in terms of giving Australian parents information about how their child is tracking," he said after a meeting of the nation's education ministers. Well true, but any parent with half a brain knows that in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter too much. The kids know it, probably before their parents do. By time they reach their final test in year 9, theyve worked it out, with results in that year group consistently falling away since the first cohort tracked the whole way through. Nothing says I dont care like a bunch of 15-year-olds. As parents, perhaps we should be taking our lead from the kids and re-thinking our whole approach to it as well. Earlier this week Fairfax columnist Kasey Edwards wrote a piece which irked me. NAPLAN encourages parents  and children  to make the mistake of believing that a test score is a measure of our childrens intelligence and potential, she wrote. NAPLAN has never encouraged me to think anything. Who really believes that a one-off test is any indication of anything their child is about? Maybe the same parents that NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes, who opposes the testing, talks about when he says NAPLAN has spawned a small industry of businesses extorting money from desperate parents. For me, if youre that parent, you deserve to have your money fleeced. Ive taken a whole different approach in recent years to school results and testing and scores. When I attend parent-teacher nights I want to hear that my children are engaged, that theres some effort there, that theyre asking lots of questions, that their teachers enjoy teaching them. Do I care where theyre ranked in the class, or the year? No, because all our kids are different. Failing year nine maths does not mean my child will be a failure. Im buoyed by the idea that our universities seem to be thinking this way too. While a minimum ATAR will still be required for courses, universities are also considering co-curricular and community contributions when it comes to selecting who they want in their hallowed halls. Our own Australian National University is a leader in taking this approach. An education is about so much more than a mark. Our best educators are realising that. But that said, my children are lucky enough to have parents who are engaged, who care about their education, in an holistic sense, who might notice when things arent going so well and then be able to instigate a discussion with the school on how that might be rectified. Not all children are so lucky. When the Gonski 2.0 report was released in late April it discussed a whole range of issues, from changes in NAPLAN, to curricula reviews to opening up more apprenticeships in a school-based model. At its centre was a giant, invisible safety net in the form of a computer program that tracks the progress of every student and sounds an alarm at the first sign of slippage, an online learning tool designed to stop children falling through the cracks. Isn't that what NAPLAN, at its fundamental core, was designed to do? So rather than wasting precious energy being stressed about next weeks testing, perhaps parents should spend more time worrying about what happens on the other 200-odd days a year their children attend school. That's the stuff that will stop them falling through the cracks.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/9d530a1f-34d0-40c1-8747-5af7091df84d/r2_0_728_410_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, crime

A former Canberra brothel operator will fight allegations he trafficked women into Australia before forcing them into sex work and raping them, a court heard Thursday. Bradley Lester Grey, 53, appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court where he was charged with another four sexual offences including rape against a woman. He was already in custody on allegations of human trafficking and forced labour, of rape, trafficking a child for sexual services and producing child pornography, as well as a charge of discouraging the use of condoms in a brothel. On Thursday, Mr Grey through his lawyer said he would plead not guilty to all charges. He will be committed for trial in the ACT Supreme Court at a later date. Documents tendered on an earlier occasion allege Mr Grey masquaraded as a woman online before suggesting to one alleged victim that she try escorting in Australia. He allegedly facilitated her travel to Asutralia and when she arrived subjected her to "training" in which he raped her. It's further alleged he threatened to expose her lifystyle if she tried to leave without paying back what she owed him. The court has also heard allegations Mr Grey trafficked a child, aged under 18, around Australia in 2013. Mr Grey allegedly used the girl to produce child pornography during that period. The Sydney man was arrested in February during a raid on an Auburn, NSW, brothel after a six month joint ACT and NSW police investigation into allegations of forced labour and human trafficking. Mr Grey remains in custody.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/f08fba1d-93a1-4bbb-8e4d-5054fb99a52c/r86_0_1139_595_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, latest-news

A new suburb planned for Canberra's north could heighten the risk of flooding along a section of Canberra's light rail route that was inundated during a one-in-100-year weather event earlier this year. The ACT government has signed a $126,000 contract with Australian engineering firm SMEC to investigate the risk of flooding on Flemington and Morriset Roads. Both roads already are prone to flooding and development in the new Gungahlin suburb of Kenny could worsen the situation, the contract signed last month states. "Flemington and Morriset Roads are key transport routes. Flemington Road for general traffic as well as the light rail, Morriset Road specifically as a heavy vehicle access to the Federal Highway and for some traffic," the documents read. "The ACT government wishes to identify the capital works required to ensure that light rail service requirements are met on Flemington Road in the future as Kenny development occurs. It follows that if light rail service level requirements are met then other transport types will be protected." A Transport Canberra spokeswoman said while there are parts of the light rail route known to flood, the project was designed to "achieve sustainable flood immunity" for the tracks, platforms and adjacent roadways. She also said trunk drainage had been upgraded along the route to stop flooding on private property, and improvements made to the Flemington Road ponds near Mitchell to better protect against flooding from Sullivans Creek. "This is consistent with key project requirements for responding to existingpotential flooding by completing flood assessment of the design to ensure the light rail is protected from flooding and flood levels are not increased along the corridor," she said. However this work could be compromised by the development of new suburbs. The first residents have already begun to move into Throsby, which will one day have 1000 homes. Kenny will be built to the east of Harrison, and is expected to have 200 homes. It's about 1.5-2 kilometres away from where the light rail will run along Flemington Road and Sullivans Creek cuts right through the middle. The suburb is not listed on the government's indicative land release program for the next four years. However the contract notes the development of the greenfield site could lead to larger peak flows downstream, faster flood peaks and problems with erosion. The Transport Canberra spokeswoman said any new development must ensure that there is no increase in flooding impacts Flemington Road and light rail. The Kenny catchment is known to be a high infiltration area during rain, especially in the valley. Generally, the solution is to replace the catchment storage that's been lost to development by building a new basin, but particular restrictions apply in the case of Kenny. To develop Kenny and the neighbouring suburb of Throsby in the first place, the ACT government had to identify future conservation areas, which have significantly reduced the developable area. Basins had previously been proposed upstream of Morriset Road in the Kenny area however these basins are in currently protected areas. The areas are home to critically endangered woodland and the striped legless lizard. It's understood these areas will be avoided in any proposed basins put forward. Much of the Sullivans Creek catchment is now urbanised, leading to increased runoff. A hydro-geological report of the catchment says it typically receives 600-750mm of rain per year, and concrete channels and constructed wetlands are used to manage drainage. However the creek broke its banks in February this year after heavy rain, leading to flash flooding, damage and disruption across Canberra's inner north. Some parts of the city were hit by more than 60mm in just a few hours, and hundreds of people called emergency services for help. At the time Canberra Metro said the southern sections of the route, from Flemington Road towards the city, were flooded and required an assessment before construction could resume. A month earlier, the ACT Auditor-General Dr Maxine Cooper had released a report saying there was a risk the stormwater infrastructure in many of Canberra's established areas could not cope with high rainfall, because it hadn't been updated to accommodate urban infill or new estates next to old areas. She said this put the territory government at risk of compensation claims from residents affected by flooding in areas where the stormwater system was overwhelmed. Dr Cooper said to prevent flooding, a review should be done of stormwater assets in all established suburbs. The Canberra Liberals' urban services spokeswoman, Nicole Lawder, said at the time while maintaining storm water assets was "not as flashy as light rail and shiny laptops", it was a "vital taxpayer-funded service the government has neglected". However a spokeswoman for City Services Minister Meegan Fitzharris said it was a "freak" rain event and the Liberals were "simply overreaching". The stormwater system is the ACT government's largest asset to maintain after public housing, and the territory inherits $195 million more from developers every year. Tenders just closed for a private contractor to inspect stormwater assets in new estates and infill developments on behalf of the territory.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/096ec3f3-773e-41d3-a957-ca45ccff576b/r0_102_2000_1232_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, latest-news

Monday the ABC forces the NSW Government to review consent laws after the horrifying story of Saxon Mullins. Wednesday, we discover the Federal Health Minister was moved to spend $500 million on genomics after he saw the ABC story of a family whose baby daughter died of a fatal genetic condition. Now the small business ombudsman is inquiring into whether the ATO is targeting small businesses (ABC with Fairfax's warrior Adele Ferguson). Dutton gets tough on Australian fighters in the Ukraine. Uber Eats is being investigated by the ACCC. That's all just a couple of weeks' work for your ABC. Oops. I forgot the way Leigh Sales steered Peter Costello into his ghastly defence of high income earners. And what happened on Tuesday? The federal government announced it would cut over $84 million from the ABC's budget. Those cuts will bring the sum of damage to the ABC to more than $330 million over an eight-year period. Those who work there are distraught. But the Australian public should be more than distraught. We should fight this every inch of the way. Complain to your local member. Write letters. Sign petitions. Join GetUp. Tag politicians on whichever social medium you use. Make sure this government understands that those cuts also damage the 70 per cent of Australians who listen, watch and read the ABC every single week. It damages the one media institution that Australians trust above all others. And if the government doesn't get that, vote it out. Vote it out anyway. These are the people who think 10 bucks a week will make a difference to our material lives. The 70 per cent? That's the sum of us, the vast mass of us who listen to local radio, who love the news, who turn on to discover traffic mayhem and end up listening to some daggy dad teaching his kid the saxophone, who fear fire and flood, who want to get the latest real news on health and science. I'm not even speaking about the niche lovers of Insiders or Q&A enthusiasts, not that there's anything wrong with them. The ABC is the soundtrack to our lives, to the lives of millions of Australians and the federal government is setting out to destroy it. And it is so freaking sneaky about it. It even tried to cover up the cuts in the budget by putting them in a tiny footnote. Director of ABC News Gaven Morris delivered a speech at the Melbourne Press Club on Thursday where he summarised the problem neatly  11 efficiency reviews in 15 years.They are already screamingly efficient with the little they have  the ABC's per capita funding is 34 per cent lower than the average of other public broadcasters. If you want to compare it to the BBC, for instance, the ABC serves a population one-third the size of the UK with a budget just one-eighth that of the BBC. And scooting around our land mass isn't like taking a day's drive from one end of the country to the other. I'm pretty sure it can't get any more efficient than it is. After all, ABC news spends more than 95 per cent of its budget on content. And what does content mean? That means producing those stories, backing Louise Milligan and Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Sarah Dingle, leaving no grain of sand uncovered. Not everyone loves the ABC and of course the ABC makes mistakes (the fewer staff, the fewer sets of eyes editing stories, the more mistakes). Those mistakes give rivals fuel to feed this government's galloping paranoia about the ABC. But somehow the IPA and the cadres of commentators in The Australian think it's OK to applaud the slicing and dicing of our national broadcaster's news arm, which holds power to account and investigates corporate misconduct. Maybe those folks think it's OK for big business to exploit its workers, to underpay its workers, to rip off its clients. This government gave $30 million to Fox Sport last year. It gave $30m to Rupert Murdoch, who is just about to sell a large chunk of his business for north of $US50 billion. Like he needs the handouts. Nope. This government needs the patronage and it buys it this way. Take from the poor and give to the rich. I can think of a quick way of giving the ABC a boost  ditch the utterly ridiculous $50 million about to be spent on commemorating the 250th anniversary of the voyage to Australia of Captain Cook. Thing is, the ABC can't stand up for itself. At a meeting of ABC news executives on Wednesday morning, Morris, bless his ethical cotton socks, told his colleagues they could report on the cuts but it had to be impartial. Just the facts. So they aren't going to blow their own horns or criticise the government. Worse than that, Morris, ever careful, has also advised ABC employees to moderate their language on social media or not to overly criticise the decision. The vibe inside is that it shouldn't try to prosecute the case against the government because that's too much of an insider story, that it should only rank a story about the ABC below the other stories which ABC consumers think are more important: health and housing, education and pensions. But the problem is that without the ABC, many Australians would never know how any of those matters of importance are changing. Morris reminded the Melbourne Press Club that the ABC had just launched its aged care investigation, to expose abuse in the aged care system. If you have ever walked the halls of a nursing home in the late evening, the calls for help are heartbreaking. Morris's team wanted to know more and asked the public for tips and stories. It now has 4000 responses. Can you imagine what that's like to sort through? And can you imagine having a country where we didn't have the resources to do the kinds of investigations that protect the old, the poor, the infirm, the young girls out at night, the mothers and fathers whose babies died because we didn't have the right genetic testing. Scott Morrison told Buzzfeed that he didn't care where the ABC cuts came from as long as it wasn't Mad As Hell. Shaun Micallef must be so chuffed. I'm mad as hell too. And I love my ABC. Jenna Price is an academic at the University of Technology Sydney and a Fairfax columnist.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/9c45a569-4cd6-415e-aae8-a6f6f991496c/r0_21_320_202_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, act-politics

The ACT government has extended its poker machine transfer scheme for another year - with only 38 machines forfeited - but clubs are left waiting for new laws to implement a promised 4000 cap meant to replace it. Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay on Thursday introduced a bill to extend the scheme until August 2019, a year longer than the original timeline set by then-minister Joy Burch in 2015, as well as further changes related to Canberra Casino. It comes as casino owners' Aquis faces a deadline next week to respond to the government on its plans for its unsolicited bid for a $300-million-odd redevelopment of the casino and Canberra's clubs await details on the potential forced surrender of hundreds of machines from next April. When announced three years ago, the trading scheme was meant to help reduce the number of poker machines to 15 per 1000 ACT residents over three years to August 2018, replacing a previous commitment to a 4000 total cap on machine numbers in Canberra. But since it started operating, the scheme has resulted in only 38 machine authorisations actually being forfeited, when the scheme initially began, with clubs largely holding tight amid uncertainty about the future. In a discussion paper published in September, the government also planned to begin forcing clubs to surrender them to meet the 4000 cap target last month, a time limit that was also extended by a year. The government has also appointed former Commonwealth public servant Neville Stevens to complete a new "clubs industry diversification analysis", to provide recommendations on how best to help clubs meet that delayed deadline. The commitment to having 15 machines for every 1000 residents was superseded in the 2016 parliamentary agreement with the Greens, reverting back to the 4000 cap in place before the trading scheme - which with the ACT's population at about 400,000, result in just 10 machines for every 1000 residents. Under the bill Mr Ramsay introduced on Thursday, the original August 2018 deadline has been extended to August next year. Ramsay said further legislation would be forthcoming to implement the 4000 cap. It would be the third piece of government legislation introduced since the 2016 election dealing with the poker machine transfer scheme, the casino proposal, or both. Opposition gaming spokesman Mark Parton said the government's apparent piecemeal approach to reforming gaming regulation was an absolute debacle that was causing confusion among local clubs and the community. "I note minister Ramsays appointment diary for the first three months of this year does not include a single meeting with any licensed club or with Clubs ACT," he said. The bill also set up a framework for the Attorney-General to appoint a panel to assess any future redevelopment of Canberra Casino, by current owners' Aquis or another potential owner, as well as the potential trading of licences to allow up to 200 poker machines in the redeveloped casino. Mr Ramsay said the panel would mean the government would create an "unprecedented level of transparency and independence" around the regulation of casino gaming in the ACT. Mr Parton said there was a lack of consultation on the latest bill and it was hard to see how the proposed advisory panel would improve the government's "stated desire of transparency". The government has previously said the casino redevelopment was integral to plans to reach the 4000 cap, as one in three licences acquired by the owners would need to be surrendered. It is unclear how the government intends to reach that number, down from the 4502 active machines on floors across the city, in the absence of a casino redevelopment proposal and its related forfeitures, though the government has rejected compensating clubs for their potential losses. Aquis recently told the stock exchange it planned to continue its path to redevelop the casino - including trying to attract more overseas high rollers on the back of direct flights to Singapore and Qatar. But speculation continues about whether another entity may step into the breach, should the casino licence become available. If a sale was in the works, the proposed panel would advise the minister on the public interest to approve it, or not, as well as any applications to operate poker machines or fully automated table games at the casino. The panel would be appointed by the minister and each member would need a background in various fields, one of which related to gambling harm, though most related to the construction, finance and property. Mr Ramsay's office did not respond to questions by deadline on Thursday.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/d6f67b72-9437-4b02-b59a-df28dbf2400b/r0_114_2000_1244_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgnews, crime

Construction on Canberra's new courts is running months behind schedule and could blow out even further, with more trials expected to take place in Queanbeyan in the interim. Work began on the $160 million expansion of Canbera's justice precinct in March 2016, with stage one due in late 2017 and stage two in late 2018. But documents tabled in the ACT's parliament on Thursday show project managers Juris now expected stage one to be completed in late August-September, and stage two in the first half of 2019. However the "overheated" state of the construction sector in eastern Australia means there could be further delays, they warned. "The court has been kept fully appraised of the delay and has taken this into account when listing matters in 2018," the report presented by ACT Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay said. "During the construction phase for the new facilities the court has retained use of the same number of courtrooms (both jury and non-jury) as were available prior to commencement of the project. "The main operational impact of the stage one delay is that completion of this stage will provide five jury courtrooms in place of the three that are currently available." However because of the David Eastman retrial in mid-2018, some jury trials may need to be held in the Queanbeyan courthouse from June 8 to July 2017. "The court is investigating the availability of the Queanbeyan courthouse for the central criminal listings that commence on September 17, 2018 to ensure any disruption is minimised in the event that the new courtrooms are not available by that date," the report says. Juris is a consortium comprised of Laing ORourke Australia Construction, Macquarie Capital Group Limited, Programmed Facility Management and Lyons Architects. The courts project was the ACT's first public-private partnership, with Juris expected to maintain the building over the next 25 years. The ACT will pay the building off over that time, with the total project net cost put at $250.4 million in 2016 dollars. According to the contract, Juris assumes full risk for the time it takes to complete the works and is not entitled to any extra payments if the project is delayed. "This results in a saving to the territory compared to the payments that would have been made had the project been completed on time," the report to the Assembly said. "These savings are greater than the project management and other costs incurred as a direct result of the prolonged period of construction." Canberra's courts have suffered from overcrowding over the years, causing headaches with juggling juries. The Supreme Court was severely out-of-date, with issues playing CCTV and pre-recorded evidence, and problems with video links to remote witness rooms. The new Supreme Court will occupy the four-storey building under construction on Vernon Circle, and also a reconfigured section of the existing Supreme Court building. It will include eight courtrooms - including five jury courtrooms - and has been designed to accommodate up to 10 courtrooms - including eight jury courtrooms - in future. The refurbished Magistrates Court will have 11 courtrooms, all with audio-visual and remote witness capabilities. It will also have one new hearing room. The new precinct will also have a new and expanded custodial facility, dedicated vulnerable witness suite, new mediation suite, dedicated parole board hearing room, and new jury facilities. A new public entrance and registry area will be built in the open space between the two existing buildings, connecting the Supreme and Magistrates Courts. Stage one of the project includes the new four-story Supreme Court building, the Magistrates Court building refurbishment and the new entrance foyer linking the two buildings. It includes six new courtrooms, five of which are equipped for juries.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/163812bb-e114-47bc-9fee-2b1d676aded1/r4_0_1995_1125_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg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.India's toughest entrance examination, Civil Services, is around the corner. Over ten lakh candidates are expected to participate in the first round of the selection process, i.e., the preliminary round. We hope every aspirant is aware of the General Studies paper and the weightage of the history section in the preliminary examination. Most of the aspirants agree that there should be a special strategy to tackle the history section because of its vast syllabus. As the preliminary exam date is approaching, we have decided to write an article with the preparation strategies to ace the history section.

The official notification from UPSC has not mentioned the detailed syllabus for history. It simply mentioned history of India and Indian national movement. After referring to the detailed syllabus, we've inferred that the history section consists of three sections, namely ancient, medieval and modern India. Let's explore these sections one after the other and read about the important topics.

Civil Service: You Can't Expect A Question Paper Without These Topics

Preparation Tips For Ancient India In Civil Services

Ancient India is not just important for the preliminary exam but also plays a significant role in the main examination. The Indus Valley Civilisation is the most important topic in this section. One has to learn about the society, religion, town planning, economic importance, political life and causes of decline. The Aryan Civilisation is also equally important, so learn about the differences between the Indus and Aryan civilisations.

The Mauryan Empire will come under ancient India and one has to know about its art and architecture. Buddhism was popular during this time so make a timeline for the religious movement. Aspirants are also suggested to learn about the Kushans - Kanishka in detail. Never ignore the concepts such as Sangam Age, Satavahanas, Pallavas and Cholas. Learn everything about the Gupta and post-Gupta empires.

Also Read: 5 Common Mistakes To Avoid To Ace UPSC Civil Services



Preparation Tips For Medieval India In Civil Services

Though it has less weightage, aspirants should not neglect this part because it will help you understand modern history. The Delhi Sultanate is the most important topic in this section along with the Mughals and Vijayanagara empires. One should know about the art and architecture of the empires. Learn in detail about the wars of Babur, Akbar, Jahangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb. And prepare a special note on the decline of the empire which will be useful for the main examination.

Also Read: How Do I Prepare On My Own For Indian Polity In UPSC Civil Services?



Preparation Tips For Modern India In Civil Services

The most important part in the history section is modern India. This is important even for the main examination. We suggest you start preparing for history with the Indian national movement because it will reduce the burden during the last days. Make a note of the European powers in India in a chronological order. A timeline preparation is required while learning about the East India Company. Take a note of governor general and their contributions.

Mastering the facts alone will not be sufficient. One should know the social and cultural developments. Each and every reform movement is important for both the preliminary and main examinations. Prepare for them and learn about the founders and their contributions. The national and/or independence movement starts with the 1857 revolt. Every aspect is important from here including the Gandhian Era. As the freedom movement is the most important area in modern India, we have decided to make a special article for this topic. Stay tuned!

Also Read: UPSC Civil Services: Important Topics To Read For Environmental Studies

Hindustan Organic Chemicals Limited (HOCL) has released an employment notification calling out for aspirants to apply for the post of Senior Electrical 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 27000. The selection process for the government job is through a walk-in interview that will be held on May 23, 2018.

BEL Recruitment 2018 For Engineers

HOCL Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Post Senior Electrical Engineer Organisation Hindustan Organic Chemicals Limited Educational Qualification Degree in electrical engineering Maximum Age Limit 30 years Skills Required Engineering Salary Scale INR 27500 Job Location Kerala Industry Engineering Experience One year Application Start Date May 10, 2018 Walk-in Interview Date May 23, 2018 Venue HOCL, Ambalamugal P.O.,Ernakulam Dist, Kerala-682302 Interview Time 11 am

Also Read: Maharashtra PWD Recruitment 2018 For 263 Engineers

How To Apply For HOCL Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for HOCL Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:

Step 1: Log on to the HOCL official website.

Step 2: Under News/Events, click on the link that reads, RECRUITMENT TO THE POST OF TEMPORARY SENIOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEER.

Step 3: The detailed advertisement will be displayed on the screen. Read the details carefully.

Step 4: Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the application form.

Step 5: Take a printout of the application form and enter your details in the fields provided.

Step 6: Carry the application along with your recent passport size photos and supporting documents to the interview.Osmania University has released an employment notification calling out for aspirants to apply for the post of Technical Assistant. 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 10000. The last date to apply for the government job is May 15, 2018.

EdCIL Limited Recruitment 2018 For Managers: Earn Up To INR 180000

Osmania University Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Post Technical Assistant Organisation Osmania University Educational Qualification BSc Maximum Age Limit 30 years Skills Required Technical skills Salary Scale INR 10000 Job Location Hyderabad Industry Biochemistry Experience 2 years Application Start Date Apr 30, 2018 Application End Date May 15, 2018

Also Read: BITS Pilani Recruitment 2018 For Junior Research Fellow

How To Apply For Osmania University Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for Osmania University Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:

Step 1: Log on to the Osmania University official website.

Step 2: Click on the CAREERS tab on the home page.

Step 3: The list of notifications will be displayed on the screen.

Step 4: Click on the link that reads, Applications are invited for the Post of Technical Assistant to work in the OU-DST-PURSE-II Programme, Dept. of Biochemistry, OU.

Step 5: The detailed advertisement will be displayed on the screen. Read the details carefully.

Step 6: Send your applications to Osmania University.

Osmania University Recruitment 2018 Application Format And Mailing Address

Superscribe on the envelope, "Application for the post of Technical Assistant" and send it along with a DD of INR 50 to, "The Registrar, Osmania University, Hyderabad - 500007."Photo: CTV

Vancouver Police are investigating the city's fourth traffic fatality of 2018.

An elderly pedestrian was struck in a crosswalk at Victoria Drive and Kingsway, just before 2 p.m. Tuesday.

The 82-year-old man was rushed to hospital with serious injuries, but did not survive.

Police believe the victim was crossing Kingsway when a southbound car on Victoria Drive made a left turn onto Kingsway and struck him.

The driver remained at the scene, and is co-operating with investigators.

Three of the four traffic fatalities in Vancouver this year have involved pedestrians.Madison Erhardt

UPDATE: 3:45 p.m.

Discarded smoking materials have been deemed the cause of a townhouse fire in Kelowna this afternoon.

All the occupants safely vacated the structure, and the fire was contained to the single unit, other than light smoke damage to an adjacent unit.

The home is no longer habitable, and Emergency Support Services is caring for the single adult resident.

ORIGINAL: 3 p.m.

The first floor of a Kelowna townhouse was heavily damaged by fire, Wednesday.

Firefighters were called to the Walnut Street home just before 1:30 p.m.

"We got the call of a report of smoke," said Platoon Capt. Kelly Stephens. "Crews on arrival found heavy smoke coming from the first and second floor."

Firefighters attacked the fire quickly, and no damage could be seen from outside the row units.

"It has been extinguished. Nobody was home at the time of the fire. The first floor is heavily damaged," said Stephens. "It's basically a write-off. They will have to gut it."

The fire appeared to have started from contents left unattended, but Stephens did not elaborate.Photo: The Canadian Press

Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. has signed a deal to buy Helly Hansen, a maker of sportswear and workwear based in Norway, for $985 million.

Under the deal for the company controlled by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Canadian Tire also assumes $50 million in debt.

The retailer said outdoor and workwear are core products in its stores and it has had a long history with Helly Hansen as one of its largest customers.

"For more than 10 years, Helly Hansen has been an exceptional fit with CTC and this acquisition will strengthen our assortment across all of our banners," Canadian Tire chief executive Stephen Wetmore said in a statement.

"With our capabilities and Helly Hansen's trusted global brand and management team, we see tremendous opportunity for CTC and Helly Hansen, in Canada and internationally."

Helly Hansen CEO Paul Stoneham and the management team, based in Norway, are expected to continue to lead the business.The diplomatic class and their labours are necessary for the work of peace and international order.

Yet diplomats also have a weakness, namely to value the reaching of an agreement itself over the purpose the agreement is intended to achieve.

Hence the widespread handwringing  in some places hyperventilating  over President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear agreement and reinstate economic sanctions on Iran.

The proper debate is whether the Iranian nuclear deal is/was an effective means to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons. It is a fair criticism of the Obama administration that its eagerness to achieve a diplomatic agreement meant that the content of the agreement became secondary. And last weeks Israeli revelations of Irans nuclear secrets underscores the perennial risk of making treaties with tyrants. Will they keep their word? And if they dont keep their word, are the states who make agreements with them fools?

That is more or less the position that Americas allies in the region, Israel and Saudi Arabia, took on the Iran nuclear deal. Americas president now agrees.

In that context, it is useful to remember diplomatic deals, hailed at the time, which did not achieve what they intended. Consider two examples.

The American-Cuban rapprochement and re-establishment of diplomatic relations was a genuine diplomatic breakthrough. I was inclined to agree at the time; after all, the 50-year American policy of embargo and isolation had not succeeded in relaxing the grip of the Castro brothers on the throat of the Cuban people. So why not try engagement, employing the carrot instead of the stick?

The American-Cuban agreement did allow for greater mobility for Americans, and for money transfers and investment for business. It did not, however, lead to greater liberties for the Cuban people. Indeed, in the year after the agreement there was a tightening of restrictions on political dissidents and religious believers.

Diplomats successes ought not be judged according to their ideals, but their results.

A second diplomatic example, more relevant to nuclear proliferation, is the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. It was signed in December 1994 and addressed the question of what was to be done about the Soviet-era nuclear stockpiles in the newly independent states of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The memorandum was signed by the three states and three nuclear powers: Russia, Britain and the United States. Later France and China also gave their assent.

But it is also true that advances for diplomacy can be setbacks for peace and order.

The essential deal was this: the three states would give up their nuclear stockpiles in order for international assurances that their territorial integrity and political sovereignty would be respected. In effect, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan were told by the worlds nuclear powers that they could give up their nuclear weapons because they would not need them to defend their territory or sovereignty.

Given that Ukraine had the third-largest stockpile of nuclear arms on its territory then, it was a major diplomatic triumph for nuclear non-proliferation.

But what was that diplomatic triumph worth in 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea? What is the value of the Budapest Memorandum today, when Russian troops are still present in eastern Ukraine and fomenting destabilizing violence? Neither the territorial integrity nor the political sovereignty of Ukraine, guaranteed by the Budapest agreement, were in fact guaranteed in the event.

In point of fact, the uselessness of the Budapest Memorandum in 2014 marked the practical end of nuclear non-proliferation diplomacy. What actual or aspiring nuclear power  including Iran  would ever really agree to give up its nuclear program in response to international guarantees? Iran tried to get it both ways  to agree to non-proliferation for the sake of relief of international sanction, and to pursue nuclear weapons anyway.

Perhaps Irans neighbours  Israel, Saudi Arabia and others  also learned the lessons of the Budapest Memorandum. America and Britain gave assurances to Ukraine but did nothing significant when Russia invaded. What would the international community do if Iran violated its promises? Anything?

The end of the Iran nuclear deal  a painstaking diplomatic work of several countries over many years  is no doubt a setback for diplomacy. But it is also true that advances for diplomacy can be setbacks for peace and order.Mutualism: Interactions between individuals of different species in which both have an advantage or profit, similar to commercial interactions in...Discussion

Approximately 30,000 adults aged 65 years died as the result of a fall in 2016, and state-specific rates for deaths from falls ranged from 24.4 per 100,000 in Alabama to 142.7 in Wisconsin. The rate of deaths from falls among older adults increased steadily from 2007 to 2016 in 30 states and DC. The 31% increase in the national rate of deaths from falls from 2007 to 2016 is consistent with findings from a 2010 study that estimated a 42% increase from 2000 to 2006 (3).

The differences in rates among states might have resulted, in part, from differences in the racial composition or general health of the states residents. For example, in 2016, the rate of deaths from falls was higher among older white adults than among other racial/ethnic groups. Thus, the higher rate in Wisconsin, compared with that in Alabama, might be partially attributable to a higher proportion of white older adults in Wisconsin than in Alabama. Differential coding practices for external causes of injury on the death certificate might also contribute to variation in both the rate and APC (4,5). In addition, some states require a medical examiner to complete a death certificate, whereas others employ coroners; a 2012 study of national trends and coding patterns in fall-related mortality among the elderly found that coroners recorded 14% fewer deaths from falls than did medical examiners (5).

In 2016, there was a higher rate of fatal falls among older men, in contrast to the rate of nonfatal falls, which is higher among older women (2). This might have resulted from differences in the circumstance of a fall (e.g., from a ladder or while drinking) (6,7), leading to more serious injuries, including head trauma, or higher rates of postfall complications in men (7). The higher rates of deaths from falls among older age groups is consistent with advancing age being an independent risk factor for falls as well as being associated with other risk factors such as 1) reduced activity; 2) chronic conditions, including arthritis, neurologic disease, and incontinence; 3) increased use of prescription medications, which might act synergistically on the central nervous system; and 4) age-related changes in gait and balance (8).

The population of older adults in the United States is increasing; adults aged 85 years are the fastest-growing age group among U.S. residents and will reach approximately 8.9 million in 2030 (9). Although the rate of deaths from falls is increasing among all persons aged 65 years, it is increasing fastest among those aged 85 years (3.9% per year). Nationally, the rate of deaths from falls might be increasing because of longer survival after the onset of common diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and stroke (6). If the current rate remains stable, an estimated 43,000 U.S. residents aged 65 years will die because of a fall in 2030, and if the rate continues to increase, 59,000 fall-related deaths could result.

The findings in this report are subject to at least five limitations. First, changes in coding of cause of death might have occurred during the study period, which might contribute to the increased rate of deaths from falls. Second, information about race and Hispanic ethnicity is generally reported by the funeral director and might be based on observation, which could lead to an underestimation of deaths among Hispanics, Asians/Pacific Islanders, and American Indians/Alaska Natives. Third, the age-adjusted rates were based on information from the U.S. Census, which reports as a limitation that it might undercount persons aged 65 years; this could result in an overestimation of death rates. Fourth, misclassifications of deaths might have produced overestimates or underestimates of deaths from falls. Finally, standard age-adjusted populations might not fully adjust populations at older age groups (e.g., 85 years) and could explain differences between subgroups and states.

As the population of persons aged 65 years in the United States, increases, the rising number of deaths from falls in this age group can be addressed by screening for fall risk and intervening to address modifiable risk factors such as polypharmacy or gait, strength, and balance issues. Interventions that target multiple risk factors can reduce the rate of falls (10) and can be initiated during annual wellness visits.*** Initiatives such as CDCs STEADI (Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths, and Injuries), can assist health care providers in assessing fall risk, educating patients, and selecting interventions.Discussion

During 20132017, the number of operational SSPs increased from one to approximately 50 in Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia. Visits to SSPs by clients who inject drugs also increased. In Kentucky and North Carolina, this increase followed changes in laws permitting access to sterile injecting supplies; in West Virginia, SSPs were never prohibited under state law. In North Carolina, any group can start an SSP after notifying the state health department; Kentucky requires a lengthy approval process for local health departments before offering syringe services. This paper demonstrates that increasing access to SSPs is possible with community support using a variety of models if SSPs are not prohibited by law.

The increase in client visits to SSPs by persons who inject drugs represents an unprecedented opportunity to improve access to care for this highly stigmatized population. In addition to increased access to sterile needles, syringes, and injection paraphernalia (5), comprehensive syringe services programs should also improve access to medication-assisted treatment, counseling, and social support to address substance use disorder (6); naloxone and lay naloxone training to prevent fatal overdose (7); the full range of contraceptives, including long acting reversible contraceptives to prevent unintended opioid-exposed pregnancy; prenatal care and medication-assisted treatment to reduce harm from substance use disorder in pregnant women and their infants (8); vaccination; and HCV, HIV, and hepatitis B virus (HBV) screening and treatment (5). State and local health departments that are actively addressing the health effects of the opioid crisis might consider a formal evaluation process to improve service quality and access for persons who inject drugs, including those attending SSPs. Process evaluation indicators for SSPs should include number of clients, number of syringes distributed, number of syringes returned, availability of services in hours per week, summary statistics on HIV, HBV, and HCV testing, and number and type of services (e.g., patient-centered family planning services and naloxone) and referrals provided (e.g., medication assisted treatment, prenatal care, HIV, and hepatitis treatment) (9). Evaluation should also include health indicators such as rates of hepatitis, HIV, fatal and nonfatal overdose, unintended pregnancy and neonatal abstinence syndrome, and initiation and retention in drug treatment. CDC has published a framework to guide evaluation of public health programs (10), which might be useful for evaluating access to essential services at the community level for persons who inject drugs.

The findings in this report are subject to at least six limitations. First, data were self-reported from SSPs and are therefore subject to bias. Second, because some programs do not collect identifying information, the total numbers of clients served is estimated. Third, at the time of this analysis, North Carolina was in its first year of implementation, and limited data are available. Fourth, no data were obtained for SSPs operating underground (i.e., outside the legal framework). Fifth, growth of SSPs and service integration in these states is rapid, and the most recent data on SSPs should be sought through the state or local health department or harm reduction coalition. Finally, these data cannot be used to evaluate quality of service delivery and whether service delivery is adequate to meet the needs of the population.

SSPs can be implemented through a variety of models and by a variety of agencies and organizations including those in rural areas. Demand for syringe services is growing rapidly in these three states with underserved populations of persons who inject drugs, representing an opportunity to implement, evaluate, and improve access to evidence-based services known to reduce the considerable morbidity and mortality associated with injection drug use.Sumitomo Osaka Cement sees 4% revenue rise in FY17-18

ICR Newsroom By 10 May 2018

Japan-based Sumitomo Osaka Cement Co reported a 4.4 per cent rise in group revenues to JPY244.93bn (US$2.23bn) for FY17-18 ending March 2018 from JPY234.06bn in the previous financial year.



Operating profit fell -11.8 per cent from JPY21.53bn in FY16-17 to JPY18.99bn in FY17-18 while pretax profit slipped 9.6 per cent to JPY20.15bn from JPY22.63bn in the same period. The companys net profit was 9.6 per cent lower at JPY14.66bn in FY17-18 from JPY16.21bn in FY16-17.



Sumitomo Osaka Cement Co expects revenues to reach JPY123.3bn in the first half to September 2018 and close at JPY255bn for the year ending March 2019. Net profits are forecast around JPY5.08bn for the 1HFY18-19 and JPY16.21bn for FY18-19.

Published underSino-Zimbabwe awaits public infrastructure project pick-up

ICR Newsroom By 10 May 2018

Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Co (SZCC) is hanging hopes on development deals between Zimbabwe and China to improve its turnover. The joint venture between China and Zimbabwe's government has had to battle declining sales and a slowdown in the construction industry.

SZCC's managing director, Yong Wang, said: "The company is operating between 50-70 per cent capacity utilisation," which was likely to increase if government projects take off.

"The market environment is very tough this year, which has mainly been due to the liquidity changes in the economy," Mr Wang added. "Compared to last year about the same time we had a marginal increase in sales but this has been eroded by the cost of raw materials and other variables in the economy."

"We are hopeful of government projects such as the Gwayi-Shangani Dam, the expansion of the Hwange Thermal Power Station, upgrading of the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport and construction of the Parliament of Zimbabwe will take off this year and this will boost our sales and capacity utilisation."

SZCC has a 25 per cent market share of the domestic cement industry and has a capacity of 0.4Mta.

Published underCemex Croatia is supporting Montenegro infrastructure projects

10 May 2018

Cemex Croatia is actively participating in Montenegro's infrastructure boom by supplying building materials for several infrastructure projects, including three mixed-use resorts and a highway.



For the Smokovac-Matesevo section of the Bar-Boljare highway  the largest engineering project currently under development in Montenegro  Cemex has already supplied over 280,000t of cement and continues to participate in this project. This 41km-long section of highway, part of Bar-Belgrade-Budapest Corridor, is expected to require the construction of 32 tunnels and 45 bridges and viaducts, rising from 63m to 1100m above sea level.



Cemex is also supplying over 200,000t of cement for the Portonovi, Porto Montenegro, and Lustica Bay projects. These three mixed-use resorts offer luxurious accommodation, including a marina and yacht clubs, to attract high-end tourism to the Adriatic coast.



"We are very pleased to see Montenegro's increased construction activity, which will significantly impact the quality of life and overall economic prospects of Montenegro. Cemex is extremely proud to contribute to this positive development by delivering superior building solutions to our clients, who are engaged in the construction of key projects in Montenegros infrastructure and tourism sectors," said Velimir Vilovic, director of Cemex Croatia.

Published underDonald Trump recently announced that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. The deal stops Iran from getting a nuclear weapon in exchange for a group of countries, including the United States, lifting sanctions. Trumps decision will have major economic consequences, not only abroad, but in the U.S., too. In fact, the middle class is likely to feel some major effects.

Read on to learn what Trumps announcement means for the American middle class.

1. Gas prices are expected to go up

As Business Insider notes, the U.S.s withdrawal from the deal will limit American access to oil from Iran. Somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 barrels of oil per day could be subject to U.S. sanctions and pulled off the market.

CNN reports that according to energy industry sources, Donald Trumps stance on Iran will likely keep oil and gasoline prices higher than they would otherwise be. CNN reports that U.S. gasoline prices have jumped to a national average of $2.81, as compared to $2.35 a year ago, and theyll likely go up even more.

Next: Gas prices could affect your summer vacation plans.

2. Your summer vacation will be more expensive

According to CNN, the Oil Price Information Service projects that the typical American family will spend about $200 more this summer driving season. NBC reports that with summer driving season is already pushing gas prices higher as families take to the roads for their vacation.

But Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from the Iran deal is one more factor that could push the price point beyond $3 a gallon for most of America  the level at which many people begin to change their driving habits.

Next: Youll have to keep a close eye on your budget.

3. Higher gas prices could eat into your discretionary income

As Business Insider reports, the increase in gas prices could eat into a substantial portion of the average households gains from the tax law if it sustained over the rest of 2018. If gas prices go up enough, they could wipe out the benefits of the GOP tax law for the American middle class, Business Insider reports.

In fact, just pulling out of the Iran deal absorbs 16.8% of the benefits. And even a $1 increase in gas prices would soak up all of the tax laws boost. This is obviously a rough estimate, Business Insider reports. But it illustrates the possible economic consequences of the presidents decision for average Americans.

Next: Youll need to take a closer look at airfares, too.

4. Flying could get more expensive, too

Its not just your daily commute or your summer road trip that could get more expensive. The price of plane tickets could go up, too. Investors Business Daily reports that the U.S. exit from the Iran nuclear deal could pose a material risk to profits at airlines.

Major carriers such as Delta, American Airlines, and United Airlines already face rising fuel costs. As The Atlantic reported in 2016, plane tickets remain expensive even when oil prices fall, and airlines have warned that higher oil prices will raise airfares.

Next: The move could affect your shopping, too.

5. Prices for package delivery could go up

Another area where Americans might see the economic effects of Trumps withdrawal from the Iran deal? Package delivery, according to CBS. The network explains that middle-class Americans may feel a hit to everything from airline tickets to the cost of package delivery thanks to increasing gas prices.

And if the first thing you think of when you hear package delivery is your Amazon Prime subscription, youre onto something. Fuel prices can  and do  affect the e-commerce sites and retailers from whom you order things online.

Next: You might feel the effects at work.

6. Pulling out the deal will hurt American businesses  and workers

Oil prices arent the only avenue through which Donald Trumps decision about the deal will have an effect on the United States. The New Yorker reports that Trumps withdrawal from the deal will hurt American businesses and the workers they employ. The publication reports of Iran, Its never going to be a huge market for U.S. firms, but, if its President, Hassan Rouhani, succeeds in his stated aim of liberalizing the economy and kick-starting growth, it could be a significant one.

But if the U.S. reimposes sanctions, Trump takes away the opportunity for American businesses to make money in Iran. As The New Yorker puts it, that situation is bad for American businesses, bad for American workers, and bad for American consumers.

Next: Thats especially true if your employer does business in Europe.

7. American companies could have a tougher time doing business with Europe

Another way that the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal could impact American businesses? Making it more difficult for them to do business with Europe. As Inc. reports, Its easy to think of the Iranian nuclear deal as having just two parties, us and them. But in fact, the deal has several other parties. Those parties include the European Union, Russia, China, France, and Britain.

Donald Trump cant end the deal by himself, and Europeans have said that they will hold up their end of the bargain and continue trading with Iran. But Trump has promised to also impose sanctions on countries that do business with Iran. As Inc. explains its highly possible that doing business with any company in the European Union (including, for the moment, Britain), plus China and Russia, could get a lot more difficult than it is today.

Next: Withdrawing from the deal with Iran could cause this.

8. The end of the deal could trigger the next U.S. recession

When Donald Trump made the decision to withdraw from the Iran deal, he may have made a move that could trigger the next recession, according to MarketWatch. Economic expansions end when something gets out of whack, the publication explains.

As President Donald Trump pulls America out of the seven-nation deal to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons, its worth asking whether this move will be the one that finally ends the second-longest recovery in U.S. history. It may take years  and a recession  for oil prices to come back down from the highs theyre expected to hit in the coming months.

Read more: Donald Trump Seems to Believe These Stereotypes About Other Countries, but Is He Right?

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!Trying to buy a home in Pueblo? Read these stories first.

local3 Concerns for Today's Children That Only Parents Will Understand 08 May, 2018 by Tehila Gonen , |

Parenting is in danger of becoming extinct.

So many voices, influences, and authority figures vie for the attention of children today, that in countless homes around the world, the biblical role of parenting has fallen by the wayside.

This condition was driven close to home recently after our 16 year old daughter returned from a Christian camp. Within a week, she received a letter in the mail encouraging her that should she wish to pursue further conversations and support, the people she should turn to who could best help her would be her... wait for it... "Youth leaders!"

Wouldn't everyone be expecting the address for reassurance and refreshment to be the child's parents before other influencers and authorities? Evidently not.

Granted, not every child comes from a supportive, Bible-believing home, in which case those in the Church would a be good option.

However, in Scripture, according to God's original plan, parents are the go-to people in a young person's life for wisdom (Deut. 1:1-7), training (Prov. 22:6), guidance (Prov. 1:1-9), chastising (Proverbs 13:24), and many other crucial character-building duties.

There are currently three primary sources competing for authority in our children's lives that should concern any parent:

School

An article in the Otago Daily Times, a New Zealand newspaper, recently expressed the opinion of a local boys' high school rector:

"The expectations imposed upon us now as a school, to attend to and reverse the ills of our society, are completely unrealistic and they are beyond our resource capability."

He said the lines of demarcation between parental and school responsibility and accountability had been "completely obliterated", and there was an expectation schools would, in part, fulfill the function that historically had been the role of a parent."

Teachers with tens of students in the average classroom barely have any time, emotional resources, and, often, interest in investing in each child individually.

The difference between school staff and parents, above all, is the God-ordained love, care, and, affection that each parent has towards their child.

Read more about Concerns for Today's Children on The Christian Post.Franklin Graham, Matt Chandler Sound Warnings as Study Reveals 'Epidemic' Levels of Loneliness in US Christian Post Contributor | 09 May, 2018 by Stoyan Zaimov

A number of American pastors have spoken out as a major study released by a global insurance company last week found that U.S. citizens face "epidemic" levels of loneliness.

Cigna said in a press release last week that a survey of more than 20,000 U.S. adults, carried out by Ipsos between Feb. 21 and March 6, with a credibility interval of plus or minus 0.8 percentage points, discovered that nearly half said that they sometimes or always feel alone.

What is more, Generation Z, or adults aged 1822, were found to be the loneliest of all.

Matt Chandler, megachurch pastor of the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, tweeted on Saturday in responce to the survey: "The data around this social experiment is coming in and it's not pretty."

Chandler referred to another tweet written by Matt McCauley, family minister at Village Church, who suggested that social media might be playing a big role in people suffering from loneliness.

"Parents, limit screen time and push your kids outside into the real world of face-to-face interaction. 10,000 followers doesn't cure loneliness," McCauley wrote.

The Cigna study does list social media use as one of the factors it examined.

It noted that respondents with very heavy social media use have a loneliness score of 43.5 based on a 20-item questionnaire on the UCLA Loneliness Scale, though that was only slightly higher than those who said they never use social media, at 41.7 points.

Others, such as the Rev. Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, shared a message to all those who are feeling lonely:

"I would like each one of them to know that there is Someone they can count on to always be with them. Jesus loves us and promises to never leave or forsake us  we just have to put our faith and trust in Him in order to have that personal relationship," Graham wrote on Facebook on Monday.

"God's Word tells us, 'Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.'"

Read more about loneliness on The Christian Post.The Avengers and Jesus? Christian Post Contributor | 09 May, 2018 by Eric Bryant

After 10 years and 18 films, the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings all the superheroes together in Avengers: Infinity War.

Now, I have to admit, my wife Deborah and I enjoy these films, but we enjoy most films and franchises because we are easily entertained.

I should also admit, I am not really familiar with the comic books or the Marvel television shows.

All that to say, part of what makes these films along with the Star Wars universe or Star Trek universe is the fact that the writers and filmmakers have created an entire universe different than our own. Perhaps it is for this very reason these films are so popular. They offer an escape from reality.

Jesus Mentioned in the Avengers

It is with this in mind that I was surprised by a line in Avengers: Infinity War. When some of the superheroes meet, they immediately start fighting each other - assuming the worst in each other. There is a pause in the fighting when Dr. Strange asks Starlord: "Who is your Master?"

Starlord responds with: "Which master do I serve? What am I supposed to say? JESUS?"

That line took me completely out of the film.

As someone whose life has been forever changed by Jesus and who wants to help others find the life and freedom I have found in Jesus, I was disappointed to hear His name used as a punch line and in a way that implied following Jesus would be ridiculous.

Now, I do not expect Hollywood filmmakers or actors to act like or even talk as if they were Christ-followers. In this case though, Chris Pratt who plays Starlord actually has talked about how he found faith in Jesus and has also talked about the church where he attends. I have no doubt that Chris Pratt has a sincere faith even if the character Peter Quill does not. Chris Pratt is simply an actor sharing a line the writer, producer, and director thought would be funny.

The catch is that in this case no one laughed in my theater.

We saw the movie at 9am on opening day in Austin, a city where only 13% of people attend church. If a secular crowd didn't laugh, I don't imagine many others have laughed.

Aliens Who Need Jesus?

Years ago I heard a fascinating interview where Billy Graham discussed life on other planets. He was very clear that his imaginative idea is not in the Bible, but he liked to imagine that Christ-followers would be sent from heaven on missions to share the message of Jesus to aliens on other planets. Since Satan is the "god of this world" perhaps that is why Jesus came to defeat sin and death on our world.

That idea completely intrigued me! I love the idea of interstellar travel as missionaries for Jesus!

You can hear Billy Graham share this idea at the 16 minute mark.

How cool would it be for Christ-followers from earth traveling to Asgard, Hala, Tatooine, Dagobah, Endor, Remus, Kronos, and the list could go on and on!?

Self-Sacrificing Superheroes

Back to reality...

Like most of Western literature, the Avengers films (and I assume the comic books) have taken the story of Jesus and adopted it as part of their plot. How many times have we seen Thor, Iron Man, Spiderman, or any of the other superheroes sacrifice their life so that others would be rescued and yet they came back from the dead?!

We see this in so many films and stories!

Read more about The Avengers and Jesus on The Christian Post.White Evangelical Population Share Declining, Poll Finds Christian Post Contributor | 10 May, 2018 by Stoyan Zaimov

A major analysis based on polls spanning the past 15 years in the United States found that white evangelicals are decreasing as a share of the population while the non-religious are increasing.

A study posted on Thursday by ABC News/Washington Post of the past 15 years, ranging from 2003 to 2017, noted that while those who identified as Protestants made up 50 percent of the nation at the start of the study period, they are now down to 36 percent.

White evangelical Protestants registered an eight-point drop over the 15-year period, down to 13 percent in 2017. Non-Hispanic whites also saw an eight-point drop, from 69 to 61 percent of the population, suggesting that the decline of white evangelical population share could be more due to their whiteness than their religious identification.

The non-religious population meanwhile nearly doubled as a share, going from 12 to 21 percent in 2017.

ABC explained that the analysis, carried out by Langer Research Associates, stems from 174,485 random-sample telephone interviews conducted from 2003 to 2017.

Overall, Christians dropped from 83 percent of Americans to 72 percent last year. Catholics continued to be a stable minority at about 22 percent of the country, while those from other Christian denominations, including Orthodox churches, Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses rose from 11 to 14 percent.

Looking closer at the Protestant statistics, ABC noted that non-evangelical white Protestants have also declined, from 17 to 11 percent.

It offered that "the change in Protestant self-identification overall has occurred disproportionately among whites," with 39 percent of white Americans now describing themselves as members of a Protestant church, which is down 13 points from 2003.

The analysis clarified that most Protestants do not actually identify as a Protestant, however, but by specific denomination, such as Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Episcopalian and others.

When it comes to politics, white evangelicals continued to be more likely to lean to the right, with 48 percent identifying as Republicans, 31 percent as political independents, and only 14 percent as Democrats.

Non-evangelical white Protestants and white Catholics were more evenly divided among the three partisan groups.

Muslims and Jews were found to be the religious grouping most likely to identify as Democrats, at 57 and 48 percent respectively, while 45 percent of those with no religion said that they were politically independent, which was the highest score for that grouping.

Other surveys, including one from 2017 by Gallup, have also found that Protestants are seeing big drops in identification, though they remain a significantly higher portion of the U.S. population than the ABC News/Washington Post poll suggests.

Read more about white evangelicals on The Christian Post.Why Christians Must Gather as the Church to Worship Christian Post Contributor | 10 May, 2018 by Scott Aniol

It is becoming increasingly popular today to assume that since the essence of worship is the language of the gospel, then it follows that worship is all of life, and there is nothing distinct or significant about corporate gatherings of worship.

Several problems with this perspective exist, however, deserving careful consideration. First, the nature of the church must be defined biblically. While it is true that "church" in the New Testament sometimes refers to the universal number of believers in Christ, (See, for example, Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 1:2223, 3:10, 3:21, 4:4, 5:2327, 1 Corinthians 10:32, 11:22, 12:28, Colossians 1:18, 24, and Hebrews 12:23.) it most often refers specifically to a local gathering of such believers. For example, Paul addressed letters "to the church of God that is in Corinth (1 Cor 1:2; 2 Cor 1:1), "to the churches of Galatia" (Gal 1:2), and "to the church of the Thessalonians" (1 Thess 1:1).

This raises at least two important points: first, a church is an identifiable group of believers in Christ; unbelievers are not part of churches. Second, a church is a gathering of believers in Christ; a church does not exist except when it is gathered. This is evident by the underlying Greek term, ekkl?sia, meaning "assembly." In other words, Christians are not "the church" as described in most New Testament cases when they act outside the regular workings of the local churcha few Christians gathering for dinner or even prayer is not a church. Most of the time, "church" refers to a gathering of a local assembly of Christians to do what such assemblies are called to do.

Understanding the church to be a distinct, gathered group of believers in Christ, recognition of the various terms used in the New Testament to describe this gathered church is quite instructive. For example, Paul tells Timothy that he is writing so that "you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God" (1 Tim 3:15). The term "household of God" is used throughout Scripture to refer to a special place of God's presence. For example, Jacob calls the place where he met with God "Bethel, "or "house of God" (Gen 28:1022). Likewise the tabernacle is often called the "house of God" (Judg 18:30, 1 Chr 9:2527), as is the temple (2 Chr 3:3, Ps 52:8, Ezra 4:24, Neh 13:11, Matt 12:4, Mark 2:26, and, Luke 6:4). The church is also called specifically the "temple" (1 Cor 3:1617, 2 Cor 6:16, Eph 2:1922).

Thus when believers gather as the church, they exist in some special way as the dwelling place of Godthe sanctuary of worshipso that, as Jesus promised, "where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them" (Matt 18:20). Although individual believers are also called "a temple of the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 6:1920), the context and plural pronouns in each of the aforementioned cases clearly refer to when individual believers gather as the church.

Read more about Why Christians Must Gather as the Church to Worship on The Christian Post.What North Koreas leader seeks from the international community is appeasement and not peace, let alone the freedom of his own people, a North Korean escapee says.

True peace will have to come alongside freedom of faith, belief, expression, speech for North Korean people, said the former citizen of North Korea, who suffered torture at the hands of the regime of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un before escaping. He now lives in the United Kingdom, and contributes to a blog for the Christian charity Open Doors under the name John Choi.

The peace process has to prioritise the well-being of all 80 million Korean inhabitants, Choi told World Watch Monitor, with protecting the rights of people in North Korea as it must come alongside real freedom and human rights.

It is not the kind of peace, however, that interests Kim, Choi said. North Koreas leader is not intending to release his control over the country but wants to model it after Vietnam, a communist country with a socialist economy.

He needs foreign investment so he offers appeasement, Choi said. Kim has put on a charm offensive to the world since January, he said, and the world has fallen for it, making them think he is seeking real peace.

On 9 May U.S. President Donald Trump announced that Kim had released three Americans of Korean descent, who had been held prisoner for between one and two years. I appreciate Kim Jong Un for doing this, said Trump, who is preparing to meet Kim at a time and place not yet officially announced.

Choi takes the supreme leaders overtures with a grain of salt.

I read in the Washington Post the other day the suggestion that we should forget that Kim Jung-un is a dictator, and we should from now on regard him an international actor. That was disappointing, he said.

In the 20th century we saw Hitlers camps and Maos gulags, Choi said. In the 21st century we know over 200.000 prisoners are held in North Koreas camps. And as long as Christians cannot hold a Bible freely, there is no freedom.

Choi will be watching Trump for signs he means to hold North Korea accountable.

Many Christians and suffering men and women in North Korea will be relying on President Trump not to be silent about religious persecution, freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of movement when he meets Kim Jong-un, Choi adds. If he is, it will imply that the West really doesnt care about execution, imprisonment, torture and persecution.

North Korea is a perennial No. 1 on the World Watch List, a ranking of the countries where it is most difficult to live as a Christian, updated annually by Open Doors. An Open Doors staff member closely involved with North Korea Christians told World Watch Monitor that there is plenty of reason to be cautious about Kims recent overtures. But a growing number of Christians in the country is just one reason to be optimistic, too.

Its very likely that sanctions  which seem to be working now  will be lifted. This is good for the general population, but also for the leaders. It helps them stay in power, said the OD source, who asked not to be named because of the security concerns associated with work in North Korea.

A peace treaty is good step forward, but it doesnt automatically lead to reform and reform is what North Korea so desperately needs. First economic reform: give people the opportunity to earn money. Open up your markets, the source said. However, economic reform cant go without political reform. Thats the second thing thats necessary. The people deserve more freedom and less corruption. Once theres more freedom, gradually the human rights situation can improve too.

Tough negotiator

The comments by Choi echo the call of the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, Tomas Ojea Quintana, to Trump to put human rights on the table with Kim.

A denuclearisation deal will remain fragile if it sidelines the rights and needs of the DPRK population, he said in a statement, using the abbreviation for North Koreas formal name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. He added that that achieving peace and security is also dependent on securing peoples rights and freedoms.

The DPRK has proven to be a tough negotiator and not even mentioning human rights at this very first stage of negotiations would be a misstep and a lost opportunity, Quintana said.

North Korea said conclusions in the US State Departments 2017 human rights report that called the DPRK one of the most repressive and abusive regimes in the world were ridiculous and vicious slandering.

Living in constant fear

Church leaders in South Korea, meanwhile, welcomed the improvement in relations between their country and its northern neighbour, reported the Catholic news agency UCAN.

The meeting between Kim and South Korea President Moon Jae-in opened the way for peace and reunification through complete denuclearization, said Cardinal Andrew Soo-jung of Seoul. He said Christians have a role in helping the two Koreas reunify.

North Korea forbids any form of religion other than worship of the countrys leader. Christians live in constant fear of being found out for which punishment can be a prison sentence, torture and death.

While it is also almost impossible for North Koreans to access any form of religious literature, a South Korean radio broadcaster is trying to reach them. The Far East Broadcasting Company transmits Christian programs, both to North and South Korea, with programming for North Korea carrying a focus on defector-run shows about Christianity and provides audio church servicesthe latter because most North Koreans cannot attend local churches, or even speak about Christianity, without risking forced labor or execution, reports The Atlantic.

However, there are reports, as yet unverified, that claim North Korea has asked the Baptist Charity Service in Hungary to build a Baptist church in the capital. The request reportedly comes from a senior officer in the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who put it to the Charity Services director when he was preaching in North Koreas only protestant church, in Pyongyang.

An Orthodox church also is reportedly being built, with Russian support.

The post A Christian escapee from North Korea has his doubts about Kims peace overtures appeared first on World Watch Monitor.

Photo: South Koreans watch on a screen reporting the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visit to North Korea at the Seoul Railway Station on May 9, 2018 in Seoul, South Korea. The U.S. President Donald Trump announced today that the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is on his way to North Korea to finalise plans for the summit with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-Un. It is Pompeo's second trip to Pyongyang after a meeting with Kim last month as CIA director.

Photo courtesy: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

Publication date: May 10, 2018This could have been the quietest place in all of South Korea. But as American missionary Elizabeth Torrey leads a group of high school students up a rocky mountain road, their chatter and footsteps in the melting snow sharply pierce the silence. The town of Taebaek, three hours southeast of Seoul, slowly disappears in the distance, taking any trace of civilization with it.

They come up here to a mountain plateau to pray for Korean reunification. In making such prayers, theyre as far removed from the mindsets of most young South Koreans as this remote location suggests. But the Torrey family of missionaries is convinced God is leading them to educate the unification generation.

This land, this undivided land, is your inheritance, Elizabeth Torrey tells her students during the prayer session. And your prayers of your heart matter to see that happen.

Its apt to be an uphill climb. Most young adults in this country reject the idea of reuniting with North Korea, which has been a separate country since long before they were born. Seventy-one percent of South Koreans in their 20s oppose reunification, according to a survey released last year by the Korea Institute for National Unification, a government-sponsored think tank. Thats higher than across the nation as a whole: 58 percent still want reunification, though that number is down from 69 percent four years ago.

Young South Koreans might want peace and denuclearization, but not reunification, which they fear would bring costly economic repercussions for their country.

For the old generation, the divided Korea is abnormal, and the unified Korea is the normal state, says Sang Sin Lee, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification. But for the younger generation, its the normal state. So for them, reunification is maybe unnecessary. To them, its a risk.

But the minority who crave reconciliation have found in Elizabeth Torrey and her husband, Ben, partners who believe Gods plan calls for a reunited Korea.

Having grown up in South Korea in a missionary family, Ben Torrey says, he moved his family back to Korea from Connecticut in 2005 after he heard God speak to him during prayer. The message, as he recalls it: North Korea would be opening to the world soon, but the South Korean church wasnt ready.

Ben Torrey now feels called to do his part in what he believes is Gods grand plan. Reunification could facilitate a new era of missions, he says, carrying the gospel along with renewed Chinese and Japanese churches through Muslim lands back to Jerusalem.

International hopes for a less tense, more stable and possibly reunified Korean Peninsula rose recently when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shattered expectations by visiting South Korea for historic denuclearization talks in April. Though South Koreans remain skeptical, the Torreys hope an act of God will open their hearts to reunification prospects.

A grandson of American evangelist Reuben Archer Torrey, Ben Torrey has deep ties to ministry efforts on the Korean Peninsula. In 1965, his father, Reuben Archer Torrey III, founded Jesus Abbey, a nondenominational Christian community where about 30 people live in the isolated Taebeck Mountains and host retreats. Ben Torrey is a bishop in the Syro-Chaldean Church of North America, which describes itself as Evangelical Apostolic, and he works closely with South Koreas charismatic communities.

Today, Ben and Elizabeth Torrey run a school, River of Life, for children in the Christian community and surrounding area. Parents appreciate how children are given an alternative to South Koreas hypercompetitive education system, according to Ben Torrey.

We focus on teaching kids not to memorize, but to think, he says.

Those with a Christian faith also learn to pray. With their students, the Torreys use a makeshift shrine to pray to Ju-yo, the Lord, for reconciliation and reunification. Learning to think in new ways will be necessary, some say, if young people are going to embrace reunification. Thats because old ways of convincing people dont work anymore.

The South and North Korean governments used to persuade the population that we have to reunify because we are one nation, Lee says. But nationalism as a motivator for reunification doesnt seem to work with younger South Koreans. We need a new way to persuade people, to make them understand why a divided Korea is abnormal.

Ben Torrey tries to follow those instructions to reverse this trend, one student at a time. To him, its about moving the issue from a textbook chapter to a personal experience. As often as he can, he arranges visits between his students and North Korean defectors living and studying in the South. It seems to work, at least sometimes.

I went to a public elementary and middle school. In that school, at least once a year, we talked about reunification, but it was just something in the textbook, nothing that comes alive, says Jin-soo (his first name), one of the students at River of Life School. He spoke through a translator. But when I had a chance to meet other North Korean students personally, I began thinking from their perspective. They are the same as I am.

Jin-soo, who lives with his parents at Jesus Abbey, says it took him about a year to reverse his attitudes on reunification. Not all of his peers agree that reunification would be wise.

When I meet someone who expresses a negative view about reunification, this negative opinion is so much stronger, says Min-ha (his first name), a school student who used to live with his parents at Jesus Abbey before the family moved to a house in Taebaek. I dont really have any strong arguments to counter that. I find myself speechless.

In many ways, Ben Torrey is going against the odds  an increasingly detached South Korean public and a tension-heavy relationship between the two countries he hopes to see reunified. On top of that, he says the deeply divided South Korean church, large parts of which still take a firmly anti-communist and anti-North Korean stance, needs to unify before North Korea can be opened at all.

How does he plan to overcome all those divisions?

I dont, he says with a laugh. God has to do it. It has to be a miracle.

Courtesy: Religion News Service

Photo courtesy: Thinkstock/Fredex8

Publication date: May 10, 2018The UN cannot strengthen, promote and protect human rights if it does not prioritise religious freedom, a report published by the Washington-based human rights alliance, ADF International has argued.

The 73-page report, titled Anti-Conversion Laws and the International Response, claims that some UN entities, especially special rapporteurs, have highlighted the problems with anti-conversion laws, but other (UN) entities have failed to condemn them. That particular failure, the report says, is emblematic of the UNs overall failure to protect religious freedom.

ADF, an international alliance of human-rights groups with a focus on religious freedom, also accused the UN of turning a blind eye to laws that usually give licence to extremists to persecute minority religious groups.

Licence to persecute

In South and Southeast Asia, an increase in nationalism was one of the main contributors to the growing popularity of anti-conversation laws, according to ADF. Nationalist forces regard conversion from the predominant religion  Islam in Pakistan, and Hindu in India, for example  as a threat to national unity and security.

To stem this perceived threat, countries  have passed laws banning conversion from one religion to another in vague circumstances such as under inducement and in fraudulent circumstances, the ADF report said. The mere existence of an anti-conversion law in a state or country usually gives licence to nationalist religious extremists to persecute members of minority religions.

The report noted that in two member states on the UNs main human rights body, the Human Rights Council, anti-conversion laws were in force.

The report continued: It is unrealistic to expect Council resolutions specifically to address anti-conversion, blasphemy, apostasy, or other similar laws so long as many of its Member States refuse to abolish these laws from their own legislative systems and attempt to prevent other States on the Council from voting for strong religious freedom protections.

Anti-conversion laws have been passed in India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Nepal and Pakistan are members of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Human rights groups called the election of Pakistan on the HRC in October last year a crisis in the UN and its intergovernmental system.

Return to fundamental rights

It recommended that the UN should use its peer review mechanism, the Universal Periodic Review, to emphatically urge countries with anti-conversion laws to amend or repeal them, and said the global body needs to return to its core focus on fundamental rights instead of pestering states to accept controversial new rights.

The UN and its mechanisms have lost legitimacy in the eyes of many Member States because of their increasing demand on States to guarantee non-core rights derived from international human rights treaties, the report stated. There is much disagreement among States as to whether these rights identified by UN bodies and not by universal Member State consensus  exist, causing many States to ignore their recommendations.

The report also criticised the way resolutions in the UNHRC are used by particular countries that have anti-conversion laws in place. The most recent resolution on combating intolerance refers in its preamble to the freedom to choose ones religion, but does not elaborate on that freedom at any point.

ADF International presented the report on Tuesday (8 May) in Washington at a briefing with the US governments ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, Sam Brownback.

The thrust of the report echoed comments made by the chairman of the USs Commission on International Religious Freedom last week. Speaking in London, Dr. Daniel Mark said that religious freedom was fundamental to improving other human rights as well as democracy.

India, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan also feature high on the Open Doors 2018 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to live as a Christian.

The post Report: UN weakness on religious freedom undercuts its authority on human rights appeared first on World Watch Monitor.

Publication date: May 10, 2018Iraqis go the polls on Saturday (12 May) for the first time since the military defeat of Islamic State, whose campaign of terror against non-Muslims pushed thousands of the countrys last Christians to flee their homeland.

Only about 200,000 to 300,000 Christians are thought to remain in Iraq now, mostly in the Nineveh Plains and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the countrys north. Around 700,000 emigrated in the violent years that have followed the 2003 US-led invasion and the 2014 appearance of IS, and tens of thousands more have fled to Kurdistan. Politically weak, Christians will be hoping the election process helps rather than hinders the countrys slow progress towards peace.

The vote is going ahead despite a plea from Sunni and Kurdish MPs to delay it to allow more time for people to return home. It has already been postponed from last September, when the military action against IS was ongoing. More than 2.3 million Iraqis, mainly Sunni Muslims but also tens of thousands of Christians, remain displaced. Many of the displaced Sunnis are in camps around the former IS strongholds of Mosul and the western Anbar region, and in Anbar the army is still sporadically attacked by IS jihadists.

However, a spokesman for the Iraqi Embassy in London told World Watch Monitor that displaced Iraqis would be able to vote as long as they had the required form of identification. The High Electoral Commission in Iraq has provided all the necessary requirements for all Iraqis to vote with no exception, he said, adding that displaced people who no longer have their biometric card, nor the electronic card used in previous years, still would be able to cast their vote if they could produce an official document with their name and photo attached to it.

Some 24 million Iraqis are eligible to take part in Saturdays elections for the 329 seats of the Council of Representatives. Those elected then will determine the president and prime minister.

A nod to pluralism

Under the countrys quota system, established in 2004-05 after the removal of Saddam Hussein by US-led forces, Christians are allocated five of those seats, and the other non-Muslim minorities a total of four. The Christians seats are in Baghdad, Mosul, Kirkuk, Duhok and Erbil.

Dr. Erica Hunter of London Universitys School of Oriental and African Studies told World Watch Monitor the quota system was one of the problems for Christians.

While they have a representation, they realise it is a tokenism to pluralism, she said. Clergy say, We dont have any say, and nothing really gets done, because the whole scenario is on the much larger demographic of the Shia and Sunni communities. In the absence of greater decision-making power, Christians prime concern, she said, is the security and stability and safety of their communities.

The Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Louis Sako, has repeatedly urged Chaldeans to take part in the vote. In a statement to be read in churches 6 May, he urged people to choose those who can best serve them and their homeland, and expressed a hope for the election to take place in a sound, secure and fair manner, so as to come out with a strong national government representing all components. In a previous statement he warned voters against backing inexperienced and opportunist candidates.

Whos who?

According to the political structure established post-2003, the role of Prime Minister is reserved for members of Iraqs Shia majority. In his forthcoming term, whoever is elected will need to lead the country through major post-conflict reconstruction, rebuild relations with the Sunnis and reduce corruption in the oil-rich country. Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi is standing for re-election, as is his divisive predecessor, Nouri Al-Maliki, both of whom come from the Islamic Dawa Party. Another frontrunner, Hadi Al-Amiri, is a militia leader who fought against Iraq during its war with Iran. A candidate popular with Christians is the former vice president Ayad Allawi, 74, a secular liberal, although he is seen as not powerful enough to win the top role.

Whoever comes in will need to be a peacemaker, Sir Terence Clark, a former British ambassador to Iraq, told World Watch Monitor. The election comes eight months after a Kurdish vote in favour of secession was rejected by Baghdad. Somebody has got to sit down with the Kurds and sort out their grievances as part of a federal state.

Another major obstacle is to reconcile the grievances of the Sunnis, he said. Sadly, Al-Maliki seemed to aggravate the differences; Abadi has made some efforts but not enough. And whoever comes in next has got to do a lot more than has been done before. Al-Abadi has reached out to Sunni voters and is prepared to work with Sunni politicians, while Reuters has reported that Al-Maliki is planning to reject the post-2003 power-sharing agreement that allots government roles to larger non-Shia communities.

Sir Terence said the sense of grievance among the Sunnis that led to the creation of ISIS had not been resolved. If anything, it has been exacerbated, by the failure of the central government to respond quickly to the needs of the people in the Sunni areas, which were last to be liberated from ISIS control. Therefore, he said, the threat of extremist violence has not gone away following what he called the nominal defeat of IS.

Christian vote divided

Christians, now being so few in number, know their political power is severely limited. In previous elections there has been one main Christian party, the Assyrian Democratic Movement, and Christians have backed it or sometimes nationalist secular parties. However this time there are as many as 12 Christian parties taking part in the elections  some Assyrian, some Chaldean; some candidates were closer to the Kurdish agenda and others to the Shia  weakening the Christian voice and re-opening denominational divisions. The Christian vote is completely split now, said Robert Ewan, an Iraqi-born journalist in London.

Another change in the demographic make-up of the country is the spread northwards of Shia Iraqis. Since government forces reclaimed the oil-rich city of Kirkuk from the Kurdish troops who had defended it from IS, members of Shia Hashd militias have begun moving into towns in the Nineveh Plains not far away. They have had little trouble in buying up properties from those Christians who have decided to emigrate.

According to the ecumenical Nineveh Reconstruction Committee, which aims to rebuild nine Christian towns and villages, some 37,000 of the more 100,000 Christians who fled their homes in the Nineveh Plains in 2014 for the Kurdish region have returned home. But Fr. Salar Kajo, who is part of the committee, said: We have to rebuild now. If we take more time, families will leave and Christianity will disappear from Iraq.

Sixteen-year-old Issac, a Syriac Catholic from Qaraqosh in the Nineveh Plains, spends his days cleaning and repairing the towns damaged churches while his family awaits relocation. Our house was completely burned; repairing it isnt possible. I have no hobbies, he told World Watch Monitor. And I dont go to school because our family decided to leave the country as soon as we can.

Eighteen-year-old Yousif, also from Qaraqosh, said: I dont have many friends any more. Pretty much all of them left the country over the last few years. They are in Australia, the United States and France now. But he told World Watch Monitor: There is still fear among the Christians that there still could be attacks. But there is also courage among the Christians that chose to stay in this country.

Christians have been scapegoated for too long to tolerate much more violence. With their political power limited by design and weakened by division, their best hope lies with a government that works to heal the grievances left by 15 years of bitter conflict and incorporates all the countrys religious and ethnic groups. Only with the establishment of a lasting peace and a citizenship that moves beyond religious favouritism will Christians be persuaded to return home, and, if they have already, to stay.

The post Praying for a peacemaker: What do Iraqs elections mean for the remaining Christians? appeared first on World Watch Monitor.

Photo courtesy: Thinkstock/Romanista

Publication date: May 10, 2018Jesus once outlined the signs to watch for that would indicate the end times are near. Recorded by Matthew (chapter 24), and known as the little apocalypse, there are at least eight dynamics that will come into play:

false prophets and people who claim to be Christ;

wars and threats of wars;

an increase in the number of natural disasters;

the persecution of Christians;

the renunciation of faith by many Christians;

internal division and discord among Christians;

immorality and insensitivity to immorality; and

the proclamation of the gospel to everyone in the world.

I knowreading the list sounds like todays newsfeed. And there is an entire cottage industry proclaiming that we are, indeed, in the last days. There is an equally robust chorus belittling such cries of alarm by saying that such signs have always been upon us, and that Christians living in every era of history thought theirs would be the last.

I dont know.

I just know were closer to the end than any other era of Christians.

And I also know that, again, reading the list sounds like todays newsfeed.

Just consider immorality and insensitivity to immorality. Findings from the 2017 American Values Atlas, just released by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), reveal an emerging consensus on LGBT issues. Currently, more than six in 10 (61%) Americans say gay and lesbian couples should be able to marry legally, while only about half as many (30%) are opposed. And those who strongly favor same-sex marriage outnumber those who strongly oppose it by a more than two-to-one margin (30% vs. 14%).

I know this sounds like old news, but it shouldnt because it isnt. In 2007, only 13% of the public strongly favored same-sex marriage, while nearly one-quarter (24%) strongly opposed it. The study even found that most religious groups now support same-sex marriage, with opposition confined to a few of the most conservative Christian traditions. But even that is weakening. Since 2013, opposition to same-sex marriage has dropped 13% among white evangelical Protestants from 71% in 2013 to 58% today.

There has never been such a seismic moral shift in such short order in any era of history of which I am aware.

And then consider how Christians will be persecuted. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) just released its 2018 Annual Report noting that religious freedom is in global decline. Sadly, religious freedom conditions deteriorated in many countries in 2017, often due to increasing authoritarianism or under the guise of countering terrorism, said USCIRF Chairman Daniel Mark.

Countries of particular concern (CPCs) include Burma, Central African Republic, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. And yes, much of the persecution in those countries is targeted toward Christians.

So is the end near?

Of course it is, whether it happens in our lifetime or not. Which is why we should take Jesus oft-repeated counsel to heart:

Live every day as if it is the worlds last night.

James Emery White

Sources

Emerging Consensus on LGBT Issues: Findings from the 2017 American Values Atlas, PRRI, May 1, 2018, read online.

USCIRF Releases 2018 Annual Report, Recommends 16 Countries be Designated Countries of Particular Concern, USCIRF, April 25, 2018, read online.

About the Author

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and the ranked adjunctive professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Meet Generation Z: Understanding and Reaching the New Post-Christian World, is available on Amazon. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit ChurchAndCulture.org, where you can view past blogs in our archive and read the latest church and culture news from around the world. Follow Dr. White on Twitter and Instagram @JamesEmeryWhite.On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought home three American citizens who had spent the last one to three years as prisoners in North Korea. All three men are Christians and ethnically Korean. Two were falsely accused of hostile acts and arrested in the spring of 2017. The third, according to USA Today, was imprisoned for supposedly spying on North Korea and trying to steal military secrets for South Koreans.

Unlike some prisoners released from North Korea in recent years, these three men appear to be in good health. Last year, one American student released from North Korea was in a coma at the time of his release and died soon after his return to the United States. Another man released last year, a pastor from Canada, was also unwell upon his release.

In a statement released on their return journey, the three men released yesterday thanked God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return, USA Today reports. Additionally, the family of one of the men wrote on Twitter, We  want to thank the President for engaging directly with N. Korea. Mostly, we thank God for Tonys safe return.

Trump hinted at the possible release of these three men last week. North Koreas release of the American citizens was done out of preparation for the anticipated meeting between Trump and Kim Jong-un later this year. According to The New York Times, [T]he prisoner release was an American condition to the planned [nuclear] talks.

Leah Hickman is a 2017 graduate of Hillsdale Colleges English program. She freelances for BreakPoint.org and has written pieces for multiple Hillsdale College campus publications as well as for ChristianAnswers.net/Spotlight and the Discover Laura Blog. Read more by Leah at aworldofgrasspeople.blogspot.com.

Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump walks with the three Americans just released from North Korea, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Tony Kim at Joint Base Andrews on May 9, 2018 in Maryland. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to North Korea and returned with the three men who have been detained in North Korea.

Photo courtesy: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Publication date: May 10, 2018The case began in 2017 when the Christian organization requested that the Christian flag be allowed to fly on a city hall flagpole that is open to the public. The citys unique policy encourages groups to fly their flags, temporarily, on the pole in order to foster diversity and build and strengthen connections among Bostons many communities." The request was denied.North Korea is a country surrounded by a lot of myths. While most people likely know that North Korea is ruled by a dictator and is not a place most people have any desire to visit, actual knowledge about the country is often scarce.

It's important, however, to understand the history of this country and what it is really like for its citizens in order to better understand events going on in the world, as well as to understand how to pray for this country, where God has many people, despite the intense persecution Christians there receive.

Additionally, since North Korea has been surfacing more frequently in the news lately, it is especially important to get some backstory on North Korea's threat of missiles and nuclear weapons, as well as the recent developments in diplomatic relations between North Korea and the rest of the world. The following will provide you with some basic information on this hermit country.

Photo courtesy: Thinkstock/BruceStanfieldEmail Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

To all the Never Trumpers and Trump-haters, it's time to give the man his due. Not only did he do the right thing in backing out of our deal with Iran but he stood in full presidential stature in denouncing this terrorist-funding regime and sending a message of hope and liberation to the people of Iran. Well done, Mr. President!

On a personal level, I have every right to ask my anti-Trump friends to commend him, since I have spoken out when the president's words or actions grieved me. And I have made clear that, as evangelical followers of Jesus, we must not sell our souls in his defense.

My policy has been simple: When the president does well, we should commend him. When he doesn't do well, we should constructively criticize him. That's what loyal citizens do.

Today is a day to commend him. He hit the ball out of the park with his decision and speech regarding Iran. And in doing so, he presented himself as the ultimate anti-Obama.

Let's examine the contrasts carefully.

First, Trump properly identified Iran for the dangerous nation it has become. In his words, "The Iranian regime is the leading state sponsor of terror. It exports dangerous missiles, fuels conflicts across the Middle East, and supports terrorist proxies and militias such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda.

"Over the years, Iran and its proxies have bombed American embassies and military installations, murdered hundreds of American servicemembers, and kidnapped, imprisoned, and tortured American citizens. The Iranian regime has funded its long reign of chaos and terror by plundering the wealth of its own people. No action taken by the regime has been more dangerous than its pursuit of nuclear weapons and the means of delivering them."

This is all patently true, and only the most strident supporters of Iran would dispute it.

Did President Obama ever make a statement about Iran on this level? Did he ever call a spade a spade in such forthright, categorical terms?

Second, President Trump said no to a really bad deal with Iran, a deal that put tens of billions of dollars back into the hands of radical Muslim leaders committed to war and upheaval in the Middle East and beyond.

Yet it was Obama who helped get us into this mess. In fact, according to a lengthy report on Politico, "In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation."

The headline and sub-heading to the story were even more damning: "The Secret Backstory of How Obama Let Hezbollah Off the Hook. An ambitious U.S. task force targeting Hezbollah's billion-dollar criminal enterprise ran headlong into the White House's desire for a nuclear deal with Iran."

If this report is true, not only did we make a foolhardy deal with Iran. We also helped to enable Hezbollah, one of Iran's terrorist allies. And we did it to our direct detriment.

It's also worth noting that our treaty with Iran was multinational, thereby bringing an aggressive, radical regime into a coalition with other nations (including the United Kingdom, Russia, China, and countries in the European Union).

The president, in his speech, further isolated Iran when he stated that "at this very moment, Secretary Pompeo is on his way to North Korea in preparation for my upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-Un. Plans are being made, relationships are building, hopefully a deal will happen, and with the help of China, South Korea, and Japan, a future of great prosperity and security can be achieved for everyone."

He was saying to Iran, "Get with the program, and you'll have a bright future. Dig in your heels, and you'll regret it."

Third, Trump told the oppressed people of Iran they had a friend here in the United States. He said, "Finally, I want to deliver a message to the long-suffering people of Iran: The people of America stand with you. It has now been almost 40 years since this dictatorship seized power and took a proud nation hostage. Most of Iran's 80 million citizens have sadly never known an Iran that prospered in peace with its neighbors and commanded the admiration of the world. But the future of Iran belongs to its people. They are the rightful heirs to a rich culture and an ancient land and they deserve a nation that does justice to their dreams, honor to their history, and glory to their god."

What a message this sends to the people of Iran, who also understand from Trump's remarks that a new government means a prosperous Iran. This stands in stark contrast to the relatively weak support offered by President Obama during the protests of 2009. (Note also that, according to one Iranian dissident and defense expert, the country could fall within a year.)

So, to those who questioned whether Trump would keep his word about Iran and to those who are quick to criticize him when he does wrong, here's your chance to prove your impartiality. Give the man his due today, without caveat. He deserves it.home US Bill aimed at banning all abortions in South Carolina dies after Democratic filibuster

A legislation that would have banned nearly all abortions in South Carolina has been rejected in the Senate following a filibuster by Democratic lawmakers.

According to the Post and Courier, the Senate voted 24a21 to send the bill back to the committee, effectively tabling the bill for a whole year.

The original version of the legislation was only aimed at banning dismemberment abortions, but it was later amended to ban all abortions except in cases of rape, incest or threat to the life of the mother.

Following an initial vote of 24a1 in favor of the bill, Democratic lawmakers started a filibuster with Sen. Marlon Kimpson holding the floor for nearly eight hours.

Sen. Gerald Malloy of Hartsville noted that the Democrats were prepared to stay if the filibuster lasted until the weekend. "We were right there on pins and needles until the very end," he said, as reported by The Associated Press.

The Republicans had hoped that some Democrats would abandon the filibuster, but it went on until the bill was sent back to committee.

Kimpson remarked that Republicans "knew we had the firepower to go all night and into the next day." "We had our minds made up and were working effectively as a team," he added.

Critics of the bill claimed that there were provisions that could be read as a prohibition on many forms of birth control. Pro-life groups believe that such claims have ruined the bill's chances of getting passed.

"Once the debate shifted from stopping the savage, uncivilized dismembering of living unborn children, and was turned into a specious and untruthful argument over Republicans wanting to outlaw birth control, the dismemberment abortion ban bill was doomed," Holly Gatling, executive director of South Carolina Citizens for Life, said, as reported by The Associated Press.

Republican Sen. Katrina Shealy explained that she opted to send the bill back to the Medical Affairs Committee because she saw it as the only way to break up the standoff that prevents the Senate from getting anything done before the end of the session on Thursday.

"We didn't have a way out. We couldn't have gotten out of that with a can of gasoline and a match," she said, according to Post and Courier.

Other issues that are still awaiting consideration in the Senate include measures involving the failed $9 billion nuclear power project in Fairfield County.

Members of the South Carolina Senate are expected to return to the floor on Tuesday, with only three days left in the legislative session. Any bills that are not passed at the end of the session will have to be cleared and has to be introduced again at the start of the next session in January, according to The Associated Press.home World Chinese officials force Christians on trial over alleged cult membership to fire lawyers

Chinese Christians in Yunnan province who are being tried in court for their alleged involvement in a cult were reportedly forced to fire their attorneys to be replaced by government-appointed lawyers.

According to China Aid, seven Christians went to court in Chuxiong late last month to defend themselves against the charge of "organizing and using evil cults to disrupt law enforcement."

The defendants a Liu Wei, Li Yunxiu, Hu Yuxin, Li Chunyu, Yao Jiaping, Zhong Yonggui, and Li Wanhong a are allegedly members of the Three Grades of Servants group, which has been designated by the government as a cult because the members openly practice the Christian faith.

A lawyer for one of the accused has claimed that government officials have compelled some of the Christians to dismiss their attorneys so that they can be defended by the ones appointed by the government.

"Out of the seven defendants, originally only Hu Yuxin's family said they did not want a lawyer. The others all had lawyers. Now, only three people have agreed to be represented by lawyers from outside [the government]. One is Liu Wei, one Liu Yunxiu, and the other is Li Chunyu. The others all accepted officially-appointed lawyers," attorney Li Guisheng said, according to China Aid.

Li Guisheng, who was one of the lawyers dismissed by a client, said that he was prevented from seeing his client.

The lawyer narrated that his client, Li Wanhong, had previously insisted that she was innocent when he was able to visit her in detention.

"In the past four months, however, the court sent a notification to the detention centers, preventing the lawyers from meeting with the clients. In February, I went to visit my client at the detention center, and the guards blocked me," Li Guisheng recounted.

Another lawyer reported that the attorneys selected by the families of the accused tried to visit the detention center to sign their contracts, but they were turned away by officials at the facility.

One government agent reportedly told the attorneys that the court has dismissed all the lawyers and that government-appointed lawyers have already been assigned to the case.

As many as 200 Christians were taken into custody in 2016 when the authorities started cracking down on the Three Grades of Servants.

In January, several of the defendants received lengthy prison sentences ranging from four to 13 years for their supposed cult activity.

Ju Dianhong, who was sentenced to 13 years, was accused of leading the Three Grades of Servants and recruiting members, but she insisted that she has never heard of the group.

At the time, the lawyers of the accused were reportedly notified that they will be put under investigation because they have been suspected of "illegally" defending their clients.home World Church of England split on proposal to drop 'husband and wife' from US congregation's marriage services

Members of the Church of England are reportedly divided on the issue of removing the terms "husband" and "wife" from the marriage services in The Episcopal Church.

According to The Telegraph, The Episcopal Church has proposed a measure to change its marriage service by replacing the phrase "the union of husband and wife" with "the union of two people." A section that refers to the "procreation of children" as the purpose of marriage would be replaced with the phrase "for the gift of children" in an effort to accommodate same-sex couples who are planning to adopt.

Couples are still allowed to use the terms "husband" and "wife" when making their vows, but they also have the option to use the gender-neutral term "spouse."

In October, the Church of England's Secretary General William Nye reportedly expressed his disapproval for the proposal.

A letter from Nye has indicated that he had threatened to sever links with the Episcopal Church if it makes changes to the marriage service.

However, The Episcopal Church's proposal has gained the support of more than 300 members of the Anglican Church, including Alan Wilson, the bishop of Buckingham.

Liberal members of the Anglican church stated in a letter to the U.S. Church that they were "grateful" for the proposal, adding that "a gender-neutral approach will enable us to become a loving and inclusive Church for all."

In his letter, Nye had warned that implementing the proposal would add to the growing "pressure to dissociate" the Church of England from the U.S. Church, arguing that conservative members would see the move as "completely unacceptable."

He suggested that the new service should only be conducted on a "trial status" to avoid "irrevocably redefining marriage."

Nye further contended that the changes "constitute a clear divergence from the understanding of marriage held throughout the history of the Christian Church."

Jayne Ozanne, a campaigner for LGBT rights in the church, raised questions about Nye's letter, noting that it had not been discussed by the Archbishops' Council.

"It would be strange if it were sent with the knowledge and support of the Archbishops given their firm commitment to 'radical Christian inclusion' and their understanding of the need to be pastorally sensitive to the LGBT community, neither of which area mentioned in the letter," Ozanne said, as reported by The Telegraph.

The Church of England sparked controversy last year after its general synod had voted to "take note" of a report that encouraged "welcome and support" for LGBT individuals, but declined to affirm same-sex marriage.

After the vote, the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested that there is a need for a "radical new Christian inclusion in the Church."

A 2016 survey has found that 45 percent of Anglicans were in favor of same-sex marriage, while 37 percent are opposed.home World New archaeological discovery confirms existence of Biblical city linked to King David, experts say

A large building discovered by archaeologists below the hills of Hebron, near Jerusalem, is believed to be part of an ancient settlement that has been linked to the Biblical King David.

Professor Avraham Faust, co-head of the archaeological dig, believes that the latest find confirms that the Bible is accurate, noting that it is a "part of the events in the Bible ascribed to the Kingdom of David."

Scholars have identified the city where the building was found as the Biblical city of Eglon, which is chronicled in the Bible as a part of a coalition that fought against the Israelites and was later listed as part of the tribe of Judah.

The archaeologists initially did not know what is hidden beneath the ground, but with the help of burrowing mole rats, they were able to sift through the soil brought to the surface by the rodents and find some clues as to what buried below.

Using radiocarbon dates of samples from the site, the experts have dated the building to the 10th century B.C., during the time of King David's rule, as recorded in the Bible.

"Until 25 years ago no one doubted that King David was a historical figure," Faust told Breaking Israel News.

"In the last 25 years or so, however, David's historicity, and especially the size of his kingdom, are hotly debated. The new discovery at Tel 'Eton, located in the Judean Shephelah to the east of the Hebron hills, seems to suggest that the highland kingdom controlled larger areas than some scholars believe," he added.

Faust clarified that there were no artifacts with the inscription of King David's name, but he argued that there are some signs of "social transformation" that can be linked to the time when the Biblical King was supposed to have existed.

"[T]he changes are consistent with larger regional changes, all connected with the highlands, and all taking place at a time the Kingdom of David was supposed to have to spread into this region," Faust told Breaking Israel News.

Several fortifications were found at the site during the early stages of excavations, suggesting that it was a significant area.

Many of the buildings found at the location dated to the eighth century B.C., a couple of centuries after the reign of King David, but further examinations revealed that the site was much older.

The latest discovery at the site was a well-constructed structure at the top of tel or an artificial mound, indicating that the location served as a regional administrative center.

The researchers also found a pottery bowl that is believed to be used in a ceremony asking God for protection of the building. The discovery of the artifact led the experts to believe that the building dated to the building to Canaanite Bronze Age and early Iron Age, and to the 10th century B.C. at the latest.home World SPLC removes 'anti-Muslim extremists' list after Islamic reformer threatened to sue

The Southern Poverty Law Center has removed the list of "anti-Muslim extremists" from its website after Islamic reformer Maajid Nawaz threatened to sue the organization for putting him on the list.

The list, which was published in 2016 as a "field guide" for journalists, has sparked a backlash against the SPLC due to the inclusion of liberal reformers such as Nawaz and Somali-born activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

The SPLC insisted that the people on the list were responsible for hate crimes against Muslims. It further stated in its report that the people on the list are "seen regularly on television news programs and quoted in the pages of our leading newspapers."

"There, they routinely espouse a wide range of utter falsehoods, all designed to make Muslims appear as bloodthirsty terrorists or people intent on undermining American constitutional freedoms. More often than not, these claims go uncontested," the report stated, according to the National Review.

Nawaz, a former Islamic extremist who now focuses on combating against hateful ideology, stated in a recent interview with comedian Joe Rogan that the list was removed sometime in the last two days.

"We have retained Clare Locke, they are writing to the Southern Poverty Law Center as we speak. I think they've got wind of it a the Southern Poverty Law Center a and as of yesterday, or the day before, they've removed the entire list that's been up there for two years," said Nawaz, as reported by the National Review.

According to the Daily Caller, internet archives has indicated that the list was still up on April 13, but it has been removed by April 18.

Nawaz, who founded the anti-extremism think tank Quilliam Foundation, regularly criticizes radical interpretations of Islam, prompting the SPLC to brand him as an "anti-Muslim extremist."

The British Islamic reformer first announced the lawsuit against the SPLC in June 2017, and he had just raised enough money to cover the initial legal fees through crowdfunding.

His inclusion in the SPLC's list has spurred thousands of supporters to sign a Change.org petition calling on the left-wing organization to remove Nawaz and Ali from the list.

Ali, who now works at the Hoover Institution, is known for her criticism of female genital mutilation and other practices that are common in Muslim-majority countries. In an op-ed for the New York Times last year, she denounced the SPLC for the "deeply offensive smears" against her.home US Study links decline of church attendance to rise of Christian Right

A recent study has suggested that the rise of the Christian Right is partly responsible for the declining church membership in the U.S.

The report published in Political Research Quarterly in late April showed that the percentage of religious nones have increased in states where the Christian Right have gained prominence.

The study was based on data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study and reports from several interest groups between 2000 and 2010.

The authors of the report contended that the major contributing factor in the decline in church membership was the "salient controversy," in which the Christian Right has been seen as "more salient to the public" because of the debate on controversial topics.

One of the examples cited by researchers was the increase in the number of people abandoning their religion in states that implemented bans on same-sex marriage.

The lead author of the study, Paul A. Djupe, said that he was taken by surprise when he found out that "the link between the presence of Christian Right organizations and the religious nones was limited to states with 'salient controversy.'"

"Since many states enacted same-sex marriage bans (and like legislation) in the mid-2000s, that means that the salient controversy was relatively widespread and was more common in somewhat redder, more conservative states," Djupe, a political science professor at Denison University, said in an interview with The Christian Post.

"So, the other surprising finding was that the difference in rates of religious nones between Republican and Democratic states narrowed across this time period (on average)," he added.

The study, co-authored by University of Wisconsin-Madison Assistant Professor Jacob Neiheisel and University of Cincinnati Assistant Professor Kimberly Horn Conger, suggested that the situation facing the Christian Right was similar to a time when membership in mainline Protestant churches declined during the 1960s due to Religious Left activism.

A study by Neiheisel and Djupe in 2014 has indicated that the Christian Right was not a significant factor in people's decision to leave churches.

The research, titled "The Choice That Matters: Politics in the Role of Leaving Congregations," also revealed that mainline Protestants are more likely than evangelicals to abandon their churches because of politics.

In May last year, the researchers published a more recent version of the study in the American Journal of Political Science.

Last March, Neiheisel suggested that the number of people departing their churches over politics was just "a little churn."

He argued at the time that politics was not the main reason behind people's decision to leave their religion. "It's demographics; it's generational; it's many other things," he said, according to University of Buffalo News Center.

Djupe noted that political disagreements is a significant factor in the decline of church affiliation, but noted that the "disagreement could be over anything and it has to be linked to dynamics within the congregation."home World Trump's religious liberty order helped charities to provide aid to 13.7 million people in need, FRC report claims

President Donald Trump's executive order on religious liberty has helped charities to provide health care and other social services to as many as 13.7 million people this past year, according to an analysis by the Family Research Council (FRC).

The order, signed by the president on May 4, 2017, provided protections for religious organizations and businesses that operate in accordance with traditional Christian values, particularly on issues such as marriage and abortion.

Prior to the signing of the order, some of the businesses and organizations were concerned that Obama-era regulations and discrimination laws could affect their operations, according to The Christian Post.

The report, compiled by the director of FRC's Center for Religious Liberty, Travis Weber, has asserted that the executive order "has had a tangible impact on the protection and priority of religious freedom throughout the executive branch over the past twelve months."

Under the mandate, the Department of Justice was instructed to issue a guidance that detailed how federal agencies could protect religious freedom.

It also allowed the Department of Health and Human Services to find the best way to deal with conscience-based objections to the Obamacare mandate that required employers to provide contraception coverage in health care plans for employees.

The exemptions to the Obamacare mandate was expanded last October to include protections for faith-based nonprofits and for-profit companies.

According to Weber, the new HHS mandate has ensured protections for at least 354 organizations, including 44 schools that have been able to provide education for over 148,000 students.

He further noted that the executive order also benefited "numerous public service organizations" that are part of umbrella groups that provide health care and other social services to about 13.7 million people each year.

One of the umbrella groups cited by Weber in the report was Catholic Charities USA, which had served over 8.7 million people in 2014 through its subsidiaries.

"Recently, in a one-year period, [Catholic Charities] collectively admitted over 5 million patients, and employed over 600,000 people," Weber noted.

"Add these 5 million patients to the 8.7 million served by Catholic Charities, and that is the number aided by the executive order and subsequent HHS exemption even when considering only several large umbrella groups operating within a one-year timeframe," he continued.

Weber argued that "millions of people would be in greater jeopardy" if the HHS exemptions had not been issued in October.

The FRC analysis was released just after Trump signed a new executive order that would create a new faith-based office called the White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative. The order, signed on the National Day of Prayer, ensures that faith-based organizations have "strong advocates in the White House and throughout the Federal Government."home World U2 expresses support for campaign to repeal Ireland's abortion ban

Irish rock group has come out in support of the campaign to repeal Ireland's Eighth Amendment, which guarantees the right to life for the unborn.

In a tweet posted on Tuesday, the group encouraged Irish voters to participate in the referendum that is set to take place on May 25th. The social media post included a heart-shaped graphic that read "Repeal the 8th."

The band's guitarist, Dave "Edge" Evans, acknowledged that there is a "huge divergence of opinion" about the issue, but he stressed that he supports the repeal of the country's ban on abortions.

"It's hard to take a stance without acknowledging there's another side of it but I'm for it. I support Repeal," he said, as reported by the Irish Times.

The tweet has since garnered over 18,000 likes, but some fans have expressed disappointment about the band's stance on the issue.

"You were one of my favorite bands, and now one of my least favorite bands. Absolutely disgusting you would encourage the murder of millions of children. SHAME ON YOU," one commenter wrote, as reported by Christian News Network.

"This breaks my heart. I have loved and followed you for 20 years. I still love you, but I can't follow you down this road. My tickets to upcoming shows will go unused," another social media user remarked.

Lawmakers in Ireland are expected to introduce a legislation that would allow abortions up to 12 weeks if the amendment is repealed.

A recent poll, published in the Sunday Business Post, has shown that as many as 53 percent of Irish voters are in favor of repealing the amendment. However, the figure is reduced to 47 percent when the proposal to legalize abortions up to 12 weeks is included.

In contrast, the findings revealed that 26 percent oppose the repeal, but rises to 32 percent when the 12-week abortion ban is introduced.

Meanwhile, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland has urged its members to vote "No" in the upcoming referendum. In a letter to ministers and parishioners, the General Council stressed that "meaningful protection for the unborn can only be secured" if the Eighth Amendment remains in place.

The Church noted that there are "mixed views" among members regarding the Constitutional amendment, but it maintained that the proposal to allow unrestricted access to abortions up to 12 weeks would be "regressive, incompatible with human dignity and morally unacceptable."

Only half of a percent of Ireland's population identify as members of the Presbyterian Church. Around 80 percent of the nation's population belongs to the Catholic Church, which is also in favor of retaining the Eighth Amendment.home US US Supreme Court declines to hear appeal of Christian school that was banned from relocating to Michigan township

The U.S. Supreme Court has announced on Monday that it will not consider the appeal of Livingston Christian School (LCS), which was prevented from relocating to a Michigan Township after the board refused to grant a permit in 2015.

The Genoa Township rejected the school's request to use a part of Brighton Church of the Nazarene in 2015 citing traffic concerns.

According to Livingston Daily, the school wanted to move from its old location in neighboring Pinckney before the start of the 2015a2016 school year and had entered into a lease agreement with the church.

Court documents have indicated that the school moved out of Pinckney because of enrollment and income concerns.

The rejection has prompted LCS to sue the Township under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

Under the legislation, cities are prohibited from using zoning rules to drive out religious institutions from their jurisdiction.

The First Liberty Institute, which represented the school in court, argued that the school's request was denied despite recommendations from the town's planning commission and consultants, who reportedly gave their approval to use the property for the school.

The lawsuit further contended that the township's rejection substantially burdened the school's operations.

A federal court ruled in favor of the township, prompting LCS to file an appeal. In June last year, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the township did not violate federal religious protection laws when it rejected the school's application.

The appellate court stated that the school had failed to present sufficient evidence that the location in Pinckney was not sufficient for its operations.

Hiram Sasser, general counsel at First Liberty, expressed concern that the Sixth Circuit and the Supreme Court decision could set a precedent for other towns and cities to reject other religious schools.

"This is a deeply disappointing decision, not only because of what it means for our clients but because it will embolden other cities and towns across the country to keep religious organizations from contributing to their community," he said in a statement, according to CBN News.

"Federal law expressly prohibits the government from using zoning laws to keep religious institutions out of their town. We are extremely disappointed the Supreme Court will allow this terrible precedent to stand. We are, however, grateful to Rob Kelner and the entire team at Covington & Burling, LLP, for their diligent efforts in seeking to protect religious freedom in this case," he continued.home World Vatican denies reports that it signed deal with Saudi government to build churches for Christians

The Vatican has stated that the reports claiming that it signed a deal with the government of Saudi Arabia to build churches from Christian were "false."

A report published by the Egypt Independent on Wednesday has claimed that the agreement was signed by the Secretary-General of the Muslim World League Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdel Karim Al-Issa and the President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue in the Vatican and the French cardinal of the Catholic Church Jean-Louis Tauran.

The article has since been removed from Egypt Independent's website, but it can still be accessed through Google's web cache.

The agreement to build churches for Christians was supposedly a part of the Saudi Arabian government's effort to demonstrate the role of religions and cultures in the fight against terrorism and extremism.

Tauran had met with members of the Saudi Royal family earlier this year during his visit to the Middle Eastern country.

During the visit, Tauran and the Saudi crown prince discussed the government's use of media and technology in its campaign to "disrupt extremist recruitment and promote tolerance."

"I think we have two enemies: extremism and ignorance," Tauran stated at the time, according to Daily Mail.

"I don't believe in the clash of civilisation but rather in the clash of ignorance. Most of the time people react because they don't know who you are or who they are," he added.

The cardinal had reportedly signed an agreement with the Muslim World League, a government-backed organization that has been tasked with propagating the Wahhabi form of Islam.

The deal reportedly involves regular inter-religious summits organized by Saudi and Vatican delegations.

Upon his return, Tauran stated that his visit could be an indication of greater "openness" and desire for "rapprochement" with Christianity from Saudi Arabia, the only country in the Middle East without a Christian church.

In recent months, Saudi leaders have met with various Christian leaders, including the head of Lebanon's Maronite church, Beshara Rai.

Rai had met with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to Riyadh in November.

Additionally, the prince had also met with Jewish and Catholic leaders during his trip to New York in March.

The reformist prince has been trying to clean up the image of his kingdom, which has often been linked to jihadist ideology.

It is estimated that 1.5 million Christians, most of whom are migrant workers, are currently residing in Saudi Arabia, where all forms of public worship are forbidden except for Islam.

According to Russia Today, a proposal to build a church was announced back in 2008, but the plan was abandoned at a later stage.American Christian prisoners touch down in Washington after release from North Korea

A plane carrying three American Christian prisoners released by North Korea landed near Washington DC early on Thursday morning and was met by President Donald Trump,

The release was seen as a significant diplomatic achievement by the Trump administration and clears a major obstacle to a planned summit between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The prisoners, freed after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travelled to the North Korean capital, landed at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.

The flight, which arrived at around 06.42 GMT (2:42 am local time), was also met by Vice President Mike Pence, White House national security adviser John Bolton and Trump's wife, Melania.

A White House spokeswoman said the three men would be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in nearby Maryland for further medical evaluation.

They are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul, detained in 2015; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who spent a month teaching at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST and was detained last year.

'We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home,' the three said in a statement released by the State Department as their plane stopped over in Alaska.

'We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.'

Tony Kim, also known by his Korean name Kim Sang Duk, was arrested on April 22 last year, just before boarding a plane for a flight back to the US.

'My father had just finished his semester as a professor in North Korea when he was arrested at the airport,' said Kim's eldest son, Sol, in a YouTube video, posted several months ago.

Kim was a professor at Pyongyang University for Science and Technology (PUST), the country's only privately-run academic institution, which is open about its Christian affiliation.

PUST was founded in 2010 by a Korean American evangelical Christian with the goal of helping North Korea's future elite learn the skills to modernise the isolated country and engage with the outside world, according to Reuters.

'My mum, brother and I miss our dad so much,' Kim's son said in the video.

Another Christian professor from PUST, Kim Hak Song, was also arrested a month later.

A third individual, a Korean-American missionary named Kim Dong Chul, was arrested in October 2015 and sentenced in March 2016 to 10 years of hard labour for subversion.

North Korean state media said they were arrested either for subversion or 'hostile acts' against the government.

Until now, the only American released by North Korea during Trump's presidency was Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old university student who returned to the United States in a coma last summer after 17 months of captivity and died days later.

Warmbier's death escalated US-North Korea tensions, already running high at the time over Pyongyang's stepped-up missile tests.

The release of the last US detainees in North Korea appeared to signal an effort by Kim to improve the tone for the summit and followed his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut a nuclear bomb test site.

A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Singapore has emerged as the likeliest location for the planned summit after Trump ruled out holding it at the heavily fortified demilitarised zone between North and South Korea.

Trump, who previously said Singapore was under consideration, said agreement had been reached on a date and venue and details would be announced within three days.

The release of the prisoners also gave Trump a chance to tout a diplomatic achievement soon after his decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal drew heavy criticism from European allies and others.

Additional reporting by Reuters.Looking up: What is Ascension Day and why does it matter?

Today marks the celebration of Ascension Day in the Christian calendar. What is it and why does it matter?

Ascension refers to the moment when the resurrected Christ concluded his earthly ministry and ascended to sit at the right hand of his father in heaven. It is followed by Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit of God  the 'comforter' promised by Christ  is poured out on the disciples and the Christian church is effectively born.

Luke's gospel (24:50-53) narrates the somewhat strange story:

'When he [Jesus] had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.'

The book of Acts, also authored by Luke, adds that 'a cloud hid him from their [the disciples] sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them."Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven"' (Acts 1:9-11).

The accounts can be jarring in part for their lack of detail: did Jesus float up ethereally or thrust into the sky like Superman? Anyway, isn't that a bit silly? Does this heavenward ascent not clash with the notion of an earthly, incarnate Christ, and is it suggesting that we too must throw off earthbound existence and float into the 'clouds' of heaven? Much recent theology has sought to challenge any such 'escapist' theology that seeks to leave bodily existence behind.

But the Ascension isn't about endorsing heavenly getaways or Christ abandoning earth  it is rather the enriching of the biblical narrative: the conclusion of one dramatic chapter and the beginning of another, with the Trinitarian Godhead remaining profoundly present to humanity in both. Through the Holy Spirit Christians believe God dwells in the hearts of humankind, expanding the reach of the Gospel from Galilee to the ends of the Earth. Meanwhile, the book of Hebrews speaks of Christ's empathetic ministry of intercession on behalf of believers, as he sits with the father in heaven:

'Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are  yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need' (Hebrews 4:14-16).

The heavenward ascent might be baffling to modern minds (it surely confused the disciples too) but that mystery makes it compelling too  a genuinely awesome visualisation of Christ's transcendent victory. But the biblical text reminds believers not to keep their head in the clouds, since there's work yet to be done on earth. As the angels asked the astounded disciples: 'Why do you stand here looking into the sky?'The last hot take: Is Christian blogging dead?

It's been revealed that the British Christian blog collective Theads UK will close down its operations in the coming weeks. The site, run by the Evangelical Alliance, has for six years been a hub of diverse opinion on a range of topics, largely wrestling with theology, politics, and 21st century Christian culture, most often from the perspective of millennial believers exploring work, sex and lifestyle dilemmas.

In a post explaining the site's closure, Threads coordinator Stu Bothwell celebrated the 'conversation' that has taken place from a 'collective of Christians from all walks of life, who are living, working and trying to carve out our identity in our worlds'.

'As artists and bankers, singles and marrieds, visionaries and geeks, the hilarious and the deadly serious; we've been able to share our best thinking with brothers and sisters from across the UK.' Now, he said, the site will 'draw to a close', though the Evangelical Alliance 'remain as passionate as ever around resourcing those of us in our 20s and 30s'.

In the ever-evolving world of social media, it's not shocking for certain online initiatives to have their moment for a time before new sites or habits come along. Nothing lasts forever, and it's perhaps just cause for celebration that Threads existed and edified for as long as it did.

But does the move reflect a shift in Christian media? Rumours of the 'death of the blog' are common now, so is the same the case for Christian blogging?

Former Threads contributors last night were reflecting on Twitter about their own writing habits declining in frequency: work or family pressures meant some just no longer had time to blog. They might also be less sure of their opinions, feeling less able to speak into the latest national crisis with any clarity. If long-form blogging has declined, Twitter has expanded its reach as the home of wide-ranging and witty opinion on the latest zeitgeist: if you've a hot take to share, you just put it on there. The president of the United States certainly does.

We inhabit a link-saturated culture, where each click-through brings more adverts, tabs and other links to follow. If you want news, culture, opinion, you've hundreds of quality outlets to choose from, each producing more than you'll ever have the time to read. If it's specifically 'Christian' content you're after, you've still an abundance of opinions and voices to follow. Cumulatively then, it's a deeply competitive scenario in which not everyone can win.

That's then compounded by the fact that the way we receive content has changed: the newsfeeds of Twitter and Facebook no longer show you real-time updates but through opaque algorithms decide what content you'd like to see. If the algorithm hasn't favoured a certain link or figure, it might simply never be seen. If a blogger posts but no one reads it, does he still make a sound?

Threads also provided a hub for good disagreement, but is even the Christian world now too polarised for such a space to exist? The presence of online echo chambers, again largely thanks to those algorithms, is well-attested, and it's not absent in the Christian sub-culture. There's a Christian left and a Christian right, each increasingly antagonised by the other, at least at the extremes. In the US (and the UK to a degree) there's Desiring God or The Gospel Coalition for conservative evangelicals, and sites like Sojourners for more left-leaning progressives. Platforms that still try to cater to both might find they lack the bite that readers demand. The existence of contrasting opinion isn't a problem, but without a shared space of dialogue, it doesn't bode well for unity and mutual understanding.

The entrenchment can create a kind of community, heightening a sense of shared perspective, but it also tends to shut down conversation amid difference, something the church surely can't afford to do. Culture at large seems to be losing those shared spaces and experiences that unite across borders, since there are channels and perspectives ready-tailored to our specific inclinations. That's sad, and is even more so if the church, which is centred on a united perspective even alongside conflict, can't do any better.

That conflict can generate boredom too, and perhaps sheer fatigue is another factor shifting the present moment: with the abundance of opinion  increasingly hostile, posturing and click-baity  it doesn't always make for an attractive experience. Those who've had a taste of this may simply switch off  they may have done so already. If people are getting fresh air stepping back from living their lives online, that might be quite a healthy, liberating thing, worth celebrating, even if it means less attention for my latest hot take. Sometimes platforms of debate can generate connection and lift up the voiceless, but they can also just fuel the flames of human unkindness and unrest. Wisdom learns the difference.

There is a time for everything under the sun, as Ecclesiastes so famously declares. It does seem that Christian media is entering a new 'time', one that may require serious retooling and rethinking so that contemporary believers can converse in community about the things that matter. It's good to talk. Let's hope that the 21st century church (and not just millennials) can keep it up.

You can follow @JosephHartropp on Twitter#ThyKingdomCome: Why should we do evangelism?

Today sees the beginning of Thy Kingdom Come, the third annual prayer event launched as an initiative of the archbishops of Canterbury and York. It's been astonishingly successful as a way of uniting Christians from all denominations and traditions in prayer. But prayer, after all, is what Christians do, and we don't need much encouragement to do it.

What's different about this enterprise, between Ascension and Pentecost, is that it's focused specifically on prayer for conversions. Yes: Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals, New Churches and all shades in between, even those traditionally lukewarm about evangelism, are praying for more people to become Christians.

Some, no doubt, are motivated by the dread of approaching extinction. Some denominations, and some individual congregations, are not doing well. They see the time coming when they'll have to close their doors for good, and they are afraid. That might not be the best motive, but let's be honest.

A far better motive is to think, 'We have something that's worth sharing with the world. Let's pray that others will find it through us.' But the faith has been bruised and battered in recent years. It's been under intellectual assault from the New Atheists (they're a bit quieter nowadays, actually); it's lost credibility because of horrific child abuse scandals; it's competing in a markeplace of activities in which Sunday, for all too many people, is just another day. For many Christians, there's a crisis of confidence: do we still have a message that we're comfortable sharing? And Thy Kingdom Come is, at least in part, about pushing back against that and saying, 'Yes' to God: aligning ourselves with his purposes for the world and becoming the answers to our own prayers.

Here are three reasons why we should pray with confidence for conversions.

1. Because Jesus is true

There's a poem by John Betjeman which tends to appear at Christmas. It paints a picture of an idyllic traditional festive season, complete with holly, tinsel, family gatherings and gifts  'Bath salts and inexpensive scent/And hideous tie so kindly meant'. But it concludes with the stunning statement that nothing at all 'Can with this single Truth compare / That God was man in Palestine/ And lives today in bread and wine.'

If we Christians are sensible, we'll be respectful of other faiths. All of the major religions contain deep wisdom. Properly practised, all of them make people live better. The fact that we have our own faith doesn't mean that we have to be dismissive of or antagonistic toward things that other people believe.

But Christians believe something remarkable: that 'God was man' in Palestine. That, in Betjeman's words, 'The Maker of the stars and sea' became 'a Child on earth for me'.

As John says in his Gospel: 'The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth' (1:14).

The astonishing claim made by the Christian Church is that in Christ, God himself became visible and tangible. He contained himself in a human being. As Paul says, 'in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form' (Colossians 1:9). When we see Christ, we see God. What we know of God is interpreted and defined by Christ.

As truth claims go, they don't come any bigger than that. And the task of the Church is to say, 'If you are serious about wanting to know how to live well, and if you want to be sure that your life has an eternal significance, this is where to come.'

2. Because church is good for us

We don't always think so. Famously, CS Lewis in his Screwtape Letters has his senior devil advising his young acolyte Wormwood that if he really wants to put his 'patient' off church he should get him to notice the neighbours he generally avoids: 'Provided that any of those neighbours sing out of tune or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous.'

But church is more than that.

Church in its essence is a new community of people who have a special relationship with Christ: who are 'in' him, as Paul repeatedly says.

It's a community where we learn a completely different way of life. We learn that to be really happy and complete, we have to turn away from striving to fulfil our own natural desires. Instead, we let ourselves be shaped by loving, attentive relationships to others, all in the context of loving attentiveness to God. And astonishingly, we find that instead of Christianity narrowing our horizons, stifling our individuality and forcing us to a dead conformity, it liberates us. In the slow, years-long process of discipleship, we're moulded into better people: kinder, more understanding, more forgiving and more generous  and more Christ-like.

3. Because Jesus people make a difference

A few years ago, in 2009, there was an advertising blitz by atheist campaigners. Comedian Ariane Sherine had the idea in response to Christian advertisements on London buses. With support from the British Humanist Association and Richard Dawkins, they wanted to raise 5,500 to put slogans on 30 buses in London for a month. In the end they raised more than 150,000 and the campaign ran all over the UK.

The slogan was: 'There's probably no god. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.' I'm not sure it converted many people to atheism. But I thought it was self-indulgent and unambitious. The best slogan they could come up with in the absence of God was 'enjoy your life' and this in a world full of hunger, disease, warfare and want.

'Stop worrying and enjoy your life'?

Actually, most Christians do. But we're driven, too, by a knowledge that the world as it is isn't the world that God meant it to be.

Jesus didn't leave the poor unfed or the sick unhealed. His mission was to body, mind and spirit. Believing in God doesn't make us worry. It doesn't stop us enjoying life. But it means we cannot shut our eyes to the needs of the world.

Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish priest who died in Auschwitz after volunteering to take the place of a man sentenced to be starved to death, once wrote: 'The most deadly poison of our time is indifference.'

I believe we should be evangelical about calling people out of their indifference and into Christ's service.

'Thy Kingdom Come' is the most powerful prayer imaginable, because it encompasses so much else. It is a rallying-cry, a call to join God's own mission. Evangelism has nothing to do with self-preservation  it's an offer of life to the world.

For more information about Thy Kingdom Come, click here.

Mark Woods is the author of Does the Bible really say that? Challenging our assumptions in the light of Scripture (Lion, 8.99). Follow him on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods10 things to know about Egon Schiele

A quick guide to the short life and profoundly influential career of the enfant terrible of turn-of-the-century Vienna  illustrated with works offered at Christies

1

Egon Schieles father died when he was 14  and he never got over it

Egon Schiele was born in 1890 in Tulln, Austria, the third child of the towns stationmaster; the family lived in an apartment above the train station. He studied art at primary school, where an eagle-eyed teacher noticed his talent for drawing and encouraged him to continue.

In 1904, when Schiele was just 14 years old, his father died of syphilis. The experience was one from which the young artist never completely recovered. I dont know whether there is anyone else at all who remembers my noble father with such sadness, he would write to his brother-in-law a decade later. I dont know who is able to understand why I visit those places where my father used to be and where I can feel the pain Why do I paint graves and many similar things? Because this continues to live in me. Two years later, when he was just 16, he moved to Vienna to study at the Academy of Fine Arts.

2

Gustav Klimt became his mentor



Vienna in the early 1900s was in the grip of an artistic revolution  in 1897 Gustav Klimt had formed the Vienna Secession, a movement that believed an artists duty was to free culture from the grips of the establishment. Klimt, whom Schiele greatly admired, became the young artists mentor. It was Klimt who introduced the young Schiele to the arts and crafts of the Wiener Werkstatte, and who invited him, in 1909, to exhibit at the Vienna Kunstschau, where he came in contact for the first time with the work of Edvard Munch, Vincent van Gogh and others.

Egon Schiele (1890-1918), Selbstbildnis mit Modell (Fragment), painted in 1913. 27 x 95 in (70.5 x 241.2 cm). Sold for $11,323,750 on 8 May 2013 at Christies in New York

No doubt influenced by Klimt, much of Schieles art focused on the eroticised, female form. But over time Schiele would distance himself from his mentors ornate, shimmering Art Nouveau-inspired aesthetic. The Expressionist style Schiele developed was stark, raw and deeply emotional, and executed in a sombre palette. Inspired in part by Schieles harrowing experience of watching his fathers decline, this shift also reflected his deep interest in human psychology and the powerful influence of Sigmund Freud in turn-of-the-century Vienna. If Klimt and Schiele grew apart stylistically, they remained close friends: in 1917, Schiele and Klimt co-founded an exhibition venue called the Vienna Kunsthalle, which they hoped would inspire Austrian artists to stay and work in the country.

3

Schiele founded his own art movement

In 1909 Schiele followed Klimts example and left the conservative strictures of the Academy. He formed his own movement, the Neukunstgruppe (New Art Group), bringing together fellow students who wanted to go in a different direction, including Oskar Kokoschka and Max Oppenheimer. The group would go on to mount several shows, including in Prague, in 1910; in Budapest, in 1912; and in Cologne, in 1912.

4

He confronted taboo subjects

By the early 1910s, Schieles work had become an obsessive exploration of the human body. He never shied away from candidly depicting genitalia  female genitalia as well as his own  or from treating subjects that were taboo for the time, such as masturbation or sex between women.

Egon Schiele (1890-1918), Ruckenakt mit orangefarbenen Strumpfen, drawn in 1918. 18 x 11 in (46.1 x 29.5 cm). Sold for $373,500 on 16 May at Christies in New York

These pictures, however, go far beyond conventional eroticism. Schieles nakedness is starved, desperate, mortal, and stripped of all societal and artistic convention.

Egon Schiele (1890-1918), Stehender Ruckenakt, executed in 1910. 22 x 13 in (56.1 x 33.1 cm). Sold for $3,612,500 on 15 May at Christies in New York

Executed in 1910, works such as Stehender Ruckenakt (above) emerged during a period of radical stylistic experimentation, as Schiele stepped out from Klimts shadow and began to develop his own pictorial language. The artists compositions from this period proposed a reconception of the modern nude, casting his models in unexpected poses that celebrate their inherent sexuality.

5

Schiele executed some 3,000 drawings



Egon Schiele (1890-1918), Liegender Akt mit angezogenem linken Bein, drawn in 1914. 12 x 18 in (31.8 x 48 cm). Sold for $1,777,000 on 6 May 2008 at Christies in New York

Schiele considered drawing his primary art form. The overtly erotic drawing shown above represents the more sensual, fleshy, and volumetric nudes that appear in Schieles drawings and watercolours from 1914. Discussing similar works on paper from this period in the artists catalogue raisonne, Jane Kallir wrote: Schieles drawing style suggests an underlying structure of muscle and bone... [his] growing concern with plasticity eventually generates a more organic, fluid line.

Egon Schiele (1890-1918), Paar im Umarmung, drawn in 1914. 19 x 12 in (49.7 x 32.6 cm). Sold for $312,500 on 16 May at Christies in New York

Schieles drawings disturb partly because they stop at a point that academic convention regards as raw and unfinished, stated Christopher Knight in the Los Angeles Times. Quick, contour rendering was essential to academic training, but for an academic artist it was just the start of a laborious process, which eventually culminated in a finished painting. Schiele intuitively recognised, not unlike French Impressionist painters some 40 years before, that the spontaneity of an early sketch, if handled eloquently, could be the armature for an art of pressing liveliness.

6

His art  and indeed, Schiele himself  was condemned as indecent

In 1911, seeking solitude, Schiele moved to his mothers home town of Krumau in Czech Bohemia. This didnt work out exactly as planned: the neighbours objected to Schiele living in sin with his lover, Walburga Wally Neuzil (below), and his habit of using local girls as naked models. When villagers spotted a nude model posing outdoors, Schiele was driven out of town.

Egon Schiele (1890-1918), Stadt am blauen Fluss (Krumau), executed in 1910. 17 x 12 in (45 x 31.4 cm). Sold for $2,965,000 on 5 November 2014 at Christies in New York

From there he moved to yet another village, Neulengbach, where, in April 1912, Schiele was arrested on charges of offences against public morality and seduction of one of his underage models. Although that charge was ultimately dropped, he spent 24 days in prison, condemned for the indecency of his work. It was a public vilification that belied Schieles commercial and critical success: throughout his career, museums and collectors from across Europe would continue to buy his work.

7

He was conscripted into the army, but never saw real combat

In 1915 Schiele married Edith Harms; just four days later, he was conscripted into the Austrian army. In May 1916 he was posted to a PoW camp in a small town three hours west of Vienna. There he mostly did office work, and was allowed to paint the Russian prisoners at the camp.

Later that year he was reassigned to Vienna, where higher-ups allowed him to pursue his art. He was relatively prolific during the war years, producing cityscapes and landscapes, and even contributing work to exhibitions in Amsterdam, Stockholm and Copenhagen.

8

Egon Schiele died just three days after his pregnant wife

The year 1918 promised to be one of great success for Schiele: in March his work had pride of place at the Vienna Secessions 49th annual exhibition. But that autumn saw a deadly outbreak of Spanish flu. The pandemic would eventually decimate both Europe and America, resulting in more victims than were claimed by the First World War.

On 28 October 1918, Schieles wife Edith, then six months pregnant, contracted flu and died. Just a few days later, on 31 October, Schiele himself passed away. He was 28 years old.

9

Schieles artistic legacy is profound

One hundred years after his death, none of the anxiety surrounding Schieles erotically charged images has diminished. Few artists have been so starkly frank in their exploration of sexuality or so dangerously close to straining taboo to breaking point.

Egon Schiele (1890-1918), Selbstbildnis, executed in 1910. 17 x 12 in (43.7 x 30.5 cm). Sold for $1,625,000 on 5 November 2013 at Christies in New York

Despite his short life, Schieles work was crucial to the development of Austrian Expressionism. His aesthetic was a huge influence on contemporaries including Kokoschka; his work also directly influenced artists in generations to come, such as Francis Bacon, Julian Schnabel, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Tracy Emin, whose work was shown alongside Schieles at Viennas Leopold Museum in 2015.Live like a Rockefeller  An imperial blue and white dragon bowl

Margaret Gristina, Senior Specialist in Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, examines this exquisite 600-year-old emblem of the long relationship between the Rockefellers and China

On 13 September 1863, the young entrepreneur John D. Rockefeller, Sr. recorded in his ledger book a charitable donation of $10 to a charity in China. It was a considerable sum for a 24-year-old who had yet yet to launch his prodigious career in the oil industry, but Senior always had a strong humanitarian streak. His gift is the first recorded connection between the Rockefeller family and China, a connection that, in the 155 years since, has become indelible, encompassing the spheres of business, philanthropy, diplomacy and, of course, fine art. In 1917, for instance, the Rockefeller Foundation financed the opening of Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) in Beijing, which remains one of the countrys top medical schools. Later, it also underwrote the restoration of the Ming Tombs, near Nanjing; and the excavations at Zhoukoudian in the 1920s, where the fossils of 'Peking Man' (or Homo erectus) were discovered.

John D. Rockefeller, Jr, and trustees at the Peking Union Medical College in 1921. Photograph courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center

Seniors son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., actually travelled to Asia with his wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, to speak at PUMCs dedication ceremony. In later life their son, David Rockefeller, remembered how Mother and Father returned with a wonderful array of Asian art that completely entranced me. Mother, who was just beginning to collect art, had been deeply influenced by the experience.

The Xuande emperor was known as the first Ming emperor to be a serious patron of the arts, one of his interests being the perfection of the production of porcelain

The couple soon added to their collection of Chinese textiles, furniture and porcelain with acquisitions through the renowned dealer Yamanaka, as well as New York dealers. One of their particularly fine services of Qing-dynasty export porcelain was donated to the Rhode Island School of Design in 2015. David would maintain the strong family links with China in a variety of ways. In his capacity as CEO of Chase Bank, he was asked by President Richard Nixon to join the National Council on US-China Trade in 1973, the same year in which he became the first American financier invited to visit the new Peoples Republic of China. His interventions played an important part in a thawing of relations between the countries after more than two decades of hostility.

Like his parents, David was a keen admirer of Chinese art, and one of the finest pieces in his collection was a rare Xuande-period dragon bowl dating to between 1425 and 1435 AD. The Xuande emperor was the fifth of the Ming Dynasty, and his 10-year rule is considered one of the most sophisticated periods in the history of Chinese blue and white porcelain. 'It really is an exquisite work, created during the very short reign of the Xuande emperor,' says Margaret Gristina, Senior Specialist in Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art at Christies in New York. He was known as the first Ming emperor to be a serious patron of the arts, one of his interests being the perfection of the production of porcelain. This bowl represents the finest porcelain made up until this date. The decoration in underglaze blue is skilfully rendered with two dragons chasing a flaming pearl in brilliant tones of cobalt blue. The five-clawed dragons represent imperial authority, and the pearls signify wisdom and enlightenment.

The six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1426-1435)McDermott International on Thursday completed its merger with the engineering and construction company CB&I, creating a local company that employs more than 40,000 people and Wall Street values at about $6 billion.

The new McDermott will soon embark on a search for a larger Houston headquarters, planning to leave CB&I's home base in The Woodlands as McDermott Chief Executive David Dickson seeks a hub closer to the Energy Corridor in West Houston. The CB&I name only will remain for the branding of the company's storage tank business.

The merger brings together McDermott and its offshore oil and gas focus, especially in the Middle East, with CB&I's onshore North American strengths, particularly in the refining, petrochemical, power and liquefied natural gas sectors. McDermott investors own 53 percent of the combined company and CB&I shareholders received 47 percent

RELATED: Subsea 7 makes failed hostile offer to kill CB&I merger

Dickson said the goal was to create a diversified, global construction and engineering company with strengths in everything from offshore oil wells to the fuel production and electricity generation. He also sees potential in LNG projects, which are under development worldwide.

"All the arrows are pointing in the right direction," said Dickson, noting oil prices have risen above $70 a barrel, "and we just want to get to working."

The merger process was going smoothly until late April, when a European rival, Subsea 7, publicized a late, hostile bid to buy McDermott for $2 billion under the condition that it cancel the CB&I deal. In a world in which many investors prefer specialized, niche companies, the Subsea 7 offer could have created arguably the world's largest subsea equipment company. If McDermott shareholders believed that was a better deal, it could have killed the CB&I merger. Dickson admitted he was caught off guard.

"We did have a little wobble with a side offer coming in at the eleventh hour," Dickson said. "It created uncertainty for about a week or so, but we got through it."

McDermott wanted to grow through diversification, Dickson said, and not be consumed by a bigger company. Dickson and the McDermott board viewed Subsea 7's $2 billion offer as a low-ball bid, but McDermott didn't try to negotiate and Subsea 7 never raised its offer, Dickson said. Subsea 7, however, increased pressure McDermott by making its bid public.

"That offer did stir up some of what I call our smaller shareholders, but obviously it didn't lead to anything else," Dickson said. "We were surprised with the initial offer; we were surprised when they went public; we were surprised when they reaffirmed it. And then nothing happened after that."

The new McDermott will represent one of the 10 largest players in the global energy engineering and construction sector, said Audun Martinsen, vice president of oilfield service research for Norway-based Rystad Energy, and challenge the biggest competitors like TechnipFMC, which largely operates out of Houston, in some areas.

Both companies have long histories but they, like many firms exposed to the oil and gas sector, have struggled in recent years. Dickson came to McDermott five years ago, first cutting jobs and layers of management before leading the company back to profitability with growth in countries like Saudi Arabia. CB&I, however, has continued to struggle, cutting some 30,000 jobs over the past four years after peaking at 56,000 workers in 2014 when it acquired the Baton Rouge company, Shaw Group.

After, after reporting a net loss of nearly $1.5 billion in 2017, CB&I reported a small $44 million profit in the first three months of the year.

"You have a lot of employees who are very humble they've had to go through some challenging experiences," Dickson said. "There's no arrogance and, today, both companies are highly motivated to really move forward and get it right."

A native of Scotland, Dickson noted he's been based out of the Energy Corridor throughout his 16 years working in Houston, so he's admittedly biased toward that part of town as McDermott looks for a new headquarters. But he insisted he'll keep an open mind. McDermott is moving back into its existing Energy Corridor headquarters this month after it was damaged by Hurricane Harvey. However, Dickson said, that will only serve as an interim home because it's no longer large enough to accommodate the merged company. McDermott counted close to 500 Houston workers while CB&I has more than 2,000 in the region.

Dickson did rule out building a new campus from scratch, arguing that it's a good time to lease in the Houston real estate market after many spaces were vacated during the recent oil bust.Indigenous Canadians brought their fight against a Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion to Houston Wednesday, calling on Kinder Morgan shareholders to require the company to report on the environmental and cultural impact of its projects and warning that Canadas First Nations have the power to block the pipeline expansion.

Kinder Morgans Trans Mountain Pipeline would carry crude from Albertas oil sands through British Columbia to ports on Canadas Pacific Coast. The expansion, fiercely opposed in British Columbia, is at the center of a dispute between Canadas federal government, which approved the project, and BCs provincial government, which has sought to block it. Environmentalists and some of British Columbias First Nations have joined the fight, much as environmentalists and Native Americans did in an unsuccessful effort to stop the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota.

Kinder Morgan, meanwhile, has shut down work on the pipeline in the hope of pressuring Canadian officials to resolve their differences.

Two leaders of British Columbias First Nations were in Houston for Kinder Morgans annual meeting in an effort to bring pressure on Kinder Morgan to end the project, warning shareholders that their communities held rights to some of the land along the pipelines route and the project would face months of determined opposition. At a downtown Houston press conference opened with the beating of ceremonial drum, Chief Judy Wilson of the Neskonlith Band said that the pipeline would cross waterways and affect plants, wildlife and her communitys way of life.

The risks of the projects have not been accurately evaluated or fully disclosed, Wilson said. We will not stop fighting the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion because it threatens our culture, spirituality and our way of life and that means fundamentally more to us than anything they can offer us."

The pipeline is considered key to Canadas effort to export crude to international markets and shape its trading relations with China and other Asian countries. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,who approved the pipeline, has sought to balance his environmental policies with pledges to support the countrys energy industry and the economy of Alberta, which relies on oil and gas development.

Not all of British Columbias First Nations are opposing the pipeline. Chief Ernie Crey of Cheam First Nation, located near Chilliwack about 70 miles east of Vancouver, said his community reached a deal with Kinder Morgan that has already put some of his 540 members to work doing security. He said he expects the project to create many more jobs; the nation has formed joint venture partnerships with companies to bid on the pipeline construction once it gets underway.

My concern is the impression to outsiders  those not familiar with British Columbia  that investors like Kinder Morgan and other major corporations that may want to invest in resource development might think there is wall-to-wall opposition from native Canadians to projects like this, Crey said. Many of the First Nations, he said, welcome the investment.

AFTERMATH: Lawsuit alleges Anadarko cut safety budget before blast

Kinder Morgans shareholders approved two-non binding resolutions supported by Wilson and indigenous leaders. One called on the company to issue annual sustainability reports on its environmental, social and governance practices. The others called on the company to publish an assessment of the risks to Kinder Morgans business of global efforts to slow climate change.

The companys board of directors opposed the proposals. At the shareholder meeting, Kinder Morgan Executvie Chairman Richard Kinder noted that the resolutions were non-binding. But, he added, the board will carefully consider the proposals and the information contained in the supporting statements in determining what actions to take with respect to them.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

twitter.com/jrgzztxCOCKTAIL AND WINE BARS

13 Celsius

Housed in a former 1920s dry-cleaners building, this comfortable Midtown wine bar offers a wide range of unique wines by the bottle, glass and half glass. Also: artisan cheese and salumi boards, and a pretty courtyard. 3000 Caroline, 713-529-8466; 13celsius.com. Inner Loop

Anvil Bar & Refuge

Searching for some of the best cocktails in the country? Anvil expertly mixes the old-school way, with fresh ingredients and a dose of history. Just know that perfection takes time. 1424 Westheimer, 713-523-1622; anvilhouston.com. Inner Loop

Bayou & Bottle

The rebirth of the lobby at the Four Seasons downtown brought with it this snazzy new bar/restaurant that has an extensive whiskey program (they even have a bourbon steward) and creative cocktail menu. 1300 Lamar, 713-650-1300; fourseasons.com/houston. Inner Loop

Beckrew Wine House

Expect an extensive list of wines by the glass and bottle here; flights are cleverly grouped (think "The Alsatians," "Cali Cabs," "Sideways (Pinot Noir)"). 2409 W. Alabama, 713-526-2242; beckrew.com. Inner Loop

Better Luck Tomorrow

The bar-restaurant hybrid in the Heights from bartending guru Bobby Heugel and James Beard Award-winning chef Justin Yu recently was named one of the best new restaurants in America by Food & Wine. 544 Yale, 713-802-0845; betterlucktomorrowhou.com. Inner Loop

Boheme

The wine list at this popular Montrose spot isn't vast, but it's solid, affordable and thoughtful (we like a place with an albarino, vermentino and gruner veltliner by the glass). Plus, it has one of the city's nicest patios and refreshing frozen cocktails. 307 Fairview, 713-529-1099; barboheme.com. Inner Loop

Camerata at Paulie's

Savvy bartenders help navigate customers through this hip wine bar's interesting vino list. The atmosphere in the industrial-chic space next to casual Italian cafe Paulie's is laid-back. 1830 Westheimer, 713-522-8466; pauliesrestaurant.com/camerata. Inner Loop

The Cottonmouth Club

A legit cocktail bar inside a moody, historic downtown structure offering an East Village vibe set to an eclectic late-'70s soundtrack. 108 Main; cottonmouthhouston.com. Inner Loop

Julep

The art of the fine Southern cocktail is taken to new heights in this Washington Avenue bar overseen by mixologist Alba Huerta. 1919 Washington, 713-869-4383; julephouston.com. Inner Loop

Nightingale Room

An intimate drinking spot as serious about their cocktails as they are about their vinyl selection and live music acts. 308 Main, 832-968-3370; nightingaleroom.com. Inner Loop

Night Heron

A hip-but-charming bar with inventive food and patio across from the Menil museum. Owned by the restaurateurs behind Coltivare and Eight Row Flint, try their spin on a Salty Dog. 1601 W. Main, 713-527-8010; agricolehospitality.com/night-heron. Inner Loop

OKRA Charity Saloon

With every drink purchase at this not-for-profit establishment, patrons get a vote to cast on one of the month's spotlight charities. At the end of the month, the charity with the most votes gets that month's profits. 924 Congress, 713-237-8828; friedokra.org. Inner Loop

The Pastry War

Named for a three-month skirmish in 1838 between Mexico and France, this downtown bar specializes in mezcal, tequila and sotol. Fun decor, well-crafted margaritas and delicious tamales further the appeal. 310 Main, 713-226-7770; thepastrywar.com. Inner Loop

Postino Wine Cafe

Popular new Heights wine bar offers signature bruschettas paired with global wines priced between $27 and $150 a bottle. Plenty of affordable wines by the glass, too. Day drinker? $5 glasses until 5 p.m. daily. 642 Yale, 346-223-1111; postinowinecafe.com. Inner Loop

Reserve 101

The downtown bar offers more than 100 whiskeys, and the bartenders are well versed in the traits and histories of every bottle. Located near Discovery Green, House of Blues and Toyota Center, it draws a diverse crowd. 1201 Caroline, 713-655-7101; reserve101.com. Inner Loop

Sable Gate Winery

You can order by glass or bottles at this Midtown wine bar, but you can also blend and bottle your own wine from California grapes. Great for parties; bistro menu available. 2600 Travis, 713-360-7113; sablegatewinery.com. Inner Loop

State Fare

This lively Memorial City restaurant offers comfort food, but its cocktail program is equally enticing. 947 Gessner, 832-831-0950; statefaretx.com. W

The Tasting Room

Wine bar/restaurant concept that stays busy for drinking, retail sales and dining. 1101-18 Uptown Park, 713-993-9800; tastingroomwines.com. 818 Town and Country Blvd. at CityCentre, 281-822-1500. W

Tongue-Cut Sparrow

This 25-seat formal cocktail bar, hidden in a clubby lair above the Pastry War, might be the city's most intimate place for well-crafted classic cocktails. Reservations accepted. 310 Main, 713-321-8242; tonguecutsparrow.com. Inner Loop

Vino & Vinyl

It takes restraint not to open a bottle and stay all day at this wine bar and shop with two locations. Besides boutique wines and vinyl records spinning on the turntables, there's also special tastings and a revolving local art display. 3340 Murphy, Suite 150, Missouri City, 281-208-7453, and 15977 City Walk, Sugar Land, 281-277-0565; vino-vinyl.com. SWYes, it's home to the fighting Texas A&M Aggies. But there's plenty to do in Bryan-College Station beyond Kyle Field. Check out the handful of hip, modern hotels that have joined the scene. And the dining options may surprise even the staunchest foodie.

WHAT TO DO

George Bush Presidential Library and Museum

On the Texas A&M campus, the museum explores the life and work of America's 41st president (and current Houstonian). Permanent exhibits tell stories through photos, documents, videos, artifacts, interactives and replicas of the Oval Office and Situation Room. You can also pay your respects to the late Barbara Bush, who is buried here. 1000 George Bush Drive W., College Station, 979-691-4000; bush41.org

Shop, sip and stroll

Downtown Bryan is a charming

pocket to explore for an afternoon. Stores are a mix of antique (Corner of Time), resale (Alice's Attic), contemporary (Hemline) and the sort of curated, shabby-chic hybrid markets (Market 1023, Old Bryan Marketplace) that are becoming more prevalent these days. Unwind with a glass of wine at Downtown Uncorked or, if you're staying the night, try one of dozens of craft beers with a side of live music at Revolution Cafe & Bar. downtownbryan.com.

Messina Hof

In the Brazos Valley just outside of Bryan proper, the 40-year-old winery and resort has a tasting room/shop (which once housed the all-girls school Ursuline Academy), wine bar and The Vintage House Restaurant. Hour-long public tours are offered regularly for $15. Consult website for schedule. 4545 Old Reliance, Bryan, 979-778-9463; messinahof.com.

LODGING

The George

Within the Century Square mixed-use development a stone's throw from Texas A&M's campus, this 162-room, "refined rustic"-style hotel has a cool vibe. Decor includes midcentury style furnishings mixed with pops of Instagram-friendly color, and there's an on-site restaurant, cocktail bar and outdoor pool. Complimentary breakfast and WiFi. 180 Century Court, College Station, 844-599-3871; thegeorgetexas.com.

Cavalry Court

Also in Century Square, this 141-room hotel was inspired by old-school motor courts. Rooms - centered around a courtyard with pool, cabanas, firepits and pavilion - have a retro-military design with sliding barn doors and full-size Smeg refrigerators. Complimentary continental breakfast is served at the Canteen, which also has a full dinner menu and bar. The hotel also is pet friendly and offers free WiFi. 200 Century Court, College Station, 979-485-5586; cavalrycourt.com.

The Stella Hotel

The new 176-room Stella anchors the Lake Walk town center, the commercial district of the Traditions Club and Community near College Station. Modern guest rooms come with Frette linens and bathrobes. On-site amenities include two pools (one with a bar), a fitness room, complimentary bikes and paddleboards, farm-to-fork restaurant Campfire and a craft-cocktail bar. 4100 Lake Atlas Drive, Bryan, 979-773-1001; thestellahotel.com.

LaSalle Hotel

A lovely option in historic downtown Bryan. The 55-room hotel has super comfortable beds and sizeable rooms. Other perks include complimentary made-to-order hot breakfast and popcorn. Be warned: The LaSalle is adjacent to an active railroad track, and that horn blares loudly, almost comically so. The front desk can provide earplugs at check in. 120 S. Main, Bryan, 979-822-2000; lasalle-hotel.com.

DINING

Madden's Casual Gourmet

Tucked inside the Old Bryan Marketplace, Madden's is about as fancy as it gets in Bryan-College Station (which is to say not uber-fancy, though expect white tablecloths). Starters might involve a tomato bisque with fresh mozzarella and saffron whipped cream, while entrees include blackened mahi mahi with fried mac 'n' cheese or a grilled, dry-aged pork chop from Compart Family Farms. There's also an expansive wine list. Open for lunch Mondays through Saturdays, dinner Thursdays through Saturday and brunch Saturday. 202 S. Bryan Ave., Bryan, 979-779-2558; maddenscasualgourmet.com.

Dixie Chicken

Vintage photos, taxidermy, bric-a-brac, neon beer signs and raucous behavior are all part of the fun at "the Chicken" on Northgate, where Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett used to perform as students back in the day. It's a bar serving cheap, ice-cold beer primarily, but food - think burgers, fries, bar snacks and, well, chicken - is available to soak up the booze. Open daily. 307 University Dr., 979-846-2322; dixiechicken.com.

The Village Cafe & Art979 Gallery

Works by local artists decorate the wall in this cute, all-day downtown Bryan cafe. It's a great spot for a coffee, but you can also order from a full food menu at the counter. Dishes range from breakfast paninis and salads to sandwiches, wraps and pizzas made with from-scratch dough. Many ingredients are sourced from nearby farms. Beer and wine, too. 210 W. 26th, Bryan, 979-703-8514; thevillagedowntown.com.WASHINGTON - Radioactive waste from nuclear power plants across the country could be headed to West Texas under legislation passed by the House today.

The legislation, which passed 340 to 72, directs Secretary of Energy Rick Perry to find interim storage sites for the growing stockpile of waste at the nation's nuclear power plants, while also restarting the licensing process for a controversial permanent storage facility in Nevada, at the Yucca Mountain site.

Finding communities willing to take the radioactive waste has proven hugely difficult in the past, but one option available to Perry would be an existing hazardous waste site in Andrews County in West Texas, where Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists is proposing to store spent nuclear fuel until a permanent storage facility is completed.

RELATED STORY: Tensions reignite over West Texas nuclear waste storage

The legislation, which was introduced last year by Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., has passed in similar form in past Congresses but has so far failed to win support in the Senate. At issue are concerns from communities surrounding potential storage sites, as well as criticism from environmentalists who argue transporting the waste to multiple sites is simply too dangerous.

"The whole nation could be at risk from an unprecedented mass movement of high-level radioactive waste across the nation, with 10,000 rail cars of deadly waste being transported over a period of 20 or more years," said Karen Hadden, director of the Austin-based advocacy group Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition.

Within the Texas congressional delegation, Republicans nearly unanimously voted for the bill while the Democrats split, with Rep. Beto O'Rourke, of El Paso, who is challenging Sen. Ted Cruz in the midterms, and Rep. Al Green, of Houston, among those opposed.

WCS announced earlier this year it was partnering with the French energy giant Orano, which has a long history of managing and storing nuclear waste in France. That nation operates more nuclear reactors than any country in the world besides the United States.

WCS and Orano have since notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission they plan to resume the licensing process, which WCS suspended last year due to financial concerns, said Thomas Graham, a spokesman for the joint venture.

"Nuclear fuel management has been successfully addressed for more than 60 years without any industrial accidents," he said. "The processes that are in place are redundant and thorough."

But West Texas is not the only region being targeted for nuclear waste.

Holtec International, the New Jersey-based equipment supplier, has proposed a storage site in southeast New Mexico to store 120,000 tons of nuclear waste, according to the non-profit Nuclear Information and Resource Service. The NRC is reviewing that application and is currently staging a series of public meetings in New Mexico to discuss the proposal.Oil extended its three-year high as tensions in the Middle East flared following the U.S. decision to renew sanctions on Iran, OPEC's third-largest producer.

Futures in New York added as much as 1.1 percent, reaching the highest level since November 2014. Israel said it struck Iran's military facilities in Syria after a barrage of missiles was fired by Iranian forces at the Golan Heights. Prices jumped 3 percent Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would scrap a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, and reimpose restrictions on the Islamic Republic's crude exports.

Crude's recent rally has been propelled by Trump's Iran move and simmering geopolitical tensions surrounding the Middle East. The sanctions could cut Iran's oil exports by as much as 500,000 barrels a day in the next six months, according to UBS Group AG. Saudi Arabia signaled it could make up lost supplies, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said there's a chance prices may exceed its forecast.

"Judging by the initial reaction of the market, the damage is potentially great" though the impact of the sanctions is still being assessed, said Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates Ltd. in London.

West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery rose as much as 75 cents to $71.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and traded at $71.28 at 9:13 a.m. local time. Prices climbed $2.08 on Wednesday. Total volume traded Thursday was about 10 percent above the 100-day average.

Brent for July settlement added as much as 1 percent to $78 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, after rising 3.2 percent on Wednesday. The global benchmark crude traded at a $6.04 premium to July WTI.

Futures for September delivery on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange rose 2.4 percent to 476.4 yuan a barrel, climbing for a fourth day. That's the longest rising streak in a month.

See also: Iran crisis warps OPEC equation as Saudis signal more supply

Iran's Quds Force, which is fighting in Syria, targeted Israeli army positions with 20 rockets, according to a Twitter post by Israel Defense Forces spokesman Jonathan Conricus. While he said several of the rockets were intercepted and there were no casualties, the Israeli media called the confrontation the biggest direct military clash between the two rivals.

Oil prices are also getting a boost as stockpiles continue to shrink. In the U.S., the Energy Information Administration reported nationwide crude inventories slid 2.2 million barrels last week, in contrast to a forecast for a 1 million-barrel gain in a Bloomberg survey. The crude draw was largely due to a decline in imports, which fell by the most since November 2016. Domestic gasoline and distillate stocks were also eroded.

Oil-market news:

Trump's decision to sanction Iran won't affect the agreement between OPEC and its partners, including Russia, to keep supplies restrained until global markets have stabilized, said Kuwaiti Oil Minister Bakheet Al-Rashidi. Gasoline futures rose 0.5 percent to $2.1790 a gallon after climbing 2.7 percent Wednesday, the biggest increase in a month. European oil refiners and trading houses began preparing to cut purchases of Iranian crude after Washington imposed harsher sanctions on shipments from Tehran than many in the energy industry had expected.Yes, you will find poitin (often referred to as Irish moonshine) at Poitin. The spirit, now trending in the U.S., will figure into fanciful cocktails at the elegant new restaurant named for the hooch, opening May 14 at Sawyer Yards.

But just because Poitin (pronounced puut-cheen) comes to Houston courtesy of an Irishman  owner Ian Tucker who already gave us the cheekily named Balls Out Burger in the Heights  is no reason to assume this new venture will be a dark pub serving shepherd's pie and bangers and mash.

"There's not a guy in the corner with a fiddle," Tucker joked.

But there's a guy in the kitchen orchestrating an enlightened menu that pays subtle tributes to the owner's heritage while also reflecting the astonishing diversity of Houston. That young culinary maestro is 29-year-old Dominick Lee who takes his first step as an executive chef of a restaurant clearly aimed at greatness.

Lee, who comes to this new project after a buzzy year and a half with Kiran Verma at her accomplished Kiran's, took Tucker's directive for "bold, intense flavors" to heart. He has created a menu that speaks to the city's immigrant culture whose dining preferences are, to use Lee's own coinage, kaleidoscopic.

The menu swings easily from a scallop aguachile with fried green tomatoes under a dome of shaved cucumber dotted with citrus coriander blossoms to a theatrically plated whole fried black sea bass served with a papaya salad, grilled mango and sticky rice. The multicultural references are abundant but it's also a familiar Gulf Coast vernacular  a culinary parlance that appreciates the produce, fish, grains and proteins born in these parts.

One of Lee's starters says much about the easy mingling of cultures Houston sows. He offers crispy pork cracklings with a choice of Mexico-inspired tomatillo-guajillo chile sauce, or dusted in Cajun spices, or glazed in a sticky Vietnamese sauce. Houston flavors in a nutshell.

Other beginnings: Heritage breed pork ribs confit with blueberry-bourbon glaze and spiced pecans; hummus with house-made za'atar lustily garnished with vegetables and pulled lamb neck; mussels in a saffron broth; and a generous blob of burrata on top of a farmers market cornucopia of tomatoes, greens and herbs.

Lee's mains are just as creative: Grilled chicken with charred tomato and herb salad and potato confit; grilled Texas wagyu with chimichurri sauce and dulce de leche carrots; pork collar with compressed cabbage, Irish potato cake and Creole mustard glaze; skillet-based cauliflower steak with grilled beans and pickled chipotle aioli; and slow-braised lamb neck flavored with North African spices, dates and prunes and served with couscous.

There are three "communal" dishes that can easily serve two: the whole fried fish; bone-in short rib that comes with a variety of Korean side dishes and condiments; and confit duck legs that are fried like chicken and served with chili potatoes and a watercress and radish salad.

Lee likes to provide a few Irish influences throughout varied terrain, tucking potatoes here and there, for example. That effort also is echoed by head pastry chef Dory Fung, who comes to Poitin from the highly-rated Aqui and posh pastry hotspot Yauatcha. Her Poitin Baba is a ricotta cake that has been soaked in a poitin syrup and served with barley ice cream (Fung's done her homework: some poitin is distilled from barley).

It's these clever touches that lend intelligence and a sense of accomplishment to the menu.

Lee said none of that would be possible without the kitchen team he assembled. "It's not the kind of kitchen that accepts people who don't like to cook," he said. "It's not going to work if it's not what you love."

The same could be said for the restaurant team as a whole. Tucker has brought in industry veterans and hotshots such as sommelier Shannon Noell Crow (formerly of 13 Celsius who has created a list of organic and sustainably sourced wine); beverage director Sarah Cuneo (formerly of Pastry War and Anvil Bar & Refuge); and bar manager Christa Havican (resume includes Reserve 101 and Kata Robata). They are working with industry veteran Todd Leveritt, Poitin's director of operations. Tucker even brought in Kevin Doherty, former assistant bar manager at Tucker's Dublin gastropub The Exchequer, to provide a bit of Irish authenticity and spirits dynamic to Poitin.

Tucker, who designed the space with Houston's Studio RED Architects, said he wanted to create a space that is "extra elegant and high end but also casual." The 400-seat space with an enormous patio facing downtown Houston, straddles the line between industrial chic and gastro-casual. All the straight lines and modern angles are softened by plenty of natural light from windows and walls that roll up, icehouse-style.

"It's rough and industrial but elegant at the same time," Tucker said. "That's what I love about it."

And Houston may feel the same way, come Monday. At least it's an opportunity to try poitin, a spirit largely unknown in these parts. "It'll definitely get the party started," Tucker said. And who knows, maybe after a few you'll see an Irish fiddler in the corner.

Poitin, 2313 Edwards at Sawyer Yards, 713-470-6686; poitinhouston.com. Open Monday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to midnight; Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m.The Old Humble Distilling Company will unveil its special reserve whiskey on Memorial Day to celebrate its two-year anniversary in the Lake Houston community.

To make the special reserve whiskey, Old Humble Distilling Company CEO Joseph Breda said he takes his award winning Texas Straight Whiskey and puts it back on oak for a couple of weeks to give it a deeper, darker color and flavor.

Our special reserve whiskey is a more mature version of our Texas Straight Whiskey, Breda said.

The distillery, which is located on North Houston Avenue in Humble, will feature several different options.

Boomtown, a more Kentcuky-style bourbon, is a tri-grain bourbon made out of corn, rye and malted barley to give it a sweeter and smoother flavor.

Roughneck Reserve, another specialty reserve whiskey, is 95 percent corn and has a lighter, sweeter, simpler flavor.

Texas Straight Whiskey is 100 percent corn and is aged five years in bourbon barrels to give it a soft contour. Texas Straight Whiskey brought home a bronze medal in 2018 at the New York International Spirits Competition.

Boomtown and Roughneck Reserve will go on sale on Memorial Day for $37. Texas Straight Whiskey bottles are $28.

Every distillery has its own recipes, Breda said. The care and craft into making the whiskey makes the whiskey what it is.

People can find Old Humble Distilling Company products in Specs Wine, Spirits & Finer Foods and Total Wine & more and some local shops in the Houston area.

Breda said they can also be found in 40 stores throughout the state.

People can get a taste and even buy a bottle of Texas Straight Whiskey, Roughneck Reserve or Boomtown at the Old Humble Distilling Companys Memorial Day celebration from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This is our big birthday bash. Were going to have BBQ, were going to have a band, were going to have the unveiling of our brand new special reserve whiskey with the brand new label and the brand new flavor, Breda said.

The emcee of the event will be local stand-up comedian Gabe Bravo. Taylor Cantrell and the Kickers will be performing at the event and local artist Gary Denmon will be displaying his artwork.

Another treat people can look forward to is the distillerys specialty cocktail called the Colonel Angus which has lemonade, peppermint and whiskey.

People can reserve their BBQ plates on Eventbrite for $10. People who buy a BBQ plate will have a bottle of whiskey reserved for them later if they want to buy it or not.

A dollar from every BBQ plate sold will got the American Cancer Society in memory of Melanie Melancon, a friend of Bredas who died of cancer last May.

Humble, the community, last year had such a nutty year with the floods and the rain and everything that went on toward the end of last year and its going to feel really good to let our hair down and party for Memorial Day, Breda said.

kaila.contreras@chron.comThe goal is to begin dredging the West Fork San Jacinto River in mid-June, Eduardo Irigoyen, project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District said.

According to Irigoyen, the dredging project will span from about 2.5 miles west of West Lake Houston Parkway to about a quarter-mile east of West Lake Houston Parkway.

The projects cost will not be determined until after the bidding process. However, Irigoyen said the estimated cost range is between $25 million and $100 million. Funding is expected to come from FEMA through the Stafford Act, he said.

The project management team is working on completing the plans and specifications and are working to issue them out for bid as quickly as possible, Irigoyen said.

Dredging was deemed necessary after floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey rushed downstream and caused sand and siltation to build up in the San Jacinto River. The sand and silt displaces water and limits the rivers capacity to hold floodwaters within its banks, creating a greater threat of flooding to the Lake Houston area.

Governor Greg Abbott helped fast track the dredging when he authorized funding from the states hazard and mitigation fund to conduct a study of the entire riverbed to figure out what type of sand dredging could be done to alleviate flooding in March.

The USACE completed the engineering study May 4 and determined where dredging operations would best prevent future flooding.

Flood risk management experts and hydrologic surveying experts performed the study from May 1 through May 4. There were also surveys conducted in April, explained Jacob Walsdorf, US Army Corps of Engineers district value engineer, in a video recapping the study.

The studys completion means the USACE can launch the process of hiring contractors to move forward with dredging.

Were using all that information along with some aerial information to identify where theres a plug in the San Jacinto River on the west fork of it, Walsdorf said. Weve identified where it is. Were studying now how to remove a portion of it to determine a best resolve for the project.

The USACE will determine a construction timeline on the project after the bid process. The amount of material expected to be dredged will also be included in the Plans and Specifications. However, the USACE estimates it could be as much as 3 million cubic yards, or enough to fill the Astrodome twice.

No definite placement sites have been confirmed for the dredged material.

We have potential placement areas (or) sand pits stated in the plans, Irigoyen said. No material will be placed back in the river or Lake Houston.

The dredging is not expected to cause any environmental issues, according to Irigoyen.

NEPA and environmental compliance documentation will be done, Irigoyen said. We are in constant communication with (the Texas Fish & Wildlife Conservation Office and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) and keeping them involved.

In late April, the USACE took an aerial tour of the rivers west fork.

We have some experts from our engineering research center, ERDC, in town today to help us analyze some of the challenge areas, the problem spots and to look at some bank stabilization, so beneficial use sights for the dredged material and to help this area flow better, said Michael Garske, hydraulic engineer with US Army Corps of Engineers, in a video of the tour.

Garske pointed out new sediment built up on the banks of Lake Houston from Hurricane Harvey. However, this dredging project plans to address the west fork of the San Jacinto River.

They identified potential dredging sediment deposit sites and areas of excessive shoaling that contribute to area flooding, stated a Galveston District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Facebook post May 4. Engineers estimate that potentially 1 to 3 million cubic yards, with 3 million cubic yards being enough sand to completely fill two and a half Astrodomes, could be removed from the West Fork of the San Jacinto River to help reduce flooding risks.

mfeuk@hcnonline.comThe author of novels about the German emigration to Texas will be featured at the May 10 meeting of the Harris County Chapter of the Texas German Society.

The meeting will begin at 6:45 p.m. at the Trini Mendenhall Sosa Community Center, 1414 Wirt Road.

German author Barbara Ortwein will speak on her trilogy: "Between Worlds, Never to Return," "In The Heart of Texas But Not Yet at Home" and "A Journey's End, Texas Forever."

Born in a village near Muenster in Westphalia, Germany, Ortwein became enthralled with the inhabitants of German descent whose ancestors came to Texas many years ago. She was a school music teacher, playwright, historical fiction author, travel guide and a 16-year leader of a German-American Program. She still lives in Germany but has just retired from teaching and will move to her retirement home in Prague this summer.

During the years she was part of the German American Program (a high school student exchange), she toured through many Texas towns and cities that had historical connections with Germany in the past. She became enthralled with the inhabitants of German descent whose ancestors came to Texas so many years ago. Her historical and genealogical research resulted in the start of her historical fiction novels about the immigration of Germans to Texas in the early 1800s. She wove into her saga, familiar Texas historical events such as the treaty John Meusebach signed with the Comanche Indians, the German settlements of Fredericksburg and Luckenbach, and the custom of Easter fires around Fredericksburg.

The first book of this series "Between Worlds, Never to Return" takes her fictional characters from the time in Germany when escape was perilous, 1844-47, to the challenges they faced in the early settlement days in Texas.

Her second book "In The Heart of Texas But Not Yet At Home" covers the years 1847 through the Civil War. A whole new set of challenges faced the newcomers.

The series ends with her third book "At Journey's End - Texans Forever!" which relates how the Germans overcame their struggles, put their mark in Texas and were part of the betterment of the state.

Interspersed in her presentation, she leads the audience in a sing-a-long with her guitar accompaniment of German and English songs relevant to her book's theme. She often ends her presentations with a rousing song such as "Deep in the Heart of Texas."

Ortwein knows and has worked with many historians and genealogists throughout Germany. If someone has a research question concerning their German ancestors, she is willing to assist. Books may be ordered at alice@texasgermanbooks.com or at 682-231-2212.

For more information about the May 10 program, call 281-531-0822.A family disturbance erupted in gunfire Wednesday evening leaving one brother killed and another in critical condition, police say.

Two brothers were reportedly arguing over an open door just after 8:30 p.m. in a third-floor apartment in a senior living community in the 3200 block of West Little York Road, officials told Chron.com.

The older of the two brothers, Marlo Brown, 48, pulled out a gun and shot at the younger brother, according to an HPD detective. In a struggle that followed, more shots rang out and the older brother was struck and killed.

NEW ALLEGATIONS: School investigates decades-old sex misconduct allegations

The younger brother, Tayo Brown, 37, was conscious and speaking to officials while being transported to the hospital, officials say.

Police say the two brothers' elderly mother was in the apartment at the time of the argument and ran out to get help as it escalated.

The brothers' downstairs neighbors said they have been hearing loud arguments in the third-floor apartment for months.

READ ALSO: 2-alarm fire chars southeast Houston apartments under construction

Michelle Lewis, who lives directly below the apartment where the shooting happened, said she heard a loud ruckus before a loud sound and immediately called 911.

"I heard something like a loud boom go off," Lewis said. "It could have been (a gunshot). From the results (of what happened), I guess so."

A Twitter user who goes by Deon Black says he lives in the same complex. "Its alot of blood in the hallway and its crime scene tape it happened on the third floor," he tweeted in response to Houston Chronicle.

Tulsi Kamath contributed to this story.

Jay R. Jordan is a breaking news reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan.9:30 p.m. UPDATE:

Jennifer Castillo, a missing 12-year-old believed to be in danger after last being seen Tuesday night, was located Thursday evening, police said.

Castillo was found in the 6600 block of Harbor Town Drive, near Fondren Road and Bellaire Boulevard around 9 p.m., according to the Houston Police Department. The girl is being evaluated for injuries, police said, and is speaking with police officers.

She was alone when officers found her, police said.

No other information was available.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Houston police said a "credible threat" was made to a 12-year-old girl's life after she went missing from the Sharpstown area this week.

Police are searching for Jennifer Castillo, who was last seen 7 p.m. Tuesday making a phone call outside of a family member's apartment in the 6600 block of Harbor Town Drive. The circumstances of her disappearance are unclear.

"It is our belief at this time that she is being held against her will," Houston Police Department Homicide Det. D. Crowder said Thursday at a news conference on the missing person's case. "We feel that this is a kidnapping and that there is a credible threat and our interest is in finding her."

Castillo's cell phone call records indicate that she might be in the Houston region, police said. Her phone has since been turned off.

Police said it's also possible that Castillo is in Honduras, where her mother lives.

At some point after she was taken, Castillo's family received a threat to her life, police said. Police would not confirm how any messages were made or divulge the nature of the threat, so as not to jeopardize the investigation.

Castillo's voice could be heard in the background and she sounded fearful of her captor or captors, police said.

"Time is of the essence because she's 12 years old and she's not capable of making decisions that would be most beneficial to her at this point," Homicide Det. D. Crowder said.

Castillo's family reported her missing around noon Wednesday, and authorities issued an Amber Alert at 4 a.m. Thursday, Homicide Det. A. Vinogradov said.

There is no suspect or vehicle description at this time. It is unclear how many people took Castillo and how she knows them, but they are believed to be adults, police said.

Vinogradov encouraged Castillo to call the police or her school's caseworker if she has the ability.

"We want to reiterate that she's not in any trouble, and if she does have access to a phone, she's more than welcome to call us," Vinogradov said. "We just want to verify her safety."

Some family members told police that they were in fear for their safety as well, Crowder said.

Homicide detectives are leading the search for Castillo because of the "seriousness of the investigation," Vinogradov said.

Police don't currently believe that any smuggling or gang activity is involved.

"My gut tells me that we'll find her safe and unharmed," Crowder said.

She is 5 feet tall and weighs 100 pounds. She has long, curly brown hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information about Castillo is asked to call the Houston Police Department at 713-308-3600.

READ ALSO: Police await autopsy of man fatally shot in Acres HomesConstable's deputies raided a Spring home last week, arresting four people and seizing methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana and pills, according to a Thursday press release.

The narcotics operation was conducted in the 19200 block of Lockridge Drive in the North Hill Estates subdivision on May 5, Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman's office said.Nearly 200 Conroe Independent School District teachers, paraprofessionals and friends of education were recognized on Tuesday at the Texas State Teachers Association - Conroe 2018 Salute to Education awards ceremony.

Hannah Jaroszewski, a teacher at Runyan Elementary School, received the Conroe ISD Elementary Teacher of the Year Award, while Amy Causey, a teacher at the Conroe ninth grade campus took home the CISD Secondary Teacher of the Year Award. The event, held during Teachers Appreciation Week, was hosted at The Woodlands United Methodist Church.

TSTA-Conroe President Cheryl Dentler, who has been a preschool special education teacher for 11 years at Austin Elementary School, said teachers often do not get the recognition they deserve, and the Tuesday night awards ceremony was just one way the district and the organization work together to honor teachers.

Our profession used to be very respected and now its not as respected as it used to be, Dentler said.  I am proud to be a teacher. I wouldnt want to do anything else. My students, even though they are babies, they are already behind. Its my job to read what their disability is, and then I have to take them forward. If I dont take them forward, whos going to take them forward? I fight for those children.

Newly hired Conroe ISD Superintendent Dr. Curtis Null attended the event, and he said teachers are the heart and soul of the district.

Every day, they are faces that are in front of our most precious commodity, our students, Null said. Everything that the rest of us do in the district that arent teachers is to support them, so that they can have students meet their full potential.

Null echoed Dentlers sentiment regarding teacher recognition.

Their jobs are so important, Null said. Unfortunately, society doesnt always give them the stature that they deserve. Tonight recognizes those teachers and humanitarians of the year that were chosen by their campus, chosen by their peers. Its a night to celebrate them and their hard work and what they do.

Conroe ISD Board of Trustees President Melanie Bush was also in attendance at the ceremony, and she said pay raises to teachers and paraprofessionals show how much importance is placed on educators.

The district this year approved pay raises to teachers and paraprofessionals, which includes a 2.5 percent general pay increase on the midpoint for professional staff and a 3 percent general pay increase on the midpoint for non-exempt staff.

The starting salary for incoming teachers next school year will be $53,700, while existing teachers will receive a salary increase of $1,450 next year. The average teacher salary in the district is $56,167, which is higher than the state average of $52,525, according to officials with Conroe ISD.

Educating our youth is one of the most vital things in a society. A good teacher can make a student feel valued and important, Bush said. As you can tell by Conroe ISDs budget, we place a high importance on the classroom and on educating our students.

Jaroszewski and Causey each submitted an essay about their philosophy as a teacher. A committee then selected the two as winners of the district elementary and secondary teachers of the year, Dentler said.

The event, which included a reception and a ceremony honoring more than 180 Conroe ISD employees and sponsors, was moved toThe Woodlands United Methodist Church, instead of the Lone Star Convention Center, where its been held for many years.

Dentler said this years event was bigger than ever.

In the past, weve had the banquet at the Lone Star Convention Center, Dentler said, adding that the organization usually sells about 1,000 tickets. Weve sold 1,200 tickets for this event. We would have totally been out of space at the Lone Star Convention (Center).

Also honored at the ceremony was outgoing district superintendent Dr. Don Stockton, who was recognized with a $500 donation made in his honor to the Conroe ISD Education Foundation and a gift book50 states, 5,000 ideasfor his personal use.

Michelle IrachetaResidents in The Woodlands can celebrate the official start to summer while also honoring military service men and women at the annual Memorial Day Festival in The Woodlands, set for May 27.

The Sunday event, hosted by The Woodlands Township, will pay tribute to all branches of the military by honoring veterans and active duty service members. The festival will feature live music, childrens activities, strolling entertainers and more at Town Green Park. Concessions will also be available for purchase.

Highlights of the evening will include guest speaker, Retired U.S. Army Col. Randall M. Pais, and a Community Covenant signing.

Megan Lichenstein Meaux, development manager with the township, said Pais will address the crowd and speak about the importance of Memorial Day.

We typically like to look for (a keynote speaker) that is local, that has ties to the community and can speak to the importance of Memorial Day, Lichenstein Meaux said. We try to find somebody who has local ties and has a military background themselves so they have a better understanding.

Following Pais speech, there will be a Community Covenant signing ceremony. The ceremony is a way to articulate the communitys commitment to its local military. The signing is purely symbolic but carries a deep moral commitment to actively support service members and their families, Lichenstein Meaux added.

We will be doing a joint Community Covenant signing. Its encourages a community to gather and show their support for veterans and their families, Lichenstein Meaux said.

The evening is scheduled to conclude with a dazzling fireworks display choreographed to a patriotic soundtrack, weather permitting.

More Information Schedule of Events 4 p.m. - Opening Announcements & National Anthem 4:10 p.m. - The Blue Grooves (Variety) 5:50 p.m. - Keynote Speaker: U.S. Army Ret. Col. Randall M. Pais, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army (Texas-East) 6 p.m. - Community Covenant Signing Ceremony 6:30 p.m. - Level One Band (Variety/Dance) 8:55 p.m. - Fireworks (Time approximate and weather permitting) See More Collapse

If weve got rain then well either postpone it as long as we can or cancel the fireworks altogether, Lichenstein Meaux said.

Although the weather is expected to remain dry, Lichenstein Meaux said it should still be safe enough to hold the fireworks display and that the township will rely on the fire departments expertise on the day of the event.

We work with the fire department and the fire marshals office so we would defer to them, she explained.

A care package drop-off booth will be available onsite to accept donations of recommended items to be shipped to troops. Operation Military Embrace maintains a list of deployed military personnel and will ship the donated items to troops in need.

The Memorial Day Festival is scheduled for 4-9 p.m. on Sunday, May 27, at Town Green Park. For more information, check the calendar of events at thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov.The Harris County Justice Court Precinct 5, Place 2 will be closed to the public May 14-18 as the court returns to its Clay Road courthouse.

The court will re-open to the public at 16715 Clay Road on Monday, May 21. The temporary location at 6127 Texas 6 North, which has served as the JP court since fall will not reopen. Since October, the court opened to the public in the closed Peter Piper Pizza while Harris County made repairs to the annex that was damaged by floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey.The Austin laboratory that missed early signs of cervical cancer in Irish women uses a more reliable screening method for U.S. patients, the company said Wednesday, a hopeful sign for Houston women concerned about its readings of their tests.

In its first statement on the controversy raging in Ireland over the false negatives, Clinical Pathology Laboratories noted the contract with the government-run program did not include the level of scrutiny required under U.S. standards. During a four-year period, the program mistakenly cleared more than 200 Irish women who later received cancer diagnoses.

These screens have been performed through manual examinations of individual slides, without the benefit of computer-based imaging and a separate HPV (human papilloma virus) test, which together comprise the clinical standard in the U.S. and many other countries for cervical cancer screening, read a part of the statement.

The company, one of the largest such private enterprises in the U.S., is used by Baylor College of Medicine for some of its testing, including Pap smears. Family medicine doctors at the Baylor Clinic send such smears to CPL. Those taken by Baylor obstetrician-gynecologists at Texas Childrens are sent to a different lab.

Baylor announced last week it is conducting a review of the accuracy of CPLs Pap smears, emphasizing it will do what is necessary to ensure the safety of our patients. It said then that it doesnt know how many of Baylors patients could have been impacted by CPLs potentially inaccurate readings.

Dr. Thomas Wheeler, chairman of pathology at Baylor, said the review is still ongoing but confirmed that the fact the Irish programs standards were less than those for the U.S. should allay local patients concerns about their Pap smear readings returned by CPL.

I would have confidence to send Pap smears of my wife or daughter or other loved ones to Clinical Pathology Laboratories, said Wheeler, listed on CPLs website as one of its doctors. The standards utilized in the Irish program are not those employed in the U.S. In terms of Baylors patients, everything looks fine for the quality of screenings weve reviewed.

Higher standards

Wheeler said Baylor will take a fresh look at the screenings of any Baylor Pap smear patient who makes such a request.

Wheeler, who called Pap smears the most regulated test in all of medicine, noted the U.S.s higher standards require the use of an imaging system that works like facial recognition software to distinguish abnormal cells, invaluable assistance considering only a handful of such cells sometimes exist within 100,000 normal cells; and complementary testing for HPV, the sexually transmitted infection that is the most common cause of cervical cancer and which signals the need for greater scrutiny if detected. The Irish programs contract didnt require either.

U.S. regulations allow for follow-up reviews every three years instead of annually, acceptable given the additional tests, Wheeler noted. But without such safeguards, he added, annual reviews would be valuable to catch occasional missed false negatives. The Irish programs contract only required follow-ups every three years.

Clinical Pathology Laboratories statement also expressed regret about Vicky Phelan, a 43-year-old terminally ill Irish woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014, after a review found that a 2011 Pap smear that CPL reported was negative actually strongly indicated the presence of cancer. CPL settled with Phelan, whose doctors have given her six months to live, for 2.5 million euros (about $3 million).

What has happened to Mrs. Phelan and her family is tragic, and we deeply regret the outcome, said the statement. We hope this settlement will allow Mrs. Phelan to gain additional treatment and an improved prognosis and quality of life.

Other labs contracted

CPLs settlement with Phelan did not involve an admission of liability. The cases court proceedings exposed problems with the Irish program.

About 1,400 women who participated in the program developed cervical cancer despite Pap smears that came back negative between 2010 and 2014. The tests were accurate in most cases  the cancer developed later  but for 208 women, subsequent reviews found clear signs that early-stage cancer should have been spotted.

At least 17 of the women have died, though Irish officials said they could not confirm the causes of death.

In its statement, Clinical Pathology Laboratories said no screening program is 100 percent effective, but noted its Pap smear accuracy rate, monitored by accrediting agencies, is well above accepted rates.

Besides CPL, a 70-year-old company affiliated with more than 150 pathology departments in the Southwest, the Irish government also contracted with Quest Diagnostics, a New Jersey laboratory, and Irish companies MedLabs and Sonic Healthcare. The percentage of tests each company read is unknown.

Other major institutions in the Texas Medical Center contacted by the Chronicle last week said they did not send Pap smears to CPL.

todd.ackerman@chron.com

twitter.com/chronmedThe owners of a Houston area restaurant fear their business might be hurt thanks to a political crossfire that erupted last week.

Matthew and Jessica Lynn of Ellen's Cafe in Spring say their restaurant received negative reviews after being mistaken for a Dallas eatery that shares its name and whose political activism made recent headlines.

The misdirected blowback stems from a photo tweeted by National Rifle Association on Friday, showing a receipt from Ellen's in Dallas. Printed at the bottom of the receipt is a message telling customers that "a portion of this week's proceeds [would] be donated to organizations dedicated to implementing reasonable and effective gun regulations."

In the tweet, the NRA advised members attending an annual meeting last weekend in Dallas to steer clear of the restaurant.

RELATED: Sutherland Springs hero featured in NRA promos

"People started giving us one-star reviews, but we don't have any political affiliations," Matthew Lynn of Ellen's Cafe told Chron.com "We don't really know how it happened. People don't do a lot of reading, they just respond to stuff they see."

To combat the sudden surge of negative reviews, Jessica posted on Facebook to clarify the mix-up.

"We are members of the NRA and my husband and I both have our concealed carry license," Jessica wrote. "We would appreciate it if you would not leave your reviews for the restaurant in Dallas on our Facebook page."

Jessica said she reached out to reviewers individually in order to politely ask them to remove the unwarranted negative reviews. Some responded, others did not, she said.

"I'm a staunch supporter of the first and second amendment," Matthew said. "People have every right to their opinion, but they need to be careful how they phrase and exercise that right in the correct direction because they can damage another business that worked very hard."

HIGHLIGHTS: Trump stirs NRA in Dallas with a classic Lone Star slogan 'Come and take it'

Luckily, the duo said some customers have come forward to eat at the restaurant in order to curb any fallout that might have occurred.

In addition, Matthew and Jessica plan on changing the restaurant's name something they planned on doing anyway, but are now in much more of a hurry to do.

"We're not entering the political fight, that's not happening," Matthew said. "We're here to restore people with food, food is not political, and we're not going to politicize our food."

See photos from the National Rifle Association conference in Dallas, Texas above.No one connected to a shooting threat targeting Houston Community Colleges Central Campus has been charged with any crime, court records show.

Officials have not said whether the person, who was identified and located on Tuesday, is in custody.

The Harris County District Attorneys Office referred questions about the situation to the community college.

Multiple agencies worked on the case, meaning a complex documentation process must take place before any case is sent to the district attorneys office, said HCC spokeswoman Linda Toyota.

The college closed the Central Campus on Monday and Tuesday after a shooting threat, which was posted to Facebook. Final exams for about 6,000 students were rescheduled for later in the week.

Operations reopened Wednesday after college officials were confident that reopening the campus would be safe, Toyota said. Additional security measures had been implemented and tested over the two-day closure. Other campuses also bulked up security, officials said, and these measures will remain in place.

Its very secure  the students are focused on finals, focused on studying, Chancellor Cesar Maldonado said on the campus grounds in a video released by the college. Our students are back to normal. Our faculty and staff are back to normal.

On Tuesday, HCC Police Chief Greg Cunningham attributed the decision to close campus operations to multiple factors, including the threat that there would be a shooting Monday, the open access to campus, and the location of the grounds.

HCC learned of the threat Friday night from someone connected to the university, Cunningham said. The investigation began on Saturday, and the FBI and local law enforcement agencies assisted.

Cunningham did not rule out the possibility that the threat could be a prank during finals week but said the college could not treat it as such.

Taking threats seriously in todays situation is absolutely appropriate, he said.

Brian Rogers contributed.

lindsay.ellis@chron.com

twitter.com/lindsayaellisAlmost 60 people were arrested in Bexar County on felony drunk driving charges in April 2018, documents obtained by mySA.com show.

Bexar County law enforcement officials apprehended 57 people accused of third-offense driving while intoxicated and intoxication assault, among other charges.NBC News reported on Wednesday that Houston is among a handful of cities looking to host the convention in 2020.

Houston is one of eight cities, along with Atlanta, Denver, New York City, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Miami, and Birmingham, Alabama that will need to make a play to host the convention.The Cloud Imperative

As the cloud matures and the deployment of hybrid IT environments accelerates, the number of cloud offerings has skyrocketed. Although business of all shapes and sizes are exploring the benefits of migrating to the cloud, they may need assistance in choosing the right cloud services to move their strategies forward.

The Path Begins with Virtualization

Underpinning all cloud solutions is virtualization, the key building block that abstracts workloads from physical servers, storage, and network. Many enterprises have relied on VMware, the company that mainstreamed virtualization to transform the data center, as a key technology partner. For more than 20 years, VMware has expanded its platform leadership to help customers securely connect, manage and automate the worlds digital infrastructure. Businesses are now looking for ways to build on their VMware investments to integrate public clouds into their digital transformation strategies.

Introducing Cloud Verified

Partners offering VMware Cloud Verified based services enable you to continue using VMware solutions the way you always have, and deliver an agile and effective way to migrate to the cloud as business needs demand, without the burden of re-training your IT staff. This mark of distinction was created to help you identify the optimal cloud provider for any workload.

Why Does it Matter?

When you see the VMware Cloud Verified badge, it signifies that a partner offers a service running on top of the complete VMware Cloud infrastructure. Cloud Verified services enable interoperability and compatibility with your VMware on-premises or private cloud environments.You get the same, trusted platform that transformed the worlds data centers, along with the agility and choice to simplify digital transformations and accelerate public, private, and hybrid cloud strategies.

Next Steps

In the coming weeks, well use this space to highlight some of our Cloud Verified partners, including Rackspace, IBM, CenturyLink and OVH, focusing on the special expertise each of them brings to our cloud ecosystem to help meet your requirements. Our goal is simple: to help every organization move to the cloud with confidence.

Begin your move to the cloud today and learn more about how to maximize your existing VMware deployment with VMware Cloud Verified offerings.In the aftermath of last months shooting of Saheed Vassell, a mentally ill man menacing Brooklyn pedestrians with a tool that looked like a gun, Chirlane McCray conceded that New Yorkers are right to ask if their city is doing enough to support [those] struggling with severe mental illness. The answer is no. Continued tragedies prove that Mayor Bill de Blasios signature mental-health plan, ThriveNYC, is not helping those with the most serious mental illnesses.

The mayor and his wife have boasted about committing more than $850 million in funding over four years to ThriveNYC, which launched in 2015, but New Yorks mental- health commissioner, Gary Belkin, admitted last year that just $165 million had been allocated to those with serious mental illness. Belkin has failed to specify how those funds were spent. In 2015, de Blasio also announced NYC Safe, a program specifically intended for the seriously mentally ill, who use a disproportionate amount of hospital or police services. But the city has published little data on the initiative other than to say that it is a small program, budgeted at $22 million a year.

In 2015, police received 150,000 calls about emotionally disturbed persons, or EDPs. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the mayors focus on the problem of mental illness, that number is now up to 165,000 calls. The mayors misallocation of mental- health spending has made police officers the first responders to incidents of acute mental illness, putting cops in the precarious position of negotiating with unstable individuals, who may be violent and irrational. These situations can be dangerous for everyone involved: of the 3,523 assaults on NYPD officers in 2016, 18.3 percent resulted from encounters with EDP. Last year, one of these encounters led to the death of Officer Miosotis Familia, shot by a schizophrenic man who had stopped taking his medication. And by offloading responsibility for dealing with the seriously mentally ill to the police, the city also puts patients at risk. Though the NYPD responds to the majority of EDP calls successfully and humanely, almost half of the departments 501 Taser deployments in 2016 were in response to EDPs.

To address these issues, the de Blasio administration announced that it would convene a joint task force on mental health and criminal justice. But the mayor has convened such panels before and ignored their recommendations. The new task force will likely focus, as did its predecessors, on how to improve mental-health care within the criminal-justice system, rather than on changing the mayors policies, which effectively force the police to deal with the problem of widespread untreated mental illness.

New Yorkers should demand reform, which starts with funding the mental-health programs proven to work. De Blasio should ensure that families calling the citys crisis hotline can get help right away, rather than being asked to wait two days and told to call police if its urgent. He should expand the use of Kendras Law, the most effective tool the city has in decreasing homelessness, incarceration, and hospitalization among those with serious mental illness. Kendras Law allows judges to place those with serious mental illness who do not comply with treatment and have a history of multiple arrests or hospitalizations, like Saheed Vassell, into mandated and monitored treatment for up to one year while they live in the community. The mayor should also allocate more supportive housing for the seriously mentally ill. ThriveNYC dedicates $3 million of the de Blasio administrations overall $2.6 billion supportive housing program to people being released from jail, but not necessarily to the seriously mentally ill. A Manhattan Institute report recommends that two-thirds of the units from the New York City Supportive Housing plan be dedicated to homeless individuals with serious mental illness. Judge Matthew DEmic of the Brooklyn Mental Health Court, a program that diverts the mentally ill from jails to treatment, cites lack of housing as the biggest challenge.

De Blasio should also fight the closure of 30 psychiatric beds at Allen Hospital in Inwood. There have been outcries from the community and opposition from local lawmakers, including Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., State Senator Marisol Alcantara, Assemblywoman Carmen De La Rosa, and Councilwoman Diana Ayala, who chairs the city council committee on mental health. But the mayor has been silent.

New Yorkers want to see an end to the avoidable, tragic incidents of violence involving seriously mentally ill people who clearly need treatment. Up to now, though, de Blasio shows little interest in making the needed fixes to the citys mental health system. Organizing yet another task force wont solve the problem.

Photo: NYC Mayor's OfficeU.S. District Court finds Some Felons

Have Second Amendment Rights

Dean Weingarten. May 7th, 2018

Original Source

On 26 April, 2018, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois held that some felons have the right to keep and bear arms. Larry Hatfield was a perfect test case. From reason.com, Hatfield v. Session (formerly Hatfield v. Lynch)

Plaintiff Larry Edward Hatfield wants to keep a gun in his home for self-defense. But the Government bans him from doing so, because 28 years ago, Hatfield lied on some forms that he sent to the Railroad Retirement Board: a felony in violation of 18 U.S.C.  1001(a). Hatfield later pled guilty to one count of violating the statute, an offense for which he received no prison time and a meager amount in restitution fees pursuant to a formal plea agreement with the Government. Now, Hatfield brings this as-applied challenge to 18 U.S.C.  922(g)(1)the statute that bans him from owning a gunon the grounds that it violates his Second Amendment rights. Hatfield embeds his argument in United States v. Williams, 616 F.3d 685 , 692 (7th Cir. 2010), which instructed that "[the Supreme Court's decision in D.C. v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008)] referred to felon disarmament bans only as 'presumptively lawful,' which, by implication, means that there must exist the possibility that the ban could be unconstitutional in the face of an as-applied challenge." If there is any case that rebuts that presumption, it is this one. So for the following reasons, the Court GRANTS summary judgment in favor of Plaintiff Larry E. Hatfield....... .......

The word "felony" covers far too many "crimes" and there is a lot of blurring between what should be minor infringements and the real crimes that actually deserve incarceration. Prisons are overflowing and many inmates are serving time for sometimes ridiculously petty offences that have zero violence factor - many of these cases should not have to permanently by default loose their 2A rights.

"You don't have to be Jewish to fight by our side."

You just have to love freedom.

 2018 JPFO All rights reserved.

jpfo@jpfo.org

1-800-869-1884

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership

12500 NE 10th Pl.

Bellevue, WA 98005 USA

"America's most aggressive defender of civil rights"

We make the NRA look like moderates

Join JPFO

Back to Top

The recently announced departure of New York City-based Alliance Bernstein for Nashville, taking more than 1,000 jobs with it, suggests a potential loosening of New Yorks iron grip on the financial-services industry. Yet the move reflects a longer evolution that has seen financial firms leave not only New York but also other traditional centerswhat one historian calls the Yankee Empirethat for two centuries dominated banking, insurance, and investment capital.

This process is driven, in large part, by cost considerations. The cost of living in Nashville is just 58 percent that of New York, an important differential for younger workers looking to buy houses and start families, and one likely to widen with the new federal limits on state and local tax deductions. In addition, pension-driven fiscal realities may force states like New York, Illinois, and California to keep raising revenues.

Other forces are at work, too, notably demographic shifts to Sunbelt states and the growing influence of technology companies on finance. Jobs in industries like information technology and business and professional services are fleeing the old centers outside of New York, which is holding its own better than the rest. But the stagnation, and even decline, of financial-services jobs, at a time of high profits, represents a serious threat to regions losing out on job creation in these other sectors as well.

Alliance-Bernstein notwithstanding, New York is not close to losing its hegemony over finance. With 472,000 employees in that industry, the city dwarfs all its competitors, including runner-up Chicago, where finance employs 264,000. Finance jobs in New York, according to Pepperdine Universitys Michael Shires, have grown at a respectable 11 percent since 2009, though the pace has slowed more recently, last year increasing by only 1.6 percent. New York might be losing ground and market share, but the industry as a whole is not shrinking, at least for now. And New Yorks traditional rivals in this sectorChicago, Boston, and Los Angeleshave been struggling. Since 2009, Chicagos financial job growth has been barely 5 percent, less than half of New Yorks. Los Angeles, home to the fourth-largest agglomeration of finance workers, also did poorly, while Boston did even worse, actually losing finance jobs last year.

The big winnersas Alliance-Bernsteins move demonstratedhave been overwhelmingly in the low-cost, low-density Sunbelt. With reasonable taxes, more affordable home prices, and expanding residential populations, these areas are becoming financial-industry giants, even if they lack large, locally based companies. Among the global financial firms relocating operations to these less costly locales are UBS, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs.

The next potential financial superstar is the Dallas area, now boasting the countrys third-largest concentration of financial workers and likely to supplant Chicago from second place in the near future. Last year, the Dallas Morning News suggested that Yall Street may soon replace Wall Street as the U.S. financial capital. Thats a bit of a stretch, but between 2009 and 2017, Dallas did expand financial employment by 30 percentthree times New Yorks rate and more than six times that of Chicago or Los Angeles. With rapid population growth, low taxes, moderate housing prices, and a premier strategic location between the coasts, Dallas has much going for it. Last year, Texas overtook New York for the most banking and insurance jobs among the states; in 2005, New York had led by almost 100,000 jobs.

Dallas is not alone. Since 2009, Nashville, San Antonio, and Phoenixwinner of new jobs from employers like USAA, State Farm, and Charles Schwabhave experienced financial-services growth rates greater than 30 percent. Charleston, Charlotte, Durham-Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Greenville have all seen their financial workforces expand by more than 20 percent. Florida, which shares a time zone and many cultural ties with New York, is a financial-services hotbed, with Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, and Orlando all experiencing growth rates two times that of Gotham.

The other region clearly capitalizing on the outbound trend is the Intermountain West. The epicenter here is Utah, notably St. George, Provo, and especially Salt Lake City. All enjoyed 25 percent growth since 2009, with Salt Lake City emerging as a growing center for international banking, in large part due to the areas language capabilities, an outgrowth of Mormon missionary activity. Salt Lake City has become Goldman Sachss fourth-largest global hub ; the firm now employs more people there than in any U.S. location outside New York. All indications are that the financial-services presence in Utah will continue growing.

With the Internet reducing the need for close communication for many transactions, and powerful migration trends among millennials to Sunbelt and Intermountain West locales, the expensive, heavily regulated, high-tax financial bastions in New York and elsewhere can expect mounting competititon. Nor is this just a matter of low-paying back-office jobs; investment banks like Alliance-Bernstein, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs are moving well-paid professional personnel into their new outposts. In places like Charlotte, veterans of large concerns like Bank of America are setting up boutique investment banks of their own. We can expect more of this kind of activity in places like Dallas, Nashville, and Salt Lake City as well.

Another challenge for the old-line financial centers, and just as daunting, emanates from Silicon Valley. Finance appears to be yet another industry ready for disruptionand the primary beneficiary will not be New York but San Francisco, another financial heavy-hitter. Long a major banking hub, the city, increasingly an annex of Silicon Valley, enjoyed the fastest growth, almost 19 percent since 2009, of any of the traditional financial centers. San Jose followed closely behind, with a 16.8 percent increase.

Increasingly a business service and media hub, Silicon Valley/San Francisco is no longer just geek central. As long ago as 2015, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned that Silicon Valley is coming after New Yorks core business. Home to many rising fintech companies, the Bay Area already counts established firms like Apple, Square, and Paypal that are ideally suited to the new phone-based payment system. Talent that might have headed to Wall Street or LaSalle or State Streets is instead going to San Franciscos Montgomery Street or the dominant venture-capital region around Palo Alto and Menlo Park. Financial employment is rising in other tech centers, too, notably in Austin, where financial-sector growth topped 39 percent. California-based PIMCO, the nations largest bond fund, recently announced plans to site its expanding data and analytics operation in the Texas capitalnot in Orange County, long a center for tech and data analysis.

The changing nature of the financial and tech industries, along with the appeal of lower-cost regions for these industries, poses a threat to long-established finance centers like Boston, Chicago, and New York. In these traditional hubs, banking and finance have long been producers of both high-paying jobs and generous revenues for overspending urban regimes. Legislators in old-guard cities should take a long look at the policies that are driving these jobs away presentlyand perhaps permanently.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesThe charity sectors relationship with government is changing, and instead of using the government consultation on a future civil society strategy to ask for more money, the sector should think of new ways to grow pots of money within the sector, NCVOs policy director said yesterday.

Karl Wilding, director of public policy and volunteering at NCVO, was speaking at the launch of the UK Civil Society Almanac yesterday. He highlighted almanac figures which show that in 2015/16, the proportion of the sectors income from government fell, and income from local government edged ahead of central government funding.

Wilding said that while many small and medium-sized charities are still reliant on statutory funding, the findings might indicate a long-term rebalancing away from government income.

He added that the way government grants are managed now means that there is little difference between grants and contracts. The way that grants are managed more akin to contracts than grants that we knew a few years ago, he said.

Not a bad thing that the new strategy isnt about money

Responding to a question about what should be in the governments new Civil Society Strategy, which the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is currently consulting on, Wilding suggested charities shouldnt just be asking for more money.

He said that before the financial crisis, government funds created a larger charity sector but they didnt create a stronger sector. He urged the sector to be careful what we wish for.

He added that there might be ways the government could relieve the burden on charities by getting out of the way.

He called on the government to decide whether it likes civil society or not, which means accepting the diversity of voices within the sector that might at times be calling for different things.

You either support this stuff, or you dont, he said.

Increase money within the sector

Wilding said that policymakers and the sector need to think about how to increase the volume of philanthropic capacity available at local level.

He drew attention to the fact that investment income, which mainly goes to trusts and foundations that make grants to other charities, had not grown much, while other parts of the sector had grown.

This means that the foundation sector is having to support a bigger number of operational charities, which are chasing pool of grants not increasing very much.

Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, said that using unclaimed assets to grow community foundations could be one way of building capacity.The ICO has published its final consent guidance ahead of the 25 May GDPR deadline, which says that organisations wont need to automatically repaper or refresh existing old consents.

The guidance, published by the Information Commissioners Office yesterday afternoon, says that organisations will not be required to automatically refresh all old consents, but stressed it was important to check your processes and records in detail to be sure existing consents meet the GDPR standard.

Consent under GDPR must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous, with the ICO saying that if existing consents dont meet this requirement, then organisations will need to seek fresh, GDPR-compliant consent, identify a different lawful basis for your processing, or stop the processing.

Organisations using consent as a means of lawfully processing personal data under GDPR will also be required to put in place compliant mechanisms for individuals to withdraw their consent easily, and tell people they have the right to withdraw consent (if you havent already done so).

Key changes in the guidance

The ICO has issued a number of consultations on previous iterations of its consent guidance, but says the final document features some key changes from previous iterations.

An ICO spokesperson said this document was the final guidance up until 25 May at least, but described GDPR as a living, breathing document that will constantly be updated.

The guidance lists a number of key changes to make in practice, including ensuring new consents are unbundled from other terms and conditions, are granular and distinct, are well documented and are an active opt-in.

The guidance says that organisations will need to review your consent mechanisms to make sure they meet the GDPR requirements on being specific, granular, prominent, opt-in, documented and easily withdrawn.

The guidance can be downloaded and read in full here.

Consent not the silver bullet for compliance

In a blog published on the ICOs website yesterday, Steve Wood, deputy information commissioner, said that consent is not the silver bullet for GDPR compliance, and warned that the 25 May deadline was only the start and not the end of GDPR compliance.

He wrote that scaremongering about consent still persists, but was critical of many media headlines which often lack context or understanding about all the different lawful bases available to organisations under GDPR.

Wood was also critical of organisations which have complained that they will lose customers by bringing their consents up to GDPR-standard, pointing to recent ICO research which found that less than a quarter of the UK public trust companies and organisations using their personal data.

Some have said that they will lose customers by bringing their consents to the GDPR standard. I say you will have better engagement with them and build customer trust.

Woods blog can be read here.Paul Amadi has been appointed as chief supporter officer at the British Red Cross, a new role replacing the old executive director of fundraising at the charity.

The British Red Cross said the creation of the new role reflected its desire to offer a great experience that inspires supporters to connect with the organisation at different stages of their life in different ways.

It also confirmed that as chief supporter officer, Amadi will effectively be replacing Mark Astarita, who was the British Red Cross executive director of fundraising for 14 years. Amadi will be responsible for leading on income generation for the British Red Cross, a long with supporter engagement.

Amadi is currently the executive director of fundraising and engagement at the MS Society, a role he has held with the charity since 2015. Prior to that, he was director of fundraising at Diabetes UK and the NSPCC.

He has also served as chair of the Institute of Fundraising and is a founder of the Black Fundraisers Network.

British Red Cross were unable to give a date as to when Amadi would join the organisation.

Amadi 'hugely experienced' says Adamson

Mike Adamson, chief executive of the British Red Cross, said: Paul is a hugely experienced and progressive fundraiser, who embraces this new world of supporter engagement. Over his two-decade fundraising career, Paul has improved the performance of some of the UKs most high profile charities taking responsibility for all aspects of fundraising.

We estimate that up to five million people come into contact with the Red Cross each year  each of these is a chance for us to connect and inspire people in ways that work for them at whatever stage of their lives they are at. That is the challenge and opportunity for our new chief supporter officer.

Speaking about his appointment, Amadi said: I am absolutely thrilled to be joining the British Red Cross as its first chief supporter officer. For me it represents an opportunity to join an organisation of global renown and relevance, in a role of critical importance and at a moment of change.

I look forward to building on the considerable success already achieved by a talented team and committed volunteers and increasing the British Red Cross ability to help people in crisis.

The British Red Cross is one of the top five largest charities in the UK based on annual income. It had an overall income of 251.7m according to its most recent set of financial accounts for the year ending 31 December 2016, of which over 135m was voluntary income.

Its 2017 accounts are due to be published with the Charity Commission register in August.A volunteering charity, vInspired, has launched a rewards card which aims to encourage more young people to volunteer by giving them benefitis and discounts for doing so.

The Inspired Card forms part of the charitys new Inspired Programme, which vInspired said marks a new chapter of digitally-enable volunteering. The programme aims to encourage more people from diverse backgrounds to get involved in social action.

It was funded by a 1m partnership between vInspired and the #iwill Fund, alongside support from the Mayor of London. The card was launched last night at an event at City Hall.

The card, which is available to apply for online, will offer discounts on travel, culture in London, and across Europe.

The card will be associated with the European Youth Card, meaning that cardholders will get the benefits and discounts associated with that when travelling around across 36 European countries. Likewise, cardholders visiting from European countries will also be able to use the card in the UK.

Charity vInspired is the first European Youth Card Association partner in England although a similar partnership is running in Scotland, managed by Young Scot.

Jessica Taplin, chief executive of vInspired, said at the launch that the charity wants to utilise the best technology to connect charities, individuals and society.

'Volunteering matchmaker'

She also said that the charitys website will be changing over the next few months to become more of a matchmaking site for volunteers and opportunities, and away from a simple search function. She said that through this they will find out what interests potential volunteers and drives them, so they can be connected to the right opportunities.

She said: We want to ensure that young people can access a wide range of discounts and incentives, depending on their personal motivators. We want to embed these in the volunteer journey, to encourage ongoing participation and help people access the experiences they need to help them build social capital.

She added this they hope this will help attract people from a more diverse range of backgrounds into volunteering.

Taplin said at the launch that she sees vInspired role as being the glue in the middle between volunteers and the charities they volunteer for.

Taplin called on both charities and commercial organisations to partner with vInspired on the card, to both give volunteers the opportunities to work with different charities, and to gain benefits from doing so.

Matthew Ryder, deputy mayor for social integration, social mobility and community engagement, said at City Hall last night that he had come up with the concept of a card that you have when you volunteer that you can spend the credits for while out for a run in the years previous to its launch.

He said that there was a lot of people working on similar concepts, such as the Young Scot card, but that it needed someone, like a mayor, to bring it all together, and that they were able to partner with some brilliant people when doing so.

He added that it was something he was really excited about and really pleased to be part of.

For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here.Losada joins Tower MSA Partners as Vice President, Strategic Services

Kathleen Losada has joined Tower MSA Partners as vice president of strategic services. In this role, she identifies and develops new markets and service offerings for the company, which provides Medicare Secondary Payer compliance services and Medicare Set-Asides.

Losada has been involved in the development and implementation of MSP compliance services for the past decade. Most recently she served as vice president of business development for NuQuest/Bridge Pointe.

Her 25-year career includes a leadership role with MTI America, which offers transportation, translation, home health, and diagnostic imaging services to workers compensation payers. She previously managed sales in the Southeast U.S. for GENEX Services, a disability management and medical cost containment company active in workers compensation, auto, and group health markets. She started her career as a claims adjuster for an insurance carrier.

Delaware DOI Welcomes New Deputy Commissioner

On May 7, 2018 the Delaware Department of Insurance (DOI) welcomed its new Deputy Commissioner, Tanisha L. Merced, Esquire. Deputy Commissioner Merced was sworn in by Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro in front of the DOIs Dover office.

Merced is a member of the Bar of the State of Delaware. She has dedicated her professional career to public service and has consistently demonstrated leadership in her profession. Prior to joining the Department of Insurance, Merced served as a deputy attorney general at the Delaware Department of Justice and as first assistant county attorney for New Castle County. She also serves on the Nominating Committee for the Delaware State Bar Association, is a past Commissioner of former-Governor Jack Markells Hispanic Commission, and served as a past Chair of the Multi-Cultural Judges and Lawyers Section of the Delaware State Bar Association. Her experience as an attorney has focused on litigation, the provision of legal advice to government agencies and departments, and the leadership, supervision, and management of attorneys.

Aon Appoints Schuyler as CEO of Aon Carrier Link

Aon plc, a global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, announced the appointment of Richard Schuyler as chief executive officer of Aon Carrier Link, a channel that uses data and analytics to give buyers greater choice and efficiency of placing the largest and most complex risks.

In his new role, Schuyler will focus on enabling clients to digitally manage the entire placement process  end-to-end in a single platform  by leveraging technology to efficiently connect Aons retail broking organization with insurers. This innovative technology will simplify access, driving actionable insights from data.

Schuyler joined Aon in 2013 and most recently served as Global CIO for Aons Business Technology Solutions group. He brings more than 20 years of technology experience across health care, insurance, financial services and consulting to his new role.Montana authorities ordered the evacuation of 60 homes Tuesday as the rising Clark Fork River submerged a neighborhood west of Missoula and potentially threatened hundreds of additional residences.

The Missoula County Sheriffs Office issued the evacuation order for the houses and trailers closest to the river in the Orchard Homes neighborhood in the states second-largest city. Authorities have set up a shelter at a Missoula church and asked people who leave their homes to check in with the sheriffs office.

Just a day earlier, sheriffs deputies went door to door in the neighborhood to warn people of possible evacuations. Sheriffs spokeswoman Brenda Bassett said she didnt know how many people left as a result of those warnings  or how many are likely to defy the order.

We dont have a gauge of that just yet, she said.

The river has been rising for days as the near-record snow high in the mountains surrounding the city melts in the warm spring weather. The Clark Fork is at moderate flood level and is expected to keep rising until Friday, with forecasters predicting it will surpass 13 feet (3.96 meters) for only the sixth time in recorded history.

If that happens, the flooding could affect at least 800 homes from eastern Missoula to west of the city where the Clark Fork meets the Bitterroot River.

Bassett said there is no timeline to expand the evacuation order.

Outside Helena, water from the flooding Tenmile Creek has entered an unknown number of homes, Lewis and Clark County emergency coordinator Reese Martin told Gov. Steve Bullock in a briefing Tuesday.

Martin said officials have handed out 38,000 sandbags as residents in the valley use them to line roads and encircle homes and a school that are threatened.

County officials have rented two 8-inch (203-millimeter) pumps to divert some of the water, which has contaminated at least one well in a trailer and RV park, Martin said.

The Flathead and Yaak rivers in northwestern Montana are also threatening to spill from their banks and cause minor flooding near Columbia Falls and Troy, according to the National Weather Service.

Most rivers are expected to crest Thursday and Friday, but the flooding around Missoula is expected to continue for a week or longer, according to the weather service.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Treats 60 Pellet Victims With Eye Injuries In 9 Days



Srinagar, May 10: Ward 8 SMHS hospital becomes synonymous with blindnessFile PhotoWard 8 of the SMHS hospital has become synonym with the word blindness. In the past nine days, as many as 60 pellet victims with eye injuries, mostly from south Kashmir, have been treated in the ward.From Ist to 9th May, 115 people were injured by government forces in south Kashmir where five civilians and an equal number of militants were killed on Sunday including top Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Saddam Padder and a Kashmir University professor who had joined the militant rank couple of days ago.

As per the hospital figures, of the 115 injured, 74 have received pellets with 60 among them fired on their eyes.

In the past 9 days we have received over 60 people who had eye injuries due to pellets, said a doctor on condition of anonymity.

The hospital data reveals that 18 people had bullet injuries and 11 had stone injuries. Two persons were injured by the tear smoke shells and 10 others had been beaten up by the police.

A surgeon at the SMHS hospital, who has been treating the injured patients said, Firing bullets on chest, neck, head and abdomen amply shows the intention of the government forces to kill.

A doctor said, The injured civilians from Shopian who were brought to the hospital on Sunday had been fired above the groin, and when you have deep injuries above the groin only God can save you.

Khurram Parvaiz, coordinator Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), said: The government forces fire to kill the people, not to deter them. Why dont they fire bullets and pellets below the waist? Why do they fire only in the eye or chest? They (forces) need to be questioned.

Pertinently, in the 2016 uprising, the ward had witnessed the blinding of scores of young boys and girls by the pellets fired by the government forces.

(Greater Kashmir)200 years and counting

Marxism as a philosophical challenge to capitalism is still relevant, even as communism as a system of governance may have failedA historic win at Malaysia's general election by the opposition alliance led by the country's former leader, Mahathir Mohamad, will likely send markets on a wild ride, although analysts said long-term prospects appeared encouraging.

Pakatan Harapan, the opposition coalition, had the support of 135 members of the 222-member parliament, Mahathir said at a press conference on Thursday. That exceeded the 112 seats needed for a simple majority, upsetting the incumbent Barisan Nasional coalition.

Uncertainty will likely be a focus in the short term for markets following the surprise result.

"The Malaysia election outcome is a huge upset, no pollster was expecting this. This upset ranks up there with Brexit and [the] Trump election," said Aninda Mitra, senior sovereign analyst at BNY Mellon Investment Management.

"The bottom line is that while a long-term fix of governance, institutions and public life is now in sight, near-term policy uncertainty will be high," Mitra added.

Among the issues feared by investors is "an unfamiliar change of government as Barisan Nasional has ruled since independence and potential for riots and/or a messy handover of power," Nizam Idris, head of foreign exchange and rates strategy at Macquarie Group, said in a note.Najib Razak, Malaysia's prime minister, delivered an address on Thursday after his ruling coalition lost its firm grip on power in an election.

The incumbent leader said he accepted the verdict of the vote, and asserted that there had been no fraud in the election. Najib said no individual party had achieved a simple majority, so it will fall to the country's king to decide who will be appointed the next prime minister.

Najib said, however, that there will be change for the country, and he is committed to ensure a resolution.

"I accept, and my friends also accept, the verdict that has been delivered by the people," he said, according to a translation of the address, noting that his coalition was committed to respecting the principles of democratic parliament.

"And because no party has gotten a simple majority, therefore the king will be making a decision as to who will be the prime minister," he added.

That sentiment was not well received by Mahathir Mohamad, who led his opposition coalition to victory over Najib's coalition.

Speaking at a subsequent news conference, Mahathir said: "There has been some delays over a lack of understanding of the constitution, but we'd like to make it clear that there is an urgency here: We need to form the government now  today," Mahathir said.

Despite various news outlets citing official sources saying there would not be a swearing in of a new prime minister on Thursday, Mahathir was adamant that the king needed to appoint him to the role immediately.

"We hope that by 5 o'clock today we will have a prime minister," he said during his news conference.

If sworn in, Mahathir would be the world's oldest elected leader. Mahathir led the Southeast Asian nation for 22 years anda return to the prime ministership ends the previously unbroken rule of Barisan Nasional (BN), the coalition that had governed Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957.

The stunning election outcome was expected to ruffle financial markets that were expecting a comfortable win for Najib and the BN.

The national stock market will be closed on Thursday and Friday after Mahathir declared a public holiday, but the ringgit currency weakened in offshore trading.

Reuters contributed to this report.John McCain speaking to members of the media while sitting in a wheelchair after a hearing in Washington DC on Thursday, Nov 30, 2017.

Republican U.S. Senator John McCain said on Wednesday the Senate should reject President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.

McCain, who as a prisoner of war in Vietnam was tortured by his captors, said in a statement that acting CIA Director Gina Haspel, who testified on Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, failed to address his concerns about the agency's post-9/11 harsh interrogation program for terrorism suspects.

"I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination," said McCain, who has been undergoing treatment for brain cancer and has been absent from the Senate for months.Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said President Donald Trump's announcement to leave the Iran nuclear deal leaves the United States and the Middle East in "a very dangerous situation."

If Iran restores its nuclear program, a military response may be the only option, he told CNBC on Wednesday.

"The president lost his leverage because we had them in least in a box with regards to developing nuclear weapons," Panetta told CNBC's Leslie Picker on "Fast Money." "They're out of that box now."

The deal, signed in 2015, was President Barack Obama's signature foreign policy achievement. Other parties to the agreement included Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.

In exchange for Tehran's promise to limit its nuclear program, the signatories lifted trade sanctions against Iran's economy that had cut its oil exports in half.

Trump made his announcement on Tuesday that the U.S. will withdraw from the deal and restore sanctions on Iran. The new sanctions could start as early as next week, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday.

Panetta, who headed the Pentagon and CIA during the Obama administration and is co-founder of the Panetta Institute of Public Policy, said Iran now has no incentive to negotiate.

"We are left with a negotiation that isn't likely to happen," he said. "Or, some kind of potential military confrontation in the future. And that's a lousy choice."

And if Iran decides to move ahead with its nuclear program, Panetta said, "I don't think there is any other option but the potential of some kind of military action."

In addition, leaving the deal will likely fracture relationships with allies, he said.

"We've raised are real questions about whether or not you can trust our country," Panetta said.

"There are a number of crises around the world," he pointed out. "The reality is, the United States cannot deal with these crises without our allies. We can't do this alone. And here we are, taking our greatest allies, France, Great Britain and Germany, and basically throwing them out the window," he said.

The withdrawal will also likely heighten Chinese and Russian distrust of the U.S., he said.

"You can't work out any negotiations without mutual trust," said Panetta.

Panetta said his greatest concern with the Trump administration is that he doesn't "see a strategy here."Apple has scrapped plans for an 850 million euro ($1 billion) data center in Ireland.

The tech giant said Thursday that it won't going ahead with the project as its planning application had been faced with delays.

Ireland's High Court said in October the company could go ahead with the center, but an appeal was subsequently made by environmental campaigners to the Supreme Court. Apple's decision to drop the project came on the same day the appeal was meant to be heard at the country's highest court.

"Despite our best efforts, delays in the approval process have forced us to make other plans and we will not be able to move forward with the data center," Apple said in an emailed statement.

"While disappointing, this setback will not dampen our enthusiasm for future projects in Ireland as our business continues to grow."

Apple announced its plans in 2015 to build the center in Athenry, County Galway. The project was touted as Apple's biggest in Europe and was expected to create 300 jobs in Ireland.

Heather Humphreys, Ireland's minister for business, enterprise and innovation, said Apple's decision to drop the project was disappointing.

"I very much regret that Apple will not be pursuing its plans to construct a data center in Athenry, especially as the project would have been a source of significant investment and job creation for Galway and the West of Ireland," Humphreys said in a statement.

"Notwithstanding this bad news, I welcome that Apple have confirmed that they are strongly committed to their existing operations in Ireland."

Humphreys added: "These delays have, if nothing else, underlined our need to make the state's planning and legal processes more efficient. The government has therefore already been working, over the last number of months, to make improvements to those processes."

Data centers are essential facilities for big tech companies, as they create a centralized environment to manage and distribute huge amounts of data. Firms are investing in ramping up their data protection efforts ahead of a privacy law from the European Union that threatens to fine businesses up to 4 percent of annual turnover if they fail to comply.Apple and Goldman Sachs are planning a new credit card to be introduced as early as next year, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people with knowledge of the process.



The move comes as investment bank Goldman continues to make a push into consumer banking activities such as deposit-taking and personal loans. It will displace London-based Barclays as Apple's financial partner for credit cards, the Journal said.

The card will be branded with Apple Pay, the technology giant's mobile payment and digital wallet platform.



The move could address priorities for both companies. Apple is looking to boost revenue from things other than gadgets, and the payments space is in the midst of intense competition from banks and tech startups. Goldman is looking to diversify its revenue away from institutional areas like trading and investment banking with its push into areas of finance that touch ordinary consumers.



The partnership could also include Goldman offering in-store loans to Apple customers for the tech company's products, the Journal said.



Spokespeople for Apple and Goldman Sachs declined to comment to CNBC.Bahrain is well positioned to benefit from an expected trade boost brought about by the liberalization and economic growth of Saudi Arabia, the country's minister for industry, commerce and tourism told CNBC Thursday.

"The opening up and liberalization of Saudi Arabia is something good for the whole region not just Bahrain. Saudi is the largest market, it's the largest population, it has the largest disposable income in the region, and by having a more liberal and accessible Saudi Arabia we all stand to benefit from that," Zayed Al Zayani told CNBC's Hadley Gamble.

"If you look at China opening up it didn't hurt Hong Kong, Hong Kong flourished because of that and China flourished as well," he said.

Asked whether it was Bahrain's goal to be like the Hong Kong of the Middle East, Al Zayani said: "I think so, I think this is a great opportunity for us to be like that."

The liberalization and economic strategy of Saudi Arabia with its Vision 2030, taking place under the aegis of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was a "win-win" situation for Bahrain, Al Zayani said, with the small kingdom well positioned to export throughout the region and beyond.Remington rifles are displayed during the NRA Annual Meeting & Exhibits at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center on May 5, 2018 in Dallas, Texas.

"The Remington bankruptcy financing commitment was in the works for some months and occurred before our current policy was in place," she said.

"There have been some suggestions recently in the press that Bank of America is not standing by the policy that was announced in April" to no longer finance such manufacturers, the bank's vice chairman, Anne Finucane, said in the letter on Thursday.

A letter on Thursday obtained by CNBC may have only strengthened the resolve of gun reform activists, who are now calling on people to boycott the bank based on its involvement in the Remington bankruptcy loan.

Bank of America is trying to clarify "confusion" about its bankruptcy loan to rifle maker Remington in light of the bank's statement in April that it would no longer finance makers of military-style guns for civilian use.

In a television interview in April, Finucane said it is no longer Bank of America's "intent to underwrite or finance military-style firearms on a go-forward basis." Finucane's remarks came more than a month after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 students and adults dead.

News reports in May said the bank provided funding for Remington as part of a massive lending package, and gun reform activists cried foul.

Fred Guttenberg, the father of Jaime, 14, who was killed in the Florida school shooting, called for a boycott.

Guttenberg tweet

After reading Finucane's letter on Thursday, Guttenberg said his view had not changed at all.

Bank of America was "taking on Remington as a new customer," Guttenberg said, "at the same time they were telling us they were no longer doing anything like that." He had noted in a previous interview with CNBC that "the bankruptcy deal with Remington, it was only a couple weeks before Bank of America made their announcement. None of that happened in a vacuum."

The new letter "does not absolve them," he said. "Actually, it doesn't explain anything."

Guttenberg told CNBC that he and others connected to his movement and in Parkland are planning to close their Bank of America accounts en masse and set up elsewhere.

"Next week, we families here are going to make it very clear how we feel," Guttenberg said.

He added that "a bunch of students will be setting up their first bank accounts and it won't be at Bank of America."

David Hogg, a survivor of the shooting who has become a vocal gun-control activist, told CNBC in a text message Tuesday that he is "actively trying to change my bank account from Bank of America to another bank because of this."

In a second text message, Hogg said: "I am in full support of a boycott of Bank of America."

After reading the bank's Thursday letter, Hogg told CNBC that the bank "should invest in communities that are disproportionately affected by gun violence and intervention programs in those communities, such as Cure Violence or CeaseFire."

Any money the bank makes from the agreement with Remington should be donated to victims' funds for people affected by gun violence, Hogg added.

Cameron Kasky, another survivor of the Parkland massacre, told CNBC on Tuesday that Guttenberg "is a fantastic man who is dedicated to the gun reform movement and we're happy to stand beside him in his valiant efforts."

Kasky did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment on the bank's most recent letter.Boeing's top executive in the Middle East said the company's conservative strategy will protect it from any loss of business with Iran.

Boeing is playing down an estimated loss of $20 billion of sales to Iranian airlines after the U.S. moved to withdraw from a nuclear pact and re-impose sanctions on Tehran. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced Wednesday that Boeing licenses to sell aircraft to Iran would be revoked following President Donald Trump's decision.

The President of Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey for Boeing, Bernard Dunn, told CNBC's Hadley Gamble in Bahrain on Thursday that the impact on overall business will be minimal.

"We mitigated the risk of Iran in our production plans. For 777 and 737 programs, there will be no risk at this time. Beyond that, we are following the lead of the U.S. government and we will consult with them as necessary," he said.

Dunn added that Boeing was a conservative company and that earnings results underlined a risk-averse strategy.

"Anything that happens for us with Iran would have been and will be, an opportunity. Beyond that, we are just going to follow the U.S. government on this."Banke National Park animals thirst for water as several ponds go dry

Animals inside the Banke National Park (BNP) have been affected as their drinking ponds have started to dry up. There are 27 artificial ponds inside the sanctuary, and nearly half of them are going dry, said chief conservation officer Dil Bahadur Pun.Jenny Ming launched and ran the all-American brand Old Navy and now leads Charlotte Russe. She has been named one of the most powerful women in American business by Fortune and one of the nation's top managers by Businessweek. But she didn't start out as the prototypical CEO. She grew up as the shy Chinese girl in San Francisco's Chinatown, named "Most Bashful" in high school. Once a manager told her she would "never make it in this business because you are such a pushover." How did she make the leap from overlooked to high-powered retail executive? Ming tells CNBC Make It that the key to her success, and other women's, comes down to a fundamental rule: "Never underestimate yourself."

Jenny Ming, 1985 Source: Jenny Ming

Ming immigrated to the U.S. from Canton, China, with her parents at age 9, and graduated from San Jose State University with a bachelor's degree in clothing merchandising and marketing in 1978. Her first job after college was as a management trainee at Mervyn's store in Daly City, California. Ming says she wasn't a savvy manager in the beginning. The part-time sales associates were mostly middle-aged housewives, she says, who would frequently chit-chat and take long breaks. They treated Ming like a daughter, but not like a boss. When Ming's supervisor told her she would never make it, she said to herself, "I can't give up. It's only my first month on the job." Ming went to have a heart-to-heart with the sales associates. "I'm probably going to get fired," she told them. "And then you are going to get a new boss, and they are probably going to be much, much harder on you than I am."

Hannah Bibb, Kristin Ming, Jenny Ming, Esty Ottensoser, and Laura Perry socialize at Barneys New York on January 29, 2016 in San Francisco, California Kelly Sullivan / Stringer | Getty Images

Surprised by her candor, the associates asked Ming what they could do to keep her as a manager. Ming laid out the ground rules and the staff followed through. "I learned that you can be assertive even when you are just starting out," she says. Eventually Ming became a top retail buyer in San Francisco, and in 1989, she received a call from Gap Inc CEO Mickey Drexler. "He said one of his good friends recommended me and said I was one of the best buyers he knew," she recalls. She interviewed with Drexler directly and joined Gap as a merchandise manager. Ming learned another hard lesson on the importance of never undervaluing yourself when she was at Gap. Ming and three other colleagues launched Old Navy in 1994. As employee No. 1, she helped fine-tune the "industrial chic" look and established its unique value proposition as affordable and trend-setting. It worked. Sales from Old Navy stores rivaled those from parent company Gap, and the brand expanded to more than 500 stores nationwide by 1999.

Lulu Wang, chief executive officer of Tupelo Capital Management and Jenny Ming, former chief executive officer of Old Navy, pose for a photo at the 30th Anniversary Gala for the Museum of Chinese in America, in New York, on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009. Bloomberg | Getty Images

Drexler asked Ming if she wanted to be the president of Old Navy. "I turned it down," Ming says. "I said to him, 'I have the best job in the world as the head of merchandising.'" In reality, she says she didn't want to risk ruining the success she had created together with her team. She thought to herself: "How would my peers feel if I became president? I didn't want to rock the boat." So Drexler started interviewing candidates for the role, and he would introduce them to Ming. Every time she met a potential candidate, she said to herself, "Gosh, how do I feel if this person becomes my boss, after all the hard work I had done?" A year later, Ming finally told Drexler that she wanted the job. He started laughing and said, "I've been waiting for you to realize this for a year." Under her management, Old Navy expanded to 900 stores and grew to a $6.7 billion business for Gap Inc. In 2009, she joined Charlotte Russe as CEO, overseeing 545 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Ming says women sometimes have a tendency to avoid rocking the boat when everything is going well, "but that's preventing you from rising to the next level." While many men might think they could do the job even when they are not ready, a lot of women only realize they can do the job when someone else tells them so. "I learned to push myself," she says.

Jenny Ming receiving honorable degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from San Jose State University Source: Jenny MingCountries in the Gulf are keen to make the most of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)  an ambitious mega-project that plans to boost connectivity and cooperation between East Asia, Europe and East Africa.

Bahrain's minister for transportation and telecommunications said the Gulf, with its central location in the BRI, was a prime market for China and vice versa.

"The Belt and Road Initiative is ambitious and broad in its nature ... but by interacting with each other we can unlock potential opportunities," Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed told an audience at the Gateway Gulf Investment Forum on Wednesday.

"For us in the region, we think that China always will look for a new market for their services, they are manufacturing goods, every day they're increasing their production and we can be the market for these goods. We also have a lot of projects (going on) and ... There will be a need for Chinese goods and products," he said.

"We see a great opportunity for the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries, the infrastructure already exists, already we have the routes and the (trade) corridor available, a politically stable region, a resilient financial sector, and there are a lot of areas in which both regions, China and the GCC, can benefit from each other."

"The GCC has the ports, airports, the infrastructure is all ready, it's a win win for both sides," he added.

As well as China using the region as a remote manufacturing platform, allowing them to be closer to their markets, the minister said the Gulf could readily supply China with a stable supply of oil and gas.

Another speaker on the panel, Yusuf Abdalla Alireza, the founder and CEO of ARP Global Capital, an investment management firm based in Dubai, said the "obvious answer" on how the region could benefit from China's presence in the region was oil and commodities, but he added that there were other advantages too.HONG KONG  Wu Xiaohui, the Chinese tycoon who rose to international prominence to buy the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Thursday after having pleaded guilty to defrauding investors.

Mr. Wu was convicted by a court in Shanghai of using the company he founded, Anbang Insurance Group, to cheat investors out of more than $10 billion, in one of China's biggest cases of financial crime.

Facing a potential life sentence, Mr. Wu had pleaded guilty to the charges and asked the court to consider a lighter sentence.

More from the New York Times:

Chinese tech giant on brink of collapse in new US Cold War

With jail sentences and corporate flameouts, China is tackling its debt

NBC investigation finds no wrongdoing in handling of Matt Lauer case

The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court handed down its sentence as 50 people, including members of Mr. Wu's family, sat in the courtroom, according to a statement from the court.

Mr. Wu was thrust into the spotlight in February when the government seized Anbang, in part of a crackdown on companies that have acquired too much debt by bingeing on overseas assets.

He initially contested the charges in March during his first and only appearance in the court, which included allegations that he had instructed his employees to flee overseas and change their contact information when the government began investigating the company last year.

"I repent deeply, I know and regret my crimes," Mr. Wu said then in a televised statement from the court.

Anbang went on an international buying spree in recent years, most notably acquiring the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan for $2 billion.

When the government seized Anbang earlier this year, it shook investors as far as Vancouver, where the company owns a retirement home, and Amsterdam, where it owns an insurance company.

Chinese prosecutors accused Mr. Wu of a convoluted scheme in which he hid his control in Anbang through of a web of companies. According to the prosecutors, Mr. Wu instructed employees to falsify financial statements and marketing information. In this way, the government said, Mr. Wu was able to skirt regulations and raise money from the public.

The court said in a statement that it had seized Mr. Wu's bank accounts, real estate and equity.

In a response on Thursday, Anbang said that Mr. Wu had been removed from his duties as chairman of the company, adding that its operations are under government supervision.

"Anbang has sufficient cash flow to fulfill its commitments to all customers and ensure that the legitimate rights of policyholders are effectively protected," the company said in a statement.

Mr. Wu's lawyer, Zhai Jian, declined to comment."Cobra Kai" Executive producers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg told CNBC on Thursday they have been "stunned" by the success of their sequel to "The Karate Kid." The series, which premiered last week on YouTube Red, picks up 34 years after the original movie ends. It brings back the rivalry between Daniel LaRusso, played by Ralph Macchio, and Johnny Lawrence, played by William Zabka. YouTube, which is owned by Google, announced Thursday it was renewing the streaming series for a second season.



"It's been unbelievable," Hurwitz said on "Power Lunch," noting that the first episode already has over 20 million views.

Cobra Kai, a YouTube Red Original. Source: YouTube

Hurwitz, Schlossberg and Josh Heald created the series and wrote and directed most of the first season. "Cobra Kai" is the most recent example of nostalgic returns of fan favorites. Netflix brought back the "Full House" crew with "Fuller House," ABC has a "Roseanne" reboot, and NBC brought back its sitcom, "Will & Grace." The producers, who were behind the movie franchise "Harold & Kumar," said they approached the series as fans of the original movie and pay homage to the '80's classic. "It tells a story for today's audience but there's definitely some callbacks. So if you are a fan of the original movie, you'll find those moments throughout the first season," Schlossberg said. However, they also have a whole new cast of teenage characters they hope will appeal to the younger generations. "Thus far the reaction has been amazing," Hurwitz said. "It's not just people in our age bracket but teenagers have been really into the show as well." The Hollywood Reporter summed up the series in a recent review. "Everything to do with YouTube Red's 'Cobra Kai' sounds like a bit of a joke," the review states. However, it says, "The thing you don't expect is for 'Cobra Kai' to be pretty decent and to fill its entire first season with enough homages, twists and reversals to be much more consistently entertaining than it has any right to be."

'Big fish' in a 'smaller pond'Iran's bold rocket assault on Israeli forces Thursday signals an unwillingness to just take a diplomatic approach to the U.S. exit from the nuclear agreement, and it's likely to do everything it can to get around sanctions. Israeli jets struck dozens of Iranian targets in Syria, following the Iranian rocket attack on Israeli forces in the Golan Heights, which Israel described as unsuccessful. The incident, however, was the first direct military exchange between the two countries ever and could be a warning of escalating interactions.

Whether a direct response or not to President Donald Trump's abandonment of the nuclear agreement, Iran's action may also be a sign of a divide in Iran. While President Hassan Rouhani has said Iran will seek to stay in the nuclear agreement if it can, the attack on Israel was carried by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, who take orders from the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "This is a real escalation. This is significant and the retaliation by Israel was not small potatoes," said John Kilduff of Again Capital. "It feels like we're on the brink of war. I think Rouhani has lost the support of the supreme leader and the IRGC is back in ascendancy." Trump announced Tuesday that the U.S. is dropping out of the Iran nuclear deal, ending a waiver on sanctions that crippled Iran's economy and hampered its ability to export oil after they were put in place in 2012. The sanctions are being restored immediately, and companies have 90 to 180 days to stop doing business with Iran. "Iran will be very resourceful in circumventing the sanctions. I think they have willing counterparties in that effort. China for sure, Russia and India," said Kilduff.

Rouhani on Tuesday said Iran would speak with the other members of the 2015 nuclear deal  China, Russia, Germany, the U.K. and France  to see if it can be maintained without the U.S. However, if the deal collapses, Iran could return to its nuclear program. But Khamenei said while Iran wants to continue the nuclear deal, he doesn't trust the U.K., France or Germany. He did not mention China and Russia. Russia says it intends to stay in the nuclear deal despite the U.S., and the Kremlin separately called on Israel and Iran to ease tensions and seek a diplomatic solution.

Assessing the impact of new sanctions

Khamenei also made threatening comments aimed at Trump, saying he's made a big mistake and Trump will be "worm food" while the Iranian republic is still standing. Trump this week called the agreement "disastrous," and promised the "highest level of economic sanctions against Iran." But longer term, analysts also say the bigger issue is the schism in Iranian internal politics, and who ultimately gains the upper hand. "Rouhani doesn't control the nuclear field. The supreme leader does. What does the supreme leader do now? I think the biggest risk is the hard-liners in Iran get the upper hand, and Iran resumes their nuclear program. I think Rouhani may have been discredited today," said Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets. As analysts assess what impact renewed sanctions may have, they point to the fact that China is unlikely to curtail its purchases of Iranian oil, and may in fact increase them. Iran is also likely to find an ally in Russia, also under U.S. sanctions. Iran could first explore diplomatic channels after Trump's decision to resume sanctions on the country based on evidence from Israel that Iran is continuing a nuclear program and its support of terrorist organizations in the Middle East. But while it could go to the United Nations General Assembly, the U.S. sits on the Security Council. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply concerned by the U.S. action. Analysts expect European companies that do not want to be prohibited from dealing with the U.S. to comply with the renewed sanctions, but European leaders are expected to continue to work to find a way to keep the pact in place. "While there is considerable debate over the effectiveness of unilateral U.S. action on Iran, we think that a revival of the threat to lock noncompliant corporates out of U.S. capital markets provides the White House with a pretty powerful stick," notes Croft. "While Chinese compliance is probably a nonstarter, we do anticipate a high degree of cooperation from European, Japanese and South Korean corporates despite their host government's opposition to the U.S. move." French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that there will be a continued effort to work on a broader framework to include lengthening the nuclear agreement and curbing ballistic missiles and Iranian activity in Yemen and Syria. tweet Carlos Pascual, a former U.S. diplomat and the State Department's top energy official when the sanctions were first imposed, said one way forward could be a parallel set of sanctions that the U.S. could agree to with Europe on the topics mentioned by Macron. "I imagine what will happen is the administration will continue some form of discussion or dialogue with the Europeans on whether there are supplementary sanctions that could be put in place on ballistic missiles. It's unclear what might be done to constrain Iran in the region," said Pascual, a senior vice president at IHS Markit. He said Iran's activity in the region extends to Hezbollah and Hamas, and into places like Syria, Libya, Lebanon and Yemen. "Sanctions on Iran's involvement in the region become complicated because they are so extensive, and they are hard to measure and verify. It would be extremely difficult to implement," said Pascual. According to U.S. and allied intelligence, there are an estimated 40,000 Iranian troops and militia on the ground in Syria, and as many as 2,500 Iranians, including high-ranking generals, have been killed there. "There's no question that Iran's regional behavior has been intrusive and self interested as they've tried to deepen and expand their involvement in Syria to be able to advance Iranian interests, in particular to make sure they maintain a direct linkage to Hezbollah in Lebanon," Pascual said. "That's their principle mechanism of wreaking havoc on Israel." Iran learned to get around sanctions the last time, and it could do so again but more successfully, analysts said. Instead of the more than 1 million barrels a day that were kept off the market in the last round of sanctions, the result is likely to be somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000, since U.S. allies do not support ending the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Impact of 2012 Iranian oil sanctions by country

Source: RBC "They've learned a lot over the last two years so it will be back to the cat and mouse game that they played all over the world," said Henry Rome, Eurasia Group's Iran researcher. "The past is prologue so you return to Iran's resistance economy posture from five years ago, when they tried to survive while being cut off from international trade. I think they proved to themselves that they were able to survive," he said. Rome said Iran limped through the period of sanctions and "still came out intact. They are masters at playing a long game."

Getting around sanctions"Over the coming months, we'll likely see Iranian hackers grow bolder in their targeting of U.S. government, infrastructure, and industrial targets if a new deal is not reached."

Iranian cyberattacks burst onto the front page earlier this year when the Justice Department indicted nine Iranian nationals accused of participating in cyberattacks against American academics.The 26-page indictment laid out the case against these attackers and linked them to the Mabna Institute, an organization with ties to the Iranian government.

The indictment valued the stolen information at $3.4 billion and, while we might chalk that figure up to prosecutorial hyperbole, the point is clear. The Iranian government is already waging a sophisticated, coordinated cyberwar against U.S. interests.

These attacks took place despite the presence of the nuclear deal. It's possible that the Iranians felt that the targets weren't significant enough to scuttle the deal if discovered. Evidence suggests that Iranian attacks against the U.S. to date are only the tip of the iceberg and that Iranian hackers possess more advanced skills that have yet to be trained on American targets.

Security researchers at Symantec recently issued a report accusing an Iranian hacking group of conducting a series of coordinated attacks against targets in the Middle East since 2015. They concluded that "the group remains highly active, is continuing to hone its tools and tactics, and has become more audacious in its choice of targets."

It's reasonable to assume that the Iranians focused on Middle Eastern targets to preserve their nuclear deal with larger world powers. Now that the U.S. is preparing to reimpose sanctions, there isn't much left to deter Iran from training its proven cyberwarfare capabilities on more significant American targets.

Iran's attacks against its neighbors included the compromise of a major telecommunications service provider and an African airline. There's no reason to believe they couldn't infiltrate similar targets in the U.S.Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

Booking Holdings  The company reported adjusted quarterly profit of $12 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $10.70 a share. The company formerly known as Priceline also saw revenue beat forecasts, but the travel website operator gave weaker-than-expected earnings and revenue guidance for the second quarter.

21st Century Fox  Fox fell 4 cents a share shy of consensus forecasts, with quarterly profit of 49 cents per share. The media company's revenue beat estimates. Fox saw better revenue from higher fees, but not enough to negate a drop in ad sales. The decline was largely due to the network broadcasting the Super Bowl a year ago but not this year.

Roku  Roku lost 7 cents a share for its latest quarter, less than half of the 15 cents a share loss that analysts were projecting. The provider of streaming video devices saw revenue beat estimates and it gave stronger-than-expected revenue guidance for the current quarter and the full year.

Ford Motor  Ford suspended production of its best-selling F-150 pickup truck due to a fire at a factory of a key parts supplier. The automaker said current quarter earnings would be affected but expects any financial impact to be short-term in nature.

General Motors  GM agreed to stay in South Korea for at least another decade, and it will also set up its Asia-Pacific headquarters there. The agreement is part of the deal reached to help GM's Korea unit avoid a bankruptcy protection filing.

Royal Bank of Scotland  Royal Bank of Scotland settled a US mortgage bond probe for $4.9 billion, a smaller amount than had been expected. The investigation had involved mortgage-backed securities sold during the financial crisis era.

Amazon.com  Amazon was among the companies that were passed over by the Transportation Department in its picks for pilot projects involving drones. Apple, Intel, FedEx, and Microsoft were among those who will be part of projects that will go forward.

Visa  CEO Alfred Kelly will meet with several senior female executives today, according to The Wall Street Journal. The executives are seen telling Kelly that they aren't given enough opportunities to advance at the payment network operator.

Wells Fargo  The bank has acknowledged keeping fee rebates that should have been passed back to a public pension fund in Tennessee, according to correspondence between the two parties seen by The Wall Street Journal.

Comcast  The NBCUniversal parent will reportedly include a $2.5 billion breakup fee in its proposal to buy 21st Century Fox assets, according to the Financial Times. That would match the breakup fee in the deal that Walt Disney previously struck with Fox for those assets.

Macy's  The retailer was downgraded to "underweight" from "equal-weight" at Morgan Stanley, which notes the stock's 61 percent run-up since October and negative comparable-store sales.

Duke Energy  The utility company earned an adjusted $1.28 per share for its latest quarter, beating the $1.14 a share consensus estimate. Revenue also beat forecasts. However, profit was down more than 13 percent from a year ago due to higher costs.

AMC Networks  AMC reported adjusted quarterly profit of $2.65 per share, well above the consensus estimate of $2.19 a share. The TV network operator was helped by an increase in national networks revenue.Venture capital investor Tim Draper defended Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes on Thursday, despite the total collapse of the formerly heralded start-up.

"I feel we have taken down another great icon," Draper said on CNBC's "Closing Bell."

The founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, who was an early investor in Theranos, called the start-up a "great vision," despite the fact that it lost investors close to $900 million and Holmes was later charged with "massive fraud."

"Look what she did, she created an amazing opportunity," Draper said.

Holmes promised to "transform health care as we know it," and got "bullied into submission," Draper said. This was "one of the cases where the entrepreneur was defeated," he said.

Draper also defended Theranos technology, saying it yielded results identical to those in a doctor's office.

Theranos was once widely considered a very highly esteemed start-up in Silicon Valley. Touted as the personification of innovation, Holmes graced the covers of major magazines. But Wall Street Journal investigations over the past five years questioned the efficacy of Theranos' blood testing technology and raised flags for regulators.

In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Holmes and her former business partner and boyfriend Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani of fraud and knowingly "deceiving investors." Holmes agreed to settle and pay a $500,000 fine. She will be barred from serving as a director or officer of a public company for 10 years.

"I am thrilled with what she's done," Draper said.GE Renewable Energy has announced its first wind energy deal in Chile.

The project, with Arroyo Energy Compania de Energias Renovables Limitada, will see GE supply six 3.6 megawatt (MW) turbines. Each will have 137-meter rotors, amounting to 21.8 MW in total, and will be installed at sites in the south of the country.



"GE believes in Chile's energy sector as a motor for development and we are determined to use our state-of-the-art wind technology to harness the vast wind potential in the country," Vikas Anand, general manager for GE's Onshore Wind Business in the Americas, said in a statement Wednesday.



Chile has ambitious plans for renewable energy. By 2035, the government wants at least 60 percent of electricity generated in the country to come from renewable sources, with that figure rising to 70 percent by 2050. Among other things, by 2030 it wants to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 30 percent compared to 2007 levels.



Julio Friedmann, CEO of GE in Chile, described Wednesday's news as a "huge step" for the business in the region. "Chile once more demonstrates its strategic value to the company and its long-term vision, setting an example to Latin America how the energy sector should be in the future."



Earlier this week, GE announced that, together with Alliant Energy, it would add 470 MW of wind power capacity to Iowa through two projects. GE said it would provide 190 turbines for the English Farms and Upland Prairie wind facilities, which will be owned and operated by Alliant Energy's Iowa energy business.Rudy Giuliani, a recent addition to President Donald Trump's legal team, announced Thursday that he permanently resigned from his law firm to give his "sole concentration" to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

Giuliani's increased commitment to defending the president in Mueller's probe of links between the Trump's 2016 campaign and the Kremlin comes less than a month after the former New York City mayor took a leave of absence from his firm, Greenberg Traurig.

"In light of the pressing demands of the Mueller investigation, I believe it is in everyone's best interest that I make it a permanent resignation," Giuliani said in a statement. "This way, my sole concentration can be on this critically important matter for our country."

Greenberg's executive chairman, Richard Rosenbaum, said Giuliani permanently left the firm on Wednesday.

Shortly after his role on Trump's team was announced in late April, Giuliani told CNN that he would be able to wrap up his efforts on the Mueller investigation in as quickly as "a couple of weeks."

Giuliani's initial intent, Rosenbaum said in a statement Thursday, "was to play a limited role, for a short period of time, to address specific matters for President Trump." But he added, Giuliani now recognizes that the new task is "all consuming" and "lasting longer than initially anticipated."

In a series of television and print interviews last week, Giuliani made waves when he revealed that the president repaid his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels as part of a nondisclosure deal barring her from discussing an alleged affair with Trump.

Trump had previously denied knowledge of the payment. Cohen told the New York Times in February that the money for the payment came from his own pocket, and that neither Trump's campaign nor the Trump Organization were involved.

In April, Cohen's office and residence were raided by federal agents, who reportedly seized materials including documents related to the Daniels payment. Cohen's lawyer, Stephen Ryan, said the raids were the result of a referral from Mueller's team, and were reportedly signed off on by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who gained oversight over the special counsel's probe following Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recusal.

Jay Sekulow, a lawyer on Trump's legal team, did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on Giuliani's announcement.Budget should prioritise economic development: Bhattarai

Naya Shakti Party coordinator Baburam Bhattarai said the upcoming budget should prioritise country's economic development.General Motors' Chevrolet Bolt stand on display during the press day of the Seoul Motor Show in Goyang, South Korea, on Thursday, March 30, 2017.

General Motors has agreed to set up its Asia-Pacific headquarters in South Korea, in a further commitment by the U.S. automaker to its loss-making local unit, the government said on Thursday.

Under a preliminary agreement, GM will also buy more parts from South Korean suppliers for its overseas operations, boosting procurement from about 2 trillion won ($1.85 billion) a year at present, the industry ministry said in a statement.

In return, South Korea will provide funding to local suppliers of GM and other South Korean automakers for the development of parts for electric and self-driving cars, and other key automotive parts.

The statement did not give a figure for the level of support, but a ministry official said it would be worth a combined tens of millions of dollars.

GM agreed last month to keep its local arm afloat after coming close to seeking bankruptcy protection. The firm won major concessions from its labor union on wages and benefits and secured a planned $750 million in funding from state-run Korea Development Bank.

The new regional headquarters will oversee production, sales and technology development for Asia Pacific countries, which excludes China, but includes Australia, India and Thailand among

others, a ministry official told Reuters.

GM had previously operated its regional headquarters for "GM International" in Singapore, which covered South Korea, Australia, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and Africa.

However, the automaker slashed headcount at the Singapore office last year as part of a restructuring to focus on fewer, more profitable markets like China and the United States.

GM has stopped manufacturing in Australia and Indonesia, and significantly restructured its Thai operations. The company has also restructured operations in India and South Africa.

South Korea was also hit by the revamp, with GM planning to shut down one of four local factories this month and reduce its local workforce by nearly 3,000 positions.Billionaire Li Ka-shing  one of the world's richest men  is set to retire on Thursday ahead of his 90th birthday later this year, capping a career as one of Asia's most storied businessmen and handing the reins of his corporate empire to his son.

Known as Asia's "superman," Li formally stepped down as chairman at the annual shareholders' meeting of CK Hutchison, his conglomerate with interests in real estate, telecommunications, shipping and retail. He was due to leave a similar position at property arm CK Asset Holdings later in the day at its meeting.

The move had been flagged as long ago as 2012 and the date was formally announced in March. It comes as a number of Asia's family-run businesses face leadership transitions.

"It's been a long succession process," Joseph Fan, a professor of accountancy and finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told CNBC's "Squawk Box," adding that it has actually been more than 30 years in the making.

Li plans to stay on as a senior advisor, but his son, Victor Li, 53, will take over. And though the move has been widely telegraphed, analysts were still speculating on how the transition will play out given the size of the businesses.Before Steve Jobs became the visionary founder of Apple, he was a middle-class kid growing up in California, being raised by his adoptive parents Paul and Clara Jobs.

Paul, a mechanic, had a lasting impact on Jobs' philosophy around design, and his endless pursuit of perfection  qualities that would come to define his career and success with Apple.

"Paul Jobs was a salt-of-the-earth guy who was a great mechanic, and he taught his son Steve how to make great things," biographer Walter Isaacson told CBS's "60 Minutes" in 2011. Isaacson conducted over 40 interviews with Jobs for his book, "Steve Jobs."

One lesson from Paul was particularly influential, Isaacson explains.

Growing up, Jobs once helped his father build a fence around their family home in Mountain View. While working, Paul shared a piece of advice with Jobs: "You've got to make the back of the fence, that nobody will see, just as good looking as the front of the fence," Isaacson told "60 Minutes." "Even though nobody will see it, you will know, and that will show that you're dedicated to making something perfect."

The idea stuck with Jobs.

While at the helm of Apple, Jobs insisted that every element of the Macintosh computer be beautiful, down to the circuit boards inside.

"Look at the memory chips. That's ugly. The lines are too close together," Jobs said of the circuits in Isaacson's biography.

When the computer was finally perfected, Jobs had the engineers' names engraved inside each one. "Real artists sign their work," he told them, according to the book.

"No one would ever see them, but the members of the team knew that their signatures were inside, just as they knew that the circuit board was laid out as elegantly as possible," Isaacson wrote.One of the largest lenders in Italy is studying options to make new partnerships and improve its operations across Europe.

Carlo Messina, chief executive officer at Intesa Sanpaolo told CNBC on Thursday that he is looking at potential new partners to scale up the business, after last month closing a deal with debt collection company Intrum that involved a 10-year contract for the servicing of Intesa's bad-loan portfolio.

Messina wants to focus now on revamping the asset under management arm, under its Eurizon's business.

"If you want to play a role at the European level, you need to do something that can create a European leader," Messina told CNBC's "Squawk Box."

"To create a European leader, my idea is that it is possible to find an agreement with a big global partner that can make a commercial or strategic agreement buying a minority stake of Eurizon and that can allow us to work with other counterparts in order to create a European champion," Messina added, without wanting to disclose any names of potential partners.Missile fire is seen from Damascus, Syria May 10, 2018.

Syrian state media said dozens of Israeli missile strikes hit a radar station, Syrian air defense positions and an ammunition dump, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies.

The attack into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights marks the first time Iranian forces have hit Israel from Syria, where they have deployed along with Iran-backed Shi'ite militias to support President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war.

Iranian forces in Syria shelled Israeli army outposts across the Syrian frontier overnight, Israel said, prompting one of the heaviest Israeli strikes in Syria since its civil war began in 2011.

The Israeli military spokesman said the Iranian attack with around 20 projectiles or rockets was carried out by the Quds Force, an external arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said that Israel intercepted "a few" of the rockets and there were no reports of casualties and that damage to Israeli positions was "limited."

The attack took place at around 12.10 a.m. "We have retaliated but I have no further details about this," he said.

Tensions between Israel and Iran had already spilled over in Syria. Iran vowed retaliation after an Israeli air strike last month killed seven of its military personnel in a desert airbase in Syria. Israel regards Iran as its biggest threat, and has repeatedly targeted Iranian forces and allied militia in Syria.

Syrian state media reported Israeli missile attacks targeting Baath City in Quneitra, near the border. Further waves of missiles followed. Syrian state media said Israeli missiles had been brought down over Damascus, Homs and Sueida.

"Air defences confronted tens of Israeli rockets and some of them reached their target and destroyed one of the radar sites," Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing a military source. Another rocket hit an ammunition warehouse, it said.

Asked whether Israel had attacked near Damascus or scrambled communications there, an Israeli military spokeswoman said: "I have no comment on that at this time."

Syrian state television was broadcasting footage of its air defenses firing, and playing patriotic songs. Damascus residents described explosions in the sky from air defense systems.

Israeli media said residents of Metulla, on the Lebanese border, had been instructed to go to bomb shelters. There was no official confirmation.

Lebanon's National News Agency, citing Lebanese Army Command, reported Israeli jets circling over Lebanese territory early on Thursday before exiting.Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is the only leader from a major stakeholder country to not publicly arrange a meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un this year.

"Japan has been very isolated on the North Korean issue," said Richard McGregor, senior fellow at think tank the Lowy Institute in Australia.

Tokyo has, however, managed to show it's still part of the wider discussion on the reclusive regime after a trilateral meeting with China and South Korea on Wednesday, experts said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have both met with Kim in the last few weeks. U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, is expected to hold a meeting with Kim in coming weeks.

Because of those meetings, "for Japan, it was particularly important to try and play themselves back into this game, which of course, they are in the center of, whether they like it or not," McGregor told CNBC's "The Rundown."

The trilateral meeting, the first such event in three years, was held in Tokyo on Wednesday and came against the backdrop of domestic political concerns surrounding Abe.

On Wednesday, China, Japan and South Korea agreed to cooperate in seeking the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Abe, for his part, praised efforts by the other two nations to engage North Korea and said further efforts on denuclearization were essential.CNBC's Jim Cramer praised Nvidia's billionaire CEO Jensen Huang ahead of the computer chipmaker's quarterly earnings after Thursday's closing bell on Wall Street.

The "Mad Money" host characterized the Taiwanese-American entrepreneur, who co-founded the Silicon Valley company in 1993, as a "visionary" and possibly the "[Albert] Einstein of our era."

Even Huang's biggest competitors call him a "genius" in private, Cramer said Thursday on "Squawk on the Street." Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of Nvidia.

"[Huang] is defying Moore's law. He has got more going for him than anyone. When you read his speeches, you have to read them over and over and over again," Cramer added.

Wall Street analysts will be looking for an update on Nvidia's manufacturing business, its internet protocol segment and its data center unit, which produced $606 million in revenue alone in the fourth quarter.

Estimates call for Nvidia to have earned $1.47 per share in the first quarter on total revenue of $2.94 billion  representing year-over-year increases of about 60 percent and 32 percent, respectively.

Cramer said investors will also be keeping an eye on its gaming business.

Nvidia is less a chipmaker nowadays than a catch-all computing company, producing high-powered graphics processing units, or GPUs. For months, Nvidia rode the cryptocurrency wave before analysts soured on the volatile trend. The company's GPUs are used in cryptocurrency mining.

Huang told Cramer in March that the majority of Nvidia's growth comes from its gaming business, professional graphics visualization, the multibillion-dollar data center business and the autonomous car business.

Nvidia, with a market cap of more than $153 billion, has seen its stock rise more than 113 percent over the last 12 months. The stock hit a new 52-week high Thursday.

Huang also said, in CNBC's March interview, that "I'm the product of my parents' dreams and aspirations."

He said his father, after a trip to New York City from Taiwan, vowed to send him and his older brother to America.

"[In] the pursuing years, my mom taught us English to prepare us," the Nvidia chief said. "At the time, my mom didn't understand any English at all."

But that didn't stop his mother, Huang, now 55, told Cramer.

"Every single day, she would pick a random 10 words from the dictionary and ask us to spell it and ask us to tell her the meaning," he said.

 CNBC's Elizabeth Gurdus contributed to this report.School janitor Alvin L. Randlett spent 32 years cleaning the halls of Sixth District Elementary in Covington, Kentucky. He also spent that time pinching pennies. He never touched a dime of his pension, saved over 300 sick days and never owned a car.

Randlett passed away in December 2015 at the age of 75, but it wasn't until this year that his lawyers revealed that the thrifty custodian left the bulk of his life savings, totaling $175,217.19, to the Kentucky Child Victims' Trust Fund (CVTF), which aims to protect children from abuse and support survivors.

According to Chris Mayhew of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Randlett was paid an hourly rate of just $3.70  about $7,000 a year  when his career began in 1976. The donated funds came from his savings, his pension and the sale of his house.

"His service to the Sixth District School went beyond the basic duties of his job," reads a letter from his attorney Chad Seiter and estate executor Jeff Siska. "He became a supporter and advocate for the children he served, most of whom were underprivileged. Although a man of limited education, Mr. Randlett was both wise and generous in his heart."Local residents wait inside an ambulance after Patel dam burst its bank at Solai, about 40 kilometres north of Nakuru, Kenya, on May 9, 2018.

A dam in Kenya has burst its banks after weeks of heavy rainfall, causing "huge destruction" and killing at least 27 people, according to local media.

The breach happened in the town of Solai, which is approximately 120 miles northwest of the capital of Nairobi, late on Wednesday.

Regional police chief Gideon Kibunja confirmed to a local radio station in Nairobi on Thursday that the death toll had risen overnight to 27 people, while 40 others were in need of medical treatment in hospital.

"The water has caused huge destruction of both life and property. The extent of the damage has yet to be ascertained," Lee Kinyajui, governor of Nakuru county, said in a statement via Twitter.

The Kenya Red Cross said it had rescued 39 people shortly after the dam burst, while several people were feared to be trapped in thick mud which had spilled over from the reservoir  spreading over a radius of just over 1 mile.

Tweet 1

Kenya's Daily Nation reported local citizens had heard an "explosion" from the Patel Dam shortly before water started gushing out, sweeping over hundreds of homes.

Heavy rainfall and severe flash floods in countries across East Africa have left more than 300 people dead and displaced thousands of others over the past two months  with Kenya and Rwanda the worst hit.

Kenya's government said Wednesday that the ongoing torrential rains have killed 132 people and displaced more than 220,000 people in 32 counties since March. The rainfall and flooding has also prevented or limited humanitarian access to many of the affected areas.

The extreme weather comes at a time when the country is also trying to tackle a cholera outbreak as well as an epidemic of the mosquito-linked chikungunya virus.A stunning win by the opposition bloc in Malaysia's general election on Wednesday could have implications for the Southeast Asian nation's ties with China, a major invsetor.

Mahathir Mohamad, a former Malaysian prime minister who led his opposition alliance to victory over the ruling coalition, said Thursday the country could renegotiate several agreements that had been struck with China.

Mahathir said he had no problem with China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a wide-reaching infrastructure investment program, but added that "we would not like to see too many warships in this area, because [a] warship attracts other warships," Reuters said on Thursday.

Those comments come on the back of warmer ties between Malaysia and China in recent years under the administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Malaysia was the fourth-largest recipient of China's overseas direct investment last year, a 2017 report from the Economist Intelligence Unit said. That compared to the country's position of 20th place in the 2015 ranking.

That came as China seeks to expand its influence overseas, spurring concerns internationally about the reach of the Chinese Communist Party.

Mahathir took issue with vast mainland Chinese investments under Najib's administration during his campaign, arguing that his country has been selling out to Beijing.

In Malaysia, a number of major port and rail projects have been scheduled for development. A Citi report estimated they would receive as much as 400 billion ringgit ($101 billion) in Chinese investments over the next two decades.

The Alibaba-led Digital Free Trade Zone, also regarded as part of the BRI, was established in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year in a bid to improve trade between China and the Southeast Asian region.

A project that has been singled out by Mahathir in the lead up to the general election for being wasteful is the East Coast Rail Link in peninsular Malaysia. A 688-kilometer (430-mile) rail project costing $13 billion, it is being built by China Communications Construction and is also considered part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The necessity of that project would be reviewed and its development halted if it is found inessential, Mahathir was quoted as saying by the state-run Bernama news agency in April.

"It wouldn't be particularly surprising if this is the first project they review," Brian Tan, Southeast Asia economist at Nomura, told CNBC.

While there will be greater uncertainty over Mahathir's coalition's targeting of Chinese infrastructure projects, Tan said the alliance had been careful to emphasize that it was reviewing, rather than immediately calling off, those projects.

Fidelity International said in a note that the new government was likely to go back to the drawing board over large-scale infrastructure projects: "Mahathir in the past has said he will scrap the large 'unnecessary' mega projects such as the [high speed rail] as he disagreed with the large debt taken to fund these projects."

Mahathir has also taken issue with a massive private residential project from a Chinese company in the state of Johor, just north of Singapore. Most Malaysian's, he has said, cannot afford the apartments there.

Responding to the election results in Malaysia, Chinese international real estate website Juwai.com was upbeat about opportunities under the incoming government, but acknowledged that some Chinese buyers may hold back if there are uncertainties.

However, current policies regarding visa, home-buying and education remain "very appealing," said Juwai.com CEO, Carrie Law said an email.

Law said Chinese buyer inquiries on Malaysian properties in the first three months of 2018 were up 103 percent from the same time a year ago. Inquiries in April rose 120 percent from a year ago, she added.

"If there is no change, we expect Chinese investment in Malaysian property to continue to grow in the months and years to come. Chinese acquisitions could at least double by 2025," she added.Budhanagar ICP set to come online early

The construction of Indian government funded integrated check post (ICP) at Budhanagar in Morang is expected to be completed before the stipulated project completion deadline, said project officials.The project is expected to facilitate Nepal-India trade and transit. It has a completion deadline of December 26.An Air Koryo aircraft sits parked in front of houses outside Pyongyang airport on April 17, 2017.

North Korea's Air Koryo plans to launch charter flights between Pyongyang and Chengdu in south-west China, two airline officials told Reuters, amid a major improvement in diplomatic relations between the neighbours.

The flights to Chengdu, one of the biggest cities in China's vast western region, could start as early as late June if approved by China's aviation regulator, the officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

"At the moment this is still a plan. Whether it can actually take off will be impacted by the policy environment going forward," said one of the officials, who said an application to the regulator had not yet been submitted.

"Now perhaps it's Chengdu, afterwards could be Dalian, Guangzhou. If there's a market we'll fly, if not we won't," he said, noting Chinese travel agencies were involved with marketing the flights to potential customers.

China has traditionally been politically isolated North Korea's closest ally but ties have been frayed by Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme and Beijing's backing of tough U.N. sanctions in response.

Relations have, however, improved of late. Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have held two meetings in China since March as North Korea prepares for a planned summit meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Air Koryo already offers regular flights from Pyongyang to the north-east cities of Beijing and Shenyang, and the eastern port city of Shanghai. Revenues from Chinese tourists would provide a welcome boost to North Korea's closed economy.

Tourists from China account for about four-fifths of foreign visitors to North Korea, says South Korean think-tank the Korea Maritime Institute, which estimates tourism generates revenue of about $44 million each year for the country.

Air China Ltd indefinitely suspended flights from Beijing to Pyongyang in November, citing a lack of demand. Those were the only flights by a Chinese carrier to North Korea.When it comes to life insurance, there's a variety of reasons why older Americans might wonder if they should let their policy lapse. For instance, someone who put a policy in place before the estate tax exemption was raised this year  to about $11.2 million from $5.5 million per person  might no longer need the insurance to cover taxes. For others, maybe the premiums have become unaffordable or there's no one they want to leave the money to anymore. Regardless of the cause, one option for an unwanted life insurance policy is to sell it. That's right: Get cash now from investors, who will get the death benefit when you die.

Rich Legg | Getty Images

"It is a little weird  and it's a morbid conversation," said certified financial planner Ashley Foster, founder of Nxt:Gen Financial Planning in Houston. "But if someone is having trouble paying their premiums  or doesn't have an insurable need, it can sometimes make sense." While the thought of strangers financially benefiting from your death might be creepy, selling a policy can be wiser than simply walking away from it or only getting the surrender value. "It's an asset like any other," said CFP Barry Flagg, managing principal at Triangulum Financial Partners in Tampa. "If I had a mutual fund on my balance sheet and it didn't perform how I wanted it to, I wouldn't just give it back to the mutual fund company." Here's the skinny on "life settlements."

How life settlements work

The transaction basically involves a life-settlement company giving you cash in exchange for your policy. You no longer pay the premiums, and when you pass away, the death benefit goes to the investor who now owns it. Generally speaking, if you're age 65 or older and your policy's death benefit is at least $100,000, it could have value to investors, according to the Life Insurance Settlement Association. If you're worried that a Tony Soprano-like hitman will appear to free up that benefit quickly, there's little need to worry. When you sell the policy, it gets held in a blind pool overseen by a financial institution other than the buyer. Additionally, your policy can only be resold as part of a larger transaction that includes other policies.

Manage your expectations

Don't expect to get the face value of your policy: The settlement comes in somewhere above the cash value and below the death benefit. The exact offer depends on a variety of factors, including the premium amount, the cash value and whether there are any loans against the policy. The amount also depends partly on your life expectancy, which in turn is based on your age and your health. The shorter the life expectancy, the larger the settlement.

Beware of taxes

While standard life insurance proceeds are untaxed  i.e., you die, your spouse gets the death benefit tax-free  life-settlements are treated differently by Uncle Sam. For illustration purposes: Say you have a $500,000 policy. Over the years, you've paid $90,000 in premiums. Due to $60,000 in investment gains, the policy's cash value is $150,000. You get a life settlement of $200,000. The $90,000 you paid in premiums comes back to you tax-free. The $60,000 difference between that and the cash value is taxed as ordinary income. The remaining $50,000 is taxed as a long-term capital gain. (Note: This taxation is effective as of 2018. The Republican tax bill reversed 2009 Internal Revenue Service guidance that had changed the tax treatment of a portion of premiums paid.) Keep in mind, too, that getting a big lump sum of cash in one year can push you into a higher tax bracket. And the higher your income, the more you'll pay in long-term capital gains taxes.

It's an advisor's job to take the steps necessary to make sure the client can sell the policy for as high an amount as possible. Barry Flagg Managing principal at Triangulum Financial Partners

Better shop aroundPresident Donald Trump said Thursday his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will take place June 12 in Singapore.



It would be the first meeting ever for a sitting U.S. president and the head of North Korea and a stunning turnaround in relations from last year, when the nations appeared to be on the brink of conflict.

The president revealed the date and location for the meeting in a tweet Thursday morning.

Trump tweet

Trump's announcement came after weeks of hints and suggestions about when and where the two would meet.

Hours before his announcement, Trump welcomed home three Americans who had been imprisoned by North Korea. Pyongyang released them to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier this week.

Singapore is a Southeast Asia independent city-state about four times the size of Washington.

Trump had previously floated the idea of holding the meeting in the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea. Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met in the DMZ last month.An Israeli soldier stands next to signs pointing out distances to different cities, on Mount Bental, an observation post in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that overlooks the Syrian side of the Quneitra crossing, Israel May 10, 2018. Ronen Zvulun | Reuters

A series of rocket exchanges between Iran and Israel along the Syrian border on Thursday may confirm what many feared: The U.S. exit from the Iran nuclear deal will inflame regional rivalries and heighten the risk of open conflict in the Middle East. Israel launched a deadly attack on Iranian positions in Syria on Thursday, responding to an earlier rocket attack by Iran's forces on the Golan Heights, a border area Israel captured from Syria in 1967. Iran's attack itself followed several strikes by Israel on its bases in Syria, where the Iranians are supporting President Bashar Assad in the nation's long-burning civil war. The earlier Israeli strikes came both before and after President Donald Trump announced he is withdrawing the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and restoring wide-ranging sanctions aimed at crippling the Iranian economy. Thursday's rocket exchange came just two days after Trump's announcement.

I very much worry that the antagonists seem to believe that this can be a managed and contained military escalation but military planners thought the same thing in 1914. Helima Croft global head of commodity strategy, RBC Capital Markets

Middle East watchers warn that Trump's decision to abandon the nuclear deal emboldens Israel and Saudi Arabia to take a more aggressive stance against Iranian forces and proxies in the region. They say it also marginalizes Iran's political moderates like President Hassan Rouhani and emboldens the nation's hard-line conservatives and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite military organization loyal to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "US withdrawal from the JCPOA could shift the balance of power among the Iranian leadership from those who want to keep the deal operational to hardline elements more willing to risk escalation by strengthening support for regional proxies, and who favour economic self-sufficiency and opposed President Rouhani's push for greater engagement with the West," ratings agency Fitch said Thursday, referring to the deal by its official name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The long-standing fear is that open military conflict among the Middle East's dominant players will devolve into a regionwide conflict that drags global powers like the United States and Russia into war. It could also choke off oil supplies from the world's largest energy export hub. The Israeli-Iranian exchange on Thursday is only the latest flare up in Syria's seven-year war that has drawn in Russia, the United States, Kurdish fighters and Turkey. The delicate balance of alliances and competing interests now risks tipping past the point of no return, according to Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets. "I very much worry that the antagonists seem to believe that this can be a managed and contained military escalation but military planners thought the same thing in 1914," she wrote to CNBC. On Thursday, the White House condemned the Iranian strikes and defended Israel's counterattack, calling it an act of self-defense. It said Iran's Revolutionary Guard "bears full responsibility for the consequences of its reckless actions." Beyond Syria, Iran is backing Lebanon's political and militant group Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization and avowed enemy of Israel on the Jewish state's border. The Iranians exercise significant influence over militias in Iraq, and Tehran is widely believed to be arming Houthi rebels in their fight against rivals in Yemen and a Saudi-led coalition that includes the United States. To be sure, while the nuclear deal limited Iran's program, President Barack Obama's hopes that the accord would pave the way for improved relations proved overly optimistic. Iran has only ramped up its role in foreign conflicts since the deal took effect in 2016. Now, in the wake of Trump's decision, an "angry Iran is loose in the region," risk consultancy Eurasia Group said in a research note laying out the potential consequences of the U.S. exit.

"In Yemen, Iran will likely encourage its Houthi allies to more aggressively fire missiles at Saudi infrastructure and, more importantly, transfer sophisticated systems to improve missile accuracy," Eurasia Group analysts forecast. "The risk of the deaths of Saudi citizens increases, as does the risk of a tough and escalatory Saudi response." However, it's the Syrian conflict where Eurasia Group sees the highest risk of volatility. "As we expected, Israel has ratcheted up airstrikes against Iranian targets, seeking to thwart the establishment of Revolutionary Guard bases throughout Syria," its analysts said. The heightened political risks could also inflame other tensions tied to Iran that have roiled the Arabian Peninsula, Fitch warned. It notes that a blockade by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Qatar is largely due to the tiny Gulf nation's ties to Iran. It points out that Oman has been accused of allowing Iran to funnel weapons through its country to neighboring Yemen, and that Bahrain pointed the finger at Tehran-linked terrorism for a domestic oil pipeline attack. Closely followed trader Art Cashin said geopolitical concerns in the Middle East are now eclipsing those over North Korea, whose leader will meet with Trump on June 12 after talks with South Korea that have begun to defuse a nuclear crisis. "I would keep an eye on the Middle East a good deal more than North Korea," he told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" on Thursday. "I get the feeling as you watch what's going on in North Korea that the Chinese are very involved in making sure that this thing comes off, so if there's going to be a concern, it's going to be the Middle East," said Cashin, director of floor operations at the New York Stock Exchange for UBS.  CNBC's Patti Domm contributed reporting to this story.

WATCH: Treasury announces new Iran sanctionsDahal says party focus on boosting tourism

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Wednesday said his partys priority is developing tourism as part of larger economic development of Nepal.Dahal said this during his meeting with the delegation, led by the Communist Party of Chinas Vice President for Beijing, Lizi Yang at his residence in Khumaltar.With ambitious plans to transform its economy as part of the crown prince's Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia is hoping to boost foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country as it embarks on a post-oil era and ambitious mega projects like the futuristic city of NEOM. Ibrahim Al-Omar, governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), said foreign direct investment (FDI) was growing in Saudi Arabia. Official figures from the World Bank show FDI net inflows were $7.453 billion in 2016 while net outflows were $8.936 in the same year. Since then, however, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has appeared to take the reigns on transforming the economy and society by introducing a raft of liberalizing reforms. An anti-corruption purge led by the crown prince last year caused concern among some business leaders, but Al-Omar said foreign investment was now growing, but didn't give more detail. "We have seen a growth for foreign investment  about 50 percent comparing the first quarter this year to the same period last year. Also, the (FDI) inflows we have seen about 40 percent," Al-Omar told CNBC's Hadley Gamble as she hosted a session on the Saudi Arabian FDI landscape at the Gateway Gulf investment forum in Bahrain.

The Kingdom Tower (center) stands on the skyline above the King Fahd highway in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Saudi Arabia was ready to help businesses set up in the country and SAGIA was working with government entities to support and incentivize foreign investment, Al-Omar said. The country also wanted to improve its business environment and ranking on the World Bank's "ease of doing business index"  it is currently at number 92 in the index of 190 countries. "We have a target to be number 20 in the rankings of the ease of doing business by 2020. We are working with the World Bank and best practice across the world and we have identified over 400 reforms. Today, we have achieved about 40 percent of them," he said. Al-Omar's comments come at an inflection point for Saudi Arabia as it, and its neighbors, try to wean themselves off oil as a main driver of the economy. Economic sustainability has become something of a mantra for countries trying to invest in other sectors and infrastructure, as well as attract foreign investment into those areas, as a bid to weather future declines in oil prices.

Saudi Arabia's economic transformation strategy, the much-vaunted Vision 2030 that's being driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aims to increase FDI into Saudi Arabia from 3.8 percent to the international level of 5.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Promoting the kingdom as a nation that's "open for business," the strategy also aims for Saudi to rise from its current position of 25 to the top 10 countries on the Global Competitiveness Index. In addition, Vision 2030 aims to increase the private sector's contribution from 40 percent to 65 percent of GDP.

'Overwhelming' interest in NEOMThe union, which represents around 50,000 flight attendants working for airlines including United , Hawaiian , Alaska and Spirit , has been pushing airline executives to ensure safe work environments for flight attendants, who say they are routinely subjected to such behaviors from passengers.

Sixty-eight percent of flight attendants have been sexually harassed at some point in their careers, the Association of Flight Attendants said Thursday, citing a recent survey of members.

Flight attendants are subjected to "rampant" sexual harassment on the job, a survey by the world's largest flight attendant union found.

More than a third of 3,568 respondents to the survey, which the union conducted from February to March, said they experienced verbal sexual harassment by passengers in the past year. Nearly 70 of those respondents said they were sexually harassed three or more times.

"Flight attendants describe the verbal sexual harassment as comments that are 'nasty,

unwanted, lewd, crude, inappropriate, uncomfortable, sexual, suggestive, and dirty,'" said the union. "They also report being subjected to passengers' explicit sexual fantasies, propositions,

request[s] for sexual 'favors' and pornographic videos and pictures."

Eighteen percent of the respondents said they received unwanted physical sexual conduct from passengers, including "having their breasts, buttocks and crotch area 'touched, felt, pulled, grabbed, groped, slapped, rubbed, and fondled' both on top of and under their uniforms," the union added. "Other abuse included passengers cornering or lunging at them followed by unwanted hugs, kisses and humping."

"This is a silent epidemic," said Sara Nelson, president of the union and a career flight attendant. These behaviors often do "not leave physical marks. It's not the same as being punched in the face."

The union said the most common response to such behaviors was to diffuse the situation or ignore the harassment. Only 7 percent of respondents who said they suffered the abuse said they reported the incident.

Nelson said part of the problem is that airlines for decades had marketed flight attendants "as sexual objects." A National Airlines "Fly Me" advertising campaign in the early 1970's featured flight attendants stating their names with the slogan, such as "I'm Cheryl. Fly me."

Nelson said airlines need to establish clear policies for when a crew member is sexually harassed or assaulted.

Lawmakers are starting to address the issue. A recently passed Federal Aviation Administration bill calls for the creation of a group to develop enforcement actions for sexual misconduct on board and establish employee training.

Late last year, United CEO Oscar Munoz called for "zero tolerance" of sexual harassment following reports that Randi Zuckerberg, a media executive and sister of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, reported she was sexually harassed while a passenger on an flight.Billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson has given $30 million to a super PAC pushing to protect the House majority, and is leaving the door open to putting millions more toward the Republican midterm effort this year, a source with direct knowledge told CNBC.

The cash influx to the GOP-linked Congressional Leadership Fund gives Republicans a massive boost in resources as they try to fight off Democrats set on flipping the House in November. Democrats, emboldened by party enthusiasm and opposition to congressional GOP policies, aim to flip 23 GOP-held seats to take a House majority.

Adelson's donation was first reported by Politico.

Adelson, the Las Vegas Sands chief executive and a major donor to GOP causes, gave the organization $10 million in the later stages of the 2016 election cycle. This year, he got involved earlier as Republicans try to hold off energized Democrats.

Last week, a group including House Speaker Paul Ryan met with Adelson and his wife, Miriam, in Las Vegas, Politico reported and CNBC confirmed. Those gathered sold the casino executive on the importance of the 2018 midterms, the source said.

Ryan, who cannot legally push for donations that large, left the room before a deal on the massive contribution was reached. Adelson likely will not give more money to the Congressional Leadership Fund, specifically, during this election cycle, the source told CNBC.

Spokespeople for Adelson and Ryan's political team declined to comment. A Congressional Leadership Fund spokesman did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Adelson, 84, is likely pleased with the policies pursued by the Republican-controlled Congress and White House. In April, Las Vegas Sands reported an income tax benefit of $670 million due to the GOP tax law passed in December. The overhaul chopped tax rates for corporations and reduced income taxes for most individuals.

Adelson, who is staunchly pro-Israel, has supported the Trump administration's decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. He has also opposed the Iran nuclear deal. Trump said this week that the U.S. was withdrawing from the pact.

The casino mogul's massive donation is likely to prompt more attacks from Democrats on the influence of wealthy individuals on elections. Responding to Politico's report, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., tweeted that "democracy means one person, one vote. It does not mean billionaires like Sheldon Adelson buying elections."

Sanders tweet

In a statement, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Tyler Law said "there is simply no price on the amount of grassroots energy surging behind House Democrats this cycle." The House Democrats' campaign arm has recognized that Republican outside groups would likely outspend organizations on the Democratic side, "and we take nothing for granted," he added.Silvio Berlusconi, leader of right-wing party Forza Italia, waves as he arrives to vote on March 4, 2018 at a polling station in Milan.

The yield on Italian government 10-year bonds rose to a seven-week high Thursday, while stocks sold off, following news that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will not stand in the way of a new coalition government.

The anti-establishment Five Star (M5S) and right-wing Lega parties are said to be closing in on an agreement to form a ruling coalition for the euro zone's third largest economy.

Benchmark 10-year Italian yields jumped to 1.94 percent in early trading and the spread between Italian debt and its German counterpart stretched to its widest in six weeks. The FTSE MIB equity index in Milan is more than 1 percent lower.

Charlie Diebel, head of rates at Aviva investors, told CNBC on Thursday that If M5S and Lega were to form a government, markets would be "a little cautious" as to what they might do.

He added that investors are wary that both might fulfil pre-election commitments to trim fiscal austerity or attempt to renegotiate reform pledges with the European Union (EU).

Berlusconi's presence as an ally to Lega had previously been a sticking point for M5S, preventing the two parties from brokering a political deal.

But Diebel said the former leader's self-enforced absence should not be read as an end to his political career and could even prove astute should M5S and Lega fail to gel.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella has given both parties 24 hours to reach a deal before he appoints a caretaker cabinet.

Italy has been without a government since an inconclusive vote on March 4 that saw M5S gain the most votes.

The election also saw big gains for the center-right alliance led by Lega. The center-left Democratic Party (PD) suffered heavy losses to come third.Singapore skyline. Andrew Too Boon Tan | Moment | Getty Images

Singapore is the ideal location for the unprecedented meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, experts said after Trump's announcement via Twitter on Thursday. The wealthy island city-state, located just off the southern tip of Malaysia in Southeast Asia, is trusted by governments and businesses across the globe, and is also one of the United States' most committed military partners. The U.S. Navy has had a presence there since 1968 and was granted access to some Singapore military facilities in 1990. But it's also a neutral enough site to work for North Korea, as well. "Singapore has been a great friend to the U.S., but also Singapore has carefully worked to be a friend to all, which has earned it trust in capitals around the world," former U.S. Ambassador to Singapore David Adelman told the Associated Press. The city-state has historically "been an honest broker between East and West," Adelman said, adding that it has experience hosting high-level meetings.

Singapore was an early leading choice of top administration officials due to its neutrality in both politics and geography. What's more, it is a large U.S. trading partner and the second-largest Asian investor. Singapore is also the regional headquarters for several American companies including Google parent Alphabet, Facebook, Walt Disney Company, Procter & Gamble and Chevron. The site's relative neutrality may also insulate the Trump-Kim discussions from surveillance from China, which has played a role in arranging apparently thawed relations between longtime antagonists North Korea and the U.S. "There is no way you could have these talks in China, as Chinese intelligence would listen to any sidebar conversations Kim and Trump might have," Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest, told CNBC.

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis and the Republic of Singapore navy frigates RSS Formidable and RSS Stalwart are seen underway in the Singapore Strait. Department of Defense photo

China is North Korea's most crucial ally on the world stage. Having the summit there also would likely provide better optics for Trump than traveling to the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, between North and South Korea  a location the American president once floated as a possibility. "It's better than the American president coming to Kim Jong Un's doorstep," Eurasia Group CEO Ian Bremmer said, adding that the first-ever summit between a North Korean leader and a sitting U.S. president is "set up to go well."

It works for Kim, too

Singapore is also a "great location" for the reclusive leader from North Korea, according to Tom Plant, a specialist in nuclear and proliferation issues at London's Royal United Services Institute.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un KCNA | Reuters

"Kim will be on friendly territory, not hostile territory. But he wouldn't be on home turf," Plant told the Associated Press. Trump revealed the location and date for the historic meeting just hours after three American men held prisoner in North Korea arrived at Joint Base Andrews with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. TWEET Trump said on their arrival that he had high hopes for the highly anticipated meeting, which would be the first between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. "I think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful," Trump told reporters. "My proudest achievement will be, this is part of it, when we denuclearize that entire peninsula."

But can they reach a real agreement?This is the inaugural launch for SpaceX's new variation of its Falcon 9 rocket, called "Block 5." After evolving Falcon 9 over nearly a decade, with upgrades between every launch, SpaceX anticipates this will be the final version of a workhorse rocket that completed more launches in 2017 than any other commercial vehicle.

Elon Musk 's rocket company will begin the livestream about 20 minutes before the launch from Kennedy Space Center, targeting a liftoff time of 5:47 p.m. ET.

SpaceX is set to launch Thursday evening from Florida , flying an enhanced version of its Falcon 9 rocket for the first time.

[SpaceX did not launch Thursday, as an automatic ground system caused the rocket to abort in the final minute of the launch countdown. The company said it is working towards the backup launch window on Friday at 4:14 p.m. ET.]

Being able to launch, land and launch again with minimal refurbishment between flights has been a central focus for SpaceX. The company has become quite successful at landing the largest part of the rocket  known as the first stage or booster. But it has yet to complete more than two flights with the same Falcon 9 booster. Block 5 is set to change that.

"Block 5 is capable of at least 100 flights before being retired," Musk told a reporter on a conference call before the launch.

Musk expects each Block 5 to be able to launch 10 or more times before needing major refurbishment. He also said that SpaceX will have "30 to 50" of the Block 5 rockets in its fleet, but that "totally depends on what number of customers insist on launching a new rocket."

The new rocket type comes with a host of upgrades, Musk said, making it "significantly easier to produce." Block 5 has more powerful engines, more resilient hardware to survive the harsh conditions of re-entering the atmosphere and landing, less weight (notably through its unpainted components, such as the black interstage) and a more easily produced structure.

Block 5 arrives just as SpaceX is on pace to shatter its record 18 successful launches completed last year. With three more missions completed at this point than the same time in 2017  including the debut of Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in the world  SpaceX is aiming for about 30 launches this year, according to SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell.

The debut mission will launch Bangabandhu Satellite-1, a telecommunications satellite for the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. The new satellite will bring communications and broadband coverage to Bangladesh, as well as to India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia.

After pushing the satellite and Falcon 9's upper stage out of the Earth's lower atmosphere, the booster will return to land on the SpaceX autonomous ship in the Atlantic Ocean about 8 minutes after liftoff.The U.K. supermarket space has drawn renewed attention from investors following the tie-up between Walmart's Asda and J Sainsbury.

The $10 billion deal between the two grocers, announced last week, was welcomed by the investment community, but according to one asset manager, Tesco is still the best stock pick.

"Perhaps with most other people, we've been focused on Tesco," Henry Dixon, asset manager at Man GLG, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Thursday.

"I think the Sainsbury's-Asda news is pretty interesting," he said, adding that it may not mean a higher market share for the companies involved, however.

Sainsbury's and Asda are, respectively, the second and the third largest supermarkets in the U.K. If approved by regulators, their tie-up could mean that they would surpass Tesco as the largest food retailer in the U.K. But, Dixon said: "If you go back and look at the Morrisons deal for Safeway, what was clear when companies merge, they lose quite a bit of market share."With more than half the population of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) under the age of 30, engaging, educating and employing the region's young people has never been more important.

The topic of the GCC's youth across the countries in the alliance  Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman  came up numerous times during discussions at the Gateway Gulf Investment Forum in Bahrain this week, with ministers and business executives discussing the enigma  or not  of how the region can make the most of its young people.

"The theme of the investment conference is unlocking the puzzle (of the Gulf Cooperation Council), but I don't think it's a puzzle," Mohammed Alshaya, the executive chairman of Kuwait-based Alshaya Group, told the forum on Thursday.

"The Gulf has 30 million citizens (excluding expats) entitled to government services, 70 percent are below 30, sovereign wealth funds of $3 trillion, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the GCC is $1.7 trillion and private wealth of at least $1.5 trillion and healthy sovereign debt," he said.

"So we have a lot of opportunities with our youth. Now, youth has to be employed and where are they to be employed? In many sectors and particularly in my opinion, retail and services," the chief executive of Kuwait-based retail franchise operator Alshaya Group said.

Statistics vary but the GCC is estimated to have a predominantly young demographic  with around half of its population under the age of 25  a potential opportunity or disaster if employment is not high enough for them.

Statista data show that, among the GCC, youth unemployment varies greatly. In Bahrain in 2017, for example, unemployment rates of those aged between 15 and 24 is 6 percent. But in Oman, the rate rises to around 48 percent while in Saudi Arabia, the level is around 32 percent.

Bahrain's Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Zayed Al Zayani, said it was time that the GCC governments pushed for a more entrepreneurial youth.

"There's huge potential in the region with younger people, their brilliant ideas, their excellent education and I see the role of government  and this is what the government of Bahrain has done  as emphasizing more on training, on capacity building, on infrastructure where you give these youth a chance to prosper rather than just giving them social welfare for being citizens."

Alshaya said the playing field for young people must be fair and merit-based rather than nepotistic.

"Now, the role of the government is not to spoil the youth and give them a job just for the sake of giving them a job," he noted.

"They have to be qualified to get the job. It's unfair for a smart girl and a smart graduate man to be sitting next to someone that has come through tribal connections or by knowing people, it's not fair and it's unsustainable," he added.WASHINGTON  President Trump, poised on Friday to unveil his strategy to lower prescription drug prices, has an idea that may not be so popular abroad: Bring down costs at home by forcing higher prices in foreign countries that use their national health systems to make drugs more affordable.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump rebuffed his European allies by withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal. Threatened tariffs on steel and aluminum have strained relations with other developed nations. And now the administration is suggesting policies that could hit the pocketbooks of some of America's strongest allies.

"We're going to be ending global freeloading," Mr. Trump declared at a meeting with drug company executives in his first month in office. Foreign price controls, he said, reduce the resources that American drug companies have to finance research and develop new cures.

More from The New York Times:

As Trump Prepares Plan to Lower Drug Prices, Big Pharma Girds for a Fight

Trump Likes Drug Price Negotiations; His Health Secretary Nominee Doesn't

Massachusetts Turns Its Focus to Drug Prices. It's in for a Fight

The White House Council of Economic Advisers fleshed out the idea three months ago in a report that deplored the "underpricing of drugs in foreign countries."

The council said that profit margins on brand-name drugs in the United States were four times as high as those in the more regulated markets of major European countries and Japan. The United States, it said, needs to "address the root of the problem: foreign, developed nations, that can afford to pay for novel drugs, free-ride by setting drug prices at unfairly low levels, leaving American patients to pay for the innovation that foreign patients enjoy."

Mr. Trump plans to lay out his ideas on Friday. Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, said in a speech on Wednesday that the administration would attack several problems, including high list prices set by drug manufacturers; rising out-of-pocket costs for consumers; and "foreign governments free-riding off of American investment in innovation."

Administration officials have raised expectations that the president's proposals will have a far-reaching impact. "Bold action is on the way," Mr. Azar said last week.

So is resistance.

"Canadian drug prices are among the highest in the world," said Tammy Jarbeau, a spokeswoman for Health Canada, the national health department. "Our plan is to bring down prices so they compare more favorably with those of other countries of comparable size and economic development."

And Democrats called it naive to think that American drug companies would lower prices in the United States if they could increase drug prices abroad.

"There is absolutely no reason to believe that trade policies designed to raise prescription drug prices overseas will result in equivalent or any decreases in prices in the United States," six House Democrats, led by Representatives Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, said in a recent letter to Mr. Trump.

People who work in the industry said it was unlikely that consumers would go to the pharmacy counter and see a meaningful reduction in drug prices before the end of the year.

Mr. Trump is expected to criticize brand-name drug manufacturers for high list prices and maneuvers that delay the marketing of lower-cost generic drugs. He is also expected to go after middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers, saying they profit from rebates paid by drug companies but do not share much of the savings with patients.

Dr. Peter B. Bach of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, an expert on drug prices, said: "Administration officials are talking about defects in the market that make some drugs unaffordable. The real question is whether the president will take on new brand-name drugs that have no competitors and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year."

The United States can pressure foreign nations through diplomacy and trade negotiations. In its annual report card on the protection of intellectual property rights around the world, the United States trade representative last month criticized the drug pricing and reimbursement policies of Canada, South Korea, Japan, India, Turkey, New Zealand and a number of European Union countries, saying they did not adequately recognize the value of innovative medicines.

America's trading partners must "contribute their fair share to the research and development of new cures and therapies," the report said, echoing Mr. Trump's contention that foreign price controls were "very unfair to this country."

The report said the Trump administration had recently secured a commitment from South Korea to revise its drug pricing policy to provide higher payments for certain innovative American-made drugs. But the administration said it was concerned about the way Canada sets price ceilings for many prescription drugs. An independent quasi-judicial body reviews drug prices in Canada to make sure they are not excessive.

Canadian officials say they have no interest in raising prices to allay the concerns of Trump administration officials or American drug companies.Eleven trucks carrying tea stranded at Indian border point

Tea export from Nepal to India from the Kakarvitta border crossings has stopped for the past one week due to obstruction from the Indian authority.Stock trading app Robinhood has beaten its rival E-trade when it comes to users, doubling the number of accounts in the past year.

The start-up now has 4 million brokerage accounts on its platform. On Thursday, it announced a $363 million funding round, valuing the company at $5.6 billion  quadruple from about a year ago.

New investors included Sequoia, Google's venture capital fund Capital G and Iconiq. DST Global led this Series D round and had facilitated the $110 million round last year, when Robinhood had 2 million users.

One of Robinhood's biggest competitors, E-Trade Financial, which also has a mobile app, had 3.7 million brokerage accounts at the end of March, with an annualized new account growth rate of 6.6 percent, according to the company's most recent 10-Q filing.

E-Trade Financial did not respond to CNBC's request for comment.The U.S.-North Korea summit will be a political win for both countries, said Sung-Yoon Lee, an expert on the Koreas  but not in ways that benefit the United States.

"North Korea is very crafty," Lee, who is the Kim Koo-Korea Foundation professor in Korean studies and assistant professor at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, told CNBC.

"They will play this game," he said Thursday on "Power Lunch." "They will say strangely pleasing things to President Trump. The danger is that the Trump administration, including President Trump, will presume that maybe this time around, North Korea will comply."

On Thursday, President Donald Trump tweeted that he will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12. The summit would be the first ever meeting between a sitting U.S. president and the head of North Korea.

TWEET

Lee predicted the talks will likely center around denuclearization and sanctions on the rogue country. So far, he said, "the Trump Administration is saying all the right things," regarding its stance on not easing sanctions until North Korea takes concrete steps to dismantle its nuclear program.

In the process, Trump will look like a "wizard dealmaker," Lee said, who was able to achieve something no other sitting president has thus far been able to do.

But, Lee said, the meeting will be more of a reality show than an actual negotiation.House Speaks Paul Ryan greets US President Donald Trump as he arrives on stage to speak at the National Republican Congressional Committee March Dinner at the National Building Museum on March 20, 2018 in Washington, DC.

That conclusion managed to be extraordinary and unsurprising at the same time. Trump is just 16 months into his term, with fellow Republicans controlling both houses of Congress after an eight-year Democratic presidency. Yet the GOP's deep-seated anti-government stance leaves the modern party with fundamental reflexes of negation.

The news came without fanfare at the press secretary's daily briefing Wednesday. Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that all of President Donald Trump 's talk of a massive, trillion-dollar upgrade to America's infrastructure, from "Infrastructure Week" declarations to a 53-page plan unveiled three months ago, won't produce "a specific piece of legislation" in 2018.

The White House has made it official: the all-Republican government in Washington has no major legislative agenda this year.

Those reflexes block action on the bold promises that once positioned candidate Trump to deliver infrastructure investments pleasing business and working-class supporters alike. Investments cost money. And after the $1.5 trillion tax cut that represents their only major Trump-era achievement so far, Republicans don't think they have any.

The return of trillion-dollar deficits led House Speaker Paul Ryan to suggest a different 2018 agenda altogether. He favors "entitlement reform" curbing the huge costs of Social Security and Medicare, the twin landmarks for retirees that Democratic governments created over fierce conservative opposition.

But both programs enjoy overwhelming popularity. That's why candidate Trump promised not to touch them. So even as the surge of baby boomer retirements strains their solvency, Republicans have also set entitlement reform aside.

That doesn't mean Congress won't do anything at all. With support from some Democrats, Republican leaders aim to roll back regulations on small and medium-sized banks under the Dodd-Frank law that President Barack Obama pushed through after the 2008 financial crisis.

Republicans also hope to pass a new farm bill, although it's unclear whether they can muster the votes for Trump's "welfare reform" push to impose new work requirements on Americans who receive food stamps. They'll consider an administration request to roll back some previously approved spending.

Yet that package of "recissions"  1/100th the size of the tax cut  wouldn't produce big savings anyway, since much of the money is sitting in dormant government accounts.

The White House has turned to foreign policy. This week, Trump defied U.S. allies to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal even as he pursues a new deal with North Korea. He has not resolved his threats to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico and to impose import tariffs on both China and friendlier partners including the European Union.President Donald Trump's tough talk on trade is more propaganda than anything else, the CEO of one of China's largest private equity firms told CNBC's Hadley Gamble Thursday.

Asked if the president's threat of sweeping tariffs and a trade war with China was overblown, Yong Kwek Ping, chief executive of Inventis Investment Holdings, wasn't particularly fazed.

"I think it's more for political and propaganda, telling the U.S. voters what he's trying to do, and how he's guarding the U.S. interests," he said, speaking at the sidelines of the Gateway Gulf Investor Forum in Manama, Bahrain.

"Trump has mentioned that (Chinese) President Xi is his very good friend. I think Trump will be very constrained, very careful about starting a serious trade war."wants the companies to require supporting documents that would prove deliveries of certain petroleum products have not been diverted to North Korea.

The United Nations is tapping private companies to aid in its fight against North Korea's efforts to evade trade sanctions at sea. A panel of experts from the UN Security Council is asking that insurers and commodity traders involved with certain trading ships alter their contracts to prevent illicit trades with North Korea. The UN has ratcheted up sanctions on Kim Jong Un's rogue regime in response to its nuclear tests in recent years. In 2017, the intergovernmental body banned all North Korean exports of coal and limited imports of crude oil and petroleum products, among other punitive trade rules. But the UN says North Koreans have found ways around the sanctions, behaving at times like "pirates" and making trades on the high seas of sanctioned goods worth hundreds of millions of dollars since January 2017.

For some deliveries to the Far East, the UN now wants the companies to require supporting documents that would prove deliveries of certain petroleum products have not been diverted to North Korea. The so-called end-use verification requirement would give some sanctioned products the same treatment as arms shipments. "It's just like with weapons," Hugh Griffiths, coordinator of the UN's North Korea panel, said in an exclusive interview with CNBC. Griffiths said that the few extra contract clauses would be "a simple thing any company can handle." Another UN proposal asks the companies to ensure through their contracts that the vessels keep their tracking systems switched on at all times. The tracking beacons, known as "automatic identification systems," play a crucial role in monitoring illegal trades at sea. To circumvent the UN's strict quotas on deliveries of petroleum products to North Korea  or the outright ban on buying North Korean coal  vessels will turn off their AIS beacons when they rendezvous with North Korean ships for offshore trades. In every case of ship-to-ship trades with North Korea, Griffiths said, "the vessels switch off their AIS just before they meet at sea, meaning that they cannot be tracked any longer." Griffiths called the blackouts "an immediate risk indicator." He added: "If a vessel switches off its AIS at sea, there is a heightened risk that it's doing something clandestine or illegal."

Targeting incentives

The UN is targeting insurance companies and commodity traders in these transfers for effectiveness and simplicity. Griffiths said only about 10 insurance and reinsurance companies and a similar number of commodity traders connected to the ships are making hidden trades with North Korea. More importantly, Griffiths said, "All the ships that have been involved in these illicit ship-to-ship transfers ... have Western reinsurance." Ship captains, who need insurance to operate, would be placing their careers at risk if they defied their insurance contracts by switching off their AIS trackers.

CNBCs Michelle Caruso-Cabrera views maritime intelligence software programs with United Nations North Korea panel coordinator Hugh Griffiths at Two United Nations Plaza on May 4, 2018. Kevin Breuninger | CNBC

The entities skirting the sanctions on North Korea have taken advantage of an increasingly globalized trade landscape, prompting the UN to seek solutions that create incentives for companies to comply with new restrictions, Griffiths said. He said the sanctions "are working better than they've ever worked before"  but even still, ships are going dark. Among the only reason that a vessel's tracker could be appropriately disabled, Griffiths said, would be to mitigate the threat of alerting pirates of its position. That loophole could create problems when targeting North Korea because the country's vessels "are now behaving a bit like pirates," Griffiths said, by disguising their ships, sailing under false names and hiding their tracking numbers. "So it's just possible in theory that a captain approaching a North Korean tanker might think he's dealing with a vessel belonging to another country," Griffiths said.

Going darkWalmart CEO Doug McMillon (R) speaking next to Flipkart co-founder and CEO Binny Bansal at an event in Bangalore.

Recent data from Rhodium Group shows two-way U.S.-China direct foreign investments declined by almost one-third in 2017 from the prior year as criticism over national security grew. But some analysts point to China's maturing market as another reason for the decline.

"As US China deal flow slows, or face regulatory challenges, companies are increasingly looking to India for opportunity as their next growth market," says Kumar Shah, managing director of Transit Capital, a cross-border venture capital firm.

With U.S.-China relations in a fragile state, American companies are taking a closer look at India for opportunities.

"A lot of the heavy lifting in China has been done. In India, there is still so much room for growth," said Shailesh Kumar, director for Asia at Eurasia Group.

India continues to boast an appealing story. It is the second largest country in the world with 1.3 billion people, half under the age of 25.

With more start-ups entering the scene, Shah expects a steady increase in cross-border deal activity.

Another factor helping is easing regulation, as Modi's government becomes less protectionist.

Kumar says the government has put a concerted effort in easing foreign direct investment, which has made India's market suddenly more accessible.

Multi-brand retail chains can own up to 51 percent of their investment in India, and single brand retail (i.e. Apple, Nike) is now up to 100 percent. Certain conditions do apply. The government looks for single brand companies to get 30 percent of its goods from India.

"One area we could see more deal activity is within e-commerce as Modi's government views this sector as favorable and defines it as a marketplace, a platform where local players can buy and sell goods," says Kumar.

Morgan Stanley projects India's e-commerce market to become a $200 billion market by 2027.

Indian regulators will be keen to understand how Walmart's Flipkart deal will affect India's workforce. In the past, there has been concern that a behemoth like Walmart would come in to India, displace workers and hurt small businesses.

Real questions will arise if Walmart starts selling a private label brand on Flipkart's platform, a move that some worry will price out local players.

"That's a huge concern for us," said one small business owner in Pune to CNBC.

However Mukesh Aghi, CEO of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, says the deal will be good for Indian jobs.

"The Wal-Mart-Flipkart deal is good for India as a whole. It will strengthen the agriculture supply chain and create new skilled jobs, said Aghi to CNBC over email.

Aghi went on to say, "The deal will create good competition, which benefits customers and is good for sellers on the platform."

Some Indian analysts say they are watching closely to see if any displacement does occur, especially with automation and new technology being used by the online retail sector."As a consequence, [we] are being criticized by a world that expects more from us," Narasimhan said in the internal email, which was obtained by CNBC.

Narasimhan said "we made a mistake" in entering a contract in February 2017 with Cohen through his company, Essential Consultants, for guidance "as to how the Trump administration might approach certain US healthcare policy matters."

Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan told employees in an internal memo Thursday that "yesterday was not a good day" for the company, after the pharmaceutical giant revealed that it paid $1.2 million to President Donald Trump 's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen .

In a statement Wednesday, Novartis said that the one-year agreement, for which Essential Consultants was paid $100,000 per month, "predated Vas Narasimhan becoming Novartis CEO and he was in no way involved with this agreement."

Novartis also said in the statement that it had been contacted by special counsel Robert Mueller's office in November 2017 regarding the agreement.

Payments from Novartis to Cohen's company were first alleged in an explosive report from lawyer Michael Avenatti, whose client, porn star Stormy Daniels, is suing Trump and Cohen to void a nondisclosure deal that bars her from discussing an alleged affair.

Avenatti's report claimed Novartis had paid Essential Consultants nearly $400,000; in the Wednesday statement, Novartis revealed that it had paid $1.2 million to Cohen's company.

Read Narasimhan's full email below:Wells Fargo acknowledged Thursday it improperly collected fee rebates that should have been given to a public pension fund while acting as its trustee.

The bank said it made a mistake when setting up the rebates and said the $15,000 in fees have been returned to the Chattanooga, Tennessee, fire and police department pension fund.

The bank made its statement to CNBC after The Wall Street Journal reported that the fund's board had grilled the bank last month over what it considered to be suspicious practices in its institutional retirement and trust unit.

The board fired Wells Fargo as the trustee, the Journal said.

It's the latest in a string of recent setbacks for the bank.

In 2016, Wells acknowledged pervasive issues with its sales practices, including setting up more than 3 million accounts without customers' knowledge as retail division employees pursued aggressive sales targets.

In late 2017, the federal government asked the bank to begin an investigation into sales practices at its Wells Fargo Advisors unit after whistleblowers flagged problems in sales and products.

Shares of Wells Fargo are down 10 percent since the start of the year.

Here's Wells Fargo statement to CNBC:It's basically a rite of passage: You blow out the candles on your 65th birthday and get to sign up for Medicare.

Yet it's kind of like one of those birthday gifts that you have to assemble properly for it to work well.

In other words, if you enroll in Medicare without exploring the details of your medical coverage and weighing your options, you could end up on the hook for health care costs that you did not anticipate.

Every day, about 10,000 baby boomers reach age 65 and can join the 49 million or so other older Americans enrolled in Medicare. (The government program also provides coverage to about 9 million younger people with permanent disabilities.)Federal Parliament starts pre-budget discussions

The House of Representatives (HoR) has started discussions on the principles and priorities of the Appropriation Bill for the Fiscal Year 2018/19.China's weakened investment and increasing corporate and local government defaults may be President Xi Jinping's most difficult issue since he became the countrys top leader in 2013.

On the heels of a last-minute trade summit in Beijing and in advance of the potential implementation of new tariffs, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said talks with China have made progress, and the country appears open to some of the White House's requests.

"I think they agreed to the concept of a trade deficit reduction  the questions are how much and how do you get there?" Ross told the audience at CNBC's Capital Exchange breakfast on Thursday in Washington.

Among the negotiating principles laid out by the U.S. delegation was a request for China to reduce its trade deficit with the U.S. by $200 billion in the next two years. According to a document obtained by CNBC, the U.S. requested the majority of China's deficit reduction come from purchases of U.S. goods  an idea Ross reiterated Thursday.

"Our approach has been to request individual products on which we could sell more to them than we are selling now, as opposed to them selling us less," Ross said. "Us selling more to them has more bang for the buck for our economy."At a forum with the UM System president, the MU chancellor said early guidance about how to plan for fiscal year 2019 will come out in the next day or two.Indian SSB tightens entry rules for Nepalis

The Indian Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) has tightened the entry of Nepalis to India from Baridya district.The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission formApple developers will already be familiar with the developer community-driven AltConf conference that takes place at the same time as WWDC. For the first time this year, it will open up in both London, U.K., and near Apple Park in San Jose, California.

Are you (not) going to San Jose?

Now in its seventh year, AltConf is one of the biggest independent Apple developer events in the world and is extending its show to include a one-night event in London on keynote day (June 4).

The event takes place at the San Jose Marriott slap bang beside the WWDC venue. Nine hundred attendees will be able to watch the Apple event keynote and State of the Union, and then spend three days of intense developer-focused content, presentations, and debate. The event is free.

Thats the U.S. In addition, for the first time this year, AltConf will also host a free evening event for European developers in London, U.K., at the Royal Horticultural Halls (doors at 5 p.m., U.K. time). The WWDC keynote will be screened on a giant LED screen, followed by a panel discussion in which developers, executives, and experts from across the industry will look deeply into Apples announcements. This event is also free. You can find out more about it here.

I spoke with AltConf organizer Rob Elkin, who said: Part of our mission is to bring the Apple developer community together around WWDC and to offer an alternative to those that can't make it to the main conference.

WWDC speculation intensifies

Theres plenty of speculation around what Apple will reveal at WWDC. New OS iterations for Apples mobile products, Mac, TV, and Watch seem inevitable. Whispers claim we may see a new iPhone SE, AirPower, and announcement of future enhancements to the TV and Music apps. It also seems inevitable well see a much smarter Siri and key enhancements to Apple Maps.

Many of these improvements will have big consequences on Apples developer community, enabling new business opportunities.

What does Elkin expect from Apples event? This year, as usual, everyone is getting pretty excited in general for whats coming out, he said.

Apple is typically tight-lipped, but Im very much hoping to see more advancements in their AR and machine learning plays, and of course some announcements that we dont even know about.

After the London event, the panel discussion may have some focus around digital health, given at least two participants create apps in this space.

Elkin observes: I do think that health is an area that has been a massive focus for Apple and will continue to be so across the industry. The potential to use the incredibly powerful devices that are in our pockets not just for distraction, but also to enrich our lives, is unprecedented. Its amazing to see developers take advantage of that to make everyone healthier.

This global village

Does it make sense to offer a WWDC-focused event on different continent than the main show? I think it does.

Apple is an international company, and WWDC has become such a big event that people who need to get to the show have no guarantee of getting a ticket.

Thats a shame, as WWDC isnt just a place to learn whats new and find answers to the challenges developers face; its also a brain-storming and networking opportunity.

Apples most recent financial results show us that the companys global business is hugely important to the company. Apple is investing deeply in its developer community, including a major initiative in which it is offering intensive free training to 400 developers each year at the Apple Developer Academy in Naples, Italy.

Elkin puts it like this: Even when you look at the demographics that make up the developer community, the majority of them are outside the U.S., which says a lot about the pervasiveness of the Apple ecosystem, and technology in general, outside the U.S. and the impact that it is making to the whole world.

Are you going to San Jose?

Google+? If you use social media and happen to be a Google+ user, why not join AppleHolic's Kool Aid Corner community and get involved with the conversation as we pursue the spirit of the New Model Apple?

Got a story? Please drop me a line via Twitter and let me know. I'd like it if you chose to follow me there so I can let you know about new articles I publish and reports I find.Results are starting to roll in about this months Patch Tuesday, and its quite a mixed bag. For those of you struggling with the new Windows 10 April 2018 Update, version 1803, theres good news and bad news. The hand wringing about a new VBScript zero-day, thanks to our good old friend baked-in Internet Explorer, looks overblown for now. And if you cant get RDP working because of An authentication error has occurred messages, you missed the memo.

Windows 10 version 1803

First, the good news. As I anticipated earlier this week, this months cumulative update for 1803 is a must-have, warts and all. The new build 17134.48 replaces the old 17134.1 (which went to those who installed 1803 directly or fell into the seeker trap) and the old 17134.5 (for those upgrading with the Windows Insider builds). As Susan Bradley explains, 17134.48 claims to fix both the Chrome and Cortana freeze, as well as a major VPN bug.

My recommendation continues to be that you should roll back to 1709, but if you insist on using 1803 during its unpaid beta-testing phase, get this months cumulative update installed as soon as you can. If you can.

An anonymous poster on AskWoody notes:

1803 was installed without permission on 3 of my computers last week, 5/1/2018. Fortunately no problems, working great. Then in the early A.M. on 5/8/2108 the fixed 1803 was installed, once again without permission on all 3 computers (all running Windows 10 Pro). Bricked them all. I make 3 full backup images of each of my computers every day (2 local using Macrium and EaseUS and 1 cloud using Acronis). Restored all 3 computers, backed up data, and did clean installs which installed the latest fixed 1803. Recovered data and all is back to normal, just took a full day.

Assuming you can even get the installer to work. Microsoft Agent Lonnie_L on the Microsoft Answers forum says:

When attempting to upgrade to Window 10 April 2018 Update select devices with certain Intel SSDs may enter a UEFI screen reboot or crash repeatedly. Microsoft is currently blocking some Intel SSDs from installing the April 2018 Update due to a known incompatibility that may cause performance and stability issues. There is no workaround for this issue. If you have encountered this issue, you can roll back to Windows 10, version 1709 and wait for the resolution before attempting to install the April 2018 Update again. Microsoft is currently working on a solution that will be provided in a near future Windows Update, after which these devices will be able to install the April 2018 Update

We have a thread going on that topic on AskWoody.

The MS Answers forum has a monster thread, started by StephenPhillipsZY who says:

This update has some serious issues, specifically. Do NOT install this update after updating to Windows 10 version 1803. It will prevent your computer from booting up. I am stuck on the spinning circle for a long time. I have to use a Windows 10 USB to boot into the Troubleshooting and use Command Prompt to boot into safe mode. Please fix this update!

There are still many, many bugs in 1803. For example, Mr. Natural says:

I have 2 systems that I installed 1803 on and ever since they are unable to communicate with WSUS. Windows Update pointing to Microsoft works, but not WSUS. I had to manually install that even though my WSUS system has the patch ready to go.

Bogdan Popa at Softpedia tells of many people who try to apply this cumulative update and end up with bricked systems. He has three unbricking methods that may prove handy.

There are also extensive reports of build 17134.48 not being able to see WSUS update servers.

The hue and cry over CVE-2018-8174, the VBScript zero-day

Oh, the joys of IE bound at the knees and elbows to Windows.

Microsoft released an explanation for the one critical Windows patch this month that is being actively exploited  a zero-day. Called CVE-21018-8174, the security hole involves the way Internet Explorer (mis)handles VBScript programs. Per Microsoft:

In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit the vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website. An attacker could also embed an ActiveX control marked "safe for initialization" in an application or Microsoft Office document that hosts the IE rendering engine. The attacker could also take advantage of compromised websites and websites that accept or host user-provided content or advertisements.

Microsofts expose credits both Qihoo 360 Core Security and Kaspersky with the discovery. And at that point, things get complicated.

Kasperskys Securelist shows an in-the-wild exploit, using an infected RTF file that on most machines would be opened by Word. The infected file then does its dirty deed through IE, no matter which browser youve chosen as default:

With CVE-2018-8174 being the first public exploit to use a URL moniker to load an IE exploit in Word, we believe that this technique, unless fixed, will be heavily abused by attackers in the future, as It allows you force IE to load ignoring the default browser settings on a victims system. We expect this vulnerability to become one of the most exploited in the near future, as it wont be long until exploit kit authors start abusing it in both drive-by (via browser) and spear-phishing (via document) campaigns.

As best I can tell, Kaspersky doesnt talk about a web-based attack scenario where the victim is using Internet Explorer. Instead, it relies on an RTF file  such fules have been carrying malware for years  to bring up Word, and to force Word to use the buggy VBScript engine in IE.

Qihoo 360 has a different explanation:

We code named the vulnerability as double kill exploit. This vulnerability affects the latest version of Internet Explorer and applications that use the IE kernel. When users browse the web or open Office documents, they are likely to be potential targets. Eventually the hackers will implant backdoor Trojan to completely control the computer.

Qihoo doesnt specifically mention RTF-formatted documents, but the one exploit it has discovered is in a document, ostensibly in Yiddish, and the attack affected regions in China are mainly distributed in provinces that actively involved in foreign trade activities. Victims include trade agencies and related organizations.

(I asked Morty Schiller, a noted Hebrew/Yiddish scholar, about the language used and he says, The few words that showed in the background of the image were Yiddish, not Hebrew. But some of the 'words' were Hebrew/Yiddish letters interlaced with English letters. So they may have been truncated, or just garbage. None of it seems to make any sense.)

So as things stand, it looks as if you need to watch out for RTF files in Yiddish/Hebrew sent to Chinese trade agencies, but its likely that the technique will become more widespread in the not-too-distant future.

Patchocalypse ramifications

This Double Kill problem affects every version of Windows. It isnt clear if redirecting RTF files to open in something other than Word will fix the document-based infection vector. (You can use Windows to change the default program assigned to the RTF filename extension, and make RTF files open in, say, WordPad  even in Windows 10.)

Back in the good old days, you could just pick out the patch that fixes the problem, install it, and deal with any bugs in the patch in isolation.

Nowadays, since the patchocalypse, that isnt an option. If you want to protect against Double Kill, you have to install the entire months patches  and if youre using Win10, you have to install both the security and the non-security updates at the same time.

Well be watching to see how quickly the Double Kill technique proliferates. If infected RTF files start appearing, well let you know here in Computerworld.

Win10 version 1709 gets (yet another) Meltdown bug fix

Last week, noted security maven Alex Ionescu revealed yet another bug introduced in all of the Meltdown patches released this year for Win10 version 1709.

It turns out the #Meltdown patches for Windows 10 had a fatal flaw: calling NtCallEnclave returned back to user space with the full kernel page table directory, completely undermining the mitigation.

Microsoft quietly built a fix into Win10 version 1803  and if you have version 1803, you dont need to worry about the bug. But we didnt discover until Patch Tuesday that Win10 version 1709 has the same bug. This months version 1709 fix solves it. Says Ionescu:

Incredible turnaround by @msftsecresponse to fix this issue (which only affected Fall Creators Update due to this API being introduced in 1709) in todays Patch Tuesday. Customers on 1709 now protected just like on 1803.

Meltdown continues its march into the patching hall of fame.

The 'An authentication error has occurred' bug that isnt a bug

Ive seen many complaints about this months Windows patches triggering an error in Remote Desktop connections (see screenshot).

Microsoft

Those errors keep popping up after installing KB 4093492, the update that fixes CVE-2018-0886, a vulnerability in the CredSSP protocol. (If you dont use Microsoft Remote Desktop with a server, you dont need to worry about it.)

Long story short, as Susan Bradley says:

The problem is NOT with the KB 4093492 update. Rather the issue is that theres a mismatch of patching levels. In March Microsoft released an update that began the process of rolling out an update to CredSSP used in Remote Desktop connection. In May the updates mandate that a patched machine cant remote into an unpatched machine. If you dig into the KB there is a registry workaround to [TEMPORARILY] disable the mandate, but the better and wiser move is to update the server or workstation you are remoting into. Make sure the thing you are remoting into has an update.

If you see that authentication error message, check with the folks who maintain your server.

Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 memory leak fixed

Admins rejoice. It looks like the SMB memory leak bug has finally been fixed. (If you arent an admin, you can go back to sleep now.)

Way back in January, the 2018-01 Monthly Rollup introduced a bug in Win7 and Server 2008 R2 that set up a memory leak.

After installing KB4056897 or any other recent monthly updates, SMB servers may experience a memory leak for some scenarios. This occurs when the requested path traverses a symbolic link, mount point, or directory junction and the registry key is set to 1: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\LanManServer\Parameters\EnableEcp

Most people couldnt care less, but for a significant subset of Server users, that memory leak was a show-stopper. Maybe thats why some folks didnt install the CredSSP fix?

The hunt continues for bugs and fixes. Join us on the AskWoody Lounge.May and Johnson stand by Iran deal, but Tory MPs dissent

Israel and Iran lurch closer to all-out war  Daily Telegraph

British companies could be forced to tear up billion-pound deals  Daily Mail

Academic warns that despots profit from Western colonial guilt  The Times

Theresa May today insisted she still believes in the Iran nuclear deal despite the dramatic withdrawal of the US. The Prime Minister said she had made her position clear to Donald Trump before he announced his decision  and pledged to keep trying to win him over to the merits of a pact with Tehran. While Boris Johnson said Britain has no intention of walking away from the accord -which eases sanctions on Iran in return for the country ceasing its nuclear development. The Cabinet put on a united front backing the deal after the Foreign Secretary visited the US last week in a last-ditch attempt to persuade the US president to stick to the deal. But while furious Labour MPs condemned the recklessness and idiocy of Mr Trumps move, senior Tory MPs backed him.  Daily Mail

Comment:

Trump is right to get tough with Tehran  Iain Martin, The Times

Deal was a monument to Western myopia and groupthink  Allister Heath, Daily Telegraph

May has a choice: side with our ally, or dangerous Iran  Alan Mendoza, Times Red Box

>Yesterday:

as the Prime Minister is challenged over Foreign Secretarys trade policy revolt

Theresa May was taunted over Boris Johnsons extraordinary attack on her Brexit trade plans during a bruising PMQs today. The Prime Minister faced catcalls from Labour MPs as Jeremy Corbyn accused her of overseeing a shambolic negotiation with the EU. As Mr Johnson looked on sheepishly from the frontbench, Mrs May was forced to deny she had wasted weeks on plans that ministers could not agree on. But Mrs May hit back by pointing out that Labour is also deeply split on Brexit, and vowed: We will get the best deal for the UK. peaking in the Commons immediately after the session, Mr Johnson also denied that he had breached Cabinet collective responsibility.  Daily Mail

May urged to extend transition period to end customs deadlock  Daily Express

Williamson told it would be career suicide to change his mind on the customs union  Daily Telegraph

>Yesterday:

Trade committee offers withering assessment of Fox over trade watchdog

Britain says EU is putting people at risk with crime agency stance  Daily Telegraph

Davis warns EU against blocking UK satellite role  The Times

Fears of academic Brexodus a myth, figures show  Daily Telegraph

Burnham sees more devolution as answer to Brexit  FT

Britains new trade watchdog wont be ready in time for when we leave the EU, a damning report has found. The Government must set up a new Trade Remedies Authority to defend UK businesses against unfair trade practices such as dumping after Brexit. But a probe by the Commons International Trade committee found serious concerns about whether it can even be set up at all. And it delivered a withering verdict on the preparation for setting up new trade defence measures by Trade Secretary Liam Fox, finding the resources given to the TRA were wholly inadequate. MPs also said the delay of the Trade Bill until the autumn  revealed by The Sun last week  means the vital trade watchdog would have no legal basis until just weeks before our EU departure at best.  The Sun

Comment:

How May can get the Brexit she wants with her party intact  Nick Timothy, Daily Telegraph

Without a customs union, food will rot at our borders  Lord Teverson, Times Red Box

A solution both sides should be able to accept  Andrew Lilico, Daily Telegraph

Editorial:

Brussels satellite stance is short-sighted and reckless  The Times

>Yesterday: ToryDiary: The consequences of Customs Union indecision. How Britain could end up with EEA-lite  formally or informally.

Duncan Smith backs calls for overhaul of the Lords

The House of Lords must be reformed after its votes to thwart Brexit, leading Tory MPs said yesterday. Describing peers as out of control, they said the Upper House had gone too far with amendments wrecking the Governments EU legislation. Iain Duncan Smith warned there had to be a reckoning and a complete and total overhaul of the Lords. The backlash was sparked by peers voting to keep Britain in the Single Market and to remove the fixed date for leaving the EU. They have now amended the Withdrawal Bill 14 times. The latest two votes were spearheaded by the Duke of Wellington, a Europhile former MEP, and Lord Alli, a TV mogul who advised Tony Blair on youth culture. Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski said abolition of the House of Lords should be in his partys next election manifesto.  Daily Mail

May furious at Tory peers for wrecking global Britain  The Sun

Labour sticks with Brexit stance despite votes in Upper House  The Times

Labour:

Scottish MPs to defy Corbyn over the Single Market  The Scotsman

Opposition hopes to force Mays hand on final vote  FT

The Lib Dems astonishing strength in the House of Lords  Daily Express

Comment:

Suddenly, soft Brexit is possible. Thanks the Lords  Martin Kettle, The Guardian

>Today: Daniel Hannan MEPs column: For partisan advantage, Labour demands a worst-of-all-worlds Brexit

Lewis attacks MoD collaboration with witch hunt against Ulster veterans

Williamson criticised for leaking dispute with Bradley over inquiry  The Times

May attacks patently unfair treatment of Northern Ireland veterans  Daily Telegraph

MPs furious as Government panders to Sinn Fein and drops amnesty  Daily Mail

Bradley questioned over Border Force ban on soldiers  Belfast Telegraph

Michael Fallon: Allowing a one-sided inquiry is a craven surrender to Sinn Fein

The Ministry of Defence will be forced to hand over service records of British troops to help a police probe into the Troubles. Officials will have no choice but to comply with the planned investigation into hundreds of veterans, many in their 70s, who served in Northern Ireland. Personal details of the troops, their service records and any other documents relating to operations are likely to be requested, Whitehall sources said. This is set to make it much easier to prosecute British troops than IRA terrorists caught up in the legacy investigation Julian Lewis, who chairs the Commons defence committee, said: The IRA didnt keep full documentation of its terrorist activity. This is part of the asymmetry on the matter. We will have tried to behave by the book and thats why it is so much easier to pursue a soldier rather than a terrorist. We followed the rules and they didnt.  Daily Mail

This will be not just a witch-hunt but a one-sided witch-hunt. IRA units did not keep records or operate within regular command structures. It is our British servicemen and women who will be the victims  hundreds of them in well-deserved retirement now fearing an early morning knock on the door, a flight to Belfast and a swift journey to the cells. All because of a purely political decision and a craven surrender to Sinn Fein campaigning. Most of these alleged incidents have already been investigated, some of them more than once. The soldiers concerned were told that their cases were completed, that they had nothing to answer for. Now they face being arrested out of the blue all over again I really fear for the effect on future Army recruitment as junior NCOs and officers see that all three of the Armys major operations of the last 50 years are now being endlessly reopened, and that split-second decisions taken on the ground can be second-guessed years after the event.  Daily Telegraph

Government has a duty who all who served in Ulster  Daily Telegraph

Ministers 1) Hancock welcomes defeat of Miliband bid for Leveson Two

Miliband makes unsubstantiated claim about journalists conduct  Daily Telegraph

Victory for free press welcomed  The Times

Latest defeat not the end for Hacked Off campaigners  The Guardian

MPs hailed a great day for a free and fair press this afternoon after Labour plans for another costly Leveson inquiry were rejected by Parliament. Ed Miliband led moves to amend a Data Protection Bill to establish another statutory inquiry into the Press dubbed Leveson part two. But despite a desperate speech to Parliament, the former Labour leader was humiliated when the move was voted down by MPs. And an attempt to change the law so that the press would have to pay for the legal costs of court cases  even if they win  were abandoned at the last minute in the wake of the defeat. Culture Secretary Matt Hancock tweeted: A great day for a free and fair press. We will work with closely IPSO [the press regulator] to make sure their important work continues.'  Daily Mail

Comment:

Britain risks throwing away freedoms third-world citizens would die for  Kemi Badenoch, Daily Telegraph

Hancock emerging as one of the Commons shrewdest members  Andrew Pierce, Daily Mail

Editorial:

Salute the Government and Hancock, they saved the free press  The Sun

>Today:

>Yesterday: ToryDiary: The best way to protect the freedom of the press would be to repeal Section 40 for good

Ministers 2) McVey leads revolt against curb on fixed-odds betting terminals

A cut to the maximum stake on addictive betting machines to 2 has been delayed after a senior minister led a cabinet revolt against the plans, The Times has learnt. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport planned to announce the reduction today after winning over sceptics in the Treasury. Senior figures in the gambling industry were conceding defeat in their campaign for a higher limit. However, a source close to the cabinet says Esther McVey, the work and pensions secretary, has strongly objected to the plan. Members of the cabinet who support a 2 limit, including Matt Hancock, the culture, media and sport secretary, are now said to be concerned that Theresa May may yet choose a higher maximum limit. Two pounds is not over the line yet, the source said.  The Times

2 should be the limit  The Times

Ministers 3) Hunt to lobby for new NHS visas

the 1 per cent pay cap for NHS staff while in March he called for a ten-year NHS spending deal and backed a ringfenced tax.  The Times

Health Service will stop sharing migrant data with Home Office  The Times

Jeremy Hunt has said that he is likely to lobby the new home secretary for special visas for NHS and social care staff. Mr Hunt said he should probably raise the idea of a dedicated visa with Sajid Javid. Last week NHS Employers, the British Medical Association and the heads of royal colleges wrote to Mr Javid warning that medical staff that hospitals wanted to bring in from overseas were falling foul of caps on visa numbers. They said it had a direct impact on waiting times and costs, with the NHS using costly locums to fill rota gaps. It would be the latest in a string of demands from Mr Hunt to his cabinet colleagues  last autumn he successfully lobbied Philip Hammond to end

More:

Modi refuses to sign deal to send illegal Indian immigrants home  The Sun

Tory council candidate had brick put through her window

A Tory council candidate today revealed her terror after a brick was thrown through her window  narrowly missing her baby daughter. Merseyside Conservatives deputy chair Jade Marsden, who stood in last weeks local elections, said her upstairs window was smashed at 7.30pm on Sunday. Posting a picture of the smashed hole, the young mum explained the brick luckily missed her one year-old child sleeping inside the room. In a tweet which was later deleted, she said whoever had thrown the brick was in serious trouble and tagged Liverpools Labour group. However, she later said she had tagged the party only to make them aware.  Daily Mail

Voters back Corbyns policies, but not the man himself

Labour leader believes unionism is divisive, claims spokesman  The Scotsman

Communist Party embraces Comrade Corbyn  FT

In the focus group in Southampton, the men were also keen on a cap on the difference between the pay of executives and their employees, and the nationalisation of the water, energy and rail industries. But when asked whether the policies belonged to the Conservative or Labour party, three quickly replied in succession: Conservative. When the men were told that the policies belonged to Mr Corbyns Labour party, not Theresa Mays Conservatives, they went cold, with one calling them rubbish. Their sums dont add up, said another participant, adding: Although we havent seen the sums. Were assuming theyre not going to add up. Another said the ideas could not be delivered without ruining the country.  FT

Comment:

Corbynite time bomb is ticking under Labour  David Aaronovitch, The Times

Tributes paid to former Speaker

Family, friends and political colleagues gathered for the funeral of former House of Commons speaker Michael Martin this morning. A funeral mass for the former Labour politician took place at St Aloysius Church in the centre of Glasgow. Senior figures from both sides of the Commons paid their respects at the service, including current Speaker John Bercow. Lord Martin of Springburn, a former Labour MP, died on April 29 after a short illness at the age of 72. His son, Paul Martin, praised his fathers achievements, going from a sheet metal apprentice to the House of Lords.  Daily Mail

Give Bercow a fair hearing  Caroline Lucas MP, The Guardian

>Today: ToryDiary: Bercows bully pulpit

News in Brief:Katrina Wood: New local unitaries, backed by the public, are the way forward in Buckinghamshire

Cllr Katrina Wood is the Leader of Wycombe District Council.

In March, Sajid Javid, then Minister for Local Government, announced that he is minded to approve a proposal to replace the five existing local authorities in Buckinghamshire with one super council to provide all services to the countys 528,000 residents.

Whilst this was disappointing I welcome the Ministers call for a period of representations until the 25th of May and the acknowledgement that more needs to be done to secure local consent before a final decision is made. This is absolutely the right thing to do.

Thats because whilst there is broad agreement that change to local government in Buckinghamshire is needed, there is significant local concern about the creation of a single authority. There are real worries that a super council would make decision-making more remote with decisions affecting the key services being made with limited local representation. It would also lead to missed growth opportunities resulting from the failure to recognise the countys distinct economic geographies.

Buckinghamshire is naturally divided by the Chiltern Hills with two very distinct social and economic centres with different priorities.

Aylesbury in the north will be at the heart of the Oxford Cambridge Growth Corridor and benefit from transformational infrastructure developments like East West Rail. In South Buckinghamshire, the opportunities are very different as its economic future will be focused on meeting the needs of new and growing businesses and those seeking a UK base close to London.

Hence the rationale for two councils, one for the north of the county and one for the south, reflecting the natural geography of Bucks whilst ensuring local accountability for services and a strong strategic focus on promoting economic growth, which will be significant, but distinct.

A two unitary option would provide the one-stop-shop for all services that residents want in Buckinghamshire but with the added advantages that decision-making for all areas would be more local and accountable. Services would be put on a long term sustainable footing and significant savings would be made; our financial analysis estimates a saving of 58m over five years.

Crucially, the vision for two unitaries has strong support from local people. A survey of a thousand residents commissioned by Buckinghamshire County Council last year showed 67 per cent of residents backing two unitaries. Those who supported two unitaries did so because they felt this structure would improve or maintain access to services and provide better accountability which is precisely our rationale.

I believe this evidence is a really strong endorsement of our proposal. The plans for Buckinghamshire represent the biggest change to local government in 40 years and as politicians we need to get this right. With the support of residents, parishes, community groups, and businesses, my fellow district council leaders and I believe there is an opportunity to build consensus around two new local unitaries for Bucks.Lord McColl, one time PPS to Prime Minister John Major, has been a Conservative Peer since 1989 and is sponsor of the Modern Slavery (Victim Support) Bill.

This week I am in Hong Kong, where I have been afforded the great honour of giving the key note speech to an international conference on Combating Human Trafficking at the invitation of members of the Special Administrative Regions Legislative Council.

One of the central themes that I will be exploring is the need for greater international cooperation in tackling this terrible crime.

The UK is a country that is often a destination and place of exploitation for victims from around the world. If we are to bring an end to human trafficking we need to work with partners in the countries that victims come from and those countries they travel through on their way to our shores.

We need to work together to identify and address the factors that can make people vulnerable to deception or threats by traffickers through education, alleviating poverty, and creating employment that will give people alternative opportunities within their own community. We also need to develop practical policing cooperation so that we can trace and prosecute criminal gangs who operate across borders.

The Prime Minister has shown great leadership in building global consensus in tackling modern slavery, and I was heartened by the announcements of new partnership and financial support from the Home Office and DFID made during the Commonwealth Summit last week. This package will support governments in Commonwealth countries to develop their expertise in identifying and tackling child labour, and strengthening their laws and criminal justice systems in the fight against human trafficking.

The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner has also done excellent work in beginning to develop partnerships overseas and we need to see those efforts spread out in practical collaboration particularly for law enforcement officers on the frontline.

However, there is one aspect of development and cooperation  which I will emphasize during my speech  that is still in need of further attention. It is the question of how we help victims to recover from their exploitation and rebuild their lives in safety and freedom.

At present the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in the UK offers a limited period of support when a person is first identified as a possible victim. But at the end of the NRM process too many victims find themselves in limbo, homeless or destitute, without a clear immigration status, unable to access other support in the UK, and afraid of what will happen to them if they return home.

Right now, we do not know what happens to individuals who return to their country of origin from the UK because there is no long-term monitoring system, but a 2010 report from the International Organisation of Migration reported that trafficked persons, on return to their countries of origin, are often met by similar economic and social situations which made them vulnerable to trafficking in the first instance. The IOM research also found that victims of trafficking are frequently re-trafficked within two years or less of having exited a trafficking situation.

Home Office practice and guidance expects most victims to return to their home country, but does not put in place any risk assessment, support or strategies to protect them against the circumstances that led to them being trafficked and exploited in the first place.

We need to take action on two levels: at home and abroad. We need to increase cooperation and partnership  including financial support  with countries that victims are returning to, so that they are able to offer returning victims a stable environment, psychological and social support, educational and employment opportunities, and establish relationships of trust with local law enforcement.

The Government has made a start by establishing links with a charity in Romania, but we need to go much further and reach many more countries so that we can be sure that we protect all victims from re-trafficking when they return home.

But it is not just the responsibility of victims home countries. Here in the UK we still have a long way to go in order to offer victims found in our communities a real chance of recovery. The Government has offered to provide victims in England and Wales with an extra 45 days of support as they prepare to leave safe house accommodation, which is a move in the right direction. But often 45 days is simply not enough time for the necessary building blocks to be put in place so a victim can go on to lead a safe and fulfilling life, especially when it comes to preparing victims for a return to their home country.

Front line charities working with victims day in, day out, say that most need at least a year of stability and support after the initial reflection and recovery period is over. This was also the conclusion of the Work and Pensions Select Committees Report on Victims of Modern Slavery. Without a secure future including safe accommodation, money for food and access to other services and support, victims are at serious risk of re-trafficking here in the UK.

My Modern Slavery (Victim Support) Bill will offer victims a 12 month rehabilitation period of secure status in the UK, with support to begin their recovery and prepare for life after slavery. Many victims of modern slavery have suffered appalling abuses in our country and so it is quite wrong that responsibility to care for them should stop a matter of days after the authorities formally acknowledge someone has been a victim of modern slavery.

Providing victims the option of up to 12 months of support isnt just the right thing to do for individual victims, it will also help achieve the Governments aims in tackling this terrible crime. Giving victims a stable and secure future means more of them will feel able to provide evidence in court, increasing the chances of the successful conviction of traffickers very significantly. It also makes it much less likely that victims will be re-trafficked and need to re-enter our support systemswith all the attendant expenses for the state.

I very much hope that the Government will see in this Bill  now awaiting its Third Reading in the Lords  an opportunity to give expression to compassionate Conservativism at its very best and give it their full support.Lee Rowley is MP for North East Derbyshire, and Co-Chair of FREER.

A few weeks ago we launched FREER, a new initiative focused on promoting the virtues of free societies, free economies, and free markets. As we prepare to leave the European Union, politics offers the greatest opportunities for our country in a generation. Post-Brexit, we want to make the case that staying true to the principles of freedom will make us all happier, healthier, and wealthier.

Over the coming months, FREER will regularly be publishing papers on how we can grasp these opportunities over the next decade, and the key questions that we need to consider to do so. Our first paper came out a few weeks ago, setting out our principles, and how we need to make the case for freedom again for a new generation.

Today, we launch our second paper, and, never ones to shy away from challenging subjects, we are going straight into the lions den. Kemi Badenoch shines a light on the challenges that freedom of speech faces in our society, with the growing menace of no-platforming and the tyranny of social media.

The issue of free speech is a fraught one for our time. The right to discuss, debate, and challenge is fundamental. Increasingly, however, it seems that elements of this are being chipped away at or boxed in. Only a few weeks ago, the feminist activist Julie Bindel was prevented (again) from speaking at a meeting. Others such as Germaine Greer and Peter Tatchell, few of whom are aligned with conservativism, have experienced similar challenges.

Despite philosophical differences with speakers such as Bindel, Tatchell, and Greer, almost all of us on the right start from the principle that they should be allowed a platform. Freedom of speech (tempered by the usual caveats regarding incitement to violence, and the like) is absolute. Societies are unable to function adequately, and certainly cannot flourish, unless people can express themselves freely, and unless others have the opportunity to debate and challenge those expressions. The Voltairean enlightenment notion of defending the right of someone to say something even if you completely disagree with it is fundamental to our political tradition.

Yet, it appears that there has been a loosening of attachment to this principle. We may believe that freedom of speech is a self-evident truth, but the reality is that there are others for whom it isnt quite as absolute.

So we must do battle again over principles. And that battle needs to be joined with thought and consideration, rather than megaphones. It is no good just shouting political correctness gone mad, and hoping that the scales will fall from the eyes of those who have challenged us. Rather, we must start by crediting that those with a different view over freedom of speech are, whilst fundamentally mistaken, usually coming from a position of principle themselves. Merely dismissing them as cranks or censors is unlikely to engender any progress in this regard. Instead, we must return to the time-honoured method which has served us well: probe, discuss, pick holes, and, eventually, expose the notion of limiting free speech for the regressive position that it is.

It is against this backdrop that Kemis paper is so timely in exploring the origin of this challenge, wider societys responsibility for it, and the grey area within which much of this debate inevitably takes place. More importantly, there is also much to challenge and think about: that the issue isnt just in universities, that free speech rights come with responsibilities, and that our dont think, feel culture must share some culpability.

Most importantly, it is Kemis personal reflections that hit home hardest. As a working-class boy who grew up in the Midlands in the 1980s, I have little experience of the grotesque conclusions that limitations on freedom of speech can have. Kemi has, and she draws on her background growing up in Nigeria to highlight the privilege we have in the UK to indulge in testing the boundaries of this enlightenment principle.

With that in mind, we in FREER are determined to take up the challenge she sets to broaden the debate on free speech. Over the next few months, well be visiting universities  those crucibles of testing the boundaries  to debate and discuss. That starts with the University of Liverpool tonight, where will be holding a panel discussion on just this subject. If we are going to make the case for freedom, it is incumbent upon us to all join the fight. Kemi has just given us an opportunity to get stuck in.Daniel Hannan is an MEP for South-East England, and a journalist, author and broadcaster. His most recent book is What Next: How to Get the Best from Brexit.

Not working out the way you thought, Hannan, is it? I am asked the question daily by angry Europhiles. And, to be fair, theyve got a point. I had assumed that, by now, wed have reached a broad national consensus around a moderate form of withdrawal that recognised the narrowness of the result  a Brexit that left intact a number of our existing arrangements, while allowing us to leave the aspects of the EU which all sides could agree were harmful, such as the agricultural and fisheries policies and the common external tariff.

Obviously, no one gets 100 per cent of what they want in a situation like this. I wont, you wont and, come to that, Theresa May wont, because prime ministers must sometimes compromise, just like everyone else. Still, it seemed to me that the rough outlines of an eventual deal were clear on the morning of 24th June 2016. A 52-48 outcome pointed to some sort of association that stopped short of membership. Britain would keep most of the economic aspects of the EU while losing most of the political ones. A compromise would be found on immigration, perhaps allowing EU nationals to take up job offers in the UK without subsidies from the British taxpayer. Britain would stay in a number of EU programmes, paying its share of the bill, but would withdraw from the quasi-federal institutions in Brussels. Wed end up, very broadly, in an EFTA-type arrangement, a la Suisse.

I was prepared for some adjustments to be made to that model, but I was not prepared to end up with absolutely the most harmful outcome imaginable, namely leaving the Single Market while keeping the Customs Union. Boris Johnson is reported to have said, in private, that this would be worse than not leaving at all. If thats what he thinks, hes bang on. Giving Brussels 100 per cent control of our trade policy with zero per cent input would plainly leave us poorer and weaker than now.

Yet Labour is now in the bizarre position of demanding this worst-of-all-worlds outcome. What we want to do is we want to remain in the Customs Union, said Emily Thornberry on Tuesday, adopting, as she often does, the tone of a primary school teacher addressing six-year-olds. We dont want any faffing around with any of the nonsense that the Government is coming up with in relation to alternatives to the Customs Union.

Labour is cynically pushing what it knows to be a terrible idea, not because it aims for a better Brexit, but because it sees a chance to discomfit the Government. Its leaders know perfectly well what is wrong with the Customs Union. Jeremy Corbyn spoke as recently as January about how it was protectionist against developing countries. Barry Gardiner, his trade spokesman, set out in terms why a customs union for a non-member wouldnt work: it would, he correctly explained, mean that Britain would have to match all EU concessions vis-a-vis third countries, but those countries would be required to reciprocate only to the EU 27, not to Britain. Our home market, in other words, would become a bargaining chip for Brussels to use for the benefit of the 27.

So why the U-turn? Labour pretends that it can get some sort of customs union that gives Britain a say over the EUs trade policy, but I dont think it expects anyone to believe that. Its calculation, rather, is that all this is a bit technical, that no one cares about the details, and that the idea of staying in a customs union after leaving can therefore be portrayed as a half-way house.

There is, as I say, a strong case to be made for finding half-way houses, but the Customs Union isnt one of them. Lord Hill, our former European Commissioner, says that he voted Remain because he wanted Britain to have a seat at the table and that, by his own logic, giving up that seat now means it would be absurd to continue to be bound EU trade policies over which we had no say. Put like that, its hard to argue.

Its clear enough what Labours game is. It is focused on trying to defeat, or even bring down, the Government, and will back any Brexit proposal, however preposterous, that might advance that objective. Why, though, are some civil servants also pushing for a customs union, rather than for an EFTA-type arrangement?

Two reasons. First, like a lot of Remainers, they genuinely believe that the only real issue for Leavers was immigration, and so have drawn their red line there rather than on economics. Second, they woefully underestimate  or at least affect to underestimate  the potential of non-EU trade. A Whitehall report leaked in January claimed that the maximum benefit of non-EU trade deals would be equivalent to a gain of just 0.2 per cent of GDP, whereas leaving our current arrangements with the EU would reduce GDP by up to eight per cent. Those figures should strike you right away as fishy. When we do more trade with non-EU than EU markets, how can the gains and losses be so lopsided? The explanation is simple. The report did not consider the possibility of deep and comprehensive trade deals based on mutual recognition, such as the one between Australia and New Zealand. It assumed, for example, that a US-UK deal would simply be like our share of TTIP, the now abandoned US-EU deal. The idea that we could be more ambitious, providing for full reciprocity in services and professional qualifications, wasnt considered.

And that, ultimately, is the problem. We are going about this process with no ambition. We are approaching Brexit defensively and regretfully, focused on the costs rather than the opportunities. The recovery of Britains self-rule is being treated as an exercise in damage-limitation, with officials determined to cling on to as much of the existing dispensation as possible.

You broke it, you own it, say some Remainers whenever anyone complains about the way things are developing. But we  we liberal Leavers  dont own it. The process is largely owned, rather, by people who resent that it is happening at all. No, this isnt how its supposed to be working out.What should be done when a convention breaks down  people talking loudly in cinemas, for example, when the main film is showing; or queue-barging, or men not shaking hands with women (a complaint made by Louise Casey about socially conservative Muslims)? Debate is perennial. The question is also at the heart of discussion about the future of John Bercow.

The convention in the Commons is that the Speaker is acceptable to both sides of the House. The long and short of it is that Bercow is not, despite having some supporters on the Conservative side. As a whole, the Tory benches believe that he favours the Opposition, and was imposed on the Commons by Labour. If you doubt this take, and are content not to seek hard numbers, consider the ovation the Conservatives gave Lindsay Hoyle, the Deputy Speaker, when he stood in for Bercow at Prime Ministers Questions yesterday. And if you insist on looking for figures, cast your mind back to the Tories ill-fated attempt to impose a secret ballot on the Speakers election during the last Parliament  in effect, a means of getting shot of him. Two hundred and twenty-eight MPs voted for it. Two hunded and two voted against. That former figure contained a majority of Conservative MPs near the fag end of a Parliament when many were absent.

The charges of bullying levelled at Bercow by David Leakey, a former Black Rod, and Angus Sinclair, one of the Speakers former private secretaries, may be baseless. But the uncomfortable fact remains that a combination of the rules of Commons and the conventions that apply there leave no adequate means of investigating them, at least under this particular speaker.

Theresa May has suggested that the recently-established inquiry into bullying be widened so that it considers individual allegations. It is hard to see how this will happen. She also said that the House authorities could investigate the claims, which doubtless wont take place either. Finally, she suggested that the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards could launch a probe. Cue radio silence from the Commissioner. A key point here is that much of the internal govenment of the Commons is in the hands of the House of Commons Commission. And who chairs the Commission? The Speaker. It would be grossly unfair to claim that its members simply do what he wants them to do. But there is something very odd about this obscure body, which was the subject of a telling quote from Angela Eagle, buried away in a report on Commons governance from the Commons governance committee which sat during the last Parliament.

It was always rather a mysterious thing before I got on to it.  I have to say the management and structure of the place has always been rather mysterious. You only get to come across bits of it by accident, and if you are lucky enough to stay here long enough, you then stumble across more of it.

It will be argued that the internal government of the House is ultimately in the hands not of the Commission but of MPs themselves. And it is significant that the Prime Minister  in yet another signal that Bercow doesnt have the confidence of one of the two main parties in the Commons  wants the allegations probed. But where does that get anyone? The Speaker is unlikely to select for debate any motion critical of him. He has the power to silence MPs who say things he doesnt like  as they were reminded recently by his short-tempered verbal assault on Philip Hammond. Maria Miller raised a point of order about the claims in the Commons recently, and got short shrift. The paradox of Tory MPs cheering a Labour MP, Hoyle, because the Labour Party lines up behind a former Conservative MP, Bercow, is a consequence of one of the Houses central conventions, on which it depends for effective governance, no longer operating.May clashes with Nationalists over Troubles inquiry

The Belfast Telegraph reports that the Prime Minister has been drawn into a row with Nationalist politicians over claims that inquiries into the Troubles are unfairly and disproportionately targeting members of the Armed Forces or law enforcement.

Conservative MPs have fiercely criticised the Government for appearing to abandon plans for an amnesty for members of the security forces, and both Michael Fallon and Julian Lewis have attacked the Ministry of Defences decision to collaborate in another round of investigations against ex-servicemen.

They argue that since the IRA and other terrorist and paramilitary groups did not maintain detailed records  at least that they have shared with anybody  there is an asymmetry of evidence against makes soldiers and police officers. Not only is this unfair on the men involved  many of whom are now in their seventies  but the example will demoralise British soldiers serving in present and future conflicts too.

Welsh Tories criticises Jones delayed departure

The Conservatives have criticised the Welsh Government over suggestions that major decisions will be delayed until a new First Minister is in post in the autumn, the BBC reports.

Andrew RT Davies, who leads the Tories in the Assembly, has called on Carwyn Jones to go sooner rather than later after the chair of the Assemblys environment committee suggested that the final decision on an M4 relief road should be made by his successor.

He added that decisions of this magnitude cant just be parked until January and we need to see a swift resolution of the Labour leadership crisis.

The First Minister announced his departure a couple of weeks ago after fending off a Tory-led bid to force the publication of an inquiry into bullying allegations against his administration, but will remain in post for the next few months.

as Welsh Labour row over leadership rules continues

A row over whether or not to change the way leaders are elected has stepped up a gear this week: Wales Online reports that opponents of Mark Drakeford, the left-wing front runner, are desperately trying to stop a party rule-changing conference from going ahead in the autumn.

The current electoral college has been under pressure since the recent elections for Welsh Labours first deputy leader, wherein the winner received over a thousand votes less than the second-placed candidate.

In other Assembly news, the Welsh Government has failed to respond to nearly a third of its own consultation exercises launched in the last two years, according to ITV. Some of them are still awaiting outcome despite having been completed for more than a year.

Trimble urges end to Ulster scaremongering over Brexit

David Trimble, the former First Minister of Northern Ireland and architect of the Belfast Agreement, issued a fierce riposte in The Times this week to politicians seeking to use the Irish border to soften Brexit.

The former leader of the Ulster Unionists, who now sits as a Conservative peer, wrote that In recent months senior politicians  some of whom were partners in the peace process  have sought to spread fear about a return to violence, and accused them of under-estimating the strength of the peace.

He also drew attention to the latest research from Policy Exchange which found that, contrary to the claims of the Irish government (at least under Leo Varadkar), technological solutions do the problems posed by Brexit to the border are workable.

Scotland Office name set aside?

An interesting story in this weeks Scotsman suggests that the Government has abandoned the name Scotland Office, a 133-year-old identity lost as part of a corporate rebranding exercise.

David Mundells department now apparently goes by what the paper rightly notes is the much less snappy formulation Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland. This follows an earlier change its social media channels in 2015  to UK Government in Scotland  but officials apparently denied at that time that a broader change would happen.

The changes have also been applied to the Welsh Office, although have reportedly been taken up with less enthusiasm. The Government claims that the change is intended to illustrate the breadth of the national Governments role in Scottish life.Janakpur set to welcome Modi

Authorities in Dhanusa District headquarters Janakpur on Wednesday supervised the final touches of facelift to the historic town ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit.05/10/2018

Photo (c) Patrick Civello - Getty Images Less than a decade ago, California McMansion owners and others who wanted to install solar panels on the roofs of their own houses risked the wrath of their image-conscious homeowners associations.

But the state has gradually become more solar-friendly since then, and the rules are about to go a step further. New homes built in California after the start of 2020 will be required to be equipped with solar panels, the California Energy Commission ruled on Wednesday.

Shortly after California officials announced their decision, homebuilders saw their stock prices drop, while solar shares rose, Bloomberg news reported. The California Energy Commission estimated that the move would drive up housing costs by $10,000, but it says that the decision will eventually save consumers in the form of reduced energy bills.

Builders had initially criticized the measure but were on board with the final rules, after regulators agreed on Wednesday to a series of exemptions -- including one for houses with roofs too small to support solar installations.

"We're going to be able to look the home buyer in the eye and say, 'You are going to get your money back,'" Bob Raymer, the technical director for the California Building Industry Association, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Improving energy efficiency

California has led the state with renewable energy programs, including putting pressure on the federal government under Obama to adopt tougher emissions standards for cars and a goal for the states electrical grid to be sourced from 50 percent renewable energy by 2030.

Improved efficiency unlocks millions in utility bill savings for consumers and lightens the load on our electricity system, the California Energy Commission has said of its various renewable energy initiatives.

Homeowners Associations (HOAs) used to file lawsuits against homeowners in California who installed solar panels on their houses until the state passed a law to curb the practice in 2014.

Other sunny states are still struggling to bring solar panels to the masses. In Florida, the states main utility, Florida and Power & Light, had lobbied heavily to keep laws in place that made it illegal for homeowners to power their own homes with solar energy provided by solar panel leasing companies, a popular choice for middle-class consumers who cannot afford to buy their own panels.

After receiving heavy criticism for their role in limiting solar in the wake of Hurricane Irma, the Florida Utilities Commission last month overturned the long standing rule, opening up the doors for solar companies to start selling power in Florida.

The solar industry hopes that California will encourage the rest of the nation to follow its lead.

"California is taking a step further basically recognizing that solar should be as commonplace as a front door welcoming you home," Sean Gallagher, vice president of state affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association, told CNBC.When the new iPhone 12 hits the streets on October 23, it will be met with a throng of consumers wanting to take one home.

According to WalletHubs new 2020 iPhone Survey, 44 percent more Americans are planning to buy a new iPhone compared to 2019 -- and 73 percent more think the new iPhone is worth going into debt for.

Finding the perfect plan for each and every consumers pocketbook can be a maddening experience. But the personal finance website found that consumers who spend a little time researching all the plan variations can actually save $933 (or $2,280 over two years), simply by picking the right one.

The best plans

Using its own cell phone calculator, WalletHub did a fair amount of number crunching on what special plans and bonuses providers are dangling in front of a consumer. Here are two of the more impressive differentiators:

The best way to get the new iPhone : WalletHub found that the no-contract individual plan from Visible is the best way to get the new iPhone, beating plans from all three major carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile/Sprint, Verizon).

Bonus savings: For even more savings, WalletHubs advice is to keep your old phone. Individuals can save up to $1,690 and families can save up to $2,663.

Words of caution

WalletHub asked technology watchers about some of the pitfalls that consumers should take into consideration when buying a new phone. Here are two that ConsumerAffairs found to be particularly interesting:

How much cheaper must a 2-year agreement be for a cell phone user to sacrifice the flexibility of not having a contract?

With a 2-year plan, the consumer loses flexibility, for example, in terms of cell phone service plans. The contract may dictate a plan which they wouldn't otherwise choose, said Qihong Liu, Ph.D., a professor of Economics at the University of Oklahoma.

Liu went on to say that the benefits will likely vary from consumer to consumer.

Some choose the contract because they get to have the latest phone without paying the whole cost right away. Others like the contract because it is cheaper, Liu said.

To what extent does the secondary market for cell phones (e.g. eBay) alter the price comparison for no-contract plans?

When that question was put to Hemant Bhargava, Ph.D., a professor of Technology Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, he had this to say: Contract plans that provide (or force) a smartphone usually have a price premium to cover the sellers risk of giving you the phone upfront. So, youre better off if you can bring your own phone - even if you buy from a secondary source like eBay.

Rather than worrying about the authenticity and quality of the phone, Bhargava suggests that consumers look for a reliable seller with a high rating history and good reputation.

Alternately, there are very high-quality budget phones that cost the same as a used flagship phone and will be just fine for most buyers, he concluded.Harry Forbes is analyst at ARC Advisory Group.

Abdullah Alkhalifah is senior engineering consulting at Saudi Aramco Engineering Services.

David DeBari is OPA program prototype lead engineer.

Michael Krauss is senior automation manager, control systems technology, at BASF.

Don Bartusiak is chief engineer, process control, at ExxonMobil Research & Engineering.

The Open Process Automation (OPA) initiative, an effort to make process controls more interoperable, was discussed by ARC Advisory Group, Saudi Aramco, Open Process Automation, BASF, and ExxonMobil. The following experts reviewed progress as of the 2018 ARC Forum, in February

Manufacturing software changes

Forbes cited a major automation supplier CEO who said customers do not want to live in a plant where they have to manage application software across thousands of devices. Vendors are doing that as they replace switches by virtualizing them.

Its a time of breakthroughs, not incremental improvements.

Software is eating the world. Cloud software is eating the enterprise, the edge, and the embedded space. Cloud technology can see and interact with lower-level systems. Software is becoming smaller and more secure. Software development convergence is happening at open-source speed. Software development is flattening what historically has been in different classes of software development.

State-of-the-art cloud software development and software operations (DevOps) technology will penetrate embedded system and embedded industrial automation, development, deployment, orchestration and monitoring, and updates will elevate end-user expectations for industrial automation software. Software management at scale and over the software lifecycle are requirements shared by the cloud, enterprise, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and OPA.

"Keep an eye on cloud. Its coming down to where we live, work, and manufacture," Forbes said.

Open automation

Alkhalifah said the OPA initiative aims to enable production of data-centric, standards-based, open, secure, and interoperable process automation systems.

Alkhalifah is responsible for process automation and helps develop standards and technologies to address process challenges.

The Saudi Aramco process automation system (PAS) lifecycle management program has a long-term objective of an open data-centric process automation concept to enable technologies, industrial initiatives and standards, said Alkhalifah. In 2010, faced with obsolescence, the company looked at its supplier model, spare parts management, in-house technical support, and reliability driven replacement, all of which presented challenges with a long-term view of using proprietary architectures.

Doing so pointed to obsolescence at various levels: inputs and outputs (I/Os), devices, controllers, and human-machine interfaces (HMI) all with different lives for expiration.

A new plan sought to eliminate multiple layers and make a flat network, decouple controllers, and replace the control system with a reliable communication framework.

The new solution sought to avoid wholesale replacements and distribute control capabilities throughout the architecture. The safety system at the bottom would not be touched.

I/O modules were I/O only and connected to a real-time databus. Controllers were hardware and software-based.

These attributes require a data-centric, open standard, using a publish/subscribe communication protocol, servers for HMI and controller virtualization, a high availability computing platform, interchangeable basic I/O, hardware- or software-based controllers, built-in cybersecurity, and application portability.

After joining the Open Group, Saudi Aramco has been working on an in-house system for the end of 2018. The company solicited participation in a demonstration system to help with the learning curve. Based on the learning curve, the company began to realize that using a data distribution service is not as simple as expected. A lot of time is required forming an information model.

Saudi Aramco is committed to working with the Open Automation Forum on a data-centric, publish/subscribe collaborate automation platform based on open technology. The hope is to preserve current investments and use commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies and provide mechanisms for easier integration or partial replacement.

OPA program status

DeBari gave an OPA status update. OPA creates a system of systems puts a distributed control system as just another peer among other elements in the OPA architecture vision, rather than a top of layer hierarchy.

A running proof-of-concept system uses a real-time advanced computing platform. It controls a simulated process unit using proportional-integral-derivative (PID) and constraint control. The demonstration took I/O and logic and broke it into three distributed control nodes (DCNs). Because most process controls run faster than the application requirements, this slows down to 100 milliseconds, deemed as fast as would be needed to run anything.

Interoperabilitys definition and objective: Ability of two components to exchange meaningful information and interoperation among vendors to allow integration of the best components and to foster competition and innovation in the marketplace, permitting customization and fit-for-purpose solutions.

Interchangeability is when a component can be replaced with another from another vendor without modification. A Raspberry Pi 3 can be swapped with an Intel prototype DCN. It was redeployed without changing IEC 61499 control logic and without re-engineering the control logic. (IEC is the International Electrotechnical Commission, a global standards organization.)

Configuration and application portability allows sharing configurations from one application to another. Preserve asset owners custom configuration, intellectual property (IP), and aid the use of leading-edge capabilities, allowing integration of best-in-class components.

Application development flexibility would have an app store concept to support use of best-in-class algorithms, open the market to innovation, and preserve custom configurations.

ExxonMobils vision for OPA is to have technical readiness by 2021. More participants are encouraged, and the organization seeks partners for collaboration and field trials because ExxonMobils needs may differ from other users.

New approach needed

Krauss at BASF offered a perspective on NAMUR with help from Don Bartusiak, ExxonMobil and the Open Group. NAMUR is a German acronym for the user association of automation technology in the process industries.

Krauss asked, "Why is a new approach needed?"

This effort is the culmination of 20 years of megatrends: fieldbuses, asset management, computer-aided engineering (CAE) for integrated engineering, distributed control systems, standard data exchange for CAE and DCS, and SAP-R/3 integration of DCS among others. "More disruptive changes are needed because were not there yet," Krauss said. "Were lacking platforms interfaces and data models."

NAMUR Open Architecture is proven and accepted, highly available, and designed for mature systems for sustainable operations with a long lifecycle. The architecture is not open; if technologies are integrated slowly or not at all, theres no room for trial and error. Will the industry lose the ability to innovate? Open architecture covers the field level, basic automation, manufacturing execution systems, and enterprise resource planning.

The module-type package (MTP) is a standard nonproprietary description of modules for process automation. The MTP addresses plant engineering and the process control level.

Bartusiak said the groups are working on finding common ground around user needs and coalescing efforts in one reference architecture. Compared to the traditional OSI model, this collapses levels 1-3.

NAMUR functional requirements can be supported by the OPA architecture and gateways can be provided to existing (legacy) devices. The difference is the trajectory to the ultimate solution. The Open Group, ZVEI (the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association) and NAMUR agreed on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in October 2017 to share work documents in process. Goal is common promotion and internationalization of standards into IEC standards. Theres no conflict, he suggested; the groups are coalescing to a critical mass for change.

Bartusiak also mentioned theres a critical mass among end users for change and a wider spirit of compromise and cooperation, with determination to learn from earlier failed efforts, such as MAP (before its time) and fieldbus wars (which had many vendors protecting their own interests).

Mark T. Hoske is content manager, Control Engineering, CFE Media, mhoske@cfemedia.com.

KEYWORDS: Interoperable controls, Open Process Automation

Open Process Automation, part of the Open Group, is working on interoperable process controls.

NAMUR is working on a similar effort.

Cooperation seems likely to increase after a MOU.

CONSIDER THIS

Preserving investments in automation seems likely to increase efficiency, add functionality, and speed upgrades.

ONLINE

If reading from the digital edition, click on the headline for more resources, including the following. Open process automation leads to innovation: Innovation helps distinguish between a leader and follower and can take companies and users into directions they never anticipated, according to Kenny Warren of ExxonMobil during his keynote speech at the ARC Industry Forum.Labour pain

Governments decision to ask demand letters is appreciable, now enforce it60%

Website adwordsbanned.com uses latest and advanced technologies like: JQuery. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 74272 bytes (72.53 kb uncompressed) and 13078 bytes (12.77 kb compressed).

This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-01-27, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.CORNWALL, Ontario  Tarah Zaczyk had a passion for jewellry and design since the age of 16 when she worked as a cleaner at a local jewellry store. Now she has her own boutique, Crush Lane, that specializes in custom goldsmithing using computer generated designs.

ce the age of 16 when she worked as a cleaner at a local jewellry store. Now she has her own boutique, Crush Lane, that specializes in custom goldsmithing using computer generated designs.

Its a young, fresh approach to custom design and its something I`ve been doing for quite some time now, said Zaczyk.

Before Crush Lane opened on May 1, Zaczyk showcased her collections at Echo Trends for just under a year. Zaczyk hopes that having her own brick and mortar location will help to build her brand and expand her business.

Zaczyk attended OCAD University for fashion design and marketing, but eventually she found her niche at George Brown College in the goldsmithing program.

I`ve always been really hands on and (I) have a good appreciation for detail, so it was perfect, said Zaczyk.

In her final year of college, Zaczyk discovered the name of her company Crush Lane when she misheard her friend talking about Rush Lane, which is also known as Graffiti Alley in Toronto. She created a grafitti-esque collection inspired by this neighbourhoods aesthetic for a final project.

Now, Zaczyks collections are inspired by a variety of things in pop culture.

I like to think that Im very tapped into pop culture, said Zaczyk. Im always on social media, like Instagram, Im always watching interior design shows; you name it. I like going to Montreal and Toronto for inspirationthe bigger urban cities. Its overwhelming how much inspiration is out there.

In terms of style price, Zaczyk believes her product fits into a happy medium between inexpensive and high-end jewellery.

Our product is affordable, and more thought goes into choosing these pieces, said Zaczyk. Im trying to take a stance on this disposable fashion thing. I love costume jewellery, but the manufacturing makes it disposable.

Recently, Crush Lane created a Home Vibes collection where vintage ashtrays are repurposed as jewellery catch trays. Similarly, Zaczyk has a jewellery collection that she created from repurposed materials.

Apart from her collections, Zaczyk likes to sit down with her clients for a more personalized, custom experieneespecially with bridalwear.

Crush lane is always developing, and as we grow, our collections will grow too, Zaczyk.

Crush Lane Boutique is located at 7A First Street East and can be found online at www.crushlane.com.CORNWALL, Ontario  The Seaway International Bridge has enacted restirctions on some vehicles crossing the bridge on the night of Friday, May 4 due to high winds.

The Seaway International Bridge Corporation has put in place wind restrictions for the next couple of hours for large empty vehicles as per our list as well as pedestrians and motorcycles, Jennifer MacIsaac, Community Relations Officer with the Seaway International Bridge Corporation said in a statement to the media. This does not affect cars and fully loaded transports. The Bridge remains open during the wind restrictions. We will inform you once our restrictions are lifted.

Restrictions apply to pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, all cube vans, all RVs, campers, buses, camping trailers, open trucks with loose materials and tractor trailers weighing less than 50,000 lbs.

Friday saw winds as high as 90 km/h across Southern Ontario.

Wind gusts to 90 km/h are likely across much of the region after a cold front moves through from late afternoon to early evening, reads a Wind Warning from Envrionment Canada. Winds will diminish late this evening as a high pressure ridge moves in. Damage to buildings, such as to roof shingles and windows, may occur. Loose objects may be tossed by the wind and cause injury or damage. High winds may toss loose objects or cause tree branches to break.Anti-pollution, positioned as part of a wider defensive care strategyalso comprising blue light defense and even probiotic activitywas, once again, one of the hottest claims at this years in-cosmetics Global event. Here are a few highlights from the show floor.

Targeting Squalene and Sebum

IFF/Lucas Meyer Cosmetics presented OilessCity (Glycerin (and) Backhousia citriodora leaf Extract), a multi-ethnic sebum regulator extracted from Australian Backhousia citriodora (lemon myrtle) leaf. In applications, the ingredient protects squalene against urban skin aggressors by reducing pro-inflammatory cytokines, decreasing sebocyte differentiation and lipid accumulation, and rebalancing oily skin content to reduce shine. Read more about it in the May 2018 issue of Cosmetics & Toiletries.

In relation, Corum's Azeclair (INCI: Potassium Azeloyl Diglycinate) azelaic acid derivative imparts a sebum-normalizing effect and provides inflammatory protection against pollutants. Recent studies show the ingredient can inhibit various inflammatory factors such as interleukin-8 and matrix metalloproteinase or MMP-1, which are induced by urban dust PM 2.5 and diesel particulate matter. Azeclair also acts as an oil control agent to normalize sebum production and brighten the skin.

Proactive Probiotic

Ecobiotys is an active ingredient from Silab that was developed based on floral nectar components that regulate microbiota. In collaboration with the National Institute of Agricultural research (INRA), Silab sampled floral nectars and identified yeasts, by genetic analysis, that were found to act as regulators of the ecosystem in the plant; i.e., its Nectarobiota. These yeasts ensured the defense, development and regeneration of the plant.

From this insight, a personal care ingredient was derived from the yeast Metschnikowia reukaufii, isolated from the porcelain flower Hoya carnosa; the result was Ecobiotys.

"The ingredient rebalances the microbiota of mature skin by reinforcing its immune and mechanical barriers and acting on the distribution of bacterial communities," explained Melanie Coirier, communication officer for Silab. "The quality of the skin barrier is thereby improved and the complexion is enhanced."

Capping the Cascade

Also aligning with the demand to protect skin from pollution, Indena presented its Vitachelox (INCI: Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Seed Extract (and) Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract (and) Quercus Robur Bark Extract) product. The ingredient comprises a selection of optimized botanical compounds to act as anti-pollutants, skin protectors, free-radical scavengers and chelating agents on various common pollution-induced triggers. In addition, it balances skin's microflora.

"Anti-pollution is still a major focus," explained Giada Maramaldi, product scientific communication manager for Indena. "Now we're figuring out how to measure it." She added that the Vitachelox ingredient works via stoichiometry to remove heavy metals. "This stops the cascade processes pollutants initiate in skin." The company is looking to hair care for this ingredient's possible next move.

In relation, IBR launched IBR-UrBio Tect, a product designed to protect from and deactivate urban pollution as well as blue light. Its chelation capability deactivate and neutralize pollutants, while prebiotic benefits strengthen the skins defensive abilities and offer support, protection and repair benefits. In a clinical study, the product reverseed the effects of pollution, including cigarette smoke on smokers; chelated and neutralized pollutants including heavy metals; detoxified pollutants in aquaculture; and mitigated blue (HEV) light-induced damage.

Autophagy and Renewal in Action

SEPPIC's Wesource group highlighted Sakadikium, a new skin-brightening, anti-pollution and anti-blue light active. Derived from a concentrated extract of sugars from the natural rhizomes of Hedychium coronarium or "butterfly ginger"a plant from Madagascar known locally as Sakarivodambothe ingredient acts on the cell's autophagy processes of maintenance and detoxification to respond to stress caused by blue light, smoke, hydrocarbons, etc. Sakadikium improves autophagy, acting as a multiprotector when exposed to blue light, UV and pollution. Its detoxification results in brighter skin.

In a similar approach, Ashland's SeaStem biofunctional technology helps the skin self-renew and protect itself against the negative effects of environmental pollutants. Ashland utilized proprietary Zeta Fraction technologya solvent-free process that consumes minimal energy and creates minimal wasteto refine and capture the benefits of giant sea kelp, which include regeneration, nutrition and barrier function attributes.

Made for Millennials

Finally, Lubrizol unveiled its Expect the Unexpected set of seven formulations targeting millennials. According to the company, these consumers desire perfect and protected skinbut instant results. As such, the ingredients utilized address issues including delaying the appearance of wrinkles and shielding the skin from pollution.

The concepts included:Beyond the latest-hyped market trends for anti-pollution, microbiome care, blue light protection and more, some exhibitors at in-cosmetics simply focused on the basics of skin. These included moisture, elasticity, nourishment, sebum control, barrier function and even the effects of stress. Following are a few examples from the event.

'Moisture Magnet' and Hydrators

DSMs Pentavitin is a natural moisture-magnet, according to the company. The ingredient is intended for daily use especially on the face. DSM reports that excessively dry skin areas are better hydrated just 3 hr after a single application of the ingredient. Pentavitin is a carbohydrate complex similar to the makeup of skin. It is said to act by trapping moisture in, maintaining hydration for up to 72 hr.

Naturex presented Hydranellys, a new natural ingredient for skin hydration derived from Selaginella, known in China as the resurrection plant for its ability to survive droughts. The plant curls in on itself during droughts but recovers at the first drops of water. Hydranellys harnesses this rehydration capability for skin care, treating the hydrolipidic protective film that covers the skin's surface and strengthening the stratum corneum. It helps dry skin to recover by maintaining its lipid balance and retaining moisture. In vitro, ex vivo and clinical tests show the ingredient increases epidermal lipids, and application of 3% Hydranellys cream reduces TEWL both short- and long-term.

Something old continues to be new again for Symrise; rather, it was never irrelevant. The company celebrated the 25th anniversary of its Hydrolite 5 product this year. Hydrolite 5 is pentylene glycol; a 1,2-alkanediol with a broad range of uses in cosmetic products. It hydrates skin while also boosting the performance of active ingredients. The ingredient also supports the solubilizing and emulsifying characteristics of other cosmetic ingredients to provide modern product protection.

Chemyunion placed a heavier emphasis on male skin with its 4Man; a multifunctional solution that imparts four key effects in one ingredient. Composed of a synergetic combination of hops, licorice, red algae extract, Gallic rose, panthenol and menthol, 4Man stimulates skin cell renewal, increases superficial moisture, reduces oiliness and increases skin firmness.

Elastic, Nourishing and Soothing Benefits

BASFs Proteasyl ingredient, derived from pea extract, is a protease inhibitor that improves skin elasticity by increasing the synthesis of proteoglycan and fiberscollagen I, III, V and elastinwhile defending against proteolytic damage. One study found the material to effectively benefit skin on the arms, chest and face.

IFF/Lucas Meyer Cosmetics SOS Perfect Lips offered a high-oil, 2-in-1 lip and contour product that goes on without a greasy feeling and absorbs quickly to provide nourishment, soothing and plumping actions.

Symrise also presented its SymControl Care, an active ingredient from the microalgae Tetraselmis suecica that regulates skins sebum production and strengthens its barrier. Research has shown that ~61% of consumers with oily skin also have sensitive skin, which leads to sebum over-production and frequent irritation. As such, the ingredient was designed to significantly reduce sebum overproduction, soothing the skin and strengthening its barrier.

Anti-stress Care

Stress leads to the generation of cortisol in skin, which in turn stimulates premature aging. As such, BASF developed Hyalurosmooth, derived from Cassia angustifolia, to inhibit the harmful impact of cortisol in skin by restoring collagen I and hyaluronic acid. The result, according to the company, is well-hydrated skin and a radiant complexion.

Similarly, DSM addressed stress with its Bel-Even (INCI: Biphenyl Azepanyl (and) Methanone (and) Propanediol), a small synthetic molecule that reduces the damaging effects of stress on skin. The ingredient reversibly and selectively inhibits the key enzyme 11-HSD1, which generates cortisol in the skin. It is also designed to improve skin elasticity, density and hydration.

Ashland also re-introduced its Chronogen YST (INCI: Water (aqua) (and) Glycerin (and) Hydrolyzed Yeast Protein) ingredient to address the effects of "social jetlag" on skin. According to the company, Chronogen YST assists with the maintenance and synchronization of clock genesday and night skin regulators.

Social jetlag is a new field of study connected to health problems in modern societies, as a mismatch [occurs] between the bodys biological clock and sleep patterns, often linked to late-night social activities such as television, online activities and personal hobbies, explained Neil Astles, global marketing and new business development manager of biofunctionals for Ashland.

Strengthening Defenses

Finally, Naolys launched its Healthy Perfection (Vitis flower)2, a new concept based on the plant cells of two vine varieties. This concept leverages the association of vine (grape) plant cells and their ability to repair skin and strengthen its natural defenses.

A clinical study revealed a general reduction in imperfections on the face after 28 days of treatment, two applications per day. Participants declared an increase in radiance and visible imperfections (79%); a decrease in imperfections (31%); and a decrease in hyperpigmented spots (27%).

In vitro results also demonstrated a complete healing process due to decreases in inflammation mediators and an increase in cell respiration, microcirculation and the synthesis of collagen and proteoglycans.Local units ask central govt to return rent tax

The local level governments have sought return of the house rent tax collected by the central after the latter decided to allow the local governments to raise such taxes. The local and central governments had been at loggerheads over the jurisdiction of collecting house rent tax.Channel leaders across Dell Technologies' seven brands are working together to create a new rewards program that will give partners more money to sell across its broad portfolio of solutions.

The rewards program, set to be officially launched in early 2019, is focused on providing incremental rebates and incentives to Dell, Dell EMC, VMware, Pivotal, RSA, SecureWorks and Virtustream channel partners, said Joyce Mullen, Dell EMC's global channel chief, in an interview with CRN.

"We're building a rewards program that makes it advantageous for our partners to put together these pieces to try to drive more cross-selling," said Mullen. "You'll just earn more money if you put together these solutions. So if you figure out how to do a bunch of cross selling, we'll reward you for that. Think about one-plus-one equals three, instead of one-plus-one equals two. So we're trying to drive our processes to support solution-oriented [selling]."

[Related: Channel Game-Changer: Dell Empowering Partners To Sell Entire Dell Technologies Stack With New Framework]

Mullen said the rewards program will kick in next year in order to keep programs predictable for partners for the remainder of 2018. The program won't replace any of the companies' individual channel programs. "We might start doing some stuff in the back-half of this year as we get clearer on exactly what we're doing. It will kick into the formal program in the beginning of [next] year," she said.

Over time, partners who have the most competencies around solution-selling will achieve the highest status level in terms of partner program tiers, according to Mullen. The goal is for Dell Technologies to become the leader in digital, IT, workforce and security transformation which is why the company is pushing partners to sell holistic solutions across the portfolio instead of point products for specific vendors.

"This is why we're saying now to partners, 'Start getting smart about the transformations, start building competencies and practice capabilities," said Mullen.

At Dell Technologies World last week in Las Vegas, the company unveiled its first step of making its bullish goal of enabling partners to easily sell across Dell Technologies a reality with the Dell Technologies Advantage program. The framework will provide new vendor engagement, tools and incentives to help the channel cross sell Dell Technologies products.

One significant channel benefit the framework is providing is ensuring partners' investments in training and certifications are maximized across the portfolio. For example, if a partner takes hyper-converged training in the VMware partner program, they wont have to take the same type of training in the Dell EMC program.

"Or if you want to learn about Kubernetes, you dont have to take it in the Pivotal track and then take it in the VMware track. So we simplify and consolidate all of that," said Mullen.

Mullen said the push to unify Dell Technologies is happening as customers are desperately trying to figure out how to deliver business outcomes associated with IT and digital transformation.

"There's these massive transformations happening in the world and our customers need a ton of help," said Mullen. "Now if you think about what our partners are doing around that, if we really want them to fast track their ability to deliver these transformations, then we got to make it easier for them to figure out how to transact, engage, buy [across Dell Technologies]."

Dan Smith, vice president of sales at Blue Bell, Pa.-based Anexinet, who partners with Dell EMC and VMware, said the new rewards program is a win for the channel.

"The more we can bring together, not just in the programs and trainings, but with the sales teams, registrations and the alignments, the better," said Smith. "We're seeing progress there. They are listening to partners on how to make partnering with them a better experience.Kaseya on Thursday took its first step towards unifying the full range of IT infrastructure management software in a unified console to create what it terms a "single pane of glass" management.

The new management interface, known as Kaseya One, follows the introduction Tuesday of the company's new remote monitoring and management software, RMM 2.0, which Kaseya said is the first RMM offering to natively unify both endpoint and network management with embedded IT documentation in a single platform.

The MSP business has almost from the start been saying the idea of a single pane of glass to manage all applications is the "Holy Grail" of the industry, said Fred Voccola, CEO of the Dublin, Ireland-based company.

[Related: CRN Exclusive: Kaseya CEO On Unitrends Integration, Partnering With 'Best-In-Class' Companies, And Why 'Data Is King']

"This is important because of an urgent need for technician efficiency and MSP efficiency," Voccola told CRN. "The technology industry is near 0 percent unemployment. If a business loses a technician that people like, they might lose customers."

At the same time, prices for basic management services are falling, which impacts MSP profitability, Voccola said. "Over 50 percent of MSP salespeople are competing against other MSPs," he said. "A couple years ago, that was 10 percent. They're dealing with margin pressures."

MSPs also have access to many more services to offer customers, including endpoint management, data protection, disaster recovery, security, compliance, network management, and professional services automation, Voccola said.

Kaseya offers those through its IT Complete platform, which integrates the different offerings but does not offer a common management interface, which is where Kaseya One comes in, he said.

"Kaseya One is a single interface that allows technicians or even the CEO of an MSP to provide the automation to handle all those capabilities," he said. "This goes way beyond RMM. Before, they were integrated products, but with no common entry point or no common management. Kaseya One is an intuitive interface that allows customers to navigate in and among the different management tools."

The tools included in IT Complete and managed by Kaseya One include several of Kaseya's own offerings, including Kaseya Traverse service-level monitoring and management software, Kaseya VSA RMM software, professional services automation, data backup, network management and cloud management, Voccola said.

It also includes tools from several third-party vendors including compliance technology from RapidFire Tools, IT documentation tools from IT Glue, and security technology from Webroot, Bit Defender and Kaspersky, he said.

It also works with many other offerings, including those from competitors ConnectWise and Datto/Autotask, he said.

Kaseya One, as introduced Thursday, is only the first iteration, Voccola said. Future versions will include deeper integration with existing partners, additional integrations with other partners' and competitors' offerings, and self-learning capabilities via Kaseya's artificial intelligence platform, he said.

RMM 2.0 and Kaseya One are important additions to MSP operations, said David Raucher, director of IT and managed services at CHR Solutions, a Houston-based MSP and Kaseya partner.

Currently, if a technician sees an alert in Traverse, he or she might send a service ticket to level-one technical support, Raucher said. However, the tech support person only sees the technician's interpretation of the issue.

"But if the different management tools were integrated in RMM 2.0, the tech support person would see everything in real-time," he said. "And with IT Glue, the right documentation is available. Today, this requires three windows: Traverse to get the alarm, VSA for the RMM, and IT Glue for the documentation."

Just a simple thing like getting quick access to the right documents is a big help for MSPs, Raucher said.

"With RMM 2.0, there's no need to search separately for the documents," he said. "IT Glue would see the server involved and bring up the right documentation. This sounds like it may not be a big deal, if you think about one server. But we have 1,100 servers to manage. Think of all the customers and documents involved."

So many MSP tools are siloed, but Kaseya is starting to break down those silos with Kaseya One, Raucher said.

"We sometimes deal with separate screens even in some RMM sites," he said. "Kaseya One will start breaking down the barriers and making us more efficient. And more efficiencies means less tech time per customer, or letting each technician handle more customers. Either way, I make more money."

RMM 2.0 and Kaseya One are both very exciting from several perspectives, said Brett Johnson, founder and CEO of Simpleroute, a South Burlington, Vt.-based MSP and Kaseya partner.

The new Kaseya offerings mean less popping into or popping out of windows, Johnson told CRN. "With a single pane of glass, a technician can go into a single window and see everything, saving a lot of time," he said.

RMM 2.0 and Kaseya One will also offer another big benefit to MSPs in terms of license utilization, Johnson said.

"We have a lot of Kaseya product, and a lot of licenses we don't use," he said. "It would be nice to have a single pane of glass to bring everything together. The walls between the tools will get eroded, and over time more products will be integrated. It's not enough to do PSA (professional services automation). You need PSA with RMM and security and new things like Unitrends backups. That will really decrease the time technicians spend on support."

Like Raucher, Johnson said one of the most immediate benefits of RMM 2.0 and Kaseya One is integrating VSA and IT Glue's documentation capabilities.

"So many times, we do things we shouldn't do because no one said, 'Don't do that,'" he said. "A technician pulls up a workstation but doesn't read the documentation. Or someone tries to work on a service ticket but doesn't know he needs to call the customer. This will make things a lot easier for account management and will help smooth issues over before they become big problems."Lenovo is capturing major opportunities in a number of key growth areas with the help of channel partners, while future growth is likely to far surpass the results so far, Executive Vice President Kirk Skaugen told partners during Lenovo's Accelerate 2018 conference.

"Despite the fact that it was a transformation year for Lenovo, we hit a top line three-year growth high in the third quarter of $12.9 billion," Skaugen said, with more than 80 percent of revenue from North America coming from partners.

[Related: 10 Key Takeaways From Lenovo Accelerate 2018]

"What I can tell you is I think this year is going to put that to shame," he said during the partner conference in Las Vegas.

In the company's PC and smart devices division, for two consecutive quarters Lenovo has been outpacing the market in revenue, Skaugen told partners. Gaming and workstations are now both $1 billion per year businesses for Lenovo, he said.

"I remember running the business at Intel and asking Lenovo, 'Can you please just join the workstation market?' We've now got $1 billion of workstation business. And that could be easily $2 billion here very, very quickly," Skaugen said, while Lenovo has become "the No. 1 gaming PC company in the world in units this year as well."

Meanwhile, Skaugen said he's aiming to prove that the data center business "is on an unstoppable growth trend," with every geography closing the recent quarter with double-digit revenue growth. Going forward, Lenovo expects "far greater than market growth" in data center, he said.

Additionally, "we are now the No. 1 augmented reality company in the world. We have 80 percent market share," Skaugen said, thanks to the debut last year of "Star Wars: Jedi Challenges," an augmented-reality game that runs on Lenovo's Mirage AR headset.

Lenovo also won more recognition at CES 2018 for non-PC devices than for PCs, with recognition for smart speakers, augmented reality and virtual reality, among other areas, he said. Lenovo has "really strong growth in new devices," Skaugen said.Hitachi Vantara Wednesday expanded its storage software with enhanced intelligence for improved automation and predictive analytics in heterogeneous storage environments.

The company also unveiled several new all-flash and hybrid-flash arrays, including models that bring the Hitachi Vantara entry pricing to a new low.

Hitachi Vantara is innovating inside and outside the box to make it easier for partners to manage their customers' data centers, said Bob Madaio, vice president of infrastructure solutions marketing for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based vendor.

[Related: Hitachi Combines Data Center Infrastructure, IoT, Big Data Capabilities In New Company: Hitachi Vantara]

"Inside the box, we've increased performance and support for new environments," Madaio told CRN. "With our management software, we went outside the box. We're not just managing our storage, but other vendors' storage. We're tying together multi-vendor storage with automation."

Hitachi Vantara was formed in September by combining the Hitachi Data Systems storage and data center infrastructure business, its Hitachi Insight Group Internet of Things business, and its Pentaho big data business into one company aimed at delivering new collaborative data offerings for commercial and industrial enterprises.

When it comes to understanding how Hitachi Vantara and the storage industry are moving, it is more important to look at the vendor's software direction than it is to watch the new hardware, solution providers said.

Storage hardware is important, but all vendors' hardware has become extremely capable and gets better with new processors, cache and so on, said Chuck Strickland, strategy architect at Sirius Computer Solutions, a San Antonio-based solution provider and longtime Hitachi storage channel partner.

"But more important is the tools," Strickland told CRN. "You can easily buy more hardware. But you can't buy new engineers as easily. You need automation. You need the ability to push buttons and see things happen."

Alan Rogers, chief technology officer at Stoneworks Technologies, an Ottawa, Ontario-based solution provider and large Hitachi storage partner, told CRN that hardware is an important factor, but not the one customers want to talk about.

"People want to see real-time analytics and predictive technologies," Rogers said. "Sure, the scalability and performance of hardware is important. It's always important. But it's not a differentiator anymore. The differentiator is enabling the technology to work with modern applications, the cloud, Docker, Kubernetes."

Hitachi Vantara expanded its Hitachi Infrastructure Analytics Advisor management software, which leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to monitor storage performance and provide information about anomalies, with new predictive analytics, Madaio said.

"As the software tracks performance over time, it determines the normal range of operation," he said. "By watching and learning from the environment, it can make better choices. The software also uses heuristic techniques to pinpoint problems and dig down to the root cause."

Hitachi Infrastructure Analytics Advisor is available as a base version that provides visibility into a customer's storage infrastructure and an advanced version with built-in analytics, Madaio said. The predictive analytics is a plug-in to either version, he said.

The base version of the software is now included with all new Hitachi Vantara systems, Madaio said. It also can be purchased as a stand-alone offering for customers with older Hitachi storage infrastructure or even for customers who have never deployed Hitachi storage, he said.

The company also enhanced its Hitachi Automation Director software, which orchestrates the delivery and management of IT resources, with new integration with IT service management tools, as well as improved REST API integration to better integrate with third-party storage, Madaio said.

When connected to automation tools such as ServiceNow or Ansible, the artificial intelligence inside Hitachi Automation Director can be used to automate storage decision-making, not only for Hitachi Vantara storage but for storage from multiple vendors, Madaio said.

"For example, think of two applications, A and C, running," he said. "If A is the priority app, and the software sees an issue with C, it could automatically throttle bandwidth to C to ensure A continues operating as expected."

The Hitachi Infrastructure Analytics Advisor is a way for customers to look ahead at storage requirements with heterogeneous monitoring, predictive analytics and automation, Strickland said.

"Other vendors have offered some similar capabilities, but were startups that were acquired," he said. "The difference is that Hitachi has a big company behind it dedicated to making it work, and work in heterogeneous environments."

Predictive analytics is a very important capability in storage software, Strickland said. "We have to stop being reactive," he said. "Software today sees an issue, sends an alert, and gets someone to do something, and then the customer complains that everything is slow. We really want to look ahead three or four months, which would tremendously help with planning. We want software to alert us before trouble gets here."

The Hitachi Automation Director has become a critical part of management, Strickland said. "It can reach out to other tools, and other tools can reach out to it as part of a heterogeneous storage management system," he said.

On the hardware side, Hitachi Vantara introduced new versions of its VSP F-series all-flash arrays and G-series hybrid flash and spinning disk arrays.

The eight new arrays, four in each series, feature increased hardware capabilities as well as a new version of Hitachi Vantara's Storage Virtualization OS that when combined increase performance by up to three times that of their predecessors. All are bundled with the company's Foundation software package including infrastructure analytics and copy data management applications.

Included in the new arrays is the all-flash VSP F350 which, with the Foundation software package, has a starting list price of $70,480. The F350, at that price, includes 7.6 TB of raw flash storage capacity, a 36-month standard maintenance contract, Hitachi Storage Advisor for management, Hitachi Data Instance Director for data protection and copy management, and the Hitachi Infrastructure Analytics Advisor.

Along with the new arrays, Hitachi Vantara is also bringing its flat service model pricing to its hybrid flash arrays for the first time, Madaio said. With flat service model pricing, customer support contracts are priced so that the cost remains constant throughout the length of the contract, he said.

While competitors such as NetApp and Dell EMC have announced and/or are shipping all-flash arrays featuring the latest high-performance NVMe SSDs, Hitachi Vantara is not likely to do so until some time next year, Madaio said.

Hitachi Vantara's new entry point pricing move for its all-flash storage arrays is a good move for customers, said Joe Kadlec, vice president and senior partner at Consiliant Technologies, an Irvine, Calif.-based solution provider and longtime Hitachi storage channel partner.

"I love the idea of having a cost-competitive entry point for storage with the robustness of Hitachi's architecture," Kadlec told CRN.Branching Out

For VeloCloud founder Sanjay Uppal, there's only one way for the SD-WAN pioneer to go as part of VMware. Up.

"We were a small company, and despite the fact that we were No. 1 in the space, it has really picked up since VMware acquired us," Uppal said in an interview with CRN during the Dell Technologies World conference in Las Vegas.

Uppal, now vice president and general manager of the VeloCloud business within VMware, is in the midst of guiding his company through integration with VMware and the wider Dell Technologies family. That integration starts with the company's go-to-market strategy, and Uppal expects VMware's large channel operation to significantly boost VeloCloud's growth.

Central to the integration efforts is a push to train partners across the VMware-VeloCloud community, Uppal said. Since the acquisition last December, VeloCloud has trained nearly 1,000 people, Uppal said. "Those conversations get translated to conversations we have with businesses out there and translates into more [proof-of-concepts], and more POCs leads to more business," he said.

What follows is an edited excerpt of Uppal's conversation with CRN.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has granted authorization for an agreement between the Port of Brisbane and Carnival Corporation to develop a new $158 million cruise terminal in Brisbane, subject to two conditions, it said in a statement.

Under the agreement, Carnival will pay a fixed annual amount to the port for 15 years in return for preferential berthing rights at the new terminal.

These include 100 "Foundation Berthing Days" a year, giving Carnival first pick of 100 days at the terminal each year, up to a maximum of four days a week.

"We recognize that the deal with Carnival helps to underwrite the projected $158 million investment for the Port of Brisbane to build the new terminal," ACCC Commissioner Roger Featherston said.

"Brisbane has no dedicated mega cruise ship terminal, and the construction of this terminal is expected to increase tourism and deliver a real benefit to the community and the Queensland economy."

"While we understand the important benefits a dedicated cruise ship terminal would bring to Brisbane, we have concerns that parts of the agreement between the Port of Brisbane and Carnival would limit consumer choice and entrench Carnival as the dominant cruise operator in Brisbane for 15 years. Thats why we have approved this agreement with two conditions," Featherston said.

Under the first condition, Carnival will still get its choice of four days each week, but cannot book more than two of the three "weekend" days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) in any given week, which are the most popular and profitable days, the ACCC said.

"This means one of these premium weekend days will be available to competitors so other cruise operators can compete with Carnival in Brisbane. If no other operator books the third weekend day, Carnival will be allowed to use it," Featherston said.

The second condition of authorization is that if the terminal is expanded in the future to provide a second berth, Carnival cannot be given first right of refusal for an agreement which would give it first choice of days at that berth, the ACCC stated.

"Our decision means that if a second berth is built, we should see improved competition between cruise lines," Featherston said.BRIDGEPORT - A local man has been charged in connection with a ring that police said has been stealing luxury and expensive cars from New York and selling them on Craigslist.

Virgilio Obaldia, 32, of Berkshire Avenue, was charged with first-degree larceny, second-degree larceny, criminal impersonation and second-degree forgery following an investigation by the state Department of Motor Vehicle auto theft unit, the FBI and New York City police.STRATFORD  A Stratford man faces up to a decade in prison after he pleaded guilty to a charge against him from an incident last fall, the Department of Justice said.

Matthew Petrovitch, 38, of Stratford pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon, the DOJ announced Wednesday.

Just two weeks prior to his court date in New Haven on Tuesday, Petrovitch pleaded guilty to state charges related to this incident in a Bridgeport courtroom, the DOJ said. Court records show those charges were two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment, interfering with an emergency call and second-degree threatening.

When Petrovitch is sentenced, he faces a maximum term of 10 years imprisonment. He is detained pending sentencing.

Stratford police went to Petrovitchs residence on Sept. 26, 2017, to investigate a claim from a female victim that he physically assaulted her and threatened her with a firearm while she was holding a young child, the DOJ said.

Petrovitch was taken into custody and officers searched the residence. The DOJ said officers found and seized an AK-74 semiautomatic rifle, a short-barreled shotgun and more than 350 rounds of assorted ammunition.

The short-barreled shotgun was not registered to Petrovitch, the DOJ said. It was unclear who the rifle was registered to, if anyone.

It is a violation of federal law for a person previously convicted of a felony offense to possess a firearm or ammunition that has moved in interstate or foreign commerce, the DOJ said.

In March 2000, Petrovitch was convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree assault and third-degree robbery, the DOJ said.MILFORD  A Milford man is facing charges after, police said, he took a credit card from a co-worker and used it several times.

Nicholas Timlin, 26, of Milford, was charged with credit card theft, illegal use of a credit card, identity theft and sixth-degree larceny.Minister vows to end cartels and put in jail its supporters

The Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Matrika Prasad Yadav, on Wednesday declared his intent to end the hegemony of all kinds of syndicates operating in agencies under the aegis of his ministry and incarcerating in jail those supporting them.Dan Haar /Hearst Connecticut Media

Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr. will remain a member of the General Assembly through 2018 but at 2 a.m. Thursday, as he exited the Capitol with a soft briefcase slung over his shoulder, his last scheduled Senate session was behind him after two, 2-year terms.

Other senators left for the last time too, including Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, and Sen. Edwin Gomes, D-Bridgeport, after longer tenures. But Kennedy, a Branford Democrat, brought a unique perspective on the state legislature compared with U.S. Congress.Conrad Martin

Sake is a rice wine that's been brewed in its native Japan for centuries. Now it's also being brewed out of an industrial loft in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Brian Polen and Brandon Doughan co-founded Brooklyn Kura after the pair met in Japan for a wedding and bonded over their love of sake. When Polen proved that brewing their own sake had legs, Doughan moved across the country from Oregon to New York to start the business. Brooklyn Kura opened its doors earlier this year.There will be a lot of noise surrounding the Connecticut GOP nominating convention Friday and Saturday at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, and it wont all be from the slot machines and ice clinking in empty glasses.

But if theres one thing party chairman J.R. Romano can say for certain will come out of the weekend  hes not making any predictions about the outcomes  its a unified message across the Republican ticket, no matter who the nominees are.

If theres anything to take away, itll be a message of hope for the state of Connecticut, Romano said. The people that are going to be vying for a nomination are truly dedicated towards putting Connecticut back on a path to prosperity.

The 12 candidates fighting for the GOP nomination for governor have gotten the most attention. ?But the party will select candidates for the rest of the ticket, too, and those are names to know.

Still in the race for governor are Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton, Stamford CFO Mike Handler, former Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, Fairfield resident Peter Lumaj, Westport businessman Steve Obsitnik, Glastonbury state Rep. Prasad Srinivisan, Greenwich businessman David Stemerman, New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, Greenwich businessman Peter Thalheim and former U.S. Comptroller Dave Walker. Madison businessman Bob Stefanowski isnt participating in the convention  hes attempting to petition onto the August primary ballot instead  but he plans to be at Foxwoods nonetheless.

If thats not enough names to follow, there are at least five candidates already in the race for Lieutenant Governor. They are Westbrook Republican Ann Brookes, Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson, state Sen. Joe Markley, Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei and Columbia First Selectman Steven Everett.

Former New Fairfield first selectman Susan Chapman is the lone Republican candidate for secretary of the state.

Litchfield County businessman Mark Greenberg and Seymour First Selectman Kurt Miller will go head to head in the Comptrollers race, while State Sen. Art Linares and Salisbury businessman Thaddeus Gray vie for the treasurers nomination.

You have to think of it like the New York Yankees, Romano said. Every one of them play a role in putting Connecticut on a better path. If we want Connecticut to win again we have to put a team on the field that is willing to do the work and solve the problem.

The party isnt putting up much of an internal fight for federal offices. There are no candidates in the 1st, 2nd or 3rd Congressional Districts that have reported raising any money for a race, according to the Federal Elections Commission. And while its hard to run a race without funding, Angel Cadena, Jr., who challenged Democrat Rosa DeLauro in the 3rd District two years ago, is back for more.

Harry Arora, an investment manager from Greenwich, is the lone candidate who has raised money to challenge incumbent Democrat Jim Himes in the 4th District.

The suddenly contentious 5th District race has drawn a handful of candidates since Democrat Elizabeth Esty announced she would not seek re-election in April. Republican hopefuls include former Meriden Mayor Manny Santos and Southburys Ruby ONeill, the vice chair of the state Commission on Equity and Opportunity.

kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasseltModi to hold talks with Oli to deepen bilateral ties

On the eve of his third visit to Nepal, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that he would be holding extensive talks with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on ways to further deepen bilateral relations.Australia Points The Finger At Russia For Cyberattacks

Australian intelligence agencies have identified Russia as the actor behind a series of cyberattacks on Australia, the US and the UK in 2017, the government has revealed. There is now a push to expand the powers of the country's cyber spy agency to collect intelligence on Australians is being backed by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.

The controversial idea to restructure the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) is strongly opposed by some in Cabinet who argue it is not necessary.

Recently thousands of unsecure Australian routers were accessed and Defence Minister Marise Payne (pictured) confirmed there were potentially 400 Australian companies affected.

Despite the breach, the government said there was no indication Australian information has been successfully compromised.

The government's cyber-security office has contacted all the businesses on the list to alert them to the risk.

In Australia, the hack only affected private companies. Treasurer Scott Morrison told SBS News no Australian departments or agencies were impacted.

Advice circulated by US and UK authorities warned Cisco routers, a common commercial brand, were affected.

Fergus Hanson, head of cyber security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the Russian government may have been trying to establish control over networks for use in later attacks.

Essentially you've got Russia exploiting vulnerabilities in Cisco routers to potentially conduct a whole range of activities, from espionage to pre-positioning for attacks on critical infrastructure, Mr Hanson said.

Cyber-attacks can, for example, cause widespread chaos by shutting down energy grids. Mr Hanson said the affected routers were old models that had not been patched with the latest software.

They're legacy pieces of equipment that are being phased out but they've got vulnerabilities as a result of the fact that they, for example, have not been patched."

Cyber Security Minister Angus Taylor, who is in the US for a cyber conference, told SBS News the government was "now seeking to hold bad behaviour to account". He said it was now possible to identify the culprits behind many attacks, including state actors like Russia. Asked whether the government would publically name Russia and other actors more often in the future, Mr Taylor said "I think we will."

Analysts have speculated Russia may use cyber-attacks to retaliate over recent Western airstrikes on Moscow's ally Syria. Russia said there would be consequences for the strike but did not offer any more detail.

While this hack occurred in 2017, Mr Hanson suggested there could be a connection, suggesting Australia and its allies may have believed the Russians were about to utilise the exploits they set up last year.

What may be the case is they've had a particular piece of intelligence that might suggest, for example, the Russians are going to use a cyber means to respond to those attacks on Syria, they've threatened retaliation and they may be pre-empting, Mr Hanson said.

He also suggested the three countries may have sat quietly on the intelligence because they were using the knowledge to understand Russias methods.Russia has not responded to the accusations, but regularly denies any role in state-sponsored hacking.

SBS: ABC:



You Might Also Read:

Russian Hackers Steal $10M From Banks:

Australias Sharp Turn To Information Warfare:For Subscribers State Supreme Court's disciplinary board takes an interest in Thomas

The state Supreme Court has the power to strip people of their ability to perform legal duties by suspending or disbarring certification.Kidnapping of seven Indian engineers in Afghanistan along with their Afghan driver who worked for the Da Afghanistan Breshna Sherkat company that operates a power station in northern Baghlan has once again brought to the fore the worsening security situation in that country, but also how precarious Indian involvement in the nation is becoming. Though no group has claimed responsibility for these kidnappings, the local Afghan leadership has put the blame on the Taliban. The Afghan government has assured New Delhi that it would leave no stone unturned to protect and free the Indian engineers.

File photo of Taliban terrorists arrested by Afghan security forces in Jalalabad, Afghanistan (Reuters)

Terror rising

Security situation in Afghanistan has been highly volatile in recent weeks. Just recently, more than 50 people died in a coordinated double suicide bombing in Kabul and a shooting in the eastern Khost province. Those killed included 10 journalists. The Taliban launched their 2018 spring offensive last week even as the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for recent bombings, including attack on a voter registration centre, which killed 60 people.

The Taliban and the ISIS are competing with each other and, in the process, the level of destruction and mayhem is reaching the extreme. While both the Taliban and the ISIS want to overthrow the US-backed Afghan government and impose strict Islamic rule, the Talibans focus has largely been government officials and security forces, even as the ISIS has been targeting civilians from Afghanistans Shia-Hazara minority, who it views as apostates.

The Afghan states capacity is under siege and the insurgents are doing all they can to underscore its growing vulnerabilities. Regular attacks on government ministries and organisers of Octobers parliamentary and district elections underscore the ability of the insurgents to take on the government forces at a time and place of their choosing. As it is, less than 60 per cent of Afghanistan is being controlled by the government forces, according to various estimates. As per the latest report of Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the Afghan army and police together have 36,000 fewer personnel today than they did last year as a result of desertions and casualties.

Recognising its limitations, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani made one last-ditch effort in February to restart the peace process by offering to recognise the Taliban as a legitimate political group. He suggested that he was willing to consider a ceasefire and a release of prisoners, including inclusive elections, and in return, the Taliban would have to recognise the Afghan government and respect the rule of law.

But the Taliban have so far not considered it important enough. Instead they want direct talks with the US even as the Trump administration is struggling to come up with a coherent policy.

Old phenomenon

US President Donald Trumps heart is clearly not in the Afghan war, but his administration bought into the arguments of Gen John Nicholson, the US commander in Afghanistan, leading to a deployment of an additional 3,000 troops, taking the total of US forces in Afghanistan to about 14,000. The security situation on the ground, however, continues to be shaped by a logic of its own.

Kidnaps in Afghanistan are not a new phenomenon. Last year, a Finnish aid worker was kidnapped from a Kabul guest house and released some months later. Before that in 2011, 12 Iranian and Afghan engineers were kidnapped while working on a road project in western Afghanistan. And Indians and Indian interests have been regular targets as well. As early as in 2003, two Indian engineers were abducted while assault on Indian outposts has continued unabated. The Indian consulate in Kabul was attacked in 2008 by a suicide bomber, resulting in the loss of lives of 55 people and wounding hundreds. This was followed by another attack on the Indian Embassy a year later and then, in 2010, a guest house frequented by Indians was targeted, killing several doctors.

India has done well to continue its engagement despite facing the wrath of its adversaries (Reuters)

The challenges

There more than 150 Indian engineers and technical experts working in Afghanistan on major infrastructure projects and their protection has been a matter of concern for New Delhi. Yet Indias engagement with Kabul has remained robust despite these challenges. Last year, India and Afghanistan inaugurated two air-corridors to boost connectivity and it has resulted in significant increase trade volumes. As part of a next-generation New Development Partnership, India is now implementing 116 new high impact development projects in 31 provinces of Afghanistan. India has given four military helicopters to Afghanistan and is imparting training to Afghan security personnel. It remains open to extending further assistance to bolster the armed forces of Afghanistan, though overall New Delhis approach on military matters remains one of caution.

Indias engagement in Afghanistan is crucial for the Afghan states long-term viability and India has done well to continue its engagement despite facing the wrath of its adversaries. But, New Delhi will also have to figure out a way of protecting its nationals and other assets at a time when the Afghan security situation is getting worse by the day. The challenges for India are only going to grow and New Delhi cannot forever continue to rely on the benevolence of others.

(Courtesy of Mail Today)

Also read: Why abduction of 7 Indians in Afghanistan could be a fallout of Modi-Xi Wuhan meetUS President Donald Trump's decision to walk out of the Iran nuclear deal is a body blow for Tehran. Though the deal is not yet dead, with the rest of the signatories promising to keep it alive, the tough sanctions that the US has slapped on Iran would make it impossible for European and other companies to do business with the country.

America will insist that any company involved in Iran be barred from working in the US. That will make things very difficult for multinationals. The obvious choice then for multinational firms to do business would always be the US, world's largest economy.

Whether France, Britain and Germany will eventually stay the course is not certain.

Trump's move to break the deal was long expected. He had been thrashing the landmark agreement as rotten from the day it was signed.

All through his election campaign, he had promised to tear up the deal, considered one of the most significant achievements of the Barack Obama administration in its second term.

Trump would have done this earlier but for the wise counsel of his former secretary of state Rex Tillerson and his earlier national security adviser HR McMaster. Both have been replaced by rabid right wingers Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, respectively. They are on the same page as Trump on the Iran deal.

Russia, China, Germany, France, Britain as well as the European Union, are all committed to stay on track. Donald Trump has once again proved that international commitments mean nothing to him. He pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accord, as well as the Trans-Pacific Agreement. Analysts are wondering what message Trump's decision not to honour the agreement, will send to North Korea. Kim Jong-un and Trump are expected to meet possibly next month in Singapore. How can any country now trust the US? The North Korean leader, naturally suspicious, will now take some convincing to stop his nuclear programme.

For hardliners in Iran, who have never appreciated the deal, this would be a godsend. President Hassan Rouhani and other moderate elements in the country will be weakened considerably. For ordinary Iranians hoping for some reprieve from decades of crippling Western sanctions there is little hope. Trump, backed by Israel's hardliner Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Saudi Arabia want a regime change in Iran.

They hope that the people would throw out the regime because of economic hardships. That is a tough ask as nationalist sentiment will now come to the fore.

India will be in a spot of bother. Delhi is good at doing a tightrope walk, it has done it for years between Israel and Palestine. India will try its best to maintain its current ties with Iran without offending the US. Some nimble diplomatic footwork will have to be done and Delhi is generally good at that.

In its first reactions to the US pulling out, the Indian stand was in line with what France, Britain and Germany are saying, build on it don't let it go. The MEA statement said: "India has always maintained that the Iranian nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully through dialogue and diplomacy by respecting Iran's right to peaceful use of nuclear energy as also the international community's strong interest in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's programme. All parties should engage constructively to address and resolve issues that have arisen.''

India had similarly stood by the Paris accord and promised to do its best to combat climate change.

All through the decades of US sanctions on Iran, Delhi had continued to buy oil from the country saying it only respects restrictions imposed by the United Nations, not individual countries.

However, India had reduced its imports to Iran as it was difficult to negotiate the financial sanctions the US slapped on companies doing business with Iran. Also at the time when India was negotiating the civil nuclear deal, it began to cut down on oil imports. But since the nuclear agreement, India has been increasing its oil imports from Tehran.

Today Iran is the third-largest supplier of oil to India. World oil prices will shoot up as a result of the sanctions on Iran and it is unlikely that India can protect itself from this. It will hit India's economy hard.

But India's ambitious plans with regards to the Chabahar Port may take a hit. Delhi will have to work hard to protect its strategic interests in Iran. The plan to find an alternative route to Afghanistan and Central Asian countries has been in the works for over a decade.

With Pakistan refusing transit through its territory to Afghanistan and the Central Asian republics, the strategy was to use the Iranian port of Chabahar for trade. The Chabahar project had just about gathered momentum after the nuclear agreement was signed.

New Delhi has committed $85 million to develop a berth in the Chabahar Port, it was planning to invest another $500 million in future. Sanctions on Iran, especially if they are strictly enforced which is likely, will further delay the project.

Both Kabul and Delhi celebrated when the first ship load of 1.1 million tonnes of wheat was sent to Afghanistan through Chabahar. The plan to expand trade will be now be adversely impacted.

Another much talked about plan - the International North South Transport Corridor, which involves both Iran and Russia will also be difficult to execute. This is a major connectivity project, which would expand from Iran through Central Asia to Russia.

However, these are early days and much will depend on whether Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain can work with Iran to keep the deal afloat.

Also read: Rahul Gandhi is everything that Modi is not  he's an ideal PM choiceAnil Giri is a reporter covering diplomacy, international relations and national politics for The Kathmandu Post. Giri has been working as a journalist for a decade-and-a-half, contributing to numerous national and international media outlets.The all-party proposal to declare a unilateral ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir during Ramzan is nothing if not palpably hare-brained. Only a collection of the most obtuse minds could support an idea that has absolutely nothing to commend itself at this point in time.

Not only is the logic and assumption underlying this proposal deeply flawed, even the historical example  the Ramzan ceasefire announced by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2000  being used to push the case for a ceasefire doesnt apply in the current situation.

Far from "restoring the confidence of the people", or improving the situation on the ground, even creating a conducive climate for a fresh political initiative in Kashmir, a ceasefire at this stage will only push things into a downward spiral  it could perhaps even disrupt the security grid which has been restored with great difficulty, after paying a heavy price in the lives and limbs of our security forces.

No, it's not the route to peace

The situation in the Valley today is very different from 2000. At that time, contact had been established with the Hizbul Mujahideen leadership in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and India pulled off a coup of sorts by getting the tallest Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Abdul Majid Dar, to come back and enter a dialogue with the government. Even the so-called supreme commander of Hizbul, Syed Salahuddin, was toying with the idea of returning to Kashmir. There was an identifiable leadership with which a dialogue could be explored.

What is more, the people being engaged with had the stature and following to make a difference on the ground. Back then, the so-called Hurriyat Conference still had some credibility, even some following. While it seemed that the ceasefire was impromptu, the fact is, a lot happened behind the scenes before the ceasefire was declared.

Today, none of those conditions exist.

The Hurriyat neither commands the guns (read "terrorists"), nor controls the street (read "stone-pelters"). At best, the Hurriyat, or if you will, "Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL)", are a bunch of dummies who act as figureheads of the separatist movement.

Their only role is to function as a post office to pass on the instructions they receive from their masters in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad to ground-level workers. While the Hizbul has made a comeback of sorts, and is the go-to terror outfit for the guys who want to pick up the gun, organisationally, its command and control structure is no longer what it was in its heyday in the 1990s or even, the early 2000s. It is now more of a label than an organisation.

Whose militancy is it, anyway?

In many ways, this militancy today is structurally more fragmented, even diffused, than it was in the past. While the networks, linkages and support structures that sustain the militants might be of Hizbul, operationally, the local commanders are pretty much their own masters  and not bound by the diktats of the Hizbul leadership in PoK. They are far more Islamised and radical than their predecessors were  for anyone to think that they will respect the sanctity of Ramzan and refrain from violent terror attacks is to live in a world of alternate reality.

This means that there is no one to engage with  at least, no one who can deliver anything on real ground. While it is all very well to talk of the need for a dialogue, the question no one answers is  dialogue with whom?

Those pretending to be leaders control nothing. They dont even have the courage to engage in a dialogue unless instructed to do so by their masters in Pakistan. Those with guns are not interested in any sort of a dialogue.

Hence, the question: Dialogue with whom?

And even if a credible interlocutor is identified, then there is the question: what will be the framework of such a dialogue? What will be discussed in this dialogue?

There is total radio silence on these questions from the advocates of a dialogue.

This then begs the question: what will a ceasefire achieve?

Netas want a ceasefire - who'll pay the price?

Army chief General Bipin Rawat has expressed his readiness to suspend military operations, but has  very rightly  asked who will stand guarantee that there will be no attacks from the other side. With no guarantors on a cessation of violence from the other side, a unilateral ceasefire is tantamount to making the security forces cannon fodder for terrorists and murderous mobs.

The security forces have notched up significant successes in their anti-terrorist operations over the last year or so. They have steadily increased the pressure on the militants and anti-state elements  so much so that the average shelf life of a terrorist is not more than a few weeks, at best, a few months now.

Declaring a ceasefire at this stage will be nothing more than allowing the entire pressure thats been built to be released.

It will create space for the separatists to regroup. It will only lead to more casualties when hostilities resume, as they inevitably will.

If anything, Kashmir is a story of the failure of politics  nothing is more emblematic of this than the ill-advised proposal of a ceasefire. Even after the security forces manage to restore a semblance of order in the state, the politicians fall over themselves to foul up the situation again. They keep parroting that Kashmir is a political problem, but they never quite specify or define the parameters of this problem, much less the solution.

The entire political class in Kashmir has perfected the art of running with the hare and hunting with the hound. This is why, on the one hand, you have Omar Abdullah shed crocodile tears over the death of a tourist at the hands of stone-pelters, while his father lauds stone pelters as "freedom fighters". You have the BJP which thinks that merely being part of the state government is in itself a great achievement.

In fact, in J&K, the BJP is a classic case of a party which wants it all ways, but gets lost somewhere in between. The PDP is running the government, but isnt ready to use its political capital to change the narrative in the Valley, even less so in its bastion of South Kashmir.

All these politicians want the Centre to take an initiative  when they should themselves be taking the lead to make a political outreach to wean the disaffected people away from the path of violence.

Instead, their ambivalence in taking clear-cut positions  and their prevarication on the violence thats wrecking the Valley  is only making matters worse.

What Kashmir needs is not a ceasefire.

What it needs is for the security forces to ramp up the pressure on the separatist-terrorist mafia and dismantle the economic system that sustains them.

What Kashmir also needs is an unambiguous message from the political class. Rather than the Army chief, it should be the political class that should clearly state terrorism isnt azadi, the Talibanisation of Kashmir isnt azadi, the Islamic State of Kashmir isnt azadi and the Pakistanisation of Kashmir is the anti-thesis of azadi  for evidence, ask the Baloch, Pashtuns, Sindhis and Mohajirs.

The day the politicians summon the courage to say this, that is the day the tide will start turning.

Until then, let the security forces do what they are doing and refrain from advocating a ceasefire.The arrest of Vinay Bansal, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwals nephew is not the first case of police onslaught on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and people related to it. It didnt come as a surprise, at all.

The "do logon ki sarkar" (government run by two men) at the Centre has made it clear since the AAP came to power in Delhi that it would leave no stone unturned to take revenge for the massive loss it faced in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections.

The PWD Case: Bit by bit

Vinay Bansals father, the late Surendra Bansal, was a contractor with the PWD for around 15-20 years, before he died in 2017. It was not that he started working with the Delhi government after the AAP came to power in February 2015.

The said contract was awarded to Bansals firm before the AAP came to power in Delhi. The work was awarded to his firm during Presidents rule. It was for construction of a drain.

The drain was constructed by the company. Third party certification of the construction was done by IIT-Roorkee. The PWD also handed over certificate of completion to the company after a site visit and the third party certification.

Later in 2017, a politically motivated FIR was registered by the lately "infamous" Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) against Bansals firm. The company was charged with not having executed the work of constructing the drain properly. A quality check of the drain was assigned to the Sriram Labs, which later gave a clean chit to the work done. The PWD also remained firm on its stand over the work and cleared it of any compromise with quality.

Even the media reported that the people who were using the drain were happy with the quality of work done by the firm. Then why was Bansal haunted by the ACB?

Lets try to understand.

ACB: A guided missile

Delhis Anti-Corruption Branch is a part of the vigilance department of the government of Delhi. It even worked on the directions of the elected government for the first few months after the AAP came to power. However, the Centre, through a notification of the Ministry of Home Affairs, took over the control of the ACB and the story changed from here.

The new story has a clear, one-sided narrative. The ACB will work as an agency to malign the elected government of Delhi led by Arvind Kejriwal. Cases would be registered, the AAP leaders/functionaries would be questioned and the agency would leak stories defaming the elected government of Delhi.

One of the former ACB chiefs was quite vocal and was seen speaking to the media numerous times on cases against the members of the AAP and the elected government.

But, even after nearly 40 months of hounding the AAP through the ACB and other agencies, the masters of these agencies have failed to collect evidence of any wrongdoing.

The "do logon ki sarkar" uses the ACB as its apna chaheta bachha (favourite child) who would be unleashed against Arvind Kejriwal and his team.

Raids, arrests  nothing new for AAP

It is a clear-cut case of political use of the ACB to malign the name of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and the elected government.

The "do logon ki sarkar" having failed miserably in finding anything against Arvind Kejriwal, his MLAs and ministers is now stooping to a new low and targeting Kejriwal's relatives.

The Modi government has got Arvind Kejriwal investigated/raided by all agencies, Manish Sisodia's premises raided by the CBI, Satyendra Jain hounded by the Enforcement Directorate, I-T department and other agencies. And what has been the result of these onslaughts? Nothing.

In most of the cases, the agencies have received flak from the court of law for wrongfully arresting AAP MLAs. Such blatant use of force against a political opponent is not democracy.

The masters of these agencies should also understand that the AAP leadership and its functionaries are not going to crumble under such pressure. We have grown stronger facing their repression in the past 40 months.

The AAP is not just a political party, but a political revolution and revolutions whenever crushed have gone from strength to strength.

(The writer is a former advisor to the government of Delhi and a functionary of the Aam Aadmi Party.)

Also read: Why we're talking about Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone at Met GalaBristow Group Inc. provides industrial aviation services to the offshore energy companies in Europe Caspian, Africa, the Americas, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers helicopter charter services to transport personnel between onshore bases and offshore production platforms, drilling rigs, and other installations, as well as to transport time-sensitive equipment to these offshore locations. It also provides search and rescue services for the oil and gas industry, and governmental agencies; and aircraft support services. The company was formerly known as Offshore Logistics Inc. and changed its name to Bristow Group Inc. in February 2006. Bristow Group Inc. was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Read MoreNEA to end power cuts in industrial areas

The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has set out to conquer new horizons after eliminating load-shedding for residential customers that ended decades of suffering for the Nepali people.CAE Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and supplies simulation equipment and training solutions to defense and security markets, commercial airlines, business aircraft operators, helicopter operators, aircraft manufacturers, and healthcare education and service providers worldwide. The company's Civil Aviation Training Solutions segment provides training solutions for flight, cabin, maintenance, and ground personnel in commercial, business, and helicopter aviation; flight simulation training devices; and ab initio pilot training and crew sourcing services, as well as end to end digitally-enabled crew management, training operations solutions, and optimization software. Its Defence and Security segment offers training and mission support solutions for defense forces across multi-domain operations, and for government organizations responsible for public safety. The company's Healthcare segment provides integrated education and training solutions, including surgical and imaging simulations, curriculum, audiovisual and centre management platforms, and patient simulators to healthcare students and clinical professionals. The company was formerly known as CAE Industries Ltd. and changed its name to CAE Inc. in June 1993. CAE Inc. was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Saint-Laurent, Canada.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given iShares Global Industrials ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares Global Industrials ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.The following companies are subsidiares of Sysco: 2234829 Alberta ULC, 2234842 Alberta ULC, A. M. Briggs Inc., A.M. Briggs, Almacen Fiscal Frionet Caldera S.A., Almacen Fiscal Frionet Limon S.A., Appert's Foodservice, Arnotts (Fruit) Limited, Asian Foods, Bahamas Food Holdings Limited, Bahamas Food Services Limited, Brake Bros, Brake Bros Foodservice Ireland Limited, Brake Bros. Foodservice Limited, Brake Bros. Holding I Limited, Brake Bros. Ltd., Brakes Foodservice NI Limited, Buchy Food Service, Buckhead Beef Co., Buckhead Meat & Seafood of Houston Inc., Buckhead Meat Company, Buckhead Meat Midwest Inc., Buckhead Meat of Dallas Inc., Buckhead Meat of Denver Inc., Buckhead Meat of San Antonio LP, Buzztable Inc., CAKE Corporation, Central Seafood Co., Christys Wine & Spirits Limited, Clafra Aktiebolag, Colorado Boxed Beef Co - Specialty meat-cutting division, Corporacion Frionet Sociedad Anonima, Crossgar Foodservice, Crossgar Foodservice Limited, Crown I Enterprises Inc., Cucina Acquisitions (UK) Limited, Cucina Finance (UK) Limited, Cucina French Holdings Limited, Cucina Fresh Finance Limited, Cucina Fresh Investments Limited, Cucina Lux Investments Limited, Curleys Quality Foods Limited (Third Party), Davigel Belgilux S.A., Davigel Espana S.A., Desert Meats & Provisions, Distagro, Doerle Food Service, Doughtie's Foods Inc., Dust Bowl City LLC, Eko Fagel Fisk o mittemellan AB, Enclave Insurance Company, Enclave Parkway Association Inc., Enclave Properties LLC, European Imports, European Imports Inc., Figg Inc., Freedman Meats, Freedman Meats Inc., Freedman-KB Inc., Fresh Direct (UK) Limited, Fresh Direct Group Limited, Fresh Direct Limited, Fresh Holdings Limited, FreshPoint, FreshPoint Arizona Inc., FreshPoint Atlanta Inc., FreshPoint California Inc., FreshPoint Central California Inc., FreshPoint Central Florida Inc., FreshPoint Connecticut LLC, FreshPoint Dallas Inc., FreshPoint Denver Inc., FreshPoint Hawaii LLC, FreshPoint Inc., FreshPoint Las Vegas Inc., FreshPoint North Carolina Inc., FreshPoint North Florida Inc., FreshPoint Oklahoma City LLC, FreshPoint Pompano Real Estate LLC, FreshPoint Puerto Rico LLC, FreshPoint San Francisco Inc., FreshPoint South Florida Inc., FreshPoint South Texas Inc., FreshPoint Southern California Inc., FreshPoint Tomato LLC, FreshPoint Vancouver Ltd., Freshfayre Limited, Fruktservice i Helsingborg AB, GHS Classic Drinks Limited, Gilchrist & Soames Inc., Gilchrist & Soames UK Limited, Guest Packaging LLC, Guest Supply, Guest Supply Asia Limited, Guest Supply Singapore Pte. Ltd., International Food Group, Isakssons Frukt & Gront AB, J & M Wholesale Meats, J. Kings Food Service Professionals, J. Kings Food Service Professionals Inc., Kent Frozen Foods, Les Ateliers Du Gout, Liquid Assets Limited, M&J Seafood Holdings Limited, M&J Seafood Limited, Manchester Mills LLC, Mayca Autoservicio S.A., Mayca Distribuidores S.A., Menigo Foodservice AB, Mitshim Etatu Supply LP, Newport Meat Company, Newport Meat Northern California Inc., Newport Meat Pacific Northwest Inc., Newport Meat Southern California Inc., Newport Meat of Nevada Inc., North Star Holding Corporation, North Star Seafood, North Star Seafood Acquisition Corporation, North Star Seafood LLC, PFS de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Palisades Ranch Inc., Pallas Foods, Pallas Foods Farm Fresh Unlimited Company, Pallas Foods Unlimited Company, Pauleys Produce Limited, Promotora del Servicios S.A. de C.V., Restaurangakdemien AB, Restaurant of Tomorrow Inc., Rohan Viandes Elaboration SAS, SMS Bermuda Holdings, SMS GPC International Limited, SMS GPC International Resources Limited, SMS Global Holdings S.a.r.l., SMS International Resources Ireland Unlimited Company, SMS Lux Holdings LLC, SOTF LLC, SYY Netherlands C.V., SYY Panama S. de R.L., Serca Foodservice, Servicestyckarna I Johannes AB, Servicios Ameriserve S.A. de C.V., Shenzhen Guest Supply Trading Co. Limited, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) Bianchi Montegut, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) De Boiseau, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) De Garcelles, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) J.D. Lanjouan, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) Le Dauphin, Specialty Meat Holdings LLC, Stockflag Limited, Stockholms Fiskauktion AB, Supplies on the Fly, Sysco Albany LLC, Sysco Asian Foods Inc., Sysco Atlanta LLC, Sysco Autoservicio S.A., Sysco Baltimore LLC, Sysco Baraboo LLC, Sysco Bermuda Partners L.P., Sysco Boston LLC, Sysco Canada Holdings S.a.r.l., Sysco Canada Inc., Sysco Central Alabama LLC, Sysco Central California Inc., Sysco Central Florida Inc., Sysco Central Illinois Inc., Sysco Central Pennsylvania LLC, Sysco Charlotte LLC, Sysco Chicago Inc., Sysco Cincinnati LLC, Sysco Cleveland Inc., Sysco Columbia LLC, Sysco Connecticut LLC, Sysco Corporation, Sysco Corporation Director's Deferred Compensation Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Employee's 401(k) Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Executive Deferred Compensation Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Good Government Committee Inc., Sysco Corporation Retirement Trust, Sysco Corporation Supplemental Executive Retirement Trust, Sysco Corporation Supplemental Unemployment Benefits Plan Trust, Sysco Detroit LLC, Sysco Disaster Relief Foundation Inc., Sysco EI VI S. s.r.l., Sysco EU II S.a.r.l., Sysco EU III S.a.r.l., Sysco EU IV Capital Unlimited Company, Sysco EU IV S. s.r.l.., Sysco EU V S. s.r.l., Sysco Eastern Maryland LLC, Sysco Eastern Wisconsin LLC, Sysco Foundation Inc., Sysco France Holding SAS, Sysco France SAS, Sysco George Town II LLC, Sysco George Town Limited S. s.r.l.., Sysco Global Finance LLC, Sysco Global Finance LLP, Sysco Global Holdings B.V., Sysco Global Resources LLC, Sysco Global Services LLC, Sysco Grand Cayman Company, Sysco Grand Cayman II Company, Sysco Grand Cayman III Company, Sysco Grand Rapids LLC, Sysco Guernsey Limited, Sysco Guest Supply Canada Inc., Sysco Guest Supply Europe Goods Wholesalers LLC, Sysco Guest Supply Europe Limited, Sysco Guest Supply LLC, Sysco Gulf Coast LLC, Sysco Hampton Roads Inc., Sysco Hawaii Inc., Sysco Holdings II LLC, Sysco Holdings LLC, Sysco Indianapolis LLC, Sysco International Food Group Inc., Sysco International Inc., Sysco Iowa Inc., Sysco Jackson LLC, Sysco Jacksonville Inc., Sysco Kansas City Inc., Sysco Knoxville LLC, Sysco Labs Europe Limited, Sysco Labs Pvt. Ltd., Sysco Leasing LLC, Sysco Lincoln Inc., Sysco Lincoln Transportation Company Inc., Sysco Long Island LLC, Sysco Los Angeles Inc., Sysco Louisville Inc., Sysco Memphis LLC, Sysco Merchandising and Supply Chain Services Canada Inc., Sysco Merchandising and Supply Chain Services Inc., Sysco Metro New York LLC, Sysco Minnesota Inc., Sysco Montana Inc., Sysco Nashville LLC, Sysco Netherlands Partners LLC, Sysco North Central Florida Inc., Sysco North Dakota Inc., Sysco Northern New England Inc., Sysco Philadelphia LLC, Sysco Pittsburgh LLC, Sysco Portland Inc., Sysco Raleigh LLC, Sysco Resources Services LLC, Sysco Riverside Inc., Sysco Sacramento Inc., Sysco San Diego Inc., Sysco San Francisco Inc., Sysco Seattle Inc., Sysco South Florida Inc., Sysco Southeast Florida LLC, Sysco Spain Holdings SLU, Sysco Spokane Inc., Sysco St. Louis LLC, Sysco Syracuse LLC, Sysco Technologies Cayman Ltd., Sysco Technologies LLC, Sysco UK Holdings Limited, Sysco UK Limited, Sysco UK Partners LLP, Sysco USA I Inc., Sysco USA II LLC, Sysco USA III LLC, Sysco Ventura Inc., Sysco Ventures Inc., Sysco Virginia LLC, Sysco West Coast Florida Inc., Sysco Western Minnesota Inc., The SYGMA Network Inc., Upsys, Victua SAS, Walker Foods Inc., Waugh Foods, and Wild Harvest Limited.Parliament endorses four key ordinances

The Federal Parliament on Wednesday endorsed by a majority vote four ordinances issued by the government last month.The endorsement took place despite Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party (NMKP) expressing its reservations.Wall Street analysts have given iShares Edge MSCI Min Vol USA ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares Edge MSCI Min Vol USA ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.IMI plc, a specialist engineering company, designs, manufactures, and services engineered products worldwide. The company operates through three divisions: IMI Precision Engineering, IMI Critical Engineering, and IMI Hydronic Engineering. The IMI Precision Engineering division develops motion and fluid control technologies for industrial automation, commercial vehicle, life sciences, energy, and rail applications. This division offers actuators, air preparation products, pressure switches, and fittings; pneumatic, hydraulic, electric, and vacuum motion solutions; solenoid valves, angle-seat valves, motorized valves, NAMUR valves, and systems for dust filters; miniature fluid control solutions; precise and accurate syringes, syringe pumps, and rotary valves; and high-pressure control valves, nuclear valves, and pressure transmitters, as well as hydraulic solutions. It provides its products under the Norgren, Bimba, Buschjost, FAS, Herion, Kloehn, Maxseal, and Thompson Valves brands. The IMI Critical Engineering division offers flow control solutions, such as specialized valves and actuators to the fossil power, oil and gas, petrochemical, nuclear, marine, and pharmaceutical markets under the IMI Bopp & Reuther, IMI CCI, IMI Fluid Kinetics, IMI InterAtiva, IMI NH, IMI Orton, IMI PBM, IMI Remosa, IMI STI, IMI TH Jansen, IMI Truflo Marine, IMI Truflo Rona, IMI Truflo Italy IMI Z&J, and IMI Zikesch brands. The IMI Hydronic Engineering division provides products for hydronic distribution systems, which deliver heating and cooling systems to the residential and commercial building sectors. This segment offers balancing and control solutions, thermostatic control and pressurization systems, dirt and air separators, and pressure step degassers under the IMI Pneumatex, IMI TA, IMI Flow Design, IMI Heimeier, and IMI Aero-Dynamiek brands. The company was founded in 1862 and is headquartered in Birmingham, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreMAXIMUS, Inc. engages in the operation of government and human services programs. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Services; U.S. Federal Services; and Outside the U.S. The U.S. Services segment offers a variety of business process services, and appeals and assessments for state, provincial and national government programs. The U.S. Federal Services segment includes process solutions, program management, as well as system and software development, and maintenance services for various United States federal civilian programs. The Outside the U.S segment comprises of national, state, and county human services agencies with a variety of business process services, and related consulting services for welfare-to-work, child support, higher education institutions, and other human services programs. The company was founded by David V. Mastran in 1975 and is headquartered in Reston, VA.

Read MoreGuyana Goldfields Inc. provides exploration and production of gold. It engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, production, and operation of gold mineral properties. The company also owns and operates gold drilling rights. The company was formerly known as Chiboug Copper Company Limited and changed its name to Guyana Goldfields Inc. in January 1995. Guyana Goldfields Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. As of August 25, 2020, Guyana Goldfields Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Zijin Mining Group Company Limited.

Read MoreParts of Kathmandu undergo hasty makeover

The government has expedited the clean-up and maintenance works in different parts of Kathmandu for the upcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Modi begins his two-day state visit to Nepal on Friday.Population of critically endangered Gharial up in Babai River

The population of critically endangered gharials (Gavialis gangeticus) is increasing in the Babai river that flows through the Bardiya National Park (BNP).Public-sector financial mgmt meet on Saturday

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN) in association with Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA) is organising International Conference on Public-Sector Financial Management on Saturday.Shree Niwas admitted to hospital

Hindu leader Acharya Shree Niwas, who was arrested for trying to incite communal violence by staging an attack on himself to make it appear like an attempted religious assassination, has been admitted to Koshi Zonal Hospital on Wednesday night.TourMin to invite domestic airlines to go international

The Tourism Ministry is preparing to invite domestic airlines to submit open bids for international flying licences in a move to increase their market share on foreign routes.Unseasonal snowfall in Mustang threatens to disrupt Modis Muktinath visit (In photos)

Unseasonal snowfall has blanketed the Himalayan region of Mustang from Wednesday evening, where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit on May 12.This article is part of a series highlighting the Dalhousie Class of 2018  the graduates of Dal's 200th year. Read more of our Spring Convocation grad profiles.

A small town potato farmer from Grand-Sault, NB, Keenan Kavanaugh is ready to set foot on the convocation stage. Not only will he be receiving a degree in plant science on May 11, he will be addressing his peers and representing the Class of 2018 as valedictorian.



Im obviously honoured and surprised, Keenan explains. I never expected I would be voted valedictorian when I started my first year here, but its certainly a nice way to finish.



On May 11, Keenan will be given the honour of representing all graduating students of the Faculty of Agriculture. As he prepares to address hundreds of fellow graduates, Keenan admits he doesnt have one particular message to convey to his peers in his valedictorian address.



My speech wont be too serious, Ill put it that way, Keenan smiles.



Family connections



Keenan grew up in the French community of Grand-Sault, a small town close to the Quebec border. Despite French being his first language, Keenan was hesitant to pursue a secondary education at a French university, as he was more comfortable writing in English.



At the risk of sounding cliche, I really liked the idea of a small campus, Keenan explains about his decision to study at Dals Agricultural Campus. Being from a small town myself, I liked the idea of easily having one-on-one time with professors. Also, you get to know almost everyone and since a lot of people are from rural communities, from farms, or want to work with animals, its very easy to make friends since we all have common interests to start with.



As the son of a sixth-generation potato farmer, Keenan always knew he wanted to continue farming. The family farm, Thomas Kavanaugh and Sons, specializes in producing potatoes for table market.



I always knew I wanted to farm potatoes for a living, Keenan explains. But it wasnt until I began looking into different programs and universities that I decided I wanted to major in plant science.





Keenan had begun operating the sprayer on their farm and although he understood the process of applying pesticides and fertilizers, he was curious about why these were being applied to the crops and how they helped to increase the yield. Torn between pursuing business or plant science, it was the longing to understand the scientific aspect of keeping crops disease free and prosperous that drew him to plant science.



I was always interested in the complexity of how we grew potatoes, Keenan explains. I just didnt know whether or not I should be taking a business course or a plant science course. When I started doing tasks on the farm related to growing the crop, I wanted to know more about it. Ive always been good with numbers and budgeting but had little knowledge of how plants grow. I decided to major in plant science and minor in business.



From diploma to degree



Initially, Keenan had planned to pursue the two-year diploma program at Dal AC to reduce the cost of his post-secondary education. It wasnt until he learned that he was the recipient of a Harrison McCain Scholarship that he decided to pursue a four-year Plant Science degree.



Harrison McCain Scholarships and Bursaries are awarded annually to students entering university from a high school in Canada. Each award has a value of $16,000 payable over a four year course of study in the amount of $4,000 each year. Recipients are awarded based on high school grades, financial need, leadership qualities, and a recognized initiative in funding their own education. It was this financial support that allowed Keenan to pursue his full potential.



The financial support of the scholarship encouraged me to obtain my Bachelors degree, which offers both practical and theoretical learning, Keenan explains.



Looking ahead



Keenans ultimate goal is to return to his family farm with the new knowledge he has acquired from his four years studying at Dal AC. Though he plans to return full-time to Thomas Kavanagh & Sons, Keenans passion for learning will keep him enrolled at Dal AC a bit longer.



I decided to do my masters first, Keenan proudly exclaims. Im designing my research around doing it in the winter where being away from the farm is a little easier. My masters will be done on campus and will be directed at trying to solve issues within the potato industry.



On top of his newfound expertise in plant science and business, Keenan has learned to seek the knowledge and ask for help from other professionals- something that is sure to make him a better farmer.



Ive realized over the years that its okay to admit to myself and to others that I dont know or need to know everything related to my field of study, Keenan explains. Experts exist for a reason and Ive come to learn to not be afraid to ask for their help.I thought about this idea of protection and empowerment as I continue to pray about those being impacted by Covid-19. What came to mind first was the song No Weapon by Fred Hammond. Its always been one of my favorite worship songs because it reminds...The specific reasons for the rejection of approval for the merger could not be immediately ascertained.

New Delhi: Jet Airways on Wednesday said the government has not given approval for the merger of its subsidiary Jet Lite with itself, nearly three years after the proposal was announced by the full service carrier.

The merger proposal was approved by the board of Jet Airways in September 2015 and was later cleared by the airline's shareholders in April 2016.

In a BSE filing, the airline said the civil aviation ministry has not approved the merger of Jet Lite Ltd with itself. Consequently, the merger scheme stands revoked and cancelled, it added.

"Jet Lite (India) Ltd and Jet Airways (India) Ltd shall continue their respective operations as two separate legal entities with their respective Air Operator Certificates," the filing said.

The specific reasons for the rejection of approval for the merger could not be immediately ascertained.

Sahara Airlines was renamed as Jet Lite.

A Jet Airways spokesperson said it respects the decision of the ministry on the proposed scheme of merger.

In April 2007, Jet Airways had acquired Sahara Airlines for Rs 1,450 crore after an arbitration award and the latter was renamed as JetLite.

The merger would lead to greater efficiency in cash management of the merged entity and "unfettered access to cash flow generated by the combined business which can be deployed more efficiently to maximise shareholder value", the airline had said in April 2016.

Shares of Jet Airways declined 2.36 per cent to close at Rs 499.80 apiece on the BSE.New Delhi: Faced with falling profits and intense competition in the home market, Sunil Mittals Bharti Airtel is weighing various options to pare its Rs 96,000-crore debt.

A possible listing of its profitable Africa unit next year and selling stake in the tower business after Bharti Infratel merges with Indus Towers are some of the options being considered by the telco.

But analysts said these would not offer much cash to help the companys debt control programme, as the debt has already become mammoth. Besides, the company will need huge capital expenditure to match rival Jio Infocomms spending. Even if the company lists its African unit, the valuations would not be strong enough offer.

Sources said diluting about 25 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel International Netherlands, its holding company for Africa operations, could fetch the company Rs 6,000 crore to Rs 7,000 crore.

This doesnt amount to much considering that the company had a capex of Rs 24,000 crore in India last year. Recently, at a conference call, the company said it expected to spend a similar amount to boost its network.

Underpinned by a strong network modernisation programme, we expect to undertake a capex of about 600 million to 700 million in Africa. Overall, total capex will continue at Rs 27,000 to Rs 28,000 crores-mark next. To enable our spends, strengthening our balance sheet and focus on debt reduction remain key priorities, the companys CFO had said in the Q4 analyst call.

Sources said the Africa listing could take time as the company would like to improve its financials before opting for a listing. Instead, the company might look for selling a majority stake in the merged tower entity with Indus Tower, where its own tower arm Bharti Infratel is a major shareholder. But this could also face delays as the deal is yet to have all approvals in place.

The company has not yet started looking for merchant bankers to handle the possible Africa IPO on the London Stock Exchange but some informal discussions may have taken place, said sources. Airtel declined to comment on the story.

Airtel's India operations reported its first loss in 15 years of Rs 652 crore for the January-March quarter, dragged down by the continuing price war triggered by the entry of Reliance Jio.

It managed to stave off a loss at the consolidated level due to its Africa operations, which recorded a quarterly profit of Rs 698.7 crore, a big jump from Rs 26.3 crore reported a year ago. Airtel posted a consolidated profit of Rs 83 crore, down 78 per cent year-on-year.

Recently, Bharti Infratel has agreed to merge with Indus Towers in a deal that creates the world's second biggest telecom tower company with an equity value estimated at a staggering $14.6 billion.

Bharti Airtel, the majority owner of Bharti Infratel, will be the biggest shareholder in the combined company followed by Vodafone Group Plc. Indus' two other main shareholders, Idea Cellular and Providence Equity Partners, will have an option to cash out.

Bharti Airtel had said separately that it would sound out potential investors with a view to selling stakes in the combined entity.New Delhi: Officials of the telecom department and aviation ministry will meet next week to chart out the framework and guidelines for operationalising 'in-flight' data and voice connectivity, a top DoT official said today.

Telecom Commission - the highest policy making body of Department of Telecom (DoT) - on May 1 cleared a proposal for allowing wider in-flight connectivity that is now available in most of the developed markets. The decision will pave the way for travellers to use internet and voice services on mobile phone during flights in the Indian airspace.

"We plan to hold a meeting coming Monday (May 14) or Tuesday (May 15) with officials of Civil Aviation Ministry on this," Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan told reporters on the sidelines of CII Broadband Summit here.

Telecom operators may or may not be part of the upcoming meeting which will look at evolving a framework for in-flight connectivity, she added. Earlier, Sundararajan had expressed hope that the facility will be rolled out in 3-4 months, once the modalities of the niche licences and back-end agreements are worked out.

Major airlines, including Air India and Vistara, have welcomed the government's decision, and Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu has said he will ensure "earliest implementation" of the proposal.

While mobile phone use will still be restricted during takeoff and landing, Telecom Commission has approved the lifting of a ban on the use mobile phone and internet services at cruising altitudes. Globally, many airlines are already offering wi-fi for passengers, but they currently have to switch off the facility when they enter the Indian airspace.

AirAsia, Air France, British Airways, Egypt Air, Emirates, Air New Zealand, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways and Virgin Atlantic are among 30 airlines that are already allowing mobile phone use on aircraft.

A separate category of licencees - in-flight service providers - will be created for offering such services, and licence fee for such niche providers will be pegged at Re 1.As per the RBI Act, the central bank should have four deputy governors  two from within the ranks and one commercial banker and another an economist to head the monetary policy department.

New Delhi: A search panel headed by the cabinet secretary will interview nine short-listed candidates on Thursday to find a successor to RBI deputy governor SS Mundra, who completed his three-year term in July last year.

Out of about 40 applications received, the financial sector regulatory appointment search committee (FSRASC) has short-listed nine names who will appear for interview scheduled on Thursday, sources said.

Some of the bankers who have been shortlisted are IDBI Bank managing director MK Jain and SBI managing directors B Sriram and PK Gupta. A few other names from the private sector and some serving bureaucrats have also been called for interview, sources said.

As per the RBI Act, the central bank should have four deputy governors  two from within the ranks and one commercial banker and another an economist to head the monetary policy department. The search panel also includes the RBI governor, the financial services secretary and some independent members.

Although interviews were conducted on July 29 last year, the government decided to start the process all over again in January this year. According to the public notice published on the ministrys website earlier this year, applicants should have at least 15 years of experience in banking and financial market operations.

Besides, applicants should have extensive experience as a full-time director or board member and possess understanding at a very senior level, of supervision and compliance in the financial sector, it had said.New Delhi: Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu will tomorrow discuss the credit-related issues of gems and jewellery exporters with bankers in Mumbai.

The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) is organising a banking summit in the maximum city to discuss credit-related matters. The industry has been urging bankers not to reduce their current credit limits as this would hamper and erode exports and employment creation.

"We want to address their problem. It's a genuine problem. They are facing lot of challenges. We will tell banks to come out with a foolproof system but do not deprive the sector of credit," Prabhu told PTI.

The meeting assumes significance as the Reserve Bank in March banned issuance of letters of undertaking (LoUs) and letters of comfort (LoCs), used extensively for trade finance, following the Nirav Modi fraud case.

Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia, Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar and SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar would participate in the deliberations, among other government, industry and bank officials.

The country's gems and jewellery exports contracted by 8 per cent to about USD 32.72 billion in 2017-18. Main export destinations are the US, Europe, Japan and China.

America accounts for about one-fourth of the country's total gems and jewellery exports. The labour-intensive sector contributes about 14 per cent to the country's overall export.Mumbai: Deepika Padukone has arrived at Cannes 2018. Even before hitting the red carpet, the Bollywood beauty has send the internet into frenzy with her utterly gorgeous looks at the French Riveria. Fresh off her red-hot look from Met Gala 2018 red carpet, Deepika Padukone is expected to deliver yet another glamorous at Cannes.

Checkout Deepika's recent photos from Cannes:

Well, we can't wait to see Deepika look as ravishing as ever on the Cannes Film Festival 2018 red carpet.Mumbai: Kangana Ranaut is currently busy at Cannes where she stunned everyone with her stunning beauty. The 'Queen' star will soon get busy with her upcoming period film 'Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi'. Interestingly, Kangana wants to follow Aamir Khans footsteps and release the film in China.

The source told Mid-Day, Kamal and Kangana are keen to release the Rani Laxmibai biopic in China. They had gone to seek advice from Aamir on the subject. Since Aamir has cracked the Chinese market with his string of hits, his feedback is important to the films strategy.

A few days ago producer, Kamal Jain shared a picture of two superstars with him on social media, which triggered the speculation that the duo might be collaborating for a film. But the fact is Aamir will just be producing a film and not acting in it.

Kamal Jain shared a picture of two superstars with him.

Talking about their recent meeting, producer Kamal Jain mentioned to Mid-Day that a collaboration is in the offering. The producer further added, The meeting was regarding a collaboration that is in the works. It was a positive meeting. We had a long discussion, and are hopeful that something more fruitful comes of it.

According to reports doing the rounds in trade circles, it seems that Kangana and Jain have thought about the idea of having Aamir Khan on board of the Arunima Sinha biopic. A source was quoted as saying by the leading tabloid, The film was originally expected to be backed by Farhan Akhtar, but was later acquired by DAR Motion Pictures. Given its compelling storyline, it wont be surprising if Aamir Khan also comes on board as producer.

A source was quoted as saying by the leading tabloid, The film was originally expected to be backed by Farhan Akhtar, but was later acquired by DAR Motion Pictures. Given its compelling storyline, it wont be surprising if Aamir Khan also comes on board as producer.

Meanwhile, elaborating on her no-Khans policy, the three-time National Award winner had said, In fact, there is no longevity with working with Khans. Its the other way around. Where would it take me? Can it take me a notch higher than where I already am? It cannot! What can it give me that I have already not achieved? I cant see a single thingif you can tell me.

She goes on to explain how in a Khan film, they dominate every frame and she would want to build her own brand.

I have popularity. I have built a fan following of mine, where do I go from here. The only way I can last is by growth. That I will only get if I go a notch higher than my last film. In a film, theres only one hero. There are exceptions of course. Lets talk about a Khan film. Who is the hero in that film? When I have done and am working on films that give me the possibility of building a brand of my own individually, it will be very stupid of me to go and stand behind someone else and try and en-cash their popularity, she told in one of her interviews.

Kangana's 'Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi', co-starring Ankita Lokhande and Sonu Sood, is slated to release on August 15.On Tuesday, a reporter stood up during a press conference and asked Cannes Film Festivals nine-member jury, Why do movies still matter?

In response, jury president Cate Blanchett muttered to co-panelists Lea Seydoux and Kristen Stewart, Actresses, dont answer that because you have no idea how to answer that.

It was said in nervous jest because its one of those uncomfortable questions whose fate rests in the answer. Depending on the reply, it can either be a deeply illuminating and inspiring question, or simply a hackneyed bore.

At Cannes, which holds dear its reputation as the worlds most prestigious film festival, they pick movies that often provide a lucid, exhilarating answer to that reporters question.

Films matter, it tries to say with each screening.

Because films allow people to tell their stories to their own people and to strangers  stories that go beyond news headlines, stories that sometimes governments dont want people to tell, stories from a far away world that are often uncannily similar to ours, stories that add a touch of humanity to our view of the other. Stories that touch us, shape us, energise us.

Rafiki.

Donbass, the film

Two such films  Donbass and Rafiki  were screened at Cannes on Tuesday in the Un Certain Regard section. Literally, Un Certain Regard means a certain glance, but is understood to mean from another point of view, and the section is reserved for films by emerging directors or on unexpected, marginal themes.

Nandita Das Manto is one of the 18 films competing in this section for the main Prix Un Certain Regard award. It screens on Sunday.

Donbass, a war-torn region in eastern Ukraine, is a portmanteau word, and so is the film of the same title by writer-director Sergei Loznista.

Donbass is a collection of seemingly disjointed episodes of conversations, all of them garrulous and high-strung.

Like pieces of jagged, sharp, gravely stones, these fragments  involving different people in different locations  are strung together as if in a garland that leashes a country and its people together as they struggle to make sense of their world and reality.

There is no fluidity to the plot or the narrative, except, at the end, when the film returns to where it began with stunning effect.

Heartbreaking story

The conversations in Donbass are often one-sided, and the stories Loznista wants us to hear lie in the grim silence and reactions of the listeners. Its often a shocking, heart-breaking story.

Donbass begins in a trailer where a news story is being manufactured by the peoples government for peoples consumption with the help of make-up artists, actors, bombardment, rehearsed lines and a camera crew.

From there it moves to an official meeting thats disrupted by a bag of shit, to a hospital, a check-post with too many armed men, to a motaher-daughter. We also meet a real TV news crew trying to interview soldiers, an NGO seeking a favour from an official, an insubordinate soldier being punished, a man trying to reclaim his lost car, an exterminator tied to a pole in a residential colony, and witness a wedding before returning to the trailer.

Bit by bit, these episodes reveal a nation brutalised and a government sparing no opportunity to dupe, deceive, rob its people not just of the basic necessities, but of humanity.

Apart from the films end, two episodes stand out as most telling, and devastating.

The one involving the exterminator seems designed by the government to indict people by helping them transition to mob violence. They are presented with an easy, rather meaningless target to take out their rage on.

The other one is the wedding that is orchestrated to give people something to celebrate even though the bride and the groom, pronounced Mr and Mrs Fried Eggs, seem doomed to a life unpleasant.

The brides almost heady hostility towards the man she is marrying even as she screams in celebration is unsettling.

Donbass is a tough film to watch. But it is one of the best anti-war films I have ever seen.

Rafiki (Friend in Kiswahili), written and directed by Wanuhi Kahiu, gently, lyrically tells the story of Kena (Samantha Mugatsia) and Ziki (Sheila Munyiva), two high school girls in Nairobi who fall in love even as their fathers are contesting local elections against each other.

The film has been banned by Kenyas censor board because it wants to uphold what it claims are our cultural and moral values through content regulation.

It is the first film from Kenya to be screened at Cannes.

Rafiki, based on a short story by a Ugandan writer, is light, sweet and packed with stock African characters, including one Mama Atim (Muthoni Gathecha) who runs a little cafe mainly to gossip.

Despite the films very Western aesthetics and sound  its English dialogue sound formal and lack local flavour  the story of forbidden love between two girls works because two actresses playing the lead roles are excellent and gorgeous.

Rafiki received a very long standing ovation after its screening. An honour, of course, for a film that wont be screened in the country it was shot in. But standing ovations, like loud booing, are one of the many charms of Cannes Film Festival. Though they always make news, they often dont mean much.The latest ruling in the eight-year legal battle opens a path for CERT to ask for a permanent injunction that would require coffee sellers to warn consumers about the cancer risk associated with acrylamide. (Photo: Pixabay)

Los Angeles: Starbucks Corp and other roasters and retailers must serve up a cancer warning with coffee sold in California, a Los Angeles judge has ruled.

Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle in a ruling published on Monday said that Starbucks and other coffee sellers did not show that the risk from consuming acrylamide, a possible cancer-causing byproduct created during coffee roasting, was offset by benefits from drinking coffee.

That ruling confirmed Berles tentative decision on the matter in March.

The Council for Education and Research on Toxics (CERT), a nonprofit group, sued some 90 coffee retailers, including Starbucks, on grounds they were violating a California law requiring companies to warn consumers of chemicals in their products that could cause cancer.

The latest ruling in the eight-year legal battle opens a path for CERT to ask for a permanent injunction that would require coffee sellers to warn consumers about the cancer risk associated with acrylamide.

Many California coffee sellers, including Starbucks, already post signs with such warnings under the states Proposition 65 law requiring businesses to provide warnings about significant exposures to chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.

Coffee has been shown, over and over again, to be a healthy beverage. This lawsuit has made a mockery of Prop 65, has confused consumers, and does nothing to improve public health, said William Murray, president and chief executive of the National Coffee Association.

Attorney Raphael Metzger, who represents CERT, hopes that the final ruling will lead to a settlement where coffee sellers reformulate their product to remove acrylamide, as potato chip sellers did after a similar lawsuit.

Just giving warnings to people who are really addicted to the product, like me, doesnt do much, said Metzger.

Starbucks did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Several defendants in the case have already settled, agreeing to post warning signs and pay millions in fines.The study that trained sharks to associate music with food rewards learned they were not the aggressive flesh-crunching monsters of the Jaws movies. (Photos: Pixabay)

According to a new study, scientists found Port Jackson sharks would swim towards spots where they played jazz more than any other genre of music.

Experts are now of the opinion that Sharks, often portrayed as insensitive killing machines in cinema, are not merciless killers but sensitive souls with a passion for jazz.

The study that trained sharks to associate music with food rewards learned they were not the aggressive flesh-crunching monsters of the Jaws movies.

Scientists discovered intelligent, sensitive creatures who responded well to training and showed a preference for the sophisticated jazz sounds associated with stars such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis.

The study, conducted at Sydneys Macquarie University also found the Port Jackson sharks in their study swam to a feeding station whenever they were played jazz. They were less likely to respond to other types of music.

Speaking about the study, leader author Catarina Vila-Pouca said that sharks are generally underestimated when it comes to learning.

She added, Most people see them as mindless, instinctive animals. However, they have really big brains and are obviously much smarter than we give them credit for.

She further added that gaining a better understanding of sharks will help a positive public opinion of the fish and may shift the political will towards their conservation.Thiruvananthapuram: It was joie de vivre at Mannam Memorial National Club here, the venue of the states first-ever wedding of two transsexual persons. Transgender friends of the bride and groom, Surya and Ishaan K. Shaan, had choreographed dance numbers including a special Oppana performance, arranged for a chenda melam and a song performance. Transwomen in bright silk saris and transmen in their Sunday best looked buoyant. But it was the presence of people outside the transgender community which signalled that change was finally here.

One of them was Sobha Sajan, a lady who had little idea of what a transgender person was until transwoman Sreekutty became her neighbour six months ago.

She told DC, They too have wishes. They too have to live. Why should they be excluded?

Vocalists of a singing group hired for the wedding were as ardent about why transgender persons should be treated with respect. They did not really know what exactly being a TG person was, and one even mistakenly said it was someone who converted to the opposite gender. However, they understood the idea of the right to self-expression of gender identity, without knowing what NALSA judgment was.

Ishaans family, who belongs to the Muslim community, took part in the wedding. Suryas blood relations were not around, but transgender activist Renju Renjimar, who Surya calls as amma, stayed close to the bride right through. Surya said it was a momentous event. Ishaan said they both will try to set an example, living their life beautifully. The legal procedures solemnising their wedding are in the process of getting completed.

Almost every law in the country needs to be amended so that those recognise the rights of transgender persons as well. The Special Marriage Act is no exception. Since Surya and Ishaan have certificates which show the gender they identify with, they may not have any issues, said Anil Arjunan, member, State TG Justice Board. The day was bereft of the stiffness of ceremonies. There sure were some regular wedding rituals like exchanging garlands and sharing a glass of milk.Picture shows 104-year-old Australian David Goodall in a room in Liestal near Basel, Switzerland, where he plans to end his life on Thursday, May 10, 2018. (Photo: AP)

LIESTAL, Switzerland: A 104-year-old Australian biologist who drew international attention to his right-to-die case ended his life in Switzerland on Thursday, an advocacy group said.

Philip Nitschke, director of Exit International, said David Goodall was declared dead at 12:30 p.m. in Liestal, a town outside the city of Basel, where he had traveled to take advantage of Switzerland's assisted-suicide laws. "My life has been rather poor for the last year or so. And I'm very happy to end it," Goodall said Thursday in the room where he later died.

The British-born scientist said this week that he had been contemplating the idea of suicide for about 20 years, but only started thinking about it for himself after his quality of life deteriorated over the last year. He cited a lack of mobility, doctor's restrictions and an Australian law prohibiting him from taking his own life among his complaints, but he was not ill.

Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, but frowned upon by many doctors and some others who say it should be reserved for the terminally ill. Goodall's supporters want the practice to be more accepted as a legitimate choice for elderly people in sound mind. Hundreds of people - some far more frail than Goodall, who used a wheelchair - travel to Switzerland every year to take their lives. The best-known group to help foreigners end their days in the Alpine country is Dignitas, but others include Life Circle in Basel, Goodall's choice.

Goodall took his life with an intravenous drip of pentobarbital, a chemical often used as an anesthetic but which is lethal in excessive doses. A doctor put a cannula in his arm, and Goodall turned a wheel to allow the solution to flow, Exit International said. Nitschke said that, before activating the drip, Goodall had to answer "several questions so he knew who he was, where he was and what he was about to do."

"He answered those questions with great clarity, activated the process" while Beethoven's Ninth Symphony played in the background, he added.

His last words before losing consciousness were "this is taking an awfully long time," Nitschke said, but "he died shortly thereafter."

Exit International said Goodall had requested that his body be donated to medicine, or his ashes sprinkled locally. "He wishes to have no funeral, no remembrance service or ceremony," the group said in a statement. "David has no belief in the afterlife."

The Swiss federal statistics office says the number of assisted suicides has been growing fast: Nine years ago, there were 297. By 2015, the most recent year tabulated, the figure had more than tripled to 965. Nearly 15 percent of the cases last year were people under 65 years old.Model maker Lucy Gullon puts the finishing touches to a Lego depiction of the forthcoming wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, complete with a 39,960 brick version of Windsor Castle, in Legoland Windsor, England. The model took eight model makers 592 hours to build. (Photo: AP)

London: Attraction park Legoland has unveiled a miniature model of this months royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor castle, built by a team of 11 model-makers who used almost 60,000 pieces of Lego bricks.

The replica includes a 60-brick Markle in her wedding dress and veil, with Harry by her side.

The couple are riding in a brick-built carriage being drawn by horses along Windsor Great Parks Long Walk towards the castle, surrounded by 500 spectators, recreating the real life procession that is planned for the big day on May 19.

The scene is completed by miniature models of Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh along with best man Prince William, his wife Kate and their children Prince George and Princess Charlotte, and Meghan Markles parents.

Lego said the wedding scene replica, which took 592 hours to build, will be on permanent display at its theme park, just three miles (5 km) from the real Windsor castle to the west of London.The father of the victim is in a state of shock after hearing the news and regrets leaving her in the care of her relatives. (Representational Image)

Mumbai: In a dreadful incident, a minor girl was strangulated to death allegedly by her relatives for not offering namaz during Friday prayers.

The incident took place in Mumbais Antop Hill area.

Three women, including a minor, have been arrested by the police in connection with the murder.

According to a report in NDTV, the girls father is not financially sound and due to her mother's early death she used to stay with relatives as he is away at work and there is no one to look after her.

At her relatives place, the victim had been asked to compulsorily offer namaz every Friday. However, after the girl disobeyed them again last Friday, her aunt strangled her with a dupatta in a fit of anger, police said.

In an attempt to cover up the crime, the relatives told the doctors that the girl died after slipping inside the bathroom. However, as the doctors at Sion hospital found some marks on the victims neck, they did not buy the claims of her family members and informed the local police.

Following an interrogation, the girl's aunts confessed, police said.

The father of the victim is in a state of shock after hearing the news and regrets leaving her in the care of her relatives.

"Why did they murder her? I am her father. If she was not offering namaz they could have complained to me. These people don't listen to any one," he told NDTV.Pramod, suspected started a conversation with Ms Shaji. After a heated argument, when she turned to walk away, he opened the bottle and threw the acid on her. She suffered 10 per cent burns, according to police. They said her condition is stable now. (Representational Image)

Hyderabad: A 23-year-old staff nurse working at Apollo Hospital in Banjara Hills was attacked with acid by a man who had been pestering her for a relationship.

According to police, Pramod, a neighbour of the victim at her native place in Kerala, had arrived in the city on Thursday morning and met her. He was carrying acid in a water bottle.

The victim was identified as Jisha Shaji, 23. The man, suspected to be her ex-lover, waited for her shift to end and met her near the exit of the hospital around 5:30 pm and started talking to her, Banjara Hills police inspector K. Srinivas said.

The girl shifted to Hyderabad about two years ago and stays in a hostel. They were in a relationship for about a year before she decided to end the affair,: the inspector said. Pramod has been following her ever since, asking her to resume the relationship, the inspector said.

With Ms Shaji turning him down each time, Pramod came prepared to attack her, the inspector said. He struck up a conversation with her outside the hospital. After a heated argument, when Ms Shaji turned to walk away, he opened the bottle and threw the acid on her.

Ms Shaji suffered 10 per cent burns, the official said, adding that her condition is stable.

The Banjara Hills police rushed to the spot and started an investigation after booking a case under Section 326 A (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid) of IPC. Ms Shaji's statement was yet to be recorded.

She is undergoing treatment for burns and is kept under trauma care section, said a duty doctors at Apollo Hospital.

Pramod fled the scene after the attack and efforts to nab him are on by the Banjara Hills police, who have deployed search parties for the purpose.Podeti Satyanarayana Goud along with his associates had gone to the town from Hyderabad to take part in a village ritual, Yellamma Patnalu.

Hyderabad: A toddy merchant who had filed RTI petitions against a mafia selling adulterated toddy in Mumbai was shot dead by unidentified persons in Dharmapuri of Jagtial on Wednesday night.

Podeti Satyanarayana Goud along with his associates had gone to the town from Hyderabad to take part in a village ritual, Yellamma Patnalu. Police said he had met his former partners in toddy business from Mumbai to settle pending issues. It is suspected that an argument during the discussion that led to the murder. Satyanarayana was associated with the Congress for a few years.

Satyanarayana had filed several RTI petitions with the Maharashtra excise department over the sale of adulterated toddy and had complained about how toddy traders from different districts in Telangana state who had settled in Mumbai were selling adulterated toddy rackets.

Since then, he had been receiving threats from the toddy mafia, due to which he relocated to Mumbai. In March 2017, he met Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and home minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy and requested protection from the toddy mafia.

In the petition he claimed that he had filed RTI applications against the toddy mafia and the government had cancelled the licenses of many persons after finding the illegal business and since then they his life was under threat. The petition was directed to the Ramagundam police commissioner for detailed inquiry and action. When contacted, the Ramagundam police denied receiving any such petition. Jagtial superintendent of police Sunil Dutt said disputes between the deceased and the toddy traders at Mumbai could be the main reason behind the murder. We are working on the leads and tracking all the people connected with the persons whom Satyanarayana met before the incident. We will soon solve the case. he said.

Satyanarayana hails from Ramagundam in Peddapalli district and resides in Hyderabad. A visiting card found at the spot where his body was found read that he was the state convener for the Congress OBC cell. The party did not confirm the same.

On Wednesday night, Satyanarayana along with his brother-in-law Nerella Rakesh went to Kamalapuri village under Dharmapuri police station limits to take part in the village ritual. His associates had arranged a meeting with Mumbai-based toddy traders, with whom he had issues.

After meeting one Narayana, he went to Rajeshs residence, where the toddy traders joined him. After an hour, he, Rajesh and two others went towards Dharmapuri in their car. When they reached a liquor shop, two other men were waiting to meet them and one of them opened fire with a short weapon and fled. Police recovered three used cartridges from the spot.

Inquiries revealed that the licenses which were cancelled due to Satyanarayanas RTI petitions, were revoked recently. To keep him away from fighting against them, the traders wanted to meet him and settle the issue and in this process, he was shot dead.Eleven serving defence officers and eight others have sent a legal notice to Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna, accusing the Bollywood couple of 'playing with the sentiments' of the armed forces by putting up for auction a naval costume from the film 'Rustom'. (Photo: File)

Mumbai: Eleven serving defence officers and eight others have sent a legal notice to actors Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna, accusing the Bollywood couple of "playing with the sentiments" of the armed forces by putting up for auction a naval costume from the Hindi film Rustom.

The group, which also included the wife of a Navy man and seven retired officers, said it was offended that the actors had listed the costume as an "original naval uniform". "Uniforms resembling those of the armed forces pose a potential threat to national security as the said uniform, insignia and badges could pass for genuine service clothing and can find their way to anti-national elements who can use it to foment trouble," the notice said.

A copy of the notice has also been sent to the auction house Salt Scout and the office of the Defence minister.

The officers urged the minister to take action against the actors and to stop the auctioning of the outfit Akshay Kumar wore in the 2016 film, a fictional account loosely based on the real-life case of Naval Officer K M Nanavati, charged with and then acquitted of killing his wife. "...by putting in auction 'Akshay Kumar's Rustom Naval Officer Uniform' you have shown no respect for national interest but have also played with the sentiments of armed forces personnel and their widows including my clients, who are retired, as well as serving armed forces officials and their family members," the notice read.

Akshay Kumar had put the outfit up for the auction on April 26 in support of an NGO working for the cause of animal rescue and welfare. "Hi, all I'm thrilled to announce that you can bid to win the actual naval officer uniform I wore in Rustom! Auction's proceeds will support the cause of animal rescue and welfare. Place your bid at http://www.SaltScout.com," he wrote.

The bid, which will end on May 26, currently stands at Rs 2,35,000.

The issue was first taken up by one of the officers, who called Akshay Kumar's wife out on Facebook, warning her that he would "drag" her to court if she made even "a feeble attempt to auction this piece of costume in the garb of UNIFORM".

"...You touch our honour and we will give you a bloody nose," he said on the site. Twinkle Khanna responded by saying she would "not retaliate with violent threats but by taking legal action".

Akshay Kumar had said recently said the outfit was being auctioned off for a good cause.

"I don't think we did anything bad. I can't help if someone feels bad about it," he had said. Smita Dikshit, who has sent the legal notice on the group's behalf to the actor couple, told news agency PTI, "People of India who are ex-Army men and who are serving the country are enraged and in anger that these celebrities are not sensitive towards the emotions of the Armed Forces."Srinagar: In the backdrop of escalation of separatist violence in Kashmir and simmering anger among its youth, an all-party meet held in Srinagar on Wednesday asked New Delhi to consider a ceasefire in the State during the upcoming Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and Amarnath yatra.

The meeting had been convened by Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, who told reporters, It was the unanimous decision of all parties during the meeting that the Government of India should consider ceasefire ahead of Ramazan and Amarnath yatra. People are facing problems because of the security forces crackdowns and search operations. If these are put to halt and a unilateral ceasefire announced the people will get some relief, she said.

She added that it was also decided at the meeting that an all party delegation will meet Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, soon to make a formal request for ceasefire and also to discuss the urgency of political outreach. Incidentally, the Prime Minister is scheduled to pay a visit to all the three regions of the State-Jammu, Kashmir Valley and Ladakh- later this month.

The Chief Minister said that it was satisfying to note that all participants were unanimously concerned about the unending cycle of violence in the State and wished its immediate end. Everyone voiced concern over the killings that are taking place and over our young turning to the gun and the stone-pelting incidents in which we lost also a young boy from Tamil Nadu, she said.

She added, The unanimous view was that such steps should be initiated that will act towards building confidence and providing relief to the people during Ramazan, Id and Amarnath yatra.

The Chief Minister claimed, Equally encouraging was that the participants wanted implementation of the Agenda of the Alliance which they believed would positively change the situation in the State. The Agenda of the Alliance is the common minimum programme reached between Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the government formation in 2015. They asked why it is not being implemented, she said.

She said that an appeal would be made to the Centre to announce a unilateral cessation of hostilities in view of the coming month of Ramazan and Amarnath yatra for extending relief to common masses. A suggestion also came up that an all parties delegation should meet the Prime Minister to apprise him of the emerging challenges in Jammu and Kashmir and the urgent need of reaching out to people in the light of his last Independence Day speech in which he had said Na goli se, na gaali se, Kashmir ki samasya suljhe gi gale lagaane se (Kashmir problem will not be solved by bullets or abuses but only with embracing the people)., she said.

Earlier, PDP-BJP government chief spokesman and works minister, Syed Naeem Akhter, said that the general feeling among the participants of the all-party meeting was that there should be a political outreach on Kashmir. The general feeling is that there should be a political outreach on Kashmir, he told reporters at the SKICC. He also said that the participants also called for the national leadership of the country to take a leaf out of the then Prime Ministers Atal Behari Vajpayees 2002 initiatives.

The meeting had been called by the Chief Minister to deliberate on worsening situation in Kashmir Valley in the aftermath of civilian and militant deaths in security forces operations.

While speaking in the meeting, the Chief Minister termed peace as the ultimate yearning of every section of society in the State. She appealed all shades of opinion in joining this mission to get the State out of violence and bloodshed.

She also asked all shades of political opinion to rise above party politics and play their role in giving youth of the State a safe and secure future. This is the concern of all of us because in peace lie the stakes of every section of society for which we all should strive jointly.

The Chief Minister said it was vital to apprise the national leadership and people of the country of the urgent need to reach out to the people of the State and listen to their story of pain and sufferings. She suggested constitution of an all-party delegation to meet the Prime Minister and apprise the national leadership about the pain and sufferings of the people and take appropriate measures to minimize the same, an official spokesman said.

Deputy Chief Minister, Kavinder Gupta while speaking in the meeting stressed on close cooperation between the government and opposition in tackling issues confronting the State.

Ahead of the meeting, the Chief Minister deeply concerned at the turn of events in the Valley had discussed the situation threadbare with her partners and other functionaries in the government and senior officers of the police and intelligence agencies. She had separately also closeted with her PDP colleagues to deliberate on the alarming situation emerging in the aftermath of the killing of eight militants and seven civilians in two counterinsurgency operations in Srinagar and southern Shopian and subsequent clashes on May 5 and 6. One of her aides had said that she was also deeply saddened over the death of a tourist from Chennai in a stone-pelting incident.

On Tuesday, the Chief Minister had met Governor, N.N. Vohra, here to discuss various important matters relating to counter-terrorist operations, continuing incidents of stone pelting, the death of a tourist and other concerns. The two at their 90-minutes-long meeting also discussed the growing radicalization and its grave impact in the educational sector, an official spokesman has said.

Firebrand MLA and leader of Awami Itehad Party (AIP), Engineer Rashid, said that he told the meeting that granting right of self-determination to the people of the State is the only resolution to Kashmir dispute. He also said, I also suggested that all mainstream parties should jointly ask New Delhi that they will not contest any elections, till it shows sincerity and offers an acceptable dialogue with all the stakeholders in the State.

Separatist leader and Kashmirs chief Muslim cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said it was a meeting of all pro India parties convened by the Chief Minister and is nothing more than a farce to mislead people into believing that they are serious or can do something to bring people out of the current oppressive State.

In a statement issued in Srinagar, the Mirwaiz also said, The fact remains that it is these very parties and people who are responsible for our miseries and massacres that do take place in the state day in, day out and the extreme repressive situation that we are facing for the past seventy years in general and three decades in particular.The Anti-Corruption Bureau, on Thursday, arrested Vinay Bansal, the son of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's deceased brother-in-law Surendra Kumar Bansal. (Photo: File | PTI)

New Delhi: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday arrested Vinay Bansal, the son of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's deceased brother-in-law Surendra Kumar Bansal, in connection with alleged irregularities in road and sewer development works by the Public Works Department (PWD).

Vinay Bansal was a partner in his father's company Renu Construction, which was involved in the alleged scam.

According to three FIRs registered by the ACB against Kejriwal and others on May 8, 2017, the Delhi Government's PWD committed illegitimate favoritism in awarding a tender to Surendra Kumar Bansal's Renu Construction for road and sewer construction projects.

The complainant, founder of NGO Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO), Rahul Sharma alleged that the tender was awarded at 46 per cent lower than the estimated cost of Rs 4,90,000.

It was also alleged that the product quality was inferior.

The Delhi Police stated that the arrest was made based upon the unsatisfactory answers of the accused during the questioning, regarding Mahadev Company from whom the company claimed to have bought the raw materials.

In the course of the investigation, Mahadev Company was found to be non-existent.

However, the Delhi Government alleged political vendetta behind the arrest, claiming that the construction work undertaken by Bansal's firm was given a clean chit by Sriram Labs, which was directed by the ACB to do the inspection.

It also claimed that a third party certification of the construction was done by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee.The slogan "Didi for PM" has grown louder in the last six months, especially since the Gujarat polls when Rahul Gandhi became the Congress President. (Facebook Screengrab)hoto:

Kolkata: Hours after Rahul Gandhi said he is ready to become the Prime Minister of India if his Congress returns to power and emerges as the biggest party in the 2019 Lok Sabha with full majority, supporters of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched a social media campaign saying, "Come, let's make a change... Let's get a Bengali Prime Minister this time".

A life-size photograph of smiling Mamata Banerjee with a slogan leaves no room for doubt about who her fans want as "Bengali Prime Minister".

Does the Facebook page called FAM have Didi's blessings? No response from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) to queries yet.

The social media page has over 2.5 lakh likes and the page calling for Mamata Banerjee for PM already has 67,000 likes.

The slogan "Didi for PM" has grown louder in the last six months, especially since the Gujarat polls when Rahul Gandhi became the Congress President.

His elevation was a signal for many that Rahul Gandhi would be the Congress face for PM in 2019. Mamata Banerjee did not congratulate him then not even for the Congress's improved performance in Gujarat. She, however, congratulated Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mevani for their poll success.

Earlier, the Trinamool had launched a soft campaign for Mamata Banerjee as PM. NDTV report said, top leaders told on record, Mamata Banerjee is a senior politician with mass appeal, has served at the Centre as minister for major portfolios, is a two-term chief minister and one of the key movers for a united opposition to take on BJP in 2019.

"Mamata Banerjee is a leader of proven mettle," NDTV quoted a Trinamool leader saying. "We don't have to go around with a certificate for her," the TMC leader added.J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti had said centre should consider a unilateral ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir starting from Ramzan in mid-May till the completion of the Amarnath Yatra in August. (Photo: File/ANI)

Jammu: BJP's Jammu and Kashmir unit on Thursday opposed Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's call for a unilateral ceasefire during the month of Ramzan till completion of the Amarnath Yatra claiming such a step was not at all in "national interest".

The party's state unit said terrorists were demoralised due to Army action and a unilateral ceasefire would ease pressure and allow them to re-energise.

Referring to an all party meeting held on Wednesday, BJP state unit's chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi said an opinion came up during the discussion for a unilateral ceasefire on the lines of one declared by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

"We have a strong view...Unilateral ceasefire in the present situation is not in national interest at all," he added.

Flanked by another BJP spokesperson Arun Gupta, Sethi said the terrorist leadership in Kashmir Valley was under pressure because of the prolonged efforts of the army.

"There are large scale casualties of terrorists taking place on daily basis. Currently terrorists are holed up. They are under pressure", he said.

The demand for unilateral ceasefire is aimed to give a way out to the demoralised terrorists, ease pressure, and to save them, he said.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who heads the PDP-BJP government in the state, had said centre should consider a unilateral ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir starting from Ramzan in mid-May till the completion of the Amarnath Yatra in August.

She made the remarks after a four-hour all-party meeting, which was convened to discuss the situation in the Kashmir Valley especially after a tourist from Chennai was killed in stone pelting on May 7.

Also Read: Ceasefire during Eid, Amarnath Yatra needed: J&K CM after all-party meet

Speaking in Jammu on Thursday, Sethi said the state BJP was not at all of this opinion. He also emphasised that a call for a unilateral ceasefire was not a unanimous decision at the meeting. The issue was raised by Independent MLA Engineer Rashid, Sethi claimed.

There was no debate on it and BJP did not agree to it, he told reporters.

"Our point is clear that pressure created by army on the terrorists should continue along with 'operation all out' and to a large extent listed terrorists have been eliminated and only few among them are active," Sethi said.

The way the 'operation all out' is continuing, soon all terrorists will be wiped out from Kashmir, he said.

It was a different time and situation when a unilateral ceasefire was undertaken by the then-Vajpayee government on the borders and in the hinterland, he said.

The BJP spokesperson said terrorism was in its last phase and it would be not a wise decision to go for a unilateral ceasefire.

Kashmir will return to peace and normalcy in the same way as the peace and normalcy prevailed in Punjab, he said.

On stone pelting in Kashmir, Sethi said there were "stone pelting units" operating from Shopian to Baramulla in Kashmir. They keep moving from place to place to engineer stone pelting on army and paramilitary forces, he said.

He said relaxation of any type at this stage will mean stepping back on the process of restoration of normalcy in Kashmir. "Today's stone pelter is a potential terrorist of tomorrow. We will not agree that the hands of army should be tied," he added.

Taking a dig at the withdrawal of FIRs against first-time stone pelters, the BJP leader said government did not achieve the desired results.

"First-time stone pelters continue to resort to stone pelting and have not stopped pelting stones post-amnesty. It is a serious issue and we need to review the amnesty scheme", he said.A petition was filed at the Bombay High Court by the rape survivor's mother. (Photo: File | PTI)

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday allowed a minor rape survivor to terminate her 24-week pregnancy, considering her "tender age" and the fact that she had already suffered enough trauma.

A vacation bench of justices A K Menon and Bharati Dangre passed the order on a petition filed by the 16-year-old girl's mother, seeking permission to terminate her daughter's pregnancy.

According to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, an abortion beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy can be done only after getting the high court's nod.

The woman had filed the petition earlier this month, after her daughter complained of stomach pain and was taken to a hospital.

She had claimed that she got to know about her daughter's pregnancy only then.

According to the petition, the girl was allegedly raped by a relative's friend.

The court had last week directed that the girl be examined by a special panel of experts and doctors at the Rajawadi hospital.

The panel had submitted a report to the court, stating that the girl was medically and physically fit for termination of pregnancy.

"We have perused the report. Considering the tender age of the girl and the fact that she has already undergone enough trauma, making her go ahead with the pregnancy would only cause further trauma. Hence, we allow the petition and permit the girl to undergo medical termination of the pregnancy," the court said on Wednesday.

It added that the termination of pregnancy should be carried out at the KEM hospital in central Mumbai as it was better equipped in case of an emergency.

The court also said the girl should be transferred from Rajawadi hospital to KEM hospital and the procedure to terminate her pregnancy should be completed by Thursday.'We are in touch with different people who are involved in the exercise through the Afghan government,' MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. (Photo: Twitter/ANI)

New Delhi: The government on Thursday said it was in touch with relevant people and authorities in Afghanistan to secure the release of seven Indian engineers who were abducted in the restive northern Baghlan province of the war-torn country on Sunday.

"We are in touch with different people who are involved in the exercise through the Afghan government," spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Raveesh Kumar said.

He, however, refused to share any specific details citing sensitivity of the case.

"I would not like to get into the details of the people and authorities with whom we are in touch with," he said at a media briefing.

The Indian engineers were abducted by the Taliban militants from near the Cheshma-e-Sher area in Baghlan on Sunday.

Also Read: Seven Indian engineers kidnapped in Afghanistan's Bhaglan: police

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had a telephonic conversation with her Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani on Sunday evening during which she had sought all possible help of Kabul in securing the release of the Indians.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval too had a telephonic conversation with his Afghan counterpart Hanif Atmar on the issue.

"This is a sensitive matter. The lives of seven Indians are involved and, therefore, I would not like to share much on where we are at this point of time," said the MEA spokesperson.

Afghan media, quoting Baghlan governor Abdulhai Nemati, reported that Taliban militants were behind the abduction of Indians and they were moved to the Dand-e-Shahabuddin area of Pul-e-Khumri city The Indian engineers of KEC International, an RPG group company, were working on a project for construction of a power sub-station in the country.

India has been carrying out reconstruction activities in the war-torn country.

It has already provided at least USD 2 billion aid to Afghanistan.Now he is in queue at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) here where he regained his vision, for the hand transplantation.

Kochi: He would definitely give you a complex with his body language which in a way would proclaim that depression is a malaise that comes because of lack of attitude.

Having lost both his hands and eyesight and badly mauled in legs in a mine blast, 21-year-old Islam Hussein from Yemen is happy today as he has won half of his battle, having regained his vision through an eye reconstruction and cornea transplantation.

Now he is in queue at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) here where he regained his vision, for the hand transplantation. Having regained his vision he is energized and elated and is positive about future.

Islam, the third of six children of a 45-year-old school teacher Ahamed Muhamed and 40-year-old wife and teacher Dhikra Hussein, hails from a village near Taiz, an ancient city among the steep cliffs of central Yemen. The birthplace of Yemen's Arab Spring in 2011, it is a war-torn region where firefights between rival militias are a daily occurrence and the landscape is littered with landmines and unexploded bombs.

On August 15, 2017, Islam, a student of Class 11, was walking on a street near his home when he accidently stepped on a mine laid by the warring groups in the area. It exploded, severely injuring his hands and legs, disfiguring his face and mangling his eyes. He was rushed to a hospital, but lost vision in both the eyes.

Doctors said Islams legs had to be amputated, but his father refused to give up and moved him to a hospital in Egypt, where both his hands had to be amputated below the elbow due to infection. Doctors were not capable of helping him further, however. One of Islams friends recommended treatment in India, and the patient and his family arrived at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in December 2017, after undergoing plastic surgery on his foot in Jaipur.

Due to medical reasons, the hand transplant team at Amrita felt that the hand transplant for Islam would be more feasible after he regained his vision, said Dr Anil Radhakrishnan, consultant (cornea & refractive surgery), AIMS, Kochi.

Islams right eye was beyond recovery as the structure behind the lens was badly damaged and the eye had shrunk in size. We, therefore, focused on the left eye. We reconstructed the shattered eye structures and, conducted corneal transplant and reconstructed the eye. We were not sure if it would work, as there was a membrane in front of the retina. But it was joy all around when, a day later, Islam opened his eye and could clearly see his mother in front of him. It was a very emotional moment for everyone, and both Islam and her mother couldnt hold back their tears. He has regained 90% of vision in his left eye and is seeing perfectly with the help of glasses.He has also begun to walk around without any assistance, said Dr. Gopal S. Pillai, HOD, Dept. of Ophthalmology, AIMS.

Bombs going off is common in Islams village where 500-600 people have lost their limbs in the past three years in explosions.

Said Islam: I consider myself very lucky to be alive. I also thank God and the doctors of Amrita Hospital that I can see the world again with my own eyes. Family was my main source of strength and support during this difficult time. It is like a second birth for me, as I had given up all hope. I always had dreamt of becoming a computer engineer, but after seeing the medical miracles at Amrita Hospital, I want to become a doctor and help transform lives, like they have transformed mine, here itself. Islams mother Dikhra Hussein said that Islam was always very good at studies. Our entire family was in tears of joy when Islam got his vision back.Bengaluru: The 10,000 voter ID cards seized from an apartment in Rajarajeshwari Nagar (RR Nagar) are genuine, Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said on Wednesday, suggesting that the cards appeared to have been collected to bribe "vulnerable" voters in Benguluru which will go to polls on May 12.

The documents, including Voter ID cards, around 9,866 EPIC cards, 6,342 fresh voter acknowledgement letters with BBMP seals and another 27,700 acknowledgements without its seals are original, Sanjiv Kumar said, adding that two people were arrested and a probe was on.

The 'discovery' has triggered off a bitter back and forth between the Congress and the BJP that have been holding media briefings since Tuesday midnight to accuse the other of a role in the racket.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also waded into the political row. "Why does the Congress need fake voter IDs? What is the Congress trying to do in Karnataka," the Prime Minister told an election meeting. The Congress responded with sharp attack, accusing BJP leaders of running "a factory of lies".

Read: Fearing defeat, Cong indulging in malpractices to win Ktaka polls: Modi

As both parties moved the Election Commission in Delhi, the poll body sent Deputy Election Commissioner Chandrabhushan Kumar to Bengaluru to get a clear picture about the extent of the problem.

Speaking to NDTV, Election Commission sources said that prima facie, there did not appear to sufficient cause to cancel elections for the Rajarajeshwari Nagar seat as demanded by the BJP.

On Wednesday evening, Sanjiv Kumar told the media that there was no evidence that any of the voter ID cards were "bogus or concocted". If someone is saying this, it is wrong, he said, a remark seen to contradict the BJP's initial allegation.

The election official said they were also initially told that the apartment was used to illegally access the election commission database and create fake ID cards. This was a much more serious concern but is not true, Sanjiv Kumar reiterated.

Also Read: Karnataka polls 2018: EC seizes 10,000 voter IDs from Bengaluru apartment

Sanjiv Kumar said that the voters ID cards, stacks of lists and forms found from the apartment suggested an elaborate survey had been carried out in the constituency to identify vulnerable people. This is a systematic case of surveying electors and collecting their information. But this is also very serious, the number is very large and needs to completely investigated, he said.

Asked if the entire exercise had been carried out to bribe voters, Sanjiv Kumar said this was definitely an inference that one could reach. Because why else would someone collect this big a number of... things... It is serious but it is of different kind than what was being projected earlier, he said.

While election officials have a clear idea of what the racket was probably about, they concede it is still too early to point fingers. A couple of flyers of the sitting Congress candidate and visiting cards were also found from the apartment but there were suggestions these could have been planted also.

Sanjiv Kumar did not reveal much about what the authorities have found out about the owner and occupant of the apartment. This needs to be investigated, he said.

The BJP had initially alleged the occupant was linked to the Congress candidate.

The apartment under scrutiny belongs to Manjula Nanjamari and her son Sridhar; both say they knew nothing about what was happening inside.

The Congress says Manjula Nanjamari is a former BJP member, but the BJP denies any links with her.Dnyaneshwar Ahirrao is posted with the security team at 'Matoshree', the residence of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. (Representational Image)

Mumbai: A constable with the Mumbai police has sought permission to "beg in uniform", saying he can not support his family as he hasn't been receiving salary for the last two months.

In his letter to department superiors, Police Commissioner Datta Padsalgikar and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, constable Dnyaneshwar Ahirrao has asked permission to beg to take care of his ailing wife and manage household expenses.

In the letter, Dnyaneshwar Ahirrao, attached to the Local Arms unit, said he had taken leave from March 20 to March 22.

However, as his wife's leg got fractured, he could not report to duty when the leave expired, he said.

Ahirrao, posted with the security team at 'Matoshree', the residence of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, claimed that he informed, over phone, his unit in-charge about the emergency leave he was availing of for five days. Following his wife's treatment, he resumed duty on March 28, he said.

But following this, he stopped getting the salary, his letter said, without revealing more information.

"I have to take care of my sick wife, old parents and a daughter. Besides, I have to pay monthly instalment of the loan I have taken. But since my salary has been stopped, I am unable to meet these expenses. So I want permission from you to beg in uniform," the letter said.

Dnyaneshwar Ahirrao himself could not be contacted for more details.

When contacted, Vasant Jadhav, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Local Arms Unit, said, "The matter comes under the administration department. I can not comment on it."The incident took place near the Chembur Camp bus stop in the early hours Tuesday. (Representational Image | Pixabay)

Mumbai: A 36-year-old man died after allegedly being assaulted by four people including three minors during a fight over a taxi in suburban Chembur, a senior police official said Wednesday.

The incident took place near the Chembur Camp bus stop in the early hours Tuesday.

Krishna Boyanna, 18, and his three friends, minors, wanted to take the taxi in which the victim Surendra Singh and two others were travelling, the official said.

Singh and his companions were about to get down but were taking their time to pay the fare. Irked, the accused asked them to get down immediately, the official said.

This led to a spat, and the accused allegedly hit the other group with paver blocks, the official said.

Singh sustained serious injuries and was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, he said.

A case of murder was registered at the Chembur police station, said DCP (Zone VI) Shahaji Umap.

While Boyanna was arrested and a court sent him in police custody till May 14, the three minors were also apprehended and sent to a children's home, he said.Addressing the media in Bengaluru, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said, 'PM Modi likes to distract people. He has nothing to say to the people of Karnataka on their future. So he just distracts them.' (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

Bengaluru: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has anger inside him.

Addressing the media in Bengaluru, on the the last day of campaigning for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly election, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, "PM Modi has got anger inside of him. He is angry with everybody, not only me. I am a lightning rod for anger, I attract anger. But that is his problem. It is not my problem."

When asked on the perceived "personal attacks" by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his election rallies, including a barb asking him to "speak in his mother's mother-tongue", Rahul said that while his mother indeed is Italian, she has lived a larger part of her life in India.

"She is more Indian than many, many Indians. She has sacrificed for this country, she has suffered for this country," the Congress chief said, adding, "It shows the quality of the PM when he makes these comments. If he likes it, then let him."

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for distracting the people of Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi said, "PM Modi likes to distract people. He has nothing to say to the people of Karnataka on their future. So he just distracts them."

Speaking on digs like "naamdaar (entitled)" used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to target him during the campaign in Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi referenced a story of the Buddha, who refused to react to an angry man's tirade and told his disciple: "He got me the gift of anger, I didn't want it."

The Congress chief also accused the BJP for "copy, pasting" half of Congress' manifesto in Karnataka. "There is a lack of seriousness. The BJP drafted their manifesto in a closed room and copy pasted half of ours. We are confident of winning the Karnataka elections," he added.

Rahul Gandhi also spoke about the Prime Minister's Dalit outreach. He said, "Narendra Modi doesn't say anything when Dalits are being killed across the country. Congress is raising Dalit issues, that's our job. When Rohith Vemula is killed, PM didn't say a word. Karnataka government gives half the money the centre gives for Dalits."

The Congress chief further went on to add that the BJP is in "panic mode". He said, "They (BJP) has realised that the Congress is doing things differently. They have seen it in Gujarat."

Rahul Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi likes to discuss bullet train but does not like to discuss fundamental issues. "Atrocities against women is absolutely a political and a national issue. PM Modi likes to discuss bullet train and other issues but does not like to discuss fundamental issues," he said.

Karnataka will go to polls on May 12. Counting of votes and results will be declared on May 15.On April 26, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had announced that the government had cleared the elevation of advocate Indu Malhotra and put on hold the elevation of Justice KM Joseph. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court collegium headed by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra at 1 pm today to reconsider the Centres stand not to elevate the Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court KM Joseph as a judge of the apex court.

The meeting comes in the wake of a letter written by Justice J Chelameswar urging the CJI to take a call urgently to discuss the Justice Joseph issue.

Also Read: Collegium must reiterate KM Joseph elevation: Justice Chelameswar to CJI

Last week the collegium, which also includes Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph deferred its decision after briefly discussing wide range of issues and it remained inconclusive. The adjourned meeting is to take place on Friday to re-consider the case of Justice KM Joseph, in the context of letters written by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on April 26 and 30.

The collegium is also likely to consider the names of Judges from Calcutta, Rajasthan, and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh High Courts for elevation as Judges of the Supreme Court, in view of the concept of fair representation.

Read: SC collegium defers decision on Judge KM Joseph's elevation

On April 26, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had announced that the government had cleared the elevation of advocate Indu Malhotra and put on hold the elevation of Justice Joseph though both the proposals were sent on the same time on January 10 this year. Malhotra was sworn in as a judge of the apex court on April 27.

While seeking reconsideration of Justice Josephs elevation, Prasad wanted adequate representation for minorities and other High Courts, which are not represented.

Under the Memorandum of Procedure on appointment of Judges which is existing now, once the proposal is returned for reconsideration, and if the collegium reiterates the appointment, the government is bound to accept the same but there is no time limit on such appointment.

At present, the strength of judges in the Supreme Court is 24 with seven vacancies.

It is likely that in Fridays meeting, recommendation will be made to fill remaining vacancies with fair representation to High Courts, which are not represented.Bengaluru: A day after a massive voter ID scandal rocked the state with nearly 10,000 Election Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) being seized from an apartment in Jalahalli, police have detained for questioning several people on charges of collecting voter IDs from the public by promising them money.

A political slugfest is underway with Congress alleging that the apartment belonged to former BJP corporator Manjula Nanjamari. While Manjula was not available for comment, her son Sreedhar Nanjamari cleared the air about the flat 115, where the cards were seized. A year ago, Rangaraju and his sister Rekha had rented a flat at the SLV Park View Apartment. They stayed together but last month, Rangaraju approached us for a separate flat for Rekha. Flat 115 was empty which we rented to her, he said.

Sreedhar told Jalahalli police that neither he nor his mother visited the flat after renting it and were unaware of the goings on inside. Both Rangaraju and Rekha are absconding, police said.

The BJP claimed Manjula had joined the Congress, but her nephew Rakesh told DC that she was inactive in politics and did not identify with any party.

Meanwhile, Karnataka's Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said the cards were found wrapped in smaller packets and were inside two trunks. He said form 6A (Application for Inclusion of Name in Electoral Roll by an Overseas Elector) with a counterfoil with certain numbers were also found. He also said that the colour in the counterfoil appeared unusual. The commission went on to say that 5 laptops and a printer were also recovered from the apartment.

Theory 1

Politicians and party workers would have conducted a study on various vote banks. The EPIC would be collected by political party workers from voters and would not be given to them until the elections were over. This is done to ensure that certain sections are prevented from exercising their franchise. (for instance, eliminating votes of Muslims who usually do not vote for BJP or those of Brahmins who usually prefer BJP). In this manner, a certain section is prevented from voting.

Theory 2

After the study is conducted, the voters concerned will be prevented from voting. The political party will ensure their names are deleted from the electoral roll.

Those with vested interests may bring people from neighbouring states and accommodate them in makeshift huts until the elections are over. These voters will be taken care of until the elections are over and sent back to their original places.

Theory 3

Scamsters pay money to bogus voters to vote for the party and they are then nurtured by local party leaders. The election campaign of an MLA is outsourced to brokers, who pay cash to gullible voters in return for hefty commissions, said a highly placed source.Vijay Mallya will return for the last leg of his ongoing extradition trial in London on July 11. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi/London: Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, wanted in India to face charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs 9,000 crore, can be regarded as a "fugitive from justice", the UK High Court has concluded.

Judge Andrew Henshaw, who upheld a worldwide freeze order and ruled in favour of 13 Indian state-owned banks to recover funds amounting to nearly 1.145 billion pounds in a judgment Tuesday, took note of the fact that the 62-year-old businessman is contesting his extradition to India relating to "alleged financial misconduct".

"In all these circumstances, and even taking account of the fact that Dr. Mallya is contesting the alleged grounds for extradition, there are grounds for regarding Dr. Mallya as a fugitive from justice," the judge said as part of his ruling.

The High Court remained unconvinced by Mallya's claim that he has been a non-resident Indian (NRI) since 1988 and has lived in England since 1992, a country where he has indefinite leave to remain (ILR).

Also Read: Vijay Mallya loses case, Indian banks can sell his UK assets to recover dues

"The evidence indicates that prior to March 2016 Dr. Mallya travelled fairly regularly between India and England for business and political reasons. Most of his business interests were in or closely connected with India, most notably United Breweries Group and Kingfisher Airlines Whilst Dr. Mallya has indefinite leave to stay in the UK, he is said to be a non-resident taxpayer," the court observed.

The judge also concluded that the businessman had been in "clear breach" of a Karnataka court's order when he disposed of assets like a historic sword of Tipu Sultan acquired at an auction in 2003.

"The sword of Tipu Sultan is an item of historic importance which Dr. Mallya bought at an auction in 2003 for the equivalent of GBP 188,400 and states that he gave away in 2016 as his family members considered that it was bringing him bad luck," Judge Henshaw notes in his judgment.

"Dr. Mallya declined to state in correspondence to whom the sword was given. Dr. Mallya was unable to put forward any basis for contending that the disposal was not in breach of the Karnataka High Court's interim injunction, and accepted that it occurred after the Supreme Court had made clear that the injunction covered subsequently acquired assets It does, though, appear to me to have been in clear breach of the Karnataka court's order," he adds.

The judge, however, was less certain that luxury cars and yachts had been undeclared or disposed of by Mallya as claimed by the legal team representing the 13 Indian banks State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co. Pvt Ltd.

The judge noted: "The Claimants [Indian banks] say there are numerous other assets which have been linked to Dr. Mallya in various sources on the internet, but which he denies that he owns. These comprise three yachts, numerous cars and the Mabula Game Reserve in South Africa.

"The registered/asserted owners are offshore companies and/or trusts. Since these matters are unverified, I do not consider I can take account of them."

Mallya's purchase of a Ferrari 246 GTS with an estimated value of 480,000 pounds was also questioned by the Indian banks. The UK court concluded that it may be the case that the payment of the deposit on the Ferrari was in breach of the Karnataka High Court's interim injunction.

"However, this point was not the subject of any detailed argument before me and, overall, I do not consider that the matters relating to the Ferrari carry matters any further on this application," the judge concluded.

The ruling by the UK court has been described as "significant" by TLT LLP, the UK law firm which represented the Indian banks in the case.

"This is a positive and big step forward. The judgement enables our client banks to proceed with enforcement of the Indian Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) ruling, which has now been registered and is immediately enforceable," said Paul Gair, partner in TLT's Banking & Financial Services litigation team.

"We are considering all of our options with our clients the worldwide freezing order has worldwide effect, so it's all of his assets wherever they may be. There are provisions for his weekly allowance, within which he can meet his needs," he added.

Vijay Mallya, who remains on bail since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April last year, will return for the last leg of his ongoing extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on July 11, after which the court is expected to set a timeline for judgment in that case.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), representing the Indian government, has claimed it has successfully established a prima facie case of fraud against the businessman.

Mallya has claimed the criminal charges against him are "without substance" and "politically motivated".Supreme Court has asked the State Election Commission not to issue notification on declaration of results till July 3. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said that the West Bengal Panchayat elections will be held on May 14, as per the earlier schedule.

The apex court has asked the State Election Commission and the West Bengal government to ensure free and fair polls.

The court asked the State Election Commission not to issue notification on declaration of results till July 3.22-year-old S Thirumaniselvam died on Monday after being hit by stone-pelters outside Srinagar. (Photo: PTI)

Chennai: With a shower of tears and the anguished cry of a bereaved mother, a 22-year old man from Tamil Nadu, who died of injuries after being hit by stone-pelters in Kashmir, was laid to rest in a cemetery.

Neighbours, well-wishers and others joined the family in large numbers to bid farewell to

S Thirumaniselvam, whose body was brought in from Srinagar on Tuesday night, a day after he died while on a vacation with his parents and sister in Jammu and Kashmir.

His mother was inconsolable.

"What wrong had my son done to meet such an end," she asked over and over again.

Thirumaniselvam was hit by a stone when a mob went on a rampage near Narbal on the outskirts of Srinagar on Monday. He died in a hospital later that day.

"Was he not just a tourist. Why did this happen," his mother said as she wept while his last rites were being performed at their Karimedu home in neighbouring Tiruvallur district.

Read: Should've pushed you down too, weeps sister of TN man killed in J&K stone pelting

Later, his body was buried at a cemetery nearby.

Tiruvallur Lok Sabha MP P Venugopal had earlier laid a wreath on the body of the commerce graduate, who worked for a private sector company.

Flowers were placed by a large number of people who had gathered there.

On Tuesday, Tamil Culture Minister K Pandiarajan handed over a cheque for Rs 3 lakh as the state government's solatium to the victim's father, Rajavelu.

BJP Tamil Nadu unit president Tamilisai Soundararajan, after paying homage to Thirumaniselvam, criticised those who "supported stone-pelters of Kashmir" and said violence in any form should be denounced.

Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) chief and former union minister G K Vaasan also placed flowers on the body of the young man.

Rajavelu had told reporters last night that security for tourists was not adequate in Jammu and Kashmir and urged the authorities to ensure the safety of visitors to the hill state.

The incident sparked outrage across the country, and was condemned by politicians across the spectrum in Jammu and Kashmir.

Also Read: Outrage in J&K over Chennai tourist's death in stone-pelting

"It is very sad and heartbreaking," Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufi had said after meeting Thirumaniselvam's family.

"My head hangs in shame," she had said.

Also Read: Head hangs in shame: CM Mehbooba Mufti on TN tourist death in J&K stone-peltingNew Delhi: The Congress hope of projecting party president Rahul Gandhi as the Oppositions prime ministerial face hit the first hurdle with supporters of Trinamul supremo Mamata Banerjee launching a soft campaign on Facebook to project her as the Opposition candidate for Prime Minister in the 2019 general election.

A Facebook page set up by Mamata fans  All India Trinamul  AITC Supporters put up posts stating: Chalo Bodlai-Ebar Bangali Prodhanmantri Chai (Come lets bring a change  This time we need a Bengali PM). A photograph of a smiling Ms Banerjee was put above the slogan. Some of the comments read, TMC Zindabad  Didi Pradhan Mantri hobe (TMC Zindabad  Didi will be the next Prime Minister).

This social media page is, incidentally, run by her fans and is not the official TMC page, a party leader clarified. Before Mr Gandhi threw his hat into the ring, TMC leaders have been sending out signals that it would prefer Ms Banerjee as leader of the Opposition charge in the next general election.

Trinamul Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek OBrien was on record saying: In 2019, Ms Banerjee will play the lead role, Bengal will play the lead role. Apparently nursing her PM ambitions, Ms Banerjee had been giving clear indications that she was reluctant to work under the leadership of Mr Gandhi. During her recent visit to New Delhi, she had not met Mr Gandhi but had called on his mother, Sonia Gandhi.

The Congress was wrong to move the impeachment notice against CJI Dipak Misra. The Congress wanted us to support it. But we did not, Ms Banerjee had gone on record as saying during her Delhi visit. Making it clear that she was not willing to come under the Congress umbrella, Ms Banerjee had pitched for a 1:1 formula, which in electoral terms would mean one winnable candidate versus another in each parliamentary constituency across the country. The United Front or the Grand Alliance (if formed) would put up one common candidate, which the rest would support. If this particular formula is followed, the Congress role in electoral politics will be marginalised in many states.Upset with the polices siding with the politician, the ex-serviceman attempted suicide by consuming pesticide. (Representational Image)

Anantapur: Peeved by the highhandedness of police in support of a local politician over a land issue, an ex-serviceman tried to commit suicide by consuming pesticide on Thursday.

According to sources, the veteran was protesting against a local Telugu Desam leader and Rayachoti municipal chairpersons husband Babavali for grabbing a government land, which abuts his land. The politician had allegedly got a patta made in his favour over the government land.

Intervening on behalf of the politician, the police in plain clothes had reportedly manhandled the ex-serviceman and made him withdraw his protest.

Upset with the polices siding with the politician, the ex-serviceman attempted suicide by consuming pesticide. He was immediately shifted to the government hospital at Kadiri. In his suicide note, the ex-serviceman complained about the TD leader grabbing the government land and the police supporting him.

Kadiri circle inspector Gorantla Madhav, however, ruled out the involvement of the police. He said the ex-serviceman had no claim to the land and Mr Babavali had submitted all the necessary documents to prove his ownership.Hyderabad: The advertisement campaigns initiated by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and state government have been creating a buzz in political circles. The party and government have adopted a unique strategy to create a positive environment for themselves not only in the state but also across the country. Interestingly, the ad campaign, designed by TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, rolls out a different campaign for each media organisation on the same issue to generate maximum attention at the state and national level.

With Mr Rao aspiring to be a national leader by proposing a Federal Front and touring states to garner support, the ad campaign for Rythu Bandhu scheme that was launched in Telangana on Thursday appeared in national and regional media across the country to project a positive image of himself and his government. The state government has called for tenders on behalf of the information and public relations department to shortlist ad agencies for taking up nation-wide ad campaign on Rythu Bandhu.

I&PR official sources said, Some 12 ad agencies have filed tenders and seven have been shortlisted. The services of ad age-ncies were utilised only to book space in leading nati-onal print media across the country. The whole advertisement concept has been designed by the Chief Ministers Office. The CM has finalised what should be the content in each state and each newspaper. The earlier ad campaigns of the TRS government at national level were in English only. However, this time, they are in regional languages in neighbouring states with an aim to reach out to local people in the local language.

The latest ad campaign assumes significance in the backdrop of Mr Rao floating the proposal of forging a Federal Front against the BJP and Congress. The top priority for the TRS government this time was booking ad space for jacket ads in leading newspapers in metro cities Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkata. The TRS government had earlier taken up nation-wide ad campaign for Mission Bhagiratha launch, 24x7 free power to agriculture, and TS getting No.1 rank in Ease of Doing Business.

Countering the Opposition attack on government spending such sums on a publicity blitz, Mr Rao in a recent Legislative Assembly session said, Every state government has a right to publicise the good things done by it. If we dont campaign, you say the government is doing nothing. When we campaign you say we are spending huge amount. This is ridiculous.Bengaluru: At the end of his high voltage campaign in the state, BJP national president, Amit Shah on Thursday vowed to probe all scams and misdeeds of the Siddaramaiah government once his party comes to power in the May 12 poll.

Mr Shah, who spoke to reporters after a massive road show in Badami, said the Arkavathi layout scam and every other scam involving the CM and his cabinet colleagues would be investigated. We will recover every single pie of the Karnataka people which has been misappropriated by the ruling Congress, he asserted.

Alleging that Congress was making an all out effort to abuse the electoral process, he claimed that the large number of ID cards, computer, printer and other material found in an apartment in R.R Nagar constituency, showed that it was trying to win the elections by hook or by crook. But people have already decided to remove the Congress government, he maintained, alleging that Mr. Siddaramaiah had ruined Karnatakas image over the last five years.

Karnatakas development has come to a standstill like Bengaluru traffic. The largest number of farmers have committed suicide during the Siddaramaiah regime and Ministers, K.J. George, Roshan Baig and MLA Harris have become stumbling blocks for Bengalurus development, he charged.

Confident that the BJP would form the next government under the leadership of its state chief, B.S.Yeddyurappa, he said the Lingayat strongman would serve his full term in the state and defended his announcement that he would hold his oath taking ceremony on May 17. Even you (media) have said Yeddyurappa is overconfident , but we will form the government with a full majority, he declared.

Mr Shah ruled out the possibility of a post-poll alliance with JD(S) , claiming the BJP alone would win over 130 seats. He also maintained that the party would not admit mining baron turned politician, Gali Janaradhana Reddy, charged with illegal mining into its fold and claimed it had nothing to do with him even now.

Accusing the Congress of entering into an alliance with terrorist outfits like PFI and KFD, he said he was  hundred percent sure that the Chief Minister would be defeated both in Chamun deshwari and Badami by a huge margin.Thiruvananthapuram: The LDF government has decided to issue an ordinance fixing the price of bottled drinking water at Rs 13. Food and Civil Supplies Minister P. Thilothaman took this decision after holding talks with the Kerala Bottled Water Manufacturers Association here on Thursday. Bottled drinking water will be included in the Essential Articles Control Act.

Stringent action will be taken against companies that violate the order. There were complaints that bottled water was being sold at Rs 20, though the price earlier was Rs 10. The manufacturers hiked the price citing that the cost of essential goods had shot up due to the fuel price hike. Hence, the government has decided to bring it under essential goods

Once it is imposed, the traders and manufacturers cannot demand inflated price for bottled water, said Mr Thilothaman. The drinking water manufacturing companies had decided to sell bottled water at Rs. 12 per litre from April 2. But this was sabotaged by distributors and vendors saying that their profit margins would be hit. The decision to reduce the price was taken by Kerala Bottled Water Manufacturers Association comprising 105 companies. There are about 154 drinking water manufacturing companies in Kerala. Non-members were not ready to reduce the price initially.The sewage water drains from nearby residential and industrial units and causes a foul stench, increases the mosquito menace and pollutes ground water

Hyderabad: Numerous complaints by residents of Bhanu Township, Miyapur, over the last four years regarding sewage flowing on to the open land in their locality have fallen on deaf ears.

About 550 families reside in the area. The sewage water drains from nearby residential and industrial units and causes a foul stench, increases the mosquito menace, pollutes ground water. Residents complain that slugs and snakes enter their homes.

Due to a marked increase in the drainage flow last year, the water has travelled to an open piece of land that lies next to a residential plot housing several posh villas. During the monsoons last year, the increased sewage had seeped into the villa plots and had resulted in the collapse of the compound wall. While the wall was built again, the drainage pipeline was not laid.

Mr M Divindra Reddy, president of May Flower Villas Welfare Association, said, "From GHMC engineers to the deputy commissioner, everyone has visited the site, including the local MLA. Initially they said the drainage pipeline had been sanctioned but now they say there is a pending court case.

He said the association had approached the owner of the open land, who agreed to get a pipeline laid but there was no co-operation from the civic body.New Delhi: In his last address to the BJP workers through the NaMo App in Karnataka where campaigning ended on Thursday for the May 12 Assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said there is no place for Dalits and Backward Classes in the heart of the Congress. Addressing the BJPs SC/ST/OBC and slum morcha workers through the App, Mr Modi said that his government is trying to fulfil Dr B.R. Ambedkars dream of a powerful and prosperous nation.

Mr Modi had earlier interacted with the BJPs farmers, women and youth wings. The BJP said that the PM has interacted with nearly 25 lakh people in Karnataka and claimed that Mr Modi is the only global leader to have adopted this unique communication tool. The party claimed that the interaction with the leaders of various party wings has helped him reach the last mile worker of the organisation, sending them the message that they can directly interact with the prime minister.

Launching a blistering attack on the Congress over the way it has treated Dalits, Mr Modi said the party showed no respect for Ambedkar. He alleged that the Congress used all its power to defeat Ambedkar when he contested Lok Sabha election in 1952 and Bandara Lok Sabha by-election in 1953. That is the reason why Baba Saheb had to face defeat and insult. Let Congress show at least one thing it did to honour Baba Saheb, said the Prime Minister. He further said that this has been happening for decades and till the Congress was in power, Baba Saheb was not given Bharat Ratna. He also said the Congress never thought of giving constitutional status to OBC Commission.

Maintaining that Ambedkar dreamt of an India which takes everybody forward together, he said the BJP is trying to fulfil his dream by implementing various schemes. He said the central government is making efforts to ensure there is social justice and equality. Mr Modi cited government schemes of Stand Up and Mudra to stress that they are playing a major role in the financial empowerment of SC/ST, OBCs and women.

Noting that the BJP has the most number of MPs belonging these categories, Mr Modi said, it was for the first time after Independence that the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government created a separate ministry for scheduled tribes. He said it was under Mr Vajpayee that the government created a separate national commission for STs.Hyderabad: The Telangana state Congress on Thursday launched a bitter attack on Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, terming the Rythu Bandhu scheme an election gimmick. TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy, speaking to mediapersons along with party leaders, asked why Mr Rao had not implemented the scheme in the last four years. The TPCC chief said the TRS government had become a bane on farmers. In the last four years, about 4,000 farmers had committed suicide but the state government had not paid compensation to their families, he alleged.

Mr Reddy said that Mr Rao had announced that he would waive Rs 1 lakh agricultural loans at one go, but had later divided it to four phases. The process was still not complete, he said. He said in the last four years, the state government had presented four Budgets totalling Rs 6.75 lakh crore, and had borrowed Rs 2.5 lakh crore. Despite this, it had not waived farmers loans.

He said the farmers sh-ould be given Rs 4,000 per acre and the government should also provide remunerative price for their crops. After the Congress comes to power in 2019, it will waive `2 lakh loan per each farmer at one go, the TPCC chief said. He said the Congress government would provide minimum support price for crops and funds will be allocated in the Budget for the purpose. Mr Mohamed Ali Shabbir, deputy leader of the Congress Legislature Party and Opposition leader in the Council, said after the Congress comes to power it would help tenant farmers.The prisoners who desire to observe fast inform the authorities of the jail they are lodged in, said Abdul Rauf, Superintendent, Chanchalguda Central Prison. (Representational Image)

Hyderabad: Jail authorities are making arrangements for around 800 prisoners who will observe fast during the holy month of Ramzan.

The prisoners who desire to observe fast inform the authorities of the jail they are lodged in. Based on this, all the fasting prisoners are lodged in same barracks in order to facilitate their daily activities, said Abdul Rauf, Superintendent, Chanchalguda Central Prison.

The prison authorities will provide these rozadaar sehri, the pre-dawn meal at about 3 am and the evening meal when they break the fast for the day. The food will be provided as per the prison norms. However, we will allow the families or voluntary organisations to supply both dry and seasonal fruits to the prisoners who are fasting, said the official.

The fasting prisoners can also relish biryani, chicken curry and other dishes prepared at the prison canteen on payment of the designated amount. The prisoners earn around Rs 70 a day by working in different vocations units inside the prison and the amount is remitted into their accounts.

There is also a library in the jail where the holy Quran and other religious books are kept. They will be allowed to attend Friday prayers at the mosque in prison and on regular days they can offer prayers in their barracks, the superintendent said.

Similar arrangements are also being made at the Special Prison for Women at Chanchalguda.

A few organizations have come forward to distribute fruit to those who fast in the prison. Anyone willing to supply fruits to such prisoners can approach Director General, Prisons, V.K. Singh and seek permission from him, prison officials said.New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on May 14 a special leave petition against a Madras high court order directing a CBI probe into the alleged multi-crore gutka scam in which involvement of state health minister C. Vijaya Baskar and DGP T.K. Rajendran are suspected.

The high court acting on a writ petition filed by DMK MLA J. Anbazhagan had said the underground gutkka business is a crime against society and, therefore, a CBI probe is necessary. It all started on July 8, 2017, when the income tax department conducted raids at the godown, offices and residences of a pan masala and gutka manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who was facing charges of evading tax to the tune of Rs 250 crore.

The manufacture, storage and sale of the carcinogenic chewable forms of tobacco, including gutka and pan masala, were banned by the state government in 2013.

During the raids, the department seized a diary containing the names of those who were believed to have been paid off by the gutka manufacturers, and one among them was the states health minister. Immediately, the DMK moved the court seeking to appoint a special investigation team (SIT) headed by a retired judge of the high court, comprising officials from the CBI.

Challenging this order Health department official E. Sivakumar said the High Court erred in directing CBI probe when the DVAC investigation is in an advanced stage. The allegations pertaining to violations of the ban on sale and possession of gutka is being probed by DVAC and he had fully cooperated in the probe.

The petitioner said he had explained to the DVAC the action taken by the department against all aspects of gutka scam when the ban is in force. The High Court ought not to have entrusted the probe to CBI on a petition filed by a political rival to seek political mileage, he said and prayed for a direction to quash the High court order and an interim stay of the order.Chennai: In a major move to revamp its image dented by recent tussles between traffic police and motorists and videos circulated on social media, the Greater Chennai Traffic Police decided to do away with spot fine from Thursday.

Greater Chennai Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan inaugurated the new system at an event held in police commissioner office on Thursday. He also handed over the newly updated handheld devices to traffic police personnel.

Meanwhile, A. Arun, Additional Commissioner (Traffic), said that the new system would encourage policepublic relations. Public has been misunderstanding the spot fine collected by the traffic police as bribe.

Also, arguments and fights have arisen due to the compelling of spot fine and detention, Arun told mediapersons.

The traffic police coercion for spot fine had led to arguments and subsequent attacks in recent times.

The city police had drawn flaks from social activists after city-based cabbie Manikandan killed himself over a tiff with the traffic police.

Coercion for spot fine and detention of his vehicle led to the extreme step. The city traffic police, apart from doing away with the spot fine, also have introduced online and app-based payment modes. Public can pay the fine by using credit or debit cards, SBI online banking, Paytm app. The fines could be paid at e-seva centres and post offices, Arun said.

While explaining the payment modes, the additional commissioner also issued a stern warning to traffic police and said actions would be initiated on those who collect money from traffic violators. We have removed the spot fine facility in handheld e-challan devices. Collecting money from violators is a crime hereafter, he added.

Although the traffic violators may get a relief from paying the fine at the spot, they have to pay the fine within 48 hours from the generation of e-challan by the traffic police during the violation.

If anyone fails to pay the fine within 48 hours, we will send court summons to them. As all the devices are interlinked, we will monitor the payment in real-time, Arun said.

Explaining about Chennai traffic police commitment in controlling accidents, Arun said that the police show strictness in following rules to curb accidents.

In 2017, 1374 fatal accidents have happened in the city. Of the total fatal accidents, nearly 60 per cent involved two-wheelers. Our strictness has been projected wrongly and to avoid such misunderstanding, the new system is brought into place, he added.Rahul's opponents have to agree that he has maintained a 'certain degree of political class', Shiv Sena said. (Photo: File)

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Thursday praised Congress president Rahul Gandhi for being dignified while attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speeches and said he could pose a challenge to the BJP in 2019.

The BJP should have welcomed Rahul's declaration of his prime ministerial ambitions, the NDA ally said, adding that it was against democracy to make fun of Rahul over his remark.

The BJP should have challenged him to defeat it in the 2019 general polls.

Rahul had said two days ago that he was ready to occupy the prime minister's post if his party wins the most seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, making known his ambition for the top executive post.

Reacting to the comment, PM Modi wondered whether the country would ever accept such an "immature and naamdar (famous)" leader for the post. Rebuking the BJP for criticising Rahul's comments, the Sena said people would decide if the Congress president would become the prime minister in 2019 or face defeat.

"However, saying that he (Rahul) is eager to become the prime minister or making fun of him is against democracy," it said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

"If there is democracy left in the country, the BJP should have welcomed Rahul's statement and challenged him to defeat it in 2019," the Sena said.

Lavishing praise on the 47-year-old Congress leader, the Sena said, "Rahul Gandhi today is not the same as he was in 2014. He has become a strong-minded person after bearing criticism. He can pose a challenge to the BJP in 2019 and the Gujarat Assembly polls have proved this."

According to the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, the BJP uses "derogatory" language against Rahul but he has never stooped to those levels to attack Modi and has "respected" him as the prime minister.

Rahul's opponents have to agree that he has maintained a "certain degree of political class" the Sena said. Taking a jibe at Modi, it said, "The PM has started remembering his 'alliance dharma' now. We are happy to hear that."

It said the BJP thinks there is no dialogue between the Congress and its allies. But what has been the BJP's level of interaction with its coalition partners and how many decisions in the interest of the country have been taken by working together, the bickering ally sought to know.

Allies were being "stabbed in the back" with the sword of power, which the BJP got due to the collective efforts of NDA partners, the Marathi daily said.

If the BJP asks how Gandhi can be the contender for the prime ministerial post when there are seniors in the Congress and UPA allies, then BJP stalwarts like LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi will be the right persons to answer, the Sena quipped.

"Similarly, Modi and (BJP chief) Amit Shah appointed the (country's) president without talking to NDA partners," the publication claimed.Never before in the political history of Karnataka have the elections been as unpredictable and the campaign as acrimonious as it is in the ongoing polls in May 2018.

The North Karnataka region in general and Mumbai-Karnataka and parts of Central Karnataka regions in particular consisting of 11 districts with 89 seats hold the key to the formation of the government with a solid 66 seats c0ming from seven districts alone.

This has been the phenomenon right from the day an unified Karnataka was formed. The reason being the predominance of the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community in the Mumbai Karnataka region and sizeable number spread across the rest of North Karnataka.

The districts of Belagavi, Uttara Kannada, Vijayapura, Bagalkote, Gadag, Haveri and Hubballi-Dharwad coupled with Davanagere and Chitradurga hold the key.

The biggest strength of the undivided Janata Dal was the strong backing of the Lingayat community from North Karnataka because of which the party won 1994 elections.

The emergence of B.S. Yeddyurappa as a Lingayat strongman in BJP and the shift of loyalty by Ramakrishna Hegde from Janata Dal towards NDA in 1999 (after his expulsion from the party in 1996) paved the way for the Lingayat communitys shift towards the BJP. The BJP won 79 seats in 2004 and 110 seats in 2008, just three short of simple majority.

That this impressive haul of 110 seats by the BJP under Yeddyurappa was solely because of the Lingayat factor needs no repetition. Interestingly, the BJP which won 110 seats in 2008 had drawn a blank in six districts in Old-Mysore region, reinforcing the fact that the BJPs draws its entire strength from the Lingayat community.

It is for this reason the Congress decided to break the monolithic Lingayat community, cut Yeddyurappa to size and prevent him from being the sole beneficiary of this highly-literate and politically-conscious community. Whoever wins the north, wins the state..

(S.A. Hemanth Kumar is a political analyst)Mumbai: Senior BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar Thursday said that a hung Assembly in neighbouring Karnataka, which votes on May 12, could force the BJP to align with the Janata Dal (Secular).

He said that the party could not afford to get stuck around the 100-seat mark in the Karnataka Assembly polls.

"If we do, the party may once again have to align with the JD(S)," he said.

He added that the Congress too might be toying with the idea of extending outside support to a JD-S government. Mungantiwar said that after the Karnataka results are out, the Congress would be left (in governance) in just two states. He said some parties were indulging in "spreading rumours" as they were unsure of voters' support.

Speaking about the Lok Sabha and local bodies' constituency polls in Maharashtra, the senior BJP leader discounted reports about the BJP asking the Shiv Sena to withdraw its candidate for the Palghar Lok Sabha seat.

Replying to a query on the Congress reportedly asking the BJP to withdraw its candidate for the Palus-Kadegaon assembly seat bypoll, Mungantiwar told reporters that it was the BJP parliamentary board's decision to contest these bypolls.

The seat had fallen vacant after the death of Congress MLA and former state minister Patangrao Kadam on March 9.

Replying to queries over the Sena hijacking BJP's probable candidate for the Palghar LS bypoll, Mungantiwar said that the kin of a deceased sitting member was expected to get sympathy votes only if he contested on the same party symbol.

"The sympathy factor is out of the equation when the kin chooses some other party to contest the election," he said. He informed that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had urged Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to not field a candidate for the Palghar LS bypoll.Hyderabad: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said on Thursday that he had never asked Telugus staying in Karnataka to vote for any particular party in the May 12 Assembly elections. He said that he had only asked them not to vote for a party which had done injustice to AP.

Mr Naidus statement acquires significance as it comes on the day the campaign ends in Karnataka. He is travelling in Kurnool district.

On April 30, speaking at the Dharma Porata Deeksha in Tirupati, Mr Naidu had said: I am appealing to all Telugu people in Karnataka to defeat the BJP, which is resorting to collusion politics and conspiracies in Karnataka elections.

AICC president Rahul Gandhi also tried to woo the Telugu voters of Karnataka, assuring them that the Congress would grant special status to AP once it came to power at the Centre.

Speaking to mediapersons at Bengaluru on Thursday, Mr Gandhi said the Congress government, it is formed, will implement all assurances that were given to Andhra Pradesh during bifurcation.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the Telugus of Karnataka were supporting the Congress. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had cheated the people of AP on special status, and Telugus are angry with him.Bengaluru: The dust and grime and cacophony of microphones ebbed on Thursday but the most hostile effort by BJP president Amit Shah, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and other leaders to win the race to power on May 12 with charges and counter flying back and forth on corruption, communalism, voter ID cards, even foreign origin of UPA Chairperson Mrs Sonia Gandhi, to sway voters could well continue till the eleventh hour.

On Thursday, Mr Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of attacking him as he perceived him as "threat" by announcement in public of his prime ministerial ambition. "This election is not about Rahul. I have now learnt how to deal with the Prime Minister. When he can't respond, he distracts. We will not let him distract and create anger," retorted Mr Gandhi even as he lambasted Mr Modi on his silence over Reddy brothers and their relatives securing tickets despite their involvement in the mega-buck illegal mining scam, attack on Dalits and cases of rape in Uttar Pradesh. Mr Modi had criticized Mr Gandhi for speaking about his ambition to occupy the top position next year and dealt with Mrs Gandhi's Italian origin.

In Badami, where a cliff-hanger contest between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and former minister and MP B Sriramulu is on the cards, Mr Shah charged Congress leaders with adopting desperate methods like hoarding voter ID cards to win the elections. "It tells us how desperately the Congress wants to win the election.

The way bogus voter cards were made in a flat... the way counterfoils of forms for inclusion of voters were found, the way colour printers and computers were found there, it tells us how desperately the Congress wants to win the election," the BJP president said, adding "People are behind the BJP in a big way and such attempts will be rendered useless.

Without any doubt, defeat of Congress is written large on the wall. There is no question of hung assembly....We are far ahead of the halfway mark. As per the feedback I have gathered from my leaders and party workers, we are winning more than 130 seats and there is question of seeking support from anyone to form government," he added.

Though development remained at top of the political discourse, it was overshadowed by a slanging match between the two parties over corruption.

The PM and Amit Shah also raised the killing of RSS and BJP workers by pro-minority outfits and also former Congress president Sonia's Gandhi's foreign origins. Not to be left behind, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday hit back saying, "my mother 'is more Indian than many, many Indians I have seen."

Many a phrase was coined in the course of the campaign -'seedha rupaiah government' (by Mr Modi) '10% commission government' (again by Mr Modi), '90% commission government' (by the CM to describe the Modi government) and Ali Baba and 40 Chor (by Rahul to describe the Reddy brothers and other BJP politicians).Hyderabad: With the anti-BJP campaign gathering steam in the last minute campaign, JD(S) candidates are also facing the heat. The Telugus are against the JD(S) owing to its anticipated tie-up with the BJP. The Congress candidates appear to benefit from the anti-BJP stand of Telugus from Andhra Pradesh.

Speaking to the newspaper, Ms Shalini Kumar, a settler from AP and a voter from Whitefield, said, By voting for JD(S) candidates, we would be helping the BJP, as there are sufficient indications of their tie-up. A vote for the JD(S) means a vote for the BJP. Telugus dont want to help APs destructors to come power in Karnataka. The BJP should be taught a lesson. The Karnataka elections will decide the fate of the BJP in the south.

Asked their anti-BJP stance would benefit the Congress, Mr Anand Gajula from Mahadevapura, one of the rich constituency, said, It depends on the candidates, If not the Congr-ess, then NOTA. but no to the BJP or the JD(S).

The Telugus are considered as a deciding factor in at least 25-30 Assembly constituencies in Karnataka, which votes on May 12.Telugu Association for Karnataka members hold placards calling on Telugus to vote against the BJP in the Karnataka Assembly elections.

Hyderabad: Telugu-speaking voters in Karnataka seem to be going all out against the BJP in the Assembly elections on May 12.

Over 10,000 Telugu-speaking families settled in Karnataka have formed the Telugu Association for Karnataka (TAK) for running a massive campaign titled No vote for BJP.

The association has put up banners and posters declaring that the BJP has cheated Telugus by denying special status to Andhra Pradesh.

Over seven lakh Telugu-speaking voters, whose origins are in Andhra Pradesh, have joined the campaign so far. If the movement continues in this vein, it is likely to directly affect the winning prospects of BJP candidates in at least 25-30 Assembly constituencies.

If the Telugu-speaking voters from Telangana also join the campaign, their number would swell to about 10 lakh votes.

Speaking to this newspaper, TAK secretary Sundar Ram Chaganti said, Over 70 per cent of Telugu settlers in Karnataka are from AP. They are concentrated in Marathahalli, BTM (Byrasandra, Thavarekere and Madiwala), Yelandur, and Domlur. Our campaign has a single-point agenda, No vote for BJP. Currently, around seven lakh Telugus from AP are under the umbrella of TAK, and if all of us stand by the agenda, the BJP is set to lose seven lakh votes.

TAK joint secretary Keerti Reddy said, It is a swiftly growing campaign, and we are also trying to reach out to Telugus from Telangana in Basava-kalyan, Bidar, and Bellary. There are nearly three lakh settlers from Telangana in these districts, and the idea is to see that the BJP does not benefit.

Most Telugu settlers have made Karnataka their home over the last two decades. Though we are a part of Karnataka, we have neither forgotten our origin nor the injustice meted out to Andhra. We are doing our bit by not voting for BJP, said Pavan Kumar, joint secretary of TAK.

A majority of settlers live in urban and suburban pockets of Karnataka, with most of them employed in the information technology sector, education, and medicine. The techies among them are concentrated in Mahadevapura, Marathahalli, and Whitefield.Addressing the media in Bengaluru, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said, 'PM Modi likes to distract people. He has nothing to say to the people of Karnataka on their future. So he just distracts them.' (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

BENGALURU: The Prime Minister sees a threat in me. Thats how Congress president Rahul Gandhi summed up the aggressive reaction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his own PM ambitions as the curtains came down on a no-holds barred election campaign for the May 12 Karnataka Assembly polls, on Thursday. On Wednesday, Mr Modi had remarked that Mr Gandhis ambition to become PM reeks of arrogance.

Addressing a news conference with CM Siddaramaiah and veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge by his side, Mr Gandhi who led the partys campaign to retain power with repeated visits to the state, said, Mr Modi has anger inside him and he has got anger for everybody not only for me. I attract that anger because he sees a threat in me. His anger is his problem, not my problem. I have now learned to deal with him. When he realises that he is coming into a space where there is no escape, then he distracts and creates anger. This election is not about Rahul. We will not let him distract and create anger.

He lambasted Mr Modi for raking up the issue of Sonia Gandhis foreign origin, saying My mother is an Italian. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many Indians I have seen. She has sacrificed her life for the country, she has suffered for the country. When Mr Modi makes such comments, it shows the quality of the man.

The Congress president also sought to turn the tables on the top brass of BJP by mocking at them over the fact that an army of senior leaders, including a couple of Union ministers and CMs, descended on the state on the last day for campaigning as the party was in a state of panic over the Congress adopting a different approach to win over voters. Mr Modi had also remained silent on the issue of attack on Dalits and the presence of Reddy brothers and their associates in the fray despite their involvement in the mega-buck illegal mining scam, he added.

Maintaining that BJP leaders feel uncomfortable about his temple visits, Mr Gandhi said, I dont think they understand the term Hindu, because the term Hindu is a perspective, it is something that is in the heart, it is imbibed. There are different beliefs....as a leader of a political party it is my job to stand with them in their beliefs, he said.

The Congress president claimed Indias foreign policy was decimated as the Prime Minister looked at it as an individual exercise. He is under the impression that he can go on and have a conversation with the President of China and everything will magically happen, he said adding that Modi needs to take into confidence talented people in the foreign ministry. Are discussions happening with finance, foreign and defence minister on strategies? No. Its a one man show, he said.Guntur: Telugu Desam MP Galla Jayadev on Thursday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah have turned as barriers towards the development of Andhra Pradesh.

Participating in the opening of a Regional Passport Service Centre in Guntur on Thursday, Mr Jayadev praised that the external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj as kind hearted and wishes to do good to residuary Andhra Pradesh but Amit Shah and Narendra Modi never work for the states development. He recalled that he had asked Ms Swaraj for the Passport Service Centre to which she gave an immediate, positive response. Hence, the new Regional Passport Centre was established.

He said that earlier also, Ms Swaraj had responded swiftly towards saving a Guntur native from the clutches of kidnappers in South Africa. He stated that Ms Swaraj and other BJP leaders were kindhearted towards developing AP but not Amit Shah and Narendra Modi.The role of online ads in elections is under scrutiny following revelations that Russian groups bought ads on leading services such as Google and Facebook to try to influence the 2016 US presidential campaign.

Google is suspending all advertising connected to Irelands abortion referendum as part of moves to protect election integrity, the company announced.

The move came a day after Facebook banned foreign-backed ads in the Irish campaign, amid global concerns about online election meddling and the role of internet ads in swaying voters.

Google said that it would no longer display ads related to the May 25 vote on whether to repeal Irelands constitutional ban on most abortions. The prohibition on ads connected to the Irish vote applies to both Google and YouTube, which the company owns.

The online search leader, which is based in Mountain View, California, declined to say how much advertising revenue it was giving up because of the decision.

The role of online ads in elections is under scrutiny following revelations that Russian groups bought ads on leading services such as Google and Facebook to try to influence the 2016 US presidential campaign. Many of the ads were designed to sow confusion, anger and discord among Americans through messages on hot-button topics.

Karin von Abrams, a London-based analyst with the research firm eMarketer, said banning ads represented a short-term safeguard from potential backlash and reputational damage.

They wont want to forego election-related revenues in the longer term, but they do need to get their houses in order, rather than risk further troubles at this stage, von Abrams said in an email.

Googles statement followed Facebooks decision to ban foreign advertisements around the abortion referendum, which has drawn worries about the influence of North American groups.

Both Google and Facebook are working on measures to improve transparency before Novembers US midterm elections, including tools to show the home country of advertisers.

Ireland bars political donations from abroad, but the law has not been applied to social media advertising. Anti-abortion groups based in the United States are among the organizations that have bought online ads in Ireland during the referendum campaign.

Irish lawmaker James Lawless, the technology spokesman for the opposition Fianna Fail party, welcomed the moves by Google and Facebook but said they are rushed and they are coming at the 11th hour, with just two weeks until voting day.

Its a step in the right direction, but its an awful pity we couldnt have done this six months ago, said Lawless, who has introduced a bill to Irelands parliament that would require all online advertisers to disclose the publishers and sponsors behind ads.

Largely Catholic Ireland has Europes strictest restrictions on abortion, which is legal only when a womans life is in danger. Several thousand Irish women travel each year to get abortions in neighbouring Britain.

Voters are being asked whether they want to retain the constitutional ban or repeal it and make parliament responsible for creating abortion laws. Lawless said he had concerns about some of the online advertising from both sides in the referendum campaign.

Some quite disingenuous ads have been going around in recent weeks targeting people who are in the middle that arent always from who they seem to be from, he said.

What we really need is legislation and we need a proper, robust thought-out approach to the problem, he said.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.'You know what I want to do? I want to get it finished. The prize I want is victory for the world, not for even here. I want victory for the world. Because that's what we're talking about. So that's the only prize I want,' Trump said in response. (Photo:File)

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he is not interested in winning a Noble Peace Prize but wants victory for the world.

Asked by a journalist if he deserved a Nobel Peace prize, Trump said although everyone thought he did, he would never say it himself.

"You know what I want to do? I want to get it finished. The prize I want is victory for the world, not for even here. I want victory for the world. Because that's what we're talking about. So that's the only prize I want," Trump said in response.

The South Korean president had recently said Trump deserved to win the Nobel Peace prize for his efforts with regard to North Korea.

Read: Trump should win Nobel Peace Prize, says South Korea's President

Trump said his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would be a very good thing for the region and the world.

"This is something that nobody thought was going to happen for years or more. I really believe it's going to be a great thing for North Korea, a great thing for South Korea and Japan. I want to thank (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping). He was very helpful to us two days ago on something very specific," the president said.

"We are working trade with China. They are doing okay because they're helping us, and I guess they're probably doing a little bit better because they're helping us. But they have really helped us on North Korea. We appreciate it and we appreciate President Xi," he said.

Trump said he spoke with his South Korean counterpart.

"I just spoke to President Moon and explained what was taking place with respect to the three gentlemen. And President Moon of South Korea was very, very happy to hear it. He, likewise, has been incredibly helpful," he said.

"So the relationships we have with (Japanese) Prime Minister Abe, President Moon and President Xi, I think it all goes into what is taking place right now. We very much look forward to having the meeting between the United States and North Korea. That will be announced over the next couple of days," Trump said.Washington: Three Korean-Americans who were detained in North Korea for more than a year were greeted by President Donald Trump beneath a giant American flag after they returned to the mainland US on Thursday.

Despite a middle-of-the-night landing, first lady Melania Trump and a host of senior administration officials joined Trump to celebrate the occasion. The president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men travelled to take a private moment with them.

#WATCH US President Donald Trump receives three US citizens freed by North Korea, at an airbase near Washington pic.twitter.com/v6J2pfnNd6  ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2018

The men, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, were released Wednesday amid a warming of relations between the longtime adversaries.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo secured their release in Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on final plans for a Trump-Kim summit. The Americans had boarded Pompeo's plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to a Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the US.

Read: Mike Pompeo along with 3 US detainees returning home from N Korea, says Trump

According to the White House, the three men would be transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation and medical treatment. Their families were not on hand for the ceremony.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

"We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home," they said.

"We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

Singapore has emerged as the likely summit site, late this month or in early June, as Trump seeks to negotiate denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in his highest-stakes foreign policy effort yet. Trump announced Wednesday that the demilitarized zone between the Koreas would not host the summit. Pompeo said the meeting would last one day and possibly a second.

Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Korea's leader for the prisoners' release "I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this" and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the "official suggestion" of the US president, said North Korea's official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.

Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental US.

Those advances were the subject of President Barack Obama's starkest warning shortly before Trump took office, and this is a crisis he's convinced his negotiating skills can resolve.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kim's willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating US moves to tighten sanctions branded "maximum pressure" by the president.

The wee-hours ceremony Thursday was to be an early celebration for an issue that has already put the prospect of a Nobel Peace Prize on Trump's mind.

"Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it," he said Wednesday when asked if the award was deserved.

The release capped a dramatic day of diplomacy in Pyongyang. After Pompeo's 90-minute meeting with Kim Jong Un, he gave reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked about the prisoners as he returned to his hotel. It was only after a North Korean emissary arrived a bit later to inform him that the release was confirmed.

The three had been held for periods ranging from one to two years. They were the latest in a series of Americans who have been detained by North Korea in recent years for seemingly small offences and typically freed when senior US officials or statesmen personally visited to bail them out.

The highly public and politically tinged arrival ceremony for the former prisoners organized by the White House was in stark contrast to the low-key and very private reception that the State Department had envisioned and carried out from the moment they took custody of them.

Department officials took great pains on their release in North Korea, as well as on their flights to Japan and Alaska, to keep them sequestered not only from the two journalists traveling with Pompeo but also from staffers not immediately involved in their cases. The trio, along with medical personnel, including a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Pompeo's plane in a small section of 12 business class-sized seats that was cordoned off by curtains on both ends.

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns in keeping with the minimal amount of information they had released since the men were imprisoned.

The fact that Trump was going to Andrews to welcome them home in person was almost an afterthought to Pompeo, who, when briefing reporters on their release, noted it last of all.Washington: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore for a first ever summit between the leaders of the two countries.

"The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!" Trump said on Twitter.

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

The two leaders are expected to discuss North Korea's nuclear weapons development and testing program, which has deepened long-seated tensions between Washington and Pyongyang.

Trump's announcement came just hours after three Americans who had been held prisoner in North Korea arrived at a US military base outside Washington, having been released by Kim.

Trump said on their arrival that he believed Kim wanted to bring North Korea "into the real world" and had high hopes for their planned meeting, which would be the first between a serving US president and a North Korean leader.

"I think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful," Trump said. "My proudest achievement will be - this is part of it - when we denuclearize that entire peninsula."This photo released on May 9, 2018, by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows flames rising after an attack in Kisweh, south of Damascus, Syria -- an area known to have numerous Syrian army military bases. (Photo: AP)

Jerusalem/ Beirut: Iranian forces in Syria launched a rocket attack on Israeli army bases in the Golan Heights early on Thursday, Israel said, prompting one of the heaviest Israeli barrages in Syria since the conflict there began in 2011.

The attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, just past midnight, marked the first time Iranian forces have hit Israel from Syria, where they have deployed along with Iran-backed Shiite militias and Russian troops to support President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war.

Syrian state media said dozens of Israeli missiles hit a radar station, Syrian air defence positions and an ammunition dump, underscoring the risks of a wider escalation involving Iran and its regional allies.

Israel said 20 Iranian Grad and Fajr rockets were shot down by its Iron Dome air defence system or fell short of the Golan targets. The Quds Force, an external arm of Irans Revolutionary Guards, carried out the launch, Israel said.

It was commanded and ordered by (Quds Force chief General) Qassem Soleimani and it has not achieved its purpose, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters.

Israel struck back by destroying dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria, Conricus said, as well as Syrian anti-aircraft units that tried unsuccessfully to shoot down Israeli planes.

We do not know yet the (Iranian) casualty count, he said.

But I can say that in terms of our purpose, we focused less on personnel and more on capabilities and hardware ... to inflict long-term damage on the Iranian military establishment in Syria. We assess it will take substantial time to replenish.

Right Decision

The Israelis fear that Iran and its Lebanese guerrilla ally Hezbollah are turning Syria into a new front against them. Israel says its occasional strikes in Syria aim to foil that.

Iran vowed retaliation after a suspected Israeli air strike last month killed seven of its military personnel in a Syrian air base.

Israel regards Iran as its biggest threat, and has repeatedly targeted Iranian forces and allied militia in Syria.

Expectations of a regional flare-up were stoked by US President Donald Trumps announcement on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal. Hours later, Israeli rocket rockets targeted a military base in Kisweh, a commander in the pro-Syrian government regional alliance said.

That attack killed 15 people, including eight Iranians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, though the commander said there were no casualties. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

The Trump administration cast its hard tack against the Iranian nuclear deal as a response, in part, to Tehrans military interventions in the region.

The Golan flare-up with Israel is just further demonstration that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted and another good reminder that the president made the right decision to get out of the Iran deal, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News.

Russia Warned

The tensions worry Russia, which wants to stabilize Syria.

Thursdays flare-up came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from a visit to Moscow, where he discussed Syria concerns with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Conricus said Israel forewarned Russia of its strikes on Thursday, which Syrian state media first reported hit Baath City in Quneitra, near the border. Further waves of missiles followed. Syrian state media said Israeli missiles had been brought down over Damascus, Homs and Sueida.

Air defenses confronted tens of Israeli rockets and some of them reached their target and destroyed one of the radar sites, Syrian state news agency SANA reported, citing a military source. Another rocket hit an ammunition warehouse, it said.

Syrian state television was broadcasting footage of its air defences firing, and playing patriotic songs. Damascus residents described explosions in the sky from air defence systems.

Israeli media said residents of Metulla, on the Lebanese border, had been instructed to go to bomb shelters. There was no official confirmation.

Lebanons National News Agency reported Israeli jets circling over Lebanese territory early on Thursday before exiting.SALT LAKE CITY  A little extra cash is in store for schools across Utah thanks to the School Cents program at Maceys, Lins, Dicks Market and Fresh Market grocery stores.

The Utah-owned grocery stores recently donated $72,071 to 51 elementary, middle and junior high schools in the areas they serve. The funds will be used to purchase tablets and computers, books and other classroom supplies. Each school gets to determine how the funds are used and will best meet the needs of their students.

The School Cents program, which donates 1 percent of all transactions made with a linked Perks or Plue rewards action, has been a tradition at the grocery stores for a number of years. Each participating school encourages their students families to link the school to their rewards account and shop at the store.SALT LAKE CITY  Seven high school students from across the state, all children of law enforcement officers, received $2,500 Leadership Awards from the Utah 1033 Foundation during a recent ceremony honoring both the students and fallen officers.

Each award bears the name of one of seven officers killed in the line of duty since the foundations creation in 2011. This years winners and the awards are:

 Mallory Blue, the Eric Ellsworth Leadership Award

 Connor Dale Brophy, the Cody Brotherson Leadership Award

 Mallory Adamson, the Douglas Barney Leadership Award

 Annie Markland, the Cory Wride Leadership Award

 Alexis Rossetti, the Derek Johnson Leadership Award

 Ethan Guymon, the Aaron Beesley Leadership Award

 Bailey Jensen, the Jared Francom Leadership Award

Students applied for the awards by submitting a one-page essay related to issues affecting todays youth: suicide prevention, social bullying and the opioid crisis. A committee then selected the winning students on the basis of their essays and for their demonstrated academic achievement and rigor.

The nonprofit foundation provides immediate financial support to the families of fallen officers and assists their dependents and the dependents of active Utah peace officers with education costs.SALT LAKE CITY  The Utah State Bar has awarded the 2018 Liberty Bell Award to the Divorce Education for Children program, which helps children cope with divorce or separation situations.

The free, one-time class is geared toward children 9 to 12 whose parents are separated, divorcing or divorced. It teaches children coping tools they can use to express their feelings to parents, and lets children know that the divorce is not their fault.

The class is held in a court environment where the children get to meet a judge or commissioner in order to demystify court, where their parents may be spending time. The two-hour class is taught by a mental health professional and is currently offered in Logan, Ogden, Provo and Salt Lake City.

The Liberty Bell Award is given to a community member or organization for their contribution to a better understanding and appreciation of the American justice system. For more information on the Divorce Education for Children program, log on to www.utcourts.gov/specproj/dived/children.html.When Kristen Black needed to go to a physics study session but had a day care conflict, her professor did more than just allow her to bring her baby  he held the baby for 20 minutes while teaching, The Washington Post reported.

Black, a 21-year-old biology student, took a semester off school at Arkansas State University for the birth of her daughter, Izzy, who is now 8 months old. She resumed her studies this spring.

The article says the professor, Bruce Johnson, went up to Blacks desk about halfway through the study session. When Izzy smiled at him, he asked Black permission to hold her and continued to teach with the baby on his hip.

Anytime someone that cute smiles at you, it melts you, Johnson told The Washington Post.

Black said she was able to take notes while Johnson held Izzy, and she appreciated the kind gesture. Black took a picture of Johnson at the board and sent it to both her mother and the university's chancellor, Kelly Damphousse.

It means a lot to have teacher genuinely care about his students, Black said. Hes a great teacher.

Read the full story on The Washington Posts website.SALT LAKE CITY  A U.S. Senate subcommittee on public lands chaired by Utah Sen. Mike Lee probed the extent and appropriateness of law enforcement authority by federal land agencies, pointing to the Blanding artifacts raid that critics say was "overkill."

The 2009 raid in southeast Utah was the largest undercover sting of its kind in the country. It included more than a dozen raids and multiple arrests. A prominent doctor in the community, James Redd, committed suicide after being swept up in the probe of theft involving Native American artifacts.

The Republican lawmaker on Wednesday termed it "years of cloak-and-dagger investigations" that culminated in pre-dawn raids by federal police in a residential neighborhood on private land.

"Law enforcement has become a growth industry within these federal agencies and the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service have followed these trends," Lee said. "Undeniably, our federal land management agencies have drifted far from their stated purpose."

Lee added that he seeks a permanent legislative solution to implement reforms in law enforcement in those agencies.

Jackson Brossy, director of the Navajo Nation's Washington, D.C., office, stressed that Native Americans depend on federal law enforcement to safeguard their cultural heritage and if anything, personnel dedicated to that cause need to be drastically increased.

"We have a significant interest in how those lands are managed," he said. "Tribal artifacts have been looted in southern Utah for decades."

The 2009 raid, he added, did little to stem the ongoing abuses suffered from looting and "blatant" grave robbing.

From 2011-15, there were 26 incidents of cultural resource damage in San Juan County  and one BLM law enforcement representative, he said.

Brossy said in 2012, campers tore down a 19th century Navajo hogan and used it for firewood. A year later, looters desecrated a burial site at Butler Wash, he said.

"It is unacceptable that in 2018 that federal laws continue to be broken with such disregard and at such a high rate," Brossy said.

Brian Steed, the BLM's deputy director for policy and programs, acknowledged there had been specific problems with law enforcement abuses.

"While the BLM rangers have accomplished important work, the law enforcement program itself has experienced a number of challenges in the recent past, including destruction of records, mishandling of evidence, misappropriation of government funds, among others," he said. "This behavior shocks the conscience and is entirely unacceptable."

The man who was the agent in charge of Utah and Nevada, Dan Love, was caught up in multiple scandals, including distributing evidence in a criminal case to his colleagues and using his position to get special treatment at the Burning Man festival.

A probe by the Inspector General's Office also noted the agent was involved in threats and intimidation of colleagues uncomfortable with his behavior.

Steed, a Utahn and former chief of staff to Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, said the BLM is seriously considering moving its law enforcement headquarters to the West  where so much of its land exists.

"We've also reinforced the need for accountability in our law enforcement program," he said.

Utah state Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, said the raid should have never have happened.

"They could have been given a citation to appear in federal court and they would have appeared in federal court. It was overkill."

Both Steed and Tracy Perry, director of law enforcement and investigations for the U.S. Forest Service, said they are working on improving relationships with local and state law enforcement agencies.

Beyond relationships, though, critics say law enforcement arms of federal land management agencies are often overzealous.

"Based on what I have read, it seems to me the tragedy that occurred there (Blanding) had at least three causes," said Paul Larkin Jr., senior legal research fellow with the Heritage Foundation and a former federal agent

"One was the mistaken decision by a BLM special agent to treat Dr. James Redd as if he were Pablo Escobar (a Colombian drug lord and narcoterrorist) and to conduct an assault and takeover of the Redds' home as if they were members of a biker gang cooking meth."

Larkin said Blanding is a result of the over-criminalization of the federal code.

"There are seriously bad people out there," he said. "We don't need to manufacture them."

Much of the discussion Wednesday centered on boosting relationships among federal land management agencies and local police, as well as training requirements among the agencies and how they might differ.SALT LAKE CITY  A public lands bill in Emery County establishes a new national park, makes permanent and expands wilderness study areas and sets up a sprawling conservation area in the San Rafael Swell with a nod to recreation, history and cultural resources.

Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, unveiled the measure Wednesday, saying it is the result of a broad consensus among many diverse interests.

"So often public lands bills are approached with a winner takes all," Curtis said. "It's this or it is nothing. This bill, every stakeholder had very different interests, but everyone wanted to do the right thing."

Curtis said the bill also has an original co-sponsor, Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii, who is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Federal Lands.

"We are getting some great support," he said, noting the bipartisan backing.

Multiple groups or entities are in favor of the bill, including American Whitewater, Emery County, the Conservation Alliance and SEMA, an organization of off-road enthusiasts.

Gov. Gary Herbert praised the bill, called the Emery County Public Land Management Act of 2018.

"It's an important bill and is a great example of what can happen when members of a community set aside differences and work to find solutions that will benefit the county, its residents and the state of Utah."

Some environmental groups, however, blasted its provisions.

(This) bill is a giveaway to Emery County and a loss to the people who love these public lands, said Athan Manuel, director of public lands protection for Sierra Club. Truly world-class landscapes like Labyrinth Canyon and Muddy Creek, which deserve full wilderness protection, are instead given paltry protection under the guise of a national conservation area that is riddled with anti-conservation language. "

Scott Groene, executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said the measure prioritizes motorized recreation over conservation and provides off-roading in new, remote areas.

Opponents also point out that the bill fails to resolve the fight over so-called RS2477 rights-of-way and allows the litigation continue over access.

The bill proposes:

 Moving 436,643 acres of wilderness study areas in Emery County into permanent wilderness areas and expanding them to 577,986 acres

 Establishing the 383,380 acre San Rafael Swell Western Heritage and Historic Mining National Conservation Area to conserve and protect the recreational, cultural, historical, educational, natural, scenic and wildlife resources of the area

 Expanding Goblin Valley State Park by 10,000 acres, leaving the new addition as federal land, with considerations for state resources to improve visitor experience

 Trading out 100,000 acres of school trust lands in that area for lands to provide more benefit to the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration's permanent trust fund for school beneficiaries

 Establishing the Jurassic National Monument comprising 2,453 acres

Hatch said the bill provides a lasting solution to some tough public land issues in Emery County.

Its the product of 23 years of effort and over 3,000 meetings spent responding to the needs of stakeholders across the ideological spectrum  from environmental groups to the grazing community and everyone in between," Hatch said. "With one bill, we are protecting more acreage than all legislative efforts from the last eight years combined.

Emery County was among the first counties in Utah to reach consensus on potential public lands legislation years ago  components that were then part of Rep. Rob Bishop's failed Public Lands Initiative that sought consensus on land issues across a large swath of the state.

Lynn Sitterud, chairman of the Emery County Commission, said the legislation seeks regulatory certainty for natural resources in the county.

"This bill is inclusive of all stakeholders and their interests. It makes sense. It is a better way to make natural resource management decisions," he said. "We will all benefit. "This could have been the quietest place in all of South Korea. But as American missionary Elizabeth Torrey leads a group of high school students up a rocky mountain road, their chatter and footsteps in the melting snow sharply pierce the silence. The town of Taebaek, three hours southeast of Seoul, slowly disappears in the distance, taking any trace of civilization with it.

They come up here to a mountain plateau to pray for Korean reunification. In making such prayers, theyre as far removed from the mindsets of most young South Koreans as this remote location suggests. But the Torrey family of missionaries is convinced God is leading them to educate the unification generation.

This land, this undivided land, is your inheritance, Elizabeth Torrey tells her students during the prayer session. And your prayers of your heart matter to see that happen.

Its apt to be an uphill climb. Most young adults in this country reject the idea of reuniting with North Korea, which has been a separate country since long before they were born. Seventy-one percent of South Koreans in their 20s oppose reunification, according to a survey released last year by the Korea Institute for National Unification, a government-sponsored think tank. Thats higher than across the nation as a whole: 58 percent still want reunification, though that number is down from 69 percent four years ago.

Young South Koreans might want peace and denuclearization, but not reunification, which they fear would bring costly economic repercussions for their country.

For the old generation, the divided Korea is abnormal, and the unified Korea is the normal state, says Sang Sin Lee, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification. But for the younger generation, its the normal state. So for them, reunification is maybe unnecessary. To them, its a risk.

But the minority who crave reconciliation have found in Elizabeth Torrey and her husband, Ben, partners who believe Gods plan calls for a reunited Korea.

Having grown up in South Korea in a missionary family, Ben Torrey says, he moved his family back to Korea from Connecticut in 2005 after he heard God speak to him during prayer. The message, as he recalls it: North Korea would be opening to the world soon, but the South Korean church wasnt ready.

Ben Torrey now feels called to do his part in what he believes is Gods grand plan. Reunification could facilitate a new era of missions, he says, carrying the gospel along with renewed Chinese and Japanese churches through Muslim lands back to Jerusalem.

International hopes for a less tense, more stable and possibly reunified Korean Peninsula rose recently when North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shattered expectations by visiting South Korea for historic denuclearization talks in April. Though South Koreans remain skeptical, the Torreys hope an act of God will open their hearts to reunification prospects.

A grandson of American evangelist Reuben Archer Torrey, Ben Torrey has deep ties to ministry efforts on the Korean Peninsula. In 1965, his father, Reuben Archer Torrey III, founded Jesus Abbey, a nondenominational Christian community where about 30 people live in the isolated Taebeck Mountains and host retreats. Ben Torrey is a bishop in the Syro-Chaldean Church of North America, which describes itself as Evangelical Apostolic, and he works closely with South Koreas charismatic communities.

Today, Ben and Elizabeth Torrey run a school, River of Life, for children in the Christian community and surrounding area. Parents appreciate how children are given an alternative to South Koreas hypercompetitive education system, according to Ben Torrey.

We focus on teaching kids not to memorize, but to think, he says.

Those with a Christian faith also learn to pray. With their students, the Torreys use a makeshift shrine to pray to Ju-yo, the Lord, for reconciliation and reunification. Learning to think in new ways will be necessary, some say, if young people are going to embrace reunification. Thats because old ways of convincing people dont work anymore.

The South and North Korean governments used to persuade the population that we have to reunify because we are one nation, Lee says. But nationalism as a motivator for reunification doesnt seem to work with younger South Koreans. We need a new way to persuade people, to make them understand why a divided Korea is abnormal.

Ben Torrey tries to follow those instructions to reverse this trend, one student at a time. To him, its about moving the issue from a textbook chapter to a personal experience. As often as he can, he arranges visits between his students and North Korean defectors living and studying in the South. It seems to work, at least sometimes.

I went to a public elementary and middle school. In that school, at least once a year, we talked about reunification, but it was just something in the textbook, nothing that comes alive, says Jin-soo (his first name), one of the students at River of Life School. He spoke through a translator. But when I had a chance to meet other North Korean students personally, I began thinking from their perspective. They are the same as I am.

Jin-soo, who lives with his parents at Jesus Abbey, says it took him about a year to reverse his attitudes on reunification. Not all of his peers agree that reunification would be wise.

When I meet someone who expresses a negative view about reunification, this negative opinion is so much stronger, says Min-ha (his first name), a school student who used to live with his parents at Jesus Abbey before the family moved to a house in Taebaek. I dont really have any strong arguments to counter that. I find myself speechless.

In many ways, Ben Torrey is going against the odds  an increasingly detached South Korean public and a tension-heavy relationship between the two countries he hopes to see reunified. On top of that, he says the deeply divided South Korean church, large parts of which still take a firmly anti-communist and anti-North Korean stance, needs to unify before North Korea can be opened at all.

How does he plan to overcome all those divisions?

I dont, he says with a laugh. God has to do it. It has to be a miracle.At this time of intense political polarization and gridlock in Congress, the U.S. Senate has demonstrated, by passing SB2155, that Republicans and Democrats can come together and approve landmark legislation that will greatly benefit consumers and small businesses in Utah and across the country.

Now it is time for the U.S. House of Representatives to take up SB2155 and show that it can also pass good legislation, solve problems and wisely govern the country.

SB2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, sponsored by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, amends the Dodd-Frank Act that was passed to rein in the enormous Wall Street investment banks after the 2008 financial crisis and the ensuing market crash.

As a community banker, I have been living with the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act for a decade. While that law included many good provisions and was well-intentioned, it also swept up small community and regional banks in many of the same extremely onerous regulations as the massive Wall Street banks.

The ultimate losers have been small businesses seeking to expand, and individuals and families needing credit to remodel a home or purchase a new one.

Dodd-Frank eliminated much of the flexibility and prerogatives of local bankers to extend credit to even longtime clients and customers. Strong relationships, experience, good judgment and common sense in some cases had to be cast aside to comply with one-size-fits-all regulations from Washington. Compliance costs also skyrocketed, with even small banks having to hire an army of specialized lawyers and accountants to deal with a mountain of regulation and oversight.

As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Crapo has been studying the effects of Dodd-Frank for many years and has carefully documented its negative impact on consumers and small businesses. Working closely with Democrats on his committee, regulators, the financial services industry and consumer watchdog groups, he crafted legislation to eliminate the more egregious regulations of Dodd-Frank, while still protecting consumers and bolstering economic growth. His bill passed the Senate on a strong bipartisan vote of 67-31.

In Utah, we are facing a housing crisis because of a housing supply shortage and rapidly increasing home prices and rents. Crapos legislation could help alleviate the housing crunch by loosening credit both for home and apartment builders and for families seeking to mortgage a home.

Crapos bill is careful not to go too far by making credit too loose and easy to obtain. The financial services industry will still be heavily regulated, and consumers will be protected from unsafe and predatory sales practices. Bankers do not want to extend credit to people who will default. Everyone loses when that happens.

The legislation strikes the right lending balance to keep the wheels of commerce turning with small businesses, individuals and families able to obtain the credit they need and can afford.

Today, SB2155 awaits action in the House of Representatives. I hope Utahs House delegation will support it and encourage their colleagues to do likewise. The House Financial Services Committee, with Rep. Mia Love as a member, has been active in sending to the Senate bipartisan legislation that would also meaningfully reform the Dodd-Frank regulations. SB2155 includes many of those House provisions. If SB2155 passes the House, the president has said he will immediately sign it into law.

Sen. Crapo summed up his bill this way: This bill is a bipartisan compromise, the changes are commonsense, and it will allow financial institutions to better serve their customers and communities, while maintaining safety and soundness and important consumer protections. At a time of intense political polarization, we have proven that we can work together to get things done. This is good for small financial institutions, good for small business, and good for families across America.SALT LAKE CITY  Bolstered by community and family support, Natalie Kaddas and the manufacturing company she leads have risen right up through the glass ceiling.

And in a new 50,000-square-foot facility in Salt Lake City, that progress is expected to continue.

"It's just an honor to run such a great organization," Kaddas said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday for the new home of Kaddas Enterprises, a leading heavy gauge thermoform plastic manufacturing company that has tripled in size and become a multimillion-dollar enterprise under her leadership.

Kaddas, a 46-year-old mother of two, became the company's CEO in 2006 when her in-laws were ready to retire. Her husband, Jay, is an engineer who works primarily in design at the company.

"There aren't a lot of women in manufacturing, so we are a bit unique," Kaddas said. "It's not right or wrong; it's different, and we have a different perspective. So we try to offer that different perspective. It's an honor to lead such a great group of people."

Salt Lake City recently awarded Kaddas Enterprises an economic development loan, helping to make the expansion possible. Kaddas said she feels Salt Lake is a community that supports small businesses and wants to see them succeed.

"It's nice to be a part of that, that rallying cry and that excitement," she said.

She also credits her inclusion in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program with much of her company's growth.

"The Goldman Sachs program has been transformational," she said. "It taught us how to look at the value proposition, how to leverage that, how to strategically grow, and that has made all the difference."

Carol and John Kaddas, who started Kaddas Enterprises in 1966, attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony to support their daughter-in-law and the advances she has made with the family company.

"She is absolutely amazing," Carol Kaddas said. "We wanted her to come work for us, but we never told her that because she had her own career and she was doing very well. At one point, she said, 'Can I have a job?' and I said, 'Yes, come quick.'"

Carol Kaddas, who is turning 80 on Thursday, said her daughter-in-law has taken the business to new levels because she knew what sort of education she needed, discovered new business processes previous company leaders never learned, and then implemented those processes successfully.

"She slipped in like she was made for it," Carol Kaddas said.

Kaddas Enterprises creates industrial applications, including in the aviation and transportation industries. The company also specializes in products that cover and protect power infrastructure against animal-caused power outages, helping to protect wildlife, especially birds, and save companies from power loss.

Natalie Kaddas said she is honored to have the opportunity to grow her business, which had become too big for its smaller facility.

"We can take on additional businesses, we can do new things, we can add additional jobs, and we haven't had that opportunity before," Kaddas said.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Kaddas was joined by Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein to speak to a crowd gathered outside the new facility.

Biskupski said she is committed to understanding the needs of Salt Lake's small businesses and to helping them grow and thrive.

"Natalie, we are so proud of your headquarters being located right here in Salt Lake City," Biskupski said. "I want to personally extend my congratulations to you and your achievements, and for all you are doing to enrich our community with your success."

McAdams praised Goldman Sachs for bringing success to Kaddas' business and other small businesses in Salt Lake City.

Blankfein said Salt Lake City is second biggest city of involvement for Goldman Sachs, just after New York City.SALT LAKE CITY  Over 105 years, the LDS Church intertwined itself with the Boy Scouts of America in ways so inextricable that the two seemed to share strands of DNA.

As amicable as Tuesday's announced breakup appears, extracting Scouting from its place in the Young Men's program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints raises questions about what will happen to Scout camp properties and how the church will replace critical leadership training and leadership background checks provided by Scouting.

And as the church prepares, tests and eventually implements its new international initiative to replace Scouting and other activities and achievement programs for Mormon girls and boys ages 8 to 18, will it include camping?

For now, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the faith's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and presidents of the Young Men, Young Women and Primary organizations continue to serve on the BSA's national executive and advisory boards, said BSA National Commissioner Charles Dahlquist, former general president of the church's Young Men organization.

Camps and land

National and Utah scout leaders said the church owns little of the land where its boys have enjoyed Scout camps for decades.

Utah has three Scout councils that use 26 camps, and only two are owned by the church. Of the other 24 camps, the councils own most outright, lease others from the U.S. Forest Service and use land donated by individuals specifically for the use of Scouting. Some of that donated land could revert back to previous owners if no longer used for Scouting purposes.

"We have to work through those documents and figure out the intent of that giving," said Stan Lockhart, who is completing a two-year commitment as past president of the Utah National Parks Council.

That council, which serves all Scouts in the state south of Salt Lake County, is the only one that uses LDS land. Two of its 13 camps are owned by the church, but they play minor roles. Bacon Park is used mostly for weekend activities and training. Buck Hollow is mostly for overnighters and Webelos day camps. Neither is a mainstream summer camp.

The Trapper Trails Council in northern Utah and parts of Idaho and Wyoming owns six of its eight camps, leasing the other two from the Forest Service.

The Great Salt Lake Council owns all five of its camps.

"Ironically," said David Park, scout executive for the Utah National Parks Council, "the reason we have so many camps is we're really good at getting non-Scouting users in, including for LDS girls camps and Young Men priesthood camps. A majority of our use in some of our camps is non-Boy Scout use."

BSA's national office also said it will not change the names of camps, lodges or other buildings named for prominent LDS leaders, such as the Thomas S. Monson Leadership Excellence Complex under construction at the Summit Bechtel Reserve, home of national jamborees in West Virginia, said Effie Delimarkos, BSA director of communications.

President Monson was a member of the BSA National Executive Board from 1969 until his death in January 2018 and received the organization's prestigious Silver Beaver and Silver Buffalo awards.

The church does own a few buildings. For example, the Great Salt Lake Council has been headquartered in a building next to the LDS Institute at the University of Utah for 50 years. The church recently purchased the building and gave the council land in West Valley City to build the Thomas S. Monson Scout Leadership and Service Center as its new headquarters.

The council still is raising funds for the building, which council president Mark Griffin said is now more important than ever, since troops now will have less access to LDS meetinghouses and the Institute.

What's next for LDS?

A major remaining question is whether the LDS Church's new initiative, which begins in January 2020, will include camping activities.

The church did not have additional comment on its plans Wednesday.

"The population of the church is much larger than the available recreational sites the church owns," Park said. "We expect in the future the church will still want to use our camps. There are very few replacement properties out there that accommodate larger groups."

The church does own a number of Young Women camps, and Dahlquist anticipated that the church's new initiative will include some camping.

"Whether the church purchases raw land, purchases a parcel of property that might be determined by BSA to be surplus or rents BSA camps, the church is going to need places for high-adventure activities for young men and women," he said.

Local Scout councils have allowed LDS congregations to use Scout camps for Young Women camps, Dahlquist said.

"What's the right thing to do, to own your own or to outsource it?" he said. "I think those decisions will be made both by the church and by the Boy Scouts of America."

"Anytime you have a separation of organizations, you do have certain business issues that must be decided. One of those has to do with liability issues."

For example, a physician who changes companies usually requires malpractice tail coverage when he or she cancels the previous medical malpractice insurance. BSA has provided the church with leader background checks, youth protection training and leadership training.

The church's decision also appears to mean the end to background searches for Young Men leaders involved in Scouting and leadership training they obtained through Philmont and other Scout programs for adult leaders, Dahlquist said.

"Those are issues the church will be addressing with its new initiative," he said, "and with Stephen Owen and his counselors in the Young Men general presidency and Joy Jones and her counselors in Primary and Bonnie Cordon and her counselors in Young Women, there is a strong group of individuals working to strengthen the rising generation of Latter-day Saints and a good team working on these issues."

What's next for BSA?

Today, Mormon-sponsored troops dominate the Utah Boy Scout scene. The LDS Church sponsors:

 98 percent of troops in the Utah National Parks Council, which has 87,000 Scouts.

 95 to 98 percent of troops in the Great Salt Lake Council, with its 65,000 Scouts.

 96 percent of troops in the Trapper Trails Council.

The end of the relationship with the LDS Church will cause numbers in the Trapper Trails Council to drop off significantly from the 52,000 young men and young women who now participate in the council's Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and other scout programs, the council's chief scout executive, Allen Endicott, said Wednesday on KSL NewsRadio's Doug Wright Show.

(The Boy Scouts name will change next year to Scouts BSA.)

That will create funding issues, but Delimarkos said the organization is grateful for the 19 months of lead time the LDS announcement provided.

"In the coming months, we will dedicate resources to support our councils that are most impacted by this decision so that they can evaluate opportunities to best plan a transition that enables them to operate in a sustainable manner once the partnership concludes at the end of 2019," she said.

Tens of thousands of today's Utah scouts are not LDS, and council leaders expect community recreation centers, other churches and perhaps even school districts will sponsor new troops to fill the ongoing need.

"I believe that Scouting in northern Utah, western Wyoming and southeastern Idaho will be able to continue to function," Endicott said, adding, "I believe deep down in my soul and the DNA of who I am that Scouting is as important as it's ever been."

The Utah National Parks Council has plans for new programs, council president Michael Neider said.

"We believe frankly that Scouting is still going to be vital to the communities and a help to families and young men," said Neider, who served in the LDS Young Men general presidency with Dahlquist. "We have plans to develop programs and new troops to allow Scouting to continue to benefit them."

Lockhart acknowledged a "cascading decision tree" of issues that must be addressed, but said "there is still a collegial feeling toward each other and 19-and-a-half months to work on them."

"This is an exciting time for Scouting to find new footing," he added. "This is really an opportunity to consider how to best meet the needs of individual children. I think it's a positive for the church and a positive for Scouting, as long as both seize the day."DUGWAY, Tooele County With the war on terror evolving rapidly, work conducted in Utah's western desert could be the difference between life and death for the nation's military and allies facing an ever-more dangerous and unpredictable enemy.

This week, Dugway Proving Ground began hosting its fourth S/K Challenge training exercise aimed at assessing the strengths and weaknesses of chemical and biological detectors and associated software in an operational defense environment. S/K is short for Sets and Kits  which is an acronym used by the military to describe skills and equipment.

Its a unique opportunity to advance new technologies and capabilities in support of the global chemical and biological defense community, said Jeff Hogan, a microbiologist with the Biological Test Division and this years test officer for the two-week challenge.

Over the course of the training period, military members from the U.S. and abroad get firsthand experience on how to deal with potential attacks, explained Lance McEntire, chief of Counter (Weapons of Mass Destruction) Branch Special Programs Division at the West Desert Test Center.

"That's the beauty of Dugway. The troops can come and educate themselves on two different disciplines  chem and bio," he said. "It's not unlike a college setting. We have a portion where they sit down in a lecture class and we then move into a laboratory setting where they lay out microorganisms on Petrie dishes to learn how they grow."

Participants also learn how to synthesize chemicals in a laboratory setting as well, he said.

"It's the same kind of pathways in which chemical warfare (agents) are made," he added.

The U.S. and international military members then learn how to use that knowledge in simulated 'real-life" scenarios, he said.

"That scenario could be a production scenario or a dissemination scenario, then those troops have to take their mission set and go and solve that problem," McEntire said. They learn "tactics, techniques and procedures."

"We provide them with the science behind chemical and biological warfare behavior," he said. "They take that knowledge and integrate it into how they do their soldiering during tasks."

Chris Bond, wing commander with the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom, said the Dugway exercises help provide advanced training for the British military that complements the skills they have already acquired.

"We've been coming here to Dugway for 13 years for training," he said. "It's always the guys who are stepping up to the next level of training who come for it. It's that uplift of skills that Dugway is able to give us."

Established in February 1942 by President Franklin Roosevelt on an initial 126,720 acres, Dugway Proving Ground was authorized for use by the War Department to fill the need for testing weapons and defenses against chemical and biological agents of mass destruction. Among the projects undertaken at the time was testing of incendiary bombs, chemical weapons and modified agents as spray disseminated from aircraft, along with some work on mortars.

Today, the site located 78 miles west of Salt Lake City encompasses nearly 800,000 acres and has added reliability and survivability testing of all types of military equipment in a chemical or biological environment to its testing protocols, along with the already established chemical and biological defense testing and environmental characterization and remediation technology testing.

Dugway Proving Ground provides efficient testing and support to enable our nation's defenders to counter chemical, biological, radiological and explosives hazards, said Vincent Liddiard, chief of staff at Dugway Proving Ground. Chemical and biological defense testing at the facility enhances the readiness of our warfighters, he said.

"What this (testing) does is we're going to learn how our equipment is working, and as we develop new pieces of equipment, how well it's able to detect what's in the environment," he said. The simulated live testing gives scientists the opportunity to determine the effectiveness of the technology and figure out if adjustments need to be made to upgrade reliability, he added.

"What they are trying to do is develop better pieces of equipment or new pieces of equipment, and this lets them know if they're working, how well they're working and if they are able to make improvements," he said. "(They want to know) what things they can learn from this to better protect warfighters, to better protect Americans abroad and to better protect Americans here in our own country."

Besides equipment testing, the Dugway facility also houses one of the nation's few chemical and biological testing labs. That specialization allows for research on some of the most dangerous substances known in the field of warfare and ensures the equipment the military uses works properly, explained Chemical Testing Division Director Christopher Olson.

"We test all of the military equipment that is supposed to protect, detect or decontaminate chemical agents," he said. "We prove whether or not (the equipment) works."

"We protect against all chemical threats, ranging from common household chemicals (such as) ammonia and chlorine, but our main mission is the chemical agents like sarin or mustard gas."

He noted that a separate laboratory does testing for biological agents. All such testing is conducted in a highly controlled, indoor environment  never outdoors, he said.

While attacks with chemical or biological agents are rare, he said extensive testing and research are among the keys to being properly prepared to combat the use of such terrorism and warfare tactics. It is the world we live in today, he acknowledged.

"We don't produce them and we don't build them with the intent to weaponize or to kill people, but we do have to protect our military from it and frankly our citizens as well," Olson said.BOUNTIFUL  Two men who attempted to rob a Bountiful pawn shop at gunpoint  including one man who was shot to death by an employee  may have committed similar crimes across the nation, police said Thursday.

On May 4, two men entered Bountiful Pawn, 135 S. 500 West, as it was opening for the day. One was armed with a gun and the other with a hammer, according to police.

The store clerk, the lone employee in the store, was ordered at gunpoint to lay on the ground, said Bountiful Police Lt. Dave Edwards. One man watched the clerk as the other went to the merchandise area.

But when the man with the gun was temporarily distracted, the clerk made a break for the storage area where he drew his concealed weapon, according to Edwards. When the suspect with the gun chased after the clerk and pointed his weapon at him, the clerk fired, striking the would-be robber, he said.

The two fought on the ground before the man who was shot succumbed to his injuries. The clerk also suffered minor injuries, including a cut to his head and a black eye.

On Thursday, Bountiful police identified the two men. Kleydys Arbolaez-Hernandez, 40, of Denver, was shot and killed. Alexyanis Cutino Jimenez, 30, was last seen fleeing the pawn shop in a white 2005 Saturn Vue with Colorado license plate BMT 182.

Investigators believe both men left the Denver area on May 1 to travel to Salt Lake City and stayed in a Salt Lake hotel the night before the shooting. Jimenez also has a warrant out of Oklahoma for armed robbery that was issued on Wednesday, Edwards said.

Detectives say Jimenez has ties to Florida and Texas and should be considered armed and dangerous. Police are warning the public not to approach him if he is spotted, and call 911 instead.OGDEN  Ten years ago, as the conflict in Iraq was raging, Linda and Steven Larsens son Christian, a recently deployed medic in the Utah National Guard serving in the Ghostriders task force, sent a mayday message of sorts from Kuwait.

In essence, Chris wrote to his mom: Thanks for the cookies and socks and stuff. But I noticed there are four guys in my unit who arent getting anything at all from home and Im worried about them.

So Linda boxed up four packages of goodies and sent those off, too.

From that inconspicuous beginning, Operation Adopt a Ghost was born: A charity as grass roots as they come, operating out of the Larsens frame house on 7th Street in Ogden, dedicated to just one cause: letting soldiers know they matter and theyre not alone.

It wasnt long before all 189 members of the Ghostriders unit were getting packages. And not much longer after that, additional units were added. All sorts of soldiers were getting love from that little house on 7th Street.

Then, in the summer of 2013, five years and thousands of Adopt a Ghost packages later, an awful thing happened.

Chris Larsen, who everyone called Fox, ended his life  a victim, like so many others who see far too much on deployment, of post-traumatic stress disorder.

No one expected Adopt a Ghost to keep going after that.

No one except Linda and Steven Larsen.

After having to bury their son before he reached his 30th birthday, they emerged more determined than ever to give soldiers friendship and support.

At Foxs funeral theyd been bowled over by the number of people who reached out to tell them of ways their son had helped them  from soldiers hed served with on his many deployments to the Middle East (some of which the Larsens didnt know about because of military regulations; they had no idea hed ever gone to Afghanistan) to those hed touched as a trauma nurse stateside.

In their front window, they hung the gold star given to families who have lost loved ones in the military and dove right back in.

There was no way they were going to drop the ball Chris got started.

From the beginning, their charity, as charities do, had taken on a life of its own. Things happen you cant explain. Volunteers show up unbidden. Goods for the packages appear from here, there and everywhere. Checks arrive in the mail.

But now, it seemed ratcheted up.

From sending those four packages to Kuwait in 2008, Operation Adopt a Ghost has evolved into an organization that regularly sends packages to a roster of, on average, 1,200 soldiers, in addition to sponsoring a Soldier Santa event every Christmas, a summer beach party for military personnel and their families and, as of last year, a Mothers Day event that sends gift baskets to military wives and female soldiers.

The Mothers Day program is the brainchild of Stacie Andersen, a woman whose story of getting involved with Adopt a Ghost is typical of so many others who volunteer.

Shed heard about Fox Larsens legacy of compassion from Steven Larsen one day at her work. After that, she couldnt stop thinking about it.

His story touched me, she says, I thought, Man! I gotta do something.

When Stacie showed up at the house and asked what she could do, Linda gave her standard reply: Whatever you want.

I always tell people to follow your heart, explains Linda. Youll be more motivated if its your idea.

It was the worst answer she could give me, says Stacie, laughing. I like to be told what to do.

But left to her own devices, the Mothers Day event came to be. Last year they sent out half-a-dozen baskets. This year theyll do at least 30.

Through it all, Operation Adopt a Ghost remains essentially unchanged from the day it started. No one gets paid, and never will be, volunteers that stretch from Wyoming to Moab come and go as they please, everyone at the post office in North Ogden knows Linda by name, and it all runs out of the frame house on 7th Street.

And then theres Fox, who the Larsens are convinced still directs the show.

Its like paying homage to him, says Steven. We were put here on this Earth to take care of each other; its just something you do. Thats what he showed us.

Every day we feel hes around, says Linda. He did so much for others and we have to keep doing for him. If he hadnt cared about those four guys, none of this would have ever happened.SALT LAKE CITY  Violent crime made a significant jump in Utah during 2016.

While the overall number of crimes from 2015 to 2016 increased by less than 2 percent, there were sharp increases in the number of some violent crimes from the previous year, according to statistics compiled by the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification and released on Thursday.

The total number of violent crimes rose more than 17 percent in 2016. That included a dramatic 42 percent rise in homicides, a 19 percent increase in aggravated assaults and a nearly 17 percent rise in robberies, according to the report.

The upward trend of crime in our state is concerning, Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Keith Squires said in a prepared statement.

The state tabulated 77 homicides in Utah in 2016, with a handgun, rifle or other unspecified firearm being used in more than 50 percent of those deaths, according to the report. In 2015, the state counted 54 homicides.

The majority of homicide victims in 2016 were between the ages of 20 and 24, according to state statistics, while the majority of those accused of killing someone were between the ages of 15 and 19.

The Deseret News counted a record 90 homicides in Utah during 2016  up from 73 in 2015 and 79 in 2014. Its statistics indicate that more than 60 percent of those homicides were shooting deaths.

Unlike the Deseret News, the bureau has not previously included child-abuse homicide cases, negligent homicide cases, homicides at the hands of police officers or homicides on federal lands within the state in its statistics.

In the category of rape, the overwhelming majority of people arrested in 2016 were men between the ages of 15 and 19, according to state statistics.

The overall number of crimes recorded in Utah for 2016 continued a three-year rise. The total is also the second highest in the state in 10 years.

The 2016 Crime in Utah Report marks a return to BCI's annual reports that were issued for many years before being delayed due to changes within the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification.

"BCI recently underwent a major database conversion that required the reprogramming of key crime stats reporting tools," Utah Department of Public Safety officials explained on their website.

The bureau also hopes to resume releasing quarterly crime reports, "and eventually a real-time view as crime statistics are submitted and will greatly improve opportunities to identify crime trends and adjust local, state and federal resources accordingly."

The bureau plans to release Utah's 2017 crime statistics this fall. A spokesman for the Department of Public Safety did not immediately know if the violent trends continued during 2017. The Deseret News tallied 80 homicides in its statistics for 2017; 68 percent were shooting deaths.

The state's statistics are based on data submitted to the bureau by each law enforcement agency in Utah. Some agencies did not submit a full year's worth of data, the bureau noted.Santa Clara, California - May 9, 2018 - Silvaco, a leading EDA and IP provider of software tools, announced today that it has moved into new corporate headquarters at 2811 Mission College Boulevard on the sixth floor of one of the towers of the Mission Corporate Center in the heart of Silicon Valley in Santa Clara.

After 34 years, Silvaco moved from its company-owned Patrick Henry campus, where it occupied 5 buildings to a state of the art facility with workspace for all employees under one roof.

This is an exciting time for Silvaco and marks a huge milestone for the company, aligned with our progress in our leadership for Advanced Nodes, Power and Display. The new layout allows for a modern-style collaborative working environment to help accelerate our pace of innovation, said Dave Dutton, CEO of Silvaco. I am confident that this move will allow us to accommodate our future growths plans.

About Silvaco, Inc.

Silvaco, Inc. is a leading EDA and IP provider of software tools used for process and device development and for analog/mixed-signal, power IC and memory design. Silvaco delivers a full TCAD-to- sign-off flow for vertical markets including: displays, power electronics, optical devices, radiation and soft error reliability and advanced CMOS process and IP development. For over 30 years, Silvaco has enabled its customers to bring superior products to market with reduced cost and in the shortest time. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and has a global presence with offices located in North America, Europe, Japan and Asia.





Volvo Cars has officially inaugurated its plans for integrating Android into its Sensus infotainment system. We had reported much previously, when the Swedish car maker had signed an agreement with Google and fellow car maker Audi to integrate Android OS into its car system. More recently, reports supported by Google's Android Developers Blog pointed at the Google Play Store being imminent for launch in dedicated car systems, and at Google I/O 2018, the companies have introduced the future of Android in cars with a demonstration of the system in the new generation Volvo XC40.

With the new system, Volvo is essentially converting its already-fantastic and critically acclaimed tablet-like infotainment system into an Android tablet/smartphone. With connected cars ecosystems growing steadily, Volvo's cars in the near future will include inbuilt connectivity, with Android powering its connected car and vehicle-to-vehicle communications. The new system works independently of smartphones, and just like an Android device, you can simply log in to the system with your Google account. The features, though, include much more than just media settings - since this is an exhaustive car ecosystem, you can actually store and synchronise all your memory settings to your Google account logged into the system. For instance, every user account in the new Android-powered system saves settings for the memory seats, steering wheel and mirror positioning, which was previously taken care of by custom driver profiles.

While that remains the same, what you will majorly benefit from in this system is that once you log in, you also get access to all your saved preferences via the Google account, including saved locations, calendar entries, speed dial contacts and more. This essentially helps in a more seamless usage scenario, with integrated Google Maps in the system itself. The new system also gets its own optimised Play Store and the Google Assistant, which powers all the voice actions. The system is also open to third party developers, who can also build car-specific apps with minimal driver distraction and novel features in mind. Every option, from app interfaces and shortcut buttons can be custom-built, just like in any Android ecosystem. This makes the system far more versatile, and can offer a wider range of native apps for the system. It will also help in easier synchronisation of vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity, which will form a crucial part of the automotive framework in the near future.

The Volvo Sensus interface is being retained as a custom skin built on top of the Android platform, which is great seeing that it is already quite good. The Android-based system premieres in a couple of years, when it will start appearing in production models. For a full demo of the new system, see the video embedded below:The Panasonic GH5s is a mirrorless camera armed to the teeth with features that would make any film-maker giggle with excitement. It does Cinema 4K video at numerous bitrates for the highest quality possible, along with offering the ability to shoot HDR video in Hybrid Log Gamma. The low light ISO performance is unbelievably good when you consider the size of the sensor, all thanks to the dual Native ISO the sensor offers. In terms of output, the camera does not falter on any account, but the lack of in-body image stabilisation does limit the audience of this camera to professionals who own gimbals and other stabilising rigs.

Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5S detailed review

Panasonics mirrorless cameras were some of the first in the world to come with in-body stabilisation. They were also the first to bring 4K video into the mirrorless form-factor. With the Panasonic GH4, they established themselves as a serious contender in the 4K space, and with the GH5, they offered even more. Now, the company has also introduced the Panasonic GH5s, a mirrorless camera that will exist alongside the GH5, as the two cameras were designed to serve slightly different needs. Panasonic loaned us a unit of the Panasonic GH5s paired with a 42.5mm f/1.2 lens for testing, a combination that would lead us to the best possible low light performance one can expect from the new sensor in the GH5s. With a freshly charged battery and an empty 64GB Sandisk Extreme SD card, I was on my way to push the imaging sensor on the GH5s to its limits.





Panasonic GH5s: Specifications and Features

The Panasonic GH5s is a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera from the Japanese company, one designed specifically keeping film-makers in mind. Up until now, Panasonics mirrorless cameras have had great video features, but photography was always at the core of product design. However, with the GH5s, the company has put video first and photography second. To this end, there is a brand new sensor here with 12-million pixels on the silicon, however, the camera effectively shoots at 10.2 megapixels. The pixel pitch has thus increased considerably when compared to the GH5, but in all honesty, the Sony A7sII is the real competitor here. The new sensor also brings to market Dual Native ISO, which is supposed to improve high ISO shooting. Every sensor has a native ISO, and the higher you go away from this native ISO, the more noise you get from a sensor. With the GH5s, you can change the native ISO of the sensor from ISO 400 to ISO2500, retaining the signal-to-noise ratio for numbers as high as ISO 8000.

While the sensor receives such an incredible upgrade, Panasonic removed the one feature that has been the very hallmark of their cameras; in-body image stabilisation (IBIS). Panasonic says they had to remove the IBIS because they understand that most professionals would use this camera mounted on a rig or a more professional gimbal of sorts, and the IBIS would adversely interact with said gimbal, even when the feature was turned off. So the solution to the problem was to remove the feature altogether. This by itself makes it seem like Panasonic designed this camera to be more of something professionals would use, and not an average enthusiast, unlike the GH5. The lack of image stabilisation does hurt the camera in ways more than one, but I will get into it later. Panasonic does say that almost all their lenses for the micro four-thirds system have optical image stabilisation, as did the 42.5mm f/1.2 lens my review unit came with.

The real glory in terms of features goes to the video side of things. The Panasonic GH5s offers a plethora of codecs, bitrates, resolutions and frame rates to shoot it. Its really ridiculous just how much this camera can do even if youre recording to an internal SD card. For those who are curious, you can even shoot 10-bit 4K video in both V-Log and HLG, the latter being an HDR compliant standard for video. Well talk more in detail about the video side of this camera in a later, dedicated section.

Design and Build

The Panasonic GH5s, in all honesty, does not feel like a mirrorless camera. From its shape and size, one could easily confuse it for an entry-level DSLR, but when you factor in what its capable of doing, size becomes secondary. The ergonomics of the GH5s are truly magnificent, mostly because of the grip. It is deep and contoured to accommodate many different hand sizes. The controls are incredibly intuitive, and the camera offers a generous section of custom function buttons that can be used to map any setting youd like. I did feel that the large movie record button was a little out of my fingers reach, often prompting me to let go of the grip in order to hit record, but then again, I have small hands so this is an issue that is very common for me. For anyone with slightly bigger hands, this shouldnt be an issue, but what you will definitely not like is hitting all the other buttons that surround the record button. I feel that Panasonic could have given the record button its own, dedicated space in an easier to reach spot, given that this is a film-makers camera.

Video Performance: More than you (or your PC can handle)

The Panasonic GH5s lets you choose between multiple video codecs such as AVCHD, MP4 (HEVC) and MOV. Between these, there is also a choice of multiple bitrates for 4K, 1080p and 720p video. For reference, you can shoot as high at 400mbits stream of Cinema 4K video at 24fps with 10-bit color information. Everything is a permutation-combination, but it should be said that there is very little chance that this camera leaves anyones preference out. For those particularly interested in complete control over the colour output, you can shoot in Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) or V-Log when the codec is set to MOV. V-LOG is available in mp4 too, but not HLG. If youd like higher frame rates for Cinema 4K, youll need an external recorder like the Atomos Shogun to record C4K in 10-bit color at 60p. Unfortunately, there is no RAW output for video.

As advertised, the HLG video profile allows you to grade the video file to not only extract more colours, but also better dynamic range as you would expect from the Standard colour profile. The only downside is that shooting in HLG or even V-Log requires professional colour grading, without which, your footage will just look devoid of any colour or contrast. If you thought that HDR video meant crazy good colours that youve seen in demo videos coming right out of the camera, youre going to be sorely disappointed. HDR video, by its nature, requires extensive colour grading, and the Panasonic GH5s shoots files that will withstand the kind of colour correction needed to output an HDR video file.

During my time shooting in the 10-bit colour space, I hit a major roadblock; my editing monitor. Even though I own a professional monitor (Dell U2515), it is still an 8-bit panel, meaning, it is only capable of replicating the 16.7 million colours that comprise the 8-bit space. If you thought that was a lot of colour, 10-bit colour, in comparison, comprises of 10.7 billion distinct possible colours. Also, a particular colour in the 8-bit space will not have the same numeric value in the 10-bit space, meaning that colours tend to get shuffled around if youre not using the right hardware. Trying to edit video with 10-bit colour on an 8-bit monitor led to a lot of inaccuracies in colour, prompting me to eventually discard the grading. However, Dell has been kind enough to ship a 4K HDR monitor with a true 10-bit panel to our test lab, so I will share the final graded videos with you very soon. However, even while pushing the colour and exposure in DaVinci Resolve (and Adobe Premiere Pro), it is easy to tell the incredible latitude offered by shooting in V-Log and HLG in comparison to the standard colour profile. Videos shot in 8-bit colour space using V-Log and HLG also offered the same advantages in a slightly reduced capacity, while the Standard colour profile offered little room for colour correction in post-production.

As great as the footage from the Panasonic GH5s is, it isnt the run-and-gun camera we would have all loved for it to be. With no IBIS, the camera relies on either the OIS offered by Panasonic lenses or professional gimbals (Which add more heft and weight). Its large pixel pitch paired with the secondary native ISO of 2500 mostly negates the disadvantage that is inherent to small size sensors in comparison to full frame cameras. The Panasonic GH5s is a formidable camera, especially for indie film-makers who are looking to break into the new trend of 4K HDR videos. The HDR workflow is extremely complex and expensive right now, but the Panasonic GH5s eliminates one of the biggest roadblocks in the process; an affordable camera that can shoot 4K HDR video.

Panasonic GH5s as a Photographers Camera

I prefer to call myself a photographer more than a video-person simply because Ive been taking photos for far longer than I have been shooting videos. Therefore, for me, it was very important to see what the GH5s offered to me as a photographer. What I was pleasantly surprised about was getting really GOOD high-ISO performance. I could push the sensor all the way to ISO 8000 and walk away with RAW files that require no noise reduction. While I expect this kind of behaviour from my Sony A7 MarkII, which is a full frame camera, getting that from a sensor far smaller was definitely impressive. The autofocus is also pretty spot on for the most part, regardless of whether you use the joystick on the back to move the points around or use the touch-screen. Panasonic was unable to share a second (and third) lens with me to test the camera, so I could not verify how much of the AF performance, in this case, depended on the lens. Expect the AF to work reliably up until -2eV, then become somewhat hit-or-miss around the -3eV mark, with performance dropping sharply as illumination goes lower. This is in line with the AF performance of most professional DSLRs out there today, maybe just a smidge lower, but to be able to get even this much out of a camera that has smaller everything, it is impressive.

I shot all my photos in RAW and if youre not shooting RAW on your DSLR/mirrorless camera, youre doing it wrong. The RAW files coming out of the GH5s offer almost 2.5 stops worth of highlight recovery, but somewhere close to 2 stops of shadow recovery (before it comes riddled with noise). With more careful and balanced edits, you could squeeze almost 3 stops of additional dynamic range in either direction, which is again impressive. The image files were graded in Adobe Lightroom and favoured a warm tone by default. A little of the camera colour profile can fix that if you think it needs fixing. My favourite thing about the GH5ss sensor is the way it handles the colour green. All CMOS sensors have twice as many green pixels as they do red and blue, meaning for every one red and one blue pixel, there will be two green pixels that follow. Due to this, sometimes the colour green can appear unnatural in photos and requires special tweaking in post-production. I didnt face this issue on the GH5s at all. The Greens are well balanced (across all shades) and do not appear to be over-saturated.

When it comes to photos, the GH5s will easily let you push the sensor all the way to ISO 8000 for very clean images. You can go higher, but then youll have to apply noise reduction which could compromise the image quality, especially if youre looking for detail. There are, however, two very noticeable downsides to the GH5s as a photography camera. First, the lack of in-body image stabilization means youre going to have to invest in lenses with OIS. This means youll have to stick with Panasonic made lenses as many third-party lenses for the micro four-thirds mount do not have OIS, as these cameras generally have IBIS. The second happens to be the resolution. At 10.2-megapixel effective output, one could say that the files can be printed as large as poster size (36x24 inch), but there is very little room for cropping. As many would know, cropping in post can be a huge part of every photographers workflow and the 10.2-megapixel files just do not offer enough wiggle room for this. You can view camera samples in full resolution on our Flickr page here

Bottomline

Theres a lot to love about the Panasonic GH5s. For starters, at this price, good luck finding any other camera that can-do Cinema 4K HDR in-camera. The camera is a great addition to any professional cinematographer or indie film-makers arsenal since you can shoot practically every format, resolution and frame-rate of importance all in-camera (without requiring an external recorder). However, Panasonic has made this camera for professionals, which has led to the elimination of features that would have helped an enthusiast. The removal of IBIS is noticeable, and anyone considering using the GH5s for making films will have to invest in gimbals or other stabilization rigs. For photographers, this means that you will have to invest in lenses with optical image stabilization, but from what I saw, the OIS in Panasonics own Summilux 42.5mm f/1.2 couldnt cope with certain situations and shutter speeds. For what the camera can do, there is no equal for sure, but the right audience for the GH5s is severely limited to only the professionals. Had Panasonic not removed IBIS, this would have made for an amazing camera for practically anyone. Hopefully the newer lenses Panasonic releases will have better OIS.Over the two days of the Microsoft Build Conference 2018 in Seattle, it became clear that Microsofts focus has shifted from Windows to AI and Cloud. Intelligent Edge and Intelligent Cloud was heard more times from the mouths of Microsoft executives than ever, but Windows remain at the heart of Microsofts business. We are the Windows company, after all, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told The Verge. But ever since the Redmond-based company bowed out of the mobile OS race, Windows has worked hard to be accessible from every platform  be it Android or iOS. And this year at Build, Nadella made an even bigger push to make Windows more compatible with other platforms. Heres a look at everything new thats coming to Windows 10 



1. Your Phone app for iOS

Smartphones are useful, but theyre also a distraction when youre hard at work. To keep users from checking their phones while theyre working on their Windows PC, Microsoft announced the Your Phone app that will allow users to mirror an iPhone straight to a desktop PC. It will let users access texts, photos, notifications and more from their PCs. The app will be made available to Windows Insider members this week and based on feedback, Microsoft will tune it further. The final version is expected to come out with the next major update to Windows 10, some time later this year.



2. Microsoft Launcher for Enterprise users

While the Your Phone app for iOS is new, Microsoft already had something similar for Android users. Microsoft Launcher, which works as an independent launcher app on Android devices not only offers a streamlined interface focused on productivity, it could also allow users to pick up things right where they left off from their PCs. Now, enterprise users too can take advantage of the feature. Furthermore, the Microsoft Launcher will integrate Android devices into the new Timeline feature that launched with the April 2018 update earlier this month.



3. Timeline features goes cross-platform

Timeline was introduced with the April 2018 update a few weeks back and it offers a whole new way of resuming past activities on the PC. Now, the Timeline will support Android and iOS devices as well, allowing users to resume activities on their PCs that they started on their smartphones and other device. The Timeline feature will be built into the Microsoft Edge browser for iOS and the Microsoft Launcher for Android.



4. Alt+Tab redesign

Tabbed browsing will break the shackles of the internet browser and come to files, folders and apps. Pressing Alt+Tab will bring up a new tabbed browsing experience. Tabs can be grouped into Sets and accessed via the alt+tab interface. You can find recently accessed files and folders as well as webpages from Microsoft Edge. Microsoft hasnt promised when Sets will roll out to users, but it will be available to Windows Insiders builders first.



5. Cortana and Alexa to work together

Microsofts Cortana will now work in tandem with Amazons Alexa. Microsoft demonstrated the coming together on stage and it was clear you could invoke Alexa by asking Cortana and control all your smart appliances and simultaneously command Alexa to ask Cortana to send an email. The feature will roll out to users sometime later this year. We are awaiting more details on what devices will be compatible with the union.



6. Microsoft will offer more money to devs to make apps for Windows

The usual practice for apps stores has been to take a 30 percent cut from the revenue generated by apps on their stores. Microsoft is changing that in a big way by only taking a 5 percent cut for non-game apps and letting the rest of the 95 per cent revenue to go to developers. Its a push for more devs to make apps for the Microsoft Store.Vijay Mallya a "fugitive from justice", says UK High Court

Kingfisher promoter an billionaire Vijay Mallya, whose deportation is being sought by India to face charges of fraud and money laundering of around Rs 9,000 crore, can be regarded as a "fugitive from justice", the UK High Court has concluded.

See: Judge Andrew Henshaw, who ruled in favour of 13 Indian state-owned banks to recover funds amounting to nearly 1.145 billion in a judgment on Tuesday, noted that the 62-year-old businessman is contesting his extradition to India relating to "alleged financial misconduct" ( Indian banks win Rs10,000 cr lawsuit against Mallya in UK ).

"In all these circumstances, and even taking account of the fact that Dr. Mallya is contesting the alleged grounds for extradition, there are grounds for regarding Dr. Mallya as a fugitive from justice," the judge said in the ruling.

The judge did not accept Mallya's claim of having been a non-resident Indian since 1988 and that he had lived in England since 1992, where he has an 'indefinite leave to remain' (ILR).

An Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) which is also called a Permanent Residency (PR) is a document that proves its holder has been granted with the immigration status after he / she has lived in the United Kingdom for a specific period of time under a temporary visa, and have shown commitment to the UK. The immigration status is granted only to individuals with no right of abode in the United Kingdom

He ruled, "The evidence indicates that prior to March 2016, Dr. Mallya travelled fairly regularly between India and England for business and political reasons. Most of his business interests were in or closely connected with India, most notably United Breweries Group and Kingfisher Airlines. Whilst Dr. Mallya has indefinite leave to stay in the UK, he is said to be a non-resident taxpayer," the court observed.

Judge Henshaw concluded that Mallya had been in "clear breach" of the Karnataka Higfh Court order while disposing of assets like the historic sword of Tipu Sultan, which he had acquired at an auction in 2003.

"The sword of Tipu Sultan is an item of historic importance which Dr. Mallya bought at an auction in 2003 for the equivalent of 188,400 and states that he gave it away in 2016 as his family members considered that it was bringing him bad luck," the judge noted..

"Dr. Mallya declined to state in correspondence to whom the sword was given. Dr. Mallya was unable to put forward any basis for contending that the disposal was not in breach of the Karnataka High Court's interim injunction, and accepted that it occurred after the Supreme Court had made clear that the injunction covered subsequently acquired assets. It does, though, appear to me to have been in clear breach of the Karnataka court's order," he adds.

The ruling by the UK court has been described as "significant" by TLT LLP, the UK law firm which represented the Indian banks in the case.

"This is a positive and big step forward. The judgement enables our client banks to proceed with enforcement of the Indian Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) ruling, which has now been registered and is immediately enforceable," said Paul Gair, partner in TLT's Banking & Financial Services litigation team.

"We are considering all of our options with our clients the worldwide freezing order has worldwide effect, so it's all of his assets wherever they may be. There are provisions for his weekly allowance, within which he can meet his needs," he added.

Mallya, who has been on bail since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April last year, will return for the conclusion of his ongoing extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on 11 July, after which the court is expected to set a timeline for judgment in that case.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), representing the Indian government, has claimed it has successfully established a prima facie case of fraud against the businessman.

Mallya has claimed the criminal charges against him are "without substance" and "politically motivated".SABIC plans to buy ONGC's stake in OPaL

Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), the worlds fourth-largest petrochemical company, is seeking to buy about half of the $4.6-billion ONGC Petro Additions Ltd (OPaL), Reuters yesterday reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) is a majority shareholder in OPaL with around 50 per cent stake. State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) is a majority shareholder in OPaL with around 50 per cent stake.

OPaL operates Indias biggest petrochemical plant located in Dahej, in Bharuch district of Gujarat.

OPaL is a special purpose vehicle created for executing the Rs13,500 crore petrochemicals complex.

The 1.1 million tonnes capacity petrochem plant was commissioned last year and reached 100 per cent capacity in February this year.

Earlier, several foreign companies are also reported to be interested in acquiring a stake in OPaL.

Last year, ONGC had held talks about selling a stake in OPaL with Saudi Aramco and Petrochemical Industries Co, a unit of Kuwait Petroleum Corp, the report said.

An official of ONGC had in March said, We have invested Rs30,000 crore in the project and always had plans to sell a minimum of 26 per cent stake in the project to a strategic investor. Now that the plant has come up well and stabilised, this is the time to monetise it.

ONGC is seeking to sell its stake in OPaL in order to fund the debt incurred last year for the acquisition of Hindustan Petroleum Corp.

SABIC, a diversified chemicals company based in Riyadh, is the largest public company in Saudi Arabia.

It manufactures on a global scale in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, making different kinds of products: chemicals, commodity and high performance plastics, agri-nutrients and metals.

SABIC was the world's fourth-largest chemical producer and is currently the second-largest global ethylene glycol producer. It is also the third-largest polyethylene manufacturer, the fourth-largest polyolefins manufacturer, and the fourth-largest polypropylene manufacturer.

It is also the worlds largest producer of methyl tert-butyl ether, granular urea, polycarbonate, polyphenylene and polyether imide.US ban forces China's ZTE to suspend all major activities

Chinas ZTE Corp has suspended all major activities after the US crippled its ability to buy crucial American technology.

ZTE said its major operations had "ceased" following last month's US ban on sales of critical technology to the company, signalling the possible collapse of the worlds largest makers of phones and networking gear. ZTE said its major operations had "ceased" following last month's US ban on sales of critical technology to the company, signalling the possible collapse of the worlds largest makers of phones and networking gear.

The products of Chinas No 2 telecom equipment maker depended on American chips and other components and it is unable to continue operating without key supplies.

ZTE said it remains intent on resolving a seven-year blockade Washington imposed as punishment for violating the terms of a 2017 sanctions settlement and then allegedly lying about it. The blockade cut off access to the components it needs to build most of its products, from Qualcomm Incs semiconductors to optical chips from Lumentum Holdings Inc.

ZTE, which makes telecoms equipment and handsets, is still "actively communicating" with the US side "to facilitate the modification or reversal" of the ban and "forge a positive outcome", a regulatory filing said.

US officials imposed the seven-year ban last month after ZTE allegedly made false statements regarding its settlement of a case involving the illegal sale of goods to Iran and North Korea. The firm pleaded guilty to the charges in March last year and was hit with $1.2 billion in fines.

The tough sanctions come as the battle over technology takes centre stage in a US spat with China focusing on trade and industrial policy, according to AFP.

At the time the measure was introduced, one Chinese investment bank estimated the firm had only one or two months' supply of hardware and software components on hand.

In Wednesday's statement, the firm said it still "maintains sufficient cash and strictly adheres to its commercial obligations".

Trading of its Hong Kong and Shenzhen-listed shares has been halted since the US decision.

Beijing has been closely following the developments around ZTE, a company with 80,000 employees, with is headquarters in southern China.

The company said on Sunday it had submitted a request to the US commerce department for a stay of the export ban, along with supplemental information.

And Chinese officials protested against the ban in discussions with a high-level US delegation last week and said the US side would discuss the matter with President Donald Trump.

ZTE essentially ran out of inventory in the month since the bans imposition and then had no way to replenish it, Bloomberg reported. As of Thursday, its website and flagship smartphone store on Alibabas Tmall online marketplace had suspended sales. Telecom carriers, including Australias Telstra Corp, stopped offering its devices. And ZTEs larger telecom gear-making operation probably ran afoul of the same component shortages.

There is nothing ZTE can do now, an analyst said. Its manufacturing and sales are paralyzed, but R&D is still going on.

The blow came just as ZTE was preparing to lead the countrys charge into the era of fifth-generation wireless technology, along with local rival Huawei Technologies Co. Major wireless carriers around the world are preparing to spend billions rolling out 5G networks, which enable new technologies from faster internet access to augmented reality.

ZTE, which once harboured ambitions of vying with Apple Inc in phones, has called the punishment unacceptable and threatened to take legal action.

ZTEs larger rival, Huawei, also faces heightened US opposition. The US justice department is said to be investigating its own compliance with American sanctions banning sales to Iran.Rolls-Royce is making it clear that not only is its SUV really called a high-riding vehicle, but its also a capable off-roader.

Set to unveil its new super-luxury SUV later tonight, the uber-luxury British brand has teased an image showing a glimpse of the skills the Cullinan is capable of and that follows a taillight teaser released earlier this week.Mini has caught royal wedding fever.

The British marque has debuted a one-of-a-kind special edition designed to commemorate the upcoming wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle.

After the wedding, Mini will donate the car to The Children's HIV Association charity for public auction.

The British brand's design team has worked its magic on the little hatch to give it a number of unique styling and design features.SUVs are the new people movers.

For big families that no longer want to drive a daggy minivan, they aspire for high-riding seven-seat wagons - or so the sales figures suggest. And thats not just limited to mainstream models either, even those with more money to spend want the added practicality of a seven-seat SUV.

Which is why Lexus is the latest to enter the fray with its stretched RX. Toyotas luxury brand has taken its five-seat RX and added 110mm of length, made the roof 10mm higher and installed a new pair of seats in the boot, creating the RX L.

What do you get?Discover the appeal of apartment living at award-winning Cardiff development The Mill

As New Homes Week  14 to 18 May  highlights the advantages of buying a brand-new property, theres no better time to visit award-winning west Cardiff homes development The Mill.

Following strong take-up for the developments first release of apartments, a new selection of homes have just become available. They include one-bedroom apartments starting from 138,000 and two-beds from 180,000.

With a number of our apartments priced below the threshold for Land Transaction Tax and all available through Help to Buy  Wales*, this is a great time to visit The Mill and discover the appeal of a brand-new home, says Lovell regional sales director Julie Bowen.

Buying new is a great way to go to avoid the maintenance costs and building work which often comes with buying a second-hand property. It also means you get to enjoy having a home which is truly your own from day one - a blank canvas ready for you to transform - avoiding the need to compromise and live with someone elses taste and design choices. Homes continue to be snapped up quickly at The Mill, with the developments recent success at the national First Time Buyer Readers Awards  where it scooped the Best First Time Buyer Family Home title  adding to the brand-new communitys growing prestige.

The Mills super-chic two-bedroom show apartment certainly gives prospective purchasers an instant appreciation of the style and quality on offer. Stand-out features include the open-plan living / dining / kitchen area  lit by a multi-light pendant  which is an ideal setting for socialising, entertaining and relaxing and has views over the developments tree-lined river walk.

All apartments at Hawthorn House benefit from stylish fitted kitchens including integrated fridge-freezer, dishwasher and washer-dryer as well as a Bosch brushed steel oven and gas hob. Among the many other advantages are a ten-year NHBC Warranty; two-year emergency cover and Ideal boiler central heating.

Find out more at themill-canton.co.uk. The show homes and marketing suite are open seven days a week, from 10am to 5pm at The Mill, Canton, Cardiff CF11 8DH.

The Mill, Canton, is bringing a new urban village to Cardiff, creating 800 contemporary homes at the former Arjo Wiggins paper mill site. They include 358 homes for open market sale by Lovell and 442 homes for rent  which will be managed by Cadwyn Housing Association  for the Tirion Group. The scheme is going ahead with the support of the Welsh Government and financial backing from the Principality Building Society, and is being developed by the Tirion Group in partnership with Lovell.

Instantly delete email threats with 365 Threat Monitor

With 365 Threat Monitor, scan all emails as they reach your users' mailboxes to detect ransomware, phishing and spam. Get real-time phone alerts, real-time security breach updates and delete threats instantly with just one click - for free! Learn More.

BorderX Lab, which was founded in 2014 by three former Google computer scientists, on Tuesday announced it has raised US$20 million in a Series B financing round led by Kleiner Perkins.

BorderX Lab is the U.S. subsidiary of China-based Ipinyou. The company's annual revenue is $19 million, based on Owler's estimates.

BorderX Lab offers the Beyond App mobile marketplace solution to facilitate cross-border e-commerce for global brands and merchants seeking access to the burgeoning Chinese consumer market. Beyond App is available for Android and iOS.

More than 50 merchants have signed on, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Barney's, GNC, Zappos, Gymboree and DKNY.

Beyond App uses cutting-edge big data and personalization technology, the company said. It offers fully localized product content, extensive marketing tailored to the local market, international payment options, international logistics and customs handling, and in-app customer service.

BorderX claims more than 3 million shoppers, and 70 percent of sales comes via original content.

Customers can go live in less than two weeks and will see a threefold improvement in conversion rates from consumers in China.

Features and Functions

When a customer orders a product using Beyond App, an autobot places the order on Merchant.com in real time, and an order confirmation notice is displayed in the app.

Less than 1 percent of all consumers in China have an international credit card, so BorderX Lab accepts all Chinese payment methods, such as Alipay.

BorderX Lab then processes the Chinese payment method and places the order using its own corporate credit card. Goods ship from Merchant.com to BorderX Lab's processing center, then directly to China. The items clear customs and are delivered to the consumer.

BorderX Lab handles all customer inquiries, pre- and post-sale. It handles customer service in both Chinese and English, through multiple channels including in-app chat.

Its automated platform examines hundreds of data sources to optimize domestic and international shipping routes. Users have real-time visibility into their tracking information at every step.

The Competition

BorderX Lab has 10 top competitors according to Owler, two of which -- Tmall and Suning.com -- have far greater revenues.

Tmall, formerly known as "Taobao Mall," is owned by Chinese online giant Alibaba.

There are other competitors, such as ShopShops, which offers a cross-border e-commerce platform aimed at consumers in China; and Azoya International, which offers turnkey cross-border websites to retailers seeking to sell into China.

Azoya's fully managed platform works on desktops and mobile devices. Features include localization, marketing, day-to-day operations, customer support, and support for logistics and payments, noted Franklin Chu, the firm's U.S. managing director.

"We have solutions that can help mid-range to high-end partrners, retailers and brands," Chu told the E-Commerce Times.

Azoya focuses on retailers and brands in the beauty, fashion apparel, health and personal care, and mom and baby categories.

Cracking the China Nut

It's more complex to sell online in China than elsewhere, because the country "has tried very hard to wall off their Internet from the rest of the world," said Michael Jude, research manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

"This means that, theoretically, every transaction across the interface will be scrutinized and potentially curtailed by Chinese authorities," he told the E-Commerce Times. "Also, Chinese economic policy is that they sell to the world -- they don't buy."

However, China "has a large, developing middle class who are desperate to attain a first-world consumption profile," Jude noted.

"There's a market there for almost anything that smacks of first world consumer goods -- appliances, clothing, jewelry... you name it," he said.

"Alibaba had revenues of nearly $6 million in its FY 2017," Jude remarked. "Assuming there are others that have similar models, this is a substantial market."

A U.S.-China trade war could impact cross-border e-commerce, he suggested. "At the very least, expect China to turn a jaundiced eye on anything that seems to be changing the buy/sell policies its economy is built on."

Richard Adhikari has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile technologies, CRM, databases, software development, mainframe and mid-range computing, and application development. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including Information Week and Computerworld. He is the author of two books on client/server technology. Email Richard.



Instantly delete email threats with 365 Threat Monitor

With 365 Threat Monitor, scan all emails as they reach your users' mailboxes to detect ransomware, phishing and spam. Get real-time phone alerts, real-time security breach updates and delete threats instantly with just one click - for free! Learn More.

Following two days of often contentious exchanges between members of Congress and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week, the focus in Washington and Silicon Valley has shifted from how Facebook plans to change its data practices to how to implement some of those plans.

The company already has taken steps to streamline its disclosure and privacy policies to give its 2 billion monthly active users more control over their data and limit the sharing of that information with third parties.

However, officials in Washington also have begun to roll out legislation designed to give consumers more power over what Facebook and other companies can do with their personal information.

Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., this week introduced the "CONSENT (Consumer Online Notification for Stopping Edge Provider Network Transgressions) Act," a bill that would require the Federal Trade Commission to establish consumer privacy protections on edge providers like Facebook, Google and similar firms.

If it became law, it would require edge providers to inform users of data collection and sharing policies, as well as notify them of data breaches, and it would require opt-in permission to share or sell users' personal data. It also would require the providers to maintain "reasonable" data security.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., has dusted off the "Browser (Balancing the Rights of Web Surfers Equally and Responsibly) Act," a 2017 bill that would provide Internet users more protections. The proposal has gained support following the Zuckerberg hearings, she said.

Hot Topic, Short Window

There are a few factors that may prevent new legislation from being passed in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, noted Allie Bohm, policy counsel at Public Knowledge.

Among them are the looming midterm elections, the short time remaining in the current congressional session, and the lack of good existing legislation as opposed to bills that would need to be written from scratch.

On the other hand, this may be the best time for the tech industry to get something passed, Bohm pointed out, and doing so could help Silicon Valley's financial prospects.

"Having some sensible consumer regulation may help consumer confidence and save their bottom line," she said.

The data privacy issue has been front and center for the last several weeks, and in the Trump era it's rare for any single legislative issue to remain on the front burner that long, Bohm remarked.

Public Knowledge has urged lawmakers to focus on three areas:

The bill must provide for meaningful notice and consent from customers, meaning the new privacy language should not be buried on page 39 of a 40-page document, where few would see it. The bill must provide for strong data security involving all the entities that use consumer data. Whether someone is buying a house, looking for a job or renting an apartment, all of the data must be secure. Consumers must have meaningful recourse, in particular removing language calling for mandatory arbitration to settle disputes. For many consumers, the cost of legal fees might outweigh any settlement they could get. There also should be a provision for liquidated damages.

At the state level, the "California Consumer Privacy Act," a ballot initiative, has gained renewed traction after Facebook pulled its official opposition.

The bill has three main elements, according to Rick Arney, independent chairman of the Lending Club Fund Governance Board, who coauthored the measure:

Consumers would gain the right to find out what kind of data a large company had about them; Consumers would have the right to tell that company to stop collecting their personal data; and Consumers could hold companies accountable if their data were compromised in a cyberbreach.

"The whole reason why we put this initiative together is that significant abuses are happening with data," Arney told the E-Commerce Times.

Backers have nearly all the signatures they need to get the initiative on the ballot this fall, he said.

Facebook has pulled out of the Committee to Protect California Jobs, an organization created to oppose the initiative, Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed.

Committee members include Google, Verizon, Comcast and AT&T. Facebook and Google each contributed US$200,000 to the group, according to government filings.

Facebook withdrew from the committee "in order to focus our efforts on supporting reasonable privacy measures in California," Stone told the E-Commerce Times.

Zuckerberg emphasized that commitment in his responses to lawmakers this week on Facebook's plans for compliance with Europe's General Data Privacy Regulation and the company's overall support for data privacy regulations, Stone pointed out.

With regard to the numerous questions that Zuckerberg promised Facebook's staff would research, Stone said that the official committee records will be held open so that legislators can ask additional questions. The House committee record will be open for an additional 10 days, and the joint Senate committees' record will be open for another 14 days. The committees then will give Facebook time to respond to members' questions.

Privacy Positions

Some movement toward increased data protection is likely to come in the U.S., following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, but implementation probably will stop short of the levels new European laws will provide, suggested Rick Edmonds, media business analyst at Poynter.

"A likely result is for Facebook to continue the current series of measures to address the issue," he told the E-Commerce Times.

That may be easier than trying to frame a solution in new legislation of FCC/Commerce regulations, he added.

Digital privacy is a complicated issue that will require complex legislation, remarked Andrew Howard, chief technology officer at Kudelski Security.

The European General Data Privacy Regulation is the first attempt to guarantee privacy rights at scale, he told the E-Commerce Times, and it's unlikely the U.S. will follow suit in the near term.

"While there is a lot of noise currently in the U.S. Congress about data privacy, action is unlikely in the near future," Howard said. "Americans, especially younger generations, are generally more comfortable with the privacy versus usability tradeoff."

It will take time to determine whether the GDPR actually works, he added, noting the irony that most of the big tech companies will have to comply with these regulations anyway, as they conduct a large percentage of their business in Europe.

The real question at the center of this debate is about consent, maintained Jason Hart, CTO at Gemalto.

"Click blindness" is very common, he told the E-Commerce Times. In order to access a service, users give immediate consent to share information without reading or understanding what they're permitting, and their data then is used for market research or advertising, or just sold for profit.

"Should we apply a standard of ownership to the information we share online,"Hart wondered, "similar to that which is established by our laws on plagiarism or copyright infringement?"

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.



Instantly delete email threats for Office 365

With the free app, 365 Threat Monitor, scan all emails as they reach your users' mailboxes to detect ransomware, phishing and spam. Get real-time phone alerts + security breach updates and delete threats instantly with just one click. Download now!

Mozilla earlier this week launched the first full edition of its Internet Health Report.

The report is "an open source effort to explore the state of human life on the Internet," wrote Mozilla Executive Director Mark Surman in an online post.

It consists of research and analysis about the Internet compiled by researchers, engineers, data scientists, policy analysts and artists in Mozilla's extended community.

The digital rights, open source, and Internet freedom movements stand for the idea that it is possible to build a digital world that is open, accessible and welcoming to all, according to Mozilla.

The Internet Health Report is based on the principles of the recently expanded Mozilla Manifesto.

"The optimist in me sincerely hopes this will be successful," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

That said, "you also have to ask how many outside the Mozilla community are paying attention," he told LinuxInsider.

Mozilla "is seeking to see the moral high ground as governments explore regulating the Internet by jumping on the ethics bandwagon early and often," suggested Michael Jude, research manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

Fake News Front and Center

In this first issue of the Internet Health Report, fake news and misinformation are in the spotlight.

The topic engendered considerable interest, Surman said, and data collection became the central focus. The discussion encompassed several issues:

Precision-targeted ads;

Bots and fake accounts;

Facebook's domination of news distribution; and

Insufficient Web literacy among the general public.

Taken together, these activities and circumstances provide the fuel for fraud and abuse, along with very bad real world outcomes, Surman said.

"Mozilla is trying to stand out as an organization with the user's best interests at heart," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

"This is well-timed, given that the issues Facebook has with data collection -- and Cambridge Analytica -- likely have people concerned about all tech firms at the moment," he told LinuxInsider.

Also included in the report:

A piece on engineers in Brazil building an open source bot that automatically inspects politicians' expenses and discloses officials' use of public money for private purchases; and

A story about FIRST, a global network of volunteer cybersecurity experts.

The Open, Accessible Digital Myth

There has long been speculation that governments, companies and organizations would carve up the Internet, and that it would end up reflecting the real world -- with territories, borders, and battles between different groups.

"Absolutely," Frost's Jude told LinuxInsider. "Look at China's attempts to close off their Internet from the rest of the world, and the EU attempting to impose privacy rights on the entire Web, regardless of where a company's based."

Meanwhile, the United States and its allies, also known as the "Five Eyes," have been spying on one another's citizens online, and sharing information to get around domestic restrictions.

In the business world, "companies always try to game the regulatory process," Jude remarked.

Although some large players dominate the space, the Internet "is still very much of a free-for-all," said Dan Goldstein, president of Page 1 Solutions.

The Internet Health Report is "an attempt to get people to think about what they're doing and what tools they're using with the subtext that we all need to be safer," Enderle remarked.

"Unfortunately, Mozilla doesn't have much reach on a good day," he pointed out, "and with Trump and Facebook news chewing up all available bandwidth, much more powerful entities are having trouble getting attention at the moment."

The collection of consumer data by Internet companies is a concern, but "It would be a significant mistake to eliminate free services like Facebook and Google Search," Page 1's Goldstein told LinuxInsider.

That's not likely to happen in our capitalistic economy, he said, but "it's important that we encourage all consumers to protect their private information both online and offline."

Richard Adhikari has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile technologies, CRM, databases, software development, mainframe and mid-range computing, and application development. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including Information Week and Computerworld. He is the author of two books on client/server technology. Email Richard.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it would start testing the soil in residential yards in Chicago's Southeast Side for the dangerous neurotoxin manganese, The Chicago Tribune reported Thursday.

The EPA will also explain the soil sampling at a community discussion from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

The yards to be tested are located in a low-income, majority Latino neighborhood near a storage facility belonging to S.H. Bell Co.

According to The Chicago Tribune, the EPA's recent decision comes after the Chicago Department of Public Health tested 27 yards on the city's East Side and found that 70 percent of them had manganese levels above state safety limits. Most of the contaminated yards were close to the S.H. Bell storage terminal.

Manganese exposure can cause a disorder called manganism that has Parkinson's-like symptoms. Children exposed to manganese near an S.H. Bell plant in Liverpool, Ohio were found to have lower I.Q. scores and difficulties with learning and memory. Unpublished research by the University of Illinois at Chicago discovered higher levels of manganese in East Side children than in children in other Chicago neighborhoods.

Local activists sent a letter Monday to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health Julie Morita calling for more action to fight manganese pollution in the neighborhood located along the highly industrialized Calumet River.

"The state and federal regulatory agencies and the City of Chicago departments have not applied the lens of environmental injusticethe inequitable exposure of communities of color, and communities in poverty, to environmental risksso that we can adequately address the ongoing cumulative impacts of years of exposure to petroleum coke, manganese, diesel emissions, abandoned piles of arc and flue ash and many other dangerous sources of fugitive dust and pollution," the letter said.

The letter writers, representing the Southeast Environmental Task Force, the Southeast Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke, Moms Clean Air Force, National Nurses United-Illinois and the Natural Resources Defense Council, praised the testing efforts but also called for more immediate action. They asked the city to issue a temporary ban of manganese handling in the neighborhood; develop a more comprehensive understanding of the risks associated with manganese exposure; pause all new industrial permits in the area until they can develop a set of pollution-preventing rules, taking into account community viewpoints; and hold a June 30 meeting with various Chicago authorities explaining the pollution problem and developing a clear response.

S.H. Bell, which was cited by the EPA for Clean Air Act violations last year after air monitors detected high manganese levels in air around the site, said in a statement to The Chicago Tribune that they had made improvements to mitigate air pollution and that they were only one of more than two dozen Southeast Side facilities that handle manganese.

"S.H. Bell has gone above and beyond compliance with every regulation imposed by the EPA and the city of Chicago," the statement said. "Focusing on our company while ignoring other known emitters of manganese and other heavy metals will not improve the environment of the city's Southeast Side."

At least three other industrial sites on the Calumet River are also being investigated, The Chicago Tribune reported.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U.S. rock climbers and their non-profit and corporate allies are setting themselves a difficult challenge this weekpersuading Congress to act to protect public lands.



Thursday marks the second day of the third annual Climb the Hill event in Washington, DC, organized by leading climbing-advocacy nonprofits American Alpine Club (AAC) and Access Fund to give climbers a chance to speak up for the federal lands that enable them to pursue their passions.

AAC and Access Fund represent more than 6.8 million U.S. climbers and 41,000 members dedicated to public land conservation.

Phil Powers (executive director of the American Alpine Club) discussing strategy with Tommy Caldwell, Margo Hayes and Lynn Hill at the Washington DC REI store. Stephen Gosling

The two groups are joined by 17 professional climbers including Sasha DiGiulian and Tommy Caldwell, 12 other climbing or outdoor nonprofits and outdoor industry partners REI and Patagonia.



According to a Climb the Hill press release, Access Fund estimates that 60 percent of all U.S. rock climbing areas are located on federal land.

"With so many attacks on public lands, this is the time to work together and galvanize climbers," AAC Policy Director Maria Povec said in the press release.

This year's Climb the Hill began May 9 and will conclude May 11. Participants will meet with lawmakers and federal administrators and urge them to protect the Antiquities Act and the Land and Water Conservation Fund in particular.

According to materials provided by Access Fund and AAC, the Antiquities Act, which gives the president the authority to designate an area as a national monument, is under threat both from the Trump administration and from Congress.

Documents leaked in December revealed the current administration's plans to significantly and illegally reduce the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, by 85 percent and 50 percent respectively.

Further, proposed legislation would require Congressional, state or local approval for the designation of new national monuments under the act.

Participants in Climb the Hill will urge policy makers to fight the reduction of national monuments and oppose any attempts to weaken the Antiquities Act.

Participants will also urge lawmakers to permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) when it comes up for renewal in September 2018. The LWCF was created in 1965 to enable the purchase of land and water to protect national treasures or promote recreation. It has been used to acquire or improve more than a dozen climbing areas.

Climb the Hill is only one example of Access Fund's commitment to protecting national lands. Access Fund has also joined other groups in suing the government to reverse the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante reductions.

"Climbers have helped shape our public lands system for well over a century, and and we are committed to our unique American landscape," Access Fund Policy Director Erik Murdock said in the press release.Carlos Alvarado, the new president of Costa Rica, announced the country's "titanic and beautiful task of abolishing the use of fossil fuels in our economy to make way for the use of clean and renewable energies."

He made the remarks at his inauguration speech Wednesday in front of a crowd of thousands, the Independent reported.

The 38-year-old former journalist also wants the country to be a global example in decarbonization.

"Decarbonization is the great task of our generation, and Costa Rica must be among the first countries in the world to achieve it, if not the first," he said.

His goal is for Costa Rica to lead the Paris agreement on climate change and be a "world decarbonization laboratory" before the United Nations' climate talks in 2020 (COP 26).

The Central American nation already derives most of its electricity without using fossil fuels. Last year, the country of 4.8 million people ran for 300 consecutive days on its renewable energy mix of hydropower, wind and geothermal. That impressive feat bested its 2015 record of 299 days of 100 percent renewable production. It also went 271 days using only renewable energy production in 2016.

Despite a 98 percent renewable power grid, Costa Rica has a gasoline-dependent transportation sector, with roughly half of its emissions coming from transport.

Still, the government has been working hard to green its fleet. Former president Luis Guillermo Solis signed a law that eliminates sales, customs and circulation taxes for electric vehicles and allows them to use municipal parking facilities free of charge.

Alvarado, who arrived to his inauguration ceremony at the Plaza de la Democracy on a hydrogen bus, campaigned on modernizing and electrifying older modes of transport, promoting research and development in hydrogen and biofuels, and banning oil and gas exploration in the country.

In a speech last month, he announced intentions to ban fossil fuels for transportation by 2021, the year Costa Rica reaches 200 years of independence.

Energy experts, however, cast doubt on the plan, as Reuters reported. They warn that the plan to eliminate fossil fuels in a handful of years is unrealistic.

Oscar Echeverria, president of the Vehicle and Machinery Importers Association, said the switch to clean transport cannot be rushed because the market is so far undeveloped.

"If there's no previous infrastructure, competence, affordable prices and waste management we'd be leading this process to failure. We need to be careful," Echeverria explained to the news service.

But economist Monica Araya, a Costa Rican sustainability expert and director of Costa Rica Limpia, praised the government's focus on weaning off polluting energy sources.

"Getting rid of fossil fuels is a big idea coming from a small country. This is an idea that's starting to gain international support with the rise of new technologies," she told Reuters. "Tackling resistance to change is one of the most important tasks we have right now."The Center for Biological Diversity and more than 1,100 Texas residents are demanding that Texas regulators reconsider issuing a wastewater permit to a project that would be the world's largest plastics plant.

The facility, funded by ExxonMobil and the Saudi Arabian government, would discharge more than 13 million gallons a day of toxic wastewater. It will exceed legal pollution standards, as the Center for Biological Diversity notes in a petition filed Wednesday with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The plant, which would receive more than $1 billion in state tax breaks, would "crack" the ethane in natural gas to produce almost 2 million tons of ethylene and polyethylene annually. Polyethylene pellets are the basic building blocks of plastic products. The Texas plant is part of a multibillion-dollar push by the fossil fuel industry to increase global plastic production by 40 percent over the next decade.

"This facility will dump millions of gallons of toxic wastewater a day into beautiful Corpus Christi Bay. That's right in the middle of critical habitat for endangered whooping cranes," said Emily Jeffers, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "Texas and its wildlife will pay a heavy price just to produce more cheap plastic that will litter our oceans and landscapes. Texans don't want toxins in their bays and rivers, and they don't want plastics polluting our oceans and seafood."

Wednesday was the deadline for concerned citizens to request the commission reconsider its April 9 decision to issue a wastewater permit for the plastic plant. The Center for Biological Diversity, along with more than 1,148 Texas residents who supported the online petition, submitted a request for reconsideration. In addition to the wastewater permit, the facility must obtain several air permits.

It will also contribute to plastic pollution, which has become so pervasive that plastic is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050. Marine plastic pollution affected at least 267 species, including 86 percent of sea turtle species and 43 percent of marine mammal species. Large whales are often found with bellies full of plastic after they die.

Little bits of plastic get mistaken for food and eaten by fish, sea turtles, birds and other wildlife. These animals often choke on the items, or experience feelings of fullness and then starve to death.

Plastic also attracts and absorbs toxic chemicals from the marine environment, increasing the hazards to any animal that eats them, including those higher on the food chain, including humans. Other animals become entangled in plastic garbage and drown.Utah's state lawmakers aren't exactly friendly to climate change legislation. Their Republican governor said in 2015 that man-made climate change is "a little debatable." In 2010, the state legislature overwhelmingly passed a resolution that implied global warming is a conspiracy and urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to stop all carbon dioxide reduction policies and programs.

But thanks to a group of fearless high schoolers, Gov. Gary Herbert reversed the 2010 measure this past March, with the support of 75 percent of Republican legislators.

The resolution, which Herbert signed on March 20, "encourages the responsible stewardship of natural resources and reduction of emissions through incentives and support of the growth in technologies and services that will enlarge the economy."

This valiant, two-year effort was detailed in a High Country News op-ed this week by Jack Greene, a retired high school teacher who works with Utah students on environmental issues.

According to Greene, a group of students at Logan High School were shocked after learning about the 2010 resolution and sprung to action. He described how the students have already witnessed Utah's longer and more intense fire seasons, a dwindling snowpack and increasing water scarcity.

"My generation and generations to come will inherit the many threats that climate change poses," student Piper Chirstian told Greene.

They eventually drafted their own bill and gathered support from grassroots groups, business coalitions and key lawmakers.

In 2017, they enlisted Republican legislator Rep. Becky Edwards to sponsor the resolution, "Economic and Environmental Stewardship."

Although this attempt failed, the students did not give up, and "partnered with a coalition of advocacy organizations, whose volunteers met with representatives from nearly every Utah political district," Greene reported.

The bill's supporters pled to legislators to consider the effects of climate change on the state's future.

"We, as youth leaders of Utah, have assembled with you, our state leaders, to address what we consider to be the paramount issue of our generationthat of a changing climate," one student said.

During the 2018 legislative general session, after impassioned testimony from the students, the bill gained traction. It made it out of committee by an 8-2 vote, Green wrote, "then, at last, came success as the House passed the resolution 51-21 and the Senate 23-3."

Those opposed to the bill included Rep. Mike Noel. As quoted by The Salt Lake Tribute, Noel told the students: "This whole issue of climate change has been used by organizations to fool people."

The Utah Legislature, however, was no fool.1. How many vaquitas are left?

A survey released earlier this year estimated the vaquita population was as low as 30 individuals. An all time low for the porpoise, the population is half of what it was just the year before. And a 97 percent drop from the year before that.

2. What do vaquitas look like?

The world's smallest porpoise, vaquitas measure up to 5 feet long and weigh up to 120 lbs. The vaquita's unique facial markings of a black ring around each eye and black curved lips have been compared to a smiling panda. They are dark gray on their dorsal (top) surface with pale gray sides and a white underside with light gray markings. Newborns generally have darker coloration.

3. Where do vaquitas live?

Vaquitas only live in the northern end of Mexico's Gulf of California. Besides the vaquita, the Gulf of California has tremendous biological and economic importance. It supports an extraordinary diversity of marine life including sharks, whales, marine turtles and many species of reef fish. The Upper Gulf of California is considered globally unique because of its ecological characteristics, enormous biodiversity and the amount of species that live in this area.

4. Why are vaquitas so endangered?

Unsustainable and illegal fishing practices are the main drivers pushing vaquita to extinction, particularly due to bycatch from illegal fishing. Vaquitas share waters with the much sought-after totoaba fish and fishing nets inadvertently catch and drown the porpoise. Demand for totoaba swim bladdersbelieved to cure a variety of illness and diseases in Chinese medicineis driving the vaquita to extinction. The swim bladders are often illegally smuggled over the U.S. border and then shipped to China where it can sell up to USD 8,500 per kilogram in the black market.

5. What can be done to save the vaquita?

Mexican President Pena Nieto has committed to protecting the vaquita. But totoaba fishingthe main threat to vaquitashas continued to increase. And of course, vaquita numbers have dropped to dangerous lows.

The solution is a fully enforced gillnet ban and improved community engagement to save the vaquita and preserve the Gulf of California's outstanding universal value.

World Wildlife Fund is asking for an immediate, increased response from the Mexican government, World Heritage Committee and CITES Parties, NGOS and civil society groups to protect the last remaining vaquitas and set the Upper Gulf of California on a path to recovery. Failure to act will result in the imminent extinction of the vaquita.

Take action and ask Mexican President Pena Nieto to enforce protection of the vaquita.(Photo: REUTERS / Siegfried Modola)Women carry their belongings as they disembark from trucks carrying internally displaced Muslims, after traveling in convoy escorted by the African Union operation in CAR (MISCA) on a four-day journey from the capital Bangui, at the transit IDP center in the outskirts of the Central African Republic-Chad border town of Sido, April 30, 2014. All of the remaining Muslims that have sheltered from sectarian violence in the neighborhood of PK 12 in Bangui, over one thousand, have been evacuated towards the northern town of Kabo and Sido on the border with Chad.

United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has expressed deep alarm at the volatile situation in the Central African Republic, particularly given the worrying hate speech and incitement to violence based on religion.

He issued a statement on May 9 after recent killings and attacks in Bangui, the CAR capital.

"Last week's violence in Bangui demonstrates just how volatile the situation is, and how easily crowds can be manipulated into angry mobs ready to attack their neighbours on the basis of their religion," Zeid said.

"With hate speech and incitement to violence so prevalent in media and social media, I fear that spontaneous eruptions of violence like that of May 1 could become more widespread and difficult to contain."

The UN said that on May 1, in the PK5 neighborhood of Bangui, at least 22 people were killed and 185 others injured after an armed group, led by Nimeri Matar Djamous (nicknamed "Force"), whipped up violence and attacked a church in response to a government attempt to arrest one of their leaders.

This triggered revenge attacks by the Christian community, including the lynching to death of three Muslim individuals said the UN rights agency.

Attacks continued into last weekend, with houses, hospitals, churches and mosques in many localities in Bangui attacked.

The CAR has a population of 4.6 million people and has been unstable since its independence from France in 1960.

About 50 percent of the population are Christians, who are roughly equally divided between Catholics and Protestants, and 15 percent are Muslims.

It has an area of 240,535 square miles (622,984 square kilometres).

It is rich in diamonds, gold, oil and uranium but has one of the world's poorest populations.

It was plunged into turmoil in 2013 when Muslim rebels from the Seleka umbrella group seized power in the majority Christian country.

A band of mostly Christian militias, called the anti-balaka, rose up to counter the Seleka.

Seleka handed power to a transitional government in 2014 under international pressure but months of violence followed and the country was effectively partitioned, in spite of the presence of a UN peacekeeping force and a French mission.

The country is undergoing an internationally supervised transition involving a constitutional referendum as well as presidential and parliamentary elections.

The UN High Commissioner called on CAR government and the international community to be extremely vigilant and to take serious measures to curb the incitement to violence on communal grounds.

"Perpetrators of killings and violent attacks should be held individually criminally responsible so that an entire community is not tarred with the same brush," said Zeid. "

This will make it more difficult for opportunistic armed groups to manipulate angry mobs into revenge attacks against an entire community. Central Africans know all too well what can happen if communal sentiments are stoked into violence."*

The UN rights chief called on all relevant national and international actors to take decisive action to effectively prevent future outbreaks of violence and human rights violations.

He stressed that this recent violence must not be allowed to undermine a peace process facilitated by the African Union.(Photo: REUTERS / Siegfried Modola)The first Rwandan soldiers who are part of the African Union peace keeping force in the Central African Republic (MISCA) arrive on a U.S. Air Force plane at the airport of the capital Bangui January 16, 2014

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The level of hatred in Central African Republic between Muslims and Christians has been underestimated and is creating a "nearly impossible" situation for African Union and French forces to combat, France's U.N. envoy said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a U.N. event about early warning signs for mass atrocities, Gerard Araud suggested the United Nations consider turning to psychologists or ethnologists to help understand and combat the deadly resentment because religious leaders' calls for calm were being ignored.

Waves of massacres and reprisals by Muslim and Christian militias have killed hundreds, if not thousands, in Central African Republic since rebels seized power in March 2012, waking the world up to the fact that it might be witnessing the prelude to another Rwanda, where 800,000 were hacked, shot or clubbed to death in 100 days in 1994.

France last year hurriedly deployed roughly 1,600 French troops to help a largely ineffective force of African peacekeepers, but they are too thinly spread to prevent tit-for-tat attacks. Araud suggested the job was proving to be much more difficult than Paris had anticipated.

"In Central African Republic I think we had maybe underestimated the hatred and the resentment between the communities," Araud told the event, which was organized to mark the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.

"It's nearly an impossible situation for the soldiers, the African and the French soldiers," he said. "We have to think in terms of tactics, what to do, in very practical terms to be effective to prevent people from killing each other when they desperately want to kill each other."

A Muslim rebel coalition, Seleka, seized power in Central African Republic last spring, unleashing a wave of killings and looting that in turn sparked revenge attacks by the "anti-balaka" Christian militia.

"We knew that there was some intersectarian violence, but we didn't forecast such deep ingrained hatred," Araud said. "We maybe need to work with psychologists or ethnologists on how did it appear, and now, how to cool down the situation."

The crisis has sent food prices soaring, leaving many households down to one meal a day and 2.6 million people in need of U.N. humanitarian assistance, the U.N. World Food Program said on Tuesday.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to submit a report to the Security Council next month with recommendations for a possible U.N. peacekeeping force that would take over from the African troops.

Diplomats say they expect Ban will eventually recommend deploying a U.N. blue-helmet force to Central African Republic with a robust mandate to protect civilians. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonnea(Photo: REUTERS / Andreea Campeanu)Chadian people crowd at the airport while waiting to be evacuated back to their country, in Bangui December 28, 2013. French President Francois Hollande has asked the United Nations to play a bigger role in the Central African Republic, Hollande's office said in a statement on Friday. France deployed a 1,600 strong peacekeeping mission in its former colony this month to stop massacres between Muslim and Christian militias, but the U.N.-backed intervention is struggling to restore security in the country.

BANGUI (Reuters) - Hundreds of people tried to flee inter-religious violence in Central African Republic on Saturday aboard emergency flights to neighboring Chad, while nearby countries appealed for help to rescue their citizens from the mounting humanitarian crisis.

Tit-for-tat violence between Muslim Seleka rebels, who seized power in March, and Christian self-defense militias have killed more than 1,000 people this month in the riverside capital Bangui and displaced hundreds of thousands more.

Fighting in the former French colony has surged in recent weeks despite the presence of 1,600 French peacekeepers and nearly 4,000 African Union troops deployed under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians. Bangui was calm on Saturday.

The 'anti-balaka' militia have targeted Muslims they say have supported Seleka during months of looting and killing since March. With many Seleka gunmen coming from Chad, its citizens in particular have been singled out, prompting their government to charter flights this week to bring them home.

However, many of those who waited in the heat at Bangui airport were Muslim Central Africans who said they were fleeing their majority-Christian homeland for fear of reprisals.

"We have never known violence as barbaric as this," said Aishatou Abdelkarim, 31, who said she was married to a Chadian. "The devil has taken control of our country."

Chad's Foreign Minister Moussa Faki said some 4,000 Chadians had been transported home so far, many of whom had lived in Central African Republic their whole lives. That is just a fraction, however, of the hundreds of thousands of Chadians living in landlocked Central African Republic.

More than 800,000 people have fled their homes during this month's fighting, with about half of them seeking refuge in Bangui, the United Nations says. It appealed on Friday for $152 million to help meet emergency humanitarian needs such as drinking water and sanitation in makeshift camps.

Tens of thousands of people have sought safety at the international airport, where French peacekeepers have a base. Women and children waited beside piles of suitcases and bags.

Cameroon flew home 214 of its citizens on Friday, bringing the number evacuated this month to 926, state radio there reported. Senegal and Niger, meanwhile, have asked the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for urgent help in extracting hundreds of their own expatriates.

CONGOLESE KILLED

Many say the bloodshed has little to do with religion in a nation where Muslims and Christians have long lived in peace. Instead, they blame a political battle for control over resources in one of Africa's most weakly governed States.

"We used to live in perfect harmony with the Christians but it is Seleka and the anti-balaka who are trying to divide us," said Issa Baro, a 35-year-old Muslim trader from Chad, waiting to catch a flight home.

Chad's Foreign Minister Faki said toppled President Francois Bozize was responsible for the surge in violence in recent weeks and was using the anti-balaka to undermine interim President Michel Djotodia, Seleka's leader.

French President Francois Hollande told U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon by telephone on Friday he wanted greater U.N. involvement in Central African Republic. Ban is preparing a proposal for a possible U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Two Congolese peacekeepers were killed when they were attacked by unidentified gunmen late on Thursday, a day after six Chadian peacekeepers were killed, a spokesman for the African Union's MISCA peacekeeping mission said.

Two French soldiers were also shot dead in early December.

(Additional reporting by Serge Leger Kokpakpa; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Erica Billingham)Teachers have walked off their jobs in five states in recent weeks and months to protest the impact of low state education budgets on the classroom, including on their paychecks.

Have they been engaged in strikes? Arent strikes by public employees typically illegal?

The answers to those questions have been obscured by differing opinions, fast-moving events, and the raw political power exhibited by the teachers.

The emphasis of what teachers have been working toward is the condition of the schools, and the conditions of the classrooms in which they teach, said Dale Templeton, the director of collective bargaining and member advocacy for the National Education Association, whose state affiliates have been at the center of the recent walkouts in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.

In these states, the advocacy is directed at the legislature, she said.

The teachers unions fundamental view is that the recent job actions do not violate state prohibitions (in states that have them) against strikes by public employees because the teachers are engaged in political speech and action directed at lawmakers, not the teachers direct employers. These public-sector labor matters are all generally questions of state instead of federal law.

The educators are arguing that the legislatures, over many years, are the ones who created these conditions, said Alice OBrien, the general counsel of the NEA. So its not a strike as defined in many labor laws as a dispute between the employees and the local school district.

In legal briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in the labor law case Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31, in which a ruling is pending, the National Right to Work Foundation says 27 states have right to work laws for the private and/or public sector, while AFSCME says 26 states prohibit fair-share fees or public-sector collective bargaining completely.

A right to work law makes it unlawful to require an employee to join or financially support a union as a condition of employment.

Conflicting Views

Of course, there are some differing views on the issue. In West Virginia, where teachers won a $2,000 raise after their statewide walkout in February and March, state schools Superintendent Steve Paine had warned teachers against the job action.

Work stoppages by public employees are not lawful in West Virginia and will have a negative impact on student instruction and classroom time, Paine said in a news release in February.

Some state leaders pointed to rulings by the state supreme court and the state attorney general in 1990, after the last major teacher walkout in West Virginia.

There is no right to strike against the state, the 1990 advisory opinion, signed by then-West Virginia Attorney General Roger W. Tompkins, said. Thus, any strike or concerted work stoppage by the public teachers of this state is illegal.

Public teachers in West Virginia have written employment contracts that expressly prohibit strikes or work stoppages, the opinion said.

But Robert M. Bastress, a professor at West Virginia University College of Law in Morgantown, said he viewed Tompkins opinion as just plain wrong.

There is no state law prohibiting, as a general proposition, public-employee strikes, Bastress said. Certainly, if a teacher refuses to show up for work, when he or she is scheduled to be there, then a [local] board of education could pursue a disciplinary action against the teacher, subject to the substantial procedures available to teachers to grieve disciplinary actions.

Also, a court could order striking teachers back to work, but there is no available procedure in West Virginia for a statewide injunction, Bastress added. Such action would have to be county by county, he said.

Local school boards in the state likely did not seek such injunctions during the recent walkout because they were sympathetic to the teachers demands and the action was relatively short-lived, Bastress said.

Just a Word Game

In Arizona, lawmakers and Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, passed a state budget late last week that included raises for teachers. The breakthrough came after thousands of teachers in the heavily Republican state had walked off their jobs for a week.

OBrien of the NEA said the state has no statutory prohibition against strikes by public employees, only some musty-dusty old common law that might lend support to such a view.

However, Timothy Sandefur, the vice president of litigation for the Goldwater Institute, a national free-market research and legal group based in Phoenix, noted that teachers had used their vacation and personal days in many cases and had received significant cooperation from school districts, many of which shut down and declined to dock pay from those who walked off the job.

For teachers to collaborate to paralyze the public school system, under the Arizona Constitution, is unlawful, Sandefur said. Its just a word game to not consider the walkout a strike, he said.

The Goldwater Institute was weighing litigation against some school districts in the state because of their alleged facilitation of the walkout, Sandefur said, but the group was unlikely to proceed if the controversy was settled.

Id be surprised if there are any consequences for the teachers, he said. I think they are going to get away with it because they have power.

One illustration of which direction the tide of public sentiment may be flowing: In Colorado, a state lawmaker proposed a bill to dismiss and jail teachers who go on strike, but he withdrew it after it failed to pass out of committee.

Three of the five recent walkouts occurred in right-to-work states that do not authorize collective bargaining for teachers. (Colorado and Oklahoma permit limited collective bargaining by teachers.)

In our collective bargaining states, we are engaging our members on these issues with school districts at the bargaining table, Templeton of the NEA said.Its been called the teacher revolt. Teachers in five states so far have risen up and walked out of their classrooms to protest low pay, cuts to education funding, or changes to their pensions.

In all of these states, individual teacherssome of them in their 20s and most of them with little or no organizing experiencehave taken charge of the grassroots movement through social media. Most of the states with teacher activism have right-to-work laws, meaning teachers dont have to pay dues to a union as a condition of employment. Because of that, the teachers unions may have fewer resources and members. Their officials have not always taken the lead in the teacher activism.

Instead, rank-and-file educators are the faces of the movement.

Here are some of their stories:



Noah Karvelis | Arizona



Alberto Morejon | Oklahoma

Nema Brewer | Kentucky

Emily Comer & Jay ONeal | West Virginia

Angela Anderson | Colorado

NOAH KARVELIS | Arizona

In Arizona, a Novice Teacher Takes Charge

Noah Karvelis is 23 and a second-year teacher. Hes also, perhaps, the most recognizable teacher in Arizona right now.

Karvelis, an elementary music teacher in Tolleson, is one of the creators of the Facebook group Arizona Educators United. The group was created as a place for teachers across the state to discuss their goals for public education, and it ballooned into a 54,000-member group devoted to organizing Arizonas first statewide strike.

Were in an education crisis, Karvelis said, rattling off a list of issues he feels the state is shortchanging educators on: Aging textbooks. Crumbling facilities. Low teacher pay. Were not keeping our best teachers in the classroom.

Teachers in the state went on strike on April 26, demanding higher wages and more education funding. On May 3, the governor signed a budget deal thatwhile not giving teachers everything they asked forgranted a 20 percent pay raise in three years and restored nearly $400 million in recession-era cuts to schools.

During both of the official press conferences near the start and end of the strike, Karvelis stood beside the Arizona Education Association president, Joe Thomas. The state teachers union has encouraged the grassroots nature of the movement, said Karvelis, who just recently joined the union.

The unions really let us continue to lead and stay out front and make a lot of decisions, he said, adding that the AEA has offered its decades and decades of organizing infrastructure. ... Its a powerful collaboration.

Karvelis, who moved to Arizona from Illinois two years ago after graduating from college, has never had a formal leadership role beforeNothing like leading a statewide labor struggle, he said.

Hes never taken a public speaking class. But at this point, he has spoken in front of tens of thousands at rallies at the state Capitol. Hes become a bona fide celebrity among teachers.

Its really fun to see yourself grow into that role.  Its also weird, he said. I was lucky a month ago if I could get my 3rd graders to focus and listen, and now [Im] walking up and down the Capitol and people are shaking hands and taking selfies with [me].

ALBERTO MOREJON | Oklahoma

From Facebook to the Oklahoma Statehouse

Alberto Morejon was watching the news of the West Virginia teacher strike from his home in Oklahoma when he decided to make a Facebook page. On it, Sooner State teachers could discuss a possible strike of their own.

A month later, Oklahoma teachers had walked out of their classrooms, spurred on by Morejons encouragement.

I never thought that my group would be the driving force for everything, and I never thought that Id be one of the leaders of the walkout and have a say in what happens, he said.

Morejon, 25, posted daily updates on the Facebook group during the walkout. He conducted surveys of the members and used the results to gauge how teachers were feeling about both the legislatures and the state teachers unions actions. All of that behind-the-scenes work positioned Morejon, who is an 8th grade U.S. history teacher in Stillwater, as a main voice of the movement.

At the Capitol during the walkout, it was hard for him to go from place to placedroves of teachers would yell his name and stop him to ask for a picture or to thank him.

Theyre really looking up to you, and theyre believing what you say, so you have to make sure you have your facts straight ... make sure youre being transparent and honest, Morejon said. Pretty much whatever I told people, theyre going to take it to heart.

In fact, teachers tended to look to Morejon for updates over the Oklahoma Education Association. While Morejon spoke at the unions conference announcing the work stoppage, their relationship disintegrated as the walkout went on, he said.

In my opinion, I dont think they ever wanted the walkout to happen, said Morejon, who is not an OEA member. My group was questioning why certain things were happening [throughout the work stoppage]; we kept them accountable.

Now that the walkout is over, dozens of teachers have commented on Facebook posts in Morejons group, urging him to run for office. He would like to seek election one daybut not yet. He is considering running for the state legislature in two years.

Ive had a bunch of people ask me to run for governor. Im not even old enough, he said, with a small laugh. Six more years.

NEMA BREWER | Kentucky

A Coal Miners Daughter Organized Thousands of Kentucky Teachers

Nema Brewer calls herself an accidental activist. A multimedia specialist for the Fayette County, Ky., school district, Brewer didnt have any experience organizing labor movements.

But she comes from a family with a history of fighting for working peopleher dad is a retired coal miner.

My dad striked for 100 days once without pay, Brewer said. I know what it takes.

When Kentucky legislators began debating changes to public pension plans this spring, she started paying attention. Brewer, 44, and a friend started a Facebook group, Kentucky 120 United, named after the 120 counties in the state. They recruited public employees (mostly teachers) from each county to be members, and then found zone leaders for each of the states six congressional districts.

We knew we were building up to something, Brewer said, citing her goals as threefold: protect pensions, protect the budget, and campaign to vote legislators out.

After Kentucky lawmakers rushed a bill with pension changes for new teachers through the legislature, Brewer posted on the page that a walkout was on. Hundreds of teachers headed to the Capitol in Frankfort the next day, forcing about 20 districts to close.

It was pretty amazing, because people told us it couldnt be done, she said. Any time someone tells me that, Im like, Well, lets just see. I think people really underestimated Kentucky.

Kentucky teachers stormed the Capitol twice more before the legislative session ended, although one of those protests coincided with spring break, so the impact on schools was limited. Still, teachers came out victorious: Legislators voted to override the governors veto of an education budget, increasing funding for public schools.

Unlike West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arizona, Kentucky teachers never went on a full-blown walkout or strike. They werent asking for higher paythey were fighting to protect what they already had, Brewer said. And the legislative session was already winding down when teachers organized.

My regret is that we didnt form sooner, Brewer said. We were up against the timeline here.

Still, she said, the movement has just begun. Now, the focus is on electing pro-education candidates in November. Its an invigorating feeling now, but Brewer said she was scared to death when the teachers first started organizing.

You never really expect this is going to happen, she said. One moment, youre a design person and kind of anonymous, and the next thing you know, youre the face of this group.

Still, she is ready to pull back a little from the day-to-day organizing of the movement, at least for now: Its boating season coming up, said the mother of one.

EMILY COMER & JAY ONEAL | West Virginia

The Spark That Lit the Wildfire: Organizing West Virginia Teachers

Emily Comer remembers the moment when she realized that teachers in West Virginia might really go on strike. But she had no idea that their action would light a match for teacher activism across the country.

Comer, a high school Spanish teacher in South Charleston, was participating in a rally at the state Capitol when the West Virginia Education Association president Dale Lee referenced the 1990 teachers strike, during which protestors shut down schools for 11 days until securing a pay raise.

He said something along the lines of, We had some success there in 1990, Comer recounted. I looked around, and I saw legislators looking at each other with their eyes wide, and I thought, Oh, wow, this might really happen.

The strike did happen, thanks in no small part to the actions of Comer, 27, and Jay ONeal, 37, who founded a Facebook group for West Virginia teachers. They wanted to create a place for teachers to pay attention to what state legislators were proposing to do to state employees health care. (In West Virginia, teachers receive health insurance through a state agency. Policymakers were planning to increase employee premiums.)

It was more just about engagement, getting more people to pay attention, and it snowballed from there, Comer said.

ONeal, a 7th grade English teacher in Charleston, added that West Virginias two active teachers unions werent collaborating. The Facebook page was an attempt to bring teachers from both unions together.

Comer is one of her schools building representatives to the West Virginia chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. ONeal is the treasurer for his local affiliate of the West Virginia Education Association. Neither of them had prior organizing experience on such a large scale.

And now, theyre watching teachers in other states take the baton. Still, seeing teachers elsewhere seal victories is a little bittersweet: Teachers in Oklahoma and Arizona have both gotten higher pay raises than West Virginia teachers, who received a 5 percent pay raise.

There was the sense that maybe we should have asked for more, but we were the first, we didnt know, ONeal said. Were learning.

The next step, Comer and ONeal say, is to continue to fight for teachers health-care coverage. To end the strike, the governor agreed to freeze insurance rate increases for 16 months while he convened a task force to find a solution.

The strike has given teachers a certain amount of leverage, Comer said.

We realized we [were] not going to get anywhere unless we go out on strike, Comer said. But there was a part of me that thought, its not going to happen. The fact that it even happened here is really amazing. To see it spread like wildfire across the country is like a dream.

ANGELA ANDERSON | Colorado

We Can Do It, Too: The Colorado Teacher Walkout

Colorado teachers flooded the state Capitol in April, breaking the streak of red-state teacher activism. They were protesting low wages and education funding cuts, as well as proposed changes to teachers retirement benefits.

There became this momentum from within and from the bottom up, said Angela Anderson, a teacher in Lakewood who is active in her local affiliate of the Colorado Education Association and on the board of the CEA.

The CEA didnt plan the protests, she said: The state teachers union facilitated the conversation, but the decisionmaking and organizing happened at the local level. Anderson, 44, took an active role in leading her own community through the protest.

Watching teachers in other states plan massive strikes and walkouts emboldened teachers here, she said.

It was like, well, theyre all doing it, we can do it, too, Anderson said. The other thing that was inspiring for teachers is their community was supporting them. It felt like a long time since teachers felt supported for doing this rather than attacked.

About 30 districts closed their doors on April 27, as thousands of teachers rallied at the Capitol. (A handful of districts, including Andersons, canceled classes the day before.)

Anderson, who has been teaching for 19 years, has never held an organizing role before. But she felt like legislators werent listening to teachers.

We live by rules that are made by people who have no experience teaching, and people tend to think, I went to school, so I must understand public education, she said.

Now, teachers are waiting to see the results of their activism. On the last day of the legislative session, Colorado lawmakers passed a deal to reform the states underfunded pension system. The bipartisan deal, which was opposed by the state teachers union, increases contributions from state employees, raises the minimum retirement age for new hires, and reduces the cost-of-living adjustment. Still, Anderson said legislators had taken out some provisions that would have really hurt teachers.

Beyond that, Anderson is focused on a November ballot initiative that would increase the corporate tax rate and income taxes for people earning more than $150,000 a year, as well as adjust the school finance formula. If passed, the revenue would boost school funding. Colorado law requires that voters approve any tax increase.

Still, Anderson wont rule out another mass protest at the Capitol down the road.

I wouldnt say its off the table, she said. If [legislators] do something thats not OK for teachers and students, we definitely have the energy to go back there again, if thats what we need to do.Public Health warns of chickenpox outbreak

The Island's Public Health officials are urging parents to keep their children off school if they have chickenpox.

The virus, which is currently circulating in the Isle of Man, mainly affects children, but can be caught by adults as well.

Public Health says those who have spots from chickenpox should stay away from school, nursery or work until all the spots have crusted over.

The virus normally clears up by itself within a week.

The organisation is encouraging those who aren't sure if they have the illness to contact their GP for further advice.IoM monitoring Westminster debates



Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK

The Chief Minister believes the Isle of Man has adequate resources monitoring developments affecting the Island in Westminster.

Howard Quayle faced questions in this week's sitting of the House of Keys about a failed amendment in the UK which would have asked the Island to make its beneficial ownership register public.

Mr Quayle confirmed the Manx Government employs Lansons to represent the Isle of Man and provide advice on events and problems, as well as updates on the House of Commons.

The Government also has a team monitoring debates in Westminster to ensure the Government can respond directly if needed.

The Chief Minister insists the withdrawal of last week's anti-money laundering amendment shows the Island's work in London has been beneficial.Lead stolen at business park

Police are appealing for information following a theft at the Isle of Man Business Park.

A quantity of sheet lead was taken from the porch way at Park House at the start of the month.

The Central Neighbourhood Policing Team wants to hear from anyone who saw someone acting suspiciously in the area.

Anyone with information relevant to the incident is asked to contact Police Headquarters on 631212.The origins of a deadly fungus, which for decades has contributed to a global decline of numerous amphibian populations, has been traced to the Korean peninsula, a new study reports. The data provide a more complete picture of how the fungus spread from region to region, and underscore how, over the past century, human trade of amphibian species has accelerated the spread of the disease. The fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis causes a deadly disease called chytridiomycosis in amphibians. It was first identified in the 1970s, at which point it was increasingly detected in regions around the world, on nearly every continent. However, decades after B. dendrobatidis was first recognized, the geographic origin of the pathogen and timing of its worldwide expansion remain hotly contested, due to inconsistent results from previously studies. To resolve these inconsistencies, Simon O'Hanlon et al. isolated and genetically sequenced 177 samples of B. dendrobatidis across regions, combining their new data with previously published genomes. The data reveal that all strains share the most overlap with a strain called BdASIA-1, found on the Korean peninsula, which suggests that the pathogen originated there. Analysis of the various B. dendrobatidis strains and their relatedness suggests that the pathogen likely arose around the early 20th century, which coincides with the global expansion in amphibian trade (for exotic pet, medical, and food purposes), the authors note; indeed, they identified 10 events where traded amphibians were infected. Further investigation revealed that some strains are more virulent than others, yet population-level outcomes are also context-dependent, the authors report. Karen Lips provides more context in a related Perspective.

###Researchers designed an underwater acoustic ground cloak by engineering material with properties not typically found in nature, rendering an object invisible

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 10, 2018 -- Cloaking devices play a pivotal role in many sci-fi television programs. Scientists are now working to take this technology from the dramatic realm of science fiction and make it real. Amanda D. Hanford, at Pennsylvania State University, is taking the introductory steps to make acoustic ground cloaks. These materials redirect approaching waves around an object without scattering the wave energy, concealing the object from the sound waves.

During the 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, being held May 7-11, 2018, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Hanford will describe the physics behind an underwater acoustic shield designed in her lab.

Hanford and her team set out to engineer a metamaterial that can allow the sound waves to bend around the object as if it were not there. Metamaterials commonly exhibit extraordinary properties not found in nature, like negative density. To work, the unit cell -- the smallest component of the metamaterial -- must be smaller than the acoustic wavelength in the study.

"These materials sound like a totally abstract concept, but the math is showing us that these properties are possible," Hanford said. "So, we are working to open the floodgates to see what we can create with these materials."

To date, most acoustic metamaterials have been designed to deflect sound waves in air. Hanford decided to take this work one step further and accept the scientific challenge of trying the same feat underwater. Acoustic cloaking underwater is more complicated because water is denser and less compressible than air. These factors limit engineering options.

After multiple attempts, the team designed a 3-foot-tall pyramid out of perforated steel plates. They then placed the structure on the floor of a large underwater research tank. Inside the tank, a source hydrophone produced acoustic waves between 7,000 Hz and 12,000 Hz, and several receiver hydrophones around the tank monitored reflected acoustic waves.

The wave reflected from the metamaterial matched the phase of the reflected wave from the surface. Additionally, the amplitude of the reflected wave from the cloaked object decreased slightly. These results demonstrate that this material could make an object appear invisible to underwater instruments like sonar.

Using linear coordinate transformation, the researchers were able to map the flat surface of the bottom of the tank and determined that space was compressed into two triangular cloaking regions consisting of the engineered metamaterial.

These results show potential to contribute to real-world applications, such as acoustic materials to dampen sound and appear invisible underwater.

###

Penn State University researchers Dean E. Capone, Ph.D., and Benjamen S. Beck, Ph.D., along with Hanford's former graduate student Peter Kerrian, Ph.D., also contributed to this project.

4aSA6 "Underwater acoustic ground cloak development and demonstration," by Peter Kerrian, Amanda Hanford, Benjamin Beck and Dean Capone, is at 10:45 a.m. CDT, May 10, 2018, in room Greenway C at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis.

MORE MEETING INFORMATION

The 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America

The meeting is being held May 7-11, 2018, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

USEFUL LINKS

Main meeting website: http://acousticalsociety.org/asa-meetings/

Technical program: http://acousticalsociety.org/program-of-175th-meeting-of-the-acoustical-society-of-america/

Meeting/Hotel site: http://acousticalsociety.org/asa-meetings/

Press Room: http://acoustics.org/world-wide-press-room/

WORLD WIDE PRESS ROOM

In the coming weeks, ASA's Worldwide Press Room will be updated with additional tips on dozens of newsworthy stories and with lay language papers, which are 300- to 500-word summaries of presentations written by scientists for a general audience and accompanied by photos, audio and video. You can visit the site during the meeting at http://acoustics.org/current-meeting/.

PRESS REGISTRATION

We will grant free registration to credentialed journalists and professional freelance journalists. If you are a reporter and would like to attend, contact Emilie Lorditch (elorditc@aip.org, 301-209-3029), who can also help with setting up interviews and obtaining images, sound clips or background information.

LIVE MEDIA WEBCAST

A press briefing featuring a selection of newsworthy research will be webcast live from the conference on Tuesday, May 8, 2018; register at http://aipwebcasting.com/webcast/registration/518asa.php to watch online. Topics and times to be announced.

ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world's leading journal on acoustics), Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. For more information about ASA, visit our website at http://www.acousticalsociety.org.The British Medical Association recently proposed guidance to cap the number of patients a GP sees each day to prevent unsafe working levels, but should this be recommended? Experts debate the issue in The BMJ today.

Limits to workload could protect GPs and patients in a system that has become dangerous, says Laurence Buckman, a GP partner in London.

10 minute consultations are too short for the amount of work patients' needs require and the pressure to perform better and longer for more patients is now dangerous for both doctors and patients, he explains.

Genuine emergencies should not be limited, but most so called emergencies are for minor ailments or simple queries and none of these justify working into the evening. He adds: "Every problem is important to every patient, and we should recognise that, but we cannot keep giving until we might make a potentially serious error or become ill ourselves through overwork".

He points out that many GPs start out with a 'fixed number' of appointments - 18 consultations in each half day. "But we also have a policy to turn away nobody who says he or she is in need. We cope with this load" he says.

"The time has come when the public has to be told that it is unsafe for them to be seen when the GP is not thinking optimally, and that a tired GP risks harming patient - and doctor" he concludes.

But Michael Griffiths, a GP partner in South Wales, says caps inhibit professionalism and might themselves cause harm.

He points out that successive governments and management regimes have gradually transferred more work, until the [medical] profession feels overwhelmed by the excessive workload and patient safety is compromised.

"[Capping appointments] is the wrong way, because it limits our flexibility and professionalism when dealing with patients, but mainly because it does not address the question of bringing additional resources into primary care to manage work that we could undertake if properly funded.

"A cap may be a useful negotiating tool, but it should never become an end in itself. What is needed is a greater proportion of NHS resource coming to primary care to allow us to properly administer our practices, allowing the right professional enough time to devote to each patient," he concludes.

In a linked patient commentary, Jennifer Skillen, a frequent primary care patient, acknowledges that sometimes only a face to face appointment with a GP is suitable.

"A fifth of patients are already having to wait more than two weeks for an appointment, which is too long. Introducing caps to the number of daily consultations would likely make this unsafe situation worse.

"What the NHS needs is fundamental system change. We must look beyond short-term tweaks and develop long term strategies in the NHS that support GPs to support patients," she concludes.

###Washington DC - A new study from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), with collaborators from Johns Hopkins University and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, found that infections caused by one of the most common drug resistant bacteria in the US--methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, known as MRSA--are no more expensive to treat than MSSA, the methicillin-susceptible version of the same bacteria. These findings, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, are contrary to earlier studies that have found that MRSA was much more expensive to treat than MSSA.

The researchers used national hospitalization data to analyze the costs of treating patients diagnosed with S. aureus infections from 2010 through 2014. Costs were assessed in aggregate and by three infection types: S. aureus blood stream infections, S. aureus pneumonia infections, and other S. aureus infections, primarily skin and soft tissue infections. Surprisingly, MSSA infections were found to be costlier than MRSA infections across all infection types. However, after controlling for differences in the patient populations infected with MRSA and MSSA, only skin and soft tissue MSSA infections were estimated to be costlier - while for other infection sites the costs were similar.

"Contrary to historical studies at the hospital-level, which suggested that MRSA infections were significantly more expensive that MSSA infections, nationally we found that MRSA-related hospitalization costs were approximately the same as or less expensive than hospitalizations with MSSA infections," according to the study's lead author Dr. Eili Klein, Research Fellow at CDDEP. However, researchers noted that patients with MRSA infections had a greater likelihood of mortality than patients with MSSA.

One potential reason for the convergence in costs of treating MSSA and MRSA is the emergence and spread of community-associated strains of MRSA. These strains, which are genetically distinct from hospital-associated strains and have different infection patterns and antibiotic susceptibilities, surged in the early 2000s. This may have led physicians to empirically treat all potential S. aureus infections as if they were MRSA, which may have improved outcomes and costs for treating infected MRSA patients while increasing costs for treatment of MSSA patients.

The study was unable to determine if the change was a function of improved diagnostic tests, better empiric prescribing, or changes in hospital infection control. "Changes in the health insurance system may have also affected hospital care and treatment costs," continued Dr. Klein. "Further research is needed to better understand the underlying reasons for the change and the implications of this research for the broader crisis of antibiotic resistance."

###

About the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy

The Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) produces independent, multidisciplinary research to advance the health and wellbeing of human populations around the world. CDDEP projects are global in scope, spanning Africa, Asia, and North America and include scientific studies and policy engagement. The CDDEP team is experienced in addressing country-specific and regional issues, as well as the local and global aspects of global challenges, such as antibiotic resistance and pandemic influenza. CDDEP research is notable for innovative approaches to design and analysis, which are shared widely through publications, presentations and web-based programs. CDDEP has offices in Washington, D.C. and New Delhi and relies on a distinguished team of scientists, public health experts and economists.Researchers at the Centre for Quantum Technologies in Singapore propose that lutetium clocks could outperform today's timekeepers

Like watchmakers choosing superior materials to build a fine timepiece, physicists at the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at the National University of Singapore have singled out an atom that could allow us to build better atomic clocks.

The CQT team report in Nature Communications that a previously neglected element - lutetium - could improve on today's best clocks. Lutetium (Lu) is a rare earth element with atomic number 71.

"The ultimate performance of a clock comes down to the properties of the atom - how insensitive the atom is to its environment. I would call lutetium top in its class," says Murray Barrett, who led the research.

Barrett is so confident because data in the team's paper, published 25 April, show Lu to have lower sensitivity to temperature than atoms used in clocks today. These measurements add to earlier results showing lutetium could make a high-performance clock.

Atomic clocks have set the global standard for measuring time for over half a century. But since the second was defined with reference to caesium atoms in the 1960s, there has been world-wide competition to improve the accuracy and stability of atomic clocks.

Time signals from caesium clocks still support the Global Positioning System and help to synchronise transport and communication networks, but atoms of many other species, such as ytterbium, aluminium and strontium, now vie to make the most precise measurements of time.

These new generation clocks, with uncertainties around one part in a billion billion, are proving their mettle in testing fundamental physics - from measurements of gravity to looking for drifts in fundamental constants.

The 'tick' of an atomic clock comes not directly from the atom, but from the oscillation of a light wave. The oscillation frequency is fixed by locking it to resonant frequency of the atom.

In practice, this means a laser is tuned to make one of atom's electrons leap from a low energy level to a higher energy level. How much energy this jump takes is a fixed property of the atom. The laser's frequency is matched to deliver just the right amount of energy in a single light particle (a photon).

Once this sweet spot is found, the clock counts time by measuring the oscillations of the light wave.

Caesium clocks run at microwave frequency - or exactly 9,192,631,770 ticks per second. The most recent generation of atomic clocks run at optical frequencies, which tick some ten thousand times faster. Counting time in smaller increments allows for more precise measurement.

Lutetium will also run at optical frequencies, but there's more to making good clocks than a quick tick: that tick also needs to be stable over time. This is where lutetium may shine.

One source of inaccuracy in the clock frequency is sensitivity to the temperature of the environment surrounding the atom. Barrett and his colleagues have just measured the strength of this 'blackbody radiation shift' for clock transitions in lutetium.

The six-month effort, involving a high-power laser like those used for industrial cutting, gave a result for the blackbody radiation shift for one energy level transition that is closer to zero than for any established optical atomic clock.

"We have definitively shown that Lu is the least sensitive to temperature of all established atomic clocks," says first author Kyle Arnold. That will not only help to make a lab-based clock more accurate, but also make clocks that come out of the labs more practical, allowing them to operate in a wider range of environments.

In earlier papers, the team have reported other properties of lutetium relevant to building clocks, finding they can compete with today's best clock atoms. "If you can build a good really ytterbium clock, you will inevitably build a better lutetium clock, or at least it will be an easier job for you to build a lutetium clock that's just as good," says Barrett.

For now, the researchers are working towards building clocks with single ions, but ultimately they'd like to make clocks based on lattices or networks of many ions. They begin with lutetium in bulk form - as a silvery-white metal foil - before boiling a few atoms off into their apparatus.

The team don't know of any other groups working with lutetium. One reason lutetium was untried is that it needed a new technique, discovered by Barrett and his collaborators, to cancel certain sources of inaccuracy in the clock. This 'hyperfine averaging technique' is described in earlier papers. "I don't see it as anyway being an overly technical, difficult thing to do, but I think people are waiting to see how this works out," says Barrett.

###

Reference:

"Blackbody radiation shift assessment for a lutetium ion clock" Nature Communications 9, 1650 (2018) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04079-x

Researcher contacts:

Murray Barrett

Principal Investigator and Associate Professor, Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore

phybmd@nus.edu.sg

+65 6516 2983

Kyle Arnold

Research Fellow, Centre for Quantum Technologies at the National University of Singapore

cqtkja@nus.edu.sg

+65 6516 8451

Acknowledgements:

This research is supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister's Office, Singapore and the Ministry of Education, Singapore under the Research Centres of Excellence programme. It is also supported by A*STAR SERC 2015 Public Sector Research Funding (PSF) Grant (SERC Project No: 1521200080). Tan Ting Rei acknowledges support from the Lee Kuan Yew Postdoctoral Fellowship.Today's baleen whales (Mysticetes) support their massive bodies by filtering huge volumes of small prey from seawater using comb-like baleen in their mouths much like a sieve. But new evidence reported in the journal Current Biology on May 10 based on careful analysis of a 34-million-year-old whale skull from Antarctica--the second-oldest "baleen" whale ever found--suggests that early whales actually didn't have baleen at all. Their mouths were equipped instead with well-developed gums and teeth, which they apparently used to bite large prey.

"Llanocetus denticrenatus is an ancient relative of our modern gentle giants, like humpback and blue whales," says Felix Marx of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. "Unlike them, however, it had teeth, and probably was a formidable predator."

"Until recently, it was thought that filter feeding first emerged when whales still had teeth," adds R. Ewan Fordyce at the University of Otago in New Zealand. "Llanocetus shows that this was not the case."

Like modern whales, Llanocetus had distinctive grooves on the roof of its mouth, the researchers explain, which usually contain blood vessels that supply the baleen. In Llanocetus, however, those grooves cluster around tooth sockets, where baleen would have been useless and at risk of being crushed.

"Instead of a filter, it seems that Llanocetus simply had large gums and, judging from the way its teeth are worn, mainly fed by biting large prey," Marx says. "Even so, it was huge: at a total body length of around 8 meters, it rivals some living whales in size."

The findings suggest that large gums in whales like Llanocetus gradually became more complex over evolutionary time and, ultimately, gave rise to baleen. That transition probably happened only after the teeth had already been lost and whales had switched from biting to sucking in small prey--as many whales and dolphins now do. Marx and Fordyce suggest that baleen most likely arose as a way to keep such small prey inside the mouth more effectively.

Soft tissues, including baleen, normally rot away, making it difficult to study their evolution. As a result, researchers must rely on indicators preserved on the bones, such as tell-tale grooves or lumps indicating the position of a muscle, or holes for the passage of particular blood vessels and nerves.

"Llanocetus presents a lucky combination, where the shape of the bones, small features suggesting the course of soft tissues, and tooth wear all combine to tell a clear story," Fordyce says. "Crucially, Llanocetus is also extremely old and lived at the very time when Mysticetes first appeared. As such, it provides a rare window into the earliest phase of their evolution."

In the new study, Fordyce and Marx found that the broad rostrum of Llanocetus had sharp, widely spaced teeth with marked tooth wear suggesting that they were used to bite and shear prey. As in living Mysticetes, the palate bears many grooves, which have commonly been interpreted as evidence for baleen. However, the researchers showed that those grooves instead converged on the bony tooth sockets, suggesting a peri-dental blood supply to well-developed gums, rather than racks of baleen.

The findings show that the evolution of filter feeding wasn't as straightforward as previously thought, the researchers say. They'd now like to sort out when filter feeding and baleen first evolved.

"The giants of our modern ocean may be gentle, but their ancestors were anything but," Marx says. "Llanocetus was both large and a ferocious predator and probably had little in common with how modern whales behave."

###

This research was supported by a Marie Skodowska-Curie Global Postdoctoral fellowship, the US NSF, the Kellogg fund of the National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Institution, and the University of Otago.

Current Biology, Fordyce and Marx: "Gigantism precedes filter feeding in baleen whale evolution" http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)30455-X

Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit: http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.The world's cutting-edge particle accelerators are pushing the extremes in high-brightness beams and ultrashort pulses to explore matter in new ways.

To optimize their performance - and to prepare for next-generation facilities that will push these extremes further - scientists have devised a new tool that can measure how bright these beams are, even for pulses that last only femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second) or attoseconds (quintillionths of a second). Comparing 1 attosecond to 1 second is like comparing 1 second to 31.7 billion years.

This tool can also measure beam sizes to within a few tens of nanometers (billionths of a meter) - without disrupting experiments that rely on these beams.

The new tool, dubbed a "charge density monitor," could also provide more precise measures of fundamental physics in high-energy and high-field beam experiments, and help guide R&D efforts that seek to shrink the size and cost of particle collider and accelerator facilities while ramping up their capabilities.

The research using this proposed diagnostic could also impact disciplines ranging from plasma science to atomic physics, and could lead to new applications and reveal new physics.

At the U.S. Department of Energy's Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator (BELLA) Center, researchers hope to test this tool by measuring particle properties in the aftermath of an intense laser beam drilling through a jet of gas. In doing so, they hope to learn about the electron beam pulse emerging from this interaction.

"BELLA provides an ideal test bed for evaluating the potential of the beam-measuring method at a state-of-the-art advanced accelerator, since we aim at producing the brightest possible ultrashort bursts of electrons with our compact accelerator technology," said Wim Leemans, director of the BELLA Center and the Accelerator Technology & Applied Physics Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

"It would provide a powerful tool for measuring and improving BELLA's beams."

Leemans led the Berkeley Lab team of contributors as part of an international team in a technical study detailing the new method, published in the May 10 issue of the journal Physical Review X.

Roxana Tarkeshian, a researcher at the University of Bern and previously at the Paul Scherrer Institute, served as the lead author of the study and has pursued the new diagnostic method since 2015, with support since 2017 from Thomas Feurer, a professor at the University of Bern and an expert in laser-based technology and space physics.

"Its ultrasensitive measurements at high resolution, and its low cost and compactness are among its assets," Tarkeshian said.

The study details how intense particle beams can barrel through a low-density neutral gas, stripping away electrons from gas atoms through the strong electric fields associated with intense particle beams. An ionized (charged) cloud of matter known as a plasma - containing ions and electrons - forms in the process.

The technique's "unprecedented" resolution for the duration and size of individual pulses for both electron beams and positron beams relates to an effect in which small changes in beam brightness of just a few percent to tens of percent can result in tens to hundreds of times more ions generated in the presence of an electric field, Tarkeshian noted.

The process is similar to what happens when a very intense, focused laser beam or X-ray pulse interacts with a gas and ionizes the atoms. But there are important differences in the physics of this ionization process for beams of light (photons) vs. other types of particle beams.

With beams of light, electrons and ions (charged particles) are produced throughout the beam's footprint, and the plasma-associated electrons have a relatively low velocity and tend to hang around the column of ions until they are pulled away by an external electric field. Ions with positive charges then drift in the opposite direction and can be measured.

For electron (negatively charged) or positron (positively charged) particle beams, the shape of the electric field resembles a doughnut and produces a ring-shaped plasma column, with no ions initially left in the beam path - the hole of the doughnut. These particle beams can supply a powerful kick to electrons, which can leave a ring-shaped column of ions behind. And those ions can be guided away by an electric field to a detector that measures the number of ions, their speed, and their charged state.

The latest study shows that the new measurement tool can also glean more information about the beam itself from this "ion doughnut" under the right operating conditions - with the right density and mix of gases, for example.

The team carried out sophisticated simulations using a Berkeley Lab-refined computer code known as WARP and another code known as VSim. Researchers modeled the interaction of particle and photon beams with gases and the ensuing plasma-related dynamics.

"The simulations allowed us to zoom in space and time - from the centimeter scale down to the submicron size of the beam, and to follow the dynamics and distributions of electrons and ions at different timescales," said Jean-Luc Vay, a senior scientist at Berkeley Lab who contributed to the WARP code and leads the Accelerator Modeling Program in the Lab's ATAP Division.

Vay noted that aspects of the code proved key in the accurate modeling and understanding of differences between the effects of particle beams versus photon beams, and in finding the best way to tune and operate the system.

Once the full diagnostic system is implemented at accelerator systems, simulations will help to reality-check the actual measurements in experiments and help to develop a path for optimizing beam performance.

"Small changes could be resolved very precisely," she said, based on measurements of individual beam pulses.

The proposed technique also opens up the possibility to study charge-induced dynamics in matter, and may provide more insight into timescales of fundamental atomic or molecular processes being studied with attosecond photon pulses, she said, including a property known as quantum tunneling in which a particle can appear to spontaneously "tunnel" through the potential barrier of the atom in defiance of classical physics.

And Tarkeshian points out that the proposed diagnostic could prove useful for existing X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) such as the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray FEL at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the FLASH facility at DESY in Germany, the SwissFEL at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland, among others, and facilities under construction like the LCLS-II at SLAC.

For example, a prototype designed and built by Tarkeshian and a team at PSI has been installed at LCLS with the support and contributions of SLAC scientist Patrick Krejcik, to diagnose the ultrashort, high-energy electron bunches produced by its accelerator.

Tarkeshian noted that other tools have been developed to provide measurements of accelerator and XFEL beam properties, but as the beams' pulses pack more and more intensity and energy into shorter and shorter pulses, new tools will be needed to keep pace with these extreme beams.

She credited some decades-old work on a proposed diagnostic for a test accelerator project at SLAC known as the Final Focus Test Beam, or FFTB, in paving the way for this new design concept.

"In our latest work, we have studied not only the concepts but also have addressed the challenges that this technique may face experimentally," Tarkeshian said.

"It's great to revive this unfinished concept from decades ago with new ideas, and with continued support we can realize its potential," she added. "This is a very open path, and we are just beginning."

Leemans said, "We think that the practical realization of this innovative technique will ultimately be of broad interest to the international high-energy physics and the general accelerator-driven science communities."

###

The work was supported by the DOE Office of Science's Office of High Energy Physics, the European Union's Seventh Framework Program, and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California, Berkeley have combined cutting-edge cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) with computational molecular modeling to produce a near atomic-resolution model of the interaction between microtubules--crucial components of eukaryotic cell ultrastructure--and microtubule-associated proteins called tau.

The model provides insight into how tau stabilizes microtubules, and what makes it dissociate to form tau aggregates, or "tangles," in some neurological diseases--including Alzheimer's disease--generally referred to as tauopathies.

Microtubules play an important role in maintaining cell shape, enabling some forms of locomotion, facilitating intracellular transport, and segregating chromosomes during mitosis. Each microtubule is a hollow cylinder composed of thirteen parallel protofilaments of tubulin protein.

Tau helps keep microtubules stable and organizes them into bundles. Mutations or post-translational modifications, such as hyperphosphorylation, which reduce tau's affinity for microtubules are thought to contribute to the formation of tau tangles.

The team, led by Eva Nogales, a senior faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) Division at Berkeley Lab and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor at UC Berkeley, used cryo-EM to image native full-length adult tau bound to microtubules with an overall resolution of 4.1 A?. They showed that tau attaches longitudinally along the crest of the tubulin filaments, a finding consistent with a previous low-resolution cryo-EM study.

Tau is an intrinsically disordered protein that includes a projection domain, a microtubule-binding region of four imperfect sequence repeats, and a C-terminal domain. Tubulin is a dimer, which means a conjoined pair of closely related polypeptides, in this case -tubulin and -tubulin. The tubulin dimers get strung together (or polymerize) head-to-tail to form the protofilaments that make up microtubules.

"Given extensive literature on its lack of regular structure, we weren't certain that tau would actually form ordered interactions with tubulin," said Elizabeth Kellogg, a postdoctoral researcher in Nogales' lab and co-first author on the paper presenting the work, published May 10 in the journal Science.

To test hypotheses about which tau residues are involved in binding to tubulin, they then created synthetic tau constructs with microtubule-binding regions comprised of four identical repeats and imaged those attached to microtubules as well (overall resolution 3.2 - 3.9 A). Simon Poepsel, a postdoctoral researcher in Nogales' lab, had worked with the amyloid form of tau as a graduate student and was instrumental in purifying and preparing the samples for cryo-EM.

"When we were finally able to see the length of a tau repeat and see that it had a defined structure and binding site, we realized that tau was in fact forming specific interactions with the tubulin surface," Kellogg said. "When we were able to reconcile that with the length of a repeat and the sequence information we had, it was the key we needed to figure out how to improve the reconstructions sufficiently to enable atomic modeling."

The team then turned to Rosetta, a comprehensive suite of computational modeling tools for predicting the three-dimensional atomic structures of macromolecules from amino acid sequence information, based on the conformation with the lowest energy state. The high-resolution cryo-EM maps allowed the team to put constraints on the overall shape of the molecular complex, increasing the fidelity of the model, Nogales explained.

Frank DiMaio, an associate professor in department of biochemistry and the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, contributed his expertise working with the Rosetta platform, particularly the "fit to density" function using cryo-EM data.

Rosetta structure predictions for two different synthetic tau constructs converged on the same solution: a backbone stretch of 27 residues spanning three tubulin monomers. "The identical sequence register and atomic details from two independent maps underscores the robustness of our solution and provides high confidence in the accuracy of our atomic models," Nogales said.

"Our structure shows how tau's main contact with the microtubule surface is at the interface between tubulin subunits, serving as a 'stapler' to promote the association between tubulin subunits and explaining how tau promotes microtubule stability," said Kellogg. "The structure also explains how tau phosphorylation leads to its dissociation from microtubules."

Phosphorylation of the serine at position 262 (universally conserved among tau repeats) has been observed to attenuate microtubule binding and is a marker of Alzheimer's disease. The model shows that phosphorylation at this crucial anchor point would disrupt interaction between tau and the microtubule and thus cause the "staples to fall off". Additional residues that are critical for tau-microtubule binding were identified as well.

###

Other contributors to the study were co-first author Nisreen Hejab, postdoctoral researcher in the Nogales Lab, and Kenneth Downing, a senior scientist in the MBIB Division, who served as Hejab's doctoral supervisor.

This work was funded by National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIHGMS) grants to Nogales via Berkeley Lab and to DiMaio, and by a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Collaborative Research Travel grant to Kellogg. This research made use of the unique resources of the Bay Area Cryo-EM Facility.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.Say goodbye to the slogan diamonds are forever. For industries that use dry lubricant, the up-and-coming phrase is more likely to be broken nanodiamonds are forever.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are combining nanodiamonds with two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide layers and breaking them to create a self-generating, very-low-friction dry lubricant that lasts so long it could almost be confused with forever. The substance could have hundreds of industrial applications and can be used virtually wherever two pieces of metal rub together in dry conditions.

The most commonly used solid lubricants on the market today take the form of graphite paste. We use these lubricants to grease doorknobs and bike chains, among other things.

In 2015, Anirudha Sumant of the Nanoscience and Technology division and his colleagues achieved a breakthrough in solid lubrication technology by demonstrating superlubricity (near-zero friction) at engineering scale for the first time by using graphene combined with nanodiamonds. This approach was revolutionary, and since then his group has continued to further develop the technology.

Most recently, Sumant replaced the graphene in the process with molybdenum disulfide, to see how other 2-D materials would behave. He was expecting the process to resemble the one observed with graphene-nanodiamond lubricant. However, the team was surprised when Diana Berman, the lead author and Argonne post-doctoral fellow, couldn't see nanodiamonds in the material. Instead, she found balls of onion-like carbon.

What was happening? The molybdenum disulfide was breaking up into molybdenum and sulfur and reacting with the nanodiamonds to convert them into onion-like carbon.

We knew that the culprit must be sulfur damaging the nanodiamonds, but for us it actually helps, Sumant said.

The Argonne team, which included Sumant, Diana Berman, Subramanian Sankaranarayanan, Badri Narayanan, Mathew Cherukara, Ali Erdemir and Alexander Zinovev, realized that sulfur diffusion was increasing the strain in the nanodiamonds, subsequently breaking them and converting them into onion-like carbon.

This was a blessing in disguise, said Sankaranarayanan, since their efforts also unlocked another secret of how other 2-D materials will interact with nanodiamonds with the same result.

The friction in this new combination is 10 times lower than that of some nonstick coatings including fluoropolymers, which means less heat and less wear and tear on parts and equipment.

John Harvey, business development executive at Argonne, said he's already had a significant amount of industry interest in the technology, even though Sumant's paper was only recently published in Nature Communications. The study is titled Operando tribochemical formation of onion-like-carbon leads to macroscale superlubricity.

The material the lubricant is used on is going to last longer, and I don't have to worry about liquid residue and throwing out oily rags as part of the clean-up process, Harvey said. We also can use it to make parts that we can't make today, especially with metal stamping.

Onion-like carbon, when formed, consists of several layers of spherical graphitic shells that can be used as a dry lubricant. And the process of sprinkling molybdenum disulfide and nanodiamonds together creates this form of carbon automatically, without any additional chemical application.

It's interesting to see that these carbon balls can sustain high contact pressure and, due to their unique nanostructure, can glide easily, creating the superlubricity, said Ali Erdemir, Argonne Distinguished Fellow and collaborator in this study.

We have now figured out how to generate lubricants during sliding that can last much longer than any other solid lubricants, Sumant said.

While molybdenum disulfide is a bit more expensive than graphene, less is needed in this process.

The amount is so small  a few drops for kilometers of sliding  that cost is not an issue, Sumant said. The dry lubrication method is also much cleaner for use because there are no hazardous chemicals getting thrown away in this process, he added.

Dry lubricants are already common in several industries. However, they are mostly used for thin-film coatings and are prone to catastrophic failure modes. The Argonne-developed superlubricant works very differently from traditional thin-film coatings. The self-generating lubricant readjusts itself continuously, so it lasts longer.

This really represents the next generation of solid lubricant, Sumant said.

The potential applications include bearings and mechanical pump seals in dry applications as well as in wind turbines. The technology could also be used in the computer industry; specifically, in magnetic disc drives.

Argonne already has three patents on the superlubricity technology, with a patent pending on this breakthrough, which will soon be available for licensing.

###

Sumant and Erdemir co-wrote a recent review in ACS Nano on the most current superlubricity technologies and discoveries within the field. This guidepost article may be the first to summarize the current state of global research on superlubricity using two-dimensional materials such as graphene, hexagonal boron nitride and molybdenum disulfide.

The scientists used the Center for Nanoscale Materials and the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, both DOE Office of Science User Facilities, in their work. The DOE Office of Science sponsored the research. Resources from the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, supported by the DOE Office of Science, and the tribological test facilities of Argonne's Energy Systems division also supported the work.

Related Video: Nanodiamonds are forever

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit the Office of Science website.DURHAM, N.C. -- Boy or girl? For those who want to influence their baby's sex, superstition and folk wisdom offer no shortage of advice whose effectiveness is questionable at best -- from what to eat to when to make love. But some animals have a technique backed by scientific proof: In turtles and other reptiles, whether an egg hatches male or female depends on the temperature of its nest.

The phenomenon was first discovered in reptiles more than 50 years ago, but until now the molecular details were a mystery.

In a study published May 11 in the journal Science, researchers say they have finally identified a critical part of the biological "thermometer" that turns a developing turtle male or female.

According to a team at Duke University and Zhejiang Wanli University in China, the explanation lies not in the DNA sequence itself -- the A's, T's, C's and G's -- but in a molecule that affects how genes are expressed without altering the underlying genetic code.

"Temperature-dependent sex determination has been a puzzle for a really long time," said Blanche Capel, a cell biology professor at Duke who led the research. "This is the first functional evidence of a molecular link that connects temperature with sexual development."

Unlike humans and most other mammals, the sex of many turtles, lizards and alligators isn't determined by the chromosomes they inherit, but by ambient temperatures during a sensitive stage of development.

For a common pond and pet turtle called the red-eared slider, for example, eggs incubated at 32 degrees Celsius (nearly 88 Fahrenheit) produce all female hatchlings, while those kept at 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) hatch as males.

In the study, the researchers show that cooler egg incubation temperatures turn up a key gene called Kdm6b in the turtle's immature sex organs, or gonads. This in turn acts as a biological "on" switch, activating other genes that allow testes to develop.

To home in on the critical Kdm6b gene, the researchers took a group of freshly laid turtle eggs, incubated them at either 26 or 32 degrees Celsius, and looked for differences in the way genes were turned on in the turtles' gonads early in development -- before their fate as ovaries or testes has been decided.

In a previous study, researchers examined all the gene readouts, or transcripts, produced in the turtles' gonads over this critical time window.

They found several genes that were turned up or down at one temperature but not the other. But one of the first genes to shift was one called Kdm6b, which became much more active at the cooler incubation temperatures that produce males, and was almost silent at warmer, female-producing temperatures.

In the new study, the team used a technique developed by collaborators at Zhejiang Wanli University to suppress the Kdm6b gene in turtle gonads and see how it affects their sexual development.

Silencing the Kdm6b gene, they found, transforms a growing turtle embryo kept at temperatures that would otherwise produce a male with testes into a baby female with ovaries instead.

Further experiments showed that the protein encoded by the Kdm6b gene in turn interacts with a region of the genome called Dmrt1, which acts as a master switch to turn on testis development.

They found that Kdm6b activates the Dmrt1 master switch by modifying histones, the ball-like proteins that DNA is wrapped around inside the cell nucleus, like thread wound around a spool.

In many species, the tail of histone proteins is decorated with special chemical markers, or methyl tags, that keep genes along the DNA molecule inactive.

Kdm6b gene activity turns on the Dmrt1 master switch by removing these repressive tags and "loosening" the histone tails, which makes the DNA wound around the histones easier to access and read.

"It's like removing the brakes off the male pathway," said co-author Ceri Weber, a PhD candidate in the Capel lab at Duke.

Researchers have found temperature-related shifts in Kdm6b gene activity in other species whose sex depends on incubation temperature, such as alligators and bearded dragons. "This suggests that similar molecular mechanisms may be at work in other reptiles too," Capel said.

The researchers think that Kdm6b and the protein it encodes don't sense heat or changes in temperature inherently, since cooler incubation temperatures increased gene activity in the turtle's future testes but not in other developing organs such as the heart or the liver.

"The next step is to find the temperature-sensing trigger," Weber said. "We're trying to narrow down the possibilities."

###

In addition to Capel and Weber, study authors include Chutian Ge, Jian Ye, Wei Sun, Haiyan Zhang, Yingjie Zhou, Cheng Cai and Guoying Qian.

This research was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (IOS-1256675), and grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31101884), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LY14C190008), the Major Agricultural Project of Ningbo (2017C110012) and the Zhejiang Provincial Project of Selective Breeding of Aquatic New Varieties (2016C02055-4).

Citation: "The Histone Demethylase KDM6B Regulates Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination in a Turtle Species," Ge et al. Science, May 11, 2018. DOI: 10.1126/science.aap8328Chicago, May 10, 2018 - The distance a patient can walk in 6-minutes before a heart operation may be a clue to whether that patient will develop problems with memory, concentration, and attention after the procedure, according to a study published online today in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Broadly speaking, a decline in cognitive performance after surgery is known as postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). With POCD, a patients mental aptitude is weaker after surgery, resulting not only in a greater risk of complications, but also a lesser quality of life. Cognitive deterioration is increasingly recognized as a common occurrence after major surgery, especially among older adult patients.

This study indicates that the easy and inexpensive 6-minute walk distance (6MWD) is a valuable assessment for identifying patients at a high risk for POCD, said Kazuhiro Hayashi, PT, MSc, of Nagoya University Hospital in Japan. If we are able to identify patients who are at risk for POCD, we can provide early treatment and encourage them to better understand the dysfunction.

For this study, Hayashi and colleagues identified 181 patients who were undergoing non-emergency heart surgery between March 2014 and August 2015 at Nagoya University Hospital. The mean age of the patients was 71.4 years.

Patients performed the 6MWD test upon admission for their operations. Functional exercise capacity was measured by having patients walk the length of a predetermined course at their own pace while attempting to cover as much ground as possible in 6 minutes. The distance covered in that duration was measured to the nearest meter. According to the results of this study, a low 6MWD was an associated risk factor for POCD after cardiac surgery. In fact, the lower the 6MWD was, the more significant the reduction in cognitive function postoperatively was. Of the study participants, 51 (28 percent) developed POCD.

It is increasingly recognized that a patients fitness level has an impact on how well he/she does after a surgical procedure, said Rakesh C. Arora, MD, PhD, of St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, Canada, who was not involved with this research. This study further highlights the need for the health care team to undertake a more detailed assessment of patients physical fitness before the operation. The 6MWD is an important component of this evaluation.

According to Dr. Arora, the identification of patients at risk for POCD and other cognitive disorders should alert the health care team to consider modifying anesthetic and medication choices during-and-after the operations, as well as assist with discharge planning as patients transition to home. In addition, the health care team should consider strategies, such as prehabilitation, to optimize the patients fitness before their operations. Dr. Arora explained that prehabilitation includes a combination of exercise training, education, and social support intended to improve patients physical and psychological readiness for surgery.

Prehabilitation may be of benefit to patients with poor physical fitness by improving postoperative recovery and post-discharge functional survival, said Dr. Arora. Patient self-management and follow-through are essential, however, as is the patients understanding of their health issues and their proposed plan of care.

Dr. Hayashi agrees that a multidisciplinary approach, which includes elements such as prehabilitation, is key to a better assessment and treatment outcome. Precise preoperative risk assessment for postoperative complications is critical, and when indicated, supervised exercise before an operation should be recommended to improve functional exercise capacity before heart surgery, he said.

###

Notes for editors

The article is "Preoperative 6-Minute Walk Distance Is Associated With Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction," by Hayashi K, Oshima H, Shimizu M, Kobayashi K, Matsui S, Nishida Y, and Usui A. It appears in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, published by Elsevier.

Find comprehensive medical information presented for patients by leading experts in cardiothoracic surgery on the STS Patient Website . Copies of this paper are available to credentialed journalists upon request; please contact Jennifer Bagley at jbagley@sts.org or +1 312 202 5865.

About The Annals of Thoracic Surgery

Founded in 1964, The Society of Thoracic Surgeons is a not-for-profit organization representing more than 7,300 cardiothoracic surgeons, researchers, and allied health care professionals worldwide who are dedicated to ensuring the best possible outcomes for surgeries of the heart, lung, and esophagus, as well as other surgical procedures within the chest. The Societys mission is to enhance the ability of cardiothoracic surgeons to provide the highest quality patient care through education, research, and advocacy.

The Annals of Thoracic Surgery is the official journal of STS and the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association. It has an impact factor of 3.700. http://www.annalsthoracicsurgery.org

About Elsevier Elsevier is a global information analytics business that helps institutions and professionals advance healthcare, open science and improve performance for the benefit of humanity. Elsevier provides digital solutions and tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support and professional education, including ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey and Sherpath. Elsevier publishes over 2,500 digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell, more than 38,000 e-book titles and many iconic reference works, including Gray's Anatomy. Elsevier is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professionals and business customers across industries. http://www.elsevier.com

Media contact

Jennifer Bagley

Southern Thoracic Surgical Association

+1 312 202 5865

jbagley@sts.org.Study shows for first time that a free, online course can change students' mindsets towards their mathematical abilities, leading to increased academic achievement

A free 'massive, open, online course' (MOOC) designed to change students' attitudes towards mathematics makes them more engaged in class -- leading to significantly higher test scores. Published in open-access journal Frontiers in Education, these findings go against the discouraging results of previous studies. It is the first of its kind to show the impact of an online course in changing students' mindsets and beliefs about mathematics and their achievement, with the potential for more widespread dissemination.

From an early age, children are exposed to the belief that people fall into two categories: 'math people' -- those who naturally have a way with numbers -- and non 'math people' -- those born without a predisposition to become the next Albert Einstein.

Professor Jo Boaler, professor of mathematics education at Stanford University and lead author of the study, believes this way of thinking has a damaging impact on children throughout their school experience.

"There is a connection between students' mindsets and their learning outcomes," says Boaler. "When they struggle in class, they think this means they do not have a math brain and they give up."

With the aim to change students' perceptions about math and their own mathematics potential, Boaler and her team conducted the study with more than 1,000 students across four schools in California, USA. Over several months, these students participated in a free math MOOC designed to change their ideas about learning mathematics and their own potential. Some of the key ideas covered in the course were that mathematics is all around us in life, everyone can learn math to high levels, and that drawing and talking are good strategies for learning math.

"Many students hold damaging 'fixed mindsets,' believing their intelligence in unchangeable," explains Boaler. "But when there is a shift to a 'growth mindset' and they believe their intelligence can be altered, their attitude to math changes -- and their achievement increases."

Once the students completed the online course, the results of the study showed just that.

"The online course changed students' ideas about mathematics and their futures in the subject. This is the first online class that has had such an impact," says Boaler. "It led to students feeling more positive about math, more engaged during math class, and scoring significantly higher in mathematics assessments."

So, what made this study so much more successful than previous MOOC studies?

Boaler believes it was their innovative approach to the online course which led to such impressive results. "Our study centered on changing these ideas and teaching students how to learn mathematics well -- specifically targeting student's beliefs about mathematics. The course was also designed and taught by educators so that students would be actively involved, not just watch videos."

"The US and many other countries have widespread mathematics underachievement and anxiety, which threatens the development of science and technology. I really hope that the impact this online class had on students' mindsets and achievement shows the importance of the class itself, but also of changing students' attitudes towards mathematics," Boaler concludes.

###A deadly fungus responsible for the devastation of amphibian populations around the world may have originated in East Asia, new research has found.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), known as chytrid fungus, has long been identified as a cause of the decline and extinction of species of frogs, toads, newts and other amphibians across several continents.

Chytrid is distributed around the world but to date it has remained unclear where killer strains of the pathogen first emerged.

Now, new research published in the journal Science and led by researchers at Imperial College London alongside partners including ZSL (Zoological Society of London), suggests the killer fungus currently ravaging global amphibian populations originated in East Asia.

The researchers highlight the need to tighten biosecurity across borders, including a potential ban on trade in amphibians as pets to ensure the survival of vulnerable species.

Dr Simon O'Hanlon, from the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial and first author of the paper, said: "Biologists have known since the 1990s that Bd was behind the decline of many amphibian species, but until now we haven't been able to identify exactly where it came from."

"In our paper, we solve this problem and show that the lineage which has caused such devastation can be traced back to East Asia."

Chytrid is passed from animal to animal and spreads rapidly in the wild, causing catastrophic mortality and declines in some species, while others are less affected.

The fungus causes a disease called chytridiomycosis, which attacks the animal's skin, affecting their ability to regulate water and electrolyte levels and leading to heart failure.

In this latest study, an international team involving 38 institutions gathered samples of the pathogen from around the world. They sequenced the genomes of these samples, combining the data with genomes from previous Bd studies to make a collection of 234 samples.

Researchers analysed the data, looking at differences between the genomes. From the samples, they identified four main genetic lineages of the fungus, three of which are distributed globally. A fourth lineage was found only in Korea, on frogs native to the region.

Cultures from this Korean lineage were found to contain much more genetic diversity than any other lineage. Deeper analysis of the Korean Bd showed no history of global outbreaks within their genomes suggesting the Korean chytrid strains were native to the region, and most closely resemble the ancestor of all modern Bd.

Using the genetic data, the team estimated when the killer strain of Bd currently plaguing amphibians diverged from its most recent common ancestor. Their findings support the idea that rather than dating back thousands of years, as previously thought, the range of the disease expanded greatly between 50 and 120 years ago, coinciding with the rapid global expansion of intercontinental trade. The team's finding Asian strains of Bd in pet Oriental fire-bellied toads strongly supported this idea.

According to the researchers, human movement of amphibians - such as through the pet trade - has directly contributed to spreading the pathogen around the world.

They add that the paper provides strong evidence for a ban on trade in amphibians from Asia, due to the high risk associated with exporting previously unknown strains of chytrid out of this region.

The group also highlights the threat of another amphibian pathogen which has also emerged from Asia (B. salamandrivorans or BSal) affecting salamanders in Europe and whose spread is also linked with the global trade in pet amphibians from Asia.

Professor Matthew Fisher, from the School of Public Health at Imperial, said: "Our research not only points to East Asia as ground zero for this deadly fungal pathogen, but suggests we have only uncovered the tip of the iceberg of chytrid diversity in Asia. Therefore, until the ongoing trade in infected amphibians is halted, we will continue to put our irreplaceable global amphibian biodiversity recklessly at risk."

###

The research was supported by funding from the National Environment Research Council.

Follow the team @ChytridCrisis @fisher_lab http://www.fisherlab.co.uk

1. 'Recent Asian origin of chytrid fungi causing global amphibian declines' by Simon O'Hanlon et al, is published in Science.

2. Imperial College London is one of the world's leading universities. The College's 17,000 students and 8,000 staff are expanding the frontiers of knowledge in science, medicine, engineering and business, and translating their discoveries into benefits for our society.

Imperial is the UK's most international university, according to Times Higher Education, with academic ties to more than 150 countries. Reuters named the College as the UK's most innovative university because of its exceptional entrepreneurial culture and ties to industry.

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/

3. About ZSL: Founded in 1826, ZSL (Zoological Society of London) is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity whose mission is to promote and achieve the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. Our mission is realised through our ground-breaking science, our active conservation projects in more than 50 countries and our two Zoos, ZSL London Zoo and ZSL Whipsnade Zoo. For more information visit http://www.zsl.orgThe ability to artificially grow organs may seem futuristic, but Indiana University School of Medicine researchers are closer to enabling that reality than you may think.

Burcin Ekser, MD, PhD, assistant professor of surgery at IU School of Medicine, and his research team are working to print 3D pig liver tissue from genetically engineered pig liver cells. Then, they use this 3D-printed tissue to develop new research models for xenotransplantation, or cross-species transplantation.

Dr. Ekser, who is director of the school's xenotransplantation research lab, recently secured a four-year, $9 million sponsored research agreement from Lung Biotechnology PBC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Therapeutics Corporation. Lung Biotechnology is a Maryland-based company focused on organ transplantation technologies, including through xenotransplantation.

According to the latest data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, there are more than 110,000 people in the United States waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, and each day, about 20 people die while waiting for a transplant.

"This alliance with Lung Biotechnology will greatly enhance our ability to accomplish our ultimate goal of providing an unlimited supply of organs to save human lives," Dr. Ekser said. "It's my passion because I'm a transplant surgeon; I don't want anyone to die while they're waiting for a transplantable organ."

Anantha Shekhar, MD, PhD, IU School of Medicine's executive associate dean for research affairs, said the collaboration with Lung Biotechnology aligns with the school's goal to work with industry to speed the translation of scientific discoveries to patients.

"We want to make discoveries and conduct research that will help patients as quickly as possible," Dr. Shekhar said. "One of the most effective ways to do this is to collaborate with private industry. Lung Biotechnology and its CEO Dr. Martine Rothblatt are great collaborators for IU School of Medicine to make this happen, and Dr. Ekser is a wonderful example of how our researchers can work within the public and private sectors to be innovative and develop real solutions for patients."

Dr. Ekser said in addition to the industry collaboration, IU School of Medicine also provides a great environment to enable his research.

"IU Health has one of the best clinical transplantation institutes in the nation and IU is home to some of the best transplant and immunology researchers in their fields," Dr. Ekser said. "Together with the university's 3D bioprinting technology, it's a powerful combination for our xenotransplantation research lab."

IU School of Medicine is home to a unique, scaffold-free Cyfuse Regenova 3D bioprinter that is part of the school's 3D Bioprinting Core. IU was one of the first academic institutions in the U.S. to get this bioprinter and is now one of only two academic sites in the country with the technology.

So far, Dr. Ekser and his collaborators, Lester Smith, PhD, manager of the bioprinting core and assistant professor of radiology and imaging sciences at IU School of Medicine, and Ping Li, PhD, assistant research professor of surgery at the school, an expert in genetic engineering and a senior researcher in the xenotransplantation research lab, have for the first time in literature bioprinted genetically engineered pig cells and continuously perfused a scaffold-free 3D bioprinted pig liver model for one week.

The research is important, Dr. Ekser said, because it will allow many different combinations of genetics to be tested quickly and efficiently, thereby improving the probability of developing an organ that patients will not reject. "That's the reason that we do 3D bioprinting in xenotransplantation research," he said. "It saves lives, saves money, saves time, saves effort... and it still gives us the answers we want."

The team also plans to create a library of pig genes and phenotype responses to document and eventually share their findings with the scientific community.

This research is supported by the IUPUI Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, which is a statewide research partnership among IU, Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame.

###BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- While men have benefited from a gender bias against women when seeking financing for business start-ups, the opposite may be true for female entrepreneurs seeking initial investment through crowdfunding efforts, according to research from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business.

Historically, female-led ventures have found it difficult to procure private equity, bank financing and venture capital, often because of psychological stereotypes inferring that business leaders should be masculine. But an article in print at the Journal of Business Venturing reports that gender bias may make crowdfunding investors more likely to invest in new ventures led by women.

"Our results show that on average, crowdfunders think female entrepreneurs are more trustworthy than male entrepreneurs," said Regan Stevenson, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at Kelley. "These judgments increase overall investment in female-led ventures over male-led ventures.

"When a crowdfunder holds high levels of implicit gender bias, the funder is actually more likely to invest in a woman because they perceive the woman as trustworthy," Stevenson said. "This is the opposite effect of what has been demonstrated in prior research in the venture capital setting."

Using three years of data from the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, Stevenson and his colleagues examined investor stereotypes and implicit bias in crowdfunding decisions. Through a study sample of 416 projects, they examined the entrepreneur's gender, the financial backing received and funding success.

They found that women were more likely than men to have their Kickstarter projects funded. To discern why this was the case, the researchers conducted an experiment with 73 amateur investors based in the eastern U.S.

The results from the second half of the study supported the researchers' view that perceptions about trustworthiness facilitate financial backing and that implicit gender bias influenced funders' willingness to fund female entrepreneurs.

This is significant because earlier research has found that female-led firms receive only 1.3 percent of venture capital financing. They are often asked to surrender a greater proportion of ownership when receiving private funding. But in crowdfunding -- where a "crowd" of amateur investors make small investments in new companies -- empirical observations revealed a funding advantage for women.

"Previous research in venture capital setting has advocated that women should downplay feminine characteristics to increase their chances of obtaining funding," Stevenson said. "This advice not only appears to be dogmatic, but our data shows it is simply bad advice for female entrepreneurs when they are obtaining funding through crowdfunding platforms."

The paper also shows that crowdfunding provides a means for building trust with funders, which later may improve women's broader entrepreneurial prospects.

"These findings demonstrate an alternative pathway for women entrepreneurs that may allow them to overcome the negative aspects of gender bias and

###

increase their odds of finding success," Stevenson and his colleagues said. "Because funding is a critical component for early-stage survival, our results should be seen as encouraging."

Other authors of the article, "A Woman's Place is in the ... Startup! Crowdfunder Judgments, Implicit Bias and Stereotype Context Model," are Michael Johnson, an assistant professor of management at Louisiana State University, and Chaim Letwin, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at Suffolk University in Boston.New Rochelle, NY, May 10, 2018-- Researchers at Allina Health (Minneapolis, MN) conducted a large NIH-funded observational study to examine pain treatment outcomes of integrative medicine in hospitalized patients. What they found was that when integrative interventions lowered pain there was an associated cost saving according to a recent article in JACM (The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine). JACM is a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers dedicated to examining paradigm, practice, and policy advancing integrative health. The article is available free on JACM website.

In "Cost Savings from Reducing Pain Through the Delivery of Integrative Medicine Program to Hospitalized Patients," lead investigator Jeffery Dusek, PhD (then with Integrative Health Research Center, Penny George Institute for Health and Healing, Allina Health and now with the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health) and a team that included Michael Finch, PhD and David Watson, PhD (Children's Minnesota Research Institute) examined EPIC-based electronic health record for 2730 hospitalized patients during the study period. Through a methodology that associated reduction in pain with reduction in hospital costs, the researchers determined that pain reductions from integrative medicine interventions were associated with a cost savings approaching $1,000 per hospital admission for those receiving integrative medicine.

"The results indicate that when integrative medicine interventions reduce patients' perception of pain in the acute care setting, there is a corresponding decrease in the total cost of the patients' care," states Jeffery Dusek, PhD, adding: "While the amount of savings are substantial, future studies are needed to optimize the delivery of the integrative medicine interventions in order to maximize the cost savings."

"Credit NIH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health for the investment in this critically important - yet still rare - exploration of cost outcomes from integrative practices," comments JACM Editor-in-Chief John Weeks, johnweeks-integrator.com, Seattle, WA. "The value proposition for these integrative practices - both in cost and patient care - may be even stronger if one considers the potential - not measured here - that the integrative medicine also reduced use of opioids, those limiting attendant societal costs of those agents."

###

Research reported in this publication was supported, in part, by a grant from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) now the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) of the National Institutes of Health to JAD (AT006518).

About the Journal

JACM (The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine) is a monthly peer-reviewed journal published online with open access options and in print that is dedicated to research on paradigm, practice, and policy advancing integrative health. Led by John Weeks (johnweeks-integrator.com), the co-founder and past Executive Director of the Academic Collaborative for Integrative Health, JACM publishes human clinical trials, observational studies, systematic reviews and commentary intended to help healthcare professionals, delivery organization leaders, policy-makers and scientists evaluate and integrate therapies into patient care protocols, payment strategies and appropriate protocols. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the JACM 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 Alternative and Complementary Therapies, Medical Acupuncture, and Journal of Medicinal Food. 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.New research by an international team including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the University of Tubingen, EPFL Lausanne and the University of Zurich has revealed that there was much more diversity in the leprosy strains circulating in Medieval Europe than previously thought. This finding, based on the sequencing of 10 new ancient genomes from the leprosy-causing bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, complicates prior assumptions about the origin and spread of the disease, and also includes the oldest M. leprae genome sequenced to date, from about 400 AD in the United Kingdom.

Leprosy is one of the oldest recorded and most stigmatized diseases in human history. The disease was prevalent in Europe until the 16th century and is still endemic in many countries, with over 200,000 new cases reported annually. The bacterium Mycobacterium leprae is the main cause of leprosy. Previous research on the bacterium suggested that it clusters into several strains, only two of which were present in Medieval Europe. The present study, published in the journal PLOS Pathogens, aimed to further investigate the history and origin of M. leprae by looking for genetic evidence from a large number of ancient samples from throughout Europe.

10 new ancient genomes of M. leprae dating from approximately 400-1400 AD

The current study examined approximately 90 individuals with skeletal deformations that were characteristic of leprosy, from across Europe and from time periods ranging from approximately 400 AD to 1400 AD. From these samples, 10 new medieval M. leprae genomes were fully reconstructed. These genomes represent all known strains, including strains that are today associated with different locations around the globe, including Asia, Africa and the Americas. Additionally, in this study multiple strains were often found in the same cemetery, illustrating the diversity of the leprosy strains circulating throughout the continent at the time.

"We found much more genetic diversity in ancient Europe than expected," explains Johannes Krause, senior author of the study and a director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. "Additionally, we found that all known strains of leprosy are present in Medieval Europe, suggesting that leprosy may already have been widespread throughout Asia and Europe in antiquity or that it might have originated western Eurasia."

Oldest leprosy genome to date

One M. leprae genome reconstructed by the team was from Great Chesterford, England, and dates to between 415-545 AD. This is the oldest M. leprae genome sequenced to date and comes from one of the oldest known cases of leprosy in the United Kingdom. Interestingly, this strain is the same found in modern-day red squirrels and supports the hypothesis that squirrels and the squirrel fur trade were a factor in the spread of leprosy among humans in Europe during the medieval period.

"The dynamics of M. leprae transmission throughout human history are not fully resolved. Characterization and geographic association of the most ancestral strains are crucial for deciphering leprosy's exact origin" states lead author Verena Schuenemann of the University of Zurich. "While we have some written records of leprosy cases that predate the Common Era, none of these have yet been confirmed on a molecular level."

The abundance of ancient genomes in the current study has resulted in a new and older estimate for the age of M. leprae than previous studies, placing its age at least a few thousand years old. "Having more ancient genomes in a dating analysis will result in more accurate estimates," explains Krause. "The next step is to search for even older osteological cases of leprosy than currently available, using well-established methods for identification of potential cases."

###An international team of scientists led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the University of Kiel has successfully reconstructed genomes from Stone Age and Medieval European strains of the hepatitis B virus. This unprecedented recovery of ancient virus DNA indicates that hepatitis B was circulating in Europe at least 7000 years ago. While the ancient virus is similar to its modern counterparts, the strains represent a distinct lineage that has likely gone extinct and is most closely related to chimpanzee and gorilla viruses.

The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is one of the most widespread human pathogens known today, affecting over 250 million people worldwide. However, its origin and evolutionary history remain unclear. Studying the evolution and history of the virus has to date been especially difficult, because until now viral DNA had not been successfully recovered from prehistoric samples. In the present study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal eLife and is due to be published on May 10, 2018, an international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology at Kiel University, not only recovered ancient viral DNA from skeletons but also reconstructed the genomes of three strains of HBV.

The ancient history of hepatitis B

For this study, the researchers analyzed samples from the teeth of 53 skeletons excavated from Neolithic and medieval sites in Germany. The remains dated from around 5000 BC to 1200 AD. The researchers screened all samples for viral pathogens and detected ancient HBV in three of the individuals. Full HBV genomes were recovered from these samples, two of which were from the Neolithic period, dating to about 7000 and 5000 years ago, and one from the medieval period. The Neolithic genomes represent the by far oldest virus genomes reconstructed to date.

Interestingly, the ancient virus genomes appear to represent distinct lineages that have no close relatives today and possibly went extinct. The two Neolithic genomes, although recovered from individuals that lived 2000 years apart, were relatively similar to each other in comparison with modern strains, and were in fact more closely related to modern strains of HBV found in Chimpanzees and Gorillas. In contrast, the medieval HBV genome is more similar to modern strains, but still represents a separate lineage. This is the case even when it is compared to two previously published HBV genomes recovered from mummies dating to the 16th century. The HBV strains found in these mummies are closely related to modern strains, suggesting a surprising lack of change in the virus over the last 500 years. These findings point to a complicated history for the virus, which may have involved multiple cross-species transmission events.

Long and complicated evolution of one of today's most common viruses

"Taken together, our results demonstrate that HBV already existed in Europeans 7000 years ago and that its genomic structure closely resembled that of modern hepatitis B viruses, despite the differences observed," explains first author Ben Krause-Kyora, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and Kiel University. "More ancient precursors, intermediates and modern strains of both human and non-human primate HBV strains need to be sequenced to disentangle the complex evolution of this virus," he adds.

New tool for studying the evolution of blood-borne viruses

Johannes Krause, senior author and director of the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, emphasizes the most important implication of the study. "Our results reveal the great potential of ancient DNA from human skeletons to allow us to study the evolution of blood-borne viruses. Previously, there was doubt as to whether we would ever be able to study these diseases directly in the past," he explains. "We now have a powerful tool to explore the deep evolutionary history of viral diseases."

###An ultra-dark coating comprised of nearly invisible shag rug-like strands made of pure carbon is proving to be highly versatile for all types of spaceflight applications.

In the most recent application of the carbon-nanotube coating, optical engineer John Hagopian, a contractor at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Goddard scientist Lucy Lim are growing an array of miniscule, button-shaped bumps of multi-walled nanotubes on a silicon wafer.

The dots, which measure only 100 microns in diameter -- roughly the size of a human hair -- would serve as the "ammunition" source for a mini-electron probe. This type of instrument analyzes the chemical properties of rocks and soil on airless bodies, like the Moon or an asteroid.

Although the probe is still early in its technology development, it's showing promise, said Lim, who is using funding from NASA's Planetary Instrument Concepts for the Advancement of Solar System Observations Program, better known as PICASSO, to advance the concept.

The Nanotech-Sized Electron Gun

Key to Lim's instrument, of course, are the carbon nanotubes, which are excellent electron emitters. Discovered in 1991, these structures also exhibit an array of useful electronic, magnetic and mechanical properties.

To create these highly versatile structures, technicians place a silicon wafer or some other substrate inside a furnace. As the oven heats, they bathe the substrate with a carbon feedstock gas to produce the thin coating of nearly invisible hair-like structures.

For the electron emitter, Hagopian and Lim are using this technique to grow tiny, circular dots of carbon nanotubes in a grid pattern that Goddard's detector branch fashioned using photolithography. Positioned above and below the lattice of dots are silicon wires or traces and a grid that produce two different voltages. These voltages create an electrical field that activates the release of electrons contained within the carbon-nanotube bumps or forests.

Under Lim's instrument concept, the electron beams would then pass through a stack of electrostatic lenses to accelerate their speed and help focus them on an extraterrestrial target. When the electrons hit the sample, the bombardment would excite the elements contained within the sample, producing X-rays that a spectrometer would then analyze to identify the sample's chemical make-up.

Significant Improvements Expected

Although NASA has flown other instruments that analyze samples using X-rays, Lim's concept and her use of carbon nanotubes could offer significant improvements.

What's different about her carbon nanotube-based electron field emitter is its small size and the fact that it's fully addressable. "We would be able to choose which bump to activate," Lim said. "We would be able to analyze different spots on the sample individually."

In contrast, if the instrument had only one electron source, it could only analyze one portion of the sample, Lim said. "We want to obtain compositional maps," she added. "Without the addressable emitter, we might not discover all the minerals contained within a sample, how big they are, or their relationship to each other."

In testing, Lim has demonstrated that the bumps emit enough electrons to excite a sample. Furthermore, Hagopian, who flew a couple coating samples on the International Space Station in 2014, has proven the technology can survive an excursion into outer space.

The team, which also includes Larry Hess with Goddard's Detector Branch, is closing in on the technical challenges and knows the nanotechnology works as envisioned. However, obstacles remain, said Hagopian, the founder of the Lanham, Maryland-based Advanced Nanophotonics. Packaging the nanotube-based grid into a tiny package and then hooking it up to the instrument's electronics "is difficult," Hagopian said. However, the team believes it can demonstrate the nanotube-based electron probe within a couple years under the NASA-funded research effort.

Straylight Suppression

In a completely different application and one that perhaps is better known, Hagopian is developing coatings to absorb straylight that can ricochet off instrument components and ultimately contaminate measurements.

In testing, carbon-nanotube coatings have proven highly effective at absorbing 99.8 percent of the light that strikes them and is the reason why they appear very black. When light penetrates the nanotube forest, tiny gaps between the tubes prevent the light from bouncing. However, these gaps don't absorb the light. The light's electric field excites electrons in the carbon nanotubes, turning light to heat and effectively absorbing it, Hagopian said.

For researchers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, Hagopian is growing intricately patterned nanotubes onto a component that changes the pattern of light that has diffracted off the edges of telescope structures using coronagraphic masks, which block starlight, Hagopian said. NASA's Small Business Innovative Research program has funded the effort.

He also is collaborating with Principal Investigator Antonio Mannino to create a coating that would prevent straylight from contaminating measurements gathered by a new instrument called the Coastal Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics Imager, or COEDI. This hyperspectral spectrometer is being designed to monitor ocean color from geostationary orbit -- measurements that scientists and others could use to assess and manage coastal resources.

"I started working with John [Hagopian] two years ago when I discovered in testing that straylight was going to be a problem with COEDI," said Mannino, who is developing his instrument also with NASA R&D funding. "We asked him to help us with the problem. I think he's close to solving it."

###WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- A solid can serve as a medium for heat and sound wave interactions just like a fluid does for thermoacoustic engines and refrigerators - resulting in leak-free machines that can stay operating longer.

Leaky systems have limited how engineers design thermoacoustic devices that rely on the interplay between temperature oscillations and sound waves. Researchers at Purdue and the University of Notre Dame have demonstrated for the first time that thermoacoustics could theoretically occur in solids as well as fluids, recently presenting their findings at the 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.

"Although still in its infancy, this technology could be particularly effective in harsh environments, such as outer space, where strong temperature variations are freely available and when system failures would endanger the overall mission," said Fabio Semperlotti, Purdue assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

Thermoacoustics has been an established and well-studied phenomenon in fluids - whether as a gas or liquid - for centuries. "Applying heat to a fluid enclosed in a duct or cavity will cause the spontaneous generation of sound waves propagating in the fluid itself," said Carlo Scalo, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue. "This results in so-called singing pipes, or thermoacoustics machines."

While fluids have been historically used for these systems, the extra step of building something to contain the fluids and prevent leaks is cumbersome. This led the researchers to consider solids as a replacement.

"Properties of solids are more controllable, which could make them potentially better suited to these applications than fluids. We needed to first verify that this phenomenon could theoretically exist in solid media," said Haitian Hao, Purdue graduate research assistant in mechanical engineering.

Thermoacoustics enables either waste heat or mechanical vibrations to be converted into other useful forms of energy. For refrigerators, sound waves generate a temperature gradient of hot and cold. The vibrating motion makes cold areas colder and hot areas hotter.

Engines use an opposite process: a temperature gradient provided by waste heat leads to mechanical vibrations.

Solid state thermoacoustics initially seemed unlikely, since solids are somewhat more "stable" than fluids and tend to dissipate mechanical energy more readily, making it harder for heat to generate sound waves.

The researchers developed a theoretical model demonstrating that a thin metal rod can exhibit self-sustained mechanical vibrations if a temperature gradient is periodically applied to segments of the rod. This balanced unwanted mechanical energy dissipation and showed that, like fluids, solids contract when they cool down and expand when they heat up. If the solid contracts less when cooled and expands more when heated, the resulting motion will increase over time.

Solids can also be engineered to achieve the needed properties for achieving high thermoacoustics performance. "Fluids do not allow us to do this," Semperlotti said.

Extreme temperature differences in space would be perfect for generating mechanical vibrations that are then converted to electrical energy on spacecraft.

"A solid state device would use the sun as its heat source and radiation towards deep space as its cold source," Semperlotti said. "These systems could operate indefinitely, given that they do not have any part in motion or fluid that could leak out."

Researchers still need to complete an experimental setup to validate this design idea and better understand the thermoacoustics of solids as discovered through mathematical calculations and modeling.

"Possible applications and performance of these devices are still in the realm of pure speculation at this point," Semperlotti said. "But the phenomenon exists and it has the potential to open some remarkable directions for the design of thermoacoustic devices."

###

ABSTRACT

Thermoacoustics of solids: A pathway to solid state engines and refrigerators

Haitian Hao1, Carlo Scalo1, Mihir Sen2, Fabio Semperlotti1

1Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

2University of Notre Dame, IN, USA

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5006489

Thermoacoustic oscillations have been one of the most exciting discoveries of the physics of fluids in the 19th century. Since its inception, scientists have formulated a comprehensive theoretical explanation of the basic phenomenon which has later found several practical applications to engineering devices. To date, all studies have concentrated on the thermoacoustics of fluid media where this fascinating mechanism was exclusively believed to exist. Our study shows theoretical and numerical evidence of the existence of thermoacoustic instabilities in solid media. Although the underlying physical mechanism exhibits some interesting similarities with its counterpart in fluids, the theoretical framework highlights relevant differences that have important implications on the ability to trigger and sustain the thermoacoustic response. This mechanism could pave the way to the development of highly robust and reliable solid-state thermoacoustic engines and refrigerators.So-called purple voting districts that change hands between Republicans and Democrats -- rather than reliably conservative and liberal districts -- are an underappreciated source of rising political polarization in state legislatures, according to a study led by a Princeton University researcher.

As judged by the views of the median voter, such districts may appear to be politically moderate, but that isn't true, the researchers found. Instead, voters in these districts tend to be highly polarized themselves, with relatively few moderate voters in the middle, explained Nolan McCarty, chair of Princeton's Department of Politics and lead author of the study, which appears in the journal Political Science Research and Methods.

Rather than hew to the center, Republicans and Democrats who represent purple districts tend to take more extreme positions, as measured by their roll-call votes, than do their counterparts in reliably red and blue districts.

"Our finding calls into question the notion that reformers can reverse legislative polarization by replacing politically homogeneous districts with more competitive, ideologically diverse districts," said McCarty, Princeton's Susan Dod Brown Professor of Politics and Public Affairs.

Most research on partisan polarization has focused on the U.S. Congress. That body has grown dramatically more polarized in recent decades, but the electorate has remained decidedly more centrist, creating a puzzle for researchers: If voters' preferences aren't driving legislative polarization, then what is? Scholars have generally seen the answer in institutional factors, like primaries and redistricting, McCarty said.

Rather than look at the U.S. Congress, he and his colleagues analyzed state legislatures, which also have grown more polarized. The research team included Jonathan Rodden of Stanford University, Boris Shor of the University of Houston, Chris Tausanovitch of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Christopher Warshaw of George Washington University.

The team examined voter preferences and legislators' roll-call votes in state senate districts. The focus on state senates allowed them to trace the roll-call voting patterns of thousands of state senators, rather than just 435 U.S. representatives or 100 senators. At the same time, compared to smaller districts for state House seats, state senate districts are large enough to produce reliable samples of voter preferences.

It turns out that Republicans and Democrats represent purple districts very differently, taking more extreme positions in the legislature, on average, than their party colleagues from more ideologically homogeneous districts. And states with the highest proportion of polarized purple districts, like California, Colorado and Washington, also have the highest levels of legislative polarization.

To study voters, the researchers were aided by a large-scale national data set, created by Tausanovitch and Warshaw, that combines and synthesizes many smaller-scale surveys to group voters ideologically according to their views on various policy questions, rather than by their self-declared placement on an ideological scale. Using this data, the researchers were not only able to calculate the median ideological position in each district, they also were able to zero in on how citizens' ideological preferences were distributed geographically.

They found that, because of recent demographic changes, so-called "moderate" purple districts often contain distinct geographic clusters of liberal and conservative voters, with no large cohort of centrists. For example, many suburban districts that were once largely white and conservative have seen large influxes of liberal Hispanic voters. Similarly, sprawling, sparsely populated, otherwise conservative rural districts often contain concentrated pockets of progressive voters, many of them recent arrivals, in and around college towns or resort communities. The researchers "have identified a class of districts that are moderate on average without containing large densities of moderates," McCarty said.

"When candidates compete in these internally polarized districts in heterogeneous suburbs and spatially diverse non-metropolitan areas, they face weak incentives to adopt moderate platforms or build up moderate roll-call voting records," McCarty said. "Rather, they can cater to primary constituents, donors, activists or other forces that pull the parties away from the ideological center."

Reformers often believe polarization has grown because districts have become too homogeneous, McCarty said, and they argue the solution to polarization lies in creating more ideologically diverse, politically competitive districts. This study, he said, "turns this conventional wisdom on its head. When control of the legislature hinges on fierce competition within internally polarized winner-take-all districts, candidates and parties do not necessarily face incentives for moderation."

The study, "Geography, Uncertainty, and Polarization," was published online March 21 in the journal Political Science Research and Methods.

###LA JOLLA--(May 10, 2018) More than 27 million people in the United States are living with type 2 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As the population ages and a growing percentage of people become overweight or obese, that number is expected to increase.

In a paper published May 10, 2018, in Cell, researchers from the Salk Institute report a potential new approach for treating diabetes by protecting beta cells--the cells in the pancreas that produce, store and release the hormone insulin. When beta cells become dysfunctional, the body can't make insulin to control blood sugar (glucose) and levels of glucose can rise to dangerous--even fatal--levels.

The investigators accomplished their goal by using an unexpected source: vitamin D. Vitamin D in cells and mouse models proved beneficial in treating damaged beta cells. It also provided new insights about gene regulation that could be applied to developing treatments for other diseases, including cancer.

"We know that diabetes is a disease caused by inflammation," explains senior author Ronald Evans, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and holder of Salk's March of Dimes Chair in Molecular and Developmental Biology. "In this study, we identified the vitamin D receptor as an important modulator of both inflammation and beta cell survival."

Using beta cells created from embryonic stem cells, the investigators were able to identify a compound, iBRD9, that appeared to enhance the activation of the vitamin D receptor when it was combined with vitamin D to improve the survival of beta cells. The team accomplished this by conducting a screening test to look for compounds that improved the survival of beta cells in a dish. They then tested the combination in a mouse model of diabetes and showed that it could bring glucose back to normal levels in the animals.

"This study started out by looking at the role of vitamin D in beta cells," says Zong Wei, a research associate in Salk's Gene Expression Laboratory and the study's first author. "Epidemiological studies in patients have suggested a correlation between high vitamin D concentrations in the blood and a lower risk of diabetes, but the underlying mechanism was not well understood. It's been hard to protect beta cells with the vitamin alone. We now have some ideas about how we might be able to take advantage of this connection."

The underlying process has to do with transcription--the way that genes are translated into proteins. Combining the new compound with vitamin D allowed certain protective genes to be expressed at much higher levels than they are in diseased cells.

"Activating the vitamin D receptor can trigger the anti-inflammatory function of genes to help cells survive under stressed conditions," says Michael Downes, a Salk senior staff scientist and co-corresponding author. "By using a screening system that we developed in the lab, we've been able to identify an important piece of that puzzle that allows for super-activation of the Vitamin D pathway."

The discovery's implications can have far-reaching implications: It identifies a basic mechanism that can be translated into drugging many different targets in the clinic.

"In this study, we looked at diabetes, but because this is an important receptor it could potentially be universal for any treatments where you need to boost the effect of vitamin D," adds Ruth Yu, a Salk staff researcher and one of the study's authors. "For example, we are especially interested in looking at it in pancreatic cancer, which is a disease that our lab already studies."

The investigators say that, although the new compound did not appear to cause any side effects in the mice, further testing is needed before clinical trials can begin.

###

The paper's other authors were Eiji Yoshihara, Nanhai He, Nasun Hah, Weiwei Fan, Antonio Pinto, Timothy Huddy, Yuhao Wang, Brittany Ross, Gabriela Estepa, Yang Dai, Ning Ding, Mara Sherman, Sungsoon Fang, Xuan Zhao and Annette Atkins of Salk; and Christopher Liddle of the Westmead Institute for Medical Research and Sydney Medical School in Sydney, Australia.

This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and its National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Glenn Foundation for Medical Research, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, Ipsen/Biomeasure, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the Ellison Medical Foundation, and a gift from Steven and Lisa Altman.

About the Salk Institute for Biological Studies:

Every cure has a starting point. The Salk Institute embodies Jonas Salk's mission to dare to make dreams into reality. Its internationally renowned and award-winning scientists explore the very foundations of life, seeking new understandings in neuroscience, genetics, immunology, plant biology and more. The Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark: small by choice, intimate by nature and fearless in the face of any challenge. Be it cancer or Alzheimer's, aging or diabetes, Salk is where cures begin. Learn more at: salk.edu.What difference does it make whether an angler catches one big fish or two smaller fish, each half its weight? Experts assumed that big and small fish invest the same proportion of their energy to make eggs. But a new report in Science by a Smithsonian biologist and colleagues shows that plus-sized females invest disproportionately more in the number of eggs and the size of individual eggs. Therefore, taking a single big fish has a bigger impact on the fish population than taking multiple small ones.

"Our results are critical for fisheries management: They tell us to reduce fishing pressure on large fish rather than smaller ones in order to maintain and replenish stocks," said staff scientist D. Ross Robertson at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. "We need to focus on reducing fishing pressure on large fish rather than exploiting them more heavily than small fish."

Led by Diego R. Barneche at Monash University's Centre for Geometric Biology and the University of Sydney, Robertson, along with evolutionary biologists Craig White and Dustin Marshall, also from Monash University, surveyed egg number, egg volume and energy invested in eggs by 342 different marine species, based on publications in Google Scholar about wild fish, as well as data on egg-quality of a range of species collected by Robertson.

The number of eggs laid by a single mother ranged from 11 to almost 58 million eggs per clutch. Egg volume ranged from a hundredth of a cubic millimeter to 0.345 cubic centimeters.

The energy content of eggs from fish collected at sites around the world from Japan to Corsica ranged from seven hundredths of a Joule to almost 300 Joules. Larger eggs have slightly less energy per unit volume than small eggs but a much higher energy content overall. Rather than finding a straight linear relationship: more weight implies more egg production, they found a power-function relationship: as weight goes up, the effort put into reproduction rises exponentially.

"There have always been two quite different explanations of the relationship between size and fecundity," Robertson said. "We collected enough data to identify what we think is generally the correct relationship."

From river systems, to trees, to genes, scientists are discovering that the properties of biological systems are often governed by power laws, rather than linear relationships. For example, scaling up the effective dosage of a drug in a mouse to the weight of a human resulted in overdoses, because the relationship was not linear. Also, ecologists working in Africa found that bigger species of savannah animals require disproportionately more space to live in than smaller animals.

"The realization that fecundity in marine fish is non-linear is important not only for managing commercial fish stocks to maintain and enhance their productivity, but also for understanding evolution and for managing invasive species such as lionfish, in which the big females seem to be concentrated in deep water," said Robertson.

###

The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution. The Institute furthers the understanding of tropical biodiversity and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems. Website. Promo video.

Reference: Barneche, D.R., Robertson, D.R., White, C.R. and Marshall, D.J. 2018. Fish reproductive-energy output increases disproportionately with body size. Science. Doi: 10.1126/science.aao6868A basic discovery of how the cellular functions are connected to control aging is presented in the journal Cell Metabolism. The study shows that an increasingly deteriorating communication between the cells' organelles is an important cause of aging. The discovery is the result of a collaboration between five research groups at the University of Stockholm and Gothenburg.

"The whole project aims at finding new ways to address the problems of aging and, in the long term, to slow down or treat the onset of age-related diseases such as neurological diseases and dementia," explains Martin Ott, professor at Stockholm University.

In times when the general life expectancy increases, society is facing a growing challenge to provide an aging population with welfare and healthcare. It is therefore an urgent task to unravel the basic principles of biological aging, whose details are found at the cellular level.

Organelles are the cell's equivalent to the body's organs, each fulfilling a specific function. Previous research has shown that in aging cells, the various organelles stop functioning one after the other, but it is unclear what causes this observation. Because the organelles are coordinated to counteract damage to proteins that occur in cells, their interdependencies are of great importance for aging and health.

Communication problems

One of the cell's organelles is the mitochondrium and it acts as the cell's power plant. The new study lead by Martin Ott shows that it is production of mitochondrial proteins that controls the well-being of the whole cell via previously unknown communication links. When mitochondria are exposed to stress, a protection program is activated to keep all the functions of the cell in check, a mechanism that also operates when cells age. Importantly, the study shows that in aging cells, this communication between the organelles collapses, which causes vital cellular functions to deteriorate or fail.

"It has been a very rewarding and inspiring collaboration where each research group has contributed with key expertise. What we now want to investigate is when, how and why communication between cellular organelles ceases to function during aging." says Claes Andreasson, a lecturer at Stockholm University and a senior author of the study.

The discovery is based on studies of yeast cells. Although yeast may seem to have few similarities with humans, the mechanisms that control aging at the cellular age are essentially the same. Therefore, it is highly likely that the aging mechanisms identified at the cellular level in this study are also active in human cells.

###

About the article:

"Mitochondrial Translation Efficiency Controls Cytoplasmic Protein Homeostasis" Tamara Suhm, Jayasankar Mohanakrishnan Kaimal, Hannah Dawitz, Carlotta Peselj, Anna E. Masser, Sarah Hanzen, Matevz Ambrozic, Agata Smialowska, Markus L. Bjorck, Peter Brzezinski, Thomas Nystrom, Sabrina Buttner, Claes Andreasson and Martin Ott.

Published in Cell Metabolism (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2018.04.011

Background: The study is part of the collaborative project "Interconnected quality (IQ) control - role in organizational structure function, aging and longevity assurance", which in 2017 was awarded a project grant of SEK 44.7 million by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

Five research groups at the University of Stockholm and Gothenburg are involved in the project led by Professor Thomas Nystrom at the University of Gothenburg. The researchers in Gothenburg focus on investigating the shape of aging yeast cells, which is examined by high-resolution electron microscopy, and on the identification of genes that modulate aging. The colleagues in Stockholm study the proteins that these genes code for in order to figure out exactly what these proteins do in the cell.

Link to this project: https://kaw.wallenberg.org/forskning/cellens-internkommunikation-haller-oss-unga

Contact:

Martin Ott, Professor at Stockholm University

Tel: 08-16 24 61

E-mail: martin.ott@dbb.su.se

Claes Andreasson, Associate Professor at Stockholm University

Tel: 08-16 42 02

E-mail: claes.andreasson@su.seSteel is the world's most used and recyclable advanced material and underpins the UK manufacturing base. Swansea University is therefore delighted that the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) has awarded the Steel and Metals Institute (SaMI) 3million of capital funding to support its vision of delivering a 21st century steel industry.

This funding will enable SaMI to help the UK iron and steel making industry to transform into a low carbon, resource efficient sector utilising societal waste, such as plastics, which are currently non-recyclable.

The focus of the additional funding will be on smart steel processing of high value products, including steels for electric powered vehicles, manufactured affordable CO 2 -positive buildings and sustainable packaging that can only be delivered through the use of steel. The aim is to ensure the UK steel industry remains competitive in the fourth industrial age, able to produce the bulk of the steel needed within our own shores.

This funding supports five key areas of research ie carbon neutral steelmaking, advanced alloy optimisation, performance in extreme environments, novel functional metallic coatings and imaging science.

The research will be delivered by technology and innovation experts from numerous leading and diverse organisations working together with and at the Steel and Metals Institute who will deliver the research needed to bring these products and processes to industry.

The facilities at the Institute (SaMI) will provide both research-scale and key process scale-up equipment prior to commercialisation.

Brian Edy, Director of the Steels and Metals Institute said:

"The funding delivered to SaMI through HEFCW represents the early steps in transforming ideas into reality, creating a 21st Century steel and metals industry and future-proofing steel in Wales and the UK."

"Bringing new products and processes to industry are important but we also need to look at what can be done to reduce societal waste, whilst improving the health and well being of our regions."

"What is perhaps less obvious is that the blast furnace steel making process can be used to solve societal waste problems through substituting coal with waste materials that contain carbon (such as plastics). This is quickly attainable and already happens in Japan and Germany."

"What is new is how we could then use process by products as resources. We can make insulation materials for buildings out of slag waste from the steel making process instead of combustible plastic foams, we can recover heat energy to heat homes and begin to transform steel works into renewable energy hubs for solar, wind and thermoelectric power."

"The HEFCW funding will go some way to helping us to develop these innovative ideas further."

###

Picture 1: (left to right) Mr Bimlendra Jha, Chief Executive Officer Tata Steel UK, Professor Richard B Davies, Vice-Chancellor, Swansea University and Carwyn Jones First Minister of Wales

Picture 2: (left to right) Professor Richard B Davies, Vice-Chancellor, Swansea University, Mr Bimlendra Jha, Chief Executive Officer Tata Steel UK and Carwyn Jones First Minister of Wales.

Note

The Steel and Metals Institute (SaMI) at Swansea University was opened by the First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones on 8 February http://www.swansea.ac.uk/press-office/news-archive/2018/creatinga21stcenturysteelandmetalsindustry.php

For more information about SaMI go to http://www.samiswansea.co.uk or @SaMI_Swansea.

HEFCW's budget expenditure for 2017-18 included 5.9m of capital funding which has been allocated to fund projects that will either directly leverage external competitive match funding, to allow HEIs in Wales to participate in high-value UK-wide projects, or proposals that will leverage or enhance funding from internal sources.

Swansea University is a world-class, research-led, dual campus university. The University was established in 1920 and was the first campus university in the UK. It currently offers around 350 undergraduate courses and 350 postgraduate courses to circa 20,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students.

The University's 46-acre Singleton Park Campus is located in beautiful parkland with views across Swansea Bay. The University's 65-acre science and innovation Bay Campus, which opened in September 2015, is located a few miles away on the eastern approach to the city. It has the distinction of having direct access to a beach and its own seafront promenade. Both campuses are close to the Gower Peninsula, the UK's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

###

In 2017, Swansea University became the top university in Wales in The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide league table, and also won the inaugural Welsh University of the Year title.

It is also ranked within the top 300 best universities in the world in the Times Higher Education World University rankings 2018.

The results of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 showed the University has achieved its ambition to be a top 30 research University, soaring up the league table to 26th in the UK, with the 'biggest leap among research-intensive institutions' (Times Higher Education, December 2014) in the UK.

The University has been awarded a Silver rating in the inaugural Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017. In the assessment the University was commended for the high proportions of students from all backgrounds achieving excellent outcomes such as progressing on to professional level employment or further study.

The University has ambitious expansion plans as it moves towards its centenary in 2020, as it continues to extend its global reach and realising its domestic and international ambitions.

Swansea University is a registered charity. No.1138342. Visit http://www.swansea.ac.uk.

When reporting this story, please use Swansea University hyperlinks.

For more information, please contact Janis Pickwick, Swansea University Press Office. Tel: 01792 295050 or email: j.m.pickwick@swansea.ac.uk

Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SwanseaUni

Find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/swanseauniversityDublin, Thursday, May 10, 2018 - It has long been claimed by Yogis and Buddhists that meditation and ancient breath-focused practices, such as pranayama, strengthen our ability to focus on tasks. A new study by researchers at Trinity College Dublin explains for the first time the neurophysiological link between breathing and attention.

Breath-focused meditation and yogic breathing practices have numerous known cognitive benefits, including increased ability to focus, decreased mind wandering, improved arousal levels, more positive emotions, decreased emotional reactivity, along with many others. To date, however, no direct neurophysiological link between respiration and cognition has been suggested.

The research shows for the first time that breathing - a key element of meditation and mindfulness practices - directly affects the levels of a natural chemical messenger in the brain called noradrenaline. This chemical messenger is released when we are challenged, curious, exercised, focused or emotionally aroused, and, if produced at the right levels, helps the brain grow new connections, like a brain fertiliser. The way we breathe, in other words, directly affects the chemistry of our brains in a way that can enhance our attention and improve our brain health.

The study, carried out by researchers at Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity, found that participants who focused well while undertaking a task that demanded a lot of attention had greater synchronisation between their breathing patterns and their attention, than those who had poor focus. The authors believe that it may be possible to use breath-control practices to stabilise attention and boost brain health.

Michael Melnychuk, PhD candidate at the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity, and lead author of the study, explained: "Practitioners of yoga have claimed for some 2,500 years, that respiration influences the mind. In our study we looked for a neurophysiological link that could help explain these claims by measuring breathing, reaction time, and brain activity in a small area in the brainstem called the locus coeruleus, where noradrenaline is made. Noradrenaline is an all-purpose action system in the brain. When we are stressed we produce too much noradrenaline and we can't focus. When we feel sluggish, we produce too little and again, we can't focus. There is a sweet spot of noradrenaline in which our emotions, thinking and memory are much clearer."

"This study has shown that as you breathe in locus coeruleus activity is increasing slightly, and as you breathe out it decreases. Put simply this means that our attention is influenced by our breath and that it rises and falls with the cycle of respiration. It is possible that by focusing on and regulating your breathing you can optimise your attention level and likewise, by focusing on your attention level, your breathing becomes more synchronised."

The research provides deeper scientific understanding of the neurophysiological mechanisms which underlie ancient meditation practices. The findings were recently published in a paper entitled 'Coupling of respiration and attention via the locus coeruleus: Effects of meditation and pranayama' in the journal Psychophysiology. Further research could help with the development of non-pharmacological therapies for people with attention compromised conditions such as ADHD and traumatic brain injury and in supporting cognition in older people.

There are traditionally two types of breath-focused practices -- those that emphasise focus on breathing (mindfulness), and those that require breathing to be controlled (deep breathing practices such as pranayama). In cases when a person's attention is compromised, practices which emphasise concentration and focus, such as mindfulness, where the individual focuses on feeling the sensations of respiration but make no effort to control them, could possibly be most beneficial. In cases where a person's level of arousal is the cause of poor attention, for example drowsiness while driving, a pounding heart during an exam, or during a panic attack, it should be possible to alter the level of arousal in the body by controlling breathing. Both of these techniques have been shown to be effective in both the short and the long term.

Ian Robertson, Co-Director of the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity and Principal Investigator of the study added: "Yogis and Buddhist practitioners have long considered the breath an especially suitable object for meditation. It is believed that by observing the breath, and regulating it in precise ways--a practice known as pranayama--changes in arousal, attention, and emotional control that can be of great benefit to the meditator are realised. Our research finds that there is evidence to support the view that there is a strong connection between breath-centred practices and a steadiness of mind."

"Our findings could have particular implications for research into brain ageing. Brains typically lose mass as they age, but less so in the brains of long term meditators. More 'youthful' brains have a reduced risk of dementia and mindfulness meditation techniques actually strengthen brain networks. Our research offers one possible reason for this - using our breath to control one of the brain's natural chemical messengers, noradrenaline, which in the right 'dose' helps the brain grow new connections between cells. This study provides one more reason for everyone to boost the health of their brain using a whole range of activities ranging from aerobic exercise to mindfulness meditation."

###

The full paper 'Coupling of respiration and attention via the locus coeruleus: Effects of meditation and pranayama' is available here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/psyp.13091

Media contact:

Fiona Tyrrell, Press Officer for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Trinity College Dublin | tyrrellf@tcd.ie | + 353 1 8963551Enormous wealth and power inequalities mean that people making a living out of mining diamonds in Sierra Leone continue to face huge economic and social challenges, in spite of international efforts to improve the diamond trade over the past decade.

12 years on from the hit blockbuster 'Blood Diamond', starring Leonardo DiCaprio - which graphically depicted the human costs of conflict diamonds to a global audience - a new 30-minute feature film from development researchers at the University of Bath charts the untold story of artisanal diamond miners working informally in Sierra Leone.

The film, 'Voices from the Mine', funded by Humanity United - an organisation dedicated to bringing new approaches to global problems that have long been considered intractable - documents the path that diamonds follow, as they journey from the mine in Kono District right through to the market in Antwerp. It is screened for the first time tonight (Thursday 10 May) at The Edge, University of Bath.

It highlights how diamond mining is Sierra Leone's most lucrative export industry, worth up to $250 million annually. But due to poor governance and widespread corruption, only a fraction of this wealth returns to the areas where diamonds are mined. So while international traders reap vast rewards, for those in the mining pits, poverty and hardship remain.

The film examines the challenges of local level governance arrangements in the artisanal diamond mining sector, and the implications this has for those at the bottom of the chain. It suggests that for consumers buying diamonds as a romantic gesture, right through to policy makers working on development initiatives, a more nuanced understanding of what is happening for miners at the grassroots level is needed.

Researcher and film-maker behind the project, Dr Roy Maconachie from the University of Bath's Centre for Development Studies, explained: "International concerns for blood diamonds and efforts to address the problem through the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme focused a lot of attention on Sierra Leone's alluvial diamond mining sector. Sixteen years on from the end of the civil war, many people now just assume that everything is ok, but that's not always the case.

"While the film Blood Diamond raised international awareness of conflict diamonds, and the Kimberley Process has done much to address the problem, many important issues that our film raises have been overshadowed; most notably the exploitation that takes place due to the informal nature of the sector, and the fact that those toiling the land in search of diamonds very often do not reap the rewards of their efforts.

"Film can be such a powerful way of exposing problems that often remain invisible, and by charting the diamond journey from Sierra Leone to Antwerp we hope this film shows why the system is not fair and points to what could be done to improve matters for those at the mine face."

The film is a collaboration with award-winning filmmaker, Simon Wharf, with support from postdoctoral researcher, Felix Conteh.

###A new study led by UC San Francisco scientists shows that brain cells, or neurons, react differently to opioid substances created inside the body - the endorphins responsible for the "natural high" that can be produced by exercise, for example - than they do to morphine and heroin, or to purely synthetic opioid drugs, such as fentanyl. The researchers say their findings may help explain why the use of synthetic opioids can lead to addiction.

Since both synthetic opioids and the natural, "endogenous" opioids produced in the brain bind to and activate opioid receptors on the surface of nerve cells, scientists have long assumed that both types of molecules target the same cellular systems. But the new research reveals that these molecules also activate opioid receptors inside cells, and that the locations of these activated intracellular receptors differ between natural and synthetic opioids.

In the new study, published in the May 10, 2018 issue of Neuron, the researchers report that this difference could help explain why the effects of synthetic opioid drugs are more rewarding than those produced by endogenous opioids.

"There has been no evidence so far that opioid drugs do anything other than what natural opioids do, so it's been hard to reconcile the experiences that drug users describe - that opioid drugs are more intensely pleasurable than any naturally rewarding experience that they've ever had," said Mark von Zastrow, MD, PhD, a professor of psychiatry at UCSF and senior author on the new paper. "The possibility that these opioid drugs cause effects that natural opioids cannot is very intriguing because it seems to parallel this extremely rewarding effect that users describe."

Researchers in von Zastrow's lab collaborated with Aashish Manglik, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, to create a "biosensor" that binds to the opioid receptors along with an opioid drug or natural opioid. The tool allowed the scientists to see what's happening inside cells, giving them a closer look than ever before at opioids' effects. "It's a way of sniffing out where these receptors are active in the particular types of neurons in which opioids work," explained von Zastrow, a member of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.

It has generally been thought that all opioid molecules, natural or synthetic, impart their signal only from receptors on the surface of the cell. Opioid-bound receptors are then taken inside the cell to compartments called endosomes, but receptors were thought not to signal from this location. Overturning this long-held view, the research team discovered that receptors actually remain active in endosomes and they use the endosome to sustain the signal within cells.

But in the most intriguing twist, the research team discovered that morphine and synthetic opioids activate receptors in yet another internal location called the Golgi apparatus, where endogenous opioids are unable to produce any activation at all.

"It really surprised us that there was a separate location of activation for drugs in the Golgi apparatus that could not be accessed by endogenous opioids," said first author Miriam Stoeber, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in von Zastrow's lab. "Drugs, which we generally thought of as mimics of endogenous opioids, actually produce different effects by activating receptors in a place that natural molecules cannot access."

Moreover, morphine and synthetic opioids crossed cell membranes without binding receptors or entering endosomes. They traveled directly to the Golgi apparatus, reaching their target much more quickly than endogenous opioids got into endosomes, taking only 20 seconds compared to over a minute. This time difference could be important in the development of addiction, the researchers said, because typically the faster a drug takes effect, the higher its addictive potential.

The scientists hope to apply their findings to create new types of opioid-based pain medications that have a lower risk for addiction. They also plan to screen other existing medications to see if they act more like natural or synthetic opioids.

"We're very excited about the possibility of leveraging these principles to develop better or more selective drugs that have the ability to get into the brain, but then differ in their activities at internal locations within individual neurons," says von Zastrow. "This is an area that hasn't been explored in drug development because people haven't been thinking about it, but the potential is there."

###

Other authors on the study were Damien Jullie and Braden Lobingier of UCSF; Toon Laeremans and Jan Steyaert of Vrije Universiteit Brussel, in Brussels, Belgium; and Peter Schiller of the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, in Canada.

The research was supported in part by funding from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (DA10711, DA012864, DA004443, and DP5 OD 02304801), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP-89716), and the Swiss National Science Foundation (P2EZP3_152173 and P300PA_164712).

About UCSF: UC San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with nationally renowned programs in basic, biomedical, transitional and population sciences; and a preeminent biomedical research enterprise. It also includes UCSF Health, which comprises three top-ranked hospitals, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland, and other partner and affiliated hospitals and healthcare providers throughout the Bay Area. Please visit http://www.ucsf.edu/news.

Follow UCSF

ucsf.edu | Facebook.com/ucsf | YouTube.com/ucsfEarly career teachers of Sacramento, California, area youth will soon learn how to better lead discussions and understand how their students learn, using their own videos of student-learning experiences, role-playing with colleagues, and even interacting with avatars.

This will all be made possible through the University of California, Davis, which received a $2.5 million grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation to help early career teachers use more innovative techniques in the classroom. The foundation provides grants focusing on human cognition and on teachers as learners.

The project, led by Steven Z. Athanases, professor and Dolly and David Fiddyment Chair in Teacher Education within the UC Davis School of Education, begins this summer. Athanases will lead a group of five fellow faculty members, in partnership with Stanford University.

He and his team, who have begun developing the program, will initially work with small groups of graduates of the School of Education teacher credential/master's degree program to learn with them about classroom practice, explore classroom communication and collect data. For the five-year project, they then will develop tools to apply effective strategies for classroom communication going forward. The team will focus on high school English and elementary science teaching, technology, cognitive studies for educational practice, and assessment.

Too often, new teachers don't know where to go when a student isn't participating in a discussion, or clearly doesn't understand the discussion of a piece of literature or scientific work, Athanases explained. "And that's not fair to the students. We can enrich that experience for everyone by exploring with teachers the tools they need now."

The project also will focus on challenges teachers have engaging linguistically diverse learners in discussion. Part of the goal for the teacher is to recognize language resources students have and mine those, and also promote English and science disciplinary language and learning. The teacher must improvise: "And the greatest challenge for the teacher is to do it in the moment because classroom talk is fleeting."

Teachers also need help building a conversation, working from what one student says to elicit comments from other students. And then, there's the silence.

"That's very scary for teachers. What do you do with silence? We will work on that."

The results, he emphasizes, won't be instant. There will be the insights the diverse K-12 students provide the teachers in the classroom; then those will be shared with early career teachers in the cohort as they examine problems, review videos and role play. Those novice teachers will then develop solutions, and become teaching ambassadors in their schools and districts. All of this combined will help UC Davis build a curriculum that will serve teachers for years to come and can be disseminated to larger educational communities throughout the United States.

Athanases wants to move away from the idea of "training" teachers. "They are not running machines. They need to be prepared to teach and think professionally."

Besides the grant Athanases is leading, School of Education Professor Cynthia Passmore is part of a team led by Northwestern University that will focus on teachers learning how to best teach the K-12 science education framework and science standards. The team will work with two cohorts of 20 teachers each. Passmore, professor of science education, has focused on developing students who can think about science in broad contexts through involvement in science, not just reading text, throughout her career. The Northwestern team on which Passmore will participate also received a $2.5 million grant from the McDonnell Foundation.

###The development of new Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is often subject to bias, and the resulting systems can be discriminatory, meaning more should be done by policymakers to ensure its development is democratic and socially responsible.

This is according to Dr Barbara Ribeiro of Manchester Institute of Innovation Research at The University of Manchester, in On AI and Robotics: Developing policy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a new policy report on the role of AI and Robotics in society, being published today.

Dr Ribeiro adds because investment into AI will essentially be paid for by tax-payers in the long-term, policymakers need to make sure that the benefits of such technologies are fairly distributed throughout society.

She says: "Ensuring social justice in AI development is essential. AI technologies rely on big data and the use of algorithms, which influence decision-making in public life and on matters such as social welfare, public safety and urban planning."

"In these 'data-driven' decision-making processes some social groups may be excluded, either because they lack access to devices necessary to participate or because the selected datasets do not consider the needs, preferences and interests of marginalised and disadvantaged people."

On AI and Robotics: Developing policy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a comprehensive report written, developed and published by Policy@Manchester with leading experts and academics from across the University.

The publication is designed to help employers, regulators and policymakers understand the potential effects of AI in areas such as industry, healthcare, research and international policy.

However, the report doesn't just focus on AI. It also looks at robotics, explaining the differences and similarities between the two separate areas of research and development (R&D) and the challenges policymakers face with each.

Professor Anna Scaife, Co-Director of the University's Policy@Manchester team, explains: "Although the challenges that companies and policymakers are facing with respect to AI and robotic systems are similar in many ways, these are two entirely separate technologies - something which is often misunderstood, not just by the general public, but policymakers and employers too. This is something that has to be addressed."

One particular area the report highlights where robotics can have a positive impact is in the world of hazardous working environments, such a nuclear decommissioning and clean-up.

Professor Barry Lennox, Professor of Applied Control and Head of the UOM Robotics Group, adds: "The transfer of robotics technology into industry, and in particular the nuclear industry, requires cultural and societal changes as well as technological advances.

"It is really important that regulators are aware of what robotic technology is and is not capable of doing today, as well as understanding what the technology might be capable of doing over the next -5 years."

The report also highlights the importance of big data and AI in healthcare, for example in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Lord Jim O'Neill, Honorary Professor of Economics at The University of Manchester and Chair of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance explains: "An important example of this is the international effort to limit the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The AMR Review gave 27 specific recommendations covering 10 broad areas, which became known as the '10 Commandments'.

"All 10 are necessary, and none are sufficient on their own, but if there is one that I find myself increasingly believing is a permanent game-changer, it is state of the art diagnostics. We need a 'Google for doctors' to reduce the rate of over prescription."

The versatile nature of AI and robotics is leading many experts to predict that the technologies will have a significant impact on a wide variety of fields in the coming years. Policy@Manchester hopes that the On AI and Robotics report will contribute to helping policymakers, industry stakeholders and regulators better understand the range of issues they will face as the technologies play ever greater roles in our everyday lives.

###

Notes to Editor

For media enquires please contact Jordan Kenny on 0161 275 8257 or jordan.kenny@manchester.ac.uk

The Policy@Manchester initiative works to connect researchers with those working on policy, supporting and smoothing the process of knowledge exchange. Policy@Manchester also acts as a platform to find and share ideas on the big issues facing us today, whether that's through events, blogs or publications. About The University of Manchester

The University of Manchester, a member of the prestigious Russell Group, is the UK's largest single-site university with more than 40,000 students - including more than 10,000 from overseas.It is consistently ranked among the world's elite for graduate employability.

The University is also one of the country's major research institutions, rated fifth in the UK in terms of 'research power' (REF 2014). World-class research is carried out across a diverse range of fields including cancer, advanced materials, addressing global inequalities, energy and industrial biotechnology.

No fewer than 25 Nobel laureates have either worked or studied here.

It is the only UK university to have social responsibility among its core strategic objectives, with staff and students alike dedicated to making a positive difference in communities around the world.

Manchester is ranked 38th in the world in the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2017 and 6th in the UK.

Visit http://www.manchester.ac.uk for further information.

Facts and figures: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/facts-figures/

Research Beacons: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/research/beacons/

News and media contacts: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/UMass Amherst chemists find a molecular switch such that two compounds that would readily react with each other can be in the same solution, separated by a very thin membrane and kept from reacting with each other until a molecular switch is thrown

AMHERST, Mass. - In an unexpected finding, chemist Sankaran "Thai" Thayumanavan and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst show for the first time how movement of a single chemical bond can compromise a membrane made up of more than 500 chemical bonds. Their system uses light as a switch to create a reversible, on-demand molecular control mechanism.

Thayumanavan explains, "There are many applications that one can imagine developing from these fundamental findings, especially ones that need controlled release. For example, we have shown that two compounds that would readily react with each other can be in the same solution but are separated by a very thin membrane made of a few nanometers and therefore do not react with each other."

"But upon exposure to light, the membrane gets compromised to allow the two components to react with each other," he adds. "The interesting thing is that the membrane is not permanently compromised upon exposure to light, but only when the light is on."

His postdoctoral associate Mijanur Rahaman Molla and doctoral student Poornima Rangadurai conducted most of the experimental work. The UMass Amherst group also collaborated with theoretical chemists Lucas Antony and Juan de Pablo at the University of Chicago, who modeled the system in order to more deeply understand it, Thayumanavan notes. Details are online now in Nature Chemistry.

Such reversible molecular controls that respond only when there is a source of energy are quite rare in artificial systems, he says. Usually in artificial, human-made systems, "materials are in an equilibrium state, so if you have a particle that responds to pH change and you put it into an environment that triggers a change, it stays changed. You can't put the genie back into the bottle."

By contrast, nature has engineered some "exquisitely responsive systems," the authors point out, where molecular-scale information is transferred across a membrane that can return to its original, resting state.

An example Thayumanavan likes to use refers to ATP, a cellular energy molecule that switches on and off on demand, like their new system. "I tell my students that they may have the impression that a professor never stops talking. But that is demonstrably false, if you just track ATP. When I'm talking, ATP is turned on and being used, but when the ATP is not being used, the professor goes to the resting state, i.e. shuts up. The genie does go back in the bottle."

Technically speaking, he and colleagues demonstrate that in their system, light induces actuation of a thin bi-layer of molecules made of a hydrophilic-azobenzene-hydrophobic diblock copolymer. When light is turned on, Thayumanavan says, "the azobenzene bond rotates, and this motion sends a frontal wave across about 500 bonds to compromise the membrane barrier. This allows the entire membrane to allow molecules to travel across. When we turn the light off, it closes again and no molecules can get across the membrane."

The researchers show that "the out-of-equilibrium actuation is caused by the photochemical trans-cis isomerization of the azo group, a single chemical functionality, in the middle of the interfacial layer."

###

This work was supported by a Department of Defense Multi-University Research Initiative (MURI) award to a group at UMass Amherst in 2016.Policymakers should consider introducing The Daily Mile to improve the health and fitness of schoolchildren around the world, according to new research led by the Universities of Stirling and Edinburgh.

The first study of the popular Daily Mile initiative - which involves children taking a 15-minute break from class to do physical activity - has confirmed it improves fitness, body composition and activity levels in participants.

The findings indicate The Daily Mile can help combat global problems such as low physical activity, high sedentary behaviour, declining fitness levels and high levels of obesity.

The study was jointly led by Dr Colin Moran and Dr Naomi Brooks, of the University of Stirling's Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport, and Dr Josie Booth, of the University of Edinburgh's Moray House School of Education. It also involved a number of other experts from Stirling and the University of the Highlands and Islands.

Dr Moran said: "Our research observed positive changes in children who participated in The Daily Mile intervention, compared to our control school where the scheme was not introduced.

"It suggests that The Daily Mile is a worthwhile intervention to introduce in schools and that it should be considered for inclusion in government policy, both at home and abroad."

The Daily Mile was founded in February 2012 by Elaine Wyllie, the then headteacher of St Ninians Primary School in Stirling, to improve the fitness of her pupils. Children are encouraged to run, jog or walk around their school grounds during a 15-minute break from class, which is in addition to normal intervals and physical education lessons.

Following the scheme's success, the Scottish Government has outlined its desire for Scotland to become the first Daily Mile nation, with around half of the country's primary schools now implementing the approach.

There has been interest from the UK Government and the scheme has attracted the attention of other countries, with the Netherlands, Belgium and parts of the USA among those to have already adopted the approach.

The research team conducted their research at two primary schools within the Stirling Council area, with 391 pupils, aged between four and 12, participating. Each child underwent an initial assessment and then a follow-up later in the academic year. Between times, one school implemented The Daily Mile, while pupils at the other - known as the control school - followed their usual curriculum.

Children wore accelerometers to record their average daily minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) and average daily sedentary behaviour. They also had skinfold measurements taken to check body fat, and were assessed on their performance at a multistage fitness test (known as a bleep test or shuttle run), where they ran between cones 20 metres apart between bleeps.

After correcting for age and gender, the team witnessed significant improvements in the intervention school, relative to the control school.

Revealing the findings of the research during a special event at St Ninians, Dr Brooks explained: "We observed a relative increase of 9.1 minutes per day in terms of MPVA and a relative decrease of 18.2 minutes per day in sedentary time. Children at the intervention school covered, on average, 39.1 metres more during the shuttle run, while their body composition improved too."

There were similar results when the data was adjusted to additionally account for socioeconomic circumstances.

Dr Booth said: "Schools can help support pupils to be more active by taking part in The Daily Mile. The benefits of an active lifestyle are wide reaching and important for education as well as for health."

The Scottish Government's Public Health and Sport Minister, Aileen Campbell, said: "Scotland's Daily Mile initiative is catching the imagination of the UK and beyond, and this research is even more validation of the impact it can have on people's lives.

"By taking small steps and jogging, walking or running for 15 minutes, people can make huge changes to their health and wellbeing. We want Scotland to be the first 'Daily Mile Nation', with nurseries, colleges, universities and workplaces joining over 800 primary schools and regularly taking part.

"There is great momentum behind this initiative, and I hope this research encourages even more schools and workplaces to sign up and reap the benefits of becoming more active more often."

Elaine Wyllie, of The Daily Mile Foundation, said: "I founded The Daily Mile as I became concerned about the lack of physical fitness displayed by pupils and wanted to find a solution. The Daily Mile started with my simple belief that it would help children lead more active lives and to encourage the development of healthy habits in their futures.

"With my pupils I saw that 15 minutes of daily activity rapidly improved pupils' fitness, health and concentration in the classroom.

"I am delighted that this new research underlines what I found and I look forward to the day when every school does The Daily Mile." Susan McGill, convenor of Stirling Council's Children and Young People Committee said: "Improving children's health and wellbeing is a key priority for all schools and nurseries in Stirling.

"We are so pleased to know that an initiative started in Stirling has now been proven to have such a positive impact on the lives of so many young people."

The paper, The Daily Mile makes primary school children more active, less sedentary and improves their fitness and body composition: a quasi-experimental pilot study, is published in BMC Medicine.

###

The research also involved Ross Chesham, Emma Sweeney and Dr Gemma Ryde, all from Stirling; and Dr Trish Gorely, of the University of the Highlands and Islands.Simultaneous experiments on five continents challenge Einstein's principle of local realism.

Participants contributed to the experiment generating more than 90 million bits, unpredictably choosing among measurements to escape a paradox known as the "freedom-of-choice loophole".

The study has been published in Nature.

On November 30th, 2016, more than 100,000 people around the world contributed to a suite of first-of-a-kind quantum physics experiments known as The BIG Bell Test. Using smartphones and other internet-connected devices, participants contributed unpredictable bits, which determined how entangled atoms, photons, and superconducting devices were measured in twelve laboratories around the world. Scientists used the human input to close a stubborn loophole in tests of Einstein's principle of local realism. The results have now been analysed, and are reported in this week's Nature.

In a Bell test (named for the physicist John Stewart Bell), pairs of entangled particles such as photons are generated and sent to different locations, where particle properties such as the photons' colours or time of arrival are measured. If the measurement results tend to agree, regardless of which properties we choose to measure, it implies something very surprising: either the measurement of one particle instantly affects the other particle (despite being far away), or even stranger, the properties never really existed, but rather were created by the measurement itself. Either possibility contradicts local realism, Einstein's worldview of a universe independent of our observations, in which no influence can travel faster than light.

The BIG Bell Test asked human volunteers, known as Bellsters, to choose the measurements, in order to close the so-called "freedom-of-choice loophole" - the possibility that the particles themselves influence the choice of measurement. Such influence, if it existed, would invalidate the test; it would be like allowing students to write their own exam questions. This loophole cannot be closed by choosing with dice or random number generators, because there is always the possibility that these physical systems are coordinated with the entangled particles. Human choices introduce the element of free will, by which people can choose independently of whatever the particles might be doing.

Led by ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences, in Barcelona, the BIG Bell Test recruited participants worldwide to contribute unpredictable sequences of zeros and ones (bits) through an online video game. The bits were routed to state-of-the-art experiments in Brisbane, Shanghai, Vienna, Rome, Munich, Zurich, Nice, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Concepcion Chile and Boulder Colorado, where they were used to set the angles of polarizers and other laboratory elements to determine how entangled particles were measured.

Participants contributed with more than 90 million bits, making possible a strong test of local realism, as well as other experiments on realism in quantum mechanics. The obtained results strongly disagree Einstein's worldview, close the freedom-of-choice loophole for the first time, and demonstrate several new methods in the study of entanglement and local realism.

Each of the twelve labs around the world carried out a different experiment, to test local realism in different physical systems and to test other concepts related to realism.

The CAS-USTC team, led by Prof. Jian-Wei Pan and Prof. Qiang Zhang, works to explore the Bell's inequality with partial perfect randomness input. Analysing the random numbers contributed by Bellsters, we may find the human random number are not perfectly random, and tend to produce patterns. However, the human generated randomness is highly attractive because of the element of human free will. True randomness, which is not controlled by hidden variables, exists in between the human choices. Remarkably, it is able to say how well the hidden variable would have to control the human choices. This is made possible by using a special type of Bell inequality, the measurement dependent local (MDL) inequality. In the experiment, a 780 nm pump laser focused on a periodically poled potassium titanyl phosphate (PPKTP) crystal to create photon pairs at 1560 nm via spontaneous parametric down conversion. The down-converted photon pairs interfere at the polarizing beam splitter (PBS) in a Sagnac based setup to create entangled pairs. The entangled state is adjusted to be a special non-maximum entangled state for the inequality. The photon pairs are then sent to two measurement stations that are ~90 meters away for measurement. This spatial separation makes sure the measurement in Alice's lab will not affect that in Bob's lab, and vice versa. The random numbers contributed by Bellsters control the Pockels cell to set the measurement basis for each pair of photons. The photons are finally detected with superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs, produced by the group led by Dr. Lixing You from CAS-SIMIT). The violation of the MDL Bell inequality gives the bound of the input human randomness to rule out local realism. With around 80 Mb random numbers contributed by Bellsters, the MDL Bell inequality violation is decided to be l = 0.10  0.05.

Jian-Wei Pan, Professor at CAS-USTC: "Although there are numerous Bell test experiments, the "free will" loophole is still not closed. This experiment is a very interesting and important try. In the future, with the help of space station, one may close both "collapse locality" and "free will" loopholes in one experiment."

Carlos Abellan, researcher at ICFO and instigator of the project: "The BIG Bell Test was an incredibly challenging and ambitious project. It sounded impossibly difficult on day zero, but became a reality through the efforts of dozens of passionate scientists, science communicators, journalists and media, and especially the tens of thousands of people that contributed to the experiment during November 30th, 2016."

Morgan Mitchell, leader of the BBT project and ICREA Professor at ICFO: "What is most amazing for me is that the argument between Einstein and Niels Bohr, after more than 90 years of effort to make it rigorous and experimentally testable, still retains a human and philosophical element. We know that the Higgs boson and gravitational waves exist thanks to amazing machines, physical systems built to test the laws of physics. But local realism is a question we can't fully answer with a machine. It seems we ourselves must be part of the experiment, to keep the Universe honest."

The BIG Bell Test team once again would like to thank the thousands of participants who so generously and enthusiastically contributed to this initiative. Without this essential contribution, the experiment would have never been possible.

###

Reference: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0085-3

Participating Institutions

The twelve labs that ran experiments on November 30th of 2016 were:

CQC2T -- Griffith University and EQuS (Brisbane-Australia),

University of Queensland (Brisbane-Australia),

The node CEFOP/Department of Electrical Engineering of the Universidad de Concepcion (Concepcion-Chile), together with the Department of Electrical Engineering - Linkoping University, the University of Sevilla and the Dipartimento di Fisica--Sapienza Universita di Roma,

The Quantum Information Lab of the Dipartimento di Fisica - Sapienza Universita di Roma with the International Institute of Physics del Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil),

CAS --University of Science and Technology of China (Hefei-China),

CITEDEF/Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires),

ICFO (Barcelona),

IQOQI/OEAW (Vienna-Austria),

LMU-Ludwig-Maximilian University (Munich),

LPMC -- Universite Nice/CNRS (Nice-France),

NIST (Boulder- USA),

QUDEV- ETH Zurich (Zurich).Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington have found that 98 percent of veterans participating in the University's Artopia program consider that art therapy helped them cope with service-related trauma or disability. An equal percentage reported that art therapy helped them cope with everyday life.

"Texas has one of the highest populations of veterans in the U.S. and very little accredited art therapy support," said Amanda Alexander, UTA associate professor of Art Education and leader of the UTA program. "We decided to develop art therapy workshops and measure symptom relief and healing for men and women dealing with service-related trauma or disabilities."

Alexander received an initial seed grant from the College of Liberal Arts to start the Artopia program and research its effectiveness among veterans at UTA. Five workshops and an art exhibition were developed in 2016 and 2017.

The multidisciplinary project was guided by Alexander from the Art + Art History Department and faculty from the Department of Psychology in collaboration with the Veterans Assistance Center at UTA. Licensed art therapists from The Art Station, a Fort Worth nonprofit art therapy organization, provided the professional art therapy support.

Jane Avila, founder of The Art Station, explained that her organization aims to "find a holistic way of helping veterans to bridge the gap from deployment to civilian life. Art therapy has been shown to reduce cortisol or stress hormone in the body within half an hour, and professionals like ourselves who also have mental health qualifications alongside knowledge of art can enhance that experience."

Before and after each workshop, researchers conducted a Profile of Mood States (POMS) survey with the veterans to measure psychological distress. The POMS survey is considered an excellent measure and is known for its ease of administration. More than 50 veterans attended the workshops and 33 completed the pre/post POMS survey.

The results were overwhelmingly positive:

98 percent said Artopia helped them cope with their service-related trauma

98 percent reported that Artopia helped them cope with everyday life

97 percent believe that Artopia helped them cope with their loved one's service-related trauma or disability

"With these initial positive results, we are now looking to gain more funding for a larger project with more veterans," Alexander said.

Other positive impacts include:

The veterans reported that their overall mood disturbance was at least 50 percent lower after participating in Artopia workshops

98 percent of the veterans enjoyed working with the art therapists

98 percent of the veterans found the Artopia workshops helpful

97 percent of the veterans believed that the Artopia workshops were educational

Elizabeth Cawthon, UTA's Dean of Liberal Arts, underlined the importance of this project to UTA, one of the country's leading institutions for veterans.

"Military Times has ranked UTA the no.1 university in Texas for veterans and their families to earn a college degree, and this research really forms part of the services that we can provide to that constituency," Cawthon said. "The project is also a great example of multidisciplinary work of the College of Liberal Arts with the College of Science and the Veterans Assistance Center around the University's Strategic Theme of Health and the Human Condition and effectively allows for new ideas through cross-collaborative work."

###Infants who are diagnosed with drug withdrawal after birth who are treated with medication as outpatients at home are treated three times longer than infants treated solely as inpatients, according to a new Vanderbilt study.

Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) is a drug withdrawal syndrome that occurs shortly after birth, and can occur when an infant is exposed to an opioid during the pregnancy.

The study, Outpatient Pharmacotherapy for Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, also found that the infants with NAS treated as outpatients were more likely than their inpatient counterparts to have more repeat visits to the emergency room in the six months post-discharge. The findings were published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

Outcomes for infants treated as outpatients compared to those treated solely in the hospital are largely unknown, and there is no standard protocol for this treatment. Infants who have drug withdrawal are commonly treated with a medication, such as morphine, to control their clinical signs of withdrawal. Infants who require treatment for the syndrome can be in the hospital for several weeks.

Vanderbilt researchers sought to examine how outpatient treatment affected length of stay, length of treatment, emergency department utilization and hospital readmissions compared to treatment as an inpatient. To conduct the study, researchers examined hospital billing and vital records data of 736 infants with a confirmed diagnosis of NAS from medical record review who were enrolled in TennCare, Tennessee's Medicaid program, from 2009 to 2011.

"Infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome can have long hospital stays. In order to get infants home quicker, some hospitals began discharging infants home on medications to complete weans, but there is no evidence to guide this practice," said Faouzi Maalouf, MD, a former fellow in neonatology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

NAS continues to be a growing concern and problem in the United States, with one infant born with drug withdrawal symptoms every 15 minutes, accounting for more than $500 million in hospital costs each year. Improving the efficiency of medical care for this population has emerged as a priority for hospital systems.

"Discharging infants with NAS home on medications may shorten their hospital stays, but our study raises the concern that this may prolong their treatment -- some more than six months. While medically expedient, as pediatricians we have to ask ourselves if this is the best way to care for this vulnerable population," said senior author Stephen Patrick, MD, MPH, director of the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy and assistant professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy in the Division of Neonatology with Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.

Infants experiencing withdrawals are irritable, can have feeding and breathing problems, and are more likely to be born with low birthweight. To help with those symptoms, infants are sometimes treated with courses of pharmacotherapy, most commonly morphine or methadone. Phenobarbital, a type of sedative, is sometimes used as a therapy for infants with NAS, though possible long-term cognitive effects are a concern.

This study showed that of the 736 infants with NAS about 72 percent, or 532, were treated with medication, and nearly half of those patients on pharmacotherapy were discharged home on outpatient medications, most commonly with phenobarbital.

While infants discharged home with medication had a shorter length of stay in the hospital, 11 days versus 23 for the inpatients, they stayed on about medication for about 60 days -- about 41 days longer than babies who were inpatients.

"Communities throughout the U.S. are experiencing a rapid rise in infants diagnosed with NAS. As we work to improve outcomes for pregnant women and infants affected by the opioid epidemic, we need a coordinated approach that considers the implications of our treatment plans throughout the pregnancy through childhood," said Patrick.

###

Other Vanderbilt authors of the study include: William Cooper, MD, James Slaughter, DrPH, and Judith Dudley, BS.

Funding for this study was provided by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Drug Abuse under grant K23DA0An Iraqi court on Thursday began the trial of a Belgian Islamic State group jihadist who threatened attacks against the West in propaganda videos.

Tarik Jadaoun  known by his nom de guerre Abu Hamza al-Beljiki  pleaded not guilty to charges including carrying out attacks on Iraqi troops that could see him handed the death penalty.

Born in 1988, Jadaoun  who was captured in ex-IS bastion Mosul in August  appeared before the Baghdad court dressed in a beige prison uniform with a shaved head and bushy moustache.

I was not a fighter, I was in charge of a group of IS nurses. I took care of everybody, he told the court. I got lost and I appeal to your kindness.

Jadaoun, who has Moroccan roots, said he was forced by one of the top IS commanders to appear in videos threatening attacks against Belgium and France.

The footage saw Jadaoun earn the moniker the new Abaaoud, after his compatriot Abdelhamid Abaaoud, one of the organisers of November 2015 attacks in Paris.

Earlier, investigators alleged Jadaoun was in charge of the cubs of the caliphate  about 60 children aged eight to 13 who received intensive fitness and weapons training.

There was no mention of those accusations at the court session on Thursday.

The judge postponed the next hearing until May 22, with a judicial source putting the delay down to a lack of diplomatic representation for the accused.

Belgium does not have an embassy in Iraq, but the source said the foreign ministry in Baghdad had sent a letter to representatives from the country.

In total, Iraqi courts have sentenced to death more than 300 people, including dozens of foreigners, for belonging to IS, judicial sources said last month.

Since January, some 100 foreign nationals have been sentenced to death in Baghdad and around 185 to life in prison, officials said.

Thousands of foreign fighters from across the world flocked to the black banner of the jihadists as the group seized swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

Their self-declared caliphate has since been reduced to a rump territory of desert in the east of war-torn Syria.

The fate of those who survived ferocious onslaughts by various forces against IS has been a major headache for their home governments, which are often against seeing them return.The 104-year-old Australian scientist who drew international attention this week to his right-to-die campaign ended his life on Thursday, advocacy group Exit International has said.

At 12.30 today (10th May) Professor David Goodall, 104 years of age, died peacefully at Life Cycle, Basel, Switzerland from an infusion of Nembutal, Exit International founder Philip Nitschke tweeted shortly after Goodalls passing.

Goodall was not suffering from any terminal diseases, but had decided that his deteriorating quality of life meant that it was time to go.

At a press conference in Basel on Wednesday, he told reporters that he was happy to have the chance to end his life in Switzerland but would have preferred to do so back home.

Everyoneover middle age should have the right unquestionedto end their lives as and when they choose, but we have quite a way to go in Australia for that, he said.

Switzerland is one of the few countries in the world to allow assisted suicide, and hundreds come to the country every year to do so with groups such as Dignitas and Life Circle, Goodalls choice.

The Associated Press quoted Exit Internationals Nitschke, who was present at Goodalls side, saying that the British-born Australian answered, with great clarity, the control questions to ensure patients are aware of who they are, where they are, and what they are about to do.

He requested that no funeral or remembrance service be held and that his body be donated to medicine or his ashes sprinkled locally.Israel carried out widespread deadly raids against what it said were Iranian targets in Syria on Thursday after rocket fire towards its forces which it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies.

The incident came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from a key 2015 Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, a move Israel had long advocated.

It led to immediate calls for restraint from Russia, France and Germany. The escalation of the last hours shows us that its really about war and peace, warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The raids that a monitor said killed 23 fighters were one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and the biggest such assault on Iranian targets, the military said.

We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a security conference.

I hope weve finished this episode and everyone understood.

Israel carried out the raids after it said 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight.

It blamed the rocket fire on Irans Al-Quds force, adding that Israels anti-missile system intercepted four while the rest did not land in its territory.

No Israelis were wounded.

If confirmed, the incident would be the first time Iran had sought to directly attack Israeli-controlled territory aside from an alleged attempted drone attack in February.

We know that comes from the Al-Quds force, army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, referring to the special forces unit affiliated with Irans elite Revolutionary Guard.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said dozens of rockets were fired from Syria towards the Israeli-occupied Golan, but did not confirm they were fired by Iranian forces.

It alleged the rockets followed a first Israeli bombardment on the town of Baath in Quneitra province.

A senior pro-regime military source in Syria confirmed the salvo of rockets, insisting that Israel had fired first.

 Not looking to escalate 

Later, in the early hours of the morning, explosions were heard in Damascus, while live images were broadcast on television showing projectiles above the Syrian capital and several missiles destroyed by anti-aircraft systems.

Syrian state media reported that Israeli missile strikes had hit military bases as well as an arms depot and a military radar installation, without specifying the locations.

The official SANA news agency added that dozens of missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft systems in Syrian airspace, acknowledging a number of missiles had reached their targets.

Israels military later confirmed it had carried out the raids, saying some 70 targets had been struck and all of its aircraft had returned safely.

The armys Conricus said intelligence, logistics and storage facilities and vehicles were targeted as well as the origin of the rockets.

Syrian air defences, which fired dozens of times on Israeli forces, were also targeted, he said.

There had been no comment from Iranian officials.

Lieberman called the rocket fire a new phase.

We dont want an escalation, but wont let anyone attack us or build an infrastructure to attack us in the future, he said.

Russias defence ministry said 28 Israeli F-15 and F-16 planes took part in the raids with a total of around 70 missiles fired.

My husband went out on to the balcony and saw the air defences, said 27-year-old Rim, adding she and her family were awakened at their home in a western suburb of Damascus by the raids.

 Right to protect self 

Israel has long warned that it will not accept Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria, where Tehran is supporting President Bashar al-Assads regime in the countrys seven-year civil war.

Israel has been blamed for a series of recent strikes inside Syria that have killed Iranians, though it did not acknowledge those raids.

It does acknowledge carrying out dozens of raids in Syria to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to Iran-backed Hezbollah, another key foe of Israel.

Israel had been preparing itself for weeks for possible Iranian retaliation.

Trumps withdrawal from the nuclear deal has added to tensions and led to a new level of uncertainty over how Iran will respond.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has provided massive military and diplomatic backing to Assads regime.

I told President Putin that it is the right of every state, certainly the right of Israel, to take the necessary steps in order to protect itself from this aggression, Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to Irans presence in Syria.

Israel and Russia have established a hotline to avoid accidental clashes in the war-torn country.

Russia was informed in advance of Israels strikes on Thursday, Conricus said.

In February, Israel accused Iranian forces at the T-4 base in central Syria of sending a drone into Israeli territory.

After targeting Iranian units in Syria in retaliation, an Israeli F-16 was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire.

Israel, which said the drone it downed had been armed, carried out what it called large-scale raids on Syrian air defence systems and Iranian targets in the country.

burs-mjs/hcAmnesty International on Thursday accused prosecutors of hindering court probes into alleged police violence during a banned independence referendum in Catalonia, and asked the government to ban rubber bullets.

Prosecutors are acting in a way that tends towards disqualifying complaints, obstructing procedures and even showing a lack of interest in the process, hindering the clarification of facts by judicial authorities, the organisation said in a statement.

It accused prosecutors of not fulfilling their role of driving investigations.

It cited as an example attempts by prosecutors to use alleged violence by voters against security forces as a reason to dismiss judicial investigations into reported police violence.

Amnesty also called on the Spanish government to prohibit the use of rubber bullets after one man in Barcelona lost an eye after being hit by one on the day of the referendum on October 1.

Rubber bullets that are being used in Spain should be banned for being highly imprecise, said Esteban Beltran, head of Amnesty Spain.

He added that they were used in Spain to disperse crowds, while international norms dictate they should not be used for that reason.

Neither the prosecutors office in Madrid nor the interior ministry immediately responded to requests for comments.

Images of alleged police violence were beamed around the world after the referendum, which Catalan separatist authorities claim saw 90 percent of those who voted support a split from Spain.

At least 92 people were injured and hundreds required medical assistance.

But several hundred complaints for police violence were filed before eight Catalan courts. Amnesty lists 457 of them before just two tribunals.

The interior ministry, meanwhile, said close to 100 agents were also hurt.

Human Rights Watch has also accused police of using excessive force.

It said police charged protesters without warning and used batons and shields to hit them on their heads, arms, legs and torsos in Girona, while in the villages of Aiguaviva and Fonollosa police used batons and threw people to the ground.Spain's lower house voted Tuesday in favour of examining a draft law on legalising euthanasia, the second such bill accepted for consideration in just over a month in a first for the country.

Lawmakers voted 208 against 133  and one abstention  to examine the bill, which was drafted by the ruling Socialist party.

In May, a similar proposal submitted by Catalonias regional parliament was also admitted, but it only focused on legalising euthanasia.

This latest draft law also seeks to make euthanasia legal in public and private health services.

But it goes a step further by regulating it, laying out the conditions by which a person can apply to die.

It is the first time that bills aimed at legalising euthanasia make it past this first parliamentary hurdle after previous attempts failed.

This regulation guarantees to protect the fundamental right to life, but also the recognition that it isnt an absolute right, Adriana Lastra, deputy head of the Socialist party, told parliament.

Its a right that must be adjusted according to other values, including that of human dignity.

The draft law stipulates that a person can apply to die if he or she has a serious and terminal illness or suffers from a chronic, severe disability, and if they are Spanish or a legal resident in Spain.

The patient has to make his or her request by writing, free of any pressure, and repeat that demand after 15 days.

A person who can no longer take decisions but has previously given official instructions for the right to die will also be eligible.

Their doctor will then determine whether the patient meets these conditions and ask another physician who knows about the illness or disability to check this too.

Once these checks are done, the doctor will take the case to a regional evaluation and control commission which will give its final say.

For now, people with incurable diseases in Spain only have the option to refuse treatment.

In Europe, Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Other countries such as Switzerland allow assisted suicide, a practice that lets a doctor provide a patient with all the necessary lethal substances to end their life and leave them to carry out the final act.

Now that it has passed the first hurdle, the bill will go through various stages in parliament before it gets to the final voting stage in the lower house.Russian President Vladimir Putin was accused Thursday of returning his country "to the Middle Ages" by the director of a new film at Cannes about the bloody conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Sergei Loznitsa  whose movie Donbass focuses on the war there  also spoke up in support of Palme dOr contender Kirill Serebrennikov, who missed the premiere of his movie Wednesday because he is under house arrest in Moscow.

Leto has garnered the most ecstatic reviews of the festival so far, being hailed as a Russian Trainspotting by critics.

You can only have sympathy for Serebrennikov, especially given that this situation depends only on the will of one man, Loznitsa told AFP, referring to Putin.

Its as if weve returned to the Middle Ages where one sovereign decides everything, said the director, who comes from a Russian-speaking family in Ukraine.

When I think of Putin, I also think of Shakespeares Macbeth, Loznitsa said in reference to one of literatures most famous villains, a once-brave warrior who was corrupted by ambition.

His hard-hitting film, Donbass, is set in the brutal conflict between government forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine amid a post-truth world dominated by fake news.

Loznitsa, a Cannes veteran whose previous film A Gentle Creature was in the race for the top Palme dOr prize last year, said he felt compelled to make the film because of the world crumbling around him.

 Decay and disintegration rule 

My main concern and my main subject is the particular type of human being, which is produced by a society, where aggression, decay and disintegration rule, the director said.

The information war waged by Putins Russia uses all of the most efficient and modern technical means available to influence attitudes around the world, to hammer home one truth as the truth.

Loznitsa is treated as a national treasure in Ukraine after making some two dozen documentaries and films that have brought him international renown.

His documentary Maidan about Kievs bloody pro-EU revolution premiered at a special Cannes screening in 2014.

At the time, Loznitsa made a point of refusing to speak with the Russian media on the red carpet.

The Berlin-based filmmaker said his latest work only saw the light of day because it was made outside of Russia.

Serebrennikovs Leto  a biopic of the Soviet-Korean rock legend Viktor Tsoi  received a standing ovation after its premiere.

A seat was left symbolically empty in the cinema for the filmmaker, who has been under house arrest on embezzlement charges since last August.Moscow and Tehran will continue to cooperate on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran's nuclear programme after the US pulled out of the deal, Russia's foreign ministry said Thursday.

Deputy Russian foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov met his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Tehran where the two sides agreed to continue close coordination in this area, the ministry said in a statement.

The Russian side highlighted its commitment to preserving the agreement, the statement added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday expressed his deep concern over Donald Trumps withdrawal from the 2015 deal.

Earlier in the day Ryabkov said Russias European partners should also work to keep the deal together, in comments reported by news agencies.

Russias Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday called on countries that oversaw the deal to develop steps that would preserve this document that is important for regional stability.

We agree to make the appropriate contacts with our German colleagues, he said in a joint press conference with his German counterpart Heiko Maas.Israel carried out widespread deadly raids against what it said were Iranian targets in Syria on Thursday after rocket fire towards its forces it blamed on Iran, drawing global calls to avoid any further escalation.

The exchange of fire came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trumps decision Tuesday to withdraw from the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a move Israel had long advocated.

The bombardment led to immediate calls for restraint from Russia, France, Germany and Britain, while the United States put the blame squarely on Iran and stressed Israels right to self-defence.

Germany and Britain joined the United States in denouncing the rocket fire they also said came from Iran, while France reiterated its unwavering support for Israels security.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had crossed a red line and that the resulting bombardment was a consequence.

Iran has made no comment about the rocket fire.

The raids, which a monitor said killed 23 fighters, were one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and the biggest such assault on Iranian targets, the Israeli military said.

We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, said Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

I hope weve finished this episode and everyone understood.

Israel carried out the raids after it said 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight.

It blamed Irans Quds force, adding that Israels anti-missile system intercepted four while the rest did not land in its territory.

There were no Israeli casualties.

If confirmed, it would be the first time Iran has sought to directly attack Israeli-controlled territory aside from an alleged attempted drone assault in February.

We know that comes from the Al-Quds force, army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, referring to the special forces unit affiliated with Irans elite Revolutionary Guard.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported that dozens of rockets were fired from Syria towards the Israeli-occupied Golan, without saying they were fired by Iranian forces.

It said the rockets followed a first Israeli bombardment on the town of Baath in Quneitra province.

A senior pro-regime military source in Syria confirmed the salvo of rockets, insisting Israel had fired first.

 Not looking to escalate 

Later, in the early hours of the morning, explosions were heard in Damascus, while live images were broadcast on television showing projectiles above the capital and several missiles destroyed by anti-aircraft systems.

Syrian state media said Israeli missile strikes had hit military bases as well as an arms depot and a military radar installation, without specifying where.

The official SANA news agency said dozens of missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft systems in Syrian airspace, acknowledging a number had reached their targets.

Israels military later confirmed it had carried out the raids, saying some 70 targets had been struck and all of its aircraft had returned safely.

The armys Conricus said intelligence, logistics and storage facilities as well as vehicles were targeted, in addition to the origin of the rockets.

Syrian air defences, which fired dozens of times on Israeli jets, were also targeted, he said.

Lieberman called the rocket fire a new phase.

We dont want an escalation, but wont let anyone attack us or build an infrastructure to attack us in the future, he said.

Russia said 28 Israeli F-15 and F-16 planes took part in the raids with a total of around 70 missiles fired.

Syria said it was the Israeli strikes that marked a new phase of direct involvement in the countrys seven-year conflict.

Its army said three people had been killed.

In a rare if not unprecedented move for an Arab country, Bahrain backed Israels right to defend itself after the strikes.

Bahrain is a close ally of Saudi Arabia and the two countries, whose foreign policies are often in lockstep, view Iran as the chief threat to the region.

 Right to protect self 

Israel has long warned it will not accept Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria, where the Islamic republic is supporting President Bashar al-Assads regime in the civil war.

It has been blamed for a series of recent strikes inside Syria that have killed Iranians, though it has not acknowledged those raids.

The Jewish state says it has conducted dozens of raids in Syria to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to Iran-backed Hezbollah, another key foe of Israel.

Israel had been preparing itself for weeks for possible Iranian retaliation.

Trumps withdrawal from the nuclear deal has added to tensions and led to a new level of uncertainty over how Iran will respond.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has provided massive military and diplomatic backing to Assads regime.

I told President Putin that it is the right of every state, certainly the right of Israel, to take the necessary steps in order to protect itself from this aggression, Netanyahu said, referring to Irans presence in Syria.

Israel and Russia have established a hotline to avoid accidental clashes in the war-torn country.

Russia was informed in advance of Israels strikes on Thursday, Conricus said.

burs-mjs/dco/dvFormer Libyan Islamist fighter turned politician Abdel Hakim Belhaj on Thursday said he was grateful to the British government for its "courageous" apology over contributing to his ill treatment in his rendition to Libya.

I express my gratitude for this courageous move made by the British Prime Minister (Theresa) May and the Attorney General Jeremy Wright, Belhaj told a news conference in Istanbul.

This apology is accepted and it puts an end to years of suffering, added Belhaj, who is now based in Istanbul.

Belhaj, who became Tripolis military commander after Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi was ousted in the 2011 revolution, claimed British complicity in the capture of himself and his wife Fatima Boudchar in Thailand in 2004 by the CIA.

They were subsequently tortured by the Kadhafi regime after being sent back to Libya.

The British government accepted the couple were subjected to a harrowing ordeal which caused them significant distress, and said that it had reached a full and final settlement with them both.

Boudchar will receive 500,000 (570,000 euros, $670,000) compensation, but Belhaj did not seek any financial settlement, only an apology.

The apology is a clear message that Abdel Hakim Belhaj has no relation whatsoever with terrorism, whether ideologically or in practice or by supporting it, Belhaj added, referring to himself in the third person.

I hope that this positive step taken by the UK government opens a new page and would become an example to follow by other governments, he added.

Following his release from prison in Libya, Belhaj founded the conservative Islamist party Al-Watan.

He also founded a pro-Islamist television channel, opposed to Khalifa Haftar, the head of the Libyan National Army and now the strongman of eastern Libya and its second city of Benghazi.

The headquarters of the television channel have also now moved to Istanbul after being attacked.A Greek anarchist group attacked the Athens premises of Oxfam on Thursday to protest against alleged sexual abuse at the British charity, organizers said.

Around a dozen members of the Rouvikonas (Rubicon) group threw paint and damaged the site, according to police.

No arrests had been made, police added.

The attack coincided with a three-day official visit to Athens by Britains Prince Charles and his wife Camilla.

This attack is the least we can do in solidarity with all the adults and minors who have been mistreated, and is an action against the filth at Oxfam, Rouvikonas said in a statement.

Oxfam was rocked in February by revelations that its Haiti country director used prostitutes while deployed to the quake-hit country in 2011, with claims of similar behaviour in Chad.

Other claims of sexual abuse are being investigated.

The Rouvikonas group has in the past claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against public buildings, companies, banks and embassies.More than 100 migrants who were stranded in the central Mediterranean for three days during a diplomatic standoff between Rome and London after their rescue off the coast of Libya arrived in Italy on Thursday.

Rome decided this week to allow 105 people to land in Italy following a back-and-forth with British authorities over who should take them. Nearly 700,000 people have landed on Italian shores since 2013.

One of the group to arrive at Sicilian city Catania on Thursday, which included six women, 32 teenagers and six children, was Vitoria, a 21-year-old Nigerian who told AFP that she had been in Libya for just over a year before setting off over the weekend.

She said that she had spent nearly six months in dreadful conditions in a Libyan prison after a failed first crossing last year. The countrys notorious detention centres have been blasted by human rights groups and the United Nations as inhuman.

I was not afraid of the water, because God created the water. Im not afraid of death. We all die one day. Im more afraid if the Libyan police were to catch me again, because they are so wicked, she said.

Vitoria was one of those who had been on the Aquarius rescue ship, chartered by SOS Mediterranee and Medecins Sans Frontieres, since Monday night, after being saved on Sunday by a smaller boat  the Astral  run by a Spanish NGO following a call from the Italian coastguard.

The crew on the first boat had been told that Libya was coordinating the rescue operation, meaning that the migrants were to be taken back to the North African country.

However when the Astral met the migrants on Sunday the Libyan coast guard were nowhere to be found and didnt respond to radio calls. At that point they decided to take them on board, and thats where the standoff began.

As it was not officially coordinating the rescue, Rome asked London to deal with the migrants as the Astral bears the Union flag. On Sunday night London asked the Astral to transfer them to the Aquarius, which flies the flag of Gibraltar.

The two ships met Monday morning about 30 nautical miles off the coast of Tripoli, but waited all day for written confirmation of the transfer from either London or Rome.

In absence of a response from London  the British coast guard told AFP that the incident wasnt their responsibility  Rome authorised the transfer on Monday night, but waited until Tuesday night to give the go ahead for them to travel to Catania.Britain on Thursday warned against "further escalations" after Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria that Israel said were in response to rockets fired by Iranian forces.

It is crucial to avoid any further escalations, which would be in no ones interest, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said in a statement.

The minister condemned in the strongest terms the rockets fired on Israel, adding that we strongly support Israels right to defend itself.

He called for the Iranian regime to refrain from further actions which will only lead to increased instability in the region.

We also continue to call on Russia to use its influence to press those in Syria to cease their destabilising activity and work towards a broader political settlement, he added.

Israel carried out widespread deadly raids against what it said were Iranian targets in Syria on Thursday after rocket fire towards its forces, which it blamed on Iran.

The incident came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from a key 2015 Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, a move Israel had long advocated.

Johnson was in Washington earlier this week in an attempt to convince the US government to stay in the agreement.Syrian opposition leaders on a visit to London on Wednesday welcomed President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Iran nuclear deal.

Nasr al-Hariri, head of the mainstream Syrian Negotiation Commission, called the move a step in the right direction and provided a real opportunity to resolve regional issues involving Iran.

There is no place in the world that feels very clearly the malignant influence of Iran as much as in Syria, he told reporters following a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

This is a step in the right direction. But on its own its not enough to limit the influence of Iran in the area, Hariri said.

Earlier, Johnson told lawmakers that Britain regretted the American decision and urged the US not to undermine the Iran nuclear deal, which he said Britain would continue to honour.

He also called for Washington to spell out its future plans over Iran.

Hariri said the US now needed to prioritise countering Iranian actions in Syria.

There is no way to solve the Iran problems without focusing on the Syria file, he added.

Iran had intervened very early on Syria, and we have reached a stage by which there is to a great extent an occupation by an external power.

However, Hariri warned against letting his country become even more of a battlefield for outside powers.

This response needs to be part of a broad and strategic effort that protects civilians and resolves the conflict, as opposed to piecemeal actions, he said.

In this context, we do not approve of regional actors attempts to use Syria as a theatre for their national objectives.South African police hunting for three men who stabbed worshippers at a mosque outside Durban said on Friday that the attackers' motive was unknown but "elements of extremism" were involved.

One Muslim leader said the mosque was targeted because it was a Shia place of worship that had received previous threats  exposing deep tension between South Africas Shia and Sunni communities.

Three attackers killed one man by slitting his throat and injured two others after midday prayers on Thursday at the mosque in Verulam town on the outskirts of the eastern port city of Durban.

There are elements of extremism, Simphiwe Mhlongo, spokesman for the Hawks police unit, told AFP. It shows hatred towards the worshippers.

Local Islamic leader Aftab Haider said the Shia community in South Africa had been victim to a prolonged hate campaign.

Haider did not name the Sunni community directly, but said the attack had all the hallmarks of the Sunni extremist Islamic State group.

There (has been) a huge organised hate campaign in different mosques, radio stations and on social media against the Shia community, he said.

There have been threats at this mosque before, but not in the weeks leading up to this incident.

It has all the hallmarks of the ISIS (Islamic State) style of operations in Iraq and Syria.

 I will kill you 

The assailants, who also set off a petrol bomb inside the mosque, escaped in a car after the attack.

The blood-soaked victims were found lying in the forecourt of the mosque by emergency services.

These people were not robbers. They did not want cellphones, they did not want laptops or money, said Ali Nchinyane, who was stabbed in the abdomen, speaking at a press conference on Friday.

They came to the gate saying they want to perform prayers. They prayed and afterwards they wanted to kill.

One of the suspects told me I will kill you. If I did not fight, I would have been dead, Nchinyane added, saying he used a martial arts weapon to defend himself.

Police spokesman Mhlongo added that a major hunt was under way to find the attackers.

The whole law enforcement forces are out, including private security, local detectives and police, he said.

The incident appeared to be unprecedented in South Africa, where about 1.5 percent of the countrys 55-million population is Muslim.

The country prides itself on religious tolerance and has little record of violence related to religion.

The parliaments police committee condemned the attack.

A mosque is a religious institution, and South Africas constitution guarantees and protects the right to religious practices, its chairman Francois Beukman said.

We want our communities to live in harmony, practising their religions without fear.From: American Evaluation Association (AEA) For Immediate Release: Dateline: Washington , DC Thursday, May 10, 2018

Garima Bansal. I am a faculty member at Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi, India where I teach a course on Assessment Education to teacher candidates enrolled in the Bachelors of Education program. Through my work with them, I have developed a repertoire of pedagogical activities that support teacher candidates evaluation capacity.

It has been observed that Evaluation Capacity Building of Pre-service teachers leads to an increase in their confidence, competency, and readiness to assess student learning which eventually influences student achievement gains. I have identified the following pedagogical activities supportive of teacher candidates evaluation capacity.

Lessons Learned: Multiple perspective conversations: Teacher candidates were provided prompts, such as newspaper items and media reports which spoke about the side-effects of formal testing on various stakeholders (such as, Indias examination system is only focussed on exam. Knowledge is not a priority from the magazine Outlook India etc.) to reflect upon. Teacher candidates shared their own experiences to build a diverse yet coherent vision about various school related evaluation issues. They spoke about how shifts in evaluation policy came as a surprise to them in the year 2009 when Continuous and Comprehensive evaluation replaced class X formal examination and others.

Collaborative immersion approach for praxis: Collaborative projects between school teachers, University faculty, teacher candidates were initiated on different themes relating to student assessment. These projects enabled them to prepare differentiated assessment tasks for multiple ability learners studying in the same class, collecting samples of formative assessments tasks and critically analysing them for the nature of learning etc. Undertaking these projects and analysing them provided them with both a global as well as local perspective on different evaluation issues.

Collaborative projects between school teachers, University faculty, teacher candidates were initiated on different themes relating to student assessment. These projects enabled them to prepare differentiated assessment tasks for multiple ability learners studying in the same class, collecting samples of formative assessments tasks and critically analysing them for the nature of learning etc. Undertaking these projects and analysing them provided them with both a global as well as local perspective on different evaluation issues. Preaching what is taught in PD program: All the formative assessment components were embedded across different courses of the teacher professional development program Bachelors of Education (B.Ed) which is a two year program. This program had a specific paper on teacher assessment education  Assessment for Learning, which was taught to teacher candidates in the second year. Though teacher candidates were taught specific tools and techniques to create and conduct formative assessments in this course yet they were continually given practice in taking formative assessments themselves through other courses of the program as well.

All the formative assessment components were embedded across different courses of the teacher professional development program Bachelors of Education (B.Ed) which is a two year program. This program had a specific paper on teacher assessment education  Assessment for Learning, which was taught to teacher candidates in the second year. Though teacher candidates were taught specific tools and techniques to create and conduct formative assessments in this course yet they were continually given practice in taking formative assessments themselves through other courses of the program as well. Addressing Assessment Dilemma: During internship in schools, teacher candidates were made to explore various assessment dilemmas faced by in-service teachers between formative and summative, stressing on competition or cooperation etc. and propose their possible solutions.

During internship in schools, teacher candidates were made to explore various assessment dilemmas faced by in-service teachers between formative and summative, stressing on competition or cooperation etc. and propose their possible solutions. Educational Evaluation Policy Analysis: Teacher candidates were made to reflect upon the shifts in educational evaluation policy across the world. They made projects in groups of four explicating the causes of shifts, strengths and weaknesses of the existing policies.

Teacher candidates were made to reflect upon the shifts in educational evaluation policy across the world. They made projects in groups of four explicating the causes of shifts, strengths and weaknesses of the existing policies. Reflections They were constantly encouraged to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses on their assessment plans made for school students. I simultaneously sought their feedback on my assessment pedagogy used in this program. (Rad Resource: TCrunch App to get instantaneous feedback and for managing assignments is a freely downloadable app from Apple and Google Play store.)

The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Ed Eval TIG Week with our colleagues in the PreK-12 Educational Evaluation Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from our Ed Eval TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the

About AEA The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association and the largest in its field. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products and organizations to improve their effectiveness. AEAs mission is to improve evaluation practices and methods worldwide, to increase evaluation use, promote evaluation as a profession and support the contribution of evaluation to the generation of theory and knowledge about effective human action. For more information about AEA, visit www.eval.org. My name is. I am a faculty member at Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi, India where I teach a course on Assessment Education to teacher candidates enrolled in the Bachelors of Education program. Through my work with them, I have developed a repertoire of pedagogical activities that support teacher candidates evaluation capacity.It has been observed that Evaluation Capacity Building of Pre-service teachers leads to an increase in their confidence, competency, and readiness to assess student learning which eventually influences student achievement gains. I have identified the following pedagogical activities supportive of teacher candidates evaluation capacity.Teacher candidates shared their own experiences to build a diverse yet coherent vision about various school related evaluation issues. They spoke about how shifts in evaluation policy came as a surprise to them in the year 2009 when Continuous and Comprehensive evaluation replaced class X formal examination and others.They were constantly encouraged to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses on their assessment plans made for school students. I simultaneously sought their feedback on my assessment pedagogy used in this program. (: TCrunch App to get instantaneous feedback and for managing assignments is a freely downloadable app from Apple and Google Play store.)The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Ed Eval TIG Week with our colleagues in the PreK-12 Educational Evaluation Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from our Ed Eval TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.

NASA will soon begin testing in Dallas how Ubers on-demand air-taxi concept would affect crowded areas.

Uber is in the midst of designing an air-taxi service, called, UberAIR. Officials hope to conduct flight demonstrations starting in 2020 and begin commercial operations in Dallas and Los Angeles by 2023.

And on Tuesday, NASA announced that it would help the company ensure a safe and efficient system for future air transportation in populated areas.

NASA is excited to be partnering with Uber and others in the community to identify the key challenges facing the (urban air mobility) market, and explore necessary research, development and testing requirements to address those challenges, Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for NASAs Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, said in a statement. Urban air mobility could revolutionize the way people and cargo move in our cities and fundamentally change our lifestyle much like smartphones have.

Under this agreement, Uber will provide NASA with its plans for implementing the cutting-edge ride-share network and NASA will use computer modeling and simulations to determine the impact of this kind of aircraft. The simulations will take place at NASAs research facility at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

NASA personnel will analyze safety issues that could arise from small passenger-carrying aircraft flying through the airports airspace during peak scheduled air traffic, according to the space agency.

An Uber spokesman said Tuesday that early stages of simulation are already being developed.

NASA could not immediately be reached for comment, but Uber already has been working with the space agency to develop a specialized air-traffic-control network to keep track of our newly crowded skies - an agreement that was announced in November, USA Today reported.

The company is hosting an Uber Elevate Summit in Los Angeles this week and unveiled its air-taxi prototype just ahead of Tuesdays events.

On-demand aviation has the potential to radically improve urban mobility, giving people back time lost in their daily commutes, Uber said in a white paper about the project.

The all-electric aircraft, designed for four passengers, would have vertical take-off and landing capabilities similar to those of a helicopter. It would have four sets of stacked propellers and a cruising speeds of about 150 mph.

Tests of the UberAIR are expected to begin in 2020 in Los Angeles, Dallas, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Business Insider reported Tuesday. Once the service is officially launched, passengers would call UberAIR on their smartphones and meet at designated rooftop landing pads, or skyports, which could see 200 takeoffs and landings an hour, the article said.

In November, Jeff Holden, Ubers chief product officer, said the company expects people in Los Angeles will make heavy use of the service by the 2028 summer Olympics there.

And the Uber white paper on the project, available at www.uber.com/info/elevate, said the company expects UberAIR to eventually be an affordable form of daily transportation for the masses, even less expensive than owning a car.A San Antonio man was found guilty Wednesday of killing his brother in 2016 and burying his body in a shallow grave on Padre Island, allegedly in a dispute over the family home.

It took the jury a little under 4 hours to render the verdict.

Gregorio Barrera was 48 and already in jail on a criminal trespassing charge when he was charged with killing his brother, Andres Barrera, 46, whose remains were found Sept. 25, 2016, buried in three feet of sand on Padre Island National Seashore in Kleberg County.

Judge Jefferson Moore, who presided over the case in the 186th state District Court, sent the jury home after the verdict was read. Court is in recess until Monday morning when the jury returns and the punishment phase will begin. Barrera faces up to life in prison.

During the trial, Kleberg County Sheriffs Office investigators and the Nueces County medical examiner testified that the victims remains had been in the sand dunes for several weeks before being discovered.

Relatives testified the brothers would physically fight each other, and before Andres Barreras disappearance had argued over their home in San Antonio, in the 8700 block of Sage Brush, regarding a loan taken out on the property that was not paid.

Video shot by San Antonio crime scene investigators that was presented to the jury showed blood spatter on the walls of the home on the Northeast Side, on blades of a ceiling fan, the ceiling and a door there.

Gregorio Barrera told his brother before he went missing that he would drop assault charges against him if Andres Barrera gave him money or the home, prosecutors Kimberly Gonzalez and Ana Ochoa Nelson said.

Defense attorney Cornelius Cox argued that the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Gregorio Barrera killed his brother.

In their closing arguments, prosecutors told the jury that the evidence, though circumstantial, would show Gregorio Barrera killed his brother, and pointed to inconsistencies in his statements to police.

He used his brother's credit card; he was in possession of his truck  he was driving it around. Then he said he saw his brother on the 12th, then the 11th, then the 10th. He can't keep his story straight, Nelson said in her closing statement to the jury.

The defendant signed a quit claim deed to (the house on) Sage Brush; he has been legally evicted and shouldn't be there at all, Gonzalez added.

An FBI forensics expert testified Tuesday that DNA from a pair of sandy shoes found in the home on Sage Brush matched that of Gregorio Barrera.

Another FBI expert testified that granular material on a shovel taken from the home contained beach sand, but the location from where it came could not be established.

In his closing argument, Cox told the jury that the state's 200 exhibits and close to 40 witnesses had still not proven Gregorio Barrera killed Andres Barrera.

We don't know how the blood got there (at the Sage Brush home), he said, adding that the Nueces County medical examiner could not determine whether the deceased died on the beach or was taken there.

There was not one witness that could testify that the deceased actually died at Sage Brush, Cox told the jury.

Elizabeth Zavala is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | ezavala@express-news.net | @elizabeth2863A San Antonio man was found guilty Wednesday of killing his brother in 2016 and burying his body in a shallow grave on Padre Island, allegedly in a dispute over the family home.

It took the jury a little under 4 hours to render the verdict.

Gregorio Barrera was 48 and already in jail on a criminal trespassing charge when he was charged with killing his brother, Andres Barrera, 46, whose remains were found Sept. 25, 2016, buried in three feet of sand on Padre Island National Seashore in Kleberg County.

Judge Jefferson Moore, who presided over the case in the 186th state District Court, sent the jury home after the verdict was read. Court is in recess until Monday morning when the jury returns and the punishment phase will begin. Barrera faces up to life in prison.

Now Playing: Gregorio Barrera was convicted for killing his brother, Andres Barrera, after the two fought over a family home they shared. Video: San Antonio Express-News

During the trial, Kleberg County Sheriffs Office investigators and the Nueces County medical examiner testified that the victims remains had been in the sand dunes for several weeks before being discovered.

Relatives testified the brothers would physically fight each other, and before Andres Barreras disappearance had argued over their home in San Antonio, in the 8700 block of Sage Brush, regarding a loan taken out on the property that was not paid.

Video shot by San Antonio crime scene investigators that was presented to the jury showed blood spatter on the walls of the home on the Northeast Side, on blades of a ceiling fan, the ceiling and a door there.

Gregorio Barrera told his brother before he went missing that he would drop assault charges against him if Andres Barrera gave him money or the home, prosecutors Kimberly Gonzalez and Ana Ochoa Nelson said.

Defense attorney Cornelius Cox argued that the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Gregorio Barrera killed his brother.

In their closing arguments, prosecutors told the jury that the evidence, though circumstantial, would show Gregorio Barrera killed his brother, and pointed to inconsistencies in his statements to police.

He used his brother's credit card; he was in possession of his truck  he was driving it around. Then he said he saw his brother on the 12th, then the 11th, then the 10th. He can't keep his story straight, Nelson said in her closing statement to the jury.

The defendant signed a quit claim deed to (the house on) Sage Brush; he has been legally evicted and shouldn't be there at all, Gonzalez added.

An FBI forensics expert testified Tuesday that DNA from a pair of sandy shoes found in the home on Sage Brush matched that of Gregorio Barrera.

Another FBI expert testified that granular material on a shovel taken from the home contained beach sand, but the location from where it came could not be established.

In his closing argument, Cox told the jury that the state's 200 exhibits and close to 40 witnesses had still not proven Gregorio Barrera killed Andres Barrera.

We don't know how the blood got there (at the Sage Brush home), he said, adding that the Nueces County medical examiner could not determine whether the deceased died on the beach or was taken there.

There was not one witness that could testify that the deceased actually died at Sage Brush, Cox told the jury.

Elizabeth Zavala is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | ezavala@express-news.net | @elizabeth2863U.S. Attorney John Bash has announced more changes in his administration, including new supervisors in San Antonio, Austin and Del Rio.

In a statement Tuesday, Bash said he named Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Sofer of Austin as the new chief of the Criminal Division for the Western District of Texas, which includes Austin, Waco, San Antonio, Del Rio, Alpine, Midland/Odessa and El Paso.

He replaces Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Leachman of San Antonio, who now is a senior litigation counsel. In her new role, Leachman will focus on discovery and disclosure obligations, prosecutions and other matters of particular significance.

I have selected this team of supervisors from an outstanding pool of prosecutors and civil attorneys in the Western District of Texas, said Bash, who was appointed late last year by President Donald Trump. I look forward to working with this team and our other supervisors to enhance the safety and security of the people of Central and West Texas.

Sofer has been with the Austin office since 2007, and has prosecuted a litany of crimes that include public corruption, terrorism and espionage. Before that, he worked for the Justice Department in a number of roles that included sections specifically targeting gangs and terrorism or counterintelligence.

He also served as a prosecutor in the New York County district attorneys office for more than 11 years, and rose to deputy chief there. Most recently, Sofer led the successful federal prosecution in Austin of Chimene Onyeri for the attempted murder of 390th District Judge Julie Kocurek of Travis County, who was ambushed and shot outside her home late Nov. 6, 2015.

Bash also named Michelle Fernald of Austin as the deputy chief of the districts Criminal Division. Fernald is a former state prosecutor and senior assistant attorney general in Arkansas who joined the Western District of Texas in 1996. In 2014, Fernald was named a Winning Woman by Texas Lawyer for her role in the prosecution of members and associates of the Zetas cartel for laundering drug money through the American Quarter Horse industry.

Bashs statement also said he has named Erica Giese of San Antonio as the new chief of the Financial Litigation Unit. Giese is a former prosecutor with the Harris County district attorneys office, who joined the federal office in Del Rio in 2006. She was promoted to chief there in 2012 and later was named chief of the San Antonio division before moving to the civil section in 2017.

Bash also named Assistant U.S. Attorney John Gibson as the new chief of the San Antonio division.

Gibson, whos currently helping prosecute the two top leaders of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club in San Antonio, joined the office in 2003 after working as an assistant district attorney in El Paso. He later joined the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, which concentrates on drug cartels and trans-national gangs, and was promoted as chief of the OCDETF unit in El Paso in 2013 before moving to the San Antonio division last year.

Bash also named Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Guess as the chief of the Austin division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Grant Sparks as the deputy chief of the Austin division. Bash also named Assistant U.S. Attorney Jody Gilzene, a former Air Force JAG officer, deputy chief in Del Rio.

Guillermo Contreras is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | gcontreras@express-news.net | @gmaninfedlandAnxiety weighs heavily these days on some living at the Soap Factory Apartments.

A new owner who purchased the complex on the western edge of downtown is renovating the interiors of all 381 apartments, installing new floors, cabinets, appliances and countertops.

Tenants choosing to stay and live in a remodeled unit will see their rents rise significantly  in some cases, by more than $200, prices on the apartments website show.

Several low-income residents  including elderly and disabled people  say theyll have no choice but to move out once the rent goes up. Around 75 apartments have already been vacated by renters who chose to leave after the property was sold in October and renovations began, according to the company managing the complex.

Some tenants and critics are piqued that a taxpayer-funded project costing millions is happening right next door. Bexar County, the City of San Antonio and the San Antonio River Authority have been transforming a once unsightly, barren stretch of San Pedro Creek into a 2.2-mile linear park. The first phase opened to great fanfare earlier this month.

San Pedro Creek Culture Park has been in the works since 2012. The park features a waterfall, walkways, a boardwalk overlook, benches, interpretive signs and public art. It also will remove more than 30 acres from the citys 100-year floodplain and improve the creeks water quality.

The park is bringing economic and recreational opportunities to a side of downtown that was underserved and neglected for years, said Suzanne Scott, general manager of the San Antonio River Authority, which is managing the project.

Bexar County is providing the bulk of the funding, budgeting almost $133 million for the endeavor so far, while the city has committed almost $20 million from a bond issue approved by voters last year.

Several Soap Factory residents feel like theyre being displaced from the apartments, which sit on the banks of the creek and overlook the new park. Property managers havent yet asked anyone to leave and are continuing to renew leases without raising rents for apartments not yet renovated. Renewals typically extend four to nine months or, in some cases if requested, for up to a year.

Its very sad that theyre forgetting about the people that live here, tenant Cruz Soto said of local government. I know they want to make everything nice and pretty for the tourists, but what about us?

Soto, 66 and disabled, has lived at the apartments at North Santa Rosa and Martin streets for almost five years and gets by on $888 a month from Social Security. She said she hasnt been able to find another place to live. Shes encountered waiting lists ranging from four to seven years at various senior housing properties.

Soto recently signed a nine-month lease that will let her keep her efficiency apartment through the end of January for a base rent of $425 per month, along with additional fees for trash pickup, pest control, billing service and utilities. But shes anxious about what will come after that. The rent for a renovated unit that size will rise to $675, the Soap Factory website shows.

What am I going to do? Where am I going to go? Soto asked.

Leona Rhodes, 68, a retiree who lived at the apartments for almost four years, moved out this week. She had been paying $600 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, not including utilities.

After looking for a new place since October, Rhodes rented a garage apartment six miles away, where she will pay lower rent for a smaller space.

Its been very stressful, really, she said.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg said hes troubled that some residents are caught in such predicaments. He appointed a housing policy task force last year to address gentrification and displacement, along with other housing issues the city is facing. That panel is expected to forward a series of recommendations to the City Council in June.

We want to make improvements that are desperately needed to the public space, and some that will help our city be more welcoming and inviting and attractive and fun, Nirenberg said. And not everyone is benefiting from that. That does bother me.

The city cant allow public spaces to decay, the mayor said. But he noted the city should have programs and thoughtful policy to limit or prevent negative impacts resulting from public investments like the park.

Displacement is not an acceptable condition, Nirenberg said. Its not something we should be resigned to as a community. Does it mean we will be able to prevent it 100 percent absolutely in every case? I think it would be reckless for us to assume that. So lets have programs in place as well, if it does occur.

Before the Soap Factory Apartments were sold six months ago, its rents were unusually low compared to typical prices downtown.

The average monthly rent for an efficiency apartment in downtown San Antonio was $937 in the first quarter of this year, according to ApartmentTrends.com, a database maintained by Austin Investor Interests. The average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $1,215, while a two-bedroom, one-bathroom unit downtown rented for an average of $1,399 a month.

The new Soap Factory owner, The Barvin Group, hopes the renovated property will offer a midpoint price range for renters downtown.

The company didnt buy the apartments because of their close proximity to San Pedro Creek, president Eric Barvin said, but spied an opportunity after discovering the propertys rundown condition and rock-bottom rents. The various apartment buildings on site range from 36 to 40 years old.

We look at some market statistics and demographic information to identify properties we think have potential to be improved, Barvin said. Our entire business is based off the idea that people arent charging the correct rent for their product, and we can go in there and improve it and garnish a higher rent.

When the company learned of the park being built next door, it was an added bonus, he said. But we definitely didnt come to San Antonio because of the creek.

In the path of progress

San Pedro Creek Culture Park is shifting the landscape in an area of San Antonio that long did without, several elected officials said.

The city has a moral obligation to improve the quality of life of every single mile, City Councilman Roberto Trevino said recently. San Pedro Creek is a project that has created additional value in our downtown and is helping us to revitalize areas that we know are important for the citys growth ... And I think thats a good thing.

Trevino and other city officials have been working on stopgap measures to help low-income tenants at the apartments next door who expect theyll eventually have to leave because of rising rents.

I think we can find ways to soften the landing, said Trevino, who hosted a resource fair for those affected and has stayed in contact with tenants to discuss their concerns.

The City Council last month approved using $542,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds to provide up to three months of emergency rental assistance for qualified low-income tenants moving out due to unexpected rent hikes. That money cant be reserved only for residents at the Soap Factory Apartments, but must be opened to applicants citywide. The city expects to begin accepting applications for those funds Monday.

Those efforts have done little to ease the uncertainty some tenants are facing.

I am looking at displacement. That seems pretty inevitable, said Maureen Galindo, 30, a student and single mother living at the Soap Factory with her three children. She rents her two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment for $860 a month.

Galindo has a nine-month lease through the end of November. Two-bedroom apartments will be rented for $1,105 to $1,200 per month once renovations are made.

Moving is so expensive, and I think thats something that people dont understand, Galindo said. I dont even have the money to move.

Lydia Garza, 65, said she borrowed money to move out. The disabled woman now lives at a senior housing development on Martin Luther King Drive, where she pays $240 each month for a one-bedroom apartment  about $200 less than what she paid for her former efficiency at the Soap Factory downtown.

She remains upset about what she experienced.

Trying to find a new home with a certain amount of money is very difficult, Garza told Bexar County Commissioners Court recently. I find it very offensive that there is no help. There is no help from government.

Some tenants are expecting something they shouldnt, said John Q. Pardini, 71, who has lived at the apartments for a decade and rents an efficiency for $475 a month.

Some of these people feel Ive been paying for 20 years  this is my house, this is my home. Wrong, Pardini said. Youre paying rent, not a mortgage ... You were paying for the use of a facility.

Pardini, who is retired and lives on a fixed income, expects he also will be moving once his lease expires in January. He could afford to stay once the rent goes up, but said it would be difficult.

I dont feel entitled to anything, he said.

Observers said the Soap Factory  previously known as Soapworks and Towne Center Apartments  were not well maintained before they were sold in October. The complex was built on the former site of a historic soap factory next to the creek.

Even folks that were paying very little to live there, their quality of life, I would submit, wasnt the best, said Deputy City Manager Peter Zanoni. Their living conditions were probably substandard in some cases.

Those moving on will face a waiting list spanning several years if they apply for public housing or assisted housing through the San Antonio Housing Authority. But that agency has several apartments available at its properties managed by Beacon Communities, where applicants earning limited incomes may find rent prices comparable to or lower than what they were paying, spokeswoman Marivel Resendiz said.

Search for solutions

Regardless of what attracted the new owners interest in the apartments, local governments have not effectively addressed the issue of displacement, some tenants and critics argue.

Trinity University associate professor Christine Drennon is pushing for stronger governmental policies to protect people from losing their homes as public investments like the San Pedro Creek project continue.

We cant displace citizens of our city with our own money. We just cant  its not ethical, Drennon said.

Theoretically, San Pedro Creek is being renovated for all of us  not just for those who can afford it ... If people get hurt, are displaced through that process, we need to have policies in place that protect them in some way.

The city has heard these complaints before. In 2014, the City Council rezoned the Mission Trails Mobile Home Park, perched on the banks of the San Antonio River, for a planned mixed-use development. The property owner sought that zoning change, which ultimately forced the 296 residents to leave. Some families had lived there for generations, according to a 2015 report by the Mayors Task Force of Preserving Dynamic and Diverse Neighborhoods.

The predicament at the Soap Factory is similar, Drennon said, though the circumstances prompting it are different.

Here we go again. And whats so horrifying about it is that this is public money ... It really is public money thats going to end up displacing people, she said of the millions spent to transform San Pedro Creek into a new park.

Neighborhoods elsewhere in the city could become vulnerable as such developments continue, Drennon warned. She pointed to the proposed restoration of Alazan, Apache and Martinez creeks on the West Side. Theres thousands of people that live there and have lived there for a really long time, she said.

The city is better positioned than the county to address these concerns because Texas municipalities have more regulatory powers, Drennon said.

Trevino said he wants to establish a pathway for the city to evaluate from the beginning whether public projects might negatively impact vulnerable residents and, if so, how to assist them.

We do not want to create an adverse effect with projects that are meant to improve the quality of life for everyone, he said.

Trevino and the citys housing and human services staff are continuing to seek potential solutions. The city councilman also is exploring the idea of establishing a renters task force to help the city identify issues of concern, particularly those that affect financially vulnerable tenants.

Providing relocation funds

Only a small number of residents at the Soap Factory contacted the city to seek help or ask questions after city staff put fliers on all 381 doors at the complex in March offering housing counseling services. Six people had requested rental or moving assistance as of Wednesday, city officials said.

At Trevinos urging, the city asked if the apartments new owner had interest in allowing publicly accessible improvements to be made to the property  such as sidewalks, parking lots or public restrooms open to San Pedro Creek visitors  in exchange for reducing low-income residents rent for a year or longer. The owner declined the offer, noting that proposal didnt fit its business model, Zanoni said.

The city is still trying to create a program that may require developers receiving direct financial incentives from the city to provide monetary assistance to residents displaced by a development project in the future  or to pay into a fund that would help residents facing such a predicament.

Zanoni agreed there perhaps should have been more focus on anticipating unintended consequences resulting from the San Pedro Creek project and addressing them ahead of time. The city created the neighborhood and housing services department last year to tackle such concerns, he said.

As we grow  30,000 every year moving into the city, over 1 million more by 2040  a lot of this will take place if we dont have a focus on what happens after you do this improvement ... and try to head it off ahead of time, Zanoni said.

Precinct 2 County Commissioner Paul Elizondo recently raised the idea of using Bexar County Housing Finance Corporation funds to help displaced tenants with their housing needs if the city for some reason cannot. Elizondo is president of the board of that county operation. Part of its mission is providing grants and loans to groups supplying housing for low-income residents.

Im sure that I speak for the whole Housing Finance Corporation Board in saying we will step up if the city is not able to, Elizondo said at a Commissioners Court meeting Tuesday. We are prepared and have the obligation to assist.

Elizondo said Thursday that he will work to address displacement before future county work is done: From now on, I assure you, that on the rest of the creek  and on any project that the county undertakes  as long as Im here, I will be right on top of trying to see that that problem is addressed beforehand.

In an interview last month, Elizondo said government cant stop private business from taking advantage of development.

People get displaced when youre going to have a big project like that, Elizondo said of the new park. In this particular case, its not the countys fault that ... whoever owns (the apartments) sold the property to a new, private owner.

The intentions of the San Pedro Creek project were positive, he said  the county wanted to restore the watercourse and create a gateway to the West Side.

Whenever you see a problem be a result of something positive that youre trying to do, of course it bothers you, Elizondo said.

He bristled at Drennons criticisms and dismissed them.

I really dont feel its necessary for most of the people that are involved in public service to be lectured on what our duties are, Elizondo said. Shes not the savior of gentrified people, just like we the public servants are not the savior of everything in the community. We try.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff acknowledged some displacement is occurring and said hes not minimizing those challenges. He said the local area needs more affordable housing developments, particularly closer to the center city.

But Wolff also pushed back on some of Drennons comments, expressing irritation that critics dont provide any suggestions on how to fix or prevent such problems.

I dont care what you do in terms of a public improvement project, it does change the economic consequences of those areas, Wolff said. So what is your answer  dont do them? I think thats a terrible answer ... To say youre not going to improve anybodys place is absolute madness.

More mixed-income housing

Residents and activists have long complained that the city and the county only invested in the North Side, which was a valid concern, said Wolff, who is also a former mayor and city councilman.

Now were spending (money) where they want us to spend it, he said.

Wolff said creating mixed-income neighborhoods helps stop economic segregation, which has been a long-standing problem for San Antonio. But attracting people of higher incomes to areas that were once run down spurs complaints about gentrification, he said.

Those two issues run into each other, the county judge said.

Wolff noted Bexar County, unlike the city, does not have ordinance-making power.

The city is the key player here, Wolff said. That isnt saying we wont help them.

One tenant who said he can afford to stay at the Soap Factory after the rent goes up said the city and the county need to make a concerted effort to address the local areas housing problems more aggressively.

We shouldnt continue to put a temporary Band-Aid on these issues, said George Woods, 68, who has lived at the apartments off and on since the 1980s.

We know we have a problem. What are we doing about it? As of right now, were not doing a damn thing.

Peggy OHare is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | pohare@express-news.net | @Peggy_OHareCJ Grisham, the founder of Open Carry Texas, is free from legal trouble in Bexar County after Olmos Park police arrested him during a protest in March, but that doesnt mean he's put the incident behind him.

This is not over" Grisham said. They are not going to get away with what they did to me.

Grisham, who lives in Temple, returned to Olmos Park on Wednesday morning to retrieve his property after prosecutors dropped all charges against him and fellow activist Jim Everard.

Grisham was accused of assaulting a police officer, interfering with the duties of a public servant and obstructing a roadway. Everard faced one charge of interfering with the duties of a public servant.

Open Carry Texas held a demonstration in Olmos Park in March to protest an ordinance that prohibited anyone other than a police officer from carrying a loaded rifle on public streets, which they said violates state law.

The arrests made headlines across the state and led to the ordinance's repeal in Olmos Park and the repeal of similar ordinances in other municipalities in the San Antonio area.

Having our charges dismissed is not an apology, Grisham said. We still have yet to get that.

The activists gave the city a list of demands, Grisham said. He didnt specify what was on the list, but he did call for the firing of Olmos Park Police Chief Rene Valenciano and other officers who arrested him and Everard.

The idea of just following orders doesn't fly in America, he said. They knew what they were doing is wrong.

The Olmos Park Police Department did not respond to requests seeking comment.

Both activists claimed they were injured during their arrests. Grisham said he suffered a concussion while Everard had his wrist broken. Everards brace had a patch that took a subtle shot at the police chief that read "Chf. Valenciano was here."

Grisham said Open Carry Texas is consulting with civil attorneys and attorneys with the Self Defense Fund to consider their next steps, which may involve suing Olmos Park.

When asked if he'd do it all over again, Grisham was adamant he would.

There is no risk in my mind thats too great for freedom, he said. I fought for my country for these rights overseas ... only to come home to fight against my country for the same rights.

fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSAThe majority of the City Council on Wednesday heaped praise upon Sarah Baray, the CEO of Pre-K 4 SA, after her presentation on the program, now wrapping up its fifth year of educating 4-year-olds.

But not everyone was thrilled with the presentation. Baray faced some pushback from frequent critics, Councilmen Clayton Perry and Greg Brockhouse.

Perry signaled some disdain for the program through a series of questions about why the program gives away so much grant funding. He also asked whether it could continue on grants alone  which it generally doesnt seek  if voters decided in 2020 not to renew the 1/8-cent sales tax that provides the bulk of annual funding for Pre-K 4 SA.

Pre-K 4 SAs 2019 fiscal year budget shows $47.3 million in revenues, $36.4 million of which comes from local sales tax, approved by voters in 2012.

Related: Tiny preschoolers showcase big art at Pre-K fundraiser

Baray told Perry that the programs board of directors, composed of City Council appointees, have opted not to seek grants because it would create competition for funds among local school districts and potentially take money from them. So when they do seek grants, its in partnership with the local independent school districts with whom Pre-K 4 SA works.

If this doesnt get voted (on) and approved at the next voting trap, if you will, do you think we would have that ability to raise funds through grants? Perry asked.

I doubt it, Baray replied, noting that without a set funding source, parents would be less likely to send their children to the program, and teachers would be less likely to work there if they werent sure whether their salaries could be paid.

And the grants that Pre-K 4 SA gives help plug funding gaps in local school systems, she told the council. As is often the case, she said, school districts facing revenue shortages cut from early-childhood education first.

Thats despite science showing the lasting impact of high-quality prekindergarten, she said.

The state does not adequately fund our schools, Baray said.

Calling herself a straight shooter, Baray said that the work that her program does goes beyond teaching 4-year-olds. It also conducts long-term training with teachers from around the city in an effort to strengthen early education across the San Antonio region.

She and City Manager Sheryl Sculley both cast the programs teachers as the best in San Antonio, which drew an angry diatribe from Councilman Greg Brockhouse. His wife teaches in the public school system and he asserted that there are top-notch teachers across the city.

He insisted that Baray not call her teachers the creme de la creme.

Garcia: Brehm would lead local GOP further to the fringe

Baray responded that there are excellent teachers around the area but insisted that data show Pre-K 4 SAs teachers are performing at the highest levels. Brockhouse punched back, saying that she did exactly what hed asked her not to do in her response.

That exchange drew in Councilman Manny Pelaez, a lawyer, who then fired off a series of questions at Baray, much like a trial attorney redirecting a line of questioning. He asked her if shed ever suggested her programs teachers were smarter, or cared more.

Baray said she hadnt, and that she was explaining that her teachers are afforded the training and tools that allow them to perform at the levels they do.

Brockhouse said there would be a time in the future  when its time for voters to decide whether to renew the sales tax that funds the program  whether it performs at a level higher than its school-district counterparts.

Baray said she was ready, and that Pre-K 4 SA is preparing the next generation of San Antonios workforce.

Josh Baugh is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | jbaugh@express-news.net | @jbaughKarl Alexander and Joey Contreras agree that experience matters when voters decide which of their names to pick in the GOP runoff for the 187th state District Court bench.

But they disagree over whose resume best fits the job.

Contreras, the incumbent judge, survived a challenge from four opponents in the March 6 primary, advancing to the runoff with a second-place finish against Alexander, a Bexar County prosecutor. Alexander received 18,092 votes, or 32 percent, to Contreras 13,575 votes, or 24 percent.

The winner of their May 22 runoff will face Democratic prosecutor Stephanie Boyd in the November general election. Early voting begins Monday and goes until May 18.

Contreras, 55, said Alexander has a fraction of my experience in all parameters, pointing to a more extensive jury trial record across more years of practicing law. He further argued that Alexanders inexperience handling death penalty cases is scary, because whoever wins is going to be judging a case in which someone will live or die.

Alexander, 42, argued that his more than 15 years working in district court makes him better prepared to preside over the 187th court than Contreras because the incumbents experience is at the federal level.

In the 18 years that he has been taking on all these high-profile cases and doing great work in the federal system, the Legislature up in Austin has passed more than 1,700 bills that directly affect criminal justice, Alexander said. The 187th is a state court; the laws that are utilized in the 187th are all the ones that come out of Austin.

Therefore, Alexander said, the sitting judge of the 187th needs to have extensive experience under the current state law. Federal law and state law, he argued, are apples and oranges.

Contreras called his win-loss record as a trial lawyer unprecedented. Before Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him to the bench in October, Contreras served as a federal prosecutor in San Antonio, and hes handled cases involving the Texas Mexican Mafia, the Texas syndicate and the Bandidos Motorcycle Club.

It says a lot. I have a very good win-loss record. And Im an expert trial lawyer. So that translates directly to being an expert trial judge, Contreras said, before referencing Alexander: I dont think he enjoys that reputation.

For his part, Alexander said law enforcement, CPS workers and child advocates seek his advice on various matters because, he said, they know I know the current state law.

Abbott appointed Contreras to the bench to replace longtime Judge Steven Hilbig, who retired before his term was set to expire at the end of 2018.

Before his appointment to the bench, Contreras focused in federal court on financial crimes involving fraud and conspiracies in the White Collar Unit. He previously served as chief of the Major Crimes Unit, in which he oversaw 12 prosecutors who worked drug conspiracy and firearms cases, among other charges.

Contreras received a bachelors degree in labor economics from Cornell University. A mock jury trial in school lit the fire for Contreras to study law, and he received a juris doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.

Not even his years as a prosecutor could have prepared him for a tragedy that occurred in his family in 2015  the ambush-style killings of three of his relatives.

Contreras twin brother, Jesse, another brother named Tony, and Tonys son, Casey Contreras, were shot to death and their bodies set afire at their North Houston car dealership. Last year, James Tinsley IV was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Being on the other side  a victim  also gave him perspective.

I was so heartbroken, I didnt have the energy to be angry, said Contreras. It sounds crazy because this guy killed my twin brother and took a substantial part of my life away.

He said although he took great pride in the sensitivity he showed families of victims, allowing them to vent or cry on his shoulder, being on the other side gave him a different perspective he carries with him.

The one lesson that came out of this is that I had no idea the pain they (families of victims) experienced, said Contreras. I thought I understood.

Alexander, meanwhile, arrived at law through an unconventional path. He studied forestry at Texas A&M, but considered environmental law when he realized most of his older friends were struggling to find work. After getting his juris doctorate at Saint Louis University School of Law, he returned to San Antonio  his hometown  and for three years operated a solo practice and worked as a corporate counsel for a local brokerage.

Then-Bexar County district attorney Susan Reed hired Alexander in 2005, and hes worked in just about all the sections of the office ever since, he said. Most recently, Alexander has specialized in child abuse cases, which he said just seems like the right thing to do.

Part of it is that Im a dad. I have a vested interest in keeping children safe, Alexander said. The other part of it is just, someones got to do it.  A lot of prosecutors arent in a big hurry to step up and join this unit because of the subject matter. And its hard. Its hard to listen to, hard to deal with every day.

Though more than 13,000 Republican voters who submitted ballots in the March 6 primary did not bother to choose one of the five GOP candidates running in the 187th, Alexander argued that the elected position impacts voters more directly than some of the bigger draws atop the ballot.

This court deals with felony offenses, and the vast majority of these felonies involve victims. And so, this is the place in which they are going to get justice, he said. This is a place that has a direct effect on the ongoing safety of our community.

Elizabeth Zavala is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | ezavala@express-news.net | @elizabeth2863Re: No-rail is fine; stay open to transit plan, editorial, Friday:

I find your editorial absolutely absurd and contradictory. I am basing my statement on years of travel to major cities in the U.S. and Europe. It is a lot easier to get around in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Toronto than San Antonio.

The editorial advocates a no-rail policy, but then concludes that San Antonio needs a transit plan for the anticipated growth. I contend that the growth will not occur until we have political leaders who have a vision that includes rail.

Since the mayor has taken office, major deals for bringing companies here have fallen through. Why would any corporation want to move to a city with such a negative track record solving the transit problem as expressed in your editorial?

William Lambert

Minor league town

Re: S.A. wont try to get the GOPs national convention, front page, Friday:

The recent vote by the City Council not to bid on the 2020 GOP convention once again confirms what I have come to recognize as a trend in city government that has been sorely evident over the 20 years I have resided in the area.

Although the population of San Antonio has grown in those 20 years to make it one of the largest cities in the U.S., the actions of the narrow-minded politicians who are empowered to run the city are the very reason San Antonio has been, and always will be, considered a backwater, one-horse town.

Keep growing, San Antonio, but you never will play with the big boys.

Larry K. Taylor

Power diluted

The election this past Saturday should be a warning to all who think the upcoming runoff and midterm elections will bring change.

The Northside Independent School District won big in its bond election, and for that I am glad, but the low voter turnout was shocking. Once again, we saw low voter participation. This should scare anyone out there who realizes that the vote is the most important power that people possess.

We had better get busy if change is to come in 2018.

Helen Chouinard

The right way

Re: Were all of immigrant origin, so why do we condemn them? Rudy Apodaca, Opinion, April 29:

This is an interesting commentary. The headline poses a simple question, and there is a simple answer, I think. Probably because we came into the country legally, got citizenship, worked, paid taxes and didnt ask the government for a living.

You think?

John Burner

Resisting evil

Re: Obey authority, Your Turn, April 28:

The letter writer actually believes that all governing authorities are appointed by God? Would she include Hitler, Amin, Stalin, etc., among those divine appointments? Did those who resisted their evils bring judgement upon themselves?

Todd Cooper

Dual threat

I always wonder when readers write to complain about how we are seriously jeopardizing our grandchildrens future by:

Increasing the already massive federal debt (Republicans/conservatives).

Refusing to take climate change and pollution seriously (Democrats/liberals).

In truth, we are obviously giving our grandkids (I have two) a legacy of financial and environmental distress, yet each side will not believe the danger of their political opponents sense of alarm. In fact, the conservatives in Congress and the White House recently passed legislation not only to cut taxes but dramatically increase spending.

Sadly, the current crop of politicians of both parties, and in particular their leadership, show a breathtaking lack of intelligence and courage in tackling these two immense problems. Their incompetence and the knee-jerk reaction of many voters against ideas from the other side are sliding us to a mess that will be very hard for our grandchildren to clean up.

Laird Loomis

Lies keep coming

The first week of May seemed perfectly normal. And then we found out the president fabricated his health records in a letter calling him the healthiest presidential candidate ever. On subsequent days, the lies in the Stormy Daniels fiasco came so fast and furious that it was hard to keep up.

After that, our president, in an effort to bring home three prisoners from North Korea, chided the previous administration for not making an effort to do so when, in fact, two of the prisoners were not incarcerated until after he took office.

Then, last Friday, he spoke to the NRA at its convention in Dallas, and flip-flopped on every aspect of gun control he promised the Parkland, Florida, students back in February in the White House. Also on Friday, he praised the latest jobs numbers from the same monthly report he called fake during President Barack Obamas term.

All this from a man who calls James Comey a liar, singles out major networks for reporting fake news, hides his tax returns and needs a fixer for a lawyer. I can hardly wait until next week.

Richard Harris

Human rights story

Re: Yes, San Antonians do have a stake in Gaza events, Moureen Kaki, Harry Gunkel and Judith Norman, Another View, April 27:

Thank you for finally providing a column honestly covering the Israeli regimes occupation of Palestine and San Antonios involvement. This is a human rights story, and so glad it finally is being presented in local media. Much appreciated!

Lupita GonzalezSTAMFORD - Workers at the Stamford Hilton who voted to unionize in November are calling for a boycott of the hotel on First Stamford Place.

The union, UNITE HERE Local 217, wants guests to stop doing business with the Stamford Hilton until management agrees to offer workers a fair contract, according to a statement from the union issued Wednesday.

Union members plan to launch the boycott at 5 p.m. Friday with a picket outside the hotel, according to the statement.

We are simply seeking a living wage and affordable health care, and so far the company has refused to do so, UNITE HERE organizing director Andrew Tillett-Saks said Wednesday. We are trying to change the workers lives and change the dynamic in Stamford, which is the very rich and the very hard-working poor.

Employees are seeking better pay at the hotel, where the median hourly wage is $11.02, according to the statement. The health-care plan is so expensive that only 62 of the 124 employees in the bargaining unit can afford it, union representatives say.

Employees have been asking guests to take their business elsewhere, said Lupe Martinez, a banquet server and leader of the effort.

We asked them to support us by not coming back to the hotel until the company gives us what we need. We want everyone to know about the working conditions, Martinez said Wednesday. Some guests have said they will pull their business until the company gives us a fair contract.

Negotiations have been going on for months but management so far is not willing to provide the kind of change needed to lift people out of poverty, the statement says.

Organizers with UNITE HERE, which represents 3,000 hotel and food-service workers in the state, said in November that the 484-room Hilton is the first hotel in Stamford to unionize.

We are fighting for workers to get what we deserve, said Martinez, who has worked at the Stamford Hilton for 19 years. We just want a fair contract and fair wages for everyone.

A message left with hotel General Manager Ted McCallum Wednesday evening was not immediately returned.

acarella@stamfordadvocate.comFAIRFIELD  It wasnt just town officials getting the honor of tossing dirt at the groundbreaking of Holland Hill Elementary School on Thursday morning.

Twelve students, two per grade chosen by school officials, donning small hardhats and size-appropriate red shovels, dug into a large pile of dirt where a decades-old playground once stood to mark the start of an $18.5 million renovation and expansion of the school.

One of the updates officials chose highlight at the ceremony was that the school will have air conditioning after the 18-month to two-year project is complete.

This time next year, you guys will be cool, said Superintendent of School Toni Jones to several hundred students, parents, teachers and construction workers gathered for the event.

Jones said on a recent hot day, the air conditioning shut down at the school districts central offices and it made her think of the students at Holland Hill.

I was thinking of Holland Hill, I really was, Jones said.

First Selectman Mike Tetreau, who attended Holland Hill as a child, pointed to where he played ball on the playground and a couple of his classrooms that could be seen from the podium set up at the rear of the school.

Im pretty sure if there was air conditioning when I was in school, I would have gotten better grades, Tetreau said.

The project calls for the addition of five classrooms, along with a general music room, new lockers for fourth- and fifth-graders, special education resource rooms, an expanded kitchen area, and a new performance platform/instrumental music classroom space.

The central office area will be expanded to allow for controlled visitor access and a nursing office. All bathrooms will be made ADA compliant, all existing lockers will be replaced and a new gym floor installed.

Outside, the southwest parking area will be reconfigured and parking increased to 89 spaces, plus 12 parent drop-off/pickup spaces. A security access driveway will be built along the southeast side of the building, and play areas renovated with new equipment.

Principal Molly Farrell, who is in her first year at Holland Hill, said she did as any adult would when asked what groundbreaking meant by a student.

I Googled it, she said.

She said she came across a definition of the word.

I stopped on pioneer. You guys are pioneers, she said, pointing at the students in front of her.

jferrari@hearstmediact.comFAIRFIELD  An Easton man is facing charges after upending a table at a Post Road restaurant early Sunday morning.

David Acosta, 27, of Westport Road, was charged with second-degree criminal mischief, interfering with an officer, assault on a police officer and second-degree breach of peace.

Police were called to Geronimos, 2070 Post Road, around 1:30 a.m. on a report of man fighting in the street. They arrived and found some restaurant employees trying to control Acosta, who was flailing his arms and yelling. When the officer tried to intercede, he said Acosta resisted and had to be taken to the ground and handcuffed.

The manager said Acosta was standing near the front door when he suddenly started to yell and flipped over a custom-made hostess table, damaging the table and breaking some glasses.

Police said Acosta was highly intoxicated and he allegedly admitted to being drunk and said everything that happened was his fault. After he calmed down, police took Acosta out the police car so they could conduct a search of his person. He then refused to get back into the patrol car and kicked one of the officers three times.

Acosta was released on a promise to appear in state Superior Court on May 16, and taken to St. Vincents Medical Center for evaluation due to the level of intoxication.ASHLAND, Ohio  What makes the ideal club lamb? That depends on who you ask.

Mike Stitzlein has been chasing the crazy trends of the show lamb industry for the past 30 years.

We tend to pick the extremes, he said, referring to traits such as larger boned, muscular lambs and the current trend of leaving fuzz on the legs to make the lamb appear more stout.

As much as we chase those trends, its important to remember theres a production end of it, he said. For Stitzlein, he is looking for a balance of muscle and frame.

Ideally, we are trying to choose a product to go to market, he said. It scares me, sometimes, that the show ring gets too far away from that.

History

Stitzlein Club Lambs started out as Mikes FFA project. His grandparents had a small dairy farm at the time and his grandfather always had a few sheep as lawn mowers.

Stitzlein Club Lambs 797 County Road 1754 Ashland, Ohio 419-289-9520 mikestitzlein@gmail.com stitzlein.com

Back then, you had a few of everything, said Stitzlein. Mike had shown a couple of those sheep at the Loudonville Street Fair before joining FFA in high school and starting his own small flock.

Dad and I bought four Suffolk ewes, he said. Then it got out of hand.

When he graduated high school in the mid-80s, he decided he could sell his lambs to local 4-Hers who needed a project. After graduating from Ohio State University, in 1990, raising sheep became a full-time job.

I really thought when I got out of college I would have a full-time job and raise sheep on the side, he said.

After interviewing a couple places, he determined the sheep were making him more money than the jobs he was considering. He moved onto his grandparents farm and the small dairy was converted to a sheep operation.

Farming

Today, Stitzlein farms with his brother, Bruce, and Bruces children, Jacob and Jeff. The main farm is 117 acres, an additional 25 acres is rented, and Mike owns an additional 17 acres.

The Stitzleins are able to grow all their own hay and corn, and ewes graze on pasture throughout the summer. Each year, they lamb 250 ewes, sell some as club lambs, some as breeding stock and take some to the Mount Hope auction.

Weve started shifting more toward breeding stock, said Mike. Stitzlein said they are able to sell a great deal of their stock online through his website and at local and national sales.

Young shepherds

Stitzlein said he enjoys any opportunity he can to help the next generation and the sheep industry as a whole. And his efforts have not gone unnoticed.

In April, Stitzlein was inducted into the Animal Sciences Hall of Fame at Ohio State University. Each year, he donates the use of his rams for Ohio States flock and assists the universitys judging teams by letting them come to the farm and practice with his flock.

While attending Ohio State himself, he had the opportunity to work at the sheep barn for three years and considers Ron Gunther, shepherd at the time, one of his biggest mentors.

I had sheep growing up, but I was still pretty green. I learned a tremendous amount (from him).

Stitzlein works to help aspiring young shepherds and encourage them to stay in the industry, even past the 4-H years.

The ring

Stitzlein has had the opportunity to judge sheep shows across the country and says, its tough.

For him, the ideal market lamb exhibits that balance of muscle and frame. He is looking for muscle, fat or conditioning and the lambs structure  how they carry that muscle and fat. The animal still has to move, he said.

(Judging) helps as a breeder to see sheep across the country, he added. I look at structural things that work well for the overall sheeps health.

He said getting carried away and selecting too much against nature can lead to challenges with breeding.

Eat lamb

Stitzlein said he wishes more youth would taste lamb.

What bothers me most is how many kids have shown a lamb and not eaten it. We want to promote our product, he said.

Its fun to do the show thing, but lets not get away from the industry, he said. (The sheep industry) is a small industry as a whole.The British Veterinary Association has urged government to deliver its promises of an animal welfare stewardship programme to financially support farmers.

Earlier this year, the government recognised animal health and welfare as public goods. It spoke of the possibility of introducing pilot schemes to offer payments to farmers who deliver welfare outcomes.

However, the BVA said more detail is needed on the schemes that will see these public goods incentivised.

The veterinary industry body has recommended the use of an animal welfare stewardship programme to financially support animal welfare as a public good, alongside further development of farm assurance schemes.

The government has in the past spoken about proposals to pilot schemes that offer payments to those farmers who deliver welfare outcomes that are higher than the legislative minimum and to introduce schemes that reward new approaches to improve welfare outcomes that are not industry standard.

The BVA proposes a programme that would be based on the principles of environmental stewardship schemes, which reward land management practices that benefit the environment.

It would compensate for the additional costs of improving animal welfare outcomes, alongside providing incentives to support continuing and long-term investment into these activities.

BVA President John Fishwick said animal health and welfare "underpin" the reputation of UK farm produce.

It is essential that these are supported as public goods in agricultural policy post-Brexit in a way that can make a positive and measurable impact on animal health and welfare, Mr Fishwick explained.

Vets play a crucial role in UK agriculture, right throughout the animals life, then from the farm-gate through to trade certification. Working towards the highest welfare standards and monitoring disease are an essential component of this, so its vital that the government use veterinary expertise to best effect in the development and implementation of any new policy and plans.Wheat from the UK could begin exporting to Cuba if mutual interests and conditions between the two countries are successfully met.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has recently undertaken a fact-finding mission to Cuba to look at new export opportunities for UK wheat.

AHDBs export team met with Alimport, the government body responsible for all of Cubas cereal imports, to gain a greater understanding of the countrys requirements and the process to gain access to this new market.

AHDB Export Marketing Executive Dorit Cohen said the visit proved very useful and it revealed many opportunities for trade between the UK and Cuba.

She added: This fact-finding mission was incredibly important as in order to begin exporting UK wheat to Cuba, we first need to understand the needs of the marketplace. It was very interesting to discover what opportunities exist for our wheat exporters.

As Cuba does not have suitable climatic conditions to grow wheat, there is no domestic production and the country is the largest importer of wheat in the Caribbean, with annual imports totalling 0.8Mt.

During the visit, we discovered that the export opportunities are strongest for malting barley and hops, as well as biscuit-grade wheat.

Beer and bread

The vast majority of Cubas wheat imports are for bread production and with the countrys booming tourist industry  reaching its peak at 4.7 million tourists in 2017  bread consumption is expected to rise further.

Beer production is also increasing as a result of the rise in tourism and small quantities of malting barley are being imported for its production.

Ms Cohen added: Now that we have researched the needs of the Cuban market, we can explore mutual interest between UK suppliers and Alimport and begin the process to gain phyto-sanitary clearance, which is key for the commencement of trade.

In a post-Brexit environment, we need to be aware of any potential trade opportunities that exist with non-EU countries, which is why these fact-finding missions are so important for the industry.The Welsh government has refused to rule out a proposal that could see agricultural land taken away from farmers for a fraction of its real value.

The Secretary for Rural Affairs Secretary, Lesley Griffiths, was pressed by South Wales West AM Suzy Davies to rule out the plans that the Cabinet Secretary had failed to deny in response to Mrs Daviess written question in March.

Mrs Davies called on the Cabinet Secretary to rule out adopting a Welsh version of Jeremy Corbyns proposed English Sovereign Land Trust.

The proposal would see powers given to government to compulsory purchase agricultural land for housing at a reduced rate.

The CLA, a landowner organisation, said compulsory purchase of land should be a "last resort" and small farms will be the ones that "suffer".

However, Lesley Griffiths refused to rule out a Welsh version of Corbyn's plans, and instead stated that she gave a detailed response to Mrs Davies when she wrote to her and that she had nothing further to add.

Mrs Davies initially wrote to the Cabinet Secretary asking her to rule out the proposals on 6th March.

The Cabinet Secretary wrote back on 19th March stating: A Sovereign Land Trust is one of several possible tools to achieve a more equitable distribution of land value uplift arising from land being allocated in Local Development Plans and the granting planning consent, all of which require further detailed evaluation.

Mrs Davies said the latest response is "extremely disappointing", and that a number of farmers from her region have contacted voicing concerns about the plans.

This was the perfect opportunity for Welsh Government to distance themselves from these land grab proposals. However, they have refused to do that, Mrs Davies said.

Labour's plans to create a new English Sovereign Land Trust will grant powers to the government to buy land at agricultural prices for housing.

The move has been announced by John Healey, the shadow housing minister. His plans will allow the Trust to buy up large plots of agricultural and industrial land - with compulsory purchase if necessary.

Mr Healey explained that the move would lead to cheaper housing and help free up space for the 100,000 council homes the party has pledged to construct per year.Retro Vibes All Over

Kangana looks gorgeous in an ultra-glamorous rendition of the famous Aakash-tara' (i.e. starry skies) saree. The Sabyasachi Mukherjee creation is a hand-dyed and embellished with hand-cut sequins that are individually sewn using zardosi technique, to create a metallic, yet fluid fabric.

We Are Totally In Love With Her Look

The actress chose to accessorized her look with a Sabyasachi batua and the teenmaniya' necklace, crafted out of rose-cut diamonds, Colombian emeralds and basra pearls from the Sabyasachi Heritage Jewelry Collection.

Here's Why She Picked Up A Sabyasachi Creation

Speaking about it, the actress had earlier told a leading daily, " Sabya is the best we have and he is creating an Indian and a few other international looks for me. I want to look my best but not look the best there. I want the attire to enhance my look. Impact is not the intention."

Reportedly Kangana's international team worked closely with fashion designer Sabyasachi to curate Indian as well as Western looks for her.

The Reason Why She Is Attending The Film Festival

Kangana said, " One of my key purposes to be at Cannes is to attend a party meant for underlining the excellence in cinema and felicitating artistes from all over the globe. I've been chosen to represent India and our industry and the great work we're doing here. On the other hand, there are plans for a conversation between Prasoon, Smritiji and me, but we are yet to discuss that in detail."

Is She Worried About Fashion Critics?

"I definitely want to look my best, but I don't want to look the best. That is where true fashion and expression comes from. It has to emanate from a good place and with good intentions. I don't have to wear something that people term as the outfit of the year', but it has to enhance my personality. Making an impact - good, bad, ugly, shocking - is not my intention. I just wish that whatever I wear has a subtle connect with everyone watching me."The Airport Look

Deepika Padukone arrived at the airport in style and her huge smile says it all. There's excitement all over the place, folks!

White Top & Denim

Deepika Padukone surprised everyone by sporting a white top and denims at the Cannes 2018, as not many people opt for the casual look. But kudos to Deepika for this!

The Mirror Pose

Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the prettiest one of them all? Well, Deepika Padukone without a doubt, of course!

Posing By The French Riveria

Deepika Padukone looks dazzling as she poses by the French Riveria and made everyone skip a heartbeat.

Just Beautiful

Deepika Padukone looks so beautiful in this picture, doesn't she? She looks nothing less than a million dollars, folks!

The Looks That Kill

Deepika Padukone's got the looks that kill and she has the ability to make anyone go weak in the knees in an instant.

The Queen Of Cannes

Going by how amazing Deepika Padukone looks in all the pictures, we guess she's all set to rule Cannes 2018, peeps!

Posing With Fans

Deepika Padukone happily posed with her fans at the Cannes 2018 and we're sure that there's many more to come.

Just Chilling Around

Here's Deepika Padukone just chilling with the backdrop of the beach, and even then she looks so down right gorgeous!

It's Shoot Time

The Padmaavat actress didn't waste time and got down to business - photoshoots, of course!

The Red Carpet

Deepika Padukone is all set to walk the ramp at the Cannes 2018 on day 1 and day 2.It's a historic day for Malaysia as for the first time in its history an opposition party prepares to take the reins of power from the United Malays National Organisation and its coalition allies.

Prime Minister Najib Razak's defeat was confirmed in the early hours of Thursday morning, with 92-year-old former premier Mahathir Mohamad making a shock return to government.

The change of government and the uncharted territory ahead create a host of questions for international and domestic investors with an eye on the country. For example how will a new government affect Chinese Belt and Road investment, which had been burgeoning under Najib What will...COLOGNE, Germany, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- How can businesses better protect themselves from the increasing volume and complexity of cyberattacks while preparing for the opportunities of automation and digitalization of industries?

TUV Rheinland sheds the light on these questions in our "Cybersecurity Trends 2018", available for download at http://www.tuv.com/en/cybersecurity-trends-2018

"Our goal is raise awareness to increasing cybersecurity risks impacting business and safety of our clients," shared Frank Luzsicza, Executive Vice President ICT & Business Solutions, TUV Rheinland. "In this year's report, we focus on where we see the most significant threats and opportunities emerging. We highlight the implications of our increasingly connected world, how global regulation is responding, the need to inject trust into cybersecurity, ways to protect ourselves from 'intelligent' cyberattacks, and what we should do to close the skills gap in an environment starved for cybersecurity talent, yet overwhelmed by volumes of data," said Frank Luzsicza. Similar to previous years, our report is based on a survey of TUV Rheinland's leading cybersecurity experts and input from clients in Europe, North America and Asia.

Following are highlights of the 8 cybersecurity trends identified this year:

TREND 1: A rising global tide of cyber-regulation increasing the price of privacy

Data protection is a critical concern in an increasingly digital world and May 25, 2018 is a turning point for data protection in Europe. It marks the end of the transitional period for the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as it becomes enforceable by law. It disrupts data governance and how information is protected for any organization controlling or processing EU citizen personal data, and leads a growing list of emerging data protection regulations from around the globe. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to 4% of global turnover - a significant sum that demands attention. Expect to see the EU Commission hold major global companies accountable for GDPR violations.

TREND 2: The Internet of Things drives the convergence of safety, cybersecurity, and data privacy

In 2016, Mirai proved that Internet of Things (IoT) devices can be effectively weaponized as botnets. Today, product development, time to market considerations, and technical power constraints leave IoT devices exposed by exploitation of critical vulnerabilities. The impact of data breaches now extends far beyond simple data monetization to 'kinetic' threats to health and safety, as devices and systems are directly connected to open networks. It is widely accepted that the state of IoT security is poor and, with over 500 connected devices expected to cohabit with us in our homes by 2022, these represent a major risk to safety, cybersecurity, and data privacy.

TREND 3: Operational Technology emerges as a frontline for cyberattacks

The industrial internet is already transforming global industry and infrastructure, promising greater efficiency, productivity and safety. To compete means to move process equipment online, often unwittingly exposing component vulnerabilities to cyberattacks. Manufacturing plants are targeted to obtain intellectual property, trade secrets, and engineering information. Attacks on public infrastructure are motivated by financial gain, hacktivism, and national state agendas. Fear of a 'worst-case scenario', where attackers trigger a breakdown in systems that underpin society, was highlighted this year at the World Economic Forum. Industrial systems are particularly susceptible to supply-chain attacks, adversaries have recognized this, and are targeting them.

TREND 4: With cyber defences in place, focus shifts to threat detection & response

Recent cyberattacks on high-profile organizations are proving that, against the sophisticated and persistent cybercriminals, preventative controls alone are not enough. Today, it takes organizations, on average, over 191 days to detect a data breach. The longer it takes to detect and respond to threats the greater the financial and reputational damage done to the organization by the incident. Due to the vast growth of security log data, limitations of incumbent technologies, ineffective use of threat intelligence, inability to monitor IoT devices, and shortage of cybersecurity talent, organizations are exposed to costly dwell times.

TREND 5: Increasing use of Artificial Intelligence for cyberattacks and cyber defence

As organizations undergo a digital transformation, there is a growing volume of increasingly sophisticated and persistent cyberattacks. Malware is becoming smarter, able to 'intelligently' adapt to and evade traditional detection and eradication measures. With a global shortage of cybersecurity talent, organizations are losing the cyber arms race as a result. The volume of security data now far exceeds our legacy capability to use it effectively, leading to a growing number of AI-enabled cybersecurity use cases: accelerating incident detection and response; better identifying and communicating risks to the business; providing a unified view of security status across the organization.

TREND 6: Certifications become necessary to inject trust into cybersecurity

It is broadly accepted that cybersecurity and data protection are of critical importance in an increasingly digital world, but how can you judge the effectiveness of an organization's cybersecurity posture? There is a growing concern for trust in cybersecurity, evidenced by existing and emerging standards. For CISOs and product manufacturers alike, certification validates you have done what you say you have done. Today, however, product security assurance certification schemes tend to focus on the critical infrastructure and government sectors only. Where does that leave the manufacturers of consumer products?

TREND 7: Passwords being replaced by biometric authentication

Our digital lives are ruled by a complex web of online apps each requiring a username and password to control access. To protect the data behind these apps, selecting an obscure and complex password, and changing it often, is good practice, but also quite rare. With exponential improvements in computing power, and easy access to lots of it in the cloud, the time it takes to brute force passwords is rapidly reducing. What took nearly 4 years in 2000, now takes only 2 months. Add to that the fact stolen, hacked, and traded, passwords have never before been so openly available. As a result, it is increasingly commonplace to encounter biometric authentication (facial, fingerprint, iris, and voice) included in everyday mobile, tablet, and laptop devices, as well as physical access and online services.

TREND 8: Industries under siege: Healthcare, Finance, and Energy

The majority of cyberattacks are undertaken by criminal organizations and are motivated by money. The value of information on the dark web depends on demand for the data, the available supply, its completeness, and ability for reuse. As a result, healthcare and financial personal information are highly sought after. Medical records can fetch $1-$1,000, depending on how complete they are, while credit cards can fetch only $5-$30 dollars, if bundled with the information necessary to do immediate damage. Other cyberattacks have more political and nation-state motives, here disruption to critical services through attacks on the energy sector is a key risk in 2018; as evidenced by recent news of Russia's campaign of cyberattacks targeting the US power grid, which is suspected to have been underway for several years.

More detailed information and assessments of the challenges in 2018 by TUV Rheinland can be found in the Cybersecurity Trends 2018 whitepaper. http://www.tuv.com/en/cybersecurity-trends-2018

About TUV Rheinland

TUV Rheinland is a global leader in independent inspection services, founded 145 years ago. The group maintains a worldwide presence of more than 20,000 people; annual turnover is nearly EUR 2 billion. The independent experts stand for quality and safety for people, technology and the environment in nearly all aspects of life. TUV Rheinland inspects technical equipment, products and services, oversees projects, and helps to shape processes and information security for companies. Its experts train people in a wide range of careers and industries. To this end, TUV Rheinland employs a global network of approved labs, testing and education centers. Since 2006, TUV Rheinland has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact to promote sustainability and combat corruption.

For almost 20 years, TUV Rheinland has been supporting the private and public sector with comprehensive consulting and solution expertise in Cybersecurity and Telecommunications through digital transformation processes. The business stream's core business areas include cybersecurity solutions, digital transformation consulting, planning of telecommunication infrastructures, IT services, management consulting and development of innovative research projects.

With more than 600 specialists around the world, ICT & Business Solutions provides a comprehensive service portfolio for a protected digital enterprise. For more information please visit http://www.tuv.com/informationsecurityThe ninth Hong Kong International Medical Devices and Supplies Fair concluded today. The three-day fair welcomed over 11,500 buyers from 70 countries and regions, up 6.7 per cent over the previous year. Buyers show keen interest in the Rehabilitation and Elderly Care zone, one of 18 thematic zones featured at the Medical Fair to facilitate sourcing.

In addition to the HKMHDIA pavilion comprising 38 local companies, the Medical Fair also welcomed other group pavilions from around the world, such as the Czech Republic and the Wielkopolska region of Poland. They presented the latest medical technology from their respective countries or regions.

Experts share their insights at the seminar on "Disruptive Medtech Innovations from Southern California", one of a series of seminar held during the fair period to help the industry monitor the pulse of the market.



Selina Fan, Tel: +852 2584 4298, Email: selina.mi.fan@hktdc.org

HONG KONG, May 9, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - The ninth HKTDC Hong Kong International Medical Devices and Supplies Fair (Medical Fair) concluded its three-day run today. Organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and co-organised by the Hong Kong Medical and Healthcare Device Industries Association (HKMHDIA), the fair welcomed over 11,500 buyers from 70 countries and regions, up 6.7 per cent over last year.Record exhibitor number; bigger group pavilions"Increasing health awareness is driving the continual growth of the global medical equipment and supplies market," said HKTDC Deputy Executive Director Benjamin Chau. "This year, the Medical Fair recorded encouraging growth in buyer attendance, both from mature markets such as the United States and Australia, and from emerging markets including Russia, Thailand and Macau, indicating there is flourishing demand for medical products and services across many markets."Continued expansion saw the Medical Fair feature a record 280 exhibitors from 13 countries and regions this year, showcasing an extensive array of medical equipment, technologies and services to global buyers. The fair welcomed new group pavilions from Taiwan, Guangdong Association for Medical Devices Industry and Southern California Biomedical Council (SoCalBio) from the US, as well as returning pavilions, with expanded exhibiting area, from HKMHDIA, the Czech Republic, the Wielkopolska region of Poland and the Ningbo Association for Medical Devices Industry. The Czech Republic and SoCalBio also conducted on-site seminars to introduce the country's latest medical technology.Start-ups explore medical marketThe medical industry is becoming a popular sector for the new generation of entrepreneurs, with many start-ups developing innovative medical products and services to capitalise on business opportunities in the sector. This year's Medical Fair saw the return of the Startup zone, gathering a number of start-ups to present innovative ideas.MedEXO Robotics, a local start-up exhibiting at the fair for the first time, showcased the smart pillbox MedPot and the WalkAid, which helps Parkinson's disease patients walk. More than 100 buyers made enquiries with the company on the first two days of the fair alone, including a Hong Kong foot care products expert who planned to use the WalkAid technology to develop insoles for children with splay feet. Meanwhile, a local non-government organisation serving the elderly planned to buy the MedPot.Business matching boosts businessTo facilitate sourcing, the Medical Fair featured 18 thematic zones covering various medical supplies, including the World of Health & Wellness, which showcased healthcare products and services such as fitness products, functional food and beverages, cosmetic supplies and services, as well as physiotherapy supplies and equipment."The World of Health & Wellness attracts a large number of professional buyers. We are happy to have met with potential distributors from Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Malaysia and the Chinese mainland for our V-Meds-brand lung cleansing kits," said Winson Heung, Marketing Director of V-Meds (Asia) Limited. "We expect that about 10 of them will become our distributors. Meanwhile, two buyers from the Chinese mainland and India have expressed their intention to buy around 1,000 pieces. The fair's results have been encouraging."The HKTDC also provided a range of quality services to help the industry capture business opportunities. Through the HKTDC's business matching service, Bulgarian buyer Krassimir Christov from Aichhorn and Co EOOD, visiting the Medical Fair for the first time, found two potential suppliers from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. "They supply different items such as surgical drapes, plastic scissors and absorbent pads. I plan to buy 100,000 pieces per item," he said.To help industry professionals monitor the pulse of the market, a series of seminars was organised, covering such topics as trends in Medtech and smart healthcare, as well as updates on procurement guidelines and medical device regulations. The Hospital Authority Convention 2018 (7-8 May), another major event for medical professionals in the Asia Pacific region, was held on the first two days of the Medical Fair, attracting more than 5,600 attendees.Fair website: www.hktdc.com/hkmedicalfair/Photo download: https://bit.ly/2I8w2oyComments from exhibitors and buyers: https://bit.ly/2ru2iMoAbout HKTDCEstablished in 1966, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a statutory body dedicated to creating opportunities for Hong Kong's businesses. With more than 40 offices globally, including 13 on the Chinese mainland, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a platform for doing business with China, Asia and the world. With more than 50 years of experience, the HKTDC organises international exhibitions, conferences and business missions to provide companies, particularly SMEs, with business opportunities on the mainland and in international markets, while providing business insights and information via trade publications, research reports and digital channels including the media room. For more information, please visit: www.hktdc.com/aboutus. Follow us on Google+, Twitter @hktdc, LinkedIn.- Google+: https://plus.google.com/+hktdc- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/hktdc- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/hong-kong-trade-development-councilSource: HKTDCContact:Copyright 2018 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.All amounts are in U.S. Dollars unless otherwise indicated:

TSX ticker symbol; BKX

OTCQX ticker symbol; BNKPF

CAMARILLO, California, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

FIRST QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

During the first quarter of 2018, the Company commenced its 2018 development drilling program by drilling two wells, the Glenn 16-2H well and the WLC 14-1H well (both 100% working interest)

The Glenn 16-2H well, which started production in late March, had a 30-day initial production (IP) rate of 630 boepd, of which 540 barrels was oil. This is 45% higher than the Company's next highest well's oil production at the 30 day mark

Average production for the first quarter of 2018 was 1,464 BOEPD, an increase of 94% compared to first quarter 2017 average production of 753 BOEPD. The increase was primarily due to the addition of three producing wells in 2017 and the Glenn 16-2H well in 2018

Average production for the month of April 2018 , which included a full month of production from the Glenn 16-2H well, was 1,833 BOE

, which included a full month of production from the Glenn 16-2H well, was 1,833 BOE Funds from operations was $2.2 million in the first quarter 2018 compared to $0.9 million in the first quarter of 2017. The increase was mainly due to a 94% increase in production combined with a 25% increase in oil prices partially offset by realized losses from commodity contracts in the first quarter of 2018

in the first quarter 2018 compared to in the first quarter of 2017. The increase was mainly due to a 94% increase in production combined with a 25% increase in oil prices partially offset by realized losses from commodity contracts in the first quarter of 2018 Net loss for the first quarter of 2018 was approximately $0.5 million compared to a net income of $1.0 million for the first quarter of 2017 due to unrealized losses of $0.8 million from hedged commodity contracts in the first quarter of 2018 compared to an unrealized gain of $1.5 in first quarter 2017

compared to a net income of for the first quarter of 2017 due to unrealized losses of from hedged commodity contracts in the first quarter of 2018 compared to an unrealized gain of in first quarter 2017 Revenue, net of royalties was $4.9 million in the first quarter of 2018 compared to $2.2 million for first quarter of 2017, an increase of 127%, as production increased by 94% and average prices increased 16% between the quarters

in the first quarter of 2018 compared to for first quarter of 2017, an increase of 127%, as production increased by 94% and average prices increased 16% between the quarters Average netback per barrel for the first quarter of 2018 was $29.95 , an increase of 16% from the prior year first quarter due to the higher prices in 2018. The Company received prior period adjustments for its natural gas volumes sold and processing costs related to prior years. Excluding the impact of these prior period adjustments, the netbacks for the first quarter of 2018 were $31.69 per BOE, an increase of 23% from the prior year first quarter

, an increase of 16% from the prior year first quarter due to the higher prices in 2018. The Company received prior period adjustments for its natural gas volumes sold and processing costs related to prior years. Excluding the impact of these prior period adjustments, the netbacks for the first quarter of 2018 were per BOE, an increase of 23% from the prior year first quarter At March 31, 2018 , cash totaled $1.0 million and the Company had $3.0 million in available borrowing capacity on its credit facility. The Company's working capital was $(5.1) million and the Company's 90-Day working capital, which includes borrowings under its credit facility expected in the next 90 days and the fair value of the liability under its commodity contracts that are payable within 90 days, was $(0.9) million

BNK's President and Chief Executive Officer, Wolf Regener commented:

"We are excited to have kicked off our 2018 development drilling program with the excellent results of the Glenn 16-2H well, which started producing in late March. As previously disclosed, the 30-day initial production (IP) rate of the Glenn well was 630 boepd, including 540 barrels of oil, which is 45% higher than the 30-day oil IP rate from any of our past wells. The Glenn 16-2H well was the first to utilize our latest generation frack design which our technical team believes was the main driver of these impressive results. Our April production, which included a full month of the Glenn 16-2H well, was 1,833 BOE per day.

We just completed the fracture stimulation of the WLC 14-2H well, using the same frack design as was used on the Glenn 16-2H well, and we expect to release the preliminary flow results from the well later this month. Once again, I am proud that our team has safely executed both the drilling and fracture stimulation of this well on time and we are expecting the total cost for the well to again come in below our estimated $5.7 million budget. Since this well is outside of the acreage that was evaluated by our reserve engineers at the end of 2017, a successful production rate from the WLC 14-2H well should prove up significant reserves in future reserve reports. We are currently in the planning stage of selecting the next locations to be drilled in our 2018 development drilling program which we are planning to start in the third quarter.

Our net revenue increased by 127% in the first quarter 2018 as production increased by 94% and average prices increased by 16% compared to the prior year quarter. In addition, we generated funds from operations of $2.2 million in the first quarter of 2018, which was a 144% increase from the first quarter 2017 amount of $0.9 million. The first quarter 2018 only included a few days of production from the Glenn 16-2H well, so we expect a further increase to our funds from operations going forward.

Average netbacks for the first quarter of 2018 were $29.95 per boe, an increase of 16% compared to the prior year due to higher prices. We had some prior year natural gas adjustments which impacted our netbacks during the first quarter. If these adjustments are excluded from the netback calculation, our average netbacks for the first quarter of 2018 would be $31.69 per boe, an increase of 23% compared to the first quarter of 2017.

In the first quarter of 2018, the Company incurred a net loss of $0.5 million compared to a net income of $1.0 million in the first quarter 2017. This is primarily due to an unrealized loss on financial commodity contracts of $0.8 million in the first quarter of 2018, compared to an unrealized gain of $1.5 million in the first quarter of 2017."



1st Qtr 2018

1st Qtr 2017

% Net income (loss):









$ Thousands ($494)

$984

(150) $ per common share assuming dilution ($0.00)

$0.01

-











Capital Expenditures $7,930

$10,544

(25)











Production per day (Boepd) 1,464

753

94 Product Price per Barrel $47.97

$41.45

16 Netback per Barrel $29.95

$25.81

16 Netback per Barrel excluding prior year adjustments $31.69

$25.81

23 Netback per Barrel including Commodity Contracts $26.77

$32.92

(19)













3/31/2018

12/31/2017



Cash and Cash Equivalents $1,024

$521



Working Capital $(5,058)

$(537)



90-Day Working Capital $(884)

$2,227





First Quarter 2018 versus First Quarter 2017

Oil and gas gross revenues totaled $6,320,000 in the quarter versus $2,809,000 in the first quarter of 2017. Oil revenues increased $3,065,000 or 128% as oil production increased by 81% to 989 boepd and average oil prices increased by $12.48 per barrel or 25% to $61.43. Natural gas revenues increased $219,000 or 139% to $376,000 as natural gas production increased 189% to 1,597 mcfpd which was partially offset by an average natural gas price decrease of $0.54/mcf or 17% to $2.62/mcf. Natural gas liquids (NGLs) revenues increased $227,000 or 90% as NGL production increased 80% to 209 boepd and average NGL prices increased 6% to $25.47.

Average first quarter 2018 production per day increased 94% from the first quarter of 2017 due to three additional wells added to production in 2017 and one well in 2018.

Production and operating expenses increased to $987,000 and the per boe production and operating costs increased by 10% to $6.91/boe due to higher production taxes in 2018, which increased taxes by $0.90/boe, as well as a non-recurring workover of one well during the first quarter of 2018.

Depletion and depreciation expense increased $797,000 or 83% due to an increase in production in the first quarter of 2018.

General and administrative expenses increased $86,000 or 9% due to advisor fees in the first quarter of 2018.

Stock based compensation decreased by $15,000 or 34% due to the timing of stock awards granted to employees.

Finance income decreased $2,039,000 in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the prior year quarter primarily due to unrealized and realized gains on commodity contracts in the first quarter of 2017.

Finance expense increased $1,154,000 in the first quarter of 2018 compared to the prior year quarter primarily due to unrealized and realized losses on commodity contracts in the first quarter of 2018 offset by reduced interest expense on the credit facility in 2018.

Capital expenditures of $7,930,000 were incurred in the first quarter of 2018 relating to the 2018 drilling program in the US.

BNK PETROLEUM INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION (Unaudited, Expressed in Thousands of United States Dollars) ($000 except as noted)

March 31

December 31

2018

2017







Current Assets







Cash $1,024

$521

Trade and other receivables 2,319

2,510

Other current assets 481

563

3,824

3,594







Non-current assets







Property, plant and equipment 153,496

147,195

153,496

147,195







Total Assets $157,320

$150,789







Current Liabilities







Trade and other payables $7,156

$3,132

Fair value of commodity contracts 1,726

999

8,882

4,131







Non-current liabilities







Loans and borrowings 26,513

24,484

Asset retirement obligations 1,074

950

Fair value of commodity contracts 1,035

951

28,622

26,385







Equity







Share capital 289,522

289,522

Contributed surplus 22,443

22,406

Deficit (192,149)

(191,655) Total Equity 119,816

120,273







Total Equity and Liabilities $157,320

$150,789

BNK PETROLEUM INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS (Unaudited, expressed in Thousands of United States dollars, except per share amounts) ($000 except as noted)

Three months ended March 31, ($000's) 2018

2017







Oil and gas revenue net of royalties $4,932

$2,177 Other income 18

1

4,950

2,178







Production and operating expenses 987

427 Depletion and depreciation 1,754

957 General and administrative expenses 1,023

937 Share based compensation 29

44

$3,793

$2,365







Finance Income -

2,039 Finance Expense (1,625)

(471)







Net income (loss) and comprehensive income (loss) from continuing operations $(468)

$1,381 Net loss and comprehensive loss from discontinued operations (26)

(397) Net income (loss) (494)

984 Net income (loss) per share $(0.00)

$0.01

BNK PETROLEUM INC. FIRST QUARTER 2018 (Unaudited, expressed in Thousands of United States dollars, except as noted)





Quarter Ending March 31,

2018

2017 Oil revenue before royalties $5,466

$2,401 Gas revenue before royalties 376

157 NGL revenue before royalties 478

251 Oil and Gas revenue 6,320

2,809 Funds from operations 2,161

886 Capital expenditures (7,930)

(10,544)















Statistics:





Average oil production (Bopd) 989

545 Average natural gas production (mcf/d) 1,597

552 Average NGL production (Boepd) 209

116 Average production (Boepd) 1,464

753







Average oil price ($/bbl) $ 61.43

$ 48.95 Average natural gas price ($/mcf) 2.62

3.16 Average NGL price ($/bbl) 25.47

24.05







Average price per barrel $49.45

$41.45 Royalties per barrel 10.85

9.34 Operating expenses per barrel 6.91

6.30 Prior period adjustments 1.74

- Netback per barrel $29.95

$25.81







Average price per barrel including commodity contracts $46.27

$48.56 Royalties per barrel 10.85

9.34 Operating expenses per barrel 6.91

6.30 Prior period adjustments 1.74

- Netback per barrel including commodity contracts $26.77

$32.92

The information outlined above is extracted from and should be read in conjunction with the Company's unaudited financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and the related management's discussion and analysis thereof, copies of which are available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com.

NON-GAAP MEASURES

Netback per barrel, netback excluding prior period adjustments, netback including commodity contracts, net operating income, funds from operations and 90-Day working capital (collectively, the "Company's Non-GAAP Measures") are not measures recognized under Canadian generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") and do not have any standardized meanings prescribed by GAAP.

The Company's Non-GAAP Measures are described and reconciled to the GAAP measures in the management's discussion and analysis which are available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS

In this news release and the Company's other public disclosure:

(a) The Company's natural gas production is reported in thousands of cubic feet ("Mcfs"). The Company also uses references to barrels ("Bbls") and barrels of oil equivalent ("Boes") to reflect natural gas liquids and oil production and sales. Boes may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A Boe conversion ratio of 6 Mcf:1 Bbl is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead. Given that the value ratio based on the current price of crude oil as compared to natural gas is significantly different from the energy equivalency of 6:1, utilizing a conversion on a 6:1 basis may be misleading as an indication of value.



(b) Discounted and undiscounted net present value of future net revenues attributable to reserves do not represent fair market value.



(c) Possible reserves are those additional reserves that are less certain to be recovered than probable reserves. There is a 10% probability that the quantities actually recovered will equal or exceed the sum of proved plus probable plus possible reserves.



(d) The Company discloses peak and 30-day initial production rates and other short-term production rates. Readers are cautioned that such production rates are preliminary in nature and are not necessarily indicative of long-term performance or of ultimate recovery.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This release contains forward-looking information including information regarding the proposed timing and expected results of exploratory and development work including production from the Company's Tishomingo field, Oklahoma acreage, availability of funds from the Company's reserves based loan facility, expected hedging levels and the Company's strategy and objectives. The use of any of the words "target", "plans", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

Such forward-looking information is based on management's expectations and assumptions, including that the Company's geologic and reservoir models and analysis will be validated, that indications of early results are reasonably accurate predictors of the prospectiveness of the shale intervals, that previous exploration results are indicative of future results and success, that expected production from future wells can be achieved as modeled, declines will match the modeling, future well production rates will be improved over existing wells, that rates of return as modeled can be achieved, that recoveries are consistent with management's expectations, that additional wells are actually drilled and completed, that design and performance improvements will reduce development time and expense and improve productivity, that discoveries will prove to be economic, that anticipated results and estimated costs will be consistent with managements' expectations, that all required permits and approvals and the necessary labor and equipment will be obtained, provided or available, as applicable, on terms that are acceptable to the Company, when required, that no unforeseen delays, unexpected geological or other effects, equipment failures, permitting delays or labor or contract disputes are encountered, that the development plans of the Company and its co-venturers will not change, that the demand for oil and gas will be sustained, that the Company will continue to be able to access sufficient capital through financings, credit facilities, farm-ins or other participation arrangements to maintain its projects, that the Company will continue in compliance with the covenants under its reserves-based loan facility and that the borrowing base will not be reduced, that funds will be available from the Company's reserves based loan facility when required to fund planned operations, that the Company will not be adversely affected by changing government policies and regulations, social instability or other political, economic or diplomatic developments in the countries in which it operates and that global economic conditions will not deteriorate in a manner that has an adverse impact on the Company's business and its ability to advance its business strategy.

Forward looking information involves significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to: any of the assumptions on which such forward looking information is based vary or prove to be invalid, including that the Company's geologic and reservoir models or analysis are not validated, anticipated results and estimated costs will not be consistent with managements' expectations, the risks associated with the oil and gas industry (e.g. operational risks in development, exploration and production; delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration and development projects or capital expenditures; the uncertainty of reserve and resource estimates and projections relating to production, costs and expenses, and health, safety and environmental risks including flooding and extended interruptions due to inclement or hazardous weather), the risk of commodity price and foreign exchange rate fluctuations, risks and uncertainties associated with securing the necessary regulatory approvals and financing to proceed with continued development of the Tishomingo Field, the Company or its subsidiaries is not 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, that completion techniques require further optimization, that production rates do not match the Company's assumptions, that very low or no production rates are achieved, that the Company will cease to be in compliance with the covenants under its reserves-based loan facility and be required to repay outstanding amounts or that the borrowing base will be reduced pursuant to a borrowing base re-determination and the Company will be required to repay the resulting shortfall, that the Company is unable to access required capital, that funding is not available from the Company's reserves based loan facility at the times or in the amounts required for planned operations, that occurrences such as those that are assumed will not occur, do in fact occur, and those conditions that are assumed will continue or improve, do not continue or improve and the other risks identified in the Company's most recent Annual Information Form under the "Risk Factors" section, the Company's most recent management's discussion and analysis and the Company's other public disclosure, available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

With respect to estimated reserves, the evaluation of the Company's reserves is based on a limited number of wells with limited production history and includes a number of assumptions relating to factors such as availability of capital to fund required infrastructure, commodity prices, production performance of the wells drilled, successful drilling of infill wells, the assumed effects of regulation by government agencies and future capital and operating costs. All of these estimates will vary from actual results. Estimates of the recoverable oil and natural gas reserves attributable to any particular group of properties, classifications of such reserves based on risk of recovery and estimates of future net revenues expected therefrom, may vary. The Company's actual production, revenues, taxes, development and operating expenditures with respect to its reserves will vary from such estimates, and such variances could be material. In addition to the foregoing, other significant factors or uncertainties that may affect either the Company's reserves or the future net revenue associated with such reserves include material changes to existing taxation or royalty rates and/or regulations, and changes to environmental laws and regulations.

Although the Company has attempted to take into account important factors that could cause actual costs or results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause actual results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The forward-looking information included in this release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, other than as required by applicable law.

About BNK Petroleum Inc.

BNK Petroleum Inc. is an international oil and gas exploration and production company focused on finding and exploiting large, predominately unconventional oil and gas resource plays. Through various affiliates and subsidiaries, the Company owns and operates shale gas properties and concessions in the United States. Additionally the Company is utilizing its technical and operational expertise to identify and acquire additional unconventional projects. The Company's shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the stock symbol BKX and on the OTCQX under the stock symbol BNKPF.

For further information: Wolf E. Regener, President and Chief Executive Officer, +1 (805) 484-3613, Email: investorrelations@bnkpetroleum.com, Website: www.bnkpetroleum.comHitachi Ltd Corporate Communications Tel: +81-3-3258-1111

TOKYO, May 10, 2018 - (JCN Newswire) - New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501) today announced that they have been working since November 2016 on the construction of a cloud-based integrated distribution management system (DMS(1)) for small and medium-sized electricity distribution companies in a demonstration project carried out with ELES, d.o.o., (ELES) Slovenia's state-owned electricity transmission system operator. Following completion of the DMS installation, test operation will begin at the end of May 2018 and the DMS demonstration will start at the end of July 2018.For the demonstration, a cost-reduced cloud-based DMS will be delivered to two Slovenian distribution companies. The DMS has advanced functions, such as the ability to maintain appropriate voltages and shorten the length of power outages. Furthermore, the project aims to establish a business model for small and medium-sized distribution companies by verifying and utilizing functions that will help resolve issues in Slovenia and other EU countries facing similar situations.As part of its national energy policy, Slovenia has set targets to cover 25% of its total energy consumption requirements by 2020 through the use of renewable energy sources and to also improve its energy efficiency by 20%. In addition, Slovenia has ratified the Paris Agreement, the international framework for measures against global warming which came into effect on November 4, 2016. Since joining the EU in 2004, Slovenia has enjoyed improved standards of living and the highest manufacturing industry growth rate in the EU region, which is resulting in increased demand for electricity. However, the infrastructure of Slovenian power distribution companies has deteriorated over time, and the cost of replacing the existing infrastructure is expected to increase. For these reasons, more sophisticated and economical distribution management technologies are required to resolve issues associated with voltage fluctuations, power outages, power overloads, the acquisition of reserve power, and other problems expected to occur as demand for renewable energy and electricity increases in the future.In this context, on November 25, 2016, NEDO signed two documents for embarking on a smart community demonstration project in Slovenia: a memorandum of cooperation with the Slovenian Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, and a minutes of meeting with the Slovenian Ministry of Infrastructure. In addition, NEDO reached agreement on the joint implementation of a demonstration project and signed a memorandum of understanding with ELES, Slovenia's state-owned electric transmission system operator. NEDO selected Hitachi and Mizuho Bank, Ltd., as its entrusted parties and then officially began the project, which is scheduled to end in December 2019.During the demonstration, the cloud-based DMS should save initial investment and maintenance costs. A DMS with functions to maintain appropriate voltage levels and shorten the length of power outages will be deployed at two Slovenian distribution companies. The project also aims to establish a business model for small and medium-sized electricity distribution companies by verifying and utilizing functions that will help resolve issues in Slovenia and other EU countries facing similar situations. Specifically, a cloud-based integrated DMS system which can be utilized among several distribution companies will be developed by adopting a virtual architecture, and servers will be aggregated and installed at a data center located in Stelkom, a suburb of Ljubljana, Slovenia. In addition to basic functions, the integrated DMS includes advanced functions such as the VVO(VOL-VAR Optimization)(2) function to mitigate voltage deviations which are an impediment to the introduction of large amounts of renewable energy, a fault monitoring function that enables distribution systems to minimize the length of power outages, and the DR(3) function to reduce or delay the need for investment in the distribution network. Moreover, the distribution network is equipped with additional reclosers/ RMUs(4), transformers with OLTC (on load tap changer)(5), and measurement equipment to enable the integrated DMS to monitor and control the targeted distribution network.Moving forward, Hitachi and ELES will investigate the possibility of developing a business model that, based on an analysis and assessment of this demonstration project, will offer the cloud-based DMS as a service in other regions.Before testing begins, a ceremony to celebrate the start of operation was held on May 8, 2018, in Ljubljana. Many stakeholders such as His Excellency Dr. Miro Cerar, Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia; His Excellency Mr. Keiji Fukuda, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the Republic of Slovenia and representatives of other involved parties attended the ceremony.(1) DMS: Stands for Distribution Management System. It refers to a management system for distribution systems.(2) VVO: Voltage and Volt-ampere reactive Optimization. It refers to optimal management of voltage levels and reactive power flow.(3) DR: Stands for Demand Response. It refers to changes made by end-use customers in their normal consumption patterns in response to incentive payments designed to encourage lower electricity use during periods of heavy load.(4) RMU: Stands for Ring Main Unit. It refers to a compact switchgear unit for underground line use.(5) OLTC: Stands for On Load Tap Changer. It refers to a mechanism for changing taps in transformers in an operational state (without outage).About NEDOThe New Energy and Industrial Development Organization (NEDO) is a national research and development agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Government of Japan. Following the two oil crises of the 1970s, NEDO was established in 1980 to promote the development of oil-alternative energy technologies. NEDO is active in a wide variety of areas as one of the largest public research and development management organizations in Japan.About Hitachi, Ltd.Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society's challenges with our talented team and proven experience in global markets. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal 2014 (ended March 31, 2015) totaled 9,761 billion yen ($81.3 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power & infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive systems, healthcare and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at www.hitachi.com.Source: Hitachi, Ltd.Contact:Copyright 2018 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.BASEL (dpa-AFX) - Novartis AG (NVS) said a contract it had with a company created by U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer ended earlier this year. 'In February 2017, Novartis entered into a one year agreement with Essential Consultants shortly after the election of President Trump focused on U.S. healthcare policy matters. The terms were consistent with the market. The agreement expired in February 2018,' said Novartis in statement. Essential Consultants is a company created by Michael Cohen, who is under federal investigation of alleged violations of campaign finance laws. Novartis said, 'The engagement of Essential Consultants predated Vas Narasimhan becoming Novartis CEO and he was in no way involved with this agreement. Contrary to recent media reports, this agreement was also in no way related to the group dinner Dr. Narasimhan had at the World Economic Forum in Davos with President Trump and 15 Europe based industry leaders. Suggestions to the contrary clearly misrepresent the facts and can only be intended to further personal or political agendas as to which Novartis should not be a part.' In terms of the Special Counsel's office, Novartis was contacted in November 2017 regarding the company's agreement with Essential Consultants. Novartis cooperated fully with the Special Counsel's office and provided all the information requested. Novartis said it considers this matter closed as to itself and is not aware of any outstanding questions regarding the agreement. 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.CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The New Zealand dollar fell against its major opponents in the Asian session on Thursday. The kiwi slipped to a 10-day low of 1.7181 against the euro and a 2-1/2-month low of 1.0811 against the aussie, off its early highs of 1.6977 and 1.0681, respectively. Reversing from its early highs of 0.6980 against the greenback and 76.57 against the yen, the kiwi declined to a 5-month low of 0.6903 and near a 2-month low of 75.82, respectively. The next possible support for the kiwi is seen around 1.73 against the euro, 1.09 against the aussie, 0.68 against the greenback and 74.00 against the yen. 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.SYDNEY, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Biopharmaceutical company NeuClone has announced positive preclinical results of its biosimilar to Johnson & Johnson's Stelara, including 3-dimensional (3-D) structure confirmation through X-ray crystallography analysis.

X-ray crystallography analysis confirms identity and equal structural integrity of NeuClone's biosimilar and the reference product Stelara, in both primary amino acid sequence and 3-D folding (structure).

Stelara is a monoclonal antibody that targets both interleukin-12 and -23 and is currently approved to treat various diseases including plaque psoriasis and Crohn's disease.

Dr Noelle Sunstrom, CEO of NeuClone, stated: "These results demonstrate our ability to create biosimilars using our Right from the Start approach to biosimilarity, confirming each NeuClone product is indistinguishable from its originator at every stage of development. We develop crystals, functional cell-based assays and other tier 1 biosimilarity tests all in the same facility, allowing us to select the right candidate to go into the clinic."

NeuClone's Stelara biosimilar is co-developed with Serum Institute of India and is currently in process scale up to support planned Phase I clinical trials in 2019. This will be the company's second product to enter clinical studies in Australia following its first product, a biosimilar of Roche / Genentech's Herceptin.

In comparison to reference monoclonal antibody products, biosimilar approval requires more extensive analytical data packages to demonstrate structural and functional characterisation of the biosimilar candidate. Analytical studies, such as X-ray crystallography, provide the foundations for determining biosimilarity.

In 2017, Stelara achieved global sales of USD 4.0 billion. EvaluatePharma has forecast global sales of Stelara to reach USD 4.9 billion in 2022.

NeuClone representatives will attend the upcoming 2018 BIO International Convention in Boston from 4-7thJune 2018 and look forward to meeting potential commercialisation partners.

Stelara is marketed by Janssen, a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

About NeuClone Pty. Ltd.



NeuClone Pty. Ltd. is a private biopharmaceutical company focused exclusively on developing a pipeline of biosimilar products. Five biosimilar products have been disclosed in NeuClone's pipeline that reference Herceptin, Stelara, Humira, Synagis and Prolia/XGEVA. NeuClone develops biosimilar products using its proprietary NeuMAX platform that facilitates low-cost manufacture of biologics, whilst enabling the highest product quality. NeuClone is led by a highly experienced team with state-of-the-art integrated facilities based in Sydney, Australia. For more information, please visit www.neuclone.com.

Contact:

John Oksinski, Head of Global Business Development - j.oksinski@neuclone.com, +61429133767PRESTON, England, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

I VG Premium E-Liquids, a British company, have once again asserted themselves as one of the world's leading e-liquid brands after receiving the accolade for Best Sweet of the Year at the prestigious Vapouround Awards.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/689436/I_VG_Premium_CEO.jpg )

The world famous Bubblegum Millions flavour, which is served in over 60 countries and 6 continents, received the award in Birmingham, United Kingdom on 4th May, 2018.

"We are extremely proud that our Bubblegum Millions flavour has received such a significant award in an industry where completion is fierce" said the CEO of I VG Premium E-Liquids Ahsan Bawa. "This flavour is loved by millions of vapers around the world and it's amazing to see the flavour receive the recognition it deserves."

This isn't the first award that I VG's Bubblegum Millions flavour has received. In 2017, the fans favourite picked up the Best Fresh Flavour award at the Vapor Fair in New York City.

The award triumph has coincided with the announcement that I VG Premium E-liquids is expanding its range of Millions Flavours to the I VG Sweets range. The Launch of the three new flavours Spearmint Millions, Orange Millions, and Lemon Millions has come as a nice surprise to fans.

"It's companies like I VG that create suspense leading up to the awards and make the night so special," said the editor of Vapouround Magazine Paul Caplin. "Bubblegum Millions winning Best Sweet flavour speaks for itself."

I VG Premium E-Liquids was founded in 2016 and they quickly established themselves as a global brand within the vaping industry, with their multiple international award winning products, and exhibiting their products at the biggest vaping exhibitions across the globe.

For the first time in their history, I VG exhibited simultaneously at two major vape exhibitions on the same weekend between 4th - 6thMay 2018. They were greeted by tens of thousands of adoring vapers at the Hall of Vapes in Stuttgart, Germany and Vaper Expo in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Future exhibition include:

VapITALY Verona, 19th - 21st May 2018

Vape Expo Madrid 9th - 10th June 2018

Keep up to date with I VG on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn via @ivgeliquids

About I VG Premium E-liquids

I VG Premium E-liquids is a world leading E-Liquid brand offering a wide range of premium E-Liquids to their worldwide customers. For more information, please visit: http://www.ivgeliquids.com

Deepika Patel, deepika.patel@ivgeliquids.com, +44(0)1772-217000LONDON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Ve Global ("Ve"), has launched a worldwide recruitment drive to meet the company's expansion plans across 18 international markets and increase the client base of 10,000 eCommerce businesses worldwide.

The marketing and advertising technology business, which operates from product discovery through to purchase, will recruit 50 new positions to reinforce the company's existing commercial efforts.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/676627/Ve_Global_Logo.jpg )



UK-based Ve, which already employs 400+ globally will bring on the new talent to match its ambitions across its core territories as well as a number of high growth markets, including India and North America.

The news comes as the company announced three senior appointments to strengthen its commercial interests in strategically-important markets. Ray F. Riley, who has 30 years' experience in leading commercial roles for brands such as Microsoft and Harley-Davidson, will come on-board as Commercial Director of Ve DACH in Berlin which serves Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Takeshi Yamamoto, who joined the company in April, will lead Ve's commercial division as a Commercial Director in Tokyo, Japan. While Ed French, who has been with the company for four years, will take the role as Commercial Director of Ve's Boston-based North American sales division, which also includes an office in New York City.

Johan Hagenfeldt, Chief Commercial Officer at Ve, said: "After coming off the back of a strong year both from a revenue and client perspective, this global sales recruitment drive aims to strengthen our existing team and accelerate our ambitious global expansion plans. This is a great recruitment opportunity for those who want to be part of a global company that's growing month-on-month and benefits greatly from committed financial backers who want to see us succeed."

David Marrinan-Hayes, Chief Executive Officer at Ve, said: "Recruitment sits at the top of our growth agenda and we're investing heavily in the right skills and expertise needed to bring in the world's best brands. Of equal importance is complementing our existing team with those individuals who share our core values and want to shape the industry around us through greater personalisation and marketing automation."

Ve are recruiting sales, account management and finance roles across its 18 territories including positions in its product, design, technical services and trading teams.

View all positions available via Ve Careers page

https://www.ve.com/careers

Biographies and photos

http://ow.ly/7srH30jKkv2

Logos and corporate imagery

http://ow.ly/L1Yj30jKDfr

About Ve

Ve exists to inspire our client's customers throughout their online journey, regardless of business size or sector. Founded in 2009, Ve started life developing basket recovery email technology. But that was just the beginning. Our appetite to predict and respond to consumer behaviour in the digital age led us to develop award-winning technologies, that attract the right audience, with the right message at the right time.

Today, we serve 10,000 clients across 18 territories, with our consumer-first solutions ensuring every customer enjoys the tailored and intuitive online experience they deserve.

Ve.com | @Ve_HeadQuartersSAN FRANCISCO, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The global specialty silica market is projected to reach USD 4.43 billion by 2022, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to be driven by the growth of the automotive and paints & coatings industry, coupled with the growing application of precipitated silica in the food industry.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg )

Growing product demand in various applications including rubber, food & healthcare, coatings, and plastics & abrasives is expected to augment product demand over the forecast period. The demand for higher performance and specialized products is increasing in rubber and a few other industries. Precipitated silica has emerged as a performance additive that imparts increased wear resistance and wet grip capabilities to automotive and industrial tires. Furthermore, growth in the automotive industry particularly in India and China is expected to propel product demand over the next few years.

Growing personal care sector in countries such as the U.S., India, China, UAE, Kuwait, South Africa, Brazil, Germany, and Mexico is expected to augment industry growth. Rising disposable incomes, coupled with increasing penetration of market players such as P&G and Reckitt Benckiser through new product launches in China and India, is expected to promote cosmetics industry growth. Introduction of new product formats, gender-specific products, and technological developments is expected to drive demand for perfumes, thereby fueling specialty silica consumption over the forecast period.

The coating applications segment is expected to gain significant market share over the forecast period. The coatings industry mainly uses fumed silica in order to control rheological characteristics, such as thixotroping agents, anti-settling agent and to help in the prevention of rust and corrosion. Fumed silica has a large surface area and thus is desirable in the coatings industry. Due to this property exhibited by fumed silica, the paints & coatings industry is one of the major consumers of the product.

Asia Pacific held the largest market share in terms of revenue in 2015. The market in China and India is expected to show substantial growth in the automotive and construction sectors as a result of the increasing disposable incomes and rising government spending on infrastructure development projects.

Browse full research report with TOC on"Specialty Silica Market Size, Share & Trend Analysis Report By Product (Precipitated Silica, Silica Gel, Fused Silica), By Application (Rubber, Food & Healthcare, Coatings), And Segment Forecasts, 2012 - 2022" at:https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/specialty-silica-market

Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest:

The global specialty silica market is anticipated to reach 4,687.8 kilotons by 2022, at a CAGR of 4.9% from 2015 to 2022

In terms of revenue, the colloidal silica segment is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11.7% over the forecast period owing to the increasing demand from the personal care segment.

The rubber application segment dominated the global industry with a share of over 33.4% of the revenues in 2014.

The U.S. specialty silica market volume is anticipated to exceed 583.5 kilotons by 2022.

Europe is projected to witness a steady growth rate of 7.0% in terms of revenue over the forecast years, owing to the presence of a large number of automobile manufacturers in the region

is projected to witness a steady growth rate of 7.0% in terms of revenue over the forecast years, owing to the presence of a large number of automobile manufacturers in the region The market for specialty silica is highly competitive with the presence of a number of multinational companies that have huge product portfolios

Some of the key companies present in the market are Tosoh Corporation, Wacker Chemie AG, Oriental Silicas Corporation, Nissan Chemical Industries Limited, Kemira Oyj, Nippon Aerosil Co. Ltd and Evonik Industries.

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Unsaturated Polyester Resin Market- The Global UPR market is expected to witness growth owing to commercial use in FRP which have extensive applications in the construction industry.

Low Smoke Halogen Free Flame Retardant Polypropylene (PP) Market - The global low smoke halogen free flame retardant polypropylene (PP) market was worth USD 412.7 million in 2015

Epoxy Resin Market - The global epoxy resin market size was USD 7.99 billion in 2015.

Poly Alpha Olefin Market - The global poly alpha olefin (PAO) market size exceeded USD 1.0 billion in 2015.

Grand View Research has segmented the specialty silica market report on the basis of product, application, and region.

Product Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million; 2012 - 2022) Precipitated silica Silica gel Fused silica Colloidal silica Fumed silica

Application Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million; 2012 - 2022) Rubber Food & healthcare Coatings Plastics Abrasives & refractories Others

Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million; 2012 - 2022) North America U.S Europe UK Germany Asia Pacific China India Central & South America Brazil Middle East & Africa



Read Our Blog By Grand View Research:https://www.grandviewresearch.com/blogs/bulk-chemicals

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc

Phone: +1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com



Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com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.In the recent work group organized by the French government along with all stakeholders of France's solar industry, delivering more volumes to the market was highlighted as a number one priority.Several entities within the French administration are currently considering the construction of solar parks on their own premises, according to information provided to pv magazine by Xavier Daval, the VP of French renewable energy association SER and CEO and President of KiloWattsol SAS. According to him, public institutions expressed their favourable disposition toward solar during the first workshops ...

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.Despite uncertainties, FinTech will register growth across multiple sub-segments as pace of innovation increases, finds Frost & Sullivan

LONDON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan's European FinTech Market Outlook, 2018 outlines the trends in the rapidly evolving European FinTech industry for 2017 and 2018. Growth can be attributed to an ecosystem comprising of innovative start-ups, traditional financial institutions willing to digitalise, investors identifying growth opportunities and proactive regulators. Incorporation of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Big Data and analytics, and Internet of Things (IoT) to transform solutions enables companies to meet demands of digital consumers, including ease of use, on-the-go access and customisation. The financial services vertical is subjected to stringent regulatory and compliance measures; market participants are particularly focused on security of data and data privacy, and are also making use of these advanced technologies. Frost & Sullivan's study covers technology trends in Europe and their impact on the industry. It also examines trends in BankTech, InsurTech, RegTech, PayTech, and WealthTech, and forecasts growth opportunities in each segment.

For further information on this analysis, please visit: http://frost.ly/2gd

"Going forward we can expect FinTech companies to increase focus on, and participate in, research and proof-of-concept research in technologies such as blockchain and quantum computing," said Deepali Sathe, Senior Industry Analyst, ICT, Frost & Sullivan. "Meanwhile, developments around platforms, AI and ML will deliver exciting new opportunities."

As the influx of start-ups and innovative solutions transform the value chain across segments such as PayTech and InsurTech, traditional market participants are acknowledging the need to be agile. Frequent changes and updates in regulations and compliance requirements, and events such as Brexit, highlight the need for flexibility.

As companies struggle to meet the deadlines and requirements of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and revised Payments Services Directive (PSD2) in 2018, it underpins the growing demand for RegTech, which is expected to grow to more than $500 million in 2018.

"New business models and the growth of customer-centric solutions will create opportunities to offer new services or X-as-a-Service (XaaS)," noted Sathe. "These models automate processes and integrate with existing IT infrastructure to drive overall growth. Furthermore, multiple market segments such as small and medium enterprises (SMEs), expats, and people with short credit history that are either underserved or unserved have begun to offer additional business opportunities."

Companies are increasingly exploring options for partnerships and strategic investments to ensure faster time to market to meet consumer demands of 24/7 access and enable an omni-channel approach. APIs and shared economy will have an industry-wide impact, as the new ecosystem encourages a collaborative approach.

European Fintech Market Outlook, 2018 is part of Frost & Sullivan's global ICT Growth Partnership Service program.

About Frost & Sullivan

For over five decades, Frost & Sullivan has become world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion.

European Fintech Market Outlook, 2018

MDC3-33

Contact:

Kristi Cekani

Corporate Communications - Frost & Sullivan, Europe

P: +39.02.4851.6133

E: kristi.cekani@frost.com

http://www.frost.comTSX: JAG

TORONTO, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Jaguar Mining Inc. ("Jaguar" or the "Company") (TSX: JAG) today announced financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2018 ("Q1 2018"). All figures are in US dollars, unless otherwise expressed. Detailed financial results for Q1 2018 are available on www.sedar.com.

Q1 2018 Financial Highlights

Revenue of $25.2 million with significantly lower cost of sales, increasing gross profit by over 300% to $ 4.9 million .





with significantly lower cost of sales, increasing gross profit by over 300% to . Consolidated cash operating costs ("COC") improved 13% to $800 per ounce of gold sold compared to Q1 2017.





per ounce of gold sold compared to Q1 2017. Consolidated all in sustaining costs ("AISC") improved 3% to $1,289 per ounce of gold sold.





per ounce of gold sold. On track to achieve consolidated COC and AISC guidance in 2018.





Increased operating cash flow over 2.5 times to $5.0 million , including increased sustaining capital expenditures of $6.7 million , up 11% year-over-year, focused on primary development and drilling.





, including increased sustaining capital expenditures of , up 11% year-over-year, focused on primary development and drilling. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") of $5.6 million compared to $4.2 million for Q1 2017.



Cash balance of $14.3 million as of March 31, 2018 , including $3.0 million financing repayments, reducing total bank debt to approximately $12.3 million at quarter end.

Rodney Lamond, President and Chief Executive Officer, Jaguar Mining commented, "Our continued focus on cost control, productivity and company-wide operational excellence programs has delivered strong operating cost performance in the first quarter, where we saw a significant increase in our operating cash flow. Lower consolidated cash operating costs improved 13% to $800 per ounce sold, AISC improved 3% to $1,289 per ounce sold, which puts us on track to achieve our 2018 cost guidance, especially when factoring significantly lower costs relative to suspended operations at our higher cost Roca Grande Mine.

"Our strategy over the last 24 months has been to deploy capital only towards high priority exploration projects and initiatives that will provide the best return and add to our large mineral resource base to grow our long-term sustainable gold production. We have seen the benefits of these investments. Pilar Gold Mine is continuing to grow its production base, and we expect to see increasing production at Turmalina Gold Mine by the second half of 2018."

"Moving forward, we continue to focus on mining quality ounces and delivering on our 2018 gold production and cost guidance, including higher production in the second half of this year. With lower unit costs and increasing production, at current gold prices, we are well positioned to see strong cash flow generation, which we will continue to prioritize towards investments in sustainable growth activities, development and reducing bank debt."

Q1 2018 FINANCIAL & OPERATING SUMMARY





($ thousands, except where indicated) For the three months ended

March 31,

2018 2017 Financial Data



Revenue $ 25,228 $ 29,192 Operating costs 15,399 21,508 Depreciation 4,885 6,576 Gross profit 4,944 1,108 Net loss (1,781) (7,877)

Per share ("EPS") (0.01) (0.03) EBITDA1 4,154 743

Adjusted EBITDA1,2 5,573 4,211

Adjusted EBITDA per share1 0.02 0.01 Cash operating costs (per ounce sold)1 800 924 All-in sustaining costs (per ounce sold)1 1,289 1,323 Average realized gold price (per ounce) 1,311 1,215 Cash generated from operating activities 4,979 1,855 Free cash flow1 (1,688) (4,177) Free cash flow (per ounce sold)1 (88) (174) Sustaining capital expenditures1 6,667 6,032 Non-sustaining capital expenditures1 493 873 Total capital expenditures 7,160 6,905 1 Average realized gold price, sustaining and non-sustaining capital expenditures, cash operating costs and all-in sustaining costs, adjusted

operating cash flow, free cash flow, EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA per share are non-IFRS financial performance

measures with no standard definition under IFRS. Refer to the Non-IFRS Financial Performance Measures section of the MD&A.

2 Adjusted EBITDA excludes non-cash items such as impairment and write downs. For more details, refer to the Non-IFRS Performance

Measures section of the MD&A.

For the three months ended

March 31,

2018 2017 Operating Data



Gold produced (ounces) 18,865 22,292 Gold sold (ounces) 19,237 24,034 Primary development (metres) 1,069 910 Secondary development (metres) 447 1,382 Definition, infill, and exploration drilling (metres) 9,439 11,864

Cash Position, Working Capital and Foreign Exchange

As at March 31, 2018 , the Company had a cash position of $14.3 million , compared to $18.6 million as at December 31, 2017 , primarily due to the decrease of 20%, or 4,797 ounces of gold sales.





, the Company had a cash position of , compared to as at , primarily due to the decrease of 20%, or 4,797 ounces of gold sales. Cash outflow during the first quarter includes $3.0 million for financing repayments, reducing total bank debt to approximately $12.3 million at the end of Q1 2018.





for financing repayments, reducing total bank debt to approximately at the end of Q1 2018. Working capital was $11.0 million as at March 31, 2018 , compared to $14.1 million as at December 31, 2017 , which includes short term receivable of $4.5 million from the Accelerated Earn-in Agreement signed for the Gurupi Project on September 17, 2017 . Working capital also includes $4.4 million in short term loans from Brazilian banks, which are renewed every six months, and are expected to be rolled forward.

First Quarter 2018 - Operating Results Summary

Consolidated gold production of 18,865 ounces (174,000 tonnes milled at 3.76 g/t) reflecting the expected slower start to the year; Q1 2018 production was lower than the 22,292 ounces (214,000 tonnes milled at 3.50 g/t) in Q1 2017.





Pilar Gold Mine ("Pilar") production increased 13% to 9,553 ounces compared to Q1 2017, and 17% compared to Q4 2017 on average grade of 4.13 g/t, which increased 22% year-over-year. Pilar continues to deliver improved grade and tonnes milled. Pilar's lower cost per ounce production replaces the higher cost Roca Grande Mine ("RG") production, also improving operating cash flow.





("Pilar") production increased 13% to 9,553 ounces compared to Q1 2017, and 17% compared to Q4 2017 on average grade of 4.13 g/t, which increased 22% year-over-year. Pilar continues to deliver improved grade and tonnes milled. Pilar's lower cost per ounce production replaces the higher cost Roca Grande Mine ("RG") production, also improving operating cash flow. Turmalina Gold Mine ("Turmalina") production of 8,442 ounces was 34% lower year-over-year due to a focus on increasing primary waste development to facilitate increased ore production for the balance of 2018. This resulted in lower secondary ore development and lower tonnes milled for the quarter that reduced ore production, which was in line with the Company's projected annual mine plan. Production levels are expected to increase in Q2 2018 and significantly increase in the second half of 2018 as accelerated primary waste development advances.





Turmalina primary waste development increased 77% during the quarter to 648 metres compared to 366 metres in Q1 2017 and 363 metres in Q4 2017.The focus in Q1 2018 going forward is to advance accelerated development at Turmalina. This will enable the team to access higher-grade mineralization in Level 11 at Orebody A and Level 4 at Orebody C. A new total of four production sublevels are expected to contribute to production in Q2 2018.





Strengthened operations and project management teams to drive increased productivity and overall performance. Placed orders for new mining equipment to increase capacity and productivity at Turmalina and Pilar.

First Quarter 2018 - Projects Update

Operational excellence programs continue to be adopted Company wide. A key focus has been to improve data collection processes to deliver real time data that facilitates timely analysis and decision making.





Turmalina management changes have been completed and the focus is on operational efficiency, productivity and cost reduction on projects, including improving preventative maintenance and equipment availability.





At Pilar and Turmalina, operational excellence teams are focused on increasing haulage tonnes moved in the mine and development metres utilizing equipment within the same shift to improve recovery and increase productivity.





Restructured projects group to streamline the management of Growth and Capital Projects. Turmalina paste fill plant completed final commissioning tests and is expected to be operational in Q2 2018.

First Quarter 2018 - Exploration Highlights

Growth exploration at Turmalina has focused on depth extension drilling of Orebody C below Level 4. Drilling completed to date includes approximately 4,826 metres (20 drill holes) representing approximately 53% completion of the 9,050 metres planned growth program.





Additional exploration activities are focused on advancing key near mine targets including the Zona Basal Target at Turmalina, the Torre, Pacheca North and Pilarzinho Targets contiguous to the Pilar mining operation and at Pedra Branca in Ceara State.





Subsequent to the temporary halt of mining activities at the RG Mine, exploration potential is being reviewed, aimed at prioritizing future activities targeting extensions to the known RG orebodies and the Company's highly prospective greater tenement package supported by the CCA Plant.

Year-End 2017 Pilar Gold Mine Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources Highlights

Total Measured Resources increased 277% to 317,000 ounces of gold, net of depletion, grading 4.47 g/t. Total Measured and Indicated ("M&I") Resources increased 10% to 532,000 ounces of gold, grading 4.37 g/t.





Inferred Resources increased 104% to 433,000 ounces grading 5.69 g/t, reflecting successful growth exploration drilling campaign in 2017 targeting high-grade deeper extensions to the principle banded iron formation Orebodies (BA, BF, and BFII) below current mine production levels.





Total Proven and Probable ("2P") Mineral Reserves of 125,000 ounces of gold, grading 3.99 g/t reflecting two-year replacement of mineral reserve depletion through production and addition of new mineral reserves, confirming over three years of future production at current production levels.

Interim Year-End 2017 Turmalina Gold Mine Mineral Resources Highlights

M&I Resources of 420,000 ounces of gold reflect full replacement of 45,000 ounces of 2017 mining depletion for Orebodies A, B, and C. Measured Resources increased 8% to 265,000 ounces with a 6% increase in grade to 5.7 g/t.





Inferred Resources increased 158% to 305,000 ounces of gold with a 14% increase in grade to 5.49 g/t, reflecting successful growth exploration drilling campaign in 2017 targeting high-grade deeper extensions to the principle orebodies A and C below current mine production levels.

2018 Guidance

Pilar production guidance of 39,200-47,000 ounces reflects the Company's reforecast for increased mineral resources reported in March 2018 (see press release dated March 2, 2018 ). The Pilar production is expected to offset the temporary halted production ounces from Roca Grande.





(see press release dated ). The Pilar production is expected to offset the temporary halted production ounces from Roca Grande. Roca Grande performance reflects production from January 1-March 21, 2018. Roca Grande temporarily on care and maintenance.





Turmalina positioned and expected to deliver significantly higher production in second half of 2018.









2018 Production & Guidance cost Turmalina MSOL Consolidated Pilar Roca Grande Low High Low High Low High Low High Gold production (oz.) 50,000 57,000 39,200 47,000 800 1,000 90,000 105,000 Cash Operating Cost1 ($/oz. sold) 675 775 650 800 1,000 1,100 660 800 All-in sustaining Cost1 ($/oz. sold) 900 1,000 900 1,050 1,050 1,200 920 1,100 Sustaining Capex ($'000) 12,000 15,000 9,000 12,000 100 500 21,000 28,000 Development

















Primary waste (metres) 2,200 2,800 2,000 2,600 N/A N/A 4,500 5,400

Secondary ore (metres) 1,800 2,100 1,000 1,150 N/A N/A 3,000 3,500 Definition, infill and exploration drilling (metres) 18,000 25,000 14,000 20,000 200 300 32,000 45,000

1. Cash Operating Cost and All-in Sustaining Cost are non-IFRS reporting measures.

Qualified Persons

Scientific and technical information contained in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Jonathan Victor Hill, BSc (Hons) (Economic Geology - UCT), Senior Expert Advisor Geology and Exploration to the Jaguar Mining Management Committee, who is also an employee of Jaguar Mining Inc., and is a "qualified person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 -Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").

The Iron Quadrangle

The Iron Quadrangle has been an area of mineral exploration dating back to the 16th century. The discovery in 1699-1701 of gold contaminated with iron and platinum-group metals in the southeastern corner of the Iron Quadrangle gave rise to the name of the town Ouro Preto (Black Gold). The Iron Quadrangle contains world-class multi-million-ounce gold deposits such as Morro Velho, Cuiaba, and Sao Bento. Jaguar holds the second largest gold land position in the Iron Quadrangle with just over 25,000 hectares.

About Jaguar Mining Inc.

Jaguar Mining Inc. is a Canadian-listed junior gold mining, development, and exploration company operating in Brazil with three gold mining complexes and a large land package with significant upside exploration potential from mineral claims covering an area of approximately 64,000 hectares. The Company's principal operating assets are located in the Iron Quadrangle, a prolific greenstone belt in the state of Minas Gerais and include the Turmalina Gold Mine Complex and Caete Mining Complex (Pilar and Roca Grande Mines, and Caete Plant). The Company also owns the Paciencia Gold Mine Complex, which has been on care and maintenance since 2012. The Roca Grande Mine has been on temporary care and maintenance since April 2018. Additional information is available on the Company's website at www.jaguarmining.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's expectations and plans relating to the future. All of the forward-looking information made in this news release is qualified by the cautionary statements below and those made in our other filings with the securities regulators in Canada. Forward-looking information contained in forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "are expected," "is forecast," "is targeted," "approximately," "plans," "anticipates," "projects," "anticipates," "continue," "estimate," "believe" 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. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, may be considered to be or include forward-looking information. This news release contains forward-looking information regarding, among other things, expected sales, production statistics, ore grades, tonnes milled, recovery rates, cash operating costs, definition/delineation drilling, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, costs and timing of the development of projects and new deposits, success of exploration, development and mining activities, currency fluctuations, capital requirements, project studies, mine life extensions, restarting suspended or disrupted operations, continuous improvement initiatives, and resolution of pending litigation. The Company has made numerous assumptions with respect to forward-looking information contained herein, including, among other things, assumptions about the estimated timeline for the development of its mineral properties; the supply and demand for, and the level and volatility of the price of, gold; the accuracy of reserve and resource estimates and the assumptions on which the reserve and resource estimates are based; the receipt of necessary permits; market competition; ongoing relations with employees and impacted communities; political and legal developments in any jurisdiction in which the Company operates being consistent with its current expectations including, without limitation, the impact of any potential power rationing, tailings facility regulation, exploration and mine operating licenses and permits being obtained an renewed and/or there being adverse amendments to mining or other laws in Brazil and any changes to general business and economic conditions. Forward-looking information involves a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including among others: the risk of Jaguar not meeting the forecast plans regarding its operations and financial performance; uncertainties with respect to the price of gold, labour disruptions, mechanical failures, increase in costs, environmental compliance and change in environmental legislation and regulation, weather delays and increased costs or production delays due to natural disasters, power disruptions, procurement and delivery of parts and supplies to the operations; uncertainties inherent to capital markets in general (including the sometimes volatile valuation of securities and an uncertain ability to raise new capital) and other risks inherent to the gold exploration, development and production industry, which, if incorrect, may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by the Company and described herein. In addition, there are risks and hazards associated with the business of gold exploration, development, mining and production, including environmental hazards, tailings dam failures, industrial accidents and workplace safety problems, unusual or unexpected geological formations, pressures, cave-ins, flooding, chemical spills, procurement fraud and gold bullion thefts and losses (and the risk of inadequate insurance, or the inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks). Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

For additional information with respect to these and other factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking information made in this news release, see the Company's most recent Annual Information Form and Management's Discussion and Analysis, as well as other public disclosure documents that can be accessed under the issuer profile of "Jaguar Mining Inc." on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking information set forth herein reflects the Company's reasonable expectations as at the date of this news release and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

Non-IFRS Measures

This news release provides certain financial measures that do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. Readers are cautioned to review the below stated footnotes where the Company expanded on its use of non-IFRS measures.

1. Cash operating costs and cash operating cost per ounce are non-IFRS measures. In the gold mining industry, cash operating costs and cash operating costs per ounce are common performance measures but do not have any standardized meaning. Cash operating costs are derived from amounts included in the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss) and include mine-site operating costs such as mining, processing and administration, as well as royalty expenses, but exclude depreciation, depletion, share-based payment expenses, and reclamation costs. Cash operating costs per ounce are based on ounces produced and are calculated by dividing cash operating costs by commercial gold ounces produced; US$ cash operating costs per ounce produced are derived from the cash operating costs per ounce produced translated using the average Brazilian Central Bank R$/US$ exchange rate. The Company discloses cash operating costs and cash operating costs per ounce, as it believes those measures provide valuable assistance to investors and analysts in evaluating the Company's operational performance and ability to generate cash flow. The most directly comparable measure prepared in accordance with IFRS is total production costs. A reconciliation of cash operating costs per ounce to total production costs for the most recent reporting period, the quarter ended March 31, 2018, is set out in the Company's first quarter 2018 Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.



2. All-in sustaining cost is a non-IFRS measure. This measure is intended to assist readers in evaluating the total costs of producing gold from current operations. While there is no standardized meaning across the industry for this measure, except for non-cash items the Company's definition conforms to the all-in sustaining cost definition as set out by the World Gold Council in its guidance note dated June 27, 2013. The Company defines all-in sustaining cost as the sum of production costs, sustaining capital (capital required to maintain current operations at existing levels), corporate general and administrative expenses, and in-mine exploration expenses. All-in sustaining cost excludes growth capital, reclamation cost accretion related to current operations, interest and other financing costs, and taxes. A reconciliation of all-in sustaining cost to total production costs for the most recent reporting period, the quarter ended March 31, 2018, is set out in the Company's first quarter 2018 MD&A filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

CONTACT: Rodney Lamond, President & Chief Executive Officer, Jaguar Mining Inc., rodney.lamond@jaguarmining.com, 416-847-1854; Hashim Ahmed, Chief Financial Officer, Jaguar Mining Inc., hashim.ahmed@jaguarmining.com, 416-847-1854

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/689542/Jaguar_Mining_Inc__Jaguar_Mining_Reports_Q1_2018_Financial_Resul.jpgWILMINGTON, Delaware, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Peer-to-Peer Bitcoin Marketplace also Appoints a Regional Director of Africa

Paxful, a global leader in peer-to-peer bitcoin technology, today announced that it will build a blockchain technology incubation hub in Lagos, Nigeria, as part of its growing investment in Africa. The hub will launch in fall 2018 and provide a co-working space and services including mentorship, corporate and individual blockchain training, and networking for ICO advisors.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/689469/Paxful_CEO_Ray_Youssef.jpg )



Paxful has also appointed Chuta Chimezie as Regional Director of Africa. Based out of Nigeria, he will be responsible for conducting business operations, facilitating local and international brand awareness, creating educational content on behalf of Paxful, recruiting and overseeing the incubator's day-to-day operations.

"Paxful is committed to fostering economic growth in Africa and helping the unbanked and underbanked gain access to the opportunities they have been denied for so long," said Paxful CEO Ray Youssef. "The incubator is simply a starting point to help driven entrepreneurs in an industry that has shattered boundaries all over the world."

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, with 190 million people. It also has the highest number of Paxful users on the continent. The country is renowned for its highly educated citizenry and startup culture, especially in ?ntech and e-commerce.

"It is a privilege to work with an organization that believes in investing in countries with great potential such as Nigeria," said Chimezie. "Paxful's initiatives have not only helped those in great need here, but are also helping African entrepreneurs achieve their full potential. Paxful is using Bitcoin to do good in the world, and I am proud to become an integral part of that."

Chimezie is a leading blockchain and cryptocurrency advocate, having founded the Blockchain Nigeria User Group, an initiative of advocates and entrepreneurs driving adoption in the country. He is the author of "Seizing Opportunities in Blockchain and Digital Currency Revolution," a reference text for regulators in Africa, designed to help them understand virtual currency as an emerging technology.

Paxful will sponsor several blockchain and crypto-focused events in Nigeria, and plans to sponsor and speak at others in Ghana, Cameroon and Kenya. The company has a long history of investment in Africa, launching the BuiltwithBitcoin charitable program last year to encourage the cryptocurrency sector to contribute funds for humanitarian projects. With the help of non-pro?t organization Zam Zam, Paxful launched the initiative by donating $50,000 in bitcoin for the construction of a new Rwandan nursery school in the country's Bugesera District.

"We are where we are now because people gave back and it helped us tremendously," said Artur Schaback, co-founder and CTO, Paxful. "Nick Spanos funded the Bitcoin Center in New York right next to the NYSE, and it connected so many of us and gave us a home. We want to do the same for Africa and the emerging world. The real wave of bitcoin entrepreneurs and revolutionary blockchain projects has yet to emerge. Paxful will do everything we can to empower the Africa Cheetah generation."

Paxful is a bitcoin marketplace and digital wallet that brings the sharing economy and frictionless cryptocurrency commerce within easy reach of everyone, especially the underbanked. It enables buyers to purchase bitcoin directly from sellers via more than 300 di?erent payment methods, including gift cards, cash deposits, online wallets or debit/credit cards. Paxful secures users against fraud by employing two-factor authentication and the highest-level encryption, and holding funds in escrow until the seller has con?rmed the payment.

To learn more about Paxful, please visit: http://www.paxful.com

About Paxful:

Paxful is a peer-to-peer marketplace built on open source bitcoin and blockchain technology. It enables anyone in the world to buy, sell and accept bitcoin instantly. Paxful's wallet essentially functions as a universal translator for money as any form of money can become any other form of money. For example, gift cards can be converted to other gift cards, cash, or funds in any currency in any digital wallet anywhere. Paxful's platform has 1.7 million monthly active users globally, and o?ers 300+ payment methods. Some of the most popular methods include Bank Transfer, Paypal, Western Union, Amazon Gift Cards, and iTunes Gift Cards. Paxful is leading P2P ?nance and its mission to provide ?nancial services to the unbanked and underbanked. The "overbanked" will also bene?t from increased freedom and the elimination of the hassle with which banks so often burden their customers.

Contact:

Mark Prindle

Fusion PR

+1-646-452-7109

mark.prindle@fusionpr.com

BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - China Automotive Systems Inc (CAAS) announced earnings for first quarter that declined from last year. The company's earnings came in at $4.03 million, or $0.14 per share. This compares with $5.94 million, or $0.18 per share, in last year's first quarter. Analysts had expected the company to earn $0.21 per share, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. The company's revenue for the quarter rose 12.3% to $134.02 million from $119.31 million last year. China Automotive Systems Inc earnings at a glance: -Earnings (Q1): $4.03 Mln. vs. $5.94 Mln. last year. -EPS (Q1): $0.14 vs. $0.18 last year. -Analysts Estimate: $0.21 -Revenue (Q1): $134.02 Mln vs. $119.31 Mln last year. -Guidance : Full year revenue guidance: $520 Mln 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.SAN FRANCISCO, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The global caprolactam market is projected to reach USD 15.74 billion by 2022, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Rising need for nylon 6 resins and fibers, on account of the growing electronics industry in China, has resulted in a significant increase in demand for the product over the past few years.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg )



Growth of the automotive industry, particularly in emerging economies of China, Brazil and India, coupled with rising disposable income of consumers, is expected to augment engineering plastics demand. Development of the fabrics industry is also anticipated to result in high product demand over the forecast years. Nylon 6 is employed in numerous applications including the production of industrial yarns, floor coverings, engineering plastics, and films. Growth in these end-use segments is expected to augment product demand, which will further have a positive impact on the industry growth over the forecast years.

Caprolactam manufacturing requires low technical complexity and low initial infrastructure investment. High demand for nylon 6 resins and fibers has resulted in a significant demand for the product over the past few years, and this trend is expected to continue over the forecast period. In addition, technological innovations are being done to improve manufacturing process of the product in order to minimize the release of ammonium sulfate (by-product), due to its hazardous nature, is expected to have a positive impact on the industry.

Textile yarn was the largest application segment of caprolactam in 2015. Caprolactam is extensively used in the production of nylon 6 fibers. Nylon fabric is employed in the manufacturing of various apparel including sport wear, cycle wear and swim wear. In addition, nylon 6 fibers are used in manufacturing house furnishings. Growing demand for nylon fabric in the textile industry is expected to augment product demand over the next seven years.

Asia Pacific was the largest market for caprolactam in 2015, and this trend is expected to continue over the forecast period. Growth of the textile industry, coupled with the growing automotive sector especially in India and China, is expected to positively impact the market. In addition, encouragement of FDI in the automobile sector in India, is expected to drive production in the country, thus driving the demand for caprolactam.

Browse full research report with TOC on"Caprolactam Market Size, Share & Trend Analysis Report By Application (Nylon 6 Fibers, Nylon 6 Resins), By End-use (Textile Yarn, Industrial Yarn, Engineering Plastics), And Segment Forecasts, 2012 - 2022" at:https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/caprolactam-market

Further Key Findings From the Report Suggest:

The global caprolactam is anticipated to reach 7,200.5 kilotons by 2022, at a CAGR of 4.9% from 2015 to 2022

In terms of revenue, the textile yarn segment is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.4% over the forecast period owing to the increasing demand from the household furnishings segment.

The nylon 6 application segment dominated the global industry with a share of over 55.6% of the revenues in 2014.

The U.S. caprolactam market volume is anticipated to exceed 705.9 kilotons by 2022.

Europe is projected to witness a remarkable growth rate of 8.7% over the forecast years, owing to the presence of a large number of automobile manufacturers in the region

is projected to witness a remarkable growth rate of 8.7% over the forecast years, owing to the presence of a large number of automobile manufacturers in the region Asian countries, especially India and China , are expected to observe a remarkable growth in next few years owing to growth of textiles and automotive industry in the region.

and , are expected to observe a remarkable growth in next few years owing to growth of textiles and automotive industry in the region. The market for caprolactam is highly competitive with the presence of a number of multinational companies with huge product portfolios

Some of the key companies present in the market are Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., UBE Industries, Ltd., DSM, Capro Co., China Petrochemical Development Corporation and LANXESS AG .

Browse related reports by Grand View Research:

Ammonium Phosphate Market- The Global ammonium phosphate market is expected to witness substantial growth over the forecast period owing to its increasing use in animal feed and industrial applications.

Isobutanol Market - The Global isobutanol market size was estimated at 552.4 kilo tons in 2014.

Nucleotide Market- The Global nucleotide market size was USD 403.1million in 2014.

Alpha-Amylase Baking Enzyme Market - The global alpha-amylase baking enzyme market size was USD 255.1 million in 2015.

Grand View Research has segmented the caprolactam market on the basis of application, end-use and region.

Application Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million; 2012 - 2022) Nylon 6 Nylon 6 resins

End-use Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million; 2012 - 2022) Textile yarn Industrial yarn Engineering Plastics Carpet fibers & staple fibers

Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million; 2012 - 2022) North America U.S Europe UK Germany Asia Pacific China India Central & South America Brazil Middle East & Africa



Read Our Blog By Grand View Research:https://www.grandviewresearch.com/blogs/bulk-chemicals

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc

Phone: +1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com



Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.comLONDON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

ICIS, the market intelligence and analytics provider, has launched a new forecasting tool to meet the need for complex information required to monitor the LNG supply and its influence on global energy markets.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/619935/ICIS_Logo.jpg )



The LNG Supply Forecast represents a unique, events-based approach to forecasting. The two-year forwards view of the global LNG supply starts at the most granular level with forecasts for each of the world's liquefaction plants. It then uses the ICIS global reporting capability to identify all the events and news affecting supply.

Our team of global analysts calculate and quantify immediate supply impact for each of these events and make this volume change transparent on the forecast platform straight away.

ICIS Energy Product Director Louise Boddy said:

"We found that our LNG customers needed support in monitoring the world's supply events and giving a logical, data-based view on their impact in a very short timeframe. Trust was always the most important factor for our development partners and the transparency provided by this forecast builds that trust.

Being able to identify significant events and assess their impact fast is a capability we think will make a real difference to those in the global gas market who need to quantify news impact for their businesses."

Accurate forecasting is vital for LNG and gas traders and analysts; it also affects profit for utilities and integrated energy companies. Our constantly updated two-year forecast supports their market analysis and decision making process.

The new ICIS forecasting tool offers a unique forward-looking perspective backed up by robust analytical functionality that drills into the data to reveal the true impact of supply as it changes.

Find out more about the ICIS LNG Supply Forecast

[www.icis.com/energy/lng-supply-forecast/]

About ICIS

ICIS is the world's largest petrochemical market information provider, with divisions spanning energy and fertilizers. Our aim is to give companies in global commodities markets a competitive advantage by delivering valuable information and analytics tools which enable our customers to identify and react to opportunities in markets which are constantly evolving. We have more than 30 years' of experience in providing pricing intelligence and news, forecast data, market analytics and independent consulting to buyers, sellers and analysts.

With a global staff of more than 600, ICIS has employees based in London, Houston, New York, Singapore, Dubai, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Mumbai, Tokyo, Karlsruhe, and Milan. ICIS' team of journalists is engaged in reporting market prices and news, and ICIS is fully committed to upholding the highest journalistic principles of verification, corroboration and authentication. ICIS has a compliance framework that along with its methodologies and business processes adheres to the requirements of the IOSCO PRA Principles. www.icis.com

ICIS is a division of Reed Business Information, part of RELX Group.

About Reed Business Information

Reed Business Information provides information, analytics and data to business professionals worldwide. Our strong global products and services hold market-leading positions across a wide range of industry sectors including banking, petrochemicals and aviation, where we help customers make key strategic decisions every day. RBI is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professional customers across industries. www.reedbusiness.com

RELX Group is a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs approximately 30,000 people of whom almost half are in North America. RELX PLC is a London listed holding company which owns 52.9% of RELX Group. RELX NV is an Amsterdam listed holding company which owns 47.1% of RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX and RENX. Total market capitalisation as at 6 May 2018: 31.0bn|35.1bn|$42.1bn. www.relx.com

Media contact

Louise Boddy

Energy Product Director

T: +44-(0)-20-7911-1948

Louise.Boddy@icis.com

Simon Ellis

LNG Analyst

T: +44-(0)-20-7911-1953

Simon.Ellis@icis.comTORONTO, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hudson's Bay, Canada's most prominent department store, is thrilled to announce it has expanded its relationship with stylist and fashion expert, Jessica Mulroney. As one of Canada's most notable stylists and fashion influencers, Jessica first worked with the Hudson's Bay team in 2014 to help launch the Kleinfeld brand in Canada. In this new relationship with the retailer, Jessica will help drive the fashion and bridal business at Hudson's Bay. With a career that spans branding, manufacturing, PR, retail, and design, Jessica has experience with all facets of the fashion industry. This unique combination of skills combined with her charismatic personality has made her one of Canada's most sought-after fashion experts.

"As we continue to drive our fashion position in Canada, Jessica is a valued and important partner of Hudson's Bay" said Alison Coville, President, Hudson's Bay. "Working with Jessica in this new capacity gives us the opportunity to share her expert knowledge and style with our customers and ultimately provide a unique shopping experience with a compelling point of view."

"Hudson's Bay is Canada's fashion authority and I am so excited to expand my relationship with the company," said Jessica Mulroney, Fashion and Bridal Specialist, Hudson's Bay. "I am extremely proud of the work I've done to help build the Kleinfeld Hudson's Bay business and this is an incredible opportunity to speak to an even broader audience and do the same within the fashion space."

Jessica's work will include consulting, PR, social media, events, and acting as spokesperson for CORE Life, a new brand launching exclusively at Hudson's Bay for Fall 2018.

ABOUT HUDSON'S BAY

HBC, incorporated in 1670, is North America's oldest company. Hudson's Bay has grown to become Canada's most prominent department store, today operating 89 full-line locations and thebay.com. For the first time since the banner's inception, Hudson's Bay opened outside of Canada with 10 new stores in the Netherlands in 2017, and an online shopping destination at hudsonsbay.nl. This expansion introduces a new and exciting shopping experience in the Netherlands, catering to the Dutch market. Hudson's Bay has established a reputation for quality, service, and style by offering well-edited assortments of exclusive and popular fashion, beauty, home and accessory designers and brands, as well as exclusive food concepts. It is part of the HBC brand portfolio. The signature stripes are a registered trademark of Hudson's Bay Company.

ABOUT JESSICA MULRONEY

Jessica Mulroney is the lifestyle expert to watch. A recognized commentator on programs such as Cityline, Jessica weighs-in on topics ranging from fashion and style to family and parenting. Whether acting as a brand ambassador or co-hosting an event, Jessica's positivity and poise are palpable. Jessica is a public relations and fashion consultant for major brands and labels in Canada, and is also the co-founder of the Shoebox project, a non-profit organization that collects and distributes gifts (that fill shoeboxes) to women who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness in communities throughout North America. The wife to Ben, and a mother to three bustling young children - twin sons Brian and John, and daughter Ivy - Jessica makes balancing a busy career and family look absolutely easy.

@JessicaMulroney

@JessicaMulroneyWeddings

Michelle Veilleux

Director, Public Relations

Hudson's Bay

Michelle.veilleux@hbc.com

+1- 416-256-5182Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 10, 2018) - GLOBAL BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES CORP. (CSE: BLOC) (FSE: BWSP) (OTC Pink: BLKCF) ("BLOC" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that that the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") has approved the listing for trading of its common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") issued on December 21, 2017 pursuant to its bought deal private placement led by Canaccord Genuity Corp. with a syndicate of underwriters including Clarus Securities Inc., Eight Capital and Haywood Securities Inc.

LISTING OF WARRANTS

The Warrants will commence trading on the CSE on May 10, 2018, under the symbol "BLOC.WT". There are currently 33,698,340 Warrants issued and outstanding. Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share of BLOC at a price of $1.75 until December 21, 2019.

SPINOUT OF MINING DIVISION

On January 25, 2018, the Company announced that it intended to pursue a plan of arrangement to spin out the value in its mining division. The spinout will be on a one-for-one basis with every share held of the Company entitling the holder to one share of Global Blockchain Mining Corp. ("Blockchain Mining") The anticipated assets of Blockchain Mining will include as constituted at present, 6,666 machines and 100MW of power, Coinstream Mining Corp. ("Coinstream"), and Coinstream's additional assets, including its stake in Distributed Mining Corp. and the wholly owned Mozambique facility totaling 25 megawatts of capacity.

All shareholders' as of the March 1, 2018 (the "Record Date" for the plan of arrangement), will receive shares in Blockchain Mining as soon as it commences trading with the CSE. Furthermore the Company has applied for a US trading symbol and will provide additional details as soon as they become available.

The Company also announces that further to our April 24th news release, the initial listing application for Blockchain Mining has been submitted to the CSE under the ticker "FORK". Management anticipates FORK should commence trading in late May 2018, subject to approval by the CSE.

CORPORATE UPDATE

Further to the press release dated February 27, 2018, the Company wishes to advise that the below projects remain on track and that BLOC is looking forward to provide further information in the coming days and weeks:

Trade finance in conjunction with major state actors;

Enterprise peer-to-peer storage solutions;

Ethereum hard fork with features that enhance it as a global payment rails solution (the laser blockchain);

Tokenization of twelve incumbent gaming networks with over 400 million users, including functionality for both e-sports and gambling;

Securitization platform for artworks, including music, video and brands, in partnership with some of the world's most recognizable artists, brands and studios, something not possible before the advent of blockchain; and

Launch of an exchange federated on the Stellar network with leading forex (foreign exchange) and remittance partners to be announced.

In addition, the Company continues with its collaboration on, and monetization of, existing strategic equity and ICO investment holdings. The Company is currently reviewing over half a dozen new partnerships, including final-stage discussions on an investment into a genetics-to-sale cannabis blockchain platform, participation in the launch of an exchange for security tokens and a utilities exchange, and the launch of back-end payment systems to create fungibility for the Company's projects, and projects on which the Company is partnered.

OTHER CORPORATE MATTERS

On February 20, 2018, the Company announced that it would be making an investment of $2 million in the private token offering of MEvU, a product of Decent Tech Inc. ("MEvU"). The investment would be made in addition to the Company's acquisition of a 30% interest in Decent Tech Inc., MEvU's parent company. Based on recommendations from the Company's Investment Committee and the Board of Directors, BLOC has decided not to proceed with the investment in MEvU or Decent Tech Inc. at this time.

The Company also announces that Mr. Shidan Gouran will be taking over the CEO duties and title from Mr. Rik Willard effective immediately as Mr. Willard continues to focus on his other ventures. Mr. Gouran will continue to act as President & CEO for BLOC.

The Board of Directors would like to thank Mr. Willard for his contributions to the Company and wish him all the best with his future endeavors.

On behalf of the Company:

Shidan Gouran, President & CEO

(416) 854-3017

For more information, please contact:

IRTH Communications, LLC

ir@globalblockchain.io

800-689-8089

About Global Blockchain Technologies Corp.

The Company provides investors access to a basket of direct and indirect holdings within the blockchain space, managed by a team of industry pioneers and early adopters of all major cryptocurrencies.

The Company is focused on streamlining the currently arduous, lengthy, and complicated process that interested investors must undergo in order to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency space, with a view to becoming the first vertically-integrated originator and manager of top tier blockchains and digital currencies.

BLOC is listed on the CSE and its common shares trade under the ticker symbol "BLOC". Additional information relating to BLOC is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, the CSE at www.theCSE.com, as well as on the Company's website at www.globalblockchain.io.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Generally, any statements that are not historical facts may contain forward-looking information, and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or indicates that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be" taken, "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to the Company's goal of streamlining the current arduous, lengthy and complicated process that interested investors need to undergo in order to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency space with a view to becoming the first vertically integrated originator and manager of top-tier blockchains and digital currencies. The Company has no assets and its business plan is purely conceptual in nature and there is no assurance that it will be implemented as set out herein, or at all. Forward-looking information is based on certain factors and assumptions the Company believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made, including but not limited to: statements and expectations regarding the ability of the Company to (i) successfully engage senior management with appropriate industry experience and expertise, (ii) gain access to and acquire a basket of cryptocurrency assets and pre-ICO and ICO financings on favourable terms or at all, (iii) successfully create its own tokens and ICO's, and (iv) execute on future M&A opportunities in the cryptocurrency space; receipt of required regulatory approvals; the availability of necessary financing; permitting and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: risks related to changes in cryptocurrency prices; the estimation of personnel and operating costs; general global markets and economic conditions; risks associated with uninsurable risks; risks associated with currency fluctuations; competition faced in securing experienced personnel with appropriate industry experience and expertise; risks associated with changes in the financial auditing and corporate governance standards applicable to cryptocurrencies and ICO's; risks related to potential conflicts of interest; the reliance on key personnel; financing, capitalization and liquidity risks including the risk that the financing necessary to fund continued development of the Company's business plan may not be available on satisfactory terms, or at all; the risk of potential dilution through the issuance of additional common shares of the Company; the risk of litigation. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information set out in this presentation, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as required by laws. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Gold Level National Partnership will support Homeless Housing Development Program

Newport Beach, California--(Newsfile Corp. - May 10, 2018) - HomeAid America, a leading national provider of housing for the homeless, today announced that Sherwin-Williams, a national leader in the paints and coatings industry, will join HomeAid as a Gold Level National Partner. Dedicated to enhancing the communities where it operates, Sherwin-Williams will contribute $50,000 to assist HomeAid in the fight against homelessness across the country.

HomeAid identifies charities working to help homeless families and individuals that are in need of additional or upgraded facilities in which to house people. HomeAid's builder captains and their trade partners and suppliers take on these projects, completing them at a deep discount through the in-kind donation of their time and materials, while the service providers offer programmatic resources, such as job and life skills training, financial counseling, and physical and emotional support needed to get back on their feet.





Figure 1: Sherwin-Williams Volunteer Day

Cannot view Figure 1? Please visit:

http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5885/34566_a1525917490531_86.jpg





"HomeAid is exactly the type of organization that Sherwin-Williams is proud to stand behind," said John Morikis, Chairman, President and CEO of The Sherwin-Williams Company. "Their mission to connect homeless families and individuals with safe and accessible housing aligns with our Company's values and philanthropic priorities." Michael Robidoux, Vice President - National Accounts of The Sherwin-Williams Company will join HomeAid America's Board of Directors.

"Sherwin-Williams has been very supportive of HomeAid in recent years, providing paint for many of our chapters' shelter projects," said Peter Simons, CEO of HomeAid America. "Now by joining us as a national partner, they will be spreading this support across the country as well as providing more opportunities for local involvement across the nation. We are deeply grateful for this commitment."

Sherwin-Williams is currently very active with HomeAid's chapters in Atlanta, Houston and Colorado, generously lending financial and in-kind product support on an on-going basis. Recently, HomeAid Portland also received donated paint and supplies to complete a mural for a shelter serving homeless single-parent families. Later this month, HomeAid Sacramento will participate in Sherwin-Williams' National Painting Week. On May 30, Sherwin-Williams employees will give back to refresh Sacramento's project for Volunteers of America's Mather Campus, showing what a big difference a simple coat of paint can make.

About HomeAid America

HomeAid is a leading national nonprofit provider of housing for the homeless. Through its network of 18 chapters in 12 states, HomeAid has completed over 500 housing projects that have sheltered over 300,000 previously homeless people. Through the generosity of builders, their trades and suppliers, HomeAid has added over $230 million of housing for the homeless, of which nearly 50 percent has been donated. HomeAid currently has over 60 projects in development across the country. For more information, visit www.homeaid.org. Join HomeAid on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About Sherwin-Williams

For more than 150 years, Sherwin-Williams has been an industry leader in the development of technologically advanced paint and coatings. As the nation's largest specialty retailer of paint and painting supplies, Sherwin-Williams is dedicated to supporting both do-it-yourselfers and painting professionals with exceptional and exclusive products, resources to make confident color selections and expert, personalized service at its more than 4,200 neighborhood stores across North America. For more information, visit sherwin-williams.com. Join Sherwin-Williams on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

Media Contact:

Amanda Genakos

(303) 489-2721

agenakos@homeaid.org

Related Images

sherwin-williams-volunteer-day.jpg

Sherwin-Williams Volunteer Day

partnership-announcement.png

Partnership Announcement

Sherwin-Williams Joins HomeAid America as Gold Level National PartnerLONDON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Companies that share their profits with workers and have a social mission should get a new "Queen's Award for Enlightened Business Behaviour," a minister has suggested.

Guy Opperman, the pensions minister, said that firms that pay staff well and take account of the "social impact" of their activities should be recognised and praised, to encourage the spread of what he called "responsible capitalism".

Opperman was speaking at the launch of a Social Market Foundation paper on "social business" written by Phillip Ullmann of the Cordant Group, one of Britain's biggest social enterprises.

The paper, From Mission to Impact argues that companies should have a legal duty to pursue a "social mission" to benefit workers and other stakeholders as well as owners.

Mr Opperman, who was speaking in a personal capacity, said companies that demonstrate social impact should be celebrated and rewarded by consumers.

He said:"Just as there is a Queen's Award for Enterprise for exporters, there is a case for looking at whether there should be a Queen's Award for Enlightened Business Behaviour. That would be a legitimate validation of social business."

The Queen's Award for Enterprise is a Government award given to British firms judged to excel at exporting or innovation. Winners are invited to a Royal reception and are entitled to fly the Queen's Award flag at their offices.

Mr Opperman, one of the first Conservatives to campaign for a "living wage", helped to set up a community-owned bank in his Northumberland constituency. He said he believed there is a "social change" underway that puts pressure on companies to change the way they work.

He said:"There are businesses aplenty that are setting an example - Timpson's, the Co-Operative, Lush and Phillip Ullmann's business, Cordant. There are role models of the sort of business people want to see in future."

Cordant, which has a turnover of 850 million a year, has declared itself a "social enterprise", capping executive pay and dividend payments and promising to share profits with staff.

Phillip Ullmann, Chief Energiser, Cordant Group said:"I believe that social business can change society, improving the lives of workers everywhere providing we can instil a cultural shift in thinking from profits to people and from pure wealth accumulation to wellbeing. The key lies in making real social impact promises, providing employee autonomy and in holding companies to account so that any license to operaterestsondeliveringgenuine, lastingchange."

James Kirkup, Director of the Social Market Foundation, said: "Restoring faith in an open market economy requires companies to do things very differently. Politicians and business leaders are increasingly realising that the issues raised by people like Phillip Ullmann's SMF paper should be at the centre of debate about our economic and social future."



Editor Notes

Watch Event Film here: https://vimeo.com/268949814



Ullmann Report : http://www.smf.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/From-Mission-to-Impact.pdfDENVER, CO / ACCESSWIRE / May 10, 2018 / Intiva Biopharma, Inc. ("Intiva" or the "Company") (OTC PINK: NTVA), a participant in pre-clinical and clinical drug development activities in accordance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") protocols for a number of pharmaceutical formulations that include cannabinoids, today announced it had released its 2018 Annual Shareholder Letter, available below.

May 9, 2018

Dear Shareholders and friends of Intiva Biopharma,

We are pleased to provide you with an update regarding Intiva BioPharma Inc.'s ("Intiva") recent developments, current activities and most importantly, some of our plans for the future.

In March I was appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer of Intiva, upon Jeffrey Friedland's resignation as an officer and director of the Company. While Jeffrey remains both a direct and indirect shareholder, he has no management role in the Company.

I plan to stay in this role until we are able to enhance our existing management team with the addition of professionals with strong business and/or pharmaceutical research and development expertise. When this occurs, I intend to then resume my previous role as Chief Strategy Officer and Director.

The global cannabis industry, and its derivatives, is the world's fastest growing emerging market and I continue to be a passionate advocate of the industry's potential. It is clear that as we learn more about the cannabis plant, we continue to discover medical properties and attributes which will likely have a significant impact in every facet of our lives. My focus in the cannabis industry has been on science, and specifically, research and development opportunities. Since 2013, I have been involved in managing, advising and investing in over 20 cannabis companies, both private and public.

As you may be aware, Intiva does not "touch the plant," or any derivatives of the plant. Intiva is proceeding with its research and development activities using U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") approved protocols, using the synthetic cannabinoid molecules, Dronabinol and Marinol.

My involvement with Intiva began in the same way as for many of you, as an investor. When I first invested in the Company I was intrigued with Intiva's business model, specifically its objective of researching and developing cannabinoid-based pharmaceuticals, under FDA or equivalent pathways in other countries. A key motivator for my investment was Intiva's objective of "developing real pharmaceuticals, based on real science," which I believe is the future of this industry.

As I learned more about Intiva's business model and the Company's management team, I decided that I wanted to become more involved. I was asked to join the Company's board of directors, and subsequently, I joined Intiva's management team as Chief Strategy Officer, leading to my increased operational involvement.

For those of you who don't know me, I am an entrepreneur and a former investment banker. I have founded and sold several companies. For twelve years, I was the co-head of corporate finance at BNPParibas, a major international bank. At another point in my career, I was the Co-President/CEO of the Manischewitz Company, which was sold to Bain Capital. (My full bio is available on the Intiva website.)

Intiva has an excellent management team, including Rob Goldfarb, our Chief Operating Officer, and Evan Wasoff, our Chief Financial Officer. Rob has an extensive background in management and legal affairs for pharmaceutical companies. In addition to being a Certified Public Accountant, Evan has an MBA, and has been the chief financial officer of other privately-held and publicly-traded companies. We have also recently added Fay Matsukage, as our outside securities legal counsel. Fay brings deep knowledege and experience regarding public company compliance and legal matters.

We are also delighted that Philadelphia-based Lindy Snider has joined Intiva's Board of Directors. Following in the footsteps of a family filled with entrepreneurs, Lindy founded and created Lindi Skin. As the developer of the first-ever skincare collection dedicated to help relieve the often debilitating skin side effects of individuals undergoing cancer therapies including chemotherapy and radiation, in 2004 Lindy founded oncocosmetics, an entirely new niche in dermatology and oncology. Lindy also has a significant involvement in the cannabis industry. She is Chair of the Entrepreneurship and Social Impact Initiative of The Lambert Center for the Study of Medicinal Cannabis and Hemp at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and is an Associate Fellow at its Institute of Emerging Health Profession. Lindy is an ardent supporter of the potential of the cannabis industry, and has invested in numerous cannabis-related companies.

Intiva's Drug Development Activities

Intiva is researching the use of cannabinoid receptor modulators, terpenes, and other ingredients, to develop FDA-compliant medicine. We are currently focused on six medical indications. As we proceed with our research and development activities for these indications, we are continuing to strengthen our underlying intellectual property. The six indications are:

The acute treatment during exposure to organophosphorus nerve agents including sarin gas.

The treatment of various symptoms related to myotonic dystrophy and related muscular diseases.

The treatment of various symptoms related to lipidosis; genetic disorders which are characterized by defects of the digestive system, that impair the way the body uses dietary fat.

The treatment of various symptoms related to lipofuscinosis, in particular neural ceroid lipofuscinosis and macular degeneration associated with lipofuscinosis.

The treatment of restless legs syndrome (RLS), or Willis-Ekbom Disease and Wittmaack-Ekbom Syndrome, which are neurological sensory disorders that often interfere with sleep.

Sexual health issues affecting both males and females.

In recent months we have added two remarkable members to our drug development team.

Dr. Linda Klumpers has joined our drug development team as a consultant. Dr. Klumpers has a Ph.D. in Clinical Pharmacology from the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. Prior to obtaining her Ph.D. she was a Clinical Pharmacologist and a project leader at the CHDR Centre for Human Drug Research and at the Leiden University Medical Center. Dr. Klumpers has an MHBO Business Management degree from the NOCI, Woerden, and an M.Sc. in Medical Biology - Cognitive Neurosciences and Neurobiology, from the University of Amsterdam. Dr. Klumpers has given more than 40 presentations at organizations and international conferences. Since 2010 she has been a recurring lecturer at the International Cannabis Masterclass. She has published nine papers in international scientific journals, including the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and NeuroImage.

Professor Schoser of the Frederich-Baur Institut at the University of Munich has also joined our drug development team as a consultant. Dr. Schoser is a Myotonic Dystrophy specialist, which is one of the medical conditions for which we are developing a cannabinoid-based pharmaceutical. We are hopeful that Dr. Schoser's work will also allow us to better understand the impact of various cannabinoids on the nervous system and muscles in general, which we believe could also be beneficial for our drug development activities for other conditions.

Our innovative research and development strategy, consisting of bringing together an endo-cannabinoid scientist, Dr. Klumpers, with an indication specialist such as Professor Schoser, we believe will prove to be very beneficial. These seasoned and leading specialists are sharing their very specific and in-depth knowledge to benefit Intiva by potentially developing new ways of treating medical disorders with cannabinoid-based medications.

With the recent news regarding Syria using nerve agents against its own population, the use of nerve agents, including sarin gas, is once-again a front-page story. Intiva has licensed intellectual property regarding the use of cannabinoid-based drugs for alleviating some of the symptoms resulting from the exposure to organophosphates, including insecticides and nerve agents. Intiva intends to proceed in the development of cannabinoid and terpene-based formulations, with the objective of filing one or more New Drug Applications (NDAs) with the FDA, probably under special "animal only" protocols for national defense and first responders, since nerve agents cannot be tested on humans. Our pre-clinical drug development activities for the nerve agent product are proceeding. Our formulation lab is currently developing test batches, consisting of synthetic THC and other cannabinoids, so that pre-clinical work can be initiated.

Intiva has also licensed a patent and intellectual property for the exact dosing of pill-based cannabinoid medicine. We have branded this product as XactDose. Our business plan for XactDose is to license the technology to the medical cannabis industry globally.

Intiva's Corporate Finance Direction

Based on our desire to ramp up our drug development activities, your management team and directors are continuing to evaluate our corporate finance strategy and capital requirements for the remainder of this year and 2019.

Intiva has only traded under the Intiva BioPharma stock symbol, NTVA, since late December, a little under five months. We sought a public listing as we concluded that it would be beneficial in enabling the Company to access the required capital to achieve its business objectives. Because a key to being a successful publicly-traded company is having an actively-traded market for a company's shares, we are committed to an active market for Intiva's shares. We hope to have news to report to you on this in the near future.

Mark Lubchenco, our Director of Investor Relations, is available to answer any questions you may have, or to provide you with additional information regarding Intiva. Mark's phone number is 303-431-4530, and his email is mlubchenco@intivabiopharma.com. You can also learn more about us by visiting our website at www.intivabiopharma.com.

On behalf of your management team and directors, we thank you for your trust and support. We will keep you apprised as Intiva BioPharma proceeds in implementing its business plans.

Yours truly,

Alain Bankier

Chief Executive Officer

Intiva BioPharma Disclosure Notice:

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For this purpose, any statements contained herein or which are otherwise made by or on behalf of the Company that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed forward-looking statements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as "may," "will," "to," "plan," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "could," "should," "would," "estimate," or "continue," or the negative or other variations thereof or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties which may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to the following: the success of research and development activities and the speed with which regulatory authorizations and product launches may be achieved; government regulation generally; competitive developments; the ability to successfully market products domestically and internationally; difficulties or delays in manufacturing or issues relating to manufacturing capacity; commercial obstacles to the successful introduction of brand products generally; legal defense costs, insurance expenses, settlement costs, and the risk of an adverse decision or settlement relating to product liability, patent protection, governmental investigations, and other legal proceedings; the Company's ability to acquire and protect patents and other intellectual property both domestically and internationally; the absence of certainty regarding the receipt of required regulatory approval or the timing or terms of such approvals; any changes in business, political and economic conditions; business interruption due to hurricanes or other events outside of the Company's control.

Readers are cautioned not to place reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are valid only as of the date they were made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events or otherwise, except as expressly required by law.

SOURCE: Intiva Biopharma, Inc.ABB sets the benchmark for digitalization with its grid communication portfolio, providing utilities with a high quality, reliable, and cost-effective foundation for smart grid infrastructures

SANTA CLARA, California, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ABB was honored with the coveted 2018 North American Company of the Year Award at Frost & Sullivan's recent Growth, Innovation & Leadership Awards Gala in San Diego, California, on March 6th, based on its successful implementation of the company's growth strategy with wireless communication products, including its ABB Ability platform and private wireless mesh networks.

"ABB's wireless communication solutions provide utilities with high-quality and real-time data, low operating costs, superior customer service, and strategic asset management," said Farah Saeed, Principal Consultant, Frost & Sullivan.

Click here for the full multimedia experience of this release - http://bit.ly/2IbAbrS

ABB Ability communication products enable utilities to build a highly reliable, secure, manageable and scalable foundation that meets the performance and capacity required for multiple smart grid applications. The company has strategically positioned itself as a one-stop shop to address of the communication needs for utilities, including advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), distribution automation, substation automation/security, and mobile workforce applications. In addition, ABB ensures that its communication products are backward-compatible with legacy meters, sensors, and other devices across the grid. This allows utilities to upgrade their communications infrastructure without replacing existing electric assets, leading to lower operating and replacement costs that will improve their bottom line. In addition to supporting smart grids, ABB's multi-purpose products, which include both wireless networks and optical fiber, also serve a wide range of industry verticals including oil and gas, industrial control systems, automotive and transportation, mining, and smart cities.

ABB implements industry-leading best practices, through its Operational Excellence Program, to achieve operational excellence in both product performance and customer experience. The program, based on the European Foundation for Quality Management Business Excellence Model, ensures customers receive standardized products and services, consistent quality, and global processes at a fair price worldwide. The company also employs a global people satisfaction survey that maps expectations and satisfaction. ABB's Service Knowledge Portal allows the company's 20,000 service employees to contribute to and access the collective knowledge of the company and respond quickly to customer concerns and needs.

"ABB is a market leader in digital communications, as well as a pioneer with substation technology," said Saeed. "With the ABB Ability wireless communication networks, the company has become a market leader in supporting mission-critical distribution and substation automation systems."

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents a Company of the Year Award to the organization that demonstrates excellence in terms of growth strategy and implementation in its field. The award recognizes a high degree of innovation with products and technologies, and the resulting leadership in terms of customer value and market penetration.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About ABB

ABB is a pioneering technology leader in electrification products, robotics and motion, industrial automation and power grids, serving customers in utilities, industry and transport & infrastructure globally. Continuing more than a 125-year history of innovation, ABB today is writing the future of industrial digitalization and driving the Energy and Fourth Industrial Revolutions. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 132,000 employees. www.abb.com

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.

Contact:

Ana Arriaga

P: 210.247.3823

F: 210.348.1003

E: ana.arriaga@frost.comContinuing the brand's legacy of the world's best audio engineering, the new enhanced facility will power the next generation of audio excellence through an expansion of capabilities and staff

LONDON and REDWOOD CITY, California, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bowers & Wilkins, the storied British audio brand, is announcing the relocation of its world-famous research and development centre to a new and larger facility with cutting-edge equipment and tools. The move represents a significant investment to expand the team and accelerate the company's ability to develop new capabilities that will drive innovation across its suite of luxury home speakers, headphones and performance car audio.

The new facility will be called, Southwater Research & Engineering (SRE), based on its location in the West Sussex town of Southwater, U.K. The new SRE will build on the enviable legacy of its predecessor, the Steyning Research Establishment, and keeps the same initials as a tribute.

Every major acoustic innovation that has defined Bowers & Wilkins had its beginnings at that original 'University of Sound', established by John Bowers in 1981. The original SRE lays claim to innovations including the Diamond tweeter, the Continuum and Aerofoil cones, as well as iconic products such as the Zeppelin, the 800 D3, the PX noise-cancelling headphones as well as the ground-breaking Nautilus speakers.

The new facility will be more than twice the size of the original at nearly 30,000 sq ft (2,750 sq m). When it opens later this year, it will accommodate multiple anechoic chambers, significant increase in the number of listening test rooms, a suite of product testing and engineering labs, and dedicated Headphone and Automotive Audio Labs. In recognition of the incredible legacy of John Bowers, it will also feature a near recreation of his original listening room to ensure that our sound remains true to his vision. The all-new SRE will also feature an experience centre designed to showcase the product ranges to partners, press, and visitors alike.

"For more than 50 years, Bowers & Wilkins has been defined by cutting edge acoustic technologies complemented by beautifully designed products," said Gideon Yu, executive chairman and CEO at Bowers & Wilkins. "Inspired by John Bowers' quest for what he called 'True Sound', our engineers are dedicated to honoring and continuing that legacy today. The new SRE is an extension of our rich sound engineering tradition. It is designed to further the mission of crafting products that deliver incredible sound experiences and beyond to our customers and consumers."

In anticipation of the move, Bowers & Wilkins has already increased the size of its R&D team by 40 percent over the past two years. Once the new facility opens later this year, the company will continue to recruit new top-quality engineering talent to join the expanding team.

"Bowers & Wilkins' commitment to audio excellence, precision craftsmanship and innovation has allowed us to stay true to our promise of delivering the highest quality and most accurate performance audio possible," added Ken McAlpine, Chief Technology Officer at Bowers & Wilkins. "The team at SRE has more than 300 plus years of combined sound engineering expertise. The investment in the all-new SRE will ensure that our dedication to innovation continues for the next 50 years and beyond."

About Bowers & Wilkins

Bowers & Wilkins, founded in the UK in 1966, has been at the forefront of high performance audio for more than 50 years. Bowers & Wilkins designs and manufactures precision home speakers, headphones, custom installation and performance car audio products that set new standards for innovation and sound quality, earning countless awards and accolades from the world's leading recording studios and musicians. Bowers & Wilkins' reputation is based on the unwavering pursuit of the best possible sound and an unsurpassable music listening experience. Learn more at www.bowerswilkins.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/659140/Bowers_Wilkins_Logo.jpgJim Corey presents results at PEI Operating Partners Forum in London

MCLEAN, Virginia, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- During March and April, Blue Ridge Partners surveyed CEOs of private equity owned portfolio companies on a variety of topics including i) their business priorities for 2018/2019, ii) CEO perceptions of the contributions made by operating partners/senior advisors and iii) suggestions for making the CEO/operating partner relationship most productive. We also asked operating partners a similar set of questions to compare responses with those of the CEOs.

Insights gained from analyzing the surveys were reported by Jim Corey, Managing Partner of Blue Ridge Partners at the PEI Operating Partner Forum in London on May 8. In assessing the relationships and expectations between the CEOs and operating partners, there was strong alignment on business improvement priorities for 2018/2019. However, the survey highlighted the existence of friction in the relationship. For instance, CEOs felt that some operating partners worked on their own agenda without proper coordination with the CEO while operating partners felt that some CEOs are too defensive in insisting the company is doing everything right. In addition, the operating partners believed they added significantly more value to the business than perceived by the CEOs.

Both CEOs and operating partners offered meaningful advice for making their working relationship more productive. Many of the responses followed a common theme: trust is essential, the operating partners should empower the senior leadership team and be mindful not to undermine them, and there should be clear rules of engagement and communication. The complete survey report can be read here.

"This survey of CEOs and operating partners provides many useful perspectives on the friction that exists in their relationship," said Corey. "The key insight however, is not the existence of this friction but the list of principles and behaviors that bring strength and mutual support to this relationship."

About Blue Ridge Partners

Blue Ridge Partners is a management consulting firm exclusively focused on helping companies accelerate profitable revenue growth. Our clients include over 100 private equity firms - both during deal evaluation/ due diligence and post-acquisition - and Fortune 500 and upper middle market companies. We help enhance their strategic understanding of markets and customers, deepen and expand their customer relationships and improve marketing and sales performance.

Contact:

David Schutzman, 1-203-550-8551, david@schutzmanpr.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/329599/Blue_Ridge_Partners_Logo.jpgToronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 10, 2018) - Therma Bright Inc. (TSXV: THRM) ("Therma Bright" or the "Company"), a progressive medical device technology company, announces that it will extend the closing date of its previously announced equity financing of up to $2.5 million and convertible debenture financing of up to $1.5 million, for up to thirty (30) days from the date of this release. This extension will provide investors additional time to complete and deliver their subscriptions for the 2nd tranche closing of these financings (the 1st tranche closing having been press released on April 27, 2018). The 2nd tranche will close as soon as possible, but in no event shall these financings remain open beyond June 9, 2018.

Details of the equity private placement and convertible debenture offering, described below, were previously announced in Therma Bright's press release dated April 19, 2018.

Therma Bright Inc. Acquires: coldsores.com

The Company is also pleased to advise that, having received regulatory approval, it has now completed the acquisition of the domain name: coldsores.com (previously announced January 17, 2018). As partial consideration, the Company has issued 328,098 common shares to the vendor, which shares are subject to a hold period expiring four months plus a day after the date of their issuance.

Rob Fia, CEO, commented:

"Therma Bright is pleased to announce that it has acquired coldsores.com as part of a rebranding and social media initiative for our preventative cold sore product; interceptCS. In the near future we expect to revamp our corporate website and will tie in coldsores.com to our existing two e-commerce websites; interceptcs.com and interceptcoldsore.com."

The equity financing is comprised of units of the Company ("Units") at a price of $0.05 per Unit. Each Unit will consist of one common share and one common share purchase warrant. Each warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one common share for three years at a price of $0.05/share in the first year and thereafter at $0.10/share, subject to acceleration, at the option of the Company, in the event that its common shares trade at or above $0.13/share for 10 consecutive trading days following the date which is four months and one day from the closing date, and the Company has provided warrant holders with 30 days prior written notice of the accelerated warrant exercise date.

Three-year convertible debentures ("Debentures") are also being offered to eligible investors in principal amounts of $1,000 per Debenture, with 8% interest payable thereon. A minimum of 12 months' interest on the full principal amount will be payable, regardless of whether the Debenture is converted prior to such time. Subject to prior TSXV approval, interest may be paid in shares at the market price of the Company's common shares at the time of conversion. The Debentures will be convertible into units of the Company at a conversion price of $0.05/unit if converted in the first year and thereafter at $0.10/unit. Each unit will be comprised of one common share and one-fifth (1/5) of one common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant will be exercisable for one common share for a period of two years from the date of issue of the warrant at an exercise price of $0.05 if exercised on or before the date that is one year from the date of issuance of the Debenture or thereafter at an exercise price of $0.10. No fractional warrants will be issued, and such fraction will instead be rounded up or down to the nearest whole warrant, with 0.5 of a warrant being rounded up. The subscriber may convert the Debenture at any time until the maturity date. The Company may convert the Debenture on the earlier of, and at any time thereafter: (a) at any time after the date that is 12 months after the date of issue of the Debentures until the maturity date; and (b) the 16th day after the closing price of the Company's common shares on the TSXV exceeds $0.075 for fifteen (15) consecutive trading days, provided such conversion date is at least six (6) months after the date of issue of the Debentures. Therma Bright may, at its option, subject to providing not more than 60 and not less than 30 days prior notice, redeem the Debentures in whole or in part.

In conjunction with both of these financings, the Company may pay a finder's fee in cash, shares or warrants, or a combination thereof, to eligible persons, subject to and in compliance with regulatory policies.

Proceeds received from these financings will be used for general working capital.

Both financings are subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.

About Therma Bright Inc.:

Therma Bright is a progressive medical device technology company focused on providing consumers with quality medical devices that address their dermatological needs. Clear and healthy skin for all is at the core of the Company's philosophy as is the belief that such outcomes should not be a privilege for only those who can afford costly procedures and treatments. The Company's breakthrough proprietary technology delivers effective, non-invasive and pain free skin care.

Therma Bright received a Class II medical device status from the FDA for its platform technology that is indicated for the relief of the pain, itch, and inflammation from over 20,000 different insect stings and bites, (including bees, wasps, hornets, mosquitoes, black flies and jellyfish). The Company received approval for the above claims from FDA (United States) in 1997.

Therma Bright Inc. trades on the TSXV (TSXV: THRM). For more information visit: www.thejenexcorporation.com or www.therozap.com.

For further information please contact:

Therma Bright Inc.

Rob Fia

CEO

rfia@thejenexcorporation.com

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking" statements. These statements relate to future events or the Company's future performance and include the potential 2nd tranche closing of the equity financing and the debenture financing, all as described in the news release. All such statements involve substantial known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to vary from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition to other risks, the Company may not complete all or any of the transactions as described in this news on the timelines described. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, they should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and they will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes are reasonable assumptions on the date of this news release, the Company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities regulations.

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 press release.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATESVancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 10, 2018) - ML Gold Corp. (TSXV: MLG) ("ML Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement to raise total gross proceeds of CDN$1,000,000.

The Company will issue 4,000,000 non flow-through units at $0.10 per unit (for gross proceeds CDN$400,000) and 5,000,000 flow-through units at $0.12 per unit (for gross proceeds of CDN$600,000).

Each non flow-through unit at $0.10 comprises one common share in the capital of the Company and one full non-transferable share purchase warrant. Each warrant is exercisable into one common share at a price of $0.14 for a period of two years.

Each flow-through unit at $0.12 comprises one flow-through common share and one half of one non-transferable share purchase warrant. Each full warrant is exercisable into one common share of the Company at a price of $0.16 for a period of two years.

All units in the private placement are subject to a 4-month hold period from the date of issuance.

The financing will include finder's fee commissions and is subject to TSX Venture approval.

The proceeds from the flow-through financing will be used to advance the Company's Stars Property. Proceeds from the non-flow-through financing are intended for the Company's Stars Property, the Palmetto Project and as general working capital purposes.

ABOUT ML GOLD CORP.

ML Gold Corp. is a Canadian company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, focused on creating shareholder value through discoveries and strategic development of mineral properties in Canada and the United States.

For additional information please visit the Company's website at www.mlgoldcorp.com. You may also email info@mlgoldcorp.com or call investor relations at (604) 669-2279.

ML GOLD CORP.

"Adrian Smith"

Adrian Smith

President

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This news release may contain certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When or if used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "target, "plan", "forecast", "may", "schedule" and similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information may relate to future prices of commodities, accuracy of mineral or resource exploration activity, reserves or resources, regulatory or government requirements or approvals, the reliability of third party information, continued access to mineral properties or infrastructure, currency risks including the exchange rate of US$ for CDN$, changes in exploration costs and government royalties or taxes in Canada, the United States or other jurisdictions and other factors or information. Such statements represent the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affections such statements and information other than as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIG Blockchain Intelligence Group Inc. ("BIG" or "the Company") (CSE:BIGG) (WKN:A2JSKG) (OTC:BBKCF), a leading developer of Blockchain technology search, risk-scoring and data analytics solutions, is pleased to announce that the Company has established a strategic operational presence in Washington, D.C., in close proximity to key federal departments and agencies, and incorporated a wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary. BIG is ramping up its activities and strengthening its presence in the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. government agencies have already demonstrated a keen interest in BIG's proprietary technologies for tracing, tracking and exposing illicit activities and nefarious actors by peeling back the layers that would otherwise obscure criminal activities involving cryptocurrencies. BIG already counts the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Illicit Finance & Proceeds of Crime Unit, and the U.S. Department of Justice, among its clients. A pilot project with the U.S. Treasury Department is currently underway.

Robert Whitaker, BIG's Director of Forensics and Investigations, and Former Department of U.S. Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Illicit Finance & Proceeds of Crime Unit, Supervisory Special Agent, commented: "Establishing this office at the heart of America's policy-forming institutions is a very important and timely development in BIG's overarching vision. As we continue to establish our international presence in the world of cryptocurrency security and policy, this Washington office will enable our team to foster further inroads to top industry decision makers and regulatory bodies. Having developed key government and compliance relationships during my time with Homeland Security, I can't overstress how vital it is to be in the right place at the right time, and this office represents both, especially in light of the rapid emergence and adoption of digital currency use worldwide."

Significant agencies located in close proximity to BIG's Washington D.C. office include:

HSI (Homeland Security Investigations)

FBI

USPIS (U.S. Postal Inspection Services), which is responsible for monitoring and interdicting drug packages coming in via America's postal system

DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration)

IRS (Internal Revenue Service)

OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency)

Department of Treasury

FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)

BIG's CEO, Lance Morginn, added: "As the first and only developer of Blockchain technology search, risk-scoring and data analytics solutions to build a presence in the city, our office in Washington D.C. makes sense for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it places us at the epicenter of the very government agencies that are particularly interested in and can benefit from our proprietary technology and analytical capabilities. Secondly, a crucial part of BIG's mission is to bring cryptocurrency mainstream. That entails not only providing the tools and forensic services that enable individuals and companies to feel confident when using digital currencies, but also participating in the development of policies and regulations that will support the use of cryptocurrencies in a secure and transparent manner. There is no better place to do that than in America's capital."

BIG's global headquarters is located in the technology-leading center of Vancouver, Canada. The Company also has an office in Zug, Switzerland, the heart of the growing Crypto Valley, where over 100 Blockchain companies benefit from the region's stable legal framework and supportive government policies.

On behalf of the Board,

Lance Morginn

Chief Executive Officer

About BIG Blockchain Intelligence Group Inc.

BIG Blockchain Intelligence Group Inc. (BIG) brings security and accountability to the new era of cryptocurrency. BIG has developed from the ground up a Blockchain-agnostic search and analytics engine, QLUETM, enabling RegTech, Law Enforcement and Government Agencies to visually trace, track and monitor cryptocurrency transactions at a forensic level. Our commercial product, BitRank VerifiedTM, offers a "risk score" for Bitcoin wallets, enabling RegTech, banks, ATMs, exchanges and retailers to meet traditional regulatory/compliance requirements.

About BitRank VerifiedTM

BIG developed BitRank VerifiedTM to be the industry standard in ranking and verifying cryptocurrency transactions. BitRank VerifiedTM offers the financial world a simplified front-end results page, enabling consumer-facing bank tellers, exchanges, eCommerce sites and retailers to know whether a proposed transaction is safe to accept, questionable, or should be denied. BitRank VerifiedTM and its API are custom tailored to provide the RegTech sector with a reliable tool for meeting their regulatory requirements while mitigating exposure to risk of money laundering or other criminal activities.

About QLUETM

QLUE (Qualitative Law Enforcement Unified Edge) enables Law Enforcement and RegTech investigators to literally "follow the virtual money". QLUE incorporates advanced techniques and unique search algorithms to detect suspicious activity within bitcoin and cryptocurrency transactions, enabling investigators to quickly and visually trace, track and monitor transactions in their fight against terrorist financing, human trafficking, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, child pornography, corruption, bribery, money laundering, and other cyber crimes.

Investor Relations - USA

KCSA Strategic Communications

Valter Pinto, Managing Director

Scott Eckstein, VP of Market Intelligence

email: BlockChainGroup@KCSA.com (mailto:BlockChainGroup@KCSA.com)

D: +1-212-896-1254

Investor Relations - Canada

Skanderbeg Capital Advisors

Adam Ross

email: adam@skanderbegcapital.com (mailto:adam@skanderbegcapital.com)

P: +1-604-687-7130

BIG Investor Relations

Anthony Zelen

D: +1-778-819-8705

email: anthony@blockchaingroup.io (mailto:anthony@blockchaingroup.io)

For more information and to register to BIG's mailing list, please visit our website at https://www.blockchaingroup.io/ (https://www.blockchaingroup.io/). Follow @blocksearch on Twitter. Or visit SEDAR at www.sedar.com (http://www.sedar.com/).

Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which include completion of the search technology software and other matters. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as "may", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend", "believe" and "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur. These assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the state of the economy in general and capital markets in particular, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of BIG. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because BIG can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from BIG's expectations include, consumer sentiment towards BIG's products and Blockchain technology generally, technology failures, competition, and failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, BIG disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, BIG undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above.

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: Big Blockchain Intelligence Group Inc. via Globenewswire

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 10, 2018) - Vendetta Mining Corp. (TSXV: VTT) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the commencement of the 2018 field program at the Pegmont Lead-Zinc Project in Queensland, Australia.

The objectives of the 2018 drilling program are:

To expand the high grade lead-zinc mineralisation at Bridge Zone; Develop a Mineral Resource around the high grade but isolated sulphide intersection in PVRD156 drilled late in the 2017 program (36.61 m @ 9.07% Pb, 3.04% Zn, see VTT news release February 28, 2018), interpreted as a previously unidentified fold structure in Zone 3; Undertake further metallurgical drilling and test work on transition mineralisation; and Exploration drilling on nearby lead-zinc targets.



AMC Consultants (Canada) have been retained to undertake the Pegmont Mineral Resource update, work is in progress and the Company expects to be able to announce results around the end of May. AMC Consultants are the authors of the two previous Pegmont Mineral Resource Estimates.





The Company is also pleased to announce 100% exercise of the 50,000,000 common share purchase warrants, exercised at a price of $0.10. Proceeds of the exercise of the warrants will be used to fund the 2018 exploration program and general working capital.





Michael Williams, Vendetta's President and CEO commented "we appreciate the continued strong support of our shareholders, many of which exercised their warrants in advance, during 2017, which demonstrated their commitment to our Company and enabled us to expand the 2017 drilling program which in part allowed us to undertake resource drilling in the Bridge Zone discovery such that it will be included in the upcoming mineral resource update."





The Company is also announcing the resignation of Douglas Ramshaw as a Director. The Company wishes to sincerely thank Mr Ramshaw for his tremendous contribution to the Company over the last four years, Mr Ramshaw wishes to dedicate more time to his current executive role elsewhere. Mr Ramshaw's oversight committee memberships will be taken up by the Company's other independent Directors; David Baker and Doug Flegg.





The Company has granted 2,700,000 Performance Share Units (PSU's) to executives and consultants, which are subject to certain vesting provisions over a two year period.





About The Pegmont Lead Zinc Project





Pegmont is a stratiform, Broken Hill-Type deposit that outcrops with an overall shallow dip to the south east and is hosted in a magnetite-rich banded iron formation within high grade metamorphic rocks. The project consists of three granted mining leases and one exploration permit that cover an area of approximately 8,290 ha.





Pegmont is situated in the Mount Isa - McArthur Mineral Province, which hosts one of the world's richest endowments of lead-zinc-silver mineralization, including several world-class lead-zinc-silver mines.





Pegmont is located 25 km west of South 32's Cannington silver-lead-zinc operation, one of the world's largest producers of lead and silver and 28 km north of Chinova Resources' Osborne copper-gold operations. Pegmont is proximal to existing infrastructure including public roads, mine haul roads, rail, and a natural gas pipe line for power generation.





In June 2017 Vendetta updated the Mineral Resource estimate for Pegmont, see Table below, for full details please see Vendetta's news release, VTT2017-NR#6, June 27th, 2017 and the NI 43-101 technical report "Pegmont Resource Update June 2017" available on SEDAR.





Table 1. June 2017 Pegmont Mineral Resource Estimate*





Area Classification Material type Tonnes (kt) Pb % Zn % Ag g/t Open Pit

(Zones 1,2,3, & BHZ) Indicated Transition 685 5.2 2.5 9 Sulphide 1,379 5.7 2.7 11 Total 2,064 5.5 2.6 10 Inferred Transition 1,035 5.3 2.6 8 Sulphide 5,276 5.5 2.4 9 Total 6,311 5.4 2.4 9 Underground

(Zones 4 & 5) Indicated Sulphide 181 5.7 2.6 8 Inferred Sulphide 3,336 4.1 3.8 6 TOTAL Indicated Transition 685 5.2 2.5 9 Sulphide 1,560 5.7 2.7 10 Total 2,245 5.6 2.6 10 Inferred Transition 1,035 5.3 2.6 8 Sulphide 8,612 4.9 2.9 8 Total 9,647 5.0 2.9 8

Notes on above Table:

The Mineral Resource update has been prepared by independent qualified persons ("QPs") J.M. Shannon P.Geo, D Nussipakynova, P.Geo, M. Angus MAIG, P. Lebleu P.Eng, and A Riles MAIG, all of AMC Consultants, and has an effective date of 22 June 2017.

CIM definitions were used for the Mineral Resources.

Commodity price assumptions: Lead US$0.90/lb, Zinc US$0.95/lb and Silver US$15/oz.

Using drilling results to 8th May 2017.

Specific Gravity is applied based on oxidation state and zone to capture variation in mineralogy between the zones. Transitions specific gravity varied between 3.32 and 3.90 and sulphide specific gravity varied between 3.86 and 4.08.

Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the Mineral Resources will be converted into Mineral Reserves.

Mineral Resource tonnage have been rounded to reflect the accuracy of the estimate, and numbers may not add due to rounding.





About Vendetta Mining Corp.

Vendetta Mining Corp. is a Canadian junior exploration company engaged in acquiring, exploring, and developing mineral properties with an emphasis on lead and zinc. It is currently focused on the advanced stage Pegmont Lead-Zinc project in Queensland, Australia. Additional information on the Company can be found at www.vendettaminingcorp.com

Qualified Person

Peter Voulgaris, MAusIMM, MAIG, a Director of Vendetta, is a non-independent qualified person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Voulgaris has reviewed the technical content of this press release, and consents to the information provided in the form and context in which it appears.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"Michael Williams"

Michael Williams

President & CEO

The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Certain statements within this news release, other than statements of historical fact relating to Vendetta Mining Corp., are to be considered forward-looking statements with respect to the Company's intentions for its Pegmont project in Queensland, Australia. Forward-looking statements include statements that are predictive in nature, are reliant on future events or conditions, or include words such as "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "believes", "considers", "significant", "intends", "targets", "estimates", "seeks", attempts", "assumes", and other similar expressions.

The forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions which, while considered reasonable by Vendetta Mining Corp., are, by their nature, subject to inherent risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include: the interpretation of previous and current results from the 2017 drilling program mentioned in this news release, further results from the 2017 drilling program, the accuracy of exploration results, the accuracy of Mineral Resource Estimates, the anticipated results of future exploration, the forgoing ability to finance further exploration, delays in the completion of exploration, delays in the completion of the updated Mineral Resource Estimate, the future prices of lead, zinc, and other metals, and general economic, market and/or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements and assumptions will prove accurate and, therefore, readers of this news release are advised to rely on their own evaluation of the information contained within. In addition to the assumptions herein, these assumptions include the assumptions described in Vendetta Mining Corp.'s Management's Discussion and Analysis for the nine months ended February 28,, 2018.

Although Vendetta Mining Corp. has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual performance, achievements, actions, events, results or conditions to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements, there may be other risks, uncertainties and other factors that cause future performance to differ from what is anticipated, estimated or intended. Unless otherwise indicated, forward-looking statements contained herein are as of the date hereof and Vendetta Mining Corp. does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date on which such statements were made, except as required by applicable law.Infiniti Research, a global market intelligence solutions provider, has announced the completion of their most recent whitepaper on the key steps to master customer intelligence

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180510005721/en/

Driving business value through customer intelligence. (Graphic: Business Wire)

According to the experts at Infiniti,"Organizations that make the best use of data can take advantage of treasured insights that inform decision-making. Also, when exploited to its fullest advantage, customer intelligence can reveal prospects to set your business apart from the competition."

Customer intelligence is a process of gathering, studying, and applying quantitative and qualitative information about the environment and the customer, with significance to the organization's relationship with the customer. An effective customer intelligence solution directly influences business growth, mainly the profitability and revenue of organizations. It offers functional insights on the preferences and needs of the customers. Also, customer intelligence can help find new market trends along with new avenues and tools for customer relationship management (CRM). Infiniti has listed the key steps to master customer intelligence in this whitepaper.

Request a proposal to see how Infiniti Research's solutions can help you.

Key steps to master customer intelligence

Know your customers - This is an important step to drive business value from customer intelligence and better understand your customer's preferences and needs. It contains the management prioritization and strategic alignment to make strategy-driven business decisions.

This is an important step to drive business value from customer intelligence and better understand your customer's preferences and needs. It contains the management prioritization and strategic alignment to make strategy-driven business decisions. Develop strategic insights - It becomes indispensable to take planned decisions based on the insights to attain maximum benefits from customer intelligence. Capitalizing on the use of data analytic tools and other similar technologies without the correct information on demand and prioritization leads to the risk of resource wastage.

It becomes indispensable to take planned decisions based on the insights to attain maximum benefits from customer intelligence. Capitalizing on the use of data analytic tools and other similar technologies without the correct information on demand and prioritization leads to the risk of resource wastage. Act on the developed insights - This step includes applying the derived insights to attain value realization. Such an understanding also help firms to set themselves apart by framing different strategies for value propositions, improving service levels, and developing personalized omnichannel campaigns.

This step includes applying the derived insights to attain value realization. Such an understanding also help firms to set themselves apart by framing different strategies for value propositions, improving service levels, and developing personalized omnichannel campaigns. To read more, download a FREE sample

Download the complete list of key steps to master customer intelligence here:

https://www.infinitiresearch.com/request-white-paper?related=85596

About Infiniti Research

Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies.

With 15+ years of experience and offices across three continents, Infiniti Research has been instrumental in providing a complete range of competitive intelligence, strategy, and research services for over 550 companies across the globe.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180510005721/en/

Contacts:

Infiniti Research

Anirban Choudhury

Marketing Consultant

US: +1 844 778 0600

UK: +44 203 893 3400

hello@infinitiresearch.com

https://www.infinitiresearch.com/contact-usFAIRFIELD (dpa-AFX) - Alstom (AOMFF.PK, ALS.L) said that it signed a deal with General Electric (GE) to exit three Energy joint ventures in return for a payment of 2.594 billion euros. The 'Renewables', 'Grid' and 'Nuclear' Joint Ventures were set up in November 2015 as part of the sale of the Alstom Energy business to General Electric. Alstom said it intends to exercise its options to sell its interests in the 'Renewables' and 'Grid' Joint Ventures in 2018 (pursuant to Alstom's put options). If these options are exercised during the exercise period (between September 4th and September 10th), GE will then be deemed to have exercised its option to acquire Alstom's interest in the 'Nuclear' Joint Venture (pursuant to General Electric's call option), and the transfer of all interests will occur on 2 October 2018 for a total amount of 2.594 billion euros. 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.WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore. 'The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!' the U.S. president Twitted. Earlier today, Trump thanked North Korea leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday for his role in the release of three Americans detained in the reclusive communist country for several months. In remarks from Andrews Air Force Base, Trump said Kim 'really was excellent' to the three men, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim. 'This is a wonderful thing that he released the folks early. That was a big thing. Very important to me,' Trump said. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.SEOUL (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump announced the location and date of his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a post on Twitter on Thursday. In the post on the social media site, Trump revealed the historic meeting with Kim will be held in Singapore on Tuesday, June 12th. 'The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th,' Trump tweeted. 'We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!' The announcement from Trump comes shortly after the release of three Americans who were detained in North Korea for several months. In remarks from Andrews Air Force Base, Trump thanked Kim for his role in the release of the prisoners, claiming the dictator 'really was excellent' to the three men. 'This is a wonderful thing that he released the folks early. That was a big thing. Very important to me,' Trump said. 'I think he did this because I really think he wants to do something and bring that country into the real world,' the president added. 'I really believe that.' Trump predicted that the meeting with Kim will be a 'very big success' and said the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula would be his 'proudest achievement.' While Trump previously referred to Kim as a 'maniac' and a 'madman,' he described the North Korean leader as being 'very open' and 'honorable' in remarks last month. (Photo: Gage Skidmore) 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.HOUSTON, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Talos Energy Inc. ("Talos" or the "Company") (NYSE: TALO) announces the completion of the previously announced strategic combination between Talos Energy LLC and Stone Energy Corporation. The combined company commenced trading today on the New York Stock Exchange under the new ticker symbol "TALO". The Company will be headquartered in Houston, TX.

Chief Executive Officer Timothy S. Duncan commented, "This is a transformational combination, in which shareholders will greatly benefit from our increased scale and liquidity. Talos is very well positioned to capitalize on its high quality asset portfolio and returns focused capital programs in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and offshore Mexico, as well as take advantage of potential business development opportunities. We deeply appreciate the efforts of everyone involved in getting us to this point."

The Company expects to provide detailed Financial and Operational guidance in the coming weeks, which will be included in a separate announcement; however, at the closing, Talos has:

Entered into a new credit facility agreement with an initial Borrowing Base of $600.0 million , of which $300.0 million is available

, of which is available Liquidity of $450.0 million , inclusive of approximately $150.0 million of cash on hand, net of transaction related costs

, inclusive of approximately of cash on hand, net of transaction related costs Pro forma Year-End 2017 2P Reserves, at SEC pricing, of approximately 205 MMBoe(1) (roughly 80% liquids), of which approximately 150 MMBoe were Proved Reserves(1)

ABOUT TALOS ENERGY

Talos is a technically driven independent exploration and production company with operations in the United StatesGulf of Mexico and in the shallow waters off the coast of Mexico. Our focus in the United StatesGulf of Mexico is the exploration, acquisition, exploitation and development of shallow and deepwater assets near existing infrastructure. The shallow waters off the coast of Mexico provide us high impact exploration opportunities in an emerging basin. The Company's website is located at www.talosenergy.com.

INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACT

Sergio Maiworm

+1.713.328.3008

investor@talosenergy.com

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This communication may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included in this communication, regarding our strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. When used in this communication, the words "could," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "expect," "project" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions about future events and are based on currently available information as to the outcome and timing of future events.

We caution you that these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. These risks include, but are not limited to, potential adverse reactions or changes to business or employee relationships resulting from the business combination, competitive responses to the business combination, the possibility that the anticipated benefits of the business combination are not realized when expected or at all, including as a result of the impact of, or problems arising from, the integration of the two companies, litigation relating to the business combination and other factors that may affect our future results and business, generally, including those discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the final consent solicitation statement/prospectus, dated April 9, 2018, filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Rule 424(b)(3) under the Securities Act.

Reserve engineering is a process of estimating underground accumulations of oil, natural gas and NGLs that cannot be measured in an exact way. The accuracy of any reserve estimate depends on the quality of available data, the interpretation of such data and price and cost assumptions made by reserve engineers. In addition, the results of drilling, testing and production activities may justify revisions of estimates that were made previously. If significant, such revisions would change the schedule of any further production and development drilling. Accordingly, reserve estimates may differ significantly from the quantities of oil, natural gas and NGLs that are ultimately recovered. Should one or more of these risks occur, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results and plans could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements, expressed or implied, are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. This cautionary statement should also be considered in connection with any subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements that we or persons acting on our behalf may issue. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, we disclaim any duty to update any forward-looking statements, to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this communication.

This communication includes a summation of our pro forma proved and probable reserves. Investors should be cautioned that estimates of probable reserves are more uncertain than proved reserves, but have not been adjusted for risk due to that uncertainty. Therefore, estimates of proved and probable reserves are not comparable and their summation may be of limited use.

1 Includes pro forma Reserves for the Ram Powell acquisition, which acquisition was disclosed by Stone Energy Corporation on its Form 8-K filed with the SEC on April 27, 2018

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/687245/Talos_Energy_Logo.jpgMarijuana News TodayThe marijuana news today bears good tidings as a new report from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE:CM), otherwise known as CIBC, came out in strong support of the legal marijuana industry.CIBC is one of Canada's "Big Five" banks, so it represents a huge influence on investors in the country. With the bank's recent report being hot on marijuana stocks, that may open the door for more institutional investment in the sector. ("Legal marijuana is set to outsell liquor in Canada by 2020," Business Insider, May 9,.

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.KINGSTON, New York, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship Network Foundation (GCSEN Foundation) celebrates that its three-year demonstration pilot partnership with Wheaton College, Norton MA, has helped the college secure an historic gift of $10 million from the prestigious Diana Davis Spencer Foundation of Bethesda, MD. The GCSEN Foundation is an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) higher education not-for-profit, headquartered in Kingston NY.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/689757/GCSEN_Wheaton_College.jpg

The Diana Davis Spencer Foundation has been a visionary supporter of higher education for many years, promoting social entrepreneurship to achieve greater peace and prosperity in local communities. The gift establishes a leadership position in the field, creating an endowed Professorship in Social Entrepreneurship and funding for entrepreneur-centered programs on campus. The unique Prac-ademic program is practitioner oriented and supported by academic rigor, making Wheaton College one of only a few liberal arts colleges nationwide to have a program headed by an endowed Professorship in Social Entrepreneurship.

Wheaton College President Dennis M. Hanno said, "GCSEN has been with us every step of the way. It's been an incredible partnership to grow together in this innovative arena. Social Entrepreneurship is about the power of linking shared visions and shared missions, making exponential social impacts. GCSEN, led by Mike Caslin, has been an important partner for Wheaton College and for me, and I thank him for that." Hanno added, "I am extremely grateful to Diana Davis Spencer, to the Foundation and her family, for their commitment to the idea that social entrepreneurship has the power to transform lives and shape communities. We share that belief, and the Foundation's gift will enable Wheaton to more fully develop our capacity to support students in pursuing interests that address society's most pressing issues."

Since 2015, GCSEN Foundation has been a leading force in growing the field of social entrepreneurship at the higher education level, offering its partner college campuses adaptable, ready-to-use blended learning curricula, merging classroom, on-line and personal life changing learning experiences for students. GCSEN trains future business owners and executives to "make meaning, make money, and move the world to a better place" by melding best business practices with sustainable local economy ventures. Through its SES Institute's on-line courses, campus-based Meaning Maker Boot Camps, faculty and administrator certifications, and at international academic forums, GCSEN has been spreading the word about the importance of growing the Social Entrepreneurship movement. GCSEN Foundation's goal is to transform the lives of 1 million millennials, while assisting in the formulation and launch of 10,000 new social ventures by 2027.

For Wheaton College, the gift is one of the largest in their 183-year history, and a "game-changer", according to President Hanno. His commitment to social entrepreneurship builds upon the college's pioneering work in combining rigorous liberal arts study with active and experiential learning opportunities. Hanno said, "The work that's been going on with GCSEN, and at the Boot Camp is really transformational for the students involved, while also helping them to have an impact on our community and society in general. It's heartening to see their ideas actually flourishing and coming to reality. My goal is to have the opportunity to have a hundred more student ideas become business and social project realities."

Mike Caslin, GCSEN Foundation Founder & President said, "We have a great and enduring relationship with Wheaton and with President Hanno, an innovative leader of social entrepreneurship college programming. We've been able to work with him and his staff to adapt our curricula platform into their existing program base, to create unique offerings for students who are hungry to implement '4 P' Social Entrepreneur Impacts by creating businesses for People, Profit, Planet & Place. We are happy to join Wheaton in celebrating Diana Davis Spencer Foundation's incredibly thoughtful and generous gift. I'm certain that the combined effort between her Foundation and Wheaton College will accelerate the movement."

The Wheaton Institute for Social Entrepreneurship is designed to help students develop an idea into a sustainable business or organization addressing a social issue. The Institute is a year-round program that includes the intensive Social Entrepreneur Meaning Maker Boot Camp, offered in partnership with the GCSEN Foundation and includes GCSEN's lifelong support network through GCSEN's THEOS alumni service.

GCSEN offers its innovative, life-changing blended-learning SES (Social Entrepreneurship System) Institute program to partnering college campuses, benefiting colleges with enhanced recruitment, and retention rates, and increased student intellectual and practical engagement.

GCSEN also offers its unique programs directly to individual students and adult learners through its on-line Social Venture Internship program. The Social Venture Internship (SVI) results in a badged Certification for course completion and LinkedIn use. SVI facilitates learners' developing their own businesses and social ventures, and allows lifelong access to GCSEN's THEOS alumni network, offering resume building, a GCSEN professional reference, and access to business networking opportunities. Contact GCSEN for details on their SES and SVI Programs.

Mike Caslin is an MBA graduate of Babson College and a Manhattanville College undergraduate. The Founder and President of GCSEN Foundation, he is currently Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at SUNY New Paltz Business School. A past faculty member of Babson College, CUNY-Baruch, Marist College School of Business and Manhattanville College, Prof. Caslin has been a featured lecturer and speaker at the Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Dartmouth Tuck School of Business, and Columbia Univ. Business School Eugene Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, among others. A published author on social entrepreneurship, he's been called in as an expert for the United Nations, the U.S. Congress and The White House.

For more information about GCSEN, or for an interview with Founder & President

Mike Caslin, call 212-444-2071; e-mail mike@gcsen.com or visit www.gcsen.comLOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 10, 2018 / Open Listings, an online real estate brokerage firm that focuses on home sales in the California market, recently conducted a study, which found that housing prices in key California cities have risen so much, they may no longer be affordable to the areas' population. This is especially true for the numerous technology workers that inhabit the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas.

A recent article in The Mercury News reported that even highly-paid tech workers are having a hard time affording homes in Silicon Valley. Even those that work at top tech firms like Google, Facebook and Apple are paying "more than 28% of their monthly salaries for housing within 20-minutes from where they work."

Surging Housing Prices

For years home prices in Silicon Valley have soared so local workers began moving to Silicon Beach, including Playa Vista, Marina Del Rey, Venice and Sana Monica, have also risen. The average software engineer working at top area companies like Hulu, Google, Apple, Netflix and SpaceX make around $210,500 but homes in the area have a median cost of nearly $900,000. According to Neil Shekhter, "Technology workers with six-figure salaries can no longer afford to live near their workplaces."

Those living in the Los Angeles area have an even more difficult time finding affordable housing, with software engineers needing 44% of their salaries to purchase a home close to work.

Here are some of the local markets and home prices:

Engineers at Hulu in Santa Monica Hulu make approximately $129K; the median home price is $1.05M.

At Apple, engineers average $188K; home prices in Cupertino are around $1.16M.

In the San Francisco area near Apple, Google and Uber, the median priced home is $1.2M.

One anomaly to this scenario is Hawthorn, California, home to Elon Musk's SpaceX headquarters. In Hawthorn, a medium-priced home is around $450K, so engineers would only need to invest 15% of their salary for a home.

The Open Listings survey focused only on tech workers, but with home costs being out of reach for high-salaried tech workers, it is an impossibility for those outside the technology sector like office workers, custodians, teachers and first responders. Those workers are forced to drive much farther from work to find affordable housing.

Need for Affordable Housing:

Technology workers were once blamed for the increase in home prices as they moved into urban areas adjacent to their workplaces. Today even highly-skilled, top paid workers are forced to move further from work to get affordable housing.

Neil Shekhter stated that the study brings to light the need for affordable housing. Senator Scott Wiener recently proposed a bill to "create more transit-rich and affordable housing" options in expensive housing areas like San Francisco and Los Angeles.

One of the top concerns for many of these tech companies is finding workers willing to invest more commuting or a higher percentage of their income for housing. Another option may for tech headquarters to relocate to regions with more affordable housing options.

NMS Properties is the trusted source for Los Angeles Apartments.

NMS has offered quality rentals in the Los Angeles area for nearly three decades. Since 1988, NMS has developed and managed a large portfolio of premier apartment buildings and commercial properties in Santa Monica, West Los Angeles, Brentwood and the San Fernando Valley

Contact Information: GAlberts@NMSProperties.com

Sources:

https://www.crunchbase.com/person/neil-shekhter

https://www.levo.com/neil-shekhter

https://twitter.com/neilshekhter1

https://angel.co/neil-shekhter-1

NMS Properties, Inc.TechNode to produce inaugural "CES Asia Startups Awards"

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) announced today that CES Asia 2018 Startup Park will boast the largest exhibition since its inception, with more than 100 of the most innovative exhibitors from across the world expected to showcase their latest technology. To honor those with the greatest potentials to lead future investment and technology development trends, TechNode will present a new awards program, CES Asia Startups Awards. CES Asia will run June 13-15, 2018 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center (SNIEC).

"We are thrilled to have TechNode producing the CES Asia Startups Awards highlighting some of the most anticipated innovations across the technology industry," said John T. Kelley, senior director, international programs and show director, CES Asia. "Startup Park attendees will experience the next generation of breakthrough technologies drawing some of the world's best and brightest startup communities, and even possibly witness the birth of the next 'Unicorn!'"

"CES Asia Startups Awards will showcase startups with breakthrough technology, and discover the true force of innovation from China and around the world," the Founder CEO of TechNode, Dr. Lu Gang, noted.

Startup Park will be returning for the third year to CES Asia and is anticipated to grow 33 percent from 2017 to showcase over 100 startups from Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, mainland China, Nordic, Poland, Switzerland, and Taiwan. Organizers that brought groups to the exhibit area include Beijing Zhongguancun Overseas Science Park, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, La French Tech Shanghai Business France, Holland Innovation Network, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Inno Park, Microsoft for Startups, nHack, Swissnex China, TusStar, Zhangjiang Park, and Zocus Innovation. Cities like Chengdu and Shenzhen are among many in China with startup parks, demonstrating concentrated efforts to attract domestic and international investment in the latest tech innovation.

Startup Park is located in SNIEC Hall N4. Please contact Brian Moon at bmoon@CTA.tech for detailed guidelines about how to exhibit in the Startup Park at CES Asia 2018.

Owned and produced by International CES (Shanghai) Exhibition Co. Ltd. and co-produced by Shanghai Intex, CES Asia 2018 will run from June 13-15, in Shanghai, China. The premier event for the consumer technology industry in Asia, CES Asia showcases major brands and innovative companies across several vertical markets in the Asian marketplace.

Visit CESAsia.com for the latest show news, information, photos, b-roll and more.

Note to Editors:

High-definition video b-roll from CES Asia 2017 is available for easy download on CESAsia.com. Journalists traveling from outside of China will require a J-1 or J-2 visa. For questions about exhibiting at CES Asia, contact Brian Moon at bmoon@CTA.tech or +1 703-907-4351.

About CES Asia:

Owned and produced by the International CES (Shanghai) Exhibition Co. Ltd. and co-produced by Shanghai Intex Exhibition Co., Ltd (Shanghai Intex), CES Asia is the premier event for the consumer technology industry, showcasing the full breadth and depth of the innovation value-chain in the Asian marketplace. Key global businesses come to this new event to grow and reinforce their brand by showcasing the latest products and technologies to consumer tech industry executives, foreign buyers, international media and a limited number of consumers from China. Attendees have exclusive access to some of the largest brands from China and around the world, while celebrating the innovation that defines the consumer technology sector.

About International CES (Shanghai) Exhibition Co. Ltd. and CTA:

International CES (Shanghai) Exhibition Co. Ltd. is a wholly foreign-owned enterprise by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), a trade association representing the $351 billion U.S. consumer technology industry, which supports more than 15 million U.S. jobs. More than 2,200 companies 80 percent are small businesses and startups; others are among the world's best known brands enjoy the benefits of CTA membership including policy advocacy, market research, technical education, industry promotion, standards development and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. CTA also owns and produces CES - the world's gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. Profits from CES are reinvested into CTA's industry services.

About Shanghai Intex:

Shanghai Intex Exhibition Co., Ltd was originally the exhibition organizing business of Shanghai Intex, a pioneering exhibition organizer established in 1995. Shanghai Intex is jointly overseen by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Shanghai and PNO Exhibition Investment (Dubai) Limited. Starting in 1998, Shanghai Intex has organized over 100 trade shows and conferences with a sum total exhibition space in excess of 2 million sqm. Shanghai Intex is comprised of professional teams with a wealth of experience in organizing major international events, covering the creative industry, healthcare, lifestyle, advanced manufacturing and consumer electronics.

UPCOMING EVENTS

CES Asia 2018 Register

June 13-15, Shanghai, China

June 13-15, Shanghai, China CEO Summit

June 24-27, Barcelona, Spain

June 24-27, Barcelona, Spain CES Unveiled Amsterdam

September 27, Amsterdam, Netherlands

September 27, Amsterdam, Netherlands CES Unveiled Paris

October 3, Paris, France

October 3, Paris, France CES 2019

January 8-11, Las Vegas, NV

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180510006040/en/

Contacts:

Consumer Technology Association (CTA)

Teresa Hsu, 703-907-5259

thsu@CTA.tech

www.CESAsia.com

or

Bernice Morquette, 703-907-7651

bmorquette@CTA.tech

www.CES.techToronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 10, 2018) - RosCan Minerals Corporation (TSXV: ROS) ("RosCan" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Don Dudek as a director of the Company.

Mr. Dudek is President and CEO of Savary Gold Corporation, a West African explorer, and a member of the Advisory Board for Desert Gold Ventures. Mr. Dudek has held various roles with junior to senior exploration and mining companies over the past 35 years and recently served as Senior Vice President, Technical Services for Endeavour Mining Corporation while managing a feasibility study for the Hounde gold project in Burkina Faso. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President Exploration of Avion Gold Corporation, a successful junior gold producer and explorer in West Africa and as Exploration Manager for Aur Resources Inc. Mr. Dudek holds a B.Sc. Geology (Honors) from the University of Saskatchewan.

COMMENTARY

Gregory Isenor, President and CEO of RosCan, stated, "I am extremely pleased to have Don join our Board. Don's geological knowledge and experience in West Africa greatly enhances our ability to advance our Kandiole Project in Mali. Don has demonstrated his ability as an explorationist on several gold projects in West Africa and this is the type of expertise RosCan needs as we move forward with our projects".

ABOUT ROSCAN

RosCan Minerals Corporation is a Canadian gold exploration company focussed on the acquisition of gold properties in West Africa. The Company is currently assembling a land position of 100%-owned permits in an area of large gold deposits for its Kandiole Project in west Mali and is exploring the promising gold potential of the early exploration-stage Dormaa Project in Ghana. RosCan is earning a 50% interest in the Dormaa Project from Pelangio Exploration Inc.

For further information, please contact:

Greg Isenor

President and Chief Executive Officer

Tel: (902) 832-5555 or (416) 293-8437

Email: info@roscan.ca

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information is characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, changes in the state of equity and debt markets, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in obtaining required regulatory or governmental approvals, and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, including those risks set out in the Company's management's discussion and analysis as filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on the opinions and assumptions of management considered reasonable as of the date hereof, including that all necessary governmental and regulatory approvals will be received as and when expected. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (PPC) announced a profit for its first quarter that rose from the same period last year. The company's profit came in at $119.42 million, or $0.48 per share. This compares with $93.92 million, or $0.38 per share, in last year's first quarter. Analysts had expected the company to earn $0.53 per share, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. The company's revenue for the quarter rose 10.9% to $2.75 billion from $2.48 billion last year. Pilgrim's Pride Corporation earnings at a glance: -EPS (Q1): $0.53 vs. $0.38 last year. -Analysts Estimate: $0.53 -Revenue (Q1): $2.75 Bln vs. $2.48 Bln last year. 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.CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Australia will on Friday release March figures for home loans, setting the pace for a modest day in Asia-Pacific economic activity. Home loans are expected to fall 1.8 percent on month after easing 0.2 percent in February. The value of loans was up 1.3 percent in the previous month, while investment lending advanced 0.5 percent. New Zealand will see April results for food prices and the BusinessNZ Manufacturing PMI. In March, food prices were up 1.0 percent on month, while the manufacturing PMI had a score of 52.2. Japan will provide April numbers for money stocks. The M2 stock is expected to hold steady at 3.2 percent on year, while M3 is called flat at 2.8 percent. Hong Kong will release Q1 numbers for gross domestic product. In the three months prior, GDP was up 0.8 percent on quarter and 3.4 percent on year. Singapore will provide March figures for retail sales; in February, sales fell 1.1 percent on month and jumped 7.6 percent on year. Indonesia will see Q1 data for current account. In the three months prior, the current account deficit was $5.76 billion, while the capital account surplus was $22 million and the financial account surplus was $6.52 billion. 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.Sachin Bansal will turn 36 later this year, and have youth on your side, with a combination of experience. That's a great place to be

I was catching up last week on the web series, TVF Pitchers , about four young men wanting to get funding for a startup. I particularly enjoyed a scene where they are desperately seeking to divert the attention of competitors in trying to meet potential investors. One of them says, Dekho, Sachin! No one moves. Sachin Tendulkar nahi, Sachin Bansal, he says. And they all rush out, leaving the field open to them.

That's how inspiring you have been to a whole lot of Indian techies and sundry young women and men wanting to live the Silicon Valley dream in India. So it was a tad sad to see you sell your stakes in Flipkart to global retail giant Walmart in the $16 billion for 77 percent stake that India and Wall Street are talking about. However, it was sadder to see your name missing from the press release that announced the deal, despite you being the founding CEO of the online marketplace that came to be known as the "Amazon of India" before it became, er, the Walmart of India.

It must hurt you, I think, to see your name missing from the public recognition, though others are looking at you -- as I did -- as India's youngest self-made US dollar billionaire on the Forbes list of the super rich.

Congratulations, Sachin! I remember landing in Bangalore a few years ago to meet and interview Jeff Bezos, the man whose Amazon gave you a break after your Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) days before you broke off to start on your own. I was duly impressed by the welcome boards you had hung out for Bezos. You showed a spunky, adventurous streak often missing in Indian entrepreneurs. We could not make out if it was a rival's challenge or a seller's welcome but it sounded good.

But you know, after that, Flipkart turned somewhat inward-looking and nationalistic, and it appeared you were understandably concerned about uneven competition from Amazon. You were moaning about 'selective globalisation' and 'capital dumping' -- a fashionable term for deep-pocketed multinationals trying to steamroller local startups.

In real life, Asterix sells out to the Roman Empire, as your deal this week shows. Discretion, after all, is the better part of entrepreneurial valour.

What next? Everybody knows now you are rich, but let me quote you again: "We are making a mistake by not thinking of Internet and technology a strategic sector and depending too much on China and the US to build that for us... We have the capability, we have the know-how to do this in India ourselves for our markets."

Sachin, here's your chance to 'build' something all over again, this time for keeps and without too much fear of being overrun because, as the late Nasscom president Dewang Mehta once said of India's IT industry, "the sun, the moon and the stars have lined up." This time, they have lined up for you. Here's why.

--You have a billion dollars in your pocket and that should be a lot for risk appetite. You can run your own personal venture fund or do even more. More important, the billion dollars is clean cash because you no longer have responsibilities in Flipkart

--Many entrepreneurs have become investors and mentors but few have gone on to build big companies because age and energy levels are a factor. You will turn 36 later this year, and have youth on your side, with a combination of experience. That's a great place to be

--You have a computer science degree from IIT, and that gives you the intellectual muscle to create, supervise and nurture technologies, but at the same time, you come from a small trader family and have already built a huge business. There are geeky startup founders and there are institution builders, but it is rare in India to find someone with both qualities

--You said the Internet is a strategic sector, but forgot to mention that it is still very young as a technology paradigm. Artificial intelligence, in which you have a keen interest, is just about taking off. So are robotics, the Internet of Things, data science in various shapes and sizes and even genomics. Nothing can be more exciting than a combination of youth, experience, capital and several new fields waiting to be conquered. There is not much now to stop you now from building a new age technology company.

--While on that, it is time for you to shed that 'for us' thing in your nationalistic fervour. Just as you don't like "selective globalisation" there cannot be a geographically selective entrepreneurial zeal. Why build only for India? Your friend Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola Cabs has taken his company to Australia to battle Uber and it is nice to read about it in the Sydney Morning Herald.

All these reasons are good enough for you to take a big leap forward. There is no room to complain. Go for it.

While at it, remember that globalisation is as much an opportunity as a threat, and intellectual property is where the action is. Your father knew about profit margins. You know about algorithms. You know, that's the way to go. Why fret about capital dumping when you can be a capital dumper and patent rockstar rolled into one?

(The author is a senior journalist. He tweets as @madversity)Walmart India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart Stores Inc and offers close to 5,000 items through its cash-and-carry wholesale format

New Delhi: A day after announcing $16 billion investment in India's largest online retailer Flipkart, Walmart Inc today said it will continue to grow its wholesale cash-and-carry business, adding 50 new stores in the next four-five years.

"We currently have 21 stores and plan to open 50 stores in 4 to 5 years. Plans are on track," Walmart India President and CEO Krish Iyer said at a select media roundtable called to explain the Flipkart deal.

Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon said Flipkart group, in which the US retailer is acquiring 77 percent stake, would continue to operate as a separate board-managed company with co-founder Binny Bansal as the CEO.

Flipkart gives Walmart an online presence. So far it had been handicapped by India's retail policy that does not allow overseas companies to sell directly to consumers (except in wholesale cash-and-carry segment).

Companies like Flipkart and Amazon operate as e-commerce marketplaces -- a segment where 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) is allowed.

"As we speak, we have a pipeline of 20 stores and we expect to open 5 stores in the current year and then pick up pace and eventually start opening 12-15 stores a year," Iyer said.

For the cash-and-carry business, Walmart currently operates in 9 states and 19 cities and the future expansion is focused on more or less the same geographies.

"We are not spreading thin. We are continuing in same geographies but primarily focus is on Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana," he said.

At its 21 Best Price wholesale stores, Walmart sells everything from fast-moving consumer goods to furniture to other retailers and institutions. It could potentially use these Best Price stores as pickup and delivery points to service online sales made on Flipkart.

Analysts believe that Walmart's investment in Flipkart, whose 34 percent market share in India's online sales is ahead of rival Amazon's 27 percent, will boost the Indian e-commerce company's logistical operations and help it move into new areas such as online groceries.

Walmart is buying 77 percent of Flipkart from existing shareholders, including Japan's SoftBank, for $14 billion and investing $2 billion of fresh equity.

Walmart India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart Stores Inc and offers close to 5,000 items through its cash-and-carry wholesale format.How Flipkart co-founders Sachin, Binny Bansal went from vowing to 'never sell' company to letting Walmart buy 77%

New Delhi: When Indian Institute of Delhi (IIT ) engineers Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal started Flipkart in 2007 with Rs 4 lakh, going door-to-door to deliver books, they had no intention to sell their company irrespective of the valuation.

Sachin had categorically said in an interview earlier that he will never sell Flipkart, in which the US retail giant Walmart is finally buying 77 percent stake for $16 billion (Rs 1.02 lakh crore).

After seeing ups and downs in business through 11-years, he has exited the business by selling his entire stake of over 5 percent for around Rs 7,000 crore. Binny, not related to Sachin, will retain his 5.5 percent stake and will be Chairman of the company's Board. He said Walmart is the ideal partner for the next phase of Flipkart journey.

After working for e-c0mmerce giant Amazon, the two friends set up Flipkart.

Sachin comes from a business family, while Binny's father was a banker and mother a public servant. He started his career with an IT firm Techspan in 2005 and then joined Amazon Web Services in January 2006. Binny joined Amazon in January 2007 after working for an IT firm Sarnoff.

The Chandigarh duo envisaged making shopping easier. Sachin started operations of Flipkart in August 2007 and was joined by Binny Bansal about a month later.

They started Flipkart with selling books online with 'cash-on-delivery' facility to win the confidence of Indian consumers in online shopping.

The valuation of brand, which started business with Rs 4 lakh, is now over $20 billion or around Rs 1,35,000 crore after US retail giant Walmart's investment of $16 billion in the firm.

In January 2016, Sachin had to give up his role as Chief Executive Officer at the company reportedly due to performance-related issues.

Flipkart rejigged its management and Binny took over as CEO. A year later, Kalyan Krishnamurthy was elevated to the position of CEO of Flipkart.

The firm operated in India but it has parent firm registered in Singapore to avoid complex Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rules and high rate of taxes imposed on corporates.

The company has been raising billions in funding and investing in expansion and growth of the business.

Flipkart's parent firm has reportedly posted loss of Rs 8,771 crore for the financial year ending March 2017. Its sales were around $4.6 billion in the financial year ended 31 March, 2018.SABy David Ljunggren WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said Thursday he expected to find out within the next two days if a new NAFTA deal with the United States and Canada was possible in the short term. As time runs out to secure some kind of agreement, major differences remain between the three members of the North American Free Trade Agreement after more than eight months of negotiations. 'I think we will be finding out through the day and tomorrow ...

By David Ljunggren

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said Thursday he expected to find out within the next two days if a new NAFTA deal with the United States and Canada was possible in the short term.

As time runs out to secure some kind of agreement, major differences remain between the three members of the North American Free Trade Agreement after more than eight months of negotiations.

"I think we will be finding out through the day and tomorrow ... if we really have what it takes to be able to land these things in the short run. We are finding out that possibility," Guajardo told Reuters.

Top-level talks between the United States, Canada and Mexico to update NAFTA have made little headway this week as the United States and Mexico sought to settle differences over the key issue of automobiles.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer wants a quick deal to avoid running into complications caused by a Mexican presidential election on July 1 and U.S. midterm elections to Congress in November.

Guajardo, speaking outside Lighthizer's offices, said he had the commitment "to try to really get a solution" from the talks.

Asked if he was prepared to continue negotiations on Friday, Guajardo said: "Definitely, we will be here, we are available. We have suitcases for two weeks if necessary."

Mexico has launched a counterproposal to U.S. demands to toughen automotive industry content rules and boost wages. U.S. President Donald Trump blames cheaper wages in Mexico for manufacturing job losses in the United States.

Many other major issues crucial to a deal are still unresolved, including U.S. demands for a five-year sunset clause, and elimination of settlement panels for trade disputes.

After meeting with Lighthizer, Guajardo told reporters that Thursday's talks were "a very rich exercise."

"It's not only the autos. You cannot think that in a process of negotiations we're going to solve one item without reviewing the overall balance of the agreement," he said. "We're going over all the items. Its very important to stress that."

(Writing by David Ljunggren and Anthony Esposito; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.By John Miller ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis confirmed it had a $1.2 million contract with the firm of Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, adding it soon realised it had made a mistake but had not been able to stop payments until the deal ended. The drugmaker, which has not been accused of any illegal activity, made monthly payments of $100,000 to Cohen's Essential Consultants between February 2017 and January 2018

By John Miller

ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis confirmed it had a $1.2 million contract with the firm of Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, adding it soon realised it had made a mistake but had not been able to stop payments until the deal ended.

The drugmaker, which has not been accused of any illegal activity, made monthly payments of $100,000 to Cohen's Essential Consultants between February 2017 and January 2018.

The Swiss company said on Wednesday it had been approached in November last year by the U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office who wanted to know about the payments, while probing potential meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

"Novartis cooperated fully with the special counsel's office and provided all the information requested. Novartis considers this matter closed," it said.

The contract was approved in early 2017 under the former Novartis chief executive Joe Jimenez and was part of its efforts to learn more about how the new Trump administration might approach certain U.S. healthcare policy matters.

Jimenez did not respond to requests for comment.

"In hindsight, this must be seen as a mistake," senior Novartis spokesman Michael Willi said of the contract.

An initial meeting under the agreement in March 2017 had in fact prompted Novartis to conclude Cohen, now the subject of a criminal investigation, would not be able to deliver the anticipated services, Novartis said.

"The decision was taken not to engage further," it said in one of several statements issued on Wednesday.

But the contract could only be terminated for cause, Novartis said, so payments continued to be made until the contract expired in February 2018.

"NO INVOLVEMENT"

The company was caught flat footed this week when Michael Avenatti, an attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels, named Novartis among those that had made payments to Cohen's firm until January 2018.

Novartis spent Wednesday seeking to shield its new CEO, saying the deal with Cohen was struck long before Vas Narasimhan was promoted to replace Jimenez on Feb. 1.

It said Narasimhan, a Harvard-trained doctor who has vowed to burnish Novartis's reputation as a maker of innovative drugs and leave years of allegations of wrongdoing behind, "had no involvement whatsoever" in the Cohen contract.

While Narasimhan was among business leaders who dined with Trump in Davos at the World Economic Forum in January, Novartis said that had nothing to do with its contract with Cohen.

"This agreement was also in no way related to the group dinner Dr. Narasimhan had at the World Economic Forum in Davos with President Trump and 15 Europe based industry leaders."

Jimenez also met the president after he took office at a Jan. 31, 2017 meeting in the White House. At the time, Jimenez was the incoming chairman-elect of the powerful Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) industry lobby.

In U.S. television interviews with ABC and MSNBC, Avenatti declined to say where he had received the information about the payments to Cohen from.

Avenatti, who also alleged payments were made separately by AT&T and Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd <047810.KS>, raised questions about the Novartis contract, saying it was unclear what healthcare expertise Cohen could provide to a global drug firm.

Daniels maintains Cohen paid her $130,000 via Essential Consultants to hush up a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.

The president denies any affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Russia denies election interference allegations, while Trump also has denied any collusion.

(Additional reporting by Michael Shields in Zurich and Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Keith Weir and Alexander Smith)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.By Ernest Scheyder HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. shale producers will not boost output to offset any global oil squeeze after President Donald Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear deal, one of the industry's most prominent executives said on Wednesday.

By Ernest Scheyder

HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. shale producers will not boost output to offset any global oil squeeze after President Donald Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear deal, one of the industry's most prominent executives said on Wednesday.

The withdrawal, alongside Trump's decision to impose the "highest level" of sanctions on Iran, sent Brent and U.S. benchmark oil prices up more than 3 percent on Wednesday.[O/R]

Iran, the third-largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumps 3.8 million barrels per day (bpd).

U.S. shale producers, which in the past year have increased output by nearly 2 million bpd, to about 7 million bpd, are not likely to act to fill that void should Iranian exports slip, said Mark Papa, chief executive of Centennial Resource Development Inc .

"I don't think it's going to change what U.S. producers do at all," Papa told Reuters in Houston after a meeting with the board of directors of national oil company Saudi Aramco, which is holding a regularly scheduled gathering this week in Houston.

Many U.S. shale producers have set their 2018 spending budgets and are wary of boosting spending to pump more as their shareholders call for higher dividends and share buybacks.

For example, Occidental Petroleum Corp , the largest producer in the largest U.S. oilfield, the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, said on Wednesday it would allocate cash from rising oil prices to shareholder returns, and has no plans to add to capital expenses.

Iran's oil production fell by around 1 million bpd during the last round of sanctions, but the country re-emerged as a major oil exporter to Asia after sanctions were lifted in January 2016.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, is studying Trump's decision but will not act alone to fill any supply gap, a source told Reuters.

Papa, who declined to comment on the Aramco meeting, was joined by Harold Hamm, CEO of Continental Resources Inc , the largest oil producer in North Dakota's Bakken shale.

The pair left the meeting with Saudi Aramco gift bags.

Papa and Hamm are set to speak next month at an OPEC seminar ahead of an oil ministers' meeting in Vienna.

"I'm going to go talk about what the expectations are for U.S. shale oil production," Papa said in a brief interview.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.Vijay Mallya, who remains on bail since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April last year, will return for the last leg of his ongoing extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on 11 July, after which the court is expected to set a timeline for judgment in that case.

London: Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, wanted in India to face charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs 9,000 crore, can be regarded as a fugitive from justice, the UK High Court has concluded.

Judge Andrew Henshaw, who upheld a worldwide freeze order and ruled in favour of 13 Indian state-owned banks to recover funds amounting to nearly 1.145 billion pounds in a judgment yesterday, took note of the fact that the 62-year-old businessman is contesting his extradition to India relating to alleged financial misconduct.

In all these circumstances, and even taking account of the fact that Mallya is contesting the alleged grounds for extradition, there are grounds for regarding Mallya as a fugitive from justice, the judge said as part of his ruling.

The High Court remained unconvinced by Mallyas claim that he has been a non-resident Indian (NRI) since 1988 and has lived in England since 1992, a country where he has indefinite leave to remain (ILR).

The evidence indicates that prior to March 2016 Mallya travelled fairly regularly between India and England for business and political reasons. Most of his business interests were in or closely connected with India, most notably United Breweries Group and Kingfisher AirlinesWhilst Mallya has indefinite leave to stay in the UK, he is said to be a non-resident taxpayer, the court observed.

The judge also concluded that the businessman had been in "clear breach" of a Karnataka court's order when he disposed of assets like a historic sword of Tipu Sultan acquired at an auction in 2003.

"The sword of Tipu Sultan is an item of historic importance which Dr Mallya bought at an auction in 2003 for the equivalent of GBP 188,400 and states that he gave away in 2016 as his family members considered that it was bringing him bad luck," Judge Henshaw notes in his judgment.

"Dr Mallya declined to state in correspondence to whom the sword was given. Dr Mallya was unable to put forward any basis for contending that the disposal was not in breach of the Karnataka High Court's interim injunction, and accepted that it occurred after the Supreme Court had made clear that the injunction covered subsequently acquired assets. It does, though, appear to me to have been in clear breach of the Karnataka court's order," he adds.

The judge, however, was less certain that luxury cars and yachts had been undeclared or disposed of by Mallya as claimed by the legal team representing the 13 Indian banks -- State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu &a Kashmir Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co. Pvt Ltd.

The judge noted: "The Claimants [Indian banks] say there are numerous other assets which have been linked to Dr Mallya in various sources on the internet, but which he denies that he owns. These comprise three yachts, numerous cars and the Mabula Game Reserve in South Africa.

"The registered/asserted owners are offshore companies and/or trusts. Since these matters are unverified, I do not consider I can take account of them."

Mallya's purchase of a Ferrari 246 GTS with an estimated value of 480,000 pounds was also questioned by the Indian banks. The UK court concluded that it may be the case that the payment of the deposit on the Ferrari was in breach of the Karnataka High Court's interim injunction.

"However, this point was not the subject of any detailed argument before me and, overall, I do not consider that the matters relating to the Ferrari carry matters any further on this application," the judge concluded.

The ruling by the UK court has been described as "significant" by TLT LLP, the UK law firm which represented the Indian banks in the case.

"This is a positive and big step forward. The judgement enables our client banks to proceed with enforcement of the Indian Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) ruling, which has now been registered and is immediately enforceable," said Paul Gair, partner in TLT's Banking & Financial Services litigation team.

"We are considering all of our options with our clients. The worldwide freezing order has worldwide effect, so it's all of his assets wherever they may be. There are provisions for his weekly allowance, within which he can meet his needs," he added.

Mallya, who remains on bail since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April last year, will return for the last leg of his ongoing extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on 11 July, after which the court is expected to set a timeline for judgment in that case.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), representing the Indian government, has claimed it has successfully established a prima facie case of fraud against the businessman.

Mallya has claimed the criminal charges against him are "without substance" and "politically motivated".Traders' body CAIT on Thursday said Walmart's $16 billion acquisition of home-grown retailer Flipkart will affect India's retail sector 'very badly' and demanded scanning and scrutinising the deal from 'different angles' by the government

New Delhi: Traders' body CAIT on Thursday said Walmart's $16 billion acquisition of home-grown retailer Flipkart will affect India's retail sector "very badly" and demanded scanning and scrutinising the deal from "different angles" by the government.

US retailer Walmart Inc has announced acquisition of 77 percent stake in Flipkart in its biggest takeover till date. The deal values the 11-year old Indian e-commerce firm at $20.8 billion.

"A regulatory authority should be constituted by the government which should scan the details of Walmart-Flipkart deal and it should be scrutinised from different angles like competition and cyber security, predatory pricing, deep discounting and loss funding," CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal told PTI.

"After assessing the deal, we will either represent to government or to the Competition Commission, or we will go to court," he added.

Besides, Khandelwal said traders are facing several problems with regard to GST portal, adding that the traders' body has submitted representations to the finance ministry in this regard.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Thursday launched a nationwide campaign to popularise Bharat QR, for the trading community to embrace this payment solution. In the first phase, CAIT will train 1,000 traders and organise 300 workshops, conferences and seminars till 2 October.

"The basic reason why we are promoting Bharat QR is the GST Council has taken a decision that on digital transactions they will be offering discounts which will be 1.5-2 percent but the situation on the ground is that most of the traders do not have digital payment means with them," Khandelwal said.

According to him, Bharat QR will play a pivotal role in encouraging over 60 million micro and small merchants to accept digital payments.

Bharat QR, the world's first asset light, interoperable payment solution, offers seamless, safe and secure transactions to both merchants and consumers.As Walmart Inc announced the acquisition of 77 percent stake in Flipkart for about $16 billion in the largest e-commerce deal, India Inc welcomed the move

As Walmart Inc on Wednesday announced the acquisition of 77 percent stake in Flipkart for about $16 billion (Rs 1.05 lakh crore) in the largest e-commerce deal, India Inc welcomed the move and lauded the success of Indian startup ecosystem.

The deal, under which co-founder Sachin Bansal and Japan's Softbank Corp Group are exiting, values Flipkart at $20.8 billion. It is the biggest M&A deal in India this year.

Here is what India Inc has to say about the deal:

Suchi Mukherjee, Founder & CEO, LimeRoad, a fashion & lifestyle online shopping destination

Great to see strong value creation in the Indian online commerce ecosystem. There are some clear learnings for Indian entrepreneurs and investors alike - building value will take time, be prepared for over a decade of relentless execution. There will be ups and downs and periods when the business may go sideways. Staying the course is key. This deal also signals the availability of a new class of strategic exit options for investors - global players who want to enter India but choose buy over build."

Sanjay Sethi, Co-founder & CEO, ShopClues, an online marketplace

Flipkart team has done an awesome job in bringing the worlds largest retailer to India. This is also a great endorsement of the large opportunity that Indian market presents as well as the mettle of the Indian entrepreneur. It also proves that there is a lot of money to be made in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Naveen Wadhwa, DGM, Taxmann.com, an online source for research on income tax, indirect tax & GST, company law & international taxation related information

Flipkart.com has both resident and Non-resident shareholders. As far as resident shareholders are concerned, the capital gains arising to them from this deal shall be taxable in India. However, the overseas shareholders shall be liable to pay tax in India if the resultant capital gain is taxable in India as per tax treaties. Both India-USA and India-Mauritius tax treaties provide the taxing rights to India if capital gains accrue in India as per Section 9 of Income-tax Act. India-Mauritius Treaty grandfathers the capital gains arising from the sale of shares which were acquired before 1 April, 2017, accordingly, no tax shall be levied on it.

Ameen Khwaja, Founder & CEO, LatestOne.com, an e-tailer specializing in tech and mobile accessories

"Walmart -Flipkart deal is a positive development for the Indian e-commerce industry. Apart from being the biggest M&A the country has witnessed in years, it brings with it two distinct advantages. Firstly, Indian online consumers stand to benefit tremendously. With Walmart comes its way of doing business: offering the best prices in the market.

Secondly, a retail company of such size will bring in its best practices  be it vendor management or logistics and supply chain management  which would definitely help build a more robust infrastructure for e-commerce sector as a whole. LatestOne.com, which now happens to be the only Indian-owned e-commerce player in the country, stands to benefit immensely from this development. Expect to see faster growth in near future. Its a shot in the arm for the sector which has seen quite a few blips recently"

Retailers Association of India, an association of retailers

As representatives of the entire retail industry, it is RAIs policy to not comment on any deals between individual companies. Having said that, we would like to affirm our support to both online and offline channels of retail as well as Indian and International retail. We believe that some e-commerce companies in India have not been adhering to the guidelines issued under the Press Note 3 of the FDI Policy for marketplaces. These companies have been directly or indirectly participating in pricing and discounting, which is against the policy that seeks to create a level playing field. We hope that while the government takes positive steps promote retail, it also takes strong steps to ensure adherence to FDI policy.

Amit Kumar Agarwal, Co-founder of NoBroker.com, a no brokerage property site

Its a really big deal for the Indian startup ecosystem. Flipkart is a company that conquered the market and had a great journey. What happens to Flipkart will in some way impact the entire ecosystem.

Adrian Lee, Research Director, Gartner, a research and advisory company

I expect the status quo to remain within the year after the Flipkart-Walmart deal is completed. This is an extension of Walmarts global expansion strategy. This should not be observed without mention to Alibaba Groups intent to become the third player in India. I see the competition getting more aggressive as Amazon counteroffers Walmart for a stake in Flipkart. Both have their own sizeable cash reserves, and the outcome in India will determine the access to its growing middle-class consumers for dominance, outside of the US. Consumers should not expect significant changes in their shopping experience. However, user choice should be improved, with a greater range of Walmart private labels differentiating the merchandise.

Flipkart will diversify its inventory to attract more Indian consumer segments that still havent started shopping online. With the massive user base, India looms as an attractive market for retailers. Its currently estimated that 15 percent (200 mil) Indian consumers will be shopping online by end of 2018, and the relatively untapped growth potential is attracting the commerce giants. Homegrown companies stand to benefit in the long run. As consumers are more attuned and comfortable to shopping online with e-commerce marketplaces, we see vertical specialists (largest categories being fashion, second electronics) benefiting. High value, more discerning consumers who want differentiated choices and unique offers will seek out specialists to fulfill this need. Smaller players constantly face a problem of scaling up their operations. However, this does not mean that they will be forced to exit.

The smaller players in many cases are more agile and open to new business models. They should concentrate on specialization within their domains to build up a valuable cache of users seeking differentiated retail experiences. For now, as e-commerce penetration in India remains low (at 15 percent), I fully expect discounts/promotions to continue unabated. As the e-commerce players mature into more profitable businesses, it is very unlikely that discounts will stop. More of the promotional support will be passed back to the suppliers who want the user traffic.

Rohan Bhargava, Co-founder at CashKaro.com, cashback and coupons site

The Flipkart-Walmart deal is set to change the competitive landscape of Indian e-commerce. The big advantage that Amazon always had over Flipkart was the unlimited cash it could plough into the growth of its Indian business. Now with Walmart on Flipkarts side, Flipkart can actually do the same and the battle for acquiring the next 100 million Indian online shoppers.

Indian e-commerce is projected to reach $200 billion by 2026 from $38.5 billion as of 2017. Capturing a share of this growing market via Flipkart will be Walmarts best chance of establishing its foothold in India, especially after the Chinese opportunity is already taken and its arch-rival Amazon has a very strong grip in the US. Walmart will be able to access Flipkart's loyal customer base, a well-established e-tailing delivery system and benefit from its learning of being a category creator in India. On the other hand, the deal will give Flipkart an instant leg up in the offline retail space and a strategic investor with great learning.

Moreover, if this deal materialises, it will be the largest exit provided by any Indian startup ever. It is a healthy sign for the Indian start-up ecosystem where exits have been hard to come by. Such transactions will also increase the confidence of many large and strategic investors eyeing Indian startups for investment.

Angel Broking, a brokerage firm

The Flipkart-Walmart deal is set to change the competitive landscape of Indian e-commerce. The big advantage that Amazon always had over Flipkart was the unlimited cash it could plough into the growth of its Indian business. Now with Walmart on Flipkarts side, Flipkart can actually do the same and the battle for acquiring the next 100 million Indian online shoppers. Indian e-commerce is projected to reach $200 billion by 2026 from $38.5 billion as of 2017. Capturing a share of this growing market via Flipkart will be Walmarts best chance of establishing its foothold in India, especially after the Chinese opportunity is already taken and its arch-rival Amazon has a very strong grip in the US.

Walmart will be able to access Flipkart's loyal customer base, a well-established e-tailing delivery system and benefit from its learning of being a category creator in India. On the other hand, the deal will give Flipkart an instant leg up in the offline retail space and a strategic investor with great learning. Moreover, if this deal materialises, it will be the largest exit provided by any Indian startup ever. It is a healthy sign for the Indian start-up ecosystem where exits have been hard to come by. Such transactions will also increase the confidence of many large and strategic investors eyeing Indian startups for investment.Walmart would have made its calculations, but time alone will tell if it is going to be incurring winners curse.

Flipkart Ltd., in talks to enlist Wal-Mart Inc in its battle against Amazon.com, has lost whats equivalent to half of the $6.1 billion it has raised from investors since inception a decade ago. Accumulated losses of Indias largest online retailer stood at nearly Rs 24,000 crore ($3.6 billion) as of March 2017, according to its filings in Singapore. Thats widened from nearly Rs 10,000 crore a year ago.

Undeterred, Walmart has forked out $16 billion for a 77 percent stake in Flipkart. In Indian rupees, it translates into a whopping Rs 1, 07,000 crore. Had Flipkart been an industrial company and had Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985 still been in place, Flipkart would have been derisively referred to as a BIFR company, euphemism for basket cases that have to be referred to BIFR.

But pundits applaud Walmarts seeming dare-devilry as investment for the future. Bulk of the accumulated losses are accounted for by high burnout, euphemism for mindless discounts offered (now banned under the marketplace model) by Flipkart to be one-up in the rat race. In other words, loss is an investment in the worldview of avant-garde investors. That these piled up losses cannot be set off within eight years of incurring them as is normally possible thanks to change in shareholding by more than the permissible limits---Section 79 of the Income Tax Act says losses by a closely-held company can be carried forward and set off only if at least 51 percent of the shareholders were the same as on the two crucial dates, the last day of the financial year in which the loss was incurred and the last day of the financial year in which the set off is sought---hasnt deterred Walmart a wee bit.

Walmart is still smarting at the amazing lead taken by Amazon in e-commerce in the USA even though Walmart is admittedly the market leader in the bricks and mortar stores especially in the countryside. Perhaps it wants to settle scores with its arch-rival in the Indian soil. That it is serious about India is evident from the fact that its entry into India is on the back of total exit from Britain. In other words, it is pulling all stops to make a sizable inroad into the retail market in India.

Time alone will tell if it was right. Unfortunately that would be in hindsight. But Walmart has deep pockets. To remain more than relevant in India, it may have to make paradigm changes to what Flipkart has been doing. First, it may have to stop the financial hemorrhage through its own model adopted in the USA---passing on the enormous discounts earned through timely and bulk purchases from manufacturers to the customers instead of offering discount out of capital like Flipkart hitherto.

Second, it may have to willy-nilly enter the bricks and mortar business model where its strengths lie. But the Indian governments FDI policy is not helpful in this regard. There is a cap of 51 percent on multi-brand retail for FDI. To be sure, it runs as many as 21 cash and carry stores (wholesale) but retail is what it wants. It might be counting on the Indian government relenting and integrating the off and online retail policy. Should that happen Walmart could fire on all four cylinders and bring about synergy between its brick and mortar stores and e-commerce through Flipkart it has just acquired.

Third, it may follow the Sams club model in India. In the US, Sams club is often referred to as the upmarket version of Walmart stores that is generally perceived to be catering to the hoi polloi. Sams club charges an annual fee of around $40 and it is out of bounds for non-members. It offers huge discounts, much more than what Walmart stores do. Cannibalisation did you say? No it is an intelligent differentiation made in customer profiling.

Not all like to fork out the small annual fee that adds upto a staggering upfront sum for Sams club a unit of Walmart. Walmart would have made its calculations, but time alone will tell if it is going to be incurring winners curse. Winners curse in mergers and acquisition (M&A) lingo means, acquirer paying more than warranted for the target company which he comes to rue sooner than later. It happened with Tatas in Corus Steel, an Anglo-Dutch company.

(The writer is a senior columnist and tweets @smurlidharan)Media reports suggest that Sachin Bansal could earn a billion dollars by selling his 5.5 percent stake at around a billion dollars (or Rs 6,740 crore).

Walmart is buying Flipkart. The bully of Bentonville is acquiring 77 percent stake in Indias e-commerce giant for $16 billion. A deal that puts the valuation of Flipkart at over $20 billion (or Rs 1,34,800 crore, at Rs 67.4 to a dollar).

Walmart is buying a company which loses money.

Media reports suggest, in 2016-2017, the losses of Flipkart were Rs 8,771 crore. They rose by 68 percent in comparison to 2015-2016. On the other hand, the revenues rose by 29 percent to Rs 19,854 crore. What sort of a business model is this, where losses rise at a faster rate than revenues?

Walmart, of course understands this. It is basically paying for access to Indias huge retail market, which it hasnt been able to tap through the physical format, given the prevailing regulations. Whether it is able to make money out of the process remains to be seen. On 9 May, 2018, the stock price of Walmart fell by 3.1 percent to $83.06. This tells us that investors of the company are skeptical of the deal. And rightly so, because most mergers (or acquisitions for that matter) fail.

An article in the Harvard Business Review points out: Study after study puts the failure rate of mergers and acquisitions somewhere between 70% and 90%. What happens to Flipmart or Walkart only time will tell, but the past evidence isnt too good.

That was one point I wanted to make of the Flipkart-Walmart deal. There is another point that I wanted to make about Sachin Bansal, one of the owners of Flipkart, who is now leaving the company by selling his shares to Walmart.

This is happening because Walmart wants only one of the founders on the board of the new Flipkart. Media reports suggest that Sachin Bansal is likely to earn a billion dollars by selling his 5.5 percent stake at around a billion dollars (or Rs 6,740 crore).

Even after paying capital gains tax, Bansal is likely end up with a lot of money for a company with a business model where losses go up at a faster rate than revenues. But the funny thing is, this might have never happened. In December 2016, Bansal had said: What we need to do is what China did (15 years ago) and tell the world we need your capital, but we don't need your companies.. We need to take a more India-centric approach than trying to become an ideal country based on standards set by the rest.

The question is why would a person like Bansal say anything like that. The answer lies in the fact that when any capitalist reaches a reasonably big size, he wants to nullify his current and future competition. And this is precisely why Bansal tried to project a nationalist narrative around Flipkart. The trouble was Flipkart was hardly a desi company, with a bulk of its shares being owned by foreign investors who funded the losses of the company over the years.

As Raghuram Rajan and Luigi Zingales write in Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists: Throughout its history, the free market system has been held back, not so much by its own economic deficiencies as Marxists would have it, but because of its reliance on political goodwill for its infrastructure. The threat primarily comes fromincumbents, those who already have an established position in the marketplaceThe identity of the most dangerous incumbents depends on the country and the time period, but the part has been played at various times by the landed aristocracy, the owners and managers of large corporations, their financiers, and organised labour.

What Bansal tried to do, other owners and managers of large corporations have already been doing before him. Thankfully, nothing came of it and the government did not intervene. And now Walmart is buying Flipkart.

Bansal who was a notional dollar billionaire up until now, will become a real one once Walmart pays him for his 5.5 percent stake. (Guess someone should ask him what about all the nationalism now?)

Whether Walmart is able to make profit from Flipkart remains to be seen. Nevertheless, as a result of the deal, Flipkart will survive at least a few years more. This will mean thousands of jobs will continue to be in place. (This is not as easy as it sounds given that Flipkart needed a lot of money to keep it going, given its huge accumulated losses).

If Walmart decides to make Flipkart bigger than it currently is, more jobs will be created in the process. Consumers will benefit from this. This is clearly good news.

Of course, with Walmarts promise of everyday low pricing, many sellers on Flipkart, will bite the dust. And given that they have already started to make noise. A spokesperson of the All India Online Vendors' Association (AIOVA) told The Times of India that Walmart might bring in its own private labels at very low prices and destroy them in the process.

As he said: "These products would be brought in at hyper-competitive prices, which will cannibalise the market and make it difficult for other sellers to operate. We are studying the situation and will take appropriate action, including the legal route, if necessary.

This is again a great example of how incumbents want to hold on to their position and want to discourage any competition which benefits the end consumer and threatens to destroy them. Ultimately, if end consumers pay a lower price for a product, they are more likely to buy more. Or they will save that money in banks, which can then be loaned out elsewhere. Of course, the problem is that unlike the vendors and the owners, the consumers do not have a voice.

As Rajan and Zingales write: The most effective way to reduce the power of incumbents to affect legislation is to keep domestic markets open to international competitionOpenness creates competitions from outsiders-outsiders that incumbents cannot control through political means.

It is very important to let foreign money continue to keep coming into Indias e-commerce businesses (as well as retail businesses, where the regulation is convoluted right now). The reason for this is simple: These are risky businesses and they cannot be financed through the savings of the small Indian savers.

You need big institutional money to establish and run such companies. This money can be both foreign as well as national. Further, given that India has totally missed out on a manufacturing revolution, ecommerce and retail businesses are our next best bet to create a large number of formal jobs, which Indias youth workforce badly needs.

Given this, the nationalism can be left for other areas because first and foremost people must be able to earn money to live decently.

(The writer is the author of the Easy Money trilogy)By Nandita Bose and Sankalp Phartiyal NEW YORK/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Walmart Inc said on Wednesday it will pay $16 billion for a roughly 77 percent stake in Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart in its largest-ever deal, an effort to compete with Amazon.com Inc in an important growth market. Shares of the U.S

By Nandita Bose and Sankalp Phartiyal

NEW YORK/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Walmart Inc said on Wednesday it will pay $16 billion for a roughly 77 percent stake in Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart in its largest-ever deal, an effort to compete with Amazon.com Inc in an important growth market.

Shares of the U.S. retailer fell 3 percent. The company warned it expects the deal to shave fiscal 2019 earnings by 25-30 cents per share if it closes in the second quarter. It also expects Indian investments to shave 60 cents per share from earnings in fiscal 2020.

For Walmart, the acquisition opens a new front in its battle with Amazon, which had expressed interest in making a competing offer for a stake. Amazon now holds about 27 percent of India's burgeoning e-commerce market, according to Euromonitor, where Walmart only operates 21 cash-and-carry wholesale stores in the country that sell to businesses.

"We will not know for five to 10 years whether this transaction is successful strategically or financially," said Steven Roorda, portfolio manager with Minnesota-based Stonebridge Capital Advisors. "Walmart has a very poor track record operating outside North America," he said.

The deal probably will not do much to change market share between Flipkart and Amazon in India, said Jason Benowitz, senior portfolio manager at the Roosevelt Investment Group. In the fiscal year ended March 31, Flipkart reported sales of $4.6 billion.

Sources had told Reuters they thought Amazon's approach to Flipkart was likely a ploy to complicate Walmart's bid.

"It would have been out of character for Amazon to write a check of that size to consolidate its market share in India, where it is already growing at a fast clip," Benowitz said.

A source familiar with the matter said Amazon's interest did not surprise Walmart and was expected. The source also said Amazon's offer did not drive up the deal value.

"Amazon had nothing to do with the multiple. This price is where the discussions began."

Flipkart sells consumer goods ranging from soaps to smartphones and clothes, and gives Walmart access to an e-commerce market that could be worth $200 billion a year within a decade, according to Morgan Stanley.

Walmart expects the deal will play a part in "setting the company up for growth and profits in the future," Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said on a call with investors. McMillon has led Walmart's efforts to boost international business.

Walmart said Flipkart's logistics, payments and apparel businesses offer new areas of growth.

"It is not so much about succeeding in India for Walmart because that may or may not happen," said Neil Stern, senior partner at retail consultancy McMillan Doolittle. "It is really about grabbing an opportunity after waiting on the sidelines in a growth market for over a decade," he said.

Walmart initially entered the Indian market in 2007 through a joint venture with a local company, years before Amazon debuted there. That joint venture was called off in 2013 and its presence in India has remained largely static since then, at least in part due to restrictions around foreign investment in physical retail in the country.

FOCUS ON INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Walmart has renewed its focus on catching up with rivals in key international markets.

The company retreated from Britain, selling a controlling stake in its British arm ASDA to J Sainsbury Plc . Walmart is also trying to offload a majority stake in its Brazilian operations to private equity firm Advent International.

The retailer's international business contributed less than a quarter to its total revenue of $500 billion in fiscal 2018.

S&P Global downgraded its credit rating outlook for Walmart to "negative" from "stable," citing risk from the large investments the retailer is making to fix its global operations and its ongoing technology investments in the United States.

Walmart said it plans to fund the India deal through a combination of newly-issued debt and cash on hand. The investment will include $2 billion of new equity funding and Walmart said it remains in talks with other potential investors to join the funding round.

A new investor could lower Walmart's stake, but the company plans to retain majority control of Flipkart. Reuters previously reported Google-parent Alphabet may buy a roughly 15-percent stake in Flipkart for $3 billion.

The remainder will be held by existing shareholders, including Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, China's Tencent Holdings Ltd <0700.HK>, Tiger Global Management and Microsoft Corp , the company said.

The Walmart statement made no reference to the exit of Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal or SoftBank Group <9984.T>, which was one of the largest investors in Flipkart through its Vision Fund.

Reuters had previously reported that Bansal and SoftBank would sell their entire stakes in Flipkart.

Other investors like Naspers and eBay said they sold their holdings in Flipkart.

"The deal reaffirms that there is big opportunity in Indian retail," said Arvind Singhal, Managing Director of retail consultancy Technopak, adding it would attract more global investment into the sector.

(Additional reporting by Harry Brumpton and Melissa Fares in New York, Siddharth Cavale, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Abhirup Roy in Bengaluru, Swati Bhat and Devidutta Tripathy in Mumbai and Sam Nussey in Tokyo; Editing by Euan Rocha, Bernard Orr and Nick Zieminski)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world's top sugar exporters have initiated a legal review of government supports in the European Union, India and Pakistan that may violate World Trade Organization restrictions on direct subsidies, according to an industry executive.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world's top sugar exporters have initiated a legal review of government supports in the European Union, India and Pakistan that may violate World Trade Organization restrictions on direct subsidies, according to an industry executive.

The Global Sugar Alliance launched an investigation this year into whether the EU, India and Pakistan are in violation of WTO rules, with plans to conclude by July, the group's secretary, Warren Males, told Reuters along the sidelines of New York "Sugar Week." The group represents top exporting nations, including Brazil, Australia and Thailand.

Members of the Global Sugar Alliance met during the annual industry conference in New York, with plans to reconvene after finishing the review, Males said. The group will discuss next steps, with plans to ask their governments to either step up talks with counterparts in the EU, India and Pakistan or to take action with the WTO, he said.

"We had been weighing this for some time, (but) the issue became more pressing," said Males, who is also the head of economics at Australia's Canegrowers trade group.

Raw sugar prices traded in New York are languishing near 2015 lows as global supplies swell, outstripping production at record levels. That has the world's millers and refiners churning out sugar for prices below production costs.

(Reporting by Chris Prentice; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.ACJ batch 2017-18 students put out an official statement calling out the authorities for their lackadaisical attitude towards sexual harassment complaint against adjunct faculty Sadanand Menon.

In light of the resurfacing of sexual harassment charges against Asian College of Journalism professor Sadanand Menon and a subsequent statement put out by the college on Wednesday, the students of ACJ batch 2017-18 have come out with their own statement with regards to the matter. The current of batch students have alleged that the college authorities did not follow up duly on the ex-student's complaint against Menon and also neglected their demand for forming a more robust and inclusive Internal Complaints Committee (ICC).

Here is the full-text of their statement:

This is a statement from students of the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), Chennai (Batch of 20172018) with regard to:

1) The demands we made to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) for a more robust policy against sexual harassment, and our experience interacting with them.

2) Allegations of sexual misconduct against adjunct faculty member Sadanand Menon.

We have decided to come forward with this public statement after months of back and forth with the administration. We have been disheartened by their attitude, which lacks empathy and shows little understanding of the complexities of sexual harassment. A liberal, progressive institution such as ACJ, which trains journalists to be discerning, sensitive, and to speak truth to power, should listen when they themselves are being spoken to.

In the aftermath of the public statement naming Sadanand Menon, we hope the that the ICC will respond with willingness to effect productive policy changes and ensure the safety of students and staff.

Following is a chronology of events leading up to this statement:

1) In October 2017, Sadanand Menons name appeared on The List of Sexual Harassers in Academia (LoSHA). Menon acknowledged this in his class the next day. There is a list going around with my name on it. If anyone here wants to talk about this, we can, he said. Menon proceeded  in his official capacity as a professor, using a platform provided by ACJ  to deride the list and speculate as to who put him on it. The class remained divided in their opinion.

2) Menon narrated his version of an incident with an ex-student. He speculated that the ex-student might have been the source who added his name to the list, and attributed it to a misunderstanding arising out of differing values associated with sexual freedom. Menon could think of no other incident that might have put his name on the list.

3) In January 2018, some students connected with the ex-student after seeing her article in The News Minute. While she did not name Menon, her description of the event made it clear whom Menon had been talking about in class. The ex-students account was at odds with Menons. The lines of consent which had been violated were far clearer in her telling. Various sources (including the ex-student herself), confirmed that she did not put Menons name on the list.

We were also informed by the ex-student that though she had complained to the ICC in January, she hadnt received a reply as yet.

4) Out of concern for students safety, we began a correspondence with the administration about their policies and committee. We found that students were unaware of the existence of the ICC as it was not mentioned during the orientation.

Contact details for ICC members and the process for filing a complaint were furnished only on the college website. One individual didnt even know that they were listed as a member of the ICC, leading us to believe that the ICC was dormant.

5) At our insistence, a new ICC was constituted and a circular issued, but ACJ had only agreed to the most cursory changes in their system. They did not agree to having a gender neutral policy or electing student representatives. Our request for an update on the allegations against Menon was cleanly ignored.

6) Between January and March 2018, details of multiple, independent, first and second hand allegations against Menon surfaced which deeply shocked and worried us. These were in connection with institutes that Menon taught at and at SPACES, the prominent cultural venue run by Menon. Furthermore, we were contacted by an alumnus who mentioned that there were informal complaints about Menons conduct in 2011 as well.

7) After repeated attempts at conveying our stance to the ICC and asking them to initiate an inquiry based on the ex-students complaint, we asked for an open meeting. Ten ICC members and 85 students were in attendance.

At the meeting:

We brought up the numerous allegations that had surfaced. We specifically mentioned that we did not want the ICC to investigate anonymous complaints, but requested them to go beyond their legal ambit and address the ex-students complaint in light of this brimming whisper network about Menon.

We sought an update on the steps taken by the college to address the ex-students complaint. It emerged that the complaint had been received, but the ICC had not responded to her a whole month after she wrote to them. This concerned the student body immensely as it showed how lightly the college was treating this matter.

We demanded the adoption of certain specific measures to improve the ICC which were detailed as follows:

Take Ambedkar Universitys precedent and allow third parties to file complaints.

Reach out to ex-students with the aim of uncovering cases of sexual harassment against currently employed faculty. Such a proactive position would reflect the colleges concern for the safety of students.

Have student representatives on the ICC to improve accessibility and transparency.

Furnish contact details for all ICC members (rather than just one email id) to improve accessibility.

Adopt a gender neutral policy with regard to cases of sexual harassment, keeping in mind the safety of gender and sexual minorities on campus.

Institute at least one workshop on sexual harassment/gender sensitization for students and staff in keeping with the law.

Include at least one common gender studies lecture apart from the elective subject.

During the meeting, we constantly reminded the ICC that we understand that procedure has to be followed but the creation of the procedure depended on them.

However, the attitude of some members towards the allegations against Menon were very troublesome. The new Chair of the ICC at one point told us to consider the mans reputation before making these claims, even though we mentioned these were first and second-hand accounts that had been verified with journalistic rigour. Several times members told us to name names and asked why the victims wanted to be anonymous and why they would complain after so many months. We were constantly asked why said victims havent filed a police complaint as yet. The Chair also bizarrely asked a student what she would do if her friend was accused of being a sexual harasser. Other than this dismaying attitude towards gender justice, we felt that ICC members were constantly stonewalling us and refusing to engage by stating it is the law. This despite the fact that the members confessed they are not familiar with the law and will consult with the legal counsel.

We deeply regret the nature of this meeting, but given the hostility of the Committee and their staunch refusal to engage with us, calling attempts at dialogue by students a war against the college, we feel it was the only way to raise the above points.

The ICC said they would consult their counsel and get back to us in two weeks. On March 28, we received a letter from the ICC dismissing the complaints against Sadanand Menon as defamatory and blaming us for using the meeting to make shockingly wild allegations. We were further told that our attempt to hold the institution accountable for who it employs, while the person in question has himself discussed his involvement in a sexual harassment incident, was an attempt to character assassinate. The ICC asked us for two weeks to respond to our demands, but their response simply stated that they had addressed our concerns multiple times. If one looks at the chain of emails shared between students and ICC, one will see that these issues were merely skirted around, not addressed proactively.

The ICC had also told us that they had considered the ex-students complaint, but could not act on it as the procedure was time-barred and the incident happened outside college. If they had considered the case, why wasnt the ex-student told that her complaint was under consideration? For over a month and a half, the ICC did not bother to even acknowledge that a complaint has been received, and this worries us tremendously.

We are extremely concerned about the integrity of the ICC. While Sashi Kumar has on record denied having anything to do with the Committee or its proceedings, it was clear to us that he was aware of them, and was receiving the emails we wrote to the ICC. Within ten minutes of our meeting, the Committee met with Kumar in plain sight of students. We have also ascertained from an adjunct faculty member that Kumar has had a significant role in the ICCs decision-making.

A member of the ICC whom a student later spoke to said, Personally, I believe all the allegations but our hands are tied.

We are now calling out to alumni and others for support. While it is essential that everybody is treated with fairness, we wonder whether it is possible in this context, when the ones in authority and the accused themselves are old friends and peers.

We raised these questions out of concern for the institution and the students that come here every year. ICCs are required to be proactive and sensitive given the nature of the cases they handle. We expected ACJ to uphold its reputation and adopt a truly pioneering means of preventing sexual harassment on campus, not just redressing complaints. Exemplary institutes such as Ambedkar University go so far as to provide financial compensation to those involved in proceedings, hold elections for membership to the committee, provide counselling and even allow for third parties to register complaints.

We regret to note that the ICC at ACJ has failed in this regard and chosen instead to fulfill the bare minimum legal requirements. ACJ has displayed in no uncertain terms an allegiance to those who are close to the institution, and a deep-seated apathy toward the issue of sexual harassment.

Sincerely,

Students against sexual harassment, Batch of 201718.

*This statement was written by a group of recent ACJ graduates who have been following the issue since October 2017.Is Partition truly all the legacy that Jinnah has in India? He was a fighter for Independence alongside Gandhi and Nehru. Till the demand for Pakistan came about, he was almost as important as the other leaders.

There's been a controversy recently at the Alligarh Muslim University (AMU) over a portrait of Mohammad Ali Jinnah that hangs in its students' union office. This has led to allegations of the AMU not being patriotic enough. For Jinnah is considered one of the demons of Indian history and is blamed for the Partition of India.

But is Partition truly all the legacy that Jinnah has in India? Jinnah was a fighter for Independence alongside Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Till the demand for Pakistan came about, he was almost as important as the other leaders in the national narrative at that time. In fact, even after the demand for Pakistan came to the fore, Nehru and Gandhi didn't abandon him. The call for Independence was a unified one that was supported by all parties at the time. Jinnah and the other parties though differed on on how an independent India would look like and thus a controversy over whether it is still patriotic to remember him.

To contextualise who Jinnah was, it's important to examine his legacy beyond the lens of Partition. Jinnah was a barrister from Lincoln's Inn who began his practice in Mumbai (then Bombay). He practiced before the high court and made a name for himself. One important case that Jinnah argued in relation to our freedom movement was the appeal against an order that required Bal Gandhadhar Tilak to bond himself for good behavior, as the district magistrate of Pune was of the opinion that Tilak was distributing seditious material. As Jinnah represented Tilak before the Bombay High Court and had this order set aside, he argued that Tilak's writings didn't amount to sedition under Section 124-A of the Penal Code (Sedition) but it was only an argument for home rule. The order was set aside and Tilalk was free.

Jinnah's legacy as a lawyer is strong. In fact, even after Partition was announced and the Direct Action Day riots happened, Jinnah was invited by the Bombay Bar Association for a reception in honour of him having completed 50 years at the Bar. He declined it, as the resolution had only been carried by a narrow margin, given the sentiments at the time.

In the Museum of the Bombay High Court, there is preserved Jinnah's Barrister Certificate, and there hangs a portrait of him along with his application to enroll at the Bar. He stands alongside others such as BR Ambedkar and Mohandas Gandhi, who also practiced at the Bombay Bar. This museum, containing these articles, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Feburary 2015. It is a surprise that the Sangh would proceed to villianise a portrait at the AMU when the prime minister himself had inaugurated a museum containing a similar portrait, and also had more memorabilia.

But there is something that also needs to be said for Jinnah's legacy in independent India. It is a legacy at the Bar that he would perhaps be most remembered for. The first Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court post Independence, MC Chagla, was Jinnah's junior at the Bar. He practiced in his chambers. In his autobiography Roses in December, Chagla writes:

"Before I left for England, as I have recounted earlier, Jinnah had promised me that he would allow me to read with him in his chambers. What attracted me to Jinnah was the force of his personality and more than that, his sterling nationalism and patriotism. If at that time anyone had told me that Jinnah would one day be responsible for the partition of our country I would have thought him mad. I joined his chamber and remained with him for about six years. I read his briefs, went with him to court, and listened to his arguments. What impressed me most was the lucidity of his thought and expression. There were no obscure spots or ambiguities about what Jinnah had to tell the court. He was straight and forthright, and always left a strong impression whether his case was intrinsically good or bad. I remember sometimes at a conference he would tell the solicitor that his case was hopeless, but when he went to court he fought like a tiger, and almost made me believe that he had digged his opinion. Whenever I talked to him afterwards about it, he would say that it was the duty of an advocate, however bad the case might be, to do his best for his client."

Chagla, who read for six years with Jinnah, disavowed him when the latter made the demand for Partition. But Chagla's legacy as a lawyer is tied with Jinnah, whether history would like it or not. Chagla would later sit as an ad-hoc judge at the ICJ, become India's High Commissioner to the UK and a minister in Nehru's government.

Jinnah has a legacy in India. We should be permitted to hang portraits of him at places where he played an important role, such as the AMU, which has made many notable people honorary members through history. Not just because his legacy in India to some extent warrants it. But because India's legacy demands it. The legacy of India is not one borne of hatred. Even post-Independence, we have made countless efforts to make peace with Pakistan. Indian leaders at the time fought for a pluralistic India grounded at its core with the freedom of thought. If some Indian finds some inspiration in Jinnah's legacy, then so be it. Let there be a marketplace of ideas. Let India, an India that Nehru and Gandhi fought for, not turn into a nation of illiterates demanding visible symbols be reduced rather than having a cogent argument.

The case for taking Jinnah's portrait off the walls at the AMU should be made at the AMU. There should be a free debate if Jinnah's legacy still warrants that portrait being there. It is not for the government or the hooligans to decide, what is to put it charitably, an ill-informed protest to decide what can hang on the walls in the AMU students' union office. In India, which is a free country, we take down photos and statues because we decide to do so after a debate; we don't do so in a flight of passion. This is the legacy India has built in the years after its independence. A legacy of liberty and democracy. The current actions by hooligans, who seem to have government support in the AMU, are a bigger taint on this country's legacy than a thousand portraits of Jinnah will ever be.The decision to tag the Aadhaar law as a money bill has 'serious implications' as one half of the Parliament was disabled from making any amendment, the Supreme Court was told.

New Delhi: The decision to tag the Aadhaar law as a money bill has "serious implications" as one half of the Parliament was disabled from making any amendment, the Supreme Court was told. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was told by senior advocate P Chidambaram, appearing of party colleague Jairam Ramesh, that besides the Rajya Sabha, even the president was denied the opportunity to have a say on the law.

"The Bill was passed without the effective participation of the Rajya Sabha and without the assent from the President. The court cannot save a legislation that is fundamentally unconstitutional," he told the bench, which also comprised Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan.

"The implications of passing a non-money bill as a money bill are very serious. One half of the Parliament is virtually disabled from making any amendments. It even denuded the highest constitutional authority of the country, the President of India, of his powers," he said.

Chidambaram also referred to section 57 of the Aadhaar Act and said it empowered any private corporate body to use Aadhaar data for authentication and this has nothing to do with the constitutional scheme dealing with a Money Bill.

He sought setting aside of the Aadhaar law and said Parliament be allowed to have a re-look on it.

Earlier, the court had said it would examine whether the courts can scrutinise the decision of the Lok Sabha Speaker to specify a Bill as a Money Bill, as was done during the passage of the 2016 Aadhaar Act. Chidambaram had said that Lok Sabha members cannot question the decision of the Speaker outside the House, but the courts are empowered to examine the validity of the decision.

The apex court, on 15 December last year, had sought a response from the Centre on the plea of Jairam Ramesh challenging the government's decision to treat Aadhaar bill as a money bill and getting it passed in the budget session last year after rejecting amendments to it by the Rajya Sabha. After issuing a notice to the Centre, the top court had tagged the plea with the clutch of petitions against the Aadhaar scheme itself for hearing today by the constitution bench.

Prior to this, it had said that it was "tentatively not convinced" about the grounds cited by the Congress leader to challenge Lok Sabha Speaker's decision to certify a bill to

amend Aadhaar law as a money bill.

The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 was passed by the Lok Sabha on 11 March, 2016. It was taken up in the Rajya Sabha on 16 March, where several amendments were made to it. The bill was then returned the same evening to Lok Sabha which rejected all the amendments proposed by the Upper House and passed it.

A money bill contains provisions for various taxes and appropriation of funds and can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha. The Rajya Sabha cannot make amendments to such bills after passage by the Lok Sabha. The Rajya Sabha can suggest amendments but it depends on the Lok Sabha to accept or reject them. The NDA government allegedly chose to categorise the bill as a money bill as it lacked a majority in the Rajya Sabha, the Opposition had argued.BJP's Jammu and Kashmir unit on Thursday opposed Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's call for a unilateral ceasefire during the month of Ramadan.

Jammu: BJP's Jammu and Kashmir unit on Thursday opposed Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti's call for a unilateral ceasefire during the month of Ramadan till completion of the Amarnath Yatra claiming such a step was not at all in "national interest".

The party's state unit said militants were demoralised due to Army action and a unilateral ceasefire would ease pressure and allow them to re-energise.

Referring to an all-party meeting held on Wednesday, BJP state unit's chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi said an opinion came up during the discussion for a unilateral ceasefire on the lines of one declared by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

"We have a strong view...Unilateral ceasefire in the present situation is not in national interest at all," he added.

Flanked by another BJP spokesperson Arun Gupta, Sethi said the terrorist leadership in Kashmir Valley was under pressure because of the prolonged efforts of the Army.

"There are large scale casualties of militants taking place on daily basis. Currently militants are holed up. They are under pressure", he said.

The raising of the demand for unilateral ceasefire is aimed to give a way out to the demoralised militants, ease pressure, and to save them, he said.

On Wednesday, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who heads the PDP-BJP government in the state, had said Centre should consider a unilateral ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir starting from Ramadan in mid May till the completion of the Amarnath yatra in August.

She made the remarks after a four-hour all-party meeting, which was convened to discuss the situation in the Kashmir Valley especially after a tourist from Chennai was killed in stone-pelting on 7 May.

Speaking in Jammu on Thursday, Sethi said the state BJP was not at all of this opinion. He also emphasised that a call for a unilateral ceasefire was not a unanimous decision at the meeting. The issue was raised by Independent MLA Engineer Rashid, Sethi claimed.

There was no debate on it and BJP did not agree to it, he told reporters in Jammu.

"Our point is clear that pressure created by Army on the terrorists should continue along with 'operation all out' and to a large extent listed militants have been eliminated and only few among them are active," Sethi said.

The way the 'operation all out' is continuing, soon all militants will be wiped out from Kashmir, he said.

It was a different time and situation when a unilateral ceasefire was undertaken by the then Vajpayee government on the borders and in the hinterland, he said.

The BJP spokesperson said militancy was in its last phase and it would be not a wise decision to go for a unilateral ceasefire.

Kashmir will return to peace and normalcy in the same way as the peace and normalcy prevailed in Punjab, he said.

On stone-pelting in Kashmir, Sethi said there were "stone-pelting units" operating from Shopian to Baramulla in Kashmir. They keep moving from place to place to engineer stone-pelting on army and paramilitary forces, he said.

He said relaxation of any type at this stage will mean stepping back on the process of restoration of normalcy in Kashmir. "Today's stone-pelter is a potential terrorist of tomorrow. We will not agree are buy any argument that the hands of army should be tied," he added.

Taking a dig at the withdrawal of FIRs against first-time stone-pelters, the BJP leader said government did not achieve the desired results.

"First-time stone-pelters continue to resort to stone-pelting and have not stopped pelting stones post amnesty. It is a serious issue and we need to review the amnesty scheme", he said.When Narendra Modi govt proposed in the Budget that the DA should be scrapped, MPs from across party lines got together to protest the proposed withdrawal.

Machiavelli said, "the ruler's virtuous actions can also bring harm". He cites the example of Pertinax, the Roman emperor who after taking over from his predecessor Commodus, mandated his soldiers to live an honest and Spartan life. These soldiers were accustomed to living licentiously under Commodus. They started hating Pertinax for withdrawing their privileges and he was overthrown and assassinated soon. His army then even auctioned the post of the emperor, bringing the state of affairs to an abysmal low.

In the same vein, many Members of Parliament across party lines are cross with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Why?

As per the Salary Allowances and Pension of Members of Parliament Act, the MPs undertaking air travel were entitled to the airfare plus a Dearness Allowance (DA) equivalent to one-fourth of the airfare.

An RTI revealed that the total expenditure of Travel Allowance (TA) and Dearness Allowance (DA) of all members of the Lok Sabha in one year from April 2016 to March 2017 was Rs 95,70,01,830 (95.7 crore) while the total expenditure of all Rajya Sabha members in a year from April 2016 to March 2017 was Rs 35,89,31,862 (35.89 crore).

Though nowhere is it mentioned that members are entitled to fly business class or any other special class, MPs themselves assumed the meaning of air travel as business class or other special classes.

However, the point of contention was not flying Business Class but the DA (experts acknowledge that Business Class fare, when available to senior bureaucrats, cannot be denied to MPs because of their greater seniority). But to extract the highest possible DA, some MPs started booking tickets when the tickets were at their highest price.

The DA claimed reached well over a million rupees annually for the biggest errants. Unnecessary air travel to claim the linked DA also seemed most probable.

When the magnitude of this expenditure on TA and DA allowance came to public light and it was proposed in the Budget (2018-19) that the DA should be scrapped, MPs, across party lines, got together to protest about this proposed withdrawal. The emissary finally chosen to convey their discontentment to Modi was Ananth Kumar, the minister of Parliamentary Affairs. His representation to the prime minister, as expected, drew a nought as the latter did not relent.

Then came the cheeky proposal that the MPs raise their objections on the floor of the Parliament during the budget discussion. MPs were shy of biting that bullet, fearing how such a protest would make them look in the public eye. The amendment withdrawing the DA on air travel was thus passed through the Finance Bill 2018.

This is the first direct hit on MPs wallets, who will now try and find other non-vocal ways to register their protest.

The early figures that are coming in say that the attendance at Parliamentary Committee meetings has already started dwindling. The Business Class seats are vacant and so are the seats in the Parliamentary Committee meetings (experts opine that while backdoor methods of making money should indeed go, MP salaries need revision and their attendance, activities and performance should be monitored).

It will be interesting to see whether in the last analysis this retraction of the DA brings greater benefit or harm.

One reason that Pertinax lost his throne, as well as his life, was that he brought too much reform too soon. This suddenness cost him dearly. Though Modi is moving, the pace is slow. He has a long way to go. From banning red beacons atop cars, to cutting this DA, to decriminalising politics as promised.

The direction seems right, the pace not suicidal and the big outcomes still far away. Skilful navigation must continue.

The author is a public intellectual. More writings available at www.pavanchoudary.inDelhi University on Thursday announced its admission season will begin from 15 May for the various courses for 2018-19 session.

New Delhi: Delhi University on Thursday announced its admission season will begin from 15 May for the various courses for 2018-19 session.

The dates of commencement for under graduate and post graduate programmes will be 15 May and 18 May respectively, and for MPhil and PhD courses, it will be from 20 May.

Registration for all categories of students and courses will be online.

"All eligible applicants are informed that the registration process of all the programmes will be completely online for all categories and quota," the varsity said in a statement.

It also announced that it will conduct 'Open Days' to brief students on the formalities of the admission process and interact with them.

These meeting will be held from 21 May to 29 May except Sunday at the varsity conference centre. They will be conducted in two sessions  from 10 am to 11.30 am and from 12 noon to 1.30 pm.

More detailed information regarding the admission process will be made available in the form of a 'Bulletin of Information' on the university's website, the statement said.The alleged scam was out of this world but Indian police brought a father and son duo down to earth on Wednesday when they paraded them in the fake space suits used to convince a businessman to hand over more than $200,000

New Delhi: The alleged scam was out of this world but Indian police brought a father and son duo down to earth on Wednesday when they paraded them in the fake space suits used to convince a businessman to hand over more than $200,000.

New Delhi police released pictures and video of the two accused wearing the silvery suits, after the men were apprehended over claims that they could sell "magical" copper plates to US space agency Nasa.

Already on bail accused of selling snakes with "medicinal qualities" for more than $25,000 each, the pair told potential victims they were developing a device which could be used to generate "electricity from thunderbolts".

They promised it would be sold to Nasa and India's space agency for hundreds of millions of dollars, police said.

Images of the accused fraudsters in radiation suits alongside crime branch investigators were widely shared on Indian social media, where comments compared the duo's antics to "a low budget C-grade Bollywood movie".

Police say that in addition to the New Delhi businessman, the father and son may have got money out of up to 30 people across northern India.

Their fake device was apparently based on rare copper "that had been struck by a thunderbolt" so that it could magnetise rice, police explained.

A copper plate covered in a thin magnetic liquid and rice mixed with iron filings were used to show off the machine.

The pair, who employed actors to wear radiation suits and staged fake tests, had said they needed money to develop the invention, detectives said.

The New Delhi businessman became suspicious when promised experiments were repeatedly called off, mainly because of bad weather. He went to police and acknowledged he had handed over more than $200,000.

It is not known how much the other victims paid.The Indian embassy in Kuwait has recognised six state-run agencies to recruit nurses from India.

The Indian embassy in Kuwait has recognised six state-run agencies to recruit nurses from India. A senior official at the embassy said that they have sent a proposal to the Kuwaiti government to allow the recruitment of nurses only through these six agencies.

In a bid to streamline the recruitment process and keep away the unscrupulous agents who fleece applicants, we have submitted a proposal to the Kuwaiti government. They have accepted it. We are working on the procedures. Soon, the recruitment will be done only through six state-run agencies, the official told Firstpost.

The proposal is aimed at stopping private agents from charging exorbitant fees from nurses seeking a job in Gulf countries. Furnishing details of nurses working in Gulf countries as on 19 December 2017, the Indian government said Saudi Arabia was the biggest employer with 3,621 Indian nurses under Emigration Check Required (ECR) category working there, followed by Qatar with 350 nurses and Kuwait with a 118 workers.

Six state-run agencies had been recognised by the Indian government for the recruitment of nurses to 18 ECR countries in 2015. But despite the Indian government taking several other steps to prevent nurses from being duped by emigration-related fraudsters, including a mandatory ECR requirement, migrant rights activists in India said the number of nurses migrating through unofficial channels and private agencies remain high.

Activists say nurses opting to migrate to Kuwait are charged anywhere between Rs 10 and 15 lakh by unauthorised private agencies. While they manage to get the job they were looking for at times, in most cases, they are cheated of their money and denied basic working rights on reaching the Gulf nation.

Once the government plan is put in place, job seekers will have to pay only Rs 30,000 for the recruitment process, said the embassy official, adding that there are at least 5,000 nursing job opportunities coming up in Kuwait.

Citing a recent example where nursing aspirants were duped, Arul Antony, a migrant rights activist, working with the National Domestic Workers Movement in Chennai, said, A few women were taken to Kuwait by a private agency that offered them nursing jobs at a hospital. However, when they reached, they were forced to do household nursing jobs, without any rest or proper payment or shelter.

They were finally repatriated after the Indian embassy and the Kuwait foreign affairs department intervened, he added.

Antony said that the middlemen who were involved in the same duping case are trying to recruit more women to Kuwait. Not only do they (nursing aspirants) pay huge amounts as recruitment fee but they also get duped, he added.

In a successful crackdown on one such private agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had unearthed a Rs 200 crore scam and arrested Varghese Uthup, a Kuwait-based recruiter, in 2017. Instead of charging Rs 19,500 as service charge, Uthups Kochi-based firm was allegedly charging Rs 19.5 lakh to recruit nurses to Kuwait.

After being charged with cheating, conspiracy to commit criminal misconduct, and collection of excess service charge from emigrants, Uthup remained in Kuwait to evade arrest. However, he was detained by the CBI team when he was forced to visit Kerala. His anticipatory bail was rejected by the Supreme Court.

In another similar incident last year, an advertisement was circulated on social media sites in the north eastern states of India offering job opportunities for nurses in the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health and the Kuwait Oil Company.

But identifying it as a scam, the Manipur government issued a statement saying that the advertisement was put up to dupe prospective nurses in the country, financially or otherwise, by sending them to Kuwait via Dubai or Bahrain without the involvement of authorised state-run agencies.

The Indian embassy in Kuwait had informed that the agency mentioned in the advertisement is not registered under Section 10 of the Emigration Act, 1983 and hence was not authorised to carry out overseas recruitment business as they did not have the valid registration certificate.

The Indian embassy official said that once the plan of allowing emigration only through the six state-run agencies is implemented, it will be a government-to-government recruitment system, where fair practices will exist.

We have sent requests to all the six manpower agencies. We are waiting to hear from them, the official added.

The six state-run agencies in India authorised for the recruitment of Indian nurses abroad are Norka-Roots Centre and Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants in Thiruvananthapuram, Overseas Manpower Corporation Ltd in Chennaim, UP Financial Corporation in Kanpur, Telangana Overseas Manpower Company in Hyderabad and the Overseas Manpower Company in Vijayawada.

The author is a member of The NewsCart, a Bengaluru-based media startup.Chahbahar is therefore not just a way to blindside Pakistan even while assisting Afghanistan. We may offer a quiet dialogue with Iran with a view to saving the deal, while assuaging US concerns.

The President of the United States is at it again, opting to overturn another "success" of his predecessor, in this case the extremely sensitive issue of the Iran nuclear deal. To do him justice, however, Donald Trump has always been against the deal, right from his campaign days, on the basis of a reasoning that is flawed to some extent. As the US media has pointed out, abandoning the deal will actually free Iran to start up its nuclear programme again, which Teheran has already indicated it will do if the whole deal falls through. And worse still, it will abandon the moderates in the country and embolden the hardliners.

The president's view is that Tehran is a regime that supports extremists, including the Taliban, which is true. The crux of the argument is that being a terrorist sponsor, nuclear weapons in Iranian hands would immeasurably increase its potency, which is also true. But that was precisely the reason why the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) was devised: In order to incentivise the regime against going down the nuclear path. The deal was never intended to stop Iranian sponsorship of proxies across the Middle East. As many would argue, Iran is hardly the only one to do so in that volatile region.

Reports indicate that major European leaders tried to get Trump to change his decision with diverse arguments. None of that succeeded, in part because this is a president who doesn't even heed his own national security team. In part, this is also a president who is basking  rightly or wrongly  in the glory of bringing North Korea in for talks. Now it's Iran's turn. First, pull the rug out from under its feet, and then manage the situation on terms acceptable to US security. In short, this is an effort at regime change, or at least regime modulation. Trump and his advisers seems to believe that there is popular resentment and anger against the present Iranian leadership. At one point in his speech, he said, "Iran's leaders will naturally say that they refuse to negotiate a new deal; they refuse. And that's fine. I'd probably say the same thing if I was in their position. But the fact is they are going to want to make a new and lasting deal, one that benefits all of Iran and the Iranian people. When they do, I am ready, willing, and able." This is the application of severe pressure, until something gives.

Until that happens, however, the plan is to rev up crippling sanctions on Iran, and secondary sanctions on anyone who deals with them. Among the main commercial partners of Iran are China, Russia, Germany, France and the UK, all of whom were party to the deal. Of these, Germany, France and the UK have already issued a joint statement stating that they would remain committed to the deal. In a smart move, the White House assured the Europeans that companies would be allowed a grace period before sanctions bite. It also indicated that a US policy would evolve in consultation with Europe. Though this is unlikely to mollify any of these countries, they have in effect been incentivised to persuade Iran to assuage at least some of US' concerns, which includes its missile programme and support to terror. European negotiators who have already put in considerable man hours in trying to figure a workable way out, can either throw up their hands and keep faith with the original deal  thus making a trans-Atlantic divide of no mean proportions  or they can try to persuade Iran. When all is said and done, that's probably less of a mess.

Russia and China have also backed the continuance of the deal. Both have in the past, used the sanction period to ingratiate themselves with the Iranians. Unsurprisingly, a post-sanction Iran has thrown open infrastructure projects to both these countries. China has made Iran the centerpiece of its 'Belt and Road Initiative' in the region. In February 2016, the first cargo train from China to Iran arrived in Tehran, having passed through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, a distance of 10,399 kilometers. China is also the third largest importer of Iranian oil, apart from providing large credit lines through Chinese banks like CITIC. Powered by these plans, neighbours like Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have weighed in to connect to Iran.

Russia, India and Iran are separately partners in the ambitious International North South Corridor (INSC). Russia is also a major player according to major financial analysts, both as a defence partner and with investments in the oil and gas industry. Bilateral annual trade is estimated to reach $10 billion, up from as little as $1.68 billion during the sanctions period. And that's the catch. The largest companies in Iran are not US companies but those of its sworn competitors/enemies. That could be another reason for the sanctions. Remember, Trump is a businessman first and last.

Which brings us to of how this will impact India. The first issue that comes to mind is the future of the Chahbahar project. The arrival of the first shipment of wheat from India in November last year, destined for Afghanistan underscored its strategic impact. After decades of trying to get Pakistan to agree to a Transit Trade Agreement, this was certainly one in the snoot for Islamabad. The fact that the final inaugural of the first phase of the project took place more than 14 years after India and Iran first agreed on developing the port is indicative of the impact of sanctions. A revival of these could risk the next phase of port development, with a contract for this already signed between Iran's Port and Maritime Organsation and India IPGL (India Ports Global Limited), with the latter already putting out tenders for the task. With an eye on possible re-imposition of sanctions  after all Trump has been talking about this loudly and widely  India and Iran had put in place an agreement whereby Indian currency will be used for investment in Iran. This is the first time such a mechanism has been put in place outside of immediate South Asia. This was operationlised in a small way through UCO Bank, and though the Rupee account had been discarded for payment in Euro  which Iran prefers  there is a possibility that this route can be upgraded if sanctions are imposed.

On a second level, however, the importance of Chbahar arises from its role as the lynchpin for the ambitious International North South Corridor which started as a trilateral agreement and now includes 11 more nations including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria (observer) Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey and Ukraine. For India, the INSTC envisages the movement of goods from Mumbai to Bandar Abbas by sea; from Bandar Abbas to Bandar-e-Anzali, an Iranian port on the Caspian Sea, by road; from Bandar-e-Anzali to Astrakhan, a Caspian port in the Russian Federation, by ship; across the Caspian Sea, and thereafter into the Russian Federation and further into Europe by Russian Railways. In simple language, the INST will cut the transit time between India and Russia from 40 days to less than 25. Thats a real positive in dollars and cents.

Then there is the sticky issue of paying for oil imports. Iran had slid to seventh place in terms of energy supplies during the sanctions, but rebounded to third in recent years. As of now, India pays for this in Euros using European bank channels. Earlier, it had also used Turkish banks as a source. As long as Europe stays in the deal, India can continue with energy imports, which incidentally are structured extremely advantageously by Iran. Oddly, Dhramendra Pradhan, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, indicated in February that India was planning to double its imports from Iran. That seems to indicate a plan to stay the course of policy.

In sum, Chahbahar is therefore not just a way to blindside Pakistan even while assisting Afghanistan. It is a very real part of the prime minister's focus on expanding trade through finally, opening up connectivity into all those hungry Central Asian markets and elsewhere. It will also serve to bone up somewhat shaky Indo-Russian relations, and is also a very handy way to get into the "connectivity business" ourselves. With the situation changing very quickly, we may ironically need to confer with China to keep this route open and prop up Iran. And since we are the homeand of Kautilya, we may also offer to open a quiet dialogue with Iran with a view to saving the deal, while assuaging US concerns. This is not a time to hang back and let others do the talking.The Jammu and Kashmir police crime branch has expanded its probe in the Kathua rape and murder case.

Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir police crime branch has expanded its probe in the Kathua rape and murder case to identify those who allegedly signed the attendance register at a Meerut college on behalf of an accused while he had gone to his village where the crime was committed, officials said on Thursday.

They said a crime branch team was camping in Meerut and taking inputs from the local police there.

The police team has examined some of the witnesses as it is alleged in the chargesheet that Vishal Jangotra, accused of raping an eight-year-old girl in Kathua, had tried to create an alibi of his absence from the crime scene by allegedly "resorting to manipulation of records and creation of false evidence with the connivance and assistance of his father Sanji Ram".

The officials said three people, who are suspected to have signed the attendance sheet on his behalf, are wanted by the crime branch.

The three were in judicial custody after being arrested by the Meerut police in connection with a question paper leak case.

Jangotra, who is pursuing a bachelor's degree in agriculture from a college in Meerut district, has been charged by the crime branch of raping and helping in the murder of the girl in Kathua along with a juvenile, the main accused and a relative of Sanji Ram, and special police officer Deepak Khajuria alias Deepu.

The juvenile, whose bail plea was rejected by a court last month, is the main accused in the case.

The crime branch had earlier put its investigation on hold and was awaiting an order of the Supreme Court which had been petitioned by the victim's side for taking the trial out of Kathua and the accused side pleading for handing over the investigation to the CBI.

In its 7 May order, the apex court had said "the pivotal fact around which the controversy centres, is abduction, rape and murder of an eight year old girl".

"An FIR was lodged at Hiranagar Police Station, Kathua...The investigating agency, namely, the Crime Branch, which took over the investigation on 22nd January, 2018 from the local police has already filed the charge sheet on 9th April, 2018, in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kathua in the State of Jammu and Kashmir," the order had said.

The apex court had transferred the case to the court of the District and Sessions judge in Pathankot, Punjab, 30 km from Kathua.

The crime branch, according to the officials, has also seized some more documents and sent it to 'Questioner of Examined Documents' (QED) in the national capital for verifying the handwriting samples.

A report from Central Forensic and Scientific Laboratory about the CCTV tapes seized from the examination centre was also expected soon, the officials said, adding that a supplementary charge sheet was expected to be filed by second week of June.

The officials suspect that someone from the university had allowed Jangotra to write his answer sheet after the examination was over on 15 January as his train had reached late from Jammu.

The officials also alleged that the accused had deliberately visited an ATM and was seen looking at the camera to create an alibi for himself.

In its charge sheet, the crime branch had mentioned that some officials of the university had allegedly received a "huge amount of kickback from accused Sanji Ram".

"This aspect needs further investigation as records are to be collected from concerned college and university....after conducting further investigation supplementary charge sheet shall follow," the charge sheet had said.

Jangotra is among eight people who have been charge sheeted by the crime branch in the rape and murder of the girl.

The chargesheet also claimed that Sanji Ram, the alleged main conspirator, had planned the kidnapping of the girl only to drive away the nomads from the Kathua region.A crucial meeting of the Supreme Court Collegium is likely to be held on Friday to discuss the issue of reconsidering the name of Uttarakhand Chief Justice KM Joseph for elevation to the apex court, after it was returned by the Centre.

New Delhi: A crucial meeting of the Supreme Court Collegium is likely to be held on Friday to discuss the issue of reconsidering the name of Uttarakhand Chief Justice KM Joseph for elevation to the apex court, after it was returned by the Centre.

Official sources on Thursday said that the members of the Collegium have been in consultation over the issue and Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra is likely to convene the meeting on Friday.

Though there was no official word on it, the sources said it could take place any time after the completion of the matters on the board of the five judges.

It is pertinent to mention that Justice J Chelameswar, the senior-most judge of the apex court, had on Wednesday written a letter to the CJI asking him to convene the Collegium's meeting to urgently forward Justice Joseph's name to the Centre. The government had on 26 April returned the Collegium's recommendation to elevate Justice Joseph seeking its reconsideration, saying the proposal was not in accordance with the top court's parameters and there was an adequate representation of Kerala in the higher judiciary from where he hails. It had also questioned his seniority for elevation as a judge of the apex court.

According to an apex court official, Justice Chelameswar, in his letter sent to the CJI late on Wednesday evening, has conveyed that he was reiterating his decision for the elevation of Justice Joseph as the judge of the top court as there was no change in the circumstances that had led the Collegium to recommend his name to the government on 10 January. It is also learnt that Justice Chelameswar, who retires on 22 June, has responded to all the points raised in the communication to the CJI by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad expressing reservations on the elevation of Justice Joseph.

The meeting of the Collegium was expected to take place yesterday but Justice Chelameswar was on leave. Besides the CJI and Justice Chelameswar, other members of the collegium are Justices Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph.

Justice Kurian Joseph, during his visit to Kerala last week, had also reportedly made it clear that he was in favour of reiterating the recommendation of the collegium on the issue of Uttarakhand Chief Justice Joseph. Though no official word was there on when the collegium would meet, the official said it is for the CJI to fix the date as there is no other agenda but to discuss the issue of returning the recommendation relating to Justice Joseph to the Centre.

Earlier too, notwithstanding the letters written by the Collegium members to the CJI which had come out in the public domain, the Centre had disregarded the recommendation about Justice Joseph.Narendra Modi will address SC/ST and slum morcha BJP workers at 9 am, while Amit Shah will hold a road show in Badami constituency at 11.30 am.

Auto refresh feeds

Addressing BJP workers in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "There is no space for violence in a democracy. When a person loses faith in himself and doesn't have the strength to speak or accept the truth, he chooses the path of politcial violence."

"In 1984 there was a phase of violence after Indira Gandhi's assassination. Since then it seems violence has become a part of the political system. Our workers were killed in Tripura, Kerala, Karnataka. This doesn't suit democracy. Violence must be opposed," Narendra Modi said in his address.

"More than 1.27 MUDRA loans have been given under our government. Through our schemes, 1 lakh youth have been trained for skills."

Claiming that BJP has embraced technology unlike Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "India is making's its spot in the global start-up scene. The youth of Karnataka are energetic, brave and hardworking. The youth of this state will get many benefits from the central government.

Asserting that violence in any form should not be allowed by any political party in a democracy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to BJPs youth karyakartas in Karnataka to not "act in vengeance even when they have lost their several karyakartas in political violence".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address through his app, praised the youth of Karnataka for proving their "mettle in all fields". Five world-class sports centres will be established in Karnataka under the BJP government. "After coming to power, BJP will establish 60 state-of-the-art Namma BPO complexes across Karnataka and a corpus of Rs 250 Crore for low interest loans to encourage local entrepreneurs to set up BPO businesse," he said.

He said that his contest was with Yeddyurappa and not Modi. "I challenge him (Yeddyurappa) to an open debate on issues on a single platform. Will he accept? Modi is also welcome," he tweeted.

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah claimed on Monday that Narendra Modi is deliberately confusing voters in Karnataka with his speeches on non-issues. "All hot air & no substance," he said in a tweet.

Siddaramaiah challenges Yeddyurappa for an open debate, says Modi also welcome

In a series of tweets, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah listed five reasons why Karnataka should not vote for the BJP:

In the photograph, Siddaramaiah is seen alongside absconder Vijay Ishwaran at the World Economic Forum in 2013.

A day after BJP accused Siddaramaiah of having links with a Ponzi scheme, Siddaramaiah hit back on Twitter and said, "If BJP wants to go with this logic of using a photo to accuse me, then it should also accuse Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his photo with Nirav Modi in Davos."

JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy released the party's manifesto. The party has promised farm loan waiver within 24 hours of taking oath, if elected to power.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is expected to visit Kolar distict at 12.20 pm and is scheduled to make three addresses in Bangalore Rural district later. He will attend a corner meeting Hoskote District Stadium at 2.15 pm, and another one in Junior College Ground in Devanahalli at 4 pm. His last address of the day is scheduled at 5.40 pm in Dadaballapura.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh addressed a press conference to lash out at the Narendra Modi government over its "mismanagement of vision" in terms of economic policies. "Our farmers are facing an acute crisis, our aspirational youth are not finding opportunities, and the economy is growing below its potential. The unfortunate truth is that each of these crises was entirely avoidable," he said.

"Demonetisation and hasty implementation of GST dealt a blow to the rural economy and to the common man. High petrol prices have made the situation worse and mismanagement of the Modi government is evident," he said.

"Growth rate under NDA is lower than UPA despite favourable global conditions and changes in calculation methods," Manmohan Singh said at a press conference in Bengaluru.

"Every time we have sought an answer for any of the disastrous policies of the present BJP government, all we hear is that the intentions are virtuous," he said, adding that Modi government's policies has resulted in "massive losses" for the country.

Speaking at the press briefing in Bengaluru, ex-prime minister Manmohan Singh criticised the NDA government for increase in fuel prices. "Petrol and diesel prices are at a historic high.This is in spite of lower international crude oil prices because the Narendra Modi government chooses to levy excessive excise taxes. Instead of passing on the benefits of low prices to the people, the Modi government has punished the people," he said.

Manmohan Singh accused the BJP of polarising the populations ahead of the 12 May polls in Karnataka. "It is shocking that the prime minister stoops so low during election, it is unbecoming of the prime minister. Particularly, when he is in state where election are set to take place. No prime minister has used election time to say things in manner that Modi ji has tried," he said

BJP chief Amit Shah addressed a rally in Nargund. "I urge you to vote BJP to power. We will release water from Mahadayi in Karnataka within six months. Kisan apne khet mein jayega, Mahadayi ka paani ayega (The farmer will go back to his farm when Mahadayi water is released), he said. BS Yeddyurappa government will ensure that Karnataka gets water.

BJP will release water from Mahadayi river in Karnataka within six months of power, says Amit Shah in Nargund

He added, "Give BJP a chance this time. In five years, Narendra Modi and BS Yeddyurappa will turn Karnataka into India's number one state."

BJP national president Amit Shah accused the Congress government of corruption. "Siddaramaiah wears a watch worth Rs 40 lakh. That indicates how much corruption they have done. His government has now become symbol of corruption. It is 10 percent commission government," he said in Nargund.

Raising the pitch against the BJP, he said. "Narendra Modi should tell Karnataka about the qualifications of BJP's chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa. He should tell the voters how many times he has gone to jail. The BJP will know only after the election how strong Congress is in Karnataka."

Leading the protest in Kolar against the rising fuel prices, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, "Has the central government given a single rupee to the farmers of Karnataka? Modi ji, you could've waived farmer loans across the country."

"The prime minister should tell, why he is not reducing fuel prices. He should tell the nation that he is taking the money from common man and giving it to Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi," Rahul Gandhi said in Kolar.

He lashed out at Congress for stalling the triple talaq bill. "Rahul Gandhi keeps talking about dignity of women. The triple talaq bill has been passed by Lok Sabha but is stuck in Rajya Sabha, where Congress is not letting the debate happen," he said.

Addressing a press conference in Karnataka, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the state needs good monitoring. "The Government of India and Karnataka will work together for it," he said. He further said that if voted to power, improvement of infrastructure of Bengaluru will be our BJP's priority.

"The BJP Government collected Rs 10 lakh crore in taxes on Petrol/LPG/Diesel since 2014. Yet, NO relief in prices for our citizens. This video shows the truth about fuel prices under PM Modi," Gandhi said on Twitter using the hashtag 'BJPReducePetrolPrices'.

He accused the government of collecting Rs 10 lakh crore in taxes on petroleum products without giving any relief in prices to people.

Speaking to reporters after a corner meeting, Rahul Gandhi said that his cycle rally earlier in the day was a move to protest against the rising fuel prices in India.

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi said that the PM functions in two modes only. "There are 3 modes in a mobile phone, work mode, speaker mode & airplane mode. Modi Ji only uses speaker mode & airplane mode, he never uses work mode," said Rahul.

Addressing BJP yuva morcha workers via the 'Narendra Modi App,' the prime minister also lauded efforts of party workers in maintaining the public mood in favour of the party despite rumours of a hung assembly in the May 12 elections in Karnataka.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the Opposition for opposing technology be it in the form of Aadhaar card or EVMs and said the BJP wants to promote a modern India by giving importance to skill development and innovation.

Liquor worth Rs 23,98,82,621.02 was also confiscated by Static Surveillance teams & excise department. Gold and silver worth Rs 43,25,84,717 were seized by the I-T dept, ANI reported.

In the poll-bound state, where the Model Code of Conduct is already binding, cash worth Rs 75,94,03,703 was seized by the Income Tax department and state police.

Rahul Gandhi, while addresses a gathering in Hoskote, said that Narendra Modi was out of topics in the election-bound state. He said that the PM especially cannot talk about women's security in Karnataka after what happened in Unnao. The Congress president was referring to the gangrape of a minor in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao, where the sitting BJP MLA was accused of rape and murdering victim's father.

A key aide of Siddaramaiah has sent a legal notice for defemation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making 'unfounded allegations' against the Chief Minister of Karnataka. The notice has been sent in view of the prime minister calling Siddaramaiah, "seedha rupaiya CM" and "10 percent CM."

An ADR report states that 28 percent of candidates contesting the 12 May elections are facing criminal cases. The BJP tops the list with 83 of its 224 candidates (37 percent) facing criminal cases. The Congress comes in second with 59 (26 percent) of its 220 candidates embroiled in criminal cases.

Both BJP and Congress have been training guns on each other over the issue of corruption. However, neither seems to be spot free in the Karnataka elections.

Hitting out at the BJP, Siddaramaiah said, "BJP doesn't believe in social justice, welfare of the poor or socialism. Ananth Kumar Hegde is 'nalayak.' He is not fit to be a gram panchayat leader and they have made him Union Minister."

Ananth Kumar hegde a 'nalayak', not even fit for being panchyat leader, says Siddaramaiah

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah alleged that minorities in the country were feeling terrorised under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Dubbing the BJP a "communal party" Siddaramaiah warned the party of bloodshed if it tries to alter the basic structure of Constitution of India. "If Narendra Modi tries to change Constitution, there will be bloodshed in this country," he said .

If Narendra Modi tries to change Constitution there will be bloodshed in this country: Siddaramaiah

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address three public meetings today. He will speak at a rally in Vijayapura at 1 pm, and later address a gathering in Koppal 3 pm. His last address will be in Bengaluru at 6.30 pm.

BJP national president Amit Shah will hold roadshows today in Madikeri, Mangalore, Mangalore South, and Mangalore North constituencies. His first roadshow is scheduled to begin at 11 am from Chowdeshwari temple to toll gate at Thimmaiah Circle, while his last roadshow for the day will begin at 5 pm from BJP election office in Kavoor to Shetty Residency.

Former Congress president and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi will be addressing a mega rally at BLDE New Campus grounds in Vijayapura on Tuesday.

At 9.30 am, Congress president will interact with "eminent citizens" through the Samruddha Bharat platform. He will later address gatherings in Chikkaballapur, Pavgada, and Tiptur.

The BBC News Press Team cleared itself of any connection with a "fake" survey on Karnataka election being circulated on Whatsapp. " We'd like to make it absolutely clear that it is fake and does not come from the BBC. The BBC does not commission pre-election surveys in India," it said in a tweet.

BBC News warns of fake survey being circulated on Whatsapp, says it does not commission pre-poll surveys in India

According to the legal notice, the BJP leaders will have to face civil and criminal action and pay damages of Rs 100-crore in the event of the BJP leaders failed to withdraw their statements and issuing an unconditional public apology.

Siddaramaiah, who served a Rs 100-crore legal notice on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and party's Karnataka unit chief BS Yeddyurappa, asked why election is supposed to be an "open season" for allegations.

Siddaramaiah says he will 'pursue' defamation cases against Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and Yeddyurappa

"Madam Maino, Karnataka needs no lessons from the person who was solely responsible for wasting India's 10 precious years," BJP Karnataka said in a tweet. "And to Congress, need to remind you of your 'import' jibe," it added.

Taking a dig at UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, BJP said on Twitter that "Ms Antonio Maino" will be in Karnataka on Tuesday to "save her last citadel from falling".

According to reports, Rahul Gandhi has inaugurated the Samruddha Bharat Foundation. He is currently interacting with the citizens of Bengaluru at the launch event. Samruddha Bharat is an independent platform launched to propagate "liberal, secular, and republican" values in India.

He also attacked BJP chief Amit Shah, saying, "I don't think he has lot of credibility. People in India forget that BJP president is a murder accused. A party that talks about honesty, decency has a person who has been accused of murder as its president."

He said that one of the main issues with BJP is why the prime minister had chosen a corrupt person (BS Yeddyurappa) as a chief ministerial candidate. "People want to know why the prime minister has given eight tickets to Reddy brothers who have stolen Rs 35,000 crore," he said.

Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Congress president Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP and RSS of making a "systematic attempt" to capture all of India's institution. "Congress and India is resisting this," he said.

"Yes why not," Congress president Rahul Gandhi was quoted as saying by ANI after he was asked if he can be prime minister in 2019 if Congress is the single largest party.

Moments after Congress president Rahul Gandhi attacked the BJP for projecting BS Yeddyurappa as a chief ministerial candidate despite facing corruption charge, the saffron party hit back on Twitter. It said, "...you stand on much lower footing compared to BS Yeddyurappa. While the high court has acquitted all charges against Yeddyurappa, you still face a Rs 5000 crore corruption charge and are out on bail; yet you see pipedream of becoming the prime minister."

"Until then, like a good boy, spare us from these rumblings," it added.

Reacting to Rahul Gandhi's 'speaker and airplane mode' jibe at Narendra Modi, BJP said that the Congress president will go on vacation mode after the end of campaigning in Karnataka. "We know it is getting difficult here. Three more days and you can switch to your vacation mode,' the party said in a tweet.

Three more days until vacation mode for Rahul Gandhi, says BJP

He claimed that the Congress leaders have stopped visiting homes to seek votes. "Now they are sitting in their offices, and thinking whom to accuse for their loss; should they blame EVMs or something else. They are planning ways to blame EVMs," he said.

"In the past 7-8 days, I have visited various places in Karnataka and I have seen that the people have decided not only to remove Congress, but has decided to give them the strictest of punishment for five years," he said.

"Those who are saying that there will be a hung Assembly in state, must step out of their AC rooms," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said as he began his address in Vijayapur.

People have decided to punish Congress for five years, says Narendra Modi

He hit out at Congress over farmers' woes in state. "What has the Congress done for the farmers of Karnataka? When the state was hit by drought, their ministers who were handling key portfolios were busy doing politics in Delhi," Modi said in Vijayapura.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi credited the saints, seers and mutts for playing a key role in making the society of Karnataka "progressive and harmonious". "They have worked to remove human suffering," he said.

What Karnataka was hit by drought, Congress ministers were doing politics in Delhi

Narendra Modi accused the Congress of not being serious about the safety of women. "It is the NDA Government that has got a tough law that will ensure safety of women," he said. He also hit out at the Congress for not letting the Centre pass the triple talaq bill in Lok Sabha.

'Congress has never been serious about women safety'

He also said that Dalits were being killed in BJP-ruled states but Narendra Modi has not uttered a word,

Speaking in Pavagada, Congress president Rahul Gandhi hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not helping in waiving farm loan. "You come to speak here, but when you gave nod for loan waiver, you did not add a single rupee from the central government," he said.

"What Narendra Modi government couldn't do at the Centre, Congress government was able to execute in Karnataka. In the next five years, the Congress government will provide 1 crore jobs to youth in state," he added.

In Pavagada, Congress president Rahul Gandhi attacked Narendra Modi over his promise of providing 2 crore jobs to the youth every year. "Modi's ministers agree that India is facing biggest job crisis under the NDA government," he said.

Speaking in Pavagada, Congress president Rahul Gandhi attacked the JD(S) and BJP. He said that the 'S' in JD(S) stood for "Sangh Parivaar" and not "secular". Vouching for Congress leaders, he said, "Siddaramaiah, state unit president G Parameshwara, and other Congress leaders have you in their hearts when they work. On the other hand, Yeddyurappa and Reddy brothers have all been behind bars. It is up to you to decide if you want a clean, corruption-free government."

The choice of location for the rally shows careful consideration by the Congress, given the party's long association with the town. Bijapur, or Vijayapura as it is officially known, is the district headquarters of the district of Bijapur, and has been a favourite for the Nehru-Gandhi family for generations.

Almost two years after abandoning her poll campaign midway in Varanasi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will hit the campaign trail in Karnataka on Tuesday and address a public rally in Bijapur at 3 pm.

"Congress believes in the policy of divide and rule... divide on the basis of caste and religion....make brothers fight among themselves But people of this land of Basaveshwara will not allow it to happen," he told an election rally in Vijayapura.

Modi lashed out at the Siddaramaiah government over alleged corruption, saying there is not a single minister who is not facing allegations of financial wrongdoing.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of pursuing the policy of "divide and rule", and asserted the party would be uprooted from Karnataka in the Assembly elections.

"They can go to any extent for power. Their game is to plot brothers against each other," he said.

Speaking in Koppal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "We only have one mantra, 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas'. But on the other hand, there is a party that ruled for 60 years out of the 70 years of independence. But they only run and oust the government for their family.

"Cleanliness is related to the dignity of a woman. Our women have to defecate in the open. They go outside before the sun rise and wait for the sun to set to go the next time," he said. "When I had spoken about Swachh Bharat and building toilets from the Red Fort, the 'naamdaars' mocked me. But how will the man born with a golden spoon in his mouth know the problems faced by our old mothers? We are poor people and only we understand this problem," he added.

"Two years ago, I mentioned Mallama in Mann ki Baat. A young girl from a village in Karnataka fought for construction of toilets. I'm proud that there are many girls like her who are supporting the Swachch Bharat movement," Narendra Modi said in Koppal.

"I will recount another sin of the Congress party for you. As you know, the sex ratio is unbalanced in a lot of districts in our country. As the trend to kill female fetus continued unabated, the Congress governments only snoozed. We ave started schemes so that this pit is filled and the number of females match the number of male children in our society," Modi said.

He also "congratulated Yeddyurappa" for promising to include a whopping 10,000 crore to further women empowerment.

"These people have done nothing for the protection of women, whereas our government has brought in a strict to law to give death sentence to those who do such devilish deeds with our daughter," Modi said.

"When I had spoken about Swachh Bharat and building toilets from the Red Fort, the Naamdaars mocked me. Those who are born with a golden spoon, never understand the difficulties of poor. We are committed to serve the poor and would continue to do so," Modi said.

Rahul Gandhi is holding a corner meeting at Titpur in Karnataka. Lauding the Congress government in the state, he said, "We built the worlds largest solar park and will continue to put Pavagada on the world map. I also promise to fight to get the groundnut farmers the right MSP for their produce."

Sonia Gandhi addressed a election rally in Vijayapur in Karnataka to seek votes for her party. She started off her speech by praising the culture of the state, while adding that Vijayapura was considered to be an amalgamation of cultures.

"Congress has worked for development of Karnataka. Congress made Karnataka country's number one state and started numerous scheme for people: Sonia Gandhi in Bijapur, We even started Indira canteen where even the poorest of poor can have a full meal in just 10 years," Sonia said.

She claimed that nobody would have seen a prime minister who talks so much but is always quiet on issues that matter. "I ask him, what has he done? What has he doen for the farmers, for the poors, for the middle class," Sonia asked.

"Narendra Modi is proud of the fact that he is a very good orator, I agree with this. He speaks like an actor. I'll be happy if his speeches can end hunger of the country but speeches cannot fill empty stomachs, food is needed for that. It cannot empower women or heal the sick either, you need a strong determination and noble intent for that," Sonia said.

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's most talked about strengthe, his oratory skills, Sonia Gandhi said that Modi preads lies and distorts history wherever he goes. "He uses the names of heroes from our history for his political motives. He comes here and instead of talking about what has he done, answering questions, he spreads hatred and leaves," Sonia said.

"Narendra Modi ji has done only one work since he came to power. He is hell bent on finishing every good work done by the Congress party ober the years. We have worked tirelessly for the poor. We started Mahatma Gandhi NREGA scheme which was mocket at by the BJP and by Modi Ji at the time. He is systematically ending every welfare scheme," Sonia said.

(Modiji is fervently talking about Congress-mukt Bharat. But he is so focused on it that he cannot stand any sort of opposition against him", Sonia Gandhi said.

"If you bring the mother (Sonia) to Karnataka and she does something, then maybe the deposits can be saved. This is what Congress leaders have started speaking," Modi said at a rally.

Modi said he had on Monday watched an interview of a Congress leader who said that the son (Congress President Rahul Gandhi) "will not be able to do anything".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took a dig at the Congress, claiming that its leaders were now saying that if former party chief Sonia Gandhi canvasses in the state, it can at least save the security deposits of Congress candidates.

At the start of his speech, Modi said that he knows that the love of the people is such that language is no barrier. However, since the speeches are broadcast in villages as well, he wants to ensure that the last man also understands his words.

"II do not understand why the CM dislikes Bengaluru. He has handed over Bengaluru to an infamous trio- and we all know this trio- we also know they have been given charge of this city due to vote bank politics. This trio excels in all the wrong things," Modi said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend four public meetings in Karnataka on Wednesday. He will first address a rally at 10.30 am in Bangarapet, then head to Chikmagalur to address another gathering at 1.30 pm. He will attend a public meeting in Belagavi at 4.30 pm, and finally wrap up his day by addressing a rally in Bidar at 7.30 pm.

BJP national president Amit Shah is scheduled to address one public meeting and hold five roadshows on Wednesday. He will first address a rally in Tumkur at 10.30 am, and later hold roadshows in Kunigal, Shanthinagar, Shivajinagar, Sarvagna Nagar, and Mahadevapura constutuencies.

"Manjula Nanjamuri has nothing to do with BJP. She left BJP six years ago. Manjula is a Congress person now," ANI quoted Javadekar as saying.

On Tuesday, 9,746 voter IDs were seized from an apartment in the name of one Manjula Nanjamuri. While Congress communications in-charge Randeep S Surjewala clalimed that she is a BJP leader, Union minister Prakash Javadekar denied the charges alleging that she was instead a Congress worker.

Congress delegation to meet Election Commission officials at 10 am in New Delhi over voter IDs recovered from Bengaluru, reports CNN-News18

Apart from addressing three rallies today, Congress president Rahul Gandhi will visit two temples and a garment factory on Wednesday. He will begin his day by visiting the Dodda Ganapathi temple in Basavagudi at 10 am, and then visit a garment factory in Krishna Nagar Industrial Area at 11.30 am where he will interact with women workers. Later, he will visit Shivaji Nagar, BEML Circle, and Hebbal to address corner meetings.

BJP to meet Election Commission at 10.30 am over voter IDs recovered from Bengaluru, reports CNN-News18

He added that he did not have anything to say about the voter ID raids, saying, "It is the Election Commission's job to probe."

Alleging BJP's role in the voter IDs seized from a flat in Bengaluru, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the was first time he was witnessing a raid of this kind. "Congress is constantly under surveillance of BJP government. This is for the first time, these raids are being conducted at the time of elections, he told reporters on Wednesday.

"Anti democratic means of Congress to win loosing elections is nothing new. They are in practice right from Indira Gandhi's period," it said in a tweet. On Tuesday, the Election Commission confirmed that it seized over 9,000 voter identity cards from a flat in Jalahalli of west Bengaluru.

The BJP claimed on Twitter that "close to 20,000" fake voters IDs were recovered from Congress' Raja Rajeshwari Nagar constituency candidate.

The son of Manjula Nanjamari  in whose flat over 9,000 voter IDs were found  has reacted to the allegations surrounding the flat tenant and Manjula being BJP leaders. "I am the only son of Manjula Nanjamari. Rakesh is my mother's nephew's son and he has got no connections with the flat in Park View apartment," Manjula's son Sridhar was quoted as saying by ANI .

'Rakesh has no connection with Manjula Nanjamari's flat which was raided'

Modi said that the entire country has deeply understood the mannerisms of the Congress. "Wherever there was an election in India, Congress (lost). What will happen on 15 May," he said.

Speaking in Bangarapet, Narendra Modi said, "This election is not just about who becomes or does not become an MLA. It is an election to decide the fate of Karnataka and its youth."

Election will decide fate of Karnataka and its youth, says Narendra Modi in Bangarapet

"During the UPA government, there was one prime minister and one remote control. In the NDA Government, our remote control and the high command are the 125 crore people of India," he added.

There are the six evils that the Congress has brought on the nation - Congress culture - Communalism, Casteism, Crime, Corruption, Contractor system. These 6 C's are destroying that future of Karnataka," Narendra Modi said in Bangarapet.

"There are big meetings being held to oust Narendra Modi. How will the big leaders who attend these meetings react to this sudden announcement by one 'naamdaar', Modi said.

In Bangarapet, Narendra Modi lashed out at Rahul Gandhi over his aspiration to become the prime minister. "On Tuesday, someone (Rahul Gandhi) made an important declaration. He said that he is going to be the prime minister in 2019. He came like those bullies, barging his way ahead when there are others who have many years of experience. How can someone just declare himself as the prime minister? This is simply nothing but arrogance," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Congress is interested in nothing but "deals". "These are not my words. It's Congress MP and former Karnataka chief minister Veerappa Moily who said this. When tickets were being 'sold', he said that Congress will have to solve their 'money problem' and also blamed PWD minister for the deal-making," he said.

He hit out at the Congress for accusing the BJP of attempting to weaken the SC/ST Act. "But the truth is that we have empowered those belonging to the SC/ST category," Modi said.

"Since the time these new 'naamdaars' have entered Congress, they have picked a new strategy of uttering lies," Narendra Modi said. "But now the public has various ways to find out the truth. If that wasn't the case, the Congress wouldn't have been limited to PPP  Punjab, Puducherry and Parivar Congress," he added.

"Will you go to each house and inform voters about BJP's plans for the poor, needy, and the downtrodden? Will you help BJP form the government? Will you help for BS Yeddyurappa's government in Karnataka," Narendra Modi asked the gathering in Bangarapet.

Addressing a public meeting in Tumkur, BJP national president Amit Shah said, "BJP is getting immense support in Karnataka. BJP will form government with absolute majority in the state."

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is interacting with women factory workers in Bengaluru. Responding to a question on the closure of factories which force the workers to become unemployed, Rahul said, "90 percent of money in the banks goes to the 10-15 people in India. How many people did Nirav Modi employ? He didn't employ anyone, but the banks gave him Rs 33,000 crore to him. If just Rs 100 crore was given to this factory, atleast a thousand would've been employed because of him."

Anand Sharma and Motilal Vora will lead Congress delegation to meet Election Commission over voter IDs founds in Bengaluru, reports ANI .

"Now people want to save Congress by accusing BJP. It's a clear case of Congress conspiracy. Their philosophy is if you don't get real voters, get fake voters," Javadekar said.

Addressing a press conference, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said, " Congress is blatantly lying (about BJP's connection with the voter IDs found in a Bengaluru apartment). Our worker Rakesh is the whistleblower, but Manjula and her son are not our party workers." He asserted that Manjula, who is the flat owner where the IDs were seized from, should be arrested.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Kumaraswamy explains why he thinks the party will sweep over the entire state on its own.

In the run-up to the Karnataka Assembly polls, former chief minister and state president of Janata Dal (Secular) HD Kumaraswamy asserts he will not play the kingmaker in case of a hung verdict, but will emerge as the king himself. Unfazed by scathing attacks against the JD(S) from both Congress and the BJP, the 58-year-old leader says there will not be a post-poll tie-up with any of the two national political parties. The chief ministerial candidate believes his party is poised to cross the 113-mark in the 224-member Assembly.

After polls, Siddaramaiah will neither be CM nor an MLA: JD(S)' HD Kumaraswamy

After a Congress delegation met Election Commission officials in Delhi, senior leader Anand Sharma said, "We have submitted the detailed memorandum about malpractices of BJP and concerted attempt by the party at the Centre to subvert the pre-election process, target Congress, and conduct midnight raids. Last night, the raids were stage managed by BJP."

He said that the Election Commission listened to the concerns of the Congress leaders and has promised to take strict action and probe the role of all agencies involved.

Speaking to reporters, Congress leader Anand Sharma said that the BJP's strategy is to stall the election process because the "mandate in Karnataka is against the BJP government". "The prime minister has no credibility. He is using the kind of language which does not behoove him," he said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Modi had said at a rally: "During the UPA government, there was one prime minister and one remote control. In the NDA Government, our remote control and the high command are the 125 crore people of India."

Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "remote control with Sonia Gandhi" jibe at the Congress, Anand Sharma said, "Everybody knows who has the remote control in this government." He claimed that there are only two people running the governmen  Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah. "Their remote control is in Nagpur at the RSS' office," he told reporters in Delhi.

"Rahul Gandhi thinks that the prime minister's seat is reserved for just one family. He thinks that the seat is his right. Congress barely got 40 seats in the Parliament. His ego is such that he comes to Karnataka and says that he will become the prime minister in 2019," Modi added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi targetted Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Chikmagalur. "The 'naamdaar' of Congress keeps getting promoted even if he doesn't do anything. He was made general secretary of the party in 2007. He said he'll make a young team and bring new ideas. It has been 11 years and things are still how they used to be," he said.

Rahul Gandhi thinks PM's seat is only reserved for one family, says Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi accused the Congress of being power hungry. "In 1978, Indira ji came here, took your votes but never cared for people of this region. Congress never thought about welfare of people of Chikmagalur. Sonia ji too contested from Bellari, but what happened to promises made in Ballari," he said.

Modi also lashed out at Siddaramaiah, saying that the Income Tax raided a resort in Badami a day after the chief minister finished his stay. Earlier on Wednesday, Siddaramaiah had claimed that the raid was a BJP conspiracy against him.

In Chikmaglur, Narendra Modi charged the Congress with attempting to rig the polls. "They have created fake voter IDs to massively rig the Karnataka election. The people of Karnataka should resolve never to forgive such a party and come out to vote in massive numbers to uproot it and its ecosystem. Congress is indulging in all kinds of malpractices over the fear of a crushing defeat."

Using the hashtag 'CongRigsElection', BJP chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa blamed the Congress for the fake voter ID row in Karnataka, "It is a scary situation in Karnataka. Rattled Congress prints fake voter ID Cards. I appeal Karnataka chief election officer to take stringent action against the culprits involved. Deterrent action should prevent others from resorting to similar malpractices," he said in a tweet.

At the centre of a controversy, Manjula Nanjamari  owner of Bengaluru flat from where fake voter IDs were seized  denied that she was a Congress worker. "From 1997-2002 I was a corporator, and BJP helped me win. I was just a house wife and BJP supported me, so I consider myself under their sharan(shadow). I am not a Congress person,will never be," she was quoted as saying by ANI .

He asserted that the UPA government supported the development of IT in Bengaluru. "When Congress was in power at the centre, we gave Bengaluru Rs 10,000 crore for development. But Modi government has given only Rs 550 crores to Bengaluru. It's a shame," he said.

Speaking at Shivaji Nagar, Congress president Rahul Gandhi lashed out at Narendra Modi for questioning development under Congress rule in India. "Was Bengaluru not the IT hub before Narendra Modi came to power? But Modi keeps saying that no progress took place in 70 years," he said.

Congress supports IT development in Bengaluru when it was in power at centre, says Rahul Gandhi

"I ask the people of Belagavi to be alert. Convince other people to vote and vote for the BJP," Modi said.

"Now this Modi has gone into their hearts to such an extent that the Karnataka chief minister kept talking about Narendra Modi. This shows there truly is a God. Because He forced him to speak the truth," he said.

"I had thought that the Congress government in Karnataka would have tried highlighting its work in the campaigning so far," said Narendra Modi. "In the entire election campaign, they have talked of nothing apart from Modi," he added.

Kumar also said that the voter ID cards seized were genuine.

"The case is under observation....The cards were collected for a reason," Sanjiv Kumar, CEO, Karnataka told reporters. "We have seized 9,896 cards," he added.

Watch: No evidence that any of them (the voter ID cards) are bogus or concocted, says Karnataka CEO

Nearly 1.5 lakh security personnel, including more than 50,000 from the central paramilitary forces, will be deployed during the Assembly elections in Karnataka on 12 May to ensure free and fair polls, officials said on Wednesday. The Union home ministry has earmarked around 520 companies drawn from various paramilitary forces like the CRPF, BSF and ITBP to keep strict vigil and ensure peace during the polling process in the southern state. ( Read more here )

Narendra Modi addresses public meeting in Bidar, says the affection of people for the BJP across Karnataka is a clear indication that Congress party will be defeated in these elections.

"When Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Batukeshwar Dutt, Veer Savarkar, greats like them were jailed fighting for the country's independence, did any Congress leader went to meet them? But the Congress leaders go and meet the corrupt who have been jailed," adds Modi.

Narendra Modi says the Congress has always worked for their own goodwill, for their own family. Their actions have deteriorated the condition of the country. He goes onto say, "This is a democracy and you cannot say one fine day that you are going to be the prime minister of the country, the public will decide that."

Congress has always worked for their own family: Modi

Congress thinks that the prime minister's seat is reserved for just one dynasty, says Modi

Congress should tell people what they have done for Karnataka, says Modi

"We have approved stringent punishments for those who commit crimes against women. Such crimes cannot be tolerated. Heinous crimes are not a political issue, I wish the Congress understood this," says Narendra Modi.

BJP chief Amit Shah will hold a road show in Badami constituency at 11.30 am and later address a press conference at the BJP media centre in Bengalury at 4 pm.

"BJP has always been committed to he welfare of those belonging to the backward classes," Modi said.

Addressing Karnataka BJP workers through his app, Narendra Modi said, "Today the most people from SC/ST/OBC are connected to the BJP. BJP believes in equality. Maximum number of SC/ST/OBC MPs are from the BJP. We believe in development for all"

Hailing social reformer Jyotirao Phule, he said, "Before Babasahab, Mahatma Phule spearheaded the movement to fight the atrocities on the backward classes."

Addressing the SC/ST/OBC workers of the BJP in Karnataka, Narendra Modi, "Despite the presence of several communities and classes, in some way we'll all unite. I have no doubt of it."

"BJP has always fought to ensure Ambedkar's gets due respect," he added.

Lashing out at the Congress, Narendra Modi said, "Congress has no room in it's heart for Dalits and those belonging to the backward classes. Congress also has no respect for BR Ambedkar. I urge Congress to tell one work that it has done to honour Ambedkar's efforts."

'Congress has no room in its heart for Dalits and OBCs'

"Go to the homes of the SC/ST/OBC and minority members of the society and communicate the policies of the government to them. Convey to them that the BJP is working towards the betterment of one and all," he said.

In his address to BJP workers of belonging to SC/ST/OBCs category, Narendra Modi urged them to work tirelessly for the welfare of deprived and women.

He said that the BJP was working to empower the backward classes. "Stand up and MUDRA schemes are helping to make SC/ST/OBC and women financially empowered," he said.

"Today through various schemes, the government is working towards providing social justice and equality," Narendra Modi said during his interaction with the BJP workers from SC/ST/OBC category.

Narendra Modi accused the Congress of doing vote bank politics and blocking the bill in the Rajya Sabha that gives constitutional status to National Commission for Backward Classes. "Congress wants the votes of OBC community but they did not allow OBC Commission to get Constitutional status," he said.

We are here to create history, says Siddaramaiah

Lashing out at the BJP for its "lack of seriousness", Rahul said, "We prepared a manifesto and it is truly on the essence of Karnataka. In contrast, the BJP made another manifesto in three-four days, copying things from our manifesto. There is a lack of seriousness in the BJP."

Beginning the press conference, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, "I've been now travelling around Karnataka for a couple of months. The Congress has got a very good campaign. Our party is united. Our Opposition has restricted itself from making personal attacks against our chief minister and leaders. We are confident of winning the election."

There is a lack of seriousness in BJP, says Rahul Gandhi

He also addressed the Rafale deal. "Modi said the Rafale deal was a cracked by the NDA government was better than the deal cracked by UPA. I agree with Modi, it was a good deal for him and his friends. He didn't follow the procedure. He paid Rs 1,500 crore for a Rs 700 crore plane. You can see the effects of it with the kind of money they are throwing around in the state.," he siad.

Responding to Narendra Modi's "naamdaar" jibe, "Modi has nothing to say anything about the future of Karnataka. I am not going to engage in his distractions."

'Modi has nothing to say about Karnataka's future'

"And by the way, atrocities against women is a national issue and we will continue to raise it," he added.

He accused the prime minister of not talking on farmers' issues or the tickets given to Reddy brothers. "Modi has not given one rupee for the farmers of Karnataka. He comes and says, he fights for corruption. On his stage, there is Yeddyurappa and on the other side there are the Reddy brothers, who've stolen as much money as the Congress put in MGNREGA. In none of his speeches does he talk about the eight tickets given to the Reddy brothers."

Rahul Gandhi responded to the row after he held candlelight march against Kathua and Unnao rape case. "Kathua and Unnao rape cases are fundamental issues. The treatment of our women is a fundamental issue. Narendra Modi likes to talk about bullet trains, but not about these issues," he said.

He justified why he raised his concern in the first place. "I am very passionate about the China issue. The central challenge is our ability to give jobs to our youngsters. China is a competitor. I am very passionate when I see fundamental errors being made. There is a disaster in the foreign policies," he said.

"Our foreign policy has been decimated. And it because he views foreign policy as individual exercise. There are huge forces and he needs to take into account the people sitting in the foreign ministry," he added.

Rahul Gandhi spoke on his concerns over Narendra Modi's "heart-to-heart" summit with Chinese president Xi Jinping. "The prime minister went to China and didn't mention a word about Doka La. Are you telling me no agenda? What does he mean by going to China and Nepal with no agenda?"

He claimed that the Union ministers were visiting state to campaign for the BJP because of "panic". "Congress has clearly demonstrated to them what it is capable of in Karnataka. This is a fight between the spirit of Karnataka and the RSS. We are depending on our extremely solid leadership in Karnataka. The RSS is trying to take over your state," he said.

Responding to personal attacks made by Narendra Modi against him, Rahul Gandhi narrated a story of Buddha and said that the prime minister had anger inside of him. "He is angry with everybody, not only me. I am a lightning rod for anger, I attract anger. But that is his problem. It is not my problem," he said.

Responding to BJP's tag of 'Election Hindu' for him, Rahul Gandhi said, "Our people have different religious beliefs. As a leader of the political party, it is my job to visit the religious institution that invites me. I will however not go to a single institution that divides the society."

He asserted that that Congress will win the Karnataka Assembly polls "hands down". He said, "Whatever comes out of the prime minister's mouth is what is actually in his heart. He is absolutely convinced now, and he is right, that he is going to lose Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and he is going to lose 2019,"

Alleging that RSS-BJP want to snatch the spirit of Karnataka and impose upon regressive ideology, Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress "will never allow" them to do so.

He lashed out at Modi for bringing up Sonia's Italian heritage. "My mother sacrificed for this country; she has suffered for it. It shows the quality of the prime minister when he makes these types of comments," Rahul said.

Responding to Narendra Modi's "personal attacks" against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi said, "My mother is Italian, she also lived larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many Indians I see."

'My mother is more Indian than many Indians I see'

"Congress, their president, along with the failed and corrupt Siddaramaiah government have no answers on issues of Karnataka," he said.

At a press conference by the BJP, Union minister Piyush Goyal lashed out at Rahul Gandhi for not addressing issues particular to Karnataka. "It almost looked like a tutored press conference Many weren't allowed to ask questions. If an attempt was made to ask, questions were paraphrased," he said.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Twitter that his government's "singular focus" was to bring glory back to Karnataka. "We have come a long way from being the most corrupt state in 2010 to become the investment capital of India by 2018," he said.

My govt's singular focus was to bring glory back to Karnataka, says Siddaramaiah

Ambareesh hasn't formally endorsed JD(S) yet. Kumaraswamy was quoted as saying: "He is disappointed with the way he was treated by the Congress... Ambareesh treats me as his younger brother. I am hopeful he will take a decision in a couple of days." Ambareesh has, however, stated that he is still loyal to the Congress.

Though Ambareesh, a Vokkaliga, has opted out of the poll fray, his meeting with JD(S) state president and Gowda's son HD Kumaraswamy has alerted political workers since JD(S) is already gaining support among a major chunk of the Vokkaliga population in the district.

This pre-poll season, Ambareesh, known as 'rebel star' in the Kannada movie industry, indulged in a cat-and-mouse game with Congress leaders by refusing to accept the Assembly ticket. While Ambareesh seems upset, there is discontent among his fans and followers as well. However, regardless of him refusing to contest, the party was counting on him for support.

'Rebel' MH Ambareesh opts out of Mandya contest as Congress seeks his support to reclaim lost ground

"Taking inspiration from the great saints of Karnataka like Madara Chennaiah, Basaveswara and Urilinga Peddiare, we trying to fulfill Baba Saheb's dream of making a powerful and prosperous nation," Modi said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the SC/ST/OBC and Slum Morcha workers of karnataka BJP through the NaMo app. He said that the BJP firmly believed in BR Ambedkar's ideology and was committed to fulfilling his dream.

"Our government increased the creamy layer income cap from Rs. 6 lakh to Rs. 8 lakh per year and also constituted a commission to sub-categorise OBC communities to benefit them with reservation within constitutional sanctity," Modi said.

In an interview given to Firstpost, Amit Shah discussed the prospects of his party in the Karnataka elections at length. "We are not taking any chances. It is very important for us. The Karnataka polls are the BJP's door to the south. This shows how much importance we are giving these elections," he said.

According to NDTV , Union Ministers Ananth Kumar, Anurag Thakur, DV Sadananda Gowda, Krishnapal Gujjar, Nirmala Sitharaman, Piyush Goyal, Prakash Javadekar, and Santosh Gangwar are in Karnataka. They are among the senior leaders scheduled to address around 50 mega road shows across the state. The BJP's three-time Chief Ministers Raman Singh and Shivraj Singh Chouhan are also part of the group that will address the roadshows.

BJP deploys 50 of its netas to on last day of campaigning

Buoyant after addressing a long press conference, Congress president Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter and used the opportunity to hit out on Narendra Modi. Latching on to the PM's reluctance to face press conferences and unplanned media interactions, Rahul said that he would continue to more and more pressers in the future too.

On last day of Karnataka campaign Rahul Gandhi taunts Modi over his aversion to press interactions

Speaking at a press conference, Amit Shah said that the Siddaramaiah government is one of the most useless governments in Independent India. He said that he was able to experience the anger in people during his comprehensive campaign programme. He also quoted law and order figures to say that the government has failed utterly on all fronts.

"The people of Karnataka are seething with anger, which is palpable as one tours the state. When we campaigned in Badami, there would hardly be a household which did not participate in our roadshow. This shows that people are upset with the government. I think he will lose Badami with an even greater margin than in Chamundeshwari," Amit Shah.

"Siddaramaiah government did nothing for the farmers and they are not even ready to give answers for their failure," Shah said.

Speaking to the press, Amit Shah said that the Siddaramaiah government was unperturbed by the increasing number of farmer suicides and their distress for 5 years. He said that while the farmer suicides under Congress shot up by 173 percent in Karnataka, in neighbouring BJP-ruled Maharashtra the figures have come down by 73 percent.

Amit Shah said that the development in Karnataka, under the Siddaramaiah government, is stuck like the traffic in Bengaluru. He said that the people's anger is perceptible across the state, and when a government fails like this, only then a chief minister has to leave his home seat and look for safe seats to fight elections.

Shah said that the BJP does not believe in crafting scehemes for a specific religion and has taken inputs from voters across the state to formulate its manifesto. He said that the party will "waive off bank loans up to Rs.1 lakh in 10 days of government formation and will implement schemes to regulate vegetable prices."

Addressing a press conference, Amit Shah revealed his much talked about prediction for elections. For Karnataka he says, he expects no less than 130 seats for his party and ruled out the possibility of any sort of alliance with JD(S).

Amit Shah predicts over 130 seats for BJP, says no need for any alliance arrangement

"We can lose elections but can't sit with Social Democratic Party of India and Popular Front of India," Shah added.

Lashing out at the Congress party, Amit Shah said that the Congress party was conniving with divisive forces such as SDPI and PFI to win elections. On a question about Rahul Gandhi labelling Karnataka election a fight of ideologies, Shah said, "The only difference between BJP and Congress is that they have no qualms allying with traitors like SDPI and PFI."

Only difference between BJP and Congress is that they have no qualms allying with traitors like SDPI and PFI

"Recovery of fake voter ID cards in Rajarajeshwari Nagar shows how desperately Congress wants to win the election. I want to alert those whose fake IDs have been made, that don't fall in Congress' trap and disturb polls. Our workers will be present at each and every booth to see that the polling process is not corrupted," Shah said.

The Bengaluru Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar has passed prohibitory orders under Section 144, which will last in the city until 6 pm on Sunday evening. Under the provisions of this section, more than four people cannot assemble in a public place, reported Bangalore Mirror . The report added that the police has also undertaken "adequate measures" to maintain law and order in the city, including sensitive in sensitive areas.

Polling day may be marred by inclement weather, with the IMD issued a warning for thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds at isolated places over Karnataka on Saturday.

There is a sense that JD(S) and BJP could forge an alliance and form the government with HD Kumaraswamy at the helm, because more than Congress, the BJP is in a better position to offer Kumaraswamy the chief minister's post. Sacrificing BS Yeddyurappa would not be a tough call for the BJP, if it comes at a cost of snatching another state away from the Congress.

JD(S) hopes Vokkaliga mobilisation will help party become kingmaker, if not king

Highly-placed sources in the Commission said prima facie it seems that most of the voter ID cards recovered were "genuine". But the reason as to why they were found in the flat is still being ascertained. - PTI

The Election Commission on Thursday night deferred a decision on the recovery of nearly 10,000 voter ID cards from a flat in Rajarajeshwari Nagar Assembly seat of poll-bound Karnataka even as it sought fresh information from the state election machinery.

Though Modi remained out of the electoral scene for a long time after addressing a public meeting in February, he launched a blitzkrieg on 1 May, addressing over a score of rallies in his bid to wrest the key southern state, which BJP chief Amit Shah dubbed as the party's "gateway to south", from the Congress. - PTI

Like all state polls since he assumed the reins of power in New Delhi, Modi helmed the BJP's adrenaline-charged campaign despite the party having declared BS Yeddyurappa its chief ministerial candidate, while Rahul Gandhi helmed that of the Congress.

From corruption to communalism, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's Rs 70 lakh Hublot watch to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, the electoral potboiler had it all.

The vitriol-filled campaign for the Karnataka Assembly elections ended on Thursday with top leaders of the BJP and Congress, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, making a last-gasp effort to sway the voters in a likely cliffhanger.

Yeshwanthpur corporator GK Venkatesh, who was arrested along with Congress workers K Sunandamma Bore Gowda and Meenamma a day after the flying squad of the Election Commission (EC) seized around 10,000 voter identity cards, laptops and several copies of Form 6 with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) seals on it from an apartment in Jalahalli, claimed he and his colleagues are being framed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Bengaluru Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar has passed prohibitory orders under Section 144, which will last in the city until 6 pm on Sunday evening. Under the provisions of this section, more than four people cannot assemble in a public place, reported Bangalore Mirror . The report added that the police has also undertaken "adequate measures" to maintain law and order in the city, including sensitive in sensitive areas.

We stand for all round development & fast-paced development! Large and Medium Industrial Units approved During 2008-2013 : 2345 units During 2013-2018 : 1735 units #Vote4ChangeVote4BJP

Polling day may be marred by inclement weather, with the IMD issued a warning for thunderstorm accompanied with gusty winds at isolated places over Karnataka on Saturday.

There is a sense that JD(S) and BJP could forge an alliance and form the government with HD Kumaraswamy at the helm, because more than Congress, the BJP is in a better position to offer Kumaraswamy the chief minister's post. Sacrificing BS Yeddyurappa would not be a tough call for the BJP, if it comes at a cost of snatching another state away from the Congress.

JD(S) hopes Vokkaliga mobilisation will help party become kingmaker, if not king

We are expecting light to moderate rainfall in Karnataka tomorrow. At isolated places, we are expecting heavy rainfall, accompanied with wind. Expecting rainfall in evening&night, it may be there in the day but with less frequency: CS Patil, India Meteorological Dept #Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/WpVaY2TaBu

Karnataka Assembly Election 2018 LIVE updates: The fiery campaign in Karnataka Assembly elections finally drew to a close on Thursday 5.00 pm. Addressing a press conference moments before the campaigning ended, Amit Shah revealed his much talked about prediction for elections. For Karnataka he says, he expects no less than 130 seats for his party and ruled out the possibility of any sort of alliance with JD(S).

Shah said that he got a chance to experience the people's anger against the Siddaramaiah government. He predicted that the Congress chief ministerial face will lose elections from both Chamundeshwari and Badami.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that his government's focussed on bringing glory back to Karnataka. "We have come a long way from being the most corrupt state in 2010 to become the investment capital of India by 2018," he said.

Lashing out at Rahul Gandhi over his remarks against JD(S), the party's chief ministerial face HD Kumaraswamy said that he does not need a certificate on JD(S) secular identity from the Congress president.

BJP took a dig at the Congress for conducting a press conference that "almost look tutored. Union minister Piyush Goyal said, "It was a desperate attempt to convey that Congress' leaders are united and there are no divisions in the party," Goyal said.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, at a press conference in Bengaluru, responded to Narendra Modi's "naamdaar" jibe. "Modi has nothing to say anything about the future of Karnataka. I am not going to engage in his distractions."

Addressing the SC/ST and slum morcha BJP workers on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of blocking the bill in the Rajya Sabha that gives constitutional status to National Commission for Backward Classes. "Congress wants the votes of OBC community but they did not allow OBC Commission to get Constitutional status," he said.

BJP chief Amit Shah will hold a road show in Badami constituency at 11.30 am and later address a press conference at 4 pm.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is expected to address a press conference with Siddaramiah, Karnataka unit chief G Parmeshwara, senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge, and AICC general secretary KC Venugopal.

Meanwhile, 23 political leaders are expected to hold road shows on Thursday, which is the last day of campaigning in Karnataka.

Both Modi and Rahul wrapped up their individual campaigns in Karnataka on Wednesday. While Rahul held roadshows in Bengaluru to give a final push to his party's prospects in the 12 May Assembly polls, Modi mocked the Congress president for publicly declaring his prime ministerial ambition.

With just three days left before Karnataka goes to poll, the BJP and Congress, the two main contenders for power, also went after each other on Wednesday claiming that the flat  from where the cards were recovered  belonged to a woman associated with the rival party.

The Election Commission on Wednesday sent a deputy election commissioner as a 'special observer' to Karnataka after recovery of nearly 10,000 "fake" voter ID cards in Rajrajeshwari Nagar assembly seat of the state.

Deputy EC Chandrabhushan Kumar was sent this afternoon to the state and will submit a report to the poll panel at the earliest, the Commission officials said, amid a raging war of words between Congress and BJP over the incident.

Citing details provided by the state poll machinery, sources said prima facie, some of the the cards recovered seem original.

"Now we have to ensure that genuine voters can cast their votes using voter slips distributed to electors. Also, the machinery has to ensure that no voter is intimidated," an official said.

The recovery of the 'fake' voter cards has prompted the BJP to demand countermanding of the election claiming Congress was behind the racket, a charge dismissed by the latter as a "lie".

Karnataka chief electoral officer Sanjiv Kumar told a press conference in Karnataka that till now, two persons have been arrested. More arrests are likely and the case is already under investigation.The Kerala Directorate of Higher Secondary Education (DHSE) declared the Plus Two (+2) result 2018 or Class 12 board exam result 2018 today (10 May), according to reports. The DHSE result 2018 is now available on the official website keralaresults.nic.in.

The Kerala Directorate of Higher Secondary Education (DHSE) declared the Plus Two (+2) result 2018 or Class 12 board exam result 2018 today (10 May), according to reports. The DHSE result 2018 is now available on the official website keralaresults.nic.in.

According to News18, 83.7 percent students cleared the exam. A report in The Indian Express said that 14,375 students got A+ in all subjects while "3,09,065 have qualified for higher studies".

The Kerala Secondary Education Board (KSEB), also known as DHSE Kerala, conducted the Kerala DHSE Class 12 examination from 7 to 27 March, reported News18. The results will also be available on examresults.net and kerala.indiaresults.com.

Here is how students can check their results:

- Log on to official website keralaresults.nic.in.

- Click on the board button Kerala DHSE results 2018.

- Fill in your registration number to get your result.

The results will include information like hall ticket number, the name of the student, grade points, and the result.

Students can also get their results via SMS by sending the message 'KERALA12<REGISTRATION NUMBER>' to 56263.Justice J Chelameswar, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India asking him to convene a meeting of the collegium to urgently forward to the Centre the name of Uttarakhand Chief Justice KM Joseph as the judge of the apex court.

New Delhi: Justice J Chelameswar, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India asking him to convene a meeting of the collegium to urgently forward to the Centre the name of Uttarakhand Chief Justice KM Joseph as the judge of the apex court.

The government had on 26 April returned the Collegium's recommendation to elevate Justice Joseph seeking its reconsideration, saying the proposal was not in accordance with the top court's parameters and there was an adequate representation of Kerala in the higher judiciary from where he hails. It had also questioned his seniority for elevation as a judge of the apex court.

An apex court official said, in his letter sent to the CJI late last evening, Justice Chelameswar has conveyed that he was reiterating his decision for the elevation of Justice Joseph as the judge of the top court since there was no change in the circumstance that had led the collegium to recommend his name to the government on 10 January. It is also learnt that Justice Chelameswar, who retires on 22 June, has responded to all the points raised in the communication to the CJI by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad expressing reservations on the elevation of Justice Joseph.

The meeting of the Collegium was expected to take place yesterday but Justice Chelameswar was on leave. Besides the CJI and Justice Chelameswar, other members of the collegium are Justices Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph.

Justice Kurian Joseph, during his visit to Kerala last week, had also reportedly made it clear that he was in favour of reiterating the recommendation of the collegium on the issue of Uttarakhand Chief Justice Joseph.

Though no official word was there on when the collegium would meet, the official said it is for the CJI to fix the date as there is no other agenda but to discuss the issue of returning the recommendation relating to Justice Joseph to the Centre.

Earlier also, notwithstanding the letters written by the collegium members to the CJI which had come into the public domain, the Centre had disregarded the recommendation about Justice Joseph.Lalu has been undergoing treatment at RIMS after he was brought here from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, on May 1.

Ranchi: Convicted and jailed RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav will remain under constant watch of camera during the marriage of his eldest son Tej Pratap, said sources in the Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi, where he is currently lodged.

Lalu, who has been granted by the jail authorities three days' parole with certain conditions to attend the marriage, will not meet and speak to party leaders, media persons and not engage in any political activity.

All his movements would be captured by video cameras, a jail official said.

He left for Ranchi airport from the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS), where he is admitted for treatment, and will leave for Patna by a private carrier at 5.50 p.m, the sources said.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief is accompanied by a team of doctors and policemen.

Lalu has been undergoing treatment at RIMS after he was brought to Ranchi from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, on 1 May.

His provisional bail plea hearing is due to be taken up at the Jharkhand High Court on May 11.

Lalu Prasad was admitted to RIMS on March 17 following complaints of uneasiness when he was lodged in the Birsa Munda Central Jail, where he is serving a jail term since December 23, 2017 in connection with the fodder scam.

He has been convicted in four fodder scam cases since 2013  the latest being the Dumka treasury case in which a special CBI court sentenced him to 14 years in jail.A vegetable vendor allegedly committed suicide after receiving an electricity bill of Rs 8.64 lakh for the month of March which the power distribution firm later said was an erroneous one caused due to a missing decimal point.

Aurangabad: A vegetable vendor allegedly committed suicide after receiving an electricity bill of Rs 8.64 lakh for the month of March which the power distribution firm later said was an erroneous one caused due to a missing decimal point.

Jagannath Nehaji Shelke (36) allegedly hung himself in the early hours of Thursday as he was distressed over the bill and several visits to the local office of the state-run Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) were in vain, his kin said on Thursday.

Shelke was served a bill, in the last week of April, of Rs 8.64 lakh after 61,178 units of electricity was charged to him, with MSEDCL officials now claiming that the correct figure for the units consumed at Shelke's household should have been just 6,117.8

This amount would have come to around Rs 2,803, they said.

The incident took place in Bharatnagar locality within Pundliknagar police station limits, said officials.

A suicide note left behind by the deceased stated that he was frustrated with the exorbitant bill since his household consumed electricity worth around Rs 1,000 on an average every month.

An account assistant at the power utility, Sushil Kashinath Koli, was suspended on Wednesday for alleged dereliction of duty, said officials.

The MSEDCL, which had earlier said that it had nothing to with Shelke's death, later took action against its employee after the deceased's suicide note was widely circulated on social media.

His family members on Thursday said that they would not cremate Shelke's body, which is in the morgue of a local hospital, till the officials responsible for the tragedy were arrested under charges of abetment of suicide.The Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE) declared results of Meghalaya HSSLC or Class 12 board exam for Science, Commerce and Vocational courses today at 10 am

The Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE) declared results of its Class 12 board exam for Science, Commerce and Vocational courses today at 10 am. Eligible candidates can check their grades in the Meghalaya HSSLC result 2018 by logging on to the official website, megresults.nic.in and mbose.in.

As per a report on examresults.net, the Meghalaya Class 12 board exams were held between 6 March and 29 March this year. In all, 29,840 candidates appeared for the exams, the report added. All students have been asked to keep their relevant information like hall tickets and roll numbers handy in order to avoid delays.

Steps to check results:

- Log on to megresults.nic.in.

- Click on the relevant link based on your course of the examination. (Higher Secondary School Leaving Certificate Examination (Science) for Science results, Higher Secondary School Leaving Certificate Examination (Commerce) 2018 for Commerce and Higher Secondary School Leaving Certificate Examination (Vocational) 2018 for Vocational courses.)

- Enter your roll number as given in the hall ticket.

- Click submit.

- Download the result for future reference.

A separate report on The Shillong Times quoted Controller of Examinations, TR Laloo, as saying all heads of institutions and officers-in-charge of MBoSE HSSLC examination centres need to collect result booklets from MBoSE Office in Tura and Shillong and Jowai MBoSE Cell after the declaration of the result. The full result booklet can also be downloaded from the MBoSE official website www.mbose.in, he added.Recalling the Non Initiation of Combat Operations (NICO), announced by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000, a senior government functionary said there was a major terror attack at the Srinagar airport during the crucial four-month period

New Delhi: The Centre seems not too keen about initiating a unilateral ceasefire in Jammu and Kashmir as of now as the situation is not conducive and such an exercise in 2000 did not give the desired results, officials said here.

They said there was no guarantee that the Pakistan-based terrorists groups would reciprocate if the Centre agrees to the state government's request for a ceasefire.

Recalling the Non Initiation of Combat Operations (NICO), announced by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000, a senior government functionary said there was a major terror attack at the Srinagar airport during the crucial four-month period 18 years ago, and the announcement of such a decision now may be termed as a "weakness" in the current situation in the state.

"Almost all terrorists groups operating in the valley in 2000 had rejected the government offer. Many still recall that during the four-month period, terrorists were roaming freely in Kashmir. Is there any guarantee that such a situation would not repeat now," the official said requesting anonymity.

Six terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba had attacked the Srinagar airport when the ceasefire was in force in 2000 in which two security personnel and two civilians were killed. All six terrorists were also killed in the retaliatory firing.

Another official described the prevailing situation in Kashmir valley as "turbulent" where nearly 80 incidents of violence occurred in last four months and civilians were often seen coming out to encounter sites to stage protests with the intention of giving the militants an opportunity to escape.

Under such circumstances, announcement of a ceasefire may be seen as "weakness" on the part of the government, the official said and cited a series of brazen militant attacks including the killing of eight Amarnath pilgrims last year.

The official, however, asserted that it would be a political decision and would be taken at the highest level of the government.

After an all-party meeting, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had said that the central government should consider a unilateral ceasefire in the state starting from Ramzan in mid-May till the completion of the Amarnath yatra in August.

"Everyone (all parties) agreed that we should appeal to the Centre to consider a ceasefire like the unilateral ceasefire in (former PM Atal Bihari) Vajpayee's time in Ramzan (later this month) till Amarnath yatra and Eid," she said.

Mehbooba said a ceasefire would provide relief to the people and help create a better atmosphere in the state.

"The Centre should think on these lines so that the common people get some relief because they are facing many difficulties due of encounters, crackdowns and search operations," she said.

The Valley has witnessed the killing of over 55 militants including at least 27 locals this year.China has not only stepped up aid and investments in Nepal but is also dangling baits such as promising the landlocked country cross-Himalayan connectivity including a trans-national rail line connecting Kyirong.

Four years ago, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertook his Nepal visit barely three months after his government took charge, it had all the ingredients of a successful trip -- a much needed outreach to a neighbour as no other Indian prime minister had visited in 17 years prior to 2014. The atmospherics was right, a slew of promises on the infrastructure front was made apart from the announcement of a $1 billion line of credit (LoC).

The historic trip was part of the Modi governments Neighbourhood First policy and raised hopes that Indias ties with Nepal would scale new heights. This, especially in the light of the traditionally deep and multifaceted relationship India has enjoyed with its northern neighbour, one with whom it also shares a long and porous border.

But a floundering foreign policy vis-a-vis Nepal despite the tom-tomming of a Neighbourhood First approach by the Modi government has meant that its slipping from Indias grip and into the welcoming arms of China.

China has not only stepped up aid and investments in Nepal but is also dangling baits such as promising the landlocked country cross-Himalayan connectivity including a trans-national rail line connecting Kyirong, the Chinese town closest to Nepal to Kathmandu and Lumbini as part of its ambitious Belt and Road initiative (BRI). While India has refused to be a part of BRI, Nepal has joined the initiative.

A lot will be at stake for India and Modi as he undertakes his third visit to Nepalits a bilateral one like the one in 2014and seeks to repair frayed ties.

That Kathmandu has already hosted Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the prime minister of Chinas good friend Pakistan as its first guest after Khadga Prasad Oli took charge should also have New Delhi worried. Until Abbasis March visit, no Pakistani prime minister was hosted by the Nepalese in the last 24 years. The Kathmandu-Islamabad handshake is also indicative of waning Indian and growing Chinese influence in Nepal.

Having alarmingly ceded strategic space to China in recent years in a country India once considered its pocket borough, the task before the Modi government is now an onerous one. Never mind the religious route Modi is taking on his third triphe will be going to the pilgrim towns of Muktinath and Janakpurto reach out to both the Nepalese and his constituency back home, the visit will need to go beyond mere optics.

Modi will be seeking to bridge the trust deficit post the undeclared blockade India imposed on Nepal in 2016, severely crippling supply of fuel and other necessities to the Himalayan nation.

The blockade was imposed during the previous tenure of Oli as the Nepal prime minister. Now that hes in the prime ministers seat again, New Delhi has been trying to recover lost ground with Oli who made no secret of his displeasure with India during his election campaign earlier this year.

Indeed, Oli had made it abundantly clear during his earlier tenure as prime minister that hes not averse to playing the China card against India. Stung by the blockade and in a bid to reduce landlocked Nepals dependence on India for trade and transit, the pro-China Oli was quick to visit Beijing in 2016 and ink no less than 10 pacts, among them being ones for connectivity through rail and inland waterways. Oli also signed agreements for the Chinese to build an international airport in Pokhara and get access to Chinese port facilities.

So it is perhaps with a measure of dismay that New Delhi views the return of Oli as his countrys prime minister. While India did dispatch External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Kathmandu to congratulate Oli even before he was formally sworn in as prime minister once again earlier this year, it needs to do a lot to recover lost ground.

New Delhi also needs to begin delivering on promises made in the areas of infrastructure and connectivity to truly walk the talk. While in keeping with tradition the newly elected Nepalese prime minister did make New Delhi his first port of call early last month, he was quick to remind the Indian leadership that it needs to begin delivering "sincerely" on infrastructure projects like the Pancheshwar dam. The mega hydropower project has failed to takeoff despite being in the pipeline for more than two decades.

Neither has India been able to make good the promise made by Modis of HIT (highways, information ways and transmission) during his 2014 visit. India got a gentle reminder about this unfulfilled assurance from Oli who said "we need to realize this vision".

Its overtures to the Oli government notwithstanding, its tango with China continues apace. Nepalese foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali was in China less than a week after Olis India visit, thanking Beijing for its assistance in projects like building airports in Pokhara and Lumbini.

His call to the Chinese for "a new paradigm for cooperation and commerce across the Himalayas" should make New Delhi realise the need to pull up its socks if it wants to counter the increasing footprints in a country it once considered its backyard.No final decision has been taken on request for parole sought by RJD president Lalu Prasad to attend his son's marriage later this week.

Ranchi/Patna: No final decision has been taken on request for parole sought by RJD president Lalu Prasad to attend his son's marriage later this week, Inspector General of Prison, Jharkhand, Harsh Mangla said.

He said in Ranchi that "the issue is under consideration".

"No final decision has been taken on request for parole sought by Lalu," the inspector general said. Mangla, however, said the decision would be taken on it by Thursday.

The septuagenarian, who has been convicted in three fodder scam cases by a special CBI court in Ranchi since December 2017, is currently undergoing treatment at the RIMS hospital in the Jharkhand capital.

A request for five days parole (from 10-14 May) was made on Monday on behalf of Lalu to attend the marriage of his elder son and former Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadav in Patna. Tej will tie the nuptial knot with Aishwarya Rai, daughter of RJD MLA Chandrika Rai, in Patna on Saturday.

Bhola Yadav, RJD national general secretary and MLA, who waited anxiously throughout the day for the order on parole application in Ranchi, said that "there is no information in this regard". Bhola, a close aide of RJD chief, further said "there is no information for future too".

"We moved an application before the inspector general, for parole from 10-14 May. We hope that our leader will not be deprived of the opportunity to attend the marriage ceremony of his son which is an occasion that comes once in a lifetime," he had said yesterday.

There was hectic speculation in the media circle, both in Ranchi as well in Patna, of Lalu flying to Bihar capital in the evening.

The inspector general said a detailed report was required from jail authority, RIMS and other government agencies before taking a final decision on such a matter.

The RJD chief was recently shifted from the AIIMS, Delhi to Ranchi after doctors declared him fit.

Lalu could not attend the engagement ceremony of his son in Patna on 18 April following which Tej had tweeted, "Miss you PAPA".

Lalu's family have so far extended invitation to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, among others.RJD chief Lalu Prasad arrived in Patna on Thursday evening to attend his elder son's marriage on 12 May.

Patna: The wait was finally over for his family, relatives, and party leaders and supporters, as jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad arrived in Patna on Thursday evening to attend his elder son's marriage on 12 May.

Lalu Prasad was received by his elder daughter and Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti, his sons  former Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Tejashwi Yadav  and some senior party leaders.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief was welcomed at the Patna airport like a hero, with hundreds of party leaders, workers and upbeat supporters holding his colourful pictures in hand and raising slogans in his praise.

He is availing a three-day parole granted by Ranchi's Birsa Munda Central Jail authorities, to allow him to attend the marriage. He is currently serving his jail term following conviction in the fodder scam.

With a festive mood already prevailing at Patna's sprawling 10, Circular Road bungalow  allotted to former Bihar Chief Minister and Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi, his presence is set to add more colour to the celebrations.

Former Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav got engaged last month to former Minister and senior RJD leader Chandrika Rai's daughter Aishwarya Rai. The wedding will take place in Patna on 12 May.

Earlier in the day, accompanied by a team of doctors and policemen, Lalu Prasad left the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS), where he is admitted for treatment, for Patna by a private carrier.

He will, however, remain under constant watch of the camera during the marriage, in line with the conditions of the parole. He will also not meet and speak to party leaders, media persons and not engage in any political activity.

"All his movements would be captured by video cameras," a jail official said.

Lalu has been undergoing treatment at RIMS after he was brought back to Ranchi from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, on 1 May.

He was admitted to RIMS on 17 March as he complained of uneasiness in the jail.

The RJD chief has been convicted in four fodder scam cases since 2013, the latest being the Dumka treasury case in which a special CBI court sentenced him to 14 years in jail.

His provisional bail plea hearing is due to be taken up at the Jharkhand High Court on 11 May.The judge said he was issuing notices to heads of all Pakistani airlines as the matter had been pending for the last four months.

Islamabad: Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and heads of all Pakistani airlines were summoned by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar on Thursday in a case pertaining to fake degrees of pilots.

The Chief Justice said that Abbasi "will have to appear in the court in the capacity of the Chief Executive Officer of Pakistan's Airblue Limited airline and not as the Premier", Dawn online reported.

The judge said he was issuing notices to heads of all Pakistani airlines as the matter had been pending for the last four months.

He directed the heads of Pakistan International Airlines, Serene Air and Shaheen Air International apart from Airblue Limited to appear before the bench.

During the hearing, Civil Aviation Authority Director Nasir Ali Shah told the court that the authority received on Thursday the reports on pilots' degrees from Shaheen International Airline and Serene Air in Karachi, while the report of Airblue was received on Wednesday.

Talking about Pakistan International Airlines, Shah said that degrees of 1,972 people were verified while 24 pilots were found to be holding fake degrees.

During the hearing, the Chief Justice took a suo motu notice of lawyers holding fake degrees and sought a report on the issue form all bar councils within a month.The Punjab Police on Thursday said it has arrested two men, armed by foreign-based Khalistani handlers, to carry out targeted killings in the state.

Chandigarh: The Punjab Police on Thursday said it has arrested two men, armed by foreign-based Khalistani handlers, to carry out targeted killings in the state.

It was part of a nefarious design to radicalise and use Punjabi youths to create a communal divide in the state to further their separatist Khalistani agenda, police added.

Accused Sandeep Singh and Amar Singh were arrested from the Faridkot-Kotkapura highway after their motorcycle collided with a Mahindra Scorpio vehicle.

"The accused have links with terror modules busted in connection with the targeted killings reported in the state," a police spokesman said here on Thursday.

A search on their persons led to the seizure of two .30-bore pistols and 40 rounds, provided by their handlers, he added.

He said that the two were in touch with Australia-based Gurjant Singh, who has been charged by the National Investigation Agency in the October 2017 murder of Ravinder Gosain of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Ludhiana.

"On questioning, the two disclosed that they had been in touch with their handlers through social media and encrypted VoIP calls, and were assigned the task of carrying out killings of targets to be assigned by their handlers.

The terror module was busted by Punjab Police on 29 May last year.

"The link of these two youths with other possible module members and Khalistani operatives is being investigated," the spokesman said.What we want is that the role of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should be enquired into, whistleblower Rahul Sharma tells Firstpost.

The Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch on Thursday arrested Vinay Bansal, a close relative of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in connection to an alleged case of corruption in the Public Works Department of the Union Territory. The arrest was made post enquiry after whistleblower Rahul Sharma filed an FIR nearly one-and-half years ago. The case almost forgotten as one of the accused Surender Bansal, who was Kejriwals brother-in-law died of heart attack soon after allegations surfaced against him. Vinay is Surender's son who was a dormant partner in the company Renu Construction Company Limited involved in the alleged scam.

Soon after Vinays arrest AAP hurriedly called a press conference claiming that the case was politically motivated and the agency was used to malign the name of Kejriwal.

A Delhi government release said, "Vinays father Late Surendra Bansal ran a company which worked with PWD since several years. The company of Mr. Bansal was awarded a work of constructing a drain by the PWD. The drain was constructed by the company. Third party certification of the construction was done by IIT Roorkee. PWD also handed over completion certificate to the company. Later in 2017, an FIR was registered under political duress against the company charging it with not having executed the work of constructing a drain properly."

The government alleged that having failed to find anything against Kejriwal, his MLAs and his ministers, the Narendra Modi government stooped low to target the chief minister's relatives. Modi Government has got Arvind Kejriwal investigated by all agencies.

The release further said that after the FIR, the ACB got the work checked through Sriram Labs, which gave a clean chit to the work. PWDs stand was also consistent that the work was completed. This all happened in 2017. In the same year, Surendra Bansal passed away and since then there was litte movement in the case.

Firstpost interviewed the whistleblower in the case Rahul Sharma who rebutted the claims made by AAP. Edited excerpts:

The arrest of Vinay Bansal shows that the enquiry of the case you filed one-and-half years ago has finally taken off.

I am glad that the Anti-Corruption Branch is making the effort to tighten the noose around the corrupt. It proves that the information we collected about the corruption travelling across various parts of the city and by filing RTI applications along with the charges we levelled were prima facie correct. But at the same time we are concerned about the fact that the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who is also one of the accused of the case has not been enquired into yet. His name featured in the FIR we filed. We expect pro-activeness on the part of the government in enquiring the case. Had not we been persistent in our effort after filing the case would not have reached even this stage.

It has been alleged that you filed the case under political duress.

Whenever AAP finds itself exposed, it conjures a conspiracy theory from nowhere. How can there be any political pressure on me when I myself am not a political person nor the Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation, my NGO or any of its members are political persons. How can party put pressure on a group of persons who do not have any political affiliations. It is obvious that since the party has nothing to say in its defence is now resorting to blame game. Can they claim that no fake bill was passed in the concerned scam? Can they claim that the sales tax department report which confirms that the bills pertaining to purchase of materials were fabricated was false?

As per the government version a third party enquiry into the work has given clean chit to PWD department.

My case was about nothing but fake bills. Where was the work done? From where were the materials procured for the work? Can the government answer to this questions? If the enquiries mentioned by the government was enough there would have been no need for another enquiry. But recently the court had ordered Central Public Works Department to submit an enquiry report on the case. The CPWD has already filed its report. The report is with Anti-Corruption Branch.

Which evidence that you have submitted along with your FIR do you think may nail the chief minister in the case?

What we are demanding is that the role of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should been enquired into. Until and unless the officers of the department are not interrogated the truth behind the scam will never be revealed. The said work was allotted 46 percent below the estimated rate. How and where a company can get building materials 46 percent below the market rate?

Even the L-G recently had forwarded a complaint to enquire the role of Kejriwal in the case. Nothing has moved by the vigilance department on the case so far. To move the case to its logical conclusion officials who have passed the bills and those who have supervised the case should be investigated and arrested whenever required. Otherwise we fear that crucial evidence may be tampered with.

You filed the case a year and a half ago but it took the investigating agency such a long period to make the first arrest. Do you see any foul play here?

Absolutely no foul play is here. For this is a case of highly technical nature. It would be wrong on anyones part to compare the speed of enquiry to that of other crimes which are not technical in nature.The death of Sachin Walia, a member of the Dalit Bhim Army in Saharanpur, has raised the hackles of Thakur and Dalit communities in this sensitive region.

Saharanpur: There has seldom been any love lost between the Thakurs and Dalits of Saharanpur district in Uttar Pradesh. And the death of Sachin Walia on the afternoon of 9 May, a member of the Dalit Bhim Army in the district, from a bullet wound has raised the hackles of both communities again in this sensitive region.

"The district administration got him killed," said Samrat Gautam, a cousin of the slain Bhim Army member. "Sachin was a very down to earth man and kept cordial relations with everyone, be it Dalit or Non-Dalit."

"Prima facie it looks like an accidental fire from his own country-made gun while cleaning that killed Sachin," said Saharanpur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Babloo Kumar. "

But that is not the final conclusion. The police has launched a probe into the death." Police are yet to recover the gun.

But Samrat alleges that police officials knew about the plan to kill Sachin. "Despite knowing that all was not well between we Dalits and Thakurs, the district administration gave them permission to hold the programme and swords and guns were being displayed by the Thakurs," said Samrat.

Blue shroud for Bhim Army soldier

The programme in question was the annual Maharana Pratap Jayanti event in Rajput Bhawan in Saharanpur town. "We gave permission as the programme is organised every year, except in 2017," said Praval Pratap, SP City, Saharanpur. But the situation turned ugly after news of Sachin's death spread.

Hundreds of Bhim Army members took control of the district hospital demanding compensation of Rs 50 lakh, a government job and immediate action against the officer who issued permission to hold the programme, and the sealing of Rajput Bhawan.

The last rites of Sachin, draped in a blue shroud, were held in Ram Nagar village, which is just seven kilometres from the district headquarters, with hundreds of people in attendance. People from the Dalit community poured into the village, not only from Uttar Pradesh but from nearby states as well.

Not willing to take any chances, the district administration cut internet access in the district for 24 hours and called in three companies of rapid action force and two companies of the PAC to avoid any untoward incident.

Sachin's body was handed over to his family after the police conducted the postmortem around 4 am on Thursday morning.

While the official autopsy report has not been made public, it is understood that one bullet has been recovered, though no details of make or calibre have been revealed officially. "Nothing concrete has been found as yet and the police is doing its work," said SSP Kumar. Though sources indicate that the bullet is of 315 bore.

"Our priority is to maintain law and order," said district magistrate PK Pandey. "Internet services were suspended for 24 hours but we are thinking of extending it. The whole district has been turned into a virtual fortress."

'We will not sit quietly'

In the complaint filed by Sachin's mother Kanti Walia, four persons  Deepak Rana alias Kanaha, Sher Singh Rana, Updesh Rana and Nagendra Rana  have been named. The complaint also alleged that local authorities, especially the police, are responsible for Sachin's death.

"It was a plot by the district administration," said Kamal, Sachin's brother and district president of the Bhim Army. The allegation is echoed by cousin Samrat. "We have registered the complaint," he said. "The next step will be taken after the last rites, but it is sure that we will not sit quietly."

After the incident, two videos of nine and 26 seconds were released by the police. In these videos, people are seen washing blood stains in Ram Nagar village, where Sachin died. "Whatever happened is an accident," claimed Pratap. "We are probing the matter. Actual facts would be out very soon." He also claimed that the situation was under control and normal.

It is quite a coincidence that in May 2017 too about 12 people were seriously injured and over 50 houses burnt after clashes between Dalits and Thakurs broke out in Shabbirpur village. Five policemen and an additional district magistrate were among the injured in the bloody clashes.

Several FIRs had been filed and many were taken into custody, including Bhim Army's founder Chandra Shekhar alias Ravan, who was booked under NSA and is still behind bars. Then too internet services had been suspended for many days and a few police and administrative officers were transferred.

With inputs from Mahesh Kumar.

The author is a Meerut-based freelance writer. Contributors are members of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.A man in Philippines, who had reached out to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Twitter seeking her assistance, changed his profile details after the Union minister pointed out that he had referred to Jammu and Kashmir as Indian-occupied Kashmir, according to media reports

A man in Philippines, who had reached out to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Twitter seeking her assistance, changed his profile details after the Union minister pointed out that he had referred to Jammu and Kashmir as Indian-occupied Kashmir, according to media reports.

According to News18, Sheikh Ateeq, who is currently pursuing a medical course in the Philippines and goes by the Twitter handle @SAteEQ019, requested the Union minister to assist him with a new passport as his old passport had been damaged and he wanted to return "home" for a medical check-up.

I m from j&k doing medicine course here in Philippines my passport got damaged i applied for new one 1 month ago i request u plz help me get it as i literally need to go home for medical check up (sic), he said in a tweet tagging Swaraj.

Swaraj responded to the Ateeq saying, If you are from J&K state, we will definitely help you. But your profile says you are from Indian occupied Kashmir. There is no place like that.

If you are from J&K state, we will definitely help you. But your profile says you are from 'Indian occupied Kashmir'. There is no place like that. @indembmanilahttps://t.co/Srzo7tfMSx  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 10, 2018

Noting Swaraj's response, Ateeq changed his profile details. Acknowledging this, the Union minister directed the authorities to assist Ateeq.

1. @SAteEQ019 - I am happy you have corrected the profile. 2. Jaideep - He is an Indian national from J&K. Pls help him. @indembmanilahttps://t.co/rArqxIQoN3  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 10, 2018

According to News18, Ateeq has since deleted his Twitter profile.At least 12 people were killed from a thunderstorm which lashed parts of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, officials said.

At least 12 people were killed from a thunderstorm which lashed parts of Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, officials said.

"Four deaths were reported from Etawah, three from Mathura, one death each from Agra, Aligarh, Firozabad and Kanpur Rural last night," Principal Secretary Information Avanish Awasthi told PTI.

Another death was reported earlier in the evening from Hathras district, where a 15-year-old boy was struck by lightning while returning from the fields in Mohabbatpura village. A hailstorm also struck Hathras in the evening.

Four people were injured as severe winds and rain lashed parts of Etawah district. Strong winds also hit the state capital.

Awasthi said district magistrates have been asked to distribute relief among the storm-hit people immediately.

Thunderstorms and lightning on 2 and 3 May had killed at least 134 people and injured more than 400 in five states, the Home Ministry had said.

Uttar Pradesh was the hardest hit with 80 deaths, most of them in Agra district.

About 100 people were killed then in the state as mud houses collapsed, trees were uprooted and electricity cables snapped.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had faced criticism then for not heading back immediately from the Karnataka election campaign, as news of the casualties poured in from his own state.

Since the 2-3 May thunderstorm, the India Meteorological Department had issued more bad weather alerts for northern India states.

Parts of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Delhi experienced rain and strong winds on Tuesday.

With inputs from PTIAccording to the complainant, she was not comfortable writing the NEET examination as a male external observer kept staring at her 'inappropriately.' '

Palakkad: A girl student, who had to remove her innerwear to appear for NEET in Palakkad on 6 May, has filed a police complaint alleging that an external observer had stared at her 'inappropriately.' Based on her complaint, a case was registered under IPC sect 509 (eveteasing by word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and investigations have begun, police said.

The student who appeared for the National Eligiblity-cum-Entrance Test conducted by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) at the Lion's school at Koppa in Palakkad, had to remove her brassieres along with some other girls as it contained metal hook before writing the test.

According to the complainant, she was not comfortable writing the examination as a male external observer kept staring at her 'inappropriately.' "The invigilator came and stood before her several times. He did not look at her face.. but at her chest. she tried to cover herself with the question paper," her sister told television channels.

"My sister was mentally tensed. The invigilator came near her two to three times.. she found it difficult to write the exam properly, she was uncomfortable," she said.

Police said they have begun investigations and are trying to talk to students who had also appeared for the test in the same school. "We are trying to speak to more witnesses who appeared for the test in the school. We are trying to get the list of other students who wrote the test in this school," the sources said.

Meanwhile, the CBSE's Regional officer in Palakkad, Tarun Kumar, told PTI that they had not received any complaint on the

matter so far.

On the police complaint, he said, "We are enquiring and a report is expected by next week." Last year, a controversy had erupted after a girl student from Kannur complained that she was forced to remove her inner wear to write the test.

Over one lakh students had appeared for the test from Kerala this year.India and China are sitting down to discuss their future, conscious that it rides on the ability to manage contradictions, which is no small development, former foreign secretary S Jaishankar said in Singapore

Singapore: India and China are sitting down to discuss their future, conscious that it rides on the ability to manage contradictions, which is no small development, former foreign secretary S Jaishankar said in Singapore.

The former top diplomat, who served as Ambassador to China and the United States, was addressing a lecture organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), a think-tank at the National University of Singapore, on Tuesday.

Touching upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province, he said that world history has shown the dangers of rising powers remaining self-absorbed.

"Growing capabilities and influence actually require greater engagement with the world, not less," Jaishankar said.

"As Asia rises, there are lessons that could be drawn from the experiences of others, especially Europe. It would appear that this realisation is as strong in Beijing as it is in New Delhi," said the former envoy, a distinguished visiting research fellow at the ISAS.

"India-China relations have always had a global context and will always have one. In an uncertain world, the Wuhan meeting was an important step in the direction of greater stability," he said.

If its bilateral implications are concerned, the focus seems to have been on measures to strengthen stability and manage differences, Jaishankar said, adding that some extra effort seemed to have gone into finding common ground, whether on trade or on Afghanistan.

These are actually the only two nations with over a billion in population each. They are also among the world's major economies now. Their experiences in development and governance are worth exchanging, he said.

The intent of the Wuhan Summit was actually laid out last June when the two leaders met in Astana. At that time, they declared that the relationship between India and China must be a factor of stability in an uncertain world, the former diplomat said. "They also desired that differences between India and China should not become disputes."

However, this was followed shortly thereafter by the face-off at Doka La. Significantly, he said, its conclusion saw the two countries reiterate these very approaches at the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit at Xiamen in September 2017.

"Since then, there have been intensive exchanges at senior policy levels between them, including the foreign ministers and the national security advisers," Jaishankar noted.

The engagement between India and China has to be on the basis of political equality. It has to be conducted with mutual sensitivity, especially as both polities have made their core interests known to each other, he stressed.

"They have ambitions as rising powers and it is logical that these can often intersect. Differences between neighbours or rising powers are not unnatural in world politics. But, how well they are managed is really the test of diplomacy," Jaishankar added.Amid charges that most police encounters in Uttar Pradesh were 'fake', Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday accused the BJP government of misusing the police.

Lucknow: Amid charges that most police encounters in Uttar Pradesh were "fake", Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday accused the BJP government of misusing the police.

"The BJP is misusing the Uttar Pradesh police, which is inflicting torture on the people of the state and creating fear among them. The Samajwadi Party is not only raising questions, but also telling other Opposition parties that the government is continuously engaged in fake encounters," the SP chief told reporters in Lucknow.

He demanded that the government should at least provide a list of criminals carrying reward on their head to substantiate its claim that those killed by the police were highly notorious, he said.

Yadav demanded Rs 50 lakh compensation to the next of kin of Narendra Gujjar, against whom, he said, a "fake cow slaughter case" was registered, and claimed that Gujjar was tortured to death in custody by the police in Meerut.

"It is the duty of the government to see that everyone gets justice. Has the situation worsened to that extent where no one can plead for justice? Will the BJP now deprive the people of the state of justice?" he posed.

As many as 50 dreaded criminals have been killed in over 1,400 encounters in the past over one year in the state, while 3,435 history-sheeters were put behind bars following encounters.

Yadav also referred to the death of the father of Unnao rape survivor in police custody.

"The BJP says that we used to give Rs 50 lakh compensation when a Muslim died. Today, when a Hindu has died, why are you (the BJP) is not helping the Hindu. We do not believe in taking advantage by creating rift between Hindus and Muslims. This is just a diversionary tactics," the SP leader said.

He also blamed the UP police for the unrest in Aligarh Muslim University. "If the government had wanted, then the situation would not have worsened," Akhilesh said.

On reports of CBI probe into sale of sugar mills during Mayawati regime, he said the investigation was being done keeping the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in mind.

Attacking the BJP in the context of Kairana and Noorpur bypolls, he said, "These people have been saying that if other parties win the bypolls, then Diwali will be celebrated in Pakistan. I never went to Pakistan, nor do I have a Pakistani visa. The BJP should tell who went to Pakistan discreetly."

Yadav contested the government's claim that it was taking care of sugarcane growers in the state.

He also demanded that the government should provide Rs 10 lakh assistance to families of Sitapur dog-bite victims. A total of 12 children have fallen prey to dog attacks so far.

Referring to the investors' summit in UP and the follow up visit to the US by senior UP minister Sidharthnath Singh, the former chief minister said, "The companies with which the UP government has inked MoUs, do not have any balance sheet. The proposed defence corridor is a work to divert the attention of the people. This government will never be able to build the Jewar airport or the defence corridor."

He attacked Singh, who is UP health minister, saying that people in the US know about the health scenario of the state. The ambulances must be repaired first, he said.

Yadav also accused the UP government of stalling the proposed mango wholesale market in Malihabad and perfumery park and museum in Kannauj. "We want to know the quantum of investment in UP during the four years of Narendra Modi government," he said.

Taking a jibe at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, he said, "The UP CM is not bothered about improving the law and order in UP. He is more bothered about the law and order of Karnataka (where he was campaigning for the Assembly elections)."

When his attention was drawn to reports on Congress president Rahul Gandhi's ambition to become the prime minister, Yadav said, "These are post-poll matters. I have good relation with the Congress chief."

The SP had forged an electoral alliance with the Congress during the 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.Congress national general secretary CP Joshi on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi-led BJP government of setting new record of corruption in the country.

Jaipur: Congress national general secretary CP Joshi on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi-led BJP government of setting new record of corruption in the country.

"All capitalists involved in corruption and scams have links with the BJP and BJP government has set new record of corruption in the country, Joshi said, addressing 'Mera Booth, Mera Gaurav' programme in Tonk district.

AICC general secretary and Rajasthan in-charge Avinash Pandey exuded confidence that booth-level workers will strengthen the party in the Assembly elections and emerge as winning party. He urged the party workers to expose the shortcomings of the BJP government.

AICC general secretary Mohan Prakash said that it was important to corner the "anti-people" BJP government and urged the party workers to expose its ill-policies.

Narendra Modi is a smooth talker and people of the country voted him to power, but he breached trust of the people who are now feeling cheated, Prakash said.

Rajasthan Congress Chief Sachin Pilot said that people now see the Congress with a hope and party has strengthened despite being in the opposition from last four years.

Booth level party workers have strengthened the party who have not let the Congress down. Party workers will uproot the BJP government with their hard work in the state, Pilot said.Senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal's son Pankaj met Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at his residence on Wednesday, triggering speculation on whether the Sena has mellowed down its stand on the Shiv Sainik-turned-NCP stalwart

Mumbai: Senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal's son Pankaj met Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray at his residence on Wednesday, triggering speculation on whether the Sena has mellowed down its stand on the Shiv

Sainik-turned-NCP stalwart who was recently granted bail in a money laundering case.

A Shiv Sena source privy to the meeting said Thackeray advised Pankaj to take care of his ailing father who is in hospital. Bhujbal has been persona non-grata of the Sena leadership ever since he left the Bal Thackeray-founded party in 1991.

The Sena had termed Bhujbal's arrest in the money laundering case and subsequent incarceration as "fate's revenge" against him for his bid, when he was state home minister, to have Sena founder Bal Thackeray put behind bars.

"It was just a 15-minute courtesy call by Pankaj Bhujbal. There was no political discussion during the meeting," a Shiv Sena legislator told PTI. The meeting comes five days after Bhujbal, the former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, was granted bail by the Bombay High Court in a money laundering case.

Indicating softening of the party stand vis-a-vis Bhujbal, party spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, "Had (Chhagan) Bhujbal been in the Sena today, such fate would not have befallen him. Bhujbal is a political adversary, but we do not have a personal enmity."

"Those who deserted late Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray ended in misery. Karti Chidambaram, the son of P Chidambaram, gets bail within eight days in a money laundering case. Then why did it take one-and-half-years for Bhujbal to get bail?" he asked.

The meeting between Pankaj and Thackeray also assumes significance as it comes days before the 21 May elections to the Nashik Local Authorities constituency in the legislative council. The Bhujbals have a strong support base in Nashik district.

However, the Sena legislator recalled that Bhujbal, despite quitting the Sena, had made a courtesy call on late party supremo Bal Thackeray in 2007. Asked if there was a possibility of Bhujbal shifting his political ideology after having been granted bail, the leader said it was highly unlikely. "(NCP chief) Sharad Pawar did a lot for Chhagan Bhujbal even after he was jailed. There is a slim chance of him betraying Pawar now," he said.

Bhujbal, a firebrand Shiv Sainik, had left the party after Manohar Joshi was made leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative Assembly. The divide grew wider as Bhujbal, after becoming home minister in 1999, vowed to have Bal Thackeray behind bars over his speeches and editorials in the party mouthpiece Saamana.

Another Sena leader, requesting anonymity, said Bhujbal had buried the hatchet with the Sena chief by meeting him in 2007, more than 16 years after leaving the party.

Bhujbal, 70, in jail since March 2016, was granted bail on 4 May by the Bombay High Court after it took into consideration his old age and deteriorating health. Bhujbal, currently undergoing treatment at civic-run KEM hospital in Mumbai, is likely to address a rally in Pune on 10 June when the Opposition NCP's hulla bol (attack) yatra would culminate.

Bhujbal, who handled the Public Works Department in the Congress-NCP government, was arrested in March 2016 after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) found in an inquiry that he allegedly misused his office in awarding contracts for PWD projects, causing a loss to the exchequer.In its election rhetoric against the ruling Congress government in Karnataka, there is one thing that rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rarely attacksthe states flagship welfare schemes, especially, Anna Bhagya which provides free rice and subsidised foodgrains for those living below poverty line (BPL).

-Shreehari Paliath

Mandya, Chamarajanagar and Yadgir: In its election rhetoric against the ruling Congress government in Karnataka, there is one thing that rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rarely attacksthe states flagship welfare schemes, especially, Anna Bhagya which provides free rice and subsidised foodgrains for those living below poverty line (BPL).

Karnataka, the only southern state governed by the Congress party, is slated for Assembly elections on 12 May, 2018. And BJP chief ministerial candidate and state party president BS Yeddyurappa has said that his party would retain all the good welfare programmes initiated by the Congress government.

All he would do is change their names if he came to power, The Hindu reported on 7 May, 2018. The BJP has also sought some credit for these schemes.

These welfare schemes are popular, especially among rural constituencies that form 69 percent of the states 224 Assembly constituencies. Nearly four in five respondents to this 7 May, 2018, Lokniti-CSDS-ABP News Karnataka Pre-Poll Survey 2018 said that they benefited from Anna Bhagya. However, the poll also showed that only two in 10 benefitted from the Krishi Bhagya, which includes a slew of sustainable measures to help farmers.

The impact of these welfare schemes could decide the electoral fate of the Congress government. Chief minister Siddaramaiah, a lawyer-turned-politician, is now the first state chief minister in the last 40 years to complete a full term. D Devaraj Urs completed his in 1977.

All the bhagya schemes were part of Siddaramaiahs populist welfare measures. He was very conscious about Tamil Nadus populist politics and drew on that, said A R Vasavi, a social anthropologist and independent researcher. Most have been successful in that their delivery has been effective. The fact that the two years of drought were tided over with these schemes indicates the pressure to make them effective.

To analyse the impact of these schemes, IndiaSpend travelled to rural pockets of three districts in KarnatakaMandya and Chamarajanagar in the south and Yadgir in the north-east.

It became clear in our interaction with voters that Anna Bhagya enjoys unanimous support in rural Karnataka for its efficient delivery. While Krishi Bhagyas main objective of promoting sustainable farming has not been able to fulfil its full potential due to successive droughts, it has helped farmers collect water for irrigation from borewells in Krishi Hondas (farm ponds) when rainwater is scarce.

Experts believe that the bhagya schemes are populist but are essential for poor households and will bring in popular support for the Congress in the election.

Govt allocation for Anna Bhagya highest in 3 years, an all-time high for Krishi Bhagya

The Anna Bhagya scheme was among the first Siddaramaiah announced to create a hunger-free state after assuming power in 2013. It now includes nearly 40 million beneficiaries across the state.

The state has nearly 10.8 million beneficiary families below poverty line. This includes those entitled to the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY, or grains for the poorest among the poor) and those marked as priority households (PHH) under the scheme, according to the Economic Survey of Karnataka, 2017-18. Each member of a priority household is being given 7 kilograms of grain and each AAY household 35 kilograms.

Since the launch of the Anna Bhagya in 2013-14, the government has allocated close to Rs 15,380.7 crore and utilised 76 percent of the amount, according to Pratibimba, a Karnataka government dashboard.

Krishi Bhagya, run by the agriculture department, looks to improve rainfed agriculture with efficient rainwater management and to enhance productivity. It provides farmers financial assistance through subsidies of upto 90 percent (based on social category) for construction of farm ponds to collect runoff water. It also helps farmers procure polythene lining to avoid percolation losses, diesel pumpsets to lift the stored water, sprinkler/drip sets to irrigate the crops, and shade-nets around the farm pond to avoid evaporation and accidental deaths.

Over the four years since its launch in April 2014, the government has allocated Rs 2,100 crore of which Rs 1,807.8 crorenearly 86 percenthas been used, according to the government dashboard. This has benefitted nearly 1,86,000 farmers in the state.

I dont have to worry about my family starving even in bad times

Forty-two-year-old Laxman Rathores five-acre farm in Horuncha Tanda is a half-hour drive from Yadgir town. He grows groundnuts, tur dal (pigeon pea) and mung dal (green gram). He has a BPL card and is a beneficiary of both schemes: One helped him irrigate his fields during drought and the other fed his family when the yield was too low to earn him anything substantial.

Yadgir, in northeastern Karnataka, is one of the most underdeveloped districts of the state. It is ranked 40 in the central governments programme to improve development in backward districts in India, and its literacy rate (51.8 percent) is lower than that of Bihar (63.8 percent), Indias least literate state.

The consecutive droughts in Karnataka, a state where 70 percent agriculture is rainfed, has been hard on farmers like Rathore who depend on the rain.

In 2016, 160 of the 176 taluks in Karnataka were declared drought-hit during the rabi or winter crop season, and 139 during in kharif or monsoon crop season, according to this 2016 Karnataka State Disaster Management Monitoring Centre document, IndiaSpend reportedon 8 May, 2018 .

The 1515 metre farm pond funded by the Krishi Bhagya scheme has helped Rathore survive these droughts.

Depending on how much we use, the farm ponds provide a few months worth of water once they fill up during rains, Rathore said. When it does not rain, we store water from the borewell when we have power and then use the diesel pumps to lift the water. He said they get power for irrigation for close to seven hours daily.

Rathore earns between Rs 15,000-20,000 from his produce each year. If the government procures it, he earns about Rs 6,000 per quintal for tur. Usually, he sells it to the private buyers for lessRs 4,000 per quintal. The market has not been good, he said.

In such times when incomes fluctuate based on the market and farm debts, the Anna Bhagyascheme has sustained his family of four. We get 5 kg rice and 2 kg wheat without fail every month. We buy from the market only if it isnt enough, he said. Beneficiaries also get a 1 kg tur dal at Rs 42, although the stipulated government rate is Rs 38, he pointed out.

The government had reintroduced the distribution of wheat in northern Karnataka in anticipation of the assembly election, The Times Of India reported on 31 October, 2018. It had earlier discontinued the practice citing low demand.

Another resident of Yadgir town, taxi driver Sadashiva Nayak, said that Anna Bhagya will be a critical factor in his vote. He has a loan of Rs 3 lakh for the car he bought.

My income varies depending on the tourist season, said Nayak. He owns land in his village but it is rainfed and not remunerative enough. The scheme ensures that I do not have to worry about my wife and son going hungry, he said. His wife supplements the income by working as an agricultural labourer for Rs 100 a day.

Anna Bhagya has ensured that there is no fear of starvation among poor households which is a significant factor for them, said Narendar Pani, an economist at National Institute of Advanced Studies.

We heard similar stories in Mandya and Chamrajnagar. Nearly half of Chamrajnagar is forest area; it is also among the least developed districts in state. Its literacy rate of 61.4 percent although 10 percentage points more than Yadgiris still below the state average of 75.3 percent.

Puttaswamy (60), a Dalit farmer, lives with his wife Manju in Nagavalli village, 10 kilometre from Chamrajnagar town. We think the Anna Bhagya scheme is important, Manju said. They said they would vote for the present government for the support the scheme provides.

The family gets 28 kg of rice for four members, including a son and a daughter. Puttaswamy, who owns 2 acres of land, also works as an agricultural labourer for about Rs 250 a day.

Puttaswamys 2 acres of scattered farmland cannot accommodate farm ponds but that is not a problem for Nabi Khan (44), a farmer whose family owns close to 200 acres of land in Nagavalli.

Farm ponds help us deal with water scarcity

Nabi Khans 20-acre banana farm requires at least 150,000 litres of water daily which is sourced from borewells, he said.

The farm pond we recently dug is 4040 metres. When it rains, well be able to use the substitute borewell water for irrigation for sometime, Khan said.

In bordering Mandya district, known for its sugarcane production, farm distress is high due to debt and water scarcity. This is especially the case in unirrigated, dryland areas where farm incomes are low.

In arid Basaralu, 20-year-old Raghuveer, who works on his fathers seven-acre sugarcane farm, has found both the schemes useful. Due to drought, we have not been able to conserve rainwater, but use the pond to store water from the borewell, he said. Another farmer, Jayaram G, dug a 2121 metre pond which he shares with three other farmers. The government provides free diesel pumpsets to farmers who decide to dig a common farm pond. That saved me money, said Jayaram.

Not all in Basaralu, however, are satisfied with the farm pond scheme.

The trouble with Krishi Bhagya

Janardhan K, who owns 4 acres of agricultural land in Kambadahalli, was of the opinion that diesel pump sets must be given free.

There is another problem: Under the Krishi Bhagya scheme, the government provides a free diesel pump set if four farmers agree to create a common pond to feed their plots. It becomes difficult when one person does not cooperate, Janardhan pointed out. There are delays in giving components like the sprinklers and pumps, he added.

Laxman Rathore and Khan, too, pointed to issues on ground.

Although Khan did not have to pay an upfront cost, he had to buy polythene lining and sprinklers as the quality of the components was not the best, he said. The lining that the department gives tears after a while and the sprinklers need to be sturdy as we use it regularly, said Khan. While he can afford to pay the additional cost, farmers like Laxman cannot.

In Yadgir, farmers have to pay up the initial amount for digging the pondanywhere between Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 based on the size of the pond. Paying this amount is a problem, especially when we already have other loans to repay, said Laxman.

The amount is reimbursed once the site is inspected by agriculture department officials as per guidelines. Often, there is a delay in reimbursement. Laxman has received the diesel pumpset and the polythene lining to prevent percolation but there was a delay.

Information offered about the implementation of the scheme is the same for both big and small farmers, said Khan. How can that work? Farmers requirements are different and we do not get the relevant information when we meet local officials, he added.

The chief executive officer of Yadgir, Avinash Menon Rajendran, rejected the criticism. There are delays when procedures are not followed, he said. In some cases, we are unable to reimburse the farmers who dig ponds at scientifically inappropriate locations. We have to follow guidelines, but are trying our best ensure that the scheme details are communicated correctly by panchayat development officers.

Anna Bhagya too has had a few glitches.

Parashuram Rathore is another groundnut and tur farmer in Yadgir. The only impediment is that we have to be physically present to register our fingerprints at a machine at the ration shop, he said. Some whose fingerprints go unread have to go to the panchayat and re-link.

Although my family gets rice under the scheme, I am unhappy with the quality. We use it for making dosa batter, said Nagendra, a farmer in Chamrajnagar. We use as little as possible for daily consumption.

Balasubramaniam, development activist and founder and chairman, Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement, pointed to the need for accurate identification of benefactors. While I do not deny the present Anna Bhagya scheme is efficient in its delivery, I think identification of the poor correctly is vital in such schemes, he said. Often, households who are not BPL but have managed to get cards sell the rice in market.

(Paliath is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)As Karnataka's voters go to polls on Saturday, to choose between BJP, Congress and JD(S), it's worth pondering over how four past trends will play out.

Voters are not known to study past election statistics before making their choices. In other words, trends don't influence voters. Rather it's the voters who set the trends. Past trends, however, provide insights into voting behaviour even if, in the end, an election result may not fall into any previous patterns.

As Karnataka's voters go to polls on Saturday, to choose their Assembly members, it's worth pondering over how four past trends will play out:

Karnataka has often gone against national trends with a tendency to elect one party in the Assembly election while choosing another for Lok Sabha  or backing a party in the state different from the one ruling at the Centre.

No incumbent ruling party has returned to power in Karnataka since 1985.

After Narendra Modi's arrival on the national scene, BJP won several states where ruling parties fell to incumbency.

In the post-Modi era, BJP tends to do better in multi-cornered contests.

Bucking the national trend

If Karnataka's voters thumb their noses at the current national trend of BJP marching to victory in state after state, Congress will retain the state. But will it?

Year of Karnataka assembly election Result in state National scene 1985 Ramakrishna Hegde of Janata Party won Congress won the 1984 Lok Sabha poll under Rajiv Gandhi 1989 Congress returned to power Congress lost power 1994 Janata Dal won state Congress was in power under PM PV Narasimha Rao 1999 Congress returned to power BJP-led NDA came to power with AB Vajpayee as PM 2004 BJP was the single largest party, Congress formed government UPA-I formed the government 2008 BJP formed government UPA-II won 2009 LS poll 2013 Congress returned to power UPA popularity at lowest in 2013; Modi wave swept India in 2014

Anti-incumbency after 1985

After Ramakrishna Hegde won the Assembly election in 1985, a second successive victory after 1983, no incumbent ruling party has returned to power in Karnataka. Hegde went in for a mid-term Assembly poll in 1985 after his party lost most of the Lok Sabha seats in 1984.

Congress under Rajiv Gandhi was then riding on a sympathy wave following Indira Gandhi's assassination. But Hegde, at the crest of his own wave of personal popularity, won his second Assembly election.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is either confident of going against this clear trend of anti-incumbency that has existed in the state for 33 years because of a host of his populist schemes or he is putting up a brave facade for the record.

But one thing is pretty clear: Congress is not as confident of winning a clear majority in the Assembly as it was some months ago.

The Modi juggernaut

Incumbent state governments have been falling like trees in a storm, not only in Karnataka but also across India in the post-Modi era.

Congress lost power to BJP in Maharashtra and Haryana in 2014, in Assam in 2016, and in Uttarakhand, Manipur, Himachal Pradesh in 2017 and to a front in which BJP is a part in Meghalaya this year. Both the Modi wave and anti-incumbency influenced these results, though their proportions can be a matter of debate.

Anti-incumbency also took its toll last year in Uttar Pradesh where Samajwadi Party was trounced by BJP and in Punjab where the BJP coalition was sent home by the Congress. Earlier this year, incumbent CPM ended up biting the dust in Tripura and handed over power to BJP.

If Siddaramaiah returns to power, his victory will defy not only the Modi wave but also anti-incumbency trends in Karnataka as well as India. His feat will be counted along with the victories of Trinamul Congress and AIADMK, which won second consecutive terms respectively in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu in 2016, and that of the BJP, which continued its reign in Gujarat after last year's Assembly election.

Multi-cornered contests

Unlike in the pre-Modi era, the BJP tended to benefit from multi-cornered contests later, as in the case of Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, Assam, and most recently in Uttar Pradesh. Before Modi's arrival on the national scene, the BJP had been luckier in straight fights with the Congress than in multi-party battles.

How this trend will play out in Karnataka's triangular fight is still an imponderable, because each state has its own set of factors that tilt the balance. It's also no secret that in Karnataka, BJP has put up weak candidates in constituencies where the Janata Dal (Secular) is strong. The party would prefer the JD(S) to Congress to win such seats. The question of which party will divide whose votes is often not easy to answer before polling. It could change from seat to seat.

CM versus PM?

If the 2015 successes of Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi and Nitish Kumar in Bihar are anything to go by, a CM-vs-PM contest might benefit the chief minister  probable only if local issues gain prominence. In Karnataka, Siddaramaiah turned the election into a fight between him and Modi. Though he harped on local issues and Kannada identity more in the months before the election, he made it more of a national battle towards the polling day. How voters would look at this in view of Modi's popularity is something to watch.

Towards the end, Congress president Rahul Gandhi made it worse for his party by even turning the poll into a fight between a PM-probable and the prime minister after he thoughtlessly declared himself to be a candidate for the country's top job. But, of course, Rahul has never been accused of being politically astute before.

Author tweets @sprasadindiaThe vitriol-filled campaign for the Karnataka Assembly elections ended on Thursday with top leaders of the BJP and Congress, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, making a last-gasp effort to sway the voters in a likely cliffhanger.

Bengaluru: The vitriol-filled campaign for the Karnataka Assembly elections ended on Thursday with top leaders of the BJP and Congress, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, making a last-gasp effort to sway the voters in a likely cliffhanger.

From corruption to communalism, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's Rs 70 lakh Hublot watch to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, the electoral potboiler had it all.

Like all state polls, since he assumed the reins of power in New Delhi, Modi helmed the BJP's adrenaline-charged campaign despite the party having declared B S Yeddyurappa its chief ministerial candidate, while Rahul Gandhi helmed that of the Congress.

Though Modi remained out of the electoral scene for a long time after addressing a public meeting in February, he launched a blitzkrieg on 1 May, addressing over a score of rallies in his bid to wrest the key southern state, which BJP chief Amit Shah dubbed as the party's "gateway to south", from the Congress.

Always high on energy during elections, he addressed at least three rallies every day when he was in Karnataka, or else interacted with workers of the BJP's different frontal organisations through the 'Namo App'.

Though development remained part of the political discourse, it was overtaken by a slanging match between the two parties over corruption.

The prime minister and Amit Shah raised the issue of the killing of RSS and BJP workers by SDPI, a radical Islamist political party floated by the Popular Front of India, which Modi said was the "abc of communalism".

Shah claimed two of the candidates fielded by the Congress were, in fact, members of the SDPI.

On day one of his campaign, Modi raked up the issue of Sonia's foreign origin at an election rally where he dared the Congress chief to speak for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Karnataka government in any language, including his "mother's mother tongue".

An emotional Rahul Gandhi hit back on Thursday at a press conference where he said,"My mother is an Italian. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many Indians I have seen."

Modi repeatedly addressed the Siddaramaiah ministry as "seedha rupaiah government (a government that takes bribes for work) and "10 percent commission government".

Provoked, Siddaramaiah first called the Modi dispensation a "90 percent commission government" and then served legal notices to Modi and Shah, demanding an apology and threatening to file Rs 100 crore civil and criminal defamation suit if they did not tender it.

Rally after election rally, Rahul Gandhi targeted BJP's chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa over corruption when he helmed the state while BJP was in power between 2008 and 2013.

"Will Modi ji tell the people of Karnataka why a man who spent time in jail for corruption is the BJP's chief minister candidate? Why the BJP has given 8 tickets to Reddy brothers and their associates who looted Rs 35,000 crore from the people of Karnataka?" he asked, as he sought to paint the saffron party into a corner.

The Congress president frequently referred to fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi in his speeches, alleging the government allowed him to flee the country after defrauding the Punjab National Bank fraud.

Modi, who has powered the BJP to victory after victory in Assembly polls in states in the last four years, also invoked nationalism and B R Ambedkar, after he was in the Congress president's firing line over a string of attacks on Dalits. He slammed the Congress for raising questions about the army's surgical strikes in PoK.

Though Modi did not campaign in Karnataka on Thursday, he addressed BJP's SC/ST/OBC and Slum Morcha workers through his Namo App and said, "There is no place for dalits and backward classes in the heart of the Congress." He accused the Congress of "insulting" Ambedkar, a Dalit icon.

Sonia Gandhi, who avoided the rough and tumble of elections for two years after she was taken ill during a roadshow in Varanasi ahead of the Uttar Pradesh polls, also addressed a rally in the Lingayat stronghold of Vijayapura where she said "Modi is possessed by the devil of 'Congress mukt Bharat' (bhoot lag gaya hai)".

Apart from Shah, who vigorously campaigned across the state over the last two months, the BJP fielded its Hindutva mascot Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who toured the communally sensitive coastal belt of Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada district.

Adityanath exhorted electors to elect a government that can protect people from "jihadi" forces.

After Rahul Gandhi publicly declared he was ready to become the prime minister if Congress emerged as the single largest party, Modi mocked him, calling him a "dynast" and wondering whether the nation will accept him as its leader.

The campaign was hit by a "fake" voter ID card scandal in it dying moments, but election officials said those appeared to be genuine.

Nearly 10,000 cards were recovered from a flat in Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency on Tuesday, setting off a war of words between the Congress and BJP, with each alleging the owner of the apartment owed allegiance to the rival party.

The contentious issue of the Siddaramaiah government recommending religious minority status for the numerically strong Lingayat community took a back seat as the two parties appeared unsure about its electoral fallout.

Opinion polls and surveys have projected a thriller of a contest, with neither BJP nor the Congress getting a majority on its own and the JD(S) of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda playing the kingmaker.Compare the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah chose to leave their last impression in minds of voters on the concluding day of the Karnataka campaign to Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and you get a real insight into the differing electoral strategies of the two parties.

Compare the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah chose to leave their last impression in minds of voters on the concluding day of the Karnataka campaign to Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and you get a real insight into the differing electoral strategies of the two parties.

The way leadership of rival parties and individual candidates devise their strategy on last day of campaigning is always of some significance in minds of undecided voters. The occasion is also used to boost morale of the cadre so that they work with vigour to bring voters from their homes to the polling booths.

The contrast between the thought process and poll preparedness of the Modi-Shah combine compared to the Rahul-Sonia-led Congress, at least from the way they planned their respective shows on Thursday in the final hours of campaigning was on full display.

Rahuls idea was to hold a press conference in Bengaluru and have almost entire Congress leadership in Karnataka, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and leader of party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge seated at the podium. Which was fine. By holding a press conference, leaders tend to focus on a singular message. It thus becomes very important for the leader concerned to weigh his words and decide on the kind of punch or thrust he wants to deliver through the media to the people.

But Rahul talked endlessly of China, Pakistan, Russia and Rafale deal, and said foreign policy has been completely decimated across the board by prime minister Modi. After a while, when a question was posed on a separate issue, the Congress president returned to the China topic in even greater detail.

I am very passionate about China issue... Rahul said. Twice. He concluded his prolonged monologue on China by saying there is a disaster that has been created about foreign policy. When Rahul was queried about Modi calling him naamdaar and arrogant, and asked about the challenge the prime minister issued to him: To speak for 15 minutes about his party's achievements in Karnataka without referring to any papers, Rahul unveiled a Gautam Buddha analogy and added in the same breath, I attract anger from prime minister Modi because he views me as a threat.

Modi, in comparison, used his NaMo app on Thursday morning to engage directly with his party's Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Class workers and morcha workers spread all across Karnataka. He was focussed on telling them how much BJP did for these communities and why more of them should vote for the party on 12 May.

Much of public narrative was built around Dalits, SCs, STs, and OBCs and Modi thought it appropriate to address workers from these communities and boost their morale ahead of polling. Shah had different plans: Arrive in Badami, and hold a mega road show: The biggest ever by any party in these elections.

Badami is one of two constituencies from where Siddaramaiah is contesting elections. Pitted against him is Sreeramulu, a Dalit perceived to be close to the Reddy brothers and Lok Sabha MP from Bellary. The visuals showing Shah flanked by Sreeramulu on one side and BJPs chief ministerial candidate Yedyurappa on the other can impress viewers. The mammoth road show gave the impression that Siddaramaiah is on a difficult turf and if the BJP is able to convey that message to rest of Karnataka, the battle is half won.

Rahul later had outdoor engagements even as Shah held a press conference, but events in the first half of the day conveyed the message that parties wanted to send the electorate. It seems the BJP's electoral war machine is far more organised and better prepared in terms of strategy. The Congress would be hoping it got its arithmetic right.During a Bengaluru roadshow, BJP chief Amit Shah spoke with Firstpost on the party's prospects in the Karnataka polls and why these elections are so central to the party's future.

Even as the Karnataka polls draw near, campaigning has grown ever fiercer. Both sides have sent in their heavyweights  Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah for BJP and Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for Congress  for an all-out blitz.

During a Bengaluru roadshow, BJP chief Amit Shah spoke with Firstpost on the party's prospects in the polls and why these elections are so central to the party's future.

How important is the Karnataka elections for BJP?

Amit Shah: We are not taking any chances. It is very important for us. The Karnataka polls are the BJP's door to the south. This shows how much importance we are giving these elections.

Why should the people of Karnataka vote for BJP?

Amit Shah: In past five years, Siddaramaiah government failed in every aspect. Entire Bengaluru was handed over to George, Harish and Roshan Baig. The law and order situation is the worst under this government. Karnataka's development was stalled in Bengaluru traffic. The people of Karnataka want a strong BS Yeddyurappa government under Narendra Modi. In next five years, BJP government will take Karnataka on the path of development.

What are the main issues in the upcoming polls?

Amit Shah: Development, law and order, 3,500 farmers committed suicide under this government's watch. Corruption is a major issue. A chief minister who takes as a gift a watch worth Rs 40 lakh has no right to rule.

Your party hammered Siddaramaiah over corruption, but also gave tickets to the Reddy brothers of Bellary. What kind of message do you want to send voters?

Amit Shah: The two candidates we gave tickets have no pending cases against them, so the allegations are wrong.

Your party raised a hue and cry over the Karnataka government's move to give Lingayats minority status. You accused the Congress of divisive politics. What's your stand now?

Amit Shah: It's not an issue. Hence, there's no question of any stand.

You mean it's not an issue in this election...

Amit Shah: Yes. In this election, this is a non-issue.

Due to certain developments, there is a fear that BJP if comes to power, it will not let Yeddyurappa take over as chief minister...

Amit Shah: It is just an Opposition trick. It will not work. Yeddyurappa is our chief ministerial candidate. The BJP government in Karnataka will be headed by Yeddyurappa and he will complete his term.

Many pollsters are hinting that the people will return a fractured mandate. What's your prediction?

Amit Shah: I will be announcing my numbers at a press conference. We are comfortably ahead of our rivals, and will form the government in Karnataka with a clear majority.

Rahul said he is ready to become prime minister in 2019...

Amit Shah: I do not want to or like to comment on Rahuls statements.

From Mamata Banerjee to K Chandrasekhar Rao, the Opposition is possibly gearing up for a third front. How do you plan to counter it?

Amit Shah: The Opposition has to first decide to come together.

Where will we see Amit Shah after 2019 parliamentary elections?

Amit Shah: That's for the party to decide.

What role will you play in Parliament?

Amit Shah: I'm a member of Parliament already.

Will you in the Cabinet?

Amit Shah: That's for the party to decide. I can't comment.Answering media queries about his much fabled poll-prediction before each electoral battles, Shah said that he was confident that his party would score well over 130 seats

BJP national president Amit Shah on Thursday addressed a press conference moments before the electioneering closed for the 12 May Assembly polls in Karnataka. From lashing out at the Congress government in Karnataka, citing facts on governance in the state, to subtly targeting Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Shah made the most of the last opportunity to reach out to the voters in the state.

Answering media queries about his much fabled poll-prediction before each electoral battles, Shah said that he was confident that his party would score well over 130 seats, comfortably ahead of the 112-half-way-mark. He ruled out any possibility of an alliance with former prime minister HD Devegowda-led Janata Dal (Secular), which the Congress has accused of playing second fiddle to the BJP. Here are the key highlights from his press conference.

1) Congress conniving with traitor SDPI, PFI in desperation to win polls: Shah came down heavily on Congress, for what he said exposed its divisive politics. He cited some sting operations reported by local media to allege that Congress candidates were caught meeting representatives from Social Democratic Party of India, the political wing of the Popular Front of India, to devise startegy to polarise anti-Hindu votes. He said that the one difference between Congress and BJP's respective ideologies is that the latter will lose elections but won't sit with SDPI and PFI.

2) Gali Janardhan Reddy has nothing to do with BJP: On questions relating to the BJP's decision to give tickets to the Reddy brothers, despite G Janardhan Reddy being in jail for corruption charges, Shah asserted that there was nothing wrong in it. "The two members of the family, whom we have given tickets, are not charged with any corruption scandal. That's it," Shah said. He further asserted that mining baron Janardhana Reddy has nothing do with BJP, and that "it is final."

3) Siddaramaiah government most unsuccessful since Independence: Labelling the Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka "sabse vifal sarkar" since Independence, Shah cited figures to claim that the state failed to use massive funds allotted by the Centre. "They say Centre has not done us any favour by granting funds. I agree to that. We have not done anybody a favour and given the people of Karnataka their rights, but what have you done by not using the funds properly. You (Congress) have done the work of taking away the rights of the people," Shah said.

4) Separate religion status for Lingayats a non-issue this election: "The agenda in this election is development, governance and the politics of performance," Shah said on a query about Lingayats. When a reporter asked him to specify if his party faced any losses due to Siddaramaiah hitchhiking Lingayat votes by recommending separate religion for them, Shah quipped back saying that the only loss was that he had to face such as a question. "It is a non-issue," he said.

5) Development in Karnataka stuck like Bengaluru's traffic: Shah, commenting on the outcome of his long-drawn election campaign, said that the people's anger was perceptible throughout the state. He claimed that the development in the state was stuck like the traffic in Bengaluru. He said that the law and order has taken a toll under Congress rule, as he claimed that more than 24 workers of BJP and RSS were brutally killed. Hitting out on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Shah said that when a government fails like this, only then a chief minister has to leave his home seat and look for safe seats to fight elections.The fractious Vokkaliga-Dalit relationship in Karnataka is at odds with the tie-up between JD(S)  backed by the former community  and BSP  backed by the latter

Sitting quietly under the shadow of a banyan tree at noon, a few elderly gentlemen greet us in Sigaranahalli village of Hassan district in Karnataka. "What is the breakup of the village?" we ask one. "The entire village is Vokkaliga," he casually responds. Except there are around 40 Dalit families living in the village for years. Right opposite the banyan tree, stands an old Basaveshwara temple that infamously hit headlines three years ago, when four Dalit women were not allowed to enter the temple by Vokkaligas. Further, they slapped them a fine of Rs 1,000 for having attempted to do so.

After newspapers reported the incident, the administration stepped in, and eventually two Dalit women entered the temple amid resistance and police protection. Disappointed that the temple had "lost its sanctity", Vokkaligas in the village abandoned the temple altogether. Vokkaliga is a dominant peasant caste of the Old Mysore region. It comprises of 12 percent of Karnatakas population, and 53 of the MLAs in the current Assembly belong to the community, making it an influential one.

Most Vokkaligas are farmers, and the landless agricultural labourers working on their fields are Dalits. But the Vokkaliga-Dalit relationship, as the aforementioned incident indicates, goes a bit beyond the typically frosty one between an employer and employee. Vokkaligas are the backbone of the JD(S)  the party patriarch and former prime minister Deve Gowda belongs to the same community. JD(S) leader and Deve Gowda's son HD Kumaraswamy now rides the Vokkaliga wave.

However, the upcoming Assembly election is said to be a fight for existence for the JD(S). And the desperation to stay relevant makes strange bedfellows. In spite of the turbulent relationship between Vokkaligas and Dalits, JD(S) has forged an uneasy alliance with Mayawati's BSP in the hope of getting the incremental vote. Dalits comprise of 18 percent of the states vote share and as per the agreement, JD(S) will contest 184 seats, and BSP 20.

In the 2013 Assembly elections, in as many as nine constituencies, the BSP had polled more votes than the margin of JD(S)' loss. By forging an alliance, the party hopes to turn that around.

While the mathematics behind it is sound, the alliance could well backfire. The BSP cadres on the ground are stumped by Mayawati's decision. "We raised our voice against Vokkaliga oppression for all this while," says a BSP worker in Hassan on the condition of anonymity, adding, "Suddenly, we are asked to campaign for the JD(S). How are we supposed to face Dalit voters? Our old, loyal supporters are asking us uncomfortable questions, casting doubts on our integrity as we campaign for JD(S)."

The JD(S) will pull through in the constituencies where it is strong enough on its own. But in constituencies with tight contests, the alliance could push the crucial Dalit vote towards the Congress. Toiling in the coffee plantations of Shirgavara in Hassan, Jayanti, who makes Rs 220 a day, says she feels stabbed in the back by the alliance. "This was completely unexpected of Mayawati," she says, "The two parties have opposite attitudes. It is impossible for me to vote for JD(S). Plus, the sitting JD(S) MLA here has not even ensured adequate water or electricity."

At the same time, some loyal Mayawati supporters remain intact. In Gorur's Ambedkar Nagar, Kiran says the JD(S) MLA has been absolutely useless, "But we will vote for him because Behenji has said so." There are places where the alliance has gelled on the ground. Chamundeshwari, in the outskirts of Mysuru, for example, will surely pull some BSP votes towards JD(S). But in most places, it will not.

There is a sense that the BJP and JD(S) might be on to something. The BJP does not have much of a presence here. In fact, the fight in most of the Old Mysore region is between JD(S) and Congress, and to propel JD(S)' chances, BJP, in some constituencies, has palpably put forth a dummy candidate. In Chamundeshwari, where Siddaramaiah and JD(S)' GT Deve Gowda are locked in a photo finish, the electorate does not even know the name of the BJP candidate.

Thirty-year-old Siddaraju, who works as a teacher, says it is hypocrisy at its peak. "You ally with BSP officially, and have a tacit understanding with the BJP locally," he says, "It is shameless politics. Kumaraswamy has allied with the BJP earlier. What is the guarantee he will not do it again after using our votes?" The fear among many is that if the JD(S) is in a position to be kingmaker in case of a hung Assembly, it will dump BSP after using its name to get the crucial incremental vote that goes beyond Vokkaligas, and form the government with BJP.

The BSP itself is not likely to win a single seat. In 2008, it had a vote share of 2.74 percent that dwindled down to 0.94 percent in 2013. The party has pinned its hopes of opening its account in Kollegala constituency in Chamrajnagar District. In 2013, it finished second with close to 37,000 votes, around 10,000 behind the Congress. Interestingly, the Vokkaligas in Kollegala, small in number as they may be, do not seem too keen on voting for a BSP candidate.

"The only benefit of the alliance is that we can now campaign in all areas," says the BSP worker from Hassan, "Earlier, we only campaigned in Scheduled Caste localities."

However, that has not been much of a consolation. "We had a support base among government servants. That too is wavering. Frustrated by the idea of canvassing for the JD(S), some of the booth workers of BSP are asking people to vote for the Congress in some places," he adds.

The JD(S), at best, will add a bit of vote share to its tally, and at worst, will end up pushing the BSP votes towards Congress. The bigger loser in this game is Mayawati, who stands to gain little at the cost of a lot. If the party fails to open its account, she might see her cadre disintegrate in Karnataka and it will go down as a tactical blunder. She can only hope, then, the perception damage does not spill over into Uttar Pradesh.Despite being infamous as an absentee MLA from the constituency, Congress feels MH Ambareesh is a key leader to their victory in Mandya.

Mandya: Congress candidates in the Old Mysore-Mandya region are chanting the 'Ambareesh Mantra'. Popularly known as 'rebel star' in the Kannada movie industry, MH Ambareesh is the outgoing MLA from Mandya constituency and was the state housing minister until June 2016. While the party was counting on his presence as one of their 'star' campaigners for the 12 May elections, Ambareesh is channelling his rebel attitude and has not sought electoral blessings for them.

Despite being infamous as an absentee MLA from the constituency, Congress feels Ambareesh is a key leader to their victory here. His good relationships with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (Secular), caste equations in the region and his popularity are the reasons attributed to this.

Ambareesh was dropped from chief minister Siddaramaiah's cabinet in 2016 following his alleged inactiveness and poor performance. This pre-poll season, Ambareesh indulged in a cat-and-mouse game with Congress leaders by refusing to accept the Assembly ticket. While Ambareesh seems upset, there is discontent among his fans and followers as well. However, regardless of him refusing to contest, the party was counting on him for support.

Ambareesh was at the peak of his film career when former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda introduced him to politics. The byelections to the Ramanagaram Assembly segment in 1997 was necessitated after Gowda vacated the seat on being elevated as prime minister.

Although Ambareesh fought on the Janata Dal ticket and lost the electoral battle to CM Lingappa of Congress, political analysts then itself had seen Ambareesh as a future chief ministerial candidate for Karnataka. He joined Congress in 1999 and has fought five elections since. Whilst he won all the three elections to Lok Sabha, he lost the 2008 Assembly poll battle.

In Mandya district, there are seven Assembly segments  Malavalli, Maddur, Melkote, Mandya, Shrirangapattana, Nagamangala and Krishnarajpet. This with KR Nagara of Mysuru district forms the Mandya Lok Sabha constituency. Congress has won 12 elections for the Mandya Lok Sabha seat since 1951. Former external affairs minister SM Krishna is one of the leaders who participated in strengthening the Congress base in Mandya. Divya Spandana aka Ramya, head of the All India Congress Committee Social Media Cell, won the constituency in 2013.

Another reason for Congress to be scared is that Krishna, who led the party for several years in Mandya, joined BJP several months ago. Hence, Ambareesh was a must for Congress to gain power in the district.

The opposition JD(S), too, has established some supremacy in the last 15 years. It won four of the seven Assembly segments during the 2013 polls. But two of their MLAs, N Cheluvaraya Swamy of Nagamangala and AB Ramesh Bandisiddegowda of Shrirangapattana, resigned from the Assembly after cross-voting in favour of Congress candidates in the Rajya Sabha biennial election this year.

They have joined Congress, and their inclusion has definitely intensified the strength of the party, but Mandya district Congress committee president CD Gangadhar said Ambareesh was a trump card for the party.

Though Ambareesh, also a Vokkaliga, has opted out of the poll fray, his meeting with JD(S) state president and Gowda's son HD Kumaraswamy has alerted political workers since JD(S) is already gaining support among a major chunk of the Vokkaliga population in the district.

Ambareesh hasn't formally endorsed JD(S) yet. Kumaraswamy was quoted as saying: "He is disappointed with the way he was treated by the Congress... Ambareesh treats me as his younger brother. I am hopeful he will take a decision in a couple of days." Ambareesh has, however, stated that he is still loyal to the Congress.

L Sandesh, president of D Devaraj URS Backward Classes Forum, said though the district is being branded as Vokkaliga heartland, ironically Vokkaligas command only around 32-35 percent of votes in Mandya. 'Kurubas' and voters belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Class, Scheduled Tribes (SC-ST) and minority community will decide the fate of candidates, he said.

The SC-ST voters are approximately 20-22 percent of the electorate, Kurubas are nearly 20-22 percent, Lingayats-Veerashaivas are four-six percent and minorities and other categories are 17-19 percent in Mandya district, according to political observers.

However, Somashekar, a die-hard fan of Ambareesh, reminds that he is popular among other communities too. He has the capacity to pull votes of non-Vokkaliga communities as well, he said.

Hoping to not be affected by a disgruntled Ambareesh, Congress said it is banking on the achievements of the Siddaramaiah-led government in the state to win the elections. Former Congress minister MS Atmananda said Siddaramaiah has done a lot to make Karnataka hunger-free and uplift poor and downtrodden ever since he became the chief minister. Senior party leader Sathyananda also dismissed the issue and said everything is fine and all in the party are committed to strive for the victory of Congress candidates.

The author is a Mandya-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.Yeshwanthpur corporator GK Venkatesh, who was arrested along with Congress workers K Sunandamma Bore Gowda and Meenamma a day after the flying squad of the Election Commission (EC) seized around 10,000 voter identity cards, laptops and several copies of Form 6 with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) seals on it from an apartment in Jalahalli, said he and his colleagues are being framed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Yeshwanthpur corporator GK Venkatesh, who was arrested along with Congress workers K Sunandamma Bore Gowda and Meenamma a day after the flying squad of the Election Commission (EC) seized around 10,000 voter identity cards, laptops and several copies of Form 6 with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) seals on it from an apartment in Jalahalli, claimed he and his colleagues are being framed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Police have registered two separate cases based on complaints filed by the BJP. At this stage, because a second police case has been registered, a police investigation is on. Reports have been sent to the Election Commission of India. Delhi deputy election commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar made his own report as well, said Sanjiv Kumar, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) for Karnataka.

The first case was based on private complaints involving a group clash and the second complaint involves the discovery of several genuine EPIC cards. An investigation by the BBMPs returning officer revealed that the cards are 100 percent genuine. More than 800 (cards) have been verified, he added.

I have no connection with the case, said Venkatesh. They have made false allegations against me. I went to the apartment and shot the video myself. Police told me they had a copy of the rental agreement in Rakeshs name and he fled Bangalore. Police arrested six others.

But Rakesh, whose aunt, Manjula Nanjamuri, owns the flat at SLV Apartment in Jalahalli, said he can prove Venkateshs involvement. If he (Venkatesh) says that he has the video, tell him to send it. I have the video with documents showing what they were doing and what machines they were using. I can send you the proof, Rakesh said.

I filed the complaint at Jalahalli Police Station and requested the officers to take strict action but they are arresting the accused under bailable sections. I dont mind losing my life but I want police to take proper action. I think they are involved in it too. I think even the BBMP has a hand in this case, he added.

While Congress workers alleged the scam was being run by Rakesh, a BJP worker who contested the BBMP elections in 2015, Rakesh said he was the one who unearthed the scam and is being victimised. If I set it up, then why would I try to file a complaint and take it to such a big level? Many people have questioned me on this matter; I know that Im not the culprit; in fact Im the victim, he said.

An altercation occurred round midnight Tuesday between BJP and Congress activists after BJP and JD (S) workers raided the house from where the voter identity cards were recovered. Police initially arrested two persons in the case.

Claiming that house owner Nanjamuri was a BJP leader, Congress workers alleged that the BJP was behind the entire episode. Nanjamuri is a former BJP corporator. The Congress also alleged that Rakesh was Nanjamuris adopted son and was living in the apartment. But both Rakesh and Nanjamuri have denied the claim. While Rakesh distanced himself completely from Nanjamuri, the latter said Rakesh is her brother-in-laws son.

I filed complaints against all these people and that is why police arrested them. I have no connection with the flat. They are trying to create fake agreement papers in my name I think; if they submit it they should have my signature on it, said Rakesh. We called the people whose names were on the envelopes and visiting cards recovered from the house. They said Sunandamma collected the identity cards and thats why they arrested her along with GK Venkatesh, he added.

But Sunandamma said the BJP is trying to frame them. Around six to seven atrocity cases have been filed against me by the BJP. Why will Congress people work from a former BJP corporators (Manjula Nanjamuri) house? I dont understand this logic, she said. They are trying to frame us. Do you think people cant print visiting cards and pamphlets with our names on it? I dont understand why the BJP keeps targetting us. We will comment on the matter after the elections, she added.

Venkatesh echoed Sunandamma. This is all the BJPs doing; they were targeting people from minority groups. Among the 10,000 voter ids, around 5,000 belonged to Muslims and the remaining were of people residing in slum areas. I dont know why Congress is being targeted for something the BJP did.

Venkatesh, Mennamma and Sunandamma were arrested under Section 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means). The magistrate asked the investigating officer why we were arrested under this section and granted us bail, said Venkatesh.

On being asked about a BBMP corporator being arrested, Mayor Sampath Raj, who is running for re-election from CV Raman Nagar, said, Whoever had been arrested are being investigated by the EC. The EC has to decide. This isnt a civic issue, it is a law and order issue and an EC issue. It will be investigated by them.

Congress MLA Munirathna, who was accused by the BJP of running the scam, said that Opposition parties were putting forth baseless allegations against him and his workers. But Rakesh dismissed his statement as "lies". Munirathna held a press conference. Whatever he said was lies. Police is asking me to send the video which shot from my phone. Im talking to a lawyer and will submit the phone which shot it. I will give it to them only if they agree to give me some form of acknowledgment, said Rakesh.

Following the incident, the BJP and JD(S) demanded voting be cancelled in the Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency. But CEO Sanjiv Kumar said the integrity of the electoral rolls has not been compromised. People without EPIC cards who have other documents will be allowed to vote, Kumar stated. These documents include passports, passbooks with pictures, and government-issued smart cards.

Kumar said Munirathnas name was registered in an FIR and all accused will be booked under sections 120 B, 171 E, 171 F of the IPC and sections 123, 125 7A and 1C of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950. He, however, clarified that as registering an FIR is not a criminal indictment, Munirathna will be allowed to contest the election.

Refusing to give details of their investigation, Kumar said, Appropriate details will come in time. Internal communications are not discussed as it will interfere with the inquiry.

The author is a member of The NewsCart, a Bengaluru-based media startup.Starting Thursday, KCR will be wooing 58 lakh farmers and handing over Rs 8,000 per acre in two installments every year for every crop cycle.

A year from now, remember 10 May, 2018, if you need to put your finger on the date K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) started his election campaign for a second term in 2019. Because starting Thursday, KCR, over the next week, will be wooing 58 lakh farmers and handing over Rs 8,000 per acre in two installments every year for every crop cycle.

"This is a very good move as the money will act as seed capital", says Chengal Reddy, chairman of the Federation of Farmers Associations.

Rythu Bandhu (friend of the farmer), as the ambitious agrarian outreach of the Telangana government has been christened, claims that in 100 days between September and December 2017, it made 93 percent of land litigation-free in Telangana. Revenue officials said that translates to 1.43 crore acres of land in Telangana, excluding Hyderabad, where gram sabhas in every village verify claims and counterclaims.

In February, Arvind Subramaniam, Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, lauded the exercise. "Land purification campaign is the heart of good governance. It can be taken up by Harvard University as a case study", he said.

On the ground, however, agriculture activists dub it an unrealistic claim. The government said when the exercise was launched, the number of land under litigation was estimated to be 35 percent. Activists doubt if the jump from 65 percent to 93 percent has indeed occurred on the ground or just on paper.

"Once it is a disputed case, you need to hold a hearing for each dispute. It is like a separate court case", said agriculture activist Kiran Vissa. Besides, there are close to 11 lakh acres for which there are no legal documents but sale deeds written on white paper. Anecdotal evidence suggests a lot of them are still unresolved and not converted to legal sale deeds during the 100-day period.

The more important question is: How effective would this direct cash transfer be in mitigating rural distress? On the face of it, transferring Rs 8,000 directly to farmers to help them and thereby stop them from approaching moneylenders is a laudable idea. But take a closer look: 90 percent of Telangana's farmers are small and marginal farmers, and own less than 5 acres of land. Most of them are also tenant farmers  around 15 lakh  as they take more land on lease to cultivate. This scheme does not pay Rs 8,000 to tenant farmers, thereby excluding a large segment.

"Of the Rs 17,000 crore of agricultural credit given by public sector banks, 25 percent goes to people settled in Hyderabad who own agricultural land in Telangana districts. I suspect this Rs 8,000 will meet the same fate: Landowners will get the money rather than those that cultivate. This scheme, ideally, should incentivise those that farm. Instead, it will incentivise people to buy land", said agriculture scientist GV Ramanjaneyulu,

But KCR was clear: Tenant farmers will not be part of the largesse. "Most tenant agreements are oral. The government is not a party to the decision to lease land. If we get into it, it will only lead to legal complications. Besides, tenants and terms and conditions can change every year, every crop season. How can the government keep track?" asked C Parthasarathi, Agriculture Secretary of Telangana.

The scheme also seems to favour rich farmers, with no limit to how many acres of land can qualify for the dole. For instance, a farmer having up to 50 acres, besides getting money from his tenants, will pocket a tidy sum of money. Then there is the basic dispute over numbers. The Congress points to last year's agriculture survey conducted by the government which said there were 45 lakh farmers in Telangana who owned 1.24 crore acres of land.

"Now, the government says 58 lakh farmers own 1.39 crore acres. How is there a mismatch in figures? Where did the extra 13 lakh farmers, to whom the cheques are being issued, come from?'' asked D Sravan of the Telangana Congress. Sravan raises doubts over whether there is a passbook scam. The government claims the survey was incomplete and did not count all the farmers.

Opposition parties said it will be difficult for them to oppose the scheme as it would be construed as anti-farmer. Privately, they claim that in an election year, Rythu Bandhu resembles a vote buying scheme. The real test for the State will be to ensure that there is a reduction in the number of farmers resorting to the extreme step, under duress. Telangana figures in the top three states, along with Maharashtra and Karnataka, when it comes to farmer suicides.On the fifth day of his campaign for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed rallies in Vijayapura, Mangaluru and Bengaluru on 8 May.

On the fifth day of his campaign for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed rallies in Vijayapura, Mangaluru and Bengaluru on 8 May. He spoke about BJP's mantra of holistic development of all and asserted that the Congress, on the other hand, is only interested in playing divisive politics.

Earlier, speaking at a public meeting in Koppal, Modi said, "We only have one mantra, 'sabka saath sabka vikas'. But on the other hand, there is a party that ruled for 60 years out of the 70 years of independence. But they only run and oust the government only for one family".

Desperate attempts of Congress

Modi took a dig at the Congress, claiming that its leaders were now saying that if former party chief Sonia Gandhi canvasses in the state, it can at least save the security deposits of Congress candidates. "If you bring the mother (Sonia) to Karnataka and she does something, then maybe the deposits can be saved. This is what Congress leaders have started speaking," Modi said at the Vijayapura rally.

Modi, in his address, said, "Congress leaders have stopped visiting homes to seek votes. Now they are sitting in their offices, and thinking whom to accuse of their loss; should they blame EVMs or something else. They are planning ways to blame EVMs."

Farmers neglected

He also criticised the incumbent Siddaramaiah for doing nothing for the state of the farmers in the state and blamed it for playing "divisive politics" instead. "When people of Karnataka were going through tough times, irrigation minister, education minister and mining minister were busy conspiring to divide the society in an attempt to appease their masters in Delhi," Modi said.

Women's safety and empowerment

"These people have done nothing for the protection of women, whereas our government has brought in a strict to law to give death sentence to those who do such devilish deeds with our daughter," Modi added. He also congratulated Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa for promising to allocate 10,000 crores to further women empowerment in Karnataka.

Modi also claimed that the Congress was spreading lies on the issue of women's security and said that a daughter is a daughter irrespective of the community she belongs to. He also accused the Congress of not supporting the triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha.

Naamdaar jibe

Modi once again used the term 'naamdaar to address Congress leaders. "When I had spoken about Swachh Bharat and building toilets from the Red Fort, the Naamdaars mocked me. Those who are born with a golden spoon, never understand the difficulties of poor. We are committed to serve the poor and would continue to do so," he said. He added that the Bharatiya Janata Party was seeking votes in the name of development but the Congress was in such a position that their leaders did not have faith in their 'naamdar' (dynast) leader.

Basaveshwara mention

At the rally in Vijyapura, Modi said that Basaveshwara's message was against divisions of caste and community but the state government had got into a habit of working against his message and of forgetting his words.

"Basaveshwara conveyed that everyone should be taken along. This Congress government is dividing communities, castes, voters... divide and rule, pit one against the other. They want to save their chair. But Congress leaders do not know this is the land of Basaveshwara. It is not going to be divided into communities and will not accept division among brothers. They will remove the Congress but will not allow poison of casteism," Modi said.

He also reiterated that it was under former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government that Basaveshwara's first statue was installed in the Parliament.

Attack on Siddaramaiah

Modi also attacked chief minister Siddaramaiah for indulging in "vote bank politics."

"I do not understand why the chief minister dislikes Bengaluru. He has handed over Bengaluru to an infamous trio  and we all know this trio  we also know they have been given charge of this city due to vote bank politics. This trio excels in all the wrong things," Modi said.In the final lap of his campaign, Narendra Modi launched a sharp attack against Rahul Gandhi, saying a 'dynast' aspiring to be PM was sheer 'arrogance'.

In the final lap of his campaign blitz in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a sharp attack against Congress president Rahul Gandhi, saying a "dynast" aspiring to be the prime minister was sheer "arrogance".

Addressing back-to-back rallies at different places in the southern state, which votes on Saturday to elect a new government, Modi said Congress leaders were arranging big meetings and conspiring to remove him.

Gandhi 'day-dreaming' of becoming PM

Taking a swipe at Gandhi, Modi, on his sixth day of campaigning, said he was 'day-dreaming' of becoming the prime minister in 2019. He said that the Congress leader was not bothered about his party, its legacy, senior leaders, or the country.

"From morning till evening, while sleeping and while awake, he has only one thing on his mind and that is the prime minister's chair," he said while addressing rallies at Bangarpet, Chikkamagalur, Belagavi and Bidar. "Such is the arrogance of the 'naamdhaar'. This naamdhaar (dynast) doesn't care about others who are standing in the queue."

"He came like a bully, marched his way ahead when there were others waiting with so many years of experience. How can someone just declare himself the prime minister? This is simply nothing but sheer arrogance," Modi said.

He said Gandhi with an "inflated ego despite losing 25-30 elections in the last four years" didn't even bother about the leaders who have been waiting for 40 years and about other allies in the UPA.

Modi's attack on Gandhi at his rallies came a day after the Congress president said he was ready to occupy the prime minister's post if his party emerged as the largest party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The prime minister addressed 21 rallies while making six visits to the state where the BJP is going all out to unseat the Siddaramaiah government and regain power.

Congress shamelessly using undemocratic means

On the seizure of thousands of alleged fake voter ID cards and a lakh Form-6 (voter registration form) applications for the inclusion and transfer of voters from a flat here, Modi said, "Looking at defeat in front of them, as their tricks did not work, they have started a new game."

"I want to tell the people to be alert till 12 May (the day of voting)... The Congress shamelessly is using undemocratic means." Citing media reports, he alleged that by using thousands of fake voter ID cards, the Congress was attempting to win the election.

"People of Karnataka will not forgive the Congress for this... One is caught... don't know how many such sins they have committed," he added.

On attempts to forge an anti-BJP front, Modi said "big, big meetings are happening... big, big stalwarts are meeting" to remove him from power, "but keeping them all in the dark, Gandhi declared he will be the prime minister." "Doesn't this show the level of no-confidence within the (proposed) coalition?" he asked.

In his rally at Chikkamagaluru, Modi said that with great difficulty, the Congress had secured 40-odd Lok Sabha seats and lost elections in most of the states.

Congress brought 'six evils' to India

Modi also accused the Congress, which has been in power in Karnataka for the last five years, of not doing justice with the aspirations of the people of the state and instead, bringing six evils  "Congress culture, communalism, casteism, crime, corruption and contract system"  to the country.

He said Congress leaders were out on bail in a Rs 5,000 crore scam and had "absolutely no respect for many of our prominent institutions like the Election Commission, CBI, army, Enforcement Director or Vice-President's office.

"The Congress has been on a spree to disrespect and belittle these great institutions," Modi said, adding that they were now questioning the judiciary and even calling for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India.

'Manmohan's remote was at 10, Janpath'

The prime minister also attacked his predecessor Manmohan Singh, who on Monday had criticised the BJP government for its "disastrous policies" and "economic mismanagement", leaving the country with crises that were avoidable.

"When Manmohan had his government in the Centre, the remote control was at 10, Janpath (official residence of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi)," he said.

Under his rule, Modi said, it was the people who held the remote control. The prime minister said he would continue to follow the orders of the "high command"  the countrymen, the citizens.

Gandhi's Congress has no chance of survival

Modi also attacked the Congress for "defaming" institutions such as the CAG, CBI, NIA, ED and RBI by calling them wrong, and saying only the Congress is right and trying to "break the morale" of the army and security forces by raising questions about them.

"You might have seen in the last few elections the Congress is losing, and instead of accepting defeat by following democratic principles, they are lying by blaming EVMs," he said. He said the Congress had defamed the Election Commission of India that is respected globally for its work.

"They have started defaming the EC after they started seeing defeat. For them, the EVMs are wrong, the Congress right, the Election Commission wrong, the Congress right," he said.

Concluding his campaign at Bidar in north Karnataka, Modi said people of the state had decided to punish the party in such a way that now the party has no chance of survival. "Congress would secure the lowest number of seats in the state's electoral history in Karnataka Assembly polls," Modi said.

"It is clear to me that after Karnataka election under the leadership of Delhi's naamdhar, the entire Karnataka Congress will go for Kailash Manasarovar Yatra," Modi said.

Modi was apparently referring to Gandhi's remarks on 29 April when he had said he would undertake the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage, saying the thought struck him when he was travelling to the state in a chartered aircraft that suddenly came down by 8,000 feet recently.

Modi also flayed Gandhi over his visit to meet RJD leader Lalu Prasad "who has been punished by the court on charges of corruption and is in jail." "Isn't this support for corruption?" he asked.

With inputs from agenciesA PDP leader from the volatile district of Shopian, where at least 16 militants have been killed in last few weeks, said a majority of his constituents are presently on the side of militants because of New Delhis inability to initiate a meaningful dialogue.

Panic has gripped Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers from South Kashmir after a spurt in militant and civilian killings. Fearing attacks by violent mobs, the lawmakers are avoiding going to their constituencies in south Kashmir which have been the traditional stronghold of the ruling PDP.

The PDP, which is ruling the state in an alliance with the BJP, had won 11 out of 16 seats from south Kashmir in the last Assembly election in 2014. Since then the partys home turf has witnessed a tectonic shift, becoming a new address for the new-age tech-savvy militancy.

A PDP leader from the volatile district of Shopian, where at least 16 militants have been killed in last few weeks, said a majority of his constituents are presently on the side of militants because of New Delhis inability to initiate a meaningful dialogue. Mohammad Yousuf Bhat, PDP MLA from Shopian, told Firstpost in an interview, that the situation is worse than last year in his district.

We urgently need a political initiative to save young children from getting killed. The situation is worse than last year. New Delhi must initiate some kind of conflict resolution process, Bhat, 68, a former advocate and social activist, said.

Bhats residence was recently attacked with a petrol bomb at Memender area of Shopian constituency. The situation is such that if people find me, or any other political leader, in a place like where these funerals and protests take place, we will be lynched, Bhat said at his official residence in Jawharnagar area of Srinagar.

He was seconded by the MLA from Wachi constituency in Shopian district, Aijaz Ahmad Mir, who said one of the reasons for militants to gain the upper hand in the area is because they have influenced a majority of the youths in the age group of 14 to 28 years.

When a militant is trapped everyone rushes to save him because he is a local. I cant say that for a foreign militant. It is not possible to confront people like these when they are emotionally charged, Mir told Firstpost in Srinagar.

Both the MLAs said they have been giving clear-cut instructions to security forces to avoid civilian casualties from time to time, and whenever an encounter starts, they end up calling the district police to try to avoid civilian casualty. Despite that, the MLAs said, when youngsters throng the encounter sites the forces respond and they end up killing people.

Somehow we must prevail on the forces to avoid civilian killings. It is something no sane element would tolerate. But I am helpless too, and I have already conveyed my concerns to the government, Bhat said.

Shopian MLA Bhat said it is not proper for youths to go in front of the gun and get killed because the army is not trained in dealing with a law and order situation. Whenever human rights violations take place, it aggravates the situation. The law enforcing agencies should employ zero tolerance policy towards civilian killings, he said.

The anger is not just against the PDP, Bhat said, but against the entire mainstream politics in south Kashmir, and after continuous killings, it is only smouldering.

That is the reason our political movement is only restricted to circuit houses in the main town of Shopian, he said. No political party can afford to hold a public meeting in the area because of the threat from militants and for fear of exposing workers of the party. The former lawyer had got 15,000 out of 30,000 votes in Shopian constituency.

I am not performing the duty for which people had voted for me, Bhat said. This is only because of the human rights violations happening in my area, barring me from meeting my people. In some places, he alleged, the army violates human rights of people.

I have not been to the constituency in last four months. It is not a big deal to have a convention but we all have to understand that workers will become a target, Mir said. But that doesnt mean the administration is not working. The only problem is that there is no accountability on the ground.

Those who write on social networking sites dont vote and those who update on militants also dont vote, Mir said. Those who do, he said, they come to us and talk about streets and fencing of graveyards.

But having said that, it does not mean Kashmir is an employment issue.

The space for mainstream politics in the Valley has not just shrunk for the PDP, but the entire mainstream, believed Yasir Rishi, PDPs member of the Upper House in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. He said PDP was founded a decade after gun came to Kashmir, and it always been part of the solution instead of being a problem.

If you think Mehbooba Mufti is responsible for the killings of these children, then so is Hurriyat Conference, who preach violence, Rishi said. We have to make our children understand that you cant throw stones at people who have bullets.

But as the Valleys situation is fast heading towards a crisis, Rishi and his political peers are desperately seeking a solution to the lingering problem. Their desperate bid for political engagement makes sense as it also determines their existence in a conflict zone.Shiv Sena on Thursday praised Congress president Rahul Gandhi for being dignified while attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speeches and said said he could pose a challenge to the BJP in 2019

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena on Thursday praised Congress president Rahul Gandhi for being dignified while attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speeches and said said he could pose a challenge to the BJP in 2019.

The BJP should have welcomed Gandhi's declaration of his prime ministerial ambitions, the NDA ally said, adding that it was against democracy to make fun of Gandhi over his remark.

The BJP should have challenged him to defeat it in the 2019 general polls.

Gandhi had said two days ago that he was ready to occupy the prime minister's post if his party wins the most seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, making known his ambition for the top executive post.

Reacting to the comment, Modi wondered whether the country would ever accept such an "immature and naamdar (famous)" leader for the post.

Rebuking the BJP for criticising Gandhi's comments, the Sena said people would decide if the Congress president would become the prime minister in 2019 or face defeat.

"However, saying that he (Gandhi) is eager to become the prime minister or making fun of him is against democracy," it said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

"If there is democracy left in the country, the BJP should have welcomed Gandhi's statement and challenged him to defeat it in 2019," the Sena said.

Lavishing praise on the 47-year-old Congress leader, the Sena said, "Rahul Gandhi today is not the same as he was in 2014. He has become a strong-minded person after bearing criticism. He can pose a challenge to the BJP in 2019 and the Gujarat Assembly polls have proved this."

According to the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, the BJP uses "derogatory" language against Gandhi but he has never stooped to those levels to attack Modi and has "respected" him as the prime minister.

Gandhi's opponents have to agree that he has maintained a "certain degree of political class", the Sena said.

Taking a jibe at Modi, it said, "The prime minister has started remembering his 'alliance dharma' now. We are happy to hear that."

It said the BJP thinks there is no dialogue between the Congress and its allies. But what has been the BJP's level of interaction with its coalition partners and how many decisions in the interest of the country have been taken by working together, the bickering ally sought to know.

Allies were being "stabbed in the back" with the sword of power, which the BJP got due to the collective efforts of NDA partners, the Marathi daily said.

If the BJP asks how Gandhi can be the contender for the prime ministerial post when there are seniors in the Congress and UPA allies, then BJP stalwarts like LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi will be the right persons to answer, the Sena quipped.

"Similarly, Modi and (BJP chief) Amit Shah appointed the (country's) president without talking to NDA partners," the publication claimed.The Supreme Court has set the date for West Bengal panchayat poll date as 14 May asking the State Election Commission to ensure free and fair polls, media reports said.

The Supreme Court set 14 May as the date for the West Bengal panchayat polls and asked the State Election Commission (SEC) to ensure free and fair polls, according to several media reports.

In a setback to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the apex court stayed the results on 18,000 uncontested seats and said unopposed seats in Bengal cannot be notified, CNN-News 18 reported. The court also stayed the order on nomination by e-mails.

Earlier, the division bench of Calcutta High Court said, "Law and order is a state subject. We expect whenever elections will be held, fair steps will be taken. The state government will be liable for loss of life and property", ANI reported.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court heard the West Bengal SEC plea challenging the Calcutta High Court order directing it to accept the nominations of candidates who have filed their papers electronically within the stipulated time for the panchayat elections.

The SEC, which approached the apex court on Thursday, sought a stay on Wednesday's order, saying it would suffer "irreparable loss and injury" that cannot be compensated.

Anticipating the SEC's move, the state's main Opposition CPM and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) filed a caveat before the apex court saying that no ex-parte orders should be passed.

CPM state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra said in a tweet, on Wednesday, that "the TMC, WB Govt and SEC nexus, upset after the landmark judgment of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday wanted to move to the Supreme Court. A caveat has already been filed on our behalf there on Wednesday". The CPM claimed many of its intended candidates were prevented from filing nominations by the TMC.

The high court on Tuesday directed the SEC to accept the nominations of those candidates named by CPM who filed their papers electronically within the stipulated time before 3 pm on 23 April. Passing the order, the court observed that the poll process itself involved participation and to shut out an intending bona fide candidate from participating thwarted the very basic democratic principles on which it stood.

With inputs from PTIReuters

Apple ditched plans to build an 850 million euro ($1 billion) data center in Ireland because of delays in the approval process that have stalled the project for more than three years, the iPhone maker said on Thursday.

Apple announced plans in February 2015 to build the facility in the rural western town of Athenry to take advantage of green energy sources nearby, but a series of planning appeals, chiefly from two individuals, delayed its approval.

Irelands High Court ruled in October that the data center could proceed, dismissing the appellants who then took their case to the countrys Supreme Court.

Despite our best efforts, delays in the approval process have forced us to make other plans and we will not be able to move forward with the data centre, Apple said in a statement ahead of the Supreme Court heading on Thursday.

While disappointing, this setback will not dampen our enthusiasm for future projects in Ireland as our business continues to grow, the company said, citing plans to expand its European headquarters in County Cork where it employs over 6,000 people.

Advertising

Ireland relies on foreign multinational companies like Apple for the creation of one in every 10 jobs across the economy and sees major investments such as data centers as a means of securing their presence in the country.

The government is in the process of amending its planning laws to include data centers as strategic infrastructure, thus allowing them to get through the planning process much more quickly.

A similar Apple center announced at the same time in Denmark was due to begin operations last year and Apple announced in July that it would build its second EU data center there.

There is no disputing that Apples decision is very disappointing, particularly for Athenry and the West of Ireland, Irelands Minister for Business and Enterprise Heather Humphreys said in a statement.

The Government did everything it could to support this investment... These delays have, if nothing else, underlined our need to make the States planning and legal processes more efficient.Reuters

Uber Technologies Inc said on 8 May it would work with the US Army to advance research on a novel, quiet aircraft rotor technology that could be used in future flying cars, or military aircraft.

The alliance highlights stepped-up efforts by Uber and other companies to transform flying cars from a science fiction concept to real hardware for residents of mega-cities where driving is a time-consuming bore.

Uber and the Armys Research, Development and Engineering command said in a statement. They expect to spend $1 million to develop and test prototypes for a rotor system that would be used on a vertical take-off and landing vehicle.

The system would have two rotors stacked on top of each other, rotating in the same direction under the command of sophisticated software. This approach, which Uber and the Army said had not been deployed in a production aircraft, could lead to quieter operation than conventional stacked rotor systems.

Achieving ultra-low noise is one of the critical obstacles to deploying aerial taxis in urban areas, Rob McDonald, head of vehicle engineering for Uber Elevate, the companys flying car operation, said in an interview.

The Army wants to develop a new generation of unmanned drones that do not need runways and are quieter than current drones, said Dr. Jaret Riddick, director of the US Army Research Laboratorys Vehicle Technology Directorate.

The Army is increasingly turning to partnerships with private companies to research advanced technology, Riddick said in an interview.

Uber is planning more alliances with government agencies as it aims to launch prototype airborne taxis by 2020, Mark Moore, Ubers director of engineering, aircraft systems and a former NASA researcher, said in an interview.

Uber already has a partnership with NASA, the US government space agency, to develop software for managing large numbers of aircraft over cities, Moore said.

Uber is one of several companies, including aircraft makers Boeing Co and Airbus SE and a venture backed by Alphabet Inc co-founder Larry Page, that are investing in the concept of small, automated and electrified aircraft that could be used to ferry passengers or cargo across congested cities.

Uber said it would develop its low noise rotor system in collaboration with Launchpoint Technologies Inc, a Goleta, California, engineering company focused on electric and hybrid aircraft technologies.

Uber is holding a conference on flying vehicles this week in Los Angeles.YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenian President Armen Sarkissian dismissed the heads of the security service and police at the request of newly elected Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the presidential press service said on Thursday. The sackings of Vladimir Gasparyan as head of the police and Georgy Kutoyan as director of the National Security Service follow parliament's election of Pashinyan as prime minister this week

YEREVAN (Reuters) - Armenian President Armen Sarkissian dismissed the heads of the security service and police at the request of newly elected Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the presidential press service said on Thursday.

The sackings of Vladimir Gasparyan as head of the police and Georgy Kutoyan as director of the National Security Service follow parliament's election of Pashinyan as prime minister this week.

The former opposition leader was swept to power by a peaceful revolution driven by mass protests against corruption and cronyism in the ex-Soviet republic.

Pashinyan said in a social media post on Thursday that he had written to the president proposing Kutoyan and Gasparyan be dismissed.

Gasparyan, who had served as head of the police since 2011, will be replaced by Valery Osipyan, the deputy chief of police of the capital Yerevan, a presidential decree published on Thursday said.

Kutoyan, who had worked as head of the national security service since 2016, will be succeeded by Artur Vanetsyan, the head of the service in Yerevan.

The election of Pashinyan, a former newspaper editor who spent time in prison for fomenting unrest, marked a dramatic rupture with the cadre of rulers who have run Armenia since the late 1990s.

On Thursday, acting finance minister Vardan Aramyan said he was quitting his post before the formation of a new government under Pashinyan. Aramyan served as finance minister in the previous government led by former president Serzh Sarksyan, who stood down on April 23 amid protests.

(Reporting by Hasmik Mkrtchyan, Writing by Denis Pinchuk and Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber, Editing by Gareth Jones, William Maclean)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's Roman Catholic Church said on Thursday that more than 30 bishops would meet next week with Pope Francis in Rome in an attempt to make amends for the damage caused by a sex abuse scandal that has long plagued the country's clergy.

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Chile's Roman Catholic Church said on Thursday that more than 30 bishops would meet next week with Pope Francis in Rome in an attempt to make amends for the damage caused by a sex abuse scandal that has long plagued the country's clergy.

Days ahead of the meeting, Chile's Episcopal Conference, a group of bishops that leads the Church, said in a statement that it felt the same "pain and embarrassment" expressed in April by Pope Francis after meeting with victims of Fernando Karadima, a former Chilean priest accused of pedophilia.

Chile's bishops will travel to Rome from May 14-17.

"Pope Francis' embrace [of these victims] serves as an example for the Church as it confronts accusations of abuse of conscience, sexual abuse and any other abuse of power that may have occurred in our communities," the conference said.

However, a key figure in the scandal, Cardinal Javier Errazuriz, a retired archbishop of Santiago who sits on the Pope's kitchen cabinet, will be absent for personal reasons, Chile's La Tercera paper quoted him as saying.

Abuse survivors have accused Errazuriz and several prominent bishops of covering up the abuse committed by Karadima and seeking to discredit victims.

The Chilean Church did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Vatican investigation in 2011 found Karadima guilty of abusing boys in Santiago in the 1970s and 1980s, but he never faced civilian justice because of the country's statute of limitations.

The scandal was a factor in a proposal last week by Chile's government to remove the statute of limitations on sex crimes in the country.

In January the pope sent one of the Vatican's most experienced sexual abuse investigators, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, to New York and Chile to speak with the bishop's accusers and other bishops.

Scicluna produced a 2,300-page report, which prompted Pope Francis to acknowledge that he had made "grave mistakes" in handling the sexual abuse crisis in Chile and to call the country's bishops to Rome next week.

Such gatherings are rare and usually take place in a period of crisis in a national Church. A similar meeting took place in Rome with American bishops in 2002 during the papacy of Pope John Paul after a sexual abuse crisis exploded in the United States.

Church leaders in Chile have also called for a "drastic solution" to the long-running scandal, including resignations and dismissals.

(Reporting by Antonio de la Jara; Writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Richard Chang)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.A dam burst its banks in Kenya's Rift Valley, killing at least 41 people and forcing hundreds from their homes.

Nairobi: A dam burst its banks in Kenya's Rift Valley, killing at least 41 people and forcing hundreds from their homes, officials said on Thursday. At least 20 of the dead were children, police said.

Water burst through the banks of the Patel Dam in Solai, Nakuru County, on Wednesday night, sweeping away hundreds of homes, including those on the expansive Nyakinyua estate that borders the reservoir.

"Many people are missing. It is a disaster," said Rongai town police chief Joseph Kioko.

Nearly 170 people have now died since March from floods caused by seasonal rains, according to Kenyan authorities. The floods hit as the East African nation was recovering from a severe drought that affected half of the country.

Almost an entire village was swept away by silt and water from the burst dam, said Gideon Kibunja, the county police chief in charge of criminal investigations. Officials said homes over a radius of nearly 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) were submerged.

Close to 40 people were rescued from the mud and taken to hospitals on Thursday morning in operations by Kenya Red Cross and Nakuru County disaster management teams.

The area has seven dams used by a commercial farm, said Keffa Mageni, an official with an advocacy group that helps to resettle displaced people. With the heavy seasonal rains the dams do not have an outlet, he said.

"There are two other dams which are leaking," one resident, Stephen Nganga, said. He asked the government to investigate them for the residents' safety.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi visited the scene on Thursday and said the government had launched investigations to determine the stability of the six other dams.

More than 225,000 people in Kenya have been displaced from their homes since March, according to the government. Military helicopters and personnel in the past week have been deployed to rescue people marooned by the flooding.

The dam burst has again raised concerns about the state of Kenya's infrastructure. The National Construction Authority in the past has blamed contractors of bypassing building codes to save on cost.

In April 2016, a residential building in the capital, Nairobi, collapsed during rains, killing 52 people. Last May the wall of a hospital collapsed due to rains, killing six people in Kenya's second largest city, Mombasa.Trump's upcoming summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un is only the latest example of the president's go-big strategy. From tax reform to international trade to foreign policy, Trump has pursued a high-risk, high-reward approach that advisers say can help produce results on longstanding problems.

The way President Donald Trump sees it, why go for a solid single when you can swing for a home run?

Trump's upcoming summit with North Korea's Kim Jong-un is only the latest example of the president's go-big strategy. From tax reform to international trade to foreign policy, Trump has pursued a high-risk, high-reward approach that advisers say can help produce results on longstanding problems, but that, critics warn, could also trigger dangerous repercussions all the way from a trade war to global conflict.

Drawn to big moments and bigger headlines, Trump views the North Korea summit as a legacy-maker for him, believing that the combustible combination of his bombast and charm already has led to warmer relations between North and South. As he welcomed home three Americans who had been detained in North Korea, Trump early on Thursday used a televised, middle-of-the-night ceremony to play up both his statecraft and stagecraft.

"I think you probably broke the all-time, in history, television rating for three o'clock in the morning," Trump told reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews.

Trump has also played the disruptor's role in recent weeks and months by withdrawing the US from the Iran nuclear deal, imposing sweeping tariffs on allies and announcing he's moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, which is claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians.

It's all a sharp contrast to his play-it-safe predecessor.

"You hit singles, you hit doubles; every once in a while we may be able to hit a home run," President Barack Obama said of his own foreign policy. "But we steadily advance the interests of the American people and our partnership with folks around the world," he added.

Not all of Trump's attention-grabbing gambits have worked  and the potential risks going forward are daunting.

His push to overturn Obama's landmark health care law ended in a humiliating defeat for the Republicans. His decision to impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports has left global markets in a state of flux and unnerved some of America's closest allies about the potential for a trade war. And his withdrawal from the international nuclear agreement with Iran, with strong support from Israel, has escalated tensions in the already volatile region.

Critics say Trump sometimes focuses on bold gestures first  and fallout later.

For now, scoring a diplomatic win with Pyongyang has become Trump's top focus.

His outside-the-box approach to North Korea  complete with ominous taunts of raining "fire and fury" on the North while belittling its leader as "Little Rocket Man"  alarmed many global capitals and much of Washington's national security establishment, increasing worries about a nuclear war.

But, Trump believes it brought Kim to the negotiating table, with a summit between the two men now set for 12 June in Singapore.

Trump told one confidant that he now believes a deal with North Korea, rather than in West Asia, could be his historic victory. White House officials also believe that a triumph on the Korean Peninsula  something that has eluded the United States for generations  could bolster Trump's approval ratings, help inoculate him against the investigations swirling around him and maybe even trickle down to helping Republicans in this fall's midterm elections.

While some White House aides characterised Trump's moves as evidence of bold thinking, there is also concern that he has little sense of the potential repercussions from some of his big moves, believing that if things don't work out, that he can always just reverse course.

In the early months of his administration, Trump latched on to the belief that he could be the president to bring peace to West Asia. Fond of the idea of making history, the president told advisers he was driven to accomplish something that his predecessors could not and believed that his negotiating skills and strong relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could lead to the unprecedented achievement, according to four White House officials and outside advisers.

At one moment last spring, Trump mused in the Oval Office that he wouldn't even require a second term to settle things in the region, according to two people familiar with the exchange but not authorised to speak publicly about private conversations.

Though he did break with tradition to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, the White House plan bogged down and the divide between Israelis and Palestinians seems as intractable as ever, prompting Trump's attention shift to North Korea. Warned by Obama days after his election that the threat posed by Pyongyang could define his presidency, Trump answered Kim's threats with bellicose warnings of his own and rallied an international pressure campaign against North Korea.

Some Republicans have suggested his efforts should bring him the Nobel Peace Prize, an idea Trump clearly savored at a recent rally in Michigan when the crowd chanted "Nobel." Asked about the chatter in the Oval Office this week, Trump said: "I want to get peace. It's the main thing. We want to get peace. That was a big problem, and I think it's going to work out well."

Then he added his catchall caveat: "We'll see."

Long before he was president, the onetime New York real estate developer and reality television star often spoke about the benefits of acting boldly. In "The Art of the Deal," he put it this way: "I like thinking big. I always have. To me it's very simple: if you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big."

Trump appears to have embraced the "Great Man" theory of history, believing that individuals more than circumstances or trends alter the course of events. In his 2016 GOP convention speech, he famously declared "I alone can fix it," in referencing the nation's problems.

Trump and his team also believe that his bold tactics have the added benefit for Trump of overshadowing the threats his administration faces from the ongoing Russia probe and the legal web surrounding his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, and porn actress Stormy Daniels.

Rice University presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said Trump's diplomacy with North Korea is a "high-risk game."

"But, if he pulls off the denuclearisation of the North Korean Peninsula, it will be the landmark achievement," said Brinkley. "It's Trump's big going-to-China moment."There have been a series of mixed reactions from the media in West Asia on Donald Trump's decision to pulls out of the Iran nuclear deal.

US president Donald Trump has led his country out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, after having called the deal "a disaster" and "the worst deal ever". In the immediate aftermath of the decision, several world leaders, including European allies like France, Germany and UK, criticised Washington for unilaterally pulling out of the accord that Trump's predecessor Barack Obama had ironed out.

In fact, French president Emmanuel Macron is set to meet Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, with Paris saying the "deserves better than further destabilisation provoked by American withdrawal. So we want to adhere to it and see to it that Iran does too, that Iran behaves with restraint".

There have been a series of mixed reactions from the media in the West Asia, with editorials taking differing sides. Here's a selection of how the media reported Trump's decision in its editorials.

Riyadh-based Arab News was in favour of the pull-out, writing an editorial opinion piece titled 'Two thumbs up, Mr Trump'. "What matters to this part of the world is that we feared a president who would seek to divide us, but got one who last night talked about unity and how standing together will ensure we do not fail. We feared a president we were led to believe hates our values and culture, but we got one who sipped our coffee, joined us in sword dancing and told us last night that the US is not here to impose its way of life, but to offer us a helping hand if we choose to take it," it wrote.

The piece also criticised Trump's predecessor Obama over the latter's inaction when it came to acting against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. "We thought that when Trump said 'America First', he meant we would be neglected and left to our misery. But it is his predecessor Obama who did that when he opted to lecture and profess instead of adhering to his own red line when Syrian President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against his own people."

Gulf News, headquartered in Dubai, also had similarly harsh words for the Iran nuclear deal. In its editorial titled 'Trump is right to dump Iran deal', the publication said, "This Iran deal is indeed deeply flawed, and has done nothing to curb the hegemonic intentions of the regime across the Arabian Gulf. And Trump is right when he says that it has not brought peace. For those who doubt his veracity, look no further than Yemen, where our Arab brothers suffer as a direct result of the actions of Iran's Revolutionary Guard in aiding, abetting and training Al Houthi rebels, and supplying them with sophisticated weapons."

The editorial went on to add further that it's time to take strict action against Tehran. "What's needed now is stern action against a regime that is following a path of violence and vexation, one that is unsettling this region and one that is malicious in its intent and seditious in its actions," it added.

However, Qatar-based Al-Jazeera took a different approach and saw Trump's pull-out of the nuclear deal through the prism of Israel. It wrote an editorial using ISRAEL as an acronym for Iran-Saudi-Reversal of everything Obama-Arms-Engagement-Lynchpin. "Trump's America will not walk away from the Middle East (West Asia). If you thought the Obama doctrine envisioned US disengagement from the Middle East (West Asia), think again. The US will not leave a volatile region for Russia and Iran to dominate. Like his predecessors, Trump will fret and frown about his predecessors' mistakes and failures and the intractable problems of the region, yet still walk in their evangelical path of righteousness to save the region from its demons. And like his predecessors, he won't consider, let alone admit, how US strategies and policies have only made the region more chaotic, dangerous and violent," the editorial, penned by senior political analyst Marwan Bishara, said.

However, he had dire words of warning for Trump. "Relying on Saudi Arabia and Israel will prove to be shortsighted, especially as the Trump administration has already alienated European allies by threatening all those dealing with Iran with sanctions. A confrontation with Iran will not end with more US sanctions, certainly not without secondary sanctions against European, Chinese and Russian companies dealing with Iran. That will pave the way to a full-blown international crisis; one that could leave the US, not Iran, isolated," he added.

Israel's own Haaretz had harsh words for Trump, calling his decision a "disastrous pullout", and though Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had welcomed it, the newspaper said the decision will threaten Israel and endanger the world. "The fact that Netanyahu is working demonstrably and publicly against the agreement could paint Israel as pushing the world to war. The departure of the United States from the agreement, among other reasons because of the 'proof' provided by Netanyahu, could lead to a rift within Israels natural coalition. The prime minister might think that Israelis should be grateful to Trump, but at this point, the US pullout endangers the world and threatens Israel," he said.

It had further criticism in store for Netanyahu and his government. "Instead of calming the high level of tension between Israel and Iran, which manifested itself in increased preparedness for an Iranian attack and the opening of shelters in the north of the country, the prime minister and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman prefer to heat up the region and flex their muscles. This is behaviour that could cost dearly," it added.

The argument found a close parallel in an editorial written in Pakistan's The News International. The headline, 'A disastrous departure', was almost identical to the Haaretz piece, while it again made the argument that the deal may threaten peace in the region. "By pulling the US out of the deal, President Donald Trump has endangered peace in the region. The most immediate impact will be a return of US sanctions in Iran. The severity of these sanctions borders on the criminal and will only hurt the people of Iran rather than its government," it said.

It further went on to add that the move will empower hardliners within Iran. "There are already calls from within the country for Iran to begin enriching uranium at previous levels, even though Rouhanis government has urged caution. Should the response to Trumps provocation lead to Iran restarting its nuclear programme, it could lead to a chain of events in the Middle East (West Asia)," it added, while further adding that the ultimate fallout may be war.

"The possibility of the US itself taking military action cannot be ruled out. With one rash announcement, Trump has imperilled the peace and shown the rest of the world that his country cannot be counted on to abide by international agreements. The world today is a significantly more dangerous place than it was yesterday," it said.In some ways, Donald Trump has just given Iran's hardline clerics a lease of life

As predicted, US president Donald Trump has led his country out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran. The agreement that was supposed to increase international (read: Western) oversight into Tehran's nuclear programme and hopefully rein in its nuclear ambitions, was one of the few unambiguously positive legacies of Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, but ran into opposition even during the delicate negotiations. Critics tried to add riders involving their pet projects  usually human rights or missile development  to the deal in an attempt to derail the process. Consistent with his pre-election criticism for once, Trump had called the JCPOA a bad deal and promised to repudiate it if elected.

The US' European partners  Britain, France, Germany  and Russia have parted ways with Washington and declared their intent to continue adherence to the JCPOA; China has so far been mute but already threatened with a trade war with the US, it is highly likely that it, too, will follow the rest in holding on to the Iranian nuclear deal.

It is not yet clear what the fallout of the American departure from the JCPOA will be. Although the rhetoric of the exit has been focussed on how the agreement did not go far enough in preventing Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons, the fact that Trump administration officials have stated that sanctions will be "snapped back" indicates that they believe Iran to be in breach of its obligations under the JCPOA  although most technical experts disagree with this evaluation.

Given that the other members of the E3 + 3  particularly Britain, France, and Germany  will not be following the US example, the interesting question is if Washington intends to sanction their businesses and banks under the recently-passed Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) in the way India fears its defence dealings with Russia might. This would cause an enormous rupture in the US and world economy as China is the US' single-largest trading partner and Britain, France, and Germany are together the fourth largest ahead of Japan.

Yet, if Trump does use his presidential discretion to waive sanctions and exempt these four countries, it would be too blatant an act of political hypocrisy if the same treatment was not extended to others over Russia and North Korea as well as over Iran.

In February 2018, Patrick Pouyanne, the CEO of the French oil and gas giant Total, openly called for the implementation of the 1996 European Union Blocking Regulation, a law that prohibited European firms from cooperating with foreign demands that are in violation of international law or hurt European sovereign interests. Denis Chaibi, a senior diplomat in the European External Action Service, commented that the EU was looking at a variety of options and the blocking regulations would not be difficult to implement.

Ultimately, these are political instruments and businesses would be hurt either by European penalties for obeying US sanctions or the denial of access to American markets due to US sanctions. Obviously, firms would prefer having access to the far larger American markets than pin their hopes on soaring Euro-Iranian trade and the threat of blocking regulations is empty. States are supposed to exercise restrain and caution, and a tit-for-tat exchange between the US and its three primary European allies will hurt everyone. More to the point, the multinational supply chains of most large industrial houses today means that there would be few European firms that are not exposed to the US and are free to do business with Iran.

Internationally, many countries will be pulled into the US wake for similar reasons; most countries are fairly integrated into the US economy and their national economies are not robust enough to withstand the loss of the American market. Additionally, others may have political reasons to reluctantly support Washington. India, for example, has been trying to purchase high-end American weapons systems and seeks Washington's cooperation on several crucial issues such as defence technology and the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific. It is most likely that India will have to bear the damage done to its own ambitions in Chabahar and the International North-South Trade Corridor (INSTC). Delhi will have even more to lose if Tehran responds to India's distancing by handing the responsibility for the Shahid Beheshti port over to Beijing.

If India can persuade the US for a partial waiver on trade as it had done last time, its importance to Tehran would rise again only to the extent that other countries stop or reduce links with the Islamic republic.

Saudi Arabia, considered to be one of the beneficiaries of the American abnegation of the JCPOA, will enjoy, in the short-term, the spike in oil prices that is bound to follow Trump's decision. However, this entire episode will have reiterated to Iran that the only way to be truly safe from American interference, as an Indian general is supposed to have observed after the First Gulf War in 1991, is to acquire nuclear weapons. Tehran seems to have been acutely aware of this note  Iran's ambitions, as revealed by Benjamin Netanyahu's recent document dump, were to posses just five nuclear warheads than an entire arsenal.

Riyadh has only managed to stoke Tehran's determination and not douse it. The JCPOA was designed to give the international community breathing space to consider how best to dampen Iran's love of the bomb  it was never meant to provide a permanent solution as there are none. As the non-proliferation experience has illustrated, the determined country will acquire nuclear weapons regardless of the financial and political costs to it and the willingness to pay such a high price will attract unscrupulous suppliers. The classic example of this is Pakistan, whose nuclear journey would have taken far longer had it not been for the generous acts of commission by China and of omission by the US.

Perhaps the greatest beneficiary of the American walkout is Israel. On the one hand, the reintroduction and expansion of sanctions hurts the Iranian economy and removes funds that might have otherwise gone to fund the Hezbollah and its adventures in Syria but on the other, the European and Iranian decision to continue observing the JCPOA keeps the checks on the Iranian nuclear programme in place for at least the next decade. If the archives reveal 30 years down the line that this was a game of good cop-bad cop, it would be a strategic masterstroke by Benjamin Netanyahu.

The one certainty at this moment is that Iran is not as isolated as it was prior to 2015.

Even if Europe falls in line with America's wishes, Russia and China are both unlikely to go along with the West this time. Both countries have been antagonised by Trump's sanctions and threats of a trade war to be receptive to cooperation. This opens the door for greater Russian and Chinese influence in West Asia. Russia also gains from the rift that has been created between Europe and the US over the Iranian nuclear programme.

In some ways, Trump has just given Iran's hardline clerics a lease of life. There have been several signs that Iranians citizens are frustrated with their government and the poor economy. Some analysts were even hopeful of organic reforms that would gradually move the country from its extreme Islamic views. Trump's abandonment of the JCPOA underscores everything hardliners warned against  that the US is not a trustworthy partner and it ultimately seeks the total subjugation of Iran.

If Washington expects Tehran to come back to the negotiating table, it may have a long wait. Rather than re-engage with a party that has shown bad faith, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani may simply choose to wait out his American counterpart in the hopes that Trump's successor would be more amenable to the Obamaian status quo.

It is not clear what the Trump administration sought to achieve by leaving the JCPOA. If anything, it draws attention to the Iranian bogey in American minds and the ghosts of 1979 that such policies would have any support in the Houses of legislature or with the citizens. Pace the political acrobatics that are about to ensue over the coming days, the ultimate prize is the withering of the Iranian nuclear weapons programme. It is not clear if anyone in the White House had kept that in mind while thinking about abruptly walking out of an international treaty.Members of the country's fastest growing minority group are running for federal office, dozens of them as Democratic candidates deliberately playing up their Asian roots against a president they say demonizes the immigrants that make America great.

Washington: Members of the country's fastest growing minority group are running for federal office, dozens of them as Democratic candidates deliberately playing up their Asian roots against a president they say demonizes the immigrants that make America great.

The candidates include former refugees from Vietnam and children of immigrants from South Korea and India. They live in places where Asian Pacific Americans make up a large chunk of the electorate and in places where they do not. Their chances of winning vary.

But the candidates' unabashed celebration of their foreign ties is notable for a group of people who have had to prove their "American-ness," no matter how long their families have been in the country.

"I think partly it is a reaction to the current administration which has in its policies and statements sent out a very xenophobic message," says Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., who is campaigning for a third term in the House.

"It's also a recognition that what makes America great is immigration and the American dream; it's what people all over the world come to seek," he said.

Christine Chen, executive director of the nonpartisan Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, or APIAVote, says 2018 could be a watershed year for civic participation.

Asians, who make up 6 percent of the population, have traditionally lagged in voting due to language and cultural barriers and minimal outreach from political parties, she says.

In the 2016 presidential election, for example, about 49 percent of eligible Asian voters cast ballots. That was less than the 65 percent for whites and 60 percent for blacks but slightly higher than the 48 percent figure for Latinos.

It's hard to say definitively how many Asian Pacific Americans are running for Congress, although The Associated Press identified at least 80 candidates of both parties. More than a dozen candidates are Republicans, and the rest are Democrats, including incumbents.

There are currently 18 Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders in Congress; three are in the Senate.

"What's fascinating with the congressional candidates is they're coming from everywhere," Chen said, ticking off races in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, New Jersey and Texas. "What we're hoping is with all these people running, and if they win, that will continue to change how people perceive the community."

Among the candidates are nearly three dozen Asian Pacific Americans seeking to overturn Republican seats in the U.S. House as part of a broader Democratic surge to take control of the chamber. Some of them have already been eliminated, but others have advanced.

Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Aftab Pureval, for example, won Ohio's Democratic primary on Tuesday. He faces incumbent Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, in November.

A National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman, Jesse Hunt, said that the GOP also has compelling and diverse candidates. Republican Young Kim, for example, is a Korean-American who is on the June 5 California primary ballot.

"When my family came to this country, we came legally," she says in a 30-second campaign ad. "And not because we wanted handouts, but because we wanted the opportunity America provided to succeed on our own."

For former Groupon executive Suneel Gupta, a Democrat, it is precisely because of President Donald Trump's immigration policies that he's running for an open seat outside Detroit, Michigan.

"It is literally the moment that I realized my daughter's first president is going to be Donald Trump, and knowing that when he wants to 'Make America Great Again,' he wants a few less people that look like us around," Gupta said.

Political preferences vary among Asian ethnic groups although overall, more favor Democrats over Republicans, says Karthick Ramakrishnan, public policy professor at the University of California, Riverside and director of AAPI Data, which provides demographic information on Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.

About 40 percent of Asian American voters are undecided or unaffiliated.

Asians once voted Republican, with 55 percent choosing George H.W. Bush over Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992. But by 2012, Barack Obama had received nearly 75 percent of their vote and in 2016, Asian Pacific Americans overwhelmingly went for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Ramakrishnan says Asian American voters were turned off by the Republican Party and Trump rhetoric over immigration. Indeed, more than 70 percent of Asian adults in the U.S. are born abroad, according to the Pew Research Center.

Asian American voters soured further on the GOP after recent proposals to limit family-based immigration, a legal method used heavily by Chinese, Indians and other Asians to come to America. They also expressed horror over Trump's executive orders limiting travel from Muslim-majority countries, which they said reminded them of the Japanese American incarceration camps during World War II.

"As the son of immigrants myself, it felt very personal, it felt very un-American," said David Min, a law professor in Southern California who is among several Democrats challenging Republican Rep. Mimi Walters.

The stereotype of Asian Americans as "foreigners" was recently revived publicly when U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke used the Japanese word "konnichiwa" to greet a fourth-generation American of Japanese descent.

Democratic Rep. Colleen Hanabusa had just relayed the story of her grandfathers, who were incarcerated along with 120,000 other Japanese Americans following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, their loyalty questioned by the American government.

"I was stunned," said Hanabusa, who is running for governor of Hawaii, of Zinke's comment. "The first thought that came to my mind is, this is why Japanese Americans were interned."

Pediatrician Mai Khanh Tran, who is seeking an open seat held by retiring Rep. Ed Royce in Southern California's Orange County, expresses dismay that under Trump, the country that took her in as a 9-year-old refugee from Vietnam is closing its borders.

"This is a country that is welcoming and loving and kind and compassionate, and it has to continue for others," she said.

In New Jersey, the party is banking on national security expert Andy Kim to beat Republican Rep. Tom MacArthur, a Trump supporter who helped revive the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

The district has a tiny Asian population, but Kim says he's running on his lifelong ties to a district that Obama carried twice. Kim, whose parents emigrated from Korea, is a longtime federal employee who served in Afghanistan under General David Petraeus.

"What I want people to be thinking about is that I'm the kid next door who's doing everything I can to fight for this land that gave my family everything," Kim said.DEPOK, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesian police have resolved a hostage crisis at a high-security jail on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta, after nearly all the Islamist prisoners involved had surrendered, the country's deputy police chief said on Thursday. 'We have minimised the number of victims

DEPOK, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesian police have resolved a hostage crisis at a high-security jail on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta, after nearly all the Islamist prisoners involved had surrendered, the country's deputy police chief said on Thursday.

"We have minimised the number of victims. The operation ended at 07:15 (a.m.)," Commissioner General Syafruddin told a news briefing.

"The majority of terrorism convicts, above 90 percent, have surrendered," he said. Earlier, a Reuters witness had heard several blasts at the jail in Depok.

(Reporting by Darren Whiteside and Bernadette Christina Munthe; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Paul Tait)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.US) President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Tehran comes into effect immediately for any new contracts but gives a wind-down period of 90-180 days, the White House has said.

United States (US) President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Tehran comes into effect immediately for any new contracts but gives a wind-down period of 90-180 days, the White House has said.

"We have announced a withdrawal from the deal. So, we're out of the deal. The president signed a decision memorandum that instructs the departments and agencies to effectuate that. Part of that is reinstituting all of the nuclear-related sanctions that were waived by the Obama administration. So the sanctions are in effect as soon as they're promulgated," said National Security Advisor John Bolton. "What that means is, with respect to any new or prospective contract that's covered by it  with firms covered by our jurisdiction, that they are forbidden. So, in other words, no new contracts in the prescribed areas. "For contracts that already exist, there is a wind-down period to allow an orderly termination of the contract, so that people who in good-faith reliance on the waiver of the sanctions  have engaged in business are not totally surprised," Bolton explained.

He said there are going to be different wind-down periods depending on the nature of the commodities. "But I don't really think anybody in the business world is surprised at this action," he said. Bolton said it's entirely possible that additional sanctions will follow as new information comes to light. "That's something that we should pursue vigorously because we want to put as much economic pressure on Iran as we can, and deny them the revenues that they would have gotten from the transactions we're now eliminating," he said, reiterating that the decision that Trump signed on Tuesday puts sanctions back in place that existed at the time of the deal.

"What that means is that within the zone of economics covered by the sanctions, no new contracts are permitted," he said, adding that the US Treasury will be announcing what they call wind-down provisions that will deal with existing contracts. "This contingency has been posted on the Treasury Department website since 2015 because of the potential for the use of the provisions of Resolution 2231, which we're not using because we're out of the deal. In other words, the concept that there would be a wind-down period has been there for a long time. That's basically the pattern we are following. But the fact of the sanctions coming back in is effective right now," Bolton said.

A senior state department official explained that the US is providing a six-month wind-down for energy-related sanctions. "So that's oil, petroleum, petrochemicals, and then all of the ancillary sanctions that are associated with that," the official said.

So, for example, banking sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran in particular because it is involved in Iran's export of oil and the receipt of revenues. Shipping, shipbuilding, ports  all of those sanctions that are related to both the energy sector and then the banking and the shipping or transportation of that energy will all have a six-month wind-down period. "Everything else is going to have a 90-day wind-down. So the architecture of the Iranian sanctions programme was quite complex, but everything else includes things like dealing in the trial, providing metal  precious metals and gold to the Iranian regime, providing US banknotes," the official said.

In addition, within the first 90 days, the treasury department is going to work to end terminate the specific licenses that were issued pursuant to the statement of licensing policy on civil aviation. "So treasury's going to be reaching out to those private sector companies that have licenses and work to terminate those licences in an orderly way that doesn't lead to an undue impact on the companies," the state department official said.JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Iranian forces on the Syrian-held side of the Golan Heights shelled Israeli army outposts on the strategic plateau on Thursday but caused no casualties, the Israeli military said. Israel retaliated for the attack, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, without elaborating. The late-night incident followed a surge in tensions between Israel and Syria, where Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces have been helping Damascus beat back a 7-year-old rebellion

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Iranian forces on the Syrian-held side of the Golan Heights shelled Israeli army outposts on the strategic plateau on Thursday but caused no casualties, the Israeli military said.

Israel retaliated for the attack, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, without elaborating.

The late-night incident followed a surge in tensions between Israel and Syria, where Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces have been helping Damascus beat back a 7-year-old rebellion.

Fearing that Iran and Hezbollah are setting up a Lebanese-Syrian front against it, Israel has occasionally struck at their forces. Iran blamed it for an April 9 air strike that killed seven of its military personnel in Syria, and vowed revenge.

Conricus said that, in Thursday's attack, around 20 projectiles, most likely rockets, were fired by the Quds Force, an external arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, at around 12.10 a.m.

"A few of those rockets were intercepted" by Israel's Iron Dome air defence system, Conricus told reporters. "We are not aware of any casualties. The amount of damage that we currently assess is low."

Asked if Israel retaliated for the salvo, he said: "We have retaliated but I have no further details about this."

Expectations of a regional flare-up were stoked by U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement on Tuesday that he was withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal. Hours later, an Israeli air strike in Syria killed 15 people, including 8 Iranians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Israel has neither confirmed or denied responsibility.

(Reporting by Stephen Farrell; Editing by James Dalgleish)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.By Agustinus Beo Da Costa DEPOK, Indonesia (Reuters) - Islamist militant prisoners have killed five members of an elite Indonesian counter-terrorism force at a high-security jail and were holding one of them hostage on Wednesday, police said. One convicted terrorist had also been killed in clashes at the jail in Depok, on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta, national police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal told reporters. Authorities were unsure how many people remained inside the prison complex

By Agustinus Beo Da Costa

DEPOK, Indonesia (Reuters) - Islamist militant prisoners have killed five members of an elite Indonesian counter-terrorism force at a high-security jail and were holding one of them hostage on Wednesday, police said.

One convicted terrorist had also been killed in clashes at the jail in Depok, on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta, national police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal told reporters.

Authorities were unsure how many people remained inside the prison complex.

"Five of our colleagues died ... one of our colleagues is still inside and being held hostage," Iqbal said, adding that the hostage was reported to be safe.

It was the highest death toll suffered by the counter-terrorism police force, known as Detachment, or 'Densus', 88, which was set up in 2003 and received training and funding from Australia and the United States.

The squad largely broke up militant cells in the world's largest Muslim-majority country. But a recent spate of low-level attacks inspired by Islamic State prompted authorities to more than double its force to 1,300 late last year.

Chief security minister Wiranto said the incident was being treated "very carefully because it concerns national security".

Police spokesman Iqbal said the prison, at the Mobile Police Brigade headquarters, held about 130 convicted terrorists, but it was unclear how many were involved in the clashes, which broke out late on Tuesday.

The prisoners are suspected of having taken weapons from the police who were killed.

Police said four officers were negotiating with the prisoners.

"If they surrender, it will be a non-violent process. But if there is a threat to officers or others, we will take very strong action," Iqbal said.

In a message carried on its Amaq news agency, Islamic State claimed responsibility and said 10 counter-terrorism officers had been killed.

Iqbal denied that Islamic State was involved. He said a dispute had broken out over checks by prison authorities of prisoners' food.

But another police spokesman, Setyo Wasisto, said some of the prisoners had recently met Aman Abdurrahman, who is believed to be the ideological leader of IS sympathisers in Indonesia. He is on trial for terrorism and is held at the same prison.

Police maintained tight security around the jail and kept onlookers away.

Islamic State sympathisers have carried out a series of mostly low-level attacks in Indonesia over the past few years.

Last year, an attack by two suicide bombers, using pressure cookers packed with explosives, killed three police and wounded 12 people at a Jakarta bus terminal.

In January 2016, four Islamic State-linked militants mounted a gun-and-bomb attack at an intersection outside a Starbucks cafe in central Jakarta, killing themselves and four others.

(Additional reporting by Tabita Diela, Kanupriya Kapoor, Ahmed Tolba; Writing by Ed Davies and Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Nick Macfie, Robert Birsel)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.At the age of 92, Mahathir Mohamad will become the oldest elected leader in the world following a stunning victory in Malaysia's general election, where an alliance of Opposition parties spearheaded by the veteran strongman claimed majority, setting Mohamad on course for a return to the Prime Minister's Office he occupied for 22 years.

Official results showed that Mahathir's Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope) won 113 of Parliament's 222 seats, clinching the simple majority required to rule. Najib Razak's ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) had 79.

Mahathir told a news conference he expected to be sworn in as prime minister later on Thursday.

Few expected Mahathir to prevail against a coalition that has ruled the Southeast Asian country since Independence from Britain six decades ago, and has long relied on the support of the country's ethnic-Malay majority.

However, he joined hands with his one-time protege, the jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim, and together their alliance exploited public disenchantment over the cost of living and a multi-billion-dollar scandal that has dogged Najib since 2015.

Mahathir's victory was surreal for his family. "It seemed so difficult. Impossible. I didn't dare think even though I was out there and I saw the crowds," said his daughter Marina Mahathir. "He is a veteran, he knows how to do this."

Who is Mahathir Mohamad?

A former doctor who entered politics in 1964, Mahathir governed Malaysia with an iron fist for 22 years from 1981 to 2003, with accusations of rights abuses overshadowing a period that also saw the country transform from a sleepy Southeast Asian backwater to a relatively affluent country.

At the young age of 21, Mahathir joined United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), BBC News reported. He ran a medical practice for seven years in his home state of Kedah before his appointment as a member of Parliament in 1964. The UMNO was a founding member of the Barisan Nasional coalition.

The BBC News report further added that in 1969, Mahathir lost his seat. He also wrote an open letter criticising then prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, which led to his expulsion from the party.

Later, Mahathir penned a controversial book titled The Malay Dilemma, in which he asserted that the Malay population in the country had been marginalised. However, he also reprimanded them for apathetically accepting a second-class status.

Following the release of the book, Mahathir was welcomed back into the party. In 1974, he was re-elected to Parliament and appointed minister of education.

Four years later, Mahathir took on the role of UMNO's deputy leader, and in 1981, he became prime minister. He is remembered fondly by some as a champion of the country's Muslim Malay majority and the father of modern Malaysia, credited with policies that helped the economy blossom. Mahathir's vision to be a global player inspired the development of Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Twin Towers.

But he was also criticised for disregarding human rights, undermining the judiciary, jailing political opponents and pushing policies that exacerbated racial divisions in the multi-ethnic country.

Frosty relationship with Australia

According to a report, Mahathir shared a frosty relationship with Australia during his time as prime minister over his belief that Australia did not belong in Asia.

In 1981, his first year as prime minister, Mahathir refused to attend the Commonwealth summit Australia hosted in Melbourne. In 1993, he declined to participate in the inaugural Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and pressed for Australia's exclusion. This led then Australian prime minister Paul Keating to label him a "recalcitrant".

The bilateral relationship between the two countries did not improve during the John Howard era either, with Mahathir asserting that the then Australian prime minister did not belong at the first East Asia summit, as Australia's views would only reflect those of the US.

In 2003, his final year as prime minister, Mahathir delivered a controversial speech at an Islamic summit, in which he discussed the Jewish domination of the world.

The Jerusalem Post quoted Mahathir as saying, "1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews. There must be a way. And we can only find a way if we stop to think, to assess our weaknesses and our strength, to plan, to strategise and then to counterattack. We are actually very strong. 1.3 billion people cannot be simply wiped out. The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million. But, today the Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them."

His speech drew widespread criticism from Australia, the US, Western Europe and Israel.

Life as a retired prime minister

Mahathir maintained a vocal presence in the political arena even after he retired as prime minister. He publicly criticised his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. According to The New York Times, Mahathir quit the UMNO in 2008, a move many believed was a tactic aimed at forcing the resignation of his handpicked successor Badawi. He rejoined the party after Badawi stepped down the following year.

BBC News reported that Badawi's resignation paved the way for Najib's rise to power. However, as allegations of corruption against Najib emerged, he lost Mahathir's support.

Saying he was "embarrassed" by the UMNO's involvement in efforts to shield Najib from the corruption allegations, Mahathir left the organisation once again in 2016, The New York Times report added. "I want to leave UMNO because it is no longer UMNO," he said. "It is a party dedicated to protecting Najib. I can't be a member of such a party."

Return to frontline politics

Mahathir's return to frontline politics started when he fell out with his one-time protege Najib over allegations that huge sums were looted from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Najib and 1MDB deny any wrongdoing.

During a vicious election campaign, Mahathir energetically toured the country, attacking Najib over his mismanagement of the economy and the 1MDB financial scandal. "The biggest mistake that I made in my life is choosing Najib," he said in one broadside. "I want to fix this mistake."

Renewed friendship with Anwar Ibrahim

In a volte-face that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, Mahathir teamed up with parties that he suppressed while in power to take on the party he once led. Mahathir also buried the hatchet with his fiercest critic and former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim.

Malaysias political landscape was shaped for nearly two decades by a bitter feud between Anwar and Mahathir. Anwar was once a protege of the veteran prime minister, Mahathir, and the rising star of Malaysian politics, but they fell out in the late 1990s.

Soon afterwards, Anwar was jailed for the first time on charges of sodomy and graft, after being sacked as the deputy prime minister. He denied the charges, dismissing them as politically motivated.

He was convicted and jailed in 2013, when Najib was prime minister, for another sodomy charge, which he and his supporters described as a politically-motivated attempt to end his career.

But after their years of animosity, opposition to Najib drew Anwar and Mahathir back together. Last year, Anwar endorsed a political compact spearheaded by Mahathir to fight Najib.

Mahathir has promised to seek a royal pardon for Anwar if they win the election, and once Anwar is free, to step aside and let him become prime minister.

With inputs from agenciesParaguay's Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the country will shift its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Paraguay's Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the country will shift its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, following the United States and Guatemala in a change long sought by Israel's government but opposed by Palestinians. The ministry said in a statement yesterday that it "has begun the process" of carrying out the order by President Horacio Cartes.

Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said earlier this week that Cartes would attend the opening ceremony, which he said would occur by the end of May. However, the spokeswoman for Paraguay's Foreign Ministry, Elvio Venega, said no date has been determined. The Paraguayan statements did not indicate if Cartes would go to Israel for the ceremony.

The president, whose five-year term ends 15 August, is expected to resign within a few weeks so that he can be sworn into a seat to which he was elected in Paraguay's Senate. The constitution forbids officials to hold two posts simultaneously. The US officially opens its embassy in Jerusalem on 14 May 14 followed two days later by Guatemala.

President Donald Trump overturned decades of US policy last year by announcing the Jerusalem move. Israel claims the entire city as its eternal capital. Palestinians want east Jerusalem as their future capital and were infuriated by the declaration. Most countries maintain embassies in Tel Aviv and have baulked at moving them until the international legal status of the city has been resolved.

Cartes' decision irked some within Paraguay as well. Luis Castiglioni, who has been designated as the future foreign minister by president-elect Mario Abdo Benitez, told the Mil radio station that "it would have been better to consult with the president-elect in this case, which could have geopolitical consequences."By Julia Payne LONDON (Reuters) - South Sudan will finish paying off its debt to neighbour Sudan in June with a final cargo of crude oil, South Sudan's oil minister Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth told Reuters on the sidelines of the Africa Oil and Power investor forum in London.

By Julia Payne

LONDON (Reuters) - South Sudan will finish paying off its debt to neighbour Sudan in June with a final cargo of crude oil, South Sudan's oil minister Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth told Reuters on the sidelines of the Africa Oil and Power investor forum in London.

The debt stems from a 2012 deal that ended a dispute over oil payments between the two nations after South Sudan seceded the previous year. In the deal, South Sudan agreed to pay $3 billion to its northern neighbour.

Two years after its secession from Sudan, South Sudan was plunged into civil war, which led to a sharp cut in its oil production that the country is now trying to reverse.

The country is currently producing 130,000 barrels per day (bpd) and aims to hit 280,000 bpd later this year. Its peak was 350,000 bpd in 2011.

A ramp up this year will come from its Dar Petroleum Operating Co, in which China's CNPC and Malaysia's Petronas have major stakes. GPOC, its other venture that has produced oil and whose largest stakeholder is CNPC, has taken initial steps to resume operations in its Unity oilfield. South Sudan's Nilepet holds an 8 percent stake in GPOC.

Gatkuoth said GPOC had hired Hong Kong-listed Frontier Services Group (FSG), which produced a security assessment in March saying it would be safe for GPOC to resume output.

FSG is owned by Erik Prince, a former U.S. Navy seal and brother of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Prince founded a company formerly known as Blackwater that he was forced to sell after some of its guards were convicted of killing 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians.

Gatkuoth said several steps remained before GPOC would resume output and that another venture SPOC, led by Petronas, had not yet conducted a similar survey.

"The next step (for GPOC) is a technical assessment to see what damage has been done," the minister said.

"The processing facility was destroyed, the control room was destroyed but the pipelines and wellheads are intact. The power lines were destroyed but we got an agreement with Sudan to supply 8 megawatts (MW); the facility needs 18 MW."

The United States ramped up its sanctions on South Sudan in March this year by adding 15 companies operating in the African country's oil sector to its list. Washington accused the government and officials of using revenues "to purchase weapons and fund irregular militias that undermine the peace, security, and stability of South Sudan."

Gatkuoth said the restrictions had no impact on oil production other than deterring U.S. investment, but added he was in discussions with foreign firms such as Total for stakes in some oilfields.

"The machines, rigs ... they all come from China but I want U.S. companies to come back as well," he said.

Land-locked South Sudan sells its crude via pipeline through Sudan. Gatkuoth said Switzerland-based Trafigura, Lebanon's BB Energy and Nigeria's Sahara Energy were the three buyers for the country's crude with cash advances.

Trafigura used to be the sole lifter but BB Energy began last year and Sahara will start this month. He said South Sudan was not seeking long-term pre-payments for now.

(Additional reporting by Maggie Fick in Nairobi; Editing by Mark Potter)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.By Isla Binnie MADRID (Reuters) - Spain acted on Wednesday to block pro-independence politicians in Catalonia from voting in ex-leader Carles Puigdemont, now in Germany, as their regional head with a deadline looming to form a government and avoid fresh elections. Madrid said it had appealed a new Catalan law that would have allowed Puigdemont to be elected at a distance while he waits in Berlin for German courts to rule on a Spanish request to extradite him

By Isla Binnie

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain acted on Wednesday to block pro-independence politicians in Catalonia from voting in ex-leader Carles Puigdemont, now in Germany, as their regional head with a deadline looming to form a government and avoid fresh elections.

Madrid said it had appealed a new Catalan law that would have allowed Puigdemont to be elected at a distance while he waits in Berlin for German courts to rule on a Spanish request to extradite him.

"We are appealing (before the Constitutional Court)... against a law that aims to swear in someone who has fled from justice and is living abroad," Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told reporters at the lower house of parliament in Madrid.

The Constitutional Court later accepted the appeal, meaning the law will be blocked until the court makes a final decision, which could take months.

Catalan lawmakers must pick a leader to form a government by May 22 to avert more elections and plot a path out of a seven-month standoff which has given Spain, the euro zone's fourth-largest economy, its worst dose of instability in decades.

A spokesman for Puigdemont's party in the Madrid parliament played down the chances of fresh elections, saying the two main secessionist parties would agree on an alternative candidate.

"If (Puigdemont's candidacy) is blocked, I am sure Together for Catalonia and Republican Left of Catalonia will choose a candidate," Carles Campuzano said.

The disputed law was approved last week by the Barcelona parliament, which is still dominated by secessionist groups since elections last December that Rajoy had hoped would stifle the independence movement.

Puigdemont fled to Belgium in October after Rajoy fired his administration for holding a banned independence referendum, and was then arrested while travelling through Germany.

The central government still has direct control over the parliament he left behind, and it is not clear who the secessionist movement would call on next to take the mantle.

By moving to suspend the law, Madrid is likely to thwart the fifth attempt this year to put forward a leadership candidate, all of whom are either in prison or abroad. Puigdemont has now tried twice.

The deadlock has caused frustration in the pro-independence coalition. Last week, the jailed leader of the Republican Left of Catalonia called on his allies in Puigdemont's traditionally right-wing group to form a government and shake off direct rule.

(Additional reporting by Paul Day and Jesus Aguado; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian air defences confronted Israeli rockets on Syrian territories without specifying the location, state media reported early on Thursday quoting a military source. The Israeli military in a statement earlier accused Iranian forces on the Syrian-held side of the Golan Heights of shelling Israeli army outposts on the strategic plateau but caused no casualties.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian air defences confronted Israeli rockets on Syrian territories without specifying the location, state media reported early on Thursday quoting a military source.

The Israeli military in a statement earlier accused Iranian forces on the Syrian-held side of the Golan Heights of shelling Israeli army outposts on the strategic plateau but caused no casualties.

Israel retaliated for the attack, military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, without elaborating.

(Reporting by Dahlia Nehme; Editing by Sandra Malerby)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.US President Donald Trump's nominee to be the next CIA director said the spy agency learned 'tough lessons' from its use of harsh detention and interrogation tactics on terror suspects after 9/11 and that if confirmed, she would not permit the CIA to restart such a programme.

Washington: US President Donald Trump's nominee to be the next CIA director said Wednesday the spy agency learned "tough lessons" from its use of harsh detention and interrogation tactics on terror suspects after 9/11 and that if confirmed, she would not permit the CIA to restart such a programme.

"CIA has learned some tough lessons, especially when asked to tackle missions that fall outside our expertise," acting CIA director Gina Haspel told the Senate intelligence committee. "For me, there is no better example of implementing lessons learned than what the agency took away from the detention and interrogation programme."

"It is important to recall the context of those challenging times immediately following 9/11," she said. "Having served in that tumultuous time, I can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and without reservation, that under my leadership, CIA will not restart such a detention and interrogation programme."

Haspel's promise could put her at odds with Trump, who spoke during the campaign about toughening the US approach to fighting extremists and vowed to authorise waterboarding and a "hell of a lot worse."

Before the confirmation hearing got underway, protesters in the room shouted anti-torture slogans. Committee chairman Senator Richard Burr, R-NC, said those who disrupt the hearing will be escorted out. He said the hearing is not about the now-defunct CIA interrogation programme, but about who should lead the agency in the future as it faces current threats to US national security.

The sound of dozens of clicking cameras greeted Haspel as she entered the room and shook hands with members of the committee. In her opening remarks, she acknowledged that the American public wants to know her views on the CIA's now-defunct detention and interrogation programme.

Haspel said that being in the public spotlight is new for her because she spent more than 30 years "in the shadows" working undercover and acquiring secret information from dead drops and meetings in dusty back alleys of third-world capitals.

She portrayed herself as a "typical middle-class American" with a "strong sense of right and wrong" who just doesn't happen to have any social media accounts. She said she was born in Kentucky and while her family has deep roots there, she grew up as an Air Force "brat," following her father to postings all over the world.

Haspel emphasised her experience, saying, "I know CIA like the back of my hand."

"I joined CIA in 1985 as a case officer in the clandestine service," she said. "From my first days in training, I had a knack for the nuts and bolts of my profession. I excelled in finding and acquiring secret information."

Haspel's fate hinges on how well she fields tough questions from senators who want details of her time running a covert detention site where terror suspects were waterboarded, a tactic that simulates drowning, and seek an explanation for why she wanted videos of the sessions destroyed.

Haspel's critics outside Congress have stepped up their opposition, arguing that anyone who willingly participated in one of the CIA's darkest chapters should not head the spy agency. They argue that having Haspel as the face of US intelligence will undercut America's effort to champion human rights.

Democrats have complained that the CIA has failed to declassify enough information on her career, leaving the public in the dark about the person who might end up leading the CIA.

Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said that Haspel is among the most experienced people to be nominated to serve as CIA director. But, he said, many people, including him, have questions about the message the Senate would send by confirming someone for this position who served as a supervisor in the CIA Counterterrorism Center during the time of the detention and interrogation programme.

Democrat Senator Ron Wyden, Oregon, and three of his Democratic colleagues recently wrote a letter to Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, asking that his office, which oversees all US intelligence agencies, declassify the documents. He cited a provision of an executive order that prohibits information from being classified "in order to conceal violations of law, inefficiency or administrative error" or "to prevent embarrassment to a person, organization or agency."

Wyden warned it would set a damaging precedent "if this administration is allowed to get away with what I consider to be a secret confirmation" for the most visible official in US intelligence.

In her defense, Haspel said that in retrospect it is clear, as the Senate committee's 2014 report on the programme concluded, that the "CIA was not prepared to conduct a detention and interrogation programme."

If confirmed, Haspel said she will follow the legal framework the US has since imposed that bans any tactic not spelled out in the Army Field Manual. Under US law, all government employees, including intelligence agents, must abide by Army guidelines for interrogating prisoners  guidelines that don't permit waterboarding.

Warner said he appreciates that Haspel has acknowledged the history of the programme and that she is committed to upholding the law, but "it is not enough." He said "no one should get credit simply for agreeing to follow the law."

Haspel didn't mention the destruction of the tapes in her opening remarks, but last month, the CIA released a memo showing Haspel was cleared of wrongdoing in destroying the tapes.

The memo, written in 2011, summarizes a disciplinary review conducted by then-CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell. He said that while Haspel was one of the two officers "directly involved in the decision to destroy the tapes," he "found no fault" with what she did.

Haspel said she would put more intelligence officers in the field abroad and says there has been an outpouring of support from young women at the CIA who hope she becomes the first female CIA director.

"It is not my way to trumpet the fact that I am a woman up for the top job, but I would be remiss in not remarking on it  not least because of the outpouring of support from young women at CIA who consider it a good sign for their own prospects," Haspel said.GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights chief urged Turkey on Wednesday to lift its extended state of emergency immediately to pave the way for credible elections.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations human rights chief urged Turkey on Wednesday to lift its extended state of emergency immediately to pave the way for credible elections.

It is difficult to imagine how credible elections can be held in an environment where dissenting views and challenges to the ruling party are penalized so severely, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has scheduled snap presidential and parliamentary elections in June, has extended the state of emergency seven times since an attempted coup in July 2016.

Zeid's office, in a report in March, accused his government of mass arrests, arbitrary sackings and other abuses that in some cases amounted to "collective punishment".

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council urged Myanmars government on Wednesday to carry out transparent investigations into accusations of violence against mainly Rohingya Muslims in the countrys Rakhine state and to allow immediate aid access to the region. Despite initial resistance by China to the Security Council pressing Myanmar on accountability, the 15-member body reached consensus agreement on the British-drafted statement. The move follows a visit by Council envoys to Bangladesh and Myanmar last week to see firsthand the aftermath of a Myanmar military crackdown that Britain, the United States and others have denounced as ethnic cleansing of the minority Rohingya. Myanmar denies ethnic cleansing. Fleeing refugees have reported killings, rapes and arson on a large scale.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council urged Myanmars government on Wednesday to carry out transparent investigations into accusations of violence against mainly Rohingya Muslims in the countrys Rakhine state and to allow immediate aid access to the region.

Despite initial resistance by China to the Security Council pressing Myanmar on accountability, the 15-member body reached consensus agreement on the British-drafted statement.

The move follows a visit by Council envoys to Bangladesh and Myanmar last week to see firsthand the aftermath of a Myanmar military crackdown that Britain, the United States and others have denounced as ethnic cleansing of the minority Rohingya. Myanmar denies ethnic cleansing.

Fleeing refugees have reported killings, rapes and arson on a large scale. Myanmar has said its operations in Rakhine were a legitimate response to attacks on security forces by Rohingya insurgents.

The members of the Security Council in light of the importance of undertaking transparent investigations into allegations of human rights abuses and violations, urge the government of Myanmar to fulfil, based on respect for the rule of law, its stated commitment to holding accountable perpetrators of violence, including sexual violence and abuse and violence against children, the council statement said.

Rohingya insurgent attacks on security posts in Rakhine in August last year sparked a military operation that has sent nearly 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to refugee camps in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. Security Council envoys visited those vast camps last week.

The statement said they were struck by the scale of the humanitarian crisis and remain gravely concerned by the current situation. They also noted the widespread destruction of villages in Rakhine.

They also met with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and travelled to Rakhine state, where the violence erupted.

The council urged Myanmar to conclude an agreement in the coming days with the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR and U.N. Development Programme on aid access in Rakhine and help with repatriating refugees from Bangladesh.

The Security Council also said it intends to discuss how it can work with Bangladesh, Myanmar and the United Nations to resolve the crisis and create the conditions allowing the safe, voluntary, and dignified repatriation of refugees to their homes in Rakhine State.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has asked the court to rule on whether it has jurisdiction over the deportations of Rohingyas to Bangladesh, a possible crime against humanity.

Suu Kyi's government has expressed "serious concern" over the move at the ICC. Bangladesh is a member of the ICC but Myanmar is not. Human rights groups have called on the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution referring the situation in Myanmar to the court.

(Michell Nichols; editing by Clive McKeef)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.Trump is providing details for the first time about the historic meeting between a sitting American president and the leader of North Korea over denuclearisation.

US president Donald Trump announced that he will meet with North Korea's Kim Jong-un in Singapore on 12 June.

Trump tweeted:

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!

 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

Trump is providing details for the first time about the historic meeting between a sitting American president and the leader of North Korea over denuclearisation.

He had said he favoured holding the meeting at the Demilitarised Zone, the heavily fortified border separating the two Koreas. But the island nation was favored by most of his advisors.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Pyongyang twice to meet Kim in recent months, in a precursor to the Trump-Kim meeting. Pompeo returned overnight with three captive Americans during his most recent trip.

Trump thanked Kim for releasing the three Americans from captivity, saying he believes Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearising the Korean peninsula.

Welcoming the three Americans at a military base outside Washington early Thursday, Trump said of Kim, "I really think he wants to do something".

"Frankly, we didnt think it was going to happen and it did," Trump said after thanking Kim for releasing the men.

"We're starting off on a new footing. This is a wonderful thing that he released the folks early".

Trump said he believed Kim wanted to bring North Korea into the real world and had high hopes for their planned meeting, which would be the first between a serving US president and a North Korean leader.

"I think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful", Trump said. "My proudest achievement will be  this is part of it  when we denuclearise that entire peninsula."

Trump and Kim engaged in a bellicose exchange of rhetoric last year over North Korea's development of nuclear missiles capable of reaching the United States. Tensions began to ease, coinciding with the North's participation in the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February.

There has been no sign that Pompeo's visit has cleared up the central question of whether North Korea will be willing to bargain away weapons its ruling family has long seen as crucial to its survival.

However, the release of the three men marked a dramatic victory for Trump's embattled White House at a time when his foreign policy is under withering criticism after Tuesday's US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

He added of the talks between his administration and the North Korean government, "It's never been taken this far".

Trump said he will not disclose whether he will have any personal conversations with Kim as they prepare for their historic summit in the coming weeks.

With inputs from agenciesNaysayers and sceptics should examine what the $16 billion Walmart-Flipkart deal means for other retailers in India and its impact on consumers.

Is Flipkart, or for that matter PayTM, Ola, Snapdeal, truly an Indian company? In the backdrop of vociferous protests that have broken out after American giant Walmart announced a deal to acquire a controlling stake in Flipkart, this question assumes importance.

Walmart is picking up a near 77 percent stake for about $16 billion, which means Flipkart is being valued at a whopping $21 billion. As chants of swadeshi and Make-in-India get louder from those opposed to this deal, it is worthwhile to examine whether Walmart is indeed taking control of something truly Indian. Remember, the deal is unlikely to run afoul of Indian regulations since 100 percent FDI is allowed in the marketplace model of e-commerce.

Flipkart is indeed an Indian success story, after the fact that it was built from scratch by two Indian-origin techies who started out in rented premises and went on to scale unimaginable heights by pursuing commerce in its purest form. But make no mistake: much of Flipkart was anyway owned by foreign investors and the company never turned in a profit. The same logic applies to the other so-called 'Indian' success stories -- PayTM, Ola, Snapdeal, among others, which are also founded in India but run largely on foreign money.

When foreign money is all right, why gripe about actual foreign ownership?

The argument needs to be turned on its head and the questions that should be asked are: Why has Walmart been so desperate as to want an Indian company, whose valuation almost doubled within one year? And what does this acquisition say about Walmarts failure as a brick-and-mortar retailer in other markets? In India too, Walmart has been present in the wholesale business-to-business (B2B) space but its scale is nothing compared to its might in other markets.

Will the arrival of Walmart, as the largest investor in Flipkart, lead to a negative fallout for various industry stakeholders? Could Walmart add cutting edge technology and deep backward linkages with farmers, alongside a widening of the retail footprint for Indian businesses?

It could, theoretically at least, lead to some job creation and help Flipkarts sellers access a wider global platform. Besides, the government stands to reap a tax windfall too because of the deal. Wont arch rival Amazon keep Walmart and any underhand practices in check?

So instead of harping on the swadeshi vs videshi binary, what the naysayers and sceptics should instead look out for is what the deal means for other retailers in India and its impact on consumers. Will either benefit? Will the Indian e-commerce and retail space gain or lose from the arrival of Walmart, also known as the Beast of Bentonville? Will discounts get deeper, will Amazons intense rivalry with Walmart in other markets play out itself to any advantage to Indian consumers? Remember, Flipkart controls almost half the e-commerce market in India and now, with only Amazon left as a serious contender (Alibaba is still mulling its strategy), the e-commerce market in India essentially becomes a duopoly.

As this piece shows, Walmart has been struggling in various markets and the Flipkart deal could help breathe new life into the retail giants operations. Walmarts underperforming international business contributed less than a quarter to its total revenue of $500.3 billion in fiscal 2018. "Walmart has simply been too slow to react when it comes to their overseas business. They have finally started taking corrective action and are now dedicating their resources to where they think they can grow," said Burt Flickinger, managing director, Strategic Resource Group. So Walmarts desperation to get Flipkart is thus explained.

Walmart has been traditionally strong in physical retailing and not so strong when it comes to ecommerce. Its India business has been sub-scale and, as such, Flipkart will offer scale to Walmarts India operations. Flipkart has 100 million registered users and over eight million monthly shipments. Analysts at brokerage Edelweiss, in a note to clients, said that there will also be synergy in sellers on the two platforms. To scale up the business and achieve [the] next leg of growth, Walmart and Flipkart plan to support five to six million kirana stores through modernisation of retail practices as well as digital and cashless transactions for sustainable growth. Success will however hinge on how both the entities integrating their crucial business practices and policies.

So, the fears of the swadeshi camp and the mom & pop stores may never materialise. Now, what about consumers and future discounts? Analysts say online discounting may not necessarily increase since Walmart may want to push its own private label business instead of focusing on its gross merchandise value. In other words, consumers may not be worse off with this deal.

But having listed out all the positives of the deal, one should not forget that Walmart has been a formidable competitor in most markets it operates in --almost no other company has been able to beat it on price. It has been widely accused of arm-twisting sellers in other markets and gobbling up competition, just as it is recognised for forging deep backward linkages.

For consumers, Walmart has been a benign retailer, trying to retain them with a depth of products and deep discounts. As it arrives in India through the convoluted route of acquiring a marketplace retailer, there is little doubt that some of the abovementioned fears will manifest themselves with Indians too. Perhaps an equally aggressive Amazon, which is matching Walmart step-by-step, will help as it starts out on its brick-and-mortar journey.

In any case, consumers should have the last laugh.Please find below a statement from Formula 1 after the approval of the sports proposal to hold a Formula 1 Grand Prix race in downtown Miami next season. This follows two meetings of the City of Miami Commissioners and the Economic Development and Tourism Committee (Miami-Dade County) which both took place earlier today, Thursday 10th May 2018.

Statement from Sean Bratches, Managing Director Commercial Operations, Formula 1:

With the unanimous votes at both the City of Miami and Miami-Dade Countys Economic Development and Tourism Committee, we are very pleased to have received preliminary approval towards bringing a Formula 1 Grand Prix to Miami. We recognise that this is only the start of the process and we will immediately get to work with the various community stakeholders, the City of Miami, the Port of Miami, Bayfront Park Management Trust and others, in order to reach a final agreement. Formula 1 in Miami represents a fantastic opportunity to bring the greatest racing spectacle on the planet to one of the worlds most iconic cities, and we are delighted that the journey is underway.

The exact timing of a Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix would be a matter for further discussion between F1, the FIA and the Miami authorities, but we hope at this stage that the inaugural race would take place in October 2019.

Later this year, as part of a fan experience that has already seen us deliver F1 Live London last season, and the hugely successful fan festival in Shanghai, we will be hosting further fan festivals in Marseilles ahead of the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE 2018, and of course in Miami itself, ahead of the FORMULA 1 2018 PIRELLI UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX in Austin Texas.

We will not be commenting further at this stage.Formula 1 teams are always striving for marginal gains  and that was evident ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix when Ferrari unveiled their halo-mounted mirrors. So what aerodynamic difference will this new design make? Mark Hughes explains

Ferrari have certainly raised some eyebrows in Barcelona with their radical wing mirrors which for the first time are mounted on the halo  as allowed by the regulations post-China  and also incorporate dramatic-looking winglets for aerodynamic effect.

The mirrors, which retain the unique slot within the casing that redirects air to the radiator inlet, are only connected to the winglets sprouting from the halo through a narrow strip, thus qualifying the winglet as part of the mirror to meet the letter of the regulations.

This is a great example of how even a regulation change made as a safety measure can be used by the teams to create more performance. The FIA announced between the Chinese and Azerbaijan Grands Prix that henceforth mirrors could be mounted on the halo  in order to improve visibility for the driver.

Since the move in 2016 for wider and lower rear wings, rearward visibility has been especially restricted and it was felt that this may have been contributing to contact incidents on track. Moving the mirrors from the cockpit surround to the edges of the halo has allowed a better view above the rear wing.

But Ferrari aerodynamicists have been especially quick to exploit this. The angle of the winglet implies that it redirects some of the upward wash (created from the air hitting the front of the car) downwards.

Getting that part of the airflow angled back down earlier will give a better airflow to the edges of the rear wing and may even be used to further accelerate the air along the lower part of the bodywork, past the 'Coke-bottle' section.

This will likely give only marginal gains, but it illustrates the intensity of the search for every gram of performance that typifies F1.Automotive Entrepreneur Leverages Family Experience To Open First CARSTAR Location In Idaho

CARSTAR of Hayden Active in Community, Collision Repair Education

May 10, 2018 // Franchising.com // CHARLOTTE - CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts, North Americas largest multi-shop operator network of independently-owned collision repair facilities, announced that its first location in Idaho has opened, bringing its U.S. locations total to 33 states.

CARSTAR of Hayden, located 1770 W Hayden Ave., Hayden, ID, 83835, is owned by Greg and Rachelle Solesbee. It is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The 8,000 square foot facility specializes in duplicating factory repairs with advanced equipment such as CAR-O-LINER Bench Rack, GYS NeoPulse Welder for aluminum, steel and silica Bronze, and also GYS Resistance Spot Welder.

The CARSTAR location offers free collision repair estimates, bumper repair, expert color matching, towing assistance, vehicle pick-up and delivery, a nationwide warranty for most repairs, and rental cars through Enterprise.

Solesbee got his start in the collision repair industry with his family. His father Wendell started repairing vehicles when he was in high school, and continued to work on cars throughout his career as an electrical engineer at Rockwell. Solesbees mother Martha also did her part to help, even long-blocking cars while pregnant, handling the finances as CFO and raising seven children alongside Wendell.

My wife and I decided to branch out with our four children and take everything we learned from Mom and Dad to establish our own dream of creating a stellar work environment, said Solesbee. Our employee team is like none other and we really enjoy helping bring peoples lives back together one car at a time. We want to put a smile on every customers face."

Rachelle and myself had originally designed our own business blue print, he added. As we shared what we were looking to do we had a friend tell us we should look at CARSTAR. We took their advice and did so. After investigating what they were about I turned to my wife and said They literally took our business plan and already made it into 500 locations!

The technicians at CARSTAR of Hayden are I-CAR and ASE certified and trained to work on all makes and models. They participate in ongoing education programs on the latest vehicle technologies and materials.

As part of the CARSTAR network, CARSTAR of Hayden can access the North American collision repair leaders advanced tools, technology and training, along with a well-known brand, purchasing efficiencies, national insurance relationships and more.

CARSTAR of Hayden is also involved in giving back to the community. They donated nearly $10,000 in parts to the Auto Body Tech School at NIC (North Idaho College) in Rathdrum, ID. They also are working with Sherwin Williams, NIC and GYS welding to put on a Tech information (Proper Welding) training night. In addition, they are involved in the City of Hayden and the Chamber of Coeur dAlene.

We are excited to expand the CARSTAR presence in the Northwest with our first location in Idaho and to welcome innovative entrepreneurs like Greg and Rachelle Solesbee to our CARSTAR family, said Michael Macaluso, President, CARSTAR. This region is growing quickly, and we are honored to have the Solesbees lead CARSTARs entry into Idaho. Their commitment to the highest quality collision repairs and excellent customer service is stellar.

For more information on CARSTAR visit www.carstar.com.

About CARSTAR

CARSTAR North America - a part of the Driven Brands, Inc. family of automotive aftermarket franchise brands - is North Americas largest Multi-Shop Operator Network of independently owned collision repair facilities with more than 550 locations in 32 states and 10 Canadian provinces. CARSTAR Auto Body Repair Experts in the U.S. and CARSTAR Collision and Glass Services in Canada deliver national scale, consistently high-quality vehicle repairs, repeatable outcomes and the industrys highest customer satisfaction ratings; all repairs are backed by a national warranty and service guarantee. Through a variety of fundraising initiatives, CARSTAR, its franchisees, partners and employees have raised over $3 million for Cystic Fibrosis Canada, and has made fighting cystic fibrosis its cause, North American wide. For more information visit www.carstar.com and www.carstar.ca and follow us on Facebook and twitter. CARSTAR is actively seeking new franchisees.

Media Contact:

Deborah Robinson

President

Victory Management Group PR

312.505.4336

drobinson@vmg1.com

SOURCE CARSTAR

###

Comments:

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

DisqusCARSTAR Opens First Location In South Dakota With New Facility In Rapid City

Granite Buick GMC/Granite Nissan Partner with CARSTAR for CARSTAR Collision Center-Rapid City

May 10, 2018 // Franchising.com // CHARLOTTE - CARSTAR, North Americas largest multi-shop operator network of independently-owned collision repair facilities, announced the opening of its first CARSTAR location in South Dakota, expanding its U.S. footprint to 34 states.

CARSTAR Collision Center-Rapid City, part of Granite Buick GMC and Granite Nissan, is located at 415 East Omaha Street, Rapid City, SD, 57701. It is owned by Ross McKie (shown on left) and his partner Troy Claymore (shown on right). Ross is a second generation dealer whose family business started in the 60s. Troy oversees the two dealerships for Buick and Nissan and is the top dealer in the area.

We joined CARSTAR for the expanded relationships with insurance carriers, the leading-edge technology, the access to best practices and the power of being part of a national brand with hundreds of other owners, said McKie.

CARSTAR Collision Center-Rapid City will offer full-service collision repair, paintless dent repair and glass replacement services, along with free collision repair estimates, expert color matching, towing assistance, vehicle pick-up and delivery, a nationwide warranty for most repairs, and rental cars through Enterprise.

The 9,500 square-foot location features all updated equipment in a stand-alone building from the dealership. The facility technicians are I-CAR Gold and Platinum certified, and the location is a certified repair facility by Nissan and General Motors. Ken Lammers, a long time industry veteran is the General Manager. Hours are Monday  Friday 8:00-5:30 and Saturday 9:00- 12:00.

As we build our network across the United States, we are excited to announce our first location in South Dakota, said Michael Macaluso, President, CARSTAR. Ross McKie and Troy Claymore represent a growing trend of auto dealerships partnering with CARSTAR to help efficiently manage and grow their collision repair operations. We look forward to helping build their business as part of the CARSTAR family.

For more information on CARSTAR visit www.carstar.com.

About CARSTAR

CARSTAR - a part of the Driven Brands, Inc. family of automotive aftermarket franchise brands - is North Americas largest Multi-Shop Operator Network of independently owned collision repair facilities with more than 550 locations in 33 states and 10 Canadian provinces. CARSTAR in the U.S. and CARSTAR in Canada deliver national scale, consistently high-quality vehicle repairs, repeatable outcomes and the industrys highest customer satisfaction ratings; all repairs are backed by a national warranty and service guarantee. Through a variety of fundraising initiatives, CARSTAR, its franchisees, partners and employees have raised over $3 million for Cystic Fibrosis Canada, and has made fighting cystic fibrosis its cause, North American wide. For more information visit www.carstar.com and www.carstar.ca and follow us on Facebook and twitter. CARSTAR is actively seeking new franchisees.

Media Contact:

Deborah Robinson

President

Victory Management Group PR

312.505.4336

drobinson@vmg1.com

SOURCE CARSTAR

###

Comments:

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

DisqusIHG Accelerates Growth In Western China With Signing Of 10 New Deals Under 7 Brands

May 10, 2018 // Franchising.com // InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), one of the worlds leading hotel companies, has today announced the signing of ten new deals under seven of its brands in Western China. The ten hotels will span several different tiered cities and well-known destinations in Sichuan, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Gansu, Guizhou Province etc. Building on the momentum of its existing and successful multi-brand hotel portfolio in the area, IHG will further strengthen its leadership and tap into the large potential of this fast-growing market.

Boasting distinctive natural beauty and rich cultural heritage, the western area of China has been a worldwide attraction. Enjoying great opportunities brought by policies like the Belt and Road Initiative, the cities economies continue to boom with the acceleration of urbanisation, as well as the upgrading of transportation and other supporting facilities. According to world leading hotel and tourism consultancy, Horwath HTL, market expectations for the overall performance of the hotel sector in Western China have risen significantly in recent years.

Jolyon Bulley, CEO, IHG Greater China, commented: IHG is a pioneer in exploring the hotel market in Western China. We have established extensive and rewarding cooperation with local partners over the last three decades, bringing world-class hotel products and management expertise into different cities and resort destinations. Todays signings are not only a great showcase for IHGs diversified brand portfolio and close partnership with hotel owners, but also a strong demonstration of our confidence and commitment to both the west and the entire Chinese market..

Catering for different needs and occasions, the 10 hotels sit under brands spanning luxury, upscale and midscale segments. These include well-established brands that have enjoyed a leading position in the Chinese market for many years, as well as recently introduced ones that perfectly reflect the latest market trends. Meanwhile, in addition to management contracts, IHGs mainstream business model in China, the signings also feature a Holiday Inn Express deal under IHGs Franchise Plus model tailored for the Chinese market.

InterContinental Chengdu Shawan is located in northern Chengdu, Sichuan Province. The hotel is adjacent to a number of shopping malls within walking distance to the district government. With midscale and upper-midscale hotels currently dominating the area, it is expected to fill the gap of luxury products. As the world's first truly international luxury hotel brand, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts brings elegance, taste, and unique insights into local customs. InterContinental Chengdu North will be the third InterContinental hotel in the city.

is located in northern Chengdu, Sichuan Province. The hotel is adjacent to a number of shopping malls within walking distance to the district government. With midscale and upper-midscale hotels currently dominating the area, it is expected to fill the gap of luxury products. As the world's first truly international luxury hotel brand, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts brings elegance, taste, and unique insights into local customs. InterContinental Chengdu North will be the third InterContinental hotel in the city. HUALUXE Guiyang Financial City is located in the northern Guiyang Financial City, an emerging gathering place for innovative financial business in southwestern China, providing a unique choice for MICE market. HUALUXE Hotels & Resorts is the first-ever upscale international hotel brand designed specifically for Chinese consumers. Taking the best of renowned Chinese hospitality, it focuses on the unique Chinese aspects of etiquette, rejuvenation in nature, status recognition, and spaces enabling social interactions. Food & beverage offering is another highlight of the brand, bringing together high quality international dining and local specialties.

is located in the northern Guiyang Financial City, an emerging gathering place for innovative financial business in southwestern China, providing a unique choice for MICE market. HUALUXE Hotels & Resorts is the first-ever upscale international hotel brand designed specifically for Chinese consumers. Taking the best of renowned Chinese hospitality, it focuses on the unique Chinese aspects of etiquette, rejuvenation in nature, status recognition, and spaces enabling social interactions. Food & beverage offering is another highlight of the brand, bringing together high quality international dining and local specialties. Crowne Plaza Mianyang High-Tech Zone is situated on the main road of Mianyang City in Sichuan Province, known as the Silicon Valley in Western China. As one of the fastest growing upscale hotel brands in China, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts offers premium accommodation, designed for the discerning travellers who appreciate simplified elegance combined with the practicality of the latest features. Surrounded by international and local high-tech enterprises, the hotel is expected to be a popular choice for business travellers.

is situated on the main road of Mianyang City in Sichuan Province, known as the Silicon Valley in Western China. As one of the fastest growing upscale hotel brands in China, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts offers premium accommodation, designed for the discerning travellers who appreciate simplified elegance combined with the practicality of the latest features. Surrounded by international and local high-tech enterprises, the hotel is expected to be a popular choice for business travellers. Hotel Indigo Puzhehei is the first international branded hotel in the Puzhehei Scenic Area in Yunnan Province. A high-end boutique hotel brand born in 2004, Hotel Indigo draws inspiration from the natural and cultural surroundings of their neighbourhoods. Each hotel is unique in design. Situated in a breath-taking karst landscape, Hotel Indigo Puzhehei will be a great option for travellers who look for high quality and design aesthetics.

is the first international branded hotel in the Puzhehei Scenic Area in Yunnan Province. A high-end boutique hotel brand born in 2004, Hotel Indigo draws inspiration from the natural and cultural surroundings of their neighbourhoods. Each hotel is unique in design. Situated in a breath-taking karst landscape, Hotel Indigo Puzhehei will be a great option for travellers who look for high quality and design aesthetics. Hotel Indigo Jiuzhai sits close to the entrance of Zhongzha Valley, west of the famous Jiuzhaigou Natural Reserve in Sichuan Province. Developed to inspire discovery and exploration into the local culture, the Zhongzha Valley features a unique combination of resort, authentic Tibetan experiences and outdoor adventures. A boutique hotel with a relatively smaller scale but stunning design just like Hotel Indigo Jiuzhai will easily stand out in the area.

sits close to the entrance of Zhongzha Valley, west of the famous Jiuzhaigou Natural Reserve in Sichuan Province. Developed to inspire discovery and exploration into the local culture, the Zhongzha Valley features a unique combination of resort, authentic Tibetan experiences and outdoor adventures. A boutique hotel with a relatively smaller scale but stunning design just like Hotel Indigo Jiuzhai will easily stand out in the area. EVEN Hotel Chongqing Central Park is located in Yubei District of Chongqing next to the Central Park. The hotel has a convenient access to Chongqing International Expo Centre, some most iconic city landmarks as well as Chongqing International Airport. EVEN Hotels is the industrys first and only hotel brand created with wellness at its core. Since debuting in the US in 2012, the brand has resonated strongly with guests and owners. It was introduced to the Chinese market in October 2017, echoing the increasing demand for healthy travel experience from domestic consumers.

is located in Yubei District of Chongqing next to the Central Park. The hotel has a convenient access to Chongqing International Expo Centre, some most iconic city landmarks as well as Chongqing International Airport. EVEN Hotels is the industrys first and only hotel brand created with wellness at its core. Since debuting in the US in 2012, the brand has resonated strongly with guests and owners. It was introduced to the Chinese market in October 2017, echoing the increasing demand for healthy travel experience from domestic consumers. EVEN Hotel Xian High-Tech Zone takes a prime location in the High-Tech Development Zone in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, surrounded by Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Huawei. Located on the 32nd to 38th floors of a 200-metre tall building, the hotel offers a refreshing view overlooking this vibrant area.

takes a prime location in the High-Tech Development Zone in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, surrounded by Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Huawei. Located on the 32nd to 38th floors of a 200-metre tall building, the hotel offers a refreshing view overlooking this vibrant area. Holiday Inn & Suites Lanzhou Centre is situated in Lanzhou Centre, a landmark building of Lanzhou, Gansu Province. With the citys best office buildings and shopping venues around, it is part of the largest urban complex in Lanzhou. The hotel enjoys a strategic location with Lanzhou West Railway Station and Lanzhou Metro Line 1 (to be completed in December 2018) both within walking distance. One of the most widely recognised hotel brands in the world, Holiday Inn offers a consistent and reliable welcoming experience for both business and leisure travellers. Holiday Inn & Suites Lanzhou Centre will also be the first extended-stay hotel in the city.

is situated in Lanzhou Centre, a landmark building of Lanzhou, Gansu Province. With the citys best office buildings and shopping venues around, it is part of the largest urban complex in Lanzhou. The hotel enjoys a strategic location with Lanzhou West Railway Station and Lanzhou Metro Line 1 (to be completed in December 2018) both within walking distance. One of the most widely recognised hotel brands in the world, Holiday Inn offers a consistent and reliable welcoming experience for both business and leisure travellers. Holiday Inn & Suites Lanzhou Centre will also be the first extended-stay hotel in the city. Holiday Inn Express Guilin High-Tech Zone is located in the heart of the High-Tech Zone of Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. With nearly 1,000 international companies in the city, Guilin has a fast-growing import and export business. Moreover, construction of a high-speed railway network is expected to drive a substantial increase in leisure tourists. As the worlds first midscale selected service hotel brand, Holiday Inn Express is strategically positioned in a white space between four-star full-service hotels and budget hotels. By providing guests with more where it matters most to them, the hotel will be a stellar representative of the brand in delivering simple, smart travel experience to those who look for rest-and-go.

is located in the heart of the High-Tech Zone of Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. With nearly 1,000 international companies in the city, Guilin has a fast-growing import and export business. Moreover, construction of a high-speed railway network is expected to drive a substantial increase in leisure tourists. As the worlds first midscale selected service hotel brand, Holiday Inn Express is strategically positioned in a white space between four-star full-service hotels and budget hotels. By providing guests with more where it matters most to them, the hotel will be a stellar representative of the brand in delivering simple, smart travel experience to those who look for rest-and-go. Holiday Inn Express Meishan Dongpo enjoys a great location in the centre of Meishan, Sichuan Province, with easy access to the citys CBD, shopping venues and transportation hubs. Sitting on the higher floors of the landmark Chunxi Square, the hotel offers excellent views to the city. This project is signed under the Franchise Plus model that IHG tailored for its Holiday Inn Express brand in China. While providing owners with more flexibility, IHG assigns General Manager to the hotel to better implement brand standards and improve hotel revenue, driving best return for owners.

IHG currently operates more than 330 hotels, over 100,000 rooms under a total of 9 brands in Greater China. As IHGs second largest market globally, China has always been a priority for the company. In IHG's 2018 first quarter trading update, Greater China achieved another exceptional quarter with market leading RevPAR increase of 11%.

About IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group)

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organisation with a broad portfolio of hotel brands, including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, Hotel Indigo, EVEN Hotels, HUALUXE Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Holiday Inn Resort, avid hotels, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns nearly 5,400 hotels and 800,000 guest rooms in almost 100 countries, with more than 1,700 hotels in its development pipeline. IHG also manages IHG Rewards Club, our global loyalty programme, which has more than 100 million enrolled members.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Groups holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales. More than 375,000 people work across IHG's hotels and corporate offices globally.

Visit www.ihg.com for hotel information and reservations and www.ihgrewardsclub.com for more on IHG Rewards Club. For our latest news, visit: www.ihgplc.com/media and follow us on social media at: www.twitter.com/ihg, www.facebook.com/ihg and www.youtube.com/ihgplc.

Contacts:

Alexander Zhu

alexander.zhu@ihg.com

+86 21 2893 3477

Karena Liu

karena.liu@ihg.com

+86 (21) 2893 3265

SOURCE IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group)

###

Comments:

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

DisqusSloans Ice Cream Celebrates Sweet Success in First Half of 2018

Iconic Ice Cream Brand Signs Multiple Deals to Amplify Presence into Middle East, Prepares for Continued International Expansion in 2018

May 10, 2018 // Franchising.com // WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Sloans Ice Cream today announced a litany of new openings that will further expand the brands presence in the Middle East.

West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Sloans - an iconic luxury ice cream brand widely known for its colorful presence, over-the-top aesthetics and heaping amounts of sweet treats and toys - has opened its second shop in Kuwait and is opening three more franchise locations in Saudi Arabia.

Its about taking the next step in creating a successful brand, said Sloan Kamenstein, CEO and founder of Sloans Ice Cream. Weve been privileged to serve the U.S. for nearly 20 years, and we feel equally as fortunate to bring the same level of distinction to new markets in the Middle East. I have no doubt that further growth into Kuwait and Saudi Arabia is the next phase in continuing to bring Sloans Ice Cream to desirable venues internationally for more of the world to enjoy.

Sloans marked its entrance into the Middle East with the opening of its shop at the Promenade Mall in Hawally, Kuwait in 2016, followed by the Red Sea Mall in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in December 2017. Sloans international expansion has continued at a steady rate, with the brands second Kuwait location opening in the Al Kout Mall in Fahaheel in April 2018. The forthcoming Saudi Arabia locations will be located at the Mall of Arabia and Aziz Mall in Jeddah, as well as at Riyadh Park in Riyadh, and are slated to open in early summer.

Sloans Ice Cream shops are community destinations like no other. Plush toys line the walls, homemade sweets fill the countertops and rich, original ice cream flavors made from the finest ingredients are scooped at a fervent pace as guests enter. The stores set to open in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will include the treats and atmosphere that has afforded Sloans its cult-like following around the globe.

The response to our first locations in both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia has been overwhelming; Im confident these new locations will be welcomed with the same excitement and enthusiasm, added Kamenstein.

Since opening its first store in 1999, Sloans has become an iconic, palatial tribute to ice cream and all things sweet. Today, there are seven locations in South Florida, three in California, and locations in Las Vegas, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Sloans is fully equipped to share its proven operational, marketing and management systems with qualified franchise investors to which it awards agreements. Ideally suited for multi-unit developers with restaurant, retail and hospitality franchise experience, as well as husband and wife teams and multi-generational investment groups, Sloans has demonstrated a track record of achievements in every economic climate.

About Sloans Ice Cream

A true icon of South Florida, Sloans is renowned for its award winning luxury ice cream flavors, candies and world-class bakery items. The brands signature pink walls and ceilings, along with the plush toy collection lining its walls add to Sloans fun, funky experience, which includes magical glass bathroom doors. In 1999, Sloan Kamenstein, a classically trained chef and ice cream connoisseur, created Sloans along West Palm Beach, Floridas famed Clematis Street.

For more information about Sloans, visit www.sloansicecream.com.

Media Contact:

Sydney Thompson

All Points Public Relations

(847) 897-7494

sthompson@allpointspr.com

SOURCE Sloans Ice Cream

###

Comments:

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.

DisqusThe Texas State Securities Board has issued a pair of emergency orders against two separate entities that have reportedly been scamming investors through a bitcoin mining operation and a bitcoin foreign exchange investment fund.

Both startups  Bitcoin Trading & Cloud Mining Ltd. (BTCRUSH) and Forex EA & Bitcoin Investment LLC  are accused of promising unrealistic returns.

Thus far, the Board has brought actions against nine cryptocurrency-related companies, including the aforementioned.

From CCN:

Joseph Rotunda, Director of the Enforcement Division at the Texas State Securities Board, told CCN that the latest emergency orders were part of a sweep that the agency launched at year-end 2017 when the bitcoin price was trading in the stratosphere. The sweep targets projects that raise red flags and that are promoting to Texas residents. The number of open investigations into cryptocurrency startups including ICOs has doubled since that time, from about 30 to approximately 60.

Weve seen this before when a new market emerges and people want to get rich quick at the expense of others. They infiltrate the market we are trying to weed out those folks. Their schemes are very fragile, like a house of cards waiting to tumble. Something comes along to offers that gust of wind and everything collapses, Rotunda told CCN.

In Texas, that gust of wind is increasingly taking the form of emergency cease-and-desist orders.

The suspect return promises included a 100% satisfaction guarantee along with the freedom to change the interest terms at will at BTCRUSH.

Rotunda told CCN:

They werent just putting out a website and letting investors come to them. They werent just discussing investments on a message board. Their sales agents were specifically advertising and sending materials to Texas residents. They were communicating, come to our website, register an account, purchase an investment.

Non-compliance with the cease and desist orders could result in up to a decade in a Texas prison.

- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.comOne of the downsides to real money gambling is real money losses. Too many people get caught up in their desire to hit it rich, especially on slot machines, as the most popular form of casino-style gambling around the globe. 200 people submitted applications to take part in this program, but nothing is being done to keep anyone out of the Latvia gambling halls.

PlaySlots4RealMoney.com representing Public Broadcasting of Latvia recently posted a report on its website discussing this very issue when it comes to slot machine play in this country. Gambling is big business in Latvia to the tune of a 64 million profit in Euro in 2017. The report talks about a system that was put into place in 2011 that would allow concerned citizens to give up their right to gamble. Over 1,

There is no hard and fast research into how deep the gambling problem in Latvia may be, but this report cited a figure of more than 13,000 adults based on a standard one percent of the population. The actual figure could climb to five percent if you include everyone who might be at risk for developing a problem at some point in time. Gambling halls housing slot machines are rather common across the entire country and this has also led to proliferation of pawn shops and quick-loan companies. These types of fast-cash outlets are an unfortunate offshoot of the gambling business as they tend to prey on those fighting addiction.

The law that was put into place to keep the biggest offenders out of gambling establishments by their own request has been highly ineffective to say the least. Signe Birne is the head of Latvias gambling authority. He was quoted in this report as saying, As long as the law doesnt clearly say the gambling houses must prevent opted-out clients from visitingwe have nothing else to do.

The viewpoint from those operating Latvias gambling houses is that anyone who is addicted to real money gambling should police themselves. The do not want to shoulder the burden of checking ID cards to see who may have filled out an application to opt-out of being admitted to places where gambling takes place.

Guntis Libers was quoted in the report speaking on behalf of the Zilais Dimants gambling establishments. He stated, Id like to say that our company SIA DLV supports the introduction of entry upon presenting ID. But that should be paired with a defined law and an environment that has responsibility for the organizer, the state and the person who has entered [themselves] in the said list.

The Health Ministry in Latvia has taken up the task of trying to put some quantitative data around the extent of real money gambling in the country. The goal of this initial study is to learn more about peoples overall gambling habits targeting the year end to have some actual data. The report cites that self-imposed bans work with online gambling where the player cannot remain anonymous. Checking IDs is also part of the process for competitive games.Georgia among the top trade reformers in the region according to UNECE study - GeorgianJournalBest Smartphones to buy on EMI Offer for MAY 2018 Features oi-Harish Kumar Buy your favourite smartphone irrespective of its pricing by choosing to pay via monthly installments.

We all know that Smartphones have become a basic necessity for the users worldwide and there is a race among the tech companies to release their best product in the market for the users.

Nowadays there are number of companies releasing their smartphones with various features that makes the daily tasks for human lot easy.

SEE ASLO: Best smartphones without Fingerprint sensor: iPhone X, Xperia R1 Plus, Vivo Y71, Nokia 1 and more

The market is flooded with number of options and you can get a smartphone which suits your budget and fulfills the demands for the latest tech. This article is all about the smartphones that you can get for easy EMIs.

SEE ALSO: Flipkart Big Shopping Days: Best Offers on smartphones laptops and other gadgets

Let's quickly hop on the list and see which all devices we can get for an EMI that would not burn out a hole in our pocket.

Best Mobiles in IndiaOnePlus 6 Fast AF Sale to happen from May 13 to May 16 on Amazon India News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu OnePlus 6 buyers can get a cash back of Rs. 1,000.

OnePlus 6 is yet to be officially unveiled but most of its specifications and features are known. Recently, the company also announced that the device will receive the Android P Beta update. The update will be available for download after the launch of the device. Now, the Chinese brand has come up with an interesting announcement for the Indian fans.

OnePlus India has announced the Fast AF (Fast & First) sale ahead of its India launch on May 17. This sale will let customers buy an Amazon.in e-gift card worth Rs. 1,000. This sale will happen from May 13 to May 16. The purchased e-gift card can be used to buy the smartphone on May 21 and May 22 and get a cash back of Rs. 1,000 as Amazon Pay balance.

Also, buyers will get extended manufacturer warranty of 3 months in addition to the existing 1 year warranty offered by the company.

How to avail cash back during OnePlus 6 Fast AF sale

Follow the steps given here to avail the cash back of Rs. 1,000 during the sale on Amazon India.

Step 1: Purchase the Amazon.in e-Gift Card worth Rs. 1,000 during the Fast AF sale to be held on Amazon India between May 13 and May 16.

Step 2: Redeem this Gift Card on the online retailer's site to purchase the device during the sale on May 21 and May 22. Doing so, you will get an additional Rs. 1,000 cash back in the form of Amazon Pay balance. This will give the buyers a value of Rs. 2,000 with the Rs. 1,000 gift card. Also, there will be other launch discounts including cash back offers from banks.

OnePlus will host pop-up events across eight cities such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad on May 21 and May 22. Interested buyers can experience the smartphone and buy it from these events.

Earlier this week, the company sold the entry tickets for the launch event to happen on May 17 in Mumbai. These tickets were sold out in just 4 minutes showing the massive interest in this flagship killer.

OnePlus 5 vs Honor 8 Pro vs Nubia M2 Which has the best dual-camera setup ! - GIZBOT

Though there will be Rs. 1,000 cash back, the final pricing of the smartphone remains unknown for now. We can expect it to be priced higher than the OnePlus 5 and 5T. Previous reports have tipped that the device could be priced starting from Rs. 33,999 and go up to Rs. 48,999.

Best Mobiles in IndiaOPPO Find X with triple camera, in-screen fingerprint reader leaked News oi-Vishal Kawadkar OPPO wants to get back in the premium phone league.

OPPO has been long rumored to be working on an ultimate flagship. The company trademarked the 'OPPO Find X' moniker back in April. Now, a render of the phone has surfaced revealing its front and back panel.

If the renders are to be believed, the OPPO Find X will have a notched display like the R15. The render shows that the device features almost non-existent bezels on the sides. But the bottom bezel will be thicker compared to the sides. The rear panel will have a vertically mounted triple camera setup and an LED flash.

There is no fingerprint reader on either panel of the phone. This could mean that the device might have an in-screen fingerprint reader. This comes in line with the company winning a patent for the in-display fingerprint scanner. Other rumors suggest that the smartphone will feature a super-fast 15-minute flash charge and 5x lossless zoom.

The mid-range segment is witnessing a fierce competition in the Chinese market. More and more OEMs are launching smartphones at a lower price with top-of-the-line specs. OPPO has managed to concentrate on its R, F and A series of smartphones in the recent years. The strategy has worked well so far in China.

The company is due to launch a flagship product since the Find 7 launched in 2014. Rumors suggest that OPPO may release a Find series phone this year to target the high-end market. Since the Find X is said to be a high-end device it might come with the Snapdragon 845 SoC.

Previously, the company announced that it would be launching a new sub-brand. It will exclusive to the Indian market in partnership with Amazon India.

The e-commerce platform Amazon.in also rolled out a "Notify Me" page dedicated to the new brand promoting the technology and design of the smartphone alongside the brand's after-sales service. As of now, there's no information on the devices the brand would carry, but the teaser hints at a smartphone for the local markets. The device was recently leaked ahead of its May 15 launch.

The new move can be a part of Oppo's strategy to go head to head with Xiaomi who seems to have dominated the market by bringing India-exclusive products and exploring new distribution channels both online and offline.

Best Mobiles in India

Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow NotificationsDisplay and Design

While looking at the design of the Allure Rise, we can clearly say that this is not an edge-to-edge display featuring phone but comes with a basic design. The rear panel is made out of plastic and houses a rear camera with an LED flash, along with company's branding. The speaker grille can be found at the bottom.

On the front, we have the bezel-less looking display on the sides but actually isn't. The company has played a good move to give this phone a bezel-less feel. On the top and the bottom, it has broad-bezels. The Allure Rise houses volume rockers on the left side of the phone along with a power button. On the top, it has a 3.5mm audio jack, and on the bottom, it comes with a micro USB port.

On the top, the phone houses the front camera sensor, earpiece and a proximity sensors. While on the bottom front it has the capacitive touch buttons.

While looking at the screen, we can say that the company has delivered a big screen in such tight budget. Talking about the screen size and resolution, the Reach Allure Rise comes with a 5.5-inch HD IPS display with a resolution of 1,280 x 720 pixels. The screen seems to be bright enough, but on the flip side, the bigger screen turn is a less quality screen for this phone.

During the use of the smartphone, we figure out that the touch response of the screen is a bit slow, and there is a lag of some micro-seconds. All together screen looks good but you need to be patient while using the phone. The company claims that the screen has a scratch-proof hard coated surface.

Hardware and Software

On the hardware front, Reach has chosen a 1.3GHz quad-core, Cortex A7 processor to complement its new device. The phone is powered by 2GB of RAM along with 16GB of onboard storage. But, if that is not enough, then you can expand the storage up to 64GB with the help of a microSD card. The smartphone also offers 4G and VoLTE on both SIMs. The smartphone doesn't come with any fingerprint scanner which might be a deal breaker for some.

The Reach Allure Rise 2 comes with 3GB RAM. The other aspects such as storage and processor remain the same. With 3GB RAM, the device handles basic multitasking and gaming with ease. We tried playing not-so-graphic heavy games to appear without any flaw. However, games like Shadow Fight 3 took a while to boot. The good thing is that there were no noticeable lags.

Software-wise, the Reach Allure Rise runs on Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box. Yes, the one which launched a couple of years back. The Android P is already here and the company is still offering the Nougat with the phone. This might upset some of the users. So, it might not make sense when you see two-generation old OS.

To compete with the latest smartphone UIs (user interface) Reach has introduced an assistive touch on the screen. The one which you see on the iPhones, this option gives you a shortcut to different apps, like Setting, lock, camera, Booster, Screenshot, Alarm, Wifi, GPS, Display light and more. You also have an option to customize it manually and set as per your requirement.

In addition to VoLTE, the Reach Allure Rise 2 comes with ViLTE (Video over LTE). This feature will help in enhancing the quality of video calls.

Camera

The Reach Allure Rise boasts a single camera setup on the back. It features an 8-megapixel snapper with an LED flash. For selfies, the phone houses a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The camera app offers several modes such as Panorama mode, Auto, Manual, Burst, Scene, Gif, Frame, Audio Picture.

Users can switch between the different modes to click some creative pictures and videos. It also offers a beauty mode which comes with a set of filters or you can say effects to click pictures.

While testing the camera features of Allure Rise, we have come across two features which really impressed us - the Gif feature and the Audio Picture. In Gif mode, you have the option of clicking 15 pictures one after the other and at the end, it will be produced as a Gif image. This feature is really fun, users can use this feature in a very creative way to show up on their social media accounts. The second one is the Picture Audio, it allows you to record the audio after clicking a picture.

Performance

All though you don't get the latest processor with this smartphone, it is still good enough to handle basic tasks with ease. However, we have noticed the device lagging in few instances and the screen stopped responding to the touch gestures.

We ran some benchmark tests on the Allure Rise and the device managed to score 20,365 on AnTuTu benchmarks. While on Geekbench it scored 404 and 1020 in single core and multi-core tests respectively. Which is not bad considering the price of the smartphone.

If you like playing basic games then this phone is good for it, but the battery drains quickly. Also, it doesn't come with any quick charging support, so you might have to carry a power bank with you. The smartphone is powered by a 2,600mAh battery.

Overall, the performance of the phone isn't outstanding but not too bad either. You might face some bumps during heavy usage. But, considering the price of the device, it's a decent phone or basic use.

As mentioned above, the Reach Allure Rise 2 comes with Face Unlock feature. During our usage, we felt this facial recognition feature to work fine except for a few misses in matching the registered face to unlock the smartphone.

Verdict

Reach Allure Rise doesn't give you hopes or any fake promises, this phone accepts that its a budget phone. It doesn't offer anything exceptional. This can be a good buy for someone with a low budget who is looking for a 4G phone.

It doesn't offer a 5.5-inch big screen and in this range, no other brand offers such big display. However, there is no fingerprint scanner on the smartphone. Meanwhile, there are phones in the same range from Beyond which also offers a biometric sensor on the back.

But If you are looking for a phone in this price bracket, you can also have a look on Nokia 1, Moto C Starry 10.or D (Beyond Black, 3 GB), and also Lenovo A6600. It can be a good alternative for a first time smartphone buyer.Whether it's considered a night of fun with friends or an event at which to strut your stuff, high school students across the country and around southwestern Connecticut are in the height of prom season. But before teens can hit the dance floor, they have to pick out the perfect outfit for the occasion.

More Living 2018 prom trends in SW Connecticut

After analyzing local and national online fashion search data, global fashion search platform Lyst has compiled some of the most dominant trends in Connecticut and beyond this prom season. While teens in Connecticut spend an average of $300 for their prom dress, the inspirations for their looks are wide ranging: from Disney princesses to Kylie Jenner, Lyst found that the biggest trends this year for prom are as diverse as they are interesting.It took Sen. Chris Murphys press shop all of four minutes to respond to President Trumps announcement Tuesday that he was bringing down the curtain on President Obamas 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Pulling out of the agreement just because it has Obamas name on it is potentially catastrophic, and it makes Connecticut and our nation less safe, said Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Murphy said two weeks ago that the Trump pullout was a certainty, so he was hardly surprised by the ultimate outcome.

There was predictable outrage from Murphy as well as most of his fellow Connecticut Democratic colleagues: Loss of leverage gained in the deal (no matter how imperfect) would put Iran back in the nuke-production business. And dont hold your breath if you think, like Trump, that Iran can be forced into negotiating a better deal.

But Murphy, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Reps. Jim Himes and Rosa DeLauro also pointed at the potential message that Irexit sends to North Korea.

It will make it even harder to convince Kim Jong Un to give up his nuclear weapons because we just showed that we cant be trusted to live up to our end of a bargain, Murphy said.

Trump himself may have sensed the same thing, which is why the White House also announced that newly minted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been dispatched to North Korea to set up the presidents historic meeting with the North Korean dictator.

But on the surface at least, the White House seemed unperturbed by negative impact in Pyongyang.

For North Korea, ditching the Iran nuclear agreement sends a very clear signal that the United States will not accept inadequate deals, said neocon National Security Adviser John Bolton.

One reporter asked Bolton if the real signal is that the U.S. is willing to wiggle out of any commitment if the political winds change.

No, Bolton said, any nation reserves the right to correct a past mistake.

Guess well see which decision was the real mistake.

Keeping distancing

Ive reported previously in this space about Rep. Elizabeth Estys weekend from hell in Cheshire, the four days between March 29  when the story broke about her botched handling of an abusive chief of staff  and April 2, when she announced she would not run for re-election.

I must do better, was her mantra going into it. But by Monday, it was all over. Esty subsequently cited the lack of support from the state Democratic Party, particularly the graybeard office-holders in Connecticut who represent its spiritual core.

One of those certainly is Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who is no stranger to the when to hold em, when to fold em side of electoral politics.

During Malloys daylong D.C. visit last week, I had the opportunity to ask him: Did you tell Esty the jig was up, it was time to get out? Didnt her bipartisan achievements, sharp intellect and promising future on Capitol Hill mean anything? What about second chances?

I dont talk about my private conversations, Malloy said bluntly, before acknowledging that, yes, he did speak to her on the Friday, Saturday and Monday between the story breaking and her get-out announcement.

Thats three phone calls, if youre counting.

I tried to give her the best advice in each of the calls, he said.

So that advice was basically time to go, right?

I dont talk about my private conversations.

Oof!Kristen Aldridge

The Austin Chronicle describes his interview skills as peerless. Tim Ferriss calls him a verbal Jedi. Countless others say hes transformed oral history into an art form, conducting hundreds of probing interviews with the worlds most compelling, influential and iconic people, including Mikhail Gorbachev, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Jack Welch, Jimmy Carter and Muhammad Ali.

As a New York Times bestselling author and the literary genius behind Esquire magazines "What Ive Learned" column, Cal Fussman has learned a thing or two about the power of asking good questions.Alex Wong/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- In a brief court proceeding in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, an attorney for a Russian company indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller entered a plea of not guilty to charges related to alleged Russian meddling during the 2016 campaign.



Representatives for Concord Management and Consulting, LLC, one of three Kremlin-linked companies and 13 Russian individuals indicted in February, did not attend Wednesdays arraignment in U.S. District Court in Washington, leaving their attorney, Michael Dubelier, to enter the plea on the company's behalf.



The federal magistrate judge assigned to Concords case joked Wednesday in court about Dubeliers clients, asking rhetorically, Theyre not here, are they? A special counsel prosecutor replied to the court: Alas, they are not here. The government would be thrilled if they were.



The indictment of Concord includes charges of creating and running a so-called troll factory during the 2016 U.S. elections with the intention of sowing discord among Americans.



Concord Management and Consulting is the parent company of Concord Catering, both founded by Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin.



Prigozhin, a wealthy businessman and restaurateur dubbed Putins Chef by Russian media, is a longtime Kremlin ally who was also named in the February indictment.



According to Muellers indictment, Prigozhins businesses served as the primary funding source for the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based troll farm that allegedly waged the social media influence operation designed to disrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election.



The Internet Research Agency also was indicted in February by the special counsel.



Neither Prigozhin nor the Internet Research Agency has entered a plea.



The next court date is in this case is scheduled for July 9.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.The Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ are all set to get a new color: Burgundy Red. Tipster Ice Universe has shared some pics of the gorgeous new models.

After launching the Galaxy S8 in April last year, Samsung took over six months to release the Burgundy Red color variant of the device. However, given the leak, it appears the gap will be considerably smaller with the Galaxy S9.

In fact, these models are likely already official in China, just not under the Burgundy Red name. Samsung silently brought a red color option for the Galaxy S9/S9+ in China recently.

Source | ViaThese are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales.According to a new report, Microsoft is working on a new smart speaker. The report says the company is collaborating with Taiwanese manufacturer Quanta on the project, which is still in its early stages.

The speaker will be powered by Microsoft's own Cortana digital assistant. The report says the device features Snapdragon 212 SoC, which suggests it should be among the more affordable options in the market.

As far as project status is concerned, the design of reference boards has been completed. However, there's lack of clarity whether a Microsoft will deliver an actual product to the market, or if it will only do a reference design to be used by other manufacturers.

ViaToday at I/O, Google has released the second Developer Preview of Wear OS. The first release based on the upcoming Android P went out in March. Wear OS by Google is the new name for what was previously known as Android Wear, since the company is leaning more and more towards using its own brand on its various initiatives.

The second Developer Preview of Wear OS based on Android P comes with support for Actions on Google. The Google Assistant on your wrist will be able to show you visual cards, follow-on suggestions, and it will also do text-to-speech. Actions on Google is actually being rolled out to all Wear 2.0 users and does not depend on the Android P base in the new Developer Preview.

What is confined to the latest experimental build is the new enhanced battery saver mode. When the watch is in this mode, it will show a power efficient watch face and will turn off radios, the touchscreen, and the tilt to wake functionality. If you want to see the time you'll have to press the side button, while a long press will let you switch back to a fully operational mode if you need to perform tasks that can't be done in that extreme battery saving mode.

The initial Developer Preview would not connect to Wi-Fi when disconnected from Bluetooth, as a power saving feature apparently. Google has listened to feedback and decided to revert this change with DP2, however.

Smart Reply has been enabled for bridged notifications for a while now, but with Wear OS DP2 these are also available in simplified Chinese. That's about it, as usual Google's wearable OS doesn't get a lot of shiny new features.

If you're interested in flashing Wear OS DP2 on your watch, the release notes can be found here and the images are available here. Note that these only work on the Huawei Watch 2 and Huawei Watch 2 Classic.

SourcePublished on 2018/05/10 | Source

Korean movies opening today 2018/05/10 in Korea "Haewon", "My Daughter's Lover", "My Wife's Mother" and "My Little Sister's Friend"

Advertisement

"Haewon" (2017)

Directed by Gu Jahywan

Synopsis

According to a survey by the U.S. military government in 1946, 78% of the South Korean people wanted socialism and only 14% capitalism. In this situation, by appointing the pro-Japanese collaborators and the rightists, Rhee Syngman, who had not received the people's support, massacred those groups and civilians that were political stumbling blocks. In dealing with the Jeju 4.3 uprising in 1947 and the Yeosun incident in 1948 and The Korean War having broken out, massive civilian massacre became regularized.

Festival

The 43rd Seoul Independent Film Festival

"My Daughter's Lover" (2018)

Directed by Kye Jang-hyuk

With Kim Seon-i, Baek Seul-bi,...

Synopsis

This is the story of a mother who is in love with her daughter's lover.

"My Wife's Mother" (2018)

Directed by Lim Hyun-tae

With Yoo Na, Ji Yeon, Lee Joon-hyun,...

Synopsis

My wife's mother, is better than my wife!

Woo-suk married his wife Yoo-na because he loved her, but in the end, they go through a period of ennui and he's not happy with their sex life either. One day his wife goes to work without even making him breakfast and her mother comes home. She's a young-looking woman good enough to be in her 20s with a tiny waist and big breasts. Woo-suk sees her as a woman. The wife goes out of town for work and there's only the two of them. His mother-in-law seems to want him as well...

"My Little Sister's Friend" (2018)

Directed by Lee Jun

With Se Hee, Min Do-yoon,...

Synopsis

Min-soo is at home since his discharge from the military. His sister Soo-min and her friend So-ri come home. Min-soo is surprised to see the 'little girl' he once knew had grown up to be such a mature young lady. One day, Min-soo is watching porn when he runs into So-ri. He freezes, but So-ri seduces him, "Want me to satisfy you?"By Vasia Orion | Published on 2018/05/09

Since the potential casting of the other recently announced horror drama is keeping me away like the plague, I'm very happy to bring you a potentially lovely casting for a new horror thriller drama called "The Ghost Detective". The series is courting Choi Daniel and Park Eun-bin as leads, both of whom are considering the offer positively.

Advertisement

"The Ghost Detective" is about a private detective named Lee Da-il (Choi Daniel), who is trying to become legalized in Korea, and his assistant, Jeong Yeo-wool (Park Eun-bin), who is trying to solve the mystery of her younger sibling's death. I'm curious about the horror aspect here. Do we have ghosts? Is this a supernatural type of horror or serial-killer-on-the-loose type?

Either way, the team behind this is very interesting. Writing the drama will be Han Ji-wan-I of "Wanted", and I'm very keen on seeing how his work in dramas will evolve. "Wanted" was not without problems, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Directing is Lee Jae-hoon-II of "Chief Kim", which is touted as a great work by many.

The genre, cast and creators are all right up my alley, which makes yours truly very excited, and very hungry for details. "The Ghost Detective" is slated for an August release on KBS 2TV, and I'll be on it like a truck of doom on characters with vital information.

Written by: Orion from 'Orion's Ramblings'

Sources (1) (2)Aaniih Nakoda College on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is holding its 30th Commencement Ceremony this evening with 41 students scheduled to graduate with degrees in fields ranging from business to carpentry, including two in the college's new associate degree in nursing.

The ceremony starts at 5:30 p.m. in the Harlem High School gymnasium with a feed following the ceremony.

Sharen Kickingwoman is the commencement speaker.

She is a member of the Aaniiihnen and Blackfeet tribes, her Blackfeet name is Siks Awakasi Akii, Black Tail Deer Woman and Soo ksistsi Koo Akii, Cloud Woman, a release from the college said.

Kickingwoman holds both her bachelor's and master's degrees from Stanford University, where she studied Native education and policy.

She works as a legislative assistant handling Indian affairs issues for U.S. Sen. Jon Tester in Washington.

During her time at Stanford she studied in South Africa and Costa Rica, and served as a White House intern under President Barack Obama.

Kickingwoman held many leadership positions within the Stanford community, working as a program assistant, on a social justice task force and chairing the Stanford Powwow. She is a Gates Millennium Scholar, received the Stanford Award of Excellence for being in the top 10 percent of her class and was named the Montana Indian Education College Student of the Year in 2017.

Kickingwoman is an advocate for youth and her favorite experiences come from working directly with youth, the release said. During her undergraduate years, she worked with first-generation, low-income, and minority students assisting with access to higher education through free college counseling and mentorship.

She also served as an Upward Bound counselor at the University of Montana, working directly with students through mentorship and college-readiness. Kickingwoman said she is inspired by all those who have come before her and have mentored her along the way.The Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting Friday at 12:15 p.m. in the Robins School Administration Building.

The agenda for the meeting is:

A. Call to order

1. Pledge of Allegiance

2. Roll call

3. Welcome to visitors

4. Agenda deletions or corrections, if any

B. New business

1. Personnel

Open Agenda  An opportunity for any member of the audience to bring to the attention of the board questions or relevant comments concerning district matters not on the agenda. The board will not discuss or take action on items not on the agenda, but may refer a...Press release

The Havre Area Chamber of Commerces Tourism Committee is offering people the opportunity to learn about Havres history by experiencing it. Havre locals will bring historical attractions to life for its annual Living History day Saturday, June 2.

People can tour the once grandest and largest military post in Montana and one of the largest in the U.S., Fort Assinniboine, from 10 a.m to 3 p.m. They can check out the display of hides and guns. Each hour a cannon shot will be fired by the Bullhook Bottoms Black Powder Club. People can grab lunch in the Historical Hop Room a...A man who brought his worldwide ministry to Havre two years ago is bringing another world-traveling evangelist to Havre tonight through the weekend, including a stop on Rocky Boys Indian Reservation Sunday.

Gary J. Hicks of Havre said Abner Suarez, who has been evangelizing around the world for the last 20 years, will be at Abuntant Life Ministries tonight through Sunday, and at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Living Waters Church on Rocky Boy.

Hicks, who also travels the world with his ministry, said he has had connections with Havre for more than 10 years. While he was living in Saskatchewan, he...Editor,

Several weeks ago, I called Sen. Jon Testers office in Great Falls with two questions. First, I wanted to know if Sen. Tester had stood during the State of the Union address in January and at which points during that speech. The personable young woman on the phone proceeded to tell me the good work the senator was doing on behalf of our Montana veterans. When I reminded her of the question, she assured me she would refer that to Washington.

Second question. It was about a week before the confirmation vote on Pompeo for secretary of state. I had watched some of the hea...Im angry. Its selfish of me, but I worked myself up into a right little snit when I heard Amtrak is cutting service in Havre. Please, no, not an unmanned station.

Selfish, I admit. In my personal phone and address book, yes, I have one of those old-fashioned black books, under A for Amtrak is the number for ticketing at the Havre station. I can phone that number from anywhere, talk to a real person, one with a welcoming voice, make my travel arrangements and know that Ill get where Im going with no glitches.

About 15 years ago, when calling the 800 number for ticketing...It's hands-down the most life-changing workplace initiative I've ever been involved in, she said. It really got people evaluating how they do something, and how they can do it better. It motivated them to evaluate every aspect of their role.

The innovative idea came from managing director Jonathon Elliot who was forced to drop down to part time hours to care for his young child after his wife developed cancer.

However, when his family life improved, Elliot found his work output didnt suffer despite the reduced hours. The revelation pushed him to investigate alternative working models that have been implemented overseas.

Eventually, the organisation decided to take a terrifying leap of faith and try a three-month trial.

In order to help employees achieve the extra time off, the company actively addressed its own culture, scrapping drawn-out meetings in favour of speedy stand-ups and abolishing emails in favour of an instant messaging system.Despite being a strategic priority for many businesses, it seems many employers arent succeeding when it comes to creating diverse and inclusive cultures  in fact, just 50 per cent of respondents were satisfied with their organisations efforts.

There is a significant gap between what employees want and what employers are achieving when it comes to a diverse and inclusive work environment, said Frank Ribuot, CEO of Randstad Australia.

Our research indicates organisations need to better define their strategy here, putting in place clear channels of communications to ensure genuine progress is made so that all Australians can feel safe, welcome and respected at work.

Interestingly, the study showed that just a fifth of respondents ranked diversity and inclusion as an important factor when choosing an employer yet half of all employees are still calling on employers to deliver clear channels for communication and feedback, plus meaningful actions in relation to D&I.

The research also found that almost two thirds (61 per cent) of Australians feel the greatest sense of inclusion when an employer offers flexible work options.'Our ideas came out,' Griffin says of upset win

Lowell Griffin talks about his primary election win over Sheriff Charlie McDonald.

Lowell Griffin was in workout clothes, hoping to get to the gym on Wednesday, when a television news crew asked for an on-camera interview. The newly elected sheriff of Henderson County agreed to the sit-down  and scrambled to change into an orange plaid shirt.

Having pulled off a surprising upset on primary election day, Griffin was quickly learning that he was in demand. His phone buzzed over and over. County commissioners called. So did gleeful supporters. And the press wanted to know how he had defeated Charlie McDonald, the incumbent who seemed to have cultivated a broad base of support even if he had some liabilities, with 59 percent of the vote.

I think our ideas came out, Griffin said. I think there was some issues that Sheriff McDonald was facing. I think between the issues and our ideas, different things attracted different voters to us. We had the training facility.

And there was the lingering pain in the close-knit Mills River community over the murder of Tommy Bryson.

You of course had the issue, and I did not make that a part of our campaign platform, but you had the tragedy that occurred in Mills River, he said.

Specific grievances propelled voters in Mills River and Saluda. But Griffin regards those as just two factors among many.

I had some ideas that I think are solid for the county, assigning supervisors to different areas of the county, he said. The bodycams became a huge issue. Weve got the high turnover rate currently at the sheriffs office. There were issues and ideas and I think different things appealed to different demographics.

Although Griffin gained support from those who opposed McDonalds training center as an unnecessary waste of money, the sheriff-elect also talks a lot about the need for training. His idea for a facility would serve a broader base  all first responders  but could be outdoors with shell structures mimicking a village, such as the Redstone Arsenal, where hes trained, in Huntsville, Alabama.

If we can spend far less and probably provide better training for our fire, EMS and rescue services, weve got to back up and really take a look at this and not rush headlong into something.

A veteran investigator himself, Griffin says he refuses to second-guess McDonalds tactical decisions in the hunt for Phillip Michael Stroupe and the missing Tommy Bryson.

That is an issue between the family, the people of that community and Sheriff McDonald and his people, he said. I still to this day am not going to make that any type of issue. Thats not an issue that I need to approach.

As McDonald noted, Mills River Fire Chief Rick Livingston was an outspoken critic of the manhunt.

Chief Livingston is a supporter of mine but hes a member of that community. I wasnt directly involved with that, Griffin said.

Will he drop the departments participation in ICEs 287-G program?

The first thing Im going to do is meet with the federal partners and I want to understand everything there is to know about 287-G, he said. Im not going to make a blind decision. Until I know everything about 287-G I dont want to make any type of statement. I do understand the significance to the economy that our Latino population makes. Theres a lot of businesses that rely on these folks that are looking for a better way of life and they contribute majorly to the economy in Henderson County. I dont want to use it as a punitive measure to intimidate any segment of our population.

How soon might voters expect to see sheriffs deputies wearing bodycams?

First of all, weve got to come up with funding, he said. Whether its done in phases, whether I get the funding to put them on all our officers, theres some variables. That is something Im going to fight to implement as soon as I can. Weve still got to look at the financial aspect so I really cant say how quickly we can do that.

Every election since a young upstart named George Erwin upset the incumbent sheriff, Ab Jackson, has in some way involved a Ridge candidate trying to get the job back Tim Griffin, Michael Brown, now, Lowell Griffin. The Ridge has always delivered 40-some percent. This time, the Ridge carried Griffin to a landslide victory. He won 23 of 35 precincts and overwhelmed McDonald in the apple country  winning Bat Cave with 71 percent of the vote, Edneyville (where his younger brother is fire chief) with 78 percent, North Blue Ridge with 75 percent, Clear Creek with 71 percent. Did the Ridge regain the office after 24 years?

No, I dont think that the sheriffs office belongs to anybody but the people of this county and I am not here to serve any agenda other than serving the people of Henderson County, Griffin said.More than 4,200 women who phoned the CervicalCheck helpline are still waiting for a callback, it has been revealed.

The HSE yesterday defended the slow response, saying it did not want the callback to be a cosmetic exercise.

The helpline continues to be busy, with 320 calls yesterday.

Meanwhile, eight women or their next of kin who were the subject of internal CervicalCheck reports after developing cervical cancer are still unaware of the review.

As of yesterday, 201 of the 209 cases, including the next of kin of women who had died after getting an incorrect smear result, had been contacted.

Speaking at the Oireachtas Health Committee yesterday, Dean Sullivan, of the HSE, said: "I understand it has not been possible to contact the remaining eight people and their families to date, as some women are not in the country, because they are travelling or living abroad, or are uncontactable.

"All 201 women or their families have been offered a meeting at the earliest opportunity with their doctor at a time that is suitable and convenient to them."

HSE chief Tony O'Brien yesterday refused to resign, instead warning politicians they needed to come up with a plan for the HSE because it was an "exercise in how not to do change management". He told TDs that he would "respectfully decline your invitation to resign without prejudice or otherwise".

Instead, he said he would take holidays in early July after the report of a scoping inquiry into the CervicalCheck scandal is published - and not return.

Uncontactable

Addressing the committee, Mr O'Brien indicated he did not expect huge interest in the job.

After seven years at the helm, he said there were "some doubts" about the standard of competition. Fianna Fail's Stephen Donnelly put it to him that he should resign over the scandal "without prejudice".

"I take no joy in the call and I'm very conscious that you've given many years of public service to healthcare," he said.

However, Mr O'Brien hit back, describing the director general as the "one person who has to be personally accountable for every failure or mistake of 140,000 individuals who work in the health service".

Mr O'Brien said there were "many good things" happening in the HSE but its establishment was "an exercise in how not to do change management".

He admitted that there were "significant issues" but said that he was not informed of the impending scandal before it broke in the media.

He said he was not happy with the way the scandal had developed "for multiple reasons".

Mr O'Brien said that if he had been aware of Vicky Phelan's case "in all of its magnitude, it would have been possible to put in place a number of steps to ensure the organisation was in a better place to deal with the fallout".

Asked whether people in the HSE were afraid to raise concerns, Mr O'Brien said he had a sign in his office that read: "Speak truth to power." Health Minister Simon Harris told the meeting that there was a "long road to travel to restore public confidence". He promised major change in the way the health service operates, saying: "The HSE has become too big to fail and too big to succeed."

When questioned on Mr O'Brien's future, the minister said it was his "judgment" that creating a vacuum in the HSE would not help the situation.

Mr O'Brien will today return to Leinster House for the third time in a week, to face more questions at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

PAC chairman Sean Fleming last night said the committee wanted to quiz the HSE chief on expenditure incurred on various cancer screening services, including the cost of outsourcing.French authorities are set to proceed with trying Ian Bailey for murder over the 1996 death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier by October.

Prosecutors are pressing ahead with preparations for the long-planned trial in Paris after the English-born journalist lost a French Supreme Court bid to block the case last week.

It was his final avenue of challenge in France to a murder trial over the killing in West Cork of the film executive and mother-of-one.

She was found battered to death on the laneway leading to her isolated holiday home at Toormore, outside Schull.

Logistics

No one was ever charged with her killing in Ireland despite one of the biggest murder investigations in the history of the State.

France launched its own Paris-based inquiry when it was clear no prosecution would take place here.

Last night, one French legal source indicated that the European Court of Human Rights challenge flagged by Mr Bailey (60) would have no bearing on the French criminal proceedings.

Prosecutors are now focused on the logistics of the trial.

While it is hoped it may be ready by October, any delays over witnesses or evidential presentations could stall proceedings until early next year.

French prosecutors want the trial to proceed as quickly as possible, given that the original investigation was launched almost a decade ago.

Mr Bailey said he was not surprised that the French were pressing ahead to try him in absentia.

The ASSOPH support group in France, founded to support Ms Toscan du Plantier's family, has warned the Irish authorities that it expects them to fully comply with European commitments in terms of judicial co-operation and extraditions.

Mr Bailey claimed this week that the forensic file - which he was able to examine as part of the French investigation - revealed unidentified, or "alien", DNA was found at the murder scene.A private detective was hired by Irish Life Assurance to spy on a couple and their six-year-old daughter.

Lawyer Patrick Keane told the Circuit Civil Court that the investigator was sent to a Galway hotel to snoop on John and Elaine Fenton and their daughter, Emma.

He said the investigator took photos and a video of the family that were given to Irish Life, which wanted to find out if banker Ms Fenton was scamming the company for income protection after becoming ill.

Mr Keane said 60,000 claims by Mr and Ms Fenton had been settled confidentially with Irish Life, but the court had to approve or reject a 50,000 settlement offer from Irish Life to Emma, now 16.

Trauma

Mr Keane said Irish Life had hired Reliance Investigation Services to investigate Ms Fenton, an employee of Allied Irish Banks.

"While doing that, they took photographs of Mr and Ms Fenton and of six-year-old Emma after following them into a hotel," Mr Keane said.

"They photographed Emma and her parents coming out of a lift in the hotel, and some photographs centred only on the infant plaintiff."

He told Judge Terrence O'Sullivan that the pictures had been taken with regard to informing Irish Life if Ms Fenton was capable of resuming work.

The family, of Templeroan Meadows, Knocklyon, Rathfarnham, did not know they were being photographed and there was no parental consent for photographs of the child being taken.

Mr Keane said Irish Life was offering Emma - who had developed psychological trauma after finding out about the private detective - a settlement of 50,000 and costs.

He said it could be extremely difficult to recover damages under the Data Protection Act, so he was recommending acceptance of the offer to the court.

Judge O'Sullivan said he was very happy to approve the offer and direct the money be paid into court until Emma's 18th birthday in April 2020.

In October 2008, Ms Fenton had entered a claim against her income protection policy after becoming ill.

Irish Life had ceased paying her benefit from November 22, 2010, a decision she had appealed.

Sarah Moorhead, for Irish Life, had told the court the assurance company was making the 50,000 settlement offer to Emma and was consenting to her parents' claims being struck out.A 17-year-old student who injured himself in a hospital bathroom was awarded 28,000 damages in the Circuit Civil Court yesterday.

Conor Casey had fallen over, hitting his head, after being sedated for an operation.

Barrister Fiona Crawford told Judge Terence O'Sullivan that in April 2015, Conor had been admitted to the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght, with acute appendicitis and had a laparoscopic appendectomy under general anaesthetic.

Operation

She said that following the operation - and while still slightly dizzy from the anaesthetic and having been given analgesia medication - he had been allowed to use the toilet unaccompanied and had fallen, hitting his head against the sink.

Ms Crawford, who appeared with Kent Carty Solicitors for the teenager, told Judge O'Sullivan that the boy was suing the nominee of the hospital, David Slevin, through his mother, Helen Casey, of Cruagh, Rockbrook, Rathfarnham, Dublin.

Injured

She told the court that Conor injured the back of his head, requiring stitches to a wound that had healed but had left a noticeable scar.

Judge O'Sullivan, approving the settlement offer of 28,000 together with expenses of 500, said he considered the offer a good one.

He said the scar was particularly noticeable because, like most boys of his age, Conor sported a "short, modern haircut".

The judge directed that the money be paid out directly to Conor, who will turn 18 on June 22.Gardai are still trying to find out the nationality of a teenager found in a transport trailer carrying gear for the Rolling Stones concert in Croke Park.

The youth, believed to be 16 years old, was discovered in the trailer being used to bring in equipment for next week's show.

He was found when staff were unloading the truck, and they then alerted gardai.

The Herald has learned that the youth has supplied gardai with a name and age, but that his nationality or where he had travelled from is unknown.

It is understood detectives from the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) will now become involved in the case, which is being treated as an immigration issue.

Gardai will attempt to establish the teenager's nationality, as well as his movements before he was discovered in the trailer.

Expand Close Croke Park in Dublin / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Croke Park in Dublin

Port

Investigators will also look to determine how the juvenile managed to gain access into Ireland undetected.

The trailer in which the youth was discovered had travelled to Ireland from the French port of Calais, via the UK.

Gardai were alerted to attend the GAA stadium shortly after 4pm on Tuesday, after being contacted by staff. The youth has since been taken into the care of the State, with Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, now involved.

When discovered, he did not appear to have any significant injuries, despite having been concealed in the trailer for some time.

Calais is a port city in northern France and is the main ferry route between France and the UK.

French authorities believe that around 600 migrants are in the Calais region, although humanitarian groups - which have recently criticised "inhumane conditions" for refugees - claim that the true figure is likely to be around 800.

In a separate incident last year, garda immigration officers discovered 14 people hidden in a truck that arrived by ferry at Rosslare Harbour.

The 12 men and two women had arrived on a ship from France.

They were found inside a refrigerator trailer being used to store apples, which had a temperature set at around 5C.

The migrants, including one youth, were all said to have been in good health, although one male was taken to Wexford General Hospital as a precaution.The coffin of Michael Stokes is carried into the church in Malahide

Mourners at the funeral of "tiny but tough" Michael Stokes were told how his charisma "touched the whole country".

There were both sobs and laughter at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Malahide, Co Dublin, as they gathered to remember Michael, who died on Saturday, just a few weeks short of his 16th birthday.

His mischievous personality captured the heart of the nation when he appeared on RTE's Room To Improve in 2015, as architect Dermot Bannon redesigned the house of his foster parents, Ann Higgins and Barry McCabe, in Malahide.

Support

Michael famously told Bannon to "go back to the drawing board" with his plans.

Yesterday, Bannon was among the hundreds of Michael's friends at the church to support Ann and Barry and Michael's birth parents, John Paul and Siobhan.

Expand Close Brave Michael Stokes / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Brave Michael Stokes

Parish priest Fr Martin Noone said that while some may have thought the odds were stacked against Michael given his disability, osteogenesis imperfecta, the teenager was "tiny but tough".

"What Michael has done in a few short years, many of us, including myself, will not achieve in a long, long life," he told the huge congregation.

"There are people right around the country who would love to be part of this gathering because Michael touched the whole country. In some way or other, through the lens of a camera or a cheery smile, he touched our lives."

Paying tribute to Michael at the end of the Mass, Eimir McGrath, who knew him all his life and was an advocate for him, said that when he was born "a tiny, fragile baby", he was not expected to survive.

Expand Close Room To Improve star Dermot Bannon was among the mourners / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Room To Improve star Dermot Bannon was among the mourners

However, "Michael the warrior came into being," she said.

"Inside this little body was a giant-sized heart and an enormous capacity to love us as his life unfolded."

She also spoke of Michael's hilarious turns of phrase, a classic being, "I'm sweating like a dolphin".

"His technical expertise kept many of our phones in tip-top order - including sneaking in his own custom ringtones and changing your password when you weren't looking," she said.

She added that Michael had typical teenage concerns, adding "his cool hair was very important to him".

"He also might have had a kiss or two in the last few months," she revealed to laughter around the church.

Eimir told how Michael's life "blossomed" when he met his foster parents, how he "bathed in constant and everyday love" and began to see a very different future for himself.

"He expressed this in his words 'I'm so excited for my life'. It's on this high note Michael left this world full of joy, excitement and love," she added.

"He would be so overjoyed with the outpouring of love over the last few days, especially that he was trending on Facebook and Twitter and being the main guy on the Six One News."

Ann thanked the staff of Temple Street Children's Hospital for their care of Michael throughout his life and especially in his final weeks.

"They could see his bravery in those few short weeks," she added.Provo candidates talk concerns on housing, west side issues, future of city

Provos mayoral and Municipal Council candidates had the opportunity Wednesday evening to introduce themselves and take questions pertaining to the city and, in some cases, their specific neighborhoods. Mayoral candidates include incumbent Mayor Michelle Kaufusi looking for a second term and Ken Dudley who is committed to making sure the community is safe and that small businesses get the help they need. Dudley was injured last summer while attempting to drive through a crowded intersection during a police brutality protest in downtown Provo. A demonstrator claimed he shot Dudley out ...Four taken from Hagerstown fire to Meritus hospital

Four people, including children, were taken to Meritus Medical Center on Thursday night from a fire in the Noland Village community in Hagerstown.Think embroidered papal mantles inspiring a John Galliano masterpiece for Dior, Joan of Arc armor refashioned as sexualised corsetry by Jean Paul Gaultier or the monk habit re-styled as eveningwear by Valentino.

There are plenty of tiaras, but few tantrums at New Yorks hottest museum ticket this spring, Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic imagination which is after all, causing little backlash from religious conservatives.

Opening on Thursday, it is the Metropolitan Museum of Arts largest exhibition, exploring how legendary couture houses have been inspired by church imagery, clerical dress and belief during the 20th and 21st centuries.

But if some worried it might ruffle feathers, even in ultra-liberal New York where Catholics are the dominant faith group, the Vatican has given its stamp of approval, lending 40 ecclesiastical objects from the Sistine Chapel sacristy.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, himself attended the Met Gala Oscars of the East to inaugurate the exhibition, mingling with celebrities flashing their flesh in outre outfits to a Sunday Best theme.

VF Editor Radhika Jones (R) attends the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (AFP)

You may be asking Whats the church doing here? he told the press event. Its because the Church and the Catholic imagination, the theme of this exhibit, are all about three things: truth, goodness and beauty.

The exhibition spans 25 galleries at the museums Beaux-Arts Fifth Avenue headquarters and Cloisters outpost, perched atop a northern Manhattan hill, and will be open through October 8.

Its based on the concept and experience of the pilgrimage, says Andrew Bolton, curator in charge at the Mets Costume Institute. In a way, its a dialogue between art and fashion, he told AFP.

The gowns are displayed in the museums Byzantine and Medieval galleries, and the monastic environs of the Cloisters, rooting the frocks in their cultural reference points and emphasising the mantra that fashion is, after all, art.

Provocation, nostalgia

Many of the designers are no longer practicing, but never less the idea of Catholicism has had a big impact on their imagination, Bolton told AFP.

Sometimes its provocation, sometimes its adulation, other times its just nostalgia for a time in their childhood.

There are the virginal, contemplative wedding dresses by Chanel, Balenciaga and Dior, beaded, crucifix-studded jackets by Gianni Versace mimicking mosaics, angel-wing flamboyance from Alexander McQueen and an Yves Saint Laurent silk brocade ensemble made to clothe a statue of the Virgin in a Paris church.

Yet it is the objects from the Vatican that dazzle - hand-embroidered mantles that look every bit couture and papal mitres studded in jewels so bling that they would be beloved by a fashion-obsessed celebrity today.

For example, the tiara given by Queen Isabella II of Spain to Pius IV in the 19th century - cloth of silver embroidered with gold metal thread, is studded with 19,000 precious stones, most of them diamonds.

It took years and multiple trips to Rome to negotiate the loan, according to The New York Times. Many have never before left the Vatican and belong to more than 15 papacies - the earliest a mantel worn by Benedict XIV, pope from 1740-58, and the latest a pair of red shoes worn by John Paul II.

They are also housed separately from the frocks, confined to the Anna Wintour Costume Center, named after the Vogue legend who has turned the Met Gala into the hottest party of the year and raised millions for the Institute.

Although some might regard fashion as a frivolous pursuit far removed from the sanctity of religion, most of the vestments worn by the secular clergy and religious orders... have their origins in secular dress, Bolton has written.

Still its worth noting that the grandeur on display could not be further removed from the simplicity and austerity projected by current Pope Francis.

This is not a procedure where the pope gets involved, or has to give his OK, The New York Times quoted Vatican spokesman Greg Burke as saying.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreBollywood star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who is all set to make her 17th appearance at the 71st Cannes Film Festival on May 11, will debut on Instagram ahead of the red carpet appearance at Cannes.

Throughout her 21-year career, Aishwarya has been a private person and she does not have any official social media accounts. Husband Abhishek and father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan, however, are already acing the social media game with their interesting posts and frequent tweets.

Abhishek Bachchan along with his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan at the wedding reception of actress Sonam Kapoor and businessman Anand Ahuja in Mumbai on May 8 (IANS)

A source close to the actress claimed it is due to constant requests from her fans all around the globe that she decided to join the social media and keep them updated on her life and projects. Her closest buddies from the industry, which include Karan Johar, Manish Malhotra and others, have been asking her to join social media. Even her team persuaded her a lot. Before her 17th Cannes appearance, the LOreal team also discussed this with her. Finally, she decided to go ahead, the source said.

The 71st annual Cannes Film Festival is scheduled to be held from May 8 to May 19.

On the work front, Aishwarya will be seen in Fanne Khan opposite Anil Kapoor along with Rajkummar Rao in a pivotal role.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreDeepika Padukone is ready to win over the Cannes Film Festival once again. Why do we seem so sure? Because her first picture from the beautiful French town is here and it is giving really positive vibes about what to expect.

Deepika shared a sultry new picture in a white T-shirt, blue denims and nude heels from Cannes on Wednesday and fans love every bit of it. When in Cannes... #cannes2018 @lorealskin @lorealhair @lorealmakeup #lorealparisindia, she captioned the photo. Deepika is seen standing in her hotel rooms balcony, and it seems like she chose the same hotel where she stayed last year.

Of course, the fans are living for the picture. I have never seen someone this beautiful, commented one fan, Girl u straight up serving LOOKS, said another.

The actor will be representing cosmetics brand LOreal at the film festivals red carpet events. Also joining her will be Aishwarya Rai and Sonam Kapoor as the other two ambassadors of the brand.

Deepika also made her second Met Gala appearance in New York on Tuesday. She wore a red Prabal Gurung gown to the event, which was attended by the biggest names in movies, social media, television, fashion and more.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreActor Arjun Kapoor believe pay disparity in film industry is a sensitive issue but finds it crass and rude to talk about how much one gets paid.

On the pay disparity in Bollywood, he says it is not about actors topping actresses, but for several years it has been the heroes who have generated business at the ticket windows for a film.

We are not saying that if you give them (actress) more money, we will not work. I have never asked how much my co-star is paid, Arjun told reporters at Bend the Gender event here last evening.

For many years, there has been a certain growth of business because the main lead is a hero, an actor is the protagonist. The audience is used to seeing certain kind of films, he said.

Arjun Kapoor (2R) poses for a picture with sisters Khushi Kapoor (L), Anshula Kapoor (2L) and Janhvi Kapoor (R) during the wedding reception of actress Sonam Kapoor and businessman Anand Ahuja. (AFP)

He, however, believes that in the last few years things have changed for women in the industry as the commercial success of a film has led to female actors getting more remuneration.

I hate calling it a woman-centric film, but, for example, if Raazi does well, Alia Bhatt will be paid a lot of money for her next film, he said.

Like NH 10 works, Anushka Sharmas salary will change. It is a sensitive thing to discuss, peoples prices, I find it very crass and rude. I feel this conversation leads nowhere as no one knows the truth except the bank manager and those who make the contract, he said.

The actor said the situation is not perfect but nowadays there are lot of ways to compensate an actor, like if a film does well, they are paid after the release.

Indian Bollywood actors Ranbir Kapoor (L) and Alia Bhatt pose for a picture during the wedding reception of actress Sonam Kapoor and businessman Anand Ahuja. (AFP)

With every passing film, you are not seeing just a certain kind of cinema. The way cinema changes, similarly this conversation will decrease, he said.

Asked about the #MeToo campaign and female stars standing in Bollywood, he said actors like Kareena Kapoor Khan are the best example of women having a great career even after marriage and child.

I am talking to you after the wedding of my sister Sonam Kapoor, she will continue working. Anushka Sharma has been working after her wedding. Kareena is a prime example, she has been back on set fter Taimur (her son) was born, he said.

What is more important, according to Arjun, is to make a safer and comfortable environment for female actors to grow and harness their skills.

Karisma Kapoor (L), Saif Ali Khan (C) and Kareena Kapoor (R) pose for a picture during the wedding reception of actress Sonam Kapoor and businessman Anand Ahuja. (AFP)

A story like Raazi seven or ten years back could be hero-driven but today it is content-driven. It is based on a true story and they have not changed it and made it with a guy. Evolution is there.

India is a very big country so I am trying to change the thinking with Bend the gender. The film industry will not change or evolve overnight. We are making efforts, so we give credit to the film industry as we are way more secular and open, he said.

Arjun felicitated those who stood for womens rights under the banner Bend- The Gender Heroes at the event.

Arjun Kapoor at a radio station in Mumbai on May 9, 2018. (IANS)

I felt we need to present those men who have made a difference in the lives of their partner, sister, daughters, and are supportive and encouraging, one can support just by standing by their side, he said.

We say behind every successful man there is a woman as she sacrifices a lot, so same way, men need to be there for women. Women are not given the opportunity, he said.

In real life, he thinks his sister Anshula Kapoor is more talented than him.

...she inspires me, she is so educated, she is correct and sorted. I want women in our country to do whatever they want to do, he added.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreVeteran film and folk theatre actor Lalita Chatterjee, who worked in Victoria No 203, died at a private hospital in Kolkata on Wednesday following a cerebral attack, family sources said.She was recently seen with Jim Sarbh in Jonaki.

Chatterjee, 81, was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday after she fell down at her residence and suffered a massive stroke. She was put on ventilation.

Chatterjee began her film career in 1964 with the movie Bivas opposite Bengali matinee idol Uttam Kumar. Her other films including Antony Firingee, Jai Jayanti, Har Mana Har and Memsaheb. She spent ten years in Bollywood, where her notable films included Victoria No. 203, Raat Andheri Thi, Aaap ki Kasam, Chori Chori and Talash. She was also a regular in Bengali jatra (folk theatre).

In her condolence message, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recalled Chatterjees four-decade long acting career and termed her death as an irreparable loss for stage and screen. Saddened at the passing away of veteran film actress Lolita Chatterjee. My condolences to her family, friends and admirers, she tweeted.

Saddened at the passing away of veteran film actress Lolita Chatterjee. My condolences to her family, friends and admirers  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) May 9, 2018

Several actors and celebs took to Twitter to express their grief:

I would like to express my sincere condolences to the veteran actor Lalita Chatterjees family. RIP #LalitaChatterjee pic.twitter.com/SdkUVZAG4i  Sayantika Banerjee (@sayantika12) May 9, 2018

R.I.P. Lalitadi (Lalita Chatterjee). Will miss you.  Arindam Sil (@silarindam) May 9, 2018

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

Follow @htshowbiz for moreIt would not be an understatement to say that Alia Bhatt is one of the most interesting actors in Bollywood today. In the last six years since she made her debut, she has proven that when thrown a challenge, she has always come back a notch higher.

In Meghna Gulzars Raazi, she will be seen playing one of the most complex characters in her short career. Lets try and decipher who Sehmat Khan of Raazi could have been - a young Kashmiri Muslim girl, daughter of a businessman, who agrees to fulfil her fathers wish to be an undercover Indian agent in Pakistan. For the purpose, she is married off to a serving officer of the Pakistani army. All this unfolds in the year 1971 when India and Pakistan went to war. In this scenario, this young girls bravado and unflinching patriotism shines through. Reportedly, a vital clue that she passed on helped the Indian Navy save INS Vikrant from being destroyed. Her story didnt stop there - Sehmat, reportedly, returned to India, pregnant with the child of her Pakistani husband and raised him to join the Indian army.

Rajit Kapur as Sehmat Khans father in Raazi.

Given the current unrest in Kashmir, it can be a challenge to imagine that such a woman could have even existed. In a world of shrill nationalism, this womans quiet courage is an example for all of us to emulate. Joh Karte Hain, Woh Bolte Nahin - might as well have been her motto.

For Alia Bhatt to essay a woman like Sehmat will be, arguably, a difficult task. Unlike her characters in Highway (2014) and Udta Punjab (2016), this is a political drama. It has layers of history in its underbelly even if it is not referred to directly - theres the Kashmiri turmoil, Pakistani desire to complete the unfinished task of partition and, importantly, Indias resolve to preserve her thousands of years of history and collective inheritance. There will be references to the run up to 1971 Indo-Pak war, of course.

Sehmat Khans quite courage ought to be an inspiration to us all.

Just how would Sehmat compare with Highways Veera Tripathi and Udta Punjabs Pinki/Mary Jane?

In Highway, her character is caught in a milieu which requires her to tackle the fear of being kidnapped, being away from familiar surroundings of home and family and being sexually abused. She has to contend with physical hardships - characters traverse many north Indian states in a truck. She also has to explore a newfound sense of freedom, conquer her inner demons (of having being molested as a child) and finally deal with love for a man who is her polar opposite (theres also the Stockholm syndrome angle).

In Udta Punjab, she plays a young labourer who becomes a drug addict and later is sexually and physically abused. Alias strong point as an actor is her instinctive response to a situation and her ability to expose her vulnerability. No wonder, her characters look so real. What one was apprehensive was her ability to understand the mind of an addict and get into the skin of the character who is from Bihar - diction, perspective on life, world view, regional traits, etc.

With her mother Soni Razdan in a still from Raazi.

Dear Zindagi was perhaps the closest she could come to portraying characters she might have seen growing up - that gnawing emptiness in many youngsters today, otherwise born to privilege. She could project depression, lack of focus, tackling societal prejudice and her connect with her doctor with effortless ease.

Whats remarkable about Alia is her ability to inhabit the world of grey with just as much ease as she does in the black-and-white world of Bollywood.

Watching her tease Badrinath, her suitor, in Badrinath Ki Dulhania about his command over simple interest and compound interest was charming. Seeing her pretty and petite frame dance to the beats of Radha on the Dance Floor (Student of the Year) was a feast for the eyes. Her uninhibited onscreen romance with her co-stars - Arjun Kapoor and Varun Dhawn - is simply delightful. Whats more, the actor is good dancer too. Few remakes look as good as the original. However, Tamma Tamma Loge from Badrinath Ki Dulhania seemed just as interesting as the Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Dutt original.

Raazi is based on Harinder S Sikkas book called Calling Sehmat, which is a fictionalised account of a Kashmiri Indian spy. Sikka, reportedly, changed the name of his protagonist to protect her and her family from danger. The lady in question is dead now. With no real reference points to seek guidance from, Alia will have to depend on Sikkas narration, Meghna Gulzars vision and her own imagination to bring to life this mysterious character from the pages of modern Indian espionage history.

Author tweets @mniveditatweets

Follow @htshowbiz for moreOfficials of the telecom department and aviation ministry will meet next week to chart out the framework and guidelines for operationalising in-flight data and voice connectivity, a top DoT official said Thursday.

The Telecom Commission - the highest policy making body of Department of Telecom (DoT) - on May 1 cleared a proposal for allowing wider in-flight connectivity that is now available in most of the developed markets.

The decision will pave the way for travellers to use internet and voice services on mobile phone during flights in the Indian airspace.

We plan to hold a meeting coming Monday (May 14) or Tuesday (May 15) with officials of Civil Aviation Ministry on this, Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan told reporters on the sidelines of CII Broadband Summit in New Delhi.

Telecom operators may or may not be part of the upcoming meeting which will look at evolving a framework for in-flight connectivity, she added.

Earlier, Sundararajan had expressed hope that the facility will be rolled out in 3-4 months, once the modalities of the niche licences and back-end agreements are worked out.

Major airlines, including Air India and Vistara, have welcomed the governments decision, and civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu has said he will ensure earliest implementation of the proposal.

While mobile phone use will still be restricted during takeoff and landing, Telecom Commission has approved the lifting of a ban on the use mobile phone and internet services at cruising altitudes.

Globally, many airlines are already offering wi-fi for passengers, but they currently have to switch off the facility when they enter the Indian airspace.

AirAsia, Air France, British Airways, Egypt Air, Emirates, Air New Zealand, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways and Virgin Atlantic are among 30 airlines that are already allowing mobile phone use on aircraft.

A separate category of licencees - in-flight service providers - will be created for offering such services, and licence fee for such niche providers will be pegged at Re 1.There is a great deal of interest for the Air India disinvestment initiative, civil aviation secretary R N Choubey said on Thursday, as the deadline for submission of preliminary bids looms over the corner.

The last date for submission of Expression of Interest (EoI) for the proposed 76% stake sale in the debt-laden airline ends on May 31.

Earlier this month, the government had come out with clarifications related to the disinvestment move.

There is a great deal of interest for Air India, Choubey said at the US-India Aviation Summit which commenced on Thursday in Mumbai. He said no American carrier had expressed a formal interest for Air India.

The divestment includes the profit-making Air India Express and AISATS, an equal joint venture between the national carrier and the Singapore-based SATS Ltd.

The last date for submission of EoIs for Air India disinvestment had been extended to May 31 from the earlier deadline of May 14. The qualified bidders would now be known on June 15, whereas the earlier date was May 29.

Starting the disinvestment process of the debt-laden national carrier, a preliminary information memorandum for the proposed sale of up to 76% stake in Air India along with management control to private entities was issued on March 28.

The government also made it clear that it would have the rights of a minority shareholder with 24% stake in Air India post disinvestment.Oil extended its three-year high as tensions in the Middle East flared following the US decision to renew sanctions on Iran, OPECs third-largest producer.

Futures in New York added as much as 1.1 percent, reaching the highest level since November 2014. Israel said it struck Irans military facilities in Syria after a barrage of missiles was fired by Iranian forces at the Golan Heights. Prices jumped 3 percent Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said he would scrap a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, and reimpose restrictions on the Islamic Republics crude exports.

Crudes recent rally has been propelled by Trumps Iran sanctions and simmering geopolitical tensions surrounding the Middle East. While investors are still evaluating the full impact of the US withdrawal from the nuclear accord, UBS Group AG said the sanctions could cut Irans oil exports by as much as 500,000 barrels a day in the next six months. Saudi Arabia signaled it could make up lost supplies, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said theres a chance prices may exceed its forecast.

Judging by the initial reaction of the market, the damage is potentially great though the the impact of the sanctions is still being assessed, said Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates Ltd. in London.

West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery rose as much as 75 cents to $71.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and traded at $71.57 at 10.32 am in London. Prices climbed $2.08 on Wednesday. Total volume traded Thursday was about 20 percent above the 100-day average.

Brent for July settlement added as much as 1 percent to $78 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, after rising 3.2 percent to $77.21 on Wednesday. The global benchmark crude traded at a $6.03 premium to July WTI.

Futures for September delivery on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange rose 2.4 percent to 476.4 yuan a barrel, climbing for a fourth day. Thats the longest rising streak in a month.

Irans Quds Force, which is fighting in Syria, targeted Israeli army positions with 20 rockets, according to a Twitter post by Israel Defense Forces spokesman Jonathan Conricus. While he said several of the rockets were intercepted and there were no casualties, the Israeli media called the confrontation the biggest direct military clash between the two rivals.

Oil prices are also getting a boost as stockpiles continue to shrink. In the US, the Energy Information Administration reported nationwide crude inventories slid 2.2 million barrels last week, in contrast to a forecast for a 1 million-barrel gain in a Bloomberg survey. The crude draw was largely due to a decline in imports, which fell by the most since November 2016. Domestic gasoline and distillate stocks were also eroded.

--With assistance from Tsuyoshi Inajima .Walmarts move to splash $16 billion on a 77 percent stake in Flipkart, Indias largest e-commerce company, is set to transform the online market in one of the worlds fastest-growing economies.

Here are four reasons why the Walmart-Flipkart deal will make waves.

Walmart seeks to bounce back

Having failed to break into Indias street level store scene, Walmarts acquisition ensures its entry into one of worlds fastest growing online retail markets, with a growing number of the 1.25 billion population buying through smartphones and laptops.

Walmart, which has 21 wholesale stores across India, failed in its previous attempts to enter the country, particularly an unsuccessful partnership with Bharti enterprises in 2007.

The new acquisition offers the US giant access to Flipkarts local market knowledge and technological innovation. The Indian firm has also fought off an onslaught by US e-commerce giant Amazon.

Beyond India, analysts say Walmart can replicate Flipkarts successful model in markets including the United States and Mexico to counter Amazons global e-commerce dominance.

Flipkart-Amazon: Its war

With Walmarts deeper pockets, Flipkart will no longer need to focus on raising capital to hold off an onslaught from Amazon.

Bangalore-based Flipkart has up to now been the worlds third-most funded private company and has raised over $7 billion from investors including Softbank, DST Global and Tiger Global.

With Walmarts international retail experience, supply chain expertise and cash reserves, Flipkart can focus on innovation to take the war to Amazon, which has promised to put more than $5 billion into its India operation.

Amazons India sales briefly overtook Flipkarts in 2016 but the latter now boasts a larger market share, although surveys differ on just how much.

Consolidation and competition

Flipkart had already sparked consolidation in the market in the last few years by snapping up fashion e-tailers Myntra and Jabong, and eBays India arm, as it moved to snuff out rivals and grab a greater market share.

Indias online retail industry is expected to hit $73 billion a year by 2022 and predicted to grow to $200 billion in a decade as its middle class customer base grows every year and smartphone penetration increases.

With Flipkart and Amazon flush with cash to bolster their commercial arsenals, Indias online market has now firmly become a strict duopoly, experts say, raising questions about the future of the third player in the market -- Snapdeal.

Uncertainty for Indias small stores

Indias local family-run stores, known as kirana shops, have dominated streets for decades but the Flipkart-Walmart deal will have left many wondering what the future holds for them.

Under the deal thousands of the independent shops could act as the original source of groceries ordered from the Flipkart website. Alternatively they may act as pick-up points for customers who have bought goods online.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the US retailer will help modernise the often scruffy and small shops to bring them up to global standards.

But the Confederation of All India Traders has warned that the Flipkart-Walmart tie-up could kill off small businesses by undercutting them.A farmer reportedly committed suicide in Nainital district on Tuesday. Locals said that the farmer killed himself after crop failure as he was in financial distress. The district administration, however, said that they would be examining the matter and cannot issue a statement without verifying facts.

According to reports, Harish Belwal (32), a resident of Dudli Babiyad village in Dhari block committed suicide by consuming poison at his home. He was referred to the Sushila Tiwari Hospital in Haldwani where he breathed his last.

The village head, Chandra Ballabh Sharma, said that the deceased was under stress as his crops had failed due to bad weather.

A hailstorm had struck the state last month leading to losses in US Nagar and Nainital districts, where harvested wheat that had been kept in the fields had germinated. The farmers have been demanding that the government buy the germinated wheat so that they do not suffer losses.

Former chief minister Harish Rawat has also been making the same demand.

Nainital district magistrate Vinod Kumar Suman said that he was not aware of the matter and would ask officials to give a report on the farmers death. We will assess whether he was under duress from crop-related problems, said Suman.

In 2017, four farmers had committed suicide in Uttarakhand due to debts leading to a political blame game. Ram Avtar, a farmer from Khatima, committed suicide in June 2017. In June, Surendra a farmer from Berinag in Pithoragarh district committed suicide as he was under pressure to repay agricultural loans.

In July last year, Rajkumar of Chamba block of Tehri committed suicide over farm-loan related issues and Balvinder Singh of Bajpur had committed suicide in July 2017 due to alleged debts.

In April this year, the Uttarakhand High Court had directed the state government to constitute a State Farmers Commission within three months and formulate a scheme to provide compensation or pension to the families of farmers who have committed suicide.

.Finding it difficult to collect garbage during the day when movement of pilgrims is at its peak, the Haridwar Municipal Corporation has decided to collect trash at night.

Notably, as model project night cleaning, night sweeping and garbage disposal was implemented at core mela zone of Har-Ki-Pauri, which has yielded desired results. Har-Ki-Pauri Ganga ghats and markets have been quite clean due to round the clock sanitation, garbage disposal and cleanliness work. By the first fortnight of next month, round the clock cleaning will be done in the municipal corporation periphery, nagar panchayat and municipal committees.

According to urban development minister Madan Kaushik, night cleaning mode has been implemented in Dehradun and Har-Ki-Pauri, that has changed the sanitation and cleanliness aspect successfully.

From Ganga ghats to city markets or public places like railway station, bus station, major intersections, parks and markets, impromptu inspection will be carried out. Even district in-charge minister, Satpal Maharaj, along with city legislators and other ministers will inspect the work of civic-sanitation employees, said Kaushik. All the civic bodies have also been directed to procure prior the necessary equipment for the sanitation purpose before the monsoons.

Adequate budget has been provided to the civic bodies, and with administrators taking charge, we assure that there will be no paucity of fund in this cleanliness drive, added Kaushik.

While administrator of the municipal corporation Deepak Rawat has notified KRLM, the private firm associated with garbage disposal, to carry out garbage ferrying work as per norms.

Taking cognizance of reports of open ferrying of garbage in open pick-up trucks, Rawat has directed chief town commissioner to ensure that such vehicles be fined Rs 5,000 and sanitation inspectors should also ensure that such open garbage ferrying doesnt take place.Delhi-based businesswoman Shripriya Dalmia Thirani, who, along with her husband and business partner Mridul Thirani, is set to open Mumbais first 475-seater floating restaurants on the Arabian Sea, has praise coming in for her project from faraway London.

In what is a rare gesture, Britains most influential politicians and Lords of Asian origin came out in full support last week for Mumbais first large scale restaurants on the sea, that will be built on ships Queensline Neverland and Queensline See YAH, which hosted the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth.

Owners of the venture, Mridul and Shripriya, who were in London last week to attend the prestigious Asian Awards, were met personally by three of the biggest names in business and politics  Lord Swaraj Paul, Lord Karan Bilimoria and the longest serving MP of Indian origin in UK, Keith Vaz, all of who hailed the project as the next big thing coming up in India.

Mridul Thirani, Shripriya Dalmia Thirani and Lord Swaraj Paul

Lord Paul of Marylebone, chairman of the Caparo Group is one of Britains richest business tycoons and has been Deputy speaker at the House of Lords from 2008-2010, the Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton since 1999 and was Chancellor of the University of Westminster from 2006 to 2014.On meeting with the couple, Lord Paul said, This is a very exciting project. I will be glad to help in whatever way I can.

Mridul Thirani, Shripriya Dalmia Thirani and Lord Karan Bilimoria

Lord Bilimoria, the first Parsi Lord in Britian, met the duo at the House of Lords, and said, People will now be able to dine in Mumbai like they do in the European Rivieras. I wish the project all the best. Keith Vaz showered praise for the project and said that he will attend the launch of the 475-seater floating restaurants coming up in Chowpatty and Gateway of India, in October.

Speaking about the encouraging reaction from the three stalwarts for her project, Shripriya said, I am honoured and humbled that such stalwarts of British life are taking interest and coming out in support of my project.The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board on Thursday announced the GSEB result 2018 of Class 12 board examination for science stream and said 72.99% students cleared the exam.

The GSEB HSC science exams were written by 1,34,352 students and 98,087 candidates managed to clear the exam this year. The pass percentage of students is the lowest in the last five years and around 9% less than 2017 when 81.89% candidates cleared the exam.

With a pass percentage of 74.91, girls outperformed boys who recorded 71.84% result.

The overall result has gone down compared to past years. The department will do an analysis. We will involve officials as well as parents to know the reasons, state education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma said while declaring the result.

The board has withheld the result of 120 students, including 90 who were caught copying on closed-circuit television or CCTV cameras during the exams.

Among groups, A (mathematics) topped the list with 77.29% results followed by B (biology) in which 69.77% students cleared the exam. AB group recorded a 61.11% pass rate.

Rajkot topped among districts where 85.03% students passed the exam and the tribal district of Chhota Udaipur was at the bottom with 35.64 pass percentage. As many as 42 schools across the state recorded a 100% result.

Students can check the GSEB HSC science result on the boards official website gseb.org.At a time when the Punjab government is contemplating introduction of Chinese language Mandarin in state schools, over 27,000 students of Class 10 of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) flunked in Punjabi paper.

Punjabi, being the mother tongue of the residents of Punjab, is a compulsory subject up to Class 10 and the official language of the state.

Among 3.36 lakh students that appeared in the board exams this year, as many as 27, 659 failed in the Punjabi paper. The pass percentage in Punjabi has declined to 91.77% this year as against 93.35% last year.

However, English seems to be the toughest language for the Class 10 students as more than one fourth of them failed in this paper. As many as 89,789 (27%) students flunked the English paper.

Hindi, the most spoken language in the country, also witnessed poor results than that of last year. While 92.46% students passed Hindi paper last year, the pass percentage slipped to 87% as 42,000 of the total of total 3.28 lakh students failed in the exam.

Among other subjects, mathematics seems to be difficult for Punjab students as 60,000 (18%) students failed in the examination.

In January this year, the state education departments baseline survey report (Class 1 to Class 5) had painted a grim picture of state of education, especially languages. The report highlighted that around 82% of primary school students failed to write Punjabi alphabets. In the test for Punjabi language, only 35.58% could clear the test. The survey was conducted in around 13,000 schools.

In the budget session of the state assembly in March, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh had announced that Mandarin would now be introduced as optional subject in government schools at the senior secondary level.

However, lawmakers from other parties had then slammed the government for introducing a foreign language when students are struggling with their mother tongue Punjabi, besides other languages Hindi and English.

Experts take

Yog Raj Angrish, Panjab Universitys head of department (HoD), Punjabi, said the condition of Punjabi as a subject is deplorable in rural as well as urban areas. A lot of research has been done on this. During the past few years, the government has standardised the syllabus, but failed to standardise the teaching, he said.

Angrish added, One has to view Punjabi in schools as a subject not as mother tongue. The common mindset is that Punjabi is our mother tongue and every student feels he is master in it. However, the technical aspect of a language is generally ignored.

More PSEB result stories:Bringing glory to the state, seven cadets of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Armed Forces Preparatory Institute (AFPI), Sector 77, are in the top 50 in the country, after the final result of the National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination (II), 2017 was declared. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts the exam. One of these cadets has made it to the Indian Naval Academy. More than five lakh boys took the exam and a merit list of 447 candidates was released on May 9 (Wednesday).

The Punjab government set up the AFPI in 2011 for training select young men for joining the armed forces through the National Defence Academy.

AFPI director BS Grewal said, Thirty five cadets appeared in the NDA entrance exam and 28 cleared the examination. These cadets were put through the Services Selection Boards at various centres in the country and 20 cadets cleared the Board, he said. Of these one cadet is an aspirant for the Indian Naval Academy and the other 19 are on the NDA merit list, he added.

Ropar lad is 10th in country

Cadet Gurbeer Singh Sohal and cadet Amol Gautam got 10th and 12th positions respectively, he said. Sohal, son of a manager in an engineering firm, belongs to Ropar while Gautam belongs to Nangal and is the son of an advocate. Other cadets who got positions in the top 50 are Shubhdeep Singh, Raghav Arora, Japneet Singh, Tegjeet Singh and Aashray Thukral, he added.

The AFPI has sent 90 boys to the NDA and other service academies. Once these cadets also join, the institute would have notched up more than 100 successes in a little over five years, he claimed.

The institute was established in 2011 and its first batch of cadets passed out in April 2013. The discipline is core mantra of this institute as a typical day in students life here starts dot at 6am with a PT drill.

Then he departs for school at 7.45am, followed by study period/NDA training between 3pm to 4.30pm, games between 4.30pm to 5.30pm, tuition classes between 6pm to 8.15pm and then lights out at 10pm.Its hard to pick a career in a world of so many niche professions  you can now earn a living promoting indie music bands, working at the intersection of robotics and nanotechnology, or helping restaurants redesign their menus. Its even harder to figure out what to study to prepare for the career of your choice. This is where summer schools can help. These are typically short, intensive courses designed to help young students explore a field theyre interested in, as they set out on their college careers.

So you can dabble in gender identity studies, economic theory, telecommunication, forensic science, nanotechnology, or international relations. The courses are one to four weeks long, and are being conducted at institutes across the country and abroad.

These courses offer exposure to a wide variety of fields, so they could help you discover new ways to connect your education with the career of your choice, says Kimberley Dixit, co-founder of overseas education consultancy The Red Pen. Instead of civil engineering, for instance, you could work towards a career in sustainable architecture.

On offer

Between end-May and July, there are several summer-school programmes available to students from Classes 9 through 12, costing between Rs 15,000 and Rs 1.9 lakh.

At UWC Mahindra College in Pune, there is what they call the YES programme (youth, environment and sustainability); theres the TGIF (theatre, gender identity and film), and the Encounter India programme, which sees the student travel to non-metro and rural parts of the country to understand local communities and cultures.

The Woodstock School in Mussoorie has programmes on art for change, entrepreneurship and leadership. Noidas Amity University has a more academic summer programme, in subjects that include technology, management, communication, law, and psychology.

The Woodstock School in Mussoorie has summer programmes on art for change, entrepreneurship and leadership.

The Warwick Universitys one-week introduction to economics with finance, conducted at The British School in Delhi, is for students under 17 looking to study the subject abroad.

Most institutes use a mix of classroom lectures, practical learning like lab work, field trips and a project at the end.

At Amity, for instance, each day of the two weeks is divided into a pre-lunch and post-lunch session. In the first half, students will learn about the course they have picked, say nanotechnology. In the second half, they are introduced to areas of application, like forensic science or telecommunication or hotel management, says Gauri Chakraborty, from the faculty of mass communication at Amitys summer programme.

At UWC Mahindra, for the module on sustainability, students learn concepts such as waste management in the classroom, followed by a field trip to a waste collection plant in Pune.

Learning curve

Two big advantages of a summer-school programme are exposure to the wider world of academics and careers, and a greater degree of clarity about a given field or subject.

Students should not simply go from one kind of syllabus-based learning to another. A summer school is a good opportunity for them to focus on and engage with specific areas outside the conventional systems and choices, says Amy Seefeldt, director of the Centre for Imagination at the Woodstock School.

Vinayakk Rajesekhar, 26, now a programme manager at a policy advisory firm in Delhi, did a summer school course on international relations and international economic policy, in 2014, on offer at Miranda House in Delhi as part of the Kings College International Summer School that it has been hosting since 2012.

The four-week course helped me lay the ground for further studies, which included a diploma in conflict transformation and peace-building and a Masters in international security, Rajesekhar says. I also got a nuanced, academic understanding of how diplomatic relations work. And it helped me approach my higher studies with a more critical mind.

Though he was a 22-year-old graduate in BSc (Anthropology) when he signed up for the course, for instance, it was the first time he was forced to do multiple-source research on his own, in an unfamiliar subject. The sense of criticality that gave me has stayed with me even today, Rajesekhar says.

Personal growth is often cited as a big plus. For Delhiite Suchet Mittal, 17, now doing his two-year IB diploma at UWC Mahindra College, the two-week TGIF workshop he did two years ago helped him become more comfortable with his own sexuality, and learn how to open dialogue with those who did not understand the nuances of LGBTQI lifestyles.

These are things internet research cannot teach you, he says. The class had students from Spain, Ireland and Argentina, and speaking to them, I realised that I was very defensive about my opinions. Having these discussions, through film and theatre, helped me feel less antagonised towards those who did not agree with my point of view.

Keep in mind

There is a flip side. There should not be pressure to spend the money, or unrealistic expectations of what the course will bring you, says Dixit of The Red Pen. If you can find another way to get clarity, like doing an online course or speaking to a senior who is doing something similar, then you should explore those options too.The 71st Cannes Film Festival kicked off in seriously sexy style on Thursday, as actor Huma Qureshi made a glamorous appearance at the India Pavilion.

A post shared by Varun Bahl Couture (@varunbahlcouture) on May 9, 2018 at 5:20am PDT

Huma was dressed to impress for her first Cannes outing in an ivory Varun Bahl Couture gown with sparkling embellishment around its plunging neckline. The star wore a custom pale gown with an embellished, sheer cape that draped to the ground. She looked every bit as elegant as we expected her to.

A post shared by Huma Qureshi (@iamhumaq) on May 9, 2018 at 8:31am PDT

She wore a pale gown that was full of delicate embroidery that ran throughout her ensemble. She wore an embellished, sheer cape over it which draped to the ground. But it was Humas Suhani Pittie jewellery that stole the show. Her glittery statement earrings matched the sheen from her ensemble.

A post shared by Makeup by Manjari (@manjarisinghofficial) on May 9, 2018 at 9:02am PDT

The actor chose a feminine beauty look that felt uber-glam, yet clean and classic all at the same time. Huma wore her hair in a sleek, no-fuss bun paired with a bright pink lip and neutral eye shadows.

A post shared by Huma Qureshi (@iamhumaq) on May 9, 2018 at 11:52pm PDT

Hopefully youre not tired of combing through Humas Cannes outfits yet, because we have another stunner. The actor shared pictures of her attending an after-party on Wednesday, for which she turned to another pale ensemble. Huma wore an off-shoulder blush blouse and skirt combo, and made her thick satin waist belt the focal point of the outfit.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreKangana Ranaut is in the south of France for her very first Cannes Film Festival, and from the moment she touched down at the airport on Wednesday, shes been totally crushing it.

A post shared by Kangana Ranaut (@team_kangana_ranaut) on May 8, 2018 at 11:55pm PDT

After slipping into head-to-toe black  a below-the-knee skirt and tank top from New York-based label Tibi, Neous flats and a Tods handbag  for her travel, Kangana did some quick costume change and was ready to hit the India Pavillion at Cannes in all her out-and-out glitter saree glory.

A post shared by Ami Patel (@stylebyami) on May 9, 2018 at 9:15am PDT

Kangana chose a gorgeously twinkling black Sabyasachi Mukherjee saree, channelling a glamorous Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffanys.

Aptly named the Akash-tara (starry skies) saree by Sabyasachi, Kanganas drape was hand-dyed and embellished with hand-cut sequins that were individually sewn using zardosi technique, to create a metallic, yet fluid fabric, the designer posted on Instagram.

A post shared by StyleDiaries (@wwstylediaries) on May 9, 2018 at 11:13am PDT

Kanganas look was accessorized with a Sabyasachi batua (handbag) and a sparkling choker necklace, crafted out of rose-cut diamonds, emeralds and pearls from Sabyasachi Heritage Jewelry Collection.

A post shared by A Fashionista's Diary (@afashionistasdiaries) on May 9, 2018 at 12:52pm PDT

While Kanganas Sabyasachi saree was stunning and breathtaking, her magnificent beauty and hair look were equally glamourous.

A post shared by Kangana Ranaut (@team_kangana_ranaut) on May 9, 2018 at 9:05am PDT

The actor glowed thanks to her flawless skin, perfectly groomed brows, a nude, creamy pout, her super-long eyelashes and bold black cat eye that perfectly accented her sumptuous saree. Kanganas ethereal look became even more dreamy with her half-up, wavy hairstyle that was so reminiscent of those Hollywood film stars from the 1920s-40s.

Follow @htifeandstyle for moreWhether youre trying to lose weight or have been diagnosed with risk of diabetes, you may have thought of switching to artificial sweeteners. We know that sugary things can drive insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. But the role of artificial sweeteners has always been under debate. Many diabetes patients are asked to swap sugar with artificial sweetener in their meals. But is it really as healthy as advertised?



Various studies suggest that reaching for artificial sweeteners to avoid sugar may be trading one evil for another. For some people, artificial sweeteners may lead to type 2 diabetes; however, this research is still not conclusive, says nutritionist Neha Sahaya.

What happens when you swap artificial sweetener for sugar is something many researchers are trying to find out. There is some data, but not enough to conclusively term it as good or bad.

What happens when you eat sugar?

Whenever you put a sugary treat in your mouth, the brain and the gut alert the pancreas to start producing insulin. This is in response to the expectation that your glucose level in the blood will go up. But if you are eating or drinking anything with artificial sweetener, then the glucose never appears in the bloodstream. The pancreas looks for glucose to trigger the release of insulin. Since every artificial sweetener is different chemically, it is difficult to understand its effect.

According to a 2014 study from Israel, it was found that artificial sweeteners changed the microbiotic makeup of rodents guts in ways linked to metabolic disease. It is difficult to comment on the effect of sweeteners as each of these can produce different metabolic reactions.

So, the bottom line is that it is called artificial for a reason and the list of chemicals used to create it is long. Diabetes is growing at an unprecedented rate in the world. The real question is that is it better to give up sugar all together whether artificial or natural? says Sahaya.

Still cant give up sugar?

Nutritionist Iram Zaidi suggests switching to natural sweeteners such as stevia and honey. Though these are not completely healthy, these are definitely not as risky as pure sugar. Natural sweeteners can help fight the sweet tooth. Stevia is a zero calorie sweetener and is considered safe for diabetics, she adds. Another option is monk fruit, which is considered fairly safe.

While these are safer options, it is best to cut out sugar  whether artificial or natural, or limit its intake for good health.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreAround one of every eight people in India have high blood pressure, according to a Union health ministry preventive health programme that screened 22.5 million adults across 100 districts in India in 2017, a significant increase from the one-in-every-11 number thrown up by the National Family Health Survey (2015-16), highlighting the havoc wreaked by modern lifestyles on people. The survey was largely conducted in rural areas.

The numbers are however, lower than what they are in other countries. According to the World Health Organisation, one in every three people in the US and one in four in the UK suffer hypertension.

The screening, which started earlier this year, is part of an effort to conduct population-based screening for common non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension (chronic high blood pressure), diabetes and cancers of the breast, cervix and oral cavity in people who are older than 30.

According to the National Family Health Survey, 8.6% of Indias population (10.4% men, 6.7% women) has hypertension. The health ministry programme defines high blood pressure as a reading of more 140/90 mmHg; globally, even a reading of 130 is considered high blood pressure.

Whats alarming about the India finding, according to experts, is that the majority of the population screened lives in rural areas, where hypertension has so far not been an overriding concern.

Since the screening was done at primary health centres and sub-centres, it is largely rural. Hypertension rates are much higher in urban areas, where a smaller screening done by the Cardiological Society of India found one in four people with hypertension, which is comparable with developed countries, said Dr Ashok Seth, chairman, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute,?New Delhi.

What was alarming was that most [people surveyed] did not know they had hypertension and risked developing long-term health complications, such as heart disease, said a health ministry official, who did not wish to be named because he is not authorised to speak to media.

Whats alarming about the study findings, according to experts, is that the majority of the population screened lives in rural areas, where hypertension has so far not been an overriding concern. (Shutterstock)

In its first phase, the programme covered 100 districts and will be scaled up to cover 500 million people across the country. By 2025, the national action plan for the prevention and control of NCDs aims to reduce hypertension and death from heart disease by 25%, and lower salt/sodium intake by 30%.

Screening without treatment serves no purpose. High blood pressure in most cases requires treatment that includes lifestyle modification and medicines. While 1-2% may come off medicine,largely people need to be on medicines for life, said Professor D Prabhakaran, centre for control of chronic conditions, Public Health Foundation of India.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is leading the India Hypertension Management Initiative (IHMI) to give standard treatment to people with hypertension in select districts.

We have created a standard drug protocol and are looking at disbursing medicines through ASHA and Anganwadi workers in districts where the health ministry is already screened people  said an ICMR scientist.

We started with Punjab in January this year, and in April , we covered Kerala and Madhya Pradesh. We will move to Telangana and Maharashtra next, she said, asking not to be identified.

A healthy weight, eating five servings of fruits and vegetables s day and moderate-intensity exercise daily also helps to keep blood pressure under control.

You have to eat right and exercise; it is as important as medicine, said Dr Prabhakaran.The trailers for popular movies and shows such as Black Panther, Stranger Things and Westworld are among the nominees at the 19th annual Golden Trailer Awards, which honour the best in film and TV marketing.

The Shape of Water and The Hitmans Bodyguard earned the most nominations of any film by title with eight each, followed by Black Panther, Thoroughbreds and Westworld, each of which scored seven mentions, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Winners will be announced on May 31 with Michelle Buteau hosting the award ceremony.

Here is a complete list of nominations:

- Best Action

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Black Panther

Tomb Raider

Avengers: Infinity War

Rampage

- Best Animation /Family

The Nutcracker and The Four Realms

Peter Rabbit

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck It Ralph 2

Isle Of Dogs

Despicable Me 3

- Best Comedy

Game Night

Uncle Drew

Sorry to Bother You

Lady Bird

Gringo

- Best Documentary

The China Hustle

City of Ghosts

Icarus

Wont You Be My Neighbor

Three Identical Strangers

- Best Drama

All The Money In The World

Darkest Hour

The Shape of Water

Megan Leavey

Chappaquiddick

- Best Fantasy Adventure

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Thor: Ragnarok

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Solo: A Star Wars Story

- Best Horror

A Quiet Place

Insidious: The Last Key

Mother!

Hereditary

- Best Independent Trailer

The Florida Project

I, Tonya

Thoroughbreds

The Shape of Water

Under the Silver Lake

- Best Music

The Greatest Showman

All The Money In The World

Baby Driver

Oceans 8

Pacific Rim: Uprising

- Best Teaser

Murder on the Orient Express

Red Sparrow

Deadpool 2

Mortal Engines

Avengers: Infinity War

- Best Thriller

Annihilation

Unsane

The Commuter

It Comes At Night

Sicario Day of the Soldado

- Best Original Score

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Avengers: Infinity War

The Incredibles 2

Good Time

The Hitmans Bodyguard

- Best Romance

Our Souls at Night

Love, Simon

Call Me By Your Name

Mamma Mia 2

Adrift

Follow @htshowbiz for moreTwenty-four Bangladeshi youths with suspected terror links were arrested from Agartala railway station on Thursday, a senior police official said.

All of them were carrying fake Aadhaar cards and a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is coming from Guwahati on Friday to interrogate the youths, the official said.

Acting on a tip-off, Mobile Task Force (MTF) personnel raided the railway station and arrested the 24 Bangladeshis, who reached here from Delhi in the Tripura Sundari Express, MTF Superintendent of Police Abhijit Chowdhury told PTI.

The MTF, a section of the state police, deals with illegal immigration and related cases.

All of them were carrying fake Aadhaar cards, showing they were issued from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. We checked the Aadhaar cards online and found they were fake. Some of them had identity cards issued from different madrasas of our country, Chowdhury said.

A team of NIA officials is coming from Guwahati tomorrow (Friday) to interrogate them, Chowdhury said adding, We cannot rule out the possibility of their link with any terrorist outfit.

The youths were not carrying any valid passport. Three had Bangladeshi passports but those expired long back, he said. Following the arrests, the DGP asked various central and state intelligence agencies to interrogate them.At least five people were reportedly killed and several others injured in a blast at a stone quarry unit in Jharkhands Dumka district on Wednesday night, police said on Thursday, highlighting poor safety record and concerns about working conditions.

Dumka superintendent of police (SP) Kishor Kaushal said they recovered two bodies on Thursday from the remote Lipipara area, over 35km from the Shikaripara police station.

Shikaripara is around 350km northeast from state capital Ranchi on Jharkhand-West Bengal border.

Sources said the miners, who escaped unhurt, reportedly took the bodies and injured colleagues with them towards West Bengal soon after the incident.

Police, however, said they could not verify it until the investigation was completed.

Three bodies were reportedly brought to a hospital in Rampurhat under West Bengals Birbhum district.

A team was sent to Rampurhat to authenticate if few bodies were brought there, Kaushal said.

He said they were facing a major problem in the case as there no one has filed a complainant.

Locals said the incident took place on Wednesday night when illegal miners from West Bengal were fixing explosives at the quarry, which suddenly exploded. Others, however, said explosives were stored in an area of the stone quarry unit, which exploded when workers were mining stone chips.

We are verifying if explosives blew off while fixing or they were stored at a place. We have sought a report from the district mining officer to ascertain if this mine had permission for operation or it was running illegally, Kaushal said.Bengaluru Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah said on Thursday that he was confident that his party would win 130 out of Karnatakas 224 assembly seats in the May 12 polls, bringing down the curtains on his partys election campaign in the state.

Responding to a question on whether the party would join hands with anybody else if there was no clear mandate, Shah said, We will win at least 130 seats so there is no question of a coalition with anyone.

This, Shah said, was because of the groundswell of anger against the state government led by chief minister Siddaramaiah, which he said will ensure a BJP majority. I have no hesitation in saying that this is the worst and most inept government in the history of this country, Shah said.

Thanks to the Siddaramaiah government, the development of the state has been stuck like the traffic of Bengaluru, Shah said. And this great city has been handed over to KJ George, NA Haris and R Roshan Baig, he said. He was referring to Bengaluru development minister George, MLA Haris  whose son was arrested for assaulting a youth at a pub, and Baig, who is the urban development minister.

When asked if the partys chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa, who turned 75 in February, would be the chief minister for the entire term if the party was elected, Shah said he definitely will be.

Yeddyurappa will be chief minister for the whole term. Last time, it fell because at the Centre there was a government that was pulling others down. This time we will stand behind the government like a rock, Shah said.

The BJP president said, if anything, the chief minsiters decision to contest from an additional seat in Badami, apart from the Chamundeshwari seat, showed the fear in the Congress. He has changed his constituency and his contesting in Badami. But if he thinks he will win there, I assure, he will lose by a larger margin in Badami than Chamundeshwari. I can say this because I held a road show there today, he said.

Shah appealed to the people of Karnataka to vote for the BJP on May 12 to ensure that they benefit completely from the programmes of the government. Give us another chance to serve you and to work for the state, he said.

Responding to the charges, KC Venugopal, Congress general secretary in-charge of the state, asked Shah to wait for May 15 and see the Congress form the government. We will get a clear majority in the state come May 15. He has no moral right to question this government, considering how it has worked for the people, he said.Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat has said the youth in Kashmir must not get carried away unnecessarily and understand azadi is not possible as the security forces will always fight those who want to secede, the Indian Express said on Thursday.

Gen Rawat told the Indian Express in an interview that he was concerned that the youth in the strife-torn state are picking up guns and those who tell them (that) this path will bring azadi  misleading them.

These numbers (of militants who are killed in gunbattles with the army) dont matter to me because I know this cycle will continue. There are fresh recruitments happening. I only want to stress that all this is futile, nothing is going to be achieved by them. You cant fight the army, Gen Rawat said.

He added that the security forces dont enjoy killing but if anyone wants to fight us then we will fight you with all our force.

Kashmiris have to understand that the SFs (security forces) havent been so brutal  look at Syria and Pakistan. They use tanks and air power in similar situations. Our troops have been trying their level best to avoid any civilian casualty despite huge provocation, he said.

I know that the youth are angry. But attacking security forces, throwing stones at us isnt the way, he said.

He also expressed concern over people flocking to sites of gunbattles and inciting security forces by pelting stones at them to disrupt the operations  They are inciting security forces to become more aggressive.

I dont understand why people are coming out in huge numbers to disrupt our operations. Who is inciting them? If they want that the militants arent killed, they should go and tell them to come out without their weapons so that nobody is killed ... We will halt our operation. We cant allow people to disrupt our operations and help terrorists to flee, he told the Indian Express.

The general said the army, which has been criticised for using extreme force in the state, did try a soft approach too and pointed out to the violence in 2016 after Hizbul Mujahideens Burhan Wani was killed in a gunfight with security forces.

... Until June 2016, everything was fine. What is that incited people so much because of that one encounter? Everything was turned upside down in a few days time. The entire South Kashmir was out in the streets, throwing stones at us, attacking our posts, he said.

He said he was getting messages that people in the state were saying azadi dur nahi hai (azadi isnt far away) by October-November that year.

Somebody was feeding this to people, telling them Azadi was around the corner. Our posts were being regularly attacked. Stones were being pelted at our men ... We had to bring the situation under control. We couldnt afford all that. We needed to tell people Azadi isnt happening. We had to establish the writ (of the state).

(The Burhan Wani encounter) wasnt the first such encounter in Kashmir ... I am still trying to understand where did all that anger come from. The youth have gotten themselves in Pakistans trap. They are being consistently incited to attack us, he said.

Gen Rawat said he understands that there isnt a military solution to this issue and wants politicians and political representatives to talk to people, especially in south Kashmir.

But they are scared that they will be attacked. It will happen once there is calm. And we are hopeful that people will soon realise that all this is futile and start thinking differently, he said.

The army chief said he is ready to suspend military operations to avoid civilian casualties.

But who will guarantee that there wont be fire at our men, at our vehicles? Who will guarantee that policemen, political workers, our men returning home on leave arent attacked, arent killed? he asked.

He added that youngsters, who have picked up guns, and terrorists arent a big challenge for the army and that the army has repeatedly asked people not to come to disrupt their operations and throw stones at security personnel.

Recently, we left an operation unfinished at one place. We withdrew our men so that the situation doesnt turn bad. But as we left, our men came under fire from another house at a different place. A JCO (Junior Commissioned Officer) was injured. He is still in hospital, he said.

General Rawat said he recently tried to reach out but nobody came forward to reciprocate.

When I spoke (on April 15), that very evening we were attacked. People have to reciprocate so that we can move forward, he said.

Young people are getting excited by IS flags. Do you know what that means? Do you want to Talibanise Kashmir? Do you want Kashmir to turn into such a society? Do you want to live in such a society? These young people do not understand the meaning of it all. Somebody is inciting these young people.

Gen Rawat said that the people in Kashmir must understand the turmoil is taking a toll on the development of the state and that tourism has been adversely affected.

Houseboats and guesthouses are empty. What will those people eat if they dont earn? he asked.

We will have a train connecting the Valley to the rest of the country soon  imagine how it will change the fortunes of people. The apple grower in Sopore can send his apples anywhere in the country without any hassle. People have to recognise this development and be thankful. It has to be a two-way process.Supporters of Dalit outfit Bhim Army have alleged that Rajputs are behind the death of its Saharanpur district president Kamal Walias brother Sachin Walia who was found shot on Wednesday afternoon.

A case of murder and under the SC/ST Act has been registered in Kotwali Dehat against Sher Singh Rana, president of Rajput Mahasabha and one of the accused of Phoolan Devi murder case, and Kanha Rana, Narendra Rana and Updesh Rana on the complaint of deceaseds mother Kanth Walia. The incident is being investigated from all possible angles, said Babloo Kumar, SSP of Saharanpur.

The suspicious death has spurred fears of a repeat of last years intercaste clashes in the district after a dispute arose over loud music being played during a Maharana Pratap Jayanti procession. Those clashes, in Shabbirpur and later, in Saharanpur, were the ones that brought the Bhim Army and its founder Chandrashekhar Azad to national attention. For years now, there has been friction between the Rajputs and the Dalits in the area.

Walias last rites will be performed in the village Thursday afternoon.

We will decide our future course of action thereafter, said Bhim Army activist Robin Gautam. Bhim Army supporters have also accused the district administration and police of being responsible for the murder of Walia.

Gautam said that despite their objections district administration gave Rajputs permission to hold Maharana Pratap Jayanti celebrations barely a few hundreds metres away from the Dalit locality of Ramnagar. Sher Singh Rana and his aides participated in the celebrations.

Gautam claimed that Rana had threatened Kamal Walia with dire consequences through a video two days earlier. The matter was immediately reported to SSP and other officials but no security was provided to the Walia family, Gautam said.

He claimed that Walia was shot in the alley outside his house on Wednesday afternoon.

District magistrate of Saharanpur PK Pandey ordered the suspension of internet services in the district to stop rumour mongering. He and SSP Kumar faced the wrath of Dalits and Bhim Army activists when they visited the crime spot. Bhim Army activists also forced Congress MLA from Behat Naresh Saini to return.

In a memorandum to the district magistrate the Bhim Army demanded that a case be lodged against superintendent of police (SP) city Prabal Pratap Singh and organisers of Maharana Pratap Jayanti.

Deputy inspector general of police of Saharanpur range Sharad Sachin claimed that initial investigations showed that it could have been an accident. The complaint about the murder did not mention the place of crime and those who have been named in the complaint were attending Jayanti celebrations which were held under tight security.

He refused to comment on allegations of Bhim Army activists that Rana issued a threatening video against Kamal Walia.

I dont know about such video, he said.A key bill to accord real teeth to Indias recently designated status as a major defence partner and grant it the same access to defence purchases as Americas closest military allies such as NATO members, Israel, Australia and a few others, passed a crucial stage in the US Congress on Wednesday.

But its route to final passage remains uncertain, according to an administration official who declined to be identified.

The legislative measure was moved by Eliot Engel, the senior-most Democrat on the foreign affairs committee of the House of Representatives as an amendment to the International; Security Assistance Act 2018, which was a among bunch of bills reported to the full House in a process called mark up.

The bill adds real teeth to the designation (of India as a major defense partner) at a time when our relationship with India is more important than ever, said Ami Bera, Indian American Democratic Congressman, in remarks supporting Engels amendment. But Bera also expressed concern at the lack of progress on the issue since the first move, the designation, in 2015 and its subsequent codification into law in 2017.

The next stage in the legislative process is a vote on the floor, which, according to officials, was a decision for the Republican leadership to take. There have been missed opportunities in the past despite bipartisan support for India, as recently as last month when a similar measure had failed for unrelated reasons.

The amending bill requires the President to add a country designated as a major defense partner, which is India as no other country has been accorded that status by the US yet, to a list of countries afforded speedy clearance of certain defense purchases under the Arms Export Control Act by the state department.

That list specifically and only includes member countries of NATO, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and New Zealand.

Former President Barack Obama declared India a major defense partner of the US in 2015 to pave the way for speedier and smoother defense trade ties between the two nations. In 2017, the US Congress codified that administrative decision into law, by including it in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the defence budget.

But there has not been much progress on it since. The law had mandated, for instance, the appointment of a senior official at the level of a political appointee to manage and oversee defense trade ties, across agencies. That hasnt happened.

Bera pointed out in his brief but blunt remarks that even the limited purpose of securing an agency-wide definition of major defense partner that was hoped, has been elusive.

In the meantime a perception gained ground that the NDAA designation was a well-meaning and wholesome expression of intent but lacked specificity and teeth and that something else such as a concurrent provision for the state department which is the final authority in clearing the export of sensitive defense technology was needed to complete the circle.

The amendment by Congressman Engel, who is a long-time champion of stronger Indo-US ties, is yet another attempt to fix that gaping hole.

He has support in his party. Congressman Joaquin Castro pledged himself to strengthen ties with India. The US-India defense and security relationship is an anchor of our engagement in the Indo-Pacific, he said. This should be welcomed and I look forward to greater cooperation o with India that this act will enable.

But Engel would need Republican support for his bill to go through. That should not be difficult if the Republican leadership were to look at this issue as one about India only, unencumbered by myriad other Congressional issues.

.Murthy, a Dalit resident of Mysuru city in Karnataka, is undecided about whom to vote for in the assembly election on May 12. He is against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) because he is upset over recent atrocities against scheduled castes across India but he is not sure whether to back the ruling Congress or the Janata Dal (Secular).

None of them have done anything significant for our community.Only lip service, said the 67-year-old man who goes by only his first name.

His sentiments are echoed across the Mysuru and Hassan districts in the poll-bound state as Dalits say they are angry with the BJP because of the perceived dilution in the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act and rising violence against Dalits.

Additionally, in Karnataka, Union minister Anantkumar Hegdes controversial remarks on the Constitution some months ago has added to the discontent.

Hegde, a Brahmin and a five-time Lok Sabha MP from Uttara Kannada, in December said, We will respect the Constitution, but the Constitution has changed several times and it will change in the future too. We are here to change the Constitution and well change it.

The remarks were widely interpreted as an attempt to do away with caste-based reservations.

Party chief Amit Shah faced the ire of Dalits when he visited Karnatakas old Mysuru region last month. Angry Dalits disrupted his meeting by protesting against Hegdes remarks, prompting Shah to assert that the BJP had nothing to do with his comments.

Dalits from Hardanahalli, the home town of JD(S) chief HD Deve Gowda, and Singaranahalli villages of Hassan district expressed similar sentiments. They feel their rights safeguarded by the Constitution are under threat.

Modi government did not defend the act in the Supreme Court and then talk of Dalit empowerment. The dilution affects all of us, said Mallesh (71), a resident of Yamasandhi village in Hassan district.

The community forms about 16% of the states population and 36 of the total 224 assembly constituencies are reserved for the members of the community. Dalits are largely divided into two groups  right hand touchable or Chalavadis/Holaya communities and the left hand untouchable or Madigas.

Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and state Congress chief G Parameshwara belong to the Right Dalits while the Left Dalits are considered to be the BJP supporters.

Throughout the election campaign, the BJP has made several attempts to woo the Dalits with top leaders BS Yeddyurappa and others staying in Dalit homes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi too has attacked the Congress over the condition of Dalits. The Congress has no respect for Ambedkar. They did everything to defeat him in the 1952 general elections and the bypoll to Bhandara parliamentary constituency in 1953, Modi told party workers through the NaMo app on Thursday.

The Congress, for whom Dalits form a key component of the AHINDA (other backward classes, Muslims and Dalits) alliance, has repeatedly attacked the BJP on the issue. But there is discontent over the state governments refusal to implement internal reservations among the left and right Dalit groups, which would have benefitted the poorer sub-castes.

They invoke Dr Ambedkar quite frequently but do not show any action on the ground. Besides, Dalit lynchings, irresponsible statements by BJP ministers, rhetoric about anti-Dalit promises, remarks regarding changing the Constitution have brought the Dalits closer to the Congress, said state minister Priyank Kharge.

A third factor is an alliance between the JD(S) and the Bahujan Samaj Party, which is seen as a party for Dalits but one that had to forfeit its deposit on almost all seats it contested in the 2013 assembly election.

The BSP is not an option for Karnataka Dalits. It has not worked at the grassroots level. Moreover, it has aligned with the JD(S) which in any case is going to go with the BJP. This is not acceptable to us, said Gowri of the Dalith Damanithara Swabhimana Horata Samithi (DDSHS), an organisation run by scheduled castes.

With May 12 just two days away, many Dalits say they are torn between the BJP and the Congress. There is no doubt that Dalits are tired of cow politics, Una and Koregaon incidents, diluting the SC/ST act. But Dalits have reservations with the Congress too.

The present Congress government did not accept the recommendations of Sadashiva Ayoga regarding internal reservations. So, while a section of Dalits is disturbed, the others are happy with other facilities given by the Congress, said Vikram Tejas, an activist of the DDSHS.A reference book for Class 8 Social Studies describes freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak as the father of terrorism.

The book by a Mathura-based publisher is being used by private English-medium schools affiliated to the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education (RBSE).

Textbooks by the Rajasthan State Textbook Board are published in Hindi, forcing students of English-medium schools to use reference books.

Describing Tilak, the book, on page 267 in chapter 22 under the heading Incidents of National Movement during Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century, says, Tilak demonstrated a path towards national movement, therefore, he is called as the father of terrorism.

He clearly believed that we cannot achieve anything just by pleading the British officers. Through Shivaji and Ganpati festivals, Tilak aroused unique awareness in the country. He instilled the mantra of freedom among the masses, due to which he became a thorn in the eyes of British, the book reads.

Tilaks description as father of terrorism seems to be more of a case of poor choice of words rather than the work of an ideologically motivated writer as nothing else in the context seems to fit the rogue description.

In the preceding paragraphs too, the book says that dissatisfaction among the people grew owing to governments negligence towards the plague outbreak and goes on to say, The fire was induced further by the spread of diarrhoea, thereby reflecting poor phrasing of content.

Students said that they are using the reference book as no other English medium book is available and books issued by Rajasthan board are in Hindi medium.

A principal of an Ajmer school which uses the book said he was not aware of the matter as he had joined a few days back only, but promised action after looking into it.

An official of the Student Advisor Publication Private Limited, which publishes the book, said the reference book is strictly as per the guidelines provided by the board.

The book is being used by schools affiliated to both the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) as well as the RBSE, said Mukesh Yadav over telephone from Mathura.

Historians said it is derogatory to call Tilak the father of terrorism.

Tilak is one of the greatest soldiers of Indian freedom struggle who awakened Indian masses, especially in Maharashtra, to fight against tyrannical British rule, said N K Upadhyay, retired professor of history at Maharshi Dayanand Saraswati University, Ajmer.

Another historian Pramila Poonia, too, called the description misplaced. The British called him father of Indian unrest, but for us Indians, he was a great nationalist. He was the one who first pushed the ideas of boycott of English goods and use of swadeshi goods, said Poonia, an associate professor of history at University of Rajasthan.

Textbooks of Rajasthan have previously been mired in controversies for sidelining the role of Nehru and Gandhi and valorising that of Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the Indian independence struggle.

The revisions of textbooks by the ruling BJP government in the state were strongly criticised by the opposition Congress as saffronisation of education.Justice J Chelameswar, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India asking him to convene a meeting of the collegium to urgently re-forward to the Centre the name of Uttarakhand Chief Justice K M Joseph as the judge of the apex court, a court official said.

The government had on April 26 returned the Collegiums recommendation to elevate Justice Joseph seeking its reconsideration, saying the proposal was not in accordance with the top courts parameters and there was adequate representation of Kerala in the higher judiciary from where he hails. It had also questioned his seniority for elevation as a judge of the apex court.

A top court official said, in his letter sent to the CJI late Wednesday evening, Justice Chelameswar has conveyed that he was reiterating his decision for the elevation of Justice Joseph as the judge of the top court since there was no change in the circumstance that had led the collegium to recommend his name to the government on January 10.

It is also learnt that, Justice Chelameswar, who retires on June 22, has responded to all the points raised in the communication to the CJI by law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad expressing reservations on the elevation of Justice Joseph.

The meeting of the Collegium was expected to take place on Wednesday but Justice Chelameswar was on leave. Besides the CJI and Justice Chelameswar, other members of the collegium are Justices Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph.

Justice Kurian Joseph, during his visit to Kerala last week, had also reportedly made it clear that he was in favour of reiterating the recommendation of the collegium on the issue of Uttarakhand Chief Justice Joseph.

Though no official word was there on when the collegium would meet, the official said it is for the CJI to fix the date as there is no other agenda but to discuss the issue of returning the recommendation relating to Justice Joseph to the Centre.Two men who posed as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer were arrested on Thursday after they allegedly demanded Rs 1 crore from the wife of Unnao rape accused Kuldeep Singh Sengar to get the case against him dropped.

Police identified the two as Alok and Vijay, both residents of Lucknow.

Sengar, the BJP MLA from Bangarmanu in Unnao district, was arrested by the CBI on April 13 after a girl accused him of raping her last year.

Two people have been arrested for demanding Rs 1 crore from Sangeeta Singh, wife of Kuldeep Singh Sengar. They were offering to secure release of the MLA from custody, said Deepak Kumar, SSP, Lucknow.

Sangeeta, who stays in Indira Nagar, Lucknow, got a phone call on May 5 from an unidentified number. The caller introduced himself as a BJP leader and offered to secure the release of her husband. He demanded Rs 1 crore to bribe CBI officials.

When Sangeeta said it would not be possible to get Rs 1 crore, the caller asked her to arrange Rs 50 lakh instead, police said.

The next day, she got a call from another number and the caller introduced himself as CBI officer Rajeev Mishra. He also offered assistance to secure Sengars release.

The caller asked Sangeeta to report at the CBIs Lucknow office on May 7 to hand over the money. Sangeeta then told relatives about the phone calls.

They got suspicious and informed the Ghazipur police station in Lucknow about the phone calls. On Thursday, police arrested Alok and Vijay with after tracking down the phone calls.The Mehbooba Mufti government on Thursday continued to push for a unilateral ceasefire with terror groups in the state and along the border with Pakistan during the holy month of Ramzan, but New Delhi, while it will consider the issue, is unlikely to accept the proposal, particularly with regard to internal operations, several officials familiar with the development said.

The security forces, in particular, have conveyed their opposition to the move, these people added. Muftis ally in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is against a ceasefire.

There is a demand; the issue is at the deliberation stage, but no final decision has been taken in this regard by the centre, said one of the officials.

The official said that a ceasefire is already in force on the international border and the line of control (LoC), the de-facto border that divides Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.

But the person added that there have been constant violations of the ceasefire agreement. The issue of whether the ceasefire would be extended within the valley or be enforced more strictly at the border and LoC is yet to be decided. A decision is expected within next couple of days, added the person.

Officials in the home ministry, army, and Jammu and Kashmir police said an internal ceasefire is laden with risks, while the enforcement of a ceasefire with Pakistan is contingent on the latters behaviour.

A second official familiar with the development said a unilateral ceasefire within the valley is highly unlikely. The situation in the valley is difficult. We cannot just declare a unilateral ceasefire, he added.

The army and local police believe the move could be counter-productive.

An army officer familiar with counter-terror operations said on condition of anonymity that this could give terror outfits an opportunity to regroup at a time the force has an upper hand in the valley.

The army has had a string of successes in eliminating hard-core terrorists in recent weeks. The terror outfits are on the back foot and we cant squander that advantage, added this person.

A similar experiment announced by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2000 was a failure, said another army officer who spoke on condition of anonymity. On the eve of Ramzan in November 2000, Prime Minister Vajpayee announced non-initiation of combat operations (NICO) against terrorists in the state.

A unilateral ceasefire could give terror outfits breathing space. It could prove to be a good window for carrying out recruitments. If a ceasefire has to be there, it has to be called and respected by all stakeholders, including terror groups, the army officer added.

Another senior government functionary concurred and said that there was a major terror attack at the Srinagar airport during the period of the first ceasefire and any such announcement would be construed as weakness.

He added: Many still recall that terrorists roamed freely in this period. Is there any guarantee that the situation would not repeat itself?

A senior official in the Jammu and Kashmir Police, who did not want to be named, also expressed similar concerns.

An all-party meeting convened by Mufti on Wednesday decided to push for a Ramzan ceasefire along the lines of Vajpayees initiative in 2000.

The CM said: Aa consensus was built to appeal to government of India to consider a unilateral ceasefire...the way Atal Bihari Vajpayee did a unilateral ceasefire in 2000.

The holy month of Ramzan will start in the third week of May. Mufti said on Wednesday that a delegation from the state is also likely to meet the Prime Minister to discuss the issue and a memorandum in the regard will also be submitted to the centre.

The Bharatiya Janata Partys state unit rejected the decision suggesting the issue was barely discussed in the all party meeting on Wednesday.

This issue was raised first by Engineer Rashid (independent MLA) and then by others. But there was no broader discussion on the issue and we dont want any unilateral ceasefire at this juncture, party spokesman Arun Gupta said at a press conference in Jammu.

The statement from the state BJP attracted sharp criticism from the National Conference, which has supported the proposal.

Its leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah, chided the Chief Minister on not being on the same page with her allies. What was the point of @MehboobaMufti calling an all-party meeting to build a consensus around initiatives in Kashmir when her ally in the government doesnt agree with her! Yet she will shamelessly cling to power because thats all that matters to her, Abdullah said on Twitter.

The PDP-BJP alliance has come under severe criticism after the fresh cycle on violence this month.

At least 16 people, including eight militants, seven civilians and a tourist, have been killed in the past four days.An employee of the Himachal Pradesh public works department (PWD) who was injured in the shooting in Kasauli on May 1 that killed a woman government officer during a demolition drive of illegal constructions has been put on a ventilator after a suffering a cardiac arrest at Chandigarhs PGIMER Thursday morning.

Gulab Singhs condition is reported to be unstable. His colleague in the PWD Narain Singh said the 46-year-old was doing much better for the past two days. However, while changing his bed in one of the emergency wards at the hospital on Thursday morning, he suddenly suffered a cardiac attack.

He is not stable at all at the moment and isnt even responding. Well have to wait it out for a bit to see how things progress. He is under observation, said a doctor confirming the development.

Gulab Singh had been admitted to the PGIMER soon after being hit by a bullet few inches below his heart when hotel owner Vijay Singh allegedly fired following a heated argument during the demolition drive. Assistant town planning officer Shail Bala Sharma who was also hit, died on the spot. Vijay Singh who fled from the spot, was arrested from Mathura two days later.

The Supreme Court had on April 17 ordered the state government to demolish unauthorised structures in several hotels and guesthouses in Kasauli and Dharampur areas of Solan district. Four teams were constituted by the authorities to carry out the work.Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah, two of the partys chief ministers, 19 Union ministers, and 12 other senior leaders of the party descended on Karnataka on Thursday, holding 52 road shows on the last day of campaigning for assembly polls in the state.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi made a pointed reference to this in a press conference on Thursday: This is a fight between the spirit of Karnataka and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) and we are very clear we dont want a barrage of leaders from outside the state to come and fight for us.

The Congress, in power in the state, and the BJP have been locked in an intense and bitter campaign. The former has used outsiders in its campaign, including Gandhi, even his mother Sonia Gandhi, who campaigned after a hiatus of two years, but it has largely depended on incumbent chief minister Siddaramaiah.

The BJP, in contrast, has pulled out all stops, using its star campaigner, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shah, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, and several cabinet ministers. Its local face, former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, whose temporary departure from the party was one reason for its loss in 2013, has been around, but just not as visible.

Prime minister Modi, who held 21 rallies in the state between May 1 and May 9  he was originally supposed to hold 15  was not on the campaign trail on Thursday, but he was very much around, addressing Dalit workers of the BJP in Karnataka through his NaMo app.

Gandhi has held 17 rallies in 10 days, and on May 8, in the course of an interaction in Bengaluru, said he was open to being the countrys Prime Minister in 2019 if the party had the mandate to choose the PM, the first time he has signalled such intent.

That disclosure attracted the Modis ire, and he played on the Naamdaar-Kaamdaar (dynast, worker) distinction he has made his own during this campaign.

Modi also played up Rahul Gandhis foreign origin, and on May 1, asked him to speak on the achievements of the Karnataka government for 15 minutes in any language, including his mothers mother tongue. The Prime Minister was responding to an earlier remark by Gandhi, challenging Modi to a 15-minute face-off in Parliament.

On Thursday, Gandhi termed Modi an angry man (and himself a lightning rod for anger), and said his mother, who is Italian by birth, is more Indian than many Indians he know. She is more Indian than many people I have seen. She has sacrificed and suffered for this country and it shows the quality of the prime minister when he makes these comments. Im happy to let him be if he enjoys himself.

He also disagreed with the Modi, who had asked the Congress not to politicise rapes and said there were fundamental political issues that affected 50% of the countrys population, targetted the BJPs state leaders, including Yeddyurappa, and the Reddy brothers for corruption, and said Modi had done nothing for farmers.

Gandhi said the BJP was in panic.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi waves at his supporters during a road show ahead in Bengaluru on Wednesday. (PTI)

Shah said in a tweet that the writing on the wall is clear; Its time for BJP with absolute majority in Karnataka.

Opinion polls expect the May 12 elections (results will be declared on May 15) will result in a hung house; most polls expect the Congress to be the single-largest party, though. A hung house could bring the Janata Dal (Secular) of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, the third party in the fray in the state, into play.

On Thursday, the chief minister of Chattisgarh Raman Singh and the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan campaigned for the BJP in Bengaluru and Mysuru respectively.

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, rail minister Piyush Goyal, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and commerce minister Suresh Prabhu were among the prominent ministers campaigning in the state on Thursday.An Indian-origin businessman in the United Kingdom has been charged with his wifes murder, nearly three months after her body had been discovered in their home in Wolverhampton.

Gurpreet Singh, 42, was charged on Wednesday by West Midlands Police detectives with the murder of 38-year-old Sarbjit Kaur.

This is a murder that has really shocked the local community and we have been working flat-out to move the investigation forward, said detective chief inspector Chris Mallett from West Midlands Polices Homicide Team.

This is a significant development and we continue to support Kaurs many friends and family, he said.

Singh appeared before Birmingham Magistrates Court on Thursday charged with his wifes murder, who had been found unconscious in her home on February 16. A post-mortem examination revealed that Kaur died as a result of asphyxiation. The state of the home at the time had led to speculation that she had been killed as a result of a burglary gone wrong.

It emerged that Singh, who heads Dhanda Properties business in Wolverhampton area, had been the last person to see his wife alive earlier in the day before she was found dead by paramedics.

Kaur was attacked inside her own home. This is a shocking case, the likes of which are extremely rare, and we have a team of officers working on this murder inquiry to establish what happened and to finding the person or people responsible, Mallett had said at the time as part of a public appeal for information in February.

The police noted that the interior of the home was in an untidy state, which could indicate it had been searched, and they believed some items are missing.The work on Chabahar port that India is building on the Iranian southeast coast was on schedule and the government didnt foresee an immediate impact on the project of the US exiting the nuclear deal with Iran, officials said Thursday.

India Ports Global Private Limited (IPGPL) managing director Arun Kumar Gupta was in Iran this week to pick the local operator for managing the first phase of the Shahid Beheshti port as part of an interim arrangement, the officials said. The first phase was completed in December. IPGPL is a joint venture between Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Kandla Port Trust.

We will finalise the local operator shortly and put in place an interim arrangement before June 16, shipping secretary Gopal Krishna said.

Three Iranian companies had sent in their bids, an official familiar with the development said. India signed a short-term lease, as part of the agreement signed during the February visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, to start interim operations before June 17, failing which penalty will be imposed.

Built 90 km from the China-sponsored Gwadar port in Pakistan, Chabahar opens a transit route to Iran and Afghanistan that will also give India access to markets in Central Asia. New Delhi has committed $500 million to the strategically important port that bypasses Pakistan.

While India is not too worried at present but officials said Delhi would wait to see the fallout of US sanctions on the project. Before making a midterm or a long-term assessment, India would also keep an eye on how the other five countries, who were party to the pact, deal with the situation.

Krishna said they were in the process of firming up the arrangement for picking the Indian company that will manage, operate and maintain the container and multipurpose terminals for 10 years.

The process is already behind schedule because the three Indian firms shortlisted in the technical bid stayed away from financial bidding.

We are now revisiting the tender guidelines after which a fresh tender will be issued said a government official who didnt want to be named. As per the agreement, Tehran will lease operational control of the port to India for 18 months. India will equip and operate two terminals in first phase on a 10-year lease.

Officials, however, warned that Trump administration could prevent foreign countries from accessing the US market. Before the 2015 deal, Washington used to sanction foreign firms that deal with the Iran Central Bank.

The sanctions could impede completion of the Chabahar port, strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney has said. A day after he dumped the deal, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday a new round of sanctions was coming. The deal lifted sanctions on Iran in return for Tehran limiting its nuclear programme.The Centres proposed move to grant citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from neighbouring countries has created sharp divisions in Assam. The divisions have come to the fore as the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill concluded its three-day visit to Assam on Wednesday.

A senior state official who did not want to be named said the government has received more than 45,000 emails protesting the move to grant citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis, adding that if the Bill is passed, it could lead to chaos. On Monday, hundreds protested in Guwahati, with placards reading Assamese nation will never accept the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

The Bill proposes to amend the citizenship laws so as to not treat Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians and Jains who are in a minority in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan as illegal migrants, making them eligible for Indian citizenship.

Assam is not a dumping ground for foreigners. The BJP will have to chose if it wants to be with indigenous people or Bangladeshis, said Sammujjal Bhattacharya, chief advisor to the All Assam Students Union (AASU), the powerful students body that led the Assam agitation of the 1980s.

AASU, bodies representing other indigenous groups, the All Assam Muslim Students Union, and political parties, including BJP ally AGP, Badruddin Ajmals AIUDF and Congress, have submitted that the Assam Accord is sacrosanct. They said there cannot be any change to the cut-off date  March 25, 1971  and those who came later have to be deported, a demand that has kept the pot simmering for close to three decades now.

Amendment to this Bill is going to violate the Assam Accord. Our country is secular, you cannot divide it on religious lines, said AGP leader and former chief minister Prafulla Mahanta.

Assamese will become a linguistic minority. The culture will be destroyed if the Bill is passed, said Atul Bora, AGP president and cabinet minister, who has threatened to resign.

Assamese organisations hold a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, in Guwahati on Wednesday. (Sadiq Naqvi/HT)

But pressure is building up on them to withdraw from the alliance. People want we should quit the government, said Mahanta.

The BJP backing the Bill has put chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal too in a Catch-22 situation. Sonowal, Atul Bora come from AASU. They should understand what problems may arise with this amendment, Mahanta said.

Activist Akhil Gogoi of the Krishi Sangram Mukti Samiti said the Bill will open floodgates for 1.2 crore Hindus in Bangladesh to swamp India.

Meanwhile, in Barak Valley, organisations representing Bengali-speaking Hindus are infuriated over protests in the Brahmaputra Valley.

Over 300 organisations met the JPC in Silchar on the Barak Valley leg of the visit with most demanding that the Bill be passed and how the Assam Accord is not sacrosanct like the Quran or Bible.

The whole Bengali community continues to be looked upon as suspected illegal immigrants, said Himadri Roy, president of Sara Assam Bengali Aiyko Manch.

Several Bengali speakers, including Hindus, fear that once the NRC exercise is completed, they will be declared foreigners and thrown in detention camps.

The Constitution says that those whose parents or grandparents are born in undivided India cannot be treated as illegal immigrants, said Prasenjit Biswas of Citizens Rights Protection Co-ordination Committee. That the state will be flooded with Bangladeshi Hindus is a bloated argument by ethno-centric Assamese groups.

Sujit Tiwari, a professor at Karimganj College, claimed Assamese groups are mixing up refugees and infiltrators, a reference to the Bengali-speaking Muslims.

Meanwhile, the BJP says the Bill is an ideological commitment. Moreover, the refugees dont just include Hindus, They include indigenous groups such as Koch Rajbongshis, Bodos and so on, said Ranjit Kumar Dass, BJP state president. On the question of the Bill creating a divide, he is dismissive: Organisations with no mandate are making a lot of noise.As campaigning for the May 12 Karnataka assembly elections came to an end on Thursday, political parties addressed multiple rallies in their last attempt to woo voters.

BJP president Amit Shah and the party chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa participated in a roadshow in chief minister Siddaramaiahs Badami constituency. Shah also addressed a press conference in Bengaluru.

Elections in the state will be held on May 12 and counting of votes will take place on May 15.

Below are the live updates:

4:45 pm: Mining baron Janardhana Reddy has nothing do with BJP, what I have said is final, asserts Amit Shah

4:41 pm: We dont distribute tickets on the basis of religion, says Amit Shah on a query on absence of Muslims among BJP candidates in Karnataka.

4:33 pm: Personal attack might comprise only 2-3 minutes of entire campaign but it gets highlighted more due to TRPs, says Amit Shah.

4:28 pm: Amit Shah says BJP win will at least 130 seats in Karnataka elections, BS Yeddyurappa will be the next chief minister.

4:21 pm: Shah says, The voter id scandal shows how desperate Congress is to win the elections. Congress are resorting to undemocratic ways to win elections.

4:18 pm: Amit Shah alleges, Law and order has completely derailed in the state and we have witnessed a number of officers committing suicide.

4:15 pm: Siddaramaiah government did nothing for the farmers and they are not even ready to give answers for their failure, alleges BJP president.

4:10 pm: Amit Shah says Siddaramaiahs government has been a failure.

4:08 pm: BJP has conducted almost 400 rallies, including minor ones, in Karnataka, says BJP president Amit Shah at a press conference in Bengaluru. Over 35 BJP leaders campaigned in the state.

12.35pm:

BJP President Amit Shah holds a road show in CM Siddaramaiah's constituency, Badami. #KarnatakaElections2018 pic.twitter.com/gceQ6YrUZe  ANI (@ANI) May 10, 2018

12.20pm: We heard the Congress President make a hollow statement. The press conference seemed to have only been called to address the issue of internal disputes. No issue related to Karnataka was taken up, says BJP leader Piyush Goyal.

11.08am: Throughout last 15 years, Ive been visiting temples, mosques, gurudwaras, every religious institution I come across. BJP doesnt like this. I dont think they understand meaning of the term Hindu. Its a perspective. Its something which lives with you throughout, says Rahul Gandhi.

11.03am: The Prime Minister went to China, met the Chinese President and did not say a word about Doklam. Our PM considers foreign policy to be a personal exercise. He believes that he will visit countries and things will magically happen: Rahul Gandhi.

11am: Rahul Gandhi counters PM Modis Naamdaar jibe, says he is Imaandaar.

10.57am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not like to discuss fundamental issues, alleges Rahul Gandhi.

We had said that Dalits are being beaten up and oppressed when Rohith Vemula is killed Modi doesnt say a word: Rahul Gandhi

 When Dalits are killed and humiliated in other parts of India, Modi Ji doesnt say anything. Congress will defend the rights of Dalits and raise this issue, adds Gandhi.

10.55am: Atrocities against women is absolutely a political and a national issue. Mr Modi likes to discuss bullet train and other issues but does not like to discuss fundamental issues:Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Bengaluru.

10.45am: Very confident Congress will win, says Rahul Gandhi on last day of campaigning.

I have been travelling around Karnataka for few months now, we all stood together and fought campaign on fundamental issues. Weve prepared manifesto which is truly voice of the people. Opposition has restricted itself to making personal remarks, says Rahul Gandhi.

10.40am: Have learnt tremendous amount from the people and their spirit in the last few months in Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi says.

10.30am: Congress president Rahul Gandhi arrives for press conference in Bengaluru.

9.35am: I want to appeal that you should go to SC, ST, minority houses and tell about our schemes. BJP is dedicated to their development: PM Modi to minority leaders in Karnataka.

9.20am: India is the second largest steel and mobile phone producer now and 99 cities of the country are on their way to becoming smart cities: PM Modi.

9.10am: BJP has the highest number of MPs belonging to SC & ST communities. More and more people of these communities are connecting with BJP: PM Narendra Modi.

9am: PM Modi is addressing the SC, ST, OBC and Slum Morcha Karyakartas of Karnataka BJP.Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar invited Israels aerospace industry and cyber security firms to set up their bases in Haryana. Khattar visited Israeli Aerospace Industry (IAI) where he was briefed by Israeli officials about the innovations made in the fields of aerospace and defence.

He invited IAI to set up ancillary units in the Hisar Aviation Hub being set up by his government, a statement said.

He has also invited the consortium of cyber security companies under Israel Aviation Industry to set up base in Haryana which houses top 200 companies in the world, it said.

During the discussions, officials from IAI evinced keen interest in the aviation hub and agreed to visit Hisar next month, it added.

The IAI has entered into USD $ 1 billion contract with the Indian government, under which it is obliged to invest or procure 30% material from the local market. The officials assured to explore Haryana as top priority.

Khattar also visited the manufacturing plant of Unmanned Ariel Vehicle (UAV) and jets and invited IAI to set up ancillary units in the proposed Hisar Aviation Hub.

Highlighting Hisars proximity to Delhi International Airport, Khattar said the place had less humid atmosphere which is vital for UAV and other defence materials.

He said Hisar aviation hub enjoyed a strategic geographical location and could be made into a manufacturing base for Israeli aviation industry from where the entire south-eastern market can be served.

Khattar also led a delegation of Haryana Police officers who held interactions with their Israeli counterparts.

The visit of the delegation is aimed to learn from Israeli experts how law and order machinery can be improved to check crime and beef up security and intelligence network of the Haryana Police.

The delegation also visited headquarters of the United Hatzalah of Israel, along with the chief minister. United Hatzalah runs emergency rescue operations across Israel based on volunteers.RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who is serving prison sentence following his conviction in the fodder scam cases, was on Thursday granted three days parole to attend his sons wedding in Patna, Inspector General of Prison Harsh Mangla said on Thursday.

His parole has been granted for three days, the IG (Prison) told PTI here.

However, the IG Prison was not categorical about the effective date of parole and said it depended upon when the jail authorities would release him.

Prasads elder son and former Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadavs marriage with daughter of RJD MLA Chandrika Rai is scheduled on May 12 in Patna.

Lalu, however, will remain under the constant watch of cameras, said sources in the Birsa Munda Central Jail here, where he is currently lodged.

All his movements would be captured by video cameras, a jail official said.

Lalu left for Ranchi airport from the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS), where he is admitted for treatment, and will leave for Patna by a private carrier at 5.50 p.m, the sources said.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief is accompanied by a team of doctors and policemen.

Lalu has been undergoing treatment at RIMS after he was brought here from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, on May 1.

His provisional bail plea hearing is due to be taken up at the Jharkhand High Court on May 11.

Lalu was admitted to RIMS on March 17 following complaints of uneasiness when he was lodged in the Birsa Munda Central Jail, where he is serving a jail term since December 23, 2017 in connection with the fodder scam.

He has been convicted in four fodder scam cases since 2013 -- the latest being the Dumka treasury case in which a special CBI court sentenced him to 14 years in jail.Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar is responding well to his treatment in the US, Union civil aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said today.

Prabhu spoke to the chief minister and expressed hope that he would return soon to resume his responsibilities of developing Goa as a leading state.

Parrikar, 62, is currently undergoing treatment for a pancreatic ailment at a hospital in the US.

The former defence minister left for USA in the first week of March.

Prabhu wished a speedy recovery to Parrikar in a twitter post on Thursday.

Spoke to @manoharparrikar, who is responding well to medical treatment in the US. Wishing him well for speedy recovery so he returns to India soon to resume his responsibilities of developing #Goa as leading state, the Union minister tweeted.

BJP president Amit Shah is expected to visit Goa on May 13 to address the party workers near Panaji.

Before leaving Goa, Parrikar had formed a cabinet advisory committee to guide the state administration on governance and other issues, in his absence.

The committee comprises Sudin Dhavalikar (of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party), Francis DSouza (of the BJP) and Vijai Sardesai (of the Goa Forward Party).

The MGP and the Goa Forward Party are allies of the ruling BJP in the coastal state.Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick off his Nepal visit from Janakpur, an important religious centre in the Terai plains where Lord Ram was supposed to have wed Sita according to the Ramayana.

This will be a part of his effort to get Indias ties with Nepal on track after a difficult phase in the relationship when differences over the Nepal constitution led to deep trust deficit and public acrimony between Kathmandu and Delhi. The prime ministers decision, though, has stirred up a debate on the use of religion in diplomacy.

Issue

Modi has already visited Nepal twice. In the run up to his second visit, in November 2014, Janakpur was on the itinerary, but the then Nepal government was not too keen on this. It was a time of constitution writing. Janakpur is the key centre of the Madhesis, people of the plains who were assertive in seeking a federal structure and inclusion. Kathmandus hill-dominated political establishment felt Modis visit would embolden the Madhesis. It would also, a section of the Nepali leadership argued, encourage those who wanted the country to become a Hindu state rather than have a secular constitution. They read in the desire to visit Janakpur, an intent to push this agenda. Given the cold reception, India decided to cancel the Janakpur leg of the visit.

A lot has happened since then. Nepal drafted a secular constitution; the clauses on federalism alienated Madhesis who waged a five month long movement with Indian support. Eventually, the broad constitutional compact was accepted; Madhesis participated in the constitution; an ultra-nationalist leader PM K P Oli won the election; and but India and he began a process of rapprochement. He visited India and to deepen ties, Modi decided to visit Nepal for the third time in his tenure. Janakpur was back on the itinerary.

Significance

Janakpur is the capital of Nepals Province 2, which is the countrys only Madhesi dominated unit and also the only one of the seven provinces not ruled by the Oli-led communist alliance. It is governed by Madhesi parties and the Chief Minister is a Muslim Madhesi leader, Mohammed Lalbabu Raut.

Modi will be welcomed by Oli; he will visit the Janaki temple; and he will attend a civic reception and give a public speech, where he is expected to announce a bus service from Janakpur to Ayodhya, the birthplace of Ram, which has considerable political significance for the BJP. In Nepal, the speech will be carefully watched for the messaging around Madhesi issues and how he recognises their aspirations while taking into account sensitivities of the host government in Kathmandu. In India, the visit is being watched closely for his visit to the temple town will happen a day before Karnataka goes to polls, and in the run-up to a possible court verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi case and the 2019 polls.

Debate

The visit has stirred up a debate.

On the one hand are critics who believe that Modi is using religion for diplomacy, which does not behove a secular state like India. India must not get into this trap; given its multi religious framework, the leadership must stay away from religious symbols and association, goes this argument. It is also argued that a foreign visit is being used to push a domestic political agenda. They also read in it an effort by the ruling government to continue to push the agenda of a Hindu state in Nepal.

On the other hand are those who argue that religion is a perfectly legitimate tool of soft power diplomacy. In the neighbourhood, Indias strength is its cultural links, goes this argument, and these must be leveraged. The fact that hundreds of thousands of Nepalis come to India for pilgrimage and vice versa should be acknowledged, rather than skirted. Proponents of this theory point out that the Janakpur visit must be seen as a larger part of Indian cultural diplomacy, which is neither Nepal-specific nor Hindu-specific. Modi visited Pashupatinath in Kathmandu; the Toji temple in Japan; the Gangaramaya Temple in Sri Lanka; and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in United Arab Emirates among other sites. He has also consciously highlighted Indias Buddhist heritage. This suggests Indias religious-cultural diplomacy is here to stay.Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modis remarks about UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhis Italian origin, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday that she was more Indian than many Indian people I have met.

My mother is Italian. My mother has also lived larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many people I see. My mother has sacrificed for this country, my mother has suffered for this country. And it shows the quality of the prime minister when he makes such comments, the Congress president said while addressing a press conference in Bengaluru.

The BJP has often targeted Sonia Gandhi for her Italian roots in the run up to the state polls.

Ahead of the UPA chairpersons visit to the poll-bound state, the BJP raked up the issue of her Italian origin by referring to her maiden name Antonio Maino.

Today, Ms. Antonio Maino is here in Ktaka to save her last citadel from falling! Madam Maino, Ktaka needs no lessons from the person who was solely responsible for wasting Indias 10 precious years, the BJP tweeted.

In another jibe, Modi, at an election rally on May 1, dared Rahul Gandhi to talk for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Karnataka government in any language, including his mothers mother tongue.

On the last day of campaigning for Karnataka elections, Rahul Gandhi also said he is confident of Congress victory.

Weve developed Karnataka extensively over the past five years, well continue along that path of development more aggressively, he said.

Elections in Karnataka will be held on May 12 and counting of votes will take place on May 15.

The Congress president, who wrapped up his campaign tour of Karnataka, said the prime minister was silent on incidents of killings and attacks on Dalits.

When asked to comment on the prime ministers claim that the Congress party raised the issue of Dalits only for the sake of raising it, he said,We will take up their issues. It is our job.

When Rohit Vemula (a Hyderabad student who committed suicide over alleged discrimination) dies, he does not utter a word. When Dalits are beaten up in Una, he keeps quiet, he said.

When asked about his visits to places of worship, particularly temples, and the BJPs description of him as an election Hindu, Rahul Gandhi said, BJP gets uncomfortable when I go to a temple.

Rahul Gandhi said he visited not just temples but also other places of worship.

I dont think BJP understands the term Hindu, the Congress leader said, adding that calling him an election Hindu showed their state of mind.

He said the Modi government had decimated the countrys foreign policy and that a disaster was in the making on that front.

(With PTI inputs)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday described his two-day visit to Nepal as a reflection of his governments commitment to neighbourhood first policy, and said as the Himalayan state entered a new era, India would continue to remain its steadfast partner.

Modi will visit the Himalayan nation on Friday and it will be his third visit to that country as Prime Minister. It reflects the high priority, India, and personally I, attach to our age-old, close and friendly ties with Nepal, the PM said in a statement.

He said his visit closely follows the state visit of Nepalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to India last month.

These high-level and regular interactions reflect my governments commitment to the neighbourhood first policy, in consonance with the motto of sabka saath, sabka vikas, the statement said.

Modi said the two countries have completed several bilateral connectivity and development projects in the last few years, and initiated transformational initiatives for the benefit of their people.

Prime Minister Oli and I will have the opportunity to take forward our recent wide-ranging discussions in New Delhi on issues of mutual interest, and to advance our cooperative partnership across diverse sectors, he said.

As Nepal enters a new era of consolidating gains of democracy and achieving rapid economic growth and development, India will continue to remain a steadfast partner of government of Nepal to implement its vision of samriddha Nepal, sukhi Nepali (prosperous Nepal, happy Nepal), read the statement.

In addition to Kathmandu, Modi said he was also looking forward to visiting Janakpur and Muktinath. Both these places attract a large number of pilgrims every year.

They are living testimony to the ancient and strong cultural and religious ties between the peoples of India and Nepal, he said.

The Prime Minister said he was also looking forward to meeting the political leaders and friends in Nepal.

I am confident that my visit will further cement our people-centric partnership with Nepal on the basis of mutual benefit, goodwill and understanding, Modi noted.State-run hospitals in West Bengal will no longer offer free treatment to people from other states and countries, state chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Thursday.

Free treatment in state-run hospitals is unique in Bengal. We have noticed that people from neighbouring states and even some neighbouring countries utilise this facility. But considering the financial constraints of the state government, it will no more be possible to provide free treatment to these patients, said the chief minister at the sixth convention of the West Bengal University of Health Sciences.

A special card will be introduced for those who will be entitled for free treatment at state-run hospitals. This card will be given only to the residents of Bengal, chief minister said.

A health department official said though the pricing details of the services are yet to be worked out, it will certainly be less than that charged by private hospitals.

The health department official, who did not wish to be named, said that on an average, about 20% of the patients getting free treatment are from other states and countries.

A majority of these patients are from Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern UP, Bangladesh and Nepal, he said.

Banerjee also criticised the Union HRD ministry for the question paper fiasco in the NEET examination 2018.

Examinees from Bengal did not get question papers in Bengali language. In certain cases, the number of question papers was fewer than the number of examinees. I have already written a letter to the Union HRD minister registering our protest, she said.The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to throw open the 135-kilometre Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), one half of the ring road coming up around Delhi to decongest the city, on June 1, whether or not the Prime Minister inaugurates the project before that date.

The court, which was hearing a petition related to air pollution in Delhi, said the project should be inaugurated on or before May 31, or be thrown open to traffic from the following day, reflecting its displeasure over the delay in the inauguration of the EPE

Why are you waiting for the PM to inaugurate it? Delay is not in the interest of the people of Delhi, a bench of justices MB Lokur and Deepak Gupta told NHAI counsel when the latter said the expressway had earlier been scheduled to be inaugurated on or before April 29.

The Prime Minister could not inaugurate the project because of his prior commitments, the counsel said.

The Rs5,763 crore EPE will provide signal-free connectivity between Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gautam Budh Nagar (Greater Noida) and Palwal on the periphery of Delhi, channelling non-Delhi-bound traffic, decongesting the capital and reducing pollution.

Around 200,000 such vehicles pass through the capital every day, contributing to air pollution and traffic jams in the city .

Senior officials in the Union road transport and highways ministry, under which the NHAI functions, said that the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) had considered two dates -- one in the last week of April and the second in the second week of May -- for the PM to inaugurate the EPE.

But the ministry took a conscious decision to defer it as the project was not 100 % completed. A technical glitch was detected on one of the road over bridge (ROB) spans because of which one side could not be completed on time. We are addressing the problem and hope to complete it by May 15, said a ministry official who did not want to be named.

The official added that the ministry had been considering getting the project inaugurated by the PM on May 26.

Another senior official, also on condition of anonymity, said that because of the potential controversy, the ministry could decide to drop the idea of a formal inauguration and throw it open to the public once work on the ROB is completed.

The Supreme Court had asked the Centre in 2005 to build the expressway around Delhi by July 2016. The EPE was first approved in 2007 but could not take off because of various obstacles. It was reviewed several times and given final approval by the cabinet committee on infrastructure in May 2011. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for the EPE, being implemented by the NHAI, in November 2015.

Together with the Western Peripheral Expressway (WPE), which is being overseen by the Haryana government, the will be part of a ring road around Delhi.

On Thursday, Justice Lokur told the NHAI counsel: Why dont you inaugurate it? Even he (additional solicitor general AS NAdkarni) can inaugurate it. He has taken a lot of pains in the case. Nadkarni has been appearing in the matter on behalf of the Centre.

The NHAI counsel told the bench that the authority had written to the Prime Minister Office for the PMs dates. Thats the problem. The HC (high court) of Meghalaya was not inaugurated. But it is functioning for the last five years. You cannot pass the buck and say PMO, PMO only. Why dont you open it and inaugurate it later, the judge told the lawyer.

The six-lane access-controlled EPE starts from Palwal in Haryana and will pass through Noida, Ghaziabad and Kundli in Uttar Pradesh. The WPE, which will connect Kundli to Palwal via Manesar in Haryana, is 81 % complete. The Haryana government counsel informed the Supreme Court that the private entity developing it has said the project will be completed by June 30, much before the February 2019 deadline. At this Justice Lokur smiled and said: Then you will say Prime Minister will inaugurate it, so wait.

Advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the court in the matter, requested the court to order the opening of the road. Inauguration can be done later. Even the PMO would not mind it, she said.

NHAI counsel submitted that the expressway was already being used and only toll counters needed to become operational. Trucks are using it, the lawyer said. But Singh countered the submission. She said she had been informed that the road was not in use.Lalit Mansingh was secretary (west) in the external affairs ministry in May 1998 when India conducted five nuclear tests on May 11 and 13, 1998, at the Pokhran range in Rajasthan.

The first three detonations took place simultaneously at 3.45pm on May 11. These included a 45 kT thermonuclear device, a 15kt fission device and a 0.2 kt sub-kiloton (which is less than a kiloton) device. The two nuclear devices detonated simultaneously on May 13 were also in the sub-kiloton range, 0.5 kT and 0.3 kT.

The test happened months after then foreign secretary K Raghunath told his US counterpart that India did not have any intention of testing a nuclear device. The test was a secret, known only to five people; that certainly did not include me or even the foreign secretary, Mansingh recalled.

The test opened floodgates of trouble for India: sanctions, economic and military, and interactional isolation. It was certainly the biggest challenge Indian foreign policy establishment faced in a long, long time, said Mansingh, who later became the foreign secretary as well as the countrys envoy to the US.

The immediate challenge was to mitigate international opposition and eventually bridge the trust gap with the US. Immediately after the tests, the US suspended foreign secretary-level talks; over the following two years, it put more than 200 Indian entities under the sanctions list.

The list included not only the facilities of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), and entities of Department of Space, but also a clutch of private sector firms that had worked for them.

The now fabled discussions between Strobe Talbot, then US secretary of state, and then foreign minister Jaswant Singh followed  they were held in seven countries, 10 cities, and included 14 rounds of talks.

For Americans and the west, India was gatecrashing the nuclear club. With Pakistan seeking nuclear parity, the Americans feared South Asia would become a nuclear flashpoint. A great deal of the Talbot-Singh conversation covered this ground.

I hope my regard for the way Jaswant advanced his nations interests and sought, as he put it, to harmonise US-India relations speaks for itself..., Talbot wrote in his book Engaging India: Diplomacy, Democracy and the Bomb. These talks provided the basis for the next stage of India-US relationship, and eventually paved the way for the India-US nuclear deal, says Mansingh.

The nuclear deal, pursued by the Manmohan Sigh-George Bush Jr administrations, resulted in India getting a seat at the nuclear high table for all practical purposes without signing the Non-Proliferation treaty. The framework for this agreement was a July 18, 2005, joint statement by then Indian PM Manmohan Singh and then US President George W Bush.

This led to India putting some of its reactors under the India-specific International Atomic Energy (IAEA) safeguards, and getting a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the elite club of countries that deals with trade in nuclear technology and fissile materials.

The NSG waiver on September 2008 lifted an over three-decade, US-led world embargo on civilian nuclear cooperation with India that was brought upon India after it first tested a nuclear device in 1974 and in 1998. The waiver earned India the right to trade for civilian nuclear fuel and technology.

It was expected to give a boost to nuclear power in Indias energy basket. Back at the time, Indias 22 nuclear plants were operating at under 40% capacity. India subsequently started signing deals with foreign countries to start nuclear parks in the country. It signed agreements with Russia, France and the US. Except with the Russians, the other plans ran into a host of issues ranging from land acquisition to liability.

The share of nuclear power in the total electricity generated in the country in the year 2016-17 was a mere 3.05%. According to the data from Department of Atomic Energy, the present installed nuclear capacity is 6780 MW and it will reach 13480 MW by the year 2024 with the completion of projects under construction.

In June 2017, the Government accorded administrative approval and financial sanction for 12 more reactors with a total capacity of 9000 MW that are scheduled to be completed progressively by 2031. Together with the capacity being implemented by BHAVINI, the total nuclear power capacity will reach 22480 MW by the year 2031. But we all hoped the nuclear power production in the country would see a quantum jump because of the deal. That didnt happen, said Mansingh.The Shiv Sena on Thursday praised Congress president Rahul Gandhi for being dignified while attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speeches and said he could pose a challenge to the BJP in 2019.

The BJP should have welcomed Gandhis declaration of his prime ministerial ambitions, the NDA ally said, adding that it was against democracy to make fun of Gandhi over his remark.

The BJP should have challenged him to defeat it in the 2019 general polls.

Gandhi had said two days ago that he was ready to become the prime minister if his party wins the most seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, making known his ambition for the top executive post.

Reacting to the comment, Modi asked whether the country would ever accept such an immature and naamdar (famous) leader for the post.

Rebuking the BJP for criticising Gandhis comments, the Sena said people would decide if the Congress president would become the prime minister in 2019 or face defeat.

However, saying that he (Gandhi) is eager to become the prime minister or making fun of him is against democracy, it said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamna.

If there is democracy left in the country, the BJP should have welcomed Gandhis statement and challenged him to defeat it in 2019, the Sena said.

The Sena said, Rahul Gandhi today is not the same as he was in 2014. He has become a strong-minded person after bearing criticism. He can pose a challenge to the BJP in 2019 and the Gujarat assembly polls have proved this.

The editorial said the BJP uses derogatory language against Gandhi but he has never stooped to those levels to attack Modi and has respected him as the prime minister.

Gandhis opponents have to agree that he has maintained a certain degree of political class, the Sena said.

Taking a jibe at Modi, it said, The PM has started remembering his alliance dharma now. We are happy to hear that.

It said the BJP thinks there is no dialogue between the Congress and its allies. But what has been the BJPs level of interaction with its coalition partners and how many decisions in the interest of the country have been taken by working together, the bickering ally sought to know.

Allies were being stabbed in the back with the sword of power, which the BJP got due to the collective efforts of NDA partners, the Marathi daily said.

If the BJP asks how Gandhi can be the contender for the prime ministerial post when there are seniors in the Congress and UPA allies, then BJP stalwarts like L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi will be the right persons to answer, the Sena quipped.

Similarly, Modi and (BJP chief) Amit Shah appointed the (countrys) president without talking to NDA partners, the publication claimed.Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modis attack on him declaring his prime ministerial ambitions was aimed at distracting attention.

This election is not about Rahul, the Congress president said.

I have now learnt to deal with the prime minister. When he cant respond, he distracts, Gandhi told reporters in Bengaluru after winding up his extensive tour of poll-bound Karnataka.

Gandhi was responding to Modis scathing attack on him after he declared his prime ministerial ambition.

At his election rallies, Modi had wondered whether the country will ever accept such an immature and naamdar (famous) leader for the post.

He also said Modi sees a threat in him.

Modi has anger inside... he has anger for everybody, not just me ...and sees a threat in me, Gandhi said.

Expressing confidence that the Congress would win the assembly polls in Karnataka on May 12, he said the opposition had restricted itself to making personal attacks during the campaign.

The BJP, he said, feels uncomfortable when he visits a temple.

I dont think BJP understands the term Hindu, the Congress leader said.

The senior Congress leader also dismissed Modi indirectly over his mothers Italian origins.

My mother is Italian. She has lived a large part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many people I see, he said.

The Congress president added that our foreign policy has been decimated.Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra has called a meeting of the Supreme court collegium on Friday afternoon to decide on the names of high court judges for elevation to the top court, including that of Uttarakhand chief justice KM Joseph, whose nomination has been spurned by the government.

This move comes in the wake of a letter written by justice Jasti Chelameswar to the CJI to convene a meeting of the collegium, which comprises the five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court and decides on appointments to the higher judiciary. Chelameswar said the collegium should reiterate its recommendation to the government that Justice Joseph be elevated to the top court.

The collegium comprises the CJI, and Justices Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurien Joseph. On May 2, the collegium met to reconsider Josephs elevation to the Supreme Court. The names of three more judges  from the Calcutta high court, Andhra & Telangana high court and Rajasthan high court  too were discussed. But no decision was taken at the meeting.

It was decided at the May 2 meeting that the collegium would meet a week later and take a call on the four names.

Justice Josephs elevation to the top court has been a bone of contention between the government and the collegium, which found im to be a meritorious and eminently suitable candidate for appointment to the Supreme court; it recommended his name as early as on January 10 to the government.

But the government, after sitting on the recommendation for over three months, returned the name of justice Joseph, calling the proposed appointment not appropriate and unfair and unjustified to other chief justices and judges of high courts in line for elevation to the top court.

Despite the governments objections, the judges of the collegiums are of the view that justice Josephs appointment must be reiterated and sent back to the government.

If the collegium sends the name of justice Joseph again for elevation to the Supreme Court, the government will have no option but to accept the recommendation.The dates for the major bathing days when millions will take a dip in the sacred waters of the Ganga during the 50-day Kumbh Mela in January next year in Uttar Pradeshs Allahabad has been announced.

The Prayagraj Mela Pradhikaran, a committee formed by the state government for managing the annual Magh, Ardh Kumbh and Kumbh Melas, said the religious gathering will start from January 14, 2019, with the first official bathing of Makar Sankranti and conclude with the last official bathing of Maha Shivratri on March 4.

The dates were decided during a meeting of district administration officials chaired by Allahabad divisional commissioner Ashish Goel.

The other official bathing days in the mega religious fair include bathing of Paush Purnima on January 21, Mauni Amavasya on February 4, Basant Panchami on February 10 and Maghi Purnima on February 19.

Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP), an apex body of Hindu saints, was up in arms for not being involved in the process of finalising the schedule. Its president Swami Narendra Giri said the finalisation of the Kumbh schedule without the Parishads consent was unfortunate.

Traditionally, we are a part of the process of finalising dates. But this time we were sidelined which is very unfortunate. The issue will be brought to the notice of chief minister Yogi Adityanath. If the Kumbh administration continues to ignore us, saints of the Parishad will boycott Kumbh 2019, he said.

Preparations are underway for the Kumbh mela for which Rs 2,500 crore has been allocated by the Union and state governments. The Union tourism ministry is organising road shows and participating in events especially in European countries to raise awareness about the mega religious fair overseas.

At least 150 million devotees and tourists are expected to attend the Kumbh Mela, which is among the 13 elements from India on UNESCOs list of intangible heritage.

The festival has its origins in Hindu mythology which says Lord Vishnu wrested a golden pot containing the nectar of immortality from demons. Four drops fell on the four locations across India, in the cities of Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik in a 12-day fight for possession.

The Kumbh Mela is held at one of these spots every six years, with the festival at Allahabad the holiest of them all.A medical student from Jammu & Kashmir in Philippines who thought he was scoring a point by listing his location as Indian occupied Kashmir on Twitter discovered the perils of doing so when he ran into trouble, and sought the help of the external affairs minister who respon-ded saying there is no place called Indian-occupied Kashmir.

Sheikh Ateeq, whose Twitter handle was @SAteEQ019, requested Swaraj to help him get a new passport and said he needed one to get back to his home, India as his health was deteriorating.

I am from J&K doing medicine course here in Philippines my passport got damaged I applied for new one 1 month ago I request u pls help me to get it as i literally need to go home for medical checkup , Ateeq tweeted on Thursday. He had asked Swaraj for help earlier, on April 5.

Ateeq has now deleted his Twitter profile (Twitter)

Dear maam @SushmaSwaraj I greatly need your help. Is there anything u can do to rush the process of my passport as it is damaged. I need to get back to my home, India. My health is deteriorating and I cannot shoulder the expenses any more as Im student (sic), he said earlier.

Swaraj, who actively addresses peoples concerns on Twitter, replied to Ateeq on Thursday saying she would have helped him had he belonged to Jammu and Kashmir, and that there was no place called Indian-occupied Kashmir.

Ateeqs tweet from April. (Twitter)

Soon after, Ateeq corrected the location on his Twitter bio to Jammu &kashmir/ Manila.

Swaraj acknowledged the correction in a tweet that was shared minutes later and asked the Indian envoy in Manila, Jaideep Mazumdar, to help the student. I am happy you have corrected the profile. Jaideep - He is an Indian national from J&K. Pls help him, the minister wrote.

If you are from J&K state, we will definitely help you. But your profile says you are from 'Indian occupied Kashmir'. There is no place like that. @indembmanila https://t.co/Srzo7tfMSx  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 10, 2018

Swarajs tweets had been shared over 6,700 times and liked by nearly 15,000 people as of 5 pm. Ateeq had deleted his Twitter profile. Swaraj, with 11.7 million Twitter followers, often makes the effort to respond to tweets.

She wants a personal touch in the messages and often drafts her own response, an aide to the minister said on condition of anonymity.

There are many instances of Swaraj helping Indian in distress by issuing instructions to officials on Twitter.

In March, after a man wrote to her that his brother had been kidnapped in Serbia and the kidnappers were threatening to kill him unless ransom was paid, Swaraj tweeted that she had come to know from the Indian ambassador in Belgrade that the brother has been found and is in safe custody of Serbian authorities.

In November 2017, Swaraj came to the aid of the son of a Dubai-based Pakistani national, who had to undergo open heart surgery for a rare heart defect. After being turned down by doctors in Pakistan and Dubai, the family applied for Indian visas and on Twitter approached the minister, who arranged for the travel documents to be given to them.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has praised Swaraj, saying she and her ministry had set an example of effectively using social media to deliver good governance.

Social media has become very powerful. I am also connected with it. But the external affairs ministry and Sushma Swaraj have set the best example of how a department can be strengthened through its use, Modi said in his address to the Indian diaspora during a June 2017 community event in Virginia.External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday called on Myanmar President U Win Myint soon after she arrived in Nay Pyi Taw for talks with the countrys top leadership on key bilateral and regional issues, including the Rohingya refugee crisis.

An estimated 7,00,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmars Rakhine State since August last year after large-scale violence following a military crackdown. The exodus of refugees in large numbers has resulted in a major crisis in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Swaraj is in Myanmar on a two-day visit for discussions on a number of bilateral and regional issues, including the situation in the Rakhine State from where lakhs of Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh.

Myanmar is one of Indias strategic neighbours and it shares a 1,640 km border with a number of northeastern states, including militancy-hit Nagaland and Manipur.

On her arrival in Nay Pyi Taw, Swaraj was warmly received by Indias ambassador Vikram Misri and permanent secretary of ministry of foreign affairs of Myanmar U Myint Thu.

In December, India had announced a development assistance of $25 million for Rakhine State.

India on Wednesday sent to Bangladesh its second relief consignment to help tens of thousands of displaced following a military crackdown.Police in West Bengal mostly have the job of hunting down Maoists but on Wednesday officials from West Midnapore hosted the wedding of two former rebels.

The departments officials held a reception ceremony for 28-year-old Sulekha Mahato and Dilip Mahato, 31, and even organised a wedding feast in a lodge in Midnapore town about 150km from the state capital of Kolkata.

More than 350 Maoists have surrendered in West Bengal over the past eight years but this is the first instance where the police have helped a rehabilitated couple marry.

The Mahatos surrendered in 2016 and met in 2017 while undergoing a training for 42 days as home guards in the Midnapore Police lines as part of their rehabilitation. After the training, Sulekha was sent to Jhargram in March and Dilip was posted in Midnapore.

They cannot move freely outside the police lines so officials, who normally do not have any role if two of their employees want to tie the knot, helped them get married.

She appealed to us several times that she wants to return to Midnapore. We initially did not understand the reason for her urgency. Later when we came to know about their affair, we talked to their family and arranged their marriage, West Midnapore superintendent of police Alok Rajoria said.

When both the families agreed to the marriage, we felt it was our social responsibility to facilitate their tying the knot, said Rajoria.

The wedding rituals were conducted under tight security in a temple at Karnagarh, about 10km from Midnapore town. Sulekha, who wore a red Benarasi sari, and dhoti-kurta clad Dilip were taken in a police van to the temple, where the senior police officers were present.

Sulekha was a member of the action squad of Madan Mahato in Belpahari area, now in Jhargram district bordering Jharkhand. Dilip hails from Birbhanpur under Salboni of West Midnapore, another former Maoist belt.

There was one small inconvenience for the couple. They cannot move out for honeymoon and will have to stay in the Midnapore police lines.Islam Hussein lost both his hands and eyesight in September last year after he accidentally stepped on a mine laid by warring groups while walking on a street near his home in war-torn Yemen.

The 21-year-old man travelled to India with the hope of seeing again and doctors at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) in Keralas Kochi have made his wish come true.

Islam got his sight back in his left eye after an eight-hour-long corneal transplant surgery at the hospital. When the first ray zipped in the 21-year-old could not control his emotions and hugged the doctors who performed the surgery.

It is beautiful to see again. It is a rebirth for me. I had given up all hopes. Indian doctors gave me a fresh lease of life, Islam said.

I was planning to become an engineer but after witnessing a medical miracle now I want to be a doctor. I want to treat people who lost all hopes, the resident of a small town Taiz in central Yemen added. .

The surgery that involved the complete reconstruction of Islams left eye was led by a team of ophthalmologists led by Dr Anil Radhakrishnan.

Islams right eye was beyond any recovery as the structure behind the lens was badly damaged so we focused on the left eye. We reconstructed the shattered eye structures, conducted corneal transplant and reconstructed the eye again, Dr Radhakrishnan said and added that they were not sure whether the surgery would work.

But it was joy all around when, a day after the surgery, Islam opened his eye and could see his mother in front of him, he said.

Islams mother Dikshara Hussein said her son was good at studies but the blast last year changed his life. She said the blast severely injured the Class 11 students hands and legs, disfigured his face and mangled his eyes. He was rushed to a hospital, but lost vision in both the eyes, she said.

Doctors advised that Islams legs should also be amputated but his father refused to give up and moved him to a hospital in Egypt where both his hands had to be amputated below the elbow after an infection.

Doctors there were not capable of helping him further but one of them recommended treatment in India.

Islam and his parents arrived at in Kochis AIMS in December last year after undergoing a plastic surgery on his foot in Rajasthans Jaipur. Doctors at AIMS said a palm transplant would be more feasible after he regained his vision.

When he came here his face was completely burnt and disfigured. The massive blunt injury damaged his eyes as if hit by a hammer. We gave priority to repairing the eye and regaining visual function, Dr Gopal S Pillai, the head of the hospitals ophthalmology department, said.Two brothers have been arrested in Churu district of Rajasthan after a minor Dalit girl accused them of raping her, police on Thursday said.

The men had allegedly told the girl that her mother was ill and took her to Bikaner on May 1 where they sexually assaulted her, police said. The accused, identified as Mahendra (19) and Jitendra (23), were known to the girl. All are residents of Ratangarh town in Churu.

She was alone at her house in the evening when they came and told her that her mother is ill, Ratangarh deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Narayan Dan said.

The girls parents are daily wage labourers and take up work in different parts of Ratangarh.

The brother said they will take the girl to her mother and she agreed. They however took her to Bikaner. When she didnt return home in the night, her parents lodged a missing complaint with the police. A police team found her in Bikaner the next day and brought the girl home, the DSP added.

Police said the girl informed her mother that she had been raped a couple of days later, following which the father lodged an FIR. The girls medical examination confirmed rape.

As the parents were not sure of the girls age, another medical was conducted, which showed that she was a minor aged between 15-17 years.

The girl is a member of SC community. Her parents are labourers and she is uneducated, Dan said.

The accused have been jailed under Sections 363, 376 and 325 of IPC, POCSO Act and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is likely to test from this May an oral contraceptive on female monkeys in an attempt to restrict the runaway primate population, especially in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand where the animal has become a nuisance and menace.

Called the porcine zona pellucida, the vaccine is imported from the US where it was successfully tested.

We have procured the drug and are in the process of finalising the procedure, said VB Mathur, the WII director.

Scientists at the Dehradun-based WII are optimistic about contraceptive programme  the first in India where dwindling forests have driven the highly adaptable and opportunistic monkeys towards villages and cities.

Uttarakhand has nearly 150,000 monkeys, according to a forest department estimate, and their numbers are growing fast.

The scientists hope that the vaccine will get the required clearance from the governments animal ethics committee to conduct the test as it doesnt involve spaying or neutering the animals.

Captive monkeys in the Chidiapur rescue centre in Haridwar will undergo the test in a controlled environment to observe any changes in their behaviour or vital stats. The female monkeys will be given a dose and observed for a week.

After the tests, the drug will be administered on monkeys in Chandrabani, outside the WII campus where around 450 monkeys are found.

It is an expensive project under the National Mission for Himalayan Studies as each dose of the imported contraceptive costs Rs 6,000, a sum that needs to cross multiple layers of bureaucratic turnstiles, said an official who doesnt want to be named.

Experts believe the drug can be manufactured In India, say at the National Institute of Immunology in New Delhi, which will make it cheaper and easily available.

The chemical zona pellucida comes from pigs. It produces antibodies that prevent the sperm from attaching to the egg. The vaccine could be given to monkeys mixed with their food, or injected.

The monkeys getting the medicine will be tagged and given at least two booster doses in two years.

The drug would allow the female monkeys to mate without getting pregnant. We only have to chalk out how this could be used in open areas. A lot of research and development is to be done, S Sathyakumar, an expert at the institute, said.

The programme was developed to keep the monkey population down after techniques such as catch-and-sterilise measures failed.

Monkeys are declared a vermin in many districts in the country, where they have destroyed crops and orchards, but wildlife lovers interpret it as a euphemism for the death sentence as the tag permits culling.The move to revive an agitation by Gujjars to press for their demand of five per cent reservation from within OBC quota suffered a setback Thursday with a large section of the community deciding to boycott the stir.

Gujjar community leader Colonel (retd) Kirori Singh Bainsla had last week given the call to stage a massive protest starting from May 15 in Bayana near Bharatpur.

On Thursday, 80 villages under Bayana sub-division gathered at Ranota village where a panchayat decided to boycott Bainslas decision.

Hargyan Singh Gurjar, a resident of Piparra village, claimed that Bainsla was politicising the quota issue for personal gains. Hargya Singh said that Bainsla intends to contest Lok Sabha or assembly elections by seeking ticket either from the BJP or Congress.

The community has been waging a fight against the state government for nearly 10 years, The agitations have seen deaths of 72 people. Bainsla is rich and selfish and he will escape but it is the youth of our community who will be booked by the police during the agitation, Hargyan Singh said.

Sarpanch of gram panchayat Khankhera Dayaram Patel said Bainsla was trying to misguide people. We are sending our children to schools and colleges to be better citizens but their career will be ruined if police register cases against them during any agitation.

Bainsla and some other leaders have already got financial benefits from the government. Gujjars of Bayana block will never allow Bainsla to begin stir here. Locals will boycott and protest any stir on May 15, Patel said.

Vijay Patel from Mahrawar village said that Gujjar leaders can chose any other place to launch the stir.

Earlier, Bainsla along with other leaders of community held meeting in Adda village on Wednesday to prepare people for agitation.

Spokesperson of Gujjar Aarakshan Sangharsh samiti Himmat Singh said, I am not aware about any panchayat decision to boycott the agitation.

Meanwhile, Bainsla appealed people to remember the sacrifice that 72 people made for communitys right to quota. Community needs to show its power to the government. All people of community must fight against the government for the quota. It is now or never, he said.

Committees have been appointed to make people aware and get them ready for the agitation, he said.

The Gujjars have been demanding reservation under special backward classes which, according to them, should be within the 50% overall quota approved by the Supreme Court.

Earlier, Himmat Singh had said that Gujjars were getting one per cent reservation under Most Backward Classes (MBC) and the demand is for bifurcation of OBC quota to provide five per cent reservation to Gujjars and other communities.

The Rajasthan Assembly had in October last year passed a bill to raise OBC reservation from 21 to 26 per cent to provide five per cent quota to Gujjar and other castes.

However, the high court stayed the bill as it would have increased the reservation to 54 per cent.

Later, the Supreme Court also directed the state government not to exceed the 50 per cent reservation limit.The bride in red silk sari and the groom in traditional brown suit took the centre stage as VIPs and others vied for a picture with the couple.

Amid mellifluous music and dance at a private club in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday, Ishan and Surya became the first trans-sexuals in Kerala to tie the knot under the Special Marriages Act.

City mayor VP Prashanth, former MP TN Seema, actor Bhagyalakshmi, writer J Devika and others were among those who attended the ceremony and blessed the newly-weds.

Some years ago, we couldnt have imagined such a function in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram, observed P Rani, a transgender activist hailing from north Keralas Kozhikode.

Things are slowly changing and we have started getting some acceptance in the society. We hope this marriage will set the ball rolling, Rani said.

Ishan is a small-time businessperson and Surya, an activist and TV anchor. Both are graduates and members of the government-appointed transgender justice board. The couple had announced their plans to tie the knot two months ago.

It is just the beginning. We will be a role model for others. We will show the world trans-sexual people can also lead a decent life like others. Societys attitude is slowly changing, said the bride Surya after the wedding.

Ishan and Surya met each other during their association with an NGO which worked for the welfare of the third sex and trans-sexuals. (HT Photo)

Hailing from a middle class family, she (31) underwent sex change surgery in 2014 and became a woman. But most her relatives could not accept the fact and she was forced to leave her house.

Hailing from an orthodox Muslim family, Ishans (34) case drew more disapproval as he was a woman before he underwent sex change surgery in 2015 and became a man.

They met each other during their association with an NGO which worked for the welfare of the third sex and trans-sexuals.

Later, both their families came around and accepted their decisions. They were a prominent part of the gala wedding which was held in a traditional Hindu way attended by more than 1,000 guests.

Kerala is the first state to formulate a transgender policy aimed at ending discrimination and bring them to mainstream.

Two years ago, the state set up a transgender justice board to deal with their complaints and a separate column called intersex was introduced in the birth and death registration forms.

It was also made mandatory for all government buildings to have separate washrooms for the third sex.

According to transgender board, there are at least 35,000 third sex and trans-sexual persons in the state. Despite the best foot forward, activists say more is required to bring them into the mainstream.In a bid to counter the carcass meat racket, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Thursday brought into force new regulations under which shopkeepers in city markets run by the civic body will not be allowed to sell any type of frozen meat as well as chicken that has not been dressed in front of customers.

Sale of meat and meat products at eateries and stores in Kolkata has touched an all-time low ever since it was found that meat of dead animals left in dumping grounds in four districts was sold as food by a racket operating for more than five years.

In a simultaneous development, the criminal investigation department (CID) of Bengal Police took over the ongoing investigation started by Budge Budge police station in South 24 Parganas district on April 20. The CID on Thursday formed a special investigation team to take the probe forward.

Read: Bengal carcass meat probe: Cops posed as traders to nab key players; bank accounts under scanner

The high-level committee set up by chief minister Mamata Banerjee held its first meeting on Thursday and instructed civic bodies across Bengal to conduct surprise inspections at eateries and shops. The committee also asked civic bodies to install close circuit cameras at all dumping grounds so that nobody can steal animal carcasses without being noticed.

Banerjee formed the committee on Tuesday. The state chief secretary heads the committee which comprises the director general of Bengal Police, commissioner of Kolkata Police and principal secretaries of health, animal husbandry, panchayat and urban development departments.

Read: Carcass meat probe: Citizens shun eateries, stores in Kolkata; NGO to file PIL

Earlier this week, the second public interest litigation (PIL) on the carcass meat issue was filed by Citizens for Social Justice, an NGO, at the Calcutta high court. Arindam Das, lawyer and secretary of the NGO, said the petition has prayed for not only strict laws against food adulteration but also laws that ensure safety of citizens.

The racket was first detected on April 20 at Budge Budge, about 28 km from Kolkata. Thirteen people, including Manik Mukherjee, a former CPI(M) leader who was expelled by the party in 2010 and Biswanath Ghorui, one of the key players in the operation, have so far been arrested by Budge Budge police station.

The accused have been charged under Sections 272, 273 and 308 of Indian Penal Code and Section 16 of Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, West Bengal.At least eight people were killed when several districts of Bengal were hit by rain and thunderstorm between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Murshidabad district, where as many as five people died, suffered the maximum damage though the thunderstorm lasted for only 15 minutes. A large number of houses collapsed and trees were uprooted.

Vast parts of Birbhum, East Burdwan, West Burdwan, Nadia and Malda districts were affected. Manwara Bibi, 35, and her son Niaz Ali, 12, died when their house caught fire after it was struck by lightning in Kharsinpur village in Mallarpur area of Birbhum district. In Cooch Behar district, an unidentified woman died when she came under a falling tree.

People at Nowda block in Murshidabad district suffered the worst. Hasibul Halsana,24, a resident of Damdama village, died when he was hit by lightning. Siddique Sheikh,72, a resident of Trimohini village, was crushed under a wall. Sheikhs wife Momina Bibi and three others were injured.

Niyamat Sheikh,65, was crushed to death when his house collapsed at Harikana village in Bali-II gram panchayat area. Kalikinkar Ghosh, 60, a farmer at Kechumari village in Salar area was killed by lightning when he was working in the field. Murshida Bibi,23, a resident of Anantapur village, was also killed by lightning when she was collecting mango and firewood.

Traffic got stalled at several places in Murshidabad as trees felled on roads and highways. Mango and banana plantations suffered severe damage. Paddy and jute farmers were not spared either.

At Nowda in Murshidabad, at least 10 people were injured. Many houses collapsed and power supply got disrupted in the districts Hariharpara and Beldanga areas We are collecting details of the damage to property. Many houses have collapsed. We are also trying to restore power supply, P Ulganathan, district magistrate of Murshidabad said.

Rain and thunderstorms caused severe damage on Wednesday as well. At least 11 people died in various parts of Bengal. Four of them died in the north Bengal districts. Last month, around 25 people died in the state. At least 10 people, including a class 6 student, were killed by lightning on April 30. On April 18, a storm with a wind speed of more than 90 km an hour disrupted life in Kolkata and left 15 dead in Bengal.What happens when you feed one plant with compliments and another with negative remarks?

Furniture giant IKEA got students involved in a social experiment to raise awareness on the effects of bullying. The experiment involved two nearly-identical houseplants that were placed in a school and given the same amount of water, fertiliser and sunlight for 30 days.

The only difference was that students were instructed to verbally bully one of the plants and compliment the other one over a 30-day period.

One plant was played hurtful messages such as, Youre not even green, and, You look rotten. The other plant was made to listen to positive comments like, Seeing you blossom makes me happy.

The plant that received compliments remained healthy over the course of the month, whereas the other plant was visibly struggling and had dull, droopy brown leaves.

Plants have feelings, just like people, the company wrote alongside a YouTube video of the project.

IKEA hopes to extend the project to other schools as well. It has helped children and their families understand the impact that words can have, Vinod Jayan, managing director of IKEA UAE, said.

It was so successful in driving awareness and reducing bullying amongst these children that more schools in the UAE have approached us to conduct the experiment at their locations, Jayan added.

The plant theory is so popular that MythBusters, an American-Australian television program, even shot an episode on the phenomenon. They found that plants that grow in silence arent as healthy as those that hear human voices.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreVice-chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Prof Tariq Mansoor met union home minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Wednesday to apprise him of the situation on the university campus.

Public relations officer (PRO) of the university Shafey Kidwai said, Prof Mansoor clarified to the home minister that the ongoing students protest at AMU has nothing to do with Jinnahs portrait on the campus.

The VC told the minister that students are protesting in support of their demand for a judicial probe into the ruckus on the campus last Wednesday, said Kidwai.

AMU students are demanding a judicial probe into the alleged ruckus by Hindutva activists at the university gate on May 2 and the ensuing police action that left several students injured.

The students have been holding protests for the last one week.

Prof Mansoor has also sought the ministers help in the recruitment of AMU students of medicine, engineering and diploma in engineering courses in paramilitary services of the central government, Kidwai said in a press statement.

An AMU official familiar with the developments claimed that the home minister has assured the VC of all help from the central government in restoring normalcy on the campus.

Right wing activists had burnt effigies and created ruckus at the gate of AMU on May 2 while protesting against the portrait of Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah on the university premises.

In view of the chaos, a programme scheduled to award lifetime membership of the AMUSU to former Vice-President of India Hamid Ansari had to be cancelled.

Later, when AMU students were marching to the police station to lodge a complaint against the right wing activists, the police reportedly cane-charged them and lobbed tear gas shells at them.State cabinet minister and SBSP president Om Prakash Rajbhar on Wednesday supported the statement of BSP chief Mayawati that the BJP government at the Centre and in UP were hatching a conspiracy to end reservation.

Before the elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised share to the backwards in reservation. But now a conspiracy is being hatched to end reservation from backdoor. They (state government) are planning department wise recruitment, Rajbhar said addressing media persons at circuit house here.

The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president said the backward classes would not get benefit of reservation in department wise recruitment.

Suppose there are just 2-3 vacancies in a department, how will dalits and backwards get reservation? Indirect exploitation has already begun (under this government), Rajbhar said.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati has said the BJP government is conspiring to end reservation. She is right. If the governments intention is clear, why doesnt it ensure division in 27 per cent reservation to give share to backward, most backward, mahadalit and ati-dalit, Rajbhar asked.

He said every party made tall claims about taking steps for the welfare of the poor, dalits, and backwards, but in reality, they forgot their promises after the elections.

Speaking about pre-poll alliances among political parties, Rajbhar said the BSP and the SP had seen the consequences of having an alliance with the Congress.

Mayawati wants to become prime minister, therefore, she is entering an alliance. Rahul Gandhi also wants to become prime minister, he is forming another alliance. However, only that leader will become the PM whose party will have the required number of MPs, he said.

Rajbhar said during her tenure, Mayawati banned lottery in Uttar Pradesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should announce a ban on liquor across the country as it is ruining the lives of poor people, he said.

Questioning the posting of upper caste policemen in police stations, Rajbhar said strong governments ignored the poor.

There are 26 police stations in Varanasi out of which 21 are being headed by policemen belonging to upper castes. At least 13 out of 16 police stations in Chandauli, 21 of 26 in Ghazipur and 22 of 26 in Jaunpur are headed by upper caste policemen, he said.

Dalit and backward communities officers are good and intelligent but they dont get postings. Dalits and backward communities played crucial role in struggle for freedom but they are still being oppressed, Rajbhar said.

He added whenever fight for the rights of dalits gains momentum, another issue is raked up to divert it.

Why the issue of unemployment is not being discussed, he asked.Deserted by her husband and hounded by three-time BJP lawmaker Roshan Lal Verma, this 28-year-old resident of Andkheda village in Nigohi police circle of Shahjahanpur says she will not sit idle till her tormentors are sent behind bars. Accompanied by her five-year-old daughter Princess, brother and father in tow, the woman tells M Tariq Khan about her six-year-long struggle to get justice and how her life was made hell by the powerful politician and his elder son Manoj.

Excerpts:

The case was registered in 2011. But you sat on a dharna against the MLA now. What took you so long to raise your voice?

I have been pursuing the case by writing letters to the authorities demanding action against Verma and his son since 2012. But the MLA managed to muzzle my voice and the media too did nothing to highlight my plight.

What exactly happened on that fateful day?

I was coming back from college. It was around 4 pm. The MLA and his son Manoj were sitting in a parked car (I dont remember the make of the vehicle) with curtains drawn on the window. As I passed by the vehicle, Verma and his son grabbed me and pulled me inside. Before I could scream, they gagged me, tied my hands and blind-folded me. They took me to one of their house, I dont know exactly where. Then Verma asked his son Manoj to teach me a lesson for not listening to him and left, after which Manoj assaulted me sexually.

Why did they abduct you?

I dont know. But I was kept locked up in the house for eight to nine days. Their younger son Vinod use to bring food for me. He told me that his father would get me killed. It was with his help that I finally managed to escape from that house. He brought me to Shahjahanpur and put me in a house.

What is your relationship with Vinod? Is it the reason why his father and brother are angry with you?

Yes, he (Verma) was against our relationship and had been telling Vinod not to see me. But we tied the knot in a court marriage on July 23, 2011.

So, this girl with you is Vinods daughter?

Yes.

But Verma says Vinod was already married when he tied the knot with you. Were you aware of this?

No, I was not aware that he was married.

Where is Vinod now? Is he with you in this fight?

He is very sick and lives with his father now.

But Verma says he has disowned Vinod and has nothing to do with him because of his conduct?

He is lying. Vinod lives with his father. You can go and check his (Vermas) house anytime.

Why did you retract your statement and charges against Verma and his son in a signed statement before the magistrate?

I had no choice. Verma and his goons were threatening me and my parents. Because of his clout, the police also did nothing. I was crying before the magistrate when I recorded that statement. I moved the court when I learnt that the CB-CID had given clean-chit to the MLA and his son. I told the court that the statement was extracted from me under duress. The court has refused to accept the CB-CIDs probe report and asked it to investigate the matter further.

You have said you would immolate yourself if action is not taken against the MLA and his son by May 21. Are you serious?

I did not set the deadline. It was the authorities who told me that they were looking into the matter and sought time till May 21. You just wait and watch, if they dont act, I will.Two unidentified bike-borne assailants shot dead a district court lawyer in Allahabad on Thursday morning, sending shockwaves through the city as lawyers staged protests demanding the arrest of the culprits.

The lawyer, Rajesh Srivastava was shot near the busy Manmohan Park crossing in heart of the city under Colonelganj police station area, a little after he left home at Rambah locality around 10 am, police said.

He was rushed to the SRN Hospital but doctors declared him dead on arrival, they said.

The assailants managed to flee the spot unchallenged after shooting the lawyer in the head from close range.

Police have launched a hunt for the culprits, Allahabad SSP, Akash Kulhary said.

Prima facie, police believe that the shooting is a fallout of a dispute with a small hotel owner of Srivastavas locality and are probing the angle.

Lawyers from the district court, which is hardly a kilometre from the shooting spot, assembled in large numbers and staged a demonstration and blocked MG Marg near the MLN Medical College crossing in protest against the incident, with the body of the lawyer.

A bus set on fir near the district magistrates office in Kutchery road in Allahabad. (HT PHOTO)

The lawyers stopped work in the district court and staged a road block on the busy Kutchery road too.

They also went on a rampage and set fire to a city bus near the district magistrates office. Shops in the Kutchery road and the Katra market downed shutters fearing more trouble.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced a solatium of Rs 20 lakh to the family of Srivastava. and directed chief secretary Rajive Kumar and director general of police OP Singh to conduct a probe into the incident and submit a report within 24 hours.

The incident happened at a time when the UP chief secretary Rajive Kumar, principal secretary (home) Arvind Kumar and UP DGP OP Singh are in the city to review preparations and works for the forthcoming mega religious congregation of Kumbh 2019.On being pointed out by an anchor during a television programme in March that he had the image of an anti-Hindu leader, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said he would tweet pictures of religious functions at his house to prove he was also a Hindu.

Replying to the query, Akhilesh said: As always, I will observe fast for all the nine days during Navratri but this time I will release a picture of puja paath (religious programmes) at my home so that people may know I am also a Hindu.

Akhilesh might have made the remark in a lighter vein, but he kept his word by tweeting a picture of his wife and Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav offering food to kanyas (girls) on Ram Navmi.

The post, captioned Kanya pujan ka saubhagya, garnered 1.71 lakh likes on Facebook and 29,000 on Twitter, besides thousands of shares and re-tweets as on April 2.

This is not a one-off case. Many secular politicians are trying to be demonstratively Hindu by wearing their religious identity on their sleeves  something they had been refraining from in the past.

During Gujarat assembly elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhis visits to temples sporting a janeu (sacred threat) raised many eyebrows.

His temple visits continued when he visited his Lok Sabha constituency Amethi in January this year after being appointed the Congress president.

Before entering his constituency, he made a point to pay obeisance at Lord Hanuman temple in Bachhrawan.

Rahul also participated in khichdi puja in Rae Bareli, the parliamentary constituency of his mother Sonia Gandhi, on the occasion of Makar Sankranti.

He has also been visiting temples in Karnataka where assembly elections are due in April-May.

Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman Chandramohan said besides Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi, even West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was trying to prove she was not anti-Hindu.

In January this year, an MLA of Mamata Banerjees Trinamool Congress held a Brahmin sammelan in Birbhum district where 15,000 Brahmins were reportedly presented a copy of the Bhagavad Gita.

What Rahul, Akhilesh and Mamata are doing is a desperate bid to correct their anti-Hindu bias, Chandramohan said, adding the public was intelligent enough to see through their game.

The BJP too, is not far behind. Facing competition, many BJP leaders have been trying to outdo their rivals in demonstrating their Hindu identity.

On Ram Navami, BJPs national spokesman Sambit Patra appeared on a television debate with his entire forehead covered with a tilak.

To show his love for Hindu religion, Mohsin Raza, the only Muslim minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, offered prayers at Hanuman temple in Lucknow on Hanuman Jayanti. Later, he made it a point to make the pictures public.

During TV debates, especially on Hindu festivals, spokesmen for various parties are seen wearing tilak on their foreheads, tying a kalava (sacred red thread) on their wrist or having the idols of gods and goddesses behind them while connected from home or office.

They also begin by greeting the audience on the festival to send out right signals.

According to Rajesh Mishra, a social scientist, some non-BJP parties are resorting to Hindu religious symbols due to their sense of insecurity.

The BJPs surge to power riding the Hindutva plank has created a sense of insecurity in many non-BJP parties that are trying to adopt soft Hindutva by publicly bearing Hindu religious identities, he said.

Accusing the BJP of taking its communal agenda to a new low, senior Congress leader Satya Dev Tripathi said the saffron party was trying to portray its opponents as anti-Hindu.

It is high time we replied to the BJP in the same coin by conveying the message that we are as much Hindus as anyone else. So far as Rahul Gandhi is concerned, he has been visiting all religious shrines  be it temples, churches, or Gurudwaras  as a true secular leader, he said.

Mishra, however, said the trend of leaders consciously demonstrating Hindu religious symbols was not good either for secularism or for democracy.

The non-BJP parties should continue to mobilise people on secular issues like poverty, unemployment and corruption rather than resorting to soft Hindutva, he said.On the day AMU vice chancellor (V-C) Tariq Mansoor met Union home minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi to clear the air on the Jinnah portrait issue, RSS supported Muslim Rashtriya Manch and Sunni Social Forum announced plans to storm the AMU campus to bring down the portrait of the Pakistan founder if the varsity didnt do so itself.

The groups claim has flagged fresh concern over the law and order situation on the campus where examinations had to be postponed till May 12 in wake of the trouble over the 80-year-old Jinnah portrait, which ruling BJP leaders in UP want removed.

Interestingly, a fresh build up of right wing student groups was reported from Aligarh where these groups reportedly approached the senior police officers in the district questioning why the police was beginning to succumb under AMU pressure.

If the AMU administration doesnt do it themselves, we are going to storm the campus and bring it down. There is no justification for the portrait of the man who divided India, said Mohd Raees of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch adding, We would finalise our strategy in a few days.

RSS veteran Indresh Kumar is the patron of the MRM and Sunni Social Forum. The Sangh has been a votary of undivided India or Akhand Bharat and holds Jinnah chiefly responsible for the countrys partition.

The AMU administration refused to comment on the fresh threat but maintained that they have faith in the law of the land. The home ministry has assured the V-C of all help in restoring normalcy on the campus. We have faith in the law of the land, said Omar Peerzada, the AMU spokesman.

The AMU students have been agitating for the past eight days, protesting against what they call unprovoked attack on the campus by right wing student groups on the day when former Vice President Hamid Ansari was about to address students on the campus. Professor Najmul Islam, the AMU Teachers Association secretary, has also written to chief minister Yogi Adityanath demanding high level judicial probe into the violence on May 2.

An MRM functionary answered in the affirmative when asked if Sangh and outfits backed by it would make efforts to get Jinnahs portraits, name and statues removed from all places where the Pakistan founder continues to find a mention.

For instance a viral message on social media suggests that there is a photo of Jinnah in Parliament too alongside that of Shyama Prasad Mukerjee, the Sangh ideologue. We will check and if true would make efforts in that direction (removal). But its AMU from where we intend to begin, said Mohd Wasi Haidar, who looks after MRM work in West Bengal.Union minister of state for defence Subhash Ramrao Bhamre stated on Wednesday that Uttar Pradesh would have a major share in the countrys defence production and will transform India from an importer of arms to an exporter.

Bhamre was in Lucknow to attend Industry Interaction: Defence Corridor in Uttar Pradesh organised by the Indian Industries Association (IIA).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the defence corridor in Uttar Pradesh at investors summit in February last.

The defence corridor in Uttar Pradesh will be the biggest and will play a major role in the country defence manufacturing sector, Bhamre told newsmen.

This project will change the industrial scenario in UP and will transform India from one of the biggest importers of arms to an exporter, asserted Bhamre. At present, India is one of the biggest importers of arms in the world.

The union minister also informed that foreign companies were also willing to invest in the defence corridor. Strategic partnership with foreign companies will be on the basis of transfer of technology, pointed out the defence minister.

Commenting on job opportunities likely to be generated by the corridor, the union minister pointed out that around 2.5 lakh jobs would be generated.

Around 3000 hectares of land would be acquired for the project, added Bhamre.

Earlier, Bhamre addressed the gathering of industrialists, mostly MSMEs, willing to invest in the corridor.

Also present on the occasion, Satish Mahana, industrial development minister, UP government, said: The UP government will extend all out support to those willing to invest in the defence corridor.

Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC) Anup Chandra Pandey said: There will be single window clearances to defence and aerospace manufacturing units.

Awanish Awasthi, CEO, Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority, Lt Gen Subrata Saha(Retd), secretary and director general, society of Indian Defence Manufacturers, Rajib Kumar Sen, economic adviser, department of defence production and others were also present.The years biggest brunch holiday is Mothers Day. The National Restaurant Association reported that 92 million Americans dined out last Mothers Day; one-quarter of them went to brunch. New York is a famously brunch-obsessed city, and many regard Bubbys as the best location in town. Chef and owner Ron Silver opened the flagship location in Tribeca in 1990, offering only breakfast and lunch. My first customer was Isabella Rossellini; my second customer was Blondie [Debbie Harry], and my third was Cindy Lauper, recounts Silver. The next day, my first customer was [John F. Kennedy Jr.] Bubbys remains a brunch destination for such people as Chrissy Teigen, who recently took husband John Legend there and applauded its chicken and pancakes.

Mothers Day is certainly the biggest brunch day of the year for Silver and his wife Melissa: They serve about 950 guests in Tribeca and 995 at their Highline outpost (about 100 people more than on average Sundays). Experts that they are, the Silvers hereby offer a list of dont-dos to help guests avoid trouble at brunch.

You arrive hungry.

Unless youve set an alarm so youre sure to be the first inside when the doors open, you probably wont sit down immediately at the best brunch spots, which often do not accept reservations. Our average wait for brunch between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. is 45 minutes. We offer seasonal refreshment: hot cider in the winter, maple water in the spring, pink lemonade in the summer. But if youre hung over, that waiting time feels multiplied. So bring nuts.

Also, it is widely acknowledged that conversations overheard while waiting in line for brunch are, in technical terms, the worst. Ron says not to torture yourself: Noise-canceling headphones are necessary.

You hold outdated prejudices.

In his 2000 memorial Kitchen Confidential (Bloomsbury USA, 2000), Anthony Bourdain freaked out a generation of brunch-goers by ranting against the meal, including such observations as Bacteria love Hollandaise and worries such as How long that Canadian bacon has been festering in the walk-in.

If youre going to brunch because its an extended happy hour, you are not getting the most out of it, believe it or not. (Shutterstock)

Ron says the attitude is outdated. Its so freaking stupid to judge Eggs Benedict like they did 20 years ago. Its an incredibly beautiful dish: perfect, oozing eggs with warm, buttery, lemony Hollandaise cut into a perfectly crispy piece of cured pork and toasty English muffin. People should be able to eat that dish now without being judged by a dusty association. If youre worried about the Hollandaise sauce, you probably shouldnt be at that place, period.

Youre going in blind.

Cheap-to-prepare brunch menus have become ubiquitous as restaurateurs look for ways to cash in on the countrys love of breakfast food. But this doesnt mean that a trendy Italian restaurant has a destination brunch. I dont like to go to a brunch place without a recommendation from a trusted source, says Melissa. I also check Instagram accounts to see the personality of the restaurant. Seeing photos of the food and the space is surprisingly useful. Ron has an additional set of criteria: Know the playlist. I would personally stay away from a place that calls out their EDM [electronic dance music] brunch, he says.

Youre not ordering pancakes for the table.

You should never have to decide between eggs and pancakes, says Melissa. Have both. Pancakes are a perfect for-the-table dish. Its one of the few times you can have your dessert in the middle of the meal. In fact, pancakes are a Bubbys best-seller; the James Beard version has been on the menu since the place opened, and Bubbys now sells the mix online.

You order the complicated specials, rather than the basics.

Just because you love poached eggs, fried chicken, bacon, kale, maple syrup, and chipotle aioli does not mean a dish featuring all of the above has your name on it. If I have a brunch rule, its Stay simple, Melissa says. If I have no idea where I am at brunch, I dont look at specials, I look at the section with two eggs, over easy, with toast and bacon. Brunch is a time to play it safe and focus on the fun.

You dont have a go-to order.

Beyond going with whats simple, its good to have a baseline dish by which to judge all venues. (Helpful when pronouncing: They have the best avocado toast.) For Ron, that dish is huevos rancheros. Youre seeing it on more menus, with kitchens putting their own spin on it, making a good salsa, sourcing decent tortillas. We make a good one at Bubbys, with green rice, tortillas from Queens. Corny tortillas are key.

You think bloody marys should be bottomless on weekends.

I have been cooking brunch for a living since they invented eggs, says Ron. What makes brunch great is the smell of coffee and bacon and pancakes when you walk inthe light, the music, the people with messy hair. Brunch is relaxed. Theres a reason we dont have pitchers of bloody marys. We make nice ones, and we have a flight of mimosas with fresh-pressed juices. But if youre going to brunch because its an extended happy hour, you are not getting the most out of it, believe it or not.

Somea lotof brunchers will disagree with Ron. Bottomless bloody marys or mimosas can represent one of the best drink deals in town. But while they will stave off your hangover for a while, whatever alcohol is being used in the mix is guaranteed to make your headache worse in the long term.

Moreover, you will never walk out of the place having paid just the advertised price for an all-you-can-drink meal. First, if youre spending all that time to consume extra cocktails, you are likely also ordering additional food. Second, restaurants arent serving bottomless anything to be generous. If theyre losing money on cocktails, theyre saving it on food preparation. Those are the kind of places you might want to think twice about ordering the Eggs Benedict.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreAn 18-year-old American student sparked a major controversy in the US last week, when she wore a traditional Chinese dress - called a qipao - to her prom and tweeted the pictures.

Keziah Daum, student at Woods Cross High School, shared pictures of her in a red gown that she found in a vintage store in downtown Salt Lake City, she told BuzzFeed.

Soon after, Daums tweet was shared by Twitter user Jeremy Lam who accused her of cultural appropriation, My culture is NOT your...prom dress. His tweet was retweeted over 41,000 times.

Following days of heated debate on whether Daum wearing the dress was offensive to the Chinese people or not, the tweet has become a viral meme on social media, with people coming up with hilarious versions of their own.

My culture is NOT your prom dress pic.twitter.com/HAWgTTRECz  Martina Markota (@MartinaMarkota) May 8, 2018

My culture is not your prom dress pic.twitter.com/8Ag4gHDvzv   (@MrBatty_) May 8, 2018

My culture is not your prom dress pic.twitter.com/xEerQfzPYx  Numbyaar (@NumbYaar) May 8, 2018

My culture is not your costume  pic.twitter.com/YO1mIA9Imn  Sarojpkr (@sarojpkr) May 10, 2018

my culture is NOT your god damn prom dress pic.twitter.com/huNDe9mH5G  Swanmeme (@swanmeme_) May 6, 2018

My culture is not your prom dress. pic.twitter.com/DH82MNXeCL  Nidhi (@nidzk123) May 5, 2018

Blue jeans, and a jean jacket!? My culture is NOT your damn costume, Jackie Chan! #CulturalAppropriation #PromDress pic.twitter.com/n2F9InUhkL  Mark Dice (@MarkDice) May 1, 2018

My culture is not your fashion Linda! pic.twitter.com/VZ89jH6se6  Grown Ups Corner (@GrownUpsCorner) May 10, 2018

My culture is NOT your prom dress pic.twitter.com/RUe6d6wkUm  Orwell & Goode  (@OrwellNGoode) May 4, 2018

Someone tweet "my culture is NOT your prom dress" from the Popes twitter account please #MetGala2018 pic.twitter.com/Arsb6wasDA  flev (@FlavianeVChaves) May 8, 2018Three months after the custom office arrested two Kenyan nationals, including a crew member of a Kenyan airline, for smuggling gold worth 6.37 crore into the city, two people were arrested on Thursday for their involvement in facilitating the sale and purchase.

The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) on Thursday arrested Ismail Mohamed Hussein Khatri, proprietor of M/S Khatri Wagadia export, which deals in textile and footware trade, and Manish Prakash Jain of M/s Manish Gold, a jeweler from Zaveri bazaar.

On February 11, Abdalla Ali Said, a Kenyan airline crew member, was arrested from Hyatt Regency with 22,826.500 grams of gold. Ibrahim Ali Hussein, the second accused in the case, received the gold from Said.

After receiving a tip-off about a large quantity of gold being smuggled into the city, a team of AIU officials worked in tandem with the Sahar police station to nab the accused.

The AIU investigated the case for three months to ascertain the involvement of locals involved, said officers. Khatri and Jain have been arrested under the provisions of the Custom Act, 1962.

They were arrested for their involvement in dealing, handling, selling, purchasing and disposing of gold, weighing around 30 to 35 kilograms, valued at more than 9 crore, said V Rama Mathew, commissioner of customs, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA).In a reprieve for a 61-year-old Israeli national, the Bombay high court has recently struck down her prosecution for purportedly carrying a live cartridge in her luggage while flying to India. The division bench of Justice RM Savant and Justice Sarang Kotwal struck down the criminal case, and noted that Rachelle Joel Oseran had carried the live cartridge in her luggage inadvertently.

Oseran works as a childbirth educator and yoga and pilates instructor. In addition, she also brings tourist groups from Israel and other parts of the world to India for educational trips known as Mindful India Seminars. On March 1, 2015, she arrived at Mumbais Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport as a part of one such seminar. During security check, she was found to be travelling with a 5.56-mm rifle cartridge.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) staff handed her over to the Sahar police station and an FIR was registered under sections 3 and 25 of the Arms Act, for purportedly carrying the ammunition without a licence. Oseran claimed that she had taken the bag from a friend and a travel agent to carry sweets and other eatables to be distributed to children in an orphanage. The travel agents husband, who had just finished his compulsory military training in Israel, had forgotten the live cartridge inside the bag, she claimed.

After the police refused to believe her explanation, she approached high court. She sought that the criminal proceedings against her be quashed on the ground that the possession was not a conscious one. Her lawyer submitted to the high court that as she was carrying the cartridges without conscious knowledge, it did not constitute as an offence under those particular sections of the Arms Act. The bench accepted her contention and struck down the prosecution.At least eleven students of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) sustained minor injuries in a mishap on the Eastern freeway on Wednesday night, when the bus driver lost control and rammed into a divider.

The accident occurred at 10pm on the north-bound stretch of the freeway, ahead of the tunnel near Panjarpol junction, said an officer from the RCF police station.

The driver told us that he felt giddy and lost control, but we suspect that he may have dozed off, said Shrikant Desai, senior police inspector, RCF police station.

While most students sustained minor injuries, one of them sustained fractures from the impact, Desai added.

The students, who were aged around 20 to 23, were on their way back to their hostel from their campus in Colaba. They were rushed to a nearby hospital, and discharged after medication.

While the police have noted the incident, no case has been registered yet. The accident could have been far more worse had the bus jumped the divider as there was incoming traffic from the opposite direction, said the police.Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) on Wednesday issued a clarification stating that there have been false allegations against the church for their involvement in lobbying for a separate religion status for the Lingayat community in Karnataka. The statement issued by CBCI comes two days ahead of Karnataka election to be held on May 12.

An e-mail attributed to cardinal Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay, has been doing rounds on social media which speaks about the role of Roman Catholic Church in demanding a separate religion status for Lingayats and nine steps to convert Lingayats to Catholicism.

The Karnataka government in March decided to declare Lingayats a minority religious group and include Veerashaviasas a part of the community. If the proposal gets an approval from the Central government, Lingayats will get additional benefits in education and employment, on par with religious minorities.

The e-mail addressed to Bernard Moras, archbishop of Bangalore, has cardinal Gracias name as the sender and secretary general of CBCI in the undersigned section. It says, On December 21, 2013 the representatives of Holy See (the Pope) in Delhi held its first meeting with Karnatakas ruling political leadership to press and urge them to grant separate religion status to Lingayats.

However, bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary general, CBCI, issuing the statement, said, The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India nor cardinal Gracias will ever indulge in divisive tactics as indicated in that letter.

He has also added that the circulation of such letter just before the Karnataka elections is a disgraceful mischievous ploy. We reserve the right to take legal action against those involved in making and promoting that letter, the statement adds.The sessions court on Wednesday convicted two junior artists  Amit Kumar Jaiswal and Preeti Surin alias Alvina for kidnapping and killing aspiring actress Minakhsi Thapa.

Thapa was kidnapped and killed on March 14, 2012 at a servant quarters in Darbhanga Colony, Allahabad. Jaiswal and Surin had taken Thapa to Allahabad on pretext of an assignment and later beheaded her and asked a ransom from her mother.

The sessions court judge SG Shete held Jaiswal and Surin guilty of all offences  murder, kidnapping, extortion and criminal conspiracy hatched by both.

The court has now adjourned the case for arguments on quantum of sentence for Thursday.

The special public prosecutor Ujwal Nikam had examined 35 witnesses against the two, which also included Surins father and cousin, who had last seen Thapa with the two accused.

The prosecution has claimed that, Thapa, an aspiring actor, came to Mumbai from Dehradun and met Jaiswal and Surin on the sets of a Madhur Bhandarkar film Heroine. The duo also aspired to make a career in Bollywood. Thapa told them she came from an affluent family, so they conspired to kidnap her for a ransom. The prosecution claimed that at Allahabad the trio went to see Surins father, a watchman at a womens hostel and was staying in a quarter. It was at Surins fathers quarter they allegedly severed Thapas head.

According to Surins brother Johans testimony he said that when he reached home, Surin, on some or other pretext kept him out of the house and did not let him in until they were gone. He said that when he came home he realised that a knife from the house was missing, which the police suspected to be a murder weapon. According to the prosecution, the two disposed of Thapas body in a septic tank near Surins fathers quarters.

The duo was held on April 14, 2012 near Bandra railway station, when they came to withdraw money using Thapas debit card.After the death of a 12-year-old boy, who drowned in a swimming pool in Mumbra on Tuesday, the Mumbra police have arrested one of the accused on Thursday.

The incident had occurred on Tuesday and only after the family threatened to bring the victims body to Mumbra police station, an FIR was filed on Wednesday. Though the family had registered an FIR against the owners and managing staff of the pool, the police has arrested only one accused so far.

According to K Pasilkar, senior police inspector, Mumbra police station, the accused Huzur Samandar Khan, 60, one of the staff at pool, was arrested on Thursday. The names of the accused were disclosed in an FIR filed by the family members of the victim, on Wednesday. Following the same, one accused has already been arrested. Further investigation are still going on and accordingly, the other accused will also be taken into the police custody, said Pasilkar.

The victim, Mohammad Ayaan, drowned in the swimming pool at Future Fitness Centre, Mumbra on Tuesday and Ayaans family claimed that the death of the boy took place due to the negligence of the staff at the pool. The FIR has been registered against the owners of the Future Fitness centre and swimming pool  Aziz Farooqi and Quddus Farooqi, Akhtar Sayyad, who runs the centre, and Huzur Samandar Khan, one of the managerial staff at the centre.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ONShahnawazuddin Shaikh, brother of Sohrabuddin Shaikh on Thursday approached the special CBI court to expedite his deposition in connection with the alleged encounter case. Shahnawazuddin claimed that he faces a threat to his life, owing to political pressure.

The applicant hopes that the court may record his testimony expeditiously, as there is threat to his life. He is under constant surveillance by powerful politicians involved in the case, who are very competent to cause him severe harm, the plea filed by Shahnawazuddin stated.

Shahnawazuddin has also alleged in his application that CBI has failed to include him as witness in the case and has not produced reference material seized from him. He said that the seized material includes signed pages of his brothers close aide Tulsiram Prajapati, who was also killed in an encounter.

Shahnawazuddin pleaded before the court that he be recorded as witness in the case, as he had had met Prajapati in jail after Sohrabuddins encounter.

The applicant met Prajapati around September-October, 2006, at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh where the latter had been produced before the district court. Prajapati had apologised to the applicant for having been instrumental in his brothers murder, the application stated.

The plea further stated that Prajapati had, in their conversation, expressed the fear of being killed by the police, as he was an eye witness to the alleged abduction of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausarbi.

Shahnawazuddin now wants his deposition to be recorded at the earliest. He claimed that he approached court realising the information shared by him with CBI has not been brought on record by the probing agency.

The court has asked prosecution to file a reply on Shahnawazuddins plea. The application is scheduled for hearing next week.A total of 123 students who were barred from ongoing examinations by their respective colleges due to a shortage in attendance registered for Institute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) offered by the University of Mumbai on Thursday. Admissions were open for only a day.

The varsitys IDOL had offered this provision after being approached by the students concerned. The defaulters could not have been promoted to the next class after being debarred from the exams. This provision, however, will help them save a year by appearing for the IDOL exams.

Eleven students from FYBA, 38 students from SYBA, 54 students from FYB.Com and 20 students from SYB.Com enrolled for IDOL.

This provision was open only to students of First Year and Second Year from B.Com and BA courses.

The students will have to study and appear for tests according to the IDOL curriculum, which is different from those of the colleges. IDOL follows an annual examination pattern while the varsity-affiliated colleges offer a semester-based pattern. Once the student passes the IDOL exam, he/she can take admission in the same college or any other college in the subsequent year.

Study material has been provided to the students by IDOL. The exams will be held in May or early June, a month after the regular exams are over.Chandigarh The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI)s decision to establish two toll plazas on the newly four-laned Zirakpur-Patiala road has come under the Punjab and Haryana high court scanner.

A high court lawyer has challenged the decision arguing that the decision violates NHAI rules of having a minimum distance of 60km between two tolls.

The 50-km highway has two toll booths  one between Zirakpur and Rajpura, and another on the Rajpura-Patiala road  charging 30 and 35, respectively. The highway connects Chandigarh to the Malwa belt in Punjab, including Sangrur, Mansa, Bathinda and Fazilka districts, besides parts of Haryana.

The project, with an overall expenditure of about 600 crore, is being executed by the subsidiary of a Russian construction company. The tolls are to be made functional later this month.

Two plazas just 35km apart

Rajbir Singh, a Mohali resident, has argued that toll plazas contravene the provisions of 2008 NHAI rules, which say that no toll plaza can be established within 10km of a municipal or local town limit and no other toll plaza can be established on the same section and in the same direction within a distance of 60km.

The court was told that these two plazas are being constructed within MC limits of Patiala and Zirakpur and that the distance between the two is less than 35 km. One is being established at Azizpur near Zirakpur and next near Dhareri Jattan village in Patiala.

The court was also informed that the project is not complete as one major flyover is still under construction.

It is settled law that the department will not start receiving the toll collection until the road is complete, the petitioner told court seeking restraint order and removal of one of the tolls.

The court has also been told that the total road length between Zirakpur and Bathinda is 216 km and only three to four toll plazas can be established on it. But the department has decided to establish five toll plazas.

According to the petitioner, there is one toll plaza on the national highway-1 between Ambala and Jalandhar near Rajpura (towards Ambala side).

If these two start functioning, Rajpura town will be surrounded by three toll plazas and general public will face hardship. They will pay toll for going to all three major cities nearby  Patiala, Ambala and Zirakpur, the petition says. The court has asked the NHAI to respond by May 30.Rajinikanth took to the stage at the audio launch of his upcoming film Kaala amid loud cheers from his fans. The superstar, who will be seen portraying the role of Kaala Karikaalan in the film, started off by saying, I feel this is more like the success party than the audio launch.

He spoke about his failures and successes in the last decade and the lessons that he learnt from each. He began by speaking about his last success party that he had been a part of and said, My last success party was for Sivaji and the event was graced by Kalaignar Karunanidhi. He had praised me then. I want to hear his voice again today and I pray to God that I get to hear it soon.

He continued, Robots success party could not be held due to my health. At that time, thanks to your wishes and prayers, I got better with treatment in Singapore. I couldnt hold the success event for that film. It was then that I was advised to keep not just my body, but my mind sharp. So some very intelligent people advised me to work on this film Rana (later renamed Kochadaiiyaan) for just eight days after which the computer graphics would take care of the rest. My daughter Soundarya took up the project as she had the skill. However, the budget went overboard and I decided to release the film how it was.

Read: Pa Ranjith thanks Rajinikanth for making him the voice of the people in Kaala

He then said that the lesson he learnt from that experience was to work with intelligent people, not the too intelligent ones.

He continued, With Lingaa, I chose to work with a director who is a very close friend and I took up a story that was close to my heart (water crisis). The film didnt work as well as we expected and from this, I learnt two lessons. Firstly, one cannot be a good person, be it in life or in a film and secondly to not have romantic sequences with heroines younger than my daughters. In Lingaa, Rajinikanth plays a character who uses his wealth to build a dam for the benefit of people but they still give up on him.

It was then that he decided to play characters that would suit his age. It was his daughter Soundarya who introduced Pa Ranjith to him. Initially Rajinikanth didnt want to do another don film because he felt that people wanted a sequel to Baasha or something along the same lines. However, no sequel or prequel could be done, because there could only be one Baasha. He explained, I heard it was the underworld of Malaysia later, which is what interested me.

Speaking about Ranjith, he recalled how when the director came for narration of Kabali to him, it was the first time he had got a full bound script in his four-decade long career. When I read it, the script went on and on about Kabali searching for his wife Kumudhavalli. I said this wont work because my fans are not patient. So, I took second opinion from S Thanu who heard the story and said yes to the film. When I watched the film I told Ranjith that as a director you have won, but I have to see if I, as an actor, have won and if the producer will win.

The movie did well monetarily, but received mixed reactions. It was then that he had asked his elder daughter Aishwarya if Wunderbar Studio would produce films only with her husband Dhanush in the lead. Rajinikanth later spoke to Dhanush, who began to look for suitable directors to direct his father-in-law. The search led him to Vetrimaaran, who had a script that was completely political. Then, I hadnt really thought about joining politics so I said no only to go back to Ranjith, explained Rajinikanth.

I heard a script from Vetrimaaran but the film was extremely political, which I didnt want to do. As time was passing by, I called Ranjith again. He explained that there was no concrete idea for Kaala, and it took three months of recce in Dharavi to finalise the story, he said.

The superstar said, Kaala has politics but its not a political film. I told Ranjith that Kabali was his, but this should be his and my film as well. Mine as in my fans. I can promise one thing, Ranjith would not end his life as a director with Kaala. He is destined for greater things. He isnt selfish. He wants to do good for his community, people and everyone around him. I have never met anyone who feels so deeply about society.

He also spoke about the formidable antagonists in his films like Baashas Antony and Padayappas Neelambari. Now, the actor explained, Kaalas antagonist, played by Nana Patekar, will be great. Its a very different film and I believe that it will work, he said.

The actor did not make any references to his political party except at the end of his speech. He said, What you think you become, we should always be productive. Be positive and happy always. Every thought has a colour and weight. If you stay positive, life will always be good. Media people might think I havent spoken about the most important thing, but the time hasnt come yet. It will happen when the time is right, it will happen effectively.

Author tweets @Priyanka_S_MCC

Follow @htshowbiz for more

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktopA 104-year-old Australian scientist who travelled to Switzerland to end his life committed assisted suicide on Thursday, the foundation which helped him die said.

David Goodall, who had been barred from seeking help to end his life in his home country, did not have a terminal illness but said his quality of life had deteriorated significantly and that he wanted to die.

Philipp Nitschke, director of Exit International, said Goodall was declared dead at 12:30 pm on Thursday.

The British-born scientist, described by Exit International as its first member, said this week that he had been contemplating the idea of suicide for about 20 years, but only started thinking about it for himself after his quality of life deteriorated over the last year.

He cited a lack of mobility, doctors restrictions and an Australian law prohibiting him from taking his own life among his complaints, but he was not ill.Amid a controversy in India over the demand for removing a portrait of Pakistans founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah from the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), an ornate building in the port city of Karachi proudly flaunts its connection with Mahatma Gandhi.

Standing tall between two of Karachis main thoroughfares  MA Jinnah Road and II Chundrigar Road  is the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Within the sandstone structure, built with material brought from as far as Jodhpur, is the original foundation stone which states that it was laid by Mahatma Gandhi in July 1934. At the time, the representative body of the southern citys business community was known as the Karachi Indian Merchants Association.

During a visit to Karachi last week, Indian high commissioner Ajay Bisaria posed with others for a selfie in front of the foundation stone, which is now encased in a glass frame.

Asked by reporters about the demand for removing Jinnahs portrait at the AMU students union office, Bisaria called for respect for leaders of both sides.

I dont want to say much about what happened (at AMU) but I would say that we should respect leaders of

both countries, he told the assembled businessmen and traders.

The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry building. (HT Photo)

After a meeting with home minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Wednesday, AMU vice chancellor Tariq Mansoor told reporters that the demand for removing Jinnahs portrait, which has been in the students union office since 1938, is a non-issue. BJP lawmaker Satish Gautam had written to Mansoor objecting to the portrait, triggering a row that led to two men being arrested in connection with violent incidents and examinations being postponed.

A sign erected by Karachi Landmarks Walk, too, acknowledges that the foundation stone for the Karachi Chamber was laid by Gandhi, and states that the buildings facade and woodwork have remained untouched in view of its status as a heritage site. We believe the foundation stone laid by Mahatma Gandhi adds to the fame and character of the building, said Khalid Firoz, a leading member of the chamber and a former president.

Strewn across Karachi are a number of buildings that were constructed by former Hindu residents of the city. A short distance from the Karachi Chamber is the Seth Ramgopal Goverdhandas Mohatta Hindu Gymkhana, which the government has turned into a centre for performing arts. The name of the building, however, remains unchanged.

Karachis main museum, Mohatta Palace, is named after Marwari Hindu businessman Shivratan Chandraratan Mohatta, who built it as a summer home for himself. There are several buildings in the now noisy and cluttered Burns Road, once the main residential area for middle-class Karachi residents, which still bear the names and emblems of their original Hindu inhabitants. At many places, an Om symbol can still be seen atop buildings or on balconies.

However, a bronze statue of Gandhi, installed by the Karachi Indian Merchants Association opposite the Sindh high court building in Karachi in 1931, was pulled down and broken during riots in 1950.

Pieces of the statue were handed over to the erstwhile Indian consulate in Karachi in 1981. Indian authorities later repaired the statue and installed it in the lobby of the Indian high commission in Islamabad.The CIA continues to be very concerned about the potential connection between extremist groups and Pakistani nuclear scientists and is very closely monitoring this, a top official from the spy agency has told lawmakers.

There was very deep concern about potential contacts, and we continue to monitor this very closely, between extremists and Pakistani nuclear scientists, Gina Haspel, US President Donald Trumps nominee for CIA director told the members of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee during her confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

Haspel, if confirmed by the Senate, would be the first female head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). She was responding to a question from Senator John Cornyn.

(Recently reading through a book) I was reminded that post-9/11, President Bush was concerned about reports he had received that Osama bin Laden and al Qaida were meeting with the Pakistani officials connected with their nuclear programme to gain access to a nuclear device that they might then use for a follow-on attack against the cities like Washington DC, Cornyn said.

Without divulging classified information, can you confirm that there were concerns about follow-on attacks using nuclear devices, biological weapons, other weapons of mass destruction that might have killed more innocent Americans as happened on 9/11? Was that the environment in which you and the country were operating in at the time? Cornyn asked.

There were very grave concerns on that front, Haspel answered.

And indeed, al Qaida had those kinds of programmes, efforts to acquire crude, dirty bombs, efforts to develop -- they had a programme -- a biological weapons programme. I remember the operative who was in charge of that, Haspel said.US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore.

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace! Trump said on Twitter.

The two leaders are expected to discuss North Koreas nuclear weapons development and testing program, which has deepened long-seated tensions between Washington and Pyongyang.

Trumps announcement came just hours after three Americans who had been held prisoner in North Korea arrived at a US military base outside Washington, having been released by Kim.

Trump said on their arrival that he believed Kim wanted to bring North Korea into the real world and had high hopes for their planned meeting, which would be the first between a serving US president and a North Korean leader.

I think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful, Trump said. My proudest achievement will be - this is part of it - when we denuclearise that entire peninsula.A day after US President Donald Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear deal, European powers and China say they will work to preserve it, but with the worlds most powerful country reimposing sanctions, what can they do to save the accord?

The EU says it will stick to the deal as long as Iran keeps to its commitments, and the coming days and weeks will be crucial in persuading Tehran to stay on board.

What happens next?

Britain, France and Germany -- the three European signatories to the deal collectively known as the E3 -- have launched a diplomatic push to reassure Iran of their commitment to the deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday, and the pair agreed to work toward the continued implementation of the nuclear deal.

Foreign ministers from the European trio are to meet representatives of Tehran on Monday and the Iran deal will also feature at an EU summit in Sofia next week.

European powers will also speak to China and Russia, the deals other signatories, to coordinate their response, though an EU diplomat said it would be wrong to characterise it as an attempt to isolate Washington.

But while these political gestures are important, Iran has demanded concrete assurances that trade will be protected.

We have to talks about incentives for Iran to stay in the agreement. This means that we need to find means to absorb the economic shock of reimposing sanctions by the US, an EU diplomat told AFP.

Strategy

London, Berlin and Paris have kept details of their strategy under wraps, but a report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank outlined steps that could reassure businesses working with Iran and help moderate Iranian leaders persuade hardliners to stick with the deal.

EU states could use their state investment agencies to cover risks such as sanctions that companies could face in trading with Iran, ICG suggested, while the E3 could launch a joint effort to support Iranian infrastructure projects through their development agencies.

Another option, and one spoken of by European officials in recent weeks, would be to make Iran eligible for loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB) -- thereby giving Tehran access to international finance in euros to sidestep US sanctions on dollar transactions.

You can try to do business in other currencies like the euro, but you need banks that are active in this field, an EU diplomat said.

For banks who do business in the US, this is not easy. Thats why we think about the EIB.

But former French foreign minister Hubert Vedrine warned that bypassing dollar transactions would be very, very, very difficult in the real world.

What about the blocking statute?

There has been talk in Brussels that the EU could counter US sanctions by adapting a 1996 regulation originally created to get around Washingtons trade embargo on Cuba.

This so-called blocking statute prohibits EU companies and courts from complying with specific foreign sanctions laws and says no foreign court judgments based on these laws have any effect in the EU.

But the row with the US over the Cuba embargo was settled politically, so the effectiveness of the blocking regulation has never been put to the test.

An EU source acknowledged that the political symbolic effect is potentially bigger than the economic effect.

If a company is active on the large American market and small Iranian market, then it does not benefit much from the fact that its European and Iranian business is protected but not its activities in the US, the source said.

Chilling effect

Washington has granted a six-month grace period for businesses to wind down operations in Iran before reimposing sanctions, but at this early stage there is already scepticism about the effectiveness of any countermeasures that the EU and its allies might take.

The foreign policy chief of German Chancellor Angela Merkels party, Norbert Roettgen, said businesses would simply not want to run the risk of falling foul of the US.

Whoever invests in Iran will be hard hit by US sanctions, and that cost cant be offset, he told Der Spiegel magazine.

So the affected companies will probably very quickly roll back their investments or pull out of the country altogether.

Even before Trumps announcement, EU officials admitted they were already seeing a chilling effect on business operators.

But Mark Fitzpatrick, executive director for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, argued that efforts to pursue an alternative deal without the US could lead to a shake-up of the global power dynamic.

Some countries, theyre just going to ignore the United States threat. China isnt going to kowtow to the United States on this, and so the Europeans might see how China fares in resisting US pressure on Iran, he told AFP.North Korea has freed three American detainees, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday, hailing a diplomatic victory ahead of a planned summit with Kim Jong Un.

Pyongyang granted the three men amnesty, a US official said, and they are now on their way back to the United States with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Two of the men, agricultural expert Kim Hak-song and former professor Tony Kim were arrested in 2017, while Kim Dong-chul, a South Korea-born American businessman and pastor in his 60s, was sentenced to 10 years hard labor in 2016.

I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health, Trump tweeted.

The White House said all three men were able to walk unassisted onto a US Air Force plane that carried them and the secretary of state out of North Korea.

A second plane, with more robust medical equipment, waited for them at Yokota Air Force Base, just outside Tokyo.

All indications are their health is as good as could be given they been through, said Pompeo.

The family of Tony Kim voiced their gratitude to all of those who have worked toward and contributed to his return home -- and specifically thanking Trump for engaging directly with North Korea.

Mostly, we thank God for Tonys safe return, the family said in a statement. We ask that you continue to pray for the people of North Korea and for the release of all who are still being held.

Trump meanwhile described the release as a gesture of good will and said he would be on hand when Pompeos three guests land at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington at 2:00 am (0600 GMT) Thursday.

Trump acolytes declared the release an unbridled political victory, evidence, Vice President Mike Pence said, that strong leadership and our America First policies are paying dividends.

The mens release appears to pave the way for a much-anticipated summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim, scheduled to take place within weeks.

Trump spoke with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in following the release, telling him he expected it would positively affect the summit, according to the Blue House.

Seoul echoed that sentiment, with Moons press secretary predicting it would be a very positive factor for the talks success, according to a statement cited by Yonhap news agency.

Summit details to follow

Trump says a time, date and location have been decided for that historic summit, although US officials say is still some fine-tuning to be done.

The president told reporters the administration would announce the details within three days but said it would not be at the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea.

Other possible locations include Singapore.

The meeting will discuss North Koreas nuclear and ballistic weapons program, which may soon give Pyongyang the capability of striking the continental United States.

Trump has demanded that North Korea give up its nukes, while Kim has offered few indications about what he is willing to concede or what he will demand in return.

North Korea has often insisted that the United States withdraw support for South Korea, where 30,000-plus US military personnel are stationed.

Since coming to office Trump has embarked on a campaign of maximum pressure on the North Korean regime.

A series of provocative North Korean missile tests have been met with US sanctions and a tougher Chinese stance on cross border trade.

Officials in Washington believe the punitive economic measures have prompted fuel shortages in North Korea and increased tension inside the regime.

North Korea official Kim Yong Chul, who met Pompeo in Pyongyang, insisted the countrys openness to talks was not the result of sanctions that have been imposed from outside, but a change in regime focus.

We have perfected our nuclear capability. It is our policy to concentrate all efforts into economic progress in country, he said.Pakistans top judge has ordered the first official investigation into the countrys deadliest terror attack, a massacre at a school that killed more than 150 people in 2014, authorities said Thursday.

Relatives of the victims -- mainly children -- have long called for an accounting of the security and intelligence failures that allowed Pakistani Taliban gunmen to storm the school, run by the powerful military, in the northwestern city of Peshawar on December 16 that year.

No government or military official has ever been held to account for the security failings. Criticism of Pakistans powerful armed forces, especially their counter-insurgency operations, is largely seen as a red line in the country.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar ordered the formation of a judicial commission to examine the attack during a court hearing in Peshawar Wednesday, Abdul Latif Yousafzai, advocate general of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told AFP.

The inquiry was set to be completed in two months, he added.

No official explanation of the timing was given. But the announcement comes after the newly formed Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) civil rights group has made the issue a central demand in recent months, putting renewed pressure on the government.

PTM is set to hold a massive rally in the sprawling port city of Karachi on Sunday, which is home to millions of ethnic Pashtuns and expected to draw thousands of supporters.

Following the announcement, families of the victims cheered the decision, with some moved to tears.

Ajun Khan, who lost his only son in the attack, told AFP he hopes the commission can uncover who was responsible for the negligence that allowed the militants to execute the hours-long bloodbath.

We want the commission to probe the incident and place a responsibility for the negligence and failure of the state to protect our children, Khan said.

The investigation comes after a dramatic improvement in security across the country following several successful military offensives targeting extremist strongholds.

The alleged mastermind behind the school attack was killed in a drone strike in 2017, according to the Pakistani Taliban, who have claimed responsibility for it.

The Pakistani state has also said it has hanged at least four men involved in the attack, though the nature of their role has not been made public.Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks, after expressing his deep concern over US President Donald Trumps withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

Netanyahu, who has backed Trumps decision on Iran, Israels arch-foe, said after the meeting that he shared his views on issues that include Irans secret nuclear archive and the current tension with the Russian leader.

I presented Israels obligation and Israels right to defend itself from Iranian aggression from Syrian territory, against the state of Israel, he added in a statement on Wednesday evening.

Ahead of the meeting, Putin had said he would discuss problems in the region, saying that the situation unfortunately is very acute.

I want to express a hope that we will manage not just to discuss but also to seek a solution that would lead to a shift in the situation.

In comments to his national Security Council, Putin expressed his deep concern over Trumps decision announced on Tuesday and stressed the importance of the accord with Iran.

Netanyahu before leaving Israel for the visit said that the meetings between us are always important and this one is especially so.

They would think together how we can act correctly in the region, how we can remove the threats that exist in the region in a responsible and reasonable way.

Bold move

The two leaders on Wednesday watched a Red Square parade marking the anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

Netanyahu thanked Putin for referring to the Holocaust in his parade speech, likening the Nazi extermination campaign to Irans attitude to Israel.

Its hard to believe, but 73 years after the Holocaust, in our Middle East there is a country Iran that openly calls for the destruction of the state of Israel, he said in translated comments.

But there is a difference between what was then and what is today: we have our own country, he added.

Russias foreign ministry said on Tuesday it was deeply disappointed by Trumps announcement that the United States would pull out of the Iran deal, while Netanyahu strongly supported the US presidents bold move.

Moscow and Tehran have close political and economic relations.

In the nuclear field, Russia has already built one reactor at Irans Bushehr plant, the countrys only nuclear power plant, and has started work on two new ones.

By contrast Netanyahu on Monday held a televised presentation of what he called proof of Irans alleged past military nuclear ambitions.

Netanyahu and Putin have held a series of meetings and phone conversations in recent months, particularly related to the conflict in Syria where Israel has vowed to prevent Iran building a military presence.Saudi Arabia will seek to develop its own nuclear weapons if Iran does, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNN on Wednesday, amid spiraling tension between the regional rivals.

Asked whether Riyadh would build a bomb itself if Tehran seizes on Washingtons withdrawal from the 2015 Iran deal to resume a nuclear weapons program, Jubeir said: If Iran acquires nuclear capability we will do everything we can to do the same.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has long said it would match any Iranian weapons development, but Jubeirs renewed vow came after US President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of an accord designed to prevent Tehrans alleged quest for the bomb.

And it came amid growing tension between the Sunni kingdom and the Shiite Islamic republic over Irans support for the Huthi rebels in Yemen, who have been firing rockets across the border.

Riyadh, which leads a regional coalition that intervened in Yemens civil war to fight the Huthis, accuses Iran of supplying the militia with ballistic missiles.

These missiles are Iranian manufactured and delivered to the Huthis. Such behaviour is unacceptable. It violates UN Resolutions with regards to ballistic missiles. And the Iranians must be held accountable for this, Jubeir told CNN.

We will find the right way and at the right time to respond to this, he warned. We are trying to avoid at all costs direct military action with Iran, but Irans behaviour such as this cannot continue. This amounts to a declaration of war.Singapore is the most likely venue for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a US official said, after Pyongyang cleared a major obstacle to the meeting with the release of three American prisoners.

The three prisoners, freed after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Kim in the North Korean capital, were flying back to Washington where Trump said he planned to meet them early on Thursday.

The release of the men appeared to signal an effort by Kim to improve the tone for the summit and followed his recent pledge to suspend missile tests and shut a nuclear bomb test site.

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Singapore has emerged as the likeliest location for the planned summit after Trump ruled out holding it at the heavily fortified demilitarised zone between North and South Korea.

Trump, who previously said Singapore was under consideration, said agreement had been reached on a date and venue and details would be announced within three days.

The release of the prisoners gave Trump a chance to tout a diplomatic achievement just a day after his decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal drew heavy criticism from European allies and others.

I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health, Trump wrote on Twitter.

I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this and allowing them to go, Trump told reporters at the White House.

The three men are Korean-American missionary Kim Dong-chul, detained in 2015; Kim Sang-duk, also known as Tony Kim, who spent a month teaching at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was arrested in 2017; and Kim Hak-song, who also taught at PUST and was detained last year.

We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home, the three said in a statement released by the State Department as their plane stopped over in Alaska.

We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

North Korean state media said they were arrested either for subversion or hostile acts against the government.

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that while there was reason for some optimism about the Kim-Trump summit, the U.S. troop presence in South Korea would not be part of initial negotiations.

There was also no sign that Pompeos visit had cleared up the question of whether North Korea would be willing to bargain away nuclear missiles that might threaten the United States.

Trump has credited his maximum pressure campaign for drawing North Korea to the table and has vowed to keep sanctions in place until Pyongyang takes concrete steps to denuclearize.

But former spy chief Kim Yong Chul, director of North Koreas United Front Department, said in a toast to Pompeo over lunch in Pyongyang: We have perfected our nuclear capability. It is our policy to concentrate all efforts into economic progress ... This is not the result of sanctions that have been imposed from outside.

Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that while the release was not an explicit precondition for the Trump-Kim meeting, the North Koreans understood that they had to do it for any progress to be made.

The North Koreans have still said nothing to indicate that they are willing to give up their nuclear weapons, not to mention permanently and verifiably dismantle their nuclear programmes, she said.

We have no clarity about Kims intentions.

Pompeo will now meet South Koreas foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha, on Friday to prepare for Trumps meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-In on May 22 and his later meeting with Kim, the South Korean foreign ministry said.The US has blocked Pakistans bid to have Jamaat-ul-Ahrar commander, Umer Khalid Khurasani, listed as a terrorist by the UN Security Councils sanctions committee, reflecting the strain and lack of trust in ties between the two countries, according to Pakistani news reports.

Pakistani officials say Khurasani, also known as Abdul Wali, is the alleged mastermind of the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014 that killed nearly 150 people and the Easter Sunday suicide bombing in Lahore in March 2016 that left 75 people dead, most of them Christians.

Pakistans Foreign Office informally learnt that the process to list Khurasani as a terrorist had been held up because of an objection by the US, the Dawn newspaper quoted a senior diplomatic official as saying. The US objected because Pakistan had listed Afghanistan as Khurasanis current location, the report said.

The development came against the backdrop of China repeatedly blocking efforts by India and Western powers to have Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief, Maulana Masood Azhar, listed as a terrorist by the UN Security Council, reportedly at the behest of Islamabad.

The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, in a statement sent to journalists, welcomed the US move to block Khurasanis listing.

Foreign office spokesman Mohammad Faisal on Thursday expressed disappointment at Khurasani not being listed as a terrorist by the UN Security Council. Without naming the US, he said the sanctions committee did not approve Pakistans request because it couldnt reach consensus due to disagreement by a member.

We are deeply disappointedWali has the blood of hundreds of innocent Pakistanis on his hands, he told a regular weekly briefing. If the organisation, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, has been listed by the sanctions committee, its leader should also have been listed.

Faisal contended the development reflected double standards in the fight against terrorism and showed complete disregard for sacrifices made by Pakistan in the fight .

The US move came amid deteriorating bilateral ties since US President Donald Trump unveiled his new South Asia and Afghanistan policy last August and choked military aid to Pakistan.

The Americans inject politics into the sanctions regime and practice double standards. They are not listing the leader of a terrorist entity who is targeting Pakistan merely because he is operating from Afghanistan, an unidentified Pakistani official told Dawn.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, considered a faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban, was listed by the sanctions committee in July 2017 as a terrorist organisation. It has also been banned by Pakistan, where it has been blamed for 116 terrorist attacks since 2014.

The UN Security Council listing states that the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar had been involved in financing, planning and perpetrating attacks along with the Pakistani Taliban and the Islamic State.Three Korean-Americans who were detained in North Korea for more than a year were greeted by President Donald Trump beneath a giant American flag after they returned to the mainland U.S. early Thursday.

Despite a middle-of-the-night landing, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and a host of senior administration officials joined Trump to celebrate the occasion. The men, Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, had been released Wednesday amid a warming of relations between the longtime adversaries.

The president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men travelled to take a private moment with them, then appeared at the top of the airplane stairway with the three and applauded as the men held up their arms in what appeared to be gestures of triumph.

This is a special night for these three really great people, Trump told reporters as he stood on the tarmac with the former detainees. On the U.S. relationship with North Korea, Trump said, Were starting off on a new footing.

In thanking North Koreas Kim Jong Un for releasing the three Americans, Trump said he believes Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. I really think he wants to do something, the president said.

After Trumps remarks, the three men boarded a bus for Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The White House said earlier they would be evaluated and receive medical treatment at the Washington-area facility. Their families were not on hand for the ceremony.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had secured their release in Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on final plans for a Trump-Kim summit. The Americans had boarded Pompeos plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to a Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the U.S.

Shortly after they touched down on American soil in Alaska  for a refueling stop Wednesday afternoon  the State Department released a statement from the freed men.

We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home, they said. We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

Singapore has emerged as the likely summit site, late this month or in early June, as Trump seeks to negotiate denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in his highest-stakes foreign policy effort yet. Trump announced Wednesday that the demilitarized zone between the Koreas would not host the summit. Pompeo said the meeting would last one day and possibly a second.

Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Koreas leader for the prisoners release  I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this  and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the official suggestion of the U.S. president, said North Koreas official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nations nuclear weapons.

Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental U.S. Those advances were the subject of President Barack Obamas starkest warning shortly before Trump took office, and this is a crisis hes convinced his negotiating skills can resolve.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Trump has pointed to Kims willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating U.S. moves to tighten sanctions  branded maximum pressure by the president. The wee-hours ceremony Thursday was to be an early celebration for an issue that has already put the prospect of a Nobel Peace Prize on Trumps mind.

Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it, he said Wednesday when asked if the award was deserved.

The release capped a dramatic day of diplomacy in Pyongyang. After Pompeos 90-minute meeting with Kim Jong Un, he gave reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked about the prisoners as he returned to his hotel. It was only after a North Korean emissary arrived a bit later to inform him that the release was confirmed.

The three had been held for periods ranging from one to two years. They were the latest in a series of Americans who have been detained by North Korea in recent years for seemingly small offenses and typically freed when senior U.S. officials or statesmen personally visited to bail them out.

The highly public and politically tinged arrival ceremony for the former prisoners organized by the White House was in stark contrast to the low-key and very private reception that the State Department had envisioned and carried out from the moment they took custody of them.

Department officials took great pains on their release in North Korea, as well as on their flights to Japan and Alaska, to keep them sequestered not only from the two journalists traveling with Pompeo but also from staffers not immediately involved in their cases. The trio, along with medical personnel, including a psychiatrist, were cloistered in the middle of Pompeos plane in a small section of 12 business class-sized seats that was cordoned off by curtains on both ends.

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns in keeping with the minimal amount of information they had released since the men were imprisoned.

The fact that Trump was going to Andrews to welcome them home in person was almost an afterthought to Pompeo, who, when briefing reporters on their release, noted it last of all.

The only other thing I should mention is I did speak with the President, Pompeo said. I informed the President of this, and the President is planning to come out and meet the aircraft when we land.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the U.S. with severe brain damage.

Warmbier was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor. His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

We are happy for the hostages and their families, the Warmbiers said in a statement Wednesday. We miss Otto.

Of the newly released detainees, Kim Dong Chul, a South Korean-born U.S. citizen, had been held the longest. The former Virginia resident was sentenced in April 2016 to 10 years in prison with hard labor after being convicted of espionage. He reportedly ran a trade and hotel service company in Rason, a special economic zone on North Koreas border with Russia.

The other two detainees hadnt been tried.

Kim Hak Song worked in agricultural development at an experimental farm run by the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, or PUST. The university is the only privately funded college in North Korea and was founded in 2010 with donations from Christian groups. He was detained last May for alleged anti-state activities.

Tony Kim, who also uses the name Kim Sang-duk, was detained in April 2017 at the Pyongyang airport. He taught accounting at PUST. He was accused of committing unspecified criminal acts intended to overthrow the government.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer celebrated the detainees return but warned that well see many more hostages if the administration provides an incentive for imprisoning Americans.

We are happy theyve returned, but North Korea shouldnt gain by taking Americans and then releasing them, he said.

North Koreas state-run media explicitly mentioned plans for the summit for the first time. Pyongyang has been exceptionally cautious about its public framing of Kims recent diplomatic moves, which are a major shift from the more aggressive focus on missile launches and nuclear development that heated tensions to a boil last year.Appointment

10 May 2018

Best Western Hotels & Resorts has appointed Mr Cyrill Czerwonka as its new Regional Director of Development - Asia, effective May 4, 2018. Cyrill has enjoyed an impressive career in the hotel investment and development sector with both operators and owners. This has included identifying new hotel opportunities, negotiating deals and conducting financial studies for a number of international hospitality companies. Having obtained his Master's Degree in Business & Finance from the Graduate Business School of Management: Audencia Nantes, France, Cyrill entered the hospitality industry with AccorHotels. Based in Bangkok, this role also re-introduced Cyrill to the Asia Pacific region as he focused on Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and Maldives, and conducted a three-month mission to India. Following this, Cyrill spent almost five years with Singapore-based serviced apartment specialist, The Ascott Limited, as Business Development Manager for Europe and North Africa. Then in 2013, he joined Dusit International as Assistant Director of Development for EMEA, based in the United Arab Emirates. Having honed his skills, Cyrill now joins Best Western's Asia head office in Bangkok, where he will focus on seeking new hotel development opportunities for the company across the region. This appointment comes at an exciting time for Best Western, as the company accelerates its Asian expansion plans.Appointment

10 May 2018

Grand Hotel Kempinski Riga, Latvia's first five-star luxury Kempinski Hotel is pleased to announce that Mr. Leon Baum has been appointed as the hotel's new General Manager as of April 1, 2018.

Mr. Baum is a well-seasoned hotelier with in-depth operational experience and has been with Kempinski group since 2007. He is a highly respected professional who has gained international experience in London as General Manager of the Stafford by Kempinski, Turkey as Hotel Manager of the Ciragan Palace Kempinski Istanbul and most recently in Abu Dhabi where he held the position of Hotel Manager at the prestigious Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi.

With his 11-year career in the hospitality industry and extensive knowledge and experience of luxury brands at Kempinski Group, Mr. Baum is the ideal candidate to lead the magnificent Grand Hotel Kempinski Riga and position our first property in Latvia as the front runner in Riga's luxury hotel market.Supplier News

10 May 2018

The hospitality industry is always changing, subject to the exciting emergence and evolution of new technology and intelligent solutions to improve experiences for guests and hoteliers alike. For those industry professionals eager to keep their finger on the pulse of all that could positively impact their business, HITEC often becomes an eagerly anticipated yearly highlight. For many hoteliers, this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to gain an understanding of all the new products and technologies set to revolutionize the industry, all in one place.

StayNTouch will be at HITEC in full force, and in addition to showcasing our latest innovations at our booth #1003, we've broken down the top things to explore to make your HITEC experience a success. As our excitement builds for another year of incredible innovations and industry expertise, we've rounded up a list of what technologies and events you should look for at HITEC Houston 2018. You won't want to miss these

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD this free checklist to learn more about:

Voice Technology

Mobile Innovations

AI, IOT & VR

Next Gen PMS Systems

Must attend events

And much more...

Not going to make it down to HITEC this year but want to learn more about our platform? Visit us at StayNTouch.com to request a demo.Press Release

10 May 2018

Travel to and within the United States was up 3.4 percent year-over-year in March, according to the U.S. Travel Association's latest Travel Trends Index (TTI)marking the industry's 99th straight month of overall expansion.

Advertisements

The March TTI generated some eye-catching numbers, mainly due to the earlier timing of Easter (April 1). Higher volumes of international travelers tend to visit the U.S. close to that holiday, while domestic business travel typically falls, according to U.S. Travel researchers.

Accordingly, international inbound travel to the U.S. registered eye-popping 11 percent year-over-year growth in March. Domestic travel, meanwhile, posted modest growth of 2.6 percent, and was largely dragged down by weak domestic business travel (up a meager 0.2 percent).

Still, the TTI forecasts a healthy trajectory for travel overall through 2018. The Leading Travel Index (LTI)the predictive component of TTI projects an overall growth rate of 2.2 percent through September, with the international sector growing three percent in that period.

But despite the positive outlook for international travel, U.S. Travel economists note that the U.S. is likely squandering a massive economic opportunity by failing to keep pace with the international travel boom. The U.S. share of the global international market slid from a peak of 13.6 percent in 2015 to 11.9 percent last year.

"On the bright side, we are not experiencing the decline in international inbound travel that many feared," said U.S. Travel Senior Vice President for Research David Huether. "However, the U.S. is not keeping pace with the global travel boom. As a result, we are continuing to lose market share to competitors."

Travel to and within the United States was up 3.4 percent year-over-year in March, according to the U.S. Travel Association's latest

The TTI is prepared for U.S. Travel by the research firm Oxford Economics. The TTI is based on public and private sector source data which are subject to revision by the source agency. The TTI draws from: advance search and bookings data from ADARA and nSight; Airline bookings data from the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC); IATA, OAG and other tabulations of international inbound travel to the U.S.; and hotel room demand data from STR.

Click here to read the full report.Press Release

10 May 2018

The Marriott International Construction Pipeline currently has 1,383 Projects/177,926 Rooms, the largest of any franchise company in the U.S. Their largest brands are: Fairfield Inn with 293 Projects/28,418 Rooms, TownePlace Suites with 206 Projects/21,193 Rooms and Residence Inn with 200 Projects/24,978 Rooms. These three brands comprise over 50% of Marriott's Total Pipeline.

Marriott has 1/3 all rooms Under Construction in the U.S., with 502 Projects/68,316 Rooms currently in the ground. Additionally, they have 695 Projects/86,761 Rooms Scheduled to Start Construction in the Next 12 Months and 186 Projects/228,849 Rooms in Early Planning.

Marriott is forecasted to opened 348 new hotels with 43,415 rooms in 2018, accounting for 31% of all new hotels anticipated to open this year. in 2019, Marriott is expected to open 348 Projects/43,415 Rooms.Press Release

10 May 2018

La Quinta Holdings Inc. ("La Quinta" or the "Company") (NYSE:LQ) today announced that its Board of Directors has formally approved the distribution to its stockholders of all of the outstanding shares of common stock of CorePoint Lodging Inc. ("CorePoint Lodging"), which will become the holder of the owned real estate assets previously held by La Quinta. Promptly following the distribution of CorePoint Lodging, La Quinta, which will then continue to hold its management and franchise businesses, expects to complete the previously announced merger (the "Merger") with Wyndham Worldwide Corporation ("Wyndham Worldwide"), in accordance with and subject to the terms of the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of January 17, 2018, by and among the Company, Wyndham Worldwide and WHG BB Sub, Inc. (the "Merger Agreement").

Advertisements

In connection with the approval of the CorePoint Lodging distribution, the La Quinta Board of Directors has also set the distribution ratio, record date and distribution date for the spin-off. As a result, the following will occur:

Subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions, the completion of the CorePoint Lodging spin-off, followed by the completion of the La Quinta Merger, is expected to be completed on May 30, 2018.

In connection with the spin-off distribution, La Quinta stockholders will receive one share of CorePoint Lodging for every one share of La Quinta, after giving effect to a 1-for-2 reverse stock split immediately prior to the distribution.

In connection with the closing of the Merger, La Quinta stockholders will be entitled to receive $8.40 in cash per share (or $16.80 in cash per share after giving effect to the 1-for-2 reverse stock split to occur immediately prior to the distribution), without interest.

Immediately following the distribution, CorePoint Lodging will be an independent, publicly traded company, and La Quinta will retain no ownership interest in CorePoint Lodging.

CorePoint Lodging is expected to begin regular-way trading on the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") under the ticker symbol "CPLG" on May 31, 2018.

Additional Details on the Merger with Wyndham

As previously announced, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions, including completion of the CorePoint Lodging spin-off, immediately following the distribution of CorePoint Lodging common stock in the spin-off transaction, La Quinta will merge with a wholly owned subsidiary of Wyndham Worldwide in accordance with and subject to the terms of the Merger Agreement. In connection with the closing of the Merger, holders of La Quinta common stock will be entitled to receive $8.40 in cash per share (or $16.80 in cash per share after giving effect to the 1-for-2 reverse stock split to occur immediately prior to the distribution), without interest, for every share of La Quinta common stock they own. At a special meeting of stockholders of La Quinta held on April 26, 2018, the La Quinta stockholders, upon the recommendation of the La Quinta Board of Directors, voted in favor of the adoption of the Merger Agreement.

Additional Details on the Spin-Off

The La Quinta Board of Directors has approved a distribution of one share of CorePoint Lodging common stock for every two shares of La Quinta common stock held as of 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time on May 18, 2018, the record date for the distribution (or one share of CorePoint Lodging common stock for every one share of La Quinta common stock held as of the record date after giving effect to the 1-for-2 reverse stock split to occur immediately prior to the distribution). No fractional shares of CorePoint Lodging common stock will be issued. Instead, fractional shares of CorePoint Lodging common stock will be aggregated and sold on the open market, and the aggregate net proceeds of such sales will be distributed ratably in the form of cash payments to holders of La Quinta common stock who would otherwise have been entitled to receive a fractional share of CorePoint Lodging common stock. The distribution is expected to be effected after market close on May 30, 2018 (the "distribution date"). The distribution is taxable to stockholders and is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain applicable conditions described in the Information Statement included in the Registration Statement on Form 10 for CorePoint Lodging common stock.

Reverse Stock Split of La Quinta Common Stock

The La Quinta Board of Directors also approved that the 1-for-2 reverse stock split of shares of La Quinta common stock will be effective immediately prior to the distribution of shares of CorePoint Lodging common stock in the spin-off transaction. Every two shares of La Quinta common stock will be automatically combined into one share of La Quinta common stock. Fractional shares will be issued in connection with the reverse stock split.

La Quinta currently has approximately 117 million shares of common stock outstanding. The 1-for-2 reverse stock split will reduce the number of issued and outstanding shares of La Quinta common stock to approximately 59 million. Accordingly, approximately 59 million shares of CorePoint Lodging common stock will be distributed to La Quinta stockholders in the spin-off transaction.

Trading of La Quinta and CorePoint Lodging Common Stock

Following the spin-off, shares of CorePoint Lodging common stock will trade on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "CPLG." La Quinta expects that on or about May 17, 2018, shares of CorePoint Lodging common stock will trade on a "when issued" basis under the ticker symbol "CPLG WI." Shares of CorePoint Lodging common stock are expected to begin "regular way" trading on May 31, 2018, at which time trading in shares of La Quinta common stock will be suspended.

La Quinta stockholders who sell their shares of La Quinta common stock prior to or on the distribution date will also be selling their right to receive the distribution of shares of CorePoint Lodging common stock in the spin-off transaction. La Quinta stockholders are encouraged to consult with their financial advisors regarding the specific implications of selling La Quinta common stock.

La Quinta stockholders are not required to take any action to receive the shares of CorePoint Lodging common stock in the distribution, or in connection with the reverse stock split.

The distribution agent, transfer agent, and registrar for the shares of La Quinta and CorePoint Lodging common stock will be Computershare. For questions relating to the transfer or mechanics of the stock distribution or the reverse stock split, stockholders may contact Computershare c/o Shareholder Services at P.O. Box 505000, Louisville, KY 40233-5002, or by phone at: 1-800-962-4284. If shares are held by a bank, broker or other nominee, stockholders should contact that institution directly.Press Release

10 May 2018

Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) has just signed deals for 10 new properties in western China across seven of its brands.

Advertisements

The properties will encompass brands in the luxury, upscale and midscale segments, with some already having a notable presence in China and others that are more recent introductions. Opening dates for the properties have yet to be announced.

Speaking about the signings, Jolyon Bulley, CEO of IHG Greater China said that the group's expansion was "a strong demonstration of [its] confidence and commitment to both the west and entire Chinese market".

The 10 new properties will include:

Intercontinental Chengdu ShawanLocated in northern Chengdu, Sichuan province, the hotel is the third Intercontinental-brand hotel in the city and will be situated adjacent to shopping malls and within walking distance to the district government.

Hualuxe Guiyang Financial CityLocated in northern Guiyang, Guizhou province, the hotel is situated among financial businesses and is particularly focused on the corporate events sector. IHG describes Hualuxe Hotels and Resorts as an upscale international hotel brand specifically designed for Chinese guests.

Crowne Plaza Mianyang High-Tech ZoneLocated in Mianyang City in Sichuan Province, this hotel is situated among numerous high-tech enterprises and will cater to business travellers in particular.

Hotel Indigo PuzheheiThis boutique hotel will be the first international branded hotel in the Puzhehei Scenic Area in Yunnan Province. The property will focus on design and its rocky surroundings.

Hotel Indigo JiuzhaiClose to the Jiuzhaigou Natural Reserve in Sichuan Province, the boutique hotel focuses on outdoor activities combined with authentic Tibetan experiences.

Even Hotel Chongqing Central ParkThis wellness-focused hotel is located in the Yubei district of Chongqing, one of China's four direct-controlled municipalities, and has convenient access to Chongqing International Expo Centre and Chongqing International Airport.

Even Hotel Xi'an High-Tech ZoneAnother wellness-focused property, this one is located in Shaanxi province in the Xi'an High-Tech Development Zone in close proximity to a number of Fortune 500 companies including IBM, Intel, Microsoft and Huawei. The hotel will occupy the 32nd to 38th floors of a 200-metre-tall building within the zone.

Holiday Inn & Suites Lanzhou CentreThis property is situated in the Lanzhou Centre building in a commercial district of Lanzhou in Gansu province, with train and metro access located nearby.

Holiday Inn Express Guilin High-Tech ZoneAnother property located within a High-Tech Zone, this time in Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The hotel has been described as offering a "simple, smart travel experience" for guests who wish to "rest-and-go".

Holiday Inn Express Meishan DongpoSituated nearby the centre of Meishan in Sichuan province on the upper floors of the Chunxi Square building, the hotel will be a short distance from the city's central business district.

These 10 new properties join a pipeline that also includes four new hotels in China under IHG's Even and Kimpton brands in Sanya, Shanghai and Jinan.

IHG currently has more than 330 hotels across nine of its brands in Greater China, the company's second-largest market globally.Opinion Article

10 May 2018

Go to a hospitality conference or forum these days and the topic of millennials is likely to crop up, and more so at the Young Hoteliers Summit staged recently at Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne. At the heart of the issue is a fundamental question for hoteliers.

Advertisements

Should you be thinking of changing your offering substantially to cater for this digitally-savvy generation in their early 20s to mid-30s, and, if so, what are they looking for? Are luxury hotels too stuffy and will they need to have a major re-think?

In retail, leading designer labels such as Gucci are going all-out to woo these customers, even though they risk losing some of their well-heeled, more mature consumers in the process.

At the YHS, senior executives from Four Seasons, Dorchester Collection, Belmond and Edition discussed the issue at length in a panel session entitled Redefining Luxury in the age of the Millennial.

At the start of the session, David Samson (AEHL, 2011), an Associate Director at Deloitte and an industry specialist in its Travel, Hospitality and Leisure (THL) advisory practice in London, set the scene.

It's a hugely attractive market, two billion millennials globally, 60 percent of them living in Asia, with more than 400 million in India alone.

"They now have the highest spending power," Samson said, adding they are now the largest group of corporate travelers in absolute terms.

But he cautioned: "They are notoriously disloyal and like to try new things," booking last-minute via online travel agents or OTAs. "They prioritize experiences over the hotel component of a trip and deeply care about meaningfulness and shared values of the companies they engage with."

Although none of the panelists could be called a millennial, several did feel they shared at least some of their traits.

"People make the millennials sound like they come from a different planet, that they're not human beings," said Rami Sayess, Regional Vice President and General Manager with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

"I really think it's about the mindset they represent and how they influence other generations. There are a lot of millennial wannabes."

"From a behavioral perspective I think I'm a millennial myself," said Jurgen Ammerstorfer, General Manager of Edition London, as he feels he's 'super-curious.'

Ammerstorfer told Hospitality Insights on the sidelines of the event that hotels "can't be, and shouldn't be, something for everybody. You should be everything for a small group and really cater to the needs of this particular group." Traditional, luxury hotels are 'more predictable' in their offerings, he said, whereas Edition's "focus is to tap into the experiential part of their stay."

Edition is one of the Marriott's stable of 30 brands but its designer differentiation stems from Ian Schrager, the 'godfather' of nightclubs, discos and boutique hotels. "When the guests walk in (to the hotel), it's like "wow, this is awesome, fantastic. The music, the smell, the food. They interact with people and see people around them that they can relate to," Ammerstorfer said.

Francois Delahaye, Chief Operating Officer of Dorchester Collection, which boasts hotels such as the Plaza Athenee and Le Meurice in Paris, says the group is focusing on creating trendy bars and introducing the latest technology.

"It's not a challenge for us," Delahaye told Hospitality Insights. "We have iconic hotels in iconic cities but we want to (attract) all the generations."

The Dochester Collection is aiming to win over the hearts of the sons and daughters of the existing clientele. Delahaye muses that perhaps the 10-year old girl using the Athenee's ice-skating rink will come back to the hotel one day for her honeymoon. Innovation "will become tradition afterwards and then we will need again to reinvent ourselves. So modernity within the tradition is part of life."

The Belmond group is also aiming to win over the hearts of the sons and daughters of their well-heeled clientele.

Klaus Kabelitz, who will effectively have 'a white sheet of paper' when he opens the Belmond Cadogan Hotel in London as General Manager later this year, cites the example of the Belmond El Encanto in Santa Barbara, California.

Everyone in Los Angeles thought that's for my grandparents," he recalls. But through highlighting a glitzy wedding on social media, they were able to change perceptions. So it's just changing the tone of your marketing, branding to say 'you know, you should come and try (the hotel).

Le Meurice in Paris is also trying to change perceptions.

It hired a young pastry chef, Cedric Grolet, who has become something of a celebrity with some 880,000 followers on Instagram.

Photo: EHL

We're hiring millennials to help bring us innovation and 'seduce' the new generation, said Delahaye of the Dorchester Collection. So we're surrounding ourselves with, and welcoming, millennials in order to evolve.

The Four Seasons group, which set up a design studio a few years ago to explore how its guestrooms should evolve, has engaged a consultancy to map out its strategy to attract millennials.

It has formed a partnership with CGK, the Center for Generational Kinetics in the US, to find out what millennials are looking for and how the hotel chain can best cater for them.

CGK had already been involved in auditing their social media channels and online presence "and they understood the Four Seasons culture which was critical for us," said Sayess.

Each of its hotels will have internal and external review teams, "because then millennials of New York may be looking for something different from a millennial in the Maldives. The objective is to eventually come up with a playbook for every single hotel and resort," Sayess said.

And there's the rub. There may be some two billion millennials around the globe, but as a group they are very diverse.

Millennials in the emerging markets will have different behavioral and spending patterns to those in more affluent cities such as New York and London.

"We need to totally re-think how we approach this generation, how we facilitate their journey with us," Edition's Ammerstorfer said. Patience is no longer a virtue as speed and convenience have become all important. "I suppose we need to find a way of working around this. Some companies have done this very well already, while some others need to learn."A$AP Rocky hasn't made much of a splash with Under Armour since signing a partnership with the brand last year but it looks like that's all set to change in the near future.

British director Dexter Navy recently previewed a sample of Rockys first sneaker collaboration with Under Armour, which appears to be a bulky low-top reminiscent of some old skate shoes such as the Osiris D3. The kicks look to feature a padded mesh upper accompanied by leather overlays and midfoot cages. The bulbous tongue references that the shoe was created in association with A$AP Rocky, and is part of Under Armours Sports Style division.

Rocky recently took to instagram to reveal another look at the kicks but neither he nor Under Armour have announced release details or pricing just yet. Take a look at the early images below and stay tuned for more detailed pics & release info.A sequel to Bad Boys 2 has been in the works for over a decade. The comedic action-packed thrilled is a classic, and was one of the first films to showcase Michael Bay's penchant for blowing any and everything up. Since Bay has moved on to making cars transform and turning turtles into ninjas, and both Will Smith and Martin Lawrence have matured, there has been little hope that a Bad Boys 3 would come to fruition. Originally, the film was slated to be released last year, but that didn't happen. Now, finally, Will Smith has signed on to the film (which Lawrence has eagerly been pitching for awhile), and a release date and synopsis has been revealed.

According to Esquire (via The Hashtag Show), Bad Boys For Life will be released on January 17, 2020. The synopsis for the film goes as follows:

"The film will see Lawrences character Marcus Burnett working as a private eye after a falling out with Smiths Mike Lowery, who is going through a midlife crisis as a bachelor who finally wants to mature, all while dealing with a new a young and cocky partner who is loyal to Lowery but that loyalty is not reciprocated, and finds bond with Burnett when he returns to the fray. Lowery and Burnett are brought together again when a lean, mean, skilled, Albanian mercenary with a vendetta puts a death order on Lowery and Burnett for the death of his brother. Now the two must work together once again to bring him down."

Along with the third Bad Boys film, a television series starring Gabrielle Union is set to continue the story of her character from Bad Boys 2, Syd Burnet. The series is entitled L.A.s Finest, and will also star Jessica Alba. They've got our attention.Last night, music producer Detail was reportedly being sued for rape and physical abuse. The report that surfaced said that he raped and physically assaulted two female artists that he was working with, one of which claimed that she looked at him as a mentor. The allegations against him are horrific. The women claimed that he had forced them to have sex with him in front of other people. Jessie Reyez recently came out and revealed that the story sounds familiar to one that she experienced six years a go.

After allegations of Detail raping and abusing two women, Jessie Reyez came out and shared her story. She took to both Instagram and Twitter to share her story. On Twitter, she wrote, "One night, over 6 years ago Noel Detail Fisher tried this on me. I was lucky and I got out before it got to this. I didnt know what to say or who to tell. I was scared. Fear is a real thing. The girls that came out are brave as hell," and added the link to TMZ's story.

She later took to Instagram and revealed that the gatekeeper in her song "Gatekeeper" was about Detail as she shared a screenshot of her tweet.

The post has garnered the attention of both Drake and TDE's Punch. Drake, who was sued by Detail for assault before the case got thrown out, liked the Instagram post. TDE's Punch commented on the photo and commended Reyez for her bravery. "Wow... Appreciate your strength," he wrote.Nike founder Phil Knight recently made an appearance on CBS This Morning to speak about the company's growth and recent firings of executives amid harassment and discrimination allegations.

According to reports, in an internal survey Nike employees have detailed a toxic workplace ripe with instances of verbal and emotional abuse toward women, including a boss who allegedly threw his car keys at a female employee while calling her a "stupid bitch" and another incident in which a current employee says she was forcibly kissed in a bathroom by a supervisor.

As a result of the New York Times' report in March, as many as 14 senior-level employees have left the company, including Trevor Edwards, president of the Nike brand, and Jayne Martin, Edwardss lieutenant, who oversaw much of Nikes global business.

Phil Knight described the reports of workplace misconduct as shocking during today's appearance on CBS.

"Overall, how Nikes doing is were doing fine, sales and earnings are growing," Knight said. "But we did have a shock within the last couple of months that a certain number of managers were bullying employees, and it was a shock to me personally and to a lot of the upper management. And its disappointing, as well as a shock, its very disappointing, but I am proud of the company in the way it responded to the problems that it saw, and its basically cleaning house for those people."

Check out his full interview below.We live in 2018, and it seems that almost anything can happen at this point. A perfect example being this latest bit of news that Baywatch star Pamela Anderson has apparently written a letter to Kanye West, asking for his assistance in freeing Julian Assange from his exile in an Ecuadorian embassy.

The letter, which TMZ has obtained, says the American government is trying to kill him for leaking classified documents and exposing corruption. Anderson wishes to leverage Kanye's complete lack of filter in order to recruit him to her cause.

"Ive always supported your no filter - you speak your mind. And you make an impact," the letter reads. "Im sure a lot of people feel like you - They just are stuck in what society says is OK to say."

Assange is the founder of Wikileaks, an independent organization that exposes corruption by fully releasing leaked government documents. For years, Assange has kept himself locked up inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has claimed political asylum. He is unable to leave due to rape charges he is facing in his home country of Sweden. He's also been caught up in the investigation of Russian Interference in the 2016 election, as Wikileaks were the ones to publish the leaked e-mails from the Democratic Party.

Anderson seems to think Kanye is the key to getting the public to support Assange's plight, possibly due to his outspoken support of other controversial figures in the past. She also takes the time to thank Kim Kardashian for refusing to wear fur, another one of Anderson's pet causes.We haven't heard a whole lot from Rita Ora in the past few years but it seems as if she's readying to make a major mark this year. A little over a week a go, she officially announced that she'll be dropping a new single, "Girls" this week. The song's line-up was rumored to be several different people over the months but she's finalized it with an all-star cast. Rita Ora recruits a girl gang consisting of Cardi B, Bebe Rexha and Charli XCX for her latest single, "Girls."

Rita Ora comes through with a massive single that's readies to be a summer anthem with "Girls." Ora comes through with the likes of Cardi B, Bebe Rexha and Charli XCX on the cut. While the three ladies flex the melodies with this pop jam, Cardi comes through with some gritty bars for her part on the track.

As Rita drops off her first solo record in a minute, the U.K. songstress is getting ready to embark on a European tour. The "Girls" tour is set to kick off tomorrow in Glasgow, Scotland. Keep your eyes peeled for more new music from Rita Ora and her second studio album.

"Girls" available in select international markets and will be available in North America by midnight.

Quotable Lyrics

I put this MAC on your lips, tell her pucker up

We ain't never heard of you 'cause you ain't done enough

I ain't gotta introduce myself

I'm too sexy, I seduce myself1. He wanted to work with the silhouette because Dizzee Rascal, on his first album cover, Boy in da Corner. He had a pair on.

2. The appearance of the shoe in that image solidified its legend for Skepta. When I was younger, Air Max was the shoe to flex in. The bigger your Air bubble  you've got a big air bubble and everyone can see that. The BWs...it's funny it's called Big Window. Giving his version a full-legnth AM97 unit thus adds a new layer of cache.

3. Skepta considers Paris a serious part of my whole existence and credits fans in the city with an early embrace of his music.

4. Skepta began using the lock motif on the cover of his most recent EP, Vicious, as a nod to the iconic British punk musician of the same name.

5. The lock also signifies love. I wanted to hang the padlock on the shoe at the side and to lock it and give it to my friends, he says. I remembered that's what happens in Paris. That's where you go and lock the love.A day after withstanding the worst case of betrayal imaginable, Teairra Mari is reaching to thank the many positive forces in her life. The Love & Hip Hop Hollywood star had a sex video intended for personal use/viewing leaked by a person believed up to that point "was deserving of (her) love and trust." She concluded her statement by signifying that she indeed intends to pursue legal action (pursuit of justice) against her vengeful ex-lover. He has since been identified as Abdul Akbar-Ahad, a former NCAA collegiate baller who continues to deny any involvement in leaking the tape.



Teairra Mari has since posted a video message titled "From My Heart to Yours" on her Instagram page. In it she addresses the rough day that was May 9th 2018. She began by thanking all those who came to her defense in the last 24 hours for their "outpouring of love & support." Teairra confessed that she was in love up until the point she figured out she was on the wrong end of stick, the betrayal hitting her like a sudden shock to the system. The video ended as Love & Hip Hop Hollywood co-star Milan Christopher joined her in exclaiming that she was surrounded by people that love her, and Instagram need not worry.



Last month, Smokepurpp and Murda Beatz dropped a joint album, Bless Yo Trap. The albums title draws from a mind-numbing DEADSTAR cut of the same name, a nod to the baby bottle full of lean-tattooed rappers token catchphrase. The project was the first major-label rap collaborative album of the year, a continuation of the curious trend that took hip hop by storm in 2017. A laundry list of trendy emcees took turns dropping joint projects, flooding the market with big name guest spots and brash production.

Still, such oversaturation didnt stop the various participants from putting respectable numbers on the board. The Halloween aesthetic of Metro Boomin, 21 Savage, and Offsets Without Warning garnered sufficient buzz to debut at the number four spot, selling 53,000 units in its first week. The 10-song collab project spawned the viral hit Ric Flair Drip, which cracked the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually received its own music video starring the titular wrestling icon. Future and Young Thugs Super Slimey, a menacing mesh of auto-tune aficionados,landed at the number two spot and moved 75,000 copies, earning Thug his highest first week sales and Future his third-best selling album of the year. Travis Scott and Quavo, two trap music heavy-hitters, joined forces on Huncho Jack, Jack Huncho, which debuted at number three with 90,000 units. Droptopwop quietly continued the resurgence of Gucci Mane to the tune of 32,000 units; it landed at the number twelve spot in large part due to the strength of gems such as Met Gala and Helpless. Big Sean caught wind of the Metro trend, linking up with the highly sought after beat maker before the years end for Double or Nothing, which opened at number six with 50,000 units. Even Nav got in on the action, delivering Perfect Timing with the help of the aforementioned producer. The collab managed to sell 30,000 units in its first week, and slowly crawled up the chart to reach the number 34 spot in mid-August.

This begs the question: is there a creative explanation for the slew of collab releases that seemingly pop up out of nowhere? While they generate decent traction, they certainly dont come close to the numbers of the more high profile releases. The fact of the matter is that rap collab albums arent much different from their solo counterparts; theyre simply packaged differently. Deceptive as it may be, theyre essentially the same product. The usual suspects deliver the usual themes and theatrics, throw a flashy coat of paint over everything, and then pitch it as special or some sort of limited time offer that you need to get in on before its too late. Rather than calling a spade a spade, rappers and producers who team up for such ventures tend to throw together a fluffed up release without much forethought or substance and proceed to deposit the check. Its the definition of a quick sugar fix that leaves the listener wondering why they decided to indulge their sweet tooth in the first place. Take, for example, 21 Savages debut studio album, Issa Album. Nine of the fourteen total tracks feature production from frequent collaborator Metro Boomin. Could they have slapped both of their names on the cover and marketed it as the follow-up to their 2016 EP, Savage Mode? Without a doubt. Would it have sounded much different had they chosen to do so? In all likelihood, probably not. It just goes to show how raps ubiquitous names can hastily throw something together and call it a hot commodity without anyone batting an eyelash.

Not long ago, hip hop was at the bottom of the food chain. The 90s moguls such as Jay-Z and P. Diddy were anomalies in a landscape dominated by hungry go-getters entranced by the lavish lifestyle of the elite. Getting rich off of rap was a one in a million opportunity with equally poor odds. At the time, it was an unreceptive market where pop music reigned supreme. Yet once raps money-making potential finally began to present itself, it ushered in the golden age and an untapped wealth of riches. Rapping had become cool overnight. No longer were the spoils reserved for the savvy businessmen at the top. The money was there for the taking, and many eagerly attempted to capitalize on the newfound financial viability.

Now, hip hop boasts some of the most recognizable stars in the industry. Theyve infiltrated pop culture, inextricably latching on to the public conscious through appearances in commercials, television shows, sports, and all manner of modern day media. Many have even developed into bonafide household names. Metro Boomins producer tag was not only one of raps favorite punchlines in 2017, but it also represented a stamp of approval from the genres go-to hitmaker. His curatorial skill was felt nearly everywhere, and the prolific year long run that ensued was capped by a report that he claimed 10 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of November 11. Given that he was one of hip hops most visible performers, its no wonder that his name got plastered on the covers of three separate collab projects.

While there have been plenty of failed collaborative attempts over the years, the coronation of the rap collab album finally came in 2011, when Kanye West and Jay-Z unleashed Watch The Throne. It was an explosive, fireworks-inducing collision of raps most prestigious: two untouchable emcees at the height of their careers flexing their upper echelon pedigree. The ostentatious, gold-encrusted cover art screamed blockbuster, and the celebration within was a veritable gold mine: the unveiling of Otis as the lead single, the Frank Ocean opener No Church In The Wild, and the braggadocious and instantly quotable N****s In Paris. Jay and Ye were lethal, playfully trading arrogant and extravagant one-liners. It was an ideal combination that had tangible meaning beyond first week numbers: they were two competitors that elevated their game to bring out the absolute best in one another. The monumental moment eclipsed just about every other release that year, and sold 436,000 copies the first week to become Jays 12th consecutive number one, and Kanyes fifth. Watch The Throne was the dawn of an era, an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime record that proved the potential of the rap collab album.

2017 may have seen a serious uptick in joint projects, but the excess inevitably lead to redundancy. Many collab projects wear thin and fall apart completely; theyre ineffective, and simply dont have the lasting appeal of well-crafted releases such as Blackout!, Madvillainy, Black Star, or Pinata. With quantity continuing to outweigh quality, the process of stitching together a hollow, half-baked release feels gimmicky and rushed. To make matters worse, the process has been made even easier through file-sharing technology brought about by the internet. Conflicting schedules are no longer an issue, seeing as collaborators dont even have to be in the same studio. Artists combining their creative talents used to be a significant moment for the culture, with fans spending time debating their dream hip hop collaborations. Gone are the days of Eric. B & Rakims Paid in Full and Gang Starrs Moment of Truth, when DJ-rapper pairings were a cornerstone of hip hop. Now, collab projects are nothing more than a lucrative marketing tool that labels drop without much promotion. The initial excitement quickly wears off, as artists scramble to attract attention and keep their name in headlines for as long as possible in order to cash in on their rising stock. And guess what: consumers are hooked. Its a business model that works, a function of the current state of the music industry and further proof of hip hops growing commercial power.After months of speculation and grainy photos, Jordan Brand has finally unleashed official images of Travis Scott's Houston Oilers inspired Air Jordan 4 collab.

The special edition 4s feature a university blue upper, accompanied by hits of black, varsity red and silver as a nod to the classic Oilers uniforms. Additionally, the Travis Scott x Air Jordan 4 includes "Cactus Jack" branding on the left heel and "Travis Scott" on the inside of the left tongue, while the right shoe utilizes the familiar Jumpman logo and upside down Air Jordan text.

The shoes are officially slated to launch on June 23, though it's still unclear how much the kicks will retail for or exactly how many pairs will be available. Whatever the case may be, you can expect the demand to be high and the supply to be limited.Macrina Perez is a mother of two with a face that emanates youthfulness and innocence. However, the Minnesota native has been at the forefront of a massive meth operation that is being touted as the biggest trafficking rings in the state's history.

Perez has ties to both Mexican and American drug circles, and was promptly arrested at the US-Mexico border after being charged nearly two years ago during a sealed indictment that involved a slew of government informants. "Ms. Perez is as connected to Mexican drug cartels based on this evidence as anyone I have ever prosecuted, and its somewhat remarkable," Assistant US Attorney David Steinkamp revealed to a judge earlier this month.

Her arrest was preceded by a May 2016 bust at a stash house in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, where 140 pounds of meth were seized, most of them packed and ready to be distributed.

"She wasnt the courier. Shes the CEO of this organization. Shes running it," reckoned Steinkamp.

A DEA agent was able to locate some travel documents belonging to Perez in the stash house, as well as $130,000 in cash and a revolver in a safe.

Perez's attorney Gary Wolf notes how they are willing to fight the case in court. If convicted, the drug conspirator could face decades behind bars, with a maximum sentence of life in prison.Houstons housing market strengthened in April as buyers hunted for a limited number of moderately priced homes and, to a lesser extent, properties with seven-figure price tags.

Buyers closed on 7,070 single-family homes last month at a median price of $240,000, a record for this area, the Houston Association of Realtors said Wednesday in a monthly report.

Sales across the region were up 7 percent in April, rebounding after falling in March for the first time since Hurricane Harvey.

Buyers have been active across the region, from Conroe and The Woodlands to Fulshear and Richmond.

Still, the hurricanes impact on the market continues to be felt. Homes that flooded have lost value and investors are out buying.

Over the past year, the local office of real estate investor group We Buy Houses purchased more than 100 homes in the Houston area.

But unlike other investors, the company is shying away from flooded homes and instead buying fixer-uppers that stayed dry in Harvey.

It is a very competitive market, CEO Jeremy Brandt said.

New homes that can be had for less than $300,000 also remain are hot sellers.

As demand shifted in recent years from high-end properties to more affordable ones, developers are creating communities targeting those cost-conscious shoppers.

Friendswood Development Co. said Wednesday it is building a community in Baytown that will bring more than 1,400 new homes to the area.

The new project, to be called Baytown Crossings, follows the completion of Friendswoods Bay River Colony residential community in Baytown.

The opportunity to acquire more acreage in this area along with the strong demands for affordably priced new homes create an ideal setting for this new community, Robert Santini, Friendswoods community development manager, said in a statement.

Houstons luxury market  homes priced at $750,000 and higher  was up about 5 percent after being flat for the previous two months, the realty association reported.

Im very positive, Nancy Almodovar, president and CEO of Nan and Company Properties/Christies International Real Estate, said. I havent seen a decline, at least for our company, in the luxury market.

She noted a single-family home in Montrose that recently sold for $1.2 million in 30 days. And in River Oaks, new construction goes fast.

Million-dollar homebuyers, she said, want to be in walkable areas, close to restaurants and where they can ride bicycles and be active.

For the third straight month, the best-performing segment of the local market consisted of homes priced in the $500,000 to $749,999 range. Sales in that range spiked nearly 30 percent, according to the association, which tracks sales handled through the Multiple Listing Service throughout Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, as well as parts of Brazoria, Galveston, Waller and Wharton counties.

Housing supply continues to be quite low.

Single-family inventory was at a 3.6-month supply in April, down from last year.

As long as inventory levels can keep up with the increased buyer demand, we would expect sales volume to remain strong in the months ahead, the associations chairwoman Kenya Burrell-VanWormer said in the report.

Brandt said his company has purchased some flooded homes, but with caution.

Hes seen investors who bought flooded homes to fix up and flip unable to sell for what they were hoping to get.

Regardless of how much a house has been fixed up, he said, one of the first questions people are asking was Did it flood?

If it did, the would-be buyers are concerned about mold and other problems the house may have.

What were seeing is a flood-damaged house has a discount from what a non-flood-damaged house in the same area is selling for even though it might be in better condition, Brandt said.

Ultimately, many of the remodeled homes will become rentals. The demand will come from flooded homeowners who didnt have flood insurance or lost their properties to foreclosure.

Theres going to be a lot of people with bad credit because of not having flood insurance, Brandt said.

There were 4,561 single-family homes listed for rent on HAR.com at the end of April, down 21 percent from the same month a year ago.

Leases were up 2 percent last month and the average rent for was up 3.6 percent to $1,778.

nancy.sarnoff@chron.com

twitter.com/nsarnoffTransportation

Transportation

Houston is 'ground zero' for fake temporary license tags, and a Texas loophole is to blameRecently, conservatives found a fresh target for ire: a new program at the University of Texas at Austin called MasculinUT.

The program is described as meaning to promote "healthy masculinities," with an eye to "increase acceptance of gender diversity, promote healthy relationships with an emphasis on consent and prevent interpersonal violence."

Conservative media wasn't buying it. Fox & Friends decried UT for treating masculinity as a "mental health issue." The Constitution claimed, "This program wants people to stop saying men should be a 'breadwinner' or that they should strive for success in their careers. Men need to be wimpy, subservient, spineless and unable to make a decision without a woman to tell them how to think and what to do."

By the end of that week, UT released a rebuttal statement saying, "The MasculinUT program does not treat masculinity as a 'mental health issue,' and any such statements are simply not accurate." Fact-checking Snopes also challenged these critiques.

Did right-wing media jump the rails, or are there some legitimate concerns about MasculinUT and programs like it?

DOES IT STRAY TOO FAR?: How 'toxic masculinity' is hurting boys

I spoke to Dr. Chris Brownson, UT's associate vice president for student affairs and director of the Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC), which runs the program. He noted that the center provides prevention, education and outreach, not just mental health services, adding that a primary focus of MasculinUT is preventing sexual violence and restrictive aspects of masculinity, which might harm men themselves.

He used the example of men being less likely to call 911 when experiencing the initial symptoms of a heart attack, which is a fair point.

Instead of the problematic term "toxic masculinity," a concept which is often poorly defined and sometimes strays into the disparagement of traditional masculinity in potentially sexist ways, the CMHC uses "restrictive masculinity." Dr. Brownson noted that UT specifically avoided "toxic masculinity."

The CMHC also includes language affirming some aspects of traditional masculinity, noting "Traditional characteristics of masculinity  traits such as independence, strength, resilience and more  are wonderful assets for people of all genders. By encouraging an expanded view of masculinity, there is room for these traits and more."

So, some conservative media certainly misrepresented the program. But, in my view, UT committed a few unforced errors that whipped up tensions. An advertised position for the coordinator of the program features a potpourri of progressive buzzwords ("intersect," "social justice," "power"), including the unfortunate "toxic masculinities." Other web materials can come across as preachy, with too many air quotes, proclaimed myths and a tendency toward generalizations.

And the program's poster campaign fails to portray men with positive, traditionally masculine traits. Four of the 11 posters online (one of which features a woman) superimpose traditionally feminine characteristics onto male models. It's not hard to see that this might communicate that the UT program is inclined to "feminize" men.

Including men who demonstrate feminine characteristics is a positive thing, of course, but failing to communicate that more traditionally masculine men are also fine was a missed opportunity.

I was particularly concerned the MasculinUT web materials claim that masculinity is not innate, despite much evidence to the contrary. Research suggests that masculine traits have significant genetic components, and that fetal testosterone exposure also plays a long-term role in masculine traits for both boys and girls.

Though Dr. Brownson noted that gender expression can differ by culture, my observation is that this relates more to the style (for example, what constitutes masculine clothes) than substance (higher risk-taking among males) of masculinity.

And it's worth asking whether programs such as MasculinUT actually reduce violence on campus. According to the conservative news site Campus Reform, similar programs have been unable to document any success. Still, Dr. Brownson noted that one study from 2011 suggests that programs designed to increase empathy and challenge rape myths in men do reduce sexual assault. MasculinUT also enjoys the support of the American Psychological Association's division for Men and Masculinities.

But conservatives here might rightly point out that psychology itself has a long-standing liberal bias. Given that campuses are already relatively low-violence (contrary to some assumptions, rape rates for college women are lower than for same-age non-college peers), it might be hard to see pronounced effects.

HOW FREE IS OUR SPEECH?: Do colleges need bias response teams?

To the extent that programs like MasculinUT focus on rape and violence prevention, they are undoubtedly doing a service. If they stray into implicit condemnation of traditional masculinity, though, they might do more harm than good. And, in doing so, they might turn off many men who would otherwise benefit.

If conservative media overreacted to this program, their larger concerns about the "toxic masculinity" debate are not entirely misplaced. Many on the right would argue that colleges tend to push left-leaning ideology onto students. It should be no surprise that students are sometimes told "truthy" things, particularly those that align with progressive ideals ("implicit biases," "microaggressions"). But these are not, and should not be, beyond debate. Granted, much of this comes from student life administrators as much as faculty, but universities probably do have a legitimate problem with blurring ideology with information.

Then again, I have little confidence that conservatives would do much better were they to rule the academy.

Dr. Chris Ferguson (@CJFerguson1111) is a professor of psychology at Stetson University and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He is coauthor of the book "Moral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games is Wrong" and author of the mystery novel "Suicide Kings."

Get the Gray Matters newsletter. It is undoubtedly doing a service.Now Playing: Fire tears through warehouse in Jersey Village area Video: Metro Video

More than 100 firefighters worked through the night to extinguish a massive 3-alarm fire that tore through a warehouse south of Jersey Village.

Responders finally snuffed out the fire by 4:30 a.m. Thursday after six hours of fighting the blaze, according to the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office.Anthonia Nwaorie spent years saving up thousands of dollars to open a medical clinic in Nigeria, where she was born. Finally, last October, she walked down a jet bridge at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport to board the plane to get there.

The 59-year-old registered nurse had more than $37,000 in her carry-on bag and $4,000 in her purse. It was all cash, stowed in separate envelopes, some of it earmarked to help ill or aging family members. In her checked luggage she packed medical supplies and over-the-counter medication, which she planned to use to provide free basic care and checkups to anyone who needed it.

But she wouldn't make it there. Just as she was about to board the flight to Nigeria, agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped her.

"How many people are you carrying money for?" an agent asked her, she recalled in an interview with The Washington Post. "How many people are you traveling with?"

Before Nwaorie could even open her mouth, she said, the agent asked another question: "How long have you been in the United States?"

The questioning threw her off guard. She explained she had legally earned the money and she was alone. Nwaorie, who lives in Katy, Texas, became a U.S. citizen in 1994. She showed her passport, thinking perhaps they were questioning her legal status. The agents took her to a room to search her and her luggage anyway.

Then they seized all $41,377 dollars.

"It was like I was a criminal," she said. "I felt so humiliated, so petrified, too. They were talking among themselves, saying how 'this is how people smuggle money out of the country. This is how they do it.'"

More than six months later, Customs and Border Protection still has not given back her money.

This, despite the fact that the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District of Texas did not bring a civil asset forfeiture case against her or charge her with any crime. The infraction she committed was failing to declare the money to Customs before traveling. According to the agency's website, "there is no limit on the amount of money that can be taken out" of the country, but if a traveler is carrying more than $10,000 in currency they must fill out a declaration, a rule she said she did not know existed.

The agency told her in April it would give back her money under one condition: that she give up her right to sue the federal government. It's called a "hold-harmless agreement." The condition, her attorney says, violates Nwaorie's basic First Amendment rights to petition the government for grievances.

Now Playing: President Trump and the Nigerian President on Monday addressed Trump's reported s***hole remark. Video: GeoBeats

Nwaorie didn't sign it, deciding to sue instead.

"This is just about as unconstitutional as it gets," said Nwaorie's attorney, Dan Alban of the Institute for Justice, which specializes in civil asset forfeiture. "They're requiring her to trade her right to the property in exchange for giving up these other rights: Does she want her right to the property? Or does she want to give up her right to the First Amendment? They're sending these agreements out to not just to Anthonia but, we think, hundreds or thousands of people every year."

A spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection declined to comment for this story, citing pending litigation, and would not answer general questions about CBP's hold-harmless agreement policy.

CBP seizes property from people more than 120,000 times per year, according to the federal lawsuit, filed last week in a federal court in Houston. To get the property back, individuals have two options. They can argue for their property using CBP's administrative process, in which case Alban said a hold-harmless agreement wouldn't be unusual. Or they can go the route Nwaorie chose, leaving it to federal prosecutors to decide whether to pursue civil asset forfeiture within 90 days.

According to documents provided to The Post, prosecutors declined to pursue a case against Nwaorie. The lawsuit states that under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act, the government should have been required to "promptly release" Nwaorie's $41,000 to her, no questions asked. Alban contends that forcing a person to agree not to sue the government - and to pay the government's legal fees if CBP has to enforce the agreement in court - is an "unconstitutional condition."

Alban said discovering how often this happens to people in the United States will be part of the lawsuit, as the data is not immediately available. The suit seeks class-action status to cover every person who has signed a hold-harmless agreement with CBP despite being freely entitled to their property under federal law. It seeks to void all of those agreements.

"This case highlights the abusiveness of civil asset forfeitures in general," Alban said. "It's just crazy: She's not been charged with a crime. The entire situation was so weak and not worth pursuing that the U.S. attorney decided not to even try to forfeit her money. She's been deprived of that money. She's been unable to open her clinic. She's been living a nightmare. This has really disrupted her life."

Nwaorie has been traveling to Nigeria to provide free basic medical care to people in her hometown, in the state of Imo, on an annual basis since 2014. She sets up a pop-up medical clinic in churches or community centers, where she provides basic care and over-the-counter medication such as ibuprofen and Tylenol for basic ailments. Trained as a midwife, she also examines all the pregnant women and lets them hear their babies' heartbeat for the first time.

But after a while Nwaorie said she wanted to go bigger. She wanted the patients to have regular access to care with full-time doctors at a small, permanent clinic. This year, she said her father helped secure her a parcel of land. Before she was stopped by CBP, she intended to get a permit from the local government in Nigeria and begin purchasing materials for construction.

"This was my dream, that people cannot be sent away from a clinic or a hospital because they do not have money," she said. "This is something that I want to do for humanity, myself and my God, so there is nothing I would want to do to go against the law of this land to get it done. If I had known I had to declare the money before traveling, I would have done that."

Nwaorie ultimately traveled to Nigeria the month after CBP seized her money, paying for her trip on a credit card and setting up another week-long pop-up clinic. Of the $41,000 that was seized, several thousand had been earmarked for ill or aging family members who had run into financial difficulties, but Nwaorie didn't have it.

She explained to her brother what happened. "He was surprised," Nwaorie said. "He said, 'What? Does that happen in America?'"President Donald Trump had been sworn into office, and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, saw a golden opportunity.

From his perch in a law office on the 23rd floor of New York's Rockefeller Center, Cohen pitched potential clients on his close association with Trump, noting that he still was the president's lawyer, according to associates. He showed photos of himself with Trump and mentioned how frequently they spoke, even asking people to share news articles describing him as the president's "fixer."

RELATED: Trump lawyer sold 'insight' into his high-powered client

"I'm crushing it," he said, according to an associate who spoke to him in the summer of 2017.

Now Playing: Michael Cohen is making his most astonishing claim of defense yet, insisting some of that supposed evidence leveled against him is being confused with another Michael Cohen. Nathan Rousseau Smith has the story. Video: Buzz 60

Details that emerged this week reveal how Cohen quickly leveraged his role as Trump's personal attorney, developing a lucrative sideline as a consultant to companies eager for insight into how to navigate the new administration. The rapid flow of millions of dollars to Cohen shows the rush by corporations - unable to rely on the influence of Washington's traditional lobbying class in dealing with a new, populist outsider president - to lock in relationships with Trump's inner circle.

The companies cited a range of reasons for hiring Cohen. A Korean defense company competing for a U.S. contract said it paid him $150,000 to advise it on accounting practices. A global pharmaceutical company said it paid him $1.2 million to provide insight into health-care policy - money it said it was required to keep paying even after concluding that Cohen had little to offer. A telecommunication company said it turned to him simply to better understand the Trump administration.

Even the office in which he operated - which served as fulcrum of the newly created Michael D. Cohen & Associates - was a side benefit of his Trump affiliation. It was provided by the powerhouse legal and lobbying firm Squire Patton Boggs, which signed Cohen to a $500,000 deal in the wake of the 2016 election.

Cohen's business activities have been under investigation by both special counsel Robert Mueller III and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which conducted raids on his office, home, hotel room and safe-deposit box on April 9.

RELATED: Report claims Melania and Trump estranged while she shoots down White House rumors

Both teams of investigators have scrutinized the intersection of Cohen's work and the president's interests - and how the activity flowed through Essential Consultants, a company Cohen formed in the fall of 2016 and used to pay hush money to an adult-film star who claimed she had an affair with Trump.

Late last year, the special counsel sought information from two of the companies that hired Cohen, AT&T and Novartis, the companies said Wednesday,

Cohen, who refinanced his Park Avenue condominium in recent days, according to public documents, and faces mounting legal bills, did not respond to a request for comment. His lawyer declined to comment.

But a friend of Cohen's said that so many potential clients approached the president's lawyer after the election that he had to turn many down.

"An entrepreneur always understands their opportunities. And Michael has always been an entrepreneur," said the friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

In the wake of Trump's election, Cohen collected at least $2.2 million from corporate clients, according to figures confirmed by the companies.

Cohen may have needed the big paydays. Despite being listed as a top choice for Trump's White House counsel, he had failed to get a top job. The value of his New York taxi business was in a tailspin because of competition from ride-hailing services.

Selling access is common in Washington, but investigators could probe whether Cohen promised specific government actions in exchange for payments, which could cause him legal trouble. If he spent large amounts of time speaking to government officials on behalf of clients, investigators could also explore whether he should have registered as a lobbyist. They could also probe whether he made misstatements on bank records associated with his consulting company.

Cohen worked with clients in at least two ways: through his limited liability corporation, Essential Consultants, and his contract with Squire Patton Boggs.

Essential Consultants was formed in October 2016, around the time Cohen transferred $130,000 to pay adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who was planning to go public with allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump. The president has denied the affair, but his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has said Trump reimbursed Cohen.

Other activities by the consulting firm became public Tuesday when Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, released a report with specific bank transactions linked to Essential Consultants. The source of Avenatti's information was unclear, but many of the payments were confirmed by the companies, prompting a Treasury Department investigation into how he obtained the material. Late Wednesday, Cohen's lawyers accused Avenatti of improperly obtaining Cohen's bank records.

Perhaps Essential Consultants' most notable contract was with Columbus Nova, a New York-based investment firm that said it paid Cohen $500,000 between January and August 2017. In a statement, Columbus Nova said it is owned and managed by Americans but acknowledged it manages assets for a company controlled by the Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.

Columbus Nova said it paid Cohen to help it with investments such as real estate. It said Vekselberg had nothing to do with the decision to hire Cohen. Vekselberg attended Trump's inauguration with Andrew Intrater, his cousin and the head of Columbus Nova. A person familiar with their attendance at the inauguration said Cohen, Intrater and Vekselberg were seen together.

Korea Aerospace Industries confirmed to The Washington Post that it paid $150,000 to Cohen's company, but spokesman Oh Sung-keon said that it was unaware of Essential Consultants' connection to Trump. The company said it paid Cohen's firm "to inform reorganization of our internal accounting system." The company is in contention for a multibillion joint U.S. contract with Lockheed Martin for jet trainers.

Novartis, a giant Swiss drugmaker, said it hired Essential Consultants because it "believed that Michael Cohen could advise the company as to how the Trump administration might approach certain US healthcare policy matters, including the Affordable Care Act," said spokeswoman Sofina Mirza-Reid.

Novartis is one of the world's largest drug companies, with a business deeply shaped by U.S. government actions - including drug approvals and drug reimbursements.

But after an initial meeting with Cohen, Novartis determined that he "would be unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated related to US healthcare policy matters and the decision was taken not to engage further," Mirza-Reid said. But she said the company could not terminate the contract "for cause," and thus paid the agreed-upon $1.2 million.

Cohen offered insight into how the Trump administration would work, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to comment candidly. The health-care landscape at the time was ripe for upheaval, and Cohen promised to help the company understand the Trump administration's views and likely actions on key issues such as the Affordable Care Act.

AT&T, meanwhile, hired Cohen "to provide insights into understanding the new administration." The Avenatti report said AT&T paid $200,000 to Essential Consultants, and AT&T confirmed making an unspecified payment.

AT&T had several important issues before federal officials, including the company's proposed merger with Time Warner. That deal was struck in October 2016, and the Justice Department began efforts to block the merger with a lawsuit filed in November 2017.

Cohen was able to sign up such lucrative clients because many companies at the time were anxious to hire Trump insiders. Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign aide who in January 2017 opened a consulting firm, Avenue Strategies, in partnership with former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, said there was more potential business than they could handle.

"When we opened our doors, the phone just rang and rang and rang. . . . We turned a lot of business away. My guess is that anybody who was perceived as close to Trump, their phones were ringing like ours. It was like shooting fish in the barrel."

A Cohen friend described the lawyer's appeal to corporations: "Probably no one in the country who understands the mechanics of Trump world better than Michael Cohen."

Another Cohen associate said that in early 2017, he was looking for potential clients, as well as investors in U.S. real estate, a subject that Cohen knew about from personal experience buying New York City properties.

One of Cohen's highest-paying ventures was with Squire Patton Boggs, the lobbying firm that boasts former Senate majority leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and former senator John Breaux, D-La., as counsel. Squire Patton Boggs was unprepared for a Trump presidency, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Hiring Cohen for $500,000 was "a no-brainer," said a person at the firm familiar with the contract. "The perception of having the president's personal lawyer" working with the firm was helpful "from an optics perspective" with the administration. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the contract.

The firm says its initial plan that Cohen would jointly represent clients did not pan out. It said he referred five clients but declined to disclose them. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that one client was a company called US Immigration Fund, which promotes a program under which foreigners can invest in U.S. developments and receive U.S. visas. The company last year helped plan a trip to China to recruit investors by Kushner Companies, the firm formerly headed by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner. The company did not return phone calls from The Post earlier this week.

In a statement, Squire Patton Boggs said, "Mr. Cohen referred a handful of routine legal matters to the firm which were completely unrelated to his work for the president."

A person familiar with the contract said the company is trying to minimize Cohen's role because it no longer wants to be associated with him. This person said that Cohen, as the original news release laid out, worked with a variety of executives at the firm and attended meetings.

"They paraded him to clients all those months," the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential arrangement between Cohen and the firm.

Craig Holman, a government-affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, said Cohen's work at the firm should be disclosed because he was simultaneously Trump's personal attorney and introducing clients to a lobbying firm that may have interests before the president and his administration.

"This is the swamp of Washington," Holman said, referring to Trump's campaign metaphor about draining the city of special-interest players. "If you are the president's attorney, you should not be in a position to enrich oneself."

Now, a year after he signed up many of his clients, the contracts are mostly gone.

"This has destroyed him," said one of Cohen's closest friends, bemoaning the behavior of those who once courted but have now abandoned Cohen. "The whole thing is so horrible."

- - -

The Washington Post's Min Joo Kim in Seoul, and Emma Brown, Brian Fung, Tom Hamburger and Craig Timberg contributed to this report.

---

Video Embed Code

Video: When Stormy Daniels' lawyer tweeted out bank records for President Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen, a whole new web of connections was unfurled.(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Embed code:The story of the first exploration of Pluto is told between two postage stamps.

In 1991 the United States Postal Service created a set of stamps with photographs of the planets with a notable omission. Pluto was designated as Not yet explored, and represented by a painting. In May 2016, the USPS issued a new stamp set  Pluto Explored!  with a photo of the remote planet and the New Horizons, the interplanetary space probe that buzzed past Pluto at 32,000 miles per hour.

Between those two stamps is a story that involved years of research, thousands of people involved in coordinated work and billions of miles, along with rejection, false starts, a fraught communications blackout, interplanetary research grudges and all manner of drama.

Dr. Alan Stern, the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission, with astrobiologist and writer Dr. David Grinspoon, told that story in Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto. Theirs is a space and science book that reads more like a thriller.

Its a book about space exploration but wed like it to be a breakout book about space exploration, Stern says. It is a thriller and an adventure story because it tells what actually happened.

Adds Grinspoon, We certainly left a lot out because we wanted an accessible book. Somebody else can write the scholarly book, 700 pages long with the footnotes. We wanted to tell this as the adventure story that it is.

More Information Thought Leader Series with Alan Stern and David Grinspoon When: 7 p.m. Saturday Where: Space Center Houston, 1601 NASA Parkway Details: free but limited seating; tickets at spacecenter.org See More Collapse

For more stories from Andrew Dansby, check out Conversations, an extra for Houston Chronicle and HoustonChronicle.com subscribers.

Befitting a mission that took years to get to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, and then additional years as New Horizons made its way across more than 3 billion miles, Chasing New Horizons has a few different starting points.

One starting point is the story of Clyde Tombaugh, described as a Kansas farm boy with no formal technical training, who looked at the night skies through a Sears Roebuck telescope. Hed go on to pick up the work of storied astronomer Percival Lowell, seeking an elusive Planet X, which Tombaugh found in 1930.

Tombaugh was a giant, Stern says. He was doing work in the 30s that technology didnt catch up to until the 90s. He had legendary skills, and he pulled off something amazing. Hes a great American.

Stern came along nearly 20 years later, born in New Orleans in 1957. The story of Chasing New Horizons also could be said to begin with his time at the University of Texas, where in 1980 he asked a planetary research professor for some guidance for a worthwhile research problem.

Why dont you work on Pluto? was the response.

Stern has been involved in 29 scientific space missions in his career. Pluto could have been his white whale, only Stern wasnt drowned by his quarry. So instead it became a legacy project.

In conversation, Stern repeatedly deflects attention to the team of about 2,500 people whose work on New Horizons extended beyond a decade, from conception to planning to execution to analysis.

It was a grueling process, he says. But the whole project team worked their tails off against very long odds to make it happen. Some things came out of the blue and a few fell in our favor. Some didnt. But hard work by a talented team is why it paid off. People say you make your own luck.

To reveal too much about the logistical web involved in the New Horizons project would rob the reader of the story Stern and Grinspoon tell. But the pacing of their story is bracing as the idea of a Pluto mission was met with skepticism and setbacks, one after the other, including a pronouncement at one point that the mission was Dead, dead, dead.

Thats very dead.

Thats an exact quote, Grinspoon says. One or two deads might have been ambiguous, I guess.

But New Horizons wasnt dead.

The authors have with the book achieved a certain narrative sleight of hand. Learning more about the solar system inevitably shrinks it, in a sense, as unknowns become knowns. But to a layperson who just gazed at the photos of Pluto splashed on papers and websites in 2015, the story in Chasing New Horizons is one of unthinkable scope, where the launchpad moment comes nearly a decade before the missions success or failure can be known. During which transmissions between Earth and the vessel  which were moving at the speed of light  could still take 10 hours. The mission also couldnt have launched at any given time. A cliche on Earth, the planets literally had to align for New Horizons to be successful. A nine-year journey ultimately passed through a nine-minute window.

Part of the story is about delayed gratification, Grinspoon says. This whole decade in the wilderness. And part of that story for the participants was tedious. But we didnt want it to be tedious for the reader. So we tried to convey what some of the experience was like for the team. How a proposal was canceled, with emotional reactions.

The project itself provided some drama. After rejection at the outset, the projects green light came in a way that forced a red-eyed blitz of planning. And days before the spacecraft was to pass Pluto, a communications blackout created white-knuckled tension back on Earth. The authors also offer some historical context to present the stakes involved. In 1992 the Mars Observer blew up, illustrating how these huge financial undertakings come with no promise of reward.

And mid-mission, a dispute arose about Plutos designation as a planet. While that designation was mined for laughs on late night TV and used as a punch line in a Randy Newman song, Stern actually found it void of humor. Chasing New Horizons attributes it to a petty attempt by a British astronomer to undo Tombaughs legacy.

I dont find it funny at all, frankly, Stern says. To try to erase the legacy of this great man is not only tragic, from a historic standpoint, it felt to me to be borderline criminal. As a professional planetary scientist, I found their work to be tragically flawed, scientifically. There was funding and science at stake, and it felt like one profession meddling in another.

So perhaps readers will find little touches of lightness elsewhere. Maybe in sentences like, For the Plutophiles, the late 1990s was a low point in morale.

But even that moment illustrates how Chasing New Horizons bridges worlds between Plutophiles and those who might once have been classified as Pluto-neutral.

Its true, were social creatures, Grinspoon says. We tend to find like-minded people and bond together. And Plutophiles faced some adversity that made them bond together strongly. It becomes more than common interest. But thats why we worked hard on this storys plotline. We wanted to arrange it to be an adventure story as well as an interesting book about science. We didnt want it to be weighted down by equations.

An early comment in the book by Stern underscores the books broad appeal.

Im really inspired by exploration itself, he writes, independent of the science.Republican voters in the 2nd Congressional District may be facing a difficult decision in the primary runoff this month.

Last year, Congressman Ted Poe, who has held the seat since 2004, announced that he would retire at the end of this term. As a result, nine candidates decided to vie for their partys nomination. A runoff was almost inevitable; all the candidates knew that.

But most of them, surely, were expecting that it would include Kathaleen Wall, a longtime GOP activist and donor who was endorsed by Gov. Greg Abbott and put nearly $6 million of her own money into the campaign.

Instead, the runoff is between state Rep. Kevin Roberts, who represents northwest Houston in the Texas Legislature, and Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL who edged Wall out of the primary by 155 votes.

I wasnt upset, said Crenshaw recently, when I congratulated him on this upset.

Read more: Once-cordial Houston congressional campaign turns testy

Neither was I, really. The Democratic nominee, Todd Litton, is a friend  and the kind of candidate who should be seen as a serious contender, even though the district is safely red, on paper.

But if Litton doesnt win, the Republican nominee will. So its nice to know that the Republican nominee will be either Roberts or Crenshaw. Neither is perfect, and both would have big shoes to fill; Poe is one of the most admirable members of Texas congressional delegation. But both Roberts and Crenshaw strike me as respectable individuals who have the potential to be effective members of Congress.

Some of Roberts supporters, however, are a bit dyspeptic about this twist of fate. Since the primary, two of them  independently of each other and without prompting  have grumbled to me that Crenshaw is sexy.

Hes just so cool, added one of them, ruefully.

Read more: Texans are in the mood to vote without meddling from anyone

I feel for Roberts, in a way. Theres nothing wrong with him. Hes well-regarded by his colleagues in the Legislature, and by local officials such as Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and Harris County Commissioner Jack Cagle, both of whom endorsed him in the primary, as did the Houston Chronicle.

Support from county officials is a sign of faith in Roberts to advocate for Houstons flood control needs at a federal level  the single most important issue in the 2018 election, the editorial noted.

Still, Crenshaw is pretty cool. He is one of the only Republican candidates in this entire midterm election cycle who could conceivably be described using such a word.

Shallow? Perhaps. But if the GOP is to have a future, theyll need to start nominating candidates whom millennials actually want to vote for  candidates who have some kind of electoral appeal.

Read more: Vote your conscience - in the primary of your choosing

Not right

And some of Roberts supporters have gone on the attack against Crenshaw, unfortunately.

Candidate Dan Crenshaw is seeking to become the Congressman to replace Retiring Ted Poe, wrote Terry Lowry in his Link Letter, which purports to be a useful guide for Texans who vote in the Republican primary.

While discussing his campaign over breakfast at the Broken Egg, he shared that he does not have a job, that he and his wife live with his parents, and he wants to become a Congressman, Lowry continued.

This is a dubious way to summarize Crenshaws situation. He was medically retired from the Navy in September 2016, several years after being injured in an IED blast while deployed in Afghanistan. He proceeded to earn a masters degree in public administration at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and returned to Houston last September, shortly after Harvey and shortly before Poe announced his decision to retire.

Roberts, who is Lowrys candidate of choice, disavowed the comments in an interview with conservative radio host Michael Berry, who had supported Crenshaw in the primary and continues to do so.

It was unbelievable. It was uncalled for, it was rude, it was disrespectful, it was just  not right, Roberts said on Berrys program on March 7.

Separate from candidate

He vowed to eschew any such mudslinging while campaigning for the May 22 runoff.

But mud is being slung: Last week, a political action committee called Conservative Results Matter launched an ad assailing Crenshaw as an anti-Trump leftist who is lying about his true views.

Read more: Normal Republicans deserve a voice

They followed up with a mailer, according to a Republican friend who was unable to provide me with the copy he received because he had torn it up in disgust.

The piece, my friend explained, accused Crenshaw of supporting the same health care plan as Bernie Sanders.

It also included a photo of Crenshaw from his left side, thus obscuring the injuries he sustained while serving in combat.

The groups goal, presumably, was to offset the electoral advantage conferred by the eye patch Crenshaw often wears, as a result of having lost his right eye. But Crenshaws eye patch isnt a fashion accessory. And the message sent by this mailer is a noxious one.

Roberts campaign said they had nothing to do with the mailer. Still, some Republican voters who have noticed such attacks may find that the choice in this runoff isnt so difficult after all.

erica.grieder@chron.com

twitter.com/ericagriederWASHINGTON  U.S. Rep. Will Hurd and a handful of GOP moderates filed paperwork today aimed at forcing votes on proposals to protect hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who landed in legal limbo after cancellation of the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program.

Their so-called discharge petition is a means to bypass House Speaker Paul Ryans opposition thus far to voting this election year on divisive matters related to immigration.

If successful,the San Antonio Republican and the others will initiate a full-bore immigration debate next month, forcing Congress to come to grips not just with DACA but with proposals pushed by the Trump administration to impose curbs on legal immigration.

President Donald Trump ordered the DACA program, which began in 2012, rescinded effective March 5. Key provisions of the program are being kept alive by federal courts, enabling recipients to renew work permits and avoid grounds for deportation. DACA protects some 700,000 young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.

Hurd, who is sponsoring one of the bills that would get a vote, expressed optimism in the tactic even though discharge petitions rarely succeed.

Nobody, when we first started this, thought we could get 50 co-sponsors on our bill, half Republicans and half Democrats. Everybody has been counting us out, but weve been able to evolve, he said in an interview.

Under House rules, their petition could not be taken up until June 25. Until then, the moderates will be rounding up the 218 signatures they need, Hurd said.

Hurd was joined in the parliamentary maneuver by other moderate Republicans, several of whom, like him, face potentially tough re-election battles this fall.

Speaking later at a news conference outside the Capitol, Hurd said the petition affords an opportunity to have a debate on the floor of Congress no matter what your ideological views are  lets do this before the end of summer.

By late afternoon Wednesday, Republicans had secured 17 signatures on the petition from their ranks. Republicans who appeared alongside Hurd said their petition was not an effort to undermine Ryan.

This has been a member-driven movement, just as the Speaker asked for when he was first elected. This is hundreds of conversations on both sides of the aisle to have a discussion and a debate, said Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif.

This is about doing our jobs, said Utah Republican Mia Love. This is about making sure that we are not consolidating power in the White House. If we are not allowed to bring a bill to the floor, to debate bills on the floor, then the people who voted for me will not have a vote on the House floor.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said that this was the first time in 28 years in Congress that she had signed a discharge petition when her party controlled the House.

That tells you what a sense of urgency, what a sense of priority, this Dreamers legislation has for all of us, she said.

Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong did not respond directly to questions about the parliamentary tactic but said in a statement, We continue to work with our members to find a solution that can both pass the House and get the presidents signature.

Last month, Hurd and his GOP allies, joined by Democrats, pressed Ryan and GOP leaders to embrace the rarely used Queen of the Hill rule, which would enable votes on four competing measures that would in some fashion restore provisions of DACA. They refused.

The petition would force votes on the four pieces of legislation, among them a combined DACA fix and border security proposal authored by Hurd that has gained more than two-dozen GOP sponsors and would be expected to win all Democratic votes. Hurd said that he and his chief co-sponsor, California Democrat Pete Aguilar, are open to making changes in coming weeks to draw more Republicans.

Another bill that would get a vote is the Dream Act, short for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, that would set in motion a multistage process giving young immigrants conditional status and ultimately permanent residence.

A third proposal, co-sponsored by Austin Republican Michael McCaul, is the most conservative and would grant legal status for young immigrants only for three years at a time.

Ryan would choose the fourth piece of legislation, perhaps the far-reaching plan by the White House to offer protections for 1.8 million DACA-aged immigrants in return for as much as $25 billion in border wall funding and overhaul of popular methods of legal immigration. The Senate soundly rejected the administration plan in February.

The proposal getting the most votes would move to the Senate provided that it had at least 218 supporters, a majority.

The maneuvering by Hurd and the others will test Republican Party discipline with GOP House leadership set to change now that Ryan has announced he is leaving Congress after this term.

Conservatives began their push to reject the plan. On Wednesday, former Sen. Jim DeMint, who heads the Conservative Partnership Institute advocacy group, tweeted: Thought amnesty was dead? Some GOP using queen of the hill strategy to quietly ram amnesty through. Are they trying to lose the House?

Asked to respond, Hurd said: This is about bringing a permanent solution for 1 million-plus young immigrants who have only known the United States as their home and who already are contributing to our economy and our history and our culture.

He added: And this is also about, once and for all, finally having a smart way to secure our border.

bill.lambrecht@hearstdc.comWASHINGTON  Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said Thursday that the city is seriously considering a bid for the Democratic National Convention in 2020, joining seven other cities that have taken initial steps to host the event.

Democratic National Committee officials confirmed that Houston is one of eight cities that were sent formal proposal requests after responding to initial inquiries to gauge their interest.

Turners statement comes a week after San Antonio officials decided not to submit a bid to host the 2020 Republican National Convention, citing the upfront costs of an international spectacle that could draw 40,000 visitors.

That decision, according to San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, extends to the Democratic convention as well. The decision was derided by some Republican officials who had actively courted the city.

Other cities that have expressed interest in the Democratic convention are Atlanta, Birmingham, Denver, Miami Beach, Milwaukee, New York City and San Francisco.

Houston, unlike San Antonio, has a history of hosting political conventions, including the 1992 Republican convention at the Astrodome that launched President George H.W. Bushs unsuccessful reelection campaign against Democrat Bill Clinton.

The city also hosted the 1928 Democratic convention. Turner said he was pleased that the Democrats have come knocking again.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) issued a request for proposal to the city of Houston to host the 2020 convention, and we are seriously considering it, Turner said. With all that this city has to offer it is not surprising that Houston would again be among the top list of contenders to Host the DNC in 2020. Houston is the 4th largest city and most diverse city in the country and has a reputation for being a welcoming city with first-class venues and attractions.

DNC spokesman Michael Tyler said the organization sent initial letters of interest last month to a broad list of cities that have traditionally been able to meet the preliminary requirements for hosting conventions, including event facilities, transportation, and hotels.

Houston was among those that expressed initial interest in what could be a long, competitive process. We expect the entire selection process to play out over the next year, Tyler said.

Open for business

Turner noted that Houston has shown it can handle massive events, including Super Bowl LI, the 2017 World Series, and most recently the 2018 Offshore Technology Conference. In 2020, Houston also will host the World Petroleum Congress.

In case there is any doubt, I want the world to know that after Hurricane Harvey, Houston is resilient and open for business, Turner said.

But while the mayor is bullish on Houston, the decision to make a formal bid has yet to be made.

By hosting the DNC in 2020, Houston would increase our standing on the national and global stage, so we are certainly interested in reviewing the DNCs requirements before deciding whether to submit a formal bid, Turner said. After full consideration, we will move forward in the best interest of our city.

As Democrats sift through a long list of potential candidates to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020, the convention is certain to provide a defining moment in the battle to unseat one of the most controversial figures of modern times.

The Democrats met in Philadelphia in 2016 to pick Hillary Clinton as their nominee. The Republicans nominated Trump in Cleveland.

Both were in states seen as potential battlegrounds in presidential politics. That would hardly seem the case in Texas, which hasnt gone Democrat in a presidential election since 1976, when Jimmy Carter carried the state.

Ground zero for Democrats

Texas Democrats, however, say a national convention could be a much-needed boost, especially in Houston. In a statement Thursday, the Harris County Democratic Party said hosting the 2020 convention would build momentum because Harris County is ground zero for turning Texas blue and when we flip the state, the country comes with us.

But logistical concerns can sometimes trump symbolism as ever-larger political conventions present increasingly complicated transportation, hospitality and security challenges. Large protests also have become a regular part of the equation.

Officials at the Houston First Corporation, a publicly-chartered group that promotes the city, said they are working with the mayors office and are waiting to hear from the DNC about the specific financial and logistical requirements for hosting the convention, which some compare in scale to a Super Bowl level event.

As with other big events, local business leaders and city host committees are usually expected to raise millions to host political conventions.

Both parties have long considered Texas when looking for a host. Houston was the first Texas city to hold a convention in 1928, when Democrats nominated New York Gov. Alfred Smith to lead their ticket. That year, Republicans held their convention site in Kansas City, where U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover went on to win the nomination and the presidency.

Dallas, too, has hosted a major partys convention. In 1984, Republicans flocked to Dallas to nominate incumbent President Ronald Reagan, who would go on to win his re-election against Minnesota Sen. Walter Mondale. George H.W. Bush ran as Reagans vice president during both his 1980 and 1984 campaigns.

It took another six decades before Houston was once again the convention site for one of the two major parties  this time, for the Republicans. In 1992, as Bush, then incumbent president, faced his fourth time being on a presidential ballot, Republicans gathered in Houston to nominate him for re-election. Bush faced a competitive three-way campaign that featured fellow Texan Ross Perot.

In 2016, Austin was one of two dozen cities invited by the DNC to apply for that years nominating convention. However, then-Mayor Lee Leffingwell declined to bid, saying the city didnt have a sufficient transportation system or an event venue that could meet the partys requirements.

In rejecting the 2020 GOP convention, officials in San Antonio seem to have come to a similar conclusion  angering some local business leaders. While the mayor didnt say the city wasnt up to the task, he questioned whether the potential costs  the total cost of the 2016 convention in Philadelphia was estimated at $127 million  would outweigh an estimated economic impact of $200 million.

As a whole, the City Council did not feel it was worth it to move forward, Nirenberg told the San Antonio Express News. The decision drew a strong rebuke from Brad Parscale, Trumps current campaign manager and a former San Antonian.

Weak-kneed Ron, Parscale chided on Twitter. A city council of left-wing activists destroying the economy of #SanAntonio. @Ron_Nirenberg and city council just made the business community their enemy. Have fun with that.

Third parties also hold national conventions during presidential years, and Texas has seen several cities as hosts. In 2016, Jill Stein was nominated to lead the Green Party ticket at the groups convention in Houston.

Mike Morris, Forrest S. Milburn, and Mihir Zaveri contributed to this report.

kevin.diaz@chron.com

twitter.com/diazchronHouston ISDs 10 longest-struggling schools likely would not trigger major state sanctions this year if they all receive academic accountability waivers because of Hurricane Harvey, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said Wednesday.

However, the district still would face punishment  either campus closures or a state takeover of the districts locally elected school board  if Morath opts against accountability waivers for the schools and a single one fails to meet state academic standards.

The commissioners comments, made during a wide-ranging interview with the Houston Chronicle editorial board, answered several questions about the potential penalties facing Texas largest district, which must boost performance at its campuses to avoid unprecedented state intervention.

WHAT NEXT? Fate of Houston ISD's struggling schools now rests with the state

The threat of sanctions has roiled some HISD trustees and community members, culminating with a raucous school board meeting last month that resulted in two arrests and dozens of people temporarily forced to leave the building.

Under a law passed in 2015 with broad bipartisan support, Morath must shut down campuses or replace HISD's school board if any one of its schools fails to meet state academic standards for five consecutive years. Ten HISD schools serving nearly 7,000 students risk triggering the law, and HISD leaders have conceded it is unlikely all 10 will meet state standards this year.

As a result, HISD likely will need Morath to issue Harvey-related accountability waivers to some or all of the 10 campuses to stave off sanctions. A decision on Harvey waivers is expected in June. All 10 of the schools were closed for 10 or 11 days following Harvey, with none sustaining catastrophic damage.

Morath repeatedly cautioned that no final decisions have been made about Harvey-related waivers or potential sanctions. However, if any of the 10 schools trigger the state law this year, Morath said he does not believe he has the legal authority to give HISD a break, as some Houston-area leaders have requested.

"Short version: I'm a constitutionally sworn officer, so, no," Morath said. "I do what the law tells me."

Q & A: Could Texas take over Houston ISD? And why are people so upset?

Morath said Texas Education Agency officials continue to collect and analyze data that will help decide which schools will receive Harvey-related accountability waivers. He expects the agency will analyze several campus-level factors  including days of instruction missed, students displaced and teachers left homeless  as they set criteria for issuing waivers. Some of those data points have been collected on a weekly basis, Morath said.

Our team is trying to figure out whether or not the rules should be entirely consistent with (Hurricane) Ike or slightly more generous, Morath said. I think Im currently leaning toward a slightly more generous framework than the prior systems, where its not just dates closed, but also student and staff displacement as a factor.

Following Hurricane Ike in 2008, any school or district closed for at least 10 instructional days due to the storm received a not rated grade, unless its rating improved from the previous year.

Many Houston-area leaders, including interim HISD Superintendent Grenita Lathan, HISD trustees and Mayor Sylvester Turner, have urged Morath to issue districtwide accountability waivers. They have been joined by districts up and down the Gulf Coast, from windswept Port Aransas to heavily flooded Beaumont. Gov. Greg Abbott also urged the commissioner last December to consider ways to help relieve some of the pressures on students in areas most affected by Hurricane Harvey.

If some of HISDs 10 longest-struggling schools do not receive waivers and fall short of state academic standards, Morath will face a monumental decision: close campuses that serve predominately black and Hispanic students in high-poverty neighborhoods, or wrest control of HISDs 284 schools from its nine-person board of trustees. The 10 schools in question are Blackshear, Dogan, Highland Heights, Mading and Wesley elementary schools; Henry Middle School; Woodson PK-8; and Kashmere, Wheatley and Worthing high schools.

Asked about a potential decision to close HISD schools, Morath sounded somewhat reluctant to go down that path.

Im not sure closure is, in fact, the best option in Houston, Morath said Wednesday. But were still evaluating that, and weve got to see what happens in August.

Asked about the his assessment of HISDs school board, which has been criticized for less-than-optimal operation in years past, Morath said one sure-fire way of evaluating is based on results.

BOARD DRAMA: HISD trustee calls on Skillern-Jones to relinquish president's post after meeting flap

On the academic trajectory at HISDs 10 long-struggling schools, Morath said: Its hard for me to comment from afar on that. Districts themselves have access to inner performance information, so Im not sure I have a precise answer to it. Theres cases where campuses are getting better and places where campuses are getting worse.

On several occasions, Morath spoke about educational systems and HISDs need to assign its best and brightest staff members to long-struggling schools. He acknowledged the district has implemented changes through its Achieve 180 plan, which dedicated $15 million to improve educator quality and social services at 32 schools last year, but he noted that other school districts have made more drastic staff overhauls at chronically low-performing campuses.

Achieve 180 began, I think, moving the district in the right direction, Morath said. The question is: Was it sufficient for the challenge faced? And Im not sure it is. Well find out this year and well see the results. Either it will have borne fruit, or it wasnt fully adequate.

HISD officials did not immediately respond to Moraths comments Wednesday.

If Morath opts to replace HISDs school board, he said he expects to appoint well-qualified people that live in Houston and people of character and ability with diverse backgrounds. A replacement board likely would take over sometime around January 2019 and remain in place until the underlying issues that led to their appointment improved.

Shelby Webb contributed to this report.

jacob.carpenter@chron.com

twitter.com/chronjacobNASA leadership plans to reassign all 90 employees working on the space agency's recently canceled lunar rover to "other opportunities within the agency" when work ends this month.

The much-anticipated rover, called Resource Prospector, was canceled April 23 -- the same day Jim Bridenstine was sworn in as NASA's new administrator.

The $250 million rover was being built to learn more about the availability of water on the moon. Much of the work on the mission, slated to fly in 2022 or 2023, was being done at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

RELATED STORY: NASA's lunar rover could enable deep-space exploration

The agency's abrupt cancellation of the rover stunned scientists and researchers alike, especially given the recent push by President Donald Trump's administration to return Americans to the moon as a stepping stone for a mission to Mars.

RELATED STORY: Scientists, engineers say lunar rover axed at NASA, ask Bridenstine to reinstate it

But the agency said earlier this month that Resource Prospector no longer suited its exploration campaign, bringing an end to the three-year project. If an independent review of the cancellation confirms NASA's decision, the rover will be scrapped for parts.

"This project was intended as a one-time effort to explore a specific location on the Moon, and as designed, now is too limited in scope for the agency's expanded lunar exploration focus," a May 3 post on NASA's website stated. "NASA's return to the Moon will include many missions to locate, extract and process elements across bigger areas of the lunar surface."

A NASA spokeswoman told the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday that "selected instruments from the mission concept will fly on early Commercial Lunar Payload Services mission to the moon."

The review is expected to conclude at the end of the month, but the agency appears to already be looking for new rover ideas.

On April 27, NASA announced that it was looking for proposal ideas from the U.S. commercial space industry for new technologies to deliver payloads to the moon.

"This request for Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) will further expand efforts to support development and partnership opportunities on the lunar surface," the space agency's post stated. "Using these services, the agency will accelerate a robotic return to Moon, with upcoming missions targeted for two to three years earlier than previously planned."

NASA went on to say that lunar surface missions were expected to begin as soon as 2019, with the first surface delivery slated for no later than Dec. 31, 2021.

Since taking office, Trump has made it clear that returning to the moon for the first time since 1972 is a priority for his administration. He revived the defunct National Space Council last year and, later, signed Space Policy Directive-1 urging NASA to return Americans to the moon.

Earlier this year, the president released a $19.9 billion NASA budget proposal for the coming fiscal year that tasks NASA with launching the first flight without a crew for Orion -- the spacecraft meant to take humans to Mars -- by 2022, followed by a launch of Americans around the moon in 2023.

NASA officials hope to launch the uncrewed flight in December 2019, but that will likely slip to June 2020 in part because of construction delays for the rocket that will carry Orion into space.

Centers around the country, including Johnson, already are working diligently to reach these deadlines.

Additionally, Trump's proposal would allow the agency to begin working on the foundation of a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, saying it would "give us a strategic presence in the lunar vicinity that will drive our activity with commercial and international partners and help us further explore the moon and its resources and translate that experience toward human missions to Mars."

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckeyGary Fountain, For the Chronicle / For the Chronicle

WASHINGTON  White House adviser Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, will travel to Texas on Friday with Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn, one of the chief sponsors of new prison reform legislation aimed at reducing recidivism and rehabilitating low-risk offenders.

A spokeswoman for Cornyn said Kushner will tour Seagoville Federal Correctional Institution outside Dallas. They will also receive briefings on the prison's community reentry program as well as their residential drug treatment program.

Mark Inch, Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, will also join for the visit.

The trip is part of the rollout of the First Step Act, bipartisan legislation modeled after successful reforms in Texas and other states to help ex-offenders reenter society.

COOLING CELL BLOCKS: Landmark suit could extend heat protections to thousands of inmates

The legislation mirrors previous corrections legislation sponsored by Cornyn that he said can reduce recidivism, save taxpayer dollars, and cut crime.

Prison reform has been a key priority for Kushner, who has become the face of a White House-backed bill now moving through the House despite internal GOP differences over sentencing reforms favored by Democrats but opposed by Trump. Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, is expected to be a key negotiator in moving the bill forward.

Details of the Texas trip have not yet been released by the White House.

Kevin Diaz is the Chronicle's Washington Bureau Chief, covering issues important to Texas from the White House to Capitol Hill. Follow him on twitter at @DiazChron and send him tips at Kevin.Diaz@chron.comAUSTIN -- Less than two weeks before Texas Democrats select a nominee to face Gov. Greg Abbott in November, the Republican incumbent is going on the attack against Lupe Valdez.

The campaign against Valdez gives a clear hint of how the governor's race will be scripted in coming months, especially if she wins a May 22 runoff against Houston entrepreneur Andrew White.

The governor's political campaign on Thursday launched a website that labels the former Dallas County sheriff "too liberal for Texas," calling her "the presumptive Democrat nominee for governor."

Valdez, in a late-morning response, insisted her views are "right for the new Texas."

Valdez bested White in a March primary with about two times his votes, and has been considered the front-runner by party leaders, even though an April poll suggested they might both be within single-digits of Abbott.

Valdez and White, both struggling with underfunded campaigns and low statewide name identification, are to debate Friday evening in Austin. Abbott has more than $40 million in his campaign war chest and is generally popular across the state.

Abbott several weeks ago caused a stir by suggesting Valdez would be the Democratic nominee.

"Valdez . . . wants to put Texas on the pathway to become a liberal sanctuary state in the mold of California," Texans for Greg Abbott campaign manager John Jackson said in a statement. "The website will feature the far-left positions Valdez would pursue as governor, starting with her anti-life and pro-abortion views.

Abbott campaign officials said the website will be updated through the November general election to "inform voters how detrimental Valdez and her views would be for the state of Texas."

Listing Abbott's accomplishments since he was elected four years ago, including low unemployment and higher wages, Jackson said "Lupe Valdez and her far-left positions would undo all of this."

In the short Abbott video, a narrator explains that Abbott supported passage of a ban on sanctuary cities, a law that Valdez has promised to "eviscerate" if she is elected. White has also opposed that law.

The video also highlights that Valdez is pro-choice and supported by Planned Parenthood, while Abbott is pro-life and worked to cut off state funding for the organization, and that she wants to "expand Obamacare," a position that he opposes.

In a statement responding to Abbott's attack, Valdez defended her positions.

"I'm a proud Texan. I was born here, went to Texas public schools, am a veteran, and a former Texas sheriff," she said.

"I know first hand the importance of looking out for all Texans not just corporations and well connected CEOs. The New Texas that I'm fighting for is one where all Texans have opportunities to succeed. There is nothing too liberal about that."

In a separate development Thursday, Valdez was endorsed by former San Antonio mayor and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro.

"Unlike Governor Abbott, Lupe Valdez will be a champion for all of us," Castro said in a statement. "As a migrant farm worker, Army veteran, and most recently as Sheriff of Dallas County, Lupe has a lived a life of hard work and sacrifice -- qualities everyday Texans know and respect. Our state deserves a Governor who will fight to expand opportunity for all Texans, not just those at the top. "

Mike Ward covers the Governor's Office, Executive Branch agencies, criminal justice and ethics and investigations as Austin Bureau chief for the Houston Chronicle. Send tips at mike.ward@chron.com, and follow him on Twitter @ChronicleMike.AUSTIN  Former gymnasts who were sexually abused by disgraced USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar asked the Texas attorney generals office Thursday to direct an investigation into crimes that might have occurred in Texas, arguing Texas investigators have not moved as aggressively as those in other states.

But within hours of that request, Walker County District Attorney David Weeks said the Texas Rangers and Walker County Sheriffs Department can handle the local investigation and he has no plans at this time to ask for help from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

A grand jury could be seated this summer to consider whether criminal charges should be filed, county officials in Huntsville said.

I have the utmost confidence in the Texas Rangers and the Walker County Sheriffs Department, Weeks said. When they have completed their investigation, my office will review all of the information gathered and present the findings (to the grand jury).

Weeks comments came hours after five former gymnasts were joined by their attorneys in front of the attorney generals office, asking Paxton to launch an investigation or intervene in the current probe into possible crimes that might have occurred at the Sam Houston National Forest ranch owned by Bela and Martha Karolyi. The ranch until 2016 housed the USA Gymnastics womens training center.

I cant understand why this is not taken seriously in Texas right now, said 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Jamie Dantzscher. How many little girls and young women does it take to take sexual abuse seriously?

Attorneys said they are concerned the Texas investigation might be focused solely on Nassar and not on others who might have had knowledge of his actions and failed to report them. They also believe Texas should emulate Indiana and Michigan in having the state attorney general involved.

This is a crime that occurred across state lines and a crime that occurred internationally, said attorney John Manly, who has filed lawsuits in California against USA Gymnastics, Nassar and, in one case, the Karolyis. Attorneys general know each other. They need to coordinate this investigation and work together, and right now Texas isnt doing that.

Waco attorney Michelle Simpson Tuegel, who along with Houston attorney Mo Aziz has filed state and federal civil lawsuits on behalf of Nassars victims, said potential criminal violations associated with the Nassar case in Texas could include failure to report sexual abuse, injury to a child and endangering a child.

We know there were all these adults who allowed (Nassar) to continue to do this on Texas soil, and we owe these survivors and these victims more than that in Texas, Tuegel said. Theyve done it in Michigan. I think Texas needs to step up.

One focus of the probe, attorneys argue, should be Martha Karolyi, who was womens national team coordinator from 2001 through 2016 during a time when several gymnasts, including Dantzscher and other Olympic medalists, have said they were molested by Nassar at the ranch under the guise of medical care.

Thursdays news conference came a day after Martha Karolyis attorney acknowledged Karolyi misspoke in a June 2017 deposition when she said she learned in June 2015 that Nassar had molested gymnasts at the ranch, a year before he was arrested in Michigan.

Attorney Gary Jewell, who represents the Karolyis, said Martha Karolyi did not learn until after the 2016 Olympics that Nassar was suspected of sexual abuse of gymnasts under the guise of medical care.

But Manly said he believes Karolyis initial statement and noted she did not change her story when given a chance to review her deposition testimony.

Mr. Jewells statement is a desperate attempt to explain that he got caught, and Mrs. Karolyi got caught, in a big fat lie, Manly said. Mrs. Karolyi knew in June 2015 that Larry Nassar had assaulted little girls. The law in Texas requires her to immediately call the police or call child protection services, and she didnt.

And, as a result, there are women standing up here, including a 16-year-old girl who was molested after that time, and the responsibility lies squarely on Mrs. Karolyis shoulders (and those of other USA Gymnastics officials).

Manlys reference was to Autumn Blaney, 16, who was abused at a gym in Michigan by Nassar after June 2015.

It is incredibly unfair that Martha didnt do her job and protect me, Blaney said. I think its awful that I couldnt trust adults that were supposed to protect me.

Nassar, who worked with USA Gymnastics for more than 20 years and also treated athletes at Michigan State, is serving the equivalent of a life prison sentence for criminal sexual conduct in Michigan and federal charges of possession of child pornography.

Paxtons spokesman, Mark Rylander, said the attorney generals office was confident the Rangers and Walker County officials can investigate the case without assistance but that his office would assist if asked.

Manly said Rylanders response was political speak for we intend to do nothing. The survivors find this statement bitterly disappointing.AUSTIN - Former gymnasts who were sexually abused by disgraced doctor Larry Nassar asked the Texas attorney general's office Thursday to direct an investigation into crimes that may have taken place in Texas, arguing that investigators in Texas have not moved as aggressively as those on other states to investigate the Nassar case.

Among the subjects that should be investigated, the former gymnasts and their attorneys said, is the possibility that former national team coordinator Martha Karolyi learned in June 2015 of Nassar's criminal behavior, a year before he was arrested in Michigan, but failed to follow state law by reporting it to authorities.Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has a grudge  and hes taking it out on me.

Im one of the 800,000 courageous immigrant youth who made the choice and applied to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program so that I could provide for my family, and Paxton has made it his personal mission to make my life hell.

I grew up in Texas, went to middle school and high school in southwest Houston. With DACA, I have been able to work in my community to empower us to defend ourselves from the attacks we are experiencing from Paxton, people like him and the Trump administration. The same is true for DACA recipients across the country.

In August of last year, after his first attempt to kill DACA, I confronted Paxton, and he couldnt even admit his role in terrorizing families like mine. Instead, Paxton has taken it upon himself to attack young people like me again and again. He is playing a sick game with my life and the lives of more than 124,000 other Texas immigrants, and we are here to say: We will not back down.

EDITORIAL: Paxton's DACA lawsuit strays from Texas Republican mainstream

On Tuesday, I learned that Paxton filed yet another lawsuit to attack immigrant youth. This time, the lawsuit aims to prevent young people who are DACA recipients from renewing our applications. And the next day I learned that Paxton upped the cruelty by filing a motion to stop any renewals from happening while his lawsuit is considered.

Paxton is showing Texans what his priorities really are: attacking people of color and deporting immigrants every chance he gets. Already, three other federal courts have ruled that Trumps termination of DACA was not lawful, but Paxton wants the program killed so he chose to file in a conservative court in a small Texas town to try to get a favorable ruling.

As Paxton continues his shrinking crusade to strike fear and uncertainty in the hearts of young Texans, each time he files one of his lawsuits, fewer and fewer politicians join him. Thats because his actions are immoral and wrong.

OPINION: Paxton-led threat to DACA youth is misguided

Repeatedly punching at immigrant youth as Paxton and many elected Republicans do isnt popular. The vast majority of the American people support the Dream Act, but Republicans in Congress have blocked it and every other solution for immigrant young people . The vast majority also support immigrant youth, but Trump killed DACA and then obstructed all solutions to fix it.

Paxtons lawsuit shows that immigrant youth are being targeted by the extreme right, and that as many of us as possible must be protected by the DACA program while we still can. But the fees and procedure can be cumbersome for many families so United We Dream is raising money to help people pay for fees. We have already distributed three-quarters of a million dollars in DACA renewal assistance, but have hundreds of thousands of dollars in requests still to fill.

MORE: End DACA theater and fix immigration

I want Paxton to know that I am a Texan and that his hate doesnt represent the state and the people I love. Year after year, the leadership in Texas gets closer to representing the diverse and beautiful state that we are. Paxtons style of politics are in their final years. He knows this, and I want him to know that I am #HeretoStay and am ready to build a Texas where our state officials build up young Texans instead of trying to tear them down.

Gonzalez is a daughter, sister and Houstonian. She works in her community to grow networks of defense from deportations, build up community power and knowledge and to push back against anti-immigrant laws and policies at the local, state and federal levels with United We Dream Houston.We dont get many chances like this one.

Voters cast ballots for members of Congress every two years, but the simple truth is these politicians are so entrenched in their positions theyre almost always re-elected, and nothing changes. Around Houston this year, though, things are different.

Our congressional delegation faces a rare shake-up. A couple of longtime incumbents are retiring, and another one faces his first serious challenge since he took office at the turn of the century. If youre one of those people who complains about Congress not doing its job, maybe now is the time to do yours.

After interviewing the many candidates running for these seats, the Houston Chronicle editorial board made the following endorsements in the primary elections. We reiterate our support in the primary runoffs.

Republicans

United States Representative, District 2: Kevin Roberts

Congressman Ted Poes decision to retire after 14 years in office triggered a campaign calf-scramble between nine - count em, nine - Republicans in the GOP primary. His 2nd Congressional District is one of the most tortured examples of gerrymandering in all of Texas, with boundaries swirling around Montrose and the Heights, then west to Jersey Village, north to Kingwood and east to Atascocita. Nobody was surprised on primary election night when state Rep. Kevin Roberts made the runoff, but former Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw scored a political upset after his dark horse candidacy gained just enough last minute momentum to vault him into second place. Crenshaw comes across as a charismatic candidate with a compelling life story, but we believe Roberts is still GOP voters better choice.

As a state representative, Roberts had the foresight to write and pass a resolution urging Congress to provide funding for a storm surge barrier along the Texas coast  before Hurricane Harvey. He also passed bills that reduced state regulations, improved foster care, limited fees on student financial aid for veterans and expanded anti-nuisance laws. Hes been endorsed by everyone from the NRA to Harris County Judge Ed Emmett and Commissioner Jack Cagle, whove been impressed with his command of flood control issues. Crenshaw is an outstanding show horse, but Roberts is a proven workhorse.

United States Representative, District 29: Phillip Aronoff

Democratic Congressman Gene Green is retiring from the 29th Congressional District, which wraps around Harris Countys north and east sides. It encompasses largely Hispanic neighborhoods from inside the North Loop to the area just south of Intercontinental Airport, then drops down Beltway 8 East all the way down to Pasadena and Hobby Airport. Democratic state Sen. Sylvia Garcia easily won her partys primary, and the way this district is gerrymandered all but guarantees shell win the November election. Still, on the Republican side, consultant Phillip Aronoff and former television anchor Carmen Maria Montiel face each other in a runoff. Aronoffs long resume peppered with various positions in politics and government  for example, he was chairman of the State Purchasing and General Services Commission, he served on the Harris County Housing Authority and he was president of Houstons public access television station  makes him the more qualified candidate.

Democrats

United States Representative, District 7: Lizzie Pannill Fletcher

Democrats have a serious chance of knocking Republican Congressman John Culberson out of the seat he has occupied since 2001. The 7th Congressional District encompasses some of the Houston areas wealthiest neighborhoods, from West University Place and Bellaire to flood ravaged subdivisions in west and northwest Harris County. What was once the safely Republican district represented by George H.W. Bush was won by Hillary Clinton in the last presidential election. That caught the attention of seven Democrats who ran in a spirited primary. Now attorney Lizzie Pannill Fletcher and freelance writer Laura Moser face each other in a hotly contested runoff.

Fletcher is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate who edited the William and Mary Law Review, a former Vinson & Elkins attorney who later became the first woman partner at another 50-person litigation firm. Her professional credentials and connections present the Houston model of business-friendly cosmopolitanism that used to be the hallmark of local Republicans. That George H.W. Bush-James Baker model has been abandoned by the Trump crowd and now Democrats like Fletcher are starting to claim the political territory as their own.

Her longtime history of involvement in both the corporate world and local nonprofits offers an appeal to crossover voters yearning to hear the voice of a real Houstonian up in Washington.

Early voting in the primary runoffs begins Monday, May 14, and continues through Friday, May 18. Election Day is the following Tuesday, May 22. Even if you didnt vote in the March primary, you can vote in the runoff. But if you did vote in a partys primary, you cant switch parties for the runoff. You can find more information at HarrisVotes.com.It would force collective coverage on people who werent union members, he said. For example, all it would take is two people in a retail store to join a union and this would let unions claim collective coverage of the whole retail chain.

Hope also argues that the Bill would let union officials into any workplace without permission to recruit members, would breach employees privacy by requiring employers to pass on their details to the unions, and would reduce the chance of getting a job using job trials.

Overall, Hope said the Bill would strip flexibility from many workplaces, increase costs and make it harder to employ people.

The modern workplace relies on flexibility and collaboration and trust for its success, he said. Unfortunately this Bill would reduce flexibility, collaboration and trust.Thomas Knights is a photographer, performer and music producer whose wide-ranging experience extends from working with pop star Marina and The Diamonds to shooting for Marie Clare magazine.

Now, the multifaceted artist is embarking on his first solo exhibition titled "RED HOT," following on the heels of a recent collaborative project that showcased prominent figures within London's nightlife scene.

Advertisement

"RED HOT" features a diverse range of redheaded men and seeks to provide visibility and change perceptions surrounding the often-marginalized group of people.

The Huffington Post caught up with Knights to discuss his latest venture, the statement the project intends to make about stigmatization and bullying and the way "RED HOT" will contribute to a larger conversation about identity in the 21st century.

Advertisement

A slideshow of images from "RED HOT" is available below. The Huffington Post: How would you describe the work that you do? Where do you find your inspiration? Thomas Knights: In general my work is really narrative-based. I also think there is a strong advertising feel about it, whereby the product or clothing is the star of the image or film. My inspiration comes from many places -- but recently I've been remembering my dreams and have been quite inspired by them... They are often quite vivid and totally surreal, as all good dreams ought to be.

Why did you decide to pursue "RED HOT" as a project? What do you hope to accomplish with this series? It's something I had thought about for years -- the idea of creating an alternative to the awful stereotype ginger men are subjected to. I had the name "RED HOT" -- it summed up neatly the whole project. Then a newspaper ran an article asking, "Whats the new obsession with hot ginger men?" referencing Prince Harry and Damien Lewis and I realized there was something happening and I needed to start moving with the exhibition. That was about a year and a half ago. My ultimate aim is to bring about a change in the way our culture, and especially the media, depicts ginger men.

A press release for the exhibition states that the project is "in line with The Anti-Bullying Alliance." What does this mean for both you as an individual and the photo series itself? Could you also describe the anti-bullying alliance and the work that they do? In the United Kingdom, children with red hair can be really bullied at school. The Anti-Bullying Alliance were very excited to be a part of the exhibition as there is very little being done to combat this particular form of bullying -- it's incredibly ingrained in our culture. There are very few positive male role models with red hair too, so the exhibition tackles these issues and starts a conversation.

Advertisement

Is there a queer or gay component to "RED HOT" at all? Well, it's an exhibition about hot men with no clothes on, so I'm presuming it will have some gay appeal! Some of the models are gay and there has been quite a lot of gay press about it -- which is great!

What do you hope "RED HOT" will contribute to a larger conversation about identity and the way we perceive our fellow human beings? I would love to show other ginger men that they can ben proud of who they are. But ultimately, I would love there to be a public mind shift to allow more positive depictions of ginger men in film and TV.Imperial Valley News Center

Department of Energy Selects $3 Million in Research Projects to Advance Biofuels, Bioenergy, and Biobased Products

Washington, DC - Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $3 million in funding for advanced biofuels, bioenergy, and biobased products available through the Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI). DOE has selected two projects from the University of Tennessee and Northwestern University that will receive between $1 million to $2 million each.

Research projects funded through BRDIa joint program organized through DOE and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)will help develop economically and environmentally sustainable sources of biomass and increase the availability of competitively-priced renewable fuels and biobased products, all while helping to improve energy security by increasing and diversifying our domestic energy sources.

Integrating science and engineering, the two DOE projects will develop diverse, cost-effective cellulosic biomass technologies for use in the production of biofuels, as well as a range of biobased products that potentially can increase the economic feasibility of fuel production in a biorefinery. The DOE selections are:

The University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, TN  UT will be developing an integrated biorefinery design that combines the production of liquid fuels and renewable chemicals to verify production of affordable cellulosic ethanol.

Northwestern University (NU), Evanston, IL  NU will be developing a rapid synthesis of next-generation biofuels and bioproducts from lignocellulosic biomass. The project will employ several strategies to reduce the timeframe of discovering biosynthetic pathways to optimize fuel and chemical production, including bottom-up engineering principles, computational models, and cell-free framework systems.

Both these projects will lower the costs of the production of bio-based fuels, as well as co-products for chemicals and other uses. If successful, both projects will help the Bioenergy Technologies Office to meet its goal of less than $3 per gallon gasoline equivalent for advanced biofuels.

The Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) accelerates research and development of energy efficiency, sustainable transportation, and renewable energy technologies and solutions that strengthen U.S. energy security, and boost domestic energy production, energy resilience, and energy affordability. Learn more about EERE's work with industry, academia, and national laboratory partners on a balanced portfolio of research in biomass feedstocks and conversion technologies. For more information on funding opportunities for advanced bioenergy technology projects, see the Bioenergy Technologies Office's financial opportunities.Imperial Valley News Center

FDA warns more companies to stop misleading kids with e-liquids that resemble kid-friendly foods

Washington, DC - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today issued four new warning letters to manufacturers and retailers for selling e-liquids used in e-cigarettes with labeling and/or advertising that cause them to resemble kid-friendly food products, such as cereal, soda and pancakes. One of the companies receiving a warning letter was also cited for illegally selling the product to a minor. The warning letters follow actions taken last week by the FDA and the Federal Trade Commission against 13 other makers and sellers of nicotine-containing e-liquids that look like juice boxes, candy or cookies.

Companies putting children at risk or enticing youth use are on notice. If you target kids, then were going to target you, said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. These tactics also hurt the e-cigarette industry and those seeking to quit smoking. Efforts to encourage the innovation of novel and potentially less harmful products such as e-cigarettes for currently addicted adult smokers will be severely undermined if bad actors put youth at risk in this fashion. The actions weve taken over the last several weeks under our new Youth Tobacco Prevention Plan are just the opening salvo in whats going to be a sustained campaign to address all aspects of youth access and appeal of tobacco products, and in particular, e-cigarettes.

The products outlined in the new warning letters, and being sold through multiple online retailers, include: Frank N Vape, which resembles Franken Berry cereal; Chill Purple Grape, which resembles a grape soda can; and Unicorn Cakes, which includes images and cartoons of pancakes, a strawberry beverage and unicorns eating pancakes, similar to graphics and images from the My Little Pony television and toy franchise.

The warning letters stem from investigations that began in late 2017 of tobacco product labeling and advertising that cause the tobacco products to imitate food products, particularly those that are marketed toward, and/or appealing to, children. The products are considered misbranded in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act because their labeling and/or advertising imitating kid-friendly foods is misleading. The FDA has requested responses from each of the companies within 15 working days on how they intend to address the agencys concerns. Failure to correct violations may result in further action such as seizure or injunction. In addition, misbranded or adulterated products imported into the United States are subject to detention and refusal of admission.

The continuing rise in popularity of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) such as e-cigarettes has coincided with an increase in calls to poison control centers and visits to emergency rooms related to e-liquid poisoning and other liquid nicotine exposure by children younger than six, according to a recent analysis of National Poison Data System data. Severe harm can occur in small children from exposure to or ingestion of e-liquids, including death from cardiac arrest, as well as seizure, coma and respiratory arrest.

Additionally, more than 2 million middle and high school students were current users of e-cigarettes and other ENDS in 2016, with flavor availability being one of the top reasons for use. This use by children and teens is especially concerning to the FDA because of evidence that youth exposure to nicotine affects the developing brain and may rewire it to be more susceptible to nicotine addiction in the future. Thats why combating youth use of nicotine-containing products is a core priority and the guiding principle behind the FDAs Youth Tobacco Prevention Plan. In April, for example, the agency conducted a nationwide blitz of brick-and-mortar and online retailers, and issued warning letters to businesses that sold JUUL brand products to minors. The agency also sent a letter to JUUL Labs requiring the company to submit important documents to better understand the reportedly high rates of youth use and the particular youth appeal of these products.

As part of the FDAs comprehensive plan on nicotine and tobacco regulation announced last summer, the agency is also exploring clear and meaningful measures to make tobacco products less toxic, appealing and addictive with an intense focus on youth. This could include measures on flavors/designs that appeal to youth, child-resistant packaging and product labeling to prevent accidental child exposure to liquid nicotine. Additionally, the agency plans to explore additional restrictions on the sale and promotion of ENDS to further reduce youth exposure and access to these products. The FDA has also expanded The Real Cost public education campaign with messages focused on preventing youth use of e-cigarettes and will launch a full-scale campaign this fall.Imperial Valley News Center

FTC Settlement Will Ban Fraudulent Marketers from Invention Promotion Business

Washington, DC - Scott Cooper and his companies, World Patent Marketing Inc. and Desa Industries Inc., have agreed to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission that bans them from the invention promotion business.

The proposed settlement order resolves charges the FTC brought last year, alleging that Cooper and his companies deceived consumers and suppressed complaints about them using threats, intimidation, and gag clauses. A federal court subsequently halted the Florida-based scheme and froze its assets pending litigation.

According to the FTC, consumers paid the defendants thousands of dollars to patent and market their inventions based on bogus success stories and testimonials. After stringing consumers along for months or even years, the defendants did not deliver what they promised, and many people ended up in debt or lost their life savings with nothing to show for it.

Under the proposed settlement order, the defendants are banned from invention promotion activities, misrepresenting any good or service, and suppressing the availability of truthful negative comments or reviews by consumers. They are also prohibited from profiting from consumers personal information collected as part of the challenged practices, and failing to dispose of it properly.

The order imposes a $25,987,192 judgment that will be partially suspended when $78,670 in frozen funds are transferred to the Commission and Cooper has paid $976,330. The full judgment will become due immediately if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition.

The Commission vote approving the proposed stipulated final order was 2-0. The FTC filed the proposed order in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.Convicted Sex Offender Arrested in Calexico

Calexico, California - Border Patrol agents arrested a convicted sex offender near downtown Calexico suspected of making an illegal entry into the United States on Friday.

Around 11 pm, agents observed the man jump over the international border fence and was arrested shortly after. The mas was transported to El Centro Station for identification and processing.

Record checks identified the man as Clemente Zazueta Lizarraga, a 37-year-old Mexican national. Agents learned Zazueta had been previously arrested for Mischievous/Lewd or Lascivious Acts with a Minor and a count of second-degree burglary in Merced County in Nov. 2005. Ultimately, Zazueta was convicted and received 12 months in jail and 36 months probation.

Zazueta was processed for Re-Entry After Removal.

On a daily basis, our agents continue to arrest and remove threats like this from our communities, said Assistant Chief Patrol Agent David S. Kim.

In fiscal year 2018, El Centro Sector has arrested 15 sex offenders.Addressing the Challenge of Returning Families of Foreign Terrorist Fighters

Bali, Indonesia - The United States and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in cooperation with the Republic of Indonesia and under the auspices of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), held the second of three regional workshops on the Initiative on Addressing the Challenge of Returning Families of Foreign Terrorist Fighters in Bali, Indonesia on May 7-8, 2018.

The GCTF is working to address the problems posed by returning foreign terrorist fighters who have accompanying family members. Some family members may have committed terrorist acts while in Syria and Iraq or pose a threat to the community. Others may be victims of ISIS, particularly young children, who may have witnessed unspeakable violence, been indoctrinated, or otherwise become desensitized to ISISs brutality.

The yearlong initiative will bring together national and local governments, international organizations, medical and psychological assistance communities, and family support organizations over a series of three region-specific workshops. The first workshop was held in Tunis, Tunisia on February 8-9, 2018.

Participants in Indonesia discussed key themes from the Tunisia workshop in the context of Southeast Asia. This workshop was held in coordination with the GCTF Countering Violent Extremism Working Group, and was planned in consultation with its co-chairs, Australia and Indonesia. These discussions will help to shape the Families Initiative non-binding good practices, which will be put forward for endorsement at the 2018 GCTF Ministerial Meeting this September.On the Occasion of Europe Day

Washington, DC - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo: "On Europe Day, we send our congratulations to the citizens of the European Union. The United States recognizes the EU as one of our closest partners on our most important objectives abroad.

"For decades, the EU has collaborated with the U.S. on a host of international challenges.

"The United States is grateful for the EUs enduring friendship.

"The U.S.-EU relationship arises from a shared history and a common civilization grounded in democratic values, strong economic ties, and mutual commitment to transatlantic security.

"Europe and the world are safer when the EU acts proactively to address common threats facing the West."How Did Netflix's Squid Game Become a Global Phenomenon? Everything to Know About the South Korean ShowHas the productivity-killing, sickness-spreading and frankly-just-irritating virus spread to your workplace yet?

Their popularity has spread like wildfire, infecting offices across the nation. According to BBC, 70 percent of offices in the United States have now adopted an open floor design plan.

Sitting elbow-to-elbow with your colleagues was once heralded as fantastic for collaboration and culture-building. Who needs the privacy of offices and cubicles? Hearing your coworkers chew and their mindless chitchat is the modern way to work. It's also more cost effective for employers, as open floor plans require less square footage per employee.

Not everyone loves working in their open offices. In fact, few people do. The design flaws have become a real problem for productivity. People cannot concentrate at their desks. Fewer employee have access to quiet spaces. We suffer from information overload at work because we have no way to block it all out. Unsurprisingly, it's one reason why remote workers are outperforming office workers.

This presents a new problem: 70 percent of offices are now stuck with the open floor plan. They can't exactly revamp the entire office and install cubicles or quiet areas for everyone.

But you can get new furniture.

Furniture that serves yet another purpose

Researchers and designers have discovered an opportunity. If they can design furniture that creates more quiet spaces and lowers the noise levels in your open office, they have a goldmine on their hands.

Enter the egg-shaped chair. Dr. Manuj Yadav from the University of Sydney's has been testing the chair's design, as The Atlantic reports. Yadav did his PhD in musical psychoacoustics. He's working on a project funded by the Australian Research Council about solving speech distraction in open offices. Yadav's chair blends research, design and acoustics to create seating that makes open offices more bearable.

Tackling 2 kinds of distracting noise

The chair looks funny, but it sounds like it may be effective in muffling some of the distracting noise that makes working in open offices so difficult. Its design addresses two important acoustical elements: external noise created by other people and the noise you create yourself.

First, it reduces what you can hear around you. Imagine an egg with a hole cut out for a seat. The walls curve around you to help isolate you from the noise. The Atlantic says this lowers noise levels by 10 decibels, which has a similar effect to cupping your hands over your ears.

The chair also encourages you to lower your own voice. Ever been in a noisy restaurant and had to yell to be heard by the person sitting across from you? People raising their voices to be heard over the din is also a problem in open offices. So the chair's walls also bounce your own voice back to you, which naturally leads you to speak more quietly.

The chair is not yet in development, but Yadav and his research team are presenting it this week at the Acoustical Society of America's bi-annual meeting. But it doesn't solve all problems. While it does have impressive noise-reducing features, this isn't a desk chair. You'd place an egg chair or two in a common area.Their Delta Airlines flight had almost made it from Detroit to Denver when smoke began to fill the cabin, according to reports.

Things were scary and chaotic. Passengers evacuated quickly--out the emergency exits, onto the plane's wing, and down inflatable slides.

Afterward, the airline explained it had all been caused by hydraulic fluid dripping onto the plane's auxiliary engine, and that injuries were limited to "smoke inhalation and sprains," according to The Washington Post.

That's great of course, but in the moment, as it all happened, nobody could have known for sure that everyone would make it off okay.

And that's why photos and video of the passengers immediately afterward raised the ire of flight attendants and other airline employees around the world.

The problem? Many of the passengers were holding their carry on luggage.

Scariest thing. After landing fumes through the vents and fire. Feeling faint and sick. Baby was last one out!!! Emergency evacuation. Scariest thing ever. Delta. #Delta #deltaairlines @Delta @DeltaNewsHub pic.twitter.com/oMmkpbhoqo -- Rachel Naftel (@rachelnaftel) May 9, 2018

That meant they had to have stopped to gather it all during the emergency evacuation. At the very least, they would have moved a bit more slowly than they otherwise would have, in order to carry it.

In the hours that followed, I heard from quite a few airline employees, and I saw what others were posting on social media. Their reactions ranged from annoyance to extreme anger at the photos, and frustrating that some passengers don't listen to or follow their safety instructions.

So, as a public service, here's what some of them asked me to pass along. (I'm including only the names and affiliations of airline employees who explicitly told me I could do so.)

1. Tom Moore, retired Southwest Airlines operations, training and cargo supervisor.

"Flight crews are trained to evacuating in a 90 seconds minimum. ... Every second counts and I might keep someone else from surviving by grabbing my carry on."

2. Thomas M. Harrison Jr., light attendant, American Airlines

"It angers me. ... They may not care about their safety, but how dare they put others' lives ... in danger. This is very upsetting."

3. Kimberley Walters Hefner, Retired flight attendant, Southwest Airlines

"Passengers are asked to leave all luggage and exit the aircraft. They are putting their lives at risk taking baggage with them."

4. Retired flight attendant with 44 years experience

"What's more important, your bags or your life? ... I can't understand passengers and their carry on luggage. I'm retired. It's the one thing I will not miss."

5. Flight attendant, JetBlue

"I think all flight attendants will agree this is not OK. Time is of the essence, every second is valuable when it comes to an emergency evacuation. Those carry-on bags are just simple things. We are trying to save lives. "

6. Flight Attendant, American Airlines

"It's not only your life you're putting at risk but other people you're slowing the process somebody else might not make it out because you made it out with your bag? Unacceptable!"

7. Flight attendant

"Looks like they don't appreciate their lives enough to leave those carry ons behind. They lost valuable seconds. In the airline industry every second counts."

8. Flight attendant, American Airlines

"I've been saying this for years. we need an announcement telling everyone there will be $5,000 fine for every bag found out on the tarmac after an evacuation."

9. Flight attendant, retired

"It pisses me off. Those few seconds can impact many lives! Carry-ons are not important in an evacuation!!! People become stupid on airplanes. "

10. Flight attendant, 36 years experience

"The time it takes to retrieve luggage is time wasted. ... The interior of an aircraft is highly toxic during a fire. [Moving quickly] ... is virtually impossible with passengers taking carryon luggage."

11. Flight attendant, 42 years experience

"Anyone bringing anything with them is not only jeopardizing their safety but the safety of those around them. Doors get blocked, slides get jammed, people are running with no shoes tripping through glass. ... You can't get away from any plane on fire fast enough with a 50-pound bag on your back."

A Delta spokesperson, Kate Modolo, provided this statement on the incident:

"We apologize for the concern this event has caused. The safety of Delta's customers and crew is our top priority. After smoke entered the cabin upon Flight 1854's landing, the crew determined that an emergency evacuation was necessary, and they quickly and professionally directed passengers off the aircraft through the various exits onboard. We are additionally thankful to customers who followed the professional direction of our crews in support of themselves and fellow passengers."With some carefully written code, anyone can cook like a world-renowned chef.

That's according to Kimbal Musk, restaurateur and founder of sustainable eateries the Kitchen and Next Door. (And, of course, younger brother of Elon.) Musk spoke onstage Wednesday at The Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything Festival in New York City.

Next Door--which has restaurants in Colorado, Tennessee, and Indiana--has begun using futuristic tech that can be programmed to automatically prepare food in complicated ways. Musk gave the example of cooking braised short ribs, which generally takes about three hours and is difficult to perfect.

"It might take a chef five or 10 years to get just right, so it tastes great and isn't too tough or too dry," he said. "With these ovens we use, you sit a two-star Michelin chef next to a software engineer and have them code it. Then it can make braised short ribs that are just as good as if they were cooked by a two-star Michelin chef, but they're made by an 18-year-old."

Musk explained that the ovens can be programmed to perform different processes, such as baking, steaming, or roasting. There's little work needed from the cook, besides the initial chopping and prepping.

Asking for a show of hands Wednesday as to how many people had been to an Applebee's or Chili's in the past 10 years--about half the people in the room raised their hands--Musk spoke about the way those chains draw in customers with low price points facilitated by food that's cooked days or weeks ahead of time. He said his restaurants use other methods, like working with local farmers, to achieve comparable price points.

In a recent interview with the Indianapolis Business Journal, Musk called the ovens used in Next Door's kitchens "the most high-tech ovens in the world," telling the publication that the lower labor costs--paying an 18-year-old instead of a two-star Michelin chef--allow his company to serve great food at more affordable prices. (Affordable may be in the eye of the beholder: Prices for a main dish at Next Door range from about $9 to $20.)Two years ago, British readers were introduced to Margo Jeffersons work in the form of her masterful memoir Negroland, an account of growing up as part of Chicagos black elite. It won the National Book Critics Circle Award in the US, and was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize here in the UK, so it makes sense that Granta is now publishing a British edition Jeffersons first book, On Michael Jackson, 12 years after the original American edition.

A new introduction  written by Jefferson last year  brings the volume up to date, Jackson having died since the first edition. I mourn him, Jefferson writes. I was mourning when I wrote the book, but I was confounded and obsessed too.

What she  and we  had witnessed had been an astonishing metamorphosis. Jackson made his assured television debut at the age of 10 back in 1968 as a fresh-faced child star, all flower power and doo-wop glitter. Thirty-five years later the man everyone now recognised was one charged with seven counts of child molestation, whose mug shot, as Jefferson puts it, looked like a haggard drag queen stunned by the daylight.

Jefferson, who describes herself and her friends dancing and dating to his love songs as graduate students, was a Jackson fan long before she became the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic she is today, and although her admiration for his artistry underpins the book, at no point does she let this blunt the sharpness of her scrutiny. Michaels acts and actions were like hieroglyphics that we whod loved him kept trying to decipher, she explains in the new introduction.

The excellent On Michael Jackson is not a straightforward biography, nor is it an attempt to claim either his innocence or his guilt when it comes to the child abuse scandals that, although he was acquitted, haunt his afterlife. A deciphering is probably the most accurate description of the book, the shrewd playfulness of Jeffersons prose the perfect vehicle for analysis thats as smart as it is readable.

From the mid-Eighties on, Jefferson writes, the superstar turned himself into a What Is It?, the 20th century equivalent of the freaks on the 19th century circus and vaudeville circuit. The groundwork for this, however, was laid down years before, she claims, back amongst the debris of his traumatic home life, and early years in the limelight: There is nothing natural about the making of child stars, she writes with the perfect measure of melancholy. They are little archaeological sites, carrying layers of showbusiness history inside them, fragments of history and tradition.

Jackson was someone who broke rules about gender and race from the very first time he took to the stage, long before his skin actually changed colour. A sexual impersonator from the start; as a child he played adolescents and men, then, with uneasy symmetry, as an adult he played up, down and around masculine sexuality.

Jefferson embraces it all, the talent through to the damage. Shes not looking for neat answers, but instead slowly peeling back layers, revealing meaning as she goes.

On Michael Jackson is published by GrantaThe Marvel Cinematic Universe just gained an extra ounce of credibility following the news that Annette Bening will appear in Captain Marvel.

Four-time Oscar nominee Bening will join Brie Larson for the female-led superhero film from directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.

It's currently unknown what role Bening will play but according to The Hollywood Reporter, her character will be a scientist.

Captain Marvel will follow Brie Larson's Air Force pilot Carol Danvers who acquires powers after having her DNA fused with an alien life form.

Production is officially underway on the film that will also star Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn and Humans star Gemma Chan. Djimon Hounsou and Lee Pace will also reprise their Guardians of the Galaxy roles for the film while Clark Gregg will bring his Agents of SHIELD character back to the big screen for the film.

33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Show all 34 1 /34 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 1. Captain America: Civil War Release date: 6 May 2016. Iron Man and Captain America are set to face off in this superhero blockbuster that will feature nearly all the Avengers but wont be an Avengers film. It will also mark the first time Spider-Man will feature in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Sony having made a deal with Marvel Studios. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 2. X-Men: Apocalypse Release date: 27 May 2016. Following the success of Days of Future Past, Apocalypse will follow the young X-Men team as the battle against Oscar Isaacs titular villain as he gathers his four horsemen; Magneto (Fassbender), Angel (Hardy), Storm (Shipp), and Psylocke (Munn). Expect carnage and no Wolverine. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 3. Suicide Squad Release date: 5 August 2016. The first supervillain film, Suicide Squad is also based in the DCEU (DC Extended Universe, where Batman and Superman live) and will introduce the world to Margot Robbies Harley Quinn and Jared Letos Joker. One of the more exciting upcoming DC films thats for sure. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 4. Doctor Strange Release date: 4 November 2016. Benedict Cumberbatch will debut in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Captain America and Iron Man live) as the Sorcerer Supreme. The film already has an incredible cast, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachael McAdams and Tilda Swinton. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 5. Untitled Lego Batman film Release date: 20 February 2017. Kicking off 2017 is the Lego version of Batman, who will lead his own spin-off, having already featured in the amazing Lego Movie. Will Arnett voices the titular character, while Zach Garfianakis - from the Hangover - will voice The Joker. But will he better than Leto? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 6. Untitled Wolverine film Release date: 3 March 2017. Having not starred in X-Men: Apocalypse, Wolverine will return to the big screen in a solo film which was recently made R-Rated following the success of Deadpool. It is expected to be Hugh Jackmans last outing as the titular character. Fox 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 7. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Release date: 5 May 2017. Chris Pratt and the crew are returning to space in the sequel to the surprisingly successful Guardians of the Galaxy. According to director James Gunn, the film will not feature Thanos, even though he will to play a major role in phase MCU Phase 3. Cast includes newcomers Kurt Russell and Pom Klementieff, as well as, rumour has it, Sylvester Stallone. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 8. Wonder Woman Release date: 23 June 2017. Gal Gadot is returning to the DCEU in her very own film, marking the first female-led superhero film on this list. Chris Pine is on board to play Wonder Womans love interest. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 9. Untitled Spider-Man reboot Release date: 7 July 2017. Yes, it is another Spider-Man reboot, having previously been redone with Andrew Garfield as the lead. However, this time it is part of the MCU, with Tom Holland as the titular character, and a heavily rumoured cameo by Iron Man could be in the pipeline. We can dream. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 10. Untitled Fox film Release date: 6 October 2017. In a strange announcement, Fox decided to withhold the release of Gambit until a future, as-yet unannounced date, which could be here, or this could be a completely separate project. Many suspect Deadpool 2 could nicely fit here, Fox capitalising on the success of the first film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 11. Thor: Ragnarok Release date: 3 November 2017. Chris Hemsworth will be returning as the Norse God in his third solo MCU film. Flight of the Conchords Taika Waititi is on board to direct, and promises a fun adventure that will likely lead into Marvels next project, Infinity War. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 12. Justice League Part One Release date: 17 November 2017. Hot on the heals of Thor comes Justice League Part One, the first DCEU team-up flick which will see Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg work together to fight bad guys. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 13: Untitled Fox film Release date: 12 January 2018. Kicking off 2018 will likely be the second Deadpool film, but then again, this could very well be another X-Men team-up. Theres also talk of an X-Force film, with Deadpool and other mutants teaming up to fight evil. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 14. Black Panther Release date: 16 February 2018. The first non-white male-led superhero film in the MCU comes in the form of Black Panther, with Chadwick Boseman reprising the titular role, having also starred as the Panther in Civil War. Creeds Ryan Coogler is on to direct what could be a very exciting film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 15. The Flash Release date: 16 March 2018. The Flash will be the first DCEU film since Justice League, and sees Ezra Miller take the lead. Phil Lord and Chris Miller were supposed to pen the film before Disney snapped them up for the Han Solo-film, leaving Seth Grahame-Smith to take charge. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 16. Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 Release date: 4 May 2018. And so, we finally get to the point of all these Infinity Stones! Thanos will be the big bad, with the Avengers needing to team up to defeat their biggest foe yet. It has previously been described as the end of the Avengers as we know it. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 17. Ant-Man and The Wasp Release date: 6 July 2018. Peyton Reed will be back to direct this surprise sequel to one of the better received MCU films. While the name is ridiculous, at least Marvel are finally having a leading female superhero. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 18. Untitled Fox film Release date: 13 July 2018. Again, not much word on this one except it is thought to be X-Men spin-off New Mutants, something Josh Boone has been hit up to write. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 19. Animated Spider-Man Film Release date: 20 July 2018. Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Amy Pascal - the team behind the live-action Spider-Man films - are producing this unrelated animated adaptation of the hero. Because you can never have too much Spider-Man, right? 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 20. Aquaman Release date: 27 July 2018. Another Justice League spin-off, Jason Momoa plays the leading man. Furious 7s James Wan is on to direct, but little else is known about the film. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 21. Captain Marvel Release date: 8 March 2019. Weve hit 2019, and the first confirmed superhero film will be the first proper female-led MCU film. No-one is confirmed to be in the titular role of Carol Danvers just yet. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 22. Shazam Release date: 5 April 2019. Dwayne Johnson stars as the villain in this DCEU film which will be somewhat separate to the other DC films. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 23. Avengers: Infinity War Part 2. Release date: 3 May 2019. The conclusion to the long drawn MCU saga. Expect a big finish with at least a few planets being destroyed. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 24. Justice League Part Two Release date: 14 June 2019. Soon after the Infinity War story reaches its conclusion, so will the Justice Leagues. Not much is known, except Darkseid will likely be the villain for at least one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 25. Inhumans Release date: 12 July 2019. The concept of Inhumans (or Marvels mutants) has already been introduced in TV, through Marvels Agents of Shield, yet the film is expected to introduce the Royal Family who have yet to be seen in the show. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 26. Cyborg Release date: 3 April 2020. Having debuted in Justice League Part One three years previously, Cyborg will finally be making his own outing, with Ray Fisher as the titular character. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 27. Untitled MCU film Release date: 1 May 2020. The first of three untitled Marvel films. There are a couple of contenders, the first is a likely sequel to Spider-Man with Sony, or a third Guardians of the Galaxy film, thus finishing the trilogy. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 28. Green Lantern Corps. Release date: 19 June 2020. Before you start to worry, this has nothing to do with the Ryan Reynolds-starring flick that hit cinemas a little while ago. Instead, this will be another DCEU film that will likely spin-off from Justice League after the Green Lantern Corps cameo in one of the parts. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 29. Untitled MCU film Release date: 10 July 2020. As well as Spider-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy sequels, a Doctor Strange or Black Panther one could fit in nicely here. Or perhaps Black Widow may finally get the solo-film she deserves. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 30. Untitled MCU film Release date: 6 November 2020. Some speculators also think a Blade film could fit in here, marking over 20 years since the first Blade. But many believe the character may be better suited to a Netflix series, as with Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Theres also talk of a Runaways film reaching cinemas at some stage. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 31. Untitled Ben Affleck Batman film Release date: TBA. Now were onto the TBA release dates, the first of which is a Batman solo film, written and directed by Ben Affleck. When this is due, no one is quite sure but expect it sooner rather than later if Batman v Superman is a success. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 32. Suicide Squad 2 Release date: TBA (rumoured 2017). A sequel to Suicide Squad is expected to come in 2017 according to recent reports, but nothing has been confirmed. If the first is successful, it should come as no surprise for Warner Bros to rearrange their schedule to fit in this surefire hit. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 33. Venom Release date: TBA. This is an odd one, as it has been confirmed Sony are wanting to release a Venom film completely unrelated to the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. Venom, as you may know, is a Spider-Man villain, intrinsically linked to Spider-Man, so it seems odd they would release a film unrelated to the rebooted project and not linked to the MCU. 33 Superhero films set for release between 2016 and 2020 Anything else? Well, now you mention it, theres also that sequel to Fantastic Four that has seemingly been dropped by Fox. Plus, theres the Gambit film which has been put on hold (but will likely fill an untitled Fox slot so we havent added it extra). Then again, it could be shoehorned in somehow Marvel

Bening's filmography includes films American Beauty, 20th Century Women and 2017 drama Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool. She'll also appear in Anton Chekhov adaptation The Seagull alongside Saoirse Ronan and The Handmaid's Tale star Elisabeth Moss which is yet to be handed a UK release date.

Captain Marvel will be released 8 March 2019.

Follow Independent Culture on FacebookThe final of the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Rotterdam on Saturday 22 May.

One of the joys of the competition over the years has been the many gaffes and blunders to strike the show, a major peril of live broadcasting.

From performers falling over to quite literal mic drops, technical hitches, blackouts and backing track fails, the Grand Final in particular is fraught with potential embarrassment, much of which leaves the presenters badly exposed.

In 1981, Irish host Doireann Ni Bhriain was unable to reach Yugosalvias spokeswoman, Helga Vlahovic, when contacting her for their scorecard and was left to pick up the pieces when Ms Vlahovic suddenly appeared on the line to admit: I dont have it!

Swedens Lill Lindfors famously snagged her dress on the set in 1985, dropping jaws across the continent as she stood there in her underwear before apparently improvising a solution and carrying gamely on to the podium.

In pictures: 10 years of Eurovision winners Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: 10 years of Eurovision winners In pictures: 10 years of Eurovision winners Jamala wins 2016 Eurovision Song Contest at Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden Getty Images In pictures: 10 years of Eurovision winners Sweden's Mans Zelmerlow reacts after winning the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna Getty Images In pictures: 10 years of Eurovision winners Conchita Wurst representing Austria holds the trophy after winning the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen, Denmark Getty Images In pictures: 10 years of Eurovision winners Emmelie de Forest of Denmark wins the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest at Malmo Arena in Malmo, Sweden Getty Images In pictures: 10 years of Eurovision winners Singer Loreen of Sweden wins the grand final of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest at Crystal Hall in Baku, Azerbaijan Getty Images In pictures: 10 years of Eurovision winners Ell and Nikki from Azerbaijan celebrate with their co-performers after winning the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest in Dusseldorf, Germany Getty Images In pictures: 10 years of Eurovision winners Lena from Germany celebrates after winning the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest at the Telenor Arena in Baerum, Norway Getty Images In pictures: 10 years of Eurovision winners Norwegian Alexander Rybak wins the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, Russia re In pictures: 10 years of Eurovision winners Dima Bilan of Russia celebrates after winning the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest at the Belgrade Arena, Serbia Getty Images In pictures: 10 years of Eurovision winners Marija Serifovic of Serbia celebrates with her group after winning the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki, Finland Getty Images

Scoring errors struck again in 2003, when Spanish spokeswoman Anne Igartiburu awarded an ineligible nine points to Romania and in 2013 when Germanys Lena Meyer-Landrut, calling from a rainy Hamburg, gave 10 to Norway rather than Denmark, shielding her blushes behind an umbrella when she realised the mistake and apologising frantically by saying: Im so nervous!

Russias Natalia Vodianova and Andrey Malahov were not invited back to host the 2009 final in Moscow after an uproarious display of tipsy, innuendo-laden flirting in the semis, nor was the German commentator who shouted F***ing hell! when surprised by an unexpected firework display in Copenhagen in 2014.

Of course Eurovisions true master of ceremonies remains the late Sir Terry Wogan, never better than when slaying Estonian hosts Annely Peebo and Marko Matvere in 2002 after a syrupy duet: You know, at the end of the day, theres a lot to be said for the commercial break...You got off lightly! Marko also plays the accordion you know!

Known for his devastatingly droll work on commentary duties, Sir Terry hosted the 1998 contest in Birmingham alongside TV personality Ulrika Jonsson.

Ulrika Jonsson and Terry Wogan warming up for the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest (Tony Larkin/Rex)

She proved the perfect foil for the veteran, gently mocking the old smoothy for his questionable spoken French and taking compliments from a lovestruck Hungarian with good grace  only to then drop the ball spectacularly.

Interviewing Dutch spokeswoman Conny van den Bos, the latter reminded the presenter that she knew how the contestants felt having entered Eurovision herself in the past. A long time ago, was it? Ulrika replied, to audible gasps.

The Netherlands were also involved in one of the most excruciating moments in the contests history in 2006 when spokesperson Paul de Leeuw, speaking with hosts Maria Menounos and Sakis Rouvas in Athens to deliver his scores, remarked that they resembled the American sitcom characters Will and Grace  to a deathly silence.

He then offered to give his mobile number to Mr Rouvas who guessed that it must be 696969.

Danish presenter Soren Pilmark, who dropped the trophy and smashed it in 2001 as his stunned co-host Natasja Crone Back looked on, making matters worse by muttering Sh*t! loudly into his microphone.

The hosts these days are, for the most part, much slicker.

 Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

Finns Jaana Pelkonen and Mikko Leppilampi memorably picked comedian Krisse Salminen  in the guise of a starstruck fan  out of the audience to serve as their green room reporter and invited Father Christmas in to hand over the trophy to Serbian winner Marija Serifovic.

The segway skits are often as awkward as the performances they appear between but Swedish hosts Petra Mede and Mans Zelmerlow managed the near-impossible feat of being genuinely funny in Stockholm in 2016.

The pair opened their arms and shouted Welcome Europe! only for the Swedish rock band Europe to appear behind them launching into their famous hit The Final Countdown, a joke they inevitably called back to later when the time came to look at the scoreboard.

They were risque and self-aware, joked about the pressure to avoid carbohydrates and stay thin, hung out with Justin Timberlake and even joined a River Dance chorus line.

One of the weirdest events from 2017 was Macedonian entrant Jana Burceska receiving a proposal from her boyfriend Alexander.

Lets hope presenters Chantal Janzen, Edsilia Rombley, Jan Smit and Nikkie de Jager dont have to deal with anything as nauseating as that this time around.Belief in outlandish conspiracy theories goes hand in hand with rejection of climate change among Americans, according to a new study.

Around 97 per cent of scientists are thought to support the idea that climate change is real and primarily caused by humans.

Nevertheless, opposition to climate change has entered the mainstream in some nations, with the US perhaps the most prominent example.

Recommended Donald Trump misunderstands facts of climate change in interview

Under Donald Trump, the US has been withdrawn from the Paris climate agreement, and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, is known to be a climate sceptic.

Professor Matthew Hornsey and his colleagues at the University Queensland set out to investigate the roots of this phenomenon in the US and elsewhere by looking at the relationships between belief in conspiracy theories, conservative views and climate scepticism.

They wanted to find out if these links did indeed exist within the US population, and whether a similar phenomenon was found in other countries.

To do this, they determined peoples endorsement of four internationally recognised conspiracy theories on the subjects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the existence of a New World Order and the deaths of John F Kennedy and Princess Diana.

Theories based on the idea that 9/11 was an inside job are popular around the world, and the concept of a New World Order  a global elite that seeks to take over the world  exists in many forms.

The deaths of Kennedy and Princess Diana have also inspired a wealth of conspiracy theories, with many suggesting the official accounts of both events are untrue.

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

As a psychologist, Professor Hornsey was drawn to investigate this topic by the current US presidents apparent endorsement of conspiracy theories surrounding the existence of climate change.

"The inspiration for this question was Donald Trump's tweet saying that climate science was a hoax created by the Chinese to make US manufacturing uncompetitive," Professor Hornsey said.

Mr Trump has since expressed further doubts over the existence of climate change, explaining in an interview that in his view the polar ice caps were not melting but instead at a record level.

In their paper, Professor Hornsey and his colleagues explain there are a number of conspiracy theories related to climate science.

The most prominent of these is that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by scientists who see it as an opportunity to wield influence, secure funding or act out a green/Marxist agenda.

While such ideas can exist in isolation, they can also emerge from a wider conspiracist world view, in which it is perfectly normal for large scale hoaxes to take place in secrecy.

To determine what was at the root of peoples rejection of climate science, the psychologists surveyed 5,323 people across 25 countries to determine their worldviews.

"We found that the more Americans believed conspiracies generally, the more they also thought that climate change was a hoax, said Professor Hornsey.

"This relationship was not found in the vast majority of countries."

The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, also challenges the notion that conservatism naturally leads to rejection of climate science.

"I was intrigued why, of the 17 candidates who campaigned to be the Republican nominee for the 2016 US presidential campaign, many were openly sceptical of climate science," said Professor Hornsey.

"This mainstream rejection of climate science among a major political party was not evident in other countries, which raised the question: is the tendency for conservatives to be more climate sceptical a global phenomenon, or something that's distinctively American?

Their findings revealed that while it may not be a totally American phenomenon, it is not far off.

In around three quarters of the countries surveyed, conservatives showed no more scepticism of climate change than other people.

 Donald Trump on climate change: 'There is a cooling and there is a heating'

Professor Hornsey noted that it was the countries with high levels of carbon emissions, such as the US and Australia, which showed stronger links between conservatism and climate science rejection.

"One possible reason is that conservatives in countries with high carbon emissions have more of a vested interest in rejecting climate science, due to the fossil fuel industry's investment in that country, he said.

While the results from these nations do not seem particularly positive, the researchers suggest there is cause for hope.

Their results imply there is nothing inherent within a conservative worldview  or even a tendency to believe in conspiracy theories  that makes someone reject the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change.

This means that for the majority of countries people are likely to judge climate science on its own merits, rather than based on their individual ideologies.

"These results are encouraging for climate change mitigation efforts globally, said Professor Hornsey.Costa Ricas new president has announced a plan to ban fossil fuels and become the first fully decarbonised country in the world.

Carlos Alvarado, a 38-year-old former journalist, made the announcement to a crowd of thousands during his inauguration on Wednesday.

"Decarbonisation is the great task of our generation and Costa Rica must be one of the first countries in the world to accomplish it, if not the first," Mr Alvarado said.

"We have the titanic and beautiful task of abolishing the use of fossil fuels in our economy to make way for the use of clean and renewable energies.

Symbolically, the president arrived at the ceremony in San Jose aboard a hydrogen-fuelled bus.

Last month, Mr Alvarado said the Central American country would begin to implement a plan to end fossil fuel use in transport by 2021  the 200th year of Costa Rican independence.

"When we reach 200 years of independent life we will take Costa Rica forward and celebrate ... that we've removed gasoline and diesel from our transportation, he promised during a victory speech.

 Costa Rica's renewable energy

Costa Rica already generates more than 99 per cent of its electricity using renewable energy sources, but achieving zero carbon transport quickly - even in a country well-known for its environmental commitment - will be a significant challenge, experts say.

Jose Daniel Lara, a Costa Rican energy researcher at the University of California-Berkeley, said completely eliminating fossil fuels within just a few years is probably unrealistic  though the plan will lay the groundwork for faster action towards that goal.

A proposal like this one must be seen by its rhetoric value and not by its technical precision, Mr Lara said.

Oscar Echeverria, president of the Vehicle and Machinery Importers Association, said the transition away from fossil fuels in transport cannot be rushed as the clean transport market is so far undeveloped.

If theres no previous infrastructure, competence, affordable prices and waste management wed be leading this process to failure. We need to be careful, Mr Echeverria said.

But economist Monica Araya, a Costa Rican sustainability expert and director of Costa Rica Limpia, which promotes renewable energy and electric transport, said that in a country already rapidly weaning itself off fossil fuels, focusing on transport  one of the last major challenges  could send a powerful message to the world.

My 'eco' paradise: Ruby Wax goes green in Costa Rica Show all 4 1 /4 My 'eco' paradise: Ruby Wax goes green in Costa Rica My 'eco' paradise: Ruby Wax goes green in Costa Rica 513624.bin My 'eco' paradise: Ruby Wax goes green in Costa Rica 513622.bin My 'eco' paradise: Ruby Wax goes green in Costa Rica 513623.bin My 'eco' paradise: Ruby Wax goes green in Costa Rica 513626.bin

Getting rid of fossil fuels is a big idea coming from a small country. This is an idea thats starting to gain international support with the rise of new technologies, she said.

Costa Ricas push towards clean energy faces no large-scale backlash, in part because the country has no significant oil or gas industry.

But demand for cars is rising, as is use of other transport systems, and that may prove one of the biggest challenges in meeting the new goal, Mr Lara said.

According to data by the National Registry  the countrys records agency  there were twice as many cars registered as babies born in 2016.

Transport is today the countrys main source of climate changing emissions. According to the countrys National Meteorological Institute, 64 per cent of Costa Ricas emissions come from energy use, and more than two thirds of that is from transport.

According to data from the State of the Region report, put together by a council of Costa Ricas university leaders, public transport has struggled to meet the transport needs of the country.

As a result, demand for private vehicles has risen dramatically, with the car industry growing 25 per cent in 2015 alone, making Costa Rica one of the fastest growing auto markets in Latin America, according to the report.

The centre-left Mr Alvarado beat hs Christian conservative rival and namesake Fabricio Alvarado, whose campaign had largely centred on his opposition to same sex marriage, with 60 per cent of the vote in second-round elections, and took office on 8 May.

Additional reporting by ReutersTheres never been more choice for ethical products  thats products that have a positive social impact, environmental impact, or both.

The term itself covers a whole range of factors including fair treatment of workers, transparency in how a company operates, the impact of manufacture on the local environment, sourcing of sustainable materials, and animal welfare.

With many brands claiming to be ethical, or sell ethical products, it can be hard to know where to put your money as a responsible consumer.

In the UK, the Good Shopping Guide is a handy general resource, as is the original Fairtrade pioneer Traidcraft.

If you are unsure about the ethical credentials of a brand, its a good idea to ask questions directly.

A good retailer will have no problem providing details about sourcing, materials or manufacture.

Guilt-free shopping doesnt have to mean spending more or sacrificing on style, as the list shows.

What it may require is a little more time to seek out specialists and items that may be made in small batches or to order.

Aerende half glaze teapot: 70, Aerende

Emily Mathiesons non-profit online shop is full of beautiful products made by people in the UK facing social challenges. This dip-glazed stoneware teapot is made in Derbyshire by adults with learning disabilities. Its inspired by traditional British craft, but the pots tall looping handle provides a modern twist. These unique and socially conscious homewares make great gifts, and Aerende has just started a gift list service that makes an ethical alternative to the mainstream.

Buy now

Panda bamboo bedding set: 110-180, Panda

Bamboo might not be the first material you think of when it comes to bedsheets, but environmentally friendly brand Panda is out to change your mind. Bamboo viscose is a sustainable material that uses a third of the water it takes to manufacture cotton. The sheets have a soft feel with a subtle silk-like sheen. As a natural material its breathable and suitable for allergies too, with no synthetic or plastic in the mix. The set comes in green, white or grey.

Buy now

Nkuku Damira mirror with shelf: 39.95, Nkuku

Devon-based company Nkuku made it its mission to champion handmade products from around the world that are produced and sold fairly. Unlike other ethical brands which operate only online, youll find its wares in lots of boutiques and larger shops too. This brass-framed mirror shelf is typical of its smaller homewares; its antique feel brings a unique touch to your dressing space. It comes in two sizes, and like many products on the list, makes a great gift.

Buy now

Kreis Design large pegboard shelf: 119, Kreis Design

Major retailers often ship in furniture and homeware that has been made abroad. Buying British is an easily made change that reduces the need for transport and supports homegrown independent designers and makers. This pegboard shelf by designer Nikki Kreis is made in the UK from sustainable birch plywood. Its a handy modern design with a mix of pegs, hooks and shelves thats easy to re-configure as you need. The pegboards can be made in custom sizes too.

Buy now

House of Kind Aurora Borealis cushion: 75, House of Kind

This striking geometric cushion is handmade in India; buying one means supporting the craft and community of its artisans. The yarns and tassel are coloured with environmentally friendly dyes, and the filling is hollow fibre  a synthetic alternative to animal products like feather or down. Its beautifully tactile, with woven cotton sections that are a pleasure to touch. House of Kind is great source of homewares that have a positive social and environmental impact.

Buy now

Myakka Shimla wooden table lamp: 139, Myakka

With a contemporary spin on Fairtrade, Myakka has a varied range of furniture and homeware with something for all tastes. The Shimla lamp has a ribbed base made by carving into mango wood and painting the grooves for a strong contrast. Ethical sourcing has been this British companys passion since 1999. It seeks out small and medium-sized companies (this one employs 70 people near Delhi) that provide safe, healthy and supportive workplaces.

Buy now

Mungo Mill Vrou Vrou blanket: 167.40-211.85, Mungo Mill

If you have the pleasure of visiting Plettenberg Bay, South Africa, youll be able to see for yourself how this mills fabrics are made. The weaving workshops are open to the public every day as a way of keeping this industry alive, celebrating the craft of the workers, and creating vital local employment. The contemporary Vrou Vrou lattice blanket is woven from pure cotton, and comes in two bright colourways. Like all the mills products, the blanket is made in limited runs with an emphasis on quality.

Buy now

Traidcraft recycled glass water carafe: 15, Traidcraft

Traidcraft was the first UK organisation to get Fairtrade on consumers agendas  starting with a catalogue in 1979. It now has a useful website including fashion and food as well as homeware. This simple, functional carafe is made by hand by workers in Bolivia. Its made from recycled glass that has been collected locally. The cup fits over the carafe to make a lid when not in use. Its a smart product that proves shopping responsibly doesnt have to be expensive.

Buy now

Fabelab Bunny storage bag: 39.95, Natural Collection

Natural materials are always good to have around the home, but especially if you have young children or sensitive skin. Danish brand Fabelab makes this cute storage bag from organic cotton which meets the global standard for organic textiles (Gots). The standard covers a range of factors both social and environmental. Its a practical, multifunctional design for the kids room, with a drawstring top, quilted inner and ears that can tie together as a carry handle.

Buy now

Earl of East London soy travel candle: 16, Earl of East London

Scented candles are a little luxury at home, but most people dont know that paraffin wax candles are bad news for your home environment. Paraffin is a petroleum by-product that releases toxins as it burns, and wicks with a lead core are harmful too. As a healthier alternative, this candle is made from non-genetically modified soya and has a cotton wick. Its floral scent  inspired by British wildflowers  comes from essential oils rather than artificial chemicals.

Buy now

The verdict: Ethical homewares

Fairtrade often makes you think of far-flung places, but the positive impact of Aerendes products starts at home. The teapot is an example of how a product can have a life-changing impact on communities in the UK, but its also a quality piece in itself.

IndyBest product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testing.Purpose-built for the needs of differing generations, this house in Ontario is in an attempt to reimagine the family home. Toronto-based Williamson Williamson designed the structure for its clients: a couple who want to live with their elderly parents.

The place comprises two distinct residences, two linear structures  bars containing the full program of a home. These sit perpendicular to each other, creating a landscaped courtyard set back from the street, that stack at the corner.

Recommended Buildings should look to the car industry for lessons on affordability

The elders suite occupies the ground floor with the living and dining space anchoring the view. It is laid out as a single floor accessible apartment with added features to accommodate the specific challenges facing the older people. Among them, well-located drains and a master power switch mitigate problems that might arise from memory loss: a tap left running or even an oven left on.

Though the large windows and disjointed exterior are more reminiscent of modernist design, the architects paid tribute to traditional elements of homebuilding, such as a grand, wooden spiral staircase and multiple living areas based around fireplaces.

Below, Betsy Williamson answers questions about her practice:

Tell us about your firm

Williamson Williamson was founded in 2007, and currently we are an office of eight. The majority of our work is located in Southern Ontario and more specifically in the city of Toronto, where not only the Victorian fabric but the northern climate present specific challenges. Recently, long-term strategies for intergenerational living have been a specific focus of research with multiple projects either completed or under construction in recent years.

What is your practice known for?

Well-crafted, modern buildings and in particular the innovative use of wood. Having started in the residential sector, we have a love for creating bespoke spaces for our clients. More recently we have balanced these projects with commercial and private institutional work.

House on Ancaster Creek - Hamilton, Canada Show all 9 1 /9 House on Ancaster Creek - Hamilton, Canada House on Ancaster Creek - Hamilton, Canada The place is bathed in light Ben Rahn House on Ancaster Creek - Hamilton, Canada Though thoroughly modern, it retains a homely feel Ben Rahn House on Ancaster Creek - Hamilton, Canada The kitchen appears larger than it is Ben Rahn House on Ancaster Creek - Hamilton, Canada All thats missing is a recipe book and some ingredients Ben Rahn House on Ancaster Creek - Hamilton, Canada Although not set in nature, the house looks like it is Ben Rahn House on Ancaster Creek - Hamilton, Canada A nice place for a childrens party Ben Rahn House on Ancaster Creek - Hamilton, Canada The spiral staircase contrasts with the straight lines Ben Rahn House on Ancaster Creek - Hamilton, Canada The perfect place to write that novel Ben Rahn House on Ancaster Creek - Hamilton, Canada Ben Rahn

How would you sum with the project in five words?

Intergenerational home rethinks family living.

What was the brief for this project?

To design a home for a couple and their ageing parents where they could live together, yet have privacy and autonomy. The house was to be built of robust local materials and be energy-efficient.

What did you hope to solve as you designed this home?

We hoped to redefine what it might mean to live collectively and show that designing for the elderly could be modern and elegant. We also wanted to design a house that was forward-thinking relative to energy use without wearing it like a badge.

What makes this space unique?

The house backs onto conservation lands so even though it is located in a suburban neighbourhood, it feels like you are in the middle of native Ontario landscape. We clad the house with cedar and Algonquin limestone and used really precise details, so there is a play between the natural and the modern.

What was your inspiration for this project?

Our clients.

What was the toughest issue you encountered when this building was being designed and built?

Building a house like this takes time and lots of care, so while we had wonderful contractors led by a young man named David Bernstein from [Canadian firm] DB Custom Homes, we were continuously balancing the pressing schedule with having to take the time needed to built it right.

What do you wish you could change in hindsight?

The house is not finished long enough to answer honestly. We dont have the right kind of distance yet. We love every bit of it.

What sort of experience do you hope people using this space have?

The house is incredibly quiet and the landscape serene, so it is really calming to be there. The clients, builder, and our team also spent a lot of effort to ensure the house performs well in our Northern climate so it is warm and comfortable even on the coldest days.

What would surprise us about it?

Most people wouldn't guess that the house met the target for the 2030 Challenge through sustainable building strategies and generating onsite renewable power.As far as meat dishes go, few are as contentious as the French delicacy foie gras, which is traditionally made from the liver of a duck or goose that has been fattened by force-feeding.

While Peta has previously lambasted this process as cruel  it has even been banned in California  the animal welfare group has teamed up with French chef Alexis Gauthier to produce a vegan-friendly alternative.

In collaboration with plant-based chefs BOSH!, the Michelin-starred chef has produced a plant-based foie gras, aptly named faux gras.

In France, people love foie gras, Gauthier says in a short video which illustrates how he makes the dish.

So Ive developed a recipe where I will have the same kind of texture, sensation, and deliciousness of foie gras without killing any animals, so no abuse involved.

Recommended Wagamama launches vegan katsu curry

The unique recipe consists of lentils, walnuts, shallots and mushrooms, which give the dish its meaty texture.

After these ingredients are blended together in a food processor to produce the pate texture, its topped with vegan butter.

Oh, its delicious, if you serve that on toasted bread, its actually better than foie gras, he continues.

The BOSH! founders hailed the dish as one of the tastiest pates theyd ever eaten.

Gauthier has been a chef since 1991, later heading up proceedings at Roussillon in London, earning a Michelin star for the restaurant, which it held from 2000 to 2011.

He left in 2010 to open up a new establishment in his own name, Gauthier Soho, which offers extensive vegan options that landed him an award for Best Vegan Menu at Petas Vegan Food Awards in 2016.

The respected chef, who has been a judge on two versions of MasterChef, revealed that experimenting with plant-based cooking is now one of his culinary priorities:

Ive been cooking with a lot of meat, fish, foie gras, everything you can think of, until the day I realised that wasnt for me anymore, he said.

So Im trying to rethink my entire food knowledge and rewrite all the rules of cooking and eating with a vegan perspective.Chicken katsu curry is not only Wagamamas most famous dish but also the most popular order at the Japanese-inspired restaurant brand, selling over 3.5 million dishes a year (thats 10,000 every day).

Although the menu has for a long time included a vegetarian equivalent, the yasai katsu curry which features slices of aubergine, butternut squash and sweet potato covered in crispy breadcrumbs (rather than the iconic chicken), there has never been a vegan version - until now.

Wagamama has just launched the vegatsu across its 130 restaurants nationwide, giving vegans the chance to enjoy the classic dish.

Made with seitan instead of chicken, the restaurant says 90 per cent of people cant believe it isnt meat.

Although made from wheat, seitan has little in common with flour or bread. Also called wheat meat, wheat protein, wheat gluten or simply gluten, seitan becomes surprisingly similar to the look and texture of meat when cooked, making it a popular meat substitute.

More than seven per cent of the UK population (3.5 million people) now identifies as vegan, and the number has surged by more than 700 per cent over the past two years.

Recommended Wagamama launches new vegan menu

The restaurant hopes that the vegatsu will appeal not just to vegans but also to the growing number of v-curious Brits who eat meat but are also interested in plant-based food.

Whether its for the perceived health benefits of going vegan or in a bid to eat more sustainably, there are now 16 million Britons who consider themselves to be v-curious.

Steve Mangleshot, executive chef at Wagamama said: Following the huge success of our vegan menu it made sense for us to create a vegan version of our world-renowned katsu curry.

Vegan, vegetarian, v-curious and flexitarian customers will be amazed by how similar it tastes to the original and iconic katsu. We are delighted to bring this new dish to our fans across the UK.

With the original chicken katsu curry having been on the menu since Wagamama launched in 1992, a vegan alternative has certainly been a long time coming.

And it seems to be going down a treat with consumers: #vegatsu was incredible, one person wrote on Instagram. Seitan is one of my favourite fake meats, and this was so so good.

I finally got to try the Vegatsu and it was pretty much the best thing ever, added another.

But not everyone has been convinced: It was really bad, one person wrote on Instagram. I was so excited to try this, my favourite order at my local Thai is their vegan katsu, and the Wagamamas one uses actual seitan as opposed to just a vegetable fritter thing, so surely its just got to be a pimped version?

Sadly not. The seitan was soggy, [...] there wasnt enough sauce for the mountain of rice and it was just very very average.

Opinions may be mixed, but at least its another option for vegans.Apple has helped find a new way of making aluminium that could revolutionise the way that iPhones and other products are made.

The new technique completely eliminates greenhouse gases from the smelting process, in a discovery that it says is a "revolutionary" change in the way the key metal is made.

Aluminium is one of the most important materials used by Apple: it is what just about every Apple product's case is made of. But that is a problem because Apple is committed to being as green as possible, and making the metal does a considerable amount of damage to the Earth and the environment.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

Now Apple has worked with other metal companies to develop the proprietary technique, which allows for the generation of "green" aluminium for the first ever time.

Apple is committed to advancing technologies that are good for the planet and help protect it for generations to come, said Tim Cook, Apples CEO. We are proud to be part of this ambitious new project, and look forward to one day being able to use aluminium produced without direct greenhouse gas emissions in the manufacturing of our products.

Recommended Apple reveals new robot to take apart iPhones as part of Earth Day

The smelting still relies on energy that could potentially be generated using the burning of fossil fuels. But it gets rid of the greenhouse gases that are usually created by the process itself.

Aluminium has been mass produced in much the same way since it was 1886. That method was pioneered by Charles Hall, the founder of metals company Alcoa, whch along with Rio Tinto and Apple helped develop the process.

Ever since then, aluminium has been made by hitting alumina with a strong electric current, removing the oxygen. But the material used to do that burns in the process, and releases considerable amounts of greenhouse gases.

The new technique, discovered by Alcoa, uses a completely new process that replaces the carbon with a different, secret material. That material produces only oxygen when it burns, vastly limiting the environmental impact.

Apple brought Alcoa together with Rio Tinto to develop the technique and bring it to the market. They have now formed a new company called Elysis that will develop the technology for wide-scale use.

If that can happen, then it could cut out the greenhouses gases released by the smelting process around the world. That could vastly reduce the environmental impact of the creation of iPhones, other Apple products and everything else that relies on the important metal.To all outward appearances, Louise Brown looked exactly the same as thousands of other babies when her blinking, slightly quizzical gaze met newspaper readers on the morning of 27 July, 1978. But as the first child born using the technique of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), she was utterly unique in the history of humankind.

Forty years later, the media is saturated with articles about peoples experiences of infertility. There is frequent debate about the possible dangers of current and future reproductive technologies. These include intracytoplasmic sperm injection (the direct injection of sperm into eggs obtained via IVF), uterus transplants, artificial wombs and human cloning.

And there is good reason for news outlets to be concerned about infertility. It remains an immediate and painful problem for many people today. In 2010, an estimated 48.5 million couples worldwide were infertile. We will never know how many people suffered from infertility in past generations  the numbers were never counted  but there are fears that rates are now rising.

Today, declining fertility rates are often blamed on wider changes in Western womens lives in the early 21st century. The average age of first-time motherhood is rising in England and Wales and across most of Europe. The reasons behind this change are complex, but in Western Europe include increased educational and professional opportunities for women and changing models of family life. Childlessness is often perceived to be a direct result of these changes.

For these reasons, many people assume that infertility is a distinctively modern experience. Likewise, when they think about infertility, they think about modern medical approaches to its treatment. But the history of infertility goes back much further than 1978, and in the past people often did not think of it as a medical condition at all.

Men suffer from fertility problems too and there is increasing public debate on male infertility. But looking back over a longer time frame shows that for most of history, women have been blamed for childlessness. In some ways this has not changed since 1978. Because IVF is a technology that intervenes on womens bodies, it also reinforces the focus on how womens reproductive systems might fail.

On the 40th anniversary of Louise Browns birth, it makes sense, then, to reflect on womens experiences of infertility in past and present societies. This is a good time to consider the longer history of infertility  and how the experience of involuntary childlessness has changed.

Its easy to forget that only a few decades ago, the birth of one baby via IVF was widely perceived as a scientific miracle. But writings and stories about infertility stretch back to the medical texts of ancient Egypt, Greece and beyond.

The entire Judaeo-Christian tradition begins with the story of Sarah and Abrahams desperate desire for a child. In Icelandic sagas, Indian epic narratives and ancient Greek plays, we find stories of childlessness, miraculous births and adoptions that cross national boundaries.

In centuries past, couples sought all kinds of remedies for childlessness. They prayed and went on pilgrimages. In medieval England, men and women took remedies containing the sexual organs of animals in the belief that this would stimulate their reproductive organs. In 18th-century Europe, childless women were encouraged to take the waters in spa towns to ease their nerves and prevent spasms of the womb. More recently, in the mid-20th century, doctors who believed that female infertility was a psychosomatic condition recommended adoption as a cure. They argued that becoming a mother to an adopted child made women relax and increased their chances of conception.

Behind the chant about the wives of Henry VIII that British schoolchildren learn in the playground  divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived  there also lies a tale of the kings desperate and bloody quest for more children. In the modern era, Federico Garcia Lorcas 1934 play, Yerma , recently reworked in a lauded production at Londons Young Vic theatre, charted one womans obsessive quest for motherhood  an issue that has featured in many TV soap opera storylines in recent decades.

Yet despite this historical evidence, many people persist in thinking about infertility as a product of the modern age. One reason is that IVF itself has made infertility socially visible to an extent unparalleled in earlier decades. Newspaper stories, government inquiries and oral histories show that in the 1950s and earlier, British couples often perceived the arrival of children as entirely down to chance. As one woman, born in 1943, told the oral historian Elizabeth Roberts: Nature  it tricks you doesnt it? Ive always loved babies but you know I just never had any.

With the first live birth of a baby conceived via IVF in 1978, such fatalism became less common. The media storm following Browns conception and birth (the Daily Mail reportedly paid the Browns 325,000 for exclusive rights to their story) put infertility in the public eye and encouraged other couples to proactively seek medical support and technological solutions to their childlessness. Some women about to undergo IVF now believe that the technology works for everyone. Many women are shocked to discover the relatively high rate of failure of a single cycle of IVF. The success rate for women under 35 to have a live birth is 32.2 per cent, declining to just 1.9 per cent for women over 44, according to NHS data from 2010.

Louise Brown, the worlds first test tube baby, with her youngest son Aiden (PA)

In only 40 years, a technology once perceived as equivalent to a miracle has come to be seen almost as a cure-all for fertility problems. The arrival of IVF brought infertility as an issue into the public domain  and led people to believe it was a modern problem that could be solved. But there are other reasons, apart from IVF, why infertility feels like a late 20th-century phenomenon. It was part of a series of changes, which began nearly 20 years earlier, that altered the way women thought about their own bodies.

In Britain, the oral contraceptive pill was made available in 1961 and abortion was legalised six years later. Dramatic changes in womens sexual, reproductive and family lives followed over the ensuing decades. As women were better able to plan and space out births, the birth rate plummeted and the average age of first pregnancy rose. At the same time, premarital sex, illegitimacy and divorce were on the rise. More married women now worked outside the home. The Womens Liberation Movement proclaimed that women should take their futures into their own hands.

Above all, these developments resulted in a new sense that at long last, people might be able to control their reproductive futures. In practice, not all women could easily access contraception or abortion. It wasnt until 1974 that the contraceptive pill was made available free on the NHS to all women, regardless of marital status or age. Nevertheless, throughout the 1960s and 1970s, public debates, social policy and political discourse emphasised choice and control. Because of this emphasis, infertility was often ignored.

For infertile couples, public ignorance around their plight was compounded by the fact that more effective family planning meant fewer newborn children were available for adoption. By the time Brown was born in 1978, a unique set of circumstances prevailed: social changes had encouraged women to believe they had power over their destinies, while technological advances had led to unprecedented faith in the power of women to control their fertility.

Yet at the same time, one of the traditional solutions to childlessness was being lost. While childless couples can still adopt today, they are likely to become parents to older children rather than babies. Child adoption is also now much more heavily regulated in England than it was in the early-20th century. Some couples are not deemed suitable to adopt, while others decide not to continue with the process after making initial enquiries.

Its possible to trace this focus on technology back even further in time. Since the 1930s, it has been possible to detect pregnancy very early on by measuring the level of progesterone in womens urine. Back then, the test was expensive to carry out, but in the late 1960s the home pregnancy testing kit was invented, and is now easily accessible in the West. In the 1950s, ultrasound was developed, and by the 1970s obstetricians were recommending use of the technique on all pregnant women.

This ability to visualise the foetus in the womb is taken for granted today, but it changed common perceptions of pregnancy beyond all recognition. In previous centuries, this wasnt the case. Early modern medical authorities tell us that there was often much uncertainty about the diagnosis of pregnancy. Take, for example, Mary Tudors phantom pregnancy in 1555. The queen of England fully believed that she was pregnant until long past her expected due date. She has sometimes been portrayed as delusional, driven mad with grief by her longing for a child. But her courtiers also believed that a royal birth was imminent, and the most up-to-date medical knowledge available at the time could not disprove them until the child failed to materialise.

The arrival of IVF brought infertility as an issue into the public domain (Shutterstock)

In the mid-20th century, the march of technology seemed unstoppable. By the time IVF became available, as adoption became more difficult, couples were primed to pin their last hopes of raising a child from birth on a technological breakthrough. This is the vital context for understanding initial responses to IVF as a medical miracle. No one seemed to think it was genuinely possible until the late 1960s, yet previous advances such as the pill and ultrasound meant than when it arrived, people quickly trusted the new reproductive technology.

The belief in this miracle cure exerted considerable influence on the shape of public discussions of infertility in subsequent decades  not least in the unthinking confidence many couples have in IVF.

Recommended Ibuprofen linked to male infertility by new study

All this shows that to understand past experiences of infertility, we need to realise just how radically recent changes in medicine and technology have altered the way we think about the body. Infertile women now experience involuntary childlessness differently to their forebears. But the emotions women often go through when dealing with infertility remain remarkably similar, despite the advent of new technologies.

This argument is at the centre of a recent history of infertility I co-edited with medical historian Gayle Davis, which spans the ancient world to the present day, taking in Britain, Europe, Asia and North America.

My own research compares depictions of infertility in British mass-market womens magazines and in feminist publications in the 1960s and 1970s. Because of developments in contraceptive technology, the women featured in these publications often believed that they were now able to control their reproductive destinies. They were less prepared than women of previous generations for the possibility that they could be powerless to have a baby. But in a pre-IVF period, if they did experience difficulty in conceiving, there was no promise of an effective technological solution to the problem.

Desperation was the most constant theme in mass-market magazine coverage of infertility in this period. Women described infertility as a tragedy, a feeling of emptiness, and like being dead inside. They told of their inability to come to terms with the diagnosis, and their perception of infertility as an irreparable loss. One woman begged an agony aunt: Can a woman ever come to terms with this tragedy? If so, tell me how?

These women had expected to become mothers. Infertility was a loss of this anticipated future. More than this, they felt that childlessness meant a loss of feminine identity. The victim of infertility often described herself as not a proper woman. Above all, infertile women felt themselves separated from pregnant women and mothers.

One woman recounted standing outside Mothercare, looking in the window with tears streaming down my face, while others dreaded visiting friends who had recently given birth. These descriptions of infertile womens emotions remained remarkably constant, despite the sweeping social changes of these two decades. And women reported similar emotions in feminist publications as in the mass-market magazines. Both before and after 1978, when Brown was born through IVF, infertile women expressed intense feelings of powerlessness and despair.

British test tube baby pioneer, Professor Robert Edwards, has been given the Nobel Prize for medicine (PA)

It seems infertility has been stigmatised in many different historical contexts. Noble women in medieval Japan were disdained if their marriages remained childless. In 16th-century England, childless women suffered because motherhood was perceived as the most important marker of femininity. And in 19th-century France, many doctors linked childlessness to abortion, venereal disease or promiscuity.

In widely different societies, women have borne the brunt of the blame for fertility problems. Yet in some circumstances, women have also been stigmatised for seeking help. In the mid-20th century, there was much debate over whether married women who conceived by use of artificial insemination by donor sperm had committed adultery. For much of history, it seems, childless women literally couldnt win, no matter what they did.

Infertility is still often seen as a womans problem today. In the media, childlessness is often blamed on womens selfishness in seeking to build careers or wait for the right partner before trying to become pregnant. A reality check is desperately needed to stop this cruel finger pointing. Men have fertility problems too. Not all women suffer fertility troubles because they start trying too late. But even when an age-related decline in fertility is the root of the problem  why should a woman be blamed for wanting to wait until she feels ready to be a good mother?

It might seem depressing to conclude that women have always been blamed for infertility. But maybe putting their own stories in historical perspective could help infertile women now. The ability to research and to understand the many different reasons for infertility, and the different options open to those who are unable to conceive, helps couples to exert control over a situation that makes them feel powerless.

This ability to exert increased control by making informed decisions about what path to take next has been identified as an important mechanism for coping with infertility. Understanding the history of infertility could have the same effect. Humans are historical creatures. The ability to place our own experiences in historical perspective could help those who cannot conceive to come to terms with their situation, and not to blame themselves.

Tracey Loughran is a reader in history and deputy dean of humanities (research) at The University of Essex. This article first appeared on The Conversation (theconversation.com)The language of love can have the power to transgress the barriers of different dialects.

However, when it comes to sharing an understanding of gender roles in a relationship, some views can become lost in translation among binational European couples.

A recent study investigated the expectations that heterosexual couples have about gender, with one of the pair originally coming from the UK and the other from a separate European country.

Recommended The big mistake that couples make when marrying overseas

The research discovered that British men often have a more traditional perception of relationships, while women from Europe prefer to uphold egalitarian beliefs.

The study was conducted by Dr Benedicte Brahic, a lecturer in sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Dr Brahic interviewed 32 heterosexual couples hailing from different parts of Europe, 17 of which were married and 12 of which were raising children together.

While the sample used in the study was relatively small, the findings provided an illuminating insight into the disparate mindsets of individuals from distinct sectors of Europe who are romantically involved.

The cartoons that perfectly sum up relationships Show all 10 1 /10 The cartoons that perfectly sum up relationships The cartoons that perfectly sum up relationships Catana Chetwynd The cartoons that perfectly sum up relationships Catana Chetwynd The cartoons that perfectly sum up relationships Catana Chetwynd The cartoons that perfectly sum up relationships Catana Chetwynd The cartoons that perfectly sum up relationships Catana Chetwynd The cartoons that perfectly sum up relationships Catana Chetwynd The cartoons that perfectly sum up relationships Catana Chetwynd The cartoons that perfectly sum up relationships Catana Chetwynd The cartoons that perfectly sum up relationships Catana Chetwynd The cartoons that perfectly sum up relationships Catana Chetwynd

The research is particularly fascinating in light of the uncertainty that Brexit has imbued in European Union citizens currently living in the UK.

While mononational couples typically rely on a shared cultural bedrock to build their relationship, binational couples face the task of assembling their own hybrid bedrock to cradle their life together, Dr Brahic explained.

The Brexit vote heightens the necessity for researchers and policy makers to gain a better understanding of the needs, opportunities and challenges these invisible migrants may encounter.

Recommended This is when married couples are happiest in their relationship

Dr Brahic decided to assess binational European couples as she felt that there was a significant lack of research that had been conducted previously on the topic.

European transnationalism - constituted, amongst other things, by transnational families and binational couples, is a social reality for a growing number of individuals, yet little is known about the lives, experiences, opportunities and challenges of these pioneers of Europeanisation from below.

The female participants who originally came from southern and eastern Europe admitted that they appreciated the opportunities that living in the UK had afforded them.

I think men in England are a lot more independent than they are in Italy, said Chiara, an Italian woman with a British male partner.

Recommended This is what single people look for most in a relationship

If they want to, they can cook, they can put a load of washing on, they can do the washing up. In my previous relations in Italy, this was not the case at all.

The British women interviewed who had European partners similarly preferred to break down the notions of gender stereotypes, with one revealing that her French male partner wanted her to act a little bit more passive and a little bit more feminine.

On the other hand, British men confessed that relationships in the UK can sometimes be perceived as fairly conservative in regard to gender roles.

Recommended Doing dishes is the chore most likely to hurt your relationship

Generalising in many ways, we are very traditional in Britain in terms of relationships and expecting the man to do certain things and the women to do things, said James, a British man with a German female partner called Sabine.

Sabine was not like that.

Jacques, a Belgian man with a British female partner, found the apparent separation of men and women in social scenarios in the UK strange, describing the atmosphere as more macho.

In 2016, a spokesperson for Leave.EU denounced claims that EU citizens in relationship with Britons in the UK would face having to leave the country, stating: Absolutely nothing will happen to couples after Brexit."Asda petrol stations are charging drivers a temporary 99 fee to pay at the pump in a bid to ensure customers have enough money to fill up.

The pre-authorisation charge, which has been introduced at three of the supermarkets stores, deducts money from the drivers bank balance or credit card.

Although the charge never leaves the customers account, it is held in limbo and only returned once the payment for the petrol has cleared.

But the new rules have already been met with furious complaints by customers after one driver said she was still waiting to be reimbursed for the 99 days after filling up.

Dont go to Asda for fuel! Unless you can live without 99 for around 2-3 days! Jade Louise, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, wrote in a Facebook post that has been shared thousands of times.

My complaint to them was that they should have notices on the petrol pumps making customers aware of this as they have changed their policy, she continued. Fifth of May we got fuel and we're still waiting for our refund... absolute joke!

An Asda spokesperson said: We take any customer complaint seriously, but its important to clarify that at no point has Asda taken or held Jade Louises money as a result of this transaction.

"Visa and MasterCard have increased the minimum pre-authorisation amount at pay at the pump petrol pumps for all retailers and unfortunately there seems to have been a delay in Jade Louises bank releasing the hold.

Asda has since been inundated with threats by customers to fill up elsewhere unless it reverses it decision. But the supermarket insists the increase will eventually impact all retailers.

Sainsburys failed to rule out introducing the higher charge when contacted by The Independent. A spokesperson said: We are aware Visa and Mastercard are rolling out an industry-wide update for pay at pump machines.

We are currently reviewing the update before any introduction at our petrol filling stations."

But a Morrisons spokesperson appeared to suggest the supermarket giant would not introduce the charge.

 Sainsbury's CEO sings 'We're in the Money' before ITV News segment about 12 billion merger with Asda

At Morrisons petrol stations, the amount taken out of customers bank accounts should be the same as the amount they pay at the pump," she said.

Tesco failed to respond when contacted for comment.

The 99 fee was introduced for customers using automated fuel pumps by Visa and Mastercard last year, up from an earlier pre-authorisation charge of 1.

Mastercard said the move was designed to prevent drivers from filling up with more fuel than they could afford.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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 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

This is designed to protect them, and the petrol station, a spokesperson said. If customers dont have the required funds in their bank account, a further step is available to petrol stations which allows them to check what available funds a customer has, enabling a lower value of fuel to be dispensed.

While some customers may see a request for a higher amount than the fuel they bought - perhaps on their mobile banking app - these funds are not taken from their account. Only the value of the petrol dispensed is withdrawn.The parents of jailed acid attacker Arthur Collins have appeared in court accused of growing cannabis at their home.

Police said they discovered 30 plants alongside in an outbuilding while searching for the 25-year-old, on 17 April last year.

Collins, the ex-boyfriend of reality TV star Ferne McCann, was jailed for 20 years in November after hurling acid over a dance floor at an east London nightclub.

Recommended Acid attacker Arthur Collins jailed for further eight months

The potential yield from the crop found at Mr Collinss parents house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, could have been between 9,000 and 25,000, prosecutors said.

Collins 55-year-old father, who is also called Arthur, and mother Jackie, 53, appeared at Stevenage Magistrates Court alongside their other son, Thomas, 22.

Officers allegedly found CS spray and a taser, along with 68.1g of cannabis in his bedroom during the search. The family spoke only to confirm their names, dates of births, addresses and confirm they were British during a brief hearing.

Arthur Collins senior, who was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and black trousers, and Ms Collins, dressed in a navy blue skirt and blazer, each face a charge of allowing the production of cannabis, a Class B drug.

Their son, Thomas, who was wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and a black T-shirt, is charged with possessing cannabis and two weapons.

Each of the three defendants made no indication of the pleas they intend to enter.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 5 October 2021 Members of Insulate Britain outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, before a hearing over the injunction banning the environmental activists from blocking the M25 PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2021 A delegate passes a street cleaner on the second day of the annual Conservative Party Conference being held at the Manchester Central convention centre AFP via Getty 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

Magistrates declined jurisdiction, sending the case to St Albans Crown Court for a hearing on 8 June.

All three of the Collinss were granted unconditional bail.

Arthur Collins junior, who has a baby daughter, Sunday, with Towie actress McCann, was handed an additional eight-month sentence earlier this year for using a smuggled mobile phone in his prison cell.

He said he used the device to call then-pregnant Ms McCann while awaiting trial.

Press Association contributed to this reportA teenage girl planned to use guns and grenades in an attack on the British Museum after an Isis fighter she hoped to marry was killed in Syria, a court has heard.

Safaa Boular was 16 when she came into contact with British militant Naweed Hussain through Isis friends she met online, the jury at Londons Old Bailey was told.

She allegedly planned to travel to Syria with her older sister but had her passport seized by authorities who stopped her family as they returned from holiday in Morocco in August 2016.

 Footage shows teenager jailed for terrorism offences at paintball camp where he was training to fight with Isis

After being released on bail, Ms Boular is said to have discussed committing a terror attack in the UK with Hussain and became increasingly committed to the plot when he was killed in an airstrike.

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC told the court Ms Boular professed that all she would need would be a car and a knife to get what I want to achieve.

He added: It appears she planned to launch an attack against members of the public, selected largely at random, in the environs of that cultural jewel and most popular of tourist attractions, the British Museum in central London. This would have been an attack that would at the very least have caused widespread panic, but was intended to involve the infliction of serious injury and death.

Prosecutors said that Ms Boular had developed an extremist mindset and commitment to Isis by early 2016, before she met Hussain online.

Safaa Boular allegedly planned to attack the British Museum (British Museum)

Within three months of talking, they declared their love for each other in August of that year and started discussing how Ms Boular would join him, the jury heard.

A conversation from the encrypted messaging app Telegram presented to the court showed the pair allegedly discussing marriage, having children together and receiving money for the journey to Syria.

Messages talked of wearing suicide vests to detonate if caught by enemy fighters, with Hussain writing that they would die holding hands.

I want jannah [paradise after death] so bad, Ms Boular allegedly wrote.

Mr Atkinson said that although the teenager may have been influenced and guided by Hussain, he had not bullied or tricked her.

She was a young woman speaking to an older and more experienced man, but her commitment and determination was none the less for either of those factors, he added.

Prosecutors said investigators recovered Isis propaganda videos, photos and songs from her devices, including images of beheadings, training videos and a woman wearing a suicide belt.

Her older sister, Rizlaine, had herself tried to travel to Syria to marry an Isis fighter in 2014 but was stopped in Turkey and returned to the UK, where she married and had a child.

The mother, now 21, allegedly received 3,000 from Hussain to try again with her younger sister and booked flights and a hotel in Turkey to provide a cover story for their travel.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 4 October 2021 A delegate passes a street cleaner on the second day of the annual Conservative Party Conference being held at the Manchester Central convention centre AFP via Getty 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

Their plan was thwarted when they were reported missing by their mother and arrested on 21 August 2016, the jury was told.

But they were released and Ms Boular remained in contact with Hussain by using a secret phone hidden inside a cushion.

She allegedly revealed the plan to use pineapples  code for grenades  and a Russian gun known as a tokarev on the British Museum to intelligence agents posing as Isis members after his death.

Ms Boular was encouraged by her mother and sister to join her fiance and become a martyr, prosecutors said, presenting transcripts of conversations recorded by the security services in their home.

The defendant, who was 17 at the time, is accused of pleading for help and guidance in the attack from online contacts she believed were Isis members.

Akhi [brother] my heart has been set on this for months, one message read. Only Allah can guide me but your assistance is needed desperately  my heart yearns to be reunited with my dear husband for the very first time [sic].

She was arrested days later on suspicion of trying to travel to Syria.

As a result, she was not at liberty to put her chilling intentions into practice herself, Mr Atkinson said.

She sought to encourage her sister, Rizlaine, to carry the torch forward in her stead.

Recorded conversations from prison appear to show the two sisters and their mother discussing a terror attack in code, describing the atrocity as a party.

Rizlaine Boular, of Clerkenwell in central London, has already admitted planning a knife attack in Westminster with the help and support of their mother Mina Dich, 43, the jury was told.

Ms Boular, now 18, who lived at home with her mother in Vauxhall in southwest London, has denied two counts of preparing acts of terrorism  the first by attempting to join Hussain in Syria and the second for the alleged British Museum plot.

The trial continues.A man who bludgeoned his girlfriend to death, chopped up her body and flushed her remains down the toilet has been found guilty of murder.

Dean Lowe, 33, armed himself with a rock and a metal pole to kill Kirby Noden, 32, in their basement flat before insisting she was alive and well in South Africa.

He claimed she had set up him by spraying her own blood around their one-bed home in Marazion, Cornwall, as she left him for another man.

Prosecutors told Truro Crown Court the murder was committed at some point in January 2017, but it did not come to light until four months later when Lowe confessed to his family in Cheshire.

In a text message to his cousin, he wrote: Shes dead and has been chopped up and put down the toilet and in the bins down the road.

Lowes family alerted police, who arrested him at his flat. Detectives said the home had barely been altered since the murder.

Lowe admitted to officers that he had killed Noden and disposed of her body, but later denied this and pleaded not guilty to murder.

However, a jury of six men and six women convicted him on Thursday following nine hours and 35 minutes of deliberations.

Speaking after the trial, Detective Inspector Ian Ringrose of Devon and Cornwall Police said Lowe had put Nodens family through living hell by refusing to disclose where he had disposed of her body.

Lowe had made certain disclosures in the Facebook messages and to the arresting officer to suggest that he had killed Kirby, disarticulated her body and disposed of her remains, he said. The forensic examination of the scenes supported this and that there had been a sustained attack on Kirby and that Lowe was the person responsible for that assault.

Police said Kirby Nodens family were put through living hell (Devon and Cornwall Police)

Nodens remains were never found and Mr Ringrose said an extensive and complex investigation had been required to prove she was no longer alive

This has required extensive nationwide and international enquiries, he added. Miss Nodens family have been put through a living hell with Lowe not disclosing where he disposed of Kirbys body and denying all knowledge in court. Lowe added to their upset by insisting that Kirby was still alive.

Lowe, who was not in court to hear the verdict, described during the trial how he and Noden spent Christmas 2016 together taking drugs and self-harming.

He claimed that he last saw her between 10 and 15 January, that she left him for another man and was living in South Africa.

However, the prosecution said Lowe beat Noden to death and then disposed of her body. She is presumed to have been dead by 14 January, when Lowe attempted to use her bank card to withdraw money from an ATM.

Having killed her, the defendant moved her body, probably in pieces, and cleaned up the worst of the blood and cutting away the worst of the carpet, said prosecutor Paul Dunkels. For four months, from mid-January to mid-May, he lived on in the flat in the state it was in.

Living in the midst of what he had done must have been gruesome.

Dean Lowe continued living in the gruesome flat following the murder ( SWNS.com) (SWNS.com)

Mr Dunkels said Nodens blood was splattered around the bedroom, soaked into the mattress where her body had been laying, and was on the weapons used to murder her.

He said: No one other than the defendant knew what had happened to Kirby Noden for five months until May of last year when the defendant began to send text messages to members of his family in Cheshire that there has been a body on the floor of the flat which he had cut up and put into bins and down the toilet.

Jurors were shown images of blood stains discovered in the flat by police on the walls, ceiling and mattress.

They also saw text messages sent by Lowe, who told his cousin: Shes dead and has been chopped up and put down the toilet and in the bins down the road.

Either Im getting set up or Ive murdered Kirby. I had a blackout, hazy memory and woke up with a body on the floor. I am scared so I just got rid.

I put the body in the bins down the road. I remember the binmen finding all the meat and didnt know what it was. The carpet was lifted because of the body matter.

It took a week to get rid of the body, it was horrible. Heads gone. I know what I saw, it was real, it seems real. Either Kirby dead or set up.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 29 September 2021 The family of Betty Campbell unveil the bronze sculpture of her during the unveiling of the statue in Central Square, Cardiff, of Betty Campbell, Wales' first black headteacher PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2021 A sign referring to the lack of fuel is placed at the entrance to a petrol station in London AP UK news in pictures 27 September 2021 Police officers detain a protester from Insulate Britain occupying a roundabout leading from the M25 motorway to Heathrow Airport in London PA UK news in pictures 26 September 2021 Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer watches the Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur match at The Font pub in Brighton PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2021 Scottish pro-independence supporters hold a march and rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK news in pictures 24 September 2021 Police officers remove two protesters from the top of a tanker, as Insulate Britain block the A20 in Kent, which provides access to the Port of Dover in Kent. The environmental activists have moved location after been banned from campaigning on the M25 motorway in London PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2021 Gabriella, the seven year old daughter of imprisoned British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, joins in a game on a giant snakes and ladders board in Parliament Square, to show the ups and downs of her mothers case to mark the 2,000 days she has been detained in Iran AP UK news in pictures 22 September 2021 A new sign hangs on the Millicent Fawcett statue after it was altered by CrackTheCrises coalition activists to highlight the climate crisis as a feminist struggle in Parliament Square in London EPA UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA

In his evidence, Lowe told jurors he had known Noden since they were children because his father and her mother had been friends.

The couple, originally from Winsford in Cheshire, started a relationship aged around 25, later moving to Torquay together before becoming homeless and walking the coast path to Cornwall and ending up in Penzance.

The couple lived in a tent before moving to the flat in Marazion. Lowe described this as a bad time because they had been homeless quite a lot, drinking on the streets, taking drugs and trying to forget bad memories.

Mrs Justice May requested relevant details from psychiatric reports before she sentences Lowe, who faces life in prison.

Sentencing was adjourned until next week at Exeter Crown Court.

In a statement, Nodens family said: Dean Lowe has taken away from us something totally precious, and although we welcome this verdict, it will never replace our loss.Britains armed forces could be almost 21bn short of the money it needs to buy equipment to combat mounting threats over the next decade, MPs have warned.

The Public Accounts Committee said it was highly sceptical that the Ministry of Defences (MoD) ongoing modernisation programme would solve affordability issues and ensure Britains capabilities against cyber, chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and electromagnetic attacks.

A report concluded that the department simply does not have enough money to buy all the equipment it says it needs and accused it of losing control over costs.

The committee calculated a deficit of at least 4.9bn and potentially as much as 20.8bn over the 10-year 179.7bn equipment budget, although the MoD said the worst-case scenario was unlikely.

Meg Hiller, the Labour MP who chairs of the committee, said the government had also failed to report transparently to both parliament and the public about the financial risks it faces.

The MoDs national security responsibilities give it a unique and critical place in the public sector but that is no excuse for a lack of rigour in its financial affairs, she added.

The MoDs inability to better quantify that affordability gap has consequences not just for its confirmed spending plans, but also its ability to prepare for serious challenges in national defence.

The department must be more rigorous and realistic in its approach to costing its equipment plan. It also needs to be more open with parliament and the public about its finances, commitments and their costs to taxpayers.

 Defence secretary Gavin Williamson says allied forces strike in Syria was 'highly successful mission'

We heard a lot in evidence about the Modernising Defence Programme but I am concerned this may end up adding more costs to what is already an overstretched budget.

The equipment plan accounts for more than 40 per cent of the entire defence budget in that period and a 2017 review by the Public Accounts Committee warned of a budget shortfall of 7bn.

Its latest report condemned the plan as unrealistic and found weaknesses in cost control.

The construction of the next generation of nuclear missile submarines and the troubled F-35 fighter jet programme, which has left new aircraft carriers without aircraft, were among those singled out for criticism.

MPs said the biggest concern was the need to bring forward some of the cost of building the next generation of nuclear missile submarines, the 31bn Dreadnought class, plus its nuclear warheads.

The committee heard evidence that while the cost of the four planned submarines may not increase, some of the money may need to be spent sooner than previously thought, putting extra strain on the budget.

There was additional criticism of a lack of transparency over the costs of F-35 planes, which are due to enter service with the RAF this year.

MPs also highlighted a failure to include the cost of buying an entire new class of frigate for the Royal Navy, the F31e, in the original equipment plan in 2017.

That plan was also missing 9.6bn of additional costs but the MoD had been unable to say what they were, the report found.

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

It highlighted a lack of flexibility in spending that could affect the armed forces ability to combat new threats like cyber attacks and artificial intelligence, because so much money is tied to long-term projects linked to conventional warfare.

The committee warned that the 10-year equipment plan contains no headroom and leaves the UK increasingly dependent on international allies.

MPs also accused the MoD of relying on ever increasing and optimistic savings targets and controversial efficiency programmes.

They said the Modernising Defence Programme, announced by the new defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, in January, must explain how it intended to balance long-term capability yet retain sufficient flexibility to respond to changes in the defence landscape.

The MoD has so far saved 7.9bn out of a 16bn target to be reached over the next nine years.

A spokesperson said: We are committed to delivering large, complex and technologically challenging defence programmes as part of our 180bn plan to give our military the very best equipment.

We recognise financial risk comes with that, but the potential affordability gap highlighted by this report reflects an unlikely, worst-case scenario in which all possibilities materialise.

We are on track to meet our 16bn savings target and will also review these recommendations as part of our Modernising Defence Programme, which aims to strengthen our armed forces in the face of intensifying threats.

Additional reporting by PADame Barbara Windsor has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, her husband has said.

Scott Mitchell told The Sun that the 80-year-old Eastenders and Carry On star had been diagnosed four years ago and had been given medication to help manage the condition.

But he said that her memory loss and confusion had grown worse in recent weeks.

I want the public to know because they are naturally very drawn to Barbara and she loves talking to them, he said. Rather than me living in fear she might get confused or upset, theyll know that if her behaviour seems strange, its due to Alzheimers and accept it for what it is.

The 55-year-old said he had decided to speak out because he "did not want someone else to dictate how or when the diagnosis came out".

He added: I dont want it to come across that shes sitting there unable to communicate, because shes not. Were still going out for walks or dinner with friends and we still laugh together a lot."

Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures Show all 14 1 /14 Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures Barbara-Windsor.jpg Getty Images Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures 256262.bin Getty Images Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures 256263.bin Getty Images Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures 256264.bin Getty Images Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures 256265.bin Getty Images Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures 256266.bin Getty Images Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures 256267.bin Getty Images Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures 256268.bin Getty Images Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures 256269.bin Getty Images Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures 256261.bin Getty Images Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures peggy-mitchell-eastenders.jpg BBC Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures 256273.bin Getty Images Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures 256275.bin Getty Images Dame Barbara Windsor: career in pictures peggy-mitchell.jpg PA

A small circle of friends who had begun to notice her occasional confusion were told shortly after the diagnosis, he said. But he stopped the news from going public after his wife struggled to come to terms with it.

Mr Mitchell himself had started to notice the symptoms of the condition in 2009, just before she left Eastenders for the first time, when she began finding it difficult to learn her lines, he said.

She underwent a series of mental agility tests, a brain scan and a lumbar puncture, before they were given the diagnosis. By 2016, her forgetfulness and confusion were getting worse, and it was agreed she would leave EastEnders for the final time, Mr Mitchell said.

She has now retired from charity work as well as acting, he added.

Tim Parry, Director at Alzheimers Research UK said he was "saddened" to hear the news, but congratulated Mr Mitchell for "speaking out to encourage other affected individuals and families to do the same when its right for them. Its important to bring the disease out into the open as a crucial step towards us tackling it."

He added: "Alzheimers is a physical disease, in the same way that cancer or heart disease are, and there shouldnt be stigma in being open about it."

One of the most recognisable faces on British television, Dame Barbara made her stage debut aged 13, when she appeared in pantomime and just a year later she played a part in the West End in the musical Love From Judy.

Aside from her role in EastEnders, Dame Barbara is perhaps best known for appearing in several Carry On... films.

Playing the role of the "good time girl", she first appeared in 1964's Carry On Spying, but one of her best remembered scenes, from 1969's Carry On Camping, saw her bikini top fly off during outdoor aerobic exercises. Her final role was in Carry On Dick in 1974.

She also starred in the 1968 classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

But she is best known as Peggy Mitchell, the battleaxe landlady of the Queen Victoria and mother of hardmen Phil and Grant in EastEnders, where she was often heard telling drinkers who had crossed her to "get outta my pub!".

Barbara Windsor as Eastenders character Peggy Mitchell (BBC)

In 2009, her career was recognised with the Lifetime Achievement Award at The British Soap Awards.

After 16 years of playing the role, Dame Barbara left Albert Square in 2010, though made further occasional appearances before her character was killed off in 2016.

She was awarded an MBE in the Millennium New Year honours and has also been given The Freedom of the City of London.David Goodall, the 104-year-old British-born scientist who travelled to Switzerland to end his life, has died.

The botanist and ecologist had told The Independent that in a way Im looking forward to it, as an end, having previously said he regretted living so long.

He had campaigned for years for peoples right to assisted suicide including in Australia, his adopted home.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Mr Goodall told reporters: At my age, and even at rather less than my age, one wants to be free to choose the death and when the death is the appropriate time.

My abilities have been declining over the past year or two, and my eyesight for the past five or six years, and I no longer want to continue life.

The number of assisted suicides has been growing fast, according to the Swiss federal statistics office. Nine years ago, there were 297. By 2015, the most recent year tabulated, the figure had more than tripled to 965.

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

Nearly 15 per cent of the cases last year involved people under 65 years old.

Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland but is criticised by a large number of doctors who say it should be reserved for people who are terminally ill.

Mr Goodall began to prepare for an assisted death 20 years ago as a member of Exit International, a campaign group.

Five or six years ago he began to lose his independence due to failing eyesight and other problems, he told The Independent on Wednesday.

Voicing his surprise at the amount of media attention he had received, the scientist added he was hopeful for change in the law within the next decade.

Additional reporting by agenciesThe plight of disabled and elderly people has been laid bare in a damning report exposing that care home residents have been left without meals and unwashed for months on end.

In an open letter seen excluisvely by The Independent, more than 80 charities urge Jeremy Hunt to act now after the findings revealed one in five care residents had gone without meals and a quarter have gone without basic needs such as washing, getting dressed and going to the toilet.

The survey, carried out by the Care Support Alliance (CSA) with responses from 4,000 adults who have experience of adult social care in England, also found that one in four people needed hospital treated, while one in eight had been delayed leaving hospital because of not being able to get the care they need.

Sixteen per cent of cared-for respondents had had their care packages reduced despite their needs having increased or remained the same, while four in 10 said they felt lonely or isolated.

One respondent said they had not been washed for more than two months and that their pyjamas had not been changed this year. This left them feeling that their care workers dont have time for cleaning, washing or changing them.

I havent been washed for over two months. My bedroom floor has only been vacuumed once in three years, said the care home resident. My sheets have not been changed in about six months, and my pyjamas havent been changed this year. My care workers dont have time for cleaning, washing or changing me.

Another told researchers they felt they had become a burden to their family.

Meanwhile, a carer who responded to the survey said that for a long time they were not aware that they were entitled to any help, adding: Its a lottery as to whether social services give you the information you need about what you are entitled to as a carer.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

A cohort of charities, including Age UK and Care England, are now urging the health and social care secretary that, in light of the appalling failings" exposed in the report, he must use the upcoming social care green paper as his chance to change things and fix a broken system.

It is beyond dispute that our adult social care system is now broken and fundamentally unfit for purpose. Today, over a million older and disabled people are struggling every day without the basic care and support they require, the letter states. Families and friends are being pushed to breaking point as they are having to step in when care is desperately needed but is not being provided.

In order to change things, it says the government must immediately fill the current 2.5bn funding gap and make the case for a long-term funding settlement.

The findings and the letter come after MPs urged the government to announce and implement a credible solution to address the long-term underfunding of adult social care by the end of 2018, warning that the upcoming green paper risked underestimating the challenges in resolving the crisis.

In a report released earlier this week, the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found little evidence that the existing, lightly regulated private care market was helping to deliver care in an affordable manner.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK and co-chair of the Care and Support Alliance, said: The experiences of thousands of people in this survey are damning evidence that that our adult social care system is broken and unfit for purpose.

Recommended Social care on its knees as MPs call on government to act

It is especially worrying to have heard stories from people whose care has been cut, even though their needs have either stayed the same or got worse. And the reality is that care cuts arent saving the Government money, the NHS is picking up the bill as people are pushed into ill health and crisis because of a lack of basic help.

The government must provide funding now, as well as focus on future reforms, as essential steps towards getting our care system back on track.

Mark Lever, chief executive of the National Autistic Society and co-chair of the CSA, said inadequate care was now a common problem across the country, emphasising that it was those who need care and their families who are paying the highest price.

The stories of frustration and heartache we heard are all too common. Regardless of someones condition or age people should be getting care so they can live safely and with dignity, he added.

The government has been approached for comment.British people are becoming more sympathetic towards refugees and migrants, according to a new study.

A survey of 1,053 Britons reveals an increase in those who feel the government should do more to help refugees fleeing war and persecution and enable more legal immigrants to become British citizens.

The annual Aurora Humanitarian Index public opinion study shows that more than half (52 per cent) of the UK population feels that refugees deserve more support, and 38 per cent are regretful that the country is not doing enough to help, up 11 points from last year.

It also shows that nearly half (47 per cent) of British people think that legally established immigrants should be able to become UK citizens, up 10 points from 2017.

Experts said the findings show the governments hostile policies on immigration do not reflect public opinion, and urged ministers to ensure the positive attitudes are translated into legislation.

It follows intense scrutiny of the UKs immigration system in recent weeks after the Windrush fiasco forced ministers to apologise for wrongly targeting people who have the right to be in Britain.

Speculating on why the public is becoming more sympathetic towards refugees and immigrants, Dr Omar Khan, director of race equality think tank the Runnymede Trust, said Brexit played a role.

People feel that having voted on Brexit theyve been heard on immigration, and one of the major sources of public concern was that the EU membership meant we couldnt control immigration, so those people feel like that has happened, he told The Independent.

And those who are more neutral have perhaps seen the rise in xenophobia and racism and started to think maybe weve gone too far. The media is not putting out quite as many headlines about migrant scroungers, which has also definitely influenced public opinion.

Highlighting the publics outrage over the Windrush scandal, Mr Khan continued: The government shouldnt be using public opinion to justify its choice to make Britain a hostile place for migrants.

It is the governments choice to implement a hostile environment and to charge people in excess of 1,000 for British citizenship, and the public does not agree with the government. It is out of step with British public opinion.

Policymakers always cite public opinion for why they want to be tough on immigration, but really its pretty clear that in a lot of cases its just justifying a policy they want to pursue anyway. I would hope that government policy might change to build on the kernel of positive findings here.

Despite the sympathy towards refugees and immigrants, the survey shows that the majority (65 per cent) of people in the UK claim there are too many humanitarian crises to keep up with today, and are still largely misinformed on the reality of the refugee crisis.

Ninety-six per cent of people in the UK dont know or underestimate the fact that the vast majority of displaced people are hosted by developing countries rather than the West, and are most likely to think that Germany, the UK and Italy have accepted the highest number of refugees over the last decade.

The reality, according to the UNHCR, is that the UK was hosting 118,000 refugees at the end of 2016 compared to 2,869,421 for Turkey.

Misperceptions also remain when it comes to understanding who refugees are. Most people in the UK think only 32 per cent of refugees are under the age of 18, yet in reality 52 per cent of the total global refugee population are children.

A striking finding this year showed that only a little over a third (38 per cent) view the protection of children, and one-quarter (25 per cent) view the protection of women, as pressing humanitarian issues.

The survey also reveals that almost half of British people (49 per cent) regard risk of war as the most pressing global humanitarian challenge facing humanity at present, compared to just 33 per cent in 2017. At 64 per cent, terrorism remains the most pressing humanitarian issue for Britons.

Ruben Vardanyan, co-founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, said: Its heartening that nationalistic attitudes towards refugees is in decline in the UK.

However, what is worrying is that this is the third year that the Humanitarian Index has revealed an alarming level of ignorance about the realities of the global refugee crisis.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 27 September 2021 Police officers detain a protester from Insulate Britain occupying a roundabout leading from the M25 motorway to Heathrow Airport in London PA UK news in pictures 26 September 2021 Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer watches the Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur match at The Font pub in Brighton PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2021 Scottish pro-independence supporters hold a march and rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK news in pictures 24 September 2021 Police officers remove two protesters from the top of a tanker, as Insulate Britain block the A20 in Kent, which provides access to the Port of Dover in Kent. The environmental activists have moved location after been banned from campaigning on the M25 motorway in London PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2021 Gabriella, the seven year old daughter of imprisoned British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, joins in a game on a giant snakes and ladders board in Parliament Square, to show the ups and downs of her mothers case to mark the 2,000 days she has been detained in Iran AP UK news in pictures 22 September 2021 A new sign hangs on the Millicent Fawcett statue after it was altered by CrackTheCrises coalition activists to highlight the climate crisis as a feminist struggle in Parliament Square in London EPA UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA

Its critical that people remain informed on the nature and scale of the problem otherwise apathy and complacency get in the way of action on behalf of the worlds most vulnerable.

The study, which surveyed nearly 11,000 people in 12 countries, also found a rise in the levels of trust in global political leaders to resolve the refugee crisis.

Internationally, Angela Merkel is up 13 points at 46 per cent and Donald Trump is up 10 points at 40 per cent.

Theresa May is also up by 10 points, but with only 25 per cent of people believing she has the capabilities to address the refugee crisis, she is placed behind Vladimir Putin (35 per cent), Pope Francis (31 per cent) and Emmanuel Macron (31 per cent).To understand how big a deal Jeremy Thorpe was some four decades ago, it is helpful to transplant him into the modern day.

Imagine then a Liberal political leader who burst onto the scene with even more verve and energy and impact than Nick Clegg did in 2010, if you can cast your mind back to Cleggmania. And did so with the result that he almost single-handedly denied either main party a majority at a general election.

Imagine too a man with the charisma and style of a character such as Nigel Farage (though far from sharing his politics). Top that lot off with the ready wit and celebrity of the likes of Boris Johnson. He was married to an ex-wife of the cousin of the Queen and he had once toyed with the idea of wedding Princess Margaret. That was Thorpe.

Now imagine someone combining those talents and of that stature in national life being put on trial at the Old Bailey on a charge of conspiracy to murder.

Recommended Ben Whishaw cast in Russell T Davies drama about disgraced MP

Murder, that is, of a former lover after he had rather callously ended a homosexual affair. And a trial in which intimate letters to bunnies and references to Vaseline and biting the pillow reached the public domain. Plus a Great Dane shot dead by accident on Dartmoor.

Such was Jeremy Thorpe. In the British general election of February 1974, Thorpe took his tiny Liberal Party to the very edge of government, almost holding the balance of power in a hung parliament. There was as strong chance that Thorpe himself might be asked into a coalition government with the Conservatives as Foreign Secretary or Home Secretary. He was 44. From there? Maybe Number 10 itself.

Instead he had had to resign from the party leadership, lost his seat at the 1979 election (his trial was suspended so that Thorpe could campaign), wound up in court.

In the view of many, only an indulgent summing up by a senior judge saved him form a lengthy sentence at her majestys pleasure. In modern terms, youd call it an establishment plot to get one of their own out of trouble; Thorpe might have called the allegations against him fake news; it was certainly sleaze before the term became synonymous with British parliamentary life.

Thorpe, unusually, was to be denied the usual honours and respect bestowed on ex-leaders  knighthood, a seat in the Lords, elder statesman status at party conferences.

The Thorpe trials - there had been a sensational earlier committal hearing in Minehead - gripped the nation and periodically dominated the newspapers, whose only worry was how much of the explicit sexual details to carry in their coverage (the broadsheets were more salacious than the tabloids).

The judges summing up was so comically biased it became the basis of a famous sketch by Peter Cook. Gay liberationists, and others, would wear T-shirts with the slogan Bunnies can go to France, a reference to one of Thorpes letters to his lover.

The Liberal Party was a laughing stock, and was polling lower than the neo-Nazi National Front. It was quite the fall from grace.

Thorpe was a gifted, gifted politician and something of a prototype for the modern media politico, having himself had a short career as a TV journalist and a talent for pulling clever stunts, such as touring marginal coastal constituencies in the then-white hot Hovercraft, a fittingly advanced and modern piece of machinery for such an advanced and progressive politician. (It broke down, though).

His clothes were something of a throwback to the Edwardian era and Thorpe was always, from his student days knocking around Oxford right up to his final years of frailty under the ravages of Parkinson's, a dandy, the trademark brown Trilby and waistcoat plus watch chain as familiar to the public as Harold Wilsons pipe.

Hugh Grant as Jeremy Thorpe in the BBC's forthcoming A Very English Scandal (Ray Burmiston/BBC/Blueprint/Amazon/Sony)

He was a genuine wit and fine mimic, taking off a Devon farmer as readily as the prime minister, Ted Heath.

He could get up in Parliament and wound another prime minister, Harold Macmillan, after a panicky reshuffle with the clever line that no greater love hath man than this, that he lay down his friends for his life.

He was also - despite his chequered private life and, well, the conspiracy to murder business - a man of high principle. In the days before equality and respect, he campaigned for laws to ban race discrimination and he was a quiet supporter of gay rights in an era when all homosexual conduct by men, even in private homes, was a criminal offence.

He fought for European unity, for immigrants and refugees, for the United Nations and the Commonwealth thoroughly advanced and against colonialism.

For many, myself included, Thorpe was a political hero, easy to admire for style and for substance.

Had he been born in, say, 1989 rather than 1929, I cannot see that what befell him and his boyfriend Norman Scott would have occurred.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 4 October 2021 A delegate passes a street cleaner on the second day of the annual Conservative Party Conference being held at the Manchester Central convention centre AFP via Getty 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

He would not have had to live a lie, his private life would not have been a crime, his first marriage troubled and he need not have ever wondered aloud, or conspired, about how much better of the world would be if a certain male model wasnt around any more.

Thorpe was once the most popular politician in the country but soon to be the most embarrassing.

Had the climate of the times and the temperament of the man been a little different - Thorpe might have done the country, as well as his party and himself, much good. That is the Thorpe tragedy.

Episode one of A Very English Scandal airs on BBC One at 9pm on Sunday 20 MayLabours Northern Irish sister party has written to all of Jeremy Corbyns MPs, warning them that his current approach to Brexit will not prevent a hard border with the Republic.

In a letter leaked to The Independent, the SDLP beseeched Labour MPs to back a plan to stay aligned with the single market  which Mr Corbyn himself has refused to support.

The SDLPs Brexit spokesperson Claire Hanna, urged Labour MPs to act for the sake of peace in Northern Ireland and not for British political convenience.

It comes amid a deepening row within Labours ranks about its approach to Brexit, sparked when dozens of Labour Lords went against Mr Corbyns will and voted to pass a proposal to keep the UK in the European Economic Area (EEA).

Conservative MPs have told The Independent they have enough rebels to pass the plan  which would effectively keep Britain in the single market  through the Commons and make it law, as long as Labour also backs it.

Labours current position is that it respects the 2016 referendum, that Britains EU membership must end, that the country should remain outside the single market and leave the customs union to negotiate a new bespoke customs relationship.

But in her letter, Ms Hanna wrote: Voters in Northern Ireland rejected leaving the EU. It cannot be right for the majority opinion here to essentially go unheard.

 Theresa May: 'We're leaving the single market... in certain ways access will be different to what it is now'

We dont believe the issue of the Irish border, and the impossibility of avoiding a hard economic frontier without single market access, was sufficiently addressed during or since the campaign.

The SDLP is urging Labour to use this opportunity to act in all of our interests by remaining in the EEA Claire Hanna, SDLP Brexit spokesperson

It is important to note that customs union membership alone will not prevent such a border.

Underlining the point, she argues that a hard border cant be prevented by clever words in a treaty text or by imagined technological innovations.

Ms Hanna explains that she is writing on behalf of the entire SDLP to urge Labour MPs to back the EEA amendment, when it eventually comes to a vote in the Commons.

 Barnier: 'the single market cannot be a la carte'

She added: [A hard border] will only be prevented if we retain full access and full alignment with the single market and customs union. No other solution is possible.

As a sister party of the Labour Party, the SDLP is urging Labour to use this opportunity to act in all of our interests by remaining in the EEA.

Turning to the threat to the Good Friday Agreement from a hard border, she says the amendment must be backed to protect the hard won peace in Northern Ireland.

She wrote: As a party committed to the principle of consent and campaigning for support for Irish unity, the SDLP understands the importance of the guarantees offered in the Agreement to all sides as a way of building confidence in the process of political change.

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

Abrogating those guarantees for the sake of British political convenience is not a good outcome for those seeking to build that consent for change.

The words will particularly grate on Mr Corbyn, who prides himself on having been a strong advocate of peace ahead of the Good Friday Agreement.

A total of 83 Labour peers defied Mr Corbyns will on Tuesday and voted for an amendment to Ms Mays EU Withdrawal Bill that would effectively keep Britain in the EUs single market.

The amendment will now come to the Commons, with The Independent having been told Conservative rebels have enough MPs to make it law as long as Labour also backs it.

Such a move could well spark a Tory Brexiteer backlash in the form of a vote of no confidence in Ms May, that would likely bring the government down, sparking an election and an opening for Labour to win power.

But in comments that have infuriated some of his MPs, Mr Corbyns office failed to back the amendment, claiming the single market was problematic for his plans to intervene in British industry if he wins power.

 March for a Peoples Vote: campaigners call for march on Westminster to demand fresh public vote on Brexit

When asked if Mr Corbyn would back the amendment, his spokesman said it was not what we are proposing.

The spokesman explained that staying in the EEA could undermine a future Labour governments ability to intervene in UK industries with particular issues around state aid and reversing privatisation.

With the row over Labours Brexit position deepening, Mr Corbyn is set to be confronted on the matter if he attends the next meeting of the parliamentary party on Monday.

On Wednesday, five Labour MPs from the North East wrote for The Independent contradicting party line, warning of the impact on living standards of leaving the single market and demanded a new referendum on the eventual Brexit deal.

Ms Mays cabinet is also deeply divided on Brexit, with the issue of what kind of customs relations to adopt set to be discussed again at a meeting of senior ministers on Tuesday.

Foreign secretary Boris Johnson has denied being disloyal, despite calling the option of a customs partnership, said to be preferred by Ms May, a crazy idea. Business secretary Greg Clark has said thousands of jobs could be put at risk if the UK does not implement the idea.A man who was tortured in Libya after MI6 helped with his kidnapping and rendition has received an unprecedented apology from the government.

Speaking in the Commons, the attorney general acknowledged the appalling treatment of Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife, Fatima Boudchar, after they were hooded and shackled and flown to one of Muammar Gaddafis prisons.

Mr Belhaj was tortured and sentenced to death, while Ms Boudchar  who was four-and-a-half months pregnant at the time  was taped head-to-toe to a stretcher for the 17-hour flight to Tripoli.

Recommended Tony Blair reveals full transcript of his conversation with Gaddafi

Reading out a letter of apology sent by Theresa May, Jeremy Wright said: It is clear that you were both subjected to appalling treatment and that you suffered greatly, not least the affront to the dignity of Mrs Boudchar who was pregnant at the time.

The United Kingdom government believes your accounts. Neither of you should have been treated in this way.

And he added: On behalf of Her Majestys government, I apologise unreservedly. We are profoundly sorry for the ordeal that you both suffered and our role in it.

Dominick Chilcott, right, British ambassador in Turkey, hands over a letter of apology from the UK government to Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhaj, at the British Consulate, in Istanbul (AP)

Ms Boudchar would receive compensation of 500,000, but Mr Belhaj did not seek and has not been given any compensation, the attorney general said.

The couple had battled for compensation and an apology for more than six years, suing former foreign secretary Jack Straw, and Sir Mark Allen, the former head of counter-terrorism at MI6.

The role played by British intelligence officers in the 2004 rendition, from Thailand, was exposed by papers that came to light during the Libyan revolution.

Mr Belhaj was also interrogated by British intelligence agents  something the attorney general admitted for the first time  linked to Tony Blairs infamous deal in the desert with the Libyan dictator.

Mr Wright stopped short of directly criticising the former prime minister, but said the current governments approach was very different, adding: Tony Blair has been told about the outcome of this process.

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 Belhaj, who is in Turkey, welcomed the apology, saying: For more than six years I have made clear that I had a single goal in bringing this case: justice. Now, at last, justice has been done.

We hope our case will serve as a marker for future generations. A great society does not torture, does not help others to torture.

And Ms Boudchar, who was in the Commons public gallery with her son to hear the statement, said: This case has forced me to relive the lowest moments in my life for many years and at times it has been a real struggle to keep going.

Mr Wright said there was still a considerable international threat to the United Kingdom, which meant it had to respond properly to keep our country safe.

But he added: It is also important that we should act in line with our values and in accordance with the rule of law.

That means that, when we get things wrong, it is right and just that we should acknowledge it, compensate those affected and learn lessons.

The full and final settlement included no admission of liability by Mr Straw or Mr Allen  suggesting that a challenge to the Crown Prosecution Services decision not to prosecute the ex-MI6 chief has also been dropped.

There are likely to be protests that it leaves open the question of whether the rendition was the work of rogue agents, or was given political authorisation.A woman accused of marrying 11 men was stoned to death, the Somalia-based extremist group al-Shabab has said.

Shukri Abdullahi, 30, was killed by masked men in a public square in the Lower Shabelle region, the al-Qaeda linked groups radio arm reported. A crowd gathered to witness her death.

Mohamed Abu Usama, al Shabaabs regional governor said she was brough to the court with "nine husbands, including her legal husband", each of whom said she was his wife.

But a self-proclaimed judge said the woman confessed to having secretly married 11 men without seeking a divorce.

Al-Shabab has been trying to impose a strict version of Islam in the chaotic east African nation.

Courts established by the militants do not allow legal representation or appeals and often execute suspected spies and people accused of adultery.

Al-Shabab also hacks of the limbs of those accused of religious infractions.

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 Islamist group once controlled much of south and central Somalia, including the capital Mogadishu, but was forced to retreat to rural areas by regional armies in 2011.

It has since maintained its presence in the countryside, but has suffered from a crisis of morale and a lack of funding.

Associated Press contributed to this reportA man has been accused of attempting to hire a hit man through a white supremacist group to murder his black neighbour.

Brandon Cory Lecroy, from South Carolina, was arrested in April after he contacted the white supremacist group to say he needed help to kill his neighbour, authorities say, in federal court documents.

The next day an undercover FBI agent in Virginia spoke with Mr Lecroy  who allegedly offered payment for the job.

Five-hundred-dollars and hes a ghost, Mr Lecroy told the agent during the recorded phone conversation, according to the court document.

In the phone call, the 25-year-old white man made a request "to put a 'flaming cross' in the front yard and hang his neighbour from a tree," the affidavit says.

He also sent a text message to the agent which included a picture of the neighbour who was only identified in court documents as FJ".

According to the affidavit, in a phone call two days later Mr Lecroy reaffirmed the agreement and gave the undercover agent "further intelligence on when to best ... commit the murder as well as plans to take over the victim's property.

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 Lecroy then met the undercover agent in Greenwood, South Carolina, on 9 April and discussed "future targets and gave the agent "a $100 cash down payment with acknowledgement that this payment was for the murder of his neighbour," the affidavit says.

Mr Lecroy was then said to have been arrested the same day.

A day later a magistrate judge ordered a psychiatric or psychological evaluation for Mr Lecroy to determine whether he is competent to stand trial.

On Tuesday, a grand jury indicted Mr Lecroy on federal charges of soliciting someone to commit a violent crime and using interstate commerce facilities  in this instance a mobile phone  in the alleged scheme, the US Attorney's Office in South Carolina said.

Prosecutors said if Mr Lecroy were to be convicted on all charges, he could get up to 10 years in prison and be fined up to $250,000 (184,30).The smell from marijuana crops is driving Californians to distraction.

Marijuana has become a new crop of choice in the farmlands surrounding Carpinteria, in south California.

Residents say a thick, skunk-like odour from the marijuana plants settles over the valley in the evenings and before dawn.

"We don't want a marijuana smell," Xave Saragosa, a 73-year-old retired sheriff's deputy who was born and raised in the town and lives near a greenhouse that grows marijuana, said. "We want fresh air."

Mr Saragosa said the smell keeps his wife up at night due to coughing.

To keep out the stench, they have tried stuffing pillows under doors, lighting incense and shutting windows, a reluctant choice since it also keeps out the cool ocean breezes.

Toni Stuart, an 80-year-old retired Episcopal priest, said the odour doesn't creep into the area near the beach where she lives, but she worries about the community changing.

"I would not like Carpinteria to be the 'cannabis capital' of Southern California. I like it the way it is. It's a very quiet, unpretentious beach town," she said.

Recommended Trump says individual states can decide whether to legalise marijuana

"If people want to grow cannabis instead of flowers or avocados or macadamia nuts  I suppose that's their right. But they've got to think about their neighbours."

Carpinteria is about 85 miles from Los Angeles and is famous for its beaches, wine and temperate climate.

The county amassed the largest number of marijuana cultivation licenses in California since broad legalisation arrived on 1 Jan  about 800, according to state data compiled by The Associated Press.

Two-thirds of them are in Carpinteria and Lompoc, a larger agricultural city about an hour's drive to the northwest.

Virtually all of Carpinteria's licenses are for small, "mixed-light" facilities, which essentially means greenhouses.

The area's greenhouses have their roots in Carpinteria's cut flower industry and some flower growers weary of import competition have started trying to grow cannabis.

Others have sold their greenhouses to marijuana investors.

"We have literally no carnation production in the United States any longer because South America grows them so cheaply," said Kasey Cronquist, chief executive of the California Cut Flower Commission. "

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

Farmers had to move crops, and that is what we have seen happen over time  they've gone to crops that are more valuable or more difficult for Ecuador and Colombia to ship."

Some farmers see cannabis as a plant that can help preserve the area's farming culture, said Mollie Culver, a consultant for the Cannabis Business Council of Santa Barbara County.

Many growers live locally and welcomed the county's recently crafted regulations requiring odour abatement, she said.

Californians voted to legalise marijuana in 2016, but counties and cities have a say on whether they allow cannabis production, distribution or sales.Donald Trump has greeted three American hostages after their plane from North Korea touched down at an airbase outside Washington DC.

Mr Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, boarded the plane carrying the detainees after it touched down at Joint Base Andrews in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Speaking after they disembarked the plane together with Kim Dong Chul, Kim Sang Duk, Kim Hak-song, Mr Trump said: We want to thank Kim Jong-un.

The three Americans formerly held hostage in North Korea next to President Donald Trump upon their arrival at Joint Base Andrews (Reuters)

The release was secured as part of ongoing diplomatic talks between the Trump administration and Kim Jong-un, which will culminate in an historic summit within the next month. A denuclearised Korean peninsula would be his proudest achievement as president if it could be achieved at the talks, Mr Trump said.

Referring to the possibility of reaching a denuclearisation deal with North Korea, Mr Trump said: We will see if we can do something that people did not think was going to happen for many, many years and a lot of bad things could have happened in between.

My proudest achievement will be  this is part of it  when we denuclearise that entire peninsula, he said, adding that he really believed Mr Kim wanted to bring his country into the real world.

Recommended Trump gets facts wrong in boast about outdoing Obama over North Korea

We very much appreciate that he allowed them to go before the meeting, he said. Its a very important thing to all of us.

I think we have a very good chance of doing something very meaningful, Mr Trump added.

The three men, one of whom had been detained for more than two-and-a-half years, travelled back from North Korea on a military medical plane accompanied by Mr Trumps secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.

They had walked without assistance to the US plane that flew them out of Pyongyang, and their flight departed less than an hour after they left custody on what a North Korean official described as an amnesty granted personally by Mr Kim.

Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting Show all 25 1 /25 Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in raise their hands after signing on a joint statement Korea Summit Press Pool via AP Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting Kim Jong-un heads towards Moon Jae-in to shake his hand between the military demarcation line, at the Joint Security Area on the Demilitarized Zone in the border village of Panmunjom in Paju EPA Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hold hands as they cross the military demarcation line EPA Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting South Koreans react while watching a screen reporting the Inter Korean Summit Getty Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un chat as they arrive at the Peace House Reuters Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un was escorted by bodyguards from the North to the Military Demarcation Line that divides the two Koreas to meet with his South Korean counterpart at the truce village AFP/Getty Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un crosses the military demarcation line to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in AP Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in shake hands Getty Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in shake hands after Kim crossing the military demarcation line Getty Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Joint Security Area EPA Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un speak with two South Korean children who presented Kim Jong-un with a bouquet of flowers EPA Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting Moon Jae-in Kim Jong-un pose for photographers at the Joint Security Area (JSA) EPA Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signs the guest book as South Korean President Moon Jae-in looks on Getty Images Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-uns entry in the guestbook. The writing reads A new history starts now. An age of peace, from the starting point of history Korea Summit Press Pool/Pool via Reuters Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting South Korean President Moon Jae-In and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un talk during their summit meeting at the Peace House EPA Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un smiles AFP/Getty Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un poses with South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a photo inside the Peace House AP Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un talks with South Koreas President Moon Jae-in AFP/Getty Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in prepare to plant a pine tree near the military demarcation line AP Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un applaud after planting a tree at the truce village Korea Summit Press Pool/Pool via Reuters Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un and South Koreas President Moon Jae-in take a walk after they planted a tree AFP/Getty Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un talks with South Koreas President Moon Jae-in at a bench on a bridge next to the military demarcation line at the truce village of Panmunjom AFP/Getty Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in sign on a joint statement Korea Broadcasting System via AP Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in embrace each other after signing on a joint statement Korea Summit Press Pool via AP Korea Summit: Kim Jong-un crosses border for historic meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, left, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in shake hands after their joint announcement AP

A White House spokeswoman said they would be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in nearby Maryland for further medical evaluation.

In a statement released by the State Department as the plane carrying them stopped over in Alaska, the three former detainees expressed deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home.

We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

Who are the rescued prisoners?

Kim Dong Chul, a Korean-American missionary formerly of Fairfax, Virginia, and thought to be about 62, was sentenced in March 2016 to 10 years of hard labour for subversion. He admitted to committing unpardonable espionage under the direction of the US and South Korean governments and deeply apologised for his crimes, the Norths KCNA news agency claimed. Other Americans taken captive by North Korea have said after their release they were forced into making confessions. In an interview with CNN conducted in Pyongyang in January 2016, Mr Kim said he was arrested in October 2015 after spying on behalf of what he called South Korean conservative elements who approached him while he was working at a trading business in Rason, a city in northern North Korea near the Chinese border. A North Korean defector later said she had met Mr Kim in the US and that he had told church gatherings he was a missionary helping North Koreans.

Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim, spent a month teaching accounting at the foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) before he was detained at Pyongyang International Airport in April 2017 while trying to leave the country. The universitys chancellor said the arrest was not connected to PUST and that Mr Kim, 59, had been involved with other activities, including helping an orphanage. North Korean state media reported that he was arrested for committing hostile acts against the government.

Kim Hak-song, thought to be about 55, also taught at PUST, which was founded by evangelical Christians and opened in 2010. The universitys co-founder said that Mr Kim, who managed the schools experimental farm at the college of agriculture and life sciences, was detained in May while travelling on a train from Pyongyang to the Chinese border town of Dandong. In February 2015, Mr Kim wrote in a fundraising post on the website of a Korean-Brazilian church that he was a Christian missionary devoted to helping North Koreas people learn to be self-sufficient. North Korean state media said he also was arrested on suspicion of committing hostile acts against the government.

Additional reporting by agenciesMore than 4m antisemitic messages were shared on Twitter in the span of a single year, according to a leading Jewish civil rights organisation.

A new study from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) analysed the prevalence of anti-Jewish sentiment on the popular social media site. Using a complex coding system, the researchers discovered that users had shared at least 4.2m anti-Semitic tweets or retweets between 29 January 2017 and 28 January 2018.

The average was more than 80,000 such tweets per week.

This new data shows that even with the steps Twitter has taken to remove hate speech and to deal with those accounts disseminating it, users are still spreading a shocking amount of anti-Semitism and using Twitter as a megaphone to harass and intimidate Jews, said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt in a statement.

The ADL researchers labelled tweets as antisemitic if they contained common Jewish stereotypes; praise for anti-Semitic personalities; or derogatory words, codes, or symbols for Jewish people.

 Fake news travels much further and faster than real news on Twitter, study finds

The number of these tweets varied significantly per week, from a low of 36,800 in the last week of July 2017 to a high of 181,700 in the first week of December 2017.

This variation was often driven by the week's news, the researchers said. After multiple women made accusations of sexual assault against film producer Harvey Weinstein, for example, thousands of Twitter users jumped at the chance to decry Jewish sexual perversion and control of the media. Mr Weinstein has denied all allegations of sexual assault.

Comments by President Donald Trump and members of his administration also had an effect on the number of anti-Semitic tweets. The highest number of such tweets, for instance, was recorded in the same week Mr Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In another example. the number of tweets denying the Holocaust skyrocketed after former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer falsely claimed Adolf Hitler did not use poisonous gas on his enemies. Mr Spicer later apologised for the comments, calling them inappropriate and insensitive.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

Twitter has previously come under fire for the amount of anti-Semitic, racist, and misogynistic speech allowed on its platform. The company only recently removed the verified symbol from noted white supremacists like Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler.

In a statement to the ADL, Twitter noted that is had recently made several changes to how it handles hate speech, including making affiliation with violent extremist groups a violation of its terms of service, and labelling hateful imagery as sensitive content.

In the last 16 months, Twitter has made more than 30 individual changes to its product, policies, and operations, all with the goal of making Twitter safer, and improving information quality, the company said.Donald Trumps Iran policy has disturbing and eerie similarities to the way the US behaved in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, a former top CIA operative in the Middle East has said.

Washington was cherry picking intelligence in a fashion reminiscent of how George W Bushs administration engineered the 2003 invasion, Paul Pillar said, after Mr Trump announced he would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

Mr Pillar, the top US intelligence analyst for the Middle East between 2001 and 2005, said there were disturbing and eerie similarities in the misuse of intelligence then and now, and added: The basic thing that is going on is a highly tendentious, cherry-picked, we know what the conclusion is, use of secret information.

Sectarian and ethnic fractures still persist in Iraq 15 years after the US-led invasion, and some 5,000 American troops are still in the country. More than 4,400 US service personnel have died in the conflict, and at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians.

Mr Trump charged on Tuesday that the JCPOA deal, negotiated over 13 years and signed under his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, did not address Irans ballistic missile programme, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 or its role in the wars in Yemen and Syria.

Recommended How the rest of the world is trying to save Iran nuclear deal

The president made no mention of assessments by the US intelligence community and the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, which has nuclear inspectors in Iran, that Tehran was complying with the 2015 deal.

Instead, he cited a cache of Iranian documents made public by Israel on 30 April that he said showed Irans leaders lied when they denied ever pursuing a nuclear weapons project.

While the documents authenticity has not been challenged by Western governments and intelligence experts, critics said they added little to previous assessments that concluded that Iran mothballed its effort to develop nuclear weapons in 2003. Iran called Israels allegations childish and ridiculous.

On Wednesday Boris Johnson said that the UK had worked alongside France and Germany to find a way forward that would have addressed the presidents concerns and allowed the US to stay in the JCPOA, but without reopening the terms of the agreement.

We still believe that would have been the better course, the foreign secretary added, before calling on Mr Trump to now put forward concrete proposals on how to deal with the problems he had detailed.

Beginning shortly after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush and top aides made the case for invading Iraq by citing intelligence that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda and was secretly developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Both claims were proved false. Mr Bush and his aides had exaggerated the available intelligence, relied on dubious claims from Iraqi exiles and ignored contradictory information. On some points, the CIA and its sister intelligence agencies were found to have been wrong.

This week US officials, as well as analysts in Washington and the Middle East, cautioned that there were key differences between Mr Bushs Iraq policy and Mr Trumps approach to Iran.

While Mr Trumps move on Tuesday ratcheted up regional tensions and widened a rift with US allies in Europe, no one is predicting an American invasion of Iran.

The question is are we facing the same scenario that happened in Iraq with regards to the weapons of mass destruction, and will the region be dragged to war? said Faysal Abdul Sater, a Lebanese analyst close to the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah.

In my view, the situation is different, even if the degree of hostility has increased between Gulf countries and Israel on one hand and Iran on the other, Mr Sater said.

As for a direct attack on Iran, it is unlikely because it would lead by necessity to a comprehensive war that none of the parties could bear.

Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Show all 10 1 /10 Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian MPs burnt a US flag in parliament after Donald Trump announced America's withdrawal from the nuclear deal. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal US President Donald Trump displays a presidential memorandum after announcing his intent to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement in the Diplomatic Room at the White House. Reuters Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Some Iranian MPs reacted after Trumps decision by shouting 'death to America'. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian lawmakers prepare to burn two pieces of papers representing the US flag and the nuclear deal. AP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran said it will hold talks with signatories to the nuclear deal after Trump's decision to withdraw from the accord, which it branded "psychological warfare". AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Several Iranian MPs stood chanting in the Tehran parliament. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian MPs burning a US flag AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal President Hassan Rouhani addressed the nation in a televised speech in Tehran. He said he'd send his foreign minister to negotiate with countries remaining in the nuclear deal after Trump's decision to pull America from the deal, warning he otherwise would restart enriching uranium "in the next weeks." Iranian Presidency Office via AP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran's press condemned Trump's withdrawal from a multi-party nuclear deal but was divided over whether Tehran should react with patience or withdraw itself. AFP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Trump announced the US withdrawal from what he called the "defective" multinational nuclear deal with Iran, and said Washington would reinstate sanctions against the Islamic republic. AFP/Getty

Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies think tank, said the war in Iraq resulted partly from a perception that economic sanctions on Hussein, imposed after his 1990 invasion of Kuwait, were rapidly losing effectiveness.

I think the opposite is true now, Mr Dubowitz said, noting that Mr Trump appeared to favour increasing economic pressure on Iran, not military action.

Despite the different tools, two US officials familiar with Iran policy said they believed Mr Trumps ultimate goal in Iran was similar to the Bush administrations in Iraq  replacing an anti-American government with a friendly one.

But if the Bush administrations belief that grateful Iraqis would greet invading US troops with flowers was fanciful, it is at least equally naive to believe that democracy will take root in Iran if the Islamic Republic collapses, one of the officials said.

Neither Mr Trump nor his hawkish new national security adviser, John Bolton, has publicly called in recent days for the overthrow of Irans theocracy.

Two current and one former US official said Americas intelligence agencies were not being pressured to provide evidence to support the White Houses policy but instead were being ignored.

Retired General Michael Hayden, a former director of both the CIA and the National Security Agency, called it remarkable that Mr Trump made no mention of US intelligence assessments in his speech announcing withdrawal from the Iran deal.

Trumps director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, told Congress in February that the Iran deal had extended the amount of time Iran would need to produce fissile material for a nuclear weapon and enhanced the transparency of Irans nuclear activities.

Its not that theyre being leaned on to provide justifications, Gen Hayden said of US intelligence analysts. Mr Trump neither needs nor wants justification.

ReutersSingapore appears to have been chosen as the location for the historic first-time meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Mr Trump had said late last week that a time and location had been set for the meeting, and it has been reported to be the small Asian island nation by South Koreas Chosun Ilbo newspaper and Yonhap news agency.

An unnamed US official has also said Singapore emerged as the most likely choice for the summit. Mr Trump himself has previously mentioned Singapore as an option, and ruled out meeting with Mr Kim at the heavily fortified demilitarised zone between North and South Korea.

The meeting is expected to take place before or after Mr Trumps attendance at the G7 meeting on the 8 and 9 June in Canada, but Mr Trump is expected to announce the exact time later this week, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during a news conference.

Recommended Trump announces three US prisoners being freed by North Korea

The Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), or the neutral border between North and South Korea, had been floated as a possible summit location, but was ultimately ruled out. US officials felt that the city-state was a better, more neutral location far away from Pyongyang and the Korean peninsula. Others have said Singapore is a unique choice to host Mr Kim given its fiercely capitalist environment and large, wealthy Chinese population.

Hopes for the summit remain high in the diplomatic world as it comes just a month after a historic meeting between Mr Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The pair had met in the DMZ to sign the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula during the Inter-Korean Summit and officially ended the war that began when the north and south split in a battle over communism and democracy that began on 25 June 1950.

 Donald Trump says he 'believes' North Korea leader Kim Jong Un about peace talks

Though Mr Moon had run for president on a platform of adopting the sunshine policy of increasing and improving economic ties with the North, he suggested that Mr Trump receive the prize and said the US leader deserves credit for the peace agreement.

However, the US leader himself sought to temper expectations. He said: "Everything can be scuttled. Everything can be scuttled," he said. "A lot of good things can happen, a lot of bad things can happen. I believe that we have -- both sides want to negotiate a deal. I think it's going to be a very successful deal."

North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Show all 21 1 /21 North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Pukguksong-2 missile - 2 May 2017 A solid-fuel "Pukguksong-2" missile lifts off during its launch test in North Korea on May 22, 2017. They said that it was examining operational plans for attacking Guam, an angry reaction to UN punishment for previous North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile tests and a US suggestion about preparations for possible preventive attacks to stop the North's nuclear weapons program. Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Hwasong-12 -16 September 2017 North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting a launching drill of the medium-and-long range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 at an undisclosed location. Kim vowed to complete North Korea's nuclear force despite sanctions, saying the final goal of his country's weapons development is "equilibrium of real force" with the United States, state media reported on September 16, 2017. AFP/Getty Images North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Donald Trump address South Korean assembly - 7 November 2017 President Donald Trump talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-In during their joint press conference at the presidential Blue House on November 7, 2017 in Seoul.Trump was the first US President to address the South Korean National Assembly since President Clinton in 1993. He addressed Kim Jong Un warning him to not underestimate the US and that for talks to materialize then Pyongyang would need to take steps into denuclearization. Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Demilitarized Zone Haean-Myeon, is a small military town near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and border between North and South Korea, in Gangwon province. The zone is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula and was created after the 'Korean Armistice Agreement'. Any negotiations between the two countries tend to take place in this zone. AFP/Getty Images North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Declared state sponsor of terrorism by Trump - 20 November 2017 President Donald Trump speaks to the media during a cabinet meeting at the White House on November 20, 2017, where he officially designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. North Korea had previously been on the list, however was removed in 2008. Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile - 29 November 2017 The North Korean government launches it's Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea on November 29, 2017. It is supposedly capable of reaching all parts of the US. Korean Central News Agency via AP North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile - 29 November 2017 North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un celebrating the launch of the Hwasong-15 missile on November 29, 2017. AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Kim Jong-Un New Year's speech - 1 January 2018 North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un delivering his New Year's speech. He vowed North Korea would mass-produce nuclear warheads and missiles in a defiant New Year message on January 1 suggesting he would continue to accelerate a rogue weapons programme that has stoked international tensions. Korean Central News Agency via AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Intercontinental ballistic missile ice sculpture - 1 January 2018 Fireworks are seen above the Taedong River during New Year celebrations as visitors pose for a photo in front of an ice sculpture of an intercontinental ballistic missile at the Pyongyang Ice Sculpture Festival in Kim Il Sung Square in North Korea on 1 January, 2018. REUTERS North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures US-South Korean military drills postponed - 4 January 2018 South Korean President Moon Jae-in talks with US President Donald Trump on January 4, 2018 in Seoul. South Korea and US agreed to delay the annual "Foal Eagle" military drills until after the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in an effort to "de-conflict" the Games and "focus on ensuring the security" of the event. South Korean Presidential Blue House via Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North and South Korea have first official talks in over two years - 9 January 2018 Vehicles transporting the South Korean delegation, led by South Korean Unification Ministrer Cho Myoung-Gyon, drive past a checkpoint on the road connecting South and North Korea at the Unification Bridge, near the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating them both on January 9, 2018 in Paju. They began their first official face-to-face talks in two years. Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North and South Korea have first official talks in over two years - 9 January 2018 Members of the South Korea delegation (R) shake hands with members of the North Korean delegation (L) during their meeting at the border truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas on January 9, 2018. They focused on the forthcoming Winter Olympics after months of tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme. AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Foreign Ministers Meeting on Security and Stability on the Korean Peninsula - 16 January 2018 Foreign Ministers from twenty countries from North and South America, Asia, and Europe pose for a photo at the Vancouver Foreign Ministers Meeting on Security and Stability on the Korean Peninsula, in Vancouver on January 16, 2018. The US urged an escalation in pressure on North Korea over its nuclear missile program, despite a more cautious tone from key US ally South Korea. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, co-hosted the event with Canada's foreign minister Chrystia Freeland, and called for North Korean ships to be intercepted and for new punitive measures to be implemented every time Pyongyang tests new weapons. AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North Korea and South Korea to march together at Winter Olympics - 20 January 2018 PyeongChang 2018 Olympics President Lee Hee-beom, North Korea's Sports Minister and Olympic Committee president Kim Il Guk, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, South Korean Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Do Jong-hwan and South Korea's National Olympic Committee President Lee Kee-heung join their hands as they pose during a signing ceremony at the Olympic Museum on January 20, 2018 in Lausanne. North Korea will send 22 athletes to the Winter Games in the South. The two nations will also march together at the opening ceremony. AFP/Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Anti-North Korea activists protest delegation arrival - 22 January 2018 Anti-North Korea activists burn a portrait of leader Kim Jong-Un during a rally Seoul Station as a North Korean delegation arrived to check out performance venues for the Winter Olympics on January 22, 2018. Protesters led by the Korean Patriots Party gathered and complained that the talks to encourage North Korea's participation is stealing the spotlight from their country to the benefit of the regime. Donga Daily via Getty North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Panmunjom - 7 February 2018 South Korean soldiers stand guard at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between South and North Korea on February 7, 2018. In a sign of thawing bilateral ties, North Korea today announced that Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, will attend the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. Getty Images North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North Korean ferry arrives in South Korea - 6 February 2018 North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92 carrying a 140-strong orchestra approaches a port in Donghae, South Korea, February 6, 2018. REUTERS North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Anti-North Korea protest - 6 February 2018 A member of a conservative civic group tears a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during an anti-North Korea protest as the North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92 carrying a 140-strong orchestra approached. REUTERS North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures North Korea at the athletes village - 8 February 2018 A North Korean flag is seen hanging on a building at the Winter Olympics athletes village in Gangneung, South Korea. REUTERS North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Olympic Welcome ceremony - 8 February 2018 Democratic People's Republic of Korea Vice Sports Minister Won Gil-woo receives a gift from mayor of the Olympic Village Kim Ki-hoon during the welcome ceremony ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Games at the Olympic Village on 8 February, 2018 in South Korea. Getty Images North Korea  South Korea relations: in pictures Mike Pence meets Moon Jae-in - 8 February 2018 US Vice President Mike Pence shakes hands with South Korean President Moon Jae-in before their meeting at the presidential office in Seoul, South Korea on 8 February, 2018. REUTERS

"Lots of things can happen. And, of course, you'll be the first to know about it if it fails, Mr Trump noted. One possible issue: the relationship between Mr Trump and Mr Kim who, for Mr Trumps first year or so in office, traded several rounds of public insults. Mr Trump referred to the reclusive North Korean leader as rocket man repeatedly and even during a United Nations speech. Mr Kim in return called Mr Trump a dotard and continued developing intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities.

Tensions seemed to abate as the Winter Olympics, held this past February in South Korea, began. North and South Korean athletes marched together in the opening and closing ceremonies in a small sign of unity, the US sent Vice President Mike Pence and White House adviser Ivanka Trump as official delegates, and Mr Kim sent his sister Kim Yo Jong as his representative.Congress has released all of the more than 3,000 Facebook ads purchased by Russian-linked agents ahead of the 2016 presidential contest, seeking to illuminate a massive election disruption effort.

Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee moved to release the full stash of posts paid for by the Internet Research Agency, which is described by intelligence agencies as a Kremlin-linked troll farm, saying the American people deserved to understand the extent of Russian meddling.

Theres no question that Russia sought to weaponise social media platforms to drive a wedge between Americans, and in an attempt to sway the 2016 election, California Democrat Adam Schiff said in a statement.

The only way we can begin to inoculate ourselves against a future attack is to see first-hand the types of messages, themes and imagery the Russians used to divide us, he added.

They offered a fuller picture of tactics already detailed in congressional hearings and in an indictment of alleged Internet Research Agency personnel from special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian election meddling and potential links to the Trump campaign.

Seeking to inflame social tensions, advertisements took provocative stances on issues like immigration and gun control - often releasing content that took both multiple sides of the same issue.

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

Russian-backed posts praising Donald Trump and assailing his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton proliferated, bearing out what Mr Muellers indictment and intelligence agencies call Russias clear preference for Mr Trump. Other posts favoured Ms Clintons Democratic rival Bernie Sanders.

The posts also harnessed Facebooks tools for targeting specific voter demographics. A page sponsored by an apocrvaphyl Army of Jesus group that likened Ms Clinton to Satan was geared towards people whose interests included stop illegal immigration and a range of Fox News personalities.

 Zuckerberg on countering Russian election interference efforts: 'This is an arms race'

With a Facebook advertising budget of about $100,000, Russian-tied actors were able to amplify the reach of their content so that it appeared before well over 100 million Americans.

Amid a backlash over its role as a conduit for disinformation, Facebook pledged to begin releasing more information about political advertising and has unveiled a feature letting users see if they interacted with Russian-generated content.

Mr Muellers inquiry has attracted the unflagging wrath of the president, who regularly denounces the investigation as a meritless witch hunt manufactured by partisan law enforcement officials.Republican Senator John McCain has spoken out against Donald Trumps nominee for CIA director, citing her history with a CIA interrogation programme that some have called torture.

Mr McCain, a US Navy veteran who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said Ms Haspels failure to deem such practices immoral was disqualifying.

"I believe Gina Haspel is a patriot who loves our country and has devoted her professional life to its service and defence, he said in a statement. However, Ms. Haspels role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge tortures immorality is disqualifying."

Ms Haspel is a 33-year CIA veteran who briefly oversaw an American black site prison where at least one detainee was waterboarded in 2002. She also wrote a cable ordering the destruction of nearly 100 videotapes of CIA waterboarding sessions in 2005. The CIA maintains her supervisor was the one to sign and send the cable.

Ms Haspel vowed never to reinstate the CIAs interrogation programme during her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday. But the promise did not satisfy several senators, who wanted her to disavow the programme completely.

 Gina Haspel confirmation hearing: Haspel promises not to restart CIA programme

In a testy exchange with Senator Kamala Harris, Ms Haspel refused to reply yes or no when asked if the interrogation techniques  which have been criticised by dozens of human rights groups and several foreign governments  were immoral.

What I believe sitting here today is that I support the higher moral standard we have decided to hold ourselves to, Ms Haspel said.

Mr McCain announced his opposition to the nominee in a statement shortly after her hearing. The 81-year-old senator is battling an aggressive form of brain cancer, and has not returned to the Senate since December.

Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Show all 29 1 /29 Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Inauguration - 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump acknowledges the audience after taking the oath of office as his wife Melania (L) and daughter Tiffany watch during inauguration ceremonies swearing in Trump as the 45th president of the United States on the West Front of the US capital in Washington on 20 January, 2017. Photographer Jim Bourg: "This photo was shot with one of two remote cameras. The cameras were monitored and triggered remotely and the pictures were transmitted to clients worldwide within minutes of being taken." Reuters/Jim Bourg Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Obama farewell address - 10 January 2017 US President Barack Obama wipes away tears as he delivers his farewell address in Chicago on 10 January, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "In his final days in office, Obama made a visit home to Chicago. As he spoke from the stage to his wife and daughter in the audience, he became emotional when he talked about what they had sacrificed during his time in office. I turned from photographing the Obama women embracing to find him onstage wiping away tears." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Inauguration - 20 January 2017 A combination of photos shows the crowds attending the inauguration ceremonies to swear in U.S. President Donald Trump at 12:01pm (left) on January 20, 2017 and President Barack Obama sometime between 12:07pm and 12:26pm on January 20, 2009. Reuters/ Lucas Jackson/Stelios Varias Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Liberty Ball - 20 January 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attend the Liberty Ball in honour of his inauguration in Washington on 20 January, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "What I see when I look at this picture is the end of a very long day, not to mention weeks and months of preparation by many photographers, editors and network experts and the beginning of everything since." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders Reception - 22 January 2017 US President Donald Trump greets Director of the FBI James Comey as Director of the Secret Service Joseph Clancy (L), watches during the Inaugural Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders Reception in the Blue Room of the White House on 22 January, 2017. Photographer Joshua Roberts: "I have covered the White House for 16 years and normally either the President or the pool is in position when an event starts. In this case the President was not where anyone expected him to be. In fact, he was almost blocking the door when the pool came in. We had to scramble to find a position without bumping him or the furniture as he greeted and thanked members of law enforcement for their security efforts during the inauguration. Luckily, he greeted FBI Director James Comey a few seconds after the pool had made its way into the room." Reuters/Joshua Roberts Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Private phone calls to world leaders - 28 January 2017 US President Donald Trump, is joined by his staff, as he speaks by phone with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office on 28 January, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "Very early in the Trump administration, weekends were as busy as weekdays. On Trump's second Saturday the official schedule said he would be making private phone calls to a number of world leaders including Russia's Vladimir Putin. I arrived early and, before sitting down at my desk walked up to Press Secretary Sean Spicer's office. He, too, was just taking his coat off. I gingerly made the suggestion that previous administrations had sometimes allowed photos of such phone calls through the Oval Office windows on the colonnade. To my mild shock, he didn't even think about it twice. "We'll do it!" he said. In truth, I really only expected the Putin call, but we were outside the windows multiple times throughout the day as the calls went on." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Senior advisor Kellyanne Conway - 27 February 2017 Senior advisor Kellyanne Conway (L) attends as US President Donald Trump welcomes the leaders of dozens of historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) in the Oval Office on 27 February, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "We're often asked how much access we have to the Trump administration, and the answer is we have an awful lot. President Trump himself is very comfortable in the spotlight, and his aides are similarly unfazed by cameras. In this instance, senior advisor Kellyanne Conway was so comfortable in our presence she seemed not to consider the optics of kneeling on a Oval Office sofa to take pictures with her phone." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Angela Merkel heads to Washington - 17 March 2017 Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump hold a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House on 17 March, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "Chancellor Merkel made one of the earliest important visits of any US allies to meet Trump in his first months in office. When world leaders give joint news conferences they don't always tend to give each other their full attention - but Merkel watched Trump intently at several key moments, and here seemed particularly rapt." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Trump welcomes truckers to the White House - 23 March 2017 President Trump reacts as he sits on a truck while he welcomes truckers and CEOs to attend a meeting regarding healthcare at the White House on 23 March, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "The White House organised a listening session with truckers and CEO's of major American companies, regarding healthcare reform. An 18-wheeler tow truck was parked on the South Lawn of the White House and as Trump welcomed the truckers someone invited the him to come and sit in the driver's seat. Trump jumped into the cab and started yelling and pretending to drive - creating one of the most memorable pictures of the year. A lesson learned, always be prepared for the unexpected." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Air Force One - 6 April 2017 US President Donald Trump talks to journalists members of the travel pool on board the Air Force One during his trip to Palm Beach, Florida on 6 April, 2017. Carlos Barria: "During the many trips to President Trump's residence in Florida it is usual to see the president coming to the back of the plane to chat with journalists. During one of the trips to the so called 'Winter White House', Trump had a long talk with reporters while the Air Force One entertainment system was playing one of the latest Star Wars movies. As I was listening to Trump talk I was also looking at the movie waiting for a part of the movie to frame the mood of the day. Of the many scenes, I choose the one with Darth Vader." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures 100 Days - 27 April 2017 US President Donald Trump speaks during an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office of the White House on 27 April, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "A day before President Trump's hundred days in office I was part of the team that interviewed the commander-in-chief in the Oval Office. I was only allowed to photograph Trump during the last five minutes of the interview. The time was very tight so I had to move fast as I had pictures in mind that I wanted to shoot. I walked into the Oval Office and saw that the President had printed maps of the country showing areas in red where he won. I raised my hands holding my camera as high as possible to get the best view of the scene using a 16mm wide angle lens." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures 100 Days - 27 April 2017 US President Donald Trump reacts as he arrives at Harrisburg international airport, before attending a rally marking his first 100 days in office in Pennsylvania on 29 April, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "President Trump travelled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to celebrate his hundred days in office with a victory rally. He was in friendly territory as he won with a big difference over his opponent Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, during the November elections. As usual when the commander-in-chief arrives local residents gather to greet him. This time a small group of military personnel attended the arrival. Surrounded by secret service agents Trump walked from the Air Force One and raised his hand in a sign of victory as the crowd cheered him on." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures White House staffers - 2 May 2017 White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer (L) and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus watch as US President Donald Trump presents the U.S. Air Force Academy football team with the Commander-in-Chief trophy in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on 2 May, 2017. Photographer Joshua Roberts: "Covering the White House does not just mean covering the President. White House staffers are an important part of the story and their relationship with the President and each other is an indicator of how things are going in the West Wing. The tendency is to focus exclusively on the President once an event starts but I always try to look around to see how people are reacting as things unfold." Reuters/Joshua Roberts Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Secret Service - 4 May 2017 Secret Service agents use a presidential limousine as cover from spraying water as US President Donald Trump lands via Marine One helicopter in New York on 4 May, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "The best part of any trip to New York City with the sitting US President is the helicopter ride into Manhattan. The ride out at night can be stunning. Here, Secret Service agents protect themselves from the spray from the East River as Trump lands on the helipad." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures NATO Summit - 25 May 2017 US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump wait the arrival of French President Emmanuel Macron (unseen) before a lunch ahead of a NATO Summit in Brussels on 25 May, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "One of the best parts of travelling overseas for White House coverage is the chance to see the U.S. president in different environments and (literally) a different light. Here, Trump and his wife came out of the shadows to greet France's President Macron." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Trump meets Putin at G20 summit - 7 July 2017 US President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany on 7 July, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "On July 7, I witnessed one of the most important meetings of President Trump's first year in office. Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin during a bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Germany. The world's eyes were on these two leaders after speculation about Russian interference during the 2016 US elections. We entered the room for less than two minutes, where I took dozens of pictures. But there was this very interesting moment when Trump extended his hand to Putin for a handshake. Putin paused for a second and looked at Trump's hand. That was the picture that I was looking for, a little moment that seemed to say a lot." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures First lady - 8 July 2017 First lady Melania Trump chats with US President Donald Trump during their return from Germany at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on 8 July, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "After President Trump's trip to Germany he arrived back at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. First Lady Melania Trump said goodbye to Trump as she was heading off in a different direction that day. While chatting a breeze blew Melania's hair up in the air." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Made in America product showcase - 17 July 2017 Vice President Mike Pence laughs as President Donald Trump holds a baseball bat as they attend a Made in America product showcase event at the White House on 17 July, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "This summer the White House organized an event to showcase 'Made in America' products. All kinds of exhibitors brought their products as the President and Vice President toured the event. One of the companies was Marucci Sport, a manufacturer of baseball bats based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As Trump approached a table full of baseball bats, photographers at the event, including me, rushed to get a good angle hoping that he would pick up a bat. As we predicted, he did. He took one and joked around as though he was hitting something hard. The only thing closer to him right there, was the media." Reuters Donald Trump's first year: in pictures White House staffers - 25 July 2017 Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski says hello to reporters as he and White House advisors including Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci accompany President Trump for an event celebrating veterans at AMVETS Post 44 in Ohio, July 25, 2017. Jonathan Ernst: "The most visible person in any White House is naturally the President, followed by the press secretary. But there are also the staff who support them. For those of us covering the Trump administration, there seem to be more compelling figures in the West Wing than ever before. It's crucial to know who's who and why they're important. When I raised my camera and back-pedalled ahead of the group to take this image Lewandowski gave me a hello. I liked the photo, but had no idea it would go a little bit viral, especially since Scaramucci, who was the biggest mover and shaker that week, was hidden back in the pack. But I guess the image catches a glimpse of what it's like to be a West Wing staffer on the road." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Campaign rally - 3 August 2017 US President Donald Trump arrives at a rally in West Virginia on 3 August, 2017. Photographer Carlos Barria: "President Trump travelled to Huntington for one of his usual campaign rallies. While members of his family spoke to the crowd he was waiting under a black curtain to be introduced. Suddenly he walked onto the stage, one of the first frames that I took was of his hand. I set my exposure for the light on the stage hoping to create this dark background and it worked." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Staring into the solar eclipse - 21 August 2017 Without his protective glasses on, US President Donald Trump looks up towards the solar eclipse while viewing with his wife Melania and son Barron at the White House on 21 August, 2017. Photographer Kevin Lamarque: "On a day when everyone, and I mean everyone, was told not to look at the eclipse without protective glasses, Trump, President of the United States, couldn't help himself." Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Hurricane Harvey - 2 September 2017 US President Donald Trump poses for a photo as he and first lady Melania Trump help volunteers hand out meals during a visit with flood survivors of Hurricane Harvey at a relief centre in Houston, Texas on 2 September, 2017. Photohrapher Kevin Lamarque: "Trump, eager to deliver the image of a hands-on response to Hurricane Harvey, made this visit to a relief centre and obliged this woman with a selfie as Melania continued to work." Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Donald Trump's first year: in pictures White House - 15 September 2017 Donald Trump welcomes 11-year-old Frank Giaccio as he cuts the Rose Garden grass at the White House on 15 September. Frank, who wrote a letter to Trump offering to mow the lawn, was invited to work for a day at the White House along the National Park Service staff. Frank was so focused on his task that he did not notice the President arrive to surprise him. He took his father jumping in to grab his attention and point Trump out. Photographer Carlos Barria said: The image of Trump shouting at a kid who is mowing his lawn might have many interpretations in today's politically polarized United States. But for me it was just a kid who loved what he was doing, to the point he almost appeared to ignore the President." Reuters/Carlos Barria Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Take a knee - 27 September 2017 A man kneels with a folded U.S. flag as the motorcade of U.S. President Donald Trump passes him after an event at the state fairgrounds in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S., September 27, 2017. In September, soon after Trump had made comments condemning NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, he made a day trip to a rally in Indianapolis. Jonathan Ernst managed to capture a man on one knee with a tri-folded flag and was able to use a portion of the sign on the building he was kneeling in front of to track the man down and tell his story in full. US Army veteran Marvin Boatright wanted to send a message against social injustice. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Hurricane Maria - 3 October 2017 President Donald Trump throws rolls of paper towels into a crowd of local residents affected by Hurricane Maria as he visits Calgary Chapel in San Juan, Puerto Rico on 3 October, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "During an afternoon visit to Puerto Rico for President Trump to survey damage from Hurricane Maria and greet some of its victims, Trump made a stop at a church where food and supplies were being distributed. Among the items were paper towels and Trump, apparently caught up in the moment, decided to distribute some of the rolls." Reuters Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Jared Kushner - 1 November 2017 White House Senior adviser Jared Kushner sits behind President Trump during a cabinet meeting in Washington on 1 November, 2017. Photographer Kevin Lamarque: "The role of Jared Kushner has gone through a series of changes. He began front and centre as a high profile adviser, but as time has passed and issues surrounding him have surfaced, he has become more of a background figure." Reuters/Kevin Lamarque Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Trump in China - 9 November 2017 Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping shake hands after making joint statements at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on 9 November, 2017. Photographer Damir Sagolj: "It's one of those "how to make a better or at least different shot when two presidents shake hands several times a day, several days in row". If I'm not mistaken in calculation, presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump shook their hands at least six times in events I covered during Trump's recent visit to China. I would imagine there were some more handshakes I haven't seen but other photographers did. And they all look similar - two big men, smiling and heartily greeting each other until everyone gets their shot. But then there is always something that can make it special - in this case the background made of US and Chinese flags. The first time it didn't work for me. The second time I positioned myself lower and centrally, and used the longest lens I have to capture only hands reaching for a handshake." Reuters/Damir Sagolj Donald Trump's first year: in pictures Air Force One - 10 November 2017 US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One to depart for Vietnam from Beijing Airport in Beijing, China, November 10, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "There is a Reuters photographer in the tight pool covering the US president for every appearance he makes 365 days a year. This was just one of 32 images of mine that were transmitted on the Reuters wire of President Trump visiting China and Vietnam that day. You never know when a sudden interaction, a gust of wind or a unique facial expression will lead to a striking image that grabs peoples' attention." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Donald Trump's first year: in pictures ASEAN handshake - 13 November 2017 Donald Trump registers his surprise as he realises other leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte and Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, are crossing their arms for the traditional "ASEAN handshake" as he participates in the opening ceremony of the summit in Manila on 13 November, 2017. Photographer Jonathan Ernst: "Having covered a few ASEAN summits, I knew to expect the ASEAN handshake. Not everyone in the room knew to expect the ASEAN handshake. A lot was written about this unscripted moment, and what deeper meaning it might have. The simple truth is that sometimes in life there are unscripted moments." Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

In his statement, Mr McCain said he understood that those who participated in the interrogation programme were trying to protect Americans from harm. But, he added, the methods we employ to keep our nation safe must be as right and just as the values we aspire to live up to and promote in the world.

I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination, he said.

Ms Haspels nomination now proceeds to the Senate for a vote. Her confirmation requires a simple majority vote from the chamber, where Republicans hold a 51-49 majority.

Mr McCain and Senator Rand Paul are the only Republicans to have opposed her nomination publically.Pharmaceutical corporation Novartis said it paid $1.2m to Donald Trumps embattled attorney Michael Cohen for a single, fruitless meeting - a transaction that has drawn the attention of special counsel Robert Muellers team.

The Swiss-headquartered company acknowledged the transaction in response to bombshell allegations about Mr Cohens financial history levelled by Michael Avenatti, an attorney who is representing adult film star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against Mr Trump and Mr Cohen.

A document released by Mr Avenatti alleged that Mr Cohen engaged in some $4.4m (3.2m) worth of suspicious financial transactions, among them payments from Novartis to Mr Cohens firm Essential Consultants.

Novartis said in a statement that it enlisted Mr Cohens services in February of 2017 to help illuminate how the Trump administration might approach certain US healthcare policy matters. The company moved to sever the relationship after it emerged that Mr Cohen was unable to provide the services that Novartis had anticipated, but Novartis was still on the hook for a one-year contract that paid $100,000 (74,000) a month.

As the contract unfortunately could only be terminated for cause, payments continued to be made until the contract expired by its own terms in February 2018, Novartis said.

The company also acknowledged that Mr Muellers office reached out to learn more about the transactions with Essential Consultants. Mr Muellers investigation is probing Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election and contacts with the Trump presidential campaign.

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

In the document scrutinising Mr Cohens financial history, Mr Avenatti sought to link the longtime Trump associate to Russia. He alleged that Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg routed some $500,000 (369,000) to Mr Cohen in early 2017, when significant questions were being raised about Russias actions. The Treasury Department has imposed economic sanctions on Mr Vekselberg and his Renova Group as part of a crackdown on Russian entities intended to punish the country for its interference in other democracies.

A request for comment to Mr Cohens attorney was not returned.

As Novartis was working to explain its relationship with Mr Cohen, US officials were examining where the information on his financial history came from. The Treasury Departments inspector general confirmed it had opened an inquiry into whether financial information was improperly disseminated, reacting to a New York Times story that tracked with Mr Avenattis allegations.

Mr Avenatti declined to reveal the source of his dossier in an interview with Washington Post, saying it was nobodys business. But he argued the Treasury Department should release suspicious activity reports that he said flagged Essential Consultings bank account.

This deserves immediate attention, Mr Avenatti said on Twitter.

Federal investigators have already opened a criminal investigation into Mr Cohen, according to court documents. FBI agents raided his home and office last month, reportedly acting in part on a referral from Mr Muellers team to prosecutors.

 Donald Trump rages over search of his lawyer Michael Cohen's office, describing it as a 'break-in'

They seized information related to a $130,000 (96,000) payment to Ms Daniels in the runup to the presidential election, which Mr Cohen has acknowledged having facilitated.

Mr Avenatti and his client Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, have called the payment hush money intended to prevent Ms Daniels from speaking out about an alleged affair with Mr Trump. The lawsuit seeks to release her from a nondisclosure agreement, saying the document is invalid because Mr Trump did not sign it.

The president has denied that an affair with Ms Daniels occurred. But after having denied knowledge of Mr Cohens transaction with the adult film star, Mr Trump admitted earlier this month to being aware of the deal and reimbursing Mr Cohen.The Pentagon has edited a report drafted during former President Barack Obamas term to take out all references to climate change.

The internal Defence Department report was originally issued in December 2016 but remained unpublished, the Washington Post reported after obtaining a copy. A final version was presented to Congress in January 2018 without the drafts 23 references to climate change, leaving just one mention of the phrase.

The move de-emphasises the US militarys focus on adapting to rising sea levels which impact military bases around the world and preparations for increasingly hot temperatures as well. It follows the trend set by President Donald Trumps administration regarding climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also removed the term from the agencys website and reports and the president began the withdrawal process from the Paris Agreement on climate change, signed under Mr Obama as well.

Recommended Americans who believe in conspiracies likely to doubt climate change

In the final version climate change has been changed to climate or extreme weather. Heather Babb, a Pentagon spokeswoman, did not comment on the matter of the draft report, which included the results of the departments first-ever survey of officials at different installations about the effects of climate change, the Washington Post reported.

It is unclear at this time who made the changes to the draft report before submission to Congress early this year. Ms Babb did say in a statement that as highlighted in the report, the effects of climate are a national security issue with potential impacts to missions, operational plans, and installations.DoD continues to focus on ensuring its installations and infrastructure are resilient to a wide range of threats, including climate. The Department has a proven record of planning and preparing for such threats.

 Filmmakers use 100-year-old photograph to map effect on climate change on a glacier

The final 32-page report also left out crucial maps of coastal flooding areas; "those sites that indicated possible effects could occur due to increased mean sea level between 0-3 feet, the paper reported.

A paragraph noting the connection between natural disasters like particularly destructive hurricanes and climate change had stated they are made more destructive by a reduction in sea ice and an increase in ice-free periods" - the paragraph was deleted entirely from the published version.

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

Navy Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn told the newspaper that he could live with not using the term climate change in the report but took issue with taking out maps of critical areas of flooding, thats pretty fundamental...And the Arctic, thats huge, for a lot of reasons, not just for Department of Defence, but for the Coast Guard, and commercial shipping business.

The Pentagon already faced an uphill battle in combating climate change that affected installations from Norfolk, Virginia, to remote atolls in the Marshall Islands.

As National Geographic reported last year, the Defence Department has been planning for climate change for more than a decade, often in the face of roadblocks set up by climate science sceptics in Congress. In 2014 and again last year, Republicans in the House of Representatives added language to Defence Department spending bills prohibiting funds from being spent to plan or prepare for climate change. Terrorism is the greater threat, the authors of those prohibitions declared, and federal funding should be steered towards snuffing out Isis instead.Vice President Mike Pence has suggested he thinks it is time for special counsel Robert Mueller to conclude his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and any other potential misdeeds by associates of President Donald Trump during that time.

In the interests of the country, I think its time to wrap it up, Mr Pence said on NBC News.

Mr Pence said that the Trump administration had fully cooperated with the probe, even as Mr Trump has called the investigation a witch hunt. Mr Pence noted that the administration had handed over more than one million documents to Mr Muellers investigation.

The vice president is just the latest ally of Mr Trump to say that it is time for the investigation to be wrapped up.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who recently joined the presidents legal team, has also called on the Justice Department to put an end to the investigation.

I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion, Mr Pence continued.

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

When asked about recent news that Mr Trumps personal attorney, Michael Cohen, had received millions of dollars in payments from companies, Mr Pence said that it was a private matter and that it is something I dont have any knowledge about.

In addition to the payments from those companies, Mr Cohen has been under investigation for his role in paying $130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in return for her signing a nondisclosure agreement about an alleged affair she had with Mr Trump in 2006.

Mr Trump has denied the affair occurred. Mr Giuliani confirmed last week that Mr Trump himself reimbursed Mr Cohen for the payments to Daniels.

Mr Muellers probe has led to indictments of at least four Trump associates, including his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Mr Manafort has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and has sought to have his case dismissed because the alleged crimes were not actually related to the 2016 election.

In addition to those four, the Mueller probe has led to indictments of at least 13 Russian nationals, and three Russian companies.Donald Trump has confirmed the date and location of his historic meeting with Kim Jong-un - saying he will meet the North Korean leader in Singapore on June 12 and calling it a very special moment for world peace!

While earlier media reports had suggested the US and North Korea had opted for the South East Asian city state as the location for the meeting, Mr Trump's tweet was the first official announcement confirming speculation over the landmark summit. Other locations that had been considered were the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea, and the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator.

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong-un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th, Mr Trump wrote. We will both try to make it a very special moment for world peace!

Mr Trump had previously expressed a preference for the meetings to be held in the demilitarised zone, which he said would be an especially symbolic location to meet.

But reports suggested the White House was concerned the DMZ, which was recently the site of a meeting between Mr Kim and South Korean leader Moon Jae-in, might be seen as providing an advantage to the North Korean leader. As it is, Singapore is a strong US ally and the US Navy regularly visits the former British colony.

The announcement came just hours after Mr Trump scored a huge diplomatic and public relations victory, when he made a pre-dawn visit to Andrews Air Force Base near Washington to welcome home three Korean-Americans released by North Korea ahead of the meeting.

Mr Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, boarded the medical plane the released detainees were on to speak privately before presenting them to the media outside.

North Korea Military Parade Show all 6 1 /6 North Korea Military Parade North Korea Military Parade AP North Korea Military Parade AFP/Getty Images North Korea Military Parade AP North Korea Military Parade AP North Korea Military Parade AP North Korea Military Parade AFP/Getty Images

We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo and the people of the United States for bringing us home, said a statement from the men.

I appreciate Kim Jong-un doing this and allowing them to go, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House ahead of their release. He also thanked the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, saying that Beijing had been helpful in securing the freedom of Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song, and Kim Sang Duk.

Mr Trumps meeting with Mr Kim will be the first time that a sitting American president has met with a leader of North Korea, and Mr Trump has said the pre-summit discussions with North Korea have been serious and positive.

The president has vowed to walk away from the table if he thinks that Mr Kim is negotiating in bad faith. In recent weeks, Mr Trump has cited Mr Kims willingness to negotiate as a sign that his tough approach towards North Korea earlier in his presidency  which he has referred to as a maximum pressure campaign  has worked.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said on Air Force One as the president was heading to Indiana for a political rally that would not be "getting into the conversations that [Mr] Pompeo had. What I will say is that, prior to the invitation being accepted several months ago or at least well over a month ago now, the North Koreans agreed to halt their ballistic missile testing, halt their nuclear testing, and not publicly oppose joint US-South Korean military exercises".

Mr Trump will "hold them to those steps," Mr Shah said, but did not elaborate on further possible pre-conditions for the 12 June summit.

The coming negotiations, which Mr Trump hopes will result in an end to North Koreas nuclear weapons ambitions. "Our policy is to ensure the complete, irreversible, and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," Mr Shah noted. And thats what hes going to be seeking". Mr Trump's role in brokering the summit has led to some claims that he should receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it, Mr Trump said when asked about the rumour on Wednesday.

Mr Pompeo, who recently became secretary of state, has made at least two trips to meet with top North Korean officials, including Mr Kim.

 Mike Pompeo meets Kim Jong-un in North Korea

Speaking to reporters after the prisoners were released, Mr Trump suggested that their release is a sign that the upcoming talks will be fruitful.

I think he did it because I really think he wants to do something and bring that country into the real world. I really believe that, Mr Trump said. I think that were gonna have a success. I think this will be a very big success.

Pyongyang has said the prisoners were detained for alleged spy activities. Kim Dong Chul was the longest serving prisoner, and spent at least 900 days in North Korean custody after his arrest in October 2015.

Ahead of the Thursday announcement, Mr Trump spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Wednesday about Mr Pompeos visit to Pyeongyang, according to the White House. The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the goal of negotiating with North Korea to end its nuclear program. Mr Shah warned however that the meeting is still over a month away so "it could be halted for any number of reasons".Following through on Donald Trumps move to pull America from a nuclear arms control deal, the Treasury Department announced a new round of sanctions on Iran.

Officials announced a joint effort with the United Arab Emirates to stifle payments to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which spearheads the regimes backing of proxy groups around the region. They accused the Iranian Central Bank of actively maintaining the flow of money.

As I said following the Presidents announcement on Tuesday that America would withdraw from the nuclear pact, we are intent on cutting off IRGC revenue streams wherever their source and whatever their destination, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

The sanctions target what officials called an elaborate currency exchange network sustaining Iranian clients in conflict zones.

As the Trump administration moved to a more confrontational stance towards Iran, Israeli launched its most intensive assault yet on Iranian positions in Syria in retaliation for what its military called an Iranian rocket attack on its troops in the Golan Heights. The White House responded by condemning Irans provocative rocket attacks and upheld Israels right to self-defence.

The Iran deal was the centrepiece of Barack Obamas foreign policy. In the years since its passage the world had begun to ease economic penalties on Iran as the country was certified as being in compliance.

Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus Syrian Central Military Media, via AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen from Damascus Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures An Israeli flag is seen placed on Mount Bental in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel's army said today it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies. Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight. AFP/Getty Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli artillery deployed missiles toward Syrian military targets, on the Golan Heights EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen over Daraa Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace AFP/SANA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli soldiers walk among armored vehicles in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Syrian air defense missiles are seen in the sky over the capital Damascus EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace. Israeli missile strikes fired at Syria hit military bases, as well as an arms depot and military radar. AFP/SANA

But Mr Trump has long derided the agreement, arguing it rewards a state that continues to sponsor terror and export instability in the Middle East. He found backing from congressional Republicans.

The White House accused the Iranian regime of acting in bad faith, citing Israeli intelligence that detailed the countrys past efforts to develop nuclear arms. Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled those findings in a dramatic public appearance last month.

This was a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made, Mr Trump said earlier in the week, denouncing the Iranian regime as the leading state sponsor of terror.

 President Donald Trump states if Iran restarts their nuclear program there will be severe consequences

Both European leaders and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said Tehran have pledged to continue abiding by the deal, presenting the possibility of isolating the US.

National security adviser John Bolton argued in a Washington Post op-ed that the deal actually undermines the security of the American people, noting that since signing the pact Iran had poured billions of dollars into military adventures abroad, spreading an arc of death and destruction across the Middle East from Yemen to Syria.

Withdrawing reversed an ill-advised and dangerous policy and set us on a new course that will address the aggressive and hostile behavior of our enemies, while enhancing our ties with partners and allies, Mr Bolton wrote.Voters in four states have concluded the first primaries in the American midterm election cycle, with some surprising results that have underlined the fragile hold Republicans have on their majority in the House of Representatives.

Republicans avoided what some believed would have been a disastrous result in West Virginia, where former coal executive Don Blankenship who said he is "Trumpier than Trump" lost in a closely watched race. Meanwhile, Democrats fended off a liberal insurgent in Ohio, with former head of the Consumer Financial Bureau Richard Cordray clinching the parts nomination there.

But, while Mr Blankenships third-place loss to state attorney general Patrick Morrisey was a relief for mainstream Republicans  Mr Blankenship served time in prison after a mine disaster left more 29 men dead, and had made racially offensive comments during the campaign  the party was still reminded of their fragile hold on its majority in the House of Representatives when Mark Harris, a pastor who is best known for denouncing same-sex marriage, beat incumbent Representative Robert Pittenger in North Carolina.

Recommended Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship sentenced to 12 months in jai

Mr Morriseys primary election could be bad news for incumbent Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat who is seen as one of the most vulnerable senators up for re-election this November.

The stakes were so high that President Donald Trump personally acted to intervene in the Republican primary in the state, pleading with voters to choose Mr Morrisey over Mr Blankenship.

To the great people of West Virginia we have, together, a really great chance to keep making a big difference, Mr Trump wrote in a Tweet the day before the election. Problem is, Don Blankenship, currently running for Senate, cant win the General Election in your State No way! Remember Alabama. Vote [Representative] Jenkins or [Attorney General] Morrisey!

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

During the campaign, Mr Blankenship attracted a fair amount of negative press coverage for his use of racial epithets including the word negro and wealthy china person.

Mr Blankenship also drew headlines for referring to Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader and a fellow Republican, as cocaine Mitch.

One of my goals as US senator will be to ditch cocaine Mitch, Mr Blankenship was filmed saying in a campaign ad.

The Blankenship campaign later explained that he was referring to news that Colombian authorities found about 90 pounds of cocaine on board a ship owned by Mr McConnells family. No charges have been filed related to the 2014 find, according to a Washington Post fact check.

Following the election results, Mr McConnell took to Twitter to mock the losing Senate candidate, and his reliance of cocaine Mitch as an insult in his attempt to run as a foil to mainstream Republicans.

Thanks for playing, Mr McConnells Twitter account wrote, tagging Mr Blankenship in the post.

Accompanying that message was a photo of Mr McConnell surrounded by white powder, in an obvious nod to promotional materials for Netflixs Narcos series about drug cartels in Colombia.

Voters in Indiana also took to the polls Tuesday, and gave Mike Braun a big win over US Representatives Luke Messer and Todd Rosita in the Senate primary election there.A hostage crisis inside a maximum security jail in Indonesia ended after Islamist militant prisoners who "sadistically" killed five police officers surrendered and released an officer they were holding, authorities said.

Officials said the 36-hour standoff that ended with five members of an elite counter-terrorism force dead was an "act of terror".

The riot broke out at the Mako Brimob detention facility in Depok, on the outskirts of Jakarta, on Tuesday evening. A sixth person, a prison inmate, also died.

General Syafruddin, a deputy police commissioner, said the operation had finished and there were no further casualties with all the inmates surrendered.

The majority of the officers, who were members of Indonesia's elite Densus 88, had their throats cut, police said.

More than 150 prisoners were involved in the fatal riot, in which inmates had armed themselves with around 30 weapons, including long-range rifles, taken from officers and a storage area in the jail for weapons confiscated during police operations.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo thanked security forces for their efforts in containing the crisis.

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 state and all the people are never afraid and will never give the slightest room to terrorism and also to efforts that undermine the security of the country," he told a news conference.

Isis claimed responsibility for the clashes at the jail in a message carried on its Amaq news agency, but police have denied any link to the group, saying the riot was sparked by a dispute over food.

Recommended Escalation between Israel and Iran is more dangerous than ever

Police spokesman Brigadier General Muhammad Iqbal said: "The trigger is trivial, the trigger is the problem of food."

But police also said that some inmates had recently met Aman Abdurrahman, Indonesia's leading Isis sympathiser and alleged mastermind of the 2016 Sarinah bombing. According to his lawyer, he was in another cell block and not involved in the riot.

Last year, an attack by two suicide bombers, using pressure cookers packed with explosives, killed three police and wounded 12 people at a Jakarta bus terminal.Ricky Balidad was on his way to teach a class at an interfaith school in Talaingod, the Philippines, when a paramilitary fighter blocked his path.

If you go through we will chop you up and kill you, said the fighter. Humanitarian groups say such threats have become common in recent years, with members of the Alamara militia joining up with soldiers to harass teachers and pupils inside school grounds.

Save the Children warned that attacks on schools around the world, including in the Philippines, are rising. In a new report, Education Under Attack, the charity documents more than 12,700 violent incidents in schools and universities around the world in the last five years. During those, more than 21,000 teachers and students were harmed.

Recommended 1 in 6 children now live in areas affected by conflict

Over the last five years, 41 countries suffered at least five attacks on education establishments, marking a increase from the 20092013 period, when the report documented 30 countries experiencing this number of attacks.

Teaching and learning has become increasingly dangerous, with the lives of students, teachers and academics frequently put at risk, said Diya Nijhowne, executive director of the the report.

Schools and universities should be safe and protective spaces, but armed forces and armed groups continue to turn them into sites of intimidation and violence.

Among the worst affected countries were the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Nigeria, the Philippines, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and occupied Palestinian territories, the report found. These countries either suffered more than 1,000 attacks on education, or suffered attacks that harmed more than 1,000 students or staff, according to Save the Children.

 Schools Under Attack: inside the West Mosul school stuck between Iraqi forces and ISIS fighting

In the Philippines, indigenous-run schools have long been targets of the military and paramilitary forces, which accuse the schools of being training grounds for a communist army. Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte last year publicly threatened to bomb the schools, saying: Youre operating illegally and youre teaching the children to rebel against government.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Humanitarian groups have said that more than 1,000 indigenous students and teachers experienced threats, harassment and intimidation by members of the Alamara and the countrys national military between 2013 and 2017.

Rokaya, 14, had to flee the city of Marawi during a conflict in which her school was also bombed.

I saw an aeroplane releasing a bomb and I was scared. I thought we were going to die, she told Save the Children.

I was afraid because there was a landslide on our road and my mother was pregnant.

Our classroom was under gunfire. We still cant go there because its not yet deconstructed [sic].

Our school was destroyed by the bomb. I was unable to study there.

The teenager now attends a makeshift school in a nearby tent city. I thought I would never go back to school, she said. I also thought that there would be no more schools  but there are and Im now back in school.

I really do like being here. The teachers are teaching us well and they are taking care of us.

In 18 of the countries Save the Children profiled, attacks on places of education deliberately targeted female students and teachers. While some extremist groups bombed girls schools, others chose to rape women and girls close to schools.

In one example highlighted in the report, armed militiamen in the DRC abducted eight girls from a primary school last year and raped them over the course of three months.

Schools and universities were also used as bases, barracks, detention centres, or for other military purposes, in 29 counties.

These military uses increase the risk that affected schools and universities will be attacked by opposing forces, that children will be recruited into armed groups, or that students and educators will be targeted for sexual violence, Save the Children said in a statement.Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar has compared the enclaves people to a starving tiger hinting at the possibility that thousands of Palestinians could breach the border fence with Israel during mass protests next week.

Whats the problem if hundreds of thousands storm this fence which is not a border of a state? Whats the problem with that? Sinwar said, adding he did not recognise the border.

Sinwar also warned that desperation among young Gazans had become a ticking bomb. Threatening as this may sound, the last claim is oddly not that distant of an echo of a warning last year by Herzl Halevi, the head of Israeli military intelligence - that if unsolved the humanitarian crisis in Gaza could blow up in Israels direction.

Sinwar said the protests were peaceful, but that no one knows where the tiger is heading, what it is going to do.

Recommended Palestinian teenager dies after being shot by Israeli troops

When Sinwar arranged his first-ever meeting with foreign journalists since taking his position last year, he could hardly have known that his organisation would two days beforehand be branded as one of four groups President Donald Trump denounced as being supported by Iran in justifying the end to US participation in the nuclear deal with Tehran.

Sinwar did not comment on Trumps decision beyond expressing anger at his faction being lumped together as terrorist with global jihadis when, as he insisted, it was a Palestinian organisation of legitimate resistance to an Israeli occupation.

However, Sinwar repeatedly attacked Trump moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. The opening of the embassy takes place on Monday, and coincides with the latest protests  which have claimed 40 Palestinian lives since 30 March. Israel claims it only opens fire when necessary to stop infiltrations, attacks and damage to the border fence and has accused Hamas of seeking to use the protests as cover to carry out violence. Palestinians say protesters are being shot while posing no threat to soldiers.

Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Show all 10 1 /10 Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinian protesters flee from teargas AFP/Getty Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Israeli soldiers stand as Palestinian protesters gather on the Israel Gaza border AP Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations A Palestinian is carried on a stretcher after being injured during the demonstration AFP/Getty Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Israeli soldiers take aim as they lie prone over an earth barrier along the border with the Gaza strip in the southern Israeli kibbutz of Nahal Oz as Palestinians demonstrate on the other side commemorating Land Day AFP/Getty Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinian paramedics evacuate an injured man on the Gaza side of the Israel-Gaza border Reuters Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinians demonstrate with crossed-out posters depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, during a tent city protest near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip AFP/Getty Images Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinian protesters flee from teargas AFP/Getty Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Israeli soldiers shoot tear gas grenades towards the Palestinian tent city protest commemorating Land Day AFP/Getty Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinian protesters take cover from Israeli troops AP Palestinians clash with Israeli troops during mass demonstrations Palestinians chant slogans as they attend a demonstration near the Gaza Strip border AP

During the meeting with Sinwar, If we learned anything about the most media-shy of top Hamas leaders, it was that his 25 years in Israeli prisons, the longest stint being 22 years, have been the most formative of his life. After his release in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, he claimed he had discovered that life in the small Israeli prisons was much better than life in the big jail called the Gaza Strip in terms of food, electricity and medical services.

Indeed he compared the weekly border protests with the agitation of Israeli-held prisoners  himself included  for better conditions, with what he said thousands of Palestinians had been doing in their unarmed protests at the border, which he insists have been peaceful.

Less clear is whether Sinwar, with long connections to Hamass military wing is as hardline as many commentators suggested when he became its Gaza leader. Or whether, behind the scenes, he is looking for some form of  at least temporary  accommodation with Israel.

Sinwar repeated his emphasis  anathema to most Israelis  on the right of return for the descendants of refugees who in 1948 lost their homes in what Israel calls its war of independence and Palestinians call the catastrophe a time which will be commemorated on Tuesday. He deflected reports that Hamas is looking for a long term truce with Israel, insisting there had been no direct talks on this.

The flintiest moment came when he was asked about complaints that Hamas was spending money on weapons it could instead be devoting to relieving the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza. You have every right to ask it, but I smell some bias in your question, he said before insisting that not a penny sent to Gaza for humanitarian purposes or raised in taxes had been used for what Sinwar freely admitted had been the stockpiling of weapons so that we can stand in front of the Israeli occupation.

Funds for weapons had been earmarked by its donors. But he said that not a single shot had been fired or rocket launched during the weekly protests, including by the members of the Hamas military wing who had taken part.

And asked if Hamas might be drawn into any escalation of an Israeli conflict with Hezbollah and Iranian forces in Syria he said he doubted whether Iran would seek its military assistance because Hamas did not have the resources to be a powerful military ally in such a conflict. This may not be accurate; but with few friends among Arab governments, Hamas is probably not in the mood for yet another major military confrontation.

But none of this eases the nervousness about what will happen if indeed there is an attempted mass breakout from the border fence on Monday and Tuesday. Sinwar failed to answer a question about what if anything Hamas, as the responsible authority in Gaza, would do to prevent the potential deaths of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli snipers, merely leaving the image of a tiger breaking out of its cage.The Israeli military has claimed Iranian forces in Syria have fired about 20 rockets at its positions in the Golan Heights.

Some of the projectiles were intercepted and damage on the Israeli side was minimal, it said, adding that there were no casualties.

Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said Israel viewed the incident with severity and had responded, although he did not specify how. This event is not over, he added.

Syrias state news agency said that the countrys air defences had intercepted hostile Israeli missiles, and later media in the country said the missiles were fired over the countrys capital, Damascus.

Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, anticipating an Iranian attack following Iranian vows to retaliate to what it says are recent Israeli strikes in Syria targeting Iranian outposts.

Earlier this week Syrian state media said Israel struck a military outpost near Damascus.

London-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the missiles targeted depots and rocket launchers that probably belonged to Irans elite Revolutionary Guard, killing at least 15 people, eight of them Iranians.

Last month, an attack on Syrias T4 air base in Homs province killed seven Iranian military personnel.

Israel was also said to have struck government outposts in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen pro-government fighters, many of them Iranians, although it has neither confirmed nor denied most of the airstrikes. But for months, it has repeatedly said it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

Iranian forces moved into Syria after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 to back the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

President Donald Trumps announcement earlier this week that the US was withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran has also triggered uncertainty in the region.

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

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to Moscow on Wednesday to meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss military coordination in Syria.

Russia has also sent forces to Syria to back Assad. But Israel and Russia have maintained close communications to prevent their air forces from coming into conflict.

Israel views Iran as its archenemy, citing Irans calls for Israels destruction, support for militant groups across the region and growing military activity in neighbouring Syria.Tensions between arch enemies Israel and Iran are soaring after the biggest Israeli intervention in Syria to date, a retaliation for what it said was the first ever direct fire on its troops from Iranian forces.

At least 23 soldiers are thought to have died in the unprecedented Israeli airstrikes just after midnight on Thursday, which the Israel Defence Force (IDF) said targeted almost all of Tehrans military infrastructure inside the war-torn country.

Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus Syrian Central Military Media, via AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen from Damascus Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures An Israeli flag is seen placed on Mount Bental in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel's army said today it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies. Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight. AFP/Getty Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli artillery deployed missiles toward Syrian military targets, on the Golan Heights EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen over Daraa Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace AFP/SANA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli soldiers walk among armored vehicles in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Syrian air defense missiles are seen in the sky over the capital Damascus EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace. Israeli missile strikes fired at Syria hit military bases, as well as an arms depot and military radar. AFP/SANA

The altercation comes just days after US President Donald Trump announced his country would withdraw from the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers  a move widely viewed as a victory in Israel, which opposed the deal, and as a disaster in Iran.

What happened?

The IDF said 20 Fajr or Grad missiles were fired by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards al Quds Force at its positions in the Golan Heights border area late on Wednesday.

There has been no official comment from Tehran, although Lebanon's al Manar TV quoted the vice president of Iran's National Security Committee as saying, Iran has no relation to the missiles that hit the enemy entity yesterday.

Sana, Syria's state news agency, said the hostilities were triggered by Israeli fire over the border  something which has not happened since 1974.

So did Iran do it?

Tensions between Iran and Israel over the presence of Iranian troops and allied Hezbollah, which fight alongside Syrian President Bashar al Assad, have been building since the beginning of the year.

In February, Israel accused Iran of sending an armed drone into its territory, after which an Israeli plane was shot down while bombing positions in Syria  the first time the country had lost an aircraft in combat in 35 years. Israel has since retaliated with bolder strikes on Iranian positions in Syria which have killed at least 13 Iranian nationals.

Tehran has vowed the attacks wont go unpunished but its military capabilities are limited. It also needs the goodwill of the international community as it struggles to save the 2015 nuclear deal, which lifted crippling sanctions, said Holly Dagres, an Iran analyst and curator of the Iranist newsletter.

There are two big questions that come to mind: Why such a small scale attack, and why right after Trumps decision and while Tehran is looking for European support to stay in the [nuclear deal]? she told the Independent.

Iran has not commented on the attack thus far. This delay could mean a couple of things. That the [Iranian] administration was taken by surprise, and that this was a Quds Force initiative without their consent. Or, Iran is making good on a threat that it would retaliate.

Mahan Abedin, an analyst of Iranian politics, shared Dagres scepticism.

The rocket fire was too weak to amount to a genuine Iranian retaliation for repeated strikes by Israel against Iranian assets  I believe the Iranian response will be harsher.

What happens next?

The Syrian foreign ministry said the incident marked the beginning of a new phase in the war against Israel  but to date, Iran has not retaliated after the deaths of scores of its citizens killed by Israeli strikes in Syria.

Abedin said that Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman's claim to have destroyed all of Iran's military infrastructure in Syria is clearly hyperbolic. However, he is right in describing the skirmish as the latest round of the conflict. There is plenty of scope for escalation.

Now that the US is out of the [Iran deal], unfortunately, both Iran and Israel are freer to attack each other directly. My hope is that this can be contained but it is very worrisome and totally predictable after Trump's reckless action, said Barbara Slavin, director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council.

 Corbyn leads debate into Parliament vote on Syria strikes: 'The government is attempting to overturn a democratic advance'

The harsh rhetoric from the US and Israel in the face of what both called an Iranian provocation suggests that those two parties are working hand in glove to escalate the military confrontation, said Dr Roham Alvandi, a professor at the London School of Economics.

Mr Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hope to provoke the Iranian leadership into taking action that will isolate and ultimately weaken the Islamic Republic, he added.

This is not likely to work, as Iran's regional policies are based on long-term strategic relationships, built over decades, not short-term pyrrhic victories. Close Syrian military video shows air defences trying to intercept Israeli missiles

Israel has launched one of the heaviest barrages against Iranian targets in neighbouring Syria since the civil war there began in 2011, after Iranian forces in the country bombarded Israeli army bases with rockets.

The attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights marks the first time Iranian forces have hit Israel from Syria, where they are supporting the countrys president, Bashar al-Assad.

Israel said its targets included weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centres used by elite Iranian forces in Syria. It also said it destroyed several Syrian air-defence systems after coming under heavy fire and that none of its warplanes were hit.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's air strikes were appropriate because Iran had crossed a red line.

We are in the midst of a protracted battle and our policy is clear: We will not allow Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria, Mr Netanyahu said in a brief video address.

Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus Syrian Central Military Media, via AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen from Damascus Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures An Israeli flag is seen placed on Mount Bental in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel's army said today it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies. Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight. AFP/Getty Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli artillery deployed missiles toward Syrian military targets, on the Golan Heights EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen over Daraa Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace AFP/SANA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli soldiers walk among armored vehicles in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Syrian air defense missiles are seen in the sky over the capital Damascus EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace. Israeli missile strikes fired at Syria hit military bases, as well as an arms depot and military radar. AFP/SANA

Israel has largely tried to stay on the sidelines of Syrias civil war, but has previously acknowledged carrying out over 100 airstrikes over the past seven years, most believed to be aimed at Iranian weapons shipments bound for the Hezbollah militant group.

The confrontation came as expectations of a regional flare-up were stoked by Donald Trumps announcement he was withdrawing the US from the Iranian nuclear deal.

Israel and Iran have appeared to be on a collision course for months.

In February, Israel shot down what it said was an armed Iranian drone that entered Israeli airspace.

Israel responded by attacking anti-aircraft positions in Syria, and an Israeli warplane was shot down during the battle.

Russia has also sent forces to Syria to back the regime, but Israel and Russia have maintained close communications to prevent their air forces from coming into conflict.

Additional reporting by agenciesIsrael has launched its most intensive attack on Iranian positions in neighbouring Syria since the civil war began in 2011, bringing two of the regions major powers closer to the brink of direct confrontation than ever before.

The early morning bombardment killed 23 people, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said. It was issued in response to what the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said was the first ever Iranian rocket attack on its troops, in the Golan Heights.

The confrontation marks the most significant military skirmish between the two enemies to date amid a backdrop of escalating regional tensions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Iran "crossed a red line" and the Israeli response using airstrikes was "appropriate".

Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus Syrian Central Military Media, via AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen from Damascus Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures An Israeli flag is seen placed on Mount Bental in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel's army said today it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies. Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight. AFP/Getty Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli artillery deployed missiles toward Syrian military targets, on the Golan Heights EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen over Daraa Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace AFP/SANA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli soldiers walk among armored vehicles in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Syrian air defense missiles are seen in the sky over the capital Damascus EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace. Israeli missile strikes fired at Syria hit military bases, as well as an arms depot and military radar. AFP/SANA

The actions were a "clear message" to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he said, adding: "We are in the midst of a protracted battle and our policy is clear: We will not allow Iran to entrench itself militarily in Syria."

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani meanwhile urged European nations to "clearly state their actions and stances to compensate for the withdrawal of the United States in the short time that is left.

"Iran has always sought to reduce tensions in the region, trying to strengthen security and stability," he told German chancellor Angela Merkel in a phone call, one of number he made to a series of world leaders throughout the day.

Theresa May and French president Emmanuel Macron have both called for calm on all sides.

The White House condemned what it said was Irans provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens, emphasising Israels right to act in self-defence.

Russia also called the strikes a alarming development and urged for a de-escalation.

During the overnight incident civilians in both the Golan Heights, the Damascus countryside and Syrias south were kept awake by the sound of low-flying military jets and explosions.

Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days in anticipation of an Iranian attack: Tehran has vowed retaliation for two other recent Israeli strikes in Syria which targeted and killed at least 13 Iranian nationals.

The IDF said 20 Fajr or Grad missiles were fired by the Iranian Quds Force at its positions in the Golan Heights border area, several of which were intercepted by Israels missile defence systems. No Israelis were injured.

 Strike on Syrian army base kills 18 people

Iranian officials offered no immediate comment on Israels claim about the missile fire. Later on Thursday Lebanons al Manar TV quoted the vice-president of Irans National Security Committee as saying, Iran has no relation to the missiles that hit the enemy entity yesterday.

The blistering Israeli response targeted what officials said was almost all of Irans military infrastructure inside Syria, including dozens of weapons storage sites and intelligence centres used by elite Iranian forces, as well as Syrian air defence systems. The Syrian systems did not damage any Israeli planes.

They need to remember the saying that if it rains on us, itll storm on them, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told media on Thursday. I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message.

According to the Russian military, Israel fired more than 70 missiles during the attack.

Sana, Syrias state news agency, quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israeli missiles hit air defence positions, radar stations and a weapons warehouse, but claimed most incoming rockets were intercepted. It said the hostilities were triggered by Israeli fire over the border  something which has not happened since 1974. SOHR also said it believed the incident began with a volley of fire on the Qunietra region town of Baath.

According to Syrian army command three people died and two were injured in the attack. It was not immediately clear whether the casualties were Iranian or Syrian. SOHR said at least five Syrian soldiers were killed.

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

Israel has largely managed to stay out of the complex seven-year-old conflict next-door, although the Golan Heights is restive and authorities have retaliated to occasional stray rockets with reprisals.

Around 100 Israeli airstrikes in Syrian territory in the last few years have aimed to prevent weapons smuggling to the Iran-allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which also fights alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assads troops. Hezbollah, like Iran, is committed to the destruction of the Jewish state.

As Assad has slowly regained control of the country, tensions between Iran and Israel have ratcheted up, with Israeli officials warning they will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

Donald Trumps announcement earlier this week that his country would unilaterally withdraw from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal agreed between Iran and world powers has also set the Middle East on edge.

While Iran has said Israeli aggression against its troops in Syria will not go unheeded, Tehrans technical ability to hit back is limited.

Iranian officials are also wary of being drawn into a wider military escalation while they are trying to garner international support to save the nuclear agreement, which gave Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

Thursdays flare-up came just hours after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from a visit to Moscow, where he and Russian president Vladimir Putin discussed Syrias war.

Russia militarily intervened in the conflict in 2015, turning the tide of the war in Assads favour.

Mr Netanyahus office said after the meeting that Russia was unlikely to limit Israels armed actions in Syria.Israel has launched its biggest attack ever on Iranian forces in Syria. This is a serious development, but reports of the entire Middle East being on the verge of all out war fail to fully appreciate the motives and intentions of the various players.

Looked at from the Israeli point of view, it is an excellent moment to act against Iran in Syria because it is unlikely that the Iranians will respond in a serious way.

In the wake of Donald Trumps withdrawal of the US from the Iran nuclear deal, the Iranians want to show the rest of the world, and particularly the Europeans, that they are the reliable and pacific upholders of the 2015 treaty.

This phase may not last long and does not mean that the Iranians have any faith in the EU states keeping the accord alive. But they do want to ensure that the EU and others will only grudgingly cooperate with the reimposition of draconian sanctions by the US.

The Iranian economy will still be very badly hit because international banks and companies will be frightened of being punished by the US Treasury, but Iran will not be as isolated politically and economically as it was before 2015.

The Israelis do not want a wider war with Iran. The Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman said that: "I hope we finished this chapter and everyone got the message," adding that Israel does not intend the situation to escalate.

Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus Syrian Central Military Media, via AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen from Damascus Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures An Israeli flag is seen placed on Mount Bental in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel's army said today it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies. Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight. AFP/Getty Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli artillery deployed missiles toward Syrian military targets, on the Golan Heights EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen over Daraa Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace AFP/SANA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli soldiers walk among armored vehicles in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Syrian air defense missiles are seen in the sky over the capital Damascus EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace. Israeli missile strikes fired at Syria hit military bases, as well as an arms depot and military radar. AFP/SANA

Significantly, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was heading home from Moscow where he had been seeing President Vladimir Putin as the Israeli air force was making the strikes of which the Russians were previously informed by Israel.

Mr Netanyahu evidently wanted to reassure Mr Putin that Israel is acting against Iran and is not trying to make a late-in-the-day attempt to change the outcome of the Syrian civil war, which is so far ending with a victory for Russias ally President Bashar al-Assad.

The Iranians show no sign of expecting a war with the US or Israel, at least in the near future, whatever the belligerent rhetoric coming out of Washington, Tel Aviv and Tehran.

Israel has accused Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) of firing 20 rockets at Israeli military positions in the Golan Heights late on Wednesday night, but, even if this is confirmed, it would amount to a very tame retaliation by Iran for earlier Israeli airstrikes.

Irans enemies are not seeking military confrontation, said the deputy head of the IRGC, Brigadier Hossein Salami, on Thursday.

Recommended Europe must resist the US to salvage the Iran nuclear deal

They want to pressure our country by economic isolation, he said, adding that the Europeans were powerless to salvage the deal under which Iran had curtailed its nuclear programme in return for a reduction in sanctions.

The bellicose threats against Iran coming from Israel and Saudi Arabia may be leading to a misunderstanding. Leaders in both countries may be eager for the US to have a military confrontation with Iran, but they would prefer to cheer on Mr Trump from the sidelines rather than become involved in a war themselves.

Israel has grim experience in the past of becoming engaged in an unwinnable war in Lebanon between 1982 and 2000 and, since 2015, Saudi Arabia has been suffering a similar failure in Yemen.

An American military attack on Iran might, indeed, happen, though not immediately and, if it does occur, it may well be because of a US misunderstanding of the real options available to it.

The one most agreeable to the White House would be regime change in Tehran: the association of leading figures in the administration like the national security adviser, John Bolton, with exiled Iranian opposition groups like the Mojahedin-e-Khalq may have be encouraging delusions about the likelihood of this happening.

The Iraqi opposition in 2003 successfully encouraged similar fantasies in Washington and London about the political state of Iraq prior to the US-led invasion.

Trump may similarly be deluded about the chances of sanctions driving Iran to a new nuclear deal which would in effect be terms of surrender dictated by the US.

No doubt the revived sanctions will be devastating for the Iranian economy, but Iran has survived a more onerous economic siege in the past while, this time round, ordinary Iranians will be more likely to blame the intransigence of the US rather than that of their own leaders.

The only alternative left for Mr Trump would be military action, particularly if Iran goes back to enriching uranium as it is likely to do, given that the US has sunk the deal restraining it from doing so.

Israel might take part in such a war, but it is scarcely in its interests to do so. Air strikes against specific Iranian nuclear facilities are one thing, but these might happen on the first day of a very long conflict that would be mostly fought out on the ground.

Iran has an advantage here because it is already on the winning side in the wars in Syria and Iraq.

In Lebanon, Israeli, US and Saudi Arabia have a good example of the morass they would be getting into because they failed, despite determined efforts over 36 years, to change the balance of power there against Iran and its ally, Hezbollah.

There is likely to be further well-hidden reason why leaders in Israel and Saudi Arabia may hesitate a little at becoming involved in an escalating confrontation with Iran that could lead to war.

They are delighted that they have an administration in Washington that is singing their tune. Their most propagandist claims are being echoed by the president.

But it should also occur to them that Mr Trump, though for the moment entirely in their corner, is mercurial, unpredictable and even mentally unstable.

He gyrates between isolationism and military intervention. He might easily provoke a crisis with Iran from which the US suddenly detaches itself  something like this happened to the Syrian Kurds earlier in the year  or he could one day stumble, along with his allies in Tel Aviv and Riyadh, into a war with Iran through sheer ignorance and miscalculation.A concerted international attempt to save the Iran nuclear deal from Donald Trumps attempts to sabotage it is under way with officials from France, Germany and Britain due to meet their Iranian counterparts from Tehran next week. At the same time Russia and China, the two other signatories to the agreement, are holding talks with Iran to strengthen trade and political relations against punitive American measures.

The flurry of diplomatic activity began hours after Mr Trump declared that the US will renege from the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and impose new sanctions on Iran amid alarm that the move will undermine the global nuclear non-proliferation system.

There is said to be a widespread feeling among European governments that Mr Trump has chosen to ignore traditional Western allies in favour of Saudi-led Gulf States, which have pledged to buy billions of dollars worth of US arms, and the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing three police corruption investigations in his country. This, say ministers and officials, calls for a fundamental strategic rethink.

Emmanuel Macron telephoned the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to discuss the groundwork for talks and announced that the two countries will be holding bilateral discussions. The French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who is due to meet his Tehran counterpart, Mohammed Zarif, said: The American logic is an isolationist, protectionist and unilateral logic. This is a break with international commitment and France deeply regrets this decision. We will bring businesses together in the coming days to try and preserve them as much as possible from the US measures: this deal is not dead.

The move came as foreign secretary Boris Johnson said Britain will not "walk away" from the Iran nuclear deal following the dramatic withdrawal of the US from the agreement.

He said the government continued to believe the agreement was "vital" to UK national security and had done its "utmost" to persuade Mr Trump not to abandon it, adding it was up to the US to spell out the way forward and he urged the administration not to take any action which would hinder the efforts of the other parties to make it work.

Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Show all 10 1 /10 Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian MPs burnt a US flag in parliament after Donald Trump announced America's withdrawal from the nuclear deal. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal US President Donald Trump displays a presidential memorandum after announcing his intent to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement in the Diplomatic Room at the White House. Reuters Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Some Iranian MPs reacted after Trumps decision by shouting 'death to America'. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian lawmakers prepare to burn two pieces of papers representing the US flag and the nuclear deal. AP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran said it will hold talks with signatories to the nuclear deal after Trump's decision to withdraw from the accord, which it branded "psychological warfare". AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Several Iranian MPs stood chanting in the Tehran parliament. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian MPs burning a US flag AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal President Hassan Rouhani addressed the nation in a televised speech in Tehran. He said he'd send his foreign minister to negotiate with countries remaining in the nuclear deal after Trump's decision to pull America from the deal, warning he otherwise would restart enriching uranium "in the next weeks." Iranian Presidency Office via AP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran's press condemned Trump's withdrawal from a multi-party nuclear deal but was divided over whether Tehran should react with patience or withdraw itself. AFP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Trump announced the US withdrawal from what he called the "defective" multinational nuclear deal with Iran, and said Washington would reinstate sanctions against the Islamic republic. AFP/Getty

"For as long as Iran abides by the agreement ... Then Britain will remain a party to the JCPOA. Britain has no intention of walking away," he said. "Instead we will co-operate with the other parties to ensure that while Iran continues to restrict its nuclear programme, then its people will benefit from sanctions relief in accordance with the central bargain of the deal."

Angela Merkel also expressed her regret and concern over Mr Trumps actions and stressed that Iran had stuck to its obligations under the agreement. The German Chancellor continued: We must not question the Iran deal, however we also need to talk about a broader deal that goes beyond that. In Britain Theresa May reiterated that the agreement was an important step forward in helping to keep the world safe, acknowledging that she had failed to convince Mr Trump of this.

Recommended Trump promises severe consequences if Iran restarts nuclear programme

Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU Commission president, stated that Mr Trump has made it inevitable that Europe must assert its values. The US, he held, no longer wants to co-operate with other parts of the world. At this point, we have to replace the United States, which as an international actor has lost vigour, and because of it, in the long term, influence.

The EU is planning to ask for exemptions for its companies and financial institutions from American sanctions, although that is unlikely to happen. The French Foreign Minister, Bruno La Maire, the matter should not be allowed to rest there. The international reach of US sanctions makes the US the economic policeman of the planet, that is not acceptable.

China, which is involved in a $1.5bn deal for infrastructure building in Iran, has reaffirmed that its CITIC bank is extending $10bn lines of credit to Iranian banks, it will be using Euros and the Yuan rather than dollars to bypass US sanctions.US President Donald Trump has claimed that five most wanted leaders of Isis had been captured, an apparent reference to the capture of five commanders of the jihadi group group by Iraq.

Five Most Wanted leaders of ISIS just captured! Mr Trump wrote in a post on Twitter, providing no further details.

The president, who has a reputation for hyperbole, appeared to be responding to news announced on Iraqi state television late on Wednesday, that described the capture of the Isis commanders as some of the most wanted leaders of the group. The list did not include Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

A statement from the US-led coalition against Isis called the arrests a significant blow to Daesh, using the Arabic acronym for Isis.

The five alleged commanders are said to include Saddam al-Jammel, a Syrian involved in controlling territory around Deir Ezzor, and Ismail al-Eithawi, who is believed to be a top aide to Baghdadi. Those captured were not named by the coalition.

It was reported that the five were captured after being lured by Iraqi intelligence services into crossing the border from Syria.

Eithawi was captured in February by Turkish authorities and handed over to Iraqi agents, a security advisor to the Iraqi government told Reuters. Iraqi agents then used the Telegram messaging app on his mobile phone to lure four commanders from the group to cross the border from Syria into Iraq and into a trap, security advisor Hisham al-Hashimi said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said last month he would take all necessary measures against jihadis based in Syria. The Iraqi air force has carried out several airstrikes since last year against Isis positions in Syrian territory.

The US -led coalition supported Iraqi ground forces and the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the war against Isis.

Mr Abadi declared final victory over Isis last December, with with group having been pushed out of all the major territory it held in the country taken as part of offensives that started in 2014. But Isis still pose a threat along the border with Syria with ambushes, killings and bombings still occurring across Iraq.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this reportA truck full of liquid chocolate has overturned on a motorway in Poland, spilling 12 tonnes of the sweet stuff all over the road.

Traffic was blocked in both directions of the A2 motorway between the towns of Wrzesnia and Slupca in Western Poland, according to the Associated Press. The road also connects the major cities of Poznan and Warsaw. No one was gravely injured as a result of the accident, but the driver of the lorry was taken to hospital with a broken arm.

It is not clear as yet what caused the tanker truck to overturn and fall onto its side across the median, or where it was ultimately headed. By the time cleanup crews had arrived the liquid had begun to solidify, making the operation more difficult, local police said.

Bogdan Kowalski of Slupcas fire brigade said that the cooling chocolate is worse than snow. He also noted that in the initial moments after the accident there were some who drove their vehicles through the sticky liquid, spreading it for several kilometres along the road.

Marlena Kukawka, a media officer for the police in the small town of Slupca, told the New York Times it would take hours to clean the mess and fire brigades were using streams of hot water to remelt the chocolate in order to wash it away.

As the Washington Post reported about the local news station TVN24: One of its reporters at the scene was walking along the edge of the shoulder to avoid the chocolate only to slip and fall into a ditch, where there was, indeed, more chocolate.

On a positive note, Ms Kukawka said its been a long time since Ive seen so many smiles on the faces of emergency rescue folks and police officers at the scene of an accident.With royal wedding fever gripping not just the nation but the world, nearly every bakery, party shop and restaurant is cashing in on the impending nuptials of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on May 19.

In fact, around 70m worth of merchandise is expected to be sold in the UK in celebration of the wedding. That's a lot of bunting.

Of course, royal fans will be able to get their hands on commemorative coins, flags, mugs, balloons, stamps and posters to mark the occasion.

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

But whilst the official items have been approved by the couple, there are many other less traditional - often somewhat tenuous - royal wedding-themed products that have been launched to mark the historic day.

Here are some of the most bizarre royal wedding-themed products and launches on offer:

Sausages

(Heck (Heck)

Yorkshire sausage maker HECK has created a majestic recipe celebrating the transatlantic union that is the royal wedding. Pork sausages with sweet ginger and American mustard, theyre actually very delicious.

Condoms

(Crown Jewels Condoms (Crown Jewels Condoms)

The creators of the Crown Jewels Heritage Condoms claim the contraceptives are fit for a prince and that your prince will come. Oddly enough the soon-to-be royal couple are yet to endorse the product.

Crisps

(Tyrrells (Tyrrells)

Tyrrells has launched royal wedding-inspired parsnip and glitter crisps, called Ginger & Sparkle: parsnip crisps with a hint of ginger, sweet honey and added edible glitter for a celebratory feel.

Neckerchiefs for dogs

(Teddy Maximus (Teddy Maximus)

Why should your pooch have to miss out on the fun of the big day? Dress your four-legged friend up in their finery with a commemorative neckerchief embroidered with Harry, Meghan and a crown.

Beer

(We Brew (We Brew)

Made using barley grown locally on the Royal Farms in Windsor and hops from the west coast of the US, the royal wedding pale ale called Harry & Meghans Windsor Knot has been brewed to give the traditional British pint a U.S. twist.

Colouring books

(Orion (Orion)

Sure, colouring books are a bit 2016, but that hasnt stopped publisher Orion creating one to allow fans to colour in Harry and Meghans Hollywood romance through pictures of the couple recreating iconic scenes from films. Naturally.

Hot dogs

(Bubbledogs) (Bubble Dogs)

If hot dogs werent already American enough, Londons gourmet hotdog and champagne bar Bubbledogs has created a special Fourth of July dog, featuring southern BBQ sauce, coleslaw and crispy bacon, which is served with a glass of English sparkling wine for 10.

Peg dolls

(Cotton Twist (Cotton Twist)

If youve always wanted to add a touch of royalty to your laundry line, now you can, with make your own Harry and Meghan royal wedding peg dolls.

Eclairs

(Maitre Choux (Maitre Choux)

Despite the fact that they are a traditionally French treat, London patissier Maitre Choux is launching limited edition eclairs inspired by the official royal wedding cake  filled with a lemon and elderflower cream.Greater Fort Lauderdale's reputation as a beautiful and versatile holiday destination is in no way overstated.

Its an exciting hub where excellent restaurants rub shoulders with shops; where bars glitter in the evening; a place that can be explored without fuss, maybe by bike along Beach Boulevard. Vibrant without being overly busy, fun without being achingly hip, its a city where you can spend a wonderful week without wishing to go anywhere else. Yes, Greater Fort Lauderdale really is great.

Venetian vibe

In many ways, it is about water. And not just in the obvious sense of the waves that graze its 23 miles of golden shoreline  including the soft sands of Fort Lauderdale Beach, a playground for everyone from the surfers who tackle the breakers that roll endlessly to land, to the sunseekers and families who snooze and sit below the palm trees.

Greater Fort Lauderdale also delivers water inland, in the channels and canals that flow west, making it a sort of Venice of America. Here, you find activities galore  kayaking, paddle-boarding, fishing and boat trips.

There are also plenty of attractions that dont involve getting your feet wet. Shopaholics can indulge, seeking out sophisticated designs in the elegant boutiques strewn along Las Olas Boulevard, hunting for big-brand fashions in the air-conditioned confines of The Galleria mall, or picking up bargains in the Swap Shop flea market on West Sunrise Boulevard.

There are endless opportunities for dinner, too  try Tacocraft, a funky possibility on SW 2nd Street, which revels in Mexican dishes (and tequilas to match).

Or, in 15th Street Fisheries, which serves fresh crab and lobster, and juicy cuts of roasted sea bass, on the waterfront. For a real taste of the Caribbean, seek out some of Greater Fort Lauderdales Floribbean cuisine, and head on the Greater Fort Lauderdale Ale Trail for some local brews.

Virgin Holidays'

expert tips When the sun goes down, Las Olas Boulevard comes alive with its unique shops, bars and restaurants. Head to Sawgrass Mills for discount outlet shopping

If you want culture, you can find that too  not least in the FAT Village Arts District, where youll find vibrant, independent art galleries and studios. Theres also landmarks such as the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, and the colourful Downtown Hollywood Mural Project. This features more than 20 curated contemporary outdoor murals by both local and internationally recognised artists.

Comfortable stay

The standard of accommodation is also high, and Virgin Holidays has a great choice to suit all, including the four-star Pelican Grand Beach Resort  a relaxing four-star of 156 rooms with Greater Fort Lauderdales only lazy river as well as direct beach access.

Greater Fort Lauderdale is also an ideal gateway for day jaunts to the Everglades, where alligators idle in the marshy shallows and airboat tours buzz through the swampy landscape. And thanks to the new Brightline high speed train service linking Greater Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach, its never been better connected.

Loading....

Visit virginholidays.co.uk/fortlauderdale to book your getaway

*This content was commissioned and approved by Virgin Holidays and Visit FloridaSouthend Airport is transforming from an obsolete airstrip in the southeast corner of Essex to a moneyspinning substitute for an extra runway at Heathrow: that is the claim from its owner, Stobart Group, which has just announced pre-tax profits of 100m for the year to 28 February 2018.

Theres absolutely a need for another runway in the South East, said Glyn Jones, chief executive of Stobart Aviation. Until then, Southends the answer and airlines are beginning to see it.

This week Air Malta launched flights from Southend to Malta, Cagliari in Sardinia and Catania in Sicily. It joins two other established airlines at the airport, easyJet and Flybe.

Three years after the Davies Commission unanimously recommended a third runway for Heathrow Airport, expansion is still mired in controversy.

While the airport is growing in passenger numbers, the increase is due to planes carrying increasing numbers of people.

Last week, the chief executive, John Holland-Kaye, said: Were within touching distance of Parliament voting on expanding Heathrow. But his firm has also warned that prosperity in post-Brexit Britain could be jeopardised unless the government takes swift action on expansion.

The government has said it will publish a final Airports National Policy Statement for a vote in the House of Commons before the summer recess, with a view to the third runway opening in late 2025 or 2026.

By then Southend expects to be close to its current planning limit of 6 million passengers a year  a figure which Heathrow handles every four weeks.

Mr Jones said Southend Airport could handle 43 movements an hour, with a theoretical capacity of up to 15 million passengers. In 2017 the Essex airport was the fastest growing in the UK, but was used by only 1.1 million people.

Many of the flights at Southend are in the colours of Flybe but are actually operated by Stobart Air. Warwick Brady, chief executive of Stobart Group, called the Dublin-based carrier a valuable and profitable airline.

Regional airlines in the UK and Ireland have struggled for years. Typically a regional carrier will develop a route, but once a link is established a big budget carrier will move in.

But Mr Brady, former chief operating officer for easyJet, said As long as you have the cost structure right, there is a market there.

Next month, Stobart Group aims to transform another moribund airport. It will re-open Carlisle Airport to scheduled flights, with links to Southend, Belfast City and Dublin operated by Loganair.Venice has banned the opening of new take-away outlets in the city for the next three years as part of an ongoing drive to reduce the impact of mass tourism.

The decision is part of a wider effort to retain the charm of the World Heritage Site, whose many church steps, historic bridges and canal banks are frequently overrun with snacking visitors.

Recommended How to enjoy Venice without destroying it

Eating in the ancient streets and piazzas of this celebrated city also creates an abundance of litter and the associated problems of vermin and flocks of seagulls and pigeons. Similarly to some UK coastal spots, large gulls have been spotted swooping down to snatch food out of unsuspecting tourists hands.

The regulation was authorised by Luigi Brugnaro, the mayor of Venice, and covers the outlying islands of Murano and Burano, which are also popular with visitors.

It follows a recent controversial directive to segregate tourists and locals over the May Day weekend, which is one of the busiest times of year. Turnstiles were erected with the aim of dispersing footfall, which local protesters tore down in frustration.

Recommended The best hotels in Venice for design lovers

We refuse the idea of having checkpoints to get into the city. We own our city, said protestor Marco Baravalle in a video which was later posted on social media. Its not the mayor who owns the city. Its not the police or the tourists either.

Venice is dying, he added. The mayor putting in the turnstiles is demonstrating that he is giving up. He wants Venice to become a city with no inhabitants.

Despite the citys public information campaign #EnjoyRespectVenezia, which encourages visitors to behave in a responsible and respectful manner in harmony with local residents, the huge volume of tourists armed with selfie-sticks shows no sign of abating

Concerns about the impact of mass tourism on a city that hosts 60,000 visitors every day continue to grow. Paola Mar, the tourism chief of this global destination, spoke exclusively to The Independent last year, describing the city in summertime as being like war.I was trying to think a few hours ago  after his shameful, outrageous, insane breaking of a solemn international treaty  just who Donald Trump reminded me of. I used to think about the boastful, gung-ho racist Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Rider who enjoyed war (and threats). But Theodore Roosevelt actually did win the Nobel Peace Prize. And then I realised.

The political leader who most resembles Trump is the late Colonel Gaddafi of Libya.

The parallels are quite creepy. Gaddafi was crackers, he was a vain, capricious peacock of a man, he was obsessed with women, he even had a ghost writer invent a Green Book of his personal philosophy, just as Trump had his business manual written for him. Gaddafi was vengeful towards his opponents but his views on the Middle East were odd, to say the least. He once advocated a one-state solution to Israel and Palestine which  in all seriousness  he suggested should be called Israel-tine. A bit like moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

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

Trumps White House is now like Gaddafis tent, which the Libyan leader took with him everywhere. Trumps late-night television viewing was not unlike Gaddafis insistence that business must be done in his tent. Gaddafis handshake was legendary  so was his kiss from Tony Blair, who was as obsequious to Gaddafi in Libya as Theresa May was to Trump in Washington. Much good did it do Blair or May.

Gaddafi ran his business dealings through his family  now theres a thought  and even maintained good relations with Russia. His speeches were interminable  he liked the sound of his own voice  and although he constantly lied, his audience was forced to listen and to fear his wrath. Above all, Gaddafi was completely divorced from reality. If he lied, he believed his own lies. He believed that he kept his promises. He believed in the world he wanted to believe in, even if this was non-existent. His Great Man Made River Project was supposed to Make Libya Great Again.

If all this seems flippant, there is a weird parallel between Trump and other Middle Eastern leaders  the ex-Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes to mind. He claimed that a holy cloud appeared over his head when he spoke at the UN and then denied hed said this  until an Iranian political opponent produced the videotape. I wonder, after Trumps latest, disgraceful performance, well soon hear from Ahmadinejad again. The only other man whom we might compare to the American president, I suppose, is Koreas little rocket man himself  whom a few hours ago appeared to be the man who might provide Trump with that Nobel Prize. Dare one utter the obvious words: Ye Gods!

Of course, we know what Trumps breaking of the Iranian nuclear deal means  quite apart from his lies and fraudulent arguments about the original agreement: the United States is now a part of Israels foreign policy. The Arabs used to say that Israel was an American state. Now the US has become part of the Israel state. That infamous speech contained seven references to terror in relation to Iran  state sponsor of terror, supports terrorist proxies, reignof terror, a regime of great terror, fundsterrorism, support for terrorism, the worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism  and so on and so forth. This is almost as good as Benjamin Netanyahus speeches at the UN.

And we are supposed to believe, like children, that Shiite Iran is supporting Sunni Muslim al-Qaeda  when its been fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria. We are supposed to believe that Irans long-outdated intelligence documents provide definitive proof that Irans promise of not pursuing nuclear weapons is a lie. But what is America worth now  in the Middle East or anywhere else (North Korea comes to mind)  when it can so blatantly tear up an international treaty agreed by the US government itself. That used to be what some European leaders  one in particular  did in the first part of the 20th century.

Just play the scenario backwards and switch the characters in this obscene drama. Imagine that the American government managed to forge an international nuclear agreement with Iran. But then consider what would happen if Irans reaction to Trumps presidency was to announce that the Islamic Republic would shred the agreement. The Mays and the Macrons and the Merkels would line up  perhaps even with Russia and China  alongside Trump to denounce this act of perfidy. How could Iran break so binding an international treaty, we would ask ourselves? What kind of regime runs Iran? It would almost be enough to call it a terrorist regime.

Thats why I most enjoyed Trumps expression of love for Iranians. All US presidents say how much they love the people they are about to invade. Bush said the same about the Iraqis. So did Reagan before he bombed Gaddafis Libya. Now Trump feels sorry for the long suffering Iranians. Trump reminded us all of a time when Iran prospered in peace and commanded the admiration of the world  and no-one has spotted that he was referring to the Shahs Iran whose Savak secret police kept Iranians in a state of permanent fear and terror through a programme of obscene tortures.The escalating military clashes between Israel and Iran are serious, worrying and a rapid manifestation of the insecurity and strife which was always likely to follow Donald Trumps reneging on the nuclear agreement with Tehran.

Within hours of the US president declaring that he wanted to destroy the deal which had made the world a safer place, Israeli jets had carried out raids inside Syria targeting Iranian positions in the country. This was something Trumps new national security advisor, John Bolton, had wanted to include in the American strikes last month following the Douma chemical attack, but the demand was seen off by defence secretary General James Mattis and the head of the US military, General Joseph Dunford.

The Israeli strikes which followed Trumps announcement on Tuesday are believed to have killed nine people, including members of Irans Revolutionary Guards, as well as fighters of Tehrans allied Hezbollah militia.

There are conflicting accounts of what has followed. The Israelis claimed that Iran had fired missiles into the occupied Golan Heights in response and this led to the next round of Israeli strikes. The Iranians and the Syrian regime insist that that Iranians acted after Israelis bombarded Baath, a town in the demilitarised zone.

The Iranian attack, say the Israelis, was ordered by General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, in overall charge of Tehrans military mission in Iraq and Syria, a bete noire of Irans opponents and a powerful influence in the countrys political scene.

Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus Syrian Central Military Media, via AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen from Damascus Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures An Israeli flag is seen placed on Mount Bental in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel's army said today it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies. Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight. AFP/Getty Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli artillery deployed missiles toward Syrian military targets, on the Golan Heights EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen over Daraa Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace AFP/SANA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli soldiers walk among armored vehicles in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Syrian air defense missiles are seen in the sky over the capital Damascus EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace. Israeli missile strikes fired at Syria hit military bases, as well as an arms depot and military radar. AFP/SANA

Just how much destruction has been caused by the exchanges remains unclear. Some of the Iranian missiles, according to the Israelis, were shot down by the Iron Dome defence system, but a few got through and caused some damage to military installations. The Israeli missiles, claimed defence minister Avigdor Lieberman, struck almost all Iranian installations in Syria. However, the operation was preceded by a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu in Moscow and there is a possibility that Moscows ally Tehran was aware that an attack was forthcoming. There are no reports, so far, of Iranian casualties.

The Israeli attack, nevertheless, was the biggest ever it has carried out since the start of the Syrian civil war seven years ago and there is every likelihood of further clashes taking place between the two sides. Israel, which considers Iran an existential enemy, has been repeatedly claiming there is an Iranian threat across the Syrian border and has been engaged in a low-profile proxy war.

Israeli hospitals, civilian and military, in the Golan area have been providing medical treatment for Syrians from across the border for several years. The majority of patients have been civilians, but one came across rebel fighters as well. I recall one young man recovering at a hospital in Safed who I had last met manning a mortar battery near Aleppo. These Sunni rebels were of value to the Israelis as they were fighting not just forces of the Assad regime but Hezbollah and the Iranians.

I met patients who made little secret of belonging to hardline jihadist groups. There had been scuffles in some wards between extremist and moderate fighters. Not all of those treated were grateful for the medical care they received; some have threatened the Israeli staff: We will come back and slaughter you all.

 President Donald Trump states if Iran restarts their nuclear program there will be severe consequences

The former Israeli defence minister Moshe Yaalon has publicly confirmed that Israel was treating these fighters under a deal to help protect the border. A major in the Israeli intelligence corps once laid out the Israeli position pointing across the border: The attacks have been from the regime side, with their Iranian and Hezbollah contingents, not from the rebels. In Syria, she added the West thinks Sunni jihadist terrorists are worse than Shia terrorists. We take a different view.

What was going on at the Golan did not get much international publicity apart from episodes like the departure of Priti Patel as international development secretary after she secretly visited an Israeli army field hospital on the Golan. Even on that occasion, however, neither Patel nor Downing Street mentioned that the hospital treated rebel fighters.

The Israelis have long carried out focused air strikes across the border killing, among others, General Mohammed Ali Allah Dadi, of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Jihad Mughniyeh, who headed the Hezbollah forces on the Golan, and Colonel Mehdi Dehgham, who led the Quds Force drones unit.

But there was an awareness by both sides that the confrontation should not be pushed beyond a certain point. There were, for instance, said to have been sightings of Gen Soleimani, but the Israelis desisted from targeting him. The Obama and Putin administrations had cautioned Israel and Iran repeatedly, and respectively, against action which may trigger a wider conflict.

Following the latest clashes Israeli defence minister Lieberman stated: I hope that we have finished this chapter and everyone got the message. His country had no interest in escalation.

But the dynamics have changed. In the past the US had urged restraint on Israel: now the Trump administration has people who want to promote violence. Shaul Mofatz, a former Israeli defence minister and chief of staff, revealed how national security adviser Bolton, while US ambassador to the UN, pressed Israel to bomb Iran. Mofatz had declined, saying: I dont think it is a smart move.

Similar good sense will now need to prevail as Donald Trump, who has been crowing about selling billions of dollars of American weapons in the Middle East, creates the combustible conditions for fear, instability and aggression.Amid the fear and distress all reasonable people feel as we view scenes of the Iranian government chanting and dancing while waving a burning American flag in their parliament, many of us must say to ourselves: Irans parliament looks a lot more exciting than our poxy miserable one.

Whatever else comes of the current problems, we should learn from them on this issue. Youd be more likely to watch Prime Ministers Questions if MPs asked Mr Speaker, is it not the case the proposed white paper from the party opposite, concerning reform of the water industry, is a rotting cockroachs droppings, fit only to torment the soul of a rabid treacherous polecat? Then they set it alight while backbenchers fire rifles into the ceiling.

Irans supreme Ayatollah said: The body of Trump will turn to ashes and become food for worms while the Islamic Republic still stands.

Thats a proper parliamentary speech. Our speaker gets in trouble for being slightly irreverent during a debate about fishing rights. He should copy Iran, and say: I call Jacob Rees-Mogg, running flea-infested hound of soiled stupidity whose craven lickspittle repellency is exceeded only by his gargantuan stench of infinite unholy oiliness, destined to fester in eternal especially pungent misery, preferably a part of hell owned by a local authority and governed by the EU.

Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Show all 10 1 /10 Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian MPs burnt a US flag in parliament after Donald Trump announced America's withdrawal from the nuclear deal. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal US President Donald Trump displays a presidential memorandum after announcing his intent to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement in the Diplomatic Room at the White House. Reuters Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Some Iranian MPs reacted after Trumps decision by shouting 'death to America'. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian lawmakers prepare to burn two pieces of papers representing the US flag and the nuclear deal. AP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran said it will hold talks with signatories to the nuclear deal after Trump's decision to withdraw from the accord, which it branded "psychological warfare". AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Several Iranian MPs stood chanting in the Tehran parliament. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian MPs burning a US flag AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal President Hassan Rouhani addressed the nation in a televised speech in Tehran. He said he'd send his foreign minister to negotiate with countries remaining in the nuclear deal after Trump's decision to pull America from the deal, warning he otherwise would restart enriching uranium "in the next weeks." Iranian Presidency Office via AP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran's press condemned Trump's withdrawal from a multi-party nuclear deal but was divided over whether Tehran should react with patience or withdraw itself. AFP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Trump announced the US withdrawal from what he called the "defective" multinational nuclear deal with Iran, and said Washington would reinstate sanctions against the Islamic republic. AFP/Getty

We also underestimate the skill and timing involved in waving burning flags the way the Iranian politicians did. They made it look easy, but if theyd held on a fraction too long, the image of defiance they showed the world would be: We will stand in mighty holy unity against the infidel aaaa sh** oh oh oh me fingers!

Were often critical of the Ayatollah, but he should be commended for clear and plain speaking. Every new MP should be sent on a course on how to communicate in ways that are thorough, yet simple to comprehend, with the comments about Trump becoming worm food used as an excellent example of a politician getting the details of their policy across concisely and with clarity.

By contrast, Donald Trumps speech was rambling and confusing. He said: Irans military budget has grown by almost 40 per cent while its economy is doing very badly, building nuclear-capable missiles, and causing havoc throughout the Middle East and beyond. At this point youd expect him to carry on: This is why Im such a big fan of the Iranian government. They love weapons which is fabulous, and cause fantastic havoc in the Middle East which is great, and they have some fantastic Ayatollahs, they love putting people in jail for doing nothing, its fantastic.

But one of Trumps spokespeople said Iran felt free to continually interfere in areas outside its borders, and that must be the issue thats made Trump cross. Because if theres one thing no American president has ever done, its interfere in an area outside its borders.

Trump also explained the deal with Iran had to be scrapped, because Irans promise turned out to be a lie.

And if Trump is anything, hes a stickler for the truth. He never puts out a single tweet without researching and checking it first. So when he tells us, Greenland under control of Islamic Eskimos! Bad Muslims! Must be stopped!, you know hes investigated it thoroughly, and not just made something up like they do in Iran.

And his financial accounts are open for all to see, with all direct debits to porn stars published in full and no attempt to conceal anything.

 President Donald Trump states if Iran restarts their nuclear program there will be severe consequences

So its understandable why hes so infuriated with a bit of deceit, especially as theres evidence, which was displayed by the prime minister of Israel in a PowerPoint presentation.

Because nothing is more convincing than a PowerPoint presentation showing which weapons are owned by a Middle Eastern dictatorship. Look at all these files we discovered, he said in the presentation. Then he showed a cupboard full of files. And thats all the proof we need, because if youve got a cupboard full of files, theyre probably files that show you how to build a nuclear bomb. This is why, when Trump has dealt with Iran, he should go to war on most accountancy offices. Theyve got whole basements full of files, the terrorist b***ards.

It may be the people who are convinced by this want to be convinced, so even the photos of files were unnecessary. Benjamin Netanyahu might as well have drawn two stick men on the back of a gas bill, with speech bubbles saying: I am leader of Iran I like to explode things ha ha ha. And half of America would go: Hell thats terrifying, weve got to send our boys to take this guy out.

Because only a policy of war will keep us safe, like it did the last time.

Some people disagree, such as Wesley Clark, former Nato supreme allied commander, who said Trump is taking us into a destructive, futile, and useless war, likely to lead to yet another failed state.

But thats because hes one of these snowflake politically correct liberal former Nato supreme allied commanders.

And this time, for added clarity, this all comes while theres a discussion happening about whether Trump should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Of course he should get it, because the committee that decides it have the same sense of jolly mischief as the Iranians that set fire to stuff in their parliament. Like a naughty schoolchild, theyre seeing what they can get away with. They must sit in their office going: What about the NRA, lets give it to them. No, Isis, go on, it will be a laugh, lets give it to Isis.For years, Iran was under the harshest sanctions ever imposed on a sovereign state by the United Nations, the US and other Western powers, yet Tehran did not give up its nuclear ambition and nor did the pressure overturn the regime despite it suffering severe economic hardship and threats.

So it was that the world eventually concluded that the best way to contain Irans nuclear ambitions was to negotiate a curtailment of the countrys atomic programme in exchange for the removal of sanctions and economic improvements.

Not many Arab countries in the region supported the talks with Iran  which I covered extensively as a journalist  but at the same time they did not reject the deal when it was reached on 14 July 2015.

For the United States and its allies there was no better alternative than curbing Irans nuclear programme peacefully. The alternative was confrontation with a nation of 80 million people whose national pride and identity speaks louder than their objection to the Islamic Republic.

However, whether due to bad luck or lack of good diplomacy, the government of Hassan Rouhani didnt seize the opportunity to improve relations with the US while President Obama was still in office. Whats more, the regimes pride in having achieved the deal led it to act arrogantly towards its regional neighbours.

Early in his presidential candidacy, Mr Trump spoke dismissively of the Iran deal and continued repeating the message ever more loudly, claiming he would rip up the agreement once he entered the White House.

 President Donald Trump states if Iran restarts their nuclear program there will be severe consequences

Iran didnt heed his warning as it was busy in Syria and Iraq, and dealing with Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthis in Yemen. The regime left it to the European countries to deal with Trump and his anger.

That President Trump has now confirmed his decision to withdraw from the deal should therefore come as little surprise, even though its delivery was previously considered a stunning achievement for the international community after 12 long years of negotiations

It should be said, however, that Iranians woke to the news frustrated and upset not especially with Trump, but rather with their own political leaders for their failure to properly manage the deal. Iranians are also angry with Saudi Arabias leaders, who they believed played an important role in Trumps decision.

Recommended How the rest of the world is trying to save Iran nuclear deal

Another who played a crucial role was Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels prime minister, who convinced the US president to dismiss the Iran deal due to the threat the Islamic Republic is said to pose to the state of Israel.

Bibis grand disclosure of tons of documents last week  evidence, he said, of Irans secret plan to make a nuclear bomb years before the deal was made in 2015  gave Trump cover for the decision.

Recent demonstrations in Iran against the regime, and Irans behaviour against US allies in the Persian Gulf, gave Trump further excuses to execute his wishes despite the strong objections of his Western allies.

Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus Syrian Central Military Media, via AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen from Damascus Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures An Israeli flag is seen placed on Mount Bental in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Israel's army said today it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies. Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight. AFP/Getty Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures The Israeli military on Thursday said it attacked "dozens" of Iranian targets in neighboring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights AP Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli artillery deployed missiles toward Syrian military targets, on the Golan Heights EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Missile fire is seen over Daraa Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace AFP/SANA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Israeli soldiers walk among armored vehicles in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights Reuters Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Syrian air defense missiles are seen in the sky over the capital Damascus EPA Israel attack Iran targets in Syria: overnight airstrike in pictures Air defence systems intercepting Israeli missiles over Syrian airspace. Israeli missile strikes fired at Syria hit military bases, as well as an arms depot and military radar. AFP/SANA

For me, living in the region for quite a few years and mingling with Arab populations, I havent seen any hatred towards Iranians. No ordinary people wish for this nation to be ruined or attacked by foreign forces.

They may hate clerical regimes interfering in their internal affairs and meddling in wider Arab issues but Israel is the number one enemy among most Arab populations  from intellectuals to ordinary people. Arabs had three major wars with Israel and lands which Arabs regard as theirs have been occupied by Israelis ever since. Arabs have not had such experiences with Muslim Iran.

Its interesting therefore seeing the Iranian regime portraying Saudi Arabia and its main allies as the key lobbyists against the Iran deal. Public reaction has reflected this sentiment.

Recommended Trump has proven himself to be the US version of Gaddafi

Its true of course that the major Arab countries welcomed Trumps decision to walk away from the Iran deal, but their main objection was very different to the Israeli objection.

Ironically, this new animosity between Iran and Saudi Arabia could create a better opportunity for Israel to achieve a favourable deal with the Palestinians, now that it is clear Trump is prepared to curb Irans regional influence.

Ultimately, when there is no plan B for Israel or the region in the absence of the Iran deal, only ordinary Iranians will pay the price. As the regime becomes more militarised it will inevitably tighten its grip on society in order to shatter any opposition voices advocating reform. Without the deal, Iran is a more dangerous place for the region; but mainly for its own people.

Camelia Entekhabifard is a journalist and political commentator who covered the Iran nuclear talks between 2013 and 2015. She is the author of Camelia: Save Yourself By Telling the Truth (Seven Stories Press, 2008); @CameliaFardDonald Trump must like annoying Americas allies  he does it so often. His latest offence is to announce that the US is pulling out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)  the deal to freeze Irans nuclear weapons programme in return for lifting economic sanctions.

Since his inauguration in January 2017, Trump has withdrawn from the Paris climate change agreement and the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, and threatened to withdraw from the North American free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico and from the World Trade Organisation. Thanks to Trump, European steel and aluminium producers could find themselves facing tariffs on spurious grounds of national security (as though importing aluminium from Ireland might imperil US security).

Meanwhile, Trump has kept up a regular stream of criticism of Nato, including suggesting that the US might not defend an ally under attack if Trump thought they were not spending enough on their own defence. If Trump writes a sequel to The Art of the Deal, it will presumably be The Art of Breaking the Deal.

Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Show all 10 1 /10 Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian MPs burnt a US flag in parliament after Donald Trump announced America's withdrawal from the nuclear deal. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal US President Donald Trump displays a presidential memorandum after announcing his intent to withdraw from the JCPOA Iran nuclear agreement in the Diplomatic Room at the White House. Reuters Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Some Iranian MPs reacted after Trumps decision by shouting 'death to America'. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian lawmakers prepare to burn two pieces of papers representing the US flag and the nuclear deal. AP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran said it will hold talks with signatories to the nuclear deal after Trump's decision to withdraw from the accord, which it branded "psychological warfare". AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Several Iranian MPs stood chanting in the Tehran parliament. AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iranian MPs burning a US flag AFP/Islamic Consultative Assembly News Agency Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal President Hassan Rouhani addressed the nation in a televised speech in Tehran. He said he'd send his foreign minister to negotiate with countries remaining in the nuclear deal after Trump's decision to pull America from the deal, warning he otherwise would restart enriching uranium "in the next weeks." Iranian Presidency Office via AP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Iran's press condemned Trump's withdrawal from a multi-party nuclear deal but was divided over whether Tehran should react with patience or withdraw itself. AFP Iran parliament reacts after Trump's withdrawal from nuclear deal Trump announced the US withdrawal from what he called the "defective" multinational nuclear deal with Iran, and said Washington would reinstate sanctions against the Islamic republic. AFP/Getty

European leaders must yearn for the return of normality in the transatlantic partnership. But they have to deal with the president they have, not the one they wish they had. In the past month, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel have both visited Washington DC for discussions with Trump on Iran, trade and other issues. Neither of them, nor Britains foreign secretary, Boris Johnson (who went on Trumps favourite television programme in an effort to make his case), could dissuade Trump from pulling out of the JCPOA.

In a couple of months it will be Theresa Mays turn to encourage Trump to pay more attention to his allies views, when he visits London. Though Trump said that Theresa May would be his Margaret Thatcher, its unlikely that No 10 will have any more sway with him than Macron or Merkel have. Still, May and other European leaders need to continue their efforts, with flattery if need be.

The transatlantic partnership is too important to allow it to stagnate till Trump leaves office. Indeed, with Trump in the White House, Europeans should turbo-charge their efforts to reach out to America.

Senior EU officials like European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker should not be afraid to pick up the phone to Trump or his top advisers to discuss important issues  including, for example, explaining the damage that US industries would suffer in a transatlantic trade war. For all Trumps America First rhetoric, the reality is that the transatlantic economic relationship is crucial to the prosperity of both the US and EU.

Europeans also need to do more to engage with US priorities outside Europe, particularly in Asia. On defence, Trump is right to complain that they do not spend enough on conventional defence capabilities: Europe should start pulling its weight in Nato.

To build public support for doing more with America to tackle defence and international security challenges, European voters need to be persuaded to see America in a broader context and look beyond Trumps latest tweet. The more Europeans have contact with a broad range of Americans, not just Trump on TV, the more likely they are to see what they have in common.

The US should reach out to the widest possible audience in Europe, especially those who are hostile to the current administration. Key to this is enhancing bilateral contacts at all levels  from traditional diplomacy to student scholarships. The latter are even more important given the Trump administrations efforts to cut annual budget for cultural and educational exchanges  even if the US congress has so far wisely resisted these cuts.

Europe should not leave the US to invest in transatlantic ties on its own. European countries and the EU should target public opinion in the US with collective as well as national messages stressing the continued value to America of having allies and partners. They should not limit their targets to Washington and New York. And even more importantly, European politicians should remind their own constituents of the importance to Europe of a strong transatlantic economic and security partnership  something that will out-last Trump.

Even if American politics returns to the mean after Trump, the damage he is doing to transatlantic trust and international institutions may take a long time to repair. But the worst thing Europeans can do is try to separate themselves from America. The underlying interests of the West have not changed, but they are much harder to pursue when the US and its democratic allies are at each others throats. Trumps JCPOA decision may hasten the arrival of an Iranian nuclear weapon; it shouldnt be allowed to blow up the transatlantic partnership.

Ian Bond is a former British diplomat who served in Washington and currently the director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank based in London and BrusselsThe last great showman in the White House was Ronald Reagan, a one-time Hollywood film actor, who kept his sense of dramatic timing to the end. But Donald Trump (former host of US TV show The Apprentice) promises to run him close, if the staging of the latest development in the North Korea rapprochement is anything to judge by.

It is the early hours of morning. Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington is clothed in darkness. But a special flight is preparing to land, and the President and First Lady have broken their slumbers to welcome home three Americans held by North Korea.

The erstwhile prisoners families are at the airport, too, for the tearful reunion. One of those released says it is like a dream. But it is also an all-American moment, of which recent US presidents have produced oh so few.

The television pictures of the prisoners return are the perfect prelude to the main act: the Donald and Kim show. The second perfect prelude, in fact. The first was the North-South Korean leaders handshake across the demilitarised zone at Panmunjom. And the warm-up act for that was the joint Korean team at the Winter Olympics. From winter to spring, how much distance has been travelled.

And it looks  though in matters of personality and diplomacy, you never quite know  as though one of the least probable turns in international relations of recent times is on course to be accomplished: the bringing in of North Korea from the cold. What is more, it would be fair to say that this would not have happened  or not have happened with such speed  without the intervention, and instincts, of Donald Trump.

Before Trump, successive US presidents had tried to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula with varying degrees of success. But none were willing to take the triple gamble that Trump took: first, that the aggressive bark of the young North Korean leader disguised a far weaker bite; second, that the nuclear belligerence was born not of strength, but of insecurity; and third, that what young Kim was after above all was acceptance for himself and his country, and that he would be prepared to make significant concessions for that.

This, pretty much, is the psychological calculation that Trump made  against all manner of warnings from experts and advisers  and, as of now, it would appear he was right. What Kim Jong-un sought was a one-on-one meeting with the US President, such as other national leaders are routinely granted, with his support team, due ceremony and his national flag. In granting this, Trump was prepared to risk the dignity of his office, as no previous US President had.

With Singapore now confirmed as the venue, and both sides apparently deep in their preparations, there are still those counselling caution. But that is to misunderstand what is going on. The point of this meeting is not any communique or specific results, it is the fact that it is happening. Without it, there can be no long-term suspension, or even cessation, of North Koreas nuclear programme, there is no prospect of a nuclear-free region, and no chance of any progress from the current armistice to a peace treaty. With the transformation of the US  in Pyongyangs eyes  from adversary to peace sponsor, perhaps there can.

Before Trump is fast-tracked (courtesy of Boris Johnson) to a Nobel peace rize, however, for services to detente in Northeast Asia, there is another example of Trumps instinctive diplomacy that has to be considered, and here  to put it mildly  the outlook does not look so good.

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

Even as North Koreas three erstwhile prisoners were winging their way to the United States, a new front was being opened in the ever-shifting conflict in the Middle East. After keeping a mostly low profile in the Syrian war to date, Israel launched what were described as massive strikes on Iranian targets in response to Iranian missile attacks on the (Israeli-occupied) Golan Heights.

The raids followed Donald Trumps withdrawal of US support for the Iran nuclear deal, against very public and personal pleas from the Europeans.

Trump appeared to accept the warnings from Republican hawks and intense lobbying from Israel, which views the advance of Iranian interests into Syria as a direct threat to its security.

But, as the world should know by now, this US President tends not to do as he is told, or advised; instead he does what he feels to be right in the context of his mantra America First. And there was a lot about the Iran nuclear deal that he personally disliked: it was an example, as he saw it, of Obamas tendency to appease; it was a multilateral arrangement and, where others saw productive diplomatic ambiguity, he saw potentially threatening security holes.

Now perhaps his judgement is right. If he has read North Korea correctly, as he would appear to have done, should he perhaps be trusted again? Has his high-stakes approach, as some argue, taken the measure of Iran, with the result that some amendments to the deal can be agreed that will assuage US fears.

Well, maybe. But the psychology of Kim  a sole leader backed into a corner through 60-plus years of his countrys isolation  looks simple, compared with that of todays Iran. The history, the geography, the cultural considerations and the competing factions within the leadership all make it much harder for outsiders to second-guess its response  beyond the defensive flag-burning  and harder, too, for its leaders to change direction quickly, even if they were inclined to, or at all.

So, if Trump can extract some concessions, good luck to him. But the risk of introducing a new element of uncertainty into a regional situation that is already so unstable is enormous. And if the Europeans cannot convince Tehran to keep its side of the bargain for a while yet, Trumps gamble could prompt a new conflagration in the Middle East, as foreshadowed in the latest military action by Israel and Iran.

Not only that, but if the model for Pyongyang is no longer a compliant Iran, but an Iran that feels it has no alternative but to resume its nuclear ambitions, all prospect of that Nobel peace prize will be lost. Showmanship may be part of being an effective American president, but judgement belongs in the equation, too, and a sound reading of North Korea will not, by itself, be enough.The arrival of yet another international heavyweight executive search firm comes as the economic recovery and the projected influx of Brexit-related jobs fuel opportunities, and competition, in the Irish market.. Stock photo: PA

Ireland is the most popular destination for employees in the UK searching for jobs in other European Union countries.

With less than 12 months to go before the UK leaves the EU, Ireland is attracting just over one in five searches from UK employees planning a move to the EU, according to research from jobs site Indeed.

Tara Sinclair, economist at Indeed, said that Brexit has dominated the EU landscape and also the relationship between the UK and Ireland for two years, which she said was reflected in the labour market.

"Proximity plays a role, and it makes sense that we are seeing the UK's nearest neighbour and fellow English language-speaking member state attract the largest share of jobseekers."

France, Spain, and Germany also feature prominently in employee searches, as the number of UK workers planning a move returns to a post-referendum high.

In the immediate aftermath of the referendum result, the number of UK jobseekers looking for roles in other EU countries soared as employees explored their options following the Leave campaign's victory.

While the spike seen in the days following the 2016 referendum quickly subsided, the steady increases seen in 2017 and 2018 hint at a more significant, sustained trend.

Searches by people working in the UK for jobs outside the UK have now reached a level of 15.2pc higher than that recorded in the pre-referendum first quarter of 2016, the research has found, rekindling fears of a 'Brexodus' of talented workers to other EU member states.

"While the initial spike in Britons' searches for EU jobs might be dismissed as a knee-jerk reaction, 2018's steady and sustained return to those levels suggests more Britons are thinking more seriously about a move to elsewhere in the EU," Ms Sinclair said.

Last week, it was revealed that Merrill Lynch will relocate 125 jobs to Dublin as it overhauls its business in the UK and EU in preparation for Brexit.Michael Cullen with the medal he received after getting the UCD Smurfit School Alumnus of the Year award

Michael Cullen has suddenly become defensive. "You grew up in Monaghan", I say. "Yeah", he replies. "What's wrong with that"? he demands. "Nothing", I protest. "Why? Are you sensitive about Monaghan?"

"It's the way you said it", he insists.

The moment passes in a flash and the chief executive of Investec's Irish operations resumes the conversation in a more relaxed tone.

After almost 40 years in the upper echelons of Ireland's financial services sector, Cullen is not one to leave anything to chance. That includes any potential slight of his home county.

Despite his reputation as a pioneer of high finance in Ireland, running and acquiring some of the best-known firms in the sector, Cullen has remained relatively aloof from the media.

To some extent, given his record of leading nimble, innovative financial services firms, he regards himself as an outsider. He might have to re-evaluate that statue after being awarded the UCD Smurfit School Alumnus of the Year award.

The accolade ushers him into an elite club of prominent entrepreneurs that includes the likes of Superquinn founder Senator Feargal Quinn, Patrick Kennedy, the former CEO of Paddy Power - and chairman of Bank of Ireland - and Liam Fitzgerald, the former head of the pharmaceutical wholesaler United Drug.

It comes as he finds himself pitched onto the horns of a dilemma.

Investec, the specialist South African bank that entered Ireland in 2000 by taking over Cullen's Gandon Securities, a trailblazing firm which emerged in the late 1980s, may soon quit these shores altogether.

Alternatively, the business may be reconstituted and continue on a new path.

Investec Ireland has become caught up in the upheaval unleashed by Brexit.

The unexpected turn of events has left Cullen at a crossroads, although the 64-year old banker, with his short but unruly grey hair, rejects this characterisation, preferring to view it as a "moment of opportunities".

It's not the first business crisis he's faced, or even the worst.

That came a decade ago, in the shape of the bank guarantee.

"What we face today doesn't rank" Cullen says. "On a scale of one to 10 that was close to nine".

Up until that fateful political move, Investec Ireland was sailing through the crisis as it had funded its loan book entirely from its local deposit base - a stipulation, Cullen emphasises, laid down by Investec's outgoing CEO, Stephen Koseff.

The guarantee - ironically threw the weight of the State behind Investec's more troubled rivals - prompting SMEs to run for safety to guaranteed institutions and forced Cullen to fall back on Investec's London operations for support. After firing off a few letters of protest to politicians, he wrangled back business by wading into the retail deposit market, offered eye-watering saving rates of 6.5pc.

Now that the "cycle has come full circle" the retail business has dwindled, as has the loan book.

"We have never been in the business of lending money for lending's sake," says Cullen. "We lend to existing customers, but we don't seek to ever lend using credit as our entry point."

Without a sizeable corporate loan book there is little sense in growing a retail deposit division and besides Cullen points out, "it's a challenge ... how we'll manage it post-Brexit".

Ever guarded, he refuses to spell out the most likely scenario for a UK exit but says "we are live with looking for alternatives".

The difficulty is nobody knows what the landscape will look like post-Brexit. Yet standing still is not an option.

Cullen points out Investec Ireland, following the 32m merger with NCB stockbrokers in 2012, emerged as a "very capital light businesses" with "great fee-based earnings" and ambitious growth strategies.

Tentative overtures were made to Goodbody and Investec pursued smaller bolt-on acquisitions. But "then a vote happened called the Brexit vote. Now one needs to understand what that means for my business". Cullen, who has a habit of rephrasing his sentences mid-speech, as if wary of providing too much detail, explains that 82pc of Investec Ireland's revenues are captured on the bank's UK balance sheet.

So, "post-Brexit I won't have a banking licence". And since the majority of revenues flow through the group's London base, "we have to examine all the alternatives... what does it mean if there is a hard Brexit or soft Brexit?"

One option, establishing a European banking subsidiary, was swiftly dismissed. The company would be transformed from a capital-light business to a capital-intensive one, weighed down by a post-crisis regulatory regime, he says.

"You're talking about 200m to 300m in trapped capital.

"That is trapped capital and in this day and age trapped capital is frowned upon by shareholders, so having a branch is a very efficient use of capital."

In the face of those regulatory requirements and "the business that we would do, it would take us nearly a generation to grow into that business, so that's clearly uneconomical".

Then there is the so-called "third country" option, whereby Brussels might permit UK institutions to continue passporting some services in to the EU. It might happen, but it might not.

"Therefore another alternative is that we set up Mifid [compliant] entities that don't require banking licences and we have applied to the Central Bank to do that.".

Even this option, which entails overhauling the legal status of most of Investec Ireland's various business lines, is "quite expensive" and would not preserve the firm in its entirety.

"I'd be very hopeful that of the revenues I spoke of, I should be able to protect nearly 90pc."

That brings Cullen to the fourth option; a sale, a break-up, a partial exit.

Is there even a formal sales process under way?

Cullen gives a guttural cough, as if an effort to hasten the conversation on to less awkward terrain. "I would say we had approaches a few months after the Brexit [vote] because people realised we had  people realised we had to do something."

But he's keen to get the cat back into the bag, citing "confidentiality agreements" and the need to "have some order to what we look at rather, than disorder".

As has been widely reported, takeover talks with AIB unravelled earlier this year. Cullen bluntly declines to discuss the episode but emphasises there are "no exclusivity talks with anybody".

Instead, he views all the disruption as "inconvenient [to] our ambitions", stressing "we are positioned for growth in a growth market".

Investec Ireland notched up annual revenues of over 80m at the end of March, rising from close to 70m in 2016. Cullen anticipates the company, which he describes as at critical, as opposed to "optimum" mass, could generate 100m in revenue without a significant hike in overheads.

The challenge is to preserve that upward momentum at a time of chaotic change.

"Brexit is a while away," says Cullen.

He reckons there's still time to "optimise the best outcome" for his four key stakeholders; the shareholder (Investec), the regulator, the staff and his customers.

The efforts are focused on providing a "seamless" solution to "the customers and I would be very confident that my regulatory permissions will come through but whether I want it or the shareholder wants it, the one thing that we have to ensure is that the customer wants it," he says.

The biggest concern is Investec Ireland's international business, the largest division in terms of income generation, he explains.

While other segments of the company have been previously regulated in Ireland, this "specialist" unit, which plays in a lucrative but obscure corner of the global financial markets, has not.

There is no question of decamping the division to London.

"The scale and expertise" are here Cullen argues.

"We have been at it close on 20 years, we are very familiar with it."

Essentially, the business deals in securities lending, borrowing and lending billions of euro worth of stock on a daily basis to enable hedge funds to implement trading positions.

The international division, as Cullen labels it, employs just seven people on the front line, compared to 38 in the private wealth arm.

Grown predominantly out of the NCB merger, private wealth has commanded much of the media attention in recent months amid persistent speculation about circling suitors.

Part of its attraction is the reliability of revenue.

Since the crash, private wealth has become a core element of Davy's business model, and the stockbroker and asset manager now dominates the sector.

Cullen claims Investec Ireland, which has expanded assets under management and administration (AUMA) from 1.3bn at the time of the NCB merger to 2.5bn, is holding its market share against its rivals in the race for new mandates.

But Cullen argues it's a "slow-growth business". Costs are also on the rise thanks to a harsher regulatory environment.

It's all a far cry from the relatively unfettered, free-wheeling 1980s when Cullen, who won a scholarship to study commerce at UCD and completed a Masters in 1975, started to make his mark.

After quitting his trainee accountant role at Craig Gardner, he joined the now defunct Industrial Credit Corporation (ICC), presided over by old-style banker, Frank Casey.

Richie Boucher, former head of Bank of Ireland, Colm Doherty, the former boss of AIB, Aidan Brady, a former long-serving CEO of Citi's Irish and later European operations, as well as Tim Brosnan, chairman of Abbey Capital, all passed through its ranks.

Cullen says Brosnan was a "massive influence", "highly intelligent" and a "maverick". In 1987, the pair, along with Dave Billings, struck out on their own with Gandon Securities .

The idea was to trade the same exotic financial products they had unleashed over at Citibank.

By September of that year Gandon's investors, which included Citibank, Davy and Irish Life, had committed $50m to the venture.

But then Black Monday hit.

"We all need luck in life," Cullen says with a laugh. The stakeholders only released the money later in that year, when the market carnage had eased.

"I doubt you and I would be talking if the money had come in ahead of Black Monday."

On such twists of fate, fortunes turn.

Gandon, the first company to operate under an IFSC licence, later merged with Woodchester.

By that stage, rainmakers at Gandon's pioneering futures funds management arm had jumped ship and the business was offloaded to Dermot Desmond's IIU.

When GE swallowed Woodchester, Cullen had to find a new home for Gandon, pitching him into the arms of the acquisitive South African bank.

The looming UK divorce bill has flung Cullen, the son of a builder, back into battle mode. As he nears retirement age, it may be his last stand. As with so many turning points in his career, the future looks uncertain.

But there is a sense Cullen, a grandfather of six - all four of his children work in financial services - relishes an unpredictable narrative.

Most of his contemporaries, like Boucher, Doherty and Brady, have stepped into calmer waters.

Cullen is sailing into the squalls of Britain's EU exit.

The stakes are high. Navigating Brexit means he's had little time to celebrate wins along the way. Investec banked close to 30m from the sale of the Irish stock exchange.

Cullen admits he is yet to have "a glass of water" on that deal. "We will at some point" he vows.

Right now, however, his sights are set on a far larger prize.Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and British Prime Minister Theresa May have had no contact in six weeks despite impasses in Brexit and the re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

In a further sign of deteriorating Anglo-Irish relations, Mr Varadkar admitted neither side have sought to touch base since March.

"There has not been a formal phone call or meeting between the two of us in about six weeks, nor has there been a request for one on either direction," he said.

A meeting is under consideration next week on the fringes of an EU conference both leaders will attend in Bulgaria.

In the Dail, Mr Varadkar sought to play down the significance of the gap in contact.

"Prime Minister May and I have each others' mobile phone numbers and it is possible for us to contact each other whenever we need to but currently the focus is on negotiations in Brussels and the various cabinet meetings taking place in the UK to determine their position on the customs union or the customs union partnership and how that might evolve," he said.

Expand Close Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney. Photo: Steve Humphreys / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney. Photo: Steve Humphreys

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said he believed a "combination of chaos and disinterest in London" was to blame.

"I do not think that the Taoiseach will find a period in the last 25 years when a Taoiseach and a prime minister went for so long without talking, especially during such a crisis as that of the suspension of Northern institutions or of Brexit," he said.

Meanwhile, Tanaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and Minister for Europe Helen McEntee held the Future of Europe Dialogue ahead of Europe Day.

The event was a culmination of citizens' events across the State led by Ms McEntee on the topic of Europe.

In his address, Mr Coveney pointed to the internal threats facing the EU; and Ireland's place within the EU, without Britain. He said Europe was "facing the rise of populism, and strident political voices - both from inside and outside".

Notwithstanding Brexit, Mr Coveney said while a member state of the EU has decided to leave, "others are getting ready to join".

He said part of the results from speaking to citizens was that Irish people are attached to our traditional policy of military "neutrality", "on the one hand, and a recognition, on the other, that there are new, asymmetric threats that we cannot cope with alone".

Co-operation under the EU military body PESCO (Permanent Structured Co-operation) would "make us safer in the face of asymmetric threats such as terrorism, extremism and cyber-attacks", he said.

"Ireland will play its part, in a way that reflects the wishes of our citizens," said Ms McEntee.

In the UK, confusion and paralysis continues to reign over the Border after Brexit.

Anti-Brexit campaigners have rubbished David Trimble's suggestion that mobile phone technology and sat nav tracking could solve the Irish Border question as somewhere between "magical and economically dangerous".

The former first minister has thrown his weight behind the so-called 'Max Fac' option for resolving the Border problem that has dogged Brexit negotiations.

This 'smart border' proposal argues that technology such as mobile phone and GPS technology can track lorries carrying goods, together with the computer-based customs clearing.

These solutions have already been fully ruled out by Ireland and the EU.The pushback against the EU's post-2020 budget has begun, with France, Hungary, the Netherlands and even Ireland having a go, although for very different reasons.

For France, the proposed 5pc cut to the Common Agricultural Policy budget takes centre stage, though the government has also criticised a 7pc reduction in regional (or Cohesion) funding.

French agriculture minister Stephane Travert (pictured right) described the CAP proposal as a "drastic, massive and blind" cut in funding that he said is "unacceptable" to the government.

Irish farmers are urging the Taoiseach and agriculture minister Michael Creed to follow suit, and take a "principled" stand.

ICMSA president Pat McCormack said "the French declaration should be the 'red line' on which those Member States committed to the principle and practice of CAP should now rally and signal that they will not be moved".

Cut in funding is 'not realistic'

Mr Creed said he was "extremely disappointed" by the proposal, and that "a cut in funding is simply not a realistic proposition".

But whether it satisfies the Taoiseach - who pledged to up Ireland's contribution to the overall EU budget as long as CAP funding was maintained - remains to be seen.

The Commission estimates that between 16 and 20 governments (including Ireland) have agreed to pay more themselves to offset the budget cuts.

Agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan says Ireland can minimise an estimated 3.9pc cut in direct payments by redistributing money from larger to smaller farms once a new 60,000 euro cap on payments is applied.

But of the 128,000 farms receiving direct payments in 2016, less than 2pc received payments over 50,000 , amounting to well under 10pc of the total spent.

And the government will also need to stump sup an extra 47m euros a year to make up for a fall in rural development co-financing from the EU.

"We have worked out that the vast majority of farmers will see a very small cut, and if member states cooperate, of course they will see no budget cuts at all," Mr Hogan explained.

More cuts to CAP?

But all these calculations are moot unless budget hawks such as the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Denmark (and possibly Finland) back down from their demand for even more cuts.

Dutch premier Mark Rutte was the first to issue a strong critique of the budget proposal - particularly the move to end rebates for richer countries -saying it would leave his nation "paying too high a share of the bill".

And Hungary's strongman prime minister Viktor Orban threatened to veto the budget, which suggests linking future payments from the regional fund to compliance with EU migrant relocation targets and EU "values" such as judicial independence.

The comments are only the opening salvos in what is set to be a long budget battle, and once made even more complicated by the fact that it's still not clear how much the UK will be paying - if anything - into the budget after it leaves.The message from the marts last week was one of "measured fluctuations", especially among the prices for bullocks and heifers.

Overall the trade for bullocks and heifers saw average prices continue to move up or down within tight enough bands.

The greatest average increases came in the value of the poorer-quality 600kg animal as he rose 7c/kg or 42/hd, with the next best improvement (5c/kg, 25-30/hd) coming among the 500-599kg segment on the heifer table.

The 6c/kg increase in the 300-399kg division on the bullock table equates to an 18-24/hd increase.

On the negative side the falls were less dramatic as the majority of movements were limited to 1-3c/kg, although the 400-499kg bullock did drop back by 16-20/hd or 4c/kg.

The 400-499kg section was also the worst performer on the heifer table, losing 3c/kg, 12-15/hd across all sections.

So despite 2018 tripping into the calendar summer season last week, those with cattle to buy for grazing continue to act with caution.

It will be interesting to see whether the good weather that appeared over the weekend will change things, because a lot of the average mart prices currently being paid are only marginally better than those paid two months ago.

On the weanling side, heifer prices rose sharply but bulls slipped back.

Average overall prices for heifers stayed steady - in the case of your 300-399kg animal - or rose sharply, as they did in the 100-299kg section, up 14c/kg or 14-42/hd. Meanwhile, the 400-550kg heifer pushed on even more, gaining 18c/kg last week, an impressive 72-99/hd.

Despite good farmer and shipper interest, the bull weanling over the last two weeks has not had the best of it. Part of the reason is that farmer buyers have been waiting for the weather to pick up so as to avail of the cheapest of feeds - grass. This has resulted in the shipping boys not being pushed as hard as they might.

Last week's overall averages saw the 100-299kg bull weanling make 2.39/kg or from 239-715/hd, with the 300-399kg bull averaging from 687-914/hd at 2.29/kg, while 400-600g animal took the worst of the price battering meted ringside last week.

Feed bills

His overall average price of 2.19/kg was back 16c/kg on the previous week, while the poorer-quality animal at this weight got hammered by 27c/kg and ended up at 1.77/kg.

On the matter of recent feed price increases, a buyer of select bulls for fattening summed up the lack of control felt by both buyers and sellers at marts.

"To have an animal that will bring in the money whether at the mart or the factory, you have to feed," he said. "That feed bill has to be paid but it can take months for factory prices to go up but the millers can slap 15 or 20/t onto feed prices in a week and there's not a word."

Carnew

Milk prices may be be declining, but the lure of the white gold remains strong, hence this sale of 140 dairy cows and followers saw a full clearance. Freshly calved cows sold from 1,200-2,100/hd, while autumn-calved cows made 800-1,280/hd. In-calf cows sold to a top of 1,250 off an 800/hd base, with bulling heifers making 750-850/hd, while Friesian heifer calves sold from 270-400/hd.

Baltinglass

Trade for cattle to go to grass was brisk with the better continental bullock  in the case of some select batches at 465kg  making 2.68/kg, while back at 430kg, and maybe not looking so fancy, the price was 2.38/kg. The nuts and bolts of the summer grazing herd always sees large numbers of black and whites making the transition from the dairy herd to the beef man, with Friesians here making from 1.90-2.10/kg. Among the heifers, sample prices saw Charolais from 405-492kg sell from 2.38-2.60/kg.

Macroom

The cattle business is often about fine margins. I did up the figures on three Herefords that went under the hammer here at 640kg and sold for 1,330/hd. Being Herefords and 640kg being almost 13cwt I couldnt see outside of them being hung up where they could be going. Will they leave money? You tell me. But from where I sit the auctioneer seems to have squeezed the last cent out of them. He could do no more.

Castlerea

Bigger numbers, more farmers buying for grass and continuing exporter activity all led to the trade here remaining firm, with better-quality lots improved. Heifer prices included a 380kg Limousin who sold for 3.04/kg, while at the other end of the weight scale a 530kg Limousin saw the hammer at a very impressive 2.81/kg. The heavy dry cow market was also strong, with an 830kg Charolais clicking the top price at 2.24/kg, while many of the better conformation ladies hit between 1.90 and 2.20/kg. Hereford and Angus calves sold from 130-300/hd, with dairy cross types making from 20-140/hd.

Ballymahon

John OHanlon said his trade was busy, with good cattle very dear. However, he also noted that there were more plainer types around. Those two extremes saw a 360kg Friesian bullock make 1.18/kg, while a 325kg Charolais commanded 3.35/kg.The 450-500kg bullock set you back 2.30-2.64/kg, with the top one heading to 2.90/kg. Above 500kg prices for bullocks ranged from 2.30-2.70/kg, with a 515kg Limousin-cross setting the top bar at 2.91/kg.

Raphoe

Despite the adverse weather, farmers, agents and shippers were all keen contenders for stock here. The general run for bullock was from 2.20-2.80/kg, with bulls making from 2.10/kg to 3.10/kg. Heifer prices averaged 2.20-2.90/kg. Fat cows made from 750/hd to 1,595/hd.

Blessington

A good trade with the beef and forward store bullock section seeing keen competition  prices pushed to a top of 1,000hd over the /kg off of a strong base which averaged 620/hd over the /kg. Beef and butchersheifers also performed well, with prices averaging from 560-880/hd over the /kg. On the store side bullocks from 400-500kgs sold from 480-760 over their weight, while store heifers over 400kgs sold from 460-800/hd. In the calf ring Friesians bulls sold from 90-200/hd, with Hereford and Angus bulls making from 140/hd to 320/hd, while continentals made from 160-380/hd.Farmers needed to be encouraged to manage their contractor debt in a structured way, FCI insists. Photo Roger Jones.

Contractors have called on the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, to establish a dedicated fund to help farmers pay outstanding debts.

The Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI) claims that reduced cashflow and the recent fodder crisis have seriously hit members incomes as many farmers have been unable to pay for work carried out over the last year.

FCI has called for the establishment of a Contractor Voucher Scheme, with the Department of Agriculture providing contractors with access to a special Identifier number in order to manage the operation of the fund.

The group also called on financial institutions to adopt an understanding approach to farm-related contractor debt.

Farmers needed to be encouraged to manage their contractor debt in a structured way, FCI insisted.

Despite the weather headaches, anecdotal evidence suggests increased sales of silage harvesting machinery this year. Close to 40 new self-propelled harvesters have been sold, industry sources indicated.

FCI research shows that contractors have invested in excess of 25m this year in new silage-harvesting machinery.

However, a lot of those sales took place before the full extent of the recent weather difficulties emerged.

Meanwhile, FCI chairman Richard White warned that the silage season will be a month later than normal this year.

Given the weather conditions, we are now predicting that the national grass silage harvest will be three weeks to a month later than normal, Mr White said.

Slurry deadline

We are also concerned that the later silage season of 2018 will put additional pressures on farm contractors to meet the needs of derogated farmers who will be required to adhere to the new slurry-spreading deadline date of June 15.

This new date will be logistically difficult to achieve as we now expect that first-cut silage harvest will run to this date and beyond on many farms. With that in mind FCI is seeking an extension of this slurry spreading date for derogated farmers.

All FCI members report that their spring work activities are at least one month behind their normal schedule, Mr White said.

Many were not able to carry out any farm machinery work during April due to the poor weather conditions, he said.

There is still a huge backlog of cereal-sowing work to be undertaken, particularly in the southeast, and maize sowing has not yet begun.China has ramped up inspections of pork shipped from the US, importers and industry sources said, the latest American product to be hit by a potentially costly slowdown at Chinese ports in the past couple of weeks.

Some trade experts said they believe Beijing is sending a defiant warning to Washington in response to sweeping US trade demands made on China last week.

The stepped-up checks have even hit Chinas WH Group Ltd, the worlds largest pork company and owner of Smithfield Foods in the US, and come amid increasing scrutiny of other US farm goods, including fruit and logs.

Ports are opening and inspecting every cargo that arrives, said Luis Chein, a director at WH Group, Chinas top importer of US pork.

That compares with inspections carried out only randomly in the past, he told Reuters, significantly lengthening the time product stays at the port. The Chinese imports account for only about 2pc of WH Group sales.

Chinas General Administration of Customs, which oversees food imports, did not respond to a fax seeking comment.

The President has been clear that China needs to treat U.S. agricultural products more fairly, and we are troubled by reports that China continues to impose unjustified restrictions on U.S. products, said a US Agriculture Department spokesman.

Increased checks on US products are not terribly surprising, said Even Rogers Pay, an agriculture analyst at China Policy, a Beijing-based consultancy.

In a situation where trade tensions are high, China will enforce every possible regulation on its books. It makes strategic sense to do so at this point, she said.

Late on Monday, Chinas customs agency announced it was stepping up quarantine checks on apples and logs from the United States after detecting pests in imports of the products at Chinese ports.

US President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs on up to $150 billion of Chinese goods, largely because of US allegations that Beijing misappropriates US technology through joint-venture requirements, unfair licensing practices, outright theft and state-backed acquisitions of US technology firms.

Beijing denies those accusations.

Chinas top economic official, Liu He, will visit Washington next week to resume trade talks, the White House said on Monday, after a US delegation led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin came away from a visit to Beijing last week with no agreement over a long list of US trade demands.

Pork Sitting in Chinese Ports

US pork is now sitting at Chinese ports for up to two weeks, instead of a few days, industry sources told Reuters.

Most of the imported pork is frozen and not at risk of perishing. But the move comes on top of the additional 25pc duties Beijing slapped on American pork and a slew of other goods last month, in retaliation for US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

The US is one of Chinas top overseas pork suppliers, shipping $489m worth of the meat last year.

A person working at a Shanghai-based meat trading firm said customs officials were also taking samples from about 20pc of US pork shipments since last month, up from about 5 percent previously.

He declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the topic.

There had been no change for imports from other destinations the company buys from, including Canada and Europe, he added. Two German pork exporters said they were not aware of any changes to inspections.

Stepped up inspections and sampling were also cited in an April 30 report by the United States Department of Agriculture attache in Beijing, which said the new measures had started on April 23 but gave no further details.

The tariffs have already cut off demand for muscle cuts, or higher value pork meat, and pressured the price of so-called variety meat, such as offal and feet, the biggest portion of U.S. pork exports by volume.

In addition, Chinas domestic hog prices have plunged in the first quarter, and are still hovering around eight-year lows of about 10 yuan ($1.57) per kg. That has led WH Group to sharply reduce its imports anyway this year, added Chein.

Chinas total pork imports declined 10 percent to 595,611 tonnes in the first three months of the year, according to Chinese customs.The remains of the jeep and trailer. Picture: Donegal Donkey Sanctuary

One of Ireland's leading animal charities has had to stop taking in animals after a freak accident.

The Donegal Donkey Sanctuary is now in limbo after the accident, which has resulted in the loss of their vehicle and horsebox.

Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured and there were no other vehicles involved.

Manager, Danny Curran, was extremely lucky to emerge unscathed from the wreckage and no donkeys were in transit at the time.

The incident, which occurred late Tuesday night, happened in the townland of Ardagh, St Johnston, which is just a couple of miles from the sanctuary itself.

Danny had been returning from welfare visits with donkeys in the Inishowen area.

A deer emerging from the trees raced across the path of the vehicle as it approached a sharp corner causing it to veer out of control and plummet approximately 15ft into the field below.

The jeep later burst into flames and was destroyed by fire.

Danny who is still suffering from shock is extremely distressed by the implications for the sanctuary as the full aftermath of Tuesday nights events became evident.

"Without a transport system our day to day activities have ceased and we are unable to respond to any emergencies being reported to us he said.

"It would appear that neither vehicle nor horse box are salvageable and that all indications are that insurance payments will fall far short of what is required to put a functioning donkey ambulance back in operation."

The sanctuary has been running for almost ten years and has gained much public support both here and abroad.

The centre has rescued and rehomed over 600 donkeys countrywide with some donkeys even being rehomed overseas.

The sanctuary has now launched a Go Fund Me page in a bid to get donations in a bid to replace the shortfall for a replacement jeep.

Anybody wishing to donate can log onto https://www.gofundme.com/donkey-rescue-vehicle-appealA Co Donegal farmer has described how he was knocked unconscious after one of his own cows turned on him.

Brendan McLaughlin (66) was working with a calf on his farm in Manorcunningham when the cow turned on him and pinned him to the ground, knocking him unconscious and breaking bones in his leg and foot.

Mr McLaughlin serves as the Vice President of the Irish Farmers' Association and he told the BBC that nothing like this had ever happened to him before in 40 years of farming.

"She came behind me to the gate. She looked at me and didn't move. I ran then as hard as I could," he explained.

"I ran through a feeding barrier which was only 12 inches wide, but she got me. She pinned my foot to the barrier with her head."

"Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. I was on my back before I knew it and kind of passed out."

He said that when he came through he contacted his wife to come and help him.

"I had my phone in my pocket which was lucky and I got hold of my wife," Mr McLaughlin said.

"The pain was severe and I knew there was damage done. I never thought this would happen to me. I'm lucky to be alive.

"I broke the tibia in one place and broke the bottom of my heel. I have pins in my foot and the leg too.

"My message for farmers is never to trust a cow or any animal on a farm. You can have all the safety measures in the world but never trust a cow."Farm consultants and Teagasc staff will be burning the midnight oil this week as up to 40,000 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) applications remain to be submitted.

This is the first year of a exclusively online process for BPS and the Department of Agriculture has already received 90,000 applications.

However, 130,000 applications are due to be made in total for the 1.2bn BPS package before next Tuesday's (May 15) closing date.

Applications for the scheme have been running smoothly to date, according to ACA president Owen O'Driscoll.

Mr O'Driscoll said applications were "well on track" and that changes to the Department's IT system had worked well.

Difficulties have been raised regarding applications by farmers who are in GLAS but the ACA president said these issues had been flagged with the Department.

Some farm consultants admitted that getting farmer clients to come in and fill out the BPS application has proven the biggest challenge so far.

"Farmers are under savage pressure at the moment, but you have to gently remind them that this is most profitable few hours' work they'll do in the round of the year," one advisor in the west commented this week.

The ICMSA deputy president, Lorcan McCabe, appealed to farmers to make room for the BPS application process.

While accepting that many farmers were "burned out" after the "gruelling winter and spring", Mr McCabe appealed to them to prioritise the BPS application.

"I would just urge farmers now to make the appointment with their advisor, get their data together and get this done. It's supremely important," he said.Luxembourg-based investment firm Axxion has built more than a 3pc stake in Irish food group Greencore.

It's a much-needed vote of confidence for embattled Greencore as it fights to strengthen its position in the United States and faces uncertainty in the UK as Sainsbury's and Asda plan to merge.

It's believed Axxion has not been a previous major investor in Greencore and it has bought its holding at a time when the FTSE-250 company's shares have still not recovered from a 30pc slump in early March.

Greencore, whose CEO is Patrick Coveney, announced that month that it was shutting a plant in Rhode Island that had supplied customers including Starbucks.

It also detailed challenges it's facing with falling sales at its legacy portfolio, and how it's trying to improve sales at Peacock Foods, the Illinois-based firm that generates about 1bn in annual sales. Mr Coveney is now spending much more of his time in the United States in order to deal with issues there.

Axxion informed the stock exchange that it crossed a 3pc ownership threshold in Greencore on May 3.

The 3.2pc stake is currently worth about 37m (42.3m).

Founded in 2001, Axxion manages more than 140 private label funds with more than 8.4bn in assets.

The acquisition of the shares by Axxion is also an important endorsement for Greencore, as its shares have been recently one of the top shorted stocks on the London Stock Exchange - along with department store chain Debenhams - as investors bet the shares will see further declines.

But Greencore shares jumped more than 3pc on Tuesday and had edged slightly higher by lunchtime yesterday.

The shares took a hit last week when Sainsbury's confirmed it's looking to merge with Asda in a tie-up that will radically alter the UK grocery market.

Greencore is the sole sandwich supplier to the two chains.

A merger between Sainsbury's and Walmart-controlled Asda would rank the combined entity as Greencore's second-largest customer, behind Marks & Spencer.

Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe has already promised to leverage the strengths of an enlarged group to put pressure on suppliers to lower prices.

Asda currently accounts for close to 10pc of Greencore's profits, and Sainsbury's about 5pc.Major European companies including carmaker PSA, plane manufacturer Airbus and Siemens have said they are keeping a close watch on relations with Iran after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of a nuclear deal.

The US move is a potential blow to Irish businesses in sectors including food, health and education and aircraft leasing that have been eyeing Iran as a major new export market.

The original Iran nuclear deal had paved the way for the country to emerge from years of economic isolation and sanctions.

The market of almost 80 million people is a major gas exporter.

Enterprise Ireland has said opportunities for Irish companies over the coming years could be in the hundreds of millions of euro.

Whether any of that can move ahead if the US pulls out of the Iran deal is now up in the air.

Peugeot-manufacturer PSA, one of the big European businesses with operations in Iran, said it hoped the European Union will now adopt a common position on Iran.

"Like other economic players, we are following the evolution of the matter, and are also following the EU's official position on this topic," said a spokesman for PSA, adding that it hoped the EU would adopt its own independent position regarding Iran.

German industrial giant Siemens said it would also closely monitor the situation.

"We are assessing the implications of the Iran decision," said CFO Ralf Thomas.

"Of course we will always comply with export control regulations, and we would look at how different governments set the rules. We have a firm grip on our position," added Thomas.

Airbus, which won a bumper order with IranAir along with Boeing, said it needs time to study the Trump decision.

Shares in Renault, PSA and Airbus all fell on Wednesday. Total, which has contracts in Iran, saw shares climb. (Additional reporting Reuters)Frank Ryan knows more than anyone else about the business of selling Ireland.

At the IDA, the Dundalk native oversaw massive inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) that helped transform the country and he was CEO of Enterprise Ireland from 2003 and 2013, working with domestic firms to crack the export market.

Ryan, the winner of this year's All Ireland Marketing Champion award, rejects the idea that Ireland's reliance on mainly US investment has led policymakers to overlook home-grown potential.

Growth might have been slower, but sales and jobs generated by indigenous exporters hit record levels during the economic crisis, notes the IDA chairman. "Enterprise Ireland at that time offered leadership in terms of growth and the ambition to grow. Irish companies were increasingly investing in R&D and innovation, and they had the products and services that would be in demand in overseas markets, and I think it was a good bringing together of both competencies that allowed us to make progress in export markets."

Ryan believes a major change was greater confidence among Irish businesses to go overseas.

"That was probably the key ingredient, both our confidence and our competence levels were very high. Irish companies were bringing solutions to a problem or challenge that a customer actually had, not just selling products or services."

Having worked at both the IDA and Enterprise Ireland, Ryan maintains that there is a need for both to exist.

"IDA Ireland focuses its activities in about eight to 10 different business sectors, such as software, pharmaceuticals, financial services, ICT - key sectors.

"Enterprise Ireland has a much wider portfolio.

"At Enterprise Ireland you are involved in entrepreneurship and starting from scratch and the companies require a different type of engagement and a different range of supports and assistance to grow.

"An established internationally trading company (that comes to the IDA) has an awful lot of those competencies already in place, so I would argue that it is a completely different type of work."

Ryan doesn't buy the argument that too much emphasis is placed in bringing in FDI, to the detriment of home-grown industry. Other countries and jurisdictions would "give their right arm" for the level of FDI Ireland gets, in particular from the US, he says. "We don't see that as a weakness, we see that as a positive - and we want to hold on to that positive."

When he joined the IDA in 1978, Ryan says there was a different mindset to FDI in most countries. Most big economies were focused on developing their own national champions.

"Ireland and the IDA along with say Singapore, Holland and Belgium and perhaps the UK, were probably the key competitors for FDI. Fast forward to today and the last estimate in the IDA's view is that there are at least 200 either countries or regions within countries that are in active competition with the IDA at any given time."

FDI now comes from a wider pool of countries too.

Over the last three to four years the IDA has increased staffing in Europe and in Asia. "We are now starting to see investments from both" he says. Chinese drug maker WuXi coming to Dundalk and Tata entering Ireland from India are good examples, he says.

Going global is a big theme, but does it grind to a halt when it gets local, as Apple found when it went to build a data centre in Athenry? Are planning laws up to the task of facilitating firms that do come?

Ryan says his views haven't changed in 30 years; companies that seek planning permission should get a decision quickly.

"Whether that decision is yes or no is a matter for other authorities not a matter for the IDA, but I think the answer should come much more quickly so that companies can plan accordingly."

Ryan says that in 2019 the IDA will close out its current five-year strategy - so far it is going "very well".

The new strategy will reflect the changing market. Externally Ireland faces three main challenges, he says: Brexit, changes in the US including tax, and "the growth of maybe protectionism, a protectionist mindset".

Winning business from the US specifically is getting more competitive, he notes.

Three areas are key to continued economic growth, he says - technological change, education and training, and capital investment. "We could talk about infrastructure, broadband and all the rest - but as regards key enablers of economic growth, I would say technological change brings opportunities if you move fast."

In the late 1980s, Ireland moved very quickly with Intel and Microsoft, then much smaller than they are today. After that have come Amazon, Google, and Facebook.

"In that regard we are strongly focused today on artificial intelligence and robotics, we are also very focused on having the advanced manufacturing plants of the future."

Education, he maintains, must now focus on being able to work with knowledge and data. "As opposed to being confused by huge amounts of data, you have to be able to analyse and evaluate it."

He also points out that big capital spend remains important. "Its important that we attract into Ireland companies that are going to spend a lot of capital here.

"If you can build and maintain those type of bio pharmaceutical facilities, then you can build anything. It establishes your international standing, and then think of the Irish suppliers to those projects, now you have indigenous world-class services companies."

Those domestic firms are internationally competitive, he insists. "Irish companies have the imagination, the intellect, the creativity, they need that funding to get going and Enterprise Ireland can then help them sell to multinationals in Ireland or overseas as well."The digital banking alternative currently serves more than 100,000 customers in Ireland

Fintech firm Revolut has launched a new savings feature that allows users in Ireland to bank spare cash from their everyday purchases.

Vaults allows users to round up and save their spare change from their monthly transactions, whether regular or once-off.

The digital banking alternative currently serves more than 100,000 customers in Ireland, with 40pc using Revolut as their primary spending card at home and abroad.

Users can save in any of the 25 supported currencies, as well as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ether.

The settings for Vaults can be adjusted so that users can save more or less - and funds can be withdrawn at any time.

"Offering spare change savings and roundups to Irish Revolut users has been one of our most popular feature requests," said Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky.

"Weve had thousands of people asking for the feature and we believe that Vaults will allow us to help many of our Irish customers start saving and investing towards their future."

Earlier this month, Revolut challenged the fintech industry to actively address gender imbalance with the launch of free coding classes for women.

Chief executive Nikolay Storonsky said that he hoped their action will inspire similar activity across the fintech space.

The company also recently announced that it raised a further $250m (205m), increasing its value five-fold to $1.7bn in less than a year.

Among the investors is Dublin-listed Draper Esprit, which announced an investment of up to $16.5m (13.5m) in the company.

Pay-per-day geolocation travel insurance and disposable virtual cards are just two other new product offerings from the online bank this year.Bus Eireann has announced plans to recruit almost 200 new staff in roles across the country.

This includes 190 new driver positions and additional mechanic jobs to service the ongoing expansion of the national network.

These roles will be required in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Mayo, Waterford, Wicklow, Navan, Drogheda, Limerick and west Clare.

The new staff positions are required for an expansion and enhancement of services on a number of Bus Eireann routes nationwide under contract to the National Transport Authority (NTA), and some additional enhancement of services on Expressway routes, Bus Eireann said.

These service enhancements are planned for regional city networks, town services and several Expressway intercity routes and will be introduced over the next four to six months.

Bus Eireann CEO Ray Hernan said he was delighted to announce such a significant number of new roles.

"After a challenging few years at the company, it is great to move into a new growth phase," Mr Hernan said.

"The majority of this service expansion will be delivered on behalf of the NTA for Public Service Obligation routes - and when introduced, will greatly benefit our customers and should incentivse more people to make the switch to public transport."

"Much change and progress has been delivered across Bus Eireann and Expressway, since the acceptance of a new Labour Court Agreement by staff last year. We are continuing to transform our business to deliver an enhanced experience for our customers," Mr Hernan continued.

The news was welcomed by the NTA, who said it looked forward to working with the company to improve and increase services for customers around the country.

The company said that suitable candidates would be sought across Ireland and abroad.The surge in property prices has been labelled a threat to the economy, pushing home ownership out of the reach of many buyers. Stock photo: GETTY

Property prices continue to soar at double-digit percentage rates, rising at an even faster pace in March than in the previous month.

Prices outside of Dublin are also continuing to increase at a higher rate than in the capital.

Property prices at national level increased by 12.7pc in the year to March, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

This compares with 12.5pc in the year to February, and was the fastest rate of growth since May 2015. The rise in the month of March was 0.8pc.

The surge in property prices has been labelled a threat to the economy, pushing home ownership out of the reach of many buyers.

Economists expect these double-digit percentage increases to continue in the coming months until supply of new homes improves.

In Dublin, residential property prices increased by 12.1pc in the year to March, the CSO said.

Residential property prices in the rest of Ireland, which excludes Dublin, were 13.4pc higher in the year to March.

The West region showed the greatest price growth, with house prices increasing 18pc.

The Border region showed the least price growth, with house prices increasing 8.8pc.

Overall, the national index is 21.6pc lower than its highest level in 2007.

The average price paid for a property across the country was 282,400. This is 25,400 more than was being paid for residential property a year ago.

Brokers Ireland warned that unless supply of properties ramps up more quickly, a whole generation now in their late 20s and 30s may never be able to recover the financial loss of not being able to acquire a home at an affordable price.

KBC Bank economist Austin Hughes estimated that higher property prices have boosted the value of household wealth by 60bn in the year to March.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions said there was now an urgent need for the Government to take a greater role in the provision of affordable homes.

Congress general secretary Patricia King said that Ireland was in the midst of a very real housing emergency.

"This crisis is doing untold damage to many lives and an entire generation of young workers now wonders if they will be able to afford suitable and secure accommodation," she said.The cost and availability of housing are key challenges for businesses operating in Ireland, according to IDA chairman Frank Ryan.

Ryan, who first joined the IDA in 1978, says companies are concerned about their staff and where their staff are going to live, and how well they'll live.

"We are in competition with many other countries, we have to remain cost competitive," he said.

Housing is no longer just a Dublin issue, he says.

"Four years ago the IDA set targets for regional development, that we would increase investments by 30pc-40pc in each region outside of Dublin, and we are making excellent progress on that. However, when you talk about housing, people talk about Dublin - it's not just Dublin, its other cities and urban areas in the country.

"It takes time to build houses, we would all love if that wasn't the situation and if the homeless could be housed much quicker than realistically they may be able to.

"We all want to see that get better, but if you have had a number of years, as we had in Ireland, where no houses were built then you are building up a major challenge for the future - and that challenge has arrived."

Ryan knows better than anyone the challenges of selling Ireland.

At the IDA he oversaw massive inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) that helped transform the country. As CEO of Enterprise Ireland, from 2003 and 2013, the sales and jobs generated by indigenous exporters hit record levels, even through the economic crisis.

In an interview with the Irish Independent today, he argues strongly that supporting inward investment hasn't been at the cost of developing domestic industry.

Other countries and jurisdictions would "give their right arm" for the level of FDI Ireland gets in particular from the US, he says.

"We don't see that as a weakness, we see that as a positive and we want to hold onto that positive."

Supporting entrepreneurs at home requires a different skillset, he says.Houseboats are an affordable option for homeowners (My Floating Home)

Houseboats are an affordable option for homeowners (My Floating Home)

Houseboats are an affordable option for homeowners (My Floating Home)

With property prices in London continuing to increase, one woman took matters into her own hands and built her own floating dream home.

Karen Boswell, a 35-year-old advertising executive, designed and built her houseboat, which she named Maybe Tomorrow, in just four months.

And the vessel isnt a shabby abode either - Boswells 70ft-long houseboat includes a king-sized bed, two bedrooms, concrete countertops in the kitchen, high ceilings, and a bathroom with a double shower.

Speaking to The Times, Boswell revealed that before building the houseboat, she struggled to afford property in London - despite earning a six-figure salary.

When a friend suggested a houseboat as an alternative, Boswell realised she could save a significant amount of money if she created her own home.

I could have afforded a two-bed place in a not-great area or a studio or one-bed somewhere I wouldn't be stabbed walking home, but I wouldn't have had any wiggle room to put a finish on it, she told The Times of her deposit savings.

So despite her preconception of boats as weird and cramped, Boswell decided to give it a try, putting down a deposit of just under 57,000.

The advertising executive took out a marine mortgage, which shell pay off in just five years, and purchased her new home, a 12ft-wide empty vessel for 137,000.

Boswell had to take out a 23,000 loan to decorate the interior, which she described as nautical modern chic, but it was worth it - as the boat is now worth 34,000 more than she paid for it.

Now, Boswell pays 9,000 a year to keep the houseboat docked in a private marina in the Grand Union Canal in north-west London and a yearly fee of 3,400 for electricity and a three-yearly hull treatment, which she admits are "not cheap," but worth it.

Expand Close Houseboats are an affordable option for homeowners (My Floating Home) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Houseboats are an affordable option for homeowners (My Floating Home)

As for transportation, Boswell plans to invest in a kayak so she can get from her boat to the supermarket or pub.

Boswells luxury London houseboat was featured on the new reality show My Floating Home on More 4 on Wednesday, which follows families as they build their aquatic dream homes.An artists impression of the Apple data centre that was originally planned for Athenry in Co Galway

Apple has abandoned plans for an 850m data centre in Athenry, Co Galway, citing delays in the Irish planning process.

The company, which was facing a fresh Supreme Court and European Court appeal to a facility it announced more than three years ago, is proceeding with a second data centre in Denmark.

Several years ago we applied to build a data centre at Athenry. Despite our best efforts, delays in the approval process have forced us to make other plans and we will not be able to move forward with the data centre, said the company in a statement.

While disappointing, this setback will not dampen our enthusiasm for future projects in Ireland as our business continues to grow.

The move will be seen as a blow to industrial hopes in Athenry, where community groups and local businesses had hoped the Apple facility might provide a multiplier effect for business investment outside the regions biggest population centres.

However, Apple is disassociating the data centre decision from any wider relationship considerations with Ireland over tax or other issues, citing new investments in its Cork facility, where it employs over 6,000 people.

Weve been operating in Ireland since 1980 and we're proud of the many contributions we make to the economy and job creation, said the company in a statement.

In the last two years we've spent over 550 million with local companies and, all told, our investment and innovation supports more than 25,000 jobs up and down the country. We're deeply committed to our employees and customers in Ireland and are expanding our operations in Cork, with a new facility for our talented team there.

The data centre would have been one of the largest in Europe, with 300 temporary construction jobs and 50 permanent technical jobs for the site at Derrydonnell Woods, near Athenry.

It was designed to service Apples European business in online services for Apple Music, iCloud, the App Store, Messages, Maps and Siri.

These Apple services represent the fastest growing part of its business, garnering 8bn in revenue per quarter according to the companys most recent financial results.

Apples decision is also being viewed with concern in business and investment organisations such as the IDA and Ibec, which have been critical of the negative effect that planning delays can have on industrial policy in the country.

But objectors charged that appropriate environmental assessments had yet to be completed and that the facility might use as much as 6pc of the national grids electricity output.

Last week, lawyers for two objectors, Sinead Fitzpatrick and Allan Daly, succeeded in an application to have an appeal heard in the High Court over the matter.

The appeal was against a High Court decision which had appeared to give Apple the green light to proceed with the data centre.

In granting leave to appeal, the Supreme Court also warned that it may have to refer the case to the European Court of Justice on a point of law, which could bring a further lengthy delay to proceedings.

At the heart of the matter, the Supreme Court said, was whether An Bord Pleanala should be required to consider a foreseeable expansion of the data centre. The case also potential brought up points of law, the Supreme Court said, that may have to be decided in Europe before the matter was concluded.

Such European referrals can take years in legal delays and hearings.

The Government is set to be disappointed at the news but will point to a 150m data centre investment by Google in Dublin this week, which is set to create 160 temporary construction jobs. However, this is unlikely to comfort local businesses in the west of Ireland.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said Apples decision to abandon its plans was regrettable but not very surprising given the delays.

He said the move was a real blow to Athenry and the west.

Mr Varadkar said he hoped people outside of Ireland realised that the inordinate delays in the project were not typical.

He also said that having data centres here may help to anchor tech giants more fully to Ireland.

Local councillor Ciaran Cannon described the decision as a "setback" for the Athenry area.

"I very much regret that Apple will not be pursuing its plans to construct this data centre, especially as the project would have been a source of significant investment and job creation for Galway and the West of Ireland," he said on Facebook.

"The Apple decision is a setback for Athenry but with the town now located at the intersection of the M6 and M18, and a major IDA land bank holding adjacent to the town, we can still be confident of significant industrial development in the future."The 37-year-old man was found guilty by a jury of three counts of rape and eight counts of sexually assaulting the two girls at addresses in Dublin and Louth

Ulster Banks parent the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has reached a civil settlement with the US Department of Justice for $4.9bn (4.1bn).

The settlement, agreed in principle, is in respect of a Department of Justice investigation into RBS's issuance and underwriting of US residential mortgage-backed securities ("RMBS") between 2005 and 2007.

Of the $4.9bn, $3.46bn will be covered by existing provisions, with an incremental charge of $1.44bn in the second quarter of 2018, a statement from RBS said.

Commenting on the agreement, Ross McEwan, chief executive of RBS, described the settlement as a "milestone moment" for the bank.

"Reaching this settlement in principle with the US Department of Justice will, when finalised, allow us to deal with this significant remaining legacy issue and is the price we have to pay for the global ambitions pursued by this bank before the crisis," Mr McEwan said.

"Removing the uncertainty over the scale of this settlement means that the investment case for this bank is much clearer."

The pro forma impact of the settlement on RBS's 31 March 2018 common equity tier 1 ratio (a measure of a banks financial strength) is a reduction of approximately 50 basis points and a reduction of 9p on 31 March 2018 fully diluted tangible net asset value per share.

Adjusting for the combined impact of both the RMBS settlement and the pension deficit contribution of 2bn announced on 17 April, the quarter one 2018 pro forma common equity tier 1 is 15.1pc and fully diluted tangible net asset value is 274p.

The proposed settlement is subject to the Department of Justice and RBS entering into a legally-binding agreement, and there can be no assurance that the parties will agree on the final terms of any proposed settlement, RBS said.

The incremental charges will be booked in NatWest Markets on a consolidated basis and RBS will retail its guidance on a NatWest Markets consolidated end state (post ring-fencing transfers) common equity tier 1 target of 14pc, as per the outlook statement of its 2017 Annual Report and Accounts.

Separately, as at 31 March 2018, RBS held provisions of $800m for other legacy RMBS matters.Barbara Windsor became one of the most recognisable faces on British television while playing Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders.

The battleaxe mother of hardmen Phil and Grant, Dame Barbara was the landlady of the Queen Victoria and was often heard telling drinkers who had crossed her to get outta my pub!.

But before she had set foot in Albert Square, Dame Barbara, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimers, had enjoyed a glittering career in showbusiness.

Expand Close Barbara Windsor has enjoyed a stellar career in showbusiness but is perhaps best known for her role as Peggy Mitchell in Eastenders (Kieron McCarron/BBC/PA) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Barbara Windsor has enjoyed a stellar career in showbusiness but is perhaps best known for her role as Peggy Mitchell in Eastenders (Kieron McCarron/BBC/PA)

She made her stage debut aged 13, when she appeared in pantomime and, just a year later, the 80-year-old was in the West End in the musical Love From Judy.

Her career only went up from there and she appeared in hit TV series such as Dads Army, Worzel Gummidge and One Foot In The Grave.

Her work in the theatre saw her nominated for a Tony Award.

She also starred in the 1968 classic film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Expand Close Sid James and Barbara Windsor pictured outside the Victoria Palace Theatre wearing busbies (PA) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Sid James and Barbara Windsor pictured outside the Victoria Palace Theatre wearing busbies (PA)

But, aside from her role in EastEnders, Dame Barbara is perhaps best known for appearing in several Carry On films.

Video of the Day

Playing the role of the good time girl, she first appeared in 1964s Carry On Spying while her final role was in Carry On Dick in 1974.

One of her best remembered scenes, from 1969s Carry On Camping, saw her bikini top fly off during outdoor aerobic exercises.

Expand Close Dame Barbara Windsor with her Outstanding Contribution to Television Award at the TV Choice Awards 2016 (Nicky Johnston/PA) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Dame Barbara Windsor with her Outstanding Contribution to Television Award at the TV Choice Awards 2016 (Nicky Johnston/PA)

In 2009, Windsors career was recognised with the Lifetime Achievement Award at The British Soap Awards and in 2010 she featured in Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland.

After 16 years of playing Peggy Mitchell, Dame Barbara left Albert Square in 2010, though made further occasional appearances before her character was killed off in 2016.

Windsor was awarded an MBE in the Millennium New Year honours and has also been given The Freedom of the City of London.The EBU (European Broadcasting Union) has tonight announced it has terminated its contract with the Chinese broadcaster Mango TV after it failed to broadcast Ireland's Eurovision entry.

On Tuesday the Chinese broadcaster, part of the second biggest channel in the country, edited out the Irish Eurovision entry over its depiction of a gay relationship.

Ryan O'Shaughnessy performed 'Together', qualifying Ireland for the final for the first time in five years.

Ireland's Eurovision entry has made headlines as the first in the contest's 63 year history to feature a same-sex couple.

China has strict broadcast rules banning any depiction of gay relationships.

Independent.ie brought the ban to international attention this morning, and after a review the EBU decided to terminate the contact with the Chinese broadcaster.

In a statement tonight, the EBU said: "On the 9th of May, Chinese broadcaster Mango TV broadcast the first Semi-Final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest live but two performances were censored.

"This is not in line with the EBU's values of universality and inclusivity and our proud tradition of celebrating diversity through music.

"It is with regret that we will therefore immediately be terminating our partnership with the broadcaster and they will not be permitted to broadcast the second Semi-Final or the Grand Final."

Ryan O'Shaughnessy has welcomed the EBU decision.

Video of the Day

During the live semi-final on BBC Four, host Rylan Clark-Neal said Mango TV would not be allowed to show Eurovision and O'Shaughnessy said: "I would like to welcome the decision by the EBU to do that because from the very start we have just said love is love.

"It doesn't matter whether it's between two guys and two girls or a guy and a girl.

"I think it's a really important decision by the EBU, they haven't taken it lightly, and I think it's a move in the right direction I'm happy about it."

Clark-Neal added: "This is Eurovision, it's inclusive of every single person."Abortion referendum campaigners have reacted strongly to a decision by Google to suspend all advertising relating to the upcoming abortion referendum.

Pro-choice campaigners have welcomed the move, saying that it will "create a level playing field".

However, pro-life advocates have described it as "an attempt to rig the election".

Campaigners on both sides of the referendum argument have spoken out after Google had officially announced the ban on the ads in relation to the referendum.

Google has said that it has made the move as it wished to respect the "integrity" of the referendum election process.

"Following our update around election integrity efforts globally, we have decided to pause all ads related to the Irish referendum on the Eighth Amendment," said the company.

Twitter has also moved to ban referendum ads for the remainder of the campaign, while Facebook had announced earlier this week that it was blocking all ads that come from advertisers outside of Ireland.

Factual

The social media giant says it will still allow referendum-related ads that are paid for by organisations within Ireland.

Elsewhere, most of the country's biggest media publishers appear not to have banned digital ads that are related to the referendum.

Independent News & Media, Ireland's largest digital media platform, says that it will allow digital ads from both campaigns provided that they are "factual" and are "not offensive".

A spokesman for 'The Irish Times' was unavailable to comment.

A spokesman for RTE said it did not accept political ads on its digital platform. It said that it would not make an exception for the referendum.

However, other Irish media groups will continue to carry ads about the referendum online.

Read more: Facebook to block all foreign ads about Eighth Amendment referendum

A spokeswoman for the pro-choice campaigning group 'Together For Yes' welcomed the ban on Google Search and YouTube referendum ads.

Campaign co-director Ailbhe Smyth said that the move would elevate "the strength of argument and power of personal testimony" over arguments "that are paid to be put in front of" people.

But at a press conference called by the pro-life campaign Save the 8th and the Iona Institute, campaigners claimed that the decision to ban ads on Google had been taken "because one side in this referendum is terrified of losing and wants to prevent voters from being informed".

The group claims that it will now be put at a disadvantage because it had particularly relied on posters and social media to put out its message.

"Online was the only platform available to the No campaign to speak to voters directly.

"That platform is now being undermined in order to prevent the public from hearing the message of one side," it said in a joint statement that was read by pro-life campaigner John McGuirk.Amy Callahan with her partner Connor Upton at their home in Dublin. Photo: Clodagh Kilcoyne

A year after travelling to Britain to terminate her pregnancy, Amy Callahan decided to share her story.

The referendum will mark almost a year to the day that Ms Callahan and her partner Connor Upton returned to Dublin on May 23 with the ashes of their daughter, Nico, in their hand luggage.

Ms Callahan (35) and Mr Upton, members of campaign group Terminations for Medical Reasons, said they both wanted the pregnancy. The north Dublin couple were told 12 weeks in that the foetus had anencephaly, a rare condition that prevents the normal development of the brain.

It meant the baby, who would have been their second child, would die in utero or live for a matter of minutes.

"I know that birth is not easy on a baby and the head is such an important part. I started to think about what would be the kindest thing that we could do and I didn't think it was a pregnancy we were going to continue," she said.

She and her husband told few people about that trip nearly a year ago. But ahead of the May 25 vote, she is one of scores of women on both sides of the issue who are sharing their stories.

Vicky Wall, a 41-year-old anti-abortion activist campaigning in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, said a doctor brought up the option of abortion when her unborn baby was diagnosed with Edwards' syndrome, a genetic disorder.

"What the doctor actually said was 'you can pop to England', which was horrific," she said.

She carried the baby to full term instead. "My baby was born at 32 weeks, then she died. I got to take her home, spend time with her," she said.

Meanwhile, Ms Callahan recalled her grief and exhaustion in the two weeks ahead of their appointment at the clinic in Liverpool.

She wondered how she would have explained things to her son, then one-and-a-half, had she carried the baby to full term.

She wondered how she would have responded to friends and colleagues when they asked about the progress of her pregnancy and when she was due.

"It felt like we were abandoned by this country," Ms Callahan said. "We weren't looked after here, we weren't received with compassion at such a difficult time.

"The worst thing has already happened to us," said Ms Callahan.

"Whether this referendum passes or not, it's not the worst thing for us, it's about the worst thing for the next person and it needs to be changed."More than half of pregnant women in the country's three main maternity hospitals who are told their babies will be born with Down Syndrome are opting for a termination.

The women have availed of the diagnostic test after 12 to 13 weeks into the pregnancy, at the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street, the Coombe Hospital and Rotunda Hospital.

The figures obtained by the Irish Independent come after the master of Holles Street, Dr Rhona Mahony, yesterday said half of women whose babies would be born with Down Syndrome chose not to continue with the pregnancy.

"The screening test is 99pc predictive," said Dr Mahony, referring to the screening test that can be applied at between nine and 12 weeks' gestation.

She added that about 1,000 women who attend Holles Street avail of it each year.

"It looks like 50pc continue and not continue," she said.

Figures obtained by the Irish Independent reveal that in Coombe in 2016 there were 21 pregnant women who were informed their baby had Down Syndrome and 14 (66pc) of these had a termination in the UK.

Five of the babies were born in the hospital, and two women had miscarriages.

Meanwhile, in the Rotunda Hospital that year there were 26 cases of pre-natal diagnosis of Down Syndrome, and 57pc of mothers had a termination.

Figures for the National Maternity Hospital also indicate around 50pc of women who have had a test and been informed their baby will have Down Syndrome had a termination.

The statistics relate only to parents who have had a test. Most parents do not have any pre-natal test for the condition.

Around one-third of Down Syndrome pregnancies end in miscarriage and another third are at risk of death in the womb before birth.

Dr Mahony said yesterday that Down Syndrome was not just one condition.

She pointed out some of these babies will not survive, or will suffer complications such as heart defects. "Others will be born well and healthy," she told RTE.

Although it is not possible to have a definitive diagnosis of Down Syndrome until the pregnancy has reached the 12th to 14th week, a screening test is available earlier than that.

This screening test has a high accuracy rate but it just shows probability - and is not definitive. This test, sometimes known as the Harmony or Panorama test, can be performed from nine weeks onwards and costs 500 or more.

The Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the results would rarely be available before 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The Government has said it will allow for unrestricted abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy if the Eighth Amendment is repealed in the upcoming referendum. Disability would not be grounds for abortion, it said.

Dr Mahony yesterday again called for a Yes vote in the referendum - saying abortion is already in Ireland with the use of pills bought over the internet to end pregnancies.

She also said doctors had to wait until a mother was dying before intervening to terminate a pregnancy to save her life, adding that this must change.

"We have back-street abortions where women are buying pills over the internet. They are excluded from heathcare and denied holistic care," she added.

"This creates an unacceptable risk for women."

Dr Mahony said there was also not enough invested in preventative strategies to reduce the risk of a crisis pregnancy.A Dublin man who assaulted his ex-partner and then abducted their one-year-old daughter in the early hours of the morning has walked free from court with a suspended sentence.

The 30-year-old, of no fixed abode, admitted breaking into the home of his ex-partner in Tallaght, Dublin on April 7.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assaulting the woman and falsely imprisoning their daughter on the same occasion. He cannot be named in order to protect the identity of his daughter.

The court heard gardai found the accused man in a highly intoxicated state at around 5am, walking with his toddler 10 minutes from her home. They persuaded him to return the child to her mother.

Counsel for the accused said he was a 'Jekyll and Hyde character' who was very amenable when sober but became extremely aggressive when drunk.

Judge Martin Nolan sentenced him to three years fully suspended, on condition he keep the peace for the duration of his jail term and abided by the supervision of the Probation Services for 18 months.

The man was also told not to approach or try to contact his ex or the child for three years, unless by consent of the mother or by order of the Family Court.

"If you breach that condition, there's every likelihood you'll spend three years in prison," warned Judge Nolan.

Garda David O'Riordan told Elva Duffy BL, prosecuting, that gardai were called to the house on the morning in question to find the woman out in her driveway, very upset and panicking.

She later told them she and her three children, aged seven, five and 18 months, had all been asleep when they were woken up by the sound of a baby gate falling to the ground and the house alarm going off.

The woman told her seven-year-old son to go back to bed and followed the accused into the kitchen where he grabbed her.

He said he was "going to f***ing kill her" and kept punching her to both sides of her head, repeating he wanted his daughter.

The woman's son came into the kitchen and told the man to stop hurting his mother. The accused stopped punching the woman, hugged the child and told him it was OK.

She said her two other children screaming, so she gave her baby to the accused to try and calm down the situation and he left the house with the toddler.

Her eldest son rang 999 and gardai soon found the accused.Gayle Killilea, wife of Sean Dunne, at the Four Courts yesterday for a High Court action. Photo: Collins Courts

Gayle Killilea, wife of bankrupt developer Sean Dunne, wants to halt proceedings against her over the transfer of South African properties between the couple, the High Court heard.

The case relates to Mr Dunne's 2013 bankruptcy adjudications in both Ireland and the United States.

It was previously before the High Court when it rejected her claim America rather than Ireland was the appropriate forum for Ms Killilea's case.

She appealed and last January the Court of Appeal sent the question of which was the appropriate forum back to the High Court.

Yesterday, the High Court began re-hearing the matter.

The official in charge of Mr Dunne's Irish bankruptcy, official assignee Chris Lehane, claims there was a fraudulent transfer of assets in South Africa and Ireland between Mr Dunne and his wife.

Expand Close Sean Dunne. Photo: Collins Courts / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Sean Dunne. Photo: Collins Courts

Mr Lehane's action relates to agreements between the couple in 2005 and 2008 to transfer interests to her and a number of assets, including a hotel called 'Lagoon Beach' in Cape Town, South Africa, and shares in an entity call 'Mavior'.

Ms Killilea claims Mr Lehane's proceedings are unfair because they cover the same grounds as proceedings that have been brought in the US.

She says the Irish proceedings should be discontinued.

Opening the case, her counsel John O'Donnell said it was his client's case that "a substantial overlap" exists between proceedings in Ireland and the US.

It was their case that the US was the only jurisdiction where Mr Dunne's estate could be administered, and Mr Lehane had nothing to administer, counsel said.

It is also argued that America is the appropriate jurisdiction or forum for the proceedings, known as the doctrine of "forum non-conveniens".

Mr Lehane opposes the application and says that certain issues concerning Mr Dunne's estate should be heard in Ireland, while others should be heard by the US courts. The hearing, before Mr Justice Brian McGovern, continues.A FORMER worker at a juvenile residential unit has been given a suspended sentence for possession of child pornography.

Philip Devereux (51) was tracked through his email address after the Toronto Police Department passed on information to INTERPOL relating to individuals who had bought DVDs from a Canadian company involved in the distribution of child pornography.

Devereux, of St Michan's House, Greek Street, Dublin , pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography at his home on January 9, 2013. He has no previous convictions.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard gardai recovered a laptop containing 24 images, a floppy disk containing six child sex stories and 13 DVDs containing images of nude or partially nude pre-pubescent boys.

Judge Martin Nolan said he accepted the quantity of images in this investigation was not too great but said it was nevertheless a serious case.

He noted that Devereux had pleaded guilty, co-operated with the gardai and handed over his devices and passwords. He said Devereux had no prior record and had taken steps to address his problem.

The judge took into account a psychologist's report, as well as Devereux's strong work history and support from some members of his family.

Judge Nolan noted the case had been hanging over Devereux, as it had been delayed by a lack of resources to deal with the avalanche of material to be analysed at the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau (GNCCB).

He said the higher courts had given direction that in a case where an accused person had no criminal record and there was no distribution or other aggravating factors, then a non-custodial sentence should be considered. Judge Nolan said in relation to Devereux he did not feel a custodial sentence was justified. He imposed a two and a half year sentence which he suspended in full.

Garda Shane Connolly told Sinead McGrath BL, prosecuting, that gardai received confidential information via INTERPOL in relation to names, addresses and invoices relating to individuals who had bought DVDs from a Canadian company involved in the distribution of child pornography.

Gardai traced Devereux through his email address which was listed as having ordered material.

During a search carried out at Devereux's home in January 2013, he admitted having accessed child pornography on the internet and gave gardai an overview of his internet use, as well as his email passwords. Gardai seized electronic media storage, a laptop and DVDs.

The items were passed to the GNCCB and analysed there in 2017.

Devereux was arrested by appointment in March 2017.

Gda Connolly agreed with Bernard Condon SC, defending, that his client had been proactive in presenting himself to gardai in relation to the sex offenders register. He agreed that it had taken four years to have the equipment analysed by gardai, saying there was a large backlog of material at that office.

Mr Condon said that it had been a number of years since the offending, that Devereux had not come to any further Garda attention and had been making efforts to rehabilitate.

He handed in a number of letters and a psychologist's report which outlined matters including that Devereux had some difficulties in his personal development in identifying his sexuality. He has been attending counselling and has support from some members of his family.

Mr Condon said his client had been in employment all his life and at the time had been working at a residential unit. He said Devereux had been suspended from work without pay.

He asked the court to take into account that the conviction would have very significant consequences for his client and would be a mark on him forever.Elaine and John Fenton, from Knocklyon, in Dublin, arrive at court yesterday. Photo: Collins Courts

A private detective was sent by a life insurance company to a hotel in Galway to snoop on the activities of a couple and their six-year-old daughter, a court has heard.

Patrick E Keane SC, counsel for John and Elaine Fenton and their daughter Emma, of Templeroan Meadows, Knocklyon, Dublin, said the investigator working for the Irish Life Assurance Company had taken photos and a video.

Irish Life passed them on to its medical adviser to see whether banker Elaine Fenton might be scamming them through her income protection policy, which had kicked in after she had become ill.

Mr Keane told Judge Terence O'Sullivan at the Circuit Civil Court that 60,000 claims by Mr and Ms Fenton had been settled confidentially with Irish Life, with agreed costs arrangements, but the court had to approve or reject a 50,000 settlement offer from Irish Life to Emma, now 16.

Outlining Emma's claim, Mr Keane said it was unusual, taken under the laws of privacy and data protection.

Mr Keane said Emma's mother, an employee of AIB, had taken out an income protection policy. Irish Life Assurance had organised a second defendant, Reliance Investigation Services Limited, to carry out private investigations into Ms Fenton's movements.

"While doing that, they took photographs of Mr and Ms Fenton and of six-year-old Emma after following them into a hotel," Mr Keane said.

He told Judge O'Sullivan the photos had been taken with regard to informing Irish Life whether Ms Fenton was capable of resuming work.

Consent

None of them knew they were being photographed and there was no parental consent for photographs of the child.

Mr Keane said a settlement offer of 15,000 had been made to Emma at an earlier stage but this had not been accepted.

Irish Life was now offering Emma a settlement of 50,000 and costs. Emma, after finding out about the activities of the private detective, had developed psychological trauma.

He said the law in relation to privacy was "a tricky area" and it could also be extremely difficult to recover damages under the Data Protection Act.

Judge O'Sullivan said 50,000 seemed an excellent offer for Emma and he was very happy to approve it.

Mr Keane said the case against Reliance Investigation Services Limited, of Unit 2 White Haven, Calverstown, Co Kildare, which was now in liquidation, could be struck out.

The court learned Ms Fenton had made a claim against her AIB group income protection policy in October 2008 after becoming ill.

Irish Life had ceased paying her from November 22, 2010, a decision she had appealed.

It had afterwards paid the private detective agency to shadow her movements.

Sarah Moorhead SC, who appeared for Irish Life, said the assurance company was making the 50,000 settlement offer to Emma and was consenting to her parents' claims being struck out.Nine out of 11 laptops issued to former Garda commissioners Noirin O'Sullivan and Martin Callinan used over a certain period of time have not been returned, the Disclosures Tribunal has heard.

The tribunal is looking at claims by former Garda press officer Superintendent David Taylor he was directed by Mr Callinan to brief the media negatively on whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe. Mr Callinan denies this.

Supt Pat Ryan, the head of the garda IT section, told the tribunal he had been asked in 2017 to identify all computer hardware used by Ms O'Sullivan from July 1, 2012, to May 31, 2014.

Supt Ryan said five laptop computers had been assigned to Ms O'Sullivan between 2006 and 2010, and these could no longer be recovered. A hard drive from an office desktop computer had been located.

No laptop was assigned to Ms O'Sullivan during her time as commissioner. Two iPads used by her had been located, although one had a fault.

Four out of six laptops used by Mr Callinan could not be located, and one machine had been rebuilt and redeployed.

Mr Callinan bought the laptop he was using at the time of his retirement, which was reset to factory settings to remove garda data before he took it home.

Supt Ryan said computers were upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7 at the end of 2014, and as part of this process, a file-share system was set up with data held on the file share.

Emails sent on garda accounts were archived, and even if an email was deleted from a local computer it would not be deleted in the archive. Log-in details from computers were still available in audit logs.

Earlier, the tribunal was also told Supt Taylor was not complimentary about Sgt McCabe or journalists who wrote about him. Sgt James Molloy, who works in the press office, told the tribunal he heard people discussing Sgt McCabe in the press office.

Supt Taylor was uncomplimentary about him, any journalist writing about Sgt McCabe and any member of the Oireachtas who "took his side".

Sgt Molloy said he was "vaguely aware" of a rumour of a sexual assault investigation, and Sgt McCabe felt this should not be on the Pulse system.

The DPP had recommended no prosecution as there was no evidence of a crime following the 2006 investigation.

Asked by tribunal barrister Patrick Marrinan SC whether Supt Taylor was uncomplimentary towards Sgt McCabe because of the assault allegations or because he was speaking out on Garda issues, Sgt Molloy said it was because Sgt McCabe was speaking out.

Sgt Molloy said he was not aware of a smear campaign against Sgt McCabe and was never told to smear anybody.

Sgt Molloy said Supt Taylor had "a tendency to gossip and chitchat in the office after an incident".

Supt Taylor did a lot of media briefings as press officer. "There is always the danger in the press office of loving it, getting a buzz from it. I thought he had fallen into that trap," Sgt Molloy said.

Meanwhile, a garda sergeant who worked in the press office told the tribunal he became concerned sensitive information was being leaked to journalists.

Sgt Damien Hogan, who continues to work there, said suspicions were raised when he saw newspaper articles that closely matched incident reports he had seen but which had not been made public.

He became concerned the press office was compromised after a call from a journalist some months after Supt Taylor had been transferred.

A journalist who had queries about a Child Rescue Ireland alert told Sgt Hogan: "I'm getting enough at the moment from Supt Taylor."

Sgt Hogan rang garda head of communications Andrew McLindon and the new press officer Supt Paul Moran.

"It wasn't his new role, it wasn't his role to be briefing the media," Sgt Hogan said.THE corporate watchdog has rejected arguments made by Independent News & Media (INM) that there should have been consultation with the company before an application was filed seeking the appointment of inspectors.

Brian Murray SC, for the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE), claimed the case made by lawyers for INM was "unstateable" and that there was no legal obligation on the watchdog to consult the company.

INM has taken judicial review proceedings aimed at quashing a decision by ODCE director Ian Drennan to apply to the High Court for the appointment of inspectors to investigate a range of corporate governance issues at the countrys largest media group.

If INM is successful in the judicial review, being heard by Mr Justice Seamus Noonan, Mr Drennan will not be able to proceed with his application for the appointment of inspectors, who would have far-reaching powers of inquiry.

On Wednesday, Paul Gallagher SC, for INM, told the court that the move to appoint inspectors came as a bolt out of the blue, was inherently unfair, and caused significant damage to the companys share price.

Mr Gallagher said the company only learned of a number of matters on March 23 last, the day the watchdog indicated it would be seeking the appointment of inspectors.

These included critical information about a major suspected data breach in 2014.

This was despite the fact information suggesting the names of 19 individuals may have been searched for in INM data was known to the ODCE since October 2017.

As a result INM was unable to alert sooner the Data Protection Commissioner or people feared to have been affected.

Mr Gallagher also argued that although Mr Drennan had a duty to afford INM the right to make representations, the ODCE director had not done so.

However, this argument was rejected today by Mr Murray.

Mr Murray said the Oireachtas has vested powers in the ODCE to bring such applications to the courts and had not imposed a requirement for consultation before doing so.

He said INM had an untrammelled right to put whatever information it wanted before the court in opposition to the ODCEs application.

The barrister said there was no distinction between INM and any other company who says it has suffered damage as a result of the court process.

If INMs case proved founded, he said, it would raise fundamental issues for the courts and the administration of justice in public.

He also said INM had not been able to identify any legal authority in Ireland or elsewhere to justify its position.

Mr Murray said it was striking that INM was suggesting that a special case should be made that public limited companies be allowed to make such representations, when such companies were among the largest and best resourced in the State.

He said that what INM envisaged was that the ODCE had to write to the company and say it was proposing to appoint an inspector.

Then the companys lawyers would look for reasons and the ODCE would have to respond with a summary of those.

Mr Murray said nobody could seriously believe this was acceptable.

If INMs arguments were founded, it would give rise to an endless, self-replicating procedure.

The barrister also said that the courts have clearly stated the fact proceedings may cause embarrassment, inconvenience or reputational damage, was not a reason to impose an obligation on the ODCE to consult in advance of bringing an application to court.

Mr Murray also took issue with the statement that certain information about the suspected data breach came as a bolt from the blue.

He said INMs position was that it did not have any information that would have caused the board to question an explanation given to it by then chairman Leslie Buckley or to believe it was inaccurate or misleading.

The barrister said this position was at least questionable.

Mr Murray pointed to letters sent to INM in August 2017 by Donal Spring, solicitor for INMs former chief executive Robert Pitt.

This included information supplied to the ODCE by Mr Pitt in a protected disclosure.

The barrister said that in correspondence INM was made aware of Mr Pitts concerns that Mr Buckley had instructed INMs IT director to facilitate third party contractors with access to INMs data back-up tapes.

The correspondence outlined that Mr Pitt had very serious concerns that large indiscriminate pieces of data, potentially including emails related to employees and others, had been accessed.

It said Mr Pitt exhorted the board to investigate the matter fully and to contact the Data Protection Commissioner.

The case continues.THE application by the corporate watchdog to appoint inspectors to Independent News & Media (INM) came as "a bolt out of the blue", was "inherently unfair", and caused "significant damage" to the company's share price, the High Court has heard.

A lawyer for INM told the court that despite the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) conducting a 14-month-long inquiry, which the company had fully cooperated with, no prior notice was given of the application.

Paul Gallagher SC said the company learned of a number of matters, including critical information about a major suspected data breach, on March 23 - only on the day the watchdog indicated it would be seeking the appointment of inspectors.

ODCE director Ian Drennan wants the High Court to approve the appointment of inspectors, with far-reaching powers, to investigate a range of corporate governance issues at the country's largest media group. This is being opposed by INM, which is taking judicial review proceedings in a bid to halt the application. Opening those proceedings before Mr Justice Seamus Noonan, Mr Gallagher said INM had not been afforded fair procedures.

He said that although Mr Drennan had a duty to afford INM the right to make representations, the ODCE director had not done so.

Among other issues, the ODCE wants inspectors to investigate a "data interrogation" allegedly directed by former INM chairman Leslie Buckley.

Journalists Brendan O'Connor and Sam Smyth are among 19 people whose names are feared to have been searched for in the data.

The ODCE is also concerned that "inside information" may have been shared by Mr Buckley with INM's largest shareholder, Denis O'Brien. The ODCE has also raised concerns over the content of whistleblower disclosures about a proposed deal for INM to buy Newstalk, and the manner in which those disclosures were handled by INM.

Mr Gallagher said Mr Drennan expressed "serious criticism" of INM but the company had not been in a position to address some of the concerns as it was not made aware of them prior to being notified of the application.

He said, for example, that INM was not previously aware of the existence of a spreadsheet containing 19 names discovered by the ODCE in connection with the suspected data breach.

This had been in the possession of the ODCE since October 2017, but was disclosed it to INM only last March.

The failure to disclose it earlier was "very damaging" as it prevented INM from informing the people involved and from reporting the matter to the Data Protection Commissioner earlier than it did. Mr Gallagher said it was "extremely damaging" for a media company, where the trust of the public in its employees was "of paramount importance".

The barrister also said the "inside information" issue had not previously been brought to the company's attention.

He described as "factually wrong" a claim by Mr Drennan that INM's first reaction to a protected disclosure by former chief executive Robert Pitt was to discuss terminating his employment.

He said Mr Drennan's decision to seek the appointment of inspectors had "very serious" consequences for INM in terms of reputational damage and damage to INM's share price.

He said INM had a very high standard of corporate governance procedures and would have assured the ODCE of this if it had been made aware of the concerns earlier. He said that although the ODCE had considered INM's response in recent weeks, it was still going ahead with the application.

The case continues today when Brian Murray SC will address the court on behalf of the ODCE.The country's Catholic bishops are unlikely to take a legal challenge over proposals which will prohibit the Church's primary schools from giving priority to Catholic children in their enrolment policies.

Education Minister Richard Bruton secured Cabinet backing on Tuesday for his proposals, which will pave the way for the removal of the so-called baptism barrier in Catholic schools.

If the proposals proceed as planned from September 2019, schools which are oversubscribed will no longer be able to favour prospective pupils on the grounds of their religious adherence.

There is an exemption for schools of minority faiths such as the Presbyterian Church.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin was asked on RTE Radio's 'Today With Sean O'Rourke' about a report that the bishops, trustees and management bodies for the country's 2,880 Catholic primaries were preparing to fight the proposed changes through a legal challenge. Archbishop Martin said: "The bishops never discussed that."

However, he said they would have to "robustly defend Catholic ethos in Catholic schools": "The big problem is that as long as the Church maintains almost 90pc of schools in the country, this problem is going to emerge. I have consistently made proposals to reduce that number; I have met with resistance, not among the bishops but some of the various bureaucracies that are involved in school policy."

He said that, until there was greater diversity of patronage, there would be no real choice for parents.

According to Seamus Mulconry, general secretary of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association, the issue of the baptism barrier affects a very small number of Catholic schools, mostly in Dublin.

"This is an issue about a lack of school places, it is not about religion," he said. "We have always made clear that Catholic schools want to accept everybody who applies. When we have space, we literally do take everybody who applies.

"As I said at the time, if Damien from 'The Omen' arrived in, we'd take him in."

Mr Bruton insisted yesterday the measure will be introduced in time to take effect before parents start enrolling children prior to September 2019.

Many educational and human rights authorities said the move was progressive but Catholic organisations fear schools under their ethos will be most affected.

Children's Ombudsman Dr Niall Muldoon also called for the bill underpinning the removal of the barrier to be progressed without further delay: "No child can be denied access to publicly funded education on the grounds of religion."Students at Sodo Secondary School who are building digital literacy skills thanks to the Camara/Dell partnership with the Ethiopian Ministry of Education

Students at Shimelis Habte Secondary School who are building digital literacy skills thanks to the Camara/Dell partnership with the Ethiopian Ministry of Education

When Bob Geldof and Midge Ure organised Live Aid in 1985 for famine relief in Ethiopia, that country had a population of 40m - now it's 107m and still rising rapidly. Almost two thirds of its people are under 25, which tells you a lot about the economic, employment and educational challenges facing a country twice the size of France.

But how do we get pupils to know and understand what is happening elsewhere in this globalised world of ours where events such as wars or natural disasters have devastating effects in one country and can affect others through mass migration, for example?

Development Education enables students to understand the world around them and to learn how to act to bring about change. It works to tackle the root causes of injustice and inequality, globally and locally. It's an integrated dimension of the primary school curriculum. It is based on the importance of critical thinking, the need to challenge stereotypes and to empower children to support change towards a more just and sustainable world.

Teachers need support in this area and that's what the Development and Intercultural Education (DICE) Project does by working with colleges of education. Chairperson Catherine Byrne says it supports teachers to integrate global and intercultural perspectives into their teaching practice. All student teachers in the colleges now take a module in development and intercultural education.

Promoting awareness of injustice and inequality in the developing world is one thing - getting people to take follow-up action is another.

Ireland has a long tradition of doing just that in Africa, firstly through the missions and more recently through the Government's Irish Aid programmes and through individual charities working on the ground.

Ethiopia is host to hundreds of western non-governmental organisations (NGOs) engaged in all sorts of initiatives, from irrigation to small scale housing to health screening and inoculation programmes. But one of the most important areas to target - arguably the most important in the long term - is education.

And, here, an Irish-founded international organisation, Camara Education, is doing extraordinary work in bringing new and refurbished computers to schools and, very importantly, providing training for local teachers as well as curriculum -aligned programmes and assessments. The word Camara comes from the Bantu dialect in West Africa and means 'teacher' or 'one who teaches with experience'. As Cormac Lynch, its founder, explained: "You put a child in front of a computer and what you have done is to give them an education, an education which allows them to learn, not through memorising but through inquiry - developing the brain and critical thinking in the process."

That's what Camara is doing with disadvantaged students in more than half a dozen countries - Tanzania, Lesotho, Zambia, Kenya, the UK, Ireland and Ethiopia - with the support of business, government agencies, trade unions and others. Since it was started in 2005, the charity and its staff have extended digital literacy to well over two million students in these countries and the aim is to reach three million within a few short years.

Camara's work is better known overseas than at home. Official recognition and encouragement abroad was scaled up recently in the form of a 10m deal which involves installing computers into 1,200 schools, with the Ethiopian government putting up three quarters of the cost. The remainder has to be raised by Camara and already Dell has chipped in with almost 550,000 in cash and computers.

Aongus Hegarty, the Limerick-born president of Dell EMC Europe, Middle East and Africa region, attended the opening of a new computer lab at the Shimeles Habte Secondary School in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa last month and talked to many of the students. He was impressed by what he saw.

"Access to education and technology is not a luxury, but a necessity and is at the centre of human progress," he told the launch.

Secondary schools in Ethiopia are huge by Irish standards - total enrolments of more than 2,000 or even 3,500 are not unusual. Not surprisingly, many work in split shifts with half the pupils starting at 8am and the remainder taking their first classes in the afternoon.

There is a hunger for education in the country that is palpable among students and their parents.

"Ignorance leads to poverty; education leads to prosperity," is just one of the slogans that adorn the walls of school buildings around the country. The "stay in education" message is preached by the government and by the school authorities.

And it is helped by having access to school computers, especially in a country where the average per capita income is only 655 per year.

Having home computers was unheard of in the schools we visited with Camara last month, but there was no doubting their benefits to the individuals fortunate to have access to them at school.

Students in all three schools we visited in Sodo in the south of the country were enthusiastic about their use. Kurem Desa gets to use a computer every day for half an hour and she says it helps a lot.

"For example, we can use them as reference about everything we have learned in class. My parents are very happy as they had no chance to access computers during their time in school," said Kurem, who wants to go to university to study engineering.

Fellow student Tsegaye Markos' first experience with computers was four years ago in school.

"It was a wonderful moment," recalled Tsegaye, who says he prefers reading online to hard copy books. The 18-year-old stressed that "education is important to me because it is a foundation for everything and the computer has helped me join the digital world".

His view was echoed by Berhanu Moreda Birbirssa, Advisor to the State Minister, Ethiopian Ministry of Education, who said that "ensuring our future generations have the right skills for today and tomorrow is critical to their success and their lives, and the continued growth and development of Ethiopia".There is four weeks to go to the start of the Leaving Cert. With the exams drawing ever closer, many students are having their last classes with their subject teachers and are preparing for the important occasion of graduating from second-level school.

Most Leaving Cert students are feeling tired and study-weary at this time, while others may be feeling stressed. It may feel like the summer holidays are about to begin, especially with the change in weather, but students are very aware that their exams are fast approaching.

There are a number of things every Leaving Cert candidate should be doing to help maximise their final weeks. As we approach the end of May, students will find they have more time for independent study, as teachers finish up new material and revision takes over.

There can be a temptation to stop attending school and to work at home. Students may believe that by doing this they will make better use of their time, focusing on the areas they find most challenging, but often this does not go as planned. They can find it very difficult to manage their own time for such a long period.

Additionally, missing revision classes may mean students are missing out. Teachers will often explore topics in different ways, which offer opportunities for new learning. There are also opportunties to discuss exam technique. Students will find that this is a great way to maximise their learning time.

It is also important to have balance. Attending school, keeping a routine and spending time with friends means brains are able to work better when it is time to work.

So avoid the temptation to stay at home indefinitely, or even irregularly. Most schools will release sixth year students before the end of May. There will be plenty of time for independent work at that stage. Students will be able to concentrate on one task or subject for a number of hours at a time - a luxury rarely available during the school week. This time can be used to practice writing essays or completing a sample exam paper.

In order to manage their time and prevent tiredness from taking its toll, it may be helpful to follow the school timetable as a guide to what they should be studying and when. For example, students should get up at the normal time and begin studying at the time their lessons would normally start. If their English class was at 9am for 40 minutes, then they should study English for 40 minutes at 9am. They should take breaks in line with the school timetable and use non-exam subject classes to focus on subjects they find more difficult. This way, by 4pm, students will have completed a solid day's work.If school offers a quiet place for students to study, it may be helpful to take advantage of this, especially for those who are finding it difficult to study at home.

Many students choose to study in the local library, but they should consider carefully how much work they will get done in this environment, especially if there are many other students studying there.

Finally, if teachers have asked students to attend school for extra classes, it is of the utmost importance that they attend. Many students may feel they would get more work done at home but this is often a false economy as students underestimate how much work can be completed by a teacher in a long revision period, and this work will help inform and improve the quality of students' own revision time. Forget about all you have not done and focus on what you can achieve between now and June. Every 20 minutes you spend studying is potentially another few points for CAO and will bring you a little closer to your goal.

Aoife Walsh is a guidance counsellor at Malahide Community School, Co DublinIn September 2015, 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were agreed by the world's 193 countries. They represent a milestone - and a goal - for humanity. They reflect the collective ambition of the global community to create a better, fairer and more prosperous world for every human being.

The significance of these 17 goals is immense. Never before have the world's countries come together to agree such a comprehensive agenda. It has been compared to that critical moment, 70 years ago, when the United Nations (UN) was created from the ashes of war and division.

The SDGs represent an ambitious plan to eradicate poverty, address environmental degradation and climate change, and build a more peaceful, fair and sustainable world.

They succeed the Millennium Development Goals. The critical difference between the latter goals and the new SDGs is that the latter apply to every country - not just to the global south.

Despite our small size, Ireland played the lead role, alongside Kenya, in successfully steering the UN negotiations on the new global agenda.

Ireland has sustained its lead role by being one of the 25 countries which volunteered to review its own implementation of the 17 goals. That review is now published as the Sustainable Development Goals National Implementation Plan 2018-2020, which is available on the Department of Communications, Climate and Environment website.

Internationally, Ireland is admired for the quality of its education system and the concomitant importance attached to education in Irish development aid policy. This policy explicitly promotes education as a human right and is pro-poor.

In addition, it has a strong focus on access to education for girls, children with disabilities and other marginalised children.

Increasing Irish aid policy is focused on quality education. It is not enough that children go to school: the quality of teaching must be that children actually learn while in school.

This commitment to quality is essential: despite the massive increases in enrolment in education since 2000, six in every 10 children are leaving school without being able to read or write. Latest estimates are that 61 million children are not in primary education at all, while over 75 million children and youth are living in crisis in 35 countries, with girls particularly affected. Over 750 million adults are illiterate.

Sustainable Development Goal 4 aims to "ensure inclusive and quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all" by 2030. It has 10 targets.

How can these challenges be met? One way to make sure goals are met is to hold stakeholders accountable.

There is a blueprint. Each year, UNESCO produces a global monitoring report which tracks progress towards the achievement of SDG 4. The 2017 report focused on accountability in education. Because education involves so many actors - teachers, schools, students, parents, governments and, increasingly, the private sector - accountability can be challenging.

One thing that is for sure is that unless and until all stakeholders assume their responsibilities, children will continue to lose out on the chance to learn, to grow and to thrive.

Dr Garret Campbell is Chairperson for the Irish Forum for Global Education, a network of teacher unions and NGOs which advocates for aid to education and the achievement of SDG Goal 4.Michael Stokes with his foster parents Ann Higgins and Barry McCabe at Croke Park in 2012. Photo: Arthur Carron/Collins

He was tiny but tough, a warrior who battled against the odds and touched many people around the country through the camera lens.

Mourners at the funeral of Michael Stokes (15) were, by turns, choked by sobs and convulsed by laughter as they gathered to remember the boy who died on Saturday after a tragic accident.

Michael's mischievous personality captured the hearts of the nation when he appeared on 'Room to Improve' as architect Dermot Bannon redesigned the house of his foster parents, Ann Higgins and Barry McCabe, in Malahide, Co Dublin. Michael famously told Bannon to "go back to the drawing board" with his plans.

Yesterday, Bannon joined hundreds of Michael's friends at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Malahide to support Ms Higgins and Mr McCabe, and Michael's birth parents, John Paul and Siobhan.

Parish priest Fr Martin Noone said while some may have thought the odds were stacked against Michael given his disability, osteogenesis imperfecta, the teenager was "tiny but tough". "There are people right around the country who would love to be part of this gathering because Michael... touched the whole country.

"In some way or other, through the lens of a camera or a cheery smile, he touched our lives."

Expand Close The funeral of Michael Stokes, at the Church of the Sacred Heart, Malahide. Photo: Stephen Collins/Photos / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The funeral of Michael Stokes, at the Church of the Sacred Heart, Malahide. Photo: Stephen Collins/Photos

Paying tribute to Michael at the end of the Mass, Eimir McGrath, who knew Michael all his life and was an advocate for him, said when he was born "a tiny fragile baby", he was not expected to survive. However, "Michael the warrior came into being".

"Inside this little body was a giant-sized heart and an enormous capacity to love us as his life unfolded."

She also spoke of Michael's hilarious turn of phrase, a classic being "I'm sweating like a dolphin".

She said he had typical teenage concerns, adding "his cool hair was very important to him". "He also might have had a kiss or two in the last few months," she revealed to laughter.

Expand Close Room To Improve presenter Dermot Bannon at the funeral. Photo: Stephen Collins/Photos / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Room To Improve presenter Dermot Bannon at the funeral. Photo: Stephen Collins/Photos

Ms Higgins thanked the staff of Temple Street Children's Hospital for their care of him throughout his life, saying they saw his bravery in his final weeks.Taoiseach Leo Varadkar meets President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina at the annual Arbour Hill commemoration ceremony in Dublin. Photo: Colin Keegan

President Michael D Higgins laid a wreath at the burial plot of leaders of the 1916 Rising as the representatives of the Government, judiciary and Defence Forces turned out for the State's annual Arbour Hill commemoration ceremony.

Arbour Hill is the final resting place of the seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Republic, including Padraig Pearse and James Connolly, as well as other executed 1916 leaders.

Those in attendance included Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle O'Neill and Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin.

Defence Forces chief of staff vice admiral Mark Mellett was also present and the celebrant of the Mass before the ceremony was Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy.

Members of the Seventh Infantry Battalion formed a guard of honour to the burial plot. There was a series of prayers including some by representatives of the Church of Ireland and the Jewish and Islamic faiths.

There was a minute's silence before 'The Last Post' and 'Amhran na bhFiann' were played.THE body of a Northern Ireland man who was killed while on holiday in Magaluf will be repatriated next week.

Aaron Henderson (30), from Coleraine, lost his fight for life in hospital on May 1 after suffering head injuries in a street attack on April 27. He was assaulted in the early hours of April 27 at the end of Punta Ballena Street.

His father Paul, posting on Facebook, wrote: "After what feels like an eternity, Aaron is finally coming home to us on Monday 14th May at 10.30am."

He added the funeral will be held at Cloyfin Park and Coleraine Cemetery.

Read More

Mr Henderson was on holiday with his girlfriend Danielle Baxter when he was assaulted. It is understood that on the night of the attack he carried on partying after his girlfriend decided to go back to their holiday accommodation early.

Ms Baxter posted an emotional tribute on social media after his death, saying: I love you Aaron Hendy Henderson always and forever, youve made me the happiest Ive ever been in my entire life.

Police in Magaluf have arrested two people in connection with Mr Hendersons death. A 35-year-old British man and a 37-year-old Spaniard who is suspected of trying to cover up the crime. They remain in custody.Taoiseach Leo Varadkar with his Cabinet and President Michael D Higgins at Aras an Uachtarain Photo: Kyran OBrien

THE Cabinet meeting had been arranged to celebrate the minority governments two year anniversary in office.

However, due to recent developments in the cancer scandal it has been decided to relocate the meeting to Dublin.

The meeting will also now focus solely on the cervical cancer scandal sparked by a High Court case taken by terminally ill patient Vicky Phelan.

An emotional radio interview this morning by Ms Phelans fellow cancer patient Emma Mhic Nhathuna increased public anger over the controversy

Meanwhile, a 2016 HSE memo detailing the agencys knowledge of the pending controversy has heaped more pressure on the government.

The Cabinet meeting was to be held in the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Newbliss, Co. Monaghan.

Expand Close Vicky Phelan who received incorrect smear test results in 2011 and was subsequently diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014. Photo: Fergal Phillips / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Vicky Phelan who received incorrect smear test results in 2011 and was subsequently diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014. Photo: Fergal Phillips

Before the meeting the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and a number of Ministers were due to visit the Ulster Canal.

A series of photocalls were planned and a major press conference to mark two years of the Governments existence.

A Government spokesman said: "The Taoiseach and Minister for Health have been dealing with the cervical cancer matter throughout Thursday and will continue doing so on Friday. The Cabinet meeting is therefore taking place in Dublin in order to continue this work.A decision by Transport Minister Shane Ross to nominate himself as a member of a cross-party committee on Seanad reform has been described as "extraordinary business".

In a highly unusual move, the minister will take a place on a 26-person working group alongside backbench TDs and senators.

He sent apologies to the first meeting of the group yesterday, where Senator Michael McDowell was elected chairperson.

A source who attended the meeting described the set-up as "chaotic" - with Fine Gael initially attempting to have it postponed before conceding that a vote for chairperson should go ahead.

Concerns

Mr Ross, who was a senator from 1981 until 2011, was reported to be against Mr McDowell's nomination.

But ultimately the minister was not at the meeting to raise any concerns.

In the Seanad, David Norris said it had been a "rocky road" for Mr McDowell to secure the chairmanship.

"I understand it was opposed by former colleagues but I am sure he will do a good job as he is a very effective lawyer," he said.

However, Mr Norris went on to attack the minister, saying it was "extraordinary business".

He said that his attitude towards the Seanad "has, in the past, been marked by a mischievous note".

"As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport - and whatever you are having yourself - his hands will be pretty much full of his ministerial job," he said.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has established the large working group to consider how best to implement the 2015 Manning Report.

Relevant

It recommended significant changes to the way senators are elected in a bid to make the Upper House more relevant.

Eight places on the group will go to Fine Gael, six to Fianna Fail and three to Sinn Fein, with the rest being spread among the smaller parties and independents.

They will be asked to finalise the complete text of a Bill to implement the final proposals.

In the 2013 referendum, 51.7pc of voters decided to save the Seanad following a proposal by then Taoiseach Enda Kenny that it should be abolished.

The Government has repeatedly promised to introduce reform in the interim, but progress has been slow.The organisation saw some 1m state funding suspended in April by Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone. Photo: Frank McGrath

The withholding of funds from Scouting Ireland is "inhibiting" their ability to hire staff to fill safeguarding roles and may have to let go current staff, the group has said.

Children's Minister Katherine Zappone suspended about 1m in State funding for the organisation in April when concerns about the group's handling of a rape allegation emerged.

Representatives of Scouting Ireland appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs yesterday.

Martin Burbridge, the vice-president of Scouting Ireland, told the committee the suspension of funding had had an "immediate and serious" impact on the group's finances.

The funding, which makes up about a third of the group's funding, pays for their national office and 34 professional staff.

If the funding issue was not resolved in time, staff would be placed on protective notice in June, Mr Burbridge said. Some "key" staff members had already left the organisation due to uncertainty. It was also proving to be an "inhibiting factor" in attracting suitable staff.

The group said 10 more staff were already required on top of the extra safeguarding staff and it "does not have the financial resources to close this HR gap".

Safeguarding consultant Ian Elliot, who compiled a number of reports into a specific case and overall procedures of the organisation, has recommended an overhaul of the way in which child safeguarding is addressed. The previous set-up allowed for lobbying of members by those party to a complaint, it was found.

Ms Zappone said it was not her intention that Scouting Ireland became insolvent. A report compiled by former senator Jillian van Turnhout into the matter is due to be completed in the coming weeks.

Scouting Ireland also apologised for any "anxiety and hurt" caused. The group pledged to improve in areas including governance and safeguarding.

Meanwhile, a barrister-led report into the handling of the rape allegation is due to be concluded by the end of May.

An allegation of rape was made by a female leader against a male leader. The complaint, disclosed in 2016, alleged the rape took place on a 2009 camping trip. When the DPP decided not to prosecute, the man was reinstated without being officially vetted again. The board later approved the man's promotion, and some directors knew of the allegation against the man.ITV presenter Robert Peston has taken to Twitter to clarify comments made on his show on Sunday about Ireland undermining Britain.

Mr Peston said he "would never say" that "Ireland has a history of undermining Britain".

On Wednesday, he tweeted: "I did not say that. I would never say that. What I said was there is a history of British governments being torn apart by policy towards Ireland- & Brexit may do that again."

He also posted a transcript of the interview with Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Brexiteer MP.

In their conversation on Sunday morning, Peston started out by saying: "I mean you are a student of British history. Ireland has undermined, the issue of Ireland in so many different ways, undermined British governments you know going back well over 100 years now. I think we're..."

He was interrupted by Rees-Moggs, who said: "Much longer than that, much more than 100 years. It's a very long and complex history, that's absolutely true and that's why there's so much determination not to have a hard border, not to have a physical infrastructure. But that is within our gift, we don't have to impose one."

Journalist Charlotte Edwards responded to Peston's clarification positively, saying that "Twitter is such a bandwagon that too many people deliberately misunderstood this- presumably for the adrenaline rush of experiencing false outrage."

The original alleged remark received backlash during the week, with DUP MP Ian Paisley responding that "Britain has underwritten Ireland for 1000 years!".Wild goats are causing trouble in Co Clare

Wild goats are causing trouble as dozens have descended onto a town in Co Clare.

Locals claim the goats are causing trouble for road users, businesses and local population in Ennis.

This group of around 22 wild goats had originally occupied a wooded area of scrub land known as the rocky road on the west side of Ennis, but in recent months they have multiplied in numbers, roaming the roads unsupervised causing hazards for businesses and road users.

Due to the chaos, the local council is to erect signs to warn motorists about the feral herd.Hush little babies: Kate Middleton tries to keep the page boys and flower girls quiet as they enter the church for her sister Pippas big day. Photo: PA

You've already spent months planning it. Flowers, dress, bridesmaids' gifts - the list is endless. Now it's time to sit down and write the invitations. But what about your friend's new baby or your sister's brood of four? Or have you decided that it's adults-only on your special day?

These are questions the royal bride-to-be Meghan Markle will have grappled with. And with the newest addition to the royal family Prince Louis only a couple of weeks' old, speculation is growing as to whether Prince William and Kate Middleton's new baby will make an appearance at the year's most eagerly anticipated wedding.

Expand Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with Prince George and Princess Charlotte / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with Prince George and Princess Charlotte

Seasoned royal watchers claim that with considerable interest in the new baby, William and Kate will not want to take the limelight away from Meghan and Harry on their big day and so will leave Prince Louis at home. However, it is expected that the couple's other two children Prince George and Princess Charlotte will be part of the ceremony as page boy and flower girl.

And while Meghan no doubt has a coterie of planners and advisors to help her with all things etiquette, the question of whether or not to make children and babies part of their big day is a question most couples have to decide upon.

You may want your own nieces and nephews at the wedding, but does this mean you have to invite all the children of all your friends, and if you don't ask them, will your guests be offended?

Wedding consultant Blaithin O'Reilly Murphy says it's a very personal decision and while some couples embrace having children at their wedding and want them to be involved in the ceremony, others have a strict no under-18s policy.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Royal brood: Will and Kates family has now become five with the arrival of their new baby boy. Photo: PA Its expected the royal children will be involved in the wedding of Harry and Meghan. Photo: Alexi Lubomirski Handout photo released by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge of Princess Charlotte taken by her mother at Kensington Palace this morning shortly before the princess left for her first day of nursery at the Willcocks Nursery School. Photo: Kate Middleton / Kensington Palace Princess Charlotte is helped up by the Duchess of Cambridge after she fell over during their visit to Airbus in Hamburg, Germany, with Prince George. Photo credit : Jane Barlow/PA Wire / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Royal brood: Will and Kates family has now become five with the arrival of their new baby boy. Photo: PA

Blaithin says while there isn't a strict etiquette around the issue, the one thing that is very important to observe is if the children are not invited, guests shouldn't try to sneak them in and hope for the best.

She recalls being at one wedding where a bride simply "lost it" when she spotted children at the drinks reception. "It's a very personal thing. I would say if you're having more than seven children, it might be a good idea to have someone to take the kids off and watch a DVD until 9 or 10pm and then it's up to the parents to mind them. If it's only one or two children at the wedding, it's up to the parents to look after them," says Blaithin. She says it's clear that if a child's name is not on the wedding invitation, they are not invited. "If your kids are over 18 they're entitled to their own invitation, but if it's a younger teenager and their name is not listed, they're not invited."

Blaithin says some couples can opt to only have the children of their siblings and no other children at the wedding and people should reconcile themselves with this decision. She says the waters can be muddied if the couple begin to cherry pick other children outside of family.

"At the end of the day, it's entirely up to the couple to choose who they invite but in the interest of peace it is good practice to be clear about who is invited. Children bring great charm to a wedding but they can also bring chaos," she says.

Video of the Day

Sandra Losty, a wedding solemniser with the Spiritualist Union of Ireland, says it can be a contentious issue and it is something she discusses with couples. "I'll get them thinking about things they maybe haven't thought about. I just flag with them that it is something they need to put some thought into," she says.

Sandra says while couples may want to have the children of friends at their special day, they don't want anything to take away from the ceremony and can be upset if a friend doesn't take a crying child out while the ceremony is taking place.

And she says while it may be difficult, it is better to have the conversation with a friend about what they'll do if their baby gets upset during the ceremony.

"It's one of those things people will avoid having the conversation about, but it helps to have the conversation," says Sandra.

Mum-of-two Claire Flannery from Dublin says she took her eldest son Seamus to the wedding of her best friend when he was only three weeks old but only after she'd discussed it with the bride first.

"If it had been someone else's wedding, I wouldn't have gone but I really wanted to be at my friend's wedding. I was pregnant when she was planning her wedding and I asked her if it would be okay to bring the baby. I think you do need to ask rather than just assume.

"It was my first baby, so I was trying to figure out what to pack and the other challenge was I was at the start of my breastfeeding journey and wasn't really comfortable feeding in public. I gave him a bottle on the day and that messed up feeding a bit and it took me a day to get back on track," she says.

"The wedding ceremony was brilliant and it was really nice to be there. I had Seamus in a sling all day and I left before the music got too loud. I could see how he was doing because he was in the sling on me all day. Overall, having a baby at a wedding was a fine experience.

"In general, for me it's mum and baby at the wedding or nobody. When you have a small baby and you're going to a wedding they should be able to go with you. My advice would be to talk to the bride and groom in advance," says Claire.

Niamh Hogan from Wexford got married to her partner Paul Hickey last summer and while they invited the children of family members, no other children were invited.

"We had a small venue and we were keeping costs down. What we did was invite family and all their kids but to friends we said no kids except for friends with babies. To be honest, most parents don't want to bring kids," says Niamh, who is mum to Bella (13).

However, she says it's different for mums of new babies and couples couldn't expect a new mum to leave her baby at home.

"I think that it's fine to have rules but there has to be give with a baby. I think the bride and groom should speak to the mum with a small baby to see what way they can help. It has to come from the bride and groom.

"You can imagine how difficult it would be for a guest to pick up the phone. What happens is the mum will decide not to go and then it's a case of 'why is she not going?' and it's awkward."BMW here is to recall more than 10,000 cars amid fears they could stall due to a faulty electrical system.

The problem is the battery in an affected car could lose connection to the fuse box. That could leave the vehicle without power and a driver unable to switch on brake or hazard lights, according to reports.

Irish-registered vehicles involved in the recall include 1 Series, 3 Series, Z4 and X1 models built between March 2007 and September 2011.

It is understood BMW Ireland is working with a number of 10,602 vehicles affected but is in contact with the Department of Transport to ascertain an accurate figure.

More than 300,000 are being recalled in the UK. So far, customers have not been advised to stop driving the vehicles.

In a statement, BMW Ireland said: This recall relates to the intermittent failure of the vehicles electrical system, due to the main power supply cable (B+ Battery Connector) connection at the distribution box.

What they describe as a technical action was announced in November 2016 but this turned into recall in 2017 and that has now been widened further.

Work to rectify the fault involves replacing a plug and is expected to take up to two hours with no cost to the customer.

Irish owners of affected cars will be advised by post in the next three weeks. Meantime if they have queries or need help they can contact their local dealer or BMW Customer Care Team on 1890 719 421.

According to the BBC, the carmaker initially recalled vehicles in the UK after an inquest into the death of man on Christmas Day 2016. It was reported that Narayan Gurung died when his Ford Fiesta crashed into a tree to avoid a broken-down BMW in Guildford, Surrey. The BMW had apparently suffered an electrical fault after which its brake lights failed and the car stalled on a dark byroad.

An investigation by BBCs Watchdog claims the fault could affect a wider number of cars.

The UKs Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is reported to have recently said the manufacturer failed to alert authorities to 19 cases of electrical faults in one of its models.

A BMW UK spokesman is quoted as saying: Now we recognise the need to widen the recall to capture a larger cohort of cars. We are widening the net as a precaution."Red Force", the fastest vertical accelerator in Europe, at the PortAventura World Parks & Resort in Salou. Photo: LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images

Looking for a holiday with a difference this year? Pol O Conghaile has the best travel adventures from Ferrari rollercoasters to freediving in the Bahamas...

1. Red Force at Ferrari Land

Expand Close Visitors enjoy the new attraction "Red Force", the fastest vertical accelerator in Europe. Photo: LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Visitors enjoy the new attraction "Red Force", the fastest vertical accelerator in Europe. Photo: LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images

What: Europes fastest rollercoaster

Why: If you like cars, and coasters, youll love Ferrari Land  a bright red, 100m theme park at PortAventura World in Spain. Unveiled last year as an uber-branded treat for thrill seekers, its highlight is both the highest (112m) and fastest (0-180kmph in five seconds) rollercoaster in Europe. The idea is that you experience the full range of F1 sensations, from acceleration through top speeds, before jamming to a halt less than 45 seconds later yikes. Other attractions include 55m tall bounce-back towers and F1 simulators. Got kids? A new childrens area opened this April.

Did you know: The worlds fastest rollercoaster is at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi (240kmph). The tallest (456 feet) is at Six Flags in New Jersey.

Details: One-day tickets for PortAventura Park and Ferrari Land start at 55 for adults and 47 for children. portaventuraworld.com/en

Read More

2. A hotel room on skis

Expand Close Aurora Wilderness Camp, Finland / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Aurora Wilderness Camp, Finland

What: See the Northern Lights from a glamping cabin

Why: Set a couple of kilometres east of Kilpisjarvi, in Northern Finland, three glamping cabins are available to rent as part of an Aurora Wilderness Camp. The cabins are on skis, deep in the Arctic Circle, and towed to an optimal spot for seeing the Northern Lights thanks to a clear roof. The cabins measure 2.5m (wide) by 4.5m (long) and are around two metres tall, with a bed, table, gas heater, stove and a dry toilet to boot. Oh, and warm drinks and breakfast are provided.

Did you know: Experts have estimated that if the sky is clear, visitors have a 70+ pc chance of seeing the Northern Lights in the Kilpisjarvi area.

Details: A three-night trip with Off the Map travel (offthemap.travel) costs from 1,599/1,824pp, excluding flights. Book now for winter 2018/19.

Read More

3. Go skydiving... indoors

What: Irelands first indoor skydiving experience

Why: Fancy freefalling at 200kmph without having to worry about heights or weather? Well, now you can  thanks to the islands first indoor skydiving centre.

Vertigo Indoor Skydiving has opened in Belfasts Titanic Quarter, allowing adrenaline junkies to experience freefall conditions. Suitable for those aged four and upwards, the technology has been used by the movie industry to film stunts for a host of blockbusters  including the final fight scene in Jackie Chans Chinese Zodiac. You can use it to train for skydiving qualifications too.

Did you know: You need to be shorter than 65 to fly. Sorry, Mr. Toner.

Details: Sessions from 45/51 with wearevertigo.com.

4. Do New York as a day trip

Expand Close Empire State Building, New York / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Empire State Building, New York

What: Take a shopping sprint to NYC

Why: Yes, its madness. But theres method to it. Norwegian, the low-cost carrier, has expanded its schedules from Dublin, and now operates double-daily departures to Stewart International. With flights set to depart at 8.30GMT, arriving in the US at 10.30am local, and leaving again at 21.25, that opens up the prospect of shopping and business daytrips. The airport express bus to Manhattan takes about 90 minutes, but the real win may be at Woodbury Common  the outlet centre in Central Valley, just a 30-minute drive away in Orange County.

Did you know: Norwegian has low lead-in fares, but checked bags and meals are extra. Keep an eye on the costs especially if youre bringing shopping home.

Details: Flights from around 119 each-way in May (norwegian.com).

5. Take a dip in the Devils Pool

Expand Close The Devil's Poll, Zimbabwe. Photo: Deposit / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The Devil's Poll, Zimbabwe. Photo: Deposit

What: The ultimate infinity pool at Victoria Falls

Why: Forget hotel infinity pools. For the Instagram to end them all, take yourself to the Zambian side of Victoria Falls, where a rock pool at the very edge of the 100m drop has to be seen to be believed. The Devils Pool is accessible in drier months from August to January, when the Zambezis water level drops, and requires a swim and a rocky walk to reach. Guides make sure you dont plummet over the edge  unlike the wild waters of the river just feet away. Just dont forget your camera.

Did you know: Some 500 million litres of the Zambezi River spill over the Victoria Falls every minute. The spray  known as Mosi-oa-Tunya (The Smoke that Thunders) can be seen over 30 miles away.

Details: Fly to Lusaka via Addis Ababa from Dublin with Ethiopian Airlines (ethiopianairlines.com). See also zambiatourism.com.

6. Snorkel between Europe and North America

Expand Close Snorkel between Europe and North America at Silfra, Iceland. Photo: Getty / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Snorkel between Europe and North America at Silfra, Iceland. Photo: Getty

What: Squeeze between Icelands tectonic plates

Why: Nope, we dont mean snorkelling across the Atlantic. Icelands Silfra Fissure, located in Thingvellir National Park, is a gap between two tectonic plates  meaning swimmers can actually insert themselves between two continents. Yes, its bloody freezing (youll be immersed in 2-4 degree glacial water). But its also safe (no diving qualifications required), fully insulated dry-suits are provided on tours, and the water is gin-clear. Bragging rights guaranteed.

Did you know: The European and North American continental plates continue to pull apart by around two centimetres every year.

Details: Trips with Extreme Iceland (extremeiceland.is) or Dive Silfra (divesilfra.is) cost from around 112. Fly to Iceland with WOW air (wowair.ie).

Read More

7. From Comeraghs to Copper Coast

Expand Close Coumshingaun, Co. Waterford. Photo: The Irish Experience / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Coumshingaun, Co. Waterford. Photo: The Irish Experience

What: A turf to surf adventure in Waterford

Why: Starting in the Comeragh Mountains, this full-day adventure sees you trek to the ocean via the Mahon River, taking in spectacular scenery (watch out for Coumshingaun, the epic corrie lake), before switching to a kayak. Paddling onto the Mahon River, and continuing out of the estuary, youll end up floating along the off-radar and underrated Copper Coast. The trip takes from 10am-5pm approx.

Did you know: Highwayman William Crotty, who was hanged in Waterford City in 1746, is said to have buried his treasure in the Comeraghs.

Details: The meet point is usually in Waterford City, with trips from 99pp with The Irish Experience (theirishexperience.com).

8. Ride the worlds fastest zip-line

What: The 125mph zip is closer than you think

Why: ZipWorld Velocity 2 is the worlds fastest zip line  and the longest in Europe. Strung over Penrhyn Quarry in Snowdonia, Wales, it sees riders hit speeds of up to 125mph  and four people can ride different lines at the same time. Riders start by building confidence on a Little Zipper, before proceeding to a new Skyline building, squeezing into stealth trollies and taking flight. The 20-degree decline means youll travel from 0-60mph in just 10 seconds. Yegadz!

Did you know: Kilkennys Castlecomer Discovery Park (discoverypark.ie) claims to have the longest zip line in Ireland, at 300m.

Details: Velocity 2 costs between 75/85 and 85/97pp (peak and off-peak). See zipworld.co.uk for more. Rides are weather-dependent.

9. Hike the Zion Narrows

Expand Close Hike the Zion Narrows in Utah. Photo: Getty / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Hike the Zion Narrows in Utah. Photo: Getty

What: An alternative Wall Street

Why: Utahs Zion National park is home to some epic slot canyons, and The Narrows see gorges taper to just 20 or 30 feet while walls tower like skyscrapers overhead. To get there, you need to wade upstream through the Virgin River  the journey can be a short sampler (turn back when you want), or an all-day adventure like the 10-mile round-trip to Big Spring. No permit is required for the hike  though you need to be comfortable in water that ranges from ankle to waist-deep. When the river is high or a Flash Flood warning is issued, the canyon closes to all travellers.

Did you know: The canyon is accessible year-round, but early spring sees higher water levels due to snow melt. October/November are least crowded.

Details: free; nps.gov/zion; utah.com.

Promoted: See the latest Groupon offers and deals on Independent Discounts

10. Learn to freedive in the Bahamas

Expand Close Dean's Blue Hole, Bahamas. Photo: Deposit / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Dean's Blue Hole, Bahamas. Photo: Deposit

What: Hold your breath in Deans Blue Hole

Why: Diving is great, but lets face it  theres a shed-load of heavy gear involved and the breathing is loud and intrusive. Enter freediving  where swimmers learn special techniques to hold their breath underwater, enjoying the freedom and mindfulness of shorter, unencumbered dives. William Trubridge is a world champion, and his Vertical Blue runs a school at Deans Blue Hole, a 200m deep salt-water swimming pool at Long Island, Bahamas. Beginner courses give students the basic techniques and theory of freediving, with an emphasis on efficient breathing, relaxation and sensitisation to being underwater. A new world awaits.

Did you know: Deans Blue Hole is the deepest cenote of its type on earth. It was formed when a limestone chamber caved in from above.

Details: Beginner courses from $525/426 (school.verticalblue.net).

NB: All prices subject to change/availability. This feature originally appeared in Linout Magazine, published with The Irish Independent.This incredible footage shows a pilot landing a Piper PA28 Warrior at Barra Airport in Scotland.

Barra Airport is the only registered airport in the world that has a beach for a runway and was voted as the second most scenic landings in the world behind Donegal Airport.

The annual poll begins with a public vote, with selections then ranked by panel of travel experts. 112 airports were nominated in 8,500 votes.

PrivateFly's Top 10 Scenic Airports 2018

Donegal Airport (Ireland) Barra Airport (Scotland) Nice Airport (France) Queenstown Airport (New Zealand) Saba Airport (Netherlands Antilles) Orlando Melbourne International Airport (USA) Toronto Billy Bishop (Canada) London City Airport (England) St Maarten (Netherlands Antilles) Miami Airport (USA)

The Top 10 is an annual bucket list for travel fans, a fascinating mix of global descents to fly in your lifetime," said PrivateFly CEO Adam Twidell.

Credit: http://www.tsia.scot/

This Irish airport has been voted the world's most scenic landingUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo greets an unidentified North Korean general on arrival at the Pyonyang, North Korea airport yesterday. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Three Americans detained in North Korea for more than a year are on their way back to the US with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, US President Donald Trump announced yesterday in the latest sign of improving relations between the two long-time adversary nations.

Mr Trump said on Twitter that Mr Pompeo was returning with "the three wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting".

The president, who had been hinting about an imminent release, said he would greet them at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington today.

"I appreciate Kim Jong-un doing this and allowing them to go," Mr Trump said yesterday before a meeting of his cabinet.

The release of the detainees came as Mr Pompeo visited North Korea yesterday to finalise plans for a historic summit between Mr Trump and Mr Kim, the North's leader. Mr Trump told reporters the summit would not take place at the inter-Korean demilitarised zone, and the venue would be announced within the next three days. Singapore has emerged as the most likely place for the meeting late this month or in early June.

North Korea had accused Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim, all Korean-Americans, of anti-state activities but their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nation's nuclear weapons.

The family of Tony Kim thanked "all those" who worked for his return and also credited Mr Trump for engaging directly with North Korea.

"Mostly we thank God for Tony's safe return," the family said in a statement, and they urged people to "continue to pray for the people of North Korea and for the release of all who are still being held".

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that Mr Trump viewed the release "as a positive gesture of goodwill".A 104-year-old British-born scientist has ended his life in Switzerland, a right-to-die group said.

Australian biologist David Goodall was declared dead at 12.30pm on Thursday, Exit International director Philipp Nitschke said.

Mr Goodall had travelled to Switzerland to take advantage of the countrys assisted suicide laws.

The scientist, described by Exit International as its first member, said this week that he had been contemplating the idea of suicide for about 20 years, but only started thinking about it for himself after his quality of life deteriorated over the last year.

He cited a lack of mobility, doctors restrictions and an Australian law prohibiting him from taking his own life among his complaints, but he was not ill.

Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland but frowned upon by many doctors and some others who say it should be reserved for the terminally ill.

Mr Goodalls supporters want the practice to be more accepted as a legitimate choice for elderly people of sound mind.

Hundreds of people  some far more frail than Mr Goodall, who used a wheelchair  travel to Switzerland every year to take their lives.

The best-known group to help foreigners end their lives in the Alpine country is Dignitas, but others include Life Circle in Basel, Mr Goodalls choice.

Speaking on Thursday in the room where he later died, Mr Goodall said: My life has been rather poor for the last year or so. And Im very happy to end it.

Mr Nitschke said that before he died, Mr Goodall had to answer several questions so he knew who he was, where he was and what he was about to do.

He answered those questions with great clarity, activated the process while music played in the background, he added.US president Donald Trump is promising quite a scene when three Americans detained in North Korea return to the mainland US after more than a year in prison.

Mr Trump and his wife plan to celebrate in person when the freed men arrive at the Washington-area Joint Base Andrews at 2am local time.

The men were released Wednesday as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un amid final plans for a Trump-Kim summit.

Expand Close The US government plane left Pyongyang with the detainees on Wednesday (Mark Thiessen/AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The US government plane left Pyongyang with the detainees on Wednesday (Mark Thiessen/AP)

Singapore is the likely site for the historic meeting, late this month or in early June, and Mr Pompeo says it would last one day and could go into a second.

The release of the three men  Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim  was only sealed about an hour before the US secretary of state departed the North Korean capital.

They walked on their own from a van and onto the plane, the culmination of Pompeos 12-hour visit to the North Korean capital, which included a 90-minute meeting with leader Kim Jong Un.

Returning to his hotel from that meeting, Mr Pompeo had given reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked if there was good news about the detainees.

A North Korean official came to the hotel shortly after to inform Mr Pompeo that Kim had granted amnesties to the three and that they would be released at 7pm local time, according to a senior US official present for the exchange.

Carl Risch, the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, and a doctor went to another hotel to pick up the men and bring them to the airport, the official said.

They finally left custody at 7.45pm, and by 8.42pm. they were flying home.

Expand Close The plane stopped at Yokota U.S. Airbase on the outskirts of Tokyo en route (Eugene Hoshiko/AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The plane stopped at Yokota U.S. Airbase on the outskirts of Tokyo en route (Eugene Hoshiko/AP)

As soon as the plane cleared North Korean airspace, Mr Pompeo called Mr Trump to inform him of the releases with the men all apparently in good health.

Even before Mr Pompeos plane had touched down for a stopover at Yokota Air Base in neighbouring Japan, the president announced to the world by Twitter that the 3 wonderful gentlemen were free.

In a statement released by the State Department, the former detainees expressed their deep appreciation to the US government, Mr Trump, Mr Pompeo and the American people for bringing us home.

They are the latest in a series of Americans to be held in North Korea for alleged anti-state activities in recent years, only to be freed during the visit of a high-level US official or statesman.

Their releases draw a line under an issue that had weighed on plans for a historic summit between Mr Kim and Mr Trump that will focus on North Koreas nuclear weapons.

Were granting amnesty to the three detained Americans, the North Korean emissary told Mr Pompeo at Pyongyangs Koryo Hotel, according to the senior US official.ea

You should make care that they do not make the same mistakes againNorth Korean official

We issued the order to grant immediate amnesty to the detainees.

Thats great, the secretary of state replied.

The North Korean official then advised that the releases would follow a very brief ceremony  which he described as more like a legal process.

The official closed with a gentle warning for the US to prevent a repeat: You should make care that they do not make the same mistakes again, the official said. This was a hard decision.Aurora Police Department released CCTV footage of a terrifying carjacking at a petrol station in Aurora, Illinois.

The footage shows the moment an 11-year-old girl who was inside the car at the time of the carjacking jump out and roll in the petrol station.

The video also shows the girl's father jumping onto the roof of a second car, trying to stop it.

The father is then seen walking back and putting his arm around his daughter.

Fortunately neither were hurt in the incident.

Tyrelle L. Pulley has been charged by the DuPage County State's Attorney's Office, with aggravated unlawful possession of a stolen motor vehicle and fleeing and eluding police.

Aurora Police Department say they are still searching for his accomplice.

Anyone with information is asked to call our Investigators at 630-256-5500 or Aurora Area Crime Stoppers at 630-892-1000.Norma Howard, 91, from Fleet, Hampshire, of her prior to a wing-walk to raise funds for Dementia UK Credit: Norma Howard/PA Wire

Norma Howard, 91, from Fleet, Hampshire, of her prior to a wing-walk to raise funds for Dementia UK Credit: Norma Howard/PA Wire

A daring 91-year-old is thought to have set a new record as the UK's oldest wing-walker.

Norma Howard took to the skies above Cirencester, Gloucestershire, strapped to the top wing of a vintage biplane at 500 feet.

The retired physiotherapist from Fleet, Hampshire, beat the record set last year by 88-year-old Betty Bromage.

She took on the challenge to raise funds for Dementia UK, rather than for thrills or record-breaker status.

Once back safely on the ground, she said: "I feel very relieved but also invigorated.

"It was cold up there and I had so many layers on me I looked like the Michelin Man. The hardest bit was actually getting up onto the plane wrapped in so many clothes."

Mrs Howard, who spends her time helping elderly friends to and from hospital, now plans to abseil Portsmouth's Spinaker Tower.

"It's only 170 metres, that's pretty much how high I was today strapped to the wing of a plane," she said.

At the age of around 80, Mrs Howard twice swam the equivalent of the England Channel in a swimming pool.

Until recently, she used to ride on the back of her son's Harley Davidson motorbike.

Eight years ago, aged 83, she sat on the handlebars of a 1925 Indian motorbike riding the Wall of Death.

A spokeswoman for Dementia UK said: "We cannot thank Norma enough for her efforts.

"All the money she is continuing to raise through pubic support will help Dementia UK's Admiral Nurses reach more people facing dementia."Omid Saidy was killed after he confronted drug dealers outside of his home Photo: Met Police

A TEENAGER has been found guilty of killing a youth worker who confronted a group of drug dealers outside his home.

Omid Saidy was knifed in the neck after he chased two teenagers from outside his house near Parsons Green, south-west London, the Old Bailey heard.

The 20-year-old had gone after the suspected dealers with his friend Oluwafemi Omotosho, known as Femi, who came off his moped and was stabbed in the chest as he lay on the ground.

Shafiq Smith, 19, and a 17-year-old, who cannot be named because of his age, were on trial accused of Mr Saidy's murder.

Giving evidence, the youth admitted drug dealing in the area but told jurors Mr Saidy had a knife and he stabbed him in self-defence.

A jury acquitted the 17-year-old boy of murder but found him guilty of manslaughter.

Smith was cleared over the killing but was convicted of wounding Mr Omotosho with intent.

Prosecutor Timothy Cray had told the Old Bailey trial: "Omid was angry that people were dealing drugs near (his) address."

He said the group had been asked to move on earlier on October 16 last year but returned that evening with their faces masked or wearing hoods.

After an initial chase by Mr Saidy and his father Majid, who had come outside with the family dog to ask the group to go away, the defendants produced knives, the court heard.

Majid Saidy told jurors the youths were "taunting" his son with the blades and he tried to tell him to "let it go".

But the victim ran after them, saying: "I'm not having this, they can't be waving knives at me like that."

A fight ensued under a railway bridge - not covered by CCTV - on Parsons Green Lane near the Tube station, in which Mr Saidy was killed and his friend was injured.

Mr Cray had told jurors: "Should they have chased the defendants? Absolutely not.

"Dealing with drug dealers is the work of the police and the events show how quickly violence can spread if individuals try and take the law into their own hands.

"But did Omid need to die for the mistakes he made, and did Femi need to be stabbed in the chest when he was lying on the ground?"

Smith, of Laitwood Road in Wandsworth, and the 17-year-old, of Shildon in Durham, who were 18 and 16 at the time, denied all the charges against them.

They will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on a date to be fixed.Mr Trump is on hand to personally greet the three released men (AP)

A military plane carrying three Americans freed from captivity in North Korea has arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, with US president Donald Trump on hand to greet them.

A Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities arrived at the base at 2.42am (7.42am BST), carrying Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim.

They had been released to US secretary of state Mike Pompeo about 20 hours earlier.

Expand Close Vice President Mike Pence, fourth from left, accompanied by his wife Karen Pence, third from left, and others arrive to greet the former North Korean detainees (AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Vice President Mike Pence, fourth from left, accompanied by his wife Karen Pence, third from left, and others arrive to greet the former North Korean detainees (AP)

Mr Pompeo was in Pyongyang to discuss Mr Trumps plans to meet with North Koreas Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks. He returned on a separate plane, joining Mr Trump, first lady Melania Trump and US vice president Mike Pence on the tarmac.

The three former detainees will be transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre for further evaluation and medical treatment.Missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defence position and other military bases, in Damascus (Syrian Central Military Media/AP)

Israels military has struck nearly all of the Iranian infrastructure sites in Syria, the Israeli government said.

Dozens of Iranian targets were attacked overnight in a wave of missile strikes in response to the rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights.

Expand Close Israel said the strike was in retaliation for a previous attack on Israeli installations (AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Israel said the strike was in retaliation for a previous attack on Israeli installations (AP)

It is the most serious military confrontation between Israel and Iran to date and Israels biggest strike in Syria since the 1973 war.

Defence minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel responded fiercely to an unprecedented rocket attack by Iranian forces in Syria against Israel. He said no-one was harmed in Israel and all the rockets were either intercepted or fell short.

Mr Lieberman told the Herzliya Conference, an annual security gathering north of Tel Aviv, that if it rains on us it will be a flood on them.Israeli missiles hit air defence positions and other military bases in Damascus, Syria (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP)

The Israeli military has said it attacked nearly all of Irans military installations in neighbouring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the occupied Golan Heights.

It is the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

Israel said the targets of the strikes, its largest in Syria since the 1973 war, included weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centres used by elite Iranian forces in Syria.

It also said it destroyed several Syrian air defence systems after coming under heavy fire and that none of its warplanes were hit.

Iranian media described the attacks as unprecedented, but there was no official Iranian comment on Israels claims.

Syrias military said the air strikes killed three people, wounded two and destroyed a radar station, an ammunition warehouse, and damaged a number of air defence units.

Brigadier General Ali Mayhoub, who read the statement on television, said Syrian air defence systems had intercepted the large part of the incoming Israeli strikes.

Israel has acknowledged carrying out more than 100 air strikes in neighbouring Syria since the civil war erupted in 2011, most believed to be aimed at suspected Iranian weapons shipments bound for the Hezbollah militant group.

Expand Close Missiles rise into the sky (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Missiles rise into the sky (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP)

But in the past few weeks, Israel has shifted to a more direct and public confrontation with Iran, striking at Iranian bases, weapons depots and rocket launchers across Syria, and killing Iranian troops.

Israel accuses Tehran of seeking to establish a foothold on its doorstep. Iran has vowed to retaliate.

Reflecting the scope of the overnight attacks, Russias military said 28 Israeli jets were involved, striking at several Iranian and government sites in Syria with 70 missiles. It said half of the missiles were shot down.

Defence minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel would respond fiercely to any further Iranian actions.

We will not let Iran turn Syria into a forward base against Israel, he said.

We, of course, struck almost all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, and they need to remember this arrogance of theirs. If we get rain, theyll get a flood. I hope that we ended this chapter and that everyone understood.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the civil war through sources inside Syria, said the overnight Israeli attacks struck several military posts for Syrian troops and Iranian-backed militias near the capital, Damascus, in central Syria and in southern Syria.

The observatory said the attacks killed 23 fighters, including five Syrian soldiers. It said it was not immediately clear if Iranians were among those killed.

Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defences over the city was heard for more than five hours.

Israel said early on Thursday that Irans Quds Force fired 20 rockets at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights.

Expand Close An Israeli soldier at an old military outpost used for visitors to view the Israeli- controlled Golan Heights, near the border with Syria (Ariel Schalit/AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp An Israeli soldier at an old military outpost used for visitors to view the Israeli- controlled Golan Heights, near the border with Syria (Ariel Schalit/AP)

Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 war, annexing it in 1981 in a move not recognised internationally.

In 1974, Israel and Syria reached a ceasefire and a disengagement deal that froze the conflict lines with the plateau in Israeli hands.

Lt Col Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said four of the rockets were intercepted, while the others fell short of their targets. The incoming attack set off air raid sirens in the Golan.

He said Israel was not looking to escalate the situation but that troops will continue to be on very high alert.

Should there be another Iranian attack, we will be prepared for it, he said.

It is believed to be the first time in decades that such firepower from Syria has been directed at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights.

Irans ability to hit back further could be limited. Its resources in Syria pale in comparison to the high-tech Israeli military and it could also be wary of military entanglement at a time when it is trying to salvage the international nuclear deal.

Iran has sent thousands of troops to back Assad, and Israel fears that as the fighting nears an end, Iran and tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen will turn their focus to Israel.Israel said it has struck Iranian targets in Syria (Jim Hollander/AP)

The Israeli military said it attacked dozens of Iranian targets in neighbouring Syria in response to an Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the Golan Heights.

The exchanges are the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

Israel said the targets included weapons storage, logistics sites and intelligence centres used by elite Iranian forces in Syria.

Overnight, IDF fighter jets struck dozens of military targets belonging to the Iranian Quds forces in Syrian territory pic.twitter.com/LwBJTMkxYR  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 10, 2018

It also said it destroyed several Syrian air-defence systems after coming under heavy fire.

The blistering Israeli assault was by far the most intensive Israeli action in neighbouring Syria since the civil war broke out there in 2011.

Israel has largely tried to stay on the sidelines, but has previously acknowledged carrying out over 100 airstrikes over the past seven years, most believed to be aimed at Iranian weapons shipments bound for the Hezbollah militant group.

The IDF will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 10, 2018

There was no immediate word on Iranian casualties.

Syrias capital of Damascus shook with sounds of explosions just before dawn, and firing by Syrian air defences over the city was heard throughout the night.

Syrias state news agency SANA quoted a Syrian military official as saying Israeli missiles hit air defence positions, radar stations and a weapons warehouse, but claiming most incoming rockets were intercepted.

In recent months, Israel has warned that it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

Iran has accused Israel of carrying out a series of deadly strikes on Iranian military positions in Syria in recent weeks, and had vowed retaliation.

Iran has sent thousands of troops to back Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Israel fears that as the fighting nears an end, Iran and tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen will turn their focus to Israel.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said Israel was not looking to escalate the situation. But he said troops will continue to be on very high alert.

Should there be another Iranian attack, we will be prepared for it, he said.

Irans ability to hit back could be limited. Its resources in Syria pale in comparison to the high-tech Israeli military. Iran also could be wary of military entanglement at a time when it is trying to salvage the international nuclear deal.

Israel considers Iran to be its most bitter enemy, citing Irans hostile rhetoric, support for anti-Israel militant groups and development of long-range missiles.

US president Donald Trumps withdrawal from the international nuclear agreement with Iran, with strong support from Israel, has further raised tensions.An official ceremony has been held to honour 61 police dogs for their years of service.

The dogs were awarded medals in recognition of their service with The National Police of Ecuador in Quito.

Their service included preventing drug trafficking, keeping public order, attending public occasions, search and rescue of missing persons in a recent earthquake and dog therapy.

The occasion also remembered seven canine partners who had died in the line of duty.

"Saying each name is remembering stories, glorious experiences and successes that enrich the history of the National Police," said one Police Officer.

The dogs - German shepherds, Labradors and Golden Retrievers - have been adopted and will spend the rest of their lives as family pets.Israeli soldiers can be seen at a military outpost in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Storks stand on an old building in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Israeli soldiers stand in the shade next to a tank near the Israeli side of the border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Israel and Iran lurched closer to an all out war in Syria on Thursday after Iranian forces allegedly fired rockets into the Golan Heights and Israel responded with some of its heaviest airstrikes in years.

The exchange of fire was the most direct confrontation between the Middle East rivals after years of escalating tensions in Syria and came just one day after Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear agreement and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

According to the Israeli military, Iranian forces based in Syria fired a barrage of around 20 rockets at Israeli troops in the Golan, the mountainous region Israel captured from Syrian in 1967 and has occupied since then.

No Israelis were hurt and there was only limited damage to Israeli positions in the Golan, a military spokesman said.

Expand Close US President Donald Trump. Photo: Bloomberg / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp US President Donald Trump. Photo: Bloomberg

Israel said the Quds Force, the expeditionary wing of Irans Revolutionary Guard, carried out the attack at around 12.10am on Thursday. Israel accused General Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Quds Force, of being behind the attack.

"It was ordered and commanded by Qassem Soleimani and it has not achieved its purpose, said Lt Col Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the Israeli Defence Forces.

Expand Close Israeli soldiers can be seen at a military outpost in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Israeli soldiers can be seen at a military outpost in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Israel struck back with widespread strikes against dozens of targets inside Syria, Lt Col Conricus said. The attack appeared to be one of the largest Israel has carried out since it began periodic strikes against Iran and its ally Hizbollah inside of Syria.

Among the targets were Iranian intelligence bases, a Quds force logistics headquarters, and a weapons depot at the Damascus international airport, according to Israel.

Expand Close An Israeli soldier stands on a tank as another jumps off it near the Israeli side of the border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp An Israeli soldier stands on a tank as another jumps off it near the Israeli side of the border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Syrian regime air defence systems also fired missiles at attacking Israeli aircraft. Israel said that it struck several of the anti-aircraft systems and also destroyed the Iranian Uragan rocket launcher used to fire the rockets into the Golan.

Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system brought down four of the rockets, the military said.

Expand Close Israeli soldiers stand in the shade next to a tank near the Israeli side of the border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Israeli soldiers stand in the shade next to a tank near the Israeli side of the border with Syria in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Syrian state media reported Israeli missile attacks targeting Baath City in Quneitra, near the border with the Golan Heights. The Syrian regime said it had intercepted several missiles over Damascus, Homs and the southern city of Suwayda.

There was no immediate word on casualties inside of Syria.

Israel said it had informed Russia, Syrias ally, of the strikes before carrying out the attack. The Israeli and Russian militaries have a deconfliction channel designed to stop the two sides from accidentally attacking each other in the crowded skies above Syria.

A long-running cold war between Israel and Iran across the Syrian border has turned increasingly hot in recent months.

Expand Close Storks stand on an old building in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Storks stand on an old building in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

At least seven Iranians were killed on April 9 during a suspected Israeli strike on the T4 airbase in central Syria, prompting Iran to vow revenge against Israel.

Hours after Mr Trump announced he was pulling the US out of the Iran deal on Wednesday, Israel allegedly carried out a strike against an Iranian facility south of Damascus. Nine people were reported killed, including some Iranian fighters.

In February, Iran allegedly launched an armed drone from Syria into Israel. Israel shot down the drone and carried out a wave of airstrikes in response. One Israeli F-16 was shot down by Syrian air defence systems during the attack, the first time Israel has lost a warplane in combat since 1982.

Israel has said repeatedly it will not allow Iran to build up a permanent military presence in Syria and is prepared to go to war to stop it.

We are determined to block Iran's aggression against us even if this means a struggle. Better now than later, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister said last week.

Nations that were unprepared to take timely action to counter murderous aggression against them paid much heavier prices afterwards.

While Israel has scored tactical military victories over Iran in Syria, it has struggled with a broader diplomatic campaign to convince world powers to rein in Irans build up in Syria.

Mr Netanyahu travels regularly to Moscow - his last visit was on Wednesday - to urge Vladimir Putin to pressure Iran out of Syria. So far the diplomatic effort has yielded few visible results on the Iranian question.

Syrian media said Thursday's attack was the first time in years that Syrians had fired at Israeli forces in the Golan Heights.

Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, anticipating an Iranian attack. Israeli residents of the Golan Heights were told to ready their bomb shelters on Tuesday after Israel spotted what it called "irregular activity of Iranian forces in Syria".

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]When Donald Trump announced he was pulling the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal, he took a sledgehammer to the European Union's long-term security, trade and energy strategies and dealt Brussels a painful blow to its pride.

The decision was met with dismay and defiance by Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign affairs chief.

She vowed the EU would press on with the deal regardless and warned the US president the bloc would protect its "economic investments" in the region.

Ms Mogherini is so proud of what she sees as a major foreign policy triumph she keeps a framed, signed copy of the deal in her office.

The agreement to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons was 12 years in the making and the work began in Brussels, which has repeatedly stressed the agreement is working.

Over the years, huge diplomatic capital and money has been spent and economic sacrifices made by imposing sanctions to finally force Tehran to the negotiating table and ultimately secure the deal.

Expand Close A protester in Tehran vents her disapproval of the United States withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. Photo: AFP/Getty / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp A protester in Tehran vents her disapproval of the United States withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. Photo: AFP/Getty

The EU wants to prevent more instability in the Middle East, not least because of the risk of increased migration flows as refugees flee conflict and the potential higher threat of terror attacks.

But Mr Trump's announcement has destabilised EU policy on trade and energy as well. Brussels prides itself on its trade deals. Thanks to EU membership, the bloc argues, it is easier to sell Greek feta cheese, German cars, and French wine around the world.

The EU was Iran's largest trading partner until it agreed to the sanctions regime that the agreement gradually relaxes in return for Iran not developing nuclear weapons.

It has now slipped to fifth, accounting for just 6pc of Iran's trade, and far behind the United Arab Emirates and China, which both account for more 20pc.

After the deal was finalised in 2015, the European Commission sent an unprecedented delegation of no fewer than eight commissioners to Iran to begin talks on opening trade and energy links.

In 2016, Iranian imports to the EU increased by 344.8pc and EU exports increased by 27.8pc. The EU exported over 8.2bn worth of goods to Iran with almost 5.5bn worth going the other way. This was expected to increase even further as Iran continued to fulfil its obligations under the nuclear deal.

European businesses have made investments which are now at risk from Mr Trump's threat of sanctions on countries "helping" Iran.

The US ambassador in Berlin has already told German companies to begin winding up in the country.

European companies will look to Brussels to protect their interests, giving EU officials a major headache as they strive to avoid a full-blown trade war over Mr Trump's threatened tariffs on EU steel imports, which Brussels says break WTO rules.

Rising oil prices, triggered by Mr Trump's announcement, are now posing a risk to the European economy, which has finally shown signs of recovery after years of recession.

Iran was also an important part of the EU's strategy to wean itself off Russian gas, which was brutally exposed by the Ukraine crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin had cut off gas supplies to the EU, the majority of which pass through Ukraine, to heap pressure on Kiev and Brussels.

Iran, which has the world's second largest natural gas reserves after Russia, was identified as the EU sought to diversify its energy suppliers to prevent being held to ransom again.

Natural gas is seen as a low carbon alternative to polluting fossil fuels by EU officials, making Iran even more attractive as it would help the bloc hit its climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. The bloc hopes, as it did with the Paris Agreement, to convince the international community to save the deal and isolate Mr Trump.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]US president Donald Trump is promising "quite a scene" when three Americans detained in North Korea return to the mainland US after more than a year in prison.

Mr Trump and his wife Melania plan to celebrate in person when the freed men arrive at the Washington-area Joint Base Andrews at 2am local time.

Expand Close The three Americans, Kim Dong Chul, left, Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song, right, had been detained in North Korea (AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The three Americans, Kim Dong Chul, left, Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song, right, had been detained in North Korea (AP)

The men were released Wednesday as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo left Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un amid final plans for a Trump-Kim summit.

Singapore is the likely site for the historic meeting, late this month or in early June, and Mr Pompeo says it would last one day and could go into a second.

The release of the three men - Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim - was only sealed about an hour before the US secretary of state departed the North Korean capital.

They walked on their own from a van and onto the plane, the culmination of Pompeo's 12-hour visit to the North Korean capital, which included a 90-minute meeting with leader Kim Jong Un.

Returning to his hotel from that meeting, Mr Pompeo had given reporters a fingers-crossed sign when asked if there was good news about the detainees.

A North Korean official came to the hotel shortly after to inform Mr Pompeo that Kim had granted amnesties to the three and that they would be released at 7pm local time, according to a senior US official present for the exchange.

Carl Risch, the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, and a doctor went to another hotel to pick up the men and bring them to the airport, the official said.

They finally left custody at 7.45pm, and by 8.42pm. they were flying home.

As soon as the plane cleared North Korean airspace, Mr Pompeo called Mr Trump to inform him of the releases with the men all apparently in good health.

Even before Mr Pompeo's plane had touched down for a stopover at Yokota Air Base in neighbouring Japan, the president announced to the world by Twitter that the "3 wonderful gentlemen" were free.

In a statement released by the State Department, the former detainees expressed their "deep appreciation" to the US government, Mr Trump, Mr Pompeo and the American people "for bringing us home".

They are the latest in a series of Americans to be held in North Korea for alleged anti-state activities in recent years, only to be freed during the visit of a high-level US official or statesman.

Their releases draw a line under an issue that had weighed on plans for a historic summit between Mr Kim and Mr Trump that will focus on North Korea's nuclear weapons.

"We're granting amnesty to the three detained Americans," the North Korean emissary told Mr Pompeo at Pyongyang's Koryo Hotel, according to the senior US official.ea

"We issued the order to grant immediate amnesty to the detainees."

"That's great," the secretary of state replied.

The North Korean official then advised that the releases would follow a "very brief ceremony" - which he described as more like a legal process.

The official closed with a gentle warning for the US to prevent a repeat: "You should make care that they do not make the same mistakes again," the official said. "This was a hard decision."Code Pink for Peace demonstrator David Barrows is arrested by police as he protests during CIA acting director Gina Haspels confirmation hearing to become the agencys next director during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. Photo: Getty

Gina Haspel, US President Donald Trump's choice to lead the CIA, has promised she will not resort to waterboarding and other harsh techniques she once helped supervise - but critics believe her reassurances fall short.

"Having served in that tumultuous time, I can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and without reservation, that under my leadership, on my watch, CIA will not restart a detention and interrogation programme," Ms Haspel told the Senate Intelligence Committee at her confirmation hearing.

Her opponents, including human rights groups and some former military and intelligence officials, say the CIA hasn't fully disclosed her role in "enhanced interrogation" programmes after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee's senior Democrat, said Ms Haspel's pledge that she'd follow the law "is not enough".

"We must hear how you would react if the president asks you to carry out some morally questionable behaviour that might seem to violate a law or treaty," Mr Warner told her. "How will you respond if a secret Justice Department opinion authorises such behaviour and gives you a 'get out of jail free' card?"

Asked repeatedly how she would respond to such an order from Mr Trump - who has supported waterboarding in the past - Ms Haspel (below) said her "moral compass is strong" and "I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral even if it was technically legal".

Expand Close Mr Barrows fellow Code Pink for Peace protesters make their point. Photo: Getty Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Mr Barrows fellow Code Pink for Peace protesters make their point. Photo: Getty Images

Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, the committee's Republican chairman, said Ms Haspel (61) is a "natural fit" to run the agency after three decades there and objected to turning the hearing into an inquiry "into a long-shuttered programme".

In 2002, Ms Haspel oversaw a secret prison in Thailand, where the 'New York Times' reported that an al-Qa'ida suspect, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was waterboarded three times. Ms Haspel said she could discuss such classified details only in a closed committee session to be held later in the day.

She also wrote a memorandum approving the shredding of videos that documented such methods.

She said her boss made the decision to destroy 92 tapes of a single detainee as a security matter and she agreed because "I understood our officers' faces were on them."She said she agreed with past findings of the Intelligence Committee's majority that in retrospect the "CIA was not prepared to conduct a detention and interrogation programme".

Pressed by Mr Warner and other members about whether those interrogation techniques lived up to American values, Ms Haspel said only she supports "the higher moral standard" that the US now imposes. She added: "The tragedy is that the controversy surrounding the interrogation programme" has "cast a shadow over what has been a major contribution to protecting this country".

Mr Trump defended her in a tweet, saying: "This is a woman who has been a leader wherever she has gone. The CIA wants her to lead them into America's bright and glorious future!"

Ms Haspel invoked the historical marker she would achieve as the agency's first female director.

She was introducing herself to the American people after spending "over 30 years under cover and in the shadows".

"I recall very well my first foreign agent meeting was on a dark, moonless night with an agent I'd never met before. When I picked him up, he passed me the intelligence, and I passed him an extra $500 for the men he led. It was the beginning of an adventure I had only dreamed of."Iranian parliamentarians burn two pieces of paper representing the US flag and the nuclear deal and chant slogans against America, shouting: Death to America! Photo: AP

US President Donald Trump has warned Iran against resuming its nuclear weapons programme after announcing he was withdrawing the US from the landmark Iran nuclear deal.

"I would advise Iran not to start their nuclear programme," Mr Trump said when he was asked about the potential consequences. "I would advise them very strongly. If they do there will be very severe consequences."

The comments came a day after Mr Trump announced he was withdrawing the US from the accord with Iran, abruptly restoring harsh sanctions in the most consequential foreign policy action of his presidency.

He declared he was making the world safer, but he also deepened his isolation on the world stage and revived doubts about American credibility with a rationale that contradicted the analyses of American and foreign intelligence sources.

Bomb

The 2015 agreement - negotiated by former President Barack Obama's administration and included the European Union - had lifted most economic sanctions against Iran.

Expand Close Misguided: Barack Obama. Photo: Getty / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Misguided: Barack Obama. Photo: Getty

In exchange, Iran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear programme, making it impossible to produce a bomb and establishing rigorous inspections.

But Mr Trump, a severe critic of the deal dating back to his 2016 presidential campaign, said in a televised address from the White House that it was "defective at its core." Yesterday he claimed the deal "was going to lead to nuclear proliferation all over the Middle East" and bragged the sanctions would be among the strongest "that we've ever put on a country".

Mr Trump also pointed to Iran's actions in countries including Syria and Yemen.

"With all of the places they're involved, it's bedlam and death and we can't allow that to happen. They've gotta understand life. Because I don't think they do understand life."

Allies in Europe had tried to keep Mr Trump in and lamented his move to abandon it. Iran's leader ominously warned his country might "start enriching uranium more than before".

The sanctions seek to punish Iran for its nuclear programme by limiting its ability to sell oil or do business overseas, affecting a wide range of Iranian economic sectors and individuals.

Major companies in the US and Europe could be hurt.

US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said licences held by Boeing and its European competitor Airbus to sell billions of dollars in commercial jetliners to Iran will be revoked.

Certain exemptions are to be negotiated, but Mr Mnuchin refused to discuss what products might qualify.

He said the sanctions will sharply curtail sales of oil by Iran, which is currently the world's fifth largest producer.

Mr Mnuchin said that he didn't expect oil prices to rise sharply, forecasting other producers will step up production. Iran's government must decide whether to follow the US and withdraw or try to salvage what's left with the Europeans.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he was sending his foreign minister to the remaining countries but warned there was only a short time to negotiate with them.

Mr Trump also left open the possibility of a new deal: "We'll make either a really good deal for the world or we're not going to make a deal at all."

He predicted Iran would choose to negotiate eventually, or face consequences. Companies and banks doing business with Iran will have to scramble to extricate themselves or run into trouble with the US government.

Meanwhile, for nations contemplating striking their own sensitive deals with Mr Trump, such as North Korea, the withdrawal will increase suspicions they cannot expect the US to stick to international agreements it signs.

Flouting

Mr Obama, whose administration negotiated the deal, called Mr Trump's action "misguided".

He said: "The consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding America's credibility and puts us at odds with the world's major powers."

Israel and Saudi Arabia welcomed the American move.

Iran has denied ever pursuing nuclear arms.

Many Iranians are deeply concerned about how Mr Trump's decision could affect the already struggling economy.

In Tehran, Mr Rouhani sought to calm nerves, smiling as he appeared at a petroleum expo. He didn't name the American president directly, but emphasised that Iran continued to seek "engagement with the world".Donald Trump's personal attorney allegedly received money from a Russian oligarch linked to Vladimir Putin, according to the lawyer representing adult film star Stormy Daniels, who is suing the US president.

Michael Avenatti claimed Michael Cohen was involved with $4.4m (3.7m) worth of "suspicious financial transactions" between October 2016 - shortly before the US election - and January 2018. He made the claim in a document released via his Twitter account.

Mr Avenatti is representing Ms Daniels, who is suing Mr Trump over a non-disclosure agreement.

Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, alleges she had sex with the US leader in 2006. She is suing the president and Mr Cohen to invalidate the non-disclosure agreement which she has claimed is void because the president did not personally sign it.

Mr Avenatti's document claims that $500,000 of the $4.4m that flowed through an account controlled by Mr Cohen came from a company controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian national with close ties to his country's president. It does not explain where he got the information from.Superdry's co-founder stepped down from the board at the end of March (PA)

Superdry will miss its profit target for the year after it was hit by bad weather, declining margins and a multimillion-pound impairment charge on a flagship store.

The retailer previously said its maximum full-year profit could be 100.6 million, but said on Thursday that profits may now be as low as 96.5 million.

In the final quarter, Superdrys store sales fell by 6% to 86.1 million. The retailer said bricks and mortar outlets remained under pressure and that revenues during the period were hit by the Beast from the East.

The retailers profits have also been knocked by a 7.2 million impairment charge on its flagship store in Berlin, and margins have declined year-on-year due to the growth of its wholesale business, alongside clearance sales.

Following the gloomy update, Superdrys share price fell by more than 11%.

Liberum analyst Adam Tomlinson said the hit to in-store sales represented sequential declines throughout the year, and that traders would not react well given that rival Next had upgraded its profit forecast by 12 million.

We remain focused on the growth opportunities ahead and confident in the quality of sustainable earnings growth we can deliver over the long term.Euan Sutherland

The asset write downs in Berlin, a key growth market, is unwelcome, and more modest top-line and margins in the 2019 financial year will come as a negative surprise, especially on a day when Next have reported surprisingly strong numbers, he said.

For the year ended April 28, Superdrys total revenue grew by 22.1%, rising from 1.3 billion to 1.6 billion.

Euan Sutherland, Superdrys chief executive, said: While the consumer environment remains challenging, we are confident that Superdrys reputation for quality, design detail and strong value for money, underpinned by our continued investment in the business, leaves us well placed.

We remain focused on the growth opportunities ahead and confident in the quality of sustainable earnings growth we can deliver over the long term.

The results come after Superdrys co-founder stepped away from the business.

Julian Dunkerton left his director position as of March 31, with creative teams stepping in to take over his product and brand work.

He transferred a block of ordinary shares worth up to 1.2 million to sea and biodiversity protection charity The Blue Marine Foundation by way of a personal donation.Donald Trump has arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington to greet three Korean-Americans as they return to the US after more than a year imprisoned in North Korea.

The president is accompanied by first lady Melania Trump. Vice president Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, are also awaiting the arrival of the former detainees.

The men were released on Wednesday as US secretary of state Mike Pompeo left Pyongyang after meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un amid final plans for a Trump-Kim summit.

Mr Pompeos plane is expected to arrive at Andrews first, followed by a military medical plane carrying the three men who had been imprisoned. They will then be transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre for further evaluation and medical treatment.

Mr Trump has promised quite a scene when Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim return, amid warming relations between the US and North Korea.

Expand Close Vice President Mike Pence, fourth from left, accompanied by his wife Karen Pence, third from left, and others arrive to greet the former North Korean detainees (AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Vice President Mike Pence, fourth from left, accompanied by his wife Karen Pence, third from left, and others arrive to greet the former North Korean detainees (AP)

Despite a middle-of-the-night landing at the base in the Washington area, red-carpeted aeroplane stairs have been prepared for their arrival, beneath a large American flag suspended between a pair of fire trucks.

The three men had boarded Mr Pompeos plane out of North Korea without assistance and then transferred in Japan to a Boeing C-40 outfitted with medical facilities for the trip back to the US.

Their families are not on hand for the ceremony.

In a statement released by the US state department, the three men said: We would like to express our deep appreciation to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the people of the United States for bringing us home.

We thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return. God Bless America, the greatest nation in the world.

Expand Close A US government plane departs from Yokota US Airbase on the outskirts of Tokyo (AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp A US government plane departs from Yokota US Airbase on the outskirts of Tokyo (AP)

Mr Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Koreas leader for the prisoners release  I appreciate Kim Jong Un doing this  and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula. Mr Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the official suggestion of the US president, according to North Koreas official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nations nuclear weapons.

Singapore emerged as the likely summit site, late this month or in early June, as Mr Trump seeks to negotiate the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula in his highest-stakes foreign policy effort yet. Mr Trump announced that the demilitarised zone between the Koreas would not host the summit. Mr Pompeo said the meeting would last one day and possibly a second.US President Donald Trump has welcomed home three Americans freed by North Korea and declared their release a sign of promise towards his goal of denuclearising the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking early on Thursday at an air base, Mr Trump called it a great honour to welcome the men to the US, but said the true honour is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.

Mr Trump also thanked North Koreas Kim Jong Un for releasing the Americans and said he believes Mr Kim wants to reach an agreement on denuclearisation at their upcoming summit.

I really think he wants to do something, the president said.

First lady Melania Trump, vice president Mike Pence, secretary of state Mike Pompeo and other top officials joined Mr Trump to celebrate the occasion at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.

The men  Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim  had been released on Wednesday amid a warming of relations between the longtime adversaries.

Shortly before 3am, the president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men had travelled and spent several minutes meeting with them privately.

The group then emerged at top of the planes stairs, where the men held up their arms in an exuberant display.

Expand Close Donald and Melania Trump walk with former North Korean detainees Tony Kim, third from left, Kim Hak Song and Kim Dong Chul (Alex Brandon/AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Donald and Melania Trump walk with former North Korean detainees Tony Kim, third from left, Kim Hak Song and Kim Dong Chul (Alex Brandon/AP)

As the men entered into view, US service members burst into applause and cheers.

This is a special night for these three really great people, Mr Trump told reporters.

On the US relationship with North Korea, Mr Trump declared: Were starting off on a new footing.

The freed prisoners appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft.

When asked by reporters how it felt to be home, one of the men answered through a translator: Its like a dream; we are very, very happy.

They later gave the president a round of applause.

After Mr Trumps remarks, the three men boarded a bus for Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre, where they are to be evaluated and receive medical treatment before being reunited with their families.

The White House carefully choreographed the event, hoisting a giant American flag between two fire engines on the ground and inviting reporters to witness the return.

The image-conscious president told reporters: I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 oclock in the morning.

Hours later, Mr Trump tweeted: On behalf of the American people, WELCOME HOME!

The highly public and politically tinged display stood in stark contrast to the low-key and very private reception that the State Department had envisioned and carried out from the moment it took custody of the men, in keeping with a tradition of trying to protect potentially traumatised victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after their ordeal.

Department officials took great pains on the prisoners release in North Korea, as well as on their flights to Japan and Alaska, to keep them sequestered not only from the two journalists travelling with Mr Pompeo but also from staffers not immediately involved in their cases.

State Department officials refused to discuss anything but the most basic details of their conditions, citing privacy concerns in keeping with the minimal amount of information they had released since the men were imprisoned.

Mr Pompeo had secured their release in Pyongyang after meeting with Mr Kim on final plans for the Trump-Kim summit.

Expand Close Mr Trump and the three released men at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland (Susan Walsh/AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Mr Trump and the three released men at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland (Susan Walsh/AP)

Singapore has emerged as the likely host of the US-North Korean summit, late this month or in early June, as Mr Trump seeks to negotiate denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula in his highest-stakes foreign policy effort yet.

Mr Trump made a point of publicly thanking North Koreas leader for the prisoners release  We want to thank Kim Jong Un  and hailed it as a sign of cooling tensions and growing opportunity on the Korean peninsula.

Mr Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the official suggestion of the US president, said North Koreas official news agency KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nations nuclear weapons.

Mr Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental US.

Those advances were the subject of President Barack Obamas starkest warning shortly before Mr Trump took office, and this is a crisis he is convinced his negotiating skills can resolve.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Mr Trump has pointed to Mr Kims willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating US moves to tighten sanctions  branded maximum pressure by the president.Donald Trump has announced the date for the summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un (Niall Carson/PA)

US President Donald Trump has said he will meet with North Koreas Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12.

The president tweeted: We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!

Mr Trump provided details for the first time about the history-making meeting between a sitting American president and the leader of North Korea over denuclearisation.

He had said he favoured holding the meeting at the Demilitarised Zone, the heavily fortified border separating the Koreas.

But the island nation was favoured by most of his advisers.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has travelled to Pyongyang twice to meet with Mr Kim in recent months, in a precursor to the Trump-Kim meeting.

Mr Pompeo returned overnight with three captive Americans during his most recent trip.

With the final details in place, Mr Trump and Mr Kim will meet in the first North Korea-US summit talks since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Mr Kim has suspended nuclear and missile tests and put his nuclear programme up for negotiation, but questions remain about how serious his offer is and what disarmament steps he would be willing to take.

Earlier on Thursday, with the American former prisoners by his side at a dark air base, Mr Trump said during a made-for-TV ceremony that it was a great honour to welcome the men back to the US, but he added that the true honour is going to be if we have a victory in getting rid of nuclear weapons.

Vice president Mike Pence, Mr Pompeo, other top officials and first lady Melania Trump joined the president in the celebration in the early hours of Thursday morning at Joint Base Andrews near Washington.

The men  Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim  had been released on Wednesday amid the warming of relations between longtime adversaries.

Mr Trump thanked Mr Kim for releasing the Americans and said he believes the North Korean leader wants to reach an agreement on denuclearisation at their upcoming summit.

I really think he wants to do something, the president said.

Mr Pence said on NBC News: In this moment the regime in North Korea has been dealing, as far as we can see, in good faith.

Singapore had emerged as the likely host of the summit after Mr Trump yielded to the concerns of his aides and backed off his desire to hold the meeting at the inter-Korean Demilitarised Zone.

Located at the southern tip of Malaysia, Singapore is a regional hub in South East Asia whose free enterprise philosophy welcomes trading partners from everywhere.

It has close diplomatic and defence ties with the US and yet is also familiar ground for North Korea, with which it established diplomatic relations in 1975.

Shortly before 3am, the president and first lady boarded the medical plane on which the men had travelled and spent several minutes meeting with them privately.

The group then emerged at the top of the planes steps, where the men held up their arms in an exuberant display.

US service members burst into applause and cheers.

This is a special night for these three really great people, Mr Trump told reporters.

On the US relationship with North Korea, Mr Trump declared: Were starting off on a new footing.

The freed prisoners appeared tired but in excellent spirits, flashing peace signs and waving their arms as they emerged from the aircraft.

When asked by reporters how it felt to be home, one of the men answered through a translator: Its like a dream; we are very, very happy.

They later gave the president a round of applause.

Suggesting that recovery from their ordeals would take time, Mr Pence recounted that Mr Pompeo told him that at the refuelling stop in Anchorage one of the detainees asked to go outside the plane because he hadnt seen daylight in a very long time.

Expand Close Donald Trump greets Tony Kim, Kim Hak Song and Kim Dong Chul (Susan Walsh/AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Donald Trump greets Tony Kim, Kim Hak Song and Kim Dong Chul (Susan Walsh/AP)

The White House choreographed the arrival event, suspending a giant American flag between two fire engines on the ground and inviting reporters to witness the return.

The image-conscious president told reporters: I think you probably broke the all-time-in-history television rating for 3 oclock in the morning.

The men were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre, where they were to be evaluated and receive medical treatment before being reunited with their families.

The public display stood in stark contrast to the low-key, private reception that the State Department had envisioned, in keeping with a practice of trying to protect potentially traumatised victims from being thrust into the spotlight so soon after their ordeal.

Mr Trump entered office as an emboldened North Korea developed new generations of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental US.

Crediting himself for recent progress, Mr Trump has pointed to Mr Kims willingness to come to the negotiating table as validating US moves to tighten sanctions  branded maximum pressure by the president.

Expand Close Donald and Melania Trump with the freed men (Alex Brandon/AP) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Donald and Melania Trump with the freed men (Alex Brandon/AP)

Mr Kim decided to grant amnesty to the three Americans at the official suggestion of the US president, said North Koreas official news agency KCNA.

North Korea had accused the three Korean-Americans of anti-state activities. Their arrests were widely seen as politically motivated and had compounded the dire state of relations over the isolated nations nuclear weapons.

The last American to be released before this, college student Otto Warmbier, died in June 2017, days after he was repatriated to the US with severe brain damage.

Mr Warmbier was arrested by North Korean authorities in January 2016, accused of stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labour.

His parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit, accusing the government of torturing and killing their son.

We are happy for the hostages and their families, the Warmbiers said in a statement. We miss Otto.In this edition of India Briefing Magazine, we make the case for why now is the right time for foreign firms t...India is the worlds third largest startup hub; a reported 1,000 new companies were incorporated in 2017.

Since 2015, Indias startup ecosystem has steadily matured. Indian startups are diversifying their focus across a myriad of economic segments and have embraced technological innovation to meet the countrys unique challenges. At the same time, local companies are yet to disrupt the Indian economy  to the extent that some of their foreign counterparts have.

Foreign companies partnering with Indian startups can leverage their own technological expertise to create disruptions in the economy while up-skilling Indias legion of engineering, information technology (IT), and business management professionals.

In exchange, Indian startups will provide not only access to networks and industry talent, but also critical assistance in localizing products and services for the Indian market while attracting new flows of India-oriented funders.

Indias maturing startup ecosystem

In 2015, Indian startups received an estimated US$9 billion spread over more than 1,000 deals. Funding in 2015 surpassed the total cumulative capital that Indian startups received in the previous four years combined.

This sudden, global interest in Indian startups is part of a larger story  one that sees deepening internet access among Indias 1.3 billion people, which has accelerated through flagship government incentives, such as Digital India and Startup India.

Many of the startups benefiting from such unprecedented funding exposure specialize in business-to-consumer (B2C) services, which replicated the working business models of global online unicorns  Uber and Amazon.

In 2016, however, the euphoria for the Indian startup waned. Funding dipped to US$4 billion, and several startups that took advantage of early funding frenzies faced tougher investor questions about the workability of their business plans and scalability of their operations. Business models lifted from Western companies naturally struggled to succeed outside Indias metro cities and into key tier II and III cities.

If 2016 was a year of growing pains for Indias startups, then 2017 has been the year of maturity. Out of 1,000 new startups that formed in 2017  over 20 percent are based in tier II and tier III cities. Startups have brought in neighbourhood and mom and pop stores onto the digital marketplace and have innovated hyperlocal services. Additionally, many such ventures are targeting regional market shares by making their platforms available in local language interface and modified for mobile consumers with low data access.

In the first half of 2017, Indian startups raised over US$11 billion in funding. Admittedly, the majority of this funding  nearly US$9 billion  went to ten companies, including PayTM, Ola, and Flipkart.

Smaller companies, however, continue to receive millions of dollars in capital. Importantly, a trend has emerged whereby several new digital startups are being led by industry insiders. These individuals are guiding the next generation of startups based on their experiences working in established Indian firms valued at over US$1 billion.

In 2017, Indias federal government eased compliance requirements and foreign funding restrictions on startups. This is because the government now recognizes the importance of Indias startup ecosystem  to attract FDI, create jobs, and boost Indias industry capabilities.

Digital solutions for Indian problems: Profiling emerging startups

Out of the estimated 3,000 startups active in India, 60 percent work in B2C sectors, which sell directly to consumers; a growing 40 percent of Indian startups work in business to business (B2B) verticals, which sell to or service other businesses.

The most successful Indian startups in B2C focus on services such as food delivery, e-commerce, financial technology, travel and hospitality.

Successful Indian startups in B2B utilize advanced technologies like cloud computing, AI, and big data to increase operating efficiency, track consumer habits, and minimize costs.

Agricultural technology

Over 58 percent of rural India depends on agriculture for their livelihood. Though India is one of the largest producers of fruits and vegetables, export potential is rarely met due to high levels of food wastage. The agricultural technology (AgriTech) industry in India has a US$200 billion potential in rationalizing supply chains and improving farming efficiency.

There are 250 Indian companies working within AgriTech. In 2016, an approximate US$313 million went to 53 AgriTech startups. These startups have incorporated local languages into their digital applications to work directly with rural farmers. FarmLink, an AgriTech company from Mumbai, directly connects farmers to industrial level food processing  eliminating a long chain of market middlemen who add to cost and waste in the transportation of produce.

Financial technology

There are an approximate 360 active Indian startups in financial technology (FinTech). In the first half of 2017, Indian FinTech startups received over US$200 million in funding. Many of these companies utilize AI and machine learning to create fast and reliable micro-finance and insurance platforms for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The 2016 demonetization of high currency notes sparked a proliferation of electronic payment systems for both B2C and B2B throughout India. PayTM, one of the countrys leading FinTech startups to capture Indias post-demonetization e-commerce momentum, received US$1.4 billion in funding in the first half of 2017.

Healthcare technology

There are at least 320 healthcare technology (HealthTech) based startups currently active in India. In the first half of 2017, HealthTech companies in India received US$160 million in funding. Netmeds, for example, delivers prescription medicines to small towns and villages across India. Practo, which raised US$55 million in 2017, allows users to assess health issues, book medical appointments, and store records on the same platform.

Other HealthTech companies have rolled out affordable medical and fitness devices, which can be linked to smartphones and other devices.

Biological technology

Startups in the biological technology (BioTech) have focused on outsourcing both research and clinical trials from larger institutions and use big data to innovate solutions to public health challenges. For instance, Bangalore based Bugworks received US$2.6 million in 2017 to develop treatments for multidrug-resistant infections. While the active number of Indian startups working in BioTech is currently unconfirmed, the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises anticipates an ambitious creation of 2,000 biotech companies by 2020.

Localizing disruption

Indian startups have successfully adapted global business models to the peculiarities of the country. However, as the Indian business tycoon and startup investor Ratan Tata recently remarked, startups in India have yet to prove to be truly disruptive.

While Indian companies have begun to embrace advanced technologies, Indian professionals often lack the necessary skills to activate its full potential. Here, foreign businesses can leverage their own expertise from their markets back home. As foreign companies bring in new technologies, domestic startups can assist in localizing business strategies: forging game-changing products and services that will succeed throughout the subcontinent.

Access to new capital: Benefits of an Indian partnership

Foreign companies looking to partner with Indian startups will not only gain new market access, they will also access new funding opportunities. Recent estimates place unutilized, India-directed startup funding at a massive US$25 billion.

Foreign and local investors are earmarking an increasing amount of funds towards Indian startups with unique, culturally-minded business models that incorporate new technologies. Ratan Tata, for example, recently co-founded a US$300 million venture capital fund for Indian startups in partnership with the University of California.

As Rohit Manchanda of the New South Wales Government explained, Indias rapid growth coupled with the hunger for innovative solutions to cater to Indian needs, provides opportunities for startups globally to offer their unique solutions in India and also partner with Indian startups for co-development.

Such participation, collaboration, and partnership will allow businesses to embed themselves as key components of Indias rapidly evolving, technologically-oriented economic growth story.Images: twitter.com/narendramodi, twitter.com/RahulGandhi

Bengaluru, May 10 (IBNS): The campaign for the Karnataka polls, which is scheduled to be held on May 12, will end on Thursday.

The election fever in the state is high as several heavyweight political leaders are campaigning for their respective parties.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaih have addressed several rallies across the state in the last few days.

Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi too joined her party's campaign trail on Tuesday.

The results will be out on May 15.

The state is one of the last few strong holds of the Congress.



Bengaluru, May 10 (IBNS): Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said rape and atrocities against women is a political issue and his party will continue to raise it.

Rahul made the comment while addressing a press conference on the last day of Karnataka poll campaign.

When asked whether Congress is politicising the issue of rape, Rahul said: "Rape and atrocities against women is absolutely a political issue.....Modi does not like to speak about fundamental issues but we will continue to raise it."

During the campaign trails, Rahul has repeatedly attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for remaining silent on Kathua and Unnao rape cases.

He had also twisted Modi's government's slogan "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao" to "Beti Bachao from BJP men".

Reacting to the personal attacks by Modi during the election campaigns, Rahul said: "Modi has anger against me which is his problem. It is not my problem."

In almost an-hour long press conference, Rahul has touched upon a series of issues in which the Congress president felt the central government failed.

Hitting out at the BJP government's foreign policy, the Congress president said: "Our foreign policy has been decimated."

Referring to Doklam issue, Rahul said: "I expected the PM in China to go there and speak about Doklam. He went there but didn't speak anything about Doklam. He spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping but didn't speak about Doklam."

Countering Modi's accusation against Congress of using religion (Hinduism) in the polls, Rahul said the saffron outfit does not understand the meaning of "Hindu".

Sounding confident, Rahul said the Congress is sure of winning the Karnataka polls, which will be held on May 12.Image: twitter.com/RahulGandhi

Bengaluru, May 10 (IBNS): Congress president Rahul Gandhi has said his mother Sonia Gandhi, who is an Italian by birth, is an Indian more than many in the country, while countering Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sarcastic reference to Sonia's native language.

Modi, during his election campaign, had said Rahul Gandhi can discuss over Karnataka poll in his mother's language.

Reacting to Modi's comment, the Congress president said on Thursday, "My mother is an Indian more than many in the country. She has spent major part of her life in India. She has sacrificed for the country."

Rahul made the comment while addressing a press conference on the last day of Karnataka campaign.

Reacting to the personal attacks by Modi during the election campaigns, Rahul said: "Modi has anger against me which is his problem. It is not my problem."

The Karnataka assembly poll is scheduled to begin on May 12.

The poll results will come out on May 15.



New Delhi, May 10 (IBNS) : Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals nephew Vinay Bansal was on Thursday arrested by police on graft charges, media reports said.

The Hindu said quoting sources that Bansal was arrested from his residence in north west Delhi's Pitampura for his involvement in the scam relating to the construction of drains by the Public Works Department (PWD).

Three FIRs had been filed by the ACB in connection with the alleged scam exactly a year ago.

The ACB registered the case in 2017 against the company Renu Constructions and named Vinay Bansals father Surender Bansal and others involved in the companys operations.

Surender Bansal passed away soon after he was named in the FIR registered against his company.

The FIRs were registered on the basis of a complaint by Rahul Sharma, the founder of NGO Roads Anti-Corruption Organisation (RACO) which alleged irregularities in the grant of contracts for roads and sewer lines in Delhi in 2015-16, The Hindu said.

The AAP termed the arrest as motivated and an act of political vendetta.Lucknow, May 10 (IBNS) : Twelve people were killed and as many injured in a dust and thunderstorm that hit parts of western Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday evening, media reports said.

According to reports, Etawah, Mathura, Agra, Aligarh and Firozabad bore the brunt of the nature's fury and accounted for the deaths.

On Tuesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had issued a warning of thunderstorm accompanied with squall.

The Regional Met office in Lucknow has predicted more such storms in the next 24 hours..

Wednesday's storm comes days after a dust storm, accompanied by rain, wreaked havoc across Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan, killing more than 100 people.Ranchi, May 10 (IBNS) : Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Thursday got three-days parole to attend his elder son Tej Pratap Yadavs marriage in Patna, reports said.

Lalu Prasad may reach Patna late on Thursday evening.

The former Chief Minister, convicted and jailed in multiple fodder scam cases, had initially applied for five-days parole. He has been undergoing treatment at RIMS hospital in Ranchi, where he was admitted after complaining illness in Birsa Munda Central jail of Ranchi.

His elder son Tej Pratap Yadav, an MLA and and former state minister, will tie nuptial knots with Aishwarya Rai, daughter of party legislator Chandrika Rai and grand daughter of former Chief Minister Daroga Prasad Rai, on May 12 at Patna's veterinary college ground.

The engagement was held at a hotel in Patna on April 18 but Lalu Prasad was conspicuous by his absence in the ceremony. Later, an emotional Tej Pratap posted Miss you Papa on his Twitter account.

Last week, the medical board of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi, where Prasad is admitted on health ground, had declared him as stable for granting parole to him. Mr. Prasads health bulletin says everything is normal...he is stable and healthy, RIMS superintendent R.K. Shrivastva had said.New Delhi, May 10 (IBNS) : In a curt message to Kashmiri separatists, Army chief Bipin Rawat has said that azaadi for the valley will never happen as one cannot fight the Army.

In an interview to The Indian Express, General Rawat said, I want to tell Kashmiri youth that Azaadi isnt possible. It wont happen. Dont get carried away unnecessarily. Why are you picking up weapons? We will always fight those who seek Azadi, those who want to secede. (Azadi) is not going to happen, never.

The Army chief said that he is concerned about the youth, who are misled and told that picking up guns is the path to bring azaadi which will never come true.

Rawat further said that he doesnt attach much importance to the number of militants who are killed in encounters with the Army. These numbers dont matter to me because I know this cycle will continue. There are fresh recruitments happening. I only want to stress that all this is futile, nothing is going to be achieved by them. You cant fight the Army."

Image: Wikimedia CommonsBengaluru, May 10 (IBNS): On the last day of the Karnataka poll campaign, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Amit Shah took on the Siddaramaiah government by calling it the most "unsuccessful" since independence.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Shah said: "The Siddaramaiah government has been proved to be the most unsuccessful government since independence."

"Law and order has completely derailed in the state and we have witnessed a number of officers committing suicide" he added.

Shah has alleged the Congress-led Karnataka government to do nothing for the farmers in the state. "The Siddaramaiah government did nothing for the farmers and they are not even ready to give answers for their failure."

Shah has also claimed that the BJP will form the next government, ousting the Congress from power in Karnataka.

Shah had campaigned in the Badami constituency, where Siddaramaiah is contesting his poll.

Apart from Badami, the Karnataka Chief Minister is also a candidate from Chamundeshwari.

The state poll is scheduled to be held on May 12. The poll results will be declared three days later on May 15.Guwahati, May 10 (IBNS): The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and Assam Rifles seized gold biscuits weighing around 12 kg valued at Rs 3.62 crore in Manipurs Moreh town along with Indo-Myanmar border on Thursday.

According to the reports, on the basis of specific intelligence developed by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), a joint team of DRI and Assam Rifles conducted an operation and made a seizure of 12.075 kg of gold worth of Rs 3.62 crore.

A top DRI official said that, the joint team of DRI and Assam Rifles at PVCP Khudengthabi stopped two Maruti Van travelling from Moreh towards Imphal for checking.

While carrying out thorough inspection of the vehicle, gold biscuits were found hidden inside the front and rear tyre of both vehicles.

DRI and Assam Rifles troops apprehended two persons.

The gold was smuggled into India through the Indo-Myanmar border.

The gold have been seized under the customs act 1962.

Further investigation is on in the case.

DRI is the lead agency to combat cross border crime involving smuggling of gold, consumer goods, drugs and narcotics, wild life articles, Fake Indian Currency Notes and counterfiet goods, import-export frauds and trade based money laundering.

The North Eastern region including Assam having boundaries with Burma, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and China is particularly sensitive from the perspective of smuggling acitivities and cross border crime.



(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath, Guwahati)New Delhi, May 10 (IBNS): President Ram Nath Kovind visited Siachen Base Camp on Thursday and addressed the soldiers posted there.

He also visited the Kumar Post.

President Kovind is the second President of India to visit Siachen.

The previous visit was undertaken by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in April 2004.

This makes President Kovind the first President to travel to Siachen in 14 years.

Addressing the soldiers on Thursday, President Kovind said that as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and as the President of India, he has come among them carrying the gratitude of the entire country.

The President noted that Siachen is the worlds highest battlefield and it is difficult to live even a normal life in the extreme climate.

"In such a situation, it is extraordinary for soldiers to stay in a state of constant mobilisation and combat readiness. Their determination and dedication is worthy of the highest praise  and their allegiance to the defence of India is an ideal for all our fellow citizens," said he.

"The bravery and valour of soldiers deployed in Siachen over the past 34 years," the President said, "has given every Indian the confidence that our borders are safe and secure."

The President said he had come to Siachen to iterate to the troops posted here that all citizens of India and the Government of India were always with them and supportive of their families.

The President also paid his respects at the Siachen War Memorial, which is a symbol of the sacrifice of 11,000 soldiers and officers who have been martyred since the Indian Army began Operation Meghdoot on the Siachen Glacier on April 13, 1984.

New York, May 10 (IBNS): Congratulating Lebanon on holding parliamentary elections on Sunday , United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the countrys political leaders to work in "a spirit of unity".

In a statement, Mr. Guterres urged the countrys political leaders to present a united front "with a view to furthering the ambitious agenda set out by Lebanon and its international partners.

The elections represent a vital step in strengthening Lebanons state institutions and consolidating its democratic tradition, added the Secretary-General.

The UN chief also said that he looks forward to the formation of the new government.

The statement added that the whole UN system would continue to support Lebanon and its "sovereignty, stability, and political independence in accordance with the Taif Accord  the agreement which ended the decades-long civil war in the country  as well as relevant Security Council resolutions".

Sunday's parliamentary vote for the first to be held since 2009.

It is also the first time Lebanon has gone to the polls since the start of the Syrian crisis, which has driven more than 1.5 million desperate Syrians from their homes, to seek refuge in the country.

UN Photo/Eskinder DebebeNew York, May 10 (IBNS): Trade and employment laws which give women greater access to the economy across East Africa, can pave the way for more inclusive development and prosperity, according to a new report from the United Nations trade body.

Crediting improved education, employment and other key areas, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said on Wednesday that East African countries can put better policies in place to address gender inequalities and bring women further into the workforce.

In its new report, East African Community Regional Integration: Trade and Gender Implications, UNCTAD analyses the impact of regional integration on women's employment and quality of life in the five East African Community (EAC) countries of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda  the sixth, South Sudan, joined in 2016.

Gender equality is not a natural outcome of the development process and there is a need to proactively promote gender equality policies, UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi said, adding: The analytical work in this report is accompanied by practical ideas.

One key recommendation is to close the education gender gap and improve skills training so women can compete more for higher-paying jobs. Another is to create a regional credit mechanism to support women entrepreneurs.

Gender chapters could also be included in future free-trade agreements, along with uniform monitoring of how the important 2017 EAC Gender Equality and Development Bill is being put into practice.

This new analysis is another UNCTAD contribution to the debate on how we, together, can make trade policy more gender-sensitive, and pave the way for more inclusive prosperity that leaves no one behind, Kituyi explained.

Although the economy has already shifted away from farming towards services, and to a lesser extent, industry, 96 per cent of women in Burundi, 76 per cent in Kenya, 84 per cent in Rwanda, 71 per cent in Tanzania and 77 per cent in Uganda still work in agriculture.

Women also shoulder a higher share of unpaid care work, which, in turn, limits their availability and flexibility to do paid work.

And despite equal property rights, says the report, womens land ownership remains low in many countries: just 35 per cent in Kenya and Uganda own their own land, and 46 per cent in Rwanda.

Based on the reports findings, UNCTAD has also released a document designed to benefit women in the region, called Advocating for gender-sensitive trade policymaking in the East African Community.

The research was funded by the Netherlands through TradeMark East Africa and conducted by UNCTADs Trade, Gender and Development Programme.

UNCTAD/AdamKaneNew York, May 10 (IBNS): Paying tribute to all victims of the Second World War  on whose ashes the United Nations was founded  Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described this years commemoration as more meaningful than any that has gone before.

We see a world in which conflict is proliferating, we see a world in which so many wars are taking place, and so I believe it is absolutely essential to remind us all of the lessons of the Second World War that, for the Soviet Union, was considered the Great Patriotic War, he said on Wednesday, speaking at the Second World War exhibit at UN Headquarters in New York.

He also highlighted the fact that it was the Soviet Union which had made by far the greatest sacrifice in terms of military effort and losses sustained during the war against Nazi Germany, until its unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.

Guterres pointed out that Neo-Nazi messages have recently been resurfacing. He pointed to political movements that either claim neo-Nazi affiliation, or make use of its symbols and hateful language.Recalling the unimaginable, devastating destruction, the UN chief said: We absolutely need to make sure that in the world, these kind of events do not take place anymore.

This is a cancer that is starting to spread again, and I think it is our duty to do everything possible to make sure that this horrible disease is cured, he said.

He said that the memory of those who sacrificed their lives in the Second World War should help us to defeat any form of neo-Nazism in todays time.

Stipulating that the worst crime of all perpetrated by the Nazis was the Holocaust, he warned that anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred were again proliferating in the world.

I sincerely hope that the lessons of this May victory, will help us defeat this resurgence of ideas and convictions that I thought had been buried for ever, said the Secretary-General.

It is our duty to do it, because we cannot accept the return of these ideologies, he concluded.

UN NewsOttawa, May 10 (IBNS): Canadian Tire has signed a deal to buy Norway-based Helly Hansen, which is a maker of sportswear and workwear, for $985 million, media reports said.

As per the deal, Canadian Tire also assumed $50 million in debt.

Canadian Tire chief executive, Stephen Wetmore, has been quoted by CTV News, "For more than 10 years, Helly Hansen has been an exceptional fit with CTC and this acquisition will strengthen our assortment across all of our banners."

"With our capabilities and Helly Hansen's trusted global brand and management team, we see tremendous opportunity for CTC and Helly Hansen, in Canada and internationally."

Helly Hansen CEO, Paul Stoneham, has been quoted by CTV News, "CTC provides us with the ideal platform to further accelerate our growth trajectory and also strengthen our Canadian presence. This is a great opportunity for Helly Hansen and our team."

"CTC provides us with the ideal platform to further accelerate our growth trajectory and also strengthen our Canadian presence. This is a great opportunity for Helly Hansen and our team."Ottawa, May 10 (IBNS): The use of electronic voting machines and voter lists for the first time in Jun 7 Ontario elections, would help speed up both the voting and ballot-counting process, media reports said.

In most of the ridings in Ontario, voters paper lists would reportedly be replaced by an electronic version called e-Poll Book.

The public has an expectation as a modern society to expect modern services and this is what were trying to do, Cara Des Granges, who provides strategic policy and communications advice to executives and organizations, said.

When the voter arrives at the polling booth, voters notice of registration card would be scanned by a machine.

An official would then reportedly give the voter the ballot to be filled and returned to the official, who would put it through the tabulating machine.

During the Whitby-Oshawa riding on the Feb. 11, 2016 byelection, counting of ballots by the new machine took 30 minutes compared to 90 minutes by hand, reported Elections Ontario.

Were hoping this will be much more efficient for the voter, said Des Granges. Getting results should be faster and the technology is proven to be more reliable than tabulating votes by hand.



The report also said the new technology would help with another election issue of staffing.

Elections Ontario is increasingly unable to find the required number of polling officials, wrote Greg Essensa, the provinces Chief Electoral Officer in the byelection report, titled Proposal for a technology-enabled staffing model for Ontario provincial elections.

According to the estimates of Elections Ontario, due to electronic voting machines and voter lists on Jun 7 elections, it would need about half of the polling officials compared to 2014 elections, Des Granges said.

But the new technology, official reports said, has its own faults.

Due to the connectivity issues by some e-Poll Books, the staff had to revert to the paper lists.

In other times, some of the scanners did not function, an issue which could not be resolved by the staff.

As a result the machines will be available in about 50 percent of the voting locations, but will serve 90 percent of the electorate.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

Images: Elections Ontario/Twitter, Greg Essensa/TwitterWhat does it mean to be called an Uncle Tomahawk?

By Ivan Star Comes OutNative Sun News Today Columnist

Upon returning from that unpopular Southeast Asian war in 1969, I was called some very vindictive names and spit on while still in uniform. Since then, I have always expected such behavior from non-natives, not natives. In fact, it was the immediate families and relatives who showed any respect for approximately 276 returning Oglala Lakota veterans.

Personally, my friends and the 58,000-plus young men Killed In Action are imbedded permanently in my soul. Then there are the nine homeland Lakota men who lost their lives in Vietnam. We served despite the fact that the government and military did not tell us we were fighting a corporate war. Instead they said we were defending democracy and freedom. Anyway, we did not run like so many non-natives did.

Anyway, in the violence-ridden days following the 71-day takeover at Wounded Knee, I was once called Apple by a local English-only, culturally handicapped, American Indian Movement sympathizer. This name was used to mean that I supported the cause only on the outside (red) but that I was anti-cause (white) on the inside. I was also called goon by the same group.

Recently, in the midst of the turmoil of poverty, alcohol/drug trafficking, and government corruption on the Pine Ridge, I heard the moniker Uncle Tomahawk. I ignored it at first until I learned what it meant. The name was directed at Indian veterans. I have been called many names, but never this. I am inclined to think that this divisive name came out of a personal agenda or cause.

Ivan F. Star Comes Out. Photo courtesy Native Sun News Today

Anyway, I deciphered the word tomahawk. Its predecessor was a general purpose tool (stone hatchet) used by Indians. The 17th century Royal Navy used a metal version and adapted the name from the Algonquian language. It was used as a boarding axe on fighting ships and the colonists used them as a trade-item for food and other needs. Thus tomahawk is known today as a close-quarter combat weapon.

Uncle Tom is the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowes 1852 novel, Uncle Toms Cabin. The term Uncle Tom is now used as a derogatory moniker for an exceedingly subservient person, particularly when that person is aware of their own lower-class status based on race. In other words, Uncle Tom refers to a black man considered to be excessively obedient or servile.

Thus, Uncle Tomahawk refers to a Native American who emulates or adopts the behavior of the mainstream culture, a servile Native American (Dictionary of American Slang, 1970). A North American Indian who is considered to be excessively obedient to or cooperative with the white establishment (Oxford).

This name is now applied to Indian veterans of the United States military and clearly implies that we are all defectors or traitors to our own heritage. Anyway, Lakota language is my first language and I continually struggle to recover my culture and cope every day with my personal war trauma and thats all I got to say about that (Forest Gump, 1994).

WWI Indian veterans hold the lofty status of regaining our congressionally outlawed cultural customs. One old WWI song speaks of this, I defended the flag, so they gave me back my songs. In the wake of this event, Congress enacted the Religious Freedom act of 1978.

I realize war is not the best thing to keep in mind but there relatives who are veterans of the Korean War (1950-1953) and Vietnam (1965-1975) and now the Gulf War (1991-present) still walking amongst us. Im not sure about WWII veterans today but all of them will never be forgotten as long as the families are present. These facts are not going to change any time soon.

The Korean War (1950-1953) took more than 36,900 lives, 103,284 wounded or missing and 7,747 soldiers are still classified as Missing in Action. Many suffered hypothermia and frostbite from the freezing combat conditions. This was the war where jet aircraft and helicopters were used. The war has been called the Forgotten War.

Nine hundred thousand soldiers served in Vietnam. 58,000-plus were Killed in Action with 303,704 Wounded in Action. 2,500 are still classified as Missing in Action. 32,000 natives served in Vietnam. The majority of these men volunteered and at least 50% saw actual combat. 276 young Oglala Lakota entered the war in Vietnam (1965-1975), of which nine were killed in action.

Ivan F. Star Comes Out can be reached at P.O. Box 147, Oglala, South Dakota, 57764; via phone at 605-867-2448 or via email at mato_nasula2@outlook.com.

Copyright permission Native Sun News Today

Join the ConversationStanding on the line of fire, putting your life in danger for the sake of other people is not something everyone can do. It takes courage, bravery, fearlessness and a lot of love. As a tribute to soldiers who tirelessly defend our nation, a Lucknow-based doctor has decided to treat them for free at the hospital where he practices.

ANI

Doctor Ajay Chaudhary has put up a notice board at his clinic that reads, "No consultation charge for soldiers. You have already paid our fee at the border".

Speaking to ANI, doctor Ajay Chaudhary said, "This is my way of giving back to the people who work selflessly for the nation. I have been doing this voluntarily."

The doctor also requested the soldier to come along with their ID cards for the checkup.

ANI

Chaudhary belongs to a family with a military background. His father was in the military and his brother was commander in Indian Navy. Chaudhary also tried his luck in Army and sat for NDA exam, but could not make it.

However, that didn't stop him from serving his countrymen. His contributes in his own way, which is not just heartwarming but also makes our soldiers feel loved and respected. Kudos to him for showing the world that gratitude isn't just about saying the words 'thank you'.One of the key highlights of Sonam Kapoor and Anand Ahuja's wedding reception/Sangeet night at a five-star hotel in Mumbai was Ranveer Singh getting drunk and dancing non-stop.

From jamming with his gang that included Arjun Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Mika Singh, Ranveer was seen jumping around, dancing on bar-tables and goofing around with his distant cousin and 'baba' Arjun Kapoor.

So basically, Ranveer Singh was just being 'Ranveer' and the videos that have been flooding our social media timelines have been big proof.

However, what many failed to notice was that happy-go-lucky Ranveer, who was spotted dancing was sorely missing his love Deepika Padukone. Deepika, who is at Cannes was earlier busy walking the Met Gala red-carpet and beau Ranveer, who was in Mumbai couldn't stop missing her.

Many reports have claimed Ranveer was missing Deepika and he cornered himself for close to two hours to make a distant call to his bae. Photos of a completely drunk and tired Ranveer is going viral on the internet. Photos have a sad and sullen Ranveer, fiddling with his phone.

Instagram/Ranveer

While many dismissed the whole 'missing' Deepika, the news just got confirmed when Deepika herself dropped one of the cutest comments on one of the pictures posted by one of their fan clubs.

ScreengrabIt is easy to hide behind the computer and mobile screens and write complete bullshit on social media. Giving rape and death threats and using violence to intimidate others gives peace to some people. But lets not normalise this.

Bollywood actress Richa Chadha who is known for speaking her mind often falls prey to internet trolling. She recently received rape and death threats for expressing her opinion on Hindutva supporters in India. And she chose to not keep mum this time as well.

Twitter

It all started when Richa tweeted that there is a need to get rid of Hindutva supporters in order to save the religion. In Hindi she wrote, Yes, Hinduism is indeed in danger in India. Hinduism faces a threat from Hindutva supporters. Save your religion and get rid of these supporters of Hindutva. Issued in public interest.

She was trolled by several people. But this one user crossed all the limits. He went to on give her rape and death threats, and the actress demanded Twitter to buck up and raise and voice against it.

Hey tweeps!Dont care about the targeted abuse because theres a lot of unemployment in the country rn,if someone needs to work for 10 per tweet,I dont judge them.But RAPE AND MURDER threats?Come on @TwitterIndia @Twitter pic.twitter.com/1AS8wlUPWg  TheRichaChadha (@RichaChadha) May 9, 2018

Hindutva means being Hindu The 1 who follows the teachings of Hindutva is Hinduwadi or Hindu

Hindu n Hindutva is never violent until they r not been attacked

Hindus become violent only in self defense

Which is their right

 

  

2/ pic.twitter.com/ORb264xaUn  Arvind Lodha (@AB_BJP) May 7, 2018

         

                                                 (MRI) (@krishak_sandeep) May 7, 2018

Sitting in Bollywood and having a company of high profile people, doesn't tell u the ground reality, (those people don't face anything), (they don't know everything) watching with a blind eye  they can't judge  and  .., so its better to talk about Bollywood  Surya Verma (@SuryaVe71922455) May 6, 2018

                    ,         Yash Sharma( ) (@TheSharmaYash) May 5, 2018

Whats more surprising is that when she tried to report the user on Twitter, the website responded saying, no violation within context".

I did. They said 'no violation within context'.  TheRichaChadha (@RichaChadha) May 9, 2018

Actress Swara Bhaskar supported Richa Chadha.

The kind of abuse and slander @RichaChadha is facing on #Twitter amounts to harassment quite clearly.. @TwitterIndia @Twitter u wanna take some action and block these accounts that clearly violate ur community standards! Shame on this filth and u stay strong Richa!  pic.twitter.com/DfTckAE4U2  Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) May 9, 2018

And so did filmmaker Pooja Bhatt.

You must report this. Twitter needs to take responsibility for this. They cannot provide a platform to people who openly threaten to rape and maim women.  Pooja Bhatt (@PoojaB1972) May 9, 2018

Rape isn't a joke. It's terrible how people make such remarks just for the sake of trolling.Several actresses in Hollywood came out to name and shame the popular stars from the industry who sexually assaulted them. The Me Too movement also reached Pakistan when Meesha Shafi opened up on how Ali Zafar used to harass her sexually. But when will Bollywood speak up?

Bollywood lags way behind Hollywood when it comes fighting these grave issues. Take pay-disparity for instance  Bollywood is still struggling with gender pay gap. And Hollywood is leading the troop here as well.

AFP

Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem recently revealed that Hollywood is fighting off the battle quite successfully. They received equal paycheques for their forthcoming film Everybody Knows, which was also premiered at the Cannes 2018. It is there that the couple spoke about the pay disparity.

When asked if they received equal paycheques, the Oscar-winning actress smiled and said, Actually, yes.

Furthermore, she talked how it is to be working with her real-life partner. We don't take the characters home at the end of the day. We have similar ways of work. The fact that we know each other and trust each other helps," Cruz said.

Reuters

And she also revealed how her approach towards the characters she plays on-screen have changed over the years.

When I was in my 20s, I thought the more I would torture myself and the more I would stay in character for months, the better the result would be. I learned it's not really related to that. I have a life and I have a job. That allows me to jump from reality to fiction, said the 44-year-old.

Also Read: Kangana Ranaut Opts A Retro Look For Her Cannes Debut, Stuns In A Black Sabyasachi Saree!Karnataka is about to hold elections in a couple of days and we have a controversy at hand. Nearly 10,000 voters identify cards, that are said to be fake have been found from an apartment in Bengaluru. This is clearly indicative of a possible conspiracy for bogus voting in the state. Rather than initiating an honest probe into the matter, the political parties - ruling Congress and BJP - are blaming each other.

According to reports, the voter ID cards, along with copying machines, cash and other documents were seized from a house in SLV Park View Apartments after BJP workers broke into flat.

BCCL

According to election officials, the ID cards recovered from Flat no 115 are genuine and belongs to voters from R R Nagar constituency. They are still unclear about the motive behind the move, but suspects it was an effort to somehow influence the voters.

BCCL

The political blame game over the incident escalated after it was revealed that the flat belonged to Manjula Nanjamuri, a BJP leader and an ex- corporate.

The Congress alleged that the Nanjamuri had rented her own flat to his son Rakesh, who contested corporation election on a BJP ticket in 2015.

"The BJP enacted this drama in an apartment belonging to their own leader, Manjula Nanjamari. She has rented the apartment to her son who contested the 2015 BBMP Elections on a BJP ticket," Congress leader Randeep Surjewala alleged.

Owner of the flat (in Jalahalli, where voter IDs were found) is Manjula Nanjamari, she was BJP corporator from '97-'02 & continues to be prominent leader of BJP. In last 24 hours she has been disowned by #Karnataka BJP in-charge Prakash Javadekar: Randeep Surjewala, Congress pic.twitter.com/ERcpBLYUUx  ANI (@ANI) May 9, 2018

The Congress leader also claimed that the apartment was not raided by police or the official of the Election Commission but by BJP worker.

Earlier, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had said that Manjula Nanjamari and her son Rakesh don't belong to the BJP and she left the party six years ago.

"Manjula is a Congressperson now. They just want to blame BJP without any substance. We have proof of various things, which we will present before the EC," said Javadekar.

She (Manjula Nanjamari, owner of flat where fake voter IDs were found) was a BJP corporator, for past 15 years she has no link with BJP. We demand investigation & immediate countermanding of election in Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency: Sambit Patra, BJP #KarnatakaElections2018 pic.twitter.com/GBnSXB9AMk  ANI (@ANI) May 9, 2018

However, speaking to ANI, Manjula rejected the charges and said she was still with the BJP.

From 1997-2002 I was a corporator, and BJP helped me win. I was just a house wife and BJP supported me, so I consider myself under their 'sharan'. I am not a Congress person,will never be: Manjula Nanjamari,owner of Bengaluru flat from where fake voter IDs were seized pic.twitter.com/e4vEAPRLII  ANI (@ANI) May 9, 2018

Manjula's son Sridhar Nanjamari also clarified that Rakesh, who is a cousin did not have any connection to the flat and it was rented to one Rangaraju.

Meanwhile, Election Commission is unlikely to accept the BJPs demand for countermanding polls in the area.104-year-old Australian biologist David Goodall has ended his life in Switzerland, informed a right-to-die group. Philipp Nitschke, director of Exit International, said Goodall was declared dead at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Goodall had travelled to Switzerland to take advantage of the countrys assisted-suicide laws.

AP

The British-born scientist, described by Exit International as its first member, said this week that he had been contemplating the idea of suicide for about 20 years, but only started thinking about it for himself after his quality of life deteriorated over the last year.

He cited a lack of mobility, doctors restrictions and an Australian law prohibiting him from taking his own life among his complaints, but he was not ill.Today is 161st anniversary of what is known as the first war of independence, that is, 1857 revolt. It was indeed an unprecedented event which brought lakhs of Indians who shunned their religious identities together and collective battle for the freedom of India was fought.

Wikipedia Commons

Though the revolt could not yield desired results, it certainly gave the British jitters as they had never expected Indians whom the British had colonised while taking advantage of their animosity against one another, to fight as one.

Here are important dates of the whole mutiny and how Indians collectively fought against the imperial Britain- the nightmare of its life.

1. 26 February, Sepoys of the 19th Native Infantry at Berhampore refuse rifle practice

2. 29 March, At Barrackpore, in Bengal, Mangal Pandey wounds two British officers during the mutiny of 34th Native Infantry. On 8 April, Pandey hanged at Barrackpore

simple Wikipedia

3. 24 April, Troopers of the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry at Meerut refuse orders to fire greased cartridges

4. 8 May, Troops of the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry found guilty by court-martial and given severe sentences

5. 10 May, Mutiny and Murders at Meerut, troops head towards Delhi

6. 13 May, Bahadur Shah II proclaimed new Mughal emperor. British disarm the garrison at Lahore

7. Mutiny at several places including cantonments. From May 22 till June 5, mutiny spread across places like Peshawar, Agra, Muttra and Lucknow, Cawnpore (Kanpur) and Allahabad.

Begum Hazrat Mahal, Thefamouspeople.com

8. 6 June, The British began Kanpur Siege.

9. 16 July, After fighting the rebels and killings scores of Indian including women and children which included the massacre of innocent children and women, the British defeated Nana Sahib in the battle of Kanpur.

10. Delhi remained free from 3 months untill in mid-July, the British stated their action in Delhi. Meanwhile the rebels despite getting defeated at various fronts in Jhansi, Rohtak and Etah, the British were not in a position to attack Delhi with a big force. Begum Hazrat Mahal in Lucknow and Nana Sahib in Kanpur fought till they could before the British defeated their forces.

wikipedia commons

11. After defeating rebels in various places, on September 12, the British began their march towards the walled city in Delhi. They had to fights rebels in various parts of Delhi in South and West.

Raja Nahar Singh

12. On September 20, after a bloody battle, Delhi was annexed and captured. Rebels were killed and next day Captian Hudson arrested the Bahadur Shah-II and killed the princes.

Smaller battles kept happening at various places such as Lucknow and other parts and mutiny continued till December in parts of the country. The last big moment came in December 6 when Tope was defeated in Kanpur. He was hanged later in 1859. Lucknow kept their struggle until 1858 March. The first siege had lasted 87 days, the second siege a further 61. The Rani of Jhansi kept struggling.

13. After Delhi fell, the biggest and strongest front remained in form of Jhansi and Gwalior which looked strong as Nana Sahib with help of other sardars had proclaimed himself Peshwa. But Jhansi was captured by April and Rani Jhansi had to flee her home. Rao Sahib, Tantia Tope, the Rani of ]hansi and the Nawab of Banda enter Gwalior State with the remnants of their force and seize Gwalior on 1 June.

Laxmibai and Jhalkaribai, IndiaTimes

14. Rani of Jhansi sacrificed herself on June 17 in the battle of Kotah-Ki-Serai. Two days later, the battle of Gwalior took place and the British defeated Nana Sahib and was arrested. The British hanged many and sent many to exile in Nepal and Yangoon. Bahadur Shah was sent to Yangoon.

In April 1859, it all ended, but gave inspiring stories to the forthcoming generations, which eventually won independence for India.Israel's army said on Thursday it had carried out widespread raids against Iranian targets in Syria overnight after rocket fire towards its forces which it blamed on Iran, marking a sharp escalation between the two enemies.

The incident came after weeks of rising tensions and followed US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from a key 2015 Iran nuclear deal on Tuesday, a move Israel had long advocated.

AFP

The raids were one of the largest Israeli military operations in recent years and the biggest such assault on Iranian targets, the military said. "We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria," Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a security conference on Thursday morning.

"They need to remember the saying that if it rains on us, it'll storm on them. I hope we've finished this episode and everyone understood."

Israel carried out the raids after it said around 20 rockets, either Fajr or Grad type, were fired from Syria at its forces in the occupied Golan Heights at around midnight.

It blamed the rocket fire on Iran's Al-Quds force, adding that Israel's anti-missile system intercepted four of the projectiles while the rest did not land in its territory.

No Israelis were wounded.

AFP

If confirmed, the incident would be the first such rocket fire by Iranian forces in Syria towards Israel.

"We know that comes from the al-Quds force," army spokesman lieutenant-colonel Jonathan Conricus said, referring to the special forces unit affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said dozens of rockets were fired from Syria toward the Israeli-occupied Golan, but did not confirm they were fired by Iranian forces.

It alleged the rockets followed a "first Israeli bombardment on the town of Baath" in Quneitra province.

A senior pro-regime military source in Syria confirmed the salvo of rockets, but insisted Israel had fired first.

Later, in the early hours of the morning, explosions were heard in Damascus, while live images were broadcast on television showing projectiles above the Syrian capital and several missiles destroyed by Syrian anti-aircraft systems.

Syrian state media reported that Israeli missile strikes had hit military bases as well as an arms depot and a military radar installation, without specifying the locations.

AFP

The official SANA news agency added that "dozens of missiles were shot down by anti-aircraft systems in Syrian airspace", saying a number of missiles had reached their targets.

Israel's military later confirmed it had carried out the raids, saying dozens of Iranian military targets had been struck and all of its aircraft had returned safely.

Conricus said intelligence, logistics, storage and vehicles as well as the origin of the rockets were targeted.

Syrian air defences, which fired dozens of times on Israeli forces, were also targeted, he said.

There had been no comment from Iranian officials. Lieberman called the rocket fire "a new phase".

"We don't want an escalation, but won't let anyone attack us or build an infrastructure to attack us in the future," he said.

"We're facing a new reality. The Iranian attempt to bring anti-aircraft systems to our borders and close our skies is intolerable and unacceptable."

An Israeli military statement said "this Iranian aggression is another proof of the intentions behind the establishment of the Iranian regime in Syria and the threat it poses to Israel and regional stability."

AFP

It added that it "will not allow the Iranian threat to establish itself in Syria. The Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory."

French President Emmanuel Macron called Thursday for "de-escalation" between Israel and Iran, adding that he would discuss the issue later in the day with German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Israel has long warned that it will not accept Iran entrenching itself militarily in neighbouring Syria, where Tehran is supporting President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the country's seven-year civil war.

Israel has been blamed for a series of recent strikes inside Syria that have killed Iranians, though it did not acknowledge those raids.

It does acknowledge carrying out dozens of raids in Syria to stop what it says are advanced arms deliveries to Iran-backed Hezbollah, another key foe of Israel.

Israel had been preparing itself for weeks for possible Iranian retaliation.

AFP

Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal has added to tensions and led to a new level of uncertainty over how Iran will respond.

Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country has provided massive military and diplomatic backing to Assad's regime.

"I told President Putin that it is the right of every state, certainly the right of Israel, to take the necessary steps in order to protect itself from this aggression," Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to Iran's presence in Syria.

Netanyahu and Putin have held a series of meetings and telephone conversations in recent months, particularly regarding Syria.For some car-owners in the US, things have not been going too great. Through no fault of their own, theyre being forced to pay hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars to repair their cars internal wiring. Thats apparently because theres been a bit of an epidemic of rats chewing through them.

The cases, some of which have gone to court, involve a variety of automobile manufacturers like Ford, Toyota, Honda, and more, so its not a problem restricted to one company. The common factor binding them all together however is that this seems to happen largely with newer car models. And all because car companies went green.

While advances in car construction can be beneficial to the environment, there may also be unforeseen consequences such as making your car more appetizing to rodents, American Automobile Association (AAA) spokesperson Tracy Noble said in a statement.

So, why exactly is the wiring in new cars more appetizing. Well, thats because in recent years many automobile companies have shifted to using greener materials. For car wiring, that means soy-based plastics for the insulation, among other things. Its basically turning the cars internals into a free-for-all noodle bar, for customers with teeth can can chew right through the metal wires too.

The attempt to shift to greener materials is certainly a laudable move on the part of the car companies, but customers are now alleging that they should also be responsible for the damages directly resulting from making their wires edible to rodents. Unfortunately, standard insurance and warranties for cars in the US dont cover animal-related damage.

This problem is also noticed in India

And yeah, this is the case with the same auto companies selling in India too. Thats why some like Honda even sell special rodent tape, to act as a repellent when applied to areas around the engine. If youve found yourself a victim of these pesky critters appetites in the past, you probably want to consider making a small investment and buying yourself some.Dozens of local ratepayers Tuesday and in previous meetings testified as to the adverse impacts the project would have, including raising water rates for low income families and devastating the Delta and West Coast fisheries, but the Board nonetheless voted for the project under tremendous pressure from Governor Jerry Brown and the Metropolitan Water District.



Left to right: Tony Estremera, District 6; Richard Santos, District 3; John L. Varela, District 1; Gary Kremen, District 7; Barbara Keegan, District 2; Nai Hsueh, District 5; and Linda J. LeZotte, District 4. Photo courtesy of the Santa Clara Valley Water District.

SAN JOSE - Despite overwhelming opposition by district ratepayers, the Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) Board of Directors on Tuesday, May 8, voted 4 to 3 to fully participate in Governor Jerry Browns controversial Delta Tunnels project.Directors Barbara Keegan, Gary Kremen, Tony Estremera, and Nail Hsueh voted for full participation in the project, while Director John L. Varela, Vice Chair Linda J. LeZotte, and Chair Richard Santos voted against it.During their vote on a 14 point memorandum, the board did not commit to a specific cost share, but plans to revisit the proposed $650 million financial commitment at a later date.The decision conflicts with the resolution the board approved in October to only back a single tunnel project. In the ensuing months, the Brown administration, after last fall supporting a phased project proposing the construction of a single tunnel now and a second tunnel later, has put the Twin Tunnels project back on the table.The boards vote today means that Santa Clara County will have a better chance of sustaining its imported water supply in the face of earthquakes, climate change and sea-level rise that threaten the Delta, said Director Tony Estremera, one of the authors of the Guiding Principles that the board adopted in October to provide a framework for the boards decision-making process. Protecting water supplies for homes and businesses in Silicon Valley is a top priority, and were still working to get the best deal for the residents and businesses here. This is just the first step in a long effort to secure our water supplies.In the discussion before the vote in response to those directors expressing their concerns with the costs and adverse environmental impacts of the project, Estremera said, Everybody wants to go to heaven, but they dont want to die. He then criticized the others for only looking at the downside of the WaterFix, and not its potential benefits.In response, Director Varela quipped, I do expect to go to heaven. He then said that rather than voting to fully participate in the project, it would be much better to sit down with the captains of industry in the Silicon Valley so we can work on a more cost effective way to deliver water some of the decisions made in this project are based on archaic ideas.Quickly after the vote, Governor Jerry Brown issued a statement lauding the decision by the Board. Simply put, this courageous decision will help two million Santa Clarans have a more reliable water supply, said Brown.The Department of Water Resources, the state agency responsible for the planning and construction of the California WaterFix, also praised the districts decision.The Santa Clara Valley Water District Board of Directors showed decisive leadership with its vote to fund WaterFix, which will protect affordable and reliable water for future generations, said Karla Nemeth, Director of the California Department of Water Resources, in a prepared statement. In the coming days, the state and the public water agencies funding WaterFix will enter into an agreement to implement final design and construction.This partnership will be organized to deliver the project on time and on budget, while prudently managing risk. We look forward to moving forward with this important project, said Nemeth.Delta Tunnels opponents reacted with disappointment to the vote to support the project.John McManus, Executive Director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association, condemned the Boards vote, saying, "Today SCVWs directors voted to saddle their ratepayers with a double-digit rate increase in order to subsidize water to almond growers in the western San Joaquin Valley.Some water managers would have you believe the tunnels are a fait accompli but it is far from that. GGSA and allies are already in court challenging this project because federal fish experts have found the twin tunnels will be a disaster for salmon. Getting permits for this project will fall to the next governor and hopefully he will appreciate the damage the tunnels would do to our salmon fishery, so we dont have to wait for the courts to decide this in our favor, concluded McManus.Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Discovery Bay) criticized the Board majority for deciding to tie its ratepayers to what could become the most expensive boondoggle in the states history and endanger the environment and economy of the entire Delta region.The decision to flip-flop on the choice it made six months ago is as unconscionable as it is fishy, he quipped. After Westlands Water District opted out of the tunnels plan in September, SCVWDs board in October decided its ratepayers should not be in the business of subsidizing agricultural water districts in the San Joaquin Valley. Nothing has changed since then.As the Mercury News and the East Bay Times noted in a recent editorial, it is irresponsible for a seven-member board, without a vote of its ratepayers, to commit astronomical sums of money to a project that has never had a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis or accurate cost estimate, threatens to destroy an entire ecosystem and way of life and does not create a single drop of new water aid Frazier. These ill-conceived tunnels would be the biggest infrastructure project in the states history. We know from painful experience how quickly costs spiral out of control on projects of this type. You need look no further than the Bay Bridge and High Speed Rail.Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, who during the public comment period urged the Board to reject the Twin Tunnels, also blasted the Boards decision in a statement:Last October, the Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) board of directors walked away from the twin tunnels because they felt that there were still too many unknowns, and that hasnt changed. The laundry list of unknowns spans from an incomplete project design to unfinished geotechnical borings, missing engineering analyses related to seismic studies and Delta gas wells, a not-yet-finished revision of the final supplemental Environmental Impact Report, no water affordability analysis, and incomplete air quality permitting and mitigation. That will not be clearer to Santa Clara Valley when they deal with the next fifteen years of litigation that will disrupt this project.This afternoon we heard Santa Clara Valley Board directors express that they believe in Government and trust the process. But we believe that in order to trust Government, decision-makers must be held accountable. Over the last two weeks, the public has organized to make phone calls, text messages, emails, and comments before the board to do their civic duty to hold this board and the Department of Water Resources (DWR) accountable. We have worked extensively to attempt to stop litigation and to focus on positive solutions for Delta and state water management, but DWR, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), and Governor Brown insist on forcing the project on Californians. Litigation is a form of collaboration, and the next chapter of this fight that is far from over.Currently, the project has $650 million from SCVWD, $1 billion from Kern County Water Authority, and $10.8 billion from MWD, which totals around $12.4 billionmeaning that the $16.8 billion project is still short by over $4 billion. If Central Valley Project contractors dont fill that gap, tunnels proponents will have to recruit private investors to create a public-private partnership and/or increase property taxes in Santa Clara County and the greater Los Angeles area. When the project inevitably faces increased cost overruns and delays, Santa Clara County ratepayers will be paying more than $10.26 a month, and Los Angeles residents will be paying more than $5 a month.Dozens of local ratepayers Tuesday and in previous meetings testified as to the adverse impacts the project would have, including raising water rates for low income families and devastating the Delta and West Coast fisheries, but the Board nonetheless voted for the project under tremendous pressure from Governor Jerry Brown and the Metropolitan Water District.During the public comment period, one San Jose woman, a biologist, told the Board, Why dont we put the California WaterFix on the ballot this November? I seriously doubt it would get voter approval.In fact, the Governor, California Legislature and water contractors have done everything they can to prevent the Delta Tunnels from going before the voters because the tunnels are likely to be decisively defeated by the voters just like the peripheral canal was defeated in November 1982.As Assemblymember Frazier summed up, The vast majority of those who spoke at todays meeting vehemently opposed SCVWD participating in this disastrous project. The Boards decision clearly violates the wishes of the ratepayers it represents.Last month, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board of Directors also voted to support the WaterFix project in full, also voting against the interests of its stakeholders.On Monday, two groups accused the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern Californias Board of Directors of blatantly violating the Brown Act, the states landmark open government law, by making decisions behind closed doors before a public vote on the multi-billion dollar tunnels project.In a letter, Food & Water Watch and The First Amendment Coalition called on the Metropolitan Water District to formally withdraw its commitment to finance the tunnels, or risk a lawsuit to nullify the vote. To read the full letter, go here: https://bit.ly/2wlt9z5Google is adding the ability to securely run Linux applications inside a virtual machine within Chrome OS. The Linux support is designed for developers so they can use Chromebooks in addition toor even instead oftheir usual Macs and PCs. Google will offer Linux support in a forthcoming Chrome OS beta for its own Pixelbook line of Chromebooks.

In the Linux VM, developers will be able to build, test, and run both Android and web apps for smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

[ The InfoWorld roundup: 5 rock-solid Linux distros for developers. ]

Developers will also be able to run popular editors, code in their favorite language, and put projects on the Google Cloud platform via the command line. Additionally, developers will be able to run the Android Studio IDE on Chrome OS.

Previously, developers have had the option of installing Linux on a Chromebook by using the open source Crouton tool. With Crouton, developers can switch back and forth between Chrome OS and Linux.Cocoa (CC) Consolidates Surge to Fresh 2021 High Tradable Patterns - Thu Oct 7, 11:28PM CDT Cocoa (CC) firmed yesterday, consolidating for a 3rd straight day after Mondays fresh 2021 high. Significantly, although CC may very well resolve lower in its 4hr triangle today, odds are higher for... CCZ21 : 2,726s (+0.41%) NIB : 32.30 (+0.44%)

A Trader's Paradise Blue Line Futures - Thu Oct 7, 5:02PM CDT The choppy trading environment in the grain markets has presented some great short-term opportunities for market participants on both sides of the market, creating a bit of a trader's paradise. Every...

Hogs Bounce Back Barchart - Thu Oct 7, 4:55PM CDT After 4 down days, lean hog futures ended Thursday session 22 to 50 cents stronger. USDAs National Average Base hog price for Thursday was back up by 17 cents to $70.18. CMEs Lean Hog Index was 60... HEV21 : 89.850s (+0.25%) HEG22 : 84.350s (+0.27%) KMV21 : 110.300s (+1.31%)

Cotton Prices Close in Black Barchart - Thu Oct 7, 4:55PM CDT Cotton trading pulled prices back from their early session highs. Futures were still up 55 to 133 points at the close, but the front months settled more than 200 points off their high. Weekly FAS data... CTZ21 : 115.25 (+3.26%) CTH22 : 111.94 (+2.95%) CTZ21 : 115.25 (+3.26%)

Shootin' the Bull Swift Trading Company - Thu Oct 7, 4:03PM CDT The higher trading feels like short covering, due to there having been no increase of open interest. With basis having converged, I think this rally consists of those that have sold cattle and need to...

Nat-Gas Prices Little Changed as Winter Supply Concerns Linger Barchart - Thu Oct 7, 2:20PM CDT November Nymex natural gas (NGX21 ) on Thursday closed up +0.002 (+0.04%). Nov nat-gas prices on Thursday recovered from early losses and settled little changed. Nat-gas prices on Thursday initially fell... NGX21 : 5.753 (+1.34%)Arthur J. Gallagher has announced that it has acquired Ohio-based A.J. Amer Agency. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1916, A.J. Amer Agency is a retail property and casualty agency and employee benefit consultant. It offers coverage to businesses and individuals throughout northeast Ohio. Hamilton Amer, Charles Tennent and their team will continue to operate from their current location. They will report to Cindy LaMantia, president of Gallaghers Great Lakes employee benefits consulting and brokerage operations.The move comes just a week after the Paris City Council called out several European insurers for their support of the coal industry in Europe  which led to Allianz further pulling away from the sector.

We would like to see Aviva following what other insurers such as AXA and Allianz have done, and complementing its engagement approach with a consequential divestment approach, Lucie Pinson, European coordinator of the Unfriend Coal campaign, told Insurance Business.

Its critical to prevent the development of new coal and tar sands projects, and Aviva should automatically divest from companies still planning new carbon-intensive projects, Pinson continued.

Aviva should also acknowledge it cannot effectively engage with all the coal companies it is exposed to, and focus its engagement only on a small number of fossil fuel companies, which have proved their will and capacity to align their activities with Paris climate targets.

Unfriend Coal said that when Aviva began engaging with 40 coal companies in 2015, it asked the firms whether they had any plans for new investment in coal-generating capacity, and highlighted that any such endeavour would go against its approach to helping meet the Paris Agreement of limiting global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius.

In September 2017, the insurer added two companies to its investment stop-list  Japanese Utility J-Power and Polands PGE, and said it had divested its active beneficial holdings wherever possible, according to the campaign group. Aviva is also reported to be in the process of divesting 11 million from 15 more companies.

However, Unfriend Coal said that in November 2017, the insurer was the second biggest investor in PGE with 146 million of shares, including 90 million through its Polish pension fund OFE. The group described PGE as Europes second biggest CO2 emitter and the continents largest coal power developer, with plans to build 5.2GW of new coal plants.

Related stories:

Allianz succumbs to pressure, reveals it will stop insuring coal firms

Generali faces further criticism as coal issue rages onThe WA Supreme Court heard that Rahimi was urged by Pourzand, who also pleaded guilty to arson, to start the fire, so the latter could claim on the insurance to refurbish a vacant warehouse and factory on Pilbara street, The West Australian and ABC reported.

The pair met several times to devise a plan  two of which meetings were secretly recorded by Rahimi on his iPad. After significant planning, Rahimi set the plan into motion. Disguised, he went to the building, cut off the CCTV, and used citronella-soaked cords to set the factory ablaze.

The fire caused almost $20m in damages  which Pourzand then attempted to claim with his insurer.

Rahimi's lawyer, Sam Vandongen, told the court his client did not intend to destroy the building, but to only damage it enough so they could make an insurance claim of around $700,000.

But Justice Bruno Fiannaca said it was "arrogant and reckless" of Rahimi to think he could have controlled the fire, and that he had put at risk the lives of those who fight them, The West Australian reported.

Fiannaca also said that while he accepted that Rahimi had been manipulated by Pourzand to commit the crime, he was convinced that the 31-year-old's driving ambition was to achieve wealth and status in his community.

Rahimi will be eligible for parole after he's served three years in prison. Pourzand, meanwhile, is set to appear before the Supreme Court in July, the reports said.

Related stories:

Perth tycoon denies being the mastermind of a $20m insurance scam

Insurance fraudster caught on video plotting alleged arson, court hearsThe Chubb Charitable Foundation has made a three-year grant totaling $750,000 to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to support its Jobs to Careers program. The IRC responds to humanitarian crises and helps people affected by those crises rebuild their lives.

The Jobs to Careers program provides opportunities for refugees, those who are seeking or have been granted political asylum, victims of human trafficking, torture survivors and other immigrants. The program provides basic career training to help refugees enter higher-skill, higher-wage jobs.Morrison Mahoney LLP, a litigation firm, is expanding its Workers Compensation and General Liability Team in Providence, R.I., adding two attorneys to assist these growing practices.

Jonathan R. Myhre joined the team last December, and Joelle M. Hays joined in January.

Myhre has experience in several areas of the law including general and professional liability, as well as asbestos litigation. After law school, he was invited to serve as a law clerk for the U.S. Virgin Islands Supreme Court. Following his clerkship, Myhre joined Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.

Hays, a partner, specializes in defending workers compensation claims on behalf of employers, self-insureds, third-party administrators and insurance carriers before all levels of the Rhode Island Workers Compensation Court.

Source: Morrison Mahoney

Topics Workers' CompensationConnecticut moved closer Saturday toward adding a $12 annual surcharge on the insurance policies of every residential homeowner to financially help hundreds, if not thousands, of homeowners with crumbling foundations pay for costly repairs.

After emotional appeals from eastern and central Connecticut lawmakers, whose constituents have been affected by the problematic concrete, the bill was approved by the House of Representatives on a bipartisan 97-42 vote.

We have the American dream crumbling beneath these people, said Republican Rep. Tim Ackert, of Coventry, whose town is among about 40 communities where the issue has arisen.

He spoke about how his neighbors paid off their mortgage last year, only to have to pay a contractor knock down the structure and build them a new home. In many circumstances, it can cost $100,000 to $200,000 to replace a foundation. And its a massive expense that typically hasnt been covered by insurance.

The foundations are failing because of the presence of pyrrhotite, a mineral that has reacted naturally with oxygen and water over the decades, causing the concrete to crack and crumble, making some homes unsellable and unlivable. The problem, which first came to light in the mid-1990s, has been traced to a Willington quarry that provided material to a concrete maker whose product was used in thousands of homes. The problem also has been discovered in parts of Massachusetts near the Connecticut border.

An estimated 30,000 or more homes and condominiums built in eastern and central Connecticut from the mid-1980s to 2016 could have failing foundations because of the presence of pyrrhotite.

Lawmakers last year passed legislation that created a not-for-profit captive insurance company to distribute $100 million in state bonds over five years to help pay for repairs. The state has also made $5 million available to provide up to 50 percent reimbursement to test for the presence of pyrrhotite. But lawmakers have said much more funding is needed to address the problem, which is expected to crop up for years to come. The 10-year surcharge is expected to generate about $10 million annually, which proponents conceded still falls short.

I think we need to keep working on finding a permanent solution, said Republican Rep. Doug Dubitsky, of Chapin. He said insurers, mortgage companies, the concrete company and the federal government need to help financially as well.

One state lawmaker, Democratic Rep. Kelly Juleson-Scopino of Manchester, revealed during Saturdays debate that she lives an affected home. Juleson-Scopino said shes been hesitant to speak out because she didnt want her comments to appear self-serving, but felt she needed to voice support for the legislation on behalf of her constituents and the 635 homeowners whove come forward so far and registered with the state.

Juleson-Scopino said she purchased her home for about $300,000 and it was recently reassessed at $86,000.

Ill just let that sink in for a moment  $86,000. Im fortunate that Im young. I can recover from this, she said. I have neighbors whose marriages have fallen apart because of this. I have others who have been hospitalizedI know many others have walked away.

While Republican Rep. Rob Sampson, of Wolcott. called the fee a hidden tax in peoples insurance bills, most lawmakers spoke in favor of the legislation.

This doesnt affect my community. Will it ever affect it? Probably not, said Democratic Rep. Cathy Abercrombie of Meriden. But Ive got to tell you folks, we are a small state and we should be supporting each other. If this was happening in your community, wouldnt you want the state to help you?

The bill also helps pay for lead and radon abatement homes and the remediation of homes that are sinking in a New Haven neighborhood.

Related:

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Homeowners ConnecticutZurich Insurance has no plans for a big merger, it said on Wednesday, despite speculation of a pick-up in dealmaking in the industry and that the Swiss company could get involved.

The insurers comments came as it beat analysts forecasts with a 5 percent rise in property and casualty (P&C) premiums for the first quarter.

Zurichs share price has fluctuated in recent weeks on speculation of a takeover bid by rival Allianz. Allianz CEO Oliver Baete said in an interview with the Financial Times this week he was open to a merger of equals.

French insurer AXAs recent $15 billion purchase of Bermuda-based XL has also driven talk of more consolidation in the industry, following a record year for insurance losses from natural disasters in 2017.

We dont exist to do M&A, Zurichs chief financial officer George Quinn told an analysts call, saying the focus for Europes fifth-largest insurer was on smaller transactions.

We dont believe in this large-scale multi-market approach to M&A, its a huge distraction for the business. Its pretty rare that in this world, two plus two equals four, or more than four.

Zurich generated $9.33 billion in P&C gross written premiums in the first quarter, up 5 percent in dollar terms but down 1 percent like-for-like as the firm focused on profitability.

Gross written premiums for P&C had been expected at around $9.1 billion, according to a Reuters survey of three analysts.

Zurich did not give first-quarter profit figures, but said it was continuing to make good progress towards its 2017-2019 targets. It is targeting $1.5 billion in cost cuts by the end of 2019.

Vontobel analysts described the results as a relatively solid start to the year, reiterating their hold rating on the stock.

For the flagship P&C business, growth in Asia-Pacific and Latin America was mainly offset by curtailed activity in North America.

P&C premium rate increases totalled around 2 percent overall, though Quinn said rates in North American regions affected by last years natural catastrophes such as hurricanes and wildfires were likely to rise further.

Zurichs life insurance premium sales rose 13 percent like-for-like to $1.25 billion on an annual premium equivalent basis, which takes account of policies with large single payments as well as those with regular annual payments.

The new business margin for life insurance was 25.2 percent and the new business value was stable at $273 million.

At 1245 GMT, Zurichs shares were up 0.4 percent at 318.30 Swiss francs.

(Additional reporting by Paul Arnold; Editing by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Mark Potter)

Topics Mergers Property CasualtyChubb said it has completed the creation of six teams to focus on working with independent brokers across the UK and Ireland.

The new Chubb teams are in London, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Ireland. Each is dedicated to working with local independent brokers and to providing bespoke insurance policies for their clients.

Chubb said the teams are a part of its focus on its UK and Ireland mid-market business. The teams offer a fixed point of contact with these brokers.

We have tried to simplify the process for brokers as much as possible, especially around multiline and more complex specialist requests. Instead of brokers speaking to several different people to get multiple quotes, our Independent Broker Teams coordinate and oversee the entire process, said Hannah Hosking, head of Distribution  Independent Brokers UK and Ireland.

Brokers feed in their submissions to the teams who come back with one joined up response. This streamlines the process for the broker and also allows us to be much more flexible in terms of the solutions we are able to offer for their clients  and this is really important.

Source: Chubb

Topics Agencies ChubbMarsh insurance broking and consulting subsidiary Jelf reports it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Clark Thomson, Scotlands largest independent insurance broker.

Established in 1965, Clark Thomson is headquartered in Perth and has offices in Dundee, Glasgow, Inverness, Kirkwall, Oban, Elgin, Thurso, and Nairn. With more than 200 employees, Clark Thomson provides insurance broking services to small and medium-sized (SME) businesses, with particular expertise in the agriculture, renewable energy, food and drink, and retail sectors across Scotland. It also sells personal lines insurance for individuals and families.

Chipping Sodbury, England-based Jelf is a leading UK insurance broker in the mid-size and SME company sector, with almost 3,000 colleagues serving 250,000 clients from over 75 locations.

Jelf said it will combine its existing Scottish operations and Clark Thomson into a single business unit. The combined business in Scotland will, subject to regulatory approvals, be led by Ben Bailey, managing director of Clark Thomson, and a management team drawn from across Clark Thomson and Jelf.

Phil Barton, CEO of Jelf, said adding Clark Thomson significantly strengthens the advice and products Jelf can provide to individuals, SMEs and mid-size companies.

Marsh acquired Jelf Group plc in 2015 and Bluefin Insurance Group Ltd. in December 2016 then branded the combination as Jelf. Both firms were community brokers with a network of regional offices across the UK.

Topics MergersThe family of a woman who died in 2012 after giving birth to twins at a suburban Chicago hospital has been awarded $4 million in a wrongful death lawsuit.

The family of 36-year-old Evelyn Robinson contended in a lawsuit against Ingalls Memorial Hospital that staff failed to administer drugs targeting a spike in a blood pressure.

Plaintiffs attorney Elizabeth Kaveny says Robinsons blood pressure rose after she gave birth to twin daughters at the Harvey, Illinois hospital. Kaveny says nurses alerted Robinsons doctor when her blood pressure rose, but they failed to administer the drugs he prescribed.

Robinson suffered cardiac arrest that caused severe brain damage. Kaveny says her condition remained grave for two months before she died of heart failure.

A legal representative for the hospital didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics IllinoisA fire on May 8 at a South Dakota ammunition plant where more than 2 million rounds of ammunition were stored, destroyed the facility and prompted evacuations because of initial fears of exploding bullets.

The blaze was reported around 10:40 a.m. at the Ultramax Ammunition company in Box Elder, a city just east of Rapid City. No injuries have been reported, and firefighters for a time decided to stay back and allow the facility to burn. Authorities dont know what caused the fire.

Pennington County Fire Administrator Jerome Harvey said firefighters had moved closer to the building later Tuesday.

Rapid City Fire Department spokesman Lt. Jim Bussell warned that smoke was still a hazard near the facility, which at one point was engulfed in flames and billowing black smoke. He said ammunition also continued to burn in a metal shipping container.

I would say that the main threat has ceased, Bussell said late Tuesday afternoon. Theres still some danger with regard to the materials burning and ammunition still going off within that shipping container.

A phone number listed for Ultramax wasnt functioning. The company, which says on its website that it was created in 1986, calls itself a leading supplier in the ammunition industry.

Evacuations ordered for a nearby truck stop and other businesses were lifted a few hours after the fire erupted. No homes are in the immediate area, Bussell noted.

Some roads around nearby businesses were reopened Tuesday afternoon, though a stretch in front of the company remained closed because fire engines and other vehicles were working in the area.

Shawna Rames, an administrative assistant at a janitorial company about a half-mile drive from Ultramax, said she saw smoke, heard bullets going off and could smell the ammunition. Officials blocked the road to Rames office, but employees there werent evacuated, she said.

I was more concerned about the fire department and the other personnel trying to battle it, Rames said. It smelled like fireworks.

Bussell said experts from nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base were providing technical advice. Ellsworth tweeted that firefighters helped contain the flames while base explosive ordinance disposal officials provided insight about possible explosive hazards.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will investigate because the building is an ATF-licensed facility.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics South DakotaAmerican International Group Inc said shareholders approved a $43.1 million pay package for 2017 for Chief Executive Officer Brian Duperreault during the companys annual meeting on Wednesday.

A nonbinding resolution to endorse the executive compensation passed with 441,882,782 shares in favor and 267,108,670 shares against, the company said.

Influential proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis had advised shareholders to reject the resolution, saying the pay package did not align with AIGs performance.

Shareholder approval of the pay resolution by 62 percent of shares cast was a relative weak level that would typically lead the company to speak with major investors ahead of setting future compensation plans.

About 90 percent of shares voted at S&P 500 companies are typically cast in favor of advisory executive pay proposals, according to compensation consulting firm Semler Brossy.

AIGs stock has dropped 13 percent since Duperreault took charge of the company a year ago.

The companys pay arrangements include $24.2 million for former CEO Peter Hancock, who stepped down last year under pressure, with a $5 million cash award for his service through the transition to Duperreault, according to its annual proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March.

It is unusual for both advisory firms to recommend voting against pay measures for the same company. ISS recommended voting against pay only about 12 percent of the time for companies listed on the broad-based Russell 3000 stock index, an ISS spokesman said.

When I spoke to you last year, I said my priority was to grow the business, Duperreault said in prepared remarks to shareholders. That has not changed.

AIG laid a foundation in 2017, including restructuring business units and empowering underwriters in the companys general insurance unit to better select better risks, Duperreault said.

2018 is the year of execution, Duperreault said.

GRADED F

Glass Lewis gave AIGs compensation package a letter grade of F.

Overall, the company paid significantly more than its peers, but performed significantly worse than its peers, the report said.

ISS said one-time awards to Duperreault when he joined the company, including a $12 million cash bonus, were not tied to performance.

AIG declined to comment on the proxy recommendations.

AIGs board compensation committee believes this award properly motivates Mr. Duperreault to create sustainable, profitable growth for AIG, aligning his interests with those of our shareholders, the proxy filing states.

Some investors have said they would approve of Duperreaults pay so long as he performs.

Duperreaults other areas of focus include revamping technology and installing new executives across the insurer to jumpstart profits.

AIG is preparing to finalize its acquisition of reinsurer Validus Holdings Ltd.

But his steps have yet to boost the bottom line.

In March, AIG said it paid Duperreault $43.1 million last year, according to the proxy filing. Excluding one-time components, Duperreault earned $14.9 million.

That figure was similar to the $15.3 million paid to MetLife Inc CEO and Chairman Steven Kandarian in 2016 and less than the $27.1 million paid in 2017 to John Strangfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial Inc, according to proxy filings by those companies.

AIG shares closed as high as $66.06 on Aug. 3, compared with $61.82 on the first trading day following his mid-May appointment.

The stock closed at $52.82 and was down 0.3 percent in after hours trading.

(Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn in New York; Additional reporting by Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Cynthia Osterman)

Topics Talent AIGThe White House plans to convene a meeting on Thursday on the future of artificial intelligence in U.S. industry with major companies including Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Oracle Corp. as well as senior government officials.

Intel Corp. CEO Brian Krzanich and the chief technical officers of Ford Motor Co. and Boeing Co. are also due to take part in the event, along with executives from Mastercard Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Accenture, administration and industry officials said.

The Pentagon and the U.S. departments of agriculture, commerce, energy, health, labor and transportation are due to take part in the daylong meeting that will look at artificial intelligence (AI) innovation and research and development and removing barriers to its application.

AI and machine learning, with their growing capabilities and application, are expected to have far-reaching implications for a range of industries and the U.S. economy, according to experts.

Dean Garfield, president and chief executive of the Information Technology Industry Council, called the event an important step to building collaboration between government and industry.

The tech sector is committed to ensuring that all Americans reap the benefits of this transformative technology, which has the potential to save lives, improve how we harvest food, transform education and more, Garfield said.

Britain last month announced a 1 billion pound ($1.4 billion) joint investment in the AI industry, while the European Union announced it would boost AI investment by about 70 percent to 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) by 2020.

Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, said in a Fox News opinion piece published on Tuesday that as AI accomplishes more complex tasks it will transform economies, industries and our everyday lives. It will also raise questions about its impact on our economy and jobs.

Professional services firm PwC forecast last year that aggregate worldwide gross domestic product will be 14 percent higher in 2030 as a result of AI and will impact retail, financial services and healthcare.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Will Dunham)

Topics Trends USA InsurTech Data DrivenLloyds of London has directed its underwriters to terminate any insurance programs they have with the National Rifle Association (NRA) and to not enter into any new ones.

The Lloyds Corporation has given very careful consideration as to whether syndicates at Lloyds should continue to insure programmes offered, marketed, endorsed or otherwise made available through the National Rifle Association of America, Lloyds said in a statement.

Noting that NRA programs are now subject to an inquiry by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), the statement said the Lloyds Corp. has decided to end its association with any NRA business. It gave no indication of how much or what business Lloyds may have with the NRA.

The New York inquiry into NRAs insurance, in particular its Carry Guard personal liability insurance program for members, has thus far resulted in fines for broker Lockton ($7 million) and insurer Chubb and its excess and surplus lines subsidiary, Illinois Union ($1.3 million). These two firms that administered and underwrote the Carry Guard program also signed agreements in which they acknowledged that the policies they offered violated state law and agreed to stop participating in membership programs with the NRA.

According to New York officials, Carry Guard is not the only NRA insurance program under scrutiny. From approximately January 2000 through March 2018, Lockton and the NRA offered at least 11 additional insurance programs through Lloyds to new and existing NRA members in New York and elsewhere.

Among the NRA programs from Lloyds now available on the NRA website are ArmsCare and Firearms insurance protecting firearms from theft or damage in excess of a homeownerss policy; firearms instructor liability insurance; retired or off-duty law enforcement officer liability insurance and gun collectors insurance.

Prior to the New York probe and fines being announced, both Chubb and Lockton had indicated they were pulling out of the NRA insurance programs. In so doing, they joined MetLife (which had offered NRA members discounts on home, car, boat and motorcycle insurance), United Airlines and other companies in canceling their business ties with the gun owners organization.

The Carry Guard program provides NRA members with personal liability insurance protection in the event they are charged with a crime after defending themselves with a firearm. The program also includes a safety training component and a free one-year NRA membership. The insurance promises to mitigate the financial and legal consequences that might arise from armed encounters, even if the member did everything right.

DFS said the Carry Guard program improperly provided coverage in any criminal proceeding against the policyholder including coverage for bail money, premiums on bonds, attorney consultation fee and retainer expenses, expenses incurred for the investigation or defense of criminal charges, and costs taxed against the insured or the insureds resident family member in a criminal proceeding arising out of a shooting.

New York DFS officials determined that some of the Carry Guard coverages themselves and limits are not permissible under the states law.

The NRA is also suing Lockton Cos., alleging the insurance broker breached its contract with the firearms lobbying group. The NRA suit, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, alleges the New York investigation was orchestrated by the gun control organization Everytown for Gun Safety.

This is not the first time Lloyds has pulled away from a controversial market. Insurance Journal reported in June, 2015 that Lloyds had stopped insuring marijuana industry firms of any kind due to conflicts between federal and state laws over their legality. The company said then it had considered various requests with respect to insuring marijuana or marijuana related businesses, either medicinal or recreational in the United States, and determined that it no longer would do so until the drug is formally recognized by the U.S. government as legal.

Related:

Topics Excess Surplus New York Lloyd's LocktonLouisiana state lawmakers again have spurned efforts to enact statewide regulations governing ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft.

Facing pushback from senators, House Speaker Taylor Barras pulled House Bill 749 from consideration on May 8 in a Senate judiciary committee after a nearly two-hour hearing. The move appears to end the effort this legislative session.

Barras, a New Iberia Republican, talked about trying to see if we can continue to work on reaching some compromise on the bill.

But Sen. Danny Martiny, the Kenner Republican who was the chief critic in the Senate committee, told Barras: I dont want to hear it again. No other senator suggested they wanted it to return either.

Thanks for the time, Barras replied.

A similar proposal failed to gain traction last year with the same committee. The House earlier this session voted 97-1 for the measure.

Barras said 44 other states have statewide regulatory frameworks for Uber and Lyft. Barras said many areas of Louisiana dont have access to cab service. He said the measure would standardize rules and make it easier to expand ride-hailing services to smaller cities.

I think 90 percent of the state is anxiously waiting for this to take place, Barras said.

Uber and Lyft operate in a handful of markets in Louisiana, including Baton Rouge, Lafayette and the greater New Orleans area.

Supporters, including drivers for Uber and Lyft, said the services offer improved transportation options to people without cars, jobs with flexible schedules and economic opportunity.

Victor Silvio, a Baton Rouge-based Uber and Lyft driver, said his son was killed in an accident caused by someone driving drunk. He said the ride-hailing services give people safe rides when theyve had too much to drink.

These services should be available everywhere in Louisiana, not just the biggest cities, Silvio said.

Opponents objected to having different rules for Uber and Lyft than for taxi cab companies. They questioned why the measure would give regulatory oversight to the agriculture department, rather than the Public Service Commission, which oversees some trucking operations.

Somebodys got to convince me that this is more than a hybrid cab operation, Martiny said.

He remained unconvinced and said it was unfair that cab companies must meet more regulatory hurdles.

What we are doing here is we are basically saying, `Youre doing the same thing as those cab drivers, but theyve got to do more, Martiny said.

Among the lengthy list of proposed regulations, the bill would establish application and background check requirements for drivers, mandate how trip records should be handled and audited and allow local governments to impose a per-trip fee of up to 1 percent on each ride.

The Louisiana Press Association raised concerns about confidentiality provisions in the bill that could be used to shield some records from the public, including information used in audits of the ride-hailing services.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Louisiana Sharing Economy Ridesharing UberArthur J. Gallagher & Co. has agreed to acquire 100 percent of the equity interests of Pronto Holdco LLC, the parent company of Pronto Insurance (Pronto). The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018.

Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Brownsville, Texas, Pronto is a full-service managing general agency (MGA), broker and claims administrator.

Prontos primary business is the placement of personal automobile insurance for consumers throughout Texas, California and Florida, with a special focus on serving the rapidly growing Hispanic market. Pronto operates an omni-channel distribution network of Pronto-owned agencies, franchise agents, independent agents and a direct-to-consumer eCommerce platform.

Jorge Barcena, Wendy Knight, Clemente Rendon and Prontos entire corporate management team will continue to operate from their current locations under the direction of Joel Cavaness, president of Risk Placement Services Inc. (RPS), Gallaghers wholesale and MGA operation.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois.

Topics Mergers Agencies Texas Insurance Wholesale A.J. GallagherAn analysis by a Tennessee newspaper has found that a decline in safety inspections and ignored safety rules have led to an increase in worker deaths during Nashvilles housing boom.

Citing state and federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration data, The Tennessean reported that 2016 and 2017 was the deadliest two-year stretch for construction workers in Nashvilles metropolitan area in more than 30 years.

Sixteen construction workers died during that time span. That is more than construction worker deaths in areas with a similarly sized workforce or rapid growth, according to the report, published Saturday. Ten of the 16 workers didnt have harnesses or other federally required safeguards and died from falls, the newspaper said.

Half of the workers were Latino, according to the newspaper, which said untrained laborers from other countries have filled many construction jobs as area tradesmen retire. Many of the immigrant laborers work on single-family residential construction sites where safety plans may be more relaxed than at commercial sites run by large general contractors.

Frankly, I dont think they know what the expectation is, that you would wear fall protection, or even a lot of time I dont think theyre aware that the employers are required to give it to them, said Steve Hawkins, an administrator at the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

John Eldridge is the CEO of E3 Construction Services, a general contractor that has built hundreds of residences in Nashville during this boom. He said the citys residential subcontractors are unlikely to follow safety regulations when compared to commercial tradesmen. Eldridge said only hiring subcontractors who strictly follow safety standards would cut back on the number of workers available.

We are at the mercy of the labor pool we have, he said.

The Tennessean also found that random construction site inspections by the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration have plummeted. The inspections dipped from 760 in 2008 to only 172 in 2016 when the housing boom started in Nashville. It then doubled in 2017 to 331.

Hawkins said the state branch of the agency has been stretched thin since 2015 when the federal branch required employers to report all amputations, eye loss, and inpatient hospitalizations. The state division initially responded to each report with an in-person inspection. However, Hawkins changed the policy in 2017 to allow supervisors to respond to less-serious injuries with letters. Hawkins said this has freed up two more inspectors for the area.

Low pay and turnover also have strained the agency, but the turnover has since slowed, Hawkins said.

The agency gave all employees a 22 percent raise in 2016. Inspectors now make $57,000.

There have been two construction workers deaths in the Nashville area so far this year.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics ConstructionGeorgias governor has vetoed a bill that would have criminalized unauthorized computer access after receiving blowback from the states booming cybersecurity industry.

The bill, vetoed by Republican Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday, would have made it a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail to intentionally access a computer or network without authorization. The proposal passed the Georgia legislature in March amid the final chaotic hours of the legislative session.

The bill was designed to give law enforcement the ability to prosecute online snoopers  hackers who probe computer systems for vulnerabilities but dont disrupt or steal data. It follows the recent discovery by unauthorized independent cybersecurity experts of a vulnerability in the computer network where Georgias elections are managed.

But a group of more than 50 academics, researchers, cybersecurity experts and technologists wrote Deal recently urging him to veto the bill, saying the legislation would chill security research and harm the states cybersecurity industry.

The group said that, as a result of the bill, security vulnerabilities in important computer systems will not be uncovered and disclosed responsibly, which will only make it easier for bad actors to exploit them. They said that the bill was problematic because it created new criminal liabilities for security researchers who identify and disclose weaknesses to improve cybersecurity.

Tech giants Google and Microsoft also co-authored a letter to Deal urging him to veto the legislation.

Deal said the bill could have had unintended consequences for the government and businesses alike. While intending to protect against online breaches and hacks, (the bill) may inadvertently hinder the ability of government and private industries to do so, Deal said in his explanation of the veto.

Georgia has become an important cybersecurity industry hub, ranking third in the nation in information security business and generating more than $4.7 billion in annual revenue, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

The state has more than 150 cybersecurity firms as well as information security institutes at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, Augusta University and Kennesaw State.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Cyber Fraud GeorgiaXL Catlins North America Construction insurance business has established an underwriting hub in San Francisco, Calif. with the addition of Charles Marmolejo as executive underwriter and relocation of senior underwriter Dan McCarthy from XL Catlins Chicago office.

Marmolejo will help XL Catlins construction clients address general liability, workers compensation and commercial auto risks. He has nearly 29 years of experience in property/casualty insurance across a range of industry segments including construction, transportation and real estate development/management.

McCarthy joined XL Catlins North America construction team in 2014 in Chicago. In his new role, he will assist brokers in helping address customers excess liability risks throughout the Western region.

XL Catlins North America construction insurance business includes construction underwriters providing primary and excess casualty, professional liability, builders risk, wrap ups, subcontractor default and pollution insurance.

Topics Construction AXA XLWho Was Philip Fisher?

Philip Fisher (1907-2004) was a widely acclaimed investor and author, known for writing the book Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits. He is believed to have had a profound influence on Warren Buffett.

His son Kenneth Fisher is also a renowned investor, having founded his firm, Fisher Investments, in 1979 that follows his father's philosophy.

Key Takeaways Philip Fisher was a 20th-century American investor who authored the book Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and founded his own investment firm, Fisher & Co., in 1931.

Fisher was among the first long-term investors to recognize a stock's growth potential based on fundamental analysis, which also has an impact on Warren Buffett.

Philip's son, Ken Fisher founded the renowned investment management firm Fisher Investments in 1979.

Understanding Philip Fisher

Philip Fisher has had a major influence on modern investment theory and is credited with the idea of analyzing stocks based on their growth potential using fundamental analysis. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits teaches investors to analyze the quality of a business and its ability to produce profits. First published in the 1950s, Fisher's lessons are just as applicable today, more than a half-century later.

Fisher dropped out of the newly created Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1928, later returning to be one of only three people to teach the investment course there and working as a securities analyst for the Anglo-London Bank in San Francisco. He switched to a stock exchange member firm for a short time before starting his own money management company, Fisher & Co., in 1931.

Philip Fishers Investment Philosophy

Fisher's investment philosophy was simple on its face: Purchase a concentrated portfolio of companies with compelling growth prospects that you understand very well and hold them for a long time. He was famously quoted as saying the best time to sell a stock is almost never. His most famous stock pick was Motorola, which he purchased in 1955 and held until his death.

Fisher recommended targeting businesses for investment that had growth orientation, high profit margins, high return on capital, a commitment to research and development, a superior sales organization, a leading industry position, and proprietary products or services. He was famous for the depth of his research on companies with which he would invest. He relied on personal connections (what he called the business grapevine) and conversation to learn about businesses before buying stock. His first and most important book, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, published in 1958, devotes careful attention to this concept of networking and gathering information via business contacts.

Philip Fishers Belief in Small-Cap Growth Stocks

Fisher divided the universe of growth stocks into large and small companies. On one end of the spectrum are large, financially strong companies with solid growth prospects, which during his time included IBM, Dow Chemical, and DuPont, all of which increased in share price fivefold in the 10-year period from 1946 to 1956.

Although such returns were enviable, Fisher was more interested in the big returns that could be found in "small and frequently young companies[with] products that might bring a sensational future." Of these companies, Fisher wrote, "the young growth stock offers by far the greatest possibility of gain. Sometimes this can mount up to several thousand percent in a decade." Fisher believed that all else being equal, investors should concentrate their efforts on uncovering young companies with outstanding growth prospects.By Padraig Hoare

Potentially thousands of Irish BMW drivers could be affected as the German car giant said it was including the Republic in a recall that will see 312,000 vehicles returned in the UK.

The firm said there would be Irish motorists affected by the recall but added that it was still calculating how many were affected.

BMW said it was working with the Department of Transport to establish the number of cars in the Republic that will be recalled.

Motoring experts have suggested the number could be over 10,000 if the Irish car market and population was compared to that of the UK.

Some 312,000 BMWs in the 1 Series, the 3 Series, the Z4, and its X1 petrol and diesel models made between March 2007 and August 2011 are being recalled, reported BBC News.

The most recent CSO statistics show there were 800 of the 3 Series model newly licensed in the Republic last year, the 48th most popular seller. There were almost 480 X1 and 300 1 Series licensed.

The BBCs Watchdog programme found vehicles could cut out completely while they are being driven.

BMW initially recalled cars in the UK following a fatal crash on Christmas Day 2016. Narayan Gurung died when his Ford Fiesta crashed into a tree to avoid a broken-down BMW in Surrey, according to the BBC.

AA Ireland spokesman Barry Aldworth said the advice to Irish motorists was to comply with any recall and not take it lightly.

If you are issued with a recall with an affected model, make sure you comply with the manufacturer, said Mr Aldworth. If you are not issued with a recall but have doubts, then take the safe option and bring it to your BMW dealer. There is no need for unnecessary panic but it is always better to play it safe.

The crashed BMW in Surrey had suffered an electrical fault, causing its brake lights to fail and resulting in the vehicle stalling on a dark road, said the BBC.

The Watchdog investigation found that the fault could affect a wider number of cars.

BMW driver Mwape Kambafwile told Watchdog that his BMW 3 Series car had cut out completely while he was driving in December 2016.

I just thought to myself if I was driving on the motorway with my family in the car, that could have been very dangerous, he said.

BMW had failed to tell the UKs Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency about the electrical fault in some of its cars that led to the death of Mr Gurung, reported the BBC.

It is the latest in a series of recalls for BMW, with 500,000 cars brought in throughout the US in 2013, as well as in Australia, Canada, and South Africa.

In response to the Watchdog programme, BMW said: We now recognise that there may have been some cases of similar power supply issues in vehicles not covered by the original recall.

In order to reassure customers with concerns about the safety of their vehicles, we are voluntarily extending the recall.

We are therefore announcing today that we will take the proactive step of expanding the existing UK recall to cover all vehicles potentially affected by the power supply issue.

BMWs first-quarter profit announced last week failed to offset the hit from currency moves and higher spending on technology and new models, set to reach a record 7bn this year.Oil rallied yesterday after US president Donald Trumps decision to walk away from a nuclear deal with Iran.

Brent crude hit $77 as the market came to terms with a US message that buyers of Iranian crude have six months to curb purchases.

Oil majors Shell and BP were up by over 3% in London as the US sanctions against Iran, an Opec member, are expected to tighten global oil supply.

The decision by president Trump to reimpose sanctions will affect many big businesses around the world.

Some sanctions take effect after a 90-day wind-down period ending on August 6, and the rest, most notably on the petroleum sector, after a 180-day wind-down period ending on November 4.

Both deadlines are meant to give firms and other entities time to conclude trade and other business activities with or in Iran.

In aviation, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Airbus and Boeing will lose licences to sell passenger jets to Iran.

IranAir had ordered 200 passenger aircraft  100 from Airbus, 80 from Boeing and 20 from Franco-Italian turboprop maker ATR.

German carmaker Volkswagen, which began exporting cars to Iran last year, said it was closely monitoring and reviewing political and economic developments.

The French carmakers, including Renault, have pushed hard into Iran after sanctions were lifted following the 2015 nuclear pact.

PSA has signed production deals worth 700m to reclaim the leading position it once had in the market, while Renault invested to increase production capacity to 350,000 vehicles a year.

Nestle said there are no direct implications for its business at this stage, but said it was continuing to closely follow political developments.

Nestle operates two factories in Iran, producing infant cereals and formula and bottled water.

German engineering group Siemens said it would closely monitor the situation in Iran and was assessing the implications of the Iran decision.

Siemens signed a contract in October 2016 to upgrade Irans railway network and also to supply components for 50 diesel-electric locomotives to Iran.

In the oil and gas industries, Trumps decision could scupper French oil major Totals multibillion-dollar gas project in Iran unless it can secure a waiver.

Reuters and BloombergUpdate:5pm Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has described the decision by Apple to shelve its plans for a data centre in Athenry as "regrettable".

However, he said that the news should not come as a great shock,

"It is very regrettable, it's probably not all that surprising given the inordinate delays and the fact they (Apple) have built data centres in Denmark instead, so we will certainly have a discussion with Apple about the possibility of them selling that on to another company who might use it as a data centre into the future," he said.

"But, it's a real blow, I know, to Athenry and more generally to the West," he said.

Update - 11.53am: Apple's scrapping of data centre plans 'a permanent black mark against Athenry'

Apple's decision to shelve its plans for a multi-million euro data centre in East Galway has been described as a "hammer blow" for the area.

It was set to create hundreds of jobs but has faced lengthy legal efforts to block it on environmental grounds.

Paul Keane from the group 'Athenry for Apple' says it is devastating.

Mr Keane said: "It is a permanent black mark against Athenry, but it's also a huge blow for the country when we have a system that allows for delays to go on for so, so long that who is going to come after the biggest company in the world?

"Who is going to build any sites around the west of Ireland? It's a huge blow."

Local Fianna Fail TD Anne Rabbitte also said it is devastating: "In the last three years it has been mired in a council, in planning, in Bord Pleanala and in the courts system, riddled with objections.

"The people of Athenry have marched, they've protested, they have shown that they are open for Apple, and yet again the people of Athenry have been let down this morning."

9.13am: Apple scraps plans for Athenry data centre

Technology giant Apple has announced it will not pursue its plans to build a new data centre in Athenry, Co Galway.

Objectors to the proposed 850m facility had decided to take their case to the Supreme Court in December.

It followed a High Court judgement in November that seemed to pave the way for works to begin.

Apple had planed to build a state-of-the-art data centre on a 500 acre Coillte-owned site just outside Athenry.

However, a number of local residents raised concerns about the potential environmental impact of the project and accused An Bord Pleanala of not carrying out a proper assessment.

The Commercial Court also ruled against the objectors in October.

An artists' impression of the now-scrapped data centre.

The company statement said: "Weve been operating in Ireland since 1980 and we're proud of the many contributions we make to the economy and job creation. In the last two years we've spent over 550 million with local companies and, all told, our investment and innovation supports more than 25,000 jobs up and down the country.

We're deeply committed to our employees and customers in Ireland and are expanding our operations in Cork, with a new facility for our talented team there.

"Several years ago we applied to build a data centre at Athenry. Despite our best efforts, delays in the approval process have forced us to make other plans and we will not be able to move forward with the data centre.

"While disappointing, this setback will not dampen our enthusiasm for future projects in Ireland as our business continues to grow.

Business Minister Heather Humphreys has said she regrets the decision.

The Minister said: "I very much regret that Apple will not be pursuing its plans to construct a data centre in Athenry, especially as the project would have been a source of significant investment and job creation for Galway and the West of Ireland.

"Notwithstanding this bad news, I welcome that Apple have confirmed that they are strongly committed to their existing operations in Ireland."

"The Government recognises the important role that data centre investments can - and still will - have in contributing to economic growth and job creation in Ireland.

"Thats why we agreed, in October 2017, to the implementation of a strengthened policy framework to support their continued development.

"That framework includes a number of actions which, once fully implemented, will help us attract and sustain such investments in the future, especially in regional locations."

- Digital DeskTony O'Brien has announced he will be stepping down as Director General of the HSE.

As detailed in a statement from the HSE, Mr O'Brien will step down at the close of business tomorrow "in order to avoid any further impact to the delivery of health and social care services, in particular the cancer screening services that have become the focus of intense political debate in recent days".

He said that "notwithstanding the clear communication failures surrounding the CervicalCheck Audits", he is "confident that the Scally Review will demonstrate the quality and value of the CervicalCheck Programme once it is complete".

Mr O'Brien said he looks forward to co-operating and engaging with the review.

The statement said that Mr OBrien "has been proud to lead the health services and the many staff who have worked tirelessly and with great dedication to provide health and social care services in a very challenging environment.

It states that he "remains deeply committed to health reform in Ireland and in particular the full implementation of the Slainte Care Report" and retains his "fullest support for Minister Harris in this regard".

Press Statement - Director General of HSE Tony OBrien - https://t.co/Zaq0xoOYsw  HSE Ireland (@HSELive) May 10, 2018

In a separate statement, the Department of Health said that Mr O'Brien met with the Minister for Health Simon Harris this evening and informed him of his decision.

Minister Harris has thanked Mr OBrien for his many years of service and dedication.

I would like to express my thanks to Tony OBrien for his many years of dedicated public service.

"I know that he is standing down from his role today because he believes it is in the best interest of rebuilding public confidence in the wake of the issues which have arisen in CervicalCheck.

"Tomorrow the Cabinet meeting will again discuss this matter and the further measures which can be put in place to care for and support the women and families affected.

Statement from the Minister for Health @SimonHarrisTD pic.twitter.com/6hSlytQiFO  Department of Health (@roinnslainte) May 10, 2018

Mr O Brien's departure came after the heart-breaking interview with Emma Mhic Mhathuna on RTE Radio's Morning Ireland programme and revelations at the Dail public accounts committee today that he was aware of a memo two years ago highlighting incorrect Cervical Check tests.

In the hours before he quit, Children's Minister Katherine Zappone publicly said the memos were "a game-changer" and formally called on cabinet to say they no longer have confidence in him at a meeting tomorrow.

The call was repeated by Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and Labour, the latter two of whom said they would back Sinn Fein's now defunct Dail no confidence motion in Mr O' Brien due on Tuesday.

Sinn Fein was the first party to comment on the resignation, with Mary Lou McDonald commenting that it was "a necessary first step in achieving accountability for this scandal".

However, despite the departure, the Government is still not off the hook amid growing concerns over what the Government knew of the scandal, and when.

Last week, it was revealed that an audit by CervicalCheck of 1,482 women diagnosed with the cancer since 2008 had found potential errors in 208 cases, as tests showed no abnormality when they should have been given a cancer warning.

The majority of the 208 women  162  were not initially told of the outcome of the audit. Of the 208, 17 have since died.

- Digital Desk. Additional reporting Fiachra O Cionnaith and Daniel McConnell.By Des ODriscoll

Denyse Woods was born in Boston, but has been living in Cork for almost 30 years, and is based in Inniscarra.

She has just published her sixth novel, Of Sea and Sand (Hoopoe Fiction), which is a supernatural love story set in Oman and West Cork. Woods will read at West Cork Literature Festival in July.

Best recent book youve read:

Embrace on Brooklyn Bridge by Ezzedine C Fishere, about what it is to be an Arab immigrant in America.

Best recent film:

Borg vs McEnroe.

Best piece of music youve been listening to lately (new or old):

I love listening to my daughter Finola Merivales pieces on SoundCloud. I also recently revisited my Belgian childhood by listening to several of Adamos old hits.

First ever piece of music or art or film or gig that really moved you:

I once had the privilege of attending Verdis Aida in the Forum in Rome. Live elephants and all.

The best gig youve ever seen:

Leonard Cohen in Dublin.

Tell us about your TV viewing:

Anything that will make me laugh or think. The recent RTE documentary Irelands Deep Atlantic with Ken OSullivan was brilliant. For a Friday night, Graham Norton every time. Funnier than all of his guests. The Young Offenders, of course. Funny and poignant. Such a strong script.

Radio listening and/or podcasts:

I adore the radio and mostly listen during the night, so its mostly the BBC World Service. When driving, I choose Sean Moncrieff on Newstalk. I love the West Wing Weekly podcast.

Youre curating your dream festival  which three artists are on the bill, living or dead?

I curated the West Cork Literature Festival for four years and got to invite many writers I hugely admire. So, lets go with the unavailable: Literature: Mary Lavin, Wilfrid Thesiger and Samuel Pepys. Music: Lennon, Victor Borge and Nina Simone.

Your best celebrity encounter:

My encounter with Ringo Starr in 1977 when I was 19. Id been a mad Beatles fan since I was old enough to understand, and happened to be in Rome when he was passing through, doing some PR for an album. I scoured the papers with no real hope of his hotel being revealed, but it was, so I tore across town and arrived just a few minutes before he came through the lobby on his way to the airport. Im afraid I grabbed his arm, but failed to speak.

He very calmly asked for his arm back, then talked me through the process of getting his autograph. A prized possession. No selfies in those days, but I did get some pics. We then followed him to the airport, where, when he saw me and realised Id tracked him down, again, he smiled and waved his passport at me. Melt, melt, melt. Im surprised Im still here. His girlfriend then enveloped me in a huge hug. I was high for months.

You can portal back to any period of human cultural history or music event?

1960s, of course. Although, as my father used to point out, rather than being a time of love and flower power, it was a dark time, the era of the Vietnam War, assassinations, civil rights atrocities in the US and of course our own grief here on this island. However, on the brighter side, Id like to have been working in a building adjacent to the Beatles Apple Studios in London, on the day they shook the neighbourhood with their impromptu rooftop concert  January 30, 1969.

Any interesting ancestors?

Denis Devlin, poet and diplomat, much admired by Becket, Ezra Pound and many other greats of his day. My grandmother and grandfather were amongst the many who hid Michael Collins in Dublin when he was on the run.

Unsung heroes:

The park rangers across the world who too often lose their lives protecting our wildlife. Particularly those attempting to save elephants from poachers.

You are queen for a day  whats your first decree?

I would have to be Queen of the All Nations so I could put an end to the manufacture of armaments and put all those people in those industries into jobs protecting the planet from climate change instead.Andrew Niccol has already given us a satirical snoop-fest in The Truman Show, and his latest thriller addresses very relevant issues in the high-tech world we inhabit, writes Esther McCarthy.

The way we watch film is rapidly changing and with it the politics of the movie business.

Just this week, the worlds biggest film festival, Cannes, opened without Netflix on board, amid a stalemate over traditional film distribution models.

As far as top filmmaker Andrew Niccol is concerned, changing realities offer movie-making opportunities.

His latest film, Anon, a thriller about technology and privacy, opens in cinemas this weekend but will also be available to watch at home on subscription service Sky Cinema (its on Netflix in the US).

Theres a lot of what they call day and date movies now, which I kind of understand, and it even relates to the film, he tells me.

I think its weirdly appropriate that people watch it on different formats. You cant be a purist any more, I think, because people sometimes have better home theatres than youd get at your local multiplex.

For me its always about story, so to reach as many people as possible is the idea for me. For me, a story has to be able to work on any number of formats.

While many filmmakers are wary of the TV/streaming models, Niccol feels they have much to offer. Is this because its getting harder to make movies?

Yes and no. If you dont have a character with a cape on, then yes, its hard to get a big studio to give you $100m unless its a franchise. On the other hard theres a whole lot of new places that need, in the horrible term, content. Lets say stories, its a nicer word. Theres all of these different places now that need stories.

I think back to my first film, Gattaca. You probably cant make that today at a studio, and it was made at a studio. The worlds changed and I guess I have to change with it! chuckles the affable New Zealander.

With classics like Gattaca and The Truman Show, both of which he wrote, Niccol has become known for high-concept ideas. Anon, starring Clive Owen and Amanda Seyfried, is a jittery account of a world without privacy, policed by the sharing of information.

Its a world of such transparency that crime no longer exists. But while investigating a series of unexplained deaths, Sal (Owen) comes across a woman (Seyfried) with no identity who is invisible to police, threatening to bring the system to its knees.

Amanda Seyfried in Anon

For a long time Ive been wanting to do a film about privacy. About the war for privacy and how there was no war, actually, we gave it up without a fight, for convenience. says Niccol.

Thats always intrigued me. If you look at the current times, there are real echoes of that, how weve given away so much.

The films extensive visual graphics show how characters are life logging in their every day-to-day interactions, meaning privacy is impossible.

Everybodys walking around with a phone in their hands. Theyre all on social media. So I just took a leap forward because if I could just put that in what we call your minds eye Ive just taken a leap in the technology.

I had some narration in the beginning of the film originally, and then I realised that were actually so attuned to this idea of data technology that we live with, that I didnt need the narration at all, I just jumped right over it.

"Because everyone understands that thats what were already doing. You cant go to a concert these days without it being filmed, without everyone having a phone in their hands. There are some artists that wont even perform because theyre just looking down at a sea of cameras.

Right now you and I are geotagging on our phones, so Google knows where we are. That may not matter to you but at the same time it feels like an intrusion. And with Cambridge Analytica we realised how much wed given up. It came as a shock to a lot of people.

Did the film come about from his interest in the subject matter or vice versa?

Yes! he laughs. I think its a bit of both. Ive been thinking about it for a long time  theres kind of a false choice, where people say: If youve got nothing to hide, youve got nothing to fear.

"But I prefer what the girl says in the film, where she says: Its not that Ive got something to hide. Ive got nothing that I want you to see. Of course, some people are more private than others, but I think it is a human instinct to preserve something of yourself.

Andrew Niccol. Pic: Angela Weiss/Getty Images

Growing up in New Zealand, Niccol says, gave him a beautiful perspective when it comes to making his films. He feels that sense of distance from Hollywood was of benefit to his career.

If I was born in the belly of the beast, if I came from LA, I dont think I would write the kinds of movies that I write.

Like some filmmakers, he moved into cinema through advertising. I went to London pretty early on, to advertising which was my film school. At the time there was more storytelling, more of a narrative, in commercials.

Now its more style over story and its about imagery, but at the time it was genuinely more mini-films. It was a good film school.

Still, a desire to tell bigger stories was driving him to write and develop ideas in his free time. I just had a story that had been in the back of my mind for a long time which was The Truman Show, the first thing I really wrote. Colleagues around me were making that jump from directing commercials to movies. That was the impetus I guess.

Written and produced by Niccol and directed by Peter Weir, The Truman Show was not only a bona fide hit but had a huge cultural impact, spawning thousands of features and TV debates on the nature of reality and privacy.

There was no reality television when I wrote it. So if I had anything to do with that I apologise, he says.

As a writer, he is constantly developing idea based in what he likes to describe as parallel presents which he says is his Trojan horse when it comes to bringing challenging ideas to the screen.

Im writing a couple of things, but I find when Im working on more than one I get quite schizophrenic and characters start walking from one script into another. Ultimately its the stories themselves that decide: Im next.

Anon opens in Irish cinemas and on Sky Cinema tomorrowThe Disclosures Tribunal was told yesterday that Supt Dave Taylor is following proceedings on Twitter. #Hello Dave. The inquiry cant be making for great tweet browsing for the former head of the Garda press office, writes Michael Clifford.

A succession of his former colleagues in the press office gave evidence yesterday. They had differing views on Supt Taylor, ranging from grand man to get on with to the kind of fella who was likely to harbour a grudge.

Much of what was elicited in evidence concerned Supt Taylors management style, which sounded controlling yet efficient. Some got on with him, others didnt.

Those who didnt appear to have had a hard enough time of it.

One such was Sgt Damien Hogan, who is a veteran of the press office. He said towards the end of Supt Taylors tenure in the press office in the spring of 2014 he was thinking of packing it in, such was the disharmony he was experiencing.

What has living in harmony or otherwise in the Phoenix Park got to do with the tribunal? Supt Taylor has made the gravest of allegations about goings-on in HQ.

He has implicated himself and former commissioners Martin Callinan and Noirin OSullivan in allegations that there was an orchestrated campaign to discredit Sgt Maurice McCabe with scurrilous lies about child abuse.

Supt Taylor says Mr Callinan directed this campaign and Ms OSullivan was aware of it. Both deny it, and over the last few days it has emerged that Supt Taylors former colleagues in the press office knew nothing of it either.

The evidence from the current and former press office staff has painted a largely unflattering picture of Supt Taylor.

Relationships became strained with a lot of personnel and (he got involved) in personal vendettas, Sgt Horan told the inquiry.

When he arrived first I was concerned with his management style, Sgt James Molloy said. And so it went.

All the witnesses were concerned about how Supt Taylor kept attempting to get information from the office after he was transferred out of it by Ms OSullivan. The inquiry heard that over a three-month period he had 11,000 contacts with journalists after he left. This became the focus of a criminal investigation, which ultimately led to the DPP directing he not be prosecuted. The trawl through his time in HQ is largely concerned with examining his credibility as somebody bearing the most serious of allegations.

Of more interest than the life and times of Supt Taylor was the lack of knowledge, rumour or even interest in Maurice McCabe in the press office at a time when he was making press headlines.

All but one of the garda and civilian staff who gave evidence knew next to

nothing about Sgt McCabe back in 2014, when their boss at the time says he was spreading word that the Cavan-based sergeant was involved in child abuse.

They didnt hear the rumours that were circulating in media and political circles. They didnt talk much about the garda sergeant who was causing convulsions in the commissioners office, a stones throw from the press office.

They didnt seem much interested in what was, by any stretch, a complete departure within the force  someone who was willing to speak up. One might imagine it was a case of See No Maurice, Hear No Maurice, Speak No Maurice.

The only exception to this rule was Sgt Molloy. He at least had heard rumours about Sgt McCabe and an allegation.

Meanwhile, the chairman Judge Peter Charleton began to get worried that Supt Taylor was missing all this bad stuff that was being said about him. He expressed surprise to Supt Taylors counsel that her client wasnt present.

She said he was keeping an eye on things on a Twitter feed.

Im going to make a fool of myself and say I thought that you were limited to 20 words on a Twitter feed, the judge said. Far from making a fool of himself, he was in the ballpark of Twitters limitations. Perhaps 20 or 30 words were all that Supt Taylor wanted to hear about reflections on how he ran the press office. The real action gets under way next week when we will hear from the man himself.Sentence lengths can range from 14 days to five months in an assault case. Judges need guidelines, writes Donnchadh O Laoghaire.

Most people would agree on the principle that the sentence should fit the crime.

Far too often, we see victims, particularly of serious sexual assaults and crimes, dismayed and angry at sentences that are inappropriate, inconsistent, and, in some cases, frankly inadequate.

On a recent episode of Claire Byrne Live on RTE, there was a discussion with a number of very courageous women, who all felt they had been let down by the sentences handed down in their cases. Their stories underline why we need to do better for the victims of crime.

No one would envy the judiciary the job of devising sentences, whether for minor or serious crimes.

There are many considerations, legal, practical, and principled, for the judge to take in to account, when coming to a decision on what sentence is appropriate. The majority of judges balance these considerations well.

However, it is important that there is public confidence in, and understanding of, the approach taken to sentencing.

This affects all sorts of crimes.

The application of the Road Traffic Act can see wild variations from district court to district court.

According to research recently published in the Irish Probation Journal, sentence lengths can range from 14 days to five months in an assault case, while for a theft case sentences ranged between 30 days and nine months.

In particular there has been serious concern at sentences handed out in cases involving rape or sexual offences over recent years, indicating a failure to understand the gravity of the violence committed against the victim.

Indeed, recently a High Court judge described the lack of sentencing guidelines in rape cases as somewhat bizarre.

According to Ms Justice Una Ni Raifeartaigh: One judges substantial could be four years and anothers could be 14 years. Its somewhat bizarre that an area that is so sensitive has so little in the way of guidance for a trial judge.

Even though sentencing guidelines are common in many countries, and have been supported by organisations such as the Rape Crisis Network, the Irish Penal Reform Trust, and the Irish Council of Civil Liberties, there is currently no statutory provision for this in Ireland.

I met with Minister to discuss the need for Sentencing Guidelines and the Judicial Appointments Bill 2 weeks ago. It was a constructive engagement, and I hope he can listen to the brave voices we heard tonight on #cblive to deliver guidelines, for consistency & fairness  Donnchadh O Laoghaire (@Donnchadhol) April 30, 2018

The current Judicial Council Bill does not make any provision for the drafting of guidelines.

I have drafted and submitted amendments to this legislation which would provide for this. A sentencing guidelines committee would be established, made up of a mixture of judicial figures, and lay members to represent the interest of the public.

They would then draft guidelines for particular offences, particular categories of offences or a particular category of offender, and, indeed, general guidelines, according to the judgment of the committee.

These would be based on, among other things, current sentences imposed by the courts, a need to promote consistency, impact of sentencing decisions on victims, human rights considerations, effectiveness, and the need for public confidence.

Guidelines would outline how a sentence should be calculated, and what weight should be given to any aggravating or mitigating factors.

The judge would be obliged to have regard to these guidelines, while safeguarding judicial independence  the final say would always lie with the judge.

Such a committee would also ensure comprehensive research in to sentencing, as the information available currently is piecemeal, and would monitor how often judges depart from guidelines.

I believe this greater structuring of sentencing, as well as greater education and training, will lead to fairer, more appropriate sentences, as well as better treatment of victims, particularly of sexual offences.

The issue of judicial reform is current at the moment, with much discussion regarding appointments, and lay majorities and so on.

Sinn Fein supports the concept of non-political appointments and a transparent process, however, we are conscious that judicial reform needs to be seen as a package.

Minister Charlie Flanagan

We have impressed upon Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan the need to address sentencing guidelines, and that we want to see progress on this.

The public deserves to know that offenders will receive a sentence that fits the crime. They deserve transparency and consistency.

They deserve to know there is a basis for calculating a sentence, and for what reason a particular sentence was handed down.

I believe our proposed amendments to the Judicial Council Bill would represent a significant step towards a better, fairer system of sentencing.

Donnchadh O Laoghaire is Sinn Feins justice spokesman.Big business knows that in Trumps swamp you pay to play and payments from Russian firms, among others, lead back to the presidents fixer, Michael Cohen, writes Timothy OBrien.

There may be any number of reasons why a management firm linked to a powerful Russian oligarch favoured by the Kremlin paid about $500,000 (420,000) to retain the services of a once obscure and middling lawyer who was also President Donald Trumps personal attorney.

And there are lots of possible explanations for why a major US telecommunications firm, a subsidiary of a Swiss pharmaceutical giant, and a South Korean aerospace corporation all also recently poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the pocket of the presidents personal attorney.

But for efficiencys sake, lets presume Michael Cohens clients made those payments to him for the same, old-fashioned reason money usually changes hands in places like New York and Washington: Self-interest.

The Russian business community and Kremlin, for example, were unhappy with economic sanctions the Obama administration imposed on Russia after it annexed part of Ukraine in 2014.

Perhaps Columbus Nova, an investment firm whose biggest client is a company controlled by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, thought that its hefty payments to Cohen during the first several months after Trump was inaugurated might encourage the lawyer to ask the new president to consider lifting those sanctions? Who knows?

Cohen and his high school chum Felix Sater actually crafted a peace proposal for Ukraine that they tried to shop to Trumps former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, during the same period when Cohen was being paid by Columbus Nova.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Cohen and Sater also pitched Trump, and tried to pitch the Kremlin, on the idea of building a Trump-branded tower in Moscow.

In a statement on Tuesday night, Columbus Nova (run by Vekselbergs cousin) shot down the idea the oligarch had any connection to the Cohen retainer.

The claim that Viktor Vekselberg was involved or provided any funding for Columbus Novas engagement of Michael Cohen is patently untrue, said attorney Richard Owens.

Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else other than Columbus Novas owners were involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement.

Michael Cohen

Korea Aerospace Industries, an aircraft manufacturer, paid Cohen $150,000 last November. After that payment came to light on Tuesday, the South Korean firm declined comment.

Korea Aerospace has partnered with Lockheed Martin, the US defence contractor, to bid on a multibillion-dollar training jet contract that the US Air Force plans to award this year.

Could Cohen have helped Korea Aerospace

secure that contract? Who knows?

Novartis Investments, a subsidiary of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, paid Cohen about $400,000 between October and January. A Novartis spokesman said payments to Cohen ended in January and its contract with the lawyer expired before the companys new CEO took over in February.

Could Cohen have helped Novartis navigate the tangle of regulations the US federal government imposes on big pharma companies? Who knows?

AT&T, which paid Cohen $200,000 in late 2017 and early 2018, announced shortly before the 2016 election that it planned to merge with Time Warner.

That deal drew the attention of federal trust busters around the time that AT&T retained Cohen; the justice department sued AT&T to block the merger in November.

Could Cohen have been hired to try to help smooth the way for AT&Ts takeover of Time Warner? Who knows?

AT&T did try to provide some details about its relationship with Cohen in a statement on Tuesday night. Cohens firm was one of several AT&T said it hired to provide insights into understanding the new administration.

AT&T also said Cohen did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017.

If Cohen, a lawyer who actually practises very little law and worked as a self-described fixer for Trump, wasnt paid to lobby or lawyer, then what was left for him to do?

Well, he could provide insights into Trumplandia, thats what he could do. So the payments to Cohen, whose only real value to these clients was his proximity to the president, were meant to help AT&T understand the new administration and nothing more.

That all could be true. But ever since Trump and his family arrived in Washington they have essentially hung a

for-sale sign on the White House by refusing to meaningfully separate themselves from their own business interests.

Thats certainly not lost on the companies that do business in or with Washington. They know that in Trumps swamp, you pay to play.

All of these payments to Cohen first came to light Tuesday night when Michael Avenatti posted summaries of them online.

Avenatti is an attorney representing Stormy Daniels, a porn star who was paid hush money by Cohen to mask a sexual encounter she claims she had with Trump.

Subsequent reports from the New York Times and CNN, as well as admissions by the companies themselves to outlets like Bloomberg News, confirmed Avenattis summaries.

Priceless = Watching all of the companies that sent money to the LLC slush fund come up with different alleged reasons for hiring Mr. Cohen  accounting advice, real estate consulting, insight, etc. Who knew Mr. Cohen was such a brilliant renaissance man? #nonsense #basta  Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 9, 2018

In keeping with the delicious and tawdry weirdness surrounding the intersection of the porn star, the president, and the presidents personal attorney, all of the corporate payments to Cohen flowed into Essential Consultants, a limited liability company Cohen controlled.

Cohen created Essential shortly before election day last year to make a $130,000 payment to Daniels; payments to her and payments from Cohens corporate clients passed through the same bank accounts.

Theres more to Cohens retainers, as well. Beyond echoes of the Gilded Age and Boss Tweed, the payments from Columbus Nova put financial clothing on relationships between Russian interests and one of Trumps close advisers.

Vekselberg, according to CNN, was recently questioned by investigators with the justice departments special counsel, Robert Mueller, about the payments to Cohen.

Muellers team stopped Vekselberg for questioning at a New York airport about two months ago, apparently in connection with his attendance at Trumps presidential inauguration last year, according to the New York Times.

Vekselberg was one of seven Russian oligarchs slapped with sanctions by the Trump administration in April.

Mueller is examining whether the Kremlin tried to tilt the 2016 presidential election in favour of Trump, and he has been investigating the Trump Organisations business dealings as part of that probe.

The president has labelled the entire Russia investigation a witch hunt. As the Avenatti revelations show, sometimes witch hunts turn up witches.Its more than 40 years since Margaret Thatcher insisted that the Norths republican prisoners be treated as criminals rather than as political prisoners.

Her self-righteousness and wilful ignorance had immediate consequences.

The IRA secured a propaganda victory and welcomed a wave of recruits who saw no potential politics.

A new round of violence and all the enduring bitterness and mistrust that provoked began. Big-stick politics, as they nearly always do, failed.

Inevitable peace talks were again put out of immediate reach. Many lives were lost before negotiation replaced confrontation.

More than four decades later we live with the toxic legacy of that over-reach and profound lack of empathy.

The lessons of that episode are as relevant as ever, especially as they have been resharpened by President Trumps decision to withdraw America from the Iran nuclear agreement.

The decision sunders years of diplomacy and plunges the Middle East into even deeper uncertainty.

Just as Thatchers miscalculation was a catalyst for renewed terror Trumps U-turn has been celebrated by Irans hardliners.

The Revolutionary Guards congratulated the nation on the decision. MPs burnt an American flag and the text of the 2015 landmark deal in the countrys parliament on Wednesday.

Just as Thatcher revived the Provo terrorists, Trump has rejuvenated the bigoted, homophobic, misogynist, deeply anti-Western Revolutionary Guards. Moderates and potential reformers can only look on in despair.

Whether the insistence by the other deal signatories  France, China, Britain, Russia, and Germany  that it is not dead is realistic remains to be seen but the aspiration of encouraging Iran to eventually become a reliable member of the international community has been dealt a severe blow.

European leaders are determined to try to salvage the deal though this sets them on a collision course with Mr Trumps America, an increasingly volatile and disconnected player in todays world.

The suggestion that US national security adviser John Bolton has warned that European companies doing business in Iran must stop doing so within six months or face sanctions adds a sinister layer to the episode.

Does America really think it can dictate the foreign policy of countries it does business with? This threat rings loudly in Ireland as we have invested considerable time and effort in trying to establish a market for Irish farm produce in Iran. Does Mr Bolton expect the EU to dance to his tune too?

Despite all of that Mr Trump is right about his core objective  Iran cannot be allowed develop nuclear capabilities.

Iranian demonstrators burn representations of the US flag during a protest in front of the former US Embassy (AP)

This non-negotiable is also the core objective of the deal he abandoned, one most neutral observers  and his security advisors  believe Iran has honoured.

That may or may not be the case but it is difficult to see how Mr Trump can dismiss Iran but embrace North Korea in a seperate round of nuclear negotiations.

At this remove, one rogue state looks pretty much like the other and America seems at best inconsistent.

All those years ago Thatchers grave error guaranteed the near-permanent dominance of extremism and, tragically, Mr Trump seems to have fallen into the very same trap.Britain is continuing to block Russian officials from having physical access to nerve agent victims Sergei and Yulia Skripal, the country's ambassador to the UK has said.

Alexander Yakovenko reiterated his claim that Britain had "abducted" the pair as they recovered from the novichok poison attack in Salisbury, after holding talks with the Foreign Office.

Mr Yakovenko said the talks had not been constructive and that relations between the UK and Russia, which is accused of being behind the poisoning, were "really very low".

He said that officials had met his request to meet the Skripals by saying "we are not ready to provide this sort of contact".

He told a press conference in London on Thursday that he was concerned for the health of the Russian citizens, telling reporters: "Two months has passed since the time when the poisoning happened in Salisbury.

To this day we haven't seen them, we have no information about their condition, we don't know what they are doing, what is their health, nobody saw their pictures, nobody talked to them... we have no information and we are really disappointed about that.

Statements released on the Skripals' behalf by police have said they do not want contact with Russian officials but Mr Yakovenko reiterated a desire to hear that from the Skripals "physically".

He added: "We have every kind of feeling to think that these two people were abducted."

A small amount of novichok is thought to have been used in liquid form to target former Russian agent Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter, 33.

March's attack sparked a wave of diplomatic expulsions by Britain and its allies, and retaliatory ones by Russia.

- PAAs investigations continue into the cause of hundreds of carp deaths at Corks iconic Lough amenity, and dozens of deaths at a privately-owned carp fishery near Cobh, Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) confirmed last night that it has now suspended angling at the Inniscarra and Carrigadrohid coarse fisheries to reduce the risk of cross-contamination.

This will be reviewed once the cause of the mortalities is known, it said.Judge Sean O Donnabhain said it must have been obvious to the raider that the householder had the injury as his arm was in a sling.

Thomas ONeill, aged 46, of 3 Ringfort Avenue, Ballrothery, Fingal, Dublin, was jailed for six years yesterday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. The judge imposed a term of eight years with the last two suspended.

Detective Garda Kevin Heffernan testified that the householder from Enniskeane suffered a workplace injury the previous day and had a dislocated shoulder and nerve damage.

That night  December 21, 2017  it was too painful for him to lie down so he stayed on the sofa where he fell asleep after watching television for a while.

After midnight he woke to find a man wielding his large yard brush over his head. He struck down twice on his head and he (the injured party) defended himself with his other arm. He screamed for help, said Det Garda Heffernan.

The injured partys adult son came to his assistance and the raider fled. The victims wife later had to be sedated she was so upset by the aggravated burglary.

Members of the family followed the raider who ran across to a church. They saw the light from his phone as he made his way down a laneway. Gardai were alerted and they arrived quickly and arrested ONeill.

The householder said in his victim impact statement that the family had been left with anxiety about the possibility of another experience like this.

This man crashed into our lives that night. He has not left our lives since, he said.

The victim said it was possibly fortunate that it happened to them as they had dealt with it to some degree and not happened to someone who was older or more vulnerable.

Ray Boland, defence barrister, said the accused had problems with heroin, alcohol and gambling and also had mental health issues in the past.

He said ONeill was highly intoxicated on the night and was staying in the area at that time. Mr Boland said the accused had gone drinking in a pub in Enniskeane and that if he had really planned the crime he would have stayed away from any place with CCTV on the night.

ONeill brought 2,000 compensation to court for the victims and wrote a letter of apology.

Judge O Donnabhain said aggravating factors included the invasion of the family home and the violence used on a man who was clearly injured already.

Maybe there was not much planning but he went about it with determination. He put the victim in genuine terror, the judge said.

Det Garda Heffernan outlined serious criminal convictions against the accused for similar crimes, including robbery, possession of a firearm and ammunition to endanger life and aggravated.The Irish Council for Social Housing published its annual report which showed housing associations, normally not-for-profit organisations, provided 2,330 homes for social housing in 2017 through a combination of build, acquisition and leasing, almost doubling its output for 2016.

Along with re-lets of existing homes, the ICSH said 3,160 homes were provided last year. The body represents over 270 housing associations.

Its report also noted 173 people in homelessness were accommodated via Housing First and 15 family hubs were delivered by housing associations in 2017.

There were also 619 applications made under the mortgage-to -rent scheme which assisted homeowners at risk of losing their homes.

It also said that 5,756 new homes would be delivered in the coming years, mostly through builds and acquisitions and, while predominantly general needs housing, a significant proportion will be for the elderly, people with a disability, and those who are homeless.

Some 15,500 social homes, overall, are due to be provided by 2021 under Rebuilding Ireland.

The launch of the report was accompanied by calls for government action to further boost progress in the area.

The ICSH said it wanted access to a planned pipeline of sites for new housing association development and an affordable housing model for the delivery of homes at sub-market rent levels by housing associations.

It also called for a streamlining of the approvals process for new build and acquisitions under the capital assistance scheme for homes for people who are homeless, older persons, people with disabilities and young people leaving state care.

Finally, it also urged the Government to work with those in the sector to reverse the reclassification decision placing housing associations on the Governments balance sheet.

Housing associations, also known as approved housing bodies or AHBs, provide social housing around the country and the ICSH said its members had been working to increase the number of homes in response to the housing crisis.

The AHBs now use both the Capital Assistance Scheme and the Social Housing Current Expenditure Programme (SHCEP) to deliver social housing.

Dr Donal McManus, ICSH chief executive, said the figures for last year showed a 10-fold increase on the number of properties delivered, compared with the comparable figure for 2013.

Housing associations are tasked with delivering more than 15,000 of the 50,000 social homes committed to in Rebuilding Ireland, he said.

ICSH member organisations own and manage 33,000 social homes and our goal is to grow our social housing stock by 50% over the next five years, to almost 50,000 units.

The development pipeline for housing associations stands at over 5,700 homes. ICSH believe this number can be increased with specific actions by Government.Almost 62,000 homes have been constructed since the LPT was introduced and including those currently exempted properties in the tax net will significantly aid the financial positions of local councils.

Dublin City Council members appeared before the Oireachtas Housing Committee yesterday and denounced the LPT for not being a true local tax.

Dublin City Council was forced to hand over almost 16m in LPT receipts to supplement weaker councils across the country last year, it emerged.

Dublin councillors are seeking to change rules that require the council to hand over millions raised in property tax to help fund services in rural areas.

At the committee hearing, Sinn Feins housing spokesman Eoin O Brioin said reforming the LPT is not sufficient; it needs to be scrapped.

He sympathised with Dublin councillors as the minute the property tax was introduced, the council saw its grant from central government reduced by the same amount.

People were paying more but getting no added value, he said.

A report compiled for the city council also argues that a revaluation of the LPT should be brought forward from November 2019.

It calls for an end to exemptions available to around 12,000 households, and suggests the capital city should get extra funding because of its place as the employment centre in Ireland and first port of call for visitors.

The study, compiled by Dr Pat McCloughan, managing director of PMCA Economic Consulting, suggests Dublin is unfairly subsidising other rural parts of the country.

It notes that almost 16m raised through the LPT in the city last year was paid back to the exchequer to be handed to councils with weaker tax bases.

The city council makes the case for keeping 100% of the money it takes in. Householders in the Dublin City Council area understood they would benefit from more local services when the LPT was introduced but this has not happened because of how the LPT has operated to date, states the report.

The LPT, as it currently stands, is not a true local tax, even though most people agree with the principle of the LPT; the reality is that people are struggling to see its benefits, even with high compliance.

Dr McCloughan says equalisation should be replaced by a new arrangement in which local authorities with weaker tax bases receive supplementary funding from the exchequer.

The report describes Finance Minister Paschal Donohoes proposal to amend property tax rates in order to avoid a massive increase once a revaluation takes place as understandable.

The LPT is currently being calculated on the basis of 2013 market value, but house prices have spiralled in the interim. The report notes escalation in residential property values being especially rapid in Dublin.

Mr Donohoe has set up a working group to review the LPT ahead of a reassessment from November 1, 2019. But the report says this comes after the point in the local authority budget cycle when they decide their LPT rates, which does not support sound budgetary planning among local authorities.Diarmuid Martin described the feuding gangs as a cancerous group in society, that were uncontrolled and uncontrollable.

The archbishop was responding to figures provided by Dublins police chief that there were 522 active threats to life in the capital.

Assistant Garda Commissioner Pat Leahy said 11 of the 522 threats were categorised as critical, with a further 51 labelled severe and 171 substantial.

He said 10 of the 11 critical threats were in Dublin north central division, the home of many members of the Hutch family and wider criminal grouping, all targets of the Kinahan crime cartel.

Speaking on Today with Sean ORourke on RTE radio, Archbishop Martin said: I ask myself what do you say to families, children in some areas of Dublin and the rest of the country?

How can we work to build safe communities, when, despite every effort that is being done, that a powerful group  everyone is living under the power of this powerful group, who use direct violence of killing, they sell drugs, and they hire young people into their systems by bribing them to do small jobs, but they are being dragged into this.

He said: My real concern is for the families and children in some parts of Dublin who have to live in this environment and whose chances of getting out of it become slimmer and slimmer.

In the long term we still have to ensure people who live in those communities can rise to a certain level of independence and show their disdain and that theyd be supported and that children are not left as victims it he hands of these people who are absolutely unscrupulous.

He said these groups now are in their second, even third generation.

If I was to say to them theyll go to hell for what they do and their sins, theyd simply laugh at me. They are laughing in their comfortable zones while other parents are crying over losing their children.Dean Sullivan, deputy director general of the HSE, told the joint Oireachtas health committee that, such were the difficulties filling some posts, sometimes, weve no choice.

Mr OSullivan said it was likely to remain an issue, but that hospitals were putting checks and balances in place, where doctors were filling consultant posts, but were not on the specialist register.

Fianna Fail health spokesman Stephen Donnelly said there were well in excess of 100 doctors, or one in 25, who were in consultant posts but were not consultants. The High Court had described the situation as scandalous, he said.

Mr Donnelly asked if the HSE or Health Minister Simon Harris considered the situation acceptable, in light of the clinical risk attached.

Mr Harris said it was sadly, not a new issue, but he had been assured by the HSE that the numbers were declining and work was being done to regularise the positions.

Since 2008, the HSE has required that consultants be registered as specialists if working as specialists, but Mr Sullivan said, as of April 2008, 127 doctors working as consultants were not on the specialist register. He said this included 52 who related to the period pre-2008 and 75 who were post-2008.

He said the process was ongoing to identify those in a post pre-2008 who had the necessary skills, but hadnt chosen to register and there was also a process underway to upskill those who had been appointed to positions pre-2008.

Sinn Fein spokeswoman on health Louise OReilly asked why there were doctors drawing down specialist wages, even though they were not entitled to be on the specialist register.

She also asked if someone is hired who doesnt have the qualifications, should it be on the understanding that they will get the qualifications.

Fine Gael Senator Colm Burke said he was advised 59 consultants are expected to retire in the next 12 months but, in fact, he believed the figure to be higher.

He asked why the HSE couldnt be more proactive about identifying upcoming retirements to kickstart a more timely recruitment process.

Mr Sullivan said: I take your point about seeing those [retirements] coming over the hill. We should be working backwards from the retirement date.Congress was responding to new figures from the Central Statistics Offices latest Residential Property Price Index that showed a 12.7% rise in residential property prices across the State in the year to March.

This compares to a 12.5% rise in the year to February and 11.8% in the year to January. Overall, prices have now risen by 75% since their recession low point  and by over 90% in Dublin.

Congress general secretary Patricia King said that Ireland was in the midst of a very real housing emergency.

This crisis is doing untold damage to many lives and an entire generation of young workers now wonders if they will be able to afford suitable and secure accommodation, she said.

Clearly, a key problem is that the Government has left housing provision solely to the market and the market has failed to deliver. The National Planning Framework estimates that over half a million homes are needed over the next 20 years but Government plans to build just 33,500 new social housing units by 2021, even as official data indicates that just 780 new social housing units were built by local authorities last year.

Recent research by the Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI) found that most individual wage earners would not meet the mortgage criteria for a one-bed apartment in Dublin and two workers in the middle of the wage distribution are priced out of the market for a three-bedroom semi-detached home, in the capital.

Similarly, research by Prospectus Financial found that a Dublin worker on the average wage of 36,900 would need to save for 21 years to secure a deposit for the averaged-priced Dublin home of 325,000.

Ms King said the Government must take a more proactive role in housing than it has done to-date, building more social, affordable and cost-rental homes, as advocated in Congresss Charter for Housing Rights.

Housing is too important a human need to be left solely to the market, Ms King added.

Government action on the housing crisis was also sought by Pat Davitt, chief executive of the Institute of Professional Auctioneers & Valuers (IPAV).

Lamenting that the 750m loan scheme for builders and developers announced in last Octobers budget has not yet been delivered, he said: Its beyond time for talking and reporting; we need action.

The latest CSO figures reveal that the cost of residential property is rising faster in the regions than in Dublin, with the highest increases recorded in the West.

The Residential Property Price Index for March shows that in the year to March prices outside of Dublin rose by 13.4%. This compares with a 12.1% rise for Dublin.

The West region showed the greatest price growth, with house prices up by 18%, with the border region showing the least house price growth, at 8.8%. Apartment prices in the Rest of Ireland increased by 13.4% in the year to March.

Over the same period, Dublin house prices went up 11.8%, with apartment prices 13.9% higher. The highest house price growth was in the centre of Dublin, at 14.2%. The lowest growth was in South Dublin, where house prices increased 9.6%.

Despite the price increases, house prices countrywide are still 21.6% lower than their peak in 2007.Derek Evans, of 39 Russell Place, Russell Square, Tallaght, Dublin, was sentenced to seven years with the last two suspended for committing the aggravated burglary at a house on Togher Road, Cork, on December 16, 2016, and having a weapon of offence, namely a meat cleaver at the time.

Judge Sean O Donnabain sentenced Evans at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

This is a very serious offence. This man approached the house. He was not the main aggressor but he was fuelled by drugs and possessing a meat cleaver. An aggravating factor was the invasion of the dwelling.

He and the other man put the family in fear. He was an active participant. He has shown complete disregard for others.

The accused has a bad record and a huge problem with drugs. It is not that services have not been available but that he has not been able to go the distance with rehabilitation.

The probation service put him at a high risk of re-offending, probably because of his addictions and his record, Judge O Donnabhain said.

Detective Garda Eamon Feehan said Evans had the meat cleaver while his accomplice had what looked like a gun. It was only established later that it was an imitation firearm.

They were in the house for five minutes demanding money and the keys of the BMW parked outside the house on Togher Road.

They drove off in the car and were stopped elsewhere in the city a short time later.

Evans had 164 previous convictions, including counts for drug dealing, firearms possession, stealing cars, burglary and theft.Tony OBrien, director general of the HSE, said while he hopes there will be strong competition for my post, I have my doubts at this stage.

He said the role essentially left one person accountable for the mistakes of hundreds of thousands.

For fear would-be candidates are put off applying for Mr OBriens well-paid job, Jim Breslin, Department of Health secretary general, said it was the most meaningful and impactful role any public servant can have.

I believe there are people who would find it absolutely rewarding, he said.

Besides, the successful candidate would have a 10.9bn budget to play with and a fully-funded Slaintecare reform plan  and anyone who had the good of the public sector at heart will be attracted, said Mr Breslin.

Mr OBrien is due to end his tenure in July, despite being repeatedly called upon to resign immediately in the wake of the CervicalCheck scandal.

The scandal emerged during a court case taken by Vicky Phelan who now has terminal cancer and who was not told an earlier smear test had failed to detect abnormalities.

Fine Gael TD Kate OConnell asked whether Mr OBrien had ever, during his six-year tenure, told the Department of Health that the job was too big for one person.

Is there any correspondence where he indicates it is not possible for one person to do his job? she asked. He did apply for it, he did get it.

In light of spending six years in the job, it seems a little bit confusing at this point in the conversation, said OConnell.

Fianna Fail TD John Brassil as Mr OBrien doubted whether thered be much interest in taking up his role because of the difficulties of the job  it would be nice to know if theres been take-up.

He said there should be a succession system in place to ensure posts werent left vacant for long.

Health Minister Simon Harris said there had been work done with the Public Appointments Service with a view to placing advertisements shortly.

Mr OBrien told the health committee yesterday that he was opposed to the way the HSE was created.

I think the creation of the HSE, despite many good things going on, was an exercise in how not to do change management, he said.

Mr OBrien said he was appointed to an organisation, in 2012, that was to be wound down after the abolition of its board in 2011, but within two or three years it became clear that wasnt going to happen.

Six years on, weve abolished a board that we are now recreating. Thats not good progress, he said.

Mr Harris told the committee he intended to shortly bring forward legislative proposals to provide for the appointment of a new HSE board.Around 20 youths, wearing balaclavas and hoodies, lay in wait at Clongriffin train station in north Dublin, on Tuesday night, according to eyewitnesses.

The gang jammed doors with pieces of wood to cause the Dublin City-Malahide Dart to remain stationary while they spray-painted the outside carriage, causing 4,000 of damage.

But up to five train passengers took the gang on as others sat looking on in terror, one eyewitness said.

Passenger Damien Hawe, from Lusk, Co Dublin, who tackled one gang member, told how he went into shock after he realised the gang had been carrying knives as well as 2x4 planks of wood.

I got on the train, went up to the carriage to get a seat and the next thing around 20 lads wearing balaclavas and hoodies, ran down the platform, Damien said

One of the lads stood in front of the door, so the train couldnt move on. One passenger told him to move away from the door, as he wanted to get out and go home.

But I could see him and his friends were getting narky and aggressive, so I went over to see what was going on. At that point there was a bit of pushing and shoving and some of the passengers tried to get the gang off the train.

I tried to grab one of them, to get him away from the door, as he just wouldnt be moved and the train couldnt move. A few of the lads whod started spray painting the train up the platform, saw he was in trouble and they came to help him. I then realised one of them had a 2x4 plank of wood and he started waving it towards us.

He started smashing the plank of wood against the Dart. It was only after the guards arrived, I found out they had knives. That really put me in shock because I know how much worse this could have been.

According to Damien, there were up to five passengers, near the door, trying to get the gang to leave but they were backed up by up to 10 more passengers behind them. Other passengers were too afraid to get involved.

But it was the public who managed to get the gang to leave the train, according to Damien, who said the gardai didnt arrive until after the youths had fled onto the track.

After we got them off the train the driver locked the doors, Damien said. We could see the gang prowling up and down and they even stayed round another few minutes to finish spray painting the train.

Gardai have not made any arrests but are carrying out an investigation of criminal damage in tandem with Irish Rail.

Irish Rail would not release CCTV footage of the incident as it is now part of a criminal investigation. Plans are being made to increase security at the station.A report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) looked at three scenarios to assess the potential cost implications.

It finds that universal GP care will add between 2% and 3.5% to overall public healthcare expenditure.

The ESRI says Ireland is unusual in a European context in not providing free or heavily subsidised GP care for the total population.

While medical and GP-visit card holders are entitled to visit a participating family doctor for free, those without a card must pay the full cost.

Under the current system, non-card holders spend between 267m and 355m per year on GP visits.

GPs in Ireland are self-employed and are free to set their fees for private patients.

The Oireachtas committee on the future of healthcare was established in 2016 to produce a single long-term vision for healthcare and the direction of health policy in Ireland.

One of the recommendations of the committees Slaintecare Report, published in May 2017, was the introduction of universal GP care  access to GP care for all, without cost.

The first scenario assumes GPs will receive the capitation rates for non-card holders that they currently receive for card holders, plus other fees and allowances.

Using existing capitation rates, the additional annual cost is estimated at 492m.

In scenario two, GPs will seek to secure payment from the State equivalent to the fees they currently receive from private patients.

Such a demand-driven approach will cost between 401m and 489m a year, with visits by former non-card holders increasing by 2.5m.

The third scenario assumes the State will seek to reduce costs by encouraging GPs to delegate more care to practice nurses.

With the skill-mix savings applied, the cost is estimated at between 337m and 418m.

The costs involved in establishing universal GP care are not included in the estimates.

The report does not show the potential impact on spending in other areas, such as pharmaceuticals and hospital care.

Concern about the supply of GPs is raised in the report. Recent estimates suggest there are 64 GPs per 100,000 population, significantly less than the European average of 92 per 100,000.

Financial support for the research was provided by the Department of Health.Mary Foley, aged 35, of Cork Simon community, pleaded guilty to carrying out the robbery on September 29 last.

Two men went into The Funky Skunk with Foley but she was the main aggressor during the crime, Garda Brian Barry said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

She began shouting at the woman who was working alone in the shop. She then went behind the counter and looked around behind the counter, said Garda Barry.

The shop assistant retreated into the office. Mary Foley followed her in and pushed her way past her. She took her Samsung mobile phone.

The woman tried to call 999 (from another phone) and Ms Foley stopped and grabbed the phone from her preventing her calling for assistance.

Gardai were alerted by a passer-by. Ms Foley was trying to get the safe and till opened when the gardai arrived.

The victim declined to make a victim impact statement but she was fairly shook up by the incident. She left her employment in this shop and moved back to West Cork.

Ms Foley has 238 previous convictions, said Garda Barry. Many of those were for public order offences but she also had counts for theft and one for robbery in 2013.

Niamh Stewart, defending, said Foley was not the worst person when sober and would not be getting into trouble at all were it not for her drink and substance abuse problem.

The judge imposed a four-year jail term on Foley, with the last year suspended.

He said she would need help on her release from prison and directed that she would attend for rehabilitation on her release.Business Yangon Chief Minister Unveils 5-Point Vision for Economic Growth

Downtown Yangon. / Kyaw Phyo Tha / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Yangon Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein vowed to focus on economic growth in 2018 and laid out a five-point vision for the citys development at the Yangon Investment Forum on Wednesday.

U Phyo Min Thein said boosting the citys economy would be one of the regional governments priorities this year, along with improving the rule of law and cleanliness  some of Yangons main challenges.

Organized by the Yangon Region Investment Committee (YRIC), the forum aims to boost foreign investment in Myanmars largest city and commercial capital.

Addressing an audience of more than 1,000 international and local investors and businesspeople, the chief minister, who also chairs the YRIC, promised to create more investment opportunities in industry, trade and logistics, transportation, energy and sustainable urban development.

A lack of clear policies, red tape, poor infrastructure, frequent power cuts and high land prices have long stood in the way of doing business in Yangon. But U Phyo Min Thein argued that those challenges were investment opportunities in themselves.

Challenges are great opportunities for investors because they can get involved in developing those projects, he said.

Projects in the regional governments pipeline include a new deep-sea port and special economic zone (SEZ); the development of new industrial zones on the citys outskirts; upgrades to the power supply, infrastructure and waste management of the citys existing 29 industrial zones; upgrades to the citys transport system; and city expansion.

U Phyo Min Thein said Yangon would soon see an additional 1,500 megawatts of electricity supply thanks to new power plant in the works in Irrawaddy and Tenasserim regions.

Throughout the forum, he also emphasized that the government was working on cutting red tape.

The chief minister said the new port was needed because the current port in downtown Yangon, which handles 90 percent of the entire countrys import and export traffic, could not be expanded to handle the growing demands of modern logistics. He said 50,000 acres of land in the south of the city have been set aside for the new port and SEZ and that the government would start accepting bids soon.

The chief minister said all the projects offered investors good opportunities and that the regional government has been in discussions with investors across ASEAN on various plans.

Wedged in between India and China, together home to some 40 percent of the worlds population, Myanmar  and Yangon especially  was well placed to become a regional trade and transportation hub, U Phyo Min Thein said.

We will try to develop Yangon as an investment hub not only in Myanmar but also in the region, he said.

U Khin Maung Aye, chairman of the Myanmar Investors Development Association, the forums main sponsor, told reporters that investors at the event expressed interest in the new SEZ and other infrastructure and agriculture projects. But he cautioned that it remained to be seen whether those investors would actually follow through.

Khin Marlar Maung Maung, a director of Da Na Aung Si Construction Co. Ltd., told The Irrawaddy that her company was interested in the governments expansion and energy projects.

The chief minister highlighted that the government will prioritize green energy projects. We are very interested in that, as well as in the construction of a plant to convert waste into energy, which could help the citys waste management a lot, she said.In Person There Is No Peace for Us

Nyar Kee Htoo leads a community meeting at the Luthaw Karen Indigenous Center in Karen States Luthaw Township. / Hsa Moo / KESAN

CHIANG MAI, Thailand  I have been running from war since I was an infant, and its not over yet, said Saw Nyar Kee Htoo, 53, a leader at the community-based Luthaw Paw Day Karen Indigenous Centre, in Luthaw Township, in Karen States Papun district.

Saw Nyar Kee Htoo was a good friend of Saw O Moo, who was shot dead by Tatmadaw troops on April 5 on suspicion of being a Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) soldier. The two worked together on community development and awareness-raising activities among indigenous Karen, particularly relating to the conservation of cultural traditions, community forest protection, building seed banks and food security, and vocational training.

As a community leader, Saw Nyar Kee Htoo dedicates most of his time to helping out displaced villagers. His village, Bana Eh Beh Kho, is one of five village tracts in Ler Mu Plaw, an area that has been affected by the recent resumption of fighting between the KNLA and the Myanmar Military (or Tatmadaw).

We were recording the number of people who had fled from their villages, and providing food and assistance to them, he said, recalling that the day Saw O Moo (aka Saw Klo Par) was killed.

He returned home at around 2 pm. At around 5 pm we heard gunshots, but we didnt know immediately that it was the sound of the shots that took his life. Later there was a notice from the soldiers telling us to come and see them.

In Ler Mu Plaw, before entering an area military officials communicate with villagers by posting a notice at the entrance or somewhere nearby stating what they want, Saw Nyar Kee Htoo said. These notices do not include a letterhead or authors name, but simply identify the unit commander at the end. While military personnel in the region regard it as a normal form of communication, the practice is taken as a sign of disrespect by villagers.

Due to the war and instability in the region, Saw Nyar Kee Htoo never had chance to receive formal schooling, but that did not prevent him from becoming a leader at the community center. He started collaborating with the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network in 2007 and launched the Luthaw Paw Day Center in 2012.

The villagers of Luthaw Township were only able to resettle in the areas in 2012, after the Karen National Union (KNU/KNLA) agreed to a bilateral ceasefire with the Myanmar military. Saw Nyar Kee Htoo said that at that time there was hope for genuine peace in the region.

Continuously subjected to persecution

Since his childhood, Saw Nyar Kee Htoos life has been all about fleeing. Recalling the 1990s, when the Tatmadaw employed a four cuts policy to suppress ethnic rebels, he said, Our homes and our barns were torched and our cows and buffalos killed.

Under the military junta, Luthaw Township in Papun district was subjected to further persecution. Locals believe this was partly because the area is the birthplace of General Bo Mya, the legendary leader of the Karen revolutionary struggle.

There is no peace for us; there are now more military troops. There is no guarantee of our safety and the villagers are afraid due to the heavy presence of the Bamar troops, he said, referring to the Tatmadaw. They never go back. We want them to go back, he said.

Since March, militarization in the area has intensified due to the Tatmadaws rebuilding of an old road connecting Kay Pu and Ler Mu Plaw in Luthaw Township. The increased military presence has left the villagers in fear, Saw Nya Kee Htoo said, adding that whenever word spreads that Tatmadaw troops are coming, people flee their homes. Their instinct for survival has taught them to stay safe by hiding, especially women, who fear rape and torture at the hands of soldiers, he added.

We dont want the Tatmadaw to build this road; we dont need it and if we did, we could build it on our own, Saw Nyar Kee Htoo said, adding that the Myanmar Military troops should respect the principles established in the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement.

Advocacy groups such as the Karen Peace Support Network do what they can to raise awareness of the IDPs suffering, but these have been disrupted by the Myanmar military. Last month, Thailands military government blocked the launch in Chiang Mai of a report on the humanitarian crisis in Karen State.

For more than two months now, Saw Nyar Kee Htoos family and others have taken shelter in the forest near Luthaw Townships Ler Mu Plaw area. They are living on rice saved from last year. This year, he said, they have not bee able to harvest their crops, raising concerns over their future livelihoods.News 560 Kachin Villagers Make It to Sanctuary After 4-Week Jungle Ordeal

Displaced villagers who had escaped from the forest. / Father Naw Latt

YangonOver 560 villagers from Awng Lawt in Kachin States Tanai Township who fled into the jungle after fighting erupted between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Tatmadaw in early April have been rescued.

Around 300 got out of the forest on May 8 and arrived near Dwan Ban village while over 260 more arrived at a creek northeast of Tanai yesterday, Naw Tawng, vice-chairman of a Tanai-based Christian committee to help displaced persons, told The Irrawaddy.

All together, more than 2,000 Awng Lawt villagers were forced to flee the fighting. The other 1,500 still remain in the forest.

Of the 300 villagers who made it out on Tuesday, half went to their relatives houses in Myitkyina and Namti, and the other half are taking shelter at a church in the village of La Wa in Hpakant Township. The other 260 villagers who escaped on Wednesday are staying at a Catholic church in Tanai.

They fled en masse after the fighting broke out. As the clashes grew more intense near them on April 17, they fled in groups guided by those who can lead [in the forest], Naw Tawng said.

The villagers tramped for around three weeks in the forest on foot. On April 26, a 26-member group of displaced persons got out of the forest and reached Dwan Ban Village. Fifteen of them are villagers of Awng Lawt and 11 others are internal migrants working at gold mines in the area.

The leader of that group, NSang Awng Lat, told The Irrawaddy that during their time in the jungle they had to run away from wild elephants and drink water from muddy ponds as they found no creeks on their way.

I ran with my four children and one is them is just two years old. The thirst was the worst problem we experienced, he said.

On a rainy night, we had to cover ourselves with a plastic sheet and sleep on the ground. We were thoroughly miserable. I want to cry when I recall these days, he added.

Residents of Awng Lawt first fled into the forest after artillery shells fell near their village on April 11. Among them were pregnant women, elderly and disabled persons and children younger than five.

The villagers asked the religious leaders in Tanai to recuse them. Tanai is only accessible by water from where they were trapped, and as Tatmadaw troops control the waterways, religious leaders sought permission from them to be allowed to pass. But the military refused.

On April 14, the Christian committee to help displaced persons in Tanai sent a letter to the Kachin State chief minister asking the government to rescue the Awng Lawt villagers, but there was no reply.

Kachin civil society organizations, and the Kachin Peace-talk Creation Group also sent letters to the Kachin State chief minister, and the National Reconciliation and Peace Center to help the villagers.

With the approval of the government and Tatmadaw, the Myitkyina-based Red Cross Society went to Awng Lawt to rescue the villagers on April 20, but they could rescue only about 200 amber and gold mine workers.Asia UN Envoy, Bangladesh Rights Chief Discuss Plan to Document Abuses against Rohingya

UN special envoy on sexual violence Pramila Patten, center left, is seen ahead of her meeting with Bangladesh National Human Rights Commission chairman Kazi Reazul Hoque, center right, in Dhaka, Bangladesh on Wednesday. / Muktadir Rashid

DHAKA  The UN special representative on sexual violence in conflict met with Bangladeshi rights officials in Dhaka on Wednesday to discuss ways of documenting the horrific abuses experienced by Rohingya now living in Coxs Bazar as they fled violence in Myanmar.

Pramila Patten held an hour-long closed-door meeting with Bangladesh National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairman Kazi Reazul Hoque.

After the meeting, Kazi Reazul said Pattens office wants to sign a deal with Bangladesh and they have shown us the draft on how UN agencies and Bangladesh NHRC and others can be engaged to document the right abuses the survivors experienced in Myanmar.

They will also consult with the Foreign Ministry [of Bangladesh], Kazi Reazul said. They want to conduct documentation, not investigation.

He said that as the Myanmar authorities denied the genocide in their land, we want to expose those cases so that those who have still [support Myanmars view] will be made to understand.

Kazi Reazul said the two officials had also discussed the role of China in the repatriation process. The UN official believes the repatriation process is complicated, [as] the role of China is significant, he said.

Myanmar has recently strengthened its relations with China and Russia, the NHRC chief said.

We also believe that unless China is convinced, it is difficult to deal with the Rohingya issue at the UN, he said, adding that, We have to convince China, as Bangladesh cannot put pressure on it.

China is our friend. We have to prove it, the rights agency chairman said, adding that, [Patten] in her last visit had described the facts regarding what kind of atrocities had taken place. But no action can be taken due to China.

Asked whether her office would seek to investigate the abuses, Patten replied in negative, saying, We do not have a mandate to carry out an investigation.

The UN official, who has a rank within the organization equivalent to an undersecretary general, said she had visited Rohingya in Coxs Bazar. Her report based on meetings with Rohingya survivors was submitted to the United Nations Security Council team that visited Bangladesh and Myanmar recently.

She said her aim was to engage the Bangladesh government and to discuss recent developments in the light of Dhakas agreements with Myanmar and the UN refugee agency.

With a large UN team, Patten visited Bangladesh between Nov. 5 and 13, 2017, touring several camps and settlements, namely Kutupalong, Unchiprang, Leda, and the Konapara border area. She helped to deploy an interagency technical team comprising representatives of IOM, UNICEF and UNFPA to carry out an initial assessment of the situation.

Over the course of three days, according to her report to the UNSC on Dec. 12, 2017, she heard the most heartbreaking and horrific accounts of sexual atrocities reportedly committed in cold blood out of a lethal hatred for the Rohingya community based on their ethnicity and religion.

The accounts were consistent and corroborated by international medical staff and other service providers operating in the area, her earlier statement reads.

On April 30, a UN Security Council delegation visiting Bangladesh conceded that progress toward solving the Rohingya refugee crisis had been slow but denied that there was any resistance from China or Russia.

Nearly 700,000 people have fled Myanmars northern Rakhine State since late August, when militant attacks on security posts there set off a sweeping military clearance operation that the UN and US have described as ethnic cleansing.

The Myanmar military insists the Rohingya do not constitute a distinct ethnic group and calls them Bengali, implying they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The UN team referred to the Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh simply as refugees.

The Dhaka-based daily New Age meanwhile reported on May 8 that the International Criminal Court in The Hague has requested Bangladesh provide it with observations and evidence for use in deciding whether the court had jurisdiction to investigate Myanmars expulsion of Rohingyas from the country.

A pre-trial chamber at the court comprising judge Peter Kovacs, judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut and judge Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou issued an order on Monday asking the registrar of the court to notify the Bangladesh authorities seeking observation and evidence on the matter.

The court passed the order as Fatou Bensouda, the ICCs chief prosecutor, on Wednesday sought a ruling from the court on the question of whether the court may exercise territorial jurisdiction to open a probe into the alleged expulsion of Rohingya who have been intentionally deported across the international border into Bangladesh from Myanmar.

Bangladesh Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque told New Age on Tuesday, We have received the request of the ICC, adding, Lets see what we can do.Burma Abbot Sought Over Rape of Three Girls in Pathein

U Nanda Siri. Photo / Tha Luk Kwa Police Station

PatheinPolice are searching for an abbot who allegedly raped three young girls in a village in the Irrawaddy Region capital of Pathein.

U Nanda Siri, the abbot of Seitta Thukha Monastery in the village of Ye Tho, has fled after the mother of the rape victims filed a complaint with police in late April.

The abbot, 56, who has been in the monkhood for seven years, allegedly raped the three daughtersthe eldest one, 14 and the younger two, both 10of a woman living near the monastery.

We have opened a case under Section 376 of the Penal Code for alleged rape. We still cant start the investigation as the monk has run away. We have also reported the case to the township Sangha Nayaka Committee as the suspect is a monk, Police Lieutenant-Colonel Khin Maung Latt, spokesperson of the Irrawaddy regional police force, told The Irrawaddy.

According to the account of the mother, she and her three daughters have regularly helped the monk with daily chores at the monastery. On April 25, she was told by one of her daughters when she came back from collecting wood that the monk had sexually abused them.

The following day, she filed a complaint with the local police station, which has distributed photos of the monk to other police stations in the area.

The three girls were taken to a hospital for a medical examination, but the results are not yet known, according to the police.

To protect their children from being sexually assaulted, parents should not allow them to go somewhere alone or stay alone with strangers, young or old. Similarly, they should not leave children alone at the house, Police Lieutenant-Colonel Khin Maung Latt said.

Reported cases of rape have been rising in the Irrawaddy Region year by year, and there is a need for wider awareness campaign in the region, suggested Padonma, a Pathein-based civil society for child rights protection.

There is a need to educate girls and young women about sexual issues to reduce the incidence of rape. And rapists commit offences recklessly because they dont know about the punishments. Thats why the number of rape cases has increased. So, there is a need to conduct public education campaigns on a wider scale, said U Myint Htay, the head of Padonma.

The number of child rape cases increased from 101 in 2016 to 156 last year in the Irrawaddy Region, with most of the cases being reported in rural areas, according to regional police statistics.Burma Activists in Mandalay Protest Arrest of Police Officers Behind Corruption Claims

Logs seized by police are stored at the Kyaukse Township police station in Mandalay on April 24. / Nay Soe Moe / Facebook

MANDALAY  Residents of Mandalay Regions Kyaukse Township were joined by lawmakers and activists on Thursday in calling for the fair treatment of five police officers arrested earlier this month after exposing the release of an alleged timber trafficker and accusing their chief of corruption.

We call for justice for these police officers who did their best to do the right thing for the rule of law in Kyaukse, said Ko Ko Lwin, a member of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society.

The lawmakers said they will raise their voices in accordance with the law in Parliament to call for justice for the detained police officers, he told reporters after a meeting of concerned locals, lawmakers and the 88 Generation in Kyaukse.

They also assured that they will make sure no one is harmed for helping the general administration and security institutions with the rule of law in the region and with the fight against corruption, Ko Ko Lwin added.

On April 24, police Corporals Tun Tun Win, Zeyar Maung and two others seized a truck hauling illegal logs. But they said the township police chief scolded them for the bust and ordered them to release the logs alleged owner. The police report ultimately stated that police could not prove who owned the logs.

According to locals, however, the alleged owner  Moan Lar, also known as Aung Soe Moe  was well known for paying off police and government officials for protection.

In early May, the local office of the 88 Generation helped locals send the Ministry of Home Affairs a complaint asking that the corrupt police officers be prosecuted. The five officers who exposed the alleged owners release, including the four who made the original arrest and a fifth who recorded it, were arrested by township police soon afterward.

Moan Lar, the alleged owner, was rearrested on Wednesday afternoon.

On Monday, the 88 Generation sent another complaint to the Anti-Corruption Commission in Naypyitaw asking it to investigate the case and find justice for the arrested officers.

Based on the case of police Captain Ko Moe Yan Naing in the trial of the two Reuters reporters, we do not have too much hope that the Ministry of Home Affairs will provide justice in this case, said Ko Ko Lwin.

However, we believe the incident in Kyaukse will ring the alarm and hopefully become an example for an anti-corruption movement in the police force, he added.Burma Government Slams OICs Dhaka Declaration on Rohingya Crisis as Unfair

Members of the OIC pose for a picture with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka on May 5. / Md. Shahriar Alam, State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh / Twitter

YANGON  The government on Thursday dismissed as unfair and unbalanced a declaration by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) alleging human rights violations against Rohingya by Myanmar security forces, and rejected its use of the terms ethnic cleansing and state-backed violence to describe the situation in Rakhine State.

The 45th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OIC was held in Bangladesh last weekend. At the end of the two-day meeting, the group released a statement, dubbed the Dhaka Declaration, expressing concern over alleged human rights violations by Myanmar security forces.

The Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) launched a clearance operation targeting Rohingya militants following their Aug. 25 attack on several border security outposts. The months-long operation has resulted in the displacement of nearly 700,000 Rohingya. The UN has described the mass devastation, arbitrary killings and arson attacks against the Rohingya as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, while international rights groups have called for the Tatmadaws leadership to be brought before the International Criminal Court.

Of the OIC declarations 38 points, four relate to the Rohingya crisis. Top OIC officials have consistently urged member states to keep international pressure on Myanmar and to provide humanitarian assistance to traumatized Rohingya now living in Bangladeshi refugee camps, which have been described as the largest such site in the world.

The OIC declaration reads: We express deep concern over the recent systematic brutal acts perpetrated by security forces against the Rohingya Muslim Community in Myanmar. It asserts that the arbitrary killings, rapes and arsons that prompted the mass exodus to the neighboring country were tantamount to ethnic cleansing.

The group commended the personal leadership shown by Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in addressing the plight of the Rohingya people and seeking international support to manage the crisis, and for implementing steps to help displaced people in line with the recommendations of the Kofi Annan-led Advisory Commission. The OIC welcomed a draft resolution submitted by members states to the UN General Assembly in November last year concerning the situation facing the Rohingya community of Myanmar. It also agreed to address accountability for rights abuses against Rohingya in Myanmar by establishing an impromptu ministerial committee led by the African nation of Gambia.

On Wednesday, Myanmars Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement saying that the OIC declaration lacks balance and fairness as it failed to denounce the brutal attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), formally known as Harakah Al-Yaqeen (faith movement), on several dozen Myanmar government security outposts in northern Rakhine in late 2017. It said the current humanitarian crisis in northern Rakhine was triggered by the militant group.

The MOFA statement asserts that It is highly regrettable that the Dhaka Declaration did not even mention the immediate need for the repatriation of displaced persons from Rakhine in accordance with the bilateral agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh. It also points out that the declaration failed to include any suggestions that could promote harmony and sustainable development in Rakhine State.

In the statement, Myanmar urges Dhaka to take steps to help the repatriation process agreed by the two nations early this year, as the monsoon season is approaching. It says Myanmar is ready to facilitate the voluntary, safe and dignified return of displaced Rohingya.

UN and international experts have warned that displaced Rohingya could face mudslides during the coming rainy season as they are living atop deforested hills in Bangladeshs Cox Bazar district.Burma KNU Renews Call for Tatmadaw to Halt Militarization of Papun

Villagers from Yay Ghoh Loh Der, Luthaw township, Papun district, Karen State are camped in a mountain valley after fleeing their homes on March 5. / Soe Doe / KPSN

CHIANG MAI, Thailand  The Karen National Union has urged the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, to stop deploying troops and doing roadwork in an area controlled by its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, in Papun district, Karen State.

The Karen group is worried recent moves by the Tatmadaw are undermining trust-building between the two sides and may result in more clashes in the state, where the Tatmadaw has been engaged in an apparent militarization effort since March.

If the Tatmadaw continues its activities before a meeting between the KNU and Tatmadaw has happened yet, any problems or consequences will be the responsibility of the Tatmadaw, the KNU said in a statement on Thursday that provided an update on the situation in Papun (Mutraw) district.

It has been more than a month since the KNU called for a meeting between Tatmadaw representatives and the KNU/KNLAs Military Affairs Negotiation Team. The Tatmadaw has stalled on agreeing to the talks, however, citing the absence of the commander of KNLA Brigade 5, which operates in Papun, from the negotiations.

Military-to-military engagement between the KNU and the Tatmadaw has emerged as a potential channel to end the current clashes, following the Tatmadaws deployment of more troops in the KNLA-controlled area in early March. The clashes have caused more than 2,000 local villagers from Ler Mu Plaw in Luthaw Township to flee their homes since Mar.4.

Padoh Saw Tar Doh Moo, the general secretary of the KNU, told The Irrawaddy that as there is a space for discussion regarding any disputes, the Tatmadaws military expansion should not be happening.

Since April 30, more bulldozers have arrived in the area to continue rebuilding an old road while six more Tatmadaw units have been deployed in crop-growing areas of local villagers, forcing the villagers to abandon their homes.

The situation eased in mid-April, with some villagers even going back to their homes to feed their animals such as chickens and pigs. However, it did not last long, and clashes have happened every day in May and the villagers have been forced to flee into the jungle again, Padoh Saw Tar Doh Moo said.

The locals insist that the Tatmadaw reinforcements have not been pulled back since March, with more military trucks loaded with weapons and ammunition being seen arriving in the area.

The KNU has repeatedly said that the current military activities show the Tatmadaw does not take seriously the agreements made in the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement and disregards its negotiating partner.

Meanwhile, the KNLA vowed in a statement on Thursday to fight to defend its nationality as the Tatmadaw has repeatedly violated the NCA principles.

Disappointed by the current peace process, even though the KNU and the Tatmadaw are both signatories to the NCA, observers of the process lamented that peace is nowhere to be seen.

We really need peace, said Hsa Moo, a spokesperson for the Karen Peace Support Network. We just live on our land, but we have to leave our birthplace and hide in the jungle. I am so tired of this peace process.

No one wants to be an IDP. Why do people have to flee after their leaders have signed the NCA? she told The Irrawaddy.

The Myanmar military has insisted that the Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee at the regional level has discussed the issue and how to resolve it. The JMC at the union has level also suggested military-to-military engagement as an approach to end the clashes.

However, the chief of the Bago Region JMC is also the commander of the Tatmadaws Southern Command and it is he who has overseen the militarization in Papun district. Therefore, the KNU doubts the Tatmadaws sincerity.

Whether the commander will follow the orders of his superior or whether he follows the terms of references of the JMC is the question that remains, said Padoh Saw Tar Doh Moo.

The KNU and the ethnic armed organization have proposed bringing in independent local and international monitoring for the JMC.

The JMC also should review its stand, he added.Burma Myanmar Policeman Who Said Reuters Reporters Were Framed Details Sting Operation

Moe Yan Naing talks to the media after the court hearing on Wednesday. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  A Myanmar policeman now serving a prison sentence gave more details to a court on Wednesday about how he says two Reuters reporters were framed by police and said his imprisonment was a warning to other police officers who strive for truth and justice.

Police Captain Moe Yan Naing, 47, who since his original testimony on April 20 has been sentenced to a year in jail for violating police discipline, gave a blow-by-blow account of how he says a police chief ordered subordinates to give secret documents to Reuters reporter Ko Wa Lone in a sting operation.

I want to say my imprisonment shows that the police force has directives and instructions above the law. It could scare off other police members who want to reveal the truth, he told reporters after Wednesdays court hearing in Yangon.

He told the judge that the documents were easily accessible to officers in the No. 8 Police Security Battalions received letters file or on its computer and not secret, as the prosecution has claimed. Capt. Moe Yan Naing served in the battalion until his arrest.

I gave the testimony as I know and as I saw, the police captain told reporters after the hearing. He said he did not regret giving his testimony.

Lead prosecutor U Kyaw Min Aung did not respond to a request for comment after the hearing.

Myanmar government spokesman U Zaw Htay said: It will be carried out according to the law. The court is free, impartial, independent and reliable. We guarantee that the defendants will have their own rights, which means choosing their own lawyers, etc.

The court has been holding hearings since January to decide whether Ko Wa Lone 32, and his Reuters colleague Ko Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, will be charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

At the time of their arrest in December, the reporters had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village in western Myanmars Rakhine State. The killings took place during an army crackdown that United Nations agencies say sent nearly 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.

Document trap

In an account that closely followed his original testimony, but went into greater detail, Capt. Moe Yan Naing said that on Dec. 12  hours before the reporters were arrested  he was among six officers who had previously been contacted by Ko Wa Lone who were interrogated by the Police Special Branch.

The internal investigation was led Police Brigadier General Tin Ko Ko, according to Capt. Moe Yan Naing.

When Brig. Gen. Tin Ko Ko found out that one of the six, Lance Corporal Naing Lin, had been in contact with Ko Wa Lone but had not met him in person, he ordered Lance Cpl. Naing Lin to use his phone to arrange a meeting with Ko Wa Lone that evening.

I know that Police Brigadier General Tin Ko Ko instructed Police Lance Corporal Naing Lin to give Wa Lone documents related to our frontline activities in order to have him arrested, Capt. Moe Yan Naing told Judge Ye Lwin, who was overseeing the proceedings.

Capt. Moe Yan Naing said Brig. Gen. Tin Ko Ko told the policemen involved that if they did not get Wa Lone they would be detained.

Reuters has been unable to contact Brig. Gen. Tin Ko Ko or Lance Cpl. Naing Lin for comment. A police spokesman said after Capt. Moe Yan Naings previous testimony that the brigadier general has no reason to do such a thing.

Family evicted

Prosecutors had originally called Capt. Moe Yan Naing as a witness, but asked the court to declare him unreliable after his testimony appeared to undermine their case. The judge rejected that application last week.

Capt. Moe Yan Naing was brought to court in shackles and wearing a dark blue prison uniform, in contrast to his first appearance last month when he had worn his police captains uniform and was not handcuffed.

He said he had been convicted and sentenced in his absence and still did not know which court had handed down the punishment.

Capt. Moe Yan Naing has said he spoke to Ko Wa Lone in late November about police operations in Rakhine. He said Ko Wa Lone introduced himself as a reporter and interviewed Capt. Moe Yan Naing at a teashop inside the headquarters of the 8th Police Security Battalion.

Capt. Moe Yan Naings 42-year-old wife, Daw Tu Tu, listened to Wednesdays proceedings from the side of the courtroom. Together with their three children, she was evicted from police housing in the capital, Naypyitaw, the day after Capt. Moe Yan Naings first testimony. The family has since moved in with Capt. Moe Yan Naings father in his native town of Khin U, in central Myanmar.

Police have said the eviction was unrelated to the reporters case and that the family had been overdue to move out of the apartment.

Ko Wa Lone told journalists after the hearing that Capt. Moe Yan Naing bravely proved that in our society there are people who adore the truth and justice.News Foreign Journalists Quit Cambodia Paper in Protest at Perceived Interference

A man reads the Phnom Penh Post newspaper at a coffee shop in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Tuesday. / Reuters

PHNOM PENH  As many as 13 foreign journalists resigned from Cambodias Phnom Penh Post newspaper this week in protest at what they called editorial interference following its sale to a Malaysian businessman.

The sale of the English-language newspaper, announced over the weekend, came amid increasing concern about a crackdown by long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen against his critics ahead of a general election set for July 29.

Another English-language paper, the Cambodia Daily, shut down last year after the government gave it a month to settle a $6.3 million tax bill. A third English-language paper, the Khmer Times, is owned by another Malaysian and takes a pro-government stance.

The resignations on Monday and Tuesday followed the announcement of the sale of the paper by Australian mining magnate Bill Clough, who has owned it since 2008, to Malaysian investor Sivakumar Ganapathy, whose public relations firm lists Hun Sen as a client.

The resignations of as many as 13 editors and reporters leave no foreign journalists at the paper, which has built a reputation for independent reporting that can be critical of the government on issues such as illegal logging and corruption.

We did what we felt we had to do to maintain our journalistic integrity, one of the journalists who resigned, Andrew Nachemson, an American, told Reuters.

It was a difficult and very personal decision, and I wish all my Cambodian colleagues the best.

Ganapathy did not immediately respond to telephone calls from Reuters on Wednesday to seek comment.

Representatives of Ganapathy on Monday ordered the removal from the newspapers website of an article critical of the sale, several reporters said.

The incident led to the firing of the editor-in-chief, Kay Kimsong, a Cambodian, after he refused to take down the article, Kimsong told Reuters.

In a statement on Monday, Ganapathy said the article, since removed, was a disgrace and an insult to the independence claim of the newspaper.

International rights groups and journalism bodies have said they fear the sale of the paper, founded in 1992, could signal the end of independent media in Cambodia ahead of the July vote.

This is just the latest in a series of attacks which have devastated Cambodias media landscape since mid-2017, a group of more than 70 Cambodian civil society groups said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

The Phnom Penh Post was Cambodias last remaining independent English-Khmer language daily, and its change of ownership raises serious questions about the papers continued independence.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand said it was dismayed.

Such tactics obviously jeopardize any hope of maintaining a moderately free press in Cambodia, but should also be of grave concern to all investors in the country who may find themselves on the wrong side of officialdom or vested interests with no viable legal recourse, it said.

Ganapathy is the managing director of Asia Public Relations Consultants Sdn Bhd, based in Malaysia, whose website referred to Cambodia and Hun Sens entry into the government seat as one of its projects.

When a Reuters journalist visited the firms office in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, the door was locked and nobody responded to rings on the doorbell.

Phone calls to a representative for the firm seeking comment went unanswered on Wednesday.News Presidents Office Intervenes in Ngapali Beach Resort Dispute

Gaw villagers pass by the shuttered Amara Ocean Resort (AOR) in Rakhine States Ngapali Beach on Wednesday. / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  The Presidents Office has ordered the Ministry of Planning and Finance to study the results of an investigation by the Central Body on Anti-Money Laundering into a business dispute over the Amara Ocean Resort (AOR) in southern Rakhine States Thandwe Township.

The anti-money laundering agency, which is administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs, wrapped up the investigation on March 5. The Presidents Office wants the ministry to determine whether there are grounds for legal proceedings regarding the Ngapali Beach resort.

The instruction was contained in a reply letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the German Embassy in Yangon dated May 3. According to the letter, former German Ambassador Christian-Ludwig Weber-Lortsch and Gerald Schreiber  the ex-husband of AOR owner Daw Kalayar Moe  requested an appointment with U Min Thu, deputy minister of the Myanmar Presidents Office, to discuss the disputed beach property.

The meeting request was declined by the deputy minister. That decision was accompanied by a brief explanation citing the fact that the case is under scrutinization. The letter stated that the Ministry of Planning and Finance and the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism would take proper action, but did not say against whom.

In an email to The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, Schreiber said, What a surprise! we did never get anything before. The Government has never send any official statement to us before. We have been meeting with government people since 2012 regard our case, but never got anything in written.

In 2011, Schreiber and his then-wife Daw Kalayar Moe (they have since divorced) entered an agreement with Dr. Jens Ehrahrdt, chairman of the Germany-based DJE Group, to develop a 17-acre plot of land on Ngapali Beach and a 6-acre freshwater reservoir in Gaw village, a few miles from Thandwe Airport. Ehrahrdt funded the project with an investment of several million dollars. He held a 50-percent stake, with the couple possessing 25 percent each. Under the agreement, profits from the venture were to be shared accordingly.

According to documents obtained by The Irrawaddy, Myanmar citizen Daw Kalayar Moe agreed to act as the landowner because foreigners are legally prohibited from owning property. After the couple obtained a divorce in Germany in 2012, the woman refused to sell her stake in the Myanmar asset, which is registered under the name of Kalayar, to DJE Group.

During then-president U Thein Seins visit to Germany in 2013, Schreiber and Ehrahrdt met with several Union ministers including U Soe Thein and Wana Maung Lwin about the disputed AOR property in Ngapali and provided documents signed by the parties. The meeting was also attended by Weber-Lortsch, who was still the ambassador to Myanmar at that time. U Thein Sein promised to help the German investors.

In the email, Schreiber wrote: We can put all the documents to Myanmar government as a proof. We have already provided documents to the new National League for Democracy (NLD) government and current home affairs minister Lt. Gen Kyaw Swe ordered Bureaus of Special Investigation (BSI) to investigate the case and found out wrongdoings of Kalayar Moe. But in a meeting in January with former German ambassador, home affairs minister claimed that the case was blocked by Myanmar President Office.

President Offices spokesman U Zaw Htay confirmed that the case was under investigation by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Tourism Ministry but declined to answer specific questions on Thursday.

We are not sure who is behind in this case but we know exactly that Kalayar has close connection with U Win Htein. He has been (AOR hotel) there for a few days last year, Schreiber writes in the email. U Win Htein is a senior figure in the ruling National League for Democracy.

Neither U Win Htein nor Daw Kalayar Moe could be reached for comment on Thursday.

In September 2017, Schreiber wrote to DG U Aung Naing Oo of the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration (DICA) and provided relevant documents. However, Schreiber was urged to try to convince Daw Kalayar Moe to reach an amicable solution. Schreiber replied to U Aung Naing Oo that he and his business partner, Ehrahrdt, would prefer to resolve the situation by selling the resort at a reasonable price to a new investor, or getting a permit from the Myanmar Investment Commission to operate the beach resort. However, neither of these outcomes could be achieved unless Daw Kalayar Moe released the land ownership, Schreiber added.

In May 2017, the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism revoked the resorts business license. After a visit by U Win Htein in 2017, however, she was granted a temporary license for one season in 2018. Daw Kalayar Moe verbally acknowledged U Win Hteins visit during an interview with The Irrawaddy at her house in Yangon in April, but denied sponsoring the trip. The temporary hotel license for Amara Ocean Resort expired on April 30.

Daw Kalayar Moe has faced a divorce suit in Yangon Court since 2014. Her ex-business partner the DJE group has filed an initial complaint at the Myo Ma Mingalardon police station with the aim of suing her under the criminal code.Yes, you heard right, Acronis has set up a new foundation to support education and protect knowledge worldwide, having built a school in Myanmar, another in Cambodia and with more planned for Latin America, the Middle East, South East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

When one of the world's leaders in hybrid cloud data protection decides that knowledge is worth protecting in all its forms, well beyond only data back-ups, the good in social good is so much more than just goods and services.

Acronis is the company behind the plan, and to mark its 15th anniversary, it says it has "turned its belief in the absolute value of knowledge into the Acronis Foundation, which will promote learning and opportunity around the world".

The move also celebrates the companys founding principle that "all evils are caused by insufficient knowledge", and so the Foundation is "supporting multiple initiatives designed to stimulate education to gain and protect knowledge".

So, what is the first project, which lays a very solid foundation for the Acronis Foundation?

Well, it turns out that the first project is the "Acronis Schools Initiative, an international endowment that will fund the construction of 15 new schools in underserved communities around the globe during the next three years".

And so how does Acronis says this delivers on its core belief?

Here we're told that "constant learning, creating and protecting knowledge, and advancing technology are integral parts of Acronis DNA".

"As a result, Acronis has been creating and sharing knowledge by funding research and technical training programs in communities where Acronis has research and development centres.

"For its 15th anniversary," Acronis says "it was natural" for the company "to expand on this effort".

John Zanni, Acronis president, explained: Acronis believes that all evils are caused by insufficient knowledge. Knowledge is always good and has the power to bring real change in the world. That belief is a core component of what drives Acronis. The company was built to protect knowledge by protecting all data, applications and system in the modern digital world."

"With the Acronis Foundation, Acronis funds programs that will spread knowledge to new audiences around the world."

Where does the "Acronis Schools Initiative" fit into all of this?

Here, Acronis points to UNESCO estimates that "more than 50% of the worlds children (over 617 million) are unable to reach the minimum proficiency levels of reading and mathematics."

Acronis states its belief that "every child has the potential to learn, giving them the skills needed to gain knowledge and create opportunities for themselves and their community. As the first project, the Acronis Schools Initiative will celebrate the companys 15-year anniversary by funding the construction of 15 schools."

Jochen Berger, managing director of the Acronis Foundation, said: School is where the path to knowledge and opportunity begins.

Technology is the modern language of opportunity, but without a basic education, no one can learn that language.

"Schools built by the Acronis Foundation will provide the infrastructure where students can acquire the educational skills to learn the language of technology needed to claim those opportunities, regardless of their social, economic or cultural background.

The Acronis Schools Initiative works with local leaders and non-profit organisations to build schools that meet the communitys unique needs. School projects are planned in Latin America, the Middle East, South East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

What are the five guiding values?

As the Acronis Foundation spreads knowledge around the world, it says its work will be guided by five key values:

Commitment  The success of each school will be tracked, and ongoing reports will be published of the schools performance and community impact. Focus  Every cent spent by The Acronis Schools Initiative goes toward school-building projects, while administrative costs are covered by Acronis. Appreciation  Donors deserve recognition for their contribution, so each school will have a marker with their name and donors can attend the schools opening ceremony. Accountability  This is a charitable donation with a money-back guarantee. If a donor is not happy after the school opening, their investment will be returned. Transparency  Details about donations, expenditures, projects and payments will be fully visible to reassure partners and the public about our work.

Anyone interested in partnering and contributing to these efforts can find additional information on the Foundations website.



They can also contact the Acronis Foundation directly at foundation[at]acronis.comChestnutt was most recently executive vice-president and chief strategy officer for Verizon Communications and has held leadership positions with other leading firms including Motorola, Grande Communications, Sprint-Nextel and AirTouch.

Telstra chairman John Mullen said Chestnutt would be a timely and impactful addition to the board, bringing with him more than 30 years of direct telecommunications experience.

We are delighted that Roy will join the Telstra board and provide significant perspective from the US market and more globally, Mullen said.

The rapidly changing environment in which we operate requires far greater consideration of international best practice and we need to evolve as a board accordingly.

On top of his company level responsibilities, his strategic leadership position within the global industry will be enormously useful for Telstra.

Chestnutt started his telecommunications career with AirTouch, from 1986 to 1998, followed by eight years with Nextel and Sprint-Nextel.

He also served as chairman and chief executive of Texas-based cable and broadband company Grande from 2005 to 2009.

Chestnutt has spent his last six years with Verizon, including almost five as head of strategy responsible for the development and implementation of Verizons overall corporate strategy, including business development, joint ventures, strategic investments, acquisitions and divestitures.

He has also been a director for international industry association GSMA and is a former chair of the Chief Strategy Officers Group including 25 global strategists from the worlds leading wireless carriers. He is also a board member for Saudi Telecom and Digital Turbine.NBN Co, the company rolling out Australia's national broadband network, has recorded a loss of $3.3 billion in the nine months to March 2018, the third quarter of the current financial year. This compares to a loss of $2.7 billion for the nine months of the previous financial year.

During the third quarter of 2018, the company recorded losses of $937 million, compared to a loss of $1.04 billion in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

But the company's presentation of the results, by chief executive Bill Morrow (seen above) and chief financial officer Stephen Rue, made no mention of the red ink on the balance sheet.

Instead the pair focused on the metrics that had an upside:

the rise of revenue for the quarter to $1.4 billion ($665 million in Q3 2017);

active premises of 3.7 million, a rise of 85% from March 2017;

average revenue per user which rose by a dollar to $44 from March 2017;

premises ready for service which was 7.5 million, up from 4.6 million in March 2017 (62% up);

premises ready to connect (6.49 million, up 44% from March 2017); and

cash funding which rose by 30% to $33.2 billion.

These results demonstrate the progress were making on our top three priorities, which are to complete the build by 2020, improve the end user experience, and deliver a modest return on the tax payers investment," said Morrow.

Weve shown stable performance against our long-term goals on the build side and significant improvements on customer experience.

Our monthly progress report demonstrates that our customer experience program is working, and we know theres more to do to get this right. The NBN Co team, delivery partners and RSPs are working quickly to make improvements across the industry for a better experience for all.

Morrow has quit the company and is due to make his exit by the end of the year.

Update: An NBN Co spokesperson claimed Rue had mentioned the company's losses during the presentation.

He was quoted as saying: "We have again provided a summary of our financial statement for the nine-month end of 31 March 2018. And again, I would like to highlight the adjusted EBITDA metric, which excludes subscriber cost. These losses continue to reduce with a loss for the nine months of $138 million and a loss for the three months to 31 March of $7 million."

Graphic: courtesy NBN Cohttps://www.johnnyfd.com/2018/05/johnnys-guide-to-greece-traveling.html

Getting to Athens

At at rooftop coffee shop next to A for Athens

Coworking in Greece







After two weeks at sea on the cruise and 6 weeks in Nepal I was looking forward to having some decent internet so I could upload some photos and videos from my trip. I was tempted to go to Impact Hub but saw that their wifi speed was miserable at less than 1mps upload speed and was actually slower than the hostel. The other coworking spaces didn't look much better, nor did the cafes and coffee shops so I ended up just working out of City Circus which was decently comfortable, secure, and had useable internet. Santorini didn't even have a coworking space and the coffee shops and cafes had terrible wifi as well. Although, for short stints of checking email, as long as you didn't need to plug in to power, there were some amazingly beautiful places to work from.









I heard that the reason why Greece's internet is so terrible is because every time they try to install new fiber optic lines underground, they dig up an ancient ruin which prevents it from happening. Maybe it's the price of history and beauty, but then again, it could just be from terrible planning from the government. The good news is their 4G is decent and was only 10 euro from Vodafone for 10gb of data which is a great price. Best of all, since Greece is part of the EU, your data plan will work when you travel around Europe afterwards or if you bring your data plan over like I did from Spain or anywhere else in the EU. I bought a 2.5gb SIM card from Spain for around 20 euro which was a bit overpriced but it worked for me throughout the cruise in Spain, Malta, and for the first few days in Greece until it ran out. As for community, I went to one of the Digital Nomads Athens meetups and met a few nice people. I can see why some people choose Athens as a base as it has great nightlife, good food, nice weather, and a relatively low cost of living, but it definitely isn't a big digital nomad hub, and with it's terrible internet I don't see it being one anytime soon.

Enjoying the Sun at Kamari Beach in Santorini

Santorini, Greece













Must Dos in Santorini

















How Long to Stay



Overall I'd suggest a minimum of 3 days here on Santorini and a maximum of 6 days even for digital nomads as the internet isn't great and there's only so much to do on your days off of exploring. Everything is also a bit more expensive in Santorini than in Athens but the beautiful scenery makes it worth while. As for food, I ended up eating gyro pitas for most meals as they were cheap at 2.80 euros and delicious. My favorites were Lucky Souvlakis in the center as well as the place just next to Nick the Grill. For dinner you should make a reservation at Salt & Pepper as they are often full, or go next door to Kapari Taverna for really great local house wine and good food.

For most people, you'll want to also check out another island or two while you're in Greece. Myknos is known for it's nicer beaches and party life, but is also the most expensive. There are also a bunch of smaller more quiet and laid back islands such as Ios that you may want to check out. One of my favorite small towns was Nafplion as it was a charming hike up a hill with beautiful views, a small beach and a fortress on top. But if you had to choose just one other island to visit, it would have to be Crete which is the largest island in Greece and the mythological birthplace of Zeus. There is a ton to do on Crete so those in the know suggest a minimum of 7-10 days there if you want to see it all. We stopped there in the main town of Chania just for a day during the cruise and wish we had more time there and for the rest of the island. If you have limited time in Greece, I'd break it into two trips where you just do Crete one trip and Athens/Myknos/Santorini the other.







Photos from exploring Nafplion



Overall Thoughts on Greece



I really enjoyed my time in Greece and would happily come back again in the future, especially as a couple. It's a beautiful country with a lot to see, amazing sights, and a ton of history. The only other place I would compare it to in terms of feel and history would be Rome in Italy. Both have great food, a ton of things from the past, and beautiful artifacts and sculptures. I think Rome wins a bit in the history part in terms of how things are preserved as many things in ancient Greece are in ruins, but both are places where it's worth going to, even with all of the tourists. My best advice would be to go to Greece in May and avoid the peak summer months of July/August at all costs unless you like higher prices and being overrun by crowds. Greece is a really nice combination of sunny beaches, history, low costs, and good Mediterranean food. There are cheap flights to and from Greece all over Europe, especially during the summer, but even from the US it's a trip worth going on.

Unfortunately it's not a place I can see digital nomads living long term as the infrastructure is pretty bad. The internet is terrible, the taxi drivers are even worse, and they've now banned Uber as of April 2018. The poor Greek economy is a complicated subject but from what I know it's a combination of bad financial management, over leveraging debt and a lot of tax issues. Athens itself is a really cool city that is a strange mix of beautiful history often covered in ugly graffiti. It's a great place for artists to live cheaply, and drink at cool bars, and the islands are a great place for tourists, but overall Greece is not a great place to base as an entrepreneur or a digital nomad. It could be a great place for artists or anyone who doesn't care about infrastructure, and if you could see yourself living in Bali you might love it in Greece, but either place is for me. Instead I'd taken a cheap direct flight from Athens to Sofia and am basing myself in Bulgaria for a month where the internet speeds suddenly jumped from 3mpbs down and less than 1mbps up to 80 both up and down and for half the price. I'm glad I visited Greece and would happily go again as a tourist, so enjoy it for couple of weeks then move on elsewhere when it's time to get back to work!



Sunset at Lioyerma Lounge in Oia

With Love from Greece,



Johnny FD



Enjoy your time there. Ask any comments below!

After spending almost a month in Greece, I realized that Americans and Europeans both love going to Greece for holidays but for very different reasons. For those from the US, it always seems like a romantic couples getaway where a ton of money is spent renting private villas overlooking the ocean with blue and white buildings in the background and no a single tourist in sight. For everyone in the EU, it seems like Greece is the cheap summer destination to go have fun, drink and go a bit wild. I honestly didn't know that much about Greece or the Greek Islands and am a bit surprised how amazing it is. The overall costs are really low compared to most of Europe, the weather is fantastic, the food is great, and it's gorgeous. However, there are a lot of downsides of Greece as well, the internet is terrible, and the country is overcrowded during the summer months.In this blog post I'm going to share with you what I thought about Katakolon, Nafplion, Crete, Athens, and Santorini as well as why I skipped Mykonos this trip. I'll share with you where I stayed, what I ate, where I coworked, and give you some advice about which ferries to take, and which ones to avoid, which is something I wished someone would have told me before I went. I'll also talk about a few must do attractions while in Greece including plate smashing, scuba diving, and going on boat tours to volcanoes and hot springs. This is my digital nomad guide to Greece, keep reading for all of the info you'll need to make the most of your trip.If you're coming to Greece, your first and last stops are most likely going to be Athens, although if you're coming from within Europe during the summer, you might be flying directly to Crete which we'll talk about later. I got to Athens from Malaga, Spain on the Nomad Cruise but left by plane. Within Europe there are a bunch of low cost carriers that fly in and out of Athens including EasyJet, RyanAir and Wizz Air, but for an extra $30 I chose to fly on Aegean Airlines because they had a better time schedule and I'm glad I did as it was a really nice flight with excellent service. The airport lounge in Athens was also incredible, we got in for free using my Priority Pass membership that my buddy David Vu gifted me. There are 7 lounges in Athens (ATH) with a few just next door to each other. My friend and I chose the Goldair lounge and it was fantastic with some amazing food.To and from the airport you can take a train directly into the city for 10 euros. It takes 45 minutes and is a great idea if you're traveling solo. Taxis are only 35 to the city center and might be easier, although in general I had terrible experiences with taxi drivers in Athens and wish Uber was available. I tried using the local version called Beat, but their app never worked past the verify phone number screen. In the city, I stayed at the City Circus Hostel and really liked it. They have both dorms as well as private rooms and I highly recomend them. Just make sure you book directly through their website and not on hostelworld as you'll get a really nice free breakfast if you do. Guests also get 15% off at their fantastic restaurant downstairs, try the bone marrow. Overall the hostel is in a very good location and is walkable to all attractions. Just make sure you avoid the Omonia district a few blocks in the opposite direction behind the hostel especially at night as well as the Exarcheia anarchist area as police don't go there. You'll also want to watch your pockets especially on the metro as there are a lot of pick pockets, and a friend got robbed his first day there.From Athens, I headed down to one of the most beautiful Greek islands the one that's featured in every travel photo, Santorini. From Athens, you can either fly or take a ferry. Flights cost between 50-125 euros and only take 40 minutes to arrive. However, they are extremely strict about carry on luggage weight limits as a few of my friends had to pay a lot of money in excess fees so I'd recomend storing your luggage in Athens and just taking what you need with you to the islands. You can either leave your excess baggage at the airport luggage storage for around 10 euro a day/33 euros for 5 days, or you can do what I did and leave your luggage at the hostel for 1 euro. Aside from flying, you can either take the "fast" boat or the "slow" boat. On paper it may seem like the the faster SeaJet ferries are a better idea, but they're not. I've taken both the Blue Star slow boat and the SeaJet fast boat to and from Athens to Santorini and much prefer the slower Blue Star ferries as it feels like a mini cruise ship where you can walk around, go outside to get some air, sit at tables, use the 5 euro wifi and get work done. The SeaJet ferries are indoor only, much more prone to making you seasick, and forces you to just sit in your sea without the ability to go outside or get any air. The Seajets ferry is also twice the price and only saves 2 hours which isn't worth it. As someone who has been on both ferries, trust me, take the Blue Star, just make sure you get there 30 minutes early if you want a nice seat indoors, or pay for an upgrade to business class or their airplane seats.In Santorini, you can either stay near by one of the beaches if you want more of a relaxed stay. Or if you want central access to all of the restaurants, things to do, and want to explore the island by bus, I'd recomend staying in the main center of Fira which is the main village of Santorini, which happens to be also confusingly named Thira. Just remember that Thira = Old Name for Santorini. Fira = Center of Santorini. I stayed at Fira Backpackers Place which is in the best location possible as it's 1.5 blocks away from the central bus station and 2 blocks away from the main square and a close walk to the more expensive areas where the epic views and nice restaurants are. It's not a fancy place but they have both dorms as well as private rooms and a really nice kitchen/lounge and outdoor sitting area. They also had decent internet, and a ton of power outlets so it was a nice place to work from and upload photos. On Santorini you have two options, one is to rent a car or ATV to go to all of the beaches in one day if you're in a rush, or you can do what I did which was more relaxed and take the bus to a different beach everyday. The buses leave every hour on the hour from the central bus station and for between 1.40 - 2.80 euro you can go everywhere on the island, so cars/scooters/ATVs really aren't needed. You can also take the taxi back from anywhere on the island for a fixed price of 20 euros or less which is also convenient. Kamari beach is the closest and is only a 20 minute bus ride, there you can also find a restaurant called To Koutouki Tou Bekri where they play traditional music and have dancing and plate smashing a few days a week.The next closest beach is Perissa which is a longer version of Kamari beach but with slightly nicer black sand. You also have a few other beaches a bit further away such as the red beach known for its red cliffs and the white beach with its white cliffs. But to be honest, they're all similar so if you just wanted to lay by the water in a beach chair and get some sun, I'd personally just go to Kamari. The nice thing about Santorini is that even though there are plenty of beach chairs/sun loungers available right on the sand, they're actually free to use and supplied by the restaurants to encourge you to order food or drinks there. No one was pushy and unlike places like beaches in Bali, there aren't vendors hassling you to buy something. The water itself was brisk but it was actually a really nice swim as the waters are crystal clear, clean and unpolluted. Aside from the beaches the other must do is to go on one of the Caldera & Volcano boat tours. They have multiple options available ranging from 20 euros for 3 hours to 100+ euros for day tours on more private sail boats with less people. You can book any of them in person the day before once you arrive just make sure you give yourself plenty of time to walk down the cliffs to the old port as it's a 25 minute hike from the center. Also wear comfortable shoes for the volcano portion and bring a bottle of water and a hat as it's an hour in the hot sun on rough terrain.Aside from the beaches and the boat tours, a must do on Santorini is to plan for a sunset in both Fira and the little village of Oia. I'd start with having drinks in Fira at any of the places on the cliff for an easy, beautiful, quiet sunset without so many people, and the next day take the bus to Oia to walk around and enjoy better views there but be prepared for the crowds. So there you have it, exploring the beaches, walking around the old towns, and seeing the sunsets are the main attractions for Santorini. My friend Kristin made a fun video of what it was like on the day boat and the volcano below. Also if you're really adventurous you can also scuba dive in Santorini as we did with Atlantis Oia Dive Centre which had small boats to take you out. The diving itself was just okay compared to places like Asia as there isn't much fish life here, but the clear blue waters on the first dive, and the decent wreck on the second made it decently enjoyable as you can watch in the video below.Summerville, SC (29483)

Today

Light rain this morning with thunderstorms by evening. High 77F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms this evening followed by occasional showers overnight. Low 66F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.Reddit Email 321 Shares

Via The Conversation |  

Now Donald Trump has finally backed out of the Iranian nuclear deal, the rest of the world is trying to understand the thinking that went into his decision. High up the list of factors is a longstanding American unease about Iran in general. But while most Americans dont like the Islamic Republic of Iran, some dislike it much more virulently than others. Why?

The broad American antipathy towards the Iranian government can be traced back to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and in particular to the Iranian hostage crisis, which saw 52 American citizens held hostage in Tehran for months on end. That event, described by one scholar as one of the most devastating non-war related events to have ever occurred between two nations, baffled and traumatised the American people in equal measure.

The sight of US diplomats held hostage while baying crowds chanted death to America were incomprehensible to most Americans. Few were aware of their countrys past involvement in the 1953 coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of Mohammed Mossadegh, or of the oppression meted out by the Shah whom the US supported instead. Most simply assumed that the American presence in Iran was fundamentally benevolent. Accordingly, they looked to explain the sudden explosion of hatred by looking at those who expressed it, not by reflecting on the legacy of American foreign policy.

That recourse was made easier by the nature of those who damned the US. As far as the average American was concerned, the Muslim clerics who led the revolution were about as alien as could be. As such, they were easily reduced to a crude caricature of religious fanatics who hated America merely because they were in thrall to a crazed and bigoted ideology.

Although nearly 40 years have passed since the hostage crisis, the American image of Iran as a country of Muslim fanatics who hate the US for no good reason has proved remarkably resilient, and Iran still regularly features at the very bottom of the list of Americas favourite foreign countries most disliked by Americans. That said, not all Americans dislike the Islamic Republic equally.

It seems right-wing Americans are more disgusted at Iran than liberal ones. In one 2016 poll, a mere 18% of Democrats held a favourable view of Iran but among Republicans the number fell to 4%. The explanation for this lies not in the nature of Iran (the same split appears if the other in question is Cuba or North Korea) but in the politics of the American right and how it views the world.

Fear and loathing

Many on the conservative wing of American politics tend to see the world in stark Manichean terms of good versus evil. To paraphrase George W. Bush, you are either with them or you are against them, and if youre against them, no compromise is possible.

In a world divided into good guys and bad guys, any kind of accommodation with the bad guys amounts to an unacceptable surrender. The notion that the US might choose to tolerate the existence of a hostile regime because the alternative would be far worse is fundamentally alien to this mindset.

Another reason why conservatives are less willing to live with Iran than liberals is that they are simply more scared of it. Extensive psychological research has demonstrated that American conservatives consider the world more dangerous than liberals do. Various similarly fearful and suspicious ideological and cognitive biases appear to shape American conservatives views on policy  their opposition to gun control, for example, may be powerfully shaped by the fact that they have a higher expectation of needing to defend themselves from crime than liberals do.

The same holds true for the American rights hostility to Iran, and to the 2015 nuclear agreement. Its clear that many on the right are simply more intensely fearful of the threat posed by a nuclear-armed Iran than those who do not share their worldview.

Israel first

Theres another factor besides thats helped turn the American right against Iran since the revolution: the rise of politically engaged evangelical Christians.

Evangelicals have been a pillar of the Republican electoral coalition since the rise of Ronald Reagan, and as the 2016 election proved, they still are. Their influence explains a lot about the way American conservatism has changed over the decades  not just its general rightward shift, but specifically its increasingly unconditional support for Israel.

Since they fundamentally believe that God gave the land of Israel to the Jews, most Christian evangelicals take an uncompromisingly pro-Israeli stance. That stance has in turn become the default position of the Republican party. The upshot is that the Israeli governments profound and growing hostility towards Iran, which it sees as the primary threat to its security, has been mirrored on the American right in general.

Taken together, this heady mix of historical grievance and deeply held ideology explains why American conservatives hatred of the Islamic Republic is quite so vitriolic. And so long as the Republican partys base subscribes to a fearful, black and white worldview, it will never revise its opinion of what it still considers the USs most dangerous enemy.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Cover Image: An American protester makes his feelings plain during the Iranian hostage crisis, 1979. From the US News & World Report archives at the Library of Congress.



Bonus video added by Informed Comment:

Vox: Trump quits Iran nuclear deal, undoing years of diplomacyReddit Email 124 Shares

London (Informed Comment)  China has rhetorically thrown its weight behind Russia and Europe in continuing to back the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the P5+1 countries after US President Donald Trump announced that he was withdrawing America from what he called the decaying and rotten agreement set up to contain Irans suspected nuclear ambitions. The US has said it will reimpose sanctions on the Islamic Republic, including so-called secondary sanctions which punish any foreign firm which does business with the Iranians by forbidding them to do any business with US banks or financial institutions. The re-imposition of these has particularly enraged foreign governments whose companies do a lot business in Iran, in particular French and Chinese firms.

Among Americas allies who stand to lose out unless the Trump administration decides to exempt them, France looks to be particularly hard hit by the end of the JCPOA. Paris has tripled its trade surplus with Tehran in just two years according to its Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, and now its firms will have just six months to wind up their business operations there or face crippling penalties from Washington. Major French companies involved in Iran include some of the countrys most well known names, including Renault, Total, Peugeot and Sanofi. Le Maire was widely reported for remarks he made to French radio listeners in which he said it was not acceptable for the US to be the economic policeman of the planet. Europeans generally have been angered by what are seen as high handed US government actions over Iran, such as the newly appointed US ambassador to Germanys clumsy Twitter instruction to German businesses that they should wind down their Iranian operations immediately.

But beyond annoying its European allies, the Trump administrations threats are unlikely to move US rivals Russia and China, which both have extensive business ties with Iran that are likely to survive the fall of the JCPOA. In particular China is likely to see the withdrawal of America from the nuclear deal as a chance to improve its political relations with Tehran, which will not be in a position to be choosy about whom it does business with once US secondary sanctions snap back into place. But economically speaking the reality of Chinese influence in Iran is more complex than the American attempt to push Beijing and other foreign countries into re-isolating Tehran admits. In the short term many Chinese firms who do business in Iran may take a big hit; in one example, for breaching US sanctions Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp received a seven year ban on US companies selling it components and software in April that could shut it down for good.

But this ignores several critical factors featuring in Chinese thinking over Iran and the US. The first is that China is in Iran for the long haul, with the Islamic Republic now physically linking itself to China via a new Silk Railway. Intended to carry goods and passengers between the two countries under Chinas frequently renamed One Belt, One Road initiative, the 10,399 km long railroad linking the capital Iranian capital to Yiwu in Chinas eastern Zhejiang province was built as Chinese-Iranian cooperation deepened during the sanctions period. Bilateral trade between the pair grew from $4 billion in 2003 to $53 billion in 2013 for example, as Chinese firms displaced European ones in the Obama era. Geography makes Iran a Eurasian trade hub and China sees it as both a vital link in its projected Asia-Europe trading route and as a component in Beijings plans for regional integration with Central Asia.

Secondly with a potential trade war brewing between America and China, Beijing is unlikely to be in a very helpful mood regarding American problems with the Islamic Republic. Its position is closer to that of the Europeans and many Americans themselves, which is that since the JCPOA was an international deal brokered under the authority of the United Nations, Washingtons withdrawal is unfortunate, but not an end to the matter. US demands on Iran will be added to the list of others Beijing has no intention of doing anything about, and punishing Chinese companies like ZTE Corp who operate there further would be swiftly interpreted as one more American move to prevent China from achieving its rightful place in the region, as elsewhere.

This matters because in spite of everything Chinas major interest in Iran remains the same as every other power since the beginning of the twentieth century, namely privileged access to Irans oil and gas supplies. According to energy research firm Greenscape, almost one third of Iranian oil exports have flowed to China this year, making Beijing the Islamic Republics best customer. Chinas economy is still a massive energy consumer in spite of efforts by the ruling Chinese Communist Party to diversify the country away from fossil fuel use; and while Iran is more dependent on oil and gas sales to raise money than ever since the American withdrawal from the JCPOA, the price of oil is also surging thanks to Trumps actions.

Just as an agreement between OPEC countries and Russia has tightened up global supplies to economies like Chinas, so Washingtons actions now threaten to remove the Iranian supply as well. Irans crude oil exports surged by 1 million barrels per day when sanctions were last removed in 2016, so this backward step now is likely to incline both Beijing and Tehran to explore a bilateral energy deal that deepens Irans dependency upon China in the longer run. Pushing Iran into Chinas waiting arms was unlikely to have been a major US policy goal in the Middle East, but that is what seems likely to happen now that America has started trying to unravel the JCPOA agreement that was keeping a lid on tensions in the region. Trumps withdrawal from his predecessors greatest foreign policy achievement may end up being an even bigger mistake than the one the diplomats and analysts are already calling it.

-

Bonus video added by Informed Comment:

CGTN: China pledges to safeguard, implement Iran nuclear dealHALIFAX, Nova Scotia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Erdene Resource Development Corp. (TSX:ERD) ("Erdene" or "Company"), is pleased to announce an updated mineral resource estimate (Mineral Resource) for its 100%-owned Altan Nar gold-polymetallic project (Altan Nar) in southwest Mongolia.

We are extremely pleased with the significant increase in size and grade of todays Altan Nar Resource and believe it will be an excellent complement to a Global Resource Estimate expected in Q3-2018 incorporating our near-surface, high-grade Bayan Khundii gold project, 16 kilometres to the southeast, where drilling continues, said Peter Akerley, Erdenes President and CEO. It is important to recognize that while Altan Nar has expanded significantly this remains an early-stage discovery with multiple untested targets over the 5.6 kilometre Altan Nar trend, with limited drilling at depth. This reflects the fact that no modern exploration took place in this new district prior to the Erdene discoveries.

Highlights of 2018 Mineral Resource at Reported Cut-Off Grade

(see accompanying figures for reference)

Indicated gold equivalent (AuEq) resource increased by 208% and Inferred AuEq resource increased by 172%, compared to the Companys March 2015 Altan Nar maiden mineral resource estimate.

Indicated Resource of 452,900 ounces (oz) AuEq averaging 2.8 g/t AuEq and Inferred Resource of 277,100 oz AuEq averaging 2.5 g/t AuEq, within a total resource of 5.0 million tonnes (Mt) Indicated and 3.4 Mt Inferred.

Indicated Resource includes 317,700 oz gold (at 2.0 g/t gold), 31,600 tonnes (t) zinc, 29,000 t lead, and 2.35 million oz silver, while the Inferred Resource contains 185,700 oz gold (at 1.7 g/t gold), 23,700 t zinc, 22,300 t lead, and 865,900 oz silver.

AuEq grade increased by 12% in the Indicated category, and 19% in the Inferred category.

Gold grade increased by 18% in the Indicated category, and 13% in the Inferred category.

Approximately 90% of the Mineral Resource is within 150 metres of surface with all zones open along strike and at depth.

Multiple undrilled and scout-drilled prospects along the 5.6 kilometre Altan Nar trend have the potential for hosting additional gold-polymetallic resources.

Overview - Altan Nar Mineral Resource

Erdene announced a maiden resource estimate for Altan Nar in March 2015 incorporating results from 71 diamond drill holes totalling 10,819 metres. Subsequently, between Q3-2015 and Q4-2017, the Company completed an additional 51 diamond drill holes totaling 7,782 metres. Data from these additional holes are included in todays updated Mineral Resource estimate.

The post-2015 drilling focused on expanding existing resource boundaries in the Discovery Zone (DZ) and Union North (UN) deposits, as well as expanding and exploring for additional mineralization within the remaining 16 target areas throughout the 5.6 kilometre trend. This work resulted in the discovery of a high-grade central core in the DZ area and outlined additional resources in the peripheral targets. The DZ drilling in particular has had a significant impact on the overall size and grade of the updated Mineral Resource.

Altan Nar is considered to be a carbonate-base metal gold (CBMG) deposit that is characterized by multiple, sub-parallel, moderately to steeply dipping, epithermal vein and breccia zones that in all cases remain open at depth and along strike throughout the 5.6 kilometre long Altan Nar trend, presenting a significant opportunity for resource expansion. Mineralized zones in typical CBMG deposits are commonly restricted to fault/breccia zones that can extend for more than 500 metres vertically. The average drill depth of the 122 holes completed at Altan Nar is 157 metres (angled, not vertical) with approximately 90% of the Mineral Resource within 150 metres of surface.

Statement of Mineral Resources

The reported Resource Report is based on information provided to RPMGlobal (RPM) by Erdene and verified where possible by RPM. All statistical analysis and mineral resource estimations were carried out by RPM.

Table 1 below shows the Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource estimate for Altan Nar as at May 7, 2018. The Mineral Resource was completed by RPM in accordance with the recommended guidelines of the CIM Definition Standards referenced in NI 43-101. RPM calculated the Altan Nar Mineral Resources for a number of AuEq cut-offs, however RPM recommends reporting the Mineral Resource at a 0.7 g/t AuEq cut-off for open pit resources, and 1.4 g/t AuEq below the same pit shell (see Statement of Reportable Cut-off Grade below). Table 1 shows the variation in tonnage and metals content with variable cut-off grades above the pit shell (0.4 g/t AuEq, 1.0 g/t AuEq and 1.4 g/t AuEq cut-off grades), while keeping the 1.4 g/t AuEq below the pit shell consistent. The Company will file a NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate and Technical Report on SEDAR within 45 days of this news release.

Table 1- Altan Nar Project  Mineral Resource Estimate Summary, May 7, 2018

Cut-off

AuEq g/t Resource

Classification Quantity (Mt) Grade Contained Metal Au Ag Zn Pb AuEq Au Ag Zn Pb AuEq g/t g/t g/t g/t g/t Koz Koz Kt Kt Koz 0.4 Indicated 5.6 1.8 13.5 0.6 0.5 2.6 323 2,412 33.2 29.9 464 0.4 Inferred 3.7 1.6 7.5 0.7 0.6 2.3 189 901 24.5 22.8 283 0.7 Indicated 5.0 2.0 14.8 0.6 0.6 2.8 318 2,350 31.6 29.0 453 0.7 Inferred 3.4 1.7 7.9 0.7 0.7 2.5 186 866 23.7 22.3 277 1.0 Indicated 4.2 2.3 16.6 0.7 0.7 3.2 306 2,212 28.6 27.4 431 1.0 Inferred 3.2 1.8 8.2 0.7 0.7 2.7 182 837 22.8 21.5 270 1.4 Indicated 3.3 2.7 18.9 0.8 0.8 3.8 285 2,002 24.9 25.2 398 1.4 Inferred 2.9 1.9 8.6 0.8 0.7 2.8 176 795 21.5 20.4 259

Notes:

1. The Mineral Resources have been constrained by topography and a cut-off of 0.7 g/t AuEq above a pit and 1.4 g/t AuEq below the same pit shell.

2. The Mineral Resource Estimate Summary has been compiled under the supervision of Mr. Jeremy Clark who is a full-time employee of RPM and a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Mr. Clark has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralization and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity that he has undertaken to qualify as a Qualified Person as defined in the CIM Standards of Disclosure.

3. All Mineral Resource figures reported in the table above represent estimates as at May 7, 2018. Mineral Resource estimates are not precise calculations, being dependent on the interpretation of limited information on the location, shape and continuity of the occurrence and on the available sampling results. The totals contained in the above table have been rounded to reflect the relative uncertainty of the estimate. Rounding may cause some computational discrepancies.

4. Mineral Resource grades are reported in accordance with the CIM Standards.

5. Mineral Resources reported on a dry in-situ basis.

6. No dilution or ore loss factors have been applied to the reported Resource Estimate.

7. No allowances have been made for recovery losses that may occur should mining eventually result.

8. Gold Equivalent (AuEq) calculations assume metal prices of US $1,310 per ounce gold, US $18 per ounce silver, and US $2,400 per tonne lead and US $3,100 per tonne zinc and processing recoveries as per below.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Statement of Reportable Cut-off Grade

RPMs statement of Mineral Resources has been constrained by topography and a cut-off grade of 0.7 g/t AuEq for potential open pit resources above a pit shell, and 1.4 g/t AuEq below the same pit shell.

A pit shell was utilized to determine the maximum depth of potential open pit mining, within which the above cut-off grades were utilized to report the Mineral Resource using a US $1,570 per ounce gold price (20% above the US $1,310 per ounce optimization price) and the costs and recoveries listed below.

The selected pit shell was generated using the following parameters, which are based on RPMs internal cost pricing within Mongolia and the preliminary metallurgical study:

Metal Prices (RPM notes this is based on eventual extraction at a future date and not the long-term consensus forecast): Gold: US $1,310 per ounce Silver: US $18 per ounce Lead: US $2,400 per tonne Zinc: US $3,100 per tonne

Mining Cost of US $6 per tonne rock;

A block model using 10x5x5 metre blocks, which is considered the selective mining unit, with 5% dilution and 10% ore loss, was applied;

Processing costs of US $20 per tonne milled; and

Processing recoveries of: Gold: 88% Silver: 81% Lead: 81% Zinc: 60%



RPM highlights that the pit optimizations were used to define the depth of the various cut-off grades to report the Mineral Resource, however, the cut-off grades applied were estimated based on a gold price of US $1,570 per ounce. Furthermore, it is noted that, given the long strike length and variation in grade, the potential open pit depth varies, as such, the application of a consistent depth is not appropriate and the use of a pit optimization to define variable depths is suitable.

A gold price of US $1,570 per ounce was selected to determine the maximum depth of potential open pit mining based on historical prices (last 5 years). RPM notes that this price is above the current long-term forecast, however, RPM notes that the gold price was significantly higher in the past 5 years and, as such, has utilized a higher price to determine the maximum depth of potential open cut mining.

To determine the potential underground mining cut-off grade an open stoping method was assumed resulting in a total mining cost of US $35 per tonne.

While a detailed schedule and option analysis has not been completed to confirm the optimal mining method, given the sub-vertical continuous style of mineralization within sheet-like shears occurring near-surface within the currently defined resource areas, open pit mining is likely to be appropriate, pending the option analysis. Additional mining design along with more detailed and accurate cost estimate mining studies and testwork are required to confirm viability of extraction.

RPM notes that these pit shells were completed to report the contained Mineral Resources in order to demonstrate the reasonable prospect for eventual economic extraction, and highlights that capital expenditure has not been included, and that these pits do not constitute a scoping study or a detailed mining study which, along with additional drilling and testwork, is required to be completed to confirm economic viability. RPM has utilized operating costs based on in-house databases of similar operations in the region and processing recoveries based on preliminary metallurgical test work, along with the commodity prices noted above, in determining the appropriate cut-off grade. Given the above analysis, RPM considers both the open pit and material below the pit demonstrates reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction, however, highlights that additional studies and drilling are required to confirm economic viability.

Erdene Q2-Q4 2018 Technical Program

With the updated Mineral Resource now established at Altan Nar, Erdene will work toward completing a maiden mineral resource estimate at its neighboring, 100%-owned Bayan Khundii gold project, 16 kilometres southeast of Altan Nar. Erdene intends to announce a Global Resource Estimate, for both Bayan Khundii and Altan Nar, in Q3-2018. The Company is currently completing a drill program at Bayan Khundii to follow-up on high priority structural targets in advance of the maiden resource estimate.

Qualified Person and Sample Protocol

The Resource Estimate included in this press release was prepared under the supervision of Jeremy Clark, RPMGlobal, Hong Kong. Mr. Clark is a Qualified Person within the meaning of such term under NI 43-101; Mr. Clark is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (MAIG) Membership No 3567. Mr. Clark has reviewed this press release and consents to the inclusion in this release of the matters disclosed based on Resource Estimate documents provide to the Company by RPM. A NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate and Technical Report will be filed on Erdenes SEDAR page within 45 days of this news release.

Michael MacDonald, P.Geo. (Nova Scotia), Vice President Exploration for Erdene, is the Qualified Person as that term is defined in National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the non-Resource Estimate technical information contained in this news release on behalf of Erdene. All samples have been assayed at SGS Laboratory in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. In addition to internal checks by SGS Laboratory, the Company incorporates a QA/QC sample protocol utilizing prepared standards and blanks.

About Erdene

Erdene Resource Development Corp. is a Canada-based resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of base and precious metals in underexplored and highly prospective Mongolia. The Company has interests in four exploration licenses and a mining license in southwest Mongolia, where exploration success has led to the discovery and definition of several prospects and deposits including: Bayan Khundii  the Companys flagship and newly discovered, high-grade, near-surface gold project; Altan Nar  an extensive, high-grade, near-surface, gold-polymetallic project located 16 kilometres northwest of Bayan Khundii; Altan Arrow  an early-stage, high-grade gold-silver project 3.5 kilometres north of Bayan Khundii; Ulaan  a recently acquired copper-gold porphyry prospect adjacent to Bayan Khundii; Khuvyn Khar  an early-stage, copper-silver porphyry project; Nomin Tal  a narrow, high-grade copper-gold discovery; and Zuun Mod  a large molybdenum-copper porphyry deposit. In addition to the above projects, Erdene has an Alliance with Teck Resources Limited on regional copper-gold exploration in the prospective Trans Altai region of southwest Mongolia. The Bayan Khundii and Altan Nar licenses have a 2% net smelter returns royalty (NSR Royalty) in favour of Sandstorm Gold Ltd. with a buy-back option to reduce the NSR Royalty to 1%. For further information on the Company, please visit www.erdene.com. Erdene has 146,400,586 issued and outstanding common shares and a fully diluted position of 156,992,160 common shares.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information regarding Erdene contained herein may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements may include estimates, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Although Erdene believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Erdene cautions that actual performance will be affected by a number of factors, most of which are beyond its control, and that future events and results may vary substantially from what Erdene currently foresees. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration results, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. The forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The information contained herein is stated as of the current date and is subject to change after that date. The Company does not assume the obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

NO REGULATORY AUTHORITY HAS APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED THE CONTENTS OF THIS RELEASE

Erdene Contact Information

Peter C. Akerley, President and CEO

or

Ken W. MacDonald, Vice President and CFO

Phone: (902) 423-6419

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.erdene.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ErdeneResVANCOUVER, May 10, 2018 /CNW/ - Bear Creek Mining Corporation ("Bear Creek" or the "Company") (TSX Venture: BCM) is pleased to announce that a Mine Construction Permit and an Accreditation of Water Availability have been granted by the Peruvian Ministry of Energy and Mines ("MEM") and the Water Authority within the Ministry of Agriculture, respectively, for the Corani silver-lead-zinc project located in southern Peru.

The Mine Construction Permit authorizes the stripping and extraction of ore according to the Corani Mine plan, and the construction of auxiliary and complementary mine facilities such as access roads, the mine camp and maintenance and storage buildings. The Accreditation of Water Availability confirms that the water resources required for construction and operation of the Corani Mine are available for use in the project. A separate permit for the construction of the Corani process plant, waste and tailings disposals, water storage system and processing-related facilities (the "Process Plant Construction Permit") is currently under review and pending approval. These permits, together with the Company's approved Environmental and Social Impact Assessment ("ESIA") that underlies them, are the key authorizations required to construct the Corani mine and the granting of these permits represents a substantial mitigation of project development risk.

Tony Hawkshaw, President and CEO, states, "Corani is one of the largest undeveloped silver-polymetallic deposits in the world. The Corani mine design is world-class and utilizes proven, modern technologies to achieve robust economic returns while minimizing environmental impacts. We appreciate the timely review of our permit applications by the various Peruvian Ministries involved, including the Ministries of Energy and Mines, Agriculture, and Culture. Bear Creek Mining is committed to supporting the communities around the Corani project by promoting productive economic activities representative of the historic and cultural practices of the area. These efforts, undertaken jointly by the Company and the communities, have helped to establish an excellent relationship with local communities throughout the project's history including during the permit approval process. Our Board of Directors will consider a Corani construction decision when a compelling project financing structure is arranged. Receipt of these key permits is a major step that will help attract sources of capital."

In the near future, Bear Creek will commence Phase 2 detailed engineering work, which is expected to lead into an Engineering, Procurement and Construction ("EPC") or EPC Management ("EPCM") contract. Additionally, with the Mine Construction Permit approved, the Company may commence early works projects including the construction of the Corani camp facilities and the access road from the camp to the project area, a distance of approximately 12 km. Permitting for the construction of an electrical substation and power line near the town of Macusani is underway, which will also improve the electrical system of the districts of Macusani and Corani.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

Anthony Hawkshaw

President and CEO

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding: the Company's planned work programs for the Corani project during 2018; the conditions under which the Company may consider a construction decision for the Corani project, the Company's expectations regarding environmental effects and economic returns; and, future permits the Company expects to receive. These forward-looking statements are provided as of the date of this news release, or the effective date of the documents referred to in this news release, as applicable, and reflect predictions, expectations or beliefs regarding future events based on the Company's beliefs at the time the statements were made, as well as various assumptions made by and information currently available to them. Although management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved or that assumptions on which they are based do not reflect future experience. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual outcomes to differ materially from the expectations expressed in them. These risk factors may be generally stated as the risk that the assumptions and estimates expressed above do not occur, but specifically include, without limitation, risks relating to: the Company's receipt of future permits to conduct work at the Corani project; the nature of work planned pursuant to the Company's existing permits; the Company's ability to secure financing, on favourable terms, to construct the Corani mine; sufficiency of the Company's working capital to complete its anticipated work programs; and the additional risks described in the Company's latest Annual Information Form, and other disclosure documents filed by the Company on SEDAR. The foregoing list of factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive. When relying on our forward-looking statements, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by the Company or on behalf of the Company, except as required by law.

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.Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 10, 2018) - Para Resources Inc. (TSXV: PBR) (WKN: A14YF1) (OTC Pink: PRSRF") (the "Company" or "Para") is pleased to announce that Javier F. Cordova Unda, until recently the Minister of Mines for Ecuador, has been appointed as Special Advisor for Business Development.

Javier Cordova Unda was the first Minister of Mining of Ecuador serving from February 13, 2015 until January 30, 2018. One of his main objectives was to strengthen the institutional framework and direct public policy in the mining sector of the Andean country.

Under his administration, the development of the Ecuadorian mining industry has been his cornerstone, positioning the country as the new mining frontier in the region. In addition, legal, tax and competitive conditions were created to attract foreign investment and develop responsible mining. With this, the objective has been to boost the mining sector and the socio-economic development of all Ecuadorians, and fundamentally of those who live in the areas of influence of the mining projects through the mechanism of use of anticipated royalties.

Likewise, former Minister Cordova promoted the fulfillment of important institutional achievements. Some of them include the beginning of large and medium scale mining, with the strategic mining projects Mirador and Fruta del Norte in Zamora Chinchipe, and Rio Blanco in Azuay. Additionally, the opening of the mining territory allowed progress in the process of granting concessions under the auction modality, with significant investment commitments from the world's largest mining companies. On the other hand, no less relevant is Mr. Cordova's role in working and promoting the formalization and regularization in the small-scale mining regime.

The milestones reached in these 3 years have been recognized both nationally and internationally, when in 2017 the country received an award as the best regional destination for exploration as well as the most innovative nation in the global industry. These awards were received in the framework of the Mines & Money Americas and Mines & Money London, respectively. Also, in that year, Cordova was acknowledged as one of the 20 most influential people in the industry worldwide by the specialized Mining Journal.

Prior to being Minister of Mining, Mr. Cordova held prominent positions as the Vice Minister of Mining and Vice Minister of the Interior. He has also held positions of relevance in the public administration, such as Deputy Minister of Justice, Deputy Secretary of Mining, Advisor for the Minister of Foreign Trade, among others.

Minister Cordova was named one of the top 20 most influential people in mining in 2017 by the Mining Journal, a UK based magazine. http://bit.ly/top20MiningExecs

In consideration of the services to be provided, the Company will grant to Javier Cordova Unda 250,000 Stock Options at an exercise price based on the closing share price on May 10th, 2018.

Geoff Hampson, the Company's CEO stated, "I am very pleased to have someone as knowledgeable and experienced in mining join our team. His experience in dealing with governments all over Latin America and at every level, local small miners and large multi-national mining companies will be very helpful to the Company as it grows into our mid-term goal of 250,000 ounces of gold produced by 2015. Our current management team is entirely focused on the achieving Commercial Production at EL Limon and Gold Road Mine. Former Minister Cordova will work closely with me to identify future acquisitions that fit our model starting in 2019."

In other news, Para announces that it has retained the services of Kariba Capital, LLC ("Kariba") to perform investor relations services such as corporate planning and business development services, non-financing Advisor Services and other shareholder services.

In consideration of the services to be provided, the Company has agreed to pay Kariba USD80,000 and grant Kariba 2,000,000 options with 1,000,000 options exercisable at $0.30 per share and a further 1,000,000 options exercisable at $0.40 per share for a period of 5 years, subject to certain milestones, and subject to regulatory approval. The options are subject to a four month hold period and will be vested in stages over the next 12 months with one-quarter of such options (500,000 options) vested each three month period.

ABOUT PARA RESOURCES:

Para is a junior producing gold mining company. Para owns approximately 80% of the El Limon project, in Colombia, which in addition to its current underground operation is purchasing mineralized rock mined by small artisanal miners working on the Company's property. The El Limon and OTU properties also have exploration and development upside. The Company also owns 88% of the Gold Road Mine in the Oatman District of Arizona. RPM Global recently produced a NI 43-101 Technical Report and PEA, establishing a Mineral Resource estimate and a good economic outlook for the Gold Road Mine. Production at Gold Road is expected to commence in September 2018. Para will continue to take advantage of current market conditions to acquire and develop additional highly economic, near-term production assets that have strong exploration and development upside.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

"C. Geoffrey Hampson"

_________________________

C. Geoffrey Hampson, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Director

For further information, please contact Andrea Laird, telephone: +1-604-259-0302

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.VANCOUVER, British Columbia and TORONTO, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Metalla Royalty & Streaming Ltd. (Metalla) (TSXV:MTA) (OTCQX:MTAFF) (Frankfurt:X9CP) and ValGold Resources Ltd. (ValGold) (TSXV:VAL) are pleased to announce that they have entered into a definitive arrangement agreement (the "Arrangement Agreement") whereby Metalla will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of ValGold (the "Arrangement"). Under the terms of the Arrangement Agreement, all of ValGolds issued and outstanding common shares will be exchanged for Metalla common shares on the basis of 0.1667 of a Metalla common share for each ValGold common share (the "Exchange Ratio"). All currency is in Canadian Dollars unless otherwise noted.

The Exchange Ratio implies a consideration of $0.13 per ValGold common share, based on the 40-day volume weighted average price (VWAP) of the Metalla common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) for the period ending May 9, 2018. This represents a 79% premium to the 40-day VWAP of ValGold common shares and 62.5% premium as of market close on May 9, 2018, on the TSXV. The undiluted equity value of the transaction is approximately $7.2 million.

BENEFITS TO METALLA SHAREHOLDERS

Acquisition of a 2% NSR royalty on the Garrison Project in a world-class mining district in Ontario, Canada

Addition of a proven mine builder and high-quality counterparty Osisko Mining Inc. (TSX:OSK) the management team largely responsible for the discovery, development, financing, and commissioning of the Canadian Malartic Mine

Enhances and expands growth-profile with a royalty on a gold development asset with approximately 1.2 million oz. measured and indicated resource and a 0.8 million oz. inferred resource

Maintains cash balance through an all-share transaction

Accretive to existing Metalla shareholders on a per share basis

BENEFITS TO VALGOLD SHAREHOLDERS

An immediate premium of 79% to Valgolds 40-day VWAP

Enhanced market liquidity

Access to Metallas dividend stream and policy on closing

Significant asset diversification from Metallas portfolio of producing, development, and exploration royalties and streams with top-tier operators

Maintains upside exposure to the Garrison Project through a Metalla ownership position and expected re-valuation of the related royalty through enhanced price discovery reflected in Metalla shares

Brett Heath, President, and CEO of Metalla, stated, "The acquisition of ValGold is an exciting transaction that strengthens Metallas development pipeline of royalties and adds a top-tier operator in a world-class mining jurisdiction with significant potential upside. This acquisition is consistent with our long-term strategy of executing accretive deals in known mining camps with strong counterparties.

Kevin Snook, Chairman, and CEO of ValGold, stated, Metallas management team and board has built an impressive and diversified royalty and streaming portfolio in only 20 months. ValGold shareholders can look forward to seeing the full value of the Garrison royalty recognized in Metallas share price as well as improved market liquidity and exposure to Metallas dividend and diversified royalty and streaming assets.

GARRISON ROYALTY

ValGold holds a 2% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on certain claims of the Garrison Project (the Garrison Royalty), which covers the Garrcon and Jonpol properties, and the eastern portion of the 903 Zone. The Garrison Project is located approximately 100 kilometers east of Timmins Ontario, and 40 kilometers north of Kirkland Lake. It resides along the famous Golden Highway in the Timmins and Kirkland Lake region which has historically produced over 100 million ounces of gold.

The Garrison Project is 100% owned by Osisko Mining Inc. (Osisko) and consists of a portfolio of properties spanning a 50 km distance along the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone, encompassing 16 non-contiguous properties including the Garrcon and Jonpol properties, 903 Zone, and Buffonta, and Golden Pike advanced exploration properties.

The Garrison Royalty covers 35 patented mining claims and three deposits known as the Garrcon and Jonpol properties and the eastern portion of the 903 Zone. These claims were the subject of a National Instrument (NI) 43-101 resource estimate dated March 2014 by ACA Howe International Inc. which estimated the mineral resource according to CIM standards at the Garrcon and Jonpol properties to be:

Domain Category Tonnes Au Grade

(g/tonne) Au (troy oz) Garrcon Measured 15,100,000 1.07 521,000 Garrcon and Jonpol Total Indicated 14,972,000 1.40 676,000 Garrcon and Jonpol Total Measured + Indicated 30,072,000 1.24 1,197,000 Garrcon and Jonpol Total Inferred 7,873,000 3.19 808,000

For further details, see technical report entitled Technical Report on the Golden Bear Project - Garrison Property Larder Lake Mining Division Garrison Township, Ontario, Canada for Northern Gold Mining Inc. dated March 3, 2014, filed by Northern Gold Mining Inc. on May 2, 2014 and available under Northern Gold Mining Inc.s profile on SEDAR. This is a summary table for the Garrison Property (Garrcon and Jonpol deposits). These mineral resources were estimated using a 0.4 gpt Au cut-off grade for open pit and 1.5 gpt Au for underground resources. Moreover, all raw assays were top-cut to 112 g/tonne Au and 114 g/tonne Au for higher grade and lower grade domains, respectively. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and by definition do not demonstrate economic viability. This mineral resource estimate includes inferred mineral resources that are normally considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is also no certainty that these inferred mineral resources will be converted to the measured and indicated resource categories through further drilling, or into mineral reserves, once economic considerations are applied. Readers are cautioned that inferred resources have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to whether they can be mined economically.

As of the end of January 2018, Osisko has completed 85,000 meters of new drilling since the 2014 resource update to complement the 108,000 meters drilled at Garrison by previous operators. Osisko has announced that it expects to release an updated resource estimate in July 2018.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS' RECOMMENDATION

The Arrangement Agreement has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of each of Metalla and ValGold. The ValGold board of directors recommends that ValGold shareholders vote in favour of the Arrangement at the special meeting of shareholders to be called to approve the Arrangement (the Special Meeting). Evans & Evans, Inc. has provided an opinion to the board of directors of ValGold, stating that, as of the date of the opinion and based upon and subject to the assumptions, limitations, and qualifications set forth therein, the consideration to be received by the holders of ValGold common shares pursuant to the Arrangement is fair, from a financial point of view to such holders.

Certain executive officers and directors of ValGold have entered into lockup agreements and have agreed to vote their ValGold securities in favour of the Arrangement.

TRANSACTION SUMMARY

Under the terms of the Arrangement Agreement, ValGold shareholders will receive 0.1667 common shares of Metalla for each ValGold common share held as of the effective date of the Arrangement. Holders of ValGold stock options outstanding at closing will receive Metalla common shares on the basis of the in-the-money value of their ValGold options. Pursuant to the transaction, Metalla will issue an aggregate of approximately 9.5 million common shares to ValGold shareholders and optionholders. Upon completion of the Arrangement, current ValGold shareholders and optionholders will own approximately 11.2% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Metalla. Under the Arrangement, all existing warrants of ValGold will become exercisable to acquire Metalla common shares at exercise prices adjusted by the Exchange Ratio.

The Arrangement will be effected by way of a plan of arrangement under the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia). The Arrangement will require approval by 66 2/ 3 rds percent of the votes cast at the Special Meeting and any additional shareholder approvals which may be required under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions. In addition to shareholder and court approvals, the Arrangement is subject to applicable regulatory approvals (including approval of the TSX Venture Exchange) and the satisfaction of certain other closing conditions customary in transactions of this nature.

The Arrangement Agreement includes customary provisions including non-solicitation of alternative transactions, right to match superior proposals and fiduciary-out provisions. In addition, ValGold has agreed to pay a termination fee to Metalla of $600,000 in the event of a termination of the Arrangement Agreement due to the occurrence of certain events. Metalla and ValGold have each agreed to pay a $150,000 expense reimbursement fee to the other party as reimbursement for certain expenses upon termination of the Arrangement Agreement due to the occurrence of certain other specified events.

TIMING

Full details of the proposed transaction will be included in ValGolds management information circular, which is expected to be mailed to shareholders in early June 2018. It is anticipated that the Special Meeting and the closing of the proposed transactions will take place in mid-July 2018.

QUALIFIED PERSON

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Charles Beaudry, geologist M.Sc., member of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario and the Ordre des Geologues du Quebec and a consultant to Metalla. Mr. Beaudry is a Qualified Person as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of disclosure for mineral projects.

ABOUT METALLA

Metalla is a precious metals royalty and streaming company. Metalla provides shareholders with leveraged precious metal exposure through a diversified and growing portfolio of royalties and streams. Metallas strong foundation of current and future cash-generating asset base, combined with an experienced team gives Metalla a path to become one of the leading gold and silver companies for the next commodities cycle. For further information, please visit Metallas website at www.metallaroyalty.com.

ABOUT VALGOLD

ValGold is a royalty and mineral exploration and development company based in Ontario, which holds a 2% net smelter return royalty on certain claims on the Garrison Project on the Golden Highway, east of Timmins, Ontario, a 100% interest in the Tower Mountain Gold Project near Thunder Bay, Ontario, and exploration properties in Venezuela. For further information, please visit ValGolds website at www.valgold.com and filings on SEDAR.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF

METALLA ROYALTY AND STREAMING LTD. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF

VALGOLD RESOURCES LTD. Brett Heath, President and CEO Kevin Snook, Chairman and CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Metalla Royalty & Streaming Ltd.

Brett Heath, President & CEO

Phone: 604-696-0741

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.metallaroyalty.com

Valgold Resources Ltd.

Kevin Snook, Chairman & CEO

Tel: 844-230-6000

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Rod Whyte, Director (London, England)

Tel: (44) 207-736-2321

Jonathon Snook

Tel: 905-325-4584

Website: www.valgold.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation. The forward-looking statements herein are made as of the date of this press release only, and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects, is expected, scheduled, estimates, projects, intends, aims, anticipates or believes or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions may, could, should, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to Metalla, ValGold and their respective shareholders; the timing and receipt of required shareholder, court, stock exchange and regulatory approvals for the Arrangement; the ability of ValGold and Metalla to satisfy the other conditions to, and to complete, the Arrangement, the anticipated timing of the mailing of ValGolds information circular regarding the Arrangement; liquidity, enhanced value and capital markets profile of Metalla; future growth potential for Metalla, ValGold and their respective businesses; estimates regarding future profitability, release of a new resource estimate on the Garrison property, and expected re-valuation of Garrison royalty.

In respect of the forwardlooking statements and forward-looking information concerning the anticipated completion of the proposed Arrangement and the anticipated timing for completion of the Arrangement, the parties have provided such statements in reliance on certain assumptions that they believe are reasonable at this time, including assumptions as to the time required to prepare and mail shareholder meeting materials, including the required information circular; the ability of the parties to receive, in a timely manner, the necessary shareholder, court, stock exchange and regulatory approvals; and the ability of the parties to satisfy, in a timely manner, the other conditions to the closing of the Arrangement. These dates may change for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to, unforeseen delays in preparing meeting materials; inability to secure necessary shareholder, court, stock exchange and regulatory approvals in the time assumed or the need for additional time to satisfy the other conditions to the completion of the Arrangement. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forwardlooking statements and forward-looking information contained in this news release concerning these times and dates.

Forwardlooking statements and forwardlooking information relating to any future mineral production, liquidity, enhanced value and capital markets profile of Metalla, future growth potential for Metalla, ValGold and their respective businesses, future exploration plans, which are based on such management's experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that the applicable parties' management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the price of silver, gold, and other metals; costs of development and production; Metalla and/or ValGolds ability to operate in a safe and effective manner and their ability to obtain financing on reasonable terms.

These statements reflect the parties respective current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of other assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the respective parties, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forwardlooking statements or forward-looking information and the parties have made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation: satisfaction or waiver of all applicable conditions to closing of the Arrangement including, without limitation, receipt of all necessary shareholder, court, stock exchange and regulatory approvals or consents and lack of material changes with respect to Metalla and ValGold and their respective businesses, all as more particularly set forth in the Arrangement Agreement; the synergies expected from the Arrangement not being realized; business integration risks; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets and the market price of Metallas common shares. In addition, the failure of a party to comply with the terms of the Arrangement Agreement may result in that party being required to pay a fee to the other party, the result of which could have a material adverse effect on the paying partys financial position and results of operations and its ability to fund growth prospects and current operations. Readers are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forwardlooking statements or forward-looking information. Although the parties have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. The parties do not intend and do not assume any obligation, to update these forwardlooking statements or forward-looking information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements or information, other than as required by applicable law.The Company expanded the pond string from 3 to 9 ponds, now covering 1.4 ha in total

Engineering firm Hatch hired to complete the engineering of calcium removal

Deep aquifer now intercepted in 5 holes along the entire 3Q Project - potential to positively impact already large resource at the 3Q Project

TORONTO, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Neo Lithium Corp. (Neo Lithium or the Company) (TSXV:NLC) (OTCQX:NTTHF) is pleased to provide an update on pilot pond construction and brine processing achievements at its Tres Quebradas lithium brine project (3Q Project) in Catamarca Province, Argentina. This work continues to demonstrate the Companys single-minded commitment to project-level advancements towards feasibility in the fastest period possible.

Pond Construction

The Company completed and filled with brine two ponds, 170x60x3 meters each, similar in design and size to production pre-concentration ponds (please see pictures in http://www.neolithium.ca/project/default.aspx#section=pictures).

Both ponds are of the same size but are constructed differently. The foundation and walls of one pond is made of salt (sodium chloride) and the other is made of gravel and sand. They are also positioned differently - one is facing towards the prevailing wind and the other is perpendicular to the other pond.

The purpose of the ponds is to obtain vital information on evaporation, wave formation in the ponds, geo-mechanical conditions of the ground, construction materials, impact of wind over evaporation in large ponds and liner resistance. All this information is directly applicable to the feasibility study work that is in progress.

The Company also completed four smaller evaporation ponds, 22x17x2 meters each, to complete brine concentration to approximately 3  4 % lithium concentration at pond scale. With further evaporation the brine can reach approximately 6% concentration without any issues, however reagents are required to remove the remaining calcium from the brine. The Company is evaluating the benefits of further concentration - cost benefit analysis between saving transport costs and reagent costs.

Prior to the construction of these pilot ponds, the Company had three pilot ponds, 60x17x2 meters each, that had been operating for a year and a half. With the current expansion the Company now has nine ponds, representing all the ponds required to complete all information for the feasibility study. See the outline of the pond string at http://www.neolithium.ca/project/default.aspx#section=maps.

The string of ponds built so far is equivalent to 1:600 scale piloting of the final evaporation ponds estimated in the Companys previously published preliminary economic assessment (PEA) at 35,000 tonnes lithium carbonate. Pond construction is directly related to the lithium carbonate pilot plant that is currently in construction and is expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2018 and installed in the nearby town of Fiambala, before the end of the year. The plant is designed to 1:800 scale of the final production plant as defined in the PEA.

Brine Processing Progress

The Company also continues to quickly progress in its understanding of brine processing. As described in the press release dated March 2, 2018, the Companys engineers determined that the consumption of sodium sulfate contemplated in the PEA could be significantly reduced. A final high-grade brine with approximately 3-4% lithium concentration is achievable without the need of costly additives and reagents through natural calcium precipitation as the calcium chloride forms crystals and each crystal captures six molecules of water (producing a mineral named Antarcticite). Antarcticite precipitation has two benefits, being it removes a substantial amount of calcium from the brine and removes water. Removing water by crystallization of Antarcticite is also expected to shorten the evaporation time and decrease the number of ponds required. The Company has hired Hatch Canada to provide an integral plan for managing this crystallization process that will be applied in the feasibility study.

We are pleased to have just completed on time and on budget all the pond string required to complete the feasibility study stated Gabriel Pindar, COO of Neo Lithium. The special nature of the 3Q brine, with low impurities, allows us to get creative and find ways to improve the process in comparison to other brine projects. We very much look forward to putting all of these important findings in a feasibility study as the PEA already demonstrates a potentially viable project.

Deep Aquifer and New Resource Estimation

The Company is still carrying on its drilling campaign and anticipates finishing the program by the end of May. The deep aquifer has now been intercepted in five drill holes along the entire salar, proving that the deep aquifer extends along the entire 3Q basin, and potentially changing the entire resource picture at the 3Q Project. For reference, the published resource calculation upon which the PEA was based, did not include this newly discovered extensive deep aquifer. Geochemical results are pending. The Company will provide an update when the drilling campaign is finished and expects to issue a new resource estimation for the 3Q Project in the third quarter that will include the deep aquifer.

Environmental Base Line Study

The environmental base line study is complete in most areas including flora, fauna, landscape, soils, archeology, paleontology, geology and air quality. The discovery of the deep aquifer delayed the hydrogeology work (the only topic missing in the environmental baseline study). Since the Company is still drilling and doing pump tests, the hydrogeological modelling is not finished yet. The Company estimates that the testing and hydrological model will be completed this quarter and that in the third quarter the Company will be presenting the complete environmental base line study to the applicable government authorities. Once this study is accepted by the government authorities a final environmental permit will be issued for mining at the 3Q Project.

About Neo Lithium Corp.

Neo Lithium Corp. is an established lithium brine exploration company focused on its wholly-owned, high quality 3Q Project located in Latin America's Lithium Triangle in the Province of Catamarca, Argentina. The Company is quickly advancing the 3Q Project given the rapidly growing lithium battery market that is driven largely by the growth of the electric vehicle market, and other consumer electronic products as the world moves towards cleaner and more efficient sources of energy.

Neo Lithium is well capitalized to continue the rapid development of its 3Q Project, a unique high-grade and low impurity lithium brine lake and salar complex, which encompasses approximately 35,000 hectares.

Neo Lithium recently completed a preliminary economic assessment of the 3Q Project that indicates economics for a 35,000 tonne per year lithium carbonate mine. The Company notes that the preliminary economic assessment is preliminary in nature, and it includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

The technical team that discovered this unique salar complex is one of the most experienced in the industry, having discovered and led the technical work, including resource definition and full feasibility study that established the Cauchari lithium salar as the third largest lithium brine resource in the world.

Additional information regarding Neo Lithium Corp. is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the Company's profile and at its website at www.neolithium.ca, including various pictures of ongoing work at the 3Q Project.

Waldo Perez, Ph.D, P.Geo., the CEO and President of Neo Lithium Corp. is the Qualified Person who approved the scientific and technical disclosure in the news release.

For further information, please contact:

Neo Lithium Corp.

Carlos Vicens

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements -- Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "is expected", "scheduled", "estimates" "intends", "anticipates", "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results "can", "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will", occur or be achieved, or the negative connotations thereof. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company, which could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from the future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. These risks include, without limitation, risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms, political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration activities, including environmental regulation, risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill, pump and sample results and relating to resource estimations, risks related to interpretation and application of chemical processing studies, risks related to pond construction and maintenance, risks related to the uncertainty of cost and time estimation and the potential for unexpected delays, costs and expenses, risks related to lithium and potash price fluctuations, the market for lithium products, and other risks and uncertainties related to the Company's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Company's disclosure record. Although the Company believes its expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions and has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended and undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements.SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GFG Resources Inc. (TSX-V:GFG) (OTCQB:GFGSF) (GFG or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has staked highly prospective claims adjacent to its Dore Gold Project, located 20 kilometeres northwest of IAMGOLDs Cote Lake gold project and 25 kilometres southeast of Goldcorps Borden gold project. From the recent staking program, the Company added 80 square kilometres (8,000 hectares) that host key regional structures and a similar geologic setting to gold deposits and occurrences near to the Dore Gold Project. (See Figures 1 and 2). The Companys total land position at the Dore Gold Project is now approximately 205 square kilometres (20,500 hectares).

The expanded Dore Gold Project now covers the interpreted westward extensions of the Rundle and Rideout shear zones. Both of these structural corridors are prospective for gold mineralization. To the north and east of the property, the Rundle Shear Zone hosts the past-producing Rundle Gold Mine and the high-grade Kenty gold deposit, confirming the prospectivity of this structure. Similarly, the Rideout Shear Zone has proven to be a fertile structure for gold mineralization and hosts the multi-million-ounce Cote Lake gold deposit. The areas covered by the new claims were targeted from an internal review and analysis of regional airborne magnetic data and government till sample geochemistry.

Brian Skanderbeg, President and CEO of GFG, commented, The additional claims are strategically located adjacent to our current Dore Gold Project and aligned with our district consolidation strategy. This area of the Abitibi is relatively underexplored and yet has all the geological hallmarks to host multi-million-ounce gold deposits. Our expanded land package presents a great opportunity for GFG to make a significant discovery and build value for our shareholders.

The Dore Gold Project has seen limited previous exploration work. As such, planned field work will be directed at collecting regional till samples and LIDAR imagery which will provide the necessary information to focus prospecting efforts and develop drill targets.

Figure 1: Dore Gold Property Outline





Figure 2: Regional Map of Pen Gold and Dore Gold Projects





Brian Skanderbeg, P.Geo. and M.Sc., President and CEO, is the Qualified Person for the information contained in this press release and is a Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101.

About GFG Resources Inc.

GFG Resources is a North American precious metals exploration company headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, whose shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange (GFG) and on the OTCQB (GFGSF). The Company owns 100% of two large and highly prospective gold properties west of the prolific gold district of Timmins, Ontario, Canada. The Ontario properties are comprised of the 44,500-hectare Pen Gold Project (including the West Porcupine property) and the 20,000-hectare Dore Gold Project. The Company also controls 100% of the Rattlesnake Hills Gold Project, a district scale gold exploration project located approximately 100 kilometres southwest of Casper, Wyoming, U.S. The geologic setting, alteration and mineralization seen in the Rattlesnake Hills are similar to other gold deposits of the Rocky Mountain alkaline province which, collectively, have produced over 50 million ounces of gold.

CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws and forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (referred to herein as forward-looking statements). Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the future price of gold, success of exploration activities and metallurgical test work, permitting time lines, currency exchange rate fluctuations, requirements for additional capital, government regulation of exploration work, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims and limitations on insurance coverage. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate or believes, or the negative connotation thereof or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results, may, could, would, will, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved or the negative connotation thereof.

All forward-looking statements are based on various assumptions, including, without limitation, the expectations and beliefs of management, the assumed long-term price of gold, that the Company will receive required permits and access to surface rights, that the Company can access financing, appropriate equipment and sufficient labour, and that the political environment within Canada and the United States will continue to support the development of mining projects in Canada and the United States. In addition, the similarity or proximity of other gold deposits to the Rattlesnake Hill Gold Project, the Pen Gold Project and the Dore Gold Project is not necessary indicative of the geological setting, alteration and mineralization of the Rattlesnake Hills Gold Project, the Pen Gold Project and the Dore Gold Project.

Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of GFG to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: actual results of current exploration activities; environmental risks; future prices of gold; operating risks; accidents, labour issues and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining government approvals or financing; and other risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties are not, and should not be construed as being, exhaustive.

Although GFG has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. In addition, forward-looking statements are provided solely for the purpose of providing information about managements current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of our operating environment. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements in this news release are made as of the date hereof and GFG assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable laws.Vancouver, BC, Canada / May 10 2018 / JMN Wire / Megastar Development Corporation (Megastar, the Company or MDV) (TSX-V: MDV; Frankfurt: M5QN) is pleased to announce that it has signed a Definitive Option Agreement (the Agreement) with Paradex Inc. (Paradex), a private Arizona, USA mining exploration company, and Minera Zalamera, S.A. DE C.V. (Minera Zalamera), a private Chihuahua, Mexico mining exploration company, to acquire 100% undivided interest (the Rama de Oro Option) in certain mineral concessions (the Concessions) known as the Rama de Oro project (the Project) located in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.

We are very excited to have concluded on this agreement, said Dusan Berka, CEO of Megastar Development. The project has been on our radar for some time and brings with it two important ingredients for early stage exploration; location and expertise. On location, the property sits on the trend between two producing mines; the Switchback mine owned by Gold Resource Corp. to the north and the San Jose mine owned by Fortuna Silver Mines to the south. From a technical perspective, the property is being vended in by David Jones, a geologist with extensive experience and success in Mexico having been part of the finds of several, now-producing mines. David will also be an instrumental part of the exploration team, allowing us to benefit from his historical understanding of the property and its surrounding geology.

In connection with the Option, upon receipt of the required regulatory approvals, Mr. David Jones, President of Paradex and Minera Zalamera, will be appointed to the Board of Directors of Megastar and shall also become a technical advisor/consultant to the Company in relation to its exploration activities in Mexico. Mr. Jones is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Arizona with 40 years experience in mineral exploration and project development in the U.S. and Latin America. As the foremost expert in the Guerrero Gold Belt, Mr. Jones discovered the Los Filos gold deposit in 1995 (Teck), was the leader of the technical team that won the bid for the Morelos reserve in 1998 (El Limon-Guajes deposits) and served as the principal geologic advisor in the start-up of Torex Gold Resources Inc. For the past 16 years he has worked extensively in epithermal precious metals system in Oaxaca and was responsible for targeting the recent discovery of Gold Resource Corporations (NYSE: GORO) polymetallic Switchback mine. Mr. Jones was a board member of Cayden Resources Inc. at the time of its $205 million sale to Agnico Eagle, and is currently a director of both Minaurum Gold Inc. (TSX-v: MGG) and the private concern Acapulco Gold.

Rama de Oro Project:

The Project lies to the northwest of and borders the La Calavera and Cobre Grande copper-gold porphyry-skarn projects in east-central Oaxaca. It also lies to the north of the WNW-ESE San Jose structural zone defined by Gold Resource Corporation (Click Here). The Project is hosted by caldera-related Tertiary volcanic rocks (e.g. El Aguila model) crosscut by hydrothermal veining inferred to be related to late-stage granitic magmatism locally exposed as dikes and underlying the adjacent Nueve Puntos mountain. Similar intrusions are associated with a 43-101 inferred resource of 49.8 MT containing 0.5% Cu, 0.04% Mo, 0.22% Zn and 12.9 g/t Ag at the Cobre Grande skarn system, which lies 6 km to the east, along the same structural trend (Source: TECHNICAL REPORT ON THE COBRE GRANDE PROJECT, OAXACA STATE, MEXICO prepared for Linear Metals Corporation (now Stockport Exploration Inc.), David A. Ross, M.Sc., P.Geo. and Paul Chamois, M.Sc. (Applied), P.Geo., May 6, 2008 - available on SEDAR on the issuer profile of Stockport Exploration Inc.).

Access to the Project is by two-lane paved highway from Oaxaca followed by improved dirt roads from Santiago Matatlan to the western side of the project area. Numerous dirt farm roads and paths afford access to majority of the project area. Oaxaca City, Santiago Matatlan, and San Pablo Villa de Mitla are local sources of skilled workers, water, and power for the project.

To date, exploration work at Rama de Oro has consisted of reconnaissance geological mapping and rock-chip sampling. This work has outlined a 4 square-kilometre zone of quartz veining, silicification, and clay alteration of volcanic rocks inside and near the eastern margin of a Miocene caldera. Several rock samples assayed anomalous values of gold, silver, arsenic, mercury, and antimony, suggesting that the present-day surface represents high structural levels of a precious metal system.

In connection with the Option, Megastar has commissioned the preparation of a technical report (the Report) prepared in accordance with the requirements of National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101). Stephen R. Maynard, M.S., C.P.G. Consulting Geologist, and an independent qualified person under NI 43-101 prepared the Report. The Report has been submitted to the Exchange for review and approval. The Report will be filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) in the Companys SEDAR profile shortly following the issuance of this news release.

The author of the Report recommends a 2-phase exploration program. The first phase consists of detailed geological mapping, rock- and soil-geochemical sampling, and an induced polarization-resistivity survey to define drill targets. The cost of the first phase is estimated at USD $167,750. A second phase, consisting of a 6-hole, 3,600-metre diamond-drilling program, would be dependent on results of the first part of the program. The cost of the second phase is estimated at USD $972,000.

Terms of the Rama de Oro Option:

In accordance with the Agreement, Minera Zalamera has granted Megastar the sole and exclusive right to acquire a 100% interest over a period of two (2) years following the execution of the Agreement in exchange for a cash payment of USD $35,000, the issuance of a total 2.9 million common shares of Megastar (the Common Shares) and total work expenditures of USD $350,000. As such, within a delay of fifteen (15) days following the execution of the Agreement, subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the Exchange), Megastar shall pay to Minera Zalamera the sum of USD $35,000 and issue to Minera Zalamera 1,100,000 Common Shares. Thereafter, over a 2-year period, Megastar shall issue the following Common Shares to Minera Zalamera and incur the following work expenditures:

MILESTONE SHARES WORK EXPENDITURES 1st Anniversary 600,000 USD $150,000 2nd Anniversary 1,200,000 USD $200,000

Upon the successful completion of the Option by Megastar, Minera Zalamera shall retain a royalty equal to 2% net smelter return (the NSR). Megastar shall have the right to purchase 1% of the NSR, at any time and at its sole discretion, for a purchase price of USD $1,650,000.

All securities to be issued in connection with the transactions will be subject to a hold period of 4 months and one day from their date of issuance. Furthermore, the Transaction remains subject to regulatory approval.

Stephen R. Maynard, M.S., C.P.G. Consulting Geologist, a qualified person in accordance with NI 43-101, has reviewed and accepted the technical information in this news release.

ABOUT MEGASTAR DEVELOPMENT CORP.

Megastar Development Corp. is an emerging resource company engaged in the evaluation, acquisition and exploration of mineral properties. Megastar currently owns mineral property in Quebec. For further information, investors and shareholders are invited to visit the Companys website at www.megastardevelopment.com or call the office at 604-681-1568, or toll free at 1-877-377-6222.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

DUSAN BERKA

Dusan Berka, P. Eng.

President & CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS AND DISCLAIMER

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 Corporation believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization) 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 Corporations ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Corporation 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, failure by the parties to complete the Transaction, failure to establish estimated mineral resources, the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Corporation's expectations, changes in world markets for precious metals or markets for other commodities, and other risks disclosed in the Corporations public disclosure record on file with the relevant securities regulatory authorities. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Corporation disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statementWEST KELOWNA, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- COLORADO RESOURCES LTD. (TSX-V:CXO) ("Colorado" or the "Company") announces that it has terminated its option to acquire an interest in the Green Springs project, located in Nevada.

On December 6, 2016, Colorado entered into an option agreement (the Option) with Ely Gold Royalties Inc. (Ely) to acquire a 100% interest in the Green Springs project for aggregate cash payments of US$3,000,000 ($150,000 paid) and share issuances of 2,250,000 (800,000 issued) over a four-year period. The Company has informed Ely that it no longer wishes to continue with the Option.

Robert Shaw, President and CEO stated: Our decision to terminate the Green Springs Option allows us to focus our resources on the advancement of our BC Property portfolio."

About Colorado

Colorado Resources Ltd. is currently engaged in the business of mineral exploration for the purpose of acquiring and advancing mineral properties located in the Golden Triangle British Columbia and holds approximately 1,200sq km of mineral claims in the Golden Triangle. The Companys main exploration projects within British Columbia include KSP, North ROK, Kingpin and Kinaskan-Castle.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF

COLORADO RESOURCES LTD.

Robert Shaw

Robert Shaw

President and Chief Executive Officer

For more information, please contact:

Colorado Resources Ltd.

Robert Shaw, President & CEO or

Terese Gieselman, CFO & Secretary

T: (250) 768-1511

F: (250) 768-0849

TF (855) 768-1511

W: www.coloradoresources.com

NR 18-10

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release, constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is used in applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information is based on plans, expectations and estimates of management at the date the information is provided and is subject to certain factors and assumptions, including: that the Company's financial condition and development plans do not change as a result of unforeseen events, that the Company obtains required regulatory approvals, that the Company continues to maintain a good relationship with the local project communities. 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. Factors that could cause the forward-looking information in this news release to change or to be inaccurate include, but are not limited to, the risk that any of the assumptions referred to prove not to be valid or reliable, which could result in delays, or cessation in planned work, that the Company's financial condition and development plans change, delays in regulatory approval, risks associated with the interpretation of data, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits, the possibility that results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, as well as the other risks and uncertainties applicable to mineral exploration and development activities and to the Company as set forth in the Company's Managements Discussion and Analysis reports filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. There can be no assurance that any forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information or statements, other than as required by applicable law.

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.Growing lithium exploration portfolio now contains over 12,000 hectares of pegmatite-rich ground in the Winnipeg River Pegmatite Field

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AZINCOURT ENERGY CORP. (Azincourt or the Company) (TSX.V:AAZ) (OTC:AZURF) is pleased to announce in conjunction with its JV partner, New Age Metals (TSX.V:NAM), the acquisition of the Lithman West Extension Project, a 2725-hectare, land package, located 9.5 kilometers west of the world class Tanco Mine Site.

The new Lithman West Extension Project connects to the Companys current Lithman West project on both the western and southern boundaries, making the combined Lithman West project now a total of approximately 3,741 hectares. Together, New Age/Azincourt now controls over 12,000 hectares (30,000+ acres) of lithium exploration property in the heart of the Winnipeg River Pegmatite Field, Manitoba.

The land package features the Bernic Lake Formation, the geological unit/formation that hosts the Tanco Pegmatite and several other lithium bearing pegmatites of the Bird River Greenstone Belt. Lithman West now covers over 12 kilometers of continuous strike length of the Bernic Lake Formation.

Figure 1: Lithman West Extension



In the area of the Lithman West Extension Project, several known occurrences of pegmatite exposures are present. The pegmatites in the southern portion of the project area are associated with what is deemed the Shatford Lake Pegmatite Group (one of ten pegmatite groups in the Winnipeg River Pegmatite Field). The Silverleaf Pegmatite on the Lithium One Project is also a part of the Shatford Lake Pegmatite Group and it is one of several pegmatites in the Pegmatite Group that contain lithium-bearing pegmatites.

This is another key addition for us as we build our portfolio in Manitoba, said president & CEO, Alex Klenman. This is highly prospective ground with known lithium-bearing pegmatites and tremendous exploration upside. We are entering a very busy time here over the next few months with detailed mapping, sampling and drilling all taking place. We are anxious to build our story and deliver results, continued Mr. Klenman.

The Lithman West Project acquisition and staking was focused on covering all the synvolcanic intrusive units (gabbros and diorites) which is the host rock unit of the Tanco Pegmatite, located to the east of the project. The Lithman West Extension covers the remainder of the Bernic Lake Formation westward extent from the Tanco Pegmatite.

The Tanco Pegmatite has been postulated to be situated in a limb of fold. The axial plane trace of this fold runs through both projects and therefore the potential of the area to host a similar pegmatite such as the Tanco Pegmatite is the exploration goal of the Lithman West and Lithman West Extension. There also are several other axial planes of regional folds that run through the project area.

Work permits for the Lithman West Expansion have been applied for with the province of Manitoba for surface exploration. Once the permits are granted, field crews will be mobilized. Exploration on the Lithman West Extension Project will consist of prospecting and sampling the known surface pegmatites and their surrounding areas with the objective to identify and confirm new drill targets.

The recent project acquisitions have made the New Age Metal/Azincourt Joint Venture the largest claim holder for Lithium in the Winnipeg River Pegmatite Field. At present, the Joint Venture has seven projects in the pegmatite field exploring for lithium-bearing pegmatites.

Terms

This addition to the original JV agreement with New Age Metals commits Azincourt to an additional $250,000 worth of exploration spend over the life of the partnership and has increased the 2018 exploration budget by $100,000. New Age Metals will also receive an additional 250,000 shares of Azincourt as part of the terms of the deal. For complete terms of the existing agreement please refer to the Azincourt news release dated January 15, 2018.

Work Program Update

Immediate exploration work will primarily focus on the Lithium 1 and Lithium 2 projects, with a field program that includes mapping of known pegmatite outcroppings. The Company will begin sampling specific areas over the next few weeks before drilling is scheduled to begin in June.

The initial drill program will include a minimum of 3,000 meters of diamond drilling primarily on the lithium-bearing Silverleaf Pegmatite at the Lithium 1 project, and at the lithium-bearing Eagle and FD5 Pegmatites at the Lithium 2 project.

Samples collected in 2016 at the Eagle Pegmatite returned a range of 0.02% to 3.04% Li2O, and up to 2.08% Li2O from the FD5 Pegmatite. Select sampling will concentrate on the Eagle and FD5 pegmatites at Lithium Two, and on the Silverleaf Pegmatite at Lithium One, which returned sample values as high as 4.33% Li2O during the 2016 exploration program.

Qualified Person

The contents contained herein that relate to Exploration Results or Mineral Resources is based on information compiled, reviewed or prepared by Carey Galeschuk, a consulting geoscientist for New Age Metals. Mr. Galeschuk is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical content of this news release.

About Azincourt Energy Corp.

Azincourt Energy is a Canadian-based resource company specializing in the strategic acquisition, exploration and development of alternative energy/fuel properties, including uranium, lithium, cobalt and other elements.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF AZINCOURT ENERGY CORP.

Alex Klenman

Alex Klenman, President & CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release includes forward-looking statements, including forecasts, estimates, expectations and objectives for future operations that are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of Azincourt. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking information represents managements best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially.

For further information please contact:

Alex Klenman, President & CEO

Tel: 604-638-8063

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Azincourt Energy Corp.

1430  800 West Pender Street

Vancouver, BC

V6C 2V6Ray Nadarajah and Anthony Jackson appointed as non-executive directors

Duchintav Khojgor and Eric Zurrin resign as non-executive directors

VANCOUVER, May 10, 2018 /CNW/ - Kincora Copper Ltd. (the "Company", "Kincora") (TSXV:KCC) is pleased to announce that Mr. Ray Nadarajah and Mr. Anthony Jackson have joined as a members of the Board of Directors effective immediately. Ray is a seasoned finance executive and investor with extensive experience in the natural resources sector both in Mongolia and globally, and is a new independent director to Kincora. Anthony has extensive experience as a Director and CFO of numerous publicly traded corporations in the metals and mining industry, and been CFO to Kincora since September 2014.

Mr. Ray Nadarajah was most recently a Managing Director of TPG Capital where he was responsible for infrastructure investments across emerging markets. Prior to this he worked at Rio Tinto where he held a number of senior strategic and commercial roles, including Head of the Office of the CEO, General Manager of Corporate Development, Director of Business Development for China and Head of Business Development for Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia.

Ray began his career as an investment banker across Sydney, Hong Kong and Beijing with Citi and Goldman Sachs where he advised on M&A and capital market transactions worth over $20 billion across the natural resources, infrastructure, diversified industrials and telecom sectors. Ray holds a double degree in actuarial studies and finance from the Australian National University and has undertaken executive education from the Harvard Business School. He has worked in over 25 countries and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Tok Pisin.

Mr. Anthony Jackson is a Principal of BridgeMark Financial Corp. ("BridgeMark") and a founder of Jackson & Company Chartered Accountants, a company that assists private and public companies with their accounting, tax requirements and corporate services. Anthony earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Simon Fraser University, and holds the professional designation of Chartered Accountant (CA), where he is a member of the BC and Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Concurrent with the appointment of Mr. Ray Nadarajah and Mr. Anthony Jackson, Mr. Duchintav Khojgor and Mr. Eric Zurrin have stepped down as non-executive directors of the Company in order to devote more time to other business commitments.

"Ray has a unique skill set, is well positioned to add value to the team and we are very pleased to have attracted someone with his calibre and experience, as we look forward to working more closely with Anthony in his expanded role on the Board." said Sam Spring, President and CEO. "On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Duchintav and Eric, and wish them well with their busy existing business interests. Duchintav has provided a significant contribution to Kincora, as co-founder of the Company, seven years on the Board and support as a successful local businessman, with Eric contributing four years of service on the Board and as chair of the Remuneration Committee".

The Company will grant to Mr. Ray Nadarajah and Mr. Anthony Jackson, in accordance with the Company's stock option plan, options to purchase up to an aggregate of 125,000 common shares each exercisable on or before May 10th, 2020 at a price of $0.20 per share.

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.38 Shares Share

We are living in times of extreme political polarization in the United States. In fact, its a trend sweeping the Western world right now. Ive always considered myself somewhat middle-of-the-road, and I vote much more for the candidate than the political party. Of course, I have my own strong views on certain issues, but Im probably the type of swing voter that parties want to target because admittedly my voting tendency can be changed in a heartbeat if I sense a good candidate.

In the United Kingdom, I voted for Tony Blair (Labour/Democrat) in two elections, and then switched to David Cameron (Conservative/Republican) for the next two  purely because I liked the candidates and believed them to be a better leader with the right policies. Having become a United States citizen a couple of years ago, this last election was my first time voting here in America.

I dont believe its a good idea to only be around people with the same views as yourself. I, personally, have a wide variety of close friends with views across the political spectrum. The general public discourse at the moment is very heated, and people rightly have strong and passionate views about the direction our country should be moving in. I find any extreme rather unpalatable: The ultra right-winger who comes across as completely lacking compassion or kindness, and the ultra left-winger who appears to have no concept of ambition and is completely happy to be living off the state (when they dont need to). Both are a huge turn off for me.

Speaking as someone who has lived in different countries, traveled the world and met so many people along the way, here are what some of my experiences have taught me according to how people claim they vote:

Ive met liberals who are very set in their ways and conservatives who are open to discussion.

Ive met conservatives who are wasteful with money and have no savings and liberals who are very sensible with their money and manage it wisely.

Ive met liberals who own gas guzzlers and throw litter on the streets, and conservatives who are very protective of the environment and recycle everything.

Ive met conservatives who have barely ever been to church and liberals who wont miss a single Sunday sermon.

Ive met liberals who have hardly traveled out of their town and conservatives who know everything about the world.

Ive met conservatives who cant walk past a homeless person without giving them a few dollars and liberals who wouldnt ever give a penny to charity.

Ive met liberals who have the strongest marriages and conservatives who cheat on their spouses.

Ive met conservatives who are vegetarians and liberals who like nothing more than a big steak dinner.

Ive met liberals who are the proudest and most honorable military veterans and conservatives who wouldnt dream of ever joining the armed forces.

Ive met conservatives who are the most generous and welcoming people and liberals who wouldnt even have anyone over for a cup of tea after knowing them for years.

Ive met liberals who have very disciplined and hardworking children and conservatives who have kids that are wild with major behavioral problems.

Oh, the factors that determine our own individual politics are indeed very complex, and humans are multifaceted beings. Thats why its all about the person. Is that person in front of you a sincere, genuine and kind individual? That should be all that really matters to us in our everyday interactions. So why be so polarized with each other according to how we vote?

Suneel Dhand is an internal medicine physician and author. He is the founder, DocSpeak Communications and co-founder, DocsDox. He blogs at his self-titled site, Suneel Dhand.

Image credit: Shutterstock.comA housing charity has called for an NCT-type certification system for private rented housing, after it emerged that all 496 rental dwellings inspected by Kilkenny County Council in 2017 due to complaints were found to be non-compliant.

Threshold chief executive, John-Mark McCafferty said: Sub-standard accommodation is one of the most common complaints that Threshold deals with every day.

Many of our clients throughout the country are living in properties lacking in necessities, such as heating or hot and cold running water, or are plagued with damp and mould.

The Kilkenny People previously revealed that 100% of private rented properties inspected by Kilkenny County Council last year were found to be non-compliant with standards regulations.

The data was obtained following a Freedom of Information request which sought the number of dwellings found to be non-compliant with the regulations for standards in private rented accommodation.

The Council revealed there were a total of 496 dwellings inspected last year due to complaints arising and 100% of these homes were found to be non-compliant.

There were also 249 inspections in 2016 and all 249 of these properties were also found to be non-compliant. The most common reasons for non compliance were submission of electrical/gas certs; ventilation and smoke alarms/carbon monoxide alarms.

Threshold has been calling for a certification system to replace the existing inspection and enforcement system, said Mr McCafferty.

This would, in effect, operate like an NCT for private rented housing. A landlord would not be allowed to rent a property unless it met minimum legal standards and he or she held a certificate confirming this.

While housing supply and affordability are key concerns for Government, this cannot be at the expense of minimum standards in private rented housing.

Local government must ensure minimum standards are strictly adhered to, and that there are consequences for landlords who do not adhere to these standards.

It is important that they not only investigate complaints regarding standards in private rented properties, but also proactively carry out inspections.

In a statement on the figures, the Council said: In Kilkennys case the reason ALL properties were deemed non-compliant was because of our procedure in-house that deemed a property non-compliant until certification of electrical standards in the property and certification for servicing of gas/oil systems.

Going forward we now request Electro Technical Council of Ireland and boiler and gas certs at initial contact stage with landlord. This allows landlords the opportunity to have certs available at inspection.

Local authorities are responsible for enforcing minimum standards as set out in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2017 and this includes the inspection of properties.The public will get a chance to have its say on the naming of the new bridge between Kilkenny and Wexford, which will be the longest bridge in Ireland.

The 250 million N25 New Ross Bypass scheme is currently under construction at the Pink Rock in Glenmore, and remains on course to be open in 2019. At 900m, the 'Extrados-type' bridge will also be the longest bridge of this type in the world.

Local councillors are due to make a visit to the construction site of the bridge tomorrow (Friday) to see for themselves how work is progressing, and the Kilkenny People will have a full report on it in next week's paper.

The neighbouring local authorities in Kilkenny and Wexford have agreed that a relevant and fitting name should be conferred on the bridge. In the discussion over a name for the structure, it was agreed at previous Piltown and New Ross Municipal Districts meetings to establish a steering group with representatives from both areas.

Its expected the public consultation period will last for a period of around six weeks, with the steering group then to adjudicate on the submissions and agree on names to be forwarded to the Municipal District committees.

The proposed submission form also includes options to explain the rationale behind the suggestion, as well as the relevance and benefit it might have.

At the May meeting of the Piltown Municipal District, senior executive officer Brian Tyrrell said this was the process that had been agreed. He said it would likely come back as part of the agenda for the September monthly meeting.

Cllr Melissa O Neill asked if that meant it would not go through Kilkenny County Councils naming committee. Mr Tyrrell said the process was different on this occasion as it involved two counties, and this was what was agreed.

Cllr Fidelis Doherty said it was a good opportunity for the public to engage. Meanwhile, Cllr Eamon Aylward said that he felt a joint meeting with Wexford needed to be prioritised.

Theres a number of issues there  not just the bridge but other things that need to be thrashed out," he said.Gerald Piddock writes at Stuff:

The list is depressingly long: The ban on offshore oil and gas exploration in Taranaki, the end of government money for irrigation, the loss of air ambulances in Rotorua, Taupo and Te Anau, the refusal to give $600,000 funding to the Rural Health Alliance, regional fuel taxes and just recently David Parker talking up the prospect of nutrient limits  effectively a cap on stock numbers.

Six months have passed since the new Government has taken office and made a vast array of decisions negatively impacting on provincial New Zealand and in turn, farmers.

And thats all in just six months. Imagine what theyll do over three years or even worse six years.

Labour will also almost certainly be campaigning for a water tax in the 2020 election.

Tax, tax, tax.

So after six months, how has the Government performed for farmers and provincial New Zealand?

Rather than grade them using National Standards gobbledygook, for now, it gets a C+. In the old School Certificate system, that was a bare pass mark.

Too many policies have been announced in the last six months that negatively affect rural New Zealand for it to be graded higher, but it is still early days and its judgment must be measured by that.

The true test of the Governments commitment to regional New Zealand and to the primary sector will be on May 17 when this years Budget is unveiled.

In the past few years, Labour and the Greens have talked plenty of farmers having to transition to practices that lower their environmental footprint and improve water quality.

The amount of cash thrown at the primary sector in the Budget on this will show literally if they have put their money where their mouth is.Leaders and business representatives of South Korea, China and Japan participate in a trilateral business summit held on the sidelines of the three-way summit in Tokyo, Wednesday. Leaders of lobby groups agreed to cooperate for a free trade pact and a comprehensive economic partnership between the three countries. From left are Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Park Yong-maan, President Moon Jae-in, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Japan Business Federation Chairman Sadayuki Sakakibara and China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Chairman Jian Zengwei. / Yonhap



By Park Ji-won



Business lobby groups of South Korea, Japan and China agreed Wednesday to cooperate for an early signing of a trilateral free trade deal on the sidelines of the three-way summit held in Tokyo.



In a joint declaration adopted in a trilateral business summit, the business leaders vowed to work together on a free trade pact and a comprehensive economic partnership between the three countries according to a statement of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) released Wednesday.



KCCI Chairman Park Yong-maan represented South Korea in the business summit alongside his counterparts Sadayuki Sakakibara, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, and Jiang Zengwei, chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT).





Panama City [Panama], May 10 (ANI): India and Panama agreed to work together to deal with the menace of terrorism.

Addressing a press briefing, Preeti Saran, Secretary (East) of the Ministry of External Affairs said, "Importance of working together very closely in dealing with the menace of terrorism was also a part of the discussion. Panama agreed for collaboration in Intelligence sharing. Human trafficking issues and mutual legal assistance treaty on criminal matters would also be taken into consideration.

She further informed that India and Panama signed two Memorandum of Understandings (MoU), one on visa exemption for diplomatic official and consular passport and the other on the work plan for cooperation in the agriculture sector.

The MoUs were signed in presence of Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and Panama President Juan Carlos Varela.

India has also offered two lines of credit - 10 million dollar line of credit for Bio-Technology and 15 million dollar for Innovation sector- to Panama.

Saran further said that Panama has also eased their visa policies to allow greater Indian participation, business and tourism.

"Panama has introduced new laws which would encourage greater investments in Colon Free Trade Zone," she added.

Saran further said that the Panama President was interested in more Indian investments in IT, agriculture, cold storage warehouses, textile, automobile and pharmaceutical sectors.

The two countries also discussed about collaborating academic and education field, she added.

Vice President Naidu also thanked Panama for giving its support to India for its candidature for the Indian Court of Justice (ICJ).

Vice President Naidu and the Panama President also talked about reciprocal support for a non-permanent seat at the security council for their respective candidate.

Saran further informed that Panama President Varela broke protocol and came to receive Vice President Naidu at the entrance. The discussion lasted for almost two hours.

Vice President Naidu, who is on a five-day visit to Central America, reached Panama on Tuesday.

He is on a three-nation visit to Guatemala, Panama and Peru which commenced from May 6. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)Kathmandu [Nepal], May 10 (ANI): Chief Minister of Nepal's Province No. 2 Mohammad Lalbabu Raut, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to commence his two-day State visit to the Himalayan nation, expressed optimism, saying, " We are looking forward to" his visit.

"We are looking forward to this visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We are leaving no stone unturned to make his visit in Janakpur a memorable and historical one," he said

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday will commence his two-day State visit to Nepal.

He will be arriving in the country's historical and ancient city of Janakpur on May 11.

During his visit, Prime Minister Modi and his Nepali counterpart will jointly inaugurate the hydro-electric project Arun III.

Prime Minister Modi will also visit Janaki Mandir which will be followed by a civic reception hosted by mayor of Janakpur at Barhabigha ground.

There will be a call by Foreign Minister of Nepal Pradeep Gyawali. This will be followed by a ceremonial reception. He will also call on President of Nepal Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun.

The two sides will hold bilateral talks as well.

PM Modi will also visit Muktinath temple and will depart for India on Saturday evening.(ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)Srinagar, May 10 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today said the role of the opposition was critical in strengthening democracy as it had to act as a buffer between the government and the people by channelizing dissent.

She said the opposition, by bringing to the fore the dissent of the people, helped the government in its due discharge of duties.

"Yesterday, at the all-party meeting also, I appealed to the opposition to help the government by reaching out to the people in their own way and channelise their grievances, Mufti said in the Legislative Assembly after the election of Nirmal Singh as the new speaker.

She reminded the House of her role as the opposition leader during which she visited every corner of the state, saying it indirectly helped the government of the day to further improve their service delivery and address the issues.

Likewise, she said, the opposition at present should play its role by becoming a bridge between people and the government to put across their grievances and difficulties so that these are discussed at appropriate fora like the Assembly.

For this, whatever support is required from the government, will be extended, she said.

The chief minister said dissent is the essence of democracy and people in both the government and the opposition should be tolerant enough to criticism and opposition.

The position of presiding officer of the House demands that the voice of every section and thought be heard and addressed appropriately which needs patience and tolerance, Mufti said.

Complimenting Singh on assuming the responsibility of the speaker of the House, the chief minister said over the past three years he discharged his responsibilities as the deputy chief minister of the state without any prejudice and with utmost tolerance.

Being a man of letters, Singh earned respect and accolades from every section of the society. I hope he will further elevate this position with his knowledge, genteel behaviour and accommodative attitude, she said.

Earlier, Singh was elected as the speaker of Legislative Assembly in a one-day special session of the legislature.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)Asuncion (Paraguay), May 10 (AP) Paraguay's Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the country will shift its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, following the US and Guatemala in a change long sought by Israel's government but opposed by Palestinians.

The ministry said in a statement yesterday that it "has begun the process" of carrying out the order by President Horacio Cartes.

Israel's Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said earlier this week that Cartes would attend the opening ceremony, which he said would occur by the end of May.

However, the spokeswoman for Paraguay's Foreign Ministry, Elvio Venega, said no date has been determined. The Paraguayan statements did not indicate if Cartes would go to Israel for the ceremony.

The president, whose five-year term ends Aug. 15, is expected to resign within a few weeks so that he can be sworn into a seat to which he was elected in Paraguay's Senate. The constitution forbids officials to hold two posts simultaneously.

The US officially opens its embassy in Jerusalem on May 14 followed two days later by Guatemala.

President Donald Trump overturned decades of US policy last year by announcing the Jerusalem move.

Israel claims the entire city as its eternal capital. Palestinians want east Jerusalem as their future capital and were infuriated by the declaration.

Most countries maintain embassies in Tel Aviv and have balked at moving them until the international legal status of the city has been resolved.

Cartes' decision irked some within Paraguay as well. Luis Castiglioni, who has been designated as the future foreign minister by President-elect Mario Abdo Benitez, told the Mil radio station that "it would have been better to consult with the president-elect in this case, which could have geopolitical consequences." (AP) IJT

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)Bank of India has filed a lawsuit against fraudster Nirav Modi in a Hong Kong court for the recovery of debt to the tune of $6.25 million. The infamous billionaire Modi got the money from the bank, after illegally acquiring Letters of Undertaking (LoUs). According to a Business Today report, BOI is the second lender bank to file a recovery lawsuit in the Hong Kong court since the third week of April. In connection with the same case, last month, Punjab National Bank (PNB) moved to Hong Kong Court.

The writ by Bank of India has been filed against Nirav Modi, and four of his companies, including Firestar Diamonds and Firestar Diamonds International. BOI moved the court in Hong Kong after the confirmation from the law enforcement agencies in India that Nirav Modi had fled to Hong Kong long time back.

Reportedly Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, in connivance with certain bank officials, allegedly cheated PNB of over Rs 13,000 crore through fraudulent LoUs. PTI reports highlight that, while China said, Hong Kong was free to accept Indias request to arrest Modi on the basis of the local laws of the region and legal agreements between the two. However, Hong Kong is part of the Peoples Republic of China; it is an autonomous region with its own laws.

Letters of Undertaking are an assurance given by one party to another stating that it will fulfil the obligation that had been previously agreed on.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 10, 2018 09:32 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).New Delhi, May 10: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday dwelled upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day State visit to Nepal, explaining the nitty-gritty of the same.

"PM will be arriving in Janakpur on 11 May, which is tomorrow; he will leave (for Nepal) tomorrow morning. The first stop will be Janakpur. Darshan at Janaki Mandir will be followed by a civic reception hosted by the mayor of Janakpur at Barhabigha ground," said MEA's official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar whilst addressing the media briefing.

"He will leave for Kathmandu in the afternoon of tomorrow. There will be a call by Foreign Minister of Nepal Pradeep Gyawali. This will be followed by a ceremonial reception. He will also call on President of Nepal Bidhya Devi Bhandari and Vice President Nanda Bahadur Pun. This will be followed by the bilateral talks between the two Prime Ministers. Nepal's Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will host dinner in the honour of PM Modi in the evening of May 11," Kumar added.

Divulging the details of day two of the Prime Minister's visit, the MEA spokesperson said, "On the morning of May 12, Prime Minister Modi Muktinath temple in Mustang district. He will come back to Kathmandu and offer prayers at Pashupathi Nath Temple."

Later, the Prime Minister will meet the leaders of various political parties of Nepal, which will be followed by a civic reception that will be hosted by the mayor of Kathmandu in honour of the visiting Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Modi will depart for India after the civic reception. (ANI)Project One tech trickling down to other AMG models

May 10, 2018, 1:54am ET

Electric turbochargers are right around the corner.

Mercedes-AMG's halo car, the Project One, isn't just a rolling display of the brand's engineering might. It also previews some of the technology that will trickle down to the company's volume-produced models in the coming years.

"You can expect some technologies transferred from Project One to our other cars. We are chasing performance with hybrids, not long range. We could do that, but our first approach is a performance approach, AMG boss Tobias Moers told Digital Trends.

Without going into too many details, he pointed to the electric turbocharger that equips the Project One's 1.6-liter V6. Similar technology will find its way into other AMG-badged cars in the not-too-distant future.

The AMG GT concept from last year's Geneva show was another technology demonstrator. In form, it accurately previewed the GT Four-Door introduced a few weeks ago. On paper, it gave us a preview of the powerful plug-in hybrid powertrain that will replace the V12 at the top of AMG's engine hierarchy in the coming years.

"Maybe you remember the GT concept from Geneva last year. It had a V8 engine in the front and an electric motor on the rear axle. Everything is in development. It will go into production one day," Moers said, adding the concept's specs -- about 850 horsepower -- will "more or less" carry over to production.May 10, 2018, 12:03pm ET

Toyota ups its autonomy research budget to $22 billion

Toyota will use its dominating profitability to keep relevant.

In its earnings announcement Wednesday, Toyota revealed that it plans to invest more than $22 billion into autonomous vehicle development this year in an attempt to keep pace with the likes of Waymo and Apple in what company President Akio Toyoda called "uncharted territory."

Toyoda warned that "[t]echnology companies are using their abundant resources to make investments at speeds several times faster than [Toyota]," according to the Nikkei news service. This year's investment is up 30% over 2017's, the news service says, and Toyota hopes it will be enough to keep the company relevant in what Toyoda described as "uncharted territory."

Some of Toyota's investments are already coming to fruition. The Toyota Research Institute (TRI) announced in early May that it will open an autonomous vehicle testing center at the company's Michigan Technical Resource Park (MITRP) in Ottawa Lake, Michigan, in October.

In the near term, the facility will be used for development of Toyota Guardian--the company's autonomous driving suite and potential future competitor to Tesla's Autopilot.The facility will be constructed inside the existing test oval at MITRP and will replicate environments such as dense urban areas, highway interchanges and low-friction driving surfaces.

"By constructing a course for ourselves, we can design it around our unique testing needs and rapidly advance capabilities, especially with Toyota Guardian automated vehicle mode," said Ryan Eustice, TRI senior vice president of automated driving, in last week's announcement.

"This new site will give us the flexibility to customize driving scenarios that will push the limits of our technology and move us closer to conceiving a human-driven vehicle that is incapable of causing a crash."Significant changes are in the pipeline governing the granting of parole to prisoners in Portlaoise and other prisons.

The Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD, has this morning outlined plans for a new Parole Bill at the Parole Board Conference at the Law Society, Blackhall Place.

Explaining that the new Bill will put the Parole Board on a statutory footing, the Minister emphasised the importance, in drawing it up, of taking different positions into account.

There is no question but that parole is a sensitive issue. Like so many such issues, its about trying to find a balance a balance between the rights and needs of victims, of offenders, indeed of society. Trying to reduce reoffending, and ensure that no further harm is caused to victims or society, goes to the core of a criminal justice system. But I think it is important to make the point that parole does not just benefit prisoners. It can also benefit society if and when it helps rehabilitate and successfully reintegrate prisoners back into their communities, he said.

Minister Flanagan emphasised, in particular, the importance placed on victims in proposed new legislation.

In respect of victims, the Parole Bill provides that where a review or hearing has been scheduled, the Board will give notice to a victim that such a review or hearing is pending, and will prepare and send the victim an explanation of the process and an account of how they may participate. The right to make submissions or give oral evidence to the board is also included as is a provision for legal representation.

There are also provisions to protect the victim from further harm. An order if granted, may for example include that the offender not attend at or be in the vicinity of specified locations, or not communicate with specified persons, directly or indirectly.

It may also ensure that the person subject to it not be permitted to travel outside the jurisdiction, and in considering an order, the Board may also seek information from anyone it considers may have an interest in the application, including the victim.

"I should also add that the Irish Prison Service Victim Liaison Service continues to provide support for victims by engaging openly and meaningfully with them, to ensure appropriate information, support and protection. Victims or their relatives, who register with the Scheme are informed in advance of the Boards review of the prisoner and the Victim Liaison Officer advises the victim or their family of any decision arising out of each review.

The new Parole Bill, proposed by Deputy Jim OCallaghan and accepted by Government, will establish the Parole Board as an independent statutory body. Establishing the Parole Board as a statutory body has been a policy objective for some time and was recommended by the Penal Policy Review Group, the Law Reform Commission and the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality.

The Bill will give the independent Board responsibility for granting parole to eligible prisoners and it sets out the criteria to be considered in doing so  criteria which include risk to public safety and the extent to which release will facilitate the prisoners reintegration into society.

"The Bill also sets out the terms for eligibility for consideration for parole, including a proposal to raise it for life sentence prisoners, to a minimum of 12 years served. This is a significant change from the existing administrative system, which considers life sentences for the first time after seven years, he said.

The Parole Board was established on an administrative basis, to replace the Sentence Review Group, in April 2001. It is an independent non-statutory body and it was established by the Government to advise the Minister for Justice and Equality on the management of people serving long-term prison sentences.

As things stand, the Board may review the cases of prisoners sentenced to determinate sentences of more than 8 years but less than 14 years when the prisoner has served half of the sentence. The cases of prisoners sentenced to 14 years or more, or life sentences, are reviewed after 7 years have been served. Prisoners serving sentences for certain offences, such as the murder of a member of the Garda Siochana or the Prison Service in the course of their duty, are excluded from the process.

The Board, by way of recommendation, advises the Minister for Justice and Equality of the prisoner's progress to date, the degree to which the prisoner has engaged with the various therapeutic services and how best to proceed with the future administration of the sentence. The Minister then considers in full all recommendations put before him before making the final decision regarding sentence management.

In terms of the board make-up, individuals are appointed by the Minister. There are currently fourteen members, who are all there on foot of their experience, skills and formal qualifications for the role.The Pieta House annual fundraiser, Darkness Into Light 5km walk/run, will take place in Mountmellick and Rathdowney in the early hours of this Saturday morning, May 12.

The Mountmellick walk begins at Mountmellick GAA pitch in Acragar at 4.15am sharp. Event organiser, Susan Nelson, offered some advice to over 1,300 registered participants.

"There are two car parks, one is at the boy's primary school on Davitt Road and the second is Supervalu. There is no parking at the GAA grounds for health and safety reasons.

"We are asking people to give plenty of time to park up and walk to the GAA pitch for the starting line, people should aim to park up between half three and quarter to four in the morning, the walk starts at exactly 4.15am," she said.

Susan also advised that people carpool to ease the burden of parking. If people are travelling from other towns they should try to share lifts.

All registration for the event was online this year. No registration will be accepted on the morning of the event and no t-shirts will be available on the morning. Anyone who still wants to go along and donate on the morning will not be turned away but won't be counted in the official register.

Tea, coffee, water and soup will be served at the GAA grounds to everyone as they complete the 5km walk/run at their own pace.

Two students from Mountmellick Community School, Leah Tarpey and Mia Ledesmo, will be welcoming people back to the finish line with music and songs.

While 1,300 people have officially registered for the Mountmellick walk through the online system, organisers expect the total number taking part to be much higher.

This is Mountmellicks 7th year holding the event and to date the town has raised over 125,000 from the previous 6 years. In 2017, the Mountmellick walk raised 33,000 which went directly to Pieta House.

In the past six years, Pieta House has supported 257 clients from Laois and provided them with the services they needed, all free of charge.

A second official Darkness Into Light walk takes place in Rathdowney at 4.15am on Saturday, May 12. Last year the Rathdowney walk raised almost 9,000 for Pieta House.

The walk starts from the Parochial Hall, goes up Main Street, out the Errill Road, turn right for Belady, turn right again at next junction, past the Glebe and back into the Square again.

Again, registration was to be completed online ahead of the event.

Rathdowney Darkness Into Light committee, Aidan Madden, Rachael Hickey and Barbara Geoghegan presented 8,894 to Pieta House after the 2017 walk.

Pick up a copy of next Tuesday's Leinster Express to see pictures from the walks at the weekend.A 26-year-old man has been charged in conncection with an incident where he threatened his own father while armed with a knife.

At last week's Portlaoise District Court, Colin Burke (26), previously of Clondalkin, Dublin, but now residing in Graiguecullen on the Laois Carlow border, was charged with production of an article during a dispute, and assault.

Sgt JJ Kirby gave evidence that the gardai responded to a call on November 21, 2017, at 1.45pm at Hillview, Portarlington, where they met with the injured party, the accuseds father.

The injured party told gardai that his son had come into the house without permission, wielding a knife and threatening to wreck the house.

The accused had three previous convictions.

Defence, Mr Philip Meagher said this father and son incident had been a sad incident.

Mr Meagher said that the accused was originally from Dublin but his mother died tragically from cancer in 2014 and then his sister passed away from the same condition a year later, leading to things becoming chaotic within the family and their house was taken by the bank.

His father then moved to Laois with a new partner and the accused was left homeless, and the accused begged his father to let him stay so he could get social welfare but his father and partner refused.

Matters flared up, said defence, but there have been no difficulties since and the accused is now living in his own house in Graiguecullen.

Hes had a lot of difficulties in life, but hes turned a corner and hasnt come to adverse attention since, said Mr Meagher.

Judge Fiona Lydon asked was there a victim impact statement in the case, to which Sgt Kirby replied that the victim had not been canvassed for one.

Saying the victim has to be canvassed, Judge Kydon put the matter back to June 7 next, for a victim impact statement.Laois has a brand new Rose, in the form of 23 year old Grainne Hogan, a farmer who showed how to milk a wooden cow on stage at the Midlands Park Hotel.

It was the hottest ticket in town on the hottest day of the year, and Laois Rose 2018 proved a wonderful night, with Grainne just one of 17 talented, smart young women who bravely took to the stage on Sunday May 6.

As Mountmellick entrant, model Samantha Keenan put it, every girl should have a chance to shine in her own spotlight, and they truly did.

The hugely entertaining MC DJ Ollie Turner gamely agreed to a legwax onstage by beautician and mum Samantha Delaney, while Grainne hilariously taught him how to milk a cow.

Some chose to perform, to great reception. Jennifer Connaughton played a stunning Celtic Hymn on the tin whistle, Ciara Dunne sang Elton John's 'Your Song' in Irish with her guitar, and Naomi Griffith donned hard shoes for an Irish dance.

Among the ladies, beautician Bronwyn Dunne told how her family always loved to see her uncle play trombone in the Garda Band for the Rose of Tralee on TV.

Hairdresser Leanne Dowling's TV taste was more for Puppy Dog Pals, with three little daughters, two as Rosebuds on the night, a package deal she said.

Clara Bambrick was supported by her family including dad Brian who at 40 she said was still playing in the junior and first teams for Arles Killeen.

Sporty Aava Hearns is a student teacher in Mary I in Limerick, where the girls outnumber boys seven to one, "the lecturers adore them" she said.

Teacher Sharon Byrne told how she climbed 5,300 meters to Everest base camp, and was looking forward to seeing Ed Sheeran in the Phoenix Park once summer exams were done.

Liz O'Rourke with 26 tattoos explained how her work with Youthwork Ireland Laois, helps teens gain in confidence through arts.

Saoirse Territt was just back from working in Malaysia, as a break from her tough career as a social care worker. Also a social care worker, Aisling O'Sullivan has a passion for the environment and urged people to use less plastic because it is killing sea creatures.

Childcare student Niamh Clancy has performed Irish dancing in Disneyland Paris as well as hip-hop in shows, while model and make-up artist Joy Turley was stunning in her sister's bridesmaid dress.

Nicole Brady told how she loves acting with Clodiagh Players, and how she visited Auschwitz with boyfriend Devon, where she said "you can just sence the horrific events that went on. "A proper romantic getaway," the MC Ollie quipped.

After an interval song by 13 year old Abbie Fagan from Offaly, it was time to pick a winner, judged by Shauna Coyne, Patrick Browne and Sinead Cronly.

To a shower of ticker tape and of course the tune of 'The Rose of Tralee', the fair Grainne accepted her sash from outgoing Laois Rose Maeve Dunne.

Thing will be different at the mart on Tuesday, Ollie told her.

I think I'm going to be really popular, joked Grainne, thanking her mother Anne for everything she's done for me, and her sponsor Sheeran's Pub.

Best Banner was awarded to Grainne's own supporters, Camross Macra.

Barrowhouse GAA as Grainne's chosen club was awarded the raffle proceeds.

The 2017 Laois Rose Maeve Dunne looked beautiful in pink as she thanked her parents and all who supported her throughout her year, a dream come true.

Cathaoirleach of Laois County Council, Cllr Padraig Fleming declared them all winners.

Laois Rose Co-Ordinator Lyn Moloney thanked them for taking part, as well as their sponsors, and the little Rosebuds, former Laois Roses and guest Roses who all helped to make it a night to remember.

See more on the Laois Rose 2018 here.Fianna Fail leader, Micheal Martin said that the "lack of any certainty or decision on Portlaoise hospital is creating an aura of uncertainty around it."

Deputy Martin was speaking on Thursday morning, during a visit to Portlaoise and a press briefing in the Midlands Park Hotel.

"I met a delegation from the local hospital action committee last December. At that stage the Minister for Health had indicated that there would be early consultation with local GPs and other stake holders. I'm amazed that very little, if anything, has happened since then. The Report is still on the Minister's desk.



"You need certainty in terms of the hospital's future. Lack of it leads to a lack of confidence. I would be saying to the Minister that with the crisis in A & Es across the country, and too many people waiting on trollies, that we can't figure how he would close another A & E, particularly given the population growth of Portlaoise itself, and its wider hinterland.

"The demographic realities are that Portlaoise and Laois will continue to grow exponentially. Dublin is not affordable. anymore. A lot more people will continue to come to the midlands."

Deputy Martin said he hoped there would not be a general election this year. "The third budget will be difficult and we will be looking for more transparency on the health budget. It will be hard negotiated. We will have the Finance Bill and Social Welfare Bill. There is a review clause and we will look at it then. We are unhappy with the situations in housing and health."

Fianna Fail will be seeking three seats in Laois-Offaly. As regards the third candidate, he said that it was a matter for the party's constituency committee. "Sean Fleming and Barry Cowen have high profiles and we will be looking to them to deliver a third seat."

Deputy Martin said that the IDA would have to re-prioritise the regions for development. "The IDA visited four times in 2017 which tells me that there is no plan for Laois and the county has not been marketed.

"The county's location is very good. Dublin is congested and there is a need to re-balance economic development. It's far better value all round to get development here. The IDA have to prioritise the regions."A Laois primary care health centre has been sold to a British property company, which is rapidly expanding into Ireland to buy up healthcare properties.

Primary Health Properties PLC has purchased Mountmellick Primary Care Centre in 5.8 million deal. The centre was built in 2010 by BPI Investments, owned by Laois brother Joe and Vinnie Byrne, along with a shopping plaza that includes SuperValu, a pharmacy and several shops.

The company is listed on the FTSE stock exchange, and owns over a 1 billion pounds worth of properties.

Two thirds of the health centre is reported to be rented by the HSE, for another 18.5 year term. Glenard Clinic doctors surgery also rents at the centre.

It is the fourth Irish healthcare property bought by Primary Health, who see significant potential in Ireland because they expect future modernisation of healthcare services here.

The company's health properties managing director is Harry Hyman.

Mountmellick is a well-placed modern primary care centre providing local integrated care via the HSE, GPs and pharmacy. The majority of the income is secured against a government backed tenant with a long unexpired term and is therefore substantially in line with our target acquisition profile.

We have a strong pipeline of acquisitions in the UK and Ireland and are well positioned to continue growing the portfolio in both jurisdictions, he said.

The Centre offers a range of services such as GP services, physiotherapy, community nursing, dental, addiction and community welfare.

The Mountmellick acquisition is the companys fourth in Ireland, and its Irish property portfolio is reported to be now worth more than 40 million. In full it owns 308 assets, with a gross value of almost 1.4bn and a contracted rent roll of 73.5mln.

The company raised 115 million through a share sale in April to expand.Some eight years after the HSE tried to close Abbeyleix Hospital, a 'positive start' has been reported to a new process that involves health managment aimed developing the Laois facilitiy.

Dr John Madden is an Abbeyleix GP and medical director of the Community Nursing Unit. He was also to the fore in fighting the closure in 2011. He was among those who met with the HSE on May 4.

"We had a very good meeting with representatives from the various HSE Departments who were enthusiastic and committed to the further development of the Community Nursing Unit in Abbeyleix. The Friends of the Hospital and also the Hospital Action Committee were also represented. A plan of campaign has been drawn up and further meetings are planned," said Dr Madden.

He added that various subcommittees were established to look at particular issues and these will meet separately before a plenary session again end June.

"All in all very positive. Still a long road ahead but it appears to be a good start," said Dr Madden.

The HSE also commented on the meeting.

"The Project Development team has had one meeting to date where a number of actions were agreed upon for the next scheduled meeting on 29th June 2018 including the requirement for a population needs assessment and the involvement of stakeholders to participate in sub-group work



"The sub-groups are currently in the process of being established to progress with discussions which will inform the actions," said a statement.

The HSE declined to Leinster Express request for an interview with managment involved to discuss the process and long term role for the unit.

"As there has been only an initial meeting of this group the HSE is not in a position to provide any further information at this time," said a spokersperson.

Thousands of people marched to protest closure at two big demonstrations in 2011. A number of elderly patients also brought the HSE to the High Court to halt closure. A High Court judge ruled that the HSE must carry out consultantion before closure.

This resulted in a campaigners for the hospital drawing up detailed expansion plans for the facilitiy.

The HSE refused all referrals from hospitals between 2011 and 2018. Referrals resumed because of the trolley crisis. It also brought an end to long stay patients being admitted to the hospital. In 2011 there were 50 long stay elderly residents - now there are just two. The hospital also caters for 16 respite patients. The approved HIQA capacity is 20 patients.Plans have been proposed to transform Fitzmaurice Place in Portlaoise from a generally unused area to a green public park with a public viewing tower inside the Old Fort.

The redevelopment will aim to shine a light on the history attached to the Old Fort Protector wall at Fitzmaurice Place.

Within the plans for the redevelopment of Fitzmaurice Place, Portlaoise, there is an Architectural Heritage Assessment for Proposed Fort Protector Enhancement Scheme Portlaoise, carried out by Lotts Architecture and Urbanism Ltd.

The plans to transform Fitzmaurice Place include the creation of a public park with layered lawns, trees, new footpaths, rearranged parking and new street lights and a timber staircase for public viewing inside the Old Fort.

The detailed plan published on the Laois County Council website outlines the enhancements for the Fort Protector wall which was built during the 1540s and has over 400 years of history attached to it.

Current aerial view of the Old Fort. Bing maps 2018.

The first phase of work involves the redevelopment of Fitzmaurice Place as a public park, demolition of a flat-roofed concrete structure within the north eastern corner of the Fort and construction of a timber viewing platform in the round tower of the Fort. Grounds will also be resurfaced in the area.

Fitting a new gate in the existing opening in the Fort wall on Tower Hill side and new parking spaces and public lighting along by Tower Hill are also in the first phase of the development.

Phase two will involve the removal of telegraph poles and overhead wires on Tower Hill and Railway Street and replacement with new lamp standards.

Repaving of Tower Hill and Railway Street will also be carried out as well as repairs on the fabric of the Fort walls under a Section 57 Declaration.

See a picture of the planned future look of Fitzmaurice Place below.

In the 1990s Fitzmaurice Place was developed as a paved open space with a performance space, stepped seating, a long linear planter and an arrangement of round planters (below).

Fitzmaurice Place, warehouse, round corner tower, performance area and seating. Picture Lotts Architecture and Urbanism Ltd.

According to the Architectural Heritage Assessment: The space has not proven successful. It is too large for its intended use, being at the edge of the town centre, and the profile of the site as two large expanses linked by curving steps obscures the view of the Fort Protector when approached from the Ridge Road.

It is therefore proposed to reconfigure the space as a public park aiming to increase its amenity value from a place to pass through to a constantly used public space. The park would consist of four equal tiers stepping up to the Fort wall.

The long planter and stepped seating, which obscure the Fort wall from view, would be removed.

The top tier would be a long green space extending the full length of the Fort wall, to demarcate the position of the ditch defences.

The remainder of the site would comprise of three further tiers, with a small performance space on the middle tier, and stone sculptures relocated from James Fintan Lalor Avenue.

Parking spaces at Church Avenue would be relocated away from the Fort Wall to Tower Hill and an area at the bottom tier of the park. The total number of spaces would remain as existing. Street lighting to Church Avenue and would be renewed.

The Fitzmaurice Monument is proposed to be moved to the bottom tier. This will give it greater prominence from Tower Hill and would give focus to the lower part of the park as a balance to the Fort.

In the plan it is proposed to build a circular timber viewing platform that would sit within the round bastion of the Fort Protector as a public viewing position inside the Fort.

This would allow the public to gain a better appreciation of the Fort.

The columns supporting the platform would stand on concrete footings which would be constructed above the existing historic formation level to avoid loss of archaeological material.

In the planning document the Argument for Enhancement of the Public Space outlines the reasons for the development.

A well conserved and appropriately presented Fort Protector would be a unique heritage site. Few towns in Ireland have a history so closely bound up with the Tudor conquest of this country. Currently there is only limited awareness, at national or even local level, that the name Port Laoise refers to a physical structure, and the central role of the town in the Laois-Offaly plantation is not properly appreciated. The development of Fort Protector and its surroundings as a heritage site would create a direct link to that history. Enhancement of Fitzmaurice Place, Tower Hill and Railway Street would be the first step in placing a new focus on the Fort Protector. It can fundamentally change the standing of the Fort within the town, and as a consequence can improve the perception of Portlaoise as a historic place.

This project received funding under the Historic Towns Initiative 2018 which is a partnership between the Heritage Council and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

It is understood this project has received 160,000 through the Historic Towns Initiative and may receive additional funding from Laois County Council.

The Fort Protector marks the establishment of the town of Portlaoise. Building of the Fort Protector commenced in 1547-48 as part of the suppression of the Gaelic Irish territories of the OMore and OConnor clans.

The plantation of Laois and Offaly followed shortly afterwards, and was formalised in the creation of Kings County and Queens County in 1556. Over the years the walls have played different roles and will now become the focal point of this new recreational area in the town.

Plans and particulars of the proposed development are available for inspection during office hours from Tuesday 24th April 2018 to Thursday 7th June 2018 inclusive (excluding Bank and Public Holidays) at Laois County Council, Aras an Chontae, Portlaoise or online at Fort Protector & Fitzmaurice Place Project.

Submissions or observations with respect to the proposed development dealing with the proper planning and development of the area in which the development will be carried out may be made in writing to Kieran Kehoe, Director of Services, Laois County Council, Aras an Chontae, Portlaoise to be received no later than 4.00pm on 21st June 2018.

Submissions should be clearly marked Fitzmaurice Place Public Realm Part VIII.

Kieran Kehoe, Director of Services, Roads, Planning, Economic Development & Emergency Services Tel: 057 8664000, www.laois.ie

The Old Fort Quarter festival was built around the history and heritage Portlaoise.Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.

Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.

If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter .

Support our mission and join our community now.The investigation into irregularities in the Kildare and Wicklow Enterprise Training Board 2015 accounts have been sent to the Gardai by the Department of Education and Science.

Thats according to the current chairman of the KWETB Noel Merrick, who revealed at a meeting of the education body on Tuesday last, May 8, that he and the acting chief executive attended a meeting at the Department last week and were told that while elements of the report had been referred to Gardai in the past, now the entire report has been sent to them.

The report was commissioned by the Minister of Education after the Comptroller and Auditor General raised what were described as serious concerns about discrepancies it believed it had discovered in the 2015 reports. The investigation was established, the Department of Education said, into the performance by Kildare and Wicklow ETB of its functions particularly in relation to public procurement, usage and disposal of assets and propriety matters".

Dr Richard Thorn, a former director of Sligo IT, was commissioned to investigate the issue and his report has been with the Minister since January of this year.

At the meeting on Tuesday, KWETB members expressed frustration that Dr Thorns report remains unpublished and therefore confidential and that an action plan they devised in reaction to his report cannot be fully implemented as a result.

Acting chief executive Rory OToole assured the members that large parts of the action plan have been implemented.

Cllr Teresa Murray expressed fears that were approaching the silly season and recess. Its been sitting with the Minister for so long.

Its unfair of the minister to withhold the report, Cllr Naoise OCearuil said. He proposed that the board write to the Minister urging him to publish the report. His proposal was adopted

Read more: Elements of Kildare and Wicklow Education Training Board report referred to Gardai

Read more: BREAKING: Special investigation launched into Kildare and Wicklow ETBA Dublin man has been jailed for 11 months for threatening and attempting to rob a taxi driver.

Johnathan Coleman (35) with an address listed as 26 Ballygall Parade, Finglas, Dublin 11 appeared before Naas District Court today, May 10, charged with attempting to rob a quantity of cash from a person.

The court heard evidence how a taxi driver had collected Mr. Coleman on July 27 2015. Mr. Coleman asked him to drive down a lane at Butterstream, Clane.

Mr. Coleman then threatened the taxi driver, saying Im going to stick this in you.

The taxi driver said he did not see any weapon, but was led to believe Mr. Coleman was in possession of one.

Evidence was heard that 10 was taken but Sarah Connolly, BL representing the defendant said that that was Mr. Colemans own 10.

The taxi driver subsequently fled the scene.The court was told Mr. Coleman was holding a can of Lynx spray in the car.

The defendant was later found and arrested on Main Street, Clane. He gave full admissions and was fully cooperative with the gardai.

Sarah Connolly, BL, told Judge Desmond Zaidan that her client is currently in a stable relationship, and expecting twins with his partner.

She added that he is self-employed and doing well for himself.

The court heard how Mr. Coleman has received residential treatment for drug addiction, and says he is now completely drug free.

It doesnt excuse his behaviour but explains the depths of despair and the addiction that grasped him, Ms Connolly told the Judge.

She said Mr. Coleman wrote letters to the injured party and the garda on duty that night.

She added that a custodial sentence would set him back and hit the reset buttons, after the genuine changes hes made to his life.

Judge Zaidan said the particular offence is serious, and sentenced him to 11 months in custody.LifeStyle

The best Lifestyle shows are right here, from Australia and around the world. Catch up with the experts on home design and interiors, food and cooking, the property market, and get fresh ideas with the savviest of renovators. Whether you need inspiration for cooking up a storm, to refresh a tired room, or tips to sell your property, Foxtel Lifestyle will always something new for you to watch. Enjoy your favourite experts like Andrew Winter and Neale Whitaker, or Shaynna Blaze and Jamie Oliver live or On Demand.We're sorry that the ministry you were looking for is no longer available on LightSource.com. However, below are some great ministries that offer related content. Enjoy the inspiration, encouragement, and Biblical challenge from these LightSource.com ministry partners!A chronic drug user who violently robbed an elderly man who was walking as part of his exercise regime following heart surgery, has lost an appeal against her sentence.

Rebecca McNamara, aged 22, who has an address at Castlerock, Castleconnell pleaded guilty, last year, to robbing the man of 200 and a Nokia mobile phone at Davis Street, Limerick on May 14, 2016.

Aged in his early 60s and described in court as an easy target, the victim had just undergone heart surgery and in order to rehabilitate himself and to prepare for further surgery. His doctors had told him to walk two miles a day.

McNamara was sentenced at Limerick Circuit Criminal Court to five years imprisonment with the final year suspended.

She lost an appeal against her sentence this Thursday with the Court of Appeal holding that the sentencing judge was correct in choosing a headline sentence in the range of five to seven years.

Giving judgment, Mr Justice John Hedigan, said the the victim, while walking towards Davis Street on the day in question, noticed a man and young woman, McNamara, standing near him.

He was followed down a laneway and struck to the back of the head. He fell to the ground and a struggle ensued between himself and McNamara. He was kicked on the ground by her co-accused.

The two could be seen making their escape while an ambulance was called by men who had been drinking in a nearby pub.

McNamara had 29 previous convictions including 22 for theft.

She was known to gardai as a chronic drug user and was subject to a suspended sentence at the time this offence was committed.

It was said that McNamara was traumatised aged 14 when she witnessed a horrific accident of a man falling from a burning building before impaling himself on railings. It was around this time that she started using drugs.

Mr Justice Hedigan said it was a violent assault on a very vulnerable man recovering from heart surgery. His phone and wallet were stolen in a despicable attack in which he was struck to the back of the head and kicked on the ground.

The sentencing judge had described the victim as an easy target.

Mr Justice Hedigan said the sentencing judge arrived at a sentence with which the Court of Appeal could readily agree. He said a sentence of between five and seven years was within the Circuit Court judges range.

He said the court could find no problem in the sentencing judges approach and could identify no error in principle.

Mr Justice Hedigan, who sat with Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr Justice Alan Mahon, said the appeal was therefore dismissed.A BUSINESS card and a vibrating mobile phone resulted in a motorist being prosecuted after he was stopped by a member of the divisional Roads Policing Unit in Limerick.

Patrick Martin OBrien who has an address at Ardshanavooly, Killarney, County Kerry, was before Limerick District Court in relation to an incident at Dublin Road, Limerick on August 2, last.

During a contested hearing, Garda Brian ODwyer of the roads policing unit said he was travelling on his garda motorbike when he observed the defendant holding a phone while driving.

I was on my bike, I observed him with two hands on a phone and not on the wheel, he said, adding that he was 100% certain.

Garda ODywer said having stopped the vehicle shortly before 5pm, Mr OBrien swore he had no phone on him as he had left it with his wife.

The garda told the court he noticed a businesses card while talking to the defendant and that he rang the number on the card.

I called the number and I could hear a phone vibrating in his pocket, he said adding that Mr OBrien removed the phone from his pocket a few seconds later.

Judge Marie Keane was told that having retrieved the small phone Mr OBrien stated it was a business phone and was not his personal phone.

Being cross-examined by solicitor Darach McCarthy, Garda ODwyer confirmed he picked up the business card from the dash before dialling the number.

He agreed he did not ask the defendant beforehand adding that he returned the business card to the car once he had dialled the number.

When asked what lawful authority he had to remove the business card, the witness said: It was there, I picked it up to read the number.

In his evidence the defendant told the court he has a habit of holding the steering wheel with his two hands and he insisted he was not holding a mobile phone when he encountered Garda ODwyer.

I was not holding a phone, I told him I wasnt. I had a business phone in my pocket, he said.

Mr OBrien told the court he cannot read or write and that he was not texting as had been suggested to him by Garda ODwyer at the roadside.

The defendant also confirmed that he did not give the gardai permission to take the business card from the dash of his car after he was stopped.

Sergeant Donal Cronin put it to the witness that the issue of texting was a red herring and that he did have a phone in his hand.

No, replied Mr OBrien.

The garda had no other reason to stop you, said Sgt Cronin.

I genuinely hadnt a phone in my hand, I had a small phone in my pocket  not in my hand, insisted the defendant as the exchange continued.

In his closing sumbission, Mr McCarthy said Garda ODwyer was mistaken in his initial observation and he submitted that he did not have any lawful authority to remove the business card from his clients car.

Convicting the defendant, Judge Keane commented Garda ODwyer is an experienced member of the traffic corps and that she was satisfied as to his observations.

She imposed a 250 fine.

Recognisance were fixed in the event of an appeal.BUS Eireann has announced a campaign to recruit almost 200 new staff for roles across the country, with some to be based in Limerick and West Clare.

The company said it includes 190 new driver positions and additional mechanic jobs, to service the ongoing expansion of the national network.

These roles will be required in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Mayo, Waterford, Wicklow, Navan, Drogheda, Limerick and West Clare, Bus Eireann said.

A spokesperson for Bus Eireann said there would be "24 jobs for Limerick and West Clare due to the expansion of existing city services and on the 343 Shannon Airport and 350 Cliffs/Wild Atlantic Way route".

Suitable candidates are being sought across Ireland and abroad, it said.

The new staff positions are required for an expansion and enhancement of services on a number of Bus Eireann routes nationwide under contract to the National Transport Authority (NTA), and some additional enhancement of services on Expressway routes.

These service enhancements are planned for regional city networks, town services and several Expressway intercity routes.

This service expansion will be introduced over the next four to six months.

Bus Eireann CEO Ray Hernan said he was delighted to announce such a significant number of new roles.

After a challenging few years at the company, it is great to move into a new growth phase. The majority of this service expansion will be delivered on behalf of the NTA for Public Service Obligation routes - and when introduced, will greatly benefit our customers and should incentivise more people to make the switch to public transport, he said.

Much change and progress has been delivered across Bus Eireann and Expressway, since the acceptance of a new Labour Court Agreement by staff last year. We are continuing to transform our business to deliver an enhanced experience for our customers.

National Transport Authority CEO Ann Graham said: Bus Eireanns recruitment campaign is very welcome and the NTA looks forward to working with the company to improve and increase services for customers around the country.

For more information see www.buseireann.ie/jobvacancies.RIDE-sharing company Uber has confirmed it is to expand its operation in Limerick, in a move which sources say could bring 150 new jobs, the Limerick Leader can reveal.

The online on-demand car service is understood to be taking extra space in the Thomas Street centre it moved into back in 2015.

The firm currently has around 400 people on its books at Limericks centre of excellence, which came as part of a 4m investment here.

Now, in a statement released to the Limerick Leader, Kieran Harte, the firms manager in Ireland, has confirmed more growth is on the way at what was Ubers first centre outside of the United States.

The centre of excellence is a vital part of our business providing world class support for everyone who uses the Uber app. As our business has grown, so has the need for additional support, so were delighted to be expanding further in Limerick, Mr Harte said.

Uber is a technology platform which allows drivers to offer journeys in their cars using a smartphone app.

Although its already in use in 329 cities across 59 countries, its progress in bringing the service to these shores has stalled due to issues with the taxi regulator.

Over in London, the mayor of Britains capital has sought to outlaw the use of the service there, something the company is currently challenging.

In Limerick, Uber employs customer service staff for its markets in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

There are also roles in management and process engineering at the multi-storey building at the junction of Catherine Street and Thomas Street.

When the firm initially announced plans to open here in the summer of 2015, it projected recruitment of 300 staff.

Then Finance Minister Michael Noonan announced later the company had decided to up that to 400. Now, it seems upwards of 650 employees are likely to be working at the site in Limerick city in due course.WHEN Christopher William Bunting was born on 11 September 1837 in Amigan, Croagh, his parents William Bunting and Jane Crowe, could not have imagined where his future lay.

In the 1850s, following the death of his father Christopher, his mother Jane and younger sister Wilhelmina boarded the Jessie at Limerick Docks and set sail for a new life in Canada.

The Jessie was owned by Francis Spaight and would travel frequently between Limerick and Canada transporting passengers to new lives across the ocean and goods such as lumber and flour back to Ireland.

The Bunting family quickly settled in Toronto where Christopher continued his schooling at St James parish school. He soon moved into an apprenticeship at the Globe, where at the age of fourteen his first steps into journalism was as a compositor. While there, he rose to the rank of supervisor and contributed some local journalism to the paper.

After leaving the Globe in 1866, he worked for several years in wholesale grocery.

In 1868, he married twenty-four year old Mary Elizabeth Ellis, a native of England. They had five sons and a daughter. In 1873, he moved to Clifton (Niagara Falls). It was here that Bunting specialised in importing sugar with his then business partner of Henry W. Bailey.

In 1877, he once again returned to the world of publishing. That year he entered into partnership with John Riordon and became co-owner of the Toronto Mail. Though Bunting wrote editorials infrequently, he always maintained a close supervision over the news and editorial departments.

While growing his newspaper empire Bunting also entered politics and in 1878, he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as a Member of the Conservatives. He was one of the Prime Minister John A. Macdonalds important advisers. His widow mother and unmarried sister were living with him until at least 1881.

He was defeated in the 1882 election after the Liberals were returned to power. Bunting attempted to lure members from the Liberal caucus. He was implicated in a plot of bribery in 1884. He left the country in May for two months to avoid testifying before a judicial inquiry.

In criminal proceedings, which concluded in April 1885, Bunting and his co-conspirators were found not guilty.

From 1887 onward The Mail, which had previously vocally supported the Conservative party distanced itself from political ties to the party. It began to make calls to resist French and Catholic influence in the country. It also added support for commercial union with the United States and endorsed prohibition of alcohol.

By the federal election of March 1891, the opportunities to effect an electoral revolution in Canadian politics along the lines of Anglo-Protestant ascendancy had slipped away.

That autumn Bunting initiated negotiations to reach an accommodation with the Conservative government in Ottawa and these were renewed in 1893. They culminated in another business triumph for Bunting. On 7 February 1895, he secured the purchase of the Empire, possibly for as little as $30,000.

Retaining control of the renamed Daily Mail and Empire, Riordon and Bunting rationalized the morning market for newspapers in Toronto and formed a new, official Conservative journal in a single stroke.

By the end of 1895, after the major coop of his career Bunting began to fall ill. He died at his Queens Park residence in Toronto of Brights disease at the age of 58 and died on the 14 January 1896. Christophers sister Wilhelmina outlived him by just over a month, passing away on February 28, 1895 of pneumonia.

It would take six months before the news of his death was reported in the local press in Limerick. Even then, it was by way of a letter to the Limerick Chronicle from China.

To the Editor if the Limerick Chronicle. Canton, China, June 15th, 1896.

"Sir  I frequently see in your paper notices of Limerick men who have been successful abroad. The following is from the Toronto Mail and Empire, a paper that claims for itself a position and influence second to none on the great American Continent:- The death of Mr Chris Wm Bunting on January 14th of the present year, caused a feeling of intense sorrow throughout the entire community, in which he had been for so many years recognised as one of the foremost business man and most honourable citizens.

"His commanding abilities, not less than his uniform courtesy and kindness to all with whom he came in contact had earned for him a royal portion of friendship and affection. During a long and arduous career he has been enabled to make for himself a name for integrity, honour, and liberality, which will long live in the hearts of not only those related to him by blood, but of all who possessed the privilege of an acquaintance with him.

"The story of his life is the story of a man, who was built not to follow, but to lead, and to follow whom was a pride to those who worked under him. Mr C. W. Bunting understood the business of a journalist in a most complete manner. He had learned the practical part of the printing business as a boy, and possessed a varied and extensive experience of commercial life.

"On taking hold of the Mail in 1877, Mr Bunting gathered around him a staff, the members of which were as devoted to him as they were to the interests of the paper. Entering the Parliament of the Dominion in 1878, he displayed political ability, and added to his large store of political knowledge.

"He was a very able speaker, possessing an easy flow of language, a fine voice, and a magnificent presence. He took a deep interest in educational movements, he was widely read, a lifelong student of literature, and knew his Shakespeare as few knew it. His literary Judgement was of a high character. As a respected member of the Masonic Order, his memory will long be cherished, while his interest in civic affairs displayed intense loyalty to honest government, and a desire to see Toronto take a foremost position among Canadian cities. Mr Bunting left Limerick in the early fifties with his mother and sister, in the good ship Jessy, of Limerick, Captain Dan Gorman. They had very little money and only such friends as they made for themselves.

"He had only a small amount of education, yet by perseverance he educated himself, made friends, and was honoured by his fellow citizens.

"He had many relatives in Limerick, but I do not think he was known to the present generation. The writer saw him off on his voyage, and has never seen or heard from him since, but although long absent from Limerick he loves the good old city, and is proud to hear of a friend and relative being so successful in a far country.

"Yours truly, Stephen Wm Goggin. Master S.S. Honam.

As for the author of this letter, Stephen William Goggin, he passed away in Hong Kong on July 23, 1900 at the age of fifty-seven.Postal Service lays claim to U.S. airline foundations at stamp first day

May 10, 2018, 4 AM

Authors Kellen Diamanti and Deborah Fisher talking about their new book Stamp of the Century at the National Postal Museum.

The unveiling of the blue United States Airmail commemorative forever stamp May 1 at the Smithsonians National Postal Museum. Photographs by Jay Bigalke.

Washington Postal Scene  By Bill McAllister

The United States Postal Service used a first-day ceremony saluting the 100th anniversary of U.S. airmail service to remind the nation that its first, daring mail pilots laid the foundations for commercial aviation in America.

Some pilots were goofy, some serious, but all understood the bargain they had made, risking their lives to get the mail through, postal historian Nancy A. Pope told an audience that filled the atrium of the Smithsonians National Postal Museum on May 1.

More than 230 pilots carried the mail in tiny single-engine planes, and 32 of them were killed in the process, Pope said.

Standing under one of the planes the first postal pilots flew, Pope said those men were a hit with the public.

The astronauts of their age, they braved storms and equipment failure, she said.

Susan Brownell, a Postal Service vice president, called the blue United States Airmail forever stamp featuring an image of the Curtis JN-4H, or Jenny, a beautiful reminder of the imprint of United States Air Mail on todays world.

A second stamp bearing the same image but printed in red will be issued Aug. 11 at College Park, Md., to mark the 100th anniversary of when the U.S. Post Office Department took charge of the flights from the Army.

The Wright Brothers opened this countrys eyes to what could be possible, Brownell said.

Fifteen years later, with the first airmail flights, the Post Office helped turn that possibility into reality.

The first postal pilots were Army officers.

They flew by day because there were no airfield beacons or land lights at the time, Pope, the head curator at the postal museum, recalled.

They navigated by rivers and railroads, and when they crashed they often laughed off the disaster.

After plowing into a tree, pilot Sam Eaton declared in a report he had delivered his mail to a branch post office, Pope said.

Dean Smith, another pilot, reported his plane crashed into a pasture.

Only place to land on cow. Killed cow. Wrecked airplane. Scared me, he wrote.

Army Lt. George Boyle had one of the most infamous flights.

He was selected to make the premier mail flight from Washington to Philadelphia on May 15, 1918.

Sent into the skies by a delegation headed by President Woodrow Wilson, Boyle mistakenly flew southeast, crashing in Waldorf, Md.

His airmail letters were placed on a truck and then a train.

Three other pilots made their initial flights that day without mishap that day.

Two days later the Post Office Department gave Boyle a second chance. Despite another plane to guide him to Philadelphia, Boyle flew to the Chesapeake Bay and then went south, landing at Cape Charles, Va.

Pope quoted an Army officer saying that the only thing that stopped Boyle from flying further was the Atlantic Ocean.

The entire Army mail operation lasted three months, and then the Post Office Department took charge of the airmail service. The department began turning the routes and operations over to private contractors in 1925.

While it no longer operated the service, the Post Office supported the fledgling companies with mail contracts, helping to create the nations commercial aviation system, Pope said.

The first-day ceremony also marked the opening of a new exhibit at the museum, Postmen of the Skies that features stories about early mail pilots and their exploits.

The exhibit will be open through May 27, 2019. The National Postal Museum (2 Massachusetts Ave. N.E.) is open daily, except for Christmas. There are no admission fees.

Authors Kellen Diamanti and Deborah Fisher spoke about their new book Stamp of the Century at a reception following the first-day event.

The book, published by the American Philatelic Society, recalls stories about the many owners of the infamous 1918 24 Inverted Jenny airmail error stamp (Scott C3a).

Connect with Linns Stamp News:

Sign up for our newsletter

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Its a look at American history though the lends of these stamps, Fisher said at a reception at the museum.

We wrote a four-year book in three years, said Diamanti.

Asked by museum director Elliot Gruber what surprised them in their research, Diamanti answered it was learning what a mess the governments pre-World War I aviation programs were.

It was an amazing boondoggle, she said.May 10, 2018, 10 AM

A United States forever stamp honoring first responders will be issued in 2018. The figures in the design represent a firefighter, an EMS worker and a law enforcement officer.

Three new United States stamps will be issued June 27 featuring the statue of Freedom from the U.S. Capitol Dome. The intaglio-printed stamps are denominated $1, $2 and $5.

By Michael Baadke

The United States Postal Service has revealed new artwork, stamp subjects and issue dates for several 2018 issues, including details of a new Honoring First Responders forever stamp.

Statue of Freedom

A set of three high-denomination intaglio-printed stamps will be issued June 27 in Bellefonte, Pa., in association with the American Philatelic Societys annual Summer Seminar on Philately, which is taking place June 24-29 at the American Philatelic Center.

Denominated $1, $2 and $5, the three stamps each feature the same illustration of the statue of Freedom from the top of the U.S. Capitol dome.

The illustration is nearly identical to the vignette designed by Clair Aubrey Huston and engraved by John Eissler for the $5 carmine and blue Head of Freedom Statue stamp issued in 1923 (Scott 573).

The portrait on the new $1 stamp is emerald green, the $2 is indigo, and the $5 is brick red. A large numeral of denomination in the upper right corner appears to be in multiple colors on the $5 stamp, and a single pink color on the $1 and $2 stamps.

USA is printed in a horizontal line below the numeral. Microprinting underneath the USA repeats the denomination in words five times in a single horizontal line (as FIVEFIVEFIVEFIVEFIVE, for example). Below that is DOLLARS reading down vertically.

USPS art director Greg Breeding designed the new stamps. The $1 and $2 stamps will be issued in panes of 10, and the $5 stamp will be issued in a pane of four.

First Responders

A new nondenominated (50) forever stamp honoring first responders was also revealed, although no issue date has been announced.

The single commemorative stamp recognizes the men and women who respond to critical situations with skill, dedication and uncommon bravery, according to the Postal Service, including firefighters, law enforcement officers and emergency medical service professionals.

Three figures shaded in red, white and blue, respectively, are arranged in action facing right against a dark background, with text at lower right that reads Honoring First Responders.

The design by artist Brian Stauffer, USPS art director Antonio Alcala and designer Rick Altizer shows a firefighter carrying an ax, an EMS responder, and a law enforcement officer shining a flashlight.

Additional issue dates

Issue dates were also reported for several 2018 stamps whose subjects were announced previously.

Connect with Linns Stamp News:

Sign up for our newsletter

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

The O Beautiful set of 20 forever stamps will be issued July 4 in Colorado Springs, Colo. The 20 designs reflect phrases from the song America the Beautiful, including spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountains and shining seas.

The single World War I Turning the Tide forever stamp will be issued July 27 in Kansas City, Mo.

Las Vegas, Nev., is the planned site for the Aug. 7 first-day ceremony for The Art of Magic, a set of five designs celebrating the art of magic with digital illustrations.

The forever stamp honoring musician John Lennon in the Music Icon series will be issued Sept. 7 in New York City. The single design will be printed in four different color varieties on the 16-stamp pane.

The Birds in Winter forever stamps will be issued Sept. 22 in Quechee, Vt., which is home to the Vermont Institute of Natural Science Nature Center. The graphic illustrations on the four stamps show four birds commonly seen in winter: the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), the northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), the blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata), and the red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus).May 10, 2018, 8 AM

Canada issued this stamp Oct. 15, 1968, for the 50th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. Canada Post has announced plans to issue a stamp this year for the 100th anniversary. No issue date has been revealed.

By Linns Staff

Canada Post will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I with a new stamp issue.

Canada Post spokesman Phil Legault told Linns in a May 9 email, We will be issuing a stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armistice 1918-2018.

An issue date has not been determined, according to Legault.

Armistice Day, known today as Remembrance Day in Canada, is Nov. 11. That date in 1918 (the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month) marked the end of fighting in WWI.

Canada Post issued a 15 stamp Oct. 15, 1968, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the armistice (Scott 486). The stamp design shows a detail of the Canadian War Memorial near Vimy, France. The memorials towering twin pylons representing the Canadian and French forces can be seen in the background with the sculpture group The Defenders: The Breaking of the Sword in the foreground.

Connect with Linns Stamp News:

Sign up for our newsletter

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Canadian sculptor and architect Walter Seymour Allward designed the memorial.

Additional details about the Armistice stamp issue will be provided in a future issue of Linns.May 10, 2018, 10 AM

Known as the Inverted Swan (though it is actually the frame that is inverted), this famous 1854 Western Australia 4-penny error stamp will be auctioned by Corinphila during its auction of Australian states and commonwealth.

Chinas unused 1897 Small Dollar, a $1-on-3 red revenue surcharged stamp. An example of this classic rarity will be offered by Corinphila in Zurich during its May 28-June 2 auction series.

An 1851 cover from Switzerland franked with the 1850 5-rappen dark blue Rayon I Swiss stamp and the upper left quarter of a yellow 10r stamp, paying the 7r postage rate. The cover will be offered during the May 28-June 2 Corinphila auction.

Bye Michael Baadke

The Swiss auction firm Corinphila has scheduled a series of five public auctions in Zurich from May 28 to June 2. Classic stamp rarities from China and Western Australia are among the many top items that will be offered.

A substantial worldwide auction with more than 2,660 lots is just the first of the five sales to be presented.

The additional auctions comprise part two of the Besancon collection of Australia and Australian states; part three of the Eduardo Cohen collection of Romania, including lithographed issues of 1865-72; Switzerland and Liechtenstein; and part three of classic Switzerland with cantonal and federal issues of 1843-63 from the collection of Jack Luder.

The worldwide auction will take place over the course of multiple sessions and offers stamps, postal history and more, including large lots and collections.

An important rarity from Imperial China leads the international individual stamp offerings.

Known to many as the Small Dollar, it is the 1897 3 red revenue stamp surcharged $1 for postage use (Scott 83).

There are two major varieties of the $1 surcharge on this issue. The characters printed vertically over the 3 cents denomination in the center of the stamp are small on this world rarity, which is the first of the two $1 surcharges printed. Soon after the stamp was issued, a decision was reached to enlarge the overprint, resulting in the second variety with wider figures (Scott 84).

Only 32 of the unused Small Dollar red revenue stamps are known, and Corinphila notes that while many of those have faults and staining, the example in this auction is in wondrously fresh condition.

The stamps provenance includes the collection of Arthur J. Hind in the 1930s, and that of Josiah K. Lilly in the 1960s.

The value of the Small Dollar red revenue is $900,000 in the 2018 Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps and Covers 1840-1940. That catalog value is printed in italics, representing an item that can be difficult to value accurately.

Corinphila has listed a start price of 300,000 Swiss francs. The Swiss franc and the U.S. dollar are nearly equivalent but fluctuating, so the start price (as of early May) is just under $300,000.

Some three dozen lots in this auction offer zeppelin postal history, including covers carried aboard the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg. One of these is a German postcard addressed for delivery on the planned 1937 Hindenburg return flight from Lakehurst, N.J., to Friedrichshafen, Germany, and franked with one of Germanys 1933 or 1934 60-pfennig claret and black President von Hindenburg stamps.

The postcard was salvaged along with others from the tragic May 6, 1937, crash, fire and destruction of the Hindenburg and is scorched with its lower right corner burned away. A May 10 New York paquebot marking was applied prior to its eventual delivery.

Corinphila lists a start price for the postcard of 1,000fr.

A significant selection of Brazils well-known 1843 Bulls-Eye issue, the first stamps of that South American nation, includes a single 60-reis stamp (Scott 2) described by Corinphila as the sole recorded example of a Bulls-Eye first-day usage on piece. It is cleanly struck by a rimless Correio Geral da Corte datestamp of 1-8-1843 (Aug. 1, 1843).

Corinphila lists this item with a start price of 15,000fr.

The Australia auction is scheduled for May 31 and presents another iconic rarity, the Inverted Swan of Western Australia (Scott 3a).

The rare 1854 4-penny blue lithographed stamp is actually an error of an inverted frame that was mistakenly transferred upside down by the lithographer. The error was soon corrected, but either 14 or 15 examples are known to exist, with seven ensconced in institutional collections, including one in the Royal Philatelic collection of Queen Elizabeth II.

The example in this auction, Corinphila notes, is by far the most attractive of the Inverted Swans available to collectors. All of the known stamps are used.

The Corinphila start price is 100,000fr.

The dedicated Switzerland and Liechtenstein auction features a unique franking of the 1850 5-rappen dark blue Rayon I Swiss stamp with the upper left quarter of a yellow 10r stamp, combining to pay a 7r postage rate on a folded letter to Neuchatel. The cover shows a double-ring Colombier postmark dated May 14, 1851, and each stamp is struck with the P.P. in circle postal marking.

Corinphila lists this cover with a 125,000fr start price.

Connect with Linns Stamp News:

Sign up for our newsletter

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

While the Corinphila auction series offers a number of scarce and rare items, it also includes stamps, covers and even larger lots with starting prices of 100fr. In the firms announcement of the upcoming sale, managing director Karl Louis describes the auction as the biggest that Corinphila has presented in many years.

The various sales within this series can all be viewed with online bidding options, and also as PDF catalogs.

Additional information is available from Corinphila Auktionen AG, Wiesenstrasse 8, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland.The Owens Valley Radio Observatory looks like it exists on another world, though the telescopes are grounded here on Earth in California, where they scour the heavens for radio signals, some of which could come from extraterrestrial intelligence.

A climate denier from Texas may be the reason the S-word is back in vogue in Congress. Oh yeah, not that S-word, the other one: SETI.

That's right, Congress is talking about spending a bunch of money on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (or SETI) for the first time in 25 years.

The U.S. House of Representatives has proposed a bill that includes $10 million in NASA funding for the next two years "to search for technosignatures, such as radio transmissions, in order to meet the NASA objective to search for life's origin, evolution, distribution, and future in the universe." Such technosignatures would come in the form of radio waves that have the telltale features of being produced by TV- or radio-type technologies. An intelligent civilization could also produce those signals intentionally to communicate with other civilizations like ours.

"If it passes, it would definitely be a sea-change in Congressional attitude since Sen. [Richard] Bryan terminated NASA's SETI program, the High Resolution Microwave Survey, in 1993," renowned astronomer Jill Tarter, former diretor of the SETI Institute, told Live Science in an email.

Here's what Tarter is referring to: In 1992, a huge NASA SETI initiative was launched in order to build instrumentation so that observatories could comb the cosmos for signals from alien civilizations. For instance, the high resolution microwave survey was hooked up to the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico for just that. A year later, however, Nevada Sen. Bryan shut it down, and "SETI" became an unmentionable. [Greetings, Earthlings! 8 Ways Aliens Could Contact Us]

"[Bryan] made it clear to the administration that if they came back with SETI in their budget again, it wouldn't be good for the NASA budget," Tarter told Marina Koren of The Atlantic. "So, we instantly became the four-letter S-word that you couldn't say at headquarters anymore, and that has stuck for quite a while."

She added that the funding proposal seems to be an extension of the efforts of Rep. Lamar Smith, RTexas, to bring attention to the search for life beyond Earth when he was the chairman of the House Science Committee. (Smith, who announced that he will retire at the end of his term this year, is a known denier of human-caused climate change.)

If the legislation clears the House and passes the Senate, the result would be huge. "It allows for new instrumentation to be built, and data collected and analyzed at scale, by a global community," Tarter said of the $10 million.

Of course, the hunt for intelligence beyond Earth has not stopped, as private companies and other organizations have funded it, but a buy-in from the federal government is a big deal. [7 Huge Misconceptions about Aliens]

"You need to remember that this is an authorization bill, not an appropriations bill. Even if it passes, the appropriators may not provide any SETI funding in their bill. But if they do, that would be a very big deal," said Tarter, who was the basis for the heroine Ellie Arroway in Carl Sagan's novel "Contact" and in the adapted movie by the same name.

Tarter is admittedly ecstatic about the possibility of such a federal focus on SETI. But you don't become the director of the SETI Institute by keeping your feet on the ground.

"Bring it on! But don't stop there," Tarter said about the potential funding. "Earthlings everywhere are fascinated with this search and care about the answer. So, we should create an international endowment for searching for intelligent life beyond Earth. The backers should be private individuals, enlightened corporations, U.S. federal agencies and agencies from other governments around the world."

She added, "By smoothing out the funding roller coaster that has characterized this research field from the beginning, it will be possible to attract the best and brightest minds with the best ideas from everywhere, and commit to the long-term search efforts that might be required for success."

Are alien greetings just around the corner? Tarter said we have the technology now to search for more distant and fainter signals in ways we haven't tried before. "But that doesn't guarantee success in the 'near future.' The cosmos is vast, and we may not yet be looking in the right way, although we are doing the best job possible with what we now know."

The "correct perspective on timing," Tarter said, is summed up in a line from a paper published in 1959 in the journal Nature by Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison: "'The probability of success is difficult to estimate; but if we never search, the chance of success is zero,'" Tarter said.

Original article on Live Science.A galaxy pileup of 14 merging galaxies known as SPT2349 is currently the biggest known object in the universe.

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 5:10 p.m. E.T.

There's nothing like staring up at the night sky to make you feel small.

But when looking out into the cosmos, you might also wonder: What is the most massive known object in the universe?

In some ways, the question depends on what is meant by the word "object." Astronomers have spotted structures like the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall  a colossal filament of gas, dust and dark matter containing billions of galaxies that stretches for about 10 billion light-years in length  which could contend for the title of biggest object ever. But classifying this assembly as a unique object is problematic because it's hard to figure out exactly where it begins and ends.

"Object" actually has a clear definition in physics or astrophysics, said Scott Chapman, an astrophysicist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. "That's something bound together by its own self-gravity," he said, such as a planet, star or the stars orbiting within a single galaxy.

With this in mind, it's a bit easier to figure out what's in the running for the most massive thing in the universe. The award could go to different entities depending on the scale being considered, but each prizewinner has provided scientists insights into the limits of size and mass in the cosmos. [Big Bang to Civilization: 10 Amazing Origin Events]

Biggest planet, star and galaxy cluster

A view of Jupiter from above its north pole, taken by Pioneer 11 in 1974. Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system, but far from the biggest known planet in the universe. (Image credit: NASA Ames)

For our relatively tiny species, the planet Earth is plenty big, at about 13 septillion lbs. (6 septillion kilograms)  or 13 with 24 zeroes after it. But it's not even the largest planet in the solar system, being dwarfed by the outer giants Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and mighty Jupiter, which weighs in at 4.2 octillion lbs. (1.9 octillion kg), or 4.2 with 27 zeroes after it. Researchers have uncovered thousands of planets orbiting other stars, including many that make our local giants look puny. Discovered in 2016, HR2562 b is the heaviest exoplanet found to date, with a mass 30 times that of Jupiter. At that size, astronomers are unsure whether to classify the behemoth as a brown dwarf, which would make it a type of small star rather than a planet. [By Jove! 7 Weird Facts About Jupiter]

Stars themselves can grow to enormous sizes, with the most massive known star, R136a1, being somewhere between 265 and 315 times heavier than our sun, which is a mind-boggling 4.4 nonillion lbs. (2 nonillion kg), or 4.4 with 30 zeroes after it. Located 130,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a companion galaxy orbiting our Milky Way, R136a1 is so big and bright that the light it emits is actually tearing it apart, according to a 2010 study in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The electromagnetic radiation streaming from the star is powerful enough to carry away material from the surface, causing the star to lose about 16 Earth's worth of mass every single year. Astronomers are unsure exactly how such a self-destructive star could form and how much longer it will hold itself together.

The most massive stars can clock in at enormous weights; the biggest, captured in this image from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, are about 256 times the mass of the sun and are located in RMC 136a, a stellar nursery located inside the Tarantula Nebula, in one of our neighboring galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud, 165 000 light-years away. (Image credit: ESO/VLT)

Galaxies are the next objects up the size scale of the cosmos. The Milky Way galaxy is already mind-bendingly massive, stretching 100,000 light-years from end to end, containing approximately 200 billion stars, and weighing about 1.7 trillion times the mass of our sun. But it can't compete with the central galaxy of the Phoenix Cluster, a leviathan 2.2 million light-years across that contains about 3 trillion stars, according to NASA. At the center of this beast is a supermassive black hole  the largest ever seen  with an estimated mass of 20 billion suns. The Phoenix Cluster itself is an enormous accumulation of approximately 1,000 galaxies all orbiting one another about 5.7 billion light-years away with a total mass of about 2 quadrillion suns, which is 2 with 15 zeros after it, according to a 2012 paper in the journal Nature.

But even that goliath can't compete with what is likely the most massive object ever seen  a recently discovered galactic protocluster known as SPT2349, which was described April 25 in the journal Nature.

"We hit the jackpot with this structure," Chapman, whose team uncovered the record-breaker, told Live Science. "More than 14 very massive individual galaxies crammed into the space of something not much larger than our Milky Way."

Spotted when the universe was just a tenth of its current age, the individual galaxies in this pileup will eventually combine into one gargantuan galaxy, the most massive in the universe. And it's just the tip of the iceberg, Chapman said. Further observations have revealed that the total structure contains around 50 additional galaxies that will all settle into an object known as a galactic cluster, in which many galaxies all orbit one another. The previous most massive record-holder, the appropriately named El Gordo Cluster, weighs the equivalent of 3 quadrillion (or 3 with 15 zeroes after it) suns, but SPT2349 is likely to outweigh it by at least four to five times.

That such an enormous object could form when the universe was just 1.4 billion years old was surprising to the researchers, since computer simulations suggested it would normally take much longer for such large objects to appear.

"The central massive galaxy forms incredibly early and much more explosively and rapidly than we would have imagined," Chapman said. "Just the blink of the eye on the cosmic timescales."

Given that humans have searched only a fraction of the sky for such things, even more massive objects might be lurking out there in the universe, he added.

Editor's Note: This story was updated to correct the name of the massive galaxy pileup that is the biggest known object. It is SPT2349, not the Dusty Red Core.

Originally published on Live Science.The Americas are a big place, but the Native American group that first settled it was small  just about 250 people, according to a new genetic study.

These people, known as a founding group because they "founded" the first population, migrated from Siberia to the Americas by about 15,000 years ago, said study co-lead researcher Nelson Fagundes, a professor in the Department of Genetics at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil.

Figuring out the size of founding groups is key, because it determines the amount of genetic diversity that gets passed on to the group's descendants, Fagundes said. [In Photos: Human Skeleton Sheds Light on First Americans]

That, in turn, could alter how effectively natural selection weeds out bad genes, Fagundes said.

"Large populations have very efficient selection, while in small populations, mildly deleterious alleles [versions of genes] can spread, which may increase genetic susceptibility to some diseases," Fagundes told Live Science in an email.

To investigate the size of the original Native American founding group, Fagundes and his colleagues studied DNA samples from 10 Native American individuals scattered across Central and South America, 10 people from different Siberian groups and 15 people from China. (The Native American groups included the Ache of Paraguay; the Bribri, Guatuso and Guaymi of Costa Rica; the Lengua of Argentina; The Quechua of Peru; and the Arara, Waiwai, Xavante and Zoro of Brazil.) The researchers didn't include Native Americans from North America for the simple reason that many of them formed unions with people from later migrations, which would make the original founding group more challenging to pinpoint, Fagundes said.

Once they had the individuals' DNA, the researchers looked at nine regions, each containing about 10,000 base pairs, or letters, on each person's genome.

Researchers know that genetic variation within a sample (such as Native Americans) is directly related to population size, Fagundes said. That, combined with the fact that genetic divergence between two populations (such as the Native Americans and Siberians) increases with time, allowed the researchers to plug the DNA data into computer simulation models and work backward to figure out the original size of the founding group.

The models found that between 229 and 300 people were in the original group, which led to the final estimate of 250 people, the researchers said. This number is so small, it would have created a "genetic bottleneck," meaning there was little genetic variation associated with the first major migration wave into the Americas, Fagundes said.

However, so much time has passed since that original group arrived in the Americas, that Native Americans as a whole have had time to recover their genetic diversity through new genetic mutations, he noted. Moreover, some Native Americans in North America formed unions with people from later migrations, which also increased genetic diversity, Fagundes said.

Just a guess

It's important to note that the 250 number is just an estimate, Fagundes said.

"One must keep in mind that it is very hard (not to say impossible) to estimate how many real individuals correspond to this figure of about 250 effective individuals," Fagundes wrote in the email.

Even so, the estimate is similar to the findings of other studies. "This bottleneck probably involved less than 1,000 effective individuals, even though lower values (say between 150-700 effective individuals) seem more likely," Fagundes said. "There have been some even lower estimates around, but our data doesn't support them." [Genetics by the Numbers: 10 Tantalizing Tales]

Estimating the size of the genetic bottleneck is important because it helps scientists figure out how many genetic markers are needed to capture the genetic diversity of Native American populations in studies, as well as to evaluate how harmful or beneficial different versions of genes are in this population, the researchers said.

The genetic data illustrates how ancient migration unfolded in the Americas, said study co-researcher Michael Crawford, a professor of anthropology at Kansas University.

Native Americans would settle in a new place, and as the population  and thus, fertility  grew, people from one population would break off and form another population in a neighboring area, Crawford said. "After 15,000 years, you can put them all the way down in Argentina," Crawford said in a statement.

The study was published May 1 in the journal Genetics and Molecular Biology.

Original article on Live Science.Think Michelle Wolf was fazed about the criticism over her performance at the White House correspondents' dinner a couple weeks ago? Not so much.

On Wednesday night, the comedian stopped by NBC's "Late Night With Seth Meyers" (where she used to work as a writer) to promote her new Netflix series - and joke about her much-dissected, extremely polarizing speech, which ginned up controversy with jabs at Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Kellyanne Conway and the Trump administration.

"Congratulations on an incredible job at the correspondents' dinner," Meyers said to kick things off. (After the dinner, Meyers defended Wolf and ridiculed the outrage.)

"Thank you, thank you. It went great, and every single person loved it," Wolf assured him.

Of course, the jokes about Sanders ("She burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye") especially hit a nerve with some people, and Wolf was well aware of the backlash.

"Actually, Sarah Huckabee Sanders called me," Wolf deadpanned. "And she was like, 'I loved it so much. I got every joke.'"

"Really?" Meyers asked in faux-surprise. "'Cause I was watching. There were a few that seemed like she maybe didn't like or get."

"Well, you know, you give the best information you have at the time," Wolf said, using one of Sanders' recent phrases.

Meyers also brought up a fun fact from C-SPAN: In a mere three days, the YouTube video of Wolf's performance garnered 4.4 million views, the most ever for a correspondents' dinner comedian - edging out Meyers' own speech at the 2011 dinner, which has 4.3 million views.

Soon, the two moved on to other subjects. Although when Meyers asked how preparation is going for her upcoming Netflix show, "The Break," which premieres this month, Wolf brought it back around to the original topic.

"I would have to say," Wolf said, "That if you hated the correspondents' dinner, you're really going to hate this show."Gabrielle Union plays a woman fighting for her family's life, Melissa McCarthy goes to college and Grace Jones shows the glory of herself.PHILADELPHIA  Days after the Giants said Johnny Cueto would miss six to eight weeks with a sprained right elbow, they conceded the six part was not going to happen. They needed a 40-man spot to promote reliever Jose Valdez from Triple-A on Thursday and placed Cueto on the 60-day disabled list.

Cueto will not be eligible to return until June 28, two months after his last start. Manager Bruce Bochy said the Giants are being on the safe side of when we think hell be ready and finish his rehab.

Meanwhile, Madison Bumgarner is expected to throw off a mound for the first time as early as Monday and could start what should be a four- or five-game rehab assignment in the minors within two weeks.

The absences of Bumgarner and Cueto have led to a lot of short outings by starters, necessitating gobs of bullpen innings. That, in turn, has created a nearly constant shuttle of relievers between the big club and Sacramento.

ALSO: What Giants and Dodgers are missing and Yankees and Red Sox have

D.J. Snelten threw 54 pitches of mop-up Monday night so he went down and Derek Law was recalled. Law threw 39 pitches Wednesday, so down he went (without a chance to pitch in his hometown of Pittsburgh this weekend) and up comes Valdez, a 28-year-old right-hander who has thrown in 46 big-league games since 2015.

This is hardly the ideal way to run a roster, but this is the Giants lot with their top two starters gone unless those who are here improve and provide more quality innings, as Chris Stratton, Ty Blach and Andrew Suarez did in Atlanta.

The Giants considered options besides Valdez, including Triple-A starters Tyler Beede and Dereck Rodriguez, who are accustomed to long outings, but Bochy said the organization wants them to continue starting in case they are needed in the big-league rotation.

As long as the rotation struggles to provide innings, the Giants will have to stick with 13 pitchers. So the question of when Mac Williamson or Hunter Pence might return is moot for now. The Giants do not have a spot for a fifth outfielder.

The Giants made one more roster move, activating left-hander Josh Osich from the disabled list and optioning him to Sacramento.

Briefly: Carlos Santana, the Phillies big winter acquisition, hit three homers and had 13 RBIs in the series to double his totals for the season.  The last Phillies four-game sweep against the Giants occurred May 13-16, 1982, at Veterans Stadium.

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.As National Guard troops begin to arrive in the Gateway City following an order by President Trump, animal rights organization PETA has decided to share its thoughts on the matter in a huge way.

Posted on Texas Loop 20 Frontage Road, a billboard shows a grinning photo of Donald Trump Jr. posing with a knife and hacked off tailed of an elephant he shot, alongside a message in Spanish.

"Deport callous, cheating opportunists now! All nations have their undesirables. Kindness welcome," the sign reads, as translated in English.

READ ALSO: 17 things Laredo doesn't have anymore - for better or worse

The billboard comes after Trump's order to deploy troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to assist the U.S. Border Patrol.

And PETA is having none of it.

"While the U.S. is closing its borders to people fleeing violence, violent trophy hunters like Donald Trump Jr. are traveling to other countries on a whim to kill magnificent wild animals and cut off their body parts for photos," said PETA President Ingrid Newkirk in a press release. "PETA's ad is a reminder that both kind and cruel people exist in every country and that blood-spilling undesirables can be found across all borders."

RELATED: National Guard troops arrive in Laredo to aid Border Patrol

According to the animal rights organization, hunters kill millions of animals every year and have contributed to the extinction of species all over the world. The group went on to say that Trump Jr. has a history of self-aggrandizement at the expense of wildlife in the U.S. and abroad.

The billboard can be seen on Texas Loop 20 Frontage Road between Maria Luisa and Dorel drives, facing south.

Scroll through the slideshow above to see other eye-catching billboards that have popped up in the Lone Star state.

jerilynn.thorpe@lmtonline.com | Twitter: @jerilynnthorpeBad Samaritan: David Tennant (Doctor Who) is a first-rate psycho who matches wits with a would-be thief (Robert Sheehan) who discovers a kidnapped woman hidden in Tennants house. Slick thriller, well packaged by director Dean Devlin, that was filmed in Portland. Rated R. 107 minutes.

 G. Allen Johnson

Bye Bye Germany: This refreshingly original, unpredictable tale concerns Jews trying to scam their way out of postwar Europe. Its part caper, part Holocaust drama, part buddy movie, part romance and part melancholic comedy. For the most part, it juggles these elements admirably. Not rated. 102 minutes. In German with English subtitles.

 David Lewis

Disobedience: Rachel Weisz stars as a New York woman who, on the occasion of her fathers funeral, returns to London and to the Orthodox Jewish circle in which she lived. Soon she is drawn into the lives of her old friends, particularly that of Rachel McAdams as the wife of a rabbi. Intelligent and sober, the movie gives way to a grand passion, in a brilliant English-language debut for Chilean director Sebastian Lelio (Gloria, A Fantastic Woman). Rated R. 114 minutes.

 Mick LaSalle

Let the Sunshine In: A brilliantly observed and beautifully acted character study from director Claire Denis and actress Juliette Binoche, the film tells the story of an artist in her 50s, looking for a stable romantic relationship. Rated R. 94 minutes. In French with English subtitles.

 Mick LaSalle

RBG: Even most people who are disposed to admire Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg are unfamiliar with her background and personal story. This documentary sets the record straight, positing Ginsburg as the Thurgood Marshall of feminist jurisprudence. Its an entertaining and uplifting documentary. Rated PG. 97 minutes.

 Mick LaSalleThe number of graves discovered at a Fort Bend ISD construction site continues to grow, potentially affirming the views of a community activist who had warned district officials that the site could hold bodies of those who were part of a 19th century convict leasing system.

The district has now identified 93 graves at the site of the future James Reese Career and Technical Center, which is being built at University Boulevard and Chatham. The center, which will offer advanced junior- and senior-level courses, is named after James Reese, a former FBISD math teacher and its first vocational director.

The activist, Reginald Moore, said he now feels like an outsider looking in after only being allowed to tour the construction site on one occasion since the graves were discovered. He was originally alerted early last month that graves had been found at the site by FBISD Superintendent Charles Dupre, after telling district officials about the area's history.

READ ALSO: Robbers strike at South Rice Walmart

Jay Jenkins of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition has assisted Moore in asking district officials to set aside a few acres for a future memorial to educate others about the convict lease system, where prisoners, primarily African-American, were contracted out for labor shortly after slavery was outlawed more than 150 years ago. Moore has been outspoken about the history after researching it and being appointed guardian of Old Imperial Farm Cemetery, which sits less than a mile from the construction site.

"Reggie's contention throughout has been that these folks, these human beings deserve to be recognized because the city of Sugar Land benefited from their work and labor," said Jenkins. "We're worried that in a rush to sort of end the controversy that they're going to re-bury the bodies in a way that doesn't afford them the dignity and the humanity, and just the basic acknowledgment that these folks deserve."

The school district plans to continue work on the parts of the site not affected by the cemetery, while also determining its perimeter.

READ ALSO: Cypress-area gun range employee indicted for allegedly shooting customer in head

Kenneth Brown, an anthropology professor at University of Houston and adviser to Moore on cemetery issues for 10 years, said he believes the school district should hire someone familiar with African-American history to examine the remains, believed to be 100 to 200 years old, and locate potential descendants before taking any more steps.

"It's a teachable moment for a school district and a whole community," Brown said.

Fort Bend ISD has already spent $2.7 million in architectural and professional services and $5.2 million in construction for a technical center on the site, the school district said in an emailed response to questions. The school district noted it's also possible they could bring in an expert on African-American history.

"We are following the legal requirements and will get a court order to exhume the graves and start the process to test the remains to learn more about them, including a range of time of when these people died," the school district said.

Moore, who believes the bodies are either from the convict leasing system or slaves, said that he would be willing to bury the remains found at the construction site at the Old Imperial Farm cemetery.

"Not to say that we want to go in there and do our own forensics," said Moore. "We just want to make sure that we are representatives of (the bodies) and they have the proper representation."

Chris Florance, director of public information and education at the Texas Historical Commission, said the law allows a number of options for property owners in determining what to do with remains found. They include leaving the remains in place or re-interring them in a perpetual care, municipal or county cemetery.

"We have visited the site with the school district and their environmental consultants and discussed how they are handling the site during their monitoring work," Florance wrote in an email last week. "As the district decides their next steps, we will work with them to ensure any work is done in accordance with the Antiquities Code of Texas."

The school district maintains that Moore will continue to have an active role in uncovering the history.

"He will continue to play a part in honoring these people," the district said in their response.Brian Potaczek recently bought his first box of Girl Scout cookies, a small act full of meaning for the 31-year-old from just outside Phoenix.

A few years ago, he was addicted to opioids and in jail. Today Potaczek is an electrician with a steady job, earning enough money to do what many middle-class Americans do: Buy Girl Scout cookies and take his mom out for coffee.

Potaczek told his life story to Congress last month, captivating lawmakers at a hearing on America's "jobs gap" - the mismatch between job openings and workers qualified to fill them. Potaczek is what everyone wants to see: a true example of upward mobility in America who went from being unemployable to having a steady $22-an-hour job.

Potaczek is an inspiration in many ways, but he's also an outlier. While it's easier now for the poor to get a job, they're still struggling to find good jobs.

Despite job openings hitting record highs and unemployment reaching historic lows, many people are struggling to connect with the type of jobs that can permanently pull them out of poverty.

The New York Federal Reserve recently released a troubling study titled "Can Low-Wage Workers Find Better Jobs?" The answer was mostly no.

The researchers examined government employment data on about 170,000 low-wage workers (those earning $13 or less) from 2011 to 2017. They found that each year, only 5 percent of low-wage workers managed to find a better job. The rest stayed put, stopped working or shuffled from one low-paying job to another.

"A lack of formal education appears to be a substantial barrier to finding a better job," the Fed researchers concluded. "Programs aimed at helping these workers increase their human capital, even to the level of a high school diploma (or equivalent), can improve the odds of moving up the job ladder."

President Donald Trump and many Republicans believe it is the ideal time to get more people off government support and into jobs. They are drafting legislation to add additional work requirements to many social programs and to make it easier for the formerly incarcerated to find employment. Some of Trump's ideas are controversial, especially since there already are work requirements for most "able-bodied" adults receiving public assistance.

What often gets lost in the debate is the key question: How do we get these people into good jobs?

Potaczek's life story offers possible answers. Dressed in a hoodie, with a tattoo over his right eye that says "Blessed," Potaczek told Congress that a job training program changed his life. He described how he became addicted to painkillers at age 19 after having his wisdom teeth removed. Life spiraled downward from there, and he ended up in and out of jail three times.

A company called Austin Electric Services taught him how to be an electrician while he was still behind bars in Arizona, a trade he says he had "never done before or never imagined doing." When he was released, Austin Electric Services hired him at $12 an hour and even drove him to and from work for a while until he figured out his own transportation. A few months later, the company bumped his pay to $22 an hour.

There are many unusual aspects to Potaczek's rebound. First is his pay. Half of the jobs in America pay less than $18 per hour, according to the Labor Department, and about a quarter pay less than $13.

He also got a raise quickly, almost doubling his salary in a matter of months. In much of America, wages have been rising at paltry levels, a significant barrier to becoming the type of person who can afford nonessentials such as the occasional $5 box of Girl Scout cookies.

Job training was key to Potaczek's prison-to-work transition, but there aren't enough programs for everyone who needs them, and it can be difficult to find transportation and child care to attend.

Toby Thomas, president of Austin Electric Services, which hired Potaczek and over 80 other former inmates, has had occasional issues, especially when workers leave the structured prison environment.

"Although we have had immense success with the program, we have had some challenges. The most glaring are transportation, housing and proper work attire," said Thomas. "Then there are the psychological aspects."

Job training isn't a panacea to help every worker, but it's an opportunity many researchers and advocates say should be expanded.

As Republicans draft bills to change various welfare programs, Urban Institute fellow Nisha Patel is urging them to focus on more training and education for welfare recipients.

"Nearly 40 percent of parents on TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) do not even have a high school education," Patel told Congress Wednesday, and there are limits on how long TANF recipients can do vocational training.

Americans without high school diplomas earn a median salary of just over $500 a week, according to the Labor Department. That jumps substantially - to just over $700 a week - once someone gets the degree.

In addition to training, Potaczek also credits his success to the environment his employer created, noting that beyond a paycheck, he felt he had a support network.

The bosses "would talk about the company as a family," said Potaczek. "They would help us out and do whatever it took to make us successful."

---

https://wapo.st/2I44VPfThe baristas were playing music from Spotify over the speakers on Friday, as they often do, when a Duke University official walked in. Larry Moneta, the vice president for student affairs, waited for his usual order from the campus coffee shop - a hot tea and vegan muffin, according to Indy Week. But the vulgar rap song he heard on the speakers bothered him.

"Get paid . . . get paid," Young Dolph raps in the song, using the n-word. "Whatever you do, just make sure you get paid."

The baristas did get paid - severance checks.

The two baristas on duty, Britni Brown and Kevin Simmons, told Indy Week, an alternative weekly in Durham, North Carolina, that their contracts were terminated after Moneta complained to the director of dining services about the profane song.

Moneta said in a statement to the News & Observer and the Duke Chronicle on Tuesday that he was "shocked" to hear lyrics that he said were "quite inappropriate for a working environment that serves children among others." He said he was particularly troubled by the line in the song that goes "I . . .. her up real good," using the f-word.

He said it was the coffee chain's choice, not his, to fire the employees.

"The employees who chose to play the song in a business establishment on the Duke campus made a poor decision which was conveyed to" the coffee shop management, Moneta wrote in the statement. "How they responded to the employees' behavior was solely at their discretion."

The owner of the Joe Van Gogh coffee chain, Robbie Roberts, released a statement to The Washington Post on Wednesday apologizing to employees, customers and the community for how the business handled the situation.

"We attempted to understand Duke's position in this case, but we should have taken a different approach in making personnel decisions," Roberts said. "As the owner of the business, I take full responsibility for Joe Van Gogh's actions. I apologize to all of the people directly involved and those who have been touched or offended, of which there are many. We are taking steps to remedy this matter, but all company personnel issues are private and will remain private."

The firings prompted students and coffee shop employees to protest outside the Joe Van Gogh on Duke's campus Wednesday, according to the Charlotte Observer. On speakers, they blasted the rap song that had upset the university official. The rapper, Young Dolph, also took to Twitter to condemn the firings, saying the vice president "was trying to teach the students how to be selfish I guess."

On that day last week, Brown, the barista, was working the register at the coffee shop and was in charge of running the playlist, which was curated by Spotify. Brown told Indy Week that Moneta approached her and told her the song was inappropriate.

She immediately turned off the song, apologized for offending him, and offered to give him his muffin free of charge, she told Indy Week. He refused, insisting that she ring him up for it.

Simmons, the other barista on duty, was making drinks when he noticed Moneta's exchange with Brown. A few minutes after Moneta left, Brown said she received a call from the coffee shop owner, saying the university's director of dining services had just mentioned the incident involving the song.

Brown accepted responsibility and apologized to the owner. But on Monday, Brown and Simmons were called into the coffee shop's office and asked to resign, they told Indy Week, which cited an audio recording of the meeting.

A human resources worker with coffee shop told the baristas they had received a call from the director of dining services, Robert Coffey, who said Moneta had complained about the "vulgar music."

"Duke University has instructed us to terminate the employees that were working that day," the human resources worker said, offering them severance.

In his statement to the Chronicle and News & Observer, Moneta confirmed that he expressed his concerns to the staff, "with whom I've always had a cordial relationship."

"I then contacted the director of Duke Dining to express my concerns and that was the end of my involvement," Moneta wrote.

Coffey did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.

The baristas said human resources did not cite any other complaints about their workplace conduct. Brown said she felt it was "not fair" for the coffee shop to fire Simmons, who had no control over the music that day. Brown is African American, and Simmons is white. "I feel like you guys were trying to cover it up as to make it not look discriminatory for firing a person of color," she told human resources officials.

Brown also said she did not know of any policies regarding the type of music played in the coffee shop.

Indy Week wrote that the firing sheds light on the "precarious relationship between the university and its contracted employees, who are not afforded the same benefits and protections as Duke's full-time employees, but whose employers are not in a position to defend them out of fear of losing business with the university."

Moneta is responsible for overseeing student services such as housing, dining, health care, career services, student activities, cultural centers, and event and media services, according to Duke's website.

Late last month, he championed freedom of speech in a tweet, recommending a book on the subject to "those who believe that colleges and universities should prohibit hate speech."

"Freedom of expression protects the oppressed far more than the oppressors," he wrote in the tweet.

Faced with criticism that he flipped on this position on free expression, he responded in his statement to the Chronicle and News & Observer:

"The artist who wrote, recorded and performed the music is absolutely entitled to do so, however offensive I might find the lyrics."The ongoing surge in volcanic activity on Hawaii's Big Island soon could cause a massive explosion from a volcano's summit, scientists and Hawaii officials warned Wednesday.

Kilauea, the longest-erupting volcano on the planet, has displaced some 1,700 people and destroyed 36 structures since a shifting flow of underground magma last week burst through the surface in a residential neighborhood about 40 miles from the top of the volcano, unleashing torrents of molten rock and toxic gases.

Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said Wednesday that the movement of magma from the summit out toward the Leilani Estates neighborhood, where 14 fissures have opened in the past week, has caused the lava lake at the top of the volcano to drop in elevation.

When that lava lake meets the ground water level - which they think is most likely to happen sometime in the next few weeks - it could lead to a series of powerful steam explosions that could shower the surrounding area in 10-ton molten rocks and spew ash as far as 20 miles downwind, the scientists said during a conference call with reporters.

"If an explosion happens, there's a risk at all scales," said Donald Swanson, a USGS volcanologist. "If you're near the crater, within half a mile, you could be subject to ballistic blocks weighing as much as 10 or 12 tons." If you're within several miles, you could be within range of smaller rocks the size of marbles, he said, and 20 miles downwind "you would see fine ash floating from the sky like snow."

Scientists said the occurrence of an explosion or multiple explosions would be contingent on a rock fall within the volcano's inner tunnel or conduit - and there have been frequent rockfalls so far in this eruption - once the magma in that tunnel has dropped to meet the ground water, creating steam.

A rock fall could create a dam, causing the steam to build pressure until it bursts through the dam as an explosion. But the scientists cautioned that they are unable to predict with absolute certainty when, or even if, that would occur.

"We don't know, and can't tell precisely, when the conduit will empty of magma below the water table," Swanson said. "Secondly, we're uncertain as to how long it will take for conditions to generate an explosion once the conduit has been emptied below the water table. We expect that it's quite a rapid process, but we really don't know for certain."

Local authorities said dozens of people evacuated from the southeast end of the island in and around Leilani Estates remained at shelters Wednesday.

Talmadge Magno, the civil defense administrator for Hawaii County, said authorities also has asked a geothermic plant located half a mile from a Leilani Estates fissure to remove 12,000 gallons of a highly flammable chemical fuel from the area.

The chemical, pentane, is prone to explosions, and spills can cause serious health problems including respiratory distress and vomiting, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Magno said the 12,000 gallons would be moved Wednesday to an industrial park at a safe distance from the fissures, and that the county is "planning to remove the rest."

"We're concerned about the safety," Magno told reporters on the call. "We don't want to risk any explosion in the area, so we requested that they get that fuel out of there."

Local residents have long voiced concern about the Puna Geothermal Venture, which state senator Russell Ruderman said was constructed more than 25 years ago in a recognized high-risk zone for lava flow, and despite the objections of local residents. He said the decision was due to "stupid, idiotic planning and the tendency to ignore real dangers when there's a buck to be made."

Puna Geothermal Venture could not be reached for comment Wednesday.WASHINGTON - The author of the Senate's comprehensive review of CIA interrogation practices formally announced Thursday that she would oppose Gina Haspel as the agency's new director, arguing that confirming someone so closely tied to the program would in effect be telling the world that the United States endorses torture.

"This nomination is bigger than one person," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who released the 2014 torture report as then-chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote in a statement. "For the Senate to confirm someone so involved with the program to the highest position at the CIA would in effect tell the world that we approve of what happened, and I absolutely do not."

Feinstein's declaration comes on the heels of a similar message from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who stated Wednesday night that while Haspel's 33-year record of service at the CIA is impressive, her refusal to denounce her past involvement with the interrogation program as immoral disqualifies her as a potential director.

"Ms. Haspel's role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing. Her refusal to acknowledge torture's immorality is disqualifying," wrote McCain, who himself endured years of torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. "I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination."

It remains unclear whether the appeals from McCain and Feinstein - who together comprise the Senate's moral conscience on matters related to torture - will sway any lawmakers on the fence about Haspel's nomination from voting for her.

Haspel's confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday went fairly smoothly, as she sought to persuade senators that she would under no circumstances restart the CIA's interrogation program, and that she would disobey any potential order from President Donald Trump to have the CIA do something she deemed to be either immoral or against American values.

But Haspel refused to disavow her past actions related to the program, arguing that she had been led to believe they were legal at the time.

In late 2002, Haspel took over a secret CIA prison in Thailand where detainees had been subjected to interrogation practices. Then, in 2005, she drafted a cable ordering the destruction of videotaped evidence of interrogation sessions on the orders of her superior - an episode for which she was internally cleared of any wrongdoing, but that has nonetheless haunted her candidacy to be CIA director.

Feinstein is one of several Democratic senators who also called on Haspel to declassify documents related to her mysterious career, so that they can be shared with the public. Most of those Democrats have pledged to oppose her nomination - though panel vice chairman Mark R. Warner, D-Va., who called the lack of transparency "unacceptable" in a letter to Haspel earlier this week, has yet to decide how he will vote.

In the immediate aftermath of Wednesday's hearing, at least three senators who had expressed concerns about Haspel's record announced that they would support her confirmation, including panel Republican Susan Collins, Maine, Texas Republican Ted Cruz and panel Democrat Joe Manchin III, W.Va.

Haspel needs at least one Democrat to back her nomination in the Senate of 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats, as McCain and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., are opposed to her nomination. If McCain's words are able to sway more Republicans away from Haspel, she will need to convince more Democrats to support her candidacy to secure confirmation.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is expected to vote as early as next week on her nomination, and chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., has said he wants Haspel's floor vote to occur soon after. Her confirmation hearing behind her, Haspel is now meeting with senators off the committee who may vote for her, including Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., who is expected to speak with Haspel on Thursday.WASHINGTON - Gina Haspel drew a moral line during a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, promising that she "will not restart" the CIA's controversial interrogation program and would disregard orders from President Donald Trump to carry out other questionable activities if confirmed to lead the agency.

But Haspel resisted senators' efforts to make her say whether she believed it had been morally wrong at the time for the agency to use "enhanced" interrogation techniques on terrorist suspects, including waterboarding, which many have said is a form of torture. She emphasized repeatedly that the techniques had been authorized by the U.S. government's highest legal authorities and by President George W. Bush.

"We got valuable information from debriefing al-Qaida detainees," she told Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., during one of the hearing's most tense moments. "I don't think it's knowable whether interrogation techniques played a role in that."

A lengthy report by the Senate Intelligence Committee, released publicly in 2014, concluded the CIA's interrogation techniques were not an viable means of gaining intelligence, and that the agency's justification for using them "rested on inaccurate claims of their effectiveness."

Senators have asked several of Trump's Cabinet nominees to commit to stand up to the president and inform Congress if he were to pressure them to do anything legally or morally questionable. But the pledge takes on extra significance with Haspel, whose hearing centered around the role she played in the CIA's interrogation program - something Trump said on the campaign trail he wouldn't mind bringing back into practice.

"We're not getting back into that business," Haspel said, citing her "strong" moral compass. "I would not restart, under any circumstances, an interrogation program at CIA. ... I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that is immoral, even if it is technically legal."

Haspel's first public showing in her 33-year career at the CIA, most of which was spent in the clandestine service, appeared to strengthen her chances the committee will approve her nomination when it meets to vote, likely next week, and improve the outlook for her confirmation. If confirmed, Haspel would become the first woman to lead the agency in its history - a fact that GOP members of the intelligence panel mentioned frequently.

During her testimony, Haspel cited the support she has among the agency's rank and file, noting that "they know that I don't need time to learn the business of what CIA does."

"I know CIA like the back of my hand," she said. "I know them, I know the threats we face, and I know what we need to be successful in our mission."

But Haspel's critics warned that her confirmation would also set "a precedent for secret confirmation processes," in the words of Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., as she has resisted calls to declassify additional records about her career.

"I think you will find me to be a typical middle-class American," Haspel told senators.

Haspel's CIA career has been anything but ordinary - and though she acknowledged little is known about her publicly,she offered few details about her career.

Haspel took charge in 2002 of a secret CIA detention facility in Thailand where an al-Qaida suspect was waterboarded, and in 2005 she drafted a cable, ultimately issued by her boss, ordering the destruction of dozens of videotapes of the interrogation sessions. She told senators Wednesday that she had "absolutely" supported the destruction of 92 tapes, all depicting one detainee being interrogated, over concerns "about the security risk that was posed to our officers." She noted that CIA lawyers at the time had determined there was no legal obligation to retain them.

But when asked by Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., whether she would support the same order today, she said she would not, noting that she had learned from experience that additional stakeholders - such as the lawmakers and government officials raising questions about the interrogations only days before - should have been involved in the decision to destroy the tapes.

Haspel told the committee that she fully supports current "standards for detainee treatment required by law" and that, in retrospect, the CIA "was not prepared to conduct a detention and interrogation program." The agency learned "tough lessons" during "that tumultuous time," Haspel said,and that theexperiencereinforced her "personal commitment, clearly and without reservation," not to restart the CIA's detention and interrogation program.

She was warned that a pledge to simply follow the law would be insufficient. "That's the least we should expect from any nominee and certainly the director of the CIA," The committee's vice chairman, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., told Haspel.

Chief among senators' concerns was how Haspel, who argued she was only following orders when instructed to draft the cable ordering the destruction of interrogation evidence, would respond to an order from Trump. She said she had a "great reputation" with the president and his inner circle, adding that "the president does turn to me for my view on certain countries and certain experiences."

"I give him my best advice," Haspel said, noting that she separates her views from that of CIA analysts.

But she told senators that she doubted the president would ever ask her to waterboard a suspectand demurred when Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., asked whether she would report to Congress if Trump were to ask her for a loyalty pledge akin to that he allegedly sought from former FBI Director James Comey.

Haspel's hearing comes just days after she offered to bow out, to avoid discussing her role in the agency's interrogation program. White House officials persuaded her not to step aside, and she arrived on Capitol Hill primed to defend her record. Haspel pushed back against the characterization that she held a decision-making role in the interrogation program, saying the CIA's former acting general counsel John Rizzo had corrected an assertion in his memoir that Haspel "had previously run the interrogation program."

Haspel said, too, that she "conducted myself honorably and in accordance with U.S. law," and that she understands "the difference between right and wrong" when senators challenged her over why she went along with a program most now liken to torture, and the agency's efforts to cover it up.

"That was 17 years ago," Haspel told Heinrich of the cable she drafted, arguing that "when you're out in the trenches and Washington says, 'This is what we need you to do, this is legal, the attorney general has deemed it so,' " she complied - even though today she would not support the same order.

Haspel's interview with the committee went smoothly enough to earn her a few key endorsements: Sen. Joe Manchin III, W.Va., a panel member, became the first Democrat to back Haspel, while Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whose support was uncertain, said they also intend to vote for her. She needs some Democratic support to be confirmed by the Senate, where Republicans hold a 51-to-49 majority, as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., are both opposed to her nomination.

Although McCain is unlikely to cast a floor vote on Haspel, as he is out of Washington receiving treatment for a rare and serious form of brain cancer, his opinion carries particular symbolic weight, as a war hero who was tortured in Vietnam.

"Ms. Haspel's role in overseeing the use of torture by Americans is disturbing," McCain said in a statement late Wednesday. "Her refusal to acknowledge torture's immorality is disqualifying. I believe the Senate should exercise its duty of advice and consent and reject this nomination."

But even with her confirmation appearing likely, Democratic senators are continuing to push for more transparency, arguing that while a career CIA operative must stay in the shadows, a Cabinet-level nominee must be accountable to the American public.

Warner and other panel Democrats have pushed Haspel to use her current authority as acting director of the CIA to declassify additional documents related to her career at the agency so the public, not just lawmakers, can scrutinize her tenure. During the hearing, Harris also challenged Haspel to recuse herself from decisions about her records.

Haspel refused to offer any such promises.

The only Haspel document the CIA has declassified isan internal review that found she was not at fault in the destruction of the interrogation tapes.TIBERIAS, Israel - Confrontation between Israel and Iranian forces in Syria sharply escalated in the early hours of Thursday as Israel said Iran launched a barrage of 20 missiles toward its positions on the Golan Heights.

Heavy military jet activity, explosions and air-defense fire could be heard throughout the night in the area. An Israeli military spokesman said the rockets were fired by Iran's Quds force, a special forces unit affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards, marking the first time that Iranian forces have ever fired directly on the Israeli troops.

The Israeli military said several of the rockets had been intercepted by Israel's missile defense system. Sparks could be seen as they broke up in the sky.

No one was injured on the Israeli side, the military said.

The Syrian state news agency, however, reported that it was Israel that had fired on targets near the town of Quneitra, located just east of the Golan Heights. Syrian air defenses had responded, it said. It later reported a "new wave" of attacks.

The Israeli miliary said it "views this event with great severity and remains prepared for a wide variety of scenarios."

Air-raid sirens sounded in the Golan Heights shortly after midnight. In nearby Tiberias, on the edge of the Sea of Galilee, explosions could be heard above the music of bars entertaining busloads of tourists. The explosions were followed by sporadic fire into the early-morning hours.

With Syria's civil war raging just across the border, Israeli residents of the Golan Heights have become used to the air-raid sirens and errant fire. But recent days have been different, and war jitters have spread across Israel.

On Wednesday, it had seemed like business as usual on the Golan, a plateau that rises dramatically behind the Sea of Galilee, captured from Syria by Israel in the 1967 war. Children went to school and wineries welcomed groups of tourists.

But Israel trucked in tanks and additional air defense batteries, and the military chief of staff touched down in a helicopter to tour the area to assess the army's readiness.

On Tuesday, an airstrike widely attributed to Israel reportedly killed eight Iranian soldiers after Israel said it had detected unusual Iranian troop movements across the border and had intelligence about a possible attack from Syrian soil.

Iran had threatened to retaliate against Israel after an airstrike in April that killed seven Iranian soldiers at a base in Syria.

President Donald Trump's decision on Tuesday to pull the United States out of the nuclear deal with Iran has given Tehran less reason to exercise caution in confronting Israel, analysts said.

"U.S. withdrawal has accelerated the escalation between Israel and Iran," said Ofer Zalzberg, and analyst at International Crisis Group. "Iran faces less restraint in terms of the timing for a retaliation," he said, adding that Iran likely had been waiting for the U.S. decision before formulating its next move.

While Trump was in Washington announcing the withdrawal, Golan residents were being told Tuesday to open up their bomb shelters - the first time the army has instructed them to do so during seven years of civil war in nearby Syria.

At Kibbutz Ein Zivan, a few miles from the Syrian border, David Spelman had pulled up a text on his phone sent from the regional council just minutes after Trump finished speaking. It instructed resident to be "watchful and prepared."

A population with a pioneering spirit, Golan residents seemed accustomed to being on the fringe, close to Israel's enemies. The Golan Heights was officially annexed by Israel in 1981, but that action has not been internationally recognized.

"You have different level of worries, but people are pretty seasoned here," said Spelman, a former regional council member who has lived on the kibbutz since it was established in 1968.

"There are certain points of time that you have to face things head on, and Netanyahu is doing it," he said of Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

"It's a really tense time," said one regional council official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss preparations. "We are telling the citizens to still have regular life; children are going to school. But our job and the army's job and people involved in security, it's 24 hours. It's something a little more this time."

At a winery on Ein Zivan, American tourists said Wednesday they were unaware that the U.S. government had told its employees to stay away from the Golan until the situation stabilizes.

"Seems like much ado about nothing," one said as he left after a tasting.

Amid warnings of a potential attack, some 62 percent of Israelis think a war is imminent, according to a poll commissioned Wednesday by Israel's Hadashot news channel.

"Iran will retaliate through proxies, sooner or later, against Israeli military sites in the north," Gary Samore, a former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction, said at a security conference in Herzliya, Israel.

But he said that no side is interested in a full-scale conflict, and there is debate in Iran over how to proceed. He said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani wants to avoid confrontation because he is trying to preserve the nuclear deal with world powers. But Iranian miliary commanders want to retaliate for the death of Iranian soldiers.

Rouhani said his government remains committed to a nuclear deal with Europe, Russia and China, despite the U.S. decision to withdraw, but is also ready to ramp up uranium enrichment if the agreement no longer produces benefits.

Netanyahu had been a leading advocate of a U.S. withdrawal, but his military chiefs had been more cautious. Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday. Russia, which is backing Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces alongside Iran, is seen as key in preventing Iranian-Israeli tensions from escalating.

Israel, determined not to let Iran expand its military presence in Syria, has struck over the border at least 100 times during the war, extending its targets from suspected arms convoys to Iranian-linked military bases.

"Iran is not fully inside. It has not yet succeeded in building what it wants to build there, and now is the time for Israel to push back," said Chagai Tzuriel, director general of Israel's Intelligence Ministry.

- - -

The Washington Post's Ruth Eglash in Herzliya, Israel, contributed to this report.Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz - a veteran politician who was running for Maryland governor - died of cardiac arrest early Thursday, upending a crowded Democratic primary race just weeks before the election.

Kamenetz, 60, awoke not feeling well at 2 a.m., officials said, and traveled by car with his wife to a volunteer fire station two miles from his home. They called 911 from the parking lot, and Kamenetz spoke to the operator. But he soon lost consciousness, and medics could not revive him.

Hours earlier, Kamenetz and three other Democrats vying for the nomination had participated in a candidate forum in Prince George's County. He introduced himself by saying he was a "lifelong Marylander and a lifelong Democrat" and said he was "blessed with a loving wife of almost two decades, Jill, and . . . two teenage sons," Karson and Dylan.

Kamenetz was one of seven major candidates running to challenge Gov. Larry Hogan, R. He, Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker III and state Sen. Richard Madaleno Jr. were the only candidates who have experience in elected office.

In the most recent independent polls, in February, Kamenetz scored near the top of the pack, behind Baker and former NAACP chief Ben Jealous. A large percentage of Democratic voters remained undecided, and analysts say they expect most voters to tune into the race in the final weeks before the June 26 Democratic primary.

Kamenetz had more campaign cash than any other Democrat at the start of this year and was counting on a strong showing in Baltimore County - a key general-election battleground - to propel him in the primary. His campaign recently purchased television ads to run in the Baltimore and Washington markets in the final two weeks of the race.

"It really does make a race that was already unsettled even more unsettled," said Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary's College. "He was drawing somewhere near 20 percent of the vote, and now those folks need to reassess who they want to support . . . look to other folks in this race and see if there is someone who appeals to them the way Kamenetz did."

Hogan ordered Maryland flags lowered to half-staff from Thursday through sunset on the day of Kamenetz's funeral, which is scheduled for Friday. "We join with the citizens of Baltimore County and all Marylanders in mourning," the governor said in a statement.

Kamenetz grew up in Lochearn, Maryland, the youngest of five children. He worked at the drugstore his father owned and attended Johns Hopkins University and the University of Baltimore School of Law. He was a prosecutor in the Baltimore state's attorney's office before being elected to the first of his four terms on the Baltimore County Council.

He proudly told prospective voters that he had never raised property tax rates during his 7 1/2 years as county executive.

Known as a blunt-spoken, at times hard-charging politician, Kamenetz clashed with Hogan on issues including school funding and the environment. On the campaign trail, he pledged to fight for Maryland workers, including a push for a statewide $15 minimum wage and an expansion of job-training programs.

He was lighthearted before he entered the forum Wednesday evening at Bowie State University, joking with reporters about having seen them at a different forum the night before. He told the sparse crowd that Baltimore County built 90 schools during his tenure as executive, had rising graduation rates and that "there is no disparity in graduation rates between black and white students."

"I have made education a priority," Kamenetz said. "If we focus again on our educational system, that's how we grow jobs."

State election board officials were somewhat uncertain Thursday how Kamenetz's death will affect state ballots. His running mate, former Montgomery County Council member Valerie Ervin, has until May 17 to decide whether she wants to designate a new gubernatorial candidate for the ticket, said Jared DeMarinis, director of candidacy and campaign finance for the State Board of Elections.

DeMarinis said Ervin can designate herself or someone else. If she decides to run for governor, she will select a new running mate.

Kamenetz's name is on ballots that will soon be mailed to members of the military living overseas, DeMarinis said. He said it was unclear whether his name will remain on ballots when voters go to the polls next month. "Essentially, a vote for Kamenetz could equal a vote for Ervin and a new candidate," he said.

Politicians across the state offered their condolences Thursday, with many of them saying they would suspend their campaign plans as a sign of respect. U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., said in a tweet that Kamenetz was "a true public servant. He lived a life dedicated to helping others."

Baltimore County officials said Kamenetz said he didn't feel well when he awoke early Thursday at his home in Owings Mill, Maryland. From the parking lot of the Chestnut Ridge Volunteer Fire Company, he told a 911 operator he was experiencing tightness in his chest.

Volunteers medics roused by the call left the station and provided assistance, using a defibrillator and performing CPR, said Elise Armacost, public affairs director for the county fire and emergency medical services department. But his condition "quickly deteriorated."

At one point, Armacost said, volunteers were able to restore his pulse and administered an IV to prepare him for advanced life-support measures. He was taken to University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 3:22 a.m.

"By all accounts he appeared to be in excellent health," Armacost said. "He saw a doctor regularly, ate well, liked healthy foods. . . . He liked yogurt and granola."

Kamenetz recently announced an initiative to remove junk foods from county vending machines. "This was not a person who had unhealthy habits," Armacost said.

Kamenetz's funeral is scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m. at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. Hogan and other elected officials from across the state are expected to attend.WASHINGTON - A months-long military investigation of a disastrous 2017 mission in Niger found that multiple individual and institutional failures contributed to a chain of events culminating in a militant ambush that left four Americans dead.

Senior officials, in a summary of their report, cited two lower-level officers for poorly planning operations with Nigerien forces but did not recommend disciplinary action. A separate, ongoing review will make that determination.

Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, who heads U.S. Africa Command, said the team of 11 Americans involved in the firefight was inadequately trained and prepared even before it stepped off its base for the ill-fated mission near the village of Tongo Tongo.

Waldhauser said he had taken steps to better ensure service members' safety, including increased force protection firepower and clarified systems for mission approval.

"We are now far more prudent," Waldhauser told reporters at the Pentagon. "The missions we actually accompany on have to have some type of strategic value in terms of the enemy we're going against. Do they have a strategic threat to the United States?"

The four Americans killed were Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson, Staff Sgt. Bryan Black, Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright and Sgt. La David Johnson. Black and Wright were Special Forces soldiers, while both Johnsons were conventional soldiers assigned to the same 3rd Special Forces Group team.

The report follows months of conflicting media accounts about what happened the day of the battle, particularly regarding the fate of La David Johnson, who remained missing and was feared captured for about 36 hours before his bullet-ridden body was recovered by villagers.

Contrary to some of those reports, the summary said Johnson was killed while returning militant fire after getting separated from other troops.

Missing from the report's presentation was mention of the political controversy generated by the incident, which in an unusual turn pitted President Donald Trump and his chief of staff against one of the fallen men's widows and a Democratic congresswoman, both of whom accused the president of insensitivity as he offered condolences to the family.

According to Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has concluded that systemic problems "must be addressed immediately," suggesting that more far-reaching changes will be made to the way U.S. forces train and operate.

In releasing an eight-page summary report Thursday, the Pentagon withheld thousands of pages of witness statements, maps and other documents and a longer report of about 180 pages. The U.S. military often releases those materials at the conclusion of an investigation, but said it is still working to declassify additional information.

Waldhauser said a review of any potential disciplinary action or valor awards will be carried out by U.S. Special Operations Command. Navy Capt. Jason Salata, a SOCOM spokesman, said after the news briefing that the command has received the report and "initiated a line-by-line review." No disciplinary steps have been taken.

Don Christensen, a former chief prosecutor for the Air Force, said the decision to publicly assign blame to junior officers for planning failures - actions that the chief investigator, Maj. Gen. Roger Cloutier, said had no bearing on the ambush or its results - rather than senior officers was noteworthy.

In addition to citing the two captains, including the team leader, for failing to appropriately secure approval for their initial mission, the report laid out additional missteps. Those included insufficient predeployment training, inadequate pre-mission rehearsal and a failure to use protective gear. The problems were further compounded by communications issues between the United States and its partners and the remoteness of the area where the attack took place.

"These two captains were not the ones who created all these issues," Christensen said. "They may have made horrible decisions. But they were put into those positions by people who knew the shortcomings of what they were doing."

At least five Nigerien soldiers also were killed in the ambush, and others were wounded, including two Americans. They were identified in December as Capt. Michael Perozeni, the team commander, and Sgt. 1st Class Brent Bartels.

U.S. officials focused much of their investigation on how the unit, called Team Ouallam, after the location of a base they used, secured approval for their operations.

According to the Pentagon, the unit set out on Oct. 3 from Niamey on a mission that was initially identified by Perozeni and another captain as a routine reconnaissance mission near Mali's border. No one higher in the chain of command was "aware of the true nature of the mission," the report summary said.

In fact, the unit was searching for Doundoun Cheffou, an Islamic State leader who U.S. officials believed may have been linked to the kidnapping of an American. Later, the men were tasked on two different mission, both of which did have approval from more-senior officers.

Late the following morning, the unit was on its way back to base after an impromptu stop in Tongo Tongo when they started receiving fire from behind.

Soon, the gunfire intensified. Although the soldiers did not know it at the time, they were facing attack from about 100 militants linked with the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), the summary said. The team quickly reported contact with the enemy to U.S. soldiers at their base nearby.

Believing they were facing a small enemy force, a handful of soldiers attempted to launch a counterattack on foot, but soon discovered a larger group of militants on motorcycles and in trucks mounted with machine guns. Assessing the severity of the situation, the Americans began to load their vehicles.

A small group of soldiers - Black, Wright and Jeremiah Johnson - prepared to move out. But Black, trying to shield himself as he walked along the protected side of his vehicle, was quickly shot and fell, the investigation found. Wright and Johnson stopped the vehicle to assess Black's wounds but were forced to withdraw as the attack continued. Shortly afterward, Johnson was shot, then Wright. All three died quickly about noon.

Unaware of what had befallen their comrades, other U.S. and Nigerien soldiers drove about 700 meters south, establishing a defensive position they hoped would allow them to fend off the advancing militant force. Perozeni, facing intensifying mortar and machine-gun fire, ordered a withdrawal.

Survivors told investigators that they saw one of the Americans on the scene, La David Johnson, preparing to get into a vehicle and depart. The sergeant fought back using an M240 machine gun and sniper rifle, but ultimately was forced amid heavy fire to escape on foot.

U.S. military investigators estimated that Johnson ran 450 meters southwest on his own. He sought refuge behind a thorny tree and fired at the advancing militants, who wounded him with machine-gun fire and then, approaching by foot, killed him with small-arms fire. His death was said to occur about an hour after the ambush began.

Investigators found that Johnson was not captured alive by militants or executed, but was "killed in action while actively engaging the enemy," the report said. That assessment disputes an account provided to The Washington Post in November by Nigerien villagers. They said that Johnson's hands appeared to have been tied behind his back, suggesting that he had been executed after being captured.

Reached by phone Thursday, the two villagers , Mounkaila Allassane and Adamou Boubacar, said they stood by their story but both declined to comment further.

The Pentagon released no further details on Johnson's death.

The bodies of Black, Wright and Jeremiah Johnson were retrieved a few hours after the firefight, on the evening of Oct. 4. But the military was unable to recover La David Johnson's remains until the evening of Oct. 6, an unusual amount of time to be missing on a modern battlefield.

The other soldiers, meanwhile, were being pursued by militant forces as they tried to flee. Five of seven men in the car were shot, including Perozeni. After getting stuck in the mud, the troops radioed for assistance and then disabled that equipment. They fled enemy fire to the west through a swampy area, establishing a defensive position until the militants were forced to retreat when French aircraft arrived at the scene.

It's unclear how inadequate aerial surveillance may have contributed to the incident or how a force of 100 militants could have massed quickly enough to surprise the unit. Investigators said they were not able to determine whether villagers tipped off the attackers or were coerced into withholding warnings.

The events around Tongo Tongo generated an immediate outcry from lawmakers, who said they had not been properly informed about activities in Niger, and potentially beyond.

The episode ignited a larger political controversy after a Democratic congresswoman reported that President Trump had upset La David Johnson's widow in a condolence call, saying that the president had stumbled over the soldier's nameand that he suggested that the soldier "must have known what he signed up for."

Trump denied the account, and his chief of staff, John Kelly, blasted the lawmaker, Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla. Kelly, whose son was killed in the war in Afghanistan, called Wilson an "empty barrel" and made a subsequently disproved claim that she had improperly taken credit for funding an FBI facility in Florida.

The controversy was a departure from how previous administrations handled military casualties, and provided another illustration of how Trump has been willing to feud publicly, even with individuals typically seen as beyond reproach.

Johnson's mother later corroborated Wilson's account of the conversation and said the president "did disrespect my son."

---

The Washington Post's Paul Sonne in Washington and Sudarsan Raghavan in Cairo contributed to this report.Saudi Arabia's efforts to ease the burden on ordinary citizens from its promised economic overhaul are taking a toll on its balance sheet.

The increase in the kingdom's spending on wages and social benefits during the first quarter exceeded what it accrued through higher taxes and lower subsidies, helping to drive the deficit higher to 34.3 billion riyals ($9.2 billion), from 26.2 billion riyals a year ago, according to a quarterly Finance Ministry report.

Officials are trying to ease the economy's addiction to oil exports by finding alternate revenue sources, while shrinking the deficit by reshaping one of the world's most generous welfare schemes. The plan is part of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's blueprint to prepare his country for a post-oil era, which also includes selling stakes in state-owned companies, including up to 5 percent of oil giant Aramco.

But the government isn't being as aggressive as some had predicted. In January, it cut energy subsidies and introduced a 5 percent value-added tax. A few days later, it handed out about 50 billion riyals of new benefits, including cost-of-living allowances for soldiers and civil servants.

The caution is spurring uncertainty about the kingdom's proposals.

"It remains to be seen whether the rise in wages will be a recurring feature of the budget, or just a one-off event to ease the impact of the reforms on the population," said Mohamed Abu Basha, head of macro analysis at regional investment bank EFG-Hermes.

Even with the growth in other revenues, oil still made up nearly 70 percent of the kingdom's income in the first quarter. The impact of higher oil prices didn't show in the first quarter because of "a switch to quarterly dividends" but it will figure in later reports, the Finance Ministry said in a statement, without elaborating.

An increase in oil revenue could allow authorities to spend more comfortably on projects to stimulate economic growth. The government -- either directly or through its sovereign wealth fund -- will be the main driver of investment expansion in 2018, Monica Malik, chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, said in a report.

Private-sector investment will "remain soft with the muted domestic demand and the impact of fiscal reforms" on companies, she said.

The Saudi economy shrank 0.7 percent in 2017 mainly as oil production dropped, while the non-oil sector grew 1 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund. This year, the Washington-based lender expects overall growth to recover to 1.7 percent, with non-oil expanding 2.3 percent.

The government also boosted spending on the military and security. A Saudi-led coalition is waging a war in Yemen against the country's Shiite Houthi rebels, who still hold the capital of Sana'a after more than three years of fighting. The war has plunged Yemen into a humanitarian disaster.

Saudi military spending rose 21 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, while security and regional administration expenditure rose 11 percent. Health and social development spending more than doubled, while funding for municipal services fell 46 percent and that for education dropped 6 percent.CARLINVILLE  A 37-year-old Gillespie man has been sentenced to prison for having sex with a German shepherd.

Macoupin County States Attorney Jennifer A. Watson said Wednesday that Associate Judge Joshua A. Meyer sentenced Matthew D. Allen of Gillespie to 18 months in the Illinois Department of Corrections on the offense of sexual conduct with animals.TOKYO - North Korea could be taking preliminary steps to close its nuclear test site, according to new satellite images that suggest Kim Jong Un might be making good on one of the surprising pledges he's made over the last month.

Or, he's making the rest of the world think he is by arranging a performance for the satellites that pass overhead.

Satellite images taken since last month's inter-Korean summit show a steady reduction in the number of buildings around North Korea's known nuclear test site, built under Mount Mantap in the Punggye-ri area in the north of the country.

"At the very least, this a welcome PR move," said Jeffrey Lewis, head of the East Asia program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California.

"Over the past two weeks, five or six buildings have inexplicably come down," Lewis said, citing commercial satellite images from the San Francisco-based firm Planet Labs that have a resolution comparable to Google maps. "Something is clearly happening there."

As part of the extraordinary rapprochement now going on, North Korea has vowed to dismantle the test site, where all six of its nuclear detonations have taken place, this month. But as with so many things about North Korea, it's difficult to tell how much of this is wheat and how much is chaff.

Kim made the pledge during a historic summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, which laid the groundwork for a meeting between Kim and President Donald Trump that will likely take place in the next month or so.

Kim said he would invite security experts and journalists to the North to observe the closure of the site, the South's presidential Blue House said.

All six of North Korea's nuclear tests have taken place deep under the mountain at Punggye-ri, with five of them occurring in the tunnel complex accessed through an entrance known as the north portal. There are two other entrances to the site, the west and south portals.

The last test, in September last year, was so huge that some experts wondered if Mount Mantap was suffering from "tired mountain syndrome" and had become unusable. But numerous nuclear experts have cast doubt on that theory, noting that even if the tunnels leading to the north portal were unusable, the other two entrances could still be operational.

Tunneling and activity at the west portal had been visible as recently as April 20, a week before the inter-Korean summit, according to an analysis for 38 North, a website devoted to North Korea.

There are clusters of buildings at the portals, including administration buildings and a command center, as well as smaller buildings.

The big, main buildings are still there but the smaller, more peripheral ones at the north and south portals, the entrances to the main tunnels, have come down, Lewis said.

This could be part of the preparations for inviting journalists and experts to watch the closure of the site, which, Lewis said, could be as simple - and as reversible - as blocking the portals.

"Shutting down the test site is something they can easily do. It's just tunnels so they can seal the entrances - but they can also unseal them," he said.

"And the tunnels are always going to be there," he added, unless North Korea blows up the whole site.

Still, analysts wanting to be optimistic about the diplomatic process say that declaring the site finished and taking some steps towards closing it would support their theory that Kim is making an effort, just like this week's release of three Americans who had been held in North Korea.

But skeptics say that closing a test site that might well be spent is just cosmetic.

A group of Chinese scientists last month said they believe the test site had collapsed after September's huge test, which caused an earthquake so big that satellites caught images of the mountain above the site actually moving.

North Korea claimed to have detonated a hydrogen bomb, which would be exponentially more powerful than the atomic devices previously tested, and experts said the size of the earthquake suggested that it had indeed been a hydrogen, or thermonuclear, explosion.

Adding to theory that the site has outlived its utility is new research from scientists from the Earth Observatory of Singapore at Nanyang Technical University, who claim to have found evidence that the damage at Mount Mantap was more substantial than other research shows.

In their study, which will be published in the journal Science on Thursday, they argued that by using satellite radar imagery to supplement ground-based seismological readings they were able to gain a more accurate picture of the Sept. 3 test.

Sylvain Barbot, a researcher with the Earth Observatory of Singapore, wrote in an e-mail that the nuclear test last year was so large that "we could 'feel' it from space."

The amount of shaking that accompanied the explosion was so severe that traditional radar measurements were inaccurate, Barbot said, and his team had to use unusual techniques to compensate for significant changes in the landscape.

By using these techniques, the researchers were able to estimate a depth for the nuclear detonation: Around 450 meters, or roughly 1,500 feet, beneath the summit of Mount Mantap. Researchers then combined this information with seismological readings to come up with an estimated yield for the weapon of between 120 kilotons to 304 kilotons.

Much of this range would be far higher than officials from the United States and South Korea estimate.

The researchers also found evidence that a significant part of Mount Mantap had collapsed after the explosion, supporting the Chinese study. A "very large" part of the facility had collapsed, Barbot said, "not merely a tunnel or two."

Taylor reported from Washington.

Read more:

Trump offers hero's welcome to three Americans freed by North Korea

Trump's Iran decision won't stop North Korea talks, but it might raise the price

Pompeo arrives in North Korea as anticipation builds over Trump's summit with Kim Jong Un

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign newsProjects in Virginia, Kansas and Nevada are among those the Trump administration named Wednesday for a new program to sharply expand how drones can be used across the United States, seeking to accelerate growth in a booming sector with broad economic potential but also a range of security, safety and privacy concerns.

Among the winners in a nationwide competition is a group including Virginia Tech, which will work with Project Wing - part of Google's parent company Alphabet - Intel, AT&T and other firms on delivering packages, power-line inspections and emergency management operations. Also tapped was the city of Reno and the drone delivery company Flirtey, which is working to launch an automated external defibrillator delivery service for cardiac emergencies.

Uber will take on food delivery in San Diego's project, which also will include border protection, international commerce and autonomous vehicles, according to Department of Transportation officials.

Last October, President Donald Trump instructed Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to launch a pilot program creating new drone "innovation zones," and Chao on Wednesday followed through by announcing partnerships with 10 state, local and tribal governments. There was an outpouring of interest, and cities and states, working with numerous technology and drone firms, submitted 149 applications.

Government officials point to more than 1 million drones already flying in the nation's airspace, while industry groups have offered even higher sales numbers in recent years. Nimble and increasingly capable drones are generally barred from flying over people, at night or beyond the line of sight of the operator, and drone and technology industry backers are pushing to allow such missions on a broad basis.

Supporters of the administration's pilot program say a key goal is to glean on-the-ground insights from the cooperation between federal, state and local governments so that such expanded operations can become a regular feature of American life. But the effort also comes amid security, privacy, legal and quality-of-life concerns about the aircraft as policymakers scramble to keep up with the burgeoning industry.

The other government partners selected are the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma; the Kansas Department of Transportation; the Lee County Mosquito Control District in Fort Myers, Fla.; the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority; the North Carolina Department of Transportation; the North Dakota Department of Transportation; and the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Reggie Govan, chief counsel at the Federal Aviation Administration during the Obama administration, said the program will give a dramatic boost to the pace of regulatory approvals. "Now we're on steroids," Govan said. The program also "represents an acknowledgment by the FAA of the need to rethink the roles and responsibilities of state and local governments" in managing drones in their communities, he added.

"I think the administration is to be complimented," he said.

But despite the many uses for drones, and what advocates say are big upsides, some officials continue to warn of potential problems, just as with other technologies that have been embraced.

"Look, military, hurricanes, wildfires, ag, rails, Department of Homeland Security - this can be as big as your imagination," Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., told a top FAA drone official in an exchange at a Senate session Tuesday, raising broader policy issues connected with Wednesday's announcement.

"This may be the only time you'll ever be compared to Facebook. But that's the same thing. It's a platform that was all positive - until somebody got ahold of it that wanted to do bad things with it. The same thing could happen here," Tester said.

Tester described how a fleet of firefighting helicopters had to be grounded when a drone interfered with their work last summer, noting the absence of reliable tools for identifying pilots. And he echoed concerns of residents and government security officials about unidentified drones circling overhead in threatening or intrusive ways.

"So I am a property owner that lives in rural America, and one of these damn drones is flying over my house. . . . Can I shoot them out of the air? Is that legal?" Tester asked.

Earl Lawrence, director of the FAA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Office, told the senator: "It is not legal, sir. We hope that we don't resort to shooting aircraft out of the air."

"So, what tools do I have for somebody that may be wanting to do something bad to me? I mean, if an airplane is circling above my house, I call you. You deal with it," Tester pressed.

"You've highlighted our key struggle and why we are asking for remote ID and working so hard on that - because we can't follow up and find out whether they're just clueless or criminal," Lawrence responded.

FAA officials say the era of anonymous drone flights must end if the social and economic benefits of the aircraft are to be achieved, and they are pushing for what amounts to electronic license plates to remotely identify drones and locate their pilots.

A new regulatory notice said the Department of Transportation is considering a rule that could require "several operational limitations, airspace restrictions, hardware requirements, and associated identification or tracking technologies" to address "safety and security concerns from the homeland security, federal law enforcement, and national defense communities."

A second notice said the agency is pursuing a regulatory rollback that "would provide relief from certain operational restrictions" on drones flying over people, a key goal of industry.

There were some were some notable names that didn't make the cut for the pilot program.

Chinese drone manufacturer DJI, which dominates the U.S. market, was not among the selectees, the company said.

"We partnered on about a dozen applications, and given the large number of applicants, the odds were low for any particular company's applications to be chosen," DJI spokesman Adam Lisberg said. He said the company offered congratulations and would "be happy to assist any of them with hardware, software or technical assistance."

Amazon, whose chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns The Washington Post, also was not among the winners.

Chao said "there are no losers in today's announcement," adding that she has asked the FAA to "reach out to many of these other applicants" in the coming months and that they can continue to pursue their projects directly, outside the context of the pilot program.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said the announcements are "an important step in again putting the U.S. in the lead" in drone technology, and that "Virginia will be at the forefront of this revolution."

"We need to be leaders - not laggards - in safely integrating it into our daily lives," Warner said.

The Virginia project, a partnership with numerous government agencies, also will include activities not far from the nation's capital, in Loudoun County, project organizers said. The urban and suburban parts of the county will provide a good counterpoint to the more rural areas covered by the state's effort, project leader Mark Blanks said. That would eventually include package deliveries, he said.

The other partnering Virginia counties are Buckingham, Cumberland, Montgomery, Prince Edward and Wise.

Dan Gettinger, co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, said FAA officials have repeatedly emphasized the value of the data they will be able to collect from the pilot program.

"All these experiments will really build up a library of data they can use to build out the regulations they currently have in place," Gettinger said.In Indianapolis last fall, President Donald Trump pledged to campaign against the state's Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly "like you wouldn't believe" if he voted against the Republican tax plan.

With Donnelly's "no" vote now firmly on the books, Trump is headed back to the state on Thursday at a time when the campaigner-in-chief has escalated his attacks on red-state Senate Democrats - but also at a time when the White House needs their votes the most.

That dynamic is particularly clear with the controversial nomination of Gina Haspel to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, who had her confirmation hearing Wednesday and will almost certainly need some Democratic help to get across the finish line. Donnelly is one of the ripest targets for a pro-Haspel vote among Democrats, but he is almost certain to get pummeled by Trump when the president visits his home state Thursday.

"I don't worry about that," Donnelly said of the political threats from the administration. "When the president is right, I'll be with him every time. But when he's not, I'll pass."

The White House's approach to Donnelly illustrates the balancing act it faces when it comes to red-state Democrats: How hard do you attack a vulnerable senator ahead of the midterm elections when you may need their vote to advance key parts of Trump's agenda, particularly on confirming picks for Cabinet posts.

The White House has made clear it doesn't see much use in going easy on moderate Democrats. In an interview with WIBC, a radio station in Indianapolis, last week, spokesman Raj Shah said "part of the planning" for the White House's midterm strategy includes Trump visiting key battleground states with senators who've been part of what the administration calls the historic obstruction of Trump's nominees.

"We're hoping that Sen. Donnelly doesn't participate in that effort," Shah said during the May 2 interview. "Yeah, the president may have something to say about it."

Donnelly is far from the only red-state Democrat to face Trump's wrath in recent weeks.

Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.), who played a central role in sinking the nomination of Ronny L. Jackson to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, has probably endured the brunt of the recent attacks, particularly on Twitter. But in his role as the top Democrat on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, the second-term Montana senator will be key to whether the next VA secretary nominee will pick up bipartisan support.

In Cleveland on Saturday, Trump went after Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, by tying him to "weak" immigration laws at an event billed as an official tax roundtable. At the National Rifle Association annual meeting in Dallas last week, Trump called out Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Robert P. Casey Jr. , D-Pa., for opposing crackdowns on "sanctuary cities," where local officials decline to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

At another tax roundtable in early April, Trump repeatedly jabbed at Sen. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.), who has been one of his staunchest Democratic allies in the Senate yet has gotten little love from the president in return.

"The Democrats have a problem. I mean, if you look at your senator, he voted against - Joe - he voted against," Trump said at ane vent in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, a state he won by more than 40 percentage points in 2016. "No, it was bad. I thought he would be helpful because he talks. Grabs me; I grab him. Says hello; I say hello. But he votes against everything."

Manchin like most of his moderate colleagues has avoided getting into a war of words with Trump, instead casting themselves as willing to support him when they agree with his policies or nominees.

When asked Wednesday about Trump's comments last month, Manchin chose to deflect and lament the state of "toxic" politics.

"If you're on the 'D' side, you want to attack every Republican; you're on the 'R' side, you want to attack Democrats. I don't do that," Manchin said. "I don't subscribe to it, not going to subscribe to it. He's got to do whatever he thinks he needs to do."

While targeting the Democrats who are the most vital to Trump's agenda could be counterproductive, there seems to have been little downside so far. Manchin announced Wednesday that he would support Haspel to lead the nation's spy agency.

Even if Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., remains opposed to Haspel, Manchin's announcement Wednesday means she will have enough votes to get confirmed as long as no other Senate Republicans defect. Donnelly, who backed other key Trump picks such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, is also still in play for Haspel's confirmation.

The willingness of centrists such as Donnelly and Manchin to support Trump have frustrated their party's base, who believe that no amount of votes for Trump's agenda will insulate vulnerable Democrats from being targeted by the White House during the midterm campaign season.

"Moderate Democrats voting with Trump and the GOP - to promote torture, deregulate Wall Street, and spread hate - are picking the wrong side," said Angel Padilla, policy director for the liberal group Indivisible. "They are misreading the moment we're in as a nation."

But the red-state senators are banking on the idea that voters will be impressed they are willing to work with the administration and are highlighting their efforts to do so.

Donnelly met privately with Vice President Mike Pence for 45 minutes at the Capitol last month, pitching him on "right-to-try" legislation he has written with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., that would ease access for the critically ill to experimental treatments. The two men also chatted about their families, the christening of the USS Indianapolis and foreign policy issues such as North Korea and Syria.

That meeting is one of several Donnelly has held with Trump, Pence or other top administration officials, including an Air Force One ride with the president to the Indianapolis tax speech last September. So when the administration prepares a political assault on Democrats like him, Donnelly shrugs it off.

"It doesn't even cross my mind," Donnelly said. "I view each nominee on their qualifications, get the chance to talk to them about what their plans and their vision for their agency might be . . . and then make a call. If I think they'll be good for the country, I'll vote for them."The San Antonio Independent School District is eliminating about 60 teaching positions  with additional cuts likely  in response to declining enrollment and an accompanying $31 million shortfall.

Administrators began meeting Tuesday with teachers who have been recommended for termination, giving them the opportunity to resign effective at the end of the school year, said Leslie Price, the districts spokeswoman.

SAISD is also looking to reduce the number of school and central office administrators, but decisions about those groups, and the ultimate number of lost teaching positions, have not been finalized, Price said.

The final tally of layoffs will be affected by teaching positions left vacant through voluntary attrition, Price said. More details will be provided when the board of trustees meets Monday, she said in a prepared statement.

This is a difficult and complex process we hoped to avoid through attrition - and we continue to monitor that daily, Price said.

The San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel, the union representing non-administrative employees, had asked the board to keep the cuts away from the classroom.

Its been a very, very difficult two days, said Shelley Potter, the unions president. Weve had a constant stream of teachers through our office.

Declining enrollment means less need for teachers and fewer state dollars. Several area school districts, including Judson and North East ISDs, are bracing for similar reductions. North East ISD officials told their board in late March that the district expects to lose more than 100 teachers through attrition as part of an estimated $12 million in reduced spending next year.

Trustees at South San Antonio and Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISDs are mulling whether to ask voters to approve tax ratification elections this year to raise property tax rates.

The SAISD layoffs are being undertaken as a reduction in force but must be based on performance appraisals under state law and district policy, Price said.

The names of those advised to resign this week who do not do so will be given to the board Monday for a vote to terminate their contracts, Price said.

The district also will use performance reviews to decide not to renew the contracts of an unknown number of probationary teachers, who are new to the district, Price said.

San Antonio Alliance leaders have met with more than 45 teachers over the past two days who were slated for termination, Potter said. Those on continuing contracts have the right to appeal and request a hearing before an independent examiner, she said. Teachers on probationary contracts can file a grievance, a less powerful form of appeal, Potter said.

Many of the teachers recommended for termination thus far have between five and 20 years of experience, Potter said. At least one has more than 20 years, she said. The union had asked for cuts to be made based on two to three years of evaluations, but Potter said only this years performance appraisals were taken into account.

Were seeing decades of experience shoved out the door, she said. I think theres a lot of anger and a lot of frustration. People who feel like they havent been treated fairly.

SAISD employs more than 3,000 teachers and enrolls almost 51,000 students, according to state records. The district saw its largest-ever enrollment drop this year and predicts it will dip below 50,000 students next year. The decline is causing decreases in state funding, allocated based on average daily attendance.

The layoffs are part of a plan to align staffing levels with student enrollment, which has declined at a majority of SAISD campuses. Administrators and trustees have said the cuts will not touch enhanced academic and extracurricular programs, many funded two years ago through a voter-approved property tax rate increase. For example, the district will not halt its expansion of International Baccalaureate and dual language programs, Price said.

Price said SAISDs research department is still working to determine where students went who left the district this year, but data from the Texas Education Agency show more than 3,000 additional children who live in the district attend charter schools compared to last year. The districts enrollment has declined by about 1,800 overall compared to last school year.

While still a substantial loss, it could have been worse, Price said. Our increased options for families have helped to offset some of this.

Alia Malik is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | amalik@express-news.net | @AliaAtSAENThe Texas prison system is reviewing dozens of disciplinary reports against inmates at the Ramsey Unit in Brazoria County after emails revealed a short-lived quota system that required guards to write up prisoners or face disciplinary consequences.

The details come amid other allegations about unfair disciplinary practices in the weeks leading up to a hunger strike last month at a Huntsville unit.

"Every time I think I've seen everything, I see this," state Sen. John Whitmire told the Chronicle. "We don't condone speeding ticket quotas, why would we have quotas in a prison? It's nuts."

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice stressed that the quickly abandoned ultimatum issued by Capt. Reginald Gilbert was not a system-wide directive.

"There is not and never will be any agency policy that sanctions the use of quotas of any kind," said spokesman Jeremy Desel. "This incident is the result of the action of one unit captain which was quickly discovered and corrected by the unit warden."

Any disciplinary cases found connected to the emails will be tossed out, Desel said.

On March 9, Gilbert sent out an email to ranking prison officials demanding that each sergeant turn in paperwork for at least two cases per day.

"Effective March 10, 2018, each Sergeant will be required to turn in at least two (2) cases written by officers for a Level 2 Code 35 'Unauthorized Storage of Property,'" he wrote. "Two each day is my requirement. Remember this is to be done each workday without exception."

Any sergeants who missed their daily quota, Gilbert wrote, would face consequences ranging from documenting the oversight on an employee performance log to formal disciplinary action.

A couple hours later, another prison official responded, noting that the "below instructions will help greatly in fighting a gig," which former union president Lance Lowry explained is slang for an audit.

READ MORE: Convicted killer admits to slaying cellmate in Houston-area prison

In April, Gilbert fired off another email, this time reducing the quota.

"Lieutenants inform your sergeants that I'm cutting the case requirement in half," he wrote, adding that sergeants should keep a "good balance" between two particular types of disciplinary violations.

"This should cut down on the minor cases being given to each of you," he continued. "Make sure they adhere to this or my requirement will go back up."

Less than a week later, Gilbert sent out another email, this time saying there was no case quota for the unit. After receiving an anonymous copy of the messages, the Chronicle put in a formal request for information on April 21.

Four days later, Warden Virgil McMullen sent out a message to lieutenants and above.

"This email is to reiterate the email I had Capt. Gilbert send out on April 6, 2018. We DO NOT and WILL NOT have case quotas on Ramsey Unit," he wrote. "Make sure any and all previous emails regarding case quotas are not being followed. We will follow agency policy."

It's not clear whether Gilbert will face any disciplinary consequences.

Despite official statements, Jennifer Erschabek of Texas Inmate Families Association said "bogus" cases are a systemic problem.

"One of the biggest complaints we have from family members is that an officer has written a bogus case and there's no way for people to fight that because it becomes a he said-he said type of situation and an inmate has no recourse," she said.

In the weeks leading up to the 10-day hunger strike at the Wynne Unit in Huntsville, Erschabek said she'd fielded numerous complaints about "bogus cases" sparking widespread unrest at the unit.

In step with TDCJ officials, state Rep. James White, the Woodville Republican who chairs the House Corrections Committee, stressed that case quotas are not part of the prison system's policy.

"They have a charge to facilitate a rehabilitative environment, and to me that's not rehabilitative coming up with bogus stuff," he said. "If you're doing bogus things then you're probably missing a real security lapse somewhere. I would say we should not be doing that."Tiffany Lynn Elfstrom, 35, didn't know what to think of a series of angry text messages she received Monday morning from her son's teacher at Levi Fry Intermediate School in Texas City Independent School District.

The teacher had texted Elfstrom, "This lil mother f****r is crying like a baby for mommy because he wants to go home. Omg I just want to omggggggg pull all my damn hair out."

Elfstrom received the messages while on the phone with another teacher from her son's school telling her that he wanted to come home. Elfstrom's son is 13 years old and autistic.

Elfstrom shared a screenshot of the text messages on Facebook a few hours later, where they were shared more than 370 times.

IN TROUBLE: Spring ISD principal 'takes responsibility' for comments about special needs student

"I was shocked, also felt disgusted that she would send something like that," Elfstrom told Chron.com Thursday morning over Facebook Messenger.

Elfstrom also spoke with the principal of Levy Fry who assured her the situation was being handled. By Wednesday, the school had fired the instructor.

"The teacher admitted to sending the text but did not intend to send it to the parent," Texas City ISD spokeswoman Melissa Tortorici said in a statement. "No matter her intention, the text is highly inappropriate and does not represent the character of people we want teaching our students. She was immediately removed from the classroom. We investigated the incident and she no longer has a contract with our district."

This is the second time over the past few weeks that a Texas educator has been disciplined for behaving poorly.

Ponderosa Elementary School Principal Shanna Swearingen was overheard saying a disparaging comment about a special needs student who has a history of running from class. The comment was made on April 17 in front of three staff members.

"We won't chase him. We will call the police and tell them he has a gun so they can come faster," Swearingen said.

The comment found its way to a Spring neighborhood Facebook page. The principal ended up reporting her actions to the district and "taking full accountability for the inappropriateness of the comment," Spring ISD spokeswoman Karen Garrison said in a statement.

"We are aware of the situation regarding a thoughtless and insensitive comment made by the Ponderosa Elementary School principal to three staff members. As a diverse district committed to dignity and respect for all, we take this incident very seriously," Garrison added. "While the comment was made in jest, it was inappropriate and should never have been made."

Fernando Alfonso III is a digital reporter at Chron.com. Follow him on Twitter at @fernalfonso.I come from the poorest ZIP code in San Antonio.

 Lupe Valdez on April 11 in an interview with Austin American-Statesman commentator Ken Herman

Lupe Valdez, who ran ahead of fellow Democratic candidates for governor in the partys March 2018 primary, later told a commentator shes better qualified than the other Democrat still in the race because of challenges shes overcome.

Valdez replied to an April 2018 question about why shes the better pick heading in the May 22, 2018, primary runoff with Houston investor Andrew White: First of all, I come from the poorest ZIP code in San Antonio and I had to struggle to get to where I am. I had to struggle to go to school. I had to struggle to go to college. I had to struggle in the military. I was always a person struggling to get further along. I know what it is to have to struggle in your everyday life. And the majority of Texans are still struggling today.

Valdez has long lived in Dallas County, where she served as the county sheriff into 2018. Still, we were curious about the relative poverty of where she grew up on San Antonios West Side.

When we sought more information, Kiefer Odell of Valdezs campaign replied by email that Valdez grew up on Calles Street, which runs just a few blocks, in the 78207 ZIP code in San Antonio and lived there until she went to college.

Odell pointed out a March 2016 San Antonio Express-News editorial describing the 78207 ZIP code, which had been featured nearly 50 years earlier in a CBS News documentary, "Hunger in America."

In 78207, the editorial said, nearly half of the adults dont have a high school diploma. Nearly 60 percent of adults are not working. Unemployment is up. Income is far below the states median level. The poverty rate is stuck at 42 percent. The editorial said: Generations have passed, and its hard to say that life in the 78207 ZIP code is demonstrably better than when Hunger in America was released.

Parsing federal estimates

From the start, we confronted a hitch in fact-checking Valdezs claim; the U.S. Postal Service put ZIP codes in place everywhere in July 1963. At the time, Valdez, born in 1947, was in her teens.

Still, we were able to get information tied to ZIP codes for recent years and nearly 20 years past plus data reflecting on poverty rates by neighborhood tracing as far back as 1960.

With help from Jeff Bloem of the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota, a resource suggested by Lloyd Potter, the Texas state demographer, we downloaded information collected in 1989 for the 1990 Census. Our sort of those results showed that at the time, 51 percent of residents of the 78207 ZIP code lived in poverty and the ZIP code ranked first among local ZIP codes in its raw count of residents in poverty (28,155). On the flip side, three less populous San Antonio ZIP codes had bigger shares of residents in poverty  78203 and 78208 (57 percent each, with 4,234 and 2,901 residents in poverty, respectively) and 78215 (53 percent, 657 people in poverty).

For close-to-current data, we queried the bureaus American FactFinder to fetch estimated poverty rates by ZIP code according to the American Community Survey covering 2012-16. Results: In those years, the 78207 ZIP code ranked second in San Antonio with 41 percent of residents (20,122 people) living in poverty  trailing the less populous 78202 ZIP code, which had 45 percent of residents (5,426 people) living in poverty. According to our sort, San Antonio ZIP codes with the next-highest poverty rates were 78203 (37 percent, 2,343 people); 78208 (35 percent, 1,527 people); and 78225 (33 percent, 4,576 people).

By email, Potter cautioned against reaching conclusions based solely on the differing percentages. Once you consider ACS margins of error, Potter advised, the 78207, 78202, 78203 and 78208 ZIP codes had poverty rates not statistically distinct from each other. 78207 is one of four ZIP codes with the highest percent living in poverty in San Antonio, Potter summed up, and we couldnt say anyone was more poor than the other with statistical certainty.

Potter also pointed us to Heywood Sanders, a University of Texas at San Antonio professor. When we inquired, Sanders had handy older breakdowns of poverty by neighborhood. By email, Sanders provided a 1974 bureau report, based on surveys taken in 1969, indicating that West Side neighborhoods including Calles Street accounted for the citys greatest concentration of low-income residents. In 1969, the report states, 51,215 of the areas 117,800 almost entirely Spanish language residents, 43.5 percent, lived in poverty; the report states that 36.2 percent of residents of the next-worst-off San Antonio neighborhood lived below poverty.

Sanders also checked his records for poverty levels gauged for the 1960 census. According to that data, Sanders told us, the census tract taking in Calles Street ranked about sixth in the city for its share of residents in poverty with worse-off neighborhoods mostly on the West Side, which was once known as the Mexican Quarter or, more colloquially, Little Mexico, Sanders said.

We also inquired into the roots of 78207s persistent high poverty.

Christine Drennon, director of the urban studies program at San Antonios Trinity University, identified a few factors. By email, Drennon said that when housing in the area was originally built in the early part of the 20th century, most of it was NOT deed restricted, yet (it) was situated amongst deed-restricted neighborhoods. In addition, the lots were smaller and the infrastructure nearly nonexistent.

That resulted, Drennon wrote, in a non-Anglo population living in very humble housing which was later redlined and thus denied capital for rehab or upgrades. Due to local and federal policies like these, wealth was racialized, such that today this area is both poor and non-white. The housing was never replaced, thus it continues to house some of our poorest families, Drennon said.

Patti Radle, a member of the San Antonio Independent School District board of trustees, said by phone that shes lived in the 78207 ZIP code since 1969. Poverty abides, she said, but its a wonderful place to live because of the character of attention to family. Affordable housing remains a need, Radle said, and smaller streets lack sidewalks though thanks to citizen activism, many streets are far better than before.

Our ruling

Valdez said: I come from the poorest ZIP code in San Antonio.

Poverty rates by ZIP code arent available for much of Valdezs growing-up years, though figures based on surveys taken in 1959, 1969, 1989 and from 2012 through 2016 show Valdez hails from the part of San Antonio long home to the greatest number of people in poverty. That said, a few other less populous ZIP codes occasionally had greater shares of residents in poverty.

We rate her claim Mostly True: The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information.A man was stabbed to death during an argument with his stepson Wednesday evening on the Northeast Side, San Antonio police confirmed.

The man died from stab wounds at about 5:15 p.m. at an apartment in the 8400 block of Quail Creek, police on scene said.Several residents of a North Side apartment were displaced from their homes after a two-alarm fire erupted there Wednesday night.

San Antonio Fire Department spokesman Joe Arrington said the fire occurred at about 8:30 p.m. in the 4800 block of Gus Eckert Road.

Firefighters had a difficult time reaching the blaze, which Arrington said took about 45 minutes to extinguish, because it was in the back of the complex, which had a narrow driveway.

About 10 minutes in, Arrington said, firefighters requested a second alarm as a precaution.

RELATED: Mugshots: 57 arrested on felony DWI charges in April in Bexar County

The fire had the potential to spread to a neighboring building, Arrington said.

Nine people were displaced from their homes from two damaged apartment units, firefighters said.

San Antonio Police Department officer Jennifer Rendon, one of the first officers on scene, said several people were still trying to get out of the complex when they arrived.

According to police, residents told them there were several propane tanks in the complex and that they heard explosions as the fire began.

Residents said they just heard one explosion after another after another, Rendon said.

Downed power lines were also making contact with a metal fence at the complex, Arrington said, and the were pops caused by electricity arcing to the fence from the downed lines.

RELATED: Mom helps authorities ID teen found slain in ditch

CPS shut down power to the area as firefighters continued fighting the blaze.

After the blaze was extinguished, firefighters worked to make sure no one was inside, Arrington said, adding that there were no reports of any missing people.

Currently were in there working, checking hot spots, Arrington said.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known and damage estimates were not available.

jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSAGraveyards in south county Longford were the topic of a heated discussion at last week's Ballymahon Municipal District.

The conversation circulated around a report on the funding of burial grounds in the Ballymahon MD area.

Im absolutely baffled by that report, said Cllr Mark Casey at last week's meeting.

None of the council-owned graveyards were looked after last year and theres no explanation why the council-owned graveyards didnt get funding.

We should prioritise our own graveyards. Were charging people 750 a pop to go into our graveyards. We should be able to spend 500 per year for their upkeep.

His colleagues, Cllr Colm Murray and Cllr Paul Ross were in disagreement, stressing that all of the graveyards in the local area should be entitled to apply for funding.

Some parishes arent wealthy at all and have to hold fundraisers to keep themselves running, Cllr Murray explained.

The whole thing surrounding cemeteries in Longford is a mess. Some bit of finality should be brought to it. Having to jump through hoops because theres no policy is ridiculous. It needs to be addressed.

Cllr Ross agreed that the smaller graveyards should be entitled to funding every year.

Some graveyards are tiny. I think this is the way we should support them, he said.

Some of them are supported and some of them arent. Graveyards are very special to people. They get great solace from them.

The main issue on the day, though, was the issue of ownership. While the report states that only four or five the local graveyards are owned by the council, there were others where ownership was unknown.

Speaking to the Longford Leader after the meeting, Cllr Ross stated: This is an ongoing issue in the Ballymahon area.

When we looked to the council to get clarity on who owns the graveyards, they came back with five that are owned by the council.

We wanted the council to do a list of exactly who owns the graveyards - the council, the church of Ireland or the Catholic church. We did get a list, but it was unsatisfactory. There are a lot that came back unknown.

If graveyards need some assistance, we should give them some. The council should have responsibility for them because theyre very sacred places.

Cllr Casey stuck to his opinion that council-owned graveyards should be prioritised over others in the area, but clarified that any additional funding left over after maintenance on the council-owned burial grounds could then go to other graveyards.

If people are paying 750 per plot, they should be upkept, he told the Leader.

If theres additional funding, then the other graveyards should be considered, but the council-owned ones should be prioritised.

For example, Carrickedmond graveyard received no funding last year. They do great work out there. Its a council-owned graveyard and yet they received no funding from the council in 2017.

The council own four or five graveyards in South Longford and they should be prioritised and if theres any funding left, then it should be given to other ones.

In conclusion, it was agreed that the council would revert back to the SPC for an update regarding clarity of ownership for various burial grounds in the area.Nature & Weather, Local News, Health & Wellness, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: May 10 2018

Bill Would Help Protect Long Island Sole Source Aquifer.

Long Island, NY - May 10, 2018 - New York State Senator Ken LaValle and Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. announced today that the Legislature has given final approval to legislation which authorizes local governments to enact and enforce local laws requiring groundwater monitoring in connection with mining operations. The proposed law ( New York State Senator Ken LaValle and Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. announced today that the Legislature has given final approval to legislation which authorizes local governments to enact and enforce local laws requiring groundwater monitoring in connection with mining operations. The proposed law ( S4812 ) would apply to local governments in Suffolk County and Nassau County. Both counties draw their drinking water from a state-protected sole source aquifer.

Senator Ken LaValle said, On Long Island, it is critically important that we monitor groundwater and take strong enforcement actions when it is being negatively affected. The Sand Land issue highlighted the need for our new legislation to proactively protect our water. Assemblyman Thiele and I worked successfully to have the measure approved by both houses of the legislature, and now, we need the Governor to quickly approve it so we can preserve Long Islands drinking water for today, and for the future.

Assemblyman Fred Thiele stated, The situation at Sand Land in Noyack illustrates the need for this legislation. Years of regulatory neglect resulted in contamination that would more likely be associated with an open dump than a sand mine. The State DEC never monitored the groundwater and failed to protect the public. This is the most sensitive water charge land in the Town of Southampton, east of the Shinnecock Canal. It is a State Special Groundwater Protection Area. Now the groundwater is compromised by contamination.

Thiele added that the situation at Sand Land is not unique on Long Island. He explained, A study conducted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Suffolk County Department of Health Services several years ago also demonstrated the significant adverse groundwater impacts associated with mining operations. We must take a proactive approach to groundwater protection. There must be a comprehensive groundwater monitoring program adjacent to every mining site. Routine groundwater sampling and monitoring can help determine if groundwater resources are being impacted and will provide an early warning system for groundwater contamination.

Specifically, the LaValle-Thiele legislation would authorize the enactment or enforcement of local laws or ordinances requiring the monitoring of groundwater impacts resulting from mining or the reclamation of mines within counties with a population of one million or more which draw their primary source of drinking water for a majority of county residents from a designated sole aquifer.Local News, Crime, Community, Charity & Cause, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: May 10 2018

Seventy recruits have completed 29 weeks of academy training and have received more than 1000 hours of instruction.

Suffolk County, NY - May 10, 2018 - Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart, and Suffolk County Police Chief of Department Stuart Cameron will preside over the Suffolk County Police Academy graduation ceremony on May 10 at 10:30 a.m.

Seventy recruits have completed 29 weeks of academy training and have received more than 1000 hours of instruction on topics including law, emergency medical training, defensive tactics, domestic violence, mental illness, cultural diversity, emergency driving, firearms and terrorism.

The class consists of 56 Suffolk County Police recruits, of which approximately 45% have previous law enforcement experience, and 14 from outside and associated agencies.

The recruits have already made their mark in Suffolk County as they organized an internal food drive, which resulted in the donation of more than 200 pounds of food to Long Island Cares.People with cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and other chronic conditions can have serious difficulty coughing. This creates not only discomfort, but potentially dangerous complications for the lungs and heart. There are cough assist devices on the market that help, but they tent to be pricey, heavy, and require electric power. Now students at Michigans Grand Valley State University, working with clinicians at Beaumont Health, a hospital system, have developed their own cough assist device that overcomes these limitations.

The device, already licensed out for manufacturing, is made mostly of plastic and vinyl, and therefore quite light. Its manually operated, and therefore doesnt require a nearby power plug. This makes it easy to take on the go, as well as being practical for patients in poorer areas where electric power is not always available.

The device includes a pump, mask, and valves that regulate the pressure and volume of the air flow in and out of the lungs.

Via: Grand Valley StateMarket Overview

The drug discovery process comprises of iterative cycles between chemistry and biology. Natural sources serve as compound of interest in drug discovery for the treatment of many diseases. Over 20 new drugs were launched in the market between 2000-2005, originated from terrestrial plants, terrestrial microorganisms, marine organisms and terrestrial vertebrates and invertebrates.

The drug discovery procedure is long, arduous and costly, which has encouraged outsourcing in the drug discovery field. The drug discovery market is driven by the factors such as rising geriatric population, increase in investments in this field due to the advancements in the field of biotechnology, microbiology, genetics and structural biology. However, slow pace of formulating the drug discovery projects by the government hinders the biologics drug discovery market.

For instance, the main purpose of Novartis compound collection enhancement project for the compilation of a comprehensive chemogenomics drug discovery screening collection is to supply the Novartis drug discovery pipeline with hit to lead drugs/compounds for present and future portfolios of drug discovery programs. There are many drug discovery approaches targeting the cancerous cells by Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Switzerland and Cambridge.

View Detailed Report at https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/2316586-global-biologics-drug-discovery-market-outlook-2024-global-opportunity-and-demand

Market Segmentation

By Technology

o Q-PCR

o DNA Microarrays

o Protein Microarrays

o High-throughput screening

o Mass Spectrometry

o Gel Electrophoresis

o Chromatography

o Protein and Nucleic Acid Isolation

o Other technologies

By End User

o Outsourcing (Contract Research Organization)

o Insourcing (Within the Organization)

By Geography

o North America (US, Canada) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion), Production (Units)}

o Europe (UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, Russia, Poland and Rest of Europe) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion), Production (Units)}

o Middle East and Africa (GCC Countries, North Africa, South Africa and Rest of Middle East & Africa) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion), Production (Units)}

o Latin America (Brazil, Mexico and Rest of Latin America) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion), Production (Units)}

o Asia Pacific (China, Japan, India, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Rest of Asia-Pacific) {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion), Production (Units)}

o Rest of the World {Market Share (%), Market Size (USD Billion), Production (Units)}

Growth Drivers and Challenges

The major driving factors of biologics drug discovery market are high prevalence of genetic disorders, nervous system disorders, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases along with advancement in the field of biotechnology, genetics, structural biology and molecular biology. Increase in health expenditure, highly robust, upsurge in the discovery of therapeutics ventures and populated drug pipeline for novel drugs. Furthermore, patents of drugs expire that tends to make the lucrative market for the existing players. In US and Canada biologics drug discovery market is high due to promising healthy potential returns on investments and high-income population.

However, shift from traditional methods to personalized drug discovery is hindering the global biologics drug discovery market. Delay in government approval for drug discovery and huge investment favoring the shift from market branded drugs to generic drugs are the challenges faced by biologics drug discovery market. Lower profit margins of pharmaceutical companies which are due to the huge investments made on drug discovery and consume time hampers the biologics drug discovery market.

Market Size and Forecast

The global market for biologics drug discovery market reached nearly USD 56.6 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach USD 140.9 billion by 2024 at the CAGR of 12% over the forecast period.

High throughput screening is widely adopted drug discovery technology owing to the fact that it enables portfolio construction of biologically relevant compounds quickly.

The global biologics drug discovery market North America holds the largest market share in the global drug discovery market owing to the concentration of worlds leading pharmaceutical companies. The US and Canadian Government have formulated encouraging policies for the investors to research and develop new drugs.

Request Sample Report at https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2316586-global-biologics-drug-discovery-market-outlook-2024-global-opportunity-and-demand

Key Market Players

Johnson and Johnson

Bayer AG

Sanofi

Novartis

AstraZeneca PLC

Pfizer Inc.

Merck & Co. Inc.

Boehringer Ingelheim Inc.

Glaxosmithkline LLC

Eli Lily

Roche Holding AG.

Infosys

Charles River Laboratories

Albany Molecular Research Inc.

Boehringer Ingelheim GmBh

Covance

Jubilant Biosys

Scope Background

Market Synopsis

Market Segmentation

Global biologics drug discovery market is segmented as follows:

By Technology (Market Size, Demand Analysis and Growth Analysis)

By End User (Market Size, Demand Analysis and Growth Analysis)

Global Biologics Drug Discovery Market Report covered insights of below mentioned regions:

North America (U.S., Canada) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis}

Latin America (Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and Rest of Latin America) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis}

Europe (Germany, Italy, Spain, France, The U.K., Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Rest of Europe) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis}

Asia-Pacific (China, India, Singapore, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Rest of Asia Pacific) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis}

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis}

Rest of World {Market Size, Growth Analysis and Opportunity Analysis}

Table of Contents

Parent Market Synopsis Executive Summary Research Methodology Regional Opportunity Analysis on the basis of Competitors Global Biologics Drug Discovery Market Size (USD Billion) and Forecast Analysis, 2016-2024 Market Dynamics: Growth Drivers, Restraints and Opportunities Global Biologics Drug Discovery Market Segmentation Competitive Outlook Porters Five Force Model Market Landscape: Competition and Beyond Market outlook for business players and entry level players to ascertain their business in dynamic ecosystem Expert Analysis Concluding Remarks

About Us:

Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.

Contact Us:

NORAH TRENT

sales@wiseguyreports.com

Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (US)

Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, May 10, 2018

If there is a Profile in Courage Award for television, then this year's winner should be Roseanne Barr.

This week on her ABC sitcom, Roseanne took on yet another touchy subject and sank her teeth into it for all it was worth. In the aftermath, she was roundly criticized on social media, which doesn't seem to bother her one little bit.

She may have even anticipated the furor when she posted this tweet on Tuesday afternoon, about six hours before this week's episode of Roseanne was set to air on ABC: I like to do TV episodes about REAL ISSUES & REAL PEOPLE. That's what I do. Next season will be even more current events -- I will challenge every sacred cow in USA.

In this weeks episode, Roseanne Conner contended with the appearance of new neighbors who moved in next door. They are a Muslim family and Roseanne almost immediately concluded they could be terrorists, based primarily on a stockpile of fertilizer she observed on their property (fertilizer is reportedly an ingredient used in homemade explosive devices).

advertisement advertisement

Do you see the crazy amount of fertilizer they have piled up near their garage? she asked sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) near the beginning of the show. That's how they make bombs! went the very unsubtle punch line delivered by Roseanne.

What if this is a sleeper cell of terrorists getting ready to blow up our neighborhood? Roseanne continued. Im telling you, this is what people from Iraq and Talibanjistan do! [Yes, she actually said this.] They hide out in neighborhoods like Lanford! Dont you watch the news?

That last question gave the show's scriptwriters an opportunity to slam Fox News. You don't mean the news, Jackie answered her. You mean Fox News!

As the episode went on, Roseanne tried to figure out her neighbors WiFi password by trying possible word combinations such as Death to America and Death to America 123. It turned out to be Go Cubs.

Roseanne needed a WiFi connection because the check she wrote to pay the monthly bill bounced following a financial shortfall. Why? Because husband Dans contracting company lost out to illegal immigrants for a job that the immigrants were willing to do for much lower pay.

In the telling of the Muslim-neighbor story, all of Roseannes remarks were met with pushback from Jackie and daughter Darlene (Sara Gilbert). And eventually, Roseanne got to know the new neighbors and accepted them. She even stuck up for one of them -- the wife -- when she was the victim of ethnic bias in a local supermarket.

The nature of the complaints about the show are by now predictable. A brash character in a scripted show says something that is supposed to be offensive in the context of a script and people who either see it, or hear about it secondhand, take to Twitter to voice their displeasure.

Such complaints have become reflex actions on the part of many people -- the very definition of knee jerk.

Rarely, if ever, is there any context to the complaints or any depth to them. In the case of this Roseanne episode, if depth or context were added to the tweeted complaints, the complaints themselves would fall apart.

Ultimately, the lesson this Roseanne episode seemed aiming to impart was that ordinary Americans such as some members of the fictional Conner family are capable of ignorance and the biases and prejudices that stem from it.

But they are also capable of getting over them too. In this show, Roseanne ends up sticking up for her new neighbor -- which in America constitutes acceptance.

With this new show of hers, Roseanne is on to something. She is turning a mirror on America, and the reflection is nothing if not complicated.by Sara Guaglione , May 9, 2018

The Gen Z demo spends more time reading print newspapers and magazines without interruption than they do on social media, websites and blogs, according to a new study from MNI Targeted Media Inc., a division of the Meredith Corporation.

This generation is always on and they expect everything to be available in seconds, stated Vicki Brakl, vice president, marketing at MNI Targeted Media Inc. Marketers that consistently provide value and relevancy in their messaging, and their corporate actions, will earn Gen Zs respect and dollars.

Gen Z trusts print publications over other media to deliver credible information, the study found. Some 83% turn to newspapers for trusted information and content, and 34% turn to magazines.

Fifty percent wish they had more time away from technology, and 48% wish they put their phones down more.

The generation studied are those born between 1995 and 2012. There are an estimated 78.2 million Gen Zs, making up almost one-quarter of the U.S. population, according to GenZGuru.com. By 2020, they will account for 40% of all consumers.

advertisement advertisement

Gen Z influences nearly $4 billion in discretionary spending.

The study found Gen Z uses streaming audio about 4.8 hours per week, social media 4.6 hours per week and streaming video for 4.2 hours per week Gen Z uses websites for 4.2 hours per week and magazines for about one hour a week.

Over 50% of the Gen Zs in the study state that knowing a brand is socially conscious influences purchase decisions.

Forty-eight percent agree that advertising helps them learn about new products, and 47% appreciate relevant ads and 44% expect ads to be relevant to them.

A majority, 72% of Gen Zs agree that price is the most important factor when making a purchase, and 60% have a savings account, more than any other generation at this age.

Despite the rise of ecommerce, 98% of those in the study buy in a store some or most of the time.

MNI Targeted Media conducted the study online with more than 2,500 students from the University of Mississippi and Purdue University.by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, May 9, 2018

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is siding with Facebook in a battle over its facial recognition technology.

This week, the business group asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to hear Facebook's appeal of a trial judge's decision allowing a group of Illinois residents to proceed with a privacy class-action.

The battle centers on the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act -- a 2008 law that requires companies to obtain written releases from people before collecting biometric data, including scans of face geometry. The state law -- which provides for fines of up to $5,000 per violation -- also requires companies that gather biometric data to notify people about the practice, and to publish a schedule for destroying the information.

Last month, U.S. District Court Judge James Donato in the Northern District of California ruled that all Facebook users in Illinois who had their "faceprints" stored by the company since 2011 could pursue a class-action alleging violations of the Illinois law.

advertisement advertisement

Facebook is now asking the 9th Circuit to hear an immediate appeal of Donato's decision. The Chamber of Commerce is backing that request, arguing that the users who are suing shouldn't be able to proceed because they didn't suffer any injuries.

"By wrongly certifying a class of potentially millions of Facebook users without requiring any showing of real-world harm beyond a bare statutory violation, the district court effectively certified a 'no-injury' class action," the Chamber of Commerce writes in a proposed friend-of-the-court brief. "These types of class actions invite abusive litigation, impose enormous burdens on U.S. businesses, and in particular present substantial risks for technology companies, such as Facebook."

The business group also argues that Donato's decision extends the reach of the Illinois law to activity that occurs in outside states. Facebook had unsuccessfully argued that its photo-tagging feature isn't covered by the Illinois law because Facebook doesn't have servers in Illinois.

The Chamber of Commerce argues that Donato's decision could effectively force Facebook and other companies "to conform their nationwide operations to a patchwork of conflicting and overlapping state laws."

"Allowing Illinoiss decision about how to regulate instate conduct to trump other states views on this emerging area of law and technology ... would erode the clarity and predictability that U.S. businesses generally, and U.S. technology companies in particular, need to operate on a nationwide basis," the business organization writes.by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, May 10, 2018

Gannett on Thursday announced an agreement to acquire search marketing and advertising company WordStream for $130 million in cash and up to an aggregate of $20 million earnout during the next 24 months based on achieving certain revenue targets.

As Gannett transforms into a digital publisher supported by search and analytics services, the acquisition marks another critical milestone, stated Robert Dickey, president and chief executive officer of Gannett.

The transaction builds on Gannetts existing data-driven digital marketing and advertising services, strengthened by the acquisitions of ReachLocal and SweetIQ.

WordStream, in the first year following the acquisition, is forecast to contribute approximately $55 million in digital marketing services revenue and approximately $16 million of Adjusted EBITDA, according to the company.

advertisement advertisement

The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018. WordStream remains headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

WordStream develops online marketing software and provides managed paid-search advertising services. Larry Kim, chief technology officer, founded the company in 2007, but now sits on the board, leaving the daily process of running the business to CEO Howard Kogan.

Kim started WordStream in his 20s, with literally nothing and it has been an incredible journey to watch it grow, he told Search Marketing Daily, adding that "my baby is all grown up now." Through the past 10 years, the company evolved from being a keyword software tool developer to a cloud-based online marketing and advertising company.

Kim left WordStream in early 2017 to start MobileMonkey, a marketing artificial intelligence (AI) company building chatbots for messaging platforms.By Samuel Ssebuliba.

Government has been asked to allocate over Shs 20 billion to local government ministry to cater for operationalization of 195 town councils that were recently created.

According to a report compiled by the committee of public service and local government on the ministerial policy statement, although parliament approved the creation of 195 towns no funds have been provided for their actualization.

The committee chairperson Godfrey Onzima says this has put political leaders under immense pressure from citizens regarding the functionality of these new units.by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, May 10, 2018

The Green Giant, the iconic vegetable brand that is now part of B&G Foods, is taking over some prime real estate in New Yorks Times Square.

Sherwood Outdoor, which owns the twin goal post signs at 1600 Broadway has constructed new 35-by-95 foot LED displays that will feature the Green Giant as well as new products offered by the brand.

The LED displays replace the vinyl-style signs that had featured Budweiser since 2006. The new Green Giant signs are surrounded by other iconic brands that have been featured for decades at 2 Times Square, including Coca-Cola, Samsung and Prudential.

According to the Times Square Alliance, this area has some of the heaviest foot traffic in all of New York City with 135 million pedestrians every year. A recent report by the organization found that the median time spent in Times Square is 81 minutes, with 8 minutes spent looking at billboards. Additionally, 243,358 people in Times Square post about their experience in Times Square on social media each day.

advertisement advertisement

This particular location within Times Square is iconic, much like the Green Giant brand, stated said Jordan Greenberg, Vice President and general manager, Green Giant.

Greenberg said that the firm intends to deploy a wealth of interactive and visually appealing videos and ads on the displays, featuring the Green Giant character and products including its line of Veggie Swap-Ins and Green Giant Mashed Cauliflower. The billboards will also be used to help with future product launches.by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, May 10, 2018

Pressing for dismissal of a lawsuit brought by gift company Edible Arrangements, Google argues in new court papers that its contract with advertisers requires arbitration of all claims related to its ad programs.

Google says in papers filed this week with U.S. District Court Judge Michael Shea in New Haven that its terms of service "expressly require arbitration of 'all disputes and claims'" that "relate in any way" to its ad programs.

The gift basket company, which is itself a Google advertiser, alleged in a complaint filed in February that Google dupes consumers who search for "Edible Arrangements" by showing them ads for competitors. Edible Arrangements claims that these ads violate its trademark.

The complaint centers on product listing ads that appear on the right-hand side of the search results pages and include small graphic images. A link above the ads takes people to a Google Shopping page.

advertisement advertisement

Edible Arrangements alleged in its complaint that users who search for "Edible Arrangements" are taken to 'product listing advertisements' that feature ads for competitors. The company says it has received "numerous" phone calls from customers who mistakenly placed orders with competitors after using Google.

Google responded by arguing that the matter belongs in arbitration. The company says that as a search advertiser, Edible Arrangements accepted Google's terms and conditions, which require arbitration of all disputes.

Edible Arrangements countered that the arbitration agreement doesn't cover its current dispute, arguing that the trademark battle is independent of its participation in Google's ad programs.

Google is asking Shea to reject that position. The company argues that Edible Arrangement's claim is related to advertising, and must be sent to arbitration for that reason.

"Plainly, Google is not seeking to apply the arbitration to just 'any tort,' such as a personal injury someone might sustain walking across Googles campus," the company argues. "Edible Arrangements claims fall within the scope of the Terms arbitration agreement because the claims 'arise out of or relate in any way to the programs,' i.e. Googles advertising programs."Like products in pretty much every category, many food and beverage brands have found the upcoming wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle an irresistible opportunity to, er  engage consumers.

Heres a sampling of some of the promotions:



*Kellogg  which has been the official cereal provider for the royal household during the reigns of three monarchs  tapped former royal chef Darren McGrady to create a cereal-infused, multi-course menu for a royal wedding viewing party at the Kellogg's NYC Cafe on the royal wedding day, May 19.



The party, which starts at 5:30 a.m. ET, will include a lesson in how to create a cereal box fascinator hat, edible glitter, and an appearance by Tony the Tiger. Royal wedding fanatics can go on OpenTable.com or use the OpenTable app to try to snag a reservation.

advertisement advertisement

Those planning their own viewing events can find the royally inspired breakfast recipes (including Kellogg's Frosted Flakes Scones with Macerated Strawberries, Basil and Whipped Froot Loops Cream) and how-to videos at kelloggsnyc.com.

*SpikedSeltzer  whose logo features a mermaid image  is offering a $1,900 stipend toward wedding gown purchases for brides-to-be who select a mermaid silhouette gown at New York City bridal boutique Kleinfeld (of Say Yes to the Dress fame) during their appointments on May 19.

In addition, Kleinfeld has reserved one VIP appointment on May 19, and brides-to-be can follow @SpikedSeltzer on Instagram (through May 11) to learn how to try to snag the spot.

All of Kleinfelds customers on May 19 will also get to sample SpikedSeltzers flavors (above), and a royal cake-inspired cocktail, called Slice of Spiked, featuring its latest flavor, Ventura Lemon.

*Tetley Tea is running a sweepstakes with a grand prize of a Royal Diamond Teacup with a one-carat diamond embedded in the handle. To enter, U.S. residents 18 and older can go to a Tetley Facebook page and fill out a Which Royal Family Member Are You? quiz, by May 19.

Also, U.S. married couples who are named Harry and Meghan, and submit their marriage certificates to sweeps@tetleyroyaldiamondteacup.com on May 19, will be eligible to receive a box of Tetley British Blend Tea each month for a year.

*Campbell came up with a Royal Wedding Soup recipe that includes one of Markles favorite foods, zucchini. The recipe can be found on the Campbells Kitchen website.Unintentional foaming at the mouth is an extremely uncommon symptom and a sign of a serious underlying medical condition that requires emergency medical care.

Foaming or frothing at the mouth occurs when excess saliva pools in the mouth or lungs and is mixed with air, creating foam.

Share on Pinterest Even a small amount of froth or foam from the mouth could be cause for medical attention.

People very rarely produce the large quantities of foam or froth from their mouths that movies or television shows can depict.

Research has shown that even diseased wild animals usually do not foam or froth at the mouth in the exaggerated way most people think.

With this in mind, if even a small amount of bubbly saliva spills out of the mouth unintentionally, a person may need emergency medical attention.

Foaming at the mouth is normally associated with central nervous system problems with life-threatening complications, including coma and death.

Some of the most common causes of foaming at the mouth include:

Drug overdose

When someone consumes more drugs or toxins than their body can process, they may experience an overdose.

A severe overdose may lead to seizures, which can cause drooling or salvia to pool in the mouth and be pushed through clenched teeth and lips.

People with severe overdoses may also experience heart attacks and pulmonary edema (PE), where fluid leaks into the lungs, both of which are associated with frothing from the mouth.

When the heart and lungs are not working properly, fluid builds up around both organs and cells are starved of oxygen.

Carbon dioxide and other gases also build up around cells and mix with the fluid, forming a frothy, light-pink or blood-tinted mucus. This frothy mucus may spill out of someones open mouth uncontrollably.

Seizures

Share on Pinterest Convulsive seizures may cause drooling or foaming from the mouth.

People with seizure disorders or epilepsy can experience a few different types of seizures, each with their own unique set of symptoms.

Usually, only one type of seizure, which is called a tonic-clonic seizure or convulsive seizure, is associated with drooling, slight foaming, or bubbling at the mouth.

People experiencing tonic-clonic seizures have abnormal electrical firing throughout their brain simultaneously.

Tonic-clonic seizures usually cause an immediate loss of consciousness followed by whole-body convulsions.

Tonic-clonic seizures cause a loss of muscle control, which can make it difficult to swallow or open the mouth. During a seizure, this excess salvia tends to pool in the mouth before being thrust through clenched teeth, mixing with oxygen and gases in the mouth, and developing a foamy appearance.

Rabies

The rabies virus is a zoonotic disease, meaning it can cross over from animals to humans.

Rabies is capable of infecting and damaging the brain and central nervous system of all types of warm-blooded mammals.

Rabies is transmitted from one host to the next through the saliva of an infected animal. Most people who contract rabies do so when they are bitten by an infected animal or get the infected salvia in an open wound.

One of the symptoms of rabies is paralysis of the throat muscles, which makes it difficult to swallow.

Rabies also causes saliva production to increase. Saliva may then pool in the mouth and mix with oxygen and other gases when a person is unable to swallow.

The number of people who get rabies each year in North America is very small. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only between 1 and 3 cases of human rabies are reported in the United States each year.

Humans with rabies may not experience the same set of characteristic symptoms that animals do, such as foaming at the mouth, extreme aggressiveness, and hydrophobia or the fear of water.

Symptoms in humans include fever and weakness in the initial stages. As the disease progresses, symptoms develop into anxiety, confusion, frantic behavior, hallucinations, and insomnia.A recent study has discovered that  contrary to expectation  electroconvulsive therapy may be a better treatment option for many people whose depression has not been eased by other interventions. Share on Pinterest A new analysis concludes that ECT should be tried sooner for some people with depression. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which is usually referred to as shock treatment, involves passing a current through a persons brain to alleviate depressive and other psychiatric symptoms. First used in the 1930s, it has since been all but replaced by medications and talking therapies. Although the earliest forms of ECT were as brutal as their name suggests, the modern version is a significantly safer procedure. Today, a much smaller current is sent to the brain in pulses while the individual is under short-acting anesthesia. Normally, the individual has a number of sessions over the first few weeks, followed by occasional treatments over the longer-term. It sounds like a fairly blunt tool, but ECT does work for many people, with more than half of people finding relief after completing the course. Due to the specialist care needed for ECT treatment, its cost, and stigma, it is often the last port of call when treating depression. However, according to a study published in JAMA Psychiatry, for people who have had no success on two first-line antidepressants, ECT might be the best and most cost-effective solution.

Re-evaluating ECT use Researchers from the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry in Ann Arbor took data from large, already published clinical trials. They used modeling to simulate a patients journey through treatments to assess which routes produced the best outcomes. The team discovered that in patients being treated for depression for the first time, medication, psychotherapy, or a combination of both would be most cost-effective. This was also true for people whose first attempt to treat depression had not been successful  trying another medication with or without psychotherapy was the best route to take. But for those with treatment-resistant depression  where two different treatment options had failed  ECT was shown to be the most cost-effective course of action. And, importantly, the scientists showed that patients would spend less time dealing with the symptoms of depression. The researchers found that around half of patients who tried ECT would enter remission (immediate and full relief), and one third of those would relapse after 1 year. In contrast, a third of the subjects experienced remission after their first antidepressant and only 25 percent of the people who tried a second antidepressant had remission. For those who found no relief in the first two antidepressants, a third only helped around 15 percent, and a fourth drug helped only 710 percent of individuals. So, as a third-line treatment, ECT could significantly benefit patients. But, as it stands, ECT is much further down the list of interventions; it is generally considered the last port of call. In fact, the researchers themselves had expected ECT to come in fifth or sixth position.The bacterium that is the main cause of necrotizing fasciitis, or flesh-eating disease, causes widespread, deadly infection by getting the nervous system to stop the immune system from attacking it. Share on Pinterest Researchers investigate the bacterial infection that causes necrotizing fasciitis. A team that was led by scientists from Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, made the surprising discovery while studying the disease-promoting tactics of Streptococcus pyogenes in mice with necrotizing fasciitis. You can read about the study in a paper shortly to be published in the journal Cell, where the researchers also suggest two potential treatments. Should they succeed in animal and human trials, the treatments could be of immense value in containing highly invasive bacterial infections. Necrotizing fasciitis, explains senior study author Isaac M. Chiu, who is an assistant professor of microbiology and immunobiology at Harvard Medical School, is a devastating condition that remains extremely challenging to treat and has a mortality rate thats unacceptably high.

Flesh-eating disease The flesh-eating disease is caused by serious bacterial infection of subcutaneous tissue, the tissue that lies just below the skin, and the fascia, the tissue that covers the organs that lie inside the body. The disease is very rare; each year, it affects approximately 200,000 people worldwide, which includes around 1,200 individuals in the United States. The infection  which can be caused by several types of bacteria  is not easy to diagnose, and it can develop suddenly and spread rapidly. If not treated promptly, it can result in multiple organ failure and death, which occurs in around 30 percent of cases. Following an injury, the nervous system sends one signal to the brain and another to the immune system. The first signal triggers pain sensations, and the second tells the immune system to hold back. Scientists suggest that neurons, or nerve cells, have this ability to instruct the immune system to hold back in order to prevent over-deployment of immune cells that might cause collateral damage to healthy tissue. Prof. Chiu became interested in how this nervous system and immune system interaction might work in flesh-eating disease when he discovered that affected patients often experienced an excessive level of pain that occurred before symptoms developed. Could it be that the bacterium was somehow exploiting this natural dual response to injury to repress the immune system for its own advantage?

Bacterial toxin triggers immune silencing To investigate this further, he and his colleagues developed a mouse model of flesh-eating disease by injecting the animals with the bacterium S. pyogenes sampled from infected human patients. Using the mouse model, they discovered that a toxin produced by the bacterium  known as streptolysin S  was a trigger for pain and the subsequent silencing of the immune system. In further tests, they injected mice with bacteria that had been genetically engineered so that they could not produce the toxin. Though they became infected, the mice did not show the usual pain and neither did the infection become invasive. The researchers confirmed the role of streptolysin S by re-engineering the toxin-producing ability back into the modified bacteria and then introducing them into the same mice. The infection developed into full-blown flesh-eating disease. The team then gave the mice an antibody that blocked the toxin. The mices pain symptoms were much reduced, confirming that bacterial streptolysin S was the trigger.

Underlying molecular mechanisms The researchers carried out further experiments in which they explored the underlying molecular mechanisms of the interaction between the nervous system and the immune system. In these, they discovered that streptolysin S triggers neurons to send a pain signal to the brain. This also triggers another signal to the immune system that causes it to secrete a neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger, called calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), which then holds back the immune response. They also found that CGRP does this by both halting the despatch of neutrophils and by blocking their ability to kill bacteria at the wound site. Effectively, notes Prof. Chiu, this neuronal signal silences the alarm system that normally calls on the bodys infection fighters to curb infection. He goes on to explain that such a response is appropriate when a wound is clean and not infected  you dont want the immune system coming in and inflaming healthy tissue in an attempt to deal with an infection that is not there. But, the strep bacterium takes advantage of this and invokes the same strategy when the wound is infected, allowing the disease to develop unhindered. Patients in the early stage of necrotizing fasciitis often feel an enormous amount of pain but do not show the symptoms that one might expect to accompany it  such as redness, swelling, and inflammation. Prof. Chiu and colleagues suggest, however, that this is what you would expect if, for some reason, the neutrophils that bring on the inflammation and get rid of the bacteria were not summoned.Advertisement

This result and follow-up experiments probing infant speech perception are shining a new light on "how infants develop their understanding of spoken language -- what they bring innately and what is shaped by their experience as listeners and as 'talkers-in-training,'" said Linda Polka, a professor at McGill University.At the 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, held May 7-11, 2018, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Polka will feature findings from a new line of research focusing on a neglected aspect of infant speech development: how babies perceive speech with infant vocal properties.Studies by Polka's team show pre-babbling babies' fondness for their vocal sounds. Even moms' best imitations of their vowel-like vocalizations -- identical in pitch -- can't compete with infants' preference for their own acoustic vocal properties, uniquely formed by the resonance of their very small bodies."Access to infant speech, likely including a baby's own vocalizations, seems to have a broad and significant impact, influencing receptive, expressive and motivational aspects of speech development," Polka said.This work emerged from a collaboration between Polka, doctoral student Matthew Masapollo and Lucie Menard, a linguistics professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal and expert in speech production.Using a synthesizer that simulates movements of the mouth, tongue, vocal cords and other parts involved in generating speech, Menard can create vowel sounds just like those that come from a human mouth -- at any age.To test how infants respond to vowel sounds spoken by different talkers, babies sat facing a screen displaying a checkerboard pattern. They could turn a sound on or off by looking at or away from the checkerboard.After determining infants attend more to vowels that sound like theirs compared to simulations of adult females, the team focused on different dimensions of each sound. A key question was whether babies' high voice pitch, which women often match when speaking to their infants, is sufficient to grab their attention. Or are the unique resonance properties of infants also key?Recent tests with 7-month-olds, the age at which infants are on the verge of babbling, strongly indicate that infants have a distinct preference for speech sounds that resemble theirs in terms of the combination of high pitch and resonance. Infants appear "tuned" to sounds produced by very small talkers just like them. This doesn't mean that mom or dad should give up oohing and aahing in high voices. Babies do respond to these kinds of sounds. Still, Polka said, "Infants' own vocalizations are quite potent; infant speech seems to capture and hold infant attention, sometimes prompting positive emotions. This may motivate infants to be vocally active and make it easier to evaluate their own vocalizations, perhaps energizing and supporting spoken language development."Source: EurekalertThe moment I started writing this story, the first thing I did was ask someone to pinch me, because the news that I am going to share with you guys right now is nothing short of a sudden surprise.

Guys, Neha Dhupia just got married to Angad Bedi.

While, everyone was busy with Sonam Kapoor's wedding to businessman Anand Ahuja, Neha Dhupia pulled off a classic 'Virushka' and secretly got married. Reportedly, Neha and Angad got married according to Sikh tradition at a gurudwara in New Delhi.

The only difference is they got married in Tuscany and here we are still unaware of the exact wedding venue.

Instagram

It's not a joke, she has tied the knot and Karan Johar just confirmed the same with this Instagram post where Neha looks extremely beautiful as a bride. Karan also wrote on Twitter, My darling and most special friend @NehaDhupia who I love and adore dearly is married to the gentleman and talented @Iamangadbedi!! Here's wishing them decades of unconditional love.

While other celebrities usually flood the social media with their cute picture, it's great how Neha and Angad managed to keep their relationship hidden from the world for so long. In fact, none of us even in our wildest dreams imagined that Neha will suddenly get married.

Calling it the best decision of her life, Neha too shared this adorable picture with the caption, Today, I married my best friend. Hello there, husband!

Best decision of my life.. today, I married my best friend. Hello there, husband! @Imangadbedi  pic.twitter.com/a2ePsaXUNN  Neha Dhupia (@NehaDhupia) May 10, 2018

Congratulations, Neha and Angad.Ever wondered how much money do these A-lister Hollywood actors make when they seal the deal for a movie? Yeah, sure, it's worth millions and probably more than any of us would make in our lifetime but still, how much actually? A newly released list by the Variety revealed some pretty staggering information and turns out that Daniel Craig earns more than Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson for his work.

 #danielcraig A post shared by Daniel Craig (@danielcraigofficialfans) on May 8, 2018 at 10:37pm PDT

According to the list, Daniel will earn around $25 million for his next Bond movie, where as Dwayne has a deal for $22 million for his upcoming 'Red Notice'. Vin Diesel earned around $20 million for his last 'Fast and the Furious' outing.

 Variety

Amongst the actresses, Anne Hathaway is leading the pack with $15 million in her kitty for 'Barbie'. Wage gap is a legit thing and even Hollywood is dealing with it right now. Jennifer Lawrence earned $15 million for 'Red Sparrow'.

Dwayne will get over $1million to promote his movie on his social handles as per his deal. If you see the trend, seems like actors associated with franchises definitely earn more.India's longest road-rail project called the bogibeel bridge is set to be inaugurated by Narender Modi later this year. The bridge is of very high strategic importance as it will help India in defence logistics works along the border with China. The bridge will connect Dibrugarh in Assam to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh.

While the construction work is set to be finished by July, the electrical and signaling work will take another two months. The bridge will be second longest bridge in Asia and will sport three lane roads on top and two rail lines below.

Arunachal has long been ignored by many central governments but due to its high strategic value, there has been a lot of infrastructural development in and around the state in the past ten years. Currently, the cargo being sent from Dibrugarh in Assam to Arunachal would have to take a 600 km detour because of the Brahmaputra, which will now reduce to almost one-sixth the original distance.

"Now, to go from Dibrugarh to Arunachal Pradesh by train, one has to go via Guwahati with more than 500 km detour. With this bridge, the journey will be less than 100 km," said Singh, the project head.

The work on the project had started in 2002, however the project had been approved way back in 1996. That successive Indian governments took more than 21 years to finish this project shows the bureaucracy tangles that still exist even in crucial border states like Arunachal.President Yoweri Museveni has promised to avail 25 acres of land in the Kampala and Entebbe areas to an Egyptian investor to start the manufacture of water and electricity pre-paid meters and transformers.

This follows his tour of the production lines for pre-paid meters for both water and electricity of the El-Sewedy Development Industrial complex in Cairos Industrial Park West.

The company is involved in the manufacture of electronics that include electricity and water meters for residential apartments and other commercial and industrial requirements, transformers and insulation.

The companys founder Chairman, Eng. Ahmed El- Sewedy also expressed interest in starting the manufacture of TV sets and computers in Uganda.

The president was in Cairo for a 2 day state visitDeputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Terens Quick is in Beirut today, together with his Cypriot Counterpart, Fotis Fotiou, for a 24-hour visit, at the invitation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lebanon, Gebran Bassil, to take part in the first trilateral meeting between Greece, Cyprus and Lebanon on diaspora affairs.



The talks will focus on exploring the issues on which the three countries diaspora communities can collaborate on now and in the future, given that Lebanon has a large diaspora numbering over 14 million.



The Greek Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Cypriot Presidential Commissioner will also attend and address the opening of the annual Conference of the Lebanese diaspora.



Finally, they will carry out a joint visit of the Greek and Cypriot Communities of Beirut.The 2nd Ministerial Meeting of the Visegrad Group (Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland) and the Balkan EU member states (Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia) will take place tomorrow, Friday, 11 May, in Sounion.

Western Balkan EU candidate countries, as well as Slovenia and Cyprus, are also invited to participate in the meeting as observers.

The discussions will be enriched by the participation of distinguished academics and parliamentary representatives, and will focus of the Future of Europe, Enlargement and Energy.

Following the proceedings, at about 18:30, Minister of Foreign Affairs N. Kotzias, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU, E. Zaharieva, and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, the rotating Presidency of the Visegrad group, P. Szijjarto, will hold a joint press conference.

Media AdvisoryCurrently Reading

50 things to do this weekend in Connecticut, May 11-13DURHAM  The towns Board of Selectmen recently passed a resolution to become a certified as a Sustainable CT community.

In a press release, First Selectman Laura Francis put a call out residents who would like to join the Clean Energy and Sustainability Task Force and town staff on the Sustainability Team to contact her office.

Sustainable CT communities strive to be thriving, resilient, collaborative and forward-looking, according to the press release. They build community and local economy, equitably promote the health and well-being of current and future residents, and respect the finite capacity of the natural environment.

The mission of Sustainable CT is to provide municipalities with a menu of coordinated, voluntary actions, to continually become more sustainable; to provide resources and tools to assist municipalities in implementing sustainability actions and advancing their programs for the benefit of all residents, the release continued.

It also works to certify and recognize municipalities for their ongoing sustainability achievements.

Volunteers are needed for working groups, administration, planning and coordination.

Sustainable CT is a voluntary certification program to recognize thriving and resilient Connecticut municipalities, according to its mission.

Interested residents should call 860-349-3625 or email Laura Francis at lfrancis@townofdurhamct.org. For more information visit Sustainablect.org.This Sikh Marine Is Ready to Sue the Service to Wear a Beard and Turban at All Times

First Lt. Sukhbir Toor applied in March for a religious accommodation to wear a beard and turban and to not cut his hair.Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday the release of three American prisoners by North Korea bodes well for a peace deal that could eventually set the stage for a reduction of U.S. troops on the peninsula.

"That's not something that would be on the table in the initial negotiation" and would be contingent upon the denuclearization of North Korea, he said of the possibility of U.S. troop withdrawals.

"The red line, I would say, is a verifiable, irreversible, nuclear-free Korean peninsula," which President Donald Trump has said he will press for in talks expected to take place later this month with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Mattis said during a Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

"I think that stands as the goal of the negotiation we've entered into," he said.

If that can be achieved, the status of the 28,500 U.S. troops would be a matter to be worked out with the Seoul government, Mattis said, adding that North Korea would not have input on the U.S. troop presence.

Mattis was responding to questions from Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, who said his view is that for "the foreseeable future, our presence in Korea is not a negotiable issue."

In the meantime, the U.S. is going ahead with an $11 million expansion of Camp Humphreys, about 40 miles south of Seoul, said Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, who testified with Mattis.

Dunford said South Korea is picking up 90 percent of the costs for Camp Humphreys and he expects the work to be completed this year.

As reported by Military.com, Mattis said at the Pentagon late last month that troop withdrawals could eventually be considered if the U.S., South Korea and North Korea reach solid agreement on denuclearization.

"I think for right now we just have to go along with the process, have the negotiations and not try to make pre-conditions or presumptions about how it's going to go," he said.

South Korean officials have pushed back on discussion of withdrawing U.S. troops.

Kim Eui-kyeom, a spokesperson for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, called the troop presence in South Korea an issue regarding the alliance between South Korea and the United States, according to a BBC report.

Last week, The New York Times reported that Trump has ordered the Pentagon to prepare options for reducing the number of American troops in South Korea. The White House later denied the report.

At a Cabinet meeting in the White House on Monday, Trump said he would announce in three days the site of his historic meeting with Kim Jong-un, but said the peace village in the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea would not be the venue. Much of the speculation on the site for the talks has centered on Singapore.

Trump said he is being realistic about the possibilities for success.

"A lot of good things can happen; a lot of bad things can happen," he said. "I think it's going to be a very successful deal. I think we have a really good shot at making it successful, but lots of things can happen."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.An F-22 Raptor pilot faces court-martial this October on charges of sexual assault, as well as striking and unlawfully grabbing an individual.

Col. Jason Costello, assigned to the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, is accused of multiple sexual assault incidents between 2012 and 2014, according to an Air Force charge sheet.

He has been charged with violating Article 120 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, defined as rape, sexual assault or other sexual misconduct.

Costello penetrated a woman while she was asleep in 2014, according to one specification. The act allegedly occurred in the state of Rhode Island sometime between October and December 2014, it states.

On an earlier occasion, Costello assaulted a woman without her consent, with an intent to gratify himself, sometime between September and November 2012, another specification reads.

Separately, "on diverse occasions between on or about Dec. 4, 2012, and on or about Aug. 1, 2014," Costello committed sexual contact by touching his victim's "breasts over her clothes with his hands and touching her vulva over her clothes with his hands" without her consent, the charge sheet states.

Another specification under Article 120 has been redacted. It is unclear if it has been removed.

Costello is also charged with striking and harming an individual on two occasions.

In 2013, Costello hit someone in the face, according to a specification under UCMJ Article 128, which covers assault.

Costello also grabbed an individual on his or her arm, wrist and hands in 2017, another specification states.

It's not clear from the charge sheet if there is one alleged victim or if Costello is accused of assaulting multiple individuals.

He is no longer serving in his operational duties pending trial, according to a report from Stars and Stripes.

Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for NORAD and NORTHCOM, told Stripes that while Costello remains on active-duty status, the command has taken "appropriate actions while balancing the rights of the individual."

Military.com was unable to reach Kucharek by press time.

Costello was previously commander of the 325th Training Support Squadron at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, according to a 2012 Air Force release. He graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1995 and attended pilot training at Reese Air Force Base, Texas, the release said.

A preliminary trial date has been set for Oct. 1.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.The White House plans to develop a military spouse working group aimed at addressing military spouse employment issues, a top White House official said Thursday.

"We're going to be doing a national conference call with different organizations ... we're going to start building out a coalition of military spouses at the White House," said Jennifer Korn, deputy director for the White House Office of Public Liaison.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order May 9 directing federal agencies to double down on efforts to utilize an existing military spouse federal direct hiring authority put in place in 2008 by President George W. Bush. The executive order also directs agencies to collect data on their military spouse hiring practices. Military spouse hiring was also a focus of the Obama administration through a program known as Joining Forces.

The new coalition will look to work through military spouse employment issues. Korn spoke Thursday about the coalition and White House spouse hiring programs to a group of military spouses at a non-partisan political action boot camp for military spouses known as Homefront Rising in Washington, D.C.

"We can't ask the private sector to come in, and challenge them to hire military spouses, if we're not doing it," she said. "And that's why we took the first step."

Trump signed the executive order while meeting with a group of military spouses at the White House, including representatives from the U.S. Chamber Foundation's Military Spouse Professional Network program, previously known as In Gear Career.

"We will now ensure that you have better access to federal jobs. By taking this action today, we are leading by example and encouraging American businesses across the country to expand job opportunities for our incredible and talented and highly educated military spouses," Trump said at the signing.

-- Amy Bushatz can be reached at amy.bushatz@military.com.After months negotiating with Senate colleagues, the House Veterans Affairs Committee voted unanimously on Tuesday to send to the full House a bill likely to become the vehicle to qualify 90,000 ailing sea service veterans for Agent Orange-related disability pay and health care from Department of Veterans Affairs.

These former naval warriors of the Vietnam War, called Blue Water Navy Veterans, have been pressuring Congress for decades to have their illnesses recognized as being caused, as likely as not, by exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides sprayed on forests and jungle areas during that long war.

The argument is that surely clouds of the toxin also reached ships patrolling in territorial waters or contaminated water that, once desalinated, was used by Sailors and Marines for showering and other purposes while steaming off the coast.

Veterans who served on the ground in Vietnam or patrolled its inland waters, even for a day, have been eligible for VA compensation and care if diagnosed with one of 14 ailments associated with Agent Orange exposure. But independent U.S. scientists who studied the issue concluded in 2011 that they cant find enough information to determine if Blue Water Navy veterans were exposed.

As a result, VA refuses to presume their illnesses, though on the Agent Orange presumptive list, were likely caused by service off of Vietnam. A lone exception is allowed for Blue Water veterans with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House committee, predicts the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017 (HR 299)will be signed into law this year. He credited the fact that he and hard-working committee staff, for the first time, found a way to cover the $1 billion cost without violating House budget rules against raising a departments mandatory, or entitlement, spending.

The pay for solution identified, which Senate colleagues have endorsed and major veteran service organizations found acceptable, is to raise modestly the funding fee on initial-use VA-backed home loans. VA estimates that the increase will average $2.94 monthly for homeowners with zero down payment loans, $2.82 monthly for five percent down loans and $2.14 per month for 10 percent.

The fee would not affect loans to any veteran with VA-rated disabilities.

We finally got it, Roe said in a phone interview the day after his committee forward to the full House the Blue Water Navy bill, 14 smaller bills to help veterans and also a piece of comprehensive legislation whose title Roe shortened to the VA Mission Act (HR 5674). He described HR 5674 as a monumental legislative achievement to improve veterans access to quality health care. Among its many features is long sought expansion of the comprehensive VA caregiver program to older generations of veterans, although on a phased gradual schedule.

The Mission Act, which has an official title four times as long, was negotiated over months by Roe and Rep. Tim Walz (Minn.), ranking Democrat on the committee, counterparts Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chairman and ranking member on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and with close scrutiny of new VA leaders and the Trump White House.

Roe called it a bicameral, bipartisan package that committee members risked derailing, and returning to square one, if they insisted on amending it.

The bill also would consolidate and reform VAs community care programs and extend funding for the Veterans Choice Program for one year. Thats how long VA estimates it would take to implement community care reforms and streamline seven current programs down to one. Other provisions would strengthen VAs ability to recruit and retain quality medical personnel and also to realign, streamline and modernize VA medical infrastructure.

Roe explained that the VA would remain primary coordinator of veterans care, including for care delivered in the private sector. The Mission Act also would give VA authority to create a transparent, objective process to recommend ways to realign and strengthen VAs crumbling medical infrastructure.

The current caregiver program, open only to Post-9/11 veterans seriously injured in the line of duty, requires that applicants be unable to perform just one activity of daily living, such as preparing meals or showering unattended. Months ago, Roe proposed that any expansion of caregiver benefits to older generations include a tightening of eligibility criteria for new applicants, specifically that they be unable to perform three or more activities of daily living, making VA eligibility consistent with caregiver benefits under Medicaid, Medicare or private insurance.

I still have that concern, Tom Roe said. I havent change my mind on that. But there are compromises made to get a bill of this nature done.

The Mission Act needs to be passed and signed into law by Memorial Day, Roe said, to avoid the current Choice program running out of money, which would lead to denial or interruption of community-based care for thousands of veterans.

Roe observed that the Mission Act is complex and some provisions will take more time to implement than the Blue Water Navy bill. A four-year phase-in period for caregiver expansion, for example, wouldnt start until VA can certify it has upgraded information technology to properly support it. That will give Congress more chances to tighten eligibility if deemed necessary to contain costs, Roe said.

Thirty-eight military associations and veteran service organizations sent a joint letter to committee leaders praising the VA Mission Act, calling it historic and a carefully crafted compromise that represents a balanced approach to ensuring timely access to care while continuing to strengthen the VA health care system that millions of veterans choose and rely on.

Rick Weidman, executive director for policy for Vietnam Veterans of America, signed the letter. A day after all these bills cleared committee, Weidman said older veterans got lots of things we really wanted, first and foremost caregiver benefits for pre-9/11 veterans. Quite bluntly, a lot of our guys are alive because their wife has taken care of them for the last 40 years.

Weidman said he was happy, but not surprised, to see Blue Water Navy legislation advance because Dr. Roe gave us his word that it would pass this Congress. He also credited vet groups beating the drum for the 90,000 until everybody got to the point where they said, Its time to do this. That was the thing with Dr. Roe and Senator Isakson. Lets do this before theyre all dead. 

Despite the careful construction and breadth of the VA Mission Act, which Roe said he wants to rename to honor two former prisoners of war in Vietnam -- Sen. John McCain and Rep. Sam Johnson serving their final year in the Congress  Roe said he probably is more excited about helping the Blue Water veterans.

I made a commitment when I took over this chairmanship that if I did one thing, I wanted to get this done for these men -- their mostly men -- who served. And I think we have. I think we found the sweet spot to win passage.

Roe served two years in the Army Medical Corps in Vietnam War era. His wartime generation is dying off at rate 523 vets a day, he said. Its past due to treat them the same as anybody else who suited up and went to Vietnam.

The current Blue Water bill was introduced by Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) in April 2017 and has 329 co-sponsors. An identical bill from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has half of the Senate as co-sponsors. Roe expects swift passage.

We really worked this bill like no other Ive worked on since Ive been in Congress, Roe said, where we really just pulled the barriers down, went across to the other side, worked with them.

Whether wartime herbicide made these veterans ill cant be proven, Roe said.

I just want to make the presumption in favor of the veterans, in case it is doing that to them, he said. Im very passionate about that.

To comment, write Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120 or email milupdate@aol.com or twitter: @Military_Update.Key

Select Mineral List Type Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Dana Chemical Elements

Detailed Mineral List:  Acanthite Formula: Ag 2 S Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Altaite Formula: PbTe Reference: Railton, G.T., Watters, W.A. (1990) Minerals of New Zealand. New Zealand Geological Survey Bulletin 104, 89 pages.  Azurite Formula: Cu 3 (CO 3 ) 2 (OH) 2 Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Bornite Formula: Cu 5 FeS 4 Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Calcite Formula: CaCO 3 Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Chalcopyrite Formula: CuFeS 2 Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Galena Formula: PbS Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Gold Formula: Au Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Malachite Formula: Cu 2 (CO 3 )(OH) 2 Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Muscovite Formula: KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Muscovite var. Illite Formula: K 0.65 Al 2.0 [Al 0.65 Si 3.35 O 10 ](OH) 2 Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Nagyagite Formula: [Pb 3 (Pb,Sb) 3 S 6 ](Au,Te) 3 Reference: Palache, C., Berman, H., Frondel, C. (1944) Danas System of Mineralogy, (7th edition), vol. I, 169.  Pyrite Formula: FeS 2 Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Quartz Formula: SiO 2 Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Rhodochrosite Formula: MnCO 3 Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Sphalerite Formula: ZnS Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.  Sylvanite Formula: (Au,Ag) 2 Te 4 Reference: Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640.

Gallery:

List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification Group 1 - Elements  Gold 1.AA.05 Au Group 2 - Sulphides and Sulfosalts  Acanthite 2.BA.35 Ag 2 S  Altaite 2.CD.10 PbTe  Bornite 2.BA.15 Cu 5 FeS 4  Chalcopyrite 2.CB.10a CuFeS 2  Galena 2.CD.10 PbS  Nagyagite 2.HB.20a [Pb 3 (Pb,Sb) 3 S 6 ](Au,Te) 3  Pyrite 2.EB.05a FeS 2  Sphalerite 2.CB.05a ZnS  Sylvanite 2.EA.05 (Au,Ag) 2 Te 4 Group 4 - Oxides and Hydroxides  Quartz 4.DA.05 SiO 2 Group 5 - Nitrates and Carbonates  Azurite 5.BA.05 Cu 3 (CO 3 ) 2 (OH) 2  Calcite 5.AB.05 CaCO 3  Malachite 5.BA.10 Cu 2 (CO 3 )(OH) 2  Rhodochrosite 5.AB.05 MnCO 3 Group 9 - Silicates  Muscovite 9.EC.15 KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2  var. Illite 9.EC.15 K 0.65 Al 2.0 [Al 0.65 Si 3.35 O 10 ](OH) 2

List of minerals arranged by Dana 8th Edition classification Group 1 - NATIVE ELEMENTS AND ALLOYS Metals, other than the Platinum Group  Gold 1.1.1.1 Au Group 2 - SULFIDES A m B n X p , with (m+n):p = 2:1  Acanthite 2.4.1.1 Ag 2 S A m B n X p , with (m+n):p = 3:2  Bornite 2.5.2.1 Cu 5 FeS 4 A m X p , with m:p = 1:1  Altaite 2.8.1.3 PbTe  Galena 2.8.1.1 PbS  Sphalerite 2.8.2.1 ZnS A m B n X p , with (m+n):p = 1:1  Chalcopyrite 2.9.1.1 CuFeS 2 A m B n X p , with (m+n):p = 2:3  Nagyagite 2.11.10.1 [Pb 3 (Pb,Sb) 3 S 6 ](Au,Te) 3 A m B n X p , with (m+n):p = 1:2  Pyrite 2.12.1.1 FeS 2  Sylvanite 2.12.13.3 (Au,Ag) 2 Te 4 Group 14 - ANHYDROUS NORMAL CARBONATES A(XO 3 )  Calcite 14.1.1.1 CaCO 3  Rhodochrosite 14.1.1.4 MnCO 3 Group 16a - ANHYDROUS CARBONATES CONTAINING HYDROXYL OR HALOGEN  Azurite 16a.2.1.1 Cu 3 (CO 3 ) 2 (OH) 2  Malachite 16a.3.1.1 Cu 2 (CO 3 )(OH) 2 Group 71 - PHYLLOSILICATES Sheets of Six-Membered Rings Sheets of 6-membered rings with 2:1 layers  Muscovite 71.2.2a.1 KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2  var. Illite 71.2.2d.2 K 0.65 Al 2.0 [Al 0.65 Si 3.35 O 10 ](OH) 2 Group 75 - TECTOSILICATES Si Tetrahedral Frameworks Si Tetrahedral Frameworks - SiO 2 with [4] coordinated Si  Quartz 75.1.3.1 SiO 2

List of minerals for each chemical element H Hydrogen H  Muscovite var. Illite K 0.65 Al 2.0 [Al 0.65 Si 3.35 O 10 ](OH) 2 H  Malachite Cu 2 (CO 3 )(OH) 2 H  Azurite Cu 3 (CO 3 ) 2 (OH) 2 H  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 C Carbon C  Calcite CaCO 3 C  Rhodochrosite MnCO 3 C  Malachite Cu 2 (CO 3 )(OH) 2 C  Azurite Cu 3 (CO 3 ) 2 (OH) 2 O Oxygen O  Quartz SiO 2 O  Muscovite var. Illite K 0.65 Al 2.0 [Al 0.65 Si 3.35 O 10 ](OH) 2 O  Calcite CaCO 3 O  Rhodochrosite MnCO 3 O  Malachite Cu 2 (CO 3 )(OH) 2 O  Azurite Cu 3 (CO 3 ) 2 (OH) 2 O  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 Al Aluminium Al  Muscovite var. Illite K 0.65 Al 2.0 [Al 0.65 Si 3.35 O 10 ](OH) 2 Al  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 Si Silicon Si  Quartz SiO 2 Si  Muscovite var. Illite K 0.65 Al 2.0 [Al 0.65 Si 3.35 O 10 ](OH) 2 Si  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 S Sulfur S  Nagyagite [Pb 3 (Pb,Sb) 3 S 6 ](Au,Te) 3 S  Sphalerite ZnS S  Galena PbS S  Chalcopyrite CuFeS 2 S  Acanthite Ag 2 S S  Pyrite FeS 2 S  Bornite Cu 5 FeS 4 K Potassium K  Muscovite var. Illite K 0.65 Al 2.0 [Al 0.65 Si 3.35 O 10 ](OH) 2 K  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 Ca Calcium Ca  Calcite CaCO 3 Mn Manganese Mn  Rhodochrosite MnCO 3 Fe Iron Fe  Chalcopyrite CuFeS 2 Fe  Pyrite FeS 2 Fe  Bornite Cu 5 FeS 4 Cu Copper Cu  Chalcopyrite CuFeS 2 Cu  Bornite Cu 5 FeS 4 Cu  Malachite Cu 2 (CO 3 )(OH) 2 Cu  Azurite Cu 3 (CO 3 ) 2 (OH) 2 Zn Zinc Zn  Sphalerite ZnS Ag Silver Ag  Acanthite Ag 2 S Ag  Sylvanite (Au,Ag) 2 Te 4 Sb Antimony Sb  Nagyagite [Pb 3 (Pb,Sb) 3 S 6 ](Au,Te) 3 Te Tellurium Te  Altaite PbTe Te  Nagyagite [Pb 3 (Pb,Sb) 3 S 6 ](Au,Te) 3 Te  Sylvanite (Au,Ag) 2 Te 4 Au Gold Au  Nagyagite [Pb 3 (Pb,Sb) 3 S 6 ](Au,Te) 3 Au  Gold Au Au  Sylvanite (Au,Ag) 2 Te 4 Pb Lead Pb  Altaite PbTe Pb  Nagyagite [Pb 3 (Pb,Sb) 3 S 6 ](Au,Te) 3 Pb  Galena PbS

References

Sort by Year (asc) Year (desc) Author (A-Z) Author (Z-A)

Palache, C., Berman, H., Frondel, C. (1944) Danas System of Mineralogy, (7th edition), vol. I, 169. Thames Star newspaper (1891) Sylvia G & S.M. Co.'s Concentrates, Vol. XXIII, issue 7038, 12 November 1891. Fraser, C. (1910) The Geology of the Thames Subdivision, Hauraki, Auckland. New Zealand Geological Survey, Bulletin No. 10 (New Series), New Zealand Government, Wellington, 136 pages. Mataura Ensign newspaper (1912) The New Sylvia Mine Strike, 02 September 1912. New Zealand Times newspaper (1913) New Sylvia Mine, Vol. XXXVII, issue 8327, 13 January 1913. Auckland Star newspaper (1913) The Goldfields. New Sylvia, Vol. XLIV, issue 88, 14 April 1913. Thames Star newspaper (1917) New Sylvia Gold Mining Company, Vol. LVIII, issue 18306, 30 March 1917. Thames Star newspaper (1920) Sylvia Gold Mine, Vol. LVII, issue 14438, 23 December 1920. Auckland Star newspaper (1935) Sylvia Mines, Vol. LXVI, issue 116, 18 May 1935. Evening Post newspaper (1939) Sylvia Reef Company, Vol. CXXVII, issue 91, 19 April 1939. Evening Post newspaper (1939) Sylvia Mine Report, Vol. CXXVII, issue 143, 20 June 1939. Evening Post newspaper (1940) Sylvia Mine Prospects, Vol. CXXX, issue 155, 28 December 1940. Railton, G.L., Watters, W.A. (1990) Minerals of New Zealand, New Zealand Geological Survey Bull. #104. Brathwaite, R.L., Simpson, M.P., Faure, K., Skinner, D.N.B. (2001) Telescoped porphyry Cu-Mo-Au mineralisation, advanced argillic alteration and quartz-sulphide-gold-anhydrite veins in the Thames district, New Zealand. Mineralium deposita, 36;7, 623-640. Simpson, M.P., Mauk, J.L., Merchant, R.J. (2011) Bonanza-grade epithermal veins from the Coromandel and Thames districts, Hauraki goldfield. AusIMM New Zealand Branch Annual Conference 2011, Queenstown, New Zealand.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

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.

Historic gold mine.The Kaiser-Sylvia-Dunedin is considered the same lode, and the deposit borders to the west the Ohio Stream prospect. Only species specifically mentioned as part of the Sylvia Reef are listed, although other species listed for the above locations could easily also be part of Sylvia. The mine was active in the early 1890's, and in the early 20th Century several nearby leases were combined under the Sylvia name.The country rock is propylitised brecciated massive andesite, with some hard bars of unaltered andesite, overall the lodes much jointed and crushed.The lodes consists of quartz-sulphides-gold-anhydrite-tellurides (Au,Ag,Bi) within and adjacent to a porphyry system occupying dilational faults. The anhydrite is associated with other minerals in the veins, and as monomineralic veinlets. Native gold is abundant in the few samples saved from historic times, associated with galena, and acanthite. Gold occurs in cavities in galena. Tellurides include altaite, nagyagite, tellurobismutite, and sylvanite.The quartz veins trend east north-east to north-east, dipping steeply south-east, and show crustiform or banding. It is also described as milky white or bluish, finely crystalline, cavenous, sugary with considerable amounts of pyrite, sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite. Bornite, malachite, minor azurite, and other secondary products of copper is noted in the early days. Rhodochrosite gives some of the ore a delicate amethystine colour.Like many of the Thames mines, early information is in short supply. Taylor and sons in 1877 as the Little Agnes lease produced 2695 ounces of gold. The Sylvia Gold Mining Company controls the lease in 1890, and in some form still owns the lease when reported in 1908. Intermittent mining continues across the 1890's, and the first decade of the 20th Century. Its noted in 1908 the mine is owned by the Sylvia Gold Mining Company based in Melbourne Australia.Information on the New Sylvia Gold Mining Company was found from 1912, with development work and crushings. In 1913, Joseph Senior, and David Christie were killed in a fall of earth underground.The New Sylvia Gold Mining Company was reconstructed in 1917 as the Sylvia Reefs Gold Mining Company Limited, with the double purpose of raising more capital, and excluding thirteen shareholders who could not prove they were British born citizens, in line with War Regulations in New Zealand at the time. In 1920, the company sank a shaft 50 feet below the lowest level.The Sylvia Gold Silver and Base Metals Company was formed in 1935 to take over the Sylvia and several nearby leases. They received a government subsidy to sink a shaft, and cross-cut on the reef. The last mention of the company is 1940.Key

Select Mineral List Type Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Dana Chemical Elements

List of minerals for each chemical element H Hydrogen H  Muscovite var. Sericite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 H  Topaz Al 2 (SiO 4 )(F,OH) 2 H  Aeschynite-(Ce) (Ce,Ca,Fe,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 H  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 H  Jarosite KFe3+ 3 (SO 4 ) 2 (OH) 6 H  Ferrimolybdite Fe 2 (MoO 4 ) 3  nH 2 O H  Aeschynite-(Y) (Y,Ln,Ca,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 H  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 H  Creedite Ca 3 SO 4 Al 2 F 8 (OH) 2  2H 2 O H  Gypsum CaSO 4  2H 2 O Be Beryllium Be  Chrysoberyl BeAl 2 O 4 C Carbon C  Rhodochrosite MnCO 3 C  Calcite CaCO 3 O Oxygen O  Rhodochrosite MnCO 3 O  Calcite CaCO 3 O  Muscovite var. Sericite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 O  Magnetite Fe2+Fe 2 3+O 4 O  Hubnerite MnWO 4 O  Topaz Al 2 (SiO 4 )(F,OH) 2 O  Hematite Fe 2 O 3 O  Quartz SiO 2 O  Aeschynite-(Ce) (Ce,Ca,Fe,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 O  Andradite Ca 3 Fe 2 3+(SiO 4 ) 3 O  Baryte BaSO 4 O  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 O  Brannerite UTi 2 O 6 O  Cassiterite SnO 2 O  Chrysoberyl BeAl 2 O 4 O  Fluorapatite Ca 5 (PO 4 ) 3 F O  Ixiolite (Ta,Nb,Sn,Fe,Mn) 4 O 8 O  Jarosite KFe3+ 3 (SO 4 ) 2 (OH) 6 O  Columbite-(Mn) Mn2+Nb 2 O 6 O  Monazite REE(PO 4 ) O  Rutile TiO 2 O  Spessartine Mn 3 2+Al 2 (SiO 4 ) 3 O  Uraninite UO 2 O  Wolframite (Fe2+)WO 4 to (Mn2+)WO 4 O  Xenotime-(Y) Y(PO 4 ) O  Zircon Zr(SiO 4 ) O  Ferrimolybdite Fe 2 (MoO 4 ) 3  nH 2 O O  Aeschynite-(Y) (Y,Ln,Ca,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 O  Columbite-(Fe) Fe2+Nb 2 O 6 O  Fluorannite KFe 3 2+(Si 3 Al)O 10 F 2 O  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 O  Thorite Th(SiO 4 ) O  Creedite Ca 3 SO 4 Al 2 F 8 (OH) 2  2H 2 O O  Fluorophlogopite KMg 3 (Si 3 Al)O 10 F 2 O  Gypsum CaSO 4  2H 2 O O  Garnet Group X 3 Z 2 (SiO 4 ) 3 F Fluorine F  Fluorite CaF 2 F  Topaz Al 2 (SiO 4 )(F,OH) 2 F  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 F  Fluorapatite Ca 5 (PO 4 ) 3 F F  Fluocerite-(Ce) (Ce,La)F 3 F  Fluorannite KFe 3 2+(Si 3 Al)O 10 F 2 F  Creedite Ca 3 SO 4 Al 2 F 8 (OH) 2  2H 2 O F  Fluorophlogopite KMg 3 (Si 3 Al)O 10 F 2 Mg Magnesium Mg  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 Mg  Fluorophlogopite KMg 3 (Si 3 Al)O 10 F 2 Al Aluminium Al  Muscovite var. Sericite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 Al  Topaz Al 2 (SiO 4 )(F,OH) 2 Al  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 Al  Chrysoberyl BeAl 2 O 4 Al  Spessartine Mn 3 2+Al 2 (SiO 4 ) 3 Al  Fluorannite KFe 3 2+(Si 3 Al)O 10 F 2 Al  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 Al  Creedite Ca 3 SO 4 Al 2 F 8 (OH) 2  2H 2 O Al  Fluorophlogopite KMg 3 (Si 3 Al)O 10 F 2 Si Silicon Si  Muscovite var. Sericite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 Si  Topaz Al 2 (SiO 4 )(F,OH) 2 Si  Quartz SiO 2 Si  Andradite Ca 3 Fe 2 3+(SiO 4 ) 3 Si  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 Si  Spessartine Mn 3 2+Al 2 (SiO 4 ) 3 Si  Zircon Zr(SiO 4 ) Si  Fluorannite KFe 3 2+(Si 3 Al)O 10 F 2 Si  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 Si  Thorite Th(SiO 4 ) Si  Fluorophlogopite KMg 3 (Si 3 Al)O 10 F 2 Si  Garnet Group X 3 Z 2 (SiO 4 ) 3 P Phosphorus P  Fluorapatite Ca 5 (PO 4 ) 3 F P  Monazite REE(PO 4 ) P  Xenotime-(Y) Y(PO 4 ) S Sulfur S  Molybdenite MoS 2 S  Pyrite FeS 2 S  Galena PbS S  Sphalerite ZnS S  Baryte BaSO 4 S  Jarosite KFe3+ 3 (SO 4 ) 2 (OH) 6 S  Creedite Ca 3 SO 4 Al 2 F 8 (OH) 2  2H 2 O S  Gypsum CaSO 4  2H 2 O S  Pyrrhotite Fe 1-x S S  Chalcopyrite CuFeS 2 K Potassium K  Muscovite var. Sericite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 K  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 K  Jarosite KFe3+ 3 (SO 4 ) 2 (OH) 6 K  Fluorannite KFe 3 2+(Si 3 Al)O 10 F 2 K  Muscovite KAl 2 (AlSi 3 O 10 )(OH) 2 K  Fluorophlogopite KMg 3 (Si 3 Al)O 10 F 2 Ca Calcium Ca  Fluorite CaF 2 Ca  Calcite CaCO 3 Ca  Aeschynite-(Ce) (Ce,Ca,Fe,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 Ca  Andradite Ca 3 Fe 2 3+(SiO 4 ) 3 Ca  Fluorapatite Ca 5 (PO 4 ) 3 F Ca  Aeschynite-(Y) (Y,Ln,Ca,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 Ca  Creedite Ca 3 SO 4 Al 2 F 8 (OH) 2  2H 2 O Ca  Gypsum CaSO 4  2H 2 O Ti Titanium Ti  Aeschynite-(Ce) (Ce,Ca,Fe,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 Ti  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 Ti  Brannerite UTi 2 O 6 Ti  Rutile TiO 2 Ti  Aeschynite-(Y) (Y,Ln,Ca,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 Mn Manganese Mn  Rhodochrosite MnCO 3 Mn  Hubnerite MnWO 4 Mn  Ixiolite (Ta,Nb,Sn,Fe,Mn) 4 O 8 Mn  Columbite-(Mn) Mn2+Nb 2 O 6 Mn  Spessartine Mn 3 2+Al 2 (SiO 4 ) 3 Mn  Wolframite (Fe2+)WO 4 to (Mn2+)WO 4 Fe Iron Fe  Magnetite Fe2+Fe 2 3+O 4 Fe  Pyrite FeS 2 Fe  Hematite Fe 2 O 3 Fe  Aeschynite-(Ce) (Ce,Ca,Fe,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 Fe  Andradite Ca 3 Fe 2 3+(SiO 4 ) 3 Fe  Biotite K(Fe2+/Mg) 2 (Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe] 2 Si 2 O 10 )(OH/F) 2 or Simplified: K(Mg,Fe) 3 AlSi 3 O 10 (OH) 2 Fe  Ixiolite (Ta,Nb,Sn,Fe,Mn) 4 O 8 Fe  Jarosite KFe3+ 3 (SO 4 ) 2 (OH) 6 Fe  Wolframite (Fe2+)WO 4 to (Mn2+)WO 4 Fe  Ferrimolybdite Fe 2 (MoO 4 ) 3  nH 2 O Fe  Columbite-(Fe) Fe2+Nb 2 O 6 Fe  Fluorannite KFe 3 2+(Si 3 Al)O 10 F 2 Fe  Pyrrhotite Fe 1-x S Fe  Chalcopyrite CuFeS 2 Cu Copper Cu  Chalcopyrite CuFeS 2 Zn Zinc Zn  Sphalerite ZnS Y Yttrium Y  Xenotime-(Y) Y(PO 4 ) Y  Aeschynite-(Y) (Y,Ln,Ca,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 Zr Zirconium Zr  Zircon Zr(SiO 4 ) Nb Niobium Nb  Aeschynite-(Ce) (Ce,Ca,Fe,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 Nb  Ixiolite (Ta,Nb,Sn,Fe,Mn) 4 O 8 Nb  Columbite-(Mn) Mn2+Nb 2 O 6 Nb  Aeschynite-(Y) (Y,Ln,Ca,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 Nb  Columbite-(Fe) Fe2+Nb 2 O 6 Mo Molybdenum Mo  Molybdenite MoS 2 Mo  Ferrimolybdite Fe 2 (MoO 4 ) 3  nH 2 O Sn Tin Sn  Cassiterite SnO 2 Sn  Ixiolite (Ta,Nb,Sn,Fe,Mn) 4 O 8 Ba Barium Ba  Baryte BaSO 4 Ce Cerium Ce  Aeschynite-(Ce) (Ce,Ca,Fe,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 Ce  Fluocerite-(Ce) (Ce,La)F 3 Ta Tantalum Ta  Ixiolite (Ta,Nb,Sn,Fe,Mn) 4 O 8 W Tungsten W  Hubnerite MnWO 4 W  Wolframite (Fe2+)WO 4 to (Mn2+)WO 4 Pb Lead Pb  Galena PbS Th Thorium Th  Aeschynite-(Ce) (Ce,Ca,Fe,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 Th  Aeschynite-(Y) (Y,Ln,Ca,Th)(Ti,Nb) 2 (O,OH) 6 Th  Thorite Th(SiO 4 ) U Uranium U  Brannerite UTi 2 O 6 U  Uraninite UO 2

References

Sort by Year (asc) Year (desc) Author (A-Z) Author (Z-A)

Gunow, Alexander J., Ludington, Steve, and Munoz, J. L., 1980, Fluorine in Micas from the Henderson Molybdenite Deposit, Colorado, Economic Geology, 75:1127-1137. Desborough, George A.; Mihalik, Peter (1980) Accessory minerals in the igneous host of molybdenum ore, Henderson Mine, Colorado. USGS Open-File Report 80-661. Econ Geol (1988) 83: 266-296. Eckel, Edwin B. (1997): Minerals of Colorado, updated & revised: 13. Junxing Zhao, Kezhang Qin, Guangming Li, and Jinxiang Li (2011): Characteristics of alteration and mineralization in the Sharang porphyry molybdenum deposit in the northern margin of Gangdese and comparison with typical porphyry molybdenum deposits in the world. Geology and Exploration 47(1), 54-70. Shannon, J.R., Nelson, E.P., and Golden, R.J. Jr., 2004, Surface and underground geology of the world-class Henderson molybdenum porphyry mine, Colorado, in Nelson, E.P. and Erslev, E.A., eds., Field trips in the southern Rocky Mountains, USA: Geological Society of America Field Guide 5, p. 207218.

External Links

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

North America Rocky Mountains Mountain Range North America Plate Tectonic Plate

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.

The Henderson ore deposit is located 3000 feet beneath the summit Red Mountain, about 10 miles west of Empire in the Dailey (Jones Pass) district. Access is from U.S. Highway 40 at Berthoud Falls.The Henderson mine, which has produced molybdenum since 1976 (the deposit was discovered in 1964), is owned by Freeport-McMoRan. It is North Americas largest producer of primary molybdenum source. 2007 production was 40 million pounds of molybdenum.The Henderson orebody is a blind deposit of about 300 mt (>0.2%) located deeper in the intrusive complex beneath the Urad orebody. Urad produced molybdenum during World War 1 and then again from 1967 to 1974 when the orebody was exhausted.Both the Urad and Henderson deposits are associated with the Red Mountain Intrusive Center. This is an intrusive complex with more than 20 identifiable pulses of magma. The Henderson orebody was produced from 3 intrusive centers, all of which are hosted within the Urad porphyry. The Henderson - Urad ore deposit is a classic "Climax type" porphyry Mo deposit and many of the genetic characteristics recognized at the Climax mine were applied here from the initial exploration phase onward. The geology is well summarized by Shannon, et al. (2004)Mining has occurred on 3 levels: 8100, 7700 and 7210. As of 2011 production is solely from the 7210 level.Gov. Rick Snyder says he never learned of Legionnaires' disease outbreaks in Flint until 2016, but testimony in the preliminary examination of one of his cabinet members shows almost everyone around him was aware at least months earlier.

Special Flint water prosecutor Todd Flood holds a copy of the notes of Eric Brown, deputy director of federal relations for the state of Michigan, during the preliminary examination of Nick Lyon, director of the state Department of Health and Human Services on Monday, March 8. The notes are from a conference call in September 2015, when Brown said some of Gov. Rick Snyder's top aides participated and the surge in Legionnaires' disease in the Flint area was discussed. Bronte Wittpenn | MLive.com

New testimony in Michigan DHHS director's criminal case renews question

Here's what the governor and his closest aides have said they knew about the Legionnaires outbreak, which state officials have said resulted in at least 91 illnesses and 12 fatalities, and when they knew it.

Don't Edit

Gov. Rick Snyder answers questions from members of Congress during a hearing about the Flint water crisis in this March 2016 Flint Journal file photo. Jake May | MLive.com

Gov. Rick Snyder

Snyder testified to Congress that he told Flint residents about outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease in the area on Jan. 13, 2016 -- the day after he learned of the information himself.

In the more than two years since that announcement, Snyder and his press secretary have stood by that story while some of his closest advisers have been left to explain why they never told the state's chief executive officer what they knew.

In testimony during the preliminary examination of Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon on Monday, Jan. 7, Eric Brown, deputy director of federal relations for Snyder, said he and Lyon were among those participating in a conference call about Flint water on Sept. 18, 2015.

Brown said Lyon told him and others invited to the call, including at least two other members of the governor's cabinet, about a surge in Legionnaires' cases but tempered his remarks by saying 73 percent of the dozens of cases reported were from homes without Flint water.

Snyder said the information from that call and from other meetings, discussions and debates about Legionnaires' and its possible connection to Flint water by state government officials was never shared with him.

But doubts have remained.

Harvey Hollins, Office of Urban Initiatives director, testified during Lyon's preliminary exam he told Snyder in December 2015 of the outbreak.

More than a year after his original testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, members of Congress asked the governor again to supply them with "any information you have concerning the date upon which you first learned of the Legionnaires' disease" outbreak in Flint.

Just hours after the committee's request, Snyder replied in a letter, "While you have offered for me to clarify my sworn testimony, I do not believe there is any reason to do so."

Lyon's attorney said his client fulfilled his duty by reporting what he knew to some of the governor's most trusted aides, including then Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore.

"He gave notice to the governor, about the legionella outbreaks," attorney Larry Willey told Genesee District Court Judge David Goggins on Monday, May 7.

Lyon's preliminary exam is still pending in District Court.

Don't Edit

Dennis Muchmore, former chief of staff for Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, is an attorney at Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP. He received the Michigan Natural Resources Commission Thomas L. Washington Lifetime Commitment to Conservation Award in Dec. 2016. DNR photo | Matthew Clara

Former Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore

Dennis Muchmore, Snyder's former chief of staff, was listed as a participant in the Sept. 18 conference call that Brown testified about in Lyon's preliminary examination this week.

But Muchmore told MLive-The Flint Journal that he couldn't comment on the call or whether information was shared with Snyder because he has "no recollection of" the call.

Muchmore called Brown's account of the discussion "news to me," in an email.

Willey said that by telling Muchmore, Lyon did his job by delivering information about the outbreak to the chief of staff 16 weeks before Snyder has said he learned of the issue.

Muchmore's name has been mentioned previously in connection to the Flint area Legionnaires' outbreaks.

Appearing on the public television show "Off the Record" just a few days after Snyder's announcement to the public, Muchmore said the governor hadn't been briefed on the outbreaks, which followed a change in the Flint's water source for the first time in decades.

The change was made while the city was being run by an emergency manager appointed by the governor.

Muchmore told "Off the Record" at the time that Snyder should have been told earlier but "important information flow, isn't always forthcoming."

Don't Edit

Dick Posthumus, chief of staff for Gov. Rick Snyder, is shown during an appearance in Grand Rapids in this 2014 MLive file photo.

Current Chief of Staff Dick Posthumus

Current Chief of Staff and former Lt. Governor Dick Posthumus' name had not been mentioned in connection with Legionnaires' outbreaks in Flint until this week.

But Posthumus, who served as a senior adviser to Snyder during the water crisis, was among those listed in court documents as a "participant" in the Sept. 18 conference call.

Under questioning in court, Brown said he couldn't be sure Posthumus participated in the meeting.

Anna Heaton, Snyder's press secretary, would not say whether Posthumus was involved in the conference call and did not respond to a request from MLive-The Flint Journal for an interview.

Heaton said in an email that it's "not appropriate for us to comment on the investigation or clarify testimony."

According to state records, Posthumus hosted a meeting about Flint water involving multiple state agencies in January 2015 -- after DHHS officials were aware of a rising number of Legionnaires' cases in the county and suspicions the increase was connected to Flint's water.

Emergency mangers appointed by Snyder made a series of decisions between 2011 and 2014 that led to a change in the city's water source from pre-treated Lake Huron water from the city of Detroit to the Flint River.

Posthumus has previously cited poor information flow as a reason why lead levels were allowed to steadily rise in Flint without coming to the attention of the governor.

Don't Edit

Rich Baird, Gov. Rick Snyder's senior adviser, is shown at a 2017 water town hall meeting in this Flint Journal file photo. Jake May | MLive.com

Transformation Manger Rich Baird

Transformation Manager Rich Baird identified himself as the governor's point man on Flint water issues but it's not clear when he became aware of Legionnaires' problems in Genesee County and whether he shared what he knew with Snyder.

Hollins has testified that he and Baird met with a representative or representatives of the Flint Water Task Force "right before Christmas" 2015 and were told of the extent of the outbreaks.

That's weeks before Snyder has said the information was shared with him.

Brown said he couldn't say whether Baird participated in the Sept. 18, 2015, conference call in which he said Lyon talked about Legionnaires' and Flint water.

Heaton would not clarify whether Baird participated in the conference call and did not respond to a request for interview with Baird.

In an email, the press secretary said it's "not appropriate for us to comment on the investigation or clarify testimony."

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Harvey Hollins, director of the Michigan Office or Urban Initiatives, testifies as a witness during the preliminary examination of Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017, in Genesee District Court in this Flint Journal file photo.

Harvey Hollins, Office of Urban Initiatives director

Hollins was the first state government employee to contradict Snyder's congressional testimony about when he became aware of the rising rate of Legionnaires' cases while the city used Flint River water.

The conflict has never been resolved.

Testifying in the Lyon preliminary exam in October, Hollins said he told Snyder about Legionnaires' problems in December 2015, weeks before the governor has said he was first made aware of the issue.

The director has said he would have shared similar information about the outbreaks sooner but assumed officials with the state Department of Environmental Quality and DHHS had already done so.

A former Wayne State University vice president, Hollins has been a part of Snyder's executive office since 2011 and has been a key figure in water issues in Flint.

Hollins was among state officials who received an email in March 2015 from Brad Wurfel, then communications director for the DEQ, about a "significant uptick" in Legionnaires' cases in the Flint area.

Don't Edit

Attorney Larry Willey (left) and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon are shown in Genesee District Court during the preliminary examination for Lyon on Monday, May 7, 2018. Bronte Wittpenn | The Flint Journal

DHHS Director Nick Lyon

Lyon and Dr. Eden Wells, Michigan chief medical executive, were the two public health officials who appeared with Snyder when he announced the Genesee County Legionnaires' outbreaks on Jan. 13, 2016.

Lyon and experts in his office were aware of a sudden, sharp spike in the number of cases of the disease by summer 2014, just months after the city's water source was changed.

The director is facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and misconduct in office because of his handling of and involvement in the outbreaks, and prosecutors have said he failed to notify the public or Snyder, allowing the epidemic to continue.

Snyder later criticized DHHS for having waited so long to inform him of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called one of the largest outbreaks of Legionnaires' in the nation in the past decade.

WIlley told Genesee District Court Judge David Goggins this week that his client fulfilled his responsibilities when he informed Muchmore of the situation in the Sept, 18, 2015, conference call.

Don't Edit

Dr. Eden Wells, chief medical executive for the state of Michigan, appears in Genesee District Court for the first day of her preliminary examination on Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, in this Flint Journal file photo.

Dr. Eden Wells, chief medical executive

Wells is accused of crimes including involuntary manslaughter for her role in the water crisis, specifically what she did and did not do about Legionnaires' issues.

She appeared with Snyder and Lyon when the governor made the outbreaks public after 15 months of silence from city, county, state and federal officials.

At the time, Wells explained her decision not to inform Snyder about the rapid spread of the disease here by saying such information isn't typically shared with the governor while an investigation is ongoing.

DHHS has never acknowledged a connection between Flint water and Legionnaires, but separate academic studies have identified the city's troubled water supply as the trigger to the outbreaks.

Don't Edit

Former Flint Emergency Manager Gerald Ambrose appears in Genesee District Court on Jan. 25, 2018, to waive a preliminary examination in this Flint Journal file photo.

Former Emergency Manager Gerald Ambrose

Gerald Ambrose, the final Flint emergency manager appointed by Snyder, was warned of a potential Legionella bacteria crisis in the city in an email from the county Health Department in March 2015, but has said he never reported the information to the governor.

Instead, Ambrose continued to defend the quality of Flint water, never sharing what he was told about Legionnaires', while residents questioned the water's safety.

Two weeks after he was told of the concerns about Legionnaires', Ambrose called treated Flint River water "safe by all ... standards."

He was later charged by Attorney General Bill Schuette with false pretenses, conspiracy to commit false pretenses, willful neglect of duty and misconduct in office.

Ambrose told congressional investigators in March 2016 that he never had a conversation with the governor about any subject, including Flint water.

Don't Edit

Former Michigan Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Brad Wurfel in shown in an undated MLive file photo.

Brad Wurfel, former DEQ communications director

Wurfel communicated directly with two different press secretaries for Snyder, specifically about Legionnaires' and Flint water.

In an email exchange with then Assistant Press Secretary Dave Murray, Wurfel said he didn't want his boss -- then DEQ Director Dan Wyant -- to say that Flint water was safe until epidemiological trace work on 42 cases of Legionnaires' disease in the county was completed.

Wurfel and Wyant resigned from their positions in December 2015, just weeks before Snyder's Legionnaires' announcement.

Wurfel also sent an email to his wife, Sara Wurfel, the governor's press secretary at the time, in March 2015.

The email alerted Wurfel and Murray that a county Health Department official was warning of a possible connection between spikes in Legionnaires' cases and Flint water in an effort to provide his own agency with "political flank cover."

That same month, he warned Hollins and others about a "significant uptick" in Legionnaires' cases in the Flint area.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Sara Wurfel, former press secretary to Gov. Rick Snyder, is shown in this state of Michigan photo.

Sara Wurfel, former press secretary to Snyder

Sara Wurfel received information about Legionnaires' and Flint from her her husband, Brad Wurfel, in a March 2015 email.

She told MLive-The Flint Journal a year later that she "worked hard to identify and elevate important issues -- including and especially water quality in Flint as issues and questions arose -- to the executive office."

Sara Wurfel said she "routinely flagged topics of concern for review and discussion" but would not comment on Snyder's assertion that Legionnaires' information never reached him until 2016.

She resigned from her position late in 2016.

Don't Edit

Dave Murray, then press secretary for Gov. Rick Snyder, tests the microphone moments before Snyder enters the room to announce a request for $30 million in the 2016-17 state budget as a refund to Flint residents for water bills in relation the the Flint water crisis in this Flint Journal file photo.

Dave Murray, former press secretary to Snyder

Murray, a former deputy and press secretary to Snyder, received information about Legionnaires and Flint in the form of an email from Brad Wurfel on Jan. 28, 2015.

Three days later, Murray sent a detailed memo about Flint water to Snyder in advance of the governor announcing a grant for the city to improve the water system.

The memo did not mention Legionnaires' disease.How exactly to compose A good book report: Step-by-Step Writing Guide with a few ideas for each Grade and Subject

We have for a long time provided quality book reports documents to students in higher and reduced scholastic amounts. Our essay composing company has managed to be the very best online essay writing business due to few reasons. We now have qualified staff that constantly provides quality and initial report help that is writing. One more thing is the fact that we are aimed at our work and that has additionally played a major role in making our company famous. If youd like documents written in various academic essay composing styles, our essay writing solutions is where you need to spot order. We offer prompt book reports papers aside from your urgency and location of ones assignment.

Pupils suffer a whole lot whenever searching quality online essay composing companies. To obtain an ongoing business that will supply you with custom essays has turned to become a dream. Our essay writing company is really a universal book reports papers company that is writing. We have qualified article writers from various universities whom assist us write college guide reports documents along with other essays that are academic. Our writings are original and affordable and thats the reason we are receiving clients now after which. Providing quality book reports papers at a price that is affordable made students trust our composing site and thats why they place other academic instructions with your company. We not only provide premium book reports papers writings but we additionally assist students with sample academic papers to be able to boost their essay writing skills.

Are you in problem of writing your MLA design papers? Our essay writing services has qualified writers whove been trained on the best way to write book reports papers utilizing various essay that is browse around here academic such as for instance APA, MLA, Harvard and Turabian and others. Your APA style papers is supposed to be published by qualified writers who will not only offer you writing services but additionally guide and tips of composing initial guide reports documents. All our book reports documents are clear of grammar errors or errors due to the fact we employ authors from United States and UK. Our business accommodates all pupils through the planet simply because we now have other essay authors who provides book reports documents solutions utilizing other languages such as for example Spanish and French just to say but a few. Our expert authors guarantee you prompt solutions just they offer book reports essays which are premium because they are available throughout and with the help of our editors.

Why should you purchase your book reports papers from our essay company that is writing? One thing that students should understand is the fact that most companies that are online here to help make money. Getting custom essay business is uncommon so when you can get it you could save money than you thought. Our essay composing company accommodates your problems by providing quality book reports papers at a high price that will be justified. Our reports are often initial simply we use for writing are academic related because we follow your instructions and materials which. Our essay writing services can there be to offer you premium book reports documents therefore you want in your college life that you can get whatever. Get us and you shall be provided by us using the most readily useful.

:  Representataive Image

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) today signed a Rs 945-crore deal with the Harris Corporation of the US for development of its futuristic telecommunications infrastructure (FTI) programme.

The 15-year contract was signed at the sixth edition of the US-India aviation summit, which began here today.

The implementation of FTI network in the long run would result inenhanced air trafficsafety, increase in airspace capacityand accommodating the aircraft tomore economical and environment friendly flight levels, the AAI said in a release.

Under this, all telecommunication links and each network equipment across the AAI airports will be centrally monitored 24/7 for immediate response to fix any outages.

In April 2016, multiple radars and a vital VHF-radio link at Kolkata's airport went off due to a glitch in BSNL network, giving jitters to the air traffic control officers.

As part of the deal, Harris Corporation will serve as the prime contractor and systems integrator for the programme, which is to be implemented over a period of two years.

Harris Corporation will upgrade network operations, enhance security and improve the performance, reliability and quality of the air traffic management communications network, while reducing telecommunications costs, the AAI said.

"India's exponential air traffic growth is creating demand for new aircraft, air navigation technologies, airport security equipment and infrastructure.

"The futuristic telecommunications infrastructure provides a dedicated nationwide telecommunication network to support air traffic management operations, with an emphasis on safety and high reliability and the ability to expand for growth," AAI chirman Guruprasad Mohapatra said.

The FTI project willprovide high availability of SLA-based telecommunication links usinglatest technology and communications infrastructure at each AAI location.

"The new secure, purpose-built network will meet the demands of India's rapid aviation growth and lay the foundation for future ATM opportunities for Harris in other geographies with high air traffic growth," Harris Electronic Systems' vice-president and general manager for mission networks, Rick Simonian said.

Performance of all telecommunication links will be continuously monitored at network operation control centres (NOCCs) at Delhi and Bangalore for various performance parameters to meet the global ATM application performance requirement, while security operation control centres (SOCCs) will protect the network from cyber threats, the release said.

"All service connections and each equipment will be security hardened, monitored, and safeguarded against intrusion 24/7 with constant system updates against latest security threats," the AAI said.

The new system will also play a key role in deployment of remote towers for managing air traffic services at RCS airports, according to the airports operator.

Remote and virtual tower (RVT) is a new concept where air traffic service at an airport is performed somewhere else, thereby, dispensing with the need for a tower on its premises.

A large number of airports are set to be connected under the government's ambitious UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme, and AAI has plans to deploy RVTs at some of these airports.Most retailers report that their business was a complete washout in April due to localised lockdowns across the country.

live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Arvind's consolidated numbers for the quarter and fiscal year ended March 2018 were quite decent and the company saw its branded apparel business improving further over the period.

But now that it has declared its earnings, the company's proposed demerger, which would involve listing the engineering and branded apparel businesses separately, should bring the focus back to its textiles business.

Arvinds textiles business has been steadily evolving into a less capital-intensive and higher-ROCE (return on capital employed) garment division, with a reduced focus on commodity denim. Advanced materials (technical textile) is a business with high entry barriers and high margins, and is likely to be the next driver of growth for the company. While the stock has had a good run so far, its future looks promising too. So any weakness in the scrip should be used to accumulate it.

In the quarter gone by, the companys overall sales grew on the back of improved offtake in all its segments. However, prima facie, a rise in cotton prices impacted the textile segments margins.

Arvinds branded apparel segment, besides being on a consistent uptrend in recent times, is still well-poised to deliver healthy returns. As a result, the company is aggressively scaling up operations and marketing expenses in this space, aiming to maximise operating leverage. The engineering segment too has put on a steady show.

The strategy

Branded apparels segment

Arvinds power, speciality and emerging brands have been growing steadily. Since the momentum is expected to continue, the company will continue to invest in the expansion of its distribution network, with an aim to grow sales by 20-24 percent in the ongoing fiscal year. The company will incur capital expenditure of around Rs 150 crore this year for the purpose.

In case of power brands, retail channels bring in only a third of the total sales. The rest comes from departmental stores, multi-brand outlets and online portals. With the latter three being more margin-accretive than exclusive brand outlets, they should continue growing at a fair click. Also, three of the companys brands that are loss-making at the moment, may turn EBITDA positive by March 2019.

Textile segment

Vertical integration, which is currently underway, is underscored by Arvinds Rs 500-crore capital expenditure plan being directed towards its garment manufacturing units in FY19, particularly those in Ethiopia and Jharkhand. Additionally, the company aims at increasing the allocation of manufactured fabric to such facilities from 18 percent at present to 25-30 percent over the next 2 years.

The objective is to achieve a sales growth of 10 percent from the textiles business, around a third of which it expects from the garments division. Arvind recently forayed into the fast-growing athleisure category to cater to leading sportswear brands such as Nike, Adidas and Asics.

By virtue of these initiatives, the company intends to earn a revenue of Rs 1,000 crore by FY20 from the textiles business.

Engineering segment

Arvind aims to grow its engineering business by 10-12 percent on the back of a strong order book and maintaining its margins at 20-30 percent. Anup Engineering is a debt-free company.

Valuation

Arvinds proposed demerger of its branded apparel and engineering businesses is likely to be concluded in the second half of FY19, as stated in our earlier article. This will unlock value for investors in Arvind Fashions (the branded apparel arm) and Anup Engineering, and free up cash for growing the textile segment.

While the potential for re-rating is limited, the companys future appears to be in fine fettle. We would, therefore, recommend buying the stock on corrections

Follow @krishnakarwa152Cement

live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

A scheduled meeting of Binani Cement's lenders for Thursday has been postponed after Dalmia Bharat alleged that UltraTech is ineligible from participating in the auction.

The lenders were to consider UltraTech's offer to buy Binani Cement, as per an order by the National Company Law Tribunal last week. The tribunal had also asked the lenders a revised bid from Dalmia if the company wished to offer.

Auction of Binani Cement has remained stuck after the lenders chose Dalmia's bid, only for UltraTech to contest the decision. Later, the Aditya Birla company offered to provide a line of credit to Binani Cement's parent -- Binani Industries -- in return of a majority stake in the distressed company.

But even before the lenders could consider UltraTech's offer, Dalmia has objected to the move. The Delhi-based company has argued that UltraTech's bid should be termed ineligible as the latter had made an agreement with Binani Industries, which is a defaulter.

"We are perplexed at Dalmia's move," said a source close to Binani Cement.

UltraTech has made a revised bid of Rs 7,840 crore for Binani Cement. Dalmia's offer of Rs 6,700 crore was higher was UltraTech's first bid. The Aditya Birla company later upped its offer.live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) is said to be scrutinizing clinical trials done at Jaipurs Malpani Multispecialty Hospital to verify if the hospital had breached any protocols for testing drugs on patients.

We will take a look at all the trials, a source at DCGI said on the condition of anonymity, referring to Malpani hospital.

The decision comes in the wake of the drug regulator finding certain discrepancies at the clinical trial site including an alleged falsification of patient enrollment data linked to a phase two clinical trial of Glenmarks osteoarthritis pain drug (GRC 27864).

Last week DCGI issued show cause notices to Glenmark, the sponsor and Dr Rajiv Gupta, the Principal Investigator of the trial at Malpani hospital.

Glenmark was also pulled up by DCGI for inadequate monitoring of trials at the site. DCGI asked them to respond within 10 days of receipt of the notice.

Glenmark said it is in the process of responding to the DCGI's notice and added that it has suspended that trial at the site in the interest of patients' safety, as soon as it heard about the alleged irregularities.

The DCGI decision could have a bearing on 47 ongoing clinical trials of around 24 drug-makers conducting trials at Malpani hospital.

The list of the drug makers include Novartis, Gilead Sciences, Daiichi Sankyo, Sun Pharma, Cipla, Cadila Healthcare among others. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - the government's medical research body is also testing its drug at Malpani.

Out of 47, six clinical trials related to osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis drugs belonging to Novartis, Cipla, Glenmark, Cadila and Amneal Pharmaceuticals are administered under the supervision of Dr Rajiv Gupta who is under DCGI scanner.

Emails sent to Novartis and Cadila Healthcare were not answered. US-based Amneal could not be reached.

Cipla said the principal investigator Rajiv Gupta named in the Glenmark trial isn't the same person who is administering their trial.

The website of Malpani Hospital has the name of only one Rajiv Gupta who is listed as the orthopedic and sport medicine specialist.

Malpani Hospital approved by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) has been conducting clinical trials in Jaipur since 2010 under supervision of around 20 specialist doctors.

The 50-bed hospital founded by NK Malpani, a senior laproscopic surgeon and gastroenterologist includes a research center, trauma and emergency care facility.

(The story will be updated as when Moneycontrol receives a comment from the companies mentioned above).Oil

live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Chennai Petroleum Corporation has been given in-principle approval for its Rs 27,000 crore refinery expansion project in Tamil Nadu, a top official said today.

CPCL, a group company of Indian Oil Corporation, has proposed the expansion of its refinery in Nagapattinam district. "As far as in-principle is concerned, it has been given by the CPCL Board and IOCL Board. To start with, we are targeting about nine million tonnes (production)," IOCL Chairman Sanjiv Singh told reporters here.

The refinery can also be expanded further depending upon the requirement, he said after reviewing the financial performance of CPCL. "The likely investment is of the order of Rs 27,000 crore (for the project). We are in the process of technology selection. Our target (is to commission it) by first quarter of early next year," he said.

To a query on capital expenditure plans for the current financial year, he said it was Rs 1,000 crore and most of it would be met by internal accruals. On the Nagapattinam refinery expansion, he said the company would tap the market for raising funds.

Replying to a question, Singh said the option of merging CPCL with IOCL "is definitely very much open." He said, "We have one foreign partner also. NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company) of Iran owns 15 per cent stake (in CPCL)."

On a section of local people raising apprehensions over expansion of the refinery in Nagapattinam, Singh said, "we are a responsible organisation. We will take all precautions so that environment does not get impacted."live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

The telecom department today assured that the Airtel-Telenor deal will be approved in less than a month and asserted that clearances related to the mega merger of Vodafone and Idea Cellular too are being expedited.

Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said she did not foresee any hurdles in the clearances pertaining to the Vodafone-Idea merger (a move that would create India's largest telecom operator dislodging Bharti Airtel from the top slot) and that it "should get done" in the timeframe of June outlined by the two companies.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court had dismissed the Department of Telecom (DoT) plea that challenged telecom tribunal order directing it to clear Airtel's takeover of Telenor India, without insisting on bank guarantee of about Rs 1,500 crore as a pre-requisite. The move is widely perceived to have positive implications for a takeover deals in the rapidly consolidating telecom market in India.

"Very shortly. (It will take) normal processing time and it will be done," Sundararajan said responding to a question on when the approvals from the DoT can be expected in Bharti-Telenor deal. She said the approval will come "must faster" than a month.

On whether the same applicability (bank guarantee) should also be expected for Vodafone-Idea merger, the telecom secretary declined to make a specific comment, merely saying that each case will have to be seen separately.

"The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and the ministry are working closely to ensure we don't create any bottlenecks and we go through the due diligence and expedite the clearances....at the same time, we are working with the company to ensure there are no delays from our side," she said on the sidelines of CII Broadband Summit here.

Last month, during its results announcement, Idea Cellular had said that merger of Idea and Vodafone India is in the final leg of regulatory approvals and expected to be completed by June.

Sundararajan today said that she does not anticipate any issues and that it "should get done in that timeframe".

Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu has told PTI in an interview earlier this month that the telecom ministry is the competent authority to take the final call on Idea Cellular's proposal for infusing 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the company. It was communicated to the DoT that it is the competent authority to deal with the proposal, Prabhu had said.

The FDI policy allows an overseas firm to buy up to 49 per cent stake in an Indian telecom company under automatic approval route. But the government nod is required for stake above 49 per cent.

Idea and Vodafone announced last year that they would combine their operations to create the country's largest telecom operator worth over USD 23 billion, with a 35 per cent market share.

Foreign shareholding in Idea as on March 31, 2018 stood at around 34 per cent, including 7.49 per cent in promoter group and the rest as public shareholders.

British telecom multinational Vodafone Group plc is a majority shareholder in Vodafone India. Foreign shareholding in the combined Idea-Vodafone entity, therefore, would breach the automatic approval limit of 49 per cent.

According to the Idea-Voda merger announcement, Vodafone would own 45.1 per cent of the combined company after transferring a 4.9 per cent stake to Aditya Birla Group for Rs 3,900 crore in cash, concurrent with completion of the merger.Vinit Sambre, equity fund manager at DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund, is likely to be elevated to the post of Chief Investment Officer-Equities, according to three sources in the industry.

He will replace Anup Maheshwari, who resigned from the fund house as CIO-Equities.

The official announcement of Maheshwari's resignation and elevation of Sambre as CIO-equities will be made soon. An email sent to DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund remained unanswered.

Sambre, who has over 16 years of work experience, joined DSP BlackRock Investment Managers in July 2007, as a portfolio analyst for the firm's Portfolio Management Services (PMS) division.

Previously, he was with DSP Merrill Lynch as a part of its Global Private Client business.

He spent 20 months at DSP Merrill Lynch as Equity Strategist. Prior to DSP Merrill Lynch, he was employed with IL&FS Investsmart Limited as an Equity Analyst in their PMS division.

Vinit has also worked with UTI Investment Advisory Services as Equity Analyst for the offshore fund  India Growth Fund.

On May 7, DSP BlackRock Investment Managers announced that DSP will buyout BlackRock's 40 percent in the joint venture.

The firm will be called DSP Investment Managers and DSP Mutual Fund, subject to regulatory approvals.

As on March 31, DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund's asset under management stood at Rs 86,300 crore.live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Federal Banks quarterly performance disappointed yet again as many loans had to be classified as non-performing assets in line with the revised RBI rules of February. Business growth was decent, but growth in core fees and deposits lacked sparkle compared to those at most other private sector banks. Federal is confident of a better performance in FY19 and sees strong growth momentum along with lower slippages and credit costs that should boost profitability. The repeated negative surprises, however, have turned most investors cautious about the stock. While we will monitor the progress of the guidance, we feel the bank is strategically well-positioned. The stock has underperformed in recent times and looks reasonably valued at 1.3X FY19e book. Any near-term weakness would be a good opportunity to accumulate for the long-term.

In the quarter gone by, the overall gross slippage rose to a record high of Rs 872 crore as the bank decided to recognise assets in the nfrastructure/power sector that were erstwhile standard restructured assets as NPA following the revised guidelines of RBI . Consequently the bulk of the slippage was from the corporate segment.

Out of the Rs 872 crore of total slippage, Rs 492 crore was on account of accelerated NPA recognition and belonged to four accounts and the remaining Rs 380 crore was normal addition to NPA. In terms of the nature of the slippage, Rs 487 crore has come from the standard restructured pool and Rs 385 crore from the Special Mention Accounts (SMA).

As per the disclosure, post the slippage from standard restructured accounts, the outstanding under that head stands reduced to Rs 792 crore (from Rs 1425 crore at the end of Q3 FY18). Of this Rs 375 crore is the sovereign airline account and unlikely to slip in the near term. There is one problematic road account of Rs 75 crore and the remaining Rs 342 crore are a clutch smaller exposure.

Source: Company

The total stressed exposure includeing net NPA, standard restructured assets and outstanding Security Receipts (SR, for assets sold to ARC) now stand at 2.28% (Rs 2890 crore) and the management has guided to slippage to the tune of Rs 1200 crore in FY19 (Rs 800 crore from agri, SME, retail and the remaining Rs 400 crore from corporate). This number will be closely tracked, going forward.

The bank has seen downgrades in its outstanding Security Receipts (mostly consists of assets facing resolution in NCLT) in the past as well as in the quarter under review and had to provide Rs 75 crore on account of the same. It is expecting provisions of Rs 75-Rs 80 crore on SR in FY19. The provision cover for the outstanding SR is 25%. This too will have to be closely scrutinised, going forward.

Nevertheless, the guidance on a much lower credit cost 65-70 bps in FY19, as against 123 bps in Q4FY18, suggests that the bank expects the pace of NPA formation to significantly decelerate.

The slippage had an impact on the reported financials although on the operational front, the bank still appears to have done a decent job.

Federal Banks March quarter net profit fell 43.5% to Rs 145 crore due to accelerated NPA recognition. According to the management, profit would have been higher by Rs 119 crore without this impact.

Operationally, the net interest income (difference between interest income and expenses) grew 11% despite 25.4% growth in advances as interest margin declined partly impacted by Rs 31 crore interest reversal on account of recognising some assets as NPA. Non-interest income growth was supported by 12% surge in core fees while treasury gains declined 59%. Provision surged 203% and the provision cover stood at 44%.

In the year gone by, Federal Banks share in incremental credit and deposit of the system stood at 2.3% and 2% respectively.

Business growth momentum remained strong with the advances book growing by 25.4% driven mainly by corporate. However, the bank still has a diversified asset book (41% wholesale, 38% retail and 21% SME) and it is consciously improving the quality of the book. Close to 76% of the outstanding corporate credit is now rated A and above. The improvement in the risk-weight assets to advance ratio bears testimony to the efforts.

The improvement in the quality of book will compress margin in the future and the bank needs to ramp up its share of low cost deposits to stay competitive in this environment where everyone is chasing high quality credit.

In the quarter gone by, while overall deposits grew by 14.7%, the low-cost (current & savings account) deposits rose by 17% leading to 66 basis points improvement in CASA share to 33.26%. While the bank aims to improve the overall share of low-cost deposits by 1% every year, this remains critical as the low cost deposit franchise of most peer group banks is much superior. The NRI deposits (38% of total deposits), continued to grow in line with the overall deposits of the bank.

The bank has guided to a slight improvement in interest margin at 3.25% in FY19 and is taking initiatives to counter the falling yields in corporate by foraying into relatively high margin businesses like unsecured retail credit and CV (commercial vehicle) financing.

High cost to income ratio is another area of focus as the bank has been relying on relationship manager- led distribution model in recent times. Operating expenses in the quarter saw the impact of enhanced payment on account of the upward revision in gratuity ceiling and wage revision. The management is targeting to bring the cost to income ratio down to 50% in FY19.

Non-interest income is another area of focus as that has been lagging the growth in assets so far. To focus on improving the share of core fees, the bank has recently acquired stake in Equirus Capital - a boutique investment firm and has recruited specialists for treasury sales & government business.

It is also looking to raise funds by selling stakes in subsidiaries that should help in shoring up the provision cover.

Directionally, the bank appears to have got it right, but execution remains critical. The bank is well capitalised that should help it embark on the growth journey once the asset quality issues/provision get sorted. The stock correction has rendered the valuation reasonable and we expect the near-term weakness to provide opportunity to buy into a decent dynamic private sector entity like Federal Bank for long-term.Agriculture

Bankers today decided to lend Rs 85,464 crore to the farm sector in Maharashtra, a growth of 12 per cent over the previous year, amid a prolonged weakness in agricultural activity.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the State Level Banking Committee (SLBC), chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and attended by NABARD and the Reserve Bank officials here.

The credit disbursement plan approved by the committee included Rs 58,319 crore in crop loans and Rs 27,145 crore for capital investments in the sector.

While presenting the annual budget for fiscal 2018-19, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced a 10 per cent increase in agri lending to Rs 11 lakh crore.

Maharashtra is staring at an 8.3 per cent dip in agriculture growth in fiscal 2017-18 on account of decreased production of food-grains, pulses and cotton crops, according to the annual Economic Survey.

Stating that the farm sector is his Government's topmost priority, Fadnavis expressed displeasure over the shortfall in disbursement in 2017-18 and asked banks to have a more focused strategy to finance farmers.

"Our credit plan for next season is increased, achieving it is most important now. We don't want to increase the gap between the targeted and actual disbursement," the CM said.

He asked banks to put emphasis on agri processing sector.

Around 37 lakh farmer accounts have received benefit of the state's crop loan waiver scheme till now, Fadnavis said.

"We should now focus on financing them and reaching out to them, giving information of various schemes," he said.

The chief minister said interactive approach and engagement by banks towards farmers is the need of the hour. "We have institutional mechanism in place, but only due to lack of dialogue and communication, farmers rely on private money lenders," he said.Aviation minister Suresh Prabhu today sought cooperation from the US to locally produce civil and defence aircraft in the country.

"The US is a leader in the aviation space and we will be very happy to collaborate with them to locally manufacture civil and defence aircraft," Prabbu told the sixth Indo-US aviation summit here.

The minister also said such cooperation will offer great business opportunities to American companies already present in the country.

"There are many areas of mutual interest that we need to discuss such as how do we make passenger and defence aircraft here locally; how do we make drones by collaborating with our US partners," he said.

Prabhu said he has set up a task force to suggest a roadmap for producing drones locally and will soon form a similar panel to guide government on locally producing aircraft for both commercial and defence purposes.

Addressing the summit, US ambassador Kenneth Juster said the two nations have made tremendous progress together in many fields, including in the aviation sector.

The Indo-US aviation cooperation programme has grown now with more than over 30 members from only 10 when launched 10 years ago, he said.

"We look forward to further measures to increase ease of doing business and enable US companies to make even greater contribution," Juster said.

The US is committed to deepening and expanding its work with India to private and government areas, he added.

Noting that the US-India aviation cooperation programme is going to be an important tool, Thomas Hardy of the US trade and development agency said they are supporting a range of activities in the Indian aviation space and specially mentioned its cooperation with Airports Authority of India.

Civil aviation secretary RN Choubey said government plans to appoint a consultant to harmonise the processes at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation with global peers.

"We are working together with the US on air traffic management, development and security," he added.The Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Reserve Bank of India are considering extending the closing time for currency derivatives trading to 8:00 pm from 5:00 pm at present, sources told Moneycontrol.

The exchanges have been seeking longer trading hours for almost a decade, and sources said the RBI now appears to be convinced of the demand. SEBI regulates the exchanges that offer currency trading, but the final call will have to be the RBIs as banks will have to be open for longer.

Last week, SEBI allowed exchanges to offer trading in equity futures and options (F&O) till 11:55 pm. The main reason for the move was to prevent migration of derivatives volumes to other international exchanges. Any overseas investor wanting to trade in Indian equity derivatives at any time should be able to do it on the Indian bourses instead of having to go to an international exchange.

A similar logic is guiding the RBI. RBI is now convinced about increasing (trading) timings for currency derivatives to stop migration of currency derivative volumes to overseas exchanges, a source said.

Earlier, the central bank was not comfortable with extending currency derivative timings, due to concerns about increased volatility in the rupee-dollar contract. Another reason was that bank employees unions were opposing this move as those in the operational department would have to work longer hours.

An exchange official told Moneycontrol Rupee contract is available in four overseas markets, and the volumes there are quite high when the domestic market closes for the day. Dubai Gold and Commodity Exchange (DGCX), Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) are the international exchanges where rupee contracts are traded heavily.

Stock exchanges on which currency derivatives are traded have been demanding long trading hours since 2008, when trading in currency derivatives first began. In 2016 too, there was a series of discussions between the RBI and SEBI for extending trading hours, but nothing came of it.

Many corporates and high net-worth investors tap offshore non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market where currency is traded round the clock. Extending trading hours will shift some of the volumes to the domestic market, said a source at one of the exchanges.

Currently, BSE, the National Stock Exchange and the Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India offer currency derivatives trading in the country. However, after universal exchange implementation from October 1, commodity exchanges will also be able to offer currency derivatives trading.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

Hyundai Motor India today said it has renewed contract with Chennai Port Trust (CPT) for another 10 years. Under the new agreement, which will be reviewed in the sixth year, it will export a minimum of 50,000 cars annually from the port, Hyundai Motor India (HMI) said in a statement.

Other terms of the agreement include 20 days of free storage of cars at the port, priority berthing of vessels and exemption from double berthing charges, it added.

The company has inked a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with CPT in this regard.

"We decided to renew our contract with Chennai Port trust as the terms and conditions and the facilities offered by them suit our requirements the best, HMI MD & CEO Y K Koo said.

The Indian unit of South Korean giant, which has its manufacturing facility at Chennai, is one of the leading exporters of passenger vehicles from India. It has been utilising the CPT for exports for the last 12 years.

HMI exports to around 88 countries across Africa, Middle East, Latin America, Australia and Asia Pacific.live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Jaiprakash Associates and its subsidiary Jaypee Infratech on Wednesday filed an appeal in the Supreme Court to restrain the Allahabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal from passing any order of liquidation or issuing any direction against the latter without seeking the Courts approval, according to a copy of the application seen by Moneycontrol.

The Noida-based group also sought the apex courts approval for the Rs 10,000-crore offer it has made to the creditors to resolve Jaypees debt problem. The Supreme Court will hear the matter on Friday.

Jaypee Infratech owes Rs 9,094.31 crore to a consortium of over a dozen banks led by IDBI Bank. The state-owned lender alone has a 44.3 percent share in Jaypees total debt. The group has argued in its 28-page special leave petition that Jaypee remains solvent and committed to repaying its creditors.

Jaypees application came the same day its creditors rejected Lakshadweep Pvt Ltds Rs 7,000-crore offer for being too low. Clearly, the Manoj Gaur-led group wants to grab the window offered to it by the rejection.

According to a note prepared by IDBI Bank, the value of just the immovable assets mortgaged to the IDBI consortium is Rs 17,116 crore while their distress value is pegged at Rs 14,548 crore. Lakshadweeps Rs 7,000 crore bid pegged Jaypees value at less than half of IDBIs distress scenario number.

Normally, Jaypee would stand no chance as under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, if the creditors and the company fail to arrive a resolution of the debt, the company has to be sent for liquidation.

The law doesnt allow an existing promoters application to be considered -- clearly going with the logic that if the promoter brought the company to this pass, then how can it be trusted any further? For the same reason, the committee of creditors didnt take up Jaiprakashs offer Wednesday after it rejected Lakshadweeps bid.

But the group stands a chance at the Supreme Court as its case is being heard there as a public interest matter.

As there are still 18,000-19,000 home buyers awaiting delivery of their flats and thats at least three years away, the company cant be liquidated as home buyers, being unsecured creditors of the company, will be left twiddling their thumbs if the company was liquidated. Around 14,000 buyers have been offered possession of their properties with some 5,000 having already started living in the projects running along the Yamuna Expressway.

The companys plea is exactly what the lawyers would advise in such a situation -- approach the Supreme Court lest the NCLT acts. The NCLT is left with little choice now. With 270 days -- the time given to the parties concerned to arrive at a solution under the bankruptcy code -- lapsing Saturday, the Tribunal would otherwise be well justified in order the companys liquidation. Hence the plea in the Supreme Court seeking its direction barring the Tribunal from passing any adverse order.

It will be a tough act for Supreme Court to bail out the company as it could then open a Pandora s Box where every company facing liquidation could make the same plea under public interest. But with citizens lifetime savings under peril, the apex court could very well make it an exception.Air India (Commons)

The government today said there is a great deal of interest for disinvestment of Air India, amid the deadline for submission of preliminary bids ending this month. The last date for submission of Expression of Interest (EoI) for the proposed 76 percent stake sale in debt-laden Air India is May 31. Earlier this month, the government came out with clarifications related to the disinvestment.

"There is a great deal of interest for Air India," Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said here.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the US-India Aviation Summit here.

Choubey also said that no American carrier has expressed formal interest for Air India.

The divestment would include profit-making Air India Express and joint venture AISATS, an equal joint venture between the national carrier and Singapore-based SATS Ltd.

Providing more time, the last date for submission of Expressions of Interest (EoIs) for Air India disinvestment was extended to May 31 from the earlier deadline of May 14. The qualified bidders would now be known on June 15, whereas the earlier date was May 29.

Starting the disinvestment process of the debt-laden national carrier, the preliminary information memorandum for the proposed sale of up to 76 percent stake in Air India along with management control to private entities was issued on March 28.

The government also made it clear that it would have the rights of a "minority shareholder" with 24 percent stake in Air India post disinvestment.File Pic: Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has invited Israel's aerospace industry and cyber security firms to set up their bases in Haryana.

Khattar visited Israeli Aerospace Industry (IAI) where he was briefed by Israeli officials about the innovations made in the fields of aerospace and defence.

He invited IAI to set up ancillary units in the Hisar Aviation Hub being set up by his government, a statement said.

He has also invited the consortium of cyber security companies under Israel Aviation Industry to set up base in Haryana which houses top 200 companies in the world, it said.

During the discussions, officials from IAI evinced keen interest in the aviation hub and agreed to visit Hisar next month, it added.

The IAI has entered into USD 1 billion contract with the India government under which it is obliged to invest or procure 30 per cent material from the local market.

The officials assured to explore Haryana as a top priority.

Khattar also visited the manufacturing plant of Unmanned Ariel Vehicle (UAV) and jets and invited IAI to set up ancillary units in the proposed Hisar Aviation Hub.

Highlighting Hisar's proximity to Delhi International Airport, Khattar said the place had less humid atmosphere which is vital for UAV and other defence materials.

He said Hisar aviation hub enjoyed a strategic geographical location and could be made into a manufacturing base for Israeli aviation industry from where the entire south-eastern market can be served.

Khattar also led a strong delegation of officers of Haryana Police who held interactions with their Israeli counterparts.

The visit of the delegation is aimed to learn from Israeli experts how law and order machinery can be improved to check crime and beef up security and intelligence network of the Haryana Police.

The delegation also visited headquarters of the United Hatzalah of Israel, along with the Chief Minister. United Hatzalah runs emergency rescue operations across Israel based on volunteers.May 10, 2018 / 03:31 PM IST

The benchmark indices ended at day's low after consolidating in narrow range even as midcap underperforms with 1.5 percent cut.

Among sectors, all indices ended in red except the oil & gas space.

The Sensex was down 73.08 points at 35246.27, and the Nifty down 22 points at 10719.70.

About 783 shares have advanced, 1873 shares declined, and 144 shares are unchangedEicher Motors (EML) has been one of the biggest wealth creators in the Indian market. Its flagship product, Royal Enfield (RE) is arguably Indias most respected and sought after brand in the mid-sized two-wheeler (2W) segment, continues to maintain its mojo.

The company, yet again, posted a very strong set of numbers in the final quarter of FY18. The company continues to cruise smoothly on the back of strong demand, improved realisation and operational efficiencies. Growth is, however, constrained by capacity. Despite our high comfort on the business, the valuation leaves little room for comfort. We would advise investors to capitalise on dips to build positions in the stock.

Amid all the disruptions that took place in the Indian automobile industry in FY18, RE continues to cruise smoothly. It registered its best ever-quarterly volume and realisation growth of 27 percent and five percent year-on-year (YoY). Consequently, EML posted its highest ever net quarterly income from operations at Rs 2,528 crore, a growth of 34 percent over the corresponding period of last year.

In an environment where the industry is struggling to cope up with rising raw material prices, EML has been able to maintain its margin due to improved realisation and cost efficiencies. Hence, the earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin witnessed a marginal 50bps YoY uptick at 31.5 percent.

With an overall pick-up in demand for commercial vehicles (CV), Volvo Eicher CV (VECV) witnessed a 30 percent YoY growth in topline on the back of 33 percent growth in volumes. However, realisations witnessed a three percent YoY decline due to discounts prevailing within the industry. The company could maintain its overall market share in the CV segment.

EBITDA margin witnessed a significant 130bps YoY increase due to better price management and focus on cost reductions. However, the management indicated that the market continues to be highly competitive with heavy discounts continuing.

The moot question is whether the stock is worthy of investment at current premium valuations given the capacity constraints?

Low capacity has been EMLs Achilles heel for long. Despite huge capacity additions for Royal Enfield, which has increased from 60,000 units in CY11 to 675,000 units in FY17, constrains still persist.

EML expanded its capacity to 825,000 units in FY18 by commencing production from its new Chennai plant in August 2017. The management expects to raise capacity to 950,000 units by FY19. Despite aggressive capacity addition, growth is still constrained by capacity. The company has earmarked Rs 800 crore for expansion next fiscal.

Recently, the company unveiled two new motorcycles  the Interceptor 650 Roadster and the Continental GT 650 Cafe Racer  at the EICMA Motor Show in Milan, Italy. These launches are part of REs aim to lead and expand the mid-weight (250-750cc) motorcycle segment globally. They will be launched in the market this year. Further, the company has launched the Himalayan Sleet + Explorer Kit and the Thunderbird X in Q4 FY18, which are also seeing strong response from customers.

The next leg of growth for EML will accrue from the export market. The management continues to focus on those markets. RE is expanding its footprint in the South Asian region by opening its first store in Bali, Indonesia. In October last year, RE forayed into Vietnam, the fourth biggest motorcycle market in the world, and opened its first store. The company opened its first exclusive store in Argentina as well. With these additions, the company now has 36 exclusive stores in export markets, up from 26 stores as at the end of June 2017, and has over 540 multi-brand dealers.

For newly launched products, the management expects strong traction in developed markets such as Europe and the US and in developing markets such as Colombia, Indonesia, etc.

Bajaj Autos Dominar is seeing strong traction in the premium bike segment and the recent addition of Triumph in the premium segment would also pose competition to RE. Other players in the two-wheeler segment such as Hero MotoCorp and TVS Motor also have plans to launch premium bikes soon. With competition clearly heating up, investors ought to take note of the same.

On the back of strong business growth and brand, the company deserves a premium valuation. However, capacity-constraints led earnings growth cap is behind the steep valuation.

Using sum of the parts valuation (SoTP), we value the RE business at 30 times (a premium valuation multiple compared to peers) and VEVC at 15 times FY20e earnings. The business provides limited upside at the current levels. Hence, we advise investors to wait for any weakness in stock prices to accumulate.

Follow @NitinAgrawal65US President Donald Trump

live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Concerns about the potential impact from US imposing fresh sanctions on Iran - the third largest producer of crude globally - is among the major factors driving up crude prices.

Under the terms of the Iran nuclear deal signed by the Obama administration in 2015, Iran had agreed to limit its sensitive nuclear activities, and in turn was allowed, among other things, to sell oil in the international market. The US had signed that deal in collaboration with UK, France, China, Russia, Germany and the EU.

The Trump administration has now pulled out of the deal unilaterally, citing that the agreement was not stringent enough to deter Iran from pursuing hostile nuclear development. Also, the US has threatened to impose fresh and powerful sanctions on Iran, hoping that economic pain would compel Iran to restrain notorious non-compliance.

This has created ripples in the international oil market as fresh sanctions could reduce the supply of crude by Iran. Already, Brent crude has crossed $75 per barrel and some feel it could climb as high as $100 per barrel over the next few months while others view current levels to be unsustainable.

Countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel support USs decision to exit the deal and stand to benefit both economically and politically from the sanctions.

About the sanctions

Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, the US had been increasingly imposing economic sanctions on Iran to restrain its nuclear technology development activities.

The 2015 nuclear deal revoking the sanctions was silent about the development of the ballistic missile program, and has a sunset clause permitting Iran to develop nuclear technologies after 2025. According to the US, the deal was ill-negotiated, had many loopholes, and inspection provisions lacked adequate mechanisms to prevent, detect, and punish non-compliance. Iran on the other hand, has accused US of imposing many other secondary sanctions which violate the deal terms.

Current situation

Since the sanctions were lifted in 2015, Iran ramped up its crude oil production and expanded production capacities from 1 million barrels per day (mbpd) to almost 3.8 mbpd by March 2018.

Over the past year, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies (OPEC) along with Russia has cut production to boost crude prices. Production shortage in Mexico and Venezuela in the past few months has further reduced global crude supplies and pushed up oil prices.

Having faced fiscal stress during periods of low crude prices and wanting to get the best valuation for its stake in Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia has been very keen to keep crude prices high. With shifting agendas and political equations, there has been increasing division within OPEC lately.

The impact of the announcement

USs exit from the nuclear deal and re-imposition of sanctions poses a substantial impact on the Iranian oil and shipping sectors. It will bring about renegotiation of trade deals with Iran and would take away some portion of the Iranian crude supply from the market. This coupled with low production from Mexico and Venezuela could lead to supply side pressure in the immediate term and we see some upside risk in the immediate term. However, Saudi Arabia and Russia are already eyeing this opportunity and capture a share of this pie, which would normalize the supplies eventually.

Any fresh sanctions on Iran will have a significant political impact, with potential to escalate conflict within the Middle Eastern countries. There is already a rift within OPEC because of political moves by both Saudi and Iran in Iraq, Israel and other countries in the region.

India and China are the two major importers of crude from Iran, accounting for almost 30 percent of the Iranian crude production. India imports nearly 80 percent of its crude requirement from international markets. If sanctions are imposed, Indian companies might have to look for alternate supplies to compensate supplies.

Higher prices spell cheer for oil producers like OIL India and ONGC by way of better realisations. It spells bad news for oil marketing companies (OMCs) like IOC, HPCL, BPCL because of increased pressure on margins. Even for the producers, a steep rise is not desirable as they might then have to bear a share of the subsidy burden. Higher prices also brings in added pressure on the government to cut excise duties which could potentially tinker with the fiscal math.

The management at OMCs have indicated that current prices levels are unsustainable and prices are unlikely to rise much from these levels. Given that Saudi and Russia in the near term and US shale in the longer period are more than willing to cover up for the supply gap, supply side pressures may not persist. With higher supplies from alternative suppliers, crude prices are likely to normalise. Moreover, strategic reserves, which OMCs have built over time, provide them some cushion in the near term and will help them to absorb the price hike.

The stock market is already bracing for a further rise in crude prices. Stocks of downstream players corrected around 2-3 percent, and those of upstream companies have risen around 3-4 percent.

The HPCL management has indicated that in case crude prices continue to rise, consumers will have to bear a portion of the cost. Price hikes for petrol and diesel could impact volumes and put pressure on margins. We advise investors to exercise caution in this space.

Follow @RuchiagrawalGlobal asset manager BlackRock Inc has emerged as a front runner to acquire IDFC Asset Management Company, sources told Moneycontrol.

The first round of bidding for the acquisition, which closed on May 8, received bids between Rs 3,500 crore and Rs 4,000 crore.

Among the companies that bid for IDFC AMC were Reliance Mutual Funds, Mirae Asset Global Investments (India) IndusInd Bank and BlackRock Inc. Of these, Reliance MF is said to have bid at Rs 4,000 crore for the AMC which is in line with the promoter, IDFC Financial Holding Company.

The fund house did not reply to a mail sent by Moneycontrol.

According to sources, IDFC Financial Holding is not keen on selling stake to an existing AMC as it may result in job losses at IDFC AMC.

As of March 31, 2018, IDFC Mutual Funds assets under management stood at Rs 70,000 crore.

Sources further told Moneycontrol that in a bid to retain senior management and ensure continuity until the transition is over, the company has put in place a retention strategy in the form of employee stock ownership plan (ESOPs).

On Monday, BlackRock agreed to sell 40 percent stake in DSP BlackRock Investment Managers to DSP Group.

DSP BlackRock Investment Managers is the asset management company of DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund.

In March 2017, IDFC Financial Holding Company, a subsidiary of IDFC Ltd, had agreed to buy back a 25 percent stake in IDFC AMC from Paris-based Natixis Global Asset Management for Rs 244.24 crore.

IDFC AMC, established in 2000 is among the top 15 mutual fund firms in India.May 10, 2018 / 09:21 PM IST

JUST IN | GSTN board initiates process to acquire 51 percent stake held by the private companies, says media report. The current GSTN staff will continue to work for five years on contract basis.

Report suggests that Central Board of Direct Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and state governments will bear the cost of GSTN operations through user charges. New GSTN hiring will likely be done with the permission of GST Council.

The GSTN board will have 13 directors  three independent directors and four directors each from the Centre and states.By Satish Gupta of astrostocktips.in

Todays planetary position: Moon will be transiting in Aquarius. Jupiter in Libra. Lord Saturn in Sagittarius. Ketu & Mars in Capricorn. Mercury in Pisces. Sun in Aries. Venus in Taurus. Lord Rahu in Cancer. Pluto in Sagittarius. Neptune in Aquarius & Uranus in Pisces.

RAHUKAL TIME: - 13.30  15.00

Following sectors will be receiving astrological support:

Infornation & Technology: Tata Elxsi, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Tech, etc.

PREDICTING BULLISH SECTORS OF NEXT SAMVAT 2075

Every year with commencement of new Samvat (Hindu New Year), astrologically, based on planetary position, certain new sectors start getting strong astrological support & start outperforming, while some others sectors which were performing earlier start underperforming. Some sectors/stock remains laggard. Based on our experience of over 20 years as Financial Astrologer, stocks of astrological supported sectors outperform resulting in exorbitant gains irrespective of market behavior, either bull market or bear market.

Every year we release sectors of new Samvat in the month of March/April when new Samvat starts. This time new Samvat started from 18th MARCH 2018.

We firmly believe that these special astrological positions present very unique opportunities to investors and traders both. This opportunity, if utilized properly, can safeguard your existing portfolio and simultaneously optimize your future investments and trading also. So contact us at early and subscribe or renew the Sectors of Samvat 2075. After all Successful investing and trading is all about GOOD TIMING only.

Needless to mention our innumerable past predictions, where most stocks from the SECTORS of SAMVAT gave exorbitant returns & certain stocks appreciated by over 500 percent.

After gap of many years, sugar sector started getting astrological support in the year 2015 & many stocks i.ie; Dwarikesh Sugar, Mawana Sugar, Uppar Ganges & Uttam Sugar etc shot up by 500  900 percent. In the year 2016 dyes/chemical sector got astrological support and stocks like Bhageria Industries, Thirumalai Chemicals and Sudarshan Chemicals were up by 490- 650 percent.

During last Samvat 2074 (2017-2018), among other sectors - food processing sector was predicted, which received strong astrological support. Many stocks from this sector appreciated exorbitantly.

Sectors which get very strong astrological support are not normally affected by downfall in the market.

Sectors which get strong astrological support also start getting favorable news along with all kind of positive support by regulatory authorities in that industry, resulting in strong growth & super positive results. Most of problems also start resolving.

: 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.live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Real estate firm Vascon Engineers today announced its foray into the affordable housing segment with the launch of a Rs 110-crore residential project in Pune.

Spread across 10 acre, the project will offer one-room-kitchen and one and two-BHK homes ranging from 227 sq ft to 462 sq ft, and priced between Rs 13.62 lakh and Rs 27.74 lakh, the company said in a release.

The project, which will be developed in two phases, will comprise nine buildings with around 1,140 units.

"In the initial phase, the company will be launching around 500 units, that will comprise of six and 11 storeyed buildings," it said.

Siddharth Vasudevan, managing director, Vascon Engineers said there has been a huge rise in the demand for affordable housing projects in recent times.

"The increased urban migration as well as the various initiatives by the government a has fuelled the growth in housing needs," he added.

Vasudevan said the company will be making a total investment of Rs 110 crore for the project and expects sales to the tune of Rs 200 crore.

"We will be completing and handing over the possession of the project within three years," he added.Reaching out to Dalits and other backward communities in poll-bound Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said his government was trying to fulfill B R Ambedkar's dream of a powerful and prosperous nation. Hitting out at the ruling Congress in Karnataka, he said the party failed to confer the Bharat Ratna on Ambedkar when it was in power.

Modi, while addressing the SC, ST, BC and Slum Morcha workers of Karnataka BJP via Narendra Modi app, said, "Our government has made the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act more stringent".

He also reminded the workers that the BJP had the maximum number of members of Parliament belonging to the SC/ST, OBC and minority communities.

Hitting out at the Congress, Modi said it did not allow the functioning of Parliament to avoid giving constitutional status to the OBC Commission.

"We are trying to fulfill Ambedkar's dream of a powerful and prosperous nation," he said.

Earlier, the prime minister had reached out to the party office-bearers and workers of the women and youth wings through the application.

The Karnataka Assembly elections in the state will be held on May 12.Congress

The Congress today challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get the premises of top BJP leaders like B S Yeddyurappa "checked" by the I-T department instead of levelling allegations against its leaders.

"We challenge the Prime Minister. Get the premises of allthese leaders (Yeddyurappa and Reddy brothers) checked, instead of levelling allegations which have no foundation, for he has run out of steam," party spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters here.

Surjewala questioned why the I-T department should conduct raid on a resort at Badami targetting Siddaramaiah who is contesting from there, apart from Chamundeshwari in Mysuru.

He alleged that the Prime Minister does not act with regard to Yeddyurappa, against whom as many as 15 cases of corruption are pending before the Supreme Court.

The Prime Minister also does not act against mining baron Reddy brothers who are accused of looting and plundering the state of Rs 35,000 crore of illegal iron ore by withdrawing cases against him, Surjewala said.

"You have withdrawn six cases against Reddy brothers, who are actors of your (Modi) movie, for you have leased out BJP to the gang of Reddy brothers in Karnataka," he said.The Centre has made lending norms easier in farmer support schemes like Kisan Credit Card to increase the quantum of funds lent by institutions to small and marginal farmers in the country.

These farmers account for over 90 percent of the people employed in agriculture and are vulnerable as a class. A government official told Hindustan Times that this move would reduce their dependence on informal moneylenders.

According to the revised guidelines, standard security requirements like hypothecation of crops do not apply to loans of up to Rs 1 lakh. This will also be applicable on loans taken through Kisan Credit Card, which helps land-holding farmers meet their immediate credit needs.

Under the Kisan Credit Card scheme, small farmers can also avail a 'flexible limit' of between Rs 10,000 and Rs 50,000 for their warehousing needs after the harvest season, and to set up small-scale agricultural businesses like dairies and poultry farms.

Branch managers, based on their assessment, now have the power to disburse this amount without relating it to the value of land owned by the farmer, the official said.

Farmers who have pending loans can now get extra credit of up to Rs 50,000 instantly without having to submit a no dues certificate to the district authorities.

Investment and capital formation in the agricultural sector will help its growth. The Reserve Bank of India said in a report that a 10 percent increase in institutional credit helps in increasing a farmer's investment by around 3 percent. But there are also reports suggesting that farmers usually depend on private moneylenders for their credit needs.

Due to a decline in commodity prices and uneven distribution of rainfall, farmers' distress has grown. As a result, the NDA government has faced much criticism and protests have become a common occurrence.

The government aims to double farmers' income by 2022. The quantum of agricultural loans given to small farmers grew markedly between 2015 and 2017.

Economist Ramesh Manjunatha said that while these guidelines have been issued, there is a large chunk of farmers who do not get loans from institutional credit.

"Two classes of farmers, namely tenant farmers and sharecroppers are still largely excluded from institutional credit because they dont own land titles. What we need is a change in the definition of farmers to include them. Right now, they are categorized as cultivators," Manjunatha said.Karnataka is going to polls on Saturday. These elections are very crucial in forming a narrative leading up to the general elections in 2019. The past few months have seen relentless campaigns by the major political parties in the state. The leaders are trying to play all their cards right to please as many groups of voters as possible.

Let us take a look at the factors that dictate all the campaigns, speeches and promises, and can turn the elections in any direction.

The big southern state

It is crucial for Congress to retain power in Karnataka since it only rules in two other states now: Punjab and Mizoram. PM Modis Congress-mukt Bharat slogan is becoming a real threat for the Congress party, which is what makes winning these elections so important.

This election will also give Janata Dal (Secular) a chance to revive itself. While it was a major political party in the state in the early 2000s, its presence has lately been reduced to that of a regional party.

After BJP lost key seats in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan bypolls, winning in Karnataka is necessary for the party. Karnataka will also be BJPs gateway to the South.

Also read: How the SC/ST votebank may influence the result

Religion and state identity

The Congress has been accused of being sub-nationalist ever since Siddaramaiah suggested a state flag for Karnataka, or when he recommended a separate religion status for the Lingayat community. Lingayats constitute 17 percent of the state and have been loyal to the BJP. Yeddyurappa is a veteran Lingayat leader, which has kept the voters strictly with BJP. Granting a separate religious status was Congress way of tapping into that voter base.

This move has attracted mixed reactions from the community. For some, the tactic has worked and they have started to favour the Congress, while others are accusing Siddaramaiah of dividing people of the state.

JD(S)s strong suit is the Vokkaligas, the second most important community in the state, constituting 15 percent of the state population. They are mainly concentrated in south Karnataka.

Muslims in Karnataka mostly reside in the coastal areas and make up to 9 percent of the population. They could also be a major factor in the elections.

Also read: How BJP and Congress leverage social media during campaigns

The Hindutva factor

The BJP has played the Hindutva card frequently throughout the campaign, especially in the communally sensitive coastal regions. Senior leaders of the party like Amit Shah paid visits to temples across the state as well as homes of Hindu victims who were attacked in cases of communal violence.

To counter this, Siddaramaiah has tried to invoke state identity and Karnataka pride in people. A state flag, removal of Hindi signs from Metro stations, stressing on the importance of Kannada language  all these are ways of drawing people away from Modis Hindutva. At the same time, he has also tried to show the people that BJPs Hinduism is communal.

Siddaramaiah is also focusing on hyper-local issues to divert voters from the Hindutva ploy. Many of the CMs development schemes have been successful and appreciated by people. Some of the schemes include Indira Canteens, Maithri, Anila Bhagya, Mathrupoorna and Krishibhagya.

Also read: A quick glance at the highlights of BJP, Congress and JD(S) manifestos

Agriculture and infrastructure in the state

Rural Karnataka has been in distress and farmers are in debt. BJP, Congress and JD(S) have announced huge loan waivers for farmers if voted to power. The state has witnessed many farmer suicides. The scarcity of water is prevalent not just in rural areas, but the capital Bengaluru as well. So, which party the village vote bank chooses to trust is an important factor in the outcome of the election.

People have also shown discontentment with the Karnataka governments work on urban infrastructure. This may go against the incumbent Congress in the state.

For extensive coverage on the Karnataka elections, click here07:22 PM IST

Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting in Bengaluru:

BJP is a grounded party which strives to work for the interests of the common man. We do not indulge in mahakaavyas, we make promises and fulfill them. Our manifesto is in the form of a set of promises-- to end corruption, to provide sufficient water for irrigation, for getting higher price for crop produce, for skilled development and for employment. We have made a promise to provide a conducive environment for entrepreneurship. We have made a promise to provide safety to the women of Bengaluru.

And in the first meeting that the party addresses after ovrthrowing the Siddaramaiah government, the roadmap for these promises will be prepared.

Jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad was today granted a three- day parole to attend his son's wedding in Patna this Saturday, a senior jail officer said today.

Prasad, 69, who has been convicted in three fodder scam cases by a special CBI court in Ranchi since December last year, is currently undergoing treatment at the RIMS hospital in the Jharkhand capital.

He has been granted parole for three days, Inspector General of Prison Harsh Mangla told PTI.

However, the IG Prison was not categorical about the effective date of parole and said it depended upon when the jail authorities would release him. Mangla added that as per the rules, the travel time is not counted in the duration of the parole.

Bhola Yadav, RJD General Secretary and a close aide of Prasad, told PTI in Ranchi that they were planning to go to Patna by the evening flight.

"Flight tickets are being arranged to go to Patna by evening flight today," Bhola Yadav, who is also an RJD MLA in Bihar, said adding Prasad is likely to return to Ranchi on May 14 on completion of parole.

Prasad's elder son and former Bihar minister Tej Pratap Yadav's marriage with daughter of RJD MLA Chandrika Rai is scheduled on May 12 in Patna.

The RJD chief was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) In Delhi on March 29 for specialised treatment and was discharged on April 30. The hospital had said his condition had improved significantly but the former Bihar chief minister alleged a "political conspiracy" behind his discharge.

The application on behalf of the RJD chief, moved on Monday last, had sought a five-day parole but only three days were granted. Asked about it, the Jharkhand Prison IG said, "We decided on the matter considering the need."

RJD supporters in Patna were upbeat about Prasad's return to Patna. Prasad could not attend the engagement ceremony of his son in Patna on April 18 following which Tej Pratap had tweeted "Miss you PAPA".

The 10, Circular Road bungalow, allotted to former chief minister and Prasad's wife Rabri Devi, has been abuzz with wedding preparations for the past few days. 'Slogans of Lalu Yadav Zindabad' resonated in the complex as soon as the supporters learned that the RJD supremo has been granted parole and that he would be coming to Patna.

The party's national spokesman and Rajya Sabha member Manoj Jha said, "We are glad that our leader has finally been allowed to attend wedding of his son."

"We are, however, disappointed at the shabby treatment meted out to him at every stage," he told PTI.

Jha alleged that Parasad was "forcibly sent back" to Ranchi from AIIMS "notwithstanding his fragile health which deserves best-possible medical care".

"Now, he has been granted parole for only three days though he had sought it for just two more days. This once again proves that the ruling dispensation in the country is devoid of basic human sensitivity," Jha alleged.

"We do not even know whom to complain. Every institution has been subverted for settling political scores. But, the people of Bihar are watching all the events intently. We have full faith in their wisdom and their power to give a befitting reply to those who are drunk on power," he said.

Meanwhile, a number of political leaders are expected to attend the wedding of Tej Pratap Yadav and Aishwarya Rai. The bride's grandfather Daroga Rai was the chief minister of Bihar in early 70s from Congress.

A huge stage is being erected at the sprawling Veterinary College ground where the couple will exchange garlands in the presence of guests.

"We are expecting about 20,000 guests from across the country. Invitations have been sent to almost every major political figure and luminaries from various walks of life," Bihar RJD president Ram Chandra Purve said here.

Prominent among those who have been invited to the wedding are UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Bihar Governor Satya Pal Mallik, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and Chief Justice of the Patna High Court Rajendra K Menon and Yoga guru Baba Ramdev.

Pandals have been also erected at the house of Rabri Devi where pre-wedding rituals will be conducted as well as at the residence of Chandrika Rai, where the marriage will take place in a traditional way.

In Prasad' s native Phulwaria block in Gopalganj district, his nephew Ramanand Yadav said that they had received an invitation and so have many others in the village. "Hundreds of people from here will be visiting Patna to give their blessings to the young couple," he said.

Ram Das and Dayanand Pandey, both priests at local temples, said they were going to the wedding. Asked about how they feel about the high-profile event, one of them said, "We are not at all worried about how much 'dakshina' we will be offered. They (the Lalu family) are magnanimous people and know how to treat poor people like us well".New Delhi: Union Minister for Textiles and Information & Broadcasting Smriti Irani speaks during the release of an online edition of a book during an event in New Delhi on Tuesday. PTI Photo by Shahbaz Khan(PTI2_27_2018_000055B)

India will have around 969 million Internet users by 2021, Union Minister Smriti Zubin Irani said today and pitched for putting in place "laws, ethics and rules" to ensure that no one player dominated the digital media industry.

Inaugurating the 15th Asia Media Summit (AMS) 2018 here, she said the Indian media industry looked upon the digital world not only as a challenge but also as an opportunity.

Do we look at the new evolving technologies from a position of suspect, or do we look at it from a position of opportunity, from a position of consolidation or further expansion," the Information and Broadcasting Minister asked at the opening session.

Within the next three years, India would have over 969 million Internet users, she said.

"This is the time to put laws, ethics, rules into place which help us balance out the industry so that we don't have one dominant player who rules the roost, Irani said.

The three-day media summit is being hosted by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry jointly with the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) and public sector firm Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (BECIL).

The theme of the summit is: Telling Our Stories  Asia and More".

Irani said India was the fastest growing advertising market, which was expected to touch 10.59 billion US dollars by the end of 2018, and mobile spend was estimated to grow to 1.55 billion US dollars in 2018.

Times Group Managing Director Vineet Jain said with more than 900 TV channels and about 17,000 newspapers, India was the most diverse and vibrant media market in the world today.

With the rapid growth of 4G, rising literacy and the fastest-growing large economy in the world, the Indian media market was "as exciting as it gets, he said.

Advertising is the lifeblood of the media industry, but ad spend as a percentage of India's GDP is the lowest among the world's largest economies, Jain said.

For Indian media to realise its full potential, he said regulatory reforms were needed across the board  to make it easier to do business, remove anomalies in the system and ensure a fair marketplace that benefited the consumer.

Today, e-commerce companies, telecom operators and social networks, all seek to play a role as major media players. But these tectonic changes bring with them new and serious challenges. A level playing field is a pre-requisite for healthy competition, and plurality of voices, Jain said.

Consolidation in the telecom industry had left just three serious players standing, he added.

With mobile becoming virtually the only screen, telcos will control what you watch, read, consume and transact  leading to a near-monopoly situation. The government must discourage further mergers and acquisitions in telecom because that would drastically limit consumer choice.

For the same reason, it should bring laws against telcos owning and favouring its content over others  just as TV channels are not allowed to own majority stakes in cable networks. India needs a healthy, diverse and competitive media ecosystem, he said.

He also urged India to take a more pro-active stance by holding digital platforms accountable for the content they propagated.

Digital media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and YouTube, were "enablers of great conversation", but were also hotbeds of misinformation, propaganda and the spread of fake news, he warned.

India must take a more pro-active stance by holding digital platforms accountable for the content they propagate, just as any other media company is held accountable for what it publishes or broadcasts. This is not a simple issue, but it is a vital one to protect the world's largest democracy, he said.

Referring to the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook scandal, he said it had exposed how data could be used to damage a country.

We must proactively protect our national interests with laws to ensure data stays within India and is governed by Indian law, he added.

Bangladesh Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu outlined six complex challenges the world faces today, listing them as poverty, gender disparity, terrorism, ICT revolution, climate change and uneven globalisation.

Expressing concern over cybercrime, he stressed the need to fight a war against cybercriminals to keep the media safe and expanding.

Cambodia Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said, We are trying to improve the state of the press in Cambodia. We seek to maintain strong relationships with the fourth estate.

UNESCO Director (New Delhi) Shigeru Aoyagi talked about the role of the media in creating peace and partnership on the planet.

Abbas Naseri Taheri, Director General, International Department and Advisor to President, IRIB, Iran, emphasised the need to use social stories in Asian cultures in an innovative way to create a bond between the past and the present.

In a video message, Amina J Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General, UN, called for bridging the digital divide in the world. She also highlighted the media's role in building a sustainable planet.

Sam Seog Ko, Commissioner, Korea Communications Commission, said the media had an important role to play today and should work for a better world.Prime Minister Narendra Modi today described his two-day visit to Nepal as a reflection of his government's commitment to "neighbourhood first" policy, and said as the Himalayan state entered a new era, India would continue to remain its steadfast partner. Modi will visit the Himalayan nation tomorrow and it will be his third visit to that country as prime minister.

"It reflects the high priority, India, and personally I, attach to our age-old, close and friendly ties with Nepal," the PM said in a statement.

He said his visit closely follows the state visit of Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli to India last month.

"These high-level and regular interactions reflect my government's commitment to the 'neighbourhood first' policy, in consonance with the motto of sabka saath, sabka vikas'," the statement said.

Modi said the two countries have completed several bilateral connectivity and development projects in the last few years, and initiated transformational initiatives for the benefit of their people.

"Prime Minister Oli and I will have the opportunity to take forward our recent wide-ranging discussions in New Delhi on issues of mutual interest, and to advance our cooperative partnership across diverse sectors," he said.

"As Nepal enters a new era of consolidating gains of democracy and achieving rapid economic growth and development, India will continue to remain a steadfast partner of government of Nepal to implement its vision of samriddha Nepal, sukhi Nepali' (prosperous Nepal, happy Nepal)," read the statement.

In addition to Kathmandu, Modi said he was also looking forward to visiting Janakpur and Muktinath. Both these places attract a large number of pilgrims every year.

"They are living testimony to the ancient and strong cultural and religious ties between the peoples of India and Nepal," he said.

The prime minister said he was also looking forward to meeting the political leaders and friends in Nepal.

"I am confident that my visit will further cement our people-centric partnership with Nepal on the basis of mutual benefit, goodwill and understanding," Modi noted.Aadhaar (Representative Image)

Citizens opposing the Aadhaar programme told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) was seeding bank accounts with the unique number, according to a report by The Economic Times.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, who was representing a group of activists opposing the Aadhaar programme, accused the UIDAI of resorting to inorganic seeding, the report suggests.

Citing instances where people who had never consented to linking bank accounts with Aadhaar, had received messages from their banks that their accounts had been linked, Divan told the top court, Suppose you link your Aadhaar with your pension, it gets automatically linked to your bank account.

Divan requested the court to rule in favour of the people by making Aadhaar optional adding that the court should make sure children, HIV affected, bonded labourers, trafficked women and vulnerable sections are not denied their basic right to food and health care.

On March 13, the apex court had indefinitely extended the deadline for linking of Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts and phone numbers, till it pronounces its verdict in the ongoing case.

However, the court said that Aadhaar is still necessary to avail social benefits, services and subsidies.

The matter was heard by a five-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra.India and China are sitting down to discuss their future, conscious that it rides on the ability to manage contradictions, which is no small development, former foreign secretary S Jaishankar said here.

The former top diplomat, who served as Ambassador to China and the United States, was addressing a lecture organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), a think tank at the National University of Singapore, yesterday.

Touching upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province, he said that world history has shown the dangers of rising powers remaining self-absorbed.

"Growing capabilities and influence actually require greater engagement with the world, not less," Jaishankar said.

"As Asia rises, there are lessons that could be drawn from the experiences of others, especially Europe. It would appear that this realisation is as strong in Beijing as it is in New Delhi," said the former envoy, a distinguished visiting research fellow at the ISAS.

"India-China relations have always had a global context and will always have one. In an uncertain world, the Wuhan meeting was an important step in the direction of greater stability," he said.

If its bilateral implications are concerned, the focus seems to have been on measures to strengthen stability and manage differences, Jaishankar said, adding that some extra effort seemed to have gone into finding common ground, whether on trade or on Afghanistan.

These are actually the only two nations with over a billion in population each. They are also among the world's major economies now. Their experiences in development and governance are worth exchanging, he said.

The intent of the Wuhan Summit was actually laid out last June when the two leaders met in Astana. At that time, they declared that the relationship between India and China must be a factor of stability in an uncertain world, the former diplomat said. "They also desired that differences between India and China should not become disputes."

However, this was followed shortly thereafter by the face-off at Dokalam. Significantly, he said, its conclusion saw the two countries reiterate these very approaches at the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Summit at Xiamen in September 2017.

"Since then, there have been intensive exchanges at senior policy levels between them, including the foreign ministers and the national security advisers," Jaishankar noted.

The engagement between India and China has to be on the basis of political equality. It has to be conducted with mutual sensitivity, especially as both polities have made their core interests known to each other, he stressed.

"They have ambitions as rising powers and it is logical that these can often intersect. Differences between neighbours or rising powers are not unnatural in world politics. But how well they are managed is really the test of diplomacy," Jaishankar added.While Karnataka is witnessing last-minute campaigning by various political parties ahead of May 12, three BJP-ruled states have started making plans to keep voters on the right side of the government, as they are likely to go to polls towards the end of this year.

The governments of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan are reportedly looking to distribute budget smartphones to around 10-15 million people. For this, the states are in talks with domestic smartphone makers and is planning to spend Rs 230 crore on the plan, reported The Economic Times.

The state governments have already contacted mobile phone makers Lava, Intex, Lyf and Micromax, and are in talks with them over the last couple of months about the deal.

Out of the reported quantity of 10-15 million phones to be given to people, Chhattisgarh alone is planning to distribute 5.5 million phones. The state will distribute these phones under its Chhattisgarh Communication Revolution Scheme over the current fiscal and the next, said the report. There have been talks that the state has already floated a tender for this, it said quoting chairman of Lava International Hari Om Rai.

Co-founder of Micromax Informatics Rajesh Agarwal also said talks were ongoing regarding the scheme. Talking to the publication, he said some state governments are planning to bring out proposals as they have some requirements of smartphones.

In Karnataka, which is going to vote this Saturday, BJP and Congress have promised distribution of smartphones. While the saffron party has announced to give free smartphones for women falling in families below poverty line if it comes to power, Congress is set to give it to students between the age of 18 and 23 years, in case it retains the government.Akhilesh Yadav

Amid charges that most police encounters in Uttar Pradesh were "fake", Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav today accused the BJP government of misusing the police.

"The BJP is misusing the Uttar Pradesh police, which is inflicting torture on the people of the state and creating fear among them. The Samajwadi Party is not only raising questions, but also telling other opposition parties that the government is continuously engaged in fake encounters," the SP chief told reporters here.

He demanded that the government should at least provide a list of criminals carrying reward on their head to substantiate its claim that those killed by the police were highly notorious, he said.

Yadav demanded Rs 50 lakh compensation to the next of kin of Narendra Gujjar, against whom, he said, a "fake cow slaughter case" was registered, and claimed that Gujjar was tortured to death in custody by the police in Meerut.

"It is the duty of the government to see that everyone gets justice. Has the situation worsened to that extent where no one can plead for justice? Will the BJP now deprive the people of the state of justice?" he posed.

As many as 50 dreaded criminals have been killed in over 1,400 encounters in the past over one year in the state, while 3,435 history-sheeters were put behind bars following encounters.

Yadav also referred to the death of the father of Unnao rape survivor in police custody.

"The BJP says that we used to give Rs 50 lakh compensation when a Muslim died. Today, when a Hindu has died, why are you (the BJP) is not helping the Hindu. We do not believe in taking advantage by creating rift between Hindus and Muslims. This is just a diversionary tactics," the SP leader said.

He also blamed the UP police for the unrest in Aligarh Muslim University. "If the government had wanted, then the situation would not have worsened," Akhilesh said.

On reports of CBI probe into sale of sugar mills during Mayawati regime, he said the investigation was being done keeping the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in mind.

Attacking the BJP in the context of Kairana and Noorpur bypolls, he said, "These people have been saying that if other parties win the bypolls, then Diwali will be celebrated in Pakistan. I never went to Pakistan, nor do I have a Pakistani visa. The BJP should tell who went to Pakistan discreetly."

Yadav contested the government's claim that it was taking care of sugarcane growers in the state

He also demanded that the government should provide Rs 10 lakh assistance to families of Sitapur dog-bite victims. A total of 12 children have fallen prey to dog attacks so far.

Referring to the investors' summit in UP and the follow up visit to the US by senior UP minister Sidharthnath Singh, the former chief minister said, "The companies with which the UP government has inked MoUs, do not have any balance sheet. The proposed defence corridor is a work to divert the attention of the people. This government will never be able to build the Jewar airport or the defence corridor."

He attacked Singh, who is UP health minister, saying that people in the US know about the health scenario of the state. The ambulances must be repaired first, he said.

Yadav also accused the UP government of stalling the proposed mango wholesale market in Malihabad and perfumery park and museum in Kannauj. "We want to know the quantum of investment in UP during the four years of Narendra Modi government," he said.

Taking a jibe at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, he said, "The UP CM is not bothered about improving the law and order in UP. He is more bothered about the law and order of Karnataka (where he was campaigning for the Assembly elections)."

When his attention was drawn to reports on Congress president Rahul Gandhi's ambition to become the prime minister, Yadav said, "These are post-poll matters. I have good relation with the Congress chief."

The SP had forged an electoral alliance with the Congress during the 2017 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha today said the data on economic growth put out by the Central government cannot be trusted.

He also questionned the government's claims about GDP growth and generation of employment.

"We cannot trust the figures put out by the Central government. Indian economy itself is a challenge for our democracy..This is a huge crisis of confidence," Sinha said while addressing a group of intellectuals, Citizens for Democracy, on the topic 'Indian economy and challenges before democracy'.

"Sometimes in early 2015 when the present government took over, they changed two things: formula for calculating GDP and base years. The base years are changed from time to time, but both (changing of the GDP and the base year) happened simultenously.

"In 2013-14, which was the last year of the UPA, the growth rate was 4.7 percent. After application of the new formula, the same growth rate in 2014-15 went up to 6.5 percent," he said.

"For the fiscal2014-15 and subsequently we do not have comparative figures of growth according to the new and old formulas. At least for five years, the government should have released both the figures so that people could have understood the difference between earlier and present figures," he said.

On the government's claim of employment generation, Sinha said the Centre has been playing with the figures to show that jobs are created in large numbers.

"Everyone was speaking about employment generation. So, the government decided to ask some sarakari economists to write long learned articles and in these articles they said that the real figure is the employees provident fund organization (EPFO) figures," Sinha claimed.

He said there is a group of eminent economists which says the EPFO figures are not the real figures.

"The employment generation figures collected by the Union government's Labour Bureau were disappointing. What the government doing now is that they have told the labour bureau that don't collect the figures on employment generation," Sinha claimed.

Sinha, who has severed ties with the BJP, said, "the growth rate and employment are the two areas where we have not been told the truth and we don't know what is the real situation".

Sinha, who had launched 'Rashtra Manch to run a movement against the policies of the Central government, termed as "serious" the "prevailing agrarian distress" in the country.

"In all, 110 farmers organisations have come together to launch a 'Village bandh' and from June 1-10, the farmers are not going to send their produce to the cities.

"So you are not going to get your supply of fruits, vegetables, milk, and grains. Farmers have also decided not to visit the cities. So it would be a complete divide between villages and cities," he said.Congress president Rahul Gandhi said today Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw a "threat" in him, and that the latter's attack on him over his prime ministerial ambition was only aimed at "distracting attention".

Gandhi also hit out at Modi for raking up the issue of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, saying she was "more Indian" than many Indians.

"This election is not about Rahul. I have now learnt to deal with the prime minister. When he can't respond, he distracts," Gandhi told reporters in response to a question about Modi's repeated attacks on him yesterday over his prime ministerial ambition.

Training his guns on Gandhi after he publicly declared his prime ministerial ambition at an interaction here, Modi had wondered whether the country will ever accept such an "immature and naamdar (dynast)" leader for the post.

Hitting out at Modi for his reference to Sonia's foreign origin, Rahul said,"My mother is an Italian. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many Indians I have seen.

"She has sacrificed her life for the country, she has suffered for the country. When Modi makes such comments, it shows the quality of the man. I am happy if he enjoys making such comments, he is welcome," he said.

The issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin was raked up by Modi at an election rally recently where he dared the Congress chief to speak for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Karnataka government in any language, including his "mother's mother tongue".

Modi was responding to Gandhi's earlier dare to allow him to speak for 15 minutes in Parliament on various issues, including corruption, and that the prime minister will not be able to sit for 15 minutes.

The Congress president, who wrapped up his extensive campaign tour of Karnataka with a press conference, referred to a story about Gautam Buddha to claim the prime minister had "anger" for everybody.

He said once Buddha was abused and shouted at by an angry man while he was seated with a disciple. When the disciple asked Buddha why did he not retaliate, he said the anger belonged to that man, and that since he did not accept the abuse, it went back to that person.

"Modi has anger inside. He has anger for everybody, not just me....and he sees a threat in me," he said.

The Congress president flayed the prime minister for his "silence" on incidents of killing of dalits and attacks on them.

When asked to comment on the prime minister's claim that the Congress party raised the issue of Dalits only for the sake of raising it, he said,"We will take up their issues. It is our job."

"When Rohit Vemula (a Hyderabad student who committed suicide over alleged discrimination) dies, he does not utter a word. When Dalits are beaten up in Una, he keeps quiet," he said.

Accusing the prime minister and the BJP of shielding Karnataka's influential and controversial Reddy brothers, he said the government had turned the "Central Bureau of Investigation into Central Bureau of Illegal Mining" to save the Reddy siblings.

Two of the Reddy brothers and several associates have been fielded by the BJP in the Karnataka polls.

When asked about his visits to places of worship, particularly temples, and the BJP's description of him as an "election Hindu", Gandhi said, "BJP gets uncomfortable when I go to a temple."

Gandhi said he visited not just temples but also other places of worship.

"I don't think BJP understands the term Hindu," the Congress leader said, adding that calling him an "election Hindu" showed their state of mind.

Gandhi said the Modi government had "decimated" the country's foreign policy and that a "disaster" was in the making on that front."My mother is more Indian than many Indians," an emotional Rahul Gandhi said today, as he responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sarcastic barb at UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi over her foreign origin.

The Congress president recalled how, despite being an Italian by birth, his mother made sacrifices for the country.

"My mother is an Italian. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many Indians I have seen.

"She has sacrificed her life for the country, she has suffered for the country. When Modi makes such comments, it shows the quality of the man. I am happy if he enjoys making such comments, he is welcome," he told a press conference before winding up his extensive tour of election-bound Karnataka.

The issue of Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin was raked up by Modi at an election rally in Santemaranahalli on May 1 where he dared the Congress chief to speak for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Karnataka government in any language, including his "mother's mother tongue".

Modi was responding to Gandhi's earlier dare to allow him to speak for 15 minutes in Parliament on various issues, including corruption, and that the prime minister will not be able to sit for 15 minutes.

It was not for the first time that Modi had spoken about Sonia's foreign origin. Senior BJP leaders, including its president Amit Shah, have often brought it up while targeting her son.

At his election rallies Shah has frequently taken on 'Rahul baba', saying he was unable to see the changes brought about by the Modi government as he was wearing Italian spectacles.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had, in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, said Sonia was entitled to the "love, affection and respect" but not acceptable as the prime minister of the country.

"I have always maintained that Sonia Gandhi came to our country as daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi and wife of Rajiv Gandhi and thus she is entitled to our love and affection. As the president of the Congress party she is entitled to our respect. But if she wants to become the Prime Minister then I say no," Swaraj had said.

Even Modi as the Gujarat chief minister had assailed Sonia, "a person not from our soil", for giving lessons in "swabhiman" (self respect).

"A person not of our soil should not give us lessons about 'swabhiman' (self respect)," Modi had told an election rally in Nashik ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha polls.(L-R) Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Jacob Zuma pose during a family photo session at the BRICS leaders meeting ahead of G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, November 15, 2015. REUTERS/Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. - RTS74SV

While the BRICS nations have been discussing ways to tackle terrorism for a long time, India has a new suggestion to offer to address the issue. The proposal is to introduce an Aadhaar-like unique identification number for every individual and company across BRICS nations, reports The Economic Times.

To keep a check on suspicious transactions in any of the BRICS nations, India has suggested realtime alert system and also proposed a uniform format for recording and reporting transactions of banks.

Earlier, it was a request-based alert. So during the course of investigation, if we found any foreign transaction happening, we raised a request to get details from the country concerned. This process consumes a lot of time, said a senior official.

Most of the time, investigators are clueless about foreign transactions. So if we raise an alert immediately and provide the relevant information to the concerned country, we can have an effective investigation conducted on terror financing that involves several countries, the official added.

An example of how transaction alerts can help keep a check on activities of terrorists is an investigation probe in Bangladesh. In the neighbouring country, a few months ago,investigators had stumbled upon information leading to an economic fraud. A further probe revealed that the fraud led to financing of a Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) module in West Bengals Burdwan district.

During a meeting attended by BRICS nations joint working group on strategy for counter terrorism and tackling terrorism financing that started from April 18, Indias participation included a seven-member team comprising senior officials of the Union ministries of home and external affairs, National Security Guard and Enforcement Directorate.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to join the BRICS meeting in July, said people aware of the matter. According to them, a sub-group on terrorism financing has subsequently been formed.An Iranian director apologised after a group of 'pranksters' dressed as ISIS members barged into a shopping centre in Tehran to promote his feature film. Reportedly, among them were some of the actors who appeared in the film.

The pranksters, apparently promoting Ebrahim Hatamikias recently released Damascus Time brandished fake guns, wielded swords and rode a horse past onlookers in the Kourosh shopping centre and cinema complex, reported The Guardian.

The stunt was criticised by people on social media. Seyed Mahmoud Razavi, an Iranian producer, termed the stunt a big mistake and an insulting joke. Iranian journalist Mira Ghorbanifar said it was normalising violence.







A post shared by pedram (@pedram_firuzi) on May 7, 2018 at 7:53am PDT

The images and videos posted online showed that people in the shopping centre were taking selfies and making videos with the actors. However, some reports suggested that some people, including children, panicked after seeing the group.

The memory of last years attack by ISIS on Iranian parliament building and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran are still fresh in peoples mind. Seventeen civilians were killed and 43 were wounded in that attack.

I was under impression that someone is going to be in red beard standing outside Kourosh complex so that people can take pictures. I didnt imagine there would be a horse, crowd and shouting inside the complex, I wasnt aware, Hatamikia said in his apology.

Hatamikia is respected in Iran and is considered close to the establishment. The film has already won some awards and has received praises from Iranian foreign minister and the commander of its Quds force, Special Forces unit of the Revolutionary Guards of Iran.

The film which tells a story of a father-son duo - where the father is a pilot of a cargo plane carrying humanitarian supplies for people in a Syrian war zone - is captured by the Islamic State militants. The film has been funded by the Revolutionary Guards.

Iran is a supporter of Syrias president Bashar al-Assad and along with Russia provides ground support and weapons. The Revolutionary Guards are also assisting him to win the multipronged war.Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump's decision to dump the landmark Iran nuclear deal has shocked the world, with America's closest allies like France, Germany and the UK expressing concern over it while Iran's foes Israel and Saudi Arabia welcoming the move.

Trump yesterday announced that he would be pulling the US out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, calling the agreement "defective at its core."

The deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was negotiated and agreed to by Iran and the P5+1 (the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany).

The 2015 agreement curbed Iran's nuclear activities in return for the lifting of UN, US and EU sanctions.

European leaders said they would stay committed to the accord even after Trump defied allies and other world leaders in breaking the commitment. British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres have all warned Trump not to scrap the deal. However, they have also conceded that the pact negotiated by former president Barack Obama is far from perfect and needs some "fixes."

In a joint statement after Trump's announcement, May, Merkel and Macron emphasised their "concern" about Trump's decision and said they would continue to adhere to the Iranian deal because it has made the world "a safer place."

The statement called on the US to ensure that the structure of the deal stay intact and "avoid taking action which obstructs its full implementation by all other parties to the deal."

"After engaging with the US Administration in a thorough manner over the past months, we call on the US to do everything possible to preserve the gains for nuclear non-proliferation brought about by the JCPoA [Iran deal], by allowing for a continued enforcement of its main elements," the statement read.

The leaders also urged Iran to "show restraint in response to the decision by the US."

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said: "The US has announced that it doesn't respect its commitments."

He said he believed the agreement could still survive if other negotiating partners defied Trump.

But Rouhani warned that he has instructed the country's atomic energy agency to prepare to restart enrichment of uranium at an industrial level in a few weeks' time should the deal collapse completely.

Iranian lawmakers set a paper US flag on fire at parliament on Wednesday morning, shouting, "Death to America!. Iran's parliament speaker said that "Trump only understands the language of force".

Russia said it was deeply disappointed by Trump's decision to abandon the deal.

Washington's actions were "flagrantly trampling on the norms of international law", Russia's foreign ministry said.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply concerned" over Trump's decision, calling on all other nations to support the agreement and preserve the deal.

The top European Union diplomat, Federica Mogherini, called on the international community to stick to the Iran nuclear deal

The EU is "determined to preserve" the Iran nuclear deal despite the US withdrawal, Mogherini has said, pledging to "stay true" if Tehran stuck to its commitments. The 2015 accord "is delivering on its goal which is guaranteeing that Iran doesn't develop nuclear weapons, the European Union is determined to preserve it," Mogherini said.

EU President Donald Tusk said the Iran deal would be on the agenda when the bloc's leaders meet for a summit in Sofia next week.

"Policies of @realDonaldTrump on #IranDeal and trade will meet a united European approach. EU leaders will tackle both issues at the summit in Sofia next week," Tusk wrote on Twitter.

Some other American allies, however, voiced their support for the decision, particularly Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised "courageous leadership" and "bold decision today to reject the disastrous nuclear deal with the terrorist regime in Tehran."

Former US president Barack Obama in a rare statement called Trump's decision a mistake.

"If the constraints on Iran's nuclear programme under the JCPOA are lost, we could be hastening the day when we are faced with the choice between living with that threat, or going to war to prevent it," he said.Pope Francis waves during his pastoral visit in Nomadelfia, central Italy. (Reuters)

Naval officers board the INS Shakti, a fleet replenishment tanker of the Indian Navy, docked in Changi Naval Base during a visit to Singapore. (Reuters)

Officers cheer after a briefing at the headquarters of elite police unit Mobile Brigade in Depok, West Java. Indonesia's top security minister said dozens of Islamic militants who took over the detention center inside the compound near Indonesia's capital, killing a number of officers, have surrendered to police. (AP/PTI)

Rajiv Choubey Secretary of Civil Aviation and US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) acting head Thomas Hardy during inauguration of the US- India Aviation Summit 2018 in Mumbai on Thursday. (PTI)

A Turkish Army helicopter takes part in a live fire drill during the EFES-2018 Military Exercise near the Aegean port city of Izmir, Turkey. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he meets the three Americans released from detention in North Korea upon their arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US. (Reuters)Victory Day is celebrated every year on May 9 over a large part of Europe and Asia which include Russia and former USSR countries. (In picture: Russian servicewomen march during the Victory Day parade at Red Square in Moscow)

The day is marked as a non-labour days in many countries. The celebrations have few similar elements every year ceremonial meetings, speeches, lectures, receptions and fireworks. (In image: People hold flags and pictures of World War Two soldiers as they take part in the Immortal Regiment march during the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow)

After a few years of toned down celebrations in 1990s, the celebrations on the day regained its vigour with the rise of Vladimir Putin in power. (In image: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu attend the Victory Day parade in Moscow)

After six years of devastating war, the fighting forces finally put an end to war in Europe bringing relief to the ravaged population. The war directly involved 100 million people from over 30 countries. (In image: A Russian Mi-26 heavy transport helicopter and Mi-8 military helicopters fly in formation over the Christ the Saviour Cathedral and the Foreign Ministry headquarters during the Victory Day parade in Moscow)

The World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history causing up to 85 million fatalities most of which were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. (In picture: A Russian Uran-9 unmanned armoured reconnaissance and infantry support vehicle in Moscow)

The Soviet Union also suffered the highest military casualties in the war, losing more than 20 million men. (Russian jets fly in formation during the Victory Day parade, marking the 73rd anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two in Moscow)Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump today said that the time and venue for his summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong un has been decided and would be announced in three days.

He, however, ruled out the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula as a venue for his upcoming summit with Kim.

Talking to reporters, Trump said the time and place has been set for his meeting with Kim and it would be announced in three days.

"It wouldn't be at the DMZ," he said in response to a question.

His remarks came as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo headed home with three Americans after meeting with Kim in Pyongyang.

Trump also praised Kim for the release of the three American.

"I appreciate Kim Jong Un for doing this," he said.

The fate of the detainees has been a key factor in the build up to the Trump-Kim meeting.Bank of Montreal is wooing homebuyers with a variable mortgage rate with the largest discount ever by a major Canadian bank, according to one market watcher.

The Toronto-based bank is offering a five-year variable rate of 2.45% until the end of May  a full percentage point below its prime rate. The special marks the biggest widely advertised discount ever by Canadas six biggest banks, RateSpy.com founder Robert McLister said.

Bank of Montreals offer beats discretionary rates of 2.75% for similar mortgages by other lenders including Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, and Bank of Nova Scotia, according to RateSpy.com. Its also better than the advertised 2.49% variable rate with HSBC Holdings Plcs Canadian lender, which has been undercutting the largest domestic bank on mortgages for about a year.Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier?

Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop.

Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News N Augusta Breaking News

Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time.

Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up!

Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page.Oil rose to a three-year high after the U.S. told buyers of Iranian crude they have six months to curb their purchases or face tough penalties.

While the full impact of President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal is still unclear, the re-imposition of far-reaching sanctions is expected to start reducing shipments from the Middle East's third-largest producer. The U.S. Treasury said its intention was to curb Iran's crude sales, offering potential exemptions from penalties only for nations that "substantially" decreases their purchases.

Price movements reflected the market's uncertainty. Crude settled lower on Tuesday after Trump's announcement, then rallied in after-hours trade and into the Asian morning as traders digested the news. Futures were 2.5 percent higher in New York on Wednesday.

"We expect to see a sharp drop in purchases of Iranian crude oil from all sides over the next couple of months, just as crude markets reach peak seasonal tightness," analysts from JBC Energy GmbH said in a note. "Estimates vary from a couple of hundred thousand barrels a day -- essentially token compliance from some U.S. allies in East Asia to visibly reduce their Iranian crude imports -- to more than 1 million."

Japan, the sixth-largest buyer of Iranian oil according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg, said it would seek a sanctions exemption from the U.S. The Middle Eastern producer's other major customers have yet to confirm their intentions. MUFG Bank said nations such as China, India and Turkey, which oppose America's move, could seek to continue their purchases.

West Texas Intermediate oil for June delivery rose as much as 3.1 percent to $71.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and traded at $70.81 at 8:58 a.m. Prices settled 2.4 percent lower on Tuesday. Total volume traded Wednesday was about 61 percent above the 100-day average.

Brent for July settlement climbed as much as 3.1 percent to $77.20 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Futures slid 1.7 percent to $74.85 a barrel on Tuesday. The global benchmark crude traded at a $6.02 premium to July WTI.

Futures for September delivery on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange rose 1.3 percent to 465 yuan a barrel, climbing for a third day. Volumes for the contract are at the highest level since trading began on March 26.

Prices were also helped on Tuesday after the American Petroleum Institute was said to report a 1.85 million-barrel drop in nationwide crude stockpiles last week. The oil hoard likely increased by 1 million barrels last week, according to the median estimateEl Paso has snatched the top spot from Midland for the most expensive gas in the state, according to a AAA Texas survey of prices from larger metropolitan areas.

The average price of regular unleaded gasoline in El Paso jumped a state-high 11 cents this past week and a new average high was set at $2.95 a gallon.

The average price of gas in Midland rose 5 cents  which was still higher than the state average of 3 cents -- to move to $2.89. Midland and Odessa are tied for second behind the Sun City, according to AAA Texas rankings. Abilene is showing an average price of $2.80 a gallon. Those four are well-above the state average ($2.63) and more than 12 cents higher than the next closest city  Dallas at $2.68.

Drivers in Sherman/Denison, which is located north of Dallas, and San Antonio are paying the least at $2.53 a gallon, according to the organization. All totaled, 16 of the 27 metropolitan areas show averages of $2.60 or less, including the West Texas/Panhandle cities of San Angelo ($2.57) and Amarillo ($2.58). Lubbocks average price is $2.64.

Distributors have told the Reporter-Telegram there are many complexities in the fuel business that impact pricing. They pointed to the high cost of transportation from Gulf Coast refineries and the distance Midland is from pipelines.

AAA Texas reports the state average is up 45 cents compared to one year ago. In Midland, that difference is 57 cents; Midlanders were paying an average of $2.32 one year ago. That price was the highest average in the state.

Texans are paying 45 cents more for gas today than they were one year ago, said Daniel Armbruster, AAA Texas/AAA New Mexico spokesman. As gas prices continue to rise, more Americans are considering purchasing an electric vehicle, according to a recent AAA survey. Drivers can learn more about the latest electric vehicles by stopping in the nearest AAA Texas branch to pick up a Green Car Guide.

According to TexasGasPrices.com on Thursday, five of the 28 prices reports across Midland was lower than $2.70.

Following the announcement that the U.S. will reinstate sanctions on Iran, crude oil prices increased. Any impact on oil prices that happens now could affect retail gas prices later this summer, according to AAA Texas.

Gas price report

Cheapest gas: $2.69 (Sams, Tradewinds/SH 191)

Cheapest gas (non-membership store): $2.69 (Murphy USA, Midland Drive/Briarwood; H-E-B, Andrews Highway/Loop 250; H-E-B, Midkiff Road/Wadley; Texaco, Midkiff Road/Wadley)

Most expensive gas: $2.95

Most common price: $2.89

Cheapest prices in West Texas: San Angelo $2.39, Lubbock $2.49, Abilene $2.57, Odessa $2.59, Midland $2.63

Mid-Odessa Texas

Thursday $2.890 $2.629

Last week $2.841 $2.572

Last month $2.620 $2.423

Last year $2.289 $2.168

Source: TexasGasPrices.comHaving examined the economic impact of various sectors -- from the military to international trade -- on the Texas economy, Glenn Hegar turned his attention to Texas women.

Hegar, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, visited Midland Wednesday as part of his Women in the Workforce tour to discuss his findings.

Speaking at Midland City Hall, he said more than 6 million Texas jobs are held by women, approximately half the states 12.4 million jobs. Beyond that, he said each dollar a woman earns creates an estimated $2.05 in wages, salaries and other compensation. He pointed to a chart showing that women-owned businesses climbed 146 percent to approximately 938,000 between 2007 and 2017.

Focusing on the industry that dominates the Permian Basin, the oil and gas industry, Hegar said the natural resources and mining sector  predominantly oil and gas  contributed $122.6 billion to Texas gross domestic product as of 2016, and employed 290,000 Texans. Of those jobs, 65,000 were held by women. Those 65,000 jobs generated 73,000 more jobs in other industries, he said.

As I look at role models for my 10-year-old son, 70 percent of the chief executive officers and top executives are men, he said. But, Occidental Petroleum has a woman as the first president of an oil and gas company in Texas. So my daughters can see that they can be at the top. I wanted to highlight that so it gives them the knowledge they can be at the top of the company, or not. Its up to them.

As part of his Midland stop, Hegar toured Occidental Petroleums Midland Technical Training Center with Barbara Bergersen, senior vice president, Permian EOR.

I have been working in the oil and gas industry for almost 40 years and I can say that now is an exciting time for women in the industry, Hegar said. The opportunities available for women, compared to when I first started my career, are endless.

Midland Mayor Jerry Morales said he finds it exciting that state leaders are recognizing the contributions of women.

In Midland, you think of oil and gas as dominated by men. But there are successful women in oil and gas that are living the American Dream, he said.

Beyond that, hes finding young women are coming to Midland not to join established companies but to be entrepreneurial and start their own businesses.

Midland and West Texas are the land of opportunity. The oil and gas business is our main business, but it provides opportunity for diversification, Morales said.

City Council Member Sharla Hotchkiss said that nationally, women are mobilizing and becoming recognized for their strength.

Its nice to look around and see how appreciated we are here, she said.

Hegar said his findings should show that, no matter the gender, if people have the educational opportunities, the drive and the desire, opportunity should exist for them.

Hotchkiss agreed, saying, When we have an economy as big as we are, like the comptroller said, having an educated workforce goes beyond gender. We need people who know their products and have skills.

Its breaking down the barriers to the American Dream, Hegar said.Loving, New Mexico, saw an influx of officials last week as Sendero Midstream celebrated its initial Permian Basin Gas Plant.

Attending the event was New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, who joined elected officials and community leaders from Loving and Carlsbad in touring the plant and hearing Sendero announce a five-year $900 million expansion plan.

We start the second plant next month, Clay Bretches, president and chief executive officer, said in a phone interview.

He said there are plans to have five total processing plants -- including pipelines and compressing systems to handle more than 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas -- by 2022.

The Delaware is a happening play, the hottest play in the U.S., if not the world, he said, adding that Sendero plans to focus on the New Mexico portion of the play for the time being.

New Mexico, he said, is open for business. The local communities have embraced business opportunities.

He said Sendero is hiring locally, meaning Loving and Carlsbad residents dont have to commute an hour each way into Texas for jobs. The expansion projects are expected to create 150 contract jobs per year during the expansion period and 70 permanent, full-time jobs by 2022.

While he is enthused about the companys growth plans, he said Sendero is being smart about those plays, growing as customers grow their production. Were watching the trajectories of their projects, he said.

Bretches said the the new system, comprised of more than 60 miles of pipeline and a capacity of 130 million cubic feet of natural gas per day with 37,000 horsepower of compression, is state-of-the-art

Our pipeline is brand new, with zero methane emissions, he said. All our compression stations have electronic valving to prevent emissions from the valves. The plant itself has some of the highest recovery rates you can attain, which will improve netbacks for our customers. The technology is phenomenal.

Thats important in New Mexico where, producers arent allowed to flare for an extended period of time.

Operators need to move their natural gas by pipeline, he said. They cant put it in a truck. It has to be put in a pipeline, it needs to be processed and after its processed, go into an intrastate pipeline.

The key is to make sure Sendero is a step ahead of the producers and is ready with takeaway capacity.

I think we are in lockstep with the upstream sector. We must be  we have to be, or slightly ahead  so producers arent waiting for us, Bretches said.

The surge in both crude and natural gas production is exceeding pipeline capacity, and Bretches said those takeaway constraints will govern the rate of production growth until more capacity is in place.

It takes time to construct and to permit pipelines, he said, adding that New Mexico holds federal lands, which requires obtaining permits from the federal government. That, he said, can take 12 months or more before construction can begin.

Bretches said the federal government, and especially the Bureau of Land Management that oversees federal lands in New Mexico, is taking steps to speed up and improve the permitting process.

These are challenges, he said, that always solve themselves. Pipe will get built; you just need time and a little pain in the interim.

Another challenge is securing firm commitments from producers, he said.

Pipelines dont get built without commitments from the producers. Pipeline projects can cost billions, and without those commitments, its difficult for midstream companies to come in and build. Well have to see more pain in the basin for producers to sign up for firm transportation.

Producers like to sit back and cross their arms and let someone else be first to make firm transportation commitments, Bretches saidFamilies who plan on spending the summer at a national park may want to consider buying their passes now before the prices go up.

The National Park Service announced fees will increase at a number of parks, including Padre Island and Big Bend, beginning June 1. The increases are necessary because national parks have $11.6 billion in deferred maintenance that needs to be addressed, officials said.

Fees for seven-day vehicle passes are going up $5, while an individual will increase anywhere from $3-$5 depending on the park, according to the release.

RELATED: San Pedro Creek not an ugly duckling anymore

Park-specific annual passes will also increase by $5-$10, depending on the park.

For Big Bend National Park, a park-specific annual pass will go from $50 to $55, a vehicle pass will increase from $25 to $30 and an individual pass will increase from $12 to $15.

At Padre Island National Seashore, a park-specific annual pass will increase from $20 to $40, a vehicle pass will go from $10 to $20 and an individual pass will increase from $5 to $10. Officials said it will be the first increase at the park in 20 years, though another is expected in 2020.

"Every dollar spent to rebuild our parks will help bolster the gateway communities that rely on park visitation for economic vitality," U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said.

Despite the price increase, prices for the annual America the Beautiful National Parks, Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass and Lifetime Senior Pass will remain $80, according to the release.

The increases are expected to bring an additional $60 million to the National Park Service.

A full list of park price changes can be found here.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSACustomers turned to Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers for a potentially lifesaving tool: highly trained dogs that would alert them, with the nudge of a nose or paw, to spikes or dips in blood sugar. What they got, the state of Virginia alleged on Tuesday, were "little more than incredibly expensive pets."

A lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Mark R. Herring in the Madison County Circuit Court, accuses the company of violating the state's Consumer Protection Act by charging $18,000 to $27,000 for 3-month-old Labrador retriever puppies that were unable to perform their task or even to walk properly on leashes, respond when called, or remain calm around loud noises or new people. Customers were told that they would receive ample "scent training" support; instead, their requests for assistance were regularly ignored, the suit says.

"This suit alleges not just dishonest and unlawful business practices, but a recklessness that could have endangered the lives of customers who relied on the claims made by Service Dogs and its owner," Herring said in a statement. "Our investigation shows that, in many instances, Service Dogs was simply selling a $25,000 pet, leaving customers with a huge bill and no protection against a potentially life-threatening blood-sugar situation."

The lawsuit followed a lengthy investigation based on complaints from more than 50 customers, Herring's office said. Beyond deceiving customers about the company's dogs, the suit alleges, owner Charles D. Warren Jr. illegally encouraged them to solicit charitable donations. He also lied about having served in the military, according to the suit, which seeks restitution for customers as well as civil penalties and attorneys' fees.

On behalf of the company, attorney John B. Russell Jr. said via email Tuesday afternoon that it denied the allegations "and we absolutely deny that we have ever set out to mislead, cheat or defraud our many happy clients." Russell said Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers had been working with the attorney general's office to address the concerns raised and, "in many areas, we had already changed our procedures long before their investigation began."

Accusing Herring's office of wanting to destroy the company and its owner, Russell promised "to fight these ridiculous allegations at every step."

Virginia's action comes amid growing scrutiny of service dogs both on the ground and in the air. Several states have moved in recent months to crack down on people who misrepresent their untrained pets as service dogs to gain access to public places, as federal disability law requires. Major airlines, meanwhile, have tightened requirements for both service animals, which are trained to perform specific tasks, and emotional support animals. At least two bills in Congress are aimed at limiting service animal fraud on flights.

Despite growth in the use of service animals and the agencies that provide them, no national certification, registration or training protocol exists. That means owners can easily purchase "service animal" vests for ordinary pets. It also means that there is no oversight of service dog companies. One voluntary accrediting organization, Assistance Dogs International, has sought to set training standards, and it counts dozens of the most prominent service dog groups as members. Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers, which says it also provides service dogs for people with autism and post-traumatic stress, is not one of those.

Diabetic-alert dogs are said to use their sensitive noses to discern fluctuations in blood-sugar levels. But studies on their effectiveness have been mixed, and researchers say it is not clear exactly what the animals detect. Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers promised customers that assigned dogs possessed a "proven scent ability" and that they could be trained to seek help or even dial 911 on special devices, according to the attorney general's lawsuit.

"However, the [dogs] were not trained prior to their arrival at the consumers' homes," the suit says. "Numerous consumers had difficulty getting the [dogs] to 'alert' with any consistency, or at the appropriate time."

That was the case for Florida resident Jovana Flores, who told the ABC affiliate WJLA in 2015 that the diabetic-alert dog for her 13-year-old son did little more than serve as a pet.

"In hindsight, now, maybe I should have been a little bit smarter, but you're looking for any bit of hope," Flores said. Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers sued Flores and other families after they stopped paying for their dogs, according to the TV station's report.

- - -

Clarification: A previous version of this post identified Mollie Moore of North Carolina as vouching for the company during a 2016 appearance on the "Dr. Phil" show. In an email Tuesday, Moore said she no longer supports Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers.A Texas Most Wanted Sex Offender with Beaumont ties was arrested Tuesday in Klamath Falls, Oregon, according to media reports.

Shawn Monroe Cowan, 43, and his wife, Rachel Ann Guttry, 46, "were apparently living in rural Bonanza, Oregon, under false identities when they were turned in by an unidentified informant," the Oregon Patch reported.Listening to Ken Bradbury and Rich McCoy riff off each other during a conversation about their upcoming play, its easy to understand why the pair chose to stage Neil Simons The Sunshine Boys.

After all, its a play about two men who had a decades-long run as one of vaudevilles hottest comedy duos  before animosity led them to end the partnership and stop speaking to each other.

The play, which follows as they are reunited years later for a television special, was made into a 1975 movie starring George Burns and Walter Matthau.

Im doing the Matthau part this time, Bradbury said, noting that he and Ed Dodson performed the show about 30 years ago in Pittsfield. I did Georges role last time, but I thought itd be fun to do the other one for a change.

Hes very personable, McCoy chimes in. He can do anything he wants.

Im thinking about playing Peter Pan next month, Bradbury replies without missing a beat.

It sounds good, McCoy agrees, but I dont know if we could get him to fly.

So they have the vaudeville routine down.

Bradbury even makes an annual pilgrimage to Iowa for a vaudeville gathering.

Ive always been in love with the art form, he said.

While the two have known each other most of their lives, having first met in the 1960s, when Bradbury was in a rock band and McCoy was a high school student, their decision to stage The Sunshine Boys together has been much more recent.

This is a show that Ive always wanted to do, McCoy said. I directed it in Springfield about 15 years ago and always wanted to try it again at the Playhouse. Its the perfect Playhouse show. In late January or early February, we kicked it around and thought, What the heck.

The plays connection to its playwright sells Bradbury every time, he said.

What makes it appealing to me is Neil Simon, Bradbury said. Hes still the funniest living playwright we have.  I think this is the funniest thing hes done.

The age of the characters also holds appeal, both said.

I think the audience appreciates it more when people are in the right age range for the character, he said, noting that the danger of some community theater productions is putting a young actor into a much older characters role. Youre asking a lot of the audience to accept that generational shift.

The production will be done as a staged reading, meaning cast members  Jodi Heitbrink, Roy Pyers, Brad Besson and Mike Schneider round out the cast  will have their scripts in hand. Though they might just have enough material to skip the script entirely.

I dont think Ill pay attention to it after the first 10 minutes, McCoy said of the book in his hands. Were very familiar with the script. But, at our age, its nice to have that security blanket. I cant remember Kens name half the time.

Who? Bradbury asked, his timing impeccable.



The Sunshine Boys will be performed at 7:30 p.m. today Friday and Saturday at Playhouse on the Square in downtown Jacksonville. Tickets, which are $10, are available at Our Town Books or at the door.

Angela Bauer can be reached at 217-408-2057.With the threat of tariffs and counter-tariffs between Washington and Beijing looming, Chinese buyers are canceling orders for U.S. soybeans, a trend that could deal a blow to American farmers if it continues.

At the same time, farmers in China are being encouraged to plant more soy, apparently to help offset any shortfall from the United States.

Beijing has included soybeans on a list of $50 billion of U.S. exports on which it has said it would impose 25 percent tariffs if the United States follows through on its threats to impose the same level of tariffs on the same value of Chinese goods. The U.S. tariffs could kick in later this month; China would likely retaliate soon after.

It can take a month or more for soybean shipments to travel from the U.S. to China. Any soybeans on their way to China now could be hit by the tariff by the time they arrive.

The Chinese arent willing to buy U.S. soybeans with a 25 percent tax hanging over their head, said Dan Basse, president of AgResource, an agricultural research and advisory firm. You just dont want the risk.

China typically buys most of its soybeans from South American nations such as Brazil and Argentina during spring and early summer. It shifts to U.S. soybeans in the fall. As a result, for now, the cutbacks from the United States are relatively small.

But should they persist, it could cause real pain to U.S. farmers. Roughly 60 percent of U.S. soybeans are shipped to China.

There might also be a political impact: Three of the top five soybean-exporting states  Iowa, Indiana and Nebraska  voted for President Donald Trump in 2016.

Illinois, the top soybean exporter, and Minnesota, the third-largest, backed Hillary Clinton.

Basse said that it has been roughly three weeks since China has made any major soybean purchases, an unusually long delay.

Some Chinese buyers might be showing support for their government in the trade dispute by turning away U.S. soybeans, Basse said. The dispute may also make it seem too risky to buy from the United States over the long run.

The United States could lose the reliable supplier label that weve had these many years, Basse said.

Data from the U.S. government data show that sales of soybeans have fallen from about 255,000 metric tons in the first week of April, when the trade dispute began, to just 7,900 in the week that ended April 26.

Cancellations have also jumped, to more than 140,000 metric tons in the week ending April 26. In the same week last year, there were no canceled sales at all.

Some analysts argue that the shifts arent yet particularly significant. China buys most of its soybeans from the United States in the late summer and fall, and then switches to South American sources, mainly Brazil and Argentina, in the spring. So the current market activity doesnt necessarily reflect the pattern that would occur during the main buying season.

These numbers were talking about are pretty minor, said John Baize, an economist for the U.S. Soybean Export Council.

The U.S. ships about 35 million metric tons of soybeans to China a year, Baize said. China usually imports about 100 million tons a year and cant import enough from other countries, he said, to abandon the United States as a source.

Wheres China going to buy its beans? Baize asked.

That may be true in the short run. But Basse suggests that Brazil has enough land that could be used for soybean cultivation that it could soon mostly replace the United States as a supplier to China.

And if the Chinese market were to be closed to U.S. farmers, they might be able to sell some portion of their soybeans to other markets. Baize said that huge multinational companies, such as Cargill and ADM, might, for example, sell more U.S. soybeans to Europe, where they wouldnt face any tariffs, though this likely wouldnt make up for the loss of the Chinese market.

At the same time, China is looking more to its own farmers. Since China announced its potential tariffs on U.S. soy in April, the government has encouraged farmers to cultivate more soybeans. Beginning this month, Chinese farmers say, Beijing reduced corn subsidies and raised annual soybean subsidies from 2550 yuan ($400) per hectare to 3000 yuan ($470) or more per hectare in major soybean-producing provinces in northeast China.

An adjustment had already been planned to help draw down Chinas substantial corn stockpiles, so the change wasnt necessarily aimed at U.S. soy growers, analysts say.

But the subsidy adjustment did come with political undertones. Officials in major soybean-producing provinces were describing the promotion of local soybeans as the most important political task in agricultural production at present. Heilongjiang in northeast China announced a pilot project to plant soybeans on over 100,000 new hectares, with an extra 2,250 yuan ($353) subsidy per hectare.

The moves are prompting farmers like Liu Cong to focus more on growing soy. Liu says he used most of his land to grow corn last year but this year is planting more soybeans.

This is encouraging for farmers, he said in a phone interview. Were more motivated.

Zhang Xiaoping, China director for the U.S. Soybean Export Council, says that Chinese buyers have been canceling soybean purchases of last years U.S. soybean harvest because of the threat of tariffs.

The buyers literally stopped buying from the U.S., Zhang said. Exporters cannot find any buyers in China.Teen injured when car overturns

WINCHESTER  A 16-year-old girl suffered minor injuries in a one-car crash Tuesday on Scott County Road 7.

According to an Illinois State Police report, the unidentified teen was going west on the Alsey/Manchester Blacktop about 6:40 p.m. when she became distracted and went off the road. The driver over-corrected and lost control before crossing both lanes of traffic and leaving the road, according to the report.

The car struck a ditch embankment, overturned and struck a utility pole before coming to rest on its top in a field.

The teen was taken to Passavant Area Hospital with minor injuries. She was cited on a charge of improper lane use.



Morgan County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Constance S. Hendrix, 32, of 907 S. Diamond St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 8:17 p.m. Tuesday on a battery charge.

 Aaron W. Durham, 25, of 427 W. Briggs St., Roodhouse, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 9:04 p.m. Tuesday on a charge of violating probation for possession of methamphetamine.

 Kyle W. Lowder, 27, of Modesto was booked into the Morgan County jail at 5:54 p.m. Wednesday on charges of domestic battery, interference with the reporting of domestic violence and parole violation.

Jacksonville Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Skee D. Sanders, 24, of 308 N. Church St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday on a resisting a peace officer charge.

 Wayne A. Milsap, 52, of 623 N. East Street was booked into the Morgan County jail at 4:03 p.m. Wednesday on a theft charge.

 Eric L. Harper, 43, of 21 Shenandoah Drive was booked into the Morgan County jail at 7:03 p.m. Wednesday on a charge of driving while license is revoked or suspended.

 A 13-year-old boy was arrested at 12:22 p.m. Wednesday on an aggravated battery charge after police say he struck a teacher at Garrison Alternative School.

South Jacksonville Police

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Keela M. Dejanes, 58, of 750 E. Chambers St. was booked into the Morgan County jail at 1:21 p.m. Wednesday on charges of domestic battery and interference with the reporting of domestic violence.



Compiled by Greg Olson, David C.L. Bauer and Samantha McDaniel-OgletreeBRIGHTON  Two Godfrey women were injured Thursday in a crash north of Brighton.

Patricia Bracht, 80, and Patricia Goreman, 80, both of Godfrey, were taken to hospitals in the area after the 2014 Cadillac they were in, driven by Bracht, according to Illinois State Police District 18 Trooper Heath Bryan, attempted a U-turn on Illinois Route 111/Illinois Route 267 at Gun Club Road north of Brighton in Macoupin County and were hit by a tractor trailer.

Bracht was airlifted to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis by ARCH Air Medical Service; Goreman was transported to Alton Memorial Hospital by Alton Memorial Ambulance. Neither injury was considered life-threatening, according to Bryan.

The crash occurred at approximately 12:39 p.m. Thursday when the Cadillac pulled off the roadway to the right and tried to make a U-turn. The tractor trailer, going in the same direction, was unable to avoid the Cadillac. The driver of the tractor trailer was not injured.

Other agencies on scene were Brighton Fire Department and Brighton Police Department.Greetings from the Ridge.

I think it was the only social studies assignment I ever flunked. At least I think I flunked it. I know I at least bombed it royally.

The assignment was to find a relative who could tell me something about my family. I was in third grade and assumed since my grandpa was the oldest member of the family that he would be able to remember the most so I peddled my bike down to his house after school, my Big Chief writing tablet and pencil in hand, plopped myself down in front of Grandpas recliner and started asking questions. Grandpa took a draw of his Prince Albert-filled pipe, said, Well, lets see   and then he began.

According to Grandpa, his side of the family was descended from German nobility and somewhere on the limbs of our family tree hung various princes, kings and potentates. I was amazed the Grandpa knew so much about the family, including the fact that we were descendants of Abraham Lincoln and there was a good chance that Moses himself was lingered somewhere in our lineage. He went on to list various heroes of the Civil War, signers of the Declaration of Independence and then hinted that our clan would figure prominently in the Second Coming. Hey, a third grader will believe anything her grandfather tells her, okay? I sucked it up, swallowed it whole, and wrote it down. Then I said, Grandpa  what about Grandmas side of the family?

Grandpa had the habit of swallowing hard then rolling his tongue around the inside of his cheeks before answering really pithy questions and on that autumn afternoon he did a good deal of swallowing and rolling before he began.

Your grandmas side of the family didnt turn out so well, he said.

I stopped my scribbling. Grandpa had that look on his face that hinted at something really terrible coming my way.

Most of her family are easy to trace, he said, since they keep pretty good records in prisons.

It was my turn to swallow hard. Id known my dear sweet grandma ever since the day I was born. How could such a gentle soul be descended from scoundrels? He went on. Youll notice that Grandma doesnt talk much about her relatives. Fact is, I dont blame her. Shes spent a good deal of her life trying to cover up her family history. As the room began to fill with a pipe tobacco cloud he went on to tell me the stories of Grandmas sordid lineage going all the way back to Jesse James, John Wilkes Booth, and Attila the Hun. I asked him to stop for a moment as my number two pencil had by this time worn itself down to stub and was in need of sharpening, a job that Grandpa quickly dispatched with his pocketknife.

I left his house that day with a notebook full of stories and a head full of wonder and couldnt wait to get home and put the tale of our two families into essay form. There was no doubt that no other third grader was going to show up the next morning with a treasure trove of family history like mine.

Social studies came right before lunch and I completely forgot my hunger that morning as I waited my turn to read my familys genealogy. I proudly proclaimed the glorious story of Grandpas heritage then held my third grade classmates spellbound as I told them the wretched tales of Grandmas ancestry. I ended my grandmothers tale by reciting Grandpas final summation of his wifes family.

We can trace her family back to two bachelor brothers in Ireland who were hung for horse stealing so her family line ended right there.

I looked up from my essay and saw that the class was awestruck. I was the hero of the third grade. Then I turned to my teacher and proudly handed her my paper.

Did I mention that my third grade teacher was also my mother, the daughter of my grandmother? I went home hungry that day since lunch hour found me in my moms car on the way to Grandpas house for a bit of clarification.

I recently sent off a dab of my DNA to Ancestry.com to see where I came from. The results showed some English, a bit a German, and a touch of Irish.

Boring, boring, boring.

Forget about genetic testing, Ill take the stories of a windy grandfather any day.

You ever in Coonridge, stop by. We may not answer the door but youll enjoy the trip.

Freida Marie Crump chronicles the comings and goings in Coonridge for the Journal-Courier.